The Acadiana Advocate 12-13-2025 by The Advocate

“This rule would turn the

Clean Water Act on its head.”

MARK DAVIS director of Tulane University’s Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy

EPA plans to reduce wetland protections

Rule change could open millions of acres to development

BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer

A proposed federal rule could dramatically reduce the number of wetlands in Louisiana that qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act, a move that could expose millions of acres to development. Under the proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, only wetlands with a continuous surface connection” to waters that are “relatively permanent” — meaning they hold water year-round or with only brief interruptions would remain federally protected. Wetlands that are seasonal, intermittent or connected only after storms would likely fall outside federal jurisdiction.

The change is intended to conform with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023

ruling in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, which sharply restricted how wetlands can be regulated.

But the new proposed rule, issued last month, goes further by removing several long-standing categories of protected water, such as interstate waters, and by formally defining terms that are likely to make federal oversight even narrower

“This rule would turn the Clean Water Act on its head,” said Mark Davis, the director of Tulane University’s Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy

A report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy nonproﬁt, estimates that up to 3.9 million acres of Louisiana wetlands roughly half of the state’s remaining wetlands — could lose protection under the

proposed rule. Nationally, the group projects that as much as 84% of wetlands protected before the Sackett ruling, or 55 million acres, could fall outside federal authority

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost more than 2,000 square miles of wetlands.

The EPA, led by Administrator Lee Zeldin, said the proposal is designed to provide legal clarity by deﬁning a “Water of the United States,” or area protected under the Clean Water Act.

“Democrat Administrations have weaponized the deﬁnition of navigable waters to seize more power from American farmers, landowners, entrepreneurs, and families,” Zeldin said in a statement. “No longer should America’s landowners be forced to spend precious money

ä See WETLANDS, page 5A

SoLAcc to expand with land purchase

Luke Street. The deal includes a 30,000-square-foot ofﬁce building, which college ofﬁcials say will be used for academics with classrooms, labs and other instructional spaces

BY ASHLEY WHITE Staff writer

South Louisiana Community Col-

lege is ﬁnally getting to expand its Lafayette campus

The school, through the Louisiana Community and Technical College System that oversees it, closed on the nearly $3.6 million deal last week for nearly 6 acres at the corner of Dulles Drive and

Also in the deal is a 3-acre lot with 70 paved parking spots and undeveloped land

Haynes gets 7 years in bribery scheme

Ex-assistant DA got kickbacks from intervention program

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

Former Lafayette Assistant District Attorney Gary Haynes was sentenced Friday to seven years in a federal prison and was immediately taken into custody after he was found guilty on six federal charges related to a bribery scheme in the pretrial intervention program of the 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Ofﬁce.

U.S. District Judge David Joseph, who presided over Haynes’ September trial by jury, determined the sentence based on federal guidelines. Haynes’ attorney, Todd Clemens, asked Joseph to postponed the day Haynes had to report to prison, allowing him to spend the Christmas holidays and his 68th birthday with family “I submit he is a ﬂight risk,” federal prosecutor John Luke Walker replied, noting Haynes has business connections in other countries, including Panama, and could choose to leave the country even though federal ofﬁcials took his passport. Haynes previously requested a new trial based on allegations of improper exclusion of evidence, improper admission of evidence, prosecutorial misconduct and statements, and judicial bias. Joseph recently declined to open a new trial.

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

Louisiana has agreed to settle two lawsuits against CVS Health that were ﬁled earlier this year over the company’s treatment of independent pharmacies and its general business practices, court records show

The terms of the settlement were not immediately available. On Friday, a spokesperson for Attorney General Liz Murrill said he could not yet provide details. A spokesperson for CVS declined to comment. The cases represent two of three actions Murrill brought against CVS in June after state leaders

ä See CVS, page 5A

“SoLAcc continues to build tremendous momentum with the expansion of its academic and workforce blueprint, and this acquisition reﬂects the strength of our partnerships across the state,” SoLAcc Chancellor Vincent June said in a statement. “We appreciate the LCTCS Board of Supervi-

sors for believing in our mission and supporting this effort. Their conﬁdence in our vision empowers us to keep moving forward in ways that directly beneﬁt our students and our region.”

The seller was DMDA of Lafayette LLC, which is registered to Donald Dupuis. His company ACS Medical Business Solutions, formerly Acadiana Computer Systems, was housed on the property, which is about a third of a mile from the college’s main campus.

The building will be retroﬁtted for SoLAcc’s needs, spokesperson

$3.6M deal includes building for classroom, labs ä See EXPAND, page 5A

STAFF FILE PHOTO By JOHN MCCUSKER

Wetlands surround a home in Slidell’s Avery Estates.A proposed federal rule could dramatically reduce the number of wetlands in Louisiana that qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act.

Haynes

ä See HAYNES, page 5A

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD BOWIE South Louisiana Community College Chancellor Vincent June said the school’s $3.6 million land purchase for expansion ‘reflects the strength of our partnerships across the state.’

BRIEFS

Shot Guard member

moved to rehabilitation

A West Virginia National Guard member who was shot last month in the nation’s capital is being transitioned from hospital acute care to inpatient rehabilitation, a doctor said Friday Staff. Sgt. Andrew Wolfe was airlifted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center with a critical gunshot wound to the head on Nov 26. Wolfe and Spc. Sarah Beckstrom were ambushed as they patrolled a subway station three blocks from the White House. Beckstrom died the next day Wolfe has “made extraordinary progress,” Dr Jeffrey Mai, a MedStar neurosurgeon, said in a news release “He is now breathing on his own and can stand with assistance — important milestones that reﬂect his strength and determination. Based on these improvements, he is now ready to transition from acute care to inpatient rehabilitation as the next step in his recovery journey.” Wolfe’s family chose not to disclose the location of his rehabilitation. His parents, Melody and Jason Wolfe, expressed gratitude to the hospital, its doctors, nurses and staff.

“The care has been remarkable, and they have told us Andy’s progress is miraculous,” the couple said in a statement released through the hospital.

Georgia woman suffers chemical attack burns

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia woman has been hospitalized with severe burns after someone poured a corrosive chemical onto her head while she was walking at a public park in Savannah, the victim’s son and a close friend said Friday Savannah police confirmed they are searching for a suspect in the chemical attack at Forsyth Park, one of the historic city’s landmark green spaces that attracts runners, picnickers, playing children and sightseeing tourists. Police said the woman appears to have been attacked by a stranger

The victim, 46-year-old Ashley Wasielewski, was being treated for second- and thirddegree burns at a burn center in Augusta, her son, Westley Wasielewski, told The Associated Press. He said the injuries cover roughly half her body including her scalp, face, hands and legs.

“We don’t know who did it,” he said. “She doesn’t have any enemies. She is a friend to everyone.” Westley Wasielewski said his mother was walking laps at the park on Wednesday night after attending a Christmas program at a nearby church. He found out about the attack in a call from a bystander who came to his mother’s aid. He said he could hear her agonized screams over the phone.

Pope urges ethics to Italian secret agents

ROME Pope Leo XIV met Friday with members of Italy’s intelligence services and warned them not to use conﬁdential information for blackmailing or other nefarious purposes Leo urged the 007s, as the Italian agents are popularly known, to do their work professionally and ethically, always respecting the human dignity of those caught up in their investigations.

The audience was unusual, believed to be a first between a pope and Italy’s intelligence services, which are celebrating their centennial this year Italy’s secret agents work closely with Vatican law enforcement, particularly during this Holy Year when some 30 million pilgrims have ﬂocked to Rome to visit the Vatican.

Leo thanked the agents for their work and acknowledged the difficulty and delicacy of their responsibilities. But he also reminded them of the limits of their authority and the need to keep a moral compass, warning them against falling to temptations He said they must remain “vigilant to ensure that conﬁdential information is not used to intimidate, manipulate, blackmail, or discredit politicians journalists, or other actors in civil society.”

DOJ wants contempt probe blocked

Feds want judge’s inquiry into mass deportation case halted

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Justice Department asked an appeals court Friday to block a contempt investigation of the Trump administration for failing to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March.

The department also is seeking Chief Judge James Boasberg’s removal from the case, accusing him of a “radical, retaliatory, unconstitutional campaign” against the Trump administration.

It marks a dramatic escalation in the Justice Department’s lengthy feud with the judge appointed to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, setting the stage for a showdown over the judiciary’s

power to serve as a check on an administration that has pushed the boundaries of court orders.

The department wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule on its requests before Monday, when Boasberg is scheduled to hear testimony from a former government attorney who ﬁled a whistleblower complaint Department ofﬁcials claim Boasberg is biased and creating “a circus that threatens the separation of powers and the attorney-client privilege alike.”

“The forthcoming hearing has every appearance of an endless ﬁshing expedition aimed at an everwidening list of witnesses and prolonged testimony That spectacle is not a genuine effort to uncover any relevant facts,” they wrote.

Boasberg has said that a recent ruling by the appeals court gave him the authority to proceed with the contempt inquiry The judge is trying to determine if there is sufﬁcient evidence to refer the matter for prosecution.

Boasberg, who has been chief judge of the district court in Washington, D.C., since March 2023, has said the Trump administration may have “acted in bad faith” by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country in deﬁance of his order blocking their deportations to El Salvador

In an April 16 order, the judge said he gave the administration ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions” but concluded that “none of their responses has been satisfactory.”

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by ofﬁcials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” Boasberg wrote.

The Trump administration has denied any violation, saying the judge’s March 15 directive to return the planes was made verbally in court but not included in his written order

Trump called for impeaching Boasberg in March. In July the Justice Department ﬁled a miscon-

Washington flooding forces city to evacuate

Rivers top historic highs amid rain

BY CEDAR ATTANASIO and CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press

BURLINGTON, Wash. — National Guard troops went door-to-door early Friday to evacuate a farming city north of Seattle as severe ﬂooding throughout western Washington stranded families on rooftops, washed over bridges and ripped homes from their foundations.

Gov Bob Ferguson, who has warned that as many as 100,000 people would need to evacuate statewide, said Friday that President Donald Trump had signed an emergency declaration.

An unusually strong atmospheric river dumped a foot or more of rain in the Cascade Mountains over several days, swelling rivers to record or near-record levels. Officials issued “go now” orders Wednesday to tens of thousands of residents in the Skagit River flood plain including in the city of Burlington, home to nearly 10,000 people. By Friday morning, muddy water overflowed a slough and rushed into homes, prompting more urgent warnings.

“ALL RESIDENTS IN THE CITY OF BURLINGTON SHOULD EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY,” Skagit County wrote on social media.

By late morning the evacuation order was lifted for part of the city and waters were slowly receding. But the river remained high, and ﬂash ﬂooding remained a risk due to prolonged pressure on the levees.

“It’s deﬁnitely not an all clear,” said Burlington police spokesperson Michael Lumpkin

Despite dozens of water rescues around the region, a mudslide that struck a few vehicles on Interstate 90 and raging torrents that washed out roads or bridges, no deaths had been reported, Ferguson said during a news conference Friday afternoon

The Skagit River drains a wide swath of the rugged Cascade Range before winding west across broad, low-lying farmlands and tulip ﬁelds on its way to Puget Sound. Cities like Burlington sit on that delta, leaving them especially vulnerable to ﬂoods.

The river crested overnight at 37 feet in the valley’s biggest city, Mount Vernon, surpassing the previous record by a few inches A ﬂood wall completed in Mount Vernon in 2018 held fast and pro-

tected the downtown area.

About 1,000 Burlington residents had to evacuate in the middle of the night, Ferguson said.

National Guard members knocked on hundreds of doors Wednesday morning to tell residents about the evacuation notice and help transport them to a shelter if needed. The water was reportedly 2 to 3 feet deep in certain areas as it ﬂooded homes.

Mario Rincón had been staying at a hotel with his family including a week-old infant. They returned to their Burlington property Friday but couldn’t get inside to assess the damage, as murky floodwaters reached partway up the first floor He had moved some items upstairs in anticipation.

“It’s going to be a few days before the water recedes,” he said. “We’re going to be looking where to stay in the meantime, and it’s kind of difﬁcult because my mom and my mother-in-law are visiting from Mexico until the end of December for the holidays.”

The heaviest rain is over in the region, but the impact remains widespread. The Skagit River will be slow to recede and some rivers in the Cascades have yet to crest, while other major rivers are still above ﬂood stage, said Jeff Michalski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.

More rain is expected beginning Sunday

“Depending on each river, it could prolong the ﬂooding or renew the ﬂooding,” Michalski said.

Near the U.S.-Canada border, Sumas, Nooksack and Everson — which together have about 6,500 residents were inundated. The border crossing at Sumas was closed.

Sumas Mayor Bruce Bosch said much of the city had been “devastated” — just four years after a similar ﬂood. In a social media message, he said it would take most of Friday for water levels to drop enough to allow people who evacuated their houses to return. He acknowledged the community was anxious to return to their homes.

“Me too,” the mayor wrote. “Hang in there.”

Authorities across Washington state in recent days have rescued people from cars and homes.

Helicopters rescued two families on Thursday from the roofs of homes in Sumas that had been ﬂooded by about 15 feet of water, according Frank Cain Jr., battalion chief for Whatcom County Fire District 14.

duct complaint accusing Boasberg of making improper public comments about Trump and his administration.

In a social media post Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Boasberg of engaging in “lawless judicial activism.”

“This radical, retaliatory, unconstitutional campaign against the Trump Administration will not stand,” Bondi wrote.

Boasberg has scheduled a hearing Monday for testimony by former Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni, whose whistleblower complaint claims a top department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants.

The judge also scheduled a hearing Tuesday for testimony by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign. The Justice Department has said Ensign conveyed Boasberg’s March 15 oral order and a subsequent written order to the Department of Homeland Security

Thai and Cambodian leaders agree to renew ceasefire, Trump says

BY AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Friday that Thai and Cambodian leaders have agreed to renew a truce after days of deadly clashes had threatened to undo a ceaseﬁre the U.S. administration had helped broker earlier this year Trump announced the agreement to restart the ceasefire in a social media posting following calls with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.

“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Trump said in his Truth Social posting.

Thai and Cambodian officials offered no immediate comment following

Trump’s announcement Anutin, after speaking with Trump but before the U.S. president’s social media posting, said he reiterated to Trump that Thailand’s position was to keep ﬁghting until Cambodia no longer poses a threat to its sovereignty Trump, a Republican, said that Ibrahim played an important role in helping him push Thailand and Cambodia to once again agree to stop ﬁghting.

“It is my Honor to work with Anutin and Hun in resolving what could have evolved into a major War between two otherwise wonderful and prosperous Countries!” Trump added. The original ceaseﬁre in July was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEPHEN BRASHEAR

Eric Gustin paddles to dry land after rescuing one of several chickens from a flooded coop on Friday in Burlington,Wash.

Johnson unveils GOP health care plan

Republicans scramble after Senate bills fail

BY KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Senate failed to get anywhere on the health care issue this week. Now it’s the House’s turn to show what it can do.

Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a Republican alternative late Friday, a last-minute sprint as his party refuses to extend the enhanced tax subsidies for those who buy policies through the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, which are expiring at the end of the year Those subsidies help lower the cost of coverage.

Johnson, R-Benton, huddled behind closed doors in the morning — as he did days earlier this week working to assemble the package for consideration as the House focuses the ﬁnal days of its 2025 work on health care

“House Republicans are tackling the real drivers of health care costs to provide affordable care,” Johnson said in a statement announcing the package. He said it would be voted on next week. Time is running out for Congress to act. Democrats engineered the longest federal government shutdown ever this fall in a failed effort to force Republicans to the negotiating table on health care. But after promising votes, the Senate failed this week to advance both a Republican health care plan and the Democratic-offered bill to extend the tax credits for three years.

Now, with just days to go, Congress is about to wrap up its work with no consensus solution in sight.

Republican proposal

The House Republicans offered a 100-plus page package that focuses on longsought GOP proposals to enhance access to employersponsored health insurance plans and clamp down on so-called pharmacy benefit managers. Republicans propose expanding access to what’s referred to as association health plans, which would allow more small businesses and self-employed individuals to band together and purchase health coverage. Proponents say such plans increase the leverage businesses have to negotiate a lower rate. But critics say the plans provide skimpier coverage than what is re-

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, prepares to speak Wednesday following a strategy session with House Republicans at the Capitol in Washington.

quired under the Affordable Care Act.

The Republicans’ proposal would also require more data from pharmacy beneﬁt managers, or PBMs, as a way to help control drug costs. Critics say PBMs have padded their bottom line and made it more difﬁcult for independent pharmacists to survive.

Additionally, the GOP plan includes mention of costsharing reductions for some lower-income people who rely on Obamacare, but those do not take effect until January 2027.

The emerging package from the House Republicans does not include an extension of an enhanced tax credit for millions of Americans who get insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Put in place during the COVID-19 crisis, that enhanced subsidy expires Dec. 31, leaving most families in the program facing more than double their current out-of-pocket premiums, and in some cases, much more.

What Trump wants

President Donald Trump, speaking at a holiday party at the White House, said he believes Republicans are going to ﬁgure out a better plan than Obamacare something he has promised for years — but he offered few details beyond his idea for providing Americans with stipends to help buy insurance.

“We make beautiful, big payments directly to the people and they buy their own health insurance,” Trump said at Thursday night’s reception.

The president had touted his proposal for sending money directly to Americans to help offset the costs of health care policies, rather than extending the tax credits for those buying policies through Obamacare. It’s unclear how much money Trump envisions. The Senate GOP proposal that failed to advance would have provid-

ed payments to new health savings accounts of $1,000 a year for adult enrollees, or $1,500 for those ages 50 to 64.

It appeared there were no such health savings accounts in the new House GOP plan.

Political pressure building

Going Johnson’s route has left vulnerable House Republicans representing key battleground districts in a tough spot

Frustrated with the delays, a group of more centrist GOP lawmakers is aligning with Democrats to push their own proposals for continuing the tax credits, for now, so that Americans don’t face rising health care costs.

They are pursuing several paths for passing a temporary ACA subsidy extension, co-sponsoring a handful of bills. They are also signing onto so-called discharge petitions that could force a ﬂoor vote if a majority of the House signs on.

Such petitions are designed to get around the majority’s control and are rarely successful, but this year has proved to be an exception. Lawmakers, for example, were able to use a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein ﬁles held by the Department of Justice.

One petition, ﬁled by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., had signatures from 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats as of Friday afternoon. It would force a vote on a bill that includes a two-year subsidy extension and contains provisions designed to combat fraud in the ACA marketplace. There are also restrictions for PBMs, among other things.

Another petition from Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., has 39 signatures and is broadly bipartisan. It’s a simpler proposal that would force a vote on a one-year ACA enhanced subsidy extension and would include new income caps limiting who qualiﬁes for the enhanced credit

Florida plows ahead with push to roll back vaccine mandates

BY KATE PAYNE Associated Press/Report for America

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla.

Florida ofﬁcials are plowing ahead with a proposal to roll back certain vaccine mandates for the state’s schoolchildren, after Republican Gov Ron DeSantis called for the state to become the ﬁrst in the nation to eliminate all school vaccination requirements.

Pediatricians, infectious disease physicians and teachers have decried the push to undermine vaccines, which for generations have been a cornerstone of public health policy for keeping children and adults safe from potentially deadly — but preventable — diseases.

Experts have warned that doing away with the mandates could allow for a dangerous resurgence of preventable childhood diseases and deaths, amounting to a reversal of one of the greatest advancements in public health history

Dozens of parents, physicians, educators and advocates crowded into a hotel

conference room in Panama City Beach on Friday to testify on a rule change proposed by the Florida Department of Health that would eliminate requirements that Florida children receive the hepatitis B, varicella and Haemophilus inﬂuenzae type b or Hib vaccines in order to attend public or private K-12 schools. The proposal also does away with a requirement for the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for children attending child care facilities. Other state mandates related to vaccines for polio, mumps, tetanus and other diseases are enshrined in Florida law and would require legislative action to be rolled back.

Pediatrician Eehab Kenawy, who practices in Panama City, detailed two unvaccinated children his hospital has cared for in the past six months, both of whom contracted Hib, which can cause severe infections and brain swelling.

“One child unfortunately succumbed at four months of age. No vaccines,” Kenawy said.

Immigration officials blocked from holding Abrego Garcia

Federal judge issues order in case of previously wrongfully deported man

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

BALTIMORE A federal judge blocked U.S. immigration authorities on Friday from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying she feared they might take him into custody again just hours after she had ordered his release from a detention center

The order came as Abrego Garcia appeared at a scheduled appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement ﬁeld ofﬁce roughly 14 hours after he walked out of immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania.

His lawyers had sent an urgent request to the judge, warning that ICE ofﬁcials could immediately place him back into custody Instead, Abrego Garcia exited the building after a short appointment, emerging to cheers from supporters

who had gathered outside.

Speaking briefly to the crowd, he urged others to “stand tall” against what he described as injustices carried out by the government.

Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown earlier this year when he was wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador He was last taken into custody in August during a similar check-in.

Ofﬁcials cannot re-detain him until the court conducts a hearing on the motion for the temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland said. She wrote that Abrego Garcia is likely to succeed on the merits of any further request for relief from ICE detention.

“For the public to have any faith in the orderly administration of justice, the Court’s narrowly crafted

remedy cannot be so quickly and easily upended without further briefing and consideration,” she wrote. Abrego Garcia on Friday stopped at a news conference outside the building, escorted by a group of supporters chanting “We are all Kilmar!”

“I stand before you a free man and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high,” Abrego Garcia said through a translator “I come here today with so much hope and I thank God who has been with me since the start with my family.” He urged people to keep ﬁghting.

After Abrego Garcia spoke, he went through security at the field office, escorted by supporters. When Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon SandovalMoshenberg, announced to the crowd assembled outside that his client would walk back out the field office’s doors again, he stressed that the legal fight was not over

The mother of another Hib patient, a two-and-a-halfyear-old, begged to have her child vaccinated after the child developed a grave brain infection, Kenawy said.

“Quote unquote, mother’s words: ‘please give my child every vaccine you can,’ “ he said. “This is what we’re seeing.”

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who has long clashed with the medical establishment, has cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as “immoral” intrusions on people’s rights that hamper parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.

All U.S. states and territories require that children attending child care centers and schools be vaccinated against a number of diseases including, measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox.

All states allow exemptions for children with medical conditions that prevent them from receiving certain vaccines. Most also permit exemptions for religious or other nonmedical reasons.

ASSOCIATED PERSS PHOTO By STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, center, leaves with Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, right, of Casa in Maryland, on Friday after a mandatory check at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore after he was released from detention on Thursday under a judge’s order

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

HouseDemocrats releasephotosfromEpstein estate

Images include Trump, Clinton andAndrew

BY STEPHENGROVES

Associated Press

WASHINGTON House Democrats releasedaselection of photos from the estateof Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, includingsomeofDonald Trump, Bill Clinton and the former Prince Andrew

The 19 photos initially released by Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee were asmall part of more than 95,000 they received from the estate of Epstein, who died in aNew York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. They released roughly 70 more photos later Friday,including images of his home, Epstein taking abath, aphoto of him with aswollen lip, and aphoto of him posing with a book about the scandal

The photos released Friday were separate from the case files that the Department of Justice is now under compulsion to release, but anticipation is growing as theTrump administration faces adeadline next week to produce the Epstein ﬁles thathave been thesource of conspiracy theories and

speculation for years. Thephotos were released without captions or context and included ablack-andwhite image of Trump alongside six women whose faces were blackedout.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the topDemocrat on theHouse Oversight Committee, did not say whether any of the women in the photos was a victim of abuse, but he added, “Our commitment from day one has been to redact any photo, any information that couldleadtoany sort of harm to any of the victims.”

White House spokespersonAbigail Jacksonaccused Democratsof“selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create afalse narrative” and called it part of a“Democrat hoax against President Trump.”

Many of the photos have already circulated in the public. Democrats pledged to continue to release photos in thedaysand weeks ahead, as they look to pressure Trump over his Republican administration’searlier refusalto release documents in the Epstein probe. Garciasaid hisstaff had looked through about aquarter of the images it had received from Epstein’s estate, which included photos that were senttohim or that he had in his possession.

“Donald Trump rightnow needs to release the ﬁles to theAmerican public so that the truthcan come out and we canactuallyget some sense of justice forthe survivors,” Garcia added.

Trump, once aclose friend of Epstein, has said that he partedwayswithhim long before he faced thesex trafﬁcking charges.Clinton, too, has minimized his relation-

ship with Epstein, acknowledging thathetraveledon Epstein’sprivate jet but sayingthrough aspokesperson that he hadnoknowledge of the late financier’s crimes. Clintonalso hasnever been accused of misconductby Epstein’sknown victims. However,Republicans on the House committee are pushing him andHillaryClinton to testify in their investigation.

Steve Bannon, billionaires Richard Branson and Bill Gates, filmmakerWoodyAllen, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and law professor Alan Dershowitz. The menhavedeniedany wrongdoing in their associations with Epstein, who kept many high-profile figures in his circle of friends.

Amid an earlier release of emails between Summers andEpstein, Summers stepped away from his teaching position at Harvard University and faced other fallout to his standing in academic circles. Allen has faced allegations fromhis adopted daughter, DylanFarrow,ofmolesting her as achild. He has denied the allegations. Somelawmakers, however, believe that other high-powered ﬁgurescould be implicated in Epstein’sabuse if the full case files from the Justice Department are released.

Rep. ThomasMassie, a Kentucky Republican who was instrumental in passing abill to require the public release of the ﬁles, said it was agood sign that the Department of Justice has sought to have grand jury material released from several courts.

Aspokespersonfor the Republican-controlledcommittee also said that nothing in thedocumentsthe committee has received shows “any wrongdoing” by Trump. Andrew lost his royal titles andprivilegesthis year amid new revelations of his ties to Epstein, though he has denied wrongdoing. The photo release also includedimagesofthe rightwing political operative

Trumpsuedbypreservationistsoverballroomproject

Group wantsreviews, congressional approval sought

BY BILL BARROW Associated Press

President Donald Trump was sued on Friday by preservationists asking afederal court to halt his White House ballroom project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and wins approval from Congress

continuesonDec.

states. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving thepublic the opportunitytoweigh in.”

Additionally, the Trust wants the court to declare that Trump, by fast-tracking theproject, has committed multiple violations of the Administrative Procedures Act andthe National Environmental Policy Act, while also exceeding his constitutional authority by notconsulting lawmakers.

to Associated Press questions aboutthe lawsuit andthe project,including whether thepresident had any intention of consulting Congress. Trump, aRepublican, has emphasized since announcing the project that he’sdoing it with private money,including his own But that would not necessarily change how federal laws andprocedures apply to what is still aU.S. governmentproject.

Room could not accommodate biggercrowds. Trump, among other complaints, said guests get their feet wet if it rains during such events. TheWhite House is expected to submit plans for Trump’snew ballroom to a federalplanning commission before the year ends, about three months after construction began.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, aprivately funded group, is asking the U.S. District Court to block Trump’s White House ballroom project, which already has involved razing the East Wing, until it goes through comprehensivedesign reviews, environmental assessments, public comments and congressional debate and ratiﬁcation.

BY JOSH FUNK

New York routinely issues commercial driver’slicenses to immigrants that may be valid long after they are legally authorized to be in the country,U.S. Transportation

Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday and he threatened to withhold $73 million in highway funds unless the system is fixed and any flawedlicenses are revoked. State officials said they are following all the federal rules for the licenses and have been verifying drivers’ immigration status.

New York is the fourth state run by aDemocratic governor Duffy has targeted in his effort to make sure truck and bus drivers are qualiﬁed to get commercial

Trump’sproject has prompted criticism in the historic preservation and architectural communities, andamong his political adversaries, but thelawsuitis the most tangible effort thus far to alter or stop the president’splans foranaddition

thatitself would be nearly twice the size of theWhite House before theEast Wing’s demolition.

“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of theWhite House without any review whatsoever— not President Trump, not President Biden, andnot anyone else,” thelawsuit

No more work should be done, the Trust argues, until administration officials “complete the required reviews —reviews that should have taken place before the Defendantsdemolished the East Wing, and before they began construction of the Ballroom.”

White House press secretary KarolineLeavitt did not immediately respond

The president already has bypassed the federalgovernment’susual building practicesand historical reviews with the East Wing demolition.Herecentlyadded another architectural ﬁrm to the project.

Trump has long said a White House ballroom is overdue,complaining that events were held outside under atent because the East Room andthe StateDining

Will Scharf, whowas named by Trump as chairman of theNational Capital Planning Commission, said at the panel’smonthly meeting last week that he was told by colleagues at the White House that the long-awaited plans would be filed in December “Once plans are submitted, that’sreally when the role of this commission, and its professional staff, will begin,” said Scharf, who also is one of the Republican president’s top White House aides.

licenses. He launched the review after atruck driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and causeda crash in Florida that killed three people in August. But the rules on these licenses have been in placefor years

The TransportationDepartment hassaid it is auditingthese non-domiciled licenses nationwide, but so farnostates run by Republican governorshave been targeted. But Duffy said Friday that this effort is not political,and he hopes New York Gov.Kathy Hochul will take responsibility and work with him. He said it is about making sure everyone behind the wheelofan80,000-pound truck is qualiﬁed and safe.

“Let’shold handsand sing Christmas musicand ﬁx your

system,” Duffysaid. Instead, he said the response appears to be tryingto“dodge,divert andweave” withouttaking responsibilityfor the problems.

Duffy said federal investigators found thatmore than half of the 200 licenses they reviewed in New York were issued improperly withmany of them defaultingtobevalid for eight years regardless of when an immigrant’swork permit expires. Andhesaid the state couldn’tprove it hadverified these drivers’ immigration status for the 32,000 activenon-domiciled commercial licenses it has issued. Plus, investigators found some examples of New York issuing licenses even when applicants’work authorizations were already expired.

PHOTO PROVIDED By HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

An undated photo released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee shows former

PresidentBill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell and JeffreyEpstein with Clinton’ssignature at the top of the photo.

Continued from page1A

hiring an attorney or consultant just to tell them whether aWater of the United States is on their property.”

Amap produced by NRDC from federaldataillustrates the potential impact in Louisiana. Coastal wetlands that are continuously connected to the Gulf of Mexico are likely to remain protected. But inland wetlands —includingwetlands areas in parishes such as Avoyelles,Concordia and St. Tammany —could lose federal safeguards.

Other parts of the state, including deepmarshesin lower Terrebonne Parish and wetlands near the mouth of theMississippi River,appear as gaps on the map because water there is considered sufficiently deep and permanent to retain federal protections. The map focuses on areas where protection status is likely up for debate Even so, the analysisis only an estimate. Determining whether awetland is protected requiresasitespeciﬁc assessment, which can be time-consuming and costly.That’sone reason the homebuilding and agricultural industries have pushed for anarrower federal rule.

“When the Clean Water Act passed, it was the best thing that ever happened.

HAYNES

Continued from page1A

Afederal jury on Sept 18, following a10-day trial, unanimously found Haynes guilty on twocounts of using acellphone in interstate commerce in aid of abribery He also was found guilty on single counts of conspiracy to engage in briberyconcerning programs receiving federal funds, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, conspiringto commitmoney laundering and obstruction of justice. Haynes’ attorney,Todd Clemens, argued during the trial that Haynes was a pawn in the briberyscheme despite audio and video recordings and emails that suggested otherwise The scheme apparently began in 2021 When Don Landry took of-

Continued from page1A

clashed with the health care giant because it owns botha pharmacy beneﬁt manager, or PBM, and apharmacy retail chain.

PBMs act as middlemen between pharmacies,health care plans and drug manufacturers by negotiating drug prices. They are supposed to create lower prices, but critics say they have too much control over the drug market,drive outcompetition and limit where people can ﬁll their prescriptions.

We needed it,” said Randall Noel, the president of Reve Inc., ahomebuilding company in Laplace, and aformer president of the National Homebuilders Association, which supports theproposedrule. Butin the years since it wasﬁrst passed, Noel said the law’s scope has expanded past its original intent.

“A quarter of Americans can’t afford ahouse, in part due to thecosts required for wetlands determinations at the beginning of aproject,”he said. Noel pointed toasugar cane ﬁeld he hopedto build on thatwas initially classiﬁed as awetland,a decisionhedisputed. He said the new rule wouldmakethe permitting process more predictable.

But environmentalgroups say the proposal would leave largeportions of the state vulnerable.Wetlandsact as natural storm-surge buffers, slow theflow of floodwaters, filter pollution and provide crucial habitat for fisheries. Those functions couldbecompromisedif protectionsare lifted.

“It will reduce the number of streams, wetlands and other waters that theClean Water Act protects from pollution anddestruction,” said Matthew McKinzie, asenior director with the NRDC.

“Even for thosewaters that remain technically protected, it will make it harder to enforcethe law against illegalpolluters.”

ficeasdistrictattorney in January 2021, he put Haynes in chargeofthe pretrial intervention program that allowed qualified peoplewith pending charges to take assigned classes or therapy, whichthey paid for, and have the charges removed from their criminal records. Landry,whose office faced abacklog of pending cases that accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraged Haynes to push more people intopretrial intervention to reducethe backlogofcases from the docket. Haynes, alongwith nonattorney Dusty Guidry,who worked on contract in the pretrial intervention program, loosened theentrance guidelines and began admittingmore people, including some whose serious criminalchargesshouldhavedisqualified them. They pressured defendants to take online classes andtherapyfromcompa-

Abill that sparked aﬁerce ﬁght between CVS and Gov Jeff Landry’sadministration in June wouldhavebarred companiesfrom owning both PBMs and pharmacies, whichcritics describedas an unfair practice. Ultimately,House Bill358 failed, and the Louisiana Legislature instead passed adifferent bill establishing new rules around how PBMs can operate.

EXPAND

Continued from page1A

Anne Falgout said, and could also house some ofﬁces. The acquisition was along time coming,Falgoutsaid. The school, which serves about12,000 students annually across all its campuses, was starting to outgrow its landlocked Lafayette campus at the cornerofBertrand Drive and Devalcourt Street

Some of its programs have waitlists, shesaid. Because the school operates on acohort model, programs use the same instructional spaces, making it nearly impos-

Butin the following weeks, Murrill took theissue to court, ﬁling three separate lawsuits,all allegingunfair tradepractices.

One lawsuit argued CVS used its size and control of insurers, PBMs and drug stores to edge out competition and drive up drug costs. Anotheralleged the company exacted unfair fees on and systematically underreimbursed independent pharmacies CVS disputed those claims, arguing it delivered better value to patients and easier access to care.

“By combining health care delivery,pharmacy,health care beneﬁts, and pharmacy benefit management, we make it easier for people to have what they want the most:aconnected care experience,” the companysaid in astatementatthe time Murrill’soffice andCVS have agreed to settle both those cases, according to two separate Dec. 10 orders by afederal judge who dis-

sible to add more sections withoutmoreclassrooms andlabs.

“When we think about thestudent experience, we want each program to be as self-contained in onearea as possible,”Falgoutsaid. “We want to make it easy for them to stay inschool, to go to class, to be around their cohort andtosucceed ” The move came after college ofﬁcials were unsuccessful at securing capital outlay funding fromthe Legislature, Falgout said.Schoolofﬁcials noticed the ACS property was going up for sale in the spring,and the state board voted in Marchtoallow SoLAcc to begin negotiations.

Louisianawetlandstolose federal protection

Aproposed changefrom the Environmental Protection Agencywould strip huge swaths of wetlands of federal protection. In Louisiana, astate known for its wetlands, areport finds that up to 3.9million acres of wetlands could lose federal protection.

Wetlands likelyto lose protections

Wetlands likelyto retain protections

Land areas

Parish boundaries

nies owned by businessmanLeonard Franques, who kicked back money to Haynes andGuidry forincreasing his business.

The FBI started an investigation, which they named OperationCajun Hustle, in July of 2021.

The investigation began after alocal defenseattorneyreported that Carencro gym owner JosephPrejean, aformerly incarcerated individualwho hada contract with theDistrictAttorney’s Office, said he could have theclient’scharges dropped for $30,000.

The FBI bugged Prejean’s phone, which ledthemto Guidry,who split themoney with Prejean.FBI ofﬁcials bugged Guidry’sphone, too, andstarted building acase that led them to Franques and Haynes Guidry,Franques and Prejean pleaded guilty. Guidry and Franques cooperated withthe investiga-

missed thecases.The parties can seek to reopen them if they do notﬁnalize asettlementagreement.

The cases were originally ﬁled in St. Landry Parish but transferred to federal court in the Western District of Louisiana.

The thirdcase came in response to abarrage of text messages CVSsenttocustomers as HB358was being debatedinthe ﬁnal days of the spring legislative session. Themessages urged opposition to the bill, which CVS said would force it to close119 stores in Louisiana, affecting about 1million patients across the state.

The state accused CVS of improperly using its customers’ data to sendthose messages. CVS argued the texts werelegal and were an important way to alert customers to thelegislation, which emerged abruptly in thelast days of the session.

That case remains pending in the 27th Judicial District, which is based in St. Landry Parish

Thedeal ultimately came in alittle under theproperty’sappraised fair market value, Falgout said. The difference between that value andthe purchasing price was recorded as adonation from Dupuis.

“Our studentsdeserve spaces thatreﬂect the quality of theeducation and supportwestrive to provide,” Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance Bryan Glatter said. “I’m proud we wereable to help make this expansion possible, and I’m excited forthe newopportunities it will createfor the SoLAcc community.”

Staffwriter Adam Daigle contributed to this report.

tion. Franques allowed the FBI to record conversations he had withGuidry and Haynes.

Audio and videorecordings, as well as emails and text messages, were presented as evidence in Haynes’trial. Guidryspent considerable time on the witness stand for the prosecution at Haynes’trial. Guidry is consideredthe architect of thebribery schemeinLafayette andanother involving Jack Montoucet, the former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

In March 2023, Guidry

pleaded guiltytothreefederal charges: one countof bribery andtwo countsof conspiracy,one each for the wildlife and ﬁsheries scheme and one involving the pretrial intervention program. He wassentenced Oct. 1to four years in prison.

Franquesalso wasinvolved in the LDWF bribery scheme. He pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Joseph sentenced Franques to 12 months and one day in prison. He was ordered to report to prison by Jan. 6.

Prejean pleaded guiltyin 2023 to one count of conspiracytodefraud thefederal government. Joseph sentenced him to 18 months in prison. He also mustreport by Jan. 6. Haynes’ wife, Barna, spent time in afederal medical facility aftershe pleaded guilty in 2015toone count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Afederaljudge sentenced her to 18 months in prison. Joseph prohibited federal prosecutors in GaryHaynes’ trialfromtelling thejury about theprevious bribery conviction of Haynes’ wife

Sources: U.S. Geological Survey,U.S.Fishand Wildlife Service, NaturalResources DefenseCouncil

Staffgraphic by DANSWENSON

European Unionindefinitelyfreezes Russianassets

Move made to stop Hungary, Slovakia from using veto

BY LORNE COOK Associated Press

BRUSSELS The European Union on Friday indeﬁnitely froze Russia’sassets in Europetoensure that Hungary and Slovakia, both with Moscow-friendly governments, can’t prevent the billions of euros from being used to support Ukraine.

Using aspecial procedure meant for economic emergencies, the EU blocked the assets until Russia gives up its war on Ukraine and compensates its neighbor for the heavy damage that it has inﬂicted for almost four years.

EU Council President António Costa said European leaders had committed in October “to keep Russian assets immobilized until Russia ends its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates for the damage caused. Today we delivered on that commitment.”

It’sakey step that will allow EU leaders to work out

at asummit next weekhow to use thetens of billions of euros in RussianCentral Bank assets to underwrite ahuge loantohelpUkraine meet its ﬁnancial andmilitary needs over the next two years.

“Nextstep: securing Ukraine’sfinancial needs for 2026-27,” added Costa, who will chair the Dec. 18 summit.

The move also prevents the assets, estimated to total around $247 billion,from beingusedinany negotiations to end thewar without Europeanapproval.

A28-point plan drafted by U.S. and Russian envoys stipulated that the EU would release the frozen assetsfor use by Ukraine,Russiaand the United States.That plan, which surfaced last month, was rejected by Ukraine and its backers in Europe.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote on X that the EU decision means that “no one will decide in place of the Europeans the use of these funds.”

Thevast majority of the funds —around $225 billion at the end of September —are held in Euroclear, a Belgian financialclearing house.

The money was frozen under sanctions that the EU imposed on Russia over the war it launchedonFeb.24, 2022, but these sanctions mustberenewed everysix monthswith theapproval of all 27 member countries.

Hungary andSlovakia oppose providing more support to Ukraine,but Friday’s decision prevents them from blocking thesanctions

rollover andmakeiteasier to use theassets.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán —Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Europe —said on social media that it means that“the rule of law in the European Unioncomes to an end,and Europe’s leaders are placing themselves above the rules.”

“The European Commis-

sion is systematically raping European law.Itisdoing this in order to continue the war in Ukraine, awar that clearly isn’twinnable,” he wrote.

He said thatHungary “will do everything in its power to restore alawful order.”

In aletter to Costa, Slovak PrimeMinister Robert Fico said that he would refuse to back anymovethat “would include covering Ukraine’s

military expenses forthe coming years.”

He warned“that the use of frozen Russian assets could directly jeopardize U.S. peace efforts, which directly count on the use of these resources for the reconstruction of Ukraine.” But the commissionargues that the war has imposed heavy costs by hiking energyprices andstunting economic growth in the EU, whichhas already provided nearly $235 billion in support to Ukraine. Belgium, where Euroclear is based, is opposed to the “reparations loan” plan. It says that the plan “entails consequentialeconomic, ﬁnancial and legal risks,” and has called on other EU countries to share the risk. Russia’sCentral Bank, meanwhile, said on Friday that it hasﬁleda lawsuitin Moscow againstEuroclear for damages it says were caused when Moscowwas barred from managing the assets. Euroclear declined to comment.

The Belgian clearing house has around $20 billion in Russia and it’sunclear what would happen to that money if the legal challenge or others like it succeed.

King CharlesIII says hiscancertreatment is beingreduced

BY DANICA KIRKA Associated Press

LONDON King Charles III

saidFriday that early diagnosis and treatment will allow doctors to reduce his cancer treatment in the new year as he encouraged othersto take advantage of screening programs that can detect the disease early when it is easiest to treat. Charles, 77, revealed the positive outlook in arecorded message broadcast on British television as part of acampaign to promote such screening, which increases the likelihood of successful treatment.

“Earlydiagnosis quite simply saves lives,” the king said “I know,too,what adifferenceithas made in my own case, enabling me to continue leading afull and active life even while undergoingtreatment,” he added Buckingham Palace saidhis treatmentismovingto a“precautionary phase” and his condition will be monitored to ensure hiscontinued recovery Friday’smessage is the latest exampleofhow Charles

has used his own story to promotecancerawareness andtreatment since he announced his diagnosis in February 2024. Thatseems to have paid off,with Britishcancercharities saying thenumber of people seeking information about cancer jumped after theking revealed he was undergoing treatment. But the king hasnever revealed what type of cancer he has or the kind of treatment he is receiving. The palace said this was an intentionaldecision designed to

ensure his message reaches the widest possible audience.

“The advicefrom cancer experts is that, in his determination to support the whole cancer community,it is preferable that His Majesty does notaddress hisown speciﬁc conditionbut rather speaks to those affected by all forms of the disease,” the palace said in astatement.

The king’scancer was discovered after treatment for an enlarged prostate.While doctors ruled out prostate cancer, testsrevealed “a separateissue of concern,” palace ofﬁcials said last year Charlessuspended hispublic appearances for about

two months after his diagnosis so he could focus on his treatment and recovery.But he continued with state business and retained his constitutional role as head of state.

Thekingreturned to the public eyeinApril of last year with avisit to acancertreatment center at University College Hospitalincentral London,wherehemet with staff and shared stories with fellowcancer patients. “It’salways abit of ashock, isn’tit, whentheytellyou,” he said, sympathizing with one patient as chemotherapy drugs dripped into her arm Charles’ decision to disclose his diagnosiswas a

departure for Britain’sroyals, whohave traditionally considered their health to be apersonal matter and shared few details with the public.

“AsI have observed before, the darkest moments of illness canbeilluminated by the greatest compassion,” he said. “Butcompassionmust be pairedwithaction. This December,aswe gather to reﬂect on the year past, Ipray that we can each pledge, as part of our resolutions forthe year ahead,to play our part in helping to catch cancer early

“Yourlife —orthe life of someone you love —may depend upon it,” he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILEPHOTO By VIRGINIA MAyO

European Union and Ukrainian flags flyonFeb.24outside EU headquarters in Brussels.The EU on Fridayindefinitely froze Russia’sassets in Europe.

Charles III

A helping hand

Lafayette nonprofit organization gives those in need hot meals amid growing housing crisis

BY ZETA McCASKILL

Contributing writer

At 5 p.m. each Thursday, anyone in need can meet in the parking lot next to the “Twisted Loop” sculpture near the Lafayette Public Library’s main branch for a free meal.

Hands Together, a nonproﬁt volunteer-run organization, supplies enough food to feed 80 to 100 people weekly

“We take donations from restaurants, bakeries, personal households, anybody who has any excess, and we basically prepare a five-course meal,” longtime volunteer Jenny St. John said.

After setting up folding tables one recent Thursday and quickly putting out several pans ﬁlled with hot food Hands

Together president Elizabeth Savoy and others encouraged everyone to grab their neighbor’s hand and gather for prayer

Attendees and volunteers welcomed everyone to receive a hot meal and the opportunity to relax and socialize.

A few feet away, Lakeisha Cormier selected items from two clothing donation bins supplied by Harm Reduction Hotties before sitting down on the curb to eat her meal of chicken, cherry tomatoes, green beans, bread and potatoes.

Cormier a 38-year-old mother of two, has been living at the Express Inn motel since her eviction in February

She cleans ofﬁces for a living and has recently begun attending the Hands Together food bank because most of her income pays for staying at the motel, she said. Her two children, ages 18 and 23, still depend on her but do not live at the motel.

School

Board

$3,000 bonus OK’d to fill vacancies

“We take donations from restaurants, bakeries, personal households, anybody who has any excess, and we basically prepare a five-course meal,”

JENNy ST JOHN, longtime Hands Together volunteer

Before her eviction, she was housed under a U.S. Housing and Urban Development program that provides “decent and safe rental housing” based on income. She has been dependent on ﬁnding housing through HUD because she does not meet the income requirements for the Housing Choice Voucher Program also known as Section 8, which is another program provided by HUD.

“So, if you don’t work, you pay nothing,” she said. “You

still can bless your children with staying somewhere. And you just got to keep up with, you know utilities, Wi-Fi, whatever things that you got.”

Cormier hopes to be approved for housing soon so her family can live comfortably, without having to work excessive hours to make ends meet After eating, Cormier, along with other volunteers and attendees, cleaned up and dispersed, leaving little to no trace of their presence. Even a few items left behind

can put them in jeopardy of losing their permitted serving location, organizers said

Hands Together has been moved by the city of Lafayette several times over the past

ﬁve years because of concerns from nearby businesses and land ownership changes. Yet they continue to serve more than 80 people each week in less than an hour After the meal, Savoy took a minute to look out over the remaining attendees with her hands behind her back, standing tall.

There’s no time off. She knows that the food shortage means she will need to begin sourcing right away for the next meal

offers stipend for new math teachers

Acadiana cowboys make their mark at rodeo

Riders have attained high scores in competition

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

Two Acadiana cowboys have turned their dreams into reality as they made it to the ﬁnal nights of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

Bareback riders Waylon Bourgeois, of Church Point, and Kade Sonnier, of Carencro, are in the ﬁnal stretch of the 10-day National Finals Rodeo championship, where both have emerged as top performers under the brightest lights in rodeo.

“These guys have earned their spot here. Only 15 cowboys out of hundreds qualify,” said publicist Ted Harbin, who represents both riders.

Riders qualify for the National Finals Rodeo based on season-long earnings at nationwide events. Once in Las Vegas, contestants compete in all 10 rounds unless they are injured. There are no eliminations; riders accumulate both prize money and points night after night, with each round offering an opportunity to outrank the next rider Each round can pay out up to $118,284, with $36,668 going to the winner and the rest distributed among the top six. Scores from every qualiﬁed ride are also built into a rider’s aggregate, a separate standings race that awards additional prize money at the end of the ﬁnals. Over 10 nights, a bareback rider can earn more than $300,000 in Las Vegas alone.

Success at the NFR is heavily influenced by the draw The 105 horses selected for the finals are grouped into categories: hoppers, semi-eliminators, eliminators and the TV pen. Each rider cycles through those groups twice over 10 nights, meaning they encounter a range from merciful horses to some of the most challenging in bareback riding. Some horses allow for high scores; others make placing extremely difficult.

ä See RODEO, page 2B

Border Patrol presence increases around Baton Rouge

Nonprofit organizers say 60 to 75 people detained since Tuesday

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

The Capital Region saw its ﬁrst wave of immigration arrests by Border Patrol agents this week, as the “Catahoula Crunch” operation spread from the New Orleans area. Border Patrol agents have detained more than 250 people since the operation started Dec. 3, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday But the agency did not elaborate on how many of those arrests have been in New Orleans compared to Baton Rouge and its surrounding communities. While immigration detainments have been happening in the Capital Region since May, there has been a drastic increase in arrests starting this week, according to the Mision Migrante Coalition, a group that organizer Rachel Taber described as a loosely organized group of citizen volunteers, community leaders and attorneys aiming to educate immigrants about their rights.

ä See PRESENCE, page 2B LAFAYETTE PARISH

teacher compensation.” To receive the stipend, applicants must apply by Jan. 16, 2026, and remain employed through their last contracted workday Interested applicants can apply online at the careers page of the district’s website.

PHOTOS By ROBIN MAy

Amber Barr, left, and Patrick Abraham enjoy their meals served for the homeless by Elizabeth Savoy and friends behind the Lafayette Parish Library downtown on Nov. 20.The

80 to 100 people.They

Jenny St John serves food to Lafayette’s homeless in the parking lot behind the Lafayette Parish Library on Nov. 20.

Eagles and Nicks lead N.O. Jazz Fest

Rod Stewart, Lainey Wilson and Lorde to play

BY KEITH SPERA Staff writer

The placement of names on the 2026 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival talent announcement isn’t random.

Where a name appears on that top-down list is often negotiated between the marquee acts’ representatives and the festival.

The ﬁrst three, and thus most prominent, names on the 2026 announcement — ofﬁcially unveiled Thursday after a draft version leaked the previous day — are classic rock Jazz Fest veterans: the Eagles, Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart.

The fourth name hails from a different generation of arena rock, but has also previously played the Fair Grounds: Kings of Leon.

After Kings of Leon, the Jazz Fest lineup list pivots to fresh faces, including a tattooed one.

Teddy Swims, the Georgia native with a fondness for upper body ink, first earned a following via YouTube videos of cover songs; he slips easily from R&B to soul to country to rock. His own “Lose Control” catapulted him to international stardom.

Lainey Wilson is one of the biggest new names in contemporary country music. In November, the native of Franklin Parish’s tiny Baskin hosted the Country Music Association Awards telecast and won Entertainer of the Year

More Jazz Fest ﬁrst-timers turn up on the poster’s second line. They include Tyler Childers, the

PRESENCE

Continued from page 1B

Organizers say between 60 and 75 people have been detained since Tuesday, mainly in areas with large Hispanic populations, including neighborhoods such as Belaire, Sherwood Forest and Gardere.

The ﬁrst two conﬁrmed detainments in the Baton Rouge area were Tuesday, when Border Patrol agents were seen arresting Candido Cano Castro, 19, and Cristal Cano Castro, 21 around noon in

RODEO

Continued from page 1B

Sonnier has faced what Harbin described as “unlucky draws” at times but stayed consistent, even when the horses he’s ridden have made it challenging to earn checks. His road to Las Vegas has roots that extend back to 2018, long before his own NFR career That year Sonnier traveled to the NFR to watch his father, saddle bronc rider Joey Sonnier, make his ﬁrst and only appearance at the championship “I got to spend 10 days in Vegas to watch my dad,” Sonnier said. “If it wouldn’t be for that, I wouldn’t be doing this.

Now competing in his second NFR, Sonnier entered this year’s

HELPING

Continued from page 1B

During the week, she is just as active, carrying water bottles, snacks and $5 McDonald’s gift cards to give to anyone who asks. She wishes more would do the same.

“They are people, for God’s sake,” she said. “And by the grace of God, if it’s not them it could be you tomorrow.”

Declining opportunities

Hands Together is only one of many outreach programs that offer aid locally

Another organization is The Outreach Center, which can provide up to seven eligible families with stable housing and guidance for resources such as health care, employment opportunities, child care and housing opportunities after they leave the program.

Sayra Tamplain is a case manager for The Outreach Center who is dedicated to helping homeless families ﬁnd permanent housing and aid.

She works with families whose living circumstances are deemed uninhabitable, such as on the street, in a car or in houses with no electricity

throwback country/bluegrass singer from Kentucky, and Raye, the British pop songwriter turned hitmaker in her own right.

They’re slated to join Lorde, David Byrne, TPain, the Black Keys, Nas, Widespread Panic, Earth Wind & Fire, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Tedeschi Trucks Band, St. Vincent, Alabama Shakes, Herbie Hancock and Ziggy Marley at the Fair Grounds, alongside Jon Batiste, The Revivalists, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Irma Thomas and the hundreds of other Louisiana acts that give Jazz Fest its distinct personality

All-in ticket pricing

The festival’s two four-day 2026 weekends are April 23-26 and April 30-May 3.

The first weekend features Nicks, Stewart, Kings of Leon, Lorde, Batiste, Childers, Byrne, Raye, Nas, Sean Paul, Isbell and the 400 Unit, St. Vincent, Thomas The Isley Brothers, The Revivalists, Carlos Vives and Blind Boys of Alabama, among many others.

Stars of the second weekend include the Eagles, Wilson, Swims

The Black Keys, T-Pain, Widespread Panic, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Alabama Shakes, Herbie Hancock, Ziggy Marley, Lake Street Dive, Mavis Staples, Dianne Reeves, Big Freedia, Little Feat and Galactic featuring Jelly Joseph. Jazz Fest typically rolls out its roster in mid-January But this year, staffers at Quint Davis’ Festival Productions Inc.-New Orleans and AEG Presents were

front of the Sabor A La Mexicana food truck in Walker Agents bashed the front driver’s side and passenger’s side windows of a car while detaining the pair, Mayra Moreno, the owner of the food truck, said. Later Tuesday evening, another detainment was made outside the Ideal Market on La. 30 in Gonzales. Employees at the Ideal Market, who requested not to be named, said they saw multiple Border Patrol agents in vests and masks get out of vehicles in the grocery store’s parking lot before making the arrests around 5:30 p.m.

ﬁnals ranked No. 5 in the world.

He has posted qualiﬁed rides ev-

ery night and has amassed 594.5 points across his ﬁrst seven horses, earning $102,000 so far He is currently tied for third in the overall race, positioning him to potentially add more than $60,000 to his Las Vegas total by Saturday “Sonnier needed to focus on enjoying the moment,” Harbin said.

“He’s one of the best bareback riders in the world. When he’s having fun, it shows in his riding.”

Bourgeois has navigated a similar week of challenges and opportunities He entered the NFR ranked No. 12 in the world and earned $96,000 through seven rounds, totaling 502.25 points after six qualified rides. Growing up surrounded by horses and cattle and a family that embraced the saying, “Live your life to the

She said she witnesses how the consequences of declining opportunities for housing assistance, aid and resources affect low-income families.

“I’ve seen people just be in the elements three months, and they look totally different,” Tamplain said. “It’s a different world out there that a lot of people don’t understand.”

A common problem, she said, is that her previous recipients can save enough for an apartment, but the extra fees, deposits and following rent increases make it hard to sustain or recover ﬁnancially

The increased rent prices are often not accompanied by higher wages.

With no way to maintain the stress of ﬁnances and their family’s comfort, they end up in a continuous cycle of poverty

According to a report done by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Louisiana is $1,190

The income needed to maintain a two-bedroom apartment is $22.88 per hour, assuming the household is working 40 hours a week and 52 weeks per year

At the same time, someone making Louisiana’s minimum wage of $7.25 in 2025 would have to work

able to conﬁrm the approximately 650 acts sooner than usual. Releasing the lineup in December allows more time to market the festival and gives fans a chance to buy tickets as Christmas presents. Four-day weekend ticket packages went on sale at 10 a.m. Friday via nojazzfest.com, which redirects buyers to axs.com. In past years, ticket prices on the Jazz Fest website did not include additional fees and taxes added at checkout. This year the prices on Jazz Fest’s ticketing page are “all-in,” including fees. Once again, Louisiana residents get a discount. The allin price for Louisiana residents for a four-day general admission pass is $319. The price for nonresidents is $399.

Single-day tickets are not yet on sale, and likely won’t be until the day-by-day schedule is announced in early 2026.

Big-name acts

Jamaica is the 2026 spotlight country at the festival. Programming at the Cultural Exchange Pavilion and elsewhere throughout the grounds will showcase the music and culture of Jamaica.

The ofﬁcial 2026 Jazz Fest poster, by artist Paul Rogers, is titled “Streetcar Ramble.” It depicts Louis Armstrong riding at the front of the St. Charles Avenue streetcar with Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Jon Batiste and the Treme Brass Band’s “Uncle” Lionel Batiste and Benny Jones.

The mix of big-name acts on the 2026 roster adheres to the general blueprint the festival has followed

In multiple videos taken of the incident and posted to Facebook, agents can be seen running in front of the store after a man while another agent holds a second man in handcuffs.

On Wednesday morning, one man was detained by Border Patrol agents outside the Major Discount Food Market in Gardere, employees with the convenience store said.

But reports of more detainments and sightings of Border Patrol agents have popped up this week across Facebook groups and neighborhood forums in East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston

fullest,” Bourgeois learned early what it meant to ride hard, live fast and chase his dreams with everything he had.

“You’ve got to have a short memory and forget the night before,” Harbin said. “Bourgeois is here for a reason, and he’s shown he can ride with the best of them.”

Bourgeois opened the week strong, placing in the ﬁrst three rounds, including an 88.75-point ride that won Round 3 before a no-score in Round 5 interrupted his momentum. He rebounded Wednesday night with an 85.5-point ride on Frontier Rodeo’s Full Baggage, one of the most decorated bareback horses in modern history Despite competing individually, the two Acadiana riders share a locker room in Las Vegas. Their

105 hours a week to afford a onebedroom apartment.

Tamplain said that the reasons people end up homeless can be due to mental health disorders, disabilities and lack of necessities like clothing, sleep, shelter or food.

While there are many resources available for housing aid, such as Section 8, which provides rental assistance to low-income families, the elderly and those with disabilities, the process for attaining a voucher can vary in length and availability

According to Acadiana Regional Coalition on Homelessness and Housing executive director Elsa Dimitriadis, this is the current issue for the Lafayette Housing Authority, which is a government agency that provides housing to beneﬁciaries.

“Our housing authority is currently in a shortfall, which means their voucher program has been temporarily frozen,” Dimitriadis said. “And so we are having difﬁculty accessing deeply affordable housing for folks who are reliant on their beneﬁts.”

Cost comparisons

A recent analysis of Lafayette Parish was conducted to determine how vital a safe and stable living environment is.

for years: two or three arenasized classic rock acts, a couple of younger rock bands, at least one major country star, a couple of pop artists and rappers and a sampling of veteran R&B bands.

Since September 2024, the Eagles have locked into a leisurely residency at Sphere, the sensory-immersive Las Vegas venue. They’ve typically performed four times a month at Sphere. The band’s final run of 2026 Sphere shows concludes on March 28, freeing them up to land at the Fair Grounds a month later They previously played Jazz Fest in 2012. Nicks ﬁrst performed at the festival with Fleetwood Mac in 2013. She was booked as a solo artist at the 2020 and 2021 Jazz Fests, both of which were canceled by COVID. She then drew one of the largest crowds of the 2022 festival, which was her first performance after the pandemic.

Former Talking Heads frontman Byrne delivered a well-received, innovative set at the 2018 Jazz Fest and is back again this year

Stewart, another veteran of the 2018 Jazz Fest, has embarked on what he says will be his ﬁnal tour

Kentucky-born Childers, who ﬁlled the Smoothie King Center in April with his country/bluegrass hybrid, seems like a natural ﬁt for Jazz Fest

Both R&B legends Earth Wind & Fire and jam band Widespread Panic have made numerous appearances at Jazz Fest over the decades. Lorde, the pop singer from New Zealand, played the Gentilly Stage on a gray day in 2017. Go to nojazzfest.com for more details.

Email Keith Spera at kspera@ theadvocate.com.

parishes. Several of those pages are operated by Mision Migrante, where chapters in Baton Rouge, Denham Springs, Gardere, Port Allen and Gonzales have worked this past week to document as many detainments or Border Patrol sightings as possible, either by collecting video from witnesses or by dispatching their own volunteers to ﬁlm the arrests.

Taber described it as the “ojos” or eyes program.

Email Quinn Coffman at quinn. coffman@theadvocate.com.

bond, according to Harbin, mirrors the camaraderie common in rough stock events, where riders face their horses more than they face each other

“There’s no Waylon versus Kade,” Harbin said. “They want to see each other do well. It’s them versus the horses, and whoever puts together the best ride is going to win.”

Both cowboys were set to face another pen of eliminators Friday night.

The National Finals Rodeo concludes Saturday night. Fans can watch the final rounds live on The Cowboy Channel and stream them on The Cowboy Channel Plus app.

Email Ja’kori Madison at jakori.madison@theadvocate. com.

Several community services organizations collaborated on the project, including ARCH, Acadian Ambulance Service, Beacon Community Connections, Catholic Charities of Acadiana and Lafayette’s local law enforcement.

The analysis concluded that when housing aid is considered from an economic standpoint, it is less expensive to provide resources for homelessness.

“We were able to sit down and quantify how much those 12 individuals were costing the system in hospital visits, ambulance services, police calls, etc., when they were unhoused, and it cost $1.2 million,” said Dimitriadis.

The yearly expense to provide permanent supportive housing for 12 unhoused people, however, would cost $325,000, which includes case management and full rent and utility assistance.

Among those who are waiting for housing is 55-year-old Telemachus Thibodeaux, a New Iberia native who has been living in Lafayette for over 17 years. He left New Iberia to escape crime and an unsafe living environment.

He was evicted from Section 8 housing after letting others live with him, a violation of the housing code. He was given two weeks to leave.

Bogalusa official summoned for altercation

Fiscal administrator faces single count of simple battery

BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer

The accountant who was appointed by a judge nearly a year ago to ﬁx the city of Bogalusa’s troubled finances has been issued a summons following a “physical altercation” at a Bogalusa restaurant in September Robert “Bob” Neilson, 78, is now scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 16 on one count of simple battery, according to court records. The misdemeanor charge stems from an altercation that occurred on Sept. 11 at La Sabrosa, a Mexican and Honduran restaurant on South Columbia Street in Bogalusa, according to police records.

Neilson, an accountant with offices in Bogalusa and Covington, was appointed by a state judge in February to serve as Bogalusa’s fiscal administrator after the state found the city had insufficient revenue to cover its expenditures.

Neilson has reshaped government since taking over, terminating around a dozen positions, making emergency repairs to the sewer system and promising to complete the city’s audits going back to 2022. He has also publicly feuded with Mayor Tyrin Truong and drawn criticism from some state legislators for boxing Truong out of the process. He told The TimesPicayune | The Advocate in June that he had been ignoring Truong’s emails.

Bogalusa Police ofﬁcers were dispatched to La Sabrosa at 12:35 p.m. on Sept. 11 in “reference to a physical altercation that occurred,” according to police records.

The incident came three days after Neilson and Truong appeared in front of a slate of state legislators at the Capitol in Baton Rouge, where they faced questions about their working relationship and a group of residents called for Neilson’s removal.

Neilson was issued a summons for simple battery on Sept. 17 by Assistant Police Chief Troy Tervalon at Hoppen Place, according to police records. Neilson’s accounting ofﬁce in Bogalusa is on Hoppen Place, a street next to City Hall.

No one else was issued a summons in connection with the incident. Tervalon declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

Neilson did not respond to requests for comment.

During this time, he was hired at Walmart but was terminated for excessive tardiness, which he said was the result of the inconsistent bus system.

Unable to live with family members, he sought refuge at the St. Joseph Shelter, where he also began rehabilitation for a narcotic addiction.

Thibodeaux is grateful for the resources the shelter provides but has been slowly going blind over the last eight years Now his disabilities are making it difﬁcult for him to endure the intensity of the shelter and the individuals he encounters.

Yet he remains determined to ﬁnd housing, and while he relies on aid, he also values self-accountability

“You think to yourself you can prosper and try to help yourself outside this, too. Go to the unemployment office on your own. Try to help yourself,” he said.

LOTTERY THURSDAY, DEC. 11, 2025 PICK 3: 0-7-9 PICK 4: 1-9-6-2 PICK 5: 8-1-9-7-8 Unofficial notification, keep your tickets

Neilson

Nicks

Wilson

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

ChatGPT’s allegedly involved in deadly crime

SAN FRANCISCO

The heirs of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman are suing ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft for wrongful death, alleging that the artiﬁcial intelligence chatbot intensified her son’s “paranoid delusions” and helped direct them at his mother before he killed her Police said Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, a former tech industry worker, fatally beat and strangled his mother, Suzanne Adams, and killed himself in early August at the home where they both lived in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The lawsuit filed by Adams’ estate on Thursday in California Superior Court in San Francisco alleges OpenAI “designed and distributed a defective product that validated a user’s paranoid delusions about his own mother.” It is one of a growing number of wrongful death legal actions against AI chatbot makers across the country OpenAI did not address the merits of the allegations in a statement issued by a spokesperson.

Airlines won’t cover expenses amid recalls

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued new guidance telling airlines they do not have to cover passenger expenses, such as meals or hotel stays, when ﬂight cancellations or long delays are caused by aircraft recalls.

The guidance, released on Wednesday, comes after widespread disruptions last month amid the busy Thanksgiving travel period in the U.S. stemming from inspections and software updates that carriers had to perform immediately for safety reasons on a widely used Airbus commercial aircraft. About 6,000 planes were impacted.

Airlines worldwide scrambled to ﬁx a computer code issue that may have contributed to a sudden drop in altitude on a JetBlue plane in October, which injured at least 15 people. Airbus said an examination of the JetBlue ordeal found a software glitch that could have affected ﬂight-control systems on its A320 family of aircraft, the primary competitor to Boeing’s 737 planes.

In the U.S., airlines must provide full refunds when they cancel a ﬂight, regardless of the reason. But the Transportation Department does not require them to cover lodging or meals for stranded passengers — even when a disruption is the airline’s fault.

Italy strike disrupts transportation, schools

ROME A national strike called on Friday by Italy’s largest trade union in protest against the government’s budget plans widely disrupted transportation, health and school services across the country

The protest, which targets the 2026 budget bill proposed by the conservative government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, comes just two weeks after another general strike organized by smaller trade unions, with the same motivations. The strike mainly hit railway transportation, with cancellations and delays registered for both long-distance and regional trains. Public schools across the country canceled classes forcing students to stay home because of a lack of local public transportation in many cities. The CGIL union listed the reasons for the strike in a statement, including demands for greater investments in health care, education and housing rights, along with measures to tackle workplace safety CGIL secretary-general Maurizio Landini, who led a rally in Florence on Friday morning, criticized the budget as “unfair, wrong and dangerous.” He said that the main social emergency is now represented by low wages, and that government measures don’t address that.

Tens of thousands of workers took to the streets on Friday as demonstrations and rallies supporting the strike took place from north to south.

Wall Street sees worst day in 3 weeks

Tumbling tech stocks drag market down

BY STAN CHOE AP business writer

NEW YORK More drops for superstar artificial-intelligence stocks knocked Wall Street off its record heights on Friday

The S&P 500 fell 1.1% from its all-time high for its worst day in three weeks. The weakness for tech stocks yanked the Nasdaq composite down by a marketleading 1.7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 245 points, or 0.5%, after setting its own record the day before.

Broadcom dragged the market lower and tumbled 11.4% even though the chip company reported a stronger proﬁt for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Ana-

lysts called the performance solid, and CEO Hock Tan said strong 74% growth in AI semiconductor revenue helped lead the way

But investors may have been concerned with some of Broadcom’s ﬁnancial forecasts, including how much proﬁt it can squeeze out of each $1 of revenue. The AI heavyweight may also have simply run out of momentum after its stock came into the day with a surge of 75.3% for the year so far, more than quadruple the S&P 500’s gain.

Broadcom’s drop added to worries about the AI boom that ﬂared a day before. That’s when Oracle plunged nearly 11% despite likewise reporting a bigger proﬁt for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Questions remain about whether all the spending that Oracle is doing on AI technology will produce

the kind of profits that make it worth the expense, along with how the tech giant will pay for it. Such doubts are dogging the AI industry broadly, even as many billions of dollars continue to ﬂow in.

Broadcom was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 Friday, followed by Nvidia. The chip company that’s become the poster child of the AI boom fell 3.3%. Oracle fell another 4.5%.

The stock market also felt some pressure from the bond market, where the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.18% from 4.14% late Thursday Higher yields can discourage investors from paying high prices for stocks and other investments, particularly when critics say they already look too expensive.

Friday’s drops for AI superstars continue a jagged return toward Earth after they earlier had been

the main engine lifting Wall Street higher Other stocks that used to struggle with uncertainty about the U.S. economy’s strength and what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates, meanwhile, have been doing better

The stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has much less of an emphasis on tech, rose 1% this past week. That’s much better than the Nasdaq composite’s drop of 1.6%.

Notwithstanding Friday’s rise in yields, investors have been feeling more optimistic about interest rates. The Fed earlier this week cut its main interest rate for the third time this year and indicated another cut may be ahead in 2026. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can boost the economy and send prices for investments higher, even if they potentially make inﬂation worse.

Holiday shopping not so merry

Poll reveals gifts are not as affordable

BY JOSH BOAK and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Associated Press

WASHINGTON — This holiday season isn’t quite so merry for American shoppers as large shares are dipping into savings, scouring for bargains and feeling like the overall economy is stuck in a rut under President Donald Trump, a new AP-NORC poll ﬁnds.

The vast majority of U.S adults say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for groceries, electricity and holiday gifts in recent months, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Roughly half of Americans say it’s harder than usual to afford the things they want to give as holiday gifts, and similar numbers are delaying big purchases or cutting back on nonessential purchases more than they would normally

It’s a sobering assessment for the Republican president, who returned to the White House in large part by promising to lower prices, only to find that inflation remains a threat to his popularity just as it did for Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency The poll’s findings look very similar to an AP-NORC poll from December 2022, when Biden was president and the country was grappling with higher rates of inflation. Trump’s series of tariffs have added to inflationary pressures and generated anxiety about the stability of the U.S. economy, keeping prices at levels that many Americans find frustrating.

The president has insisted there is “no” inﬂation and the U.S. economy is booming, as he expressed frustration that the public feels differently

“When will people understand what is happening?” Trump said Thursday on Truth Social. “When will Polls reﬂect the Greatness of America at this point in time, and how bad it was just one year ago?”

Most U.S. adults, 68%, continue to say the country’s economy is “poor,” which is unchanged from December 2024, before Trump returned to the presidency

White House ofﬁcials plan to send Trump barnstorming across the country in hopes of bucking up people’s faith in the economy be-

fore next year’s midterm elections. But the president this week in Pennsylvania defended the price increases tied to his tariffs by suggesting that Americans should buy fewer dolls and pencils for children. His message is a jarring contrast with what respondents expressed in the poll, even among people who backed him in the 2024 election.

Sergio Ruiz, 44, of Tucson, Arizona, said he is using more buy now, pay later programs to spread out over time the expense of gifts for his children He doesn’t put a huge emphasis on politics, but he voted for Trump last year and would like to see lower interest rates to help boost his real estate business He believes that more Americans having higher incomes would help to manage any affordability issues.

“Prices are up. What can you do? You need to make more money,” Ruiz said.

The poll found that when they do shop, about half of Americans are ﬁnding the lowest price more than they would normally About 4 in 10 are dipping into their savings more than at other times.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they’re cutting back on expenses or looking for low prices, but many Republicans are budgeting more than usual as well.

About 4 in 10 Republicans are looking for low prices more than they usually would, while a similar share are shopping for nonessential items less than usual.

People felt similarly dismal about holiday shopping and the economy when Biden was president in 2022. Inﬂation had spiked to a four-decade high that summer Three years later, inﬂation has eased substantially, but it’s still running at 3%, a full percentage point above the Federal Reserve’s target as the job market appears to have entered a deep freeze.

The survey indicates that it’s the level of prices — and not just the rate of inﬂation — that is the point of pain for many families. Roughly 9 in 10 U.S. adults, 87%, say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for groceries in the past few months, while about two-thirds say they’ve experienced higher prices than usual for electricity and holiday gifts. About half say they’ve seen higher than normal prices for gas recently

The ﬁndings on groceries and holiday gifts are only slightly lower than in the 2022 poll, despite the slowdown from an inﬂation rate that hit a four-decade peak in the middle of that year

Fed officials split over risks to U.S. economy in 2026

BY JONNELLE MARTE, CATARINA SARAIVA and ENDA CURRAN

Bloomberg News (TNS)

Federal Reserve officials — including two who will become voters in 2026 — offered strongly opposing views Friday on what to do with interest rates, continuing a debate that will grip the U.S. central bank into the new year

Three policymakers focused in their comments on inflation risks, though one of them suggested he was advocating only a temporary pause to rate cuts to confirm inflation is subsiding. A fourth emphasized risks to the labor market as the bigger concern

The remarks were the ﬁrst since Wednesday, when the Fed cut its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point for a third consecutive meeting in response to rising unemployment. Dissenting votes

against the decision indicated the string of cuts has become increasingly contentious amid lingering inflation, and projections showed the median ofﬁcial only expects one reduction in 2026. “Part of the committee would prefer to be more cautious. They want to see more data on inﬂation, more data on the labor market,” said Marco Casiraghi, a senior economist at Evercore ISI. With a new Fed chair coming in and expected to push for lower rates, “it’s going to be a bit of a bargaining process over how many cuts might be reasonable in 2026,” he said.

Two ofﬁcials — Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and his Kansas City counterpart, Jeff Schmid — issued statements Friday outlining the rationale for their dissents against Wednesday’s rate cut. It was Goolsbee’s ﬁrst dissenting vote since joining the Fed in 2023, while

Schmid’s followed a dissent against the previous rate reduction in October

The Chicago Fed chief said in his statement he “felt the more prudent course would have been to wait for more information” before cutting rates again after a government shutdown delayed several key economic reports in October and November, given some “concerning” data on inﬂation prior to the shutdown.

Speaking later in the morning on CNBC, Goolsbee added that he projected more rate cuts in 2026 than most of his colleagues: “I’m one of the most optimistic folks about how rates can go down in the coming year,” he said.

Schmid was less equivocal.

“Inflation remains too high, the economy shows continued momentum and the labor market — though cooling remains largely in balance,” he said in his statement. “I

view the current stance of monetary policy as being only modestly, if at all, restrictive.”

The Chicago and Kansas City Fed presidents will rotate off the Fed’s voting panel in 2026. Two of their incoming replacements also spoke Friday — one emphasizing concerns about inflation and the other warning of risks to the labor market Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, at an event in Cincinnati, said the central bank should keep rates high enough to continue putting downward pressure on inflation. Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson, who with Hammack will rotate into the FOMC’s voting ranks next year, was the only one of the four officials speaking Friday who emphasized ongoing risks to the labor market despite the central bank’s recent efforts to adjust rates toward a more neutral setting.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MEGAN VARNER

Shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday deals in Woodstock, Ga.

ANOTHERVIEW

American institutions face confidencecrisis

Founded on bedrock principlesofdemocracy,natural rights andfreedom, Americaisuniquely shaped by its institutions. They provide stability,innovation, economic dynamism and global inﬂuence

Ron Faucheux

But with populist uprisings on the rightand left taking aim at established power centers, America’s institutions have lost public conﬁdence to adangerous degree.

Apoll from the Partnership for Public Service found thattrust in government has declinedfrom alow 35% in 2022 to adismal 23% in 2024. Only 15%ofthose polled believegovernmentis transparent (down six points) and awhopping 66% think it’s incompetent (up 10 points). Shockingly,only 29% said democracy is working and 68% said it’snot.

Publicconﬁdencehas fallen during both Democratic and Republican administrations. The latest Pew Research survey found, for example,that only 17% of Americans now say they trust government in Washington,down from 77% in 1964.That’snot justadrop, it’s acollapse.

The institution in the worst shape,accordingtothe Economist/YouGov survey,isCongress. Just 10% of Americans express high levels of conﬁdenceinit. What does this say about the 9out of10citizens who feel otherwise?

Among the three branchesofnational government, the presidency rates 30% and the U.S. Supreme Court 24%—bothlow,but betterthanCongress. Theseresultsshould set off alarm bells.Yet Americanshavegrown so accustomedtopolls showing low levels of trust in government that bad numbers areno longer ajolt.

But tumbling conﬁdenceisnot limitedtoprimarily political institutions. The Economist/YouGov poll tests institutions in multiplesectors.The military is theonly onethatdraws aclear majority of Americans (54%) expressing high conﬁdenceinit.

Republicans think much betterofthe military than do Democrats; Whites think betterofitthandoBlacks and Hispanics. There is awide generationaldivide: U.S. adults 45 andolder are farmorelikely than those under 45 to have strong conﬁdence in the military Coming in second in conﬁdencerankings is small business. It does best among men, Republicans, seniors and Whites. While small businessranks well compared to other institutions, it still wins this trust from only 50% of Americans surveyed.

Second to last on the list of institutions is bigbusiness, with only 14%expressing high conﬁdence in it. As you cansee, size matters. Inthe public mind, small business is associatedwith localmom-and-pop shops struggling to stay aﬂoat. Big business conjures images of rich, remote corporations andtheir lavishly paid executives. This distinctiongoes to theheartof populist unrest; it explainswhy voters, by a57% to 25% margin, think the federalgovernment should try to reduce the gap in wealth between the richestand poorest Americans.”

Notably,banks (32%) and organizedlabor (26%)rank above big business and belowsmall business

Of all institutions assessed, police rank third at 38%. But group divides are substantial: 55% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats have high levels of conﬁdence in police —asdo44% of Whites, 29% of Hispanicsand 19% of Blacks.

Only 21% of U.S. adultshave high confidence in the criminal justice system —substantially less than in police. Interestingly, atad moreHispanics(24%) than Blacks(21%) or Whites (19%)have confidence in the entire system. Nextisthe medicalsystem, at 35%. Democrats have much more confidence in it than do Republicans. Publicschools follow at 32%; Blacks,morethan Hispanics and Whites, have high confidence in them. Democrats also have more confidence thanRepublicans in public schools.

The church, or organized religion, scores28%,and draws its highest levels oftrust from astriking coalition —Republicans, Blacks and 18 to 29 year olds. How about the media? Newspapers do better (23%) than television news(17%), but both measure low. Higher-income Americans have the mostconﬁdence in newspapers, while lower-income earners havethe most conﬁdence in television news.

“Weare at apunctuationpoint in humanhistory,” wrote business and technology guru Don Tapscott, arguing that our institutions have “essentially run out of gas.” Most Americans would probably agreewith this sentiment —and that, in itself, is athreattothe foundation of our democracy

Ron Faucheux is anonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writer based in Louisiana.

Military membersneed officialswho tell thetruth

Well, folks, we survived the 1960s and early 1970s, but now we are faced with another prospect of a president involving our country in another unnecessary war.Wedon’t need to provoke Venezuela intoa conﬂict just to appease someofour leaders’ desire to show thepowerful might of our military Ican’tbelieve we are blowing boatsout of the water and not using our Coast Guard to stop and apprehend these individuals. We cannot andshould not allow our military to act as judge and executioner when dealing withthese accused drug trafﬁckers.

What would we do if some country

decided to bombaboat coming out of Texas just as it got into international waters? Could they justifyit by saying they felt like the boat was running illegal substances out of the U.S. and into their country? When are themembers of Congress going to come forward and retake their appropriate position within our government?

Don’tallow our president to send troops into another conﬂict without justiﬁcation and proof.I’m aproud Vietnam veteran whodoesn’twant our military subjected to the same lies that we had to deal with.

RICHARD STAGNOLI Central

Columnistgives no basisfor attack on Mamdani

Quin Hillyer should be absolutely ashamed of himself for his recent “opinion” piece discussing theelection of Zohran Mamdani in New York City. He shamelessly and baselessly describes Mamdani as a “near-radical Islamic” and “proto-socialist” (whatever that even means) Having an opinion on the killings of innocent people in Gaza does not makeyou aradical Islamist. And having adesire to make the most expensive cityinAmerica alittle more affordable for 8.5 million people does not makeyou atraitor toyour country This is pure and simple, unmasked right-wing fear-mongering and propaganda, theexact kind of harmful rhetoric that even Marjorie Taylor

Greene now acknowledges needs to stop.

Ihave no issue whatsoever with giving space for right-leaning views. Iamwell aware that we live in Louisiana.

AndifMamdani had been elected mayor of New Orleans or Baton Rouge, Imight even be alittle moretolerant of the criticism. But Mamdani’selection has absolutely nothing to do with Louisianaatall. New Yorkers elected him,and if he fails, they will pay the price. But if he succeeds, then maybe Mamdani’s approach may start to gain traction elsewhere. Andthat, of course, is what really frightens them. MATT FRASER NewOrleans

LSU’ssagawithKiffinisworthyofsatire

Iamintrigued by your recent sportscolumn starting, “Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter,members of the football team and even the state’stop public safety ofﬁcer are challenging theveracity of Lane Kifﬁn’sportrayal of the events surrounding his departure to LSU.” Iwish that James Gill, your late columnist, was still with us. Iknow

that he would havesomething humorousand sardonic to say about theLSU coachingsituation. Perhaps your regrettably retiring editorial cartoonist, Walt Handelsman, could give us one more cartoon contest using this subject? The humor level would be at an all-timehigh. QUIN BATES Marrero

Immigration enforcement targetsthose whocamewhen help wasneeded

Gov. Jeff Landry’sapproval of President Donald Trump’scall for National Guard and U.S. Border Patrol to New Orleans is apolitical decision. It is not justiﬁed by the facts on the ground.

Trumpannounced this whole initiative to makesure that undocumented criminal elements were not staying illegally in the U.S. The recent footage of an ICEoperative punching amother while she sits in her car,defending her minor children whoare in the back, is not AI.Itisreal. Samewith people holding valid green cards or other valid citizenship proof being detained, treated inhumanely and then released without apology If you walkalong Crescent Park in NewOrleans, you will find a statue, erected in 2018, dedicated to the significant contributions of workers from Latin America to the successful rebuilding of New Orleans and the area after the devastating events of 2005. There are so manysectors of the economy of this state and New Orleans that benefit from our Hispanic neighbors. This “round up everyone who looks Latino” approach is abhorrent and results in terrifying innocent people, increasing tension and wrenching lives apart.

We are hearing reports that people whohave been released from detention because they are Louisiana residents (i.e., Landry’s constituents), are not getting their personal belongings back, including things like cellphones and engagement rings. Nobody deserves that treatment. Even federal prisons do better than that with their convicted inmates, and these people were only “guilty” of looking Latino. So, when the risks of such a “shock and awe” approach are this high, Iﬁnd myself asking: “Where’sthe emergency? What’s the big danger?”

SALLIE DAVIS NewOrleans

BY KEVIN Staff writer

to leavethe program before making adecision on his new school.

“Obviously,Bryant decided not to play in this game, so that’swherewe’re at,” said Desormeaux, whose Cajuns will playDelaware at 7:30

LSU, Mulkey set forrare matchup .La. Tech

DARCEY

pportunitytoplay aroad game Louisiana Tech has presented itself KimMulkey before, but she has alturned it down. swilling to putthe Lady Techsters her nonconference schedules. She already done so during her timeatBayshe did again ahead of this Tigers season. However,the LSU women’sbasketballcoach will never stage agamein Ruston— the small town in North Louisiana where she played her college hoops andlaunchedher Hall-ofcoaching career stoo manyemotions there,” said. “There’stoo many.Icouldn’t that gym and be agood coach.” utralsitewill have to sufﬁce int5 p.m. Saturday(ESPNU), the King Center will host only the matchup between oneofMulkey’s dher alma mater, Louisiana Tech .5Tigers (10-0) andthe Lady Techset to meet in the Compete 4 Classic —adoubleheader that also a7:30 p.m. men’sgamebetween MU. is aLouisiana Tech legend. She point guard for the Lady Techsters 1980-84, then worked as an assistant rthe next 16 seasons. Tech reached Four 11 times in the 19 total seaMulkey spent there and took home onal titles (in1981, 1982 and 1988). cember 2009, Mulkey’sBaylor team the Lady Techsters 77-67 in Waco, hasn’t facedher alma matersince,

Rebels’Trinidad Chambliss outpassed ve’s JakeRetzlaff307-56 on Sept. 20 1-21. James Madison (12-1) at No. 5Oregon m.,TNT/TruTV Extrapoint: Ducks were one-and-done in CFP last year as No. 1seed …UO, 41-18. CFPquarterfinals

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Celebration ABC

7 p.m. Boise St vs.Washington ABC WOMEN’S COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL

4 p.m. Creighton at Kentucky ESPN2

6:30 p.m. Purdue at Pittsburgh ESPN2 COLLEGE WRESTLING

7 p.m. Oklahoma at Rutgers

Juventus at Bologna CBSSN 7 p.m. Tigres at Deportivo Toluca CBSSN

Cajuns hope to end skid in Ruston

UL has lost eight straight games

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

The long uphill climb continues for the struggling UL Ragin’ Cajuns with a 2 p.m. road game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston

“Like I’ve been saying this entire time, we have everything ahead of us,” UL coach Quannas White said. “We just got to keep hitting the rock, practicing the right way and then cleaning up some areas.”

Tech enters the game 5-3 overall and 5-0 in home games, including an 89-37 win over Ecclesia College and a 77-69 road loss to Georgia Southern.

The Cajuns enter the game 1-9 after falling to UNC-Wilmington 70-63 last Saturday in the Cajundome for their eighth straight loss.

“We got to ﬁnd ways to get more shots at the rim,” White said. “I thought we took entirely too many 3s. They weren’t bad shots. We just didn’t hit them. A couple of those 3s fall, and we’d be talking about a different outcome.

“I saw a lot of positives. I think this team is now heading in the right direction.”

The Cajuns enter the matchup averaging 57.4 points a game and giving up 71.7 points a game. UL is shooting 38.3% from the ﬁeld, 28.6% from 3-point land and shooting 67.7% at the line.

The Cajuns, who are also av-

eraging 13.7 turnovers and 31.1 rebounds a game, are led by only two double-ﬁgure scorers in Jaxon Olvera (12.7 points, 4.6 rebounds) and Dorian Finister (11.3 points, 4.8 rebounds). The problem is the next highest scorers are Dariyus Woodson (6.3 points, 2.4 rebounds) and Joshua Lewis (6.3 points, 4.1 rebounds).

White said the coaching staff works hard to keep the team’s conﬁdence up through the rough start.

“It starts with me as the head coach, having confidence in those guys,” White said. “If you don’t have confidence in them, it hurts them. We have complete confidence in all of our guys The coaching staff will keep their confidence up, won’t let them stop shooting and keep working until they start to fall.”

The Cajuns continue to try to search for rhythm on offense without starting point guard Jamyron Keller, who has been out since the second game of the season with a foot injury White conﬁrmed Monday a decision on Keller’s potential return could come before Christmas

“We have to keep repping those guys,” White said of the backup point guards. “Experience is the best teacher The more work you put into it, the better you’re going to get.”

The Bulldogs are averaging 72.3 points while giving up only 58.5 points a game. Tech is shooting much better than the Cajuns at 46.9% from the ﬁeld and 29.5%

Cajuns this season.

from the 3-point line The Bulldogs, though, do struggle at the free-throw line at 58.8%

“Tech has a talented team,” White said. “The point guard can score at all three levels. Coach H (Talvin Hester) has done a good job with the team over the years.” Tech is also averaging 42.1

rebounds a game and 12.1 turnovers. The Bulldogs have six players averaging over 6.3 points a game, led by AJ Bates (11.6 points, 2.8 rebounds), Kaden Cooper (10.9 points, 7.0 rebounds), DJ Dudley (10.4 points, 2.4 rebounds) and Scooter Williams (9.8 points, 3.3 rebounds).

LSU men look to ﬁx scoring against SMU

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Adding weight to any game

isn’t something Matt McMahon is going to do.

Entering LSU’s contest against SMU, its ﬁnal high-major foe before Southeastern Conference play, the fourth-year coach said Thursday that he wants his team to play with a purpose every game, regardless of the opponent. However, he knows his players have extra motivation this time after they were “disappointed” with an 82-58 loss to No. 16 Texas Tech last Sunday That was the Tigers’ ﬁrst game against a team ranked in the top 100 by the analytics website KenPom.com.

“Our players understand the importance of not only bouncing back from Sunday,” McMahon said, “(but) playing against a Quad One opponent in the computer rankings and another Power Five game against a really good team. So we approach every game the same way, but I do think our players have a sense of urgency to respond the right way.”

The response LSU (8-1) has against SMU (9-1) will happen in the Compete 4 Cause Classic at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Smoothie King Center Before Friday’s games, SMU was ranked 40th on KenPom, one spot below LSU. McMahon called the Mustangs a top-25 caliber team that will

likely be in the NCAA tournament. He wants to add an impressive win to his team’s résumé

To do that, the Tigers will need to remedy their offense.

“When you look at our last 60 minutes of basketball, excluding the overtime period in Boston, we have struggled to score,” McMahon said “It’s just the reality I think the number that probably jumps out to everyone would be that we have not shot the ball well from 3. That is clearly a concern.”

LSU went 4 of 24 from beyond the arc in its last game The game before that, it went 3 of 19 in a 78-69 overtime win at Boston College LSU is last in the SEC in made 3-pointers at 6.7 per game.

McMahon also highlighted a need for more efﬁcient two-point scoring, as the Tigers went 7 of 22 in the ﬁrst half against Texas Tech. McMahon said he has confidence in his shooters and is “not worried about that.” The Tigers’ 3-point shooters are Dedan Thomas, Marquel Sutton and Max Mackinnon in the starting lineup and Rashad King, Ron Zipper and PJ Carter off the bench.

If a 3-point shot isn’t falling for a wing player, McMahon said he’ll be willing to make changes sooner in games.

“There’s not great separation in the wing rotation,” McMahon said. “So I think some of it right now is for the ﬁrst time in several weeks, we’ve had some opportunity to practice and have more

competitive practices versus just preparing for the next game. So I think there’s opportunities available there for other guys to step forward.

“Certainly there’s a lot more that goes into it than just the ability to shoot the 3, but we also understand the importance of that in today’s game. We’ve got to be able to space the floor, and it’s on myself to make sure, from a scheme standpoint and design, that we’re creating high-percentage 3s,” he said With the additional practice time, McMahon said he has also had a chance to make internal adjustments without redshirt junior Jalen Reed, who injured his left Achilles tendon on Nov 28 and will be out for the remainder of the season Reed, who was averaging 9.5 points and 5.7 rebounds in 18 minutes, will be missed for the scoring versatility as a forward and center McMahon said the loss is devastating, especially after he missed last season with a torn right ACL in the eighth game. McMahon said Reed is committed to coming back once more from this latest injury and will travel with the team to New Orleans. The first two weeks after the injury, he wasn’t around in person since his movements were limited after surgery. SMU is a team that heavily relies on its starters, as all five average double-figure points The

Clark returns to court after injury-filled season

DURHAM,N.C.— Caitlin Clark had to remind herself to smile, have fun and not be so self-critical.

The opening day of USA Basketball camp Friday was her ﬁrst time playing competitively in nearly ﬁve months after the Indiana Fever All-Star missed most of the WNBA season with a variety of injuries.

Clark said she gained a greater appreciation for basketball after only being able to play in 13 games this past season.

This was Clark’s ﬁrst time playing with the senior national team.

The 23-year-old had been invited to camps when she was in college, but the timing didn’t work out for her to attend.

Clark is one of about a dozen ﬁrst-timers at the camp, including Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese.

Steelers LB Watt has a ‘successful surgery’ on lung

PITTSBURGH Steelers star T.J. Watt had a “partially collapsed lung” following a dry needling treatment and underwent surgery to treat it, his brother J.J. posted on social media Friday Steelers coach Mike Tomlin ruled Watt out for Monday night’s game against the Dolphins, but J.J. Watt indicated that the Steelers’ pass rusher was at least well enough to leave the hospital.

“Yesterday TJ had successful surgery to stabilize and repair a partially collapsed lung suffered Wednesday after a dry needling treatment session at the facility,” the elder Watt wrote on social media. “Recovery timeline is still TBD, but all went well and he is being released from the hospital today.”

Vonn wins first World Cup downhill since 2018

In her 125th career World Cup downhill start, 24 years after her debut and eight years since her last major win, Lindsey Vonn sped to a stunning victory in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Friday It was as if Vonn announced to the world that not only is she back after a six-year retirement, the 41-year-old American slopes legend is ready to rule downhill skiing again at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in February

Vonn is the only American woman to win an Olympics gold medal in downhill, having done so at the 2010 Vancouver Games. She also won bronze medals in the super-G 2010 and downhill in 2018. Vonn will take part in another downhill race Saturday and a super-G on Sunday

Royals, 3B Garcia agree to 5-year, $57M contract

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — All-Star third baseman Maikel Garcia and the Kansas City Royals have agreed to a ﬁve-year, $57.5 million contract that includes a club option for a sixth season, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Friday.

ä LSU vs. SMU. 7:30 P.M., SATURDAy

top two players are point guard Boopie Miller and wing Jaron Pierre, a New Orleans native. Each player averages about 20 points, and Miller is tied for ﬁrst in assists per game (6.8) in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

LSU’s Thomas, who averages 15.2 points and leads the SEC with 6.3 assists, likely will be assigned to Miller

LSU most recently struggled against an elite primary playmaker in Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson, who had 27 points and 10 assists

“I think we learned a lot from it, from ﬁlm study,” McMahon said.

“So we’ll have to do a much better job individually and as a team in defending elite point guards like that.”

Preparing for challenges like the one SMU presents and learning from the only loss of the year is what LSU needs as the year progresses.

“We know the games like Texas Tech, the games like SMU prepare you for the 18-game gauntlet that you’re going to go through when you get to SEC play,” McMahon said. “I think our players understand; they know what their goals are in the long term for the season and understand the importance of games like this. So I expect we’ll be locked in and ready to go on Saturday night.”

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract is pending a physical. Garcia was arbitration-eligible for the ﬁrst time in 2026, so the deal essentially buys out his arbitration years and potentially his ﬁrst two years of free agency

The 25-year-old Garcia is coming off a breakout season both in the ﬁeld, where he won his ﬁrst Gold Glove playing alongside All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., and at the plate, where he hit .286 with a career-high 16 homers and 74 RBIs.

Undrafted rookie QB Cook to start for Jets

FLORHAM PARK, N.J Brady Cook is going from undrafted rookie to NFL starting quarterback this week. New York Jets coach Aaron Glenn announced Friday that Cook will make his ﬁrst regular-season start Sunday against the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

Cook took the snaps with the starters this week and coach Aaron Glenn said on Friday that Tyrod Taylor and Justin Fields were ruled out for the game. Neither practiced during the week while dealing with injuries. Adrian Martinez, who was signed to the practice squad earlier this week, will serve as the backup to Cook.

Cook will become the 55th player to start at quarterback in franchise history,

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD BOWIE

UL guard Jaxon Olvera, right, shown here during a Dec. 6 game against UNC-Wilmington, has been the most consistent scoring threat for the

ä UL at Louisiana Tech. 2 P.M. SAUTRDAy, ESPN+

SECN

SAINTS

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Carolina’s playoff fate and more focused on trying to build on what he’s already put on ﬁlm. The Saints also have yet to win consecutive games this season, so any sort of winning streak — regardless of against two divisional opponents — would be a positive. But there is a matter of pride still involved. According to The

CAJUNS

Continued from page 1C

“He’s a good young player and a guy we’re excited about,” Desormeaux said of Bentley. “He’s been getting reps kind of all the way through, preparing himself to go play in this game. He’s a good athlete.”

Bentley is listed at 6-foot-6 and 290 pounds from Ouachita Christian High in Monroe.

“You know, he’s still not probably developed physically as much as you would want. He’s a multi-sport athlete out of high school — he threw for track and field. He’s a really explosive player, really explosive.”

The 6-foot-5, 330-pound Williams is from Palestine, Texas.

“He’s really athletic, a young kid who has come a long way this year,” Desormeaux said. “He’s someone we’re really excited about moving forward.”

Like so many of the offensive linemen UL was forced to employ this season, Bentley, Williams and even center Andrew Martinez are playing at least a year earlier than the Cajuns’ staff expected, because of losing 10 different linemen to injuries this season.

“It was nice having a couple of weeks off,” Desormeaux said “If we had ended up playing in the championship game, we’d have been without a few pretty key players and would have been a problem.”

Elsewhere on the line, Matt Broussard, Jax Harrington and Kaden Moreau should be ready to go.

“Andrew (Martinez), I thought he played great against Arkansas State, but the Monroe game wasn’t his best game,” Desormeaux said. “But all of those guys have given us everything they’ve got and they’ve all played well in spots.”

The preseason plan was to limit redshirt senior Jax Harrington as much as possible this year, but the injuries didn’t make that possible.

“Jax and Kaden have been battling through injuries all year long and they’re still playing well,” Desormeaux said.

Lunch available

In the regular-season

ﬁnale, UL redshirt sophomore quarterback

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C

THURSDAY, JAN. 1

Orange Bowl (Miami)

James Madison-Oregon winner vs. No. 4

Texas Tech (12-1)

11 a.m., ESPN

Extra point: Red Raiders allowed more than 20 points only once in 2025. Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.)

Alabama-Oklahoma winner vs. No. 1

Indiana (13-0)

3 p.m., ESPN Extra point: Hoosiers have second-most losses ever (715), Bama third-most wins (984). Sugar Bowl (Caesars Superdome) Tulane-Ole Miss winner vs. No. 3 Georgia (12-1)

7 p.m., ESPN Extra point: Bulldogs lost Sugar Bowl to Notre Dame in January, 23-10.

CFP semifinals

THURSDAY, JAN. 8

Fiesta Bowl (Glendale,Ariz.)

6:30 p.m., ESPN

FRIDAY, JAN. 9

Peach Bowl (Atlanta)

6:30 p.m., ESPN

CFP National Championship

MONDAY, JAN. 19 (MIAMI)

6:30 p.m., ESPN

Other bowl games

SATURDAY Celebration Bowl (Atlanta)

South Carolina State (9-3) vs Prairie View (10-3)

11 a.m.,ABC

Extra point: Prairie View has allowed 10 points or less in five of last seven games

PVU, 24-17. LA Bowl (Inglewood,Calif.)

Boise St.(9-4) vs.Washington (8-4)

7 p.m.,ABC

Extra point: Boise State coming off third

straight Mountain West title BSU, 33-29.

Athletic’s playoff simulator, the Panthers would have a 65% chance of making the postseason if they beat the Saints this weekend and only 23% if they lose.

Carolina closes the season with two games against Tampa Bay sandwiched between a matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. That’s meaningful December football.

“We’ve already been eliminated, so why not bring other people with us to sit on the couch and watch the playoffs?” cornerback

Lunch Winﬁeld was replaced by Walker Howard.

Winﬁeld suffered a groin injury during the game and his mobility was severely limited.

All signs point to Winﬁeld starting the bowl game.

“I feel really conﬁdent that he’ll be able to go,” Desormeaux said.

“We haven’t really gotten that far down the road yet. I could certainly see Walker getting in there a little bit, especially is Lunch is a little bit limited

“I’m not sure yet, kind of where we are there.”

Winﬁeld has thrown for 1,324 yards and 10 touchdowns with six interceptions this season, while also rushing for 627 yards and nine scores.

Howard has passed for 155 yards with no touchdowns and three picks, while rushing for 82 yards and a touchdown.

Secondary upgrade

The extra week of practice, getting senior safety Tyree

Skipper back and senior Jalen

Clark getting healthier could all play into UL’s safety position for the bowl game.

“Jalen (Clark) played really well in the last game, which was good to see,” Desormeaux said.

“He’s ﬁnally back to himself a little bit.”

Skipper is the defense’s fourth-leading tackler with 52, while Clark has 42 tackles, two pass breakups and a QB hurry this season.

Along the way redshirt freshman Lake Bates “Has played really well for us,” Desormeaux said.

“(Freshman Steven Ranel) Played well against Arkansas State. He actually had an injury during the week before Monroe and we kind of kept him out a little bit,” both got valuable playing time

“In the moment, it’s really difﬁcult,” Desormeaux said of being shorthanded at safety “But in the long run, when you come through it, you end up a whole lot better off. The same will be true for us on offense. You know, once we get into spring all these guys who have been forced into action really before they were ready, this is going to be a valuable experience.

It’s going to make us a whole lot better as a team.”

Email Kevin Foote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com

TUESDAY Salute to Veterans Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.)

Troy (8-5) vs. Jacksonville State (8-5)

8 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: One of two bowl matchups of in-state rivals (Alabama) JSU, 26-20.

WEDNESDAY Cure Bowl (Orlando, Fla.)

Old Dominion (9-3) vs. South Florida (9-3)

4 p.m., ESPN Extra point: ODU QB Colton Joseph in transfer portal, as did USF coach Alex Golesh (Auburn) USF 28-24.

68 Ventures Bowl (Mobile,Ala.)

UL (6-6) vs. Delaware (6-6)

7:30 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Eighth straight bowl for Cajuns, first for Blue Hens UL, 27-23.

THURSDAY

Xbox Bowl (Frisco,Texas)

Missouri St. (7-5) vs.Arkansas St.(6-6)

8 p.m., ESPN2

Extra point: Game being played at The Star, Dallas Cowboys’ indoor facility MSU, 35-24.

FRIDAY

Myrtle Beach Bowl (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

Kennesaw State (10-3) vs.Western Michigan (9-4)

10 a.m., ESPN

Extra point: WMU top 15 in scoring and total defense WMU 28-14.

Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa, Fla.)

Memphis (8-4) vs. NC State (7-5)

1:30 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Memphis lost four of past six and coach Ryan Silverfield (Arkansas) NCSU, 38-20.

MONDAY, DEC 22

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, Idaho)

Washington State (6-6) vs. Utah State (6-6)

1 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Wazzu lost coach Jimmy Rogers to Iowa State USU 27-22.

TUESDAY, DEC 23

Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, Fla.)

Toledo (8-4) vs. Louisville (8-4)

1 p.m,, ESPN

Alontae Taylor said with a smile. “One of the chips on our shoulder last week was knowing that we could possibly ruin it for Tampa.” Each win of course, hurts the Saints’ draft position. When New Orleans lost to Tampa Bay in their ﬁrst meeting earlier this season, the Oct. 27 loss dropped the team to 1-7 and put them on pace for the No. 1 pick. More than a month later, the Saints would pick fifth if the season ended today And with a favorable schedule on deck the

Saints close with the Jets, Titans and Falcons New Orleans has the potential to drop even lower in the draft order But Moore said he “100%” sees the trade-off as worth it. The Saints have a young team, he said, and they’re focused on developing them. They’ll worry about the draft next year while prioritizing that growth now, Moore said. Consider it another way that the Saints can play spoiler “Just beating a team in general is

a morale (boost) for us,” tight end

Juwan Johnson said. “That gets us into a morale of getting into a win streak, gets us into a morale of winning and stacking something, Kellen feeling good about what he can do and keep building on and what the rest of the guys can build on.

“Secondly yes, it does affect the division. It lets people know we’re not playin’.”

Email Matthew Paras at matt. paras@theadvocate.com

LSU

Continued from page 1C

not even after she left the Bears in 2021, so she could revive LSU’s women’s basketball program. The Tigers faced almost every other Louisiana school from Grambling and UL-Monroe to McNeese and Tulane — in her ﬁrst four seasons, but not the storied program that plays its home games about 200 miles north of Baton Rouge.

“The history of women’s basketball in this state doesn’t belong to LSU,” Mulkey said. “It belongs to Louisiana Tech. (The) Seimone Augustus era was outstanding. Our little ﬁve-year era here is outstanding, but when you take the cumulative history of women’s basketball in this state, go look at what Louisi-

Extra point: Toledo lost its coach and DC to two different schools UL, 34-14.

New Orleans Bowl (Caesars Superdome)

Western Kentucky (8-4) vs. Southern Miss (7-5)

4:30 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: USM went from one to seven wins but lost coach Charles Huff (Memphis) WKU 38-19.

Frisco Bowl (Frisco,Texas)

UNLV (10-3) vs. Ohio (8-4)

8 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Dan Mullen’s UNLV team trying to tie school record for wins UNLV 37-24.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 24

Hawaii Bowl (Honolulu)

California (7-5) vs. Hawaii (8-4)

7 p.m., ESPN Extra point: Cal QB sensation JaronKeawe Sagapolutele is from Oahu UH, 33-32.

FRIDAY, DEC. 26

GameAbove Sports Bowl (Detroit)

Central Mich. (7-5) vs. Northwestern (6-6)

Noon, ESPN

Extra point: Wildcats aiming for sixth

straight bowl win NU 28-10.

Rate Bowl (Phoenix)

New Mexico (9-3) vs. Minnesota (7-5)

3:30 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Golden Gophers have won eight straight bowls, but UNM, 26-24.

First Responder Bowl (Dallas)

Florida International (7-5) vs. UTSA (6-6)

7 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Roadrunners race to a winning record UTSA, 37-24.

SATURDAY, DEC. 27

Military Bowl (Annapolis, Md.)

Pittsburgh (8-4) vs. East Carolina (8-4)

10 a.m., ESPN

Extra point: Tougher team, bigger conference UP 34-27.

Pinstripe Bowl (New York)

Penn State (6-6) vs. Clemson (7-5)

11 a.m.,ABC

Extra point: Penn State was ranked No. 2 in preseason, Clemson No. 4 CU, 23-20. Fenway Bowl (Boston)

ana Tech was able to accomplish.”

The Lady Techsters were a national power under legendary coaches Sonja Hogg and Leon Barmore. Hogg guided them to a pair of national championships and more than 300 wins across nine seasons, then turned the program over to Barmore, who led them to another national title and 11 30-win campaigns. Hogg and Barmore were co-head coaches from 198285. Mulkey almost took over for Barmore in 2000. She had turned down head coaching offers before to stay in Ruston, but when it came time to choose between her alma mater and Baylor, she decided on coaching the Bears. Louisiana Tech, at the time, wouldn’t offer her the ﬁve-year deal — and the extra job security she wanted. Their paths then diverged.

UConn (9-3) vs.Army (6-5)

1:15 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: UConn vying for first 10-win season but without coach Jim Mora Jr (Colorado State) UC, 27-26. Pop-Tarts Bowl (Orlando, Fla.)

Georgia Tech (9-3) vs. ByU (11-2)

2:30 p.m.,ABC

Extra point: This would have been Notre Dame’s bowl if the Irish had not opted out ByU 25-20. Arizona Bowl (Tucson,Ariz.)

Miami, Ohio (7-6) vs. Fresno State (8-4)

3:30 p.m.,The CW Network

Extra point: Snoop Dogg’s name is on this bowl, so go with Bulldogs FSU, 24-19. New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque, N.M.)

North Texas (11-2) vs. San Diego St. (9-3)

4:45 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: North Texas lost AAC final to Tulane to miss CFP Bummer SDSU, 31-29.

Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, Fla.)

Virginia (10-3) vs. Missouri (8-4)

6:30 p.m.,ABC

Extra point: Can Cavaliers contain Mizzou’s Ahmad Hardy? No UM, 22-20. Texas Bowl (Houston) LSU (7-5) vs. Houston (9-3)

8:15 p.m., ESPN

Extra point:Tigers 6-1 in past seven bowls, only loss in 2022Texas Bowl to Kansas State UH,20-16.

MONDAY, DEC. 29

Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham,Ala.)

Ga Southern (6-6) vs.App. State (5-7)

1 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Georgia Southern won regular-season meeting 25-23 GSU, 26-24.

TUESDAY, DEC. 30

Independence Bowl (Shreveport)

Coastal Carolina (6-6) vs. Louisiana Tech (7-5)

1 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Close to home-field advantage for the Bulldogs LT 34-17.

Music City Bowl (Nashville,Tenn.)

Tennessee (8-4) vs. Illinois (8-4)

4:30 p.m., ESPN

Extra point: Expect points aplenty in this

Mulkey won three national titles at Baylor and one at LSU, while Louisiana Tech hasn’t made it back to the Final Four The Lady Techsters haven’t even advanced past the ﬁrst round of the NCAA Tournament since 2004, and they’ve cracked that field of teams only twice in the last 20 seasons. Mulkey, on the other hand, has spent those two decades chasing championships. The fifth of her head coaching career could come as soon as this season — a year that includes a rare matchup with the program that shaped her “I’ve been here ﬁve years now,” Mulkey said, “but your memories last forever, and the memories I have of my 19 years at Louisiana Tech will never dissolve.”

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

one UT, 38-34. Alamo Bowl (San Antonio)

USC (9-3) vs.TCU (8-4)

8 p.m., ESPN Extra point: Trojans’ star WR Makai Lemon among opt outs, still USC, 31-28.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey talks with guard MiLaysia Fulwiley during a timeout in the third quarter of a game against Southeastern on Nov. 6 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

TerryRobinson

MATTERS

Hospice chaplain tellsstory of faith, trauma andrenewal

Don’texpect along readwhen you pick up Gracie Shavell’s ﬁrst book, “Beauty Over Ashes: AMemoir of Love.”

But do expect apowerfulone as the BatonRouge hospice chaplain and Bethany Church member sharesher deeply personal journeyfrom child trauma to her strong faith.

Though concise at amere45 pages, “Beauty Over Ashes” packs apunch, beginning with the impactful opening chapter titled “El Nehekumah: The God Who Gives Comfort.” Shavell quickly takes readers to that fateful day of March 1996, when her mother sufferedwhat turned out to be afatal seizure.

That was also the day that young Shavell showed the instincts that now guide her work with hospice patients

“I vividly remember comforting my older cousins who were in my bedroom awaiting the ﬁnal verdict of my mother’s status,” Shavell writes. “I went to them to comfortthem. I remember hugging them and tellingthemthat ‘Everything is going to be okay.’ It was at that momentthatfour-year-old me acted like acaregiver and the caregiving hasn’tended.”

Shavell’sroad to caregiver wasn’twithout its challenges and pain.

It wasn’tuntil her early teen years that growing up without amother caused Shavell to have bitterness, anger andresentmenttoward God. More family deaths only compounded her resentment.

“As life begantochange for me, the older Ibecame, I battled withhow alovingGod would allow me to go through such an early age,” writes Shavell, anative of Starkville, Mississippi. Her world grew dark. She became rebellious and suicidal. Sheexploreddemonic activities and engaged in “sexual sin.” The trauma of losing her mother so young affected her until she was30, Shavell writes However,through school and street ministry workinNew Orleans, Shavell found purpose and arelationshipwith God though she had grown up in the church —that has remained unwavering.

“My surrender to the Lord on December 31, 2009, was only the beginning of my transformation into being a‘new creation in Christ.’ The more Isurrendered to the Lord, the more my life began to reﬂect that surrender,” Shavell wrote. She devotes the remainder of the book to sharing her spiritual and professionaljourneys, including her entry into social work, her studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological

ä See CHAPLAIN, page 6C

BORN BY THERIVER

Before

howLutcher

BY RICHARD CAMPANELLA

Contributing writer

On Christmas Eve, thousands of people will enjoy the annual spectacle of bonfires on the levee in theSt. James Parish towns of Lutcher and Gramercy

These River Roadcommunities exude asense of history,one in which colonistsfrom France and Germany,aswell as enslaved West Africans and French Acadian refugees, settled over the course of the1700s and created a plantationeconomy still discernible today

Butagriculturedevelopment andtown formation aretwo different processes, and historically alongthe RiverRoad,the latter was rather scarce. Only two sizable townsemerged between Baton Rougeand greater New Orleansbefore theCivil War: Plaquemine and Donaldsonville, both of whichformed at bayous

(Plaquemine and Lafourche) forking off from theMississippi River. Most otherantebellum River Road communities were littlemore than hamlets or enclaves gathered around courthouses, churches or intersections.

This paucity of urbanism may be attributedtothe plantations themselves, which, by forcing and coercing Black families to liveon-site, usurped social forces

BY MADDIE SCOTT

fires along the Mississippi River in Lutcher. | STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

PROVIDED PHOTOByRICHARD CAMPANELLA The former Lyon Cypress Lumber Companyheadquarters in Garyville

Thecaseofthe slippery,sliding salmon

Dear Miss Manners: Ifrequently attend luncheons at which the entree consists of bagels, lox (smoked salmon) and cream cheese. Bagels have grown in size substantially since my childhood. Nowadays, awhole bagel is too much for me, so Icarefully take one half with the tongs provided. Ispread it with creamcheese,then lay a slice or two of lox on top But no matter how carefully or slowly or seemingly thoroughly Ibite into this open-faced sandwich,itisinevitable that theslice of lox slides off the top withmy teeth embedded in it —dangling there, despite the gluey nature of the cream cheese

BONFIRES

Continued from page5C

that otherwise would have spawned nucleated communities. Plantations effectively replaced villages and towns, “providing” everything from housing and food production to light industry and alanding on the river This is why plantations had names —just like towns. Which brings us to Lutcher and Gramercy,the two communitiesmost associated with the bonﬁre tradition, as well as nearby Garyville. None of these incorporated towns existed in antebellum times; rather,they were products of northern industrialists of the Gilded Age who saw lucrative opportunities along the bucolic River Road.

They speak to the fact that much of the blossoming of Louisiana’svillages, towns and smallcities occurred after theCivil War, in what the historian Lawrence N. Powell has describedas “post-emancipation micropolitanization.” That spurtof community formationcame in part from the liberation of enslaved families,asthey moved off former plantations, and in part from out-ofstate industrialists,who saw new investment opportunities in post-bellum Louisiana.

In 1877, Pennsylvaniatimber tycoons Henry Jacob Lutcher and G. Bedell Moore built amill in Orange, Texas, to processcypress trees from the Sabine River basin. In the infamous tactic that would come to be known as “cut and run,” Lutcher and Moore soon depleted this natural resource and sought anew supply elsewhere. They found one 200 miles to the east, in the Maurepas Basin, access to which could be gained by laying railroad tracks along the River Road and digging canal networks into the swamp. In 1889, the Lutcher-Moore Company bought the Chenet Plantation in St. James Parish, and in 1892, established adepot in collaborationwith the Mississippi Valley Railroad. The company then constructed what aPicayune journalist in 1895 described as “the largest and most complete sawmill plant in the state …furnishing the beautiful crimson-heart Pontchartrain cypress to every state in the union, up into Canada.”

In an adjacent parcel, the company laid out “wide, regular streets and shaded avenues lined with pretty and commodious houses,” all with “the air of athriving village,” and named it after cofounder Henry Jacob Lutcher.The quintessential company town, Lutcher became home to over 700 people employed at the ever-growing complex of factories producing lumber,shingles, sashes, doors and blinds. Whilethe workers and theirfamilies gotby, the company andits investors prospered.“If we rich men of Louisiana did not show her wealth of products to the world,” asked Henry Jacob Lutcher,“who would?” As would happen elsewhere in Louisiana, however,the old-growth timber eventually grew scarce and inaccessible. The company shuttered its mill in 1931, leaving residents to return to farming or fur-trapping, else ﬁnd jobs in the emerging oil-processing industry.Today,what remains of

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

This is very unattractive. I cameupwith asolution that works for me: Ihold the bagel in onehand and a fork in theother.Ipress down with the fork near where Itakeeach bite, thus anchoringthe slice of lox. Success! Am Ihorribly off base? Gentle reader: Well, the lox is staying on base, so we are halfway there. Youcould also use adiscreet finger to hold it in place, as long as you find aplace to wash off anylingering fish smell afterward Athird option would be to take thelox off of thebagel and cut it on yourplate —preferably with afish knife —and then return it

to thebagel, matching bite sizes with lox pieces. Butreally,the fork method is acceptable, as long as you do it discreetly —and, Miss Manners warns, as long as you promise not to turn your head too quickly, stabbing yourself in thecheek in theprocess. Dear Miss Manners: Iwonder if there is aproper way to greet people you never speak to, but see all the time, when you suddenly run intothem in an entirely different setting. Irefer to them as the “SNOW” people: those you see regularly at work, school, thegym,church or around the neighborhood, with whom you always exchange a friendly Smile, Nod Or Wave. Then one day,you see them

Lutcher’stimber-townorigins is anumber of oldcompanyhouses, many still occupied,and awood hatchet on thetown logo. As Lutcher grew,competingcompanies also eyed Maurepas timber and surveyed theRiver Road for industrialperches. In 1903, the Illinois-basedLyon Lumber Company acquired the Glencoe, Emilie andHope plantations in St. John the BaptistParish, whichtogether extended deepinto theMaurepas Basin

Claiming it ownedthe ﬁnestcypresstract in the world, the Lyon Cypress Lumber Company built asawmill equal to the task of harvesting it, located five miles downriverfromLutcher

Like itscompetitor,Lyon also built housing forits workers and their families and named the town after its director,John W. Gary Featuring stores, abank, theater,hotel, meeting hall, church and three trainstations, Garyville exempliﬁed the planned company town andrather quickly surpassed athousand residents. But as would happen in Lutcher,the boom soon turnedtobust. After Lyon’s cypress stands wereall felled by 1915, the company switched to harvestingyellowpine on the northern side of the Maurepas Basin, where it established another company town called Livingston.

As the pine began to dwindle, aseries of fires destroyedstacks of stored lumber,furtherundercutting profits. Operations ceased on both sides of the lake in 1931, same year as in Lutcher,and today,all that remains of Garyville’s raison d’êtreisthe oldLyon Lumber Company headquarters, recently amuseum. As Pennsylvaniaindustrialists established Lutcher and gaveitaGerman name, and as Illinois magnates founded Garyville and gave it an Anglo name, New York tycoonsestablished another industrial town in between and named it after,ofall things, their tonyManhattan neighborhood. Their firm, Colonial Sugars, specialized in building centralized rail-linked sugar plants to replace thesmall plantation-based mills from antebellumtimes.They teamed with the Illinois Central Railroad, which ran its trains on the Yazoo&MississippiValley tracksthrough the sugar parishes from Baton Rouge down to New Orleans In 1894, Illinois Central executives acquiredthe Golden Grove Plantation in St.James Parish and collaborated with Colonial Sugars in building amodernsugar plant to process caneraised on regional plantations.Because thepresident andvice president of Illinois Central —bothofwhom were majorstockholders in Colonial Sugars —lived in Manhattan’sGramercy Park, they named their Louisiana investment after their faraway urban neighborhood. In 1902, Colonial Sug-

RICHARD CAMPANELLA

ars greatlyexpanded its Gramercy operation by openinga full-scale refinery to granulate sugar for nationaldistribution, for whichitbuilt workerhousing, aschool, churchand recreational facilities. As Gramercy grew, the refinery changed hands, becoming the Cuban-American SugarCompany, Savannah Foods and Industry and Imperial Sugar Now jointly operated by Cargill and LouisianaSugar Growersand Reﬁners, Inc., the Gramercy plantisnow second in size to the Domino reﬁnery in St. Bernard Parish—which, incidentally, played asimilar role in catalyzing Arabiand Chalmette followingits opening in 1912. Unlike the long-gone timber mills of itsneighbors, Gramercy’sraisond’être still dominates the townscape and remains an important part of the local economy

The stories of Lutcher, Gramercy andGaryville, nowhome to over 8,000 people,servetoremind that River Road historical narratives often tend to elide thegritty circa-1900 industrialperiod, emphasizing instead the antebellum plantation era.

The communitiesofAvondale, Norco, Reserve and White Castle also trace their origins to industry (shipbuilding, oil processing, sugarprocessing and timber milling), while Plaquemine, establishedin1819 as a transshipment point, reinvented itself in the 1890s by also becoming atimber town

Thelate-1800speriodof “micropolitanization” (town formation)also demonstrates that industryalong the RiverRoad did not begin withthe modern petrochemical sector,but rather with prior investments in railroads,electriﬁcation, mass production andnationalization of consumer markets.

Likethe petrochemical plantsoftoday,these past industries also had their share of environmentalimpacts. Next time you ﬂy outofMSY, look westwardtowardPass Manchac and theMaurepas Swamp. Youcan still see the hub-and-spoke patterns of the timber-extraction canals, amid amorass of secondgrown vegetation and the occasional stump. Cut and run. Industry-drivenmicropolitanizationmay nottell a particularly romanticstory nor is it as poignant as the antebellum plantations or as spectacular as the Christmas bonﬁres.But it is amajor partofour history and geography,alongthe River Road and statewide.

RichardCampanella, ageographer with the Tulane School of Architectureand Built Environment,isthe author of “Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Conﬂuences: Origins of Louisiana Cities, Towns, and Villages”; “Draining New Orleans”; “Bourbon Street: AHistory”; and other books fromLSU Press. He may be reached at richcampanella.com, rcampane@tulane.edu, or @nolacampanella on X.

at the supermarket. Your initial reaction is surprise (as if they don’texist outside the sphere you know them from), followed by joy and adesire to embrace them like along-lost friend …until you recover your senses and realize, with acute embarrassment, that you don’teven know their ﬁrst name!

It seems silly to say,“What are you doing here?” since the answer is obvious, but to ignore them seems equally rude. Do you exchange another friendly SNOW greeting andmove on? Or does etiquette require actually speaking to them —for perhaps the ﬁrst time ever?

Gentlereader: Another friendly SNOW. This necessitates, however,athird reaction in your reper-

St. Luke’shosts LongestNight Service

St. Luke’sEpiscopal Church, 8833 Goodwood Blvd., Baton Rouge, invites the community to its annual LongestNight Service on Dec. 21, at 6p.m. in Witter Hall. This service is designed for anyone grieving, struggling, or feeling overwhelmed during the holiday season.Often referred to as a“Blue Christmas” service, it offers space for reﬂection, comfort,and hope, regardlessofone’schurch background.

Gentle hymns, candle

By The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2025. There are 18 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On Dec. 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in ahole under afarmhouse in Adwar,Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit

Also on this date:

In 1862, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside launched failed frontal assaults against entrenched Confederate soldiers during theCivil WarBattle of Fredericksburg; thesoundly defeated Northern troops withdrew two days later after suffering heavy casualties.

In 1937, during theSecond Sino-Japanese War, Japanese soldiers captured theChinese cityofNanjing and began what would be aweekslong massacre of an estimated 200,000 to

CHAPLAIN

Continuedfrom page5C

Seminary,her work in various ministriesand her eventualcalling intochaplaincy Each of the ﬁrst seven chaptersistitled witha

toire, which is asomewhat deﬂated, but still polite, realization that you are only acquaintances. The person will likely mirror your reaction and be similarly content to movealong.

But if you are ready to transition to afull-on greeting and nameexchange, Miss Manners assures you that that is an option —provided you are able to muster mutual consent from the other party

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

RELIGION BRIEFS

FROM STAFFREPORTS

lighting, and stillness invite participants to honor loss,seekpeace, andremember thathoperemains,even during life’s darkest seasons. All are welcome.

Downtown Christmas Pilgrimage returns

The annual Downtown Christmas Pilgrimage returns on Dec. 23, offering afestive walking tour of several downtown Baton Rouge churches. At each stop, guests will enjoy seasonal music presented by the host congregation. The evening begins with

TODAYINHISTORY

300,000 citizens, warprisoners and soldiers.

In 1996, the U.N. Security Council chose Koﬁ Annan of Ghana to become the world body’sseventh secretary-general.

In 2000, Republican George W. Bush claimed the presidency aday after the U.S. SupremeCourt shut downfurther recounts of disputed ballots in Florida; Democrat Al Gore conceded, delivering acall fornational unity

In 2001, the Pentagon publicly released acaptured videotape of Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaida leader said the deaths and destruction achieved by the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded his “most optimistic” expectations.

In 2019, the House Judiciary Committee approved twoarticles of impeachmentaccusing President Donald Trumpofabuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction

name of God, culminating in Chapter 7: “Yeshua, Lord of My Salvation.” Shavell pauses to offer an invitation to salvation for readers searching for hope.

She then closes the book with awisdom-packed bonus chapter titled, “What IWish They Would Have

of Congress in the investigation that followed. He would later be acquitted by the Senate.

In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Respect forMarriage Act providing federal recognition and protection forsame-sex and interracial marriages, calling it “a blow against hate in all its forms.”

Today’sbirthdays: Actorcomedian DickVan Dyke is 100. Music/ﬁlm producer Lou Adler is 92. SingerTV host John Davidson is 84. Baseball Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins is 83. Rock musician Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is 77. Rock musician TedNugent is 77. Country singer-musician Randy Owen (Alabama) is 76. Actor Wendie Malick is 75. Country musician John Anderson is 71. Actor Steve Buscemi is 68. Singer-actor Morris Dayis 68. Football Hall of Famer Richard Dent is 65. Actorcomedian Jamie Foxx is 58.

Told Me.” An inspiring memoir, “Beauty Over Ashes” reminds readers that God can indeed bring beauty from ashes.

Contact Terry Robinsonat terryrobinson622@gmail. com.

PROVIDED PHOTO By

Sugar mill in Gramercy

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Let your charm lead the way, and you'll dazzle. Focus on personal gain, growth and quality of life. Your confident attitude will make onlookers gravitate toward you.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) A change in routine or pastimes will broaden your outlook and encourage you to get out and meet interesting people. Check out what's available in your community, and personal growth will sprout.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Mental and physical interaction will encourage you to share your thoughts and strive for a richer, fuller everyday routine Improve your life without spending money.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Take a step back and a moment to recognize what's working for you and what isn't. Distance yourself from takers and people who drain and deplete you mentally, physically and financially.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Pay attention, nurture meaningful relationships and update your appeal and pastimes to suit your mood and schedule. Change begins with you. Take the initiative and don't look back.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Homeimprovements and open discussions with loved ones will pave the way to a better environment. Honesty is necessary if you want to reach common ground.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Beonthelookout for opportunities. Make a difference by donating your time and offering your

skills, knowledge and experience to a cause that motivates you.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Take a serious look at what you've accomplished and what's left undone. Thoughts followed by actions will lead to new beginnings; they're never easy, but they're always rewarding.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Socializing will be a blast if you stick to what you can afford and handle. Indulgence may tempt you, but the best results will come from dedicating your time, patience and expenses to something that makes you feel good.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Take a moment to rejuvenate. Consider what's working for you and let go of what isn't. It's time to explore the possibilities, make changes and fulfill your long-term desires.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Travel, consider options and initiate change. Don't rely on others or settle for living someone else's dream. Be the master of your destiny.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) A change of scenery will alter your perspective and help you explore your dreams from various angles. Realizing that you don't need to overspend or indulge to be happy will help you pay off debt and ease stress.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

FAMILY CIrCUS

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

TODAy'S CLUE: K EQUALS B

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

And erneSt

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon

bIG

Sudoku

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

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

nea CroSSwordS La TimeS CroSSword

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER

After the opener bidsone of asuitand the next player makes atakeout double, if the responder redoubles, it shows at least 10 high-card points and often a desire to try to penalize the opponents. So, if fourth hand (the advancer) bids a suit, the opener (unless he can double with length there) typically passes to give his partner achance to double.

In contrast, what does it mean if the opener bids immediately, in front of his partner?

The answer is that the opener has a minimum or subminimum opening bid with offensive, not defensive, values. An example is theNorth hand in the diagram. He has only 11 high-card points and ahand that is built for declarer play, not defense. South, atad disappointed, signs offinthree no-trump.

West leads the heartthree, and East putsinthe eight.After winning withhis king, how should declarer proceed?

Southstartswith only five top tricks: onespade,twoheartsandtwodiamonds. However, he can hope to win at least six diamondtricks,ifnotseven.Buthemust be careful not to play adiamond to dummy’s jack. Then he would fall foul of the foul 4-0 split

Instead,declarer must finessedummy’s nine on thefirst round. Here, he ends with 11 tricks: onespade, two hearts,sevendiamondsandoneclub.But even if East could take the first diamond trick, the contract wouldbesafe. Finally, notethat many expertsplay an immediate jump rebid by opener also indicates abare11or12points,witha hand having even more winnersand scant defensive values. ©2025 by NEA,Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

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

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIOns: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3 Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit wordsare not allowed tODAY’s WORD OARsMEn: ORZ-men: Thosewho row, especially in aracing crew.

Average mark37words Timelimit 60 minutes Can you find 51 or morewords in OARSMEN?

YEstERDAY’s WORD —ADMIRER

media mire

rearm ride rider rime emir