Residents and officials point to drainage system failure
BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer
Many Lafayette residents on Thursday morning were stranded due to heavy rain and flooding
The flooding briefly made 23 roads impassable in Lafayette on Thursday, and according to officials with Lafayette Consolidated Government, between 4 inches and 8 inches of rain fell in a short period of time.
“I’ve been shoveling water out of
my apartment for about four hours now I’ve never experienced this kind of flooding,” said Kristin Shows, who resides in the Uptown Lofts in downtown Lafayette.
All of her furniture was wet, she said, her TV doesn’t work, and everyone on the first floor of her building lost everything.
“So many of us were crying this morning,” she said.
Joel Lacalle, who has lived in his home on Wallis Road for over a year
had a similar experience Waking up about 5 a.m., he said, his usual morning routine turned into a day of despair
“I got up and immediately stepped into water,” Lacalle said. “I went to the front door to see what was happening outside and more water came in. I couldn’t even stop it I’ll just have to start over.”
Some residents said the flooding
Lafayette resident Kristin Shows cleans out her apartment after heavy flooding Thursday.
House passes pro-industry car insurance measures
Bills aim to help lower state’s high rates
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
A slate of bills that insurance companies and business interests say would hold down rising car insurance rates in Louisiana won approval from the state House on Monday Legislators supporting the bills powered past the objections of lawmakers who expressed the view of trial lawyers that the changes won’t help consumers in a state where car insurance rates are among the highest nationwide.
In general terms, the measures would make it harder for people injured in car accidents to file lawsuits and win big payouts — in the belief that lower payouts would lead insurance companies to pass along the savings to consumers. Critics of the bills don’t think that would happen.
The bills passed mostly along partisan lines, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed.
Sponsors of each pro-insurance industry bill were careful not to promise it would lower insurance rates.
“It’s a piece of the puzzle,” said Rep. Michael Melerine, RShreveport, repeating a phrase used by others.
The bills passed as a behindthe-scenes battle heated up over what is the biggest political issue during the two-month regular legislative session, which entered its third week Monday
Unidentified groups on both sides sent out messages using strong language in trying to sway legislators. The battle over car insurance legislation pits Gov. Jeff Landry against some business-minded conservatives who form a key part of the governor’s political base but are unhappy that he is not sup-
porting all of the pro-industry measures.
Landry said he is steering a middle course that doesn’t favor one side or the other
The Republican-majority House spoke decisively on that question Monday, led by a group of freshmen members
ä See BILLS, page 4A
New initiative targets La.’s maternal overdose deaths
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
It’s common for pregnant patients to check into labor and delivery with family in tow But when a nurse noticed something was off during an intake at WillisKnighton Bossier Health Center in north Louisiana, she offered to help the expectant mother into a gown in the bathroom. Once they were alone, the nurse asked about substance use a question she’d been newly trained to pose dis-
creetly
“She got a positive screen,” recalled Traci Latiolais, a patient care coordinator at the hospital. That kind of intervention is becoming more common as hospitals adopt new protocols to address a growing public health concern: opioid overdoses in expectant mothers, now the leading cause of pregnancy-associated death in the state. Of Louisiana’s 82 pregnancyassociated deaths in 2020, 28 were due to accidental overdose,
according to the state’s latest Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review
To provide more focus on the issue, the Louisiana Department of Health recently announced a new statewide initiative dubbed Project MOM (Maternal Overdose Mortality), which aims to reduce overdose deaths during pregnancy and the postpartum period by 80% over the next three years, an effort that could save the lives of 65 mothers each year The new initiative will scale
current efforts by the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative, a network of birthing facilities. Through a program called Improving Care for the SubstanceExposed Dyad, the collaborative has pushed hospitals to adopt routine screening for substance use during pregnancy It also has worked to increase the coordination of care between obstetric and addiction treatment providers, who can prescribe
Conclave to elect a new pope will start on May 7
BY NICOLE WINFIELD and COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press
VATICAN CITY Catholic cardinals on Monday set May 7 as the start date for the conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor, delaying the secret voting for two days so they can get to know one another better and find consensus on a candidate before they are sequestered in the Sistine Chapel
The cardinals set the date after arriving for the first day of informal meetings following Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday In a chaotic scene, journalists shouted questions about the mood inside and whether there was unity A reporter for a satirical Italian television program asked whether an Italian cardinal who has been convicted by the Vatican criminal court on finance-related charges would be allowed to vote.
The conclave could have opened as early as May 5, but the cardinals gave themselves extra time to speak in more informal sessions that include cardinals over age 80, who will not be allowed into the Sistine Chapel once the conclave begins. They will next meet on Tuesday morning,
“There is the hope of unity,” said Argentine Cardinal Ángel Sixto Rossi, the 66-year-old archbishop of Cordoba who Francis made a cardinal in 2023.
Many cardinals cited the desire to continue Francis’ pastoral focus on people who are marginalized and against war. But conservatives may be more focused on forging unity and refocusing the church back on core doctrines emphasized by St. John
STAFF PHOTO By JA’KORI MADISON
ä See FLOOD, page 4A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Iran: Fire out after port blast; deaths rise to 70 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Iran finally extinguished a fire Monday at a southern port rocked by an explosion as the death toll in the blast rose to at least 70 people killed, authorities said.
Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press also showed the devastation of the explosion that injured more than 1,000 people. The photos from Planet Labs PBC came as local news reports from the site raised more questions about the cause of the blast Saturday at the Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas.
Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni announced the fire had been put out, while provincial emergency health official Mehrdad Hasanzadeh gave the death toll.
The port reportedly took in a chemical component needed for solid fuel for ballistic missiles — something denied by authorities though they’ve not explained the source of the power that caused such destruction.
The blast Saturday disintegrated a building next to the blast site, which appeared to be in a row where other containers once stood, the satellite photos showed. It also shredded the majority of another building just to the west.
The force of the blast also could be seen, with what appeared to be two craters measure some 165 feet across. Other containers nearby appeared smashed and distended by the explosion and the intense fire that followed.
Fighter jet slips off deck of U.S. carrier
WASHINGTON An F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the hanger deck of an aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East, as sailors were towing the aircraft into place in the hangar bay of the USS Harry S. Truman on Monday, the Navy said.
The crew members who were in the pilot seat of the Super Hornet and on the small towing tractor both jumped out before the jet and the tug went into the Red Sea. According to a defense official, the sailor who jumped from the aircraft sustained a minor injury The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel details.
“The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” the Navy said in a statement. The jet was part of Strike Fighter Squadron 136. Fighter jets are routinely towed around the hangar deck to park them where they are needed for any flight operations or other work It is unclear whether there will be an effort to recover the jet, which costs about $60 million. The incident is under investigation.
Climber rescued from Mount Fuji for 2nd time
TOKYO A climber airlifted with altitude sickness from near the peak of Japan’s Mount Fuji last week returned to the slope and was rescued for a second time just four days later, authorities said Monday Officials urged people to be aware of the harsh conditions at the country’s tallest peak during its offseason.
The climber was identified only as a 27-year-old Chinese student living in Japan. He made an emergency call on April 22 and was airlifted after developing symptoms of altitude sickness, police said, adding that his climbing irons also were damaged.
On Saturday, he returned to the mountain’s Fujinomiya trail nearly 10,000 feet above sea level to look for his cellphone and other belongings left behind, Shizuoka prefectural police said. Another climber found him there unable to move after he apparently developed altitude sickness for a second time, police said.
The mountain’s hiking trails are officially open only from July to early September, but there is no penalty for hiking offseason. There also is no charge or penalty when a climber needs to be rescued, but the Chinese student’s case prompted an uproar on social media and generated calls for him to be charged, at least for his second rescue.
A damaged home burns Monday following Russia’s air raid in the Donetsk region, Ukraine.
Russia wants brief ceasefire next week
Putin declares 3-day pause for Victory Day celebration; Kiyv wants immediate, longer truce
BY ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press
KYIV,Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a unilateral 72hour ceasefire next week in Ukraine to mark Victory Day in World War II as the U.S. presses for a deal to end the 3-yearold war. Kyiv insisted on a longer and immediate truce.
The Kremlin said the truce, ordered on “humanitarian grounds,” will run from the start of May 8 and last through the end of May 10 to mark Moscow’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 — Russia’s biggest secular holiday That timing means the truce would start at 4 p.m. on May 7, lasting until 4 p.m. on May 10.
Ukraine, which has previously agreed to President Donald Trump’s proposal of a full 30-day ceasefire, dismissed Putin’s move as window dressing.
“If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, according to the ministry He emphasized that Kyiv is ready for a “lasting, reliable, and complete ceasefire” for at least 30 full days.
“Why wait for May 8? If we can cease fire now from any date and for 30 days so that it is real, and not just for a parade,” he said without specifying whether Ukraine would be ready to accept the Moscow-proposed truce.
The Kremlin had urged Ukraine to follow suit.
“Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example,” it said, warning that “in case of violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian side, the Russian armed forces will give an adequate and efficient response.”
Putin previously announced a unilateral 30-hour Easter ceasefire and Ukraine voiced readiness to reciprocate any genuine truce at the time, but it said Russian attacks continued. Moscow, in turn, accused Ukraine of failing to halt its attacks.
Russia and Ukraine had also earlier pledged to observe a 30-day halt on strikes on energy infrastructure that was brokered by the Trump administration, but they repeatedly accused each other of massive violations until the measure expired.
The truce attempts underlined the massive challenges for monitoring any possible halt to hostilities along the more than 600-mile line of contact
Up until now, Putin had refused to accept a complete unconditional ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Ukraine’s mobilization effort
The Kremlin reaffirmed that “the Russian side again declares its readiness for peace talks without preconditions aimed at removing the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis and constructive cooperation with international partners.”
Ukrainians in Kyiv scoffed at Putin’s move.
“There is no trust in any of Putin’s proposals,” said Nazar Lutsenko, a lawyer He added that “we absolutely want the war to end on terms that are favorable to us, on fair terms.”
A soldier with the 156th Brigade, who identified himself only by his first name, Kostiantyn, in keeping with military rules, dismissed the truce as “ridiculous,” adding that perhaps “there will not be such harsh shelling as there is every evening here, but fighting will be conducted in one way or another.”
Student Oleksandra Serpilova viewed the declaration as “another attempt to keep America engaged, to give Trump hope that some kind of negotiations are possible.”
Just before the ceasefire announcement, Ukraine and Russia targeted each other with long-range strikes.
CANADA
Girl, parents among those killed in vehicle ramming
BY CLAIRE RUSH and ROB GILLIES Associated Press
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A 5-year-old girl and her parents were among the 11 killed in Vancouver when a car plowed through a crowded street during a Filipino heritage festival over the weekend.
The family left behind a 16-year-old son who stayed home to finish his homework.
The son learned in the hours after the attack that his younger sister, Katie Le, father Richard Le and stepmother Linh Hoang were all killed, said Richard Le’s brother, Toan Le.
Katie Le was nearing graduation from kindergarten and was described as a vibrant and joyful child in a GoFundMe page posted by Toan Le. The teenage boy is in a state of shock Le said grappling with the sudden loss.
Another victim identified Monday was Kira Salim, a teacher and counselor who worked at two schools in the New Westminster School District southeast of Vancouver, the district said in a statement.
Salim “was a valued member of our community whose wisdom and care for our middle and secondary school students had a powerful impact,” the district’s superintendent and board chair wrote.
The black Audi SUV sped down a closed food-truck-lined street Saturday evening and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival, which celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers who came to the Philippines in the 16th century
Thirty-two people were hurt, and 17 were still hospitalized late Sunday including some in critical and serious condition, the British Columbia Health Ministry said. Those killed ranged in age from 5 to 65, officials said.
A 30-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of murder in the deaths, and mourners, including the Canadian prime minister, remembered the dead at memorials across the city.
Kai-Ji Adam Lo was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder in a video appearance before a judge Sunday, said Damienne Darby spokeswoman for British Columbia prosecutors. Lo has not yet entered a plea.
A woman who answered the phone Monday at the home of Lo’s mother, Lisa Lo, said that the mother was too distraught to speak to a reporter
Investigators ruled out terrorism as a motive and said more charges were possible. They said Lo had a history of mental health issues.
The Associated Press could not immediately reach an attorney representing him. Online records showed that Vancouver Provincial Court issued a publication ban barring the release of details about the legal case against Ko Such bans are common in Canada to protect the rights of the accused to a fair trial as well as the privacy of crime victims.
While attending a memorial, Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim said the Filipino community and the city were “heartbroken, were sad, were scared and there’s a bit of anger there, too.”
Power outage in Spain, Portugal affects millions
BY RENATA BRITO and BARRY HATTON Associated Press
BARCELONA, Spain An unprecedented blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday, stopping trains, cutting phone service and shutting down traffic lights and ATMs for millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula.
Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica declined to speculate on the cause of the power outage that began about 12:30 p.m. Madrid time and said restoring power fully could take six to 10 hours Head of operations Eduardo Prieto told journalists it was unprecedented, calling the event “exceptional and extraordinary.” By 8:35 p.m., only 35% of energy demand had been restored, Prieto said hours later
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said a “strong oscillation” in the European grid was behind the outage but the cause was still being determined. He asked the public to refrain from speculation, and urged people to call emergency services only if really necessary It was the second serious European power outage in less than six weeks after a March 20 fire shut down Heathrow Airport in the U.K., and it came as authorities across Europe gird against sabotage backed by Russia.
The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Center in a statement said there was no sign the outage was due to a cyberattack. Teresa Ribera, European Commission ex-
ecutive vice president in charge of promoting clean energy, indicated the same to journalists in Brussels and called the power outage “one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times.” The outage began after midday Offices closed and traffic was snarled in major cities. In Barcelona civilians directed traffic. Train services in both countries stopped, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded. It wouldn’t be possible to restart trains later Monday even if the power returned, Spain’s Transportation Minister Oscar Puente posted on social media. The subway systems shut down “I don’t know how I am going to get home,” said Barcelona resident Ivette Corona as she watched a large group of people fail to get on a bus that briefly stopped to squeeze in a couple of passengers. In Madrid, hundreds of people at a bus stop that takes travelers to the airport were trying to hitchhike. Some held improvised signs to convince drivers to take them. Hospitals and other emergency services switched to generators. Among those most affected were homebound patients dependent on oxygen machines Gas stations stopped working. It was not possible to make calls or send text messages on most mobile phone networks, though some people managed to connect on certain messaging apps with intermittent data connections. People searched stores for battery-powered radios to stay informed.
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WhiteHouse marks100 days of Trump’s2nd term
Administration focusesonborder crackdown
BY MICHELLEL.PRICE and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON The White House on Monday opened aweeklong celebration of Donald Trump’sfirst 100 days in office by focusing on his border crackdown,an area of relative strength for the president at atime when there are red flags for himin the latest round of polling.
Yard signs with mug shots of immigrants who have beenaccused of crimes like rape and murder wereposted across the White House lawn, positioned so they would be in the background of television broadcasts outside the West Wing. Tom Homan, Trump’stop border adviser,told reporters that there has been “unprecedented success” on the border effort and “we’re going to keep doing it, full speed ahead.”
ImmigrationisTrump’s leading issue in public opinion surveys, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at amorning briefing the administration is in “thebeginning stages of carrying out thelargest deportation campaign in
American history.”
About 139,000 peoplehave been removed so far,according to the White House. Deportations have occasionally lagged behind Democrat President Joe Biden’s numbers,but Trump officials reject the comparison as not “apples to apples” because so many fewer people are crossingthe bordernow
Later on Monday,Leavitt held asecondbriefingexclusively for “new media,” where Trump-aligned social media influencers asked friendly questions and applaudedatthe end.
Tuesday will be Trump’s 100th day in office, and the Republican president plans to mark the dayinMichigan, where he will hold arally in Macomb County,an automotive hub north of Detroit. After relatively little travel so far in his term, Trumpwill also deliver acommencement address Thursday at the University of Alabama.
Trump is also doing anumberofinterviews timed to the 100-daymark, including an Oval Officeinterview with ABC News that is to air Tuesday night. He’salso talked with journalistsfromThe Atlantic magazine, apublication that he’sfrequently attacked for its critical reporting.
Trump told TheAtlantic that he feels more powerful in his second turn in the
Canada goes to the pollsfor nationalvote
Election dominated by Trump’strade warand bluster
BY ROBGILLIES Associated Press
TORONTO— Canadians voted Mondayonwhether to back their new prime minister, Mark Carney,and extend his Liberal Party’sdecadein powerorhandcontrol to the Conservatives and theirpopulist leader,Pierre Poilievre.
But the election was also a referendum on someone who isn’teven Canadian: Donald Trump. The U.S. president trolled Canadians on election day by suggesting on social media that he was in fact on the ballot and repeating that Canada should become the 51st state, incorrectly claiming the U.S. subsidizes Canada. “It makes no sense unlessCanada is aState!” Trump wrote Poilievre, who has been criticized for not taking afirmer stance against Trump, responded with a post of his own.
“PresidentTrump, stay out of our election. The only people who will decidethe future of Canada areCanadians at the ballot box,”he posted. “Canada willalways be proud, sovereignand independent and we will NEVER be the 51st state.”
Until Trump won asecond term and began threatening Canada’seconomy and sovereignty,the Liberals looked headed for defeat. But Trump’struculencehas infuriated many Canadians, leading many to cancelU.S vacations, refusetobuy Americangoods andpossibly even vote early.Arecord
7.3 million Canadians cast ballots before election day Trump’sattacks also put
Poilievre andthe opposition Conservative Party on the defensive and led to asurge in nationalismthathelped the Liberals flip the election narrative
“The Americans want to break us so they can own us,” Carney said recently,laying out what he sawasthe election’sstakes. “Those aren’t just words. That’swhat’s at risk.”
Election day came as the country grappledwith the fallout froma deadlyweekend attack at aVancouver street fair that ledtothe suspensionofcampaigningfor several hours. Police ruled out terrorism and said the suspect is alocal man with ahistory of mentalhealth issues
Poilievre andhis wife walked hand-in-hand to vote in their suburban district nearthe nation’scapital, Ottawa. “Get out tovotefor a change,” he implored voters. Poilievrehad hoped to make theelection areferendum on former Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the endof his decade in powerasfoodand housing prices rose and immigration surged.
But thenTrump became thedominant issue, and Poilievre’ssimilarities to the bombastic presidentcould cost him.
“He appealstothe same sense of grievance,” Canadian historian Robert Bothwellsaidofthe Conservative leader.“It’slike Trump standing there saying, ‘I am your retribution.’”
“The Liberals ought to pay him,” Bothwell added, referring to theAmericanpresident. “Trump talkingisnot good for theConservatives.”
Foreign policy hasn’t dominated aCanadian election this much since1988 when, ironically,free trade with the UnitedStateswas the prevailing issue.
White House.His administration is stocked with loyalists, and he’sbecomeeven more confrontationalwitha judicial system that at times serves as acheck on his agenda.
“The first time, Ihad two things to do —run the country and survive; Ihad all these crooked guys,” he said. “Andthe secondtime, Irun the country and the world.”
Presidents have marked the initial 100 days of their termssince Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved swiftly to counter the Great Depression after taking office in 1933.
Trump wasn’t so bullish aboutthe idea during hisfirst
term, when he was plagued by setbacks, investigations and turnover in his ranks,at that time callingthe 100-day mark“anartificialbarrier.”
Butnow he’strying to harness themoment to mark the ambitious agenda he’s pursuedinhis first months. Leavittsaid Trump had already signedalmost as many executive orders as Biden did during his entire term. But many Americans believe Trump has mostlybeen focused on the wrong priorities.
Americans are nearly twice as likely to say Trump has been mostly focusing on the wrong priorities as to say he has been focusing on the
right ones, according to an AP-NORCsurvey, andonly about half of Republicans say he’smostly had the right focus. Anotherone-quarter of Republicans say it’sbeen about an even mixofright andwrong priorities, and about 1in10say he’sfocusing on the wrong things.
Andamong Trump’sown supporters, theshare of Republicans who say he has been at least a“good” president has fallen about 10 percentagepointssince January
Otherpolls conductedin recent weeks have found similarlevelsofdissatisfaction withTrump’sfirst few months,particularlywith his economic policies and
approach to tariffs. Trumplashed out at the results on social media as “FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS.”
As he’spushed to crack down on illegal immigration, Trump has drawn criticism as he hasstrainedthe limits of executive power,attacked judges who’veruled against him,sent hundreds of allegedVenezuelan gang members to amega-prison in El Salvadorindefiance of acourt order and balked at aSupreme Court order that his administration must facilitate thereturn Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whowas mistakenly deported to El Salvador His plans to carry out a mass deportation have not yet shaped up, but the White House is ramping up efforts to encourage people who are in the country illegally to “self-deport,”withactions that include stiffer fines and incentives to leave, including airfare and stipends. Hisadministration has pointedtothe steep dropin the number of illegal border crossings as an early and significant sign of success. Trumpplanned to sign at least two executive orders laterMondayrelated to immigration,including one directing state and federal officialstopublish alist of “sanctuary city” jurisdictions.
Israel’s domestic security chieftostepdown
BY NATALIE MELZER Associated Press
TEL AVIV,Israel The head of Israel’sinternal security service says he will resign in June over the failure of his agency to warn of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks —defusing an escalating battle withPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Shin Bet chief RonenBar announced his resignation Monday,saying he will formally stepdown June 15. “After years on many
fronts, one night, on the southern front,the skies came down,”Bar said during remarks at amemorial event for fallen Shin Betsoldiers. “All systems collapsed. The Shin Bet also failed to give awarning.”
Netanyahu moved to fire Bar lastmonth over what he saidwas acrisis of confidencesurrounding Hamas’ attack. But thestep sparked an uproar in Israel because theagency is investigating ties between the Israeli leader’s officeand Qatar
—akey mediator between Hamas and Israel over the war in Gaza.
Criticssaidthe firing was tainted by aconflictofinterest meant to derail that probe, acharge Netanyahu denies.
Israel’sSupremeCourt froze thefiring following multiple legal challenges against it andcalledonthe sidestoreach acompromise In his address, Bar said the court case “is not about my personal case but about
theindependenceofthe next heads of the Shin Bet.” He said the agency’s “proper functioning is of inestimable importance to the security of the state and to Israeli democracy. I have been fighting for this forthe past month, andthis week the necessary infrastructurewas laid before the High Court of Justice. I hope that the ruling that will be given will ensure that the Shin Bet will be preserved as such, over timeand without fear.”
Aidneeds stillhighafter Myanmarquake
BY GRANT PECK Associated Press
BANGKOK Hundreds of thousands of survivorsdesperately need humanitarianaid amonth after Myanmar’sdeadly earthquake, compounded by airstrikes the military government is reportedly carrying out despite ceasefires meant to aidreliefefforts during the country’scivil war
The7.7 magnitude March 28 quake hit awide swathofthe country,causing significant damage to six regions and states, including thecapital, Naypyitaw. Myanmar’sDepartment of Meteorology and Hydrology reported Monday there hadbeen 157 aftershocks after the big quake, ranging in magnitude from 2.8 to7.5.
State-run MRTV televisionreportedonMonday thequake’sdeath toll had reached 3,770, with 5,106 people injured and 106still missing. The earthquake left manyareas without power, telephoneorcell connections and damaged roads and bridges,inadditiontotens of thousands of buildings.
In some quake-hit areas, bereaved relatives and friends of the disaster’s
victims on Monday offered donationstomonks, aBuddhist tradition to transfer merit and blessings to the deceased. MRTV reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung
Hlaing, head of theruling militarycouncil, and his colleagues performed the same ceremony in Naypyitaw Areport released Monday by theMyanmarWitness
project of the London-based Centre for Information Resiliencesaidthe grouphad documented 80 post-quake airstrikes by the military across multiple regions.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByEVANVUCCI
PresidentDonald Trumpwaves Saturdayashearrives at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J.
who say they were elected in 2023 by constituents demandingdramatically cheaper car insurance rates
Rep. Brian Glorioso, R-Slidell, told his colleagues that his House Bill 34 would allow lawyersfor insurance companies to tell jurors how much people injured in wrecks actually pay in medical bills.Under current law,jurors hear the total amount billed, regardless of what the plaintiff paid.
“It’sfairer if youdon’thide this information from the jury,” Glorioso said, adding that passageofHB34 would align Louisiana with Texas legally on this question.
But Rep. Denise Marcelle, DBaton Rouge, noted that legislators have passed pro-insurance industry measures in previous years, yet rates keep going up.
She asked Glorioso if he could guarantee that rates would dropif his legislation passed.
Glorioso said he couldn’tspeak to what previous legislatures had done, saying, “I’m here to fix it now.”
Rep. EmilyChenevert, R-Baton Rouge, asked legislators to pass House Bill 431 to bar drivers responsible for at least 51% of an accident from receiving adamage award to cover their injuries. Under currentlaw,adriver responsible for,say,51% of the accident can collect apayment equal to 49% of the overall damageaward.
Chenevert said the bill would reduce frivolous lawsuits thatallow people to collectadamage award even though they are mostly atfault for causing an accident.
Rep. Kyle Green, D-Marrero, twice asked Chenevert if she could define afrivolous lawsuit
Chenevert repliedthatshe’s not an attorney,adding that she favored “common-sense” changes.
With littledebate, the House also approved ameasure that would raise to $100,000 the threshold for adriver without car insurance to begin collecting for bodily injury medical expenses. Rep. Jason Dewitt, R-Alexandria, is the sponsor of House Bill 434.
Also with little debate, the House approved reversing aLouisiana Supreme Court judicial precedent known as the “Housley presumption.” That doctrine says if evidence points to acausalconnectionbetween acrash and an injury when symptoms appear after an accident, then it’spresumed the accident
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buprenorphine, alife-saving medication that blunts cravingsand prevents withdrawal.
As of 2023, universal verbal screening for substanceuse increased from 70% to 92% across 11 participating hospitals. Referrals to recovery services for patients who screened positive rose from 36% to 57%. The program hasalso led to changes in care for newborns. Rooming-infor infantsatriskof withdrawal rose from 76% to 85% during hospitalization, and from 62% to 77% after discharge, allowing mothers to stay close to their babies even aftertheir care had ended.
Project MOM aims to bring those practices to all47Louisiana birthing facilities andemergency departments. The funding is not yet settled. But the Health Departmentislooking into adjusting howitpaysorrewards medical providers and Medicaid managed care organizations, which provide health insurance for about62% of Louisiana births, to encourage better outcomes. That could look like tyingpaymentsto screening or including overdose prevention as part of the quality metrics MCOs are required to meet
“Those are big financial levers for the department, and all of those are on thetable,” said HealthDepartment Deputy SecretaryDr. Pete Croughan. “It’snot going to work without themoney.”
The program also hopestotap into someofLouisiana’sopioid settlement money.The state is set receive at least $600 million over the next 18 years. While 80% of the state’ssettlement dollars go to local governments and 20% to sheriff’s offices, Croughan said manyparishes are unsure how to use them.
Croughan, who seespatients weekly at clinics in Crowley and Lafayette, saidthe decision to launch Project MOM came from data and treating pregnant patients struggling to find medical care, even when they’re not also dealing with addiction.
“It just shouldn’tbethat difficult for them to navigate the system,” Croughan said.
Croughan also noted that better dataiscritical moving forward. The current system relies on deeply de-
caused thesymptoms.
Melerineisthe sponsor of the measure,House Bill 450.
Significantly,the House didnot take up ameasure Monday that the governor’slobbyingteam is pushing hard.
HouseBill 576 would give Insurance Commissioner TimTemple greater freedomtoreject excessive rate increases for carinsurance —a changeTemple himself opposes.
House Republicans say privately theyhave pressured Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, to slow walk the bill to express theirdissatisfaction with Landry’ssupport.
Temple saidHB576 would allow future commissionerstoact capriciously,noting that three successive insurance commissioners elected in the1980s and 1990s went to prison after facing accusations of acceptingillegal favors from insurance companies.Temple, pointing to the governor’sown words,believes that Landry wantstoput agreater onus on theinsurance commissionerto blame him if carinsurance rates keep rising.
Temple,who supports theproindustrybills approved Monday, satonthe side of theHouse chamber while the measureswerebeing heard.
Meanwhile, Rep.Joe Stagni, RKenner,went to the House floor to say that his office has received emails from constituents urging him “to implement overdue legal system abuse reforms in ourstate.”
Stagnisaidhis office checkedwith 20 people listed as having sent the emails. None of them actually sent theemails, Stagni said, adding that he has asked Attorney General Liz Murrill to investigate the matter Senators were buzzing because members of the SenateInsurance Committee received individualtext messagesoverthe weekend listing how much they received in insurance industry campaign contributions. The texts also used thesame language that Landry hasused in pushing HB576,the bill that Temple opposes.
“Let’s empower ourInsurance Commissioner,legislature and citizenstofightBIG INSURANCE for better rates,”read the text sentby agroupcalled Enough Is Enough. Twopeople who incorporated the group said they had nothing to do with thetexts. OneisLee Mallett, a business owner who was reappointed by Landry to the LSU Board of Supervisors. Theother is Mary-Patricia Wray,alobbyist and political consultant.
Email Tyler Bridgesattbridges@ theadvocate.com
tailedbut delayed case reviews that lag by about three years. One of the initiative’s 90-day goals is improving real-time data sharing between hospitals andthe state, including reporting overdoses at emergency departments Dr.Benjamin Springgate, an addictionmedicinespecialist at LSU Health New Orleans, said OBGYNs areoften thefirstpoint of contact for pregnant women with substance use disorders, but many providers aren’t trained to respond.
“A lotofwomen whoare pregnant don’tnecessarily immediately seek addiction services,”Springgate said.“Theywillgotoobstetricianstoget the usual care, and that is thebest entry point formanyof them.”
A2023 Health Department survey of OB-GYNs found that only 20% werecomfortable treating patients with opioid use disorder,and only 7% prescribedmedication for the condition, said Croughan. That’sbecause many OBs feel uncertain about what to do when apatient screens positive, he said. They’re usually not trained in addictionmedicine.Asa result,some avoid screeningaltogether.Partnershipswithphysicians comfortable prescribingbuprenorphine could help.
Springgate pointed to programs in Bogalusa, where OB-GYNs and family medicine doctorsprovide integrated care for pregnant patients with substanceuse disorders. Still, stigma remains amajor barrier. “It’shard to find another group more harshly judged in society than pregnant women who use drugs,” he said. “That creates so many opportunities for mistreatment and missedcare.”
At Willis-Knighton Bossier, Latiolaissaidstaff have focused on reducing stigma in smallbut meaningful ways —using the term “substance use” rather than “drug abuse,”for example.
Whatresonated most, shesaid, was hearing directly from women in recovery.
“When youmeet someone who’s been throughthat and hear the struggles that they have gone through, it will pull at your heartstrings,” she said. “We’re in the business of helping people, wherever they are intheir journey.”
Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate.com
SeanPrados, of Lafayette, shows adrain that he raked Thursday evening and howhighthe pileoftrash wasafter heavy rains in Lafayette. Pradossaid he’swatched professionalslikelandscapers forthe nearby apartment complex blowleavesortrash into drains instead of picking it up, whichleads to clogging
FLOOD
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was caused not only by heavyrain but also because nearby drains were clogged with debris.
Thecity undertook several drainage projectsfollowing historic flooding in August 2016. More than20inches of rain fell during thetwo-day storm on Aug. 12-13, 2016. Meteorologists called that a500-year flood.Hundreds of homes flooded in theparish, including 600 in Youngsville alone.
In 2021, the city authorized funding for several downtown drainage projects after 19 downtown businesses flooded in aMay 2021 flashflood event. Thefirst phase was at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Lee Avenue.
Downtown Lafayette CEO Kevin Blanchard said on Thursday thecity did not follow through on the other drainage projects that were supposed to be built to ease downtown flooding.
The CityCouncil, in September 2021, approveda $12.5 millionrequest from then-Mayor-President Josh Guillory for at least eight
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Paul II andPopeBenedictXVI, rather than continuing Francis’ social justice focus and outreach to women and gays.
Cardinal Baldassare Reina, in ahomilyinSt. Peter’sBasilica on thethirdday of official mourning for Francis’death, urged fellow cardinals to continue the Argentine pope’s reformsand avoid “power alliances” and“retaliation” as theychoose his successor British Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the79-year-old archbishop of Westminster,was adamantthat the church must strive forunity, and he downplayed divisions.
“The role of the pope is to essentially hold us together and that’sthe grace we’ve been given from God,” Nichols said.
Venezuelan Cardinal BaltazarEnrique Porras Cardozo expressedconfidencethatoncethe conclavebegins, adecision would be quick, “between two and three days.”
Cardinal electors
TheCollegeofCardinals that will elect anew pope includes members from far-flung corners of theglobe whom Francis named over his 12-year papacy to bring in new points of view —often at the expense of traditional centers of Catholicism. Many have spent little or no time in Rome getting to know colleagues, injecting some uncertainty into aprocess that requires two-thirds of thevoting-age cardinals to coalesce behind asingle candidate.
Nicholsacknowledgedthatthe 135 cardinal electors —108 of whom were appointed by Francis —don’tknow each other very well. The last 20 were appointed in early December
“We’vegot all week,” Nichols said as he arrived. Only cardinals under 80 are eligible to vote, and it is not clear how manyofthe 135 will participate. ASpanish cardinal has said he won’tcome to Rome for health reasons.
Unlike the devastating flood event in 2016, the rain Thursday stoppedafter only afew hours and much of the floodwaters receded Thursday morning.
“I think it flooded so fast because the rain came down so quick andtoo fast forittobeable to drain but also the ditches that areinthe front aren’t the cleanest withpeoplethrowingthings in them, so that doesn’thelpwiththe drainage as well,” Lacalle said.
Another downtown Lafayette resident, Sean Prados, whoowns ahome directly across from Uptown Lofts, agreed. He saidthis is his second timeexperiencing water this high and he assumes it is due to drainage issues.
“It creptonthe steps and alittle underthe house but Ithink the biggest problem is the drainage being stopped up,” Prados said.
Prados said he’swatched professionals like landscapers for thenearby apartment complex blow leaves or trash into drains instead of picking it up, which resultsinthe clogging of nearby storm drains.
Controversy
Abig uncertainty is whether Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once one of the mostpowerful cardinals in theVatican, will be allowed in the Sistine Chapel.Francis in 2020 forced Becciutoresignashead of the Vatican’ssaint-making officeand renounce his rights as a cardinalbecause of allegations of embezzlement andfinancial fraud. Becciu denied any wrongdoingbut wasput on trialinthe Vatican criminal court and convicted of finance-related charges in December 2023. He is appealing the conviction andhas participated in the preconclave meetings, but there is a lingering questionabout whether he is entitled to vote.The Vatican’s officialstatistics listhim as a“nonelector.” When he wasoustedin 2020,Becciu told ahastily arranged newsconference that he wouldn’t be voting in anyfuture conclave,but recentlyhehas insisted he is entitled to vote, and canon lawyers have been poring over the Vatican document regulatingthe conclavetodetermine if he’sright. Thecase was discussed Mondaybycardinals but therewas “no resolution,” the Vatican said.
Papalcandidates
While Francisstacked the ranks withhis cardinals, it is not necessarilythe case that all of them willwanttosee thechurch continue in his image.
On Monday,any glimpse of a redcap appearingalong St.Peter’sSquare’sstately colonnade set journalists running with cameras andvoice recorders aloft to capture the mood inside.
Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, considered acontender to be the next pope, navigated the scrum of journalists with humor, joking that he was “holding his breath” as the microphonesand cameras surrounded him all the waytothe Vatican gate.
Africanvoices
Nigerian CardinalJohnOlorunfemiOnaiyekan, the emeritus archbishop of Abuja, wasasked if theAfrican cardinalswereco-
Jamie Boudreaux, LCG spokesperson, said drainage improvements are working but the system couldn’thandle the amount of rain that fell in such ashort time. Thedrainage system is built for acertain amount of rain in a certainamount of time, shesaid, calling Thursday’sstorm a25- or 50-year event.
Lafayette Parish residents are urged to report damage to their homescausedbythe recentflash flooding event.
Homeowners can use the damage.la.gov online reporting tool to submit information about the locationand severity of property damage resulting from significant weather events, including floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and more, the Lafayette Parish Office of Homeland Securityand Emergency Preparedness said. This data will help local, state andfederal agencies assess the impact and expedite the recovery process.
Staff writer Claire Taylor contributed to this story.
African bishops had madearemarkably united stand last year against Francis’ outreach to LGBTQ+ people, refusing to implement his declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to samesex couples. Given such astand, there is somespeculation that the 18 African cardinal electors could help block aprogressive candidate from emerging.
“Wehavenot come here forapolitical rally.Wehave come to get a pope out,” said Onaiyekan, who at 81 is too oldtovotebut can have arole in influencing how younger electors might.
More voices
Indian Cardinal Anthony Poola, the 61-year-old archbishop of Hyderabad,saidhehad experienced asense of unity amonghis fellow cardinals but allowed that “anything could happen.” As arelatively young cardinal, Poola is one of four Indian electors who will participate in the conclave, three of whom, including Poola, were named by Francis.
“Anyone whoiscoming up must be the successor of St. Peter,and we all hope that he will be agood pope,” he said.
Rossi, the Argentine cardinal, saidhehoped that Francis’ message of “mercy,closeness, charity, tenderness andfaith”would accompany them in finding asuccessor But he acknowledged the job was daunting. Asked how he felt about participating in his first conclave, he responded withalaugh: “Afraid.” HOMEDELIVERED EVERYDAY
STAFF PHOTO By
JA’KORI MADISON
Amazon launches its firstinternetsatellites
BY MARCIADUNN
AP aerospace writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Ama-
zon’sfirst batch of internet satellites rocketed toward orbit Monday,the latestentry in the mega constellation market currently dominated by SpaceX’sthousandsof Starlinks. The United Launch Alliance’sAtlas Vrocket carried up 27 of Amazon’sProject Kuiper satellites, named after the frigid fringes of our solar system beyond Neptune. Once released in orbit, the satellites will eventually reach an altitude of nearly 400 miles.
AUnited Launch Alliance Atlas Vrocket with apayload of Amazon’sProjectKuiper internet satellites prepares for launch MondayatComplex 41 at the CapeCanaveral Space ForceStation in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Twotest satellites were launched in 2023,alsoby an Atlas V. Project officials said major upgrades were made to the newest version. The latest satellites also are coated with amirror film designed to scatter reflected sunlight in an attempt to accommodate astronomers. Stargazersoppose the fastgrowing constellations of low-orbiting satellites, arguing they spoil observations. Others fear more satellite collisions. Founded by Jeff Bezos, who now runshis ownrocket company,Blue Origin, Amazon aims toput more than 3,200 of these satellites into orbit to provide fast,affordable broadband service aroundthe globe. Elon Musk’sSpaceX already has launched more than 8,000 Starlinks since 2019.The company marked its 250th Starlink launch
Sunday night.More than 7,000 Starlinks are still in orbit some 300-plus miles above Earth.
The European-based OneWebsatelliteconstellation numbers in thehundredsin an even higher orbit.
Amazon alreadyhas purchased dozens of rocket launches from United Launch Allianceand Blue Origin for Project Kuiper, as well as others.
Storms strike in upperMidwest
BY STEVEKARNOWSKI Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS Storms with lightning andhail and at least one observed tornado moved through the upperMidwest Monday with the potential for strong tornadoes.
The NationalWeather Service said the highest risks —a4onascale of 1to5— were in portions of southern Minnesota,including the Minneapolis area, northern Iowa and western Wisconsin. While forecasters expected two rounds of severe weather,the second, in the afternoon and evening,could be the most impactful. “The most dangerous pe-
riod is likely during thelate afternoon andevening when strong tornado potential should be maximized. Scattered large to verylarge hail and damaging winds are likely as well,” meteorologists at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, wrote. Dependingonhow the storms form, tornadoes in theEF2 range or greater arepossible,the weather serviceoffice for theMinneapolis area said.The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities said Monday afternoon thatithad areport of an observedtornado looking west from Fairmont,Minnesota, which is southwest of Min-
neapolis. No damage was immediatelyreported andit was not immediately known if the observed twister touched down. The Storm Prediction Centersaid alesserpotential for severe weather extended as far south as parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Minneapolis on Monday reiterated its messaging to residents asking them to prepare. The cityurged them to ensure they have multiple waysofgetting weather alerts, are preparedtotake shelter,secure outdoor furniture,and prepare for potentialpower outages by charging phones and other devices and having flashlights
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOHN RAOUX
JanRisher
LOUISIANA AT LARGE
Songwriting exceeds expectations
Last October,when Istarted making alist of Louisiana adventures Icould do for my Tuesday column (in its 30th iteration this week), “help write asong” was on thelist. Jodi James jumped to the top of my mind because Iconnected with her music so much. Ireached out and had the outing set up quickly
We met on acold, rainy day back in early December at her home in Burnside. In one sense, the experience far exceeded my expectations. The act of collaborating creatively was abeautiful thing. We built on each other’s ideas. Iloved beingable to connectthe many randomthoughts in my head to her music. In another sense, this adventure turned out to be much more complicated than expected hence the nearly five-month wait on writing the column.Songwriters and musicians know that sometimes once asong is written, things become more tangled. The first time Iever heard James and Clay Parker sing, I immediately recognized that they wrote, played and sang the kind of music that gets in my brain and makes itself comfortable. Their song, ”Nothing at All,” was on acontinuous loop in my life for most of 2024. The song we wrote that day doesn’tevenhavea name. At this point, its only recording is on my phone. When we finished that day,wewere both so pleased with it. In the weeks thatfollowedour lovely time together, shedecided she needed time to sit with the song. She messaged me this week that it has bubbled back toward the top of her mind, and she’s starting to think about it again. Even if the song never goes further than my phone recording, that alone provides plenty of evidence of James’ beautiful voice and guitar playing.
Listening to the song now is a bitofinsight into the magic of that day
James and Ibriefly met twice before thatcold December day WhenI arrived at her house with sandwiches, we ate lunch and then got right to work on writing asong —made possible by her sheer talent, matched by my enthusiasm and love of words.
Ihad no idea how to start the process of writing asong. Fortunately,James did. She picked one of the many little riffs that had been rolling around in her head, played it on her guitar,and we were off. She told me how musical phrases come into her head. She usually records them and saves them in this case, for arainy day To write the song, back in December, James and Isettled on arhymescheme. We worked through the song’snarrator’s perspective. We hadtoagree on thechorus and figured out where the bridge would go. James has serious musical chops. Iwas able to contribute specific words and ideas —including the openingline based on theview out my bathroom window, whereIlike to watch the morning sun. Iwas also thinking alot about horizons backthen and was able to work that in, too. She added the beautiful line to start the second verseabout “an achingly familiar sky andshadow.” Ithought of thewhimsical decision-makingprocess involving picking petals from adaisy and themouse in the nursery rhyme who ran up the clock and was able to incorporatethose ideas into the song. Here are the lyrics we wrote that day: Ican almost see the lake this time of winter /Against the new bright morning sun /And they say thehorizon goes forever /but
Juvenilecenterfunding sought
Salestax measureexpectedtogotovoters
BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer
Officials with the Acadiana Regional Juvenile Justice District are expected to ask voters to approve a1-cent sales tax next March to fund anew juvenilejustice center If approved, proceeds from the tax would be levied acrossnine parishes —not including Lafayette Parish —and would fund the construction of a112-bed juvenile center to houseyouth offenders, saidSt. Landry Parish President
Jessie Bellard, who serves as the district’sboardchair
Thesales tax could generate around $80 million in its firstyear, Bellard said.The following year the tax would be reduced to a fourth of apenny In 2023 statelawmakers OK’d thedistrict, whichincludesAcadia, Allen, Evangeline,Iberia,Jefferson Davis, St.Landry,St. Martin, St. Mary and Vermilionparishes Construction could start in 2027 at asite to be determined.
“We’re going to inform the people of all thefacts andlet ev-
erybody decidefor themselves,” Bellard said. “But what we do knowisthat no parish in the state of Louisiana is set up to handle the juvenile justice crisisthat we have right now.”
Theability for the district to levy thetax is currently in front of the Legislature. Rep. ChanceHenry, R-Crowley, has filed House Bill 93, whichwould allow the district to do so and awaits aHouse committeehearing. Constructing the facility will cost $70 million-$80 million. The facilitywouldalsohave the capa-
FIELD FLyOVER
bility of expanding if needed. Currently,there are no designated juvenile beds in the district, Bellard said, leading to hisparish to send offenders to Jackson Parish or out of state to Alabama or Mississippi.
The extradistance andcost of hosting eats up abig chunk of theparish budgetwithSt. Landry Parish spending around $50,000 a month for its10current juvenile inmates.
“I do feel we have the capabilities of doingbetterand allowing these kids to have an educationand the tools needed to then work with them from that point forward,” Bellard said.
Ex-marshal to remain in jail 3moreweeks
Hearing delayedon probationrevocation
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
Former LafayetteCityMar-
shal Brian Pope will be spendingatleast anotherthree weeks in jail after ahearing to consider revoking his probation was delayed.
Pope’sprobation hearingwas delayed by ajudge Mondayuntil May21togive himtime to hire an attorney
Pope was arrested March 26, accusedofprobationviolations He was held in the Lafayette Parish CorrectionalCenteruntil April 9when he wastransferred to theEvangeline Parish Correctional Center He was in 15th Judicial District Court on Monday without an attorney in Judge David Smith’s courtroom.
AssistantDistrict Attorney Alan Haney said he was prepared Monday topresenthis case, with awitness and probationofficer in court.
Popesaid he wasn’table to se-
BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
AHonduran man accused of reentering the UnitedStatesillegally arrived withhis wife, an American citizen, for aU.S.
Parentscharged in shooting of La.native
Officialssay they didn’t secure gun properly
BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer
cure an attorney because telephonesatthe EvangelineParish jail were notfunctioningfor two weeks.The wardenwas notavailable Monday morningorearly afternoontoconfirmthis
“I have no discovery. Ihave nothing,”Popesaid. “I don’teven know what the problem was.”
Pope wasconvicted in 2018 on threecounts of malfeasance in office. Twoyears of his three-yearsentenceweresuspended and Pope was ordered to comply with conditionsofhis
The parentsofateen accusedofkilling 14-year-old Opelousas native Anaya Zacharyatanapartment complex playground in Baytown, Texas, have been charged, KPRC-TV reports. Kenneth Coney,61, and Cassie Coney,37, have both been charged with making a firearm accessible to achild, amisdemeanor,the newsoutlet reported Monday.Authorities allegethe parentsdid not secure the gun in away that prevented their 14-yearold son fromaccessing it and using it. The incident occurred March 21 at approximately 4p.m. Officers weredispatched to an apartment complex in the 4600 block of Village Lane after receiving reports of a shooting.
When they arrived, officers found Anaya near aplayground with agunshot wound. Officers immediately began life-saving measures until medics arrived and she was transported to alocal hospital where she waslater pronounced dead.
Anaya’sfamily said she relocated to Texas fromOpelousas to live with her dad when shewas 11. She was in her last year of middle school, and the family said theyare devastated she will never experience all that life had to offer
“A part of our life, our family,has been taken away.There willnever be enough justice served because we don’tget her back,” her aunt, Nicole Ferguson, said in an interview earlier this month. The Baytown Police Department has not yet responded to TheAdvocate’s requestsfor information aboutcharges against the alleged shooter’s parents
Customs appointment in New Orleans in earlyApril, hoping to emerge astepcloser to securing citizenship himself. Instead, customs officers actingona mandatefromPresident Donald Trump calledNew Orleans’ Immigration andCustoms Enforcementfield office ICEagents arrived midway through the appointment and arrestedthe man, PedroAlejandro Lujan-Martinez, then whisked him to detention Lujan-Martinez, who holds a mortgage on aNew Orleansarea home and has no other criminal record, two days later found himself in awitness box in New Orleans,charged in federal courtwith reenteringthe United States afterbeing deported to Honduras adecade ago. Four othermen accused of thesame violation satbeside him.Ajudge speaking through asingle Span-
ishtranslator heardall five cases at once,speedingthe process along.
As Trumpdirects the might of federal law enforcement to pitch in on his sweeping immigration crackdown, theWhiteHouse has frequently publicized arrests of migrants accused of trafficking, drug smuggling and other grave offenses
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Ared-winged blackbird flies over blooming irises in Moncus Park on Monday in Lafayette.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRADBOWIE
Former Lafayette CityMarshal Brian Pope is escorted to the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center in downtown Lafayette in 2020.
OUR VIEWS
Everyparent should take heed and preventspread of measles
With two measles cases recentlyreportedin Louisiana, hospitalsare gearinguptotreat the highlycontagious disease thathas seen aresurgenceasvaccination rates havedeclined across the country.Inneighboring Texas, an outbreak that started in Januaryhas seen around 600 confirmed cases and two deaths, both in unvaccinated children.
While the Texas outbreak has spreadtothe neighboringstates of NewMexico,Kansas and Oklahoma, officials say theLouisianacases so far don’tappear to be linked. The first case was discovered in theNew Orleans area in an unvaccinatedadult who had traveled internationally When looking at the contactsofthat patient, health officials uncovered another case. Since the cases became known, public health officialshaveclearly andconsistently recommended thatchildren getvaccinated to prevent thespreadofmeasles. We aregrateful that despite Surgeon General Ralph Abraham declaring that the Louisiana Department of Health would end mass vaccination effortsearlier this year,itappears that the measles caseshave prompted aserious response. The health department hasput information aboutthe measles vaccine on its website, andAbraham reaffirmed that the department recommends thevaccine forchildren.
Fortunately, no pediatric cases have yetbeen reportedinLouisiana, butdoctorsatareahospitals say it’sonly amatter of time.Westrongly encourage every parent in Louisiana to take steps nowtomake suretheir children getthe vaccineand are protected.
We note with sadness that despite thesafety and effectiveness of themeasles, mumpsand rubella —orMMR —vaccine, fewerand fewer children in thestate are getting it
In some parishes, vaccination rates have dipped below the threshold requiredfor “herd immunity,” which makes community transmission more likely
MMR vaccination rates amongkindergartners statewide dropped from about96% in 2020 to 92% in the 2023—2024 school year, according to the CDC. Several parishes, includingLivingston, East Baton Rouge, St. Tammany,Acadia, Lafayette,Terrebonne,Union, Ouachita andWest Carroll, have rates below 90%.Herd immunity for measles occurs when about 94%of the populationofagiven areaisimmune through vaccination or prior infection.
We know there arededicated doctors and nursesthroughout our statewho are preparing to treat all patients they encounter,nomatter theirvaccination status. But measles, once considered eradicated in thiscountry,isa disease that many have not seen before, and thereare few good options to treat it oncea child is infected.
We recognize that vaccination has become a highly politicized topic in these times.Yet it is one thing to argue when children’slivesare not in imminent danger.Wehopethatas themeasles threat increases, everyonewillmake the health of our children our only priority
Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence
TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone 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. TO SEND US A LETTER SCANHERE
AIcould help detect problems in family court
Iamwriting to urgently request our Louisianalegislators develop and enact legislation mandating thecreation and use of artificial intelligence software to detect potential judicial corruption within Louisiana family court cases. The integrity of our family court system is crucial. However,serious concerns persist regarding bias and corruption, leading to devastatingly unfair outcomes, especially for victimsofpost-separation abuse —aharmful pattern tragically linked to increased risk of violence during separation. The traditional appeals process often fails against judicial corruption, particularly when records are falsified. The current system for addressing judicial misconduct through theJudiciary Commission of Louisianasuffers unacceptable delays, with investigations commonly taking two to five years to complete, leaving victims in prolonged injustice.
Ethically developed AI software offers apowerful tool for transparency
and fairness in family court. By analyzing case data, financial disclosures and procedural patterns, AI can identify potential misconduct missed by human oversight, significantly reducing investigation time and improving accuracy AI can analyze case handling, financial discrepancies, bias, network relationships and whistleblower data. AI can also address concernsabout racketeering by analyzing referral patterns and fee structures. Judicial corruption devastates post-separation abuse victims.
AI software can increase public trust, deter corruption, promote fairness, provide datafor reform and drastically reduce investigation times compared to thecurrent judicial complaint process.
Iurge our legislators to consider the profound impact of judicial corruption on Louisiana families. By championing legislation for AI detection software, we can significantly enhance the justice, equity and trustworthiness of our family court system.
KATHERINE DIAMOND Baton Rouge
Schools, roads, environmentdependonenergyrevenue
Every year,Louisiana collects billions in tax revenue from oil and gas production —$4.5 billion in 2019 alone. That money goes directly into schools, infrastructure and environmental restoration projectsacross the state. These are not handouts from Washington;they are earned dollars generated right here at home.
We have achoice to make: Support theindustry that funds so much of our public good or risk undermining the very foundation of our statebudget. Oil andgas isn’tjust about drilling and refining, it’sa value chain that touches almost every part of our economy.The jobs, thewages, the lo-
cal investments —they all add up. If we start sending signals that Louisiana isn’tenergy-friendly,itcan discourage investments. Let’sbeclear: Environmental responsibilityand energy development can coexist. In fact, much of the tax revenue from this industry already funds environmental projects. With the right leadership, we can ensure this relationship benefitsboth oureconomy and our environment. Let’ssupport smart, sustainable energy policies that keep Louisiana moving forward.
Like almostall professors across the country,the universityIworkfor is struggling underbudget shortfalls that stemfromthe drastic Trump/Musk cuts to the NationalInstitutesofHealth, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agencyand other agencies thatfund university researchers andcoordinatethe amazing research productivity of our nation. Arethere any people in our country besides President Donald Trumpand
Elon Musk who think this is agood idea or approve of Trump’shandling of the economy? No, this is not arhetorical question. Anybody? Trump’s agenda goes unchallenged by Congress because 75% to80% of conservatives continue to support him.TomyRepublican friends and neighbors, is there ever apoint at whichyou decide the negatives outweigh thepositives?
As amothertoabright, curious 7-year-old boywith autism, Iwas disheartenedbyHealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’srecent remarks. At anewsconference on April 16, he described autism as a“preventable disease” andan“epidemic,” suggesting thatenvironmental toxins aretoblame forrising diagnosis rates. He pledgedtouncover these causesbySeptember, despite extensive research indicating thatautism is acomplex neurodevelopmental condition with strong genetic components. Kennedy’sportrayalofautism as atragedy is notonly scientifically unfounded but also deeply offensive to families like mine My sonisnot atragedy; he is a joy. The real tragedy lies in the systemic barriers that hinder his potential—barriers like inadequate accesstoearly intervention services,increased potential for child abuse andaschool system thatreinforcesillegaldiscrimination.
In Louisiana,these challenges areparticularly pronounced. The state ranks poorly in child health outcomes, andmanyfamilies struggle to obtain timely diagnosesand support fortheir children with autism. It’snohelpthatthis administrationisdecreasing enforcement of antidiscrimination laws acrossagencies.
Autism is nota disease to be eradicated.The only tragedy I’m awareofisPresident Donald Trump’scontinued dismantling of support andlegal enforcement for people with autism. While the president andElonMusk arebusy erasing the protections ourchildrenneed,Kennedy nowwants to eraseour children altogether.Asa taxpayer,I’m dismayed. As amom, I’m disgusted. We should eradicate this bigotry, notour kids.
MARY-PATRICIAWRAY Baton Rouge
BubbaHenry wasLa.’s Lincoln
Clancy DuBos
Much has been written —deservedly so —about Bubby Henry’stransformative impact on the arc of Louisiana politics and government during his tenure as House speaker,chair of the 1973 constitutional convention,lobbyist and statesman. Not enough has been said of the man himself. Aself-styled“country lawyer,” Bubba represented the closest Louisiana has evercometoits own Abe Lincoln, partly becauseofhis imposing physical presencebut more so because of his keen politicaland people skills. And his hallmark sense of humor
Like Lincoln, Bubba facedexistential challenges without buckling under stress, used his sharp wittocharm friends and disarm foes and convinced warring interests to work togetherfor the greater good —becausefriend and foe alike trusted him.
Most of all, he had an unshakable faith in amerciful, lovingGod.And unlike so many politicians today,Bubba didn’twear his faith on his sleeve —he lived it. Quietly,humblyand courageously He was an early memberand president (in 1994) of the BatonRouge Federation of Churches and Synagogues, one of the oldest interfaith organizations in the nation. After the 9/11 terrorist attack, Bubba convinced the group to change its name to the Interfaith Federation of Greater Baton Rouge and include Islamic members. Bubba donated to prison ministries and publicly opposed the death penalty —even speaking againstitbefore legislative committees in the Capitol. He took alot of heat for that and other principled stances, but he neverwavered.
He participated in ecumenicalChristian retreats. With his son Patrick, he made more than 30 silent retreatsat Manresa, the pastoral Jesuit retreat house on the river road in Convent. TheManresaretreats,said Patrick, made Bubba realize how alike his own Baptist faith was to St. Ignatius’ spirituality “He began reading Ignatius’ writings and letters and was inspired by them,” Patrick told me recently. “Heloved to walk among the oaks at Manresa. Sometimes we’d take silent walks to the river levee. And every yearwewentto
Manresa, he wrote me abeautiful letter.Hewould shove it undermydoor the night before the retreat ended.”
Patrick recalled thatone of his dad’s last letters to him said, “After I’m gone, if you walkthe oaks towardthe river, meet me halfway …I’ll be there with you.”
Jeff Brooks, alobbyist who worked closely with Bubba, told me thatitwas fitting for Bubba and Pope Francis —the Catholic Church’sfirst Jesuit pontiff —tohave theirfunerals on the sameday.Daysearlier,Brooks had writtentocolleagues of Bubba,“Ihave neverwalked theVatican withthe Pope, but Icame awfully closewalking the halls of the Louisiana Legislature with BubbaHenry.”
Butch Speer,who worked for Bubba at the1973 constitutional convention and laterasthe longtimeclerk of the House of Representatives,saw firsthand Bubba’s rare combination of principled leadership andpointed humor.
“The Legislaturewent from atotal clown show …tonascent independence underBubba as speaker,” Speer recalled. He added, “If he had not been the person with his hand on thetiller at the constitutional convention, there’s no telling howthat convention would have ended. Absent Bubba, Iknow we wouldnot have adopted thatconstitution.”
At the same time, Bubba kept everybody guessing withhis penchant for pranks.Speersaid Bubba once gave him apaycheck for $1 and toldhim, “Here’syourpay,Speer.And damn if you’re notoverpaid.”
Bubba alsogave astaffer agift certificate for $1,000 that was “redeemable anywhere,”and he had occasionally
had House pages deliver phone messagestolawmakerswiththe number of the BatonRouge Zooonit, instructing themtocall “Mr.G.Raff” right away, pranking lawmakers and zookeepers alike.
Nor was he above making ajoke from the speaker’s chair.After acontroversial bill to give lawmakers apay raise narrowly failed, he announced, “I’ve neverseen morepeople ‘praying yes’ and ‘voting no’ in my life.”
Perhaps no one sawall sides of Bubba morethan Anne Cramer,his longtime assistant. “He stood on principle,” Cramer told me, noting that he had aplayful side as well.
“Keeping his calendar was achallenge,” she said. “If Itold him he had a conflict,hewould say, ‘No, you have a conflict —you keep my calendar.’”
Cramer once confided to Bubba that she and her bestfriend “married two brothers.” To which he responded, “Each?”
I, too, was blessed to know Bubba on apersonallevel. We became professionally acquainted in the late 1970s and friends adecade later when Bubba, Patrickand Iwereguestsatamutual friend’sduck hunting camp. Itreasure memories of those hunts, where Bubba sharedmany not-to-be-repeated anecdotes sprinkled withwisdom.
We’d often seeeach other in the halls of the Capitol where Bubba, in his country-lawyerly way,offered bits of advice, suchas“Don’ttrouble trouble until trouble troubles you,” and “Worry is afastgetaway on ahobbyhorse.”
Most recently,between 2018 and 2020, Ihad the honor of editing “The LastConstitution,” abook on the 1973 constitutional convention written by LaPolitics.com publisher Jeremy Alford and based on more than 700 pages of adaily journal that Bubba kept while chairing thatconvention.
The book (in which Ihave no financial interest) is apricelesstime capsule from apivotal time in Louisiana history —atime when aLincolnesque country lawyer from Jonesboro led what Alford correctly dubbed “Louisiana’sgreatest political generation” in drafting our state’s first forward-looking constitution. So long, Bubba. Youbelong to the ages now ClancyDuBos is aretired political columnist forGambit,The TimesPicayune and The Advocate.
Court case couldstall charterschoolmovement
“You’re doing fine, Oklahoma,” proclaimed the 1943 Broadway musical. Soon, the Supreme Court might disagree. On Wednesday,itwill hear oral arguments about an Oklahoma dispute involving the tension between the First Amendment’sproscription of the“establishment” of religion and its guarantee of the “free exercise” of religion And about whether charter schools are “state actors.” Specifically: Is an explicitly Catholiccharter school an extension of the state government,orisitaprivate entity contracting with that government? Oklahoma charter schools, noneofthem religious, serve about 7.2% of the state’spublic school pupils. They are operated by private entities. In 2022, the Supreme Court held that Maine had unconstitutionally discriminated against religion by excludingreligious schools from participatinginthe state’s school choice voucher program. So, the Catholic Church in Oklahoma asked to participate in thestate’scharter school program with the St. Isidore of Seville school,which saysit“fully incorporates” church dogma in “every aspect” of the school —e.g., students areexpected to adhere to thebelief that “Christ is present in theHoly Eucharist.” Charter schools arepublic in that they receive state funds and are open to all children. Like private schools, however,they can be created by private initiative and enjoy wide exemption from public school districts’ policies regarding curriculum, admissions, hiring and operations.
GOPand Wall Street execs mumon economy
President Donald Trumpistorching the U.S. economy.He’sattacking our trade alliances and our ability to control inflation. Yetcorporate and political leaders whoshould have the greatest interest in condemning such destruction remain oddly quiet.
Nearly all Republican lawmakers, whose own voters are hurt mostbyTrump’strade agenda, remain loyal cheerleaders forthe president’s whims. Corporate executives, whose stock prices have plummeted, likewise refuse to question Trump’sactions publicly,saying they will do so only if things get much worse.
But what exactly are they keeping their powder dry for?
The president’serratic tariffpolicies are already paralyzing businesses and raising costs. American farmers are shedding customers as other countries retaliate. Yetthe captains of industry whomight be expected to speak up have mostly rolled over.Even trade associations that loudly criticized economic policies from previous presidents have been curiously restrained.
Sure, there have been someisolated tariffexemptions, such as foriPhones. But even those are temporary,while the administration prepares moredurable duties on the entire semiconductor supply chain. There have also been periodic “leaks” about how anewly chastened Trumpis making deals and de-escalating trade wars, thanks to closed-door discussions with wise American executives. But these deals keep turning out to be vaporware.
One such newscycle happened this past week. Anonymous officials told the Wall Street Journal that Trumpmight reduce his China tariffs from 145% to “only” 50 or 65%. Markets were euphoric. Huzzah, the trade wars might end soon!
But there are at least twoproblemswith this narrative: First, even a50% tariff on Chinese goods is still gargantuan. It’s morethan double the average rate the United States levied on such products last year.U.S. companies simply cannot absorb that additional cost.
The second, bigger problem:There’snoevidence Trumpwill actually do it. He claims he’s had great negotiations with the Chinese government, suggesting aresolution is nigh. But Beijing denies the twocountries have spoken at all, calling reports of an imminent deal “fake news.”
The newscycle then moves on —and the U.S. companies that stand to lose out still say little publicly,aside from bland statements thanking the president for“productive” private meetings.
George Will
with government in providing social services, including education.Furthermore, because the nation’s many governments lack the resources to perform all the tasks they think necessary,theysubsidize,often substantially,private organizations, many of them faith-based. In the debate aboutSt. Isidore, there is awkwardness all around. Fordecades, publicschool advocates have said charters areprivate schools siphoning resources away from public education. Charter advocates have responded that charters are publicschools. Now both sides have executed semanticsomersaults,with charter advocates saying their schools areprivate,meaning notstate actors, and critics saying the chartersare state actors, and hence not private. When religion becomes part of the debate,new antagonisms mirror old ones. Oklahoma’sattorney general, before he persuaded the state Supreme Courttoruleagainst St. Isidore, warned the head of Oklahoma’scharter school board that approving St. Isidore would require also approving charters run by all faiths, including Islam, adding that “most Oklahomans” consider non-Christian faiths“reprehensible.”
The U.S. Supreme Court hasheld that once government elects to fund aprivate activity,asOklahoma does regarding access to private schools, it cannot disqualify some entities “solely becausetheyare religious.” Victory for St. Isidore might, however,stallthe impressive momentum of the national charter school movement.
simmer in America, disputes that might derail the charter movement. Michael J. Petrilli of theThomas B. Fordham Institute and Stanford’s Hoover Institution anticipates years of litigation unless the high court, while siding with St. Isidore, simultaneously answers numerous thorny questions: “The main oneiswhether religious charter schools will be allowed to prioritize members of their faith when admitting students. (Charter schools generally have to take all comers andholda lottery if oversubscribed.) Also, will they be allowed to exclude childrenorfamilies that don’tabide by their values, including LGBTQstudents or families? Couldtheyhireonly adherents to their religion as teachers andother staff?”
Trump’sthreats to fire Jerome H. Powell are another example. The president has criticized the Federal Reserve chair forpausing interest-rate cuts and warning that escalating tariffs might lead to higher prices. Trumphas demanded the Fed slash interest rates anyway,even though that might worsen inflation.
This erosion of Fed political independence could inflict much greater long-term damage than Trump’strade wars. Countries where politicians, rather than independent civil servants, control the money supply —such as Venezuela and Turkey tend to have much worse inflationary outcomes. That’sbecause the public starts to doubt that the central bank will makeunpopular decisions necessary to control price growth.
The court has held that theConstitution’sfree exercise guarantee forbids government rules that require religious groups to choose between living their faith and being eligible for a government benefit by collaborating
None of the 45 states with charter schools has religious ones,and many leading advocates of charters oppose bringing religious schoolsinto their ranks. This is understandable, given the fierce historical disputesthatstill
ASupreme Court victory for St. Isidore would enable opponents of chartersand other forms of school choice to warn that government entanglement with religion inevitably brings intense disputesabout religious demands for exemptions from generally applicable laws pertainingto, for example,nondiscrimination in hiring More than amillionpupils nationwide areinprivate schoolswithfinancialassistance from states’ school choice programs. Nearly 4million pupils attend8,000 charters. NinaRees, writing for Education Next, says that during the coronaviruspandemic’s school closures, regular private schools lost 1.4 million students, while chartersattracted almost450,000 new families. School choice —the great civil rights issue of ourday —has advanced dramatically in redstates. But expanding in blue states, where teachers’ unions arepowerfuland implacably opposed, would become even moredifficult in the wake of aSt. Isidore victory.
Email George Will at georgewill@ washpost.com.
Unfortunately,GOP lawmakers and bank execs have mostly refused to sound the alarm about these risks. Instead, unnamed Republican Senate aides only say that their (also anonymous) Senate bosses “care aheck of alot” about Fed independence. They just don’tcare enough to, you know, say so publicly The closest thing so fartoopen pushback came when U.S. Sen. John N. Kennedy,R-Louisiana, said “the Federal Reserve ought to be independent.” But Kennedy immediately followed that with: “I think that Jay Powell and President Trumpneed to sit downand once again, have ahug and cup of hot cocoa and work it out.”
Asking the Fed chair to prostrate himself before the president over cozy beverages is hardly an impassioned appeal forcentral bank independence. Days later,after somemarket turmoil, Trump claimed that he had “never” considered firing Powell and that the media fabricated the entire Fed-bullying narrative. Wall Streeters breathed a sigh of relief,apparently believing the threat had passed. Iwish Icould take comfort in this development, too. Ican’t.
That’sbecause I’ve heard all the other threats Trumphas madeagainst Powell and the Fed. Trumphas also telegraphed plans to nameamuch morepliable Fed leader soon. The lesson here is that private pleas and even market panic do not chasten Trump. The U.S. economy,like the U.S. democracy,needs real leadership, preferably from people Trumpmight actually listen to. Sooner or later,business leaders and Republicans must rise to the occasion —ifnot out of courage, at least due to naked self-interest.
Email Catherine Rampell at crampell@washpost. com.
Catherine Rampell
ADVOCATE FILE PHOTO By BILL FEIG
Stan Duval, left, chats withBubba Henry at the44th reunion of the folks whowrote thestate Constitution on Nov. 10, 2017, in Baton Rouge.
Meanwhile, prosecutors scrambling to fall in line with the president’s agenda have pursued an unprecedented number of criminal cases against peoplelike Lujan-Martinez —immigrantswhoseonly alleged crimes are that theyreentered the United States after having been deported. U.S. Attorney’s Officeshave done so by makingprodigious use of a statute that deems “illegal reentry” into the country a federal felony,accordingto aTimes-Picayune review of federal court documents and Justice Department data.
The records shed new lightonamajor shiftunderway within the Justice Department, which has pivoted from historic priorities such as publiccorruption, environmental crimes and civil rights violations as it aims to implement Trump’s“Operation Take Back America.” The department historically preferred to leave cases where immigration violations were the sole offenses to immigration courts, whose proceedings are civil, rather than criminal.
“(Immigration) may have been rightabove the duck docket,”said Harry Rosenberg, who was U.S attorney in New Orleans under Republican President George H.W.Bush, usinglegal parlance for the least-coveted casesamong federal prosecutors. “But it was always ademinimis percentage of the U.S.attorney’spractice.”
Now,seven months into the 2025 fiscalyear —four of which cameafter the start of Trump’ssecond term —prosecutors in the New Orleans-based U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana have charged more people with illegal reentry thanin the entire prior fiscal year, accordingtodata. The numbers have surged in the Shreveport-based Western District, too. In the Baton Rouge-based Middle District, an outlier, they are on pace to slightly exceed last year’stotal
AJustice Department spokesperson declined to answer detailed questions about the wave of prosecutions. Among the lowest-level immigration-related felonies in the federal system, illegal reentryisthe only charge facedbynearly all those in the new wave of defendants.
Claude Kelly,the chief federal publicdefender in New Orleans, said the fresh focus on immigration appears to have sowed confusion among the tangleoffederalagencies now tasked with carrying out Trump’sagenda. Some defendants who bond out have been swiftly rearrested and deported by ICE, “in effectending the criminal matter,” said Kelly,whose office is representing the bulk of the wave of defendants.
“Everyone, including our office, is in the process of figuring out this new world,” he said.
Amajor shift
Trump in January signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to “prioritize the prosecution of criminaloffenses related to the unauthorized entry or continued unauthorized presence” of immigrants. Thedirective was “unprecedented in that it redirects the full energy of the DOJ to punish immigration-status based offenses,” attorneys with
the Immigration Legal Resource Center,anadvocacy group, wrote in responseto the order Criminalimmigration caseloadsacrossLouisiana soon began toskyrocket, datashows:
n The NewOrleans-based U.S. Attorney’sOffice has filed 45 illegalreentry prosecutions so far in the 2025 fiscal year,which is halfway concluded. It filed only 24 suchcases during theentire2024fiscal year, and20the previous year.
n Prosecutors in the Western District,which coversLafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport and otherswathesofthe state, have filed 27 illegal reentry cases this year,compared with 12cases last year and ninecases theprior year
n TheBaton Rouge-based MiddleDistrict is an outlier,asprosecutors there have chargedjust14cases midway through thecurrent fiscal year,compared with 26 totallastyearand seven cases the prioryear.
In New Orleans, the prosecutions swelled particularly in April, when 21 people werechargedfor illegal reentry,according to court records
Of the defendants charged in that latest wave, all of whom were men,one hada previous rape conviction; three had faced domestic abuse charges; one had been accused of a nonfatal shooting;one had aprior drug possession charge;and one had been arrestedfor fleeingatraffic stop. The remaining 14, including Lujan-Martinez, had no prior criminalrecords, accordingtofederal court filings.
Thetrend in prosecutions is similar nationwide. JusticeDepartment attorneys filed more than 14,000illegal reentry cases halfway through the 2025 fiscal year —roughly equaltothe total from 2023 andputting the department on pace to exceed last year’stotal, of 18,000, by about 10,000 cases.
Trump in hissecondterm has laid out afar more aggressiveimmigration agenda thanduring his first presidency,promising to deport millions of people and collaborating with thepresident of El Salvador to ship hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to anotorious prison in the Central American country.Hehas defiedfederal judges who weighedinto stop him. On Friday, ICE officials deported a2-yearold BatonRouge-area girl who is aU.S. citizen with “no meaningful process,” afederal judge wrote in a court order.The administration also deportedtwo other U.S.-bornchildren.
Immigration attorneys andadvocateshaveargued that prosecuting migrants in criminal court unnecessarily burdens the federal system andaddsto fear felt by immigrant communities.But charging people with felonies forillegally reentering presents advantages toan administration trying to get tough on immigration, said Walter Becker,a former federal prosecutor: Afelony conviction makes someone eligible for harsher punishment if they illegally enterthe UnitedStates again
“OperationTakeBack America requires that (federal law enforcement) surgeexistingresources to address theJustice Department’s core enforcement priorities:stopping illegal immigration, eliminating Cartelsand TCOs, andendingillegal trafficking of dangerous drugs and humanbeings,” Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanchewrotein aMarch
memo outlining the new Justice Department agenda FBIagents in recent weeks have been reassigned from their typical duties to full-time immigration enforcement. The bureau historically played “zero” roleinthose operations, said Kenneth Polite, a former assistant U.S. attorneygeneral who wasNew Orleans’ topfederalprosecutor under Democratic President Barack Obama.
TheeffectsofTrump’s immigration agenda are likely to be felt across the federal system —not just in cases involving immigration charges, Polite said.
“When they’re critical witnesses at trial or grand jury (in other cases),those crimes don’tproceedin termsofinvestigation or prosecution, because peopledonot show up before the government,” Polite said.
Effectsoncourts
Rosenberg, theBush-era former U.S. attorney,described attending ahearing several weeksago where sevenofeight defendantsin the jury box were menfacing immigration charges. Suchscenes have become common in federal courtrooms since Trump’sinauguration.
On the morning of April 11, when Lujan-Martinez faced amagistratejudge, the Spanish translator spokeina lowmurmuras the judge explained to the meninthe jury boxhow they hadbeen accused of federal crimes
As thejudge heard argumentsabout whetherLujanMartinez could walk free on bond while his criminal caseunfolds, the ICE agent who arrested him,William Phillpott, testified thatLujan-Martinez, whowore a white shirt, close-cropped hair and shackles on his hands, hadbeen detained anddeported once before in 2015.
In April, when Lujan-Martinez and his wife scheduled acustoms appointment for her husband to obtain a green card under aprocess advertised for undocumented partnersofU.S. citizens, customs agents alertedICE They did so under an order by Trump’sadministration compelling federal agencies to collaborateonimmigration arrests, Phillpott said.
Prosecutors argued that Lujan-Martinez should remain locked up pending the conclusion of hiscriminal case. Butdue to his lack of criminal history,his marriage to an American citizen andhis status as amortgage holder,the judge ruled he should be freed on a$5,000 bond and an ankle monitor His wife shifted nervously in the courtroom, blowing her husband akiss as he walked to the jurybox. “Te amo,” shemouthed to him —Spanishfor “I love you.” He nodded back, smiling softly.
Lujan-Martinez’s wife declinedtobeinterviewed after the hearing, saying shewas distraughtbythe possibility that her husband might be deported.
Hisfuture appeared uncertain this week.
Though Kelly notedthat ICE has swiftly deported some migrantsreleased on bonds in their criminal cases, leading federal prosecutors to drop their criminalcases,othershave remained out on bond as the cases proceed.
Court records showed Lujan-Martinez’scase was still activeonFriday.His nextcourt appearanceis scheduled for May 7.
Email James Finn at jfinn@theadvocate.com.
RISHER
Continuedfrom page 1B
from where Istand, Ican’t see one.
CHORUS:SoIturn the page /Toamodern age / Shelter from the cold /I was never bold. There’sanachingly familiar skyand shadow /And another April gone
DELAYED
Continuedfrom page1B
probation. Smith issued an arrest warrant March 26 when Popedid not show up in courtfor arevocation hearing.
Probation and parole officer Brandy Bonner, in an April 9motion to
away /And the birds are singing songs that Idon’t yetknow/And the daisy petals saycome whatmay Chorus repeats. The clock strikestwilight, the mouse runs down /Feel the pull, it comes on strong /One too many timesaround /The yearsare short and the days arelong. Chorus repeats.
Whetherour song ever
revoke Pope’sprobation, said Pope missed probation appointments, missedpayments for restitution and fees and failedtodocument that he completed 240 hours of community service work
The charges on which he was convicted were theresult of Popesupplementing his incomebykeeping courtfees and reimburse-
reaches awideraudience or simply stays asecret between us, the joy of building something new with someone who understands the language of music andmemorywas areminderofhow art connectsus, even when the finalproductremains unfinished.
EmailJan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.
mentsthatshouldhave gone to his office.
BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer
Perhaps the worm finally is turning for the UL softball team.
Through all the struggles thisseason, the Ragin’ Cajuns have maintained the beliefthat betterdays are coming. The final out of Sunday’s4-3 win over Texas State is the latest evidence to support that theory In the rubber game of the weekend Sun Belt road series against the Bobcats, the Cajuns carried a4-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
“I could just senseitgoing into the bottomofthe seventh,” UL coach Alyson Habetz said. “When you’reonthe road, we’ve lost some of those heartbreakers where they come back. It’s just so heartbreaking when you go into the seventh inning withthe lead and you’re on the road.”
Habetz’sfears were realizedwhen Texas State rallied for three runs and had two runners on base whenUL senior center fielder Maddie Hayden made aterrific running, full-extension catch to secure the win.
“What agreat play for Maddie Hayden, too,” Habetz said. “It’salmost like she needed that just for that excitement,justfor hertomake that game-winning catchwas just tremendous for her,too.”
Like her teammates, right fielder Dayzja Williams couldonly watchand hope Hayden couldrun down the line drive seemingly headed for thegap.
BY REED DARCEY Staff writer
On April 6, MiLaysia Fulwiley used her jersey to wipe away tears. No one knew it at the time,but the appearance she made here inside ascrum of camerasand reportersinthe SouthCarolina locker room —would be her last in aGamecocks uniform
“Wejust gotta get back in the gym,”Fulwileysaidwhile sniffling, “and get better individually.” UConn just had routedSouth Carolina in the national championshipgame, forcing Fulwiley to wrestle with an unfamiliar feeling. That Sunday,her hometown Gamecocks suffered just their fourth loss in two seasons.Two of them were to the Huskies,the team that recentlyendedSouth Carolina’sbid for asecond straight
SPORTS
EYEBROWS RAISED
Themore we learn about the Derek Carr situation, themore confusing it gets. There’sseemingly anew twist to the story daily Andthe morewehear,the more suspiciouseverything sounds, which might explain whyCarr and Saints officialskeep sounding like Officer Barbrady from “South Park” when dealing with the subject:“This isn’thappening. Everyone look away.Nothing to see here!”
Carr has maintained alow profile during the offseasons throughout his New Orleans tenure. For him, it’satime to
BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer
LSU earned acrucial series victoryoverthe weekend by taking down Tennessee twice in their three-game series at Alex Box Stadium. The Tigers came back from a 3-0deficit in the ninth inning to win 6-3 on Friday before dropping Game 2onSaturday 9-3. They clinched the series with an emphatic 12-2win in eight innings
Sunday Here are five takeaways from the weekend:
Sunday startersettled?
Sunday was freshmanrighthander Casan Evans’first collegiatestart, but from thesecond inning on, he pitched like aFri-
national title.
“These teams are gonna come for us,” Fulwiley said. “UConn is gonna be ourrivalry for the next fewyears. They’re young just like we’re young. We got to get better.”
Fulwileydecided to transfer five days later
Now the dynamic 5-foot-10 guard is signed with LSU, locked into astar-studded backcourtwith Flau’jae Johnsonand Mikaylah Williams.
Whydid Fulwiley hit the portal?
And whydid shechoosethe Tigers? Those questionsunderline one of the most compelling transfers of the 2025 cycle, while also turning LSU into one of the most intriguing teams of the2025-26 season, whether it lands its final high-profileportal target or not.
Coach Kim Mulkey and her staff have taken thesekinds of swings
get away from football and focus on his family,sohis silence this spring was not entirely out of character Butobviously,thisisdifferent. Ashoulder injuryserious enough to possibly requiresurgeryand potentially derail your season is adevelopment not just worthyofcommentary and
ä SoutheasternatLSU, 6:30 P.M.TUESDAy,SECN+
day night starter Evanstossed five shutout innings andallowedjust twobatters to reach baseafter surrendering two runs in thefirst.Once he startedlocating the ball better in thelower half of the zone,he found success.
“There were acouple pitches I made mistakesonand theygot some hard-hit balls which led to the tworuns in the first inning,” Evanssaid.“So goingbackout there thenext inning, Iwas like, ‘I’m going to throweverything down because that’stheir weak spot.’ “
Evans’ performance against one of the most talented lineups
before.In2023, they locked down the nation’stop two transfers, teaming Hailey VanLith andAneesah Morrowupwith Angel Reese, Johnsonand Williams. That team reached the Elite Eight. The one LSUisbuilding now has asimilar composition.And it may climb back into theFinal Four, but only if Mulkey can take the pieces —two star returners, three or four transfersand four high-profile freshmen —and makethem fit Fulwiley,ajunior next season, is oneofthe most electrifying players in college basketball, but it’s unclear exactly which responsibilities Mulkey will give to her Fulwileycould start. She also could comeoff the bench like she didatSouth Carolina.Maybe she plays off theball, or maybe she takes up the Tigers’ primary ballhandling duties, the same ones Van
transparency,but one that requires it. Betterthananyone,Carr knows teammates,coaches, fans and support staff arecounting on him to lead the team, both on andoff the field. Communicationisone of the requirements of the position. And so far,everyone involved in this situationhas failed at it. Until Carr’scomments on Sunday, we’d heard nothing fromhim. Instead, he left it to intermediaries to disseminate information.
Twelve days afterhead coach Kellen
Lith struggled to grasp in her lone season at LSU. “(Point guard) is the hardest position on the floor to play,” Mulkey said in November.“It’s like the quarterback in football. The point guard’sgotta know everybody.You gotta run the show.You gotta point your fingers. Yougot to correct them. Yougot to get them going That’sa lot to ask of anew player.”
Fulwiley burst onto the scene as afreshman,then saw hernumbers plateau as asophomore. In two seasons, she averaged 11.7 points, 2.9rebounds,2.1 assists and 1.6 stealsper game—all while seeinganaverage of only 19 minutes of action each night.Coach Dawn Staley started her in just three of the77games she played at South
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Casan Evans finishes apitch in the first inning of the
on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
By JOHN MUNSON
Saints quarterback Derek Carrwalks off the field after
the Newyork Giants last season in East Rutherford, N.J
PHOTO By CHRIS CARLSON South Carolina guard MiLaysia
getting fouled
STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP UL center fielderMaddieHayden, shown here making an acrobaticcatch earlier this season, savedthe Cajuns’ series win overTexas State witha running catch Sunday.
Clark, Feverraising thebar
BY MICHAEL MAROT
AP sportswriter
INDIANAPOLIS Indiana Fever star
Caitlin Clark slapped the court with both hands and started gesturing in her side’sdirection after forcing a5-second call near the end of Tuesday’spractice.
It was only Day 2oftraining camp, yet this is what Clark has yearned for these past seven months —going back to work with anew coach, arevamped roster andevenhigher expectations in hersecond WNBA season.
After leading the Fever to their first playoff berth in eight years, winning the league’sRookie of the Year Award, being named Associated Press 2024 FemaleAthlete of the Year and Time magazine’s 2024 Athlete of theYear,Clark returned to Indianapolis astronger, wiser player,more determined to win the championship that eluded her in college.
“It was an adjustment sure, because Iwas so used to playing minutes for,well, basically a year of my life. That’sall Idid,” Clark said.“So the rest was good. Ithought it was going to feel long and it really didn’t. We werein here all the time. But that rest aspect, just gettingmybody where it needed to be and really on things Ineededtowork on was super important. But I’m readyto compete again.”
It wasawell-deserved vacation forperhapsthe busiest player in women’sbasketball.
Shecapped herfinalcollege season by playing a39-gameschedule while leading Iowa to asecond straight national championship game. One week after losing to South Carolina, the Fever drafted her No. 1overall and 13 days after that, training camp opened Afterabriefpreseason, Clark made her regular-seasondebut May 10. That started agrueling 42-game grind during which the Fever overcamea 1-8 start to finish 20-20. Then they were swept out of the playoffs
The only real stoppage forClark during that 81-game, 101/2-month span was the monthlong Olympic break.
Clark’simpact
Clark turned sellouts at college and WNBA games into the norm as she found her every move scrutinized on social media. Fans complained she was beingtreated poorly by the league’solder players and some even argued the physical play was racially motivated. Her friendships and relationships became all the rage, and nothing seemed to be off limits.
But Clark never complained, neverbowed to the pressure and used this seven-month break to focus on being herself. She completed one bucket list item— attending the finalround of The Masters earlierthismonth —and had her college jerseyretired. She attended aTaylor Swift concert, an NFLgamewith Swift and, of course, Pacers games.
Now,though, shesounds refreshed as shesings thepraises of aveteran team full of title dreams and championship résumés from coach Stephanie White to teammates Natasha Howard and37-year-old DeWanna Bonner
And the early returns seem to show thepersonalities are aperfect match
“Everything is just absolutely good,” All-Starguard Kelsey Mitchellsaid. “It feelsfresh. It feelskind of like when you take your clothesout of thedryer.It just feels different anditfeels good because we have new leadership.”
Newlook
It’s not just the overhauled ros-
ter,either Mitchell, one of the few holdoversleft from lastseason, also sees adifferent version of Clark, oneshowcased in aphoto posted on social media last month
“From aphysical standpoint, herstrength andher ability to make plays thatpeople don’tthink about—thatskippass from here to here,” Mitchell said. “A person of her caliber,itseems small but it’sgoing to help her go from having 10 assists to 12. And then after that the professional learning, watching film,knowing what you need.”
Just thethought of an improved Clark this season could make opponentsjittery Clarkled theFever in minutes (35.4 per game) and steals (1.3) shared team scoringhonors with Mitchell (19.2 points), and broke the WNBA’ssingle season mark for assists with 337.
Not bad for arookie trying to fit in and find her way
But theintensity andpassion Clark plays with, even in practice, seem to have her more comfortable playing theleading role from
thestartofthis season, too.
“She doesn’t waste reps and she literally embodies the value that howyou do anything is howyou do everything —whether it’s aballhandling drill or ashooting drill or settingscreens,” White said. “She approaches it with sucha discipline that she doesn’twaste time and Iappreciate that.”
Biggoals
Clark, meanwhile, is just focused on winning games.
TheFever will play at heralma mater andNotre Dame in the preseason, with the real tests set to begin withIndiana’sseason opener May 17 at Chicago and her old rival, Angel Reese. And you can bet, Clark will be just as eager to celebrate then as she wasinpractice.
“Don’t get me wrong, Ilovebasketball, like that’sone of the most fun things in the world,” she said. “Wehad agreat year and eventually getting away from that, Icame to apoint where Iwas itchingtoget back in here after like amonth. So I’m happy to be back.”
Achilles puts Lillard’snextseasonindoubt
DamianLillard has a torn left Achilles tendon, confirming the Milwaukee
worst fears after the seven-time
guard was helped off the
Sunday
The Bucks announced the severity of Lillard’sinjury after he had an MRI on Monday Theinjuryknocks Lillardout for the rest of the postseasonand could put his statusfor next season in doubt as well. When Kevin Durant tore his Achilles tendon in the 2019 NBA Finals, he ended up missing the entire 2019-20season The Bucks had been bracing for this outcome after Milwaukee’s 129-103 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 4. Milwaukee trails the IndianaPacers3-1 in theirEastern Conference first-round series. Game 5isTuesdayatIndianapolis Lillard’sinjury occurredinhis third game since comingback from deep vein thrombosis in his right calf.
“This is atoughone, honestly,” Bucks coach Doc Riverssaid after Sunday’sgame. “Blood clot,
ter when the ball bounced toward him.Lillard used his left hand to tip the ball toward teammate GaryTrent, then went down and grabbed the lowerpart of hisleft leg. He continued to sit on the floor as play resumed on the other end of the court.
When Lillardgot up, he couldn’t put weight on his left leg. He eventually was helped off the court and into the locker room.
“He’sone of the toughest guys I know,sowhenhestays down, you feel for him,” said teammate Pat Connaughton, who playedwith Lillard in Portland andMilwaukee.
Lillard’s toughness had been apparent fromthe fact that he was playing in the first place after missing the Bucks’ final 14 regular-season gameswith deep vein thrombosis, an abnormalclotwithin avessel where the congealing of blood blocksthe flow through on theway back to the heart. He was taken off blood-thinning medication and cleared to resume full basketball activity after the
He missedGame
LSU gets commitment from top-100 cornerback
LSU football landed acommitment from four-star cornerback Havon Finney forits 2026 recruiting class Monday Finney announced the decision on his Instagram account. He is the No. 54 overall player and the No. 7 cornerback in the country,according to the247Sports composite. He pickedLSU over Southern Cal, Michigan, Oregon and others. Finney is the first cornerback in LSU’s2026class, which is ranked fourthnationally by 247Sports. The Tigers now have 10 players committed, headlined by five-star wide receiverTristenKeysand four-star defensivelineman RichardAnderson.
Finney, who’sfrom Chatsworth, California, plays at Sierra Canyon High. He reclassifiedfrom the 2027 class earlier this year
Saints sign free agent DL with ties to DC Staley
The NFL draft is over,but the NewOrleans Saints are still adding to their defense.
The Saints announced Monday thatthey’ve signed defensiveend Chris Rumph to aone-year contract. Rumph, a2021 fourth-round pick, spent hisfirst four seasons with the Los AngelesChargers, meaning he’llreunitewithdefensive coordinatorBrandonStaleyin NewOrleans. In three seasons, Rumph appeared in 37 games as arotational pass rusherand hasthreecareer sacks. He has also dealt with injuries. His 2023 campaign was cut short when he suffered aseasonending foot fracture in November He also missed alloflast year when he wasplaced on injured reserve in August.
NBA said referees missed foul on Lakers’ Doncic Referees missed the LosAngeles Lakers’ LukaDoncic getting fouled with 33 seconds left in Game 4oftheir playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBAsaid Monday The Lakers were down 114-113 in Sunday’sgamewhenDoncicgot trippedup—itappeared to be inadvertent —byMinnesota’sJaden McDaniels near midcourt.
Doncic retained possession as he hit the floor and the Lakers called a timeout to avoid an 8-second violation. Hadthe foul been called, Doncic would have gone to the freethrow line with achance to tie the game or give the Lakers the lead. Instead, Minnesota stole LeBron James’ ensuing inbounds pass and Anthony Edwards made two free throwswith 10.9 seconds leftfor a 116-113 lead.
Madrid Open suspended becauseofpoweroutage
MADRID Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament has been suspended because of amajor power outagereported in Spain andPortugal. The ATPToursays two singles matches andone doubles match were underwaywhenpower was lost at 12:34 p.m.local time. It adds that “the cut is preventingthe useofelectroniclinecalling systems and also left aspider camdanglingoverthe court inside Manolo Santana Stadium.”
Grigor Dimitrov wasleading Jacob Fearnley 6-4,5-4 inside themainstadiumwhen play was stopped. There werealso women’smatches scheduled. The tournament said later that “in ordertoguarantee general safety” all of the day’s matches were postponed.
MLBchief,Trump discuss permanent ban of Rose NEWYORK— Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said he discussed Pete Rose with President Donald Trumpatameetingtwo weeksago and he plans to rule on arequest to endthe sport’spermanent banof the career hits leader,who died in September Speaking at ameeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors, Manfred saidheand Trumphave discussed several issues, including Manfred’sconcerns over how Trump’simmigration policies could affect players from Cuba, Venezuela and other foreign countries Manfred is considering apetition to have Rose posthumously removed from MajorLeague Baseball’spermanently ineligible list.
regular season.
1ofthe Pacers series to work his wayback and then returned in Game 2.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEFFREy PHELPS Milwaukee Bucksguard Damian Lillard grimaces as he falls to the floor against the Indiana Pacers during Game 4ofanEasternConference first-roundplayoff series Sunday in Milwaukee.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL CONROy
GuardCaitlin Clark led the Indiana Feverinminutes playedper game (35.4) andsteals(1.3) last season. Shealso tied KelseyMitchell by averaging 19.2points per game. Theeye-popping number for Clark in her rookie season in theWNBAwas aleague-record 337 assists.
DUNCAN
Continued from page1C
Moore said at the NFL owners’ meetings he was “excited to team up with Carr”, the NFL Network broke the news about Carr’sshoulder Twoweeks later,Carr’s brother David said the injury is believed to have occurred when Derek took aheadfirstfall against the New York Giants on Dec. 8and that Derek didn’t throw for along time during the offseason.
It’simportant to note that Carr’sshoulder wasnever listed on any of the official
LSU BASEBALL
Continued from page1C
in the country begs the question of whether he’ll become LSU’sSunday starter.Besides going six innings, he also threw aseason-high 85 pitches and his last pitch touched 97 miles per hour
LSU coach Jay Johnson wasn’twilling to commit to Evans becoming afull-time starter,even admitting that he would’ve pitched him Saturday if theTigers hadtaken the lead or tied the game in the later innings.
“Wecouldn’tdoitunless we were tiedorahead because the volume he needed to cover today,” Johnson said Sunday What’s next forShores?
After losing his spot in the starting rotation, redshirt sophomore right-hander Chase Shorescame on in relief vs. Tennessee, pitching in Game 2and allowing four runs, but only one earned, in an inning of work.
Despite allowing just one hit, his lack of command came back to bite him again as he hit two battersand walked another.A defensive miscue from junior first baseman Jared Jones played abig part in his ugly line, but Tennessee wasn’tintimidated by Shores’ 100 mph fastball or fooled by his slider
The rocky outing pushed Shores’ ERA up to 5.53. Given Evans’ fantastic outing
UL SOFTBALL
Continued from page1C
“Off thebat, Iwas like, ‘Maddie, got to get there,’ and then Isaw her in the last minute put her glove out and Iwas like, ‘Yes,’ ”Williams said. “It was just like arelief, becauseitwas like,we won.” The win left the Cajuns at 25-24 overall and 11-10in league play while tied for sixth place in the Sun Belt withApp State (21-25, 1110), and just ahalf-game ahead of Southern Mississippi(23-25, 10-10). Southern Miss visits Lamson Park this weekend. Thefirst goalistofinish in the top six to earn afirstroundbye in the Sun Belt Tournament. Afterlosing tiebreakers with Marshall (28-22, 12-9) and Coastal Carolina (36-15, 12-9), it’s hard to imagine UL finishing any higher than fourth
injuryreportsthe Saints submitted to the NFL after the Giants game. Onlyleft hand and concussion were listedonthe reports. Likewise, not once in the four months since the injury supposedly occurred did anyone mention ashoulder injurywhen discussing Carr or his injury status.
Youmight recallthat after the Giantsgame, the Saints maintained thepossibility of Carr returning to the field at some point during the 2024 season. Are we to believe Carr didn’ttry testing out his throwing shoulderonce during the monthbetween the injuryand the season finale Jan. 5against the
ON DECK
Tampa Bay Bucs? Wouldn’t that have been the starting point for any evaluation of his potential playing status?
Andeven if he didn’t, it strains credulitytothink that astarting NFL quarterback whostated publicly that his top offseason goal was to “get healthy” would not try to throw or test outhis throwing shoulder at some point during theoffseason, and certainly beforemid-April. If you’re confused by the story,suspicious of its timing and skeptical of the explanations being presented so far,you’re not alone. Little of it makes sense. The timing alone begs for
skepticism. It’sanunusual time for major injury news to occur.Ican count on one hand the numberofmajor injuriesthathavecome to light in mid-April during my 25 years of covering the NFL. Let aloneone as significantasthe throwing shoulder of thestarting quarterback Protocol is to address injuries as soon as possible to give proper time for rehab and recovery entering thenext season. Adding to theconfusion and heightening thesuspicion is thestrange way bothsides have treated thesituation. Carr stayed silent until
Sunday,when avideo of his sermon at aLas Vegas church was released. Saints officials, meanwhile, have refused to comment directly on the subject, other than ashort statement by general manager Mickey Loomis at his pre-draftnews conference last week that said little morethan the Saints still wereseeking “clarity” on the shoulder injury When Loomis and Moore wereasked about the injury again over the weekend, they danced around the subject If everything is jake, why be so secretive and evasive? Instead of hiding behind
offseason protocolsand injury policies, why not just address the situation in anewsconference over Zoom? Thatwould go a long waytowardending the rumors andspeculation thateveryone says they fear andloathe Certainly,the Saints and Carr have the right to remain silent aboutthe situation. It’stheir prerogative to keep things private. Just as we have the right to remain skeptical when Officer Barbrady tells us, “There’s nothing to see here.”
EmailJeff Duncan at jduncan@theadvocate. com.
Had Fulwileystayed with the Gamecocks, she likely would’ve continued to entergames off the bench
On April 8, former Florida State guard Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’sleading scorer, announced she wastransferring to South Carolina. Then Raven Johnson, one of the incumbent starting guards, revealed later that daythat she had decided to return for her final season of eligibility Fulwiley told The Greenville News on March 27 that she “would love” to teamup with Latson at South Carolina. But less than aweek after Latson committed to theGamecocks,Fulwiley’sname appeared in the transferportal. It took her
and junior left-hander Conner Ware’ssolid start the previous week againstAlabama, it’shardtoimagine Shores regaining his starting spot anytime soon
Taking stockofbats
LSU had struggled at the plate sinceits 5-3 win over Nicholls State on April 8.
Those struggles continued through the firsttwo games against Tennessee.
TheTigers scored in only three of the first 18 innings of the series, tallying six runs in theirmiraculous ninth-inning comeback Friday before hitting two solo home runs in the seventh and another in theeighthon Saturday.
But thatwas before LSU flipped the script Sunday TheTigers had 13 hits, includingeight for extra bases, and ended the game in eight innings on atworundouble from senior Luis Hernandez.
Not facingTennessee’s topstarters, Marcus Phillips and Liam Doyle, played
placeevenwith asweep of Southern Miss.
“Being in the topsix and getting the first-roundbye would be fantasticbecause that’s onelessgameyou have to play,” Habetz said. “We’re going into the tournament,that’swhat we’ve been lookingforwardtoall season.
“That’s the goals we’ve set out. We cannow reachbiggergoals.”
TheCajunsown the tiebreakers with first-place UL-Monroe (34-18, 14-7) and second-place Texas State (31-18, 13-8), havingwon series against bothteams
“That tells us that we can beat anyteaminthe conference,” Habetz said.
Theseries win over Texas State was UL’s first roadseries win this season.
“Again,beingonthe other side of those one-rungames and coming out with avictory,it’sagame-changer,” Habetz said. “You go from heartache to yes,wecan
10 moredaystoannounce that shewas transferring to LSU.
“I’ve probablylost recruits because I’m never goingtotell anyyoung person that you’re going to automatically start,” Staley said on April 5before the national championship game.“Young people, you need to bet on yourselfif youthink you’rethatgood, right? Youdon’t need a handout. Youjustallow your work to speak for itself If it finds you in the starting lineup —nameless,faceless production is the thing that matters.”
The next day,Fulwiley scored nine pointsand assisted four shots against UConn.She also committed acouple of turnovers in the first half andmissed akey defensiveassignmentinthe second, promptinga frustrated exclamation from Staleyonthe bench.
SoutheasternLouisiana is unranked PROBABLE STARTERS: LSU —TBA; SoutheasternLouisiana —TBA
WHATTOWATCH FOR: Junior left-hander Conner Ware didn’t pitch this past weekend against Tennessee,makinghim astrong candidate to startagainst the Lions. Southeastern Louisiana headsinto the matchup having wonits latest seriesagainst Houston Christian in Southland Conference play.
amajor part in theTigers’ success.They managed to score just two runs in 131/3 innings against theduo on Friday and Saturday ButLSU had alsobeen struggling against pitchers who were nowhere nearthe caliber of Phillips andDoyle. Sunday’soffensive explosion was agood reminder of what this attack can still do when it’srolling, scoring in numerous different ways from bunting over runners to blasting homers —and receiving contributions from up and down thelineup.
Importance of long ball
Hitting homeruns and preventing them went along way in LSU winning the Tennessee series.
The Tigers blasted seven homeruns and held theVols to just one, despite Tennessee entering the series second in the conference in homers.
Where LSU would find power was aquestion mark entering the season. Besides Jones, the Tigers didn’thave
do this. We’vebeen talking aboutit, butnow to actually start to see it happen gives it credibility in thesense that we knowthatwecan beat anybody.”
Williams is filling thegap in the 2-hole afteraninjury to shortstop Cecilia Vasquez, which also allowed Kayla Falterman to batinarunproducing spot.
Williams also has improvedthe defense in right field, so overallthe team has seemingly survived losing Vasquez’sglove at shortstop.
Now it’samatter of sweepinganother home series, or at least winning twogames, andgoing to Troy,Alabama, forthe Sun Belt Tournamentnext week with confidence.
“Welook forward to pushingon,” Habetz said. “We keep saying the best is yet to come, so hopefully that’s the case.”
Email Kevin Foote at kfoote@theadvocate.com.
“That’s how we operate,” Staley saidthe day prior “I just wantedtosay that because Idid do thatwhen Iwas in my first couple of years of coaching. Istarted someone offofpotential (She) wasn’tnearlythe hardest worker.Supertalented. Backfired. Never do it again. The cream will always rise. “Forus, if you’re in the starting lineup, it’sbecause you’ve consistently performed and practiced.”
Will Fulwiley findherself in Mulkey’sstarting lineup? That, too, is an unfamiliar positionfor thetransfer guard, the one who made the intriguing decision to leave herhometownprogram for one of its chief rivals.
Email Reed Darcey at reed.darcey@theadvocate. com. For more LSU sports updates, sign up forour
anyprovencommodities in the home run department against Southeastern Conference competition.
Jones blasted thefirst homer of theseriesFriday, atowering 452-foot walk-off shot.But after that, LSU got homers from four players whocombinedtohit just eight balls over thefence against SEC clubs last season.
Sophomores StevenMilam and Jake Brown homered on Saturday and Sunday,respectively.Freshman John Pearson hit the second home run of his careerSaturday, andseniorMichael Braswell cracked his first two homers of the year over Saturday and Sunday.
LSUentered Sunday’s contestjust 10thinthe SEC in homers against conference competition. If the weekend demonstrated anything, it’sthatthe long
ball will need to be an important part of the offense heading into the final stretch of the season.
Third-base situation
Braswell’sstruggles during nonconference play have becomeathing of the past.
In 18 SECgames this season, theveteran thirdbasemanhas an .888 on-base plus slugging percentage. Histwo homers this weekendequaledthe number of long balls he hit over his first three years combined in conference play He has only 55 plate appearances against the SEC this season after losing
playing time to redshirt juniorTannerReaves.But Reaves’ defensive struggles and struggles against conference pitching reopened a path for Braswell to return to the starting lineup. “I think the at-bats have just continually gotten better as we’ve gone along in theseason,” Johnsonsaid of Braswell. “He got offto alittle bit of aslow start, (but the) defense has never wavered. And to have two shortstops on the leftside of the infield is areally big plus forour team.”
Email Koki RileyatKoki. Riley@theadvocate.com.
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
LSUthird baseman Michael Braswell fires the ball across the diamond against Tennessee on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
Spring’s a good time to give your lawn some breathing room
Do you have alot of weedsin your lawn? Any areas of thin or dead grass? Does your yard justlook stressed overall? These could all be symptoms of acommonproblem:soil compaction
“Soil compaction is soil particlesgetting pushed closer and closer together,resultingin aloss of pore space for airand water,” explained EricDeBoer, an assistant professor of turfgrassmanagement withthe LSU AgCenter Compaction makes for atough environment for plant roots to grow.Itcan happen in areas that get alot of foot or vehicle traffic, and it’smore prevalent in finetextured clay and silt soils.
To test whether your soil is compacted, you can push a screwdriver into the ground. If it’snot relatively easy to insert, your soil is probably compacted.
The fix is aprocesscalled aerification or aeration, and spring is agood time to do it
For the best results, you’ll need to visit an equipment rental facility for amachine called an aerator,amotorized tool that you push like alawn mower.Ithas spinning tines that poke holes in the ground and pull out coresofsoil.The machine ejects the soil cores as it is pushed acrossalawn
Aeration helps reduce soil density and creates new channels for water,oxygen and nutrients to infiltrate the soil, DeBoer said. That ultimately translates to ahealthier yard
Using an aeratorcan make abig difference, and one pass over alawn is typically enough, DeBoer said.
“You may even see agreening effect around each hole within acouple of weeks,” he said.
Youcan leave the soil cores
ä See AERATION, page 6C
Do youremember Piccadilly in its heyday?Wewantto hear from you
Did yougrowupeating at Piccadilly? Do youhavecherished memories of favorite foods at the restaurant? Maybe youstill eat thereonthe regular.Wewant to hear about your connection to the Baton Rouge-based cafeteria-style institution.
Send us your stories about Piccadilly in its heyday. Do you remember watching the restaurant grow from ahometown success to achain across the South? Please email us your storytoSerena. Puang@theadvocate.com. Include your name and town, and (not for publication) adaytime phone number
TiffanyKersten not onlyleads birding trips to the Rio Grande Valleyinher homestate of Texas,but also to Panama, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador
PROVIDED PHOTO/STAFFIMAGE ILLUSTRATION By CHRISTOPHER MARTIN
Spreading herwings
Record-breaking
Texasbirderworking to make hobby saferfor women
FBY COLETTEDEAN Contributingwriter
ouryears ago, Texas birder Tiffany Kersten hadnoidea she wouldbecomearecordbreaker, much lessa spokesperson helping to highlight aserious plight faced by manybirders.
It was 2021 when Kersten found herself out of ajob as anaturecenter manager due to thepandemic, and the gym whereshe hadbeen training for TV competition series “American Ninja Warrior” was closed. So, she took aspontaneous trip to Floridawith friends and saw 200 species of birds. Onceback home in Texas, she saw several more species and with some encouragement, madeacommitmenttodoabig year.Anindividual
PROVIDED COVER ILLUSTRATION
Shortly after Tiffany Kersten’s record-breaking bigyear,she and her storywere featured on the coverofTexas Monthlymagazine.
challenge or competition amongbirders, duringabig yearthe goal is to identify as many species of birds as possible,bysight or sound, within acalendar year.Kersten not only
ä See BIRDER, page 6C
‘BIRDIE BIG YEAR: ELEVATING WOMEN BIRDERS’
Presented by theBaton Rouge Audubon Society l 6p.m.Thursday l EBRPSouth Branch Library, 2210 GlasgowAve l Free, limited seating.Registration encouraged at eventbrite.com l For more info, go to braudubon.org.
“I
BY SERENA PUANG Staff writer
For Salt Pepper Oak owner Vincent Hunt, becoming aTikTok-er wasn’tthe
Briskets in the smoker at Salt Pepper Oak
PROVIDED PHOTO
Out-of-townman’s personalityshifty
Dear Harriette: Earlier this year Imet someone at afriend’s birthday party.Ithought he was handsome,and my friend ended up fixing us up. We live in different states, so we exchanged numbers and kept in touch.We talked often on the phone, andI feltcomfortable withhim. He offered to visit me in person, staying in a hotel and taking me out throughout the weekend Iappreciated that he wasn’tpresumptuous, but upon his arrival, everything seemed to change. Apparently,hecame with expectations. Whenever we were together,he’d make sexual advances, which came as asurprise tome since we hadn’tentered that territory yet. Throughout the weekend, his mood and attitude wavered,and Icouldn’tpinpoint why.Eventually he admitted that he was sexually frustrated. Ifeel violated even though technically nothing happened Why would someone giveme one impression and then fly1,000 miles in hopes of something else? Icut ties with this person, but Ican’tseem to shake the feeling that Iwas too naive. Why is this bothering me so much? Any advice? —Wrong Impression Dear Wrong Impression: These days, it’snot surprising that if this man flew 1,000 miles to see you, he expected sex in return. That doesn’tmean you were obligated to do it, but it’snot an unusual thought. Youtwo probably should have spoken openly about your expectations for the weekend. Youcould have stated that you were looking forward to seeing him and getting to know himbetter,but also that you intended to take it slow.Yes, you probably were abit naive. In the future, if you find yourself in a similar situation, state what you
By The Associated Press
wantupfront so there’snoroom for misinterpretation.
Teacher’sthank-you notes provideadditionallessons
should continue?
Gentlereader: Yes! Continue!
Dear Harriette: My middle-aged sonrecentlymoved out,and I don’tthink he is prepared. He’s hadahardtime taking responsibility over the pastdecade or so,and he hasnot been great with staying employed. His decision camejust acouple of months after securing anew job. It’snot that I don’twanthim to be on his own two feet —trust me, Ido—but Iworry that this is apremature decisionthatmay cost him apretty penny.When he gave me the news, he’d alreadysigned asublease with afriend who is out of town indefinitely.None of this makes me feel any moresecure about hisdecision.Itall cameas asurprise to me because he said he’d already started moving his stuff to his newplace and would be gone withina day or two of the conversationwewerehaving.
Iwant to beable to give him some pointers withoutthat conversation being riddled withmy personal emotionssurrounding hisabrupt notice. I’m not sure I knowhow to be supportive while I’moffended —Moving Out
Dear MovingOut: Your middleaged son should not need your advice at this stagefor how to live alone. Good for him that he is making the effort to cut the cord.Let him. If hemakes mistakes, so be it. He has to learn to be independent. Do not be offended. Thoughhe didn’thandle hisleaving in thebest way,heis leaving, andthat is agood thing for both of you. Let it be with your blessing.
Send questions to askharriette@harriettecole. com or c/oAndrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO64106.
TODAYINHISTORY
Today is Tuesday,April 29, the 119th day of 2025. There are246 days left in the year
Todayinhistory:
On April 29, 1992, ajury in Simi Valley,California, acquitted four Los Angeles police officers charged with assault and using excessive force in the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King; the verdicts were followed by six days of rioting in Los Angeles which destroyed hundreds of businesses andresulted in more than 60 deaths
On this date:
In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrenderedtoBritish forces.
In 1945, during World WarII, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp
In 1991, apowerful tropical cyclone made landfallinBangladesh, creating astorm surge that resulted in more than 138,000 deaths.
In 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention, aworldwide treaty
banning the use of chemical weaponsand mandatingthe destruction of existingchemical weapons, went into effect.
In 2008, Democratic presidential hopeful BarackObama denounced hisformerpastor,the Rev.Jeremiah Wright, for what he termed “divisiveand destructive” remarks on race.
In 2011, Britain’sPrince William andKate Middleton were married in an opulent ceremony at London’sWestminster Abbey Today’sbirthdays: Musician Willie Nelson is 92. Baseball Hall of FamerLuisApariciois91. ConductorZubinMehtais89. Singer Tommy James is 78. Golf Hall of Famer JohnnyMiller is 78. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 71. Actor Kate Mulgrew is 70. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 68. Actor Michelle Pfeiffer is 67. SingerTV personality Carnie Wilson is 57. TennisHall of Famer Andre Agassi is 55. Actor Uma Thurmanis55. Actor Megan Booneis 42. NHL center Jonathan Toews is 37. Pop singer Foxes is 36. Golfer Justin Thomas is 32.
AERATION
Continued from page5C
Dear Miss Manners: As ateacher for thepast 30 years, Ihave been fortunate to receive thoughtful giftsofthanks and appreciation from my students and their families during the holiday season and at the end of the school year These gifts often include mugs, chocolates, baked goods or gift cards. (Between us, I will admit that my favorite giftsare notes of appreciation from students and parents.)
In return, Ihave always taken the time to write careful and personal thank-you notes for each of these gifts. Partofmy motivation has been to set an example for my students, demonstrating the importance of expressing gratitude through a handwritten note. However,this practice is timeconsuming, particularly during my breaks, when the sheer volumeofletters overwhelms me. At Christmas this year,the time it took prompted metopause and reflect: Is it truly necessary to write athank-you notefor a thank-you gift? It feels abit circular
Let us not risk perpetuating that prevalent, but totally false, idea that apresent given in thanks need not be acknowledged —that it would lead to aloop in which thegiver and recipient would spendthe rest of their lives thanking each other Nonsense. Aletter of thanks does not require a response; apresent, given for whatever reason, does. Those children were probablysomewhat involved in giving you those presents —they may even have chosen them. Do you want to leave them wondering if you even cared?
Children almost never receive letters (well, neither do adults, these days), so these would be special. Youappreciate letters from them and their parents, so you ought to understand how much they would appreciate lettersfrom you.
Anditwill be an additional boon to theparents whoare requiring their children to write letters of thanks for their birthday and holiday presents.
example, would you respond to a text message that says, “Thank you forthe delicious dinner” with a“thank you” (for appreciating the dinner), a“you’re welcome” (for the thank-you), or both?
Gentle reader: Neither.You’re off free.
Dear Miss Manners: Iampermanently in awheelchair as aresult of an injury.There is nothing wrong with my mind. Many people assume Icannot speak formyself,and somemove my wheelchair in directions Idonot wish to go.
What can Isay to these strangers to convey that Iamcapable of speaking formyself and that Ido not care to be treated like apiece of furniture? Somepeople are considerate —holding doors for me and asking if Iwould like help. Others are quite rude.
Gentle reader: “Excuseme, but Iam right here” to those who talk above you. And “STOP!” to anyone rude enough to move your wheelchair without your permission.
Ican’timagine not writing the notes, but Ifeel compelled to ask: Would asimpler acknowledgment suffice, or is this atradition I
Dear Miss Manners: I’mfeeling stuck abouthow to respond to atext message that combines a thank-you and acompliment. For
Sendquestions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mailtoMiss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St Kansas City,MO 64106.
BIRDER
Continuedfrom page5C
checked the number of species to qualify as abig year,but she also broke the record for the lower 48 states big year of 724 species.
As asingle young woman crisscrossing the country toremote sites with no cellphone service, there were more than afew times when she felt uneasy,like the time she found herself alone on amountaintop with two men who were wandering about,one lighting a cigarette.
“I was having afull-blown panic attack at this point,” she said.
Fortunately,the men drove off.
As aprevious assault survivor, she thought, “Am Iputtingmyself in asituation where this could happen to me again?”
As she continued withher big year,she was also determined to find away to makethe outdoors asafeplace for women. While on abird species hunt in California an ad for Birdiepersonal safety alarms poppeduponher phone The alarms hook onto keys or bags andwhen the topsare pulledoff, they flash abright LEDlight and chirp loudly.The companyalso givesa portion of its proceedsto organizationsthatsupportwomen’sempowerment.
BARBECUE
Continuedfrom page5C on the ground. They’ll eventually break down and return some nutrients to the soil. DeBoer recommends aerating once per growing season or as neededtoalleviate majorcompaction issues. When renting an aerator,be sure it’samodel that has hollow tines that pull up soilcores. De-
Boer advises against using amachine with solid tines or trying to aerate ayard withapitchfork or other spikytools because they don’tremovesoil. “Solid tines do create channels in the soil for nutrients and air and may bebetter than doing nothingatall, but it doesn’tdo anythingtoalleviate soil compaction,”DeBoer said. “If you continuetopokeholes to the same depth year after year,you can actually createahardpan and makethe problem worse.”
opening was April 19. Salt PepperOak started two yearsago in PassChristian, Mississippi, as apartnership between twin brothers Vincent and Andrew Hunt. The restaurant’sname is an homage toAnthony Bourdain, who once said “Salt, pepper,oak,period” during aYouTube video after taking abite of abrisket. VincentHunthas lived in Baton Rouge since 2007, and he commuted two hours each way to runthe businessthree days aweek. He’d drive out on Thursday and return
Saturday
“It was atest of my faith in my abilitytoreally want this,” Hunt said. “Baton Rouge was the long game. Ijust didn’tknow how Iwas
Kerstenreachedout to Birdie’s femaleowners, who offered hera 50% discount on the alarms. She also set up aGoFundMe page whichhas helped purchase more than 900 devices.Her “Birdie Big Year” mission had begun.
Kerstencontinuedtogiveout alarms during her quest andnow gives out the devices at speaking engagements. “It’sbeena really powerful experience notonlyfor me,but fora lot of other women,” she said.
Kerstensaidshe knows the alarms won’tsolve the problem completely buthopesher larger effort will help create change.
“I believeI can help by being thevector through which tough conversationscan be hadand shared. It is aresponsibilityofus all—men and women alike —to change thenarrative here,tocreate asafe, welcoming place forall in this community,” she said.
Shortlyafter her record-breaking year,Kersten and her story were featured on the cover of Texas Monthly magazine and she started abusiness, Nature Ninja Birding Tours, offering customized private guiding in the Rio Grande Valley. Some, but notall, of her tours are specific to women. Herbusiness has grown, and in addition to the Rio Grande Valley trips,she nowoffers birding trips to Panama, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Co-
gonna get here.” Hunt is originally from Mississippi, and he knew that opening a business in his home state would allow him to try something new with the support of his old friends and family
He’sbeen in therestaurant industryfor over 20 years and moved to Baton Rouge forajob opportunity
While opening abarbecue business in BatonRouge has been his goal, he said the time in Mississippi taught him aboutbarbecue, which he didn’tgrow up with.
People say,“you either go World WarIIorbarbecue at 35,” Hunt quipped. He chose barbecue. He uses 100% oak wood and prides himselfonhis “chef-driven sides.”
“Our baked beans are not baked beansout of acan;they’re pinto beansthat we make in-house with chili peppers,” he said. “Our potato
lombia and Ecuador
Baton Rouge willbeher second stop in amultistatespeakingtour called “Birdie Big Year: Elevating WomenBirders,” sponsored by the Baton Rouge Audubon Society Thefree talkwill take place on Thursday at the East Baton Rouge Parish South Branch Library,2210 Glasgow Ave. She’ll be giving away 10 Birdies as door prizes. Kersten’s“Birdie Big Year” tour in Baton Rouge had to be rescheduledfrom last spring.She took a break afterbeing diagnosed with breast cancer following aroutine annual exam.Surgery andtreatmentwere successful, so she is back on track this spring.
“Now there’sanother group Ibelongtoand want to help support,” she said.
“Lastweek,Texas Monthly reached out to do afollow-uparticle; sort of a‘where is she now?’” Kersten said. No doubt Kersten’s adventures will continue to take flight, continuing to encourage and empower womenasshe glides along.
This articleissuppliedbythe Louisiana MasterNaturalists of Greater Baton Rouge, which seekstoadvanceawareness, understandingand stewardship of thenaturalenvironment. For more information,email info@ lmngbr.org.
salads are not your basic mushy yellow mustard/mayonnaise potato salad.It’sroasted creolepotato salad with roasted red potatoes.” Unlike their old location, which was only open on weekends, the new location will be open 11 a.m to 5p.m.Tuesday through Saturday. They’realso goingtohavean expandedmenuwithitems like pork belly lollipops, asmashburger made with ground brisket, onion rings and wings. There will also be cocktails like thehot honeysmoked lime margarita, andafter he gets up and going, he hopes to expand to breakfast items with more menu items that highlight thesmokyflavors he’splaced at the center of his business. For example, he hopes to add asmoked brownsugar shaken espresso to the menu.
Email SerenaPuang at serena. puang@theadvocate.com.
Harriette Cole SENSE AND SENSITIVITy
Judith Martin MISS MANNERS
PROVIDED PHOTO
Birdie alarms hook onto keys or bags and when the topsare pulled off, they flash abright LED lightand chirp loudly
LSU AGCENTER PHOTO By OLIVIA McCLURE
Eric DeBoer,anassistant professor of turfgrass management withthe LSUAgCenter,demonstrates using an aerator
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Take theinitiativeand finish whatyou start. Clearing apath to freedom will offer satisfaction and insight into how to turn your dreamsinto areality.
GEMINI (May21-June 20) Distance yourself from those whomake you doubt your inner voice.Base the changesyou make on what feels right. Change your surroundings.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Take astep forward and back yourwordsand promises with action. Your objective is to have an impact on and to influence those who are sitting on the fence.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You will attract attention if you are vocal, participate and do your part to spread the word Nowisnot thetime to sit on the sidelines. Act on behalf of those whocannot act for themselves.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Get your facts straight before you share information. Take the high road, promote the truth andmake thechanges necessaryto reach your goal. Partnerships require openness and honesty.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Broaden your knowledge, and you'll gainperspective regarding something youwant to pursue. Planning atrip, signing up for acourse or engaging in arally will give you asense of belonging andpurpose
SCORPIO(Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Use your energy wisely. Exercise, competitive sports, physical challengesand motiva-
tional activities will positively impact your life.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Domestic issues willsurface if youare reluctant to handle matters. Hesitation will lead to accumulated mistrust with someone youneed to get alongwith.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Listen, observe andprotect yourachievements and possessions. Achange of attitude regarding who youallow in your inner circle will help youmaintain your status quo.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Stay calm, pace yourself andmakeonlynecessary changes. Focus on broadening your outlook, skills and pursuits and pouringyourenergyintoactions.Stepaway from disagreementand discord
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Settle in and look at the big picture. Before making amove or altering how you do things, be sure to study the consequences and who stands to winorlose.
ARIES(March 21-April 19) Look for the best deal, prepare to barter andmake your money stretch. The joy of less debt will improve your perspective. Tidy up your life andyourlook.Focus on reaching your goals.
Cipher cryptograms arecreated from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipherstands for another.
better or For WorSe
beetLe bAILeY
Mother GooSe And GrIMM
LAGoon
bIG nAte
Sudoku
InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.
Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer
THe wiZard oF id
BLondie
BaBY BLueS
Hi and LoiS
Bridge
BY PHILLIP ALDER
Surrealist painter Salvador Dali said, “Atthe ageof6,Iwanted to be acook At 7, IwantedtobeNapoleon. And my ambition has been growingsteadily ever since.”
If your partner’sambition in the bidding carries you to heights that your cards do not justify, trytofind aline of play that will justifyhis optimism.
In today’s deal, for example, suppose North and South soar to seven spades. West leads the club king. What should South do?
The first three bids in theauction are predictable (unless you have some snazzy responses to astrong, artificial and forcing two-club opening bid).
Then, though, North’s actual choice of sixspadeswouldnotmeetwithuniversal approval.
Ajumptofourheartswouldbepopular if it were read as asplinter bid, showing some values, four-plus spades and at most asingleton heart. When North jumped to the small slam, though,South read his partner forstrong trumps, so thought his four aces justified raising to the grand slam.
Declarer has to assume the diamond finesseiswinning.But he still needsto be careful with his entries.
Southshouldwinwithhisclubace,cash twoheartstodiscarddummy’sclubloser (and to reduce the undertricksshould
things take anasty turn), playoff the spade ace, andlead aspade to dummy’s queen.Hecontinues with adiamondto hisqueen,the diamondace, aspade to dummy’sking, and adiamond ruff. Then he can claim because dummy is high, stating that he will ruff aheartora clubtoget over there.
Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguised word,phrase,name, place, saying, etc. Forexample: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON
Previousanswers:
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’sWoRD oRAcLE: OR-uh-kul: Apersonthrough whom adeity is believed to speak.
Average mark 16 words Time limit 20 minutes Can you find21ormore wordsinORACLE?
YEstERDAY’s WoRD —ALMost
thought
am he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, Iamalive for ever more, Amen;and have thekeys of hell and of death.” Revelation1:18
Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer
wuzzles
loCKhorNs
Jesus is Lord!Heiscoming back and all will bend the kneetohim. G.E. Dean
marmaduKe
Bizarro
hagar the horriBle
Pearls Before swiNe
garfield
B.C.
PiCKles
hidato
mallard fillmore
FedEx to close BR distribution center
FedEx said it will close its one of it’sBaton Rouge distribution facilitiesinJune, amove that will put 74 employees out of work.
The shutdown of the shipping center at 10781 Coursey Blvd. is part of an ongoing effort by FedEx to streamline its delivery operations. Many of the employees at the center will be offered other jobs with FedEx, thecompany said. The affectedworkers are receiving job placement assistance, relocation aid and severance packages, if applicable FedEx has more than 450 employees in the Baton Rouge area, working out of 11 facilities. The company said the closure of the Coursey site will not lead to delays in package pickups or deliveries.
The delivery giant saidthat, by May,itwillhaveshut down 250 delivery stations in the U.S. and Canada since 2022 as part of thestreamlining effort. It has seen a10% drop in pickup and delivery costs in areas where stations have closed.
The 81,500-square-footdistribution center sold earlier this year to an Oklahoma investment company for $5.9 million FedEx has been in the building since 1998
Deliveroo gets takeover offer fromDoorDash
SharesofDeliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, hit three-year highs on Monday after it received a$3.6 billion proposed takeover offer fromDoorDash.
Deliveroo announced thebid after marketsclosed in Europe on Friday.OnMonday,the company also saidthat it wassuspendinga $133.5 millionshare buybackithad announcedlast month.
Deliveroo said Friday that its board has informed DoorDash that if afirm offer is made at thefinancialterms provided, it will recommend the bid to its shareholders.
DoorDash runs its business in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Deliveroo, which was founded in 2013,operates in 10 markets worldwide, including theU.K., Italy and France. EPAallows sale of cheaper E15 gasoline
Consumers across the U.S. still will be able to buy higherethanol blend E15 gasoline this summer, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday,saving them alittle moneyatthe pump but risking potential damage to the air and water.
The emergency waiver issued by the EPAprevents retailers in most states from havingtostop selling E15 gasoline on Thursday.While the waiver remains in effect only throughMay 20, EPAAdministrator Lee Zeldin signaled that he plans to keep issuingwaivers throughSept 15,the date when the federal government typically would allow E15sales in all states again. Most gasoline sold across the U.S. isblended with 10% ethanol, but15% blends arebecoming increasinglycommon, particularly in the Midwest, where most of the nation’s corn is grown. E15 gasoline generally costs at least 10 cents lessagallon than E10 gasoline, but the EPAhad previouslyprohibited its sale during the summer over concerns that its use during the summer driving season could increase smog. But the EPAhas relaxed restrictions on E15, granting a series of short-termwaivers in 2022, 2023 and 2024 to allow its sale nationwide through the summer.And last year,the EPA issued arule allowing yearroundsales in eightMidwestern states —Iowa, usually the nation’s top corn producer,as well as Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio,South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Trump administration officials said Monday’saction will lower consumers’ costs and give them more choices at the pump while also increasing the demand for corn.
BY STAN CHOE AP business writer
NEW YORK U.S. stocks drifted to amixed finishonMonday, ahead of potentialflashpoints thisweek that could bringmoresharp swings for financial markets.
The S&P 500 inched up to extendits winning streak to afifth day.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up, and the Nasdaq compositeslippedslightly Therelative lullintrading offereda respite from thesharp, historic swings that have rocked markets for weeks, as hopes rose andfellthat PresidentDonald Trump may back down on his
trade war.Manyinvestors believeTrump’s tariffs couldcause arecession if left unaltered. Coming intoMonday,the S&P500 had roughly halved its drop that had taken it nearly 20% below its record set earlier this year Mixedtrading for some influential tech stocks ahead of their earnings reports this week pulled the S&P 500 back and forthbetween modestgains and lossesfor much of Monday Amazon fell 0.7%,Microsoft dipped 0.2%, Meta Platforms added0.4% andApple rose 0.4% All areonthe schedule to report theirlatest resultsthis week, and they’re some of Wall Street’s most
influential companies because they’vegrown to becomesome of the biggestinterms of size,byfar That gives their movements extra weight on theS&P 500and other indexes Outside of Big Tech,executives from Caterpillar,Exxon Mobil and McDonald’smay also offerclues this week about how they’re seeing economic conditions play out.
Several companies acrossindustries have already slashed their estimates for upcoming profit or pulled theirforecasts entirely because of uncertainty aboutwhat will happen with Trump’stariffs.
“Weheard more plans to mitigate tariff impacts than in prior
months andthanduring 2018” from U.S. companies, including preordering, shifting production andincreasingprices for their ownproducts, according to Bank of Americastrategist Savita Subramanian. But she also said in a report thatshe’s seeing “some indications of apause: no hiring/no firing, no newprojects/no cancellations etc.”
Afear is thatTrump’son-againoff-again tariffs maybepushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plansfor long-term investment because of how quickly conditionscan change, seeminglyby the hour
VOLATILITY ANXIETY
BY MATT SEDENSKY AP national writer
NEWYORK— MichaelMontgomeryusedto check thebalance on his retirement account once aweek andsmile. Butlately,not wanting to get upset and question if he could retire in afew years, there was only onesolution.
“I’m not looking,” says the66-year-old professor from Huntington Woods, Michigan. As the White House simultaneouslyinjects turmoil into financial marketswith itstrade war and dismisses fears of adownturn, retired andnear-retired Americans areanxiously looking on, worried about outliving their savingsorhaving to put off entries on their bucketlists.
Keeping logged off his account has made Montgomery’sdays less worrisome. He and his wife adjustedtheirportfolio after Election Day,including moving moremoney into bonds. But he’snot sure what more he cando if the entireworld economy can be affected by Washington’sdecisions.
“I hope like hell Idon’tlose all my retirement savings,” he says.“Butwhere else could you putthe money that these people could not disorder?They can’tget into your mattressbut that’sabout it.”
Many experts warned U.S. stocks were overpriced and duefor acorrection even beforePresident Donald Trump reclaimed theOval Office. Butahistoric blanket of tariffs have injected new uncertainty into the market
Though stocks have rallied recently,the S&P 500isdown 10% fromanall-time high reached in February.Lossesinthe Nasdaq and among small-cap stocks are steeper. Even bonds and theU.S. dollar have been volatile.
Many economists arewarning of apossible recession.
Earlier this month, the CboeVolatility Index, considered a“fear gauge” of investor pessimism, reached its highest level in five years.The index,known as VIX,has since retreated but is still in territory reflecting fearful investors. Anothermeasure of
market sentiment, the Cboe S&P 500 Left Tail VolatilityIndex,whichtracksinvestor worry about so-called “black swan” events such as the 2008 housing crash that spurred theGreat Recession, likewisehas backed off from highs but remains elevated.
Trump hasurgedpeople to “becool”in assessing theimpact of tariffs on theirinvestments. Asked abouthis own savings earlierthismonth, he chuckledand replied: “I haven’tchecked my 401(k).”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meantime,brushedoff the possibility that some might need to delay retiring, saying people “don’tlook at the day-to-day fluctuations of what’shappening.” That seeming nonchalance isn’tsitting wellwith someolder investors.
PeterRost, 72, retired from his software development job last year and planned to start tapping his retirement savings to supplement Social Security.But he doesn’twant to bake in his losses.
“I’m looking to take $2,000 and meanwhile the account drops by $30,000,” he says.
BY MARC LEVY Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa.— Coal-fired power plants, long an increasingly money-losingproposition in theU.S are becomingmore valuable now that the suddenly strong demand for electricity to runBig Tech’s cloud computing andartificial intelligence applicationshas set off afull-on sprinttofind newenergy sources
President DonaldTrump, who has pushed for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market and suggested that coalcan help meet surgingpower demand, is wielding his emergency authoritytoentice utilities to keep older coal-fired plantsonlineand producing electricity
While someutilities were already delaying theretirement of coalfiredplants, the scores of coal-fired
plants that have been shut down the past couple of years, or will be shut down, are the object of growing interest from tech companies, venture capitalists, states andotherscompeting for electricity
That’s because they have avery attractive quality: high-voltage lines connectingtothe electricity grid that they aren’t usinganymore andthatanew powerplant could use. That ready-to-goconnection could enable anew generation of power plants—gas,nuclear,wind, solar or even battery storage —to help meet the demand for new power sources morequickly For years, thebureaucratic nightmarearound building newhighvoltage power lineshas ensnared efforts to getpermits for such interconnections for newpower plants, said John Jacobs, an energy policyanalyst forthe Washington,
D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center.
“They are very interested in the potential here. Everyone sort of sees the writing on the wall for the need for transmission infrastructure,the need for clean firm power, the difficulty with siting projects and the value of reusing brownfield sites,”Jacobs said.
Coincidentally,the pace of retirements of the nation’saging coalfired plants had been projected to accelerateatatime when electricitydemand is rising for the first timeindecades.
The Department of Energy,ina Decemberreport, said its strategy for meeting that demand includes re-using coal plants, which have been unable to competewitha flood of cheap natural gas while being burdened with tougher pollution regulations aimedatits comparatively heavyemissions of planet-
warming greenhouse gases. There arefederal incentives, as well —such as tax credits and loan guarantees —that encourage the redevelopmentofretired coal-fired plants into new energy sources. Todd Snitchler, president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, which represents independent powerplant owners, said he expected Trump’sexecutive orders will mean somecoal-fired plants runlongerthantheywould have, but that they are still destined for retirement. Time is of theessenceingetting power plants online. Data centerdevelopersare reporting ayearlong wait in some areas to connect to the regional electricity grid. Rights-of-way approvals to build power lines can also be difficult to secure, given objections by neighbors whomay notwantto live near them.
