HAPPY NEW YEAR! N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, J a n u a ry 1, 2026
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Chaotic 24 hours changed N.O. forever One year later, officials reflect on 15 seconds of violence that left 14 dead, plus attacker
BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
The phone call jolted him awake at 4 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Gov. Jeff Landry, asleep at a French Quarter hotel, heard New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell on the line. “This can’t be good,” he thought. Speaking so hurriedly that Landry had to ask her to slow down, Cantrell relayed how an attacker had just killed “a bunch of people on Bourbon Street, ran over them with a truck,” Landry recalled. The call touched off a frenzied 24 hours in which local, state and
federal law enforcement officers, along with elected officials in Louisiana’s tourist hub, sought to secure one of America’s most famous party neighborhoods after an attack that killed 14. As they raced against the clock on the eve of the Sugar Bowl and with the impending kickoff of Carnival season, they frantically tried to discern whether the attacker, 42-year-old Shamsud Din-Jabbar, acted alone in planting explosives around the French Quarter hours before he swerved a Ford pickup onto the famous party strip. He ran down dozens of revelers and engaged police in a shootout that left him dead.
The burst of violence lasted all of 15 seconds, but had horrific consequences. The attack sent officials scrambling to New Orleans after they had been celebrating the holiday with their families across the state. Their mission: to determine whether Jabbar acted alone amid at-times mixed messages from federal law enforcement. Investigators would also need to evaluate whether a flurry of additional bomb warnings called in by anxious pedestrians after the attack posed further threats. Resolving those questions would
ä See CHAOTIC, page 3A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
New Orleans police and federal agents investigate a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street on Jan. 1, 2025. The attack left 14 people dead and dozens injured.
Group eyes rules for high school athlete endorsements
SUGAR ROLL
New year’s Eve parade celebrates Sugar Bowl matchup between Ole Miss and the University of Georgia
Carolyn Babauta of the Krewe of Dolly participates in Wednesday’s parade.
STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
The Allstate Sugar Bowl executive committee gets ready to roll through the French Quarter in the Allstate Sugar Bowl New year’s Parade on Wednesday.
Task force includes coaches, lawmakers, lawyers and students
BY JOSEPH CRANNEY Staff writer
With elite high school football and basketball traditions stretching from Shreveport to New Orleans, the new pay-the-players era that allows kids to profit from paid endorsements has led to big business in Louisiana, and some athletes are bringing home six-figure incomes before they even graduate. But it’s also spawned a host of concerns around a lack of financial protections for young athletes and who can claim a stake in the money they’re now allowed to earn. Those concerns were a key focus this year of a 22-person legislative task force involving Louisiana lawmakers, lawyers, college athletic administrators, coaches and student athletes. The group was empaneled to study the effects of paid endorsements and salaries for the state’s high school and college players. They began shortly after a landmark NCAA settlement in June that allowed college athletes to begin collecting salaries directly from their universities this season. For the past four years, college athletes could earn money through outside endorsement deals but not directly from their schools. Over the course of five meetings, the panel zeroed in on the so-called “NIL” era in high school sports, named for the money that athletes have been allowed to earn
ä See ATHLETE, page 4A
CIA behind drone strike on Venezuelan dock, sources say BY AAMER MADHANI and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
with details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the classified matter. Associated Press The first known direct operaWASHINGTON — The CIA was be- tion on Venezuelan soil since the hind a drone strike last week at a U.S. began strikes in September docking area believed to have been marks a significant escalation in used by Venezuelan drug cartels, the administration’s months-long according to two people familiar pressure campaign on Venezuelan
WEATHER HIGH 69 LOW 54 PAGE 8A
President Nicolás Maduro’s government. The strike has not been acknowledged by Venezuelan officials. President Donald Trump first made reference to the operation in an interview Friday with John Catsimatidis on WABC radio in New York, saying the U.S. had
knocked out some type of “big facility where ships come from.” In an exchange with reporters Monday as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump added that the operation targeted a “dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.” But the
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
president declined to comment when asked whether the attack was conducted by the military or the CIA. The CIA and White House officials also declined to offer further comment on the matter. Col. Allie
ä See STRIKE, page 4A
13TH yEAR, NO. 142