The Acadiana Advocate 07-15-2025 by The Advocate

Volunteer Noah

a wall in the cafeteria during Saturday’s school cleanup day at Comeaux High School.

Comeaux cleanup

Volunteers wipe down walls in a classroom during a school cleanup day at Comeaux High School on Saturday. School volunteers, staff and students along with Our Saviors Church and the Rotary Club South came together to clean up repair and beautify the school before the new school year

Hundreds of volunteers gather to get high school ready for return of students

BY ASHLEY WHITE Staff writer

Comeaux High was bustling Saturday with volunteers beautifying and cleaning up the school before students return in August

Some of the 270 volunteers were student-athletes and many were from Our Saviors Church, a community partner that “adopted” Comeaux through the nonproﬁt Love Our Schools’ Community and Family Engagement model

The service day projects included replacing more than 300 ceiling tiles, installing new dry erase boards, painting the teachers’ lounge and landscaping the quad and other parts of campus.

The turnout and willingness of people to dedicate their Saturday morning to getting dirty and sweaty overwhelmed Our Saviors Church Outreach Coordinator

Kameron Boudreaux with joy, she said

“We’re here to help and ﬁll the needs of the school,” she said. “We’re here to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Their efforts highlight what CAFE

See COMEAUX, page 4A

Volunteers Cohen Waguespack and Max Flor put together a new planter during a school cleanup day at Comeaux High School on Saturday

Court OKs plan to close Education Dept.

Nearly 1,400 set for layoffs

BY MARK SHERMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to put his plan to dismantle the Education Department back on track — and to go through with laying off nearly 1,400 employees. With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court on Monday paused an order from U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston, who issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs and calling into question the broader plan. The layoffs “will likely cripple the department,” Joun wrote. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold while the administration appealed.

The high court action enables the administration to resume work on winding down the department, one of Trump’s biggest campaign promises.

“When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it.”

The court did not explain its decision in favor of Trump, as is customary in emergency appeals. But in dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor complained that her colleagues were enabling legally questionable action on the part of the administration.

“When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” Sotomayor wrote for herself and Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said it’s a “shame” it took the Supreme Court’s intervention to let Trump’s plan move ahead.

“Today, the Supreme Court again conﬁrmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal

JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAyOR ä See EDUCATION, page 4A

National Guard facility to return to Camp Beauregard name

Center will now be named for father of former namesake

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

Effective Monday, the Louisiana National Guard Training Center Pineville will once again be called Camp Beauregard at the direction of Gov Jeff Landry the Guard announced.

Dating back to 1917, the name of the military installation previously honored Confederate Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. But the name Camp Beauregard was changed in 2023 to Training Center Pineville, following a trend of removing references to Confederate soldiers. Now, Camp Beauregard will honor Capt. Jacques Toutant Beauregard, a member of the Louisiana Militia who fought in the 1815

The name of Camp Beauregard was changed in 2023 to Training Center Pineville.

PHOTO PROVIDED By THE LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD ä See NAME, page 4A

STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD KEMP

Stupery paints

Cuomo continues runfor N.Y.mayor despite loss

Former Gov.Andrew Cuomo launched an independent run for New York City mayor on Monday,restarting his campaign after abruising loss to progressive Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary

In avideo, Cuomo announced he would remain in the race to combat Mamdani, ademocratic socialist state lawmaker,who the former governor said “offers slick slogans but no real solutions.”

“The ﬁght to save our city isn’t over,” Cuomosaid. “Only13% of New Yorkers votedinthe June primary.The generalelectionisin November and Iaminittowin it.”

Critics of Mamdani’sprogressive agenda, which includes higher taxes on the wealthy,have called on donors and voters to unite behind asingle candidate for the November election.

The current mayor,Eric Adams, is also running as an independent in the general election, as is former prosecutorJim Walden. Curtis Sliwa, founder of the 1970s-era GuardianAngels anti-crime patrol, is on the Republican line.

Cuomo’sdecision to pressonin the race is the latest chapterinhis comeback attempt, launched almost four years after he resigned as governorin2021 following a barrage of sexual harassment allegations. He denied wrongdoing duringthe campaign, maintaining that the scandal wasdriven by politics.

Elmo’shacked Xaccount posts racist messages

Sesame Workshop wastrying to regain full control over its Elmo account on the XplatformMonday after ahacker gainedaccess and posted astring of racist and antisemitic messages.

“Elmo’sXaccount was compromised by an unknownhacker who posted disgusting messages, includingantisemiticand racist posts. We are working to restore full control of the account,” aSesame Workshop spokespersonsaid Monday.Sesame Workshopisthe nonproﬁtbehind “Sesame Street” and Elmo.

The account was compromised over the weekend and instead of theusual posts of encouragement and kindness, Elmo’s650,000followers were given antisemitic threats and aprofane reference to theJeffrey Epstein sex trafﬁcking investigation. Those tweets were soon deleted,though Elmo’saccount retains alinkto aTelegram channel from auser who takes credit for the hack.

Xdid not immediatelyrespond to arequest for comment.

Elmo’ssocial media account has lately become aplace for mental health awareness. Last year,the red fuzzy monster, eternally 31/2,caused asensation when he asked: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” It prompted responses from thenPresident Joe Biden and Chance the Rapper

Officials: Man smashes

Stone of Destiny case

LONDON Aman from Australia has been charged with “malicious mischief” for allegedly smashing aglass case holding the Stone of Destiny,anancient symbol of Scottish nationhood. Arnaud Harixcalde Logan, 35, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court on Monday to face the charge, which is similar to vandalism.

Logan, whose address was given as Sydney,wasn’taskedto enter aplea and was ordered detained until ahearing next week.

Police said that they were called to a“disturbance” atPerth Museum in central Scotland on Saturday,after reportsofa kilt-wearing man attempting to smash the case containing the royal rock.

The 335-pound sandstone block is also known as theStone of Scone —and was usedinthe crowning ceremonies of medieval Scottish monarchs at Scone Abbey,near Perth. It was stolen by England’sKing Edward Iin the 13th century and taken to Westminster Abbey in London, where it was installed underthe seat of the coronation chair

It has been used in coronations at the abbey ever since ﬁrst of Englishand then of British monarchs The English and Scottish crowns were united under one monarch in the 17th century

Trumpthreatens Russia with tariffs

Presidentboosts U.S. weapons forUkraine

BY CHRIS MEGERIAN and ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press

WASHINGTON President

Donald Trump on Monday threatened Russia with steep tariffs and announced arejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reachUkraine, hardening his stance toward Moscow aftermonthsoffrustration aboutunsuccessful negotiations for ending the war

The latest steps reflect an evolving approach from theRepublican president, who promised to swiftly resolve the war started by Russian President VladimirPutin when he invaded Ukrainethree years ago. Trump once focused his criticism on Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy, whomhedescribed as unwilling to compromise, butmorerecentlyhas expressedgrowing irritation toward Putin.

“My conversations with himare very pleasant,and then the missilesgooff at night,” Trump said.Hecomplainedthat“it just keeps going onand on and on.”

Trumpsaid he would implement “severe tariffs” unless apeace deal is reached within50days He provided fewdetails on howtheywouldbeimplemented, but he described them as secondary tariffs meaning they would target Russia’s trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow

in the global economy

In addition,Trump said European allies would buy “billions and billions”ofdollars of U.S.militaryequipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country’ssupplies of weapons. He made the announcement in theOval Ofﬁce alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Included in theplanare Patriot air defense systems, atop priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles.

Doubts were recently raised about Trump’scommitment to supplyUkraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that U.S.stockpileswere running low.

Rutte said Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway,Sweden, the United Kingdom andDenmark would be among the buyers to supply Ukraine. He said “speed is

of the essencehere,” and he suggested thatsome weapons would be rushed to Ukraine andlater replaced with purchases from the U.S.

Later Monday,Zelenskyy posted about having spoken withTrump by phone andsaid he “discussed the necessary means and solutions with the President to provide better protection for people from Russianattacks and to strengthenour positions.”

Zelenskyyadded that Trump had “agreed to catch up moreoften by phone and coordinate our steps in the future.”

Trumphas long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin,and he repeatedly asserted that Russia was more willingthanUkraine to reach apeace deal.He also accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a“dictator with-

out elections.” But Russia’srelentless onslaught againstcivilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump’spatience. In April, Trump urgedPutin to “STOP!” launching deadly barrages on Kyiv,and the followingmonthsaid in a social media post that the Russian leader “hasgone absolutely CRAZY!”.

While Rutte was in Washington, Trump’sspecial envoytoUkraine andRussia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, metwith Zelenskyy in Kyiv

Zelenskyy said he had “a productive conversation”withKellogg about strengthening Ukrainian air defenses, joint arms production andpurchasing U.S. weapons in conjunction withEuropean countries, as well as thepossibilityof tighter international sanctions on the Kremlin.

At the same time, Russia’sbigger armyismaking anew effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the620-mile front line.

Trump conﬁrmed the U.S. is sending Ukraine more badly needed Patriot air defense missiles and that the European Union will pay the U.S. forthe “various pieces of very sophisticated” weaponry Asenior Russian lawmaker,Konstantin Kosachev,said Trump’splan had “only one beneﬁciary —the US military-industrial complex.”

Germany has offered to ﬁnancetwo Patriotsystems, government spokesperson StefanKornelius said Monday in Berlin. The country hasalready giventhree of itsown Patriot systems to Ukraine.

GermanDefense MinisterBoris Pistorius was travelingtoWashingtonon Mondaytomeet withDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“Wehope for the leadership of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will notstop unless its ambitions are stopped by force,”Zelenskyy said on Telegram. Russia haspounded Ukrainiancities, includingthe capital,Kyiv, with hundreds of dronesand cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine’s airdefenses are struggling to counter June brought the highest monthlyciviliancasualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the U.N. human rights missioninUkraine said.

Israelistrikes kill at least31inGaza, officialssay

U.N. agencies warn of fuel crisis

BY WAFAA SHURAFA, FATMA KHALED and SALLYABOUALJOUD Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Stripovernight killed at least 31 people, according to local hospitals, as U.N. agencies warned on Monday that critical fuel shortages put hospitals and other critical infrastructure at risk.

The latest attackscame after President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended withnosign of abreakthrough in negotiations over aceaseﬁre and hostagerelease.

Twelvepeople were killed by strikesinsouthern Gaza, including three who were waiting at an aid distribution point, according to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis,which received the bodies. Shifa Hospital in Gaza City also received 12 bodies, including three children andtwo

women,after aseriesof strikes in the north, according to the hospital’s director,Dr. Mohammed AbuSelmia.

Al-AwdaHospital reported seven killed and 11 wounded in strikes in central Gaza.

The Israeli militarysays it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas becausethe militants operateindensely populated areas.

Separately,three Israeli soldiers werekilled in northern Gaza, according to the military.Amilitary ofﬁcial, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, saidon

Mondaythattheydiedin an explosion in their tank, apparently after it was hit by an anti-tank missile, though the incidentwas still being examined.

U.N. agencies, including those providing food and healthcare, reiterated awarning made at theweekend that without adequate fuel,they “will likely be forced to stop their operations entirely.”

In ajoint statement, they said that hospitals are already going dark andambulances can no longer move. Without fuel, transport, water production,sanitation and telecommunications will shut down andbakeries and community kitchenscan-

Officials: SuspectinKy. shooting had domestic violence hearingthe next day

BY BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press

The manaccused of a shooting rampage Sunday at arural Kentucky church after wounding astate trooper had been expected in court Monday for adomestic violence hearing, alocal official said.

Police sayGuy House, 47, shot thetrooper during atrafficstop nearLexington’s airport, fled in a carjacked vehiclethen opened fire at Richmond Road Baptist Church, killing twowomen and woundingtwo men before

ofﬁcers fatally shot him.

House went to the church lookingfor the motherofhis children but his domestic violence hearing did notinvolve her,the Lexington HealdLeaderreported,citinga sister of thewoman,Rachael Barnes. Matt Ball, adeputy clerk forfamily court in Fayette County,conﬁrmedtoThe Associated Press that House hadbeen scheduled for thedomestic violence hearing on Monday Police sayBeverly Gumm, 72, and Christina Combs, 34, werekilled in theshooting. Oneofthe

woundedmen was being treated for critical injuries andthe other wasin stable condition, police said. The trooper was in stable condition,police said.

“Preliminary information indicates that the suspect may have had aconnectiontothe individuals at the church,” Lexington PoliceChiefLawrence Weatherssaid at anews conference Sunday Theshootings remain under investigation, Weathers said. The trooper stopped House after receiving a“licenseplate reader alert,”police said.

not operate, they said.

The agencies confirmed that some 150,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza last week —the first delivery in 130 days. But they said it is “a small fractionofwhat is needed each day to keep daily lifeand critical aid operations running.”

“The United Nations agencies andhumanitarianpartners cannotoverstatethe urgency of this moment: fuelmust be allowedinto

cient quantities

and consistently to sustain lifesaving operations,”they said. The agencies signing the statement were the U.N. humanitarianofﬁce OCHA, food agency WFP,health organization WHO, children’s agency UNICEF,the agency helping Palestinianrefugees UNRWA,population agency UNFPA,development agency UNDP,and UNOPS which oversees procurement and providesmanagementservices.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByEVANVUCCI

PresidentDonald Trump, right, shakes the hand of NATO SecretaryGeneral Mark Rutte on Mondayduring ameetinginthe Oval Office of the White House in Washington.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MAyA ALLERUZZO Smoke rises Monday from an Israeli bombardmentin the northernGaza Strip near the Israel-Gaza border

Gaza

sufﬁ

Flames tear through Mass. assisted-living facility

Authorities say 9 killed as residents were trapped inside

BY MICHAEL CASEY, KIMBERLEE KRUESI, PATRICK WHITTLE and HOLLY RAMER Associated Press

FALL RIVER, Mass. — Flames

roared through an assistedliving facility in Massachusetts, killing nine people and trapping residents inside including some who leaned out of windows and screamed for help, authorities said Monday. At least 30 people were hurt.

A firefighters union said inadequate staffing hindered the response to the blaze and contributed to the death toll, though the mayor criticized that characterization, and the fire chief suggested no number of first responders would have been enough. Meanwhile, several residents who praised firefighters and police for heroic rescue efforts said staff members did little to help.

“They didn’t knock on one door,” Robert Cabral said.

“They just ran.”

Fireﬁghters responded to the Gabriel House facility in Fall River, about 50 miles south of Boston, at about 9:50 p.m. Sunday and were met with heavy smoke and flames at the front of the building. The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office

said in a statement that the ﬁre’s cause does not appear to be suspicious at this time.”

Its origin remains under investigation, authorities said.

Lorraine Ferrara, one of about 70 residents at the facility, awoke to a neighbor pounding on her door She tried to make her way through the smoke in the hallway but retreated to her room as the sprinkler system shot hot water onto her back.

As her room filed with smoke, Ferrara opened her window and yelled. A fireﬁghter broke the window and carried her down the ladder she said.

“I really thought I was going to die,” she said “I thought there was no way out.”

That fear mixed with anger as she watched two employees run from the building.

“They left us alone and ran out into the parking lot,” she said. “I was hanging out the window — ‘Help! Help!’ and they just kept running.”

The dead ranged in age from 61 to 86, authorities said. The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office identified seven of the deceased as Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86. The office said a 70-year-old woman and 77-year-old man were still pending notification of family

Gabriel House opened in 1999 and has 100 units, according to Massachusetts Executive Office of Aging

and Independence. Its website promotes studio apartments “for those seniors who cannot afford the high end of assisted living” as well as group adult foster care within walking distance of shopping, restaurants and churches.

“If an emergency occurs, no matter the time, there will be someone ready to help,” the website states.

Dennis Etzkorn, the facility’s owner, declined to comment Monday but officials said he was cooperating with what Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon called “a very extensive investigation.”

District Attorney Tom

Quinn called the fire a “terrible tragedy” in a statement that also commended first responders “bringing many of the residents to safety while being confronted with very difficult circumstances.”

About 50 firefighters responded to the scene, including 30 who were off-duty. Police also helped break down doors and carried about a dozen residents to safety Five injured firefighters were released from the hospital Monday

“You couldn’t have had enough people here to save everybody that needed help last night,” Bacon said.

But officials with the firefighters union said the closing of fire companies and cutbacks on staff have been a problem for decades.

If staffing had been at the nationally recommended level, eight more firefighters would have been at the scene Sunday night, said Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters union.

“There’s no doubt that would’ve made a difference in the amount of people that we lost to this terrible fire last night,” Kelly said. “Lives would’ve been saved if the Fall River Fire Department

was adequately staffed.” Capt. Frank O’Reagan said there was no breathing equipment available when he arrived, so he started going door to door on the third ﬂoor without an air tank.

“First room, empty Second door I kicked in, body Next room, empty Next room, body,” he said “I searched as much as a could but after a while you just can’t take that much smoke.”

O’Reagan’s brother and fellow firefighter Michael O’Reagan said he was shocked that 40 minutes after firefighters arrived, a large part of the building had not been searched.

“We did the best we could with what we had, and what we had was not enough,” said Michael O’Reagan, president of the Fall River ﬁreﬁghters union.

Mayor Paul Coogan said the ﬁre department is staffed based on the recommendation from the ﬁre chief.

“We staff the ﬁre department at the number the chief asked for,” he said “We’re not even 24 hours into this and that’s going to be a priority not the families?”

The Rev Michael Racine, the city’s fire chaplain, spent the night blessing the bodies of the dead and trying to console survivors, families, staff members and firefighters.

“Nobody in that department has seen what we saw last night. Nobody,” Racine said. “We’ve seen fatalities, which we don’t want to see, but nobody’s seen anything like last night.”

Search for missing in Texas floods resumes in some areas

Officials: Rain hampered efforts

BY GABRIELA AOUN

ANGUEIRA,

NADIA LATHAN and JIM VERTUNO Associated Press

KERRVILLE, Texas For a second straight day, rain forecasts hampered the search Monday for people still missing after deadly floods pummeled Texas this month, as officials made plans to drain reservoirs in the search for victims. While some crews resumed the search along the Guadalupe River on Monday, others held off, wary of the forecast. Officials also asked for patience, saying some have been threatened for their perceived lack of action that could have prevented the deaths at least 132 people in the July 4 storm. The first pause in search efforts due to the weather came Sunday in Texas Hill Country, where the soil is still primed for enhanced water runoff. More than 160 people are unaccounted for in Kerr County alone, and 10 more in neighboring areas. Texas Hill Country is a popular destination for tourists where campers seek out

spots along the river amid the rolling hills.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said during a commissioners’ meeting Monday that it’s been difﬁcult to determine exactly how many tourists were in the area when the ﬂooding occurred.

“We’ve heard accounts of trailer after trailer after trailer being swept into the river with families in the them. Can’t find the trailers,” Kelly said. “It’s what we don’t know We don’t know how many of them there are.”

Kelly said he’d been told of one trailer that was found “completely covered in gravel” 27 feet below the surface of the river He said sonar crews have been searching the river and local lakes and more are expected to arrive.

Commissioner Don Harris said officials plan to drain two reservoir lakes on the river

“Who knows how many out there are completely covered,” Harris said The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue teams fully resumed operations on Monday, said Obed Frometa, FEMA Blue Incident Support Team information ofﬁcer

Levi Bizzell, a spokesperson for the Ingram Volunteer Fire Department, which has been organizing about 200 searchers, said the department suspended operations for the day on Monday because several inches of rain were expected to fall on Kerr County by late afternoon.

“Everybody here wants to be out there working,” Bizzell said. “They literally come in the morning whether they are tired or not, and they just want to get out there and work because they want to ﬁnd closure for these families.”

Kerr County meanwhile advised all volunteers to leave the river area and move to higher ground, saying only those teams working under the direction of Kerr County Emergency Operations Center Unified Command were permitted in the response zone.

In Kerrville, about 100 miles west of Austin, local ofﬁcials have come under scrutiny over whether residents were adequately warned about the rising water on July 4.

Authorities in Kerrville went door-to-door to some homes early Sunday warning that ﬂooding was again possible, and pushed phone

trade officials plan how to counter Trump’s

BY SAM MCNEIL Associated Press

BRUSSELS EU trade ministers agreed Monday that U.S President Donald Trump’s announcement of 30% tariffs on the European Union was “absolutely unacceptable,” and they are studying a new set of countermeasures to respond to the move. The ministers met Monday in Brussels following Trump’s surprise announcement over the weekend of such hefty tariffs, which could have repercussions for governments, companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The EU is America’s biggest business partner and the world’s largest trading bloc.

Maroš Šefcovic, the EU’s trade representative in its talks with the U.S., said after the meeting that it was “very obvious from the discussions today, the 30% is absolutely

unacceptable.” He said that the commission was sharing proposals with the 27 member countries “for the second list of goods accounting of some $84 billion worth of U.S. imports. They will now have a chance to discuss it. This does not exhaust our toolbox and every instrument remains on the table.”

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, foreign minister of Denmark, which recently assumed the presidency of the EU, said the ministers vowed to work together in negotiating a trade deal with Washington or agreeing on countermeasures

“The EU remains ready to react and that includes robust and proportionate countermeasures if required and there was a strong, feeling in the room of unity,” Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting. The tariffs, also announced

for Mexico, are set to start on Aug. 1 and could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the U.S., and destabilize economies from Portugal to Norway Meanwhile, Brussels decided to suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month. The “countermeasures” by the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries, will be delayed until Aug. 1. Trump’s letter shows “that we have until the ﬁrst of August” to negotiate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday Šefcovic, said negotiations would continue Monday

alerts to area residents.

Kerr County commissioners asked the public for their patience as the search and cleanup continues. Commissioner Rich Paces said during a meeting Monday morning that he has received death threats.

“They’re just playing a blame game,” Paces said.

During a special Kerrville City Council meeting, council member Brenda Hughes also complained of threats to city ofﬁcials and staff, which she did not detail, and called for increased security at

City Hall. “We’re not only dealing with all of the aftermath of this tragic event, but now we have to worry about threats that are coming to staff, targeted threats that are specific to individual staff members,” she said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEVEN SENNE

Michael Pimentel, center, a resident at the Gabriel House assisted-living facility in Fall River, Mass., receives assistance Monday from an emergency medical worker outside a temporary shelter after a fire that killed at least nine.

members, from individuals to community partners like churches, do throughout Lafayette Parish schools — work with school leaders to support students and create a positive school environment.

“It’s just being able to come along and go, ‘Hey we love you. We’re in your backyard and you’re our neighbor We just want to help,’” said Angela Gagliano, Comeaux’s CAFE champion and outreach coordinator for Love Acadiana

“The fact that people will step out of their own stuff and go serve someone else that they don’t have any reason to is a love like no other.”

Love Our Schools is hosting its CAFE Launch from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. July 24 at the Downtown Convention Center on Buchanan Street in Lafayette. It’s a celebration of what’s to come for the 21 schools that have CAFEs and a chance to learn about available opportunity and need.

CAFEs are the “rallying place” for a school’s community and neighborhood to show its support, said Tyler Summerlin, Love Our Schools’ CAFE and program coordinator

“The foundation is built What we really need is people to come and continue building on that foundation,” he said. “It’s people being on site to put their hands to work to celebrate students success, to help serve a meal, to support teachers.”

“When we all do a little, it has a huge impact,” he added. Anyone interested in attending the CAFE launch or learning more about CAFEs in their neighborhood can visit loveourschoolsfoundation.org

Email Ashley White at ashley.white@theadvocate com.

EDUCATION

Continued from page 1A

agencies,” McMahon said in a statement.

A lawyer for the Massachusetts cities and education groups that sued over the plan said the lawsuit will continue, adding no court has yet ruled that what the administration wants to do is legal

“Without explaining to the American people its reasoning, a majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have dealt a devastating blow to this nation’s promise of

NAME

Continued from page 1A

Battle of New Orleans, the National Guard said.

The name change is in line with federal military installations that are returning to “known names” and is being undertaken at the direction of Landry, the Guard’s commander in chief, said National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins.

Last month, the administration of President Donald Trump returned seven Army bases to their original names after they had been changed in 2023 to avoid honoring Confederate leaders In a social media post Monday morning, Landry lauded the change with a photo of tombstone inscribed with the term “wokeism.”

“Let this be a lesson that we should always give reverence to history and not be quick to so easily condemn or erase the dead lest we and our times be judged arbitrary by future generations,” Landry’s post stated. Asked if the revival of the Camp Beauregard name is meant to acknowledge P.G.T Beauregard

Ceiling

public education for all children.

On its shadow docket, the Court has yet again ruled to overturn the decision of two lower courts without argument,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement.

The Supreme Court has handed Trump one victory after another in his effort to remake the federal government, after lower courts have found the administration’s actions probably violate federal law

Last week, the justices cleared the way for Trump’s plan to signiﬁcantly reduce the size of the federal workforce. On the education

front, the high court has previously allowed cuts in teacher-training grants to go forward.

Separately on Monday, more than 20 states sued the administration over billions of dollars in frozen education funding for afterschool care, summer programs and more.

Education Department employees who were targeted by the layoffs have been on paid leave since March, according to a union that represents some of the agency’s staff.

Joun’s order had prevented the department from fully terminating them, though none had been

allowed to return to work, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252. Without Joun’s order, the workers would have been terminated in early June.

The Education Department had said earlier in June that it was “actively assessing how to reintegrate” the employees. A department email asked them to share whether they had gained other employment, saying the request was meant to “support a smooth and informed return to duty.”

The current case involves two consolidated lawsuits that said

Trump’s plan amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department.

One suit was ﬁled by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups. The other legal action was ﬁled by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general. The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.

and how the name change fights “wokeism,” Landry spokesperson Kate Kelly responded by noting that Jacques Toutant Beauregard is the father of P.G.T Beauregard.

P.G.T. Beauregard was a prominent Confederate general, commanding the troops who opened fire on Fort Sumter at the outset of the Civil War. After the war was over, however, he was part of a coalition that unsuccessfully tried to integrate Black and White Louisianans Landry’s approach of returning the Pineville installation to a previous name but recognizing an alternative service member with the same last name mirrors the approach the Trump administration has taken recently Fort Polk in Vernon Parish was among the seven Army bases whose names changed

For years, it honored Leonidas Polk, a Confederate general, slave owner and Louisiana’s first Episcopal bishop. Then in 2023 it was changed to Fort Johnson to commemorate Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black Medal of Honor recipient who fought with French forces on the front lines of

World War I.

Now the Army base, again known as Fort Polk, is named after Gen. James H. Polk, who was awarded the Silver Star for service in World War II.

The Battle of New Orleans was fought by American forces against the British army and was the last major battle of the War of 1812.

“By restoring the name Camp Beauregard, we honor a legacy of courage and service that dates back over two centuries,” Landry said in a statement. “Captain Jacques Toutant Beauregard stood at the front lines in defense of New Orleans during one of our nation’s most defining battles.”

Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, said, “We’re naming our premier training installation after an American hero and patriot who fought for the freedom of the city of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, and the United States of America against a foreign invader.”

According to the National Guard, Capt. Beauregard was a member of the Third Regiment of the Louisiana Militia, a precursor of the National Guard. That group

led the first land engagement in the Battle of New Orleans on Dec. 23, 1814, against Gen. Edward Packenham and the British army,

the Guard said. “We believe that the patriotism and heroism that he showed is something that all of our Louisiana National Guardsmen can and should aspire to,” Collins said. Email Alyse Pfeil

STAFF

PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

at Comeaux High School on

Shown

BY BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS Associated Press

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. More

than 20 states sued President Donald Trump’sadministration on Monday over billions of dollars in frozen education funding for after-school care, summer programs and more Some of the withheld money funds after-school and summer programming at Boys &Girls Clubs, the YMCA or public schools, attended by 1.4 million children and teenagers nationwide. Congress set aside money for the programs to provide academic support, enrichment and childcare to mostly low-income families. But Trump’sadministration recently froze the funding, saying it wants to ensure programs align with the Republican president’spriorities. Led by California, the lawsuit alleges withholding the money violates the Constitution and several federal laws. Many low-income families will lose access to after-school programsif the money isn’treleased soon, accordingtothe suit. In some states, school restarts in late

R.I.

July and earlyAugust. The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Darleen Reyes drove throughadownpourlast week to takeher son to a free Boys &Girls Club day campinEastProvidence, RhodeIsland.She told camp administrators the ﬂash ﬂood warningwould havekept her away, but herson insisted on going. Before kissing his mother goodbye, Aiden Cazares,8,

explained to areporter,“I wanted to see my friends and not just sit at home.” Then he ranoff to play In RhodeIsland, thestate steppedinwithfunding to keep thesummer programs running, according to the East Providence club, and thestate has joined thefederal lawsuit. Other Boys & Girls Clubs supported by the grants have found waysto keep open their summer programs, said Sara Leutzinger, vice president for communi-

Powell seekswatchdogreview of overhaul of Fedbuilding

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABGER

AP economicswriter

WASHINGTON Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hasasked an inspector general to review the cost of the central bank’sbuildingrenovations that White House ofﬁcials have attackedas“ostentatious.”

Aspokesperson for the inspector general, an independent watchdog, confirmed the request and declined further comment. The request was previouslyreportedby Axios.

The Fed has been renovating two of its ofﬁce buildings in Washington for several years at acurrent cost estimate of about $2.5 billion,

$700 millionmorethan originally expected.The project was first approved by the Fed’sgoverning board in 2017. Trump administration ofﬁcials have seized on the expense and somealleged amenities in the remodeled buildingstoextend their criticismof Powell, whom the president hasattacked fornot reducing theFed’s short-term rate. On Thursday,Russ Vought, thepresident’stop budget adviser, said that President DonaldTrump is “extremely troubled” about the “ostentatiousoverhaul” and suggested that itmay be violating localbuilding rules

Theletter represented asharp escalation in the

Trump administration’s efforts to gain greater control over the Fed, an independent agency charged with seeking stable prices and maximum employment. Independence from day-to-day politics has long been seen as acritical element in the Fed’sability to achieve thosegoals

Trumphas repeatedly demanded that Powell cutthe short-term interest ratethat thecentral bank controls, in part because thepresident believesitwill lower the government’s borrowing costs.

Trump in April threatened to ﬁre Powell, though he later backed off thosethreats after stock pricesfell in response

More than 20 states sueoverfrozeneducation funds

cations for the Boys &Girls Club of America. But there isn’tthe same hopefor the after-school programming for the fall.

Someofthe 926 Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide that runsummerand after-school programsstandtoclose if the Trump administration doesn’trelease themoney in the next three to ﬁve weeks, Leutzingersaid. The clubs receive funding from the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.

The YMCA and Save the Children say manyofthe centers they runare also at risk of shuttering.

“Time is of theessence,” said ChristyGleason, executive directorofthe political armofSavethe Children, which provides after-school programming for 41 schools in rural areas in Washington state andacrossthe South, where school will begin as soon as August.“It’snot too late to makeadecision so the kids whoreallyneedthisstill have it.”

SchoolsinRepublican-led areas areparticularly affected by the freeze in fed-

eral education grants. Ninety-one of the 100 school districts that receive themost money per student from four frozen grant programs areinRepublicancongressional districts, according to an analysis from New America, aleft-leaning think tank. New America’sanalysis used funding levels reported in 2022 in 46 states.

Republican officials have been amongthe educators criticizing the grant freeze.

“I deeply believe in fiscal responsibility, which means evaluating theuse of funds and seeking out efficiencies, but also means being responsible —releasing funds already approved by Congress andsignedby President Trump,”saidGeorgiaschoolssuperintendent Richard Woods, an elected Republican. “InGeorgia, we’re getting readytostart the school year,soIcall on federal funds to be released so we can ensure the success of our students.”

The Ofﬁce of Management andBudget saidsome grants supportedleft-wing causes, pointing to services for immigrants in the country illegally

or LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts. ButCongress’ appropriation of the money was in a bill signed by Trump himself, said Maurice“Mo”Green, North Carolina’sDemocratic superintendent of public education. “Tonow suggest that, for some reason, this money is somehow or another needing reviewbecause of someone’sagenda, Ithink is deeplytroubling,”Green toldreporters Mondayafter North Carolina joined the federal lawsuit. In North Carolina, about 40 schools are already in session,sothe state is already trying to ﬁgureout ways to keep programs going, using state and local money,along with some federal money that has not expired. The freeze affects programs includingmental health services, science and math education, and support for students learning English, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said, with the most severe effects in smaller, rural school districts. The freeze could also lead to approximately 1,000 teachers and staff being laid off, Jackson said.

BY SETHBORENSTEIN AP science writer

WASHINGTON The Trump administrationonMonday took another step to make it harderto ﬁnd major,legally mandated scientific assessments of how climate change is endangering the nation and its people.

Earlier this month,the ofﬁcial government websites that hostedthe authoritative,peer-reviewed national climate assessments went dark. Such sites tellstate and local governments and thepublic what to expect in their backyards from a warmingworld andhow best to adapt to it.Atthe time, theWhiteHouse said

NASA would house the reports to comply with a 1990 law thatrequires the reports,which the space agency said it planned to do.

ButonMonday,NASA announced that it aborted those plans.

“The USGCRP(thegovernment agency that oversees and used to host the report) metits statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress. NASA has no legal obligations to host globalchange. gov’sdata,” NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in an email.That meansnodata from the assessmentorthe governmentscience ofﬁce that coordinated the work will be

on NASA, she said. On July 3, NASA put out astatement that said: “All preexisting reports will be hosted on the NASA website, ensuring continuity of reporting.”

“Thisdocumentwas written forthe American people,paidfor by the taxpayers, and it contains vital information we need to keep ourselvessafe in achanging climate, as the disasters that continue to mount demonstrate so tragically and clearly,” said TexasTech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. She is chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy and co-author of several past national climate assessments.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By SOPHIEPARK

Girls readanAmelia Bedelia book Thursday during the East Providence Boys &Girls Club Summer Camp at Emma G. Whiteknact ElementarySchool in Providence,

JanRisher

Reader marks100 years

Bob Stuart was born July 14, 1925.

For most of his 100 years, Stuart has started his day withthe morning paper.The Advocate began in 1842, but on the very day he was born, it became a morning paper Reading the paper is justone part of his morning routine. At 11 a.m., he heads to theBaton Rouge Country Club to exercise.

“I do that about an hour and ahalf of exercising each day —onabicycle, treadmill and weights,” the centenarian said. “AndIlet thetrainers tell me what to do, but they don’tstay there hovering over me.”

His history with the newspaper includes astint as adelivery boy backinthe late 1930s. He picked up his papers at the City News Stand, on the corner of Third Street and NorthBoulevard.

“I had the State Capitol on my route,and Igot 60 paid-up subscriptions,”hesaid.

Stuart has been alive for just over 40% of the nation’shistory Whenasked for advice on navigating these troubled times, Stuart just shakes his head.

“I’ve been asked this question so many times,” he said, with a chuckle. His guidance for others echoes what his mother told him.

He has lived his life by her advice and believes it could come in handy to others.

“My mother said, ‘Bob, stay in the middle of the road. Whatever you do, stay in the middle of the road,’”hesaid. “And, Ialways did.” His interpretation of his mother’sinstructionscenterson moderation —not veering too far to either extreme in thought, behavior or lifestyle. Through the years, he has seen her advice as areminder to avoid risky extremes, whether recklessness or rigidity,tostay grounded and be thoughtful, measured in decisions. In short: be steady He says that whenever he has found himself getting in trouble of any sort, or overindulging, thanks to his mother’sadvice, he knew it was time to reevaluate and get back in line Witnesstohistory

He remembers so many major newsevents that most people alive today only know about from history class —the Great Depression and Pearl Harbor,to name afew

“The Depression news was always there,” he said. “But we didn’tknowasmuch about it then. Our parents didn’tlet us know that we were poor.” During the Depression, he recalls, the land where the State Police headquarters now stands was home to people who had lost everything —well-educated individuals who had left their families and lived there in desperation. Stuart was one of seven children. When his twin brother joined the Navy in the summer of 1943, he joined the Merchant Marines. That service did not qualify him for the GI Bill once he was out. Later,hewas drafted to serve in Korea, where he worked in counterintelligence.

He graduated from Baton Rouge High and LSU, where he was acheerleader at both Once home, Stuart went to work for Buquet and LeBlanc, Inc., GeneralContractors, acompany he eventually owned. He retired in the late 1980s and consulted into the early 2000s.

One of his strengths, according to his daughter Sally Stuart Morgan, is his ability to look to the future.

“He is always looking forward

ELECTRIC GIANTS

Belgian companybuildinglargest-of-its-kind cranes in La.

BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer

TheBelgian company E-Crane continuestogrowits Louisiana customer base

The companyrecently ﬁnished a second E4000 electric equilibrium crane, dubbed the CreoleKing. The largest-of-its-kind craneisgoingto aLouisiana-based company, Cooper Consolidated, said E-CraneU.S. CEO Steve Osborne.

But other Louisiana companies have contracted withE-Craneever since the company planted its feet in thePort of Iberia in December 2023.

Five-S Group, Rigid Constructors and Patriot Construction, which all have space in the Port of Iberia, are purchasing six cranes. Thecompany also hascontractsin Mississippi.

The Acadiana region was agreat ﬁtfor the company, Osborne said.

“There’sabroader workforce forsupportingindustrialhere, becauseyou have abig oil and gas industry,you have ports, you have waterways,” Osborne said. “Compared to where we’re based in central Ohio, it’s more of areal farmingcommunity.There’s notthatbig workforce.”

Constructionatits warehouse and facility will be completed in the next few months

“It’sbeenalittle bitchallenging because we’vebeenusing thefacility as we’re doingthe improvements,” Osborne said.

The Creole King is oneofthe two largestcranes the company has supplied to aU.S.company.The machinewill be mounted ona barge andwill handle bulk materials, predominantly grain,inthe Creole King’scase

E-Crane has built around 10 E4000 cranes for companiesacross theglobe since its founding in the1990s, building 300 cranes in total

Cooper Consolidatedprovides barge, marineand logistic services

along the Mississippi River. The company began as the Cooper Group in 1905 and opened its first midstream operation in LaPlace in 1995. Thecompany renamed to Cooper

Consolidated whenCooper Group andConsolidated Terminals and Logistics Companycombinedin 2003,accordingtothe company’s website.

2ndChanceJob Fair

Staff report

Community organizationswill host the 2nd Chance Job Fair from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday at the Heymann Convention Center, 1373 South College Road, Lafayette. The eventisopen to thepublic, along withthose involved in the

justice system and formerly incarcerated people. “The companies and resource providersparticipating in the 2nd Chance Job Fairunderstandthe importance of providing employment opportunities to abroader talentpool in the region,”said Mandi D. Mitchell, president and CEOofthe Lafayette Economic DevelopmentAuthority.“Companiesthatare willing to hire

Twoteenagersdrowned Saturday in aprivate pond off Mosswood Drive in Sulphur Around 2:30 p.m. Saturday,the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office receiveda call about adrowning in aprivate pond near atrailer park offMosswood Drive in

Sulphur,according to Sheriff’s Ofﬁce spokesperson Kayla Vincent.

Deputies with the Marine Division of the Sheriff’s Office recovered the bodies of two people, ages 13 and 17, from the pond. Vincent said while the investigationisongoing, the drownings appear to be accidental.

LOUISIANA AT LARGE

E-Crane officials Aaron Bennett, fromleft, vice president of business development; LievenBauwens, owner;and Steve Osborne, U.S. CEO,stand Fridayinfront of acrane.

PHOTOSByLEE BALL

Iberia Parish Assessor Ashlie Spiker checks out ahugecrane grabber.E-Crane has builtthe largest electriccrane of its class. The clamshell grabber can pick up 35 tons of grain. The company showcased the crane at its Port of Iberiafacility in NewIberia on Friday.

Make paid parental leave for teachers apriority

We often say how muchwevalue the work that teachers do, but actions speak louder than words. That’swhy Louisiana should do everything it can to ensure the teachers who care for our children have the timetocare for their own. It may come as asurprise thatmany districts in Louisiana offer no paid parental leave to teachers. Asurvey of adozen districtsbythis newspaper found that of those who had their policiesreadily available online, only one Orleans Parish —offered any kind of paid leave to new parents.

No state body keeps information on parental leave policies of districts, but reporting by staff writer Elyse Carmosino found thatmany offer only the bare minimum. Federal law allows for unpaid family leave after the birth of achild for90days. But for many teachers, taking time off without pay is unrealistic.

Teachers typically get 10 days of paid sick leave per year.Itcan take years of accumulating time off in order to cobble together enough leave to have achild. So new parentsare left to apply for extended medical leave, take out a short-term disability insurance policy or rely on other measures to ﬁll the gap. Some have been able to make do thankstothe generosity of other teachers, who can donatetheir unused sick days to help acolleague.

Needless to say,itdoesn’thave tobethisway

In many Southern states, paid parental leave for teachers has moved tothe top of the agenda. Alabama’snew law allows for eight weeks of paid parental leave fornew mothers and two weeks for new fathers. And seven other states offer some kind of paid parental leave forteachers.

In the recent legislative session, abill by state Sen. Sam Jenkins, D-Shreveport,that would have given teachers six weeks of paid leave following the birth or adoption of achild was ultimately pulled due toconcerns about the estimated $15 million price tag. Now,a study group appointed by the Legislature seeks to pin down the costs, and Jenkins plans to reintroduce arevised bill next session.

We understand that in the astate already grappling with ateacher shortage, apaid leave policy would make it harder for districtsto ﬁll classrooms.

But we note that states withparental leave for teachers have seen tangible beneﬁts. In Tennessee, turnover dropped by 22% and retirements by 25% two years after it approved paid leave. That’sto say nothing of intangible beneﬁts like reduced stress and greater job satisfaction for teachers, which studies have also shown. In Louisiana, we have lauded the strides made in the classroom in recent years with improved scores on national assessments. The question now is will the statepass the test in how we treat our teachers?

Theforgotten soulswho helped build Swaggart’s legacy

Since his death, JimmySwaggart has been lavished with praises, well-earned, at homeand abroad for the empire he built in the name of the Lord. Yetthere is another side to his mission that has gotten less notice.

In the ﬁrst parish Iserved, there were twoelderly housebound sisters Ifrequently visited. Theyounger,Hazel, was wheelchair-bound, blind and nearly deaf; her older sister,Aurelia, made alife of caring for Hazel.

During my visits, conversation competed withthe sound from TV broadcast of evangelists, nearly every hour of every day.The women’s favoritewas Swaggart,who preached —and always asked for money.The sisters, withonly Social Security for all their needs, sent him every penny theycould —sometimes more;then theywent hungry.Extended family helped, as did our church, when the need was greatest; some of thatwent to BrotherSwaggart, too. The ﬂeet of airplanes, the international travel, the host of folks collecting money,often camefrom the Hazels and Aurelias. The only envelopes the sisters received from the Rev Swaggart’sministry were requests formoney; all theygot were their precious broadcasts. Swaggart’sministry was grand and meant muchtountold numbers of folks who found life and hope in his words and prayers —including my impoverished homebound sisters. Ionly wished it had less to do with cashand more about caring for the needy PAMHARTMAN Denham Springs

Budget bill’s uglinessonfull display

Paper’simmigration story glossedoverimportant truths

Howcan journalists, like James Finn, distort truth with half-truths andlies as in his article “Trump is charging immigrants undera WWII-eralaw.” Is it really so difﬁcult to be truthful andsay this is aboutillegal immigrationinthe headline? President Donald Trump hasstated he is forimmigration, as longasitispursuedlegally.The issue is illegal immigration. Iampart-Spanish on my father’s side andhave severalhundredLatina cousins, of Mexican descent, in Downey,California,just outside L.A., and every oneofthemwill tell youthe illegalimmigrants in this country need to be thrown out. Why is it they see whatFinn cannot? WhyisitLakenRiley’sparents, alongwith so many othercrime victims, see whatFinn cannot? In addition, Finn really made sure to say this is because of an “old” law.Ifthis is an “old” law, then he should saythe same thing aboutlaws against theft andmurder. Thoselaws go back to the Ten

Commandments? Why don’tyou callthose laws “old” laws as well? U.S. immigrationlaws go back furtherthanWorld WarII—soI guess they’re “old” also?Whathypocrisy! Ilaughedathis comments about Trump redirecting federallaw enforcementaway frompriorities, suchasrooting outpublic corruption. Iguess he was talking about rooting outthe Bidenadministrationpublic corruption? It’seasyto seehow fervently the Department of JusticewentafterHunterBiden. Thenhesaysthese arethe leastcoveted assignments —sowhat? Apparently,Finn would preferthey do something like investigating President Trump again. The work theydoisdirected by the U.S. attorneygeneral,just as was the case when the department was investigating President Trump, but now they’re ﬁnally doing something useful forthe American people

DUDLEY GARIDEL Baton Rouge

Communitiesmust speakupfor investment in childcare

Irecently hadthe privilege of travelingto Washington to attendanadvocacy training hosted by the Child Care forEvery Family Network. Alongside fellowadvocates from the Geaux Far LouisianaCoalitionand our national partners, Ihad theopportunity to meet withofﬁces of Louisiana’sfederal delegation to discuss theurgentneed for increased investments in earlylearning and care.

We romanticize thepasttoour detriment

An editorial in Sunday’spaper said thatthe “One Big Beautiful Bill” allots an additional $50 million annually in proceeds from offshore oil and gas activity throughthe Gulf ofMexico Energy Security Act. The total ﬁgure is $150 million, with$50 million availabletoLouisianaand therestavailable to other Gulf Coast states.

What’ssobeautiful about abill thatwould cause around 17 million Americans to lose health care coverage and an estimateof 267,550 Louisianans to lose their Medicaid over the next 10 years? Those who really need Medicaid won’tsave on their taxes thatsupposedly make up for loss of their health insurance. Sen. Bill Cassidy and House Speaker Mike Johnson, bothfrom Louisiana, should be ashamed.

LYNLUNSFORD St. Gabriel

At atimewhen familiesacross our state are lacking access to child care andother essential support services, advocacy could not be more important. Whenchildren are left without quality care andparents are forced to makeimpossiblechoices, our communities suffer. We mustensurethat every child in Louisiana hasthe opportunity to thrive,and that starts withmeaningful investments in earlycare andeducation. Our voices matter.Whether through a phone call, aletter or showing up at community events, we allhavea roletoplayin shaping policies that reﬂect ourvalues and priorities. Iencourage everyone to stay engaged, speak up, andstandwithLouisiana’s children and families. Together,wecan build astrongerfuture for all of us.

CRYSTAL ELLIS Baton Rouge

“Make America great again” is someone’sopinion that, currently,things are not so great, and in the past, we weremuch better.Some might argue that the decade after World WarII, America wasthe strongest. Back then, our military was absolute, all people of color weresecond-class citizens at best, gays still hid in the closet, polio wasrampant and women knew their place was pregnant, at home, in the kitchen, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the man of the house. Much of what Iwitness today is adedicated movement towards the return to that golden age of yesteryear.Are we willing to pay the price of this regression?

DAVID

W. EARLE Baton Rouge

ESSENCE FESTIVAL’S FUTURE

EssenceFestival, athree-day celebrationofBlack culture, has been astapleofNew Orleanssummerseasonfor decades, drawingvisitorsfromaroundthe world. Themostrecentedition earlierthismonth,though, sparkedseveral controversiesinvolving scheduling,setup andpartnerships. Organizers saytheyare listeningtoconcerns andthatthe festivalwillneedmorestate and localsupport to be successful.Wereceivedseveral viewsonwhat it will take to make Essencea winner again. Here’s what they said:

This Blackwoman andher besties have fallen outoflovewithEssence

Iwas an Essence Festival fanfor decades. Along with my beloved pack of girlfriends, I ﬁrst attended in the early 2000s and we all fell in love with the annual event.

about color themes, hats and breathable fabrics to beat the Louisiana heat

It was hardly afullhouse inside the Caesars Superdome ahead of alatenight, early morning Lauryn Hill performance at the Essence Festivalof Culture on July4

That’swhy I’m so disillusioned with how we have been sold out by Essence Festival, which has revealed itself to care more about green dollarsthanBlack women.

For me, attending the festival was an extension of the love and reverence Ifelt forEssence magazine. Like so manyBlack woman, Igrew up running to the mailbox to get the latest edition so Icould study and admire the images of the beautiful Black women icons that we didn’tsee in most publications —Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Aretha Franklin. Essence Festival continued this celebration of Black women. It connected us with our past whilewedoubled down on our personal connections and saw the brilliant Black women icons of the future.

The festival was the essence (see what Idid there)ofsisterhood, where Black women, old and young, light and dark, big and small, could come together and love on one another Who loved on Black women like that? Nobody.Not until Essence Fest. Being there felt like along overdue patonthe back for just being us.

When my besties and Imade our plans to attend, it didn’tmatter who the headliner was or what acts would be performing or how much money we had in the bank.

If we had to, we’d take out payday loans to bankroll theJuly trip to New Orleans. We’d start planning our outﬁts,sending photos in ourgroup chats

We’d pack our most stylish-butcomfortable shoes to be set to dance thenightaway to Frankie Beverly and Maze at theSuperdome.

It became one of the highlights of our year

Butrecently,wehad the uneasy feeling thatthe festival and itsorganizers have lost their way Instead of celebrating Black women, the festivalwas about celebrating the culture. The panels were more“universal.” It seemed less afamily affair and more like afree-for-all to attract new attendees. Our Essence Fest, the event we were excited to call our own, was being marketed to the masses.

Iknew the tide had shifted when the lineup included theBlack Eyed Peas.

Nothing against the group, but the core crowd, Black women, wanted Frankie, not Fergie. Imean, she’scool, but there was acollective eye roll in Section 122 when she took the stage.

Essence took our loyaltyfor granted, assuming we would ignore or be blind to what was happening and come every year like we’ve always done. They acted like we needed them and they didn’tneed us.

So Black women swung away

Onebyone my friends stopped joining me for our annual ﬁeld trip.

Everyyear,Ifelt more disconnected from the festival. The last timeIattended,itfelt— Iamalmost embarrassed to say it —like amoney grab. Therewas no heart, no soul and no celebration of Black women. This was no family affair; this was all about ﬁnances. This wasn’tfor the culture, it was for the coin.

Oneyear,there were 21 of us who attendedthe festival, but this year,not oneofmyfriends even mentioned it. Nobody asked who was in the lineup

or put the question in the group chat about who would make the trip to the BigEasy Essence stopped caring about us, so we stopped caring about itsfestival.

And to add insult to injury,this year, Essence Festivaltook sponsorship dollars from Target.

Yes, the same Target that rolled back its DEI and folded on its promises like acheap card table during an intense game of dominoes at the family cookout

The Target that donated $1 million to Donald Trump’sinauguration fund afterheinsulted Vice President Kamala Harris by calling her “lazy as hell,” “stupid,” “slow,” witha“low IQ.”

If the organizers co-sign withTarget and Target co-signs on Trump’sracist tropes, aren’tthey signing on to what Trump said about Madame Vice President?

In case the organizers hadn’theard, we’re boycotting Target right now

And the check from Target was the ﬁnal insult to the thousands of Black women who weren’tinthe Caesars Superdome this year

We’re done with Targetand those who associatewiththem,including Essence Fest In thewords of Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.The ﬁrst time.

Yes, sister The famous quote, often attributed to Alexander Hamilton, reminds us that“Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.

Essence Fest fell for Target and its attendance fell right along with it.

Sheletta Brundidge is CEO of a Black-focused marketing company and aformerLouisiana resident now living in Minnesota.She can be found at ShelettaMakesMeLaugh.com

Challenges and lessonslearned from another Black-runfestival

Ivividly remember the very ﬁrst National Fried Chicken Festival opening its gates in 2016 at atiny park in New Orleans called Lafayette Square. What unfolded that day is etched into my memory,not only because over 30,000 people showed up, far surpassing expectations, but because many walked away frustrated. The lines were too long. The site was too small. The restaurants ran out of food. It was hot. Some even called it adisaster What people didn’tsee were the months of planning, the late nights, the process of learning how to build afestival from scratch with intention, the risks we took to create something fresh, joyful and uniquely ours. But none of that mattered in the moment. What mattered was that people were disappointed. And that mattered to me

Thirty years ago,what began as a one-time celebration of Black excellence has now grown into one of the most powerful cultural, economic andsocial festivals in theworld —the Essence Festival of Culture. As someone who was there from the beginning, Iknow ﬁrsthand just how far we’ve come —and how important it is that we don’tlet this jewel slipthrough our ﬁngers. Iwas ayoung New Orleans City Council member when then-Mayor Marc Morial —now presidentand CEO of the National Urban League— extended the city’sarms to welcome Essence for what was then envisioned as aone-year event. Ihad theprivilege of working closely with him to help weave Essence into the permanent cultural fabric of New Orleans. What followedwas more than we could’ve ever imagined. Over the last three decades, theEssence Festival has grown into aglobal destination for music, art, commerce,

activism andsisterhood. It’sbecome amultiday,multimillion-dollarinfusion into the lifeblood of New Orleans filling hotel rooms, energizing restaurants and small businesses, andbringingvisitors from around the world to experience the soul of our city.It’snot just aparty.It’saparty with apurpose. Yes, this year brought some hiccups —late starts, scheduling confusion andawell-documented debacle with thesuper lounges. But Essence has acknowledgedthoseshortcomings and pledgedtodobetter moving forward. And it deserves that opportunity.Any majorevent with this kind of scale andlegacy deserves grace —and commitment— from those of us who benefitfrom its presence. That’swhy I’m calling on ourstate andlocal leaders to step up. Just as we invest significant resources to attract Super Bowls, Final Fours, Sugar Bowls andnational conventions, we must bring that same energytoEssence. This festival brings in millions of dollars, global visibility and immeasurablegood will —and yetittoo often has to fight forthe same basic support routinely given to sports or

business events. Investing in Essenceisinvesting in New Orleans. It’s investing in tourism, economicdevelopmentand cultural pride.It’sinvesting in the countless jobs that depend on that summer boom —from hotel housekeepers and ride-share drivers to vendors, artists andlocal entrepreneurs.

I’m committed to working with city andstate leaders, New Orleans &Co., the hotel andtourism industry and Essenceleadership to ensure we do more than just talkabout supporting this festival —weactually do it. That means long-term investment, infrastructure support andreal marketing partnerships that treat Essencelike the world-class eventthatitis. The Essence Festival is not just an event. It is an institution. It is the crown jewel of New Orleans’ summer season Anditisour responsibility to protect it, nurture it and investinits future. Let’sdothe right thing —for the culture,for theeconomy andfor the soul of ourcity Rep. Troy A. Carter Sr.represents Louisiana’sSecond District in Congress. Let’s invest

So, we went back to the drawing board. We listened, really listened to the critiques. We overhauled our operations, moved to a larger venue, doubled the number of food vendors, revamped crowd ﬂow and reﬁned the overall experience. And the next year,we got better.Every year since, we’ve gotten better.That’s the beauty and the burden of creating something you love: Youmust be willing to let it grow through its growing pains.

That’swhy I’m rooting for the Essence Festival.

Ifully acknowledge that the Essence Festival and the National Fried Chicken Festival are not the same, not in size and scale, scope and certainly not in the decades of cultural legacy that Essence carries. FCF is younger and smaller,but while the celebration looks different, the spirit behind both events is the same.

This summer,like many who call New Orleans home or who make the Essence pilgrimage each July,I watched the public conversation turn sharp.

Some of the critiques were fair.Someweren’t.

But here’swhat Iknow to be true: If you’re doing something of impact, you’re going to be criticized. And if you’re doing it while Black, at scale and in public, that criticism will be

louder,less forgiving and often layered with expectations that others don’thave to carry But that doesn’tmean you fold. It means you evolve. Essence Festival is more than aweekend event. It is asymbol of Black cultural expression. Areunion. A marketplace. Astage for our music,our businesses, our stories and our joy It’swhere entrepreneurs launch, artists rise and connections deepen. For 31 years, it’sbeen apulse point in the Black experience. And yes, Ibelieve it will continue to be all of those things, as the Essence team listens to its audiences, learning and growing from it. What people are asking for isn’tperfection. They’re asking for intention. For clarity.For care. They’re asking for an experience that honors the commitment they make, by saving up money to book ﬂights, gathering friends and showing up expecting to see Black excellence while indulging in Black culture. We’ve been there. The National Fried Chicken Festival was born out of that same hunger: to create something where culture, community and celebration meet. We’ve stumbled, too. But we never let amisstep stop us from getting back up. So to the team behind Essence Festival: This moment is hard, but it’snot the end. It’sacall. Take the feedback. Sit with the hard truths. Center the community.Invite new voices to the table. Reimagine without losing the soul. Don’tfear the critiques, use them to sharpen your vision. That’s what leadership looks like. Because at the heart of it, Essence Fest and FCF are kin. Black-owned. Built with love. Held to higher standards. And still, we rise. We don’tcancel what we’ve built; we improve it. That’show we honor those who camebefore us and inspire those who will come next.

That’sthe legacy we owe ourselves: not just to create, but to continually rise, reﬁne and reclaim the spaces that celebrate who we are. Because when Black festivals thrive, our culture and businesses thrive, and that’s always worth ﬁghting for Cleveland Spears III is the founder and executive producer of the National Fried Chicken Festival

GUEST COLUMNIST

STAFFFILE

PHOTO By KEITH SPERA

and his aim is true,” she said.

TheStuartSpecial

For the last few weeks, Stuart has been looking forward to his 100th birthday party,which happened Sunday afternoon at the Baton Rouge Country Club.

More than 250 people came to celebrate the milestone birthday with the Stuart family,including folks he hired in the 1970s at Buquet and LeBlanc.

Several guests mentioned the birthdayboy’s signature drink, the Stuart Special —adrink he has ordered so often that he printed up business cards withthe recipe to hand to waitstaff.

He asks for two double rocks glasses ﬁlled to the top with ice and ateaspoon. His instructions include ﬁlling one of the glasses with Smirnoff Vodka. Then, add two olives and atwist of lemon.

His son, Rob Stuart, president and CEO of the LSU Foundation, said his father’sdaily commitment to exercise, especially in his later years, is afactor to his long life.

“His longevity is certainly attributable to the positive attitude toward life he alwaysmaintained during both the good times, but particularly during the times of adversity,” Rob Stuartsaid. Morgan said her father has aknack for doing the right things “And his commitment to integrity hasalways allowed him toget agood

FAIR

Continued from page1B

formerly incarcerated persons help make the transition from incarceration into the community smoother provide greater opportunities for success for the individuals they hire, and provide mutually beneﬁcial economic outcomes forthe individuals, theemployer, and the community as a whole.”

In addition to meeting withcompanies that are hiring, attendees will learn

BLOTTER

Continued from page1B

Police: Man drove to station in stolen truck

APort Barre man drove himself to his local Police Department after he stole avehicle at gunpoint, police said.

Chad M. Myers, 56,was arrested Friday and faces one count of armed robbery and possessionofa ﬁrearmbya felon, according to aSt. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce announcement.

about resources in Lafayette and the surrounding areas forcurrent and formerly incarcerated people and their families.

“Wewant to provide every opportunity possible to all formerly incarcerated persons to help them succeed long term. Making theseresources available and offeringthe type of assistance this event provides drastically reduces recidivism rates,” Sheriff Mark Garber said To view alistofparticipating companies, visit lafayette.org/2ndchance.

The jobfairispresented

night’s sleep,” saidMorgan. “He enjoys uplifting others, which lifts him up as well, as he never dwells on the negative but faces

by Lafayette Economic Development Authority,Fellowship Full Gospel Ministries, theLafayette Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce, the Probationand Parole Ofﬁce of the Louisiana Departmentof Public Safety andCorrections, and Louisiana Workforce Commission/Acadiana Workforce Solutions.

“Searching for ajob can be challenging if youdo not have the resources to present yourself in thebest way.Thisevent will provide attendees accesstocommunity and social service resource providerstohelp maximize employment op-

Deputies respondedFriday to reports of an armed robbery in the parkinglot of Jim Tatman’sMobile Homes along U.S. 190 near Opelousas. Upon arrival, deputies learnedthatMyer,wielding asmall gun, approached a laborer.Myer took the laborer’struck anddrove toward Port Barre, colliding with several vehicles along the way, police said. Myers thendrove to the PortBarrePoliceDepartment, where he was arrested withoutincident. Anyone with additional informationabout this crimeis encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Ofﬁce at (337) 948-6516. Youmay also call Crime Stoppers at (337) 948-TIPS, download the P3 app on your mobile device or simply dial **TIPS on your mobile phone to tip.All calls are anonymous

LOTTERY

SUNDAY,JULY13, 2025

PICK 3: 1-0-1

PICK 4: 7-8-6-4

PICK 5: 5-7-3-0-9

Unofficial notification, keep your tickets.

any situation conﬁdently.” Happy birthday,Bob. EmailJan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.

portunities,” said Charles Banks, pastorofFellowship Full Gospel Ministries. For more information,job seekers maycontactJessica Hallat(337) 315-5220 or jessica.hall@lafayettesheriff.com; Banksat(337) 344-9345 or revcebanks@ hotmail.com; or Acadiana WorkforceSolutions at (337) 347-9115.

Williams, Emma Ruth 'Ruth

Lafayette, LA -Emma Ruth TheriotWilliams, a soul whoembraced life with open arms,passed away peacefullyonJuly 11, 2025, at theremarkable age of 101, in Lafayette, Louisiana. Born on April 21, 1924, Ruth,asshe was affectionately known,truly nevermet astranger. Her outgoing nature andwarm spirit touched countless lives,earning hermany cherished familyand friends throughout her centuryofliving. Ruth wasthe daughter of thelateFranz Theriot andAdrienneFrancez Theriot. Herzest for life wasreflected in herlove for travel, whichtook her to many countriesaround theworld—thoughher heartalways foundsolace at thebeach. Awoman of profound faith, Ruth deeply loved theLord. Herdevotion was evident in heractiveinvolvementwith various churches, hergenerous

Obituaries servicetoresidentsat Bethany Nursing Home, and hersteadfast support of theCarmelite Monastery. Ruth waspreceded in death by herbeloved husbands, William J. Ryndand Dr.Donald B. Williams. She wasalso preceded in death by hersiblings: Ernest P. Theriot, Robert Theriot, MargueriteTheriot Lemoine,and Dolores TheriotColeman.Though she hadnochildren of her own, Ruth pouredher boundless love andkindness into thelives of her many nieces, nephews, andcousins. In hergenerousspirit Ruth donatedher body to medical science, withher final resting place to be Lafayette Memorial Cemetery and Mausoleum. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Ruth's honor to theCarmelite Monastery, 1250 Carmel Drive,Lafayette, Louisiana 70501. Personal condolences may be sent to theFamily of Ruth Williams at 1013 Broadmoor Blvd.Lafayette, Louisiana. 70503

When youneed thenews. Wherever youreadthe news

Thenewspaper of record for Acadiana

STAFF PHOTO By JANRISHER

Bob Stuartgreetsguestsathis 100th birthdayparty at the Baton RougeCountryClub on Sunday. Stuartturned 100 on Monday.

FALSESTARTS

BY WILSONALEXANDER Staff writer

ATLANTA— If you spent time around LSU’s summer workouts, you would notice constant reminders of the season opener Clemson paw printsdecorate bagsthatget hit every day.Screens above all thesquat racks say “1-0” on them. Strengthcoaches play distracting music at times, trying to prepare the players for aroad game

LSU has lost five straight seasonopeners, including the first three undercoachBrian Kelly.The Tigers have not wontheir first game since the 2019 national championship season, and Kelly recognizedheneededto try something new.HesaidLSU “circled” the first game, which he had neverdone before.

BYKEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

“I felt like Ineeded to change the way we lookedatthe opener,” Kelly saidMonday at SEC media days. “And so that was aspeciﬁcmindset change of how we would go attack Game 1.

“There will be some other things thatI’m notgoing to get into relative to howweprepareour team. Butthat was a decision that Ineeded to makeafter critically looking at not having success in the ﬁrst game.”

It won’tbeeasy.Clemson brought back mostofits team after reaching the College FootballPlayoff by winning the ACC, including projected ﬁrst-rounders in quarterback Cade Klubnik, defensive lineman Peter Woods and defensive end TJ Parker It’saprime-time game inside Memorial Stadium, and LSU has started the season with atrue road gameonly once during its losing streak.

“Weneeded to do some things differently this year,and that is embrace this opener,” Kelly said. “And embracing it in amanner thatthis is abig game. It’satangible goal for our football team to wanttobe1-0.”

In the past,quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said,LSU thought toomuchabout

LSUraises stakes with personnel investment

ATLANTA— It doesn’ttake aCollege Football Hall of Fame pedigree to know that LSU and coach Brian Kelly are all in forthis football season. Kelly put up acool $1

The decision for former UL All-American pitcher and pitching coach Gunner Leger to leavethe Ragin’ Cajuns wasn’t an easy one. Add in the fact that Leger is thoughtful and analytical, and his decision to leave Lafayettefor Southern Mississippi became even tougher.

“ULhas been my home for alongtime anda place that I’ll always consider home,” Leger said. “I grew up here, and all of my family still lives here. The decision Imade to leave was somethingthatwasn’ttaken lightly.”

It also wasn’tlost on the29-year-old Leger howspecial the opportunity was when coach Matt Deggs offered him the pitching coach positiontwo yearsago “Coach Deggs gave me agreat opportunity to start my career at aplace that means so muchtome…an opportunitythat Iwill always be incrediblythankful for,” Leger said. “UL is aspecial place withspecial people that will continue itstradition of development and success.”

His ﬁrst season in the position was terriﬁc, helping UL win the Sun Belt regular-seasonchampionship with a42-20 campaign.

Leger’sguys allowed 468 hits, 271 walks, hit 80 batters and struck out 597 batters in 540 innings with a 4.48 ERA. Opposing batters hit only .232. This past season, there was no dominant arm on the staff, and it showed. UL pitchers struggled to a5.53 ERA, allowing 539 hits, 252 walks, 88 hit batsmen and striking out 460 in 5022/3 innings. Opposing hitters batted .271. During his time at UL as aplayer and coach,Leger haslearned that being comfortable isn’talways the

best thingfor upward mobility “I think theopportunity formetolearn and seehow other elite programs and coaches operate was more of an influence thananything,”Leger said about his decision. “I haveadesire to be ahead coach, and build aresume that allows that to be apossibilityone day.I felt like Ineeded to get out and getalittle uncomfortable to grow and develop in this profession.” Leger picked aprogramthat just producedtwo pitchers whowentinthe first 81 picks of theMLB draft Sunday evening. “Outofthe couple of programs andorganizations Ispoke with, Southern Missand theopportunityto be mentored by such agreat pitching mindincoach (Christian) Ostrander was something Icouldn’tpass up,” Leger said. Less than two weeks after Leger informed Deggsof his decision, UL filled thevacancy withformer

Kelly said with agrin Monday as he was the ﬁrst coach to speak at SEC media days at the College Football Hall of Fame.

Kelly will be apermanent resident here one day as an inductee, makenomistake about that. The question is whether all the money and all the players the Tigers have brought in over the past year will result in a ﬁfthmodernera national championship for LSU

The immediate question is can LSU snap a ﬁve-gamelosing streak in season openers —three straight under Kelly,ashehimself brought up Monday when talking to reporters —with abig winAug. 30 at Clemson? Then can

LouisianaTechgets

Bulldogs to

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Twoweeks after Texas State announcedit’sleavingthe SunBelt Conference to join the newPac12 Conference, the league’sCEOs voted to approveLouisiana Tech to ﬁll the void. The move won’t be effective until the 2026-27 athletic year To approveLouisiana Tech,10 outofthe remaining 13 Sun Belt schools had to vote yes. There was some opposition to such schools as AppalachianState andOld Dominion beforethey joined theleague, butthe league was able to remain a14-team league by adding ageographical matchfor such West Division teams as Arkansas State, ULMonroe and UL with this move. It’llbeareturn to theSun Belt for theBulldogs,who were a memberfrom 1991-2001. Louisiana Tech thenleft forthe Western Athletic Conference before joining Conference USAin2013. Louisiana Tech once was with theRagin’ Cajuns in the Gulf StatesConferenceinthe 1960s, then again in theSouthland Conference from 1971-81.

The Cajuns became an independent in football in in 1982 while remaining in theSouthland Conference in other sports through 1986 before both teamsleftfor theAmericanSouthinall sports besides football. The Sun Belt began football in 2001 whenLouisiana Tech moved to the WAC. In football, Louisiana Tech is acombined 11-35 over the past four seasons. Its last winning season was 10-3 in 2019, including a14-10 winover Miamiinthe Independence Bowl. In men’sbasketball, the Bulldogs are coming off a22-10 season and have wonatleast 22 games in three of the past four seasons, including athird-place finish in the 2021 NIT.Despite the recent success, Louisiana Tech hasn’t reached theNCAA Tournament since 1991. Women’sbasketball has astoried history but hasnot been at thatlevel in alongtime.Tech went18-16 last season and hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2011. In baseball, Louisiana Tech is coming off a32-25 season after going 45-19 two years ago forits third 40-win season this decade, including NCAA regional appearances in all three. In softball, the Bulldogs won32 games each of the past two seasonsand last reached an NCAA regional in 2019.

Scott Rabalais

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By HUNTER DAWKINS

LSU coach Brian Kelly discusses the upcoming season during SECmedia days on Mondayatthe CollegeFootball HallofFame in Atlanta. Kelly’sTigers will trytoend arecent

STAFF FILEPHOTO By BRAD KEMP

left

to becomean

SunBelt rival SouthernMiss.

McIlroy embraces love at British Open

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland Rory McIlroy practically had Royal Portrush all to himself Monday morning, but not for long. By the time he finished his first practice round for the British Open — his first time back on these links in 2,187 days — there was a big crowd that weathered rain and sunshine to see him finish.

The circumstances are far different now

McIlroy remembers being illprepared for the wave of emotions that hit him on the ﬁrst tee in 2019. He has tried to forget the opening tee shot that sailed out-of-bounds and led to a quadruple bogey. And there was thunderous support for him on that Friday when he made a furious rally only to miss the cut by one shot.

On Monday, he walked over to dozens of spectators wanting his autograph, including on one large

ﬂag of his native Northern Ireland with emblems of all four majors in each corner

The pressure to perform has not left But that ﬂag was an example that he returns home to Northern Ireland to be celebrated as much as the fans want to see him end a special year on a spectacular note.

This was different from 2019, when he wanted to treat that British Open like any other, ignoring that it was the ﬁrst time golf’s oldest championship was on his home soil in 68 years.

“I think in ‘19, I probably tried to isolate, and I think it’s better for everyone if I embrace it,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to accept adulation, even though I struggle with it at times. I think it’s more embrace everything that’s going to come my way this week and not try to shy away from it or hide away from it. And I think that’ll make for a better experience for everyone involved.”

He is rarely home these days, living in Florida, preparing to move to London, traveling the world for golf. There was never a reason to be at Royal Portrush — caddie Harry Diamond came over a few weeks ago on a scouting trip — but it felt good to be home.

“When I was looking at the calendar for 2025, this was the tournament that was probably circled, even more so than the Masters for different reasons,” he said.

“It’s lovely to be coming in here already with a major and everything else that’s happened this year.”

That “everything else” was the Masters, the major that teased him for so many years and then brought him so much joy when he won in a playoff to complete the career Grand Slam.

The next two months were a struggle, from listless play to so much fatigue from questions of “What now?” and how to reset goals. He went six straight

rounds at majors without talking to the media. He didn’t seriously contend in any of his six tournaments.

“I think everyone could see over the last couple of months how I struggled with that. I’ve done something that I’ve told everyone that I wanted to do, but then it’s like I still feel like I have a lot more to give,” McIlroy said. “I probably just didn’t give myself enough time to let it all sink in.”

But coming back to these parts has recharged him. He nearly won the Scottish Open last week, losing on the back nine to Chris Gotterup, ﬂew straight over to Portrush on Sunday night and checked into his hotel at 1 a.m. He was on the ﬁrst tee six hours later

“By the time I got to the back nine today, there was a nice crowd out there,” McIlroy said. “After the 18th and seeing all the kids and signing autographs, it’s really, really nice, and I’m sure that’ll just build as the week goes on.”

Sinner says he needed to beat rival

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer

LONDON Jannik Sinner needed this victory He wanted to win Wimbledon, of course, and it would have meant a lot to him no matter who the opponent was in the ﬁnal. That this championship, his fourth at a Grand Slam tournament, came via a win over Carlos Alcaraz made it all the more signiﬁcant to Sinner — and to the future of their burgeoning rivalry for many years to come.

“It is important, for sure,” the No. 1-ranked Sinner said Sunday night after prevailing 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 against No 2 Alcaraz, “because when you lose several times against someone, it’s not easy.” Sinner had lost five matches in a row against Alcaraz, none more disheartening than the one they played last month in the French Open final. Sinner grabbed a twoset lead in that one, then held a trio of championship points, before losing in five sets after 5 hours, 29 minutes.

“I keep looking up to Carlos, because even today, I felt like he was doing couple of things better than I did,” Sinner said. “So that’s something we will work on and prepare ourselves, because he’s going to come for us again.”

Perhaps as soon as the U.S. Open, which starts in New York on Aug. 24 and where Sinner is the reigning champion. They will

be seeded No. 1 and No. 2 again, so could only meet there in another ﬁnal

Alcaraz won the trophy at Flushing Meadows in 2022, beginning a stretch in which he and Sinner have combined to win nine of the past 12 majors. That includes the last seven, leaving zero doubt that these two young guys — Sinner is 23, Alcaraz is 22 — have pushed themselves way past everyone else in the game.

“I’m just really, really happy about having this rivalry with him. It’s great for us, and it is great for tennis. Every time we play against each other, our level

is really high,” Alcaraz said. “We don’t (see) a level like this, if I’m honest with you. I don’t see any (other players) playing against each other (and) having the level that we are playing when we face each other.” Both serve well, although Sinner was better at that Sunday Both return well, although, again, Sinner was superior over these particular three hours. Both cover the court exceedingly well — Alcaraz is faster; Sinner has a bigger reach and is a better slider Both hit the ball so, so hard — Alcaraz is more prone to the spectacular; Sinner is as pure and consistent a ball-

LSU women’s basketball to play in Virgin Islands

The LSU women’s basketball team announced Monday that it will travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands in November to play two nonconference games.

The Tigers will ﬂy to St. Thomas Island to compete in the 2025 Paradise Jam Tournament. A win over Marist in their opening game on Nov 28 will set them up for a title matchup with either Miami of Ohio or Washington State on Nov 29. LSU previously had ﬁnalized one other nonconference battle: a road contest against Duke in the annual ACC/SEC Challenge.

This is the ﬁfth consecutive season in which LSU has scheduled November games at a tropical locale since coach Kim Mulkey arrived. Last year, the Tigers traveled to The Bahamas.

Wemby says he’s cleared to play basketball again

San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama expects to play this coming season and has been fully cleared after dealing with deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder for the past few months, he told the French newspaper L’Equipe in remarks published Monday

A person familiar with the situation later told The Associated Press that the Spurs have received word that Wembanyama has been cleared to resume play and, barring anything unforeseen will be able to fully participate in training camp when it opens this fall.

“I’ll ﬁnally be able to play a bit of basketball again,” Wembanyama said.

The fact that Wembanyama has been cleared suggests that his type of DVT was provoked, which would rule out a genetic predisposition to a clot returning.

Cavs reward president of hoops operations Altman Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman has signed a contract extension through the 2029-30 season, a person with knowledge of the deal said Monday General manager Mike Gansey and assistant GM Brandon Weems also received extensions. Altman has been with Cleveland since 2012. He has been in his current position since January 2022 after being named general manager in July 2017.

The Cavaliers won 64 games this past season and finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2016, when they won their only NBA championship. Cleveland swept Miami in the first round but was eliminated by eventual Eastern Conference champion Indiana in five games in the conference semifinals.

Jets extend WR Wilson with $130 million deal

Alcaraz

striker as there is.

One other contrast, usually, is that Alcaraz shows emotion, whether via yells of “Vamos!” or the sort of point-to-his-ear-thenpump-his-fist celebration he did after winning Sunday’s opening set by stretching and reaching low for a cross-court backhand to close a 12-stroke point.

Sinner is far more contained. Even his arm-raised victory poses are mild-mannered.

Sunday, though, there were more visible displays. He even shouted “Let’s go!” after one point. Later, he shook his racket overhead while the crowd roared after a well-struck backhand. When he took a set with a forehand winner, Sinner held a pose, then lifted a ﬁst.

“You saw a bit more energy from him in the big moments,” said one of Sinner’s coaches, Darren Cahill, “and a bit more focus to knuckle down and make sure that, when he had his nose in front, that he kept on closing the door against Carlos.”

Both players spoke about their matchup motivating them to work hard to try to improve.

“It gives me the opportunity to just give my 100% every practice, every day Just to be better thanks to that,” said Alcaraz, who won the past two Wimbledon titles and was 5-0 in Grand Slam finals before Sunday “The level that I have to maintain, and I have to raise, if I want to beat Jannik is really high.”

The New York Jets and wide receiver Garrett Wilson have agreed on a four-year, $130 million contract extension, a person familiar with the situation said Monday Wilson, drafted 10th overall in 2022, was the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year that season and has more than 1,000 yards receiving in each of his ﬁrst three years — the ﬁrst player in franchise history to do so. In all, Wilson has caught 279 passes for 3,249 yards and 14 touchdowns.

The extension represents a signiﬁcant commitment from general manager Darren Mougey and new coach Aaron Glenn, who have focused on making the roster younger in their ﬁrst offseason together in New York.

U.S. men’s soccer team sets 2 October friendlies

The United States will play Ecuador and Australia in October friendlies as preparation for next year’s World Cup. The No. 15 Americans will meet No. 25 Ecuador on Oct. 10 in Austin, Texas, and No 24 Australia four days later in Commerce City, Colorado, the U.S. Soccer Federation said Monday Coming off its 2-1 loss to Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup ﬁnal, the U.S. plays No. 23 South Korea on Sept. 6 in Harrison, New Jersey, then faces No. 17 Japan three days later in Columbus, Ohio. Following the October friendlies, the U.S. will have a pair of exhibitions in both November and March After the World Cup roster is set, the Americans will have a pair of sendoff matches in June.

ASSOCIATED PHRESS PHOTO By PETER MORRISON

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland signs autographs on the 18th green after a practice round for the British Open on Monday at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam earlier this year

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIN CHEUNG

Jannik Sinner left of Italy celebrates with the trophy after beating Carlos Alcaraz, right, of Spain to win the men’s singles final at Wimbledon on Sunday in London.

SECMEDIA DAYS

SEC SCHEDULING REDUX

1

Everytime SEC commissionerGreg Sankey talks to reporters, he expects questions about apermanent football schedule format.“I (would) liketoget out of the football scheduling decision questions,” he said,“so that suggests alonger term(format) would be better.” Reading betweenthe Sankey tea leaves, he appears to favoreight SEC games instead of nine since manyschools playbigtime nonconference rivals. He said toexpect a format soon but would not offer adate.

2 THELANORRISSELLERS FACTOR

Shane Beamersaidhis ﬁrst team at South Carolina in 2021 was predicted to wintwo games. In 2025, the Gamecocks are being talked about as aCFP contender, with quarterback LaNorris Sellers,a darkhorse Heisman contender,the biggestreason why. He was injuredjust before halftime of last year’s36-33 home losstoLSU.Thisyear Sellers and South Carolina visit TigerStadium on Oct. 11ina sneakybig matchup for both teams.

ON STAGETUESDAY

AUBURN

LAST YEAR:5-7 (2-6 SEC)

COACH:Hugh Freeze (3rd year)

PLAYERS:QBJacksonArnold,DLKeldric Faulk, C Connor Lew

THREEAND OUT: SCOTTRABALAISBREAKSDOWNDAY 1INATLANTA Notebook

THE BUZZ:Lately,Freeze’sgolf habitshaveattracted more attentionthan Auburn’s season ahead —asign that thingsare trending down for the Tigers.Aturnaround is possible, but onlyifFreeze can bring out the bestinArnold,a mobile junior whostarted 10 games in twoyears at Oklahoma.

LAST YEAR:11-3 (6-2 SEC)

GEORGIA

COACH:KirbySmart(10th year)

PLAYERS:QBGunner Stockton, LB CJ Allen, DB Daylen Everette

THE BUZZ:Need more evidence that Georgiabelieves in Stockton?Smart didn’t signa transfer quarterback after Carson Beck left for Miami, and nowhe’sbringing the redshirt junior whostarted the Sugar Bowl tomediadays.Things canchange, butall indicationsare thatStockton is nowinchargeofthe powerhouse Bulldogs offense.

RABALAIS

Continued from page1C

the Tigers make the 12-team College Football Playoff,which would be their ﬁrst CFP berth since winning the 2019 nationaltitle? All important questions, of course. This is aseason of urgency for theTigers no doubt, and everyone involved withLSU knows it.

“When you go in our building,all 105 players are thinking we can benational champions,” linebacker Whit Weekssaid. Yousee that conﬁdencenot only bought with the money Kelly and theTigers are putting towardlanding atop-10 recruiting class and the nation’sNo. 1transferportal class but also with the coachingand player personnel staff that has been built. Every one of Kelly’sposition coaches now have ties to Louisiana. Transferportal or no, the state always will bethe bedrock of LSU’sprogram thanks to theseemingly eternal spring of footballtalent theBayou State produces. For Exhibit Awegive you one of LSU’smost recent2026commitments, U-High defensive tackle Lamar Brown, the nation’sNo. 1overall prospect per ESPN. In the constantbattlefor talent, you have to have people who havethe ties to the homeland.

Then there is the front ofﬁce side of things. Kelly brought back Austin Thomas in January 2024 from Ole Miss tobehis generalmanager —his ﬁrst GM,aposition that used to be an exclusive pro sports term. As college sports have become more pro-like, for good or bad, schools such as LSUhave had to invest in player personnel experts. The task has gotten far toobig for the head coach and his position coaches to deal with any longer “I think we all can agree that thetop teams need to recruitatthe highestlevel,” Kelly said. “But you also havetohave the infrastructuretoretain them. Howdoyou retain them? Through contracts andrevenue sharing and buildingtrust.

“So this whole operation is not just about recruiting. It’s evaluations. It’s personnel. It’s relationships. All of these things areso

KELLY

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trying to win the national championship instead of focusing on the first game. Nussmeier, asenior,has not won aseason opener going into his ﬁfth year at LSU. “At LSU, there’salways an expectation, right?” Nussmeier said. “There’salways an expectation to compete for anational championship. Ithink in the past, we’ve kind of looked too forward to thatand alwaystalked about where we wanted to be at the end of the season, instead of focusing on where we had to start.”

That’swhy LSU put 1-0 on the weight room screens and Clemson logos on the bags, creating daily visual reminders.Players said strength and conditioning coach Jake Flint also has emphasized the importanceoftaking

VANDYDREAMING BIG

3

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia looked likeaPark Avenue doorman with his darksuit and bowtie,and his Commodores are used to being adoormat for SEC foes. But after shocking No.1 Alabama in 2024, the ‘Doresare aiming to knock thedoor down. No, really.“The mission ain’t ﬁnished We want to win anational championship,” Pavia said with astraight face. If youcan’t dream biginJuly,when can you? Vandyhosts LSU on Oct. 18.

TENNESSEE

LAST YEAR:10-3 (6-2 SEC)

COACH:Josh Heupel (5th year)

PLAYERS:LBArion Carter,DTBryson Eason,TE Miles Kitselman

THE BUZZ:Nooffseason storycommandedmore headlines than Tennessee’smessy breakup with Nico Iamaleava —a sagathat forced the title-contending Vols to make alate changeatquarterback. Heupel settled on Appalachian State transfer Joey Aguilartoﬁll the void, butdid he playhis cards right? We’ll soon ﬁnd out.

TEXAS

LAST YEAR:13-3 (7-1 SEC)

COACH:Steve Sarkisian (5th year)

PLAYERS:QBArch Manning,LBAnthonyHill, S Michael Taaffe

THE BUZZ:All eyes are on Manning,the NewOrleans native whohails fromfootballroyalty.Hebacked up Quinn Ewers for twoyears. Nowhe’sthe face of aTexas program hungry forits ﬁrst national title since 2005. Last season, theLonghorns lost to national champion Ohio State in the CFP semiﬁnals ReedDarcey

STAFF FILEPHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK LSU linebackerWhit Weeks pressures Oklahoma’sJacksonArnoldonNov.30atTiger Stadium.

important if you want to continuously be one of thetop schools in the country bringingintalent. Acquisition of talent, recruiting retention, answers all of those really important things to being achampionship program.”

Youcould say Kelly and Thomas have taken their transfer portal acumen and trained it on theplayer personnel wing of theLSU football complex. They recently hired Kelvin Bolden away from Ole Miss as theassistant general manager.They brought in Amite native Sam Petitto, previously director of player personnel for national champion Ohio State, to becomethe directororscouting and personnel strategy.And New Orleansnative and LSUgrad Jeff Martin, last at USC before he worked afew years in private business, is now executivedirector of player personnel.

“I think coach Kelly and everybody upstairshave done aremarkable job just adapting, getting ahead of the times,” Tigers quarterback GarrettNussmeier said.

the season one game at atime. Kelly compared theapproach to when he puts aclock in front of himduring hisown workouts. “This is aclock in front of them saying, ‘This is where we start this,’”Kelly said. “And then it becomes 1-0 every week after that.”

In the pastfive years, LSU lost the first gamebymultiple scores three times. Twoofthose cameinEdOrgeron’s finaltwo seasons. Under Kelly, LSU lost 24-23 to FloridaStateinhis first year and27-20 to Southern Cal last year. Its worst openingloss in the past five years was 45-24 to Florida Stateatthe startof the2023 season “We’re awarethatwe’ve lost thelast five openers,” Nussmeier said. “And Ithink our awarenessofthat situation andour awareness of whowe’re playing kind of led into the 1-0mindset. Ithink it’skind of acombination of both.” LSUscheduled the Clemson

“Our program in general, everybody’s bought in to what the expectations are. Not just theplayers. It’s coming from the entire staff.”

Weeks, ajunior,has noticedthe changes in approach during his time at LSU.

“It’s acommitment to winning,” he said. “I thinkcoach Kelly is doing the best job in the country right now bringing people in who have been around winning teams, been on championship teams and bringing them to LSU just to help us even more.”

There are no guarantees all this investmentofmanpower and money will pay off in another national championship trophy for LSU. Another huge question: Is all of this viable in thelong term?

“I thinkwestill have to be thinking about how we continue tobuild support forNIL,” Kelly said, “because it’snot going away, nor should it.Like revenue sharing. We’re in the ﬁrst stages of where we need to be, but we have to still be moving in that direction.”

game sixyearsago. As thelosing streak grew,therehas been a thought that LSU should change itsapproach to scheduling the ﬁrst game.But that likely won’t happen for at least another year

In the second part of the home-and-homeseries, LSU hostsClemson to start the 2026 season. It does not have an opening game on thebooksfor 2027. The following twoyears, LSU already has scheduled opening games against SMU. “Weknow we’re going into a tough environment toplay,and Ican’tbemore excited to be doing that,” junior linebacker Whit Weeks said. “You cometoLSU to play the best, and Clemson is one of the best teams in the country.Why wouldn’tyou want to go play them?” It’s not just Clemson logos on bags and 1-0 on the screens. During team runs, Flintblasts music that alot of the players don’tlike, trying to emulate aroad game.Seniorwide re-

Kelly: WR NicAnderson doingﬁne aftercar crash

BY WILSON ALEXANDER and SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writers

ATLANTA— LSU wide receiver Nic Anderson was in acar crash Friday night and needed medical treatment, coach Brian Kelly told The Advocate, but he’sexpected to practice at the start of preseason camp.

Kelly said the crash wasn’t“as bad” as a January single-car wreck involving LSU redshirt freshman quarterback Colin Hurley,who has since rejoined the team Anderson, an Oklahoma transfer,will miss about aweek before returning to the offseason program

“Itwasn’tquite as bad as Colin Hurley’s, which was life-threatening, but enough that he had to get checked in and stayed overnight forobservations,” Kelly saidMondayatSEC media days. “But he comes out of it really good.”

Aftertransferring in December,Anderson was limited during spring practicewith ahamstring injury,Kelly said. Anderson missedalmost the entire 2024 season with an injury

“Wedidn’twant to get into asituation where, as youknow,the medical issues withhim at Oklahoma were real,” Kelly said. “So, we just wantedtobecareful with him.”

The nature of Anderson’sinjury at Oklahoma hasbeen vague.Oklahoma coach Brent Venables told reportersthatAnderson suffered aquadriceps injury,but ESPN described the issue as ahip injury As aredshirt freshman two years ago, Andersonrecorded31catchesfor 798 yards and10touchdowns, whichset an Oklahoma freshman record. A6-foot-4, 216-pound sophomore, he was considered one of the top available players in the transfer portal.

“Wethink that this is going to be short term,aweek or so, and then he’ll be back at it,” Kelly said.

Injury updates

Six months after suffering an ankle injury that required surgery, LSUlinebacker Whit Weeks is getting closer to afull return.

“I ﬁnally feel like myself again,” Weeks said. “These past couple weeks, especially in July,I’ve been able to play every snap that we go during practice.

“It’sexcitingtosee becausethe road to recovery was long. Imean, Ihad apretty nastyankle injury.Tobeback on the football ﬁeldisreally abreath of fresh airfor me.” Weekswas carted off thefield at the Texas Bowl, ending abreakout sophomore year.Heneeded surgery to repair abroken ﬁbula, asource said, but he has been regaining his strength and confidence. He credited the LSU athletic training and strength staff.

“They’ve helped me tremendously throughout this process,” Weeks said. “I’ve really put alot of trust in them to get me back, and they’ve done it. They’ve gotten me back.” Weekshas been on whatKelly described as a“pitch count” to ease him back into the training program. Kelly said theexpectation remains that Weeks and senior linebacker Harold Perkins will be full participants at the start of preseason camp.

Perkins is recovering from an ACLinjury suffered in Week 4last fall.

“Within this past week,” Weeks said, “meand Harold have both been able to go full practices, full racks, everything.”

KiffintrollsFreeze

ceiverChris Hilton called it a “distractiontactic.” Flint blasts music the players enjoy during a break between sets, referredto as halftime. Then, he goes back to theunpopular songs.

“We’ve never done anything like that before,” Nussmeier said.

Could focusing on one game backfire? Not only does LSU open at Clemson, it appears to have afront-loadedschedule, playing Florida, Ole Miss and SouthCarolina within the ﬁrst seven weeks What if so muchpressure gets put on the ﬁrst game that, if LSUloses to Clemson, it can’t rebound? Nussmeier dismissed that idea. “If it doesn’tgothe way we wantittogo,” Nussmeiersaid, “then we’reback to going 1-0 again.”

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

OleMisscoach Lane Kiffin was put in the position of trying to defuse what recently looked like acase of social-media trolling directed at Auburn coach HughFreeze Freeze hasbeen criticized forplaying too much golf in the offseason and was pictured in May with atrophy he helped his golf club winover arival club. Kiffin, notorious for his online zingers, posted a photo on Xwiththe response,“Greatjob Coach!! Game is on (fire emoji).”

Asked about it Monday,Kifﬁnsaid: “I like coach Freeze. Ihaveathing with him, going back afew years ago, andhe, like, posted apicture in response to me, of some2-pound bass or something like that.

“So, I’ve kind of always posted bigger ﬁsh pictures back toward him. So it had nothing to do with his golf game, which it sounds like he’sdoing amazing at that.

“AndIwas fishingyesterday.People wanttosay that ﬁshing is like golﬁng. It’s the dead period.”

Stay tuned for Freeze’sresponse when he speaks here Tuesday afternoon. Proposingorpassing (out)?

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier was asked what was morenerve-wracking: proposing earlier this monthtolongtime girlfriend Ella Springfield or throwing a fourth-and-5 touchdown pass to AaronAnderson leading to an overtime victory last October against Ole Miss.

“Proposing, deﬁnitely,” said Nussmeier, decked out in aplaid purple suit. “I kind of blacked out.”

Afun, fulﬁlling DIY project

You’ve heard of landscaping. How about hardscaping?

Hardscapes are the manmade features that bring form and function to our landscapes, providing acontrasttoliving elements such as plants, trees and turf otherwise known as softscapes. Hardscapes and softscapes both play important roles in Louisiana landscapes,where our climate is conducive to year-round outdoor livingand entertaining.

“Plant blooms come and go Some of them only last aseason;some of them last multiple years,” said Damon Abdi, an assistant professor of landscape horticulture at the LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station. “But awell-builthardscape is going to give youreturns 365 days ayear.”

Hardscapes are more than just places to host gatherings or enjoy some time outdoors. They add deﬁnition to the overall environment and offer a chance to incorporate different shapes, textures and colors.

LSU AGCENTERPHOTO

By OLIVIA McCLURE

Features such as thisoutdoor fireplace at the LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station are called hardscapes. They can provide both aesthetic and practical benefits.

Hardscapes can even help you cut back on maintenance. Think about it: Materials like concrete, stone and brickdon’t have to be watered or mowed to look beautiful.

Many hardscapes can make for fun, fulﬁlling do-it-yourself projects. Apatio is agood starting point —aperfect way to spruce up the backyardthis summer To build apatio, Abdi suggests following thesesteps: n Call 811. “Make sure that you’re not going to have any utilities that are going to get in the way,” Abdi said. “That can be adangerous and expensive issue.”

n Mark the footprint for the patio.

n Excavate about 4to5inches of soil

n Create abase layer.“Adding in gravel with ﬁnes and compacting that is going to give you areallysolid surface to continue your construction,” Abdi said.

n Topthe gravelwith a1-inch layer of sand. Smooth the sand

n Install stone on top. “You can use pavers, you can use bluestone, you can use natural stone,” Abdi said. “There’sa whole range of options to ﬁt your tastes.” There are plenty of other hardscapes to consider, and they canserve many different purposes. How wouldyou like to use your outdoor space?

ä See HARDSCAPING, page 6C

‘I

CAN’TBELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING’

Twosouth Louisiananatives gettheir shots in newAri Astermovie with JoaquinPhoenix

BY JOYHOLDEN Staff writer

For south Louisiana natives

Blane Aranyosi and Kaleb Naquin, taking afew risks to pursue theirdreams in ﬁlm is worth it. Driving to New Mexico and paying for their hotels were smallpricestopay when they got cast in the latest Ari Aster feature, “Eddington,” starring Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone. Although their routestoNew Mexico were quite different, the two actors found themselves workingtogether in the odd town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Aranyosi,aHammondresident and Hungarian Settlement native, has worked as astand-in for the last 10 years in the New Orleans film world. He wenttoacting school in New York for two years before returning to Louisiana for the big ﬁlm boom in the2010s. He has stood in forKeanu Reeves, TaronEgerton, Josh Hutcherson andmost recently, Joaquin Phoenix. As astand-in, Aranyosi functions as the rough draft for each scene, blocking for light and cameras before the ﬁnal draft star actor performs.

“I don’treally feel like I’m an actor yet,”Aranyosisaid. “I’ve dabbled in it some. I’vestumbled down adifferent paththan mostpeople —asa stand-in for actors.”

Working mostly in New Orleans, Aranyosi hadn’thad much luck with jobs out of Louisiana. Production companies usuallypreferto use local hires that they don’thave to payfor travel and accommodations.Hesays he just hastoshow up and prove himself.

‘I have ajob to do’

For“Eddington,”Aranyosi got the cameratestjob, which he says is like ajog before arun. He toldthem he would drive out there and pay for his

hotel.After a16-hour drive withhis best friend, Aranyosi was ready to prove himself. He even went to the local Walmart and bought an outﬁt to matchPhoenix’ssheriffcostume to show hiscommitment —a white button down, jeans, boots, acowboy hatand glasses. He got the stand-in job and worked every day Phoenix did. Afterputting in many hours as Phoenix’s stand-in,Aranyosi’s

ä See MOVIE, page 6C

BYJAN RISHER Staff writer

two

sion —hedecidedtochange the name.However, he didn’tchange it much.

took off

From left, mutual friend HenryFrost, Blane Aranyosi and Kaleb Naquin get abeer together to celebrate success

PROVIDED PHOTOS

Blane Aranyosi on the set of ‘Eddington’ as Joaquin Phoenix’s stand-in.

Potato masher worksfor eggsalad

Dear Heloise: Apotato masher is terriﬁcfor making an egg salad. It helps break up hardboiled eggs faster and better —Adele Bloom, via email

Excludingfamily

Dear Heloise: Iwanted to write in regarding the recent letters printed from seniors who had to tell family and friends that they may visit theirlakehouseor vacation home by invitationonly

“Please don’tsend me to anursinghome.” They wanted to pass on at home surrounded by family

Co-workers suddenly inviting themselves over

Hints from Heloise

The most wonderful memories of my life are from the times I spent at my grandparents’ as achild. Did the children make messes, raid the refrigerator, and eat all the snacks?Absolutely! But laterinlife, our grandparentsdeveloped dementia and cancer.They begged us,

By The Associated Press

So,all the children and grandchildrencametogethertofeed them, bathe them, and love on them

Formyhusband’sparents andmine, thankfully we were with them at home when they passed.

Seniors, you better use all the timeyou haveleft to love on yourfamily and notexclude them. Asad picture is visiting a nursing homeand seeing seniors diealone after staring at the walls for years withoutone visitor —R.D.S in North Carolina

Send ahint to heloise@heloise. com.

TODAYINHISTORY

Today is Tuesday,July 15, the 196th day of 2025. There are169 days left in the year

Todayinhistory

On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone, akey to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts,was found at Fort Julien in theNile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt

Also on this date:

In 1834, the SpanishInquisition was abolished more than 350 yearsafter its creation.

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederatestate to bereadmitted to the Union.

In 1913, DemocratAugustus Bacon of Georgia became the ﬁrst person elected to the U.S Senate under the terms of the recently ratiﬁed 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of senators.

In 1916, The Boeing Company, originally known as PaciﬁcAero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after twoSoviet cosmonautswere launched aboarda Soyuzspacecraft fora mission that included alinkupof the two ships in orbit.

In 1976, a36-hour kidnap ordeal beganfor 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed; the kidnapperswere caught.)

In 1996, MSNBC, a24-hourallnews network, made its debuton cable and the internet.

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan, 27, was found dead eight days later, asuicide. (Investigators believed Cunanan killed four other people before Versace in across-country rampage that beganthe previous March.)

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who’d fought along-

side the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleadedguilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in adeal sparinghim life in prison.

In 2006, Twitter (now known as X) was launched to thepublic. In 2019, avowed White supremacist JamesAlex FieldsJr. was sentenced byastate court to life in prison plus 419 years for killing oneand injuring dozens when hedeliberately drove his car into acrowd of anti-racism protestersduring arally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (The previous month, Fields received alife sentence on 29 federal hate crime charges.)

In 2020, George Floyd’sfamily filed alawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging theofficers violated Floyd’srightswhen they restrained him andthat thecity allowed aculture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish inits police force. (The city would agree to pay $27 milliontosettle thelawsuit in March2021.)

Today’sbirthdays: Actor Patrick Wayne is 86. R&B singer Millie Jackson is 81. Singer Linda Ronstadtis79. Author Richard Russo is 76. MusicianTrevon Horn is 76. Arianna Huffington, co-founder of TheHuffington Post, is 75. Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is 74. Actor Terry O’Quinn (TV:“Lost”)is73. Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 73. Rock musician Joe Satriani is 69. Model Kim Alexis is 65. Actor Willie Aames is 65. Actordirector Forest Whitaker is 64. Actor Brigitte Nielsenis62. Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 59. TV personalityAdam Savage (TV “MythBusters”) is 58. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 57. Actor-screenwriter Jim Rash (TV:“Community”) is 53. Actor Scott Foley is 53. Actor Brian Austin Green is 52. Singer Buju Banton is 52. Actor Diane Kruger is 49. Actor Lana Parrilla is 48. Actor Travis Fimmel is 46. Actor-singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds is 36. Actor Iain Armitage (TV: “Young Sheldon”) is 17.

LSU AGCENTER PHOTO By OLIVIA MCCLURE

Apatio canprovide an outdoor gathering spot

HARDSCAPING

Continued from page5C

off patios or other areas while creatingextra seating. Don’tforgetabout pathwaysthrough the garden, which holdpractical and aesthetic appeal. Abdihas written detailed how-to guidesfor some of these hardscaping projects.You can ﬁnd them by searching www LSUAgCenter.com for “Landscape Ornamental Series.” Simplerhardscapingprojects canbeeffective,too.One wellplaced boulder orbench can sometimes be all that asmall garden needs. Even justafew steppingstones can make an impact.

Dear Miss Manners: Ijust moved into anew home, and Iwanted to keep that information private at theplace where Iamtemporarily working. I’m not particularly close to anyone there. Several people are nice to me, but not to thepoint of being friends.

Well, word got out about my house, and now several people have invited themselves over or hinted as much. None of these people have ever socialized with me, so I ﬁnd it odd and awkward that they would suddenly invitethemselves. Idon’tentertain anyway,but I know tellingthem that will not work. I’m just really bothered that they say,“You’ll have to inviteusover.”

ity with which somepeople state their demands

Buttogive aspeciﬁcexcuse is to admit that the matter is open for discussion.

your friend by offering double condolences —for losing her husband, and also forhaving arude daughter

What would you do? Ineed alist of excuses!

Gentlereader: No, you need only one: “I’m not planning anything.” Or fewer than one, if that is possible: astrained smile and silence. Miss Manners understands that people who have trouble saying no might be sorry to disappoint those who importune them. Or they may be cowed by theauthor-

MOVIE

Continuedfrom page5C

acting opportunity arrived. While on settoward the end of ﬁlming, Lars Knudsen, Aster’sproducing partner,approached Aranyosiwith aspur-of-the-moment roleasa nurse. Aster had madechanges to thescript, and Aranyosi seized the chance to act opposite of Phoenix instead of stand in his place.

“Apartofmewaslike,‘OhmyGod, Ican’t believe this is happening.’But then another part of me is like, ‘I have ajob to do,’”Aranyosi said.

Houma native Naquin was with Aranyosi at aRaising Cane’sinAlbuquerque when Aranyosigot the news of his changing role. Naquin was working in movies as an extra in Louisiana, but he noticed apattern when he keptgetting moved up to the front forscenes. These instances encouragedhim to try for amore substantial role.

He tried local theater at the Thibodaux Playhouse, but he said that he bombed. He attendedan open casting callfor aSonic commercial, booked that andthen worked as an extra in some ﬁlms. Naquin said that when he saw “Hereditary” by Aster he knew he had to be an actor “So Istarted takinglessons with Jim Gleason, who’sthe SAG-AFTRA president of New Orleans,” Naquinsaid. “Eversincethen, I’vehad to network alot, do alot of independent stuff, and slowly but surely make connections. Ihad theright agents, andthe right opportunities cameatthe right time, and here we are.”

He auditioned for the film “Eddington” witha six-second video and found out he got thejob over amonth later.His role in the film takes place during aprotest —look for him credited as “Young Man ANTIFA.” As afan of Aster and thefilm company A24, working on a film of this magnitude was a dream cometrue forNaquin. Aster,the director of “Eddington,” is known for his boundary-

STARBOX

Continuedfrom page5C

to show people what real Arabic food tastes like,” Mohammad said.

“Everything here is made from scratch.Everything is fresh.”

The restaurantofﬁcially opened forbusiness on July 4, with hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days aweek at 4353 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd., in Baton Rouge.

Mohammad has lived in Baton Rouge for 11 years. The Palestinian native is also theowner of Family Deals Liquidation andFurniture, withtwo locations in BatonRouge (onFlorida Boulevard and Government Street), one on the West Bank and one in Columbus,Ohio.

He says adisappointing trip to Starbucks inspired the Baton Rouge restaurant’s name.

“Onetime, IgotoStarbucks.I atefalafeland tortilla,aSpanish food,” he said. “WhenItasted the falafel, Isaid, ‘This is not falafel.

He decided he could build a kitchen that made authenticArabic food, including falafel.

“Tomakefalafel,you have to have chickpeas staying in water,

Yousay you are busy?

“Well, when will you be free?” they will ask.

Yousay that the house is not ready forvisitors?

“That’sall right; we don’t expect it to be in perfect shape.”

Yousay you have guests coming? “We’d love to meet them.”

Andsoon. If you don’tsupply material, they can’targue.

Dear Miss Manners: Iwas visiting a dear friend’shome afew days after her husbanddied. While Iwas there, her adult daughter arrived from out of town. Ihad not met her before. We were introduced, and then I said, “I’msorry foryour loss.”

She immediately said, “I hate it when people say that,” and continued to complain about people always saying that. What was Isupposed to say in response? Iwas speechless.

Gentlereader: Good. Because you wouldn’thave wanted to upset

Dear Miss Manners: Iam64years old. My mother insists that when Iamoffered another helping of food, it’srude formetoreply “No, thank you, I’mfull.” She says Ishould just say “No, thank you” and leave it at that because no one wants to know whether I’mfull. If Isay that Iamfull, she frowns and gives me awithering look. In fact, she gives me the same look whenIjust say “No, thank you” because she always thinks I’m going to add that Iamfull.

However,many of my other relatives regularly say that they are full! Is my momright?

Gentle reader: Always. And Miss Manners agrees that picturing your full stomach has abad effect on other people’sappetites.

Sendquestions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mailtoMiss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO 64106.

“Free State of Jones,” and he went to E.D. WhiteCatholic High School with Naquin. He told Naquin that Aranyosi was in New Mexico and that they had to meet Naquin stayed with Aranyosi for his ﬁrst week in town. He credits Aranyosi’s experience withhelping him adjust on location.

“Honestly,without Blane, Idon’t know how Iwould have made it out there,” Naquin said. “Just a lotoftraveling, alot of nights, a lot of different events, costume ﬁttings and going from Albuquerque to Truth or Consequences. If I had to do that alone, Iwould have been lost. So, I’m very thankful for Blane already being there.”

pushing films like “Midsommar,” “Hereditary” and “BeauIs Afraid.” This new ﬁlm is adark action comedy that centers on apolitical rivalry and apolarized small town during the COVID pandemic. LouisianaboysinNew Mexico

Before meeting in NewMexico, Aranyosi and Naquin didn’tknow each other,but after afew weeks ﬁlming in TruthorConsequences, they have bonded forlife. Amutual friend from Thibodeaux, Henry Frost, an actor who has beenMatthew McConaughey’sstand-in, was instrumental in helping the two get to knoweach other in “Eddington.” He met Aranyosi on set of the ﬁlm

cleaningfor two days. We do that. Then, we add the onions, garlic and other spices,” he said. “A lot of people told me they didn’tlike Arabicfood. Itell them that they need to try real Arabic food.”

Regarding the unusual namefor hisrestaurant,Mohammadsaid that he was “looking forsomething

The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival,and Aranyosi bought aticket to France for achance to see it.Hecaught up withthe producers, andtheygot him asuit anda ticket to thescreening. He walked thered carpet, sat in the front row and attendedthe after party withthe cast.

“These guys are like our idols. You’re trying to show them how much they mean to you, but they’re giving it back to you,” Aranyosi said. “Then they’re telling you, like howimportant youare.Itwas so surreal.”

“Eddington” will be released on July 18 in theatersnationwide. Email Joy Holden at joy.holden@ theadvocate.com.

to makeaboom in the city.”

The restaurant also servesa variety of desserts, including Dubai chocolate,crepes,baklava, wafﬂes and more.

“Everything is madefresh in my kitchen,” Mohammad said.

The restaurant has tables inside and adrive-thru.The pitabread is clearlymade from scratch —pillowyandfresh.Thefriedkibbeisexcellent —stuffed with meat and pine nuts. Thegrape leaves are small, but tasty.The gyro, made with the delicious pita, is also awinner

The “gourmet hummus” is enough to feed acrowd andis toppedwithbeef shawarma. The menu is extensive, andnot all items areavailable yet, but allin all, it’sanimpressive start for the restaurant with afunny name. Originally,Mohammad registered the restaurant name “Starbucks Falafel” with the Secretary of State and other required agencies before deciding to change to “Starbox Falafel.”

In acrowdedfood scene, Starbox Falafel is alreadyliving up to its nameand its owner’sdream Email Jan Risheratjan.risher@ theadvocate.com.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

STAFF PHOTO By JANRISHER Falafel, top; fried kibbe, right; and grapeleaveswithtzatzikiare available from Starbox Falafel in Baton Rouge.

PROVIDED PHOTOS

Blane Aranyosi as Joaquin Phoenix’sstand-in on the set of ‘Eddington.’

Kaleb Naquin, on the left,grins withone of hisheroes, director Ari Aster,onthe set of ‘Eddington.’

CANCER (June 21-July 22) You can dream, but don't go overboard. Too much of anything will lead to backtracking. Take your time and consider every angle. Charm trumps aggression, and kindness outmaneuvers intimidation.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Your charismatic presentation will captivate people who can contribute to your success. Personal improvements are evident. Let domestic improvements enhance your professional life.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Choose your confidants cautiously to avoid emotional backlash. Share information with people whohavesimilarconcerns.Avoidpeople trying to convince you that they know what's best for you. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Keep a low profile. The less others know about you and what you're up to, the better. Change begins with you and what you know; learn and practice until you are ready to show off your skills.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) You'll shine at events if you display your talents. An opportunity will develop if you are gracious with your time, talent and advice. Apply what you discover about yourself to your everyday routine.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Hold tight; don't feel obligated to share every detail with everyone you encounter. There is safety in silence when you are trying to get something done without interference.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Engage in events that connect you with people

heading in the same direction. Invest your energy into an outlet that propels you toward your desires. Spend time with someone who makes you shine.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Make your surroundingsmoreconducivetoyourneeds. How you feel in your chosen environment will determine your accomplishments, so strive for peace of mind.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Make a to-do list and get moving. The sooner you rid yourself of the pressure that comes with unfinished business, the more you will enjoy the rewards. Your happiness is your responsibility.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) A change will clear your head and help you envision lifestyle choices. Set a budget and make some necessary cuts. Leave nothing to chance regarding your home, family and finances.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Interact with others, fulfill your promises and let what you do for people lead the way. Less talk and more action will offer hope, boost your reputation and be your calling card.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Trust your instincts, not your emotions. Home improvements or lifestyle changes will brighten your day. Spending time with someone you love will lead to special plans or projects.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

FAMILY CIrCUS

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

TODAy'S CLUE: U EQUALS G

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe peAnUtS zItS

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

nea CroSSwordS La TimeS CroSSword

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS CurTiS

Bridge

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Gioacchino Rossini, an Italian opera composer who died in 1868, said, “One cannot judge ‘Lohengrin’ from afirst hearing, and Icertainly do not intend to hear it asecond time.”

At the bridge table, do not judge adeal totally from your first glance; give it a second look to check that you have not missed something. So, have asecond sliceoftoast this morning. South is in four spades. West leads the heart king and continues withthe heart queen. How shoulddeclarer plan the play?

Pre-empts are apain. South’s sequence shows avery strong four-spade bid, because an immediate four-spade overcallwouldalsobestrong. When you intervene over apre-empt, assume your partner has six or seven points and base your actionsappropriately. So, jumping straighttofourspadessuggestsarounda working20-count.Thissequencepromises more. Here, of course,North couldn’t care less!

South hasnine top tricks: six spades, one diamond and twoclubs. At first glance,heneedstheclubfinessetowork. However,there is asecond chance diamonds might break 3-3.

Afterruffingthesecondheart,declarer shouldcash the spadeace, then play the diamond ace and another diamond. Suppose East winsand leads athird heart.

Declarer ruffs high and plays another diamond. In amoment, South will draw trumps ending withdummy’sspade 10 and cashthe high diamond. But note that if diamonds had split 4-2, theclub finesse wouldstill have been available. For more on thisdeal,tune in tomorrow.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

word game

InsTRucTIons: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3 Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit wordsare not allowed

ToDAY’s WoRD FIEnDIsH: FEEN-dish: Perversely diabolical.

Average mark16words

Time limit 30 minutes

Can you find 24 or morewords in FIENDISH?

YEsTERDAY’s WoRD —cAssoWARY

crass craw cross crow across assay away awry scar scary scow soar sora sway orca wary racy rosy

wuzzles

loCKhorNs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

hidato

mallard fillmore

BUSINESS

17% duty imposed on Mexican tomatoes

The U.S. government said Monday it is placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.

Proponents said the import tax will help rebuild the shrinking U.S. tomato industry and ensure that produce eaten in the U.S. is also grown there. Mexico supplies around 70% of U.S. tomato market, up from 30% two decades ago, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange.

Opponents, including U.S. companies that grow tomatoes in Mexico, said the tariff will make fresh tomatoes more expensive for U.S. buyers. In announcing its withdrawal from the Tomato Suspension Agreement, the Commerce Department said in late April that it had been “flooded with comments” from U.S. tomato growers who wanted better protection from Mexican imports

But others, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association, had called on the Commerce Department to reach an agreement with Mexico.

Ice cream makers to drop artificial dyes

Ice cream makers representing about 90% of the U.S. supply of the frozen treat have pledged to remove artiﬁcial dyes from their products in less than three years, federal health ofﬁcials said Monday

The move is the latest voluntary effort by food manufacturers to heed calls from the Trump administration to remove synthetic dyes over concerns about potential health effects. In recent weeks, companies including Nestle, Kraft Heinz and General Mills said they would pull artificial colors from their foods, too.

“This is a Renaissance moment for health in America,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said at a news conference.

About 40 makers of ice cream and frozen dairy desserts said they would remove seven petroleum-based dyes from their products by 2028, according to Michael Dykes, president of the International Dairy Foods Association.

The colors are Red 3, Red 40, Green 3, Blue 1, Blue 2, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. The trade group wouldn’t identify the ﬁrms, although Turkey Hill Dairy chief executive Andy Jacobs joined the gathering.

Starbucks workers asked to return to HQ

Starbucks is requiring some remote workers to return to its headquarters and increasing the number of days that corporate employees are required to work in an ofﬁce.

In a letter to employees posted Monday, Starbucks Chair and CEO Brian Niccol said corporate employees would need to be in the ofﬁce four days a week starting in early October instead of three days a week.

The Seattle-based company said that all corporate “people leaders” must be based in either Seattle or Toronto within 12 months. That is a change from February, when it required vice presidents to relocate to Seattle or Toronto.

Starbucks said individual employees working under those leaders would not be asked to relocate. But the company said all hiring for future roles and lateral moves will require employees to be based in Seattle or Toronto.

Niccol said affected workers who choose not to relocate will be eligible for a onetime voluntary exit program with a cash payment.

President Donald Trump visits with workers as he tours U.S. Steel Corp.’s Mon Valley Works-Irvin plant in West Mifflin, Pa. Administrations both Republican and Democratic are in agreement that American manufacturers need help.

U.S. manufacturers are stuck in a rut

BY PAUL WISEMAN AP economics writer

WASHINGTON Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much, but they share a conviction that the government should help American manufacturers, one way or another Democratic President Joe Biden handed out subsidies to chipmakers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Republican President Donald Trump is building a wall of import taxes — tariffs — around the U.S. economy to protect domestic industry from foreign competition.

Yet American manufacturing has been stuck in a rut for nearly three years. And it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse itself.

The U.S. Labor Department reports that American factories shed 7,000 jobs in June for the second month in a row Manufacturing employment is on track to drop for the third straight year

The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, reported that manufacturing activity in the United States shrank in June for the fourth straight month. In fact, U.S. factories have been in decline for 30 of the 32 months since October 2022, according to ISM.

“The past three years have been a real slog for manufacturing,” said Eric Hagopian, CEO of Pilot Precision Products, a maker of industrial cutting tools in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. “We didn’t get destroyed like we did in the recession of 2008. But we’ve been in this stagnant, sort of stationary environment.”

Big economic factors contributed to the slowdown: A surge in inﬂation, arising from the unex-

U.S lawmakers focusing on pro-crypto legislation

BY ALAN SUDERMAN AP business writer

Bitcoin continued its rapid climb and hit another all-time high Monday as U.S. lawmakers begin a week focused on passing pro-crypto legislation.

Data from CoinMarketCap showed bitcoin climbed above $123,000 early Monday, up from about $108,000 only a week ago

The world’s oldest and most popular cryptocurrency is currently the ﬁfth-most valuable asset class in the world at $2.4 trillion, giving it a higher market cap than Amazon.

The enthusiasm for bitcoin comes as the U.S. House is set to take up several pieces of cryptocurrency-related legislation in what’s been dubbed “crypto

pectedly strong economic recovery from COVID-19, raised factory expenses and prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. The higher borrowing costs added to the strain. Government policy was meant to help.

Biden’s tax incentives for semiconductor and clean energy production triggered a factory-building boom — investment in manufacturing facilities more than tripled from April 2021 through October 2024 that seemed to herald a coming surge in factory production and hiring. Eventually anyway

But the factory investment spree has faded as the incoming Trump administration launched trade wars and, working with Congress, ended Biden’s subsidies for green energy Now, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, “manufacturing production will continue to ﬂatline.”

“If production is ﬂat, that suggests manufacturing employment will continue to slide,” Zandi said. “Manufacturing is likely to suffer a recession in the coming year.”

Meanwhile, Trump is attempting to protect U.S. manufacturers — and to coax factories to relocate and produce in America by imposing tariffs on goods made overseas. He slapped 50% taxes on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and auto parts, 10% on many other imports.

In some ways, Trump’s tariffs can give U.S. factories an edge. Chris Zuzick, vice president at Waukesha Metal Products, said the Sussex, Wisconsin-based manufacturer is facing stiff competition for a big contract in Texas. A foreign company offers much lower prices. But “when you throw the tariff

on, it gets us closer,” Zuzick said “So that’s definitely a situation where it’s beneﬁcial.”

But American factories import and use foreign products, too — machinery, chemicals, raw materials like steel and aluminum. Taxing those inputs can drive up costs and make U.S. producers less competitive in world markets.

Consider steel. Trump’s tariffs don’t just make imported steel more expensive. By putting the foreign competition at a disadvantage, the tariffs allow U.S. steelmakers to raise prices and they have. U.S.-made steel was priced at $960 per metric ton as of June 23 more than double the world export price of $440 per ton, according to industry monitor SteelBenchmarker In fact, U.S. steel prices are so high that Pilot Precision Products has continued to buy the steel it needs from suppliers in Austria and France — and pay Trump’s tariff.

Trump has also created considerable uncertainty by repeatedly tweaking and rescheduling his tariffs. Just before new import taxes were set to take effect on dozens of countries on July 9, for example, the president pushed the deadline back to Aug. 1 to allow more time for negotiation with U.S. trading partners.

The ﬂip-ﬂops have left factories, suppliers and customers bewildered about where things stand. Manufacturers voiced their complaints in the ISM survey: “Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,” a fabricated metal products company said.

“Tariffs continue to cause confusion and uncertainty for long-term procurement decisions,” added a computer and electronics ﬁrm.

Wall Street holds near its record amid tariff doubts

BY STAN CHOE AP business writer

NEW YORK U.S. stock indexes hung near their records on Monday following President Donald Trump’s latest updates to his tariffs, as speculation continues on Wall Street that he may ultimately back down on them.

The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% to pull within 0.2% of its all-time high set on Thursday The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 88 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3% to

were

week” in Congress. Lawmakers have been under pressure from President Donald Trump and the big-spending crypto lobby to pass legislation quickly That includes a bill passed last month by the Senate that would regulate a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins. The House is also set to take up a cryptocurrency market structure legislation that is far more sweeping. Trump, once a skeptic of the industry, has vowed in his second term to make the U.S. the global capital of crypto. Meanwhile, he and his family have moved aggressively into nearly every corner of the industry: mining operations, billion-dollar bitcoin purchases, a newly minted stablecoin and a Trump-branded meme coin. The crypto industry has rapidly become a major player in Washington after feeling unfairly targeted by the Biden administration. The industry spent huge amounts on last year’s elections and has been spending heavily on

lobbying and other inﬂuence efforts this year

Bitcoin has seen a signiﬁcant rebound since April, when it brieﬂy dipped below $75,000.

Spot bitcoin ETFs are becoming increasingly popular since launching last year and several publicly traded companies have made using debt and stock sales to buy bitcoin their primary business strategy Created in response to the 2008 ﬁnancial crisis, bitcoin has taken a highly volatile path to mainstream acceptance. Its backers say the asset is like a “digital gold” that can act as a hedge against central bank and government malfeasance. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created.

“Bitcoin’s price is ﬁnally catching up to what’s been building under the surface,” said Adam Back, CEO of the crypto company Blockstream. “This is institutional demand aligning with bitcoin’s fundamentals, and a ﬁxed supply doing what it was designed to do.”

elsewhere around the

in their

rst

after Trump announced plans over the

for 30% tariffs on goods from

and the

They won’t take effect until Aug. 1, the same deadline that Trump announced last week for updated tax rates on imports from Japan, South Korea and a dozen other countries The latest postponements for Trump’s tariffs allow more time for him to reach trade deals with other countries that could lower the tariff rates and prevent pain for international trade. They also feed into speculation that Trump may ultimately back down on his tariffs if they end up creating too much damage for the economy and for ﬁnancial markets. If Trump were to enact all his proposed tariffs on Aug. 1, they would raise the risk of a recession. That would not only hurt U.S voters but also raise the pressure on the U.S. government’s debt level relative to the economy’s size, particularly after Washington approved big tax cuts that will add to the deﬁcit.

“We therefore believe that the administration is using this latest round of tariff escalation to maximize its negotiating leverage and that it will ultimately de-escalate, especially if there is a new bout of heightened bond and stock market volatility,” according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.

“As usual, there are many conditions and clauses that can get these rates reduced,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “That’s probably why the market might not like the tariff talk, but it’s not panicking about it either.” For the time being, all the uncertainty around tariffs could help keep markets unsteady This upcoming week has several potential ﬂashpoints that could shake things.

On Tuesday will come the latest reading on inﬂation across the United States. Economists expect it to show inﬂation accelerated to 2.6% last month from 2.4% in May

Companies are also lining up to report how they performed during the spring. JPMorgan Chase and several other huge banks will report their latest quarterly results on Tuesday followed by Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday and PepsiCo on Thursday Fastenal, a distributor of industrial and construction supplies, on Monday reported a stronger proﬁt for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock rose 4.2%, though it also said that market conditions remain sluggish Shares of Kenvue rose 2.2% after the former division of Johnson & Johnson said CEO Thibaut Mongon is stepping down. Kenvue, the maker of Listerine and Band-Aid brands, is in the midst of a strategic review of its options, “including ways to simplify the company’s portfolio and how it operates,” according to Larry Merlo, the board’s chair Waters slumped 13.8% after saying it had agreed to merge with Becton, Dickinson and Co.’s biosciences and diagnostic solutions business in a deal valued at roughly $17.5 billion. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.42% from 4.43% late Friday In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe. Germany’s DAX lost 0.4%,

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON