The Advocate 03-23-2025

Machine gun converters surging in BR

A memorial for

Contraptions enable firing barrage of bullets in seconds

BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer

Cathy Toliver had just finished a video call with her grandson Devin Page Jr., who she referred to as “snickerdoodle.”

It was late on the night of April 12, 2022. Toliver told the boy in Baton Rouge she would see him the next day, kissing the 3-year-old good night over the phone.

Then 45 minutes later, Toliver received a reality shattering phone call from her daughter Tye Toliver the boy’s mother “Mama!” her daughter screamed.

“They just killed my baby!” In the following days, when griefstricken family members visited the crime scene in the city’s Fairfields neighborhood, they saw 39 pieces of tape along the walls of the adjacent house, as law enforce-

ment had marked each bullet hole. A 40th bullet had shattered Devin’s bedroom window Almost three years later, investigators have yet to identify the gunman responsible for Devin’s death. What is clear: The assailant didn’t target the Tolivers’ home, but used a weapon equipped with a machine gun conversion device

students fueling LSU’s growth

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

For Louisiana beekeeper Josh Janway, this March has been one of the worst starts to a honeybee season he can remember Last year, he was operating with just under 4,000 hives. Now, a confluence of factors, including pesticide use, Varroa mites and the destruction of the habitats where the bees find food has sliced his colony numbers nearly in half.

“We’re talking about March,” Janway said. “That’s when flowers are supposed to be out, bees are supposed to be growing. And we’re just not seeing it.” Janway and beekeepers across

See BEES,

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

ABOVE: The queen bee of the hive at Janway Farms is marked with a white dot from a paint pen. TOP: Bees swarm beekeeper Josh Janway as he takes a beehive out of its case at Janway Farms

Danielle Hawkins, an LSU admissions counselor, asked a group of about 40 middle and high schoolers this week how many had been to a Mardi Gras parade. Only a few hands went up.

“OK, a couple,” she said brightly “Look at y’all!”

The students had come from Tampa to tour the Baton Rouge campus. Hawkins, who frequently travels to New Jersey and Pennsylvania to recruit, gave a presentation, then introduced their tour guide: an LSU junior from Houston.

As the Florida students shuffled across the sprawling campus, where 4 in 10 freshmen come from out of state, 10thgrader Ah’Yanna Maultsby liked what she saw “It feels like I actually could belong here,” she said.

Louisiana’s flagship public university, LSU has become a magnet for out-ofstate students. Its steady expansion, to more than 34,000 undergrads last fall, has been driven almost entirely by students coming from outside Louisiana. Over the past decade, the number of undergrads from other states has nearly tripled, exceeding 12,000 students in 2024, according to LSU fall enrollment data that includes online and campus students. By contrast, the number of Louisiana undergrads inched up only 2%, to about 20,300 students. The swelling ranks of students from outside Louisiana including nearby states like Florida and Georgia as well

40% of freshmen not from Louisiana ä See STUDENTS, page 4A

Tye Toliver’s son Devin Page Jr displays photos of him at his grandmother Cathy Toliver’s home in Baker

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS ä

page 4A

ä See GUN, page 6A

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Venezuela to resume repatriation of migrants

CARACAS Venezuela Venezuela will once again accept repatriation flights from the United States carrying its deported nationals after reaching an agreement with the U.S., a Venezuelan official said on social media Saturday

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro suspended flights on March 8, after the U.S. Treasury Department announced the withdrawal of Chevron’s license to export Venezuelan oil.

“We have agreed with the U.S. government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with an initial flight tomorrow Sunday,” said Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s Assembly and Maduro’s chief negotiator with the U.S. Venezuela accepted the deal to guarantee “the return of our compatriots to their nation with the safeguard of their Human Rights,” Rodríguez said.

In his statement, Rodríguez referred to the deportation by Donald Trump’s government of some 250 Venezuelans to a highsecurity prison in El Salvador.

Trump alleged the deportees were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. He labeled the Tren de Aragua an invading force on March 15 when he invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Trump attends wrestling championships

BRIDGEWATER,N.J President Donald Trump attended the NCAA wrestling championships on Saturday night for the second time in three years, the latest example of how he has mostly limited travel early in his new term to trips built around sports events.

Trump arrived at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to loud cheers and a standing ovation He pumped his fists amid USA chants.

Penn State was looking to close out its fourth straight men’s team title and Trump stood just off the ring, personally congratulating wrestlers that won their matches.

The Republican president spent Friday night at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, about 70 miles northeast of Philadelphia, on what was his first visit there of his second term.

“We’re going to the big fight. The reason I’m going is in Philadelphia. They have the NCAA, world, wrestling for college. And I’ve always supported the wrestlers,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday evening “I want to support them. These are the great college wrestlers from the various schools.”

Beloved bald eagle dies after storms in Missouri

A beloved bald eagle who gained popularity for incubating a rock in 2023 is being mourned Saturday after the 33-year-old avian died following intense storms that recently moved through Missouri.

Murphy, who surpassed the average life span of 25 years, died last week at the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri. Sanctuary officials believe the violent storms that ripped apart homes and claimed 12 lives last weekend may have factored in the bird’s death. They said birds have access to shelters where they can weather storms and the sanctuary has contingency plans for different environmental situations. But evacuations weren’t performed since no tornadoes approached the sanctuary Three other birds who were in the same shelter with Murphy survived.

A veterinarian performed a necropsy and found the bald eagle sustained head trauma “We are unable to determine if Murphy was spooked by something and hit his head while jumping off a perch or if wind and precipitation played a part in the injury,” a statement shared by the sanctuary on social media said.

Murphy lived in the sanctuary’s Avian Avenue exhibit area and rose to prominence in 2023 when he incubated a rock. His instincts were rewarded when he was allowed to foster an injured eaglet that he nurtured back to health. The eaglet was eventually released back to the wild and another eaglet was entrusted to Murphy’s care. The second eaglet is expected to be released into the wild this summer.

Israel strikes Lebanon after rocket attack

Heaviest exchange since truce with Hezbollah

BY BASSEM MROUE AND WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon Israel struck Lebanon on Saturday in retaliation for rockets targeting Israel, killing six people including a child, in the heaviest exchange of fire since its ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah almost four months ago

The rockets fired from Lebanon were the second ones launched since December and again sparked concern about whether the ceasefire would hold In a statement, Hezbollah denied being responsible for the latest attack, saying it was committed to the truce

Israel’s army said the intercepted rockets targeted the Israeli town of Metula. An Israeli official said six rockets were fired and three crossed into Israeli territory and were intercepted. The official said Israel could not confirm the identity of the group that fired the rockets.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it instructed the army to act forcefully against dozens of targets in Lebanon. Israel’s army said it struck Hezbollah command centers and dozens of rocket launchers.

Lebanon’s state-run National News

Agency said a strike in the southern village of Touline killed five people, including a child, and wounded 11 others, including two children.

On Saturday night, Israel again struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. A strike hit a garage in the coastal city of Tyre, the NNA reported, with one person killed and seven wounded. It was the first time the city had been struck since the ceasefire took effect.

And a strike on Hawsh al-Sayed Ali village along the border with Syria wounded five people, according to the NNA.

In a statement, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam asked the Lebanese military to take all necessary measures in the south but said the country did not want to return to war

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Israel-Hezbol-

lah conflict boiled over into all-out war in September as Israel carried out massive waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders. The fighting killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.

Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January under a ceasefire struck on Nov 27. The deadline was extended to Feb. 18.

But Israel has remained in five locations in Lebanon, across from communities in northern Israel. It has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah, while continuing drone attacks that have killed several members of the militant group.

Lebanon has appealed to the U.N. to pressure Israel to fully withdraw from the country The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said it was alarmed at the possible escalation of violence and urged all parties to avoid jeopardizing the progress made.

The strikes came a day after Israel said it would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity” until Hamas frees the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israeli strikes on Friday night killed at least nine people, including three children, in a house in Gaza City, according to Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the bodies.

“Rubble and glass started falling on us,” said Sameh al-Mashharawi, who lost his brother in the attack. He mourned with his young nephew Samir al-Mashharawi, whose parents and siblings were killed.

The 12-year-old, his head and wrists bandaged, sat in the back of a truck and cried.

Israel’s military said Friday its forces were planning fresh assaults into three neighborhoods west of Gaza City and issued warnings on social media for Palestinians to evacuate the areas.

“Hamas, unfortunately, understands military pressure,” Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk told The Associated Press.

Around 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel relaunched the war earlier this week. Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel, and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, aiming to pressure Hamas over ceasefire negotiations.

The international community has condemned the resumed attacks.

to be released from hospital Sunday after 5 weeks

BY NICOLE WINFIELD, TRISHA THOMAS and GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press

ROME Pope Francis will be released from the hospital on Sunday after 38 days battling a severe case of pneumonia in both lungs that threatened his life on two occasions and raised the prospect — for now put to rest — of a papal resignation or funeral.

The 88-year-old pontiff will require at least two months of rest, rehabilitation and convalescence back at the Vatican during which time he has been discouraged from meeting in big groups or exerting himself, said Dr Sergio Alfieri, who coordinated Francis’ medical team at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

to go home a few days ago, as even he realized he was improving, breathing better, and that he could work longer. But I have to say he was an exemplary patient,” Alfieri said. “He listened to the suggestions from me, Dr Carbone and the rest of the team.”

But Francis’ personal doctor, Dr Luigi Carbone, said if he continues his steady improvements and rehabilitation, he should eventually be able to resume all his normal activities.

The doctors spoke at a hastily called news conference Saturday evening in the Gemelli hospital atrium their first in-person update on the pontiff’s condition in a month. They said they were discharging Francis after he registered two weeks of stability and increasing progress in his recovery

“The Holy Father would have wanted

The doctors confirmed he would be released Sunday, after first offering a blessing to the faithful from his hospital suite, the first time he will have been seen by the public since he was admitted Feb. 14. They provided details on the severity of the infection, which he is still being treated for, and Alfieri noted that not all patients who develop such a severe case of double pneumonia survive, much less be released from the hospital.

“When he was in really bad shape, it was difficult that he was in good spirits,” Alfieri said. “But one morning we went to listen to his lungs and we asked him how he was doing. When he replied, ‘I’m still alive’ we knew he was OK and had gotten his good humor back.”

Alfieri confirmed that Francis was still having trouble speaking due to the damage to his lungs and the time he spent on supplemental oxygen and ventilation. But he said such problems were normal and predicted his voice would return.

NEW MEXICO

3 killed, 15 hurt in shooting at park

JULIE CARR SMYTH and MORGAN LEE

Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. — Three people were fatally shot, and 15 others were hurt, after an altercation broke out at a park in the desert city of Las Cruces, police said Saturday Police and fire crews arrived at just after 10 p.m. Friday to a chaotic scene at Young Park, where an unauthorized car show had drawn about 200 people, police said in a news conference. Gunshot victims ranging in age from 16 to 36 were treated there or taken to hospitals.

Between 50 and 60 handgun casings were scattered across a wide swath of the park, Police Chief Jeremy Story said, suggesting multiple shooters and multiple weapons among two groups whose “ill will” toward each other are believed to have led to the shootings. Several others were injured in the crossfire, he said.

The dead were identified only as a 16-year-old boy and two men ages 18 and 19, police said. Their names and those of the other victims were not yet being released.

Local police were being assisted in their investigation by New Mexico State Police, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Las Cruces Fire Chief Michael Daniels said 11 patients were sent to three

local hospitals or to University Medical Center of El Paso, the regional trauma center As of Saturday, he said, seven victims were in El Paso, four had been treated and released and the conditions of the other four were not known.

Authorities are seeking video from the park and tips from those present as they work to identify a suspect or suspects.

“This horrendous, senseless act is a stark reminder of the blatant disregard people in New Mexico have for the rule of law and order,” Story said. He vowed that authorities will find everyone responsible and said, “We will hold them accountable to the criminal justice system.”

Story acknowledged that illegal car shows at Young Park are not uncommon and that the police presence has been larger in the past. Understaffing on Friday, he added, meant that he had “no units available for most of the night.”

In an Instagram post Saturday, City Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Johana Bencomo expressed grief over the shootings.

“Part of me wanted to write that this is something you never really think this is going to happen in your city, but that actually feels deeply untrue,” she said.

“Honestly now days a tragedy like this feels like a nightmare just waiting to come true at any possible moment, yet also always praying and hoping it never will.”

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

targeted by

Israeli army strike in

for residents.

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL PHOTO By JUSIN GARCIA Crime scene technicians work Saturday at young Park’s parking lot after a mass shooting overnight in Las Cruces, N.M.

BEES

the U.S. have reported unusually severe losses as the 2025 season begins. From June 2024 to February 2025, commercial beekeepers saw a 62% decrease in hives on average, according to results of a survey published by Project Apis m., a nonprofit beekeeping and agricultural research organization. The ramifications for consumers and the food supply are still unfolding. But considering that roughly 35% of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators, it’s likely that widespread honeybee losses will take a toll on this year’s crop yields, said Kevin Langley, president of the Capital Area Beekeepers Association in Baton Rouge

“Bees are the canary in the coal mine,” Langley said “They are the representation of nature in our food supply, and right now they are not healthy, and we are not healthy.”

Why are bees dying?

Beekeeping is an industry with loss built in. Janway, who runs a modest commercial operation that special-

PROVIDED By SISTER

Beekeeper Josh Janway points out the low volume of bees. Janway said this March has been one of the worst starts to a honeybee season he can remember

izes in selling honey locally and sending bees to pollinate the almond crop in California, said he is accustomed to losing 40% of his hives each year

But the past two years have hit beekeepers especially hard

In 2024, the U.S. Beekeeping Survey identified a 55.1% loss among managed bee colonies nationwide, significantly higher than the prior 14-year average of 40.3%. Early findings this year suggest the situation has only worsened, with losses growing by potentially another 7%, according to the Project Apis m. report.

STUDENTS

as distant ones like California, Illinois and Maryland — is no accident. Like other public universities, LSU has ramped up out-of-state recruitment to broaden its pool of high-achieving applicants, raise revenue and boost the school’s national profile.

“As an industry and as a business model, how do you make money when you’re losing 60% every single year?” Janway said.

Beekeepers identified several possible causes for why numbers continue to fall.

One is the presence of Varroa mites, destructive external parasites that can inject honeybees with viruses and reactivate dormant viral infections

Other potential reasons are the lack of places to find food brought on by habitat loss, as well as the damaging effects of pesticides on bees. The impact of pesticides on bee health is complex and not always lethal, but studies have found even sublethal doses impair bees’ immune system, learning and memory and longevity

There likely isn’t a single culprit for the honeybee losses this year, said beekeeper Wes Card. It is likely different factors interacting and exacerbating each other

“I think there were several issues that came into play, caused a perfect-storm type event that has led to substantial colony losses across the total domestic population of bees,” Card said. “It’s a pretty serious concern.”

As beekeepers around the

you’re really good, you’re welcome.”

U.S. struggle to recover, Louisiana and other Gulf states will be crucial to maintaining the industry, said Card, who generates a third of his revenue selling replacement colonies. Warmer temperatures and longer foraging seasons make southeastern states ideal for raising bees.

“Louisiana is critical as essentially a nursery, supplying the industry the replacement colonies,” Card said.

Accounting for losses

Though the season is off to a rocky start, local beekeep-

ers said they will adjust as best they can. Compensating for weak numbers involves “splitting” hives, or dividing existing colonies in two.

The perpetual dilemma with splitting is ensuring the bees have sufficient time to rebound and make enough honey for a strong yield.

“You’re going to give and take somewhere, right?”

Janway said. “You’re either going to give and take on your honey and numbers or vice versa.”

Joe Sanroma, who has been working in the industry since he was 14 years old,

agreed that the beginning of spring this year was one of the worst he’s experienced. He feels hopeful that his operation will rebound. Still, he said, his output will be less than past seasons.

“Beekeepers are very resilient,” Sanroma said. “When we get knocked down, we generally know how to get back up Just hopefully we don’t get knocked down too many times.”

Email Haley Miller at haley.miller@theadvocate. com.

“I told the team when I first arrived, ‘Find the best students in the state of Louisiana and find the best students outside the state of Louisiana and bring them here,’ ” William Tate IV LSU’s president since 2021, said in an interview last year “Whoever you are, if

In this regard, LSU is playing catch-up with its competitors, including the University of Alabama and Ole Miss, where more than 60% of freshmen come from other states. Those schools recruit aggressively: One Alabama recruiter lives in St. Tammany Parish and regularly visits the local high schools. The rise of out-of-staters at LSU has drawn scrutiny from some state lawmakers who question whether the university is doing everything possible to keep Louisiana’s top talent in state, and whether taxpayers win if many out-of-state students

Continued from page 1A ä See STUDENTS, page 5A

become easier as guidelines encourageyounger adults to beginregular testing

Coloncancerhas become more predominant across thenationinrecentyears, with theAmerican Cancer Societyestimatingthatmorethan 107,000new caseswillbediagnosed in 2025 That number is almost evenly splitbetween menand women, although doctorsare seeing more coloncancerdiagnoses amongyounger patients than ever before.

“A lotofpeoplehave it in theirminds that colon cancer can’thappenuntil someoneisatleast in their50s.Thatisnot true at all,”saidDr. Larry Simon, senior medicaldirectorfor Louisiana Blue.“We’veseena marked increase in cases in people in their30s and40s,especiallyin Louisiana, whichhas some of thehighest rates of coloncancerinthe entire country.”

Dr.Simon notedthatcolon cancer is also now theleading causeofcancerdeath in menand womeninthe United States,surpassingbreast cancer,prostatecancerand allother forms of thedisease. TheAmericanCancerSociety estimatesthatcolon cancer willcause about 52,900 deaths this year alone.

Yet,manycoloncancerdeathscouldbeprevented with proper screening. Today’sguidelinescall forthose screenings to beginatage 45 forpeople of averagerisk, andevenyounger for people who mayhave more riskfactors forthe disease. A colonoscopyisconsidered thegoldstandardin coloncancerscreening. If theresultsshowno problems,acolonoscopymay be needed only once every10years

“Everyadultshouldseetheirdoctorforregular checkups,ideally each year,but certainlyatleast everycoupleofyears,” Dr.Simon said.“People should askabout coloncancerscreeningsduring thoseappointments. Your doctor canlookatyour family historyand risk factorsand determine thebesttimetostart.Colon cancer is extremely treatable if it is caught early, especially nowthat therehavebeeninnovations to better tailor treatment to individuals.

Dr.Simon shared additional insights about coloncancerscreenings,riskfactors andmore.

What aresomeofthe main risk factors for coloncancer?

Family historyisthe main one, especially if anyone in your immediatefamilywas diagnosed before age50. Thereare also certaingenetic conditions that canpredisposepeopletothe

disease. That’s whyit’simportant to talk to your doctor aboutyourspecific situation. Asidefromafamilyhistory,weknowthat smokingand excessive alcoholconsumption have beenlinkedtomanyother forms of cancer as well as otherhealthproblems. Thosefactors maynot make youmoreatriskfor coloncancer, but they cancertainly contributetonumerous issues throughout thebody. What arethe main benefits of screening, especially acolonoscopy? Oneofthe upsidesofacolonoscopy is that if it’s clean, youdon’t need to thinkabout it foranother 10 years. Thesescreeningsare oftencovered by aperson’sbenefits,sothere is usuallyvery little cost associated with having one. Another advantageisthatifpolypsare discovered,they canberemoved rightaway. We’venoticed aparticular laginpeopleages 45 to 49 whoare newlyeligiblefor screenings andare hesitant.Sometimes people arescared to findout theresults.Iencourage people to get answers. If it’s clear, youhavepeace of mind If it’s not, youcan starttoworkwithyourdoctor on aplantoaddress it What aresomeofthe biggestmisperceptions abouthavingacolonoscopy? Peoplehardlyeverexperiencepainordiscomfort Theanesthesiaworks great,and many people sayitendsupfeeling like areallynicenap.The preparationismuchmorecompact than it used to be andcontinues to become easier Alot of people thinktheywillneedtomiss a lotofwork, butthat’snot thecase. People return to theirfullfunctions thenextday with minimal discomfort.You cantakeaslittleasanafternoon off of work andbebackthe followingday Arethereanycommoncoloncancersymptoms? Thebig oneisblood in thestool or ablack discolorationand tar-like consistencytothe stool. Many patients also experience fever, weight loss andnight sweats. If younoticeany combinationofthose symptoms,it’sdefinitely time to seea doctor LouisianaBlueand most health insurers cover colonoscopiesand otherpreventivescreenings at very low or no cost.Contact Customer Service foryourhealthplantoask howcancerscreening is coveredand what,ifanything,

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

O’CONNELL

Genevieve O’Connell, right attends an LSU football game with her mother Sister O’Connell.

Out-of-state freshmen at southern

LSU is in the middle of the

return home after graduation.

“So then the flagship university of the state of Louisiana,” said state Rep. Kim Carver, R-Mandeville, “is producing the quality workforce for all of these other states.”

Cross-country recruiting

Out-of-state students, who pay significantly higher tuition than state residents, are a coveted commodity for public universities squeezed by declining enrollment and state funding cuts

“Quite honestly, it would be professional malpractice for your admissions office not to be doing this,” said Michael S. Harris, a professor of higher education at Southern Methodist University Schools that aren’t pursuing those students are “leaving money on the table.”

The University of Alabama was one of the first state schools to recruit nationally, borrowing from the playbooks of elite private institutions. By 2014, about 64% of its freshmen came from outside Alabama.

Danny Barrow, LSU’s vice president of enrollment and student success, said that 17% of incoming Baton Rouge freshmen were from other states when he arrived in 2017. That percentage was “wildly off” from other Southeastern Conference schools, he told lawmakers in October By 2024, LSU had raised it to 40%.

The university uses datadriven recruitment, targeting specific schools in key markets, officials say Big states with an excess of students are a particular focus.

LSU’s incoming class last fall included about 1,000 Texans, more than double the number in 2017, Barrow said.

LSU admissions counselors spend much of the fall traversing Louisiana and other states, attending up to 20 recruitment events a week. This month and next, LSU reps are meeting admitted students in cities across the country, from San Francisco to Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Recruiters tout the university’s research prowess and more than 300 academic programs. The school culture is an equally big draw with over 400 student organizations, Greek life and football Saturdays.

“It’s kind of the epitome of what I feel like a southern college experience should feel like,” said Genevieve O’Connell, a high school senior in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, who’s heading to LSU this fall. “It’s like a work-hard, play-hard situation.”

Like other southern universities, LSU has seen a surge of interest from students in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Over the past decade, the number of LSU freshmen from New York has grown eightfold, the New Jersey contingent grew sevenfold and the Maryland crew quadrupled, according to federal data

Many are enticed by the

Source:

warm weather the lavish amenities (including a massive recreation center with a climbing wall and LSUshaped “leisure river”) and the price. The cost to attend public universities in the South tends to be lower than in other regions and LSU’s roughly $29,000 per year in out-of-state tuition and fees is cheaper than some other southern flagships.

“Really, for what it is that they offer,” said Rhonda Lewis, a Maryland parent whose son Ahmad will attend LSU this fall, “it’s a pretty good bargain.”

LSU also offers merit scholarships to high-achieving students from other states. Brenda Fay, whose family lives in Florida, said LSU offered her son Tanner $86,000 over four years.

“I was impressed,” she said. “They put their money where their mouth is.”

Even with the scholarships, out-of-state students still pay more than Louisiana students and earn LSU revenue, officials say They also bring geographic diversity, expand the alumni network, elevate LSU’s national standing and contribute to Louisiana’s economy, Barrow added.

“LSU’s investments in both in-state and out-ofstate talent are paying off, strengthening the academic profile of the university and ensuring long-term benefits for Louisiana,” he said in a statement, adding that LSU is the state’s top industry “for in-migration and helping Louisiana grow.”

Competing for La.’s best Public universities, which receive state tax dollars, were founded to educate their states’ citizens. But the influx of out-of-state students has sometimes sparked concern that fewer seats and scholarships will be available to state residents.

“There is some research suggesting that, at least at some public flagships,

from other

able,” said state Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, adding that LSU often doesn’t send award letters until the spring of students’ senior year “I promise you by that time it’s too late — those students are going to other schools.”

ships to supplement TOPS, said Barrow, the enrollment official. He added that the number of top Louisiana students who get admitted to LSU but enroll elsewhere has gone down, while the number of in-state freshmen has grown 18% since 2017.

they’ve effectively crowded out some in-state students and replaced them with outof-state students,” said Robert Kelchen, an education professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville He said that is less of a concern at schools that expanded enrollment by adding students from both groups.

His university recently guaranteed admission to any high-performing Tennessee student and set a goal that two-thirds of freshmen would come from within the state. The University of North Carolina system has long capped the share of outof-state freshmen at 18% on most campuses.

Now, LSU is starting to face questions about its outof-state enrollment boom.

Costs are one concern. In 2024, LSU gave about $80 million in scholarships to out-of-state students, including some graduate students who support faculty with research.

“I want to see the math that shows where it’s good for us to spend THAT much on students who aren’t from Louisiana,” state Rep. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine, wrote in an online essay last month.

Another question is whether LSU is doing enough to woo Louisiana’s top students.

At a February hearing, some lawmakers said universities in other states promote scholarships that students automatically qualify for based on their grades and test scores, but LSU does not.

At LSU, “it’s unpredict-

Tobey Mitchell is a senior at Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies, a Jefferson Parish magnet school, hoping to study construction management in college. A high achiever, he was recently offered a full ride, including room and board, to the University of Southern Mississippi.

He’s also considering LSU, where he was admitted to the honors college and participated in a summer research program. But he said that even with TOPS, Louisiana’s scholarship program for state residents, and the aid LSU has offered him so far, Southern Miss would cost less.

LSU “offered me some,” he said, “just not enough.”

Christian Monson, principal of Mandeville High School in St. Tammany Parish, watches colleges compete for his top students. Recently the president of Southern Miss personally visited the school to meet students, and the University of Alabama recruiter who lives nearby is a frequent visitor He said LSU also sends recruiters, but some universities offer more money

“There’s really, really strong kids that are leaving our state,” he said. “They considered LSU, but they chose to go to another school because there were better incentives to go out of state.”

LSU officials say the university is deeply committed to educating Louisiana students.

LSU recruits in every parish and fundraises to offer Louisiana students needbased and merit scholar-

LSU’s “mission is to identify, recruit, and build meaningful relationships with Louisiana’s best and brightest,” he said.

“As the flagship, in-state students are still the priority for us,” she said. “We want to keep all that wonderful talent in state.”

Email Patrick Wall at patrick.wall@theadvocate. com.

Hawkins, the admissions counselor, is responsible for recruiting Louisiana students along with those in other states. This week, after welcoming the Tampa group, she and a colleague met with two Baton Rouge students.

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Prospective students from Tampa, Fla., take a tour of

Bozic, who is from Houston.

to fire a barrage of bullets in a matter of seconds, one of which strayed into Devin’s bedroom and killed him.

“That baby was sleeping in his bed, not bothering anybody,” Toliver, his grandmother, said. “It had nothing to do with us.”

More commonly called Glock switches for pistols or auto sears for rifles like AR15s, the conversion devices are quarter-size contraptions that attach to the back of a gun’s slide. They transform semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns, allowing a shooter to fire multiple rounds with a single trigger pull.

Guns with conversion devices fire about 20 rounds per second on average, or 1,200 rounds per minute, a firing rate that would require special clearance for military personnel.

Despite a 2023 Louisiana law making it easier for law enforcement to crack down on possession of conversion devices, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said he’s seen use of switches and sears continue to proliferate due in part to their cheap, easy access online and insidiously trendy nature

Since the law went into effect, the number of criminal cases involving fully automatic weapons in East Baton Rouge jumped from six in 2021 to 78 through October 2024.

“Everyone that we deal with has access to an auto sear,” Moore said. “If you re a bad guy and want to hurt someone, you probably have an auto sear.” In 2020, only two incidents of fully automatic gunfire were recorded in East Baton Rouge, according to data from the District Attorney’s Office. By 2024, that number had risen to 214, an average fourfold jump a year that has mirrored national trends.

“I would say before 2019, I’d never even heard of them,” Baton Rouge police Det. Zach Woodring said. “Now, I couldn’t even tell you how many cases we get.”

Woodring is a member of Baton Rouge’s gun police, serving with the department’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center and the local Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives task force.

About 80% of the group’s investigations are gun crimes involving the gun conversion devices, he said.

‘I’m cool’ factor

Often made using 3D printers, the devices are alarmingly available for anyone with $30 and basic knowledge of navigating the dark web.

“They’ll pretend they are shipping other things, and you can order packets,” Woodring said. “It’s basically all coming from China.”

The gun maker Glock Corp. doesn’t manufacture, market or sell these conversion switches for its firearms, according to the ATF. The devices also have become deeply entrenched in Baton Rouge gun culture, Woodring said, particularly

among young males who are disproportionately involved in the city’s homicides. He thinks the demographic is increasingly drawn to them for the perceived status they afford.

“A lot of it is internet clout,” Woodring said “Like, ‘If I have a Glock switch, I’m cool.’” Glock semi-automatic pistols have been a staple in mainstream rap lyrics for years, even inspiring artistic monikers like Key Glock, a popular Memphis rapper

Now the devices turning Glocks into machine guns also are appearing in lyrics.

“Keep a switch up on me everyday like it’s my favorite clothing line,” raps TREC, a Baton Rouge artist, in “Spider-Bang.” The 2022 music video for the song received over 800,000 views on YouTube.

Adding to the danger is the way conversion devices make guns “extremely hard to control,” Woodring said. Living in fear of violence

Whether or not the Glock switches and auto sears translate to higher homicide rates in East Baton Rouge is unknown Law enforcement doesn’t compile statistics on the number of the devices used in guns involved in shootings, but they do dramatically increase the potential for collateral damage

“I think if an individual wants to go shoot somebody, they are going to go do it no matter what they are equipped with,” the police detective said “. The odds you are going to hit what you’re aiming at lessen exponentially with an MCD (machine gun conversion device).”

It may help explain some

of the seemingly random killings in East Baton Rouge, or victims like Trevor Harrison, a 27-year-old plumber who was shot and killed in a crossfire in February

In a city where much of the gun violence stems from retaliatory measures among criminal groups, the technology has helped spark paralyzing fear in high-crime neighborhoods, like the Baton Rouge neighborhood where Devin was shot.

“Back in the day, you didn’t have access to that,” Toliver said, of the conversion devices that make guns even more deadly “Now you’re not even safe in your own home

If you talk to older people, they’ll tell you, ‘No, I’m not going outside.’”

Rare bipartisan push

In June 2023, Moore, the East Baton Rouge district attorney, and the state’s district attorneys lobby helped push Louisiana lawmakers to pass House Bill 331, which significantly tightened restrictions on the gun conversion devices.

Spearheaded by Rep. Dewith Carrier, R-Oakdale, who lost his wife and was left paraplegic in a 2010 shooting, the legislation aligns Louisiana law with federal standards, redefining a machine gun as any device firing more than one round per trigger pull.

The streamlined Louisiana law has simplified the prosecution process, eliminating the previous requirement for prosecutors to prove that at least eight rounds were

fired with a single trigger pull. Now, mere possession of the Lego-looking gadgets can land someone in prison for up to 10 years.

“Now we have more room to prosecute,” Woodring said.

The bill marked unusual bipartisan alignment on gun policy in a state traditionally known for lenient firearm laws. The sole opposing vote in either chamber was cast by Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City

Across the nation, less than half of the states have laws banning gun conversion devices, though some with normally lax gun laws are starting to follow suit In Alabama for example, a bill that would ban Glock switches recently passed the House 28-0.

Stiffen the law?

Still, in Louisiana the 2023 law hasn’t yet seemed to stop the flow or use of the gun devices. Meanwhile, federal agencies have similarly struggled, prompting President Joe Biden to sign an executive order last year to help with the crackdown.

“We have a better opportunity to convict you of that offense,” Moore said. “(But) I’m sure there are much

more MCDs now than when the law started.”

Judges rarely deliver significant penalties to people in possession of the gun devices, Woodring said, and bails are usually set below $5,000. He has seen individuals bail out at less than $100, creating a revolving door of repeat offenders in the courts system.

“We keep catching the same people over and over,” the police detective said. “No one is stressing about being caught.”

In addition to stricter sentencing, Moore thinks the law itself could be more effective. Carrying conversion devices is still not a “prohibitive offense,” meaning those convicted of possession can continue to buy firearms.

“The gun lobby made it really clear to us that we are not making it a prohibitive offense,” Moore said. “What we took at the time was a compromise.”

‘Not going to stand for it’

After the 2022 death of

her grandson, Toliver became an outspoken advocate against gun violence in Baton Rouge. She has worked with former Police Chief Murphy Paul, and now Chief Thomas Morse Jr., to organize vigils for gun violence victims. Last year she visited Washington, D.C., to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris. The 62-year-old makes a point of walking freely through high-crime areas in Baton Rouge, despite having had multiple guns pointed at her face. For her, it is the most effective way of letting others know despite increasingly powerful weapons, she isn’t intimidated by those pulling the trigger

“I want to let them know that we’re not going to stand for it,” she said. “I will not walk in harm’s way, but I will walk freely wherever I want to go.”

Email Aidan McCahill at aidan.mccahill@ theadvocate.com.

TheEastBaton RougeParishRegistrar of Voters hereby notifiesvotersinthe followingprecincts that theirvoting precinct boundary,election day pollingplace,orpolling placenamemay have changed:

Ward 1, Precincts86A and86B: Thepolling placefor theseprecincts is beingrelocated to ScotlandvilleMiddleMagnetSchoollocated at 9147 Elmgrove Garden Dr.The previous pollingplace, J.K. Haynes School,has been closed by theEBR Parish School System andthe facility is no longer suitable forvoting

Ward 2, Precincts14A and14B and28: The pollingplace forthese precinctsisbeing relocated to Northwestern Middle School locatedat5200E CentralAve.The previous pollingplace,Zachary City Hall,iscurrently unavailablefor voting

Voters whohavea newpolling placenamewere mailed aletter with an enclosed voterinformation card informingthemofthe change.Pleasecallthe RegistrarofVotersOffice at 389-3940 forquestions or additional information.Votersmay also confirm theirprecinctnumberand polling placebyusing theGeauxVote smartphone apporbyvisiting www GeauxVote.com.

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Tye Toliver, from left, her son Tyren young, 12; mother, Cathy Toliver; and daughter Deiyauna Page 4, hold photos of Tye’s late 3-year-old son, Devin, who was killed three years ago from a stray bullet that struck him in his bedroom.

PROVIDED PHOTO

PROVIDED PHOTO The silver machine gun conversion device, or ‘glock switch,’ is attached to the back of a pistol’s slide.

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U.K. orders probe into Heathrow shutdown

BY JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

LONDON The British gov-

ernment on Saturday ordered an investigation into the country’s “energy resilience” after an electrical substation fire shut Heathrow Airport for almost a day and raised concerns about the U.K.’s ability to withstand disasters or attacks on critical infrastructure.

While Heathrow Airport said it was now “fully operational,” thousands of passengers remained stuck, and airlines warned that severe disruption will last for days as they scramble to relocate planes and crews and get travelers to their destinations.

Inconvenienced passengers, angry airlines and concerned politicians all want answers about how one seemingly accidental fire could shut down Europe’s busiest air hub.

“This is a huge embarrassment for Heathrow airport. It’s a huge embarrassment for the country that a fire in one electricity substation can have such a devastating effect,” said Toby Harris, a Labour Party politician who heads the National Preparedness Commission, a group that campaigns to improve resilience.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he’d asked the National Energy System Operator, which oversees U.K. gas and electricity networks, to “urgently investigate” the fire, “to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure.” It is expected to report initial findings within six weeks.

“The government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened at Heathrow,” Miliband said.

Heathrow announced its own review to be led by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, a member of the airport’s board.

Heathrow Chairman Paul Deighton said Kelly will look at “the robustness and execution of Heathrow’s crisis management plans, the air-

Chief executive Thomas Woldbye said he was “proud” of the way airport and airline staff had responded.

“The airport didn’t shut for days. We shut for hours,” he told the BBC.

Woldbye said Heathrow’s backup power supply, designed for emergencies, worked as expected, but it wasn’t enough to run the whole airport, which uses

as much energy as a small city

“That’s how most airports operate,” said Woldbye, who insisted “the same would happen in other airports” faced with a similar blaze.

But Willie Walsh, who heads aviation trade organization IATA, said the episode “begs some serious questions.”

“How is it that critical in-

frastructure — of national and global importance — is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative? If that is the case, as it seems, then it is a clear planning failure by the airport,” he said. Walsh said “Heathrow has very little incentive to improve” because airlines, not the airport, have to pay the cost of looking after disrupted passengers.

port’s response during the incident and how the airport recovered.”

Stalled Journeys

More than 1,300 flights were canceled and some 200,000 people stranded Friday after an overnight fire at a substation 2 miles away cut power to Heathrow, and to more than 60,000 properties.

Heathrow said Saturday it had “added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers.” British Airways, Heathrow’s biggest airline, said it expected to operate about 85% of its 600 scheduled flights at the airport Saturday.

While many passengers managed to resume stalled journeys, others remained in limbo.

Laura Fritschie from Kansas City was on vacation with her family in Ireland when she learned that her father had died. On Saturday she was stranded at Heathrow after her BA flight to Chicago was canceled at the last minute

“I’m very frustrated,” she said “This was my first big vacation with my kids since my husband died, and now this. So I just want to go home.”

Broader problem

Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion and then seeing a fireball and clouds of smoke when the blaze ripped through the substation The

fire was brought under control after seven hours, but the airport was shut for almost 18 hours. A handful of flights took off and landed late Friday

Police said they do not consider the fire suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade said its investigation would focus on the substation’s electrical distribution equipment

Still, the huge impact of the fire left authorities facing questions about Britain’s creaking infrastructure, much of which has been privatized since the 1980s. The center-left Labour government has vowed to improve the U.K.’s delayplagued railways, its aged water system and its energy network, promising to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy independence through investment in wind and other renewable power sources.

“The last 40, 50 years we’ve tried to make services more efficient,” said Harris. “We’ve stripped out redundancy, we’ve simplified processes. We’ve moved towards a sort of ‘just in time’ economy There is an element where you have to make sure you’re available for ‘just in case.’ You have to plan for things going wrong.”

‘Clear planning failure’

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel, and saw 83.9 million passengers last year

Sudan’s army says it seized key buildings in Khartoum

BY SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

CAIRO Sudan’s military on Saturday consolidated its grip on the capital, retaking more key government buildings in Khartoum a day after it gained control of the Republican Palace from a notorious paramilitary group.

Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese military, said troops expelled the Rapid Support Forces from the headquarters of the National Intelligence Service and Corinthia Hotel in central Khartoum.

The army also retook the

headquarters of the Central Bank of Sudan and other government and educational buildings in the area, Abdullah said. Hundreds of RSF fighters were killed while trying to flee the capital city, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF

The army’s gain came as a Sudanese pro-democracy activist group said RSF fighters had killed at least 45 people in a city in the western region of Darfur On Friday, the military retook the Republican Palace, the prewar seat of the government, in a major symbolic

victory for the Sudanese military in its nearly two years of war against the RSF

A drone attack on the palace Friday believed to have been launched by the RSF killed two journalists and a driver with Sudanese state television, according to the ministry of information. Lt.

Col. Hassan Ibrahim, from the military’s media office, was also killed in the attack, the military said.

Volker Perthes, former U.N. envoy for Sudan, the latest military advances will force the RSF to withdraw to its stronghold in the western region of Darfur

Thereare many misconceptions about colonoscopies, includingthatitisa painfulprocedurethatcantakesomeone outoftheir normal routinefor several days;however,thatisnot thecase. With modern anesthesia administered before a colonoscopybegins, most patients feel nothing.

In fact,Dr. MatthewRolfsen,a gastroenterologist at TheBaton RougeClinic, saidthetwomostcommoncommentshe hearsfrompatientsafter acolonoscopy are, “Haveyou startedyet?” and“CanI get10moreminutesofsleepbecausethat wasthebestrestI’vehadinalongtime?”

Duetoanincreaseinyoungerpatients beingdiagnosed with coloncancer, the currentguidelinesnowrecommendthat people of averageriskbegin screeningat age45.Dr.Rolfsensaidthatthefrequency ofcolonoscopiesdependsonwhatdoctors discoverduringtheprocedure,butmany peoplecango7to10yearswithoutneeding anotherscreening.

riskofcoloncancer,Dr.Rolfsensaidtaking generalhealthmeasuressuchasavoiding excessive amountsofprocessedfoods andalcohol,aswellasall tobacco products,could potentiallyreducea person’s risk.These steps, combined with having colonoscopieswhenrecommended,can putanyoneina position to have better health outcomes

“The onething Itellpeople(about a colonoscopy) is that it’s notjustcancer we’relooking for. We’realsolooking for pre-cancerouslesionsorpolyps,”saidDr Rolfsen. “We’re notjusttryingtodetect cancer.We’re trying to preventitfrom ever happening.”

TheGastroenterologistsatThe Baton RougeClinicare allboard-certifiedand trainedtoperformnumerousprocedures, includingdiagnosticcolonoscopies andcolonoscopiccolon polypremoval. Visitwww.batonrougeclinic.com or call 225-246-9240 to schedule your appointmenttoday

“Oneoftheproblemswithcoloncancer is oftentimes therearen’t anysymptoms,” Dr.Rolfsen said.“Thereasonwe do screenings is to trytocatch it before symptomswouldevenshowthemselves. Onceitgetstothepointwheresymptoms arepresent,it’susuallylaterinthecourse of thecancer’sdevelopment.”

Whilescientistsare stillresearching whichfactors mayput people at ahigher

By Amanda McElfresh| amcelfresh@theadvocate.com This articleisbrought

New Social Security requirements raise new barriers

Changes affect rural communities without internet, transportation

BY LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press

WELCH,W.Va. — Veronica Taylor doesn’t know how to turn on a computer let alone use the internet.

The 73-year-old can’t drive and is mostly housebound in her mountainous and remote West Virginia community where a simple trip to the grocery store can take an hour by car New requirements that Social Security recipients access key benefits online or in person at a field office, rather than on the phone, would be nearly impossible to meet without help.

“If that’s the only way I had to do it, how would I do it?” Taylor said talking about the changes while eating a plate of green beans, mac and cheese and fried fish with a group of retirees at the McDowell County Senior Center “I would never get nothing done.”

The requirements, set to go into effect March 31, are intended to streamline processes and combat widespread fraud within the system, according to President Donald Trump and officials in his administration

They say that’s why it’s vital for people to verify their identity online or in person when signing up for benefits, or making a change like where the money is deposited. But advocates say the changes will disproportion-

ately impact the most vulnerable Americans. It will be harder to visit field offices in rural areas with high poverty rates. Often these are the same areas that lack widespread internet service.

Many Social Security field offices are also being shut down, part of the federal government’s cost-cutting efforts. That could mean seniors have to travel even farther to visit, including in parts of rural West Virginia.

Donald Reed, who runs a local nonprofit that operates two senior centers, said he has serious concerns about the policy change, and how it’ll affect the people his group serves.

“I’m not anti-Trump — let me say that,” he said. “I think the general public greatly supports looking for waste in government. I do not think the general public understands the consequences of the current actions of the government.”

One in three people live in poverty in McDowell County, once one of the nation’s largest coal producers. Around 30% of the population receives Social Security benefits and 20% lack broadband access. People already face huge challenges in accessing basic needs like food and clothing.

Nonprofit groups like The Commission on Aging receive money from the federal government to provide rides to the grocery store, medical appointments and free lunch at the county senior center and could in theory add a stop to the local Social Security office said Reed, who is the group’s director

But the transportation grant money is already not

Mary Weaver reflects on

enough to meet the need.

Last year, Reed ran out of money during the last three months of the fiscal year and had to dip into the Commission’s savings. This year, he said he won’t be able to do so.

Then, last Friday, he found out the Commission had lost an almost $1 million grant he expected, again because of the federal government’s cost cutting.

He had planned to use the money to rebuild one of the two county senior centers, an aging 1980s-era double-wide trailer with limited seating.

“Once the money’s gone, you know, the money’s gone,” he said.

Seniors at the center gather each weekday for lunch. Usually they might play bingo or cards. On this day, because of the presence of a reporter from The Associated Press, the conversation turned to politics.

Many are Trump supporters. Every county in West Virginia supported Trump in three presidential elections.

Yet all agreed that the recent flurry of executive

U.S. senator meets China’s vice premier

By The Associated Press

BEIJING U.S. Sen. Steve

Daines, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng with warm exchanges in front of journalists on Saturday even as tensions between their countries spiked over trade tariffs and the handling of the illegal trade in fentanyl.

Daines, the first member of Congress to visit Beijing since Trump took office in January, will meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday and the nation’s No 2 official will give him an introduction to China’s policies, according to He. Daines, who previously worked for American consumer goods company Procter & Gamble in south China’s economic hub of Guangzhou, said this trip marked

his sixth visit to China. He had met Li in 2018, when he served as the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai. He said this visit comes at a time when there are some important issues to discuss between China and the U.S. “I’ve always believed in having constructive dialogue and that has been the nature of all my visits to China over the course of many years,” he said.

said Brenda Hughes, 72, who said she usually goes to the Social Security office in person anyway because she said she’s found it difficult to get a hold of the call center “But maybe it’s meant to be like that.”

Mary Weaver, 72, said she doesn’t approve of Trump giving Elon Musk so much leeway to cut and change services, and she doesn’t see those measures helping McDowell County

fraud, they could afford to give their senior citizens an increase,” said Lester, who is retired from construction work. But for Taylor who depends on rides from the aging commission for most of her outings, the changes to Social Security may be just one more thing that will be difficult.

orders had been difficult to follow, especially since the county’s last local newspaper shuttered, and they weren’t sure what effect they’d have on their lives.

“I don’t understand a lot of the stuff that’s going on right now, and I just can’t pinpoint things together, you know,”

“He gone run for president, and he’s going to get the presidency, but he’s going to let someone else tell him how to run the country?” she asked, criticizing Trump’s relationship with Musk.

Other residents aren’t concerned. Barbara Lester, 64, said she wishes she could sit down with Trump and Musk and tell them they’re doing a fantastic job.

“And with all the money they’re saving from the

There are already many places she wants to go and can’t get to None of her grandkids live nearby, her daughter lives in Roanoke, Virginia, and her 39-year-old son, who used to live in the Welch area near her, died. The walk from her house to the Social Security Office is six miles.

“If I ask people more than two times to take me somewhere, it’s like begging. And I don’t beg nobody to do nothing for me,” she said “I’m independent like that. I don’t beg nobody for nothing.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LEAH WILLINGHAM

changes to the Social Security Administration while visiting the McDowell County Commission on Aging Senior Center on Thursday in Welch, W.Va

THE GULF COAST

PROVIDED PHOTO By ALLEN STANFIELD AND TRAVIS TANK

Currently operating as an Airbnb the Ocean Springs, Miss., beachfront property sits between a winding

Waterfront Ocean Springs, Miss., hexagon home for sale at $1.25M

BY POET WOLFE Staff writer

Tucked behind live oaks in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, an oddly shaped, powder blue house

perched on concrete piers overlooks the water

The three-bedroom three-bath hexagonal home, which spans 1,708 square feet and sits on more than an acre of land, is listed for $1.25 million, according to the real estate company Zillow.

Currently operating as an Airbnb, the beachfront property sits between a winding road and an in-

finite stretch of bluish-gray water

With its shingle roof and overall structure, the house resembles the shape you learned about in elementary school, with wide angles connected by soft curvatures. It stands solitary on Belle Fontaine Drive, where most homes adhere to standard architectural designs.

The property was constructed by Deltec Homes, a North Carolina-based company that says its curvilinear design helps coun-

teract the wind pressure by 30%.

Deltec advertises that its homes have endured some of the Gulf Coast’s most powerful hurricanes on record, including Katrina, Michael and Ian.

“[Deltec homes are] built for durability with the high-end wind construction,” said Allen Stanfield, the real estate agent who listed the Ocean Springs house, while describing its weatherproof design.

Stanfield considers the property a fit for those looking for a sustainable lifestyle and families who desire an income-producing vacation home

Most homebuyers looking to buy in Ocean Springs lately are New Orleanians, according to real estate website Redfin.

“New Orleans homebuyers searched to move into Ocean Springs more than any other metro followed by Atlanta and Washington,” Redfin said in a statement.

Built in 2021, the waterfront house eschews old-fashioned

designs and embraces modern luxury

Over the kitchen and living room is a wooden vaulted ceiling with recessed lighting. At the center of the kitchen is a marble island surrounded by indigo cabinets with gold handles.

The living room is modest with large windows that offer a beachfront view The master bedroom, similar in size to the living room, includes what Stanfield calls a “spa-inspired” bathroom, featuring a soaking tub and a custom shower with multiple showerheads.

Outside, a black fence separates the saltwater pool and multi-level decks from a grassy field. Stanfield said the house offers a clear view unlike a majority of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where U.S. 90 sprawls between beaches and homes.

“You have direct beachfront access with no public property in front of you,” Stanfield said, adding that the home sits outside of the flood zone.

BY POET WOLFE Staff writer

With the warm weather of spring emerging, people will start flocking to Gulf Coast beaches with the essentials: sunscreen, bathing suits and towels. Many will also have alcoholic beverages, from fizzy hard seltzers to ice-cold beer, clinking in beach bags. But rules vary for the consumption of alcohol at the white sand beaches across the Gulf Coast, including those in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle Some allow vacationers and springbreakers who are 21 years or older to drink, though forbid glass containers, while others fully prohibit alcoholic beverages.

Perhaps you, like many other Louisianans college students anticipating spring break and employees in need of a vacation — are preparing for a beach getaway

Here’s a list of popular beaches in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle that allow and do not allow alcoholic beverages.

Mississippi

According to government officials, glass containers are not allowed on the beaches of Harrison County, where Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach and Pass Christian are located. Its official website does not say that alcoholic beverages are prohibited.

Beaches in Hancock County, including those in Waveland and Bay St. Louis, allow vacationers to bring alcoholic beverages, though glass containers are not allowed, its Chamber of Commerce says.

For beaches in Jackson County, home to Ocean Springs and Pascagoula, its rules on alcohol vary Mississippi’s tourism website does not explicitly say that people can’t bring alcohol to Front and East Beaches in Ocean Springs, but it does warn

of glass containers being prohibited.

As for Pascagoula, its parks and recreation department states that no alcohol can be sold or consumed on city property without a permit.

Alabama

A resort city in Baldwin County known for its blue-green water and fine white sand, Gulf Shores does not allow the consumption of alcohol on any of its beaches, according to its website.

In Orange Beach, next door to Gulf Shores, alcohol is permitted, though government officials warn glass containers are prohibited.

Located on the tip of Dauphin Island, West End Beach allows vacationers to bring their own beverages, its website says, but similar to Orange Beach, glass containers are banned. Florida panhandle

Destin, a busy beach town known for its recreation and fishing opportunities, allows the consumption of alcohol, but prohibits glass containers, according to a representative on its tourism website.

Eleven months out of the year excluding March, alcohol consumption is allowed on Panama City Beach, its website says. Glass containers are prohibited year-round.

The tourism website for Pensacola Beach states that while glass containers and public displays of drunkenness are not allowed, alcoholic beverages are OK.

Fort Walton, a

Pentagon scrambles to restore pages amid DEI purge

BY LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP Associated Press

WASHINGTON Every day over the past few weeks, the Pentagon has faced questions from angry lawmakers, local leaders and citizens over the removal of military heroes and historic mentions from Defense Department websites and social media pages after it purged online content that promoted women or minorities.

In response, the department has scrambled to restore a handful of those posts as their removals have come to light While the pages of some well-known veterans, including baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson, are now back up on Pentagon websites, officials warn that many posts tagged for removal in error may be gone forever

The restoration process has been so hit or miss that even groups that the administration has said are protected, like the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black military pilots who served in a segregated World War II unit, still have deleted pages that as of Saturday had not been restored.

This past week chief, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video that mistaken removals will be quickly rectified. “History is not DEI,” he said, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion.

But due to the enormous size of the military and the wide range of commands, units and bases, there has been an array of interpretations of what to remove and how as part of the Pentagon directive to delete online content that promotes DEI. Officials from across the military services said they have asked for additional guidance from the Pentagon on what should be restored, but have yet to receive any

The officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, said, for example, they were waiting for guidance on whether military “firsts” count as history that can be restored. The first female Army Reserve graduate of Ranger School, Maj. Lisa Jaster or the first female fighter pilot, Air Force Maj Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, both had their stories deleted

Some officials said their understanding was it did not matter whether it was a historic first. If the first was based on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth found to be a disqualifying characteristic, such as gender or race, it had to go, they said

One Army team has taken a very deliberate approach. According to the officials, the team took down several major historical heritage sites that had many postings about women and various ethnic or racial groups. They are now going through them all and plan to rework and repost as much as possible on a new website focused on Army heroes. The process, the officials said, could take months.

Overall, tens of thousands of online posts that randomly mention dozens of key words, including “gay,” “bias” and “female” — have been deleted. Officials warn that the bulk of those images are gone for good. Even as complaints roll in, officials will be careful about restoring things unless senior leaders approve.

The officials described the behind-the-scenes process as challenging, frustrating and emotionally draining. Workers going through years of posts to take down mentions of historic accomplishments by women or minorities were at times reduced to tears or lashed out in anger at commanders directing the duty the officials said

Others were forced to pull down stories they were proud of and had worked on themselves They were often confused about the parameters for removal once a key word was found and they erred on the side of removal, according to the officials.

Not complying fully with the order was seen as dangerous because it could put senior military service leaders at risk of being fired or disciplined if an errant post celebrating diversity was left up and found. Officials said the department relied in large part on a blind approach — using artificial intelligence computer commands to search for dozens of those key words in online

SUNDAY NEWS SHOWS

department, military and command websites.

If a story or photo depicted or included one of the terms, the computer program then added “DEI” into the web address of the content, which flagged it and led to its removal.

Purging posts from X, Facebook and other social media sites is more complicated and time intensive. An AI command would not work as well on those sites.

So military service members and civilians have evaluated social media posts by hand, working late into the night and on weekends to pore over their unit’s social media pages, cataloging and deleting references going back years. Because some civilians were not allowed to work on weekends military troops had to be called in to replace them, as the officials described it.

The Defense Department is publicly insisting that mistakes will be corrected.

As an example, the Pentagon on Wednesday restored some pages highlighting the crucial wartime contributions of Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans. That step came days after tribes condemned the removal. Department officials said the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously erased,

The previous week, pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were also restored.

The restorations represent a shift from early, adamant denials that any deletion of things such as the Enola Gay or prominent service members was happening at all. At least two images of the Enola Gay the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, are still missing.

“This is fake news and anyone with a pulse knows it!” the Defense Department’s

new “Rapid Response” social media account asserted March 7. “We are NOT removing images of the Enola Gay or any other pictures that honor the legacy of our

warfighters.”

Over time, the Pentagon has shifted its public response as more examples of deleted pages came to light.

On Thursday, Parnell acknowledged in a video posted online that: “Because of the realities of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed We want to be very, very clear: History is not DEI. When content is either mistakenly removed, or if it’s maliciously removed, we continue to work quickly to restore it.”

But others have seen the widespread erasure of history

“Most female aviator stories and photographs are disappearing — including from the archives. From the WASPs to fighter pilots, @AFThunderbirds to @BlueAngels — they’ve

erased us,” Carey Lohrenz, one of the Navy’s first female F-14 Tomcat pilots, posted to X. “It’s an across the board devastating loss of history and information.” Among the webpages removed include one about the Women Air Service Pilots, or WASPs, the female World War II pilots who were vital in ferrying warplanes for the military and the Air Force Thunderbirds. Parnell, Hegseth and others have vigorously defended the sweeping purge despite the flaws.

“I think the president and the secretary have been very clear on this — that anybody that says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, is frankly, incorrect,” Parnell said during a Pentagon media briefing. “Our shared purpose and unity are our strength.”

ABC’s “This Week”: White House border czar Tom Homan; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Curtis, R-Utah.

CNN’s“State of the Union”: Edu-

cation Secretary Linda McMahon; Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Jason Crow, D-Colo.

CBS’ “Face the Nation”: National security adviser Mike Waltz; Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.;

Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner “Fox News Sunday”: Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy; Gov Wes Moore, D-Md.

The Associated Press

LOUISIANA POLITICS

Medicaid concerns roiling Congressional town halls

WASHINGTON — Usually constituents are polite when attending town halls, using the events as opportunities to meet and discuss issues with their congressperson.

That changed recently, first for Republican representatives and now for Democratic members.

Mark Ballard

Scenes of participants booing and hurling invectives at GOP members of Congress over President Donald Trump’s policies, such as fears about the future of Medicaid and Social Security, have turned the once-staid affairs into shouting matches in many states including Nebraska, Michigan, and North Carolina — all shown on television House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, suggested GOP members avoid scheduling in-person town halls during last week’s congressional recess. Most followed his advice.

“They’re professional protesters,” Johnson said of the agitators at Republican district town halls.

Johnson provided no proof for his assertions, but Trump has made similar claims on social media.

The Democrats were delighted at the GOP withdrawal from the town hall scene and decided to accentuate the GOP’s arm’slength approach.

That strategy hasn’t totally worked out for Democrats.

A Democrat-affiliated group erected billboards targeting six Republican House members in Colorado, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas and two in Virginia for voting to cut Medicaid.

The Washington Examiner reported Thursday that the billboards were taken down by Lamar Advertising Company, headquartered in Baton Rouge, after the National Republican Congressional Committee warned that the representatives had not voted to do away with Medicaid and saying so could make vendors liable to defamation claims. And many Democratic representatives ran into voters outraged at representatives for not doing enough to oppose Trump’s

Landry signs ‘Gulf of America’ executive order

policies. Democratic members were chastised at town halls in Maryland, Oregon, Arizona and other states. So far Louisiana town halls haven’t been as combative as elsewhere around the country Medicaid came up during a telephone town hall held by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, for his constituents in his Republicanmajority congressional district. But most of the questions ranged from flood insurance to tax cuts

for families and businesses.

Medicaid questions have become much more pointed at town halls in Democratic districts, said U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, DBaton Rouge. “It’s more the anticipation of what’s going to happen. I think that’s where all the anxiety is coming from,” Fields said. Trump and Johnson say Medicaid won’t be touched, except to correct for fraud and inefficiencies.

But House Republicans passed

America first.”

a framework bill that requires House committees to find $1.5 trillion in spending cuts — $880 billion of which would come from the committee overseeing Medicaid.

Many town hall participants question whether the GOP can reach that goal without significantly shifting much of those costs from federal to state treasuries.

Health care accounts for $21.4 billion, or 43.4% of the state’s total budget. Louisiana taxpayers

will be expected to put up $3.23 billion of that amount through the state general fund during the next fiscal year

Any decrease in federal funding would require the state to pay more or services to be cut.

Nearly a third of Louisiana’s residents, 1.6 million people, are on Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income families.

Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, told a Tuesday night town hall he organized on the Dillard University campus in New Orleans that if Republicans cut Medicaid by $880 billion or anywhere close to that, then millions of Americans would lose their medical insurance, hospitals and nursing home would close, and health care would become “much worse for our children, the disabled, and the elderly who rely on these services. We cannot, we will not sit idly by.” Carter sits on the House committee tasked with finding the budget cuts that might impact Medicaid. But Medicaid was not the only worry among Carter’s constituents.

The Rev Jeff Conner, a retired Methodist minister, asked Carter what could be done to stop the erroneous rhetoric that dead people are still receiving Social Security benefits.

Carter said he has been trying “to dispel the lies” through frequent interviews on television and on social media.

A participant named Keenan politely but pointedly criticized Democrats for not doing enough to oppose Trump policies.

“We have to use every tool in our arsenal,” Carter responded. He added because Republicans have narrow majorities in the House and Senate and hold the White House, that Democrats must turn a handful of GOP representatives to their side, use parliamentary rules to slow legislative progress and go to the courts to challenge policies.

“I don’t think we have the luxury of waiting for 2026 (when a new Congress is scheduled to be elected). We have to live in 2025,” Carter said.

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.

Gov Jeff Landry has signed an executive order directing state agencies, boards and officers to change “Gulf of Mexico” references to “Gulf of America” on all published materials moving forward. References must also be changed to ”Gulf of America” in the Louisiana Administrative Code, a publication that serves as the official log of the policies of various state agencies, no later than May 20, according to the executive order

The order also serves as a formal request to the Louisiana Law Insti-

tute to “study updating all statutory references to the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to the ‘Gulf of America’ to reflect the official and standard geographic name.” Landry signed the directive Thursday at a networking luncheon hosted by the HoumaTerrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary and Thibodaux Chambers of Commerce, among others. In a recording posted on social media, he said he was signing the order “in honor of President Trump, who is absolutely putting

Landry’s order follows and also makes reference to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump his first day in office titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness” that in part orders the U.S. secretary of the interior to rename the Gulf of Mexico. Google Maps now reflects the change.

CAPITOL BUZZ staff reports LandryKennedy

The Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted last week to align the state’s fourth and fifth grade social studies standards with Trump’s order Trump signs bill that rolls back drilling rules

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed into law legisla-

tion co-sponsored by Louisiana Sen. John N. Kennedy that rolled back an archaeological rule in the oilfield, part of a broader push by Republicans to undo restrictions the Biden Administration placed on the oil and gas industry “Burdensome regulations hurt oil and gas producers’ ability to provide affordable energy and jobs to Americans,” Kennedy said in a statement announcing Trump’s signature.

purpose was to standardize the reporting to create a database of the reports that could be used for future surveys.

Oil and gas interests, however, argued that the Biden administration rule effectively required a survey for every project when reports previously were only necessary if there was a “reason to believe” that sunken ships, submerged settlements or other archaeological findings were on the seafloor

Kennedy co-sponsored the resolution with U.S. Sen. Cindy HydeSmith, R-Mississippi.

The rule required offshore lessees and operators to “submit an archaeological report with any oil and gas exploration or development plan” to drill or lay pipelines

The Biden Administration said the

“President Trump promised to restore America’s energy might and by signing these resolutions of disapproval he helps Congress reset policy in a way that encourages offshore oil and gas production,” Hyde-Smith said.

PHOTO PROVIDED By U.S REP TROy CARTER

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, R-New Orleans, and Dr Rebekah Gee, the former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, field questions about possible changes to Medicaid during a March 18 town hall meeting in New Orleans.

“Such

Prosecutors request formal arrest of Istanbul mayor

By The Associated Press

ISTANBUL — Prosecutors

early Sunday requested that detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the top challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, be formally arrested over allegations of corruption and terror links.

A court is now set to decide whether the popular opposition figure will be charged and jailed pending a trial

The arrest this week of Imamoglu has intensified political tensions and sparked widespread protests across Turkey, with demonstrators rallying in multiple cities to voice their opposition.

Many view his arrest as a politically driven attempt to remove Imamoglu from the next presidential race, currently scheduled for 2028. Government officials reject the accusation and say Turkey’s courts are independent.

some 90 other people who were also detained with him. Authorities barred access to the courthouse using barricades on local roads and closing nearby metro stations. Hundreds of police officers and over a dozen water cannon trucks were deployed. Still, hundreds gathered in front of the building shouting: “Rights, law, justice! Others gathered outside the Istanbul city hall or took to the streets to denounce the mayor’s resignation for a fourth night of nationwide protests, in the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkey in more than a decade.

rubber bullets were fired.

Police used water cannons and tear gas to scatter demonstrators in Ankara.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 323 people were detained following protests Saturday night. Earlier, he said: “There will be no tolerance for those who seek to violate societal order, threaten the people’s peace and security, and pursue chaos and provocation.”

Police questioned Imamoglu for around five hours on Saturday as part of an investigation into allegations of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported. A day

earlier he was questioned for four hours over the corruption accusations. The mayor rejected all charges during both interrogations.

He was later transferred to a courthouse for questioning by prosecutors along with

3 killed in Russian attacks in Ukraine

BY SAMYA KULLAB

KYIV, Ukraine Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three people and wounded 14, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, despite agreeing to a limited ceasefire.

Zaporizhzhia was hit by 12 drones, police said. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said that residential buildings, cars and communal buildings were set on fire in the Friday night attack. Photos showed emergency services scouring the rubble for survivors. Ukraine and Russia agreed

in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after U.S.

President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, though it remains to be seen what possible targets would be off-limits to attack

The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered. While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be part of the agreement, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would also like railways

and ports to be protected.

The dead in Zaporizhzhia were three members of one family The bodies of the daughter and father were pulled out from under the rubble while doctors unsuccessfully fought for the mother’s life for more than 10 hours, Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired a total of 179 drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday It said 100 were intercepted and a further 63 lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

Replacing dead, unhealthy trees at Flight 93 memorial may take decades

By The Associated Press

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Officials say it will take decades to replace and revitalize trees at the national memorial in western Pennsylvania to the crew and passengers who died there when a hijacked airplane crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.

About 700 dead or unhealthy trees were removed nearly a year ago and work has begun to add topsoil and plan for what is expected to be a lengthy effort to rehabilitate the trees in 40 memorial groves and along a central walkway

The crescent of groves at the Flight 93 National Memorial commemorate the 40 passengers and crew killed when they acted to force down their airplane hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists before it could be used as a weapon against Washington, D.C. Passengers in the flight from New Jersey to California memorably declared “let’s roll” before moving against the hijackers.

Landscape architect James Mealey said Thursday it may take 40 years before visitors see the fully mature trees, according to the Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown Mealey said one issue had been a rushed effort to get the project done. Problems have been attributed to poor soil quality, tree species that did not thrive in conditions at the reclaimed coal strip mine, low quality nursery stock, inadequate irrigation, harsh winters, hungry deer and limited maintenance capacity.

“Obviously that won’t mean that we’re

93 National Memorial Chief of Interpretation and Education

planting the last trees in 40 years, but that’s sort of how long it takes to establish a landscape of this scale and this complexity,” Mealey said. “In terms of the actual, like, replanting, that would take place over the next decade, maybe even into two decades.”

About 2,000 native deciduous trees of various types were planted at the memorial from 2012 to 2016, a key feature of the park’s landscape design.

The first tree replanting may take place next spring. Money is being raised to pay for the tree revitalization effort.

The demonstrations were largely peaceful but a group of protesters, trying to break through barricades to reach Istanbul’s main square, threw flares, stones and other objects at police, which responded with pepper spray Some demonstrators said

Imamoglu was detained on Wednesday following a dawn raid on his residence over allegations of financial crimes and links to Kurdish militants. Dozens of other prominent figures, including two district mayors, were also detained.

The Istanbul governor’s office announced it was expanding a ban on demonstrations until March 26 and imposed restrictions on the entry and exit of vehicles deemed to be transporting

people “likely to participate in unlawful activities.” Erdogan on Saturday accused the leadership of the opposition CHP of turning the party “into an apparatus to absolve a handful of municipal robbers who have become blinded by money.” He also accused it of “doing everything to disturb the public peace, to polarize the nation.” Imamoglu’s arrest came just days before he was expected to be nominated as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in a primary on Sunday Ozel has said that the primary, where around 1.5 million delegates can vote, will go ahead as planned. The opposition party has also urged citizens to participate in a symbolic election on Sunday through improvised ballot boxes to be set up across Turkey to show solidarity with Imamoglu.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Flight

Adam Shaffer, left, talks with Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial Executive Director Donna Gibson near the Allée Trail amid the 40 Memorial Groves at the national park near Shanksville, Pa

Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KHALIL HAMRA

TikTok becomes a tool of choice for migrant smugglers

BY MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — The videos roll through TikTok in 30-second

flashes.

Migrants trek in camouflage through dry desert terrain. Dune buggies roar up to the United States-Mexico border barrier Families with young children pass through gaps in the wall. Helicopters, planes, yachts, tunnels and Jet Skis stand by for potential customers.

Laced with emojis, the videos posted by smugglers offer a simple promise: If you don’t have a visa in the U.S., trust us. We’ll get you over safely

At a time when legal pathways to the U.S. have been slashed and criminal groups are raking in money from migrant smuggling, social media apps like TikTok have become an essential tool for smugglers and migrants alike. The videos taken to cartoonish extremes — offer a rare look inside a long elusive industry and the narratives used by trafficking networks to fuel migration north.

“With God’s help, we’re going to continue working to fulfill the dreams of foreigners. Safe travels without robbing our people,” wrote one enterprising smuggler

As U.S. President Donald Trump begins to ramp up a crackdown at the border and migration levels to the U.S. dip, smugglers say new technologies allow networks to be more agile in the face of challenges, and expand their reach to new customers — a far cry from the old days when each village had its trusted smuggler

“In this line of work, you have to switch tactics,” said a woman named Soary, part of a smuggling network bringing migrants from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, Texas, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition that her last name wouldn’t be shared out of concern that authorities would track her down “TikTok goes all over the world.”

Soary, 24, began working in smuggling when she was 19, living in El Paso, where she was approached by a friend about a job. She would use her truck to pick up migrants who had recently jumped the border Despite the risks involved with working with trafficking organizations, she said that it earned her more as a single mother than her previous job putting in hair extensions.

As she gained more contacts on both sides of the border, she began connecting people from across the Americas with a network of smugglers to sneak them across borders and eventually into the U.S.

Like many smugglers, she would take videos of migrants speaking to the camera after crossing the border to send over WhatsApp as evidence to loved ones that

her clients had reached their destination safely Now she posts those clips to TikTok.

TikTok says the platform strictly prohibits human smuggling and reports such content to law enforcement

The use of social media to facilitate migration took off around 2017 and 2018, when activists built huge WhatsApp groups to coordinate the first major migrant caravans traveling from Central America to the U.S., according to Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University focused on the migrant smuggling industry

Later, smugglers began to infiltrate those chats and use the choice social media app of the day, expanding to Facebook and Instagram.

Migrants, too, began to document their often perilous voyages north, posting videos trekking through the jungles of the Darien Gap dividing Colombia and Panama, and after being released by extorting cartels.

A 2023 study by the United Nations reported that 64% of the migrants that they interviewed had access to a smartphone and the internet during their migration to the U.S.

Around the time of the study’s release, as use of the app began to soar Correa-Cabrera said that she began to see smuggling ads skyrocket on TikTok.

“It’s a marketing strategy ” Correa-Cabrera said.

“Everyone was on TikTok, particularly after the pandemic, and then it began to multiply.”

Last year Soary, the smuggler, said that she began to publish videos of migrants and families in the U S. with their faces covered and photos of the U.S.-Mexico border with messages like: “We’ll pass you through Ciudad Juárez, no matter where you are. Fence jumping, treks and by tunnel. Adults, children and the elderly.”

Hundreds of videos examined by the AP feature thick wads of cash, people crossing through the border fence by night, helicopters and airplanes supposedly used by human smugglers known as coyotes, smugglers cutting open cacti in the desert for migrants to drink from and

even crops of lettuce with text reading “The American fields are ready!”

The videos are often layered over heavy northern Mexican music with lyrics waxing romantically about being traffickers. Videos are published by accounts with names alluding to “safe crossing,” “USA destinations,” “fulfilling dreams” or “polleros,” as smugglers are often called.

Narratives shift based on the political environment and immigration policies in the U.S. During the Biden administration, posts would advertise getting migrants access to asylum applications through the administration’s CBP One app, which Trump ended.

Amid Trump’s crackdown, posts have shifted to dispelling fears that migrants will be captured, promising American authorities have been paid off. Smugglers openly taunt U.S. authorities: one shows himself smoking what appears to be marijuana right in front of the border wall; another even takes a jab at Trump, referring to the president as a “highstrung gringo.”

Comments are dotted with emojis of flags and baby chickens, a symbol meaning migrant among smugglers, and other users asking for prices and more information.

Cristina, who migrated because she struggled to make ends meet in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, was among those scrolling in December after the person she had hired to smuggle her to the U.S. abandoned her and her partner in Ciudad Juárez

“In a moment of desperation, I started searching on TikTok and, well, with the algorithm videos began to pop up,” she said. “It took me a half an hour” to find a smuggler

After connecting, smugglers and migrants often negotiate on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, doing a careful dance to gain each other’s trust.

Cristina, now living in Phoenix, said that she decided to trust Soary because she was a woman and posted videos of families, something the smuggler admitted was a tactic to gain migrants’ trust. Smugglers, migrants and

scam migrants or lure them into traps at a time when cartels are increasingly using kidnapping and extortion as a means to rake in more money

One smuggler, who asked to only be identified by his TikTok name “The Corporation” because of fear of authorities tracking him down, said other accounts would steal his migrant smuggling network’s videos of customers saying to camera they arrived safely in the U.S.

“And there’s not much we can do legally I mean, it’s not like we can report them,” he said with a laugh.

In other cases, migrants say that they were forced by traffickers to take the videos even if they haven’t arrived safely to their destinations.

which warned in a report about the use of the technology that “networks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and evasive, thus challenging government authorities to address new, nontraditional forms of this crime.”

In February, a Mexican prosecutor also confirmed to the AP that they were investigating a network of accounts advertising crossings through a tunnel running under the border fence between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. But investigators wouldn’t provide more details.

authorities warn that such videos have been used to

The illicit advertisements have fueled concern among international authorities like the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration,

In the meantime, hundreds of accounts post videos of trucks crossing the border, of stacks of cash and migrants, faces covered with emojis, promising they made it safely across the border

“We’re continuing to cross and we’re not scared,” one wrote.

EDUCATION

Colleges cutting ties with DEI nonprofit

BY CHEYANNE MUMPHREY and JOCELYN GECKER

AP education writers

Until recently, it was a littleknown program to help Black and Latino students pursue business degrees. But in January, conservative strategist Christopher Rufo flagged the program known as The PhD Project in social media posts that caught the attention of Republican politicians. The program is now at the center of a Trump administration campaign to root out diversity equity and inclusion programs in higher education.

The U.S. Education Department last week said it was investigating dozens of universities for alleged racial discrimination, citing ties to the nonprofit organization. That followed a warning a month earlier that schools could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.

The investigations left some school leaders startled and confused, wondering what prompted the inquiries. Many scrambled to distance themselves from The PhD Project, which has aimed to help diversify the business world and higher education faculty

The rollout of the investigations highlights the climate of fear and uncertainty in higher education, which President Donald Trump’s administration has begun policing for policies that run afoul of his agenda even as he moves to dismantle the Education Department. Colleges asked to explain ties

There is a range of nonprofits that

ASKING

University, under fire for its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, the administration pulled $400 million in federal money and threatened billions more if it does not comply with its demands.

“There is a concern that if one university steps up and fights this then that university will have all of their funding cut,” said Veena Dubal, general counsel for the American Association of University Professors. “They are being hindered not just by fear but a real collective action problem. None of these universities wants to be the next example.”

Some colleges moved swiftly to stop working with The PhD Project.

Gov Greg Abbot posted on X that the university “president will soon be gone” unless he immediately “fixed” the matter Texas A&M responded by withdrawing from the conference, and soon after at least eight other Texas public universities that had participated previously in The PhD Project’s conference also withdrew the Texas Tribune reported. Rufo has not responded to a request for comment.

Some of the schools under investigation raised questions about where the complaints against them originated.

work to help minority groups advance in higher education but The PhD Project was not well known before Rufo began posting on X about its work with colleges, said Jonathan Fansmith, senior vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education, an association of college presidents.

“It’s not hard to draw some lines between that incident and why 45 institutions that were partners with The PhD Project are getting this investigation announced,” he said.

The 45 colleges under investigation for ties to the organization include public universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and the University of California, Berkeley, along with private schools like Yale, Cornell, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Education Department sent letters to the universities informing them its Office for Civil Rights had received a complaint and they were under investigation for allegedly

discriminating against students on the basis of race or ethnicity because of a past affiliation with The PhD Project. The letters set a March 31 deadline for information about their relationship with the nonprofit.

In a statement, the PhD Project said it aims to “create a broader talent pipeline” of business leaders. “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision,” it said.

Colleges tread carefully

Public reaction from the universities’ leadership has been minimal and cautious, with most issuing brief statements saying they will cooperate with investigators and refusing further comment.

Colleges may see reasons not to push back. The Trump administration has shown willingness to withhold federal funding over issues involving antisemitism allegations, diversity programs and transgender athletes At Columbia

The University of Kentucky said it severed ties with the nonprofit on Monday The University of Wyoming said in a statement that its college of business was affiliated with the group to develop its graduate student pipeline, but it plans to discontinue its membership.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas issued a statement saying three professors participated in the program, but two no longer work at the university and a third was killed in a shooting on campus in 2023. Arizona State said its business school is not financially supporting The PhD Project this year and it told faculty in February the school would not support travel to the nonprofit’s conference.

Campaign against work

Similar fallout came in Texas earlier this year, when Rufo began posting on X about the PhD Project.

“Texas A&M is sponsoring a trip to a DEI conference,” Rufo posted on Jan 13. Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, accused the university of “supporting racial segregation and breaking the law.”

The next day Republican Texas

Montana State University said it follows all state and federal laws and was “surprised” by the notice it received and “unaware of any complaint made internally with regards to The PhD Project.”

Six other colleges are being investigated for awarding “impermissible race-based scholarships,” the Education Department said. Additionally, the University of Minnesota is being investigated for allegedly operating a program that segregates students on the basis of race.

At the University of California, Berkeley, hundreds gathered Wednesday on the campus known for student protests. But this one was organized by faculty who stood on the steps of Sproul Hall, known as the birthplace of the free speech movement in the 1960s. In a campus email last week, Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons did not specifically mention the investigation targeting his school. But he described the federal government’s actions against higher education as a threat to the school’s core values.

“A Berkeley without academic freedom without freedom of inquiry, without freedom of expression is simply not Berkeley,” Lyons said “We will stand up for Berkeley’s values and defend them to the very best of our ability.”

BY ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN AP science writer

NEW YORK Scientists are homing in on the nature of a mysterious force called dark energy, and nothing short of the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.

The force is enormous — it makes up nearly 70% of the universe. And it is powerful it is pushing all the stars and galaxies away from each other at an ever faster rate.

And now scientists are getting a little closer to understanding how it behaves.

The big question is whether this dark energy is a constant force, which scientists have long thought, or whether the force is weakening, a surprising wrinkle tentatively proposed last year

Results presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society last week bolster the case that the force is weakening, though scientists are not yet certain and they still haven’t worked out what this means for the rest of their understanding of the universe.

The updated findings come from an international research collaboration that is creating a three-dimensional map to see how galaxies have spread and clustered over 11 billion years of the universe’s history. Carefully tracking how galaxies move helps scientists learn about the forces that are moving them around.

Called the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument,

the collaboration released its first analysis of 6 million galaxies and quasars last year and has now added more data, bringing the count to nearly 15 million Their updated results, taken with other measurements exploding stars, leftover light from the young universe and distortions in galaxy shape support the idea presented last year that dark energy may be waning.

Iguanas likely crossed Pacific Ocean millions of years ago, findings reveal

BY ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN AP science writer

NEW YORK Researchers have long wondered how iguanas got to Fiji, a collection of remote islands in the South Pacific. Most modern-day iguanas live in the Americas — thousands of miles and one giant ocean away

They thought maybe they scurried there through Asia or Australia before volcanic activity pushed Fiji so far away

But new research suggests that millions of years ago, iguanas pulled off the 5,000-mile odyssey on a raft of floating vegetation masses of uprooted trees and small plants. That journey is thought to be a record further than any other land-dwelling vertebrate has ever traveled on the ocean.

Scientists think that’s how iguanas got to the Galápagos Islands off Ecuador and between islands in the Caribbean. Initially they thought Fiji might be a bit too far for such a trip, but in a new study, researchers inspected the genes of 14 iguana species spanning the Americas, the Caribbean and Fiji. They discovered that Fijian iguanas were most closely related to desert iguanas from North America, and that the two groups split off around 31 million years ago.

The researchers created a statistical model using that information and other tidbits about where iguanas live today and how they may spread. It suggested that the

PHOTO By U.S GEOLOGICAL SURVEy

PROVIDED

A female Lau banded iguana is a native of Fiji.

iguanas most likely floated to Fiji from North America.

“Given what we know now, their result is by far the most strongly supported,” said Kevin de Queiroz, an evolutionary biologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who was not involved with the new study.

The research was published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The journey from North America to Fiji could have taken a few months, but these desert iguanas would have been ideal passengers because they were adept at resisting dehydration and

could have snacked on the plants underfoot.

“If you had to pick a vertebrate to survive a long trip on a raft across an ocean, iguanas would be the one,” said study author Simon Scarpetta from the University of San Francisco, in an email.

Many Fijian iguana species are endangered, and an invasive green iguana roams the islands today said study author Robert Fisher of the United States Geological Survey Figuring out where these creatures came from can equip scientists with the tools to better protect them in the future.

a moment where we have to throw out how we’ve thought about cosmology and start over,” said Bhuvnesh Jain, a cosmologist with the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved with the research.

It’s not time to completely rule out the idea that dark energy is constant because the new results are still shy of the gold standard level of statistical proof physics requires.

The collaboration aims to map around 50 million galaxies and quasars by the end of its survey in 2026. And other efforts around the globe have an eye on dark energy and aim to release their own data in the coming years, including the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.

at that gold standard to be sure that dark energy is weakening, said cosmologist Kris Pardo with the University of Southern California who was not involved with the new research.

If dark energy is constant, scientists say our universe may continue to expand forever, growing ever colder, lonelier and still.

If dark energy ebbs with time which now seems plausible, the universe could one day stop expanding and then eventually collapse on itself in what’s called the Big Crunch. It might not seem like the cheeriest fate, but it offers some closure, said cosmologist and study collaborator Mustapha IshakBoushaki of the University of Texas at Dallas.

“It’s moving from a really surprising finding to almost

“We want to see several different collaborations having similar measurements”

“Now, there is the possibility that everything comes to an end,” he said. “Would we consider that a good or bad thing? I don’t know.”

Federal report urges La. to assess bridges

Most concern over Mississippi River bridges

BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer

The National Transportation Safety Board is urging Louisiana to assess the safety of eight of its bridges, including almost all of those crossing the Mississippi River in the state, in a new report following last year’s collapse in Baltimore.

The Crescent City Connection in New Orleans, the Sunshine Bridge in Donaldsonville and the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge were among those flagged in the report released Thursday Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, whose collapse after being struck by a container ship in March 2024 killed six people, was riskier than acceptable under the guidelines of the American Association of State Highway and Trans-

portation, according to the report.

The NTSB, responsible for investigating infrastructure incidents, listed 68 waterway bridges across the country that have not gone through an assessment based on recent ship traffic and “therefore have an unknown level of risk of collapse from a potential vessel collision.”

These are the eight Louisiana bridges identified in the report:

n Greater New Orleans Bridge (New Orleans)

n Crescent City Connection Bridge (New Orleans)

n Huey P. Long Bridge (Jefferson Parish)

n Hale Boggs Bridge (Luling)

n Sunshine Bridge (Donaldsonville)

n Veterans Memorial Bridge (Gramercy)

n Mississippi River Bridge/I-10 Bridge (Baton Rouge, officially named Horace Wilkinson Bridge)

n Israel LaFleur Bridge (Lake

Charles).

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development says it has conducted a vulnerability assessment on all of the bridges flagged in the memo, a representative for the agency said, and plans to respond within 30 days.

“DOTD stands by the statement that if a bridge is open it is safe to drive over,” said Daniel Gitlin, a public information officer for the department.

Rapper announced Caleb Wilson scholarship

BY AIDAN MCCAHILL

Staff writer

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is threatening legal action against rapper Boosie Badazz over the use of Caleb Wilson’s name for a scholarship fund, citing objections from Wilson’s parents who say they were unaware their son’s name was being used to promote a rap festival.

On Friday, Baton Rouge native Boosie, born Torence Hatch Jr., announced he was launching a Caleb Wilson Memorial Scholarship during his sixth annual Boosie Bash, a three-day rap festival, this year featuring GloRilla and DaBaby, that takes place on Southern University’s campus.

Wilson, a Southern University student and trumpet player for the Human Jukebox, died after an off-campus hazing ritual last month involving the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, sparking national attention and packed memorials on the campus and in New Orleans.

Boosie told WBRZ he was working with the Wilson family and the Human Jukebox to initiate the scholarship, and added that some of the proceeds from the festival would go to a scholarship fund.

But according to a statement Saturday from Murrill, Wilson’s parents did not give consent for organizers to use their son’s name in connection to the event, and are now requesting that his “name, image, and any reference to a scholarship for him be removed from all promotional materials,” according to a release from Murrill’s office.

Murrill said in an interview with The Advocate that Boosie contacted Wilson’s family last week to request permission to use Caleb’s name for a scholarship, which they approved But the family told Murrill the rapper failed to disclose its connection to his upcoming festival. Murrill

BETTER TOGETHER

‘Microcenters’ in schools part of private partnership

BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer

Young children have long walked the halls of Capitol Elementary School in Baton Rouge. Now, they are joined by children not yet able to walk, pushed along in strollers or carried in the arms of their mothers. The elementary is the one of a handful of public schools in Baton Rouge that have opened their doors to infants and toddlers. These child care centers are known as microcenters, and they

ABOVE: Trisha Hadley gets cheered on as she finishes a Huckleberry Brewery beer during the 20th Annual Zapp’s International Beerfest at LSU Rural Life Museum on Saturday LEFT: Wielding two beer glasses in one hand, Daniel Simonson hugs Hannah Holton.

BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT Staff writer

A $4 million senior and wellness center is moving forward in Prairieville after the Ascension Parish Council unanimously approved a $2 million loan for it. Maintained by the Ascension Council on Aging, the 13,000-square-foot building is planned for a site near the intersection of Enterprise Avenue and Commerce Centre Drive. Darlene Schexnayder, the council’s executive director, said the organization will provide an additional $1.5 million, with the

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Whitney Bank building hotel plans back on track

More hotels to anchor CBD area

BY ANTHONY MCAULEY Staff writer

The warren of historic buildings in downtown New Orleans that once served as the home of the Whitney National Bank have sat empty since 2019, when Whitney’s bankers, clerks and executives decamped to new offices in the Hancock Whitney Center on Poydras Street

Now, after a series of building sales, developers are planning at least three hotel projects on the Central Business District block, which would transform the former “banker’s row” area into another node of the city’s ever-expanding tourism industry

Baton Rouge developer Mike Wampold and his partners bought all seven buildings that made up the Whitney Bank complex six years ago, including the 14-story Whitney tower, once the tallest building in the city At the time, Wampold set out to transform the entire complex into a $100 million luxury hotel, with upper floors converted to high-end apartments and the ground floor occupied by retail outlets and restaurants.

The coronavirus pandemic derailed those plans. The worldwide hotel market collapsed, while building costs skyrocketed and soaring interest rates made projects harder to finance.

Hotel projects ahead

In the years since Wampold has been trying to sell off some of the structures in the complex while holding onto the Whitney tower building at 228 St. Charles and rethinking his original plans. Some of those sales are now coming to fruition and his plans — and those of other developers — are beginning to take shape.

Last year, Wampold and partners sold 210 St. Charles Ave. for an undisclosed price to Metairie developer Allan McDonnel and his partner in the project, Ryan Bates, who have submitted plans for a 37room boutique hotel separate from Wampold’s.

Wampold also was scheduled to close Friday on the sale of 211 Camp St., the historic Norman Mayer Memorial Building, which is considered

BRIDGES

Continued from page 1B

The Louisiana agency noted that the national report does not suggest that the 68 bridges are “certain to collapse,” but rather that bridge owners, like DOTD, should evaluate how vulnerable they are to collapse.

But the report also stresses that the owners of the 68 waterway bridges “are likely unaware of their bridges’ risk of catastrophic collapse from a vessel collision.”

Had the Maryland Transportation Authority assessed the Key Bridge using the standards outlined in the report, the state agency would have known of the risks and could have strategized to prevent the deadly collapse, it says.

After conducting vulnerability assessments, the transportation safety board wants state agencies to develop risk reduction plans that include short and long-term

Continued from page 1B

are staffed by private providers. Affordable care for the youngest children of low-income families is in high demand. In Capitol’s case, the private provider is the YWCA of Greater Baton Rouge, a 57-year-old chapter of an international nonprofit that offers programs that help women and children from poorer communities. The YWCA of Greater Baton Rouge has a lot of experience in education. For the past 25 years, it has participated in Early Head Start, a federally funded educational program for low-income children under 3. The nonprofit runs two Early Head Start centers to help young children get ready for kindergarten and provide a range of other support to the children and their families. Those centers have about 200 children on their waiting lists. Serving neighborhoods Capitol Elementary is YWCA’s latest center in Baton Rouge. It opened in late January and now serves 32 children from 6 weeks to 3 years old. It held a formal grand opening last week. The new center differs from its predecessors.

one of the finest examples of early 20th-century beaux-arts architecture in the city It was sold together with the adjacent building at 619 Gravier St. The sale price was not disclosed but Wampold’s real estate agent, Talbot Realty, had recently been offering the Norman Mayer building for $5.5 million.

The new owner of both buildings is developer Sean Cummings, who already owns the 117-room International House Hotel on the corner of Camp and Gravier streets, and plans to expand into both adjacent buildings, according to three people familiar with the project.

Cummings declined to comment on his plans.

Still for sale is 201 Camp St., which was known as the Barnes Building when it was completed in 1901. The four-story red brick Renaissance revival-style building was home to the offices of Whitney’s top executives when they occupied the complex. It was initially offered for sale at just under $4 million.

Also, Wampold said he is looking for a buyer for the upper floors of the so-called “infill building” that sits between the Barnes Building and the Norman Mayer Memorial Building on Camp Street. He wants to retain the ground floor of the modern structure for retail but sell or lease the upper three floors.

Meanwhile, and separate from Wampold’s project, there are also plans to convert another building on the block into a tiny boutique hotel.

Hollywood actor and New Orleans native Anthony Mackie bought 204 St. Charles Ave. three years ago The four-story building had a Subway sandwich shop on the ground floor before it was sold

Mackie has applied for permits to convert the slim, century-old building into three rental units with a bar and lounge on the first floor, public records show Mackie’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Letting the dust settle’

The block, which is bounded by St. Charles Avenue, Common, Camp and Gravier streets, played a significant role in the commercial history of New Orleans and has long been slated for renovation. If the new projects come to fruition, they would add hundreds of new hotel rooms, residential units and ground floor

shops and restaurants to the heart of the CBD.

Wampold said the sale of the properties has helped put his development group back on track for a slightly scaled-down conversion of the rest of the Whitney complex.

“We’ve really been focused on paying down debt, and now we want to let the dust settle on these property sales,” Wampold said. “But we have a preliminary plan for what we have left and hope we can get a green light later this year and move forward with construction soon after.”

He said the preference still would be for a branded hotel with up to 300 rooms on the site. Though he and his partners have been in talks with several hotel groups, Wampold noted that he has ties to Marriott International. His Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge is a luxury Marriott brand, and his Watermark Hotel in downtown Baton Rouge is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection of upscale boutique hotels.

Historical significance

The entire Whitney complex block is part of the Lower Central Business District, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1991.

The Norman Mayer Memorial Building has a storied past, having been designed by local architects Andry and Bendernagel, who also occupied offices there when the ground floor tenant was Interstate Bank in the early 1900s.

The International House Hotel was itself a conversion of a storied beaux-arts building in 1998 by Cummings and architect Brooks Graham. The 1906 building was designed by Diboll and Owen and was a bank until the middle of the last century, when it became the first site of the city’s World Trade Center

Many other notable buildings in the business district have seen hotel conversions in recent years, including the former Cotton Exchange on Carondelet Street, which was converted just over a decade ago to a Marriott AC Hotel. Also, the former New Orleans Public Service Inc. building on Baronne Street in 2017 became the NOPSI Hotel.

All but two of the buildings on the Whitney Bank block are also part of a local preservation district, the Picayune Place Historic District,

strategies and consider vessel safety in waterways, according to the report

All of the potentially risky bridges noted in the report were constructed before the national highway and transportation association — representing state departments across the country —

Dianna Payton, YWCA’s CEO, said the infants and toddlers at Capitol are receiving services equal to the caliber of Early Head Start, including before and after care, but some of them are from low-income families that earn too much to qualify for that federal program.

Those additional children are largely paying subsidized rates specified by another federal program, the Child Care Assistance Program. And the center is also offering paid spots to families that don’t qualify for either program.

The center is targeting families who live in the 70802 and 70805 ZIP codes; Capitol Elementary is in 70802.

“Ideally, we want to have services that are close to a child’s home where a parent isn’t traveling far to receive that early education,” Payton said.

To make this happen, YWCA is using a mix of federal and state funding, as well as private donations. And the school system is not charging the organization for the space at Capitol Elementary

“When you leverage all those dollars, we’re able to reach more children,” Payton said.

Long-awaited move

Capitol Elementary is the sixth

East Baton Rouge Parish public school to open a microcenter

which covers six blocks within the larger CBD. The Historic District Landmarks Commission, which regulates local districts, notes that Picayune Place became the fledgling “American Sector” in the early 19th century, attracting new arrivals after the Louisiana Purchase.

The historic significance of the buildings is important both in terms of navigating the permitting process as well as taking advantage of the myriad federal and state tax breaks and grants used to finance renovations of historic properties.

Wampold said his development team has applied for federal and state historic building tax credits and are in talks with financial partners to move ahead with the project

The whole block is designated as an Opportunity Zone, which means eligible investors can get a break on capital gains taxes.

McDonnel and Bates said they are still in the middle of securing the permits for the 210 St. Charles project and declined further comment.

During the 1940s, 210 St. Charles had been the address of the legendary Dixie’s Bar of Music, where the 35-foot wide Xavier Gonzalez Mural had hung before it was moved in 2018 to the New Orleans Jazz Museum.

Documents submitted to the HDLC show the developers are seeking to have a ground-floor hotel lobby, lounge and wet bar on the St. Charles Avenue side of the property, with a total of 37 hotel rooms on floors two through four

Glad to see activity

Apart from the International House Hotel, the only other building currently in commercial use on the block is the Gulf Coast Bank and Trust. A rare reminder of the area’s banker’s row past, it has been at 200 St. Charles Ave. since it was founded in 1990.

Gulf Coast President and CEO Guy Williams said his bank isn’t part of any development plans for the block and is expecting to stay put.

“I’m just glad they seem to be finally moving ahead there,” Williams said. “It’s been empty for a long time.”

Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate.com.

clude vessel tracking systems, advanced warning protocol and helping large tankers while docking.

Among the 19 states named in the report, Louisiana trailed behind only New York for the number of potentially risky bridges. Texas and California each had seven bridges in need of assessment. At least one of the bridges named in the report has been in the spotlight due to its potential vulnerability

The Sunshine Bridge in Donaldsonville has already been the subject of a federal investigation after a crane barge crash in 2018.

BOOSIE

Continued from page 1B

also said she is unaware of any firm commitment that proceeds from the event would fund the scholarship, calling the situation a “massive misrepresentation to the public.”

In her statement, Murrill wrote: “I intend to take legal action due to their misappropriation of his name and image to promote their for-profit event. This is not a charitable event.”

Representatives for Boosie and the festival did not respond to The Advocate’s requests for comment. However, WBRZ said it reached out to the rapper’s representatives and they stood by Friday’s interview

Email Aidan McCahill at aidan.mccahill@ theadvocate.com.

SENIOR

Continued from page 1B

remaining $500,000 coming from the state.

“We’re just trying to expand our services into the Prairieville area, become more visible in the Prairieville area, and hopefully the seniors will want to use the services that we provide,” she said Friday

Variety of services

The services range from wellness activities — such as Zumba and cardio classes — to social and educational events like lunches and games. In Donaldsonville, the council maintains a senior center for social activities. In Gonzales, it operates a senior center and a wellness center in separate buildings.

The preliminary designs for the Prairieville campus by Mougeot Architecture combine those into one building, with exercise, game and dining rooms.

“Since both facilities in Gonzales are overcrowded, we decided to move forward in building a center in Prairieville,” Schexnayder said. She said the Gonzales senior center serves 95 to 105 meals a day, which is nearing capacity

“We can seat about 108 comfortably in Gonzales, so we’re getting to the point where it’s getting tight,” she said, adding she expects to pull about 25% of those served at the Gonzales center to Prairieville.

released its guidance in 1991 The Louisiana bridges in the report were built between 1936 and 1989.

“DOTD currently has mitigation measures in place to reduce the risk of incidents, as does the Coast Guard and the ports,” a department spokesperson said.

Some of these measures in-

since the first such center opened in 2021. Three of those microcenters, including Capitol’s, serve infants and toddlers. The others serve 3-year-olds.

The elementary school was built in 2009 to house 600-plus students, but has about 320 students from prekindergarten to fifth grade.

Capitol has welcomed YMCA staff inside its halls at 4141 Gus Young Ave. Principal Karla Johnson said she has long wanted such a program at her school.

“I have had this vision since before COVID. That’s how long it’s been,” Johnson said. “I’m just glad it finally happened.”

The new program is already tightly integrated into the school.

YWCA has taken over three adjoining classrooms. The first is for infants, the second is for 1- and 2-year-olds, and the third is for 3-year-olds. The next classroom in the hallway is a Capitol Elementary prekindergarten class for 4-year-olds.

YWCA also has built a playground for its young children. It is in addition to two other playgrounds at Capitol — one for prekindergartners, the other for older children.

Payton said the idea is to make the new center a feeder to the elementary school.

“This is your community and Capitol is the school you would at-

A DOTD engineer, citing computer modeling, said the crash should have caused the bridge to collapse, and state officials said that the Sunshine Bridge is seen by the agency as one of its “fracture critical” bridges.

Email Josie Abugov at josie. abugov@theadvocate.com.

tend anyway,” Payton said. “Then you would stay here, and it’s logical that you would matriculate your whole elementary career right on up.”

Johnson said she already has families that do just that, sending their children to both.

Private donors to the new center include the Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation, ExxonMobil and the Academic Distinction Fund. The donations came through the Foundation for East Baton Rouge School System, a private foundation.

In addition to the space, the parish public school system is helping center staff with professional training, and children at the center enjoy free school meals.

David Beach, president and chief executive of the Wilson Foundation, said high-quality early education has one of the highest returns on investment in education, but about 6,000 children in East Baton Rouge Parish lack access to such programs. He said the public-private partnership at Capitol points the way to filling that gap.

“We have to work together as a parish and as a state to provide universal access to early education in our communities,” Beach said.

Email Charles Lussier at clussier@theadvocate.com.

“Hopefully, you know, it will expand from there,” she said. “We have heard throughout the years seniors who would love to come to our program, but it’s just too far to drive.” A 10-year loan

At Thursday’s council meeting, Ascension Parish chief financial officer Dawn Caballero said funds for the 10-year loan to the council on aging will come from sales tax district No. 1 and have a 4.4% interest rate That interest will earn the parish about $476,000, she said.

“That money will be used for senior activities, senior programming activities, such as the sock hop,” she said.

District 5 council member Todd Varnado said going with the 10-year loan, rather than one with a shorter term and higher interest rate, will save taxpayers roughly $300,000.

“I just wanted to recognize the administration for doing it this way,” he said. “ I think it’s a smart investment, and I just wanted to make it known to the taxpayers.”

Email Christopher Cartwright at christopher cartwright@theadvocate. com.

LOTTERY FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2025 PICK 3: 2-2-1 PICK 4: 6-2-0-4 PICK 5: 2-3-7-8-5 MEGA MILLIONS: 15-22-31-52-57

MEGA BALL: 2

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

The Sunshine Bridge is seen from above as it crosses the Mississippi River on Sept. 13 in St. James Parish.

Belle Chasse businesses fear impact of bridge toll

Extra cost may keep customers away

BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer

When B&B Tackle relocated from Marrero to Belle Chasse seven years ago, it seemed like the perfect business move. The new storefront on La. 23 was a quick stop for customers on the way to lower Plaquemines Parish and its world-famous fishing waters.

Then came the construction of the new Belle Chasse Bridge over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway The $170 million project kicked off in April 2021, and in the years that followed, intermittent road closures have caused traffic nightmares. The congestion was made worse by the crush of workers trying to get to Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG plant in Port Sulphur

“It made it hard for anybody on a schedule to come and get stuff,” said Austin Plaisance, 33, owner of B&B Tackle. “There’s days where we hardly got any customers.”

On Monday, after an 11-month delay, the Belle Chasse Bridge finally opened, allowing traffic to flow more smoothly But Belle Chasse business owners haven’t exhaled yet.

Drivers will soon have to pay a toll to cross the bridge, and business owners are worried what that might mean for their customers.

“I’m just nervous that I’m not going to get the people on that side of the bridge that want to come shop with me because of the toll,” Plaisance said.

The bridge was original-

months later than originally

ly scheduled to open last April, but was delayed after its developers, Plenary Infrastructure Belle Chasse, discovered that higherthan-expected subsidence was causing the structure to sink and that the slabs that provide a smooth transition from the road to the bridge needed to be replaced

Plenary has been incurring $10,000-per-day fines as a result of not fully opening the bridge to traffic on time.

Those fines were expected to reach $3.5 million by the end of March, Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Joe Donahue told lawmakers in December

Public-private partnership

The four-lane bridge replaces a vertical-lift bridge built in 1967 and a tunnel that opened in 1955. Before the new bridge was built, drivers used two southbound lanes through the tunnel and two northbound lanes on the old bridge.

The new bridge is Louisiana’s first public-private

partnership for a major infrastructure project, and is supported by around $100 million in federal funds, with much of the rest covered by Plenary When the project was approved by the state Legislature in 2019, supporters argued that rejecting the proposal would cripple the chances of public-private partnerships elsewhere in Louisiana, including one to finance a new bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge. Still, the project faced pushback from residents and business owners in Plaquemines Parish for the toll.

“It absolutely is going to hurt business. Why would you pay a toll to get your teeth cleaned, get your hair cut, shop, eat, do anything when you could do it in Gretna,” Lt. Gov Billy Nungesser, a former Plaquemines Parish president, said last week.

Dale Adams, owner of Adams Catfish House, said his business is down about

70% thanks to the traf-

fic congestion. He said he saved up money to help cushion his coffers during construction, but didn’t anticipate the 11-month wdelay Adams suggested that the money DOTD is fining Plenary for the delay be redirected back into helping businesses and residents in Belle Chasse. “You’re penalizing them, but we’re the ones taking the brunt of it,” he said.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Transportation will have the final say on how the money is spent under a new law sponsored by State Rep. Jacob Braud, R-Belle Chasse. For now, Plaisance plans to stick it out where he’s at, and is crossing his fingers that his business doesn’t take any more of a hit.

“It’s going to drag me down with it if it goes down,” he said. Toll prices

Over the course of the

30-year contract Plenary could collect about $630 million in toll revenue, at the low end, or $726 million at the high end, according to Plenary projections included in a 2023 audit from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor

Tolls are not yet being charged, but are likely to commence in the next week or two, after DOTD inspections are complete, project spokesperson Abbe Ginn said.

The cost for most vehicles is 25 cents for Plaquemines residents, $1.13 for nonresidents with a GeauxPass and $2.26 for everyone without a GeauxPass. The cost is higher for those pulling trailers and larger trucks and vans. Plenary can increase most tolls each year based on the consumer price index, though the toll for Plaquemines residents can only increase by one cent per year

“Tolls will be collected in each direction by an electronic tolling system that does not require vehicles to stop,” DOTD wrote in a news release. “Residents and commuters are encouraged to get a GeauxPass, which offers lower toll rates and ease of payment.”

Town halls

There are three open houses to help residents sign up for a GeauxPass at the Belle Chasse Auditorium, 8398 La. 23, Belle Chasse, LA 70037 in the coming week: n March 24: Noon to 6 p.m. n March 26: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. n March 27: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate. com and follow him on Twitter, @blakepater

Consultants mull fully closing Bourbon Street to cars

Report will address age-old question, other security measures

BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer

For months, a crew of consultants has been pondering how and when to close off Bourbon Street to cars and thus ward against deadly attacks like the one that roiled the famed party strip on Jan. 1. This week, they will make their recommendations public, just as a festival-laden spring in New Orleans kicks off.

Former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton and his team will present their suggestions for Bourbon Street pedestrianization and other key security measures on Monday to the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, the booster group that covered the cost of Bratton’s work, which will share the findings with New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the City Council, said foundation Chair Darrah Schaefer

That report is meant to guide a city that must fend for itself in the coming months, as heightened federal security in place for Super Bowl and Mardi Gras is not expected to persist through French Quarter Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and any number of other spring and summer events sure to draw smaller, yet substantial crowds Teased in late January and February by the consultants and Kirkpatrick, who commissioned their work, the guidance has already revived a long-discussed and controversial debate. But Schaefer said the idea of imposing tighter restrictions on cars is just one of the options Bratton’s team will present to city leaders. Their report will also touch on longer-term recommendations for deploying officers, new technology the city could use to detect

threats, and equipment it could use to block streets.

The team will advise the city on protections for crowds at April’s French Quarter Fest, and the consultants have also studied whether law enforcement responded appropriately to the New Year’s Day attack.

Some say the guidance is welcomed in a city that has no long-term plan of its own to keep Bourbon Street and other major arteries safe from similar attacks, without also creating major traffic jams, or challenges for locals trying to access their homes and businesses.

“There are things that need to happen to make the French Quarter safer in the future, and we as a community have to figure out what level of security were comfortable with,” said Walt Leger III, president of New Orleans & Co.

But many still question if such an option would divert too much traffic to surrounding streets, among other concerns, and be too burdensome on area businesses that rely on delivery trucks and other vehicles.

“We want Bourbon Street to be safe, and in the next breath, there has to be a balance between safety and accessibility,” said Melvin Rodrigue, president and CEO of Galatoire’s Restaurants. Bratton, the Cantrell administration, and the council’s two at-large members, Helena Moreno and JP Morrell, did not respond to a request for comment.

Bratton’s group is also expected to detail its recommendations at a public town hall Wednesday, hosted by the Vieux Carré Property Owners and Residents Association.

Pedestrian-only zone?

Consultants have floated the logistics of shutting the strip to cars at recent community meetings, seven people who attended those meetings said.

In a Feb. 24 meeting with French Quarter neighborhood leaders, representatives from Teneo, the global consulting firm from which Bratton hails, offered an option for a pedestrian-only

zone for Bourbon Street” that would block vehicle access from Canal Street to Dumaine Street using barriers placed on Bourbon Street and on every side street

The barriers would be staggered to allow residents and businesses to access driveways on side streets — a bid to address a major concern that closing off the busy strip to vehicles would impede deliveries and travel.

Photos of the consultants’ presentation, obtained by The Times-Picayune, show examples of bollards and barriers from other cities that “can be deployed to align with the architecture and aesthetic of the French Quarter.”

At those meetings, the proposal prompted the same concerns and questions that have emerged in response to past attempts to “pedestrianize” Bourbon Street over the years.

In interviews this week, some business owners said they worried that strict limitations on vehicle access to Bourbon Street would create traffic jams on streets that are open to vehicles nearby that would deter visitors from coming to the area at all.

“Imagine the traffic you have for Mardi Gras, but 365 days a year,” said Rodrigue.

Erin Holmes, with Vieux Carré Property Owners, said traffic circulation is “going to have to be ironed out,” as will the impacts of the plan on residents.

John Casbon, co-founder of the Police and Justice Foundation, said that the consultants’ report will likely recommend a “compromise” that integrates feedback from neighborhood leaders by allowing designated vehicles like delivery trucks to access Bourbon Street for most of the day before shutting it and side streets off to all vehicles in the late afternoon.

Israel Duplessis, who works the door at Tropical Isle on Bourbon Street, said that closing Bourbon Street to cars would be an inconvenience to workers like him who drive to work, not just

business owners.

“Workers out there still have to get to work,” said Duplessis.

Kim Alexander, who operates a henna tattoo business out of a few camping chairs on Bourbon Street, said she supports closing Bourbon Street to cars as much as possible, as long as the city also comes up with a plan for a designated parking lot where workers can park nearby

“That would solve a lot of problems,” said Alexander “Not only would it help the police monitor Bourbon even better, it would help the tourists feel a little more safe.”

Yearslong debate

It’s hardly the first time that proposals to restrict traffic on Bourbon Street have met resistance. A push by then-mayor Mitch Landrieu in 2016 for additional limits on vehicle access as part of a broader French Quarter safety initiative following a mass shooting on Canal Street after the

Bayou Classic was ditched after pushback from business owners and residents. Instead, a $40 million safety plan in 2017 added safety bollards along Bourbon Street designed to deter acts of terrorism using vehicles, along with new crime cameras and more police.

A 2020 proposal by Cantrell’s administration that called for expanding pedestrian malls, restricting vehicular traffic, and lowering the speed limit gained some traction, but after pandemic-era restrictions ended, the plan fizzled.

Casbon said that whatever plan city officials decide on is only as good as its implementation and enforcement.

“If you don’t have people owning this, it’s not going to work,” said Casbon “Somebody’s job has got to be putting all the barriers out, making sure everything is battened down.”

Email Sophie Kasakove at sophie.kasakove@ theadvocate.com.

Obituaries

Melanie Cooper Alario passed away on March 19, 2025, at her home in Baton Rouge, LA, at the age of 78. She was born in Lakehurst, New Jersey, to the late Roy James Cooper and Mercedes Abadie Cooper. She spent most of her life living on the Westbank of New Orleans. Mel leaves to cherish hermemory, her high school sweetheart and husbandof56years, Terry J. Alario, Sr.; daughter, Joy Alario Lonibos and her husband, David; son, Terry J. Alario, Jr. and his wife, Lauri; 5grandchildren, of whom she was extremely proud, Cade Lonibos (Olivia), Alexa Lonibos (Bailey), Easton Lonibos, Devin Alario, and Jules Alario. She is also survived by her sisters, Jan Jenkins (EJ), Teresa Adam; brothers Bob Cooper (Shirley) and Danny Cooper (Debbie); sister-in-law Laura Cooper; and brother-in-law John A. Alario, Jr. (Trina). She joins in heaven,along with her parents, her sister Fran Blondiau (Alfred); brothers Jack Cooper and Jim Cooper; in-laws Elsie and John A. Alario, Sr.; and sister-in-law Ree Alario. Melanie had atremendously giving heart and never met astranger. She had avery special love and devotion to The Blessed Mother andPadre Pio. She was amember of theWest Jefferson High School Class of 1965, adedicated employee of South Central Bell and Bellsouth for 26 years, andwas amember of the Telephone Pioneers of America. Aheartfelt thanks andsincere gratitude is extended to Audubon Hospice, including Stacia, Carmen, and Sonnybrook for thecompassion and professionalism given during the last 14 months. Gwen, Loretta, and Brenda, know that we are eternally grateful to you for the abundantlove and care you gave to our angel. She loved eachof you. Visitation will be held at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Hwy. Baton Rouge, LA 70816, on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. until Funeral Service at 11:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory. If you feel so inclined, Mel would have loved for donations to be made to the Alario 22 Endowed Scholarship at Northwestern State University, in Natchitoches, LA. https://fundraise.givesmar t.com/form/ZR93jQ?vid=1i ejvl. You can also text Alario to 41444. Checks can be sentto: Demons Unlimited Foundation Attn: Scott Maggio, 468 Caspari Street, Natchitoches,LA 71497. Memo: Alario 22 Athletic Scholarship. Family and friends may sign the online guestbook or leave apersonal note to the family at www.resthavenbaton rouge.com

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Motorists cross the Belle Chasse Bridge that fully opened to traffic at 5 a.m on Monday, 11

anticipated.

Alario, Melanie Cooper

Dianne Wolfe BennettTalbert died peacefullyon March 11, 2025, at the age of 87 in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. Dianne was born on July 25, 1937, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Throughout her life, Dianne lived in several states before settling in Atlanta, where she builta career as alegal secretary before retiring from Jones Day Law Firm. Dianne married Jack Bennett from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, divorced and had no children. She met Tim Talbert from Helena, Montana and after she retired, they married in August 2013. Tim was the love of her life, and he took care of her to the end. May her memory bring comfort to those who knew her.

Ruby Marie Boudreaux

Breaux, 90 passed away on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. She was aloving wife sister, mother, Maw, great grandmother and friend. Always eager to serve her church and community in anyway she could. She was adedicated homebound and Eucharistic minister, lector/commentator, bingo coordinator, religion teacher and Catholic daughter for the St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church. In the Pierre Part community, Ruby coordinated the Blood Center blood driveand was a faithful member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary. She was honored as the 2001 Grand Marshal for the Pierre Part/Belle River Christmas Parade Ruby enjoyed spending time and traveling with her family and gardening. She leaves behind to cherish her memory her four children, Darwin Breaux (Susie), R.P. Breaux (Betty), Paula Bergeron (Ricky), and Barry Breaux (Sherry); eight grandchildren, Candice Breaux, Heather Lutz (Mike), Evan Bergeron, Heidi Knaub (Devin), Stefan Bergeron (India), Maxwell Breaux (Megan), Chelsie Granier (Drew), and Seth Breaux; four great grandchildren, Annelise Breaux, Evie Lutz, Asher Breaux and Cooper Knaub; three siblings, Peggy Montalbano, Leroy Boudreaux (Brenda) and Dolores Folse (Alfred) and her sister-in-law, Roberta Daigle.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Leonard Breaux; parents Milton and Mathilde Navarre Boudreaux and her five siblings, Rosalie St. Germain, Catherine "Kitty" Gaudet, Noland, Milton and Lawrence Boudreaux.

The Breaux family would like to thank her caregivers,Angel, Jo,Joy and Brenda, her nurses, Megan and Haley for their care and support throughout this difficult time as well as her special friend Tesha. Avisitation will be held at Ourso Funeral Homein Pierre Part, LA, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 from 9am until Mass of Christian Burial at 11am at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church with interment to follow in the church mausoleum.

Gloria

An angel has been called home to rest. Gloria Young Brooks, adevoted spouse, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, soror, and friend answered God's call on March 18, 2025, at the age of 78.

Born on August 16, 1946, in New Roads, Louisiana, Gloria was the beloved

er, sister,soror,and friend answered God's call on March 18, 2025, at the age of 78.

Born on August 16, 1946, in NewRoads, Louisiana, Gloria was the beloved daughter of the late Willie Young Sr. and Louella Young (Johnson). Herfamily movedtothe Baton Rouge area duringher childhood, acommunity that would serve as her lifelong home. Gloria excelledacademically at CapitolSenior High School, where she graduated as valedictorianofthe Class of 1965. She then continued her education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, earning aBachelor's degree in Accounting in 1969. This accomplishment marked the beginning of an exemplary 35 year career as an agent with the Internal Revenue Service.

On January1,1966, Gloria married James Brooks Jr. (deceased), and together they establisheda loving home in Baton Rouge before laterresiding in Baker, Louisiana. Their 55year partnershipwas marked by enduringlove and companionship, spanning countless cherished memoriesuntilJames's passing in September2021.

Gloria was not only a devotedcaregivertoher husband and children but also actively engagedin her community. She was a proud memberofthe CHS 65 Civic and Social Club and was initiatedinto the graduate chapterofZeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. However, her true home away from home was Greater King David Baptist Church, where she worshiped under the pastoral guidance of Reverend Dr. JohnE Montgomery, II.

Left to cherish Gloria's remarkable legacy are her two children, Charlene Evette Brooks-Lockett (Lewis) of Harvest, Alabama, and Dr.Derrick D. Brooks Sr. (Vinette)ofBaton Rouge,Louisiana. She is also survived by five grandchildren: Anthony D. Pigott II of Harvest, Alabama; Kirstin Brooks Arellano (Irvin) of Seattle, Washington; and Kennedi L. Brooks, Derrick D. Brooks Jr and Victoria M. Brooks, allof Baton Rouge. Additionally, Gloria leaves behind one great-grandchild, Isabella G. Arellano of Seattle, Washington, and her belovedsister, Gwendolyn Young Peters (Ernest) of Amite, Louisiana.

In addition to her late parents, (Willie and Louella Young) and husband (James), Gloria waspreceded death by her sisters, Helen Fisher Humble (George)and Dorothy Fisher, as well as her brother, Willie Young Jr ,all of Baton Rouge,Louisiana.

Visitation Thursday, March 27, 2025, Hall'sCelebration Center, 9348 Scenic Highway, Baton Rouge,LA., 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Visitation continue Friday, March 28, 2025, GreaterKing David Baptist Church, 222 Blount Rd,Baton Rouge,LA., 9:00 am until religious service begins at 10:00 am.

Entombment Heavenly GatesMausoleum, 10633 Veterans Memorial Boulevard, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Homegoing arrangements have been Entrusted to Hall Davis &Son Funeral Services.

Gloria Young Brooks will be deeply missed, yet she will foreverremain in the hearts of those who knew andlovedher.

DiVincenti Sr., Samuel Wayne 'Sammy'

Sammy Wayne DiVincenti, Sr., 75, of Baton Rouge,Louisiana diedSunday, March 16, 2025. He was born on May17, 1949 in Baton Rouge to Lucy Manisco and Joseph Salvador DiVincenti, Sr. He was the oldest of their8 children, and our Mother was so proud thather oldest and youngest sons were born exactly 12 years apart. He had to fillinas surrogate parent, while they were running the business, and as soon as he was 9years old, he started working atDiVincenti Brothers, Inc., until the business wassoldin 2007. He graduated from

they were running the business, and as soon as he was 9years old,he started working at DiVincentiBrothers, Inc., until the business was sold in 2007. He graduated from Catholic High School in 1967, and attended LSU, all the while working long hours at DiVincenti Brothers. He enjoyed coaching and managing sports teams during his school years. He married the Love of His Lifein1970, JoAnn Ruffino, and they had nearly 55 wonderful years together. He is survived by his daughter, Stacy Lynn DiVincenti(Rob), and his son, Sammy Wayne DiVincenti, Jr. (Samantha). He is the grandfatherof7,Karlee Marie, Sophia Grace, Ava Nicole, Emilia Claire, Lola Belle, Sam Wayne DiVincentiIII, and Kaara Ann. He also had 2step grandchildren, Sydney and Drew. He is also survived by his 7 siblings: Joey DiVincenti, David DiVincenti (Re), Phyllis Draughon, Dotty Smith (BJ), Ginny DiVincenti, LuAnn Prejean (Randy), Gerald DiVincenti (Mary), and his double first cousin, Michael DiVincenti, Jr. (Aglonie). He also had numerous nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents, Joe and Lucy, his grandparents, Salvador and Felice DiVincenti, and Sam and Dora Manisco, and his in-laws, Joeand Gwen Ruffino. He was a lifetime member of the Catholic High School Men's Club, and apast President. He was also amember of the AIA Italian Club,the Sacred Heart Knights of Columbus, the Sons of Italy, and the Sertoma Club where he also served as past President through the years. Sammy loved visiting with his friendsand sharing ameal. He was a great salesman for DiVincentiBrothers and later on working for S&W Wholesale Foods based out of Hammond, LA, where he retired in 2022. His pallbearers will be Michael Sirchia, Robert Draughon, III, Joseph DiVincenti, III, David DiVincenti, Jr., Colby Draughon, Skyler Prejean, Billy Smith, III, and Drew Peterson. Visitationwill be held at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Hwy. Baton Rouge, LA 70816, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, from 5:00 p.m. until8:00 p.m.Visitationwill continue on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, 2025 Stuart Avenue Baton Rouge, LA 70808, from 9:30 a.m. until Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. followedbya procession with entombment at St.George Catholic Church Cemetery. In lieuofflowers, memorials or donations can be made in Sammy's name to Catholic High School or the American Diabetes Association.

Margaret Roy Gremillion was born on September 28, 1937, in NewOrleans, Louisiana. She attended grade school and high school in Baton Rouge, graduating from St.Anthony High School in 1955. She attended Loyola University in New Orleans studying medical technology and finished the medical technology program at Baton Rouge General Hospital where she worked until her retirement in 1994. Margaret married her high school sweetheart,Ernest Gremillion, in 1959 and they were blessed with two children, Randall and Julie. She was preceded in death by her parents, Raphael Waldo and Hazel Roy and her siblings, Rhett and Ray. Margaret's survivors include her husband;their children, Randall and wife, Kate, and Julie and her husband, Robert Collins; grandchildren, Alexandra, Isabelle, Ezekial, and Obadiah Gremillion of Costa Mesa, California and Sean Collins of Tallahassee, Florida. She was an active artist and a member of theBaton Rouge Art League for many years. She loved to cook and to plan eventswith her friends and family. The family would like to thank the nurses of Baton Rouge Hospice and all of Margaret's care givers at Ollie Steele Burden Manor for the wonderful care they provided.Visitationwill be held Monday, March 24, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Resthaven Gardens ofMemory and Fu-

Steele Burden Manor for the wonderful care they provided.Visitationwill be held Monday, March 24, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Resthaven Gardens ofMemory and Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Hwy. Baton Rouge, LA 70816. The funeral service will begin at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Baton Rouge.

Charles G. "Chip" Groat, Ph.D., age 84, passed away on March 14, 2025, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, due to complications fromParkinson's disease and heart failure. Born on March 25, 1940, in Westfield,New York, Chip lived alife dedicated to his family, education, and the advancement of geological sciences. A devoted husband,father, and mentor, Chip is survived by his beloved wife of 61 years, Barbara F. "Bobbie" Groat, his son Douglas A. Groat,and his daughter Lisa A. Groat. He is also mourned by his brothers, Robert H. Groat and Richard W. Groat. He was preceded in deathby his mother, Beatrice Foote Groat,and his father Howard Henry Groat. Chip was an avid runner, often logging several miles daily, regardless of theweather. His love for running took him through asnowstorm in Russia and atorrential downpour in Vietnam. He also had apassionfor sailing and would race with his crew on aJ/24 sailboat on Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico during the 1980s. An accomplished world traveler, his journeys took him from South America to the Middle East, throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, and to the remote wilderness of Alaska. His distinguished career in geology began with aB.A. fromthe University of Rochester in 1962, followed by an M.S. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1967. It was here during his graduate studies that he met and married his wife Bobbie in September 1963. He earned his Ph.D. from the UniversityofTexas at Austin in 1970. Over his career, Chip held several positions in academia, government,and research institutions. He served as a research geologist,followed by associateand acting director of theBureau of Economic Geology at theUniversityofTexas at Austin(1968-1976) and associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences (1974-1976). He then served as associate professor and chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (1976-1978). From 1978 to 1990, he was aprofessorat Louisiana State University's Department of Geology and Geophysics. He also played akey role in state government,serving as Assistant to the Secretary at the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (1983 -1988) and as Director and State Geologist forthe Louisiana Geological Survey (1978-1990). From1990 to 1992, Chip served as the Executive Director of the American Geological Institute, followed by his tenureasExecutive Directorofthe Center for Coastal, Energy, and Environmental Resources at Louisiana State University (1992-1995). He later joined the UniversityofTexas at El Paso, where he was the Director of the Center for Environmental Resource Management and Director of the Environmental Science and Engineering Ph.D. Program, Professor of Geological Sciences, and Associate Vice President forResearch and Sponsored Projects (1995-1998). In 1998, Chip was appointed the 13thDirector of theU.S. Geological Survey (USGS) by President Bill Clinton and was retained in this position by President George W. Bush. He led the agency until 2005, overseeing critical research on energy resources, water policy, and environmental sustainability. Chip was awarded theAGI (American Geosciences Institute) Campbell Medal forSuperlative Service to the Geosciences in 1998. This Medal is presented each year to anationally recognized, living geoscientist with adistinguished record of significant achievementsinscience, education, and administra-

Medal is presented each year to anationally recognized, living geoscientist with adistinguished record of significant achievements in science, education, and administration, in support of theprofession of geology and its role in society. It is AGI's most distinguished award. Following his tenure at USGS, Chip returned to the University of Texas at Austin to direct the Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program and the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy. In 2008, he was namedinterim dean of theJackson School of Geosciences. In 2011, Chip became the foundingpresident and CEO of the Water Institute of the Gulf, where he championed scientific and engineering researchto address coastal and environmental challenges. From 2019 to his retirement in 2021, he served as acting Director of the Louisiana Geological Survey. Chip's leadership in the field of geology was widely recognized, and he was an active member of the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, theAmerican Geophysical Union, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He also served on numerous scientific boards andcommittees and contributed extensively to researchpublications on earth sciences and environmental policy. Adevoted family man, he was deeply involved with his children,offering them guidance and unwavering support throughouttheir lives. He served as adedicated Scoutmaster, president of the church council, and as church treasurer. Service to others was a central part of his life. He took great pride in supporting his family's education and aspirations, always encouragingthem to follow their dreams. Chip's legacy will be remembered through his contributions to science, his mentorship of future geologists, his kindness, generosity, and the love he had for his family. The family extends aspecial thanks to the caregivers at OurLady of the Lake Hospital and St. Joseph's Carpenter House Hospice who made Chip's last days comfortable. A memorial service will be held at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 2021 Tara Blvd on March 25 at 11:00 a.m. Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to theParkinson Research Foundation (PRF) at https://parkinsonhope.o rg/

Joseph 'Joe'

Joseph "Joe" Guilbeau a loving anddevoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend, passed away peacefully with his family by his side at West Towne of Port Allen on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at the age of 97. He was aretired manager of the Plaquemine Sherwin Williams for 35 years, and owner of Carpet Warehouse for 35 years. Joe was anative of Scott and aresident of Plaquemine, LA for 66 years and where he was selected as Citizen of the Year in 2013. He was aUSNavy Veteran who served in WWII as a gunman on theUSS Valley Forge andwas presented with the Plank Award as the last living member of the original commissioned ship. Visitation will be held at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Plaquemine on Tuesday, March25, 2025, from 11am until Mass of Christian Burial at 1pm. Entombment will follow at Grace Memorial Park, Plaquemine. Joe is survived by his wife of 75 years, Verlee F. Guilbeau; children,Jennifer G. Orcino, Dana M. Guilbeau, Frank T. Guilbeau and wife Cathy, Donovan L. Guilbeau and wife Chere'; grandchildren, DawnO.Williams and husbandThomas, Andrea O. Young and husband Travis, Gretchen O. Best and husband Chuck, John Orcino, Melissa G. Acosta, Frank "Frankie" Guilbeau,Jr., Katie G. Riera and husband Roddie, Amanda G. Lacombe and husband Keith, Christian L. Guilbeau,Marisol G. Gutierrez and husband Gabe, Victoria Guilbeau and Jean Paul Guilbeau; great-grandchildren Mitchell Orcino, Alyssa Williams Wild andhusband Henry, Mason Young,

Gutierrez and husband Gabe, Victoria Guilbeau, and Jean Paul Guilbeau; great-grandchildren, Mitchell Orcino, Alyssa Williams Wild and husband Henry, Mason Young, Madison Young, Landon Landry, Austin Armstrong, Collin Armstrong, Anabelle Orcino, Emma Orcino, Alexander Orcino, Elena Orcino, Carter Acosta, Lucas Acosta, Elizabeth Ebey, Jillian Riera, Jolee Riera, Jemma Riera, Caroline Lacombe, Drew Donovan Lacombe, Weston Lacombe, Hudson Lacombe, Joseph Winn Lacombe, Myla Gutierrez, and Rosalie Gutierrez; great-great grandchildren,HenryWild, Jr., Brantley Landry, and Lukas Landry; numerous nieces and nephews. Preceded in death by parents, Frank and Andrea Broussard Guilbeau;siblings, Lorena "Timoon" Guillot, Wilson Guilbeau,Mae Arceneaux, and Clifton Guilbeau;and son-in-law, Johnny Orcino. Pallbearers and honorary pallbearers will be his grandsons. Joe lived an adventurouslife as an airplane pilot, motorcycle rider and boat owner. He was also anoted public columnist in several local and national papers. Joe wasa member of the PlaquemineLions Club, the Comedian Liars Club, the Camellia Society, and former Athletic Director at St. Gerard in Baton Rouge. Memorial donationsmay be made to St. Johnthe Evangelist Catholic Church, Plaquemine. Special thanks to West Towne Assisted Living, especially Lindsey, also to Comfort Care Hospice, especially Jamie and Leslie for the amazing care they provided for Joe in his final days of life.

Jerry Shelton Lawson joined his beloved wife in Heaven on March 17, 2025. He enjoyed afull and active life throughouthis entire 89 years. Mr. Jerry continued to work his garden, jump on his excavator, raise farm animals and cook Sunday supper up until his final weeks of life. He was thefamily patriarch who strove to instill his strong family values, work ethic and solid moral compass. Jerry had tons of funny stories, always welcomed avisitor, and enjoyed his porch swing, his wine, his dog and his family. Afamily visitation and viewing will take place at Seale Funeral Home in Denham Springs on March 29, 2025, 2-4pm.

Julia Abigail Maddox, beloved mother, grandmother andgreat-grandmother passed away peacefully at her home in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the age of 94. Julia was born August 25, 1930, in Griffin, Georgia. She attended Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA, and graduated from the University of Georgia. She was adevoted daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who had aprofound love for her family. She remained young at heart through the years which was reflected in her unique flair for fashion. She settled in Baton Rouge where she resided for 68 years, attending Trinity and St. Luke Episcopal churches. Many of her children's friends called her their "Georgia Peach" and she was ahuge Georgia Bulldog football fan. She enjoyed reading(especially mystery novels) gardening andbaking, while raising herfamily with love, zeal anda sense of humor that she maintained until theend. She "mowed" her lawn with her weed eater until her final weeks and baked more sweets than her family could eat. Her passion for travel brought her to at least twenty-six countries and she always returned with exciting tales of her adventures. She enjoyed attending art openings and receptions, art exhibits

Groat, Charles G. 'Chip'

Breaux, Ruby Boudreaux

Lawson, Jerry

Guilbeau,

Gremillion,Margaret Roy

Maddox, Julia Abigail

Brooks,

travel brought her to at least twenty-six countries and she always returned with exciting tales of her adventures. She enjoyed attending art openings and receptions, art exhibits and local pop-ups. Julia was astrong supporter of local artists and avery generous contributor to numerous charities including St. Jude Children's Hospital. Julia is preceded in death by her father and mother, Judge Arthur Kenny Maddox and Olivia Brown Maddox of Griffin, GA; and her brother, Arthur Kenny Maddox,Jr. Juliais survived by her children, Kevin Sweeney, Neil Sweeney, Laura Sweeney and Suzette Easley (Michael Easley); grandchildren, Erica Glory (Richie Glory), Nick Sweeney, Jack Sweeney, Coco Sweeney, Brice Polito, Davis Polito, Miles Polito, Rachel Hicks (Blair Hicks); and great-grandchildren, Sandra Glory and Eloise Glory. Familyand friends will celebrate Julia's life with avisitation from 12:30-2:00 PM on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at Resthaven Funeral Home Amemorial service will follow beginning at 2:00 PM Friends are invited to areception following the service at Resthaven Funeral Home. The familywould like to give aspecial thanks to Bridgeway Hospice and Gloria Poole for their compassionate care in this difficult time.

Glynn Raymond Mayers, a lifelong resident of Clin‐ton, passed away peace‐fully at his home in Clinton on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. He was 77 years old and was a loyal and trusted employee of Charlet Funeral Home for over 4 decades. Visitation will be at Our Lady of As‐sumption Catholic Church, on Tuesday March 25, 2025 from 10 am until Mass of Christian Burial at 1 pm He will be buried in Masonic Cemetery in Clinton He is survived by his wife of 11 ½ years Alice McCrory May‐ers, his three daughters (with Tammy), Ronna Tan‐ner and husband Cleve; Brock West and husband, Chris Shay Parker and husband, Curtis Parker, and Alison Chase Haygood and husband, Davis, and Jackie Chase. Glynn was lovingly known as “Poppy” to his grandchildren Nicholas (Sierra) West, Jacob (Amanda) Parker Denver West, Kobe West, Hayes West, Jamey Tanner, Gracie West, Sam Haygood, Andi Chase, and Aaryn Chase He is preceded in death by his wife of 36 years Gwendolyn “Tammy” T Mayers, par‐ents, Roy and Helen May‐ers, brother, Wayne May‐ers and granddaughter Ali Elizabeth Chase Pallbear‐ers will be his grandchil‐dren. Glynn was a lifelong member of Our Lady of As‐sumption Catholic Church and a LifeTime member of Clinton Vol. Fire Depart‐ment where he served as Assistant Chief for many years Glynn was a devoted husband, father and grandfather He loved his community and was al‐ways eager to lend a help‐ing hand. He was one of the “Good Ones.” He was always there for his girls, supporting them and en‐couraging them in every aspect of their lives. He was the epitome of 1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind, It does not envy, it does not boast it is not proud.” Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Hospital or Clinton Vol Fire Depart‐ment. Share sympathies condolences and memo‐ries at www CharletFune ralHome.com

Jacqueline "Jackie"Merrill McInnis passedaway peacefully in her sleep on March 16, 2025, at the age of 92. She lived afull, rich, and happy life,remaining a strong,independentwoman until thevery end. Jackie graduatedfrom Baton Rouge High School in 1950 and went on to graduate from LSU in 1954. She briefly attended medical school before marrying Frank Truitt and relocating with him to Germany and California during hisservice in the U.S. Army. After moving back to Baton Rouge from Paducah, KY, she returned to school at the OLOLSchool of Nursing and earnedher RN degree. She continuedher education at LSU's School of Anesthesiology in New Orleans, graduating and beginning arewarding career as one of the first female nurse anesthetists in Baton Rouge. Jackie spent 25 years working at the AG Group of Baton Rouge, where she was belovedby colleaguesand patients alike. She lovedher work and was deeply passionate about being anurse. After retiring, Jackie found joy in traveling reading, and most especially spending time with her family and her beloved cats.

Jackie is survived by her daughter,Merrill Hughes (Bunky), and theirthree sons: Chris (Jessi), Matt (Brittany), and Nic (Becca); her son, Mike Truitt of Houston TX,and his sons: Jacob (Hannah) and Joshua Rose(Tucker); and her great-grandchildren, Hailey, Hunter, Harlyn, and Nathan Hughes, Zachary, Owen, and Shepherd Truitt. She is also survived by her brother, Michael Merrill (Ann).

Jackie was preceded in death by her parents, Sterling and FloraMerrill; her sister, Patsy MerrillMiller; and her grandsons Michael Timothy and Jacob Sterling Truitt.

Jackie did not want a traditional funeral service and made the decision to give back to the medical profession by donating her body to science,but acelebration of her lifewill be held at alater date. In lieu of flowers, Jackie requested donations be made to CAAWS or anypet rescue of your choice, as she was deeply passionate about caring for animals.

Michael"Raymond"

Montz was born on August 22, 1944, in New Orleans, La and resided in Maurepas, LA. He passedaway on March 19, 2025, at the age of 80. In 1962, he graduated from Baton Rouge High School and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was honorably discharged after 4years of service. As amemberofa the special op forces, recon division, he was ahighly decorated and skilled sharpshooter earning multiplemedals. Following his military career, Raymond entered into the construction industry. After many yearsin construction, he shifted his focus to law enforcement As ayoung man, Raymond lovedracing boats and motorcycles. He eventually had his first wife and two daughtersracing motorcross with him. He and his family then purchased ahome on the river and continuedtoenjoy spending time on the water, boat riding and skiing. He was an avid outdoorsman who lovedhunting and fishing He never met astranger and was always generous with his time and welcomed any visitor to have adrink with himonhis pier. He eventually remarried. Raymond will be deeply missedbyhis family, friends and allthose who knew him. Raymond is survivedbyhis wife, Barbara, two daughters, Michelle and husband, Lee Gauthier, and Rachelle LeBlanc; and histwo grandchildren, Chelsea and Austin Gauthier. Raymond was preceded in death by his parents, Claude Montz Jr. and Marion Dugas Reine; and his son in law, Danny LeBlanc. Services will be held on Monday, March 24, 2025 at Albany Pentecostal Church. Visitation will be 10:30am to noon followed by the funeral service. Following services, Raymond will be laid to rest at 2pm at Louisiana National Cemetery located in Zachary, La. SemperFiDaddy!

Marilyn Clements Moorman passed away peacefully on March 19, 2025, at her son's home. She was born on April 14, 1940, in Vivian, La., to William "Bud" Ellis Clements and Lois Atkins Clements.

AgraduateofNorth Caddo High School, Marilyn earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees in education from LSU. She dedicated many years to teaching before enjoying a second career in real estate.

Marilyn was deeply involved in her community, belonging to Pi BetaPhi sorority, theJunior League of Baton Rouge, La Fiesta Dance Club,and First United Methodist Church. A passionate gardener, she was adevoted member of her Gardening Club and frequently earned "Yard of the Month" honors.

Her greatest joy was her family, especially her grandchildren. She is survived by her children, A. Clay Pierce III (Heather) of Birmingham, Ala., and Ellis Pierce (Christi) of Baton Rouge; grandchildren Will, Graham, Jack, Ellie, and Charlie Pierce; sister Susan Davidson; and many cherished family members. She is also survived by stepsons William Moorman, Jr. (Amie) of Sudbury, Mass., and John Moorman (Kate) of Danvers, Mass., along with step-grandchildren Jackson, Drew, Alexa, Jake, and KristaMoorman.

She was preceded in death by her parents, brother William Ellis Clements, Jr., husband William Ridley "Bill" Moorman, and former husband A. Clay Pierce, Jr. Avisitation will be held at First United Methodist Church on Wednesday, March 26, from 10:00 AM until the service at 11:00 AM, followed by burial at Roselawn Memorial Park.

The family extends heartfelt gratitude to those who cared for Marilyn in her final months, especially Lacey, Chantel, Shawna, and Dr. Mark Kantrow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Pinnacle Hospice, First United Methodist Church, or a charity of your choice.

Marilyn's legacy of love, kindness, and devotion to family and community will live on in the heartsofall who knew her.

Nelson,Bertell Lawrence

Bertell L. Nelson, beloved father, brother, and cherished family member, entered into eternal rest on March 18, 2025. He is survived by his children, Bertell L. Nelson Jr., Stephen E. Nelson, and Ashleigh N. Nelson; his brother, John L. Nelson, and sister-in-law, Shirley Nelson; along withnumerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Eleanor and Clarence Nelson, Sr.; his brothers, Clarence Jr. and Earl; and his sisters, Janet and Wanda.

Family and friends are invited to honorhis life at avisitation on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, from9:00 a.m. until the start of Catholic Mass at 11:00 a.m. at St.Francis Xavier Church, 1120 Myrtle Walk, Baton Rouge, LA. Father Henry will officiatethe service.

Interment will follow at Louisiana National Cemetery, 303 W. Mount Pleasant Road, Zachary, LA Services entrusted to Desselle Funeral Home 263 Eddie Robinson Sr. Drive, Baton Rouge, La. 70802

Evelyn Keller Netterville, abeloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, went to be withher Lord very peacefully at home with her family, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the age of 84. Born in Baton Rouge, Evelyn spent most of her life in Central (City), where she touched countless lives with her warmth, cheerfulness and dedicationtoher family, friends and faith. Evelyn graduated from Central High School in 1958 then received abachelor's degree from LSUinPhysical Education. She taught PE at Broadmoor early on but put teaching on hold while her children were young. She taught tennis lessons at home and around Baton Rouge for many years before returning to LSUinher 50s to earn aMaster's PlusinBiology and Chemistry. A passionate and lifelong learner and educator, Evelyn devoted her career to shaping young minds, leaving alasting impact on generations of students. She taught at various schools including Central High School and Christian Life Academy. Outside the classroom, Evelyn valued fitness and a healthy lifestyle. In college, she was introduced to tennis, which quickly became alifelong love. Whether she was playing,teaching, or cheering, the sport brought her immense joy. She was amember of Bocage Racquet Club for over 5decades, where she played league tennis until she was 80.

As aloving and devoted mother and grandmother, our "Meme" had the gift of identifying unique strengths, talentsand abilities within her family. She fervently invested her time, energy, and resources to encourage and develop these in each one of them.

Above all, Evelyn was a devoted follower of Christ, whose strong faith was a shining light. She spent countless hours encouraging and praying withothers, studying the Bible, memorizing scripture, and reading commentaries to advance her understanding of God's word. She was amember of Community Bible Church.

Evelyn will be forever cherished by those she leaves behind. She is survived by her four children and their families: daughter, Tara Jones of Richardson, Texas, her two sons Ryan Jones and wife Allison-children Rylee, Jack and Walker; and Blake Jones; daughter, Layna Chase of Fort Worth, Texas, and husband Gerald -their three sons Brenn Gomez and wife Rachaeldaughters Vera and Margot, and Nicholas and Benjamin Chase; son, Brad Netterville and wife Amanda -daughters Morgan and Caroline; daughter, Rachel Dabadie and husband Charles-daughters Lauren, Maggie, Suzanna and Mary Evelyn. She was preceded in death by her parents Fred Allen and Maybelle Keller, husband Carroll Wayne Netterville, sister Virginia Keller Haydell and grandson Joseph Charles Dabadie IV, "Charlie".

Her family and friends are invitedtogather to remember her at aMemorial Service on Saturday, March 29 at 11:00 am Christ Covenant Church, 1700 Lee Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70808. In lieuofflowers, donations may be madeto: Christ Covenant Church Mission Fund, 1700 Lee Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70808.

Lillian Nelson

Lillian Nelson Pierre took her final rest on March 17, 2025, at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Pearland, TX. She was a native of NewRoads, LA and aresident of Baton Rouge, LA. Lillian was a graduate of Southern Universityand an educator for nearly 40 years. She also was amember of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church where she sang in the choir. Lillian will be remembered as aloving mom and grand-

graduate of Southern University and an educator for nearly 40 years. Shealso was amember of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church where she sanginthe choir. Lillian will be remembered as aloving mom and grandmother and spenther final years enjoyingher retirement with hergrandchildren in Texas. Her

servicewill begin at 2:30PM and areception to follow immediately. Please visit www.ch urchfuneralservices.com for the full obituary.

Shows, Susan

Anative of Cottonport, Louisiana, born January 24, 1951, Susan grew up in New Roads and laterbecame alongtime resident of Lakeland. Shepassed away on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the age of 74. A 1969 graduate of Poydras High School, Susan was a cheerleader and met the love of her life, Joe Shows, whom she married and shared 58 beautifulyears with. As achild, she cherished her time at Dean's Dairy Joy, helping her father throughoutthe day and indulginginasmany walnut sundaes as she could. Throughoutthe years, Susan worked as a substitute teacher at Rougon Elementary School, was employed at the USDA, and later retired from the Louisiana State Police Headquarters. She was a kind, loving, and generous soul who never met a stranger. Susan was adevoted wife, mother, anda strong woman of Christian faith. Shehad aselfless heart and would help anyone in need—not for recognition, but simply because it was in her nature to do good. Shenever hesitated to lend ahand, offer akind word, or putothers before herself, always giving from aplace of pure compassion. She found joy in gardening andtreasured time with her family. Some of her most cherished memories werespent at their camp in Venice, fishing for redfish with family and friends. She is survived by her devoted husband, Jasper Ovide "Joe" Shows; son, Shane Shows; beloved grand dog, Beignet; granddaughters, Stephanie Shows Carroll (Bobby), Bailey Shows Didier (James), Caitlyn Shows, Chloe Shows, and Saffron Cannon; grandsons, Mason Shows (Carley) and Peyton Shows; and great-grandchildren,Liam, Lily, Emmarie, Autumn, Vivian,Millie, Tailyn, Presley, Juliet, and Gracie. Sheisalso survived by her sister, Evelyn Bergeron,and her husband, Kenneth Bergeron; their children, Suzette Bergeron (Tony), John Kenneth "J.K." (Sarah), and Jason Bergeron (Ashlee), along with numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her sons, Tad and Scott Shows; herparents, Elton "Mr. Dean"and Anita Gauthier; and her brother, Mark Gauthier. To say Susan will be missed is an understatement. The world has lost aone-of-a-kind woman, butthose who knew her cantake comfort in knowing she is likely with her sons, tending to her flowers, glass in hand, hoping to win big on her next scratch-off or catch her next big fish.Inlieu of flowers, honorher in the way she would have wanted—hug your loved ones tight, raise aglass, place a bet on the next big game, take atrip, or buy alottery ticket in her memory. Due to the tragedy the family has endured, they have elected to not hold services. Please join us in keeping Susan's memory

Friday,

of

a

and

Port Allen. Alli‐son was a retired preschool teacher at First Presbyterian Church, downtown Baton Rouge Visitation will be at Wilbert Funeral Home in Port Allen on Monday, March 24, 5 to 8 p.m and again on Tues‐day, March 25, 10 a.m. until Rite

six grandchil‐dren, Brody, Luke, and Jake Monson Liam Tony and Kinsley Truxillo; siblings, Eldon Roy Falgout Jr (Bon‐nie), Rachelle Falgout Champagne (John) Lonnie Falgout (Tina); Ila Falgout Clark (Dale); godchildren nieces and nephews. Alli‐son was preceded in death by her parents, Eldon and Helen Keller Falgout. Alli‐son was a parishioner of Holy Family Catholic Church and a Eucharist Minister. She was a mem‐ber of the American Legion Auxiliary Please share memories at www wilbert services com.

Moorman, Marilyn Clements

Netterville, Evelyn Keller

Tircuit, Kobi Kishann

Mayers, Glynn Raymond

Montz, Michael Raymond

Truxillo, Allison Ann Falgout 'Al'

Allison “Al” Ann Falgout Truxillo passed away peacefully surrounded by her family at West Towne on

March 21, 2025 at the age of 72. She was

native

New Orleans

resident of

Pierre,

McInnis, Jacqueline Merrill 'Jackie'

Jacqueline "Jackie" Merrill McInnis passed away peacefullyinher sleep on March 16, 2025, at the age of 92. She lived afull, rich, and happy life, remaininga strong, independent wom-

Jessie Hoffman’s death puts our justice system under lens

The execution last week of Jessie Hoffman Jr marked the end of a 15-year-long stretch in which the death penalty was on the books in Louisiana but not carried out.

It also marked the beginning of a new era in which a practice already fraught with moral significance is complicated still further by deep ethical questions over the new method the state has chosen to employ Plainly put, we find that no matter how horrific the crime — and the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder for which Hoffman was convicted was indeed that — the use of nitrogen gas is an affront to both the Constitution and human decency We urge the Louisiana Legislature to reconsider its approval Should it not, we would welcome a fuller vetting of the new execution protocols through the courts.

Take that last point first Both in an Alabama death-by-nitrogen case and in Hoffman’s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on emergency injunctions without benefit of a full lower-court trial on whether the method of execution amounts to a “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment Courts generally place a high bar against injunctive relief, whereas a full trial could more thoroughly establish a factual basis that could convince the Supreme Court to focus on the central issue that death by pure nitrogen gas is a cruel abomination.

We have concerns over how two judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled federal district court judge Shelly Dick, thus putting Hoffman’s execution back on schedule The Fifth Circuit decision was so dismissive of the careful factual record amassed by Dick, even without benefit of a full trial, that it should raise red flags. If our judicial system cannot take the time to answer a fundamental constitutional question, and one where getting it wrong will result in irreversible harm, what is it there for?

Be that as it may, the simple fact is that state law on human executions is now more permissive than state law on euthanizing pets, which says that pure nitrogen should be only be used if the pet already has been rendered unconscious; even with small animals, death often can be achieved only through prolonged exposure to the gas while potentially painful hypoxia — in which depleted oxygen causes massive deterioration of organ function — occurs prior to the loss of consciousness

The death penalty, in practice, already is highly problematic for many reasons and has not been shown anywhere to make society safer. But if Louisiana lawmakers cannot come up with a usable execution method that isn’t pure torture — and so far, they haven’t — then there’s no good argument for continuing on this path of inhumanity

OPINION

The pain of Hamas hostage families

WASHINGTON “Good morning. I’m

Kathryn, what’s your name?”

It was a natural enough question at that awkward part of a meeting where we knew the vaguest things about one another I knew he had a family member being held by Hamas. He knew I cared enough to listen to him.

I wanted to put him at ease. And, of course, hear his story I met Ofir Angrest and eight families who’d just traveled from Israel as part of a press event. But it was much more than a media opportunity It was a chance to offer compassion and to learn.

Ofir is the younger brother of Matan Angrest, who was attacked by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas raided the Nahal Oz miliary base. The three men with whom Angrest shared an Israeli Defense Forces tank Itay Hen, Daniel Peretz and Tomer Leibovitz — were all killed that day Angrest was injured and unconscious and was taken alive.

In a statement, sharing a Hamas hostage video showing a malnourishedlooking Angrest, the family pleaded for expedited negotiations while bemoaning his appearance: “Beyond the

severe psychological state evident in the footage, his right hand is nonfunctional, his eyes and mouth are asymmetrical and his nose is broken, according to testimonies from those who have returned all due to interrogations and torture in captivity.”

I told Ofir that many of us are praying for him, his parents and his brother He told me that he is certain that his brother can feel the prayers of people of good will who recoil in the face of inhumanity and aren’t shy to call out the barbarism of Hamas and the evil of antisemitism.

Ofir’s thanksgiving for Americans taking the time to listen was consistent with the feelings of his father and other families. A newspaper cartoon that former hostage Eli Sharabi recently handed Donald Trump came to mind when some of the fathers started talking about the silence in the West on the hostage issue The cartoon depicted three Holocaust survivors, with the post-World War II “Never again” refrain. The next panel had three former Hamas hostages, as emaciated as those Holocaust survivors. “Again” was under those three one of them a likeness of Sharabi.

Letting opinions ripen

on serious issues.

When our short meeting was over, Merav Gilboa-Dalal came straight for me and gave me a great, disarming hug that communicated so much — gratitude, anger, misery, exhaustion, safety and restlessness.

Her son, Guy, was at his first music festival in October, with his older brother and friends. His big brother Gal survived the brutal Hamas attack on that festival, but Guy was kidnapped, along with many others. Merav hugged Guy, and he took a selfie with her that morning. Merav can’t wait to hug her kidnapped son again. In the meantime, she thanks those of us who are seemingly doing the bare minimum — seeing her son as a human who deserves better than to be held hostage by terrorists.

I wish we had to imagine the evil of antisemitism. While we don’t, may every hug between a Jew and a Christian be healing and, by some miracle, a consolation to those who are isolated in dark tunnels, with no idea if they will emerge from captivity alive to see their mothers and brothers and fathers again.

Email Kathryn Jean Lopez at klopez@ nationalreview.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’s city of residence 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.

Recently I have been thinking about the speed at which news is happening on the state and especially national levels.

It has prompted an outpouring of letters to the editor on everything from the Department of Government Efficiency to the death penalty

One of the priorities of any newsroom is speed. Getting the news out first to the public and getting it out accurately is what we strive to do every day But in opinion journalism, we also see that sometimes it’s better to let ideas marinate, especially when the impact of the news is unclear

So while we will do online “quick takes” on issues that are trending in public discourse, we also are careful to take the time to weigh where we stand

The first impulse of outrage at an action may dissipate once more facts are known. Or conversely, when we have greater clarity about the contours of a proposal, we may be better able to write a strong piece condemning it on the merits.

Sometimes when I get questions about why we haven’t done an editorial on this or that topic, I do take your ideas to the editorial board for discussion. But even if we don’t immediately have a position on an issue you care about, that doesn’t mean we won’t have one in the future when we feel it’s the time is right. So keep sending your ideas.

I don’t have an account of the letters we received to give you this week, but I hope to return next week with an

up-to-date tally We have been running behind simply due to the high volume of letters we have received.

And here’s a reminder that early voting is underway for the March 29 election.

We recently gave our recommendations on the constitutional amendments on the ballot. They are available online in case you missed them.

It’s clear that many of you recognize the importance of when the newspaper comes out in favor or against something.

But in reality, it’s your voice that matters ultimately, and we urge you to take the chance to vote if you haven’t already

Arnessa Garrett is Deputy Editor | Opinion Page Editor. Email her at arnessa.garrett@theadvocate.com.

Arnessa Garrett

Kathryn Jean Lopez

COMMENTARY

Criminal justice solutions rely on better data

Being tough on criminals isn’t the only way to reduce crime.

Almost since its inception, the conservative Pelican Institute has pushed what it calls a “smart on crime” agenda, one which accepts tough punishment for more severe crimes but that stresses rehabilitation of lesser offenders as a way to cut recidivism. Pelican issued a new report March 17 that continues these worthy efforts.

Stopping recidivism, of course, is perhaps the single best way to make our communities safer Studies too numerous to mention (each with slightly different statistics but extraordinarily consistent bottom lines) show that a very small percentage of criminals are, as repeat offenders, responsible for a large majority of all crimes. And the more offenses someone commits, the more likely his offenses will progress to violence.

The questions always are: How severe should sentences be for each type of crime in order to deter crime in the first place,

versus how much wiggle room should be available to give incentives for redemption and for responsible behavior after release from prison? Put another way, how much stick is appropriate, compared to how many carrots?

Pelican’s answer always has been for government to spend more effort and money in rehabilitating minor offenders and less in incarcerating them.

Studies have shown this approach saves taxpayers more money in the long run as it did in Louisiana after earlier Pelican proposals were adopted and plenty of experience shows that the right sorts of rehabilitative programs can indeed keep minor violators from reoffending.

Pelican’s new report builds on this knowledge to make four wise sets of recommendations. (I’ll focus on three.)

The report was drafted by visiting scholar Jordan Richardson, who clerked for the notably conservative federal district judge Aileen Cannon of Florida, served as an adviser for the con-

servative Heritage Foundation and serves on Florida Gov Ron DeSantis’ judicial nominating commission.

First, Pelican recommends that Louisiana make greater use of specialized tribunals such as drug courts and reentry courts for lesser offenders, the latter of which “provide intensive oversight and support during incarceration and through the transition back into the community, under close judicial supervision.”

Whereas most other southern states feature such courts in the vast majority or even all of their judicial districts, only 48% of Louisiana judicial districts boast drug courts and just 19% use reentry courts.

Also, following the lead of Florida and other states, “Louisiana could establish training programs to enhance the capacity of judges, court staff, and program administrators to manage drug and reentry court cases.”

Recommendation two is to adopt a “felony classification system for transparency and proportional penalties.” This is important. Right now, Louisiana has a hodgepodge of more than 600 felony offenses, each with its

own sentencing parameters that usually were set one at a time without careful attention to how they compared with parameters for other offenses. Result: Similar offenses sometimes receive vastly difference sentences.

Pelican suggests doing what other states do and dividing up felonies by the “class” or severity of offense and then providing guidelines for all the penalties within each class. The guidelines would of course provide for more substantial sentences for repeat offenders.

Such a “tiered classification system” of offenses and punishments would “offer greater certainty and transparency to defendants, victims, and their families” alike.

The report’s third major recommendation is for better crime data collection and reporting, allowing for better analysis of what works and what doesn’t.

Only 37% of Louisiana’s 256 law enforcement agencies provide a complete year’s data to the FBI, and only 58% report any data to the FBI at all. Only 10 of 50 states rank worse than Louisiana on data reporting. Rafael Goyeneche, president

of the generally tough-on-crime New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission, praised Pelican’s proposals, with some caveats. “I think those recommendations are all reasonable,” he told me. “The key to all of this is to improve data collection and analysis. That is the cornerstone You need to be able to have data from all the judicial districts. Once you get all the data into one centralized hub, you can compare the [specialty drug courts and reentry courts] that are in existence and hold them accountable for the outcomes of those cases.”

Then, he said, “Use that data to make best-practices decisions about what will improve the administration of justice and better provide for the way state dollars are being utilized for justice.” In all of this, the goal isn’t punishment for punishment’s sake The goal is to set both punishments and redemptive possibilities at the best levels, and by the right methods, to reduce the actual occurrence of crime. Quin Hillyer can be reached at quin.hillyer@theadvocate.com.

Five years in, remember best of the COVID response

It’s been five years since COVID-19 began its deadly spread through Louisiana, and on the other side of the pandemic, many things look different.

Work habits have changed, particularly for those who can do their jobs remotely The effects of longterm social isolation are still showing themselves.

Hindsight is all the rage, with all the couldas and shouldas that generally entails.

That’s fine. Good, even We should always be willing to learn from our experiences and study the unintended consequences of our actions.

But when it comes to reexamining how those who practice medicine and public health acted in the dire, confusing moment, let’s also not forget what went right. Mitigation measures such as mask mandates and targeted closures, which evolved with the current understanding of the disease, were no fun, and they put far more of a burden on some than others.

But they did mitigate. We know this because in Louisiana, where health officials working in Gov John Bel Edwards’ administration took the threat very seriously repeated deadly surges of new variants were brought under control.

Also, rapidly developed and tested vaccines remain a marvel of scientific achievement; widespread use didn’t eradicate the disease but slowed its spread, lessened its

severity and better protected those who were most at risk of severe illness and death. We know this because during the later surges, unvaccinated people were far more likely to get sick — 20 times more, according to a 2021 Louisiana Health Department missive about the delta variant The emerging narrative, it seemed at the time, would be that we’d entered a wondrous new world of disease response and prevention, and that we should double down on related research.

As anyone paying attention these days knows, that’s not where we are now Instead, political rhetoric attacking the response has bled into personal behavior

We’re seeing it in markedly lower rates of routine vaccinations among Louisiana kindergarteners.

And we’re seeing it in state government, where Gov Jeff Landry and Surgeon General Ralph Abraham are not only ending mass vaccination programs and banning staff from promoting seasonal vaccines but also irresponsibly trashing actions taken by their predecessors. The Edwardsera vaccine mandates “through both policy and social pressure,” Abraham wrote, were an “offense against personal autonomy that will take years to overcome.”

At a particularly low point during the prior administration, then-attorney general Landry joined Robert. F. Kennedy Jr

at a legislative hearing on vaccine requirements at schools, and Kennedy made the ridiculous claim that the COVID-19 vaccine “is the deadliest vaccine ever made.”

At the time, 11 people in Louisiana had had reactions severe enough to require hospitalization and none had died, according to state data.

That the purveyor of this particularly noxious bit of misinformation is now our nation’s highest-ranking health official confirmed with a key vote from Louisiana’s physician senator Bill Cassidy — is problematic, to put it mildly

So is the reality that one New Orleans physician summed up in a recent story on the surge in skepticism toward all vaccines.

“We went from health care heroes to now we are almost villains at this point, and not to be trusted,” Dr Kara Ward told reporter Emily Woodruff.

That’s got to be enormously frustrating for those who did so much to save lives. But here’s where learning from experience once again comes in.

Several of the physicians Woodruff interviewed described how they’re working harder to help patients and parents of young patients work through vaccine hesitancy So did the authors of a column that ran last month in this paper

“The public health community did a remarkable job during the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote Thomas A.

LaVeist and Pierre Buekens, the current and former deans of Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, but “we made declarations from a distance and assumed everyone would fall in line. When we realized fear and history and, yes, even politics, were at play leading to vaccine hesitancy, we only doubled down on our messaging. “Vaccines are typically discussed in absolute yes or no terms. But very little in public health is ever absolute. We in the public health community need to provide up-to-date scientific research and the best available information along with a clear risk analysis.”

That’s a smart response, one that I wish more of our politicians would espouse. Their job is not just to protect individual personal liberties but to balance it with the collective good — which, in this case, means encouraging enough uptake to provide herd immunity for diseases such as measles, which is frighteningly on the move again in Texas and other states. That collective responsibility to protect others is something that Edwards frequently talked of during the pandemic, and it’s obviously not a popular sentiment these days. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Email Stephanie Grace at sgrace@ theadvocate.com.

It’s necessary for someone to witness an execution

As a young senior, there are still things

I want to do in life, but watching a statesanctioned execution isn’t one of them

Just a few days ago, for the first time in 15 years, the State of Louisiana executed someone. When the state executed Jessie Hoffman Jr at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, it wasn’t the first time Louisiana killed someone by execution. Robert Wayne Williams was executed in December 1983, our first execution in the death penalty’s modern era. There have been 29 Louisiana executions since 1983, including 20 electrocutions, eight lethal injections and, now, one lethal gas execution — Hoffman. That’s horrible, but at least the state didn’t resort to the execution method used for the first modern-era execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah in 1977 — by firing squad Hoffman died at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday in the Angola death chamber WDSU evening anchor Gina Swanson and this newspaper’s John Simerman were there to witness the ugly event. Both had compelling reports. Simerman had about 10 days to prepare himself emotionally once he learned he would be a media witness. Swanson had one day to prepare She found out the day before the execution that she, too, would be there. Simerman’s not sure how Swanson did it. He said his days leading to the execution were “nerve-wracking.” “I’ve not

slept right just yet,” he told me Thursday After a day of travel, getting through security clearances, signing paperwork and waiting, Swanson and Simerman watched as a masked and strapped Hoffman twisted, turned and had some convulsions as he breathed nitrogen until he suffocated.

When someone is executed, anything might happen, and it’s important for journalists to witness what happens and report it to the public. “I think we need to be there,” Simerman told me as he tried to relax at a family reunion

There are no journalist witnesses in 23 states because those states don’t have the death penalty and executions. Five other states have paused executions. More than half of the states have concluded that taking someone’s life is not justifiable, moral or a deterrent that works.

Jarvis DeBerry was a young reporter in his first job out of college at The TimesPicayune when he covered Hoffman’s 1998 trial in St. Tammany Parish as a bureau reporter He covered the graphic, 13-day trial and sentencing. “It was really intense, and really long,” he shared with me. “There were no days off I wasn’t OK at the end.”

DeBerry, a former Times-Picayune columnist who is MSNBC’s opinions editor and a columnist, had no doubt that Hoffman raped and murdered Mary “Molly” Elliot. “Take it from someone who was there: There was never any doubt that Hoffman did everything the state says he did.” De-

Simerman’s first execution was a nationally-famous event: Stanley “Tookie” Williams, a founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles, was killed by the State of California for murdering four people. You might have heard of Williams. A Shreveport native, he wrote a book, and his criminal life and his incarceration efforts to reduce gang violence were featured in a 2004 film, “Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story.” Jamie Foxx played Williams. The movie came out while he was in San Quinten, the place where he was executed in 2005. Simerman watched as prison officials had trouble getting needles into his arm.

I asked Swanson for an interview, but WDSU denied the request. I asked her news director boss, Melissa Dart, and I got no response.

Berry wrote in a March 18 column the day Hoffman was killed.

DeBerry told me that he thought about driving to Angola with a sense of “some kind of duty,” but “I just couldn’t get in the car to make that trip.” Though he’s certain Hoffman was guilty, he opposes the death penalty and executions. He doesn’t think taking the life of someone who took a life is right. “I wouldn’t have wanted to see that,” he said, adding, “It’s necessary for somebody to witness it.”

The Louisiana Department of Corrections decides which journalists will witness executions. It was Swanson’s first execution. It was Simerman’s second.

“Unobstructed media access to executions is critical because the media observes what the public cannot,” the Death Penalty Information Center said in a November 2024 report. We shouldn’t have death penalties and state-sanctioned executions. Since we do, it is absolutely necessary for someone to watch what happens and tell us about it. It couldn’t have been DeBerry Or me. I know Swanson and Simerman will have a lot to process. But I’m glad they were there. For us.

Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

Quin Hillyer

Stephanie Grace

Will Sutton

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

The Rev. Marika Hammet, who was a spiritual adviser to Jessie Hoffman, rings a memorial bell at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola during the execution of Hoffman on Tuesday.

LSU gym claims SEC crown once again

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

NC AA TOU RN AM EN T

FLORIDA STATE AT LSU • 5

P.M. MONDAy • ESPN

GOOD NIGHT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala Facing the final Southeastern Conference championship routine of her dazzling gymnastics career, with the SEC team and all-around titles riding on how she performed, Haleigh Bryant stood dancing at the top of the vault runway to “I Love Rock and Roll” blaring out for a Florida gymnast on balance beam. No nerves at all?

“There are always butterflies,” Bryant said. “But I told myself I’ve done this same routine since I was 6- or 7-years old. And I’ve been in this championship five years now.” Bryant saved some of her best for last, posting a 9.95 on vault to deliver LSU a repeat SEC team championship and guarantee herself a second straight SEC all-around title. No 2-ranked LSU finished with a 198.200 while No. 1 Oklahoma finished second in its first SEC championship meet with a 197.975. No 3 Florida, which led going to the final rotation, faded to third with a 197.875. No. 7 Missouri finished fourth with a 197.400. Bryant won the all-around title with a 39.725. Fourth-year LSU senior Aleah Finnegan, who with Bryant and two other gymnasts won the balance beam title, tied for second in the all-around with Florida’s Selena Harris-Miranda at 39.675. LSU freshman Kailin Chio was fourth at 39.650. Every team in Saturday night’s session had at least one perfect 10 except for LSU The Tigers instead grabbed the biggest trophies once again with consistently excellent effort, never scoring less than a 49.450 in

Bryant repeats as all-around winner ä See SEC, page 7C

PROVIDED PHOTO By LSU ATHLETICS

LSU gymnasts celebrate after winning the SEC championship meet on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala.

LSU guard Flau’Jae Johnson blows a kiss to the fans after scoring against San Diego State

NCAA Tournament first-round game on Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center LSU won

Late game over early as LSU throttles San Diego State

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

The LSU women’s basketball team wasn’t expected to encounter much danger in its NCAA Tournament opener After all, coach Kim Mulkey’s teams have now picked up 22 straight wins in these first-round games, the ones that can set the table for a deep run through March.

These Tigers think they can make it all the way Part of their case? The crisp, convincing 103-48 win over No. 14 seed San Diego State they pieced together on Saturday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

This time, things started late and ended early Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow returned from injuries, and a sharp LSU team rattled off the first 11

points of the game, laying the foundation for what turned into its most commanding Round-of-64 win so far under Mulkey

The Tigers have never scored more points in an NCAA Tournament game than they did on Saturday, even in the 2023 national title game (102).

Johnson has spent the last month of the season battling shin inflammation. Morrow recently aggravated a foot sprain, an injury that took her out of the action in LSU’s Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinal loss to Texas Both stars are now healthy, and both moved smoothly through the win over the Aztecs.

The Tigers didn’t need either of them to play too many minutes.

ä See LSU, page 4C

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

in the first quarter of their

103-48.

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Foreman’s life full of big moments

Fearsome

heavyweight who became beloved champ dies at 76

BY GREG BEACHAM AP sportswriter

George Foreman became the heavyweight champion of the world in his 20s, only to lose his belt to Muhammad Ali in perhaps the most memorable fight in boxing history A full 20 years later in 1994, the 45-year-old Foreman became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship throwing one perfect combination to steal Michael Moorer’s title in an epic upset.

Few fighters ever had more big moments than Big George Foreman and even after he finally left the ring, he was only getting started.

The fearsome heavyweight, who lost the “Rumble in the Jungle” to Ali before his inspiring second act as a surprising champion and a successful businessman, died Friday night. Foreman was 76. Foreman’s family announced his death on social media, not saying how or where he died.

“A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father and a proud grand- and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility and purpose,” his family wrote. “A humanitarian, an Olympian and two-time heavyweight champion of the world, he was deeply respected. A force for good, a man of discipline, conviction, and a protector of his legacy, fighting tirelessly to preserve his good name— for his family.”

A native Texan, Foreman began his boxing career as an Olympic gold medalist who inspired fear and awe as he climbed to the peak of the heavyweight division by stopping Joe Frazier in 1973. His formidable aura evaporated only a year later when Ali pulled off one of the most audacious victories in boxing history in Zaire, baiting and taunting Foreman into losing his belt.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

wasn’t him,” Lampley said. Foreman stopped Frazier in an upset in Jamaica in January 1973 to win the belt, with his knockout inspiring Howard Cosell’s iconic call: “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”

Foreman defended his belt against Ken Norton before accepting the fight with Ali in the nowimmortal bout staged in Africa by promoter Don King. Ali put on a tactical masterclass against Foreman, showing off the “rope-adope” strategy that frustrated and infuriated the champion. Foreman was eventually knocked down for the first time in his career, and the fight was stopped in the eighth round.

Foreman told the BBC in 2014 that he took the fight almost out of charity to Ali, who he suspected to be broke.

LSU guard Tyrell Ward to enter transfer portal

LSU basketball’s Tyrell Ward intends to enter the transfer portal, according to multiple reports, including 247Sports and The Athletic.

The 6-foot-6 wing never played during the 2024-25 season after stepping away from the program because of mental health reasons and was never expected to return. Ward averaged 9.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game last season. He would have been the Tigers’ leading returning scorer

The transfer portal window officially opens on Monday

The news that Ward would not play this season came about 15 minutes before LSU’s season opener against UL-Monroe on Nov 6.

Astros release outfielder Gamel, lefty Beeks

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Houston Astros released outfielder Ben Gamel and left-hander Jalen Beeks on Saturday

The move with Gamel comes less than two months after he agreed to a $1.2 million, one-year contract. The deal included a $200,000 signing bonus and a $1 million salary, which was not guaranteed.

The Astros will owe Gamel 45 days termination pay, which comes to $241,036, instead of his salary

The 32-year-old Gamel hit .167 in 24 at-bats in spring training He hit .259 with one homer in 20 games with the Astros last season.

The 31-year-old Beeks allowed one run in four innings this spring. He was a combined 7-4 with a 4.50 ERA for Colorado and Pittsburgh in 2024. He had 10 saves, including nine with the Rockies.

Grizzlies forward Clarke likely out for rest of season

Foreman left the sport a few years later, but returned after a 10-year absence and a self-described religious awakening.

The middle-aged fighter then pulled off one of the most spectacular knockouts in boxing history, flooring Moorer 19 years his junior — with a surgical right hand and claiming Moorer’s two heavyweight belts. Foreman’s 20 years is easily the longest gap between heavyweight title reigns.

“His contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten,” former heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson, said on X, formerly Twitter, as he expressed his condolences.

Foreman’s transformation into an inspirational figure was complete, and he fought only four more times — finishing 76-5 with 68 knockouts before moving onto his next career as a genial businessman, pitchman and occasional actor

Outside the ring, he was best known as the face of the George Foreman Grill, which launched in the same year as his victory over Moorer The simple cooking machine sold more than 100 million units and made him much wealthier than his sport ever did.

“George was a great friend to not only myself, but to my entire family,” Top Rank president Bob Arum said. “We’ve lost a family member and are absolutely devastated.”

In the first chapter of his boxing career, Foreman was nothing like the smiling grandfather who hawked his grills on television to great success Foreman dabbled in petty crime while growing up in Houston’s Fifth Ward, but changed his life through boxing. He made the U.S. Olympic team in 1968 and won gold in Mexico City as a teenager stopping a 29-year-old opponent in a star-making performance. Foreman rose to the pinnacle of the pro game over the next five years, but was also perceived as an aloof, unfriendly athlete, both through his demeanor and through the skewed racial lenses of the time.

Jim Lampley, the veteran boxing broadcaster who worked alongside Foreman for many years at HBO, told The Associated Press on Friday night that Foreman’s initial demeanor was an attempt by his camp to emulate Sonny Liston, the glowering heavyweight champ of the 1960s.

“At some point somewhere along the way, he realized that

“I said I was going to go out there and kill him, and people said, ‘Please, don’t say you’re going to kill Muhammad,’” Foreman said. “So I said, ‘OK, I’ll just beat him down to the ground.’ That’s how easy I thought the fight would be.”

Exhausted and disillusioned, Foreman stopped fighting in 1977 and largely spent the next decade preaching and working with kids in Houston after his religious awakening. He returned to boxing in 1987 in his late 30s with a plan to defy time through frequent ring appearances, and he racked up a lengthy series of victories before losing to Evander Holyfield in a surprisingly competitive title fight in 1991.

Three years later, Foreman got in the ring with Moorer in Las Vegas, more for his celebrity than for his perceived ability to beat Moorer. The champion appeared to win the first nine rounds rather comfortably with Foreman unable to land his slower punches. But Foreman came alive in the 10th, hurting Moorer before slipping in the short right hand that sent Moorer to the canvas in earth-shaking fashion.

Lampley, who was calling the fight, named his upcoming autobiography — which includes a prologue about Foreman after his famous call of that moment: “It Happened!”

Hovland part of 3-way tie for Valspar lead

The Associated Press

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Viktor Hovland was steady amid a wild Saturday of charges and collapses at the Valspar Championship, leaving him in a three-way tie for the lead at Innisbrook with two dozen players still very much in the mix.

Jacob Bridgeman showed plenty of mettle in his first time as the 36-hole leader falling four shots behind at the turn and rallying for a 1-under 70 to share the lead with Hovland (69) and Nico Echavarria (66). They were at 7-under 206 with seemingly everyone on their heels. That includes Justin Thomas, who left on Friday hopeful he would make the cut. He shot 30 on the back nine for a 65, his lowest round ever on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook, to finish two behind. Jordan Spieth was entertaining as ever, twice making birdie from deep in the woods, and along with missing a pair of short par putts, and having to settle for a 67. He still was only four shots behind

going into a Sunday in which 23 players were separated by four shots.

Byeong Hun An was the only player to reach 9 under with a birdie on the 11th hole, only to make five bogeys over the final seven holes for a 72. Even so, he was only three back.

Hovland came into the week in search of his swing, returning to another coach and being willing to take as much time as he needed to figure out where the ball is going.

It’s working out in his favor so far

“It’s fun to be in contention, but it is a little bit more stressful when you don’t feel super comfortable over the ball,” Hovland said. “But man, it’s fun to see some putts go in and still see the ball end up close to the hole and put some good scores up there.”

Echavarria, who won in Japan last fall for his second PGA Tour title, finished well ahead of the final groups and played bogey-free for his 66, remarkably making birdie on all three of the par 3s on the back nine. The Colombian didn’t expect to

have a share of the lead when he finished, though he knew he would at least have a chance.

“This is a golf course where you don’t have to be one off the lead starting to get the leaders,” he said. “We have seen that it’s a hard golf course. You have to drive your ball very well out here. You have to hit the greens. It’s tough around the greens. So we’re going to have a chance tomorrow having a good round.”

Most impressive was Bridgeman, a second-year player who began the third round by missing a 3-foot par putt. He also took two straight bogeys to finish the front nine and was falling behind But then he hit wedge to 3 feet for birdie on the 10th and worked his way back At one point, Bridgeman had seven straight holes without a par

“I was just head down and grind the best I could,” Bridgeman said. “I wasn’t hitting it great. I wasn’t flustered, I wasn’t really freaking out. But I knew if I could get the ball in the fairway I would be fine.” He said after the birdie on 10 his

caddie G.W Cable slapped him on the behind and told him, “Let’s go.”

“And I kept it up,” Bridgeman said.

Thomas and Spieth teed off some five hours before the leaders, longtime friends who took turns posting birdies Thomas felt frustrated not to make up much ground until he holed an eagle putt from just inside 30 feet on the par-5 11th hole and was on his way Thomas birdied the next three holes and at one point was one shot behind.

“We got on a little four-hole run there and that can be the difference of sparking an entire week or not,” Thomas said “So hopefully that’s the one that sparks the week.”

Ricky Castillo had a 68 and was one shot behind. Thomas and Shane Lowry (70) were among five players at 5-under 208, with An and Billy Horschel (69) in the large group another shot behind. Lucas Glover (69) was part of the group with Spieth at four behind.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Grizzlies likely will be without forward Brandon Clarke for at least the rest of the regular season because of a sprained right knee.

The Grizzlies announced an update Saturday on Clarke, who hurt his knee in Wednesday night’s loss at Portland. The team said Clarke has a high-grade PCL sprain suffered when he fell to the floor in the first quarter of that loss. Memphis said a more specific timeline will be provided once a treatment plan is set.

The Grizzlies have 11 games remaining in the regular season. Clarke has played 64 games, third behind only rookie Jaylen Wells (71) and Scotty Pippen Jr. (69). Clarke is averaging 8.3 points and 5.1 rebounds over 18.9 minutes per game.

MLB removes mentions of ‘diversity’ from careers site

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball removed references to “diversity” from its MLB careers home page following an executive order by President Donald Trump that could lead to possible federal action against organizations using DEI programs in violation of his administration’s interpretation of civil rights law

“Our values on diversity remain unchanged,” MLB said in a statement Friday “We are in the process of evaluating our programs for any modifications to eligibility criteria that are needed to ensure our programs are compliant with federal law as they continue forward.” Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, who launched a Diversity Pipeline Program in 2016, said last month that MLB was evaluating the interpretation of law coming from the federal government.

Piastri takes first F1 pole at Chinese Grand Prix

SHANGHAI McLaren’s Oscar Piastri scored his maiden pole position in Formula 1 ahead of Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix by delivering two sizzling laps that were quick enough for the top spot ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.

The 23-year-old Australian, who is maximizing his weekend with second in Saturday morning’s Sprint race, said he’s “pretty pumped” to go one better Sunday, with the major challenge being tire wear

Piastri, who will start the 56-lap race two places ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris, set it up by putting it all on the line on his final Q3 lap.

George Foreman lands a body punch to Muhammad Ali during their heavyweight bout in Zaire, Africa, on Oct. 30, 1974. Referee Zack Clayton is at right. The upset win by Ali is perhaps the most memorable fight in boxing history.

Delhomme’s horse wins N.O. Classic

victory was the biggest of Delhomme’s career as a horse owner and breeder The $300,000 winner’s purse increased the 6-year-old son of Star Guitar’s lifetime earnings to $1.4 million

“He’s so classy,” Delhomme said “He’s just a special, special horse.”

Hall of Fame placed second, while Sierra Leone finished a disappointing third at 1-5 odds

BY JEFF DUNCAN Staff writer

Jake Delhomme enjoyed many joyous moments in his football career, including an NFC championship in 2004, but nothing compared to the feeling of watching his horse, Touchuponastar, lead the whole way in the New Orleans Classic on Saturday at the Fair Grounds.

The former NFL and UL quarterback was rendered breathless and nearly speechless after watching his Louisiana-bred gelding’s wire-to-wire, upset victory in the $500,000 Grade II stakes race.

“I’m as high as a kite right now, it’s awesome,” Delhomme said, while surrounded by friends and family in the crowded winner’s circle.

“We’re from Louisiana, so to do it here in front of the home crowd, it’s a dream come true.”

Jockey Tim Thornton sent Touchuponastar to the lead in the fivehorse field and the speedy son of Star Guitar set modest fractions of 24.0 and 47.4 seconds on the front end. He spurted away from the field at the top of the stretch

“Making the lead alone, having him prick his ears, I knew we were ready to win this,” Thornton said. “He was absolutely loaded today.”

Touchuponastar’s 21/2-length

DUNCAN

Continued from page 1C

win in the $1 million Grade II Louisiana Derby He easily outdistanced Chunk of Gold and Instant Replay in second and third, respectively Tiztastic covered the 1 3/16 miles in 1:56.20 under jockey Joel Rosario.

“We’ve always liked him,” Asmussen said. “The horse has got a great mind about him. He ran a solid race, but I think there’s more in him.”

Tiztastic’s win, which came on an idyllic Saturday afternoon at Fair Grounds Race Course, might have surprised the betting public, which sent the 3-year-old colt off at lukewarm 7-1 odds But his trainer wasn’t one of them.

Asmussen predicted the outcome on Steve Byk’s popular “At the Races” podcast during the week leading up to the race, going so far as to call it his “lock of the week.”

It was a bold prediction by the normally tight-lipped Asmussen Even more so, given Tiztastic’s modest record. The son of Tiz the Law had won just two of seven

“He never got into a rhythm,” said jockey Flavien Pratt, who rode Sierra Leone. “He was struggling to keep up the pace. He made a run late, but those horses were all running away.”

Fair Grounds Oaks

Unbeaten Good Cheer validated her reputation as the top 3-yearold filly in the nation with a decisive victory in the Grade II Fair Grounds Oaks.

Good Cheer earned 100 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks with the win, which was her sixth in as many starts. Her final time over the 1 1/16th mile course was 1:43.4. The daughter of Medaglia d’Oro increased her lifetime earnings to $877,630.

It was the fourth Oaks win in the past six years for trainer Brad Cox.

“This is a very good filly, and we’re really proud of her,” Cox said. “She had to work hard to finish up but she finished very well. She’s not massive, but we’ve got two races in her as a 3-year-old, and we have six weeks between now and the Kentucky Oaks to get her ready.”

Avaha, a lightly raced secondtime starter for trainer Cherie DeVaux, was the early pacesetter and held on for second to earn 50 Oaks points. Gowell’s Delight was a non-threatening third.

lifetime starts and was coming off underwhelming fifth- and third-place finishes in the Rebel and Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

But Asmussen hasn’t won more than 10,000 races by happenstance. He wisely figured that Tiztastic’s closing running style would be better suited to the Fair Grounds, with its forgiving dirt surface and long stretch run.

“He trains better at the Fair Grounds than he does at Oaklawn, and his work in company with (touted stablemate) Clever Again was as good as it’s been,” Asmussen said. “Because of me feeling that he prefers the Fair Grounds surface Oaklawn, we chose to put him in the Louisiana Derby.”

Asmussen, as usual, was right.

Tiztastic earned 100 Kentucky Derby qualifying points with the win and punched his ticket for the first Saturday in May He’s now earned more than $1.5 million for his powerhouse owners, Winchell Thoroughbreds and Mrs. John Magnier

“We thought he’d run bigger in the Southwest,” Asmussen said “Since he didn’t run his race and he had trained so well

Muniz Memorial Classic

Idratherbeblessed stunned the field of olde turf horses with a wire-to-wire win at 86-1 odds. Noting the early results on the speed-favoring turf course, jockey Ben Curtis sent the 5-year-old son of Unified to the lead out of the gate and slowed the pace down on the back stretch. At the top of the stretch, the field closed in on the front-runner but he had enough left to hold off Gigante by a neck

at the wire.

Idratherbeblessed rewarded his backers with across-the-board payoffs of $174.20, $70.20 and $28.40. “I was able to get into a rhythm and do my own thing on the front end. He’s a horse who really sticks his head down and tries,” Curtis said. “I think the extra distance really stood to him. I know he was a long shot on the board, but his most recent work was the best he’s ever put in. He got it done today.”

here, we brought him back here, knowing he needed more distance. He’s stepping forward when he needs to.”

It’ll be interesting to see if the public agrees with him. My guess is that despite Tiztastic’s strong connections he won’t be among the favorites. It would be a mistake, though,

to dismiss any horse sent out by Asmussen, especially one as talented as Tiztastic. And motivation certainly won’t be a problem for Asmussen.

The Derby is one race that has eluded him in his legendary training career His 0-for-26 record in the Run for the Roses is mind-boggling, considering his

Benson Memorial Way to be Marie snuck through a tight hole on the rail to gain the lead in the stretch and held off a fast-closing Tufani to win the $150,000 Tom Benson Memorial for older fillies and mares on the turf. The win was the third in five starts at the Fair Grounds for Way to be Marie, who covered the 1 1/16th mile turf course in 1:43.03

accomplished record otherwise. In those starts, his horses have managed just a couple of second place finishes.

It looked like Asmussen — and Louisiana Derby champions — would finally get off the schneid in 2022, when Louisiana Derby champion Epicenter seized the lead at the top of the stretch and appeared headed to victory only to be run down at the wire by Rich Strike in one of the most shocking upsets in Derby history

The last time a Louisiana Derby champion went on to win the Kentucky Derby was almost three decades ago, before my time in New Orleans. Grindstone won the 1996 Louisiana Derby and then ran down Cavonnier at the wire to win the Run for the Roses. Mandaloun was declared the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby after running sixth in the Louisiana Derby But as trainer Brad Cox himself notes, he didn’t cross the wire first. Mandina Spirit did, but he was later disqualified. It’s time for the Kentucky Derby drought to end — for both Amussen and the Louisiana Derby Email Jeff Duncan at jduncan@theadvocate.com.

2.20 Eff Thirty Five (F. Geroux) 10.80 5.20 Le Gris (J. Rosario) 3.20 Finish Time: 1:42.81 Daily Double (2-1) $25.40; Exacta (1-10) $25.10; Superfecta (1-10-2-9) $117.09; Trifecta (1-10-2) $65.45; Pic 3 (5-2-1) $167.75 Late Scratches: Unified Dreams, Release McCraken Fifth Race - $100,000, Stakes, 3 yo, One Mile Seventy Yards Blue Fire (J. Ortiz) 4.00 2.20 2.10 Margie’s Intention (I. Ortiz) 2.20 2.10 Canal Street (A. Concepcion) 3.00 Finish Time: 1:42.97 Daily Double (1-2) $3.20; Exacta (2-4) $3.00; Superfecta (2-4-8-1) $2.08; Trifecta (2-4-8)

$5.20; Pic 3 (2-1-2) $25.90; Pic 4 (5-2-1/11/122/3) $424.20; Pic 5 (4-5-2-1/11/12-2/3)

$1,271.65 Late Scratches: Secret Faith Sixth Race - $100,000, Stakes, 3 yo’s & up, Five And A Half Furlongs Geaux Sugar (M. Murrill) 6.80 4.40 3.80 Monsieur Candy (F. Astudillo) 8.80 7.40 Marks Promise (V. Del-Cid) 8.60 Finish Time: 1:03.19 Daily Double (2-4) $6.30; Exacta (4-1) $24.60; Superfecta (4-1-10-12) $231.89; Trifecta (4-110) $157.80; Pic 3 (1-2-4) $7.60 Late Scratches: Tdz Hint of Power, Nine Part, Summertime Peppers,

of Fame (J. Ortiz) 4.00 2.20

Sierra Leone (F. Prat) 2.10 Finish Time: 1:48.10 Daily Double (3-5) $38.10; Exacta (5-2) $25.70; Superfecta (5-2-7-3)

PROVIDED PHOTO By LOU HODGES, JR. Jockey Joel Rosario rides Tiztastic to victory in the 112th running of the Louisiana Derby on Saturday at the Fair Grounds Race Course.

Tom

NCAA TOURNAMENT

Van Lith looking to take TCU far in NCAA tourney

BY STEPHEN HAWKINS AP sportswriter

FORTWORTH,Texas Hailey Van Lith

is trying to get with TCU where she went three times with Louisville, deep into the women’s NCAA Tournament As fate would have it in the standout guard’s fifth and final March Madness, Van Lith faces her old team in the second round Sunday

“I understand the narrative that’s being painted. It doesn’t necessarily align with where I’m at mentally or emotionally And that’s OK,” Van Lith said Saturday “I’m at a really good spot. I’m excited to play TCU is looking to go to the Sweet 16 for the first time ever, so that’s a lot bigger than whatever else the narrative could be.” Van Lith started 101 games and averaged 15.4 points for the Cardinals while going to an NCAA Final Four and two other Elite Eights from 2021-23. Their two-time leading scorer then transferred to join an LSU team coming off a national championship and made it to another Elite Eight last March before moving again. Her final college season is with a TCU program that has never been past the second round and before now had gone 15 years since even making the tournament.

The on-court reunion for Van Lith, now the Big 12 player of the year, and Louisville almost happened in last year’s NCAA Tournament. But the Cardinals lost a firstround game for the only time in 16 appearances under coach Jeff Walz when Middle Tennessee overcame an 18-point deficit and moved on to play LSU in the second round.

TCU guard Hailey Van Lith looks to pass around Baylor guard

Walker during the second half of the Big 12 women’s tournament championship on March 9 in Kansas City Mo.

When this year’s bracket set up the possibility again, Big 12 champion TCU beat Fairleigh Dickinson for its first NCAA win since 2006 and Louisville followed on the same court Friday with a victory over Nebraska.

“We won a lot of games. We had really good basketball teams. She was a big part of it, she had a great career,” Walz said about Van Lith. “She graduated college in three years, which nobody really talks about, and they should.

Because that’s our job as coaches.

Sure, if you lose games, you get fired. But at the end of the day, it’s to get kids to graduate from college. She did that in three years and decided to make a move, which is great. Everybody does

it. It’s no big deal.”

After averaging a team-best 14.4 points when the Cardinals made it to the Final Four in 2022, Van Lith scored 19.7 a game as a junior in her final season with them.

“It’s the people that I remember most. And you know, we did go to the Final Four. That’s life changing, a lot of emotions there,” Van Lith said. “I look back on it positively.”

Mark Campbell has rebuilt TCU’s program with transfers since being hired as coach two years ago this month. Sedona Prince and Madison Conner were among the first additions, then Van Lith came in with Taylor Bigby (USC) and Donovyn Hunter (Oregon State) this season.

South Carolina, Indiana in rematch after tight Sweet 16 game last year

BY PETE IACOBELLI

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. South Carolina

was so confident of victory, up 4932 at halftime in last year’s Sweet 16 against Indiana, that the team enjoyed some dance sessions at the break.

Few Gamecocks felt like dancing in the second half as the Hoosiers nearly wiped out a 22-point deficit before coming up short, 79-75 — the closest call South Carolina had in its undefeated, national titlewinning season. Coach Dawn Staley knows her team won’t make that mistake again on Sunday when it faces Indiana for the second straight year in the women’s NCAA Tournament, this time with a Sweet 16 berth on the line.

“Having a big lead and having it

Continued from page 1C

In Johnson’s 22 minutes of run, she scored a game-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Morrow added 12 points and 12 rebounds in her 25 minutes, helping the Tigers convert 50% of their field goals and hold San Diego State to an 32% shooting night. All 12 Tigers saw the floor, and six scored in double figures Mjracle Sheppard added 10 points in 16 energetic minutes off the bench.

Both Mikaylah Williams and Shayeann Day-Wilson each hit three 3-pointers. And LSU, as a team, shot 10 of 18 from beyond the arc.

San Diego State finished the regular season in fourth place in the Mountain West Conference yet fought its way into the NCAA Tournament field by winning its conference tournament title game in a triple-overtime battle with Wyoming.

The Aztecs held the Cowgirls to 68 points in that win.

But on Saturday LSU exceeded that total through only the first three quarters. San Diego State converted only 32% of its field goals and 14% of its 3-pointers. One of its leading scorer, a freshman guard named

all dwindle down to a one-possession game is eye-opening,” Staley said Saturday “I think this team wants to continue to play in the NCAA Tournament, so they’re going to do whatever it takes to have their journeys continue.”

The Gamecocks (31-3), the top seed in the Birmingham 2 Region, advanced with a 108-48 victory over 16th-seeded Tennessee Tech. No 9 seed Indiana (20-12) outlasted eighth-seeded Utah 76-68 in Friday’s first round.

South Carolina’s Te-Hina Paopao thought the Gamecocks had done enough early against the Hoosiers last year and expected to roll through the final two periods and into the Elite Eight. Instead, Indiana got within 74-72 on Mackenzie Holmes’ layup with 1:08 to play South Carolina guard Raven Johnson hit a clutch 3-pointer 15

of their NCAA Tournament first-round game on Saturday at the PMAC.

Natalia Martinez, finished with just 7 points on 2-of-4 shooting. Johnson, LSU’s top scorer, had more points by halftime. She kickstarted that initial 11-0 blitz in the first quarter by rattling in a 3-pointer from the left corner

— her first field-goal attempt since Feb. 27. She also punctuated that run, doing so by stealing the ball

Watkins scores 22 as USC routs UNCG

By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES JuJu Watkins

scored 22 points and top-seeded Southern California led all the way in routing 16th-seeded UNC Greensboro 71-25 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday The Trojans (29-3) advanced to the second round to play either eighth-seeded California or ninth-seeded Mississippi State on Monday at Galen Center Watkins appeared to hurt her left hand early in the second quarter, occasionally shaking out her fingers. Then in the third, the star sophomore came up limping on her left leg and winced. She hit a 3-pointer and sat for the final 3:39 before returning briefly in the fourth. The Spartans came out confidently, holding the Trojans to 12 points in the first quarter after missing their first five shots and trailing 8-0. UNCG closed within two early in the second quarter before USC blew the game open The Trojans outscored the Spartans 16-3 while limiting them to three free throws. The Trojans’ pressure defense forced eight turnovers and the Spartans were 0 of 11 from the field and 0 of 5 from 3-point range. USC led 28-11 at halftime.

lead with 2:57 left in the quarter

South Dakota State took a twopoint advantage into the fourth quarter on a driving layup by Mathiowetz to beat the third-quarter buzzer

IOWA 92, MURRAY STATE 57: In Norman, Oklahoma, Freshman Ava Heiden scored a career-high 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and sixth-seeded Iowa rolled past No. 11 seed Murray State.

seconds later to extend the lead. Paopao said she and her teammates learned from that game: No dance sessions, no matter how good they’re feeling about their play

“This year we have to be more disciplined,” Paopao said. “Just be able to keep the mindset that we’ve got to stay in all 40 minutes and continue to be who we are.”

Indiana coach Teri Moren hopes her players took something from that loss that the team can compete against anyone in the country

“Disappointing that we couldn’t pull it off,” she said. “But, yeah, it gave us some confidence knowing that although both teams are different, that we have been able to play with a team like South Carolina. So I’m hoping that these guys have the confidence.”

from an Aztecs guard in the backcourt and flipping in a layup.

After that shot bounced off the glass and through the rim, Johnson skipped down the sideline, yelling, “I’m back” to the crowd behind the scorer’s table.

LSU’s lead mushroomed to 29 points by halftime. It ultimately grew as large as 56.

A Mulkey team hasn’t lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament since 2001, her first season as a head coach. LSU has drawn a No. 3 seed in all four years of her tenure and won its first-round game by double digits in each of the last three seasons. Last year, it battled Rice and Middle Tennessee before flying to Albany, New York, for the Sweet 16.

Two wins this season would earn the Tigers a trip to Spokane, Washington.

But first, they’ll have to pick up a Round-of-32 victory at 5 p.m. on Monday over No. 6 seed Florida State, which throttled No 11 seed George Mason on Saturday 94-59. Seminole guard Ta’Niya Latson — the nation’s leading scorer finished with 28 points.

LSU will likely need to score about as much as it did on Saturday to get past Latson and Florida State, which has the No. 2 scoring offense in the country

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

UCONN 103, ARKANSAS STATE 34: In Storrs, Connecticut, Azzi Fudd had 21 of her 27 points in the first half as second-seeded UConn rolled to a win over Arkansas State. Freshman Sarah Strong added 20 points and 12 rebounds, five assists and five blocks in her NCAA Tournament debut. Most of those came in the first half when UConn jumped out to a 66-16 advantage at the half, playing nearly flawless basketball. The Huskies had runs of 22-0, 12-0 and 13-0 in the first half as UConn won its 31st consecutive first-round game. UConn (32-3) scored 34 points in the first quarter, making all 11 of its two-point shots. Many of those were layups coming off the press. Arkansas State (21-11), which likes to apply pressure itself, had no answer for the Huskies.

Crislyn Rose led the Red Wolves with seven points. The team shot 17% from the field (12for-70), including going 7-for-40 from behind the arc.

OKALHOMA 81, FLORIDA GULF COAST

58: In Norman, Oklahoma, Raegan Beers had 25 points and 18 rebounds, and No. 3 seed Oklahoma dominated the fourth quarter to beat 14th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast. The Sooners led 55-48 entering the fourth, then outscored the Eagles 26-10 in the final period. Beers, a 6-foot-4 center, towered over a team with no starter taller than 5-9. She helped the Sooners outrebound the Eagles 72-35.

Skylar Vann scored 24 points and Payton Verhulst added 13 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Sooners (26-7).

Emani Jefferson, the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year who had 22 points and 12 rebounds against the Sooners last year, had 12 points and eight rebounds in the rematch while spending much of the day in foul trouble. She made 3 of 11 field goals.

Dolly Cairns scored 15 points for the Eagles (30-4), who had won 23 straight. Florida Gulf Coast shot 23.6% from the field and made 8 of 41 3-pointers (19.5%).

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 74, OKLAHOMA STATE 68: In Storrs, Connecticut,Madison Mathiowetz scored all 15 of her points in the second half as 10th-seeded South Dakota State erased a double-digit deficit to top No. 7 seed Oklahoma State. Brooklyn Meyer had 19 points and eight rebounds, Paige Meyer had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Haleigh Timmer added 11 points for South Dakota State (30-3).

Stailee Heard had 20 points and Anna Gret Asi had 16 points for Oklahoma State (25-7). Oklahoma State took its first double-digit lead on a basket by Alexia Smith with 7:38 left in the third quarter Paige Meyer scored nine points as the Jackrabbits scored 17 of the next 24 points.

A three-point play by Meyer gave South Dakota State the 44-43

Lucy Olsen had 12 points and a career-high 12 assists for the Hawkeyes (23-10). They scored a season high in points in the first tournament win for first-year Iowa coach Jan Jensen, a longtime assistant who was promoted after Lisa Bluder retired. Murray State’s Katelyn Young, who averaged 22.2 points heading into the NCAA Tournament, left the game early in the third quarter with an ankle injury and did not return. She finished with six points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes. Halli Poock scored 15 points and Ava Learn added eight points and 10 rebounds before fouling out for Murray State (25-8). The Racers, who entered the game averaging a nation-leading 87.8 points per game, shot just 30.6% from the field and posted their lowest point total of the season. NC STATE 75, VERMONT 55: In Raleigh, North Caorlina, Zoe Brooks scored 19 points and N.C. State finally took control in the second half to beat Vermont.

Saniya Rivers and Aziaha James added 15 points apiece for the second-seeded Wolfpack, who reached the Final Four last year Keira Hanson scored 21 points off the bench, Catherine Gilwee had 13 and Nikola Priede added 11 for No. 15 seed Vermont (21-13). Vermont pulled ahead 27-24 midway through the second quarter on Hanson’s 3-pointer The Wolfpack scored the last six points of the half for a 35-33 edge. The Wolfpack saved their best stretch for late in the game, outscoring Vermont 23-9 in the fourth quarter ALABAMA 81, GREENBAY 67: In College Park, Maryland, Aaliyah Nye scored 23 points and Zaay Green added 22 to lead fifthseeded Alabama to a victory over 12th-seeded Green Bay The Crimson Tide (24-8) ended Green Bay’s 22-game winning streak and now advances to the second round to face either Maryland or Norfolk State on Monday Maddy Schreiber scored 14 points for the Phoenix (29-6). Green Bay kept the game close through most of the first half, but the Horizon League champion allowed six straight points to end the second quarter and trailed 38-29. The Crimson Tide — who earned their highest seed since 1999 — now have a chance to achieve another March Madness breakthrough. They haven’t made the Sweet 16 since 1998. Alabama pushed its lead to 13 in the third quarter The margin was down to five early in the fourth, but Nye connected from 3-point range to help repel that Green Bay push.

WEST VIRGINIA 78, COLUMBIA 59: In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, JJ Quinerly scored 27 points, Jordan Harrison matched a career-high with 23 and sixth-seeded West Virginia led wire-to-wire in a victory over 11th-seeded Columbia. Quinerly also had seven of the Mountaineers’ 17 steals. The Mountaineers (25-7) advance to face the winner of No. 3 North Carolina and No. 14 Oregon State on Monday West Virginia will be looking for its first Sweet 16 appearance since 1992. West Virginia’s full-court press was a constant source of frustration for Columbia, which was coming off its first tournament win in program history The Lions committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter, more than they had in all of Thursday’s First Four win over Washington, and 25 overall. UCONN 103, ARKANSAS STATE 34: In Storrs, Connecticut, Azzi Fudd had 21 of her 27 points in the first half as second-seeded UConn rolled to a win over Arkansas State. Freshman Sarah Strong added 20 points and 12 rebounds, five assists and five blocks in her NCAA Tournament debut. Most of those came in the first half when UConn jumped out to a 66-16 advantage at the half, playing nearly

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU coach Kim Mulkey celebrates as her team heads to the bench after causing San Diego State to call a timeout in the first quarter

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHARLIE RIEDEL

Jada

NCAA TOURNAMENT

Purdue ends McNeese’s run

BY KYLE HIGHTOWER AP sportswriter

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Trey

Kaufman-Renn had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Purdue used a fast start to roll to a 76-62 win over McNeese in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday Fletcher Loyer added 15 points. C.J. Cox finished with 11 points for the Boilermakers (24-11), who advanced through the Midwest Region to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

Purdue will meet the winner of top-seeded Houston and eighth-seeded Gonzaga in the regional semifinal. In his 16 NCAA Tournament appearances with the Boilermakers, coach Matt Painter is now headed to his eighth Sweet 16.

Painter said the challenge is to sustain the offensive output they’ve had over the first two rounds. “We can’t go further without playing great offensively,” Painter said. “We have to execute well, we have to shoot the ball well That’s not really pressure, that’s just a fact.”

Sincere Parker had 17 points to lead McNeese (287). Javohn Garcia added 12 points as the Cowboys came up short in their bid to give the Southland Conference its first Sweet 16 team since Louisiana Tech in 1985.

McNeese came out in the 2-3 zone that was so successful during its firstround win over Clemson.

But Purdue hit 7 of its first 9 field goals and 3 of its first 4 3-point attempts to build an early double-digit advan-

tage. A pair of three-plus minute scoring droughts by the Cowboys and runs of 10-0 and 9-0 by the Boilermakers helped Purdue grow its lead as high as 36-14 in the first half.

“From the start of the game they kind of imposed their will on us,” Parker said. “To their credit they made shots and we missed shots.”

The Boilermakers led for all but 19 seconds.

Purdue shot 11 of 26 from the 3-point line for the game and held a 41-24 rebounding edge.

“I thought we played really well these last two games,” Kaufman-Renn said. “We executed well and we stuck to our game plan and then we outrebounded both teams. So we do that, it’s a winning game plan.”

MEN’S ROUNDUP

Calipari guides Arkansas to win

The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE,R.I.— John Calipari is heading to the Sweet 16 for the 16th time, and this one could be the sweetest of all.

Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks beat longtime nemesis Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John’s 75-66 on Saturday, sending their itinerant coach to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament with his fourth school.

Billy Richmond III scored 16 points and Karter Knox had 15 for the 10th-seeded Razorbacks, who sent Kansas and their Hall of Fame coach Bill Self home from the “Region of Coaches” in the first round.

But the victory over his longtime rival was especially sweet for Calipari, who brought the Razorbacks (2213) back to the tournament in his first season in Fayetteville despite early-season injuries that left them 0-5 to start the Southeastern Conference schedule.

“I told them, ‘This is as rewarding as a year I’ve had, based on how far we’ve come,’” he said.

Zuby Ejiofor had 23 points and 12 rebounds for Big East champion St. John’s (31-5).

Pitino’s history in Providence — he took the Friars to the 1987 Final Four gave him a home-court advantage as he arrived in March Madness with an unprecedented sixth school.

So many of those teams were built with a full-court defense and 3-point shooting.

St. John’s had the No. 1 defense in the country this season But their shooting deserted them on Saturday and they became the first team seeded fourth or better to exit what’s been a chalky tournament so far

“Rick did a good job with his team all year,” Calipari said. “If they made a few shots, they probably beat us.”

The teams combined to make four 3-pointers on 41 attempts, with St. John’s

shooting 28% from the floor overall.

No 3 TEXAS TECH 77, No. 11

DRAKE: In Wichita, Kansas, Darrion Williams scored a season-high 28 points, JT

Toppin had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 3 seed Texas Tech dominated No. 11 seed Drake in the paint on its way to a victory Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Elijah Hawkins added 16 points for the Red Raiders (27-8), who denied the Bulldogs their first Sweet 16 trip in more than five decades and will play No. 10 seed Arkansas in the West Region semifinals Thursday night in San Francisco.

“Our guys were so composed and so tough,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said, “and that was a huge part of the win.”

BRADLEY 75, GEORGE MASON

67: In Fairfax, Virginia, Corey Thomas helped lead Bradley over George Mason on Saturday with 21 points off of the bench in a victory in the NIT

Bradley advances to play Chattanooga in the quarterfinals.

Thomas added 11 rebounds for the Braves (278). Christian Davis shot 7 for 11, including 5 for 8 from beyond the arc to also score 21 points. Duke Deen went 3 of 13 from the field (3 for 11 from 3-point range) to finish with nine points, while adding six assists.

MICHIGAN 91, TEXAS A&M 79: In Denver, Michigan is going back to the Sweet 16 a year after a 24-loss season, using Roddy Gayle’s surge to beat Texas A&M on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament.

Gayle scored 21 of his season-high 26 points in the second half to help the restocked Wolverines overcome a 10-point deficit and advance to Atlanta to face the Auburn-Creighton winner in the South Region.

Vladislav Goldin had 23 points and 12 rebounds as fifth-seeded Michigan (27-9) overcame another big day for Pharrel Payne,

who led Texas A&M with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting. CHATTANOOGA 87, DAYTON 72: In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Honor Huff had 26 points in Chattanooga’s win against Dayton on Saturday in the second round of the NIT Chattanooga advances to the quarterfinals against Bradley Huff shot 7 for 12 (5 for 10 from 3-point range) and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line for the Mocs (26-9). Trey Bonham scored 25 points while shooting 8 for 13 (3 for 5 from 3-point range) and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line and added eight rebounds. Collin Mulholland finished 4 of 5 from the field to finish with 11 points. It was the 11th straight win for the Mocs. AUBURN 82, CREIGHTON 70: In Lexington, Kentucky Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said a trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament was no sure thing, and experienced Creighton made his topseeded team work for it before the Tigers found their defensive mojo in the second half and closed out the ninth-seeded Bluejays on Saturday night to reach the Sweet 16. Tahaad Pettiford scored 16 of his 23 points after halftime and Chad BakerMazara added 17 points for Auburn, which held Creighton scoreless for more than six minutes during a 10-0 second-half run. Pettiford scored six points during that burst to push the Tigers to a 68-54 lead.

The No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, Auburn (30-5) moves on to the South Region semifinals in Atlanta next weekend, where it will face No. 5 seed Michigan. Pearl’s team was upset in the first round by Yale last year and he had not taken Auburn past the second round since it reached its only Final Four in 2019 This time, his goal is the Tigers’ first-ever national title.

Wade signs 6-year deal with NC State

BY AARON BEARD AP basketball writer

RALEIGH, N.C. McNeese

coach

Will Wade has a signed sixyear deal to take over as N.C. State’s next coach, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the school hasn’t publicly discussed its coaching search.

Wade’s second NCAA Tournament run in as many seasons with the Cowboys ended Saturday with a second-round loss to Purdue, which came two days after a first-round upset of his alma mater Clemson Wade’s two-year tenure in Lake

Charles marked a successful climb back after being fired at LSU in 2022 because recruiting violations allegations. Those were rooted in a federal corruption investigation in college basketball that became public in 2017, with N.C. State among the multiple schools entangled in that probe OG Media first reported earlier this week that the two sides had reached an agreement for Wade to lead the Wolfpack, while CBS Sports was first to report the signing after the Purdue loss. The 42-year-old Wade had confirmed talks with N.C. State before the Clemson win, an unusually candid response compared with coaches typically deflecting questions about other jobs.

“Just tell it like it is,” Wade said Wednesday Asked about the N.C. State job again after Saturday’s loss to Purdue, Wade said: “I’ll worry about that tomorrow Look, I’m an honest guy but today I want to put a bow on everything with McNeese if we can.”

Wade will replace Kevin Keatts, who was fired after eight seasons on March 9. That came less than a year after he guided N.C. State to its first Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title since 1987 and its first Final Four trip since the late Jim Valvano’s “Cardiac Pack” did it in an improbable 1983 NCAA title run. Keatts had guided N.C. State to three NCAA bids and had the pro-

gram in position for another when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of March Madness in 2020. But the Wolfpack went 1219 this season to kill any lingering buzz from last year’s remarkable run. That ultimately led the school to move on from Keatts even though he was under contract until April 2030, putting N.C State on the hook for roughly $6.9 million in base salary alone. And it marked a reset for the program, down to how it handles finances for roster construction with players able to profit from their athletic fame and revenue sharing set to start nationally next season. Wade’s first head-coaching job

was a two-year stint at Chattanooga from 2013-15, followed by two NCAA bids in as many seasons at VCU before leaving for LSU in 2017. The peak of his tenure with the Tigers came in his second season, with LSU winning the Southeastern Conference regular-season title and reaching the Sweet 16. He returned to the sideline after his LSU exit at McNeese in 2023, with his tenure beginning with NCAA penalties that included a 10game suspension to open his first season. But the Cowboys teams went on to win 58 games in two seasons, a rapid climb for a program that had won just 56 games combined in the five seasons before Wade’s arrival.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEVEN SENNE

Purdue forward Caleb Furst celebrates a dunk against McNeese State during the first half in an NCAA Tournament second-round game on Saturday in Providence, R.I.

ALL-METRO WRESTLING

BOYS WRESTLER OF THE YEAR

The fact Scott headlines the Baton Rouge area’s All-Metro team for the second straight season shouldn’t come as a surprise. But the path the Catholic High junior took to claim his second straight Division I LHSAA individual title with a 44-2 record is one of the special storylines of the season.

Physical growth often dictates moves between weight classes A year after winning the Division I title at 132 pounds, Scott competed four weight classes higher and was even more dominant at 157.

“This was the first year I was undefeated against wrestlers in Louisiana,” Scott said.“I’ll be honest, I was pretty nervous going into the season I weighed in at 138 pounds not that long before the season started. I kept getting

FIRST TEAM

AIDEN THAI Dutchtown, So. 36-10 at 106 pounds

CALEB KIRK Catholic, Fr. 41-3 at 113 pounds

ALEX SONNIER Catholic, eighth grade 29-7 at 120 pounds

MARK EVANS Catholic, So. 45-8 at 126 pounds

KYE KARCHER Walker, Sr 63-12 at 132 pounds

bigger

“I would say I was on a diet to get to 138, but I was lying to myself.And I wasn’t sure I was big enough to wrestle the higher weight classes. I started the season at 157 and figured maybe I would end up at 150. It was a big change.”

Ultimately, Catholic coach Tommy Prochaska and Scott settled on the 157-pound class as the perfect fit that also benefitted a young Catholic lineup. Scott’s only losses were to an Alabama competitor early in the season. He has a 122-14 career record.

“I know there were people who thought I was just fat and not strong enough to wrestle at 157,” Scott said.“So, I had something to prove.” RobinFambrough

AIDEN KRASS East Ascension, Sr. 59-4 at 138 pounds

COLE GROS Dutchtown, Sr. 43-3 at 144 pounds

JACURY JOHNSON Zachary, Sr. 19-8 at 150 pounds

KRISTIAN SCOTT Catholic, Jr. 44-2 at 157 pounds

BRAYLON STEWART East Ascension, So. 24-2 at 165 pounds

BRADLEY ANDERSON St.Amant, Sr. 51-10 at 175 pounds

BILLY EDMONSTON Live Oak, Jr. 49-6 at 190 pounds

EVAN AGRISANO Dutchtown, Sr. 43-3 at 215 pounds

AIDAN AGRISANO Dutchtown, Sr. 35-1 at 285 pounds

WRESTLER OF THE YEAR

St.

during

An unbeaten record is one way to define dominance. Margin of victory is another

Byington checked both boxes in a big way, which is why she headlines the All-Metro team selected by area coaches in the first LHSAA sanctioned season for girls wrestling

to keep

“My confidence improved so much from last year and that was a big part of it. So was the approach we took going into every match.” St.Amant coach Clint Brownell sent Byington into the season with a strategy that more than matched her confidence.

The St.Amant junior finished 30-0 and won the 100-pound weight at the LHSAA wrestling tournament. She won 23 matches by pins and three others by technical falls.

“I had an idea there was a chance I could go undefeated,” Byington said.“What I didn’t realize was that the skill gap would be large enough for me to not only go unbeaten, but to do some of the other things I did.

FIRST TEAM

MIKAYLA BYINGTON St.Amant, Jr. 30-0 at 100 pounds

VICKY NGUYEN Baton Rouge High, Sr 25-8 at 107 pounds

CARSON BOOTY Central, Fr. 24-9 at 114 pounds

CARMEN MUELLER Baton Rouge High, So. 11-8 at 120 pounds

“We came up with a game of getting her in position to make certain moves from the top position that will guarantee (pins),” Brownell said.“Against wrestlers who are not as skilled, it’s easier To succeed against the top wrestlers, you have to really stick the move Mikayla works very hard every day she made that happen. Only one competitor took Byington to three periods during the season.Two made it to the second period.

RobinFambrough

ISABELLA GUILLORY

East Ascension, So. 42-4 at 126 pounds

TAYLOR TELLIFERO Central, Jr. 32-5 at 132 pounds

SAVANNAH CARMARATA Albany, So. 34-1 at 138 pounds

ROSELYN MIRANDA

Baton Rouge High, Sr. 18-7 at 145 pounds

OLIVIA MAXIE

Baton Rouge High, Jr. 23-3 at 152 pounds

BRIANNA BONTON

Baton Rouge High, Sr. 22-8 at 165 pounds

IRANIE HARRISON Brusly, Jr 16-2 at 185 pounds

ZY’MYARIA WILLIAMS Tara, Jr. 36-4 at 235 pounds

BREANN CULLEN East Ascension 185 pounds

ALLISON HERNANDEZ Baton Rouge High 235 pounds

DONTRELL

AZIAH

Dutchtown 165 pounds

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Catholic’s Kristian Scott, left, battles Holy Cross’ Nick DiGerolamo in the 157-pound championship match during the Louisiana Classic in Gonzales. Scott, who defeated DiGerolamo 10-6, finished with a 44-2 record, including the LHSAA state championship.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Amant’s Mikayla Byington, rear, battles

control against Walker’s Willow Dixon

the Louisiana Classic on Jan. 19 in Gonzales. Byington, who won with a pin, went 30-0 in her junior season and won her weight class at the state meet in Bossier City

LSU’s Johnson managing games ‘a little differently’

Coach confident in bullpen’s depth, ability

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

In 2022, there were three arms that coach Jay Johnson couldn’t stop turning to. Paul Gervase, Eric Reyzelman and Riley Cooper seemingly pitched three times a week for LSU that season. Cooper made 30 appearances. Reyzelman and Gervase made 29.

The trio anchored a strong bullpen, but a lack of innings from the starters placed an inordinate amount of pressure on them and others, like Trent Vietmeier and Bryce Collins.

The Tigers had the offense in Johnson’s first season to compete in the SEC, but their poor starting rotation resulted in their downfall. The bullpen eventually cracked and LSU got eliminated in the Hattiesburg Regional.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Johnson said on Wednesday “Whether it was Tuesday night, Friday, Saturday or Sunday Cooper, Gervase and Reyzelman were throwing three of the three games a week.” Johnson is, at least seemingly, confident LSU doesn’t have that problem this season He’s not overtly worried about tiring out his relievers by the end of the year

Last weekend against Missouri, neither LSU starter got past the fourth inning. Junior right-handers Anthony Eyanson and Chase Shores couldn’t escape their respective jams and combined to allow seven earned runs in 71/3 innings.

Their shorter outings placed extra pressure on the Tigers’ bullpen, even if it mostly came through, allowing just four earned runs in 102/3 innings.

Despite the abbreviated performances from Eyanson and Shores, Johnson was unbothered with how they pitched.

“They were both really close to going a little bit deeper,” Johnson said. “I made a decision based on what I thought was best to win those games, and it really wasn’t even in their control.

“Because those types of guys throughout the league got left in a little bit longer (last weekend), I

just feel like we have the options to do it a little differently.”

Johnson’s confidence in LSU’s bullpen depth is what allows him to manage games “a little differently,” whether it’s utilizing freshmen such as right-handers William Schmidt and Casan Evans, or turning to junior left-hander Conner Ware or junior right-hander Zac Cowan.

Not only does LSU have the numbers out of the bullpen, most of its top relievers have been stretched out to throw multiple innings. That’s different than what LSU has had the last few seasons.

“We have so much depth that we don’t need guys to go seven shut down innings,” junior first baseman Jared Jones said. “If you can give us two to three of your best stuff, and then we can get you out and get the next guy in.”

But getting those arms rest on Tuesday helped. In its 11-1 win over UNO, LSU didn’t use any of the relievers who threw over the weekend against Missouri.

They had four days to recover before this weekend’s series with Texas.

“None of them have had four days off since we started the season because of how condensed the schedule has been and some of the games that we’ve played in,” Johnson said. “So I think they’ll be really fresh this weekend.”

Johnson also notes that there’s value in having relievers pitch three to four times a week. That’s what they’re tasked to do in MLB.

However, LSU can’t win the national championship this weekend or next. It’ll need everyone — especially its bullpen — to be crisp in June when the Tigers actually have a chance of making a run to Omaha.

“I looked very intently at last night’s game, going into the game, of what was the best thing to do,” Johnson said Wednesday “Obviously, to win the game at hand, but (also) for what you’re talking about.

“But there’s more than one way to kind of work through that.”

Email Koki Riley at Koki Riley@theadvocate.com.

RB Emery not returning to LSU for seventh year

Kelly says team ‘set’ at running back ahead of 2025 season

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

Former LSU running back John Emery wants to play another year of college football, but it appears he won’t have the option to return to the Tigers.

LSU coach Brian Kelly said Saturday that while the team will be supportive of Emery as he tries to continue his career, LSU is “set” at running back ahead of the 2025 season.

“We’ll be supportive in any way that we can, but we’re set where we’re at in terms of the running back position,” Kelly said. “But love John, and we’ll be here to help and support him. If he’s given a seventh year, he’s certainly a young man that can help somebody in the Power Four.”

Emery announced Thursday that he had decided to pursue a seventh season of college football, which could be available after he only played in one game this past fall before suffering a torn ACL. Emery’s agent told The Advocate they have not decided where Emery will play next season.

“We haven’t talked to John about it,” Kelly said “It was the first that we heard.”

A five-star recruit in the 2019 class from St. Rose, Emery spent his first six seasons at LSU. He rushed for 1,123 yards and 14 touchdowns and caught 37 passes for 328 yards and two scores.

Emery missed the entire 2021 season and the first two games of the 2022 season because he was ruled academically ineligible. After finding a role, he later suffered a torn ACL in November 2023. Emery entered the transfer portal after the injury and briefly committed to UCLA, but he ultimately returned to LSU for his sixth year In a 27-20 season-opening loss to Southern Cal, Emery was LSU’s leading rusher with 61 yards on 10 carries. A few days later, he suffered his second ACL injury in as many seasons during a noncontact drill.

“We feel so bad for him and his family,” Kelly said at the time. “But you know, John has overcome so much. So proud of what he’s accomplished in getting his degree from LSU, and he’s going to be successful in life. And you know, we’ll see what the future

to college football for a seventh season.

holds for him.”

LSU currently has four scholarship running backs available going into the 2025 season: sophomore Caden Durham, junior Kaleb Jackson, five-star early enrollee Harlem Berry and freshman JT Lindsey Durham was LSU’s leading rusher last year with 753 yards and six touchdowns, even though he played through a toe injury most of the season.

“We’re doing some things in the spring that are first-time looks for him,” Kelly said. “I don’t want to give many things away, but those things that we’re really focusing on, they’re new looks for him. He’s got to get comfortable in that because that’s going to be featured within our offensive structure.”

Jackson has spent most of the spring as LSU’s second-team running back as he tries to carve out a role in the backfield. After a promising freshman year Jackson gained 10 pounds and only

rushed for 150 yards without a score last season.

“This has been more about him acclimatizing to his weight,” Kelly said. “He struggled the last year with his size and volume, and he’s been great this spring. He has really crossed that hurdle.

“And then add Harlem Berry into it, who’s just figuring out the offense, but you can tell he’s extremely talented And now it’s just a matter of him learning the offense and putting a coat of armor on him.”

Redshirt sophomore running back Trey Holly could also rejoin the team before the season. Holly has been indefinitely suspended since he was arrested in Feb. 2024 in connection with a shooting. He has a trial date set July 7, and the outcome could clear his return to the field.

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

any event.

“I used a baseball analogy with them,” LSU coach Jay Clark said. “I told them don’t worry about hitting home runs. Just keep making contact and you’ll be fine.

“There are always places where we can improve, but I like this team’s confidence level right now.”

It is LSU’s fifth SEC team championship since 2017 and sixth overall. The Tigers also won share of the SEC regular-season championship with No 1 OU, defeating the Sooners for the second time in three meetings this season. Now, LSU coach Jay Clark said the Tigers may take the No 1 ranking away from OU going into NCAA regionals in two weeks.

LSU led after the first and second rotations competing on uneven bars then beam but trailed after a strong 49.625 on floor because Florida wired bars with a 49.850. The Gators got two 10.0 scores from Leanne Wong and Riley McCusker LSU went to vault trailing 148.725-148.675 while Florida went to beam.

“I told them to keep getting base hits, that you’ve crushed this meet so far,” Clark said. “We weren’t perfect, but we were really good.” Bryant and Finnegan shared the SEC beam title with Missouri’s Helen Hu and Oklahoma’s Faith Torrez, all scoring 9.925s.

Bryant said the Tigers stayed calm as the meet started heating up.

“We always say control what we can control,” she said. “We couldn’t control the 10s flying around and the crowd was starting to get excited. At the end of the day we brought it home.”

Bryant’s performance marked a comeback of sorts for her She suffered an elbow injury in December then competed on one event, then two, three and finally all four in the past few weeks.

“It feels amazing,” Bryant said.

BULLPEN

got a groundout and allowed a pair of singles before exiting for redshirt sophomore left-hander DJ Primeaux. Primeaux recorded a strikeout for the second out of the inning, but couldn’t escape the jam. He surrendered a single to sophomore Will Gasparino that gave the lead back to the Longhorns.

Primeaux got out of the inning, but LSU went down in order in the top of the eighth inning before Texas scored three more runs in the bottom half of the frame to secure the victory

and letting just one runner reach in scoring position. But he eventually ran into trouble in the fourth after surrendering three consecutive one-out singles that resulted in a run, cutting the Texas deficit to 2-1. Eyanson got a ground out to stop the streak but it allowed the game-tying run to come across. He got the first out of the fifth but exited for junior left-hander Conner Ware after giving up a walk and a single. With runners on the corners, a passed ball allowed a run to score before Ware walking left-handed hitter Max Belyeu.

LSU, 39.725; T2. Aleah Finnegan, LSU, Selena HarrisMiranda, Florida, 39.675; 4. Kailin Chio, LSU 39.650. Vault — 1. Selena Harris-Miranda, Florida, 10.0; T2. Haleigh Bryant, LSU, 9.95; T5. Lexi Zeiss, Aleah Finnegan, Kailin Chio, LSU 9.90; T9. KJ Johnson, LSU, 9.875; T19. Amari Drayton, LSU, 9.80. Bars T1. Leanne Wong, Riley McCusker, Florida, Mara Titarsolej, Missouri, 10.0; T5 Kailin Chio, Aleah Finnegan, LSU, 9.95; T13. Ashley Cowan, Konnor McClain, Haleigh Bryant, LSU 9.90; T19. Lexi Zeiss, LSU, 9.875. Beam T1. Haleigh Bryant, Aleah Finnegan, LSU, Helen Hu, Missouri, Faith Torrez, Oklahoma, 9.925; 5. Konnor McClain, LSU, 9.90; T10. Sierra Ballard, Kylie Coen, Kailin Chio, LSU, 9.85. Floor — 1. Faith Torrez, Oklahoma, 10.0; T2 Kailin Chio, Amari Drayton, Haleigh Bryant, LSU, 9.95; T9. Aleah Finnegan, LSU, 9.90; T13. Kylie Coen, LSU, 9.875; 24. Sierra Ballard, LSU, 9.775. Attendance: 6,923.

“I started the season slow but it’s felt really good to gain my confi dence.”

Harris-Miranda won vault with a perfect 10 while Missouri’s Mara Titarsolej tied Wong and McCusker with perfect scores on bars. Torrez also won floor with a perfect 10

Finnegan finished with one last SEC title after having a spate of out of bounds steps on floor during the season. She had a 9.90 on floor this time but left with one last conference trophy on beam where she had a perfect two weeks ago at home against Georgia.

“I started to tear up at the end,” a smiling Finnegan said. “It’s an honor to compete in the SEC and for LSU.”

LSU returns home to await its NCAA regional assignment. The NCAA selection show will be aired at 11 a.m Monday on ESPNU. LSU will be the top seed in its regional, likely in Seattle but possibly in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; or University Park, Pennsylvania.

Regionals will be held April 2-6, with the NCAA Championships set for April 17-19 in Fort Worth, Texas.

LSU’s bullpen on Saturday allowed seven earned runs and nine hits in 32/3 innings, walking five batters and recording just one strikeout. Texas had the 6-5 lead heading into the sixth inning but freshman Derek Curiel blasted a two-run home run with two outs The opposite field blast into the LSU bullpen was his second homer of the year

Benge tossed a scoreless sixth inning, but LSU couldn’t extend its tight lead in the seventh.

LSU’s first counterpunch of the evening came with the score tied at two in the fifth inning.

A run-scoring double from junior Jared Jones, a run-scoring single from sophomore Jake Brown who came in for junior designated hitter Ethan Frey — and a sacrifice fly out from sophomore Steven Milam handed the Tigers a 5-2 advantage.

LSU finished the night with nine hits, including four hits that went for extra bases. The Tigers were 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

LSU junior right-handed starter Anthony Eyanson cruised through the first three innings, not allowing any hits

Freshman right-hander William Schmidt came replaced Ware and forced a fielder’s choice to get the second out But then he surrendered a threerun home run to Rylan Glavan, a blast to left-center field that gave Texas a 6-5 lead.

Eyanson’s final line: 41/3 innings, four earned runs, four hits and two walks. It wasn’t pretty on paper, but he also didn’t allow a hit until the fourth.

Schmidt surrendered a double and walked two batters after Galvan’s homer Benge replaced him after the second walk and forced a pop out that ended the bases loaded threat.

LSU’s offense got off to another relatively slow start, failing to tally a hit until the third inning.

Its first runs of the evening came in the fourth on a runscoring walk from Milam and a fielder’s choice hit by senior Luis Hernandez. The runs gave LSU a 2-0 lead before Texas tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. LSU and Texas square off for the final game of the series on Sunday First pitch from UFCU Fisch-Falk Field is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be available to stream on SEC Network+. Email Koki Riley at Koki.

PHOTO By PATRICK DENNIS

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK LSU running back John Emery runs the ball in the first half against Florida on Nov. 11 at Tiger Stadium. Emery announced Thursday he would return

OUTDOORS

Lookin’ for lunkers

Rodeo anglers hope for improved bass conditions

BY JOE MACALUSO Contributing writer

Ah springtime and an angler’s fancy turns to bass

Yes, spring sprung Friday, and it should be the time we can expect most bass calling south Louisiana waters home to be moving to places they can make lots of little bass. It’s been a frustrating past few weeks. Rain has led to a series of extra-windy cold fronts. The rain has kept water levels fluctuating and the wind shifting from south to north and south have kept spawning banks muddy If there’s one thing a mama bass doesn’t like it’s muddy water. She needs clear water and sunshine to warm fertilized eggs for several days to produce the fry we hope will grow into adult spawners one day

What all this means is male bass, the ones preparing the spawning beds, move in to the shallows on post-cold front days only to have to repeat the process after another front.

So the mama bass are hanging around in prespawn areas waiting for their partner to usher them to a perfectly prepared spawning area. For the most part, these females continue to be in prespawn mode. For Saturday coming, the folks throwing their hats into the ring for the annual City Park Big Bass Rodeo in New Orleans hope there is enough action along the banks of the miles of the park’s lagoons to make for another successful morning.

It’s the 76th time folks will gather for this event, making it the oldest freshwater fishing competition in our country Better even, it’s for more than

TUESDAY LA. REGIONAL FISHERIES SUMMIT: 9 a.m.-3:45 p.m., Municipal Auditorium, 2056 Second Street, Slidell. Freshwater impacts in Pontchartrain Basin focusing on recreationfor-hire & commercial fishing. Lunch provided. La. SeaGrant & LSU AgCenter event. Registration requested. Website: forms.gle/emTopkGAs1yoZjy29

NOTEBOOK

bass. There is a category for bream and both have adult, youth and team divisions. There’s competition for school students in what’s called the Battle for the Bass, and a Kayak/Canoe Boats on the Bayou contest in nearby Bayou St. John.

Oh, and the event’s title is completed by adding a Fishtival with games, music, exhibits and kid-friendly activities near the park’s Casino (not that kind of a casino, the one where long-ago parties and dances were held near the bandstand)

If you fish, and you’re 18 and older, you need a basic fishing license.

Organizers would like participants to register in advance. That website: neworleanscitypark.org/ visit-city-park/big-bass-fishingrodeo/

More on waterfowl

Ducks Unlimited published its annual postseason report last week and its staff posted some interesting results.

With avian flu grabbing daily headlines, DU’s biologists reported the biggest impact appears in ring-necked ducks and several goose species, and, “while mortality events in southern areas faded as winter progressed, outbreaks increased in northern states during February and March,” and they suggested the virus “has relatively small effects on overall populations.”

Also cited was 2024’s early spring led to an early migration and ducks found little water in the prairies which led the ducks to fly farther north into the Boreal Forest area. The breeding areas in the

CALENDAR

HUNTING SEASONS

TURKEY: March 29-30, Youth/Physically Challenged special weekend. Area A: April 5-May 4; Area B: April 5-27; Area C: April 5-20. AROUND THE CORNER MARCH 29—SOUTH LOUISIANA HIGHPOWER CLUB MATCH: 8:30 a.m., Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Range, St. Landry Road, Gonzales. CMP GSSM, NRA match rifle or service rifle, 200-yard/50-rounds match course & Prone matches. Fees $5-$15. Club/ CMP membership $25. Call (337) 3808120. Email Mike Burke: SouthLaHighPower@hotmail.com

APRIL 2-3—BASSMASTER COLLEGE SERIES/LEGENDS TRAIL: Lake Eufaula, Eufaula, Oklahoma. Website: bassmaster.com

Larson misses out on sweep at Homestead

BY ALANIS THAMES Associated Press

HOMESTEAD, Fla. Kyle Larson is tired of his weekends at Homestead-Miami Speedway ending in disappointment.

ä Straight Talk Wireless 400.

SPORTSMAN SHOW: St. John the Baptist Community Center, Daley Memorial Park, LaPlace Noon-7 p.m., Friday (free admission); 9 a.m.-7 p.m., Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday. Kids fishing tournament, displays, $10 fee, 10-&-younger free.

SATURDAY

76TH ANNUAL BIG BASS RODEO & FISHTIVAL: 6 a.m. registration (fishing 6:30-11 a.m.), The Casino & Popp Bandstand area, City Park, New Orleans. Age-group divisions in bass & other freshwater species, high school teams Battle for the Bass & Boats on the Bayou (nonmotorized watercraft) divisioins & “Fishtival,” a family-oriented outdoors event. Fees $5-$20. Website: BigBassFishingRodeo.com

APRIL 3—LA. WILDLIFE & FISHERIES COMMISSION MEETING: 9:30 a.m., Joe Herring Room, state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, Quail Drive, Baton Rouge. APRIL 3-6—MLF BASS PRO TOUR: Redcrest 2025, Lake Guntersville, Huntsville, Alabama. Website: MajorLeagueFishing.com

APRIL 4-6—FATHER-CHILD FUN CAMP: Families Understanding Nature weekend, Woodworth Outdoor Education Center, Woodworth. Parents with children ages 10-13. Preregistration required. Fee $50/family (two children; $25/additional child; includes lodging, meals, supplies) Registration website: wlf.louisiana. gov/page/fun-camp Also, Oct. 10-12, Mother-Child Camp. Email Mitchell Hukins: mhukins@wlf.la.gov

U.S. were wet, but Canada’s May pond count hit a 20-year low

The report further stated, “The combined effect of below average duck populations and variable habitat conditions set the stage for an average or slightly below average fall flight.”

Then, there was something most all Louisiana hunters experienced. Unusually warm conditions from September into early December delayed the migration and it wasn’t until Arctic cold came in late December and even colder fronts in January that ducks pushed hard into the Deep South.

As for this breeding cycle, DU’s staff expects, “the 2025 breeding population to be similar to last year and widespread spring and summer rain will be needed to improve conditions across the Prairie Pothole Region.”

You can find the complete report on DU’s website: ducks.org

The survey

State Wildlife and Fisheries sent an email last week to selected waterfowl hunters to direct them to a site for an updated Harvest Information Program survey to selected waterfowl hunters

The survey is conducted every five years in advance of the state’s next plan for a five-year plan (through the 2030 season) LDWF must submit to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service outlining zones and other details for waterfowl seasons. This survey has 37 questions.

If you need more information, email Jeffrey Duguay; jduguay@wlf la.gov or state Waterfowl Program manager Jason Olszak: jolszak@wlf la.gov

APRIL 4-7—COLDWATER FLY FISHING

WEEKEND: Little Missouri River, Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Red Stick Fly Fishers event. Call Cole Miller (225) 921-9192. APRIL 5—LA. HIGH SCHOOL/JUNIOR QUALIFIER/WEST DIVISION: Butte Larose Landing, Henderson Lake. Call Tommy Abbott (504) 722-6638. Website: louisianahighschoolbassnation.com

FISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Inshore season closed except in Breton/Chandeleur sounds & all outside waters open.

CLOSED SEASONS: Greater amberjack, red snapper; gag, goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters. OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Flounder; lane, blackfin, queen and silk snappers & wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers except closed for goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

LDWF UPDATES

CLOSED: Pearl River WMA (Old U.S 11 gate & shooting range; flooding); Hope Canal Road/boat launch (Maurepas Swamp WMA, levee construction); Blackhawk Boat Landing, Annie’s Lake, Lincecum, Union Point, Dobbs Bay & Routen Camp roads and the Warren Trailhead (Richard Yancey WMA, flooding, culvert failure).

EMAIL: jmacaluso@theadvocate.com

The Hendrick Motorsports driver has won a NACAR Cup Series race and Xfinity Series race in his career at the South Florida track, but he mostly just remembers the heartbreaks there.

“Bummer, again, to have another Homestead race play out that way I can’t go when my rear tires are off the ground. So I know it looks like I choked another one away, but I did everything I thought I could (to win). The 41 just lagged back and slammed me.”

KyLE LARSON, NASCAR driver

2 P.M.SUNDAy,FS1

Last year it was a 13th-place finish in the playoff race. On Saturday, it was a late collapse in the Xfinity Series that cost him a chance of sweeping the weekend.

Larson, who is competing in the Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck races at the 1.5-mile track in Homestead, was hoping to join Kyle Busch as the only drivers to sweep a triple-header weekend — Busch did it at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2010 and 2017.

Larson got off to a good start, rallying from a late-race spinout to pull off a comeback win in the Truck Series on Friday In the Xfinity Series on Saturday, it looked like he was on his way to a dominant win. He held a 16-second lead in the race before a late spin by Taylor Gray caused a caution with seven laps to go. On the overtime restart, Sam Mayer’s No. 41 Ford made contact with the back of Larson’s No. 17 Chevrolet, costing him the win.

“Bummer, again, to have another Homestead race play out that way,” Larson said. “I can’t go when my rear tires are off the ground. So I know it looks like I choked another one away, but I did everything I thought I could (to win). The 41 just lagged back and slammed me.”

Larson led 132 of 201 laps and finished fourth. It was another disappointing end at one of his best tracks.

Larson has five top-five finishes in 11 Cup starts in his career at Homestead — two driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He’s led the most laps (626) of any active driver, and his 12 stage wins in the Next Gen car is a series best. No other driver has more than five stage wins.

Larson finished fourth in 2021 and won the race in 2022 but left frustrated the past two years.

He was out of the race at Lap 214 in 2023 after slamming into the pit road barriers trying to overtake Ryan Blaney for the lead. Last year Larson’s winning chance ended when he spun while racing Blaney for the lead with under 20 laps to go.

“I feel like every time I go there (to Homestead) you leave disappointed because you feel like you have the best car or truck, and things don’t work out,” Larson said this week. “Whether it’s mistakes on my end or ill-timed cautions combined with a hiccup on pit road, or whatever late in the race, and you end up losing.

“Literally all but maybe two or three races at Homestead I felt like we had the best car, best chance of winning, and we don’t have the wins to show for it.” Rule clarification

NASCAR sent out a clarification to race teams in all three national series on pitting in another team’s pit stall after Christopher Bell stopped in the pit stall of his Joe

Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe to have a loose left wheel tightened during the Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas last weekend. If a vehicle gets service in another team’s pit stall to fix a safety issue, it will receive a flag status penalty, NASCAR said, and they’ll either have to restart at the tail of the field or receive a pass-through for pitting outside the assigned pit box.

The left-front wheel was loose on Bell’s No. 20 Toyota when he was exiting pit road last week. If the wheel came off after he exited pit road, Bell would have been penalized two laps and had two pit crew members suspended for the next two races.

He stopped in Briscoe’s stall for service instead, was dinged for pitting outside the box and only had to restart at the back of the field. He finished 12th. NASCAR listed tightening loose wheels, removing a fuel can or a wedge wrench as examples of safety issues.

Hamlin’s new sponsor

Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday that the organization signed an agreement with Progressive Insurance to sponsor Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota Camry in 18 NASCAR Cup Series races this season, starting with Sunday’s race in Homestead. Progressive’s name and blue branding will be displayed on Hamlin’s car and race suit, and his crew will wear Progressive branded gear

“It’s good for them (Joe Gibbs Racing) to have an anchor partner,” Hamlin said, “and certainly for my fans’ sake, they’re going to be able to identify me weekto-week. And I think that’s something that certainly is very important. So feeling out those 18 races is going to be a big deal for myself and Gibbs throughout the year.”

On the pole

Hendrick Motorsports driver

Alex Bowman won the pole for Sunday’s race while driving a No. 48 Toyota that promotes the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled, which just wrapped up its inaugural season in Miami. It’s the sixth career pole for Bowman, who was followed by Josh Berry the winner at Las Vegas last weekend — Noah Gragson, Briscoe and William Byron.

Odds and ends Larson (+375) is the BetMGM Sportsbook favorite, followed by Tyler Reddick (+600). Larson’s 1,286 total miles led on the 1.5-mile tracks is almost double that of any other driver. Bell is second with 614. Reddick won the race last year, while Hamlin leads active drivers with three wins (2009, ’13, ’20).

This Brother Martin High School team was dubbed the ‘The Miracle Workers,’ before they defended their Battle of the Bass title during the 74th annual City Park Big Bass Rodeo in 2023. The Miracle Workers’ 4.99-pound catch was taken by, from left, Hudson Cammarata, Nathan Wellman, Connor Farrae, Ethan Dietzway and Henry Dauterive. On Saturday, high school teams can compete in one of several categories for the 76th annual event held at City Park in New Orleans.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By IAN MAULE

Kyle Larson celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 3 in Las Vegas.

THE VARSITY ZONE

Coach remembers mentor, friend

Episcopal’s Wharton pens book about Knights great Williams

Taylor Mims Wharton knew the story she wanted to tell And after a late night wakeup with her infant daughter, she wrote it.

Less than three months later the Episcopal girls basketball coach/ assistant athletic director is the selfpublished author of “The Bright Light of Jimmy Jyamm,” the story of her friend and mentor, the late Jimmy Williams

“I knew every detail of this story,” Wharton said. “I figured if I was already up late, I might as well be productive.

“I wrote it all in one night. I had just finished my doctorate not that long ago, so I was used to writing up to 20 pages a night. So it came together that fast.”

The book for children ages five

Eagles down rival Denham Springs

BY WILLIAM WEATHERS Contributing writer

That Denham Springs was among the state’s winningest teams was enough to get Live Oak’s attention. Throw in the two La. 16 rivals were part of a threeway tie for the District 5-5A lead and there was added significance for Saturday’s showdown.

UL signee Sawyer Pruitt, who pitched no-hit baseball for five innings, finished with a one-hit effort as Live Oak stretched an early three-run lead with three runs over the final two innings for a 6-1 victory at Denham Springs.

“When you’re the best team (No. 1 in Division I nonselect power ratings) in the state, everybody’s going to bring their best stuff,” said Live Oak first baseman Jace Griffin, who had three of his team’s eight hits. “We have what I think is the best pitcher in the state on the mound, and when you get three runs early he can just go out there and work and relax the rest of the game.”

Live Oak (18-4, 5-0 in 5-5A) hosts No. 7 Denham Springs (19-5, 2-1) in the series finale at 6 p.m. Tuesday Pruitt (5-1) lost his no-hit bid in the sixth when Denham Springs’ lead-off batter Kayden Boyer singled to right. He responded with his seventh strikeout of the game and shortstop Brayden Allen initiated an inning-ending double play on a groundball.

Pruitt walked two and hit a batter in six innings. Reliever Rezin Lindsay worked the seventh, allowing an unearned run on pinchhitter’s Jaden Kent’s double-play grounder

to 10 debuted March 10 and can be purchased on Amazon. Its debut came just a few weeks after Wharton and her team wrapped up their season in the Division III select regional playoff round. Williams, a star athlete at Episcopal and Vanderbilt, played six seasons in the NFL and ultimately came back to Episcopal as a coach and later assistant athletic director He died in July 2023, losing a private battle with cancer

and his son Ace became family too.

“It was important for me to show different parts of Jimmy’s life and the people in it,” Wharton said. “Obviously, Episcopal is part of it. Jimmy also loved Vanderbilt. That was a big part of his life too, so there is a page dedicated to that.

Wharton’s ties to Williams began in 1996-97 when she came to Episcopal as a student. A school tradition pairs each senior with a kindergarten student. Wharton was supposed to be paired with a senior girl, but Williams, a foursport star at the school, became her senior buddy instead.

From there, Wharton had a special view of Williams’ life through his college years, NFL days. Then they became co-workers at the school. Williams’ wife Chandra

“There is a page for Chandra and one for Ace. And also one for Jimmy’s parents. I think people should know his whole story.”

Amazon’s publishing process includes a tool that pairs authors with illustrators from around the world. Wharton’s illustrator was from another country How quickly it all came together with illustrations that Wharton says fit her story perfectly was a welcome surprise.

Since the book’s launch, Wharton has read it to classes at Episcopal, Dunham and an elementary charter school. More readings are planned, along with a meeting with a local Barnes & Noble that could get the book on shelves soon.

“I am very pleased with the

response,” Wharton said. “Hopefully, I can share it with a lot more people.”

LHSCA all-stars

The East swept the West in the LHSCA All-Star basketball doubleheader played Saturday at McNeese’s Legacy Center in Lake Charles.

A putback at the buzzer by Wossman’s Zion Weeks gave the East an 81-80 win in the boys game.

Sulphur’s Ian Malone (West) and Isaiah Jones of Peabody (East) were the MVPs. Malone scored a game-high 17 points. Hannan’s Drew Timmons led the East with 14.

Southern Lab’s Shaila Forman (East) and Dakota Howard of Parkway (East) were the MVPs of the girls game that the East squad won 84-78.

Forman led the East with 15 points, while Reesie Jinks of Fairview had 10 for the West.

Ryan Fuqua of Harrisonburg and Alexandria’s Thamerin Balthazar were the 3-point contest winners.

Pruitt sets tone for Live Oak

PHOTO By PATRICK DENNIS

Live Oak starting pitcher Sawyer Pruitt gave up one hit in six innings against Denham Springs on Saturday at Denham Springs. He struck seven and walked two in his team’s 6-1 win.

“We thought the winner of the free-pass battle (and) the error battle would be the team that won,” Denham Springs coach Kyle Cedotal said.

“Unfortunately, we were on the losing end of that. We made too many (four) errors and gave up too many free passes and that’s kind of what hurt us.”

Live Oak took advantage of two errors that led to a 3-0 lead in the

third. The Eagles had runners at first and second when Cameron Washington reached on a lead-off error and moved around on Mac Beadle’s hit-and-run single.

After a throwing error led to the game’s first run DeKohta Jones (2 for 3, two RBIs) drew a basesloaded walk The Eagles picked up a third unearned run when Griffin scored ahead of the third out of the inning.

Denham Springs starter Chase Thibodeaux (4-2) silenced Live Oak over the next three innings on two hits. He didn’t allow an earned run on four hits and walked three before two other relievers finished up.

Live Oak increased its lead to 6-0 on back-to-back, two-out doubles from Griffin and Jones and a sacrifice fly from Washington in the seventh accounted for his team’s final run.

“I don’t care if you’ve played with them your whole life, they want to beat you,” Live Oak coach Jesse Cassard said of Denham Springs. “There has been a bit of a target on our back.

“We don’t panic. The kids have a good vibe They show up with good energy I feel like we’re getting better.”

Brusly recovers from bumpy beginning

BY CHARLES SALZER

Contributing writer

Saturday’s nondistrict baseball game between Brusly and Central Private couldn’t have started much worse for the Panthers. In the first inning, starting pitcher Aiden Harris surrendered back-to-back singles, and one batter later he had to leave the game because of an arm injury

Things got better for Brusly Relievers Brayden Brown and Brody Bourgoyne limited the Red Hawks to one hit the rest of the game, and Brusly’s offense came around as the Panthers went on to post an 8-2 win. Brusly (21-3), the top-ranked team in the Division II nonselect power ratings, put pressure on Central Private’s defense all game. The Panthers had 10 hits and also put men on base via two walks and five batters hitby-pitch.

It was plenty of support for Brown to get the win.

“Brayden was on the bench and I told him to go get loose and take all the time he needed (because of the injury),” Brusly coach Jason Lemoine said. “My goal for him was to get us nine outs and then see where we were. He did great. He got out of a bases- loaded spot, and then we brought in the next guy.”

The bases-loaded jam came in the third inning when Central Private (13-10) had two batters hit-by-pitch and a walk with one out. Brown struck out Central Private’s Aiden White and Blake Mixon to come out unscathed.

Brusly put up single runs in the first, second and fourth innings to take a 3-1 lead. The Panthers broke the game open with a four-run fifth.

Coy Purpera, who went 4-for-4 on the day, led off with a triple to right. Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases before Purpera scored on Cade Rills’ infield single to shortstop. Central Private had a chance to limit the damage and get out of the inning but a throwing error on a ground ball to shortstop cleared the bases leaving Brusly with a 7-1 lead.

In addition to his triple, Purpera also had two doubles and an RBI. The Panthers had seven batters collect at least one hit. Central Private starter Colton Grimmett surrendered seven hits in four innings. He was charged with five runs, including four earned, but limited the damage in the early going. Brusly stranded six runners in the first four innings. Clayton Kimball led the Red Hawks at the plate with two hits and a run scored.

“We’ve pitched well this season,” Central Private coach Randy Sandifer said “It’s just been things like this game where we’re about to get off the field and then we have the error. That’s the difference.”

Wharton

Robin Fambrough

Sonny Landreth

missed one chance but took another

Sonny Lan-

dreth learned decades ago to never take a gig for granted. Landreth once suffered through an off night, only to spot Bob Dylan in the audience.

Dylan was looking for a guitarist. Landreth didn’t get the job.

Music friends from England asked Landreth to record a home demo tape for their new label. He took a resonator guitar in an empty room and recorded a half-dozen songs.

The tape landed in Eric Clapton’s personal collection

“It wasn’t meant to be heard by anyone,” said Landreth, a longtime Breaux Bridge resident who now lives in Lafayette. “The next thing I know, they gave it to Eric. They all knew each other

“All they kept telling me is he’s got a copy of that tape He kept it on the bus and played it from time to time.

“When I’d run into them, they’d say, ‘Man, he’s still got that tape. He’s still playing it.’” If I would have known that, I would have tried a little harder.” That tape sparked Landreth’s longtime friendship with Clapton, the rock guitar idol who turns 80 years old March 30. Landreth will celebrate the occasion at an invitation-only birthday party March 29 at the Battersea Arts Center in London.

With 18 Grammys and 100 million records sold, Clapton reigns as one of the most influential guitarists in rock history. Songs like “Layla,” “Lay Down Sally,” “Wonderful Tonight” and “Tears in Heaven,” written following the death of his 4-yearold son Conor, have stirred generations across the globe.

As Landreth testifies, Clapton’s music exposed White kids in the suburbs to Muddy Waters, B.B. King and other blues godfathers who poured the foundation for rock ‘n’ roll. Clapton has also had high praise for Landreth, calling him “the most underestimated musician

A HIGHER CALLING

Meet ‘The Duckman,’ a BR man who spends his days caring for ducks at LSU lakes

BY HUNTER ODOM

Contributing

writer

Realizing that John Newman is as much at home at the LSU lakes as the ducks he feeds there three times a day comes easy. The “Duckman,” as he is more commonly called around these parts, has spent the last several years devoted to serving Baton Rouge’s very own resident waterfowl.

Their beauty is obvious. You just have to look for them.”

JOHN NEWMAN, aka

“The Duckman”

Driving around to several feeding grounds, Newman’s route starts at Campus Lake, where a group of Muscovy ducks immediately recognize his car as he pulls up. They start waddling toward him, tails wagging and mouths wide open, making a gentle hissing noise as they approach, resembling more a pet dog than a wild animal. Newman can hardly get out of the car before he is greeted by two of his favorites: Seymour and Goldie.

As he sets up his cardboard box to get out his usual treats — spinach, weevils and bread — pelicans, geese and other visitors fly in, anxiously awaiting.

The word is out: The Duckman has arrived.

When the feeding frenzy begins, even human passersby can’t help but be intrigued about the commotion. Newman draws a quick crowd, and he is quick to point out the different breeds he is feeding. He can even tell the names of each.

“That is Seymour,” he said. “You can tell by his beak.”

A safe harbor

Originally from Baton Rouge, Newman, 64, has moved all over the country throughout his career But it was his wife who chose to return to Baton Rouge when they retired. Shortly after returning, his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he acted as her primary caregiver for years.

In June 2022, when his wife decided to come back to their home in hospice care, he began to find solace and peace by walking from his home on Stanford Avenue to University Lake to feed the ducks on East Lakeshore Drive.

HIS FIRST HOME, LAST AND MANY IN

BY ANNETTE SISCO Staff writer

“It is a three-story building. There are a pair of alcoves, facing Toulouse Street. These alcove cubicles are separated by plywood. A curved staircase ascends from the rear of a dark narrow passageway from the street entrance to the kitchen area. From there it ascends to the third floor, or gabled attic with its mansard roof...” — from “Vieux Carré,” by Tennessee Williams

Margit Longbrake stands at the foot of the wooden staircase, which curves upward into darkness. Described by the playwright Tennessee Williams as the spiritual inspiration for the setting of his play “Vieux Carré,” 722 Toulouse St. is part of The Historic New Orleans Collection, where Longbrake works as a senior editor and expert in the collection’s Williams holdings. Scholars say 722 Toulouse inspired not just “Vieux Carré,” but the themes of many of Williams’ works, among the most famous of which are “The Glass Menagerie,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” His works, and his connections to New Orleans, are celebrated annually during the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, March 26-30 this year

In December 1938, a young Tennessee Williams climbed these timeworn steps to an attic apartment, where he spent a short but fertile couple of months. It was his first time living in New Orleans, an experience that opened up a new world. “It was a place where he could actually explore and become all of the aspects of himself that were conflicted and repressed in his traditional

STAFF

PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

John Newman greets a pair of ducks Tuesday near University Lake in Baton Rouge.

Slide guitarist

PROVIDED PHOTO

Slide guitarist Sonny Landreth

Herman Fuselier

ä See CURIOUS, page 4D

ä See LANDRETH, page 4D

ä See ‘DUCKMAN’, page 4D

ICCGBR

Members of the Inter-Civic Council of Greater Baton Rouge gathered for a meeting at Chef Don Bergeron’s City Market on March 11. Shown are, from left, Ann Roeling Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area; Doris Alexander Baker Interclub Council; ICCGBR President Kathy Coleman, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Information Center of Louisiana; John Nagle, Baton Rouge Astronomical Society; Bill Simon, East Baton Rouge Lions Club; and guest speaker Drew Walker, Capital Area Autism Network (CAAN).

Autism advocate speaks at Inter-Civic Council

Leaders of local nonprofit and community service organizations learned about efforts to coordinate resources and services to better serve persons with autism and neurodivergent conditions.

This March 11 meeting of the Inter-Civic Council of Greater Baton Rouge was at Chef Don Bergeron’s City Market. DrewWalker, executive director of the Capital Area Autism Network, discussed his organization’s activities since the mid-2010s and its current strategic plan. CAAN traces its beginning to a 2016 report issued by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, in collaboration with the Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation and SSA Consultants, that highlighted areas of greatest need in the autism community and the growing commitment of attention and resources to address the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnoses.

CAAN was created to identify and coordinate support resources within the ASD service provider community and ease the frustrations of parents and providers seeking solutions for family members and clients on the autism spectrum. An estimated 17,000 persons in the Capital Area have been di-

agnosed with autism and neurodivergent conditions.

Walker briefly described the work of CAAN task forces seeking to improve outcomes in medical and therapy services, public awareness and family support, transition and workforce development opportunities, professional workforce, and educational opportunities.

Stephanie Charles, of Epilepsy Alliance Louisiana and ICCGBR vice president, introduced the guest speaker

During the “member spotlight,” DorisAlexander, of the Baker Interclub Council, and John Nagle, of the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society, each gave a brief report on their organization’s mission, services and activities.

Kathy Coleman of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Information Center of Louisiana and ICCGBR president, encouraged those present to network with and support events conducted by other member organizations during the busy spring season.

ICCGBR members introduced themselves by name and organization and announced upcoming events of interest to the general public.

Ann Roeling, of Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area, offered an invocation, and Bill Simon, of East Baton Rouge Lions Club, led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.

COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

The Community column runs Sundays in the Living section and accepts submissions for news of events that have taken place with civic, philanthropic, social and religious auxiliary organizations, as well as academic honors.

Submissions should be sent by noon Monday to run in the upcoming Sunday column. Because of space limitations, organizations that meet monthly or more are limited to one photo per month. If submitting digitally, we prefer JPG files 300KB or larger If taking a photo of a group, have them stand or sit shoulder-to-shoulder If more than six people are in the photo, arrange them on multiple, distinct rows.Avoid strong background light sources.

Identify those pictured by first and last names as viewed from left to right, row by row.We prefer emailed Community column submissions to features@theadvocate.com.We also accept submissions by mail at P.O. Box 588 Baton Rouge LA 70821.A phone number must be included.

P.E.O. Chapter W

P.E.O Chapter W installed oficers for 2025 at its March 13 meeting at

back row, Virginia Holloway, chaplain; Diane Sistrunk, corresponding secretary; Pat Aucoin, treasurer; and Ann Sharkey, president.

ON THE ARTS AND CULTURE SCENE

manshiptheatre.org.

Color Me Fashion

The LSU Textile & Costume Museum, 140 Human Ecology Building on the corner of South Campus and Tower drives on campus, will host an opening reception for its new exhibit, “Color Me Fashion,” from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 23.

The show explores fashion history using color relationships to organize various artifacts between the years 1890 to 1990. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. the first Sunday of every month. Admission is free. For more information, call (225) 578-1807.

At the Arts Council

The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, 233 St. Ferdinand St., is hosting an opening reception for the exhibit, “Exonerated: Portraits of the Wrongly Condemned,” featuring sculptures by Becky Gottsegen, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 23. The show runs through May 14. Admission is free. Visit artsbr.org.

‘Little Women’

Tickets are on sale for Red Magnolia Theatre Co.’s production of Heather Chrisler’s new adaptation of “Little Women” opening March 28 at The Studio, 7155 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge. Dates and hours vary Tickets are $25-$35. Visit redmagnoliatc.org/tickets.

‘Doktor Kaboom!’

Tickets are on sale for “Doktor Kaboom!: Under Pressure” at 2 p.m. March 23 in the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St., Baton Rouge. Tickets are $31 plus fees. Call (225) 344-0334 or visit

BREC Art Fest

BREC will host its third annual Art Fest from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 5 at Baringer Road Art Center, 7401 Baringer Road, Baton Rouge. This free, family fest will include a morning of art demos, a collaborative community art piece, projects for young artists, fun music, treats and a display of some of the art created by students in BREC’s classes. There also will be vetted adult art vendors and young artist vendors selling different and unique art pieces and a paint-by-number art exhibit.

In conjunction with Art Fest, BREC Art is accepting pieces of paint-by-number art to be displayed at the Baringer Art Studio during the event as part of its Community Paint by Number display. Help BREC celebrate old-school style by submitting a fun, retro paint-by-number piece. The submission deadline is March 29. To submit artwork, email art@brec.org.

Symphony concert

Tickets are on sale for the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s concert, “A Night at the Movies: The Sounds of Cinema,” at 7:30 p.m. March 29 at the Raising Cane’s River Center Performing Arts Theater, 300 St. Louis St., Baton Rouge. Tickets are $19-$65. Visit brso.org.

‘Our Garden’ In Demand Art Studios, 5800 One Perkins Place, Suite 5D Baton Rouge, is showing “This is Our Garden,” featuring the work of eight Baton Rouge-area women artists. The two artists connected via Instagram last year when they participated in a

fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital called Flower Fest. Admission is free.

‘Umbrella of Color’ The

PROVIDED PHOTO

PROVIDED PHOTO

Hope Group

Members of the Hope Group from Broadmoor United Methodist Church gathered for lunch at Drusilla’s Seafood Restaurant on March 13. Gathered are, from left, Beverly Grant, Jenola Duke, Gerri Cornett, Joyce Hazleton, Charlette Hill, Joy D’Armond, Judith Burch, Carol Wiltz and Linda Crane.

PROVIDED PHOTO

La Fiesta

Members of La Fiesta assisted with arrangements for a spring luncheon at the Baton Rouge Country Club on March 12. Shown are, from left, Harriet Gaiennie, Judy Perkins, Sue Heflin and Margo Spielman.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Garden Discovery Series

The Garden Discovery Series held a program titled ‘Plant It and They Will Come’ on March 8 at the Main Library at Goodwood. Shown are, from left, Newton Spitzfaden; speaker Linda Barber Auld, ‘the NOLA Bug Lady’; Jo Ann Johnson and Patsy Greer

PROVIDED PHOTO

the home of Barbara

Long Gathered are, from left, front row, Barbara Long, recording secretary; Ann Smith, guard; and Barbara Waugh, vice-president;

PROVIDED PHOTO

BR Navy Club

The Navy Club of Baton Rouge, Ship 661 USS Kidd, held their monthly luncheon on March 11 at Piccadilly Restaurant on Sherwood Forest Boulevard. Shown are, from left, seated, Billy Dean and Jerry Pugh; standing, Tom Hirschey, Jack Laws, Gidget McIntyre, Bus Di Palma, Chick Streat, Doc Le Compte and Rick Munch.

TRAVEL

Universal’s Epic Universe in Orlando to open May 22

BY DEWAYNE BEVIL Orlando Sentinel (TNS)

ORLANDO Fla. — Universal’s Epic

Universe will celebrate its grand opening on May 22, marking Orlando’s first new theme park in a generation.

It’s a fine time to reboot and enroll in Epic 101, a course that reviews what we know and what we don’t know about Universal Orlando’s expansion, which Mark Woodbury, CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, has referred to as “the most technologically advanced park we’ve ever done.”

The park was first announced in 2019. Universal has shared details along the way about its rides, shows and hotels, but burning questions remain.

When and where

Epic Universe is under construction about 2.5 miles southeast of Universal Orlando’s existing theme parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, as well as Volcano Bay water park and Universal CityWalk. Epic is on “the other side” of Interstate 4. Universal will run buses between its original parks and hotels and the Epic area. There will be open-air parking available near Epic for visitors only going to the new park. And, as stated before, the park officially opens its doors on May 22. The theme team Epic Universe will be divided into five lands. Visitors will enter through Celestial Park, which includes a coaster and a carousel. Other lands are Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic and Dark Universe, which features classic monsters such as the Creature From the Black Lagoon, the Mummy and brides of Dracula. Alicia Stella, owner of Orlando ParkStop website, has been monitoring the park since before construction began. Some people are confused by the “five immersive worlds” push, she said, thinking that means five parks — and five tickets. It doesn’t. The rounded gateways, which Universal calls “portals,” are the walkways from Celestial Park to the other four lands, which are all part of Epic.

“People think all of the worlds are individual theme parks because they have their own portal entrance and because they’re being advertised in individual commercials,” Stella said “It’s like ‘Do I need a ticket for each world?’”

By Christopher Elliott

The portal layout, which will funnel Epic crowds into lands, concerns Tharin White, lead producer of EYNTK.info, an Orlando-based travel website. “I don’t know what happens when you have to go through a single portal to get into Super Nintendo World, to then go into a second single portal to head into the Donkey Kong Country,” he said. “To me, that just sounds like bottleneck after bottleneck after bottleneck.” Big rides on the way Yes. There will be four roller

coasters across Epic. Mine-Cart Madness, in the Donkey Kong Country subsection of Super Nintendo World, already has a talking point: A moment where the car appears to leap over a gap in its broken rail.

Hiccup’s Wing Gliders will fly over Isle of Berk; Curse of the Werewolf will be a coaster with spinning cars in Dark Universe; and Stardust Racers, operating in Celestial Park, will be a duallaunch racing ride.

Wizarding World won’t have a coaster, but it will feature Harry Potter and the Battle at the Min-

istry, a ride that follows the trial (and escape) of Dolores Umbridge, a cruel character from the Potterverse. Dark Universe will have big thrill ride. Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment will boast more than a dozen animatronic figures in an adventure that’s set beneath Frankenstein Manor

Tick-tick-tickets

Tickets are now on sale for Epic Universe, but there are limited options so far You can buy multiday Universal Orlando tickets, which come with a one-day pass for Epic Universe.

Or if you are a Universal annual passholder, you can buy one-day tickets for Epic. Ticket prices vary by date, and this category is sold out for the first 17 days that Epic is open. The lowest posted price through the rest of 2025 is $122.

More Epic tickets, including oneday tickets, will be sold before the park opens, the Universal website says. That’s also true for Universal Express, the resort’s system for skipping lines. But whether they’ll be available months, day weeks or even hours before opening isn’t known yet.

Tech talk

Officials and promotional materials have touted Epic as being technologically advanced.

Several customer-facing bits of tech, including animatronics, robotic drones, facial recognition and ride systems have been mentioned.

“I think it runs the gamut, but I think it starts with the guest experience of what they’re going to see and how they’re going to be

brought into the immersion,” said Dennis Speigel, CEO and founder of International Theme Park Services.

Super Nintendo World will include an interactive feature using a Power-Up Band wearable device to unlock additional content.

“I think technological advancement is going to be very important to the guests,” Speigel said.

Meal motifs

Restaurants will be heavily themed within Epic Universe

Among the eateries will be Mead Hall, a viking-driven establishment in Isle of Berk, and Das Stakehaus, which will be run by servants of vampires, the story goes, in Dark Universe. Toadstool Cafe in Super Nintendo World will lean into its mushroom theme with ingredients and decor

And, yes, butterbeer will be sold in the Wizarding World, just as it is in the installments at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. Will it be ready?

Speigel said he’s talked with manufacturers and installers, and none has expressed doubt. That’s rare, he said. And there’s the swagger factor

“I’ve never seen a park open with such fanfare this far in advance of that readiness and showing the pictures and providing the information that they have,” he said.

“I just think that’s a very bold statement on their part, which leads me to believe, from what I see that they are going to be ready.”

Meanwhile in Dallas

Visitors to the Universal Kids Resort under construction in suburban Frisco will be able to stomp around in Shrek’s swamp, go boating with SpongeBob SquarePants, or take a cat nap with Puss in Boots.

Universal Destinations and Experiences, a division of parent company Comcast NBCUniversal, revealed its lineup of themed lands, and its a who’s who of animated entertainment.

Slated to open in 2026, the 97acre site will be home to themed worlds including the Minions, Trolls, Gabby’s Dollhouse and Jurassic World among others, according to a release.

“At Universal Kids Resort, children will have the opportunity to play, sing, dance and discover with some of their favorite characters,” Dan Cuffe, vice president and general manager of Universal Kids Resort, said in a statement.

According to details from the company the Frisco resort will also feature a colorful, themed 300-room hotel “designed with families in mind.”

Each of the resort’s themed worlds is personalized to Universal’s characters.

Virgin Atlantic admits multiple failures in customer service

that were transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards. Can you help? — Peter Ross,Washington, D.C.

I’m sorry to hear about your ruined vacation. Virgin Atlantic should have refunded your points promptly So why didn’t it? It looks like you had a dispute with the airline after the initial cancellation

A Virgin representative rebooked you on another flight but didn’t send you a record locator, so you couldn’t be sure it was a confirmed reservation You then found an empty seat on another flight, but Virgin Atlantic wouldn’t book you on that flight. So you canceled your trip Worse, Virgin Atlantic promised to call you back to fix the problem but never did. Here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter why your flight was canceled or what kind of alternate flight your airline offered When an airline cancels your flight, you get your money or your points back. Full stop

A brief, polite email to one of the customer service managers at Virgin Atlantic or Chase might have helped. I publish both on my consumer advocacy

website, Elliott.org.

Even a quick review of your itinerary would have revealed the problems of rebooking you on a flight. But if it didn’t, then Chase should have been able to claw back your points. As I look at your correspondence with Virgin Atlantic, it appears that the airline was trying to pressure you into taking one of its upcoming flights. That’s understandable — it didn’t want to issue a refund. But rules are rules, and the airline couldn’t just keep your points. I contacted Virgin Atlantic on your behalf. A representative contacted you, and you furnished the airline with additional proof that things had gone sideways with your European vacation. The Virgin Atlantic representative admitted to “multiple failures in customer service.” Virgin Atlantic credited your points and added a flight voucher for the inconvenience. It also reimbursed you for the nonrefundable Eurostar tickets you lost.

Christopher Elliott is the author of The Unauthor-

ized Travel Manual and founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization

Lucky winner gets a bus ticket, but sisters get last laugh

BY ANDREW GATES BARRY

Contributing writer

Human Condition

Two sisters once lived in a stately old home along Bayou Teche. By circumstances unique to each of them, both had returned to live in the family residence built many years before by their father, who owned a prosperous lumber company

The older sister who had previously lived in Cuba where her husband was in the sugar business before the Castro revolution, was quite outgoing. She was on the board of directors of a local bank, and her knowledge about many subjects and topics was extensive. I saw her shortly before entering law school, and when I told her my plans, she immediately informed me all about the program. She advised on which professors to get and which ones to avoid,

LANDRETH

Continued from page 1D

on the planet, and also probably one of the most advanced.”

Landreth has been a regular performer at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festivals, including the original benefit concert in 1999 at Madison Square Garden in New York City

“He’s been so gracious and super down to earth,” said Landreth.

“He’s made everything so easy and really helped me out a lot When he came in to play with us, it was natural.

“That kind of completes the circle for me. As my career has evolved, there’ve been certain significant figures in my life in the world of music. To come back, after all this time, and make this kind of connection and play together, that’s the greatest affirmation for me.”

At 74, Landreth entertains devoted followers with brilliant technique peppered with a strong zydeco flavor He continues to be part of centennial

which was spot-on advice, along with numerous other bits of information about the school. When I asked her how she knew all of this, she replied, “I just do.”

The younger sister (my god-

tributes to one of his first mentors, Grammy Hall of Famer and zydeco king Clifton Chenier, born June 25, 1925, in Opelousas.

Besides 18 albums and two Grammy nominations, Landreth has shared the stage and studio with Jimmy Buffet, John Hiatt, Mark Knopfler, Gov’t Mule and many other stars. He plans to keep writing and recording.

“The only thing I’ve learned these decades, having survived disco and everything else, there’s nothing like live music.

People appreciate that on a very personal level.

“That’s what we do. We still sell CDs and vinyl at the shows. It’s important to keep the spontaneity factor and change it up some. As long as I can still come up with something creative, I’m still in it.”

Herman Fuselier is executive director of the St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission. A longtime journalist covering Louisiana music and culture, he lives in Opelousas. His “Zydeco Stomp” show airs at noon Saturdays on KRVS 88.7 FM.

Continued from page 1D

Call it divine or fate, but not long after his wife’s passing in October 2022, Newman awoke one morning to find that a group of 10 ducks had made their way to his front yard, looking for a home. He set up an inflatable pool and offered the ducks a safe harbor from the busy streets of Baton Rouge — until they were ready to move to University Lake. Two years later, when he found two abandoned unhatched eggs, he purchased an incubator A few weeks later on Oct. 4, 2024, Mr Duck and Baby Girl were born. Now living around the LSU lakes, Mr. Duck and Baby Girl still find their way to Newman’s feeding grounds, quickly jumping into his arms like toddlers when they arrive.

Home for generations

Baton Rouge is located in a major bird migration route, the Mississippi Flyway The city is a permanent and transient home to a vast array of waterfowl and migratory birds. At any given time of year, one can walk the LSU lakes and see different winged species.

One in particular that has exploded in population is the blackbellied whistling duck. At dawn and dusk, the whistles of thousands overhead making their diurnal migration to and from the Mississippi River to feed or roost are hard to miss The sky

fills up with these birds, flapping their white wings and whistling through their pink-orange beaks while they dot the sky

PROVIDED PHOTO In 2024, John Newman purchased an incubator to hatch duck eggs that were abandoned at the LSU lakes and two ducklings hatched in October of that year

Meanwhile, wood ducks forage through the common water hyacinth and native great egrets and great blue herons go about their day, often poised gracefully on logs for seemingly hours on end. The belted kingfisher, a small but defiant fluttering bird, is known for spearing down into the water for fish For generations, these birds have called the LSU lakes home. With spring’s arrival comes courtship and mating for local waterfowl and wildlife, which is the reason for walkers and drivers near the lakes to exercise caution as ducklings, turtle hatchlings and others make their way — often on roads.

“Their beauty is obvious,” Newman said. “You just have to look for them.”

mother) traveled extensively and sometimes very spontaneously

Once when she heard a song about Kalamazoo, she called her travel agent to book a trip there so she could see what the town

CURIOUS

Continued from page 1D

Midwestern upbringing,” Longbrake said Tuesday In New Orleans, Williams met painters and photographers, fellow gay men, barflies and others in the bohemian French Quarter

“I’m crazy about the city,” Williams wrote to his mother on Jan. 2, 1939, just days after he moved in to 722 Toulouse. “I walk continually, there is so much to see food is amazingly cheap, and the cooking is the best I have encountered,” adding diplomatically, “since I left home.”

The one-time garret and the wooden stairs are not open to the public, but it’s easy to imagine Williams, a 28-year-old writer from Missouri, trudging to the top floor of the derelict rooming house.

From his “alcove cubicle,” he would lean out the window overlooking Toulouse Street, watching neighbors, tourists and “handsome sailors,” Longbrake said.

“The boarding house remained a fixture in his imagination for decades, a creative well from which he would draw one-acts, stories, poems,” wrote Robert Bray, founding editor of the Tennessee Williams Annual Review, in 2000. 1014 Dumaine St.

Fast-forward 25 years. Williams bought this compound of six apartments, with a lush patio and pool, after he became successful in the 1960s. He took over a twobedroom, two-bath apartment with a balcony on the second floor

In 1981, Drs. Brobson Lutz and Ken Combs moved in next door and discovered they had a famous neighbor

“The first Saturday night we were here, we heard all this commotion over across the courtyard fence,” Lutz recalled recently “Music, big party going on. Sunday we got a little ladder and looked over the fence. There was all this debris from what had been a huge party, with six or seven bodies lying around.

“That’s when we found out that Tennessee Williams owned the property next door.”

“We got to know him casually,” Lutz said.

When Williams decided to put the property up for sale in summer 1983, Lutz and Combs offered to buy it.

“We crafted a contract with an agreement that he would keep his apartment on the second floor for as long as he lived, for $100 a month,” Lutz said. “That was very appealing to him because he had a lot of junk up there, and he didn’t want to move it.”

The playwright died just months later, at the Hotel Elysée in New York. He was 71.

Within hours, a Pinkerton guard appeared at the Dumaine Street compound and set up shop on the second-floor landing to guard the apartment, Lutz said. Williams’ estate sent a moving van to New Orleans after three or four weeks. “They completely cleared out the apartment, except for some hidden pill bottles they didn’t find,” Lutz said.

“He was jovial, a pleasant drunk most of the time,” Lutz said. “He always had on something with a vintage flair to it. Our old friend Dan Mosley who knew him before we knew him, talked about how every day, regardless of the time of year, he would go out and jump in the swimming pool. He would walk out in his fur coat, hand it to his manservant, or boy, and jump into the pool.”

The six apartments are mostly unchanged, with green tile bathrooms dating back to Williams’ time, Lutz said. Apartment B,

was all about. She also loved trains, and one year for her birthday, the older sister acquired a caboose and had it shipped by barge up the bayou and delivered by crane into the backyard. Amazon Prime and other modern-day delivery services take note!

One summer, the sisters planned to host a dinner party for a special occasion. They furthermore announced that a “nice” door prize would be awarded to one of the lucky attendees. That in and of itself piqued a lot of interest among the invited guests. In fact, curiosity reached such a level that the sisters decided to divulge a clue the prize involved “travel.”

The appointed evening arrived and guests enjoyed cocktails followed by a formal dinner It was good fellowship and conversation, but what was probably on everybody’s mind was the door prize. Travel. Where might the lucky

winner be going? Perhaps the Grand Canyon or an exotic cruise.

The possibilities seemed endless. For dessert and coffee, the guests eventually were led into the living room where everyone got a ticket along with a matching stub to throw into a large bowl. From this bowl, the winning ticket would be drawn.

The anticipation was almost too much, so finally the older sister mixed up all of the stubs and pulled one from the bowl. She then awarded the lucky winner with the prize a bus ticket to Delcambre — 10 miles down the road — on the local line. Barry lives in Baton Rouge Human Condition submissions of 600 words or fewer may be emailed to features@ theadvocate.com. Stories will be kept on file and publication is not guaranteed. There is no payment for Human Condition.

The timeworn steps to the thirdfloor attic of 722 Toulouse St., the first place Tennessee Williams settled in New Orleans in 1939, are not open to the public. The building is part of The Historic New Orleans Collection.

where Williams lived, is occupied by a psychiatrist and his wife. 600 block of Toulouse, Royal After the garret on Toulouse Street and before the party palace on Dumaine, Williams lived in numerous places, mostly in the French Quarter Speaking with The Times-Picayune in 2015, Kenneth Holditch, the late professor emeritus of English literature at the University of New Orleans, thought an apartment in the building behind the corner building that faces Royal Street could be the spot where Williams firmly became “Tennessee” but lost something else.

“Williams lived there later in 1939, and there was a party going on downstairs,” the professor told the newspaper “A sailor at the party climbed up the fire escape, and Williams always claimed this was when he lost his virginity

“The James bar diagonally across Royal Street was a gay

bar, and Williams could look down from his balcony and see people cavorting around. He said he always felt that he was their patron saint.”

632½ St. Peter St.

It was in this apartment that Williams wrote at least half of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which he completed in 1947, Holditch told The Times-Picayune. Although Williams lived at this address only a short time, it was pivotal in his development. He could “hear the sounds of the streetcar on Royal Street,” Holditch said. 727 Toulouse St

Just across the street from the rooming house where he first settled in New Orleans, Williams wrote in a hotel at 727 Toulouse, in a tiny apartment with windows over the patio.

“The site offered a tranquil retreat, and the sound of the hotel’s fountain calmed Williams’ nerves,” The TimesPicayune reported.

Hotels and cottages

“Williams also maintained adjoining rooms at the Hotel Monteleone (214 Royal St.) in 1949 for when he brought his grandfather, the Rev Walter Dakin, to town,” The Times-Picayune wrote in 2015.

“In later years, the playwright complained about the small rooms he was given at the (Omni) Royal Orleans Hotel (621 St. Louis St.) and reveled in the comparative decadence of the Pontchartrain Hotel (2031 St. Charles Ave.).”

And for a time in 1969, Williams occupied one of the Audubon Cottages (415 Dauphine St.), where he held at least one fabled party

Do you have a question about something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phone number and the city where you live.

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK John Newman feeds a group of ducks Tuesday near University Lake in Baton Rouge.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

The apartment at 632½ St. Peter St. is one of Tennessee Williams’ former residences in New Orleans.

STAFF PHOTO By ANNETTE SISCO

AT THE TABLE

Easy étouffée recipe hits right, even without extra ‘fat’

BY DEBRA BROUSSARD TAGHEHCHIAN

Contributing writer

“Tee, go and get my wallet,” shouted my dad from the kitchen.

Tee is my Cajun nickname, meaning petite or little. It is very common for folks to call each other by Tee plus their name or their father’s name I brought his wallet and he gave me $30. He had placed an order for 5 pounds of fresh peeled crawfish at L&L Seafood in Lafayette and he wanted me to go pick it up. He was going to make crawfish étouffée.

Now I was all of 17 years old in the late 1970s and only a driver of one year I had to drive on the other side of town to reach the location

There was no GPS, only careful directions on how to get there, which I quickly wrote down as my father gave them to me. That is just the way parents were then. Without any hesitation, I was given the keys to the car and told to be back soon.

Just as I was leaving the house, my dad said, “Oh, and get the fat, and ask if they will sell you extra fat.”

Thirty dollars doesn’t seem to be enough, but peeled crawfish were $5 per pound and the extra $5 was for taxes and hopefully, extra fat.

“What?” you may ask “Extra fat?”

Yes, in those days you could buy what is called the fat.

While peeling and eating boiled crawfish, you twist the tail meat from the head section and when you pull on the tail, you are left holding the tail and a yellow paste on the tail meat. It’s not really fat but the hepatopancreas, a liverlike organ enjoyed for its flavor I teasingly tell my daughter that it is the fois gras of the crawfish.

Sadly, processors no longer are allowed to sell the fat. If not properly frozen, it will spoil and take on a rancid taste. If you really want to make crawfish étouffée with the fat these days you will have to peel your own crawfish and collect the fat.

Without the availability of the fat, Cajun cooks had to find other ways to make the étouffée with enough flavor and gravy.

That is when I started hearing people using golden mushroom soup added to the recipe. Or some people used Rotel tomatoes and cream of shrimp soup.

Cajuns are always innovative when it comes to facing obstacles and this was just one more way that they had to adapt.

The recipe I am providing was given to me and developed by someone who knew how to adapt a recipe. There is no extra fat beyond what is in the package with the peeled craw-

fish, but the flavor is right.

Upon my return from L&L Seafood, the house was filled with the intoxicating aroma of onions and green bell pepper cooking in butter. That scent, my friends, is what I think heaven smells like.

This recipe is simple and like all simple, fewingredient recipes, freshness and quality of ingredients are very important. I hope that you will give it a try and enjoy this étouffée over a bed of white rice and a side of corn maque choux as I always do.

Crawfish Étouffée Serves 4-6.

PHOTO By DEBRA BROUSSARD TAGHEHCHIAN

Crawfish Étoufée

National Charity League recognizes 27 seniors

The River Road Chapter of National Charity League

honored 27 Baton Rouge area high school seniors for their community volunteer work at its annual Senior Soirée on March 8 at the Renaissance Baton Rouge Hotel.

These young women have served more than 4,079 hours at various local charitable organizations over the past six years. As members of the National Charity League, in addition to service to Baton Rouge area charities and nonprofit organizations, each senior has fulfilled the requirements for participation in cultural activities and leadership development.

Several of the seniors were recognized with a sixyear award for their service from seventh grade through senior year of high school.

The recipients are:

n Alexandria Nicole Bellanger, the daughter of Dorsey and Albert Bellanger, Central High School

n Audrey McCall Bongiorni, the daughter of Sara and Kevin Bongiorni, University Laboratory School

n Bella Kristian Bridgewater, the daughter of Dr Anika Bell and Dominick Bridgewater, St Joseph’s Academy

n Zoe Gwen Davidson, the daughter of Cristy and Craig Davidson, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Annie Burk Leotta, the daughter of Victor and Kappy Leotta, University

Laboratory School

n Lily Kyle Mills, the daughter of Megan and Wade Canty, and Ray Mills, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Anna Grace Murrill, the daughter of Dr William and Kasey Murrill, University Laboratory School

n Grace Elizabeth Olinde, the daughter of Mary and Jason Olinde, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Elaine Marie Reine, the

daughter of Kristyne and Christopher Reine, St. Joseph’s Academy

Jessica Leigh Ross, the daughter of Angela and Jon Ross, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Rachel Caroline Saunders, the daughter of Karen Weimer Saunders and Henri Michel Saunders, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Caroline Easterly Thibodeaux, the daughter of Jennifer and Mike Thibodeaux, Baton Rouge Magnet High School

n Margaret Emily Viator,

the daughter of Kelly and Kyle Viator, University Laboratory School

Also recognized for their service are:

n Bria Kamille Coleman, the daughter of Bridgette and Brian Coleman, IMG Academy

n Macy Celeste Davis, the daughter of Dawn Davis and Ivery Reed, St. Joseph’s Academy n Ryann Olivia Dotson, the daughter of Melissa and Anderson “Andy” Dotson III, St. Joseph’s Academy n Kate Michel Hebert, the daughter of Andrae and Rory Hebert, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Toni Rose Heyward, the daughter of Stephanie and

Tony Heyward, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Finley Katherine Malone, the daughter of Lana and Sean Malone, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Catherine Élise Murthy the daughter of Heddie Carville Murthy and the late Bob Murthy, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Margaret Logan Murthy, the daughter of Heddie Carville Murthy and the late Bob Murthy, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Gabrielle Renee Noel, the daughter of Michelle and Neal Noel, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Gianna Lanae Northern, the daughter of Krissy Thomas and John Northern, Baton Rouge Magnet High School

n Lauren Elise Taylor, the daughter of Leslee and Porter Taylor, St. Joseph’s Academy

n Grace Elizabeth Thornton, the daughter of Elizabeth and Michael Thornton,

St. Joseph’s Academy n Evelyn Elizabeth Trahan, the daughter of Rebecca and Greg Trahan, University High School

n Estrella Lynette Vazquez, the daughter of Chanita and Ruben Vazquez, Baton Rouge Magnet High School

The National Charity League, established in 1947 and incorporated in 1958, has more than 300 chapters in 32 states, with 230,000 members and alumnae nationwide. Its mission is fostering the mother-daughter relationship through an ongoing commitment to philanthropy, culture and leadership. The River Road Chapter, formed in 1999, is celebrating 27 years in the Baton Rouge community Today, the local chapter, which is NCL’s only chapter in Louisiana, has grown to nearly 300 members.

Women and their daughters may be nominated for membership in the organization by one of the organization’s active members in good standing. Students can become eligible for membership in the seventh grade. For more information on the local chapter visit nationalcharityleague.org/ chapter/riverroad.

20 years later, fans are still coming to ‘The Office’

BY STEPHEN BATTAGLIO

Los Angeles Times (TNS)

NEW YORK Brian Baumgartner, who played the endearingly dimwitted accountant Kevin Malone on NBC’s “The Office,” can’t escape the role that defined him for nine seasons. He even recently appeared in an episode of the NBC drama “Suits LA,” playing himself In the show, he asked his attorney to find a way to do away with the character so he could realize his dream of becoming an Oscar-worthy dramatic actor Loyal “Office” fans surely caught the inside gag.

In fact, Baumgartner has for years served as a happy ambassador for the beloved mockumentary about the employees of a Scranton, Pennsylvania, paper company He hosted a podcast celebrating “The Office” and turned it into a bestselling oral history book Kevin Malone’s famous chili paved the way for two cookbooks

Many hit shows from decades ago have been embraced by audiences thanks to exposure on Netflix and other streaming platforms. But even among that group, “The Office” — which is celebrating its 20th anniversary — lives in rare air

While never a blockbuster hit during its initial run that began on March 24, 2005, streaming has helped turn “The Office,” an adaptation of the eponymous British series, into an enduring pop culture touchstone.

The familiar cast members have ridden the wave, evoking their famous roles in TV commercials for Cheerios, Panera Bread, Bush’s Beans, Fox’s telecast of the 2020 Super Bowl and AT&T Business. The show is being licensed for toys (Lego, Little People, Funko Pop! and Polly Pockets) and children’s books including “The Office: A Day at Dunder Mifflin Elementary.” Tickets for an annual unofficial fan convention known as the Reunion, to be held in New Jersey this year, go for as much as $400. “The Office” continues to have a stylistic influence on TV comedy as well. Its faux-documentary style — reminiscent of Christopher Guest movies became a template for other successful sitcoms including “Modern Family,” “Abbott Elementary” and most recently NBC’s “St. Denis Medical.” While fans have been content to rewatch “The Office,” they will finally get a spinoff series from executive producer Greg Daniels. The still-to-be-named series, set at a Midwestern newspaper that depends on citizen journalists, will premiere this year on Peacock. The series will take place in “The Office” universe with alum Oscar

Nuñez joining the cast (Daniels, protective of “The Office” canon, noted that Oscar Martinez was the only character who did not have a life-changing resolution in the finale).

Baumgartner has helped feed “The Office” popularity machine for years, but he’s still taken aback at how much the show means to fans who have discovered it since it ended.

“They have an intense need to tell me how the show helped them through a difficult time,” Baumgartner told The Times. “A medical condition, a family issue, a domestic problem. It’s a very powerful thing.”

Even with its cringe-generating moments, often created by Steve Carell’s malapropism-prone Michael Scott, the familial atmosphere of Dunder Mifflin is a welcome escape at a time of political division and angry social discourse.

“In this fractured society, just seeing and feeling a disparate group of people who care about each other is rare particularly in TV right now,” Baumgartner said.

While streaming services entered bidding wars for “Friends,” ”Seinfeld” and other hit sitcoms of the past, “The Office” quietly outperformed them. Nielsen data showed it was the most streamed show in 2020, a time when more consumers were turning to Netflix, where “The Office” was streaming, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That demand translated into a big-money deal Comcast Corp shelled out $100 million to its own Universal Television unit that produced “The Office” to bring the series to its Peacock streaming service in 2021 five times what Netflix was paying, according to

people familiar with the deal who were not authorized to comment publicly

The series is the most popular program on the service. NBC says the average Peacock viewer has watched 59 episodes of the series. Peacock enlisted the show’s producers to create “super fan” episodes that restore material cut for its original 22 minute broadcast run-time (they are just getting to the ninth and final season). They have helped drive 1.7 billion hours of viewing of “The Office,” accounting for 7% of all Peacock usage.

“The Office” has also remained a staple of traditional TV, currently running on three cable networks: E!, Comedy Central and Freeform. With cable networks cutting back on original programming, “The Office” reruns are filling up hours of their schedules. The show airs on more than a dozen international broadcast services.

The durability of vintage TV sitcoms such as “I Love Lucy” and ”Friends” are driven in part by the nostalgia of fans who grew up with them. But some audiences flocking to the “The Office” are discovering as if it were a new show

As streaming video gained audience, Daniels heard from co-workers on his other projects about how their preteen kids were watching “The Office” obsessively on Netflix which first bought the rights in 2011 Being trapped in a cubicle and forced to deal with a buffoonish boss resonates with the junior high crowd.

“It’s like your experience in school, when the teacher is lecturing you and you’re unable to avoid it,” Daniels said. “Or the person at the desk next to you is someone you didn’t necessarily choose to be

your best friend and you’re kind of stuck there.”

Jim Donnelly executive vice president for comedy at Universal Television, said the show’s youthful appeal helps replenish the audience.

“I do think that as television viewers come of age, they are finding the show,” he said. “We haven’t really seen any drop-off in interest.”

Daniels says the show still fells contemporary after two decades.

The British version of “The Office” created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant — was shot with a Frederick Wiseman-like bleakness. But Daniels gave the U.S. edition the look of a reality show format, complete with confessional interviews. He hired the film crew from “Survivor” after “The Office” pilot was picked up. The practical jokes on the show appeal to a younger generation that devours prank videos — from MrBeast to Dude Perfect — across YouTube and other social media platforms. The official TikTok account for “The Office” has 4.2 million followers, nearly 1 million more than “Friends.”

The enduring success of “The Office” is remarkable considering the show’s rocky start. “A single camera sitcom, shot as a faux documentary with no laugh track with people who look normal in the age of ‘Friends’ and ‘Baywatch,’ was not an easy pitch,” said Ben Silverman, who brought the program to NBC. (Silverman currently runs the production company Propagate.)

“The Office” was created in another era of television, when reaching broad audiences was necessary for network TV survival. The show was vying for a spot on the schedule at a time when NBC had lost its mega-hit “Friends” and had pinned its hopes on ”Joey,” a spinoff featuring Matt LeBlanc that struggled to get through two seasons.

Jeff Zucker, who ran NBCUniversal at the time, admits the quirky comedy style of “The Office” pilot was not easy for his programming department to digest.

“The folks at NBC Entertainment at the time were probably not the target in understanding the humor of the show,” Zucker said in an interview

“The Office” had one real champion in upper management at the network: Kevin Reilly, the entertainment president who first received a pitch for the project when he was running cable network FX. Daniels didn’t have the prestige TV snobs behind him either Creating a U.S. version of the acclaimed 2001 British series was perilous. “There was a lot of stress because fans of the original show

were saying ‘Why are you doing this? It’s such a gem,’” Daniels recalled. “I would say, ‘If you like this kind of comedy, this is the closest you’re going to get.’”

The pilot was not well-received by test audiences but showed enough of a pulse with younger viewers to earn a six-episode order — an unusually small number at the time for a network show

Ratings declined after a decent audience for its premiere Zucker said there were “long conversations” at the network before bringing the show back for a second year

But the show caught a couple of major breaks. One was Carell’s lead role in the summer box office hit “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” which turned him into a movie star and a draw for a show that avoided casting big-name actors at the start.

The other was NBC’s decision to offer episodes on Apple’s iTunes platform when DVD sets were the main way to binge-watch. The move was a precursor to the videoon-demand streaming world.

While the “Office” audience was small by network TV standards of the time, many of its viewers were young, upscale and more willing to adapt to new technology In 2005, “The Office” became a top seller on iTunes with 100,000 downloads in the first few months.

“I think that told us that there was going to be a new way of delivering these shows,” Zucker said.

“Had ‘The Office’ started out on streaming, it would have been a huge hit right out of the box.”

Ash Tavassoli, executive vice president and creative director of ad agency BBDO LA never caught “The Office” during its network run. But when he was recovering from surgery he went down the series rabbit hole of 192 episodes.

“I’m like, ‘I can’t turn this thing off,’” Tavassoli said. “I had to immediately tell anyone who I knew who hadn’t watched it, ‘You need to go watch this thing.’”

The on-screen alchemy between the cast members inspired him to use them in an ad campaign for AT&T Business that started running last year

“The Office” co-stars Baumgartner, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, Craig Robinson, Kate Flannery and Creed Bratton appear in the series of trippy commercials depicting the launch of a line of pillow speakers called Sleep with Rainn. Tavassoli said it didn’t take much to get the tight-knit group to make their own creative contributions to the spots.

“You put them on a set together and they have their own dynamic,” Tavassoli said. “When we shot with them, they didn’t even feel us on set. We let them cook for three days.”

PROVIDED PHOTO

Brian Baumgartner, center, and a guest attend 2024’s Charitybuzz, that included cast members of ‘The Office,’ in Woodland Hills, Calif.

By The Associated Press

Today is Sunday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2025. There are 283 days left in the year

Today in history

On March 23, 1998, “Titanic” tied an Academy Awards record by winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, best director for James Cameron and best original song for “My Heart Will Go On.”

On this date:

In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which it is said he declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy

In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.

In 1942, the first Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. Army during World War II arrived at the internment camp at Manzanar, California.

In 1965, America’s first twoperson space mission took place as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly five-hour flight orbiting Earth.

In 1993, scientists announced they’d identified the gene that causes Huntington’s disease.

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul

In 2021, a cargo ship the size of a skyscraper ran aground and became wedged in the Suez Canal; hundreds of ships would be prevented from passing through the canal until the vessel was freed six days later

Today’s Birthdays: Singer Chaka Khan is 72. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma is 71. Fashion designer Kenneth Cole is 71. Actor Amanda Plummer is 68. Actor Hope Davis is 61. Musician Damon Albarn is 57. Basketball Hall of Famer Jason Kidd is 52. Actor Randall Park is 51. Actor Michelle Monaghan is 49. Actor Keri Russell is 49. Country singer Brett Young is 44.

To post, as well as to overshare, is human

Dear Miss Manners: Why do people, especially celebrities, feel the need to post their intimate details for all to read?

One female celeb posted about her partner’s performance in bed and how good he was at it. Another posted about how bad her ex was. Does the public need to know this information?

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Those who post continuously don’t understand that social media is the downfall of many relationships.

Gentle Reader: Why, indeed, does everyone — celebrated or just hoping to be — feel the need to post everything about their lives?

We claim to care about our privacy We hate it when we expect people to admire us, and instead they attack us. Yet we keep feeding each other material.

Dear Heloise: Sometimes we forget some of the kitchen hints that we’ve learned over the years. Here are a few reminders:

n You can substitute beer for wine as the liquid in stews or soups, and you’ll discover a nice, rich sauce. But only use as much beer as the recipe calls for, and don’t forget the water that is often called for as well.

n If a recipe calls for Champagne, use a fairly inexpensive brand Or use wine instead and keep the Champagne to celebrate a special occasion!

n Should a recipe call for wine, you can use nearly any kind, although a number of chefs prefer to use a good quality. They claim that it makes a superior dish, but you can be the judge. Personally, I can’t tell the difference.

n Many wines that are specifically advertised for cooking contain monosodium glutamate or

Celebrities did not always do this. They had press agents to spread favorable stories and, when necessary, quash unfavorable ones. The assumption was that they led blameless domestic lives, unless they made public scenes or landed in court. The idea was to boost their careers by making them seem relatable and likable.

Surprisingly, this approach often worked: Not everyone had a camera with which to catch them behaving badly, and the press was less aggressive. But now, bland narratives no longer titillate the public. Failings are often forgiven, but virtue is suspicious — not to mention boring. Noncelebrities follow famous people’s lead, in the hope of becoming celebrities themselves. Or because they hold the nowcommon belief that the unpublicized life is not worth living.

Now, Miss Manners has a ques-

salt, making them undrinkable. The rumor is that salt was added to wine to keep cooks from drinking it instead of adding it to the recipe. So, just use the real kind that is drinkable.

n Don’t have the red wine you need? Try using balsamic vinegar in its place.

n If you need to add sherry to a soup, add it just before serving time. Use about 1 teaspoon of sherry per cup of soup.

n Tired of ordinary vegetables? Try steaming them in white wine or balsamic vinegar instead of water

n Not all food benefits from cooking them with wine. Acidic foods like vinegar, citrus, tomatoes, asparagus, onions, pineapples and artichokes may taste off if you use wine. — M.H., in Connecticut

Scratching furniture

Dear Readers: When you bring a new kitty home, it is normal for them to scratch furniture due to their growing claws.

So, to prevent your kitten from ruining your sofa or chairs, buy a

tion for you: Why are you reading this stuff?

Dear Miss Manners: I have become something of an auction junkie, and I am surprised at how often I see incomplete sets of sterling flatware for sale. Often, the “set” is just dinner forks and several sizes of spoons; sometimes it’s only knives, or only coffee spoons, etc.

I’m confused by the incompleteness of place settings and the fact that this was apparently how they were collected. Did people entertaining with “the good silver” mix utensil designs freely?

Odd! I see it too often for it not to be “a thing”!

Gentle Reader: You probably have a garbage disposal. You may or may not have children. But those are the two most likely places where missing pieces go. True, the garbage disposal doesn’t actually eat silver, but it can mangle anything it catches. And the original silver owners’

descendants may not actually use silver, but sets are often split up when they inherit it. The possessors of incomplete sets might have supplemented them with pieces from other incomplete sets, perhaps inherited from another side of the family Or like you, maybe they went scavenging at auctions and other venues selling odd pieces.

Miss Manners feels obliged to point out that you, as an auction junkie, benefit from this chaos. Buying a complete set would be a one-time pleasure, but if you buy an incomplete one, you can have a lifetime of sport in tracking down the missing items.

Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

scratching post for it.

To get your kitten used to the scratching post, sprinkle a bit of catnip over it because cats love catnip! — Heloise

Slicing safety

Dear Heloise: I traded in my mandoline’s safety guard for a cutproof glove. I have fewer, smaller hunks left at the end, and there are no trips to the emergency room. — Jen, via email

Private family notes

Dear Heloise:

Drink your water

Dear Heloise: More women should really listen to their bodies in order to look and feel their best. One practice women often neglect is drinking enough water, which ends up dehydrating them. There is a simple test you can do right at home to see if you need to drink more water: Pinch the skin on the back of either hand, and if the skin seems to stay up for a few seconds, you need more water in your system and lotion on your hands. Try to drink 8 glasses of water a day. If you remember, squeeze the

‘EVERYONE has a story’

Photographer signs his way into book influencer world

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Tate Tullier, a Gonzales native who lives in Austin, Texas, is a photographer who has a book obsession and he loves to share his reviews on Instagram @booktimewithtate as a bookstagrammer someone who uses Instagram for book-focused content.

One thing separates Tullier from other influencers: His reviews are in American Sign Language. Born deaf, Tullier communicates through lip reading and ASL. Through modern technologies, social media and closed captioning, he participates in the online community of book reviewers and influencers

Although photography is his day job, Tullier takes his reading seriously, plowing through books every couple of days. As a child growing up in Ascension Parish, Tullier would ask his mom to drop him off at a local bookstore where he would browse and read until she finished her errands.

A search for specific books on his spiritual journey brought Tullier back to his love of reading. He started reading books on astrology and physics, which then led to novels. His spiritual rebirth included an insatiable desire for reading.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity and was possible through the ASL interpreter service Convo.

When you were young, what was the pull to books?

I’ve always been really into books since I was a kid. I grew up reading

Maybe it’s because I was a deaf child in a hearing family.

I had friends, but I was often alone when I was at home, so I would just read. My mom was a teacher, so she really wanted to make sure that as a deaf kid, I could read, so she would buy me all the books I wanted, which I loved

Going to college and being out in the world working, I would read a book from time to time, but life got busy, and I lost that connection I set business goals for myself, and that became priority

How many books have you read so far this year?

102! My goal for 2025 was 104.

How have you read that many as of March?

As a photographer, January is a slow month of the year for me, because once the holidays are done, people have no use for me. So I really took advantage of that this year I don’t have kids, and I’m my own boss. I have insomnia. That’s how my system is. I’ve never really been a big sleeper

And my wife, Sarah, drives us everywhere, so I read in the car, too. All of that comes in handy

Have you found other deaf bookstagrammers or reviewers online?

I have found some, but there are people who got set up over lockdown who are not as active anymore. I am part of a book club, like a DM group, and the majority of them are deaf, so we talk a lot and ask a lot of questions.

I’m still comparing things with the hearing community. I am a communitybased person, and it’s nice when you have access to other peers who are in-

terested in the same thing that you are.

I’m not the only deaf person interested in books.

I grew up with hearing and deaf people not really chatting on a regular basis, and now we’ve become more involved in each other’s lives.

We can say, “Oh, hey, you’re reading this, and I’m reading this.”

I think it’s beautiful that you can get linked to other people, especially when it’s a shared, common interest, and you can hear and read other people’s stories. When we open up to other people’s lives, that’s what really helps us continue. Everybody has a story, and that helps me. What kind of books are you most drawn to?

I appreciate a broad array of genres.

I’m definitely right now in a mood to read. I’ve been going to the library and just checking out so many books.

I’ll have 16 visible books and maybe five digital books checked out at once,

but what has definitely been super new for me is reading e-books I’m a little bit old-fashioned in that way I like a physical book.

How do you think reading helps develop empathy and compassion?

We’re all connected together and I feel like we’re here for a reason, but people get so hung up on things. If we could interact with different people or if people read more, maybe it would open them up a little bit.

Reading helps us to understand that there are so many different kinds of people.

When you’re face-to-face with people, a lot of times there is already a bias. With a book, you can feel what you need to feel without judgment to focus on that person’s story It’s important to remember that your people are not the only people in this world.

Do you think because you don’t have the distraction of sound, your imagination is able to just take off?

No. Others may disagree with me, but I really think that no matter what you hear or don’t hear, reading has that ability That’s the beautiful thing about stories. You can read whatever you want to read. When you pick something that you’re really interested in, it’ll kickstart your imagination and transport you to another place.

I really don’t think that deaf or hearing makes a difference, but I understand why you would be curious about that.

Hearing people will never understand what it’s like to be deaf.

I don’t think that reading is soundbased. A blind person can listen to audio, and if somebody has low vision, they can read with large print books or Braille books. There’s so many different ways to read.

Email Joy Holden at joy.holden@ theadvocate.com.

Danny Heitman AT RANDOM

Devin Jacobsen’s stories touch on Louisiana

Devin Jacobsen grew up in Baton Rouge, where his parents, Bob and Vicky Jacobsen,

make their home. He now lives in Paris, France, where his wife, Hailey, serves as an Episcopal priest.

Devin Jacobsen, 37, is a writer, and the title of his new short story collection, “The Summer We Ate Off the China,” is irresistible. Good dinnerware tends to stay in the cabinet, so readers will wonder what kind of summer summoned all those fancy plates and saucers into the open. In the title story, the aging Lisa Erskine bequeaths her china to Maggie, a family friend. The treasure’s been used only once — in the summer after Lisa and her husband married. “We were saving it until we could come up in the world, you know,” Lisa laments, “but all it did was serve dust.” Maggie privately reviews the heirloom dinner settings, “and within the bone-white luster,” Devin Jacobsen writes, “she can make out the sun coming off the mirror behind her.” It’s a moment of almost sacramental beauty, one made all the more moving because it’s short-lived.

Maggie returns the china to its storage box, presumably forever In deeper ways, the story is about missed chances, how lives can be derailed by loss. Most of the sentences are brisk, but one of them, too big to quote here, spans more than a page. There’s a logic to its length, a marathon of prose that underlines the exhausting rituals of Maggie’s work on a wait staff.

Even so, that epic stretch points to Devin Jacobsen’s willingness to experiment. He’s not afraid to take out the English language for rambling country drives, his excursions sometimes touched by hairpin turns.

Sagging Meniscus Press, the small publisher behind this collection and Devin Jacobsen’s 2020 novel, “Breath Like the Wind at Dawn,” prides itself on supporting “nonconformist” books “that want to be themselves.” That kind of insistent individuality brings its own complications.

Some of the stories in “The Summer We Ate Off the China,” such as “Tauroctony,” which unfolds like a medieval poem, are so idiosyncratic that they can seem like private reveries.

Other stories grow from a landscape more familiar to Louisiana readers.

“The Elegance of Simplicity” is a lively mashup that features a visiting Scottish couple, Tulane University, the French Quarter, a campus night watchman, downtown Baton Rouge, a trash compactor and Tiger Stadium. Perhaps no one since John Kennedy Toole has marshaled such a menagerie of characters and settings to tell a tale.

There are a few grace notes here, including the author’s description of a day’s start near the Mississippi: “Already the morning is humid, and I can hear, among the gravity of the river, the suck and lapping about the levee, which means there must be a barge somewhere cutting the current.”

Zadie Smith, the acclaimed novelist, has hailed Devin Jacobsen as “a writer to watch out for.” In this, as in so many other things, she is probably right.

Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.

PROVIDED PHOTOS

Tate Tullier checks out a stack of books at a library in Austin, Texas.

Tate Tullier finds a few goodies at a Little Free Library, one of his favorite hobbies.

Jacobsen

Reading the room

In its 15th year, authors, journalists, more add to a thought-provoking Book Fest

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

At a time when people are overloaded with information from their smartphones and other screens, Cheryl Landrieu thinks it’s important to discuss ideas face to face.

That’s one of the missions of the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University cochaired by Landrieu and esteemed journalist Walter Isaacson. The fourth annual event is scheduled to take place Thursday through Saturday on the university’s Uptown campus.

“People might sit at home and worry about what is going on in the world, but this is a way to come together and share the information you’re receiving and get together in groups to talk about it,” Landrieu said. “It’s helpful to have a shared experience.”

The event, which began 15 years ago as a small children’s book gathering, has grown dramatically since moving to Tulane in 2022.

Organizers estimate it drew roughly 15,000 attendees last year, thanks to an A-list lineup of authors, media figures and politicians. This

year’s crowd is expected to be comparable. Landrieu, a lawyer and author, said Book Fest is expanding in several ways in 2025. It will take up more space on campus, for one thing. Also, organizers have broadened programming to include new sessions on humor and cooking, plus content aimed at younger readers. Overall, there will be more than 90 panels, book signings, a culinary symposium, family activities and a closing concert High-profile guests scheduled to participate this year include immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci, journalists Connie Chung and Bob Woodward, statistician Nate Silver, novelist

In total, Book Fest 2025 will gather more than 200 authors, thought leaders and creatives for three days of discussion about politics, culture, fiction, productivity business and more.

“These are creative, thoughtful, insightful individuals talking about their passions and what they think the world is about,” said Tulane President Michael A Fitts. “It’s a smorgasbord.”

John Grisham and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER Students walk past a New Orleans Book Festival sign at Tulane University in New Orleans. The festival kicks off Thursday

Landrieu

Isaacson

Baton Rouge Helix Community Schools has made several promotions and hires.

Angela Domingue, formerly executive director and principal of Helix Mentorship Academy, has been promoted to executive director of collegiate studies.

Charita Sellers, formerly executive director and founding principal of Helix Aviation Academy, has been promoted to chief academic officer for Helix Community Schools Baton Rouge Region.

Denise Armstrong, formerly finance director, has been promoted to chief finance officer and chief operations officer

Retired Lt.Col.Jerry Brandon, formerly senior aerospace instructor at Helix Mentorship Academy director of innovation and director of aviation for Helix Aviation Academy, has been promoted to chief of

PEOPLE IN BUSINESS

staff. He will also retain his position as director of innovation.

Nicholas Richard, formerly director of curriculum and instruction for Helix Aviation Academy, has been promoted to building level leader for Helix Aviation Academy.

Alisa Welsh has been hired as director of achievement Welsh served as the principal of Madison Prep High

perdome and the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Too much ‘current events’?

Book Fest 2025 will offer plenty of political content, like a conversation featuring dueling political strategists David Axelrod and Karl Rove and an opening night presentation from the team at The Atlantic magazine.

But Isaacson said the event is not really focused on the headlines, no matter how engaging or concerning they may be.

“I think the world has too much ‘current events’ right now,” he said.

Landrieu said the goal is more about building community around all different kinds of ideas. It’s almost like a well-rounded person’s Facebook or Instagram feed come to life, with presentations ranging from the state of democracy to an argument that New Orleans is America’s “sandwich capital.”

There will be a conversation with Saints legend Archie Manning, led by his son Cooper, as well as a look at the 50th anniversary of the Su-

Social media influencers Nicole Richie, a reality TV star and Cleo Wade, a poet and New Orleans native, will host several “coffee chats” with authors in a living room-style gathering place under one of the two big tents on the Tulane quad.

“I like that we’re keeping it true to New Orleans, where we want to have serious conversations, but we also want to have fun and talk about things we love, like culture, art and food,” Landrieu said. “Ultimately, Book Fest is about creativity It’s obviously something New Orleans has in spades, and writers do, too.”

‘Find the box that will surprise you

Earlier this month, the festival released its detailed schedule in the “cubes” format familiar to regulars of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Overlapping events on multiple stages make for tough choices for hardcore book nerds and political junkies.

School in Baton Rouge for 16 years.

Calvin Nicholas has been hired as executive director of Helix Mentorship & Maritime Academy and principal of HMMA High School. He most recently was principal of East Iberville Elementary and High School.

Charlissa Laws has been hired as accounting manager She has nearly 20 years of accounting experience.

Brad Moses has been hired by Loadstar as vice president of administration.

Moses spent 10 years with Community Coffee, where he worked in financial analysis, strategic planning, risk management and process improvement.

He earned a bachelor’s in finance from LSU.

ard Campanella joins a discussion about the future of the Mississippi River Afterward, Chung will talk about her groundbreaking media career, while retired Gen. David Petraeus, former director of the CIA, addresses war strategy and leadership. Later in the day, Isaacson will converse with CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna while Axelrod and Rove talk politics.

On Saturday, novelist John Grisham and New Orleans-born nonfiction writer Michael Lewis will share the stage at McAlister Auditorium, while a Dixon Hall panel showcases a new generation of talents: novelists Alison Espach and Casey McQuiston. Isaacson has one piece of advice for people planning their day

On Friday morning, Isaacson will interview Fauci at the same time that Tulane geographer Rich-

“My recommendation would be to find the box that will most surprise you and teach you something new,” he said. “You can go to a cookbook talk and genetic engineering talk and hear authors talk about turning their books into movies. Whatever tickles your mind.”

NOEW

year is a way to try to further broaden NOEW’s reach and appeal, according to Jon Atkinson, president and CEO of the Idea Village.

“The partnership with Loyola is helping us grow NOEW by engaging new networks, bringing in new audiences and building a sustainable platform,” Atkinson said. “It also helps connect the university with the business community and institutionalize the educational mission that makes NOEW special.”

Busy schedule

The week will include days packed with back-to-back programming across the city that bring together diverse organizations that have a stake in the city’s entrepreneurial community

On Monday, for instance, Junior Achievement will host an event for high schoolers at Loyola, while food trucks are setting up for a kick-off party outside The Nieux, an events space and “innovation hub” in the old Eiffel Tower building on St. Charles Avenue.

After lunch, The Beach at UNO will host the “Future Energy Experience” at the Nieux while students participate in a pitch competition at Tulane.

Simultaneously, across the lake, the St. Tammany Economic Development Corp. will be hosting a Startup Northshore event offering leadership, marketing and strategy training. And that’s just day one. The busy schedule of events continues on Tuesday and Wednesday On Thursday, the NOEW “summit” at Loyola begins.

Among the highlights on campus will be a panel discussion on Friday with Matt Wisdom, who sold his tech company TurboSquid for $75 million in 2021, and Waitr founder Chris Meaux. They will talk about their approach to entrepreneurship and how artificial intelligence is reshaping the startup landscape.

NOEW will conclude with a panel focusing on “My Black Country,” a memoir written by songwriter Alice Randall.

The hope is that Loyola will become NOEW’s permanent home, where existing event space, audio/visual equipment and student workers can help keep costs down. The main stage will be in a large tent near the business school building. Other presentations and activities will be spread across campus.

“We can take advantage of the school’s resources, while bringing together engaged students and business leadership,” said Liz Maxwell, Idea Village senior director of strategic initiatives.

‘Front door’

Since its inception, NOEW has been designed to help local entrepreneurs create more startups. This year is no different.

At a time when the metro area is struggling with a shrinking population and “brain drain,” the co-producers want the event to serve as a big, flashing welcome sign for potential south Louisiana entrepreneurs.

Three startups that have successfully completed the Idea Village’s accelerator program will make presentations and receive an investment commitment from NOEW, which launched its Momentum Fund last year After the Idea Pitch event,

“We’re trying to focus on being the front door to the ecosystem,” said Sam McCabe, director of Loyola’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development, which leads Loyola’s NOEW planning efforts. “Anybody remotely interested in entrepreneurship — whether a founder, investor or someone with a new idea is welcome here and can find content that will be valuable.” NOEW, by another name, began in 2009, when the Idea Village hosted an event called IdeaCorps at Tulane’s business school. It took on its current moniker the next

Continued from page 1E ä See NOEW, page 3E

Domingue Armstrong

Richard Nicholas Sellers Brandon Welsh Laws Moses

Fauci

PROVIDED PHOTO Liz Maxwell and Jon Atkinson, both of The Idea Village, help organize New Orleans Entrepreneur Week.

TALKING BUSINESS WITH JOSÉ SUQUET

Pan-American Life CEO sees fresh opportunities

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

In 2004, José Suquet was tapped to lead New Orleansbased Pan-American Life Insurance Group, which had once been among the top personal and business insurance providers in the Americas but, by the early 2000s, was losing market share and seeing its profits erode amid rising costs and a string of unprofitable ventures.

Suquet was tasked with turning things around at the company, which was founded in 1911 by Crawford E. Ellis, a United Fruit Co. executive during the height of the banana trade between New Orleans and Honduras.

In the years that followed, Suquet focused on growing business in core Latin American markets, overhauling the company’s financial structure and cutting business lines he saw as distractions. Today, the insurance company’s revenues, which were $284 million when he took over two decades ago, are nearly $1.5 billion, and the company is comprised of more than 30 member companies, with more than 2,200 employees worldwide. Its footprint extends to 49 states and more than 20 countries.

In this week’s Talking Business, Suquet discusses the company’s growth and why he says he’s not worried about the potential disruptions to global trade and economic stability Interview has been edited for length and clarity I would bet a lot of people who walk by your building at 601 Poydras St.every day have no idea what PALIG does.

We are a life and health insurance player for the individual and corporate markets. In Latin America, we focus on the affluent and high net worth customers on the individual side. We also

focus on employee benefits for all of the leading, major multinational firms that operate in Latin America Walmart, Amazon, Dell, Microsoft — clients that are top of the corporate world in business. Though we are all over Latin America, Panama, Costa Rica and Columbia are the countries where most of our activity is located.

Does PALIG actually underwrite policies for these clients or just do plan administration?

We do all of the above. We are an employee benefit plan administrator, we underwrite, we have an extensive network of medical providers throughout Latin America. We have about 47 doctors and 40-50 nurses that work with us as well and offer a full array of services,

whether group medical, group life or accident products throughout the region

We have a very strong brand name in the region. We have been in Panama for more than 100 years and more than 80 years in Honduras. No other company can say that PALIG also is growing its business in the U.S.?

Yes. In the states, we offer individual life insurance to the middle and mass affluent classes. We don’t compete in the high net worth segments. With respects to health insurance, we are focused on the blue-collar and no-collar industries — trucking, for instance.

Has your growth been organic or more through acquisition?

Both We have a strong, organic growth machine, but we have had three ac-

quisitions that have helped the growth trajectory Last year, we bought Encova Life Insurance Co. in Ohio, which brought about $600 million in assets that are fully integrated with Pan American Life They are also that mass affluent type of marketplace. Ten years ago, we acquired a company called Mutual Trust that was based in Oakbrook, Illinois, and brought $2.5 billion in assets into the company We kept their facility and employees and management team, and they now manage the U.S. life business for us. And the one that started it all was in 2012, when AIG, which was a major insurance company, was taken over by the U.S. Treasury, and we acquired certain companies from one of their subsidiaries.

PALIG recently put new signage with its name on top of the building, the Pan-American Life Center Why the need for such mass market branding when you are sort of a B-toB company?

The name has always been at the bottom. We just put it on top before the Super Bowl to recognize the progress we have made over the last 20 years. We have almost 400 employees here and 2,300-2,400 throughout our footprint. When I got here, we had revenues of $284 million. Last year, we closed with almost $1.5 billion, which puts us in the top five companies in New Orleans in revenue. We have made great progress and want to tell that story

Where do you see the greatest opportunities for future growth?

More growth opportunities are international When you have a recognized brand with a long history in that market, which is comprised of foreign companies that are in and out of the countries down there, there is plenty of potential. The life insurance industry in the U.S., in general, grows at

a steady 2%-3% a year We have been able to hypercharge that in Latin America.

How concerned are you about all the turmoil now roiling global markets, between tariffs and policy changes?

We don’t anticipate that will impact us. Our Panamanian company, a subsidiary, has been there more than 100 years. We have a Honduran company run by a Honduran, also a subsidiary Our CEOs down there are stalwart members of their communities. Our customers are large multinationals like Microsoft and Amazon. They’re not going away. They are not going to close up. They want coverage from a multinational like us that has strong cyber security, respects privacy and has strong state-of-the-art tools to help them pay claims. So, we understand. We are not on pins and needles with every executive order that comes into effect. We are going to keep our head down and keep doing business the way we have been doing it. So far, it has worked. If we take sides, we will be in deep trouble. We stay in the middle of the fairway and live by values that incorporate doing the right thing.

A few years ago, you stepped back as president,though you remain CEO Any thought of retiring?

The board really wants me to stay as long as I can.

I have had two knee replacements and two hip replacements in the past five years, but otherwise, my health is good. I am blessed to have three co-presidents, and we have a tremendous team that is working very well together We challenge each other, but there is real collaboration and a lot of transparency

Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@ theadvocate.com.

Continued from page 2E

year, after moving downtown. Since that time, NOEW’s home base has moved multiple times, including stops at the Contemporary Arts Center and Gallier Hall.

Just as they experimented with different locations, NOEW producers also have tried different formats, including various types of pitch competitions.

This year, NOEW content has been curated to be relevant to young people eyeing future careers. Areas of focus include climate tech, AI, social media and the future of the music business in the region. Loyola’s Jesuit philosophy also is shaping the event, which will examine how to make a positive social impact through entrepreneurship.

“We have a very creative, diverse group of students on campus who want to be change makers,” McCabe said. “We want to give them the info they need to get started.”

Further along

If NOEW itself wants to welcome local entrepreneurs, 3rd Coast is aimed at Gulf South startups that have momentum but need more investment to grow Capped at about 150 people, the event sounds like a speed dating session for regional entrepreneurs and national investors. Companies attending include Occupi, an Alabamabased fintech company focused on the real estate sector; Arix, a Louisiana/ Texas-based robotics company targeting industrial users; and Freyya, a Texasbased health tech company developing a wearable, biofeedback device to diagnose and improve the pelvic floor condition. Email Rich Collins at rich.collins@theadvocate. com.

Investing in Innovation: HowLouisiana’s MenhadenIndustry is Leading in Sustainability

Louisiana’smenhaden industry plays a critical role in the state’s coastal economy providing jobs and generating millions in economic impact.Together,the industry supports over2,000 direct and indirect workers, providing good wage jobs in rural coastal communities and contributing $25million to state and local economies In astate wherecommercial fishing is a backboneofour culture, thesejobshelp keep coastal communitiesalive.

At the same time, we recognizeour responsibilityasstewardsofthe Gulf menhaden resource and have taken proactivesteps to ensurethe sustainability of our fishery.

While net tearsand fish spills are extremely rare,weacknowledgesuch incidents areunacceptable. That’swhy we’veinvested in cutting-edgetechnology to further reduce occurrences.Overthe past four years, the industry has made 65,000 fishing sets,ofwhich only 44 experienced net tears—a minuscule 0.067% incidentrate

Nettearsare largely caused by sharks which strikethe nets attempting to accessthe captured fish inside them. The significantincreaseinthe shark population along the Louisiana coast has

tearsinrecentyears.

Innovation is Driving Sustainability, NotAdditional Regulations

Westbank Fishing, akey operatorinthe industry,recognizing this growing issue, worked with net manufacturersglobally to identifya suitable solution.

Westbank Fishing invested $1.8million to trial newultra-high molecular weight polyethylene Spectra/Plateena netting, which is arevolutionary fiber which is ten times stronger than nylon.

Between 2018 and 2023, Westbank Fishing had experienced eightnet tears, all of which were when using the industries traditional nylon nets.All but one of these net tearsoccurred at distances greater than 1mile from Louisiana’sregulatory fishing line.

Sinceadopting the Spectra/Plateena nets in May2023, Westbank Fishing has completed over15,000 fishing sets without asingle net tear.Building on this success, the company is investing another $900,000 in 12 newSpectra/Plateena nets forthe 2025fishing season.

Data shows thatindustry innovation –not unnecessary spatial restrictions like extended buffer zones –iskey to reducing fish spills.Industry-led innovation has proventobethe most effectiveway to reduce fish spills,demonstrating that

targetedtechnological solutions aremore effectivethan broad, one-size-fits-all spatial restrictions Industry-WideAdoption of Smarter Fishing Technology

After seeing Westbank Fishing’s success, Ocean Harvesterswill fully transition to Spectra/Plateena nets forthe 2025season and beyond. This investmentreinforces the menhaden fishing industry’s ongoing commitment to innovation and responsible fishing practices.While the industry has already achievedanexceptionally lowincident rate,wecontinue to invest in cutting-edge technologytofurther reduce fish spills and improve sustainability. The industry’s commitmentto sustainabilityhas drawnattentionfrom regulators and policymakers. Last year, then-Louisiana DepartmentofWildlife and Fisheries Secretary Madison Sheahan, along with LDWF executivestaff and the EnforcementDivision, toured Westbank Fishing’s operations in Empire, LA, for afirst-hand look at its fishing practices AhighlightofSecretary Sheahan’svisit wasthe inspection of Westbank Fishing’s state-of-the-art Spectra/Plateena netting—nearly tentimes stronger than traditional nylon nets and nowthe exclusivematerial used by the company. “Commercial fisheries arevital to

Industry-led innovation has proven to be the mosteffective waytoreduce fish spills, demonstrating that targeted technological solutions aremore effectivethan broad, one-size-fits-all spatial restrictions.

the Louisiana economy,”said Secretary Sheahan following the tour.“As Secretary, it is my dutytothe people of Louisiana and to the Departmenttounderstand the industries within Louisiana regulated by the Departmenttoensurethe health of our fisheries and the habitats needed to support them. Iamgrateful forthe first-hand experience of one of our state’s toughest jobs.”

The Louisiana commercial menhaden industry has proventhat sustainabilityisbest achievedthrough proactiveinvestmentand technological advancements.Weremain committedto working alongside regulators,scientists and the broader fishing communityto ensureabalanced, science-based approach to fishery management—one thatprotects both our coastal environmentand the livelihoods of the hardworking men and women who depend on this resource. Together,wecan secureafuturewhere economic growth and environmental responsibilitygohand in hand. By continuing to invest in cutting-edge solutions,wecan protect both Louisiana’s working coast and its fisheries –ensuring long-term sustainabilitywithout sacrificing economic opportunity.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MATTHEW PERSCHALL

José Suquet has led the New Orleans-based Pan-American Life Insurance Group since 2004.

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GREAT ESCAPE

training session in an escape room that merged critical thinking, teamwork and real-world medical skills.

BY MARGARET DELANEY Staff writer

Medical education takes an exciting turn as Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University introduces an interactive escape room experience designed to make learning more engaging and impactful.

In February, 29 physician assistant students took a unique training session that merged critical thinking, teamwork and real-world medical skills.

Inside the escape rooms simulated as standard exam rooms — students worked together to take a comprehensive patient history perform physical examinations and analyze clues to form a diagnosis.

The prospective PAs were required

to order appropriate lab tests and diagnostics, working together to “escape” the room by accurately diagnosing the patient.

This approach transforms a traditional learning environment into an urgent care clinic simulation.

“This escape room scenario offers PA students a safe, controlled environment to tackle complex, real-world medical situations,” said Tara Milligan, the physician assistant clinical coordinator at the university

As coordinator, Milligan is in charge of introducing new and exciting ways to improve education for physician assistants.

At the escape room, students split into two groups to ensure smaller and more intimate learning experiences.

“In the medical field, you have to learn to be able to work with a team of people in order to properly treat a patient sometimes,” Milligan said. “So, I wanted them to have that experience of working together.”

The case scenario provided to both groups featured a 12-year-old male with a traumatic brain injury presenting with a high fever lasting eight days. Through examination and chart reviews, students uncovered signs of sepsis (a bacterial infection in the whole body and blood) from pressure ulcers on the lower back and found that he was being abused and neglected.

Once the correct diagnosis was made, the team “escaped” and the patient was hypothetically sent to the ER for urgent treatment.

A debriefing session followed, where students discussed the plan of care — including treatment protocols for sepsis and the responsibilities of health care providers in suspected abuse or neglect cases.

The group covered mandated reporting, engaging social work or case management, contacting law enforcement and proper electronic medical record, or EMR, documentation in the escape room lesson.

“As providers, we are legally and ethically bound to be a mandated reporter of possible abuse or neglect for anyone,” Milligan said. “I wanted the students to be able to have some sort of exposure to that process since they

3X

BY FELICE J FREYER

KFF Health News

After a patch of ice sent Marc Durocher hurtling to the ground, and doctors at UMass Memorial Medical Center repaired the broken hip that resulted, the 75-yearold electrician found himself at a crossroads. He didn’t need to be in the hospital any longer But he was still in pain, unsteady on his feet, unready for independence.

Patients nationwide often stall at this intersection, stuck in the hospital for days or weeks because nursing homes and physical rehabilitation facilities are full.

Yet when Durocher was ready for discharge in late January, a clinician came by with a surprising path forward: Want to go home?

home,” in which services typically provided at a skilled nursing facility are instead offered in the home, with visits from caregivers and remote monitoring technology

including New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — as a solution to a shortage of nursing home and rehab beds for patients too sick to go home but not sick enough to need hospitalization.

Specifically, he was invited to join a research study at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, testing the concept of “SNF at home” or “subacute at

Durocher hesitated, worried he might not get the care he needed, but he and his wife, Jeanne, ultimately decided to try it. What could be better than recovering at his home in Auburn with his dog, Buddy?

Such rehab at home is underway in various parts of the country —

Staffing shortages at post-acute facilities around the country led to a 24% increase over three years in hospital length of stay among patients who need skilled nursing care, according to a 2022 analysis. With no place to go, these patients occupy expensive hospital

beds they don’t need, while others wait in emergency rooms for those spots. In Massachusetts, for example, at least 1,995 patients were awaiting hospital discharge in December, according to a survey of hospitals by the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association. Offering intensive services and remote monitoring technology in the home can work as an alternative — especially in rural areas,

BR university uses an escape room, new tech to train prospective physician assistants ä See REHAB, page 2X

Molly Kimball

PROVIDED PHOTO

Physician assistant students took a unique

HEALTH MAKER

BR breast cancer surgeon on new technologies

BY MARGARET DELANEY Staff writer

On Super Bowl Sunday

Dr Everett Bonner, a breast surgeon at Baton Rouge General, was part of the important conversation around early detection of breast cancer with the NFL and American Cancer Society He appeared live on television discussing Baton Rouge General’s High-Risk Breast Clinic at its Mid City campus. As an avid LSU fan and outdoor enthusiast, Bonner lives and practices medicine in Baton Rouge, or as he describes it — the “perfect part of Louisiana.”

A native New Orleanian, Bonner earned his undergraduate degree from LSU in 1992 and then went on to pursue his doctorate at the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans, graduating in 2002.

PROVIDED PHOTO Dr Everett Bonner is a breast surgeon at Baton Rouge General.

From there, he left his home state of Louisiana for a time for his surgical residency at Mercer University School of Medicine in Savannah, Georgia After completing his residency program in 2007, he earned a fellowship in surgical breast oncology from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York

Bonner returned home in 2008 to the Baton Rouge Clinic. A retired lieutenant colonel with the Louisiana Army National Guard, Bonner is a veteran of the Iraq War serving as a combat surgeon. He and his wife, Alison, who is originally from Abbeville, have three children together How has technology and the surgical practices around breast cancer changed? It’s always evolving. We’re finding that doing less is best not as aggressive surgeries. If we do surgeries, we can spare most of the tissue with mastectomies and leave a woman whole again.

From a cosmetic standpoint, with plastic surgery, a patient can look exactly the same. We are incorporating good, sound oncological principles with good cosmetic outcomes. How do you go about learning and

implementing new technologies?

A lot of times, we take our advice from some of the major cancer centers. If the major cancer centers aren’t doing it, there’s probably a reason.

When I see new technologies, first I see who it’s coming from. Is this an industry driven recommendation? Has it been proven by evidence-based medicine? Does it at least treat or cure or perform at least up to the standard of what we have now? Is it superior? It either has to form at the level of care that we’re doing now or better if you want to change anything. What’s next for cancer care? There’s a little something that’s starting to come out that I think may replace mammograms. Mammograms have been around since the ’60s and the ’70s — it hasn’t changed in all these years.

Sure, the pictures look better because of our technology, but the actual platform hasn’t really changed. It still does the same positions, and it’s still uncomfortable for a lot of patients. New ultrasounds and 3D imaging that’s already been approved by the FDA for use, and is in use in Louisiana can help make this a better process for women getting their checkups and those with breast cancer

But there’s something else on the horizon that may change things: immunotherapies and targeted-direct therapies.

These drugs, a genetic mutation of the cancer drugs, directly target cancer cells. We’re seeing patients get chemotherapy before surgery, and by the time the surgery occurs, we can’t find any residual disease.

Patients still need the

surgery because you can’t prove microscopic disease, but we’re seeing remarkable responses to some of the chemotherapy drugs. What should women in Louisiana know about the risks for breast cancer?

The biggest thing for breast cancer is screening — that is the single most important thing a woman can do to increase her survivability from breast cancer

There’s not a whole lot of things that we can do to prevent breast cancer: You can watch your diet. Watch your weight, blood pressure and physical activity

What you can control is how often you go to get your mammogram done and visiting the appropriate physician.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com.

La. educator helps medical students on Match Day

BY MARGARET DELANEY Staff writer

Students selected their top residency programs, and residency programs selected their top students.

On March 21, also known as Match Day, medical students all around the country found out what medical residency program they were paired with to continue their medical education.

Medical residencies, a postgraduate training program where doctors gain specialized, in-depth training in a specific medical specialty, typically last three to seven years.

Dr Ron Amedee has been in academic medicine for 44 years. Amedee did his medical fellowship overseas in Germany and came back stateside to work at Tulane. He was a faculty member at the New Orleans university for 21 years until Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

Now Amedee oversees academic medical education at Ochsner His role includes undergraduate education, medical school, graduate medical education and continued education for working medical staff For Match Day, Amedee worked with 66 graduating students to either celebrate their matches, or find a match that best fits with the specialty they wish to practice.

REHAB

Continued from page 1X

where nursing homes are closing at a faster rate than in cities and patients’ relatives often must travel far to visit.

For patients of the Marshfield Clinic Health System who live in rural parts of Wisconsin, the clinic’s six-yearold SNF-at-home program is often the only option, said Swetha Gudibanda, medical director of the hospital-athome program.

“This is going to be the future of medicine,” Gudibanda said. But the concept is new, an outgrowth of hospitalat-home services expanded by a COVID-19 pandemicinspired Medicare waiver SNF-at-home care remains uncommon, lost in a fiscal and regulatory netherworld.

No federal standards spell out how to run these programs, which patients should qualify, or what services to offer No reimbursement mechanism exists, so fee-forservice Medicare and most insurance companies don’t cover such care at home.

The programs have emerged only at a few hospital systems with their own insurance companies (like the Marshfield Clinic) or those that arrange for “bundled

How does Match Day work?

It’s actually a weeklong process — we like to call it Match Week.

On Monday, students that have enrolled throughout the country into the matching process, which has been in place for over 70 years in the United States, find out if they have been matched with a medical program. And there’s roughly 50,000 graduates in the United States that participate, and there’s about 10,000 accredited programs that they are trying to match into Some of these programs have large classes (in the five hundreds), others have smaller programs (less than 100).

What’s so interesting about the national residency matching program, or NRMP is that it’s based upon an award-winning mathematical algorithm. The students put in programs that they would wish to train at, and then the programs put in the students that they would like to have in their programs. All that information goes into a big computer and through the magic of mathematical algorithms and little bit of science and luck, it prints out matches where the applicants will ultimately end up for their training.

About 70% of the students that are enrolled in the match, out of 50,000, will

payments,” in which providers receive a set fee to manage an episode of care, as can occur with Medicare Advantage plans.

In Durocher’s case, the care was available — at no cost to him or other patients only through the clinical trial, funded by a grant from the state Medicaid program. State health officials supported two simultaneous studies at UMass and Mass General Brigham hoping to reduce costs, improve quality of care and, crucially, make it easier to transition patients out of the hospital.

The American Health Care Association, the trade group representing more than 15,000 long-term and postacute care providers, calls “SNF at home” a misnomer because, by law, such services must be provided in an institution and meet detailed requirements.

And the association points out that skilled nursing facilities provide services and socialization that can never be replicated at home, such as daily activity programs, religious services and access to social workers But patients at home tend to get up and move around more than those in a facility, speeding their recovery, said Wendy Mitchell, medical director of the UMass Chan clinical trial. Also, therapy is tailored to their home environment,

know if they have matched on that Monday

The 25 to 30% that have not matched yet have an opportunity to push their applications forward on Tuesday They will be able to interview at additional programs on Wednesday and on Thursday of Match Week.

After that, there are four more rounds of additional algorithms that occur to try to get everybody finally matched for Match Day, which is on Friday

On Friday, everybody finds out where they’re going, and we find out who we’re getting and where they’re coming from How do students prepare for Match Day?Tell me about students who don’t match with a program. The match interviewing opens up in October Students have been interviewing since then with programs and sites that they are interested in. There will be a small component of students who do not match at all. They get no match at all. And that’s a hard place to be. That’s something that we try to advise and work with our students to make sure they never have to face that particular situation.

What does Match Day mean to you?

One of the things that I have always enjoyed is being a part of the educational continuum from a medical student transitioning to a resident, then to transitioning from a resident to a practicing physician.

We have been working with students since when they arrived here in their third year We’re already talking about the match to them.

teaching patients to navigate the exact stairs and bathrooms they’ll eventually use on their own.

A quarter of people who go into nursing homes suffer an “adverse event,” such as infection or bed sore, said David Levine, clinical director for research for Mass General Brigham’s Healthcare at Home program and leader of its study

“We cause a lot of harm in facility-based care,” he said.

By contrast, in 2024, not one patient in the Rehabilitation Care at Home program of Nashville-based Contessa Health developed a bed sore and only 0.3% came down with an infection while at home, according to internal company data.

Contessa delivers care in the home through partnerships with five health systems, including Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, the Allegheny Health Network in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin’s Marshfield Clinic.

Contessa’s program, which has been providing in-home post-hospital rehabilitation since 2019, depends on help from unpaid family caregivers.

“Almost universally our patients have somebody living with them,” said Robert Moskowitz, Contessa’s acting president and chief medical officer

The two Massachusetts-

We set expectations from our perspective, and we’re setting expectations that they should be aspire to. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the notice on Monday, because there’s still an opportunity to get a position in the match through the remainder of the week.

One of the things we really do is we talk to the students. We will be advising them along the way There are a lot of one-on-one meetings with our senior faculty, with myself, as to whether or not the specialty they are going into — or thinking about is a good fit.

based studies, however do enroll patients who live alone. In the UMass trial, an overnight home health aide can stay for a day or two if needed.

And while alone, patients “have a single-button access to a live person from our command center,” said Apurv Soni, an assistant professor of medicine at UMass Chan and the leader of its study

But SNF at home is not without hazards, and choosing the right patients to enroll is critical. The UMass research team learned an important lesson when a patient with mild dementia became alarmed by unfamiliar caregivers coming to her home. She was readmitted to the hospital, according to Mitchell.

The Mass General Brigham study relies heavily on technology intended to reduce the need for highly skilled staff.

A nurse and physician each

For some of the more competitive specialties in the United States, unless you have certain metrics in your curriculum, it’s not going to happen for some students. It’s simply not going to happen. The match has to look good on paper to begin with, for students and programs. Leading indicators that make students more desirable for those competitive matches are high examination scores on the national examinations that they have to take through medical school, scholarly products demonstrated on their manuscript, whether it be a publication or presentations at national meetings.

conducts an in-home visit, but the patient is otherwise monitored remotely Medical assistants visit the home to gather data with a portable ultrasound, portable X-ray and a device that can analyze blood tests on-site.

A machine the size of a toaster oven dispenses medication, with a robotic arm that drops the pills into a dispensing unit.

The UMass trial, the one Durocher enrolled in, instead chose a “light touch” with technology, using only a few devices, Soni said.

The day Durocher went home, he said, a nurse met him there and showed him how to use a wireless blood pressure cuff, wireless pulse oximeter, and digital tablet that would transmit his vital signs twice a day

Over the next few days, he said, nurses came by to take blood samples and check on him Physical and occupational therapists provided several hours of treatment

I’ve gotten the opportunity throughout all my years to see that progress very intimately which a lot of people don’t even understand, probably don’t even care about. It’s such a fulfilling responsibility of mine. It’s a lot of pressure and a lot of tension and deadlines, but getting to Friday afternoon and seeing the joy on these students faces and the success that they have achieved in a fairly short period of time, is amazing to me. The birds leave the nest at that particular time, and I’m very happy to see them go.

I’m very proud of them, whether they stay with us, or they go anywhere else the United States or even go back to Australia. I’m proud of all of them. One of the major joys of my life in academic medicine is seeing the learners come in as beginners and come out as competent physicians on the other end. That’s a great privilege, and I’m very thankful for it.

every day and a home health aide came a few hours a day

To his delight, the program even sent three meals a day Durocher learned to use the walker and how to get up the stairs to his bedroom with one crutch and support from his wife. After just one week, he transitioned to lessfrequent, in-home physical therapy, covered by his insurance.

“The recovery is amazing because you’re in your own setting,” Durocher said. “To be relegated to a chair and a walker, and at first somebody helping you get up, or into bed, showering you — it’s very humbling. But it’s comfortable. It’s home, right?”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state. This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and reexamining tried and true methods on

ways to live well. Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana. Do you have a health story? We want to hear from you. Email margaret. delaney@theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Faculty friends and family gather in the Capital on Baronne in downtown New Orleans to find out where the 185 graduating fourth-year Tulane University medical students will spend the next chapter of their medical careers during Match Day on March 18, 2022.

Eat Fit LiveFit

WBRO UGHT TO YO UB Y Molly Kimball RD,CSSD

Functionalingredients: Elevating zero proof cocktails and other beverages

earenearingthehalfwaymark ofour10thannualAlcoholFree for40Challenge,atimewhen motivationcanwaver,andthosebooze-free sipsmaystarttofeelabitrepetitive.Even ifyou’renotofficiallypartofthechallenge, maybeyou’veoptedoutofalcoholforLent orsimplydecidedtodrinklessforpersonal reasons.Eitherway,thisisaperfectopportunitytoexplorenewwaystokeepthings interesting Oneofmyfavorite approachesistoshake upyourroutine(and yourzeroproofcocktails)withfunctional ingredients—specifically,adaptogensand botanicalsthatcan supportbothphysical andmentalwellness whileaddinginterest toyouralcohol-free repertoire.

Irecentlyspoke withbarmanager andmixologypro PaulLogginsfrom ZuzulCoastalCuisinein Shreveportformypodcast,FUELEDWellness+Nutrition.Nowsevenyearssober,he hasmasteredtheartofcraftingalcohol-free drinksthatarebeautifullysophisticated, oftenfeaturingfunctionalingredientslike Ashwagandha,L-theanine,lemonbalmand lavender.Below,I’llsharepartsofourfruitful conversation,includingthepotentialbenefitsoftheseingredients,plustipsonhow toincorporatethemintoyourownzero prooffavorites.Youcanalsoaddthemto smoothies,teasorotherbeverages.

healthcareproviderorpharmacistbefore usingnewsupplements.

Energizeandfocus

L-Theanine

Anaminoacidfoundnaturallyingreen tea,L-Theanineiscelebratedforprovidinga senseofcalmalertness.

Potentialbenefits:L-theaninemayhelp toenhancecognitionandincreasefocus, makingitapopularchoice forthoseseekingclarity withoutthejitters.

Oneimportantcaveat:Someofthese productscanlowerbloodpressureor bloodsugarandmayinteractwithmedications,includingsedativesandantidepressants.Asalways,checkwithyour

Dosage:Typically, 200-400mgisthedaily dosage;tinctureconcentrationsvary.

Flavoranduse:Sharp andsomewhatsavory, itintegrateswellinto citrusyorherbaldrinks. Ashwagandha Asmallevergreen shrub,Ashwagandha isanadaptogenicherb thathelpsthebody adapttostressors.

Potentialbenefits: StudieslinkAshwagandhatoreducedcortisol(astresshormone), improvedsleepandenhancedmentalfocus. Someresearchalsoindicatesitmighthelp loweranxietyandfatigue.

Dosage:Around600-1000mgdailyisa typicaldosage;tinctureconcentrationsvary.

Flavoranduse:Earthyandslightlybitter,it pairswellwithawiderangeofflavorprofiles.

BY THE NUMBERS

ToreapthebenefitsofbothAshwagandhaandL-theanine,addtwodropperfulsof eachtothebottomofarocksglasswitha squeezeoffreshlemon(orquarter-teaspoon lemonjuice),topwithfourouncessparkling water(plain,lemon-orlime-flavored)and garnishwithatwistoflemon.

Relaxandunwind

LemonBalm

Abright,lemon-scentedherbinthemint family,lemonbalmisusedtoeasestressand boostmood.

Potentialbenefits:Lemonbalmmayhelp reducestress,improvesymptomsofdepressionandpossiblyenhancesleepquality byincreasinglevelsoftheneurotransmitter GABA.

Dosage:Dosescanrangefrom600-3000 mgdaily.Myrecommendationistoaimfor 600to1200mg;tinctureconcentrationsvary. LemonbalmhasGRAS(generallyrecognizedassafe)statusbytheFDA.Butifyou havethyroidissues,talktoyourdoctorfirst aslemonbalmmayinterferewiththyroid hormonereplacementtherapy.

Flavoranduse:Herbalandcitrusy,lemon balmpairseasilywithanarrayofflavors.Try twodropperfulswithsixouncesofgrapefruit-flavoredsparklingwater,garnished withanexpressedlimepeeloratwistof lime.

Lavender

Lavenderisafamiliar,soothingbotanical popularinaromatherapy.

Potentialbenefits:Studiessuggestingestinglavendermayhelpreducesymptomsof

MollyKimball,RD,CSSD,isaregistereddietitian withOchsnerHealthandfounderofOchsner’sEatFit nonprofitinitiative.Formorewellnesscontent,tuneinto Molly’spodcast,FUELEDWellness+Nutrition,andfollow @MollykimballRDand@EatFitOchsneronsocialmedia. Emailnutrition@ochsner.orgtoconnectwithMollyor scheduleaconsultwithherteam.

Across the United States, an estimated 178,000 people die every year from excessive alcohol use, making it one of the leading preventable causes of death in the country, behind tobacco and poor diet/ physical inactivity

Short-term and long-term excessive alcohol consumption can have negative impacts on individuals and those around them.

Risks associated with long-term excessive alcohol use include:

n Hypertension, heart disease, stroke and liver disease.

n Cancer of the breast, throat, liver or colon.

n Alcohol dependence

n Memory and learning problems

Excessive drinking is responsible for an average of 488 deaths per day in the country.

Louisiana ranks 31st in the nation for

excessive drinking, reporting that 17.4% of the state’s adults are binge drinking (four or more drinks on one occasion in the past 30 days for females, or five or more for males) or heavily drinking (eight or more drinks per week for females, or 15 or more for males).

The states with the lowest rates of excessive drinking among adults include Utah (12.5%),West Virginia (13.3%), New Mexico (13.8%), Maryland (14.1%) and Oklahoma (14.4%).

North Dakota reported the highest rates of excessive drinking in the nation, with 22.3% of the state’s adults reporting binge drinking or heavily drinking — well above the national average of 16.7%.

Rounding out the top five states with the

are:

anxietyanddepression.

Dosage:Acommondosageisaround80160mgdaily;tinctureconcentrationsvary. Flavoranduse:Floralandfragrant,alittle goesalongway.Tryonedropperfulmixed with½teaspoonlemonjuiceandtwoounceschilledhibiscustea,toppedoffwith4-6 ouncessparklingwater. Ready-to-drinkzeroproofcocktails Ifyou’relookingforaportableoptionto bringtothebeach,festivalsoranywhere you’dtypicallybringacoolerofdrinks–there’sagrowingmarketofcannedzero proofcocktails.Someofthemcontainfunctionalingredients.

MycurrentfavoriteisPeakCocktails,a zeroproofbrandthatkeepssugarincheck andspecifiesexactlyhowmuchofeach functionalingredientisinside.Theirbeveragescontain200mgAshwagandha,200 mgL-theaninefromgreenteaand100mg lemonbalm.Sweetenedwithabitofstevia, PeakCocktails’LemonJuniperFizzhasjust 10caloriesandzeroaddedsugar. Whenexploringotherbrands,bewareof productsthatcontainlotsofaddedsugar. Somecannedoptionshaveasmuchas20+ gramsofsugar.Andtheyoftenlistherbs andextractswithoutindicatingamounts— leavingusguessingwhetherthere’senough includedtooffermeaningfulbenefits.

Thebottomline

Whilefunctionalingredientscanoffer intriguingperks,theyaren’tmiraclecures. They’rejustonepartofabroaderlifestyle approachthatshouldincludeotherhealthy habits,likestayingactive,gettingenough sleepandkeepingsugarandprocessed carbsincheck.Andalwaysconsulta healthcareprofessionalbeforeaddingnew supplements—especiallyifyou’repregnant, nursing,haveunderlyingconditionsortake prescriptionmedications.

Cheerstoexploringnewflavors,enjoying better-for-yousipsandmakingthemostof youralcohol-freejourney!

TRAINING

Continued from page 1X

may experience that in their careers.”

To enhance learning, the Simulation Education Training Hospital recorded the sessions, allowing students to review their performance, reflect on decision-making processes and identify areas for improvement.

This approach aims to better prepare future health care providers for the challenges they may face in emergency and urgent care settings, ensuring they have both the clinical skills and ethical awareness needed to provide comprehensive patient care.

“By engaging in this hands-on experience, students will not only strengthen their diagnostic skills but also gain valuable exposure to sensitive and critical processes,” Milligan said.

Physician assistants are trained much like physicians, although PA school is shorter — just over two years to medical school’s four-year programs.

All of the students that

are accepted into PA programs have some kind of medical experience (like medical assistants, EMT, med-techs, radiology techs, athletic trainers, CNAs and more) before going to PA school.

“It’s almost like a mini medical school,” Milligan said.

The first phase of PA school the didactic phase — is spent in the classroom where students learn the theoretical and basic concepts of medicine, clinical decision-making and critical thinking skills. Didactic students spend their time studying test taking and practicing physical examinations.

The students also have laboratory sessions with their lecture classes so that they can apply what they have been learning in the lecture classes.

“We have also been adding in more simulation experiences for the students as well as games such as Jeopardy to help make the medical learning more interactive,” Milligan said.

“All of these students grew up in the new age of everyone having a cellphone and laptop so sometimes you

have to find more innovative activities to keep up with the technology and keep their learning engaging and enjoyable.”

Once students finish the classroom part of the academic program, they move to the clinical phase which, at FranU, consists of seven rotations in family medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, internal medicine, hospital inpatient, women’s health and mental health. After an additional three rotations in a specialty of their choosing, the prospective PAs return to campus for the last 3 months and have their assessments including the end of curriculum exam, simulated patient experiences, directly observed procedural skills, grand rounds (presentations of medical care to an audience of health care professionals) and their senior projects.

Once they finish those tasks, they will graduate and be able to take the PA National Certification Exam and become a practicing physician assistant.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Students at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University simulate a full-body exam in an escape-room-style lesson in Baton Rouge.

ImageprovidedbyFreePix

Researchers: Some CT scans deliver too much radiation

Regulators want to know more

BY JOAN KEENEN KFF Health News

Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco medical school, has spent well over a decade researching the disquieting risk that one of modern medicine’s most valuable tools, computerized tomography scans, can sometimes cause cancer

Smith-Bindman and likeminded colleagues have long pushed for federal policies aimed at improving safety for patients undergoing CT scans. Under new Medicare regulations effective this year, hospitals and imaging centers must start collecting and sharing more information about the radiation their scanners emit.

About 93 million CT scans are performed every year in the United States, according to IMV, a medical market research company that tracks imaging. More than half of those scans are for people 60 and older Yet there is scant regulation of radiation levels as the machines scan organs and structures inside bodies. Dosages are erratic, varying widely from one clinic to another, and are too often unnecessarily high, Smith-Bindman and other critics say “It’s unfathomable,”

Smith-Bindman said. “We keep doing more and more CTs, and the doses keep going up.”

One CT scan can expose a patient to 10 or 15 times as much radiation as another, Smith-Bindman said. “There is very large variation,” she said, “and the doses vary by an order of magnitude — tenfold, not 10% different — for patients seen for the same clinical problem.” In outlier institutions, the variation is even higher, according to research she and a team of international collaborators have published. She and other researchers estimated in 2009 that high doses could be responsible for 2% of cancers. Ongoing research shows it’s probably higher, since far more scans are performed today The cancer risk from CT scans for any individual patient is very low, although it rises for patients who have numerous scans throughout their lives. Radiologists don’t want to scare off patients who can benefit from imaging, which plays a crucial role in identifying lifethreatening conditions like cancers and aneurysms and guides doctors through complicated procedures.

About 93 million CT scans are performed every year in the United States, according to IMV, a medical market research company that tracks imaging More than half of those scans are for people 60 and older

But the new data collection rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued in the closing months of the Biden administration are aimed at making imaging safer They also require a more careful assessment of the dosing, quality, and necessity of CT scans.

The requirements, rolled out in January, are being phased in over about three years for hospitals, outpatient settings, and physicians. Under the complicated reporting system, not every radiologist or health care setting is required to comply immediately Providers could face financial

penalties under Medicare if they don’t comply, though those will be phased in, too, starting in 2027.

When the Biden administration issued the new guidelines, a CMS spokesperson said in an email that excessive and unnecessary radiation exposure was a health risk that could be addressed through measurement and feedback to hospitals and physicians. The agency at the time declined to make an official available for an interview The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

The Leapfrog Group, an organization that tracks hospital safety, welcomed the new rules. “Radiation exposure is a very serious patient safety issue, so we commend CMS for focusing on CT scans,” said Leah Binder, the group’s president and CEO. Leapfrog has set standards for pediatric exposure to imaging radiation, “and we find significant variation among hospitals,” Binder added.

CMS contracted with UCSF in 2019 to research solutions aimed at encouraging better measurement and assessment of CTs, leading to the development of the agency’s new approach.

The American College of Radiology and three other associations involved in medical imaging, however, objected to the draft CMS rules when they were under review, arguing in written comments in 2023 that they were excessively cumbersome, would burden providers, and could add to the cost of scans. The group was also concerned, at that time, that health providers would have to use a single, proprietary tech tool for gathering the dosing and any related scan data.

The single company in question, Alara Imaging, supplies free software that radiologists and radiology

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

programs need to comply with the new regulations. The promise to keep it free is included in the company’s copyright. Smith-Bindman is a co-founder of Alara Imaging, and UCSF also has a stake in the company, which is developing other health tech products unrelated to the CMS imaging rule that it does plan to commercialize. But the landscape has recently changed. ACR said in a statement from Judy Burleson, ACR vice president for quality management programs, that CMS is allowing in other vendors — and that ACR itself is “in discussion with Alara” on the data collection and submission. In addition, a company called Medisolv, which works on health care quality, said at least one client is working with another vendor, Imalogix, on the CT dose data.

Several dozen health quality and safety organizations including some national leaders in patient safety, like the Institute of Healthcare Improvement — have

supported CMS’ efforts.

Concerns about CT dosing are long-standing. A landmark study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2009 by a research team that included experts from the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and universities estimated that CT scans were responsible for 29,000 excess cancer cases a year in the United States, about 2% of all cases diagnosed annually

But the number of CT scans kept climbing. By 2016, it was estimated at 74 million, up 20% in a decade, though radiologists say dosages of radiation per scan have declined.

Some researchers have noted that U.S. doctors order far more imaging than physicians in other developed countries, arguing some of it is wasteful and dangerous.

More recent studies, some looking at pediatric patients and some drawing on radiation exposure data from survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, have also identified CT scan risk.

Older people may face greater cancer risks because of imaging they had earlier in life. And scientists have emphasized the

need to be particularly careful with children, who may be more vulnerable to radiation exposure while young and face the consequences of cumulative exposure as they age.

Max Wintermark, a neuroradiologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who has been involved in the field’s work on appropriate utilization of imaging, said doctors generally follow dosing protocols for CT scans. In addition, the technology is improving; he expects artificial intelligence to soon help doctors determine optimal imaging use and dosing delivering “the minimum amount of radiation dose to get us to the diagnosis that we’re trying to reach.”

But he said he welcomes the new CMS regulations.

“I think the measures will help accelerate the transition towards always lower and lower doses,” he said. “They are helpful.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

HEALTH NOTES

LDH reopens Central

Louisiana State Hospital

On March 6, the Louisiana Department of Health reopened a $33 million state hospital for patients with severe and persistent mental illnesses. The new hospital, 6250 Esler Field Road in Pineville, can provide care for up to 116 patients with a focus on rehabilitation.

Bayou Pediatrics to join

Manning Family Children’s

On April 1, Bayou Pediatrics, a private pediatrics clinic at 569 Enterprise Drive in Houma, will join the Manning Family Children’s network of pediatric primary practices. A team of four providers will join the Manning Family Children’s medical staff, where they will continue to offer pediatric primary care services for children and families in the area.

The Lake renames

Ascension hospital

The Franciscan Missionaries of

Our Lady Health System hospital at 1125 La. 30 West in Gonzales, Louisiana will become Our Lady of the Lake St. Elizabeth. The updated name aims to honor the original name while maintaining the connection to our Franciscan mission.

Free Alzheimer’s conference set in N.O

The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America will host a free conference on April 23 at the Embassy Suites Hotel New Orleans Convention Center, 315 Julia St., New Orleans. It will feature some of the top local experts in the New Orleans area in medicine, dementia and caregiving. Attendees will learn about everything from healthy aging to early detection, long-term care planning, local resources and more.

Health Notes is an occasional listing of health happenings around Louisiana. Have something you’d like to share? Contact us at margaret.delaney @theadvocate.com.

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• Access 24/7 urgent careonline with Connected Anywhere virtualvisits.

• See your providersonline with MyOchsner virtual appointments forprimary care.

• Use MyOchsner to schedule online, request prescriptionrefills, view your test results and more.

GENTLE SONG

New Orleans choir creates peace and calm at the end of life

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Voices blend in harmony at the bed-

side of a woman in her last stages of life

A choir of three women sing a gentle song called “Thank You” that expresses gratitude for love and caring. The women consider this moment as one of their greatest gifts as their a cappella sound ushers the client in bed as she crosses the last threshold.

The three woman are part of Threshold Nola, a chapter of the international choral nonprofit organization Threshold Choir which Kate Munger founded in 2000 in California. Threshold Choir has 200 chapters of volunteer singers all over the world who sing a cappella to those in the later stages of life, those facing death and those that grieve them.

The organization provides support for its chapters by offering online meetings, video trainings, retreats and other resources.

Music educator Margaret Albert and massage therapist Hermene Anderson heard of Threshold around the same time and founded Threshold Nola in 2016. It is the only Threshold Choir chapter in Louisiana and includes 12 singers who sing together at nursing homes, memory care residences and bedsides.

When the members are called upon to sing at a bedside, only three or four will go together so as to keep the atmosphere intimate. When they sing at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, the group performs more upbeat songs. Anderson says there is no audition required to become a member of Threshold Nola. However, singers must be able to hold a tune, sing harmony, sing the right part — alto, second soprano or first soprano — a cappella and learn the songs, which are short, mantra-style songs. Members receive specialized training around death and grief, bringing calm to the bedside, and producing a harmonized blend of sound

“We sing very softly when we’re singing at bedside,” Anderson said. “It’s all about looking at your life and being grateful, about peace and love and kindness. We keep it flowing very quietly, because some people that we sing to are unresponsive.”

PROVIDED PHOTO

Jan Risher

Loving beyond dividing lines

This column requires a certain notice.

I grew up going to church a lot — as in three times a week, at least. However, as an adult, my church attendance has waxed and waned. I’ve struggled to make peace with a lot of “church stuff.”

That said, I love to be part of a community — and a good church is a great place to do that. So, now I go to church.

A few weeks back, when the minister announced there were decks of Lent prayer cards, I didn’t really understand what she meant. Nonetheless, I picked up a deck on my way out. I decided to take them to my office to read each day The cards have a question on one side and a prayer on the other Last week, the question on one of the cards was, “What does it mean to be a good neighbor?”

On the other side, it said, “I long to be a good neighbor — hospitable, compassionate and free of assumptions. However, I know that my own humanity gets in the way Forgive me for the moments when I miss an opportunity to be compassionate. Forgive me, and spark compassion deep in my bones.”

The next day, the prayer read:

“Every once in a while, someone does something so kind, so unreasonably gracious, that it uncoils something in me. It unravels a bit of fear or grief, and leaves me with a glimmer of hope. Show me how to love like that. Show me how to cross the road, care for my neighbor and love beyond dividing lines. Show me how to be unreasonably hospitable.”

Two days in a row with that kind of beauty made me want to know more about who wrote these incredible thoughts.

“We have the honor of offering them the services of Threshold Nola choir, and it has been an absolute privilege to witness the peace of song that comes over the resident as they are transitioning into eternal rest.”

MARIA LANDRENEAU, director of memory care for The Blake at Colonial Club in Harahan

In her nine years of singing with Threshold Nola, Anderson says she has noticed that clients are relaxed and calm during the music.

“Some people are in their last moments, and we can see how their breathing gets slower and quieter We’ve been at bedside when folks have crossed over, with family in the room,” Anderson said.

Maria Landreneau, the director of memory care for The Blake at Colonial Club in Harahan, has worked with the Threshold Nola singers for almost a year. She arranges the members to perform once a month for the memory care residents. When the group is there, she has noticed that any rhythm or music perks the residents up and encourages them to move and clap with the beat.

In addition to the standing engagement, Landreneau also calls on the small choir when one of her residents is in hospice or close to dying.

“We have the honor of offering them the services of Threshold Nola choir, and it has been an absolute privilege to witness the peace of song that comes over the resident as they are transitioning into eternal rest,” Landreneau said. The sound of the harmonies is the most beautiful thing, the way these women come together and sing.”

PROVIDED PHOTO

The Threshold Nola singers harmonize bedside for a resident.

When singing at bedside, the members bring stools or sit in chairs so they are at the same level as the client in bed or in a chair In addition to nursing homes, Threshold Nola visits hospitals and homes when requested. The group also conducts demonstrations with an antigravity chair for people who are curious about what they do

“We cover them with a blanket and tell them to close their eyes,” she said. “And we go through several songs, and every person that we sing to that is not suffering, tears come to their eyes, and they say they’ve never experienced anything like it.” Anderson says the commitment is demanding because they can be called upon at any time during the week or weekend.

ä See THRESHOLD, page 2Y

Within minutes, I learned the prayers were written by a Presbyterian minister named the Rev Sarah Are Speed. She is a poet and has been a minister in New York City but recently moved to Kansas City

On her website, there was a place to leave a message.

So, I did, adding, on a lark, that I would love to talk to her about being a good neighbor Within hours, she messaged me her cell number and we set up a call to chat the next day

When Rev Speed and I spoke, she told me that the theme for that week’s prayers had been strangers and neighbors and the parable of the good Samaritan.

“You know Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’” she said.

She told me about living in a big apartment building in New York for years and all the people there she never met.

She said that when her faith brings up the notion of neighbors, it reminds her of how countercultural that is in our isolated world.

“Still, our faith calls us to be good neighbors,” she said.

Regardless of religion, I recognize the benefits of society having more people who are good neighbors. I asked what could we as individuals do to be better neighbors, rather than putting the onus on our neighbors. She told me about her 72-yearold neighbor, Franny, who keeps doggie treats on her porch and anytime anyone walks by, Franny offers the dog a treat.

That openness and “invite-youin” spirit goes a long way

Threshold Nola choir sings to the residents of the memory care section at The Blake at Colonial Club residential facility

STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Threshold Choir members Hermene Anderson and Jeanne Duplantier join other members of their choir in singing to Laurel Senior Living residents in New Orleans on July 27, 2023.

Continued from page 1y

Speed said she regretted not sending Christmas cards to her neighbors last year

“I send Christmas cards to friends all over the country but I didn’t send them to my neighbors,” she said, adding that she’ll do better the next time. “That is a very small thing we could do to connect.”

She said good neighbors are more than a neighborhood crime watch.

“If the context most people have for what it means to be a neighbor is that we update each other when the world is falling apart like I want something more beautiful than that as a good neighbor,” she said “I want something that is collaborative and creative and not just a notification.”

We discussed the importance of being vulnerable enough to initiate contact with the people around us. With that in mind, other neighborly ideas include:

n Be the one to share dog treats or invite people in.

n Organize a neighborhood potluck.

n In a counterintuitive move, sometimes being the one to ask to borrow a cup of sugar could be the opening that breaks the ice. Be brave enough to ask.

n If your neighborhood has a group chat, be the one who goes beyond the alerts and notices of caution to bring people together for something fun.

Speed added that the concept of “neighbor” goes beyond the people who live next door

“I think our faith would use an expansive definition of neighbor,” she said. “I love the idea bringing that language back to the center of our thought process or conversation when we think about existing in community.”

A neighbor could be the person we share an elevator with or the person we run into at the grocery story, or the person we pass on the street or walk by in the park.

May we be “hospitable, compassionate and free of assumptions,” not letting our own humanity get in the way May we be “unreasonably gracious.” May we cross the road, care for our neighbors and love beyond dividing lines.

Email Jan Risher at jan.risher@ theadvocate.com.

THRESHOLD

Continued from page 1y

“I’m really happy that that they’re here,” Landreneau said of Threshold Nola. “They’re just a phone call away I’ve

called them, and 35 to 45 minutes later they’re here. If they can make it, they will they will drop everything and come for someone that is passing.”

Threshold Nola has had members who come and go, as the process can be too much for people to handle. Singing in a

Threshold choir also requires time to learn the songs and correct parts to sing in order to produce the blended, soothing a cappella sounds.

“It’s a calling,” Anderson said. “You have to be a special kind of person that will undertake this mission. And I’m grateful I

found it when I did. We are honored a family would allow us to be in the room with their loved one in bed that’s crossing over.” For more information, visit thresholdchoir.org/nola.

Email Joy Holden at joy holden@theadvocate.com.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Threshold Choir members, from left to right, Hermene Anderson, Jeanne Duplantier, and Becky Freedman sing to 102-year-old Dot Archer in her room at Laurel Senior Living in New Orleans on July 27, 2023.

Surround yourself with smarter people

Ensuring economic development teams have the tools they need

BY LAUREN CHERAMIE Staff writer

Stacy Romero is the executive director of the Louisiana Economic Alliance for Development, the leading organization dedicated to advancing economic development professionals across Louisiana.

She holds a degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and has completed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Institute for Organization Management, Business Leads Fellowship Program and the Council for a Better Louisiana’s Leadership Louisiana program. In 2024, she was honored with the Junior Achievement of Acadiana’s Richard E. Boudouin Friend of Business Award.

Romero specializes in organizational administration, workforce solutions and economic strategy

She works to unite economic developers, business leaders and policymakers, ensuring they have the tools to advocate effectively and strengthen Louisiana’s economic future.

How was the initial transition to your new role with LEAD, and how is it shaping out now?

I’m one month into my role, and it’s going really well. I’m enjoying the work, and I’m getting to meet so many people. I was previously in Shreveport visiting with folks around the state to find out what I and LEAD can do to support our economic development professionals statewide

If you look deeper at things happening in Louisiana, you’ll find a lot of people who really want to make a difference and are trying to do good things. It just takes

time to make those changes.

We’re in a position right now where there’s so many of us rowing in the same direction. We know where we want to go, and we know what our shared goals are. It just takes finding those like-minded people who want to see good things happen in Louisiana — connecting with those people and doing what we can to support the people who are on the ground, doing the work to attract businesses to Louisiana and grow our economy Sometimes the path to enacting big changes requires slow implementation, which can often feel tedious. Is that true for you, and if so, what pushes you to keep going?

There’s a balance that I’m having to find

LEAD was previously the Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association, which was started about 60 years ago by a group of economic development professionals who recognized the need for support within their industry That organization was run completely by volunteers

Last year, the association participated in a strategic plan and rebranding exercise with Ernst and Young, which came back with two options: end the organization or rebuild the organization, rebrand and hire an executive director

The board rebranded and hired me.

I’m very aware of the fact that the board and the organization want to see some major changes So, yes, change is slow and it takes time to do things the right way, but at the same time, there are so many quick wins that I’ve identified

In that respect, change is going to happen quickly over the course of the next six months or year Are there things that could potentially slow us down? Yes.

But I’m of the mindset that anything worth doing is probably not going to be easy to accomplish.

With a new organization in place, does LEAD have a new mission?

The mission, at its core, is the same — but we’ve tweaked a few things.

Essentially, we’re here to support economic development professionals and ensure they have the tools needed to be successful.

We’re working with the International Economic Development Council to create a pipeline from Louisiana into their programming so that professionals in Louisiana can become certified economic development developers at the national level.

We serve as a voice of the economic development professionals when it comes to policy and advocacy — making sure that our legislators know that economic development professionals are here and working really hard to grow our economy, but that they need support.

How is LEAD creating solutions in the state?

It goes back to our stance regarding policy work. Mandi Mitchell serves as the vice president of our board, and she’s also the chair of the policy committee.

She’s incredibly in tune with what’s going on with policy, and she’s very well connected and trusted by people across the state. When people are struggling with something or potentially need help in finding solutions, we want to become that trusted source for people.

As I’m talking to people around Louisiana, many of them are concerned about the future. Some people are looking at retirement, so we want to ensure a smooth transition from their retirement to the next generation of developers. A big part of what we’ll be focused on in the coming years is training our emerging professionals to make sure there’s no gap in service As a new person in a new role, do you

have any tips for people in the same situation?

This is not the first time I’ve stepped into a role where changes were needed. The way I approach it is that I know I’m really good at some things, and I also know what I’m not so good in. I focus on my weaknesses so that I can connect myself with people who do those things well. I try to surround myself with the best and brightest people, people who are much smarter than me, who I can lean on. We don’t know everything about everything, and that’s not something to be embarrassed about, so how do we collaborate with each other? How do we support each other and earn the trust and respect of other people who would be willing to support us? That, to me, is how you’re successful.

Email Lauren Cheramie at lauren.cheramie@theadvocate. com.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Stacy Romero is the executive director of the Louisiana Economic Alliance for Development, the leading organization dedicated to advancing economic development professionals across Louisiana.

FAITH & VALUES

U.S. Lutherans learn new Palestinian practice: Sumud

BY YONAT SHIMRON

Contributing writer

Lent is a time of reflection for many Christians, and each year a host of devotionals are published to bring insight and inspiration to the 40 days of contemplation leading to Easter For the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a liberal denomination of close to 3 million members, the Lenten offerings this year include one focusing on the plight of Palestinians. The devotional, called “Sumud,” an Arabic word meaning “steadfastness,” offers churches and individuals a six-week study with videos and reflections to raise awareness of and advocacy against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and its military rule over Palestinians.

More than many other U.S. denominations, the ELCA has spoken boldly on the issue of Palestinian inequality and dispossession in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. That’s in part because the denomination partners with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and its six churches. The 2,000 members of those churches and their leaders have been especially vocal in opposing Israel’s war in Gaza — none more so than the Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, who has emerged as one of the leading champions for the Palestinian fight for justice and liberation in Gaza and for the 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is one U.S congregation heeding the call.

“It just seemed like if we were gonna focus on something that was faith-based, that was really listening to grassroots voices with intentionality during this penitential season, we would just sit with this,” said the Rev Clint Schnekloth, the pastor Over the course of Lent, mem-

bers of Good Shepherd Lutheran will gather for a parish meeting before services each Sunday to watch a video and read a reflection about seeking justice for Palestinians.

Schnekloth explained that ELCA Lutherans are in a unique position when it comes to Israel and Palestine. “We see the impact on our brothers and sisters who are Lutheran there, and that can sometimes convince people who might otherwise be pro-Israel that there’s another way of thinking about this based out of that experience.”

The Palestinian fight for freedom is beginning to resonate more broadly On March 2, “No Other Land” won the Oscar for best docu-

mentary feature. The documentary jointly produced by Israelis and Palestinians, focuses on the Israeli military’s forced displacement of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, a group of hamlets in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian plight has become front and center because of Israel’s 16-month war in Gaza following Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel The assault has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians and leveled the oceanfront strip. But Israel has also been waging numerous raids across the occupied West Bank, accompanied by house demolitions, detentions without charge and near-daily attacks on Palestinians that have killed nearly 900 people since the start of the war on Gaza

in October 2023.

A Gallup poll conducted Feb. 3-16 found that less than half of Americans express support for Israel, the lowest percentage in 25 years of Gallup’s annual tracking of this measure. According to the poll, 46% of Americans expressed support for Israel and 33% of U.S. adults now said they sympathize with the Palestinians, up 6 percentage points from last year

The ELCA has long advocated for its sister churches in the Middle East through a program also called Sumud.

Maddi Froiland, Sumud’s program director, said the ELCA initiative is intended to help U.S. Lutherans better understand what their faith counterparts are expe-

riencing, not the least of which is extinction.

“I think we’ve had reports of 146 Christians who have left since Oct. 7 of two years ago,” she said. “This is something that is a dire circumstance in the Lutheran experience and the wider Palestinian Christian experience.”

The ELCA offers other Lenten devotionals, including one called “Dismantle: An Anti-White Supremacy Lenten Devotional.” Like many offered by other Christian communities during Lent, the devotionals speak to a theme of resistance against oppression and advocacy for the marginalized.

The Sumud Lenten devotional’s first video focuses on Mary the mother of Jesus, who remains an inspiration for Palestinian Christian women today as a sister in sumud, or perseverance. Others focus on the need for Christians to speak the truth and challenge society to fight injustice.

Bishop Meghan Johnston Aelabouni of the Rocky Mountain Synod of the ELCA said she was encouraging the use of the Sumud Lenten devotional.

Aelabouni, who until last year served as co-pastor for the English-speaking congregation of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, is particularly close to the issue. She said the Lenten resource can provide an opportunity for those who have not traveled to the region to better understand Palestinians’ lived reality and potentially take steps toward advocacy of justice and peace.

“As faith-based communities, part of our work is engaging in civic life as citizens, and it is also in raising the deeper questions of humanity, of what does justice look like? Why do we believe it’s important? And yes, why do we believe it is biblical?” she said “I think we need an increase in awareness that there can be another way that there can be a different way.”

Teen authors at Tara High create children’s books

BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer

Twelve new children’s books were published last month in Baton Rouge but you won’t find them at Barnes & Noble. Their authors are teenagers, little older than the youngsters for whom they are writing.

These teenage creators showcased their new creative works on Feb. 26 in the library at Tara High School during the school’s Family Literacy Night.

Titles include “Esli’s Big Attitude,” “Not So Norman,” “The Glowing Remote,” “The Musical Incident” and “Runaway Robot.”

The storylines range from helping an annoying girl find her lost dog, to a boy who gets bullied when he enrolls in a new school, to an adventure tale involving pirates and treasure.

These Tara ninth graders have been working since October on their books, which feature a mix of text and illustrations.

Jama’rl Crockett served as team manager for the book “The Musical Incident,” a story about four children getting ready for a battle of the bands competition with a $1,000 prize to the winner He said his proud parents have been really excited about the project.

“They’re definitely going to staple it on the wall,” Crockett said Christopher Gage, father of Lyric Gage, said he has a prominent spot in mind to display his daughter’s book, “Runaway Robot.”

“If she doesn’t want it in her room, we have a centerpiece in the living room where we could put it,” said the father

It’s the third year in a row that the Baton Rouge high school has turned its Freshman Academy into a mini-publishing company

It’s part of an ongoing collaboration between Tara and the local educational nonprofit Humanities Amped. The nonprofit raised money and dedicated a nonprofit employee to the project.

Principal John Hayman said he’s hoping to train more of his teachers so they incorporate more student projects in their classes.

“It’s not about the content really It’s about working together to collaborate as part of a group,

because so much of college is about that,” Hayman said “So it gives them a little taste, which is good because they are not used to that.”

“I love what we do and how we can support Tara,” said Niagee Butler, classroom program coordinator with Humanities Amped.

Butler’s background is in business and math, not creative writing. She ended up focusing on helping students with their illustrations.

“I have three children so I have some experience,” Butler said, with a laugh. “But it was a little intimidating.”

She said she helped the students but let them take the lead.

She said the project took a long time and they were “stretched out of their comfort zones.”

“They were excited to get it done,” Butler said. “They all pitched in to help each other meet the deadline.”

A total of 75 Tara ninth graders participated. Their teacher, Barry Jackson divided them into teams ranging from four to seven students each Their roles on the team included serving as author, illustrator, editor or manager of the project.

To get the creative juices flowing, the students gathered in a circle at the outset and shared challenges they have. These challenges became the wellspring of the stories they ended up telling.

“It was a new experience and most, if not all of them, are glad they did it at the end of the day,” said Jackson, who also coaches softball and volleyball at Tara.

Aleia Thomas said it’s hard to keep the story going.

“We do one page, and then I don’t remember what to do for the next or not know what to do,”

Thomas said Addison Mitchell, who managed the six-person team that created “Not So Norman,” said one student was the main writer, but several team members helped work out the story It grew out of the story of someone she knew in elementary school who suffered from vitiligo, a depigmenting skin disease. The children’s story focused on a boy with vitiligo who moves from a small town to a big city and gets bullied.

“Then another character in the

story stands up for him,” Mitchell said “And he’s like, ‘Why’d you stand up for me?’ And she’s like, ‘I remember being new too.’” Illustrations proved to be perhaps the biggest challenge The bulk of the images were generated via artificial intelligence. Some tried hand-drawn illustrations but gave up.

“Some of (the students) are really like artists, but then they became a little overwhelmed,” said Butler. AI, however posed special challenges. For instance it was hard to achieve consistent results when AI tried to draw characters for stories. Mitchell has regrets about reverting to AI

“Some of the pages don’t have pictures because we were rushing so much because of that serious backstep,” she said.

Addison’s mom, Jessica Mitchell, is an assistant principal at Tara. She said she’s proud of the growth she’s seen in her daughter.

“Just to see her flourish this year and come out of her shell and take risks, it’s been an honor to watch her,” said the mother

one

The final part of the project is still to come. The students take their new books back to their old elementary schools and read them to the children there. Last year Tara was unable to schedule those elementary school readings due to standardized testing, something Hayman regretted because it’s his favorite part of the project. “It’s just cool to see them read for little kids,” he said. “Yeah, and kind of be a little kid.” Crockett went to Audubon Elementary and is anxious to see how the children there react.

“I’m a little bit nervous,” he said, “but I really want to overcome that challenge, and I think I very much could.”

Email Charles Lussier at clussier@theadvocate.com.

PROVIDED PHOTO

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Middle East Ready Bench gathers in Chicago in February to discuss Sumud and how the church can mobilize for justice in the Holy Land.

Andrew Kuo reads

of the books written by Tara High freshmen to his son Jonah, 5.

PHOTOS By APRIL BUFFINGTON

Supporters of Tara High’s freshmen authors read their books at Family Literacy Night.

SUNDAY, MArch 23, 2025

CURTIS / by Ray Billingsley

SLYLOCK FOX / by Bob Weber Jr

GET FUZZY / by Darby Conley

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE / by Chris Browne

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM / by Mike Peters

ZIGGY / by Tom Wilson

ZITS / by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

SALLY FORTH / by Francesco Marciuliano & Jim Keefe

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE / by Stephan Pastis

grams

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.

word game

instructions: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

todAY's Word — cArPoLoGY: car-POLoh-jee: A branch of biology dealing with the structure of fruit and seeds.

Average mark 45 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 57 or more words in CARPOLOGY?

ken ken

instructions: 1 - Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 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.

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 Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

directions: Complete the grid so that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally

Sudoku

wuzzLes

A kind deck

North’s jump to four hearts denied anything useful — certainly no ace or king — so perhaps South should have passed right there.

South bid on, however. He had a wonderful hand and he was hoping to catch enough in dummy to give him a reasonable play for 12 tricks.

Southruffedtheopeningspade lead with the 10 of hearts, saving his lower trumps as entries to dummy. He cashed the ace and king of hearts, then led the eight of hearts to dummy’s nine. A losing diamond finesse at this point would leave him needing East to have a doubleton king of clubs. He wouldn’t have enough entries to dummy to take two club finesses. He judged that it was better to take the club finesse, so he tried a club to his queen.

Had that lost to the king, he would still be able to ruff the fourth club in dummy, even if the clubs split 3-3, and take the diamond finesse. The club finesse won, however, and there was no reason to think that West might have ducked with the king. South now simply played the ace, king, and another diamond. He ruffed the spade continuation high and led the six of hearts to dummy’s seven He

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Leave nothing to chance. Put your energy into completing what you start and promoting your skills and ideas. High energy, desire and making a difference will help motivate you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Invest more time in learning, traveling and exploring new possibilities. Changing your lifestyle or direction will give you hope for a brighter future. It’s time to shine.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Use your talents, skills and experience to help a cause or someone in need. A kind gesture will start a trend.

discarded a club on the jack of diamonds and repeated the club finesse for his contract. This was a lovely line of play. It would have been an unkind deck of cards that would not have rewarded him with his slam bonus.

Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency Inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2025 Tribune Content Agency

Personal gain and interesting opportunities are heading in your direction.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Pay attention to how you look, feel and handle responsibilities. Taking an interest in others and what they do will provide insight and encourage you to adjust how you deal with changes. LEO (July 23-Aug 22) A healthy attitude and schedule will be energizing and appealing to positive people eager to be part of your circle. To be active is attractive, and it can shape an exhilarating lifestyle.

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

super Quiz

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) A change will give you a positive perspective on life, love and how to become more active in your community. Reach out, see what’s happening. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Reach across the table and introduce yourself to others. Make your voice heard and your presence known. Show compassion and be grateful for your life. Don’t be shy! SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) If you want something, make it happen. Fuel the fire and embark on what interests you. Take your wisdom

and skills and contribute what you can; something good will transpire.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23-Dec 21) Change how you handle your money to ward off someone trying to take advantage of you. Establish a financial safety net to get the most out of any partnership.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Converse and socialize Get in the game of life and see what transpires. Align yourself with people you share the most with mentally, emotionally and financially.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Pour your energyintosomethingworthwhile. Put a limit on how much you spend and the number of promises you make. Trust your instincts and adjust as you move forward.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Push your way forward and participate in what excites you most. Refuse to let changes that others make interfere with your plans. Proceed in the direction that brings you the most comfort and greatest joy.

goren Bridge

Answers to puzzles

super quiz

1. Liar: rail. 2. Bard: drab. 3. Deer: reed 4. Stun: nuts. 5. Evil: live. 6. Reel: leer. 7 Tuba: abut. 8. Tide: edit. 9. Wolf: flow 10. Gnat: tang 11. Repel: leper 12. Devil: lived. 13. Regal: lager. 14. Diaper: repaid. 15. Recap: pacer.

SCORING: 24 to 30 points — congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points honors graduate; 13 to 17 points — you’re plenty smart, but no grind; 5 to 12 points — you really should hit the books harder; 1 point to 4 points — enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0 points — who reads the questions to you?

Cryptoquote Answer

Saturday's Cryptoquote: I don't need you to remind me of my age. I have a bladder to do that for me. — Stephen Fry

word GAme Answer

sudoKu Answer jumble Answer

Crossword Answers

sCrAbble Answers wuzzles Answers Ken Ken Answers hidAto Answers

jeFF mACnelly’s shoe / by Gary Brookins & Susie MacNelly

FoXtrot / by Bill Amend

dustin / by Steve Kelley & Jeff Parker