Walt Handelsman speaks on his love for drawing as he hangs up his pen Commentary 7B
N O L A.C O M
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F r i d ay, d e c e m b e r 19, 2025
C O L L E G E F O O T B A L L P L AY O F F S T U L A N E AT O L E M I S S • 2: 3 0 P. M . S AT U R DAy • T N T
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Cantrell resumes road projects
Move could jeopardize access to emergency fund BY BEN MYERS Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Campus Connection owner David Cariello fills orders of Tulane Green Wave merchandise inside his Broadway Street shop on Thursday, as demand surges ahead of Tulane’s College Football Playoff appearance. Cariello and a group of people are flying up to Oxford Saturday for the game against Ole Miss.
A ‘green wave’ is rolling north as Tulane fans devise travel plans for playoff game at Ole Miss BY RICH COLLINS
Staff writer
David Cariello is traveling like a VIP to Tulane University’s College Football Playoff game versus the Ole Miss Rebels this Saturday in Oxford, Mississippi. But the extravagance, he says, is only out of necessity. As the owner of Campus Connection, the 45-year-old Tulane apparel store on the edge of the university’s Uptown campus, Cariello has a lot on his plate these days. When Tulane won the American Conference Championship game earlier this month, sales went into overdrive. Cariello can’t afford to be away from the shop for very long, but he also can’t miss the chance to see customers at the game. So he and his son are joining a small group of game attendees that chartered
a same-day private flight from the New Orleans Lakefront Airport. “I’m leaving right after the game to be back here at the store or in front of my computer in case we win so I can order Sugar Bowl merch,” he said. While Cariello isn’t the only one flying private to the game, many more Tulane fans will either be using commercial airlines or hitting the road. In fact, it’s fair to say there will be a literal “green wave” heading five hours’ north on Interstate 55 this weekend. The students, faculty, staff, alumni and super fans who nabbed some of the 3,500 tickets made available to Tulane are driving their own vehicles, hopping on chartered buses, or hiring drivers to take them there and back.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s outgoing administration will reverse course and continue work on over $300 million in road projects even though the city has no money to pay for them — punting the problem to Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, who takes over at City Hall in January. If work proceeds, it could drain the city’s general funds and jeopardize its ability to access a $125 million emergency payroll fund, said Louisiana Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack, who oversees the fund and is monitoring city finances. Cantrell’s about-face comes a week after her administration vowed to stop work on the costly projects, citing the city’s lack of funds to see them through. Moreno agreed with the decision. “Mayor Cantrell has determined that this Administration will not engage in any contract suspensions or terminations due to the nature of the unintended consequences and impacts to residents,” Deputy Chief Administrative Officer LaNitrah Hasan wrote in a Wednesday email to Waguespack and incoming Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso. “Based on your prior recommendation to terminate (the FEMA-funded road projects), this determination will need to be made by the Moreno Administration at noon on January 12th.” Cantrell’s initial decision came with its own set of complications, such as dozens of roads ripped
ä See CANTRELL, page 9A
Judge upholds La. pre-K rule BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
PROVIDED PHOTO
Former Tulane wide receiver Brian King and his family will be staying at his mother’s house in Memphis while he and his wife, Chabrina, attend the ä See TULANE, page 8A game.
Private preschools in Louisiana must apply for day care licenses by Jan. 1 after a federal judge rejected an effort by two Christian schools to block the new licensing rule, which they argue overly burdens and discriminates against religious schools. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty denied the schools’ request to halt enforcement of the licensing requirement in Act 409, a new law
ä See PRE-K, page 9A
Suspect in Brown University shooting found dead in N.H. BY KIMBERLEE KRUESI, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A man who is suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said. Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gun-
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shot wound, Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said at a news conference. Investigators believe Valente is responsible for both the shooting at Brown and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who was fatally shot in his Brookline home Monday, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Authorities have not formally confirmed a connection between the two shootings. The official could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing in-
vestigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. Two people were killed and nine were wounded in the mass shooting Saturday at Brown University. The investigation had shifted Thursday when authorities said they were looking into a connection between the Brown mass shooting and an attack two days later near Boston that killed MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro. The FBI previously said it knew
A woman lights a candle at a memorial on Thursday at Brown University in Providence, R.I. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
ä See SUSPECT, page 12A
Business ...................16A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
13TH yEAR, NO. 129