The Times-Picayune 10-14-2025 by The Advocate

Hostages, prisoners freedby Hamas, Israel

Complexissuesremainfor ceasefire in Gaza war

BY MELANIELIDMAN,SAMYMAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press

JERUSALEM Israel and Hamas moved ahead on akey ﬁrststep of the tenuous Gaza ceaseﬁre agreement on Monday by freeing hostages and prisoners, raising hopes that the U.S.-brokered deal might lead to apermanentend to the twoyear war that ravagedthe Palestinian territory

ä Trump calls for anew eraof harmonyinthe Middle East.

PAGE 3A

But thornierissues such as whetherHamas willdisarmand who will govern Gaza —and the question of Palestinian statehood— remain unresol ve d, highlighting the fragility of an agreement that for now only pauses the deadliest conﬂict in the historyofIsrael and the Palestinians.

For Israelis, the release of the20 remaining living hostages brought elation and asense of closure to a war many felt they were forced into by Hamas, although many pledged to ﬁght on forthe return of deceased hostages still in Gaza

But withthe living hostages freed, the urgency with which manywere driven to call for an endto the war will likely diminish, easing pres-

Developeraimsto revitalize ‘Dirty Dozen’ property

BY ANTHONY McAULEY Staff writer

One of Canal Street’smost notorious

eyesores —adecaying officeblock oncelisted among the city’s“Dirty Dozen” blighted properties —could soon be reborn as a$50 million health and wellness complex. Developer David Fuselier —whose projects include the transformation of the historic Our LadyofLourdes

sure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance thenext phases of the agreement.

Four deceased hostages were returned to Israel on Monday,and another24are supposed to be turned over as part of the ﬁrst phase of the ceaseﬁre, which also requires Israel to allow asurge of food and other humanitarianaid into Gaza.

While there was an outburst of joy in Gaza for prisoners returning from Israel and hope that the ﬁghting may wind down forgood,

the tormentdragsonfor war-weary Palestinians.Gazahas been decimated by Israelibombardment; there is little left of its prewar economy,basic services are in disarray andmanyhomes have been destroyed. It remains unclear who will pay for reconstruction, aprocess that could take years. President Donald Trump traveled to theregion to celebrate thedeal. In an addresstoIsrael’s parliament,

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LETHAL HEAT

LOUISIANA’S QUIET DISASTER

church on Napoleon Avenue into the newly opened Josephine on Napoleon venue, operated by the Brennan restaurantgroup —said he and his partners have acquired about half the cityblock bordered by Canal, Iberville,South Prieur andNorth Johnson streets. The accumulated properties are centered on thegraffiti-scarred building at 2025 Canal St., which has been deterioratingfor decades.

“Wehavebeendeveloping aproject on CanalStreet across fromUMC hospital for quite sometime,” Fuselier said. “It’sahealth and wellnessfacility,and we’ve alreadycompleted most of thedemoand prep work. This will be atruecommunity health and ﬁtness

center —aplace that brings people together and offers awhole host of ways to becomehealthy and active.”

City officials have previously described2025 Canal as a“gateway” propertythatsets thetone forthe approach into downtown.Ifsuccessful, Fuselier’sproject could finally turn one of New Orleans’ mostvisible symbols of urban decline intoanew hub of healthand vitality.

Fuselier said the project is eligible for acombination of redevelopment incentives —including Opportunity Zonestatus, historic tax credits, a property taxabatement and afederal

BY SAM KARLIN Staff writer

Louisiana summers are not only getting hotter

They’re also getting longer

Temperatures of 90 Fare lasting as much as three weeks longer in cities across Louisiana, according to data from thenonproﬁtClimate Central. It’s thelatest example of how Louisiana summers are growing increasingly hot and dangerous, posing deadly health risks and raising electric bills to unaffordable levels forAmerica’spoorest state.

Baton Rouge is seeing the mostadditional days with summer temperatures in the state, as the city’ssummershave gotten 21 days longer between 1970 and 2024, according to the report. Lafayette is seeing 17 extra summer daysand NewOrleans is experiencing 11 moredays of hot temperatures each year

“Research shows and tells us if heat-trapping pollution keeps rising, summer temperatures will keep stretching later and later,” said Shel Winkley, aweatherand climate engagement specialist at ClimateCentral and aformer meteorologist forthe College Station, Texas, CBS afﬁliate. “And that heat matters …for kids and outdoor workers when it comes to health risks.Wehaveincreased energy demandfor air conditioning.”

Therisingtemperatures arelargely the result of decades of greenhouse gas emissions, which Louisiana’s

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

Former Gov. John Bel Edwards on Monday dashed the dreamsofDemocrats whohoped he would jump into next year’sU.S. Senate race.

Edwards said he will stay out of an election where Sen. Bill Cassidy,R-Baton Rouge,isfacing astrong challenge from four other Republicans.

Edwards had never shownany interest in running.

“Most of the energy wasnot coming from his inclination to run. It wascoming from our interest in him running,” said Randal Gaines, the Louisiana Democratic Party chair.“That wasour ﬁrst hope.”

Edwards acknowledged receiving numerous

ä See EDWARDS, page 4A

buildingat2025

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

The

Canal St. is one of the city’s most notorious eyesores.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

People gather to greet freed Palestinian prisoners arriving on buses in the Gaza Strip after their release from Israeli jails on Monday

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ODEDBALILTy

People react as they gather to watcha livebroadcastofIsraeli hostages being released from Gaza at aplaza known as Hostages Square in TelAviv,Israel, on Monday.

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

4 booked in connection to Mississippi shooting

Three people have been arrested on murder charges and a fourth person on an attempted murder charge in a weekend shooting that left six dead and more than a dozen injured in a small Mississippi town, the FBI announced Monday

Teviyon L. Powell 29, William Bryant, 29, and Morgan Lattimore, 25, have been charged with capital murder, while Latoya A. Powell, 44, has been charged with attempted murder in the mass shooting, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Jackson Field Ofﬁce said.

It was not immediately clear whether they have attorneys.

The Associated Press left a voicemail with the Washington County Public Defender’s Ofﬁce asking if its attorneys are representing the defendants.

The shooting, which came as people celebrated homecoming weekend in downtown Leland shortly after a high school football game, was the deadliest of several shootings across Mississippi over the weekend. Other shootings were reported at two Mississippi universities on Saturday, as those schools celebrated their homecoming weekends. Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive for Friday night’s shooting in Leland, but the FBI said the gunﬁre appears to have been “sparked by a disagreement among several individuals.”

Official: Madagascar’s president fled country

ANTANANARIVO,Madagascar Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina left the country after an elite military unit turned against the government in an apparent coup that followed weeks of youth-led protests, an opposition lawmaker in the Indian Ocean country said Monday The lawmaker’s comments came shortly before Rajoelina was due to appear on national television and radio to make a speech to the people of Madagascar The president’s office said his speech was scheduled to be broadcast at 7 p.m., but was delayed after a group of soldiers attempted to take over the state broadcaster His ofﬁce didn’t say if he was still in Madagascar amid reports he had ﬂed on Sunday on a French military plane.

The anti-government protests, which were initially led by GenZ demonstrators, began on Sept. 25, but reached a turning point on Saturday when soldiers from the elite CAPSAT military unit accompanied protesters to a square in the capital, Antananarivo, and called for Rajoelina and several ofﬁcials to step down.

Naked bike riders protest in Portland, Ore.

PORTLAND,Ore. Protesters rallying against the Trump administration in Portland put the city’s quirky and irreverent reputation on display Sunday by pedaling through the streets wearing absolutely nothing — or close to it — in an “emergency” edition of the annual World Naked Bike Ride.

Crowds that have gathered daily and nightly outside the immigration facility in Oregon’s largest city in recent days have embraced the absurd, donning inﬂatable frog, unicorn, axolotl and banana costumes as they face off with federal law enforcement who often deploy tear gas and pepper balls.

The bike ride is an annual tradition that usually happens in the summer, but organizers of this weekend’s hastily called event said another nude ride was necessary to speak out against President Donald Trump’s attempts to mobilize the National Guard to quell protests.

Rider Janene King called the nude ride a “quintessentially Portland way to protest.”

The 51-year-old was naked except for wool socks, a wig and a hat. She sipped hot tea and said she was unbothered by the steady rain and temperatures in the mid-50s.

Bike riders made their way through the streets and to the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. Authorities there ordered people to stay out of the street and protest only on sidewalks or risk being arrested.

Johnson: Shutdown may be longest ever

BY LISA MASCARO AP congressional correspondent

WASHINGTON Republican Speaker Mike Johnson predicted Monday the federal government shutdown may become the longest in history, saying he “won’t negotiate” with Democrats until they hit pause on their health care demands and reopen.

Standing alone at the Capitol on the 13th day of the shutdown, the speaker said he was unaware of the details of the thousands of federal workers being ﬁred by the Trump administration. It’s a highly unusual mass layoff widely seen as way to seize on the shutdown to reduce the scope of government. Vice President JD Vance has warned of “painful” cuts ahead, even as employee unions sue.

“We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history,” Johnson, R-Benton, said.

With no endgame in sight, the shutdown is expected to roll on for the unforeseeable future. The closure has halted routine government operations, shuttered Smithsonian museums and other landmark cultural institutions and left airports scrambling with ﬂight disruptions, all injecting more uncertainty into an already precarious economy.

The House is out of legislative session, with Johnson refusing to recall lawmakers back to Washington, while the Senate closed Monday for the federal holiday, will return to work Tuesday But senators are stuck in a cul-de-sac of failed votes as Democrats refuse to relent on their health care demands

Johnson thanked President Donald Trump for ensuring military personnel are paid this week, which removed one main pressure point that may have pushed the parties to the negotiating table. The Coast Guard is also receiving pay, a senior administration official confirmed Monday. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss plans that have yet to be formally rolled out.

At its core, the shutdown is a debate over health care policy — and particularly the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are expiring for millions of Americans who rely on government aid to purchase their own health insurance policies on the Obam-

acare exchanges. Democrats demand the subsidies be extended, Republicans argue the issue can be dealt with later

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said with Republicans having essentially shutdown the chamber now for a fourth week, no real negotiations are underway They’re “nowhere to be found,” he said on MSNBC.

With Congress and the White House stalemated, some are eyeing the end of the month as the next potential deadline to reopen government

That’s when open enrollment begins, Nov. 1, for the health program at issue, and Americans will face the prospect of skyrocketing insurance premiums. The Kaiser Family Foundation has estimated that monthly costs would double if Congress fails to renew the subsidy payments that expire Dec. 31.

It’s also when government workers on monthly pay schedules, including thousands of House aides, will go without paychecks.

The health care debate has dogged Congress ever since the Affordable Care Act became law under then-President Barack Obama in 2010.

The country went through a 16-day government shutdown during the Obama presidency when Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act 2013.

Trump tried to “repeal and replace” the law, commonly known as Obamacare, during his ﬁrst term, in 2017, with a Republican majority in the House and Senate. That effort failed when then-Sen John McCain memorably voted a thumbs down on the plan.

With 24 million now enrolled in Obamacare, a record, Johnson said Monday that Republicans are unlikely to go that route again, noting he still has “PTSD” from that botched moment

“Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare? Many of us are skeptical about that now because the roots are so deep,” Johnson said.

The Republican speaker insists his party has been willing to discuss the health care issue with Democrats this fall, before the subsidies expire at the end of the year But ﬁrst, he said, Democrats have to agree to reopen the government

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy to visit Washington

BY HANNA ARHIROVA and DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press

KYIV Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he will travel to the United States this week for talks on the potential U.S. provision of long-range weapons, a day after U.S President Donald Trump warned Russia he may send Kyiv long-range Tomahawk missiles

A meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump could take place as early as Friday, the Ukrainian president said, adding that he also would meet with defense and energy companies and members of Congress.

“The main topics will be air defense and our long-range capabilities, to maintain pressure on Russia,” Zelenskyy said.

He spoke at a meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas. He said he also would seek further U.S. assistance to protect Ukraine’s electricity and gas networks, which have faced relentless Russian bombardment.

The U.S. visit follows what Zelenskyy described as a “very productive” phone call with Trump on Sunday Trump later warned Russia that he may send Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles if Mos-

N.C. GOP announce plans to vote on new House map

BY GARY D ROBERTSON Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Republican legislative leaders announced plans Monday to vote next week on redrawing the state’s U.S. House district map, making theirs the latest state to embrace President Donald Trump’s call to secure more GOP seats nationwide and resist rival moves by Democrats.

The push to retool already right-leaning boundaries for the ninth-largest state comes amid an emerging mid-decade battle nationally between the major parties seeking advantage in the way House districts are drawn in several states for the 2026 midterm elections.

North Carolina Republicans already created a map in 2023 that resulted in GOP candidates winning 10 of the state’s 14 U.S. House seats in 2024. That division compared to the 7-7 seat split between Democrats and the GOP under the map used in 2022. Now only one of the House districts —- the 1st District currently represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis —- is considered a true swing district and could be targeted by the GOP for an 11th seat. Davis won a second term last year by less than 2 percentage points, so shifting slightly portions of the district covering nearly 20 northeastern counties could help a Republican candidate in a strong GOP year

A news release from the state’s top Republican legislators said their planned action follows Trump’s “call urging legislatures across the country to take action to nullify Democrat redistricting efforts.” Davis wasn’t mentioned by name.

Trump “earned a clear mandate from the voters of North Carolina and the rest of the country, and we intend to defend it by drawing an additional Republican Congressional seat,” House Speaker Destin Hal

said in the release. Trump has won North Carolina’s electoral votes all three times that he’s been on the presidential ballot.

But state House Democratic leader Robert Reives said Monday his GOP colleagues “are stealing a congressional district in order to shield themselves from accountability at the ballot box.”

Trump kick-started the national redistricting battle this summer by calling upon Republican-led Texas to reshape its U.S. House districts so that the GOP could win more seats in next year’s elections.

After overcoming a Democratic walkout, Texas lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional districts to give Republicans a shot at winning ﬁve more seats.

Democrats in California reciprocated by passing their own redistricting plan aimed at helping Democrats win five additional seats. Then lawmakers in Republican-led Missouri approved revised U.S House districts intended to help Republicans win an additional seat there. Other states also are considering redistricting, including Republican-led Indiana and Kansas.

Some North Carolina GOP lawmakers focused complaints Monday on California Gov Gavin Newsom, who advanced his state’s redistricting effort.

“Picking up where Texas left off, we will hold votes in our October session to redraw North Carolina’s congressional map to ensure Gavin Newsom doesn’t decide the congressional majority,” Senate leader Phil Berger said. North Carolina lawmakers already had planned to return to Raleigh on Oct. 20 for a session lasting up to four days. Republicans hold majorities in both General Assembly chambers and redistricting plans aren’t subject to Democratic Gov Josh Stein’s veto stamp. Candidate ﬁling for 2026 is supposed to begin Dec. 1.

this week

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens Monday as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas speaks during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine.

cow doesn’t settle its war there soon. The missiles would allow Ukraine to strike deeper into Russian territory Moscow has expressed “extreme concern” over the U.S. potentially providing Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has previously suggested that the U.S. supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine would seriously damage relations between Moscow and Washington.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, praises President Donald Trump’s peacemaking efforts leading to a ceasefire pausing two years of war in the Gaza Strip on Monday at the Capitol in Washington.

Trumpurges Mideastleaders to put‘oldfeuds’aside

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press

SHARM EL SHEIKH,Egypt Pres-

ident Donald Trump called for anew era of harmony in the Middle East on Monday during aglobal summit on Gaza’s future, trying to advance broader peace in the region after visiting Israel to celebrateaU.S.-brokered ceaseﬁre with Hamas.

“Wehave aonce-in-alifetime chance to put the old feuds and bitterhatreds behind us,” Trump said, and he urged leaders “to declare that our future will not be ruled by the ﬁghts of generations past.”

The whirlwindtrip, which included the summit in Egypt and aspeech at the Knesset in Jerusalem earlier in the day,comes at afragile moment of hope for ending two years of war between Israel and Hamas.

“Everybody said it’snot possible to do. And it’sgoing to happen. Anditishappening before your very eyes,” Trump said alongside Egyptian PresidentAbdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Nearly three dozen countries, including some from Europe and the Middle East, were represented at the summit. Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu was invitedbut declined, withhis ofﬁce saying it was too close to aJewish holiday Trump, el-Sissi,Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan andQatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad AlThani signed adocument that Trumpsaid would lay the groundwork for Gaza’s future. However,acopy was notmade public.

Despite unanswered questions about next steps in the Palestinian enclave, which hasbeen devastatedduring theconﬂict,Trump isdetermined to seize an opportunity to chaseanelusive regionalharmony He expressed asimilar sense of finality aboutthe Israel-Hamas war in his speech at the Knesset, which welcomed him asa hero.

“You’ve won,” he told Israeli lawmakers. “Now it is time to translate these victoriesagainstterrorists on the battleﬁeld into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for theentire Middle East.”

Trump promised tohelp rebuild Gaza,and he urged Palestinians to “turnforever from the path of terror and violence.”

“Aftertremendous pain and deathand hardship,” he said,“nowisthe time to concentrate on building their peopleupinsteadof trying to tear Israel down.”

Trump evenmade agesture to Iran, where he bombed three nuclear sites during the country’sbrief

3missing,dozens

rescuedafter typhoon’s remnants slam Alaska Presidentcalls fornew eraof

Nor’easter brings flooding to East Coast

BY BECKY BOHRER and SARAH BRUMFIELD Associated Press

JUNEAU,Alaska— Three people were missing in western Alaska on Monday,and more than 50 had been rescued —some plucked from rooftops —after the remnants of Typhoon Halong over the weekend brought hurricane-force winds and ravaging storm surges and floodwaters that swept some homes away, authorities said.

Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continuedsupport for the hardest-hit communitieswithwinter just around the corner.AU.S. Coast Guard ofﬁcial, Capt Christopher Culpepper, described the situation in the villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok as “absolute devastation.”

Elsewhere in theU.S., severe weather killed a woman in New York City who was struck by asolar panel, and the Columbus Day Parade there also was canceled. Rescuers in the Phoenix area foundthe body of aman whose truck was swept away by ﬂoodwaters, and crews in southern California prepared for potential mudslides in ﬁre-ravaged areas.

Alaska State Troopers said at least 51 people and two dogs were rescued in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok after the storm system walloped the communities. Both areassaw signiﬁcant storm surge, according to the National Weather Service. Three peopleremained unaccounted for in Kwigillingok, troopers said, and the agency was trying to conﬁrm secondhand reportsofpeople who were unaccounted for in Kipnuk. Accordingtothe nonprofit Coastal Villages Region Fund, mostofthe residents in both communities had taken shelter in localschools. In addition to housing concerns, residents impacted by the system across the region reported impacts such as power outages, alack of running water,subsistence foods

PresidentDonald Trumpand Egypt’sPresident Abdel Fattah el-Sissi hold signed documents Mondayduring asummit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after abreakthroughceasefire dealinSharmElSheikh, Egypt.

war with Israel earlier this year,bysaying “the hand of friendshipand cooperationis always open.”

Trump arrived in Egypt hours late because speeches at the Knessetcontinued longer thanexpected.

“They might not be there by the time Iget there,but we’ll give it ashot,”Trump joked after needling Israeli leaders for talking so much.

Twenty hostageswerereleased Mondayaspart of an agreementintendedtoend the war that began on Oct. 7, 2023,withanattackby Hamas-ledmilitants. Trump talked with some of their families at theKnesset

“Yourname will be remembered to generations,” awoman told him.

Israeli lawmakers chanted

Trump’sname and gave him standing ovation after standing ovation.Some people in the audience worered hats that resembledhis “Make America Great Again” caps, although these versions said “Trump, The Peace President.”

NetanyahuhailedTrump as “the greatestfriend Israel has ever hadinthe White House,” and he promised to work with him going forward.

“Mr.President,you are committed to this peace. I am committedtothis peace,” he said. “Andtogether,Mr. President, we will achieve this peace.”

Trump, in an unexpected detour during his speech, called on the Israeli president to pardonNetanyahu, whom he describedas“one

of thegreatest” wartime leaders. Netanyahu faces corruption charges, although several hearings have been postponed during the conﬂict with Hamas.

TheRepublicanpresident also used theopportunity to settle political scores and thank his supporters, criticizing Democratic predecessors and praising atop donor, Miriam Adelson, in the audience.

The moment remains fragile, with Israel and Hamas still in theearly stages of implementing the ﬁrst phase of Trump’splan.

The first phase of the ceasefire agreement calls forthe releaseofthe final hostages held by Hamas; the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel; a

surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza; anda partial pullback by Israeliforces from Gaza’s main cities.

Trump has said there’sa windowtoreshape theregionand reset long-fraught relations betweenIsrael and its Arab neighbors.

“The war is over,OK?” Trump told reporters traveling withhim aboard Air Force One.

“I think people are tired of it,” he said, emphasizing that he believed the ceasefire would hold because of that. He said the chance of peace was enabled by his Republican administration’s support of Israel’s decimation of Iranian proxies, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The White House said momentum is also building because Arab and Muslim states are demonstrating a renewed focusonresolving the broader,decadeslong Israeli-Palestinian conﬂict and, in some cases,deepening relations with the United States. In February,Trump had predicted that Gaza could be redeveloped into what he called“theRiviera of the Middle East.” But on Sunday aboard Air Force One, he wasmore circumspect.

“I don’tknowabout the Riviera forawhile,” Trump said. “It’sblasted. This is like ademolition site.” But he said he hoped to one day visit the territory.“I’d like to put my feet on it, at least,” he said.

3researchers winNobel economicsprize

BY KOSTYA MANENKOV, CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, MIKE CORDER and DAVID MCHUGH Associated Press

stocked in freezers ruined and damage to home-heating stoves.

Jamie Jenkins, 42, who lives in another hard-hit community,Napakiak, said the storm was “the worst I’ve ever seen.” She described howling winds and fast-rising waters Sunday morning.

Her mother —whose nearby home shifted on its foundation —and aneighborwhose homeflooded cameover to Jenkins’ place. They tried to wait out the storm, she said, but when the waters reached their topstairs, theygot in aboat and evacuated to the school.

Jenkins said “practically the whole community” was there. The men in town gatheredtheir boats and wenttohousetohouse to pickupanyone elsewho was still in their homes, she said. Jenkinswas volunteering Monday, bringing food to peopleinneed.

Adaline Pete, wholives in another community, Kotlik,saidshe hadnever experienced winds so strongbefore. An unoccupied house next door ﬂippedover, butshe said her familyfelt safe in their home and felt fortunateinthe storm’saftermath.

During anews conference organized by Gov Mike Dunleavy,Alaska’s two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, saidtheywould continue to focusonclimate resilience and infrastructure funds for Alaska. Sullivan said it was the congressional delegation’s job to ensure the Trump administration and their colleagues understood the importanceofsuchfunds. Earlier this year,the Federal Emergency Management Agencysaiditwould end aprogram aimed at mitigating disaster risks. Thedecision is being challengedincourt Murkowskisaiderosion mitigation projectstake time to complete.“But our reality is, we are seeingthese storms coming certainly on amore frequent basis, and the intensity that we’reseeing seems to be accumulating as well, and so thetime to act on it is now because it’s going to take us some time to get these in place,” she said of such projects.

STOCKHOLM Three researchers who probed the process of business innovationwon the Nobel memorial prize in economics Monday for explaining how new productsand inventions promote economic growthand human welfare,evenastheyleave older companies in the dust. Their work was credited with helping economists better understand howideas andtechnology succeed by disrupting established ways—aprocess as old as steam locomotives replacing horse-drawn wagons and as contemporary as ecommerceshuttering shopping malls

The award was shared by Dutch-born Joel Mokyr,79, who is at Northwestern University; PhilippeAghion, 69, who works at the Collège de France and the London School of Economics; and Canadian-born Peter Howitt, 79, who is at Brown University.

The winners were credited with better explaining and quantifying “creative destruction,” akey concept in economics that refers to the process in which new innovations replace —and thus destroy —older technologies and businesses.

The concept is usually associatedwitheconomist Joseph Schumpeter,who outlineditinhis 1942 book “Capitalism, Socialismand Democracy.” Schumpeter called the concept“theessential fact about capitalism.”

The Nobel committee said Mokyr“demonstrated that if innovations are to succeed one another in aself-generating process, we not only need to knowthatsomething works, but we also need to have scientiﬁc explanations for why.”

Aghion andHowitt studied themechanisms behind sustained growth,including in a1992 articlethatoffered a complexmathematical model for creative destruction that added new aspects not included in earlier models

Examples of creative destruction include e-commerce disrupting retail, streaming services replacingvideocassette andDVD rentals and internet advertising undermining newspaper advertising. Aclassic illustration is horse-cart whip makers put outofbusiness by theautomobile.

“The laureates’ work

shows that economicgrowth cannot be taken for granted. We must uphold the mechanismsthat underlie creative destruction, so that we do not fall back into stagnation,” said John Hassler, chair of the committee for the prize in economic sciences.

Howitt andAghion’smodel showed that markets with too few dominant companies can hinder innovation and growth—aconcernthathas been raised about industries such as telecommunications,

in economicdata, but they still providedenormous beneﬁts.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2015, he cited the music streaming service Spotify as an example of an “absolutely astonishing” innovation that economists had difficulty measuring. Mokyrnoted he once owned morethan 1,000 CDs and, before that, “I spenta largeamountofmy graduate student budgeton vinyl records.” Butnow he

could accessa huge music libraryfor asmall monthly fee. Mokyr,whose work stresses theneedtobeopento innovation and change, acknowledged that the disruptionfromnew inventions often causedatleastshortterm job loss or reduced earningsfor workers. Like many economists, he argued thatthe innovations also created new,unexpected jobs that offered fresh opportunities.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByEVANVUCCI

oil and petrochemical sectors have contributedan outsized share, according to climate scientists and reports by the state.Louisiana makes up about 1.4% of the U.S. population but around 4.1% of its greenhouse gas emissions,accordingtothe most recent stateinventory

That report, from 2021, found overall greenhouse gas emissions wereslightly declininginLouisiana The state developed aclimateaction plantoreduce emissions under Gov.John Bel Edwards, though the fate of the effort to reduce emissions has becomeless clearamid President Donald Trump’srollbackofclimate action andGov.Jeff Landry’selection to the state’shighest ofﬁce.

And, paradoxically,recent cuts in air pollution are likely making it even hotter Particles that polluters released,knownasaerosols, masked some of the effects of climate change for years by reflecting sunlight.In otherwords, the releaseof these aerosols into the atmosphere has cooled the planet over the past century,and recent regulations tamping down on them havereversed that trend.

LONGER SUMMERS

In Louisiana,the consequences of rising heat are stark. Residents, often elderly, aredying in theirhomes without adequate air conditioning,outside mowing the lawn or under overpasses in acity where ubiquitous concrete creates aheat island effect thatmakesNew Orleans sweltering. Areport by theEnvironmentalProtection Agency found heat waves are getting longer in NewOrleans thanany city in the nation. And the city’s tree canopy is struggling

to cool it down amid hurricanes, damagingconstruction and ambivalence among residents.

“Things aregetting worse,” said Barry Keim, director of the environmentalhealth, climateand sustainability programatLSU HealthSciences Center New Orleans. “It’slikely to continue to get worse.”

Emissionsbring heat

The primarycause of hotterand longer summersis

greenhouse gasemissions, which have raised global temperatures by morethan 1degree Celsius, according to themostrecentreport of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. These gasestrap heat in the atmosphere,warming theglobe and causing more intense hurricanes, rainfall, drought,wildﬁresand more.

“Decreasing carbon emissions is paramount to minimizing theseverity of

global climate change, and its impact on Louisiana residents,” according to ahazard mitigation plan released last year by the Governor’s OfﬁceofHomelandSecurity and Emergency Preparedness. The plannotes that temperature increases depend, in large part, on how much humans continue to release emissions. Under ahigh emissions scenario, “historically unprecedented warming” is projected for Louisiana by the end of the century,according to the report.

As reﬁneries, coal plants anda host of other industrial processes caused an explosionofgreenhousegases over thepast century,they produced acurious, unintended consequence.

Pollutionparadox

Many of the particles polluters released, aerosols, lingered in the atmosphere and reﬂected sunlight away from the earth. In somecases, the aerosols absorbed it. This hada paradoxical effect on global temperatures. Whilethe greenhousegases caused temperatures to rise, the aerosols that came from them also masked that effect, agrowing body of research suggests.Thatmade temperatures cooler,aphenomenon known as “global dimming.”

Greeta

Persad, assistant professor at the Department

of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Texas, said theparticles counteracted aboutonethird to one-half of allwarming from greenhouse gases during the industrial era. Without those pollutants, temperatures could have increased by up to 50% Persad said.

In recent decades, improved air quality lawshave led to adramatic decline in someofthe pollutants that mask the effects of climate change.

It’s“very well established that we’re seeing warming because of this,” Persad said.

Health experts widely agree that regulating air qualityand removing pollutants is wellworth the tradeoff, noting that improving air quality strengthens health outcomes and saves lives for people near emitters.

“Weknowthese aerosol pollutants are detrimental to public health,” Persad said.“They causemillions of deaths each year.” Still, thedynamic is raising theprospect that climatechange will accelerate in the coming decades, even as governments around the world worktoreduceemissions.

“That’sahuge lurking beast in how rapidly these climate risks aregoing to accelerate going forward,” Persad said.

entreaties to do so, less than two years after ending his two-term governorship.

The New York Times reported earlier this year that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer the Democratic minority leader,was among those who wanted him to run.

“After giving it careful consideration, we havedecided that now is not the right time to re-enter public office,” Edwards saidina statement from him and his wife, Donna.“After eight years in the Governor’sOfﬁce, and with two grandbabies at home, we’re committed to being the best Papa and Nonna we can be.”

The former governor has been practicing law in New Orleans and Hammond.

“Weaccomplished so much to rebuild our statebecause —unlike Washington, D.C. —weworked with anyone, of any political party to Put Louisiana First,” Edwards said. “As acountry, the path we’re headed down is troubling, to say the very least. Ihope that in next year’selection, the people of Louisiana will reject the extremist politicians that haveparalyzed progress in this nation. I’m goingtodo all Ican as aprivatecitizen to advance that cause as best Ican.”

It’snot clear yet which Democrat will stepup, with qualifying scheduled to take place in mid-January.

State Sen. Jay Luneau, DAlexandria,saidheisstill considering whether to run He declined to identify

to separatehim from the national Democratic Party

I’m not terribly surprised he decided against running.”

Edwards was elected governor in 2015 and reelected in 2019 by focusing on issues important to Louisiana voters andsteering clear of divisive national Democratic issues.

Otherthan those two Edwards victories, Republicans have dominated Louisiana elections. Republicans hold all six statewide ofﬁces and atwo-thirds majority in thestate Legislature.

Logan Wolf, aDemocratic activist in Baton Rouge,recently attracted attention for having“Edwards for Senate” yard signs printed at an Ofﬁce Depot store.

he or won’the?’ It’stime for us to chartanew path forward,”Wolf said.

The Republican winner of theApril primary will be heavily favoredagainstany Democrat.

Besides Cassidy,the other Republicansare state Sen. Blake Miguez of New Iberia; Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta; state TreasurerJohn Fleming; and, mostlyrecently,St. TammanyParish Council member KathySeiden.

At least one other Republican is expected to jump into therace.

Edwards had signaled that he was unlikely to makea bid for Cassidy’sSenate seat in aforum at McNeese State in April.

“In Louisiana, it’s pretty clear to me aDemocrat couldn’twin statewide running forgovernor or any other ofﬁce if theytook the national party platform forthe most recentpresidentialelection and said, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ ”Edwards said, according to Times-Picayune |The Advocate columnist Stephanie Grace, whomoderated theevent. “I do believe …partisan-

shipcomes intoplaymore in afederal election than in a stateelection, andI’veseen it with really good friends of mine,” Edwardscontinued. “(Conservative Democrat) Steve Bullock was avery successful, popular Montana governor.Hecouldn’t win the Senate election in aRepublican state. …In Maryland, Larry Hogan was atremendously successful, popularRepublican governor in aDemocraticstate. He ranfor theSenate, he could not win. And Ireally think that that samesort of thing is true in Louisiana.”

the factors he is considering but said he will announce his plans “sooner rather than later.”

No othermajorDemocrat hasexpressedaninterest in running.

“Wehave suitable candidates who are considering it,” Gainessaid. “But we don’thaveadeep bench on this. We hope we can ﬁnd a young person who wantsto start off their career with a real challenge.”

AnyDemocrat would be an underdog against the winner of the Republican Senateprimary,said John Couvillon, aBaton Rougebased pollster and political analyst.

“If he as aDemocrat weretorun forthe Senate, hewould suddenlybe juxtaposed against Chuck Schumer,” Couvillon said.

“It would be very difficult

Wolf saidhewas disappointed that Edwards decided not to makethe race but said it clears the way for another Democrat to run.

“Noother Democrathas announced because he was filling ahuge void of ‘will

Staffgraphic by DANSWENSON

he urged lawmakers to seize a chance for broader peace in theregion. In Egypt, he and other world leadersgathered to set thetrickier parts of the deal into motion.

Netanyahu, who accordingtohis ofﬁce did not join the meeting in Egypt because of aJewish holiday, told parliament that he was committed to the agreement, saying it “ends the war by achieving all our objectives.” Israel had said it would not end the war until all the hostages were freed andHamas wasdefeated. Criticsaccused Netanyahu of allowing the war to drag on for political reasons, which he denied.

The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, when militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 captives. Israel’sretaliatory campaign killed more than 67,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry,which does notdifferentiate between combatants and civilians in its count. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. Its ﬁgures are seen as a reliable estimate by the U.N. and many independent experts.

The war has rippled across the Middle East, with conﬂict erupting between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen and Iran itself.

Israelis watched with jubilation in public screenings attended by thousandsasthe 20 living hostages, all male, reunitedwith their families. Crowds broke into cheers, as tears of joy streamed downrelieved faces.

CANAL

Continued from page1A

NewMarkets allocation making it one of the most financiallystructured and potentially transformative developments proposedfor the corridor in years. He envisions the site as afamily-oriented medicalﬁtness complex, to be called “The Health Collective Wellness and Fitness Center.” Cooper Wellness Strategies, aunit of the Cooper Aerobics of Dallas, conducted afeasibility study for the project. FounderDr. Kenneth H. Cooper,widely regarded as the “father of aerobics,” coined the term in 1968 and went on to establish The Cooper Institute as the nonproﬁt research and education armofCooper Aerobics.

TheCooper Institute, basedatthe Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center campus, focuses on research, public health initiatives, and educational programs that advancepreventivemedicineand promotehealthier lifestyles through physical activity.

Fuselier said he had hoped to partner with LCMC Health on the medical components of the complex and held discussions with the hospitalgroup for the better part of ayear.However,he said the LCMC Health board recently decided not to pursue the partnership, andhe is now in talks with other potential collaborators. LCMC didn’timmediately respond to requests forcomment.

The history of 2025 Canal traces its decline from a hoteland later acityofﬁce building to ablighted “Dirty Dozen” site, primarily due to prolonged neglect, failed redevelopment efforts and signiﬁcant code violations. It wasonce seen as akey property for the revitalization of the Canal Street corridor,following construction of the new medical district

“You are alive! Twoarms and two legs,”Zvika Morsaid upon seeinghis son Eitanfor the ﬁrst time in two years. When Bar Kupershtein was reunited with his family,his father, Tal, who uses awheelchair after a car accidentand stroke, fulﬁlled a promise to himself by standing up for afew minutes to embrace his freed son.

Unlikeprevious releases, Hamas held no ceremonies for the captivesbefore freeing them.Instead, families received video calls from masked militants who allowed them aﬁrst glimpse at their loved

across thestreet. Thelargebuilding at 2025 Canal once operated as ahotel. In 1980, thecity of New Orleansacquired it in aland swap and converted it into a City Hall annextoalleviate overcrowdingatthe main government complex. Even then,ofﬁcials said thebuildingwas in poorcondition By 1990, theydescribed its state as “atrocious,” noting thatitrequired massive renovationsthe city could notafford. Roughly200 city workers remained in the decaying structure for another decade.

Thecity vacatedthe propertyin1999, andthe building soon fellinto deeper disrepair.Itwas sold to developers in 2006,but their plans nevercametofruition. In 2010, the state expropriated thesitefor thenew veterans hospital, only to abandon thatidealater.Years of neglect led to mounting code enforcementviolations— 19 by late 2023 —and the propertywas ofﬁcially designatedasone ofthe city’s “Dirty Dozen” blighted sites that November The proposed redevelopment sits directly across from University Medical Center and the VA Hospital —a locationFuseliersaidhe believes makes it ideal for a holistic health complexthat integrates medical fitness, preventive care and community wellness. The site also lies within the BioDistrict, thestate-authorized economic development zone created to foster growthin the life sciences, biotechnology and health

ones before they came home.

Theplightofthe hostages had widespread support in Israel,where thousands would join the families for weekly protests demanding Israel secure their release.

Thefateofthe hostageswas a central driverofamovementinIsraeltoend thewar.ManyIsraelis viewed Netanyahu’stwin goals of freeing thecaptives and defeating Hamas as incompatible.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said anydelay by Hamasin retuning the remaining bodies of deceased hostageswould be viewed as aviolation of the cease-

care sectors around downtown and Mid-City

The BioDistrict’slongterm vision is to attract research institutions, medical startups,and health-related privateinvestmentthat complement thenearby universityand hospital campuses. Fuselier said theplanned medical-ﬁtness complex aligns closely with thatmission by promoting preventive health care, workforcewellness, and accessible fitness options within theemergingmedical corridor Fuselierand his partners also see agap in the New Orleans market for this type of facility. While thenorthnhorehas facilities that blend sports, wellness and medical services, there is nothing comparable within the city.The Pelican Athletic Club in Mandeville, for example, combines classicsports andcountryclub amenities with therapy offerings; it was acquiredin late August by Wichita, Kansas-based Genesis Health Clubs.

Fuselier said theCanal Street project would bring a similarintegrated model to New Orleans, serving both local residents and the nearby medical workforce.

Narinder Gupta, an anesthesiologist basedinTerrytown,owns sixproperty parcels on the same block. Fuseliersaidhehas agreed to buy or lease Gupta’sadjacent propertyat2021 Canal St.tobeusedaspart of the development. He said Gupta plans to develop his other Canal Street properties as an extended stay hotel.

Gupta didn’timmediately respond to requests forcomment.

“Canal Street haslong been waiting forthiskind of catalytic investment,” Fuselier said.“With everything happening around the medical district, this site deserves tobepartofthat transformation.”

Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate. com.

ﬁre deal.

Large crowds greeted freed prisoners in Beitunia in the IsraelioccupiedWestBankand in Khan Younis in Gaza.

Theprisonersﬂashed V-for-victorysigns as they descended from busesthat took them either to the West Bank, Gaza or into exile.

“PraisebetoGod,our Lord,who has honored us withthis release and this joy,”saidMahmoudFayez, who was returned to Gaza after being detained early last year in an Israeli raid on the main Shifa Hospital

Theprisoners include250 people serving life sentences for convic-

tionsinattacksonIsraelis, in addition to 1,700 seized from Gazaduring the war and held without charge.

The fate of the prisoners is asensitive issue in Palestiniansociety where almost everyone knows or is relatedtosomeonewho hasbeen imprisoned by Israel. They are viewed by Palestinians as freedom ﬁghters.

In his Knessetspeech,Trump told Israeli lawmakers their country must now work toward peace.

“Israel, with our help, haswon all that they can by force of arms,” Trumpsaid. “Now it is time to translate thesevictories against terrorists on the battleﬁeld into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity forthe entire Middle East.” His speech wasbriefly interrupted when two Knesset members staged aprotestand were subsequently removed from the chamber.One held up asmallsign reading, “Recognize Palestine.”

In Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi andTrump attendeda summit with leaders from more than 20 countries on the future of Gaza and the broader Middle East. Palestinianleader Mahmoud Abbas, whoadministers parts of the West Bank, also attended.

Among the mostdifficult issues left to resolve is Israel’sinsistence that aweakened Hamas disarm. Hamas refuses to do that and wants to ensure Israel pulls its troops completely out of Gaza. So far,the Israeli military has withdrawn from much of Gaza City,the southern city of Khan Younis and other areas. Troops remain in mostofthe southern city of Rafah, towns of Gaza’s far north, andalong the length of Gaza’s borderwith Israel.

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OCTOBER

JanRisher

LOUISIANA AT LARGE

Behind the scenesatSt. Joseph Abbey

Moreno launchestransitionplan

Mayor-electcalls forinput in shaping priorities

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

Mayor-elect Helena Moreno launchedher transitiononMonday,callingonNew Orleanians to applyfor jobs in her incoming administration and to “get involved” in shaping its priorities. Moreno, the Democratic City Council vice president, won the mayor’srace on Saturday by se-

I’ve always been drawn to the quiet mystery of abbeys —in books,intravel and even here in Louisiana. Until earlier this month Ihad never been to St. Joseph Abbey near Covington. All Iknewabout it was that they made caskets —and that they had won ahardfought legal battletosellthe simple wooden coffins in Louisiana. The fight began in 2007 and reachedthe U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in the abbey’sfavor in 2013. While Iwas visiting,I met DeaconMark Coudrain,who shortly after Hurricane Katrina, suggested that the Benedictine monks andvolunteers begin making simple wooden caskets to generate fundstopay for the medical and educational needs of the Benedictine monks. Coudrain now works full time leading effortsto build the beautiful, simple wooden boxes that sell for afraction of the cost of caskets most funeral homes sell. Anyone picturing monks in robeswith hammers and files building the caskets would be in for asurprise. With the help of capable volunteers, the operation uses some of the latest technology to createthe pieces of elegant wooden beauty madeofeither mahogany or cypress When ordered, they deliver the caskets far and wide. Still, the caskets arejust one piece of amuch largerstory There’salso aseminary with 103 students studying for the priesthood and agift shop that sells honey from abbey bees, homemade candles, cookies, breadand more. The Right Rev.GregoryBoquet serves as abbot. My visit with him was ahighlight of the trip.ATerrebonne Parish native, he first visited the abbey as a high school senior, then entered the seminary in 1976 —and was elected abbot in 2023. One of seven children, he planned to become apriest and servecommunities near where he

ä See RISHER, page 2B

Newproposals requestedfor French Quartersanitation

BY BEN MYERS Staff writer

Mayor LaToya Cantrell’sadministration has issued anew call for asanitation provider in the French Quarter and Downtown Development District, potentiallyreviving acontroversythat has engulfed City Hall for nearly ayear as New Orleans transitions to anew mayoral administration. The new request for proposals, released on Friday,calls for asixmonth service termtobegin on Dec. 23, when an existing one-year contract with IV Waste expires.

curing 55% of the vote in thecity’s municipal primary.Her outright victory affirmed acampaign strategy built around thestraightforward promise of reforming CityHall so it works for residents. Infrastructure and functional government will ﬁgure into planningbyMoreno’stransition committees in the weeksahead.

leanians to “get involved and help shape the city’sfuture,” the spokesperson,ToddRagusa, said in astatementaccompanying the announcement.

The makeup of those panels typically,groups of political and civic leaderswho helpsketch out awinningcandidate’spriorities beforetheyofﬁcially take ofﬁce —will be announced in “the comingdays,”a spokesperson said in an email.

Moreno is calling on New Or-

Fornow,the transition is launching awebsite, NewDirectionNola. com, where it’scalling on residents to submit input for Moreno’sadministration and keep tabs on job opportunities in city government. Residents can sign up for job postings and other updates from

Health care closetohome

Newpediatric clinic helps addressaccessissuesin N.O. East

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

Before theribbon was even cut, three patients had arrived early Monday at the Manning Family Children’snew ThriveKids Community Clinic in New OrleansEast.

Among them was Amari-Lyn Thompson, who was eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch at school when her face swelled so severely her eyes shut. In the past, she would have called her mother, missed school and hoped for an appointment somewhere in the city.Thistime, shesimply walkedacross campus to the new clinic, located inside the New Orleans East Opportunity Center and connectedtoher school, The Net.

The ThriveKids Community Clinic, the ﬁrst underManning Family Children’sThriveKids umbrella, is easily accessible to students fromThe Net and The Bridge on thesame campus, along with children enrolled in the on-site day care. It is also open to thebroader community for walk-ins and appointments. The clinic will operate from 7a.m. to 7p.m. Monday through Fridayand expectstoserve about 5,000 childreninits ﬁrst year

“There’snever enough primary care doctors,” saidDr. PatriceEvers,one of thepediatricians on staff. “I think we’re going to get busy quickly.” Its staffincludesthreepediatricians, apediatric psychiatrist, alicensed clinical social worker,anurse andamedical assistant. The clinic will provide primary care for patientsfrom birth to 21 and mental health servicesfor those ages 5to21.

Theclinic represents investment in an area where access to children’shealth

care has long lagged behind demand.

“Whenyou looked on amap,there wasn’taclinic dedicated to serve them,” said Dr.JenniferAvegno,director of the New Orleans Health Department. “That wasatragic oversight that is being rectiﬁed today.”

Nearly 20,000 children live in New OrleansEast, according to The Data Center. It is oneofthe metro area’slargest concentrations of kids. Many families still travel to Metairie or Uptown New Orleans forcare.

“Y’all could have stayed way Uptown, but youdidn’t,” Avegno said during remarks Monday.“This is adynamic partnershipthatisﬂexible and responsive to the true needs of the community.Speakingassomeone whohas been in health care for quite some time, that is not a hallmark of most health care organizations.”

Already,patients have begun seeking

ä See THRIVE, page 2B

City budget hearings commence

Cuts threaten essential NewOrleans services

BY JONI HESS Staff writer

Before anew mayor and City Council take the reins in New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell’sadministration will makeits case for spending prioritiesin2026during aseries of budget hearingsthat start Tuesday The challenge will be reconciling an estimated $100 million deﬁcit, of whichnoone truly knows the extent, as well as expected revenue losses in 2026, city ofﬁcials have said. Forthe next severalweeks, depart-

this week

ment heads acrossCityHall and outside agencies will present details to the council on howmillionsinbudget cuts proposed by Cantrell may impact city services. In her annual budget address earlier this month, Cantrell proposeda $1.59 billionspending plan— an $18 billion decrease from this year —and new ideas to generaterevenue. Administration officials have attributedthe majority of the deﬁcit about $70 million —topersonnel costs, including salaryincreases to keep up with inflationand overtime pay related to the Jan. 1Bourbon Streetattack,the Super Bowl and other major

BY BOBWARREN Staff writer

Daniel Seuzeneau, the longtime public face of the Slidell Police Department, will lead thedepartment on an interimbasisfollowing the departure of Police Chief Randy Fandal, whoon Saturday wona specialelection to be mayor Fandal on Monday said he hadappointedSeuzeneau as assistant chief last week. Per the city’scharter,the assistant chief slides into the

interimchief roleand will serve in that capacity for the remainder of the open term Fandal beat Bill Borchert to take the remaining eight months of former Mayor Greg Cromer’sterm, who resigned the ofﬁce in January. Borchert, who was an at-largeSlidell CityCouncilmember,became mayor when Cromer leftthe ofﬁce. Slidell’spolice chief is an elected office, and Seauzenau will fill the remaining eight months of Fandal’sterm as chief, which runs through June

Coudrain

Boquet

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Children takepartinaribbon-cutting Mondayfor the Manning Family Children’s first ThriveKidsCommunity CliniconHaynes Boulevard in NewOrleans.

ä See MORENO, page 2B

Moreno

care for a range of needs, from mental health counseling and sexually transmitted disease testing to support for grief, trauma and behavioral conditions such as attention-deﬁcit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional deﬁant disorder, said Patrick Riley, a therapist at the clinic. Working with families, providers develop intervention and behavior plans that include everyone involved in a child’s care.

“Pills can only do so much,” Riley said. “We have to have effective collaboration with the school, the parents and myself.”

Lou Fragoso, president and CEO of Manning Family Children’s, said ThriveKids was designed with the New Orleans East community in mind. The program, started in 2022, places mental health providers directly in schools across New Orleans. The clinic in New Orleans East will be their ﬁrst.

The $10 million, three-year funding ThriveKids received from the American Rescue Act is in its ﬁnal year Leaders of Manning Fam-

CANTRELL

Continued from page 1B

The start date is three weeks before the inauguration of Mayorelect Helena Moreno, who avoided a runoff with an outright victory in Saturday’s primary

The solicitation marks yet another chapter in an ongoing, explosive saga that has featured court rulings, last-minute maneuvers to avoid service disruptions, and Cantrell ofﬁcials publicly accusing the mayor of blindsiding them Council President JP Morrell called it “absolutely bizarre” that Cantrell is opening a new solicitation, since six months is an unusually short term. He said the incoming Moreno administration inevitably will need to start the process all over again next year, and that Cantrell should extend IV Waste’s emergency contract month to month during the transition “It appears, because there’s no logical reason to do a six-month RFP, that this is being done out of spite,” Morrell said.

The Cantrell administration had not responded to questions late

RISHER

Continued from page 1B

grew up in the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese.

“Growing up, I didn’t even know about monks,” he said.

Boquet is legally blind, a condition that has progressively worsened since he was ﬁrst diagnosed with a type of macular degeneration when he was 15.

“If, with my handicap, God can use me, God can use anybody,” he said.

The monastic schedule is real.

Previously he started prayer by 4 a.m., but these days he starts with prayer slightly later than that. Then, he has vigils at 6 a.m., lauds at 7 a.m., Mass at 11:15 a.m., vespers at 5:30 p.m. and compline at 7:15 p.m.. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are worked in between the prayers.

“Monks used to do the cooking many years ago,” he said, “but it’s more manageable to go with Sage Dining now.”

Before becoming abbot Boquet spent decades in leadership at the abbey, including 25 years as president-rector of its seminary college.

“The biggest surprise when I was a young monk was that people are at different levels of their monastic journey,” he said “I realized how human monks are and

BUDGET

Continued from page 1B

events. Another $31 million shortfall has been pinned on a loss in local revenue. Federal funding the city has relied on in the wake of the pandemic has also shriveled, leaving the city without a cushion to pad its budget.

Public Works cuts

In response, Chief Administrative Ofﬁcer Joe Threat said the city’s plan will reduce overtime pay increase revenue and prioritize spending on public safety and city operations.

Council budget chair Joe Giarusso said he anticipates the weekslong budget review to be a “sobering experience” in bal-

of participating students live in New Orleans East, and half of the program’s most intensive mental health sites are in District E.

For Bree Anderson, founder and executive director of the A’sani Heartbeat Foundation, the new clinic marks an important step forward. When she went into premature labor at 24 weeks, care was not available close to home in the East Her daughter, A’sani, died eight days after birth, and her son, A’sir, spent nearly ﬁve months in the neonatal intensive care unit.

When he came home, they frequently traveled for his care.

“I know what it’s like for his oxygen to stop and have to travel from New Orleans East all the way to the main campus,” she said.

Continued from page 1B

ily Children’s, which is operated by LCMC Health, are working to renew and potentially expand the program with additional federal support. The hope is to open more community-based clinics in underserved areas.

“How well our kids live and how long they live shouldn’t be dependent on what ZIP code they’re in,”

Monday

Whether IV Waste’s contract can be extended is unclear The bid it was awarded under says that services “shall end no later” than 12 months after it was executed.

The new solicitation comes on the heels of a fresh lawsuit by Henry Consulting to uphold a $73 million contract that the ﬁrm won last year, which Cantrell and Henry Consulting’s owner Troy Henry, have tried to preserve in a bitter feud with the City Council and French Quarter interests who prefer IV Waste.

The Henry contract was competitively awarded but is controversial. Its scope and costs expanded after Henry won the bid, and some council members criticized the administration for what they said is a friendly deal that deviated from the RFP requirements. Henry has countered that RFP terms are always negotiable.

The council refused to sign off on the Henry contract under a 2022 ordinance that Henry is seeking to nullify in court.

“I believe that they’re doing (the RFP) simply because they are aware that we have a valid contract,” Henry said. “The current

Fragoso said. The program’s growth reﬂects the hospital’s expanding partnership with NOLA Public Schools, the New Orleans Health Department and the Orleans Parish School Board. Last year ThriveKids provided more than 20,000 mental health counseling sessions directly in schools. About one-third

emergency contract expires in December and is not extendable, so they’ve got to have a contract in place. I think they’re doing this as a stopgap.”

IV Waste’s owner, Sidney Torres IV, said Sanitation Director Matt Torri called recently to ask if he would honor his current low-bid price — $5.9 million on an annual basis — for a six-month extension. Torres said he agreed.

“He told me that the legal department has approved the six-month extension, that he thinks it’s the right thing to do,” Torres said.

“And then when I went to City Hall for a recycling thing that we were dealing with, he walked outside with me, and he told me the mayor doesn’t want to do that.”

Torri and other administration ofﬁcials publicly disagreed with Cantrell’s decision in July to terminate IV Waste’s emergency contract and turn it over to Henry’s company, a move the ofﬁcials said blindsided them after Cantrell had agreed to keep IV Waste in place through the end of its one-year contract The Louisiana Supreme Court overruled Cantrell, keeping IV Waste in place. The controversy burst into view

that people are not the same.”

Back then, the ﬁnality of becom-

ing a monk hit him hard when he returned to St. Joseph’s. He felt more homesick back in Louisiana than he had in Washington, D.C.

“The ﬁnality of it,” he said, “it is not temporary.”

Boquet rarely leaves the abbey,

ancing residents’ quality of life needs with the pot of money that’s available. Working street lights, paved potholes, grass maintenance and blight are all recurring issues at the top of residents’ minds and repeatedly highlighted on the campaign trail during the election, he said.

But major cuts proposed to the Department of Public Works, for example, could make it difﬁcult to address quality-of-life issues that have plagued the city for years, even with more money on hand. Public Works, which is responsible for ﬁxing streetlights, potholes and other infrastructure elements, stands to see a decreased budget of about $37 million, according to the administration’s proposal. That decrease comes a year after department of-

and even after nearly 50 years, he still misses seeing his family regularly

He comes from a large Louisiana family He speaks with his twin brother often by phone.

“My mom is still alive, and I wish I could be with her more often,” he said just before our time

ficials said staffing shortages and budget constraints were negatively impacting operations.

The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce, already in a deﬁcit of its own, according to Sheriff Susan Hutson, could see a $12 million decrease, according to the proposal.

“Most departments are taking cuts,” Giarrusso said. “But are they the right cuts? Are there things that can be balanced out?” Increase for NOPD

Sarah Omojola, director of Vera Institute Louisiana, a criminal justice reform advocacy organization, fired off a list of cuts that should be erased. Among them, are cuts to the Office of Youth and Families, Office of Neighborhood Engagement and the Office of Resilience and Sustainability, which

City leaders including City Council member Oliver Thomas, NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Dr Fateama Fulmore, LCMC Health CEO Greg Feirn, and Manning Family Children’s board members attended Monday’s opening, which included a tour of the clinic’s exam rooms, counseling spaces and lab.

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate.com.

in November, when Henry Consulting dumped its subcontractor, Richard’s Disposal Inc., in a dispute over payment terms, prompting the council to halt a vote on the contract. The ﬁrms resolved their differences four months later, but by then French Quarter residents and business owners were loudly clamoring for IV Waste to stay on the job.

Henry has already tried once to get his contract confirmed in court. A Civil District Court judge in December ordered the council to approve the contract, but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal overturned the ruling in August Henry quickly ﬁled another lawsuit, this time with a more sweeping argument: He says the ordinance giving the council the right to approve certain contracts violates the city charter and should be struck.

Another aggrieved vendor whose contract was stalled by the council, Charles Rice, won a lower-court ruling to nullify the ordinance with a similar argument. That ruling is now pending before the 4th Circuit.

Email Ben Myers at bmyers@ theadvocate.com.

together was up and that observation reminded me of the truth of his earlier words regarding the human-ness of monks.

During our conversation, the abbot mentioned that the abbey was getting ready for its annual gala and fundraiser, Deo Gratias, set for Saturday

When I walked outside his ofﬁce, students from the seminary were hanging lights in the trees that dot the beautiful campus located less than 5 miles from downtown Covington.

They were chatting about happenings around the campus and pointed me toward the book and gift store. On my way to buy bread, cookies, honey and some St. Benedict medals, I passed a backpack haphazardly leaning against “The Catholic Study Bible” on a bench; the place felt, in some ways, like any other school.

In the store, which is open most days from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from noon to 3 p.m., I met a variety of volunteers and was charmed by the clever names of some of the items, particularly Monks’ Heavenly Hash and Cloistered Peanuts.

In the quiet bustle of that campus — part prayer, part industry, part community — I was reminded that even lives devoted to stillness hum with humanity

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

plays a major role in bolstering the city’s storm management infrastructure Pointing to a $14 million increase proposed for the New Orleans Police Department, Omojola said the city is experiencing record lows in violent crime under a smaller NOPD budget with community-based programs like the New Orleans Peace Ambassadors.

“My hope is that the City Council really follows the data and balances this budget in a way that prevents crime and violence and doesn’t just react to it,” she said. The public hearings will continue through Nov 6 at City Hall. The council has to approve the budget by Dec. 1. Email Joni Hess at joni.hess@ theadvocate.com.

the incoming administration through the website. Moreno’s decisive primary win means her transition planning will benefit from an extra month before her Jan. 12 inauguration. That victory sprang from a methodical campaign colleagues and analysts said she had effectively been running for eight years from a perch of citywide influence atop the City Council. Moreno attended church and the Saints’ home game on Sunday, her first as mayor-elect. In an interview outside her church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Moreno said she was “glad” to have an extra month for the transition process. Had the race gone to a runoff, its outcome wouldn’t have been decided until Nov 15.

In an Instagram video Sunday, Moreno said she had begun holding transition meetings that afternoon

INTERIM

Continued from page 1B

Slidell voters will head back to the polls in April for the regularly scheduled mayor, council and police chief elections, with those winners set to take ofﬁce in July Fandal said Seuzeneau will assume the interim post when Fandal is formally sworn in as mayor A date hasn’t been set for that, Fandal said, but will likely happen next week.

“I won’t step down (as chief) until the actual day of inauguration,” Fandal said.

Slidell voters in 2023 approved a charter change that allows the mayor to appoint a police chief, with majority council approval, if there isn’t an assistant chief. Fandal had not had an assistant chief for years but said he appointed Seauzenau in anticipation of winning the mayor’s election. Appointing a chief and having to go through the council approval process seemed like “good old boy politics,” Fandal said. Fandal said he has great confidence in Seuzeneau, who has been in law enforcement nearly 20 years and holds a master’s in business from Louisiana Tech University Seuzeneau has held a number of jobs in the department and started its popular Facebook page, which now has nearly 180,000 followers.

Seuzeneau has represented the department on several national television crime shows, including “The First 48” and “Live PD.” He is also well-known to local news media around the New Orleans area.

Seuzeneau does not live in the Slidell city limits so he cannot be a candidate for the police chief ofﬁce in next spring’s elections, Fandal said.

Seauzenau has also been the department’s chief administrative ofﬁcer managing the $18 million budget as well as overseeing IT operations and public and media relations.

“There is no greater honor than to lead the Slidell Police Department,” Seuzeneau said in a news release, noting that he wants to build on Fandal’s legacy of professionalism and having a tough stance on crime.

“I look forward to handling off a well-polished department to the newly elected chief sometime next year, and then returning to my role as CAO,” he added. Fandal, 65, will become the third Slidell police chief to make the move into the Mayor’s Ofﬁce, joining Ben Morris and Freddy Drennan before him. He said Monday that he was making plans for his transition but did say he plans to bring on Mike Noto, who has experience in previous administrative roles with Slidell and St. Tammany Parish government, as his chief of staff. Other moves will come later, he said.

“I’m not one to make a lot of quick moves,” Fandal said. In a Facebook post earlier Monday, Borchert thanked his supporters and said he plans to return to the at-large council position he left to serve as mayor His council term runs through June.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Lou Fragoso, president and CEO of Manning Family Children’s, speaks Monday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the pediatric hospital’s first ThriveKids Community Clinic, a school-based community clinic in New Orleans.

STAFF PHOTO By JAN RISHER

The monastic refectory at St. Joseph Abbey, a Benedictine monestary

Butler

NewOrleans Area Deaths

Clement, Gayle

Gueringer, Donald

NewOrleans

Estelle JWilson

Hilliard,Yvonne Hilliard,Yvonne

River Parish

Millet-Guidry

Clement, Gayle

Obituaries

GayleHahnClement

1934. Herparents were Wilbert“Bud” Hahn and PearlHaydelHahn. Sheis survived by herbrother Remy Hahn. Gaylemarried theloveofher life in 1953, Roland Clement, who pre‐cededher in death. Sheis survived by herfourchil‐dren,CornelClement (ﬁancéeCallie),DarnelC Usry (Larry), Crystal Clement, andDane Clement(Ann).Beloved grandmotherofCain, Russ Zachary, andBrennan Clement, KristinaC.Hay‐del, andthe late Anna Col‐letta.Survivedalsobystep grandsons, Jeremy and Donald Usry andgreat grandchildren, Colette Haydel,and Jude andJulia Clement. Relativesand friendsare invitedtoat‐tend theVisitationand Fu‐neralMass at St.Joanof ArcCatholicChurch,529 West 5thStreet,LaPlace, LA on Thursday,October 16, 2025. Visitation will be held at theChurch from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon with theFuneralMassto immediatelyfollowat12:00 noon.Interment at St.John Memorial Gardens, 2205 W. AirlineHwy,LaPlace,LA. Arrangements by MilletGuidry FuneralHome. To sharememoriesorcondo‐lences please visitwww milletguidry.com

Gueringer,Donald Joseph

Donald was born on August 19, 1937, in New Orleans, thefirst childof JosephGueringer and Helen Howard Gueringer. He was thefather of DonaldJason Gueringer. He was also alovingbrother to Jeanette Gueringer Braud (deceased), Joan Gueringer Taylor, Carolyn Gueringer Matthews, Sandra Gueringer (deceased), LindaGueringer, Larry Gueringer, Susan Gueringer Zanders, Yvonne Gueringer,and Glenn Gueringer To many more,hewas known fondly as "Big Cousin" -a title that spoke not just to his place in the family buttothe warmth, strength,and love he shared with everyone.

Donald grew up in New Orleans and was aproud product of St. Augustine High School, later graduating fromJoseph S. Clark Sr High School. He served his country in theUnited States AirForce,where he became an outstanding

baseballplayer, winning theMVP of theUnited Kingdom Award. He was even drafted by the PittsburghPirates' farm team butturned it down because his heart was set on playing for theDodgers. winning real estateagent, and later returned home to NewOrleans for retirement.Donald lovedtoentertain, to cook his famous gumbo, and most of all- to joke and make people laugh. Hissense of humor was infectious, and if he was in theroom, youwere going to smile. But what we'll remembermost is the wisdom he shared.Donald'slaughter, love,and guidance will stay with all of us. Thank you, "Unc,"for thejoy, thelaughter, and theexample youleft behind Rest well. We love you.

Friends and Family are welcome to attend memorial services at: Gertrude GeddesWillis Funeral Home 2120 Jackson Ave NewOrleans, 70113

Hilliard,Yvonne

Yvonne Butler Hilliard,a belovedmotherand grand‐mother,departedthislife on Saturday,October 4, 2025, at theage of 90. She wasbornonMay 26, 1935, in Lutcher, LA,toSedonia Reed andClarenceButler. Sheworkedinretailfor many years. Afterretiring from JCPenney,she found joyinspendingtimewith familyand friends, sharing stories, andoffering her signaturehospitality Knownfor herwarmpres‐ence,generosity, and sharpwit,she will be truly missed. Shewas preceded in deathbyher husband AbeHilliardJr. Daughter, Maria(Denise)HilliardEl‐more,and son, Ronald An‐thonyHilliard; parents, Clarence Butler Sr.and Se‐doniaReed;sister, Uvonne Adams, brother, Lawrence Butler.She leaves to cher‐ishher precious memories hertwo sons,GregoryA Hilliard (Shari), Kenneth RayHilliard(Pamela); brother, Clarence Butler Jr (Darlene); 4grandchildren JessicaAnn White, Oryann

AquillaWhite,Nicholas Hilliard,KelseyDenise Hilliard,3 great-grandchil‐dren,JacodiOmarion,Bria DestinyWilliamsand DevynWhite;numerous nieces,nephews,family andfriends.Relatives and friendsofthe familyare in‐vitedtoattend thevisita‐tion from 9:00 a.m. to10:00 a.m. followed by Celebra‐tion of Life Serviceon Wednesday, October15, 2025 for10:00 a.m. at First Free Mission Baptist Church,919 AdamsStreet NewOrleans,LA70118. Rev. Melvin CollinsIII ofﬁ‐ciating. Interment: Provi‐denceMemorialPark Cemetery,8200 AirlineDr. Metairie,La. 70003. Arrangements By Estelle J. Wilson FuneralHome, Inc. 2715 Danneel St.NOLA 70113. Information: (504) 895-4903. To sign online guestbook please visit www.estellejwilsonfh.com.

Clement, GayleHahn

Astronger Medicaid will strengthen allofLa.

Achange in state health care policy that may have gone unnoticed willmake adifferenceinthe lives of hundreds of thousands of Louisianans. The state Department of Health last weekannounced higher reimbursement ratesfor health care providerswho treat Medicaid patients.In Louisiana,where nearly 1in3residents arecovered by Medicaid, this will mean greateraccessto doctors for some of the neediest families. Andfor hospitals and physicians that operate inruraland underserved areas, it could mean thedifference betweenkeeping the lights on or closingupshop in places where the hospital is often thelargest employer Foryears,Louisiana physicians and other medicalprofessionals have seen their costs rise evenas the share of the tab picked up by Medicaiddwindled.Insome cases,the cost of providing careso exceeded reimbursement rates that some specialists refused to accept Medicaid patients. That’snow changed thanks to abill sponsored by state Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, in 2024. It directed the healthdepartmenttocomeup with aplan on how to fund an increase in rates.In thespring, the state allocated an additional $238 milliontothe Medicaidprogram, using amix of stateand federal funds, including $26millionfrom savings generated by Gov.JeffLandry’s Louisiana DOGE program. That allows the state to reimburse hospitalsand healthcare providers85% of the rate reimbursed by Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for seniors. Previously, theaverage reimbursementratewas at73% of theMedicare rate. It applies to physicians, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse midwives andphysician assistants. In addition, the rates for behavioral healthprofessionals are going up by more than 30%. Therates will be applied retroactivelybeginningJuly 1. It is the biggest increase in adecade,and state SecretaryofHealth BruceGreenstein is hopeful that it will prompt doctors to open or expand clinics in ruralareas.LDH Deputy SurgeonGeneral Wyche Coleman IIIcalled it a“game-changer.” We’re glad to see it in astate thathas long grappled with poor health outcomes. We’re also glad to point to it as an example of how government should work. We can’thelp but be troubled by the current federal government shutdown,where funding for health insurance subsidies that thousands Louisianans relyonunder the Affordable Care Act is the key sticking point. Yetinthis instance, we see Louisianaofficials acting to supportaccesstohealth care.While one goal ofimproving governmental efficiencyisto save taxpayers money,another should be to direct more money to people and programs thatneed them the most. We have to give credittoall the stateofficials who seized the chance to makea change that will strengthen families, communities and ultimately our entire state.

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

Bicyclists should obey rulesofthe road

Iamwriting in response to Monica Clark’srecentletter “N.O. must make roomfor bicyclists.”Her letter makes some valid points, but she also leaves outmanypointsthat have an effect on the motorist vs. cyclist relationship Before Icould get my driver’slicense, Ihad to pass awritten test showing Iknewthe trafﬁc laws. Ialso hadto pass adriving test to showthatI could safely operate amotor vehicle.This

Goal

of Wisner’s generous gift should notbe lost in legalﬁght

QuinHillyer’srecent column regarding the Wisner donation serves as an important reminder of the valuable contribution that the Wisner funds have made over many years toward preserving our wetlands in southeast Louisiana and working to address regional storm surge protections as well. It’s important thatnone of these contributions be lost in the current legal debatethat is ongoing.

Wisner investments and partnerships with many organizations (including coastal nonproﬁt Restore or Retreat)have beneﬁted thousands of residents in the cityand communities around southeast Louisiana working to ensure thatEdward Wisner’s generous donation from more thanacentury ago continues to have apositive impact on our wetlands and the people who live there.Wisner investments have included support of the Fourchon Terraces and Living Shoreline project (critical restoration of a heavily eroded marsh) as well as many others thatwork to address the loss of our wetlands while working to protect our coast, community and culture for future generations.

However,asthe current legal dispute plays out, it’scritically important thatthe Wisner’srole in preserving our wetlands and communitiesnot be sacriﬁced nor forgotteninthe process. It would be an insult to Wisner and his generositytoour state and itspeople.

POLLYGLOVER project coordinator,Restore or Retreat

wasrequiredbefore Iwas granted a driver’slicense, whichisthe law. The law also requires aperson operating amotorcycletohavealicense. However,there is no requirement forapersonriding abicycle on acity streettohave alicense or,evenmore important, anyknowledge of trafﬁc laws.

Iencounter bicyclists riding against trafﬁc on aone-way street. Theyto-

tally ignore stop signs, andmanydo notwaitattrafﬁc lightsfor thelight to turn green but rather stop andgo if they think they can make it across. Action needstocome fromboth sides, andthe bike communitycan start by requiring anyone riding on public streets to be educated in therulesof theroad

BOBDAUTERIVE

Spera’spiece on Sidney Smithshows breadthofpaper’s culturecoverage

As alifelong friend of the recently departed New Orleans rock photography icon Sidney Smith, Iwould like to express my deep appreciation for the outstanding articles written by your reporter Keith Spera on Sidney’slife and legacy.Not only werethe articles well-written, but they featured his experiences with the Allman Brothers, Paul McCartney and an array of other celebrity entertainers. Spera’s articles also included great photos and an excellent video interview that Spera conducted with Sidneyshortly before his passing. We all know that the unique entertainment culture in New Orleans is perhaps our most valuable asset, and your newspaper has done awonderful job of chronicling it.

At Sunrise Foods International,weknow thatnew projects bring questions— and sometimes concerns. Our organic transloading facility at the Port of New Orleans’ Alabo Street Wharf will be thefirst dedicated organic port in the United States, and withthat distinction comes responsibility Being first means setting astandard not only for our industry but also in howwe engage withour neighbors. Sunrise Foods is committedtobuilding aconstructive, mutually beneficial relationship withthe Lower 9thWard and Greater NewOrleans community by meeting regularlywith residents and elected officials, actively listening to feedback and correcting misinformation about our project. Our transload operation will handleorganic products such as soybeans, soybean meal, sunflower meal, peas and wheat, which will move quickly from ship to enclosed railcars, minimizingstoragetime The design reduces dust,emissionsand pest infestations and reflects amodel that prioritizes both food integrity and environmental safeguards. We are proudthatour

GRANT COOPER NewOrleans

operation will expand access to healthy, organic foods nationwide,supporting the growing demandfor sustainablysourced products. We’ve invested in multiple layers of dust control, including containment and collection, both within the warehouse and in our outdoor equipment. Independent environmental assessments indicate that emissions will remain well below state and federal standards, ensuring both safety and compliance. Even so, we are going further —installing on-site air quality monitors and sharing the data publicly.Residents will not have to take our word for it; the results will be available for all to see. SunriseFoods will invest in andsupport initiatives that reﬂect local priorities,especially education, workforce development andaccess to nutritiousfood Iunderstand that trust is earned.That’s why we are committed to transparency open dialogue andcontinuous improvement

MICHAEL CORBETT executivevicepresident, Sunrise Foods International

The courts often rule they don’t, to no lawfulresult in manycases. Who’sgoing to pick our produce, to be selﬁsh about the issue. KEVIN CURLEY NewOrleans Republicans squandered chancetosupportlegal immigration

Iagree withthe letter writer from Bush who advocated for lawful immigration. Abipartisan bill was effectively killed by thenpresidential candidate Donald Trumptoappar-

ently keep the immigration issue as political fuel —ormaybe eventually be able to have massdeportations that somehonestly desire. But are these deportations occurring within the rule of law?

YOUR VIEWS

COMMENTARY

ELECTION OUTCOMES

Youcan call her

‘Mandate Moreno’

Thewhat, thehow andthe why

New Orleans voters decided thatcity government should continue with more of the same next year The same City Council majority The same City Council leadership, at least in part. The same citywide brand-name politicians.

Why? Because they’re tired of the same,aggravating quality-oflife and city services issues and theysee apath forward that they like.

Some label it acall for change. Icall it more of the same ﬁght for signiﬁcant change.

state Rep. Jason Hughes got 36%, forcing aNov.15runoff between the two. Clearly the heavily Black district has some love for Nguyen, who hadlittle money and alimited campaign structure. Hughes beneﬁtted from his active community engagement and a stronger campaign. Now people will choose between acouple of good options.

DistrictAtraditionally has high voter turnout, but it washigher than normal. Holly Friedman and Aimee McCarron bested other candidates to earn runoff spots. Friedman wasdistrict council memberJoe Giarrusso’sconstituent services director.McCarron was his policyand budget director.With arunoff, they can lose the Giarrusso name as central to their respective campaigns and talk about their own accomplishments and their vision.

Former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, one of many bigname political ﬁgures to endorse CityCouncil Vice President Helena Moreno’sbid to become New Orleans’ next mayor, used to refer to herself as “Landslide Landrieu,”a cheeky reference to her string of exceedinglynarrow victories. In that spirit, you could forgive the city’snew mayor-elect for thinking ofherself as “Mandate Moreno.” But it would be no joke. With a55% primary-night showing from arespectable (these days) 40% turnout, Moreno rananimpressivelyplanned, funded and executed campaign that turned on the theme of change —nosmall feat for someone who’sserved in city government for eight years alongside the deeply unpopular incumbent, LaToya Cantrell. In governing and in campaigning, Moreno cast the council as an independent branch of government that often stood up to the mayor and tried ﬁx what Cantrell couldn’t, or wouldn’t Among the evidence thatvoters agreed: alate-campaign poll for WVUE showing that 71% of voters disapproved of Cantrell’s performance. Just 12% of those same voters viewed Moreno unfavorably That’sone reason why attacks

by state Sen. Royce Duplessis, who ﬁnished adistant second Saturday with 22%,never really landed.Hesought to put the blamefor City Hall dysfunction equally on mayor and council, a viewthat gainedlittle traction (it’sworth notinghere that all theincumbent council members running for reelection Saturday won overwhelmingly).

He andDistrict Ecouncil member Oliver Thomas, who ﬁnished in third placewith 19%, also ran campaigns heavyon identity politics, both explicitly emphasizingthat they’re native New Orleanians (Moreno grew up in Mexico and Texas) and moresubtly suggesting they’re more in tune with thecity’s Black majority. BothDuplessis andThomasare Black; Moreno is Hispanic and White.

Moreno countered with a long track record of building coalitionsacross theselines, a record emphasized by endorsementsfrom community leaders andhigh-proﬁle politicians such as District Attorney Jason Williams, former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond and current U.S.Rep. Troy Carter And shemadeaconvincing case that her time on thecouncil duringthe Cantrell administration was aplus, not aminus, because it gave her aprime vantage pointtounderstand themanyshortcomings of city government and come up with potential solutions.

I’vebeen coveringNew Orleans elections alongtime now,

Trumphas thepower

and from the start, this one has reminded me of two past contests in particular

In 2006, following Hurricane Katrina, Ray Nagin adopted the slogan “Our Mayor” —anidentity-based theme that many took as acall out to the displaced Black residentsﬁghting to return home. It worked, and he beat his Whiterunoff opponent, Mitch Landrieu. Fouryears later,Landrieu like his sister aMoreno supporter this time around —cruised to victory under theslogan “I know what todoand Iknow how to do it,” which captured athen-dominant voter mood of deep frustration withcity government that echoes today Duplessis and Thomas based their campaigns on atheory that 2025 is more like 2006, but Moreno’swin followed the lines of 2010, with voters not ﬁxated on identity but instead focused on functionality As they did in 2010, voters this weekend also indicated they were ready to get on with turning the page by giving thenew mayor an easyprimary victory and sparing thecity abruising runoff that would just delay the transition.

In her victory speech, Moreno said, “We’re about to take this city in awhole new direction.”

Based on Saturday’sresult, thevoters of New Orleansseem like they’re ready

Email Stephanie Grace at sgrace@theadvocate.com.

Twoofthe biggest names with the widest brand recognition, and popularity,are City Council Vice President Helena Moreno and City Council President JP Morrell. Voters decided they want Morrell and Moreno to continue ﬁghting for them. By overwhelming margins, voters said “yes” when they reelected Morrell to a second at-large term (alongside council newcomer state Rep. Matthew Willard), and said “yes” to moving Moreno from the legislative branch to the executive branch as mayor Voters decided that athird big name with citywide brand recognition —City Council District E member Oliver Thomas —will not be apart of the elected team Moreno won the mayoralty with 55% of the 40% of voters who turnedout to vote, leaving behind state Sen. Royce Duplessis with 22% and Thomaswith 19%. Moreno did better than recent polls suggesting she had near 50% support. Duplessis and Thomas were in the same teens to low 20s as polled at different times.

My preliminary look at electionresults shows that Moreno had overwhelming White support acrossthe city and that she split the Black vote with Duplessis and Thomas. During early voting, when more than 38,000 people voted, 57%ofthose voters were Black. Moreno got about 56% of the early vote. On election day, in some neighborhoods, she won predominantly Black areas. In others,she ran second or about even.

At this point, even with ahardfought campaign, that looks like consensus. City Council districts can be an indicator of whether voters are feeling engaged. Council districts Aand Dhad the highest voter turnout, each in the low 40% range.Council districts Band C werebehind them. Thomas won council District E, but, unfortunately for him, Ehad aturnout in the 30s In the vote to ﬁll Thomas’ seat, former council memberCyndi Nguyen got46% of the vote and

City Council members Freddie King III and Eugene Green overwhelmingly beat their competitors, earning reelection to their district Cand Dseats, respectively.City Council District Bmember Lesli Harris wonreelection without achallenger,the ﬁrst time that’shappened since now-U.S. Rep. Troy Carter did it in 1998. With Morrell getting more than 65,000 votes —the highest citywide vote total, even higher than Moreno’snearly 58,000 votes —City Council critics ﬁnd themselves out of sync with what voters like. Voters want the City Council majority they have. Morrell, King and Greeneach had exposure, but no challenger who turned their weakness into awinning campaign formula.

Meanwhile, voters chose formerNew Orleans Police Department interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork to replace Sheriff Susan Hutson. Whether the May 16 jail escapade was an escape or an inside job, that and too many other incidents were far too muchtoovercome. Voters wantedfresh leadership, trusting that Woodfork can do better with the same budget and resources. There’ssomuch more, especially with the 46%-47% split between incumbent Clerk Darren Lombard and challenger Calvin Duncan. Lombard wascoasting to reelection —until Duncan turned up the heat. Lombard swung and missedwith his claim that Duncan, who served 28 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola before ajudge vacated his murderconviction, had not been exonerated. This runoff could be ahot mess. There will be more analysis, commentary,dissecting and second-guessing in the coming days. Breathe today,and prepare for the Novemberrunoffs. EmailWill Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

Faimon Roberts

It’stime to let Chad Scott go home. The former Drug Enforcement Administration agentgained broad notoriety beyond drug trafﬁcking circles when he became the focus of asprawling investigation in southeast Louisiana in 2016. That investigation culminated in 2021, when he was sentenced to 13 years in prisonfor perjury,obstruction of justiceand conversion of property and other crimes.

Scott is four years into his sentence in federal prison for those convictions. With his good time credits, his release date has been moved up to November 2031,still six years away In hindsight, his sentence was too severe. Iamnot saying perjury andobstruction are not seriouscrimes Far from it, especially when we aretalking about aperson who has taken the oath of law enforcement. But the sentence shouldfitthe crime. Scott’sperjury and obstruction counts stemmed fromhis zeal to geta convictioninthe caseof aHouston-baseddrug trafficker whohad moved scores of kilos of cocaineand heroin.During Scott’s trial, the trafficker admitted this was hisbusiness. Scott was neverconvicted, charged or even accusedofstealing, using or selling drugs. Two members ofhis team were. Both were Tangipahoa Parish sheriff’s deputiesatthe time, and in return

for testifying against Scott, they got far lighter sentences than he did.

Federal prosecutorsalso dropped charges against thetrafficker Scott was targeting and offered sweetheartdeals to two other traffickers in return for their testimony againstScott. But when it came timetoargue for his sentencing, theydropped the hammer,urging U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo to give him 20 years. She didn’t, but still stunnedScottwhen she handed down the 13-year sentence. That decision looks especially harsh in the light of another notorious DEA case. JoseIrizarry was aMiami-based agent who laundered millions of dollars on behalf of drug cartels,using the funds to fuel athree-continent partytour thatincluded strip clubs, parties, prostitutes and high-profile sports events. Irizarry got 12 years one fewer than Scott —after pleading guiltyinfederal court. Right nowmay be Scott’sbest chance to seesomemovement on his jail time. President Donald Trump issued aflurry of pardons and commutations in the early months of his presidency,though

the pace hasslowed in recent weeks.Scott has certainly tried to get his case in front of Trump: He’shired apardon attorney and sought to portray himself as the victim of acapricious and weaponized FBI. But as of now, he’sstill locked up. He’strying to make the best of it. Afteracouple of years in the low-security federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky,Scott was moved acrossthe street to the federal prison camp. The security there is much more lax; visitors don’teven pass through metal detectors.

I’ve visited Scott there afew times.Most recently,inMarch, Scott looked better than I’d seen him before. He spends alot of timeexercising, walking loops around theyard and doing hundreds of burpees aday.He’s picked up afew jobs, including training service dogs as part of a program calledPawsibilities Unleashed.

He’salso picked up ajob as a driver.Soafew times aweek, the Bureau of Prisons hands Scott the keys to afederal car and instructs him on, say,where to drive an inmatewho is being released. Some-

times these trips are to places a few hours away,meaning Scott can spend most of the day outside the fences and unsupervised. And he recently wasgranted a daylong furlough that allowed him to spend time with family,including his nearly 1-year-old granddaughter I’ve been writing about Scott for nearly adecade, including scores of stories. Idid an eight-part podcast about the case. I’ve explored every aspect of this case and talked to people on every side. Iwas there when those juries delivered their verdicts. Idon’tthink he’sinnocent. But I also don’tthink he deserves to be in prison for the next six years. The four years he’sserved is a more than adequate sentence. That’swhy Iamnot advocating for apardon, but acommutation. That would leave those jury verdicts in place, but shorten his sentence. It would allow him to go home to his wife,sons and granddaughter

And that would be justice.

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

STAFF PHOTO By BRETTDUKE

Helena Moreno, center,celebrates with Desiree Charbonnet, left, and Jason Williams, right, at her election nightwatch party Saturdayatthe Civic Theatre in NewOrleans.

Will Sutton

Stephanie Grace

LSU keeping freshman Davisat righttackle

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

Dylan Stewart seemed unstoppable. Play after play,South Carolina’sstar edge rusher attacked Weston Davis, the LSU redshirt freshman right tackle who was making just the ﬁfth startofhis collegiate career on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.

Pro Football Focuscounted Davis as allowingthreequarterback pressures on 39 pass blocking snaps on Saturday, but it seemed asifStewart was beating Davis routinely, even as LSU won the game 20-10. It happened often enoughthat LSU coach Brian Kelly was asked on Monday if he’s considered moving ﬁfth-year senior right guard Josh Thompson outtoright tackle.

“Wedid, but we’re willingtolive with some mistakes out of right tackle, because we think his future is so bright,” Kelly said. “So when you go into that whole processof thinking aboutit, do you thwarthis growth of what he needs to see every day?”

Kelly went another step further in Davis’ defense on Monday. Insteadofcritiquing his performance against Stewart, he complimented the young tackle for notallowing asack to one of the best pass rushers in the country Stewart has three sacks and 24 quarterback pressuresthroughsix contests this season. Last year, as afreshman, he had 51 pressures and seven sacks.

“He was really good against(Stewart) in

See LSU,

LSU right tackle Weston Davis warms up before agame againstFloridaonSept 13 at TigerStadium. Davis allowedthree quarterback pressures on 39 passblocking snaps on SaturdayagainstSouthCarolina.

TI ME T O MO ON

Another Sunday.Another tough loss for theNew OrleansSaints.

It’sfast becoming aseason full of them. Their 25-19 setback to the New England Patriots was the latest exercise in what has become afrustratingly familiar script.The Saintsallowed their fourth consecutive opponent to score touchdowns on their first two drives, and from there, the futile game of catch-up was on. This time, the Saintsweren’tthe beneficiaries of five turnovers and failed to catch the Patriots on thescoreboard, which is usually the case. The Saints are now 1-5, matching their worst sixgamestartsince the dark Ditka days of 1999. They own theworst record in theNFC and can thank the lowly New Yo worst “Wek cord s times

And with adicey road trip to Chicago on deck, followed by difﬁcult matchups against what look to be a pair of playoffteams, TampaBay and the Los Angeles Rams, the Saints’ chances of kick-starting awin streak seem dubious at best. No, this season is what mostofusthought it would be. It’s not 2000 or 2006. It’s afull-blownrebuilding campaign, with anew head coach, anew quarterback various states of present being as KellysupportiveofRT

BY RODWALKER Staff writer

For Herb Jones, there’s no place quite like sweet home Alabama.

TheNew OrleansPelicans’ forwardcan hardlywait for Tuesday night when he gets achance to suit up in Birmingham, Alabama, for apreseason game against the Houston Rockets.

“I’m super excited,” Jones said. “I don’t know about the rest of the team, but I’m ready to get back.”

Beforemakinghis mark withthe Pelicans as one of the NBA’s bestdefensiveplayers, Jones was astar in Alabama. Hale High School, located in Moundville about an hour away fromBirmingham,retired Jones’ No. 2jerseylast December.Jones led Hale to its ﬁrst state championshipasasenior

Then he went on to play at the University of Alabama, where he was namedthe SEC Player of the Year and DefensivePlayerof the Year by the coaches

Regardless, the reality is, the Saints’ chances of making the playoffs are now exceedingly remote. Only three teamsinNFL history have managed to overcome a1-5 start and rally to makethe playoffs: the 2020 Commanders, 2018 Colts and2015 Chiefs.

He’ll likelybeone of themost popular players on the courtatLegacy Arena, just like he alwaysiswhen the Pelicansare in the area. This is the third time in four years the team has played in Birmingham, home ofthe Pelicans’G League team (theBirminghamSquadron)

“Herb is fromthere,so I’msure he will have the loudest cheers when hesteps on theﬂoor,” saidPelicans’ coach Willie Green. “They are big-time sports fans there and theylove supporting theirteams andwe’re excitedtoget there and play areally good game.”

This is the thirdpreseason game for the Pelicans, and theﬁrstinover aweek. The

ä See DUNCAN, page 4C

BY TIM REYNOLDS Associated Press

Imagine this lineup: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander,Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama, all on the ﬂoor at the sametimeasteammates. MVPs.Scoring champions. NBAchampions. Triple-double machines. Defensive wizards. Internationalplayers, alltogether in one highly decorated, incredibly accomplished, flat-out-scarylineup thelikesof which probably has not been seen too many times in basketball history The NBA seems on the brink of making it possible. Changes to the All-Star format are most certainly coming, once again, and the plan that

ä See ALL-STAR, page 2C

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

STAFFPHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD Saints coach Kellen Moore, left, tight end Taysom Hill andother players watchathird-down play against the New England Patriots during the first half of their game Sunday at the Caesars Superdome.

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Matt McMahon coaches a drill during the LSU men’s basketball practice on Sept. 24 at the PMAC. The Tigers were picked 15th in the SEC preseason media poll.

LSU men land at 15th in SEC preseason poll

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

LSU men’s basketball is predicted to ﬁnish 15th in the Southeastern Conference for the 2025-26 season in the league’s preseason media poll released on Monday Fourth-year coach Matt McMahon has an almost entirely new group with only two returning players: redshirt junior forward Jalen Reed and sophomore forward Robert Miller No player on the roster made any of the three preseason AllSEC teams. The other teams without a player were South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

Last year, the Tigers went 14-18 overall with a 3-15 record in the conference. They ﬁnished 15th in the SEC and were predicted to ﬁnish 14th in that year’s preseason poll.

McMahon hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament in his tenure as coach, and the last time the program made it was in 2022.

LSU’s season opener is at 7 p.m. on Nov 5 against Tarleton State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center The Tigers will play an exhibition game before that against Central Florida at 11 a.m

Oct. 26 at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida.

Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.com

ALL-STAR

Continued from page 1C

the rest of the world in a tournament setting. Think Ryder Cup golf or 4 Nations Face-Off hockey, and it just so happens that this season’s All-Star weekend at Inglewood, California, is smack in the middle of another nationalpride sporting event — the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

“I talk to a lot of fans, and AllStar Games for whatever reason take on particular interest around basketball,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “I think we should be able to create something that’s fun, exciting, engaging Not expecting guys to play the way

PELICANS

Continued from page 1C

first two games were played in Australia.

“We needed this rest time to recover from the Australia trip,” Green said. “We’ll get to Birmingham and get after it.”

The Pelicans went 2-0 in Australia, but they will step up in weight class Tuesday against the Rockets. Houston finished second in the Western Conference last season and added superstar Kevin Durant to its roster during the offseason.

“They already had a good team,” Green said. “They are going to be a team that is right in the mix But our focus is always on us and how can we continue to step on the ﬂoor and incorporate our concepts defensively.”

A main point of emphasis for Tuesday’s game is matching the Rockets’ physical play

“It’s really about us taking all of our ﬁlm work, concepts offensively and defensively and apply-

LSU women picked to ﬁnish third in SEC

Predicted

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

The LSU women’s basketball team was picked to ﬁnish third in the SEC this season in the league’s preseason media poll.

Senior Flau’jae Johnson was voted onto the SEC’s preseason ﬁrst team, and junior Mikaylah Williams was given a spot on the second team.

Voters chose South Carolina and Texas to ﬁnish ahead of the Tigers, who are beginning their fifth year under coach Kim Mulkey Johnson and Williams form one of the best backcourts in the country

This season, they’ll lead a newlook LSU team. The Tigers signed five freshmen and three transfers, including former Gamecocks guard MiLaysia Fulwiley and Notre Dame center Kate Koval.

LSU’s season opener against Houston Christian will tip off on

Nov 4 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Before that game, the Tigers will play two exhibitions, one on Oct. 23 and another on Oct. 30. Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

Purdue tops preseason AP Top 25 for first time

Purdue is No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for the ﬁrst time. The Boilermakers earned 35 of 61 first-place votes to top Monday’s poll to begin the 2025-26 season. That put Matt Painter’s squad ahead of the two teams that played in last year’s NCAA title game, with runner-up Houston at No. 2 and reigning champion Florida at No. 3. Purdue started a year ranked as high as No. 2 once before, in 198788 under Gene Keady Todd Golden’s Gators earned eight ﬁrst-place votes to start this year with their highest preseason ranking since the last time they entered a year as reigning champions in 2006-07, the start of a run to a second straight title.

South Carolina forward out for season with torn ACL

South Carolina senior forward Chloe Kitts has announced on social media that she will miss the entire 2025 season after tearing the ACL in her right knee. The injury occurred during a recent team practice, according to a spokesperson for the program. Kitts will have surgery this week to repair the ACL.

A two-year starter for the Gamecocks, Kitts was last year’s Southeastern Conference Tournament MVP and NCAA Binghamton Regionals MVP

She averaged 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a junior last year It’s uncertain if Kitts plans to seek a medical redshirt and return to the Gamecocks next season. She was projected to be a high pick in next year’s WNBA draft.

Eagles pass rusher retires after 5 games with team PHILADELPHIA Za’Darius Smith abruptly announced his retirement Monday five games into his eighth NFL season and first with the Philadelphia Eagles. The 33-year-old pass rusher called it a career in a post on Instagram. The Eagles lost Thursday night at the New York Giants to fall to 4-2 and play at Minnesota on Sunday Smith signed with the reigning Super Bowl champions the day after their Week 1 win against Dallas. He spent last season with Cleveland and Detroit. Smith was a three-time Pro Bowl selection, in 2019 and ‘20 with Green Bay and again in 2022 with Minnesota. He had 10 tackles in five games with the Eagles.

they would in the ﬁnals necessarily or even in a playoff game, but yet to go out, play hard, put on a good show for the fans.”

The plan, which isn’t yet ﬁnalized, calls for a three-team tournament: two American teams and one international team, all with eight-man rosters. The reason: Roughly two-thirds of NBA players are American and one-third are not, which is why the NBA thinks it’d be fair to give Americans two-thirds of the roster spots.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be better,” said Jokic, the Denver star It has become almost an annual exercise for the NBA: ﬁxing the All-Star Game Silver and other league ofﬁcials and to be fair some players as well — desperately want the product to be bet-

ter and more competitive. They tried having captains like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Antetokounmpo pick the teams for a few years, and not much changed. They tried go back to the standard Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference format, and it wasn’t great either. Having a ﬁnal score of 211-186 in Indianapolis in 2024 was the last straw in many respects, so the NBA last season tried a minitournament on for size, and few people cared for that Golden State’s Stephen Curry was MVP of that All-Star event, a four-teams-of-eight competition that had a 41-25 ﬁnal score in the title matchup and saw the final game stopped for about 20 minutes for a tribute to TNT and its run as a league broadcaster

ing them to a game against a really good opponent,” Green said.

“We know Houston last year was a really good defensive team. Physical. So it will be a good test for us to see how we match up. Can we be as physical or more physi-

cal? Can we execute against their physicality offensively?”

Green expects his starters to play more minutes than they did in Australia. Zion Williamson, for example, played 15 minutes in each of the two games against

International players have said they love the idea of a U.S. vs. The World concept. Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee star, has talked about it previously and playfully said that the league should give him credit for the idea.

“The NBA’s going to take all the credit. But I love it, man,” Antetokounmpo said.

“I think it’s going to be exciting for people to watch. I’m going to play hard. I’ve always been playing hard, but I think it’s going to put a little bit more juice to the game. All players have ego. Nobody wants to be embarrassed. Guys will play harder because they don’t want to become — I don’t know how you say this they don’t want to become viral. I’m excited for this format.”

Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix.

“We’ll try to bump their minutes up a little more for this third game,” Green said. “And then evaluate our team and see where we are. We’ll probably dial it down a little bit in the fourth game. It’s an evaluation to see how their bodies feel. But deﬁnitely want to get a good run in this next game.”

After the game against the Rockets, the Pelicans will conclude preseason play Thursday in Orlando, Florida, against the Magic. The Pelicans play their regular season opener on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 22. They play their ﬁrst home game on Oct. 24 against the San Antonio Spurs.

For Jones, his ﬁrst home game comes Tuesday night in Birmingham. He is ready for the reception he’ll get.

“It’s the crib,” Jones said. “I don’t expect to see anything different. It’s always great to see some family and friends.”

Email Rod Walker at rwalker@theadvocate.com.

Lions safety gets 1-game suspension for punch

NEW YORK — Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch was suspended for one game without pay by the NFL on Monday for unsportsmanlike conduct after a loss at Kansas City Branch punched Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on Sunday night, setting off a postgame melee. Detroit (4-2) will host NFC Southleading Tampa Bay (5-1) without Branch, another blow for a team with a banged-up secondary After Kansas City beat Detroit 30-17, quarterback Patrick Mahomes extended his hand toward Branch and the third-year pro walked past the superstar SmithSchuster then walked toward Branch. They exchanged a few words and Branch responded by throwing a right hook that knocked Smith-Schuster to the ground.

Former infielder and coach Sandy Alomar Sr. dies at 81 Sandy Alomar Sr an All-Star inﬁelder during his playing days in the 1960s and ‘70s who went on to coach in the majors and manage in his native Puerto Rico, has died. He was 81. A spokesperson for the Cleveland Guardians said Monday that the team was informed by Alomar’s family about his death Sandy Alomar Jr., who along with Hall of Fame brother Roberto played for their father in winter ball and in the minors, is on the Guardians’ staff.

“Our thoughts are with the Alomar family today as the baseball community mourns his passing,” the Guardians said on social media. Alomar broke into the big leagues in 1964 with the Milwaukee Braves, one of six teams he played for He also spent time with the New York

and Texas Rangers before calling it a

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Herbert Jones autographs the shirt of Tori-Ashley Beal, 6, during a break in practice at the Smoothie King Center on Friday.

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

CLASS5A-4A

1. Edna Karr(6-0): The Cougars have not allowedatouchdown on defense in the first half against any of their five Louisiana opponents this season, including Brother Martin in arout last week. Jesuit is next on the schedule.

2. John Curtis (5-0): All three district wins were clinched with late stops on defense, including an interception returntouchdown by Jewellz Tapp that kept Holy Cross from making a comeback last week.

3. St.Augustine (5-1): The Purple Knightsshook off aWeek 5loss to Karrwith arout of Jesuit, butRummel stands as the next formidable opponent with the teams set to play Saturdayatyenni Stadium.

4. Destrehan (4-2): The Wildcats reached 50 points for the third time in five games and will visit highscoring Captain Shreve (4-2) this week for arematch of Destrehan’s 46-42 victorylast season.

5. Rummel (4-2): The Raiders, who built afour-touchdown lead on Easton last week, are No. 5inthe

latest LSHAA DivisionI select power ratings, onespotbehind No. 4St. Augustine—this week’sopponent.

6. Brother Martin (4-2): The schedule gets no easier after losses to Rummeland Karrwith Curtis up next.Brother Martin haslost four in a rowagainst Curtis, including once in theplayoffs last season.

7. Jesuit (4-2): The Blue Jays successfully movedthe ball against St.Augustinebut struggled to reachthe endzone untillate in the lopsided loss. Up next is Karr, which Jesuit playedclose in a21-9 loss last season.

8. St.Charles(5-1): The Comets getanimpressivebounce-back win against5Acontender Terrebonne after a final-playlosstoSt. James District playstartsintwo weeks against Belle Chasse.

9. Shaw(4-2): The Eagles, set to visit Walker,held off St. James in a matchup between twoteams that reached thestate finals last season. That’sthree wins ina rowafter the 1-2 startwith losses to Karrand Rummel.

10. Lakeshore (5-1): The Titans rebounded from an unexpected Week

5loss to Salmen and beat reigning state runner-up Franklinton in the districtopener —ahead of another key 7-4Agame against PearlRiver CLASS3AAND BELOW

1. Kennedy (3-3): The Cougars, coming offawin against Booker T. Washington to open district play, will face Sophie B.Wright this week.

2. Riverside (5-1): The Rebels, set to face West St.John in agame that could decide the 10-1A title,reached 40 pointsfor the fourth week in arow

3. Newman(2-2): The Greenies, after asecondopen date in the past four weeks,cannot overlook Cohen ateam that challengedCountryDay into the fourth quarter

4. NorthlakeChristian (3-2): This week’smatchup against Pope John Paul II couldultimately decide the 9-2A title —just as it did when Northlakewon 27-21 lastseason.

5. South Plaquemines (5-1): The reigning state champions are No. 2 in the LHSAA Division IV nonselect powerratings and have aweek off before opening district playagainst CountryDay

6. De La Salle (1-5): The Cavaliers openeddistrict playwith alopsided winagainst Sophie B.Wright —and have L.B. Landrynext in arematch fromwhenDeLaSalle won31-30 last season.

7. Pope John Paul II (4-2): The Jaguars reached 40 pointsfor the third time this season in arout of St.Thomas Aquinas and will face Northlakeina keydistrict game Thursday.

8. CountryDay (3-2): The highscoring Cajuns have scored 225 points overthe past four weeks with quarterback Hudson Wrightas the main difference-maker since his returnfrom aconcussion.

9.Young Audiences (4-0): The yaks believe theycan challengefor the 9-3A districttitle.Games against Thomas Jefferson and Haynes overthe next twoweeks coulddecide that 10. L.B.Landry(2-3): The Buccaneers lost threedistrict games by acombined10pointslast season —and canavengethe firstofthose losses thisweek against De La Salle Christopher Dabe

Rummel QB helpsbalance Raidersoffense

BY CHRISTOPHER DABE Staff writer

The Rummel offense is built largely aroundwhat junior running backs Jaden Terrance and Coryan Hawkins can do when they carry the football. But junior quarterbackTyler Holden is making effortstoplay alarger role in the team’ssuccess on offense.

In the latest win against Warren Easton, the first-yearstarter threw touchdown passes to Mark Shezbie and Nathaniel Singleton as the Raiders builta four-touchdown lead in the third quarter of a28-14 victory last week at Tad Gormley Stadium. On the pass to Singleton, Holden (5-foot-8, 177 pounds)faked a handoff as he rolled out toward theright sideline and threwa long passthat resulted ina 50-yard touchdown after Rummel ran the same play earlier andHolden threw ashorter pass to adifferent receiver “The first time we ran the playaction, Ihit the flat and noticed the back corner was open, so we came back, and it was openagain,” Holden said. “So, Itook the shot, trusted in my receiver and he did what he was supposed todo, and we ended up with six points.”

Rummel quarterback Tyler Holden throws the ball against

Sept. 12 at Caesars Superdome. Holden has thrown seventouchdown passesagainst one interception this season.

Rummel coach Nick Monica said the deeper receiver is supposedtobethe ﬁrst option on that pass play

“He took the easy onethe first time, which is fine,” Monica said. “But ultimately (thedeeper receiver is) supposed to be his first peek. So,for himtosee it the secondtime, that meanshegot alittle more comfortable withit.” Monica saidHolden, whocompetedsix of 11 for 123 yards against Easton, has shown spurts

“where he looks like one of the better quarterbacks in theleague.”

“He just needs to believe in himself,”Monica said. “If he does that, he’ll be just ﬁne.” Holden, whohas thrown seven touchdown passes against one interception this season, said he has “gotten more comfortable as the season goes on. Ifeel like when the season ﬁrst started, Iwas a little nervous. …Atpractice, Igot better and better and progressed moreand more.”

Easton played man coverage on defense“and(Holden) made some really good decisions,” Monica said. “He tuckedthe ball away when he needed to,and he made somegood throws.”

Up next forRummel (4-2, 2-1 District 9-5A) is ahome game against St. Augustine (5-1, 2-1) set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Joe Yenni Stadium

Rummelhas wonfour of the past ﬁve games. The two losses thisseasoncameagainst stateranked Lafayette Christian and John Curtis by acombined three points.

Terrance hasbeenthe leading rusher in most games. He ran 12 times for 164 yards and two touchdowns against Easton. He has run for 787 yards and six touchdowns this season. Hawkins, who ran 15 times for 80 yards against Easton, has 492 yards and threetouchdowns on the season. “Those twoguys are pretty special with the ball,” Monica said. Continuing development at quarterback could help Rummel ﬁnd more balance on offense —and make theRaiders less predictable. And if Rummel can continue to blend power on the ground with confidence through the air, the Raiders could be atough outwhen theplayoffs start in four weeks.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Edna Karrwide receiver Joshua Ford,left, celebrateswithXavier Owens after Ford scored atouchdownagainst AmericanHeritageonSept.

CaesarsSuperdome. Karrplays Jesuit next.

Saints’ youth movement continues with Stutsman

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

For most of last week, Danny Stutsman ﬁgured his role was going to remain unchanged: He would back up starters Demario Davis and Pete Werner on defense and try to impact the game on special teams. And then on Saturday, the day before the Saints rookie linebacker played against the New England Patriots, his coaches let him know that he was going to play a few series on defense.

“Whatever it is, I was ready to go,” Stutsman said.

The Saints selected Stutsman in the fourth round (112th overall) in the 2025 draft Before Week 6 against the Patriots, his defensive playing time had been limited to four snaps in garbage time of a blowout loss to Seattle and the preseason.

But he was on the ﬁeld for a couple of important defensive series Sunday against the New England Patriots replacing Pete Werner in the lineup while down 14-13 in the second quarter and again while trailing by nine in the third quarter

The sample size is still small — Stutsman played only six defensive snaps — but he will gladly take any experience he can get at this stage of his career

“To be able to get out there and build conﬁdence is huge,” Stutsman said. “You play in the preseason, but it’s not the same. You take those six snaps and you really have to grow from it and just learn.”

Stutsman recorded two tack-

les in his six snaps, including one where he ducked under an openﬁeld block attempt by Patriots left guard Jared Wilson to drop running back Rhamondre Stevenson for a short gain.

Coach Kellen Moore said the team saw some value in giving its rookie linebacker some time on the ﬁeld where he typically wouldn’t get it.

“Danny’s a good player,” Moore said. “When you give these guys some exposure, I think it helps them.”

Right now, Stutsman said his goal when he gets onto the ﬁeld is to maintain the defensive standard set by starters Werner and Demario Davis — especially in the event that his time on the ﬁeld is because of injury

The Saints have already leaned heavily on two other defensive rookies in Jonas Sanker and Quincy Riley, who have been pushed into the lineup because of injuries to starters (though Riley may have been starting by now anyway). Another rookie, Vernon Broughton, was part of the defensive line rotation before suffering a season-ending injury

Stutsman views the playing time, limited though it may be, as a crucial step in his development as a player

“It’s putting reps in the bank,”

Stutsman said “Those reps right there will grow with interest, and hopefully in the future, when I have a great career, it’ll be due to those six snaps right there.”

Ruiz rebounds

Less than halfway through their

Saints linebacker Danny Stutsman reacts after making a stop against the Denver Broncos on Aug. 23 at the Caesars Superdome.

ﬁrst game with the regular starting ﬁve along the offensive line, all in the game, right guard Cesar Ruiz was forced to exit after quarterback Spencer Rattler rolled into the back of his legs on a scramble.

“We ﬁnally have that (offensive line) group up in Buffalo and it’s

Titans ﬁre coach Callahan after 4-19 record and 1-5 start to second season

BY TERESA M. WALKER

AP pro football writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

— The Tennessee Titans fired Brian Callahan on Monday after a 1-5 start to his second season, making him the ﬁrst NFL head coach ousted this season. Chad Brinker, the Titans’ president of football operations, said team ofﬁcials had extended conversations with controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk and general manager Mike Borgonzi before meeting with Callahan on Monday morning to tell him that Tennessee was making a change.

“While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable, winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth,” Brinker said in a statement. “Our players, fans, and community deserve a football team that achieves a standard we are not currently meeting, and we are committed to making the hard decisions necessary to reach and maintain that standard.”

The Titans announced hours later that Mike McCoy would take over as interim coach. Brinker and Borgonzi were scheduled to talk to reporters Monday night.

McCoy joined the team in March as a senior offensive assistant, and he was 27-37 in four seasons coaching the then-San Diego Chargers between 2013 and 2016, losing 23 of the last 32 games before being ﬁred He also was offensive coordinator in Denver in 2017 and Arizona in 2018

His ﬁrst game leading the Titans comes Sunday against former Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel and his New England Patriots (4-2).

Callahan went 4-19, which featured a 10-game skid.

He became just the second coach fired during the season by this franchise since it relocated from Houston to Nashville in 1997, joining Ken Whisenhunt. Whisenhunt had a 3-20 record when ﬁred in No-

DUNCAN

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bleak as it is, the Saints need to start planning for what they hope will be a more promising future. Tough seasons beget tough decisions, and the Saints have plenty to make on their roster With the trade deadline looming on Nov 4, the Saints need to strongly consider each and every option presented to them If that means departing with a popular veteran or two to improve their future, so be it.

It’s never easy to part ways with popular stars and locker room leaders, especially Ring of Honor-type players. And there’s a human element to consider

vember 2015, with a stint that also included a 10-game skid to end the 2014 season.

But it’s just the latest personnel shakeup since December 2022:

n General manager Jon Robinson was ﬁ red on Dec. 6, 2022.

n GM Ran Carthon was hired on Jan. 18, 2023.

n Vrabel was fired on Jan. 9, 2024.

n Callahan was hired on Jan. 24, 2024.

n Carthon was ﬁ red on Jan. 7, 2024.

n GM Mike Borgonzi was hired on Jan 17, 2025.

The Titans had said they wanted to see improvement this season with Callahan going into his second season as a ﬁrst-time head coach and with a rookie quarterback in Cam Ward. Yet Callahan had to hand off play-calling duties after dropping to 0-3 and the offense struggling. Even the change in play-caller didn’t help.

with families and schools and mortgages, etc. But the reality is the Saints’ future might depend on it You have to give something to get something, and the Saints’ few tradable assets are players that rank among the most popular on the team: Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave Demario Davis and Taysom Hill.

The Saints’ front ofﬁce has often been loyal to a fault. They tend to hold on to players and coaches longer than other teams, perhaps a nod to the club’s rare connection with its loyal fan base.

The club moved on from former Pro Bowl cornerback Marshon Lattimore last season, and it proved to be one of the best decisions they’ve made in recent years. They should strongly consider similar moves in the days

The Titans have scored only 83 points and are averaging 3.94 yards per play Only the 2019 Jets, the 2018 Bills in Josh Allen’s rookie year, the 2009 Browns, the 2009 Raiders in JaMarcus Russell’s last season and the 2007 49ers have scored fewer than 84 points and 4 yards per play through six games in the past 20 seasons.

Of the 241 NFL coaches who have coached at least 20 games or more since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, Callahan ranks 237th with a .174 winning percentage. The only coaches with worse winning percentages were Jim Ringo (.130), Marty Mornhinweg (.156), Chris Palmer (.156) and Rod Dowhower (.172).

The Titans knew that this would be a rebuilding year and Brinker said at the start of training camp that improvement was the one sign they were looking for They have played at least seven rookies in each game this season, led by Ward, the No. 1 draft pick.

and weeks ahead. If a 1-5 start (and potentially worse) doesn’t convince you to rip off the Band-Aid, I’m not sure what will. The future is now, and the Saints need to think and plan for it accordingly In some ways, they already are. They started three rookies against the Patriots Left tackle Kelvin Banks, safety Jonas Sanker and cornerback Quincy Riley look like core players going forward, joining Rattler, Kendre Miller and Kool-Aid McKinstry among young players who have moved into more prominent roles. A fourth rookie, linebacker Danny Stutsman, started to work into the rotation for the ﬁrst time against the Patriots Meanwhile, quarterback Tyler Shough is wait-

Week 5 game against the Giants and was back in the lineup for Week 6.

“I felt good, body felt good, fresh legs you could say,” Ruiz said. “... By the grace of God I was able to get back out there on that ﬁeld and be out there with my brothers again.”

Moore was impressed with how his right guard performed in the Patriots game — especially considering the injury he was coming off of.

“I thought it was an awesome performance by him, I thought he did a lot of good stuff,” Moore said. “It was a really good rebound game coming off an injury where you don’t know how that timeline is going to take its course. He responded really well, he worked really hard to get back.”

Tipton returns

Moore said the Saints had some options to choose from at kick returner this past week after the team released Velus Jones from the active roster, but they ultimately went with backup wide receiver Mason Tipton. Prior to the Patriots game, Tipton had only returned one kick in his professional career He handled four of them against New England, gaining 89 yards.

like, ‘All right, let’s roll!’ Then something happens, and it’s challenging,” Moore said “You’ve got to deal with the unknown.” It was a high-ankle sprain for Ruiz normally an injury that would keep a player out multiple weeks. But Ruiz missed only the

“I thought he ran hard, I thought there were some positives in there,” Moore said. “I’m excited to see him grow in that area.”

Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate.com.

Chiefs dominate the Lions, prove they are still title contenders

BY DAVE SKRETTA Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first

ﬁve weeks of the season, everyone seemed to be asking what was wrong with the Kansas City Chiefs. Turned out the answer might have been nothing. Their first three losses? One came thousands of miles away in Brazil, another was a nip-andtuck game with the defending Super Bowl champions and the other was a game in which they committed 13 penalties and still nearly won. Oh, and they all occurred while the Chiefs were dealing with injuries and a suspension to their best wide receiver On Sunday night, the healthy Chiefs proved that they are still legitimate championship contenders, beating up the Detroit Lions on both sides of the ball in a 3017 victory The offense was humming, the defense shut down the league’s top-scoring offense, and the biggest question afterward was just how good Kansas City could be when it gets Rashee Rice — the aforementioned wide receiver — back from his six-game punishment this week?

“I’m very excited,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said with a smirk. “That’s obvious.”

Even without Rice in the mix, Mahomes is back to playing at an MVP-caliber level. He threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns while running for another score against Detroit, and he has 11 touchdown passes against two interceptions this season.

The run game also picked up Sunday night, particularly when the Chiefs were trying to control the clock. And the whole offense operated

ing in the wings for his chance to prove his bona fides. The youth movement has been overdue for a few years now and it’s finally happening before our eyes. As they say, better late than never For all intents and purposes, this season has always been about the future. Once Derek Carr “retired” in April, the Saints’ chances of salvaging a competitive campaign were severely jeopardized. Publicly, team officials and leaders said the right things about being competitive and challenging for a division title and playoff spot, but privately, they understood the reality of the task at hand. This season might be a tough one, but it shouldn’t be a lost one. The Saints must use it to enhance their future. If that involves trad-

ANALYSIS

without ﬁrst-round pick Josh Simmons, who had been playing well at left tackle, but who had to miss the game for a family emergency Jaylon Moore stepped in on little sleep — his wife gave birth to a baby girl named Saleh the previous night — and handled Aidan Hutchinson and the rest of the Detroit pass rush with ease.

“I have all the faith in the world in Jaylon. He came here to do what he did today,” Mahomes said, “going against one of the premier pass rusher in the league and holding his own. He went out there and showcased the type of player he is.”

The Chiefs showcased the type of team they are, and have been for the better part of a decade.

And now they get Rice back in the mix, and for the ﬁrst time in two years their wide receiver group will be whole. It was missing Marquise Brown much of last season because of a shoulder injury, then Rice got hurt a few weeks into the season. And this season, Xavier Worthy missed a few games after hurting his shoulder in the opener, and Rice has been serving his suspension for causing a high-speed car crash in Dallas in March 2024.

Rice has been back in the practice facility for the past couple of weeks. Now he is eligible to get back on the ﬁeld.

“I’ve said this, but getting (Worthy) back was a big thing. Xavier brings a lot of energy and he can do a lot of things for you, and he has an attitude that he brings,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “Getting Rashee back in the building was a big part; they felt like they were whole again, at least by body there. That’s been all positive.”

ing away a key player or two to acquire future draft picks, then it needs to be done.

Sean Payton taught us there are no sacred cows. He traded Reggie Bush, Jimmy Graham and Darren Sproles in their primes. He dealt away high draft picks Donte Stallworth and Akiem Hicks. The decisions weren’t always right, but no one bats 1.000 in this league. His willingness to boldly do what he thought was necessary to improve the team’s future showed the importance of having vision and conviction.

Trading away stars isn’t always popular, especially in a market where players are often treated as family But tough decisions rarely are. Being right is more important than being popular

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By RICK SCUTERI

Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan reacts on the sideline during agame against the Arizona Cadinals on Oct. 5 in Glendale, Ariz

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

LSU QB Nussmeier dealing with medial ankle sprain

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

Garrett Nussmeier sprained an ankle on Saturday in LSU’s win over South Carolina, but coach Brian Kelly doesn’t think it will affect his availability moving forward.

Kelly said on Monday that Nussmeier did not suffer a high ankle sprain. The injury is more of a “medial” sprain, he said.

“And we feel like he’s going to be ﬁne,” Kelly said.

Nussmeier LSU’s second-year starting quarterback, has now suffered three known injuries this season. In preseason camp, he aggravated knee tendonitis and strained his abdominal muscles. Kelly didn’t reveal the latter injury until after the No. 10 Tigers (5-1) defeated Florida on Sept. 13.

Against South Carolina, Nussmeier looked healthier than he did in LSU’s previous game against Ole Miss. The Tigers had an open date between those contests, and Kelly said they used it to make sure the fifth-year senior didn’t overwork his injured core.

Nussmeier according to Kelly, didn’t throw during the off week, which allowed him to feel fresher for practices ahead of the game against the Gamecocks. LSU keeps data on Nussmeier’s throws using a GPS tracking system, Kelly said, and all his numbers were improved before Saturday

“The bottom line is he’s healthy,” Kelly said on Monday “His ab injury is on the right side of it, where he feels good. He didn’t feel any pain on Sunday coming in, so that’s a really, really good sign for us moving forward.”

Nussmeier completed 20 of 33 pass attempts for 254 yards and

LSU

Continued from page 1C

pass protection, really good,” Kelly said. “That guy is outstanding. He’s as good as I’ve seen. He’s so quick. He’s got a power move, he’s got an edge move, and (Davis) did a great job.” Davis has allowed seven more pressures than any other Tiger despite missing the Ole Miss game with a concussion and fractured nose. But Kelly’s point of emphasis for Davis in terms of improvement was not in pass protection

“We’ve got to get him better in the run game,” Kelly said, “and that’s where, at times, you want to put Josh out there.”

Kelly has defended Davis at various points through his first year as a starter, declaring that there was no competition at right tackle after he was replaced by redshirt sophomore DJ Chester at halftime following a poor ﬁrst-half performance against Southeastern Louisiana.

Davis would have started the following week at Ole Miss, but his pregame injury resulted in freshman Carius Curne earning the start. Davis’ ailment, and a ﬁrst-half

two touchdowns against South Carolina, but he also threw two costly interceptions, including one that foiled an LSU drive that reached the red zone.

“I think that that’s an aberration,” Kelly said, “the mistake that was in the red zone, and something that he would immediately say, ‘I should have had my eyes on that safety Because that’s my read.’

“But I like the version of Garrett Nussmeier we saw He was a lot more conﬁdent. He was a lot more active in the pocket. He had an opportunity to run a couple of times. That’s the version we want. We want to clean up those, what I would call, uncharacteristic mistakes.”

In the Tigers’ six games, Nussmeier completed 66% of his passes for 1,413 yards, nine touchdowns and ﬁve interceptions.

LSU’s next game is a road battle with No. 17 Vanderbilt that kicks off at 11 a.m Saturday on ABC.

Other injury updates

Neither defensive linemen who left LSU’s win over South Carolina early on Saturday suffered major injuries.

Kelly said on Monday that defensive tackle Bernard Gooden has a bruised collarbone and edge rusher Jimari Butler has an ankle sprain. Butler, Kelly said, is “probable” to play against Vanderbilt, and Gooden is “very sore right now.”

“But clean — no break,” Kelly said. “So this is a short-time thing, one where he’ll have to manage the pain relative to how we go through the week.

“I think we’ve got good news on all of the injuries that we had.”

Kelly said that LSU expects left guard Paul Mubenga (high ankle sprain) to return to the ﬁeld against

Rhule doesn’t tamp down buzz about Penn State opening

BY ERIC OLSON AP college football writer

Matt Rhule professed his love for living and working in Nebraska and trying to return the Cornhuskers to the upper echelon of college football.

That said, he did nothing Monday to shut down speculation that he could be up for the Penn State job, which opened with Sunday’s ﬁring of James Franklin.

Rhule’s name surfaced immediately as a front-runner because of his ties to Penn State. He was a walk-on linebacker at Penn State under Joe Paterno in the 1990s, met his wife at the school and is close friends with athletic director Pat Kraft. Kraft hired Rhule in 2012 at Temple, where he coached for four seasons before leaving for Baylor Rhule left Baylor after three years and was the Carolina Panthers’ coach for two-plus seasons. He came to Nebraska in December 2022, hired by former athletic director Trev Alberts.

Rhule is 17-14 in three seasons in Lincoln. The Huskers are 5-1 and entered The Associated

Press poll this week at No. 25.

“This place is elite,” Rhule said at his weekly availability “And I want to be a great father and I want to be a great college football coach. And so I’m not going to talk a lot about job openings when they come.”

The 50-year-old Rhule is scheduled to earn $7.5 million this year on a contract that runs through 2030. If he were to resign before Jan. 1, he or his new employer would owe Nebraska $5 million.

Nebraska had gone seven seasons without a winning record before ﬁnishing 7-6 in 2024.

“I absolutely love it here,” Rhule said, “and I just want us to continue to take the steps needed for us to turn this thing into a beast and have players all across the country want to come here with the best facilities. We have elite fans.

“I’m just looking at the future, but again, I love that place (Penn State), I love Pat, I love James Franklin and am sad that came to an end. I wish him the absolute best. But I’m really happy here.”

The Huskers play at Minnesota on Friday night.

suspension for targeting levied to Chester during the second half against SLU, resulted in Curne getting his ﬁrst career start against the Rebels He allowed just one pressure on 41 pass blocking snaps, leaving some to wonder if he could be a candidate to start at

the Commodores after he sat out the win over the Gamecocks. A few other injuries cropped up in that game, but none of them are expected to force players to miss time.

Running back Caden Durham has a “mild” hip pointer, and center Braelin Moore suffered a stinger that “looked good” in an MRI.

Aaron Anderson — a wide receiver who’s battling elbow, toe and knee injuries — warmed up for the game against South Carolina but swapped out his pads and helmet for sweats before it began. LSU listed him as questionable to play throughout the week, then gave him a game-time decision designation shortly before kickoff.

“(He) looked good,” Kelly said. “We’ll continue to progress with him.”

Kickoff time set

Arguably, the most anticipated home game on LSU’s 2025 schedule will kick off at night.

The SEC revealed on Monday that the No. 10 Tigers’ Week 9 clash with No. 4 Texas A&M will begin at 6:30 p.m in Tiger Stadium on ABC.

The Aggies (6-0) are one of two unbeaten teams left in the SEC. In Week 7, they defeated Florida 34-17 at home. They also have a road win over No 13 Notre Dame and league victories over Auburn and Mississippi State heading into their Week 8 road matchup with Arkansas.

LSU bounced back from its road loss to No. 5 Ole Miss to defeat South Carolina in Tiger Stadium. Its defense has held ﬁve of its six opponents this season to 10 points or fewer

Each of the Tigers’ first four home games of the season began at night.

the position moving forward.

“I have not had a starting right tackle go out because of an injury in pregame,” Kelly said during his radio show Thursday “That’s kind of like, ‘All right, let’s ﬁgure this out as we go. We’re going to build this plane as we’re going here.’ And you know, he went in there and he battled, but it wasn’t a good break for us.”

But Monday may have been Kelly’s most vocal support of Davis, the former four-star recruit. Davis was among LSU’s most highly coveted recruits from the 2024 class, decommitting from Texas A&M before arriving in Baton Rouge as the No 8 offensive tackle in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite.

Kelly believes in his promise and has made himself clear: LSU is sticking with the kid, growing pains and all.

“We’re going to live with him, and I’m proud of him. He’s growing. He’s learning this game, and that’s a big part of this,” Kelly said. “O-line awareness, O-line instincts. Some have it, some don’t. Some, you’ve got to really give them reps, and that’s what this is about. He needs to play.”

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

Belichick says he never sought early departure

BY BOB SUTTON Associated Press

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.— Bill Belichick has denied reports that he’s been seeking an exit strategy from his North Carolina coaching role.

“Some of the reports out last week about my looking for a buyout and trying to leave here and all that is categorically false,” Belichick said Monday during his ﬁrst public comments since a blowout loss to Clemson. “Glad I’m here. Working toward our goals and the process.”

Next up for the Tar Heels (2-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) is Friday night’s game at California (4-2, 1-1).

During the second of two off weeks in a three-week span, the subject of Belichick’s status and future with the Tar Heels was a hot topic, so much so that last Wednesday the university released brief statements from the coach and athletics director Bubba Cunningham reafﬁrming commitments between Belichick and the school.

“It’s a learning curve,” Belichick said Monday “We’re all in it together, but we’re making a lot of progress.”

On Monday, there was double the media turnout compared to Belichick’s normal game-week availability University chancellor Lee Roberts also attended along with high-ranking ofﬁcials in the athletics department.

With only one game during a span of nearly a month, it has allowed off-ﬁeld drama to command plenty of attention. Yet Belichick was spotted attending a high school game Friday night, perhaps an indication of normal in-season functions in terms of recruiting.

Belichick said the program has approximately 40 high school players committed for the next recruiting class.

Results on game days haven’t given Tar Heels fans much reason to be encouraged.

“Obviously we’re all a little frustrated with the results, but the only thing we can do is continue to work and improve,” Belichick said. “We’ve made a lot of progress. Right now, unfortunately, the scoreboard doesn’t reflect that, but I’m conﬁdent that it will.”

The former Super Bowl-winning coach disputed suggestions that there’s division within the team and a lack of progress.

“We’ve made a lot of improvements,” Belichick said. “I think that’s exciting for all of us to see, certainly for the individual players to see it, in the units that they work with. So I don’t know what kind of perspective some of those people have that are saying that.” Offensive lineman Christo Kelly, who talked about the team

coming together and buying into the process, said the Tar Heels shouldn’t be bothered by reports regarding Belichick.

“Some of that outside noise stuff doesn’t affect what we do day-in and day-out,” Kelly said. Belichick referred to the Tar Heels as a developmental program, calling them similar to other teams he has overseen.

“I’ve been involved in a lot of programs where things started and where things ended up are honestly where they should go,” he said.

Belichick is in the ﬁrst year of a deal that guarantees $10 million in base and supplemental pay for each of the next two seasons. Team general manager Michael Lombardi, a former NFL executive who’s largely a partner with Belichick in this college endeavor, is making $1.5 million for each of the next two seasons.

Belichick defended Lombardi, who has been the subject of criticism stemming from some local media reports.

“I think Michael has done a great job of keeping the people close to the Carolina program up to date in what we’re doing, what our process is,” Belichick said. “We’re all working together We’re all learning together.”

North Carolina has been blown out in three games against power conference opponents, including a 38-10 belting from Clemson in the most-recent game that resulted in a largely empty stadium in the second half. The Tar Heels surrendered 28 first-quarter points in that game.

Running back Caleb Hood announced last week that he was ending his playing career Belichick said he had a conversation with Hood similar to ones he has had with many athletes through the years.

“For him, it was time, so I respect that,” Belichick said.

There was a light moment Monday when Belichick was asked about a phone call he made to ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreit during the weekend. He said he was answering a text sent by Herbstreit, though the timing wasn’t ideal.

“I didn’t realize he was on the air,” the coach said.

Also last week the school announced that cornerbacks coach Armond Hawkins has been placed on suspension for violating rules connected to improper beneﬁts. He’s on leave while the school “further investigates other potential actions detrimental” to the team and school.

This comes following monthslong tabloid-level interest involving Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, who has been on the sidelines prior to games.

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU tackle Weston Davis holds Florida edge Kamran James back during a ﬁeld goal kick on Sept 13 at Tiger Stadium.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GERALD HERBERT

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier checks his leg after being tackled hard in the second half of a game against South Carolina on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.

Mariners take 2-0lead, beat Blue Jays 10-3

BY IAN HARRISON Associated Press

TORONTO— Julio Rodríguez and Jorge Polanco hit three-run homers, Josh Naylor added atwo-run drive and the Seattle Mariners took a2-0 AL Championship Series lead by routing the TorontoBlue Jays 10-3 on Monday Seattle, the only big league team never to host aWorld Series game, headed home forWednesday’s Game 3needing two more wins in the best-of-seven series to end that drought. Toronto had just six hits, only one after the second inning, and had eight hits in the first two games. Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr.was 0for 3with a walk and is hitless in the series Rodríguez homered for a3-0 lead three batters in against rookie Trey Yesavage,a22-yearold making just his fifth big league start.

Nathan Lukes and Alejandro Kirk had RBI singles in the bottom half off Logan Gilbert,and Lukes’run-scoring single tiedthe score in the second.

Polanco’sthree-run homeroff

Louis Varland putSeattle back ahead 6-3 in the ﬁfth. J.P Crawford added an RBI single in the sixth and Naylor had atwo-run homer

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByFRANK GUNN

Seattle Mariners’ JorgePolanco, right, hits athree-run homerun in front of Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk, left, duringthe fifth inning of Game 2ofthe ALCSinToronto on Monday.

in theseventh against Braydon Fisher.

SixofPolanco’sﬁrst seven hits this postseason drove in runs. He

had the game-endingsingle in the 15th inning of Friday’sDivision Series clincher againstDetroit and went 2for 4with twoRBIsin

Seattle’s3-1 opening ALCS win, Polanco’stwo previous homeruns this October both came off Detroit’sTarik Skubal, thereigning

AL Cy Young Award winner The roof was open on abreezy 62-degree day on the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday,but the sellout crowdof44,814 had little to celebrate.

Seattle’sbullpen has combined fornine scorelessinnings in the series, allowing just one hit. Winner EduardBazardo, Carlos Vargas and Emerson Hancock each pitched two innings.

Naylor,born in Mississauga, Ontario,fouled aball his right foot in the ﬁrst inning and looked uncomfortable in the batter’s box in the ﬁfth, prompting manager Dan Wilson to come out and check on him. With Miles Mastrobuoni getting ready to come into the game if needed, Naylor convinced Wilsontoleavehim in and homered in the seventh.

Yesavage,who took theloss, gave up three runs and four hits in four-plus innings. He seta Blue Jays postseason record by striking out 11 Yankees in 51/3 hitless innings in ALDS Game 2 but had twoswings and misses on his splitter, down from11against New York.

Blue Jays outfielder Anthony Santanderwas scratchedfrom the lineup because of asore lower back. Davis Schneider replaced him and went0for 3with awalk.

Tigers extend managerHinch’s contract,looktosignSkuballong-term

DETROIT Detroit Tigers general manager ScottHarris said he extended manager A.J. Hinch’scontractduring the2025seasonand insisted ownership will provide the resources necessary to sign ace Tarik Skubal to along-term deal. Harris and Hinch had anewsconference Monday morning, wrapping up their season that endedlast week with a3-2, 15-inning loss at Seattle in Game 5ofthe AL DivisionSeriesand lookingahead to next year and beyond.

“I wish we weren’thereright now,” Harris said. “I wish wewere in Toronto, preparing for Game 2of the ALCS.” Harris said he approachedHinch during the season, his ﬁfth in Detroit, about extending hiscontract for asecond time and theyreached adeal quickly. Harrisalso signed Hinch to along-term contract in 2023.

“He’sone of the best managers in the game,” Harris said. Harris declined to say how long

Hinch is under contract

“Wewant him tobehere as long as he’swilling to be here,” Harris said. “I want to work with him as long as Ican possiblyworkwith him.”

TheTigers wouldalsolike to have Skubal report to work in Detroitfor yearstocome, but knowthatwill be costly.Hewon the AL Cy Young Award and was theleague’spitchingTripleCrown winner in 2024 He followed that witha career-low 2.21 ERA and acareer-high 241 strikeouts.

“He’sthe best pitcher in baseball,” Harrissaid.“He’shopefully going to wina second Cy Young.”

Skubalsigned a$10.15 million, one-year contract during the last offseason —avoiding salary arbitration—and he’sset to become a free agent afterthe 2026 season.

To keep him off the market,team owner ChrisIlitchwould have to spend many millions Harris insisted Ilitch will support theorganization with what is needed for payroll, including what it would taketokeep the 28-year-old

lefty long term.

“I have no concerns about that,” Harris said. Harris does have concerns about whythe Tigers collapsedinSeptember,whentheyblewthe biggest lead in divisionorleague history and their poor performance at the plate in the postseason.

“I deserve to getthosequestions andwedeserve the negative narrative that is swirling around this team,” he said.

Detroit had thebest record in baseball formuchofthe season, then slumped intothe tradedeadline when Harrisdid notmakea major move.

Padres

Manager Shildtannounces retirement after just 2seasons: MikeShildt is retiring after twoseasons as the San Diego Padres manager The Padres confirmed the 57-year-oldShildt’sdecision Monday.Inalettertothe San Diego

Union-Tribune,Shildt said he is retiring because“the grind of the baseball season has taken asevere toll on me mentally,physically and emotionally.” Shildt went 183-141 and led San Diego to twopostseason appearances during hisbrieftenure.The Padreswon 90 games this season and ﬁnishedsecond in the NL West beforebeing eliminated by the Chicago Cubs this month in atense three-game wild-card playoff series.

“His dedication andpassion for thegame of baseball will leave an impact on our organization, and we wish himthe best in hisnext chapter,” general managerA.J. Preller said.

Preller will begin looking immediately forhis ﬁfth full-time manager sincetakingoverthe Padres’ front ofﬁce in 2014.

BlueJays

Rookie Yesavage says familyhas been subjecttoabuse: Toronto rookie Trey Yesavage says his family has been subjected to abuse since his impres-

SCOREBOARD

KC—FGButker 33, 2:26. A—73,543. DetKC First downs 18 26

Total Net Yards297 355 Rushes-yards23-98 29-112 Passing 199 243

Punt Returns 0-01-21 Kickoff Returns6-140 4-105

Interceptions Ret. 0-00-0

Comp-Att-Int 23-29-022-30-0

Sacked-YardsLost1-4 3-14 Punts 3-46.0 1-46.0 Fumbles-Lost 1-01-0

Penalties-Yards 4-38 0-0 Time of Possession29:23 30:37

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Detroit, Gibbs 17-65, Montgomery 4-24, Goff 1-7, St.Brown 1-2. Kansas City Pacheco 12-51, Mahomes 10-32, Hunt 6-23, Worthy 1-6. PASSING—Detroit, Goff 23-29-0-203. Kansas City,Mahomes 22-30-0-257.

RECEIVING—Detroit, St.Brown 9-45, J.Williams 6-66, LaPorta 5-55, Montgomery 2-37,Gibbs 1-0. Kansas City,Kelce 6-78, Brown4-45,Smith-Schuster3-57, B.Smith 3-21, Gray 2-25, Worthy2-20, Hunt 1-11, Pacheco 1-0. MISSED FIELD GOALS—None Major LeagueBaseball Postseason glance League Championship Series (Best-of-7) American League (FOX,FS1) Seattle 2, Toronto 0 Sunday: Seattle 3, Toronto 1 Monday: Seattle 10, Toronto 3 Wednesday, Oct. 15: Toronto at Seattle, 7:08 p.m. (FOX/FS1) Thursday, Oct. 16: Toronto at Seattle, 7:33 p.m. (FOX/FS1) x-Friday, Oct. 17: Toronto at Seattle, 5:08 p.m. (FOX/FS1) x-Sunday, Oct. 19: SeattleorDetroit, 7:03 p.m. (FOX/FS1) x-Monday, Oct. 20: SeattleorDetroit, 7:08 p.m. (FOX/FS1) National League (TBS,truTV,HBO Max) LosAngeles vs.Milwaukee Monday: LosAngeles at Milwaukee, n Tuesday: LosAngeles at Milwaukee, 7:08 p.m. (TBS/truTV/HBO Max) Thursday, Oct. 16: Milwaukee at LosAngeles,5:08 p.m.(TBS/truTV/HBO Max) Friday, Oct. 17: Milwaukee at LosAngeles, 7:38 p.m. (TBS/truTV/HBO Max) x-Saturday, Oct. 18: Milwaukee at LosAngeles,7:08 p.m.(TBS/truTV/HBO Max) x-Monday, Oct. 20: LosAngeles at Milwaukee, 4:08 p.m. (TBS/truTV/HBO Max) x-Tuesday, Oct. 21: LosAngeles at

pass from Mahomes (Butker kick), 11:24.

Fourth Quarter

Det—LaPorta 4pass from Goff (Bates kick) 14:20. KC—Brown3 pass from Mahomes (Butker kick), 9:35.

sivepostseasondebut last weekend against the NewYork Yankees.

“Living in thisworld where there’ssomanydifferent opinions and feelings which results in alot of hate,it’ssad to seethatpeople close to me are being attacked for my performances on thefield, Yesavage said Sundaybefore the AL Championship Series opener against Seattle.

“These people have done nothing to warrantnegativityfor my actions, whether that’smyparents, my brothers, my girlfriend, family,” he added. “It’s just really sad. IknowIhavethe platformtoaddress it, so Iam. Ihope that people can realize that those individuals have nothing to do with what happens on the ﬁeld. If you have aproblem, I’m aman.I can takewhatever opinions anybody hasabout me or my life. So Ijust wantedtoget that out there.”

Yesavage went 1-0 with a3.21 ERA in three September starts. Including his postseason start, he has 27 strikeoutsin191/3 bigleague innings.

The Associated Press

WHAT IF CLOTHES WERE ALIVE?

Fashion designer stages innovative runway

BY THOMAS ADAMSON

AP fashion writer

PARIS Issey Miyake‘s spring 2026 show at Paris Fashion Week posed aquestion:what if clothing were alive?

Booming electronics inside the Centre Pompidou venue Fridayaccompanied an opening of crisp monochrome shirts and high-waisted trousers, shoulders drawn upward into a compact line, as if shruggingto the guests. The concept arrived quickly and clearly: in this collectionthe wearer served the garment’s will, not the other way round. Silhouettes remapped the body —trousers integrated sleeve-like panels at the sides that impacted themodel’s stance,and single-sheet wraps and supple faux leathers seemedto“grow” around the torso. Anetted, scuba-like look packed with toylike objects turned accumulation into proﬁle,asifthe clothes themselves consumed and imposed contour.

Jacketswith displaced openingsforcednew ways ofentering and moving.Black-andwhite tailoring stayed taut while shoulders lifted seemingly of their own accord, creating aspringy,insouciant line.

Branded shoe boxestelegraphed the ongoing footwear collaboration as models circled aDJinthe round, but onthe body the idea was autonomy: garments that oriented posture, choreographed gait, and treated the air between cloth and skin as living volume.

Amodel wears acreation as partofthe IsseyMiyakeSpring/ Summer 2026 collection presented

Founded by IsseyMiyake in 1970 in Tokyo, the iconichouse became famous for reframing the conceptoffashion as materialengineering —innovativepleating,paper and washi blends, single-piececonstruction —yielding light garments withsculptural force. Under current designer Satoshi Kondo, that legacy continuesin movement-driven form and an ongoing dialogue with artand performance. At Pompidou, those signatures read cleanly: weightless volume, precise cutting, texturesthat shifted with motion, reinforced by alive soundscape that treated textiles as active matter The caveat is familiar.Concept occasionallyedged toward prop theater —the boxes, the stuffed netting —and risks overshadowing everyday use. Commercial clarity can blur whensilhouettes impose rather than accommodate. Even so,this wasamong the label’smorefashion-forward recent outings: controlled in line, vigorous in idea, and most persuasive when the garments led and the body followed

NewOrleans is aprime destinationfor tourists lookingfor hauntedand occult experiences. Butthe city’s reputation forthe supernatural spanscenturies.

BY HANNAH LEVITAN | Staff writer

New Orleans’ haunted lore —marked by tales of eerie alleyways, esoteric ritualsand sullen spirits —rings through the narrow streets of the French Quarter,where tourists andoccultistsalike take joy in the mixofhorror and history. From itsinception, the Crescent City was plagued with tragedy.Deadlyyellowfever epidemics,natural disasters and alegacy of violent slavery marred its early 19th-centurybeginnings.

But what others might bury, New Orleansresurrects in theform of ghost tours, cemeterywalks and nightly retellings of its most gruesome legends Each fall, as Halloween nears, dozens of tourists ﬂock to thecityfor ataste of the supernatural, crowding thecity’s oldest neighborhood on theghost and vampire walkingtours as the city capitalizes on the trend of “dark tourism.”

Yetthat ﬁxation on death isn’tnew

Fake actordeepens anxietyoverAIinHollywood

SAG-AFTRA picketers carry signs outside NBC in Rockefeller Center on July 17, 2023, in Newyork.

BY WENDYLEE Los Angeles

ANGELES Scary.Terrifying. Deeply misguided. Those were among the visceral reactions this week from Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Natasha Lyonne and many other actors and ﬁlmmakers over the sudden fame of Tilly Norwood. Norwoodisn’t real —the

comedysketchonher Instagram page is in fact acomputer-generated composite. “I maybeAI, but I’m feeling very real emotions rightnow,” states amessage on Norwood’s Instagram page.

STAFFFILE PHOTOByJOHNMcCUSKER TombsinGreenwood Cemeteryare seen through arain-streaked windshield.

AP PHOTO By AURELIEN MORISSARD

in Paris on Oct. 3.

Times (TNS)

Supportfriend, don’tcompare typesofgrief

Dear Miss Manners: Iwas at dinner with two friends, and one sharedthe terriblenews that her beloved dog had been diagnosed withanaggressive cancer.The only treatment is to makethe dog comfortable for as long as possible, probably not more than afew months.

In tears, she said, “This is our kid,” and the other friend stiffened.

The other friend and I both have children, and Iknew what she was thinking, but Ihoped the grieving friend wouldn’t notice her reaction. Unfortunately,she did, and when she asked about it, theother friend opined that apet anda child were two different things

sympathy,perhapsyour grievingfriendwill feel that she misinterpreted your look.

Dear Miss Manners: We own a homeina fairly nice neighborhoodwhere peopletake good care of their homes and gardens.

Sadbattlebetween twodaughters

myself in the middle of their war?

Dear Annie: There is asad and bitter battle playing out between my two daughters, and as their mother,Ifeel helpless to stop it.My oldest has always been themore fragile of thetwo. She struggles with accountability and has often relied on family to untangle the knots of her life. Years ago, she was widowed, and though her husband left her a modestfortune, she gambled it all away.One poor decision led to another, and soon she had lost her homeand her stability.

Annie Lane DEAR

My grieving friend looked at me for support, and Ijust froze. I’ve lost abeloved cat— a one-in-a-thousand cat, best cat Ihave ever had, she’sstill the wallpaper on my phone 10 years later —but if I’d lost one of my children, Iagree that it would feel different from that.

Ijust froze, and she could tell Iagreed that adog is different from achild. Idon’tknow what Ishould have said, and Idon’t know what Ican say now to make it any better

Gentle reader: Has your other friend never heardthe venerable declaration, “Comparisons are odious”?

Well, they are. Alossisaloss, and it is cruel to denigrateit with acomparison to another type of loss. Would you comfort afriend whose car was stolen by saying that it wasn’tas badas having one’shouse burn down?

Miss Manners understands your regret, but it is fortunate that you merely froze, rather than taking up the offensive stance. If younow offer some

HOLLYWOOD

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and abuse of artiﬁcial intelligence replacing actors runs deep Norwood’screator ignited a furor after she announced that the digital actress would soon be signed by atalent agency

This week,SAG-AFTRA weighed in with awithering response, dismissing Norwood as a “character generated by acomputer program that wastrained on the work of countless professional performers.”

Twoyears ago, the union’s members engaged in a118-day strike to ﬁght for more AI protections in their contracts with major studios.

“They are taking our professional members’ work thathas been created, sometimes over generations, without permission, without compensation and without acknowledgment, building something new,” SAG-AFTRA President SeanAstin said in an interview

“But the truth is, it’snot new. It manipulates something that already exists, so the conceit thatit isn’tharming actors—because it is its own new thing —ignores the fundamental truth that it is taking something that doesn’tbelong to them,” Astin said. Astin said he would welcome a conversation with the company behind Tilly Norwood.

“Wewant to allow our members to benefit from new technologies,” Astin said. “They just need to know that it’shappening.They need to give permission for it, and they need to be bargained with.”

Norwoodwas created by AI through Xicoia, aLondon-based AI talent studio launched by Dutch actor Eline Vander Velden Xicoia is working with estates and Hollywood stars who want to appear as their younger selves on screen, according to Deadline, which ﬁrst reported talent agency interest in Norwood.

Vander Velden, who is also the founder of AI production company Particle6,was not available for comment on Wednesday.But in a statement postedonInstagram following the backlash, Vander Velden stressed that Norwood is “a creative work —apiece of art.” “I see AI not as areplacement for people, but as anew tool —a new paintbrush,” Vander Velden said. “Just as animation, pup-

Many of ourneighbors have housekeepers, gardeners, carpenters, etc. Ioccasionally cross paths with these service providers and want to ask them for their business cards, but avoice in my head says Ishould ask my neighbors ﬁrst and go through them. Any advice?

Gentle reader: Yes: Listen to that voice.

Poaching other people’sdomestic help is not looked upon kindly. Youdonot conclude a dinnerparty by askingtocompliment the cook, who has been with thefamilyfor three generations, and then offering to double her salary if she will defect.

ButMissManners may have been thrown off by your “fairly nice neighborhood” remark, which sounds like an understated, rich-people way of describing what appear to be heavily staffed households. Perhaps you only meant the gardening service that comes seasonally,orthe carpenter whoresponded when someone put afoot through the terrace. In such cases, they might welcome extrawork,and it would notbeatthe expense of their relationship with the neighbors. Still, it is courteous —and informative— to go through their present employers. Youneed only ask,“Are you happy with the people whodoyour lawn? Do they take on other jobs?”

Send questions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www. missmanners.com.

petry,orCGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting,AIoffers another way to imagineand build stories.”

Norwoodhas 44,000followers on Instagram andisportrayed as an aspiring young actor based in London who enjoys shopping and iced coffee.

The social media page depicts Norwood in various scenes. In one, she’sarmed andready to battle amonster; in another,she’s running away from acollapsing building in afuturistic city

At an industry panel in Zurich on Saturday,Van der Velden touted her creation

“With Tilly,you know,when we ﬁrst launched her,people were like, ‘That’snot going to happen,’ ”Van der Velden said. “And now,we’re goingtoannounce whichagency is going toberepresenting her in the next few months.It’sall changing and everyoneisstartingtosee the light, fortunately.”

Talent agencies have represented digital characters usedin ad campaigns. And seeing such avatars inthe mainstream has become increasinglycommon in 2024, Japanese digital character Hatsune Miku performed at CoachellaValley Musicand Arts Festival andanAImodel was featured in the August issue of Vogue magazine for L.A. brand Guess.

Andsome studios, including Lionsgate, have partnerships with AI startups to explore using the technology in areas such as storyboarding. Others,suchasNetﬂix and Amazon MGMStudios, have series that use AI in visual effects.

Tech companies have argued that they shouldbeable to train theirAImodelsoncontent available onlineand bring up relevant informationunder the “fair use” doctrine, whichallows for the limited reproduction of content withoutpermission from the copyrightholder

Butthe proliferationofAIhas also fueled concerns that AI companies are using copyrighted material to train their models without compensation or permission. Earlier this year,Disney,Universal and WarnerBros.Discovery sued AI companies over copyright infringement

Some actorscalledfor aboycott of any agents who decide to represent Norwood. “Read the room, howgross,” “In the Heights” actor Melissa Barrera wrote on Instagram.

Now,inher grief and desperation, she leans heavily on her younger sister for comfort and support.But this has created deep friction. My younger daughter is awife and amother herself, and while she has compassion for her sister,her husband resents theintrusion and chaos. He feels that every time theolder sister arrives, she brings her burdens with her.Out of loyaltytoher marriage, my younger daughter has begun to set ﬁrm boundaries. Butinstead of respecting those limits, her sister has responded with outrage, seeing it as rejection and abandonment from the

HAUNTED

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‘Magical swamps’

Even in its earliestyears, the port citywas viewed as an exotic aberration to theUnited States, shapedbyits role as the gateway to the Caribbean,according to LSU associate historyprofessor John Bardes.

“New Orleans develops this really strong association with violence anddeath really early on, largely due to yellow fever and the fact that people know that, when you go to New Orleansinthe summer, your life is in your own hands,” Bardes said.

Thosewho dared tovisit when thecity was just anarrow strip of land between theMississippi and theswamp would share their journeyintravelogues, Bardes said, oftenwriting aboutNew Orleans’ famed above-ground cemeteries.

“New Orleans’ above-ground cemeteries are athing that Americans have been interested in for avery long time,” Bardes said, though it was the mystical presence of the surrounding swamp thatalso heavily contributed to the city’smystic reputation.

“This kind of scary,magical swamp was perceivedasdangerous and hostile and like this unworldly netherworld,” he said. Fearsofthe occult

The city’sreputation for the occult wasn’t built on legend alone. It was reinforced by real accusations, reports andfears that seeped their way into public consciousness via newspapers and court records.

Given theyoung city’sgrowing population, bolsteredbyimmigrants from the Caribbean,Haiti and beyond, both Vodou —and the false narratives about it —spread.

Vodou, often shrouded in mysteryand misinterpretation, is typically regardedasa religion that fuses Haitian andWest African spiritual beliefs with Catholicism, though its deﬁnition (andspelling) changes depending on whoyou ask.

“In the1880s, youget newspapers reporting on Voodoo in New Orleans andyou get Southern Gothic writers. writingthese haunting, dark, magical stories about Voodoo and magic and

By The Associated Press

Today is Tuesday,Oct. 14, the 287th day of 2025. There are 78 days left in theyear

Todayinhistory: On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S.Air Force

Capt. Chuck Yeager became the first person to break thesound barrier as he flewaBellX-1 rocket planeover Muroc Dry Lake in California. In 2012, Yeager,atthe age of 89, marked the65th anniversary of that flightbysmashing through the sound barrier again, this time in theback seat of an F-15.

Also on this date: In 1066, Normans under William theConqueror defeated the English at the BattleofHastings. In 1586, Mary,Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I. (Mary was beheaded in February1587.)

In 1910, aviator Claude Grahame-Whiteﬂew his biplane over

one person she thought she could still count on To makematters morecomplicated, Ilive with my younger daughter andher husband. They have been wonderfully kind to me,giving me asafe and loving home. YetI worry that my presence only adds another layer of tension.Myeldest feels cast aside by her family,and she looks to me for support Icannot provide without upsetting the delicate balance in the homewhere I live. Ilie awake at night wondering if she believes I’ve chosen sides. It breaks my heart to see my children at odds with each other, and it’sagonizing to know that anything Idotoease one daughter’s pain seemstodeepen the rift withthe other.I want to be a peacemaker,but the moreI try, themore divided things seem to become. Ilong forthe day when my daughters can sit together,not as rivals or burdens, but simply as sisters again. What can Ido, as their mother to bring peace to this fractured situation? How can Ilove and support bothofthem without losing

—Mom Caught in the Middle

Dear MomCaught in the Middle: You are carrying aburden that is not yours to ﬁx. Your older daughter’s losses and choices are heartbreaking, but they are hers to own. Your younger daughter has every right to protect her marriage, and you should respect the boundaries she and her husband have set.

The best thing you can do is step out of the role of referee. Offeryour love and listening ear to both daughters, but do not get pulled into taking sides or smoothing over conﬂicts that they must workthrough themselves. Encourage your eldest to seek professional support forher grief and struggles, and remind your younger daughter that you appreciate her kindness in giving you ahome.

Youcannot mendthis riftby sheer will. Sometimes peace comes not from forcing reconciliation but from giving each person space, timeand the chance to face their own responsibilities.

Send yourquestions forAnnie Lane to dearannie@creators com.

ghosts andhaunting in NewOrleans,” Bardes said.

Dating back to the 1850s, local papers, including The Times-Picayune, reported on the “mysteries of Voudouism,” when faith healers were frequently put on trial for their practices.

Butnational interest in it peaked after theCivil War, Bardessaid, when Marie Laveau,now known as the Voodoo Queen, rose to fame for her rumored powers and spiritual legacy

“I think that’sprobably the ﬁrst moment that this kind of connection between New Orleans and ghosts really enters the national consciousness,” Bardes said.

The‘forbiddenfruit’craving Today,New Orleans’ haunted historylives on in its tourism industry,shaped by adesire to preserveand prosper amideconomic crises

The city pivoted to atouristbased economy in the 1980s, when theFrenchQuarter’sweathered facades began to crumble,amidst aglobal oil crash.

“It’s never been aterribly proﬁtable city,” Hermann-Grima +Gallier House docentDanielle Glenn

TODAYINHISTORY

Washington,D.C., and landed it on West Executive Avenue, next to theWhiteHouse.

In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took his own life rather than face trial and certain execution forallegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler

In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1964, in one of the greatest upsetsinOlympic history,American Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota, won the 10,000-meter race at the Tokyo Summer Games,setting a new Olympicrecord.

In 1981, the new president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, was sworn in to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat.

In 1986, Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2008, agrand jury in Orlando, Florida, returned charges of ﬁrst-

said. “Wedon’tproduce much of anything, so bringing in that tourism money was thekey to reviving the city.” In the’90s, theentertainment industry became thecity’smain export,offering aunique backdropfor ﬁlmmakers, thrill-seekers and history buffs alike. Its revered Gothic architecture, ﬂickering street lamps and sweeping wrought-iron galleries provided the perfect backdrop.

“Marie Laveau,the LaLauries are huge (parts) but there’salso the ghost of Muriel’sonJackson Square,whichispretty infamous and people will pay extra to dine at the ghost table,” Glenn said. “People will pay for the potential, the possibility,that they might experience something,” Glenn said.

But allofthese stories are born of tragedy.And the more famous ghoststories tend to surround New Orleans’ Black population and religious iconography,Glenn said. Here,the aura of secrecy is embraced, not shunned.

“I think that New Orleans is very appealing to the forbidden fruit craving that everybody has, whether they’ll admit it or not,” Glenn said.

degree murder,aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter against Casey Anthony in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. (She wasacquitted in July 2011.) In 2024, aSpace Xrocket launched the NASA spacecraft Europa Clipper on amission to Jupiter’smoon Europa to determine whether conditions there could support life; the spacecraft will arrive in 2030.

Today’sbirthdays: Former White House counsel John W. Dean III is 87. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren is 86. Football Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner is 78. Golf Hall of Famer Beth Daniel is 69. Musician Thomas

STAFFFILE PHOTOByCHRIS GRANGER

Candles light thealtar for the Feast of St. John theBaptist ceremony along the banks of BayouSt. John in 2023.

ANNIE

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

BUSINESS

Retailers hiring for the holidays with caution

ployers — companies, government agencies and nonproﬁts — added just 22,000 jobs in August, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 that economists had expected.

Wall Street veers upward after Trump softens on China

BY STAN CHOE Associated Press

NEWYORK And back up goes Wall Street. U.S. stocks rallied Monday after President Donald Trump said “it will all be ﬁne,” just days after he sent the market reeling by threatening much higher tariffs on China. The S&P 500 jumped 1.6% in its best day since May and recovered just over half its drop from Friday The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 587 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq composite leapt 2.2%.

“Don’t worry about China,”

Trump said on his social media platform Sunday He also said that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, “doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!”

It was a sharp turnaround from the anger Trump displayed on Friday when the S&P 500 tumbled to its worst drop since April after he accused China of “ a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations.”

Trump pointed to “an extremely hostile letter” from China describing curbs to exports of rare earths, which are materials used in the manufacturing of everything from personal electronics to jet engines.

Trump said at the time that he may place an additional 100% tax on imports from China starting on Nov 1.

war but we are not afraid of one,” the Commerce Ministry said in a statement posted online.

Hours later, Trump posted his less confrontational talk about China on Truth Social. The backtrack in anger, which also came before trading began on Wall Street, raised hopes that the world’s two largest economies could ﬁnd a way to allow global trade to continue smoothly

The down-and-up moves for the market echoed its manic swings during April. That’s when Trump shocked investors with his “Liberation Day” announcement of worldwide tariffs, only to eventually relent on many to give time to negotiate trade deals with other countries.

If this time ends up similarly, potentially even after a sharp drop for stock prices, subsiding trade tensions and uncertainty could allow for a rolling recovery to continue into 2026, according to Morgan Stanley strategists led by Michael Wilson.

BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP retail writer

NEW YORK Uncertainty over the economy and tariffs is forcing retailers to pull back or delay plans to hire seasonal workers who pack orders at distribution centers, serve shoppers at stores and build holiday displays during the most important selling season of the year

American Christmas LLC, which creates elaborate holiday installations for commercial properties such as New York’s Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall, plans to hire 220 temporary workers and is ramping up recruitment nearly two months later than usual, CEO Dan Casterella said. Last year, it took on 300 people during its busy period. The main reason? The company wants to offset its tariff bill, which Casterella expects to be as big as $1.5 million this year, more than double last year’s $600,000 “The issue is if you overstaff and then you underperform, it’s too late,” Casterella said. “I think everyone’s more mindful now than ever ” Online behemoth Amazon Inc. said Monday it intends to hire 250,000 full-, part-time and seasonal workers for the crucial shopping period, the same level as a year ago. But job placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas forecasts overall holiday hiring for the last three months of the year will likely fall under 500,000 positions. That’s fewer than last year’s 543,000 level and also marks the smallest seasonal gain in 16 years when retailers hired 495,800 tem-

OpenAI and Broadcom

partner to design AI chips

SAN FRANCISCO OpenAI said Monday it is working with chipmaker Broadcom to design its own artiﬁcial intelligence computer chips.

The two California companies didn’t disclose the ﬁnancial terms of the deal but said they will start deploying the new racks of customized “AI accelerators” late next year

It’s the latest big deal between OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, and the companies building the chips and data centers required to power AI OpenAI in recent weeks has announced partnerships with chipmakers Nvidia and AMD that will supply the AI startup with specialized chips for running its AI systems. OpenAI has also made big deals with Oracle, CoreWeave and other companies developing the

porary workers, the ﬁrm said.

Among other companies cutting holiday payrolls: Radial, an ecommerce company that powers deliveries for roughly 120 companies like Lands’ End and Cole Haan and operates 20 fulﬁllment sites It plans to hire 6,500 workers, fewer than last year’s 7,000, and is waiting to the last minute to ramp up hiring for some of its clients, chief human resources ofﬁcer Sabrina Wnorowski said.

Bath & Body Works, based in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, said it plans to hire 32,000 workers, below the 32,700 a year ago.

“We saw real strong signals that there’s been a cooling in the labor market, even beyond what our expectations were in the ﬁrst nine months of the year,” Challenger Senior Vice President Andy Challenger said.

Challenger also noted companies are using artificial intelligence bots to replace some workers, particularly those working in call centers. And he’s also seeing companies hiring workers closer to when they need them.

Meanwhile, the list of companies staying mum about their speciﬁc holiday hiring goals keeps growing. Target Corp., UPS and Macy’s are declining to offer ﬁgures, a departure from years past.

Retailers’ hiring plans mark the ﬁrst clues to what’s in store for the U.S. holiday shopping season and come as the U.S job market has lost momentum this year, partly because Trump’s trade wars have created uncertainty that’s paralyzing managers trying to make hiring decisions

The Labor Department reported in early September that U.S. em-

data centers where those chips are housed.

Many of the deals rely on circular financing, in which the companies are both investing in OpenAI and supplying the world’s most valuable startup with technology, fueling concerns about an AI bubble. OpenAI doesn’t yet turn a profit but says its flagship chatbot now has more than 800 million weekly users.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the work to develop a custom chip began more than a year ago.

“Developing our own accelerators adds to the broader ecosystem of partners all building the capacity required to push the frontier of AI to provide beneﬁts to all humanity,” he said in a statement.

Broadcom shares surged more than 9% on Monday after the morning announcement.

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said in

The government shutdown, which started Oct. 1 and has delayed the release of economic reports, could worsen the job picture.

In an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues, the White House budget ofﬁce said Friday mass ﬁrings of federal workers have started.

Analysts will be closely monitoring the shutdown’s impact on spending. For now, many retailers say that consumers, while resilient, are selective. Analysts will also be watching how shoppers will react to price increases as a result of high tariff costs in the next few months, experts said.

Given an economic slowdown, holiday spending growth is expected to be smaller than a year ago, according to several forecasts.

Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all payment methods including cash, predicts that holiday sales will be up 3.6% from Nov 1 through Dec. 24. That compares with a 4.1% increase last year

Deloitte Services LP forecasts holiday retail sales to be up between 2.9% to 3.4% from Nov 1 through Jan. 31. That’s compares with 4.2% last year

And Adobe expects U.S. online sales to hit $253.4 billion from Nov 1 to Dec. 31, representing a 5.3% growth. That’s smaller than last year’s 8.7% growth.

Companies are increasingly wanting to hire workers closer to when they need them, experts said.

“In today’s environment, brands are really looking for us to be agile,” Radial’s Wnorowski said.

BRIEFS

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

a statement that “we are thrilled to codevelop and deploy 10 gigawatts of next generation accelerators and network systems to pave the way for the future of AI.”

JPMorgan

to invest up to $10B in U.S. companies

JPMorgan Chase will directly invest up to $10 billion in U.S. companies with crucial ties to national security

The investment plan revealed Monday will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing in critical minerals, pharmaceutical precursors and robotics; defense and aerospace; energy independence, with investments in battery storage and grid resilience; and strategic technologies, including artiﬁcial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computing.

For its part, China urged the United States to resolve differences through negotiations instead of threats. “We do not want a tariff

To be sure, the U.S stock market may have been primed for a drop. It was already facing criticism that prices had shot too high following a torrid 35% run for the S&P 500 from a low in April. The index, which dictates the movements for many 401(k) accounts, is still near its all-time high set last week. Not only did Trump’s backdown from tariffs help stocks soar since April, so did expectations for several cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve to help the economy

China’s exports to the U.S. drop in September

BY CHAN HO-HIM AP business writer

HONG KONG China’s exports to the United States fell 27% in September from the year before, even though growth in its global exports hit a six-month high.

Customs ﬁgures released Monday showed that China’s worldwide exports were 8.3% higher than a year earlier, at $328.5 billion, surpassing economists’ estimates. That was markedly better than the 4.4% year-on-year increase in August.

Imports grew 7.4% last month, significantly better than a 1.3% increase by year in August, although a weaker domestic economy and a real estate sector downturn continue to weigh on demand and consumption.

China’s exports to the United States have fallen for six straight months. In August they dropped 33%.

The outlook is cloudy as a truce between Beijing and Washington unravels and both sides hit out with new tariffs and other retaliatory measures. As exports to the United States

have come under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies aimed at trying to get manufacturers to shift factories to America, China has expanded markets for its products in other regions.

Shipments to Southeast Asia grew 15.6% year-on-year in September Exports to Latin America and Africa were up 15% and 56%, respectively

“Currently the external environment is still severe and complicated. Trade is facing increasing uncertainty and difﬁculties,” Wang Jun, vice minister of China’s customs agency said at a news conference Monday “We still need to put in more efforts to stabilize trade in the fourth quarter.” China’s exports “continue to show resilience given the low costs and limited choices for replacement globally despite the higher tariffs,” said Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis.

“What is more worrisome is not only tariffs but export controls,” Ng added. “If we begin to see an escalation in export controls halting supply chains, this may have a more prolonged impact.”

The investment is part of the bank’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, a $1.5 trillion, 10-year plan to facilitate, ﬁnance and invest in industries critical to national security.

“It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing all of which are essential for our national security,” Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement. “Our security is predicated on the strength and resiliency of America’s economy America needs more speed and investment.”

Dutch government takes control of Nexperia

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch government took effective control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nex-

peria in what it said was a “highly exceptional” move over worries that corporate governance shortcomings pose a potential risk to European economic security In a statement Sunday, the Dutch ministry of economic affairs said it had invoked the rarely used Goods Availability Act to intervene in the business of Nexperia, which makes semiconductors used in the automotiveandconsumertechnologyindustries. Nexperia is based in the Dutch city of Nijmegen but it’s owned by China’s Wingtech Technology Concerns about Nexperia’s governance “posed a threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities,” the ministry said. “Losing these capabilities could pose a risk to Dutch and European economic security,” it said, without elaborating

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By TED SHAFFREy

A worker sorts items at the Amazon same-day delivery fulfillment shipping center in Woodland Park, N.J While the shopping behemoth intends to hire 250,000 full-, part-time and seasonal workers for the crucial shopping period the same level as a year ago, economic uncertainties are forcing some retailers to pull back or delay plans to hire seasonal workers.

LIBRA (Sept.23-Oct. 23) Take achance, put your best foot forward and dazzle whoever youpitch to with your enthusiasm. Paintyourvision with color andpossibilities, but don't promise the impossible SCORPIO (Oct.24-Nov. 22) Select your words wisely. Anger or apushy attitude will not yield the results youare seeking. Discipline,networking and showcasingyourskills andexpertise will pave the waytosuccess.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov.23-Dec. 21) More money is withinreach if you arediligent and embrace whatyou do best. Love, commitment andawareness are on the rise,helpingyou exceed your expectations.

CAPRICORN (Dec.22-Jan. 19) Check your information for validity before passing information along. Protect your reputationand focus on what'spossible. Avoid taking risks thatcould lead to illness or injury.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Put everything you encounter in perspective. Take your time andreact accordingly. Jumpingtoconclusions will endup costing youyourtime, money or reputation.

PISCES (Feb.20-March 20) Get creative; embrace life anduse your intelligence to turn your attributes into alucrative endeavor.It's time to pursue your dream instead of justliving in your imagination.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Think outside the box. Surround yourself with people

who challenge you to think and strive to utilize your talents to enrich your life. Be the forcethat leads to peace of mind andhappiness.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You may resist change, but you should rethink your hesitation. Opportunity knocks, and it's up to you to take achance if it will improve your life. Thought followed by action is the best route forward.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) If you crave change,makeithappen.Look around, and you'll discover what you needto moveahead. It's agood day to network, socialize and expand your interests and circle of friends.

CANCER(June 21-July 22) Useyour strengths to convince others to trust and believe in you. Stop hiding out when you should get out and fraternize with people who can help you.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Keep your opinions to yourself.Someone will use your words andvulnerabilities against you. Don't let anger set in when it'sbetter to work toward becoming who youwant to be

VIRGO(Aug. 23-Sept.22) Educate yourself. Thoughts followed by actionswill encourage growth and sustainability. Walk away from unpredictable situations. Keep life simple and affordable.

FAMILY CIrCUS

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

TODAy'S CLUE: KEQUALSP

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 gridwith several given numbers The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe empty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Edwin Percy Whipple, a19th-century essayist, wrote, “Talent jogs to conclusions to which Genius takes giant leaps.”

That is fine as long as Genius isn’t missing themark, which can happen. Slowlyreachingtherightanswerismuch better than jumping to the wrong conclusion.

In today’s deal, South is in three notrump. West leads hisfourth-highest spade. East wins withhis ace and returns thetwo (lowest of three remaining cards).South wins withhis king and cashes the club ace, but East discards aspade. How should declarer proceed from there? Also, what do you think of thebidding?

Takingthose questions in reverse order,South should open twono-trump. He has 21 prime points with so many aces and kings. To open one diamond and rebid three clubs wouldprobably work fine here, butitwould risk missing aslam because partner wouldnot expect sucha powerful hand. The bad club break is bothersome, but might South still take nine tricks?

Yes, if he can collectone spade, three hearts, three diamonds and twoclubs This seems to require the diamond finesse. And that is afavorite, given that West started withfivespades andfour

clubs. (The odds have gone up from 50 to 69 percent.) However, here, if Genius immediatelytakeshisthreeheartstricks endingonthe board and plays adiamond to his jack, he goes down. Thetalented player cashes hisdiamondace first, just in caseWeststartedwithasingleton queen. You never know! ©2025 by nEa, inc., dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase,name, place,saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAY’s WoRD toILER: TOY-ler:Anet to trap game.

Average mark 15 words

Time limit 25 minutes

Canyou find 23 or more words in TOILER?

YEstERDAY’s WoRD —LYMPHoMA

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

PearlsBefore swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition. For moreinformationontournamentsand clubs,email naspa –northamerican sCraBBlE playersassociation: info@scrabbleplayers.org.Visit ourwebsite:www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzleinquiries contact scrgrams@gmail.com. Hasbro andits logo sCraBBlE associated logo,the design of thedistinctive sCraBBlE

and

kenken

InstructIons: 1 -Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through 6 (challenging) withoutrepeating. 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

WiShinG Well

the number of lettersis6ormore,

is your key number. startatthe upper left-hand corner and

bers, left to right.Thenread the

Scrabble GramS

Get fuzzy

jump Start

roSe iS roSe

DuStin

Drabble

Howtoobtain acopyof theIFB: Specifications andfurther information concerning theIFB may be obtained October8 2025 from theRTA’s Pro‐cureware websiteat https://norta. procureware.com/home Youwillberequiredto firstregisteronthisweb‐site.The IFBcan also be obtained at Regional TransitAuthority’s web‐site at http://www.norta comand at 2817 Canal Street,New Orleans, LA 70119 Responding to IFB: Bids shallbesubmitted thru theRTA’s Procureware websiteonorbefore2:00 P.M.,Wednesday,Novem‐ber5,2025. Anyques‐tionsorfurther informa‐tion concerning this IFB maybesubmitted throughhttps://norta procureware.com/home beginningonWednes‐day, October8,2025. Only writtenquestions sub‐mitted throughhttps:// procureware.com/home shallbeconsiderofficial Allanswerstoquestions shallbebyformalad‐dendapostedtothe websiteunder IFB2025037. ABid Opening will be held in theRTA Board Room on Wednesday, No‐vember 5, 2025, at 2:00 PM.Any questionsorfur‐ther informationcon‐cerningthe IFBmay be submittedVia https:// norta.procureware.com/ home,beginning on Oc‐tober8,2025. RTAinaccordancewith 49 Code of FederalRegu‐lations(CFR) Part 26 has an obligation to ensure nondiscriminationofDis‐

advantaged Business En‐terprises(DBEs)and to comply with allfederal stateand localregula‐tionsrelativetoutiliza‐tion of DBEs on publicly funded projects.The RTA is committed to utiliza‐tion of DBEs on allfeder‐

Carry Over (VCO), Hearing Carry

(HCO), Speech-to-Speech(STS) Visually Assisted Speech-to-Speech(VA STS),andSpanish.Those services canbeaccessed at thesephone numbers: TTY Services:Dial711 or 800-846-5277 andat https://hamiltonrelay. com/louisiana/index. html Questionsorcomments on citizenparticipation andcommunity priorities canbesubmitted to the JeffersonParishDepart‐ment of CommunityDe‐velopment,JosephS i

ild

right, duty,orresponsi‐bility in conductingelec‐tionsinthe jurisdiction f i i

to a point;thencecontinue along thesouth rightof way line of Lake Forest Boulevard,N78°59'40"E, a distanceof47.25' to a point;thencemeasure S29°05'35"W, adistance of 486.46' to apoint; thencemeasure S61°59'40"W, (a distance of240.00' to apoint; thencemeasure N29°05°35"W,)(adis‐tance of 552.96' to the point of beginning).The saidParcel23-C-2con‐tains atotal of 124,873.01 squarefeetor2.867 acres and is shownonthe sur‐vey of Dading,Marques & Associates, Inc.,dated Sept. 26, 1989, attached tothe ActofSale recordedunder CIN11333 NA818395. Theproperty islocated on 9660 Lake ForestBoulevard,New Orleans,Louisiana 70127 tothe highestbidderat publicauction,freeand clear of allliens anden‐cumbrances. TheUnited StatesMarshal will re‐quire thelastand high‐est bidder to whomthe propertiesare adjudi‐cated,respectively, to deposit aminimum of 10% of thebid,bycerti‐fied check, or cashier’s check on alocal bank and thebalance,ifany ofthe purchase price mustbepaidbycertified orcashier’s checkon a local bank on or before confirmationofthe sale bythe Courtand within ten (10) days of theadju‐dicationordismissalof any opposition which may