The Acadiana Advocate 06-16-2025 by The Advocate

Louisiana

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Tilapia resurge in Louisiana waters

It’s believed that tilapia fish escaped from

Despite eradication effort, scientists find invasive fish

BY ALEX LUBBEN | Staff writer

PORT SULPHUR Along the levees in this former company town near the end of the Mississippi River a destructive ﬁsh is making an unexpected comeback

Tilapia, a commonly farmed fish that’s ubiquitous at grocery store seafood counters, can pose a dire ecological threat when released into the wild. That’s exactly what happened in this Plaquemines Parish community about 20 years ago, when the ﬁsh escaped from a bass pond on a property owned by one of the largest mining companies in the world.

Chris Schieble, a deputy assistant secretary with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said he believes the ﬁsh broke free when Hurricane Katrina ﬂooded much of the parish. The LDWF then led an effort to kill the tilapia in 2009. At the time, it appeared that the eradication had succeeded

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Joel Caldwell holds juvenile tilapia

Private schools dismayed after funding limited

Legislature provides set amount for LA GATOR program

BY PATRICK WALL | Staff writer

At Gardere Community Christian School in Baton Rouge, hopes were high for LA GATOR. Many thought Louisiana’s new program, which gives families state-funded grants for private school tuition or homeschool expenses, could be life changing. Teachers and administrators showed up at the school on the Saturday in March when applications opened to help parents apply And in May, students and parents pleaded for funding for the program during a state Senate hearing.

“Allow my sister and brother and everyone else in my neighborhood to have such an amazing learning journey,” said Radiance Bailey, a ﬁfth grader with ﬁve siblings at the school and two more hoping to enroll.

On Thursday, many people at Gardere and private schools across the state were bitterly disappointed when the Louisiana Legislature passed a state budget that included far less funding for LA GATOR than its backers sought. The

ä See FUNDING, page 4A

BY MEGAN WYATT | Staff writer

A can of grape-ﬂavored nitrous oxide sits under state Sen. Brach Myers’ desk at the State Capitol.

Leading up to this spring’s legislative session, Myers set out to discover how easy it was for anyone to get a hold of laughing gas. At Myers’ behest, his 15-year-old

Race splits two branches of Pope Leo’s family Cousins seek to reunite family as lineage is traced Ellen Dionne Alverez learns about her family tree in New Orleans on June 8. Alverez is a second cousin of

BY DESIREE STENNETT | Staff writer

STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Joel Caldwell throws a cast net in a canal in Port Sulphur on June 4.

At least 8 killed near aid sites in Gaza

KHAN YOUNIS Gaza Strip At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens more wounded Sunday in a shooting near Israeliand U.S.-supported food distribution points in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials Witnesses blamed the Israeli military which did not immediately comment.

Witnesses said Israeli forces opened ﬁre around dawn toward crowds of desperate Palestinians heading to two aid sites in the southern city of Rafah.

Experts and aid workers say Israel’s monthslong blockade and military campaign have caused widespread hunger and raised the risk of famine in the population of over 2 million The vast majority rely on international aid because the offensive has destroyed nearly all of Gaza’s capacity to produce food.

The war in Gaza rages more than 20 months after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which sparked a chain of events that helped lead to Israel’s surprise attack on Iran on Friday

The shooting on Sunday happened close to the sites that are operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group that Israel and the United States hope will replace a system of aid distribution run by the United Nations, which has rejected the initiative, saying it violates humanitarian principles.

There have been near-daily shootings near the sites since they opened last month.

Police: Protester killed at Utah ‘No Kings’ rally

A demonstrator was shot and killed at Salt Lake City’s “No Kings” protest when a man believed to be part of the event’s peacekeeping team ﬁred at another man allegedly aiming a rifle at protesters, authorities said Sunday Police took the alleged rifleman, Arturo Gamboa, 24, into custody Saturday evening on a murder charge, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said at a Sunday news conference. The bystander, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, died at the hospital.

Detectives don’t yet know why Gamboa pulled out a riﬂe or ran from the peacekeepers, but they accused him of creating the dangerous situation that led to Ah Loo’s death The Associated Press did not immediately ﬁnd an attorney listed for Gamboa or contact information for his family in public records.

Redd said a man dressed in a brightly colored vest ﬁred three shots from a handgun at Gamboa, inﬂicting a relatively minor injury but fatally shooting Ah Loo

The gunshots sent hundreds of protesters running, some hiding behind barriers and ﬂeeing into parking garages and nearby businesses, police said in a statement.

“That’s a gun. Come on, come on, get out,” someone can be heard saying in a video posted to social media that appears to show the events.

“No Kings” protests swept across the country Saturday, and organizers said millions rallied against what they described as President Donald Trump’s authoritarian excesses. Confrontations were largely isolated.

Relatives get remains of Air India crash victims

AHMEDABAD, India Authorities have started handing over remains of the victims of one of India’s worst aviation disasters, days after the Air India flight crashed and killed at least 270 people, ofﬁcials said Sunday.

The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived.

Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims provided DNA samples at the hospital. Most of the bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognizable.

Rajneesh Patel, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said authorities have so far identified 32 victims through DNA mapping and their families were informed. He said the remains of 14 victims were handed over to relatives.

Israel, Iran trade strikes for 3rd day

More than 200 reported dead

BY JON GAMBRELL, NATALIE MELZER and TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Israel claimed to operate almost freely in the skies over Iran during a third day of airstrikes Sunday and killed more high-ranking security ﬁgures, while some Iranian missiles slipped through Israel’s air defenses. Both sides threatened to launch more attacks.

In an indication of how far Israel was prepared to go amid fears of all-out war, a U.S. official told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump in recent days vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Iranian Health Ministry said late Sunday that 224 people have been killed since Israel’s attack began Friday Spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said on social media that 1,277 other people were hospitalized. He asserted that more than 90% of the casualties were civilians.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles, said intelligence chief Gen. Mohammad Kazemi and two other generals were the latest killed, Iran’s state TV reported Sunday night Israel’s attacks have killed several top generals and nuclear scientists.

Iran also said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran’s heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect

global markets Israel’s military warned Iranians to evacuate arms factories, signaling a further widening of the campaign. Iran’s military, on state TV, warned Israelis to stay away from “occupied” areas.

Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, has said it launched the attack — its most powerful ever against Iran to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The two countries have been adversaries for decades. The latest U.S.-Iran talks on its nuclear program were canceled.

Explosions shook the Iranian capital of Tehran. Sirens went off in Israel.

The Israeli military noted “several hit sites” Sunday night, including in Haifa in the north, and the Magen David Adom emergency service said it treated nine injured people.

Israel said 14 people have been killed there since Friday and 390 wounded. Iran has ﬁred over 270 missiles, 22 of which got through the country’s sophisticated multitiered air defenses, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s main international airport and airspace was closed for a third day

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said if Israel’s strikes on Iran stop, then “our responses will also stop.” Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, criticized the United States for supporting Israel and said “the responses will be more decisive and severe” if Israel keeps attacking, state TV reported.

Trump said the U.S. “had nothing to do with the attack” and that Iran can avoid further destruction only by agreeing to a new

nuclear deal.

Photos shared by Iran’s ISNA News Agency showed bloodied people being helped from the scene of Israeli strikes in downtown Tehran. One man carried a blood-spattered girl.

Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Israel hit a Foreign Ministry building in the north of Tehran, with several civilians injured “including a number of my colleagues,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s Defense Ministry after hitting air defenses, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear program On Sunday night, Israel said it struck “numerous” sites across Iran that produce missile and air defense components.

Israel also claimed it attacked an Iranian refueling aircraft in Mashhad in the northeast, calling it the farthest strike the military had carried out. Iran did not immediately acknowledge any attack. Video obtained and veriﬁed by the AP showed smoke rising from the city.

Iran’s foreign minister said Israel targeted an oil reﬁnery near Tehran and another in a province on the Persian Gulf.

State television reported that metro stations and mosques would be made available as bomb shelters beginning Sunday night

Earlier Sunday in Israel, at least six people, including a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven were missing.

Official: Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader

BY AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump rejected a plan presented by Israel to the U.S. to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a U.S. ofﬁcial familiar with the matter.

The Israelis informed the Trump administration in recent days that they had developed a credible plan to kill Khamenei.

After being briefed on the plan, the White House made clear to Israeli ofﬁcials that Trump was opposed to the Israelis making the move, according to the official who was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

from exploding into an even more expansive conflict and saw the plan to kill Khamenei as a move that would enflame the conflict and potentially destabilize the region.

Asked about the plan during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not directly address whether the White House rejected the plan.

“But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” Netanyahu said.

Search continues for suspect in shooting of Minn. lawmakers

Officials say one of his vehicles found in rural area

BY OBED LAMY, STEVE KARNOWSKI, MIKE BALSAMO and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press

BELLE PLAINE, Minn. — Authorities searched a vehicle on a rural road outside Minneapolis on Sunday that they believe had been used by the man wanted in the shootings of two Democratic lawmakers, as a state on edge struggled to make sense of the brazen political violence that left one leader dead.

Former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were injured at their Champlin home, about 9 miles away Authorities named 57-year-old Vance Boelter as a suspect, saying he wore a mask as he posed as a police ofﬁcer even allegedly altering a vehicle to make it look like a police car

More than 24 hours after authorities ﬁrst confronted him outside Hortman’s home, Boelter was still on the loose after fleeing on foot. The FBI issued a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. They circulated a photo taken Saturday of Boelter wearing a tan cowboy hat and asked the public to report sightings.

The Trump administration is desperate to keep Israel’s military operation aimed at decapitating Iran’s nuclear program

Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri later called reports about the Israeli plan to kill Khamenei “fake.”

Netanyahu in the Fox interview also said regime change “could certainly be

the result” of the conﬂict “because the Iranian regime is very weak.”

Trump’s rejection of the proposal was ﬁrst reported by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Trump on Sunday issued a stark warning to Iran against retaliating on U.S. targets in the Middle East while also predicting Israel and Iran would “soon” make a deal to end their escalating conﬂict.

Trump in an early morning social media posting said the United States “had nothing to do with the attack on Iran” as Israel and Iran traded missile attacks for the third straight day Iran, however, has said that it would hold the U.S. — which has provided Israel with much of its deep arsenal of weaponry — for its backing of Israel.

“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” Trump said.

A crowd of ofﬁcers were seen congregated on a dirt road near the abandoned dark sedan believed to have been used by Boelter Doors on both sides of the car were splayed open, with discarded items scattered near the vehicle. Some ofﬁcers broke off and walked into a wooded area off the road. The car was later towed away

“We believe he’s somewhere in the vicinity and that they are going to ﬁnd him,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But right now, everyone’s on edge here, because we know that this man will kill at a second.” The shootings come as political leaders nationwide have been attacked, harassed and intimidated amid deep political divisions. Lawmakers said they were disturbed by the attacks as Twin Cities residents mourned.

Investigators found a cowboy hat near the vehicle and were working to determine whether it belongs to Boelter Law enforcement officers were searching the area, including nearby homes. The ofﬁcials could not discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity The search was happening in rural Sibley County, roughly 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis, where Boelter had a home with his wife and ﬁve children. Residents in the area received an emergency alert about the located vehicle that warned them to lock their doors and cars.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LEO CORREA

The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept missiles Sunday over Tel Aviv, Israel.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GEORGE WALKER IV Members of law enforcement agencies investigate near a vehicle suspected to belong to shooting suspect, Vance Boelter, on Sunday in Belle Plaine, Minn.

Trump

Badnews: The fish are back. While there is no way to definitively prove that the new tilapia are related to those that escaped from the pond two decades ago, Schieble believes that is likely the case. Anew study also suggestssome of the ﬁsh from then survived. Either way,another eradication or monitoring effort may be necessary

“If this thing kept going in 2009, the tilapia would eventually have gotten through to theestuary.They’d be getting into other habitats and they would be displacing our nativeﬁshes,” said Martin O’Connell, aconservation biologist and director of the Nekton Research Laboratory at the Universityof New Orleans, who recently found the ﬁsh near Port Sulphur.“All the shrimp and all the baby crabs, they’d be sucking them down like popcorn.”

O’Connell was involved in monitoringthe success of theefforttokillthe ﬁsh. He recently conducted the study that suggests some survived.

“Wecame really close to the holy grail of invasive species management, which is eradication,” saidMichael Massimi,the invasive species coordinator for the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. “I feel like we really almost did it.”

Tilapia are hardyand indiscriminate eaters,which makes them ideal for aquaculture and anightmarein the wild. Released into anew environment, the fish can run amok. It made its way into waterways in Tanzania, where it is outcompeting native fish. Tilapia were introduced intentionally in lakes used to cool both fossil-fuel-fired and nuclear generating plants in Texas in the 1960s; they got loose into riversand streams. Native to subtropical Africa and the Middle East, the fish are now found in at least 10 U.S. states, where it has been “implicated in the declines of native fish and mollusks,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

They’re currentlyconﬁned to the freshwater canals along Port Sulphur’slevees but should they break into the estuary of the Barataria Basin, Massimi believes that they could do serious damage. They’ll eat anything, they cantoleratelow-salinity waters, and they spawn proliﬁcally,which, Massimi said, is “a perfectstorm for an invasive species.” Tilapia were brought to Port Sulphur to feed largemouth bass in apond owned by theverycompany that founded the townin the 1930s, Freeport Sulphur. The company,later renamed Freeport-McMoRan Inc., mined sulfur nearby in Grand Ecaille.

As the corporation grew throughthe end of the20th century, it became synonymous, particularly in New Orleans, with the late Jim

had largely been wipedout. Researchers with Nicholls State University helped to restock those canals with native ﬁsh, O’Connell said.

But O’Connell wonderedin the years afterward whether the ﬁsh had indeed been eliminated for good. So last year,hegot asmallgrant from theBarataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program to examinethe area again. He wouldn’thave the resources he had when Freeport was funding the effort, but he had ahunch the tilapia might still be there.

“Instead of having awhole platoon with armor and howitzers, it was going to be morelike Vietnam. Guerrilla warfare. Some old, hardened fish biologists,” he said. “Instead of having abazooka, we have carbines and M16s.”

O’Connell believes another eradication effort is necessary,and soon.But it remains unclear who will pay forit. Freeport said it had notpreviously been made awarethatthe ﬁsh hadreturned.

In any case, Schieble, the deputy assistant secretary of fisheries at LDWF,opposes using rotenone again. He thinksthe fish O’Connell foundsurvived the ﬁrst rotenone treatment, anddoing asecondwould involve“carpet bombing” the canals again and killing all ﬁsh. Instead, he believes LDWF should up itsmonitoring fortilapia in the marsh outside the levees.

and all of the native ﬁsh.

It’sunclear exactlyhow much Freeport paid, but they did so by making a large donation to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife andFisheries’ nonproﬁt foundation, which supports thegovernment agency’s work.Kell McInnis, who was theexecutive director of the foundation at the time, estimated that Freeport likely donated between $500,000 and $1 million, but said records from more than adecade ago were not readily accessible.

Schieble estimated the cost at over $1 million. Freeport could notlocate records to conﬁrm how much it paid.

With those limitations in mind, O’Connell went down to the canals and dropped in anet. He knew he wouldn’t be able to deﬁnitively count the number of tilapia in the canals. The turbid water is murky,full of silt and impossible to see through.

“The ﬁrst time I’m down there, I’mpulling up acast netand Isee five juvenile tilapia,” he said. It wasobvious the fishwere still there. “I’m just like, ‘Oh, we weren’teven freaking trying.’”

“If we’re picking up tilapia out in the marsh, that’sa problem,” he said. “I would rather see money invested in monitoring the situation than trying to rotenone the canals unsuccessfully.”

Earlier this month, LDWF biologist Joel Caldwell prepared to throw a4-foot cast netinto the canal thatruns along the levee north of the Freeport lodge.

Caldwell regularly monitors fish populations in the Barataria Basin, just over the levee, and has never found tilapia. He hadn’tsurveyed this canal, but was skeptical of finding the fish. It would be “like winning the lottery” to catch one, he said. He threw in his net, which expanded like aspider web before dropping into the murky water.Hepulleditin.

Bob Moffett, the swaggering geologist wholed the companyinits heyday during the 1980s and 1990s.

The companyconfirmed the fish from two decades agocamefrom its property, which has not beenpreviouslyreported, though The Times-Picayune wroteabout the eradication program. Plaquemines Parish residents recall the effortimpactingsome fishing areas, and some have long known where thefish camefrom. Freeport said athird-party pond managementcompany was responsiblefor stocking tilapia in thefishingpond.

Having tilapia in Louisiana requires apermit, and it is illegal to releasethem into the wild.The departmenthas no record that Freeport or its contractorobtainedsucha permit.

‘Morethana fishingcamp’ Freeport’sproperty in Port Sulphur,knownin Plaquemines Parish as the Freeport lodge, was acorporate retreat, aplace to host bigwigs in business and politics.

“They used the lodgefor entertaining, for dignitaries. Congressmen and state

representatives andall our local sheriffs, taxassessors —anybody thatwanted to use it,” said Jimmy Capiello,who cooked at thelodge for 16 years, until Katrina “Freeport footed the bill.

A1986 article described it as “something more than aﬁshing camp,” with “super hotel roomswith private baths, everythingtastefully decorated in the sportsman theme.” The main structure of the lodge was lost in Katrina.But asmaller version of what it once was remains, and Freeport still owns it.

Afterthe tilapia were discovered in local waterways, Freeport covered the costs of killing themand paid for the monitoring that took place in theyearsthat followed.

That effort “involvedthe use of approved eradication treatments in 2009 of theponds andnearby water bodies, and as we understand, monitoring through 2012,” saidLinda Hayes, vice president for communications at Freeport

They used rotenone,apotent fish-killing chemical, dispersed throughout the waterways around Port Sulphur.Itkilled the tilapia

‘The wholemegillah’

O’Connell described the previous eradicationeffort as having taken a“bazooka” to thewaterways.

“When we went downthere in 2009, we had the whole megillah,”O’Connell said.

“Wehad an electroshocking boat. We had the castnets We had beach seines that we pulled through the canals We setminnow traps. We were going down with afull crew.”

After therotenone treatment, scientistsmonitoring the canals found thatthe ﬁsh

After it was clear tilapia were there, he shifted his focus to try to ﬁgure out how fartheyhad spread. And spread they had. O’Connell found them as far as St. Jude Road, about 6miles north of the Freeport lodge.

And, oddly,his team found no adult tilapia,only juveniles. It’s notclear why.It suggests that the ﬁshhave reproduced —not agood sign. But it may also mean that they’re not surviving to full adulthood.

Tilapia are freshwater fish, and while O’Connell warns that they could adapt to survive in brackish estuaries, as they have in Brazil, he found them only in the low-salinitylevee canals. He did not ﬁnd them in the saltier marsh.

Suspended in the net, amongcrawfish andgrass shrimp, was an inch-and-ahalf-long ﬁshthatCaldwell didn’trecognize. Adark eye. Blueish-gray along itsspine with awhiter belly.Vertical stripes along its body Caldwell had never seen the ﬁsh before. He brought it back to the lab.

“After conferringwith threeother biologists,” Caldwell’scolleague Claire Walker wrote in an email, “we are all in agreement that it is atilapia.”

Email AlexLubbenat alex.lubben@theadvocate. com.

FUNDING

Continued from page1A

families of nearly 40,000 students had signed up for LA GATOR, butnow only 1 in 7applicants areexpected to receive grants.

Gov.Jeff Landry, who haschampionedthe program, and conservative advocacy groups had waged an intense pressure campaign featuring television attack ads, automated text messages and alarge rally to convince lawmakers to put nearly $94 million into LA GATOR. But those tactics failed to move the Senate, which allocated less than half the amount Landry requested. The state Houseof Representatives ultimately agreed to the $43.5 million for LA GATOR proposed by the Senate, along with about $2 million to run the program.

ford private tuition thatLA GATOR is replacing Now, privateschool leaderssay they are racing tosecure privatemoney to help families who were counting on LA GATOR to cover their children’stuition. If thefundraisingefforts fall short, some already-admittednew studentsmight not be able to attend, the school leaders said. “Wehad thousands of families all across the state thinking they were goingto have achoice this year,” said Cheryl Lott, Gardere’sdirector of development and marketing. “And nowthey’renot.”

Funding fight Landry,a Republican who shepherded the LA GATOR bill through the Legislature last year,had fought alongside aformidable coalition of advocates to secure funding.

whohas said he wantsto help families pay for private school.

Hundreds of private schoolchildren implored lawmakersfor funding last month at arally organized by Louisiana Kids Matter,an education advocacy group withties to Louisiana businessmanand Republican megadonor Eddie Rispone, andAmericansfor Prosperity,anational group affiliated with the conservative billionaire Koch family

Butthe campaign failed to persuade state Senate PresidentCameron Henry, R-Metairie, who said Louisianacannotaffordtovastly expand funding for private education. He insisted that lawmakers who voted for theLAGATOR bill last year only agreed to funditatthe same level as school vouchers, about $44 million annually

Thursdaythathewas “heartbroken” for thethousands of Louisiana students whosefamilies applied for grants.

“Because the Legislature refused to fund LA GATOR, thesechildrenwillcontinue to wait,” CEO Daniel Erspamer said in astatement. “We will not give up on them, even if the legislature failed them today.”

Landry, for his part,has been noticeably quiet. He spoke at the LA GATOR rally in May,but after the Senate this monthdeclined to allocate the fullamount Landrywanted, he has said little publicly.His spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Thursday

Findingtuition money

familieswerenot guaranteed grants, it was hard for families not to get excited, saidLisaHarvey,president of Catholic High School in Baton Rouge.

“When they got an email that says you’re eligible, Ithink it sparked alot of hope,” she said.

More than 150families with currentorwould-be studentsatCatholic High signed up for LA GATOR, Harveysaid. She said some students who went through theschool’sadmissionsprocess and were accepted are unlikely to enrollifthey don’treceive agrant.

“That’sjust the reality for alot of families,” she said. “Theycan’t affordprivate education.”

about $4,200, which is less than the vouchers or LA GATOR grants, which will give about$7,600 to low-income families and moretostudents with disabilities. The school will have to quickly raise private funds to cover the remaining cost to educate students who don’tget grants, Moran said.

“How do Iinthe middle of summer ﬁnd those sources?” he asked. “That’snot easy.” He predicted that families acrossthe state who had hoped to use LA GATOR grants to send their children to private schools now will be “scrambling forseats in public and charter schools.”

The money willcover about 5,900 students, according to the state Education Department. Most of the tax dollars will go to roughly 5,200 students who currentlyreceive school vouchers, astate program to help low-income families af-

National groups that promote school vouchers ran TV ads this year saying that lawmakerswho opposed giving LA GATOR $93.5 million wanted to “gut” children’s futures. Theyalso sent mass textmessages saying thatgiving LA GATOR any less would be a“betrayal” of President DonaldTrump,

“Wemade it crystal clear last year how muchmoney theywere going to getand we stuck to that,” Henry told reporters last week,addingthatif“outsidegroups” promised families additional funding, “there’s nothing I can do about that.”

The head of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, aconservative advocacy group thatstrongly promotesLAGATOR, said

Current voucher students are ﬁrst in line for LA GATOR, which leaves funding for about 700 additional students. That means thousands of familieswho signed up won’tget grants.

Nearly 35,000 applicants met the programrequirements, including that they hadreceived schoolvouchers, attended apublic school, were enteringkindergarten or were at or below 250% of the federal povertylevel While the online application madeclear that eligible

At theGood Shepherd School in NewOrleans, whichserves economically disadvantaged students, most families received school vouchers and will nowget LA GATORgrants.

But it’s unclear what will happen to incoming kindergarten students who weren’t in the voucher program and aren’t guaranteed grants, said Thomas Moran Jr., the school’spresident and CEO.

Many families also applied forscholarshipsthrough a state program that provides tax credits to donors. But the average scholarship is

At the Gardere school, where nearly every family is low-income andreceives tuition assistance, Cheryl Lott said about 20 incomingkindergartenstudents who in thepastwouldhave received state vouchers nowmight notget LA GATOR grants. The school is “searching every avenue” formoreprivatefunding, she added, but it’s unclear whether that will ﬁllthe gap “We’re just very sad,” Lott said. “Inevitably we’re probably going to lose some families.”

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

would increase fines and stiffen penaltiesfor recreational use and sale of nitrous oxide.

Myers, aLafayette Republican, also carried another bill thisyeartodecriminalize drug test strips, an initiative backed by the Louisiana Department of Health. Senate Bill 78, which supporters saytheyhopecan help prevent drug-related deaths, has also passed through both chambersofthe Legislature.

Myers said he’sconcerned aboutyoung people watchingvideosofpeopleusing nitrous oxideonsocial media and trying to follow suit

“While alot of them are lighthearted, and they’re laughing and everything else, unfortunately,there’s some catastrophic events that are following,” he said. “Some of these kids are dying.” Both bills passed through the Senate and House without opposition.

Aimedatrecreationaluse

Under the state’sproposed new law for nitrous oxide, online retailerscan face penalties for producing or selling the substance with added ﬂavoring.

Aperson or business in violation of the proposed law could face up to a$25,000 ﬁne, up to one year in prison and a30-day suspensionof any certificate, permit or license issued by the Louisiana Department ofAlcohol and Tobacco Control.A second offense would result in the revocation of the ATCcertificate, permitor license. The bill outlines excep-

tionsfor those 21 and older whowork for manufacturersthatuse nitrousoxide, such as dental practices, restaurantsand industrial operations.

Louisiana already banned recreational use and sale of nitrousoxide last year.

“They’re absolutely aimed toward recreationaluse,” Myers said. “These are things that you’resupposedly selling for your car? Why doesitneed agrapeﬂavor?”

‘Thisisabout saving lives’

Hisother bill about drug test stripslegalizes thetesting of substances otherthan fentanyl. While fentanyl test stripsare legal in Louisiana, those that test for other substances are classiﬁed as drug paraphernalia under existingstate law

That’sa problem, Myers said, because other synthetic substances and cutting agentsare showing up in street drugs.

“Thisisaboutsaving lives,” Myers said during aSenatecommittee hearing. “We’re facing apublic healthemergency where thecontents of apill or substance can no longer be assumedorguessed.Drugs are being altered with fatal components that are invisible, odorless anddeadly in microgram amounts, and many of them are undetectable bycurrent, legally accessible test strips.”

Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, RPort Allen, asked during the hearing whether any district attorneys were prosecuting peoplewho wereusingdrug test strips forharm reduction purposes, or if the bill was meanttobeproactive. A representative of the Louisiana DistrictAttorneys Association indicated thelatter Sen. BlakeMiguez,R-New

Iberia, asked Myers during the hearing whether using illegaldrugs is aharmful andrisky behavior.Myers agreed.

“I think the goal of your bill is to save lives,”Miguez said.“The reasonI ask you those questions is to makea strong statement tothe public that we also have an antidrug stance because illegal and illicit drugs are very harmful to thepublic.”

The Louisiana DepartmentofHealth worked with Myersonthe bill after seeing increases in overdose deaths involving substances other than fentanyl, said Deputy Secretary Dr.Pete Croughan.

“Thishas deﬁnitelybeen ahighpriorityfor us,” Croughan said in an interviewafter the bill passed throughthe Legislature.

“The thinking around this bill is to give us the toolsto fight whatever comes next —whatwedon’t know is on themarket, butmay findin thenext couple of months and allow us to invest quickly,ratherthanhavingtogo back every year to get abill passedtoexpand the definition of paraphernalia.”

Keepingpeoplesafe

Overdosedeaths arehigh in Louisiana: Thestate ranked No. 5amongall

states and the District of Columbia for therate of overdose deaths in 2022, accordingtothe Centers forDiseaseControl and Prevention. Nationally,opioid deaths have recently dropped significantly.Louisiana is included in that trend, but opioid-related deaths were still up by 93% between 2019 and 2023 in the state, Health Department data shows. National experts are still tryingtountangle thereasons for therecent decreases in deaths. TheCDC has cited widespreadincreases in availabilityofnaloxone, themedicationused to reversethe effectsofa fentanyl overdose, as onereason. Others they’ve cited include

bettertreatment options for those addicted to drugs, changesinthe illegaldrug supply andnational investments in prevention.

Harm reductionadvocates in Louisiana also point to recent strategies, including the wider availability of fentanyl test strips, as areason forthe decrease. But there are moredangerous drugs on the horizon that Health Department officials say they are concerned about. Amongthem: nitazenes, aclass of opioids up to 40 times morepotent than fentanyl; xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer with effects that cannot be reversed like opioids; and protonitazene and brorphine,

syntheticopioids that are undetectable by available drug test strips in the state. Test strips fornitazenes and xylazine are being manufactured and have been distributed in cities across the country.Louisiana hasn’tyet been able to do the same. “Wehaven’t been able to obviouslyacquireordistribute as long as they’re considereddrug paraphernalia,” Croughan said. “The cartels are innovating at a much faster pace than we would like, so we want to try to keep up, keep people safe.”

Email MeganWyatt at mwyatt@theadvocate. com.

Landry

The pope’s grandparents were from New Orleans and had the last name Martinez, which is Alverez’s maiden name.

First, a friend speculated. Then, a niece checked her own family records and said she thought it was possible, too.

Honora confirmed the relation, and that’s what convinced Alverez. Pope Leo is her second cousin once removed. Her great-grandfather and the pope’s grandfather were brothers.

“You know he looks like my grandmother,” Alverez said about the new pope as she sat in her New Orleans East home on a recent Sunday with Honora and her son.

Malcolm Moore, 70, grew up just a few miles away from Alverez, in Broadmoor

A lifelong New Orleanian who had always considered himself White, Moore knew he had a priest in his extended family and had met some of his relatives on that side — but didn’t know the Rev Bob Prevost well Moore is also the pope’s second cousin once removed. His greatgrandmother and the pope’s grandmother were sisters. Moore learned a little about his Black ancestry years ago after getting results from a DNA test. The connection to the pope, and to a whole line of extended family members, has him eager to learn more.

“We’re interested in meeting the branch (of the family) that we didn’t even know,” he said.

Crossing the color line

One extended family, separated for decades by just a few miles and the complicated history of race in New Orleans. More than 5,000 miles away in Rome, the election of Pope Leo XIV as the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics has brought their connection to light.

Honora, who ﬁrst discovered the pope’s family history in New Orleans, said the splintering of families in this way is plenty familiar in Louisiana. Stories of “crossing the color line” were especially common in the early 1900s when the pope’s ancestors made the decision to pass for White, but those choices still reverberate today “All of us from New Orleans, we know that we’ve experienced friends, family that, either temporarily or long term, they crossed the color lines,” said Honora, a historian and genealogist at The Historic New Orleans Collection. “Back when the buses and the streetcars were segregated, everyone had friends who would sort of sit in the front and you’d think, ‘He shouldn’t be sitting up there; we know who she is.’ But they did it.” Under the state-sanctioned segregation of Jim Crow people who decided to pass for White — often known by the French phrase “passé blanc” — were making a difﬁcult choice. It could mean being forced to leave home and cut ties

with family and friends. But for those who could pass successfully, it also meant better treatment, more freedom, safety and greater access to housing and job opportunities.

People often kept the secret from their children, raising them as White, too.

Family ties in New Orleans

In that way, the pope’s family history isn’t that unusual In 1900, Leo’s maternal grandparents Louise Baquié and Joseph Martinez lived in the predominantly Black 7th Ward of New Orleans, according to U.S. Census records, the same part of the city where Alverez was raised. Martinez was born in Haiti and worked as a cigar maker. Baquié’s roots ran even deeper: her mother was baptized in St. Louis Cathedral.

The couple and their daughters were listed in the 1900 census as Black But by the 1920 census, the family had moved to Chicago and were living in the north as White.

When the couple moved north, two of Martinez’s three siblings did the same, joining him in Chicago and identifying as White. But one brother Michel Martinez, stayed behind. His greatgranddaughter is Alverez.

When Baquié left with her husband, her sister Victoria Baquié stayed in New Orleans. But she also began to pass for White. Her greatgrandson is Moore, who now lives in Destrehan Alverez only just learned of the branch of the family connected to the pope Moore said his mother and grandmother had kept in touch with the pope’s mother and her sisters, who visited New Orleans several times. He spent time with them in Chicago once as a child Moore knew of “Father Bob,” his cousin who was a priest and spent years in South America before working at the Vatican. Years ago, his family contributed to the creation of the gold chalice the pope used during his ordination as a priest Still, never expecting an American pope, even when the announcement came and the name sounded familiar, he almost missed the connection.

“It really didn’t hit me until later, when we were looking at my family genealogy, that he was my cousin,” Moore said. Now that the family histories have been revealed, Alverez hopes Pope Leo, who likely also never knew of her branch of the family will eventually come to New Orleans so they can meet.

“What does the pope think about us being related?

That’s my question,” she said. “What does he think of us because we’re Afro American?”

She plans to write a letter inviting Leo to her home if he ever visits the city Black and White in N.O

Moore and Alverez grew up about 5 miles apart.

Though one was raised Black and the other White in the 1950s and 1960s, they both said they had happy, devoutly Catholic childhoods

surrounded by loved ones.

Both were educated at local Catholic schools and spent years serving in the church. Moore served as an altar boy in his youth, and so did Alverez’s son.

Alverez grew up in the St Bernard housing project, where she never lacked family

“My grandmother, she lived on one of the top ﬂoors of the building and she would always be looking down and checking on us from there,” she said.

Several family members also lived in the housing project and the kids, who would all get roller skates for Christmas, had the freedom to play together outside, skating around their neighborhood. Most everyone she loved was in arm’s reach.

“I lived my whole life here,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

Moore described the Broadmoor he and his four brothers grew up in as “a melting pot.”

Not far away, he would play with some of the Landrieu children, the ones who grew up to be former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu and former New Orleans Mayor

Mitch Landrieu. The family in the house next door to Moore had come from Honduras and a few doors down was a Jewish family that had

come to America after surviving the Holocaust.

Moore’s father was an electrician but died in an accidental electrocution when Moore was just 3 years old. He said that as a child, he had asked his mother and grandmother about their family heritage. They were always vague. Decades ago, the family’s racial history was almost revealed when it was time for Moore’s brother to get married. He had fallen in love with their Jewish neighbor. It was the 1960s and interracial marriage was still illegal in Louisiana.

Though Moore’s brother looked White and was raised as White, his birth certificate, which he had never seen, listed his race as Black. As the wedding approached, his mother had to tell him.

“There was a little controversy there that I was totally oblivious to,” Moore said.

Moore’s brother and his bride eloped in another state where interracial marriage was legal. Then, they returned to New Orleans and had a Jewish wedding ceremony Moore’s brother and sister-in-law kept the whole thing secret.

Around 2019, Moore and his wife decided to take DNA tests with their adopted children. Moore’s results came back showing he was 14% African with connections in Cameroon and with the Bantu Tribe. That was when his brother’s wife (his brother died in the 1990s) told them about how they were married.

Later, when Moore checked his own birth certiﬁcate, he saw that his race had been blotted out and was no longer legible.

“My mother and my grandmother kept it a family secret and never told any of the children,” he said. “In fact, I have African on both sides of my family I didn’t know anything about it until I did my DNA and I said, ‘I’ve got a different story now.’”

Many denominations

Though both Alverez and Moore grew up Catholic,

Alverez is now Baptist and Moore is now Methodist. Both said they still hold their Catholic upbringing dear and have reverence for the church. Moore said he was attracted to the Methodist faith for its focus on an individual’s direct relationship with God. Alverez said after her mother’s death, soul searching for greater meaning in her life brought her to Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, where she has been a member for many years.

Alverez still remembers attending a massive Mass on the Lakefront almost 40 years ago when Pope John Paul II visited New Orleans.

“It stormed and stormed and then when the pope arrived, the skies cleared and the sun came out,” said Alverez. “I will never forget that.” Now, with a pope with real ties to the city, she said she’s sure the turnout would be even greater if Leo visited.

The Rev Blaise Polk, Alverez’s cousin, who is also a cousin to the pope (through his mother, who was a Martinez), said that he feels the connection to the pope too, even though he’s a Baptist. Working in ministry at a church in Texas since Hurricane Katrina, and with several other relatives who have taken similar paths across Christian denominations, he called ministry “a family business.”

“I am proud of him,” Polk said of Pope Leo. “The family pride is overflowing, and if there was anything I would like to say to him, it’s just congratulations and that God has put you in a powerful position. Use it for good.” Honora, the genealogist, called the revelation of the pope’s Black ancestry “important to the world,” adding that he hopes it will make Catholicism feel more inclusive for Black followers. “Our pope is a brother,” Honora said during his conversation with Alverez, “and he’s got kinfolk right here that look like you and me.” Email Desiree Stennett at desiree.stennett@ theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Historian Jari Honora discusses the family history of Pope Leo XIV with Ellen Dionne Alverez and her son, Harlon Patrick Martinez, in New Orleans on June 8. Alverez is a second cousin of Pope Leo.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Malcolm Moore, of Destrehan, holds a photo of his greatgrandmother, Victoria Baquié. Baquié is the sister of Pope Leo XIV’s grandmother, Louise Baquié.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

A family photo from Malcolm Moore shows Pope Leo XIV’s mother, Mildred Agnes Prevost, second from left.

Study: Cultural economy expanding Growth comes despite

BY ASHLEY WHITE Staff writer

Lafayette and Acadiana’s cultural economy — spanning festivals and nature trails to food production and visual arts has expanded its impact in the past eight years, despite a decrease in jobs, according to a recent study

decrease in jobs

The study, compiled by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority, shows that household earnings for the area’s cultural economy has grown 11% from $1 billion to $1.1 billion and its economic impact has grown nearly 75% from $1.49 billion to $2.6 billion.

Beer

garden planned for Camellia Boulevard

Commission to hear rezoning request

BY ADAM DAIGLE Acadiana business editor

A beer garden is being planned for the lot next to the prospective Trader Joe’s site along Camellia Boulevard.

The applicant, BE Holdings LLC, is requesting a rezoning of the property and a conditional use permit from the Lafayette Consolidated Government’s city zoning commission in order to open off Bluebird Avenue, documents show.

The item is on the commission’s agenda for its 5:30 p.m. Monday meeting.

The request includes rezoning the property, part of the Pine Farm properties, from mixed-use neighborhood (MN-2) to commercial mixed (CM-1) with a conditional use permit required for a bar or lounge.

The applicant is planning to host food truck vendors on the site and is projecting 70% of its sales to be liquor and 30% food, documents show. It will have a seating capacity of 388 which includes outdoor seating, and open until midnight during the week, 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 p.m. Sundays. Officials with LCG’s planning

Tampico restaurant founder dies

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

Izaguirre

The family behind Tampico Mexican Restaurant & Cantina on Thursday announced that the matriarch and founder of the restaurant, Carmen Izaguirre, has died at 106. “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of the heart and soul of Tampico Restaurant — to know her was to experience wisdom that came not just with age, but with a lifetime of living life to its fullest,” the restaurant posted on social media.

Established since 1962, Izaguirre named the restaurant after her hometown, Tampico, Mexico. Tampico now has locations in both Lafayette and Bayou Vista and offers a traditional and TexMex cuisine in a hacienda-style environment.

“We are deeply grateful for the 106 remarkable years we have gotten the chance to spend with you. Rest in peace, Grandma,” read the Facebook post

But jobs in those ﬁelds have decreased about 21% from 33,655 jobs in 2016 to 26,739 jobs in 2024.

Brittany Deal, LEDA’s director of economic competitiveness, said several factors have likely contributed to the decrease in jobs, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Lafayette metropolitan area no longer including Iberia Parish, which it did in 2016.

The study covers the Lafayette metropolitan statistical area, which includes Lafayette, Acadia, Vermilion and St. Martin parishes.

Updating the economic impact study, which was ﬁrst conducted in 2016, was a “pleasure and labor of love,” Deal told stakeholders Friday during the Acadiana Center for the Arts’ State of the Arts Symposium.

The cultural economy fuels tourism, jobs and innovation, Deal said. And supporting it is a smart economic strategy

“It strengthens our local business ecosystem. It enhances Lafayette’s unique identity and economic resilience,” she said.

“It boosts talent, attraction and retention, and it elevates Lafayette industry diversiﬁcation efforts that we’ve been going hard for over a decade now.”

LEDA Executive Director

Mandi Mitchell and Sam Oliver, director of the Acadiana Center for the Arts, both said continuing to nurture the cultural economy is an important part of creating a thriving place to live and work. Oliver said he and the ACA

LOUD AND PROUD

ABOVE: The Pride Acadiana Parade rolls on Jefferson Street in downtown Lafayette on Saturday.

BOTTOM LEFT: Attendees march in the Pride Acadiana Parade BOTTOM RIGHT: Grand Marshal Martini Bear waves to attendees.

Lake Charles to host first SWLA Pride Con

Weekend designed to have age-inclusive events

BY COURTNEY PEDERSEN Staff writer

SWLA Pride board member Jamie Meiburg, who owns Library Riot,

headlined by The Flamethrowers. The event will also feature drag performances. Tickets to the ball are $70 each and will include seating and dinner Alcohol will be available for purchase at the event. On June 28, an all-day, 16-andolder Rhinestone Rodeo will be held 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The day is set to feature panels, a vendor

market, performances and a mechanical bull Performing will be Secret Stache, Rome Murray Jr., and Cats and Aliens. Admission for the Rhinestone Rodeo is $20.

From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 29, SWLA Pride Con will be ending with an all-ages Family Day and Roller Disco. The day will once again feature panelists, vendors, food and performers. It will end with an indoor skating party Meiburg said attendees will need to bring their own skates. Admission for Family Day is $15; it is free to those 6 and

ä See PRIDE, page 4B

STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD BOWIE

ä See BEER, page 4B

ä See ECONOMY, page

Working toward bringing top-notch cancer care to Louisiana

Recently,ateam from theLSU LCMC Health Cancer Center joined colleagues from across the country for HillDay in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of cancer research with members of Congress. We are deeply grateful to those who took the time to hear us because the stakes for Louisiana have never been higher The LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center is working to become the ﬁrst NationalCancer Institutedesignated cancer center in Louisiana. This prestigiousdesignation recognizes cancer centers that meet the highest standards for cutting-edge cancer research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Currently,the closest NCIdesignated cancer centers are in Texas and Alabama, leaving a large gap in access for Louisiana families.

Why does this matter? Securing an NCI designation would be agame-changer for Louisiana, transforming cancer carebyexpanding access to clinical trials, attracting world-class medical talent and unlocking transformative research funding. Beyond lifesaving healthimpacts, the economic return is undeniable. Every NCI dollar invested generates anearly threefold return fueling job creation, spurring local spending and drawingmajor biotech investment. Adesignated cancer center would not just elevate health care, it would positionLouisiana as apowerhouse of medical innovation andignite athriving biotech economy for years to come. However,weneed state funding andsustained, stablefederal funding for the National Institutes of Health and the NCI to reach this aspirational goal.

Achieving NCI designation isn’tsomething we can dobehind closed doors. It takes all of us —state lawmakers,health care leaders, philanthropic partners, researchers, patients, partner institutions and communitymembers working together to make cancer researchanational and state priority

When we are successful, ourefforts will beneﬁt all of Louisiana and theregion, north and south, east and west, urban and rural. DR. STEVENELSON chancellor,LSU Health NewOrleans DR. LUCIO MIELE director,LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR

AREWELCOME.HEREARE

YOUR VIEWS

FEMA is notperfect, butit’snecessary

Emergency managementinthe United

Statesisrarely at theforefront of policymakers’ minds. It is often sidelined in favor of other,albeit pressing, issues. However, waiting until after adisaster has struck to consider how the nation responds to the unimaginable leaves the nation in aperpetual state of careening from one mistake to the next Natural disasters are acrisis across the country,and policymakers need to start thinking abouthow thegovernment can better respondtothem FEMAisnot aperfect agency.Ithas failed to meet themoment on several occasions. However,reforms to FEMA must be focused on streamlining and eliminating redundancies, not on eliminating critical mission capabilities. There are some things that the federal government will always be better able to dothan stateand local governments. Thefederal government can marshal the resources of the wealthiest nation on earth and that means that highly specialized and

extremely expensive resources can be made available to the whole country.Italso means that subject matter experts canbeavailable for anyone to take advantage of when needed. AFEMA that embraces its role as a supporting element that provides state and local jurisdictions with the tools and support to carry out their missions is aFEMA that serves thecountry best. Eliminating FEMA outright will only harm all of us. FEMA can andshould be criticized forits failures.But to declare theorganization an unﬁxable failure ignores that successive presidential administrations and Congresses have been able tooversee transformative changes to the organization. Instead of reducing itsfunding and installing leadership who are not familiar with emergency management, we should promote those whohave madeemergency management their career to lead this organization and give it the support it needs.

ANDREWGARY NewOrleans

‘Hogsfor theCause’ spotlights pediatric cancer

In response to Kevin J. Fitzpatrick’sletter on April 29, Ibelieve Fitzpatrick has aright to his opinion about eating meat at the expense of the Earth, but his words, “precious hogs foravague cause,” angered me to the core.

In 2024, pediatric brain cancer wasthe leading cause of cancer death in children. Approximately 5,000 new cases are diagnosed annually.Acancer diagnosis at any age is devastating, but when it is a child or ayoung adult, especially your own, it is even moredifficult. Iknow because our daughter was diagnosed with aGrade 3brain tumor at the age of 19, in the summer following her first year at LSU. What would have been her second year at LSU began with an awake craniotomy,followed by radiation therapy,and last, but not least, six rounds of oral chemotherapy.Road trips to MD Anderson, MRIsand the waitfor results weredraining to put it mildly After the last round of chemotherapy,she was given the clearance to return to LSU.She did finish and received her degree. Her story farexceeds the word limits here, but she will be 18 years out this August, and remains stable. The word “cured” has never been said. She will have an MRI every six months as wellasanin-person or virtual visit with her doctors in Houston forthe rest of her life. Ihope Fitzpatrick never has to endure what I and countless numbers of parents and families go through when a child is diagnosed with cancer of any sort. It is not forthe faint of heart.

MARGARET SIMON Destrehan

Therecentload-shedding event ordered withoutadvanced notice by MISO is aclear signal that Louisiana’senergy system is vulnerable. As astate, we are anet importer of electricity,relying heavily on power generated in other states just to meet our needs. It doesn’thave to be this way.Louisiana has thenatural resources, skilledworkforce and infrastructure to generatemore of our own power and reduce our dependence on out-ofstate energy.What we need is leadership and commitment to an “all of the above” strategy that includes not just traditional generation, butalso solar,wind, advanced nuclear,geothermal, battery storage and other emerging technologies. Energyindependence isn’tatalking point,

it’saneconomic and security imperative. By investing in amore resilient and diverse energy mix,wecan create jobs, strengthen our grid and ensure that Louisiana homes and businesses aren’tleft in thedark when it mattersmost.

At America First Energy Project Louisiana, we believe energy should be developed theright way,with afocus on reliability, community beneﬁt and long-term sustainability

Let’stake this moment not just as awarning, but as acall to action to secure our energy future right here at home.

JEFF ARNOLD executivedirector,America First EnergyProject Louisiana

TO SEND US ALETTER SCAN HERE

OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@theadvocate.com.

WordingprobablytiltedLAGATOR poll results

Iread yourarticle, “Poll shows support for LA GATOR program,” with great interest because Iwas contacted by pollsters during that polling period asking questions that matchwhat you relay to your readers here as what thevoters want. Better journalism would include the questions and answer choices so thereaders can decide for themselves if the poll was an objective search for the truth

Ithink it was not.

Iamaconservative, private school-educated voter who should be pleased withwhat

you have reported, but Iamnot because I heard thequestions and found several of them leading me with little choice but to agree or sound like Idon’tcare about my children (I refused to answer on some). And because thepollster could not tell me who was paying for thecall. Please consider a follow-up piece with alisting of the questions highlighted in your article andthe corresponding answer choices. We should all want thetruth.

ANDRE COMEAUX Lafayette

COMMENTARY

INTELLIGENT LIFE

Experts predict artificial intelligence will soon be abig partofeverydaylifeonEarth. If there’sintelligent life on other planets, what would theysay about all this? youtell me. Be witty,funny, crazy,absurd or snarky —justtry to keep it clean.There’s no limit on the number of entries.

Thewinning punchline will be lettered into the word balloon and runMonday, June 23 in ourprint editions and online. In addition, the winnerwill receiveasigned print of thecartoon along witha cool winner’sT-shirt!Somehonorable mentions will also be listed

To enter,email entries to cartooncontest@theadvocate.com

DON’T FORGET! All entries must include your name, homeaddressand phone number.Cell numbers are best.

Thedeadline for all entries is midnightonThursday, June 19. Can’t wait to see your outta-this-worldpunchlines!! —Walt

InvestigativejournalistStanley Nelson was‘thebestofus’

‘Abundance’ makes abundantly confused argument

The hot-selling book “Abundance” is writtenbyliberals who bash liberals, or more precisely,try to make them feel guilty Sure,authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson shed some blame on conservatives for why Americadoesn’tbuild as easily as it used to. But it’s those liberals in expensive cities, the authors insist, who arecallously driving lessthan-richfamiliestomove elsewhere.

Klein andThompsonargue thatDemocrat-run “superstar” citieshavefailedto provide enough affordable housing because of alltheir building rulesand regulations andpesky zoning ordinancesthatmakeit hardertobuild. The chief culprits are San Francisco, LosAngeles, Boston and, as always, New York City.The comparisons made against themare ludicrous.

Asample complaint: “The Austin metro area ledthe nationinhousing permits in 2022, permitting 18 newhomes for every thousand residents. LosAngeles’sand San Francisco’smetro areas permitted only 2.5 units perthousand residents.”

notmotivatedbyhope for proﬁt or fame. Stanley eventually gained awide reputation for excellence,but not because he sought it. Because he earned it. And God knowsthe world is abetterplace because helived and worked in it.”

Firstcase: FrankMorris

America lost agentle giant in journalism when StanleyNelson,who investigated some of the nation’smost notorious racially motivated slayingsin Mississippi andLouisiana, died unexpectedly earlier this month. He was 69. CBCreporter DavidRidgen, an award-winningdocumentary ﬁlmmaker andpodcast host, worked withthe reporter for years. “Stanley Nelson is the best of us,” he said. “A doer.Not areminiscer.Ateller.Not someone to leave anyone behind. Abrotherly guy who you’d trust anything to.”

during theday.”

Nelson remained rock solid in his reporting, Klibanoff said. “I admired him immensely,and his curiositynever waned.”

In 2008, Ridgen andI joined forces with Nelson andfellow journalists John Fleming,Ben Greenberg,Pete Nicks, RobertRosenthal, Hank Klibanoff, Ronnie Agnew,Melvin Claxton, Peter Kleinand others to form the Civil Rights Cold Cases Project.Our dream was to create adocumentary that would capture our continuing work on these cases. The big picture documentary never happened, but many other projects emerged for radio, print and ﬁlm. Nelson never missed abeat, writing hundreds of stories for the 5,000-circulation Concordia Sentinel, where he served as editor In 2012, he became aPulitzerPrize ﬁnalist for his stories on the1964 killing of Frank Morris in Ferriday byKlansmen who belongedto theviolentwing, the“Silver Dollar Group.”

On the last day of February in 2007, Nelson heard the name of Frank Morris for the ﬁrst time. He learned that the Justice Department would be takinga second look at the1964 killing of Morris. That surprised Nelson because he thought he knew almosteverything aboutthis small town and had never heard the name. He reached out to the Southern Poverty Law Center,which shared about 150 pages of redacted FBI reports on theMorris case, and he wrote his ﬁrst article.

He didn’tsee how he could advance the story anymore until he received a call from Morris’ granddaughter,Rosa Williams, and began to learn more aboutthe man and the killing.

On acold December morning in 1964, the 51-year-old Morris was asleep in theback of his shoe repair store when he heard glassbreaking. He bolted to the front of the store and saw one man pouringgasolineand another holding a shotgun,who yelled, “Get back in there, n*****!

By thetime Morris escaped, his feet were bleeding, and nearly all his clothing had been burned from his body.Hesurvived long enough to tell FBI agentsthat he didn’tknow his attackers, but friends wondered if he had been afraid to say.

‘His curiositynever waned’

Best-selling authorGregIles depicted thejournalist as the character Henry Sexton in his novel, “Natchez Burning.” Nelson chuckled to me about theportrayal, saying his alter egolived amuch more adventurous life: “He is amusician, has agirlfriend and is tech savvy —that’ssomething Idon’tknow adamn thing about.”

Iles said the most important writing he’s ever done “wouldnot existwere it not for the inspiration and selﬂesscollaboration of Stanley Nelson. Inever knew another man whoalways did the right thing regardless of fearorfavor,

In 2011, Nelson reported that family members ofArthur LeonardSpencer said he hadconfessed to them years earlier,but Spencer denied that claim to Nelson. Afederal grand jury met on the matter,but no onewas ever arrested. Klibanoff, who works with Emory University students on civil rights cold cases andhosts the Peabody-winning podcast “Buried Truths,”helped Nelson edit those stories. “Wewere going over them till 9, 10 or 11 at night, because we bothhad full-time jobs,” he recalled.

“Stanley was busy covering police juries, the city council and other things

In 2009, theLouisiana State UniversityCold Case Project began helping Nelson with his research, and adecade later,Nelson began sharing tipsand techniques withstudentsonhow he worked on these civil rights cases. Christopher Drew leads LSU’sManship School’sexperiential journalism curriculum, which includes the project. Under Nelson’stutelage, “our students proved that Robert Fuller,abusinessman wholater became atop Klan leader,killed four of his Black workers in 1960, not in self-defense, as the local authorities had allowed him to claim, but in an ambush following adispute over back pay,” Drew said.

In 2022, aseries by LSUstudents on the 1972 killings of two students at Southern UniversityinBaton Rouge won anational award from InvestigativeReporters and Editors as the best investigative series by students at a large university.

“Stanley was always low-key,humble and determined to hear people out themodel of what areporter should be,”Drewsaid. “But thestudentswere always leaning forward in their seats when he talked about how he got old Klan leaders to talk. ‘Most of them (Klansmen) lived on dirt roads at dead ends,’ he’dsay,‘with barbed wire fences and signs on the gate saying, ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Trespassers Will Be Shot.’ Sometimes he’dsend them letters saying he’d be coming at acertain date and time to mitigatethose odds.

“But his heroism did not just come at those moments. It was his courage, the studentscould see, to dig up thedark facts in these communities for the sake of justice —and to takepersonal risks to hear what the suspectsand perpetratorshad to say —that makehim such an exceptional journalist.”

Jerry Mitchellisa longtime Mississippi-based reporter whose stories helped put four Klansmen and aserial killer behind bars. He is the founder of the Mississippi Center for InvestigativeReporting. This piece ﬁrst appeared at MississippiToday.org.

Where do we start? Let’sstart with the not-insignificantmatter of buildable land. The population density of San Francisco is five timesthatofAustin. Evensprawling LosAngeleshas nearly three times as many people persquare mile as Austin does. Anothersampling: Houston “is not facing the crisesofhomelessness and housing affordability seen in the superstar cities of many blue states.” Why? In 2023, the Boston metro area issued10,500 newhousing permits, while Houston issued almost 70,000. Bostonhas nearly four times the number of people persquare mile as Houston. And BostonHarborborders abig, blue-gray body of water.The land to its eastisPortugal. Of course,buying andbuilding in Bostonishardertodo—and more expensive. Really,all the so-called superstar cities getting roastedin“Abundance” —San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los Angeles —are boundedbywater whereas Austin and Houstoncan easily expand into open country.The authors speak alot about“bottlenecks” impeding progress. I’d saythatthe Pacific Ocean is asignificant bottleneck to LosAngelesbuilding out. Wouldn’tyou? Houstonhas no zoning laws, so youcan put almost anything anywhere.That’sthe Houstonway.(This dynamic metropolis might rightly bristle being left outofthe list of superstarcities.) UrbanTexas has some fine oldneighborhoods that locals treasure,but there’sa lotmorehistory to protect in the older cities. LetHoustonbeHouston, Boston be Bostonand L.A. be unlike either This is abig country.The four ultra-costly superstarcitiescombined take up aminuscule 0.025% of the totalU.S. landmass. Let’s notinsult the thousands of smaller cities andtowns by portraying the glitzy coastal metros as the only places where opportunity beckons. Fortunes can be made anywhere. Silicon Valley was almost all fruit orchards into the 1950s.

Aneeded update:Austin’sheralded building boom is over for now.Austin’sgrowth, fueled by the pandemic, now limps along with sky-high ofﬁceand apartment vacancy rates.

Klein andThompsonspeak in that conﬁdent, wonky voice, armsoutstretched with futurama visions of shared prosperity.If only Americans, Democrats especially, would get outofthe way

“Democrats cannotsimultaneously claim to be the party of middle-class families while presiding over the parts of the country theyare leaving.” Theypredictably single outliberalCalifornia, noting “California’smost populous cities are run by Democrats.”

As it happens, Democrats also preside over Austin, Houston, Dallasand San Antonio

“Abundance”operates on the assumption thatliberals can be shamed for wanting to preserve landmarks, intimate Main Streets andtenements with oldshops at the bottom. Pass the guilt by.Liberals, joined by their conservative neighbors, have every right to slowdownthe bulldozers.

Email Froma Harrop at fharrop@gmail.com.

Nelson

Froma Harrop

NewOrleans visitors near pre-pandemic record

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

New Orleans playedhost to more than 19 millionvisitors in 2024, anear-record number that tourism ofﬁcials say signals arecovery from four sluggishyears following the coronavirus pandemic.

According to astudy conducted by hospitality ﬁrm MMGY Global, the nearly 19.1 million visitors that came NewOrleans last year represented a6.4% increase over the year before and onlythe second time on record that the city hasattracted more than19million visitors.

The other time was in 2019, when the city’svisitor count topped 19.7 million.

“This is arealhigh point for us,” said Walt Leger III, president and CEO of New Orleans &Co.,which commissioned the recent study “When you think about where we were ﬁve yearsago,itcertainly signals an improvementand success, so we are happy.”

The study results are significant in acity where the tourism and hospitalitysector is amajor driver of the local economy. Visitors to the city last year spent more than $10.4 billion —more than twiceasmuchastwo decades ago —not countingbillions more in occupancy and sales taxes. Additionally,more than 80,000 people in theNew Orleans area work for hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions,according to New Orleans &Co.

But while the industry is trumpeting therecent studyresults, it is also bracing for aslow sum-

mer season with potentially more headwindsinthe fall and beyond.

TheTrump administration’stariffs, concernsabout inﬂation, and shifting global alliances are takinga noticeable bite outofthe travel industry nationally and locally,experts say.

Foreign travelersinparticular have cut back plans for corporate, group and individualtravel, andNew Orleansisalreadyfeeling theeffects,Legersaid.

“Internationaltravelhas been impacted somewhat, thoughnot signiﬁcantly,especially fromour Canadian friends,” he said.“We arehopeful in the long term there won’tbeany damage, but in the immediacy,thereis.”

Banneryear

TheMMGYstudy, compiled fromonline surveys of visitors andseveral other metrics,found that the city’svisitor counthas been graduallyrecoveringsince the pandemic —from 15.7 million in 2021 to 17.5 million in 2022, 17.9 million in 2023 and 19.08 million in 2024.

Thosenumbers roughly mirror the threeyears priortothe pandemic, when thecitywas seeing signiﬁcant year-over-year growth in its hospitality sector.In2017, thecity attracted 17.7 millionvisitors. In 2018, 18.5 million; and, in 2019, 19.75 million.

In thepost-Katrina decade, visitor countsslowly grewfromless than 4million in 2006 to nearly 10 million in 2015. The ﬁrst time the city broke the 10-million mark wasin2016.

Last year was aparticularly banner year,ofﬁcials have said, becauseofaseries of all-starattractions. In the spring, aRolling Stones appearance added an extra daytothe JazzFest calendar In the fall,TaylorSwift’s Eras

Tour brought some 200,000 fans to the city forthree back-to-back performances.

The city alsohad arobustfestivalseason andbusier thanusual EssenceFest in July

As aresult, visitor spending wasuplast year to $10.4 billion, nearly approaching 2019’srecord $10.5 billion spend,though inﬂationwas also slightly higher last year —nearly 3% —which couldpartially accountfor the increased dollar ﬁgure.

“Obviously we are happy peoplespent more money, but costs arehigher,” Leger said. “So, I think anyspending analysis has to take into accountthe overall economic environment.”

Doublingdown

Visitor numbers and spending are just some of the ways of measuring the health of the city’stourist economy. Hotel occupancy rates andrevenues, convention bookings and customer satisfaction are others. So is the city’sability to balance the needs of itstourism industry with the needs of local businesses and residents

Several local hotel, restaurantand tour operators say the MMGY study afﬁrms whatthey noticed within theirown businesses last year.Activity and spending were up. More visitors wereonthe street. Even the normally slow summer waslivelier than usual.

HotelierZach Kuppermansaid occupancy rates at Hotel St. Vincentinthe Garden District were up 7% in 2024, while revenues also were higher.

Emily Valentino, whose family owns six hotels in the French Quarter anddowntown as well as HopOnHop Off BusTours, said lastyear“felt like we hadturned

from second left, Mandi Mitchell,president and CEO of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority;Sam Oliver, executivedirectorofthe Acadiana Center forthe Arts;and BrittanyDeal, director of economic competitiveness for the Lafayette Economic Development Authority,during the State of the Arts Symposium on Fridayatthe Acadiana Center for the Arts in downtown Lafayette.

ECONOMY

Continued from page1B

want to focus on growing the “top of the funnel” of people who get to experience something creative and its intersectionality with the area’sculture. And that starts with children and students.

“This upcomingyear we’re going to have meaningful arts experiences for more than 50,000 students in this community,” he said. “Wewon’tbeable to give them each all of the care and attention and real feeding of that creative spirit thatthey deserve, but we can at least give them the matches to maybe lightthe ﬁre.”

The full cultural economic report will be released on LEDA’s websitesoon, Deal said.

Email Ashley White at ashley.white@ theadvocate.com.

acorner.”

Jayson Seidman’sbar and restaurant on Jackson Square, Fives Bar,did so well lastyear that he is expandinginto avacant space next door.The new dining room, which he hopes will be completed by the spring, will enable him to servemore than twice as many customers.

“I guess you could say we’re doubling down on New Orleans,” Seidman said, whose Sandstone Hospitality owns and operates several hotels and restaurants Hospitality experts pointto other trends thatsignal investors’ faith in the city’svisitor economy.Lastweek, NewYorkbased Certeras Management, a real estate investment ﬁrm, paid $47 million for the Hilton New Orleans Hotel, located in acentury-old building in the Central Business District.

“This is agood timetobuy a hotelinNew Orleans,” said Len Wormser,senior vice president for Hospitality Real Estate Counselors, ahotel property brokerage. “There are reasonable values, alimited new supply of hotel rooms and astacked convention calendarfor next year.”

Headwinds

The recent MMGY study was released Friday,two weeksinto the official summer season, whichisalways slow.Somebusiness owners arefeeingthe heat more than others.

After astrong 2024, Valentino said the ﬁrst sixmonths of 2025 have been disappointing, with no reliefinsight for the shortterm.

The Super Bowl, Mardi Gras andFrench Quarter Fest, which brought visitors to hotels, didn’t necessarily help businesses like herbus tourcompany

“Events,festivals or concerts

are adistraction forlocal businesses,” Valentino said. “Leisure travelers come to explore the city.Wehope to seemoreofthem in the future.”

Seidman, on theother hand, said bookings at hishotels, includingthe ColumnsHotel and The Henrietta, have been strong forthe ﬁrst half of 2025, though “we’regetting readytofalloff intothis deep dark hole of summer.”

NewOrleans &Co., as well as local merchants,have been more strategic in recent years about creating seasonal eventsinthe summer to help tourist-related businessesthrough theslow times.

“Weare hyper focused on trying to drive businessinthe summer,” Leger said. “And we’re alwaystrying to do more.”

Oneconcern,hesaid, is the effect that theTrumpadministration’spolicies on trade and immigration are having on international travel, both locally and nationwide. Some international travelers can’tget travel visas. Others no longer want to come to the U.S., according to Leger

Activity from Canadian travelersinparticular has been affected, he said. The country,because of itsshared history with Louisiana, traditionally makes up the largestgroup of foreign visitors to the city

“Weare speaking with our customers, and they areexpressing their love of our city and state,” Leger said. “Butout of acommitment to their ownnation, they don’twant to travel here right now.”

Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate. com.

BEER

Continuedfrom page 1B

department arerecommending commissioners approve the rezoning and permit. The applicant,the report indicates, is aware of local noise regulations for the outdoor portion of this barand local regulations regarding the responsibilities of abar/loungeowner to neighboring residential

PRIDE

Continuedfrom page 1B

younger In addition to daily tickets, weekend passesare available to Pride Con for $150 each,according to the Visit Lake Charles website. Theweekendpass includes VIP seating to the Coachella Costume Ball as well as entry to theRhinestone Rodeoand Family Day

“Our mission is to pro-

districts. That stretch of Camellia Boulevard has had a mix of commercial development in recent years, includingthe Rouses Market that opened early last year.Several medical businesses have opened along that stretch as well.

CamelliaBoulevard is developing into acommercial corridor,the report indicated. Trader Joe’sis expected to closeonits property later this year

vide adynamic andwelcoming platform that celebratesthe LGBTQcommunity, foster community connection and promote acceptance,a little bit alittlebit of visibility,”

Meiburg said. “We’re hoping theengagingevents forthe weekend will absolutely make (the community) feel supported, includedand like an authentic experience for the community.”

Meiburg said he believesthatthroughout the weekend of Pride Con,he

“This area is in agood location to be developed responsiblyand with beneﬁts to the residents, workers, customers and owners,”itread.“It is important to consider the effectsofnew development on an area and to consider all factors present before, during and after development has begun.”

Email Adam Daigle at adaigle@theadvocate. com

and other members of the SWLA Pride organization will learn more ways to support the community and improve events for June next year

“It would be wonderful to (make SWLA Pride Con an annual event),”Meiburg said. “Wejust really need the community to pretty much show up andshow out for this one, so we can make this ayearlything.”

Email Courtney Pedersen at courtney.pedersen@ theadvocate.com.

Locked &loaded

LSU center fielder Chris Stanfield bats in aCollege WorldSeries game against Arkansas on SaturdayatCharles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.LSU defeated Arkansas 4-1.

LSUbaseballisthrivingwiththe basesloaded. Here’s how importantithas been to theteam’splayoff success.

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

OMAHA, Neb.— On the biggest stage in college baseball, Chris Stanﬁeld needed ahit

LSU had the bases loaded with one outinthe second inning on Saturday against Arkansas at theCollege World Series. Abase hit fromthe juniorcenter ﬁelder would go along way toward theTigers winningtheir ﬁrst game in the CWS and placing them in the driver’sseat of winning their side of the bracket

Stanﬁeldhad seen Arkansas left-handed starterZach Root back in theregular season. LSUscoredtwo runs in six innings against Root on May 9atAlex Box Stadium in amatchup theTigerseventuallywon 5-4in10innings.

Stanﬁeld took that experience against Root —hewent 1for 2with adoublefacinghim back in May— andapplied it to his at-bat on Saturday night. He looked for an outside fastball and that’swhat he got.

“I faced him prior,back at LSU, and thatwas the same pitch,” Stanﬁeld said, “so I’d already gotten that look,and Iwas just putting agood swing on it.”

Stanﬁeld blooped asingle to left ﬁeld to drive in arun, handing the Tigers a1-0 lead to kickoff athree-run inning. LSU went on to win the game 4-1, riding alightsout performance from sophomoreleft-handed starter Kade Anderson to victory LSU’swin meansitwill face UCLA back at Charles-

ä See LSU, page 3C

Pacers,Thunder setfor pivotalGame5

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

OKLAHOMA CITY The ratings are down for these NBA Finals, as was expected.Oklahoma City vs. Indiana is asmall-marketseries andthe numbers reﬂect that, with viewership down about 20% from last season and on pace for the poorest TV turnout since the pandemic “bubble” ﬁnals in 2020.

Don’tblame the Thunder and Pacers for that. It’sbeen aback-and-forth over theﬁrst

fourgames —and now, abest-of-three will decidethe NBA title. Game 5isinOklahoma City on Mondaynight, with theThundertryingtotake their ﬁrst lead of theseries and thePacerstryingtoheadbackhomeone win away from achampionship.

“I do not care, to be honest withyou,” Pacersstar Tyrese Haliburton said when asked what he’d saytothose who, for whatever reason, haven’ttunedinto the series. “This is high-level basketballand I’m excited to be apart of it.” Game1had afranticIndianacomeback

and aHaliburton buzzer-beater.Game 2 sawOklahoma City do what it has done in themajority of games allseason: take full controlearlyand roll to awin. Game 3in Indianahad the Pacers’ benchfueling awin AndGame 4saw the MVP do MVP things, with ShaiGilgeous-Alexander scoring 15 points in the ﬁnal ﬁve minutes to carry the Thunder to acomeback win.

OMAHA, Neb.— In the NCAA regional against Little Rock, LSU’s pitching looked like it might be aliability in that shocking 10-4 loss to the Trojans. In the NCAA super regional against West Virginia, LSU’s pitching looked like aquestion markafter the Tigers’ dynamic duo of starting pitchers —Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson —combined to allow 10 earned runs in twostarts while LSU’s offense scored 28. Saturday night in LSU’s College World Series opener against Arkansas, one of the very best offensive teamsin the country,the Tigers put on display the full power of their pitching potential.

The rest of the CWS ﬁeld had to take notice. After the winover Arkansas, LSU’s team earned run average stood at 3.77. Of all eight teams in this year’sCWS, including Arizona which is already heading homeafter losing Sunday to Louisville, only Coastal Carolina (3.24) was on abetter number going into its gameSunday night against Oregon State (I don’twant to bring up the fact that Coastal plays in the Sun Belt and LSU plays in the SEC, but, just did). The Tigers, however,are the only team with twodouble-digit gamewinners: Anderson (11-1) and Eyanson (11-2). It wasAnderson whomystiﬁed one of the very best offenses in college baseball Saturday night in the winover Arkansas, allowing one run on three hits while walking

ä See RABALAIS, page 3C

ChaseShores unleashes athrow in the CollegeWorld Series against Arkansas on Saturday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.LSU defeated Arkansas 4-1.

Add it up, and it’sThunder 2, Pacers 2. The Thunderare outscoring the Pacersby3.3 points per game; the Pacers are outshooting the Thunder by 1.4%. It’s only the third timeinthe last 15 years that the ﬁnals have had all that through four games —2-2 tie, 3.3-point differentialorless, shooting within 1.4% of each other.GoldenState-Boston had it in 2022, and Dallas-Miamihad it in 2011. It all seemspretty even, and the looks aren’tdeceiving.

Scott Rabalais

STAFF PHOTO By HILARySCHEINUK

McIlroy sizzles in final round

Now he’s looking to recharge for British Open

BY MARCUS HAYES

The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

OAKMONT, Pa The daily drama of Rory McIlroy — Will he talk today? Will he not? was energy wasted Sunday McIlroy didn’t boycott the press as he’d done after six of his past seven rounds at major championships, the most prominent battle in the surreal press-vs.-player war being waged on the PGA Tour Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that USGA CEO Mike Whan was perched on the Oakmont Country Club back porch, less than 20 feet from McIlroy’s exit route, and that Whan loomed over the media scrum until McIlroy had fully answered every single question. It also probably didn’t hurt that McIlroy shot 3-under Sunday the ﬁrst time in his past seven rounds he’d broken par That included a 4-over, 2-over, 4-over start at the U.S. Open. He ignored media requests after the ﬁrst two days, then, on Saturday, painted himself petulant and pampered when he said, “I’ve feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do.”

At any rate, McIlroy’s selfreﬂective candor resurfaced Sunday So did his golf game, which had been in the doldrums since he won the Masters and completed the career Grand Slam after chasing it for 11 years. During Round 3, begun early with players who, like him, barely made the cut, he threw a club, destroyed a tee marker, then, afterward, roasted the media.

Less than 24 hours later, sitting just outside of the top-20, McIlroy was more focused during his round and less agitated after it “Look, I climbed my Everest in April, and I think after you do something like that, you’ve got to make your way back down, and

Rory McIlroy stands on the 11th green after putting during the final round of the U.S Open on Sunday at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa.

COMMENTARY

you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb,” McIlroy said.

An Open at Portrush is certainly one of those.”

McIlroy said Saturday that, as he completed his round Friday, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to make the cut and subject himself to two more days of golf hell at the toughest course the tour regularly sees. This has been the low point of a stunning metamorphosis — from darling of the international sporting world, weeping on the 18th green at Augusta as millions basked in his joy, to fullblown WWE heel.

He hasn’t been himself.

“I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks,” he said. “Getting home

Duplantis raises the bar again

Lafayette native sets pole vault record

By The Associated Press

STOCKHOLM Lafayette native Mondo Duplantis lifted his pole vault world record to 6.28 meters at a Diamond League meet at the Olympic Stadium in the Swedish capital on Sunday The Olympic and world champion added a centimeter at his ﬁrst attempt to the previous record he set at the end of February in France. When converted to American measurements Duplantis cleared 20 feet, 6 inches. It was the 12th pole vault world record for the 25-year-old Swede, who also competed for LSU, and the first time in front of home

fans.

Before the Stockholm meet, Duplantis said setting a world record at home was one of his dreams.

Duplantis competes for his mother’s native Sweden “It’s a magical feeling,” Duplantis said. “I wanted it so bad,” he said “I kept saying it was the only thing I was missing. Now, I’m done. I can just chill.”

After clearing 19-7, Duplantis didn’t target his own meet record of 20-2 but went straight for the world record

He celebrating by ripping off his shirt and pumping his ﬁst to the delight of roaring fans in the sellout crowd.

and having a couple weeks off, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again. He hoped that the incentive of winning at home would rejuvenate him. There’s no guarantee that will happen. McIlroy always ﬁghts emotion.

The British Open will be played a month from now at Royal Portrush, 60 miles north of Holywood in his native Northern Ireland, where he shot a then course-record 61 as a cocky 16-year-old amateur McIlroy missed the cut in 2019 at the last Open at Portrush, overcome by the moment.

“I didn’t realize how emotional I was going to be at Portrush. I think that was a thing I was unprepared for more than anything else,“ McIlroy said. ”I remember I hit a shot into No. 12 or 13 on

Friday night, obviously trying to make the cut. I remember the roar I got when the ball hit the green, and I felt like I was about to burst into tears. Just that support and that love from your own people. I was unprepared for that.”

How will he prepare this time?

Next week he will play the Travelers Championship in Connecticut, a semi-mandatory “elevated event” with an extralarge purse, a closed ﬁeld, no cut, and ampliﬁed FedEx Cup points.

Then he’ll ﬂy back to Europe, check on his new home in London, play the Genesis Scottish Open from July 10-13, then hop over the Irish Sea to the Emerald Isle and give it his best.

“(If) I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home,” he said, “then I don’t know what can motivate me.”

Panthers goalie is pillar of consistency

BY STEPHEN WHYNO AP hockey writer

When the Edmonton Oilers face elimination in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers, either Stuart Skinner or Calvin Pickard will lead them on to the ice as their starting goaltender

The reigning champion Panthers have no such debate. Two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky has started 63 consecutive playoff games going back to early in the playoffs in 2023, and he is a big reason they are on the cusp of winning a second consecutive title.

“He puts so much time into his focus and his ability and then the

ä Edmonton at Florida, 7 P.M.TUESDAy,TNT

experience that he has, so there’s a calmness that comes with Sergei that’s spread throughout the team,” coach Paul Maurice said Sunday “He’s the incredible, elite player that gets totally underappreciated: taken for granted, I guess, by us because he’s so consistent with his game.”

Bobrovsky has stopped 165 of the 181 shots on net during the ﬁnal, allowing 16 goals with a save percentage of 912. Skinner and Pickard have combined to stop 141 of 163, allowing 22 with respective save percentages of .860 and .878. Many of those goals scored by

Florida and allowed by Edmonton had more to do with the skaters in front of whoever is in the crease, hence a rotating door at hockey’s most important position in the ﬁnal. Skinner started the ﬁrst four, Pickard entered Game 4 and won in relief, then lost Game 5. Skinner will probably get the nod in Game 6, but coach Kris Knoblauch is not saying which way he’s leaning.

“It’s not an easy decision,” Knoblauch said. “We’ve got two goalies that have shown that they can play extremely well, win hockey games and we feel that no matter who we choose, they can win the game.”

That conﬁdence is even stronger around the Panthers, given how

steady Bobrovsky has been. Even though Game 5 turned into a rout, Maurice credited the goalie known as “Bob” for a handful of important early saves to make it possible.

It is something Bobrovsky has done all series, all playoffs and all season for a long time.

“He keeps us in the game so many times at key moments and is making huge saves,” top defenseman Gustav Forsling said. “He always gives us a chance to win every night. He’s been amazing for us.” Bobrovsky at 36 is adored by teammates. Aaron Ekblad, who has played with him for six seasons, called him simply the best.

“We love him,” Ekblad said.

“There’s no doubt about it.”

Ohtani’s return to mound could be in next 2 weeks

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani could return to a major league mound in the next two weeks but Los Angeles Dodgers rookie righthander Roki Sasaki has paused his throwing program and is set for a lengthy layoff.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani will throw to hitters for a fourth time this week and “potentially” it could be the twoway star’s final batting practice session before his ﬁrst big league pitching appearance since Aug. 23, 2023, for the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani a three-time MVP entered Sunday’s game with a .290 average, an NL-leading 1.023 OPS and 25 homers. Sasaki has not pitched in a game since May 9 and is not part of the team’s long-term pitching plans this season.

Ciganda ends title drought with win at Meijer Classic

BELMONT, Mich. — Carlota Ciganda birdied the ﬁnal two holes to win the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday for her ﬁrst LPGA Tour victory in more than 81/2 years, while Lexi Thompson had two late bogeys to dash her bid to end a long drought of her own.

Ciganda hit to a foot of the hole to set up her birdie on the par-4 17th, then made a 4-foot comebacker on the par-5 18th to avoid a playoff with playing partner Hye-Jin Choi. Ciganda shot a 5-under 67 to ﬁnish at 16-under 272. She won for the ﬁrst time since the 2016 Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Thompson had a 70 to tie for fourth.

Former LSU golfer Madalene Sagstrom , who went into the final round tied for the lead, finished 14th. She shot a final-round 73 and finished in a tie for 14th.

Memphis trades Bain to Magic in megadeal

The Orlando Magic have acquired Desmond Bane from Memphis in a deal that sends Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony and draft capital to the Grizzlies. Memphis gets four first-round picks one this year, another in 2026, then others in 2028 and 2030. The deal also included the option for a pick swap in 2029.

Bane averaged 19.2 points this season for the Grizzlies. He would ﬁgure to be an upgrade for a Magic team that has made the playoffs the past two seasons but has sought more shooting to pair with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner

Bane scored 30 points in 29 regular-season games, topping the 40-point mark twice.

Padres put OF Merrill on seven-day injured list

PHOENIX — The San Diego Padres have placed All-Star outfielder Jackson Merrill on the seven-day injured list on Sunday, a day after he suffered a concussion during Saturday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Merrill was injured in the seventh inning when he attempted a stolen base, but was tagged out by Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte. The tag came on Merrill’s helmet as he slid head first and he was down for several minutes before walking off the field. He was replaced in the field by Brandon Lockridge.

Merrill, 22, is batting .304 with five homers. He finished second in voting for the National League Rookie of the Year

‘Queen of Queen’s’ is 37-year-old qualifier

LONDON — German qualiﬁer Tatjana Maria proclaimed herself “Queen of Queen’s” after winning the Wimbledon warm-up tournament at the Queen’s Club for the biggest title of her career

The 37-year-old mother of two claimed her first WTA 500 title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over eighthseeded Amanda Anisimova in the grass-court ﬁnal in London. The 86th-ranked Maria won in front of her young daughters Charlotte and Cecilia, and her husband and coach Charles-Edouard Maria. On the way to

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JONAS EKSTRÖMER

Mondo Duplantis celebrates after setting a world record in the men’s pole vault during the Diamond League Bauhaus Athletics Gala at Stockholm Stadium in Sweden on Sunday

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GENE J PUSKAR

LCA’sWalkercommits to Ragin’ Cajuns

BY ERIC NARCISSE Staff writer

Throughout the recruiting process, prospects often have speciﬁc things they are looking for in acollege.

For some, it’swantingtoplay DivisionIand/or in aprestigious conference. For others it is playing close to home or how their talents ﬁt schematically

However,for Lafayette Christian quarterback Braylon Walker, what he waslooking for wasa lot simpler than that.

“I’m big on going where I’m wanted,” Walker said. “Where I’m appreciated and not where I’m tolerated.” Walker found exactlywhathe was looking for this past weekend during his ofﬁcial visit with the UL Ragin’Cajuns, whom he committed to Sunday

“I had agreattime over there,” Walker said. “I felt so welcomed. Ifelt very appreciated. Ifelt very wanted. It felt like the right decision for me.”

And having one of his best friends, Luke Green, also commit to the Cajuns over the weekend was abonus for Walker

“Of course, that playeda role in it,” Walker said.

This past season —his ﬁrst as a starter —Walker completed155 of 272 passes for 2,361 yards and 19 touchdowns, while also rushing for

NBA

Continued from page1C

“It’sgood for y’all,” Thunder guard Alex Caruso said. “Good for me, we’d be getting ready for aparade right now.” Parades in Indianapolis or Oklahoma Cityare goingtohave to wait at least until this coming weekend. This series seems like it could have debunked some of the tired complaints about the game in recent years:the nobody-plays-defense, too-muchisolation, too-many-3s arguments that have been out there.

“I think from an outside perspective it’sgreat for the league,” Caruso said. “It’sgreat forbasketball.Ithink these two teams play stylisticallythe best versions of basketball right now as far as pressure andbeing inﬂuencing and aggressive on defense —causing turnovers, makingstuff hard and then offensively free-flowing, shot making, passing the ball. .A greatbrand of basketball.”

And that means it could end up as agreat ﬁnals, whether more people start watching or not.

“Weappreciate theopportunity to play this deep into the season,” Thunder coachMark Daigneault said. “If you’re playing this deep into the season, your opponent is going to be really good. They have won 12 games to get to this point just like we have. Youjust know it’s going to be an unbelievable level. Thereare deﬁnitely timesin it where (you’re saying), ‘Man, this is ahigh, high level.’”

This marks the 32nd time that aﬁnals has been 2-2 going into Game5.The winner of Game 5 has gone on to ultimatelyprevail in 23 of the 31 previous occasions.

“Weare both twogames away,” Haliburtonsaid. “Anything can happen here.”

Shai’s climb

Gilgeous-Alexander is up to 3,091 points this season—including the regular season andplayoffs. That’sthe 18th most in NBA history and the reigningMVP could climb several more spots on that list before this series ends.

He’s72points shy of matching Michael Jordan’s3,163 in 199192 for the 10th most in aseason

“I think above all, it’sbeen very fun,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of his ﬁrst ﬁnals. “It’sbeen everything Idreamt it to be growing up.There’s no otherplace in the world I’d rather be, and I’m grateful to be here. Thankful for the experience, for sure.”

Pacers afterlosses

Indiana’sresilience is about to be tested again.

The Pacers haven’t lost back-to-back games since midMarch, going 10-0 in that span in the game immediately following adefeat.

“Weplay better with our backsagainst thewall,”forward Myles Turner said. “Adversity is something that’sgoing to bring out the best in you. Ithink that’sreallywhat it is,isjusta response. When your back is against the wall, that’s typically where we get our best basketball.”

593 yards and 17 touchdowns en route to leading theKnights to the Division III select quarterﬁnals.

However,withthe Cajuns, the 6-0, 170-pound Walker will be moving to the defensive side of the football as acornerback.

“My main schoolswerelooking at meatcornerback,” saidWalker,who garneredsome interest

from smaller schools to continue playing quarterbackincollege “WhenIthought aboutit, taking my skills to that level, Ifelt my skillset would be morevaluable at corner.”

Considering he has never played cornerback before, Walkerknows it is going to be achallenge learning anew posi-

tionatthe college level. But it is achallenge, Walker believes he is up for.

“It’s something that I’mgoing to have to learn,”Walker said. “I’ve always haditinthe back of my mindthat schools were going to be lookingatmeat(cornerback), so I’ve been training and doing things on my own. Butasfar as having

playeditina game formyschool, Ihaven’t.

“Of course, I’m nervous,” Walker continuedabout theposition switch. “But Iknow myself.I’m an extremely hard worker.I’m going to workashard as Ican to master that craft.”

Walker,who had eight offers, chose the Cajuns over Yale and Navy. His other ﬁve offers were from Arkansas State, Army,SoutheasternLouisiana,Lamar and Nicholls.

“It didn’treally matter to me where Iwent to school, but Ipreferred to stay down south,”Walker said. “I didn’treally want to go deal with that cold weather.So, being homeisbetter.”

Initially,Walker expected to make his college decision in late July or early August. But nowthe senior-to-be is excited to have it behind him and looks forward to focusing on theupcoming season

“I’mecstatictobehonest,” Walker said of the recruiting process beingover. “I cangofocus.Focus on the season.Focusonwinning state and being with my teammates. Nothaving to deal with the chaos of what college I’mgoing to endupatorwill Istill have aspot in certain places. I’ve locked in my spot with the Cajuns.”

Email Eric Narcisse at enarcisse@theadvocate.com.

Louisville eliminates ArizonafromCWS

Rose helpslift CardinalspastWildcats in six-runeighthinning

BY ERIC OLSON AP sportswriter

OMAHA, Neb.— ZionRose’stwo-run single gave Louisville its ﬁrst lead during asix-run eighth inning and theCardinals knocked Arizona out of the College World Series with an 8-3 win Sunday Louisville’s19th come-frombehind win of the season moved theCardinals (41-23) to another elimination game Tuesday against the loser of Sunday night’sCoastal Carolina-Oregon State matchup. Arizona(44-21) has lost six straight CWSgames overthree appearances since 2016.

The Cardinals trailed 3-1 early and came up empty after having

RABALAIS

Continued from page1C

two and striking out seven. Butitwasn’t just Anderson whose pitching put thegris gris on theHogs’ bats. Chase Shores came outofthe bullpen and threw one 100 mphpitch afteranother at Arkansas, keeping the Razorbacks off theboard in the eight. Then Casan Evans, thefreshman pitching like ajunior,threw a scoreless ninth to lock down the oh-so-crucial 4-1 victory It is Eyanson,aSouthern California kid whogrew up 45 minutes from the UCLA campus in suburban Lakewood, California, who takes up theLSU banner against theBruins on Monday night (6 p.m., ESPN). The stakes arenot much less massive for this onethan they were Saturday.The winner takes command of bracket two in theCWS and will have to be beaten twice to be kept out of

LSU

Continued from page1C

Schwab Field onMonday in the winner’sbracket (6 p.m., ESPN).

“They’re agreat team,”LSU coach Jay Johnson said on Sunday, “(they’ve) been one of the most consistentteams in thecountry this year. The differencebetween victory anddefeat on Saturday was ultimately that first inning, and LSU’sability to take advantage of abases loadedsituation.Following Stanfield’shit,senior Michael Braswellgot hit by apitch to score asecond run before senior Josh Pearson grounded into afielder’schoice that stretched the lead to three.

“Wework on it alot in practice...,” Johnson said.“And Ithink theguys have done agood job.”

LSU’swork in that inning was the continuation of the recent success its foundinbases loaded situations.

runners in scoringposition in the third,fourth and ﬁfth innings.

By then,coach DanMcDonnell had seenenough, andhegave his players astern talking to in the dugout withthe hope of sparking abreakthrough.

“When I’m not happy,”hesaid, “they’re going to know.” McDonnell added, “I had alot of frustration in me just from when Iwas watching. Iwas waiting for theadjustmenttohappen. It wasn’t happening.”

Whenthe runs came, they came in bunches.

Lucas Moore’ssacrifice fly in the seventh made it aone-run game against GarrettHicks (5-2), and then Arizonahad an improbable meltdown with NationalStopper of theYear Tony Plutaonthe mound after theCardinals’ first twobattersreached in the eighth.

Tague Davis’s blooper loaded the bases, andthenRose punched

thechampionship series.

Anything can happen and the Bruins are aﬁne team. They’re led by abig stick who everyone says is thetop position player in college ball: thecolorfully named Roch Cholowsky (.362, 23 home runs, 74 RBIs), asophomore shortstop.

“It should be an awesome night,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “Like (Saturday) night. Will LSU’spitching give the Tigers the edge once again? Paul Skenesisreportedly going to be in attendanceatCharlesSchwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, but we kind of doubtthathe’sstill eligible. Still, if he’s looking forateam to give him some run support that the Pittsburgh Pirates obviouslycan’t provide,maybe he should look into it. No, the Tigers should be in ﬁne form with Eyanson. Everyone else but Anderson should be available, including Shores (hethrew 10 pitches against Arkansas) and Evans (hethrew 13).Shores went so far as to say “I’m 100% ready”

During the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers had a.417 batting average with the bases loaded heading into Saturday,according to ESPN They’re theonly team with two grand slams and are 5for 6with two walksand ahit by pitch in bases loaded opportunitiessincethe start of the super regional against West Virginia. TheMountaineers’ porous defense andlacklusterpitching played abig partinthosenumbers. But as LSU fans sawinthe Baton Rouge regional, thefortunes of a seasoncan swing dramatically on ateam’s abilitytodrive in runs with runner’sinscoring position. From its second game against LittleRock in the regional until thethird inning of itsthird matchup with the Trojans, LSUhad the bases loaded with twooutson three occasions and couldn’tscore arun. Butthe Tigers ﬁnally broke through on their fourth try

Junior Ethan Frey’sbases-clearingdouble with two outs in the fourth inning cutLSU’s deﬁcit to one in agame that sent LSUtothe

atwo-runsingle down the rightﬁeld line to put Louisville up 4-3.

No. 9batter Kamau Neighbors singled in another run to cap his 4-for-4 day Garrett Pike got caught in arundown between third and homeand scored when Pluta dropped the ball tryingtotag him at the plate. Neighbors came homeonAlexAlicea’ssqueeze bunt, and Matt Klein singled to leftfor the ﬁnal run.

“Obviously,it’snot the way you wantittoend,”Arizona coach Chip Hale said. “Really the only way you want it to end is to be the champion. Unfortunate.Weplayed as hard as we could. We just didn’t play fundamentally soundbaseball today “That’s the frustrating thing as a coach and as an instructor of baseball. It got really ugly at the end there. Itakethe blame for that. I have to have the team better prepared.”

for Monday if the big right-hander is called upon. Then there’sahost of other Tigers who can throw: Cooper Williams, (0-1, 1.83 ERA), DJ Primeaux(0-0, 3.86), William Schmidt (7-0, 4.73), Mavrick Rizy (0-0, 4.74), Jaden Noot (2-1, 4.26), LSU’sother 100 mpharm Jacob Mayers (1-0, 5.02) and Zac Cowan (3-3, 3.09).

Tucker Biven (4-0) pitched the last four innings for the Cardinals, working around two singlestohold Arizonascoreless in the ninth. Louisville is 26-0 when leading after eight innings and 203-5-1 since the start of 2019.

Adonys Guzman, who singled in the Wildcats’ ﬁrst run in the ﬁrst inning, hit his second homer of the NCAA Tournament and ninth of the season to give his team atworun lead in the third.

Freshman SmithBaileygave Arizona another strong start. He wentsix innings for the ﬁfth time in six starts, including three straight in the NCAA Tournament. He allowed ﬁve earned runs over 18 postseason innings (2.50 ERA).

“I’m just going to take from this experience to be aleader for our team next year and try to bring us back and hopefully get alittle bitofa differentresult,”Bailey said.

Will he be the Nate Ackenhausen of LSU’s2023 championship run? Someone will probably have to be.

“That’sthe lore of this tournament,” Johnson said, “not just with LSU but every championship team.Twenty-four months ago Nate Ackenhausen, whoI just viewed as super-important to that team,wehad him go six innings at one time. Grifﬁn Herring going 41/3,he’d pitched alot but hadn’t gone 41/3

“A lot of guys are very capable of doing that. I’msure the rest of the coaches here feel the same way, but Ideﬁnitely feel good about our pitching staffand somebody being able to do that if needed. It wouldn’tsurprise us if it’sneeded at somepoint.”

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if LSUgets whatitneedsfrom its pitching staffatjustthe right time.

Ah yes, Cowan. He was so good thefirst two-thirds of the season for LSU but has been such a question mark since the calendar turned to May.Heleft April with a1.12 ERA but has becomeless and less relied upon as LSU’scloser.Infact, he hasn’tpitched since going 11/3 innings against Little Rock in the regional final. Someone, somewhere along the way will have to start acrucial thirdgame to try to get LSU to thechampionshipseries. Evans would seem to be the first candidate, but what if the Tigers’ need somecrucial outs in aone-run gameagainst the Bruins? Johnson naturally wouldn’ttip his hand as he spoke to reporters after practice Sunday,but the options with Evans are multiple.

ON DECK

WHO: LSU (49-15) vs. UCLA(48-16)

WHEN: 6p.m., Monday

WHERE: Charles-Schwab Field

ONLINE/TV: ESPN

RADIO: WDGL-FM, 98.1 (Baton Rouge); WWLAM,870 (NewOrleans); KLWB-FM,103.7 (Lafayette)

RANKINGS: LSUisNo. 6overall seed; UCLA is No. 15

PROBABLE STARTERS: LSU— RHP Anthony Eyanson (11-2, 2.74 ERA); UCLA— RHP Landon Stump (6-1, 4.54 ERA)

PREGAME UPDATES: theadvocate.com/lsu

ON X(FORMERLYTWITTER): @KokiRiley

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: LSUwill startEyanson on Mondayagainst the Bruins.As anative of SouthernCalifornia,Eyanson allowedfour earned runs in ﬁveinnings last week against West Virginia in the Baton Rougesuper regional. UCLAwill turntoStump on Monday Stumptossed four shutout innings aweek ago against UTSA. Koki Riley

super regionals. “There’ssomethings that we’ll look for and trytomakesure that we hone in on and are good with,”

Johnson said when asked about howLSU practices basesloaded situations. “The pitcherobviously has less margin forerror at that circumstance, they’re trying to inducesomething that we want to stay away from.”

The second inning on Saturday wasn’tterribly explosive but it got the job done in alow-scoring environment. With the wind blowing in from center ﬁeld, the amount of talent on the mound forboth sides and the grand dimensions of the park, tallying runs would be difﬁcult to come by Taking advantageofthose opportunities will be even more crucialfor theTigers moving forwardasthey inch closer to potentially winning an eighth national championship.

“I thought we did agood job of that tonight,” Johnson said Saturday.“Again, whenyou’re facing thosecaliber arms,you’re notgoing to get aton, maybe like you wouldplaying in SECballparks where thehome runsarealthing with every pitch of the game.”

STAFFPHOTO By BRAD KEMP

Lafayette ChristianAcademy quarterback Braylon Walker,right, commitstoULtoplaydefense.

20 answers you’ll need afterdiagnosis

What questions should be askedto the physician after an Alzheimer’sdiagnosis?

Adiagnosis of Alzheimer’s diseasemay be suspected or may come as acomplete surprise. Either way,the news is difﬁcult to absorb, and the individual may be at aloss at ﬁrst to process the information.

Once the diagnosis sinksin, it is helpful for the individual to prepare alist of questionsor concerns and make an appointment with his or her doctor

Getting the right medicalinformation can help the individual make future ﬁnancial decisions and pursue aplan of care.

The University of California at Los Angeles Alzheimer’sand Dementia Care Program has compiled asamplingofquestions the individual should ask after adiagnosis:

n What type of dementia do Ihave?

n What’sthe difference between Alzheimer’sdisease and dementia?

n What caused my dementia?

n What is the likely course of decline? How long do Ihave?

n What symptoms, other than memory loss, can Iexpect, and what will the pace of decline be?

n What can Idotoslow the decline?(What medicines are effective and what resultscan Iexpect from them? What lifestyle changes will be helpful?)

n What about advertised supplements and programs that claim to cure Alzheimer’s disease?

n Where can Igotolearn more about dementia?

n What help is available to guide me through my illness?

n If Ihave aproblem that might be related to my dementia, whom should Icall?

n What plans should Imake now to prepare for atime when Ican be less engaged in making decisions?

n How should Iselect afamily or friend caregiver?

n What are reasonable goals for me now and in the future?

BERRY GOOD

BY JOYHOLDEN Staff writer

On awarm June afternoon ideal for berry picking, cars andtrucks turnedintoagrassy lotoff Abby James Road in Prairieville.Young volunteers directed carswhere to park. It was 5:45 p.m., and avariety of people appro a c he dt he gates to Waughsome Farm. Chairity and Mik eWaugh, both librarians by trade, started planting during the COVID-19 pandem ic in 2020. They live on Chairity’s family land that hasbeen inher family for four generations, and they turned it into afruit orchard. After ﬁve years ofplantingand farming, the Waughs nowhave10acres of planted fruits. At 6p.m., Mike Waugh, who

is the BoardofRegents library services platform manager by day,commanded the attention of the eager crowd and gave directions to the blackberry and blueberry rows as wellashow the pricinggoes. Then, he opened thegates to theeager pickers with their white plastic bucketsintow Chairity Waugh, thespecial collections cataloger at LSU’sHillMemorial Library ran thecheckout operations as her husband walked through the orchard, ready to answer questions and help any pickers. Wa ughso me Farm opened to the public in 2023, andthe Waughs are learning as they go when it comes to the orchard business. They triedopening for aday at a time theﬁrst summer andthen begansetting up reservations for 50 people at atime last sum-

mer.This year,theyare opening for two hours four times a week:Tuesdayand Thursday evenings andSaturday mornings and evenings.

“This year,we’re just lucky that it grew enough to pretty much —knock on wood—supply thedemand that we’ve seen thus far,” Chairity Waugh said. “It’sgrown sort of exponentially.”

In addition to 10 300-foot rowsofblackberries and 10 400-foot rowsofblueberries, theWaughs also planted ﬁgs, peaches andplums. When those areinseason,theywill hold pick-your-own fruitdays as well.

Currently,the stars of the orchard are the blackberries.

ä See BERRY, page 6C

Greenwood plantation opensfor weddings again

ä See ALZHEIMER'S, page 6C Staff report St. Francisville-based Louisiana Hospitality Group,which operates The St. Francisville Inn, has partneredwith Greenwood Plantation Greenwood Plantation, a200acre estate at 6838 HighlandRoad in St. Francisville,isprivately owned. The property closed to weddings and corporate

of the most beautiful spotsinthe country,” Johnston said. “There are200-yearold oaks, an oak alley,that people can get married under.” Thehospitality is ready to begin booking events at the plantation. Potential guests are invited tocall (225) 635-6502 for more information. Nestled in the pocketofFeliciana hill country, Greenwood was originally a3,000-acrecotton plantation built in 1830 by William Rufﬁn Barrow.In1960, the original houseburneddown, leaving behind thecolumns and front steps. The plantation hasbeen featured in movies including “Louisiana,” “North&South,” “GI Joe II,” and “Jeepers Creepers III.”Itisopen fortours on Saturdaysand Sundays by appointment.Ticketsfor non-guestsare $20.

BY HUNTERBOYCE

Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)

Palms sweaty,knees weak— thesesymptomsare morethan just Eminem’spopular“8Mile” lyrics. It’sanxiety,and people who are shy tend to feel plenty of it in the dating game. Luckily,psychologists who specialize in anxiety,shyness and dating have come to the rescuewith somequick tips on breaking the ice. It’s OK to be shy

Indiana University Southeast’sBernardoCarducci, Ph.D., leads the college’sShyness Research Institute and has penned abook on how to overcome shyness. Speaking to the American Psychological

Association, the psychologist explained acrucial factor in living with the emotion.

“It’s notanegative personality trait,” he said. “It’snot a character flaw.It’snot adisease. It’ssimply adescription of the individual. How they respond —how they behave.” For many,the sense of self could be oldnewsbythe time they’re outthe door for work. Coffeecup in one hand and car keys in the other,they’re off to take on the day’schallenges. Those of us who are shy,however,facemore-or-less constant self-observation.

“Wesay,think about being in front of amirror,”Carducci said. “When you look in front of amirror— Idon’tcare who youare —most peopledon’t say,‘Oh my God,how beautiful Iam.’The ﬁrst thing theydo when they look into amirror is they primp. They focus on the hair.They adjust their tie and

STAFF FILE PHOTO By JILLMOORE

Greenwood Plantation in St. Francisville wasbuilt in 1830 and meticulously rebuilt after adevastating 1960 fire.

Owner Chairity Waugh chats with aguest whilereadying their freshly picked blueberries and blackberries to go home.

Eloise Fussell, 4, shows off her pail of fresh picked blackberries.

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday,June 16, the 167th day of 2025. There are 198 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On June 16, 1963, the world’sfirst female space traveler,Valentina Tereshkova, 26, was launchedinto orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6. Tereshkova spent 71 hours in ﬂight, circling the Earth 48 times before returning safely

Also on this date:

In 1858, accepting theIllinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the issue of slavery in the United States had to be resolved, declaring,“ahouse divided against itself cannot stand.” In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1976, thousands of Black students in Johannesburg’s Soweto township demonstrated against the imposition of the Dutch-based Afrikaans language in schools; police opened ﬁre on the students, killing at least 176 and as many as 700.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos signed the instruments of ratiﬁcation for the Panama Canal treaties during aceremony in Panama City In 2015, real estate mogul Donald Trump launched his successful campaign for thepresidency of the United States with aspeech at Trump Tower in Manhattan In 2016, Walt Disney Co. opened Shanghai Disneyland, its ﬁrst theme parkin mainland China.

In 2022, witnesses testiﬁed to the Jan. 6committeethat Donald Trump’sclosest advisers viewedhis last-ditch efforts to pressureVice PresidentMikePence to reject the tally of state electors andoverturnthe 2020 election as “nuts,” “crazy” and even likely to incite riots Today’sBirthdays: Author Joyce Carol Oates is 87. Country singer Billy “Crash” Craddock is 86. R&B singer Eddie Levert is 83. Boxing Hall of Famer Roberto Durán is 74. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 73. ActorLaurieMetcalf is 70 Rapper MC Ren is 56. Golfer Phil Mickelson is 55.Actor John Cho is 53. Actor Daniel Brühl is 47. Actor Missy Peregrym is 43.Singer Diana DeGarmo (TV:“AmericanIdol”) is 38. NFLwide receiver Justin Jefferson is 26.

ALZHEIMER’S

Continued from page 5C

n How can Ipreserve what matters to me?

n As the disease progresses,will Isuffer?

n I’m afraid of becoming dependent and aburden. Will that happen?

n When will Ineed to get help in the home or go to a facility?

n Should Itell people about my diagnosis?

n Should Icontinue to interact with people even though they might notice that something about me is different?

n What are the chances that my children will get dementia? Is there anything they can do to prevent getting dementia? In addition toobtaining clear answers from the doctor,getting educated about Alzheimer’sdisease is imperative in navigating the journey.Educational and support resourcesare available through various Alzheimer’sorganizations, to name afew: Alzheimer’s Association, (800) 2723900, alz.org; Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, (866) 232-8484, alzfdn.org; or Alzheimer’sServices of the Capital Area, (225) 3347494; alzbr.org.

Dana Territo is an Alzheimer’sadvocate and author of “What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’s Disease.” She hosts “The Memory Whisperer.” Email herat thememorywhisperer@ gmail.com.

What is post-concussionsyndrome?

Universal Uclick

Dear Doctors: Iwas in apretty bad car accident. Ithought Iwas lucky Igot away with just aconcussion, but now Ihave headaches and see an aura when Ilook at lightsat night. I’m told it may be post-concussion syndrome.Can youplease talk about what that is andwhether it can be cured?

Dear Reader: We should begin by talking about concussion, aform of traumatic brain injury.Itoccurs when ablow to the head or body results in ajoltsostrong, it causes thebrain to shift or twist rapidly within the skull. Theforce of this movement can bruisethe delicate tissues of thebrain, rupture blood vesselsthatdeliver oxygen and nutrients, and can cause damage to the neurons, sometimes at acellular level. Becausethese types of brain injuries are usually notlifethreatening, concussions have been characterized as mild.However,in recent years, theserious consequenceshave becomeclearer

BERRY

Continued from page 5C

Once blackberries start to ripen, they must be pickedoften —every coupleofdays. On the big days, there can be 400 people at Waughsome Farm, and they sell more than 100 gallonsoffruit.

“Wehave just asmuchplant in blueberries, butthey’rereally small trees,” MikeWaugh said. “But the blackberries are just off thehook rightnow.And that’swhat happened whenwe first opened three years ago.”

After planting their blueberry bushes, they picked enough during the ﬁrst harvestfor themselvesand family members. Theblackberries fruited the second year,and their harvest was so big that theyhad to open upthe orchardsothe fruit wouldn’tspoil.

Chairity painted asign, and Mike made the Facebookpage and website. That’show the Waughsome Farm began.

Before thepicking begins

Here are afew tipstoknowbefore pickingberries at Waughsome Farm:

n Wear comfortableclothes that can get dirtyand/or stained. Wear closed-toeshoes or boots and socks Theground may be muddy.Red ant piles can be anywhere.

n Wear sunscreen and/or widebrimmedhats and long sleeves. There is no shade in theorchard.

n It’s an 800-footwalkfrom the

Dr.Elizabeth Ko

Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THE DOCTORS

Aconcussion causes an immediate and temporarydisruption in the normalfunctioningofthe brain The symptoms can be physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioral. Symptomsmay develop immediately or can take several days or even several weekstoappear Common physical symptoms include headache, neck pain, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, blurred vision, slurred or garbled speech and sensitivitytolight or sound. Some people experienceconfusion, have problems withlong- and short-term memory,become easily irritated, have extremeswings in emotion

or become anxious or depressed. It is notunusual for someone with a concussion to experience changes to their normal sleep patterns. People typically recover from aconcussion within twotofour weeks. When someone reaches the three-month mark and symptoms have not begun to resolve, it is known as post-concussionsyndrome, or PCS. We don’tfully understand thereasons forthisdelay in recovery yet. One theory suggests PCS arises from changes in brain chemistry driven by the initial injuries. Another suggests neuron damage as atrigger. The data showthatpeople whohavesuffered oneormoreprevious brain injuries areatincreased risk of developing PCS. Thereisnospeciﬁc test for postconcussion syndrome. Diagnosis is basedonthe person’smedical history,the details of their initial injury andthe subsequent symptoms, and atimeline of thepersistentsymptoms.Getting adiagnosis caninvolve aneurological exam and, in

some cases, scans to visualize the brain. These tools help rule out possiblecomplications,suchasa neck or skull fracture, or an intracranial hemorrhage. As with concussion, PCScannot be cured. Treatment focuses on managing each person’sspecific symptoms. This can include medications to address pain, nausea, anxiety or depression; devices to manage light andsound sensitivity; andcognitive,behavioralor psychological therapy.Although in the past, exercise was discouraged, newer research showsgentle physical activity to be beneﬁcial. Although recovery timefor PCS varies, manypeoplesee significant improvement in three or four months.

Send yourquestions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla. edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 WilshireBlvd., Suite 1450, Los Angeles,CA, 90024.

parking area to theorchard. The back of the orchardisevenfurther

n Thefarmhosts awidevariety of wildlife, including stinging insects such as waspsand bees. If you are allergic, please be advised.

n Bringyour own water

n Refrigerate berries within an hour of picking. Bring acooler with icetomaintain peak freshness. ThepickingrateatWaughsome Farmis$10 apint. After picking to their hearts’ desires, customers can bring their buckets of berries to the check-outtable,where theberries

will be dividedinto pint containers.Customers canpay withcash or Venmo.

For more information, visit waughsomefarm.com Email Joy Holdenatjoy.holden@ theadvocate.com.

Keep lampshades dust-freewithhandvacuum

Hints from Heloise

Dear Heloise: Nottoo long ago, you suggested using asmall paintbrush to dust lampshades. The best thing to use to dust asmooth lampshadeisnot a lint roller but rather ahandvacuum. Apaintbrush will make the dust ﬂy into the air,and it will eventually land on theﬂoor.Alint rollerdoes an OK job, but hand vacuums suckupthe dirtand can be taken to atrash bin and emptied

SHYNESS

Continued from page5C

collar. They focus ontheirfaults because amirror makes you self-conscious, andifyou’re self-conscious, you focus on your negative characteristics. So we say, think about shy people as havinga mirrorheld in front of them all day long, particularly in social situations.”

Embracingyour shyness is the ﬁrst steptoa better date life. The next stop? Empowerment. Keepingyourpower Psychology Today’sAttraction Doctor,Jeremy Nicholson,Ph.D., is adoctor of social and personalitypsychology and has some quick tips for shypeoplewhen it comes to breaking theice. According to the expert, initiating conversation— particularly for thepurpose of asking someoneona date—can build up alot of anxiety because youare opening yourself up to be evaluated by the other person. It’savulnerablemoment. To avoid that sensation, Nicholson suggests approaching conver-

out. Ioccasionally like to take the attachment on my rug shampooer to (very lightly) give my smooth lampshades aonce-over,and it’s madesuch adifference in keeping my shades clean! —Tammy,inAlabama

College-bound

Dear Heloise: Your columnisthe ﬁrst thingIread with anticipation in my newspaper

Ineed your expertise and advice. My grandson will graduate high school in May and move toa universitytwo hours away.Which

sations in away that allows youto keep your power

“Rather than‘putting yourself outthere,’ getthe other personto invest alittle first,” he wrote in Psychology Today.“Askthem to do somethingfor you. Make arequest. This could even be something small like, ‘Could you grab me astraw?’ Or,‘Couldyou watch my stufffor aminute while Iget acoffee?’ Any small request will do thetrick.”

Nicholson calleditthe BenFranklineffect—a phenomenon where aperson likessomeonemore after they’ve helped them in some small way So the ice hasbeenbroken. With anyluck, numbershavebeenexchanged and eventually adateset Butwhatcan someone whoisshy do once the datestarts? Calm thosenerves. There’shope yet

Once you’re on thedate

Don’t open with awow-worthy one-liner.Instead, open with aquestion

“Most approaches go wrong because the personistrying to impress,” he said. “They are trying to ‘earn’ the other individual’sinter-

practical items does he need the most? —Seda, in Glendale,California

Seda, here is alist that might help you:

n Shower caddy

n Over-the-door organizer

n Shower shoes

n Laundry bag

n Clip-on dorm room lamp

n Desk lamp

n Lint roller with afew extrarolls

n Alarmclock

n Backpack

n Drawer organizer

n Small ﬁrst aid kit.

Do any of my readers have any

est, attraction or affection. Essentially,they are opening themselves up to ‘being judged’…rather than evaluating, qualifying or screening theother person.

“So, rather than letting them evaluateyou, begin by evaluating them instead!Ask them aquestion. Be curious. Suspend your attraction to them and make them jump through ahoop or two to provethemselves to you.Ask them something that will qualify them as apartner and see whetherthey pass.”

If you do wanttoopen with a statement, don’tmake it cheesy Simply make an observation. In acoffee shop? Comment on the quality of the coffee. Outside? It’s wonderful weather we’rehaving. Cheesyopeners might getalaugh, but simple observations are better invitations for further conversation.

“If the other personisatall interested,heorshe will continue theconversation,” Nicholson explained.“If theyare notinterested andsay nothing, thenyou have not riskedanything. Youhave simply madeastatement.”

Manhattan Center for Cognitive BehavioralTherapy’sAmohaBajajMahajan, Ph.D., isn’tjust apsychol-

moreitemstoadd that their kids needed forcollege? Let us know at Heloise@Heloise.com! —Heloise

Avoiding smashed fingers

Dear Heloise: Whenever Iwould hammer in anail to hang up a picture, Iwould invariably hammer my finger once or twice. I finally found that if Ihold the nail with apair of pliers instead of my fingers, there wasalot less pain! RogerR.,Tempe,Arizona

Send ahinttoheloise@heloise com.

ogist; she’sananxiety expert. According to thepro, there are some quick hacks shy people can use to their advantage once the date has begun.

“Shift your focus to the other person,” she wrote on the clinic’s website. “Often, shyness anddiscomfort increase when our focus is on ourselves —our own thoughts, insecurities, appearance. Shifting your focus to your date andthe conversation canhelpyou feel more present and engaged.”

Secondly,she advised ditching any mind reading. Bajaj-Mahajan explained that trying to anticipate whataperson is thinking on adate canbedistracting andisalsousually inaccurate. There’snoneed to guess what they’re thinking.

“Practice an easy manner with somesense of humor,”she wrote, breaking down herﬁnaltip. “Dating while feeling shy can feel intimidatingand demanding! Trytobreak the tension (with yourself)bysmiling, walking leisurely,sitting laidback and comfortably and cracking ajoke or two.”

STAFFPHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Alicia Vidrinepicks some fresh blueberries at Waughsome Farm in Prairieville on June 5.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Build an environment aroundyou thatenablesyou to flourish andmeet people who share your dreams, and you'll discoverthe path that makes your goalseasier to achieve.

CAnCER (June 21-July 22) Do things for yourself,and youwon't be disappointed. An offer will leave you with mixedemotions. Do your homework, ask questions and consider thelongterm effects.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Follow your passion. Gather information and consider howtoput your fingerprint on something that interests you. Playdefense andprepare to make acountermove.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Force may be necessary to getthings done. If you connect with someone who shares your concerns, an unexpected alternative will come your way.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Be careful what you share with whom. Whenuncertainty sets in, step back andtakeawaitand-seeattitude.It's bettertobesafe than sorry. In the meantime, focus on gathering information.

sCoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Gather information,add to your skills and qualifications, and do whatever it takes to raise your profile. Explore and expand your options to include cheaper ways to live

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Stabilize and secure your position, reputation andlifestyle.Spend time rearranging your space to accommodate your

needs. The betterthe flow, the more you'll achieve.

CAPRICoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Set boundaries and distance yourself from people most likely to getinyourway.Join groups that connect you to the latest trends andcan help youmasteryour skills.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Dedicate moretime to how you earn and invest your money. You can't buy love or pay for someone else's mistake.Success comes from doing what's best for you. PIsCEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Temptation will be challenging to resist.Distance yourself fromanyone who is abad influenceorlikelytotakeadvantage of you. The best way to maintain stabilityistoisolate yourself while the pressure's on. ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Get the lowdown, figureout what you need and deal only with reputable individuals Takecare of domestic, travel or educationalissues before they canspinout of control. Trust your instincts. tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Keep your thoughts to yourself.Refuse to letthe changes or decisions others make lead youastray. Agracious attitude will draw favors; eagerness will make people uncomfortable.

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

toDAy's CLuE:W EQuALs F

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe emptysquares 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.

Saturday’s PuzzleAnswer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

When beginners learn bridge, they are usually taught twobidding conventions: Blackwood and Stayman. Theymight also learn transfersintothe majors, a complementofStayman.

This week,let’s look at Staymaninits simplest form andinits extensions.

Interestingly, Stayman was not inventedbySam Stayman, butbyhis thenbridgepartner, George Rapee. But Staymanwrotethefirstarticlepublished on the convention, andhis name stuck. (It was independently devised by Jack Marx from England.)

The basic use of Stayman is to find a 4-4fit in amajor suit. Remember,innotrump, a4-4 fit will produce at most four tricks. But if thatsuit is trumps, you will often generateanextra winner by ruffinga loser. (And on acloudlessday, you will gain eight tricks from the suit.)

Opener bids one no-trump, and responderreplies twoclubs.Ifthe opener hasone four-card major, he bids twoofthat suit. If he has two four-card majors,herebids twohearts. Andifhe has no four-card major, he answers two diamonds. Then the responder judges what to do next

In today’s example, Northuses Staymandespite hispoor suittotry to finda 4-4spade fit. Whensuccessful, he raises to game West leadsthe heart king.

This deal is easy if thetrumps are 3-2. Win the first trick, cashthe two top trumps,and drive outthe club ace. Here, South loses only three tricks: one spade, one heart and one club. Finally, observe thatthree no-trump should be defeated after theheart-king lead. ©2025 by NEA, Inc dist.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddlewhich creates adisguised word,

InstRuCtIons: