N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, d e c e m b e r 25, 2025
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OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS
‘It’s just a matter of time’ New Alzheimer’s drugs offer patients hope
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
Staring at her golf gear in her garage in Destrehan three years ago, Diane Roussel couldn’t understand why she couldn’t find a pair of gloves. She rifled through her golf bag. There were no right-hand gloves. How could she have a dozen left-hand gloves and not a single pair? Her husband found her there, searching. “You never had pairs,” he told her, gently. “Golfers wear one glove.” Of course, Roussel knew that. She had been a golfer for decades. Later that year, her whole extended family celebrated Christmas and her birthday. It was the biggest gathering they’d had as a family to celebrate, “just an amazing day,” Roussel said. Three days later, a friend texted. “How was your Christmas?” Roussel couldn’t remember. There “was just a hole” where the memory should have been.
ä See DRUGS, page 3A
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Christmas lights brighten the trees along St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. As children wake up to see what Santa left them under the Christmas tree, if they want to head outside to play, expect a foggy and cloudy morning with temperatures in the mid-70s during the day.
Swamp complicates plans for new bridge DOTD narrowing BR route options for Mississippi River span
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer
Deep in the sloughs behind Don Ristroph’s family farm, cypress have towered over surrounding trees, high grass and crop rows for centuries, and, he says, in one or two cases, perhaps half a millennium or more. On a Mississippi River bend known as Point Pleasant, the cypress swamp and its ancient trees south of Plaquemine are in the path of at least one of the final routes for a long-awaited
WEATHER HIGH 74 LOW 61 PAGE 6B
river bridge and could be negatively affected by being on the edge of another, Ristroph says. Designated a state natural area, Ristroph’s cypress forest on the west bank of Iberville Parish presents another, potentially complicating, wrinkle in the running debate over where to build the $2 billion bridge and route its 600-foot-wide approach corridors linking the Mississippi bridge to La. 1 and La. 30. State highway officials revealed this month that they are closing in on a preferred route for federal officials to consider by the middle of 2026. The state is weighing three alternatives: 11, 13 and 14. Alternatives 13 and 14 affect Ristroph’s property, according to state maps.
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
After seeking care for escalating memory lapses, Diane Roussel received a devastating Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
La. gets $15M grant to expand virtual tutoring BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID J. MITCHELL
Don Ristroph hikes through high grasses Friday on family property south of Plaquemine. Ristroph said the swamp is likely in the path of two of three routes proposed for the new Mississippi River bridge ä See SWAMP, page 4A in Iberville Parish.
Thousands of Louisiana students will receive reading help from online tutors through a $15 million federal grant meant to expand intensive tutoring and study its impact on struggling readers. The five-year grant will allow about 4,500 students in first and second grades who are behind in reading to be tutored through Air Reading, a company that connects students with live tutors over video. Several Louisiana school districts already use the program, including Jefferson Parish, where a new study found that the tutoring significantly improved struggling readers’ test scores.
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä See TUTORING, page 4A
13TH yEAR, NO. 135