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UL VS. RICE: CAJUNS

Lafayette may keep coal plant running

Officials looking to cash in on high energy demand from AI, data centers

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

Lafayette officials and their partners in a coal-fired electric generating plant northwest of Alexandria are considering extending its life beyond the scheduled 2027 closure date to increase reliability and possibly cash in on the increasing demand for electricity from data centers and artiﬁcial intelligence.

Power Authority, which includes Lafayette and other cities, owns 20%.

The Lafayette Public Power Authority, a component unit of Lafayette Consolidated Government created to generate, buy and sell electric power to the Lafayette Utilities System and others, is 50% owner of the Rodemacher II plant in Boyce. Cleco, the operator owns 30%, and the Louisiana Energy and

The owners planned to retire Rodemacher II by the end of 2027 because federal environmental rules are tightening on the use of coal. Converting the plant to burn natural gas and to comply with Efﬂuent Limit Guidelines for handling coal ash would be costly

Based on the market four to ﬁve years ago, Lafayette Utilities System Director Jeffrey Stewart said, it would cost too much to convert Rodemacher II, so it was decided to retire the plant.

To make up for electricity Lafayette would lose with closing Rodemacher, ofﬁcials decided to build a new generating plant in Lafayette to replace the old Bonin plant on Walker Road. But eight to 10 months ago, Stewart said, the energy market changed. As old generating units were retired, less electricity became available. Cleco approached him about not shutting down Rodemacher II. Meanwhile, the timeline for replacing the Bonin plant was delayed because of the high demand from utilities looking to buy

Residents can return, but pollution remains

Amid cleanup after Tangipahoa plant explosion, authorities say danger has passed

BY DAVID J MITCHELL, WILLIE SWETT and MARCO CARTOLANO Staff writers

Three days after a lubricants plant in Roseland blew up and turned into a raging fire, forcing nearly 1,000 people to flee, local officials eased a 1-mile evacuation zone as firefighters brought the blaze nearly completely under control.

Crews also worked Monday to keep oily residue from Smitty’s Supply Inc. from flowing down the Tangipahoa

River and into Lake Pontchartrain, with around 5,900 feet of boom deployed in total. Soot still covered areas of the town and the air smelled of oil and grease.

Gov. Jeff Landry traveled to nearby Amite to meet with local ofﬁcials in the aftermath of the fire, which covered around 20 acres. There have been no injuries or deaths from the incident, and the State Fire Marshal along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will investigate the cause, which remained unclear

“From what I have been told, from

what I can see, there really is no imminent danger to any life or property, other than we have to clean up a big mess,” Landry said at a news conference on Monday afternoon in Amite.

Asked about health concerns from people who swim and fish in the Tangipahoa River, Landry said, “What we’ve seen so far does not indicate there is any danger or immediate danger to wildlife or human health.”

While oily substances and soot still covered much of the surrounding area, life slowly began returning to normal

in the small rural town in Tangipahoa Parish Some residents who evacuated started returning home and the Roseland Montessori School planned to reopen Tuesday The evacuation, initially extending to a mile radius, was reduced to a more compact area closest to the plant on Monday, though sections of major highways through the town remained closed, including U.S. 51. The blaze was 98% contained on

ä See POLLUTION, page 6A

N.O. lizards carry record lead levels

Study finds concentrations that would kill humans

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

The brown lizards scampering on New Orleans porches and sunning themselves on sidewalks should be dead by any other standard.

That’s because the Cuban brown anoles live with the highest blood lead levels ever documented in a vertebrate, according to a Tulane Univer-

sity study published this month. Despite lead concentrations that would kill humans and other animals, the reptiles thrive, darting across fences and blending into the city’s leafy yards. What started out as an effort to assess the impact on animals of high levels of lead in New Orleans took a turn when the scientists discovered just how high the levels are, shocking the researchers so much they repeated the initial test, thinking there might have been a mistake.

“I don’t think anyone would have assumed lizards would be rockstar heavy metal-tolerant animals, but here we are,” said Alex Gunderson, assistant

professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane and a co-author of the study

The study, published in Environmental Research, found that lizards caught across the city averaged nearly 1,000 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood, with one animal topping 3,000. By comparison, health effects in people appear well below 100, and there is no safe level of exposure. In a person, the levels of lead the lizards would mean they were “probably dead,” said Gunderson. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that damages brains,

ä See LIZARDS, page 4A

STAFF FILE PHOTO By By CHRIS GRANGER

A new Tulane University study has found the Cuban brown anoles in New Orleans live with the highest blood-lead levels ever documented in a vertebrate.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

A boom helps stop oil and residue from a Friday explosion at Smitty’s Supply from floating down the Tangipahoa River on Monday

Trump fires Fed

Governor Lisa Cook

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump fired Federal Reserve

Governor Lisa Cook late Monday a sharp escalation in his battle to exert greater control over what has long been considered an institution independent from day-to-day politics.

Trump said in a letter posted on his Truth Social platform that he is ﬁring Cook because of allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, made the accusations last week Pulte alleged that Cook had claimed two primary residences — in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta — in 2021 to get better mortgage terms. Mortgage rates are often higher on second homes or those purchased to rent. The announcement came days after Cook said she wouldn’t leave her post despite Trump previously calling for her to resign The Fed’s board has seven members, meaning Trump’s move could have deep economic and political ramiﬁcations.

Trump said in announcing the move that he had the constitutional authority to remove Cook, but doing so will raise questions about control of the Fed as an independent entity.

Envoy: Officials working hard to end Ukraine war

KYIV, Ukraine President Donald Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg said in Kyiv on Monday that ofﬁcials are “working very, very hard” on efforts to end the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine, as a lack of progress fuels doubts about whether a peace settlement could be on the horizon.

Ofﬁcials are “hoping to get to a position where, in the near term, we have, with a lack of a better term, security guarantees” that address Ukraine’s fears of another invasion by Russia in the future, Kellogg said.

“That’s a work in progress,” Kellogg said of the potential security guarantees after attending Ukraine’s annual National Prayer Breakfast along with politicians, business leaders and diplomats.

A week ago, Trump said he had set in motion arrangements for direct peace talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy But Russian ofﬁcials have signaled that such a summit won’t happen any time soon. Trump said Friday he expects to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks aren’t scheduled Lil Nas X pleads not guilty to attacking police

LOS ANGELES Lil Nas X was charged Monday with four felonies after police say he charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down a Los Angeles street last week, prosecutors announced.

The musician, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, pleaded not guilty in a court appearance to three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer the District Attorney’s Office said.

The charges were far more serious than initial reports that he was being investigated for a misdemeanor, and, with convictions, the counts could collectively bring a sentence of more than 10 years in prison for the singer and rapper whose “Old Town Road” was one of the biggest hit singles in history Police said officers found the 26-year-old walking naked on Ventura Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the Studio City neighborhood, shortly before 6 a.m. Friday They say he charged at the officers when confronted and was arrested. Police, suspecting a possible overdose, took him to a hospital where he spent several hours before being taken to jail, where he has remained since. He was being held on $75,000 bail, conditional on attending drug treatment. It’s not immediately clear whether he had posted it and been released yet. A message to his attorney, Christy O’Connor was not immediately answered.

Israel strikes Gaza hospital twice

At least 20 killed, including journalists and rescuers

BY WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and SAM METZ Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip Israel

struck one of the main hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Monday and then hit the facility again as journalists and rescue workers rushed to the scene, killing at least 20 people and wounding scores more, local health workers said.

It was among the deadliest of several Israeli strikes that have hit both hospitals and journalists over the course of the 22-month war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and the assault came as Israel plans to widen its offensive to heavily populated areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ofﬁce said the strike on Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis was a “tragic mishap” and that the military was investigating.

Israeli media reported that troops ﬁred two artillery shells, targeting what they suspected was a Hamas surveillance camera on the roof

The Reuters news agency said one of its reporters, who was operating a live television shot, was killed in the ﬁrst strike, citing hospital ofﬁcials.

It was not clear if he was the target. Reporters from different outlets had regularly set up live shots

army does not target civilians and had launched an internal investigation into the strikes. He accused Hamas of hiding among civilians but did not say whether Israel believed any militants were present during the strikes on the hospital.

Netanyahu’s statement said: “Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians.”

The U.N. secretary-general, along with Britain, France and others, condemned the attack. When asked about the strike, President Donald Trump initially said he was not aware of it before offering: “I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it.”

at that location. The ﬁrst strike hit an upper ﬂoor housing operating rooms and doctors’ residences, killing at least two people, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the records department at the Gaza Health Ministry

The second strike hit an external stairwell as rescuers and journalists raced to the scene of the ﬁrst, killing another 18. Around 80 people were wounded, including many in the hospital’s courtyard, al-Waheidi said.

Among those killed was 33-yearold Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who had worked for The Associated Press. Dagga regularly

reported for multiple outlets from the hospital, including a recent story for the AP on doctors struggling to save children from starvation.

The strike killed three other journalists who worked for Al Jazeera, Reuters and Middle East Eye, a U.K.-based media outlet, most on a contractor or freelance basis.

Video shot from across the street by pan-Arab channel Al Ghad showed people climbing the external stairwell just after the ﬁrst strike, past walls with chunks shorn off — followed by the boom of the second strike, a huge plume of smoke and a heap of wreckage.

Brig. Gen. Efﬁe Defrin, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the

Trump, South Korean leader

President’s warning turns to warm welcome after flattery

BY SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

WASHINGTON President

Donald Trump took to social media before meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday to threaten not to do business with Seoul because of a “purge or revolution” that he claimed was taking place in the country

But any prospect of a hostile Oval Office meeting evaporated after Lee heaped praise onto the U.S president — lauding the décor, beseeching Trump to continue to help with Korean peace efforts and even suggesting a Trump Tower in North Korea.

“We’ve known each other and gotten along very well,” Trump said. After running down the agenda for the summit, Trump added: “It’s a great honor to be with you and congratulations on your election. That was a big one,

and we’re with you 100%.”

The cordial display showed how world leaders are taking notes from previous meetings between Trump and heads of state, who’ve largely chosen the route of praise and adulation rather than confrontation as they seek favorable trade terms and continued military aid from Washington. It was one of the ﬁrst big foreign policy tests for Lee, who took over a country in a state of political turmoil since its former leader, Yoon Suk Yeol, was ousted from office after imposing martial law Lee, elected in June, began by praising one of

Trump’s pet projects: presidential interior design.

“I heard that you recently redecorated the Oval Ofﬁce, and I would like to say that it looks very bright and beautiful,” Lee said through an interpreter “It has the dignity of America, and it symbolizes the new future and prosperity of America.”

He noted that the Dow Jones index has reached record highs (although Lee made sure to add the caveat that “it went down a bit”) and asked Trump, who has been on a mission to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, to reunify the two Koreas and even

Trump moves to ban flag burning despite court ruling allowing it

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order requiring the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute people for burning the American ﬂag, an activity that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is legitimate political expression protected by the U.S. Constitution.

The order the Republican president signed in the Oval Ofﬁce acknowledged the court’s 5-4 ruling in a case from Texas in 1989, but said there is still room to prosecute ﬂag burning if it “is likely to incite imminent lawless action” or amounts to “fighting words.”

“You burn a ﬂag, you get one year in jail. You don’t get 10 years, you don’t get one month,” Trump said.

“You get one year in jail,

and it goes on your record, and you will see ﬂag burning stopping immediately.”

The order also called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue litigation to challenge the 1989 ruling, an attempt by Trump to get the issue back in front of the Supreme Court. Today’s Supreme Court is much more conservative than the makeup of the court in 1989 and includes three judges Trump appointed in his ﬁrst term Civil liberties advocates and constitutional scholars questioned both the legality and the merit of Trump’s action. A lawyer working for a free speech group said Trump does not have the power to rewrite the First Amendment “While people can be prosecuted for burning anything in a place they aren’t allowed to set ﬁres, the government can’t prosecute protected expressive

activity — even if many Americans, including the president, ﬁnd it ‘uniquely offensive and provocative,’” added Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

In the 1989 case, the justices ruled 5-4 that the First Amendment protects ﬂag burning as legitimate political expression. The late Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative icon whom Trump has repeatedly praised, was in the majority On Monday, Trump described the 1989 court behind the ruling as a “very sad court.”

Trump said burning the U.S. flag “incites riots at levels we’ve never seen before,” with some people “going crazy” over the act of setting it aﬁre and others expressing anger at people for burning it. He did not offer examples.

Trump later said he thought there might be a “conclusive ending” in Gaza in the coming weeks, without elaborating. It was not clear if he was referring to Israel’s coming offensive or to long-running ceaseﬁre talks.

Israel has attacked hospitals multiple times throughout the war, asserting that Hamas embeds itself in and around the facilities, though Israeli ofﬁcials rarely provide evidence. Hamas security personnel have been seen inside such facilities during the war, and parts of those sites have been off limits to the public.

The hospitals that remain open have been overwhelmed by the dead, wounded and now by increasing numbers of malnourished as parts of Gaza are experiencing famine.

meet at White House

perhaps see the construction of a Trump Tower in North Korea accompanied by a round of golf Lee also agreed with Trump’s assertion that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would not have continued to enhance his nuclear capabilities the last few years had Trump remained in ofﬁce.

Noting a “renaissance” that is taking place, Lee said “I believe you are the only leader who has made such accomplishments.”

The tone was a far cry from Trump’s confrontational social media post earlier Monday He later elaborated that he was referring to raids on churches and on a U.S military base by the new South Korean government, which they “probably

shouldn’t have done.”

“I heard bad things,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday morning. “I don’t know if it’s true or not. I’ll be finding out.” Trump did not identify specific raids. But earlier this month, South Korean police conducted a raid on a church led by a conservative activist pastor who authorities allege is connected to a proYoon protest in January that turned violent, according to Yonhap news agency A special prosecutor’s team that is investigating corruption allegations against Yoon’s wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, also raided the facilities of the Unification Church after allegations that one of its officials gave Kim luxury goods.

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PHOTO PROVIDED By FAMILy OF MARIAM DAGGA

Riyad Dagga, surrounded by relatives and friends, prays over the body of his daughter freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, during her funeral Monday after she was killed in a Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan younis, Gaza Strip.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO ByALEX BRANDON President Donald Trump, right, meets with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.

Abrego Garcia faces new deportation efforts

ICE detains him in Baltimore

BY BRIAN WITTE, TRAVIS LOLLER, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and BEN FINLEY Associated Press

BALTIMORE Kilmar Abrego

Garcia, whose case has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s aggressive effort to remove noncitizens from the U.S., was detained by immigration authorities in Baltimore on Monday to face renewed efforts to deport him after a brief period of freedom.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys quickly ﬁled a lawsuit to ﬁght his deportation until a court has heard his claim for protection, stating that the U.S. could place him in a country where “his safety cannot be assured.”

The lawsuit triggered a blanket court order that automatically pauses deportation efforts for two days The order applies to immigrants in Maryland who are challenging their detention.

Within hours of Abrego Garcia’s detention, his lawyers spoke with Department of Justice attorneys and a federal judge in Maryland, who warned Abrego Garcia

cannot be removed from the U.S “at this juncture” because he must be allowed to exercise his constitutional right to contest deportation.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said overlapping court orders temporarily prohibit the government from removing Abrego Garcia, and that she would extend her own temporary restraining order barring his deportation.

Drew Ensign, a Justice Department attorney, told the judge that Abrego Garcia’s “removal is not imminent” and that the process often

takes time.

Abrego Garcia, a 30-yearold Maryland construction worker and Salvadoran national, spoke at a rally before he turned himself in.

“This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us,” Abrego Garcia said, speaking through a translator “God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”

Roughly 200 people gathered, prayed and crowded around Abrego Garcia while

he walked into the offices for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore, where he was detained When his lawyer and wife walked out without him, the crowd yelled “Shame!” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that Abrego Garcia “will no longer terrorize our country.”

Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland for years with his American wife and children, and worked in construction

He was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador because the Trump administration believed he was a member of the MS-13 gang, an allegation that Abrego Garcia denies. His removal violated an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that shielded him from deportation to his native country because he had “well-founded fear” of threats by a gang there.

Abrego Garcia’s wife sued to bring him back. Facing a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned him in June. He was subsequently charged in Tennessee with human smuggling. He has pleaded not guilty and asked a judge to dismiss the case on ground of vindictive prosecution.

The allegations stem from a 2022 trafﬁc stop in Tennessee for speeding. Abrego Garcia was driving with nine passengers in the car, and officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. He was allowed to continue driving with a warning.

The Trump administration has said it wants to deport

Abrego Garcia before his trial, alleging he is a danger to the community and an MS13 gang member A federal judge in Tennessee determined that Abrego Garcia was not a ﬂight risk or a danger He was released from jail Friday afternoon and returned to his family in Maryland.

Video released by advocates of the reunion showed a room decorated with streamers, flowers and signs. He embraced loved ones and thanked them “for everything.” Federal officials argue Abrego Garcia can be deported because he came to the U.S. illegally and that the immigration judge’s 2019 ruling deemed him eligible for expulsion, just not to his native El Salvador Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s lead immigration attorney, told reporters Monday that Abrego Garcia is being held in a detention facility in Virginia.

Trump administration ofﬁcials have said Abrego Garcia could be sent to the East African nation of Uganda, which recently agreed to take deportees from the U.S., provided they do not have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors.

Schools reopen in D.C. with parents on edge over armed patrols

BY MARK SHERMAN, ASHRAF KHALIL and SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press

WASHINGTON Public schools reopened Monday in the nation’s tense capital with parents on edge over the presence in their midst of thousands of National Guard troops — some now armed — and large scatterings of federal law enforcement ofﬁcers carrying out President Donald Trump’s orders to make the District of Columbia a safer place. Even as Trump started talking about other cities and again touted a drop in crime that he attributed to his extraordinary effort to take over policing in Washington,

D.C., the district’s mayor was lamenting the effect of Trump’s actions on children.

“Parents are anxious. We’ve heard from a lot of them,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference, noting that some might keep their children out of school because of immigration concerns.

“Any attempt to target children is heartless, is mean, is uncalled for and it only hurts us,” she said. I would just call for everybody to leave our kids alone.”

As schools opened across the capital city, parental social media groups and listservs were buzzing with reports and rumors of checkpoints and arrests.

The week began with some

patrolling National Guard units now carrying ﬁrearms. The change stemmed from a directive issued late last week by his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Armed National Guard troops from Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee were seen around the city Monday But not every patrol appears to be carrying weapons. An Associated Press photographer said the roughly 30 troops he saw on the National Mall on Monday morning were unarmed.

Armed Guard members in Washington will be operating under long-standing rules for the use of military force inside the U.S., the military task force overseeing all the troops deployed to D.C. said

Monday Those rules, broadly, say that while troops can use force, they should do so only “in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm” and “only as a last resort.”

The task force has directed questions on why the change was necessary to Hegseth’s office. Those officials have declined to answer those questions. Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday Hegseth said that it was common sense to arm them because it meant they were

“capable of defending themselves and others.”

Among their duties is picking up trash, the task force said, though it’s unclear how much time they will spend doing that.

Bowser reiterated her opposition to the National Guard’s presence “I don’t believe that troops should be policing American cities,” she said.

Trump is considering expanding the deployments to other Democratic-led cities, including Baltimore, Chi-

cago and New York, saying the situations in those cities require federal action. In Washington, his administration says more than 1,000 people have been arrested since Aug. 7, including 86 on Sunday

“We took hundreds of guns away from young kids, who were throwing them around like it was candy We apprehended scores of illegal aliens. We seized dozens of illegal ﬁrearms. There have been zero murders,” Trump said Monday

BY MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press

NEW YORK Former Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael

“El Mayo” Zambada pleaded guilty Monday to U.S. drug trafficking charges, saying he was sorry for helping ﬂood the U.S. with cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances and for fueling deadly violence in Mexico.

“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States, of Mexico, and elsewhere,” he said through a Spanishlanguage interpreter “I take responsibility for my role in all of it and I apologize to everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions.” Under Zambada’s leadership and that of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Sinaloa cartel evolved from a regional player into the largest drug trafﬁcking organization in the world, prosecutors say “Culpable,” Zambada said, using the Spanish word for “guilty,” as he entered his plea in a Brooklyn courtroom, about 2,200 mile from Mexico’s Sinaloa state. He acknowledged the ex-

tent of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, oversaw importing cocaine to Mexico by boat and plane and smuggling the drug across the U.S.-Mexico border He acknowledged that people working for him paid bribes to Mexican police and military commanders “so they could operate freely.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi heralded Zambada’s guilty plea as a “landmark victory” and said he “will die in a U.S federal prison, where he belongs.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH Kilmar Abrego Garcia, center and his brother Cesar Abrego Garcia, left, arrive Monday at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore.

Shown

Continued from page 1A

Monday,but myriad environmentalconcernspersisted.The contents of the soot were being tested by environmental regulators, but results were not yet available. Cars in town, as well as the shoulders of U.S. 51 headed north to Smitty’s, still had blacksooton them.ADollar General store had soot covering the bottom half of its sign.

While the full evacuation zone was still in place Sunday night, about 75 people stayed overnight in two hotels, officialssaid. Only seven homes in Roselandcould no longer be accessed on Monday Afew miles south of Smitty’s,a man returned to his house tofind theglasses andplates he hadon sale in his yard filled with an oily, black water.Onthe other side of Roseland, afew miles east of Smitty’s, Jaden Armstrong was pressure-washing soot-covered slides and swings at the playground outside Mt. Canaan Baptist Church.

“Everybody’scleaningup,”Armstrong said.

Roseland Montessori School was evacuated Friday,but federal authorities have now confirmed air quality in and around it is clear,parish officialssaid. Crews alsohave cleaned sidewalks, walkways and driveways,aswell as inside campus buildings, school officials added. Outdoorareas, including playgrounds, have beensanitized.Airconditioningand heating systems have been checked and serviced to ensure indoor air quality and bottled water will be available for students and staff, school officials said.

“Everysafety precaution has been taken to ensurethatstudents are in asafe learning environment,” school officials said in a Facebook post.

The following streets remained closed Monday:

n La.10fromU.S.51toEastRussell Town Road

n U.S. 51 from La.1048toNorth Street

n La. 1048 from U.S. 51 to Mt. Gillion Church Road.

Alternate routes for commercial vehicles included:

n La. 10 west to La. 1058 north

n La. 10 east to U.S. 51 Southat Purina Mill.

‘Never seen anything like this’

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other officials

were grappling withthe spill of unknown chemicals and hydrocarbons into ditches, ponds and the Tangipahoa River

Ofﬁcials announced an emergency closure of the river on Sunday evening. Atotal of 100,000 gallons of material had been recovered so far,anEPA ofﬁcial said.

State Department of EnvironmentalQuality photosalsoshowed alarge private pond next to the river with oily contamination.

Smitty’shas theabilitytostore 8.7 million gallons of flammable liquids and chemicals, including motoroil, lubricantsand lighter ﬂuid, state regulatory papers say

Officials have not said what was at theplant at the time of the fire. Attempts to reach company officials have beenunsuccessful.

At aprivatelyrun day camp at Serenity Sands beach off the Tangipahoa River on Monday, Matthew Allen, director of the environmentalgroup Northshore River Watch,took asample of water in ajar

“I’ve never seen anything like this on oneofour local rivers,” he said. Speaking of the plant, he said: “It looks like they need abet-

ter emergency plan with respect to theriver.”

He pointed tothe thick layer of oil on the water’s surface over 10 miles downriverfromthe plant. Above Allen,crews stood on the La.40bridge over the riversucking oil off the top.Orange boom material was in place just south of the bridge to stop the ﬂow of oil. Allennoted theplant had aleak in 2022 that required boom in the river then.

“Wejust want tosee it cleaned up as best we canand learnhow to not let it happen again,” he said. Neighbor’s lawsuits

TheU.S.Occupational Safety andHealth Administration has opened an investigation into the explosionatthe complexthatemploysabout 450 people.Ithas six monthstocomplete its inspection, OSHA spokespersonJuan Rodriguez said.

Smitty’s has runafoul of OSHA over thepastdecade with twoinjuriesand one fatality since 2017, amassing morethan $58,000 in ﬁnes. The plant has been thefocus of regular scrutiny from regulators,

including over spills of various chemicals that have madeitoffsite andinto the river, state andfederal papers say The 112-acre Brickyard Farms tree farm next door has often been on the receiving endofthe plant’s spills, DEQ and legal papers show Owners of the farm since1990, the Chollette family,ofBaton Rouge,havesuedSmitty’sthree times over alleged spills since 2015. One member of thefamily, Neal Chollette Jr said Monday that the latestspill hascontaminated his property again, including one of his ponds.

Chollette said he metwith EPA officials Sunday to discuss waysto block off the flow of runoff from Smitty’s andprevent it from continuing to flowintothe nearby Tangipahoa River Thesuits citeDEQ documentation that have included admissions from Smitty’s, including for the most recentlawsuitfiledinJuly That suit cited agency papers in whichthe company told DEQa sizeablespill waspreventable, legal papers show. Beau Brock, the Chollettes’ lawyer,said in an interview,“our clients have had

enough.”

Drainage routes fromSmitty’s to the Tangipahoa runs through the Chollettes’ property and its pond. The river also passes through the property

“Weare anticipating that there may be morecontamination based on past events,” Brock said Saturday

Citing DEQrecords and Smitty’s ownself-reporting, the Chollettes accused the plant in itslatest suit of spilling of 950gallons of hydraulicﬂuidinJuly2024after a line burst.

The onsitecontainment system couldn’tkeep the fluid at bayand heavy rains worsened the release by overwhelming oil separating equipment, allowing it to reach the Chollettes’ property and pond. About amonth later,ascleanup and testing was finishing, yellow dye also escaped from theplant and wound up in the Chollettes’ pond again, giving it “an eerie fluorescent green color,” the suit claims.

The company admitted both spills to DEQ, but said the dye was nontoxicand off-sitecleanup was limited.

JanRisher

LOUISIANAAT LARGE

Saving bees onehive at atime

Kevin Langleyisaman on a mission —tosave bees,one hive at atime.

Truth be told, he’sonmultiple missions, but Ijoined him in helpingtorescue and move alarge beehive from atree limb.

If you’re curious, bee colonies rarely settle on exposed tree limbs. Langley suspects back in March, the bees got caughtin the rain or something else and, for whatever reasons, latched on to the tree in acul-de-sac in the sprawling Jefferson Place Condominiums in the Bocage area of Baton Rouge.

When Iarrived, Langley had extensive scaffolding set upto reach the limb about 25 feet off the ground Langley grew up in Baton Rouge butspent years traveling the world trying to make it abetter place, working with people in other countries to create safer environments. He also hasowned acommercial constructioncompany

One day,about 20 years ago, he was in Geneva and got aphone call from his wife in Baton Rouge saying there was abeehivenear their backdoor.Langley and his wife were parents to preschoolage triplets.

“The kids were runningaround and it’skind of dangerous—orat least she thought it was,” he said. “I said, ‘Look, Ican’tdomuch when I’m overseas.Can you ﬁnd someone to take care of it?’” Apest control company came out and killed the bees.

When Langley got home ,the chemicals the company used to kill the bees were above the backdoor of his home, where his kids were playing.

“My joke is that Iwas outtrying to save the world, but Icouldn’t even do it in my own backyard,” he said. “Now Ihad achemical spill Ihad to deal with because thosechemicals last for eightto 10 years and my kids are on the back porch playing. So Ikind of made avow myself that anybody that needed help rescue bees, I would help.”

That moment changed him. Since then, Langley has been a walking, talking save-the-beesand-our-food-system evangelist —passionate to explainthe importanceofbees to the Louisiana ecosystem.

“Like the California almond pollination, there’s tens of thousands of acres of almonds and each individual almond has to be pollinated by an individual bee,” he said.“So with no bees, no almonds.” No apples. No blueberries. No cherries. No cucumbers. No pumpkins. No squash. No avocados. No cashews. Plus many other plants Within minutes, Iwas readyto join Langley on his mission. Ialready knew that bees matter,but this man is inspiring Not only is Langleyanurban beekeeper.Healso rescues and relocates bees and educates people about the importance of bees. These days, he has 13 bee yards in the BatonRouge area. He’salso the president of the Capital Area Beekeepers Association

We chatted for about 10 minutes before he gave me abeekeeping jacket and mask to put on, as he put one on, too. He explained that he planned to cut the limb, which was tied to arope. He asked me to stand on the ground beneath the hive and hold the rope so that when he cut the limb, it wouldn’t fall to the ground. He uses his backgroundinconstruction to have the right equipment and gear to save the bees. Atop his platform perch, Langley had placed abrood box, which he planned to lower thehive into and seal it up.

The 60-year-old Langley scamperedupthe scaffolding where

Stateenergychief stepsdown

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

Tyler Gray,the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources, is stepping down on Sept. 2, state ofﬁcials announced Monday

DeputySecretary Dustin Davidson will take over as secretary.Stephen Swiber,the state’s chief resilience officer,will move from theGovernor’sOffice to fill the deputy secretary position, the

agencysaid in a memo to employees. “Dustinhas been invaluable in hisservice as deputy to the department, always ready to step in and move us forward,” Gray saidina statement “He will be an outstanding leader, andStephen will bring the intellectual curiosity andprofession-

alismneededtocontinue reﬁning the work we’ve built together for Louisiana.”

Gov.Jeff Landry appointed Gray to head up DENR in January 2024, as part of the governor’s newadministration. Over multiple legislative sessions, Gray successfully pushed for legislation reorganizing the agency Havingushered in such changes,Graysaid it was time for him to let new leadership take over

“I am deeply grateful to Gov

Landry forthe trust he placed in me to lead this department through ahistoric reorganization,”hesaid. “Together, we built astrong foundationand seta clear direction forthe future.”

Now, it will be up to Davidson to shepherd the agency following its overhaul.

In astatement, Davidson thanked Gray forhis leadership.

“Having worked with him closely in the efforts to reorganize this agency andmodernizeits approach to industry regulation and

TOPBILLING

LCGgrantsoffer

Counseling andassistance programs address numerous issues

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

First-time buyers andlongtime homeowners alikecontinue to face obstacles tostable housing. Rising interest rates, higher insurancecosts and expensive repairs cause hardship for many families

To address these challenges, the Lafayette Consolidated Government forthe past decade has offered arangeofhousing counseling and assistance programs through its Community Development andPlanning Department,

speciﬁcally known as the Jessie Livingston Taylor Center for Housingand CommunityServices. ForLafayetteresidentGeraldine Decuir,her home hasalways been more thana place to live. She andher husband built their Lafayette house fromthe ground up in the 1970s,hoping it would be alasting family legacy But over time, thehouse hasbeguntoshow its age. Roof damage, electrical problems andother unexpected repairspiledup. Now elderly,battling cancerand living on Social Securitybeneﬁts, Decuir found herselffacing choices no homeownerwants to make “Itwas stressful on me every time something new broke,” shesaid. “Itleftmewonder-

ABOVE: Darrell Arabie, left,talks abouthis handmadeduckcalls with Chad Brown during theGueydan Duck Festival on Saturday on thefestival grounds in Vermilion Parish. LEFT: Jeanne Landry, left, helpsher daughter Evelyn Landry, theBreauxBridge Crawﬁsh Festival’sLil’ MissPincher,5,with hersashbefore theduck festival openingceremonies.

PHOTO PROVIDED By LAFAyETTE CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENT Geraldine Decuir,center,returns to her newly renovated home, celebrating with John Lews, left, and Belle Leblanc.Decuir received help throughthe Housing Rehabilitation Grant Program.

STAFFPHOTOSByBRAD BOWIE

ä See GRAY, page 4B

Gray

OPINION

Don’tforget what’s at stakein search fornew LSUpresident

The search for anew LSU president began in earnest last week with the naming of aconsultanttovet candidatesfor the top job at the state’sﬂagship university. Thesearch committee says it hopes to have adecision by December.While we are happy to see asense of urgency in ﬁlling this vacancy,wewould also hopethe committee and all the LSU community take the time to understand fully what the university needs at this juncture.

LSU is coming off aparticularly successful period in its history with aboom in research that saw anearly 70% jump in grantssecured by the university.Itislogging record growth in enrollment at all its campuses around the state. And on its main campus in Baton Rouge, it has launched into abuilding spree withanew library,new dorms, anew arena and morein the works. Its athletic programs have added to the school’sluster with national championships and stars in the new world of NIL. Yetthere are challenges on the horizon. The unpredictability surrounding federal funding to higher education led the universityinMarch to implement atemporary hiring freeze, which ended July 1. Recent controversies surrounding outspoken professorshave prompted concerns from faculty about whether academic freedom is being curtailed. Rising student debt is fueling increasing competition from universities in nearby states to lure Louisiana’stop students. And ﬁnally,the troubled University of NewOrleans is now set torejoin the LSU system and will need focused attention to get backonits feet.

It should be obvious then that LSU will need astrong and independentleader tohandle all that’sontap. And we hope that the search process will truly be anationwide one, looking for aperson who has the qualities tosucceed and the connections to bring other top academics to LSU.

SSA Consulting, aﬁrm with tiestoLSU, has beenchosen to lead the search and some rumored front-runners who hail from Louisiana have potential. Yet, we would urge the committee to cast awide net. It’snoexaggeration to say as goes LSU so goes the state. So this job, while undeniably aplum one, shouldbe about more than politics and cronyism. We want to see full transparency in the search andall stakeholders having avoice. We were not encouraged that the committee announced some of the search would take place outside of public view There is acrisis of conﬁdence among many in higher educationasuniversities face attacks from many fronts. The next LSU president needs to be able to stand up for the university whether perils come from near and far.LSU is on an upward trajectory.This decision will determine whether that continues. Forever LSU.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com. TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE

What conditions arelike inside ICEdetention center

Recently,Ihad the opportunity to visit three of the nine immigrant detention facilities in Louisiana. Twoofthe three wererepurposed Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities.Those kidnapped by ICE are imprisoned there awaiting deportation.They are known as “processing centers.” The third was at the decommissioned England Air Force Base, which is known as a“staging center.” It is the transport hub for outgoing deportation ﬂights. The two sites that are detention prisons (Basile and PinePrairie) are repurposed facilities previously operated by theBureau of Prisons They are bound by chain-link fence topped by razor wire. The interiors are partitioned into dorms for sleeping and divided by locked gates that segment pathways into small areas. There is an open area, also surrounded by achain-link fence, within the building boundaries that offers some shelter and exercise equipment. The average stay is nine days. The facilities have medical staff, libraries and acafeteria. The on-

sitemedical staff is augmented by expertswho visit as needed. The libraries (that will take book donations) are minimally stocked with reading material. They do house-bound legal references. The detainees have access to computers in the library,schedule permitting, which gives them access to LEXUS/ NEXUS, alegal app, translated into their native language. Iwas told that thedetainees receive 2,200 calories of food daily,prepared on-site from both frozen and fresh products with menus designed by dietitians. Food is American-centric with no attempt to serve native meals.Medically determined dietary restrictionsare honored.

The facility at theretired England AFB in Alexandria is a“ship ‘em out” facility where the stay is mandated tobeﬁve days or less. Sometimes from atransport bus to the plane. There are medical facilities andfood service provided. Detainees are housed in dorms where segregation is done by risk assessment.

EARL PRATZ Metairie

The Louisiana Senate race is shaping up to be an exciting one —achoice, not between aRepublican or aDemocrat, but between President Donald Trump’s lapdogs. The Democratic Party,ona state level, is irrelevant. The leading candidates, incumbent Bill Cassidy,John Fleming, Blake Miguez and Eric Skrmetta, can’treally tell you what they stand forsince they are compliant to all of Trump’swhims. As an example, recently the candidates reliably lauded Trump’s decision to shoot the messenger when a jobs report offended. All it takes to be a Trumplapdog is moral ﬂexibility.Look how Cassidy has allowed the destruction of Health and Human Services with little awhimper Back in the day,Republican candidates were pro-business, ensured astrong national defense, professed to be deﬁcit hawks (although not really in practice). Today,with fewexceptions, party members are no longer Republicans but instead do and say whatever they can to curry the favor of the president. Their constituency consists of one person, the president. We need areal Republican, whowill represent Louisianans, to run forthe Senate. That would be amazing. DAVE WHIDDON NewOrleans

In his letter dated July 24, Adrian Bruneau, chair of the Orleans Parish Republican Executive Committee, indulges the same false narrative that currently plagues theRepublican Party.Republicans consistently show their contempt for everyday Americanswhile enriching thewealthy.It’snowonder that their base is becoming disenchanted.

The recent Republican “Big Ugly Bill” has cut taxes for the wealthy and raised them for everyone else. Americansofall political beliefs will lose health care beneﬁts beginning this fall, when income-based subsidies on privatehealthinsurance lapse. Starting in 2026 —after themidterm elections —working Americanswill lose additional access to healthcare and food assistance. Children will go hungry,hospitals will close and all to help billionaires. In contrast, Democrats believe in lifting up everyone who needs ahand, not depriving them of the

very assistance they need.Every day,Democrats ﬁght for quality public education, not closing public schools. Democratsﬁghtfor access to healthcare and food forfamilies in need. Democrats believe in equality for all regardless of background or sexual identity,asour Founders intended when they said that we are all “endowed with certain unalienable rights.” Democrats believe that tellingthe truthabout ourpast —including the parts we’re not proud of —and helping those in need are the essence of American greatness. By their actions every day,Republicans show that they care about the privileged, rather than all Americans. Democrats believe that everyone deserves an equal chance, including those in need of additional support. It is Democrats who believe in the promise of “liberty and justice for all.”

LESLIE BOUIE chair,Orleans Parish Democratic

ExecutiveCommittee

Itotally agree with the opinion expressed by Kenneth Perret about the unfeasibility of the locations foranew bridge forBaton Rouge. Alocation by the Interstate 10 and Interstate 12 crossing is much morelogical.

The experts have probably never been caught in the daily gridlock experienced by Baton Rouge drivers and interstate trucking. The locations they selected are totally absurd. It would save money and exasperation to cancel those sites and start over foramore useful location. It is totally possible to cancel such aproject as seen with the mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project which has been made void. This suggestion will probably fall on deaf ears.

ANDREASMITH Baton Rouge

Decrepit TrumpisDems’ fantasy

TheMSNBC anchor Lawrence

O’Donnell believes he’sontoascandal

—the U.S. president who held asnap summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and then immediately after, hosted a spontaneousmeeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and major European leaders atthe White House, is so debilitated that he can barely function.

His evidenceisthat Donald Trump hada light public schedule acouple of daysafter this ﬂurry of in-person, high-stakes diplomacy

This would be alittle like acritic of Charles Lindbergh accusing the landmark aviatorofbeing alayabout because, after landing in Paris upon the completionofhis historic trans-Atlantic ﬂight, he didn’tdo anything except sleep at the American ambassador’sresidence.

AccordingtoO’Donnell, Trump’s absence might have been becausehe couldn’tstand up for very long orspeak coherently Apparently,hebelieves Trump after Alaska was basicallyinthe samecondition as an exhausted, very ill FDR after Yalta.

Perhaps the secretly enfeebled Trump is going to be thenext biganti-Trump fantasy,replacing the notion from the ﬁrst term that he must be aquasi-Russian agent.

There’salready acottage industry in anti-Trump opinion piecesraising the alarm about the president’salleged decline, and Democrats made aserious, if abortive, attempt to make Trump’sage an issueinthe 2024 campaign.

AWashington Post pieceretailing this line of attack during the election wondered: “The man who would (once again) be the oldest president in history hasreportedly scaled back his campaign due to fatigue. So who would run his White House?”

It’d be better if Trump were 49 years oldinstead of 79, but of all the criticisms to make of him,thathe’sfrail and easily fatigued is the mostpreposterous. It was clearly alie when then-White

President Donald Trumpexhibits some bruising on his handsduring his meeting withSouthKorean PresidentLee JaeMyung on Monday in Washington.

House press secretaryKarine JeanPierre saidshe hadtrouble keeping up with JoeBiden. But would anyone be surprisedifTrump aides half his age really didﬁnd it difﬁcult keeping his pace?

There’sthe late-night social media posts, the never-ending interactions with themedia, the constant stream of incoming and outgoing phone calls, the attention to matterslarge (tradedeals) andsmall (a new WhiteHousepatio) and,above all, theceaselesseffort to impose his will on our domestic politics and, literally, the world.

Trump must be our most relentlessly high-spirited president sinceTeddy Roosevelt, who was inaugurated as the youngest president whereas Trump was inaugurated as theoldest.

AliceRoosevelt famously said, “My father always wanted to be thecorpseat everyfuneral, thebride at everywedding and the baby at everychristening.”

Trump surely would have been determinedtotry to push aside the Rough Rider at the cofﬁn, alter,orfount.

Trump was the instigator of the highstakes diplomacy withPutin and the Europeans,and displayed in his session with our alliesasenseofpersonalcommand —making the Europeans play by

his rules —that had many commentators comparing his counterparts to schoolchildren.

Anyone who thinks Trump is decrepit mustbelieve theoppositeofthe famous “SaturdayNight Live” sketch thatdepicted Ronald Reagan as an amiable dunce in public but aruthless mastermind behind the scenes Trump, to thecontrary, must be pretending to be adynamo in public, while in private he retires to arocking chair and dozes off while watching “The Price is Right.”

The irony is that thesamepeople who looked away from,orlied about, Biden’s decline are desperatetoinsist Trump is in the same reduced state.But Biden’s struggleswereplain for everyone to see, while his White House undertook measures to protect him and minimize his public exposure.

Whatever Trump is doing, it certainly isn’thiding or deferring to others. He may not be in theprimeofhis life, but he’satthe apex of his power and his ability to command attention, and he’s taking advantage of bothwithanobvious zest and boundlessenergy

RichLowry is on X, @RichLowry

In aclassic cartel move,college sports begfor federalhelp

Athletic competitions mesmerize because, being unscripted, their outcomes are unpredictable. Butascollege football season lumbers forward, there is occurring apredictable but nonetheless entertaining event associatedwith college athletics: Government and large, mostly state-run universities are collaborating to reestablish the cartelthat for decades enabled the schools to reap billions from the negligibly compensated labor of “studentathletes.”

That phrase, which has become risible regardingthe best revenue-generating athletes (principally male football and basketball players) centralto today’sdrama, is clungtobythe cartel that coined it. It puts apretty patinaonabusiness model that until 2021 suppressedwhat all cartels everywhere exist to minimize: costly competition.The cartels are the NCAA’s four “power conferences” that generate the lion’sshare of collegesports’billions.

playinducements.”

President Donald Trump’senergy policy is utterly screwedup—ifyou assumeAmerica’s interests, andnot pleasing his fossil fuel friends, is the objective.

This came to the fore when trade adviser PeterNavarro hollered at India for buying Russianoil. Navarro calledthe purchases“opportunistic anddeeply corrosive” of efforts to isolate Russia andcurb Vladimir Putin’swar machine. Oh, is Trump isolating Putin? Could fool us.

Navarro is right thatRussia’s oilwealth is funding Putin’s savage attacksonUkraine. If so,thenwouldn’titbeinour interests to speed the move away from fossil fuels? That’sthe path Western Europe took shortly afterthe Russiantanks rolled into Ukraine.

On the contrary,Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is now demanding that projects“relatedtowind and solar energy facilities” go through new layers of political review. In otherwords, slow or kill them. Energy SecretaryChris Wright hascanceled afederal loan guarantee to build an $11 billion transmissionline through the Heartland. The Grain Belt Express wastosendelectricity generated by Kansas wind farms acrossfour states.

The statesinvolved —Kansas, Missouri, Illinois andIndiana —had all approved the project.For reasonseasy to guess, Missouri Sen. JoshHawleysidedwith Trump against the venture Invenergy,the Grain Belt Express developer,calledHawley’sopposition “bizarre.” Writing on X, the company accusedHawley of being against an infrastructure project “alignedwith the President’senergy dominanceagenda.”

As though Trump hasanenergy dominance agenda,asopposedtoaslogan. Does even Trump believe that, well into the 21st century, fossil fuels arethe golden-brick road to energy dominance? If he does, thatwould be most concerning of all.

Trump clearly hasn’tread China’splan for “energy dominance.”

China nowdominates in electric vehicles, solar, wind andbatteries. Electricity now accounts for30% of its energy consumption versus only 20% in the U.S. The Financial Times reports thatChina is on its way to becoming the ﬁrst “electrostate.”

The serpent (which is not the villain in this story) slithered into big-time college sports’ Edenicparadise in 2021 when NIL payments to players were authorized for the use of their names, images and likenesses. Such is the spontaneous creativity of markets; “collectives” quickly sprung up. These private groups of well-heeled boosters collaborate with schools’ athleticdepartments in the recruitment and retention of talent.

The “transfer portal” is aeuphemism used, as euphemisms usually are,to obfuscate. The candid name for what the portal created, but might soon be severely circumscribed, is free agency —athletes selling their servicestothe highest bidders. This is what Donald Trump targets when he calls for prohibitingthe “third-party market of pay-for-

It is axiomatic: Whenanindustry begs government to regulateit, assume that it is seeking protection from threatsto the status quo with which theindustry is comfortable. The universities are pleading with Congress, which you might think has moreurgent priorities, to protectthem from twin terrors: athletes being paid their market value,and antitrust litigation resulting from the cartels collaborating to stifle this. The conferenceswant, in effect, federal price controls, lest athletesinsome states be able to earn morethan those in other states— anightmare for recruiters. Andlesttoo much money flowstothe athletes the money-spenders pay to see. Trump, who cannot seeaparade without jumping in front of it,has issued (whatelse?) an executive order,saying that federal action is needed to “restore order.” Translation: to suppress thedisorder that resultswhen society’slower orders (here, athletes suddenly allowed serious compensation) acquire rights andaspirations.This has happened now that athletes with lucrative skills enjoy free agency,the ability to sell theirservices to the highest bidder The president’sordersays the post2021 system “risks exploiting studentathletes.”His sense of irony deserts him when he says athletes now face exploitationasthey finally gain leverage, akafreedom, regarding thewealth they create. The college sportsindustry is hurriedly improvising institutions empowered to give the schools cost-certainty,and handsome profits. Becauseofalawsuit settlement, there will be a$20.5 million cap forall schools, distributed across all sports. Do notexpect “equity” to dictate that quarterbacks and gymnasts must

be paid equally.Moreimportant, NIL payments, sometimes of sevenfigures, thatathletes negotiatewiththird parties (collectives)donot count againstthe cap, so far.Weshall see what Congress devises to prevent this from largely nullifying the cap. Anew body,N.I.L. Go will scrutinize third-partyNIL contracts worth morethan $600, which means mostcontracts Scrutinize by what standards? For whosebenefit?Staytuned. And bear this in mind: Most college football players, even from the big conferences, are notgoing to play in theNFL.Their marketvalue will end when their college careersdo. The fortunate few who, for afew college years, translate theirtalents into large third-partypayments are, before their mid-20s,done monetizing their skills. Nevertheless, betonthe cartel concocting measures to minimize thirdparty payments. To be fair: All sportsleagues,including the college football conferences, impose measures that regulate the resources memberscan deploy,lest competitive balance be lost. And it is refreshing that post-NIL developments have finally ended tiresomegenuflections at the altar of “amateurism.” And of “tradition”: The scramble for television dollars has jettisonedmany old rivalriesbyreshuffling conference memberships. Although big-time college sportsare strange appendages to higher education, theyare,momentarily,educational. They are teaching how government collaborates withsociety’sbig battalions to resist disruptions. Even if you have no interest in football, pay attention and seehow tirelessly big government defends the strong.

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

Electric vehiclesrepresent both the presentand future of transport. Trump is actively handing the EV market to China. He startedby pushing Republicans to kill federaltax credits incentivizing Americans to buy or leaseelectric vehicles. (They end on Oct. 1.)

Ford CEO JimFarleyrecently called China’s rise in the EV market the “most humbling experience”ofhis career.“Their cost, their quality of their vehicles is far superior to what Isee in the West.”

Also gone aretax credits for wind and solar power. As aresult, dozens of EV or clean energy projects—investments totaling $27 billion—havebeen canceled.

OverhalfofIowa’selectricity now comes from wind power. And on sunny and windy days in Texas, wind and solar power can supply over 60% of the ERCOT grid’sfuelmix. (ERCOT manages about90% of the electricity ﬂowinTexas.)

Trump’stariff mania, meanwhile, has thrown wrenches in the ability of both green and fossil fuel energy to plan their investments. Interestingly,itishurting oilmore than clean energy SinceApril 2, when Trump launched his trade war“Liberation Day,” S&P’smain index for oilstockshas fallen 4%. By contrast, the S&P indextracking clean energy companies is up about18%

Trump continues to bellowabout the “energy dominance” thing, by whichhe’sclearly shown means helping fossil fuels andhurting the green alternatives. He also goes on about cheaper gas, which is notwhatthe oilbusiness wants forobvious reasons. Want to defang Putin andsave the heating planetfromenvironmental collapse?Trump is totally offthatcase. Only America’senemies could crafta more damaging energy policy. Froma Harrop is on X, @FromaHarrop. Email her at fharrop@gmail.com

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO ByALEX BRANDON

Froma Harrop

George Will

Rich Lowry

ing if I’d have to move and give up my home thatIbuilt to leaveas a legacy.”

Across Louisiana, there are similar storiesasthe rising cost of living leaves families struggling to afford the basics, according to United For Alice’s2025 study on financial hardship. According to the report,halfofhouseholdsin the state now live below the ALICE Threshold,which are families who earn too muchtobeconsidered in poverty but not enoughto cover essentials like housing, food and health care. That often means choosing between rent andgroceries or postponing critical home repairs.

First-time buyers face barriers too, including high prices and interest rates.

The National Association of Realtorsreportsthat in 2024, themedian ﬁrst-time homebuyer was 38 years old.

“This is why many of these programs and servicesare needed,” said Belle LeBlanc,LCG’shumanresourcemanager and aHUD-certiﬁed housing counselor.“We give people the tools to advocate for themselves before they reach abreaking point.”

Thedepartment’sassistance program includes:

n First-Time Homebuyer Program: Provideslow- to moderate-income families with up to $20,000indown payment assistancethrougha 0% ﬁxed-interest loan.

n Ramp Program: Installsaccessibilityramps for residents with mobility challenges.

n MinorHousing Rehabilitation Grants: Assistswith small but critical repairs like painting, safety improvements and electrical updates.

n Housing RehabilitationProgram: Offers up to $50,000 in home rehabilitation support for income-qualified households,with work providedbyLCG’scarpentry crew.Residents are temporarily relocated at no cost during renovations.

n SewerSystemProgram: Includes repairing/replacing aaerator,discharge pump, sewer lines, ﬁeld lines, discharge lines andholding tank.

Thedepartmentalso provides housing counseling services:

n Home ownership training: Learning the basics of purchasingahome with industryprofessionals.

n Financial literacy workshops: Assessing one’sfinancial situation and fundamentals of money management.

n Home maintenanceworkshops: Learninghow to maintain ahome, build equity andDIY small repairs. Workshops are offered monthly, includingbilingualSpanish sessions. Assistance programeligibilityisbased on income thresholds, typically using federalHousing and Urban Development guidelines, whenanapplicationissubmittedonline.

“Wehelp throughevery stage. Before you buy, while you own, and even when code violations need ﬁxing,” LeBlancsaid ForDecuir,the HousingGrant Program was thebestsolution. Shewas approved after ﬁve years on the waiting list. The program granted $50,000 forrepairs and rehabilitation with allworkhandled

by LCG’s carpentry crew

While renovations are underway,applicantsare placed in temporary housing at no cost.

Eight months later,Decuir returned to acompletely renovated home. Crews had repaired ceilings, replaced flooring, upgraded plumbing and electricalsystems,installed newair conditioning anda hot water heater, replaced windows and refreshed the housewith new paint.

“It waslikeabrand-new house,” Decuir said. “At ﬁrst, Iwas frustrated about waiting, but then realized nothing wascomingout of my pocket. Icouldn’tafford it on my own. All Ihad to do waswait.”

LeBlanc noted that elderly and disabled residents areoften prioritized for the Housing Rehabilitation Program, while smallerrepairs such as accessibility ramps, minor rehab and sewersystemupgrades have no waitlist.

“Wewant to invest in people that live herebecause ahome is something that should be treasure andaffordable to maintain or purchased,” LeBlanc said.

While the programs aren’theavily advertised, applications arealways open, and officials said they’reeager to expand them as they work to get more funding, according to LeBlanc.

For those interested in applying forany of thegrant programs, applications are online only at lafayettela. gov. To registerfor aclass, call (337) 291-5450.

Email Ja’koriMadison at jakori.madison@ theadvocate.com.

RISHER

Continued from page1B

Continuedfrom page1B

resourcemanagement, Ifeelconfident that the team we have put together will be able to deliver on our shared vision driven by the coreprinciples of transparency,balance andpractical solutions,” Davidson said. Bigchanges at DENR

At Gray’sbehest, lawmakers last year passed abill to create theNaturalResources TrustAuthority,which is tasked with regulating ﬁnancial security forLouisiana’s oil and gas wells.

Most welloperators are requiredtoobtain such security,which could be apromise froma bank or ﬁnancial institution, to ensure there is money to plug their wells if theygo out of business.

The rule is meantto keep wells from becoming orphaned. But in recent years, state audits have found thatwells often lack adequateﬁnancial security,and that the statefailedtoproperly oversee theLouisiana OilfieldRestoration Association, once amajor financial securityprovider

The Natural Resources Trust Authority aims to improve the ﬁnancial security system andameliorate the state’sorphan well problem. Currently, Louisiana has over 4,900 orphan wells, which can threaten theenvironment and public safety

Also lastyear,lawmakers eliminated the firewall between DENR and theOfficeofConservation. Though the conservation office hadbeen partofthe larger department, it operated independentlyand answered to the commissioner of conservationinstead of theenergy secretary

Eliminating the ﬁrewall helped DENR operate more efﬁciently, David-

sonsaid.

The Legislature took that change astep further this year whenit passed Act 458, sponsored by state Sen. Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville

The 227-page law,effective Oct. 1, restructures DENR and eliminates the OfﬁceofConservation.

The law establishes twonew offices —one for permittingand compliance, and another for enforcement —thatwill take up the functions of the Office of Conservation,saidDENR spokesperson Patrick Courreges.

That change will allow all permitting andall enforcement employees to work together,regardless of whether they had been part of theconservation ofﬁce, Courreges said. Currently,there are permitting and enforcement employees both inside andoutside of that ofﬁce.

Act 458 also renames DENR, whichwill soon become the Department of Conservation and Energy.And it creates the Natural Resources Commission, which will be madeupofseven representatives of key stateagencies, among them DENR, theLouisiana Department of Environmental Quality andLouisiana Economic Development.

The commission will coordinate water managementplanning and statewide flood protection, the lawstates.

Email Meghan Friedmann at meghan.friedmann@ theadvocate.com.

LOTTERY SUNDAY,AUG. 24, 2025 PICK 3: 9-5-8

PICK 4: 0-6-6-3

PICK 5: 3-9-1-5-5

Unofficial notification, keep your tickets

buzzing more, but with Langley’sguidance, Islowly lowered the limb/hive into the box. With the rope tied to the box, I used every bit of strength I had to lower it down into his truck trailer as he climbed down then guided it into place.

Iwas sweating bythen, butthanks to Langley,the beeswere safe —and Ihad anew appreciation fortheir quietpower. Thehive has since been delivered to aHouma In-

dian community in Houma who Langley planned to teach beekeeping and how to harvest honey

Jan Risher and Kevin Langleystand beneath alargeBaton Rougebee hive.

STAFF PHOTOSByJAN RISHER Kevin Langley, of Baton Rouge, climbs to thetop of scaffolding to rescue alargebee hive from atree

SPORTS

ASMALL TRIM

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

The New Orleans Saints beganthe process of meeting the53-man roster limit Monday,cutting 14 players from their 91-man roster Running back CamAkers wasthe most notable name on the list, aformer secondround pick who was lookingtorevitalize his career in New Orleans.The Saints also waived undrafted rookie punter James Burnip, clearing the way for Kai Kroeger to secure thejob. New Orleans currently has77players on itsroster.Itlikely won’thave to waive or release 24 more to getto53—neither Taysom Hill nor Foster Moreau have practiced yet, and bothmay open the season on the Physically Unable toPerform list. Offensivetackle Landon Young is also acandidate to open the season on

BY KOKI RILEY Staffwriter

Since the final whistle of the Texas Bowl on Dec. 31 in Houston, LSU coach Brian Kelly has put his focus on Saturday LSU’smatchupagainst Clemson in Memorial Stadium this weekend (6:30 p.m.,

the

“I want to

tion with you after the game that we competed the right way, that our composure was amazing, and we played with greatconﬁdence,” Kellysaid. “That’sthe postgame remarks that we want.” LSUspent $18 million on its roster over

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staffwriter

There’sa lotofwondering going on around theULfootballprogram this week. For one, there’sthe long-anticipated opportunity for the Ragin’ Cajuns to play in the renovated Our Ladyof LourdesStadium with newseatsand turf on the ﬁeld.

ä RiceatUL, 7P.M.SATURDAy,ESPN+

Wondering about the new season and renovated stadium will turn into reality at 7p.m.Saturday whenthe Cajuns take on the Rice Owls. Does opening the renovated stadium give coach Michael Desormeaux’sclub extra motivation or extra pressure in the season opener?

“I think anything that you do that you really care about, you want to do areally good job, there’sacertain amount of pressure,” the UL coach said. “I think pressure is more appliedinternally than it is externally.Noone expectsustoplay better than we do.Noone wantstowin the ﬁrst game in thatstadium more than we do, despite what alot of people think.”

Anotherquestionarisesabout fansupport. Will afancier venue help UL pack the 30,900-seating capacity forthe ﬁrst game?

There’splenty of wondering footballwise as well. On the ﬁeld, the Owls have anew head coach who utilizes an unconventional triple-option offensive attack.

The Cajuns faced atriple optioninlast year’s 34-10 win over Kennesaw State, butit’snot an apples-to-apples comparison.

“Kennesaw was more like zone-read option,” Desormeaux said. “These guys are like true triple option out of the pistol set, out of ashort pistol. It’smore like Army-Navy out of the pistol than it is really what Kennesaw was doing, if that makes any sense.”

Coach Scott Abell spent the previous sevenseasonsatDavidson, where his offenses led the FCS nationally in rushing six times. Last season, the Wildcats averaged 315 yards rushing agameand 5.4 yards per carry “Like thejet orbit motions, youknow, true triple,it’sdiveoption…it’sstraight

When LSU and Clemson square off Saturday night in the ﬁrst regular-season meeting between these twoold south college football powers, there will be moreat stake than national rankings and early positioning for the College Football Playoff. Something much moreimportant.

Whose Death Valley is themore …DeathValley-er

Both schools call their stadiums DeathValley.Both saytheirs is the definite article. And both getalittle worked up about the other’s counterfeit (to them) claims LSU coach Brian Kelly fired thefirst salvo this year, tweaking Clemson’snoseinJuly at the Baton Rouge RotaryClub meeting in, it mustbenoted, the south stadium club lounge at his school’sDeathValley

“You want great habits when they’re needed, when you’reonthe road, and you’replaying in Death Valley Junior,not THE DeathValley,” Kelly said. Clemson’sout-of-joint nose took notice.

“Theycan have theiropinion,” Clemson defensive end TJ Parker said at ACC media day afew days later.“We’regoing to handle all thatonAug. 30.”

Clemson’sclaim has longevity.It’sbeen calling its stadium, ofﬁcially known as Memorial Stadium, Death Valley since 1948. However,Tiger Stadium is 18 years older,having hosted itsﬁrst game in 1924 while Clemson’s stadium opened in 1942. LSU also can claimits Death Valley is bigger.Tiger Stadium seats 102,321 while Memorial Stadium seats81,500 (the Savan-

nahBananas drew81,000 for agame there in April, in case you’re interested). Youwould think the matter would have been settled ﬁve yearsago,whenLSU beat Clemsoninthe CFP championship game in the CaesarsSuperdome, 42-25. ThatgaveLSU four wire serviceera (since1936) national championships to Clemson’s three. Just within the last hour, however,Auburn hasclaimed a nationaltitle fromeach school

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

during apreseason game at theCaesars

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD Saints punter James Burnip kicks during training camp July 27. Burnip was one of 14 cuts the team made Monday.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARySCHEINUK

coach Brian Kellyspeaks withquarterback Garrett Nussmeie in the second half of

SAINTS NOTEBOOK

Payton, Broncos honor Fats Domino

Team makes trip to musician’s grave

BY JEFF DUNCAN, LUKE JOHNSON and MATTHEW PARAS Staff writers

Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton didn’t celebrate his team’s preseason win against the New Orleans Saints on Saturday Instead, he took the time after the 28-19 victory against his former team to celebrate one of New Orleans’ favorite sons On the way to the airport after leaving the Superdome, Payton took the Broncos’ entire six-bus, 180-person travel party to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Gentilly to recognize Fats Domino and pay respects to the music legend, who died in 2017 at age 89. Broncos players and coaches visited Domino’s tomb on the first floor of the mausoleum and displayed a floral arrangement, highlighted with flowers in the team’s orange and navy blue colors.

The visit was the offshoot of a Broncos’ game-week tradition To set the tone for the week ahead, the Broncos play music representative of the city of the Broncos’ upcoming opponent. Payton played two of Domino’s biggest hits, “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Blueberry Hill,” and asked his players and coaches how many of them had heard of the legendary pianist, who was born and raised in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans. Only a handful of people in the room raised their hand, spurring Payton to schedule the visit for the Broncos’ trip to New Orleans “It hit me, but it also upset me, relative to this icon who was born in this city,” Payton said to the players and coaches at the cemetery in a video of the visit posted on his social media account. “We should know who Fats Domino is.” The visit originally was scheduled to occur on the day before the game, but it was delayed until Saturday afternoon after the team’s charter ﬂight to New Orleans on Friday afternoon arrived later than expected.

Domino is one of several notable New Orleanians buried at Mount Olivet, among them pianist Henry Roeland “Professor Longhair” Byrd, saxophonist Herbert Hardesty, hip hop artist Soulja Slim and baseball player Walter Wright Payton is in his third year as the head coach of the Broncos He coached the Saints from 2006-21, leading the club to its only Super Bowl championship in 2009.

Tackle hurt

Landon Young left the ﬁeld on an injury cart Saturday against the Broncos, and it may be a while before he’s able to return for the New Orleans Saints.

Without offering any speciﬁcs, coach Kellen Moore said Young “may take a little bit of time” to recover from his injury Moore did not rule out the possibility of injured reserve for Young. Young likely was going to be the

swing tackle this season, serving as the primary backup at both left and right tackle. The other player the Saints have tried in that role, Dillon Radunz, is currently the starting left guard while Trevor Penning recovers from a right toe injury

The Saints already lost veteran backups Will Clapp (foot) and Nick Saldiveri (knee) to season-ending injuries during training camp.

“It’s one of those goofy things that happens,” Moore said. “You’ve got to navigate different challenges — and certainly on the offensive line we’ve lost a number of guys there the severity of that can be a little bit challenging. We’ll see how this thing goes over the next 48 hours as we build the roster.”

No QB news

Stop if you’ve heard this one before: The Saints aren’t ready to name their starting quarterback.

Moore reiterated Monday the team has not decided on its Week 1 starter ahead of the Sept. 7 season opener against the Arizona Cardinals, telling reporters the club has instead been focused on roster cuts.

Moore again said it won’t take much longer The Saints are scheduled to practice Wednesday and Thursday

“We’ll talk through that stuff and then we’ll get there,” Moore said. “Obviously we’re pretty close. (The) time is coming up. We’re getting ready for Arizona. And so it’ll happen soon.”

Keys falls to Zarazua in first round of U.S. Open

Australian Open champion doomed by 89 unforced errors

BY HOWARD FENDRICH Associated Press

NEW YORK

— Pretty much from the get-go at the U.S. Open on Monday, Madison Keys could tell she wasn’t hitting the ball well or feeling very much at all like the self-conﬁdent player who claimed her ﬁrst Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January After 89 unforced errors, including 14 double-faults, the No. 6-seeded Keys was gone from Flushing Meadows in the first round with a 6-7 (10), 7-6 (3), 7-5 loss to 82nd-ranked Renata Zarazua of Mexico.

“For the ﬁrst time in a while my nerves really got the better of me, and it kind of became a little bit paralyzing,” said Keys, the runner-up in New York to good friend Sloane Stephens in 2017 and a semifinalist in 2018 and 2023. “I felt like I was just slow. I wasn’t seeing things the way that I wanted to, which I feel like resulted in a lot of bad decisions and lazy footwork.” Her ﬁrst U.S. Open with the status of major champion — thanks

to defeating No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the ﬁnal at Melbourne Park — was over just as it began. “You always kind of feel ﬁrstround jitters and, as the day is getting closer, feeling a little bit more and more nervous,” said Keys, who played with her left thigh heavily taped. “But I feel like for whatever reason, today I just couldn’t separate myself from feeling like winning matters just way too much.” She made so many mistakes off the spin-laden shots coming her

way that Zarazua needed to produce just eight winners to earn the biggest victory of her career Zarazua lost in the ﬁrst or second round of all eight of her previous Slam appearances. Yet somehow, it was Zarazua who managed to deal with any nervousness better even though she was competing in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium for the ﬁrst time and had only had a chance to hit there once a couple of days prior The 5-foot-3 Zarazua came into

McLaurin, Commanders

agree to $96M extension

The Washington Commanders and top wide receiver Terry McLaurin have agreed on a threeyear contract extension worth $96 million, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Monday

McLaurin initially did not show up to training camp and then landed on the physically unable to perform list once he reported. After asking for a trade when negotiations were at a standstill, he recently had been activated in the hopes of being available for the season opener on Sept. 7 against the NFC East rival New York Giants.

Co-owner Magic Johnson said he was thrilled the Commanders re-signed McLaurin to a deal that reportedly includes a $30 million signing bonus.

Raiders top wide receiver

Meyers requests a trade

HENDERSON, Nev Wide receiver

Jakobi Meyers has requested a trade from the Las Vegas Raiders after failing to reach an agreement on a contract extension, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday

Meyers, who had his ﬁrst 1,000yard season in 2024, has one year left on a three-year, $33 million contract. He caught 87 passes last season for 1,027 yards and four touchdowns Meyers was the only NFL receiver with at least 85 targets and no dropped passes, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Raiders, however, made receiver a priority in this year’s draft, selecting TCU’s Jack Bech in the second round and Tennessee’s Dont’e Thornton in the fourth.

Hendrickson, Bengals reach agreement on deal

All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson and the Cincinnati Bengals have agreed on a new oneyear contract, ending his hold-in, three people with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Monday Hendrickson will receive a $14 million raise for this season, increasing his salary to $30 million. He is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent after the season. Hendrickson led the league with 17½ sacks last season, becoming the fourth player since sacks became an ofﬁcial statistic in 1982 to have two straight years with at least 17½ His 57 sacks since joining the Bengals in 2021 are third most in the NFL over the past four seasons.

Angels manager recovering from quadruple bypass

ARLINGTON, Texas Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington said Monday he is recovering from quadruple bypass heart surgery

the day with a 0-6 record against opponents ranked in the top 10.

“I’m a little bit small in height, so coming in here, it was like: ‘Oh, my God. This is huge,’ ” Zarazua said about the largest stadium in tennis, which holds nearly 24,000 spectators. While Keys was one of 25 American players in the women’s singles draw, the 27-year-old Zarazua is Mexico’s lone entrant in the bracket. She moved to San Antonio as a teen, and is now based in Florida.

Brazilian teenager João Fonseca, who turned 19 on Thursday, won his U.S. Open debut, defeating Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3 in front of a raucous crowd of his countrymen. Another precocious player, 18-year-old Canadian Vicky Mboko, who was seeded 22nd, was eliminated by two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-2. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who is 35, played her last match before retirement, losing to Diane Parry 6-1, 6-0, and 2022 U.S. Open semiﬁnalist Caroline Garcia, 31, also exited the final tournament of her career, eliminated 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 by Kamilla Rakhimova. Frances Tiafoe, a two-time semifinalist in New York, beat Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets.

It’s the ﬁrst time he has publicly addressed the health issues that have sidelined him since late June. Washington, 73, made the announcement while visiting the Angels for the ﬁrst time since the operation eight weeks ago in California, calling it a day he had been looking forward to while recovering at his home in New Orleans. He is not returning to manage this season, but hopes to have that opportunity next year. He said he should be fully recovered by December Washington said he has quit smoking, changed his eating habits and is sleeping better

Texas teen runner turns pro, signs with Nike Cooper Lutkenhaus, the 16-yearold record-breaking sensation in the 800 meters, became one of the youngest U.S. runners to turn pro by signing with Nike on Monday The junior at Northwest High School in Justin, Texas, reached the decision after long talks with his family The idea wasn’t really even on the radar until earlier this month at nationals when he ran in 1 minute, 42.27 seconds to ﬁnish second. It was an under-18 world record and the fourth-fastest of any age by an American. It also earned him a spot for world championships next month in Tokyo.

Another

going

STAFF PHOTO By JEFF DUNCAN

A floral arrangement from the Denver Broncos is shown at Fats Domino’s gravesite at Mount Olivet Cemetery in New Orleans.

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton greets New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson before a preseason game in New Orleans on Saturday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By SETHWENIG

Renata Zarazua smiles in relief after defeating Madison Keys during the first round of the U.S Open on Monday in New york.

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C

injured reserve. Several times in the preseason, coach Kellen Moore said every one of his running backs had a legitimate case for the 53-man active roster, which meant difﬁcult choices loomed.

The Saints made one of those during the ﬁrst wave of roster cuts Monday morning, releasing Akers.

“Difficult one, because he’s a really good running back in this league,” Moore said.

Akers joined the team after a successful tryout this summer, but he struggled to separate himself from a pack that included Kendre Miller, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Velus Jones and rookie Devin Neal.

The Clinton, Mississippi,

LSU

Continued from page 1C

was already bringing back fifth-year senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier redshirt junior linebacker Harold Perkins and junior linebacker Whit Weeks.

“We weren’t ready to bring in guys from the outside until our own program was in a really good space,” Kelly said. “And so it took us a few years. And I felt like this year we were in a place where we could invite people into our locker room, transfers, if you will.”

With the veteran additions from the portal, Kelly hopes that LSU displays a greater sense of maturity and composure from the start. He wants to see his team play with poise. Instead of celebrating every pass breakup or touchdown, he’d

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C

as well as the 1973 Triple Crown from Secretariat, so I suppose it’s fun and fortunate that the debate goes on.

Both Death Valleys have interesting twists to their stories.

When Clemson’s stadium was being planned, its departing coach, Jess Neely, considered it a mistake.

“Don’t ever let them talk you into building a big stadium,” Neely said in 1939 as he was leaving Clemson for Rice (yes, Rice). “Put about 10,000 seats behind the YMCA. That’s all you’ll ever need.” Clemson ofﬁcials didn’t listen, constructing what was at ﬁrst a 20,000-seat facility in a valley on the west side of the campus. The structure was staked out by two football players, A.N. Cameron and Hugh Webb. Cameron, according to Clemson, became a civil engineer and later moved to Louisiana.

Clemson’s ﬁrst victim in 1942 was Presbyterian College by a 32-13 score. It was Presbyterian coach Lonnie

Continued from page 1C

downhill,” Desormeaux said. “They’re not zoning it up. I mean, they’re running off the ball. “It tests your physicality obviously It tests your eye discipline, it tests your ability to tackle in an open ﬁeld, and it certainly tests your ability to get off the blocks and rally to the football.”

There’s certainly no wondering about the effect Abell had on the Davidson program. The Wildcats had 10 consecutive losing seasons prior to his arrival, including only seven total victories in the previous ﬁve seasons. Every season was a winning one under Abell.

“Week One is becoming more and more difficult,” Desormeaux said. “Naturally, there’s a ton of coaching attrition these days. And then with the players, there’s a lot more roster turnover, so it’s about making sure your

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Saints guard Kyle Hergel makes his way onto the ﬁeld before a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Caesars Superdome on Oct 13.

native carried the ball eight times for 16 yards in three preseason games, adding four catches for 15 yards. Miller has seemed to secure a spot as Alvin Kamara’s primary backup. He led the Saints with 51 yards rushing this preseason, many of which were hard-

rather see his team hand the ball to the referee and get ready to make another play

“Now, I’m not against any of that (celebration) stuff. I don’t want to sound like the old guy here that doesn’t like excitement,” Kelly said.

“What I see when a guy does that, when he hands the ball to the official, he truly believes he’s coming back in the end zone.”

Taking down Clemson won’t be easy Coach Dabo

Swinney’s team enters Saturday with a third-year starting quarterback, two potential first-round picks on the defensive line and multiple starters returning at linebacker, wide receiver, cornerback and on the offensive line. It’s a monumental challenge, but Kelly believes his team is ready for it.

“Any goal that you put out there, it’s not worthwhile unless it’s a challenge,” he said

McMillian who was credited with naming Memorial Stadium “Death Valley” because his team lost so many games there. Clemson even has a rock from Death Valley, California, named Howard’s Rock for longtime coach Frank Howard, installed above the east end zone. Clemson players touch it as they run down the hill (known as The Hill) and onto the ﬁeld before each game.

There isn’t a deﬁnite date to when Tiger Stadium started being called Death Valley but it’s generally accepted the nickname ﬁrst took hold after LSU’s 1958 national championship team beat Clemson 7-0 in the 1959 Sugar Bowl. As the legend goes, LSU fans felt that since their Tigers had beaten Clemson’s Tigers, they’d earned the right to start calling Tiger Stadium Death Valley

What is probably a point in Clemson’s favor is that Tiger Stadium once had a similar nickname: Deaf Valley There was a service station known as Deaf Valley Shell that sat for years just north of the campus on the corner of Highland Road and East State Street, where

fought yards.

“Kendre did a phenomenal job this entire offseason,” Moore said “... We’ve got a number of other guys that we feel like can provide some roles, so we’ll ﬁnalize the rest of this running back group, but we feel like we’re going to have a really com-

“And so this will be a great challenge that our kids are excited about.”

Injury update

Kelly anticipates the Tigers will have “everybody available to us” for Saturday’s game, despite multiple starters sitting out practice last Saturday

Kelly said Monday that LSU has had “a couple of bumps and bruises” this preseason, but nothing serious enough to threaten anyone’s status for this weekend’s game.

During Saturday’s practice in Tiger Stadium, Oklahoma transfer wide receiver Nic Anderson and Virginia Tech transfer center Braelin Moore did not play Nussmeier and Weeks were also limited participants. Nussmeier did not throw Saturday because of load management. Leading up to this week, LSU has moni-

the original Raising Cane’s now is located.

LSU fans wrote to late Advocate columnist Smiley Anders conﬁrming the Deaf Valley moniker

“When I was in LSU Law School in ’56-’58, we definitely referred to the stadium as Deaf Valley,” Ray Cox of New Roads wrote in 1999. “That isn’t hard evidence, but everyone’s ears would be ringing for a couple of hours after the game.”

“It will always be Deaf Valley to me,” Jim Welsh of St. Francisville wrote in 2003, “and to many of the real, old-time Tigers.”

Local journalist and Tiger Rag publisher Jim Engster said the Death Valley nickname really didn’t take off until Bob Brodhead (who quarterbacked Duke in Tiger Stadium against LSU in 1958) became the LSU athletic director in 1982.

“Brodhead, despite his faults,” Engster told The Advocate in 2023, “was a savvy marketer.”

Both schools likely will always claim their stadium is the real Death Valley and nothing will change that. However, they are playing

Some of last year’s Rice defensive staff stayed after the coaching change. Last season, the Rice defense

ﬁnished third behind Army and Tulane in the American Athletic Conference at 334.6 total yards allowed a game.

“They played bare front, they played odd,” Desormeaux said. “They moved the pieces around a little bit, so they gave you a lot of ID issues. What does he feel is more suitable to his style and to his team in that he’s got now? That is what probably the great unknown is.”

petitive group there.”

Burnip signed with the Saints after the draft, offering some competition for Matthew Hayball. New Orleans cut ties with Hayball earlier this month shortly after bringing Kroeger into the mix.

In three preseason games, Burnip punted five times for 188 yards with a 37.6 net average. Kroeger had six punts for 276 yards with a 42.3 yard net average.

Here is the full list of players the Saints waived or released Monday: Akers wanted to revive his career in New Orleans, joining the team after a tryout this summer The former second-round pick never found his footing in training camp.

Burnip was an undrafted free agent out of Alabama, but he did not win the Saints’ punting battle.

TE Seth Green joined the

tored his throws in practice and kept him on a “pitch count.”

“We want to take our quarterback’s load off,” Kelly said. “We were done with installation, so this was more throwing. We wanted to wait and get into Clemson and game week. He’ll be out there on Tuesday practicing in full.”

Weeks’ practice workload has been limited since returning from offseason ankle surgery and a broken ﬁbula, two injuries the star linebacker suffered in the Texas Bowl.

Sophomore defensive tackle Dominick McKinley and freshman offensive lineman Carius Curne also did not practice. McKinley has earned some ﬁrst-team reps this preseason, and Curne is in a competition with redshirt freshman Weston Davis for the starting spot at right tackle.

a home-and-home series, with Clemson opening the 2026 season at LSU on Sept. 5.

Saints after participating in the UFL. He caught two passes for 11 yards in the preseason.

DE Jeremiah Martin joined the team late in training camp. Both of his preseason tackles came on special teams, and he also recorded a quarterback pressure and a batted ball.

TE Michael Jacobson has been with the Saints for parts of the last two years on the practice squad He caught three passes for 21 yards in the preseason.

WR Moochie Dixon was buried on the depth chart after joining the team as an undrafted free agent out of SMU.

OL Kyle Hergel had been with the Saints since last season. After primarily playing guard as a rookie, he spent considerable time at center this training camp.

DE Jasheen Davis showed ﬂashes as a pass rusher in camp, but a late, unspeciﬁed

Moore will start at center against Clemson Anderson is a key part of LSU’s deep rotation at wide receiver

Virginia Tech transfer

cornerback Mansoor Delane and South Florida transfer defensive tackle Bernard Gooden were also limited participants at practice. Delane is in line to start at cornerback while Gooden is expected to do the same on the defensive line. Both veterans have had strong preseasons.

Why Nussmeier earned 18

LSU is bringing the No. 18 jersey back to its roots.

The Tigers announced Sunday that Nussmeier will wear the number this season, becoming the ﬁrst quarterback to be awarded the jersey since Matt Mauck in 2003.

On Monday, Kelly explained the significance of the decision, noting that

injury slowed his progress.

T Josiah Ezirim was considered a raw prospect when drafted in the seventh round in 2024. He has now been cut two years in a row

T Jonathan Mendoza played college football with quarterback Tyler Shough at Louisville. That wasn’t enough to earn him a spot on the roster

LB Tyreem Powell had a tough path to the roster with linebacker arguably the deepest position. He got lost in the shufﬂe as an undrafted free agent out of Rutgers. DE Omari Thomas, at 6-foot-4 and 325 pounds, has good size, but there was too much competition along the interior defensive line.

G Mike Panasiuk was a late addition in camp after a slew of injuries to the offensive line.

WR Roderick Daniels was added to the roster after injuries at wide receiver. Now, he’s been let go.

Mauck was also the first player to begin the tradition.

“Matt Mauck and what he represented in 2003, coming out and leading (LSU) to a championship,” Kelly said, “bringing it back to a quarterback, I think, sends a great message about the history and tradition of 18.” LSU’s No 18 jersey is handed to the player — or players who best represent the program as a strong teammate and leader Running back Josh Williams and linebacker Greg Penn were awarded the jersey last season. Defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo wore the number in 2023.

The year Mauck wore the number, he led LSU to its ﬁrst national title since 1958 and completed 64.8% of his passes for 2,825 yards and 28 touchdowns.

Email Koki Riley at Koki. Riley@theadvocate.com.

LSU currently leads the series between the schools 3-1. If Clemson can somehow even the series by winning the next two years, then they can talk about who has the real Death Valley

players are dialed into your schemes and your systems and what you’re trying to do.”

Desormeaux surmises his offensive staff has even more answers to find than the defense.

“No, I think we have a better idea of what to expect offensively than defensively,” Desormeaux said “They were very multiple last year. And some of it was a little bit unique in the way they did it.”

The good news for the Cajuns is all signs point toward being healthy for the opener

The only player not ready to go is reserve offensive tackle Zay Alexander “Fall camp’s been fun,” Desormeaux said. “Truthfully these guys like to practice and they like to work. So it’s been a lot of fun to go out there and work with them. We’re kind of pleased with what we got coming out of camp.”

Date

PAST FIVE YEARS

2024: 8-4

2023: 6-6 2022: 2-8

3-5

PROJECTED STARTERS

Offense

WR Evan Lemon (5-11, 180, Sr.)*

WR Gavin Frith (5-10, 175, Sr.)*

WR Damien Thomas (5-9, 185, Sr.)*

TE Omar Guillory (6-3, 200, Sr.)*

OT Matt Lalonde (6-3, 220, Jr.)*

OG Jayden Johnson (5-11, 250, Jr.)

C Cooper Campo (5-11, 220, Sr.)*

OG Conner Payne (6-2, 285, Sr.)*

OT Marques Butler (6-3, 260, Fr.)

QB Stephen George (6-0, 170, Sr.)*

RB Kyle Horde (6-2, 220, Jr.)

Defense

DE Omar Guillory (6-3, 200, Sr.)*

DT Alex Thomas (5-9, 230, So.)*

DT Tonnerick Hayes (6-0, 330, So.)*

DE Matt Lalonde (6-3, 220, Jr.)

LB Kyle Horde (6-2, 220, Jr.)*

LB Jack Hunt (5-11, 190, Jr.)*

CB Damien Thomas (5-9, 185, Sr.)*

CB Austin Dunbar (5-8, 165, Jr.)

SS Evan Lemon (5-11, 180, Sr.)*

SS Branson Ray (5-9, 170, Jr.)

SS Gavin Frith (5-10, 175, Sr.)*

*RETURNING STARTERS

COACHES

Head coach: Byron Porter (14-10)

Assistant coaches: Brandon Porter, Sam George, Jeremy Garrett, Marcus Wildridge, Garrard Horde, & Craigory Sam.

PREP FOOTBALL SEASON PREVIEW

Westminster Christian

What we know

Westminster Christian has realistic expectations of ﬁelding a team that could be a sleeper in the Division IV select bracket.

The Crusaders, who are entering their third season under coach Byron Porter, lost to state champions Ouachita Christian and Vermilion Catholic after winning the playoff opener the past two years, and eight starters return on each side of the ball.

Porter

“We have a lot of guys returning with some really high expectations,” Porter said. “We experienced a little success along the way Every year, things have gotten better There is a lot of optimism.”

Senior Stephen George has been the starting quarterback since before Porter arrived at the school. The son of former college player and WCA assistant coach Sam George is an electric athlete who pairs with bruising tailback Kyle Horde (6-2, 220) for a rushing attack double whammy

“Stephen is very comfortable with what we’re doing on offense,” Porter said. “A lot of our success hinges on his ability.”

Horde, who is projected as a linebacker in college, will be the feature back after two seniors, led by top rusher Michael Cunningham, graduated Horde scored 10 touchdowns on limited carries as a sophomore.

“Kyle is, without a doubt, a college prospect,” Porter said “He’ll have to play Travis Hunter-like snaps in order for us to make a move. His main concern has been increasing stamina.”

And that’s not to infer that the Crusaders are a running team. Three starting receivers return in Gavin Frith, Evan Lemon and Damien Thomas, who is “chomping at the bit” after missing part of last year with an injury, Porter said. Tight end Omar Guillory, an excellent high jumper, also re-

turns and will be a sure target in the red zone.

The kicking game ensemble is back in Frith (holder) Jack Hunt (long snapper) and Mac Proffitt (K/P). Proffitt was first-team all-district and is up there with the state’s best kickers, Porter said.

What we don’t know

How will Horde hold up if asked to carry a large load on offense? The Crusaders are in District 5-1A, which reminds Porter of a small-school version of the Catholic League in his hometown of New Orleans. There are three consecutive league games (two on the road) that could test Horde’s physical capabilities in Catholic of Pointe Coupee, Sacred Heart and Opelousas Catholic.

Last year, the Crusaders beat Opelousas Catholic for the ﬁrst time in years but lost to St Edmund and Catholic PC.

How we see it

There aren’t any glaring weaknesses on the roster The offensive line, a concern in the past, returns three starters. Westminster Christian is huge in the trenches with an offensive line that averages 249 pounds and a defensive front anchored by Tonnerick Hayes (6-0, 330), who started as a freshman Hunt had over 100 tackles.

“Matt Lalonde has really transitioned his body,” Porter said of the offensive lineman/defensive end.

“He put on 20 pounds of muscle. Conner Payne (6-2, 285) missed last season due to injury He’s a leadertype who last year cheered on his teammates from the sidelines.”

WCA has an impressive roster with a team of great size and athleticism on the Class 1A level.

The Crusaders could shock some people. In addition to a high-octane offense, the three leading tacklers and the interception co-leaders (Thomas and Frith) are back on defense

Mike Coppage

SCOREBOARD

Stephen George QB, 6-0, 170, Sr. A poised leader in the pocket, George is also a dangerous and elusive runner who averaged 7.9 yards per carry

He can pull off the big play, having thrown touchdown passes on all three completions with 116 yards in one game. Porter called George “a triple threat” who can hurt you with his legs, arm and football IQ

Evan Lemon WR/DB, 5-11, 180, Sr

Lemon is a well-built wideout and a big part of an explosive offense that scored 50 or more points three times. He also was among the team leaders with 96 tackles. Porter said Lemon is best described as a Swiss Army knife.

Gavin Frith WR/DB, 5-10, 175, Sr Frith and Lemon are returning starters at receiver and safety An excellent baseball prospect, Frith is the district’s “most underrated player,” said Porter, who has a spectacular group of skill players that will spread defenses out wide.

Kyle Horde RB/LB, 6-2, 220, Jr. An honorablemention LSWA Class 1A selection at linebacker, Horde posted a team-high 127 tackles and averaged 7.85 yards per carry with a touchdown every four attempts. He is expected to shoulder an increased workload running the ball while playing every down on defense.

Mac Profﬁtt K, 6-2, 180, Sr. Proffitt will handle the punting and kicking chores. He was named firstteam all-district as a kicker and will give the Crusaders a viable option for three points on field goals. He is getting legitimate interest from colleges and expects to play on Saturdays next year

PHOTO By MIKE COPPAGE

Westminster Christian defensive standouts include, from back left, Matt Lalonde, Alex Thomas, Jack Hunt and Tonnerrick Hayes; from front left, Austin Dunbar and Branson Ray

George

Lemon Frith

Horde

Proffitt

Sore spots

Leaves fallingoff crapemyrtles and hydrangeas?A common disease maybethe culprit

Take alook outside, and you might see that your crape myrtle’sleaves are turning shades of yellow,orange and red and falling to the ground. Is thisa sign that autumn is near?

Not quite. This time of year, it’smore likely you are witnessing something called Cercospora leaf spot.

“This is a very common disease we see late in the summeroncrape myrtles,” said Clark Robertson, an LSU AgCenter horticulture agent in Livingston Parish. “It tends to be worse in yearswhere we get alot of rainfall and humid conditions.”

Cercospora leaf spot is a fungal disease that lurksin gardens year-round, waiting for the warm, wet conditions in which it thrives to attack crape myrtles. It releases toxins that cause small, yellow-to-brown spots to form on leaves.These infected leaves then change colors before falling prematurely

“If you’re seeing your tree dropping leaves in August with lots of fall color,that’sagood indication that you have Cercospora leaf spot,” Robertson said

LSUAGCENTERPHOTO Cercospora leaf spot causes premature fall color and leaf drop in crape myrtles.

Some crape myrtle cultivars are more susceptible to the disease than others. While defoliation can be unsightly and even severe in some instances, the good news is that Cercospora leaf spot usually won’t kill crape myrtles.

The best thing you can dois rake up any fallen, diseased leaves and dispose of them in the trash, not your compost pile, Robertsonsaid. This will reduce the number of fungal spores in your landscape, helping prevent futureinfections.

“Treatment can be done, but it needs to be done early in the seasontoprevent infection from occurring,” he said.“If you see the disease, it’salready too late to spray.”

Crape myrtles aren’tthe only plant affected by this disease. If you’ve noticed dark blotches or defoliation on hydrangeas

ä See SPOT, page 6C

STAFFPHOTOSByMARGARETDELANEy

Kim Pitre makes amood boardofcurtainsamples and trimmings likeshe does for countless customers at P.Tree Designs,Textiles andFabrications.

After23years in thebusiness, this Louisiana designer knows hercurtains, what’s trending

BY MARGARETDELANEY

Staff writer

Kim Pitre usedtodesign and installwallpaper.When that business was slowly going out of style in the1990s, she moved to amore specialized craft: textilesand curtains.

Notonly are curtains important in design spaces to pull a room together andadd depth, window treatments also serve a practical purpose. Curtains are vitaltoprotect furniture like couches, rugs and chairs from UV rays, sun damageand moisture —extending the lifespan andmaintaining the appearance of pieces.

Window treatments alsocontroltemperature, making indoor spacesmore comfortable by blocking heat and adding a layer of privacy.ManyLouisianahouses have large windows, andcurtains can keep homes cool during thesummer Pitre opened P. Tree Designs,

ä See CURTAINS, page 6C

When choosing apatterned

Newhalal smashburgerfoodtruck sets up near LSU

BY JOYHOLDEN Staff writer

Anew food truck,Smash City Burgers, is open by LSUat159 W. StateSt., and the truck is open until the weehours of themorning—until 4a.m. Sundaythrough Thursdayand 5a.m. Fridayand Saturday.Although basedin Houston,the Baton Rouge food truck opened before theHouston

curtain, it’s important to work with the fabrication to make sure the folds bring out the right colors in the room, according to Kim Pitre.

ByTheAssociated Press

Today is Tuesday,Aug. 26,the 238thday of 2025. There are 127 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On Aug. 26, 1944, French Gen Charles de Gaulle braved the threat of German snipersashe led avictory march in Paris, which had just been liberated by the Allies from Nazioccupation.

Also on this date:

In 1939, the ﬁrst televised major league baseball games were broadcast on experimental station W2XBS: adoubleheader betweenthe Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the ﬁrstgame, 5-2, and the Dodgers the second, 6-1.

In 1958, Alaskans wenttothe polls to overwhelmingly vote in favor of statehood.

In 1968, the Democratic NationalConvention opened in Chicago; the four-day event that resulted in the nomination of Hubert H. Humphrey for president was marked bya bloody police crackdown on antiwar protesters in the streets.

In 1972, the summer Olympics opened in Munich, West Germany

In 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected pope following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff, who took the name Pope John Paul I, died just over amonth later In 1980, the FBI inadvertently detonated abomb planted at Harvey’sResort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, while attempting to disarm it. (The hotel had been evacuatedand no injuries were reported but the blast caused signiﬁcant damage.)

In 1985, 13-year-oldAIDS patient Ryan White began “attending” classes at Western Middle School in Kokomo, Indiana, via atelephone hook-up at his home, as school ofﬁcials had barred White from attending classes in person due tohis illness.

In 2009, kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard was discovered alive in California after being missing for more than18years.

In 2022, an afﬁdavit released by the FBI showedthat 14 of the 15 boxes recovered from former President Donald Trump’sFlorida estate contained classiﬁed documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence.

Today’sBirthdays: FormerHomeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is 80. R&B singer Valerie Simpson (Ashford &Simpson) is 79. Broadcast journalist Bill Whitaker is 74. Puzzle creator/ editor Will Shortz is 73. Jazz musician Branford Marsalis is 65. Actor-singer Shirley Manson (Garbage) is 59. Actor MelissaMcCarthy is 55. Latin pop singer Thalia is 54. Actor Macaulay Culkin is 45. Actor Chris Pine is 45. Comedian/actor/writer John Mulaney is 43 Country musician Brian Kelley (Florida Georgia Line) is 40. NBA guard James Harden is 36. Actor Dylan O’Brien is 34. Actor Keke Palmer is 32.

SMASH CITY

Continued from page5C

new food truck with open arms

“Weknow that LSU students are coming back intoschool this week,” said Jacobs, “and we really wanted to target that population because college is expensive, and students are always lookingfor something more affordable. We offer deals and discounts throughout the year.” For more information, visit smash-city-burgers.com.

Email Joy Holden at joy holden@theadvocate.com.

SPOT

Continued from page5C

lately,Cercospora leaf spot is probably the culprit. As is the case with crape myrtles, Cercospora leaf spot is rarely fatal to hydrangeas nor does it typically interfere with blooming, Robertson said. Treatmentisthe same, too: If you want to spray afungicide to ward off infection, do so in the spring. At this point in the year, just stay on top of removing affected leaves that have fallen to limitthe disease’sspread.

Theengagementringselection ballet

Dear Miss Manners: I’ve seen young menwith their mothers picking outaring that the young woman of his choice is supposed to love andwear forever What if they picked something shereally didn’t like?

Iwould liketopropose a newtradition: The proposal is madeand accepted, but instead of aring, the proposer offers ajewel boxthat contains adiamond, or astone that the newlyminted bride-to-be likes, andanappointment time at ajeweler to select the setting that suits the wearer andthe proposer’s budget Theproposer should have alreadyfoundout what type of stone is desired andthe shape of thestone. Theproposer can then choose thestonethat ﬁtsthe budget andwill please its wearer Often jewelers allow thestoneto be replaced with alarger one and

theprice is discounted by the cost of the original stone.

her that she would not risk losing it, therefore wearing it only on special occasions.)

Gentlereader: Pointtaken. But rather than send those gentlemen around evaluating stones they know nothing about,Miss Manners would like topropose therevival of an older tradition.

Beforearing became a prop in performance art proposals, it was not considered necessary to present one at the time —orat all. The offer of marriage was thought to be exciting enough.

Besides, what was the gentleman supposed to do with an expensive purchase if he were notaccepted?

Presuming success,hemight offer her afamily ring, if he were fortunate enough to have one. (Admittedly,that would be hard to decline, but thelady could always say later that it was so precious to

Absent afamily ring, however, theaccepted suitor would makea privatevisit to ajeweler beforehand and set aside aselection of rings in hisprice range. Presuming success, there would then be adelightful excursion when he brought her to makeher choice.

Dear Miss Manners: We have an older live-in nanny forour two young children. During the week, she stays in our basement, where she has abedroom, bathroom and living area, and she goes homeon theweekends.

She has expressed to us that she feels uncomfortable when we have guests stay in her quarters over the weekend.

It seems odd to me that the basement should be permanently “hers” even when she is not there.

Areweinthe wrong?

Gentle reader: By your own descrip-

tion, yes. She is alive-in employee, not atransient guest among other possible guests. Those are her living quarters, regardless of where she spends her time off. Presumably,she keeps her clothes and other personal possessions there. Leaving them out foryour guests to see must be disconcerting, and packing them away would be anuisance.

Miss Manners suggests you think of this arrangement the wayyou would arental property: Yes, it is still yours, but you do not have the use of it forthe term when you have installed someone there.

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

Dear Heloise: There is no time to put grease oroils down asink with old or new pipes! Youpour off what you can as noted in apreviouscolumn, then wipethe pan with gently usedpaper napkins or towels that have been set aside. Throw thenapkins away afterward.The little residue left on the pan is handled by detergentand hotwater.You won’thave anymore pipeworries this way Twoasides: Do not throw ﬂoss in the toilet. If yourpipes are old, theﬂoss gets caught, builds up, and eventually causes ablockage.

In thetrash it goes! The second is to please ask your plumbing expert about pouring boiling water down thesink. Ihave read that either we can do this or should never do this,but no reasons have been given. So, Icontinue to be curious. To do or not to do? Thanks. —Emilie Webb, via email

Give it agood shake

Dear Heloise: When an item comes out of the washer and is in atight ball, it takes the dryer’stime and energy to warm up theitem enough to return it back to its reg-

ular shape as part of the drying process. To shorten the overall time for drying and to save energy,give the item agood shake before you put it in the dryer This action will return the item back to its original shape and allow the dryer to workondrying theclothessooner,thus saving energy as wellastime. —Sue Flynn, via email

An applecider bath aday

Dear Heloise: Is bathing in apple cider vinegar agood idea forskin care? —Helen B.,inArizona Helen, apple cider vinegar (ACV) has somegood skin care

applications and somethat are not as good.

n Good to treat with ACV:eczema, dandruffand dry skin.

n Notaseffective: sunburn and athlete’sfoot.

To draw an ACV bath: Fill the tub with warm water and add 2 cups of raw apple cider vinegar Stir and soak for20minutes.

FYI: To get rid of hair product residue, rinse your hair with 1tablespoon of white vinegar added to 1cup water.Your hair will be clean, ﬂuffy and shiny —Heloise Send ahinttoheloise@heloise com.

CURTAINS

Continued from page5C

Textiles and Fabricationsin2002 andhas built ateam of trusted and highly-skilleddesigners to help her Baton Rouge customers design, stylize and bring life to their homespaces

“It’salmost like designing on the spot,” Pitre said. “It can be as little as pillows, or it canbeasmuch as avery expensivehouse in another state.”

However,ashome design trends move fromone extreme to the other,sodocurtain preferences

“Weare seeing more young people see the need for custom window coverings,” Pitre said. “And more people appreciated upholstery andthe little details.” Here’s howtogivehomespaces apick-me-up. Sometimes, custom is best

While ready-made curtains can work, ready-made curtain lengths often do not ﬁt theshape andsize of windows.

Atip from Pitre: makesure the rods purchased online can hold the weightofthe curtains. Oftentimes the hollowed-outcurtain rods, like

telescope rods, can cave in on the middle and be difﬁcult to draw

Ideally,curtainsshouldbehung above the start of the window (eitheratceiling height or halfway between the ceiling and top-ofwindow).

“With ceiling heights getting taller and taller in newer homes,” Pitre said, “most ready-made curtainlengths will look awkwardin homespaces.”

If ahome’swindows are the perfect ﬁt forready-madecurtains, there are waystoincorporate style into thespace.

Little touchestoexistingcurtains

Somecustomersbring in plain whitecurtains into Pitre’s shop and customize trim colors to match other spaces.

“This is wherewecan have fun and get creative,” Pitre said.

In P. Tree’stextile design shop, the store has an entire wall devoted to different bitsand bobs and trims that can be used to jazzupwhite curtains. Fromrufﬂesand pink butterﬂiestomodernolive geometric patterns, the adornmentscan bring life to aplain curtain.

Fightthe fear of patterns

When lookingthrough ahome style magazine,most rooms look

unique, well-curated and designed to perfection

“Thenext time you’re flipping through thepages, count the number of patterns the designers used in that space,” Pitre said. It’s probably going to be morethan you think.”

Onething to look outfor when

ﬁnding the perfect pattern for a space is to look at thepatternwhen it’sfolded like the curtain. The patternand colors of thecurtain may change when adjusting the way the fabric folds.

Combining many colors, textures andpatterns is agreat way to createaunique, personalized space.

Although wallpaper is also on the rise again (as it was popular in the ’90s),Pitre dubs this era of interior design as “new,old-fashion” —a combinationoftraditional silhouettes with modern touches.

“Millennials areinsearch of warmth,especially in more modern homes,” Pitre said. “Bringing in some personality and color withouthavingtopaint walls or replace furniture.”

Cafe curtains,windowtreatments

It’snot just classic draping on the rise, says Tracy Burns, an interior design professoratLSU Cafe curtains androman shades

are also becoming morepopular in homes, especially apartments.

“These shade styles are the perfect waytobring character to smallerspaces,” Burnssaid. “More subtle patterns work better here, like stripesorlargegraphics.”

Thetrends areleaning to grounding spaces with window treatments. One waytodothis without purchasing large curtains is to look at linen cafe curtains or pull-downroman shades.

“Somepeople are even bringing curtains to the bathroom,” Burns said. “Custom showercurtains to bring moodiness to the washroom.”

Don’tforget to make sure the curtains are lined properly,Burns warns.

In the nearly 23 years of business, Pitre has seen manyphases of interior design trends come and go (including theon-and-off-again relationshipwith Pitre’sformer profession, wallpaper). But the new designs and trends aren’texactly “new,” Pitre says.

“Almost anything goes, as long as its madewell.”

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

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Hints from Heloise

Kim Pitre selects fromanarray of trimmings to jazzupplain white curtains, an easy waytobring color into interior design.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Consider money management and how you can lower your costs by doing some of the legwork yourself. Indecisiveness or acting in haste will be your downfall. Get the facts and formulate a plan that checks off the necessary boxes.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Emotions will get you in trouble. Overreacting or acting in haste will backfire Let your creative imagination help you dream and bring about the lifestyle you desire

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Establish what's important to you before you start. Distance yourself from negative people and one-sided partnerships. Treat yourself with respect and expect the same from others.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Declutter your life. Expect someone to criticize you and your lifestyle if you ask for input. Listen, absorb what you hear and work out a plan that fits into your schedule.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22-Jan. 19) Refuse to buy into someone else's dream You perform best when you commit to your vision. Simplify your life by sticking to the people and pastimes that bring you joy and fulfillment.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Align your budget with your plans and enforce change. How you embrace personal growth will also encourage you to connect with people who can match you every step of the way.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Take a moment to review your schedule, lifestyle and

where you see yourself heading. Finding an outlet for anxiety through social events, physical activities or the arts will help you revise how you spend your downtime.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Consider any limitations you face, and devise a plan that will help you eliminate setbacks Staying one step ahead of everyone else is your calling and your way forward.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Don't waste time or energy on something you cannot change. A change may not be wanted, but letting go and moving on will prove beneficial if you look ahead instead of backward.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) You'll crave change and excitement. A friendly encounter with someone will lead to a work-related opportunity. Do your research and present what you can contribute in a colorful manner.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Proceed with caution. Taking on too much will cost you. Make home improvements, domestic situations and personal partnerships an intricate part of your plans.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Communication is your key to success. Let your imagination wander and your ideas dazzle those you encounter. Embrace the future with a passionate attitude, and something good will happen.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

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

TODAy'S CLUE: K EQUALS T

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

peAnUtS

zItS FrAnK And erneSt

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon

bIG nAte

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

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Michel de Montaigne, a 16th-century French essayist, said, “My trade and art is to live.”

A bridge player should live with the “trade” acronym in his mind, whether as declarer or a defender. The second letter stands for read the lead. Third hand should use the information being supplied by the opening lead to guide his defense — as in this example deal.

South is in four spades. West leads the heart two. What should East do after declarer calls for dummy’s three?

Note that South’s jump to four spades almost guarantees at least a five-card suit. Since North can raise to two spades with only three-card support when he has a singleton somewhere, if South has only four spades and sufficient strength at least to try for game, he should rebid in no-trump or another suit. If North has four spades, he will commit to that suit.

(Well, if he is exactly 4-3-3-3 with four weak spades, he might pass out three no-trump.)

There seem to be two ways to try to gain four defensive tricks: one heart and three clubs, hoping declarer has king-third of clubs and West ace-third; or three hearts and one black-suit trick. First, though, what was West’s lead?

His lowest heart, and when a defender leads an unbid suit (at any trick), low

from length guarantees at least one honor in that suit. And given the board, what honor must West hold?

Right — the king. So East should play his jack, expecting to win the trick, cash his heart ace, and play a third heart. Later, West’s spade ace will defeat the contract.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

toDAY’s WoRD — sIGnIFIED: SIG-nih-fye’d: Represented.

Average mark 12 words

Time limit 35 minutes

Can you find 25 or more words in SIGNIFIED?

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

hidato

mallard

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Stocks slip on Wall Street after Friday rally

Stocks on Wall Street closed broadly lower Monday, giving back some of the big gains the market notched last week on hopes for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% and remains near its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.8% lower after setting a record high on Friday The Nasdaq composite closed 0.2% lower

The selling was widespread, with health care stocks among the biggest drags on the market. Pfizer fell 2.9% and Eli Lilly and Co. slid 2.3% Gains for several big technology stocks helped temper the market’s losses. Alphabet, Google’s parent company rose 1.2%. Technology heavyweight Nvidia rose 1%.

Treasury yields rose in the bond market following their big drop on Friday amid expectations that the Fed will cut its benchmark interest rate in September Southwest to charge plus-size travelers

Southwest Airlines will soon require travelers who can’t ﬁt within the armrests of their seat to pay for an extra one in advance, part of a string of recent changes the carrier is making.

The new rule goes into effect

Jan 27, the same day Southwest starts assigning seats

Currently, plus-size passengers can either pay for an extra seat in advance with the option of getting that money back later or they can request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the carrier’s new policy, a refund is still possible but no longer guaranteed.

In a statement Monday, Southwest said it is updating some of its policies as it prepares for assigned seating next year

“To ensure space, we are communicating to Customers who have previously used the extra seat policy that they should purchase it at booking ” the statement said.

It marks the latest change at Southwest, which had long been known for letting its passengers pick their own seats after boarding the plane, and for letting their bags fly for free, which ended in May Those perks were key to differentiating the budget carrier from its rivals.

Southwest says it will still refund a second ticket under its new policy for extra seating if there is at least one open seat on the flight when it departs, and if both of the passenger’s tickets were purchased in the same booking class. The passenger also needs to request the refund within 90 days of the ﬂight.

Google settles YouTube children’s privacy suit

Google has agreed to pay $30 million to settle a long-running lawsuit by parents and their children claiming its YouTube video app collected data from millions of U.S. kids under 13 so it could target them with ads. The Mountain View digital advertising and search giant “manipulated children using their personal information into extending their time on YouTube, which in turn increased the number of targeted advertisements shown to them, and increased the revenue earned by Google,” according to the lawsuit filed in San Jose U.S. District Court.

Google admitted no wrongdoing under the settlement However, in a court filing last year, it argued that the case failed to claim specific losses or allege the YouTube data collection went beyond “routine commercial behavior into highly offensive conduct.” The company, whose annual profits reported to regulators ranged from $12.7 billion in 2013 to $40.3 billion in 2020 during the period covered by the lawsuit, did not respond to questions about the lawsuit and how it currently treats data from YouTube children’s videos.

BY WENDY LEE LosAngelesTimes (TNS)

Elon Musk on Monday ramped up his legal feud with OpenAI as his companies filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and Apple, accusing both of anticompetitive behavior in the artiﬁcial intelligence industry

Apple and OpenAI announced a partnership last year that would allow Apple customers to connect

with OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT on iPhones. Musk’s social media ﬁrm X and artiﬁcial intelligence company X.AI LLC say that the deal has hindered their ability to compete and has locked up markets to maintain what they describe as Apple and OpenAI’s monopolies.

“Plaintiffs bring this suit to stop Defendants from perpetrating their anticompetitive scheme and to recover billions in damages,” according to the lawsuit ﬁled in U.S. District Court in Texas on Monday Musk’s companies, Bastrop, Texasbased X and San Francisco-based xAI, are seeking a permanent injunction against Apple and OpenAI.

The lawsuit adds to a long-running ﬁght between Musk and Ope-

nAI’s Chief Executive Sam Altman. Musk was an early investor in OpenAI but later left its board and started a rival AI business xAI. Musk has an ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of fraud and breach of contract over OpenAI’s efforts to change its corporate structure.

“This latest ﬁling is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” OpenAI said in a statement.

Musk companies’ lawsuit claims ChatGPT has at least an 80% market share in the generative AI chatbot market, whereas xAI’s chatbot Grok has just a few percentage points in market share.

“As a result of Apple and OpenAI’s exclusive arrangement, ChatGPT is the only AI chatbot that ben-

eﬁts from billions of user prompts originating from hundreds of millions of iPhones,” according to xAI’s lawsuit. “This makes it hard for competitors of ChatGPT’s generative AI chatbot and super apps powered by generative AI chatbots to scale and innovate.” xAI has asked to integrate Grok directly with Apple’s software ecosystem, iOS, but hasn’t been allowed to do so, Musk’s companies said in their lawsuit While users can access other AI chatbots on iPhones by using a web browser or downloading an AI chatbot’s app, “those options do not provide the same level of functionality, usability integration, or access to user prompts as ChatGPT’s ﬁrst-party integration with Apple,” the lawsuit says.

BY JENNIFER MCDERMOTT Associated Press

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut faces an uncertain future after the Trump administration abruptly halted construction and the states’ Democratic governors, lawmakers and union workers called Monday for the president to reverse course. The administration said last week that the federal government needs to review the Revolution Wind project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what those concerns are. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management declined to comment further

The developer, Danish energy company Orsted, is evaluating the ﬁnancial impact of stopping construction and considering legal proceedings. And in addition to hampering the state’s climate goals, losing out on all that renewable power could drive up electricity prices throughout the region, Democratic ofﬁcials say

“It’s an attack on our jobs,” Rhode Island Gov Dan McKee said. “It’s an attack on our energy It’s an attack on our families and their ability to pay the bills.”

McKee and the state’s entire congressional delegation gathered at a beach area in North Kingstown, near the project’s logistics and operations hub

Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, drew applause when he directed a message at President Donald Trump: “We’re going to ﬁght you every step of the way no matter how long it takes.”

Meanwhile, Connecticut Gov Ned Lamont and the state’s U.S. senators spoke at State Pier in New London, where components for the wind farm are kept before being taken out to sea.

The project is 80% complete, with all the underwater foundations and 45 out of 65 turbines already installed.

North America’s Building Trades Unions said Trump “just ﬁred 1,000 of our members” who were working on the project

Several people previously scheduled to go back to work on the wind farm this week were in the audience in North Kingstown. Xiomara Lux said she doesn’t know if she

BY DEE-ANN DURBIN AP business writer

Less than a decade after their merger Keurig and Dr Pepper plan to become separate companies again.

Keurig Dr Pepper said Monday it is buying the owner of Peet’s Coffee for $18 billion. Then it will break itself in two, with one company selling coffee and the other selling cold beverages like Snapple, Dr Pepper, 7UP and energy drinks. The agreement unwinds the 2018

has a job now Antonio Gianfrancesco is worried about paying his bills and helping his family Lucialino Gomes said this job is the best he’s had.

Tony Vaz, a rope access technician, asked the politicians to fight for the wind farm because “we need to get out there and keep working.”

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island disputed the administration’s rationale for stopping the work.

The Defense Department was involved in reviewing the project, as with all offshore wind development, to avoid conﬂicts with military operations and training.

“It’s not about national security It’s about the president’s insecurity,” said Reed, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects.

Those include reviewing wind and solar energy permits, canceling plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and stopping work on another offshore wind project for New York, although construction was later allowed to resume.

Large, ocean-based wind farms are the linchpin of government plans to shift to renewable energy, particularly in East Coast states with large populations and limited land for wind turbines or solar arrays. Revolution Wind is expected to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s ﬁrst large offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes. Power would be provided at a rate of 9.8 cents per kilowatt hour, locked in for 20 years. That’s cheaper than the average cost of electricity in New England.

The project site is more than 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast, 32 miles southeast of the Connecticut coast and 12 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Rhode Island is already home to the ﬁve-turbine Block Island Wind Farm.

The Trump administration previously stopped work on Empire Wind, the New York offshore wind project. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it appeared former President Joe Biden’s administration had “rushed through” the approvals, although the developer Equinor spent seven years obtaining permits. Construction was allowed to resume in May after two of the state’s Democratic leaders, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Gov Kathy Hochul, intervened.

merger of Keurig and Dr Pepper Shares of Keurig Dr Pepper fell 11.5% in afternoon trading Monday

Investors were concerned about the company’s plan to ﬁnance the acquisition with a mix of cash and debt. S&P Global placed Keurig Dr Pepper on a credit watch with negative implications Monday, saying it was concerned about the increase in debt and the complexity of the two-step transaction.

Keurig Dr Pepper CEO Timothy Cofer said the separate coffee and beverage businesses would be more nimble and better able to focus on growth opportunities in their own markets.

“Following the separation, each stand-alone entity will lead its industry with a sharp strategic focus and with operating models that are

finely calibrated to their unique categories and markets,” Cofer said Monday during a conference call with investors. The combination with Peet’s parent JDE Peet’s, which is based in Amsterdam, signiﬁcantly expands Keurig’s presence beyond North America, where it’s known for its single-serve coffee machines. JDE Peet’s owns the brands L’OR, Jacobs, Douwe Egberts, Kenco, Pilao, OldTown, Super and Moccona.

Cofer said the combined coffee business will generate $16 billion in annual net sales. The combined buying power will help Keurig and Peet’s compete with other large coffee players like Nestle and Starbucks, especially as rising demand and poor weather conditions push coffee prices near record highs. Cofer said the coffee company

will also be able to focus on meeting demand, especially in developing markets. Around 40% of the company’s sales will come from North America, 40% from Europe and 20% from emerging markets.

“We like, and I like, the coffee category Why? It’s huge. It’s ubiquitous,” Cofer said. “Obviously, we’ve up to this point focused on North America But the global data shows coffee is consistently growing on a volume basis above population.”

The merger could also help the company cushion the impact of U.S. tariffs. President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff this summer on most imports from Brazil — the world’s leading coffee producer — for an investigation of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally