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Trump touts first year In speech, president pledges $1,776 bonuses for military

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AI firm to use W. Feliciana data center Parish expects job growth from 600-acre project

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL and IANNE SALVOSA Staff writers

NEW yORK TIMES PHOTO By DOUG MILLS

President Donald Trump speaks during an address to the nation from the White House on Wednesday.

By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump delivered a politically charged speech Wednesday carried live in prime time on network television, seeking to pin the blame for economic challenges on Democrats while announcing he is sending a $1,776 bonus check to U.S. troops for Christmas.

The remarks came as the nation is preparing to settle down to celebrate the holidays, yet Trump was focused more on divisions within the country than a sense of unity. His speech was a rehash of his recent messaging that has so far been unable to calm public anxiety about the cost of groceries, housing, utilities and other basic

goods.

Trump has promised an economic boom, yet inflation has stayed elevated and the job market has weakened sharply in the wake of his import taxes. Trump suggested that his tariffs — which are partly responsible for boosting consumer prices — would fund a new “warrior dividend” for 1.45 million military members, a payment that could ease some of the financial strains for many households. “The checks are already on the way,” he said.

“We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along,” Trump said, referring to the GOP’s major tax cuts legislation it passed earlier this year. “Nobody deserves it more than

our military, and I say congratulations.”

Presidential addresses to the nation carried on network television are traditionally less partisan than rally speeches, but Trump gave a condensed version of his usual political remarks.

Flanked by two Christmas trees with a portrait of George Washington behind him in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room, Trump sought to pin any worries about high inflation on his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said.

His holiday wishes came at a crucial

ä See TRUMP, page 7A

The company building an AI data center in West Feliciana Parish said early Wednesday that Anthropic, whose Claude chatbot is a rival to Chat GPT, has signed a long-term deal to use the facility, marking the second mega tech company to set up an AI data center in Louisiana in the past year.

In a release Wednesday, Miami-based Hut 8 said it is partnering with Anthropic and another company, Fluidstack, to deliver AI data center infrastructure — power and equipment — over several years at the 600-acre River Bend campus, which is just south of St. Francisville.

Hut 8 said it has signed a 15-year, $7 billion deal with Fluidstack to provide AI data center capacity to Anthropic.

In a related announcement, Hut 8 said Google is backstopping the Fluidstack lease, essentially guaranteeing that if Fluidstack defaults, Google will step in and take over.

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation that does research and development on artificial intelligence and has created the Claude family of large language models.

Fluidstack is a New York startup that develops and operates the tech side of AI data centers.

Hut 8 is a publicly traded company that handles the real estate and financial side of AI data center developments.

The first phase of the project will encompass 600,000 square feet of data center space on a 611-acre campus and provide 330 megawatts of power from a related power substation already under construction just south of La. 964.

It is expected to create 1,500 construction jobs, according to West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard.

When completed, the center is expected to create about 100 permanent jobs. Under the

ä See CENTER, page 8A

Pennington director to step down in latest LSU system change

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

John Kirwan will step down as Pennington Biomedical Research Center’s executive director when his contract ends Dec. 31, as leadership changes continue to ripple through the LSU system.

A scholar of obesity, diabetes and nutrition research, Kirwan directed the research center in Baton Rouge for eight years. The end of his tenure comes days after the LSU Board of Supervisors and system President Wade Rousse overhauled the structure of the public university system, making it so the heads of several specialized

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research units, including Pennington, are renamed “senior vice chancellor” and report to Executive Vice President and flagship Chancellor James Dalton.

Previously, those leaders reported to the LSU president, but the board last month split that job into two positions.

“As LSU welcomes new leadership under President Wade Rousse and Chancellor Jim Dalton, this is a natural moment for Pennington Biomedical to welcome fresh perspectives as well,” Kirwan wrote in a letter sent to employees Friday. “I’m committed to ensuring a seamless transition.”

Jennifer Rood will serve as interim executive director. An international search to fill the role will begin in early 2026.

This year, Pennington surpassed $100 million in annual revenue for the first time in its history, according to the letter.

“I’m deeply proud of what we’ve built together,” Kirwan wrote. “Because of this transformation, Pennington Biomedical is well-positioned for continued growth and impact on an upward trajectory that will serve Louisiana for decades to come.”

Dalton visited Pennington and held a forum with employees on Monday, according to spokesperson Ernie Ballard. In an email sent to employees after his visit, he said Kirwan will

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

John Kirwan is stepping down after eight years as the executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research ä See DIRECTOR, page 8A Center.

Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................6D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-5D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C

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Isaacman confirmed as NASA administrator

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday confirmed billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator on Wednesday, placing him atop the agency after a monthslong saga where President Donald Trump revoked his nomination as part of a feud with tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Isaacman, who has promised to bring a business-minded approach to the space agency, Isaacman was confirmed in a bipartisan vote, 67-30.

He will take over after an unusual confirmation process upended by the Republican president’s oscillating and at times tumultuous relationship with prominent tech leaders who backed his campaign, most notably Musk, the Tesla CEO who is a close ally of Isaacman.

Trump picked Isaacman last year but withdrew the nomination in May after feuding with Musk over the administration’s policies on issues such as electric vehicles and the performance of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Energy watchdog will audit cuts of grants An internal watchdog in the U.S. Department of Energy will investigate the Trump administration’s termination of $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects across 16 states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

The move is especially welcome for Democrats who said that the cuts — part of broader attacks from President Donald Trump on climate programs and clean energy funding — would slash projects boosting the electric grid, threaten thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs, and send Americans’ energy costs soaring.

Sarah Nelson, assistant inspector general for the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General, said in a letter to members of Congress on Wednesday that the audit of the canceled funds will review “whether those cancellations were in accordance with established criteria.”

In October, the Energy Department announced that 321 funding awards across 223 projects were terminated, saying that after review, they “did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.”

Doctor sentenced in Perry overdose death LOS ANGELES — A doctor who pleaded guilty in a scheme to supply ketamine to actor Matthew Perry before his overdose death was sentenced Tuesday to eight months of home confinement.

Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence that included three years of supervised release to Mark Chavez in a federal courtroom.

Chavez, 55, acquired ketamine and gave it to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who was sentenced to 2½ years in prison earlier this month for selling ketamine to Perry in the months leading up to his death.

Chavez’s attorneys emphasized the difference between the two doctors and said that Chavez “accepted responsibility early” by cooperating with investigators and voluntarily giving up his medical license ahead of his detention hearing.

Perry had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally as a treatment for depression. But when his regular doctor wouldn’t provide it in the amounts he wanted, he turned to Plasencia.

Plasencia texted Chavez that Perry was a “moron” who could be exploited for money, according to court filings.

Chavez admitted to obtaining the ketamine from a wholesale distributor on false pretenses and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He has not been in custody.

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FBI’s Bongino says he will resign

BY ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

WASHINGTON — FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he will resign from the bureau next month, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and was forced to reconcile the realities of his law enforcement job with provocative claims he made in his prior role as a popular podcast host.

Bongino announced his departure, which had been expected, in a post on X. in which he said he was grateful for the “opportunity to serve with purpose.” He did not reveal his future plans, but Presi-

dent Donald Trump, in response to a question earlier in the day about Bongino’s fate, said: “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”

Bongino was installed in the role in March by Trump after years as a conservative podcast host, where he used his platform to repeatedly rail against FBI leadership and to encourage conspiracy theories related to the Epstein sex-trafficking case and pipe bombs discovered in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Once in the job, he used social media to communicate directly to Trump supporters restless over a perceived lack of action by the new FBI leadership to address their concerns. He reassured them the FBI under his watch was giv-

ing renewed attention to issues like the pipe bomb case, the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion in 2022 and the discovery of cocaine in the White House during the Biden administration.

Yet he struggled to placate elements of Trump’s base who expected him to quickly deliver the reform he had long said was needed at the FBI and to uncover the truths he claimed had been hidden by the federal government.

On the Epstein case, for instance, he had previously challenged the official ruling that the wealthy financier had taken his own life in a New York jail soon after his 2019 arrest. But after his arrival in the bureau, he said in a Fox News interview: “I’ve seen the whole file.

He killed himself.”

Bongino had separately speculated as recently as last year that the pipe bombs placed on the eve of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were an “inside job.” He was presented with those same comments when the FBI earlier this month arrested a 30-yearold Virginia man with no evident connection to the federal government, promoting skepticism from some that investigators had actually arrested the right person.

“I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions, that’s clear,” Bongino said in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. “And one day, I’ll be back in that space but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director and we base investigations on facts.”

Guard deployment in D.C. can continue for now

BY GARY FIELDS Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the National Guard deployment in the nation’s capital can continue for now, staying a lower-court ruling that had ordered an end to the troops’ presence.

The three-judge panel for U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Donald Trump may prevail in his argument that the president “possesses a unique power” to mobilize the Guard in Washington, which is a federal district.

The ruling stops the implementation of U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb’s Nov. 20 opinion and order, and reaffirms that residents and visitors to Washington will routinely see Guard members well into 2026.

Cobb had ruled that the deployment illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct law enforcement in the District of Columbia.

Wednesday’s unanimous 32-page ruling went on to say that other factors also favored the Republican administration, including the “disruption to the lives of thousands of service members,” as well as what it said was the president’s interest “in the protection of federal governmental functions and property within the Nation’s capital.”

The judges found that the district “has not identified any ongoing injury to its statutory interests.”

The ruling acknowledged that the administration has a strong case for its appeal.

The deployment began in August after Trump issued an executive

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By RAHMAT GUL

National Guard members patrol on the Mall near the Capitol in Washington on Dec. 11. order declaring a crime emergency in Washington. Within a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling the city under the command of the Army secretary. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist.

The city’s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, sued to challenge the Guard deployments. He asked that the White House be barred from deploying Guard troops without the mayor’s consent while the lawsuit played out.

A spokesperson with Schwalb’s office said the stay was a “prelimi-

nary ruling that does not resolve the merits.”

In a posting on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the ruling, saying, “Our federal surge in D.C. has saved countless lives, removed hundreds of illegal guns off the streets, and led to a dramatic drop in crime in our nation’s capital city.”

Cobb had found that while the president did have authority to protect federal functions and property, he could not unilaterally deploy the D.C. National Guard to help with crime control as he saw fit or call in troops from other states. She called for the troops to

Survey: Teen drug use remains low

BY MIKE STOBBE Associated Press

NEW YORK — Teen use of alcohol, nicotine and marijuana remains at record lows, according to national survey results released Wednesday.

They consume a lot of energy drinks, though. And there are slight, but concerning, increases in heroin and cocaine use.

But overall, the findings indicate teens are drinking, smoking and using substances at much lower rates than in the past.

Two-thirds of 12th graders this year said they hadn’t used alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes or electronic cigarettes in the previous 30 days. Thirty years ago — before the advent of e-cigarettes — the figure was closer to about one-third.

Among 10th graders, 82% said they hadn’t used any of those substances recently. Among eighth graders, 91% didn’t use any of them. Both are records for those ages in the annual survey.

The findings also seem to echo other surveys that show continued declines in teen sexual activity, which experts say is at least partly due to teens connecting through smartphones and social media instead of in person.

“Online connections don’t create the same opportunities for experimenting with sex, alcohol or marijuana as unsupervised time face-to-face,” said Laura Lindberg, a Rutgers University professor who researches adolescent sexual behavior.

Douglas Smith, a University of Illinois researcher, noted earlier generations seemed more likely to “go to the woods and drink, or go to a party where there were no parents” to socialize. “Now teenagers can be in constant communication with their friends and can live a life with their friends in virtual space — without using substances,” Smith added.

The new results come from the federally funded Monitoring the Future survey, run by the University of Michigan. The annual survey has been operating since

1975 and has long been considered a top source of national data on teen substance abuse. This year’s findings are based on responses from about 24,000 students in grades 8, 10 and 12 in schools across the country. It was conducted from February to June this year.

Teen drug use has been gradually declining for decades, and fell dramatically at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when students across the country were told not to go to schools and to avoid parties or other gatherings.

Experts expected at least a bit of a rebound as pandemic restrictions eased, but that hasn’t happened.

The 2025 results show no increases in teens’ use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes or nicotine vapes in any of the three grade levels. In 2024, researchers had noted an uptick in the use of nicotine pouches, but that too held steady this year, the survey found.

Energy drinks are as popular as ever, with daily consumption reported by 23% of 12th graders, 20% of 10th graders and 18% of eighth graders.

The survey also found a striking increase in heroin use.

Use by 12th graders in the previous 12 months rose to 0.9% in 2025, from 0.2% the year before. Use by 10th graders hit 0.5%, up from 0.1%. And use by eighth graders also rose to 0.5%, up from 0.2%.

Cocaine use held steady for 10th graders, but rose for eighth graders — to 0.6% — and 12th graders — to 1.4%.

Teen heroin and cocaine use are “leagues below what they were decades ago,” but the increases warrant close monitoring, said Richard Miech, survey team lead at the University of Michigan.

There are other possible factors for the overall decline in teen substance use: efforts to curb youth vaping, taxes on some substances, and the fact that teenagers are less likely to drive than in the past.

“Adolescents’ lives are complicated, and these changes don’t have a single explanation,” Lindberg said in an email.

be sent home after her ruling but put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the appeal by the administration.

The appeals court issued an administrative stay of Cobb’s ruling Dec. 4. Wednesday’s action lifts that order.

The court action comes three weeks after two members of the West Virginia National Guard were ambushed as they patrolled a subway station three blocks from the White House.

The administration has called for an additional 500 National Guard members to be deployed to Washington as a result of the shooting.

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Centrists force House vote on ACA subsidies

BY KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Four centrist Republicans broke with Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday and signed onto a Democratic-led petition that will force a House vote on extending for three years an enhanced pandemic-era subsidy that lowers health insurance costs for millions of Americans.

The stunning move comes after House Republican leaders pushed ahead with a health care bill that does not address the soaring monthly premiums that millions of people will soon endure when the tax credits for those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year’s end. The action sets the stage for a renewed intraparty clash over health care in January, something Republican leaders had been working to avoid, just weeks before another government funding deadline at the end of that month.

The moderate Republicans were able to force the issue by signing a petition, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.,

to vote on a bill that would extend the subsides for three years.

Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie, all from Pennsylvania, and Mike Lawler of New York signed on Wednesday morning, pushing it to the magic number. A vote on the subsidy bill could come as soon as January under House rules.

“Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

Johnson told reporters Wednesday that “I have not lost control of Johnson the House” and he noted that Republicans have a razor-thin majority that allows a small number of members to employ procedures that would not usually be successful in getting around leadership.

“These are not normal times,” said Johnson, R-Benton.

The revolt against GOP leadership came after days of talks cen-

tered on the health care subsidies.

Johnson had discussed allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on bills that would temporarily extend the subsidies while also adding changes such as income caps for beneficiaries. But after days of discussions, the leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the party’s conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed marketplace through the ACA, which is widely known as “Obamacare.”

House Republicans pushed ahead Wednesday on a 100-pluspage health care package without the subsidies. Instead, the measure focused on long-sought GOP proposals designed to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the selfemployed. The bill passed on a mostly party-line vote of 216-211.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined with Democrats in voting against the measure.

Fitzpatrick and Lawler tried to add a temporary extension of the subsidies to the bill, but were denied.

Lawler, in a social media post, similarly said that “the failure of leadership” to permit a vote had left him with “no choice” but to sign the petition. He urged Johnson to bring the plan up for an immediate floor vote.

Jeffries, for several weeks, had called on Republicans to sign his discharge petition. He particularly challenged Republicans in competitive congressional districts to join the effort if they really wanted to prevent premium increases for their constituents.

The GOP holds a 220-213 majority in the House, which means defections from just a sliver of the conference can upend leadership’s plans. Johnson has been able to negotiate that challenge largely by making accommodations to the more conservative wing of his conference. This time, it was the moderates who revolted.

The defectors largely represent districts that Democrats have targeted in their bid to retake the majority, with Democrats promising to make health insurance costs a central issue in next year’s midterms.

Even if the Democrats’ subsidy bill were to pass the House, which is far from assured, it would face an arduous climb in the Republican-led Senate.

Republicans last week voted down a three-year extension of the subsidies and proposed an alternative that also failed. But in an encouraging sign for Democrats, four Republican senators crossed party lines to support their proposal.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued against the Democratic extension as “an attempt to disguise the real impact of Obamacare’s spiraling health care costs.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that the 218th signature for the Democrats’ bill showed that the demand from the American people for an extension is undeniable, but “the damage has now been done, no matter what happens.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said leadership would continue to have discussions with members “about a few different options.”

Senate passes $901B defense bill that pushes for boat strike video

BY STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Senate gave final passage Wednesday to an annual military policy bill that will authorize $901 billion in defense programs while pressuring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide lawmakers with video of strikes on alleged drug boats in international water near Venezuela.

The annual National Defense Authorization Act, which raises troop pay by 3.8%, gained bipartisan backing as it moved through Congress. It passed the Senate on a 7720 vote before lawmakers planned to leave Washington for a holiday break. Two Republicans — Sens.

Rand Paul and Mike Lee — and 18 Democrats voted against the bill.

The White House has indicated that it is in line with President Donald Trump’s national security priorities. However, the legislation, which ran over 3,000 pages, revealed some points of friction

between Congress and the Pentagon as the Trump administration reorients its focus away from security in Europe and toward Central and South America.

The bill pushes back on recent moves by the Pentagon. It demands more information on boat strikes in the Caribbean, requires that the U.S. keep its troop levels in Europe at current levels and sends some military aid to Ukraine.

But overall, the bill represents a compromise between the parties.

It implements many of Trump’s executive orders and proposals on eliminating diversity and inclusion efforts in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S. border with Mexico. It also enhances congressional oversight of the Department of Defense and seeks to overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the U.S. tries to outpace China in developing the next generation of military technology.

“We’re about to pass, and the

president will enthusiastically sign, the most sweeping upgrades to DoD’s business practices in 60 years,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Congress also is writing a closing chapter to the war in Iraq by repealing the authorization for the 2003 invasion. Now that Iraq is a strategic partner of the U.S., lawmakers in support of the provision say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses. The bill also repeals the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War. Still, the sprawling bill did face objections from both Democratic and Republican leadership on the Senate Commerce Committee and the head of the National Transportation Safety Board. That’s because the legislation could allow military aircraft to obtain a waiver to operate without broadcasting their precise location, as an Army helicopter had done before a midair collision with an airliner over

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Washington, D.C., in January that killed 67 people.

To address those concerns, the Senate advanced a bill to require all military and civilian aircraft to broadcast their locations. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the tragedy might have been avoided had the Black Hawk been broadcasting its location before the crash.

That bill will now go to the House. Cruz said the White House supports it.

Republicans and Democrats agreed to language in the defense bill that threatened to withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget until he provided unedited video of the strikes, as well as the orders authorizing them, to the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services.

Hegseth was on Capitol Hill Tuesday ahead of the bill’s passage to brief lawmakers on the U.S. military campaign in inter-

national water near Venezuela.

The briefing elicited contrasting responses from many lawmakers, with Republicans largely backing the campaign and Democrats expressing concern about it and saying they had not received enough information.

The committees are investigating a Sept. 2 strike — the first of the campaign — that killed two people who had survived an initial attack on their boat. The Navy admiral who ordered the “doubletap” strike, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, also appeared before the committees shortly before the vote Wednesday in a classified briefing that also included video of the strike in question.

Several Republican senators emerged from the meeting backing Hegseth and his decision not to release the video publicly, but other GOP lawmakers stayed silent on their opinion of the strike.

Democrats are calling for part of the video to be released publicly.

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Reiners’ son appears in court on murder charges

BY ANDREW DALTON and CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Nick Reiner made his first court appearance Wednesday in Los Angeles on two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents, actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner.

Nick Reiner, 32, did not enter a plea as he appeared from behind glass in a custody area. He was in shackles and wearing a blue, padded suicide prevention smock used in jail.

His arraignment was postponed until Jan. 7 at his at- N. Reiner torney’s request.

He spoke only to say “yes, your honor” to agree to the date. He is being held without bail.

His older brother Jake Reiner and younger sister Romy Reiner released their statement through a family spokesperson.

“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” they said. “The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”

The brother and sister said they are “grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life. We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”

Also Wednesday, the L.A. County Medical Examiner listed the primary cause of death for both Rob and Michele Reiner as “multiple sharp force injuries” as the office released its investigators’ initial findings.

The office said more investigation is needed before further details will be revealed, but the bodies can now be released to the family.

The cause of death was consistent with police describing the couple as having stab wounds.

After the court hearing, Nick Reiner’s attorney, Alan Jackson, said the proceedings will be very complex and asked that the circumstances be met “not with a rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions.”

Jackson has not addressed the guilt or innocence of his client.

Nick Reiner was charged Tuesday with killing Rob Reiner, 78,

and Michele Singer Reiner, 70.

They were killed sometime in the early morning hours of Sunday, the District Attorney’s Office said. They were found dead late in the afternoon in their home in Los Angeles, authorities said.

The two counts of first-degree murder come with special circumstances of multiple murders and an allegation that the defendant used a dangerous weapon, a knife. The additions could mean a greater sentence.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Tuesday that his office has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Rob Reiner was the Emmywinning star of the sitcom “All in the Family” who went on to direct films including “When Harry Met Sally …,” whose star Meg Ryan paid tribute to the Reiners on Wednesday.

“Thank you, Rob and Michelle,

for the way you believe in true love, in fairy tales, and in laughter. Thank you for your faith in the best in people, and for your profound love of our country,” Ryan said in an Instagram post. “I have to believe that their story will not end with this impossible tragedy.”

Rob Reiner met Michele Singer Reiner during the shooting of the classic rom-com, and he said the meeting inspired him to change the film to have a happy ending.

Ryan’s co-star Billy Crystal, a close friend of Rob Reiner for decades, was part of a group that also included Albert Brooks, Martin Short and Larry David that released a statement mourning and celebrating the couple Tuesday night.

“They were a special force together — dynamic, unselfish and inspiring,” the statement said.

“We were their friends, and we will miss them forever.”

Smith says team developed proof of 2020 Trump conspiracy

BY ERIC TUCKER and LISA MASCARO Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump had criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Smith also said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” Trump broke the law by Smith hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

He said that if asked whether he would “pros-

ecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”

The deposition before the House Judiciary Committee gave lawmakers of both parties their first chance, albeit in private, to question Smith about a pair of investigations into Trump that resulted in since-abandoned criminal charges between the Republican president’s first and second terms in office. Smith was subpoenaed by the Republican-led committee this month to provide testimony and documents as part of a GOP investigation into the Trump inquiries during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

The former special counsel cooperated with the congressional demand, though his lawyers noted that he had been volunteered more than a month before the subpoena was issued to answer questions publicly before the committee — an overture they said was rebuffed

by Republicans. Trump had told reporters that he supported the idea of an open hearing.

“Testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage in light of the remarkable and unprecedented retribution campaign against him by this administration and this

White House,” Smith lawyer Lanny Breuer told reporters. “Let’s be clear: Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law and nothing more.”

Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden and Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations but abandoned the cases after Trump was elected to the White House last year, citing Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.

Multiple prior Justice Department special counsels, including Robert Mueller, have testified publicly but Smith was summoned for just a private interview.

Several Democrats who emerged from Smith’s interview said they could understand why Republicans did not want an open hearing based on the damaging testimony about Trump they said Smith offered.

The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said the Republican majority “made an excellent decision” in not allowing Jack Smith to testify publicly “because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating

to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities” of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Democrats are demanding that Smith’s testimony be made public, along with his full report on the investigation.

“The American people should hear for themselves,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, DN.Y. The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, told reporters, “I think we’ve learned some interesting things.” He declined to discuss what was being said in the room, but reiterated his position about the investigations. “It’s political,” he said.

Smith’s interview is unfolding against the backdrop of a broader retribution campaign by the Trump administration against former officials involved in investigating Trump and his allies.

The Office of Special Counsel, an independent political watchdog, said in August

that it was investigating Smith, and the White House issued a presidential memorandum this year aimed at suspending security clearances of lawyers at the law firm that provided legal services to Smith.

The deposition also comes as Republicans in Congress, aided by current FBI leadership, look to undermine the investigations into Trump through the selective release of emails and other documents.

In recent weeks they have seized on revelations that the team, as part of its investigation, had analyzed the phone records of select GOP lawmakers from on and around the Capitol siege, when proTrump rioters stormed the building to try to halt the certification of Trump’s election loss to Biden.

The records reviewed by prosecutors included details only about the incoming and outgoing phone numbers and the length of the call but not the contents of the conversation. Smith’s lawyers

have said Republicans have mischaracterized the phone record analysis and implied something sinister about a routine investigative tactic.

On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a batch of internal FBI emails leading up to the August 2022 search of Mara-Lago. In one email, written weeks before the search, an agent wrote that the FBI’s Washington field office did not believe that probable cause existed to search the property.

But Republicans who trumpeted the emails as proof that the Biden Justice Department was out to get Trump omitted the fact that agents who later searched the property reported finding boxes of classified, even top-secret, documents. In addition, the then-head of the Washington field office has testified to Congress that by the time of the search, the FBI believed probable cause existed to do it.

Dream Address Awaits

Shooting suspect formally charged

By The Associated Press

SYDNEY — An accused gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre was charged with 59 offenses including 15 charges of murder on Wednesday, as hundreds of mourners gathered to begin funerals for the victims.

Two shooters slaughtered 15 people on Sunday in an antisemitic mass shooting targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, and 17 people are still being treated in hospitals. All of those killed by the gunmen who have been identified so far were Jewish.

As investigations unfold, Australia faces a social and political reckoning about antisemitism, gun control and whether police protections for Jews at events such as Sunday’s were sufficient for the threats they faced.

Naveed Akram, the 24-year-old alleged shooter, was charged on Wednesday after waking from a coma in a Sydney hospital, where he has been since police shot him and his father at Bondi. His father, Sajid Akram, 50, died at the scene.

The charges include one count of murder for each fatality and one count of committing a terrorist act, police said.

Akram was also charged with 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded and with placing an explosive near a building with intent to cause harm.

Akram’s lawyer did not enter pleas and did not request his client’s release on bail during a video court appearance from his hospital bed, a court statement said.

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Raising Cane’s set to expand to Mexico in ’26

Raising Cane’s will expand to Mexico, a move that will give the restaurant a presence in every North American country.

The Baton Rouge-based chicken tender company will open a restaurant in Monterrey, Mexico in late 2026. The expansion is through a franchise agreement with Mexico-based restaurant operator Alsea, whose portfolio includes other American chains including Starbucks, Chili’s and Burger King.

Raising Cane’s did not disclose how many restaurants it plans to open in Mexico. The company runs nearly 1,000 restaurants in 43 U.S. states and two in Ontario, Canada.

It’s the company’s second international endeavor it’s announced this year. In September, the chain said it will start opening restaurants in the United Kingdom next year, beginning in London’s Piccadilly Circus.

Raising Cane’s has operated restaurants in the Middle East for a decade, which cofounder and CEO Todd Graves said taught him how to operate the brand internationally. The company launched a Kuwait City restaurant in 2015, later expanding to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which amount to about 60 restaurants with restaurant operator Alshaya Group.

“We’re ready to go to the U.K. We’re ready to go to Mexico,” Graves said. “For me, it’s just having Cane’s down there influencing communities in a positive way. It’s just exciting.”

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AI stocks drag down Wall Street

more stocks rose within come Wall Street’s most influential lysts, though the rate continues to U.S. market has worst theSlightly S&P 500 than fell, but they got stock because of its tremendous rise. drowned out by the drops for com- size, fell 3.8% and was the day’s Progressive, meanwhile, fell 2% day in nearly a month panies after the insurer based in Mayfield in the artificial-intelligence heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

BY STAN CHOE Associated Press

NEW YORK — More drops for AI stocks dragged the U.S. market lower Wednesday, and Wall Street sank to its fourth straight loss.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2% for its worst day in nearly a month, though it’s still not far from its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 228 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 1.8%.

industry.

Questions continue to dog the former superstars about whether their yearslong dominance of Wall Street meant their prices shot too high, as well as whether all the investment in AI will produce enough profit and productivity to prove worth the cost. Worries are also rising about the debt that some companies are taking on to pay for it all.

Broadcom dropped 4.5%, Oracle fell 5.4% and CoreWeave sank 7.1%.

Nvidia, the chip company that’s be-

Power companies that jumped earlier in the year on expectations for stronger demand from electricity-sucking data centers also lost some of their shine. Constellation Energy fell 6.7%.

Only 17% of respondents in a survey of relatively big businesses by UBS said they’re in production at scale with their AI projects. That could be “a reminder for tech investors to remain sober about the likely 2026 revenue growth uplift from AI products,” according to UBS ana-

Village, Ohio, said that its net income for November fell 5% from its year-ago level.

On the winning side of Wall Street were oil companies, after President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela. It’s Trump’s latest escalation against Venezuela, which may be sitting on more oil than any other country.

That sent the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude higher by 1.2% to $55.94.

Warner Bros. board backs Netflix’s offer NEW YORK — Warner Bros. Discovery is recommending its shareholders reject an unsolicited buyout offer from Paramount Skydance in favor of a rival bid from Netflix it said will better serve their interests and the entertainment company’s audiences.

The Warner board said in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday that Paramount’s “inferior” offer carried “significant risks and costs,” in large part because it relies heavily on borrowed money — whereas the Netflix offer is backed by a company worth more than $400 billion.

Warner, which owns the Warner Bros. Pictures movie studio and HBO, agreed earlier this month to a cash-and-stock offer from Netflix valued at $72 billion. As part of that deal, Warner would first spin off its cable TV assets, including CNN and Discovery. Days later, Paramount made a hostile, all-cash offer for all of Warner’s properties valued at $77.9 billion.

Paramount has argued that its offer — coming from a smaller company — would face an easier road with regulators. Warner’s board disputed that claim in its letter to shareholders, who ultimately have the power to decide which offer to accept.

USPS plans to expand delivery network access The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it intends to open its “last-mile” delivery network, the most expensive part of the shipping process, to large and small shippers, expanding beyond current arrangements with giants such as Amazon and UPS. The goal is to diversify and boost revenue through the postal carriers’ final leg of delivery to millions of individual homes and businesses.

The postal service expects to accept bids in late January or early February from other shippers, which will propose their own mix of volume, price and delivery timing. The agency will award contracts later in 2026, based on where it can provide same- and next-day delivery service at a profit.

Under the new plan, shippers would have access to more than 18,000 postal service “delivery distribution units,” entry points throughout the network where mail and packages are sorted for delivery to a local area.

GETTy IMAGES/TNS FILE PHOTO By JON CHERRy

Lana Provost, a UPS package handler, loads packages into a truck at a hub in Louisville, Ky. UPS will deploy Pickle Robots in multiple facilities in the latter half of 2026 and into 2027, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to share the details publicly.

UPS buys hundreds of robots to unload trucks in automation push

BY SPENCER SOPER and CAILLEY LAPARA

Bloomberg News (TNS)

United Parcel Service Inc. will invest $120 million in 400 robots used to unload trucks, according to people familiar with the matter, revealing new details on the logistics giant’s $9 billion automation plan that aims to boost profits by decreasing labor costs.

Unloading trucks and shipping containers at warehouse docks is mostly done by people and remains a key bottleneck in the shipping industry. The UPS order puts a spotlight on Pickle Robot Co., a Charlestown, Massachusetts-based startup already working with UPS that’s raised about $97 million since it began in 2018, according to Pitchbook.

Pickle makes a robotic arm on a mobile base that can drive into a shipping container, lift boxes weighing up to 50 pounds using suction and place them on conveyor belts. One robot can unload a typical truck in about two hours and the robot typically pays for itself in about 18 months through labor savings, according to Pickle’s website. The robots can be deployed in existing warehouses, which is a key selling point since the automation doesn’t require specially designed

facilities or extensive upgrades.

UPS will deploy Pickle Robots in multiple facilities in the latter half of 2026 and into 2027, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to share the details publicly. It’s common for large companies to experiment with automation through pilot projects and prototypes by startups eager to prove their technology works in the field.

The UPS purchase from Pickle follows years of experimenting to demonstrate the robots can help reduce labor costs, one of the people said.

UPS says its relationships with Pickle and other automation and robotics companies “helps reduce repetitive tasks and physical stress while promoting safety for UPS employees.” Additional purchases often depend on successful testing outcomes, the company said in an emailed statement, adding that contract details are private.

Through a spokesperson, Pickle declined to comment on the purchase.

In 2024, UPS announced a four-year plan to invest $9 billion in automation projects at more than 60 U.S. facilities with the goal of achieving $3 billion in cost savings by 2028.

The courier is taking on its biggest network reconfiguration in history as it seeks to lessen its dependency on labor, trim fixed costs and boost margins. The company has closed daily operations at 93 facilities and eliminated 34,000 jobs this year as part of the consolidation, driven by a move to reduce the number of low-profit e-commerce packages it handles for online retailer Amazon. com Inc. Amazon is a leader in warehouse automation. Its 2012 purchase of robot-maker Kiva Systems helped it speed online order fulfillment since the mop-bucket-sized robots can zip around warehouses to fetch products faster than people. Pickle Robot’s technology comes earlier in the flow of products, when trucks stuffed with inventory pull up to warehouse dock doors waiting to be emptied.

Pickle Robot uses artificial intelligence to maneuver in shipping containers and empty boxes, adjusting as the load gets smaller.

Its investors include the packaging materials company Ranpak Holdings Corp. and the venture investment arm of Toyota Motor Corp. Its competitors include Boston Dynamics, which makes a warehouse robot called “Stretch.”

Hyundai, Kia to repair millions of vehicles under deal Automakers to improve anti-theft technology

BY JACK DURA Associated Press

Automakers Hyundai and Kia must offer free repairs to millions of models under a settlement announced Tuesday by Minnesota’s attorney general, who led an effort by dozens of states that argued the vehicles weren’t equipped with proper anti-theft technology, leaving them vulnerable to thefts.

Under the nationwide settlement, the companies will offer a free repair to all eligible vehicles at a cost that could top $500 million, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. Hyundai and Kia must also outfit all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with a key piece of technology called an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves.

The settlement was reached by 35 states. The vehicles eligible for fixes date as far back as 2011 and as recently as 2022. About 9 million eligible vehicles were sold nationwide.

Thefts of Hyundai and Kia ve-

hicles soared in part because beginning in 2021, videos posted to TikTok and other social media demonstrated how someone could steal a car with just a screwdriver and a USB cable. Minneapolis reported an 836% increase in Hyundai and Kia thefts from 2021 to 2022. Ellison announced an investigation into the automakers in early 2023.

Ellison said the two companies installed engine immobilizers on cars sold in Mexico and Canada, but not widely in the U.S., leading to car thefts, crimes and crashes that injured and even killed people, including teenagers.

“This crisis that we’re talking

about today started in a boardroom, traveled through the internet and ended up in tragic results when somebody stole those cars,” Ellison said at a news conference.

He was joined by Twin Cities officials, a woman whose mother was killed when a stolen Kia crashed into her parents’ vehicle and a man whose car was stolen nine times — as recently as Monday night, and including seven times after a previous software fix.

Under the settlement, Hyundai and Kia will install a zinc sleeve to stop would-be thieves from cracking open a vehicle’s ignition cylinder and starting the car.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ 7A

Trump demands Venezuela pay for U.S. oil assets

President says they were stolen from companies years ago

BY DAVID KLEPPER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a “blockade” against oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country that face American sanctions.

Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a monthslong pressure campaign against leader Nicolás Maduro, suggesting his administration’s moves to confront leaders in Caracas are at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments, along with accusations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned tankers already are diverting away from Venezuela.

“We’re not going to be let-

TRUMP

Continued from page 1A time as he tries to rebuild his popularity. Public polling shows most U.S. adults are frustrated with his handling of the economy as inflation picked up after his tariffs raised prices and hiring slowed.

Trump brought charts with him to make the case that the economy is on an upward trajectory. He made claims about incomes growing, inflation easing and investment dollars pouring into the country as foreign leaders, he claimed, have assured him that “we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,” a statement he has frequently repeated at public events.

If the argument seemed familiar, that’s because it has echoes of the case that Biden made about the U.S. economy with little success. He, too, in the face of inflation pointed to the enviable rate of U.S. economic growth compared to other nations.

But the hard math internalized by the public paints a more complicated picture of an economy that has some stability but few reasons to inspire much public confidence.

The stock market is up, gasoline prices are down and tech companies are placing large bets on the development of artificial intelligence.

But inflation that had been descending after spiking to a four-decade high in 2022 under Biden has reaccelerated after Trump announced his tariffs in April.

The consumer price index is increasing at an annual rate of 3%, up from 2.3% in April.

The affordability squeeze is also coming from a softening job market. Monthly job gains have averaged a paltry 17,000 since April’s “Liberation Day,” when Trump announced import taxes that he later sus-

ting anybody going through who shouldn’t be going through,” Trump told reporters of his call for a blockade. “You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago.

And we want it back. They took it — they illegally took it.”

U.S. oil companies dominated Venezuela’s petroleum industry until the country’s leaders moved to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in the 21st century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Compensation offered by Venezuela was deemed insufficient, and in 2014 an international arbitration panel ordered the country’s socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.

While Venezuela’s oil has long dominated relations with the U.S., the Trump administration has focused on Maduro’s links to drug traffickers, accusing his administration of facilitating the shipment of dangerous drugs into the U.S.

pended and then readjusted several months later.

The unemployment rate has climbed from 4% in January to 4.6%.

Trump sidestepped continued inflation but is insisting that his tariffs are working and will deliver more benefits soon.

“My favorite word,” he said of “tariffs,” the levies that he has put on various foreign products from China, Canada, Mexico and other U.S. trading partners across the world.

“Nobody can believe what’s going on here,” Trump said. “It’s not done yet, but boy are we making progress.”

Trump said that investment commitments for new factories will boost manufacturing jobs and that consumer activity will improve dramatically as people receive increased tax refunds next year.

The president barely paused to take a breath as he made his way through his prepared remarks, much of which contained complaints about conditions in the country under Biden.

“One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead,” Trump said. “Our country was ready to fail — totally fail. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

Trump used a chunk of the address to stress his immigration record, including tightening the border to deny entry to immigrants without legal authority to be in the U.S. He made a passing reference to mass deportation, saying his administration is removing criminals. Independent analyses have shown that some people without criminal records have been deported.

Trump also talked about making some of the “most dangerous cities” in America safe again as a result of his aggressive approach to illegal immigration.

Trump’s mass deportations of immigrants have

In his social media post Tuesday night, Trump said Venezuela was using using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes.

U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast amid a massive military buildup that includes the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier. The Trump administration also has carried out a series of strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed a combined total of at least 95 people, prompting questions from lawmakers and legal experts about the legal justification for the attacks.

Trump also has said he is considering strikes on land.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, likened Venezuela’s move to nationalize its oil industry to a heist.

“American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela,” Miller wrote on

proved unpopular even as he is viewed favorably for halting crossings along the U.S. border with Mexico.

The public has generally been unmoved by his globetrotting efforts to end conflicts and his attacks on suspected drug boats near Venezuela.

Trump sought to blame Democrats for the likely increase in health insurance premiums as the subsidies tied to the 2010 Affordable Care Act are expiring. Democratic lawmakers have sought to address that issue, while Trump has suggested with scant details that any government aid should go directly to the families buying the insurance instead of the insurance companies.

The president said he will put forward “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history,” but he offered no details.

Energy prices, including for gasoline, have dropped, and they will continue to drop more, Trump says. But they aren’t at the levels he claims.

Trump said the national average gas price of $2.50 per gallon. The AAA average nationally is $2.90. Without providing evidence, Trump also said household energy costs have dropped by $3,000.

Trump promised that “within the next 12 months” the U.S. will have opened 1,600 new electrical generating plants — reversing what he again called “the Democrat inflation disaster.”

The president sought to end the address on a high note, noting the Olympics and World Cup soccer matches that will take place in the United States next year.

Trump made an appeal to patriotism by noting that 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and closed his speech by wishing viewers a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

social media Wednesday. “Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”

Venezuela first moved to nationalize its oil industry in the 1970s, a process that expanded under Chávez, who nationalized hundreds of private businesses and foreign-owned assets, including oil projects run by ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. That led to the arbitration panel’s 2014 order.

“There is a case that can be made that Venezuela owes this money to Exxon. I don’t think it’s ever been paid,” economist Philip Verleger said.

Trump blamed his predecessors for not taking a harder line against Venezuela over the asset seizures.

“They took it away because we had a president that maybe wasn’t watching,” Trump said Wednesday. “But they’re not going to do that again. We want it back. They

took our oil rights — we had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.”

Chevron has a waiver from the U.S. government to continue oil production in Venezuela, and the Texas-based oil giant says its operations have not been disrupted.

Venezuela’s debt to Chevron “has decreased substantially” since the company’s license to resume exporting Venezuelan oil to the U.S. was first granted in 2022, said Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University in Houston. He said the amount is not public.

There was no change Wednesday to the list of foreign terrorist organizations after Trump said in his post that the “Venezuelan Regime” has been designated as one.

Officials at several national security agencies were told not to take Trump’s remarks about the designation literally and they should be treated as a figure of speech, according to a U.S. official involved in the discussions.

NEW yORK TIMES PHOTO By DOUG MILLS

President Donald Trump finishes his remarks in an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House on Wednesday.

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CENTER

Continued from page 1A terms of a deal Hut 8 recently finalized with the parish, the agreement will provide up to $90 million a year for the parish in tax revenues, Havard said.

“I am excited and our whole community has been excited about this possibility for a year,” said Havard.

“We have a blank canvas.

This is a chance for us to be No. 1 in something.”

The deal underscores the increasingly complex way AI data centers are being developed around the world.

Third-party companies are now often involved at various levels of building and leasing the powerful computers and power generation to tech companies.

“This partnership is an expansion of our existing work with Fluidstack and marks a new opportunity to collaborate with Hut 8 to bring additional capacity online by early 2027,” said James Bradbury, head of compute at Anthropic, in a news release. “Hut 8’s ability to source and deliver infrastructure at scale provides the runway necessary to continue advancing the capabilities of our models.”

Hut 8 first announced its plans for West Feliciana Parish last December and said its AI data center would attract a major user.

In September, the firm broke ground with Entergy on a substation that will power the facility. In late October, the parish Industrial Development Board finalized a taxing arrangement with the company.

Until Wednesday, however, no end user for the massive warehouse, which will house racks of powerful servers and systems to cool them, had been announced.

Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said the project will generate high-wage jobs and create pathways

DIRECTOR

Continued from page 1A assume a faculty position and offered praise for his time in the executive director role.

“John has guided PBRC with focus, integrity, and ambition, strengthening its scientific reputation and expanding its impact nationally and internationally,” Dalton wrote. “Under his leadership, PBRC has continued to advance worldclass research in metabolic health, nutrition, obesity, and diabetes, while sustaining a strong culture of collaboration and excellence.”

The restructuring led by Rousse and the board has caused some controversy.

Senators from Shreveport expressed disapproval over how the changes could sideline LSU Health Shreveport.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that LSU chose to take away the Chancellor position of the Health Sciences Center in Shreveport without any conversation at all with the community, elected officials, business leaders, and even their own students and faculty about doing so,” Sen. Thomas Pressly, RShreveport, said in a release Monday.

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for Louisiana to build longterm careers in the industries of the future.

“It’s a clear example of how aligning policy, partnership and people translates into lasting opportunity,” she said.

Last December, LED finalized a deal with Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta to build a

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Construction is underway on the Hut 8 data center in West Feliciana Parish.

data center in Richland Parish near Monroe. The Hut 8 facility is a fraction of the size of the Meta facility, currently slated to take up more than 4 million square feet and cost upward of $27 billion.

STAFF FILE PHOTO

By MICHAEL JOHNSON

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

A Christmas Campaign Benefiting the Neediest Elementary School Children in our Community Since 1914 • An all-volunteer group that shares the gift of Christmas joy with the neediest children in East Baton Rouge Schools • Guidance counselors in participating elementary schools evaluate every child’s family application • Each eligible child receives clothing, an age appropriate toy and a book • Through the generous support of the good people of Greater Baton Rouge, more than 1,000 needy kids were given the gift of Christmas joy last year.

• Unfortunately, more than 3,000 additional children are estimated to remain in need.

• For 111 years, The Advocate has supported the Good Fellows & Good Samaritans Christmas campaign. Thirty one years ago The Sunrise Rotary Club of Baton Rouge became the hands-on partner in this annual effort to share the gift of Christmas joy!

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T h u r s d ay, d e c e m b e r 18, 2025

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Ruling upheld in D.R. Horton case Lawsuit to remain in state court

BY MATT BRUCE

arbitration.

For the past 31/2 years, Alicia and West Dixon have fought to win An East Baton Rouge appellate damages from D.R. Horton, a Texcourt has upheld the decision to as-based company that touts itself keep a Youngsville family’s moldy as America’s No. 1 homebuilder. homes lawsuit against one of the The Dixons claim the four-bedroom nation’s largest developers out of home they purchased from D.R.

Staff writer

Horton in 2014 had a faulty HVAC system that was not built to withstand Louisiana’s relentless summer humidity.

The legal battle has largely played out in the 19th Judicial District Court since March 2022, when the Dixons filed their lawsuit.

In July, the Dixons won a key victory when 19th JDC Chief Judge Donald Johnson ruled that the case

should remain in state court instead of being litigated in arbitration court as D.R. Horton’s attorneys insisted.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal upheld that ruling, rejecting D.R. Horton’s bid to overturn Johnson’s decision.

1st Circuit judges Mitchell Theriot, Allison Penzato and Kelly Balfour unanimously agreed to deny

the company’s writ and issued their Dec. 11 order without a written ruling.

It is unclear if D.R. Horton intends to appeal the decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

“This ruling matters because thousands of Louisiana families are living in homes that are

ä See D.R. HORTON, page 2B

THE GIFT OF

GIVING

ABOVE: Southern University Lab School students talk to members of the PelSquad while on their bikes during a giveaway and charity event at A.C. Lewis YMCA on Wednesday. LEFT: Todd Graves, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers founder and CEO, and Gayle Benson, New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner, speak to the media during the event on Wednesday.

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Lawsuit Eagle Suites opens third location in BR Company turns hotels into challenges tax extended-stay apartments tied to new LSU arena Former official says district was illegally created

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER

Staff writer

A former East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council member has filed a lawsuit in Baton Rouge court seeking to block a new tax tied to the proposed LSU arena because it was created without voter approval.

The suit, filed by former council member Darrell Glasper Sr. on Wednesday, calls for a judge to block the new sales and hotel taxes approved earlier this year in the LSU Economic Development District and a subdistrict at the site where university officials hope to build a

ä See ARENA, page 2B

Eagle Suites opened its latest building at 11314 Boardwalk Drive, a former FairBridge Inn Express, in November. The property is still undergoing renovations, but currently has 20 occupants and will

BY IANNE SALVOSA have a total of 106 rooms once complete.

Staff writer Eagle Suites first entered the Louisiana An Arkansas-based company that turns market with a location on Airline Highhotels into extended-stay apartments has way earlier this year and acquired a foropened its third location in the Capital Re- mer Super 6 Inn & Suites on Gwenadele Avenue last month. At the same time, it gion.

bought the Boardwalk Drive property for $1.9 million. Renovations are ongoing for both, and the Airline Highway location has 90% of its available units leased, with the remaining units going on the market within a month. Eagle Suites anticipates the Gwenadele Avenue apartments to start leasing this week.

The company provides fully-furnished

ä See EAGLE SUITES, page 2B

Court denies execution for LSU student’s killer Murrill challenged ruling on death penalty for juveniles

he kidnapped and killed an LSU student.

Dale Dwayne Craig, now 51, was one of four teens convicted of abductBY MATT BRUCE ing and torturing Kipp Staff writer Earl Gullett, an 18-yearold LSU freshman, durThe state Supreme Court has denied a Craig bid by the Louisiana attorney general to ing a fatal carjacking in reinstate the death sentence of a man who September 1992. was a week shy of his 18th birthday when After the teens drove Gullett to a se-

cluded construction site near Kenilworth Parkway, Craig stood over the student and shot him several times execution-style as Gullett laid unconscious in the fetal position.

Craig was convicted of first-degree murder, and in 1994, a jury unanimously condemned him to be executed. But in a landmark 2005 ruling, the U.S. Supreme

ä See EXECUTION, page 2B

2B ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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BR middle school teacher arrested EAGLE SUITES Staff report

An East Baton Rouge Parish School System middle school teacher was placed on leave Wednesday after he was arrested in Florida on a criminal count involving a minor, the district confirmed Wednesday.

The teacher, Trey King, is a science teacher at McKinley Middle, the school district confirmed.

King was arrested by Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies on

EXECUTION

Continued from page 1B Court struck down capital punishment for criminals who were underage when they committed their crimes, deeming it an unconstitutional measure of cruel and unusual punishment.

Craig’s death sentence was subsequently vacated, and he was resentenced to life in prison.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office filed a motion in August challenging the 20-yearold Supreme Court ruling, known as Roper v. Simmons, which overturned juvenile death penalty statutes in Louisiana and 18 other states across the country.

The Murrill’s office said Craig’s life shouldn’t be spared because he was seven days away from turning 18 when he killed Gullett. State prosecutors pointed to his case as an example of the arbitrary nature of the sweeping death penalty ban

D.R. HORTON Continued from page 1B

making them and their kids sick,” said Lance Unglesby, one of the Dixons’ attorneys. “These homes are unlivable. I’ve walked through hundreds of them. There’s mold everywhere. Anyone who could see it for themselves would be outraged.

I’ve seen conditions so hazardous they threaten the health of children, the elderly and the immunocompromised. And I’ve listened to story after story, like the Dixons’, of families trapped in homes that make them sick.”

Plaintiff attorneys have teed the Dixons’ case up to become a classaction lawsuit involving hundreds of other homeowners who purchased homes from D.R. Horton in Louisiana with mold and water intrusion issues.

The Dixons’ legal team claims D.R. Horton knew the ventilation systems were faulty and would cause microbial growth and leakage issues. The company still built scores of homes with defective designs along the Interstate 10 corridor from Lake Charles to Slidell, the plaintiffs contend.

D.R. Horton refutes the allegations and continues to defend the integrity of its homes. During a Dec. 8 hearing in the 19th Judicial District Courthouse, an attorney for the company said D.R. Horton has built more than 18,000 homes in Louisiana since 2007.

James Brown, the New Orleans attorney representing D.R. Horton against the Dixons’ lawsuit, has insisted that the dispute should be settled in arbitration, and argues that the court has no legal jurisdiction over the matter. He has pointed to a sales contract that the Dixons signed twice as they prepared to close on the home — in April and June 2014. It included a binding arbitration clause that delegated any legal disputes into mediation to be settled under construction industry arbitration rules.

Arbitration is a forum with more restrictive evidentiary rules of disclosure and one that could cost the Dixons well over $10,000 in fees and filing costs to pursue, according to the plaintiff attorneys.

But the Dixons and other homebuyers testified during a July 8 evidentiary hearing that D.R. Horton

Monday on a count of lewd and lascivious behavior in reference to an incident involving a minor that occurred in May at Pensacola Beach in Florida, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office said.

“The East Baton Rouge Parish School System was made aware of an incident involving an employee at McKinley Middle School who was recently booked in another state on a charge involving a minor,” a spokesperson for the district said in a Wednes-

day statement. “At this time, we have very limited information regarding the circumstances surrounding the matter. We take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously.”

King was placed on leave when news of his arrest was made known, and the district is working with authorities to investigate.

Based on school records, King has worked in the district since 2021 as an eighth-grade biology and chemistry teacher.

for juvenile offenders and sought to challenge the federal law.

During an Oct. 24 hearing inside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse, Chief Judge Donald Johnson quashed the AG’s motion, saying he didn’t have the authority to reinstate Craig’s death sentence.

The Louisiana Supreme Court denied the state’s application for supervisory writ on Tuesday. Six of the seven justices agreed to the order, and Judge John Michael Guidry recused himself.

The AG’s Office has said Louisiana will seek to overturn Roper if and when the case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.

It is not immediately clear if the AG’s Office will file a writ for a U.S. Supreme Court review. That would allow justices to consider overturning the high court’s split decision imposed 20 years ago.

“While we’re disappointed the Louisiana Supreme Court didn’t weigh in on this important case, we’ll continue to work to ensure that the worst of the worst crimi-

nals in our State are brought to justice,” Murrill said in a statement.

The brutal murder happened the night of Sept. 15, 1992. Gullett was returning to his dorm on the LSU campus when Craig and three other teens carjacked him at gunpoint. They forced Gullet back into his Ford Bronco and drove around with him for nearly an hour. Court records and trial testimony indicate Craig spearheaded the armed robbery and abduction and terrorized Gullett during the ride as the victim begged for his life.

The group of teens drove to the construction site, where Craig shot Gullett three times in the head, then stood over him and fired more bullets at him.

After the killing, Craig joked aloud and bragged to his accomplices, telling them, “I told you I was hard,” according to court records. State prosecutors stressed that he later threatened the three teens who helped him carry out the carjacking and abduction.

sales reps pressured them to sign the contracts with the arbitration agreements when they were just looking to buy. The homeowners said sales agents told them they were simply purchase agreements to secure the homes with a $1,000 deposit, because the houses were selling fast. The Dixons testified that D.R. Horton representatives never mentioned the arbitration or delegation clauses, or explained to them that the contract could later prevent them from taking legal action in court.

LSU law professor Kenya Smith testified that it was an adhesion contract that swayed heavily in D.R. Horton’s favor. Adhesion contracts exist when there is such disproportionate bargaining power between the two parties that there is no way the weaker side could negotiate a variation.

Unglesby argued that the Dixons were duped into the signing the sales contracts, and their signatures shouldn’t lock them into arbitration, claiming D.R. Horton uses the tactic to ward off lawsuits.

In his July 22 written ruling, Johnson determined neither of the contracts the Dixons signed were legally binding or enforceable, citing material differences between the two. He found credence to testimony that D.R. Horton and its representatives led the Dixons to believe the two contracts were “merely to reserve the home” they had paid a $1,000 deposit for in anticipation of buying.

He ruled that the terms lacked mutuality and found no “clear and unmistakable evidence” that it was the Dixons’ intent to delegate their legal claims to an arbitrator.

“Across Louisiana, no matter the subdivision, no matter the year, the stories are the same,” Unglesby said after last week’s appellate court ruling. “For almost two decades, these homes are being built the same way, failing the same way, and the company building them has shown little regard for the people living in them. My team has spoken with thousands of homeowners.

I’ve been inside hundreds of their houses. And I can tell you: This isn’t an accident. It’s not negligence. It’s a pattern.”

Johnson presided over the case until Aug. 11, when he swapped sections with Judge Eboni Johnson Rose and took over her largely criminal docket. Rose quickly re-

cused herself, and the case was allotted to Judge Tiffany FoxworthRoberts.

Foxworth-Roberts presided over a lengthy hearing Dec. 8 and listened to testimony from four more homeowners and two expert witnesses. She was set to listen to more witnesses Thursday, but in a rare move, the Louisiana Supreme Court booted Foxworth-Roberts from the judicial bench Dec. 11 over misconduct.

It is not clear which judge will preside over the case now.

“The 19th Judicial District Court respects the ruling of our state’s highest court,” Johnson, the chief judge, said in a statement Friday from the district court. “Court operations continue as normal. Every case will be heard by a duly assigned judge, and every person who comes before this Court can be assured that their matter will receive the full attention and impartial consideration that justice requires.”

Ebony Walker was one of the homeowners at this month’s hearing. She told the judge she had hesitations to buy from D.R. Horton, but a sales rep assured her there would be no mold issues. She had a two-story house built at a subdivision in Zachary and dreamed that it would be a staple for her family.

“I wanted them to have a foundation for generations to come,” she testified.

Walker and her husband picked their two sons up from school and surprised them with the new house after closing on it in 2022.

The children reveled in the larger residence, which afforded the family enough space for a game room and for the kids to have their own bedrooms.

“The excitement was on their faces, because they’d never had that,” she said. “And then within six months, we had to take that excitement from them.”

Mold began to grow and has swarmed the second floor of the Walkers’ home. The family now crams together in the same bedroom to sleep at night.

D.R. Horton denied the couple’s warranty claim, Walker testified.

Both her sons became sick from the mold allergens. Walker said her husband had to pick up a night job so the family could afford to move into a rental property while they continue to pay their mortgage.

REASON 89

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Continued from page 1B

suites at weekly and monthly rates with no application, deposit or credit check required for tenants. The locations serve families or individuals, many of whom work in the service industry or receive Supplemental Security Income benefits, who are seeking housing but may not want a longterm lease. The three Baton Rouge locations are their only Louisiana properties, with 16 other buildings in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Eagle Suites expands into areas

ARENA

Continued from page 1B new arena.

Glasper alleges that LSU “deceived the public” by crafting the taxing district in a way that sidestepped voter approval and misled taxpayers about how the tax revenue would be spent.

“This effort to secretly give millions of dollars of taxpayer money to private developers without voter approval or knowledge is illegal and unconstitutional,” wrote Glasper’s attorney, William Most.

Charles Landry, a lawyer who was involved in creating the district, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said it included several inaccuracies. LSU Athletics did not respond to a request for comment.

The LSU EDD was created by the Louisiana Legislature in 2023 with the power to levy sales taxes.

Louisiana law generally requires voter approval for new taxes. But LSU has said no one lives in the district where the tax will be collected, so no voter approval is required.

The lawsuit argues that the claim is flawed and misleading. It says LSU and the taxing district wrongly claimed there were “no voters” in the area to avoid an election.

The plaintiffs argue that voters could still legally live in the area — including students, new residents or homeless individuals — and that Landry relied on a shaky claim from LSU’s president at the time that no one lived in the area rather than producing ironclad evidence that no voters were present.

Landry — who noted he does not represent the LSU EDD or subdistrict — acknowledged that the registrar found voters in the district but said it doesn’t matter, as the legislation excludes them, which was intentional.

“There’s specific language that provides that if the boundary … inadvertently contained a registered voter or included a registered voter, as a result of the legislation, that area is removed from the EDD,” Landry said.

But Most and Glasper argue that if there are truly no voters within the boundary, the district has no authority to levy taxes anyway.

“Democracy does not come with loopholes,” Most said in a statement. “If the LSU president wants to raise local taxes, he has to ask voters to approve it — because that is what the law requires.”

Landry said there is no loophole, and an opinion issued by the state’s chief legal authority backs that up.

“If Mr. Glasper had been in any way careful in his allegations, he would have found out that the registrar of voters sought an opinion from the attorney general on this language and the enforceability of the language, and received a finding that it is enforceable,” Landry said.

Landry said it’s not unusual for economic development districts to be drawn in a way that minimizes the number of residents in its boundaries so they are not subject to the additional tax. He added that he found it interesting that Glasper was seeking to invalidate LSU’s EDD but not Southern University’s EDD, which is structured the same way under the same law.

A deal with Oak View Group, the sole finalist to develop the facility, has yet to be inked. LSU officials have given no updates on

that are struggling with affordability and facing rising housing costs. Kari Amore, an Eagle Suites spokesperson, said occupants have responded “positively” to the short-term apartments, and the company is open to expanding further in south Louisiana.

Rates for the Boardwalk Drive start at $260 per week, which totals at $1,040 for a month. The average monthly rent in Baton Rouge is $1,393 as of December, 30% below the national average, according to Zillow.

“We’d love to see people get into their home with us before Christmas arrives so they can enjoy it with us,” Amore said in an email.

the status of the proposed arena since July, after the development company’s then-president Tim Leiweke was indicted on federal bidrigging charges.

President Donald Trump pardoned the developer last week.

According to Glasper’s suit, the two taxes at the arena could raise more than $160 million over 30 years.

At an August Metro Council meeting, both Landry and John Engquist, an LSU EDD board member, said the taxes’ use had not been determined and “would not automatically go to Oak View Group.”

“But privately, they acknowledge that the public story is false,” Most wrote.

The lawsuit points to an August 2025 email Landry wrote saying the arena project “gets both cents of new taxes. That has been the deal from day one.” Most said Landry was emphatic that the public not learn about that plan, writing: “PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE AT LSU. WE CANNOT EXPOSE THIS TO A PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST.” According to the lawsuit, Robert Stuart Jr., then a board member of the district, sent text messages to the then-incoming interim LSU President Matt Lee shortly after those public statements, saying the tax revenue was “anticipated” to be rebated to the developer.

“In other words, Stuart told the public that the sales tax money would go to the operation of the public entity,” Most argues. “But he secretly told the incoming LSU president something different — that the money would be rebated to the developer.”

It is the second lawsuit filed in a week involving Glasper.

On Dec. 10, Glasper and two other plaintiffs sued the Baton Rouge Metro Council, accusing them of illegally imposing a franchise fee and improperly spending taxpayer money.

In filing the lawsuit against LSU’s EDD, Most said Glasper is “not seeking to stop anyone from building the arena” but rather pointing out that “if a private arena is going to be built, it should not be secretly funded with non-voter-approved tax increases.”

Though LSU and Oak View Group have not yet reached an agreement for development, if constructed, the facility will be called “Our Lady of the Lake Arena.”

Officials confirmed that the hospital system will pay $50 million over 10 years for naming rights.

With a capacity around 12,000, the arena would host LSU men’s and women’s basketball games, gymnastic meets and live concerts.

“I’m confident that the boards of each EDD will retain competent counsel to aggressively defend, and I believe, get this lawsuit dismissed,” Landry said.

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Funerals Today Groves, Mary

St. John's United Methodist Church, Baton Rouge at 11:00am.

Hoffpauir, Lloyd

Household of Faith Galvez, 17683 La-933, Prairieville, La at 10am.

Landry, Blake

home surrounded by her loves ones. She was born on March 15, 1937. Services will be held on December 20, 2025 at 11am. Arrangements entrusted to Hall Davis and Son.

Lanoux, Betty Ann Melancon 'Aunt Boo'

St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church at 11am.

Lewis, John

New Roads Methodist Church, 206 Pennsylvania St. New Roads, LA at 12pm.

Purvis, Jeanette

Wilson Wooddale Funeral Home in Baton Rouge at 11am.

Ropp, John

First Baptist Church in Natchitoches at 11 a.m.

Savoy, Suzy

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 44450 LA-429, St. Amant, LA at 11am.

Obituaries Battley, Columbus Paul

(Ret.) Msg. Columbus Paul Battley entered into eternal rest at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on 11-28-2025. He was a native of Ventress, La. and a resident of Baton Rouge, La. Viewing starts: 9:45am-10:45am, mass at 11am.

St. Augustine Catholic Church 809 New Roads St. New Roads, La. 70760. He is survived by his loving wife of 62yrs, Cornelia C. Battley, devoted daughter/caregiver, Marion Battley Hammond, beloved grandson and great- grandson, Nicholas B. Hammond, Luca Paul Hammond. He is preceded in death by his parents: Dorsey & Bernice Gremillion Battley, 2 brothers: Christopher Battley and Russell Battley, 1 sister: Barbara Ann Battley. Interment: St. Augustine Church cemetery.

Arrangements entrusted to Verrette's Pointe Coupee Funeral Home.

Betty Ann Melancon Lanoux "Aunt Boo" passed away peacefully on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, at the age of 94. She was a native of the Dutchtown, LA, area and resident of Baton Rouge, LA. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Betty loved traveling, gardening, dancing, cooking, and feeding everyone.

But above all, she cherished the time she spent with her family and friends. Betty is survived by her daughter, Patti Day (Todd); grandchildren, Dawn Eusay (Jesse), Kristi Herring Ordeneaux (Ryan), Kayla Day, and Paige Day; greatgrandchildren, Summer, Wyatt, and Brody Eusay, and Paisley Ordeneaux; son-in-law, Bruce Herring; and a host of other loving family members. Betty is preceded in death by her husband, Calieon Joseph Lanoux; daughter, Sandra Lanoux Herring; parents, Estress and Julie Melancon; and sisters, Marie "Pie" Curry, Grace Turcotte, and Gloria Jean Garside. Visitation will be at Greenoaks Funeral Home, 9595 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA, on Friday, December 19, 2025, from 9am until the time of funeral services at 12pm. Burial will immediately follow at Greenoaks Memorial Park.

Family and friends are invited to sign the online guestbook at www.greeno aksfunerals.com

Ogden, Ann Jackson

Hall, Imogene

Imogene Hall, age 88, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana entered into eternal rest on December 9th, 2025 at her

of Atlanta, Texas before later making Baton Rouge, Louisiana her lifelong home. It was there she built a life grounded in deep faith, strong family bonds, and meaningful community involvement.

Ann was devout in her faith and steadfast in her walk with the Lord. Her faith guided her life and was reflected in the kindness, grace, and compassion she showed to everyone she met. She was a devoted wife to her beloved husband, Randolph, a loving mother, a cherished grandmother, and a treasured friend. Committed to a life of service to others, Ann served as President of the JayCee Janes for many years as well as a former Inter-Civic Council of Baton Rouge member. She dedicated her time and leadership to bettering the community. Ann found great joy in the simple pleasures of life. She loved Christmas, painting, traveling, and playing the piano. You could always find her home filled with warmth, creativity, and love. Her joyful spirit and generous heart touched all who knew her. She was preceded in death by her parents, Melvin and Onie Jackson, her daughter, Kenanne Dooley, her granddaughter, Kelli Varnado, her first husband, Rev. Kenneth D. Norton, and her beloved cat, Katrina. Ann is survived by her loving husband, Randolph Ogden, her son Russell Norton, her son -in-law Tom Dooley, her stepchildren Vondel Stone (Jeffrey), Coleen Powell (Wally), Fran Ogden, Randy Ogden, John Ogden (Marti), Natalie Raymond (John), Margaret Kidder (Chad), and her 34 grandchildren and great grandchildren, all of whom she loved fiercely with her whole heart and who brought her immense joy and pride. Ann's life was a testament to her faith and love for all of those in her life. Although she will be deeply missed, her spirit will live on through the many lives she touched. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge. A visitation will be held from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM on 12/22/ 2025 at First United Methodist Church, 930 North Blvd. A funeral service will be held from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM on 12/22/ 2025 at First United Methodist Church, 930 North Blvd.

Ann Jackson Ogden, 84, went to be with her Lord peacefully, leaving behind a legacy of faith, love, and devoted service to her family and community.

Born on June 22, 1941, in Texarkana, Texas, Ann grew up in her hometown

Taylor, Iberville

Weston, Shirley N.

Iberville "Fat" Taylor entered into eternal rest at Baton Rouge General Medical Center-Bluebonnet on December 10, 2025. He was a native of St. Francisville, Louisiana and a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Viewing will be held at Mount Bethel Baptist Church, Rev. Timothy Smith, pastor, on Saturday, December 20, 2025 at 9:00 am until Celebration of Life Service at 11:00 am conducted by Rev. Keith Branch; interment at Southern Memorial Gardens. Survivors include his loving wife, Jessie Taylor; daughter, Deborah M. Taylor; grandchildren, D'Ette, LaKeshian and Angela Taylor; great-grandson, Wyndan R. Taylor; sister, Elouise Bates; nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends; preceded in death by his son, Kenneth Ray Taylor; parents; and six siblings. Arrangements entrusted to Miller & Daughter Mortuary

Shirley N. Weston, 71, of Baton Rouge, LA, passed away Thursday, December 11, 2025. Visitation will be held Friday, December 19, 2025, at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, 3912 Gus Young Ave., Baton Rouge, from 8:00 a.m. until the Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 a.m. Interment at Greenoaks Memorial Park. Services entrusted to Hall Davis and Son Funeral Services.

White, Donovan Lee

He retired from The Advocate after 30 years of dedicated service. He was preceded in death by his parents, Woodrow and Vera White; his brothers, Jack, Durwood, and Wayne White; his sister, Patsy Priest; and his stepson, Timothy Kuyrkendall. He is survived by his beloved wife, Erna White; his children, Phyllis Tesch (Bill), Donovan White, Jr., JoAnn Gremillion (Mike), and Robin White (Gina); his stepdaughter, Keippi Bain (Pete); and his daughter-in -law, Charlene Kuyrkendall, widow of his late stepson, Timothy Kuyrkendall. He is also survived by 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Visitation will be held on Saturday, December 20, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., followed by a funeral service at 12:00 p.m. at Ascension Funeral Home.

Burial will follow at Serenity Oaks Memorial Park in Prairieville. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." — 2 Timothy 4:7

Donovan Lee White, age 87, of Prairieville, Louisiana, passed away peacefully on December 15, 2025. Born on December 20, 1937, in Newellton, Louisiana, Donovan lived a life marked by hard work, devotion to family, and generosity toward others.

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OPINION

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T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/opinions

OUR VIEWS

A strong message against hazing, but are students listening?

There is no joy in seeing young lives irrevocably altered due to poor decisions, but the indictments handed down in the hazing death of Southern University student Caleb Wilson send a strong message, one that we hope other young people are paying attention to.

Wilson died on Feb. 27 after a night where pledges from Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc were lined up at a warehouse and fraternity members put on black boxing gloves and took turns punching them in them in the chest, according to police reports.

After Wilson, 20, a Kenner native, collapsed, fraternity members didn’t call 911 right away, waited to take him to a hospital and told authorities the medical issue happened at a local park.

Following an investigation, three people — Isaiah Earl Smith, 29, Caleb McCray, 24, and Kyle Thurman, 25 — were arrested in March.

Last week, an East Baton Rouge grand jury weighed in. Smith, McCray and Thurman, all of Baton Rouge, each face felony hazing charges.

In addition, McCray was indicted on a charge of manslaughter; Smith was indicted on charges of principal to manslaughter and obstruction of justice, and Thurman was indicted for obstruction of justice.

Two other fraternity members — Winston Craig Sanders, 22, of Monroe, and Jaydn Landrum, 24, of Grand Prairie, Texas, were indicted on principal to felony hazing and obstruction of justice.

We applaud the fraternity for swiftly expelling members who participated in the hazing.

Wilson’s family also deserves praise for its advocacy against hazing in the midst of tremendous grief and was honored by the Legislature earlier this year for their work. In June, the governor signed the Enough is Enough Act, which went into effect this fall and requires college students in Louisiana to take an anti-hazing course.

But it remains a mystery to us why hazing continues to be so hard to stamp out on college campuses. The last time Louisiana saw this much activity related to addressing the problem was after the 2017 death of LSU freshman Max Gruver. Gruver’s family helped pass the law that made criminal hazing a felony in Louisiana with increased penalties, including up to five years in prison for serious injury or death, which Wilson’s alleged attackers now face.

Wilson was a mechanical engineering student and member of the Southern University “Human Jukebox” band. He had a bright future ahead of him. But so did all of those now facing charges in his death.

It’s terrible to watch this story repeat every so often. So many lives ruined, so much pain inflicted, and for what? To join a group that claims to be a brotherhood or sisterhood. No one watching this tragedy play out can say they don’t understand the true costs of hazing. We shouldn’t have to relearn the same lessons each time a young person dies.

Let this be the last time.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published

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The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor, The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

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YOUR VIEWS

Tulane’s historic football season brings back good memories

When leaders create uncertainty, there’s a method to making us mad Edwin H. Friedman, discussing leadership, wrote that when anxiety is high, reason becomes ineffective.

True leaders work to bring anxiety down, so that thought, listening and complex problem solving can take place.

The current political environment is fostering anxiety, fear and reactivity through constant chaos. And citizens see daily anxiety-producing methods like demeaning and intimidating people, institutions and communities — through labeling, shouting, namecalling, sending in forces, threatening financial or other measures against some and sometimes acting on those threats when those threatened do not act as commanded.

Some heads of state use these tactics because they want citizens to listen only to them. When tariffs hurt the economy, citizens are directed to believe: “Not true. It is a con.” “We the People” are not supposed to observe reality and think independently.

What is greatness? Not gold and power, not vindictiveness and hatred.

Is it peace and defense or lethality and war?

Does it affirm citizens so that they want to give their best or demean them, causing hopelessness and then call them losers?

Does it produce leaders open to ideas and solutions from differing viewpoints or produce leaders who refuse to communicate because they are in power and can win even if the citizens lose?

Is America a place where aspiring citizens are considered in their totality or as net assets? (The greatest person I have ever known was materially poor.)

Are we a country that wants no allies unless they offer us wealth or resources along with military support?

In our peace negotiations, are we hurrying to close the deal or assessing the whole picture in light of history and considering if lasting peace is possible with one who is bent on absorption and war?

Not the way. Don’t walk it.

I am writing to congratulate the Tulane Green Wave team for rolling again to so many victories this year on their way to the CFP. What a revival!

And it brings back fond memories of the Foley Boys, Charlie Hall and when Tulane finally beat LSU after 25 years in 1973, 14-0!

And with LSU just having an underperforming season but now a hopeful future with Lane Kiffin, it is so cool to have a state team to root for.

And I love how they lately have turned up the green lights shining on the Superdome for both the Greenies and for the Christmas season.

It may be time now to schedule a renewed rival LSU v. Tulane game — like in the past — at the end of the year in the future?

My late dad was a Tulane grad and a perennial supporter of the Greenies.

How can I forget all those games I used to go with him at the old Tulane Stadium and in the Superdome, enjoying being with my late Uncle Vic Landry and others, especially at the Westfelt Club in the Dome for fun and fellowship.

Last year, it was so great to go to a Tulane Greenie game with my then VA social work supervisor, Michael Frederick, in the new Tulane Yulman Stadium, and I was able to go to the new Westfelt Club.

How can I forget the many years ago as a kid making some money parking cars for attendees of football games at the old famous Tulane Stadium when I lived uptown on Broadway and Spruce?

Roll Wave Roll!

And let’s hope your “waves” spill over into good luck for both Lane Kiffin and da Bayou Pussycats, as well as for Kellen Moore and da ’Aints!

ANN GONZALES Baton Rouge

Hegseth’s inexperience rapidly becomes a liability The latest fiasco involving the poor judgment of the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth can’t really be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about the military and leadership. Hegseth was clearly unqualified for this hugely important office.

Hegseth’s mistakes won’t stop. His most recent — the order to “kill everyone” in another attack on a boat in the Caribbean — has gone too far.

If reports are correct and a “second attack” was conducted on helpless people after the initial attack, everyone from the person who gave the order, to the person who fired the shots are guilty of war crimes.

The America I served doesn’t kill helpless people — combatants or noncombatants.

But we are different now. This is what happens when you elect or appoint the incompetent.

Who can truly be surprised at these repeated missteps by Pete Hegseth?

Would anyone be surprised if Delta Air Lines put the person loading the snacks on a 757 into the captain’s seat and the aircraft crashed on the next flight?

I’m embarrassed by what we have become.

RICHARD WESTMORELAND New Orleans

Kiffin’s sweet deal with LSU more of the same I saw where Lane Kiffin’s contract with LSU includes a provision that will pay him a $1 million bonus if Ole Miss wins the CFP National Championship this year.

KEITH HORCASITAS Baton Rouge

I sure am glad Gov. Jeff Landry promised that LSU wouldn’t enter into any more stupid contracts.

BILL NEVILLE Metairie

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ 5B

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COMMENTARY Wise legislators secure reprieve for 333K Medicaid patients After trying to attack the messenger, Gov. Jeff Landry capitulated both to legislators and to common sense on Dec. 16 by reversing his administration’s reckless cancellation of a major Medicaid contract.

Legislators deserve credit for forcing his hand.

I had written last week about the bizarre nonrenewal of a contract with the state’s second-largest Medicaid insurance provider, UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana. On Nov. 20, Louisiana Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein argued at Quin length before a legislaHillyer tive committee that United and five other providers all should have their contracts renewed. Just 11 days later, after Attorney General Liz Murrill lost a court decision in a procedural fight connected with her lawsuit against a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) also run by United, she suddenly said United was not in compliance with state law.

Immediately, the Landry administration, through Greenstein and Louisiana Medicaid Director Seth Gold, completely reversed course and announced that United’s contract — the one for which they had just argued in favor — would be pulled.

There was no reason for the Medicaid contract to be tied to the suit related to PBMs. And it was stunningly rash to pull the contract so late in the process, leaving Gold and his Medicaid agency just two weeks to move a whopping 333,000 people from United to another provider. As not all providers have agreements with all the same doctors and pharmacies, this could leave patients without their accustomed health care professionals, or even without any such professionals nearby.

And all with just weeks to figure out other arrangements — all during the Christmas season, no less.

The blowback against the sudden shift was fierce. Landry didn’t take kindly to the messenger (me) or to the blowback, as he used several social media outlets to attack me by name as “a shill for big corporations that prey upon consumers.” The Louisiana Republican Party followed up with multiple attacks on me in the same vein.

For the record, the question isn’t whether to support UnitedHealthcare or any other corporation (for which I care not at all). The question, as was amply noted by multiple advocates for the disabled and for indigent pa-

STAFF FILE PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Gov. Jeff Landry speaks during a news conference at the State Capitol. tients, is how the last-minute cancellation — of a company that Landry’s own team had supported just 11 days earlier! — would affect more than 333,000 patients.

It wasn’t just left-leaning groups that expressed widespread alarm about “gaps in coverage” that could result. President Donald Trump’s own first-term Commissioner of the Administration on Disabilities, Melissa Ortiz — a frequent representative of conservative organizations on Fox News, no less — described to me at great length the problems, even lifethreatening ones, which could arise because of the Landry administration’s precipitous decision.

As it was, the attempt to deflect attention to alleged corporate shilling did not work. Showing admirable diligence and thoughtfulness, legislators of both parties continued to question the abandonment of United. Senate health committee chair Patrick McMath, R-Covington, and insurance committee chairman Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, pushed for a hearing about “the termination of these contracts and the potential impacts.”

Both Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, and Senate President Pro Tempore Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, expressed grave concern. So did numerous others, including key, longtime members of health and insurance committees.

After a Dec. 16 hearing, the admin-

istration finally backed down. In what amounted to a double reverse — approval of United on Nov. 20, cancellation on Dec. 2, and now reapproval on Dec. 16 — Greenstein announced that United’s contract would be renewed after all for at least 90 days, through March of 2026, at a cost of $561 million.

Hooray — sort of.

Greenstein and Murrill told the Louisiana Illuminator that if Murrill is able to reach a settlement of her suit against UnitedHealthcare during those 90 days, the contract might be extended for the full year.

Again, though, Murrill’s fight about PBMs should have nothing to do with the overall Medicaid contracts. Nor should her anger over losing a round in her lawsuit against United’s operation of a PBM. If United’s Medicaid coverage itself isn’t satisfactory, then use the next year to fix it or carefully plan how to replace it. But don’t hold patients hostage to Murrill’s only semi-related legal wrangling.

Repeat after me: What matters are the patients. What matters are the patients.

Meanwhile, kudos to the state legislators who showed there are some administration power plays for which they have no patience.

Email Quin Hillyer at quin.hillyer@ theadvocate.com

Potential residents of Lockdown, U.S. “Just FYI if you’re seeing the news But there were the mayor and police right now, I’m totally safe,” a son enchief and governor — guys that you’d rolled at Brown University texted me. see at Starbucks — dominating na“I’ve been home for a few hours now tional TV. Furthermore, the media reand wasn’t there when stuff garded their news conferences started to happen. Seems to as so urgent that they broke off be some crazy shooting near commercials. brown.”

Americans, wherever reportWhat?! I turned on CNN and ers descend by parachute, must saw the quaint streets of Provialso note how often they get minor things wrong. They just dence’s College Hill — lined Froma don’t know the culture. with front porches — pulsing Harrop Several hours after the shootunder emergency lights that washed the cold night sky an ing in a Brown engineering eerie red. Nothing like this ever hapbuilding, which killed two students, a “person of interest” was in police cuspens around here.

Brown was put in lockdown, and so tody and the lockdown quickly lifted. were those of us living a few blocks Come late Sunday, the person of interaway on Providence’s East Side. est was deemed not the killer, and the “Shooter seems to be still at large search was back on. so lock your doors and turn off the When that POI “from Wisconsin” lights,” our student wrote. And we did, was identified at a motel in Coventry, as apparently did others on our treea semi-rural old mill town, a reporter lined street of single-family houses. noted that it was near the airport, It was so odd to see the world’s meimplying that he might be planning to flee. dia fixed on this compact city in the Coventry may be near the airport tiniest state. Rhode Island has one of

by Atlanta standards, but not in this the nation’s lowest homicide rates.

The relatively small number of violent village-oriented state. The joke goes: “In Rhode Island, a five-minute drive crimes is doubly remarkable in that is a road trip.” The Hampton Inn in Rhode Island is largely urban.

Some Brown shooting reports noted Coventry is a 15-minute drive from that Providence had only two murders the T.F. Green Airport.

With the perpetrator still at large, this year. They were both across town from College Hill. Having had a home the news anchors are hanging in. And in the East Side police district for over the story out of Providence continues to loop alongside the horrific mass 25 years, I can recall only two murders, and both were domestic killings. shooting of Hanukkah celebrants in

Sydney, Australia.

Brown students were sent home early for the holidays, and there was no new lockdown. The gunman is out there somewhere, but Rhode Islanders calculating their risks know that he seemed to target a group of students, not random people on the streets.

Sometimes law enforcement takes a while to capture the perpetrator.

Meanwhile, dogs must be walked.

Trash must be picked up. Holiday shopping and celebrations must resume, and they are, in low-key ways.

Public schools are open, and light traffic has returned to Thayer Street, a strip of pizza joints, cafes and chain stores that serves as Brown’s main street.

There have been shelter-in-place orders in bigger places: Austin, San Francisco, Boston. And smaller places: Ledgeview, Wisconsin, and Highlands Ranch, Colorado. They have now arrived in a nothing-terrible-everhappens place like the East Side of Providence.

And if they come here, they could come to most any city, town or hamlet in the country, or nowadays in the world.

Given the horrendous wave of mass shootings, we are all potential residents of Lockdown, USA. Froma Harrop is on X, @FromaHarrop. Email her at fharrop@gmail.com.

Taking a closer look at MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is unlike other large universities, and not just because, according to its inexplicably ebullient president, Sally Kornbluth, the football players “thank you for coming to the games.” (Yes, MIT has a team. Division III. So MIT does not play Texas Tech.) MIT’s nature and governance suggest that the Trump administration was not at its most lucid when it made the school a target of its blunderbuss animus against elite universities.

In October, MIT was one of nine such that the Education Department ordered to sign the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

George Kornbluth made MIT the first to reWill fuse to do so. She was in Washington trying to mitigate the damage that can be done to America’s meritocracy by policies motivated by hostility toward institutions vital to it.

The compact mandates promoting “equality in admissions” by having “all undergraduate applicants take a widely-used standardized test,” such as the SAT and ACT. After pausing this requirement during the pandemic, MIT in 2022 became the first university to restore it. MIT has never had legacy admissions. And two years ago, in Kornbluth’s second year as president, MIT ended the practice of requiring applicants for faculty positions to submit political statements pledging allegiance to diversity, equity and inclusion orthodoxies.

The compact correctly says that “too many young adults have become saddled with life-altering” student debts. MIT admissions decisions are “needblind,” and students from families with annual incomes under $200,000 pay no tuition. Almost 88% of the graduating class in 2024 left MIT with no debt, according to Kornbluth. Enrollment of undergraduates from other nations is capped at 10 percent.

Ninety-four percent of MIT undergraduate degrees are in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. This explains the university’s astonishing economic multiplier effect: MIT graduates have founded companies that have generated almost $1.9 trillion in annual revenue (a sum almost equal to Russia’s GDP) and 4.6 million jobs.

MIT sits alongside Boston’s Charles River. Sixty years ago, the Charles was said to flow into the Potomac River because, beginning in the 1960s, many academic luminaries (Arthur Schlesinger Jr., John Kenneth Galbraith, McGeorge Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and more) moved south to Washington. Perhaps the most consequential single move came, however, more than 80 years ago.

Vannevar Bush, with an electrical engineering joint doctorate from MIT and Harvard, was an MIT professor and dean before he was blown to Washington by the winds of World War II. There, he became crucial to laying the foundation for science-based modern warfare and national security. Having reviewed a 1942 Bush memo urging acceleration of a particular program, Franklin Roosevelt sent this memo: “V.B.: OK — returned — I think you had best keep this in your own safe.” The Manhattan Project was born.

This Trump administration originally favored the elimination of the Education Department, a defensible fate for something created in 1979 by Jimmy Carter as a gratuity for the National Education Association, the teachers union, which in 1976 gave him its first presidential endorsement. Now, however, Donald Trump’s Education Department is even more muscular toward universities than Barack Obama’s was in 2011.

Then, a menacing “Dear Colleague” letter pressured schools, under the threat of financial punishment, to adopt policies regarding sexual harassment accusations that eviscerated due process protections for the accused. Many people who today oppose financial threats coercing schools into compliance with Trump’s priorities applauded Obama’s actions.

The 8% tax on MIT’s endowment will cost the university $240 million annually that will not be available to make up for reductions in government research grants. Universities’ endowments fuel upward mobility and combat the stagnation of elites.

Taxing endowments mocks conservatism by enfeebling private sector alternatives to government’s domination of social resources.

Finally, it is almost sublimely hilarious that Trump’s compact forbids universities to “belittle” — wait for it — “conservative ideas.” Such as? Civility? Free trade? Fiscal continence? The separation of powers? The rule of law? Keeping the public and private sectors distinct by not conscripting corporations (Intel, U.S. Steel and others) into the public sector? Government too modest to decree that universities must be “safe spaces” for conservatives (who used to be proud of not being snowflakes)?

The Trump administration is today’s comprehensive belittler of conservative ideas. Its solicitude for “conservative ideas” will not encompass this one: Many things are beyond government’s proper scope and actual competence. Watching today’s politics toy with an institution of MIT’s complexity and importance is like watching a toddler play with Sèvres porcelain.

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

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

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Baton Rouge Weather TODAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Isolated T-Showers - 30%

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Mostly Sunny

Isolated T-Storms - 30%

Partly Sunny 10%

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77° 43°

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RIVER STAGES FLOOD STAGE 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE Memphis 34 -7.10 +0.71 Vidalia-Natchez 48 13.40 -0.49 Red River Landing 48 17.80 -0.61 Baton Rouge 35 6.40 -0.46 Donaldsonville 27 3.60 -0.42 Reserve 22 2.57 -0.56 New Orleans 17 1.80 +0.04 MISSISSIPPI

OHIO 40

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Beaumont 78/45 Port Arthur 74/47

Hattiesburg 74/44

Alexandria 74/41

Many 72/36

New Orleans 77/52

Lake Charles 77/44

Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

Houma 78/51

Forecasts and graphics, except WBRZ forecasts, provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2025

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

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Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) 5:49a Shell Beach --South Point, Marsh Island 5:09p Cypremort Point 7:55p Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) 8:08p Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) 7:26p Wine Island 9:16p

0.6 --1.7 1.7 1.0 1.4 1.3

5:44p -0.2 11:07a -0.3 6:50a -0.7 10:42a -0.1 6:55a -0.4 5:10a -0.5 7:57a -0.5

SUN AND MOON Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today NEW

-0s

Jackson 72/40

AIR QUALITY YESTERDAY

-10

Monroe 69/39

Shreveport 71/39

24 hours through 5 p.m. Wed. Trace Month to date (normal) 5.88” (2.65”) year to date (normal) 59.18” (59.27”)

Cairo

As any early-morning showers clear, sunshine will emerge. Partly sunny skies will send afternoon highs into the middle and upper 70s. The warmth comes ahead of another cold front by evening.

A broken line of showers and storms will move through with the front and could impact portions of the evening commute for a select few. Conditions will quickly improve afterward, with clearing skies expected after dark. Northerly winds will keep temperatures relatively cooler on Friday despite full sunshine. After waking up to a low in the low to mid-40s, highs will rebound into the 60s by the afternoon. But expect a quick warmup over the weekend. Much of the weekend looks dry, aside from a few storms on Sunday.

AROUND THE REGION

BATON ROUGE THROUGH 5 P.M. WEDNESDAy

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Weather News by Meteorologist Malcolm Byron

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THE WORLD

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter.

Today Fri. Sat. Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed.

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Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

Big plans afoot for Louisiana bank Former IberiaBank execs buying M C Bank

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

Louisiana banker Daryl Byrd, who grew IberiaBank over two decades from a small Lafayettearea lender into a regional powerhouse, has assembled a team of former IberiaBank executives and finalized a deal to acquire Morgan City-based M C Bank, a move that promises to shake up the banking industry across the Gulf South.

MC Bancshares, the holding company for M C Bank & Trust Company, announced the deal on Wednesday. A sale price was not disclosed.

M C Bank has nearly $480 million in assets and 10 branches around south Louisiana. It will retain its name and its Morgan City headquarters, though most of its top executives will be based in New Orleans.

Byrd, 71, said in an interview Tuesday that he plans to grow the bank quickly by targeting small and mid-sized business customers across the Gulf South and also through potential acquisitions.

“We believe there’s an absence in the market for a relationshiporiented commercial bank,” Byrd said. “We’re proud of the clientoriented focus we had at Iberia and believe we can create that magic again.”

Byrd and his team will be squaring off against a host of competitors with a presence in south Louisiana, including major money-center banks like JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, along with regional rivals like Hancock Whitney, First Horizon, Gulf Coast Bank and b1Bank.

“We’re going to pay a certain premium over their tangible book value, part cash and part stock,” Byrd said. “We’ll raise the money to do that over the next 100 days, and we’ll close the transaction once we get regulatory approval.”

Byrd said M C Bancshares’ existing shareholders will wind up owning about 25% of the new franchise, and the new shareholders will own the rest.

He estimates the deal will close in the first quarter of next year.

Familiar team The acquisition comes a little over five years after IberiaBank, where Byrd spent two decades as CEO, was acquired by Memphisbased First Horizon Bank in a $3.9 billion deal.

Now, Byrd will serve as CEO and chairman of M C Bank’s holding company. Other former IberiaBank executives joining the M C Bank team include: Mark Tipton, who will serve as president; Michael Brown, chief operating officer; and Scott Price, chief financial officer; as well as Jack Deano, Ben Dupuy, Cleland Powell, Tommy Westervelt and Rob Worley.

M C Bank’s board members will remain on the board of directors.

CEO Chris LeBato will serve on the executive committee as vice chairman and chief of staff.

Most of the team will be based in greater New Orleans, but Tipton will live and work in Atlanta and Price will be in Birmingham, Alabama.

Byrd said he, Brown and Tipton started thinking about starting another southeastern banking franchise after the expiration of their noncompete clauses with First Horizon.

“I badly failed at retirement,” Byrd said. “I thought I could go back to playing tennis and I wouldn’t be bored, but that didn’t work. I missed the engagement, relationships and excitement of being CEO, and I feel like I have a lot of energy left to spend.”

Gradual expansion M C Bank began in 1955 in Morgan City, the energy and seafood industry hub 70 miles southwest of New Orleans. The bank gradually expanded to its current number of locations, only moving into the New Orleans metro area this decade. It has two branches in Jefferson Parish and one in Lakeview.

M C Bank executives and the bank’s shareholders are betting the deal announced Wednesday will usher in an era of growth. The bank has a relatively small share of deposits in Louisiana, ranking 50th among banks doing business in the state, according to the Federal De-

posit Insurance Corp.

“The combination of our associates and the DMMS Equity team creates a powerful alignment of talent, experience and vision that will propel the bank forward,” said LeBato, the M C Bank CEO, in a statement that referred to the corporate entity Byrd is using for the purchase.

The bank is planning three new branches, including a second location in Covington, its first in Uptown New Orleans, and one in Houma.

Under the terms of the deal, M C Bank’s roughly 100 employees have all been invited to stay in their current positions, and all existing locations will remain open.

tions, it will be able to find favorable terms.

“There are a bunch of little banks that will say, ‘Quick, grab the doughnuts! Daryl Byrd is walking through the door,’” he said.

Like many smaller banks, M C Bank will have to grapple with the added technology costs of modern banking, where fraud protection is a major expense and customers expect conveniences like mobile accounts, 24/7 account access and real-time payments.

“The capital needed to operate and grow a bank is greater than it used to be because of demands of technology,” said Gay LeBreton, managing director of investment banking firm Chaffe & Associates.

“Regulators’ requirements for cerHistory of acquisitions tain tech are higher than they used The M C Bank acquisition is a to be.”

But small banks have advantagcontinuation of what Byrd has done for the past 25 years. es, especially their ability to forge After taking the reins at Iberia- personal relationships with cusBank in 1999, he oversaw roughly tomers, said Guy Williams, presitwo dozen bank buyouts that transformed a small, century-old institution into a multistate lender. In 2011, Iberia moved into the New Orleans market by acquiring Omni Bank.

“When I came to Iberia, we had around $1 billion in assets, 300 people and a market cap of $80 million,” Byrd said. “At the end, we had 3,500 people in markets all over the South.”

Over that same period, south Louisiana lost several of its major bank headquarters, including three in New Orleans.

In 2005, New Orleans-based Hibernia Bank was acquired by Capital One. Six years later, Mississippi-based Hancock Bank acquired Whitney Bank. First NBC Bank was closed by regulators in 2017.

As his team gets to work, there will be a “David and Goliath” dynamic at work, as they lead a bank with less than $500 million in assets and about $380 million in deposits.

By comparison, Capital One, the bank with the largest market share in New Orleans, has nearly $9 billion in deposits.

Tulane business professor Peter Ricchiuti said all those lenders are dealing with weak demand because of low oil prices and an uninspiring housing market, but if the new M C Bank is looking to make acquisi-

dent of Gulf Coast Bank.

“As New Orleans has become less of a headquarters city, there is a growing desire among local businesses to deal with a main office,” Williams said. “This is good news for New Orleans because it will lead to more local hiring.”

New York City-based Investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., a Stifel Company, and Chicagobased Performance Trust Capital Partners are serving as co-advisers in an equity capital offering of up to $250 million.

KBW also is serving as financial adviser on the deal, and Troutman Pepper Locke in Atlanta is a legal adviser to DMMS in the merger transaction.

The law firms Sterlington PLLC and Jones Walker LLP are also serving as legal advisers to DMMS. PT is serving as financial adviser and Baker Donelson as legal adviser to M C Bank in the merger transaction.

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T h u r s d ay, d e c e m b e r 18, 2025

1cN

Nwoko’s presence starting to match size at LSU, Transfer post player ä7 P.M.Southeastern FRIDAy, SECN+ thriving at LSU

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Leonard Nwoko was shocked by the scene at the YMCA outside of Houston.

His 7-year-old son Mike Nwoko, a newcomer to basketball, was booed in his first game.

“He was getting all the rebounds, (but) he didn’t have any skills,” Leonard Nwoko said. “Parents, mothers were aggressive. They were mean. They’re like, ‘Oh, he’s too big. He can’t be 7, 8 years old.’ ” Frustrated spectators didn’t rattle Mike Nwoko. His passion for

the sport already was cemented by watching a Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets game.

When his family moved from Houston to Canada when he was in the fourth grade, his basketball love followed. He begged his dad to drive him to the court on holidays. When temperatures were below freezing when the family lived in Calgary and Toronto, that’s when the most competitive basketball was played.

Nwoko’s passion for the game feels larger than his 6-foot-10, 261-pound presence on the court for LSU. The former four-star recruit’s confidence wasn’t shaken

when he played just 8.9 minutes per game during his first year at Miami.

“I’m kind of delusional that way,” Nwoko said. “I still thought I was way better than what I was portrayed to be.”

That self-belief existed throughout his sophomore season at Mississippi State, where he started 32 games but played the ninth-most minutes (15.4).

Now Nwoko’s talent has met opportunity in his junior year at LSU (9-1). Everything he’s practiced with the help of his basketball skills trainer, Filip Music, has led to career bests at 15.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and shooting a Southeastern Conference-leading 70.8%

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

LSU center Mike Nwoko runs across the court during the second half of a game against SMU at the Smoothie King Center on Saturday. Nwoko has ä See LSU MEN, page 4C increased his playing time and production in his first season at LSU.

JE T S AT SAIN T S • NOON SUNDAy • CBS

LSU defense has not met Mulkey’s expectations

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Saints wide receiver Chris Olave breaks free of Carolina Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn to score a late touchdown during the second half at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday.

Picking it up

Saints WR Olave responds to dropped pass with dominant closing stretch

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

As the New Orleans Saints were mounting their comeback against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Chris Olave was missing in action.

The Saints’ top receiver had been targeted just twice in the first three quarters, catching one of them for 7 yards.

New Orleans was pushing the ball into scoring range, and CBS commentator Robert Griffin III began speaking about Olave’s lack of opportunity in the game as New Orleans lined up for a second and

10 from the Panthers’ 32-yard line.

Right on time, Olave accelerated downfield and snapped off his route toward the sideline. Quarterback Tyler Shough threw the ball his way, with the pass sailing just high enough for Olave to leave his feet. It looked like they’d finally connected for a big play — until cornerback Mike Jackson arrived and jarred the ball free with a hard hit.

The play seemed to sum up Olave’s season, in which the many big plays he’s made often have been overshadowed by plays he did not make. That drive stalled out when Shough was stopped for no gain

on a fourth-down scramble two plays later, further magnifying Olave’s drop.

What ended up being important is what happened next.

“I told him I’d come right back to him,” Shough said.

Olave came to life in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. On the drive after his drop, with the Saints needing a touchdown to tie the game, Shough threw the ball his way on three consecutive plays, gaining 17, 18 and 16 yards. To cap it off, Olave beat inside leverage from

ä See SAINTS, page 3C

After the LSU women’s basketball team wrapped up its latest blowout win early Tuesday afternoon, coach Kim Mulkey said she wished that NCAA rules still allowed her to hold an impromptu practice that day.

Mulkey thinks the No. 5 Tigers (12-0) have plenty of room to improve on how they’re playing ä Texas-Arlington defense. They still at LSU, haven’t met her lofty standards at 1 P.M. SUNDAy, SECN that end of the floor.

Not even after they allowed Morgan State on Tuesday to convert only four field goals in the entire second half of a game they won by 58 points.

“If we don’t get better defensively,” Mulkey said, “(associate head coach) Bob Starkey is gonna have a coronary. I mean, he’s in charge of defense. He’s old school like I am, and he knows what our weaknesses are.”

LSU’s supposed deficiencies won’t show up on the stats sheet. The Tigers, according to Her Hoop Stats, are allowing their opponents to score only 68.5 points per 100 possessions — the second-best mark among Division I teams. They’ve also let just one of their first dozen opponents shoot at least 40% from the field.

Mulkey, however, thinks that LSU needs to spend less time chasing steals and more time defending the paint. She said Tuesday that the Tigers are still giving up too many drives to the rim and still letting opposing players cut past them too frequently.

In November and December, Mulkey doesn’t spend much time looking at the scoreboard. She instead focuses on individual possessions, monitoring how LSU defends its commanding leads over midmajor teams.

What Mulkey saw Tuesday did not look like “fundamentally good, disciplined defense.”

“We have to know the difference on when to gamble, when to stay in a stance,”

ä See LSU WOMEN, page 4C

Sumrall, Golding are frenemies in CFP To appreciate the double life Jon Sumrall is living, you need to visit his social-media platforms.

The timeline tells the story. It’s a steady stream of posts, alternating between Florida and Tulane content, highlighted Jeff by wave and gator Duncan emojis and #RollWave and #GoGators.

One day, he’s conducting a fireside chat with Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer in Gainesville, Florida. The next, he’s leading a Tulane practice at Yulman Stadium.

Since being named the head coach at Florida on Nov. 30, Sumrall has been wearing hats as the head coach of two major football

ä Tulane at Ole Miss, 2:30 P.M. SATURDAy,TNT

programs — the one he currently leads, Tulane, which is preparing for a first-round game against Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff, and the one in waiting, Florida, which he will join after Tulane’s CFP run.

“I’ve got two phones, two jobs Sumrall and two hours of sleep,” Sumrall tweeted Dec. 9 below a photoshopped image of him wearing split Florida and Tulane coaching gear.

Sumrall was only half-joking.

Last week was a vivid example of his hectic existence.

On Sunday, Dec. 7, he attended an on-campus watch party with his Tulane players and coaches to see the Green Wave’s first-round pairing in the CFP, then hopped on a plane to Gainesville for four days, where he began assembling his staff and managing his roster at Florida. He then returned to Tulane to begin preparations for the team’s historic game against Ole Miss.

“At times, it’s been really hard,” Sumrall said. “There’s been nights where I’ve slept a couple hours, and this past Friday and Saturday, I slept for seven hours each night and I woke up and I’m like, oh my gosh, this feels amazing.”

Sumrall joked that he has been subsisting on energy drinks and

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By VASHA HUNT

Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding grins on the field before a ä See DUNCAN, page 6C game against LSU on Sept. 30, 2023, in Oxford, Miss.

2C ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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Chiefs QB Mahomes begins rehab

BY DAVE SKRETTA

AP sportswriter

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has begun rehab following surgery to repair two torn ligaments in his left knee, and the team is optimistic the twotime MVP could be back early next season — perhaps even by the time Kansas City plays Week 1.

Rick Burkholder, their vice president of sports medicine and performance, said Wednesday the procedure performed in Dallas by Dr. Dan Cooper on Monday night went well. The operation happened about 24 hours after Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL in a loss to the Chargers.

The recovery time for such an injury is about ninth months, though it could vary by several months depending on various factors. Next season is expected to kick off on September 10, 2026, and the Chiefs could play their first game a few days later.

“Every player is different. Every sport is different. Every position is different,” Burkholder said. “(Mahomes) is so in tune to what he does, he does it a little quicker. Ballpark on this is nine months, but it could be a month or two more, a month or two less.”

The loss to the Chargers eliminated the Chiefs from postseason contention, ending that streak at a decade. They had also won the past nine AFC West titles, reached the previous seven conference championship games and played in the past three Super Bowls.

Now, backup Gardner Minshew will quarterback them through the final three games beginning Sunday at Tennessee.

“Quick turnaround from a very emotional game, and obviously the situation with Pat, the situation with our team’s playoff picture,” he said. “But you know what? You are where you’re at. We have to turn this around and get a win this weekend.”

AP sportswriter

RENTON, Wash. — Sam Darnold was far from his best the last time he and the Seattle Seahawks squared off against his hometown team and he is amply aware he will need to perform better than when he tossed four interceptions against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 16.

Darnold and the Seahawks’ rematch Thursday night with the Rams carries significant NFC West title implications. The Seahawks (11-3) and Rams (11-3) are tied atop the division and a game ahead of the 49ers, and a win for either team would put them in the driver’s seat to secure the title and potentially the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

“We’re excited about this challenge,” Darnold said. “Obviously, it’s a divisional game, and playing these guys last time wasn’t my best effort. I feel like as an offense, we’ve just got to continue to do what we’ve been practicing, stay on the details. But again, this team has a very good defense.”

The Rams defense, which ranks 13th in the NFL in total yards allowed, caused all sorts of issues for Darnold in November. The Seahawks offense has struggled at times since that game and hasn’t scored a first-quarter touchdown since Nov. 9.

Still, Seattle has a top-five defense and has allowed 25 total points over its last three games.

The way Rams coach Sean McVay sees it, Los Angeles will be challenged just as much as the Seahawks will be.

“There’s no weakness,” McVay said. “This is as complete of a football team as there is.”

Such an assessment wouldn’t be off base for the Rams, either, a team that has won eight of its last nine games and scored at least 40 points in three of its last seven games. The Seahawks may have the NFL’s leading receiver in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but Los Angeles’ Puka Nacua isn’t far behind with

NEW YORK — The New York Knicks will not raise a banner at Madison Square Garden to commemorate their NBA Cup championship, a person with knowledge of the decision said Wednesday.

The Knicks do plan to celebrate the title in front of their fans Friday, when they play their first home game since winning the championship Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

But they won’t join the previous winners of the Cup in marking the achievement with a banner, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to lack of public announcement.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks both hung banners after winning the NBA Cup. However, the person said the Knicks are proud of the achievement but focused on bigger goals.

Ohio fires coach Smith over ‘professional misconduct’

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By REED HOFFMANN

Rick Burkholder, vice president of sports medicine and performance for the Chiefs, talks to quarterback Patrick Mahome after Mahomes was injured during a game against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday in Kansas City, Mo. The Chiefs could be missing several big names beyond their star quarterback.

Rashee Rice and fellow wide receiver Tyquan Thornton are in the concussion protocol after taking vicious hits in the game against Los Angeles, while left tackle Jaylon Moore remains out with a knee injury and right tackle Jawaan Taylor is out with an elbow issue.

On defense, cornerback Trent McDuffie is still dealing with a knee injury and linebacker Leo Chenal with a shoulder problem.

None of those players practiced Wednesday.

“We’ll see how they roll timewise for the game,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.

As for Mahomes, he plans to return to Kansas City by Friday, where he will continue rehabbing with Burkholder’s staff. Leading the effort will be Julie Frymyer, his assistant trainer and top physical

therapist, whose name made headlines during the 2022-23 playoffs for her role in helping Mahomes overcome a severe high-ankle sprain without having to miss a game.

Frymyer was even featured alongside Mahomes recently in a State Farm insurance commercial.

“I think you guys know, as a player, his mindset is a little different than most,” Burkholder said. “He’s so regimented in what he does. He’s in here at 6 a.m. He’s the last guy out at night. He’ll take the rehab like that. When you add up all the little things, that allows the player to get back faster. They don’t heal up faster, they just get back to performance faster.”

Reid said he’s spoken daily with Mahomes since the injury in the closing minutes of Sunday’s game.

“He’s so positive right now,” Reid said. “Like Rick said, he attacked this thing the day of. You wouldn’t

expect anything less. ‘Get me up, get me going,’ he’s basically saying, an hour after the game. ‘Brace me up and let me go.’ It’s not one of those injuries, obviously, but that’s his mindset. I think he’ll do great with the rehab. He’s a pretty fast healer that way. And his attitude is 90% of things, how you go about it.

How you’re willing to push through the pain to get right.”

Minshew acknowledged a strange feeling walking through the team facility without Mahomes this week. But the two QBs have been in touch, and the veteran of 46 starts across seven NFL seasons is looking forward to Mahomes’ input the rest of the way.

“He’s been great, man. Soon as he’s been figuring things out, he’s been texting the QB room,” Minshew said. “Very positive. Trying to get us fired up. That dude still wants us to win. That’s what he cares about.”

Stakes high for Rams, Seahawks matchup

BY ANDREW DESTIN

Kincks won’t hang their championship banner

ä Los Angeles at Seattle.

ATHENS, Ohio — Football coach Brian Smith was fired Wednesday by Ohio University, which cited “serious professional misconduct.”

Smith had been placed on indefinite leave on Dec. 1. The university said it terminated Smith’s contract for cause following an administrative review that found him “engaging in serious professional misconduct and participating in activities that reflect unfavorably” on the school. It did not provide specifics.

The 45-year-old Smith was named the head coach on Dec. 18, 2024.

Defensive coordinator John Hauser will serve as interim coach for the Frisco Bowl on Dec. 23 against UNLV. The search for a permanent coach is underway.

Jacksonville State wins Salute to Veterans Bowl

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Caden Creel threw a touchdown pass, Deondre Johnson had six receptions for 101 yards, and Jacksonville State beat Troy 17-13 on Tuesday night to win the Salute to Veterans Bowl.

Andrew Paul’s 1-yard run off a direct snap gave the Gamecocks a 17-13 lead with 5:44 remaining. With about a minute left, Tucker Kilcrease drove Troy past midfield but his passattempt to DJ Epps on the final play was knocked down in the end zone.

Troy had won the last seven games between the teams but it was the first meeting since 2001 for the schools located just 162 miles apart. The Trojans are 33-29-2 in the series that dates to 1924.

Jacksonville State has played in a bowl game in each of its three seasons at the FBS level.

THURSDAy 7:15 P.M., PRIME.

second-year defensive tackle “probably singlehandedly won us the football game on defense.”

Murphy, a first-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft, has taken significant steps forward in 2025, tying for the team lead in sacks with seven and is tied for fourth in tackles for loss.

Defensive coordinator Aden Durde said he thinks Murphy has been playing at an elite level, especially on early downs.

“When he’s on,” Durde said, “he’s pretty much unblockable.”

Suspect secondary The Rams’ four-interception performance in their first meeting with the Seahawks was an unusually good game for a Los Angeles secondary that has frequently seemed to be this team’s weakest link. Cornerbacks Cobie Durant and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. couldn’t do much to slow the Lions’ star ASSOCIATED PRES PHOTO By LINDSEy WASSON receivers last week, and veteran Ahkello Witherspoon was Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold warms up before a game a healthy scratch. The Rams’ against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in Seattle. pass rush frequently makes the secondary’s job easier, but the second-most receiving yards partly because McVay has em- it couldn’t sack Darnold in the in the league. braced three-tight-end sets to a teams’ first meeting, and it “They’ve been winning games surprising degree, but receivers struggled to touch Jared Goff and playing at a really high level, Tutu Atwell and rookie Konata until the Lions fell behind last as good as anybody in the league,” Mumpfield should get a bump in week.

McVay said. “Like I said, it’s going their meager playing time if Adto be a great challenge for us.” ams sits. The Seahawks are the Anemic run game only 10-win team that has thrown The Seahawks’ run game was No third wheels to its tertiary wide receivers even nearly nonexistent last week as If Davante Adams’ hamstring in- less than the Rams this season, they totaled just three yards on jury keeps him out Thursday, the but Rashid Shaheed’s role has in- nine carries before halftime.

Rams will be without the league creased since his midseason arriv- Seattle finished with a seasonleader in touchdown receptions al, and Darnold frequently targets low 50 yards rushing; Kenneth Walker III had 17 yards on nine and quarterback Matthew Staf- his tight ends as well. carries, both figures his fewest ford’s favorite short-yardage tarof the season. get. Even worse, the Rams don’t Immovable Murphy “I think it’s got to improve really have a third wide receiver, Byron Murphy II drew high with Stafford throwing just 58 praise from coach Mike Macdon- pretty quick,” said Seahawks times all season to wideouts not ald after Sunday’s game, with offensive coordinator Klint named Adams or Nacua. That’s Macdonald saying he thought the Kubiak.

Dolphins waive veteran Judon, sign LB Woodard

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins waived pass rusher Matthew Judon and signed linebacker Jackson Woodard to the active roster off Houston’s practice squad on Wednesday.

Miami also signed linebacker Andre Carter II to the practice squad and released tight end Tanner Conner from it.

With the Dolphins being eliminated from postseason contention with Monday night’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, waiving Judon figures to give the veteran a chance to sign with a contender while allowing the Dolphins to turn their focus to the future with an eye toward younger talent.

Miami fell 28-15 at Pittsburgh, closing the door on its playoff hopes with three games left in the season.

Alcaraz ends seven-year partnership with coach

Top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz is parting ways with his longtime coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, the man who guided him to the pinnacle of men’s tennis during a remarkably successful seven-year partnership.

Alcaraz announced the decision to end their collaboration on Wednesday in a message on his social networks. Ferrero, in a separate statement, thanked his protege and said he wished they “could have continued.”

With Ferrero, who has coached the Spaniard since he was 15 years old, Alcaraz claimed six Grand Slams: two French Open titles, two Wimbledon crowns and two U.S. Opens.

With Ferrero, Alcaraz became the youngest player to reach No. 1 in the ATP rankings.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ 3C

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Saints won’t have 2 offensive cogs Sunday D’Marco-no!

BY MATTHEW PARAS AND LUKE JOHNSON Staff writers

The New Orleans Saints have been relatively healthy this season, but the injury bug might be catching up to them.

Coach Kellen Moore ruled out running back Devin Neal (ankle) and wide receiver Devaughn Vele (shoulder) ahead of Sunday’s game against the New York Jets as five players in total missed practice Wednesday.

Among them, running back Alvin Kamara still has not returned after missing the last three games with a knee and ankle injury. Guard Cesar Ruiz (ankle) and tackle Asim Richards (ankle) were also absent.

If Kamara cannot return this week, the Saints be espeNotebook would cially shorthanded at running back.

With Neal out, the team would be left with only two rushers (Audric Estime and Evan Hull) and utilityman Taysom Hill to run the ball against the Jets.

Vele’s injury is also notable as the second-year wideout had emerged as a key target for quarterback Tyler Shough in recent weeks. Dating back to a breakout performance in Miami, the 28-year-old has 16 catches for 202 yards in the last three games. But Vele got hurt in Sunday’s win over the Carolina Panthers and left the locker room in a sling.

Ruiz’s injury affects the offensive line. If the guard misses time, the Saints likely would turn to William Sherman, who has worked his way up the depth chart in recent weeks.

Safety Justin Reid (knee) and defensive lineman Nathan Shepherd (ankle/knee) were limited.

Demario Davis believes he has a “linebacker tree.”

Much like coaches get credit for having assistants hired away and thrive elsewhere, the New Orleans Saints linebacker has seen the same happen with his backups and those who have played beside him. There was Alex Anzalone, who stars for Detroit. Kaden Elliss became a consistent starter in Atlanta. And of course, there is Zack Baun — the former Saints third-round pick who became an All Pro and finished as a Defensive Player of the Year finalist last year with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Look at that linebacker tree, it’s pretty extensive,” Davis said with a grin last month. “I’d be willing to put that resume up against anybody.”

Davis now has another entry into the fold.

Former Saints linebacker D’Marco Jackson — who was most recently with the team in August — won NFC Defensive Player of the Week thanks to his performance against the Cleveland Browns. Now with the Chicago Bears, Jackson recorded seven tackles, two passes defended, a sack and an interception in a 31-3 win Sunday.

In Chicago, Jackson is playing again under Dennis Allen — the former Saints coach who is now the defensive coordinator for the Bears.

Jackson joined the Bears in late August when they claimed him off waivers after he failed to make the Saints’ 53-man roster.

The Saints drafted Jackson in the fifth round of the 2022 draft. He appeared in 27 games, mostly on special teams. Like Baun, he was stuck behind Davis and Pete Werner on the depth chart. He also dealt with injuries last year, as a calf and ankle injury limited him to 10 games. He

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Devaughn Vele warms up before the start of the game against the Carolina Panthers at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday. The Saints have ruled Vele out of Sunday’s game against the New york Jets. finished the season on injured reserve, missing the last four games.

This summer, Jackson got lost in the shuffle in a deep linebacker room. The team opted to keep rookie Danny Stutsman, Jaylan Ford and Isaiah Stalbird as the options behind Davis and Werner. Stutsman and Stalbird have carved out utility role while Ford is a key special-teams contributor.

Cook had a rough debut as a starter last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars, throwing three interceptions in a 48-20 loss. Negative plays have been a theme for him in his limited playing time this season, as he’s thrown five interceptions and taken nine sacks while playing 120 offensive snaps.

His only other playing time came against the Miami Dolphins in Week 14, when he completed 14 of 30 pass Rookie battle attempts for 163 yards.

Cook played college football at Shough won’t be the only rookie quarterback to start Sunday be- Missouri, where he threw for 8,591 tween the Saints and New York Jets. yards and 46 touchdowns in his Jets coach Aaron Glenn said Wednes- three seasons as a starter. day that undrafted rookie Brady Cook would earn his second straight Coach Ginn start. Glenn did not say which vetTed Ginn Jr. is adding a new chapter eran, Tyrod Taylor or Justin Fields, would to his football career.

The former Saints receiver was serve as the backup.

named the head coach of the Columbus Aviators, who will embark on their inaugural UFL season in March.

“Today marks a new milestone in my football journey,” Ginn said in a statement. “When I heard that the United Football League was going to have a football team in Columbus, I wanted to be a part of creating a new winning tradition in this city that is such an important part of my life.”

Ginn spent three of his 14 NFL seasons in New Orleans. A 2007 first-round pick, Ginn caught 100 passes for 1,417 yards and eight touchdowns from 2017-19 with the Saints.

Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@ theadvocate.com.

Dolphins turn to backup Eliminated Bengals focused Ewers over QB Tagovailoa on building momentum for ’26

BY ALANIS THAMES AND ROB MAADDI AP sportswriters

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was unsure what his future with the team will look like following Wednesday’s benching for rookie Quinn Ewers.

For now, the former firstround draft pick said he will contribute in whatever way he can despite his disappointment with how this season has gone.

The decision came after Tagovailoa struggled in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, which eliminated Miami (6-8) from postseason contention. Ewers, a seventh-round pick by Miami earlier this year, will make his first career start Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, McDaniel said Wednesday.

Zach Wilson, who has been Miami’s No. 2 quarterback most of the season, will back up Ewers.

Tagovailoa will be the emergency third quarterback.

“Naturally I’d say I’m disappointed,” Tagovailoa said. “I think it’s normal.

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C premier cover cornerback JayCee Horn with a slant route to tie the game with a 12-yard touchdown on third and 6.

“We just had to make a play at the end of the day,” Olave said. “(Horn had) inside leverage, but (Shough) still threw the ball and he trusted me to win. He threw a great ball, a great placement. We made the play.”

Shough said he had “full confidence” Olave would make the play.

“That’s my guy — that’s our guy,” Shough said. “He’s going to win one-on-one no matter what, if I give him a chance — and I’ve got to continue to give him more chances. He made a huge play, a great route and a great catch. We got the look that we wanted on that, and it was just an unbelievable, unbelievable job.”

It’s a normal human emotion. But outside of that, I’ve got to do my part. My role here right now is to help whoever the quarterback is going to be for this team.”

McDaniel said the decision came down to who he felt gave the Dolphins the best chance to win.

Tagovailoa threw for just 65 yards through three quarters on Monday, and the areas in which he has appeared to regress were evident again, from questionable decisionmaking to a lack of mobility that has hampered him throughout the season.

He leads the NFL with 15 interceptions and hasn’t played up to his contract after signing a four-year, $212.4 million extension in July 2024.

Ewers was 5 for 8 for 53 yards in his only action this season in a lopsided loss to the Browns in October. He was the 231st player selected in the draft last April after starting three seasons at Texas.

“I’m super thankful that the staff believes in me to go out there and give us an opportunity to go win an

Olave has proven he can stay healthy this year, which was the big question coming into 2025 after his 2024 season was cut short by multiple concussions. But while he’s stayed on the field, his play has been defined by peaks and valleys.

He needs six more catches to eclipse his career high and just 104 yards in the final three weeks to record his third 1,000-yard season of his career. He is without question the top playmaker for the Saints.

But Olave also has had his share of drops this year. By Pro Football Reference’s charting, he’s dropped five passes. By Olave’s personal standards, that number is higher.

Which makes Shough coming right back to Olave after the drop so important. It is an example of what coach Kellen Moore calls “getting back to neutral.”

“There’s good plays, there’s bad plays, now you’ve gotta get back to neutral; you’ve

NFL football game,” Ewers said.

Tagovailoa was drafted

by Miami after winning a national championship during a successful college career at Alabama, and he was expected to be the key piece that would end years of disappointment for the Dolphins, who have the league’s longest playoff-win drought.

The 27-year-old Tagovailoa had started every game this season but has a history of concussions.

He missed six games last season because of a concussion and hip injury after playing 17 games in 2023. He led the NFL in yards passing that season, helped the Dolphins win 11 games to earn a wild-card spot and earned a big contract that included $167.2 million guaranteed.

Tagovailoa declined to say whether he felt this decision would affect his future with the team.

It’s unclear if the Dolphins will stick with Ewers beyond Sunday. They close the season at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and at New England.

got to reset yourself each play,” Moore said. “It didn’t work out on second down, and then he responds a few plays later and gives him an opportunity as the next drive progresses.”

Olave had one catch on three targets through the first 55 minutes of game time.

When the Saints needed him late, he delivered five big receptions for 78 yards and a touchdown to help propel the winning effort. Afterward, the drop was an afterthought.

The start of the game was tough, Olave said, but he made a conscious effort not to let his emotions get in the way of his performance. The goal was to attack every play as if the ball was designed to come his way.

Eventually, it did. And Olave delivered.

“Somebody had to make a play,” Olave said. “I’m glad he kept coming to me.”

Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate. com.

BY CHARLIE GOLDSMITH Associated Press

CINCINNATI — For the first time since 2020, the Cincinnati Bengals are playing out the string in late December and are eliminated from postseason contention with multiple games left to play.

The Bengals’ 4-10 record is a frustrating reality for a team that entered the year with playoff ambitions.

“It comes down to being able to win when we need to and showing up in these big games and these big moments,” captain and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said. “I’ve been a part of those special teams. A lot of guys in this locker room were a part of it here in 2021 and 2022 being able to push to that point. It’s a lot of things that it’s going to take for us to get back in that position.”

While the Bengals are eliminated, coach Zac Taylor said that quarterback Joe Burrow will start the remaining games with an eye on competing.

Taylor said that there’s a lot that he’s hoping to get out of the Bengals’ final three games, beginning Sunday

in Miami. Burrow views the stretch run similarly.

“Any time you get the opportunity to strap up the pads and put the cleats on and go in front of the world and prove your worth through all the hard work that you’ve put in, prove that you’re improving week to week, that’s what we’re all trying to do,” Burrow said. “We’re trying to get better and better ourselves.

We have three opportunities to do that.”

Down the stretch, Burrow and the offense are looking to bounce back from last week’s shutout loss against the Baltimore Ravens. Also, there’s an opportunity to see continued progress from the young defense.

The Bengals have been relying on a lot of young pieces, including defensive end Myles Murphy, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins Jr., linebackers Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter, safety Jordan Battle, and cornerbacks DJ Turner and Dax Hill. While the Bengals defense was on pace for a historically bad season a month ago, the unit has rebounded.

“There are some things

they’re improving on that we’re going to build off of,” Taylor said. “Anyone watching the game can see that’s an improvement being made, and there are a lot of young players participating in that.”

Defensive coordinator Al Golden said that encouraging signs include the strong performance from the defense since the bye week in early November on third downs and in the red zone. He said that Murphy, Knight, Carter, Turner and Battle have all made meaningful strides over the last few weeks, and Golden’s growing confidence in the young defense has helped him build game plans with more advanced concepts.

Still, a defense that ranks last in the NFL in points allowed and yards allowed this season needs to get much better in the big picture.

“You get callous to (criticism),” Golden said. “You get to a point where you don’t take it personal. You try to be professional. I get it. Third and 7, they scored a touchdown. I would be critical, too. And if I was a fan, I’d be angry, too.”

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4C ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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Struggling Bucks insist no major changes necessary

BY STEVE MEGARGEE AP sportswriter

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU offensive lineman Carius Curne pushes back on Western Kentucky defensive lineman Elin Jones on Nov. 22 at Tiger Stadium. Curne intends to enter the portal when it officially opens on Jan. 2.

LSU players Curne, Hurley plan to enter the transfer portal

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

Curne is the 10th LSU player to announce his plans of entering the portal this offseason, and is the first offensive lineman to do so. LSU could bring back four of its starters on the line from this past season, even if that likely won’t be the case given the unit’s struggles.

Hurley did not appear in a game in two seasons with the Tigers. After reclassifying into the 2024 recruiting class, he was the No. 25 quarterback in the nation and a four-star recruit, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.

He attended Trinity Christian Academy in Florida and was the No. 49 player in the state.

He stepped away from the team for personal reasons ahead of LSU’s matchup against Alabama and did not return to the team for the remainder of the regular season. Without Hurley, LSU’s lone healthy scholarship quarterback over the final three weeks was sophomore Michael Van Buren.

Van Buren is now LSU’s lone scholarship quarterback heading into next season. LSU did not sign a quarterback from the high school ranks for a second consecutive cycle. The last quarterback it signed out of high school was Hurley.

A pair of LSU offensive players let it be known Wednesday they plan to enter the transfer portal.

LSU freshman offensive lineman Carius Curne intends to enter the portal when it officially opens on Jan. 2, according to On3 Sports. Redshirt freshman quarterback Colin Hurley also plans on entering the transfer portal, according to On3.

Curne started five games for the Tigers at both tackle spots this season, filling in for an injured Weston Davis against Ole Miss in Week 5 before taking the starting job at left tackle for a four-game stretch after redshirt sophomore Tyree Adams suffered an ankle injury.

Curne allowed three sacks and 11 quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

He played 305 snaps on offense, which was sixth on the team among offensive linemen.

He was a four-star recruit and the No. 71 player in the nation, per the 247Sports Composite rankings, in the Class of 2025.

He was one of four freshman offensive linemen LSU signed to its 2025 recruiting class, but the only one among them who earned any Email Koki Riley at playing time. koki.riley@theadvocate.com.

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers remains confident in his team and doesn’t plan on making any major changes in the wake of a 45-point loss to Brooklyn that matched the Nets’ most lopsided win in franchise history.

The Bucks (11-16) haven’t won two straight games since Oct. 2830 as they struggle to deal with the absence of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has been out for the last two weeks with a right calf strain.

“We like our team,” Rivers said Wednesday after practice. “I really like this team. We’re not playing well. We’re not playing well for a lot of reasons. You don’t recreate the wheel. You just don’t.

Teams that do that, then they fail.

I’m just being honest. I’ve been around this long enough.”

Milwaukee won four of its first five games but has gone 7-15 since.

The Bucks haven’t played since falling 127-82 at Brooklyn on Sunday.

“It was just an embarrassing game for us, at the end of the day,” guard Ryan Rollins said.

BY CHARLES SALZER

Prep report

Contributing writer

Wednesday

Madison Prep was looking to contain Istrouma star Eryn Brown when they squared off Wednesday night at Capitol High. Brown got her points, but none of the other Indians were a factor in the game.

Sparked by four players in double figures, Madison Prep more than offset Brown’s output of 21 points as the Chargers rolled to a 69-29 win.

Madison Prep (8-3) led 44-17 at halftime, and the game went to a running clock after the Chargers scored the first 13 points of the third quarter.

“A game like this is just a good opportunity to keep working,” Madison Prep coach Dwayne Hayes said. “Brown is one of the top players in our area, but for us, you just keep working.”

Hayes said the Chargers wanted to make it difficult for Istrouma to get into its offensive sets.

“That was the plan,” Hayes said.

“They have a young lady who’s capable of scoring points in bunches.

She can score 40 points easy, so we just slowed the game up and put a little pressure on them.”

Madison Prep opened the game with its offense in gear. The Chargers got first-quarter 3-pointers from Neariah Garnette, Kenli Addison and Gabby Dotson. In all, Madison Prep had eight players score in the half as the Chargers amassed a large cushion.

Dotson and Addison, a freshman, led Madison Prep with 15 points apiece. Garnette and Auri Ray also came up big with 12 points each.

Istrouma (9-5) scored only five points in the first and third quarters. Brown’s most productive quarter was the second, when she made three 3-pointers and scored 14 points.

For Madison Prep, the game turned out to be a break from a bru-

Continued from page 1C

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU center Mike Nwoko dunks over UNO center Churchill Abass in the second quarter on Nov. 10 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. able to show last year,” Nwoko said. “I definitely wanted to come to somewhere where they believed in me. And that’s all (LSU has) done, just instill confidence in me.”

LSU assistant coach Jalen Courtney-Williams has long been a fan of Nwoko. CourtneyWilliams, a former LSU player, recruited Nwoko in high school when he worked at Creighton. He

The time off since has given the Bucks an opportunity to practice on back-to-back days, a rarity during an NBA regular season. The Bucks say they’ve used that time to try to make sure they correct what went wrong in Brooklyn.

Milwaukee returns to action Thursday by hosting the Toronto Raptors.

“I don’t think there’s many losses in NBA history like the one we just had last game,” guard Kevin Porter said. “I think a loss like that wakes

Madison Prep girls roll past Istrouma

LSU MEN

from the field in 19.9 minutes.

“Great size and physicality, but he’s more skilled than I expected, quite frankly,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said. “He finishes well around the basket, finishes with either hand. He’s been a great rim threat as a ball-screen-androll player. You can’t say this about every player, but he really can be as good as he wants to be.”

The journey to becoming an ambidextrous jump-hook artist and an alley-oop magnet for LSU goes back to Nwoko’s days playing in the cold of Canada and his dad’s garage workouts.

He returned to the United States in eighth grade and didn’t play much during his high school freshman and sophomore seasons at St. Thomas More in Connecticut because of growing pains and the COVID-19 pandemic. He kept training and grew 5 inches to 6-foot-8 during that time frame.

A bigger Nwoko retained his explosiveness. Leonard Nwoko said foods such as fufu and jollof rice that he ate in his formative years in a Nigerian household might have helped. He also said that the strength to bully opponents probably comes from his maternal grandmother.

“My wife’s mom, she’s very strong. I heard when she was in high school, she used to beat up the boys,” Leonard Nwoko said with a laugh.

Mike Nwoko compiled more than 40 Division I offers, mostly during his junior year at The Burlington School in North Carolina and senior season at Prolific Prep in California after he followed his coach to his new job.

Nwoko’s college career before LSU did not allow him to show he’s more than a dunker.

“I felt like I had a lot more to show in my game than what I was

AP PHOTO By HEATHER KHALIFA

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers looks on during the first half of a game against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday in New york.

you up, and you don’t ever want to be on the end of that stick. Having those days (off) and having to sit on that loss definitely makes it worse.

I think we all had an eye opener.”

But they apparently haven’t spent this time off pondering wholesale changes to the scheme or lineup.

“Yeah, we want to do things better,” Rivers said. “We want to tweak things. We like what we run. We like our defensive package overall.

We’ve just got to do it better. We’ve got to take care of the ball. But we like the parts of this team, and that has not changed. This is not, ‘OK, guys, we’re five games under .500, let’s blow it all up.’ This is not where we’re at. We’re not even thinking in those terms.”

Milwaukee’s slow start has led to increased speculation about Antetokounmpo’s future, though Rivers has disputed an ESPN report that the nine-time All-NBA selection was talking with Bucks officials about whether he’s best suited to stay in Milwaukee or get traded.

The Bucks have gone 2-8 when they don’t have Antetokounmpo, who was out with a left adductor strain before injuring his calf.

recruited him twice more in the transfer portal and landed him last offseason, believing Nwoko could be an important piece of an NCAA Tournament puzzle.

Nwoko is still learning how to avoid foul trouble.

“It’s not lost on us that it’s a brand-new role,” Courtney-Williams said. “Up until now, he’s been a role player, rebounder, dunker.

Boys basketball Ascension Christian 51, West St. John 43 Collegiate Baton Rouge 82, North Iberville 56 East Ascension 74, Bogalusa 16 Girls basketball Livonia 65, Capitol 4 Madison Prep 69, Istrouma 29

“He wasn’t always relied on to be a game finisher ... and now, it’s the complete opposite. So that’s requiring different parts of him that he’s still kind of getting used to. And it’s a challenge that he’s really doing a good job at embracing.”

Music, who has worked with Nwoko since December of his high school junior season, knows that Nwoko is prepared for the moment.

The 31-year-old, who also trains other Canadian products such as Florida’s Xaivian Lee and Xavier’s Jovan Milicevic, said he thought Nwoko was capable of doing more early in his career. That belief was reinforced by a strong performance at the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit, a prestigious high school allstar game featuring some of the best American and international players.

Nwoko had 17 points and eight rebounds for the world team.

Some current NBA players he shared the court with were Ron Holland, Isaiah Collier, Yves Missi and Zaccharie Risacher, the fi rst pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

“I kind of did myself justice, just going out there, just competing the hardest I could,” Nwoko said. “I just showed myself that I could compete with anyone in this world.”

When Music visited Nwoko at Miami and Mississippi State, he reminded Nwoko that he has the ability to thrive against elite competition. That pep talk will happen again later this season and be accompanied with the usual unfiltered truth about his game.

Leonard Nwoko also will tell his son the truth, but their daily conversations center more on his son’s enjoyment in Baton Rouge.

“Every time he calls, he talks about the team, coaches, he’s extremely happy with his teammates,” the older Nwoko said.

“When you’re happy, good things happen.”

tal early season schedule. The Chargers have played John Curtis, rated No. 1 in the Division I select power ratings, and University High, which is No. 1 in Division II select.

It doesn’t stop there.

The Chargers also have played the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in Division I nonselect, Zachary and Slidell.

“All the teams we’ve played have been doing pretty good,” Hayes said. “We beat U-High and lost to Zachary, Slidell and John Curtis. All three of those teams were in the tournament last year, and they’ll be back in it this year. We try to play a good schedule to prepare for the postseason.”

That preparation will be important for a Madison Prep roster that allows Hayes to go nine players deep in his rotation. Nine of Madison Prep’s 11-person roster scored against Istrouma.

“We’ve added some players and they’ve helped with the rotation,” Hayes said. “We’ve had some players working hard and practicing hard. We’re looking forward to getting the chemistry all the way together.”

LSU WOMEN Continued from page 1C

Mulkey said. “We’re just not there yet. I don’t know when we will get there, but certainly every day in practice, it’s just emphasized.”

After LSU beat Duke on Dec. 4, Mulkey emphasized transition defense. She said the Tigers let the Blue Devils beat them down the floor and score easy buckets too many times, especially in the first quarter.

Duke eventually finished with 77 points on 50% shooting, becoming only the third Mulkey-era regularseason nonconference LSU opponent to convert at least half of its shots. That scoring output is still the Blue Devils’ best in games they’ve played against power-conference teams.

“We were just looking,” Mulkey said. “We didn’t know who we were guarding. All of that was perfect stuff to teach. Just turn it on, slowmo it and make them tell you what they should’ve done. It was an outstanding film session.”

LSU since has given up 62 points to UNO, 61 to Louisiana Tech and only 33 to Morgan State. Those three teams turned the ball over 72 total times and combined to shoot just 29% from the field.

The Tigers have held their opponents to 35 or fewer points five times since Mulkey’s tenure began in 2021. Three of those instances have come this season in games against Southeastern Louisiana (26), Washington State (35) and Morgan State (33). Those teams are a combined 4-29 this season.

LSU soon will play a string of NCAA Tournament teams, starting Jan. 1 at home against No. 12 Kentucky. Mulkey plans to keep stressing the need to improve on the defensive end of the floor until then.

“They’ve got to keep people in front of them,” Mulkey said. “They can’t keep giving up straight-line drives. They can’t keep giving up face-cuts. It’s all of them. We have to get better defensively.”

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ 5C

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Southern coach Faulk’s contract details revealed

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Marshall Faulk will earn $1.2 million over three years as the head football coach of Southern, according to his contract obtained by The Advocate.

The Southern board of supervisors also will have the option to extend the agreement by one year.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame running back turned first-year coach will earn $400,000 per year.

He is among the highest-paid coaches in HBCU football, tying Michael Vick’s annual salary at Norfolk State. Faulk, who signed the term sheet Tuesday, also has several performance-based incentives.

Faulk can make an additional $10,000 each if these items occur: Southern is the Southwestern Athletic Conference West Division champion, is the undefeated SWAC West Division champion, defeats an FBS opponent, wins the Bayou Classic and is SWAC Coach of the Year.

Faulk can earn an additional $20,000 for each of these other incentives: Southern is the overall SWAC champion and is the undefeated overall SWAC champion. Faulk’s biggest incentive is if Southern wins the Celebration Bowl, earning him an additional $50,000. If the team appears in the bowl game, he’ll get $25,000.

If the university nets between $750,000 and $1 million in seasonticket sales, Faulk will receive an extra $5,000. If the sales exceed $1 million, then he’ll earn $10,000.

Faulk’s final incentives are linked

PHOTO By APRIL BUFFINGTON

New Southern football coach Marshall Faulk speaks at his introductory news conference on Dec. 1. to helping the athletic director with fundraising efforts that aren’t part of current fundraising activities.

He can receive 20% of the total amount that is raised and use it as additional income.

If Southern fires Faulk without cause in the first or second year, it’ll owe him a total of $400,000 for the remaining term of his agreement. If his contract is terminated in the third year without cause, he’ll receive $75,000.

Faulk’s contract does not detail how much money is available to pay his coaching staff. In the section on coaching staff, it states he’ll have the authority to recommend employment offers that are to be approved by the athletic director and chancellor.

At Faulk’s first news conference on Dec. 1, he was asked how far along he is in forming his coaching staff. He didn’t reveal any names but explained that progress had

been made.

“Got a nice piece of it,” Faulk said. “We got to submit the names.

They got to do the vetting. So pretty much 90 percent of the staff is put together already. It’s just, we don’t want to release names, just in case (something changes). But, yeah, looking forward to working with the guys that we’re going to have on staff.”

When Faulk was asked about the possibility of hiring coaches from

the 2025 Southern staff, he said he doesn’t know whether he will.

His only coaching job before leading Southern was as the running backs coach for Colorado (3-9) under coach Deion Sanders in 2025. The team averaged 125.6 yards rushing per game. While that was second-to-last in the Big 12, it was an improvement from the previous season’s 65.2 yards per game for the Buffaloes.

Faulk replaces Terrence Graves, who was fired Oct. 20 after leading the Jaguars to a 1-6 record during his second season. His last game was a 24-3 homecoming loss to Prairie View. Southern named co-offensive coordinator Fred McNair the interim coach. Southern (2-10) ended the season by beating Grambling 28-27 in the 52nd Bayou Classic.

Faulk, 52, is the latest in a trend of former NFL standouts getting their coaching start at the HBCU level. Two first-time coaches in the 2025 season were Vick at Norfolk State (1-11) and DeSean Jackson at Delaware State (8-4).

Faulk was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2011 after a 12year career, notching 12,279 yards rushing, 6,875 yards receiving and 136 total touchdowns.

Faulk won Super Bowl XXIV with the then-St. Louis Rams during the 1999 season and was The Associated Press MVP that year.

He is a seven-time Pro Bowler and a three-time All-Pro. He attended Carver High School in New Orleans and then starred at San Diego State before playing for the Indianapolis Colts and the Rams in the NFL.

SCOREBOARD Odds

at OKLAHOMA STATE at TCU

NHL

NFL Thursday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U LA Rams 1½ 1½ (44½)

College Football

UNDERDOG at SEATTLE

Thursday

XBox Bowl Frisco, Texas FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Arkansas St 2½ 1½ (54½) Miz St

Friday

Myrtle Beach Bowl Conway, S.C. FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG W. Michigan 1½ 3½ (49½) Kenne. St Gasparilla Bowl Tampa, Fla. FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG NC State 1½ 4½ (58½) Memphis College Football Playoff First Round — Game 1 Norman, Okla.

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Alabama 2½ 1½ (40½)Oklahoma

Saturday

College Football Playoff First Round — Game 2 College Station, Texas FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Texas A&M 3½ 3½ (51½) Miami(FL) College Football Playoff First Round — Game 3 Oxford, Miss.

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Ole Miss 16½ 17½ (56½) Tulane College Football Playoff First Round — Game 4 Eugene, Ore. FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Oregon 20½ 21½ (49½)J. Madison

Monday

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Boise, Idaho FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Utah State 1½ 2½ (52½) Wash. St

Tuesday

Boca Raton Bowl Boca Raton, Fla. FAVORITE OPEN Louisville 9½ New Orleans Bowl New Orleans FAVORITE OPEN W. Kentucky 3½ Frisco Bowl Frisco, Texas FAVORITE OPEN UNLV 3½

Wednesday

Hawai’i Bowl Honolulu FAVORITE OPEN Cal 1½

NBA

28½ 24½

TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 4½ (55½) Sou. Miss TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 4½ (62½) Ohio

TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 1½ (54½) Hawaii

Thursday

FAVORITE LINE Atlanta 5½ New York 4½ Miami 6 at OKC 15½ at S. ANTONIO 15½ Toronto 5½ Houston 9½ Detroit 5½ LA Lakers 6½ Golden State 1½ at DENVER 7½ at PORTLAND 9

O/U UNDERDOG (236½)at CHARLOTTE (224½) at INDIANA (227½) at BROOKLYN (223½) LA Clippers (241½) Washington (220½) at MILW. (233½) at NO (230½) at DALLAS (243½) at UTAH (230½) at PHOENIX (235½) Orlando (238½) Sacramento

COLLEGE BASKETBALL Thursday

FAVORITE at C. SOUTHERN at APP. ST. Bradley at DAVIDSON at GEORGIA at MURRAY STATE

LINE 10½ 3½ 3½ 5½ 35½ 7½

UNDERDOG North Florida Coas. Car. at INDIANA ST. Temple W. Carolina Drake

Las Vegas at Houston, 3:25 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Detroit, 3:25 p.m.

New England at Baltimore, 7:20 p.m.

Thursday’s games

San Francisco at Indianapolis, 7:15 p.m.

Women’s national scores

Monday’s game

Thursday

FAVORITE LINE Minnesota -120 at WASHINGTON -161 at OTTAWA -180 at MONTREAL -191 Edmonton -144 at TAMPA BAY -189 at BUFFALO -137 New York -143 at CALGARY -171 Dallas -217

UNDERDOG at COLUMBUS Toronto Pittsburgh Chicago at BOSTON Los Angeles Philadelphia at ST. LOUIS Seattle at SAN JOSE

LINE +100 +135 +149 +158 +120 +156 +115 +120 +143 +178

Pro football NFL East

College football Tuesday’s game

Salute to Veterans Bowl Montgomery, Ala. Jacksonville State 17, Troy 13

Wednesday’s game

Cure Bowl Orlando, Fla. Old Dominion 24, South Florida 10 68 Ventures Bowl Mobile, Alabama UL vs. Delaware Xbox Bowl Frisco, Texas Arkansas State vs. Missouri State, 8 p.m.

W 11 10 6 3

L 3 4 8 11

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .786 .714 .429 .214

PF 382 411 296 276

PA 276 324 324 397

W 10 9 8 2

L 4 5 6 12

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .714 .643 .571 .143

PF 376 323 392 225

PA 292 228 303 394

California Baptist 75, Southern 67

W 8 7 4 3

L 6 7 10 11

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .571 .500 .286 .214

PF 336 335 314 226

PA 326 320 437 332

Thursday’s games

W 12 10 6 2

L 2 4 8 12

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .857 .714 .429 .143

PF 342 315 328 196

PA 261 284 268 363

W 9 6 4 2

L 5 7 10 12

T 0 1 0 0

Pct .643 .464 .286 .143

PF 320 407 291 300

PA 271 420 375 396

W 7 7 5 4

L 7 7 9 10

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .500 .500 .357 .286

PF 327 264 281 226

PA 354 317 341 332

T 0 1 0 0

Pct .714 .679 .571 .429

PF 365 348 428 289

PA 338 281 345 307

W L T x-L.A. Rams 11 3 0 Seattle 11 3 0 San Francisco 10 4 0 e-Arizona 3 11 0 e-eliminated from playoffs x-clinched playoff spot

Pct .786 .786 .714 .214

PF 420 405 344 302

PA 261 242 293 388

New England Buffalo e-Miami e-N.Y. Jets South Jacksonville Houston Indianapolis e-Tennessee North Pittsburgh Baltimore e-Cincinnati e-Cleveland West x-Denver L.A. Chargers e-Kansas City e-Las Vegas

NATIONAL CONFERENCE Philadelphia Dallas e-Washington e-N.Y. Giants South

Tampa Bay Carolina e-Atlanta e-New Orleans North Chicago Green Bay Detroit e-Minnesota West

W 10 9 8 6

L 4 4 6 8

Monday’s game

Pittsburgh 28, Miami 15

Thursday’s game

L.A. Rams at Seattle, 7:15 p.m.

Saturday’s games

Philadelphia at Washington, 4 p.m.

Green Bay at Chicago, 7:20 p.m.

Sunday’s games

Buffalo at Cleveland, noon Cincinnati at Miami, noon Kansas City at Tennessee, noon L.A. Chargers at Dallas, noon Minnesota at N.Y. Giants, noon N.Y. Jets at New Orleans, noon Tampa Bay at Carolina, noon Atlanta at Arizona, 3:05 p.m.

Jacksonville at Denver, 3:05 p.m.

Sacramento at Portland, 9 p.m.

UIW at UNO, 6:30 p.m.

Houston Christian at Nicholls, 6:30 p.m.

Southern at Baylor, 7 p.m.

Pro hockey NHL Conference glance EASTERN CONFERENCE

EAST

Thursday’s game

AMERICAN CONFERENCE

East TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 7½ (44½) Toledo

UMKC Oral Roberts

College basketball State men’s schedule Tuesday’s games

Wednesday’s games

Nicholls 79, Houston Christian 64 Tulane 61, Louisiana Tech 53 South Alabama 96, UL-Monroe 92, OT UL at Southern Miss, 7:30 p.m.

Grambling vs. Norfolk State at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m.

Friday’s games

Grambling vs. Hampton, at Atlanta, GA., 4 p.m.

Southeastern at LSU, 7 p.m.

Late Tuesday

California Baptist 75, Southern 67 SOUTHERN (4-7)

Bell 1-1 0-0 2, Jones 4-10 2-3 10, Amboree 6-16 1-2 18, Hardy 2-3 0-0 5, Manning 0-6 4-4 4, Barnes 2-10 0-0 5, Oshodi 1-6 3-3 5, Dixon 2-2 3-6 7, Abdelgowad 4-4 2-2 11, Dobuol 0-0 0-0 0, Magee 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-58 15-20 67.

CALIFORNIA BAPTIST (9-3)

Malcolm 1-3 0-2 3, Ndong 3-5 5-6 11, D.Daniels 10-21 6-6 30, Muller 2-13 0-0 6, Williams 2-9 5-6 10, Henige 1-1 1-2 3, Jackson 1-5 0-0 3, D’Amelio 1-1 4-4 6, Bowser 1-2 0-0 3.

Totals 22-60 21-26 75.

Halftime—California Baptist 34-32. 3-Point Goals—Southern 8-23 (Amboree 5-10, Abdelgowad 1-1, Hardy 1-1, Barnes 1-4, Oshodi 0-3, Manning 0-4), California Baptist 10-33 (D.Daniels 4-10, Muller 2-8, Bowser 1-2, Malcolm 1-2, Jackson 1-5, Williams 1-6). Fouled Out—Manning. Rebounds—Southern 33 (Dixon 8), California Baptist 37 (Ndong 11).

Assists—Southern 6 (Amboree 3), California Baptist 14 (D.Daniels 6). Total Fouls—Southern 20, California Baptist 15. A—2,425 (6,000).

Men’s national scores Thursday’s games MIDWEST

La Salle 65, Delaware 48 Marshall 75, Appalachian State 62 New Hampshire 69, Central Connecticut 66 Stony Brook 75, Georgian Court 50

SOUTH

Charlotte 81, Winthrop 58 Clemson 78, Charleston Southern 52 East Carolina 80, Wofford 59 Florida 76, Florida A&M 51 Louisville 76, Eastern Kentucky 51 Mercer 91, Erskine 37 North Carolina Central 61, Queens 51 Ole Miss 102, Mississippi Valley State 34 Rice 71, Grambling State 47 Troy 81, Old Dominion 59 USC Upstate 112, Agnes Scott 39 West Georgia 116, Wesleyan College 21

MIDWEST

Saint Louis 74, Jacksonville State 54

SOUTHWEST

Texas Tech 76, Jacksonville 40

FAR WEST

North Dakota State 82, UT Rio Grande Valley 60 Utah Tech 69, Chicago State 55

Pro basketball NBA Conference glance EASTERN CONFERENCE W 21 18 16 15 15 14 15 15 14 11 10 8 7 6 4

L 5 7 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 16 15 18 18 20 20

Pct .808 .720 .593 .577 .577 .560 .556 .556 .538 .407 .400 .308 .280 .231 .167

GB — 2½ 5½ 6 6 6½ 6½ 6½ 7 10½ 10½ 13 13½ 15 16

W Oklahoma City 24 Denver 19 L.A. Lakers 18 San Antonio 18 Houston 16 Minnesota 17 Phoenix 14 Golden State 13 Memphis 12 Utah 10 Portland 10 Dallas 10 Sacramento 6 L.A. Clippers 6 New Orleans 5

L 2 6 7 7 7 9 12 14 14 15 16 17 20 20 22

Pct .923 .760 .720 .720 .696 .654 .538 .481 .462 .400 .385 .370 .231 .231 .185

GB — 4½ 5½ 5½ 6½ 7 10 11½ 12 13½ 14 14½ 18 18 19½

Detroit New York Toronto Boston Orlando Philadelphia Cleveland Atlanta Miami Milwaukee Chicago Charlotte Brooklyn Indiana Washington

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Ark-PB 138, Champion Christian College 73 Central Arkansas 102, Kansas Christian 47 Rice 94, Southwestern Christian 47

State women’s schedule Tuesday’s games

LSU 91, Morgan State 33 Incarnate Word 54, Nicholls 52

Wednesday’s games

Arkansas State 79, UL-Monroe 58 Rice 71, Grambling State 47 Alabama 81, Tulane 52 Texas State 62, UL 55 Louisiana Tech 70, Central Arkansas 55 Northwestern State at Texas, n

GP 32 34 34 32 33 34 33 33 32 33 32 35 32 32 33 32

W 21 19 19 17 18 20 18 17 14 18 17 16 15 15 14 14

L OT Pts 9 2 44 12 3 41 12 3 41 9 6 40 11 4 40 14 0 40 12 3 39 12 4 38 9 9 37 14 1 37 13 2 36 15 4 36 12 5 35 13 4 34 13 6 34 14 4 32

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Tuesday’s games

Wednesday’s games Florida 3, Los Angeles 2 Utah 4, Detroit 1 Carolina at Nashville, n Winnipeg at St. Louis, n New Jersey at Vegas, n

Thursday’s games

Chicago 127. Cleveland 111 Memphis at Minnesota, n

BASEBALL

Thursday’s games

Atlanta at Charlotte, 6 p.m.

New York at Indiana, 6 p.m.

Miami at Brooklyn, 6:30 p.m.

Houston at New Orleans, 7 p.m.

L.A. Clippers at Oklahoma City, 7 p.m.

Toronto at Milwaukee, 7 p.m.

Washington at San Antonio, 7 p.m.

Detroit at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.

Golden State at Phoenix, 8 p.m.

L.A. Lakers at Utah, 8 p.m.

Orlando at Denver, 8 p.m.

GA 90 111 96 89 88 106 88 117 102 103 101 95 104 104 115 109

Vancouver 3, N.Y. Rangers 0 Columbus 4, Anaheim 3, OT Detroit 3, N.Y. Islanders 2 Toronto 3, Chicago 2 Boston 4, Utah 1 Philadelphia 4, Montreal 1 Edmonton 6, Pittsburgh 4 Minnesota 5, Washington 0 San Jose 6, Calgary 3 Colorado 5, Seattle 3

New York 124, San Antonio 113 (Championship Game)

Wednesday’s games

GF 108 107 102 96 106 113 106 106 103 97 103 89 105 101 100 98

GP W L OT Pts GF GA Colorado 33 24 2 7 55 133 77 Dallas 34 22 7 5 49 115 90 Minnesota 34 20 9 5 45 104 87 Anaheim 34 20 12 2 42 121 112 Vegas 31 16 6 9 41 96 90 Edmonton 34 16 12 6 38 116 118 Los Angeles 32 14 9 9 37 84 86 San Jose 34 17 14 3 37 102 113 Utah 35 16 16 3 35 107 105 Winnipeg 32 15 15 2 32 98 99 Chicago 33 13 14 6 32 93 101 St. Louis 34 12 15 7 31 86 123 Seattle 31 12 13 6 30 77 98 Nashville 32 13 15 4 30 92 111 Calgary 34 13 17 4 30 87 103 Vancouver 33 13 17 3 29 92 112 NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

Chicago at Montreal, 6 p.m.

Edmonton at Boston, 6 p.m.

Los Angeles at Tampa Bay, 6 p.m.

Minnesota at Columbus, 6 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Ottawa, 6 p.m.

Toronto at Washington, 6 p.m.

Philadelphia at Buffalo, 6:30 p.m.

N.Y. Rangers at St. Louis, 7 p.m.

Seattle at Calgary, 8 p.m.

Dallas at San Jose, 9 p.m.

Tuesday’s games

Northern Iowa 60, UIC 54

SOUTHWEST

Carolina Detroit N.Y. Islanders Philadelphia Washington Boston Tampa Bay Montreal Pittsburgh New Jersey Florida N.Y. Rangers Toronto Ottawa Columbus Buffalo

Transactions Major League Baseball American League BALTIMORE ORIOLES — Sent C Maverick Handley outright to Norfolk (IL). Agreed to terms on 2026 minor league contracts with RHP Albert Suarez and INF Willy Vasquez.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX — Named Bobby Hearn assistant pitching coach, Jose Leger first base and outfield coach, Chris Denorfia major league field coordinator, Bennett Markinson bullpen catcher and Tony Medina major league assistant.

THURSDAY’S FAIR GROUNDS ENTRIES Post Time:12:45PM

First Race, $14,000, Claiming $5,000, 3 yo’s & up, F & M (fillies and mares) Six Furlongs

01 02 03 04 05

Madame Markievicz Menty B Little Bit O Storm Slim Causeway Maylen

(C Hernandez122 (B Curtis119 (M Pedroza, Jr.119 (J Mudd119 (D Cannon121

3-1 5-2 7-2 3-1 4-1

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Mallory Unbridled Factor of Time Ostrica Becky’sgottahaveit Sweet Thirteen Back Street Baby Moneyforwednesday Snazzy Gal Delightful Halo Vanna G

(C McMahon121 (M Murrill118 (J Loveberry118 (C Hernandez118 (H Rea116 (I Castillo121 (E Nieves118 (M Pedroza, Jr.118 (S Vives121 (J Mudd113

10-1 9-2 6-1 3-1 12-1 5-2 20-1 10-1 20-1 12-1

01 02 03

American Vision Sand Cast C Mac Da Boss

(J Rodriguez118 (A Concepcion118 (P Lopez118

8-1 4-1 3-1

Second Race, $20,000, Claiming $25,000, 3 yo’s & up, F & M (fillies and mares) One Mile

Third Race, $18,000, Claiming $15,000, 3 yo’s & up One Mile Seventy Yards

04 05 06

Boy Boy No Take Backs Byword

(J Graham118 (M Murrill120 (D Cannon118

5-2 8-1 3-1

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Oh Baby Lost Art Fade to Gold C C Fanta C Cookie Brookie Mischievous Cindy Clearly My Star Oldfashlovesong It’s Just Simple Miss Super Mo

(C McMahon120 (M Pedroza, Jr.120 (J Ortiz120 (P Lopez120 (J Loveberry120 (M Murrill120 (I Castillo120 (B Curtis120 (D Cannon120 (A Concepcion120

20-1 4-1 9-5 9-2 6-1 6-1 8-1 15-1 20-1 3-1

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08

Humor Me Boy Jus Surprise Me Remi Shot Gun Shack Such a Pickle Alwaysfreaky Mister Banderas First Samaritan

(J Mudd117 (J Graham122 (M Pedroza, Jr.122 (A Concepcion122 (C McMahon122 (J Riquelme122 (J Ortiz124 (C Hernandez122

12-1 12-1 5-1 9-2 10-1 8-1 7-5 6-1

Fourth Race, $54,000, Maiden special weight, 2 yo, F (fillies) One Mile

Fifth Race, $54,000, Maiden special weight, 3 yo’s & up Six Furlongs

Sixth Race, $22,000, Maiden Claiming $30,000, 2 yo, F (fillies) One Mile

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13

Improve Position Birkin Elegance Flower Girl Plantain Gatsby’sgreenlight Cloudy Lass Lady Blast Tia Lupe Clearly Authentic Truly an Honor Danzig’s Dora Honor Azteca Amazing Lady

(M Pedroza, Jr.120 (D Cannon120 (C McMahon117 (J Riquelme120 (E Nieves120 (J Loveberry120 (A Concepcion120 (P Lopez120 (J Ortiz120 (B Curtis120 (M Murrill120 (J Graham120 (C Hernandez120

20-1 20-1 10-1 20-1 12-1 9-2 6-1 12-1 6-1 6-1 10-1 4-1 12-1

01 02 03 04 05 06 07

Carambaso Cultivate Save the Trees Island Cruiser Brodeur Built Honky Tonk Highway

(E Nieves118 (J Ortiz118 (P Lopez122 (M Murrill120 (M Pedroza, Jr.118 (J Loveberry118 (A Concepcion120

10-1 4-1 9-2 8-1 6-1 7-5 10-1

Seventh Race, $56,000, AOC $50,000, 3 yo’s & up Six Furlongs

Eighth Race, $56,000, AOC $50,000,

3 yo’s & up Five And A Half Furlongs 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

Vacation Dance Monsieur Candy News At Nine Baxley Covey (GB) Go Captain Warheart Petcoff Mister Mmmmm Higgins Boat Fit to Fly That’s Right

(M Pedroza, Jr.122 (J Loveberry117 (I Castillo120 (D Cannon120 (C Hernandez120 (C McMahon120 (A Concepcion118 (B Curtis120 (M Murrill120 (J Ortiz120 (E Nieves120 (P Lopez120

9-2 10-1 12-1 10-1 20-1 8-1 12-1 6-1 6-1 7-2 20-1 10-1

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

Smash It Dapper Moon Speightful One Young Tuscan Voila Magic Avery’s Gem Late September Sounds Like Power Pop’s Peppysteper Myglorybee Sono

(B Curtis118 (B Hernandez, Jr.118 (D Magnon120 (A Concepcion120 (P Lopez120 (J Rodriguez120 (M Pedroza, Jr.120 (I Castillo120 (J Ortiz120 (E Nieves120 (J Loveberry120

7-2 4-1 20-1 20-1 5-2 10-1 12-1 8-1 10-1 20-1 20-1

Ninth Race, $56,000, AOC $20,000, 3 yo’s & up Six Furlongs

6C ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

lll

Ex-DB Walker attends practice at Tulane

BY GUERRY SMITH Contributing writer

Tulane coach Jon Sumrall was an assistant on the 2012 staff of Curtis Johnson when safety Devon Walker was paralyzed from the neck down on a play against Tulsa.

Thirteen years later, Walker attended the Green Wave’s Wednesday practice at the Shrine on Airline in preparation for SaturNotebook day’s firstround College Football Playoff game at Ole Miss (2:30 p.m., TNT) and was presented gifts in a post-practice ceremony.

Sumrall hugged him after he received two T-shirts with his jersey No. 18 on them along with American Conference championship game and CFP patches.

Mike Arata, co-founder of the Green Wave Collective, conducted the ceremony while quarterback Jake Retzlaff and linebacker Sam Howard stood next to Walker in his wheelchair on the middle of the field.

“Devon means a ton to this program,” Sumrall said in a video conference less than two hours later. “You can talk about family all you want, but that doesn’t mean you live it, and we live it with Devon. Devon’s forever Tulane football family.”

Walker, a walk-on from Destrehan who rose to a scholarship starter as a senior, spent several months in hospitals after his injury before returning to Tulane to complete his undergraduate degree in cell and molecular biology and a master’s degree in neuroscience. Tulane still has a player carry a flag with Walker’s No. 18 on it when the team runs onto the field before every game.

The number was permanently retired in 2018.

“On the way back (to campus) to do a team picture, Devon texted me, ‘Great seeing you in practice, today, coach—RMFW,’ ” Sumrall said. “Devon is forever a Tulane family member with our program. Our team understands his story. The connectivity of what former players mean to a place matters. We love Devon.”

Twin battle Kyle and Kody Schexnayder will be on opposite sides for the Tulane-Ole Miss CFP clash — Kyle as director of recruiting for the 11th-seeded Wave and Kody as an analyst for No. 6-seeded Ole Miss.

The role is nothing new

DUNCAN

Continued from page 1C power bars. Meanwhile, the 200 unread text messages on his phone will remain unreturned until life returns to normal.

Despite the extraordinary circumstances, Tulane players and coaches say they haven’t noticed any dip in Sumrall’s intensity during the transition.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Tulane offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said. “I don’t know how he does it, to be honest. I don’t know how he sleeps. There’s a lot going on. But I’ll say this: Jon Sumrall is 100 percent focused on this job right now.”

Defensive coordinator Greg Gasparato said Sumrall has been a “rock star” during the hectic transition.

“He’s handled it as well as I think he can,” Gasparato said. “And our guys know that he genuinely cares for them and about them, and he is the ultimate competitor. I promise you there’s nobody that wants to win this game more than he does.”

Most of new Ole Miss coach Pete Golding’s offensive coaching staff joined Lane Kiffin on a private jet to Baton Rouge and since has returned to Oxford to compile the game

STAFF PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD

Oklahoma Sooners players celebrate their 45-31 victory over Alabama on Jan. 2, 2014, in the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome. Oklahoma was a 17-point underdog.

Tulane seeks 1 of sport’s most memorable upsets

BY ZACH EWING Staff writer

STAFF PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD

Tulane linebacker Harold Lawson waves Tulane’s No. 18 flag as the team takes the field against Rice at yulman Stadium on Oct. 19, 2024. The flag commemorates former safety Devon Walker, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a collision with a teammate at Tulsa in 2012. for the twins born two minutes apart. Kyle was a quarterback for Holy Cross and Kody was a punter for John Curtis as Catholic League rivals 10 years ago.

“It means a lot where we’re from and who we get to do it with,” Kyle said. “We’ve talked twice this week. I called him on Monday and we talked on Sunday night, and that will probably be it for the week. I’ll see him on the field at the 50-yard line or so right before kickoff.”

Kyle began his career as an assistant at John Curtis, Kody’s old school, under split-back veer specialist J.T. Curtis before going to the other extreme and working for former Mississippi State coach Mike Leach in the Air Raid for two years.

He joined Sumrall at Tulane shortly after Sumrall was hired in December 2023.

Kody has been at Ole Miss for three years after starting out at Austin Peay, moving to Arkansas State and spending a two-week stint at Oregon State.

Although close, the brothers always have chosen different paths, including their time in high school.

“It worked out for the best of us because it allowed us to be two different people,” Kyle said. “A lot of people classified us forever with each other.”

His initial reaction to Tulane’s playoff matchup was mixed.

“It was tough when I saw it at first,” he said. “I was talking to mom and dad when I got home that night, and my mom said she was really hoping we’d be the 12th

plan for Tulane. Many are expected to become members of Kiffin’s LSU staff after the Rebels end their CFP run.

During the transition, Golding and his staff have had to prepare for the Green Wave while also working to prevent players, recruits and coaches from being poached — especially by Kiffin at LSU. “A lot of lack of sleep,” is how Golding described his first week on the job. “Probably the least amount of sleep I’ve had since, like, Vegas in 2007.

It’s the kind of thing where you just hit the ground running, man. There really wasn’t much time to think about it.”

On Tuesday, news broke that longtime LSU assistant coach Frank Wilson plans to join Golding’s Ole Miss staff after the Tigers play in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 27. The hire would bring the total to 17 coaches and staff members swapped between the programs.

It’s a rare situation, but one that is becoming more common in the transient world of modern college football. Fourteen head coaches, coordinators or senior position coaches on eight CFP teams have accepted other jobs.

Two weeks ago, Sumrall encountered a similar situation in the American Conference championship

seed so she could see both of us win. But it’s exciting. Everybody is going to be in the same place.”

Kyle Schexnayder’s stint at Tulane will continue under Will Hall, who was named as Sumrall’s successor last week, in a yet-to-be-determined role.

“I’m going to stay here,” he said. “I’m excited to stay in New Orleans and do this and build it up.”

Hailing Hall Asked for his thoughts about Hall succeeding him on the national video conference, Sumrall praised him.

Hall, who had a very successful two-year stint as Willie Fritz‘s offensive coordinator at Tulane in 2019-20, joined Sumrall’s staff last winter as passing game coordinator.

“I’m excited for him to have this opportunity here,” Sumrall said. “This is a great place. Will has seen the most recent historic rise and foundational buildup of this program from maybe out of the ashes to being in four conference championship games, and now he’ll get a chance to put his own spin on it. I think he’ll do really well.”

The history of college football is rife with famous upsets.

There’s Appalachian State over Michigan in 2007. Miami stopping Nebraska’s two-point conversion in the 1984 Orange Bowl. Boise State and the “Statue of Liberty” play in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma after the 2006 season.

What Tulane is attempting to pull off Saturday would rank with the best of them.

As of Wednesday, every major sportsbook listed the Green Wave as a 171/ 2-point underdog against Ole Miss for its 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Only one underdog of that magnitude has won a postseason game this century, although perhaps it is a good sign for Tulane that the previous example has New Orleans ties.

In the final postseason before the CFP started, No. 11 Oklahoma beat No. 3 Alabama 45-31 in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2, 2014. The Sooners were 17-point underdogs that day but won using many of the typical characteristics of an upset: They forced five Crimson Tide turnovers, got out to a lead, and converted a high

percentage of third and fourth downs.

The underdog that day was a power-conference team with national championship pedigree. If you go back to the 1998 Sun Bowl, there’s a situation more analogous with what Tulane will face Saturday.

On that New Year’s Eve, TCU — then a member of the Western Athletic Conference — faced a national power in USC and won 2819 as 171/ 2-point underdogs.

The Horned Frogs benefited from only one turnover but generally took it to the Trojans, scoring the first 14 points, leading 28-9 by the third quarter and controlling the clock for most of the fourth quarter.

It was TCU’s first bowl win in 41 years and launched the program into decades of relevance, including a move to the Big 12 and eventually a national championship game appearance in 2023.

Does that sound like something Tulane would be interested in?

It won’t be easy. Ole Miss was favored by only 121/ 2 points in the teams’ earlier meeting this season, but the Rebels covered easily with a 45-10 victory. And the postseason is a different animal when it comes to upsets.

According to the database at Odds Shark, which

has point spreads for most games dating to 1990, there actually haven’t been many postseason games with spreads this large. Oklahoma and TCU are the only underdogs of 17 or more points to pull off postseason upsets in 19 tries during that span.

And the big underdogs are only 7-12 against the spread in those games, which include conference championship games, bowl games and the playoff.

On the other hand, there have been plenty of regularseason upsets of this magnitude, including the aforementioned App State, which was a 33-point underdog the day it won at Michigan.

According to TeamRankings.com, underdogs of exactly 171/ 2 points are 23-202 since 2003 for a winning clip of 10.22%. That’s a better rate than underdogs of, say, 211/ 2 points (6.08%), which applies to James Madison at Oregon in the late CFP game Saturday.

The inclusion of a Group of Five team will provide more opportunities, but the CFP has been where big underdogs go to die in its 12-year history. Double-digit dogs are 0-11 straight up and only 3-8 against the spread.

If Tulane can buck that trend, it’ll join the short list of biggest upsets in the sport’s history.

Be prepared before the next power outage.

Lagniappe Tulane senior guard Shadre Hurst was named second-team All-America by The Sporting News on Wednesday. …

Seen among other alums at Wednesdays’ practice were former Tulane wideouts Phat Watts and Lawrence Keys, who was wearing a 2022 Cotton Bowl Classic sweatshirt, and linebacker Tyler Grubbs.

game, where Tulane’s opponent, North Texas, was playing with departing head coach Eric Morris, who is headed to Oklahoma State after the Mean Green’s bowl game.

Sumrall and Golding have found support in each other. They are similar in age and have traveled similar paths in Gulf South coaching circles.

Golding, a 41-year-old Hammond native, had stops at Delta State, Tusculum, Southeastern Louisiana and Southern Miss before moving into the SEC ranks. Sumrall, 43, was raised in Huntsville, Alabama, and coached at Tulane and Troy before becoming an SEC assistant at Kentucky and Ole Miss.

If anyone can relate to the crazy transitions Sumrall and Golding are navigating, it’s each other.

The two have texted and Face-timed throughout the last few weeks.

“I love Pete,” Sumrall said. “I’m happy for him.

He’s a good guy. He’s a good football coach. He does things the right way, and he’s authentic. I think we’re wired similarly in that regard.”

Added Golding: “Jon and I go way back. I think the world of him.”

For Golding or Sumrall, the craziness is about to end. For the other, life will get more hectic.

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LIVING

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

Sweet and spicy Korean fried chicken will fire you up

BY GRETCHEN McKAY

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS) Bold, spicy flavors have never been more in demand, especially when they add a global element to a dish. One of my favorite foods these days is Korean fried chicken, which I ate twice on a recent trip to New York City.

Celebrated for its crispy exterior and tender interior, Korean fried chicken has been a staple late-night snack in South Korea since the late 1970s and early ’80s. It’s typically known as “drinking food,” or anju, though Koreans also enjoy the crispy pieces of meat with non-alcoholic drinks.

Sticky, gotta-lick-your-fingersafter-you-eat-it yangnyeom dak is especially popular. It’s glazed in a spicy-sweet sauce made with Korean chili paste, golden (corn) syrup, ketchup and sugar that give Korean fried chicken its fireworks.

It’s one of those dishes you order as an appetizer for the table, and after the first saucy taste, wish you could keep it all for yourself.

In Korea, the dish is most often made with bone-in chicken thighs or wings that have been coated in a cornstarch mixture.

Traditionally, the chicken is fried twice to take it to the next level of crunchiness.

I’ve adapted this recipe from my son Dan’s favorite cookbook, “The Korean Cookbook” by Junghyun Park and Jungyoon Choi

|

T h u r s d ay, d e c e m b e r 18, 2025

FROM THE KITCHEN SIMPLE BROCCOLI CHEDDAR FRITTATA

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

ä See CHICKEN, page 2D

Herb and Shallot Compound Butter

Looking for a last-minute holiday gift? Look to your oven

BY APRIL HAMILTON

Fun cutting boards are a wonderful gift. Add a paring knife, cheese slicer or bread knife to go a little more upYou are not alone if your holiday gift scale. I scored the map of Louisiana list remains unwritten. cutting board — a popular trade at a Fear not, a gift for or from the kitch- neighborhood “white elephant” and en is always the first to get snapped up came out the winner. I use the underin the round robin gift exchange. I am side of the board for small chopping here with tried and true gifts for evjobs and display The Boot as wall art.

It’s hard to beat a dual-purpose gift, eryone, from the five-star chef to the and for a homemade accent, include a friend who is afraid to boil water. The ribboned roll of compound butter. bonus is that none of these will break the bank and can be purchased locally ä See KITCHEN, page 2D and in many cases in just one stop.

Contributing writer

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE/TNS PHOTO

By GRETCHEN MCKAy

Sweet and Spicy Korean Fried Chicken

1dN

This gift, flecked with festive pink and green, will delight the recipient at the holidays as a spread for toast, an addition to steamed potatoes or melted for sauteed mushrooms. The options are endless, and you can tuck in a note with serving suggestions.

1 stick (4 ounces) cold unsalted butter 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves 1 small shallot, finely minced 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt 1. Grate the butter into a large bowl using the large holes of a cheese grater. Add the thyme, shallot and salt and mix to blend using a rubber spatula.

2. Transfer the butter onto a sheet of parchment paper and roll it into a log, about 5 inches long and 11/2 inches in diameter. Roll it up in the paper to enclose, leaving a 1-inch allowance for tying the ends with ribbon of your choice.

3. Keep the butter refrigerated until gifting time. It can be made one week ahead.

Sheet pan snapper filet with broccoli, potatoes a quick fix

BY LINDA GASSENHEIMER Tribune News Service (TNS)

Here’s a quick and easy sheet pan dinner that’s ready in just 10 minutes. Snapper filets broil alongside potatoes and broccoli for a complete meal.

To cut down on cooking time, I give the potatoes a quick head start in the microwave before transferring them to the pan to finish cooking and crisp up. The snapper is topped with a colorful mix of red bell peppers and onions, then drizzled with a tangy balsamic, horseradish, and garlic sauce that gives the dish a bold, flavorful finish.

Helpful hints: n Any type of fish filets such as tilapia, flounder or mahi mahi can be used instead of snapper. n Small red potatoes can be used instead of yellow potatoes.

Sheet Pan Snapper Filets, Broccoli and Potatoes Yields 2 servings. Recipe is by Linda Gassenheimer.

11/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided use 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish 1 crushed garlic clove 1/4 cup diced onion 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper Olive oil spray 3/4 pound snapper fillets 3/4 pound small yellow potatoes, washed, unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 21/2 cups) 4 cups broccoli florets Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1. Preheat broiler. Mix 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, vinegar, horseradish and garlic together until smooth.

2. In another small bowl, mix onion and red bell pepper together.

Spray a sheet pan with olive oil spray. Place snapper fillets, skin side down, on one side of the sheet pan.

Spread the pepper onion mixture on top of the fish and then the horseradish mixture.

3. Add potatoes to a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and broccoli to the other side of the sheet pan. Broil 8 inches from heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove sheet pan from broiler.

4. Divide ingredients into two portions and place on two dinner plates.

Spoon the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over the potatoes and broccoli. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Nutrition info per serving: 458 calories (30 percent from fat), 15.5 g fat (2.2 g saturated, 6.7 g monounsaturated), 60 mg cholesterol, 43.5 g protein, 39.1 g carbohydrates, 7.2 g fiber, 213 mg sodium.

TNS PHOTO By LINDA GASSENHEIMER

Sheet Pan Snapper Filets, Broccoli and Potatoes

2D ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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Opting out of using perfume Dear Heloise: I am writing in response to your question regarding perfumes.

People are affected by smells differently, so I don’t use perfumes or scented lotions or soaps.

Having a history of Hints from migraines, Heloise I know that perfumes can truly set one off. My husband has a different reaction to perfumes.

Many give him a horrible metallic taste in his mouth. I like your method of a spritz on a cotton ball tucked away in your bra.

However, I also tend to think that many keep and use bottles for years after the perfume has gone “bad.” When people can react so differently, why risk it? Especially at work! Please be considerate of others. — Unscented Linda, via email

Two-in-one hint Dear Heloise: I watched a hospice nurse do this to dispose of medications: Take a gallon-sized zip-close plastic bag. Fill about one-third with cat litter. Pour liquid medication directly into litter.

Pull the capsules apart and dissolve them in water, then add them to the litter. Tablets can be crushed, dissolved and added. She then sealed the bag and placed it in the trash.

Also, if you have to drink a lot of liquid or something nasty-tasting, try using a straw. You can drink more and won’t taste it as much. — Charlotte Ervine, via email

Simple Broccoli Cheddar Frittata

STAFF PHOTOS By HILARy SCHEINUK

Pick up a small kitchen tool at Red Stick Spice and a set of their beautiful measuring spoons and/or a bottle of spice.

KITCHEN

MORE FUN GIFT IDEAS

Continued from page 1D The new local bookstore TBR Books and Tea on Highland Road has become my go-to for alloccasion gifts. No surprise here, cookbooks are always on my giving list. “The Vegetable Eater” by Cara Mangini is an award-winner and a delight of grand proportions. When I thumb through its pages, I am transported to the farmers market and into my kitchen, inspired to create magical dishes for family and friends.

Whip up Mangini’s broccoli frittata in a small cast-iron skillet and you have a gift that keeps on giving.

Handwrite the recipe on a notecard and include instructions for castiron care and your recipient will be all set.

On that note, the Red Stick Farmers Market is a one-size-fits-all emporium where you can gift one of their fun shopping totes with any amount of market tokens for a future shopping experience.

Their newly reopened Main Street Market also features a coffee shop

n Fresh herb plants, potted in handmade local pottery n Bookstore date invitation n Herb-infused salt in a pretty jar n Handmade pottery coffee mug n Garlic press and a head of fresh garlic n Bench scraper n Small kitchen scale n Gift card for a local coffee date n Favorite cookbook with pages marked with Post-it notes with kitchen gadgets, coffee beans and a reach-in fridge housing market produce all week long. My favorite coffee date is to stroll the market with a friend and it doesn’t cost extra.

Sharing the love of cooking is a perennial gift for anyone on your list and will be forever cherished.

Pick up a small kitchen tool (hello microplane) at Red Stick Spice and a set of their beautiful measuring spoons and/or a bottle of spice and pop the question: “When can we

An array of locally curated holiday gift ideas is seen at the home of April Hamilton. cook together?”

The recipient will glow and together you will create lasting memories. A printed towel makes reusable gift wrap and further perpetuates the fun.

In this era of one-click shopping, a leisurely visit to a local shop pays dividends, and you get to enjoy the holiday spirit in the process.

Their twinkle lights and festive tunes make the season bright. Happy Holidays to all, and especially happy gifting!

Serves 4. Recipe is adapted from “The Vegetable Butcher” by Cara Mangini. Gift this breakfast/brunch treat in a cast-iron skillet for the gift that keeps on giving. NOTE: I reduce some of the quantities in her recipe to make the 7-inch size skillet for gifting. I also topped mine with thinly sliced colorful sweet peppers from the farmers market to add a festive touch.

6 eggs 2 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided use 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Pinch of cayenne pepper 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup coarsely grated cheddar cheese 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic 3 cups chopped broccoli florets 1 tablespoon water Thinly sliced small sweet peppers for topping, optional 1. Heat the oven to 350 F with a rack positioned in the middle.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, black and cayenne pepper and the Parmesan and cheddar cheeses.

3. In a 7-inch cast-iron skillet, heat the oil and garlic over medium heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant.

4. Add the broccoli and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes until just tender. Add the water to prevent burning and encourage steaming, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes more until the broccoli is tender and browning in places and all liquid has evaporated.

5. Give the egg mixture a stir and pour it into the skillet.

Reduce the heat to mediumlow and gently stir the top to evenly distribute the broccoli.

Scatter the sliced peppers on top, if using.

6. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the frittata puffs up, the edges are set, and the middle is just slightly firm, about 15 to 18 minutes.

7. Serve hot or cooled to room temperature.

The check engine light Dear Heloise: A while ago, your column mentioned what to do if the check engine light comes on in your vehicle. This is my experience: I have a vehicle with over 150,000 miles on it that runs very well, except when the check engine light came on. I made the assumption that it needed servicing but read in my owner’s manual to be sure to tighten the fuel cap at least three clicks.

With the vehicle in the garage, I opened the fuel cap, left it open for a few seconds, and tightened it at least three clicks. After using the vehicle a couple of times, the check engine light went off and has stayed off for many miles.

I feel like I have found at least one culprit to the problem. — Jim, via email Send a hint to heloise@ heloise.com.

CHICKEN

Continued from page 1D (Phaidon Press, $54.95), to use chunks of boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of bone-in, skin-on pieces for easier eating. In a break from tradition, it’s only fried once before being tossed in the sauce.

So how did I achieve the thin, crispy texture that defines the dish? The coating is made with a packaged, cornstarch-based fried chicken mix commonly sold in Korea, which I bought on Amazon (but should also be available in well-stocked Asian markets).

You also can make the batter from scratch by mixing 1/ 2 cup cornstarch with 1/ 2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/ 2 cup allpurpose flour and 2 teaspoons kosher salt in a large bowl and whisking until it’s well-combined. Then, add enough cold

water (1/ 2 to 1 cup) until it has the consistency of thin paint.

My local grocery doesn’t stock Korean soy sauce, which is a little lighter and saltier than Japanese or Chinese soy sauce. But no worries, my trusty bottle of all-purpose Kikkoman is always at the ready.

The cookbook’s authors suggest eating half the chicken naked and the other half tossed in the sauce to enjoy the dish two different ways.

If you like, you can garnish it with toasted sesame seeds and serve it alongside kimchi, pickled radishes or a spicy cucumber salad.

At restaurants, Korean fried chicken is often served as an appetizer; for dinner, it’s great on a bed of steamed white rice.

Your mouth may burn a little after you take that first saucy bite, but it’s so good you’ll forget about it before reaching for another chunk.

TODAY IN HISTORY

By The Associated Press Today is Thursday, Dec. 18, the 352nd day of 2025.

There are 13 days left in the year.

Today in history: On Dec. 18, 2019, the U.S. House impeached President Donald Trump on two charges, sending his case to the Senate for trial (It was the first of two Trump impeachment trials that would end in acquittal).

The articles of impeachment accused him of abuse of power to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden before the 2020 election and obstructing Congress’ investigation of the matter.

Also on this date: In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery was declared in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward.

In 1892, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” publicly pre-

miered in St. Petersburg, Russia; although now considered a classic, it received a generally negative reception from critics.

In 1916, the Battle of Verdun, World War I’s longest at 10 months, ended between French and German forces; it led to nearly 1 million casualties.

In 1917, Congress proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting alcohol; the 18th Amendment was declared ratified in 1919 (Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment).

In 1972, with peace talks stalled, the U.S. launched Operation Linebacker II, its heaviest bombing of North Vietnam in the Vietnam War. The operation lasted 11 days (an agreement known as the Paris Peace Accords was signed in January 1973.

In 2011, the last convoy of heavily armored U.S. troops left Iraq in the final

moments of a nearly nineyear war.

In 2023, Pope Francis approved letting Catholic priests bless same-sex couples under certain conditions, a radical shift in policy that aimed to make the church more inclusive while maintaining its strict ban on gay marriage.

Today’s birthdays: Chef Jacques Pépin is 90. Rock musician Keith Richards is 82. Filmmaker Alan Rudolph is 82. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg is 79. Filmmaker Gillian Armstrong is 75. Actor Brad Pitt is 62.

Singer Alejandro Sanz is 57. Tennis Hall of Famer Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is 54. Pop singer Sia is 50.

Country singer-songwriter Randy Houser is 50. Actor Katie Holmes is 47. Singer Christina Aguilera is 45.

MLB outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. is 28. NFL quarterback Jayden Daniels is 25. Singer Billie Eilish is 24.

Sweet and Spicy Korean Fried Chicken

Recipe is adapted from “The Korean Cookbook” by Junghyun Park and Jungyoon Choi.

For the sauce: 3 tablespoons corn syrup 2 tablespoons ketchup 2 tablespoons gochujang (red chili paste) 2 tablespoons ganjang (Korean soy sauce) 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1/2 tablespoon fine gochugaru (red chili powder) 1 tablespoon sugar For the chicken: 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks 1 tablespoon MSG 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Neutral cooking oil for deep frying 11/2 cups Korean seasoned fried chicken mix 1. In a small saucepan, combine corn syrup, ketchup, gochujang, soy sauce, gochugaru, garlic and sugar.

2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Once it’s boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes before removing from heat.

3. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. In a bowl, sprinkle chicken with MSG, sugar and black pepper and mix well. Let sit 15 minutes.

4. Pour 3 inches neutral oil into a large deep pot or deep fryer and heat to 355 F. 5. In a small bowl, stir together 61/2 tablespoons of the fried chicken mix and 4 tablespoons water to make a batter. Mix well until uniform. Add chicken pieces, and stir to combine.

6. Place the remaining 1 cup fried chicken mix in a large plastic bag.

Place half the chicken in the plastic bag and shake until well coated.

Let settle for 30 seconds before removing from the bag, shaking off any excess. Repeat with the rest of the chicken.

7. Set a wire rack in a sheet pan.

Once oil is up to temperature, reduce heat to medium-low. Add the chicken pieces and fry for 3-4 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove and set on the rack to cool for 3 minutes.

8. Sauce the chicken with the desired amount of sauce and toss well in a bowl.

Plate and serve immediately.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ 3D

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FrAnK And erneSt

bIG nAte

zItS

For better or For WorSe

zodIAC sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Leave nothing to chance or up to others, and you will avoid disappointment. Trust, loyalty and progress go together when it comes to home, family and your closest associates. Read the room.

CAPRICoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Refuse to let other people's obligations become your problem. Offer suggestions, but don't step in and take charge. The best lessons in life are those learned by doing things yourself.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Pick up the slack and do what you do best. Spontaneity mixed with a genuine attitude and input will trigger positive results.

Be the glue, the enforcer and the comforter.

PIsCEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Focus on what needs to be done, and don't stop until your mission is complete. Refuse to let pettiness or emotional manipulation deter you from reaching your destination.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Don't let anger set in when action is required. Strive to surpass your own and others' expectations. Live, learn and laugh, and you'll find the happiness you desire. tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Pay attention to cash flow. Rethink your festive strategy; kindness and respect will have positive impacts and lead to lasting memories. Your time is more valuable than any trinket.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Don't ignore the signs and signals you are receiv-

ing from people close to you. Be openhearted with relationships, shared expenses and promises you make to others.

CAnCER (June 21-July 22) Tidy up loose ends and call it a day. Forward thinking and a positive attitude will lead to fulfilling relationships and good times.

Change begins with a smile and a kind gesture.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Arrange a social get-together and spread joy to those you love without going into debt or expecting anything in return. Let your actions dictate your feelings.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Take a waitand-see approach and avoid situations that put you in a vulnerable position.

Examine what concerns you and make changes that put your mind at ease.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Attend events and take every opportunity to market your expertise. The fundamentals that accompany progress will help you recognize who is in your corner and who is not. sCoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Foolish spending or overpaying for something will cause worry and debt. A change of attitude that reflects peace of mind will help set you on the right path.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

WonderWord

peAnUtS

SALLY Forth

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

toDAy's CLuE: s EQuALs F

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon FAMILY CIrCUS

dooneSbUrY

4D ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

CurTiS

Hi and LoiS

lll

Sudoku InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers.

The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

BLondie

THe wiZard oF id

nea CroSSwordS

La TimeS CroSSword

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ 5D

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B.C.

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER Classic bridge books are usually republished, some several times. One such book that has reappeared was first printed in 1969. It is “The Secrets of Winning Bridge” by Jeff Rubens (Bridge World Books).

The book gives advice on hand evaluation in various situations, then considers the forms of the game: rubber bridge, Chicago, pairs and teams, and ways to be more successful in them, almost regardless of the bidding system being employed.

This deal highlights different declarerplay approaches. Look at just the North and South hands.

How would you plan the play in three no-trump if you care only about winning nine tricks, or you would like to maximize the overtricks?

Note North’s three-no-trump response.

With a probable seven winners, no singleton or void or thought of slam, it is right to go straight for the nine-trick game.

If nine tricks are sufficient, South should win the first trick, lead a low diamond, and, when West follows, play low from the board. This is necessary if diamonds are 4-0.

However, in a pairs event, where overtricks can be valuable, it is wrong to play for this 5 percent possibility. Instead, South should lead a diamond to dummy’s jack. Here, when the finesse wins,

garfield

Pearls Before swiNe

hagar the horriBle

declarer should take a heart finesse. It is highly unlikely that West has both heart honors, given his spade lead. And then South is in a position to take 12 tricks: two spades, two hearts, seven diamonds and one club. But even if the diamond finesse loses, the contract is still safe with at least one overtrick. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

wuzzles Each Wuzzle is a word riddle which creates a disguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD = GOOD AFTERNOON

PiCKles

Previous answers:

mallard fillmore

word game InstRuCtIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3.

Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAy’s WoRD — ECCEntRIC: ek-SEN-trik: Unconventional.

Bizarro

marmaduKe

Average mark 21 words Time limit 35 minutes Can you find 29 or more words in ECCENTRIC? yEstERDAy’s WoRD — GnAtHIC gain gait ghat giant gnat nigh night aching acing acting anti

antic tang than thin thing ting hang hating hint inch itch

cant chai chain chant chat chia chin china chit

loCKhorNs hidato Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

today’s thought “But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Romans 5:8-9 Don’t doubt that God loves you. He loved us when we were very unlovable. — G.E. Dean

6D ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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classifieds.theadvocate.com Search Search& &Place PlaceAds AdsOnline Onlineatatclassifieds.theadvocate.com classifieds.theadvocate.com* Call * Call -Friday Us Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM at 225-383-0111 8AM-5PM at 225-383-0111 #2319; Derrick McCray Unit #P27.

This sale may be withdrawn at any time without notice. Certain terms and conditions apply.

169656-Dec 18, 1t $194.02

Announcements 8G8AH212919 Ford is stored at 6440 Rawlins St., Baton Rouge, La. 70805.

If all current charges are not paid and vehicle claimed by the owner by 01/04/2026 a Permit to Sell may be obtained.

For Official Parish Journals, Please visit: https://www.sos.la.gov/ouroffice/pu 170527-Dec 17-18, 2t $124 Anyone knowing the whereabouts of any heirs of Mary Jean Peeples contact Laura Tracy:(504)-275-6308.

170813-Dec 17-19, 3t $73 Anyone knowing the whereabouts of any heirs of Tangier Thompson contact Laura Tracy:(504)-275-6308 170853-12/17-18-19-3t $73.00

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of LILLIAN BLANTON YOUNG, please contact Natalie Lonergan, Attorney at Law, at (225) 255-0677.

171033-Dec 18-20, 3t $85 Anyone knowing the whereabouts of MYKIRA IZHANEEK NORWOOD, please contact Natalie Lonergan, Attorney at Law, at (225) 255-0677.

171035-Dec 18-20, 3t $85 Notice of Self Storage Sale Please take notice Metco Self Storage - Ethel located at 7371 Line Road Ethel LA 70730 intends to hold an Auction to enforce its privilege against the following parties at the facility for default of payment of Rent. The sale will occur as an online auction via www.storagetreaures.com on 12/30/2025 at 10:00AM. Unless stated otherwise the description of the contents are household goods and furnishings.

Ashley Sciortino/Ashley A Sciortino Unit #020; Barbara Anderson Unit #023; Brandon Lee Unit #032; Cory Giroir Unit #035; Pamela Whetstone Unit #083. This sale may be withdrawn at any time without notice. Certain terms and conditions apply 169655-Dec 18, 1t $162.72 Notice of Self Storage Sale Please take notice Park Forest Self Storage located at 9708 Greenwell Springs Rd Baton Rouge LA 70814 intends to hold an Auction to enforce its privilege against the following parties at the facility for default of payment of Rent. The sale will occur as an online auction via www.storagetreaures.com on 12/30/2025 at 10:00AM. Unless stated otherwise the description of the contents are household goods, furnishings and garage essentials.

Treavon Lowery Unit #1027; Michiala Chase Unit #1063; Kevin Lodge Unit #1075; Sinesha Washington Unit #1087; Gabrielle Augusta Unit #2008; Cortni Addison Unit #2025; Daniel Simmons Unit #2043; Juanisha Lee Unit #2084; Lamonica Bell Unit #2094; Crystal Johnson Unit

Notice of Self Storage Sale Please take notice Radiant Storage Baton Rouge - Sullivan located at 8691 Sullivan Rd. Baton Rouge LA 70818 intends to hold an Auction to enforce its privilege against the following parties at the facility for default of payment of Rent. The sale will occur as an online auction via www.storagetreaures.com on 12/30/2025 at 10:00AM. Unless stated otherwise the description of the contents are household goods, furnishings and garage essentials.

Joseph Rodgers Unit #106; Winnie Boudreaux Unit #25. This sale may be withdrawn at any time without notice. Certain terms and conditions apply.

169657-Dec 18, 1t $150.20 Notice of Self Storage Sale Please take notice Red Door Storage located at 2010 Church St., Zachary LA 70791 intends to hold an Auction to enforce its privilege against the following parties at the facility for default of payment of Rent. The sale will occur as an online auction via www.storagetreaures.com on 12/30/2025 at 10:00AM. Unless stated otherwise the description of the contents are household goods, furnishings and garage essentials.

Narissa Chapman Unit #A12; Prymus Brown Unit #A6; Joyce Cannon Unit #D121; Andrew Jackson Unit #D96; Oscar Montes Unit #E169; Maggie Mosby Unit #F203; Stacy August Unit #G226. This sale may be withdrawn at any time without notice. Certain terms and conditions apply.

169659-Dec 18, 1t $168.98 Peyton Place Lounge and Restaurant LLC, d/b/a Peyton Place Lounge and Restaurant LLC is applying to the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control of the State of Louisiana for a permit to sell beverages of both high and low alcohol content at retail in the Parish of East Baton Rouge, at the following address: Peyton Place Lounge and Restaurant LLC d/b/a Peyton Place Lounge and Restaurant 1533 N. Acadian Thruway W Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Business Owner: Keaira Pate 171030-12/18-1t $137.68 PUBLIC NOTICE: LIQUOR LICENSE APPLICATION. I AM (WE ARE) APPLYING TO THE OFFICE OF ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO CONTROL OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA FOR A PERMIT TO SELL BEVERAGES OF LOW AND/OR HIGH ALCOHOLIC CONTENT AT RETAIL AT THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS: ADDRESS: 7188 US Highway 61 NAME OF APPLICANT(S): Sean W Madewell II of Madewell Nutrition LLC (D/B/A) The Liquor Hole IN THE PARISH OF: West Feliciana 170985-Dec 18-19, 2t $190

Advertising Looking to promote your services or find a new hire? Deliver your classified message statewide for as little as $265 per week through the Louisiana Press Association’s Classified Network. Pre-payment required. To learn more, email advertising@lapress.com or call 225-344-9309.

Miscellaneous We Buy Houses for Cash AS-IS! No repairs. No fuss. Any condition. Easy process: Call, get cash offer and get paid. Call today for your fair cash offer: 1-225-545-1983 Struggling with debt? If you have over $15,000 in debt we help you be debt free in as little as 24-48 months. Pay nothing to enroll. Call Now: 1-877-773-1742 Donate your car, truck, boat, RV and more to support our veterans!

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AREA 4 NO CREDIT CHECK/LEASE! Fully furnished apartments ALL BILLS PAID including premium cable & WIFI. Pet Friendly. Stay where you're appreciated! Call 225-434-4161

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Home Services PEST CONTROL: PROTECT YOUR HOME from pests safely and affordably. Roaches, Bed Bugs, Rodent, Termite, Spiders and other pests.

Locally owned and affordable. Call for service or an inspection today! Have zip code of property ready when calling! 1-877728-0264

AREA 5 1 & 2 BR Apts, W/D, C A/H, Starting at $850/mo Deps vary 225-315-0930

WANT TO BUY Old Records 33's, 45's & 78's. All types of music. Call 985-259-1889 CAMPING GEAR Camp Tent 9x9 Dome, Canopy, Slp Bag, 2 Lant, 2 Burner Stv, 48qt Ice Chest & All Access. Retail for $375 selling for $275 225-610-8411 after 2:00pm

FOOD PRODUCTS Fruitcake-Old Fashioned moist fruitcake made with lots nuts and fruits - 1lb $15.00 (225)933-5254 MISC FOR SALE LADIES SMALL BLACK LEATHER COAT LIKE NEW $40 225-752-7273 MISC FOR SALE SMALL SOLID BLACK THROW PILLOWS MANY AVAILABLE! EACH $5 225-752-7273

Baton Rouge Real Estate For Sale

EARLY DEADLINES FOR OUR ADVERTISEMENTS

AREA 6

950 S. Foster Dr #33 Modern 2 BRs 2 BA condo near BRCC Great for students, pet-friendly Rent: 1,095.00, Deposit: $600.00 Call or text: 225-772-1656

MOBILE HOME 1, 2 & 3 BR mobile homes, $675 & up 6061 Plank Rd. CALL 225-978-4653 ROOMS FOR RENT Furnished Rooms. $125/wk. $500/mo.

225-933-7560 WAITLIST OPENING The EBRPHA will accept applications on December 22, 2025, for the following communities: Kelly Terrace *999 Rosenwald Rd. Baton Rouge, La 70807 Zion Terrace *5958 Cadillac St. Baton Rouge, La 70811 Sharlo Terrace *4915 Alvin Dark Dr. Baton Rouge, La 70820 Capital Square *700 N. 17th St. Baton Rouge, La 70802 Duane St. *1701 Duane St. Baton Rouge, La 70802 Scotlandvilla *10666 Scotland Ave. Baton Rouge, La 70807 Monte Sano Village *3002 E. Mason Ave. Baton Rouge, La 70805 Wood Plaza *9990 Ave J. Baton Rouge, La 70807 Clarksdale *801 Swan Ave. Baton Rouge La 70807

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AREA 5 Doctors, Lawyers & Hunters; Form your own club, 1100acres of prime hunting land near Baton Rouge, Hunt mink to alligators, ducks to trophy deer. Comprehensive road network, price is $4.2 million, potential carbon credits or wetland mitigation credits. Text 225-4453108.

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Applications for the wait list will be accepted starting December 22, 2025, at 8:00 AM (CT).

The EBRPHA will stop accepting applications on December 26, 2025, at 4:30 PM (CT).

Apply online at https://www.ebrpha.org.

AREA 3

5364 Jackson 2BR's 1BA, Rent $500, Dep $300 225-357-6436

WANT TO BUY I buy old bourbon bottles. Wild Turkey, Weller, Old Grand Dad etc.

Call or text $300 (225)456-3434

Applications will ONLY be accepted during the period the Waiting Lists are open. Applications will NOT be accepted in person, via mail, or fax.

Do not call the local Housing Authority to apply! Applications are processed in date/time order received.

AREA 4 FREE RENT 225-351-7449

HAPPY HOLIDAY

The Classified Advertising Department will be closed on Thursday, December 25 to observe the Christmas holiday

AREA 5 655 North St. Subsidized eff Apts cpabr.org 225-383-5551.

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AREA 5 1BR $550, 2BR $650 Tigerland. $500 Deposit. 225-475-1737

Pets / Pet Services Directory

The East Baton Rouge Housing Authority is administered in compliance with the EBRPHA’s Administrative Plan and HUD’s rules and regulations. g

PETS • SUPPLIES • SERVICES • OBITUARIES • LOST & FOUND

PLACE YOUR PET SERVICES INFORMATION IN THE PET SERVICES DIRECTORY TODAY! • IT IS FAST AND EASY! • CALL 225-383-0111

DEADLINE..........RUN DATE Thurs., Dec 18 - 3pm .......... Wed., Dec 24 Fri., Dec 19 - 3pm............... Thurs., Dec 25 Fri., Dec 19 - 3pm............... Fri., Dec 26 Tues, Dec 23-3pm ............... Sat/Sun Dec 27, 28 Wed., Dec 24 - 3pm ............ Mon., Dec 29 Fri., Dec 26 - 3pm............... Tues., Dec 30

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225-383-0111 Public Notices

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

PUBLIC NOTICE --ADVERTISEMENT FOR PROPOSALS Sealed Proposals will be received by the Purchas‐ ing office.

Louisiana State University Health Science Center in Shreve‐ port, LA, 1501 Kings High‐ way, Room G-22A, Shreveport, LA 71103, until 2:00 PM for the fol‐ lowing: December 18th, 2025: RFQ #007281 - EFFLUENT DECONTAMINATION SYS‐ TEM at which time and place the proposals will be opened and read. Specifi‐ cations may be obtained from the Purchasing Of‐ fice.

Evidence of authority to submit the bid shall be required in accordance with R.S. 39:1594 (C) (4).

The right is reserved to reject any or all bids and to waive informalities.

An Equal Opportunity/Af‐ Action Em‐ firmative ployer. By: Lorna Rawls, Interim Director of Pur‐ chasing and Materials Management.

166878-nov 18-dec 18 $394.88 PUBLIC NOTICE --NOTICE TO BIDDERS - - Sealed Bids will be ac‐ cepted until January 6, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. for the following Bid 252602 Jani‐ torial Services. Bid must be submitted to: Baton Rouge Community Col‐ lege, 7515 Jefferson High‐ way #326, Baton Rouge, LA 70806. Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) will open all timely submitted sealed bids at its office located at 201 Community Col‐ Magnolia lege Drive, Building, Dumas Room, Baton Rouge, LA 70806, on January 6, 2026 at 2:00 p.m., in response to this Invitation to Bid. All Bids will be publicly opened and read aloud. .

Bid forms and specifica‐ tions may be obtained by accessing the bid num‐ ber in LaPac at https:// wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana. gov/osp/lapac/pubMain. cfm. No bids will be re‐ ceived after the date and hour specified. The right is reserved to reject any and all bids and to waive any informalities. Bland Washington, Director of Purchasing, washing‐ tonb@mybrcc.edu.

ested suppliers must submit a proposal in ac‐ cordance with solicita‐ tion documents posted https://procurement. opengov.com/portal/ pcsb. Responses must be received by January 05, 2026 2:00 PM EST.

NOTICE TO BIDDERS SP# 925 Sealed bids will be re‐ ceived by the Procure‐ ment Section of the Divi‐ sion of Administration, 1201 N. 3rd. St., 2nd.

Floor, Suite 2-160, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at 10:00 A.M. for the follow‐ ing: RFx No. 3000025735, Roof Modeling – ELMHS, 01/06/26 RFx No. 3000025741, Tow‐ able Roller for DOTD, 01/06/26 RFx No. 3000025743, Trash Can Receptacles – CRT, 01/06/26 RFx No. 3000025681, Li‐ brary Materials & Ser‐ vices – Statewide, 01/21/26 Bid proposal forms, in‐ formation and specifica‐ tions may be obtained by accessing the bid num‐ ber in LaPac at www.doa.

Louisiana.gov/osp or from the procurement section listed above. No bids will be received after the date and hour specified. The right is re‐ served to reject any and all bids and to waive any informalities.

Tom Ketterer Director of State Procurement FAX (225) 342-8688 170852 Dec. 18, 1t $14.34 PUBLIC NOTICE --The Pinellas County School District is solicit‐ ing competitive bids for School Furniture. Inter‐

DOGS AKC German Shepherd pups. Ready 12/23. $800 Kentwood 985 244-0173

WORKS Public Notices Bids/Proposals

PUBLIC NOTICE ---

DOGS Adorable CKC Reg. Teddy Roosevelt Terriers (short legged Rat Terriers) Rdy for Christmas $400 call (225)251-2380

PRINT ADVERTISING

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

170576 Dec. 18, 1t $12.62

CATS RAGAMUFFIN & RAGDOLL KITTENS www.CatsByFrancy.com/kittens $700up! Reg. Shots & Guaranty 337-230-3150

169569-DEC 11-18-2T $117.72

Public Notices Conservation

Public Notices Conservation p y lector listed below or file a lawsuit in accordance with law within SIXTY (60) DAYS of the date of the first publication of this notice, or the record‐ ing of an act transferring ownership, if later.

Tax collector: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff 222 St. Louis Street, 2ND Floor Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 (225) 389-4810 169883 Dec.11, 18, 2t $77.66

PUBLIC NOTICE --Recquisition 11297714 NOTICE OF SALE OF ADJUDICATED PROPERTY Arnold J. Red THIS NOTICE BY PUBLICA‐ TION IS NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR RIGHTS OR INTEREST IN THE FOL‐ LOWING DESCRIBED PROPERTY LOCATED IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA MAY BE TERMINATED BY OP‐ ERATION OF LAW IF YOU DO NOT TAKE FURTHER ACTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW: Lot 22 Square 2 Hero Park Improvements thereon believed to bear on Mu‐ nicipal No. () Dare Street.

By virtue of the provi‐ sions of Louisiana Re‐ vised Statute 47:2201 et seq. and Metropolitan Council Ordinance num‐ ber 19641, the Parish of East Baton Rouge has been authorized to sell this property as adjudi‐ cated property. You have been identified as a party who might have a vested or contingent in‐ terest in said property, which was assessed in the name(s) of Linda Lenoir. and was adjudi‐ cated to the Parish of East Baton Rouge in the year of 2009 for unpaid taxes for the year of 2008. The sale will take place in accordance with the provisions of LA R.S. 47:2201 et seq. Your inter‐ est in the property will be terminated if you do not redeem the property by making all required payments to the tax col‐ l li db l fil

PUBLIC NOTICE --Recquisition 11297714 NOTICE OF SALE OF ADJUDICATED PROPERTY Albert Harris THIS NOTICE BY PUBLICA‐ TION IS NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR RIGHTS OR INTEREST IN THE FOL‐ LOWING DESCRIBED PROPERTY LOCATED IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA MAY BE TERMINATED BY OP‐ ERATION OF LAW IF YOU DO NOT TAKE FURTHER ACTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW: Lot P Square 23 North Baton Rouge Improvements thereon believed to bear on Mu‐ nicipal No. () Muse Street.

By virtue of the provi‐ sions of Louisiana Re‐ vised Statute 47:2201 et seq. and Metropolitan Council Ordinance num‐ ber 19654, the Parish of East Baton Rouge has been authorized to sell this property as adjudi‐ cated property. You have been identified as a party who might have a vested or contingent in‐ terest in said property, which was assessed in the name(s) of Albert Harris. and was adjudi‐ cated to the Parish of East Baton Rouge in the year of 2020 for unpaid taxes for the year of 2019. The sale will take place in accordance with the provisions of LA R.S. 47:2201 et seq. Your inter‐ est in the property will be terminated if you do d h

DOGS AKC Maltese puppies, Ready for Christ‐ mas 1-F. (225) 235-9433 or (225) 235-7619 DOGS Beautiful F-Mini Schnauzer pups. Vet checked, Guaranteed. 985-320-5288

DOGS German Shepard - CKC German Shep‐ ard Pup 11 Months Old Female Born 12/24/24, very affectionate with a lot of energy, looking for good home $1500 808-292-0842

DOGS Bluetick Coonhound - Old-Fashioned Bluetick Coonhound puppies. Should meet Gascon standards. Born 9/27/2025. Available 1st week in De‐ cember. $400 /512-228-6073

DOGS Labradoodle - F1B CKC pups Brown Merle, Blue Merle, Black 1 male & 5 fe‐ males $1200 - $1600 Avail for pickup 12/18, (504) 231-9118

DOGS CKC YORKIES or SHORKIES - (yorkies are with papers) all are vet checked w/shot and worming, will meet in Gulf‐ port $700 (334) 467-3416

DOGS Yorkshire Terrier - Small Yorkie pup‐ pies, $1400-F, $1200-M (225) 304-1045

Public Notices Conservation y not redeem the property by making all required payments to the tax col‐ lector listed below or file a lawsuit in accordance with law within SIXTY (60) DAYS of the date of the first publication of this notice, or the record‐ ing of an act transferring ownership, if later.

Tax collector: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff 222 St. Louis Street, 2ND Floor Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 (225) 389-4810 169890 Dec. 11, 18, 2t $79.02 PUBLIC NOTICE --Recquisition 11297714 NOTICE OF SALE OF ADJUDICATED PROPERTY Georgia Leonard THIS NOTICE BY PUBLICA‐ TION IS NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR RIGHTS OR INTEREST IN THE FOL‐ LOWING DESCRIBED PROPERTY LOCATED IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA MAY BE TERMINATED BY OP‐ ERATION OF LAW IF YOU DO NOT TAKE FURTHER ACTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW: Lot 18 Square 15 Fairfields Improvements thereon believed to bear on Mu‐ nicipal No. () Washington Street.

By virtue of the provi‐ sions of Louisiana Re‐ vised Statute 47:2201 et seq. and Metropolitan Council Ordinance num‐ ber 19662, the Parish of East Baton Rouge has been authorized to sell this property as adjudi‐ cated property. You have been identified as a party who might have a vested or contingent in‐ terest in said property, which was assessed in the name(s) of Georgia Bland Leonard. and was adjudicated to the Parish of East Baton Rouge in the year of 2017 for un‐ paid taxes for the year of 2016. The sale will take place in accordance with h i i f

Public Notices Conservation p the provisions of LA R.S. 47:2201 et seq. Your inter‐ est in the property will be terminated if you do not redeem the property by making all required payments to the tax col‐ lector listed below or file a lawsuit in accordance with law within SIXTY (60) DAYS of the date of the first publication of this notice, or the record‐ ing of an act transferring ownership, if later.

Tax collector: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff 222 St. Louis Street, 2ND Floor Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 (225) 389-4810 169897 Dec. 11, 18, 1t $79.68 PUBLIC NOTICE --Recquisition 11297714

Public Notices Conservation y paid taxes for the year of 1997. The sale will take place in accordance with the provisions of LA R.S. 47:2201 et seq. Your inter‐ est in the property will be terminated if you do not redeem the property by making all required payments to the tax col‐ lector listed below or file a lawsuit in accordance with law within SIXTY (60) DAYS of the date of the first publication of this notice, or the record‐ ing of an act transferring ownership, if later.

Tax collector: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff 222 St. Louis Street, 2ND Floor Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 (225) 389-4810 169905 Dec. 11, 18, 2t $79.02 PUBLIC NOTICE ---

NOTICE OF SALE OF ADJUDICATED PROPERTY

Recquisition 11297714

Matilda Cosey Monroe

NOTICE OF SALE OF ADJUDICATED PROPERTY

THIS NOTICE BY PUBLICA‐ TION IS NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR RIGHTS OR INTEREST IN THE FOL‐ LOWING DESCRIBED PROPERTY LOCATED IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA MAY BE TERMINATED BY OP‐ ERATION OF LAW IF YOU DO NOT TAKE FURTHER ACTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW: Lot 66 Square 14 South Baton Rouge Improvements thereon believed to bear on Mu‐ nicipal No. () Georgia Street.

By virtue of the provi‐ sions of Louisiana Re‐ vised Statute 47:2201 et seq. and Metropolitan Council Ordinance num‐ ber 19658, the Parish of East Baton Rouge has been authorized to sell this property as adjudi‐ cated property. You have been identified as a party who might have a vested or contingent in‐ terest in said property, which was assessed in the name(s) of Matilda Cosey Monroe. and was adjudicated to the Parish of East Baton Rouge in the year of 1998 for un‐ id f h f

Clinton Lee Chambers, Lawanda Durbin Dutton, Ray Durbin Johnny, Louis Darbin Claiborne, Jr. THIS NOTICE BY PUBLICA‐ TION IS NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR RIGHTS OR INTEREST IN THE FOL‐ LOWING DESCRIBED PROPERTY LOCATED IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA MAY BE TERMINATED BY OP‐ ERATION OF LAW IF YOU DO NOT TAKE FURTHER ACTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW: Lots 17 & 18 Square 14 Bank Improvements thereon believed to bear on Mu‐ nicipal No. () 71st Av‐ enue.

By virtue of the provi‐ sions of Louisiana Re‐ vised Statute 47:2201 et seq. and Metropolitan Council Ordinance num‐ ber 19661, the Parish of East Baton Rouge has been authorized to sell this property as adjudi‐ cated property. You have been identified as a party who might have a vested or contingent in‐ terest in said property, hi h d i

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Public Notices Conservation p p y which was assessed in the name(s) of Clinton Lee Chambers, and was adjudicated to the Parish of East Baton Rouge in the year of 2020 for un‐ paid taxes for the year of 2019. The sale will take place in accordance with the provisions of LA R.S. 47:2201 et seq. Your inter‐ est in the property will be terminated if you do not redeem the property by making all required payments to the tax col‐ lector listed below or file a lawsuit in accordance with law within Sixty (60) Days of the date of the first publication of this notice, or the recording of an act transferring ownership, if later.

Tax collector: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff 222 St. Louis Street, 2ND Floor Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 (225) 389-4810 169854 Dec. 11, 18, 2t $81.02 PUBLIC NOTICE ---

Public Notices Conservation p y g vested or contingent in‐ terest in said property, which was assessed in the name(s) of William Woolfolk. and was adju‐ dicated to the Parish of East Baton Rouge in the year of 2009 for unpaid taxes for the year of 2008. The sale will take place in accordance with the provisions of LA R.S. 47:2201 et seq. Your inter‐ est in the property will be terminated if you do not redeem the property by making all required payments to the tax col‐ lector listed below or file a lawsuit in accordance with law within SIXTY (60) DAYS of the date of the first publication of this notice, or the record‐ ing of an act transferring ownership, if later.

Tax collector: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff 222 St. Louis Street, 2ND Floor Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 (225) 389-4810 169870 Dec. 11, 18, 2t $78.34

Recquisition 11297714

PUBLIC NOTICE ---

NOTICE OF SALE OF ADJUDICATED PROPERTY

Recquisition 11297714

William Woolfolk THIS NOTICE BY PUBLICA‐ TION IS NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR RIGHTS OR INTEREST IN THE FOL‐ LOWING DESCRIBED PROPERTY LOCATED IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA MAY BE TERMINATED BY OP‐ ERATION OF LAW IF YOU DO NOT TAKE FURTHER ACTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW: Lot 107 Colonial Hill Improvements thereon believed to bear on Mu‐ nicipal No. () North Aca‐ dian Thruway.

By virtue of the provi‐ sions of Louisiana Re‐ vised Statute 47:2201 et seq. and Metropolitan Council Ordinance num‐ ber 19655, the Parish of East Baton Rouge has been authorized to sell this property as adjudi‐ cated property. You have been identified as a party who might have a d i i

NOTICE OF SALE OF ADJUDICATED PROPERTY Sandra J. Garrene THIS NOTICE BY PUBLICA‐ TION IS NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR RIGHTS OR INTEREST IN THE FOL‐ LOWING DESCRIBED PROPERTY LOCATED IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA MAY BE TERMINATED BY OP‐ ERATION OF LAW IF YOU DO NOT TAKE FURTHER ACTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW: Lot B1 Brookstown Place Improvements thereon believed to bear on Mu‐ nicipal No. () Bank Street.

By virtue of the provi‐ sions of Louisiana Re‐ vised Statute 47:2201 et seq. and Metropolitan Council Ordinance num‐ ber 19663, the Parish of East Baton Rouge has been authorized to sell this property as adjudi‐ cated property. You have b id ifi d

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8D ■ Thursday, December 18, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate Public Notices Conservation p p y been identified as a party who might have a vested or contingent in‐ terest in said property, which was assessed in the name(s) of Sandra Garrene, and was adjudi‐ cated to the Parish of East Baton Rouge in the year of 2017 for unpaid taxes for the year of 2016. The sale will take place in accordance with the provisions of LA R.S. 47:2201 et seq. Your inter‐ est in the property will be terminated if you do not redeem the property by making all required payments to the tax col‐ lector listed below or file a lawsuit in accordance with law within Sixty (60) Days of the date of the first publication of this notice, or the recording of an act transferring ownership, if later.

Tax collector: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff 222 St. Louis Street, 2ND Floor Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 (225) 389-4810 169859 Dec. 11, 18, 2t $78.34

Legal Notices

p p gram helps educate the public about floodplains and wetlands and en‐ hances Federal efforts to reduce risks associated with temporary impacts to these areas. Third, as a matter of fairness, when the Federal govern‐ ment determines it will participate in actions taking place in flood‐ plains, it must inform those who may be put at a greater or continued risk.

Written comments must be received by Carrie Schott, ELOS Environ‐ mental, on behalf of the Ascension Parish Gov‐ ernment, at the address below on or before Janu‐ ary 4th, 2026, during the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Carrie Schott Project Manager/ Environmental Scientist ELOS Environmental, LLC 607 W Morris Ave Hammond, LA 70403 cschott@elosenv.com

Legal Notices

December 18th 2025 170421 Dec. 18, 25, 2025, Jan. 1, 2026 3x $1,553.40

PUBLIC NOTICE ---

PUBLIC NOTICE ---

EARLY NOTICE AND PUBLIC REVIEW FOR LOWER BAYOU CONWAY DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS

Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy Office of Permitting and Compliance

To: All interested Federal, State, and Local Agen‐ cies, Groups, and Individ‐ uals This notice is to inform the public that the As‐ cension Parish Govern‐ ment, acting under HUD 24 CFR Part 58, has con‐ ducted an evaluation as required by Executive Or‐ ders 11988 (Floodplain Management) and 11990 (Protection of Wetlands) and in accordance with 24 CFR 55.20, Subpart C. This evaluation is in‐ tended to determine the potential effect that the proposed activities within floodplains and wetlands may have on the human environment for the Lower Bayou Con‐ way Drainage Improve‐ ments project.

Ascension Parish Gov‐ ernment proposes to im‐ plement flood hazard mitigation measures within the Lower Bayou Conway Watershed. The project is located at 30° 10’ 31.22” N, 90° 52’ 20.04” W in Sorrento, LA. The proposed project in‐ cludes culvert replace‐ ments and the installa‐ tion of a detention pond and pump station. These improvements are essen‐ tial to protecting sur‐ rounding communities from hazardous flooding, safeguarding infrastruc‐ ture, and supporting un‐ interrupted local com‐ merce. Existing under‐ sized culverts will be re‐ placed with wider cul‐ verts to allow for in‐ creased drainage capac‐ ity. A new pump station will increase the sys‐ tem’s hydrologic capac‐ ity and allow higher vol‐ umes of stormwater to be conveyed more effi‐ ciently. The detention pond will provide critical additional stormwater storage.

The proposed project will require excavation of canals segments where existing widths are insuf‐ ficient to convey stormwater or to accom‐ modate the construction of the detention pond.

Disturbances along canal banks will be minimized, and impacts to wetlands will be avoided to the maximum extent practi‐ cable. Excavated mater‐ ial will be transported to an upland disposal site off LA Highway 22.

There are three primary purposes for this notice.

First, individuals and groups who may be af‐ fected by activities in floodplains and wetlands —or who have an interest in protecting these nat‐ ural resources—must be given the opportunity to express their concerns and provide relevant in‐ formation. Second, an ef‐ fective public notice pro‐ h l d h

River Parish Sequestra‐ tion, LLC Class VI Injection Well Ascension Parish Docket No. UIC 2026-01 Application No. 45054 Pursuant to provisions of the laws of the State of Louisiana and particu‐ larly Title 43 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950 as amended, and provisions of Statewide Order No. 29-N-6, notice is hereby given that the Louisiana Department of Conserva‐ tion and Energy has pre‐ pared a Draft Permit for the application refer‐ enced below and that the secretary will conduct a public hearing to solicit comments on the Draft Permit. The hearing will be held in the Donald‐ sonville Courtroom West, 300 Houmas St. Donald‐ sonville, LA 70346 at 6:00 P.M. on January 29, 2026.

At such hearing, the sec‐ retary or his designated representative will give any interested person the opportunity to pre‐ sent testimony, facts, or oral or written comments relative to the Draft Per‐ mit prepared in response to an application by: River Parish Sequestra‐ tion, LLC 1333 West Loop South, Suite 810 Houston, TX 77027 River Parish Sequestra‐ tion, LLC has applied to the Office of Permitting and Compliance, Engi‐ neering Division for a permit to drill, construct, and operate a Class VI Injection Well for the ge‐ ologic sequestration of carbon dioxide in Section 16, Township 11 South, Range 14 East, of Ascen‐ sion Parish. The facility’s coordinates are 30°06'9.04" N, 91°03'45.37" W. The pro‐ posed well will be identi‐ fied as RPN-1-INJ Well No. 001. The well will be drilled to a depth of ap‐ proximately 10,385 feet below ground level (BGL). The base of the lowermost underground source of drinking water (USDW) at this location occurs at an approxi‐ mate depth of 590 feet BGL. A copy of the Draft Per‐ mit, fact sheet, applica‐ tion, or other information concerning the applica‐ tion may be obtained by writing to Gavin Brous‐ sard, Office of Permitting and Compliance, Engi‐ neering Division, 617 North 3rd Street, Eighth Floor, Baton Rouge, LA 70802 or by calling (225) 342-5515. The Draft Per‐ mit, fact sheet, and ap‐ plication are available for viewing on the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy website.

lll

Legal Notices

During the public hear‐ ing, the hearing officer will only receive com‐ ments. The Office of Per‐ mitting and Compliance will respond to all rele‐ vant comments in a writ‐ ten report after the con‐ clusion of the public comment period.

Interested parties may submit written com‐ ments on the application.

Written comments con‐ cerning the application must be received by the Office of Permitting and Compliance no later than 4:30 P.M., January 30, 2026. Submit all com‐ ments to: Gavin Brous‐ sard, Office of Permitting and Compliance, Engi‐ neering Division, 617 North 3rd Street, Eighth Floor, Baton Rouge, LA 70802. Comments may also be e-mailed to info@ la.gov. Please reference: River Parish Sequestra‐ tion, LLC – Class VI Per‐ mit – Docket No. UIC 2026-01.

All persons having inter‐ est in the aforesaid shall take notice thereof.

By order of: Dustin H. Davidson Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy

Legal Notices

pp Communications Tower at the approx. vicinity of 42011 Highway 16, Pine Grove, St. Helena Parish, LA 70453. Public com‐ ments regarding poten‐ tial effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Benjamin Allen, b.allen@trileaf. com, phone: 678-6538673, 1775 The Exchange SE, Suite 525, Atlanta, GA 30339.

170386 Dec. 18, 1t $94.32

PUBLIC NOTICE --South of Night, a feature film project produced by Tri Prints Pictures, began principalphotography 11/3/25 and concluded its principal photography 11/14/25. For any ques‐ tions orconcerns please contact the production company at RealJoeCar‐ leton@gmail.com or225329-6921. Any Creditor claims may also be made to the contact informa‐ tion listed here.

169075 Dec. 4, 11, 18, 3t $171.76 PUBLIC NOTICE ---

In accordance with Act 393 of the 2023 Louisiana Regular Section, accom‐ modations will be pro‐ vided upon request to people with disabilities in order to access this public hearing. To re‐ quest an accommodation for this hearing, please contact DNR-HumanRe‐ sources@la.gov.

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF GREENVILLE South Carolina Department of Social Services, Plaintiff, vs.

Maritza Saliya Rios and Jorge Avila, Defendants.

170499-DEC 18-1T $72.50

IN THE INTERESTS OF: A Minor Child Born in 2008.

Minor under the age of 18.

PUBLIC NOTICE --Notice is hereby given that Marshall Jones, Jr. has applied for a 401 Water Quality Certifica‐ tion to clear, grade, dredge, and place spoil to establish a commer‐ cial sand dredging oper‐ ation on the bank of and within the Red River for River Energy Services, LLC· Offices, scales, a discharge pond, stock‐ pile and plant areas, and a dock will be con‐ structed on the bank of the Red River off Clyde Fant Memorial Parkway in Shreveport in both Caddo and Bossier Parishes. Dredging will be conducted in four areas within the Red River adjacent to the land operation in both Caddo and Bossier Parishes.

J. Marshall Jones, Jr. is applying to the Louisiana Depart‐ ment of Environmental Quality, Office of Environ‐ mental Services for a Water Quality Certifica‐ tion in accordance with statutory authority con‐ tained in the LAC33: IX. 1507.A-E and provisions of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. Comments concerning this application can be filed with the Water Per‐ mits Division within ten days of this notice by ref‐ erencing WQC 250923-01, AI248689 to the following address: Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Water Permits Division P.0. Box4313 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-4313 Attn: Water Quality Certifications Comments may be sub‐ mitted by email to DEOWatetQualityCertifica‐ tions@la.gov.

A copy of the application is available for inspec‐ tion and review at the LDEQ Public Records Center at 602 North Fifth Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The available information can also be accessed electronically on the Electronic Docu‐ ment Management Sys‐ tem (EDMS} on the LDEQ public website at www,deq.louisiana.gov.

170900 Dec. 18, 1t $234.71 PUBLIC NOTICE --SBA Towers II, LLC pro‐ poses to collocate wire‐ less communications an‐ tennas at a center line height of 270 feet on a 336-foot Self-support i i

IN THE FAMILY COURT THIRTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT C.A. No.: 2025-DR-23-0173 PLAINTIFF’S MOTION REQUESTING ORDER CONFIRMING MINOR’S ELIGIBILITY FOR SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE STATUS Plaintiff, South Carolina Department of Social Services (“DSS”), hereby moves the Court on be‐ half of the minor child for the entry of an order confirming the eligibility of the minor for special immigrant juvenile (“SIJ”) status pursuant to INA § 101(a)(27)(J), 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J), TVPRA § 235(d)(1), an al‐ lowing the disclosure of such order to the U.S. Cit‐ izenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) for purposes of applying for legal permanent resi‐ dency for the minor child. Plaintiff alleges that this case has been previously before the Court and that the Court has jurisdiction of the parties and subject mat‐ ter of the case. This hear‐ ing will take place on JANUARY 20, 2026, AT 10:30 A.M. at 350 Halton Road, Greenville, South Carolina.

1. In order for the minor child to submit a Form I360, petition for SIJ sta‐ tus, and apply for legal permanent residency with USCIS, he requires current verification from this Court of his eligibil‐ ity for SIJ status.

2. Under Section 101(a) (27)(J) of the Immigra‐ tion and Nationality Act (“INA”), and as amended

by Section 245(d)(1) of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victim’s Pro‐ tection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”), Congress enacted a mechanism for noncitizen children to obtain legal permanent resident status in the United States where a family court has deter‐ mined that reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, or aban‐ donment. In short, the INA gives these children a way to gain or maintain lawful immigrant status and the right to work and live in the United States.

Without this provision, these children would be unable to work and would otherwise be sub‐ ject to removal from the United States. Pursuit of this benefit under the INA is in the best interest of the minor child.

3. To be considered a

Legal Notices

Legal Notices

Special Immigrant Juve‐ nile, the juvenile must establish (a) that he or she is un‐ married and under age 21; see 8 C.F.R. § 204.11(c) (1) – (2); (b) that he or she has been “declared depen‐ dent on a juvenile court located in the United States or whom such a court has legally com‐ mitted to, or placed under the custody of, an agency or department of a State or an individual or entity appointed by a State or juvenile court lo‐ cated in the United States;” INA § 101(a)(27) (J)(i); TVPRA § 235(d)(1); see also 8 C.F.R. § 204.11(c)(3); (c) that “reunification with one or both of the immigrant’s parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment or a similar basis found under State law.” INA § 101(a)(27)(J)(i); TVPRA § 235(d)(1); see also 8 C.F.R. § 204.11(c)(3); (d) that it has been de‐ termined in an adminis‐ trative or judicial pro‐ ceeding that it would “not be in the juvenile’s best interest to be re‐ turned” to his or her home country. INA § 101(a)(27)(J)(ii); see also 8 C.F.R. § 204.11(c)(6).

4. The minor child is eligi‐ ble for special immigrant juvenile status for the following reasons: (a) the minor child is cur‐ rently unmarried and under age 21; (b) the minor child was declared dependent in this Court on January 22, 2025, pursuant to the Probable Cause Removal order, which found prob‐ able cause to place the minor into emergency protective custody of DSS as a result of the al‐ legations that the Defen‐ dant, Maritza Saliya Rios had failed to ensure and provide that basic needs were provided for the minor child. (c) Reunification with the minor child’s biological mother, Maritza Saliya Rios, is not a viable op‐ tion, based on the follow‐ ing: (i) At the Merits Removal Hearing on June 4, 2025 and by Order issued June 25, 2025, the Court en‐ tered a finding of Physi‐ cal Neglect. (ii) DSS was relieved of offering services to the Defendant mother at the Merits Removal Hearing by order issued June 25, 2025. (iii) This Court has deter‐ mined that reunification would cause an unrea‐ sonable risk of harm to the child’s life, physical health or safety and mental well-being. (iv) The court found that it was not in the best in‐ terests of the minor child for DSS to pursue termi‐ nation of parental rights (d) Reunification with the minor child’s biological father, Jorge Avila, is not a viable option because his whereabouts are un‐ known and cannot be de‐ termined after due dili‐ gence; and (e) the minor child con‐ tinues to be dependent on this Court; Further, it continues to be in the best interest of the minor child to remain in the United States and not to return to his home country of Honduras be‐ cause no appropriate family members have been identified in Hon‐ duras and therapeutic and educational services provided to him now will end causing further trauma and hindering normal child develop‐ ment; danger or violence in home country.

WHEREFORE, the con‐ senting parties respect‐ fully pray for the Court to grant the following relief: 1. That the Court con‐ sider and approve the at‐ tached proposed Order confirming the minor child’s eligibility for SIJ status and granting per‐ mission to disclose the order to the USCIS for purposes of petitioning for SIJ status and legal permanent residency; 2. That the Court require the Plaintiff to provide any monetary or other support the minor child may necessarily require to submit the SIJ petition to USCIS, including the payment of any filing fees, medical exam fees and translation fees; and 3. For any and all further relief which the Court deems necessary for the best interests of the minor child.

Respectfully Submitted: Amanda Stiles, S.C. Bar # 101380 Attorney for Plaintiff 352 Halton Road, Greenville, SC 29607 864-467-7700 168621-dec 4-11-18-3t $2,147

Public Notices Meet/Hear/Min

PUBLIC NOTICE --Minutes of Regular Meet‐ ing of the Mayor and Council Members of the City of St. George, State of Louisiana, held on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, at 5:00 pm at the St. George Fire Dept, 14100 Airline Hwy, St. George, LA 70817 I. Preliminary Business: 1. Call to Order: Mayor Yates called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Roll Call: Present: Council Member Cook, Council Member Himmel, Council Member Edmonds, Council Member Dellucci, Council Member Monachello, Council Member Murrell, Council Member Talbot Absent: 4. Approval of Minutes: Motion by Council Mem‐ ber Himmel, seconded by Council Member Murrell to ap‐ prove the minutes of the November 11, 2025 coun‐ cil meeting.

AYES: Cook, Himmel, Ed‐ monds, Monachello, Del‐ lucci, Talbot, Murrell NAYS: None ABSENT: 5. Presentation by Bran‐ don Boylan on monthly financials.

Public comment was opened with no speak‐ ers.

6. Presentation by DPW director, Landon Tims.

II. Introduction of Ordinances for Public Hearing on December 9, 2025 1. Ordinance to establish official holidays and of‐ fice closures for St. George 2. Ordinance authorizing the city of St. George to enter into a Utility Fran‐ chise Agreement with Demco 3. To amend title 7 Uni‐ fied Development Code to modify regulations for short-term rentals and to provide for related mat‐ ters.

4. To amend Title 7 Uni‐ fied Development Code to modify regulations to allow office/warehouse uses as a conditional use in Light Commercial 1 (LCL) zoning districts and to provide for related matters.

III. New Business (Items for Public Hearing and Action) (1) Motion by Council Member Talbot, sec‐ onded by Council Mem‐ ber Himmel to move agenda item number 7 to the be‐ ginning of new business.

AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: Motion by Council Mem‐ ber Himmel, Seconded by Council Member Dellucci to approve Ordinance to regulate traffic impact fees re‐ lated to development in St. George.

Public comment was opened with no speak‐ ers.

AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: (2) Motion by Council Member Dellucci, sec‐ onded by Council Mem‐ ber Himmel to approve rezone of a 1.14-acre par‐ cel on lot 36 Highlandia from R (Rural) to LC2 (Light Commercial Two) and to provide for related matters (552 Highlandia Dr.) (Council Member Edmonds) Public comment was opened with no speak‐ ers.

Public Notices Meet/Hear/Min

AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: (3) Motion by Council Member Murrell, sec‐ onded by Council Mem‐ ber Monachello to approve a rezone of a 1.23-acre parcel on lots A & B of the Inniswold Es‐ tates section 1 from C1 (light commer‐ cial) to LC2 (Light Com‐ mercial Two) and to pro‐ vide for related matters (4341 and 4355 Inniswold Rd.) (Coun‐ cilmember Murrell) Public comment was opened with no speak‐ ers.

AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: (4) Motion by Council Member Murrell, sec‐ onded by Council Mem‐ ber Monachello to amend title 7 Unified De‐ velopment Code to mod‐ ify regulations for shortterm rentals and to provide for re‐ lated matters.

Public comment: Angela Smith AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: (5) Motion by Council Member Dellucci, sec‐ onded by Council Mem‐ ber Cook to amend Title 7 Unified Develop‐ ment Code to modify reg‐ ulations to allow of‐ fice/warehouse uses as a conditional use in Light Commercial 1 (LCL) zoning districts and to provide for related matters.

Public comment opened with the following speak‐ ers: Bryant Dixon AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: (6) Motion by Council Member Himmel, Sec‐ onded by Council Mem‐ ber Talbot to amend the St. George Code of Ordinances adding title 2 streets, alleys, side‐ walks, and right of ways.

Public comment opened with the following speak‐ ers: Landon Tims AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: (7) Motion by Council Member Himmel, Sec‐ onded by Council Mem‐ ber Cook to approve Ordinance to regulate stormwater manage‐ ment within the city of St. George.

Public comment opened with the following speak‐ ers: Shelly Cole AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: (8) Motion to approve by Council Member Monachello, seconded by Council Member Murrell to approve Mayor Yates signature on an Intergov‐ ernmental Agreement with the East Baton Rouge Communications District.

Public comment opened with the following speak‐ ers: Chief Gerald Tar‐ leton, Brenda Welch AYES: Cook, Dellucci, Ed‐ monds, Himmel, Monachello, Murrell, Tal‐ bot NAYS: None ABSENT: IV. Other Business Announcements • City Council Meeting is December 9, 2025 at 5:00pm • Board of Adjustment Meeting is Monday, De‐ cember 1, 2025 at 5:00 pm • Planning Commission Meeting is Monday, De‐ cember 1, 2025 at 6:00 pm • Zoning Commission Meeting is Monday, De‐ cember 1, 2025 at 6:00 pm

Dustin Yates, Mayor Attest: Lorraine Beaman, City Clerk 170977 Dec. 18, 1t $100.11

PUBLIC NOTICE --The City of Central Board of Adjustment will hold a public hearing on Thurs‐ day, December 18, 2025, at 5:00 pm at the Central Community School Sys‐ tem School Board Office at 11576 Sullivan Road, Central, LA 70818, to con‐ sider the following: V-25-0021: Variance at the Northwest Corner of Hooper Road and Bridle‐ wood Drive. Request to reduce the minimum lot width to 100 feet where 125 feet is required (App. 1, Sec. 3.3.A.1) for six pro‐ posed new lots (concur‐ rent subdivision request S-25-0029). On Lot A (pro‐ posed Lots A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5, and A-6), Bridle‐ wood Subdivision, in the R-1 (Single-Family Resi‐ dence) zoning district.

(Applicant/Owner: Nick FaKouri, JJN Holdings, LLC) 168710-dec 8-14-18-3t $60.52 PUBLIC NOTICE --The City of Central Plan‐ ning Commission will hold a public hearing on Thursday, December 18, 2025, at 6:00 pm at the Central Community School System School Board Office at 11576 Sul‐ livan Road, Central, LA 70818, to consider the following: S-25-0027: Subdivision at 9640 Arleen Avenue. Re‐ quest for a prelimi‐ nary/final plat to subdi‐ vide one lot (7-B) into two, Fiesta Homes Subdi‐ vision, and dedicate a new private access servi‐ tude, with a public sewer waiver, comprising 1.212 acres in the R-1 (SingleFamily Residence) zoning district. (Applicant: Cur‐ tis Chaney, Louisiana Land Surveying, for Dena Davis) S-25-0028: Exchange of Property at 14430 Brown Road. Request to ex‐ change property be‐ tween Tract F-1-A, Evans White Estate, and an UnDesignated 145.63 acre Pettit Tract, located be‐ tween and with frontage on Brown Rd and Carey Rd, comprising 148.3 acres in the R/A (Rural/Agricultural) zon‐ ing district. (Applicant: Theodule Hebert, III, on behalf of himself and Randall C. Wagley) S-25-0029: Subdivision at the Northwest Corner of Hooper Road and Bridle‐ wood Drive. Request for a preliminary plat to sub‐ divide one lot (A) into six, Bridlewood Subdivi‐ sion, with new public sewer line, comprising 5.3 acres in the R-1 (Sin‐ gle-Family Residence) zoning district, with a separate concurrent re‐ quest for a variance to lot width (V-25-0021).

(Applicant/Owner: Nick FaKouri, JJN Holdings, LLC) S-25-0030: Subdivision at 9804 Blackwater Road.

Request for a prelimi‐ nary/final plat to subdi‐ vide one tract (G-1-A) into two, H.O. Denham Estate, and dedicate a new private servitude of passage, comprising 13.855 acres in the R/A (Rural/Agricultural) zon‐ ing district. (Applicant: Lamon Moody, Moody Professional Land Sur‐ veyors, Inc., for Stephanie Aaron)

Meeting adjourned at 5:51pm.

S-25-0031: Exchange of Property at 12935 Joor Road. Request to ex‐ change property be‐ tween Tracts A-1-A and B-1-A, Ray D. Pearce Property, comprising 4.575 acres in the R-2 (Single-Family Resi‐ dence) zoning district.

(Applicant: Jeffrey Dean Diamond of Professional Land Surveyors of Louisiana, LLC, on behalf of Randall Wagley)

Meeting minutes approved on .

168716-dec 8-14-18-3t $129.25

• Administrative Hearing is December 5, 2025 at 9:00 am and 1:00 pm

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WBR Public Notices

WBR Public Notices Sheriff Sales

SHERIFF’S SALE PRIMARY RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE, INC. VS. ERNEST STRAUGHTER AND KIMBERLEE PIERCE, A/K/A KIMBERLEE PIERCE STRAUGHTER DOCKET NO: 50158 18TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT WEST BATON ROUGE PARISH STATE OF LOUISIANA By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale, di‐ rected by the Honorable The Eighteenth Judicial District Court, for the Parish of West Baton Rouge, in the above enti‐ tled and numbered cause, I have seized and proceed to sell by public auction, on the front steps of the West Baton Rouge Courthouse, 850 8th Street, Port Allen, Louisiana on WEDNES‐ DAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 at 10:00 A.M., the following described property, to wit: One (1) certain lot or par‐ cel of ground together with all the buildings and improvements thereon situated in the Parish of West Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana in that sub‐ division known as Sugar Mill Plantation, 10th Fil‐ ing and being designated on the Official Plan of said subdivision on file and of record in the Of‐ fice of the Clerk and Recorder of said Parish and State as Lot Number Five Hundred Seventy Eight (578), said subdivi‐ sion, said lot having such size, shape, and dimen‐ sions and being subject to such servitudes as are shown on said map; sub‐ ject to restrictions, servi‐ tudes, rights-of-way and outstanding mineral rights of record affecting the property.

Municipal Address: 4732 Stonewall Drive, Addis, LA 70710 Terms of Sale: Cash payable to the highest bidder WITHOUT benefit of appraisement and ac‐ cording to law.

Attorney for the Plaintiff: Dean Morris, LLC 1505 North 19th Street Monroe, LA 71207 (318) 388-1440 Judicial Advertise‐ ment(s) will appear in THE ADVOCATE on the date(s) of: December 18, 2025 and January 15, 2026.

JEFF BERGERON, SHERIFF PARISH OF WEST BATON ROUGE BY:ANGIE DELAUNE, DEPUTY SHERIFF $56.72

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