The Acadiana Advocate 06-10-2025

PENTAGON PLANS TO DEPLOY MARINES TO LOS ANGELES 2A THE

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Senate adds $1.2B to state budget

Money for infrastructure, colleges, other projects

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

The Louisiana Senate on Monday added $1.2 billion in one-time spending to the state government’s budget for the coming fiscal year, allocating money to roads and bridges, economic development incentives to attract businesses, and improvements to college campuses, among other new initiatives.

That money comes from the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund,

2025 LEGISLATURE a savings account that consists of extra corporate and severance tax collections. It holds $3.9 billion, according to Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie.

“What we’re doing today changes the overall budget climate in our state in terms of workforce investment, economic development

Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, looks over the packet for a set of finance bills during Monday’s legislative session.

advancement and infrastructure improvements. It sets the stage for a better tomorrow,” Henry said in a statement.

Drawing $1.2 billion from the fund appeared to be the biggest change the Senate made to the budget as it passed a flurry of amendments on the floor on Monday. The legislative session is scheduled to end Thursday.

The budget package, which

STAFF PHOTO

By MICHAEL JOHNSON

ä See BUDGET, page 4A

READY FOR READING

Work begins on LNG export terminal Calcasieu site could be largest facility in nation

BY BLAKE PATERSON

Staff writer

Construction has begun in southwest Louisiana on what could be the nation’s largest export terminal for liquefied natural gas, after federal regulators gave the controversial project the go-ahead last month.

Venture Global, the Virginiabased company behind the project, said in a statement last week that it had started site work at Calcasieu Pass 2, or CP2. The mega-project, which is expected to cost around $28 billion to build, would be Venture Global’s second export terminal in Cameron Parish and third in Louisiana.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in May authorized Venture Global to begin construction of CP2 and its 91-mile, CP Express pipeline — which will carry natural gas from east Texas and southwest Louisiana to the export terminal — after the agency’s staff determined in an updated environmental review that the projects wouldn’t significantly impact air quality.

LNG exports from the U.S. have skyrocketed over the past decade, growing from around 16 billion cubic feet in 2014 to nearly 4.3 trillion cubic feet in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The Main Library played host to the Summer Reading Kickoff Celebration on Saturday in downtown Lafayette. With a theme of ‘Color Our World,’ program participants are challenged to read at least 20 minutes every day between May 26 and July 31.

ABOVE: Artist Paula Calderon leads children through a book-themed course at the library on Saturday.

RIGHT: Attendees enjoy a petting zoo as part of Saturday’s celebration.

STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD BOWIE

ä See TERMINAL, page 4A

Unsealed documents reveal abuse by former BR-area priest

pattern with a diocesan priest school, the Rev. Daniel Lemoine wait in the rectory alone while he Lemoine’s contract, said the reHe has been accused ing on the teaching staff in early 1993. continued to spend time alone showered and changed his clothes. port, part of an ongoing lawsuit It was a red flag that prompted a with them, said a report sent to the When school administrators con- against Lemoine and the diocese. of sexual misconduct meeting between school officials bishop of the Baton Rouge diocese fronted Lemoine about his tenWhile the newly unsealed redating to 1970s and a high-ranking clergyman following the meeting. dency to fraternize with ninth and cords include no sexual miscon-

from the Baton Rouge diocese, according to documents recently unsealed in court.

Staff writer Even after being warned twice School leaders at Catholic High that “he was socializing too much in Baton Rouge noticed a disturb- with students” at the all-boys

BY MATT BRUCE

WEATHER HIGH 85 LOW 76 PAGE 6A

One student’s parents complained to Catholic High leaders in December 1992 that Lemoine took their son to Our Lady of the Mercy Church, where the priest lived at the time, and made the boy

10th graders, he acknowledged how it could raise suspicions and cause “false impressions,” the report said. But the priest denied any sexual misconduct with students.

Still, school officials terminated

Business ...................10C Commentary ................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................4B Living............................5C Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C

duct accusations against Lemoine at Catholic High, they do reveal he has faced at least seven allegations of abuse elsewhere — some

ä See PRIEST, page 6A

100TH yEAR, NO. 345

2A ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Kyiv: Moscow launches biggest drone attack

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, as the Kremlin presses its summer offensive amid direct peace talks that have yet to deliver progress on stopping the fighting.

Despite the difficulties in reaching a ceasefire, Russia and Ukraine swapped another batch of prisoners of war Monday.

In addition to the 479 drones, 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine from Sunday to Monday, according to the air force, which said the barrage targeted mainly central and western areas.

Ukraine’s air force said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles, claiming only 10 drones or missiles hit their targets.

Officials said one person was injured. It was not possible to independently verify the claims.

A recent escalation in aerial attacks has coincided with a renewed Russian battlefield push along eastern and northeastern parts of the roughly 620-mile front line.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Sunday that in some of those areas, “the situation is very difficult.” He provided no details.

6 killed in plane crash off San Diego coast

A small plane crashed off the San Diego coast shortly after takeoff, killing all six people on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.

The twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed at around 12:30 p.m.

Sunday, the FAA said. The plane was returning to Phoenix one day after flying out from Arizona, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware.com.

The Coast Guard said searchers found a debris field later Sunday about 3 miles off the coast of Point Loma, a San Diego neighborhood that juts into the Pacific, U.S. Coast Guard officials. The water in the search area is about 200 feet deep. Although the FAA said all six people on board the plane were killed, authorities haven’t identified them.

The FAA said the plane is owned by vitamin and nutritional supplement maker Optimal Health Systems. But the company based in Pima, Arizona, said in a statement that it sold the plane to a group of private individuals in 2023, meaning the FAA database could be out of date.

However, the company’s founder, Doug Grant, said in the statement that, “We personally know several of the passengers onboard and our sincerest condolences are offered to those affected by the tragedy, all of whom are incredible members of our small community.”

Complaints signal split jury at Weinstein’s retrial

NEW YORK — The jury foreperson in Harvey Weinstein‘s sex crimes retrial complained Monday that some jurors were prodding others to change their minds, talking about the former studio boss’ past and going beyond the charges as they deliberate.

“I feel like they are attacking, talking together, fight together. I don’t like it,” the foreperson said, according to a transcript of his closed-door conversation with Judge Curtis Farber and the prosecution and defense teams.

The foreperson said he believed the jury was tasked only with considering “what happened at the time, in the moment” of the crimes alleged by the prosecution, but others “are pushing people, talking about his past.”

“I feel it is not fair taking the decision about the past,” the foreperson said. He didn’t specify what parts of Weinstein’s past came up.

After hearing from the juror, defense lawyer Arthur Aidala implored Farber to declare a mistrial, calling it a “tainted,” “rogue” and “runaway” jury.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo argued that the juror’s concerns didn’t warrant a mistrial, noting that some aspects of Weinstein’s past were allowed into evidence.

Farber denied the mistrial request but reminded jurors to weigh only evidence presented during the trial.

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Marines to be deployed to L.A. California to sue over Trump’s use of Guard troops to quell protests

BY LOLITA C. BALDOR, TARA COPP, JASON DEAREN and TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The Pentagon planned to deploy about 700 Marines to Los Angeles on Monday to help National Guard members respond to immigration protests, three U.S. officials said, as California prepared to sue President Donald Trump over his use of the Guard troops and growing numbers of demonstrators took to the city’s streets for a fourth day.

The Marines were moving toward L.A. from their base at Twentynine Palms in the Southern California desert, the officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss military plans.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the planned lawsuit by telling reporters that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops” Bonta said. He planned to seek a court order declaring Trump’s use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JAE C. HONG

Protesters confront police Sunday on the 101 Freeway near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles after the previous night’s immigration raid protest.

The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. It could take days to clear the debris from burned cars and to clean off or paint over graffiti sprayed on City Hall and other nearby buildings.

The law enforcement presence was heavy, with police cars blocking the street in front of the federal detention facility that was a focus of the protests.

But the clashes unfolded over just a few square blocks in an immense city of some 4 million people, most of whom went about

their normal business on peaceful streets.

On Monday, thousands of people flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta’s arrest on Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration’s crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state’s janitors, security officers and other workers.

Earlier in the day, religious leaders joined protesters outside the down-

town federal detention where Huerta was held, working at times to quell outbursts of anger in the otherwise peaceful demonstration. Protesters linked hands and at times sang in front of a line of police officers, who unsuccessfully asked people to move off the road and onto the sidewalk.

Bonta accused Trump of fanning protesters’ anger with his announcement of the deployment, saying he set off Sunday’s clashes with law enforcement in downtown Los Angeles.

“This was not inevitable,” he said.

Trump said Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed

the Guard.

Later, at a White House event, he added that state leaders “were afraid to do anything.”

U.S. officials said about 1,000 National Guard members were in the city under federal orders by midday Monday. The full 2,000 members authorized by the president were expected to be on the ground by the end of the day. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of military operations.

The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

Other protests were taking shape Monday afternoon in L.A., and more protests were scheduled for cities across the country.

Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference that their loved ones be released.

The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him.

“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,” Vasquez’s brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities.

Gaza-bound aid RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC boat arrives in vaccine advisory committee Israel after seizure

BY LAURA UNGAR and AMANDA SEITZ

Associated Press

BY YESICA FISCH and TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press

JERUSALEM — A Gazabound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists arrived at an Israeli port Monday after Israeli forces stopped and detained them — enforcing a long-standing blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the Israel-Hamas war.

The boat, accompanied

by Israel’s navy, arrived in Ashdod in the evening, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. It published a photo on social media of Thunberg after disembarking.

The 12 activists were undergoing medical checks to ensure they are in good health, the ministry said.

They were expected to be held at a detention facility in Ramle before being deported, according to Adalah, a legal rights group representing them.

The activists had set out to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which is among the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid. Both have put the territory of around 2 million Palestinians at risk of famine.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized the voyage, said the activists were “kidnapped

by Israeli forces” while trying to deliver desperately needed aid.

“The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted and its lifesaving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated,” it said in a statement.

It said the ship was seized in international waters about 120 miles from Gaza, and Adalah asserted that Israel had “no legal authority” to take it over.

Israel’s Foreign Minis-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Activists of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition board the Madleen boat on June 1 ahead of setting sail for Gaza from Catania, Italy.

try portrayed the voyage as a public relations stunt, saying on social media that “the ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel.”

It said the activists would return to their home countries and the aid would be sent to Gaza through established channels. It circulated footage of what appeared to be Israeli military personnel handing out sandwiches and water to the activists, who were wearing life vests.

Israeli officials said the flotilla carried what amounted to less than a truckload of aid.

“This wasn’t humanitarian aid. It’s Instagram activism,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said. “Meanwhile, Israel has delivered over 1,200 truckloads in the last two weeks. So who’s really feeding Gaza and who’s really feeding their own ego? Greta was not bringing aid, she was bringing herself.”

After its 2½-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian workers and experts have warned of famine unless the blockade is lifted and Israel ends its military offensive. About 600 trucks of aid entered daily during the ceasefire that Israel ended in March.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday removed every member of a scientific committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines and pledged to replace them with his own picks.

Major physicians groups criticized the move Kennedy to oust all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Kennedy, who was one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine activists before becoming the nation’s top health official, has not said who he would appoint to the panel, but said it would convene in just two weeks in Atlanta.

Although it’s typically not viewed as a partisan board, the Biden administration had installed the entire committee.

“Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,” Kennedy wrote. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”

Kennedy, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, said the committee members had too many conflicts of interest. Committee members routinely disclose any possible conflicts at the start of public meetings.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called Kennedy’s mass ouster “a coup.”

“It’s not how democracies work. It’s not good for the health of the nation,” Benjamin told The Associated Press.

Benjamin said the move raises real concerns about whether future commit-

tee members will be viewed as impartial. He added that Kennedy is going against what he told lawmakers and the public, and the public health association plans to watch Kennedy “like a hawk.”

“He is breaking a promise,” Benjamin said. “He said he wasn’t going to do this.”

Dr. Bruce A. Scott, president of the American Medical Association, called the

committee a trusted source of science- and data-driven advice and said Kennedy’s move, coupled with declining vaccination rates across the country, will help drive an increase in vaccine-preventable diseases.

“Today’s action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,” Scott said in a statement.

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Ivermectin bill heads to Landry’s desk for signing parasites like mites, lice and 2025 Legislation would types of mange.

LEGISLATURE certain The FDA has not authoallow pharmacy rized or approved ivermecfor preventing or treating sales without shown to have some quite tin COVID-19 in humans or aniimpressive antiviral quali- mals. Clinical trial data has prescription

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

A bill that will allow ivermectin sales in pharmacies without a prescription is headed to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk for signature after the Senate on Monday concurred with amendments added by the House.

The bill, Senate Bill 19, authorizes pharmacies to sell ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug that has gained in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic, to adults 18 and older under a standing order issued by the Louisiana Department of Health. A prescription from an individual’s doctor is not necessary.

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Mike Fesi, a Republican from Houma, who described it in previous committee meetings as a matter of medical freedom.

Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham also spoke in favor of the measure during several committee hearings.

“Ivermectin has been

ties, and that’s why some of us, including myself, started using it during the COVID epidemic,” Abraham said at a committee meeting in May. However, the use of the drug to treat or prevent COVID-19 has been discredited by medical experts, clinical trials and regulatory agencies, who say there is no reliable evidence to support these claims and that using the ivermectin outside of its approved uses could be dangerous.

In humans, ivermectin tablets are approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration to treat two conditions caused by parasitic worms, while some topical forms are approved to treat parasites like lice, and for rosacea, a skin condition that causes redness. For animals, ivermectin is sold in paste and liquid forms at feed and supply stores, where it is used to treat heartworm disease and internal parasites such as roundworms, lungworms and gastrointestinal worms, as well as external

not demonstrated that ivermectin is effective against coronavirus in humans, according to the agency’s website. The FDA warns that large amounts of ivermectin can be dangerous, and even human-sized doses of ivermectin can interact with other medications, including blood thinners. Overdoses can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, allergic reactions, dizziness, balance problems, seizures, coma and death.

Interest in ivermectin surged again early this year after actor Mel Gibson said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast that he knew people whose cancer had been cured by the drug.

Google search trends in Louisiana showed a 200% increase in February compared to a few months earlier.

Louisiana oncologists and other medical experts opposed the bill, citing concerns about misuse and the possibility that patients might forgo proven treat-

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MIKE STEWART

A bill that will allow the sale of ivermectin in pharmacies without a prescription is headed to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk. ments. New Orleans oncologist Dr. Jon Mizrahi said he and his colleagues have seen patients who took ivermectin and experienced liver damage, which delayed their standard treatment or may have exacerbated treatment.

Interactions between cancer drugs and ivermectin have not been studied.

“We don’t know if it might negatively interact with our treatments,” Mizrahi said.

“We could see strange interactions or decreased efficacy or decreased safety.”

In a House Health and Wel-

fare Committee meeting in May, Abraham said he could recall some patients taking large doses who developed problems. He said they resolved once the patients were advised to take smaller doses.

“They were almost bathing in this stuff,” Abraham said.

“And we did pick up some elevated liver enzymes from those particular patients.”

Abraham said pharmacy access would help reduce any stigma and encourage patients to inform their doctors if they use the drug so it

can be monitored.

Under the new law, the Louisiana Department of Health will set standard procedures for pharmacists, which include using a risk screening tool and providing patients with information on the drug’s risks and proper administration. Pharmacists may charge an administrative fee for these services in addition to the drug’s cost.

They are also granted immunity from civil liability or disciplinary action if they act in good faith and without gross negligence or willful misconduct. Health insurers will not be required to cover ivermectin dispensed under these provisions.

SB19 passed 28-8 in the Senate on April 30. The bill was amended in the House, then approved 67-26 on June 3. The Senate concurred with the amendment 31-4 on Monday.

Louisiana joins other Republican-led states such as Idaho, Arkansas and Tennessee in allowing over-thecounter sales of ivermectin.

West Virginia and South Carolina are considering similar bills.

The law will take effect immediately upon signature by Landry, who is expected to sign it.

Push to change La. primary elections doesn’t materialize

Political analysts believe change began after Sen. Ca- closed primary, said in an said Sunday. “Let’s give Re- siderable support among Rumors swirled that that Cassidy could run first leb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, interview that she is “100% publicans the chance to elect Republicans when he voted the person that the majority in 2021 to convict Donald Senate would seek in the primary with a mul- asked three weeks ago dur- opposed to the change.”

Kleinpeter said in an inter- feels is the best representa- Trump of trying to incite a ticandidate field that would ing a committee hearing on to help Cassidy split the conservative vote House Bill 592 whether the view that he had no interest tive.” riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

The State Capitol was abuzz with talk over the weekend that the Louisiana Senate could try to make a last-minute change to a campaign law to help U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy win reelection next year.

The idea was to eliminate the second primary under the closed primary system in federal elections that will begin next year. With the change, a candidate could win the primary outright with a plurality and would not have to get over 50% of the vote.

but would have trouble defeating another Republican head-to-head in the second primary.

Two legisCassidy lators said Cassidy called to discuss the matter with them.

In the end, the Senate made no such attempt Sunday, but the behind-thescenes discussions provided more evidence of the intense interest in whether Cassidy can overcome Republican opponents next year to win a third term.

The talk about the possible

state could save money by eliminating the second primary. The answer: about $3 million per election.

Rep. Beau Beaullieu, RNew Iberia, the sponsor of HB592, expressed his opposition to the idea that day and repeated that opposition in an interview Sunday.

Beaullieu said eliminating the second primary would have “collateral impacts” on the new election system.

He said he received numerous phone calls over the weekend from other legislators about the idea.

Rep. Julie Emerson, RCarencro, and the sponsor of the legislation that passed last year to move to the

in pushing the amendment.

He is handling Beaullieu’s bill in the Senate. Kleinpeter said Cassidy didn’t call him.

Word that Kleinpeter might be pushing the change prompted a lobbying effort by Republican women, including Gena Gore, the party’s national committee person.

“I don’t think it benefits the Republican Party,” Gore

Also expressing opposition to a possible change was Treasurer John Fleming, who is the main announced opponent of Cassidy at this point. Other Republicans could jump into the race before the qualifying period takes place in January.

Cassidy declined to comment Sunday on the possible change.

Cassidy suddenly lost con-

that year when he was president.

Cassidy has been working hard to make amends, speaking to groups throughout the state, raising millions of dollars, supporting controversial Cabinet nominees, winning the support of prominent Republican donors and trumpeting his visits to the White House for meetings with Trump.

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Trump’s new travel ban begins

BY GISELA SALOMON Associated Press

MIAMI — President Donald Trump’s new ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens from a dozen countries took effect Monday with relative calm, as some travelers with valid visas reported extra scrutiny at American airports before being allowed entry.

The ban targeting mainly African and Middle Eastern countries kicked in amid rising tension over the president’s escalating campaign of immigration enforcement. But it arrived with no immediate signs of the chaos that unfolded at airports across the U.S. during Trump’s first travel ban in 2017.

Vincenta Aguilar said she was anxious Monday as she and her husband, both Guatemalan citizens, were

subjected to three different interviews by U.S. officials after arriving at Miami International Airport and showing tourist visas the couple received last week.

“They asked us where we work, how many children we have, if we have had any problems with the law, how we are going to afford the cost of this travel, how many days we will stay here,” said Aguilar, who along with her husband was visiting their son for the first time since he left Guatemala 22 years ago.

She said they were released about an hour after their flight landed, greeting their waiting family members in Florida with tears of relief. Guatemala is not among the countries included in the new ban or flagged for extra travel restrictions.

The new proclamation that

Trump signed last week applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don’t hold a valid visa.

The new ban does not revoke visas previously issued to people from countries on the list, according to guidance issued Friday to all U.S. diplomatic missions.

However, unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected starting Monday.

Travelers with previously issued visas should still be able to enter the U.S. even after the ban takes effect.

Palestinians: Israel, its allies fire on crowd near aid site, killing 14

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces and allied local gunmen fired toward a crowd heading to an Israeliand U.S.-supported food distribution center in the Gaza Strip early Monday, Palestinians said. Gaza’s Health Ministry and local hospitals said 14 people were killed.

The gunmen appeared to be allied with Israel’s military, operating in close proximity

to troops and retreating into an Israeli military zone in the southern city of Rafah after the crowd hurled stones at them, witnesses said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel recently acknowledged supporting local armed groups opposed to Hamas.

It was the latest in a series of shootings that have killed at least 127 people and wounded hundreds since the rollout of a new food distribution system last month,

according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel and the United States say the new system is designed to circumvent Hamas, but it has been rejected by the U.N. and major aid groups.

Experts have warned that Israel’s blockade and ongoing military campaign have put Gaza at risk of famine.

Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians almost completely rely on international aid because nearly all food production capabilities have been destroyed.

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4A ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Senate kills extension of inventory tax credit Credit assisted businesses that paid the tax

Landry’s administration said extending the tax break a year was too expensive.

Rep. Ken Brass, D-Vacherie, sponsored the one-year extension, House Bill 383, which passed the House 98-4.

BY TYLER BRIDGES Pushing for the extension were Staff writer the Louisiana Association of BusiThe state Senate is killing the ness and Industry, the Louisiana extension of a tax break sought by Chemical Association and the business groups that would have Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and cost taxpayers $200 million over Gas Association.

Created in the early 1990s under three years.

That means the long-standing then-Gov. Buddy Roemer, the ininventory tax credit will expire in ventory tax credit aimed to assist 2026 as previously approved. businesses that paid the inventory Senate President Cameron tax.

Henry, R-Metairie, and Gov. Jeff The tax and tax credit work in a

convoluted fashion. Under the current system, parishes levy a property tax every year on business inventory in the parish. Businesses pay the tax but then turn around and receive a tax credit for that payment from the state.

As a part of a wholesale revision of the tax code in November, legislators and Landry repealed the inventory tax credit as of July 1, 2026. But that was supposed to happen in conjunction with the passage of a proposed constitutional amendment that, among other changes, would give each parish the right to opt out of the tax in exchange for up to $15 million to make up for the lost property tax

revenue.

Voters rejected that proposed change in March as part of the sweeping Amendment 2.

Through House Bill 365 and House Bill 366, the Legislature is set to give voters another chance to vote on the single issue of letting parishes eliminate the inventory tax. The bills, sponsored by Rep. Daryl Deshotel, R-Hessmer, are one step from winning legislative approval to be put on the statewide ballot in November 2026.

If voters approve the constitutional amendment, the Landry administration believes that about 40 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes would repeal their inventory tax.

The Senate’s refusal to keep alive the inventory tax credit is the latest instance where the upper chamber, because of concerns about the hit to the state treasury, has refused to go along with the House.

Senators also failed to advance House-passed cuts in the state sales and individual income tax, and they decided to spend half of what the House and Landry wanted to spend on LA GATOR, the program that gives parents taxpayer money to pay for private schools and other expenses.

Email Tyler Bridges at tbridges@theadvocate.com.

BUDGET

Continued from page 1A consists of multiple bills, now returns to the House for approval. If the House does not sign off on the amendments, the Legislature may need to extend the session.

Henry said he hopes the House concurs with the amendments, adding that the two chambers worked in conjunction in recent days.

The Senate amendments set aside $709 million for the Louisiana Transportation Infrastructure Fund, which pays for improvements to roads, bridges and similar work, and another $273 million for the Louisiana Economic Development Initiatives Fund, which funds efforts to attract new investments in the state.

Another $75 million will go toward local water system improvements, while $43 million will fund higher education priorities, according to a release from the Senate.

None of that spending includes recurring expenses, Henry said in an interview Monday evening.

The Senate’s version of the bill also gives the LA GATOR program, which gives parents money to pay for private schools and other expenses, $43.5 million. Gov. Jeff Landry has asked for $93.5 million, and the House had approved that amount, but the Senate Finance Committee cut the program by more than half. The amount in the Senate budget would cover private education costs for

TERMINAL

Continued from page 1A Louisiana has emerged as a major player in the growing industry, and is now home to four of the nation’s eight export terminals. Venture Global also owns the Plaquemines LNG terminal, about 20 miles south of New Orleans.

LNG has been billed as an important bridge fuel that burns cleaner than coal, helping developing nations transition away from the dirtiest sources of electricity as the world moves toward renewable energy. But

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Senators work in chambers during Monday’s session of the Legislature. about 6,000 students, about half as many as advocates had hoped would receive grants. Nearly 35,000 eligible families applied.

It is “incredibly disappointing” that the budget leaves thousands of lowincome and special needs students without money for their education shortly before the school year begins, said a statement Monday from Scott Simon, state director of Americans for

Prosperity-Louisiana, a conservative advocacy group that backs the LA GATOR program.

The students’ “last hope,” he added, “is that the House will have the will to restore the Governor’s proposed funding and do what’s right for Louisiana’s most vulnerable students.”

Anyone who received voucher funding last year will still receive funds, Henry said, adding that $43.5

LNG is also an important source of greenhouse gas emissions, and some question if the trade-off in pollution and major tax breaks amounts to a good investment for the state.

In March, the U.S. Department of Energy granted Venture Global’s CP2 conditional approval to export LNG to countries that don’t have free trade agreements with the United States.

The authorization was the fifth LNG-related approval from the federal government since President Donald Trump took office in January promising to fasttrack permitting.

The Biden administration had paused export permits for LNG plants in part to study the facilities’ impact on global warming.

CP2 is planning to begin exporting LNG in 2027. It’s expected to employ around 400 direct, permanent workers and approximately 7,500 construction workers, the company said.

Venture Global has proposed adding a third facility named CP3 further north up the Calcasieu River, closer to Lake Charles.

Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate. com.

million is about the same amount of money the state spent on its voucher program last year. LA GATOR will replace the voucher

going to fund it, and this year we followed through,” he said. “To make sure we don’t grow government too fast, which Americans for Prosperity does not want us to do, we want to make sure that we’re spending taxpayer money wisely.”

Some of the biggest questions surrounding the budget this year have concerned education. After Louisiana voters in March rejected a constitutional amendment that would have liquidated an education trust fund to make temporary teacher stipends permanent, legislators had to make various cuts to come up with nearly $200 million to continue giving those stipends.

For the past two years, the state government has given teachers $2,000 stipends and school support staff $1,000 stipends, but it has struggled to find the money to make the pay raise permanent.

Total expected spending for the coming fiscal year is $48.2 billion, according to Henry, who said nearly half of that budget is paid for by federal funds.

Staff writer Patrick Wall contributed to this story.

program, which covered private school tuition for Email Meghan Friedmann low-income families.

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6A ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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ALMANAC

AIR QUALITY

LAFAyETTE THROUGH 5 P.M. MONDAy

YESTERDAY

TEMPERATURE

High/low Normal high/low Record high Record low

MODERATE

88°/73° 90°/72° 102° in 1902 55° in 1930

MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

READING 63

TODAY

PRECIPITATION

GOOD

24 hours through 5 p.m. Mon. 0.29” Month to date (normal) 2.65” (2.02”) year to date (normal) 38.69” (26.08”)

SUN AND MOON Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

6:06 a.m.

8:09 p.m.

8:04 p.m.

5:13 a.m.

MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone SOURCE: AIRNOW.GOV

FULL

LAST

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THE NATION AND WORLD Today City

LOUISIANA FORECAST

RIVER STAGES MISSISSIPPI

Monroe 90/69

Shreveport 92/71

Jackson 89/67

Longview 88/70

Many 85/70

Hattiesburg 88/71

Alexandria 85/71

Memphis Vidalia-Natchez Red River Landing Baton Rouge Donaldsonville Reserve New Orleans OHIO

Cairo COMITE

Near Olive

Baton Rouge 89/73 Beaumont 88/76

Port Arthur 88/80

Lafayette

AMITE

Near Darlington Denham Springs Port Vincent

New Orleans 88/76

Lake Charles 88/74

TICKFAW

Montpelier Holden

Houma 87/74

ATCHAFALAYA

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

TIDES HIGH

First FT. LOW

Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) 7:37p 0.8 Shell Beach 1:36p 1.7 South Point, Marsh Island 6:17a 2.0 Cypremort Point 9:07a 1.7 Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) 9:12a 1.4 Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) 8:36a 1.7 Wine Island 10:20a 1.7

6:58a --8:24p --8:38p 7:03p 9:40p

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PRIEST

Continued from page 1A uncovered by his own admission — dating back to the 1970s. It’s unclear from the records whether some of those allegations covered the same incidents. He has not been charged criminally.

Lemoine was among the 45 clergy members deemed credibly accused of sexual abuse on a 2019 list released by the diocese. The list noted “several” allegations against Lemoine, but no exact number.

Almost five years passed between his first admission of molesting a teen and a decree from the diocese that he cease being a priest.

In late 1994, not quite two years after losing his teaching job, Lemoine confessed to a church official to having had sex with three boys, two of them under 16 years old, the records show. He was suspended and ordered by church officials into therapy before being allowed to resume limited duties about a year later, largely in a hospital ministry. Ultimately, after being suspended again amid more allegations of past abuse, he was stripped of all duties as a priest in 1999, the records show.

The documents, which detail the accusations against Lemoine and the church’s response, were made public after a judge unsealed confidential diocese records as part of the lawsuit.

The plaintiff is a Denham Springs man who sued last year under the state’s “Lookback Window” law, which gave people sexually abused as minors a three-year window in 2021 to file lawsuits that otherwise would’ve been time-barred in court.

The man alleges Lemoine sexually abused him from 1984 to 1986 when he was an altar boy at Immaculate Conception Church in Baton Rouge. The diocese also is a defendant in the lawsuit, which alleges church leaders should’ve known Lemoine was a risk and breached their duty of care.

A diocese spokesperson declined to comment on the newly released documents, citing the ongoing litigation.

Lemoine has denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.

Catholic High officials said in a statement that they are not aware of any allegations of abuse against Lemoine related to his time as a teacher there, where he worked parttime over two school years.

“We hold all those affected by abuse in our prayers and remain committed to supporting their journey toward solace, peace, and justice,” they said.

The diocese had filed much of its information related to the case under seal, citing the sensitive nature of the allegations and the anonymity of the plaintiff. State District Judge Ronald Johnson ordered the filings to be unsealed, with the plaintiff’s full name blacked out in the publicly available court documents, after a hearing behind closed doors on May 19.

“We believe it was important to unseal the records filed by the Diocese of Baton Rouge to support the public purpose of the revival window in educating the public about the prevalence and harm of child sexual abuse to prevent future abuse,” the plaintiff’s lead attorney, Julien Lamothe, said in a statement last week. “Unsealing the records supports that public purpose.”

‘Danger signals’ Lemoine served over 25 years in the ministry in Baton Rouge, Port Allen, White Castle, Denham Springs and Pierre Part. He spent two of those years teaching religion courses at Catholic High.

The Rev. John Carville, administrator of the Baton Rouge diocese, wrote a report in April 1993 to thenBishop Alfred Hughes about Lemoine, who had by then already been removed from the school.

“I am concerned because this has been a pattern throughout his 13 years of priesthood,” Carville reported. “Despite warnings from pastors and myself … he has shown no willingness

Simmesport Melville Krotz Springs Butte La Rose Bayou Sorrel Morgan City

FLOOD STAGE 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE

34 48 48 35 27 22 17

18.70 44.90 48.80 31.90 21.90 16.73 11.60

+0.77 -0.42 -0.60 -0.40 -0.30 -0.06 -0.10

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33.26

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19

-1.42

+0.01

18 29 8

-0.80 10.48 1.39

none -0.06 -0.27

13 15

1.84 0.98

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47 34 29 20 12 6

28.63 22.78 20.44 15.43 9.30 5.19

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The World Amsterdam Bangkok Barcelona Berlin Brussels Cairo Dublin Frankfurt Havana Hong Kong Jerusalem

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81 60 60 59 59 56 88 62 64 43 71

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Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

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SOLUNAR TABLE The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter.

Today Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun. Mon.

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11:08a 4:55a 11:33p 5:20p 11:59a 5:46a ---- 6:12p 12:27a 6:40a 12:54p 7:07p 1:24a 7:37a 1:50p 8:04p 2:22a 8:35a 2:48p 9:00p 3:19a 9:31a 3:44p 9:56p 4:14a 10:26a 4:38p 10:50p

to examine his behavior. As he grows older, this behavior becomes more suspect.”

In his report to the bishop, Carville noted that Brother Francis David, the school’s principal, said there had been no sexual allegations against Lemoine when they dismissed him as a teacher.

But Carville added that Lemoine’s “compulsion to socialize with adolescents was a danger signal.”

David recommended Lemoine undergo therapy for his behavior. Both he and Vice Principal Greg Brandao “felt that Lemoine’s purpose in teaching was to satisfy his own social needs rather than to truly benefit the students,” Carville stated.

After his dismissal as a teacher, Lemoine remained a chaplain at Baton Rouge Regional Medical Center and was transferred to live at the St. Aloysius Parish rectory in Baton Rouge. He was evaluated for psychotherapeutic treatment and began seeing a psychologist, according to Lemoine’s “delicts reservata,” the comprehensive report done years later by the Catholic church that outlined his infractions.

Then, in October 1994, Lemoine confessed to a diocesan official that he began grooming a 12-year-old boy in 1976 and had a “sexual relationship” with the child until age 15, a case summary included in that report says.

Lemoine further admitted to molesting a 13-year-old boy at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Pierre Part, where he had been a pastor from 1985 to 1990, the report said.

He also said he had sex with a teen while a seminarian in Labadieville, the report said, though it’s not clear in the records whether the youth was 16 or 17. Lemoine claimed that the teen was the “aggressor,” the report states.

It was not clear if church leaders at the time reported Lemoine’s confessions to law enforcement, but the correspondence between diocese officials indicated the statute of limitations for prosecution in each incident had expired.

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T u e s d ay, J u n e 10, 2025

1Bn

Protesters decry ICE detentions in Jena Jan Risher LOUISIANA AT LARGE

Plaquemine lock site saved by locals who see its value Ellie Hebert insists credit for restoring Plaquemine’s old lockhouse belongs to others — especially the Friends of the Lock, the local group that worked for years to save the 114-year-old structure.

Last week, I met Hebert and Dan Mooney, president of Friends of the Lock, for a behind-thescenes look at the lockhouse and to learn more about the locks and how the structure was Hebert saved.

Mooney has a lifelong connection to the locks, and he likes to point to the area’s cultural roots.

“Oh, some fellow by the name Mooney of Longfellow wrote a poem about this woman whose name was Evangeline,” he said. “Legendarily, she used this bayou to get to the interior of Louisiana.”

Mooney grew up a stone’s throw from the lockhouse and, as a kid, may have been known to ride his bicycle across the lock gates on occasion, much to the lockmaster’s ire.

For Hebert, the restoration was personal.

Once the lock stopped operating in 1961, what to do with the lockhouse became the breakfast-table conversation of her childhood.

Her family owned the local newspaper. Her father recognized the lockhouse’s value and launched a public fight to save it.

Facility has held grad student Mahmoud Khalil since March

BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer

A group of Louisiana residents continued protests Sunday and called for the release of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement complex in Jena.

The group of about 40, which included residents of Lafayette, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, made the trek to rural central Louisiana to call for the release of Khalil, who has been detained at the facility since his arrest in March following national pro-

tent of their conviction,” Frank Crocco said. “Why? For peacefully protesting a genocide in Gaza. If we allow this to happen to Mahmoud, we’re all in danger of losing our constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and liberty and justice for all.”

The facility held other students like Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk, of Tufts University, and Iranian student Alireza Doroudi, of the University of Alabama, both of whom have since been released.

Many of those attending Sunday’s protest said it was their STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP first time in Jena, a town of about Mike Howells, right, speaks to protesters Sunday across from the 4,000 that has garnered national attention and several protests Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena. from Louisiana groups. At least Palestinian protests at universi- detainees have had their rights a dozen law enforcement agents ties. stripped away all because of the ä See PROTESTERS, page 4B “Mahmoud Khalil and other color of their skin or the con-

Hotshots

Firefighter graduates take the oath Friday.

PROVIDED PHOTO

The white-tiled Dutch Revival Plaquemine Lockhouse, completed in 1909, has been restored and opens as a museum at 9 a.m.

Friday.

“My parents, my father in particular, and later my mother, worked to save this building from being destroyed by the state transportation department who wanted to put in a four-lane highway,” Hebert said.

Back in the 1960s and ’70s, people in Plaquemine were hungry for progress.

Dow Chemical was coming, and traffic tie-ups had already begun.

Residents wanted more and better roads.

“I was in school at the time, and I remember getting hammered by schoolmates,” Hebert said.

“Their parents had talked about it, I guess, at the dinner table — and they were angry.”

The plan? Tear down the lockhouse, level what was left of the locks and fill in much of Bayou Plaquemine.

“They were going to fill the whole damn thing in,” Hebert said. “None of this would be here today. The bayou wouldn’t. The waterfront park wouldn’t. This lockhouse wouldn’t.”

Today, the lockhouse bears her father’s name: the Gary J. Hebert Memorial Lockhouse — a tribute to his dedication. Beside the plaque of her father on the white-tiled walls hangs one of her mother, Joyce S. Hebert, who served as president of Friends of the Lock and continued the work her husband began.

ä See AT LARGE, page 4B

STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK

The Lafayette Fire Department hosted its 109th Firefighter Academy graduation ceremony Friday at the Robicheaux Recreation Center.

Lillian Edwards smiles as her mother, Allyson Melancon, and father, Luke Edwards, pin her badge to her uniform.

Stella Magee embraces her grandson Jeremiah, who graduated from the Lafayette fire academy Friday.

Lake Charles community policing bill gets approval City marshal can use salary to supplement pay

through the Legislature.

House Bill 134 by Rep. Wilford Carter Sr., D-Lake Charles, would create a new avenue for the city marshal to pay deputies for community policing.

Existing law allows him to

BY MEGAN WYATT pay deputies additional money Staff writer in their regular salaries with a A proposed state law that portion of the marshal’s salary would allow the Lake Charles that comes from civil fee colcity marshal to spend a portion lections. The bill would allow of his salary on community the city marshal to use that policing has been sent to the ä See MARSHAL, page 4B governor’s desk after sailing

Shooting at gas station follows fight at nightclub What began as a series of block of North Ambassador Caffery, where fighting fights during a concert continued. at a Scott nightclub has During the altercaresulted in the death of CRIME a 20-year-old, according BLOTTER tion, several shots were to Scott police. fired. Scott officers reThe fights erupted Advocate sponded and attempted in the early morning staff to render aid to a vichours Saturday as a reports tim who was shot sevconcert was winding eral times. The victim, down, police said. The identified as Kylon Calparticipants left the ais, succumbed to his nightclub and walked across a wounds, according to police. roadway into the parking lot of ä See BLOTTER, page 4B a nearby gas station in the 200

2B ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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OPINION T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/opinions

OUR VIEWS

Get ready, Omaha, LSU baseball fans coming for annual rite In the seventh inning Sunday, when Chris Stanfield smacked a bouncer through the right side of a drawn-in West Virginia Mountaineer infield, most Tiger fans knew.

LSU’s baseball team, which has won seven national titles since 1991, was headed back to the place affectionately known as Geauxmaha for another NCAA College World Series.

Late May/early June baseball has become something of a ritual in south Louisiana in recent years. And despite boiling temps that fans endured on Saturday for game one of the Super Regional series against West Virginia and the three rain delays that preceded Sunday night’s series clincher, fans clad in purple and gold packed Alex Box Stadium in this year’s celebration of that rite.

The 12-5 win Sunday night followed a 16-9 triumph the day before, and sets up a showdown in the first round of the College World Series with Arkansas, the only remaining SEC team in the tournament. But before we turn our attention to the Hogs, we can take a moment to celebrate this step in the process and look forward to some time spent in Nebraska.

Many Tiger fans have been to Omaha so many times that it’s like a second home, an annual pilgrimage to the spiritual home of college baseball. Though the games have moved across town to Charles Schwab Field from the old Rosenblatt Stadium, the spirits of LSU greats past: Ben McDonald, Todd Walker, Eddy Furniss and, of course Warren Morris, still seem to linger.

And the folks of Omaha have greeted the LSU faithful with open arms. The two groups have struck up what might seem like an unexpected love affair. Who can forget two years ago, when the first LSU team under coach Jay Johnson made it to the season’s final tournament, and Tiger fans not only dominated, but obliterated an annual Jell-O shot contest at a local bar?

College baseball has exploded in popularity over the last several years, and LSU is fortunate to be one of the true blue bloods in the sport.

Not surprisingly, many other SEC teams have also fielded national championship winners, and other teams in Louisiana have also been strong.

The diamond success of LSU, Tulane, Louisiana Tech, UL-Lafayette and others in recent years is a credit to our state. We would be remiss if we did not mention the LSU-Shreveport Pilots, NAIA national champions this year who completed the incredible feat of going undefeated in 59 games. 59!

This is all worth celebrating. College baseball has not been immune to the new dynamics at play in the NCAA, and LSU is no exception. But still some home-grown talent, like Josh Pearson, a senior outfielder from West Monroe, and Kade Anderson, the Tigers’ ace who hails from Madisonville, anchor the squad.

As the tournament gets underway Friday, we wish luck to the team and safe travels to the fans following them to Nebraska. May the good times roll and the balls fly out of the park.

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State’s Ten Commandments law should be upheld

Cartoon misinterprets Trump’s actions I hope everyone is aware that Walt Handelsman’s cartoons on the Acadiana Advocate’s Opinion page are frequently politically biased. His recent one, indicating the Trump administration is making cuts to “NOAA, FEMA, and now comes the hurricane season,” is unhinged. Handelsman has to know that FEMA is being reorganized (not cut) so that emergency disaster funds will go directly to states (such as Louisiana), which can more quickly, efficiently and smartly disburse funds to handle recoveries from hurricanes or other weatherrelated disasters.

Does he not know how long North Carolina has been struggling to get FEMA money to help its population recover from that last great washout? Of course, he does. He obviously dislikes or even despises our president.

Oh, and his biweekly cartoon contests?

The ones with the blank bubble (balloon) that he invites readers to fill in? Most of the comments sent in the contest are all good, and I, for one, don’t see how the winner’s comments are any better than most of the others submitted.

The Supreme Court will have an important decision in regards to the Ten Commandments in Louisiana public schools.

The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibits the government from establishing a religion or favoring one religion over another.” I submit that the Ten Commandments are not a religion, which is prohibited by the Constitution. The Commandments set out core principles of behavior for individuals and society, conduct which has been adopted by religions for thousands of years.

Even the Quran adopts many of the core principles of the 10 Commandments. I do not know of any religion, per se, that believes the Commandments are a religion.

They merely enumerate a code of conduct.

All religions have their own dogma, interpretations, rules, etc.

It is that which designates them as religions, not the Ten Commandments.

It should be emphasized that the Ten Commandments are not the essence of, but an integral part of, the history of Western civilization lasting over 3,000 years. They have shaped moral and legal foundations with prohibitions on core crimes; laws against murder, theft and perjury are found in every legal code. Additionally, the Commandments protect the rights of private property and give us a civil understanding of ownership, as well as respect for parents.

Remember the Sabbath day has influenced the creation of Sabbatarian laws.

Without the Ten Commandments, we would have no Magna Carta, no Constitution of the United States or numerous other codes, including the French “Rights of Man.” They provide a moral framework with God and fellow human beings. They provide a guide to individual conduct, fostering virtues of integrity and respect. They also are the sin qua non of social order by encouraging actions of trust and cooperation. Without them, we would be savages.

JOHN FRANCOIS Lafayette

Legal changes in budget bill aren’t getting attention Please let people know that the “big beautiful bill” in the U.S. Senate has provisions to weaken federal courts’ ability and authority to enforce contempt of court if government officials violate orders by the judge. It’s in Section 70302 of this legislative bill — buried well enough that there is not enough attention on this.

This is what President Donald Trump

wants. He doesn’t want the federal judges getting in his way and telling him that something is unconstitutional; thus, prohibiting him from doing what he wants.

If this part passes, there will be nothing to stop him from doing illegal things.

JOEL THIBODEAUX Baton Rouge

With Trump’s order, future soldiers won’t appreciate history What has happened to my country?

Orders from President Donald Trump have dictated that the military academies immediately purge books from their libraries of anything that smacks of the Holocaust. Do his MAGA supporters, a la David Duke, deny the welldocumented history, of the enslavement and murder of over six million men, women and children? Does Trump want us to forget that the reason America was once admired, when America was “great,” was largely because we and our allies defeated the Nazis, those responsible for history’s greatest evil?

Already, the Naval Academy has stripped off almost 400 of its library books, including those which tout the role of African Americans in World War II. Does Trump fear that our officer corps will learn about the courage they displayed in overcoming segregation and contributing mightily to winning

the war? Will the Navajo Code Talkers, whose language bewildered the Japanese and saved thousands of American lives, be targeted because they fall into the DEI bucket as well?

As a volunteer at our outstanding National WWII Museum, I am saddened to think that several major exhibits of ours, including an honest, moving gallery on the Holocaust, now conflict with the Trump agenda. Our sobering display on the internment of Japanese Americans is another. Then too there is our African American exhibit, “Fighting for the Right to Fight.” One million served under segregation. Must we pretend that this did not happen?

My hope is that our museum stands as a citadel against this Orwellian upheaval of our history, one which ironically has its origins in our own government.

BRIAN ALTOBELLO New Orleans

Cost of death penalty should be deciding factor I note the continued letters regarding the death penalty debate. For many years, I was ambivalent, weighing the urge for retributive justice vs. the rare but horrifying thought of executing an innocent person.

However, years ago, I learned a fact that made the choice of life without parole over the death penalty simple.

That fact is that it costs the taxpayers

more in legal and administrative costs to finally execute a convicted murderer than the cost of life imprisonment. Additionally, some of the more unhinged with delusions of martyrdom (think Timothy McVeigh) might actually prefer a public execution and life in prison would be a more condign punishment.

ROGER J. LEBLANC Baton Rouge

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COMMENTARY

St. George budget is balanced, but is it fair?

It must be easy to balance a ling), refused to put them in budget when somebody else is jail? Or if Coroner Beau Clark paying some of the bills. decided he wouldn’t do autopsies Just ask the City of St. George. on St. George residents?

There, leaders of Louisiana’s None of those will happen, of newest city — the fifth largest in course. the state — passed a budget last City leaders in St. George are Faimon not charting some new, stingy week that projected $58 million Roberts path. The other municipalities in revenue for next year with only $44 million in spending, in East Baton Rouge — Baker, most of that going to private conZachary and Central — also don’t budget anything for those offices. St. tractors who will provide city services.

George is just following their lead.

The budget, Mayor Dustin Yates arThis position is a shift for St. George. gued, is transparent and lean, a key goal City leaders have said in the past that of city leaders who were frustrated by the city-parish’s sprawling bureaucracy. they planned to devote some money to the constitutional offices. Moore said at Voters already feel “taxed to death,” he one point he was told $6.6 million would said.

But here’s the rub. St. George’s budget come to his office.

“There is no other municipality that is drawn largely from revenue provided put money out of the general fund budby a 2% sales tax originally approved parishwide. The revenue from that tax get toward constitutional offices,” Yates flowed into the city-parish general fund, told WBRZ-TV. where it is then used to pay for things “This isn’t a St. George problem,” that Louisiana’s constitution requires Yates continued. It’s a “parish problem,” parishes to fund, such as the district he said. attorney, coroner and the jail, among In other words, why should St. George other things. pay for these services when other cities But last year, St. George voters apin the parish are not?

Yates has a point. But he’s only partialproved a measure that will take the revenue from the 2% collected in St. ly right about where the problem lies.

George and use it to fund their city.

It’s not the parish, it’s the state constiThose collections are projected to bring tution. in that $58 million. None of that $58 milThat document, adopted in 1974, prolion is going to those three law-enforcevides a Byzantine funding formula for certain local offices and facilities like ment services. those mentioned above. In most cases, Municipalities, unlike parishes, are parishes are required to provide signifinot required to provide funding for the district attorney, the coroner and the cant funding, despite having little to no jail. But they will still get the services. control over how they operate.

Could you imagine if District Attorney For instance, parishes must provide Hillar Moore declined to prosecute any the jail, but sheriffs operate it. And the defendants for crimes in St. George? Or latter often collect revenue derived if Sheriff Sid Gautreaux (who, it must from the jail for things like state or fedbe said, will collect about $2.4 million eral inmates. from St. George in return for patrolFor district attorneys, the state pro-

vides some pay for prosecutors, but parishes provide facilities, equipment and funds for other staffing needs.

This labyrinthine situation helps drive voter confusion and fatigue. And it shows at the polls.

Moore is a popular DA, but when he asked voters for a 4-mill tax earlier this year, they rejected it soundly. Voters in St. Tammany — sometimes called St. Slammany for its devotion to lock ‘em up policies — have denied a handful of attempts to dedicated funding for courts, judges and the district attorney.

And in New Orleans, a tax crucial to the jail’s operation squeaked over the line by just two votes out of more than 25,000 cast.

Voters everywhere want streets free from potholes and criminals. The current situation often leaves parish leaders having to choose between the two.

Perhaps St. George could become a model for other large unincorporated areas. Why shouldn’t Metairie, which is not its own city, take its share of the local tax, devote it to fixing potholes and the like, and leave the bill for criminal justice with the parish? Or Moss Bluff, a big unincorporated suburb in Calcasieu Parish? Or large tracts of suburban St. Tammany Parish?

This problem is one of the strongest arguments for revisiting our half-century-old constitution. Louisiana voters want efficient, effective services funded in a transparent way. In other words, we want more bang for our buck.

The constitution — and the way it has evolved through years and scores of amendments — does the opposite.

We can thank St. George for helping to make that clear.

Faimon A. Roberts III can be reached at froberts@theadvocate.com.

Putin an open book that leaders won’t read Recently, 20,000 people were evacuated from the center of the German city of Cologne because of a timely reminder from the past: three unexploded bombs dropped on the pulverized city during World War II. A thousand miles to the east, reverberations from explosions in Ukraine are part of Europe’s present.

And of its foreseeable future, in part because of past misjudgments.

Consider 1994. That was three years after the disintegration of the SoUnion. And five years George viet after U.S. political scienWill tist Francis Fukuyama’s influential essay argued that humanity’s ideological evolution had culminated in “the end of history”: the exhaustion of all social systems hitherto considered plausible alternatives to open, liberal societies.

In 1994, Ukraine surrendered the Soviet-era nuclear weapons it possessed, receiving in exchange U.S., British, French, Russian and Chinese security guarantees. Twenty years later, Russia seized Crimea. And began supporting insurrections aimed at dismembering Ukraine.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs from 2020 to 2024, writing in Foreign Affairs, says, “The stark reality is that neither Russia nor Ukraine has much of an incentive to stop the fighting.” What Vladimir Putin calls “the root causes of the conflict” are really one cause: Ukraine’s existence as a sovereign nation.

Although there is no excuse for it, there is a reason for the failure of U.S. leaders to understand Putin. He is an open book who has been reading himself to the world since long before he published his 2021 essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” This farrago of ethnic mysticisms and history seen through a pseudo-theological lens is Putin’s “Mein Kampf.” His resentments and revenge aspirations are all there.

But are largely ignored or disbelieved by the West’s statesmen and publics who complacently believe that the end of history meant the end of toxic nonsense such as this: Putin believes Russia is a “civilizationstate” with cultural-cum-religious significance, rights and responsibilities that justify the erasure of other nations.

Which is why the Economist correctly

KREMLIN POOL PHOTO

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a cabinet meeting via videoconference at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside of Moscow, Russia, on June 4. says that for Putin “war has become an ideology.”

What Johns Hopkins University’s Hal Brands describes as Putin’s “quasigenocidal barbarities” are committed in the name of a totalizing, uncompromisable objective: the political and cultural extinction of Ukraine. Russia has kidnapped, for the purpose of “Russification,” uncountable thousands of Ukrainian children. Their return is, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, Kyiv’s “number one” priority in negotiations. Try explaining that to Steve Witkoff.

This real estate developer, Donald Trump’s designated war-ender, says he and Putin have developed a “friendship.”

Witkoff echoes Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State Cyrus Vance saying that Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev shares similar “dreams and aspirations” Witkoff wonders, “Why would [Russia] want to absorb Ukraine?” Putin explained in his 2021 essay, which shows that peace is impossible.

In 1991, Crimea, like the rest of Ukraine, voted for independence. In 2018, the first Trump administration’s Crimea Declaration said “the United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin’s claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law.”

Trump’s State Department said this would be U.S. policy “until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored.” In 2022, then-Sen. Marco Rubio sponsored a bill that would have forbidden U.S. acknowledgment of Russian sovereignty over

seized Ukrainian territory. Recently, however, the elastic Trump breezily said Crimea was “lost years ago.”

The end of history has not yet reached Europe. Writing in Foreign Affairs, Theodore Bunzel and Elina Ribakova recall a prophecy from Jean Monnet, a founder of the European Union: “Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.”

Unintended beneficial consequences of Putin’s catastrophic blunder in Ukraine include NATO’s enlargement (Finland and Sweden), revitalization of the U.S. defense industrial base and renewed seriousness about Europe’s self-defense.

In a 1951 letter to a friend, an American contemporary of Monnet said that the challenge then was “how to inspire Europe to produce for itself those armed forces that, in the long run, must provide the only means by which Europe can be defended.” So wrote someone with firsthand experience of European dangers, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Today, Dalibor Rohac of the American Enterprise Institute writes: “The good news is that we know for a fact, based on the experience of the past three years, that even a relatively small and poor country such as Ukraine — never mind the top-shelf militaries of Poland or Finland — can stop Russia in its tracks, with what has been modest U.S. and international support.” This reality has escaped the notice of “realists” who think Ukraine is flimsy.

Here’s the real problem with Joni Ernst What do you do about Joni Ernst? The Republican senator from Iowa is being mocked by liberal media and beyond for her snarky response to a question about cuts in Medicaid: “We all are going to die.”

That clumsy remark has Froma been skewered for its insenHarrop sitivity, but its greater significance lies in the bigger issue.

Ernst answers to Donald Trump and no one else.

She is not alone in this. Bowing down to Trump’s demands and caving in to MAGA threats have turned several Republicans against the people who voted for them.

Elon Musk has called Trump’s tax-andspending bill a “disgusting abomination,” thus freeing more Republicans to express their doubts. Some House members now express regrets about voting for it. Their excuse is that they didn’t quite read it.

Think about that. They regard not doing their job as less politically damaging than owning up to their vote.

More than one in five Iowans receive Medicaid benefits. Rural hospitals will be especially hard hit by the cuts, but so will other medical centers serving large Medicaid populations. Even before the Republican House voted to chop over $700 billion from the program, 28 Iowa hospitals were at risk of closing, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.

As the Senate considered the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary, Ernst was riding high as one of the holdouts. A handful of other Senate Republicans wouldn’t go along, giving Ernst the power to ditch a candidate known for sexual assault, drunkenness and abuse of corporate funds. Worse, Hegseth had little experience relevant to heading the department tasked with defending America from foreign attack. He was just a pretty boy on Fox News.

A combat veteran, Ernst made some impassioned objections to the appointment.

But when the MAGA brigade threatened her reelection with a primary challenge, she forgot all about national security.

She explained her decision to cave as follows: “I will be supporting President Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.” In other words, she was doing it for Trump.

American soldiers risk their lives for the country. Ernst was one. But then she changed shape into a politician who wouldn’t even risk reelection, that is, a job, for the country.

In her service to Trump, she turned out to be not very good at politics either. Ernst’s attempted recovery from her unfortunate “we are all going to die” comment was a not-very-clever video on Instagram, foolishly staged in a cemetery. Screwing her face up in a look of pain, she apologized for any misunderstanding. Then she made a failed stab at humor, saying, “I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well.”

She further insulted the audience by stating, “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth.” That also diverted attention from the issue at hand. The voters weren’t demanding immortality, just medical care that would enable them to live longer, healthier lives.

If she really wanted fuller recovery from some awkward moments, Ernst could have looked straight at the camera and said, “You know? I’m going to vote against a bill that would deprive so many of my constituents of the most basic health care.” And if she wanted to nail down her conservative bona fides, she should have added, “I’m also not voting for tax cuts that blow up federal deficits by trillions.”

Chances are excellent that she will vote for whatever Trump wants. That’s the real problem with Joni Ernst. It’s not a stray comment. It’s straying from her duty to her constituents and the country.

Froma Harrop on X, @FromaHarrop. Email her at fharrop@gmail.com.

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

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4B ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

St. Tammany sheriff: Toddler left inside hot car for 9 hours dies

BY BOB WARREN Staff writer

A Hammond-area man has been booked on seconddegree murder in connection with the death of his daughter, who died after being left inside a hot car for more than nine hours Sunday, according to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Joseph Boatman, 32, was arrested and booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center after investigators said his 21-month-old daughter died after being buckled inside a car outside a Madisonvillearea residence for hours.

Boatman’s bail was set at $750,000, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office identified the toddler as Ansleigh Boatman.

St. Tammany Parish sheriff’s deputies were called to the residence shortly before noon Sunday after a family member found the girl unresponsive inside the vehicle.

The Sheriff’s Office said Boatman had buckled the child into her car seat inside the vehicle after picking her up at a family member’s residence shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sunday. A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, Lt. Suzanne Carboni, said Boatman had been at work in St. Tammany and that his daughter was staying at the father and stepmother’s house in the Fox Branch Estates subdivision.

After putting the girl in her car seat, Boatman went back inside the residence but never returned to the vehicle. Detectives also learned that before Boatman arriving to pick up his

MARSHAL

Continued from page 1B

daughter, he had consumed multiple alcoholic beverages, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The National Weather Service did not have Sunday temperature readings for Madisonville, but said it was 90 degrees in Hammond at 11 a.m., with a heat index of 100-104 degrees. Slidell hit 89 at the same time, with a heat index of 98-100, according to the weather service.

Mandeville was also at 89 degrees.

A spokesperson for the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office said Monday that an autopsy had been performed on Ansleigh, but that Coroner Christopher Tape won’t release a cause of death or manner of death until the toxicology results are in hand.

“This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,” St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith said. “When a child is left in a vehicle, especially on a day when the heat index climbs over 100 degrees, the outcome can turn deadly in a matter of minutes. This case involved compromised judgment, and the result was heartbreaking.”

The National Safety Council says on average, 37 children under the age of 15 die each year after being left in vehicles. Some newer vehicles have sensors that alert drivers to check their back seats when the ignition is turned off.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a child’s body temperature can rise three to five times faster than an adult’s, and the situation can quickly become dangerous.

Staff writer Willie Swett contributed reporting to this story.

salary, according to the agency’s most recent Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office report.

Keller said using those fees to pay extra to his deputies helps to give them competitive salaries with other law enforcement agencies in Calcasieu Parish.

Many deputies work offduty security gigs, which can lead to extra pay, Keller said. But he said many part-time reserve deputies also volunteer their time to work with children and senior citizens in underserved communities.

“This way we can actually pay them some type of stipend to go out and assist,” Keller said in a May interview. “And it now frees up Lake Charles city police and the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office because the average parade may take 30 to 100 people for us to make that route safe.”

same, fee-driven portion of his salary to also supplement payments to deputies for community policing outside their regular shifts.

The department has more than 50 reserve deputy marshals.

The bill passed without opposition in both the House and the Senate and has been sent for Gov. Jeff Landry’s signature.

Lake Charles Ward 3 Marshal Nathan Keller said community policing has been a priority since he took office in 2021.

Part of the marshal’s salary comes from fees that his office collects for civil matters, including serving court orders and eviction notices. The amount collected varies from year to year.

The marshal’s salary was $165,000 in 2023, with the Email Megan Wyatt at civil fees totaling about mwyatt@theadvocate. $82,000, or about half his com.

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PROTESTERS Continued from page 1B

stood on the other side of the two-lane road in front of the detention facility.

“I cannot sit quietly by as I witness what is happening in our country today,” Ward Reilly said. “That being the total subversion and perversion of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and habeas corpus.”

U.S. representatives, senators and state representatives have visited the facility in recent weeks, as well as another ICE facility in Basile. The lawmakers voiced their concern over medical care in both facilities. Protesters at past events have called the compound’s conditions inhumane and prison-like.

A 2021 study by Tulane University’s Immigrant

AT LARGE

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By the numbers

The building, completed in 1909, is part of the Plaquemine Lock State Historic Site and sparkles in its white-tiled glory. The lockhouse reopens as a museum at 9 a.m. Friday, explaining how the lock — an engineering marvel built between 1895 and 1909 — connected the ever-changing Mississippi River with Bayou Plaquemine.

“You have to remember back in the late 1800s when this work was happening to build the lock, it was really considered an engineering marvel,” Hebert said.

The lock operated 24 hours a day for 52 years, linking the Mississippi River, the Atchafalaya and southwest Louisiana. The lock’s chamber was 51 feet high, 55 feet wide, 395 feet long and had the capacity to hold more than 8 million gallons of water. Its floor was between 7 and 11 feet thick.

Colorized photos on display in the new museum show workers driving 8,803 wooden pilings to support the lock, alongside graphics and a video that explain how the system worked.

“Yes, 8,803 of these piles, 30 feet deep, set on 3-foot centers during the construction,” Mooney said.

STAFF PHOTO By JAN RISHER

Ellie Hebert and Dan Mooney walk across the bridge over Bayou Plaquemine where the old locks used to operate. work wasn’t glamorous.

Dirt near the banks of the Mighty Mississippi moves and can cause cracks in buildings — even those built to withstand the elements like the Dutch Revival-style lockhouse building.

“I think this literally is the crown jewel of the city,” Hebert said. “We have the most beautiful historic district here. We have our national award-winning waterfront park — and we have the Mississippi River levee right here where people can go sit on benches and look out on the river.”

The lockhouse is perched

at the top of all of that, right across the street from St. John Church, which Hebert describes as “one of the most beautiful churches in south Louisiana, if not in the whole state.”

More than a century after the Plaquemine Lock opened its gates to boats navigating the uncertain waters between bayou and river, the lockhouse opens its doors again — this time, to the stories that built a town, and the people who refused to let them sink.

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

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Continued from page 1B Police later learned a second person had been wounded and was transported to a hospital by a private vehicle. That person is in stable condition.

If anyone has any information regarding this incident, contact the Scott Police Department at (337) 233-3715 or Lafayette Crime Stoppers at (337) 232-8477.

Man caught over a year after escape A man who escaped from Acadian Medical Center more than a year ago has been captured, Eunice police said.

Andrew Morrison, 47, of Eunice, was arrested Sunday after escaping treatment in May 2024.

Eunice police said they received information Sunday from an anonymous source on the whereabouts of Morrison.

While en route to serve a warrant, police observed Morrison and a woman enter a vehicle and leave a residence. When officers attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver tried to elude them but was stopped a few blocks later.

Morrison exited the vehicle and began running away. After a brief foot pursuit and struggle, officers were able to take Morrison into custody, officials said.

Police said Morrison had illegal narcotics and drug paraphernalia in his possession.

He was transported to the St. Landry Parish jail, where he was booked on the original counts of aggravated flight from an officer, possession with intent to distribute amphetamine, aggravated criminal property damage, possession of drug paraphernalia, simple escape and traffic violations.

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From catch-all to cohesive Over time, the lockhouse became a cluttered community historical catch-all. People brought in old things.

The displays lacked a clear narrative. The restoration aimed to create a cohesive, compelling exhibit that truly tells the story of the lock — from my perspective, it achieved its goal.

Some of the preservation

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laration from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The judge, Jamee E. Comans, found that the government had established that Khalil being in the U.S. posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences,” according to The Associated Press.

On May 28, Judge Michael STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP E. Farbiarz ruled that the use of the rarely cited law The Rev. Raymond Brown, was likely unconstitutional. center, speaks to protesters Still, the judge chose not to gathered across from the free Khalil.

Central Louisiana ICE Khalil, who missed the Processing Center on Sunday. birth of his child while being held in the complex, recentRights Clinic found “pro- ly wrote that his detainment longed and punitive” deten- has caused “irreparable tion of immigrants who land harm” to his life. in Jena or other ICE facilities in Louisiana, with little Stephen Marcantel chance of success on their writes for The Acadiana pleas for relief.

Advocate as a Report for An immigration judge on America corps member.

April 10 declared Khalil de- Email him at stephen. portable as a national secu- marcantel@theadvocate. rity risk in response to a dec- com.

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T u e s d ay, J u n e 10, 2025

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LSU swinging bats way Johnson intends

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

Tyrann Mathieu alongside Justin Reid, the marquee free-agent addition this offseason. With Mathieu not in attendance for the previous stretch, third-year safety Jordan Howden largely had worked with Reid.

And we’ll get a glimpse at the team’s defensive line rotation.

The voluntary workouts, for instance, featured a lot of defensive lineman Jonah Williams.

Once his hit dribbled through the right side of the infield, Chris Stanfield turned and pointed to the LSU dugout.

The speedy nine-hole hitter was still on his way to first base.

Yet Stanfield already knew that his timely seventh-inning hit had turned the Tigers’ 12-5 super regional-clinching win over West Virginia back into a lopsided affair.

When he stepped to the plate, three runners were on with no outs. The circumstance added weight to his at-bat, which had become so important that coach Jay Johnson considered bringing in a pinch hitter.

But he decided against it and stuck with Stanfield, a .309 hitter who recognized a pitch away and slapped it out of the reach of the infield shift.

“I was just excited,” Stanfield said about his hit that turned a 6-4 game into 8-4. “I came through in that moment and was really just pointing at the team saying, ‘Let’s go, let’s keep it going.’ ” LSU added four more runs that inning as part of a strong weekend at the plate.

Its reward is a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for games inside pitcher-friendly Charles Schwab Field.

The ballpark can swallow power hitters alive. It also can play well for smart batters, the kind who exemplify the ideal offensive version of Johnson’s fourth Tigers team.

This LSU squad, Johnson has said, is built to turn long, competitive at-bats into walks. Then turn those free bases into runners sitting in scoring position.

Then find a way to smack an extra-base hit, turning those runners sitting in scoring position into runs.

On Sunday, the Tigers scored 12 runs.

They plated 10 of them before they even hit their first homer, Jake Brown’s deep, two-run shot to center field that capped LSU’s scoring for its milestone 20th trip to Omaha.

“It manifests itself into free bases,” Johnson said, “extra-base hits, hitting with runners in scoring position and putting up 12 runs. I mean, there were so many key at-bats in that deal tonight.

It would be a game that you would want to put on a tape and show future teams, like, ‘This is how we play offensive baseball at LSU.’ ” On Saturday, LSU hit two grand slams.

Its hitters had accomplished that feat in an NCAA Tournament game only once before in program history, and not since 1998.

The Tigers notched 16 runs against West Virginia on Saturday, then stacked 12 more on Sunday. Before that series, LSU had never in its illustrious history scored at least 10 runs in consecutive super regional contests.

This season, LSU had recorded at

ä See SAINTS, page 3C

ä See LSU, page 3C

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

The Tigers cheer as LSU right fielder Josh Pearson raises the regional trophy after defeating West Virginia in the Baton Rouge super regional on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.

WORN ROAD

Unexpected bumps emerged, but LSU cleared familiar path to Omaha Long after the last revelers rounded third and danced off for home — and well past the time LSU players wrapped up the high-fives, hugs and Mardi Gras bead-bedecked selfies with family and friends on the field — the word shone into the night like a beacon from Alex Box Stadium’s huge video board in left field: “Geauxmaha” That’s Cajun French for: “LSU is going to Omaha. Again.”

Like the song goes, the Tigers are back home in Omaha — their summer home away from home — playing in the

Scott Rabalais College World Series for the 20th time since 1986. That’s so often it seems like LSU is always there. That a trip up the Mississippi River with a left on the Missouri is always part of the plan.

This year’s Road to Omaha was any-

thing but glass smooth. More like one of our pothole-filled South Louisiana streets (I’d name one, but I don’t want to make thousands of our other streets jealous), full of rough spots and unexpected bumps.

First there was last week’s NCAA regional at The Box. Remember the regional, when LSU lost to lowly Little Rock (RPI: 243) 10-4? No revelry then, just retching. Tiger fans were really reaching for the antacids when LSU trailed the Trojans 5-1 in the

ä See RABALAIS, page 3C

This week promises fuller picture of Saints

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

The New Orleans Saints’ threeday mandatory minicamp begins this week, and for the first two days, fans will get the chance to watch them in person.

The franchise made tickets available to the public after holding training camp in California last summer, and they quickly were claimed.

“I think they’ll see a team

that’s competing, having fun,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said when asked what he wants the fans to take away from the sessions. “Hopefully there’s juice and there’s energy. Come Sunday in the fall, we’ll be needing them as well.”

With several practices on deck — the last before a sixweek break until training camp — here are four key areas worth monitoring when camp starts Tuesday.

Defense in full With offseason workouts voluntary until this point, this week’s minicamp will present the first chance to see the Saints as a whole. And that should have a more significant impact on defense, with several key veterans set to return.

This week should provide a better look at how defensive coordinator Brandon Staley plans to use someone such as safety

Pels GM Graham leaves post to join Hawks

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

A longtime member of the New Orleans Pelicans is leaving.

Pelicans general manager Bryson Graham is finalizing a deal to become senior vice president of basketball operations for the Atlanta Hawks, a source confirmed.

ESPN was the first to report.

Graham spent 15 seasons with the Pelicans, starting as an intern in 2010 when he was hired by Dell Demps. Some of his early duties included things such as making coffee runs for the staff.

“I try to still have that same mentality,” Graham said in an interview last year. “There is nothing too small for me to do. The people that work here, everybody is bust-

ing their butt and working towards the same goal. Whatever needs to be done, let’s get it done.”

That mentality led to Graham’s ascension. His first promotion took him from intern to video coordinator. Eventually, he became an assistant general manager and last year was promoted to general manager by David Griffin, the Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations at the time.

Griffin was fired in April after the Pelicans finished the season 21-61.

Graham’s main role was helping the Pelicans find talent in the draft. Last year, the Pelicans got one of the steals of the draft when they selected center Yves Missi from Baylor. Many expected the 21st overall pick to be more of a project, but Missi ended up as a

second-team pick on the NBA AllRookie team.

Joe Dumars, hired in April as executive vice president of basketball operations to replace Griffin, said in an interview last week that Graham would remain as general manager. That now changes with Graham heading to Atlanta.

The responsibility of finding talent now belongs to Troy Weaver.

Dumars’ first hire was making Weaver his senior vice president of basketball operations.

Weaver served as an adviser with the Washington Wizards this season. Prior to that, he spent four seasons as general manager of the Detroit Pistons.

“Troy has a unique skillset,”

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Pelicans general manager Bryson Graham, left, and executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin, talk at the Smoothie King Center on Sept. 30. After Graham left for the Hawks, neither remains ä See PELICANS, page 3C with the organization.

2C ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Saints OL Ramczyk officially retires from NFL

It has been nearly two years since Ryan Ramczyk saw a football field for the New Orleans Saints, and the team now has made his long-expected retirement from football official.

Ramczyk, who was one of the most important players of the Saints’ ballyhooed 2017 NFL draft class, was placed on the reserve/ retired list Monday afternoon. He is the second notable Saints player to officially retire this month, joining quarterback Derek Carr.

Though this news became official Monday, it has long been in the works. Ramczyk was effectively retired last year, when he spent virtually the entire season away from the team. By delaying the announcement for a year, Ramczyk gave New Orleans significant salary-cap flexibility.

Jaguars make Cooke highest-paid punter

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By AURELIEN MORISSARD

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, right, hugs Italy’s Jannik Sinner after winning the French Open at Roland-Garros stadium on Sunday in Paris.

Alcaraz, Sinner take rivalry to Wimbledon

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer

The takeaways from Carlos Alcaraz’s fifth-set tiebreaker victory over Jannik Sinner in the riveting and record-breaking French Open men’s final were multiple and significant.

Let’s start with this: Anyone worried about how men’s tennis would survive in the post-Big Three era can rest easy. Alcaraz and Sinner produced 5 1/2 hours of evidence Sunday that the game is in good hands — and that their rivalry will be, and perhaps already is, a transcendent one.

Take it from no less an authority than Roger Federer. The retired owner of 20 Grand Slam titles, and rival of Rafael Nadal (22 majors) and Novak Djokovic (24), began a post on social media by declaring, “3 winners in Paris today,” then listed Alcaraz, Sinner and “the beautiful game of tennis. What a match!”

It would be shocking if there weren’t many more of these to come — perhaps as soon as at Wimbledon, where play begins on June 30 and No. 2-ranked Alcaraz is the two-time defending champion.

His comeback against No. 1 Sinner from two sets down, then three championship points down, to win 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) was unprecedented at Roland-Garros. It was unforgettable.

Alcaraz’s coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, described his guy’s best trait this way: “His strength is (to) keep believing all the time, until the last ball is gone.”

Alcaraz has 5 Grand Slam titles

Alcaraz’s five Grand Slam titles at 22 — that’s the age at which Nadal, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras also got to five; no one’s done it younger — show how special he is. So does the Spaniard’s 5-0 record in major finals, a career start surpassed among men only by Federer’s 7-0.

Sinner is pretty good, too.

Tuesday marks a full year that Sinner, Alcaraz could renew rivalry he has been ranked No. 1. He This was the 12th Alcaraz-Sin- has reached the finals of his last ner meeting, the first in a major eight tournaments, a run last accomplished by Djokovic a definal.

“Hopefully not the last time,” cade ago. He has won three maAlcaraz said. “Every time that we jors. He has won 47 of his last 50 face ... each other, we raise our matches. level to the top.”

Notably, all three of those

losses came against — yes, you guessed it — Alcaraz. That hearkens back to the days when Federer would beat everyone other than Nadal.

Sinner had claimed 31 Slam sets in a row right up until the moment he was up 2-0 against Alcaraz.

What was unmistakable to anyone watching in-person at Court Philippe-Chatrier or following along from afar on TV is that Alcaraz vs. Sinner is a must-see.

“The level,” Alcaraz said, “was insane.”

Alcaraz, Sinner dominating Sinner’s take?

“I’m happy to be part of this,” the 23-year-old Italian said.

“Would be even more happy if I would have ... the big trophy.”

As with any great rivalry — think Evert vs. Navratilova or Borg vs. McEnroe or Federer vs. Nadal, no first names needed — Alcaraz vs. Sinner provides a clash of excellence and a study in contrasts.

Alcaraz displays emotion, pumping his fists, pointing to an ear to ask for more noise, yelling “Vamos!” Sinner is rather contained.

Sinner’s long limbs get him to nearly every ball. Alcaraz’s motor reaches speeds no one can equal.

Sinner’s ball-striking is pure. Alcaraz’s drop shots are legendary.

Both hammer groundstrokes that leave opponents exasperated and spectators gasping.

Both can improve. Sinner has never won a match that lasted four hours. Alcaraz loses focus on occasion.

Both are eager to improve.

When Sinner returned from a three-month doping ban last month, he introduced a new, angled return stance. Alcaraz tweaked his serve and backhand technique.

Who knows what heights each can reach? They split the past six Slam trophies, and eight of the past 11.

Federer predicted big champions Federer saw this coming.

During an interview with The Associated Press in December 2019, Federer predicted someone would win major after major the way he, Nadal and Djokovic did.

Just didn’t know there would be a Big Two doing it.

“It’s going to happen, inevitably,” Federer said. “And it’s almost not going to be that hard, maybe ... because the players will have seen what we did. And they didn’t see just one guy doing it, once every 30 years. They saw like three guys doing it, in the shortest period of time. ... Players are going to believe more.”

Niners embrace urgency after disappointing 2024 season

BY JOSH DUBOW

AP pro football writer SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The vibes were off from the start of last season for the San Francisco 49ers.

Contract disputes provided a cloud over the team throughout the spring and summer; the Super Bowl hangover and a third straight short offseason sapped some energy; and a lack of roster turnover led to some staleness around the Niners.

Those factors and a bevy of injuries turned a Super Bowl contender into a 6-11 also-ran, leading coach Kyle Shanahan to deliver a blunt message at the end of the season about what needed to change in 2025.

“I felt guys weren’t ready to come back,” Shanahan said about the 2024 season. “I understood that. But I told them how I won’t really understand it this year.

Not that that was right or wrong, but I couldn’t comprehend it.

We’re off five weeks earlier. We all know how disappointed we are and a lot of us have played a lot of football here. But we’re going to have a team that doesn’t know what we’ve done in the past or how you guys have earned a lot of stuff, we need to show them.”

As the 49ers begin their final week of the offseason program on Monday, the change has been palpable.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEFF CHIU

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan speaks at a news conference after practice on May 29 in Santa Clara, Calif.

The team was able to resolve its major contract questions early in the offseason by reaching extensions with quarterback Brock Purdy, linebacker Fred Warner and tight end George Kittle without any drama or acrimony.

The attendance for the voluntary offseason program was high with most of the key players on hand to help teach the rookies and other newcomers the standard for how the 49ers operate. Star left tackle Trent Williams was one of the few notable players not on hand for the first week of on-field practices but was back in town last week.

Shanahan stressed the impor-

tance of showing up in April and the players listened, leading to the successful spring. Shanahan said he didn’t have to make any requests after the season-ending meeting and the players said there was no need for a group discussion about making sure everyone was bought in for this season.

“I didn’t think we had to do all that,” Warner said. “Kyle made a point of that at the end of last season when he said how important it was to be back for this phase because of how last season went, and we knew what we were getting ourselves into with a whole new group, a lot of young players.

We all made the decision on our

own to be back here.”

The urgency that may have been lacking at times in 2024 is back this offseason as the Niners want to avoid any sort of repeat of last year’s disappointment.

San Francisco had lost in the NFC title games following the 2021 and 2022 seasons and then fell just short in the Super Bowl in the 2023 season, losing the title game in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Those deep runs led to reduced time off with some players choosing rest over rushing back to be on hand for the entire offseason program.

That was not the case this spring as the team plans to incorporate several new starters on both sides of the ball following a roster purge in March.

“When your season ends and you’re not making the playoffs, your desire to be back in the building and to get that taste out of your mouth, I think is expedited,” Kittle said. “Guys want to be back for it. When you’re playing in the middle of February, you kind of need an extra month.

That’s why a lot of guys don’t show up to phase two or stuff like that. But there is an importance of phase one, the team building stuff. Kyle wanted us to be back. I think guys were going to be here regardless just because they were ready to go back and play football.”

Jacksonville’s Logan Cooke is now the NFL’s highest-paid punter.

Cooke signed a four-year, $16 million contract extension with the Jaguars, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

A second-team All-Pro selection in 2024, Cooke was entering the final year of his second deal with the team. He had been scheduled to make $3 million in 2025 and now will get a raise after making his first Pro Bowl last year.

The Jaguars drafted Cooke in the seventh round from Mississippi State in 2018, and he’s the team’s longest-tenured player. Cooke, who will turn 30 next month, established career-highs with a gross putting average of 49.4 yards and a net average of 44.8 yards last season.

Cavaliers guard Garland has surgery on big toe

Cavaliers guard Darius Garland had surgery Monday on the injured left big toe that hampered him during Cleveland’s playoff run.

The Cavaliers said the procedure was performed by Dr. Nicholas Strasser at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

The All-Star guard missed the final two games of the regular season and four games during the playoffs with the injury, which was described as a sprain.

“Definitely wasn’t myself. It was pretty uncomfortable but trying to do everything to win the game. It was frustrating because I wasn’t 100 percent,” Garland said after the Cavaliers lost to the Indiana Pacers in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Boisson up 296 spots; Sinner stays No. 1 man

Lois Boisson, the revelation of the French Open, has rocketed 296 places up the WTA rankings after her fairy-tale run at Roland-Garros.

The Frenchwoman, who was 361st before making it to the semifinals at the clay-court Grand Slam last week, jumped to 65th in the latest edition of the rankings published Monday.

Coco Gauff defeated Boisson in the semifinals en route to her first French Open title. There was no change at the top of the rankings, with Aryna Sabalenka leading the pack ahead of Gauff and her fellow American Jessica Pegula.

After retaining his title on Sunday in the longest ever final at Roland-Garros against top-ranked Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz remained second in the men’s ATP rankings behind his Italian rival.

Braves lose rookie RHP to Tommy John surgery

A.J. Smith-Shawver underwent Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of the season for the slumping Atlanta Braves.

Smith-Shawver had reconstructive surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, knocking the rookie right-hander out for the rest of this season and likely the start of next season. Keith Meister performed the procedure in Arlington, Texas.

“It was a complete Tommy John, and now he starts the long road of the rehab,” manager Brian Snitker said. “Everything went well.”

Braves officials already had announced May 30 that SmithShawver had a torn UCL. SmithShawver, 22, had gone 3-2 with a 3.86 ERA in nine starts this season.

He had struck out 42 batters in 441/ 3 innings.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● 3C

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Bertman celebrates LSU’s latest CWS trip in person

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

Skip Bertman has been through a lot since he retired from coaching. The loss of his beloved wife of 63 years, Sandy Bertman, in March. The loss of his home to a fire about 20 years ago.

Recently, Bertman had a fall at a restaurant that left him with a fracture in his hip. But that was not keeping him off the field Sunday night at Alex Box Stadium — the field named after him — as he helped celebrate the LSU baseball team’s 20th trip to the College World Series with a 12-5 super regional victory over West Virginia.

“I’m very, very proud,” Bertman said, wearing a “CHAMPS” cap given to LSU players and coaches

as the victory celebration swirled around him. “Jay (Johnson, LSU’s current coach) is terrific. His staff is terrific. But tonight, the crowd was terrific, they made a difference.”

Bertman particularly was impressed by the standing ovation given to LSU senior Josh Pearson for his last home at-bat in the ninth inning. Pearson is the only player who has been with Johnson his entire four years at LSU. “That can’t happen anywhere else but here,” Bertman said.

The founder of the LSU baseball dynasty, Bertman coached the Tigers from 1984-2001. He led the program from irrelevance to national prominence, including the program’s first trip to the College World Series in 1986.

LSU made a total of 11 trips to Omaha under Bertman, winning five CWS championships from 1991-2000. He went 870-330-3, a career winning percentage of .724, including an 89-29 record (.754) in the NCAA Tournament that is the highest by any coach ever.

Soon after retiring from coaching in 2001, Bertman served as the LSU athletic director from 200108.

Bertman, who turned 87 in May, moves with a walker now. But he said he still intends on making the trek to Omaha at some point during the College World Series.

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Former LSU coach Skip Bertman, left, talks on the field after LSU’s win over West Virginia to clinch the super regional and a trip to the College World Series on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.

PELICANS

Continued from page 1C

both worked with the Pistons, their time in Detroit didn’t overlap.

“Hiring Troy was an easy decision for me,” Dumars said. ”Troy and I go way back. We have known each other forever, but we had never worked together before. This was a great opportunity for us to work together for the first time.”

With Graham’s departure, the top three executives from last season (Griffin, Graham and Swin Cash) are no longer with the team.

Dumars said in an interview last week. “His ability to identify talent in this league is elite. You look at the Detroit team in the playoffs, those were predominantly guys that Troy drafted.

Not only that, but Troy was in Oklahoma City when they had Harden and Durant and Westbrook and those guys. So he has a long track record of being able to identify players at an elite level.”

Email Rod Walker at rwalker@ Although Dumars and Weaver theadvocate.com.

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C Will he see the same workload now that the others are back?

Rattler the front-runner?

STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU pitcher Chase Shores watches his teammates rush the field after throwing the final strike to end Baton Rouge super regional against West Virginia on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C winner-take-all regional final before rallying to win 10-6.

In two super regional victories over West Virginia, the Tigers didn’t lose and didn’t really come close, winning 16-9 and 12-5. It marked the first time in 17 super regional appearances that LSU scored in double digits in two games.

“I know our fans like doubledigit runs almost as much as their coach does,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said with a self-satisfied grin.

The Mountaineers were a game bunch of birds, roughing up the Tigers’ vaunted dynamic pitching duo of Kade Anderson on Saturday and Anthony Eyanson on Sunday. But in the end, the West Virginians were their own undoing.

The Tigers scored those 28 combined runs on just 18 total hits. They scored 16 runs Saturday on eight hits — the fewest hits resulting in that many runs in NCAA super regional history, per ESPN — and had 12 runs on 10 hits Sunday. Making up the difference? The Tigers reached or advanced on base a total of 30 other times on West Virginia walks (17), hit batters (nine) and errors (four).

The Tigers showed discipline at the plate, allowing the Mountaineers to do themselves in free base after free base. When LSU did weave in a home run here or a double there, the result was devastating. A landslide that brought the Mountaineers down.

“It would be a game that you

LSU

Continued from page 1C least 10 hits in at least four straight games only once after Southeastern Conference play began. Then the Tigers started playing NCAA Tournament games, and they’ve since cleared that threshold in all but one of the six postseason games they hosted.

LSU scored, on average, 6.2 runs per game in SEC play. In the tournament, it’s scoring 10.2 runs per night.

Across the regional and super regional, Steven Milam and Derek Curiel combined to go 18 of 41 (.439) with 18 RBIs. Even Jared Jones, a junior slugger who fell into a grisly hitting slump in the regional, hit 4 for 8 against West

LSU shortstop Steven Milam thanks fans behind home plate after defeating West Virginia in the super regional on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium. would want to put on a tape and show future teams, like, ‘This is how we play offensive baseball at LSU,’ ” Johnson said.

The Tigers will practice at home Tuesday and be off to Omaha on Wednesday in advance of their CWS opener against Arkansas. LSU will have to be at its best at taking advantage of any free passes against the Razorbacks, along with the Tigers one of the two most talented teams going to Omaha this year. Just one of them will be saddled with an opening loss either Friday or Saturday in the double-elimination tournament.

LSU took two of three from Ar-

kansas at The Box a month ago, but it may need to beat the Hogs two more times to get to the CWS championship series. Celebrating is nice for now for the Tigers, but they know there is much work to be done. As ever, going to Omaha is just another step on the journey to the ultimate goal: LSU’s eighth national championship.

“All the hard work, the grind, the sweat and tears paid off in a big way,” LSU first baseman Jared Jones said before adding, “We’re not done yet.”

Virginia.

“I think just for me going up there with a clear mind and taking it one pitch at a time,” Jones said.

“I think I get pitched differently a lot more than most guys and just going out there and understanding I’ve got to be patient in the box and take my walks. When pitchers make mistakes, do damage on them.

“Today I was really trying to be really relaxed and move the offense and get guys on base, get some momentum in our dugout.”

LSU’s first opponent in Omaha is Arkansas, one of the top offensive teams in the country. The Razorbacks lead the SEC in batting average (.313), on-base percentage (.422) and scoring (8.7 runs per game). They’ve also cranked more than 120 home runs, more than all but four other Division I teams

have this year.

LSU may need a strong offensive showing to get past Arkansas.

The good news for the Tigers is that their hitters have found a groove. That’s from the top of the order down to Stanfield, who gave Johnson the exact hit he was looking for at perhaps the most important moment of the most important game of LSU’s season — so far.

“I just had a good feeling,” Johnson said, “like, he has hit these kind of guys well, and I felt like he was focused, and he’s taken great at-bats for several games in a row.

Regional, super regional, and I think that was huge.”

The starting quarterback competition won’t be decided in June, but through the voluntary portion of the offseason, Spencer Rattler appeared to have a leg up on rookie Tyler Shough.

Is it his job to lose?

Rattler has not only received most of the first-team reps in practices open to reporters but he also appears much more decisive in his throws. That, in some ways, is to be expected: Shough is going against an NFL defense for the first time; when Rattler was in the same position a year ago, he also looked hesitant.

At the very least, mandatory minicamp will give coaches the chance to evaluate Rattler with a (mostly) healthy supporting cast — a luxury he didn’t receive last season.

“For Spencer’s situation, anytime you get a chance to play, there’s always value and lessons in that,” Moore said. “No matter the circumstance, I thought he handled himself well last year competing and navigating potentially a few that were a little bit of challenging situations.

And then for any guy in general, your second offseason is always a huge jump.”

a role.

Danny Stutsman, a fourthround linebacker, popped during OTAs (organized team activities) as he filled in with the starting defense during the few weeks that Demario Davis wasn’t present.

Devin Neal, a sixth-round running back, received ample work with the first-team offense with Alvin Kamara absent. Even with Kamara’s expected return, the Saints have an open competition for the spot behind him.

Defensive lineman Vernon Broughton, picked in the third round, has been used in a variety of spots so far. Will he see extended playing time because of it?

And of course, first-round tackle Kelvin Banks is in a prime position to win a starting job from the jump.

Injury updates

Though attendance this week is mandatory, there will be a few players sidelined with injuries.

Jake Haener has missed most of OTAs with an oblique injury, and he told reporters that he expects to return in training camp.

For now, the Saints’ three-man quarterback battle remains two.

Tight ends Taysom Hill and Foster Moreau are both recovering from serious knee injuries, while offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri was sidelined last week reportedly with a calf injury.

In positive news, rookie cornerback Quincy Riley may see Rookie roles an increased workload after reThe nine draft selections make turning for individual drills last for the Saints’ biggest rookie week. He is recovering from an class since 2015. Even if Shough unspecified surgery. doesn’t start right away, there are good opportunities else- Email Matthew Paras at matt. where for this class to carve out paras@theadvocate.com

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler throws the ball during organized team activities at the team’s practice facility in Metairie on May 29.

4C ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Pacers need to get into the paint more Thunder has done good job of taking that aspect away from Indiana

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers simply couldn’t wait to get home early Monday.

There’s a slew of possible reasons for that. Maybe they just wanted to get out of Oklahoma City with their split of the first two games in the NBA Finals. Maybe they couldn’t wait to see what finals fever will look like in Indianapolis after a 25-year wait to get back to the title round. Or maybe they just wanted to get back to work.

It’s probably a little of everything — especially the last part.

Yes, the Pacers are tied with the Thunder 1-1 after two games of the NBA Finals. For the lower-seeded team, that’s huge; the Pacers took home-court advantage away by winning Game 1.

But they know that if they don’t take care of their own business at home, starting with Game 3 on Wednesday night, it’ll be advan-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KyLE PHILLIPS

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams, right, defends against Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday in Oklahoma City. ä Oklahoma City at Indiana,

7:30 P.M. WEDNESDAy, ABC

tage Thunder again, just like that.

“We’re going to have to be a lot better on Wednesday,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

That might sound like coaching hyperbole, but really, it isn’t. The Pacers have yet to have anyone score 20 points in a game in these finals. They’ve led for a total — a

total! — of 1 minute, 54 seconds in this series, or just under 2% of the time. (That’s a major improvement over the 0.0001% that they led Game 1 for, in a winning effort, somehow.) And in Game 2, the Thunder held the Pacers without a point in the paint for the whole first quarter.

Points in the paint isn’t a stat that tends to jump off the page.

It’s possible that a lot of people didn’t even notice. But consider this: Before Sunday night, more

SCOREBOARD Odds

Oklahoma City 123, Indiana 107

Major League Baseball Tuesday American League

FAVORITE at BALTIMORE Tampa Bay at MINNESOTA N.Y Yankees at HOUSTON at LA ANGELS

LINE OFF -116 -120 -196 -200 OFF

UNDERDOG LINE Detroit OFF at BOSTON -102 Texas +102 at KANSAS CITY +164 Chi. White Sox +168 Athletics OFF

FAVORITE Miami Chicago Cubs at N.Y METS Atlanta San Francisco at SAN DIEGO

LINE -120 -116 -164 -124 -230 OFF

UNDERDOG LINE at PITTSBURGH +102 at PHILADELPHIA -102 Washington +138 at MILWAUKEE +106 at COLORADO +190 LA Dodgers OFF

FAVORITE at CLEVELAND Toronto Seattle

LINE -122 -130 OFF

UNDERDOG Cincinnati at ST. LOUIS at ARIZONA

National League

Interleague

LINE +104 +110 OFF

College baseball Best of three x-if necessary

Louisville, Ky. regional

Louisville 2, Miami 1

Friday: Louisville 8, Miami 1 Saturday: Miami 9, Louisville 6 Sunday: Louisville 3, Miami 2

Corvallis, Ore. regional Oregon St. 2, Florida St. 1

Friday: Oregon St. 5, Florida St. 4, 10 innings Saturday: Florida St. 3, Oregon St. 1 Sunday: Oregon St. 14, Florida St. 10

Chapel Hill, N.C. regional Arizona 2, North Carolina 1

Friday: North Carolina 18, Arizona 2 Saturday: Arizona 10, North Carolina 8 Sunday: Arizona 4, North Carolina 3

Auburn, Ala. regional

Coastal Carolina 2, Auburn 0

Friday: Coastal Carolina 7, Auburn 6, 10 innings Saturday: Coastal Carolina 4, Auburn 1

Los Angeles regional UCLA 2, UTSA 0

Saturday: UCLA 5, UTSA 2 Sunday: UCLA 7, UTSA 0

LATE SUNDAY INDIANA (107) Nesmith 5-12 0-0 14, Siakam 3-11 8-9 15, Turner 6-12 3-4 16, Haliburton 7-13 0-0 17, Nembhard 4-8 2-4 11, Johnson 1-1 0-0 2, Toppin 1-8 0-0 3, Bryant 0-1 1-2 1, Mathurin 4-7 5-7 14, Furphy 0-0 0-0 0, McConnell 5-7 0-0 11, Sheppard 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 37-82 19-26 107.

OKLAHOMA CITY (123) Dort 1-3 0-0 3, Jal.Williams 5-14 8-9 19, Holmgren 6-11 2-2 15, Gilgeous-Alexander 11-21 11-12 34, Wallace 2-4 0-0 4, Dieng 0-0 0-0 0, Jay.Williams 1-1 0-0 3, Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Hartenstein 1-2 1-2 3, K.Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Caruso 6-11 4-4 20, Joe 1-3 0-0 2, Mitchell 0-0 2-2 2, Wiggins 6-11 1-2 18. Totals 40-82 29-33 123.

Indiana 20 21 33 33 — 107 Oklahoma City 26 33 34 30 — 123 3-Point Goals — Indiana 14-40 (Nesmith 4-8, Haliburton 3-8, McConnell 1-1, Mathurin 1-2, Sheppard 1-2, Nembhard 1-4, Siakam 1-4, Toppin 1-5, Turner 1-5, Bryant 0-1), Oklahoma City 14-36 (Wiggins 5-8, Caruso 4-8, Jay.Williams 1-1, Dort 1-3, Holmgren 1-3, Gilgeous-Alexander 1-4, Jal.Williams 1-5, Joe 0-2, Wallace 0-2). Fouled Out — None. Rebounds — Indiana 35 (Siakam 7), Oklahoma City 43 (Hartenstein 8). Assists — Indiana 27 (Haliburton, McConnell 6), Oklahoma City 25 (Gilgeous-Alexander 8). Total Fouls — Indiana 25, Oklahoma City 20. A — 18,203 (18,203)

WNBA glance Eastern Conference New York Atlanta Indiana Washington Chicago Connecticut

W 8 5 4 4 2 2

Western Conference Minnesota Phoenix Las Vegas Seattle Golden State Los Angeles Dallas

W 9 6 4 5 3 3 1

Duke 1, Murray St. 1

Tuesday’s Games

LSU 2, West Virginia 0

Saturday: LSU 16, West Virginia 9 Sunday: LSU 12, West Virginia 5

Fayetteville, Ark. regional Arkansas 2, Tennessee 0

Saturday: Arkansas 4, Tennessee 3 Sunday: Arkansas 11, Tennessee 4

LSU 12, West Virginia 5 LSU (48-15)

West Virginia (44-16) ab r h bi ab r h bi Curiel lf 4 3 1 0 Guzman 3b 4 1 1 0 Frey dh 5 2 0 0 Sauve c 5 0 0 0 Milam ss 4 2 2 4 West lf 5 0 0 0 Brown rf 4 2 2 4 White dh 4 1 2 2 Js. Parsn ph-rf 1 0 0 0 Kelly 2b 3 0 0 0 Jones 1b 4 0 3 1 King cf 4 0 0 0 Dickinson 2b 5 1 0 0 Rinehart rf 3 2 2 1 Reaves 3b 2 1 0 0 Lumsden 1b 3 1 1 2 Braswell 3b 1 0 0 0 Swain ph 0 0 0 0 Hernandez c 4 0 1 0 Grant 1b 0 0 0 0 Stanfield cf 3 1 1 2 Kresser ss 3 0 0 0 TOTALS 37 12 10 11 TOTALS 34 5 6 5 LSU 150 000 600 — 12 10 1 West Virginia 000 310 010 — 5 6 3 E — Eyanson (1), Sauve (4), Kelly (7), Kresser (17). DP — West Virginia 1. LOB — LSU 10; West Virginia 7. 2B — Curiel (19), Milam 2(12). HR — Brown (8), White (5), Rinehart (9), Lumsden (2). SB — Curiel (3), Guzman (17), Kelly (16).

LSU IP H R ER BB SO Eyanson (W, 11-2) 5 5 4 4 3 7 2 1 1 1 1 1 Williams 2 ⁄3 0 0 0 0 3 Shores 11⁄3 West Virginia IP H R ER BB SO Kartsonas (L, 6-4) 2 5 5 5 4 1 Meyer 4 2 2 1 4 1 2 ⁄3 3 4 0 0 0 Bassinger 0 0 0 1 4 McDougal 21⁄3 WP — Eyanson (10), Kartsonas (6). HBP — by Meyer (Brown), by Eyanson (Rinehart), by Meyer (Hernandez), by Bassinger (Jones).

Umpires — HP: Jason Bradley. 1B Linus Baker. 2B: Mike Fichter. 3B: Steve Mattingly.

Time — 3:41. A — 12,301

Pro basketball NBA Finals (Best-of-7; x-if necessary)

Oklahoma City 1, Indiana 1

Thursday, June 5: Indiana 111, Oklahoma City 110 Sunday’s game: Okla. City 123, Indiana 107 Wednesday’s game: Oklahoma City at Indiana, 7:30 p.m.

Friday’s game: Oklahoma City at Indiana, 7:30 p.m.

Monday, June 16: Indiana at Oklahoma City, 7:30 p.m. x-Thursday, June 19: Oklahoma City at Indiana, TBA x-Sunday, June 22: Indiana at Oklahoma City, TBA

GB — 3 4 5 5½ 6½

L 0 4 3 4 5 6 9

Pct 1.000 .600 .571 .556 .375 .333 .100

GB — 3½ 4 4 5½ 6 8½

Washington 104, Connecticut 67 Minnesota 81, Dallas 65

Monday’s Game

Baton Rouge regional

Pct 1.000 .625 .500 .400 .286 .222

Sunday’s Games

Durham, N.C. regional

Saturday: Duke 7, Murray St. 4 Sunday: Murray St. 19, Duke 9 Monday: Duke vs. Murray St., n

L 0 3 4 6 5 7

National League East Division New York Philadelphia Washington Atlanta Miami

W 42 37 30 27 24

L 24 28 35 37 39

Pct .636 .569 .462 .422 .381

GB — 4½ 11½ 14 16½

Chicago St. Louis Milwaukee Cincinnati Pittsburgh

W 40 36 35 33 26

L 25 29 31 33 40

Pct .615 .554 .530 .500 .394

GB — 4 5½ 7½ 14½

W Los Angeles 39 San Diego 37 San Francisco 38 Arizona 31 Colorado 12

L 27 27 28 34 53

Pct .591 .578 .576 .477 .185

GB — 1 1 7½ 26½

Central Division

West Division

Sunday’s Games

Tampa Bay 3, Miami 2 San Diego 1, Milwaukee 0 Cincinnati 4, Arizona 2 Pittsburgh 2, Philadelphia 1 Detroit 4, Chicago Cubs 0 Texas 4, Washington 2 L.A. Dodgers 7, St. Louis 3 San Francisco 4, Atlanta 3 N.Y. Mets 13, Colorado 5

Monday’s Games

Cincinnati at Cleveland,n Miami at Pittsburgh, n Chicago Cubs at Philadelphia, n Atlanta at Milwaukee, n Toronto at St. Louis, n L.A. Dodgers at San Diego, n Seattle at Arizona, n

Tuesday’s Games

Cincinnati (Abbott 5-1) at Cleveland (Cecconi 1-2), 5:40 p.m.

Miami (Alcantara 2-7) at Pittsburgh (Keller 1-8), 5:40 p.m.

Chicago Cubs (Rea 4-2) at Philadelphia (Abel 1-0), 5:45 p.m.

Washington (Gore 3-5) at N.Y. Mets (Canning 6-2), 6:10 p.m.

Atlanta (Holmes 3-4) at Milwaukee (Priester 3-2), 6:40 p.m.

Toronto (Bassitt 6-3) at St. Louis (Mikolas 4-2), 6:45 p.m.

San Francisco (Harrison 1-1) at Colorado (Palmquist 0-4), 7:40 p.m.

L.A. Dodgers (TBD) at San Diego (Cease 1-5), 8:40 p.m.

Seattle (Woo 5-3) at Arizona (Pfaadt 7-4), 8:40 p.m.

Hockey

Golden State at Los Angeles, n Indiana at Atlanta, 6:30 p.m.

Chicago at New York, 7 p.m.

NHL Finals

Wednesday’s Games

Florida 1, Edmonton 1

Major League Baseball American League East Division New York Tampa Bay Toronto Boston Baltimore

W 39 35 35 32 26

L 25 30 30 35 38

Pct .609 .538 .538 .478 .406

GB — 4½ 4½ 8½ 13

W 43 35 34 34 22

L 24 30 30 32 44

Pct .642 .538 .531 .515 .333

GB — 7 7½ 8½ 20½

W 36 33 31 30 26

L 29 31 35 34 41

Pct .554 .516 .470 .469 .388

GB — 2½ 5½ 5½ 11

Central Division Detroit Minnesota Cleveland Kansas City Chicago

West Division Houston Seattle Texas Los Angeles Athletics

Sunday’s Games

Tampa Bay 3, Miami 2 Detroit 4, Chicago Cubs 0 Cleveland 4, Houston 2 Texas 4, Washington 2 Kansas City 7, Chicago White Sox 5 Minnesota 6, Toronto 3 Athletics 5, Baltimore 1 Seattle 3, L.A. Angels 2 Boston 11, N.Y. Yankees 7

Monday’s Games

Cincinnati at Cleveland, n Tampa Bay at Boston, n Toronto at St. Louis, n Athletics at L.A. Angels, n Seattle at Arizona, n

Tuesday’s Games

Detroit (Gipson-Long 0-0) at Baltimore (Povich 1-4), 5:35 p.m.

Cincinnati (Abbott 5-1) at Cleveland (Cecconi 1-2), 5:40 p.m.

Tampa Bay (Pepiot 3-5) at Boston (Giolito 1-1), 6:10 p.m.

N.Y. Yankees (Schmidt 2-3) at Kansas City (Cameron 2-1), 6:40 p.m.

Texas (Mahle 5-3) at Minnesota (TBD), 6:40 p.m.

Toronto (Bassitt 6-3) at St. Louis (Mikolas 4-2), 6:45 p.m.

Chicago White Sox (Smith 2-3) at Houston (McCullers 1-1), 7:10 p.m.

Athletics (Spence 2-1) at L.A. Angels (Soriano 4-5), 8:38 p.m.

Seattle (Woo 5-3) at Arizona (Pfaadt 7-4), 8:40 p.m.

Wednesday, June 4: Edmonton 4, Florida 3, OT Friday, June 6: Florida 5, Edmonton 4, 2OT Monday’s game: Edmonton at Florida, n Thursday’s game: Edmonton at Florida, 7 p.m.

Saturday’s game: Florida at Edmonton, 7 p.m. x-Tuesday, June 17: Edmonton at Florida, TBA x-Friday, June 20: Florida at Edmonton, TBA

Soccer MLS glance Eastern Conference W Philadelphia 10 Cincinnati 9 Inter Miami CF 8 Nashville 8 Columbus 7 New York 8 Orlando City 7 Charlotte FC 8 Chicago 7 New York City FC 7 New England 6 D.C. United 4 Atlanta 4 Toronto FC 3 CF Montréal 1

L 3 5 3 4 3 6 4 8 5 6 4 8 8 10 11

Western Conference

T 4 3 5 5 7 3 6 1 4 4 5 6 5 4 5

Pts 34 30 29 29 28 27 27 25 25 25 23 18 17 13 8

GF 32 25 36 30 27 28 31 28 35 20 19 17 21 18 12

GA 18 24 27 21 24 19 22 27 29 20 14 36 30 24 32

W L T Pts GF GA Vancouver 10 1 5 35 30 12 San Diego FC 9 5 3 30 29 18 Minnesota United 8 3 6 30 26 16 Portland 8 4 5 29 27 23 Los Angeles FC 7 4 5 26 30 23 Seattle 7 6 5 26 25 25 Austin FC 6 7 5 23 13 20 San Jose 6 7 4 22 34 28 Colorado 6 7 4 22 18 24 Houston 5 7 5 20 22 25 FC Dallas 4 6 6 18 18 26 Sporting KC 4 9 4 16 26 31 Real Salt Lake 4 10 3 15 16 25 St Louis City 3 9 5 14 14 23 LA Galaxy 1 12 4 7 15 36 NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie.

Thursday’s game

Atlanta at New York City FC, 6:30 p.m.

Friday’s games

Toronto FC at Los Angeles FC ppd.

San Jose at Portland, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday’s games

everything tough. He’s a great player. He is going to make some tough shots and great reads, so I just have to stay in front of him.”

No team gave up fewer paint points in the regular season than the Thunder. It truly is a clash of styles; the Pacers are averaging 46 paint points in their 13 wins in these playoffs as opposed to averaging 36 paint points in their five losses.

“I think we have been one of the better teams scoring in the paint all year and we have to establish that early,” Pacers forward Myles Turner said.

“I think we only had four or six points in the paint in the first half (of Game 2) and that’s not Pacers basketball. When you live and die by that three or mid-range shots, it doesn’t always fare well for you.”

Maybe at home, things will be easier. The Pacers got a split in Oklahoma City; things could be much worse. And now, the Pacers have two days to try to find a way to respond to what the Thunder defense is taking away.

“We’ll watch the film, see where we can get better,” Haliburton said. “We know that the paint is our emphasis and the paint is our friend.

“The more that we’re able to attack the paint, usually better things happen for us.”

Title game MVPs highlight Class 3A all-state teams

Erath’s Picard named coach of the year

BY JAKE MARTIN

Written for LSWA

Two title game MVPs collected Outstanding Player honors for the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Class 3A all-state teams.

Doyle’s Kylee Savant and Miller Sheets of Sterlington were named the softball and baseball teams outstanding players.

In softball, Savant garnered the accolade after hitting .434 with a .598 on-base percentage. The Houston signee recorded 14 homers, 12 doubles and 60 RBIs. She also stole 15 bases during Doyle’s state championship year. Savant hit a grand slam in a semifinal victory over No. 1 Kaplan and knocked in three runs in Doyle’s 4-3 victory over Jena in the nonselect Division III final.

The first year of best-of-three state championship series for certain classifications in baseball allowed Sheets ample opportunities to show why he’s one of the top prospects in the state. In a winner-take-all Game 3 against Erath, Sheets broke a 1-1 tie with

a two-run single, propelling his team to a 5-3 win in the nonselect Division III state championship.

The Baylor commitment boasted a .435 average with three homers, 23 doubles and 57 RBIs. He only struck out four times this year. He is the son of former St. Amant High star and Major League Baseball pitcher Ben Sheets.

Doyle’s Kyle Wieck and Erath’s Jeremy Picard collected Class 3A coach of the year honors.

Wieck led his team past last year’s state champion Sterlington in the quarterfinals before upsetting No. 1 Kaplan, 13-3, and earning an opportunity to play for a state title. Doyle defeated Jena 4-3 to earn the school’s first state championship in softball since 2018.

Making school history helped Picard to take the top coaching honor in baseball. Erath’s coach was unsuccessful in wrestling a state title away from Sterlington this season, but his Bobcats made the school’s first appearance in the state finals in baseball. Erath finished with a 26-13 record.

CLASS 3A ALL-STATE BASEBALL, SOFTBALL

(Best-of-7; x-if necessary)

Dallas at Phoenix, 9 p.m.

Los Angeles at Las Vegas, 9 p.m.

Minnesota at Seattle, 9 p.m.

than nine years had passed since the Pacers didn’t manage a single paint point in the first quarter of a game.

“We have to do a better job of getting to the paint,” Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said. “It’s a lot easier said than done. ... Our offense is built from the inside-out, and we have to do a better job getting downhill. They collapse and make plays from there. I thought we could improve a lot there. But yeah, man, they are flying around.

They have got great point-ofattack defenders and great rim protectors.”

For a team that has now won 81 of its 100 games this season (not counting the NBA Cup final loss, since that doesn’t figure into any records), the Thunder somehow tend to get overlooked for its defense. Oklahoma City handcuffed the Pacers in the first two games, daring Indiana to take 3-pointers and barely giving up anything easy around the rim.

It starts with bothering Haliburton, which the Thunder has managed to do for the majority of the first two games.

“Most of the guys I guard have the ball most of the time,” said Thunder forward Luguentz Dort, who has drawn the assignment on Haliburton for much of the first two games. “My main thing is to stay in front of him and make

LA Galaxy at St Louis City, 3:30 p.m.

Vancouver at Columbus, 6:30 p.m.

Cincinnati at New England, 6:30 p.m.

Charlotte FC at Philadelphia, 6:30 p.m.

New York at Austin FC, 7:30 p.m.

Nashville at Chicago, 7:30 p.m.

CF Montréal at Houston, 7:30 p.m.

FC Dallas at Sporting Kansas City, 7:30 p.m.

San Diego FC at Minnesota, 7:30 p.m.

Orlando City at Colorado, 8:30 p.m.

Baseball Pos Player School P Landon Johnston Sterlington P Seth Leger Erath P Kyle Stansbury Berwick P Grant Sunstrom University C Remy Broussard Kaplan IF Travis Adams Sterlington IF Devyn Downs Sterlington IF Jake McCann University IF Miller Sheets Sterlington OF Dylan Downs Sterlington OF Clayton Fontenot Parkview Baptist OF Henry Thorguson Berwick UT Brody Anderson Westlake UT Adam Broadnax Buckeye UT Cade Durbin Parkview Baptist UT Sam Mitchell Parkview Baptist UT Alton Shorts De La Salle OUTSTANDING PLAYER: Miller Sheets, Sterlington COACH OF THE YEAR: Jeremy Picard, Erath

Cl Jr. Sr. Sr. Jr. Sr. Sr. Soph.

Sr. Jr. Sr. Soph.

Sr. Soph.

Sr. Sr. Sr. Sr.

Stats 12-1 10-2 7-3 7-3 .328 .345 .366 373 .435 .408 .525 .404 .493 9-3 7-0 6-2 .358

Honorable Mention

Landon Bernadou, Patterson; Konnor Boudreaux, St. Louis Catholic; Brennan Broussard, Erath; Luke Brister, South Beauregard; Landon Bernadou, Patterson; Liam Cazenave, St. James; Landen Derouen, Erath; Jeremy Gibson, Patrick Taylor; Kadin Grimmett, Buckeye; Maddox Hebert, Jennings; Jed Henry, South Beauregard; Chance Joubert, Lake Charles College Prep; Caden Kossum, Vidalia; Jayce Lantier, Iota; Justin Lartigue, Lake Charles College Prep; Kash Martin, Westlake; Karter Meaux, Kaplan; Trace Moreau, St. Louis Catholic; Cayden Mursch, Jena; Ty Poole, De La Salle; Sebastian Rideaux, Acadiana Renaissance; Grayden Ross, Westlake; Mason Sanders, Buckeye; Riley Sinclair, Caldwell Parish; Lucas Surcouf, Haynes; Joe Sutherlin, Caldwell Parish; Zeke Wall, Iota; TJ Williams, Vidalia; Christian Wold, South Beauregard.

Softball Pos Player School P Allie Chrislip Sterlington P Kiette Cooper Jena P Ashtyn Rogers Patrick Taylor P Kynnedi Ware Pine Prairie C Kylee Savant Doyle IF Callie Decker Jena IF Jolie Gawlik Parkview Baptist IF Bailey McLin Doyle IF Hayden Schexnayder Iota OF Sullivan Cannon Sterlington OF Adysen Mitchell Buckeye OF Shelby Taylor Doyle Addison Cormier Iota UT UT Abbi Ford Kaplan Lexie Greene Kaplan UT UT Katie Elizabeth Lachney Marksville UT Rikki Nitz Buckeye OUTSTANDING PLAYER: Kylee Savant, Doyle COACH OF THE YEAR: Kyle Wieck, Doyle

Honorable Mention

Cl Sr. Jr. Jr. Fr. Sr. Jr. 8th Sr. Sr. Jr. Sr. Sr. Sr. Sr. Soph.

Fr. Sr.

Stats 14-4 22-6 8-6 28-4 .434 .469 .419 .411 .500 .419 .406 .500 .444 .406 28-3 498 .443

Aila Brassieur, St. Louis; Addi Daigle, South Beauregard; Alyson Fletcher, Doyle; Addyson Hebert, Kaplan; Rylee Ryan, Buckeye; Camryn Jackson, South Beauregard; Melanie Pomar, De La Salle; Kylie Price, Jennings; Aubrianne Redditt, South Beauregard; Rosalee Richey, Buckeye; Sadie St. Pe, Buckeye; Jalayah Slaughter, Parkview Baptist; Charli Sonnier, Iota, Emma Venable, Jennings; Evie West, Sterlington; Kumarigrace Nadar, Berwick; Shiya Steib, St. James.

LIVING

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

|

T u e s d ay, J u n e 10, 2025

5Cn

Find your thrill with easy-to-grow and in-season blueberries School is out, and summer is near. Here’s something else to celebrate: Blueberries — those refreshing, deeply hued orbs of sweetness — are now ripening on bushes across Louisiana.

Blueberries are among the easiest fruit crops to grow.

These deciduous shrubs provide aesthetic value and attract pollinators and birds, too.

And they can even be grown in containers.

GARDEN If you want NEWS to add blueberries to your home landscape, you’ll find a good selection at garden centers this time of year. Just remember that, if you want to plant them in the ground, it’s best to wait until fall or winter to reduce stress on the plants.

There are lots of different kinds of blueberries out there.

How do you decide what to buy?

Goat yoga was held May 24 at the Old Rusty Gate Farm in Livingston.

Good nature

LSU AGCENTER PHOTO

By OLIVIA McCLURE

Rabbiteye blueberries are commonly grown in Louisiana.

First things first: Make sure you get more than one plant, ideally of two to three varieties. Blueberries need crosspollination for maximum fruit production. Having multiple varieties encourages betterquality berries and a bigger harvest.

Second, you’ll need to decide between rabbiteye and Southern highbush blueberries.

Rabbiteye blueberries (Vaccinium virgatum or V. ashei), which are native to the southeastern United States, are most common in Louisiana. These plants tend to be long-lived and disease-resistant, and they usually produce fruit between May and July. Before berries ripen, they are pink, reminiscent of the eyes of albino rabbits.

Southern highbush blueberries, on the other hand, ripen as early as April and are widely used in commercial production in other states. They’re crosses between native Southern blueberries and Northern highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum), which are grown in places like New Jersey and Michigan.

Highbush blueberries have that name because the plants grow taller than lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium), which are found in Canada and New England.

Southern highbush blueberries aren’t for everyone. In fact, LSU AgCenter horticulture agent Mary Helen Ferguson generally steers home gardeners away from them.

“I don’t typically recommend people grow them unless they really want the early-ripening varieties and they know what they’re getting into,” she said.

To understand what Ferguson means, it’s important to talk about the concept of chill hours.

Most fruit crops — blueberries included — need to be exposed to a certain number of hours of cold temperatures to ensure productivity. Different blueberry species and even individual varieties have different chilling requirements, making it crucial for growers to choose plants that will work well in their local climate.

ä See BLUEBERRIES, page 6C

PHOTOS By MOLLy BAHLINGER

From goat yoga to cow therapy, connect with animals at these Baton Rouge-area farms

BY SERENA PUANG

Staff writer

The tragedy of selling the family farm is a plotline so common that it’s become a trope. A family farm is loved, carefully tended to and passed down, but the next generation doesn’t want to or can’t be farmers. But selling the family farm isn’t the only option anymore.

Maybe a rebrand is in order, which is what Sarah Allen did when she inherited her family’s farm in Livingston.

When Allen’s grandparents passed away, their farm was passed down to her father and then eventually to her. When she moved to the house on the property, she did not want to be a farmer. She had just welcomed twins to the world.

But after living in her grandparents’ old house and figuring out the daily routine, Allen and her husband started to accept farm life.

They got chickens and started gardening. Today, she and her family operate Old Rusty Gate Farm in Livingston on that same property.

They provide goat yoga, soap making classes and other events.

Raising animals is hard work and involves a lot more than what people see on social media. Plus, there are aspects of it that are decidedly not aesthetic: animals give birth, have bowel movements and pass away. But in recent years, whether it’s to justify a hobby or to carry on

Sarah Allen is the owner of Old Rusty Gate Farm, where she hosts goat yoga, parties and soap-making classes. a family tradition, people are creat- way,” Rose Allen said. “It’s just ing wellness experiences on farms how we live.”

The family started offering goat around Baton Rouge. yoga almost a decade ago as a funGoat yoga draiser for their church. There was Allen’s daughter, Rose Allen, 15, so much interest that they had to has worked on the farm since the turn people away. In the spring and beginning. She assists with soap- fall, Old Rusty Gate Farm still ofmaking classes and helps partici- fers classes and aims to host goat pants interact with the goats dur- yoga every six to seven weeks.

During the classes, instructor ing goat yoga. She thinks of life on the farm as a lifestyle that she’s Kristie Craig tells people to make peace with the idea that one of sharing with others.

“This is something people love, them will be pooped or peed on in and it’s not something that’s fake. the course of the 30-minute class (it It’s not something that we’ve ä See NATURE, page 6C propped and made it look a certain

BR coffee pop-up opens new drive-thru trailer Co-owners Joe Foster, left, and Manning Bergeron pose for a photo inside their new coffee trailer parked outside Oxbow Rum Distillery.

STAFF PHOTO By SERENA PUANG

BY SERENA PUANG

The short term was great, Bergeron said, but after running the numbers, they realized that Approximately two weeks after House Brew wouldn’t have been closing the downtown location on able to survive past another year Florida Street, House Brew is or so. The margins for coffee are back downtown in a coffee trailer really thin, Bergeron explained, and the business was only makoutside Oxbow Rum Distillery.

“We had a vision to be down- ing enough money to keep itself town,” co-owner Manning afloat if no unexpected expenses Bergeron said. “I don’t think we like broken equipment or utility were necessarily a good fit (at the bills increased.

Florida Street location) for the ä See DRIVE-THRU, page 6C long term.”

Staff writer

6C ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Vinegar easily rids kitchen of odors Dear Heloise: Another easier tip such as applesauce and the like. to get rid of kitchen cooking — B.O.B., in Connecticut odors is to put out a cup of vinStraw cleaning egar after cooking foods whose odors hang around. It does the Dear Heloise: I clean straws by trick overnight! putting soap on pipe cleaners If we leave on an exand inserting them into the straws. Then I wash tended vacation, I’ll put a the pipe cleaners and larger bowl of vinegar on recycle them. If you have the counter, and it keeps a large straw, simply my house from smelling twist two pipe cleaners stale upon my return. together. — Janet Culbertson, It’s natural, and I found Hints from in Spokane,Washington that it’s a more effective Heloise alternative to essential Hair cream rinse oils and the furnace filter hack. (I’ve used both of those Dear Heloise: I’ve been using hair methods.) — Darlene Barth, in Florida cream rinse instead of shaving cream for years. I get a large Using longer spoons bottle of the least expensive Dear Heloise: Reaching into deep- brand I can find. It smells great and softens the hair on my legs er jars with a regular teaspoon or tablespoons that have shorter so that the razor glides easily with no nicks. A bottle lasts for a handles can be messy and inefficient. I’ve had better luck using really long time, and I no longer an iced tea spoon with its longer end up with itchy skin from the drying effects of shaving cream. handle. I can get to the bottom — Sandy O., via email of a jar and scrape the sides without getting stuff all over my fingers. I’m thinking of things Email heloise@heloise.com.

TODAY IN HISTORY

By The Associated Press Today is Tuesday, June 10, the 161st day of 2025. There are 204 days left in the year.

Today in history: On June 10, 2018, the rover Opportunity sent its last message from the surface of Mars.

Originally expected to serve a three-month mission, Opportunity functioned for over 14 years, traveling over 28 miles across Mars and unveiling critical discoveries about the planet’s geology.

Also on this date: In 1692, the first execution resulting from the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts took place as Bridget Bishop was hanged.

In 1854, the U.S. Naval Academy held its first graduation ceremony.

In 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on France and Great Britain, formally entering Italy into World War II. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at eliminating wage disparities based on gender.

In 1967, six days of war in the Mideast involving Israel, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq ended as Israel and Syria accepted a United Nations-mediated ceasefire.

In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee with six others. He was recaptured three days later.

DRIVE-THRU

Continued from page 5C

In 1978, racehorse Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, won the 110th Belmont Stakes to claim the 11th Triple Crown.

Alydar, ridden by Jorge Velasquez, finished a close second in each of the Triple Crown races.

In 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard of Meyers, California, was abducted by Phillip and Nancy Garrido; Dugard was held by the couple for 18 years before she was found by authorities.

In 2009, James von Brunn, an 88-year-old White supremacist, opened fire in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., killing security guard Stephen T. Johns. (Von Brunn died at a North Carolina hospital in January 2010 while awaiting trial.)

In 2020, protesters pulled down a century-old statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy.

Today’s birthdays: Political commentator Jeff Greenfield is 82.

Actor Frankie Faison is 76. Football Hall of Famer Dan Fouts is 74. Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., is 72. Actor Gina Gershon is 63. Actor-model Elizabeth Hurley is 60. Comedian Bill Burr is 57. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is 53. R&B singer Faith Evans is 52. Actor Hugh Dancy is 50. Country musician Lee Brice is 46. Actor Leelee Sobieski is 42. Olympic figure skating gold medalist Tara Lipinski is 43. Model Kate Upton is 33. Former first daughter Sasha Obama is 24.

tion to respond to the needs of downtown commuters. After about a week, the owners plan to facilitate a drive-thru option.

“You can rock with the AC in your car and be totally comfortable for the two or three minutes it takes us to make your order,” Foster said.

Walk-ups are also welcome.

House Brew’s new location will still have a full menu of drink offerings — but now, thanks to Oxbow, they’re making drinks with reverse osmosis water, which Foster said amplifies the qualities of the espresso. The water purification process removes contaminants like salts, minerals and other dissolved solids to create highly purified water.

“The citrus flavor you naturally get from our Colombian beans? I got a little more of that. The kind of caramel-y chocolatey undertones that you get? I got a little bit more of that,” he said.

Their other pop-up vendors (Mid-City Bakery and Lona Rai’s Kitchen and Bakery) will be restocked at the new location soon, so they’ll still have a regular rotation of amazing pastries, cinnamon rolls and croissants.

House Brew will also expand its breakfast options, offering bagels with cream cheese and breakfast sandwiches.

There’s still much to do — the trailer doesn’t have functioning air conditioning yet — but both owners are excited for the changes coming soon. Bergeron said they are investing now to ensure that they’re able to show up and keep House Brew running for the long term.

“If we make $100 a day,” Bergeron said. “I might make — I don’t know ... $5?”

With expenses like rent, added inflation and the impending slow summer season impacting the bottom line, it wasn’t sustainable. Co-owners Joe Foster and Bergeron bought the trailer a month and a half ago, planning to take it on the road, but after making the decision to close the Florida Street location, they decided to pivot.

The new location, which opened June 3, is a trailer in the parking lot of Oxbow Rum Distillery at 760 St. Philip St. Bergeron and Foster plan to run the location themselves from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day but Sunday (Oxbow is closed on Sundays as well).

The pair have been making do with their savings, but they’re hoping that with the trailer and less overhead expenses, they can start paying themselves and shift to a business model that will also pay their bills.

“We took a risk with this because we’re young,” said Bergeron. “We know how to safely invest, we’ve been doing that for years. How do we maybe take the riskier route? What can we do to maybe speed that process of investing. So that’s where this came in.”

With a trailer, House Brew can move as needed for festivals and events downtown such as Night Market BTR or 225fest.

The goal is to provide Baton Rouge with a homegrown and Email Serena Puang at serena. ethical quick-service coffee op- puang@theadvocate.com.

Highland cows are featured in Bre Boyette’s fluffy cow therapy.

PROVIDED PHOTO By BRE BOyETTE

NATURE

Continued from page 5C happens every time).

Participants should know that goat yoga is more like playing with goats while stretching. There are no headstands or super difficult moves. Instead, there are opportunities to pet and/or hold goats and take photos with them after class.

They also have a pot belly pig, cow and some chickens roaming around the property that may or may not join in on the fun.

At M&M Farm in Prairieville, Rachel McGuerty, owner of Blue Lotus Yoga, partners with the Prairieville farm to teach goat yoga as well. McGuerty started offering goat yoga last year and hosts classes once a month. McGuerty said she had to modify her classes substantially to accommodate the goats.

“You have to stay a little more aware of your surroundings in the goat yoga because the goats frolic and jump and get the zoomies,” she said. “It isn’t a yoga where you can just lay there with your eyes closed because a goat might jump on you.”

Goats are friendly, but they’re still animals. McGuerty has had a goat pee on her mat, and multiple goats have tried to drink out of her water cup or eat her hair. But it’s fun, she said, and nature is a vitamin in it of itself. She finds that the goats draw in a lot of beginners, and she tries to make the practice accessible for them. The classes are great options for celebrations, dates or just trying something new, she said.

Plus, after yoga is over, people have the option to bottle-feed the baby goats.

Fluffy cow therapy Bre Boyette, a photographer who lives in Walker, owns Highland cows and offers fluffy cow therapy and/or photo sessions. She’s always wanted miniature fluffy Highland cows as pets, and after her house was built three years ago, there was enough land to make the purchase.

She bought the cows under the condition from her husband, Cameron, that she figure out how to pay them off. Highland cows can cost anywhere from thousands to tens

Rachel McGuerty poses with a goat on M&M Farm. of thousands of dollars. The ones Bre bought were $5,000 each.

So she bought one three years ago and started hosting photo sessions. Every year since, she’s gotten another cow. The cows, she said, pay themselves off within the month. In 2022, she started a TikTok to document life with the cows. Her account exploded.

Her page now has over 730,000 followers and over 33 million likes.

Her followers fell in love with the three cows, who each have distinct personalities, and started messaging to ask if they could meet the cows. Thus, fluffy cow therapy was born: it’s an experience where people can brush, pet, cuddle, take photos with and feed the cows.

She tells people stories, answers questions, and people can also just watch the cows interact.

She wouldn’t consider her residence a farm, even though those who visit typically do. There are a lot of animals on the property, but the only farm animals are the three cows: Dumplin, Waffles and Nugget.

“It feels like we’re out in the country, but we’re like 15 minutes from town,” she said.

Off camera, she takes care of the uglier side of having animals: trimming nails, vaccinations and cleaning up poop in the pasture. There’s

PROVIDED PHOTO

more to having animals than what people see on TikTok. “You show their cute personalities, but they are animals. They are livestock, and they do have attitudes sometimes,” she said. “There are times you go out there, and they don’t want to be messed with.

They’ll let you know real quick.”

But most days, this isn’t a problem. Boyette has a strong bond with her cows, and she never makes them do anything they don’t want to do.

“They get excited anytime they see me come out there with the big wagon,” she said. “They know they’re about to get pampered and spoiled and fed.” n Old Rusty Gate Farm, 12802 Florida Blvd., Livingston. Check their Facebook page for event information. n M&M Farm, 16042 La. 929 in Prairieville has goat yoga once a month but not on a set schedule.

Check their Facebook page for more information. n Cuddly Cow Therapy is $100/ hour for up to four people or $150 for a group of five to six. For more information check out https://book. usesession.com/s/_8GMc8JmLv. Email Serena Puang at serena. puang@theadvocate.com.

BLUEBERRIES Continued from page 5C

“If a variety requires too few chilling hours, it’s likely to flower too early and have those flowers killed by a late freeze,” Ferguson said. “If it requires too many chilling hours, it won’t crop consistently.”

Because most Southern highbush blueberries need fewer chill hours, they begin setting flowers and fruit sooner. That’s fine and dandy — unless a late freeze enters the forecast.

“The flowers or the fruit will get killed by a late freeze,” Ferguson said. “They also tend to be more finicky in terms of soil requirements. They need good drainage, high organic matter and soil pH within the appropriate range. And they tend to be more susceptible to diseases.”

Still, she added, Southern highbush varieties yield high-quality fruit. And the prospect of an earlier crop of berries can be important for commercial producers, who sometimes plant both Southern highbush and rabbiteye blueberries to lengthen their season.

Southern highbush blueberries also may be a fit for some home gardens.

“If you’re along the coast or in New Orleans where you don’t get a lot of chilling, you may want to

LSU AGCENTER PHOTO By OLIVIA McCLURE

Southern highbush blueberries require fewer chilling hours than rabbiteye blueberries. look at growing Southern highbush varieties in pots,” Ferguson said.

But for most folks, rabbiteye blueberries are the way to go.

Ferguson is evaluating 31 blueberry varieties — both rabbiteye and Southern highbush — at the AgCenter Hammond Research Station.

“I wanted to look at how some of the varieties that were not commonly planted in Louisiana performed here,” she said.

“There’s a lot of new blueberry varieties that have been released in the last 20 or 30 years, and a lot

of the varieties that we’ve grown are ones that have been around for a long time.”

Last year, the top producers in Ferguson’s study were largely old standards: Tifblue, Ochlockonee, Brightwell, Premier and Austin, all of which are rabbiteye varieties.

“All of those yielded over 10 pounds per plant on average,” Ferguson said.

You can learn more about growing blueberries and find publications specific to rabbiteye and Southern highbush production at www.LSUAgCenter.com.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● 7C

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FrAnK And erneSt

bIG nAte

zItS

zodIAC GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Use your gifts to build wealth and enhance your reputation. Be aware of who is on your team and who is there to observe and interfere. A change of space, direction and associates will broaden your vision. cAncER (June 21-July 22) Honesty and integrity will prevent trouble. align yourself with people who share your values. An unexpected change will disrupt your plans or cost you if you are too abrupt.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Use your skills, time and energy to help a meaningful cause. Focus on what's important to you.

Know what you want to achieve and make it happen. Don't let others slow you down.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Refuse to let life's little dramas cause you to lose sight of what's important. Travel or attending events will lead to interesting encounters and connections.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Promising too much will backfire. Make suggestions, ask for help and do your part, and you'll make inroads and allies. Offer only what's tangible. Exaggeration and empty promises will be damaging. scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Put your energy into educating yourself in areas that will enhance your earning, investing and financial maintenance. Personal growth is in the stars. Seek out a capable partner for a business venture. sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Let go of the past. Pay attention to domestic matters and personal relationships. Look for

opportunities, and change your routine and how you handle responsibilities. cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Misleading information is apparent. Your goal is to maintain integrity without prematurely divulging incriminating information.

Proceed with caution, precision and attention to detail.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) If you act hastily or out of anxiety, it will cost you. Discipline and hard work will pay off. Take a deep breath and a backseat while the show unfolds; you'll find it easier to control the outcome.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Situations will escalate if you are aggressive or unpredictable. Be open to suggestions and patient with those who don't share your beliefs. Refuse to let emotional interference cloud your vision.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Keep situations, thoughts and feelings in perspective.

Wait for things to unravel before you act. Pay attention to your responsibilities and stick to a budget regardless of what someone else suggests. tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Contain your emotions and actions to avoid controversy. Take care of financial and medical issues by paying attention to detail and researching your options thoroughly.

Don't let a last-minute change unsettle you.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

For better or For WorSe WonderWord

peAnUtS

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY CeLebrItY CIpher Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

toDAy's cLuE: t EQuALs F

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon FAMILY CIrCUS

dooneSbUrY

8C ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

CurTiS

Hi and LoiS

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Sudoku InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers.

The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

BLondie

THe wiZard oF id

nea CroSSwordS

La TimeS CroSSword

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● 9C

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B.C.

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER Robert Bresson, a French film director, said, “Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: People look without seeing, listen without hearing.”

Some bridge players are guilty of listening without hearing — to the auction.

Every bid and most passes supply some information for the attentive player.

In today’s deal, look at only the West hand and the auction. What would you lead against four hearts?

The auction followed a normal path.

North’s jump to four hearts showed game-going values with three-card heart support. South was close to a slam-try (imagine North’s having ace-third of spades), but chose to pass.

If you use two-over-one game-forcing, North would rebid three hearts. Then the auction might continue four clubs — four diamonds (both control-bids) — four hearts - pass.

Yes, here five diamonds makes, but do not make a habit of playing in five of a minor when four of a major is a favorite to succeed. (A defender having acefourth of hearts and being able to give his partner a heart ruff in five diamonds is much more likely than a 4-0 diamond break and a defender gaining two diamond ruffs in four hearts.)

West should lead a diamond. Since diamonds have been bid and supported, it is

garfield

Pearls Before swiNe

hagar the horriBle

highly likely that East is void of the suit.

After East ruffs, he will probably shift to a club. South wins with his ace (West signaling with the queen to deny the king) and plays a trump, but West grabs the trick and gives his partner a second diamond ruff. Then East cashes the spade ace to defeat the contract. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

wuzzles Each Wuzzle is a word riddle which creates a disguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD = GOOD AFTERNOON

PiCKles

Previous answers:

mallard fillmore

word game InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3.

Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAy’s WoRD — KEELson: KEL-sen: A longitudinal structure fastened to the

Bizarro

marmaduKe

keel of a ship to strengthen its framework.

Average mark 14 words Time limit 20 minutes Can you find 19 or more words in KEELSON? yEstERDAy’s WoRD — EGoIstIc egis

sect

coset

egoist

site

cost

gest

stogie

cote

gestic

stoic

gist

togs

goes

cite

iciest

cities

loCKhorNs hidato Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

today’s thought “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 Feed on the Word of God, the Bible. God has the answers you need. G.E. Dean

10C ● Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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BUSINESS T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/news/business

DOW 42,761.76 -1.11 -0.00%

NASDAQ 19,591.24 61.28 0.31%

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Amazon to spend $20B on Penn. data centers

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Amazon says it will spend $20 billion on two data center complexes in Pennsylvania, including one it is building alongside a nuclear power plant that has drawn federal scrutiny over its arrangement to essentially plug right into the power plant.

Kevin Miller, of Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, told The Associated Press on Monday that the company will build another data center complex just north of Philadelphia. The data centers are designed to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence products.

Amazon has recently committed to big data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina as it expands to compete with other tech giants.

Stocks stay quiet as trade talks begin NEW YORK — U.S. stocks drifted through a quiet Monday as the world’s two largest economies began talks on trade that could help avoid a recession.

The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% and is within 2.3% of its record, which was set in February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped by 1 point, which is well below 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.3%.

Officials from the United States and China met in London to talk about a range of different disputes that are separating them. The hope is that they can eventually reach a deal that will lower each’s punishing level of tariffs against the other, which are currently on pause, so that the flow of everything from tiny tech gadgets to enormous machinery can continue.

Hopes that President Donald Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching such trade deals with countries around the world have been among the main reasons the S&P 500 has rallied so furiously since dropping roughly 20% from its record two months ago. It’s back above where it was when Trump shocked financial markets in April with his wide-ranging tariff announcement on what he called “Liberation Day.” This may be the shortest selloff following a shock of heightened volatility on record, according to Parag Thatte, Binky Chadha and other strategists at Deutsche Bank. Typically, stocks take around two months to bottom following a spike in volatility and then another four to five months to recover their losses.

Tesla downgraded amid feud fallout Tesla Inc. received a pair of downgrades on Monday, with analysts warning that Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company is facing a highly uncertain outlook, especially on the political front. The stock fell 1.1% in premarket trading, suggesting it will extend its pronounced year-to-date decline. Shares are down about 27% in 2025, making it the weakest performer of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. Tesla shares had rallied in the wake of President Donald Trump’s reelection, but peaked in December.

Much of the stock’s recent decline has followed a highprofile blowup between Musk and Trump. While Musk subsequently suggested he was open to making amends, the tension — especially given Musk’s connection to the administration — is seen as a significant question mark overhanging the shares.

“Looking ahead, we are concerned that the war of words between President Trump and Elon Musk, along with expiration of EV credits, could further weaken demand for new Teslas,” wrote analysts at Argus Research, who downgraded the stock to hold from buy.

The feud, they added, is emblematic of how the stock “appears to be currently trading on nonfundamentals events.”

This view was echoed by Baird, which cut the stock to neutral from outperform.

S&P 500 6,005.88 5.52 0.09%

EURO 1.142 0.0017 0.15%

CRUDE OIL 65.29 0.71 1.10%

GOLD 3,332.10 9.40 0.28%

6-MO T-BILLS 4.31 0.01 0.23%

30-YR T-BONDS 4.94 -0.02 -0.44%

Warner Bros. Discovery to split Two companies will divide cable, streaming services

BY MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP business writer

NEW YORK — Warner Bros. Discovery will calve off cable operations from its streaming service, creating two independent companies as the number of people “cutting the cord” brings with it a sustained upheaval in the entertainment industry.

HBO, and HBO Max, as well as Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, will become part of the

streaming and studios company, Warner Bros. said Monday.

The cable company will include CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., and Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, and digital products such as the Discovery+ streaming service and Bleacher Report.

Shares jumped 11% at the opening bell.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav will serve as CEO of the company for what is called Streaming & Studios. Gunnar Wiedenfels, chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, will be CEO of the cable-focused entity, for now known as Global Networks.

“By operating as two distinct and

optimized companies in the future, we are empowering these iconic brands with the sharper focus and strategic flexibility they need to compete most effectively in today’s evolving media landscape,” Zaslav said in a statement.

Just days ago Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders in a vote that was symbolic as it’s nonbinding, rejected the 2024 pay packages of some executives, including Zaslav, who will make more than $51 million.

Warner Bros. Discovery said in December that it was implementing a restructuring plan in which Warner Bros. Discovery would become the parent company for two operating divisions, Global Linear Networks and Streaming & Stu-

dios. That was seen as a preview of the separation announced Monday.

Warner Bros. Discovery was created just three years ago when AT&T spun off WarnerMedia and it was merged with Discovery Communications in a $43 billion deal.

The cable industry has been under assault for years from streaming services like Disney, Netflix, Amazon and Warner Bros. own HBO Max. The industry is also being pressured by internet plans offered by mobile phone companies.

Comcast, which is of nearly equal size to Charter, spun off many of its cable television networks in November, seeing so many customers swap out their cable TV subscriptions for streaming platforms.

Apple unveils software redesign Tech company reeling from AI missteps, upheaval, Trump’s trade war

BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP technology writer

CUPERTINO, Calif. — After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple tried to regain its footing Monday during an annual developers conference that focused mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology.

The presummer rite, which attracted thousands of developers from nearly 60 countries to Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters, was more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event during the previous two years.

Apple highlighted plans for more AI tools designed to simplify people’s lives and make its products even more intuitive while also providing an early glimpse at the biggest redesign of its iPhone software in a decade. In doing so, Apple executives refrained from issuing bold promises of breakthroughs that punctuated recent conferences.

In 2023, Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset that has been little more than a niche product, and last year WWDC trumpeted its first major foray into the AI craze with an array of new features highlighted by the promise of a smarter and more versatile version of its virtual assistant, Siri — a goal that has hasn’t been achieved yet.

Apple had intended the planned Siri upgrade to herald its long-awaited attempt to become a major player in the AI craze after getting a late start in a phenomenon that so far has been largely led by OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and an array of cutting-edge startups.

“This work needed more time to reach our high-quality bar,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s top software executive, said Monday at the outset of the conference. The company didn’t estimate when its upgraded Siri would be completed.

“The silence surrounding Siri was deafening,” said Forrester Research analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee said. “No amount of text corrections or cute emojis can fill the yawning void of an intuitive, interactive AI experience that we know Siri will be capable of when ready. We just don’t know when that will happen. The end of the Siri runway is coming up fast, and Apple needs to lift off.”

The showcase unfolded amid nagging questions about whether Apple has lost some of the mystique and innovative drive that turned it into a tech trendsetter during its nearly 50-year history.

Instead of making a big splash as it did

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEFF CHIU

Apple CEO Tim Cook greets thousands of attendees at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., on Monday. with the Vision Pro headset and its AI suite, Apple took a mostly low-key approach that emphasized its effort to spruce up the look of its software while also unveiling a new hub for its video games and new features like a “Workout Buddy” to help track physical fitness on its smartwatch.

Apple executives promised will make its software more compatible with the increasingly sophisticated computer chips that have been powering its products while also making it easier to toggle between the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. “Our product experience has become even more seamless and enjoyable,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told the crowd as the 90-minute showcase wrapped up.

IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said Apple seemed to be largely using Monday’s conference to demonstrate the company still has blueprint for success in AI, even if it’s clearly going to take longer to realize the vision that was presented a year ago.

“This year’s event was not about disruptive innovation, but rather careful calibration, platform refinement and developer enablement — positioning itself for future moves rather than unveiling game-changing technologies,” Jeronimo said.

Besides redesigning its software. Apple will switch to a method that automakers have used to telegraph their latest car models by linking them to the year after they first arrive at dealerships. That means the next version of the iPhone operating system due out this autumn will be known as iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 — as it would be under the previous naming approach that has been

used since the device’s 2007 debut.

The iOS 26 upgrade is expected to be released in September around the same time Apple traditionally rolls out the next iPhone models.

In an early sign that AI wasn’t going to be a focal point of this year’s conference, Apple opened the proceedings with a short video clip featuring Federighi speeding around a track in a Formula 1 race car. Although it was meant to promote the June 27 release of the Apple film, “F1” starring Brad Pitt, the segment could also be viewed as an unintentional analogy to the company’s attempt to catch up to the rest of the pack in AI technology.

While some of the new AI tricks compatible with the latest iPhones began rolling out late last year as part of free software updates, Apple still hasn’t been able to soup up Siri in the ways that it touted at last year’s conference. The delays became so glaring that a chastened Apple retreated from promoting Siri in its AI marketing campaigns earlier this year.

While Apple has been struggling to make AI that meets its standards, the gap separating it from other tech powerhouses is widening. Google keeps packing more AI into its Pixel smartphone lineup while introducing more of the technology into its search engine to dramatically change the way it works.

Samsung, Apple’s biggest smartphone rival, is also leaning heavily into AI. Meanwhile, ChatGPT recently struck a deal that will bring former Apple design guru Jony Ive into the fold to work on a new device expected to compete against the iPhone.

U.S., China are holding trade talks in London

Since the Geneva talks, the U.S. Resulting shortages sent automaknear Buckingham Palace.

Trump had phone call sion Wang Wentao, China’s commerce and China have exchanged angry ers worldwide into a tizzy. As stockminister, also was part of Beijing’s words over advanced semicon- piles ran down, some worried they with Xi Thursday delegation. ductors that power artificial intel- would have to halt production.

BY JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press

LONDON — High-level delegations from the United States and China met in London on Monday to try and shore up a fragile truce in a trade dispute that has roiled the global economy, A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at Lancaster House, an ornate 200-year-old man-

The talks, which may continue Tuesday, follow negotiations in Geneva last month that brought a temporary respite in the trade war.

The two countries announced May 12 they had agreed to a 90-day suspension of most of the 100%plus tariffs they had imposed on each other in an escalating trade war that had sparked fears of recession.

The U.S. and China are the world’s biggest and second-biggest economies. Chinese trade data shows that exports to the United States fell 35% in May from a year earlier.

ligence, visas for Chinese students at American universities and “ rare earth ” minerals that are vital to carmakers and other industries.

President Donald Trump spoke at length with Chinese leader Xi Jinping by phone last Thursday in an attempt to put relations back on track. Trump announced on social media the following day that the trade talks would resume in London.

Rare earths were expected to be a focus of the talks. The Chinese government started requiring producers to obtain a license to export seven rare earth elements in April.

Beijing indicated Saturday that it is addressing the concerns, which have come from European companies as well as U.S. firms.

Kevin Hassett, a U.S. economic adviser, told CNBC on Monday that he expected a short meeting with “a big, strong handshake” on rare earths.

The U.K. government says it is providing the venue and logistics but is not involved in the talks, though British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves met with both Bessent and He on Sunday, and U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was due to meet Wang.