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Landry seeksmoremoney forvouchers

BY ALYSE PFEILand PATRICK WALL Staff writers

Gov.Jeff Landry’sadministration on Friday said it will askthe Legislature to roughly double Louisiana’s spendingonits LA GATOR voucher program, which gives parents taxpayermoney to pay private schooltuition, poten-

tially repeatingone of last year’s biggestpolitical battles.

“It’s alwaysbeen apriority of

Gov. Landry to expand ourGATOR program,”Landry’stop budget ofﬁcial, Commissioner of Administration Taylor Barras, told state lawmakersFriday during ameetingabout the governor’sbudget proposal fornext ﬁscal year

ButSenate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie,who last year led the legislative opposition to Landry’spush formore LA GATOR funding, said he continues to have serious doubtsabout the program. In particular,hesaidhe does notwantfamilies to use the public dollarstopay fortuition at low-performing private schools

an apparent reference to Louisiana’sprevious voucher program, where participating students had lowertestscoresthantheir peers in public school.

“You can’tjustgive them money to stay in the school they’re in now,” he said. “The goal is foryou to get out of thebad school.” The request forGATOR funding is perhaps the mostcontroversial piece of Landry’splanfor state spending. Forthe most part, the administration is asking agencies to hold their spending to roughly the same level as the current ﬁscal year,though it also highlighted new or increased funding it wants forahandful of areas. The Legislature will use Landry’s planasthe starting point forthe

PERFECTSTART

LSU gymnast Kailin Chio performs on the balancebeam during the Tigers’homeopener against Kentucky on Friday. Chio scored aperfect 10 on the beam to leadthe Tigers to adominantvictory overthe Wildcats. The crowd of 13,516 wasthe largest forahome opener in programhistory More onFriday’s victoryinSports,1C.

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

Despite updatedweekend storm forecasts with lower chances of freezing rain for East Baton Rouge Parish, Mayor-President

Sid Edwards announced Friday the city-parish will beginwinter storm preparations out of an abundance of caution

“While forecasts show slightly warmer temperatures,we’re takingprecautions as the potential for

winter weather impacts remains arisk,” Edwards said,standing alongside other city leaders. “We are readytorespond to any needs that may come up to ensure the safetyofour citizens.”

TheEastBaton Rouge Parish

BY TYLERBRIDGES Staff writer

President Donald Trump’sunexpected announcement just before Christmas that Gov.Jeff Landry would be hisspecial envoy to Greenland suddenly thrust Landry into a potentiallyhigh-proﬁle international position. It also elevated his visibility within Trump’sMAGA movement.

But whatisthe governor’s roleafter Trump announced on Wednesday that he had reached the “framework” of adeal with NATO over Greenland?

“Noone hascalledand said, ‘You have done agreat job We don’tneed you anymore,’” Landry said in an interview Friday

“No one has calledand said, ‘You have done a great job. We don’tneed you anymore.’”

He added that he attended a series of high-levelmeetings on Thursday andFriday last week in Washington, D.C., with Secretary of State Marco Rubio andother seniorofﬁcials, including the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.

GOV. JEFF LANDRy

“There were anumber of conversations we had surrounding it,” Landry said. He declined to provide details but said astrongerrelationship

school system also reacted with caution Friday,asitannounced it is shifting to remote instruction on Monday,which, depending on the school, maybetake-homework or online instruction.OtherBaton Rouge-area districts had yet to an-

nouncetheir Monday operational plans. Southern University in Baton Rouge

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

U.S. carries out strike on alleged drug boat

WASHINGTON The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out a deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first known attack since the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and that the strike killed two people and left one survivor It said it notiﬁed the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue operations for that person.

A video accompanying the post announcing the latest strike shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in ﬂames.

The U.S. military has focused lately on seizing sanctioned oil tankers with connections to Venezuela since the Trump administration launched an audacious raid to capture Maduro and bring him to New York to face drug trafﬁcking charges. With the latest military action, there have been 36 known strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in South American waters since early September that killed at least 117 people, according to announcements from the U.S. military and Trump. The majority of those of strikes have occurred in the Caribbean Sea.

Complaint against singer Iglesias dropped

MADRID Spanish state prosecutors said Friday they were shelving an initial investigation into accusations of sexual assault by Julio Iglesias in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic after concluding that Spain’s National Court lacked jurisdiction to judge the matter Earlier this month, Spanish prosecutors had opened an investigation studying allegations that the Grammy-winning singer had sexually assaulted two former employees at his residences in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.

Iglesias denied the accusations, writing on social media that: “With deep sorrow, I respond to the accusations made by two people who previously worked at my home. I deny having abused, coerced or disrespected any woman These accusations are absolutely false and cause me great sadness.

‘Let Politicians Lie Act’ struck down in Missouri

The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday unanimously struck down a state law deployed by Republicans to fight abortion access, a sweeping ruling that wrestles power away from top statewide ofﬁcials.

The law signed by Republican Gov Mike Kehoe last year, marked a key tool in Republican ofﬁcials’ yearslong effort to halt abortions. It severely restricted judges from rewriting misleading ballot questions and gave the state’s attorney general the ability to appeal temporary court decisions.

Together, those provisions led to the law’s downfall. The state’s highest court ruled that the law called SB22, violated the Missouri Constitution’s requirement that lawmakers cannot amend bills to change the legislation’s original purpose.

“SB22 as enacted violated its original purpose,” Chief Justice W. Brent Powell wrote in the majority opinion. “The power (the law) grants to the attorney general goes beyond SB22’s initial purpose related to ballot summaries.”

The law which critics dubbed the “Let Politicians Lie Act,” has played a central role in a series of courtroom battles over abortion. It provided the Missouri Secretary of State’s Ofﬁce and the Attorney General’s Office, both led by staunch anti-abortion Republicans, newfound powers over court rulings and ballot measures they disagree with.

In recent months, the law allowed Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins two shots at writing his own ballot question for a proposed abortion ban that will appear on the ballot in 2026. Hoskins’ language, which did not mention the ban, was ultimately struck down.

Iran denies claim about protesters

Trump’s statement about halting 800 hangings ‘false,’ prosecutor says

BY JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday called U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he halted the hangings of 800 detained protesters there “completely false.”

Meanwhile, the overall death toll from a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 5,032, activists said.

Tensions remain high between the United States and Iran as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East, something Trump likened to an “armada” in comments to journalists late Thursday

Analysts say a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, though so far he’s avoided that despite repeated warnings to Tehran.

“While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would be insufﬁcient

to implode the regime, military assets continue to be moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen,” New Yorkbased think tank the Soufan Center said in an analysis Friday Prosecutor denies Trump claim Trump has repeatedly said Iran halted the execution of 800 people detained in the protests, without elaborating on the source of the claim. On Friday, Iran’s top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi strongly denied that in comments carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency “This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision,” Movahedi said.

A White House ofﬁcial disputed Movahedi’s assertion later Friday and reasserted that planned executions were called off as a result of Trump’s warnings. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, underscored that Trump was watching the situation in Iran closely and “all op-

tions are on the table if the regime executes protesters.” But the ofﬁcial did not provide any evidence or details backing Trump’s claim. Iranian judiciary ofﬁcials have called some of those being held “mohareb” — or “enemies of God.”

That charge carries the death penalty It had been used along with others to carry out mass executions in 1988 that reportedly killed at least 5,000 people. Mohammad Javad Haji Ali Akbari, the Friday prayer leader in Tehran, mocked Trump as a “yellow-faced, yellow-haired and disgraced man” who is “like a dog that only barks.”

Death toll rises

The latest death toll was given by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which reported that more than 4,700 of the dead were demonstrators. It added that more than 27,600 people had been detained.

The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest and rely on a network of activists in

Vance, at March for Life, touts anti-abortion actions

BY MEG KINNARD Associated Press

Vice President JD Vance on Friday encouraged anti-abortion activists to “take heart in how far we’ve come” on the quest to limit the practice, listing the Trump administration’s accomplishments including an expansion of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services.

“There is still much road ahead to travel together,” Vance told attendees at the annual March for Life demonstration, which draws tens of thousands of people annually to Washington Attendees rallied on the National Mall before heading to the Supreme Court.

Vance, a Republican, has spent years passionately advocating for Americans to have more children. He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates as he launched his political career in 2021 with a successful bid for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, and as vice president he has continued on that mission.

Vance cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, calling it “the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime.”

He said President Donald Trump’s leadership and appointment of conservative jurists “put a deﬁnitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life.”

He also lauded the “historic expansion

of the Mexico City policy,” the broadening of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services, to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs

“We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life,” Vance said, to a sea of supporters.

“It’s not our job as the United States of America to promote radical gender ideology,” he said.

“It’s our job to promote families and human ﬂourishing.”

From the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV — the ﬁrst U.S.-born pope — sent a message of support to participants in the march.

“I would encourage you, especially the young people, to continue striving to ensure that life is respected in all of its stages,” Leo wrote in a letter shown on a video at the march. “May Jesus, who promised to be with us always, accompany you today as you courageously and peacefully march on behalf of unborn children.”

On Thursday an ofﬁcial said the Trump administration was implementing new rules, halting foreign assistance from going not only to groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also to those that advocate “gender ideology” and DEI. The ofﬁcial spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday

Haiti’s transitional council ousts PM

BY EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Haiti’s long-running political crisis deepened Friday when the country’s transitional presidential council announced it had voted to ﬁre Prime Minister Alix Didier FilsAimé, just two weeks before the panel is supposed to step down.

Edgard Leblanc Fils made the announcement at a news conference alongside fellow council member Leslie Voltaire, saying a majority of the panel took the step in a vote Thursday, defying calls from the U.S. government to maintain stability in the Caribbean country’s leadership. No other members of the panel were at the news conference.

The U.S State Department said in a statement late Thursday that keeping Fils-Aimé on in the position was “integral” to Haiti’s efforts to overcome the gangs

terrorizing the country, and warned that any politicians supporting the “vicious gangs” would pay a steep cost Leblanc did not elaborate on the reasons why council members had turned against Fils-Aimé, who they chose for the position in November 2024. But Leblanc said the council would secure a replacement within 30 days “to ﬁnd the way to fully restore security and stability and enter a cycle of development, correct the mistakes of the past and look ahead.”

Voltaire said the council chose FilsAimé in the ﬁrst place “it wasn’t the Whites who chose Didier” — and that the council also would choose his successor, as well as a new government, free of foreign interference.

“Everyone is looking for a Haitian solution to the crisis, but when we start to ﬁnd a Haitian solution to the crisis, the international community comes in with all its claws,” Voltaire said.

Iran to verify deaths. Iran’s government offered its ﬁrst death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being “terrorists.”

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll.

U.S. warships on the move

The American military meanwhile has moved more military assets toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated warships traveling with it from the South China Sea.

A U.S. Navy ofﬁcial, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday the Lincoln strike group is in the Indian Ocean.

Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the U.S. is moving the ships toward Iran “just in case” he wants to take action.

“We have a massive ﬂeet heading in that direction and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said.

Illinois surgeon pleads not guilty to killings

By The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio

An Illinois doctor indicted on murder charges in the December shooting deaths of his ex-wife and her dentist husband in their Columbus home pleaded not guilty to the killings in an Ohio courtroom on Friday Michael David McKee, 39, appeared remotely on camera from jail for his arraignment in Franklin County, where he faced four aggravated murder counts and one count of aggravated burglary while using a firearm suppressor in connection with the Dec. 30 double homicide of Monique Tepe, 39, and Dr Spencer Tepe, 37. He was garbed in prison attire and did not speak during the brief hearing Defense attorney Diane Menashe waived a request for bond, at least for now

The mystery that first surrounded the case — which featured no forced entry, no weapon and no obvious signs of theft, additional violence or a motive

— drew national attention. McKee, of Chicago, was arrested 11 days later near his workplace in Rockford, Illinois. He was returned to Ohio on Tuesday to face the charges against him. McKee and Monique Sabaturski married in Columbus in August 2015 but were living apart by the time Monique filed to end in the marriage in May 2017, court records show Their divorce was granted that June. McKee was living in Virginia at the time, court and address records show McKee is accused of illegally entering the Tepes’ home with a firearm equipped with a silencer, shooting the Tepes whose bodies were found in a second-floor bedroom — and leaving the property along a dark alley alongside the house. McKee is charged with two aggravated murder counts for each homicide, one for prior calculation and design and one for committing the crime, as well as facing the aggravated burglary count.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH Vice President JD Vance speaks at a rally Friday at the March for Life in Washington.

Thousandsrally againstICE in Minnesota

BY GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO, SARAH RAZA and JACK BROOK Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS— Police arrested about 100 clergy demonstrating against immigration enforcement at Minnesota’slargest airport Friday, and thousands gathered in downtown Minneapolis despite arctic temperatures to protest the Trump administration’scrackdown.

The protests arepartofa broadermovementagainst President Donald Trump’s increased immigrationenforcement across the state, with labor unions,progressive organizations and clergy urging Minnesotansto stay away from work, school and even shops.

Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesmanJeff Lea said the clergy were issued misdemeanorcitations of trespassing and failure to comply with apeace ofﬁcer and were thenreleased They were arrested outside the main terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport because they went beyondthe reach of their permit for demonstrating anddisruptedairline operations, he said.

The Rev.Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul said police ordered them to leave but she and others decided to stay and be arrestedto show support for migrants, including members of her congregation who are afraid to leave their homes. She planned to go back to her church after her brief detention to hold aprayer vigil.

“Wecannot abide living under this federaloccupation of Minnesota,” Tollgaardsaid.

The Rev.Elizabeth Barish Browne traveled from Cheyenne,Wyoming, to participate in the rally in down-

town Minneapolis, where the high temperaturewas minus 9degrees despite a bright sun.

“What’shappeninghere is clearly immoral,” the Unitarian Universalistminister said. “It’sdefinitely chilly, butthe kind of icethat’s dangerous to us is not the weather.”

Protesters have gathered daily inthe Twin Cities since Jan.7,when37-yearoldmotherofthree Renee Good was Immigrat Enforcem al lawenfo have repeat with communi and activist movement Organiz morning th businesses closedins movement, in tinyG the Canadian landmark

Prosecutors allege to kill judgetoderai

BY TODD RICHMOND Associated Press

Members of amotorcycle club and astreet gang worked together in an attempt to kill an Indiana judge in hopesofderailinga domestic abuse case against one of their own, prosecutors alleged Friday,hours after police announced they had arrestedﬁve peoplein connection with the investigation.

Steven Meyer, aTippecanoeCounty Superior Court judge, and his wife, Kimberly Meyer,were injured Sunday afternoon in the attack at their Lafayette home. Steven Meyer suffered an injury to his arm and Kimberly Meyer an injury to her hip, according to authorities.

Probablecause afﬁdavits unsealed Friday paint asordid picture of aplan to attack the judge that unfolded over several weeks and how surveillance video, atrail of discarded clothing and a tip from arestaurant helped investigators piece the case together At the center of it allis Thomas Gregory Moss, 43, of Lafayette. The documents describe him as ahigh-ranking member of Phantom MC, aDetroit-based motorcycle club with ties to the Vice Lords street gang. Court records show Moss was charged in 2024 with beating his ex-girlfriend

and ﬁringag He was set that case Tu Meyer. ALafayet Amanda Milsap proached at her home several weeks day’sattack. that Moss wanted to to testify aga Moss’ ex-girlf fused to acce Raylen Ferguson, of the Almighty Nation gan he lives with, then travel from Lex several shooting, prosecutors Ferguson Meyers’ home knockedo he hada left, ther returned Sunday af said. The lancevideo wearing am ing ashotgun. later deter other Phan BlakeSmith, thegun in cordingtot Fergus the Meyers’ he was look WhenStev him thath dog, Fergu throughthe

in downtown Minneapolis.

“We’re achieving something historic,” saidKate HavelinofIndivisible Twin Cities, one of the morethan 100 participating groups.

An FBI supervisory agent in Minnesotahas resigned over theJustice Department’s handling of the investigation intoGood’skilling, two people familiarwith the matter saidonFriday.The agentresignedbecause she felt pressured to notinves

Amore detailed independent autopsy commissioned by Good’sfamily saidone bullet pierced the left side her head and exited on the right side. This autopsy,released Wednesday through the Romanucci &Blandin law firm, said bulletsalso struck herinthe armand breast,although those injuries weren’timmediately life-threatening.

A2-year-old was reunited with hermotherFriday, a dayafter shewas detained with herfatheroutside of their homeinSouth Minneapolis, lawyer Irina VaynermantoldThe Associated Press.

Vaynerman said they had quickly challenged the family’sdetention in federal court. The petition states that the child, acitizen of Ecuador,was brought to the U.S. as anewborn. The child and her father,Elvis Tipan Echeverria, both have a pending asylum application and neither are subject to ﬁnal orders of removal.

AU.S. district judge on Thursdayhad barredthe government from transferring the toddler out of state, but she and her father wereonacommercial flight to Texas about 20 minutes later, accordingtocourt filings. They were flownback Friday

Agents arrested Tipan Echeverriaduring a“targeted enforcement operation,” according to aDHS statement. DHSsaid the child’s mother wasinthe area but refused to take the child.

Vaynerman rejected that explanation, saying Tipan Echeverria was “not allowed” to bring his 2-yearoldtoher mother inside their home.

DHSrepeated itsallegation Friday that the father of 5-year-old Liam Ramos abandoned him during his arrest by immigration officers in Columbia Heights on Tuesday,leading to the child being detained, too. Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Liam was detained because hisfather, AdrianAlexander Conejo Arias, “fled from the scene.” The two are detained together at the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, which is intendedtoholdfamilies. McLaughlin saidofficers tried to get Liam’smother to take him,but she refused to accept custody Thefamily’sattorney said he thinks the mother refused to open the door to theICE officers because she was afraid she would be detained. Columbia Heights district superintendent ZenaStenvik said Liam was “used as bait.” On Friday,Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino sought to shiftthe narrative away from Liam’sdetention by attacking thenewsmedia for,inhis view,insufficient coverage of children who have lost parents to violence by people in the country illegally.After briefly mentioning the 5-year-old during a news conference, he talked about amother of five who was killed in August 2023.

BY EMILIE MEGNIEN, JEFF AMY andJAMIE STENGLE Associated Press

DALLAS Freezing rain was falling in parts of Texas on Friday as ahuge, dayslong winter stormbegan atrek that threatened tobring snow,sleet,ice andbone-chilling temperatures as well as extensive power outages to about half the U.S. population. Forecasterswarned that catastrophic damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival a hurricane. Schools in Chicago and other Midwestern cities called off classes Friday,airlines canceled thousands of weekendflights, churches moved Sunday services online andthe GrandOle Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, decided to hold its Saturday night radio performance without fans.

At least 182 million people were under watches or warnings for iceand snow and more than 210 million were under cold weather advisoriesorwarnings.Inmany places, those overlapped. Utility companiesbracedfor poweroutages because ice-coated trees and powerlines can keep falling long after astorm has passed.

“It’sgoing to be abig storm,”

Maricela Resendiz said as she

picked up chicken, eggs and pizzas at aDallas store to get her,her 5-year-old sonand herboyfriend through theweekend. Her plans: “Staying in,just being out of the way.”

Aftersliding into theSouth with ice andsleet, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumpingabout afoot of snow from Washington, D.C., through New York and Boston,the National

Weather Service predicted.

Arctic airwas firstpiece in place Arcticair that spilleddown from Canada prompted schoolsthroughout the Midwest to cancel classes Friday. With wind chillsaslow as minus 40 degrees frostbite could set in within 10 minutes,making it too dangerous to walk to school or wait for the bus.

In Bismarck, North Dakota,

wherethe windchill wasminus 41, Colin Cross cleaned out an empty unit for the apartment complex where he works.

“I’ve been here awhile and my brain stopped working,” said Cross, bundled up in long johns, two long-sleeved shirts, ajacket, hat,hood, gloves and boots.

Nationwide,more than 1,000 ﬂightswere delayed or canceled Friday,with wellover half of them in Dallas, according to the ﬂight tracking website FlightAware.

The federalgovernment put nearly 30 search and rescue teams on standby.Officials havemore than 7million meals, 600,000 blankets and 300 generators placed throughout the area the storm was expected to cross, accordingtothe Federal Emergency Management Agency

Icecould take down powerlines

Once iceand snow end, the frigid airfrom thenorth will head south and east. It will take awhile to thaw out, an especially dangerous prospect because ice can add hundreds of pounds to power lines and branchesand make them more susceptible to snapping, especially if it’swindy

Aseverecoldsnapﬁve years ago took down much of the power grid

in Texas, leaving millions without power for days and resulting in hundreds of deaths. Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that won’t happen again, and utility companies were bringing in thousands of employees to help keep the power on.

Pipes are also at risk.

In Atlanta, where temperatures could dip to 10 degrees Fahrenheit and stay below freezing for 36 hours, M. Cary &Daughters Plumbing co-ownerMelissa Cary orderedall thepipeand repair suppliesshe could get. Shesaidher daily calls could go from about40 to several hundred.

“We’re outthere;wecan’t feel ourﬁngers, ourtoes; we’re soaking wet,” Cary said. “I keep the hot chocolate and soup coming.”

People arehunkering down

Stephen McDonald, whohasn’t had ahome in three years, was hoping to getout of the coldin Jackson, Mississippi. But the Shower Power homeless shelter was adding sprayfoam insulation and ceiling heaters, keeping it closed until Saturday Friday night’sforecast calledfor lows near freezing. “Your hands get frozensolid, andthey hurt real bad,” said McDonald. “It’snot good.”

Scores of dogs from Tupelo rescued; some relocatedtoCovington

BY SOPHIE BATES Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. Animal advocates raced to rescue morethan 200 dogs from a rural Mississippi property before amassive winter stormhit thecountry Friday Paws of War, aNew Yorkbased nonproﬁt thatrescues animals and places them with veterans and first responders, is helping to lead the charge.

Robert Misseri, the organization’sco-founder,said his team arrived at the property,located in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Wednesday He described it as a“house of horrors,” with the skeletal remains of dogs decomposing in the yard and feces ev-

erywhere. The dogs,hesaid, were livingbothinside and outsideofahome.

“It’srewarding seeing them comeoff theproperty for the ﬁrst time, knowing that they will ultimately wind up on someone’scouch. But to think that they suffered up there forall these years in silence,” Misseri said before trailing off. Misseri said the Lee County Sheriff’s Officeasked Paws of Warfor help with rehoming the animals. As of Thursday evening, nine shelters hadtaken about 60 dogs. Paws of Warhas sent several trucks to the property to bring45dogsback to New York. Thirteen of thedogsare now at the Northshore Hu-

mane SocietyinCovington. Thehumane society’steam traversed more than 300 miles to the Tupelo, Missis-

sippi, area on Wednesday for what theydubbed “Operation:Tupelo Tails.”

“A lotofthese dogs have

scars on theirfaces, which is evidencethattheywere probably sparring withthe other dogs for food,” said Scott Bernier, Northshore Humane Society’sCEO.

“So it’s abad condition. Not something we ever like to see.”

ScoutCannizzaro,a veterinary technician at the Northshore Humane Society,said some of the dogs had upper respiratory infections and skin conditions. Bernier said he also expects some of the dogs to have heart worm

The humane society is now trying to get as many dogs as possible into foster homes because their building is old and doesn’tretain heat well.

However,Bernier said any animals left at the shelter

when the storm hits will be warmand safe.

The Paws of Warwill be working overnight trying to ﬁnd shelters forthe remaining dogs before the storm hits, Misseri said.His team is also still searching the area for skittish dogs that ranaway,and he said the number of dogs needing to be rescued could reach 300. He said no matter what happens, he will not allow thedogstobeleft outside during the storm.Heisaskingother shelters to come forward and take someof the dogs.

“Weweren’tpreparedfor this,” he said. The Lee County Sheriff’s Ofﬁce did not immediately return amessage Thursday

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEPHEN SMITH

Scott Bernier,CEO of Northshore Humane Society in Covington, comforts recently rescued puppies Thursday.

U.K. PM slams Trump remarks on troops in Afghanistan

BY PAN PYLAS Associated Press

LONDON British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signaled Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump should apologize for his false assertion that troops from non-U.S. NATO countries avoided the front line during the Afghanistan War, describing Trump’s remarks as “insulting” and “frankly appalling.”

Trump’s comment that he wasn’t sure the other 31 nations in NATO would be there to support the United States if and when requested, provoked outrage and distress across the United Kingdom. regardless of individuals’ political persuasion.

“We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them,” Trump said of non-US troops in an interview with Fox Business Network in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did — they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

That view stands at odds with the reality that in October 2001, nearly a month after the Sept 11 attacks,

VOUCHERS

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budget it builds during the legislative session that begins in March. The new budget year begins July 1.

LA GATOR would get about $88 million under Landry’s plan, up from $43.5 million this ﬁscal year

About 5,600 students received LA GATOR grants this school year — a fraction of the nearly 40,000 students whose families applied for the money which can go toward private school tuition or homeschooling expenses like enrichment classes and textbooks.

Erin Bendily, senior vice president at the Pelican Institute, a conservative think tank that has championed LA GATOR, said she is “really excited and thankful” that Landry wants to ramp up funding.

“That will certainly go a long way in helping to serve the thousands of families who have been on a waiting list,” she said.

Barras said that, according to Department of Education estimates, the additional $44 million could pay for vouchers for another 4,000 to 5,000 students.

But it’s far from certain that the Legislature will go along with Landry’s plan. Last year, he faced stiff resistance from some lawmakers — particularly Henry — who raised concerns about the cost and the poor academic outcomes of the state’s previous school voucher program. The Legislature ultimately agreed to give LA GATOR about half the funding that Landry wanted.

Henry said Friday he is

the sacriﬁce they made for their country,” Starmer said. “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.”

After 9/11, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the U.K. would “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the U.S. in response to the alQaida attacks. British troops took a key role in many operations during the Afghan war particularly in Helmand Province, until their withdrawal from combat operations in 2014. British troops remained, in a support role, alongside the U.S. military until the chaotic withdrawal in 2021 when the Taliban returned to power

More than 150,000 British troops served in Afghani-

stan in the years after the invasion, the largest contingent after the American one.

Trump received a deferment that allowed him to not serve in Vietnam because of bone spurs, but he has been unable to remember in which foot, leading to accusations of draft dodging.

It wasn’t the ﬁrst time that Trump downplayed the commitment of NATO countries over the past few days. It has been one of his pivotal lines of attack as he escalated his threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to Denmark.

Trump’s allegation that NATO countries won’t be there when requested stands in stark contrast to reality

The only time Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty has been used was in response to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.

The article is the key mutual defense clause, obliging all member countries to come

to the aid of another member whose sovereignty or territorial integrity might be under threat.

“When America needed us after 9/11 we were there,” former Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen said.

Denmark has been a stalwart ally of the U.S. in Afghanistan, with 44 Danish soldiers killed there — the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces Eight more died in Iraq. Trump threatened to slap tariffs on European nations opposed to his ambitions to annex Greenland, which raised questions over the future of NATO. And though Trump backed down after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in which he said they formed the “framework” for a deal over Arctic security, trans-Atlantic relations have taken a hit.

In the U.K., the reaction to Trump’s comments was raw Starmer paid tribute to the 457 British personnel who died and to those have been left with profound lifelong injuries.

“I will never forget their courage, their bravery and

the U.S. led an international coalition in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida, which had used the country as its base, and the group’s Taliban hosts. Alongside the U.S. were troops from dozens of countries including from NATO, whose mutualdefense mandate had been triggered after the attacks on New York and Washington.

still waiting for education officials to give him information about how families who sign up for the LA GATOR program can spend that money

“If you’re gonna double this program every single year, what are we getting for it?” he asked.

Louisiana Department of Education spokesperson Ted Beasley said in a statement that the department has consistently provided timely and accurate information to lawmakers about LA GATOR, including during several presentations to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, of which Henry is a member.

“As the state agency responsible for administering LA GATOR, we will continue to operate this program in alignment with state law,” Beasley said.

Louisiana’s proposed total budget, including federal funds, is $47 billion

But lawmakers largely only control part of that —

$12.6 billion of state money

Landry wants them to put an additional $17.5 million toward the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

“It’s funding an increase of about 688 offenders. This will also add an additional 150 positions to support those offenders,” said Colleen Gil, state director of the office of planning and budget. “Angola’s currently seeing increases in their population right now.”

Barras said the funds are not for federal immigration detention.

The Department of Children and Family Services could get $12 million to put toward a “modernization” of the child welfare agency’s program, though budget

officials didn’t provide information about what that would entail.

DCFS did not respond to a question about how the money would be used by the time of publication.

Landry also wants $75 million for a business incentive program run by Louisiana Economic Development called the High Impact Jobs Program, which gives grants to companies that create new jobs that pay above average wage in a parish.

State lawmakers will also get to decide how to spend $577 million of surplus funds leftover from the 2025 budget year that ended last year on June 30.

They are legally required to put $144 million of that money into a rainy-day savings account for the state and another $144 million toward paying off debt.

The remaining $289 million can go also toward transportation, capital outlay and coastal restoration projects, though Barras said “a great deal” of the funds will likely go to transportation.

Lawmakers also have $293 million more they can spend in the current budget year after economists in December updated the forecast for how much revenue the state is likely to bring in this year

After covering any budget shortfalls in agencies like Department of Corrections, Louisiana State Police, DCFS and the Governor’s Ofﬁce of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Landry wants that extra money to go to infrastructure.

Barras also said economic development, IT improvements and a new voting system are also priorities.

between Greenland and the United States could lead to more jobs and investment in both countries.

Until now, there’s been little evidence that Landry has played a meaningful role in the Trump administration’s policies toward the giant island nation, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Greenland is bigger than Mexico in size but has a population of 56,000 — giving it only a few thousand more residents than Kenner

Trump announced the framework of a deal on Truth Social on Wednesday after meeting with the NATO general secretary The post didn’t mention Landry It did mention another special envoy, real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, who has been handling Russia, the Middle East and Ukraine, as being one of those responsible for the negotiations.

Nor was Landry included in a meeting at the White House on Greenland on Jan. 14 that involved Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland The governor traveled to Washington the following day for the meetings he mentioned. Before traveling to Washington, Landry told Fox News that he had been invited to attend a dogsledding race in Greenland in March.

“They tell me they like to hunt, they like to ﬁsh, they like to have a good time. I’m like, y’all belong in Louisiana,” he said then. “I’m going to call it culinary diplomacy.” But the Greenland Dogsledding Association complained that “political pressure is being exerted from outside.”

On Tuesday, Landry was disinvited from the dogsledding competition.

“I think it is really disappointing,” Landry said during the interview “I don’t think we would disinvite anyone from Greenland

STORM

Continued from page 1A

salt are on hand with the Department of Maintenance, ready to coat parish roadways. But city leaders still asked motorists not to get on the roads this weekend unless necessary and to stock up on groceries beforehand.

Clay Rives, director of the Mayor’s Ofﬁce of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said residents should limit 911 calls to only life-threatening emergencies so ﬁrst responders are not overloaded.

For other needs, residents should call the Maintenance Department’s 311 nonemergency line, DOTD’s 511 line for travel and road condition information, and 211 if in need of shelter St. Vincent DePaul and the Salvation Army have activated emergency plans to assist residents in need, Edwards said. St. Vincent’s shelter at 1623 Convention St. will open at 1 p.m. Saturday and remain open for the length of the winter emergency

The city-parish will remain open on Monday, Edwards said, including all of the library system’s loca-

to attend the Super Bowl or any big event in New Orleans. It just seems inhospitable given that we had been working with someone who is a native of Greenland.”

He said he hoped another travel opportunity would arise, adding that he has discussed the idea with Alaska Gov Mike Dunleavy

“I would love to put a group of governors together and maybe even business folks or sports recreation folks, folks who like to hunt and ﬁsh, or engage in outdoor activity, to travel to Greenland,”

Landry said. “We don’t know what kinds of opportunities there are.

This was on nobody’s radar until the president mentioned it.”

Trump has expressed concerns that Russia or China could grab a foothold on Greenland to strengthen their military or to gain access to valuable minerals. European of-

ﬁcials have scoffed at the idea.

Landry’s appointment has left foreign policy pros scratching their heads.

“It was a very strange appointment Nobody can make any sense of it,” said Troy Bouffart, a pro-

tions, which he acknowledged also serve as warming stations for many.

“We’re always ready for people to come into any one of your 15 library locations to get warm, heat up and check out some great books or games,” said Mary Stein, assistant library director for the parish.

Stein said that if the cityparish government should close, the Main Branch Library will remain open as a warming station, since it has a generator

While predictions for Baton Rouge have eased, the area remains under a winter storm watch from Saturday night into Sunday afternoon with total ice accumulations between a light glaze and one-tenth of an inch possible, according to the National Weather Service. Residents also are warned that wind chills Sunday evening through Tuesday morning could range from near 0 to the lower teens.

Baton Rouge Fire Chief Michael Kimble stressed the importance of not plugging in heating devices using extension cords or leaving open ﬂames lit when going to bed

Kimble said those setups have led to fatal ﬁres “time and time again.”

“I am begging each citi-

fessor of Arctic Security at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“There were plenty of other good options.”

Landry served one term in the U.S. House but has lived almost his entire life in Acadiana and has no experience in foreign affairs or diplomacy

However, the governor has the one thing that seems to matter the most to Trump: He has been a strong supporter of the president’s controversial policies and has entered Trump’s orbit through relationships with Donald Trump Jr and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“It’s prestigious to have the president of the United States think so highly of the governor of Louisiana that he says, ‘Hey, would you help me do this?’ knowing that there could be great opportunities for Louisiana,” Landry said.

The State Department referred a query about Landry to the White House, which didn’t respond to a comment. The Danish foreign ministry also did not respond.

Landry expressed excitement

zen of this parish, if you do not have a working smoke alarm, call your local fire department in the city of Baton Rouge,” Kimble said. “You call out, we will come to your house and get one installed as soon as possible.”

William Daniel, with the city-parish’s public works, said his department is currently prepping for freezing weather: keeping bridges and overpasses safe to drive, keeping the airport open, and stacking barricades in areas where there might be problems.

Herepeatedtheimportance of using 311 when reporting trafﬁc signals or home power outages. The parish Department of Development will be ready to make emergency repairs to return residents’ homes to power during freezing conditions.

“If you have to get out on the roads, please be mindful of our public works employees and our public safety employees, because they’re out there trying to make things safe and they don’t need to be dodging cars sliding off the roads as well,” Daniel said.

Garbage collection and public transportation will continue as normal as of now, leaders said.

Lastly, Mayor Edwards asked residents to “check on

upon getting the appointment following a meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 21.

“It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S,” Landry said in a post on X addressed to Trump that day Landry softened his goal in an interview with The Times-Picayune | The Advocate nine days later, saying, “This is an opportunity to go talk to some folks and say ‘Hey, would y’all be interested in engaging in a relationship with the United States that’s better than the one you have in Europe?’”

Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has consistently rejected Trump’s plans to take over Greenland, saying on Jan. 1, “In the past year, we have had to pay attention to a lot. Threats. Pressure Derogatory language

From our closest ally for a lifetime. About wanting to take over another country, another people. As if it was something you could buy and own.” In the Dec. 30 interview, Landry said his experience as a Cajun

your people, check on your neighbors,” in case someone nearby isn’t prepped in some way For further updates, Edwards said residents should download forecast and

helps him understand the situation for the residents of Greenland living under Denmark’s authority

“My family my wife’s family thousands of other families in Louisiana, are the only families that have lived under multiple flags here on the continental United States,” he said. “We bring a great perspective to that.”

That’s not enough for the envoy role, said Dennis Jett, who served as U.S. ambassador to Mozambique and Peru and who taught international relations at Penn State.

“You have to know something about diplomacy and what motivates the people from the country you’re dealing with,” Jett said. “What Landry doesn’t understand and what Trump refuses to accept is that these people want no part of the United States.”

Jett said it was noteworthy that Landry was excluded from last week’s White House meeting on Greenland.

“If he had any inﬂuence on policy, he would have been there,” Jett said.

Landry shrugged off the criticism, saying he’s been given an assignment that’s similar to a trade mission he undertook to South Korea in late 2024 that helped lead Hyundai to announce months later that it wants to build a steel mill in Ascension Parish.

“If you’re not at the table, you miss the meal,” he said.

Michael Henderson, an LSU political science professor, said Landry’s role could boost his popularity among Trump’s fans in Louisiana.

“However, if voters were ever to ﬁnd reason to feel that things weren’t going well in Louisiana, then such action could become a liability,” Henderson said. “This is essentially what happened in the case of former Gov Bobby Jindal. Louisianans including Republicans, Democrats and independents — began to sour on the governor as they came to believe his attention was focused more on the prospect of a presidential run.”

emergency preparedness apps, like the city-parish’s Red Stick Ready, and to stay tuned to their favorite weather forecaster “We’re hoping for the best, and hoping it’s not going to

be a big event,” Edwards said. “But you can’t be overprepared.”

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

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EVAN VUCCI

President Donald Trump, right, meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte while at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.Trump announced the framework of a deal on Greenland after the meeting

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Trial begins in BR nightclub shooting

Defense questions state’s evidence

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

Testimony began Thursday in the murder trial of a man accused of killing someone during a shooting outside a Baton Rouge nightclub.

Michael Robinson, 25, is being tried for second-degree murder and illegal possession of a ﬁrearm

BR police investigate death of 26-year-old

Baton Rouge Police have launched an investigation into the death of a 26-year-old who was found in a car in a parking lot on Thursday morning. Officers got to the scene at 8382 Airline Highway at about 7 a.m. and found Christian McClain inside a vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound. McClain was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone having information on this shooting incident is urged to contact the Violent Crimes Unit at (225) 3894869 or Crime Stoppers at (225) 3447867.

Police: Bar shooter followed fleeing victim

The suspect in a fatal shooting outside a Gonzales bar earlier this month followed the victim as he ﬂed then stood over him and ﬁred a second time after the man collapsed in a nearby parking lot, according to police.

Breeze Sincere, 23, faces a count of second-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 12 shooting of John Anthony Wilson, 23, at the Park Place Lounge on West Highway 30. A warrant for Sincere’s arrest shows that he, Wilson and two other unidentiﬁed men arrived together to the bar the night of the shooting.

The group approached the bar, but stopped after they were told there was a cover charge. Instead, the men hung out together outside the bar’s main entrance, the afﬁdavit said.

by a convicted felon in the October 2024 shooting that left 35-year-old Dexter Cormier dead and ﬁve others wounded. Shortly before dawn on Oct. 20, 2024, a volley of gunshots crackled through the early morning air outside the Sunrise All Entertainment Event Center, an after-hours night club nestled in a strip mall in the

9700 block of Greenwell Springs Road. The site has since been converted into a church.

Dozens of revelers who were gathered in the parking lot scrambled away and made mad dashes to their vehicles to escape the property BRPD Lt. L’Jean McKneely was among four uniformed Baton Rouge ofﬁcers hired to work an extra security detail for the concert event. He described it as a “chaotic scene” while testifying in court Thursday He was directing trafﬁc and

viding crowd control when he heard the gunshots ring out on the opposite side of the parking lot. Prosecutors played McKneely’s body camera footage in court Thursday. It showed officers trying to maintain order and secure the scene in the aftermath of the shooting. Partygoers could be heard shouting and crying out for help over the blaring sounds of car alarms,

Cause fur alarm

Companion Animal Alliance seeks emergency fosters due to upcoming freezing weather

ABOVE: Puppies peer out of their kennel at the Companion Animal Alliance on Friday as the shelter asks for emergency fosters with the upcoming freezing weather

LEFT: LSU student Claire Beyer cuddles with her foster dog Luna on Friday

STAFF PHOTOS By HILARy SCHEINUK

New Orleans Archdiocese bankruptcy settlement sparks fight over legal fees

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

Six weeks ago, attorneys for the Archdiocese of New Orleans and clergy sex abuse survivors agreed to a settlement in the long-running bankruptcy of the local Roman Catholic Church that will pay survivors more than $230 million. Thursday the two sides were back in court arguing over how much the lawyers in the case will get paid.

As of December, legal and professional fees topped $52.7 million, according to bankruptcy court documents ﬁled in late December. That doesn’t include millions more in fee applications that have yet to be ﬁled.

The issue of legal fees has surfaced periodically throughout the long-running case. But U.S Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill ruled in 2024 that the question of whether certain fees were excessive — and who has legal standing to challenge them would be settled after the case was resolved, not before.

The court is revisiting the issue now that the settlement has been ﬁnalized, though survivors have yet to receive their ﬁrst checks.

“I think at the end of the day, this case is going to be $60 million and six years,” said Soren Giselson, who represents dozens of survivors in the case and has been leading the effort to challenge the fees. “Legal fees have been outrageous and they just don’t stop.”

The archdiocese on Thursday declined to comment, but pointed to remarks Archbishop Gregory Aymond made about the cost of the case in 2024, when he said he was sickened by the slow pace of progress and escalating legal bills.

“That it has taken four years is an injustice,” he said at the time.

When Aymond placed the archdiocese under Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection in May 2020 amid a growing number of clergy sex abuse lawsuits, he told the Vatican that the entire case — including a settlement and legal fees — was expected to cost around $7 million.

That is a fraction of what the ﬁnal tally will be, not that bankruptcy cases are ever quick or cheap to settle. The complex cases typically

rack up steep legal bills because they’re so complicated and can drag on for years.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans case, however, has been particularly costly because it has also been so contentious, marked by tangential legal disputes, sensational allegations and even a criminal probe.

According to Penn State Law Professor Marie T. Reilly an expert in church bankruptcies, the New Orleans case is the second-costliest of the 40 or so church bankruptcies in the U.S., behind only Rockville Centre, New York, which cost more than $100 million.

To date, the biggest share of the legal fees in the local case has gone to Jones Walker, the archdiocese’s attorneys, which has been paid more than $16.1 million as of December, according to court documents. That’s not including some 20% of fees that have been withheld by the court since a 2024 fee dispute.

What’s more, the firm has not ﬁled a fee application with the court since last summer, so it’s unclear how much more is outstanding.

In bankruptcy cases, attorneys are required to submit periodic fee applications to the court for approval since the debtor — in this case, the archdiocese — has to pay all the legal bills.

The archdiocese also has to pick up the tab for the attorneys that represent the other side in the case, or the creditors. Those ﬁrms, too, have earned millions. Troutman Pepper, a local bankruptcy firm, and Pachulski Stang, a Californiabased plaintiff ﬁrm, which, together, represent the court-appointed committee of abuse survivors, have been paid $5.65 million and $5.62 million, respectively, as of December, according to court documents.

Stewart Robbins, which represents the small-business creditors, has been paid more than $3 million.

Dozens of financial advisers, consultants, accounting ﬁrms, real estate professionals and others had been paid more than $22 million. Two high-priced mediators that helped resolve the case added to the total, billing out at $1,500 an hour and $750 an hour, though their total compensation to date is not listed in court documents.

Though legal fees were the underlying issue at stake in Thursday’s hearing, the speciﬁc question before the court was whether certain abuse survivors, speciﬁcally, those represented by Gisleson and other plaintiff lawyers, have legal standing to challenge the fees.

Unlike the attorneys representing the ofﬁcial survivors committee, Gisleson and other personal injury lawyers representing individual survivors are paid on a contingency basis.

Gisleson argued that as creditors in the case, his clients have standing to challenge the case. Mark Mintz, who represents the archdiocese, said they do not, citing, among other things, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Brad Knapp, who represents the court-appointed committee of abuse survivors and is at odds on the issue with Gisleson’s group, also argued that Gisleson’s clients lack standing to challenge the fees.

Even if they did, he noted, and convinced the court that certain fees were excessive and should be disallowed, those dollars would not ﬂow to the settlement trust for survivors’ beneﬁt.

“If some of our fees are disgorged, that goes back to the archdiocese,” Knapp said. “It doesn’t go back to the survivors. The settlement trust is what it is — $230 million.”

Later in the hearing, Mintz told the court that Traveler’s Insurance, which represented the archdiocese and its parishes during the 1970s and 1980s, had signed on to the settlement and agreed to contribute an additional $75 million, upping the trust to more than $300 million.

Knapp also pointed out that the U.S. Trustee, which oversees the case, will review all fee applications and has the legal ability to reject some or all of them.

Following the hearing, Gisleson acknowledged that his clients do not stand to gain ﬁnancially by disputing the legal fees. It’s the principal of the matter, he said.

“It’s still dollars, and law ﬁrms are bilking debtors to the detriment of the creditors,” he said.

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

Project NOLA tracked Bywater car fires

Camera network identified suspect, documents show

BY MARCO CARTOLANO Staff writer

A 35-year-old man accused of intentionally setting nine cars and a home on ﬁre in the Bywater early this week was identiﬁed and tracked with the help of the Project NOLA camera network and arrested while working at a legendary Bourbon Street bar, according to court documents.

Kyle Thomsen, a Bywater resident, was initially arrested Tuesday night while working behind the bar at Old Absinthe House, New Orleans Fire Department Investigator Laval Franklin wrote in Thomsen’s arrest afﬁdavit

Multiple Bywater residents provided home surveillance footage that showed a man walking along residential streets and pulling on car door handles, Franklin said. He entered the unlocked cars and lit them on fire before “casually walking away from the scene,” according to Franklin. The footage was submitted to Project NOLA, a nonprofit crime prevention program that has spawned debate over privacy and the use of artificial intelligence in policing. Project NOLA’s camera network found pictures and videos of the suspect in the French

MURRILL

Continued from page 1B

constitutionality of the statute, which was to be written by council member Timmy LeJeune, who ﬁrst put forward the cockﬁghting discussion, and the parish’s legal adviser Garrett Duplechain LeJeune declined to comment on Murrill’s post. LeJeune, who first placed the cockfighting discussion on the Wednesday agenda following a request by famed cockfighter James Demoruelle at a December

TRIAL

Continued from page 1B

Center, where he died hours after the shooting from multiple gunshot wounds.

McKneely told jurors he spotted two suspicious men near a silver pickup truck and radioed for other ofﬁcers arriving on scene to detain the men after he saw them place black objects inside a toolbox in the bed of the truck McKneely believed the items were guns.

Seconds later, he saw a third man retrieve the items from the truck’s toolbox, then get in a vehicle to leave the scene. McKneely drew his shotgun and ordered that man out of the SUV himself and had ofﬁcers detain him Police found three weapons in the front passenger’s side seat of the SUV, McKneely testiﬁed. Two of the guns had extended magazines.

The man in the SUV told officers he swiped the guns from the pickup after he saw the first two men place them in the toolbox. He described it as “spotting a lick,” a slang term that indicated the man intended to sell the stolen guns to make money, McKneely testified. Police arrested the other two men spotted near the pickup. Tyrelle Jabari Hamilton, 31, was charged with obstruction of justice — tampering with evidence. Court records show he is set to accept a plea deal in the ongoing case next Wednesday, Jan. 28. Robinson originally was indicted on five counts of attempted second-degree murder in addition to the weapons and murder charges he is being tried on this week. Prosecutors dismissed the attempted murder counts Jan. 15, according to court records. On the night of the shooting, food tents were set up in the parking lot for the event. Police said Robinson admitted to shooting Cormier “after hearing someone shoot as he was waiting for his food at the food tent,” according to his charging affidavit.

Investigators reviewed footage from four surveillance cameras at surrounding businesses to identify Robinson as the shooter, court records show Robinson’s fate will be decided by a jury panel composed of 11 women and three men He sat at the defendant’s table with his head tilted down during opening statements Thursday but lifted his gaze

BLOTTER

Continued from page 1B

GRANGER

PHOTO By CHRIS

Passersby stop to look at the remains of a car burned by arsonists in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans early Monday.

Quarter tracking him to the 200 block of Bourbon Street, Franklin said. His movements were then tracked by the New Orleans RealTime Crime Center, according to the afﬁdavit.

Investigators found Thomsen at the bar and determined he was the same as the man shown in the Bywater videos, Franklin said. Old Absinthe House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The series of car ﬁres were ﬁrst reported to the New Orleans Fire Department early on Monday morning and spanned Montegut, Dauphine and Desire streets.

One torched vehicle was a Bywater Bakery delivery van and a house on Dauphine was also damaged according to NOFD. All four residents escaped safely and no injuries were reported, but the

council meeting, reiterated previous claims that legal cockﬁghting would bring needed revenue to the parish.

“We know that we need the revenue. Nobody in this parish can say that we don’t. This is an opportunity to generate revenue,” LeJeune said. “This is going to be the same thing as the racing industry It’s not going to be a cockﬁght in the backyard of somebody’s house or in the neighborhood. It’s going to be monitored by the state.”

Cockﬁghting has a long history in Louisiana, which was the last state to ban the practice in 2008. Recently, cockfighting enthu-

brazen crime shocked the neighborhood.

Thomsen was still a person of interest at the time of his arrest and was initially apprehended on a prior warrant for domestic battery, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference Wednesday Investigators obtained a search warrant for his home on Mazant Street and found clothes tied to the crimes, she said.

Ofﬁcials said Thomsen’s motive was not immediately clear, and the arrest afﬁdavit did not offer further insight.

Thomsen was booked into the New Orleans jail on four counts of aggravated arson of an inhabited building and nine counts of simple arson.

During an initial appearance in Orleans Parish Magistrate Court Wednesday, Judge Peter Hamilton granted a request from the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Ofﬁce that Thomsen be held without bond A dangerousness hearing was set for Friday, according to court records.

“Due to the level of disregard for human life we believe the defendant presents a clear danger to the community,” ofﬁcials with the DA’s Ofﬁce said in a prepared statement Wednesday night “We will continue to carefully evaluate the evidence as it is provided by the NOPD and will pursue the sentence supported by the facts and the law.”

siasts in St. Landry Parish have renewed arguments that the practice is constitutionally protected and that its continued prevalence across parts of rural Acadiana is proof of its important cultural connection to Cajun heritage. Arrests for cockfighting have continued to be an issue in recent years in St. Landry Parish, with multiple ongoing investigations and arrests in Arnaudville and Opelousas. Before the ban, the Sunset Recreation Game Club in Sunset was known as the “cockﬁghting capital of the world” and hosted prestigious ﬁghting events.

toward the jurors as his public defender, Melissa Walker, made her opening salvo.

Robinson’s attorneys may argue justiﬁable homicide, according to a self-defense motion ﬁled Thursday But Walker seemed more inclined to prove her client was not involved in the shooting at all during her opening statement.

“There is nothing to identify Michael as the killer, but the state wants you to send him away for the rest of his life,” she said, citing the fact that a guilty verdict on the murder charge comes with a mandatory life sentence.

The defense attorney acknowledged Robinson may have made some bad decisions by being at the nightclub that night. But she stressed that he didn’t kill Cormier and urged the jury to see him as one of their own children.

“This is a 25-year-old kid who’s ﬁghting for his life. He goes to Angola if you ﬁnd him guilty And if the state proves their case that he committed the crime, then he should,” Walker said.

“Defense attorneys aren’t proponents of crime. But we do want it done right. Because putting the wrong guy in jail for a crime that the state hasn’t proven doesn’t make Baton Rouge safer It makes it more chaotic.”

Testimony came to a screeching halt Friday evening when Robinson’s attorney objected to prosecutors playing surveillance footage from the three area businesses. During a sidebar with attorneys, Chief Judge Donald Johnson, who is presiding over the trial, ruled the surveillance footage inadmissible as evidence.

According to a motion Robinson’s attorneys ﬁled Tuesday, the surveillance cameras were among several key pieces of evidence prosecutors disclosed to the defense lawyers untimely in the days leading up to this week’s trial. Attorneys said Judge Johnson deemed the camera evidence prejudicial to the defense.

Prosecutors said they intend to ﬁle an emergency writ challenging the judge’s ruling at the First Circuit Court of Appeal. Jurors were dismissed in hopes the appellate court makes a ruling over the weekend in time for the trial to reconvene for a final salvo Monday

Email Matt Bruce at matt. bruce@theadvocate.com.

fered multiple fractures including facial fractures.

Security footage shows that Wilson and Sincere talked for a time before their interaction escalated and Wilson punched Sincere. Wilson can then be seen putting his hand out toward Sincere, then grabbing his chest and running off toward a nearby parking lot and collapsing.

Another angle shows Sincere getting punched, then stepping backward as he draws a handgun and ﬁres a shot at Wilson. The same footage then shows Sincere running off through the parking lot, toward where Wilson collapsed.

A witness told police that Sincere stood over Wilson and ﬁred a second shot into him.

Sincere was identiﬁed using security footage and facial recognition software and arrested the following day Shell casings from the same kind of handgun were found outside the bar and under Wilson’s body

Sincere is being held in the Ascension Parish jail.

Woman arrested on child cruelty, drug counts

The Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce arrested a Napoleonville woman for alleged child cruelty, the department announced Thursday Simone Bougere, 21, was arrested Wednesday on one count of cruelty to a juvenile and ordered to be held without bond by Judge Jason Verdigets, according to the Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce inmate database. She was previously arrested in November on drug-related counts along with her domestic partner, Bruce Joseph Fair Jr., according to the news release.

A child abuse investigation began on Nov 8, when detectives responded to a complaint that a 15-month-old child was being treated for bruising and leg and arm injuries at a local health care facility

During the investigation, medical personnel diagnosed the child with a fractured ankle and fractured arm, the release said. It added that a children’s hospital later treated the child, who suf-

Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services was contacted and intervened in the investigation. Medical treatment further determined the child was malnourished.

Detectives with the Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce obtained a search warrant and searched the child’s house on Nov 17 Police allege they seized controlled dangerous substances during the search and arrested Bougere and Fair Both were booked in the Assumption Parish Jail on counts including intent to distribute MDMA and intent to distribute hydrocodone.

Both remain incarcerated, and neither has an attorney listed in the Assumption Parish court database.

One arrested after shooting at church

A 52-year-old is in custody after a shooting Thursday night on the basketball court of a St. George church facility left another person in critical condition.

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s deputies responded to Grace Life Fellowship, 10210 Baringer Foreman Road, regarding a shooting. Inside, they learned that two people were involved in a verbal altercation on the facility’s basketball court. During the altercation, Andrew Johnson drew a ﬁrearm and shot the other person. The victim was transported to a hospital where they remain in critical condition.

EBRSO homicide detectives identiﬁed Johnson as the suspect, and he was taken into custody several hours later by deputies with the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce.

Johnson is being kept at a facility in Livingston Parish and will be transported back to East Baton Rouge Parish to be booked on a count of attempted seconddegree murder

Allen, Mark TheCity Of Refuge Ministries

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Bruney, Mark Luke 10:27 Church,536 Centerville Street NE in DenhamSprings,at1 p.m

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NewRisingSun BaptistChurch, 5715 RiverRoad, at 11 a.m.

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Pine Grove BaptistChurch, 6670La Hwy.412 at 12pm.

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FirstPresbyterianChurch,763 North Boulevard, at noon.

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Obituaries

Assaf III, David

Taken too soon from family and friends, David Assaf, III departed this world on January 18, 2026. He was born on April 12, 1945 in New Orleans, Louisiana, second of three children of David Assaf,Jr. andEdith McElroy. At St Aloysius High School in New Orleans, David devoted four years to the science club, serving as its president, and also served as president of Key Club and founder of the meteorology club. In 1963, the school newspaper noted that David had his "own home workshopinwhich he performs experiments in the phases of science " Indeed, it was during high school that he began alifelong hobbyasanelectronicstinkerer and amateur radio operator, aka a "ham". For the rest of his life, Davidwould continue to keep aworkshop (affectionately called "the shack") in every place he called home, chock full of radios and electronics in various phases of repair, especiallyhis favorite Drake brand transmitters andreceivers. With his radios, his trusted Morse code keyer, athousand watts, and amodified Yagi antenna of his own design, he would bounce radio waves off the ionosphere to communicate with other hams on the other side of the planet, apractice known as "DX" in ham parlance. During Hurricane Betsy in 1965, he provided emergency communication via his amateur radio station, aservice for which he was recognized by the city of New Orleans. David met his future wife Paula Kreilkamp on a blind date at Loyola University, where they were both students. They were engaged for ayear anda half while Davidwas drafted and servedinthe Air Force and Air National Guard repairing aircraft radios at Belle Chase AFB, and while Paula volunteered with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps on the Colville Reservation in Omak, Washington. They were married at St. Dominic CatholicChurchin New Orleans on July 12, 1969. On their honeymoon, they watched the Apollo 11 moon landing broadcast

The young couple settled in Baton Rouge where David studied at LSU fora Masters in Electrical

Engineering and worked two jobs: days as agraduateteaching assistant, and nights at the local TVstation WAFB.In1971 they wereblessed with their first child, DavidIV. Over the next two decades, they welcomed Bernard, Megan, William, and Rachel. Davidbegan working with WilliamJ.LeBlanc in 1973 and was made apartnerinMarch1979 to form LeBlanc &AssafConsulting Engineers, laterAST.Asa stampedelectricaland mechanical engineer, Davidled theaward-winningdesign for lighting and cooling the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, for which he was recognizedbythe Louisiana Congress. At his retirement, he said to lawmakers thinking about changing the electrical, lighting,and coolingsystems, "Don't mess up my building." Davidalso worked on electrical and/ or mechanicalsystems at LSU's old AlexBox stadium, LSU'sTiger Stadium, St. Thomas More Church, St. JosephCathedral and other churches, the Old State Capitol building,and numerous otherbuildings at LSU,Southern University, and his alma materLoyola University.

Davidwas active in the Baton Rouge Amateur Radio Club and other ham clubs in southLouisiana.In his retirement, he took his hobby to new heights by participating in DXpeditions to exotic places andremote,uninhabited spots like Mellish Reefinthe Coral Sea. These meticulously plannedtripsinvolved the constructionand operation of temporaryamateur radio stations forcontacting thousands of hams allover the world via Morse code. The more isolatedand inhospitable the place, the more sought after the DX! His most memorable trip was to the South Georgia and SouthSandwich Islands, where at theage of 71, he helped set up and operatea radiostation on ThuleIsland, the southernmost beach outside Antarctica and one of the most unforgivingplaces on Earth, wherethe only permanentinhabitants are some rather curious penguins.

Davidwas precededin death by his parents, David Assaf, Jr.and Edith McElroy Assaf, his sister EdnamaryCaserta, andhis belovedwifeof56years, Paula KreilkampAssaf.He leavesbehind his brother Dennis Assaf; his children DavidAssaf, IV (Sydney), Bernard Assaf(Stacy), Megan Assaf(Joe), William Assaf(Christine),and Rachel Aylsworth (Jason); and eight grandchildren: Simon, Timothy,Kirby, Nathan,Elizabeth, Noah, Lauren, and Julian. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to St. Joseph Abbey (https: //www.saintjosephabbey.c om/donate) andJefferson PerformingArtsSociety (https://www.jpas.org/do nate).

Funeral to be heldat Mary Queen of Peace church in Mandeville, LA on January 31, 2026: 10:00 AM visitation, 11:30 AM remembrances, 12 PM funeral Mass. To be followed by inurnment at St. Joseph's Abbey Cemeteryin Covington at theSt. Anselm cremation niches.

E.J. Fielding Funeral Home has beenentrusted withfuneral arrangements. Please signthe guestbook at www.ejfieldingfh.com.

GilbreathO'Banion, Donna Kay

Donna Gilbreath O'Banion,a resident of Denham Springs,passed away on January 18, 2026. Shewas 71 years old and enjoyed painting, crafting,reading, baking and being with loved ones. She is survived by her childrenTerra,Tracy, Christopher, Ricky and Rocky Mancuso, daughterin-law Ashley,grandchildrenBrennan and Devin, great grandsonMiles, her sister BillyJean Smith, her nephew Mickey, niece Melissa and great nieces. Sheisprecededindeath by her father,Bill Gilbreath, her mother FrancesLofton Wilkinson. In lieu of services and visitation, and at Donna's request, aprivate ceremony with her immediate family willbeheld to spread her remains.

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Intel tumbles and gold’s price rises

NEWYORK

The U.S. stock market drifted through mixed trading Friday, as a zigzag week punctuated by loud threats and pullbacks ﬁnished with a quiet and tentative close.

The majority of stocks on Wall Street fell, and Intel weighed on the market after tumbling 17%. The chip company reported better results for the end of 2025 than analysts expected. But investors focused instead on its forecast for the ﬁrst three months of this year, which fell short of Wall Street’s expectations Chief Financial Ofﬁcer David Zinsner said shortages of supplies are affecting the entire industry, and Intel expects available supply to hit a bottom early this year before improving in the spring and beyond.

Gold rose to another record Friday and neared $5,000 per ounce in a signal that investors are still looking for something safer to own. It’s already up nearly 15% for the year so far

On Wall Street, Capital One Financial sank 7.6% after reporting a weaker proﬁt for the end of 2025 than analysts expected It also said it was buying Brex, which helps businesses issue corporate credit cards, for $5.15 billion in cash and stock. Clorox gained 1.1% after saying it was buying the maker of Purell, GOJO Industries, for $2.25 billion in cash.

A survey of U.S. consumers said expectations for inﬂation in the upcoming year improved to 4%. That’s the lowest such reading in a year, according to the University of Michigan’s survey, even it remains well above the 2% inﬂation that the Federal Reserve targets.

CSX profit slips 2%; shipping demand weak

CSX said Thursday that its proﬁt slipped 2% in the fourth quarter as the railroad dealt with weak demand and severance costs from layoffs that new CEO Steve Angel carried out last fall

The Jacksonville, Floridabased railroad said it earned $720 million, or 39 cents per share, in the quarter That’s down from $733 million, or 38 cents per share

But the results were weighed down by about $50 million in one-time costs that dragged down profits by 2 cents per share. Without that, the numbers would have been in line with the 41 cents per share that the analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had predicted Heading into 2026, the railroad is focused on improving productivity while limiting costs. Angel said he expects only modest economic growth this year amid all the uncertainty He predicted that CSX will see revenue grow only by low single digits.

Last fall CSX wrapped up the two major construction projects that disrupted its network and limited the railroad’s ﬂexibility CSX completed a major tunnel renovation in Baltimore and repairs from Hurricane Helene That helped raise its trains’ average speed to 19.6 mph in the fourth quarter while delivering 87% of its shipments on time.

Meta pauses teen access to AI characters

Meta is halting teens’ access to artificial intelligence characters, at least temporarily the company said in a blog post Friday Meta Platforms Inc., which own Instagram and WhatsApp, said that starting in the “coming weeks,” teens will no longer be able to access AI characters “until the updated experience is ready.” This applies to anyone who gave Meta a birthday that makes them a minor, as well as “people who claim to be adults but who we suspect are teens based on our age prediction technology.”

Teens will still be able to access Meta’s AI assistant, just not the characters

TikTok finalizes a deal for American entity

Company avoids looming ban in the U.S.

BY KAITLYN HUAMANI AP Technology Reporter

TikTok has ﬁnalized a deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a ban in the United States that has been in discussion for years on the platform now used by more than 200 million Americans.

The social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment ﬁrm MGX to form the new TikTok U.S. joint venture. The new version will operate under “deﬁned safeguards that protect national

security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for U.S. users,” the company said in a statement Thursday American TikTok users can continue using the same app.

President Donald Trump praised the deal in a Truth Social post, thanking Chinese leader Xi Jinping specifically “for working with us and, ultimately, approving the Deal.” Trump add that he hopes “that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok.”

Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, will lead the new venture as its CEO. He will work alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of

directors that includes TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew

The deal ends years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not ﬁnd a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration sought an agreement for the sale of the company

The algorithm has been a central issue in the security debate over TikTok. China previously maintained the algorithm must remain under Chinese control by law But the U.S. regulation passed with bipartisan support said any divestment of TikTok must mean the platform cuts ties — speciﬁcally the algorithm — with ByteDance. Under the terms of this deal, ByteDance would license the algorithm to the U.S. entity for retraining.

Apart from an emphasis on data protection, with U.S. user data being stored locally in a system run by Oracle, the joint venture will also focus on TikTok’s algorithm. The content recommendation formula, which feeds users speciﬁc videos tailored to their preferences and interests, will be retrained, tested and updated on U.S. user data, the company said in its announcement.

What weather apps can miss

They might not be as accurate about dangerous winter

storm conditions

BY SETH BORENSTEIN and TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press

Smartphone weather apps that summarize their forecasts with eye-popping numbers and bright icons may be handy during mild weather, but meteorologists say it’s better to listen to human expertise during multi-faceted, dangerous winter storms like the one blowing through the U.S.

The multistate storm’s combination of heavy snow treacherous ice and subzero temperatures shows why it’s best to seek out forecasters who can explain its nuances via local TV or radio newscasts, online livestreams or detailed websites, said meteorologists interviewed by The Associated Press. The data is changing rapidly before and during the storm, and the distance of a few miles can mean the difference between snow, sleet or dangerous freezing rain.

“Weather apps are really bad at storms that have multiple types of precipitation and it really makes messaging hard,” said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd, a past president of the American Meteorological Society. “Apps don’t understand the details of why snow, sleet or freezing rain happens.”

University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado and other experts said humans are important in these cases, especially those with local expertise.

“For extreme weather events, it is especially important to know there are human forecasters interpreting the data and making the best localized forecasts for your area,” Furtado said. “Unfortunately many of the weather forecast apps use AI methods to either make the forecast or ‘interpolate’ from larger grids to your hometown, introducing the potential for significant errors.”

But some apps can be useful, especially those that pair National Weather Service data with meteorologists’ expertise, forecasters said. And they are deﬁnitely getting used right about now

The Weather Channel app, which is seeing booming trafﬁc this week, uses numerous models, data sources, weather observers and staff, said James Belanger, vice president of its parent company, which also owns the Weather Channel and weather.com. That level of proﬁciency matters, he said.

“It’s an all-hands-on-deck kind of approach that we take,” Belanger said, adding that “not all weather apps are created equal.”

People walk on an ice covered beach along the shore of Lake Michigan on Friday in Chicago. Smartphone weather apps that summarize their forecasts with eye-popping numbers and bright icons may be handy during mild weather, but meteorologists say it’s better to listen to human expertise during multi-faceted, dangerous winter storms like the one blowing through the U.S

What apps can and can’t do

Apps get much of their information from the National Weather Service and some companies augment it with proprietary information and the well-regarded European forecast models. Many offer forecasts by ZIP code or geographic areas far from weather stations by using software that focuses broader regional forecasts to where the phone is located.

While there are good apps, especially those displaying National Weather Service warnings and information, many “oversimplify uncertainty and present highly precise-looking numbers that imply more conﬁdence than actually exists,” said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini. This type of storm is where apps are weakest because they don’t get nuances, he said.

Weather apps are good for forecasting nice warm summer days, but not days like much of the country is facing now, said Steven DiMartino of NY NJ PA Weather The paid online subscription service touts its human expertise with the slogan “Meteorology Not Modelology.”

“The problem with the weather app is that it just provides data, but not explanation,” DiMartino said “Anyone can look at data, but you need a meteorologist, you need that human touch to look at it and say, ‘Hmm, that looks like an error; we’re gonna tweak this.’”

The popular Weather Channel app uses information from many sources, including the weather service and more than 100 weather models, including those from the U.S. and

Europe and their own distinct model. They augment it with input from over 100,000 citizens to help forecast weather events, said The Weather Company’s Belanger And it’s all synthesized by artiﬁcial intelligence to come up with a forecast, he said.

That’s more accurate than relying on a single model or provider he said, because AI is able to learn which models are the most accurate in different conditions to help “create that optimal forecast.”

Even so, humans, including a team of more than 100 meteorologists, always have the ﬁnal say about what goes on the app, Belanger said.

“One of the things that has been a lesson and a principle that we’ve adopted is that it’s the combination of advancements in technology with the human oversight,” that allows the company to provide the best forecasts — especially in situations like the current winter storm, Belanger said.

Be careful with social media

Forecasters also warn against another quick ﬁx for weather information: social media, where hype, misinformation and short takes can spread quickly

While social media can help amplify ofﬁcial sources like the weather service, “it’s also where misinformation spreads fastest,” Gensini wrote in an email.

“Weather is complex, and social media tends to reward conﬁdence and drama, not nuance,” Gensini said. “That mismatch is a real challenge during major events like this.”

CEOs leave Davos warning Europe to shape up

ALBERTINA TORSOLI and JAN-HENRIK FÖRSTER Bloomberg News (TNS)

Whether it’s in pharmaceuticals, artiﬁcial intelligence, or defense, executives attending the World Economic Forum in Davos this week had a stark warning for Europe: Get your house in order or lose out to the U.S. and China. Citing everything from overregulation and clunky bureaucracies to the inability of the continent to leverage its market of about 450 million people, the executives said Europe risks being left behind in many of the industries of the future, and called on the region to present a uniﬁed front and pool resources to drive its competitiveness.

“It makes no sense to build an

Italian corvette ship, a French corvette ship, a Spanish corvette ship, a Swedish corvette ship, a German corvette ship and a UK corvette ship,” Pierroberto Folgiero, chief executive officer of defense firm Fincantieri SpA, said in an interview in Davos. “We need to spend more in defense but we need to spend better We must share platforms and projects.”

Although these issues have hurt European business for a long time, things are coming to a head as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and intensifying competition from China across many of Europe’s key industrial sectors are adding greater urgency, with the CEOs saying a change in the narrative is critical. At stake are economic growth, jobs and social cohesion

in Europe. The WEF in Davos gathered more than 800 executives from all over the world this week, with businesses seeking clarity on pressing issues including high energy costs, the AI race, supply chains amid military conﬂicts and a shifting new world order Leaders in several industries echoed the sentiment that Europe may fall behind, with Novartis AG CEO Vas Narasimhan saying innovative drug launches were being hindered in some European countries as the U.S. puts pressure on drug prices.

“If Europe wants to attract investment like the U.S. and China right now, it has to step up,” Narasimhan said citing the ease of doing business in the U.S., where his company

is plowing billions of dollars into new plants and research and development. ” In the drugs industry, shorter supply chains will mean Europe needs to shore up the availability of key ingredients as global trade tensions mount, said Michael Sen, the CEO of German health care company Fresenius SE. After years of outsourcing production, Europe has developed an “unhealthy” dependence on China for so-called active pharmaceutical ingredients, he said in an interview Monday in Davos. That carries the risk of a “weaponization of active drug ingredients in this new world order,” he said. “You are in deep trouble if you have shortages of key drugs. Drugs can be used as a power play.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIICHIRO SATO

OPINION

Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race is complicated

Louisiana’srace for U.S.Senatehas begun. The last shoe to dropwas PresidentDonald Trump’sendorsement of U.S. Rep. JuliaLetlow over incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy andothers. Battle lines arehardening. Votingstarts in less than four months.

Before we can makesense of this election, wemust ﬁrst understand how Louisiana’s new closedprimarylaw will change the rules of the game. In somecases, you may ﬁnd yourself voting three times— in apartyprimary,runoff and general election.

TheNov.3 generalelection, in which everybody can vote, is theoretically the main eventofthe election; but practically, that may be the Republican primary,asits winnerwillbefavored towin the general election. Republicans have wonthe 11 most recent statewide elections in Louisiana To see howthe newclosed primary law will impact the Senate contest, pictureLouisiana voters sorted into six boxes, each with its ownpolitical dynamics. Campaigns will targetdifferent messages —TVads, mailers, texts, calls, socialmedia— to each box. So here are the boxes. Whichone are you in?

1) Registered Republicans(1,052,000 voters). They’re eligibletovote in the May16Republican primaryand, if needed, in aJune 27 runoff.

2) Registered Democrats (1,080,000voters). They’re eligible to vote in the May16Democratic primary and, if needed, in aJune 27 runoff.

3) Registered third-party voters, about 25,000. Libertarians, Greens and other minor-party registrants cannot vote in either the Democratic or the Republican primary. They will have to wait until the generalelection.

4) Voters registered without party afﬁliationwho choose to vote in the Republican primary

5) Voters registered withoutparty afﬁliationwho choose to vote in the Democratic primary

6) Voters registered without party afﬁliationwho skip bothprimaries. By choice,theycan sitout theprimaries and wait for the general election

Keepinmind that Louisiana hasa total of 808,000registered voters without party afﬁliation, including many formerly registered as “independents.” They can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. If Republican primary competition is hotand Democratic competition isn’t—asseems likely —expectfar more “no party” voters to cast ballots on the Republicanside.

To win reelection, Cassidy must firstwin his party’sprimary —which will be thicklypopulatedwith Republicans who stillresent his vote to convict Trump in the2021 impeachment trial. To offset them, Cassidy needs the biggest possible number of “no party” voters to cast ballots in the GOP primary It’snow too late for Cassidy to drop his Republican affiliation andrun withouta partyinthe general election, as some have suggested. Thedeadline to submit petitions to do that was Jan. 14. Trump endorsedLetlowjust days afterthe deadline, when that optionwas already shut down. RegisteredDemocrats who wanttovote for Cassidy won’tget the chance if he losesthe Republican primary. To vote for Cassidy in the primary,Democrats wouldhave to reregister as either “no party” or Republican by April 15. The race starts with plenty ofunknowns, voter turnout beingone of them We also don’tyet know what kind of statewide candidate Letlow will be or whether Trump’scurrent controversies will diminish his ability toboosther candidacy.And we don’tknowwhether Cassidy’ssupport ofTrump’scongressional agenda over thepast year has damaged hiscredibilityamong many voters he now needs Another unknown: How will Trump’sendorsement of Letlow impact other Republican candidates,suchasstate Treasurer John Fleming,state Sen. Blake Miguezand PublicService Commissioner Eric Skrmetta?State Rep. Julie Emerson has already droppedout. Will others follow? One more critical point: The closedprimaryapplies only to federal elections and afew state offices (Supreme Court, Public Service Commission, and BESE). Other races —for governor,mayor, sheriff,city council, state Legislature, and more —will still usethe openprimary.In electionswithbothtypes ofofficesonthe ballot, openand closed primary rules willapply That’salot to take in Don’tjust show up at thepolls onMay 16.Find out beforehand which primary,ifany,you’reeligible to vote in and decide which primary, if any,you want to vote in Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landryand her office have been working overtime to retoolvoting systems and explain how all this works; the job she has is no easy lift. Fordetails, including videos explaining closed primariesand how to checkorchange your registrationstatus, visit geauxvote.com.

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

La. on frontlines of Alzheimer’sfight

The state of Louisiana offers rich culture: festivals like Jazz Fest, amazingfood from gumbo to trout amandine, vibrant music from zydeco tojazz, great sportsteams from the Saints to theTigers. But, there is one fact of our state unknown to many: Louisianahas 95,000 individuals living with Alzheimer’s, and as manyashalf are not diagnosed. However,anearly and accurate diagnosis can improve the quality of life and reduce the ﬁnancial impact of the disease.

Early detection and diagnosis would allow individuals to enroll in aclinical trial.

Louisianaishome base to outstanding medical research facilities, including Tulane, LSU, Pennington and Tandem Early detection and diagnosis would allow the opportunity for individuals to access treatments that would be mosteffective.

As an advocate for the Alzheimer’sAssociation, Ihave met individuals living with Alzheimer’s, Ihave talked to caregivers working valiantly to take care of afamily member with

Alzheimer’s, and Ihave heard personal testimonyofindividuals seeking aclinical trial. As aresult, Iunderstand theimportance of early detection and diagnosis.

Thankfully,Majority Leader Steve Scalise can play an importantrole in accelerating access to blood biomarker tests and earlier detection of Alzheimer’s and other dementia in Louisiana and across thenation.

The bipartisan ASAP (Alzheimer’sScreening and Prevention Act) creates apathway for Medicare coverage of FDA-approved dementiablood biomarker screening tests. ASAP would not only improve patient care, but also help facilitate smoother transitions from primary care physicianstospecialists.

Pleasejoin me, and the Alzheimer’s Association, in encouraging Scalisetosupport the bipartisan ASAP act HOLLYH.ABBOTT advocate and ambassador, Alzheimer’sAssociation, Louisiana Chapter

immigrants,Christians should know thereisahigherlaw

Michael Chol’srecent letter treats “illegal” as if it ends themoral analysis. However, Christianshave never believed that legalityequals righteousness. In fact, thecentral ﬁgure of Christianity died as aconvicted criminal under thelaws and procedures of the state. Rome labeled Jesus alawbreaker,and in fact he broke Rome’slaws. The authorities processed his case, and the government executed him. YetChristiansworship him precisely becausethe state’s “legal” outcome still produced aprofoundinjustice.

So when we hear calls for “standing, legal law” as the ﬁnal measure of right and wrong, we should pause. Law can serve justice, but law can also miss it. Moreover,abishop offering adispensation in amoment of fear does not “aid and abet” crime. Instead, he exercises pastoral care to prevent panic,

family separation and harm especially when people worry that simply showing up in public could expose them to enforcement actions.

Christian scripturealso containsa warning about this posture of constant accusation. The word “Satan”functions as “the accuser” in the biblicaltradition —someone who prosecutes and condemns. That image matters because it reminds believers that faith is not primarily about hunting for violations. It’s about mercy,repentance and human dignity, even when someone’s status is imperfect.

Finally,ifwewant immigration handled responsibly,we should demandpolicies that are bothlawful and humane. We can uphold order without losing compassion. The Church should not be mocked for trying to do both.

PAUL SAPUTO NewOrleans

Pardon of ex-Honduran president, Maduro’s captureatodds

Venezuela’sPresident Nicolas Maduro wascaptured and will be held accountable forhis narco-terrorism crimes. No doubt, Maduro is abad guy

Considering the huge amount of American intelligence and military resources that were expended planning and executing this operation and the signiﬁcant operational risk exposure, it would seem that ﬁghting narco-terrorism is ahigh priority forthe current administration.

Why then did the president pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras and convicted narco-terrorist?

MICHAEL COLEMAN NewOrleans

There’snomore reason to have password protection anymore, good people of Louisiana. Secretary of State Nancy Landry says that it’sA-OK to hand over our full name, address, birthday,driver’slicense number and the last four digits of our Social Security numbers to the Department of Justice. Idon’tremember agreeing to this. The DOJ requested, and she said no problem This is aclear violation of privacy laws. There is no clear reason fordoing this except to intimidate voters.

Once again, leadership is failing in Louisiana.

New Orleans has ICE, the National Guard, and now,soon, the federal government will have our private information. If ever adiscussion was needed, it’snow

SUSAN BENSINGER NewOrleans

Iwonder if congressmen and congresswomen have read the Constitution. From their comments every time President Donald Trumpdoes something, forthe most part their comments show alack of understanding of basic constitutional laws. Furthermore, do they not understand he did not walkinto the Oval Ofﬁce? He was elected.

MILLIE GALLO Baton Rouge

Ron Faucheux

LSU gymnast Kailin Chio finishes her vault during the Tigers’ home opener against KentuckyonFridayatthe Pete Maravich Assembly Center.Chio wonthe event with a9.95.

Superperformance

Chio’s 10 on beam helpsLSU gymnastics team bounce back

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

The LSU gymnastswore theirWonder Woman leotards for lastweekend’s Southeastern Conference opener at Georgia. They should have saved them for theirhome opener against Kentucky.

After disappointmentina 197.200-196.850losstothe Bulldogs, the Tigerswere dazzling Fridaynight before 13,516 fans in the Pete Maravich AssemblyCenter, the third-largest crowd in program history LSU gymnasts soared to 10 scores of 9.925orbetterand eightcareer-high or career-high-tyingmarks,nonehigher than Kailin Chio’sperfect 10 on balance beam. It alladded up to a198.050-195.775rompfor the No. 4-ranked Tigers, LSU’shighest-ever score in ahomeopener “Coming back in here was just what the doctor or-

LSUwalk-on leadsby example, ‘lightsuparoom’

BY TOYLOYBROWN III Staff writer

“Wedon’thave time to feel sorry for ourselves. We got to get better.”

What LSU coachMatt McMahon said on Jan. 13 remains applicable as his basketball team has dropped ﬁve of six games in the Southeastern Conference.

Despite an injury thatsidelinedpoint guardDedan Thomas forthe first five SECcontests, theteam’s priorityistodo whatever is necessary to make the NCAA Tournament. UrgencyisLSU’s mindset. McMahon expects that from everybody,including JadenBobbett,a walk-onwho hasplayed six total minutes this season. Thecontributions of theﬁfth-yearsenior transfer from Indiana won’tappear in the boxscore, but his presence is felt in every other way behind the scenes.

LSU landstop OT from portal

Seaton hasbeena standoutlefttacklefor two seasonsatColorado

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

Colorado offensive tackle Jordan Seaton committedFriday night to LSU, giving the Tigers the top-ranked offensive lineman in the transfer portal ahead of coach Lane Kiffin’sfirst season. Seaton, a6-foot-5, 300-pound sophomore, is widelyconsidered one of the top players in the transfer portalregardless of position.He took trips to Mississippi State and Miami before he arrived last Sunday in Baton Rouge, and he also considered Oregon. Kiffin flewto Atlanta on Tuesdaytomeetwith Seaton and his campbefore Oregon coach DanLanning also arrived for an in-home visit. Seaton wasafive-star recruit and the No. 17 overall prospect in the 2024 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. A native of Washington,D.C., he playedhigh

ä See PORTAL, page 4C

dered,” LSUcoach Jay Clarksaid. “Weneeded to take abig stepforwardafter adisappointing performance the previous week and we did that. There were alot of positives here tonight.”

Chio, asophomore from Henderson, Nevada,was positively brilliant At Georgia she suffered arare mistake on her ﬁrst event, stalling out on amove on uneven bars thatresulted in ahighly uncharacteristic 9.30.

On thisnight, Chio opened by sticking the landing for a winning score of 9.95 on vault in theanchor spot, giving theTigers a49.250 score in that event.She thenposted a 9.90 on bars before nailing herbeam routine, taking over theanchor spot from Konnor McClain, who preceded her with a9.95 after 9.925s from Amari Drayton and Kaliya Lincoln

ä See SUPER, page 4C

ä LSU at Arkansas 4P.M. SATURDAy,SECN

“I’ll be thevoice when people need to speak up,” Bobbett said. “At the end of the day,I think alot of guys knowwhenit comes from me, it’snot because I’mtrying to steal their minutes. It’s just because I want to win.”

Bobbett said his team’sclosenesswon’t waver over playing time, andMcMahon repeatedly hassaidheloves hisplayers’ camaraderie. The fourth-year coach knows hislast addition in theoffseason is afactor in that.

“He’sbeen an unbelievable teammate, as gooda teammate as I’vebeen around in my 30 years in the game,” McMahon said Nov 5about Bobbett. “His energy on the bench was contagious. Comes to work every day Since the summer,he’smade over 11,000 3s in his workouts. He just wantstodoanything he can to help theteam.”

Thenext game for LSU (13-6, 1-5 SEC) is against No. 20 Arkansas (14-5, 4-2) at 4p.m.

See LSU, page 3C

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

Jay Johnsondismissed the possibility entirely

There was no way Chris Stanfield would return to LSU in 2026. As the starting center fielder forthe national champions —and as an Auburn transfer whoset career-highs in doubles, batting average and on-base plus slugging percentage last season —Johnson didn’tsee apath where Stanfield would return to Baton Rouge foranother year “My entire staff wastelling me last year ‘There’sagood chance we’re gonna get Chrisback,’ ”Johnson saidFriday.“And I’m like, ‘You guys are (wrong). No,we’re not getting him back.’ ” Johnson’sstaff ended up being right. Despite Stanfield telling Johnson that he intended to move on to professional baseball after the 2025 season, he’sback at LSU for asecond year.Teams called Stanfield and showed interest in picking him in the MLB draft, but no opportunity enticed him enough to leave.

“It wasatough decision,” Stanﬁeld said. “… It just wasn’tthe right time. It wasn’tthe right thing.And Italked to alot of people, prayed andtalked to my family.And once coach Johnson said he wantedmeback, that

ä See REPEAT, page 4C

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

JOHNSON

Maravich Assembly Center

AP PHOTO By DAVID ZALUBOWSKI Coloradooffensivelineman Jordan Seaton walks on the sideline during agame against Iowa State on Oct. 11 in Boulder,Colo. Seaton committed FridaynighttoLSU

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3:50 p.m. Dom. Republic vs. Dominica FS2 4:30 p.m. U.S vs Paraguay

Nola to pitch for Italy in World Baseball Classic

Aaron Nola is pitching in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, but not for the United States.

Nola, a Baton Rouge native and Philadelphia Phillies starter, will pitch for Italy in this spring’s international tournament.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson announced the decision Wednesday at the annual Philadelphia Sports Writers Association banquet, as reported by PhilliesNation.

Despite being born and raised in the U.S., Nola has Italian heritage and could potentially take the mound for Italy when it starts tournament play against Brazil on March 7 in Houston.

The 2014 National Pitcher of the Year at LSU, the Phillies selected Nola with the No. 7 pick of the 2014 MLB Draft.

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Alcaraz tops Moutet in third round

Sabalenka, Gauff advance on women’s side

BY JOHN PYE Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia Carlos Alcaraz had to acknowledge that while he won the third-round match, he lost the battle of the drop shots against Corentin Moutet. That could be a first for the 22-year-old Spaniard, who grew up relentlessly practicing his drop shots and is now at the Australian Open chasing a career Grand Slam.

The left-handed Moutet mixed things up for Alcaraz in an almost festive vibe on Friday at Rod Laver Arena, his blend of drop shots, slice, lobs, tweeners, volleys and even an underarm serve keeping the world’s No.1-ranked player on his toes.

“When you play someone like Corentin, you don’t know what’s going to be next,” Alcaraz said after his 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over the No. 32 seed “I had so much fun on the court As you could see, we both pulled off great shots Great points.”

Late in the ﬁrst set, he said he was already fed up with tracking down drop shots and told his support team “I’m not going to run to get those.”

“I thought we were in a dropshot competition,” Alcaraz added, laughing, “but he won!” Ever the showman, Alcaraz chimed in with some of his own tricks and tweeners.

In the ﬁrst round, Moutet was booed by the crowd for his underarm serve on match point. For his main arena debut, there was much more love from the crowd.

After a winning volley late in the match, he celebrated by extravagantly dofﬁng his cap.

Alcaraz will next play Sunday against No. 19 Tommy Paul, who advanced when Alejandro Davidovich Fokina retired with an injury after dropping the ﬁrst two sets 6-1, 6-1. In night matches, No. 3 Alexander Zverev, the runner-up here last year, advanced 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 over Cameron Norrie and No 6 Alex de Minaur ousted Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

Sabalenka, Gauff advance No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Coco Gauff had tough routes through the third round.

Sabalenka said there were times she felt like her head, her hands and her racket were not connected but she still had just

enough to squeeze past Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7). Gauff weathered early trouble against Hailey Baptiste before advancing 3-6, 6-0-6-3, cutting down her unforced errors and not serving any double-faults in the second set. She next plays No. 19 Karolina Muchova. Sabalenka, chasing her third Australian Open title in four years, led 6-5 and 40-0 in her opening set but Potapova saved all three set points to send it to a tiebreaker In the second set, Potapova recovered two service breaks and again force a tiebreaker She then had three set points but Sabalenka rallied when the pressure was on.

“She played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I was always on the back foot There are days

where you just have to ﬁght it was such a ﬁght.”

Sabalenka won the Australian Open title in 2023 and 2024 and was the runner-up a year ago to Madison Keys.

She next faces 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, who was one of three teenagers advancing on Day 6.

Djokovic’s advice

The 18-year-old Iva Jovic beat No. 7 Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 7-6 (3), after getting some advice from 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic.

“He gave me some very attentive tips for my game,” the American said “That was one of the things in the forefront of my mind, because I think when Novak gives you some advice, you follow it.”

No. 25 Miami (Ohio) makes history with 20-0 start

BY JOE REEDY Associated Press

Travis Steele was conﬁdent his Miami (Ohio) University squad would be a contender in the MidAmerican Conference going into the season. The 25th-ranked RedHawks have not only proven their coach right but also got off to a historic start and are making national headlines. Besides breaking into the AP Top 25 for the first time in 27 years, Miami is off to the best start in conference history At 200, it is one of three unbeaten Division I teams It is also the ﬁrst time since 2019, when Buffalo got as high as 14th, that a MAC program has been ranked. This national recognition is especially meaningful for Wally Szczerbiak, who led Miami to the Sweet 16 in 1999 before a decadelong NBA career

“Miami is playing as good as any team in the country They weren’t able to get a tough schedule, because they tried. Nobody would play them. So you can only play the games that your schedule

allows you to play,” said Szczerbiak, who is a commentator for CBS Sports Network. “To win 20 straight games in a row that is very hard. To bring it at that level every single night, it’s really impressive to the culture, the routine that Travis Steele has built there within that locker room.” Steele’s squad featured 10 returning players from last season, a team that set a program record with 25 wins and reached the MAC Tournament ﬁnal. Heading into this year, Miami was ranked second in the MAC preseason poll, just behind defending champion Akron. Key returnees include senior Peter Suder, Miami’s first first-

team All-MAC selection since 2012, and MAC Freshman of the Year Brant Byers. Byers leads the team with 15.3 points per game, while Suder is averaging 14.1 points.

“We only had one guy in the transfer portal, which I think probably speaks to the conﬁdence level of the guys that I had returning,” Steele said. “Some guys were in lesser roles last year when they were freshmen, but I knew that they could take a huge jump.”

Junior Eian Elmer is one of two players to start all 20 games and has averaged 11 points, while point guard Evan Ipsaro was scoring 13.9 per game before being sidelined by a shoulder injury

“I’m still holding on to the little bit of the old model of development. Development matters,” said Steele, who is in his fourth season at Miami. “You look at a guy like Elmer, who’s continued to get better throughout his college career All of these guys have continued to get better.”

Miami’s next game isn’t until Tuesday, when the RedHawks host UMass before playing Northern Illinois on Jan. 31.

Manning has ‘minor’ foot surgery, to return in spring AUSTIN, Texas Texas quarterback Arch Manning had foot surgery this week and will be limited in offseason workouts, the school announced Friday He is expected to return for spring practice. Texas officials called the procedure “minor” and said it was a “preventative measure to address a previous injury.” The school provided no other details.

Manning passed for 3,163 yards and 26 touchdowns and ran for 10 touchdowns last season, his ﬁrst as the Longhorns’ full-time starter Texas was the preseason No. 1 and finished ranked No. 12. The Longhorns missed the College Football Playoff and went 10-3 with a Citrus Bowl win over Michigan that included Manning’s 60-yard game-clinching touchdown run.

Mendoza declares for NFL draft, could be No. 1 pick BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Las Vegas Raiders are on the clock, and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza is ofﬁcially available. Mendoza formally declared for the NFL draft Friday and could be headed to the Raiders with the No 1 pick in April Mendoza led Indiana to a 16-0 season and its ﬁrst national championship with a 27-21 victory against Miami on Monday night.

The junior completed 72% of his passes this season for 3,535 yards, with 41 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Mendoza is Indiana’s ﬁrst Heisman winner He capped what some called the greatest two-year turnaround in college football history Mendoza also is the third Latino player to win the Heisman.

Bieniemy returning to Kansas City as Chiefs OC KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs are bringing back Eric Bieniemy to serve as their offensive coordinator next season.

Bieniemy, 56, spent a decade working alongside coach Andy Reid in Kansas City first over five seasons as the running backs coach and then five seasons as the offensive coordinator He was part of the braintrust that helped turn Patrick Mahomes into one of the NFL’s biggest stars Bieniemy took over Friday for Matt Nagy Bieniemy left the Chiefs in 2023 to become assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in Washington. But after a disappointing season, Bieniemy was not retained and wound up at UCLA as the associate head coach and offensive coordinator

Alabama to play 7-footer who turned pro in 2023

TUSCALOOSA,Ala.— Charles Bediako will play against Tennessee on Saturday, Alabama coach Nate Oats said Friday, even while calling the NCAA system that allowed professional players to return to college “broken.”

“We are planning to play him,” Oats said. “He’s eligible to play We’re going to follow the court orders.”

Bediako, 23, practiced with the 17th-ranked Crimson Tide a day after a judge in Tuscaloosa temporarily reinstated the player’s college eligibility and blocked the NCAA from retaliating for his return. Bediako entered the NBA draft in 2023 but was not selected. The 7-footer has signed several NBA developmental contracts

playing for the

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ASANKA BRENDON RATNAyAKE

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain plays a backhand return to Corentin Moutet of France during their third-round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne,Australia, on Friday

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVID DERMER Miami (Ohio) forward Eian Elmer celebrates after being fouled and making a basket against Kent State on Tuesday in Kent, Ohio.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

In good hands

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

Coach Kim Mulkey stepped away from the LSU women’s basketball team between its road wins over Oklahoma and Texas A&M so she could spend time with her family in Texas.

Mulkey, as she told the SEC Network on Thursday, had to help her 7-year-old grandson recover from a ruptured appendix he suffered last weekend So she turned a week of practice over to associate head coach Bob Starkey, and he led the No. 6 Tigers (18-2, 4-2 SEC) through preparation for a game against the Aggies that they wound up winning by 44 points.

“I’ve said it many times,” Mulkey said. “(Starkey) should be in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame

He’s the only associate head coach in the women’s game that’s ever taken a team to a Final Four He has extended my career He talks my language We teach the same way

“So, it does matter when you take yourself away from your team for four days like I did. I would do it with any team I’m with. My family comes first. But I never doubted that he would have our team ready to play ” Starkey is a longtime assistant coach who’s four years into his second stint at LSU. He’s worked under both Dale Brown and Sue Gunter, and he guided the LSU women to the Final Four in 2007 after then-coach Pokey Chatman resigned shortly before the NCAA Tournament amid allegations that she had an inappropriate relationship with a player

Continued from page 1C

Saturday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Unsung leader

LSU players’ basketball homework includes making 500 shots and more than 100 free throws each week outside of team practices. There’s a leaderboard that shows which players have done the most.

Bobbett routinely ranks in the top ﬁve. The 24-year-old from Rye, New Hampshire, knows his extra jumpers won’t amount to playing time, but this is how he leads by example. It’s also ammunition to motivate his teammates

“I go in the locker room and be like, ‘I beat you this week,’ and they say, ‘What, a walk-on beat me,’ ” Bobbett said. “They kind of get mad, and they go back in the gym and just continue that competitiveness.”

Associate head coach David Patrick said those kind of playful interactions matter

“He knows who he is, which I think is not normal in this day and age,” Patrick said. “I think it’s invaluable for him to do that, because coming from him is different than coming from the coaching staff.” Patrick said Bobbett possesses a cerebral basket-

Unsung leader Jones an ‘energy guy’ for Jaguars

BY CHARLES SALZER Contributing writer

The Southern men’s basketball team has its share of leaders this season, some known better than others.

Two of those are guard Michael Jacobs, one of the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s top scorers, and forward Malek Abdelgowad, who has been among the best bench performers in the league. Then there is DaMariee Jones, a senior forward who provides some of the glue that holds the Jaguars together Jones usually shows up in multiple places on a statistics sheet. He leads the Jaguars in blocked shots with 18, is third in scoring at 9.3 points per game, and pulls down 5.8 rebounds, second on the team.

“I’ve said it many times. (Starkey) should be in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. He talks my language.” KIM MULKEy LSU coach

ä Florida at LSU 7 P.M. MONDAy, SEC NETWORK

ﬁfth-highest scoring output in games they’ve played against SEC opponents since 2021. South Carolina transfer guard

MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 23 of LSU’s 47 bench points. She said that the practices ahead of the contest against the Aggies (8-7, 1-5) didn’t feel much different without Mulkey

“It was the same,” Fulwiley said. “I mean, I think our goal was the same, and we all come into practice each and every day just wanting to get better, so I think (Starkey) emphasized that. We gotta get better We can’t overlook this team.”

Mulkey has turned her team over to Starkey before.

Last season, when an unexpected death in Mulkey’s family pulled her away from the Tigers shortly before the SEC Tournament, Starkey served as acting head coach both before and during their quarterﬁnal win over Florida. Mulkey rejoined the team in time for that matchup but decided to coach from a spot farther down the LSU bench. Starkey handled most ingame decisions. On Thursday, Mulkey met the Tigers in College Station, Texas, and coached like she normally does. Her team then turned in one of its sharpest performances of the season. LSU assisted 22 of 36 field-goal makes, forced Texas A&M into 25 turnovers and converted all 20 free throws it took, tying a 38-year-old program record for the most makes at the stripe without a miss. Stars Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams combined to score only 10 points, but the Tigers still ﬁnished with 98 — enough to match their

ball mind and knows how to approach teammates differently, which has been “vital” as a bridge between the staff and a roster with 12 other new players. Thomas, who is back from his lower leg injury, said Bobbett is essentially another coach

Mike Nwoko, who is Bobbett’s roommate for road games, seeks his input. Bobbett, a 6-foot-1 guard who started his career at Division III Middlebury College, doesn’t sugarcoat his opinions, which Nwoko appreciates.

All of this is unsurprising to James Cormier Bobbett’s high school coach at Cushing Academy in Massachusetts. He said Bobbett’s social intelligence was beyond his years in high school.

Cormier doesn’t assign captains on his teams because he wants everyone to feel emboldened to lead. Bobbett was an exception.

“Jaden was one of those guys that I felt it was so clear and so earned that I appointed him captain,” Cormier said. “That’s who we’re going to lean on, and we’re going to follow his lead.”

That has only happened two other times under Cormier

The way Bobbett leads during games at LSU is through constant conversations on the bench When players in the rotation check out, they ask for his insights. “He’s naturally going to

Since she hired Starkey in 2022, Mulkey repeatedly has lobbied for his induction into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She did so again earlier this season, after a game in which the program recognized Starkey for the 25 years he’s now spent at LSU. That quarter-century run includes all six trips the women’s basketball program has made to the Final Four

A seventh appearance could come as early as this season, especially if the Tigers keep stacking victories like the one they picked up Thursday after Mulkey met them on the road.

“I have no hesitation,” Mulkey said, “when something unexpected happens like it happened after the (Oklahoma) game to go and be with my family

“But who makes it really work are those kids, my players, and I told them what was going on and hugged every one of them and told them if things go accordingly, I’ll see them at (Texas) A&M, and they did.”

bring people with him and just raise the standard of excellence in any room that he’s in,” Cormier said.

‘Lights up a room’

Losing streaks can breed frustration. McMahon and players were open about their disappointments, especially after falling to Kentucky at home on a dramatic buzzer-beating shot last week.

The mood in the locker room after heartbreaks hasn’t carried over to practice, and Bobbett is a big reason for that because his presence injects joy

Every practice, he’s among the loudest in the gym, yelling “eight” when it’s that many seconds on the shot clock. When rewatching game ﬁlm feels monotonous for players and coaches alike, Bobbett’s personality and engagement level energizes them.

“He comes in and lights up a room,” Patrick said. “Rain, sleet or snow or if he’s had a bad day, he comes in with the same consistent energy, which I think (echoes) through the program.”

Player development staff member and former LSU star Marcus Thornton works closely with Bobbett when they organize the scout team, which is the group that copies the tendencies of upcoming opponents to prepare LSU in practices.

Thornton, an eight-year NBA player marvels at the spirit Bobbett brings. That includes encouraging teammates such as top shooter Max Mackinnon after an 0-of-9 shooting performance against Texas Tech.

“Guys like JB, man, you don’t ﬁnd too often,” Thornton said. “You have to cherish them while they’re here He’s been great, man. Can’t say enough good things about JB.”

Bobbett’s teammates know he won’t allow a slow conference start to dampen their mood.

“Ever since he stepped in Baton Rouge, he’s been bringing everything he can to the table,” Pablo Tamba said. “All about energy, effort in practice. Everything you need, you can really ask JB. And you can ask anybody on the team about JB, he’s a team guy Coach McMahon loves that, and we all love that.”

Bobbett knows his contributions are meaningful. Before he launches a potential coaching career, he wants to make the most of his ﬁnal season and serve the program to the best of his ability

“You can’t win alone,” he said. “Can’t have everybody be a 1,000-point scorer, and not everyone’s gonna get 1,000 rebounds. But you can be that person that makes a difference, be the X-factor, be the person that guys just love to be around, that keeps the team together.”

“I consider myself an energy guy,” Jones said earlier this week. “I do the hard things. I get on the floor, and I make the tough plays. That’s kind of my role. I try to bring energy to my team so we can get ﬂowing.”

The flow is going well for Southern after gaining momentum with road wins over Bethune-Cookman and Grambling in its past two games. Those wins have Southern (7-11, 3-2) tied for fourth in the SWAC standings behind three oneloss teams.

The Jaguars will try to defend their home court on Saturday when they host Arkansas-Pine Bluff (6-13, 3-3) at 5 p.m. The homestand will continue Tuesday when Mississippi Valley visits for a 6 p.m. contest.

Winning at home is an important piece of the SWAC puzzle as Southern tries to repeat as regular-season champions.

“We’ve got a saying, ‘We don’t lose at home,’ so that’s really the goal,” Jones said.

“We want to take one game at a time, get the Pine Bluff game and then Mississippi Valley We want to keep this thing going the way it is right now.”

Things weren’t going Southern’s way after a 67-59 loss at Florida A&M on Jan. 10. Southern had

possession of the ball down by one point with two minutes to play, but went 0 for 5 from the ﬁeld with three turnovers to finish the game.

“That was a tough pill to swallow because we were right there. It was a onepossession game,” Jones said. “(Against BethuneCookman) coach told us to just be us. We couldn’t let the (FAMU) game dictate how we played the next game.” Jones had nine points, five rebounds and two steals in Southern’s 77-73 win at Bethune-Cookman, a game that showed the Jaguars were capable of finishing strong. The game was tied 69-69 with four minutes left, but Southern controlled the final minutes. The Grambling game was close until there were seven minutes left in the first half. Southern turned a 19-18 advantage into a 34-22 lead at halftime, and went on to lead by 20 points most of the second half Jones contributed five rebounds, two blocks and a steal in the first half, and finished with six points, nine rebounds and three blocks.

“We work hard, and we’re finally coming together,” Jones said. “We’re getting connected and trying to put all the pieces together.”

Duke women have come together after starting season 3-6

BY AARON BEARD AP basketball writer

DURHAM, N.C.

— It wasn’t that long ago that Duke looked lost, a preseason Atlantic Coast Conference favorite opening at 3-6 and reeling amid a demanding ﬁrst-month schedule.

Yet Kara Lawson’s belief didn’t wane.

“I felt we were always good, or we were going to be good,” Lawson said. “When I say we were going to be good, that meant the result would start to turn.” It sure has.

The Blue Devils have won 10 straight games, a run that includes an 8-0 start in league play and a return to the AP Top 25 this week at No. 21. And they have built some of the cohesion and consistency that showed in last year’s run to the ACC Tournament title followed by a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight.

“I’m more proud that they the players themselves — stuck together,” Lawson said “Because I can tell you this:

“There’s way more teams in the NCAA that would’ve folded or broken apart or

played below their potential after what we went through.

“They had every reason to say, ‘Ah, this ain’t the year, we’ve just got too much going against us.’ And they didn’t. They just came into practice every day and said, ‘I’m going to get better.’ ” That approach has gotten Duke back on course, both as an ACC contender and potential host for March Madness’ opening weekend. The Blue Devils (13-6) enter Saturday’s game at Pittsburgh moved up a day because of an approaching winter storm — sitting alongside No. 8 Louisville atop the league standings. Defense has been a calling-card identity for Duke under its sixth-year coach, who in September was named head coach for the U.S. women’s team for the 2028 Olympics. Yet the offense has notably taken a step forward to go with it In ACC play, the Blue Devils are among the league leaders in scoring (fourth, 78.25), shooting percentage (third, 45.7%), 3-point percentage (third, 35.8%) and assist-to-turnover ratio (second, 1.29).

STAFF PHOTO Southern forward DaMariee Jones drives to the basket against Prairie View on Jan. 5 at the F.G. Clark Activity Center

Associate head coach Starkey makes it easier for Mulkey to step away

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU associate head coach Bob Starkey holds up a framed jersey as he’s recognized for 25 years of coaching at LSU before the game against UT Arlington on Dec. 21 at the PMAC.

CFP to stay at 12 teams for at least 1 more year

BY EDDIE PELLS AND ERIC OLSON

AP sportswriters

The College Football Playoff resolved a few of its thorny issues Friday — including how to deal with Notre Dame — but left the toughest one unresolved, staying at 12 teams for next year and failing to expand the postseason to 16 or more teams.

The CFP’s management committee made the announcement that the 12-team format would stay the same for next season, with executive director Rich Clark selling that as a way for the conferences to “better assess the need for potential change.”

That conclusion became obvious over last weekend, when the commissioners came out of their last scheduled meeting before Friday’s deadline with no agreement. The most notable changes they agreed to are guaranteeing Notre Dame a spot in the ﬁeld if it ﬁnishes in the top 12 in the rankings and holding automatic spots for the champions of the Power Four conferences — Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12.

The bracket in the just-completed playoff excluded the ACC champion, Duke, along with Notre Dame, which ﬁnished 11th but was passed over by Miami. Two Group of Five champions — Tulane and James Madison — were ranked higher than the

REPEAT

Continued from page 1C

was really it.”

Stanfield’s return puts LSU in an enviable position heading into this season. The same starting outfield the Tigers had in their run to an eighth national title is running it back in 2026. Along with Stanfield, sophomore Derek Curiel returns after posting a .990 OPS and nearly walking as many times as he struck out last year Junior Jake Brown rounds out the trio after a season in which he feasted on right-handed pitching and had a .935 OPS.

“It’s huge to have Chris Stanfield back and Jake Brown, it means a lot,” Curiel said. “We’re all very close friends. We hang out a lot.” Not everything about the outﬁeld will be a carbon copy of last year Stanﬁeld, despite his speed and numerous diving catches, is switching positions with Curiel.

Stanﬁeld will start in left ﬁeld while Curiel is set to patrol center The plan all along, Johnson said, had been for Curiel to spend his freshman year in left before transitioning to center He’d played the position for years before arriving at LSU.

Adjustments will need to be made — whether it’s Stanfield adjusting to the new angles he’ll see in left or Brown getting used to patrolling the outﬁeld next to Curiel but Johnson has no worries about the state of his outﬁeld

Broncos’ defensive pressure ﬁnally leads to turnovers

BY PAT GRAHAM AP sportswriter

ENGLEWOOD,Colo.— Finally, all that pressure paid off for pass rusher Nik Bonitto and the Denver defense. Finally, the Broncos produced what’s been missing much of the season — takeaways.

It’s been a long time coming for a defense that’s been one of the best in the NFL. The Broncos forced five turnovers last weekend against the Buffalo Bills, including four from Josh Allen, who hadn’t coughed up the ball in his previous six playoff games. They may be under pressure to turn in a similar sort of turnoverfest against Drake Maye and the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game Sunday That way, they can take the pressure off backup Jarrett Stidham, who’s taking over at quarterback with Bo Nix out with a broken ankle.

The Broncos led the league with 68 sacks but had only 14 takeaways this season.

“Everyone’s been saying it for the whole season, that it would eventually ﬂip,” linebacker Alex

PORTAL

Blue Devils and got the spots under last year’s format.

But the key issue of expansion remains unresolved. The SEC and most of the other conferences favored moving to 16 teams, with an emphasis on at-large berths. The Big Ten wanted 24 or more with a large group of automatic qualiﬁers — a system that would further diminish the value of conference title games in exchange for play-in games for second, third and fourth place.

Per the CFP agreement, the SEC and Big Ten hold all the cards in this negotiation and remained stuck, meaning ESPN’s six-year, $7.8 billion deal to carry the playoff will start next season with 12 teams, the same as it’s been the last two years.

“While they all agree the current format has brought more excitement to college football and has given more schools a real shot in the postseason another year of evaluation will be helpful,” Clark said.

Also unchanged was the format.

The opening round of games, featuring the fifth through 12th seeds, will be played on campus, with the final three rounds going to traditional bowl sites. Next season’s final is set for Las Vegas on Jan. 25, 2027.

This season, Oregon traveled more than 11,500 miles to play in the Orange Bowl (quarterfinals) and Peach Bowl (semiﬁnals).

Before the Orange Bowl, Big

12 commissioner Brett Yormark said “we have to examine” bringing quarterfinals to campus — where the crowds and the games have had a more electric (and jam-packed) atmosphere than the quarterﬁnal games — but no decision was reached.

The biggest winner coming out of the small changes is Notre Dame. When the Irish were leapfrogged by Miami in the last rankings, they found themselves on the outside pushed out by two lowerranked conference champions and the Hurricanes. Athletic director Pete Bevacqua complained the ACC’s lobbying for Miami amounted to an unfair tipping of the playing ﬁeld.

The ACC — or any struggling Power Four conference got a victory of sorts with the guarantee that their champion gets in regardless of ranking. That amounts to a loss for the Group of Five teams, though James Madison and Tulane didn’t do that group any favors by losing their two playoff games by a combined score of 92-44.

The move also gives conferences a chance to evaluate how moving to nine league games will impact their strength of schedules and other factors related to selection.

The SEC, Big 12 and most ACC teams are transitioning to ninegame schedules for 2026, while the Big Ten has been there for a decade.

LSU outﬁelder Chris Stanﬁeld takes off on a two-run single in the fourth inning against Coastal Carolaina on June 22 at the College World Series

ﬁnals in Omaha, Neb

defense. “We have three center fielders in the outfield, and it’s pretty cool that all three of them have already played center field here at LSU,” Johnson said, referring to Brown’s time in center field as a freshman. “What a great thing to have those guys. So I don’t expect and haven’t seen any struggle with (the positional changes).”

LSU didn’t have this luxury the last time it tried to defend a national title The Tigers in 2024 had just one returning starter in the out-

ﬁeld

Josh Pearson in left and lost their best positional player in center ﬁelder Dylan Crews.

LSU will have its fair share of fresh faces this season. It’ll have new starters at first, second, third, designated hitter and catcher But bringing back its starting outﬁeld, which includes two of its top-ﬁve hitters in terms of OPS, gives the Tigers a better chance to repeat as champions.

Even if this was a scenario Johnson couldn’t envision in June.

“Glad I was wrong,” he said.

Continued from page 1C

school football at IMG Academy before signing with Colorado as the top offensive tackle recruit in the country Seaton has been a standout left tackle the ﬁrst two years of his career He became Colorado’s first true freshman to start at offensive tackle, and he allowed only three sacks in 612 passblocking snaps that season. This past year, Seaton started the ﬁrst nine games before suffering an injury that sidelined him for the rest of the season. He was still named second-team All-Big 12. Seaton has two more

SUPER

Continued from page 1C

“Our beam lineup is so rock solid,” Chio said “They rocked beam. I didn’t even feel nervous, they set me up so well. I just wanted to do my best routine for them.”

It was the second 10 of Chio’s career She had a perfect score on vault at Auburn in 2025.

“Her vault (against Kentucky) should have been a 10, too,” McClain said with a smile “But we don’t need to talk about that.”

Chio wrapped up the night with a 9.925 on ﬂoor, just getting edged out for ﬁrst place in that event by Lincoln, who anchored with a winning 9.95. Chio took the all-around title as well with a 39.775 and now has 30 individual victories in 18 meets in her career, including the 2025 NCAA vault crown.

“The concern after a freshman year like she had, you see it in sports all the time,” Clark said. “A ‘sophomore slump’ or someone coming back attempting to duplicate what they did and it puts too much pressure on themselves.

“She’s done a good job of managing that so far She had that mistake last week and the next three events she just wired. She’s maturing from a mental perspective. It’s the little things The intangibles. It’s not the skills she does, it’s the approach she takes and how she reacts to circumstances.”

In addition to the team win for LSU (3-1-1 overall, 1-1 Southeastern Conference), the Tigers swept the individual titles with Courtney Blackson’s 9.95 on uneven bars, her second bars title in three meets. Blackson was limited to one event after tweaking a lower calf in vault warmups at Georgia, but the Boise State transfer looked just as good as she did when she won bars in the Sprouts Collegiate Quad to open the season.

“She’s chomping at the bit to get back out on vault, but we’re exercising caution,” Clark said. “You’ve got to be careful with the lower calf/Achilles. But it’s not hurting her anymore.”

The Tigers were never threatened in this meet by a Kentucky team (0-5, 0-1 SEC) struggling to ﬁnd its form after failing to break

CBS

Singleton said. It did, and the Broncos needed every one of them to beat the Bills 33-30 in overtime on a ﬁeld goal set up by Ja’Quan McMillian’s interception on a deep throw to Brandin Cooks.

The Broncos were one of the best teams at applying pressure in the regular season, but they only had 10 interceptions and four fumble recoveries to show for it.

“I just feel like the emphasis that we put on these last couple of weeks, on creating turnovers and just knowing that we have the guys to go do it, I feel like it’s been real good,” Bonitto said “We’ve been seeing the turnovers and more attempts at the ball and stuff like that. It’s been real crucial.”

Bonitto forced two fumbles from Allen, in part because of something defensive coordinator Vance Joseph told him.

“He’s like, ‘You know, if you get the ball, you can still get a sack,’ ” cracked Bonitto, who ﬁnished ﬁfth in the league with 14 sacks.

“We’ve been working on it.”

years of eligibility

The addition fortiﬁes the LSU offensive line, a position that struggled this past year and was one of the team’s most glaring concerns entering the offseason. The unit has undergone significant turnover as nine players entered the transfer portal and starting right guard Josh Thompson exhausted his eligibility But LSU now has added nine transfer offensive linemen, including two others with starting experience at power-conference schools in Baylor tackle Sean Thompkins and Maryland guard Aliou Bah. It also brought back center Braelin Moore and right tackle Weston Davis, who started 10 games as a redshirt freshman this past season for LSU.

195.000 in its first two meets. LSU led 49.250-48.975 after the first rotation with Kentucky on bars, and the Tigers followed that with season-high marks on their next three events: 49.550 on bars, 49.650 on beam and 49.600 on floor Sophomore Lexi Zeiss, who had a 9.90 and a 9.925 to lead LSU off on vault and bars, said the Tigers benefited from a lot of talking this week after the team came home from Georgia. “Mistakes happen,” Zeiss said “We’re human. We were all disappointed but not mad. We talked a lot this week about growth. We just know this is who we are.” LSU is back on the road

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LyNNE SLADKy

Indiana football players lift the trophy after a win against Miami in the College Football Playoff title game on Monday in Miami Gardens, Fla.

THE VARSITY ZONE

Denham Springs outlasts Central

yellow Jackets pick up win at home in overtime

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

Denham Springs clung to a slim

two-point lead against Central as the clock ticked to less than a minute in overtime on Friday.

The Yellow Jackets inbounded the ball at halfcourt and looked for a score to give them breathing room. Devin Houston stood near halfcourt, then hurled the ball into the paint to Jeremy Williams.

The junior guard took one dribble, then threw up a hook shot through contact The shot fell through the bottom of the net, and he connected with the free throw to give his team a ﬁve-point cushion with just 50 seconds left.

Denham Springs (18-5) held on to take Central down 62-55 at Denham Springs High School. Williams led the Yellow Jackets in scoring with 15 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

“It wasn’t even on my mind,”

Williams said on his clutch threepoint play “I just did it. My team got me the ball They trusted me. That three-point play turned me up, turned the crowd up.”

He said he felt that was the turning point in the game, after the Yellow Jackets iced the game away at the free-throw line.

A back-and-forth ﬁrst half ended with Denham Springs holding a 2322 lead. Central’s Jace Conrad bur-

Denham Springs’ Devin Houston, center drives to the basket as Central’s

ied a 3-pointer to open the second half. Both sides continued to ﬁnd ways to score in a third quarter that in-

volved seven lead changes and three ties. The Yellow Jackets held a 36-32 lead, with four free throws to close out the third.

De La Salle’s Abria Frye left and St Joseph’s Ella Gisclair vie for the ball on Friday at St. Joseph’s Academy

14 points.

St. Joseph’s routs De La Salle

young Redstickers find their footing in second quarter

BY CHARLES SALZER

Contributing writer

It took St. Joseph’s Academy nearly the entire ﬁrst half to settle in against De La Salle, but once it did the game changed. The Redstickers took control with a 26-4 run that bridged the second and third quarters, and they cruised to a 66-48 win on Friday night at St. Joseph’s gym. St. Joseph’s (18-2) had trouble handling the ball early against De La Salle (14-8). The Cavaliers forced nine ﬁrst-quarter turnovers and led 28-23 midway through the second period when Ya’Myri Brown scored off a turnover. Kenley Massett’s 3-pointer helped St. Joseph’s regain its momentum, and the Redstickers scored the last nine points of the quarter to take a 32-28 halftime lead. In the third quarter, Adelaide Sanches had an assist and two 3-pointers as SJA outscored

De La Salle 13-2. St. Joseph’s led 51-34 going into the fourth quarter

“We had to grow up as the game went on,” St. Joseph’s coach Tim Waller said. “The challenges that (De La Salle) provided in this game, we probably haven’t seen them since early in the season. I think it took our players a little bit to get adjusted to the speed of the game and connect the dots to what we teach them in practice.”

Youth didn’t hold St. Joseph’s back. The Redstickers were led by sophomore Ella Gisclair’s 14 points, while freshman guard Evelyn Osborne scored 12 and Sanches, also a sophomore, finished with nine points on three 3-pointers.

St. Joseph’s made 22 of 50 shots from the ﬁeld and 17 of 24 free throws. The Redstickers won the rebounding battle 41-38. Brown led De La Salle with 22 points, but poor free-throw shooting cost the New Orleans team a chance to get back in the game.

De La Salle went 12 for 26 at the foul line.

“I believe (free throws) were the key to the whole game,” De

La Salle coach Mike Mosley said. “We missed a bunch of free throws and we missed some bunnies right at the rack. That’s not how we usually do it, but they weren’t falling. I think that was the difference.”

In the ﬁrst quarter, St. Joseph’s made six of its first nine shots. The Redstickers had assists on four of the baskets, but De La Salle kept pace with dribble drives to the basket.

Remi Evans got a layup off a steal, and Brown made one of two free throws to give the Cavaliers a 19-17 lead going to the second quarter

De La Salle’s biggest lead was at 26-19 after Saiyah Chester’s 3-pointer from the left wing with 5:45 left in the second quarter

The Cavaliers scored only two points the rest of the quarter “De La Salle did some things I thought would give us some trouble,” Waller said. “No excuses though We’re playing with four sophomores and a senior, and the game experience is still coming. We wanted to stick to what we do, and we were able to do that in the second half.”

be up one. We’d be up two.” He knew his team remained in it throughout and didn’t need to panic.

Neither team managed to gain an edge in the fourth until late Da’Sean Golmond dished an assist to Williams, who ﬁnished a layup to give his team a 44-41 lead. Conrad breezed past one defender and drew contact on a layup to tie the game 44-44.

The two sides then traded shots at the charity stripe, and Denham Springs held a 48-46 lead With less than 30 seconds left, Central’s Jalen Thomas euro-stepped toward the cup and scored a layup to tie.

Denham Springs’ Hayden Ray had a layup attempt just before the buzzer but missed, sending the game to overtime.

The Yellow Jackets opened the overtime period on a 4-0 run. Ray scored six points. He blocked a dunk attempt that led to a layup that closed out the run in overtime.

“A dunk could change the whole momentum of the game if I didn’t go get it,” Ray said “I knew I had to.”

He also connected with Golmond on an alley-oop dunk to make it 5451 later in the period.

PHOTO By PATRICK DENNIS

“It just kept feeling like we were trying to climb out of a hole,” Denham Springs coach Kevin Cabarello said, “but I’d look up, and we’d

Central (14-3) knocked down two 3-pointers in overtime to keep it close, but Williams’ 3-point play helped give his side separation en route to a win.

“They never quit,” Cabarello said. “Before the game, I say ‘give me everything you’ve got for 32 minutes, and if it isn’t enough, it’s not enough.’ Tonight, it was enough.”

Seniors lift Denham Springs over East Ascension in soccer

Moore, Paz score two goals each

BY WILLIAM WEATHERS Contributing writer

Denham Springs had just taken a one-goal lead in the 17th minute of Friday’s District 5-I game when East Ascension attempted to quickly get back in contention.

Yellow Jackets goalkeeper Zachary Jakob came off his line to stop a run from Edis Zuniga in the box. He composed himself a minute later and saved a corner kick from Clayton Delaune, keeping the momentum and lead on his team’s side.

Denham Springs made it 2-0 at halftime, extending that margin to three goals in the 43rd minute en route to a 5-2 victory over East Ascension at Yellow Jacket Stadium.

“We’ve got a very experienced defense,” Denham Springs coach Sean LeBlanc said. “This is Zach’s ﬁrst year starting in goal. He’s matured and has just grown over the last six to eight months. He’s been really solid for us.”

Denham Springs (14-2-1, 3-00) honored its eight seniors at the game. Two of them — Jorden Moore and Anthony Paz — each scored two goals.

The Yellow Jackets, the state’s No. 2-ranked team and winners of six straight, will attempt to hold onto their district championship with both of their league games scheduled on the road against Walker (Monday) and Dutchtown (Friday).

“It was a good win, but now

we’ve got two district games left to win and see if we can’t win district again,” LeBlanc said.

Denham Springs built a 2-0 lead on goals from Moore in the 17th minute and Eliel Sabio on a rebound shot from the left side of the box in the 22nd minute.

East Ascension (11-4-4, 2-1-1) kept the pressure on with two excellent opportunities in the box Jakob (ﬁve saves) was able to negate.

“We were able to get into their box three or four times,” EA coach Pedro Galindo said “We did what we planned to do. They have a couple of special players, and they’re really hard to contain. I have to give credit to our boys. We play hard. We ﬁght until the end.”

Senior Rylan Calhoun played a terrific ball across the field to Paz, who was converging toward the left post for a point-blank goal three minutes into the second half.

The Spartans broke through in the 50th minute on freshman Kevin Vega’s shot from 25 yards out, and they accounted for the ﬁnal score on Jose Matute’s free kick from 24 yards out in the 66th minute.

The second goals from Moore and Paz took place over a four-minute stretch with Moore completing a free kick from the left side outside of the box, while Paz found an open net for a 5-1 lead in the 64th minute.

Denham Springs held a 24-18 advantage in shots taken and 12-8 in shots on target. EA goalie Yeremi Bernardino had seven saves.

“It could be my last year,” Paz said. “I want to give my best to win a state championship.”

PREP REPORT

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Gisclair led the Redstickers in scoring with

LIVING

Thepopular faith-based Life Surge conference is coming to BR

The Surge is coming to Baton Rouge. Life Surge, anational faithbased, large-scale conference combining worship, biblical teaching and ﬁnancial principles, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 6p.m. Feb. 7atthe Raising Cane’sRiver Center

“Life Surge represents the intersection of faith and real life. It’sjust helping people fully surrender every area of their life to Christ, including their ﬁnances and career inﬂuences,” said Life Surge President Shawn Marcell, aLafayette native.“Idon’tsee Life Surge just as an event. Isee it as acallingto equip believers to live boldly wisely and generously in every aspect of theirlives.”

Dancers in the Big Buddyenrichment program at Progress ElementarySchool runthrough theirroutine for Of Moving Colors’ production ‘Love Revolution,’taking place at 6p.m.Thursday, Jan. 29, at

Headline speakers include Priscilla Shirer,nationally renowned Bible teacher; TimTebow, the former national college football champion and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Florida; evangelist Nick Vujicic; Craig Groeschel, pastor and bestselling author; and “Duck Dynasty” personalities Willie and Korie Robertson.

“This year’slineup is truly special,” Marcell said. “Each speakerbrings aunique voice and testimony and just unwaveringcommitment totheir platforms.”

Vujicic —who has tetra-amelia syndrome, acondition characterized by the absence of arms and legs —isone of the top motivational speakers in the country

“Nick is just apowerful reminder that limitationsdo not deﬁne God’s purpose. His life is atestimony that speaks of hope when you’re facing adversity,” Marcell said.

Worship will open the conference, with special guests Paul and Hannah McClureofthe 11time Dove Award-winning and Grammy-nominated worship collective Bethel Music. Marcell believes that the praise and worship experience helpsothers to receive what God “wants to do both in and throughevery person that comes.”

Founded in 2019 in Florida, Life Surge emphasizes the key W’sofkingdom impact: worship, wisdom, workand wealth.

“Webelieve that the scriptures speak to all four areas, yet many people compartmentalize their faith,” Marcell said. “Whenthese areas align under Christ, we believe that people will experienceclarity anda greater impact —not just personally but generationally.” Sessions during the all-day event will address topics such as ﬁnancial stewardship, entrepreneurship, investments and leadership.

“Life Surge is helping people lead in their daily decisions, not just their Sundays,” Marcell said Life Surge is personal to Marcell, 53. He spent 22 years in full-time vocational

LABOR OF LOVE

Smilingkidsand companydancers to take the stagefor ‘LoveRevolution’ in BatonRouge

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

The dancersfreeze in place at Alyseia Darby’scommand, all eyes on her as she turns from thewalllength mirror to face them.

“Smile,” theinstructor said. “Don’tmove. Iwant to see everyone smiling.”

Thedancers suddenly realize they’ve droppedtheir smiles somewhereinthe counts of one-twothree to Jon Batiste’s“Freedom” whiletryingtorememberwhat steps go where.

As of this particular Saturday morning, they have only two weeks until they take theManshipTheatre’sstage in Of Moving Colors’ “Love Revolution.”

Being dancers, smiling is a necessary part of the show.Still, there’sa lot for these elementary school kids to remember Part of BigBuddy program

The dancers are students at Progress Elementary.For thethird year in arow,OfMoving Colors is partnering with theBig Buddyprogram, working withmore than 50

Shelves are filled withsilver and brass items atlast year’sAtticTrash and Treasure Sale of Baton Rouge.

Ayoung dancer waits for the signal for the danceroutine to beginduring rehearsal for Of MovingColors’ upcoming production,‘LoveRevolution.’ The dance companyispartnering with BigBuddyinstaging the show.

childrenfromProgress Elementary,Highland Elementaryand St. Francis Xavier Catholic School. The professional contemporary dance company’spartnership with Big Buddy changed the format of the program, formerly known as “Kick It Out,”which included

young dancers from throughout the community Now,with Big Buddy,the show focusesonstudentsparticipating in thenonproﬁt program, whonot only have been attending Saturday

BY MARGARETDELANEY Staff writer

AtticTrash andTreasure,a Baton Rouge nonproﬁt that sells secondhand items anddonates theproceeds to local charities, is back. The group announced that the 2026 sale starts at 8a.m.Friday, March6,and will rununtil Sunday,March

STAFFPHOTOSByROBIN MILLER

the ManshipTheatre.

TerryRobinson FAITH MATTERS

Marcell

Tebow Shirer

Guestsbegrudginglyfollowinstructions

Dear Miss Manners: Igot married recently.Itisasecond marriage for both of us, but our ﬁrst weddings were two decades ago, and we wanted to have aspecial event that really felt like awedding. We paid for the whole thing ourselves. It was simple and relatively small, but it wasdeﬁnitely and unambiguously awedding: We sentpaper invitations, had acatered meal and an open bar,and Iworeabig white wedding gown. On our wedding website,and when asked in person, we said, “No gifts, please” (we have plenty of stuff!), but we alsoprovideda

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

list of ourfavoritenonproﬁts if anyone wanted to make adonation. We also planned to make donationsinhonor of ourguests, in lieu of favors, and will share that with folks in our thank-you cards. As expected, some peoplegavegiftsanyway, some madedonations and some wrote lovely cards. All good, right? Not quite. What has us absolutely befuddled is the numberofguestswho did nothing at all. These guests spanned generations, so it couldn’t be chalked up to “kids thesedays”orany sort of age-related etiquette. Many of these are the kindsoffolks who

regularly writecards and give gifts. It’s enough people that we genuinely wondered whether a pile of cards got lost at the end of thenight. Iknow we probably just need to let this go, but it rankles. Icannot imagine showing up completely empty-handed to any party much less awedding! —and not even taking the time to write a basic congratulatory message. We truly and absolutely do not want gifts, but is it wrong to want people to takeﬁve minutes to write acard? Is there any polite way to ﬁgure out what the heck happened (andifmaybe cards did get lost)? Andifnot, or if it turns out awhole lot of friends and family just failed to do even the

SALE

Continued from page1D

president of the Attic Trash andTreasure organization, who turns 90 this year,continues to show up to help volunteers sort through the trinkets.

Every silver platter is polished, each linen set is measured and grouped by sizeand color, each piece of jewelry is analyzed, and all technologies (coffee makers, speakers, record players, etc.) are tested to see that they work.

All in the name of quality, secondhand treasures.

Once part of the Inner Wheel Women’sGroup,a national charitable organization, Attic Trash and Treasure is now acompletely local andself-sustaining charity for Baton Rouge programs.

All of the proceeds from the sale are split between ﬁve Baton Rouge charities (with averysmall amount of the proceeds takenout to provide boxes, tape and suppliesfor the following year’ssale).

MATTERS

Continued from page1D

ministry,including 11 in his hometown of Lafayette, before shifting to marketplace ministry in 2016. He was named

to make sure each charity getsasmuch as possible.

This year,the proceeds of the event will go to these charities:

n Baton Rouge Children’s Advocacy Center,aprogram that helpschildren and families after physical abuse,sexualabuseora violent crime.

n Brave Heart of Louisiana, anonprofit program that helps youth transition out of foster care.

n Capital Area Family Justice Center,aprogram that provides assistanceto domestic violence victims.

In 2025, the sale raised $210,000 that theorganization split evenly among Baton RougeChildren’sAdvocacy Center,Brave Heart of Louisiana, Providence Road OutreachMission,St. Lillian Academyand The Arc of Baton Rouge. Each year,the charity board meets to decide which ﬁve charities to donatethe proﬁts to from the large sale.

“It breaks ourheart to say no to anyone,” said Julie Terrell last year, the2025 Attic Trash and Treasure president. “But we want

president in 2024.

“Over time, my conviction of how God’speople should impact every sphere of inﬂuence really begantoevolve,and that transformation helped me takeoff in leadership,not as aposition butasaresponsibility,” he said

n LouisianaParole Project, anonprofit organization that helps formerly incarcerated men andwomen rebuild their lives.

n Louisiana Mental HealthAssociation, aprogram to help adultswith chronic mental illnesses.

Those who would like to contribute money to the local nonproﬁts are advised to mail checks to P.O. Box 84306, Baton Rouge, LA 70884.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com.

The conference is the ﬁfthof29Life Surge events scheduled nationwide in 2026. For more information and ticket details,gotoLifeSurge.com.

ContactTerry Robinson at terryrobinson622@gmail. com

mostminimal thing to honor our wedding (and marriage), how do we get over this?

Gentlereader: Tryreally,really hard.

Your guests followed your explicit instructions. And as insulting as you seem to ﬁnd it that they did not also guess at your unstated ones, you have not convinced Miss Manners that acrime was committed. Perhaps, however,she can ease your mind by offering some reasonableexplanations: Some people do not wish to makea donation in someone else’sname to someone else’scharity.Some people are not card writers. And somepeoplesaw “Nogifts” and stopped reading entirely

Rather than focus on your very good friends and family whounderstood the subliminal messaging, you are intent on admonishing the ones whodid not. Please get over that.

But if you cannot, the good news is that you seem to have found a lifepartner whofeels similarly May you twohave along and happy lifetogether focusing on your various grudges.

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

Parent questionsson’s useofmonetarygift

Dear Harriette: My son told me that he’sinneed of a laptop, as his old one broke down on him. Iasked what was keeping him from getting anew one, and he shared that he didn’t want to overspend without saving up a bit longer.Acouple of weeks went by and Idecided to give him morethan half of the cost of thecomputer he wanted. Itold him that Iwas giving him this money speciﬁcally for alaptop. It did not need to be theexact model he originally showed me; it could be more or lessexpensive —totally up to him —but Iwanted to help him speciﬁcally with his computer becauseI knew that would be ahuge weight off his shoulders. It’sbeen almost three months, and he still hasn’t gotten alaptop, buthe’s been shopping and going out more often. Idon’t want to control my son’s spending, but Iwonder if themoney Igave him has gone to waste. I’d hatetothink that he had taken advantage of my generosity. Am Iwrongfor wanting to know what he’s done withthe money? —No Good Deed

DearNoGood Deed: It’sOK to confront your sonabout the computer.Ask him why he hasn’tpurchased it yet. Listenfor his answer. Note thatyou have seen him spending money more freely of late, anditmakes you wonder if he used the money yougave him fora different purpose.Again, listenand learn. In the future, if youwantyour sontouse money in aspeciﬁc way, keep controloverit. For example,you could have gone with him to the computerstore andpaidthem instead of him. Otherwise, you’ll have to lethim make his ownmistakes and learnfromthem. Either way,there will be lessons learned.

DearHarriette: Iamatmy wit’send with oneofmy friends. Someone Iconsider aclose friend often acts differently whenwe’re around neworless-familiarfriends. Sometimes he’ll make me the butt of allhis jokesorleaveme outofthings we’d normally do together.For awhile, I triedtoconvincemyself thatIwas overreacting or even misinterpreting things, but unfortunately,I

don’tthink Iam. When it’s just the two of us, we have agreat time,but in larger groups, it feelslike he prefers thatIamthe outcast andheisthe center of attention. The ﬁnalstrawwas last week when we went outwith some of his new colleagues. Uponarrival, he didn’tintroduceme to anyone,soI hadto make my rounds solo. Whenhedid ﬁnally acknowledge me,he was eitherinterrupting me or exaggerating old, embarrassing stories that newpeople didn’tneed to hear.I triedtalking to him aboutitthatnight, but he told me Iwas making something outofnothing. Should Ibring it up again or trust my gut and create some distance? —Two Faces

DearTwo Faces: This person is notacting like afriend. Call him on it. Give speciﬁc examplesand askhim to explain himself. Tell him thatifhecannottreat you with respect,you have no more time for him.

Sendquestions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com or c/oAndrewsMcMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St.,Kansas City,MO 64106.

Dear Heloise: After spending 6hours on ajet, Ifeel compelled to write. When ﬂying, please don’tgrab theseat in front of you to assist you when standing up. Stand by using your armrests for support.Also, your child kicking theseat in front of them is anono. —Pat, via email Stuffit

Dear Heloise: Istuff my expensive purses and luxury handbags with butcher paper so that they will keep their shape. Do you have any other hints for storage? —Jennifer J.,inHouston Jennifer,before storing thebag, empty it completely and removeany

dust or loose particles from it. Don’tstuff the bag with newspaper; the print could rub off inside the bag. Store the stuffed bag in adust bag (a soft, natural-ﬁber bag manyluxury brands come with dust bags) in its original box. Don’t let one bag touch another; this can cause wear and discoloration. Don’thang the bags by their handles as it can change the shape of the handles. P.S. Keepyour proof of purchase and all tags and receipts forthe bag; this ups its resale value. However,the mostimportant thing is to use your bag and enjoy it. It wasn’tmade to sit on your shelf! —Heloise Luckypenny

DearHeloise: Ihave always picked up apenny regardless if it is heads up or down. Whenever Ihave lots of pennies in my wallet, Iplace them on shelves throughout the grocery store for others

PROVIDED PHOTOSByDIANA RAFFRAy

Jess Shaffett, from left, Marilyn Grake, Mae Shaffettand Tara Radoni polish silver until it shines at AtticsTrash and Treasure ahead of the annual Baton Rougesale forlocal charities.

Lamps are always popular at the Attic Trash and TreasureSale of Baton Rouge.

Harriette Cole SENSE AND SENSITIVITy

Libraryoffersseries of parenting classes

Parents areinvited to a free“Parenting Wisely” class seriesdesigned to build confidence, reduce stress andimprove communication and discipline strategies. The classwilltakeplace

from 5p.m. to 6:30 p.m Thursday at Eden Park Branch Library,5131 Greenwell Springs Road. Theclass canstrengthen relationships and support achild’semotional wellbeing, according to anews release. Theevent is open to all parents and caregivers.

By The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, Jan. 24, the 24th day of 2026. There are 341 days leftinthe year

Todayinhistory:

On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall found agold nugget at Sutter’sMill in northern California, a discovery that sparked the California gold rush.

Also on this date: In 1835, amajor slave rebellion began in Bahia, Brazil, leading to the deaths of dozens of enslaved people in clashes with troops, police and armed civilians in the provincial capital of Salvador

The uprising wasseen as inﬂuential in helping to bring about an end to slavery in the country decades later

rehearsals at the YWCA Women’sEmpowerment Center at Mid City Gardens but also after-school practice hosted by Big Buddy.

All of which willculminate in the production,“Love Revolution,” at 6p.m. Jan. 29 in the Manship Theatre. Theshow willfeature 11 numbers with students and professional dancers, said Garland Goodwin Wilson, Of Moving Colors’ artistic director

Nobody’sperfect

Though girls from Progress Elementary will take the spotlight to Batiste’s soulful beats, Darby doesn’t expect them to be perfect. She understandsthat they’re not professionals.

But as their instructor and apast company dancer for Of Moving Colors, she knows they need to be aware of where and what to do on stage, and that includes big, bright smiles.

The dancers not only need to translate joy to the audience, but they needtolook like they’re having fun —which isn’ta problem, because their smiles are followed by giggles, and their giggles loosen up their dance steps. Suddenly, the steps come naturally,asdotheir smiles.

“OK, let’stake it from the top,” Darby said.

Later,she’ll rehearsea

second group of Progress Elementary dancers, followed by thethird and youngest group. Each group’sentrance is layered into Batiste’s versesuntil, ﬁnally,all of thegroupsstandonstage as asingle unit.

Afamilyaffair

Wilson saysshe appreciates the family atmosphere that has carried over from KickItOut.

“There are family members dancing together in numbers, and Ilove that, and Ihope their families come to theshow to see them and have agood time,” she said. Alldancers will be dressed out in costumes designedfor each number,and the show will be enhanced by former companymember-turnedchoreographer Carl Rowe, who will restage adance to “Ne me quitte pas.”

“The song’stitle translates to ‘Don’t Touch’ in English, and that’swhathis danceis all about,” Wilson said. “Carl does theentire danceona chair,and he nevertouches theﬂoor.Hedid it at one of ourshows several years ago, andhesaidhe’dnever do it again.”

But, as Rowe quickly learned, never say never

“I beggedhim to bring it back for this show,”Wilson said. “I told him it would be the perfect dancetodo for the kids,because it’s so much fun. So, he agreed.”

As therehearsal begins to wrap up,Wilsonpointsthe kidstothe YWCA’s lobby, wherepizza awaits.After that, Jayden King, Big Buddy’sstrategic initiatives coordinator,will direct them to buses thatwill carry them home.

Kinghas been by Wilson’s

side during theentireprocess, takingcare of all of the logisticsoutside of rehearsals.

Growingthrough BigBuddy

The students in this program areable to learn somethingthey’re interestedwhilealsohavingfun If they don’tenjoy one program,they can try another

“But we’ve had alot of repeat dancersinthis program, and it’sgreattobe able to build theserelationships withthem,” King said. King addedthat“Love Revolution” is a“building block” for theDancing for Big Buddy fundraiser featuringlocal celebrity dancers in April. They’ll use some dance numbersand students from “Love Revolution” for the fundraiser “This is my second year,” King said, “and I’ve seen thesegirls really grow through this program, and that it oneofthe points of this enrichment program to show these students that there are different things they can learnand have fun doing.”

“Love Revoution,” Of Moving Colors’production in partnership withBig Buddy, will be at 6p.m. Jan. 29 at the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St., Baton Rouge. Admission is $26. Visit manshiptheatre.org.

Email RobinMiller at romiller@theadvocate. com.

In 1945, Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton wasamong agroup of captives executed by German soldiers at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.

In 1978, anuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Kosmos 954, plunged through Earth’satmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.

In 1984, Apple Computer began selling its ﬁrst Macintosh model, which boasted abuilt-in 9-inch monochrome display,a clock rate of 8megahertz and 128k of RAM.

In 2003, former Pennsylvania Gov.Tom Ridge wasswornasthe ﬁrst secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security

In 2011, asuicide bomber attacked Moscow’s busiest airport, killing 37 people; Chechen separatists claimed responsibility In 2013, President Barack Obama’sDefense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the lifting of aban on women serving in direct ground combat roles. In 2018, former sports doctor Larry Nassar,who had admitted to molesting some of the United States’ top gymnasts for years under the guise of medical treatment, was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison. In 2023, afarmworker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings in acase of “workplace violence” at two Northern California mushroom farms. It marked the state’sthird masskilling in just over aweek. Today’sbirthdays: Cajun musician DougKershaw is 90. Singer-songwriter Ray Stevens is 87. Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond is 85. Singer Aaron Neville is 85. Physicist Michio Kaku is 79. Actor Daniel Auteuil is 76. Comedian Yakov Smirnoffis75. Actor William Allen Young is 72. Musician Jools Holland is 68. Actor Nastassja Kinski is 65. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Mary Lou Retton is 58. Actor Matthew Lillard is 56. Musician Beth Hart is 54. Actor Ed Helmsis52. Actor-comedian Kristen Schaal is 48. Actor Tatyana Ali is 47. Actor Carrie Coon is 45. Actor and rapper Daveed Diggs is 44.

STAFF PHOTOSByROBIN MILLER

Ayoung dancer practices her routine at the beginning of rehearsalfor Of Moving Colors’

AQUARIUS (Jan.20-Feb. 19) You'll be well on your way to reaching whatever goal you set if you get things done on time. Achance to change your lifestyle, raise your income or invest wisely will offer peace of mind.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) You'll have additional discipline and aunique insight into applying your knowledge and skills toward self-improvement and personal growth.

ARIES(March 21-April 19) Sign up forsomething that moves you, and it will change how you feel about your life. Participatinginanevent that can make adifference to acausedeartoyour heartwill lead to new possibilities.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Youmay want to take abreak.Rethink your strategy, currentworkanddomesticsituation,and considerhowtoimproveyourstatusquo Check into courses, services, grants or incentives.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Youare overdue for apositive change. It'stime to evaluate and redirect your energy into something that inspires you. Recognizewho you can trustand share only with people whooffer sound advice.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Bounce your ideas off someonefamiliar with rules, regulations,protocol or costs, and it will keep youout of trouble.Review your documents and investments to avoid late fees or penalties.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Be your ownadvocate. Step into the spotlight and charm your way into thehearts of everyoneyou

encounter today. Your attitude, gratitude and generosity will make others gravitate toward you. Love andpersonal growth arefavored.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Check out what's going on in your community. Participate in events that offerinsight and seek out introductions that can enhance your life Explore anew hobby.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Alifestyle change will pushyou in apositive direction. Concentrate on healthy living and developingnewskills.Socializingorentertaining will leadtounexpected compliments and gestures. Romanceisfavored.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) How you act, respond to and treat otherswill be key. Honesty will play arole, along with your abilitytoshow compassionand understanding. Refuse to let anger setthe tone forwhat's to come

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Setyour sights on what you can change, not what you can't. Concentrate on how you deal withmoneyand cancel unnecessary subscriptionsandservices.Reviseorupdate your resume.Romance is favored.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Avoid mixing money and emotions. Trying to buy favorsortolift your spirits by making unnecessary purchases will lead to regret. Investinyourself and your future

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

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placingpuzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers The object is to place the numbers1to9inthe emptysquares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains thesame number only once. The difficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Puzzle Answer

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

BY PHILLIPALDER

Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian whois famousfor writing“The Prince,” said, “Ambition is so powerful apassion in the human breast that however high we reach,weare neversatisfied.”

Atthebridgetable,wemustdecidehow high we wishtoreach. In this deal, North opens one diamond, South responds one spade, andNorth raises to three spades (yes, he might bidfour spades). Now South normally has three choices. He can pass with no interest in game. He can raise to four spades. Any other suit bid showsinterest in aslam.

Here, four diamonds is acontrol-bid (cue-bid), usually indicatingthe ace. However, since it is partner’sfirst-bid suit, South might have onlythe diamond king whenhedoes not have the club ace.

(Do not make your first control-bid with ashortage—void or singleton —inpartner’ssecond suit.)

North then control-bid four hearts. (If North-SouthhadbeenusingRomanKeyCard Blackwood, North would have bid fourno-trump.)

This allowed South to use Blackwood twice before jumping to seven spades.

(Yes, Southmight have bid seven notrump.) West leads the club queen. After winning trick onewith hisking, South cashes the spade ace, getting thebad news. Nowhecrosses to dummy’s club ace andplays the spadenine, capturing East’s 10 with his king. Back to the board with aheart,another spade through East picks up his trumps and allows declarer to claim. ©2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By AndrewsMcMeel Syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. Forexample:

YEsTERDAY’s WoRD —MEMoRIZED

thought “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of asound mind.”2Timothy 1:7

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles