The Times-Picayune 05-27-2025 by The Advocate

3escapeescapturedinBR, Texas

BY KASEY BUBNASH and JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writers

The intensive manhunt following the escape from the New Orleans jail earlierthismonth ledtothree more inmatesbeing taken into cus-

tody on Monday,leaving twoothersstill at large fromthe historic breakout Lenton Vanburen Jr., 26, wasarrested in Baton Rouge while Leo Tate Sr., 31, and Jermaine Donald, 42, were apprehended by the Texas Department of Public Safety

in Walker County,Texas, northof Houston,police said. Gov.Jeff Landryand Attorney General Liz Murrill lauded thecaptures. Monday’sarrests leave Derrick Groves and Antoine Massey, amongthose considered ringleaders in the brazen May 16 jailbreak of 10 men, at large.

BatonRouge police confirmed Vanburen’scapture, saying he was arrested following an anonymous tip “Vanburen wasapprehended while sitting on abench near a department store located at 9636 Hammond Aire,” the Baton Rouge Police Department said in astatement.

CanLouisiana speedup fortifiedroofadoption?

BY SAM KARLIN Staff writer

See FORTIFIED, page 4A

School food billsalign with U.S. health chief’spush State’seffortaimstoget more local, less processeditems into students’meals

BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

Louisianalawmakers want schools to serve more locally made, nutritious meals and get ridofhighly processed products, as they jointhe Trump administration in pushing for healthier food options.

An assortment of bills and resolutions making their way through the state Legislature aim to reshape Louisiana food policies to align with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy

Jr.’s“Make America Healthy Again” agenda,which seeks to reduce chronic illness and obesity. Among the legislation are proposals meanttoeventually prohibit public schoolsand privateschools that receive public

funding from serving or selling highly processedfood and drinks. The state House of Representatives on Thursday passed two resolutions by Rep. Michael

See FOOD, page 7A

State Police conﬁrmed the two captures in Texas. The jailbreak has prompted an interstate manhunt and state-led investigations into the New Orleans lockup’soperations, as well as the localcriminaljustice system. Sheriff SusanHutson, who runs thejail, hassuspendedher

ä See ESCAPEES, page 7A H

Proposals shrink firearm boundaries

Guntoterswould be allowedtowalkup to schools, carry weaponsatparades

BY ALYSE PFEIL and SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writers

Less than ayear after Louisiana agreed to let people conceal their weapons without apermit, state lawmakers are weighing whether to allow permitless concealed guns near schools and on parade routes, sparking fresh criticism in New Orleans. Senate Bill 101, by state Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, would allow anyone legally permitted to carry agun to tote theirweapon up to a school’sproperty line. Thatincludespeople without permits. Another bill, House Bill 393, would allow guns at parades. Miguez, who championed last year’s permitless carry law, said hislatest bill is aimed at ensuring consistency forgun owners.

“I want one set of rules that treats law-abiding citizens fairly,not …a patchwork of laws,” he said. “Wenever want alaw-abiding citizen criminalizedbecauseofsomecomplication in the law that they weren’tawareof.”

The proposals comeafterstate and New Orleansofficialslast year clashed over the city’sefforts to establish a firearm-free school zone in the city’s French Quarter to skirt the state’srelaxation of gun regulations. Though that plan appears to have stalled, Miguez’sbill, which removes along-held ban on firearms near schools, would prevent it from resurfacing. Theyalsocome amidwidespread local criticism of the state’seffort lastyear to allow people18orolder to carry agun in many public places, either openly or concealed. NewOrleans Police Department leaders and Mayor LaToya Cantrell have said the banwould impede police’sabilityto keep crowds on parade routes safe.

The city “recognizesthe Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; however,the city does not agree with

See GUN, page 7A

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Miguez

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

10 shot in S.C. at holiday weekend party

LITTLE RIVER, S.C. Ten people were shot during a fight that started after a private boat hosting a holiday weekend party arrived at a dock Sunday night on the South Carolina coast, authorities said.

No one died in the shooting in Little River about 9:30 p.m., although some of the wounded were in critical condition, Horry County Police said in a statement At least one person was taken to the hospital who was not hurt by gunﬁre, police said.

The shooting happened around a dock where a private charter boat leaves for cruises. The boat was docked and detectives are trying to ﬁgure out exactly where the ﬁght and shooting began, police said.

A flyer online advertised a party Sunday night with a DJ on a three-hour cruise ending at 9 p.m.

A woman who answered a phone number on the ﬂyer early Monday said she was distraught seeing her friends get shot but then said she didn’t want to talk any more and hung up.

Someone who answered the phone at the company that owns the boat said he didn’t want to talk to a reporter

No arrests have been made as detectives continue to investigate, police said.

Ex-police chief escapes from Arkansas prison CALICO ROCK, Ark. — A former police chief in Arkansas who is serving decadeslong sentences for murder and rape escaped from prison Sunday state corrections ofﬁcials said.

Grant Hardin, the former police chief of the tiny town of Gateway near the ArkansasMissouri border escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, where he has been held since 2017. Corrections ofﬁcials did not provide any details about how he escaped.

They did say that Hardin had disguised himself and was “wearing a makeshift outﬁt designed to mimic law enforcement when he escaped the North Central Unit.”

The Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction are following leads with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old James Appleton. According to an affidavit filed in the case, Appleton worked for the Gateway water department and was talking to his brother-in-law, then Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, when he was shot in the head on Feb. 23, 2017, near Garfield. Police found Appleton’s body inside a car Hardin, who was Gateway’s police chief for about four months in early 2016, was sentenced to 30 years in prison He is also serving 50 years in prison for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers north of Fayetteville.

Egyptian archaeologists discover tombs in Luxor

CAIRO Egypt unveiled three new tombs of prominent statesman in the Dra Abu al-Naga necropolis in Luxor, ofﬁcials said Monday

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered tombs dating back to the New Kingdom period (1550–1070 B.C.) and identified the names and titles of their owners through inscriptions found within, according to a statement by the tourism and antiquities ministry.

Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement that further study of other tombs’ inscriptions is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the tombs’ owners. The ministry released pictures of items discovered in the tombs, including artifacts and statues. The discovery comes in the lead-up to the highly anticipated full opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is expected this summer, though a ﬁnal ofﬁcial date is yet to be confirmed. The museum will showcase more than 100,000 artifacts from Egypt’s rich ancient heritage.

of soccer fans near the Liver Building during the

League winners parade in Liverpool, England.

Driver plows through crowd of soccer fans

English authorities say at least 45 injured; man arrested, acted alone

BY BRIAN MELLEY and STEVE DOUGLAS Associated Press

LONDON A 53-year-old White British man plowed a minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who were celebrating the city’s Premier League championship Monday, injuring more than 45 people as shouts of joy turned into shrieks of terror

The driver arrested was believed to be the only one involved in the incident and it was not being investigated as an act of terrorism, police said.

Ambulances took 27 people to the hospital, including two with serious injuries, and another 20 people were treated at the scene for minor injuries, said Dave Kitchin of North West Ambulance Service. At least four children were injured.

Four of the victims, including a child, were trapped under the van and ﬁreﬁghters had to lift the vehicle to free them. A paramedic on bicycle was also struck but was not injured.

“It has cast a very dark shadow over what had been a joyous day for the city,”

City Council leader Liam Robinson said at a late night news conference.

As the parade was wrapping up, a gray minivan turned onto the parade route and plowed into the sea of fans wrapped in their red Liverpool scarves jerseys and other memorabilia A video on social media showed the van strike a man, tossing him in the air, before veering into a larger crowd, where it plowed a path through the group and pushed bodies along the street before coming to a stop.

“It was extremely fast,” said Harry

Rashid said the crowd charged the halted vehicle and began smashing windows.

“But then he put his foot down again and just plowed through the rest of them, he just kept going,” Rashid said. “It was horrible And you could hear the bumps as he was going over the people.”

Rashid said it looked deliberate.

“My daughter started screaming, and there were people on the ground,” he said. “They were just innocent people, just fans going to enjoy the parade.”

Liverpool fans had come out in the hundreds of thousands to celebrate the team winning the Premier League this season for a record-tying 20th top-ﬂight title.

Peter Jones, who had traveled from Isle of Man, said he heard the car smash into the crowd and saw at least a half-dozen people down.

“We heard a frantic beeping ahead, a car flew past me and my mate, people were chasing it and trying to stop him, windows smashed at the back,” Jones said. “He then drove into people, police and medics ran past us, and people were being treated on the side of the road.

Police said they were conducting extensive inquiries to establish what led to the collision and asked people not to speculate or share “distressing content online.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the scenes appalling and hailed the bravery of rescuers.

“Everyone, especially children, should be able to celebrate their heroes without this horror,” Starmer said. “The city has a long and proud history of coming together through difﬁcult times. Liverpool stands together and the whole country stands with Liverpool.”

Group: New aid system in Gaza has started operations

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

DEIRAL-BALAH,Gaza Strip A new aid system in Gaza opened its ﬁrst distribution hubs Monday, according to a U.S.-backed group that said it began delivering food to Palestinians who face growing hunger after Israel’s nearly three-month blockade to pressure Hamas

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is taking over the handling of aid despite objections from United Nations. The desperately needed supplies started ﬂowing on a day that saw Israeli strikes kill at least 52 people in Gaza.

The group said truckloads of food — it did not say how many — had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun.

“More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the ﬂow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.

The U.N. and aid groups have pushed back against the new system, which is backed by Israel and the United States They assert that Israel is trying to use food as a weapon and say a new system won’t be effective

Israel has pushed for an alternative aid delivery plan because it says it must stop Hamas from seizing aid. The U.N. has denied that the militant group has diverted large amounts.

The foundation began operations a day after the resignation of its executive director Jake Wood, an American, said it had become clear the foundation would not be allowed to operate independently

It’s not clear who is funding the group.

The organization is made up of former humanitarian, government and military ofﬁcials. It has said its distribution points will be guarded by private security ﬁrms and that the aid would reach a million Palestinians — around half of Gaza’s popula-

Ukraine: Russia launches biggest drone attack

BY ILLIA NOVIKOV and VOLODYMYR YURCHUK Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine Russia launched its biggest drone attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Monday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the 3-year-old war

On the third straight night of signiﬁcant aerial bombardments, U.S President Donald Trump lashed out at Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying he had gone “crazy” by stepping up attacks on Ukraine.

The expansion of Russia’s air campaign appeared to be another setback U.S.led peace efforts, as Putin looks determined to capture more Ukrainian territory and inﬂict more damage. It comes after Kyiv accepted an unconditional 30-day ceaseﬁre in March that was proposed by the U.S. but that Moscow effectively rejected.

This month alone, Russia has broken its record for aerial bombardments of Ukraine three times.

Russia is also still pushing along the roughly 620mile front line, where it has made slow and costly progress, and is assembling its forces for a summer offensive, analysts say

“Only a sense of complete impunity can allow Russia to carry out such attacks and continually escalate their scale,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Monday “There is no signiﬁcant military logic to this, but there is considerable political meaning.”

The Russian bombardment on Sunday night included 355 drones, Yuriy Ihnat, head of the Ukrainian air force’s communications department, told The Associated Press, calling it the biggest of the war

The previous night Russia ﬁred 298 drones and 69 missiles in what Ukrainian ofﬁcials said was the larg-

Walaa Al-Kilani, center, mourns her mother and brother, who were killed when an Israeli military strike hit a school sheltering displaced residents, on Monday at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City

tion — by the end of the week.

Under pressure from allies, Israel began allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza last week after blocking all food, medicine, fuel or other goods from entering since early March. Aid groups have warned of famine and say the aid that has come in is nowhere near enough to meeting mounting needs.

Hamas warned Palestinians on Monday not to cooperate with the new aid system, saying it is aimed at furthering those objectives.

The Israeli airstrikes killed at least 36 people in a school-turned-shelter that was hit as people slept, setting their belongings ablaze, according to local health ofﬁcials The military said it targeted militants operating from the school.

Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceaseﬁre with Hamas It has vowed to seize control of Gaza and keep ﬁghting until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and until it returns the remaining 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, from the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war

est combined aerial assault of the conflict. From Friday to Sunday, Russia launched around 900 drones at Ukraine, officials said. Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said Monday that its forces shot down 103 Ukrainian drones overnight that were flying over southern and western Russia, including near Moscow Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said 32 flights scheduled to land at three Moscow airports on Sunday and Monday had to divert amid Ukrainian drone attacks. The numbers from Ukraine and Russia could not be independently verified.

Soon after Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion, the conflict became a testing ground for drone warfare. Drones are generally cheaper to produce than missiles. Russia has received Iranian-made Shahed drones since 2022 and is now believed to be manufacturing its own version. Ukraine as well as receiving smaller battleﬁeld drones from its allies to help it compensate for a troop shortage, has developed its own longrange drones for strikes deep inside Russia. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that there are “no longer any range restrictions for weapons that have been delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British, nor by the French or by us, and not by the Americans either.”

“That means Ukraine can also defend itself by, for example, attacking military positions in Russia. Until a while ago, it couldn’t it can now,” he said. It was not clear if Merz was referring to the easing of restrictions on longerrange weapons late last year Before becoming chancellor, Merz called for Germany to supply Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Kyiv, something his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, refused to do.

Rashid, who was with his wife and two young daughters as the minivan passed by them. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JON SUPER Fans leave as police and emergency personnel work the scene Monday after a minivan plowed into a group

Premier

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

TrumphonorsfallensoldiersatArlington

BY SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va.— President

Donald Trump paid tribute to fallen service members during aMemorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday,inan addressthat honored the “great, great warriors” yet also brieﬂyveered into politics as he boasted of anation he is “ﬁxing after along and hard four years.”

Though the holiday is one that U.S. presidents typically treat with pure solemnity,Trump began it with an all-caps Memorial Day social media post that attacked hispredecessor and called federal judges who have blocked his deportation initiatives “monsters who want our country to go to hell.”

YetatArlington National Cemetery,where more than 400,000 havebeen laid to rest, Trump commemorated the sacriﬁce of U.S.service members and singled out several Gold Star families to tell the stories of their fallen relatives.

“Wejust revere their incredible legacy,” Trumpsaid. “Wesalute them in their eternal and everlasting glory. And we continue our relentlesspursuit of America’sdestiny as we make our nation stronger,prouder,freer and

greaterthan everbefore.”

“Their valor,” he said, “gave us thefreest,greatest and most noblerepublicever to existonthe face of the earth. Arepublic that Iam ﬁxingafter along and hard fouryears.”

During his remarks, Trump told the story ofNavySenior ChiefPetty OfﬁcerShannon Kent,killedalong with three other Americans by asuicidebomber in 2019 in Syria, leaving behind her husband, 3-year-oldson and 18-montholdson

The Pine Plains, New York, native wasonher ﬁfthcombatdeployment, he said,embedded with ateam hunting Islamic State group militants in Syria, serving as linguist, translator andcryptologic technician working alongsidespecial forces

“She was among the first women ever to do it, and she diditbetter than anyone,” Trump said,callingout Kent’sfamily for applauseat the ceremony

Thecrowd also heardof Air Force Senior Master Sgt.Elroy Harworth from Erhard,Minnesota, whose plane went down in enemy territory during the Vietnam War, dying whilehis wife wasseven months pregnant

His son, who was cheered in theaudience,followedhis father’s path and hasbeen in

the Armyfor 20 years

There was also the story of ArmyCpl. Ryan McGhee of Fredericksburg,Virginia, whoenlisted after theSept. 11, 2001, attacksand whose mother was in the audience.

Trumpsaid McGhee knew he wanted to be an Army Ranger since he saw the towers fall on that day,did threetours in Afghanistan, then deployed to Iraq.Sixteen years ago this month, thepresidentsaid, McGhee diedina ﬁreﬁght, and“gave his life at 21 years old.” Vice President JD Vance,

Israelinationalistschant ‘death to Arabs’ duringannualmarch

BY JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press

JERUSALEM Chanting

“Death to Arabs”and singing “May your village burn,” groups of young IsraeliJews made their way through Muslim neighborhoodsof

Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday during an annual march marking Israel’sconquest of the eastern part of the city Palestinian shopkeepers closed early and police lined the alleys ahead of the march that often becomes arowdy and sometimes violent procession of ultranationalist

Jews. Apolice ofﬁcer raised hisarms in celebration at one point, hugging amarcher. It was blazing hot, with temperatures hitting 98 degrees in lateafternoon. Police kept aclose watch as demonstrators jumped, danced and sang. Hours earlier,asmall group of protesters, including an Israeli memberof parliament, stormeda compound in east Jerusalem belonging to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA

The march commemorates Jerusalem Day,which marks Israel’scapture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and itsholy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war.The event threatened to inﬂame tensions that are rife in thecity after nearly 600 days of war in Gaza. Jerusalem lies at the heart

ZWIGENBERG

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTO By OHAD

Israeli police scuffleMondaywith young Israelis marching throughJerusalem’s Old City marking Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holidaycelebrating the capture of east Jerusalem in the1967 Middle East War.

of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.Each sees the city as akey part of their national andreligious identity.Itisone of the most intractable issuesofthe conflict and is often a flashpoint Israel considers all of Jerusalemtobe itseternal, undividedcapital. Itsannexation of east Jerusalem is notinternationally recognized. Palestinianswant an independent state with east Jerusalemasits capital. Last year’sprocession, during the first year of the war in Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack aPalestinian journalistinthe Old City and callfor violence against Palestinians. Four yearsago, the march helpedset off an 11daywar in Gaza. Tour busescarrying young ultranationalist Jews lined up nearentrances to theOld City,bringing hundreds from outsideJerusalem, including

settlements in theIsraeli-occupied West Bank.

After this year’s march ended, Arab shopkeepers darted outside to begin scrubbing theirshops,now covered with stickers reading “Gaza is ours.”

Police, who called the procession the“Dance of Flags,” said they had detained a number of people and “acted swiftly to prevent violence, confrontationsand provocations.”

Speaking in an east Jerusalem archaeological park located in aPalestinian neighborhood, Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu pledged to “preserve aunited, whole Jerusalemand the sovereignty of Israel.” He said thegovernment was encouraging foreignembassies to recognizeJerusalem as Israel’scapital and investing billions of shekels in the city’sdevelopment.

whospoke beforeTrump,

said thelesson of all the gravestones is: “Wemust be cautious in sending our people to war.” He urged the crowd to push political leaderstotreat thelives of soldiers as the“most precious resource.”

Laterinhis remarks, Trump pointed to a“big, big celebration” coming next year as theU.S. celebrates its250th birthday,joking that “insome ways,I’m glad Imissed thatsecond term” when he losttoJoe Biden. “Because Iwouldn’tbe

president for that,” Trump said,asthe crowdlaughed “In addition, we have the World Cup andwehavethe Olympics. Canyou imagine? Imissed that fouryears. And now look whatI have, Ihave everything. Amazing the waythings work out.”

Before speaking, Trump placed awreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a somber tradition for U.S. presidents. The president paused afterplacingthe wreath, then stepped back and saluted during the playing of taps. Vance and De-

fenseSecretaryPete Hegseth joined him. The president began the daywith adecidedly different tone.

In asocial media message in allcapital letters, Trump ranted at Biden, calling him the“scum” who spent the last four years trying to destroythe country with radical leftism and who, he said, left behind an open border Thatwas after he posteda separate message proclaiming “HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!” Wishing people ahappy Memorial Day is regarded as verboten because the dayisconsideredasomber one to honor soldiers killed in service.

Vance emphasized as much when he spoke to U.S. NavalAcademy graduates in AnnapolisonFriday, when he said that he andTrump would “lead the most solemnoccasion in our nation, Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetery

“You will learn as Ihave that when people say things like ‘Happy Memorial Day,’ youappreciatethe sentiment behind it but know that it’swrong because Memorial Day is not ahappy day,” Vancesaidlastweek. “Memorial Day is not for those who served and came home, it is for those who served that didn’t.”

Russia denies involvementinarson at properties linked to U.K. PM

By The Associated Press

LONDON Atop Kremlin ofﬁcial on Mondayscoffed at areport that Russia could be involved in recent arson attacksonthe privatehome of BritishPrime Minister Keir Starmer, a buildingwhere he once livedand acar that he had owned.

Kremlin spokesperson

Dmitry Peskov wasresponding to aFinancial Times report thatsaid U.K. security officials were lookinginto whether Russia was involved in the attacks.

The Associated Press has not been able to independently confirm the FT report that relied on unnamed seniorU.K.government ﬁgures. But Peskov,who the

London-based paper said did not respond to arequest when it published the story Friday,was asked about the report at his regular press brieﬁng Monday

“London tends to suspect Russia of anything bad that happensinthe U.K.,” Peskov said. “As arule, all these suspicions are groundless, unsubstantiated and often laughable.”

Minneapolishas changedsince George Floyd’smurder

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS Somethings have changedfor thebetterinMinneapolis since Memorial Day 2020, when apolice officer murdered George Floyd. Some have not Sunday marked five years since White Officer Derek Chauvinused his knee to pin the Black man’s neck to the pavementfor 91/2 minutes, leading to his death.

Atidal wave of racial justice protests erupted in U.S. cities. Demonstrators chanted Floyd’s dying words: “I can’tbreathe.”

The protests were mostly peaceful at ﬁrst but some turned violent, andparts of Minneapolishave yet to recover from the rioting, looting and arson. And the city is still struggling to decidewhat should become of the intersection where Floyd was killed.

The Minneapolis PoliceDepartment has faced some changes under court supervision thataim to reduce racial disparities. Violent crime, which spiked during theCOVID-19 pandemic and afterFloyd’sdeath, is mostly back around pre-pandemic levels, although homicides are inching up.

Aplace of pilgrimage

The intersection where acrowd of concerned onlookers urged Chauvin and other officers to heed Floyd’s dying criesquickly became known as George Floyd Square.

Alarge sculpture of aclenched ﬁst is justone of thetributesto Floyd. He died steps fromthe Cup

FORTIFIED

Continued from page1A

and popularstate grantprogram where people enter a lottery to receive $10,000 grants to build fortified roofs.

The moves are aimed ata loftygoal:Building higher roof standards on acritical mass of south Louisiana homes —thought to be 25% of the housing stock. But disagreements have emergedamong lawmakers over how to best encourage enough homeowners to reroof their houses to better standards. Many residents can’tafford those improvements in astate with lower incomes and higher premiums than most of the country.

Some of those concerns caused lawmakers to sidelineabill that would have required roofsincoastal Louisiana to be built to fortiﬁed standards —aset of building practices that requires paid evaluations from the Insurance Institute for Business &HomeSafety, a trade group that established the program. For the second year in a row,Republicans on the Senate Insurance Committee killed aproposal to require insurers to deliver aminimum discount to homeownerswho get afortiﬁed roof.

Andciting budget concerns, lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee rejected HB663 to setup anew fund to build stronger roofs in coastal Louisiana. The fund would have come from aportion of sales taxes paid in south Louisiana in the two months after amajor hurricane.

“Thefaster we can fortify theseroofs, the faster we can return to normalcy,” said Rep. Gabe Firment,RPollock, who sponsored the bill.

‘It’sworking’

Fortiﬁed roofs use several basic measures to make shingles less likely to blow off,including better nails and stronger edges.Roofers are required to tape down the seams, making water less likely to pour into a home even if the roof blows off it.

Homes with fortiﬁed roofs were 56% less likely to have an insurance claimafter Hurricane Sally than normal roofs, according to the Center for Risk and Insurance Research at the University of Alabama. Homesthat were built to an even higher standard, fortified “gold,” were 70% less likely to have those claims.

But when Hurricanes Laura and Ida ripped thousands of roofs off Louisiana homes

Foods convenience store that has since been renamed Unity Foods.

Thearea draws visitorsfrom around the world.

One visitorlastweek was Alfred “A.J.” Flowers Jr alocal activist, who saidthe police killings of young BlackmenbeforeFloyd’s murderonly fueled the frustrationand ragethaterupted on the streets ﬁve years ago.

It’ssignificant that theBlack community tends to cometogether at “placeswhere we die, whether it’sby ourown hands or by police violence,” Flowers said.

George FloydSquare

Amajority of City Council mem-

bers support building apedestrian-only mall where Floyddrew his ﬁnalbreaths,but MayorJacob Frey and many property and business owners oppose the idea of closing the area to all vehicles. Any ﬁnal decisions remain along way off.

In themeantime, businesses in the neighborhood arestruggling and crime remains high.

Flowersurged authorities to provide more support for Blackowned businesses, housing, education andcrime prevention to improve thelocal economy

The shell of the3rd Precinct police station,which was allowed to burnduring theunrestin2020,

hasbeen thesubject of intense debate. The City Council last month voted to proceed with aplan to build a“Democracy Center” there that would house voter services and acommunity space.

Theformerchief of police has said he doesn’tregret thedecision to abandon the structure.

Demise of defund thepolice

Theslogan“Defund the Police” caught ﬁre afterFloyd’sdeath, but it never came to pass. While amajority of council members initially backed the idea, what appeared on thecityballotin2021 was amore modest attempt to reimagine policing. Voters rejected it.

The police force lost hundreds of officers following the unrest. From nearly 900 in early 2020, the ranksfell to less than 600 as officers retired, took disability or went to work elsewhere. Staffing started to recover last year

Ofﬁcers arenow back engaging withthe community at George Floyd Square, which becamea “no-go zone” forpoliceimmediately after Floyd’sdeath. Flowers acknowledgedtherehavebeen “signiﬁcant strides” in community-police relations.

Police ChiefBrianO’Hara said his “ofﬁcers arestarting to heal.”

“I think they’re starting to be proud of what they do again, getting back to the reasons they got intothis profession in the first place,” he told reporters last week.

Remaking policing

President Donald Trump’sad-

ministration moved Wednesday to cancel agreements to overhaul thepolicedepartmentsinMinneapolis andLouisville,Kentucky, both accusedofwidespread abuses Frey,the mayor, decriedthe timing of the announcement as “politicaltheater”inthe week before the anniversary of Floyd’s murder National reform advocates also denounced the administration’smove. But O’Hara and Frey pledgedMinneapolis would move forward, with or without the White House. The police department is also operating undera consent decree withthe Minnesota HumanRights Department.

The decree proposes addressing race-based policing and strengthening public safety by ensuring ofﬁcersonly use reasonable force, never punish or retaliate, and deescalate conﬂicts whenpossible, amongotheraims.

The mayor and chief noted that Minneapolis got high marks in a report released Tuesday by anonproﬁtthat monitors various cities’ compliancewith consent decrees. Activists cautionedthatMinneapolis haslittle to brag about.

“Weunderstand that change takes time,” Michelle Gross, president of CommunitiesUnited Against PoliceBrutality,said in a statement last week. “However, the progress being claimed by the city is not being felt in the streets.”

Associated Press videographer Mark Vancleavecontributed to this story

in 2020 and2021, the state hadnogrant program or widespread campaign to inform residents about it. That meant roofs rebuilt after the storms were generallynot built to the higher standard.

Now,Louisiana is racing to try to retroﬁtroofs by doling outgrants, thoughdemand so far has far exceeded the amount of moneythe state hastogiveout.And lawmakers are close to passing abill by Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, to give residentswho payfor afortiﬁed roof on their own a$10,000 tax credit.

Themovewould represent asigniﬁcantly better incentive than the current $5,000 tax deduction, though Talbot’sbill would be cappedat $10 million ayear across the state, limiting the number of people who canbeneﬁt. The cap, put in placeoverbudget concerns,means1,000 homeowners will be ableto get the tax benefit outside the grantprogram. More could qualify if someroofs on smallerhomes cost less than $10,000.

Talbot has saidthat putting fortiﬁedroofs on homes is theonlyway southLouisiana is goingtoremain insurable long-term. He brought the tax credit to incentivizehomeowners to get the roofs without waiting for the state grant program,which doesn’thave enough capacity for everyone seeking a grant.And he saidhe’sconﬁdent lawmakers will support the bill, though it still has severalsteps to go.It needs approval from theHouse tax-writing and possibly budget committee, as wellas the full House, before being sent to the governor

“It’sworking,” Talbot said.

“It’sa great program. This just allows people who can front themoney to putthe roofontoget the tax credit later.”

Discount debate

Many residents reported to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’sOfficethatthey saw significant savings on insurance premiums after gettingafortified roof. The savings are particularly large when peoplemove from Citizens —the expensive, state-backed insurer of last resort —toaprivate carrier Louisiana modeled its fortifiedroof program after Alabama, which sets a 20% discount bench mark that an official withSmart Home America, anonprofit that advocates for fortified roofs, recently testified is metbyall participating insurers there. But Louisiana didn’tinclude amandated or benchmark discount State data shows most insurers in Louisianastill offer asignificant discount on

homes withfortiﬁed roofs, withmany offering savings of 20% to 30%.But several insurers only offer meager discounts, sometimes as low as 5%.

Sen. Royce Duplessis, DNew Orleans, sponsored legislation to requireinsurers to offer signiﬁcant savings in exchange for theroofs ButRepublicans on the SenateInsuranceCommittee rejected the bill amid opposition from Insurance Commissioner TimTemple and the insuranceindustry,who argued it would pushinsurers away

The audit found themedian homeowner saved 22% on theirinsurancepremiums. But Duplessis noted thedatacamefroma survey that asked homeowners to recalltheir insurance premiums before and after rather than comparing the actual premiums.

Duplessis said he’sconcerned that insurers who offer low discounts are holding back theprogram from gaining momentum and encouraging homeownerstoput stronger roofs on voluntarily “Weknowthere are instances where people are notgetting discounts,”he saidduring thehearingon his bill. “And they’re telling their neighbor they’re not gettingadiscount.”

Gov.Jeff Landrysaid in December he supported requiring such discounts, saying he was disappointed that apackage of pro-industrybills Templepushedlast year hadnot yetproduced meaningful reductions in premiums. But Landry whohas not offered apackageofbills to alleviatethe homeowners insurance crisis, didn’tofﬁcially support Duplessis’ bill.

Templesubsequently issued abulletin reminding insurersthey are required to submit “actuarially justiﬁed”discounts for fortiﬁed roofs.

Mandated roofs?

Louisiana’scode technically requiresall roofs to be built to nearly the same standard as fortiﬁed roofs. Butmany parishes have no way of verifying whether that’sthe case because they don’trequire permits or inspections for new roofs.

That’schanging in some parishes,including Orleans, whichfollowedinthe footsteps of Jefferson Parish recently by requiring permits for new roofs.

Abill by Rep. Foy Gadberry,R-WestMonroe, would require it statewide. The bill made it through the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.

But lawmakers will not require new roofs tobebuilt to fortiﬁed standards, after

Rep.Aimee Freeman,DNewOrleans, shelved her bill amid opposition from homebuilders andothers concerned with higher costs forhomeowners. Freeman said she is working on asubstitutebill.

Dan Mills,head of the Homebuilders Association of Greater New Orleans, said recently he supports fortified standards, but notedmany residents don’t have thefoundation type required toget them. He said he wants to seethe state

boost participation in wind mitigation surveys, where asurveyor verifies that a home has certain roof standards that make hurricane damage less likely,often resulting in insurance savings.

“Fortiﬁed is agreat thing in our state,” Mills said. “We areopposed to mandating fortified. We already have the codes.”

In themeantime, theLegislature appears likely to keep the samelevel of funding as last year for fortiﬁed roof grants, $15 million. The

Legislature sent$30 milliontothe program in 2023, enough for 3,000 homeowners. Temple is asking lawmakers to dedicate $15 million a year in insurance premium taxes andfeestothe fortified roof grant program which has seen demand far outstrip available funding. Until now, lawmakers have been sending money from the state budget to fund it. “This is adirect benefit back to thetaxpayers,”Temple said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ASHLEy

‘Duck Dynasty’ patriarch Phil Robertson dies at 79

By The Associated Press

WEST MONROE Phil Robertson, who turned his small duck calling interest in the sportsman’s paradise of northern Louisiana into a big business and conservative cultural phenomenon, died Sunday, according to his family He was 79. Robertson’s family announced in December on their “Unashamed With the Robertson Family” podcast that the patriarch of the clan had Alzheimer’s disease. The statement on social media from Robertson’s daughter-in-law didn’t mention how he died.

“Thank you for the love and prayers of so many whose lives have been impacted by his life saved by grace, his bold faith, and by his desire to tell everyone who would listen the Good News of Jesus. We are grateful for his life on earth and will continue the legacy of love for God and love for others until we see him again,” Korie Robertson wrote.

Phil Robertson skyrocketed to fame in the early 2010s when the A&E network created a reality show presented like a sitcom. It followed the adventures of Robertson, his three sons — including Willie, who runs the family’s Duck Com-

mander company, their wives and a host of other relatives and friends.

Phil Robertson and his boys were immediately recognizable by their long beards and their conservative, Christian and family-oriented beliefs.

That got Robertson into trouble, too. He told a magazine reporter in 2013 that gay people are sinners

4 ex-VW managers convicted of fraud

By The Associated Press

FRANKFURT,Germany

A German court on Monday convicted four former Volkswagen managers of fraud and gave two of them prison sentences for their part in the manipulation of emissions controls, almost a decade after the scandal erupted over the company’s rigging of diesel-engine vehicles.

The former head of diesel development was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, and the head of drive train electronics to two years and seven months by the court in Braunschweig, German news agency dpa reported Two others received suspended sentences of 15 months and 10 months

The scandal began in September 2015 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation. saying that the company had rigged engine control software that let the cars pass emissions tests while they emitted far more pollution in actual driving.

The company has paid more than $33 billion in ﬁnes and compensation to vehicle owners. Two VW managers received prison sentence in the U.S. The former head of the company’s Audi division, Rupert Stadler, was given a suspended sentence of 21 months and a ﬁne of $1.25 million. The sentence is still subject to appeal.

and African Americans were happy under Jim Crow laws.

A&E suspended him from “Duck Dynasty” but reversed course in a few weeks after a backlash that included Sarah Palin.

At the time Robertson’s family called his comments coarse, but said his beliefs were grounded in the Bible and he “is a Godly man.”

They also said that “as a family we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm.”

Robertson was born in north Louisiana and spent his life in the woods and lakes that make up the region called “Sportsman’s Paradise.”

Robertson played football at Louisiana Tech and taught school.

He also loved to hunt and created a duck call in the early 1970s that he said replicated the exact sound of a duck.

The calls were the centerpiece of the Duck Commander business

Robertson would grow into a multimillion-dollar enterprise before A&E came calling.

The family just didn’t sell outdoor and hunting gear, but a lifestyle.

“The Robertsons face everything from beavers to business deals in their own special way with a twist of downhome practicality and a sharp sense of humor,” A&E wrote in its promotion for “Duck Dynasty.”

Appreciations for Robertson appeared on social media shortly after this death was announced, largely from conservative politicians.

Republican Sen Ted Cruz, of Texas, wrote on X, “The great

#PhilRobertson passed today. He loved Jesus & he was utterly fearless. One of my fondest memories was duck hunting with Phil — he was the best shot I ever met. And, in 2016, he recorded this amazing commercial for me. Rest in peace, my friend.”

“Saddened to hear of the passing of Phil Robertson — a man of deep faith, bold conviction, and unwavering love for his family,” wrote Ben Carson, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary also on X. “I’ll never forget the time I spent with Phil and his wonderful family at their homestead in West Monroe, LA. We rode through the swamp stopping at his favorite duck blinds before being welcomed by Miss Kay with a warm, home-cooked meal, surrounded by their extended family and close friends.”

A&E shared their own tribute to the “Duck Dynasty” X account, writing: “We are saddened to hear of the passing of Phil Robertson, a hunting industry pioneer and the patriarch of the beloved Robertson family Our thoughts are with them during this difﬁcult time We extend our deepest condolences and respect their privacy as they grieve.”

Ex-U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel dies at 94

BY DEEPTI HAJELA and CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press

BY STEPHEN MCGRATH Associated Press

BUCHAREST,Romania Romania’s newly elected president Nicusor Dan was ofﬁcially sworn in on Monday, ushering in a tentative close to the worst political crisis to grip the European Union country in decades after the annulment of the previous election. But multiple challenges lie ahead.

“The Romanian state needs a fundamental change and I invite you to continue to be involved with all the social force you have proven, to put positive pressure on the institutions of the Romanian state so that they can reform,” he said “I assure you that I will be a president who listens to the voice of society and who is a partner to that society.”

Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and former mayor of the capital, Bucharest, decisively won the tense rerun in a runoff on May 18, beating his hard-right opponent George Simion, who later challenged the results at a top court, but was rejected last week. At the inauguration ceremony in a joint session of Parliament, Dan signed the constitutional oath. In a speech afterward, he promised to tackle Romania’s economic woes and to be a president “open to the voice of society.”

NEWYORK Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, of New York, an outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, died Monday at age 94.

His family confirmed the death in a statement provided by City College of New York spokesperson Michelle Stent. He died at a hospital in New York, Stent said.

A veteran of the Korean War, he defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career During the next 40-plus years, he became a legend himself as dean of the New York congressional delegation and, in 2007, the ﬁrst African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

He stepped down from that committee amid an ethics cloud, and the House censured him in 2010. But he continued to serve in Congress until his retirement in 2017.

Rangel was the last surviving member of the Gang of Four African American political ﬁgures who wielded great power in New York City and state politics. The others were David Dinkins, New York City’s ﬁrst Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state.

“Charlie was a true activist — we’ve marched together, been arrested together and

painted crack houses together,” the Rev Al Sharpton, leader of the National Action Network, said in a statement, noting that he met Rangel as a teenager House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York issued a statement calling Rangel “a patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice who made his beloved Harlem, the City of New York and the United States of America a better place for all.”

Few could forget Rangel after hearing him talk. His distinctive gravel-toned voice and wry sense of humor were a memorable mix. That voice — one of the most liberal in the House

— was loudest in opposition to the Iraq War, which he branded a “death tax” on poor people and minorities. In 2004, he tried to end the war by offering a bill to restart the military service draft.

Republicans called his bluff and brought the bill to a vote.

Even Rangel voted against it. A year later, Rangel’s ﬁght over the war became bitterly personal with then-Vice President Dick Cheney Rangel said Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, might be too sick to perform his job.

“I would like to believe he’s sick rather than just mean and evil,” Rangel said. After several such verbal jabs, Cheney hit back, saying Rangel was “losing it.”

The charismatic Harlem lawmaker rarely backed down from a fight after he first entered the House in 1971 as a dragon slayer of sorts, having unseated Powell in the Democratic congressional primary in 1970. The ﬂamboyant elder Powell, a city political icon ﬁrst elected to the House in 1944, was ill and haunted by scandal at the time. In 1987, Congress approved what was known as the “Rangel amendment,” which denied foreign tax credits to U.S. companies investing in apartheid-era South Africa. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that he urged her to run for the Senate in 2000.

Rangel

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO MATT ROURKE

Phil Robertson, the ‘Duck Dynasty’ star who turned his small duck calling interest in the sportsman’s paradise of northern Louisiana into a big business and conservative cultural phenomenon, died Sunday at age 79.

King Charles IIIarrives in Canada

Monarch visits to underscore country’s sovereignty

BY ROBGILLIES Associated Press

OTTAWA, Ontario Britain’s King Charles III arrived MondayinOttawa on avisit that Canada’sleader says will underscore his nation’s sovereignty amid President Donald Trump’stalk of the United Statesannexing its northern neighbor Trump’srepeated suggestion that the U.S. annex Canada prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to invite Charles to give the speech from the throne that will outline his government’s agenda for the new Parlia-

ment Theking is the head of state in Canada,which is a member of the BritishCommonwealth of former colonies.

“This historic honormatches theweight of ourtimes. It speaks to ourenduring tradition and friendship,tothe vitality of our constitutional monarchy and our distinct identity,and to thehistoric ties that crises only fortify,” Carney saidinastatement.

“Canada’sstrengthlies in building astrongfuture while embracing its English, French, andIndigenous roots —the unionofpeoples that formsour bedrock.”

Carney,the new prime minister and aformer head of the Bank of England, and Canada’sfirst Indigenous governor general, MarySimon, the king’srepresentativein Canada, greeted the

king and Queen Camilla at the airport.A 25-member honor guard from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, for which the king is colonel-inchief, was also on hand.

The king, in ataupe suit andred tie, later dropped theceremonial first puck during astreethockeygame at acommunity event.

SpectatorNormanMacDonald said he’s “proud” the king came to Ottawa to deliver amessage on behalf of Canadians.

“Canadaisnot,obviously, for sale, and it’snot going to be bullied,” he said.

It is rare forthe monarch to deliverwhat’scalledthe speech from the throne in Canada. Charles’mother, Queen ElizabethII, did it twice in her 70-year reign, thelast time in 1977.

Canadiansare largely indifferenttothe monarchy,

but Carney has been eager to show the differences between Canadaand the United States. Theking’svisit clearly underscoresCanada’ssovereignty,hesaid.

AfterAmericagained independence from Britain, Canadaremaineda colony until 1867 and afterward, continued as aconstitutional monarchy witha Britishstyle parliamentarysystem.

“Weare different,” formerQuebec Premier Jean Charestsaid. “If youlookat why King Charles is reading the speech from the throne, then youhavetothenacknowledge Canada’sstory.

However,the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said sending messages isn’tnecessary and Canadians should move on from the51st state talk, tellingthe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that if there’sa message to be sent there are easier ways to do that, such as calling him or calling the president.

see how different Canada is from the U.S.

Royal historian Carolyn Harris expects Trump to notice the visit because he has repeatedly spoken about his admiration forthe royalfamily.Trump might

Thespeech, whichwillbe delivered Tuesday,isnot written by the king or his U.K. advisers as

Trump plans to pardon Va. sheriff convicted of bribery

BY MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press

President Donald Trump said Monday that he is pardoning a former Virginia sheriff who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury convicted him on federal bribery charges for deputizing several businessmen in exchange for cash payments.

Former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, 53, was found guilty on fraud and bribery charges and sentenced in March. But on Monday, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that Jenkins and his family “have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.”

“This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail. He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left “monsters,” and “left for dead,” Trump said in the post. “He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”

Messages seeking comment were left with Jenkins’ lawyers. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia was closed for the Memorial Day holiday Jenkins is the latest pardon Trump has given to loyal supporters. In April, he pardoned Nevada Republican Michele Fiore, who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery In January, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground web-

ESCAPEES

Continued from page 1A

reelection campaign just months ahead of the vote.

Vanburen was charged with second-degree murder in connection with a November 2021 fatal shooting in New Orleans East He pleaded not guilty in April 2022. He had asked the court to represent himself and a mental competency hearing was scheduled for May 29, according to court records.

Tate was initially jailed on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in connection with a 7th Ward double shooting in 2018 that killed 19-year-old Alexis Banks and hospitalized a teen.

He accepted a plea deal in September 2021, in which the murder-related charges were dismissed, and he was convicted of obstruction of justice and sentenced to 10 years behind bars, according to jail records.

Donald has a long criminal history but was most recently charged in December 2023 with second-degree murder and possession of a ﬁrearm by a felon, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty in April 2024.

The men were among 10 who broke free from the Orleans Justice Center about 1 a.m. May 16 after busting through a cell door and sliding through a hole in a wall behind a toilet as a guard took a meal break Jail staff

site for selling drugs Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after a high-proﬁle prosecution that highlighted the internet’s role in illegal markets. He also pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police ofﬁcers.

Jenkins was indicted in 2023 on 16 counts — including conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. In December, a jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery

Jenkins took the stand in his own defense and said there was no connection between the payments he received and the badges he handed out, according to news reports. Testifying against Jenkins were two undercover FBI agents who were sworn in as auxiliary deputies in 2022 and immediately thereafter gave Jenkins envelopes with $5,000 and $10,000 cash, respectively Jenkins appealed his conviction in April.

Trump said Jenkins tried to offer evidence in his defense, but U.S. District Judge Robert Ballou, a Biden appointee, “refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade.”

Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said at the time that Jenkins violated his oath of ofﬁce “and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable.”

didn’t discover the escape until 8:30 a.m Authorities suspect they received help from jail staff members, including a plumber, Sterling Williams, who has been arrested.

The two inmates still on the run are Massey and Groves. The others previously captured include Corey Boyd, Kendell Myles, Robert Moody, Dkenan Dennis and Gary Price.

They are being held without bail at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Three women accused of helping Vanburen escape were also arrested over the weekend. Two were accused of driving Vanburen from Louisiana to a family member’s house in Mississippi, according to court documents.

At least nine others have been booked on suspicion of aiding the escapees.

The escape has led to harsh criticism of Hutson Landry has been among those lashing out over management of the jail.

Hutson has defended her management in part by highlighting what she says are long-standing funding issues and the facility being improperly used to house long-term prisoners.

Video of the escapees darting from the jail spread widely online and among national news media.

Staff writer Mike Smith contributed to this report.

Email Kasey Bubnash at kasey.bubnash@theadvocate. com.

the idea that more guns on the street will necessarily make people safer,” said Leatrice Dupre, a spokesperson for Cantrell’s administration. School firearm-free zones

At present, the law bans anyone from wielding a gun without a permit within 1,000 feet of a school.

Miguez’s SB101 would remove that ban. Miguez said the changes were only fair

“This allows individuals who are carrying, by constitutional carry, the same rights as those who carry with a permit within a thousand feet of a school zone,” he said. “It does not allow an individual any additional rights to carry on school property.”

But the rules would also stop New Orleans leaders from exploiting a loophole in current law After their pleas for state lawmakers to exempt the French Quarter from the permitless carry law fell on deaf ears, City Council member Helena Moreno, NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick and District Attorney Jason Williams announced a plan to designate the New Orleans Police Department’s Eighth District station as a vocational technical school in order to create a gun-free zone in the 1,000foot radius around it including blocks bounded by Canal and Toulouse streets and a large stretch of Bourbon Street.

That plan quickly hit roadblocks when Attorney General Liz Murrill derided the city’s designation as “clearly not legal or effective” and warned that the city could face civil rights lawsuits if it arrested people based on it.

But Miguez also promised to reverse ofﬁcials’ efforts to create a gun-free zone in the French Quarter if they were successful His bill appears to be a way to preempt any future attempts.

“The message is very clear to the locals in New Orleans that don’t necessarily respect individuals’ Second Amendment rights: that it’s going to be a losing battle,” Miguez said in September “We’ll strengthen that law to close any gaps. That’s not something, if I were them, I would be wasting my time on.”

In Lafayette a similar attempt to seek the designation around the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s downtown science museum,

FOOD

Continued from page 1A

Echols, R-Monroe, focused on school meals. One calls on the state education department to study the potential costs of banning certain artiﬁcial ingredients and additives from school foods and drinks, including some food dyes, and report back with their ﬁndings ahead of next year’s legislative session. The other resolution calls on Congress to support giving schools funding to prioritize purchasing American agricultural products for school meals, which it says would bolster the economy and give students access to fresher food.

The effort to get more local produce into schools could be complicated by recent cuts by the Trump administration to U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that help food banks and schools purchase food from local farmers. Related bills include Senate Bill 117 by Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, which seeks to ban “ultraprocessed” foods from school

on property owned by the parish government, failed amid pushback from Murrill and Miguez in August. The university instead designated the museum as a weapons-free facility Karen Boudrie, an NOPD spokesperson, declined to comment on this year’s proposed legislation. It is unclear whether any local New Orleans ofﬁcials made efforts to push for gun restrictions during the current legislative session.

But Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission in New Orleans, said the proposals to roll back restrictions in all school zones pose a major safety threat.

“For every one example of a ﬁrearm preventing a crime from occurring, there are going to be multiple examples of a bad outcome with a ﬁrearm in those areas that’s why those laws were passed,” said Goyeneche. “It’s really common-sensical and it’s really a fundamental public safety issue.”

Guns at parades

Louisiana law includes a list of several places into which “no concealed handgun may be carried.”

Among those are parades and demonstrations being held with a government permit.

The language has led to conﬂict over whether it’s against the law for parade spectators to carry ﬁrearms or whether the law is a prohibition directed at people directly participating in parades.

Rep. Dennis Bamburg Jr RBossier City, said his House Bill 393 would address that confusion.

“This is a badly needed cleanup bill,” he said of HB393 during a public hearing on the measure. “It just basically clariﬁes in law that you cannot carry if you’re an active participant in a parade or a

breakfasts and lunches, and Senate Bill 14 by Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, which aims to regulate soda and candy purchases under social welfare programs, remove ﬂuoride from public water systems, roll back pharmaceutical interventions and remove highly processed food from schools.

Some lawmakers have voiced concerns over the measures, however objecting to what they described as government overreach, saying parents should be able to decide what to feed their children.

Since his appointment in February, Kennedy has championed his “Make America Healthy Again” platform, which has included heavy criticism of vaccines and removing certain chemicals from foods. In May, he announced that the federal government will require companies to phase out artiﬁcial dyes in foods and beverages over the next two years, saying they can lead to increased risk of cancer and hyperactivity in children.

Many Louisiana lawmakers, including Gov Jeff Landry, seem to

Pleas from New Orleans officials to exempt the French Quarter from the state permitless carry law were unsuccessful.

demonstration, but this shall not apply to a bystander or spectator who attends a parade.”

But Rep. Alonzo Knox, D-New Orleans, questioned the logic of the law

“It seems backwards to me,” Knox said. “In all transparency, I would want to carry a gun if I’m riding in a ﬂoat rather than being defenseless to a bystander at a parade who can carry a gun. That’s where I’m confused.”

Over the years, a number of attempts have been made to ban firearms at parades, including 2009 legislation to ban guns within 1,000 feet of a parade, which was vetoed by then-Gov Bobby Jindal at the request of the National Riﬂe Association.

Last year a bill sponsored by Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, would have speciﬁcally outlawed carrying a gun along parade routes without a concealed carry permit, but the proposal stalled in the Legislature.

Bobby Hjortsberg, captain of the Krewe of Freret, said he believes it would be a major risk to allow guns on parade routes

“Considering those people are under the influence, it’s just not an environment for someone to have a gun,” said Hjortsberg. He also questioned the logic of distinguishing between paradegoers and participants.

“I can’t understand why they would try to distinguish those kinds of things — that’s basically saying the people who are in charge aren’t allowed to be armed and the people who are attending can?” he said. Carrying a concealed firearm while intoxicated is illegal under state law

Email Alyse Pfeil at alyse.pfeil@ theadvocate.com.

be on board. Miguez, whose bill is awaiting ﬁnal passage by the House, told the House Education Committee this month that his proposal will hold institutions accountable, including schools, for their role in the country’s obesity epidemic. He also said the proposal would reduce long-term health costs due to diet-related diseases.

“This common-sense measure ensures that taxpayer funded meals provide wholesome, minimally processed ingredients,” Miguez said, “prioritizing students’ health and well-being.”

Rep. Barbara Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge, was the only one out of nine lawmakers to vote against Miguez’s bill, saying she wants to wait for the results of the study called for by Echols’ resolution.

Sen. McMath told lawmakers in April that MAHA is a “movement taking place across the country,” saying other states have fasttracked similar legislation for federal approval.

Email Elyse Carmosino at ecarmosino@theadvocate.com.

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LOUISIANA AT LARGE

More than RaisingCane’s chicken

Since October,I’ve documented adifferent Louisianaadventure every week. Friendsand coworkers often pitch ideas —and I’m always grateful. But when fellow writerLauren Cheramie told me that Raising Cane’sGolden Birthday contest winners were visiting Baton Rouge and suggest Ijoin their ride-along, Iwas skeptical. “Really?” Isaid. “They’re coming to Baton Rouge, and they’re going to do what?”

Which is how,afew weeks ago, Ifound myself heading downtown to the company’sBaton Rouge Support Ofﬁce to meet the winners, who turned out to be Rebecca and Todd Hayes, of West Chester,Ohio.

With aphotographer andvideographer in tow,Erin Credo, with the Cane’smarketing department, led us on a“tour” of the ofﬁces. We passed screens showing live shots from Cane’slocations worldwide and got aglimpse of the company’senthusiastic culture in the marketing department. Credo shareddetails like when employees have worked at Cane’sfor ayear,they get ahard hat, “reminiscent of when Todd (Graves), our founder,was aboilermaker.”

“When you’ve been here for ﬁve years, you get asockeye salmon,”Credo said. “When you’ve been here for 10 years, youget acrystal dog.” Then, we went into ameeting room to chat. Rebecca Hayes sat to my immediate right, and

ä See RISHER, page 2B

N.O. East cultural district designation OK’d

City Council unanimously backsmove

BYDESIREE STENNETT Staff writer

Astretch of New Orleans East anchored by Lake Forest Boulevard could soon become astaterecognized cultural district after City Council members votedunanimously Thursday to approve arequest to apply for the designation. If the area bound by Dwyer Boulevard, Mayo Road, Michoud Boulevardand the southernInterstate 10 Service Road becomes theLake Forest Cultural District,business owners andresidents would be able to apply for thousandsofdollars in grants from the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development. The money would be available for beautiﬁcationprojects, branding and marketing for area businesses and other efforts thatwould beneﬁtthe wholedistrict,which includes the former Six Flags site, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, JoeW.BrownPark,several restaurants and entertainment venues and other small businesses and community gathering places. The designation couldbea game changer,helping New Orleans East step out from New Orleans’ shadow and showcase itselfasa

Officialsquestionenergycompanies

100K left withoutpower on Sunday

BY ALEXLUBBEN Staff writer

Aday after widespread outages leftaround 100,000 homes and businesseswithoutpower in theNew Orleans area, utilities stressed that the grid now appearsstable, but local ofﬁcials vowed to press for answers over how and why it occurred.

The outages on Sunday hit homes servedbyEntergy andCleco in

parts of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany,St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.The popular GreekFestival along Bayou St. John was also affected, forcing it to take cash only foraperiod of time and extend its hours with free entry

Both Entergy and Cleco said that, while theydid not anticipate further outages, theywere continuing to monitor the grid. Powerwas restored Sunday night.

The utilities haveindicated that the “load-shed” outage was ordered to protect critical infrastructure from sustaining moreseriousdamage. High electricity demanddue to scorchingMay temperatures,combined with lowelectricity supply from anuclear generator being out of commission and asecondpower plant going ofﬂine, led to the outages. Utilities and the grid operator stressed that, hadpower notbeen cut,the damage to infrastructure could have been worse.

“If thepower supply cannot meet the demand, periodicpower outages could be needed to protect the stability of thepower gridand prevent widespread lengthy outages,” said JenniferCahill, Cleco’sdirector of corporate communications. “This wasthe case yesterday when we took the unprecedented step,asdirected by MISO, to force outages to some customers in St. Tammany Parish.” Entergy,the electrical utility that

BMXbudgetcut

NewParishCouncil member says money needstogoto disaster relief

BY LARA NICHOLSON Staff writer

Jefferson Parish’snewest council member cut morethan $1 million in funds for aGretna project at his ﬁrst councilmeeting, fulﬁlling campaign promises to vastly change how discretionary funds have been spent within his district in recent years.

District 1council

member Timothy Kerner Jr the former Jean Lafitte mayor sworn in earlier this month, de-obligated

$1.5 million in funds Wednesday that were allocated for renovations to Gretna’s BMX track, including adding acover-

BYMARK BALLARD Staff writer

er relations” with President Donald Trump, who has set his sights on acquiring Greenland, according to EUobserver,anonprofit

ing, restrooms and concession stand.

Kerner said the project already has $4.9 millionfroma communitydevelopment grant to complete its ﬁrst phase, an allocation he also chided.He said the parish will seek more funds from the state and other sources for theproject’scompletion.

Thedecision came after several families who use that track, as well as thenational BMX organization, spoke against thecuts, saying the local track desperately needed those upgrades.

“My grandsonlosthis father in 2018; theBMX trackhelpedhim to cope withthat loss. It hasdone things you wouldn’timagine,” said Cindy Aarons, who brings her grandson to the track three times aweek from Lacombe. “Weask you, please, let the funds stay where they are.”

The volunteer-operated BMX track in Gretnaisthe only of its kind in the New Orleansarea, andpeople travel from as far as Lafayette and Biloxi, Mississippi, according to Justin Travis, coaching director for USA BMX

The track is open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, although when it rains

news publication covering the European Union and based in Belgium Citing afiling with theU.S. State Department,

—asitoften does in south Louisiana the track must close down, which has hindered its ability to attract events like the BMX National Championships.

Kerner originally proposed cutting $7.1 million in projectsathis debut meeting, including $4.5 millionfrom the hospital fund to help construct anew drug court. He deferred that pullback Wednesday,saying he’d like to discuss alternative funding options further with the council andparish judges. He said he supported projects like the BMX track and the new drug court, but would like time to review them to ensure they are as efﬁcient as possible.

For now,the BMX track renovations will pull from a$4.9 million communitydevelopment block grantfor disaster recovery that wasapproved by the State Ofﬁce of Community Development in March. That grant will also pay for streetscape and drainage improvements in the area. Kerner called the use of adisaster

STAFFPHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Thevolunteer-operated BMX track in Gretna is the only of its kind in the NewOrleans area.

Kerner

Continued from page 1B

recovery grant for a recreational facility instead of coastal communities “heartless,” and said he could have fought to have the grant pulled back but chose not to, so the ﬁrst phase of the BMX track renovation could proceed.

“I ran on winning young families back,” Kerner said. “I want everyone to know, I had every right to go and ﬁght that CDBG money, because that money was meant for human suffering and underserved communities.”

The grant is intended for disaster relief, infrastructure restoration and economic revitalization

RISHER

Continued from page 1B

the

ﬁrst thing I noticed was that she was wearing a chunky silver necklace with a heart charm engraved with the word “Hunter.” Something right then and there told me the piece of jewelry played a signiﬁcant role in a story that went far beyond Cane’s.

We began to chat. She quietly explained that she had entered the contest on a whim

“I was shocked when they called and said I was the fourth place winner, which was a trip to Baton Rouge to see the headquarters,” she said.

At ﬁrst, she thought it was a scam but was eventually convinced it was real.

“I have ﬁve kids, um, four that are living,” she said. “My, my son passed away last year We have two older kids out of the house and on their own, and then I have a 26-year-old that’s in med school, starting her third-year rotations.”

She added that their youngest daughter is graduating high school this year Rebecca Hayes’ only request for the trip to Baton Rouge was to meet Cane III, Graves’ dog.

“The reason I know about Cane I, II and III is several years ago, my son who passed away, and my youngest daughter and I were in Cane’s,” she said. “We happened to go inside that day and were reading the walls and they had this story We have four dogs. We love dogs — so that has a special place to me too.”

We were quiet for a minute. The atmosphere felt like she wanted to talk more about her son, so I asked about her necklace.

“Yes, Hunter is my son’s name,” she said. “He just made people laugh. He had a great

EAST

Continued from page 1B

cultural center in its own right, said Kimberly Burbank, who, with the help of other business owners, spearheaded the effort to win the designation.

The East is ready, she said, adding that culture bearers are already doing some of that work with limited support. As examples, she cited festivals at the park and concerts at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church.

“We have to acknowledge that we have arts and culture happening,” said Burbank, who owns Palesa Development, a real estate development company on Lake Forest. “We’re not just a suburb of New Orleans.”

Burbank said if the district is approved, the state beneﬁts are just a start. If leaders in New Orleans East can successfully showcase the area’s best assets, it could draw more tourism, private investment and philanthropic support too. And with the renewed investment and attention on reopening Lincoln Beach and the potential development of the former Six Flags site, a designated cultural district would only add to the momentum in the East, said New Orleans East resident Tangee Wall.

“Lake Forest Boulevard is absolutely the perfect place that brings all of these major corridors together,” she said. “This is the door opener.”

In the coming years Lake Forest could see a revitalization that rivals places like Freret Street, Bayou Road and Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, Burbank said. She and others are even drawing inspiration from the public art projects along Loyola Drive in Kenner and the investment in the Laﬁtte Greenway for pedestrians. Burbank pointed to a winding

after the storms and hurricanes of 2020 and 2021, including Hurricane Ida. In the project’s grant application, it says the protective cover will prevent the track from recurring ﬂooding during storms, which requires rebuilding and resurfacing after each ﬂood.

Gretna targeted Marion Edwards, Kerner’s predecessor who retired suddenly late last year, agreed in 2023 to contribute $1.5 million in discretionary funds derived from the West Jefferson Medical Center lease, which is earmarked for West Bank council members for health-related projects.

District council members each have pots ripe with millions of

dollars in cash to spend at their discretion, often with few restrictions. Kerner made it a focal point of his campaign, saying too much has been concentrated in downtown Gretna and not enough in other parts of the district, which spans all the way down to Grand Isle. His comments left Gretna ofﬁcials — who he now represents and works with — feeling alienated and untrusting, they said at the time. “It’s simply not fair to spend nearly every dollar of discretionary funds in one community while others are left behind,” Kerner said in a text message

Thursday

Gretna Mayor Belinda Constant said she and Kerner spoke

Tuesday night before the meeting to compromise on the decision to pull the hospital money

But she said the comments about the $4.9 million grant made her feel like Gretna “got slapped a little bit.”

“He did what he needed to do politically, and I understand politics,” Constant added. “I’m walking away still feeling like we’re going to work together.”

Kerner said Thursday he looks forward to working with residents and ofﬁcials across his district, including in Gretna. He said he has not yet identiﬁed where the newfound $1.5 million in discretionary funds will go.

Email Lara Nicholson at lnicholson@theadvocate.com.

heart, and we miss him a lot. He would’ve had a blast here. He loved Cane’s. I would buy the sauce so that we could have it with everything He loved chicken quesadillas — so he’d have Cane’s sauce on chicken quesadillas.”

The couple said their trip to Baton Rouge was their ﬁrst trip since their son’s death. They weren’t sure they were up for it but knew they needed something light — silly even.

As I sat with them, I couldn’t help but consider how we just never know someone else’s story I thought I was going on a lighthearted adventure that turned out to be about something much bigger than expected. This wasn’t about Cane’s; it was about parents grieving and

trying to ﬁgure out how to put the pieces of their lives back together again.

As we walked out of the ofﬁces, Rebecca Hayes told me that their two older children were originally foster children, whom they adopted. The two middle children, including Hunter, were biological — and the youngest? They adopted her from China.

I explained that my husband and I also adopted our younger daughter from China Remarkably, our daughters are from the same city in China. We had taken separate journeys, at different times, but we had all been to this same faraway place.

Our next stop was the apartment where Graves lived

when he started Cane’s — now restored to its 1996 glory with huge desktop computers, the same bedspread, the same cereal boxes on top of the refrigerator and the same beer inside.

I thought about all the ways we try to hold onto the past — to people, to moments, to the ones we’ve loved and lost.

I came for a story about fried chicken. I left with a story about love, loss and the strange and beautiful ways our paths cross.

And maybe that’s the real heart of any good adventure — not just where it takes you, but who you meet along the way

Email Jan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.

walkway off Lake Forest between Wright Road and Reed Boulevard used by residents in the Lake Forest Estates and Idlewild communities. Though it is just a quarter of the length of the Greenway, the impact of the millions of dollars invested in the Greenway — which led to private development, new businesses and more public art — shows what potential investment could mean for the walking path in the East.

District D council member Eugene Green supported the idea, adding that it is time to expand the often limited view of where culture can happen in New Orleans.

“We as a city concentrate maybe sometimes too much on certain communities and say that those are our cultural meccas, if you will,” Green said. “This

helps us to recognize that there’s a lot of culture in our city and a lot of economic development in our city that takes place outside of what everybody considers because of what the media focuses on.”

And for District E council member Oliver Thomas, who represents New Orleans East and is running for mayor, this is the beginning of a long overdue acknowledgment of the area’s political and economic power A “city within a city,” the East is one of the most populated areas in the state, Thomas added, and few local ofﬁces can be won without courting the area’s residents.

“Why shouldn’t there be historic districts, cultural districts, economic development districts, special taxing districts,” in New Orleans East? he asked “It’s

ENERGY

Continued from page 1B

serves the New Orleans area, also said it would continue to monitor the grid closely

“Entergy continues to work with MISO to understand their directive yesterday to suddenly shed load,” said Beau Tidwell, an Entergy spokesperson “While at this time we do not anticipate the need to ask customers to conserve electricity or to implement any load-shedding measures, our teams remain prepared to respond quickly should conditions change.”

Andy Kowalczyk, the transmission director for Southern Renewable Energy Association, a trade organization that advocates for renewable energy companies, noted, too, that if the power hadn’t been cut, it could have led to signiﬁcant damage to infrastructure that could have taken a long time to ﬁx.

“We could have had harmonics issues that are blowing up transformers” and damaging substations, he said, leading to the type of cascading power outages that led to a major blackout that affected around 50 million people in the Northeast in 2003.

The outage raises questions about why the spike in electricity usage caught MISO, the grid operator that ordered the outage, off guard, local ofﬁcials said. Some also alleged that MISO granted only a short notice for the outage directive.

“High temperatures in Louisiana led to higher-than-expected demand, and with planned and unplanned transmission and generation outages, MISO needed to take this action as a very last resort,” the grid operator said in a statement on X on Sunday evening.

MISO did not respond to a request for further comment.

Davante Lewis, who represents the New Orleans area on the statewide Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, was among those raising questions about why the forecasts for energy usage underestimated electricity demand on Sunday

“We know that (the Department of Government Efficiency) has made large cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , which is responsible for producing the weather forecasts” that are used by MISO to predict energy demand, Lewis said.

“If there is a situation where we are now getting faulty weather and faulty climate data that’s making it hard to adequately predict demand, then this could become a serious problem that we’re going to be facing more frequently.”

He noted that a similar power outage was ordered in Shreveport earlier this month for similar reasons, and he worries that there may be a larger problem with the forecasting that MISO is using to predict electricity usage.

Two nuclear power plants, both operated by Entergy, were out of commission Friday and remained so Sunday, according to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s website and local officials. One was down for planned maintenance. The other went ofﬂine last week, and “tripped” as Entergy tried to bring it back online Lewis said. It was not clear Monday what caused the plant to unexpectedly go dark. One of the two was back online Monday Lewis noted that maintenance on power plants is often scheduled for the spring, when electricity demand is typically lower than it is at the height of summer or in the depths of winter when households use power to heat or cool their homes.

Eric Skrmetta, who also serves on the Public Service Commission, laid the blame ﬁrmly on MISO. “I have not been able to get MISO to tell me why the outage was necessary,” he said. “We’re going to have a ﬁght.” Who is to blame, and what exactly caused the power outage, will be subject to public scrutiny in the days ahead. Lewis said he and New Orleans City Council Vice President Helena Morena would organize a joint Public Service Commission and City Council hearing with Entergy and MISO, though that hearing has not yet been scheduled. Skrmetta indicated that the outage would be front and center at the next commission meeting June 18.

While public ofﬁcials may be quick to cast blame, Kowalczyk stressed that ﬁguring out exactly what happened will take time.

about time now that it not be treated like it’s on the other side of the High Rise; it’s an extension of New Orleans.”

Commelita McKee, a member of the advocacy organization New Orleans East Matters, said this is a chance for the East to highlight its cultural significance. Any economic boost from the designation would lift not just the cultural district, but the entire East and the rest of the city she added.

“It’s a huge step toward getting back to where we were and going beyond that point,” McKee said. “I think that enhances all of New Orleans when we’re able to do that.”

Email Desiree Stennett at desiree.stennett@theadvocate. com.

“It will take a month or two to get to the root cause here,” he said. “It’s not about who is at fault, primarily It’s about what is at fault.”

He noted that the South is about a decade behind where it should be in terms of planning for improvements to the grid.

“We need a more robust system,” he noted. “But transmission takes a while to build. Energy efﬁciency would be great. More energy storage would be awesome. As would having a diversity of generation options.”

PHOTO By GUS STARK

Todd Graves, from left, Raising Cane’s founder, and Cane III sit with Todd Hayes and Rebecca Hayes, of West Chester, Ohio, winners of the Raising Cane’s Golden Birthday prize trip to Baton Rouge.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

The Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans East stands out in the distance near an apartment complex in need of repair on Friday. This area is part of the proposed Lake Forest Cultural District.

Jamie TempleThompson Amador hugs her son, AidenTempleThompson Amador, 6, as they visitthe grave of her husband and Aiden’sfather, Gabriel Ramon AmadorSr.,a U.S. Marinewho servedinthe Persian Gulf anddied in 2021 fromCOVID-19

NEVERFORGOTTEN

Memorial Day is celebrated at theannual ceremony at the Southeast LouisianaVeterans Cemetery in SlidellonMonday With more than 4,000 American flags waving throughout the cemetery,the event featured heartfelt remembrances of the fallen,the layingofwreaths to honor thosewho paidthe ultimate sacrifice, athree-volley salute by theNorthshore Honor Guard, and theplayingoftaps, first by bugle then sung by theKnights of Columbus Choir LEFT: Members of theAmerican Heritage GirlsTroop LA2013 place their hands over theirheartsduring theplayingoftaps. BELOW: Awreath of theKnight of Columbus Assembly 2467 is presented.

Children’s libraryto getextensive renovation

Historic site will reopen next summer as center forearly literacy

BY JONI HESS Staff writer

One of New Orleans’ oldest public libraries is closingfor ayear for a long-overduerenovationto overhaul itsspacesand offerings for the city’syoungest learners.

New Orleans Public Library ofﬁcials have closed the Children’sResource Center Library on Napoleon Avenue to address several years worth of deferred maintenance and facility upgrades.

The historic 117-year-old site is expectedtoreopen in summer 2026 as acenter dedicated to early literacy Of the14publiclibraries across New Orleans that serve patrons of all ages, the new center willbespecificallytailoredtokids ages 5and younger

“We’re not excluding anyone,” said library system early literacy coordinator Christine McCourtney

“We’re just focusing on those little ones, because they need aspace too.”

Historic building

The Resource Center,formerly called the Napoleon Branch Library,opened more than acentury ago in 1902, with a$250,000 grant from steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It was designateda national historic landmark in 1979.

“When the centeropens, it will feature interactive play areas, acarefully cu-

PUBLIC LIBRARy

PROVIDED By NEWORLEANS

This historic photoshows the Napoleon BranchLibrary, nowcalled theChildren’sResource Center, that wasone of manylibraries built across the U.S. in the early 1900s thanks to money donated by AndrewCarnegie.

ratedcollectionofmaterialsfor earlylearnersand their caregivers, an intentional focus on achild’s earlyyears of development, learning, socialinteractions, design that offers early literacy experiences in anurturing andengaging learning environment,and more,” the library system posted on social media.

Futureprogramming couldinclude playand learn activities with puppets andtoysaswell as other scheduled events that promotebondingbetween child and caregiver.

Design elements include soft ﬂooring to accommodate tiny crawlers, interactive play spaces for toddlers and their older siblings, andcuratedreading materials fordifferentage groups.

“Thisproject has been in

the works for awhile, so we areexcited to get it started,” New Orleans Public LibraryExecutive DirectorEmily Painton said in a statement. “Weknow renovations aretough on the community,but we cannot waittoshare what we’re bringing to thespace when we reopen.”

The renovations will cost about $730,000, covered by citybonds and the library millage, records show.The updates include aroof replacement, bathroom upgrades, newplaster walls and ﬂooring and repairs to thebuilding’sair conditioning system and other areas damaged by past storm events.

Past closures

The Resource Centeris on alist of facilitiesinthe queue for costly air con-

ditioning replacements or repairs. Those locations include the New Orleans East, RobertE.Smith,AlgiersRegional, Rosa Keller and NormanMayer libraries —all of which have had to closed periodically in recent years to address varying A/Cor mold issues.

The Resource Centeris theonly location with major workscheduled this summer Last year,the Resource Center and theCentral City library were added to the list when officials temporarily closed thefacilities over problems with A/C and mold

At aNovember library board meeting, ofﬁcialssaid that facility list hasabacklog of A/C repairstotaling $2 million. Several libraries also closed in the summerof 2023 during record-breakingheat, includingone where aroof leak caused part of theceiling to fallinto abathroom.

Frustrated patrons and library staff say theclosures negatively impact children, families and theunhoused population who often rely on air-conditionedpublic facilities during extreme heat Kindergarten readiness

The Children Resource Center’s new literacy center is designedtoprepare children for kindergarten and beyond by promoting learning elements embedded in early childhood library programs across the U.S. —playing, talking, singing, writing andreading, said McCourtney

“Weknow kids learn through play.You’re talkingwith them, you’re expressing differentwords,

NewOrleans Area Deaths

Carter,Charmaine Matherne,Barbara NewOrleans

Littlejohn FH Carter,Charmaine Obituaries Carter,Charmaine Marie'Twin'

CharmaineMarie “Twin” Carter, age55, departed thislifeonTuesday,May 13, 2025. Charmainewas borninNew Orleans, La.on July3,1969 to thelate Cherry Carter andAlex Walker. Sheattended New Orleans Public Schools. She leaves to cherishher memory, herchildren, Shadan, Therranceand TheronCarter; brother, David Carter (Niyoka); spouse, Gabrielle Christ‐mas;two aunts, Robin Jackson,and Michelle Green;one uncle,Alex Wise Jr.(Barbara);grand‐children, Terry,Terreyk Tyyanaand Taliah Carter; two daughtersinlaw,Dana and Keyvanutae Carter;a hostofnieces, nephews, cousins,other relatives and friends. Charmaine was preceded in deathby her grandparents,Carrie and Alex Wise Sr.; son, Terry Carter;siblings Karen,Derrick andGer‐maine Carter.Relatives and friendsofthe family are invitedtoattendthe FuneralService on Wednesday,May 28, 2025, beginning 10:00 a.m. at Lit‐tlejohn FuneralHome, 2163 Aubry Street Visitation from9:00a.m.until the hourofservice.Rev.David M.Patin Sr.and Gwiena Magee Patin, Directors. ProfessionalService En‐trusted to:LittlejohnFu‐neral Home,2163 Aubry Street,Cal K. Johnson, Fu‐neral Director/Manager Info:(504) 950-0045. Matherne,BarbaraGraff

andthey’re learningin that way,” McCourtney said. “The same thing with singing and reading to them It’s more about engagement and building that bond with their caregiver.”

The renovation comes as mounting research shows thatLouisiana kindergartners commonlylack basic reading skills with economically disadvantaged students having theworst outcomes years after starting school.

Arecent study by Tulane University researchers found that among 75% of economically disadvantaged kindergarten students in Louisiana public schools, morethanhalfscored “wellbelow” grade level on their DIBELS assessment in the2023-24 school year.The test measures foundational literacy skills such as letter sounds and phonemic awareness of K-3 students.

Moreover,a new state lawsays that third graders who score in that category canbeforcedtorepeatthe grade.

Duringthe closure, the Children’sResource Center Library will not be available forholds pickup or returns, and the book drop will be closed.

People are encouraged to visit nearby libraries:

n Central City Library, 2020 JacksonAve Suite 139

n Rosa F. Keller Library& Community Center,4300 S. Broad St.

n Milton H. Latter Memorial Library,5120 St. Charles Ave.

n Nix Library,1401 S. Carrollton Ave.

Email JoniHessatjoni hess@theadvocate.com.

Mrs. Barbara Graff Matherne, aresident of Greenwell Springs, LA., passedawayMay 23, 2025, at theage of 86. Mrs. Barbara was born in New Orleans, LA., on January 11,1939 to parents, Lionel andCoraGraff. Mrs. Barbara enjoyed dancing andmost of all taking care of herfamily; she hasbeen an active member of St Alphonsus Catholic Church.She is survived by herloving husbandof66 years, "Buddy" Delery MatherneSr.;children Delery MatherneJr. (Kellie), CorieCrain and Lionel Matherne(LeeAnn); grandchildren, Danielle Gaspard, Cali Kennedy (Joe), Ethan Crain, and Matthew Matherne (Sarah); and seven great grandchildren. Preceded in death are, herparents Lionel andCoraGraff; sisters, Sylvia Keen,and Sheryl Puissegurand one granddaughter, Caitlyn MatherneCapone. Visitation will be held at Greenoaks Funeral Home, 9595 Florida Blvd., Wednesday, May28, 2025, from 10:00 am untilfuneral service time of 12:00 pm. Intermentwill immediately follow at Greenoaks Memorial Park.

Howtoplace an Obituary Notice

Howtoplace a MemorialAd EMAIL: obits@theadvocate.com OR CALL FORMORE INFORMATION: 225-388-0289

STAFF PHOTOSBySCOTT THRELKELD

badnursing homes

We have long voiced concerns over the quality of care provided by Louisiana’spolitically powerful nursing home industry.

Yetabill working its way through the Legislature would actuallyreduce theability of patients and their families to hold nursinghomes accountablefor some decisionsthat affect that care Senate Bill 134 by state Sen. ThomasPressly,RShreveport, would do so by expandingthe definition of health care in Louisianatoinclude administrative, staffing and custodialservices.Itwouldalsoredefine malpractice to include administrative duties, staffing and care performed in asupporting capacity

In effect, the changes wouldprevent plaintiffs from suing management companies for administrative negligence, aclaimthat has brought multimillion-dollar verdicts against nursing homes in recent years. Instead, the bill would limitoperators’legal exposure by forcing patients and their families to sue under Louisiana’sMedical Malpractice Act, which caps damages to $500,000 in total and limits them to $100,000 per individual provider.

Pressly’sbilllargelyreplicates ameasure that author Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, pulled early in last year’slegislative process amidwidespread criticism from patient advocates. This timearound, though, the proposal appears tohave momentum. After passing 26-11 out ofthe Senate, it clearedthe House Committee on Health and Welfareunanimously,and will go before the fullHousesoon.

We urge House memberstothink carefully about the implications of makingthis change

Nursing homes in Louisiana rate poorlycompared to those in other states, with high ratesofpressure sores, concerns about overprescription of antipsychotic medications and major stafﬁng shortages.According to 2021 data from AARP,just 2.5%ofLouisiana’snursing home residents livedina top-performing facility,the lowest percentage in the nation. Theposter childfor irresponsible nursinghomeowners is Bob Dean, whose abhorrent management during an evacuation from Hurricane Ida allegedly led directly to ﬁve patientdeaths and indirectly to more.

The stories this paper shared from thattimewere horrific. Dean sent 843 of his elderly and infirm residents to awarehouse during the 2021 storm. Residents got little attention from staff,and urine and excrement accumulated in the facility, which did not have sufficient bathrooms. Some residents spent days in wheelchairs withoutbeing moved or receiving their medications.Many never recovered from the ordeal, enduring amputations, multiple surgeries and more.

Dean pleaded no contest to criminalcharges, and his nursing home company settled aclass-actionsuit that alleged administrative negligenceand otherfailures for $12.5million

And yet this bill —which critics havepointedly nicknamedthe “Bob DeanProtectionAct”—could well protect future bad actorsbymaking it harder to hold them responsible, when appropriate, for decisions that might notbestrictly medicalbut thatcan make all the difference between avulnerable person getting life-sustaining care, or not.

As we’ve learned the hard way,Louisiana’s nursing homeoperators could usemoreincentivetodoright by their patients. Not less.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: 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

JudgeDonaldTrump by whohe is,not whoyou wish himtobe

On April 23, areader expressed the opinion that he truly believes that our current president “wants what is best for our country.” Failing to understand any rational basis for this bafﬂing statement,itinstead raised a number of questions in my mind. If this president truly loved theU.S. as claimed, then why is he wreaking such destructive havoc on our country’sinstitutions? Howcan reasonably intelligent people, regardless of political partymembership, ignore theinnumerable times this president has demeaned, and even completely disregarded, theConstitution on which our country was established?

How can any citizen paying attention to current events not be aware that this president has proven by his actionsthat he has absolutely no respect for our society’sdependence on the rule of law in order for it to function fairly and efﬁciently?

Furthermore, why did theauthor

The socialist arm of the Republican Party is hard at work, attempting to take away the rightsofLouisiana residentswith one of theirdevious practices tort reform.

Gov.Jeff Landry’sobservations are true:Tortreformdoesn’treduce insurancerates.Itnever has.Time and again, Republican-controlled legislatureshave eviscerated valuable freedoms of Louisianacitizens with tort reform’shollow promise: Insurance rateswill go down. Look at Louisiana’shistory of tort reform. The assertion that auto insurance rateswill go down has never happened in light of numerous instances whereRepublican legislatures have “reformed” the tort system.

They’ve done away with strict liability,amended thedirect-action statute, instituted no-pay-no-play, limited recoveries and on and on, but still rates continue to climb along with insurance company proﬁts Republicans should focus on truthin advertising, passing laws regulating attorney ads that mislead about the money clients receive after attorney fees, medical bills and expenses.

of that opinion interpretthe widespread protestsbeing held by demonstrators as based on apersonal “hatred” of the president as opposed to apractical negative reaction to his policies which are causing lifethreatening harmtothem, their families and acquaintances? Given the vastnumber of times this president hasbroken his promises and contradicted himself in both words and actions, whyshould the American people trust him to sincerely care about our well-being?

Lastly,what does the author’s recommendation for patience and positive thinking achieve when the actions of the present administration are clearly eroding the mostly reliable framework of American rights to such aradical extent that our democratic system of governmentwill inevitably collapse around us?

SUE GISCLAIR Baton Rouge

During my ﬁrst couple of years in the classroom, there have been moments of joy, exhaustion and everything in between. But if there’s onething I’ve learned, it’sthat great teachersdon’t do this work alone. My guiding forcehas been Ashley Brown, amasterteacher at Lowery Middle School in Ascension Parish, who has been my mentor and cheerleader.Sinceday one, she made sure IknewIwasn’tinthis aloneand neverlet me forget my ‘why’ —that teacherschange livesbyshowing up for students everyday.She demonstratedhow the support one teacher givesanothercreates aripple effect thatimpacts everystudent who walks through ourdoors.

I’m not advocating lawyer advertisers’ First Amendment rights should be curtailed, but the current advertisersare failing to truthfully state the actual money clients place in pocket, allowing the inferences to be made thatclientsreceive $800,000 or $1 million or whatever large amount flashes acrossthe screens. We should support Sen. Patrick Connick’sbill making transparent the amount of money paid to insurance company’saffiliates and insurance and non-insurance holding companies. Sen. Connick’sproposedlegislation sheds light on theamount of money paid to an insurer’saffiliated corporation, especially when affiliated companies aresignificantly more profitable than the insurers and, in some instances, siphonoff so much money from the insurer thatitleads to the insurer’s liquidation. Contact your representative as well as your senator and tell them to vote against tort reform and its socialist agenda. Remember,corporations and insurers don’tvote.

PATRICK KEHOE Metairie

Teaching is as much about modeling as it is aboutinstruction. We model thinking, behavior and persistence for ourstudents —and in the same way,Mrs. Brown modeledexcellence for me so Icould learn ﬁrsthand best practices in the classroom. Her guidancehelpedmestrengthen my classroom practice, booststudents’ academicworkand build real connections.

One of the most meaningful lessons I’ve learned fromher is that great teaching is rooted in connection. Students aren’t amonolith; they each carry their ownstory,pace. She taught me howtomeeteach student where theyare.Not only have Iseen my students’ conﬁdence grow,79% of themimprovedtheir writing scores this year

The best teachersdon’tjust teach content —theyinspire and empower That’sexactly whatMrs. Brown has done formeand whatIhope Iamdoing formystudents. As Icomplete my two-year commitment with TeachFor America andlook forward to more time in the classroom, Iwill carry forward Mrs. Brown’spatience and wisdom. Because of Mrs. Brown, Iamabetter teacher andperson. And, my students arebettertoo.

JERICHA RICHARDS

Baton Rouge

What willlawmakers do withtheir newfound cash?

When last week’sRevenueEstimating Conference announced that Louisiana’scoffers would have more in them than previously expected, you could imagine many in the Cvapitol rubbing their hands together in anticipation Thewindfall will give the Legislature another $130 million for this ﬁscal year and $139 million more for next “We’ll take anything we can get,” said Sen Glen Womack,R-Harrisonburg, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee. Competition for the money is expected to be intense: Womack then trottedout thewell-worn Louisianatrope, saying there is a“gumbo” of things that still need money I’m not sure how Womack makes his gumbo, but Iampretty sure he can’tdoitwithout one key ingredient: water I’m also guessing that he doesn’t make it in Monterey,the tinycommunity in his district that has been suffering through months of water problems so bad that some residents

ﬁled suit earlier this year against the Monterey Rural Water System andthe company that operates it,JCP Management. Womack was presidentand chairman of the board of JCP in 2019 when he announced his runfor Senate, according to media reports. His name, along with aJCP email address, is listed as a“Designated Operator” of the Monterey systeminthe state’s water system database.

Oh, the irony Residents in Monterey havecomplained of water that alternately smells like bleach or rotten eggs. It sometimes runs brownand residents have been told to boil their water more times than they can count. It would be one thing if Monterey were an outlier.But it’snot. TheConcordia Parish hamlet is just the latest in agrowing list of Louisiana communities plagued by failing water systems. Their problems mostly stem from the same issue: decaying infrastructure that has largely outlived its natural life. The repairsand upgrades aresoexpensive that some of these systems simply cannot afford to pay for them. It’snot just small water systems, either.Baton Rouge, Shreveport and

Once loyal Chicagoans got over the double shock of hearing thatalocal native, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, has been named the 267th pope, some critically important, locally familiar questions came up:

Which parish is he from? Sox fan or Cubs fan? And what bearing will his papacyhaveonthe GreatPizza Schism, under which the local deep-dish faithful have suffered the odium of thin-crust New Yorkers?

No problem. Pope Leo XIV, as he will be known, is very Chicago.

New Orleansare all dealing with ongoing challenges. Water problems usually makenews when there is acrisis, such as asaltwater wedge or an outage. Once the immediate problem is averted, the issue disappearsintothe background noise. The state’swater challenges don’t often getthe political attention given to AI data centers or making sure the TenCommandments are visible in schools. Butthey should.

After all, it’shard to imagine highlypaid, highly-educated AI datacenter engineersmoving to aplace where they have to go to the local ﬁre station to getdistributed bottled water,ashas happened in several places around the state. Or that those same engineers would choose to puttheir kids in schools that might closebecause thewater running from the fountains was unsafe, as happened in Madison Parish, just a few miles from where theMeta data center is planned. That bringsmeback to the extra money. Noneofthe initial legislative commentsonhow to spend it mentioned water systems. Some legislators referred to “infrastructure,” but that could also include roads, bridges, drainage, sewer and ahost of other items.Manyofthose, Ishould add, are in desperateneed. There are those who have noticed, though, andare working on the problem. Rep.Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, R-Hou-

we feel, many of us, that our history was hidden from us. That would hardly be the ﬁrst time such history has been “hidden” in our country’s racially turbulent past.In this internet age, manyfamilies, includingmine, have uncovered mixedrace ancestry they did not knowabout.

He was born at Mercy Hospital in Chicago’sBronzevilleneighborhood, making him the ﬁrst American to ever be elected by the conclaveinthe church’s2,000-year history

He was an altar boy at St. Mary of the Assumption Church on theSouth Side next to suburban Dolton,graduated from Villanova Universityand Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 1982 and was ordainedasapriest for the Order of Saint Augustine. It also is worth noting that at least one researcher,The Historic New Orleans Collection’sJari C. Honora,a noted genealogist and historianwho has done research for the TV show “Finding Your Roots” with historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., says the pope is partially descended from Creole people of color,although familymemberssay theyhavenot identiﬁed as suchinrecent generations.

“It would be so fabulous to have someone who has some connection to our people, who give us therecognition we deserve,” Lolita Villavasso Cherrie, 79, aretired teacher,told the NewYork Times. “I hate to say it,but

AndCreoles are hardly new to theChicago region, considering how thecity’s ﬁrst non-Indian settler,trader Jean Baptiste PointduSable, was Haitian Creole.

Yet, PopeLeo has not had to go backinhistory to ﬁnd controversy

Before his election as pope, he shared social media postscriticizing President Donald Trumpand Vice President JD Vance for their immigration stance.

One now-famous post from Feb.3 referred to an article in the National Catholic Reporter titled “JD Vance is wrong:Jesusdoesn’task us to rank ourlovefor others.”

Whichbrings us back to thequestion of whyittook the Vatican so long to getaroundtoselecting an American pope. Iunderstand how manywere concerned that an American pope would have atendency to dominate proceedings too much, whatever that might mean, although thepower of the pope is such that excessive dominance challenges the imagination.

But themore Ihave learned about Robert Prevost, themore Iamreminded of what people in alot of Chicago neighborhoods call a“reg’lar guy.”

That’sthe sort of jolly person the Cambridgedictionarydeﬁnes as “a normal manwho is liked and trusted.”

ma, thechair of the Water Sector Commission, has helped get a$100 million allocation into the budget passed by theHouse. That’sa bumpfrom $75 million last year

Another bill, this one by Marksville Republican Daryl Deshotel, would dedicatesome funds collected through atax on telecommunications to helping rural water systems such as Monterey’s. Neither of these stepsiscertain: The $100 million still must clear the Senate and the governor’sdesk. Deshotel’s bill has madeitout of the House Appropriations Committee, but has yet to be heard by thefull House. Itsfuture is not clear

These moves areagood start. But theneed is so much greater.The state got $750 million afew years ago to ﬁx water systems. Butwhen local providers applied for the aid, there were $2.2 billion in requests. Adding in local matches brought thetotal to about $5.5 billion in needed work.

In that light, ashare of ameasly $130 million may not seem like much.But given theexpanding scale of the problem, money spent now probably saves far more later

So, yes, there is a“gumbo” of needs. Butone of those is actual gumbo, cooked low and slow and chock full of chicken and sausage (notomato for me). Buttomake it, Louisianans need good water Faimon A. Roberts III can be reached at froberts@theadvocate. com.

Pope Leo XIV sounds like aman who can be trusted,but he is also ﬁlling theshoes of apontiff who was bothwidely loved and widely viliﬁed for his perceived departure from traditional Catholic teaching on certain moral issues.

In carefully worded apostolic documents, PopeFrancis softened the church’sattitudes towarddivorced and remarried Catholics, same-sex couples and the validity of other faiths in God’seyes. These positions, along with his personal modesty and steadfast advocacy for the poor and immigrants, endeared him to political progressives theworld over but also inspired asigniﬁcant conservative backlash, bothwithin the church and without.

AmongFrancis’ mostvociferous critics were “traditionalist” American Catholics. Bishop Joseph Strickland, of Tyler,Texas, was something of a ﬁgurehead of the backlash, noted for his MAGA-inﬂected vitriol (heonce darkly alluded tothe Vatican’s “deep state”).Strickland was investigated and asked to resign. When he refused, he was removed by theVatican’sDicastery for Bishops, led by then-Cardinal Robert Prevost.

Leo is anew pope, but he will face ahost of old controversies. Some see him as Francis’ heir,while others see signs of doctrinal conservatism.Many will project their own political preoccupations on him, but his preoccupation will be with serving thenearly 1.4 billion Catholics around the world.

At themoment, Leo seems to have thesympathy of the world behind him. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Email Clarence Page at clarence47page@gmail.com.

PHILADELPHIA When Nature designed Kevin Bethel, it had apolice commissioner in mind. Physically, he ﬁlls his uniform with embodied authority.Temperamentally,heisphlegmatic, avirtue welcome in his ofﬁce in this city.Five decades ago, the commissioner wasaproblem

Bethel, 61, rose from Philadelphia’sBlack community to become, in 2024, the top cop in the nation’sseventh-largest city.This wasnearly 60 years after Frank Rizzo —a6-foot-2-inch, 240-pound high school dropout and self-described “toughest cop in America” —was rising toward the police commissioner’sofﬁce, then twoterms in the mayor’sofﬁce. The 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles presaged urban unrest nationally and aPhiladelphia majority embraced Rizzo, whopromised, “I’m going to makeAttila the Hun look like af****t.” After alerting the media to a1970 raid on the Black Panther Party,his police strip-searched party members. The front page of the next morning’sPhiladelphia Daily News featured aphoto of anaked Black man One evening, hearing of ariot, Commissioner Rizzo leftablack-tie dinner,tucking anightstick into his cummerbund and saying “mymen, my army” were going to work.

“The department wasvery brutal,” Bethel says. The police ethos was “take no prisoners, ask no questions. You’re the biggest gang in the city; have at it.” The Great Migration of Southern African Americans to Northern cities came late to Philadelphia, as did police professionalization. Today,Bethel’sforce is armed with computer guides to crime hotspots and drones that can be over acrimescene in twominutes. No aspect of American governance —not housing, not health care, not welfare, certainly not K-12 education has achieved successes as dramatic as policing has. The beneﬁts have accrued disproportionately to communities with average incomes below the national median, below the national average of intact families (twoparents in the home), above-average unemployment, and below-average years of schooling. Because crime is often minorities preying on minorities, if youask whatresidents in those communities want regarding policing, the answer often will be: more. Hence the injustice, as well as the political lunacy of the “Defund the police” clamor that boomeranged on the leftfrom which it emanated.

Police have often felt as if they are bailing oceans with thimbles. Forty-three years ago, however, they got someassistance from academia. In 1982, social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling published in the Atlantic their essay on “broken windows” and crime.

Broken windows, if not repaired, will, they said, proliferate. Abandoned cars, litter-strewnvacant lots, public urination: Quality-of-life offenses produce amenacing sense of spreading disorder.This atomizes communities, dissolving the glue of mutual regard and obligations of civility.People stay indoors, surrendering public spaces to marauders. The urban doom loop accelerates. Sophisticated scientificresearch has confirmed what grandmaknew (about exercise, rest and nutrition). Wilson and Kelling confirmed what did not look like common sense until they articulated it concerning the social incubation of crime. Bethel says “broken windowspolicing” works only if employed by officers whopractice the subtle craft of police work: by not making their attention to obnoxious behaviors obnoxious.

“Overpolicing” —“going after everything” can, Bethel warns, “boil the city.” The key to what he calls “resetting norms” is the elusive, crucial ingredient in all of life: judgment.

It is, Bethel says with intense terseness, “not normal”for children leaving school to see “someone sticking aneedle in his arm” or forpeople to come out on their porch “and see someone defecating on their lawn.” He meanssuch things should not be normal. It is, however,normal in the Kensington neighborhood, with its notorious open-air drug market.

The invention of automobiles gave criminals mobility,and the interstate highway system has exacerbated Bethel’sproblems: I-95, anorth-south drug trafﬁcking corridor,passes not farfrom Kensington, bringing customers and product to what has been called “the Walmart of heroin.” And of even worse drugs, such as xylazine, ahorse tranquilizer that produces necrotizing wounds: ﬂesh-eating bacterial infections. (See Charles Fain Lehman in the Manhattan Institute’swinter 2025 City Journal.)

Bethel is authorized to have 1,200 moreofﬁcers than the 6,300 he has to police 142 square miles. Recruiting people to cope with Kensington is a challenge.

In the mid-1890s, the well-publicized midnight rambles of New York’s36-year-old police commissioner,Theodore Roosevelt, fueled his political ascent. Frank Rizzo, too, used publicity to propel himself into politics. Bethel, knowing that crime cannot be eliminated, only contained, likes the job he has. There it is: judgment.

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

George Will

STAFF FILEPHOTO By IANMCNULTy

Having clean water is an important part of anygumbo recipe.

Clarence Page

Faimon Roberts

NewOrleans Forecast

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

LSUbaseball earned the No. 6overallseedinthe NCAATournament and will host No. 2Dallas Baptist, No.3 RhodeIsland andNo. 4LittleRock starting this weekendatAlexBox Stadium.

LSU’s ﬁrst game in theBaton Rouge Regionalwill be against Little Rock at 2p.m. Friday.The game will be available to watch on SEC Network. DallasBaptist and Rhode Island will square off at 6:30 p.m. Fridayon ESPN+.

The winner of the regional willface the winnerofthe Clemson regional which includes No. 1Clemson, No. 2 West Virginia,No. 3Kentucky andNo. 4SCUpstate

With LSU earning the No. 6overall seed, they’ll get the chance to host a super regional in Baton Rouge if they win their regional. This season marks the 28th time that LSU has hosted aregional, and the ninth time it hasearned the distinction since2012.

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

If any doubt that LSU baseball had done enough to earn anational seed lingered into Monday,the NCAA selection committee put it to rest.

The Tigers, accordingtocommittee chair and SoutheasternLouisiana athletic director Jay Artigues, are clearly oneofthe country’s eight best teams. They simplyhave too many overall wins (43), too many Southeastern Conference wins (20) and toomany high-level contributors to fall outsidethatselect group.

“You look at theirlineup,”Artigues said. “You look at their Friday-Saturday guys, whomight be the best 1-2 punch maybe in the country,whenyou talk aboutboth of those guys. So, they’re ateamthat deﬁnitely,inmymind and the committee’s mind, was deserving of atop-eightseed.

“Where they fell in there, that’swhen you can really start splitting hairs. But

Road to Omahalooks smooth

LSUdraws surprisingly favorablepathtoCWS

LSU hasalso hosted 12 superregionals in its history.Ithas hosted seven superregionals since2012 andlast hosted onein2023, taking down Kentucky twice to advancetoOmaha, Nebraska, and eventually win its seventh national championship. The Tigers were oneofeight Southeastern Conference teams selected to host aregional. Texas, Arkansas, Vanderbilt,Georgia,Auburn, Ole Miss andTennessee also earned host bids.

Monday: Game 7: Game 6winnervs. Game 6 loser(TBD,ifnecessary*)

Going into Selection Monday there wasatleast some measure of doubt as to whether the LSU Tigers would get one of theeight golden tickets to be atop-eight national seed in the NCAA tournament. Not only did LSU manage that, being awarded theNo. 6national seed But the Tigers got about as favorable as path to Omaha, Nebraska and the College World Series thatthey could have asked for once the64team ﬁeld was announced How favorable? LSU’s ﬁrst opponent, the Little Rock Trojans, are 24-32 overall and comeinwith the worst RPI of any teaminthe

ﬁeld at No. 243. LittleRock,which

ﬁnished eighth in the 10-team Ohio Valley Conference withan

8-16 leaguerecord,snagged the last berthinthe OVC tournament, got hot atthe right time andwon thetrophy Good for the Trojans, who will be making just their second NCAA tournament appearance and first in 14 years. Andthey can claim to beone of the hottest teams in the country, having won five gamesinfourdays at the OVC tourney to claim theleague’s automatic NCAA bid. Butheat of adifferent sort awaits when they deal with either KadeAnderson or Anthony Eyanson, whichever ace pitcher coach Jay Johnson decides to start. Or heatinthe formofJared Jones or Derek Curiel’sbats. If this was the NCAA men’sbasketball tournament,Little Rock would probably beaFirst Four team fighting for aNo. 16 seed to get toplay a regionalNo. 1. Overall, LSU’sregional has the highestcombined RPI (meaning worst) of any of the 16 NCAA regionals: 341. LSU is No. 10 in

RPI, Dallas BaptistNo. 20, Rhode Island No. 68 and Little Rock’s aforementioned 243. Even just counting the top three seeds in theregional (98), their RPI is higher than all but one regional top three (Auburn, 100)

The regional LSU’sispaired with doesn’texactly promote stomach-churning anxiety. Clemson is hosting as the No. 11 national seed, facing West Virginia, Kentucky and the artist known as SouthCarolina Upstate.

Surprisingly,LSU has never played Clemson, afairly regular CWS participant, though the Tigers did host Kentucky in the 2023 Baton Rouge super regional en route to Omahaand their seventh national title. If the super does indeed end up being LSU and Clemson, what an unlikely but delicious appetizer tothe LSU-Clemson football season opener Aug. 30 at Clemson. There is along

Southeastern Louisiana athletic director and former baseball coach Jay Artigues, has more faith in the Tigers than

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK LSU left fielder Derek Curiel, right, celebrates teammate Jared Jones after hitting aleadoffhome runagainst SoutheasternonApril 29 at Alex Box Stadium

Scott Rabalais

Former LSU QB, coach Amedee dies

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

Lynn Amedee, who quarterbacked LSU in the early 1960s and went on to a lengthy football coaching career on the high school, college and professional levels, died May 20. He was 83. A native of Baton Rouge, Amedee started his football career at Istrouma High

School before embarking on a three-year career as an LSU quarterback from 1960-62. He won Southeastern Conference championships in football and baseball, as a pitcher, in 1961

After playing for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League in 1963-64, Amedee began his coaching career at his high school alma mater Istrouma in 1965 where he coached offensive and defensive backs.

Amedee then became head coach at Baker High from 196769, and also had high school head coaching stints at Northeast, New

Iberia and Opelousas.

Amedee took his his ﬁrst collegiate coaching job at Northeast Louisiana in 1970. He then went to Tulane for two seasons in 1971-72 before joining the New Orleans Saints in 1973 as offensive backfield coach. He then spent a year coaching with the Birmingham Americans of the now defunct World Football League before returning to LSU in 1975 as quarterbacks coach through 1978.

Amedee, who worked one season as the UL offensive coordinator in 1982, also served as

LSU’s offensive coordinator in 1993-94.

Amedee was head coach at Tennessee Martin in 1980-81. He had assistant coaching staffs at a host of SEC schools: Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Florida, Texas and Mississippi State.

Amedee is survived by his daughters, Rene Graphia and Lee Hattaway, four grandchildren, one great-grandchild and two brothers.

Visitation will be 9-11 a.m. June 3 at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Hwy in Baton Rouge.

Alcaraz and Swiatek off to good starts

Reigning French Open champs get straight-set wins

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer

PARIS Iga Swiatek, who has struggled lately, and Carlos Alcaraz, who has not, got off to good starts in their French Open title defenses Monday, recording straight-set victories to reach the second round.

Swiatek was up ﬁrst in Court Philippe-Chatrier and defeated 42nd-ranked Rebecca Sramkova 6-3, 6-3. Swiatek compiled 25 winners and 17 unforced errors in the 1-hour, 24-minute contest.

Alcaraz needed only about a half-hour more than that for a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Giulio Zeppieri, an Italian qualiﬁer who is ranked 310th. Alcaraz won all 14 of his service games, saving the three break points he faced, at Court SuzanneLenglen.

“It was really, really solid,” Alcaraz said. “Really proud about my start.”

Both Swiatek and Alcaraz sat in the Chatrier stands a day earlier to watch the farewell tribute to 14-time champion Rafael Nadal — and both active players wore the rust-colored T-shirts that read “Merci Rafa” distributed to spectators. Swiatek has often talked about her admiration for Nadal; Alcaraz is considered the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s heir apparent.

“For sure, there were tears,” said Swiatek, who faces 2021 U.S Open champion Emma Raducanu next. “It was amazing ceremony, and I’m happy that Roland Garros

did this for Rafa. I’m happy that also the whole tennis world had an opportunity to kind of come together and just thank him. He’s a GOAT, so I’m happy that I was there.”

Alcaraz is seeded No. 2 behind Jannik Sinner — who advanced Monday night with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 victory over 75th-ranked Arthur Rinderknech and is coming off a clay-court title at the Italian Open a little more than a week ago. Alcaraz beat Sinner in the ﬁnal there.

Monday’s result gave Alcaraz

28 wins in his past 30 matches on red clay, including going 7 for 7 a year ago at Roland-Garros One of the losses came against Novak Djokovic in the gold-medal match at last year’s Paris Olympics, held at the same site as the French Open. Swiatek has slipped to No. 5 in the rankings, her first time out of the top two spots in about three years. She hasn’t reached a final at any tournament since collecting her third consecutive championship — and fourth in five years — in Paris in 2024.

The 23-year-old from Poland extended her French Open unbeaten streak to 22 matches and is trying to become the ﬁrst woman with four trophies in a row at the tournament in the professional era, which began in 1968. Monica Seles and Justine Henin also won three straight titles at RolandGarros.

What else happened

Two highly seeded Americans who made career-best runs at the U.S. Open last September bowed out quickly in Paris: No. 4 Taylor Fritz, the runner-up to Sinner in New York, and No. 9 Emma Navarro, a semiﬁnalist at Flushing Meadows.

Fritz lost 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to 66th-ranked Daniel Altmaier of Germany The big-serving Fritz was broken ﬁve times and saw the end of his 15-match Grand Slam winning streak against opponents ranked outside the top 50. Navarro was eliminated 6-0, 6-1 in just 57 minutes by Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain. Bouzas Maneiro’s biggest win of her career also came in the ﬁrst round at a Grand Slam tournament: She beat reigning champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round of Wimbledon last year

Also on the way out Monday: Four-time major champion Naomi Osaka, who was in tears after her three-set loss to No. 10 Paula Badosa.

Who is playing Tuesday?

The Day 3 schedule includes past major title winners Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Daniil Medvedev and Soﬁa Kenin, and runners-up such as Alexander Zverev and Jessica Pegula.

Osaka tears up after ﬁrst-round French Open loss

BY HOWARD FENDRICH

AP tennis writer

PARIS Naomi Osaka still wore the pink accessories in her hair inspired by “sakura” — cherry blossoms — and there were streaks on her cheeks where tears had rolled, when she sat down for a French Open news conference after her ﬁrst-round loss to Paula Badosa on Monday Osaka’s red eyes welled as she answered a few questions before needing a break and brieﬂy leaving the interview room following the 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-4 exit against the 10th-seeded Badosa.

“As time goes on, I feel like I should be doing better But also — I kind of talked about this before, maybe a couple years ago, or maybe recently, I’m not sure — I hate disappointing people,” said Osaka, who owns four Grand Slam trophies from the hard courts of the U.S. Open and Australian Open but never has been past the third round on the red clay of RolandGarros. Then, referring to her current coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who used to work with Serena Williams, Osaka said: “He goes from working with, like, the greatest player ever to, like, ‘What the (expletive) is this?’ You know what I mean? Sorry for cursing. I hope I don’t get ﬁned.” Osaka, who was born in Japan

and moved to the United States as a young child, was undone Monday by 54 unforced errors.

That was twice as many as Badosa, whose best showing at a major was a semiﬁnal run at the Australian Open in January and who reached the quarterﬁnals at Roland-Garros in 2021.

After taking the opening set, Osaka was treated by a trainer for hand blisters and also took time to clip her sakura-themed ﬁngernails on the sideline.

She attributed the blisters, which also bothered her at the Italian Open this month, to “the friction of clay, because I don’t have blisters on any other surface.”

Osaka’s powerful serves and groundstrokes are dulled by the clay, and that showed against Badosa Osaka was broken five times and ﬁnished with nearly as many double-faults, ﬁve, as aces, seven. Once ranked No. 1 and currently No. 49, Osaka withdrew from the French Open in 2021 before her second-round match, explaining that she experiences “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealing she had dealt with depression. She then took multiple mental health breaks away from the tour.

She helped usher in a change in the way athletes, sports fans and society at large understood the importance of mental health.

A year ago at Roland-Garros, Osaka played one of her best matches since returning to action after becoming a mother, coming within a point of upsetting eventual tournament champion Iga Swiatek.

On Monday after taking a break from questions, she re-

turned to ﬁeld one query from a Japanese journalist with an eye to the next major tournament, Wimbledon, which begins on grass on June 30.

“I don’t necessarily know my grass-season schedule right now,” Osaka said. “I wasn’t really expecting to lose in the ﬁrst round.”

Indy 500 has biggest audience in 17 years

INDIANAPOLIS Indiana Fever star

Caitlin Clark will be out at least two weeks with a left quad strain, the team announced Monday The Fever did not say when Clark suffered the injury. The team said further updates will be provided after she gets another evaluation. Clark had 18 points and 10 assists in a 90-88 loss to the New York Liberty on Saturday Clark is averaging 19.0 points, 9.3 assists and 6.0 rebounds this season.

“Obviously, she wants to play and, obviously everyone wants to see her play,” White said following Monday’s practice. “But for me, it’s about maintaining perspective. It’s making sure that we address this that doesn’t affect the long term, that we take care of it and don’t overpush, don’t overexert.”

Indy 500 runner-up

Ericsson penalized

INDIANAPOLIS Indianapolis 500 runner-up Marcus Ericsson was penalized to the rear of the 33-car field along with Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood on Monday after their cars were found to have unapproved modifications in the post-race inspection that could have helped their aerodynamic efficiency Ericsson finished second to Alex Palou on Sunday when he was unable to make a winning pass in the closing laps. He now will be credited with a 31st-place finish while Kirkwood, who had finished sixth, has been relegated to 32nd. IndyCar said the modifications made by Andretti Global were to the Energy Management System covers provided by Dallara, the company that provides the chassis for the series. The rulebook states that those parts must be used as supplied.

Some fans sell free T-shirt honoring Nadal PARIS A day after the French Open honored Rafael Nadal, dozens of spectators began selling the claycolored “Merci Rafa” T-shirts handed out at Sunday’s tribute — with some listings reaching up to $540. The shirts, marked with the French phrase for “Thank You Rafa” and the date “25.05.2025,” were given to fans attending the ceremony on Court PhilippeChatrier to celebrate the 14-time French Open champion. Distributed in varying shades of clay, the T-shirts were part of a coordinated tribute. Fans were asked to wear them, creating a giant mosaic in the stands that spelled out “RG14,” a nod to Nadal’s 14 titles in Paris.

Florida trio out for NHL playoff game

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Sam Reinhart was ruled out by the Florida Panthers for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference ﬁnals on Monday, the second consecutive game he has missed since getting hurt earlier in the series against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Also out for Florida: Niko Mikkola, who scored two goals in Game 3, and A.J. Greer All are listed as day to day, coach Paul Maurice said.

Florida leads the series 3-0, with a chance to clinch on Monday If Carolina wins, Game 5 will be Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina. Reinhart left Thursday’s Game 2 in the ﬁrst period after a low hit by Carolina’s Sebastian Aho. The Panthers aren’t concerned at this point that it’ll be a long-term absence.

Cornell beats Maryland to win lacrosse championship

FOXBOROUGH Mass CJ Kirst scored six goals, Ryan Goldstein added four and Cornell, the first NCAA lacrosse champion, ended a 48-year drought with a 13-10 win over Maryland on Monday for the Big Red’s fourth national championship.

Kirst scored the ﬁnal goal into an empty net with 50 seconds to go. It was his 82nd of the season, allowing the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer (247) to tie the single season record of 82.

“We knew if (No.) 15 got going we were going home with hardware and by god if he didn’t ﬁnd it and ﬁnd it in a big way,” said coach Connor Buczek, a former Big Red All-American. “He pulls the best out of everyone around him.”

This was Cornell’s first championship since 1977 when the Big Red defeated Johns Hopkins 16-8.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By THIBAULT CAMUS

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz reacts after winning a point against Italy’s Giulio Zeppieri during their first-round match of the French Open on Monday in Paris.

Amedee

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHRISTOPHE ENA

Japan’s Naomi Osaka reacts as she plays Spain’s Paula Badosa during their first-round match of the French Open at the Roland-Garros stadium on Monday in Paris.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

Vanderbilt’s Riley Nelson takes a lead while on base against Air Force on Feb 18 in Nashville, Tenn. The Commodores go into NCAA regional tournament action with a 13-3 record in their last 16 games, which includes winning the Southeasterrn Conference tournament title.

Vanderbilt draws No. 1 overall seed

BY ERIC OLSON AP sportswriter

OMAHA, Neb Vanderbilt, which gave up just three runs over three games in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, was awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Monday and was among a record 13 teams from the conference to be selected to the 64team ﬁeld.

The tournament opens Friday with 16 double-elimination regionals. Winners advance to eight bestof-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 13. Vanderbilt has won eight straight games and 13 of its past 16 to earn the No. 1 seed for the second time, and ﬁrst since 2007.

“It’s amazing, it’s cool, it’s great, I love it,” shortstop Jonathan Vastine said. “The team was excited about it. After today that No. 1 seed kind of goes out the door because anything can happen.”

The Commodores, who play Wright State in the opener of the Nashville Regional, are in the tournament for the 19th straight time for the longest active streak.

“We understand we have a goal at the end of the year to get to the middle of the country,” pitcher JD Thompson said, referring to Omaha. “You can’t de-value anybody coming into a regional like this It’s all good teams, so you respect everybody If we play good baseball and keep the trend of what we’re doing right now, then we have a good chance.”

The national seeds following Vanderbilt (42-16) are Texas (4212), Arkansas (43-13), Auburn (3818), North Carolina (42-12), LSU

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C

at No. 9, and Coastal Carolina at No. 8, both had arguments. But Clemson got the 10 seed and Coastal the 13 LSU’s starting pitching, its potentially lethal though at times hot and cold lineup, and defense make the Tigers a team that passes the critical eye test for

LSU BASEBALL

Continued from page 1C

I don’t think there’s a question they’re deserving of a top-eight seed.”

LSU, the No. 6 overall seed, is hosting Dallas Baptist, Rhode Island and Arkansas-Little Rock in the Baton Rouge regional. The team that advances through that grouping will then face either No. 11 seed Clemson or one of its three regional opponents — West Virginia, Kentucky or South Carolina Upstate — in a best-of-three NCAA super regional series

Last year the Tigers had to ﬁght just to make the 64-team tournament ﬁeld.

This season, they earned a topeight seed without much suspense LSU had relatively comfortably — built a résumé befitting

(43-14), Georgia (42-15) and Oregon State (41-12-1). Those eight teams would be in line to host super regionals if they win their regionals.

Seeds Nos. 9 through 16: Florida State (38-14), Ole Miss (40-19), Clemson (44-16), Oregon (42-14), Coastal Carolina (48-11), Tennessee (43-16), UCLA (42-16) and Southern Mississippi (44-14)

The last four teams to get atlarge bids, in alphabetical order, were Arizona State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Southern California The ﬁrst four teams left out were Southeastern Louisiana, Troy, UConn and Virginia.

The SEC’s 13 teams in the tournament are two more than its record 11 that made it in 2024.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has nine teams in the ﬁeld followed by the Big 12 with eight and the Big Ten with four The American Athletic, Big West, Conference USA and Sun Belt all have two teams in the tournament

First-year SEC member Texas, which opened 38-5 overall and 19-2 in conference play, appeared to be a lock for the No. 1 seed before ﬁnishing 5-7 with a loss to Tennessee in its conference tournament opener Arkansas won 20 SEC regularseason games for the third straight year and set a program record with 110 homers. Auburn’s No. 4 national seed ties the 2003 team for the highest in program history

Been there, done that Texas is in the tournament for a record 64th time Miami, which lost six of its past seven games, is making its 50th appearance. Florida State will be a regional host for a Division I-record 37th time

The longest active streaks be-

a national championship contender

Playing a regional and super regional at home is no guarantee

LSU will get to Omaha. But not getting a national seed and likely having to play a super regional on the road would have stacked the odds high against the Tigers. Four times since 1999 LSU has played super regionals away and lost them all. That won’t be the case in 2025. As long as the Tigers are alive,

of a national seed by the time the NCAA selection committee unveiled its bracket on Monday

Coach Jay Johnson said thought his team had done so even before he took it to Hoover, Alabama, for the Southeastern Conference Tournament. There, he threw his top two pitchers on Friday in a quarterfinal game against Texas A&M in part because he was already imagining how he’d approach a regional at Alex Box Stadium.

That decision hurt LSU’s chances of winning a semiﬁnal on Saturday

But it likely gave the Tigers all they needed to lock down a national seed: their 20th conference victory Only two SEC teams have collected more.

“The SEC tournament is a little bit different than some of the other tournaments,” Artigues said. “A lot of those teams go into it knowing they’re in the tournament, or pret-

hind Vanderbilt belong to Florida (17), LSU (13), Oklahoma State (12) and Dallas Baptist (11)

First timer

USC Upstate (36-23) is the only team that will be making its ﬁrst appearance in the Division I tournament. The Spartans had played in three straight Big South championship games before breaking through to beat Charleston Southern 14-2 Saturday to clinch the league’s automatic bid.

Home sweet home, finally

Oregon State earned home ﬁeld for regionals and potentially super regionals as the No. 8 seed after having to play 35 of its 54 games away from Corvallis. The Beavers are 17-2 at home.

Hot Huskies

Northeastern (48-9) has the nation’s longest win streak at 27 games after winning the Coastal Athletic Association Tournament. The Huskies lead the nation in shutouts (17), win percentage (.842) and ERA (2.92), among other categories.

Losing, but winning

Two teams enter the tournament with losing records.

Little Rock (24-32) won five games in four days to win the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, and its reward is a first-round game at LSU. The Trojans, at No. 8, became the lowest seed to win the conference tournament. They’re in NCAAs for the ﬁrst time since 2011.

North Dakota State (20-32) won the Summit League Tournament for its ﬁrst appearance since 2021 and will play Arkansas.

they will sleep in their own beds, occupy their home dugout, ﬁeld the ball in the friendly and familiar conﬁnes of Alex Box Stadium. That is, of course, until and unless LSU makes its annual intended goal of reaching the College World Series in a place Tiger fans have come to regard as Alex Box North.

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ty sure they’re in a tournament, and they’re all playing for some of that seeding.

“Winning that first game like they did, and getting to the next day, I thought they did a great job most of the season being very very consistent to put them in that position.”

LSU, in its illustrious program history, has won 11 of the 12 regionals it’s hosted as a national seed. Now, because Johnson’s Tigers earned their second top-eight seed in four seasons, they can begin pursuing Alex Box’s 13th super regional.

That chase will start at 2 p.m. Friday against Little Rock (SEC Network, ESPN+)

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com. For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

BREAKING DOWN BATON ROUGE REGIONAL

LSU baseball received a relatively favorable draw from the NCAA Tournament selection committee on Monday.

The Tigers, selected as the No. 6 overall seed in the field, will host No. 2 Dallas Baptist, No. 3 Rhode Island and No. 4 Little Rock in the Baton Rouge Regional beginning on Friday.

LSU’s first game in the regional is against Little Rock. First pitch from Alex Box Stadium is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be available to watch on SEC Network.

Here’s what you need to know about the teams grouped with LSU in its regional.

Little Rock Record: 24-32, 8-16 OVC RPI: 243

Breakdown: Little Rock won five games in four days to capture the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament crown, defeating Southern Indiana, Southeast Missouri, Lindenwood and Eastern Illinois twice.

The Trojans went on a run despite dropping 10 of their last 11 games in conference play and qualified for the last spot in the OVC Tournament on a tiebreaker As the No. 8 seed, they became the lowest seed to ever win the conference tourney.

Little Rock’s best win of the year came on April 15 when they upset Ole Miss 7-3 in Oxford. It also owns the worst RPI in the NCAA Tournament, 44 spots behind Bethune-Cookman which was the next lowest team.

Little Rock’s attack is led by five hitters with an on-base plus slugging percentage of more than .800: third baseman Ty Rhoades, second baseman Cooper Chaplain, catcher Cade Martin, designated hitter Ryan Geck and center fielder Zach Henry. Rhoades leads the Trojans in home runs and Martin hit the go-ahead runscoring single in the OVC tournament title game.

On the mound, right-hander Jack Cline is the favorite to start Friday’s regional opener against LSU Cline tossed a complete game in the OVC championship game on Sunday, allowing just one earned run and throwing 129 pitches on two days of rest.

Little Rock’s second starter is right-hander Jackson Wells. He also surrendered just one run in a complete game on Wednesday in the Trojans’ first game at the OVC Tournament. In the bullpen, Little Rock doesn’t have a reliever, who has also made at least 10 appearances, with an ERA under five

Rhode Island

Record: 38-20, 22-8 A10

RPI: 68

Breakdown: Rhode Island beat Davidson, Saint Louis and George Mason in the Atlantic 10 Tournament to clinch its spot in the big dance.

The Rams also won the conference regular-season crown and defeated Oregon — a regional host — once in a four-game series in Eugene in February.They have the best RPI in the Atlantic 10 but the weakest RPI among No. 3 seeds in the NCAA tourney.

Hitting is Rhode Island’s strength.

The Rams are sixth in the country in runs scored and have four hitters who have started at least 34 games while holding an OPS of more than 1.000.

Leading Rhode Island’s offense is third baseman Anthony DePino.The senior has 19 home runs, a 733 slugging percentage and leads the Rams in walks and doubles.After him, right fielder Eric Genther (1.045 OPS), shortstop Reece Moroney

(leads the team in batting average) and designated hitter Jack Hopko (15 home runs) provide length for a dangerous lineup.

The clear ace of Rhode Island’s pitching staff is left-hander Trystan Levesque.The graduate senior threw 10 shutout innings against Oregon in February and allowed just one earned run in 81/3 innings in his latest start against Davidson on Wednesday. In 15 starts, Levesque has allowed more than four earned runs in just one outing If Levesque starts on Friday against Dallas Baptist, and the Rams win and face LSU on Saturday, Rhode Island would likely turn to right-hander Jeremy Urena. Urena struggled to begin the year but has pitched well lately allowing no more than three earned runs in each of his past four starts.

In relief, Rhode Island’s top option is right-hander Joe Sabbath who has a 3.11 ERA and eight saves in 27 appearances.The Rams lack an abundance of options in relief after Sabbath as they only have one other reliever with an ERA under five besides him.

Dallas Baptist Record: 40-16, 21-6 CUSA RPI: 20

Breakdown: Dallas Baptist clinched an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament after finishing the year with the fourth best RPI among non-hosting teams, getting two wins over Oklahoma and grabbing a win over TCU

The Patriots faced LSU for the first time on Feb 26 at Globe Life Field in Arlington.The Tigers won 7-3, garnering 12 hits and receiving multihit performances from Derek Curiel, Jared Jones, Daniel Dickinson, Steven Milam and Jake Brown. LSU started left-hander Conner Ware who tossed four shutout innings before allowing a home run to start the fifth.

Like Rhode Island, Dallas Baptist has one of the more dangerous offenses in the country.The Patriots rank 21st nationally in runs scored and will have four available hitters with an OPS better thab 1.000. The biggest bat in their order is catcher Grant Jay. He leads the team with 19 home runs, holding a .322 batting average and a .688 slugging percentage. Center fielder Nathan Humphreys has 17 homers and is first on the Patriots in batting average, and second baseman Keaton Grady owns a .944 OPS

Leading the Patriots rotation for the last month has been right-hander Ryan Borberg and right-hander James Ellwanger Borberg hasn’t surrendered more than two runs since April 19 while Ellwanger struck out 12 batters in six innings on Thursday against Jacksonville State.

But until he suffered an injury in April, right-hander and former Tiger Micah Bucknam was the Patriots’ ace. He should be available to pitch in the Baton Rouge regional after returning against Jacksonville State this past week and tossing three shutout innings.

Dallas Baptist’s bullpen allowed five earned runs and eight hits in five innings against LSU in February. Left-hander Tyler Schott has been the Patriots’ most consistent reliever, but they also have right-hander Luke Pettitte back from an elongated absence. Pettitte is the son of fivetime World Series champion Andy Pettitte and was the Conference USA Freshman of the year last season. Koki Riley LSU catcher Luis Hernandez looks to make a throw after a dropped strike three against Arkansas on May 11 at Alex Box Stadium.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JOHN AMIS

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Four key issues set for SEC spring meeting

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. The Southeastern Conference has reached the beach once again for its annual Memorial Day week spring meeting. The meeting, which officially runs TuesdayThursday at the Sandestin Hilton, brings together the SEC’s administration with the school presidents/ chancellors, athletic directors, football and basketball coaches and other administrators from the league’s 16 member schools.

LSU interim president Matt Lee, who was picked to fill William Tate’s role after the latter took the president’s job at Rutgers, is expected to attend.

Here are four key issues that will likely be addressed:

The House settlement

Groundwork has been laid for the so-called House settlement which would allow schools to start sharing revenue with student-athletes on July 1. However, as June 1 approaches the settlement has yet to become formally ratiﬁed.

Either way, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and school representatives are expected to discuss the implications of the settlement for their schools’ bottom lines.

“I learned a long time ago we don’t control the court system,” Sankey said. “We have a responsibility of implementation. We keep preparing. The more clarity we have, because the clock is ticking, the better.”

Nine-game schedule

The SEC has kicked the issue of a permanent football schedule down the road since Texas and Oklahoma formally joined the conference in 2024. The league crafted an eight-game schedule for 2024 and

ﬂ

ipped the home and road games with the same opponents for each team for 2025.

Several schools including LSU, have long lobbied for a nine-game conference football schedule. That appears to be drawing closer to reality The Athletic recently reported that ESPN/ABC is willing to add $50-80 million to the SEC’s annual $811 million TV rights deal if the league goes to nine conference games.

There is no SEC football schedule in place for the 2026 season and beyond. Previously a proposal for a nine-game schedule was expected to include three permanent and six rotating opponents. LSU’s permanents were expected to be Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

Sankey said the process of if and how much the College Football Playoff expands from its current 12-team format will have an impact on SEC scheduling discussions.

“Our eight- or nine-game scheduling (talk) goes back to 2018

JEFF ROBERSON

Pacers look to make changes after 2nd-half collapse in loss

BY MICHAEL MAROT

AP sportswriter

INDIANAPOLIS Two-time All-Star

Tyrese Haliburton blamed himself for the Indiana Pacers’ second-half collapse in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference ﬁnals.

Coach Rick Carlisle ﬁgured Haliburton’s teammates played their part, too.

Less than 24 hours after blowing a 16-point lead in the ﬁnal 20 minutes Sunday night and allowing the New York Knicks to cut their series deﬁcit to 2-1, the Pacers went back to work Monday in search of solutions. Game 4 will be Tuesday night in Indianapolis.

“I felt like we got kind of stagnant on that end,” Haliburton said minutes after the 106-100 loss “I thought we just didn’t do a good job of continuing to play fast. I felt like I did a poor job of keeping pace in the game, especially in the fourth quarter I feel like I was walking the ball up every play, so I know it’s got to be a big area of improvement for me.”

Clearly, it wasn’t just Haliburton — or his teammates — struggling to seal a victory that would have put the Pacers within one win of reaching the franchise’s second NBA Finals.

An increasingly aggressive Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 of his team’s 36 points in the fourth quarter and an increasingly shifty defense slowed down Indiana just enough to hold them to a playofflow 42 points in the second half Carlisle credited the Knicks’ defense for making the right adjustments. And just like that, New York managed to avoid the dreaded 3-0 hole that no team has recovered

from and climb back into the series, giving themselves a chance at evening the series Tuesday Strangely the road team has won each of the ﬁrst games and the Knicks have won six of seven on the road this postseason, their only loss coming at Boston as last year’s champions brieﬂy delayed a second-round exit by winning Game 5.

“I think we have to continue to ﬂy around (defensively),” Knicks

All-Star guard Jalen Brunson said Monday “Obviously, we don’t want to have breakdowns and when we do, we’ve got to continue to slide and help each other out, giving my team more opportunities to shoot the ball and score the ball instead of turning the ball over I think will be a big key for us.”

Coach Tom Thibodeau’s chess moves could be crucial, too. After benching Josh Hart in favor of starting Mitchell Robinson in Game 3, Hart and Towns played key roles in the fourth-quarter rally as Brunson was stuck in foul trouble.

But Towns and Hart appeared to suffer knee injuries Sunday Thibodeau remains hopeful both will be available — and play well Tuesday night.

“I don’t know if you’re aware but our medical team has been voted the best in the league,” Thibodeau said, drawing laughter “They are tough-minded and I think at this time of year, the mental toughness is probably more important than the physical toughness and both of those guys are mentally tough.”

But the Pacers have been here before.

Just two weeks ago after winning the ﬁrst two conference semiﬁnal games at Cleveland, they lost

when we talked about eliminating divisions,” Sankey said. “Then we expanded (the CFP) and it became different conversation.”

CFP changes

The College Football Playoff announced last week that it is changing to a straight 1-12 seeding format, eliminating last year’s scenario when the top four-rated conference champions got the top four seeds.

Commissioners from the ACC and Big 12 offered that the change was in the best interest of college football and not necessarily their conferences, comments that drew a sharp response from Sankey

“I don’t need lectures from others about the good of the game,”

Sankey said Monday “I don’t lecture others on the good of the game. You can issue a press statement, but I’m looking for ideas to move us forward.”

NCAA governance

Member schools are seeking

to alter the governance model to allow the so-called “Power Four” conferences and Notre Dame to have as much as 65% voting power within rule-making committees. That could impact the football calendar (including a single transfer portal in January), basketball selection committees and student-athlete eligibility

Then there is the matter of NCAA membership entirely Yahoo! Sports reported that SEC presidents in March gave Sankey the right to split the league from the NCAA if he sees ﬁt.

Sankey on Monday did not indicate he was promoting that.

“We have 13 teams in the NCAA baseball tournament,” he said, citing his support for championships being decided under the NCAA umbrella. “No one turned one of those invitations down. We had 14 in the men’s basketball tournament. No one turned one of those invitations down.”

Pacers lift ban on Haliburton’s father

BY MICHAEL MAROT AP sportswriter

INDIANAPOLIS Tyrese Haliburton’s father will be allowed to attend Game 4 of the Eastern Conference ﬁnals, meaning his ban from attending Indiana Pacers games following an on-court confrontation with Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo earlier in the playoffs has ended. John Haliburton is expected to be seated in a suite Tuesday night when the Pacers host the New York Knicks, in hopes of avoiding a repeat of what happened in Game 5 against the Bucks.

Indiana holds a 2-1 lead over New York.

John Haliburton has not attended any of the Pacers’ eight games — home or road — since running onto the court and yelling in Antetokounmpo’s face after his son made a last-second layup in overtime to send the Bucks home in the first round for the third straight year Instead, John Haliburton has been seen in a local Indianapolis bar celebrating his son’s feats, such as making a buzzerbeating shot to force overtime in Game 1 against the Knicks — a game Indiana won at New York.

Indiana Pacers

celebrates during the first half of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New york Knicks on Sunday in Indianapolis.

Tyrese Haliburton was not made available to reporters on Monday, when the Pacers conﬁrmed their decision to lift the ban on his father “I think a father-son relationship is special,” teammate Myles Turner said. “I grew up in a house where my father was a big part of my life, and this is a very special moment — conference ﬁnals and you potentially move on So I’m glad that a father can see his son play.” Game 6 would be in Indianapolis, if necessary

to the desperate Cavaliers at home before Haliburton and the Pacers rebounded with a shooting clinic and beat Cleveland in Game 4 before closing out the series on the road.

Could it happen again?

The Knicks prevented Indiana from implementing its usually track-like tempo, outscoring the Pacers 22-8 in transition while limiting them to 5-for-25 shooting from 3-point range. The Pacers have their own injury concern with Aaron Nesmith, their top defender who has primarily been paired against Brunson, who sprained his right ankle Sunday

“Aaron is sore as is to be expected,” Carlisle said Monday “He will be likely a game-time decision, probably listed as questionable and we’ve got to play better.”

Nobody understands it better than Haliburton, who will have plenty of motivation Tuesday

His father, John, will be watching from a Gainbridge Fieldhouse suite — the ﬁrst game he has attended in person since being banned following his run onto the court after Indiana closed out the ﬁrst-round series against Milwaukee. And, of course, he has something to prove again as the Pacers try to position themselves for a second straight series-clinching victory at Madison Square Garden.

“I didn’t do a good job getting downhill and making plays,” Haliburton said. “I’ve got to do a better job there. I think I’ve relied a lot down the stretch of games getting guys in the right positions and I feel like I didn’t do, personally, a great job with that. Execution down the stretch, we definitely can be better and that starts with me.”

Fever star Clark sidelined with left quadricep strain

By The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS Indiana Fever

star Caitlin Clark will miss at least two weeks after straining her left quadriceps during Saturday’s 90-88 loss to the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty Coach Stephanie White told reporters Monday she wasn’t sure exactly when Clark was injured but was told after the game she had “something going on with her leg.” An MRI confirmed the diagnosis. Clark’s absence could wind up being a big blow for one of the league’s title favorites.

“Obviously she wants to play and, obviously, everyone wants to see her play,” White said following Monday’s practice. “But for me, it’s about maintaining perspective. It’s making sure that we address this that doesn’t affect the long term, that we take care of it and don’t overpush, don’t overexert.” Clark was not seen with her teammates at the end of practice and was not available for comment. Team officials said additional updates will be provided as circumstances warrant. It’s the ﬁrst time in Clark’s career she’s missed a game after playing in all 40 games and both playoff games last season and the first four games this year She did miss Indiana’s ﬁrst preseason game this year with a leg injury

Last season’s WNBA rookie of the year ﬁnished with 18 points and 10 assists Saturday but lost the ball on Indiana’s ﬁnal possession as she tried to take a 3-pointer that could have won the game in the waning seconds.

Afterward, White complained that New York was not called for a foul Clark is averaging 19.0 points, 9.3 assists and 6.0 rebounds this season as the Fever have opened with a 2-2 mark. Indiana returns to action Wednesday at Washington and Clark is expected to miss that game as well as home contests against Connecticut and Washington and Indiana’s rematch at Chicago on June 7 against Clark’s rival, Angel Reese.

The league’s top drawing player could miss additional time, but the Fever seem more capable of winning without Clark this season after using the offseason to bring in a large group of veteran players with championship experience.

It’s unclear just how the Fever will try to replace Clark’s playmaking ability

“Sometimes great players don’t tell you when they’re hurting,” White said. “I’m glad that she did because we need to nip this in the bud.”

Clark set a single-season league record last season with 337 assists after leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to back-to-back national runner-up finishes in college.

AP PHOTO By JEFF ROBERSON

guard Tyrese Haliburton

Sankey

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By

New york Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns reacts after scoring against the Indiana Pacers during the second half of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday in Indianapolis.

On top of the world

BY JENNA FRYER AP auto racing writer

INDIANAPOLIS

There’s a long list of racing greats who have passed through Chip Ganassi Racing over its 35 years in existence — but not so lengthy that Ganassi can’t rattle them off the top of his head.

Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya gave Ganassi four consecutive championships. Scott Dixon teamed with Dario Franchitti to restart another fouryear title streak. Marcus Ericsson won Ganassi his ﬁfth Indianapolis 500 victory in 2022, ending a 10year losing streak in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” for Ganassi.

Now he has Alex Palou on his roster, and as he leaned to kiss the ﬁrst Spaniard to ever win the Indy 500, Ganassi had a message for him.

“You’re the best driver,” the team owner said. “Unbelievable, man. Unbelievable.”

It was the expected ending of a bizarre, crash-ﬁlled Indy 500 in which Palou won for the ﬁfth time in six races this season but in the one event Palou was adamant he needed to win to ever have a complete racing resume. He’s already the two-time defending IndyCar champion and has won three titles in the last four years, all with Ganassi.

“I think he’s one of the greats. It’s that simple,” Ganassi said. “Certainly we’ve had some great drivers on our team, and he’s right there, at worst, shoulder-to-shoulder with all the rest of them.”

What a start

There have only been two drivers to win five of the first six races of a season in the modern era Al Unser Sr and A.J. Foyt, with Foyt winning the first seven and that included the Indy 500.

Now Palou is on a similar dominating pace and with 11 races remaining in the IndyCar season, he takes a 115-point lead over Pato O’Ward in the championship standings to this weekend’s race in Detroit.

Palou says the results are not solely driver based and acknowledged the work of his No. 10 Ganassi team.

“I think I get a lot of credit because you see that I’m the only one driving the car But there’s a huge team behind that is making me look very good on track,”

Palou said. “Whenever we’ve had the chance to win, we’ve been able to execute. And that’s taking into account not only the setup, but the strategies, the pit stops.

I’ve been telling you guys that I know that this is not normal,” he added. “But I’m glad that it didn’t end (at Indy) and that we got the wave until the 500 at least.”

How he won

Palou won Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by losing it to Helio Castroneves in 2021.

Palou finished second as Castroneves won for a record-tying fourth time, and Palou begged Castroneves to tell him what he’d done wrong. Castroneves wasn’t interested in sharing his secrets.

So Palou studied the film, tried to understand how Castroneves used the traffic to keep Palou behind him, and steadily improved his craft on ovals. His Indy 500 win marked the first victory for Palou on an oval

“Thanks to Helio, I was able to read the trafﬁc good,” Palou said.

“I knew that because of how the strategies were shaking up at the end that we were going to have trafﬁc.

“So traffic, even though you were P2 you were actually P5 or P4. So you had to take that into account. So I was just trying my best to try and read it and get on top of it.”

He was seeing two and three moves ahead, something he learned from Castroneves’ winning move, and it gave Palou the guts to make the ﬁnal pass with 16 laps remaining. It was an incredibly early move in a race that has been decided the last several years by a series of late-lap passes.

“I think I’m here because of 2021 for sure,” said Palou. What comes next?

Palou is still being sued for nearly $30 million by McLaren Racing in a breach of contract suit after he changed his mind in late 2023 to leave Ganassi for McLaren ahead of the 2024 season.

The two teams had been engaged in a tug-of-war over Palou since he had signed contracts with both teams and McLaren wants every dollar back it spent on developing him as its Formula 1 driver and damages accrued when Palou did not join the IndyCar team.

But he lives his life as if this lawsuit isn’t hanging over his head — or even bothers him just a bit.

It’s tricky though, because Palou is so hot right now many are beginning to openly ask why he isn’t in F1.

There’s theoretically at least one seat open next year with the new Cadillac F1 team owned by Dan Towriss, who also owns the Andretti Global IndyCar team and watched Palou beat his driver Ericsson to win the Indianapolis 500.

Palou doesn’t believe a spot remains open to him in F1 after the McLaren mess, but more important, is content where he is with Ganassi.

“I would understand (if teams don’t want me), but I am super happy where I am,” Palou said. “I mean you can see that.

“I’ve not had any conversations with anybody and I am not knocking on doors. I promise 100% I have had no conversation and no one with my (management) team has had any conversations with anybody.”

Chastain goes from worst to ﬁrst to win the Coca-Cola 600

BY STEVE REED Associated Press

CONCORD, N.C. — Ross Chastain

stood on top of his No. 1 Chevrolet in his white ﬁre suit and held a watermelon above his head as the crowd at the Charlotte Motor Speedway roared with delight in anticipation.

Then, with sense of ferocity, Chastain slammed it to the track, smashing it to pieces.

Chastain began smashing watermelon as a way to uniquely honor his family’s legacy as eighth-generation watermelon farmers. The tradition began after his ﬁrst NASCAR Cup Series race and has continued after every win as his own unique way to celebrate his strong ties to watermelon farming.

But this win was extra special, his ﬁrst at a crown jewel event.

“This thing is fresh from Florida,” Chastain said with a laugh. “It just came up from our family farm. Man, for the Florida watermelon industry, that’s your watermelons you’re getting right now, so y’all better go buy a dang watermelon to celebrate. I want to see videos of smashed watermelons ﬂood the socials. I want to see it. Florida watermelons are in season.”

Chastain passed two-time Daytona 500 winner William Byron with six laps left and won the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, capping a remarkable comeback and becoming the ﬁrst driver to win the event after starting at the back of the ﬁeld.

NASCAR said he’s the ﬁrst driver to win from an ofﬁcial starting position of last since Bobby Allison at the Richmond Fairgrounds in 1969.

William Byron won the first three stages and led 283 laps, but surrendered the lead to Chastain, who started in 40th place and led just eight laps in his ﬁrst NASCAR Cup Series victory of the year It was a huge boost to Trackhouse Racing, and a bitter disappointment for Byron, the Charlotte native who had signed a four-year contract extension Friday with Hendrick Motorsports. Byron has finished in the top three in the last three Coca-Cola 600s without winning.

Chastain said his crew stayed up all night to build him another car after a crash in practice on Saturday

“To drive on that final run in the 600 and pass two cars that had been better than me all night, wow,” said Chastain, who celebrated by standing on his car and slamming a watermelon down on the track as has become his tradition following a victory “Holy cow! We just won the 600.”

Chastain said the plan was the ﬁx the original car after the wreck, but NASCAR intervened. It might have been a good thing they did.

“We thought we were going to have to ﬁx the primary and NASCAR said, no, there is something bent (so) go build another one,” Chastain said. “That’s how we did that.”

Chastain’s crew chief, Phil Surgen said it was “deﬂating” when a tire went down and Chastain crashed during practice because their original car had been running so well, finishing fastest among the ﬁeld in 10-, 15- and 20lap averages.

But he said more than 30 employees came into the nearby race shop to work on the car, with nearly a dozen staying until 2:30 a.m. to get it ready to race. The car they used was slated to be a backup car at the Nashville race, but didn’t have an engine and needed several other additions.

“This group of guys I have got is relentless and no doubt everybody was going to give it their best,” Surgen said. “Guys were at concerts and ballgames and dropped what they were doing to come in and help.”

Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks called it a “master class” effort by the team. Byron left the track disappointed over his inability to maintain the lead.

“He was catching me and I was trying to defend and I was getting a little tight,” Byron said “He got a run on me and was able to get to the bottom of the track off of two. It’s disappointing to lead that many laps.”

Byron became the first driver to sweep the first three stages at NASCAR’s longest race, but found himself in a battle with Denny Hamlin the final 100 laps. They exchanged lead a few times before both drivers pitted with 52 laps for one final fill up on gas. But Hamlin didn’t get enough fuel in his car and would have to pit again, falling out of contention. He would finish 16th.

Chastain, running in a backup car, ran down Byron for his sixth Cup Series win and ﬁrst crown jewel victory Pole-sitter Chase Briscoe ﬁnished third.

Kyle Larson’s day ended the way it started at the Indianapolis 500 with a wreck.

Larson arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway via helicopter more than an hour ahead of the start of the race after crashing out at the Indianapolis 500 in his failed second attempt to complete “The Double.”

Johnson makes early exit

Jimmie Johnson’s bid for a record-tying fifth Coca-Cola 600 victory ended early in the second stage when he hit the wall in Turn 4, causing severe damage to his No. 84 Toyota and knocking him out of the race. The seven-time Cup Series champion finished last. “I made a rookie mistake,” Johnson said, who was making his 700th career Cup Series start. “The traffic situations are different with this car and I reacted in a way I shouldn’t have.”

Halftime tribute

Keeping with tradition, drivers pulled their cars down pit road to a complete stop for a moment of silence as part of the Memorial Day weekend tribute to “honor and remember” those service members who’ve lost their lives.

BY NOAH TRISTER

Major leagues

column. Tampa Bay has played far more games at home than on the road, but the Rays are 16-18 at home and 10-8 away For the A’s, the difference is even more jarring They are 14-12 on the road but just 9-19 at home. These are the only two teams in the major leagues that have a winning record on the road and a losing record at home. After improving from 50-112 in 2023 to 69-93 last year, the A’s were actually above .500 less than two weeks ago. Then they dropped 11 in a row, the past six of which were at home, before ﬁnally beating Philadelphia 5-4 on Sunday

The Athletics have a winning percentage of .538 on the road and .321 at home. That difference

of .217 is on pace to set a modern record. The previous mark was “achieved” in the strike-shortened season of 1994 by the Chicago Cubs, who were 29-25 (.537) on the road and just 20-39 (.339) at home. The record for a full season was set back in 1908, when Pittsburgh was 56-21 (.727) on the road and 4235 (.545) at home. Ironically, if you take out the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the A’s already hold the modern record for the biggest home-road winning percentage difference in the other direction. In 1945, the Philadelphia A’s went 39-35 (.527) at home but just 13-63 (.171) on the road for a split of .356. Trivia time

Although the A’s have only nine home wins this season, three of them

have come in walk-off fashion. Name the three teams that have yet to produce a walk-off victory in 2025.

Line of the week

Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal struck out 13 in a two-hit shutout on Sunday, lifting Detroit to a 5-0 win over Cleveland. It was his ﬁrst complete game as a pro, and he threw just 94 pitches the last of which was a 102.6 mph fastball to strike out Gabriel Arias. Skubal became the ﬁrst player in franchise history to pitch a complete game with no walks, two or fewer hits and 13 strikeouts. Comeback of the week

The Cubs began the week by losing 8-7 in walk-off fashion to Miami on Monday night — they had

been up by one with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and nobody on. But later in the week,

Ganassi calls Palou ‘the best driver’ after his historic Indy 500 win

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By AJ MAST

Alex Palou, of Spain, celebrates after winning the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday at the Indianapolis Speedway. Palou won for the fifth time in six races this season while claiming his first Indy 500.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MICHAEL CONROy

Car owner Chip Ganassi touches the winner ring as he and Alex Palou celebrate Sunday’s win.

‘It’sa

very beautiful oasis’

WhyJudeLaw

movedtoNew OrleansinOctober with hisfamily

BY LESLIE CARDÉ

Contributing writer

If you thought you just saw Jude Law at your neighborhood coffee shop, youcouldeasily be right. Since October,the awardwinning actor has been livingin NewOrleans with his family Answering questions Wednesday night at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Law reflected on the slower-paced, “nourishing” lifestyle he’sfound in the Crescent City.Hewas guest speaker at thekick-off of NOMA’s fourpart Producer’sChoice film series, wherehis film “The Talented Mr.Ripley” was screened.

Law knew long ago there wassomething special about New Orleans.

Law

“I was making afeaturefilm here 20 years ago (‘Allthe King’sMen’) with Sean Penn, Kate Winslet and AnthonyHopkins, basedonthe life of Governor Huey P. Long, and Ifell in love with this city,”the British-born megastar mused before an audience of about150 people in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts. “It was before Katrina,but once that disaster occurred, Iknew Iwantedtocome back and watch the city return to its place of glory.

“I began to come here regularly,and last year Ihad some time off after my last ﬁlm, and knew Iwanted to be in aplace that I thoughtwould nurture me. That placewas NewOrleans.”

‘It’saverybeautiful oasis’ London, Los Angeles and New York City can grind you down, Law said. And he wanted to feel creative and stimulated and be around like-minded people.

“Every dayofwalking my childtoschool (his 5-year-old with psychologist wifePhillipa Coan), going to the coffee shop and even riding my bike, I ﬁnd myself just taking in the light through the trees. It’sa very beautiful oasis.”

With an impressive listof filmstohis credit, we asked Law if he hadany favorite roles, and without hesitation, he mentioned Dickie Greenleaf, his character in “The Talented Mr Ripley.”

“This was my first big film, andIwas surrounded by incredibly talented actors,” Law said. “There was Matt Damon, just coming off‘Good Will Hunting’; Cate Blanchett,who’djust had thelead in ‘Elizabeth,’ and GwynethPaltrow,who would win an AcademyAward for ‘Shakespeare in Love.’ Ihad to ﬁnd theconﬁdence to play this prettyboy (Greenleaf), who was leading alife of leisure,asthe golden boy who was in realitya narcissistic egotist.” Goingtothe Jazz Fest

Law’scharacter in that ﬁlm wasalsoajazzaﬁcionado, but Lawsaidhe didn’t really understandjazzuntil he moved to New Orleans. He nowfrequents jazz clubs,and joined the crowds at the Fair Grounds for the recent New Orleans Jazz &Heritage Festival several times. He was also spotted at the Orpheum in December attending Harry Shearer and Judith Owen’s“radiant and racy” varietyshow, ”Christmas

LIVING

MARGARETDELANEY Staff writer

ill Afton often spends his days working with community members on how to get their lawns, vegetable gardens andfruit trees in healthy shape.

As ahorticulturistwho now works as thecounty agent, or agriculturaland natural resource agent, for St. Tammany Parish, he does presentationsatlibraries, garden clubs, social groupsand Master Gardener training to teach people about horticulture.

Here are his seven tips to have the best lawn in the neighborhood this summer

Know thegrass

Warm season grasses workbest in Louisiana’stemperate climate (with longsummers).

The four common types of grasses that cangrowthroughoutthe stateand grow well in Louisiana’s climate include: Centipede, St. Augustine, Bermuda and Zoysia grasses. Zoysiagrass is “the hot species”that is alittlemoredisease resistant and insect resistant, according to Afton

“Weneed to try to identify what youhaveout there, becausethen you can research information on howtoproperly take care of it,” Afton said. “There’safew different things for each different type.

Centipede andSt. Augustine

grasses are the most common, and most people in south Louisiana have amixture of both growing in the same yard. If large trees or two-storyhouses cast large shadows over alawn, these grasses will be thebest bet to thrive.

Bermuda and Zoysia, although fast-growing and ideal for the state’s climate, need full sun constantly

“If you’ve gotall day fullsun in your lawn, Bermuda is areally easygrass to grow,” Afton said. “It’s got areally fine texture to

it.Itlookslike agolfcourse-type grass.”

Test thesoil

Goodgrass has good roots. Good roots need good soil.

LSU AgCenter does soil testing, at $11 persoilsample plus shipping, in ordertoevaluate the properties of thesoil—looking at acidity and levels of phosphorus, potassium, calcium,magnesium, sodium,copper and zinc.

BYRODNEYHO The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)

ATLANTA Georgia native DeborahNorville said sheisleaving thelongtime syndicated newsmagazine “Inside Edition”after 30 years of her own volition and with her head held high.

demic. “When the world turned upside down, we kept going,” she said. “Wecreated astudio in my house with agreenscreen.We didn’thave the graphics but had the content people needed during allthat confusion.Wetried to be like what Mister Rogers’mother told him,the idea of being the helperstogive us hopeduring difﬁcult times.” Norville graduated from the DeborahNorvillelooks back on time at

“It’sbeen quite arun,” she said in an interview with TheAtlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday before her ﬁnal show.“It’s nice to leaveontop. I’mswimming in

gratitude. At age 66, Norville felt it was time to do other things. She is planning a longvacation in Europe with herhusband of 38 years, thenhosting the new syndicated game show “The Perfect Line,” whichisshootingatTrilithStudios this summer in Fayetteville and debuts in thefall. “Inside Edition” will useguest hostsuntil areplacementanchor

is named. “Yesterdayduring asatellite tour with local TV stations, ayoung woman said Iwas the reason she became ajournalist,” Norville said. “That just stops you cold. There’s no highercompliment thatwhat you do every day can inspiresomeonetotakeupyour life’swork.” She wasespecially proud of her work during the COVID-19 pan-

PHOTO By TOMKOSKE

Freshink failstoimpress some people

DearMissManners: It seems more and more of my friends’ young adult children are getting tattoos Often my friends sharethe news like the tattoo is some sort of accomplishment and, if the young adult is present, will summon them over to show off the new ink to (presumably) collect compliments. While Idon’tbegrudge others doing what they want with their bodies, I don’thave tattoos myself and don’tpersonally understand the appeal. Ialso admit that when someone permanently tattoos themselves at the tender age of 18 or 19, nothing in my being thinks congratulationsor praise is in order Most of the other friendswill feign interest andoffer compli-

mentary commentsaboutthe design. Iusually just smile and listen.While Idon’t want to make up fakecompliments, saying nothing doesn’tfeel entirely polite either.What do you think?

you choose the design?” “Will you be doing moreofthese?” and deﬁnitely not,“Areyou nuts?”

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Gentlereader: If there is onething Miss Manners would think these young adults should have learned from posting personal information online, it is that showingoff to others does not inspire universal admiration.Perhaps they neglectedtoteach their parentsthatattempts to solicit compliments are likely to producesnarky responses Not that you or any of their friendswould besorude. Butneither do you have to produce false ﬂattery.Rather,you can simply askpolite questions: “How did

DearMissManners: Ourdaughter is ﬁnishing kindergarten and will start ﬁrst grade in thefall. Neither the school nor our family are celebrating this milestone with a graduation or in any way differently than we would any advancementfrom one grade to thenext.

Ourchurch annually celebrates graduates in the early summer with acertiﬁcate and public recognition on “graduation Sunday.”

Ithink this is acharming tradition and an important part of being in community with each other

Because our daughter isn’t graduating, Idid not submit a form noting her graduation to the church secretary who organizes “graduation Sunday.” This resulted in acall from the secretary,

MOWING

Continued from page1D

“Webasicallylearn how to fertilize your speciﬁclawn,” Afton said. “There are 16, arguably 17, nutrients that plants need to grow and develop properly.”

The ideal pH level for most grass lawns is between 6.0 and 7.0, slightly acidic to neutral. This pH range allows for optimal nutrient availabilityand absorption by the grass.

Afton likes to grab soil samplesfrom different areas of the lawn, and then he mixes them into one soil sample test.

No rain,noproblem

If there’sno“substantial” rain for two to four weeks, it is important to waterthe lawn.

When Louisiana gets heavy rainfall, the soil is loaded up withwater.Water will penetrate theground and bring nutrients to the soil in thegrass and itsroot system.

Going without wateris stressful on any plant, according to Afton, because that limits the ability of nutrients to circulate through the plant. Acommon marker that alawn needs watering is wilting grass, or if the individualbladesofgrassare starting to roll in on itself.

Time self-irrigation just right

The best time to water the lawn is before dawn for 30 minutes once or twice a week.

“A lot of people will set their systems to come on 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the afternoon, every day,” Afton said. “The water is not going down that far,and the plant roots will get used to that and just grow in the top couple of inches.”

It’simportant to let the soil dry in between wateringso

Continued from page1D

England, wherehe

that the water percolates throughthe soil

If you water the grass too much, or too often,it could have anegative effect on the root system.

“Wedon’tever want to keep it wet,” Afton said. “Sometimeswehave waterlogsituations that can predispose plants to adisease Ihaven’t seen it alot in the past couple of yearsbecauseit’sbeen on the dry side.”

Watering for 30 minutes and allowing the soil todry out coaches theroots to grow as expansive as they can in search of water

Mowing thelawn

Mowing the lawn at the correct heightis, by far, one of thebest management strategies that can be implemented in alawn maintenanceroutine. Notonlyisit cost effective, but mowing at the correct height willhelp to reduce the amountof pesticides neededtomaintain a beautiful lawn, accordingto theLSU AgCenter

When alawn is mowed too short, often called scalping, it creates an open canopy to thesoil layer beneaththe lawn. When sunlight can easily reach this soillayer, weed seeds have agreater chance of germinating.This is because most seeds of weeds that occur in our lawn needsunlight to germinate.

“It’salso not agood idea to mow alawn after you’ve watered,”Afton said Instead, it’sbesttowait until thedew dries in the morning before mowing. It may be inconvenient, as early morningisthe coolest timetomow,but early morning lawn mowing may not be thebest for thehealthofthe lawn.

Sharpenthe blades

The most important thing to have, by way of equipment,issharp bladesonthe lawn mower

“You gottomake sure you’re providing anice,

still hasahome, and work on aproject in Europe, he promises he’llbeback.

clean cut,” Afton said.

“Those dull blades kind of tear at the blades of grass, and you’re left with anasty wound. The grass loses alot of water that way.”

Generally speaking, people should mow their lawns so thata third of the grass plant is cut off each timefor mostofthe growing season (between March and July in Louisiana) —that’s probably once aweek, according to Afton

However, if thestate gets heavier rain, especially in the summertime, the grass will grow alot faster,and mowing twice aweek follows that one-third rule Additionally,eachgrass type has an optimal length of growth:

n St. Augustine grass should be mowed at 2to3 inches.

n Centipede grass should be mowed at 1to2inches.

n Bermuda grass should be mowed at ½to¾inches.

n Zoysiagrass should be mowed at 1½ to 3inches.

Unwelcomevisitors

Insectsand diseasescan greatly damage alawn. One of the more common diseases is brown patch, which strikes during mild weather and occursprimarily on St. Augustine grass in late March or April. If the lawn greens up normally and thenbegins to have rapidly enlarging areas of brown grass, it is likely brown patch. Active brown patch can be treated when it occurs with afungicide, according to the LSU Ag Center Ahealthy lawn is more resistant toweeds and pests, like chinch bugs in the summer.Italsowill recover more quicklyfromstress. Fertilizing andmowing regularlyare essentialelements to keep grass healthy

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com.

“Thiscityhas been incrediblynourishing without being too demanding,” Law said. “I arrived here in ﬁfth gear,pretty wound up, and I’m now in third gear,which is just perfect ” Law willnext be seen playing Vladmir Putinin the ﬁlm,“The Wizard of the Kremlin.”

Email Leslie Cardé at lesliecardejournalist@ gmail.com.

who wanted to know if she could include our daughter in the list of graduates. Irespondedthat she could not, because our daughter didn’tgraduate from anything. The secretary didn’tgive up, arguing that other families were listing their children who had “graduated” from preschool and kindergarten. Wouldn’t our daughterfeel left out?

Irespondedthat she would likely be moreconfused and embarrassed (she is autistic and does not like to be singled out) at being recognized forsomethingher school and family had not mentioned. The secretary finally gave up the point after I remained firm The whole interaction leftme confused. Why would anyone even call achild who finished kindergarten agraduate? Doesn’t

graduation require earning adegree, diplomaorcertiﬁcate? Ilove the tradition of celebrating the hard work of graduates and sending them off to the next challenge. But if all of our “graduates” are 4- and 5-yearolds, it seemstomiss the point. I would love to hear Miss Manners’ thoughts.

Gentlereader: No doubt those 4and 5-year-olds are also missing the point, as they ﬁnd that it is possible to be agraduate without academic achievements.

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.

Servingupthe leftover ‘Pols’

DearHeloise: My “resourceful mom” has nothing on my Texas friends who make“Pols.” They save their leftovers and put it in the freezer.When the tubofleftovers is full, they heat it all together and serve it as “Pols.” Pols spelled backward is “slop!” —Tom,inSanta Ana,California Draining waterheatertank

lukewarm, you know that all the water in the tank is at asafe temperature to drain. —KarenCameron,inPost Falls,Idaho

Cemetery markers

DearHeloise: Draining ahot water tank can be dangerous. Oneway to do it safely is to turn off the breaker to thewater heater,then takealong shower.When thewater starts to feel

DearHeloise: Even though Iusually wearacross-body bag, it becomes cumbersome when doing my grocery shopping. Usually, there is asafety belt built into the top of the shopping cart that is designed to keep small children safe. Isecure my purse using the seat belt. No one will be able to steal my purse while my back is turned unless they also take the cart! —M.W.,inCalifornia

Cumbersome bags

DearHeloise: Iwas told this hint from avet at an American Legion while purchasing amarker formy father’sgrave: Take acoffeecan, ﬁll it with cement, and place the marker in it to dry.When it’sdry,dig ahole large enough for the can and bury it at the grave. Idid this 30 years ago, and it is still in place. Unfortunately,there are those whowould steal markers if they’re not buried like this. —LindaSaenzTroiano,viaemail Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Tuesday, May 27, the147th day of 2025. There are 218 days left in the year

Todayinhistory

On May 27, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridgeconnecting San Francisco andMarin County,California, was opened to pedestrian trafﬁc(vehicles began crossing the next day)

Onthisdate:

In 1896, 255 people were killed when adevastating F4 tornado struck St Louis,Missouri, and East St.Louis, Illinois.

In 1941, theBritish Royal Navy sank theGerman battleship Bismarck off France, killing over 2,000 German sailors.

In 1942, Doris “Dorie” Miller,acook aboard the USS West Virginia, became the ﬁrst African-American to receive the Navy Cross

NORVILLE

Continuedfrom page1D

University of Georgia with ajournalismdegree. She interned at Georgia Public Broadcasting before working as areporter at WAGATV,thenaCBS affiliate, from 1979 to 1982. After ﬁve yearsataChicagoTV station, she joined NBC News andmoved up quickly to becomeco-anchor of “Today ” But thatjob only lasted a year and shewas replaced by Katie Couric. Norville moved to CBS News, workingonnewsmagazineslike “Street Stories”and “48Hours,” then as acorrespondent and ﬁll-in anchor of “CBS Evening News.” But when she became pregnant with her second child, she wanted a job that didn’tinvolve living out of asuitcase.

“Inside Edition,”seekingananchor replacement for apre-Fox News Bill O’Reilly,was the answer “If Ihad stuck around withCBS News,I don’t know if my marriage would have lastedand Iwouldn’t have been themom Iaspired to be,” Norville said. Although “InsideEdition” was considered less prestigious thanCBS News,she

fordisplaying “extraordinary courage and disregard forhis own personal safety” during Japan’sattack on Pearl Harbor

In 1968, the U.S. SupremeCourt, in United States v. O’Brien, upheld the conviction of David O’Brien fordestroying his draftcard outside aBoston courthouse, ruling that the act was not protected by freedom of speech.

In 1993, abomb set by the Sicilian maﬁaexploded outside the Ufﬁzi Gallery in Florence, Italy; 5people were killed and 48 wounded, and dozens of centuries-old paintings were destroyed or damaged.

In 1994, Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia to the emotional cheers of thousands after spending two decades in exile.

In 1998, Michael Fortier, the government’sstar witness in the OklahomaCity

helped shepherd thenews coverage away from “Hard Copy”-style tabloid fodder andmorenews youcan use, investigative pieces andPeople magazine-style feature segments.

“We’ve neverhad the resources of the big network newsshowssowehunt for the human interest angles,” shesaid. “Wegooff main street and hit the access road forstories.”

Duringthe recent tornadoesinthe Midwest, for instance, “Inside Edition” covered awedding in St Louis that went on despite damage from anearbytornado.“That’s‘Inside Edition,’ ”she said. “Finding joy in the midst of tragedy.”

In her early years, “Inside Edition” didn’talways prioritize work/life balance.

In 1988, when she had her third child, Mikaela, earlier than expected, afrantic executive producerconvinced her to anchor from the hospital. She then wentonabook tour,her infant by her side. In recent years, as viewership on broadcast TV has fallen off, “Inside Edition” has pushed its YouTube channel, whichnow has 13.6 million subscribers.

bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing fornot warning anyone about the deadly plot. (Fortier was freed in January 2006.) In 2006, amagnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java near the city of Yogyakarta, killing more than 5,700 people. Today’sBirthdays: Actor Lee Meriwether is 90. Actor Bruce Weitz is 82. Musician Bruce Cockburn is 80. Singer DeeDee Bridgewater is 75. Football Hall of Famer Jackie Slater is 71. Actor Richard Schiffis70. Singer Siouxsie Sioux is 68. Musician NeilFinn (Split Enz, Crowded House) is 67. Actor Peri Gilpin is 64. Comedian Adam Carolla is 61. Actor Todd Bridges is 60. Baseball Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell is 57. Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Thomas is 57. Actor Paul Bettany is 54. Actor Jack McBrayer is 52.

Norville hasalso been happy to hit the road when necessary.She hasattended every political convention since 1984. She covered the Oklahoma City bombings. She was in Washington, D.C.,whenthe 9/11 attacks occurred. She has attended multiple presidential inaugurations, twopapal funerals, King Charles’ coronation, Queen Elizabeth‘s internment and two royal weddings. She continuously anchored anational news program longer than Dan Rather (24 years), Peter Jennings (22 years),Tom Brokaw (22 years) or Walter Cronkite(19 years). She wasamazed whenshe heard her tenure at “Inside Edition” exceeded even Johnny Carson’son“The Tonight Show.”

“This is akid from Dalton, Georgia,” she said. “How did this happen? I’ll tell you how it happened. Iwas a reporter at WAGA 47 years ago. Oneofmycolleagues looked at me andsaid, ‘You don’tbelong here. You don’tdeserve ajob here.’ That hasbeena motivating phrase in the backofmy mind since that day in front of the coffee machine.” For her,the lesson is simple: “When someone underestimates you and doesn’t believe in your potential, you have achoice: Youcan accept their assessment of who you are or prove them wrong.”

Hints from Heloise

STAFF PHOTO By HILARySCHEINUK

Aworker steadies their mowerastheywork to mowthe grassinthe medianofAirline Highway near the Fairgrounds on April 8in Baton Rouge.

GEMINI(May 21-June 20) Voice your opinion, take astand and make adifference. Opportunity comes whenyou believe in andpromote yourself. Dedicatemore time to home, family, health and love.

CANCER (June 21-July22) Review the details thoroughly before making a change.Refuse to letpressure tactics jeopardize your situation. Pay attention to investments andlegal matters,and questionthe motives of others.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Listen to others, but refrain from letting anyone push you in onedirection or another. Whatyou choose to do hastocomefrom theheart Apartnership thatisn't in sync needs to be reevaluated.

VIRGO(Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Nothing will be as it appears. Question, digdeep and scrutinize your findings. Participating in somethingfor the wrong reason will put you in avulnerable position.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Travel, education and communication will pay off. Talkto expertsandpeoplewithsharedinterests; the feedback will help point you in the right direction

SCORPIO(Oct.24-Nov.22) Be careful what you wish for. Aggressive behavior, snap decisionsand pressuretacticswill send the wrong message. Take your time, observe and letthe chipsfallwhere they may. Timeisonyour side.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) You've got the stars on your side.Opportunitiesare apparentifyou open your eyes and visualizewhatyou want to achieve. Refuse to sit back when you are best off enthusias-

tically pushing forward. surroundings, make amove and set agoal that excites you.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You may relishchange, but it's best to weigh thepros and cons before you step into something iffy or costly.Temptationand emotions will steer you in the wrong direction. When doubt kicks in,take apass.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Jumpinto actionand keep themomentum flowing. Pushforward andfix up your surroundings. Make changes at home that support family fun and romance or put you in your comfort zone.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Take amoment to rethink your journey. Don't act until you feel comfortablemaking achange. Wheninundated with toomuch information, you shouldstart fact-checking and deliberating. Focus on your needs.

ARIES (March21-April 19) Dreambiganddo your best to make it areality.Set abudget,fine-tune your plans and gather support to ensure success. Let your actions speak for you, and your dedicationwill encourage others to followyour lead.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Achange will give you the boost you require to get ahead. Approaching what you do best in aunique manner will grab thespotlight Don't be shy; trust your instinctsand focus on what matters.

FAMILY CIrCUS

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 gridwith 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 frommonday to sunday.

Yesterday’s PuzzleAnswer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Richard Cobden, a19th-century Englishpolitician,said,“Anewspapershould be the maximum of information and the minimum of comment.”

Ifyougetthemaximumofinformation at the bridge table and use it wisely, you will make the minimum of errors.

First,though, let’s look at the auction. What should South bid on the second round?

He should rebid two hearts, guaranteeing at least asix-card suit and 12-14 points, aminimumopening. With only five hearts,South wouldshowasecond suit, bid no-trump, or raisespades(perhaps with only three)

Then North, knowing about an eightcardfit, raises to four hearts. (Note that four spades by North fails if East leads a lowdiamond and West shiftstothe club jack.)

After West leads the club jack, what should South do?

First,heshould count losers by lookingathis 13 cards and taking dummy’s winners into account. He has four:one spade, two diamondsand one club.

Second, he counts winners. Here, he enjoys10:twospades,sixhearts,onediamond and one club. So, he can get home as long as he does not losefour tricks

To eliminate that spade loser, declarer must establishhis diamond winner

Suppose South tries dummy’s club queen, captures East’s king withhis ace, draws trumps, and leads adiamond. The defenders can win, cash aclub, and shift to spades, but Southwins in his hand and plays another diamond. With the spade ace still in the dummy, he has 10 winners. ©2025 by nEa, inc dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddlewhich creates adisguised word,phrase,name, place, saying, etc. Forexample: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

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” maynot be used. 4. proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

ToDAY’s WoRD REVEILLE: REH-vih-lee: Asignal to get up in the morning.

Averagemark 19 words Time limit 35 minutes

Canyou find23ormore words in REVEILLE?

YEsTERDAY’s WoRD —AcTuATED

today’s thought

“Therefore all thingswhatever you would thatmen should do to you, do you even so to them: forthis is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12

wuzzles

loCKhorNs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

PearlsBefore swiNe

garfield

B.C. PiCKles

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letter word from the letters in each row.add points of each word, usingscoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus “Blanks”used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

ken ken

InstructIons: 1 -Eachrow and each column must contain the numbers1 thorugh 4(easy) or 1through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 -The numbers within theheavily outlined boxes called cages must combine using thegiven operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner

Puzzle Answer

WiShinG Well

Scrabble GramS

Get fuzzy

jump Start

roSe iS roSe

animal crackerS

DuStin

the

Public

is hereby giventhatthe Goal and Conditions of the LouisianaDepartmentof Transportation andDe‐velopment'sDisadvan‐tagedBusinessEnter‐priseProgram areavail‐able forpublicinspection and/or comment.The De‐partment hasestab‐lished a 17.8% annual DBEgoalfor FederalFis‐calYears 2026-2028. The methodology andspe‐ciﬁcinformation about howthisgoalwas estab‐lished areavailable for review andcomment for 30 days beginningMay 5, 2025 at: DBEGoal Methodology andIn‐struction2026-2028.pdf Writtencommentscan be sent to theLouisiana Department of Trans‐portationand Develop‐ment,CompliancePro‐gramsOfﬁce;ATTN: PaulaMerrick Roddy StatewideProgram Man‐ager –CompliancePro‐grams, P.O. Box94245, Room 305-L, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9245. This goal wasestab‐lished basedonthe DBE Program,49CFR Part 26. Terrence J. Donahue,Jr. Secretary 141056-may15-june 1330t $421.00

of Surplus Equipment Notice is hereby given that theSewerageand WaterBoard of NewOr‐leanswillholdpublic auctionvia GovDeals for aT-301 Transformerbe‐ginningonTuesday,May 27,2025, andendingon Monday,June 16,2025. To view acompletelist‐ingsurplus itemsfor auction, please visit https://www.govdeals. com/swbno. Questionspertainingto theauction canbesub‐mitted throughGovDeals portal or Prentice Mack‐yeon at pmackyeon@ swbno.org. 142747-may27-jun3-2t $46.68

PUBLIC NOTICE

24THJUDICIALDISTRICT COURTFOR THEPARISH OF JEFFERSON STATEOFLOUISIANA NO.838-271 DIVISION "B SUCCESSION OF EDWARD BRUNO ADOLPH,III NOTICE OF FILING OF TABLEAUOF DISTRIBUTION

Marias andFrenchman Streets, designated by theLetter“K” on

thepro‐visionsofthe Louisiana Code of CivilProcedure article3281, petitioned this HonorableCourt for authoritytosellatpri‐vate sale,toAndre A. Ho‐tard andLundenC.Ho‐tard have made an offer to purchase theSucces‐sion’s one-half (½)undi‐videdinterestinthe im‐movablepropertyand improvements thereon forthe priceand sumof $118,750.00 cash,lessthe balanceofany encum‐brancesbearing against thepropertyinand to thefollowing described property: TWOCERTAIN LOTS OF GROUND,together with allthe buildingsand im‐provements thereon, and allofthe rights,ways, privileges, servitudes advantages,and appur‐tenances thereuntobe‐longingorinany wayap‐pertaining,situatedin theSecondDistrictofthe City of NewOrleans,des‐ignatedasLots15and 16 in Square No.57, on the mapofthe NewOrleans Land Company, andalso as persurveymadebyH E. Sutch, Surveyor,dated September 5, 1946, a copy of which is annexed to an actpassedbefore George E. Konrad,Notary Public,dated September 16,1946. Accordingto said survey,the lots measureasfollows:Lot 15 measures twenty-five feet,one line (25' 1") frontonCatinaStreet,by adepth of onehundred twenty-sixfeet,three inches, four lines(126' 3" 4 )along theadjoining Lot 16, with awidth in the rear of twenty-five feet (25'). Lot16mea‐sures twenty-five feet two lines(25' 2")front on CatinaStreet,bya depth ofone hundred twentyfive feet,two inches,four lines (125' 2" 4‴)along the line adjoiningLot 15 and onehundred twentyfourfeet,one

g thesquareand thus also frontingonWuerple Street Theimprovementsbear theMunicipalNumber: 6901 Catina Street NOWTHEREFORE,inac‐cordance with law, no‐tice is hereby given HELENH PEARCE,Admin‐istrator,proposestosell theaforesaid immovable property,atprivate sale forthe priceand upon theterms aforesaid,and theheirs,legatees,and creditorsare required to make opposition,ifany they have or can, to such sale,withinseven (7) days,including Sundays andholidays, from date whereonthe last publica‐tion of this notice ap‐pears. An orderauthoriz‐ingthe Administratorto do so maybeissued sevendaysafter thedate of thesecondpublication of this notice.Opposition to theapplicationmay be ﬁledatany time prior to theissuanceofsuch an order. By Orderofthe Court: /s/B. Calongne By:DeputyClerk of Court JONA.GEGENHEIMER,SR. CLERKOFCOURT 24th JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT FORTHE PARISH OF JEFFERSON Attorney: Evan Park Howell III (18957) Attorney at Law OneGalleriaBoulevard Suite1900 Metairie,LA70001 Telephone: (504) 343-4346 ehowell@ephlaw.com Counselfor Petitioner: HelenH.Pearce 142779-may27-jun17-2t $134.26

PUBLIC NOTICE 24THJUDICIALDISTRICT COURTFOR THEPARISH OF JEFFERSON STATEOFLOUISIANA NUMBER:855-068 DIVISION:F SUCCESSION OF WILFREDO ENRIQUE ROSALES NOTICE OF INTENT TO SELL IMMOVABLE PROPERTY AT PRIVATE SALE WHEREAS, thecourt ap‐pointed Administratrix EleonoraOrellana, of the above estate hasmade anapplicationtothe court forthe sale of the following immovable propertyhereinafter de‐scribed: ACERTAIN LOTOF GROUND, together

sketch of H. L. Gilbert, Surveyor,dated Septem‐ber9,1924, andmeasure thirty-two feet,four inches andtwo lines (32’4”2”’) frontonSt. Claude Avenue,thirtytwo(32’)feet in therear, by adepth on theside‐line towardsTouro Street of onehundred and thirty-three feet,eleven inches andfourlines (133’11”4”’),and adepth on thesidelinetowards FrenchmenStreet of one hundredand twenty nine feet,two inches andone line (129’2”1”’).SaidLot K commencesata dis‐tanceofone hundred ﬁfty-onefeet,six inches andseven lines(151’6 7”’) from thecornerofSt. Claude Avenue and FrenchmanStreet.All in accordance with asur‐veyofGilbert,Kelly & Couturie,Inc Surveying andEngineering, dated September25, 1975. Improvements thereon bear theMunicipalNos 2017-19 St.ClaudeAv‐enue UPON THEFOLLOWING TERMSAND CONDITIONS: (a)The purchase priceto be paid is TwoHundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000.00) (b)The purchase is being made “asis” without warranties of anykind andwiththe purchaser waivingall rights against redhibition. Notice is hereby givento allparties to whomit mayconcern,including theheirs andcreditors of theDecedentherein, and of this estate,thatany opposition to thepro‐posedsalemustbe ﬁled within seven(7) days from thedateofthe last publicationofthisnotice. Atty.: LoganH.Green‐berg;4038 OakBend Lane;Madisonville, LA 70447; (844) 999-9912; logan@sunriselawgroup. com 142609-may27-28-2t $97.20

11th St.) Washington and ManhattanAvenues, des‐ignatedasLOTSNOS.1 and2 on thesurveyby Gilbert, Kelly &Couturie, Inc.,Surveying andEngi‐neering, datedAugust19, 1978, acopyofwhich is annexedtoanact before RichardA.Hammel, No‐tary Public,dated August 29,1978, andaccording to said survey,saidLots Nos. 1and 2adjoineach otherand measureeach, 25'feet fronton Lafayette Avenue,the same width in therear, by adepth of 100' feet between equaland paral‐lellines;saidLot No.1 formingthe corner of Lafayette andBreauxAv‐enues, andmeasuring 100' feet frontonBreaux Avenue (less& except that por‐tion expropriated at COB 3503/59) Beingthe same property acquired by Estate of EvelinaAnderson, wife of/and George Petty,Jr. April23, 1979 COB 955/165 Theimprovements thereon, as of this date bear theMunicipal No 2300 Lafayette Avenue Harvey,LA70058. UNDERTHE FOLLOWSING TERMSAND CONDITIONS TO-WIT: a.)Any taxesowedwill be prorated between the partiesatclosing; b.)Propertyistobesold “asiswithnowarranties impliedorstatedfrom theSeller; c.)The

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVENtoall partiesto whom it mayconcern,in‐cludingthe legatees heirsand creditorsof this estate,aswellasto allother personsherein interested,toshow cause, if anytheymay have or can, whythe "Tableau of Distribution presentedand filedof record in theabove enti‐tled andnumberedmat‐ter, pursuant to LouisianaCodeofCivil ProcedureArticle 3303 by Gerard J. Adolph,in hiscapacityasthe duly qualified andconfirmed ProvisionalAdministra‐torofthissuccession, andthe distributionsset forththerein should not be approved andho‐mologated, in accor‐dancetherewith,by orderorjudgmentofthis Court, which orderor judgment maybeissued, pursuant to Louisiana Code of CivilProcedure Article3307, at anytime afterthe expiration of seven(7) days from the date of thepublication of this Notice in theevent no opposition hasbeen filed. Pursuant to LouisianaCodeofCivil ProcedureArticle 3304 anyoppositiontothe "Tableau of Distribution must be filedprior to the orderorjudgmentofthis Courtapprovingand ho‐mologating same WITNESSmyHandand Seal as Clerkofthis Court, at Gretna Louisiana, this 14 dayof May, 2025. /s/ Brittany Vitrano CLERKOFCOURT PublishOne Time TheTimes-Picayune/The New OrleansAdvocate Attorney forApplicant: AlvinPerry,Jr, (LSBA#10519) 4342 East JamesonCourt Meridian, Idaho83642 Telephone: (504) 669-6890 Email: appjratty@gmaiI com Designated Agentfor Service of Process: Roderick E. Perry 7939 Settlers Circle BatonRouge,Louisiana 70810 142767-may27-1t $56.72