The Times-Picayune 02-16-2026 by The Advocate

ROLL CALL

ABOVE: Mardi Gras artmimics life as former Saints quarterback Drew Brees, left, looks likethe float statue that he wasriding nexttoduring the Krewe of Bacchus parade in NewOrleans on Sunday

LEFT: The Krewe of Athena rolls with700 members on 26 floats along Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie on Sunday to the theme ‘It’sAbout Time.’

STAFF PHOTO By DAVIDGRUNFELD

U.S. Senate,5th District contests reveal party’s weakness in state

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

Republicans are ﬁelding candidates with winning records at the ballotbox forthe U.S. Senate and the 5th Congressional District, the two marquee political races this year Louisiana’sDemocrats? Not at all. It’sthe latest sign of Democrats’ weakness in theBayou State, where Republicans hold all the statewide elected ofﬁces and two-thirds of the seatsinthe state House and Senate.

Former Gov.John Bel Edwards, state Sen. Jay Luneau,state Sen. Gary Carter, former U.S. Rep.Chris Johnand former Senate candidate Luke Mixonall took a pass when Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Randal Gaines asked them to consider running forthe U.S. Senate seat. The three-dayqualifying periodfor this year’selections ended Friday Gaines also couldn’trecruit state Sen. Katrina Jackson of Monroe to runfor the 5thCongressional District, which stretches from Baton Rouge to Monroe. Jackson said that, after praying on it, she decided it didn’tpresent agood opportunity forher “They are worried about risking their political capital on arace that won’t produce alikelywin,” Gaines said Friday.“We can’t coerce anyone to run.”

ä See RACES, page 5A

BY MISSY WILKINSON Staff writer

Camerasnow recordinginLa. specialedclasses Statefunds helped schools installdevices

BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

Cameras willnow record what happens in special education classroomsinpublic schools across Louisiana underanew law meant to protect

students with disabilities that required thecameras to start rolling this month. Act 479, which the stateLegislature passed in 2025, requires public schools to put at least one cameraineach classroom wheremoststudentsreceive special educationservicesfor at least halfofthe day.Feb. 1 was the deadlinefor school districts to install the devices Families will be able to request footage if they believe

their child has beenabusedor neglected while in the school’s care. Thepush for classroom cameras began after aSt. Tammany Parishparent said her nonverbal 5-year-old son was verbally andphysicallyabusedbyschool staffers Thefamily sued theschool district and worked with lawmakerstointroduce legislation in 2022 requiring districts to install cameras in special edu-

cation classroomsifa parent requested them.

However,someparents said their requests were denied or schools took longer to respond than the legislationallowed, said Ashley McReynolds, programdirector at The Arc of Louisiana,anorganization that advocates for people with disabilities.

Now, the newlaw requires

ä See CAMERAS, page 6A

Before dawn on Jan. 22, ayoung man was standing outside in Village de l’Est when a juvenile approached from behind and shot him multiple times in theback,New Orleans police said The young suspect woreanelectronic anklemonitor issued by the Office of Juvenile Justice, but the battery haddiedfour days earlier,said Matt Dennis, aveteran New Orleansbailbondsmanwho saidhe helped police in the case. It’suncertain if the judge who assigned the ankle monitor had been notified it was deactivated. The juvenile suspect was arrested six days later on acount of aggravated battery,according to aNew Orleans PoliceDepartmentspokesperson who would not confirm his name or information about an ankle monitor

See PROBE, page 7A

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

BACCHUS: Actor Patrick Warburton reigns as Bacchus LVII on Sunday as the krewe celebrates America’s250th birthday.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

U.S. military boards

another oil tanker

WASHINGTON U.S. military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Sunday Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil for several years relying on a shadow ﬂeet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains.

President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure then-President Nicolás Maduro before Maduro was apprehended in January during an American military operation.

Several tankers ﬂed the Venezuelan coast in the wake of the raid, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight. The Defense Department said in a post on X that U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III, conducting “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.”

“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine hoping to slip away,” the Pentagon said. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down.”

Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. troops boarding the tanker The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged vessel under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Panama Maritime Authority said Sunday in a brief statement that the ship was no longer registered there and had been canceled in December 2024.

The Veronica III left Venezuela on Jan. 3, the same day as Maduro’s capture, with nearly 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil, TankerTrackers.com posted Sunday on X.

Trump: Board of Peace to unveil Gaza pledges

WEST PALM BEACH,Fla.— President

Donald Trump said Sunday that members of his newly created Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding warravaged Gaza and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory

The pledges will be formally announced when board members gather in Washington on Thursday for their ﬁrst meeting, he said.

“The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History, and it is my honor to serve as its Chairman,” Trump said in a social media posting announcing the pledges.

He did not detail which member nations were making the pledges for reconstruction or would contribute personnel to the stabilization force. But Indonesia’s military said Sunday that up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission It’s the ﬁrst firm commitment that the Republican president has received.

Brazilian town throws Carnival mud party

PARATY, Brazil Revelers heading to Carnival parties in Brazil typically don colorful, skimpy outﬁts and splatter glitter everywhere, but near an old colonial town in the south of the country people cover themselves in something very different — mud

Partakers in this unusual Carnival party in Paraty drape gray sludge on themselves and roll around in the silty shallows of a beach, forming a uniﬁed mass.

“Everyone is kind of the same. Those who have money and those who don’t: everyone comes here to jump into the mud,” said Charles Garcia Pessoa, a 37-yearold entrepreneur Under a blazing sun, the mudcovered partygoers danced and grunted cavemen chants

“Uga! Uga!” — while marching along the sand, accompanied by musicians.

The tradition started in 1986, according to Paraty’s tourism site. Friends were playing in the mangroves at Jabaquara Beach, and realized they weren’t recognizable. They went strolling into the city’s historic center and caused a stir

FBI eyes glove found near Guthrie’s home

Authorities say DNA matches that from masked person

BY JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press

A glove containing DNA found about 2 miles from the house of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother appears to match those worn by a masked person outside her front door in Tucson the night she vanished, the FBI said Sunday The glove, discovered in a field beside a road, was sent for DNA testing. The FBI said in a statement that it received preliminary results Saturday and was awaiting official confirmation. The development comes as law enforcement gathers more potential evidence as the search for Guthrie’s mother heads into its third week. Authorities had previously said they had not identified a suspect.

On Sunday night, Guthrie posted an Instagram video in which she issued an appeal to whoever abducted her mother or anyone who knows where she is being kept. “It is never too late to do the right thing,” Guthrie said. “And we are here. And we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, that it’s never too late.”

Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Arizona home on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities say her blood was found on the front porch Purported ransom notes were sent to news outlets, but two deadlines for pay-

ing have passed.

The discovery was revealed days after investigators had released surveillance videos of the masked person outside Guthrie’s front door A porch camera recorded video of a person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, jacket and gloves.

On Thursday, the FBI called the person a suspect. It described him as a man about 5 feet, 9 inches tall with a medium build. The agency said he was carrying a 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.

Late Friday night, law enforcement agents sealed off a road about 2 miles from Guthrie’s home as part of their investigation A series of sheriff’s and FBI vehicles, including forensics vehicles, passed through the roadblock.

The investigators also tagged and towed a Range Rover SUV from a nearby restaurant parking lot late Friday The sheriff’s department later said the activity was part of the Guthrie investigation but no arrests were made.

On Tuesday, sheriff deputies detained a person for questioning during a traffic stop south of Tucson. Authorities didn’t say what led them to stop the man but conﬁrmed he was released. The same day deputies and FBI agents conducted a court-authorized search in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive south of the city.

Authorities have expressed concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health because she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

Storm system sweeps across southeastern U.S.

Northeast gets reprieve from bitter cold

By The Associated Press

ATLANTA A weekend storm system

sweeping across the Southeast brought tornado warnings to Mississippi and Louisiana, and then took aim at parts of Georgia and Florida, as people in the Northeast were ﬁnally getting a reprieve from weeks of bitterly cold temperatures.

Some of the fiercest weather in the South was reported near Lake Charles, where high winds from a thunderstorm overturned a horse trailer and a Mardi Gras ﬂoat, damaged an airport jet bridge and ﬂung the metal awning from a house into power lines. The damage was documented by National Weather Service employees who surveyed the area.

Power poles were snapped and toppled near Jena, Cheneyville and Donaldsonville, the weather service reported.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but the damage reports came as the storm system continued into parts of south Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, which were under tornado watches on Sunday.

The storms led to some power outages across southern states, but nowhere near the massive number of outages caused by ice storms late last month in northern Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee. By Sunday evening, a few thousand customers were still without electricity in Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky and Virginia, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide

Meanwhile, the Northeast was beginning to thaw after a weekslong stretch of uncommonly cold weather

Boston was running nearly 7 degrees below average for February last week, and the city was on pace for its coldest winter in more than a decade. Boston re-

mained cold on Sunday but this week’s forecast called for temperatures climbing into the high 30s and low 40s, which is closer to the seasonal average.

On the West Coast, much of California braced for a powerful winter storm that was expected to bring drenching thunderstorms, damaging winds and heavy snow in mountain areas. Jacob Spender a weather service meteorologist in Sacramento, urged people to take precautions in the coming days.

“So if they are traveling, packing winter safety kits. Anything to be prepared. This is a bigger system, and a major system,” Spender said.

Rain that began Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area was forecast to intensify throughout the day and overnight, bringing the risk of ﬂooding. Forecasters said the Sierra Nevada, including ski resorts around Lake Tahoe could see up to seven feet of snow before the storm moves through late Wednesday

To the south, Los Angeles area residents in some neighborhoods scarred by last year’s devastating wildﬁres were under an evacuation warning through Tuesday because of the potential for mud and debris ﬂows. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she’s ordered emergency crews and city departments to prepare to respond to any problems.

Homan: ‘Small’ security force to stay in Minn.

Border czar says more immigration agents to depart Twin Cities

BY BEN FINLEY Associated Press

WASHINGTON White House border czar Tom Homan

said Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota’s Twin Cities area and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead as part of the Trump administration’s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge.

A “small” security force will stay for a short period to protect remaining immigration agents and will respond “when our agents are out and they get surrounded by agitators and things got out of control,” Homan told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He did not deﬁne “small.” He also said agents will keep investigating fraud allegations as well as the anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a church service.

“We already removed well over 1,000 people, and as of Monday Tuesday, we’ll remove several hundred more,” Homan said. “We’ll get back to the original footprint.”

Thousands of officers were sent to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area for U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Operation Metro Surge.” The Department of Homeland Security said it was its largest immigration enforcement operation ever and proved successful. But the crackdown came under increasing criticism as the situation grew more volatile and two U.S. citizens were killed.

Protests became common. A network of residents worked to help immigrants, warn of approaching agents or film immigration officers’ actions. The shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers drew condemnation and raised questions over officers’ conduct, prompting changes to the operation. Homan announced last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but that still left more than 2,000 in the state. He said Thursday that a “significant drawdown” was already underway and would continue through this week. Homan said enforcement would not stop in the Twin Cities and that mass deportations will continue across the country Officers leaving Minnesota will report back to their stations or be assigned elsewhere. When asked if future deployments could match the scale of the Twin Cities operation, Homan said “it depends on the situation.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By Ty ONEIL

Pima County sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents work Saturday on a Range Rover in a Culver’s parking lot in Tucson, Ariz., as the search continues for ‘Today’ show host

Savannah Guthrie’s mother

STAR TRIBUNE PHOTO By LEILA NAVIDI

White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference Thursday at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis.

CAMPBELL

Iraniandiplomattoattend‘indirect’talks with U.S.

Statemedia says meeting to be held in Geneva

By The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— Iran’stop diplomat was traveling Sunday from Tehran to Geneva, where the second round of nuclearnegotiations with the U.S. will take place,Iranianstate media reported.

Foreign MinisterAbbas Araghchi and his delegation left forthe Swisscityafter the first round of indirect talks took place in Oman last week. Oman will mediate the talks in Geneva, the IRNA state-run news agency reported on its Telegram channel.

Similar talks last year broke down after Israel launched what became a12day war on Iran, that included the U.S. bombing Iranian nuclear sites.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened

to useforce to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclearprogram. Iran hassaid it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump has also threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests. GulfArab countrieshave warned that anyattack could spiral into anotherregional conﬂict

TheTrumpadministration hasmaintainedthatIrancan have no uranium enrichment under any detail, whichTehransaysitwill notagreeto.

Iran continues to insist that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but ofﬁcials however haveincreasingly threatened to pursue a nuclear weapon. Beforethe war in June, Iran had been enriching uranium upto60% purity,justashort technical stepawayfrom weaponsgrade levels.

Araghchi is also expected to meet with his Swiss and Omani counterparts, as well as thedirectorgeneral of the U.N.’satomic watchdog, the International Atomic En-

ergy Agency

Earlier on Sunday,U.S. Secretary of State MarcoRubio saidWashingtonremains interested in adiplomatic solutiontoending itsdifferences with Tehran, and that President Trump’senvoys Steve Witkoffand JaredKushner were currently travelingfor

the new round of talks.

Trump said Friday the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier,was being sent from the Caribbean to theMideasttojoin other militaryassets theU.S. has built up in theregion. He also said achange in power in Iran “would be the best

thing that could happen.”

Rubiosaid recent military deployments in the Middle East were aprotective measure aimed at shoring up the defenses of U.S. facilities and interests. Iran has threatened to attack U.S. bases in the region if Washington decidestostrike.Tehran in

June attacked the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar,though no American or Qatari personnel were harmed.

“No one’sbeen able to do asuccessful deal with Iran, but we’re gonna try,” said Rubio at anewsconference after meeting withSlovakian PrimeMinister Robert Fico in Bratislava. “Weare focused on negotiations.” Trump in recentweekshas suggested that his priority is forIran to scale back its nuclear program, while Iran has said it wants talks to solely focus on the nuclear program.But Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier this week met with Trumpin Washington, has been pressing foradeal that would neutralize Iran’sballistic missile program and end its funding forproxy groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and HezbollahinLebanon. The Israeliprimeminister said in aspeech Sundaythat anydeal between theU.S and Iran must make sure that “all enriched material has to leave Iran.”

Ukrainiandrone strike sparks firesatRussian BlackSea port

By The Associated Press

AUkrainian drone strike ignitedfires at oneofRussia’sBlack Sea ports, ofﬁcials said Sunday,ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war Twopeople werewounded in the attack on the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, whichdamaged an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals, accordingto

regionalGov.VeniaminKondratyev.

Meanwhile, falling debris fromRussian drones damaged civilian and transport infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, ofﬁcials said, causing disruption to the powerand water supply. Ukraine’slong-range drone strikes on Russian energy sitesaim to deprive Moscow of theoil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale

invasion. Russia wantsto cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat,light and running water in what Kyiv ofﬁcials say is an attemptto “weaponizewinter.”

The attacks came ahead of another round of U.S.-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday andWednesday in Geneva, just before the fourthanniversary of the all-

out Russianinvasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24. Speaking at the Munich SecurityConference in Germany on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested there were still questionsremaining over future security guarantees forhis country. Zelenskyy also questioned howthe concept of afree trade zone —proposedby the U.S. —would work in the

Donbas region, whichRussia insists Kyiv must give up forpeace. He said the Americans want peace as quickly as possible andthatthe U.S. team wants to sign all the agreements on Ukraineat the same time, whereas Ukraine wants guarantees forthe country’sfuture security signed ﬁrst.

Zelenskyy’sconcerns wereechoed by Sen. Jeanne

Shaheen, aranking member of theU.S.SenateForeign Relations Committee. “Unless we have real security guarantees on whatever peace agreement is ultimately determined, we are going to be here again, because oneofthe things we know is that Russia hasgeared up notjust for Ukraine, but to go beyond Ukraine,” she told reporters in Munich on Sunday

Indian Health Servicetophase outuse of fillings containing mercury

BY GRAHAM LEE BREWER and SAVANNAH PETERS Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE,N.M. The federal agency that provides healthcare to Native Americans and Alaska Natives has announced it will phase out the use of dental ﬁllings containing mercury

The Indian Health Service has used fillings, known as dental amalgams, that contain elemental mercuryto

treat decayedand otherwise damaged teeth for decades. NativeAmerican rightsand industryadvocates have called for an end to the practice, arguing it exposes patients who may nothaveaccess to private dentistry to a harmful neurotoxin.

Theuse of mercurycontaining amalgams, also known as “silver fillings” duetotheir appearance, hasdeclinedsharplysince 2009 when the U.S. Foodand

Drug Administration reclassiﬁed the devices from lowto moderate risk.The industry haslargely abandonedthem in favor of plastic resin alternatives, which are also preferred for aesthetic reasons

TheIndian Health Service says it will fully implement the move to mercury-free alternatives by 2027.Already, thepercentage of the Indian Health Service’sroughly2.8 million patient user population receivingthem hasde-

clined from 12% in 2005 to 2% in 2023, the latestyear of available data, agency documentsshow.

TheU.S.Departmentof

Health and Human Services, whichoversees IHS, said growing environmental and health concerns aboutmercury exposure, and global

efforts to reduce materials containing the hazardousheavymetal prompted thechange announced this month.

BY RYAN PEARSON and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press

LOS ANGELES Casey Wasserman, the chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee,is selling his eponymoustalent agency in the wakeof the release of emails between himselfand Ghislaine Maxwell. Wasserman’s emailswith Maxwell were revealedby his appearance in recently released governmentfiles

on Jeffrey Epstein. Wasserman, whose agency represents someofthe toppop music artists in the world, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The recentlyreleased documentsrevealed that in 2003 he swapped ﬂirtatious emails with Maxwell, who would years later beaccused of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse his victims.Wasserman said in aFriday evening memo to hisstaff that he has begun the process of sellingthe

company,according to a companyspokespersonwho provided the memo to The Associated Press.

Wasserman’s memo to staff saidthat he felt he had become adistraction to the company’swork.

“During this time, Mike Watts will assume day-today control of the business while Idevote my full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city,” thememo stated

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByVAHID SALEMI

Acleric and other people attend an annual rally marking the 1979 Islamic Revolution on WednesdayinTehran, Iran.

LETTHE GOOD TIMESROLL

BACCHUS:

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

STAFFPHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

BACCHUS: The Bacchagator float heads up Napoleon Avenue during the KreweofBacchus parade in NewOrleans on Sunday.

STAFFPHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

ATHENA:

STAFFPHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

ATHENA: TThe KreweofAthena rolls with 26 floats to the theme ‘It’s About Time’ along Veterans Memorial Boulevard in MetairieonSunday.

STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

OKEANOS: The Krewe of Okeanos rolls down Magazine Street on Sunday

STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

OKEANOS: The crowdreaches for throws during the parade on Magazine Street.

CHEDIAK

Hospital’s civilian security disputeescalates in Gaza

BY SAMY MAGDY and MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press

CAIRO— One of Gaza’slast func-

tioning large hospitals condemned the decision by DoctorsWithout Borders to pull out of operations over concerns about armed men, claiming on Sunday that the facility had installed civilian police for security The rare public friction between two well-known health careprovid-

RACES

Continued from page1A

Meanwhile, Republicans aresufferingfromanembarrassment of riches that is already turningthe Senateand 5thCongressional District races into intraparty slugfests.

U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow,R-BatonRouge, and state Treasurer JohnFleming are challenging Sen. Bill Cassidy,R-Baton Rouge, in the May 16 Republican primary Fleming is attacking Letlow and Cassidy as not being conservative enough, while Cassidy is calling Letlow “a liberal.” She is highlighting the fact thatshe has President Donald Trump’s endorsement, and they don’t.

ersinGaza came as the Palestinian death toll sincethe current ceaseﬁre surpassed600. At least 11 Palestinians were killedbyIsraeli ﬁre in the last 24 hours, hospitals said. Doctors Without Borders, also known by its acronymMSF,said in astatement Saturday that allits noncritical medical operationsat NasserHospital weresuspended due to security breaches thatposed “serious” threatstoits teams and patients.MSF said there hadbeen an increase in patients and staff

seeing armed men in partsofthe compound since the U.S.-brokered Octoberceaseﬁre was reached.

Nasser HospitalsaidSundaythe increase in armed men was due to acivilian police presence aimed at protectingpatients andstaffand said MSF’s “allegations arefactually incorrect, irresponsible andpose a serious risk to aprotected civilian medical facility.”

Hundreds of patients andwarwoundedhavebeentreated daily at Nasser Hospital in the southern

cityofKhan Younis,and thefacility wasa hub for Palestinianprisoners released by Israel in exchange for Israelihostages as part of the current ceaseﬁre deal MSF said its teams had reported “a patternofunacceptable acts including the presence of armed men, intimidation,arbitraryarrests of patients andarecent situation of suspicion of movementofweapons.” The suspension occurred in January but wasonly recently announced. Nasser Hospital staff say that in

recent months it hasbeen repeatedly attacked by masked, armed menand militias, which is why the presenceofanarmedcivilianpolice force is crucial Hamas remains the dominant force in areas of Gaza not under Israeli control, including the area where Nasser Hospital is located But other armed groups have mushroomed as aresult of the war, including groups backed by Israel’s army in theIsraeli-controlledpart of thestrip.

teers of America inNew Orleans; Jamie Davis, afarmer in northeastLouisianawho served oneterm on theTensas Parish Police Jury; and Gary Crockett, abusiness executive of New Orleans.

The5th Congressional District Democrat candidates are: Jessee Fleenor of Loranger,Larry Foy of Winnsboro, Lindsay “Rubia”Garcia of Walker,Dan McKay of Bunkie and Tania Nyman of Baton Rouge.

Letlow is vacating her 5th Congressional District seatto challenge Cassidy In the race to replace her,two Republican legislators —state Sen. RickEdmonds of Baton Rouge and state Rep. Michael Echols of Monroe —are hammering a third legislator,state Sen. Blake Miguez of Erath, for living about 100miles outside of the district’s boundaries. Candidates can runfor congressional seats even if they don’tlive insidethe district. Miguez is emphasizinghis endorsement by Trump. Another Republican candidate, Misti Cordell,ahealth care consultant in Monroe andchairof the stateBoard of Regents who is personally close to Gov Jeff Landry and his wife Sharon, sniped at Miguez, but at alowervolume than the others.

Little-known candidates

No one is attacking the Democratic candidatesin the Senate and 5th Congressional District racesbecause they aren’trelevantenough —and might neverbe.

TheDemocratic Senate candidates are: Nick Albares, aformer aide to Edwards who has worked most recently as vice presidentof strategic affairs for Volun-

Fleenor reflects the Democrats’ predicament.

Wearing rubber boots while talking to reporters after qualifying Wednesday,Fleenor seemed like he couldbea Democrat who could connect withrural voterswho have deserted the party. He emphasized hiswork as afarmer,blasted Trump for his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and said the taxcuts passed last year by Trumpand Congress favor the wealthy But in an interview afterward, Fleenor acknowledged he is little known in the districtand hasn’t raisedmuchmoney for the campaign.

Al bares, who filed on Friday to run, said he understands that he will be viewed as along shot but felt acalling to run nonetheless.

“I am acandidate who focuses on solutions forLouisiana and proximity to the people in Louisiana and nottoout-ofstate politicians,” Albaressaid. He was referring to Trump, who instantly made Letlow and Miguez viable candidatesbyendorsing them.

“Wehave to do something about affordability for housing, insurance and everyday goods.”

Yearsofebbinginfluence

After the end of the postCivil WarReconstruction Era, whenRepublicans briefly held power,Democrats held sway over Louisiana for decades.

Not until 1979 didLouisianaelect another Republican governor,David Treen.

TwomoreRepublicans had been elected governor,Mike Foster and Bobby Jindal, by thetime Republicans gained amajority of seats in theLouisiana Legislature in 2010.

In 2023, Republicans easily won all seven statewide elected offices and won a two-thirds majority in both the stateHouse and Senate for the first time since the 19th century Together,the Republican lawmakers have cutincome tax rates, eliminated antipollution regulations that industrial ﬁrms said sapped investment, strengthened anti-abortion laws,mandated longersentences forinmates and weakened procedures thatpromote diversity,equityand inclusion.

Other than Edwards’victories as governorin2015 and 2019, no Democrat has won astatewide election in Louisiana sincethen-U.S.Sen. Mary Landrieu won reelection in 2008.

Louisiana has twoBlack Democrats in Congress, U.S. Rep. Troy Carter of New Orleansand U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields of BatonRouge. Both arerunning forreelection, withlittle opposition, rather than running for the Senate seat.

In Louisiana,and indeed throughout the South, White voters have desertedthe Democratic Party.Almost two-thirds of Democratsin Louisiana today are Black voters, according to statistics compiled by John Couvillon, aBaton Rouge-based pollster anddemographer

No Black candidate has won astatewide election in Louisiana sinceReconstruction

“Democrats areaparty that has adesperate need for rebuildingand to distinguish itself from theparty’s national culture wars,” said Pearson Cross,a political science professoratthe University of LouisianaatMonroe.

‘A long-termstrategy’

Gaines said he is rebuilding theparty by undertaking adrive to register young voters as Democrats, training Democrats to run forlower ofﬁces to build abench for higher ofﬁces and establishing chapters of College Democrats on campuses.

“The party’singreat shape in building for the future,” Gaines said. “We’re engaged in along-term strategy.”

Gainesnoted that Chasity Verret Martinez, aDemocrat, just wona specialelection by defeatingher Republican opponent, 62%-38%,

to represent Ibervilleand part of AssumptionParish in stateHouse District 60 Trump won that district by 13 points in 2024.

Democratsstill can count on theorganizing efforts of suchgroups as the Power Coalition for Equity andJustice, Louisiana Progress and the NAACP that worked to

get Black people in particulartovoteinthe race that Martinez won. It hadthe highest turnout of any of the ﬁve legislativeraces on the ballot that day

“Wephone banked and visited Blackchurches, barber shopsand grocery stores,” said Lady Carlson, alead organizerwiththe Westside

Sponsoring Committee. She noted that progressive groups played arole in organizingvoterstodefeatfour constitutional amendments sought by Landry in March. It wasthe governor’sbiggest political defeat.

“Politics is about timing and opportunity,” Gaines said.

Letlow

Fleming

Cassidy

Edmonds

Echols

Miguez

cameras in all special education classrooms, regardless of whether parents request them.

“There was no reason for districts to be denying parental requests,” McReynolds said, “so we came back with asolid mandate.”

Schools have hadsinceJuneto put up the cameras. They were able to tap $8 million in state funds provided by the 2022 law

Even before the new law passed, some districts already had taken the initiative to place cameras in every special educationclassroom, even without parentalrequests, McReynolds said. Others just recently completed the installations. Around1,600 classrooms across the state were expectedto need the devices.

JeffersonParishschoolsspent

$4 million installing cameras in 300 of its classrooms, adistrict spokesperson toldVerite News.

New Orleans spent $514,000on cameras throughout its 66 charter schools, aNOLA Public Schools spokesperson said What thelaw requires

All Louisiana public schools, including charter schools, must install at least one microphoneequipped camera in every special educationclassroomthatisrequiredtoberecordingatall times.

Each district must establish its own camera policies, including howtoprotect students’ privacy and who can accessthe recording and under what circumstances.

School systems must submit their policies to the stateEducation Department.

The law prohibits cameras from being placed inside restrooms or any areas where students may change or removeclothing.

Schools are required to hold onto thefootagefor 30 days, andadministrators must let parents knowif acamera is expected to be out of commission for more than two consecutivedays.

Thelaw doesn’t require that the cameras be constantly monitored, but says each school’sprincipal or other governing authority must “verifyperiodically” thatthe cameras are working.

Usingfootage

Only superintendents or their designees, astudent’s legal guardianorlaw enforcementcan request to view recordings.

School districtsget to determine underwhatcircumstances parents can request the footage. Forexample in Plaquemines Parish,eligible parties can ask tosee the footage when they suspect astudent has been neglected or abused, physically or sexually,including by a district employee.

Anyone who watches the footage and suspects it shows violations of state or federal law is requiredto report the incident to the appropriate agency Without actually sharingthe footagewith staff members, school administrators could potentially incorporate lessons learned

Incident reports

The lawgoes far beyond requiring classroom cameras. It also mandates that school employees file detailed incident reports whenever achild with disabilities is restrained, bans the use of “mechanical restraints” such as straps andhandcuffs, andrequires that aschool nurseorother qualiﬁed employee visit with any student whohas been secluded.

School staffers also must be trainedinhow to de-escalate conflicts, determine when students areatrisk of harming themselves or others and how to safely restrain students.

from recorded incidents into staff training, McReynolds said. Cameras “open up an opportunity for education andadditional professional developmentaround de-escalation techniques and behaviorinterventionstrategies, she said.

StateRep.Shane Mack,R-Livingston, whoauthored the bill, said the aim is to ensure that there are “good policies and procedures” in place to protect some of Louisiana’smost vulnerable students.

“As aparent,”hesaid, “youjust love your children morethan anything in life and want what’sbest for them.”

PartialgovernmentshutdownoverDHS fundingcontinues

BY AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Lawmak-

ers and the WhiteHouseoffered no signs of compromise Sunday in their battle over oversight of federal immigration ofﬁcers that has led to apause in funding for the Department of Homeland Security Apartial government shutdown beganSaturday after congressional Democrats andPresident Donald Trump’steamfailedto reach adeal on legislation to fund the department through September.Democrats are demanding changes to how immigrationoperations areconducted afterthe fatal shootings of U.S.citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers in Minneapolis

PROBE

Continued from page1A

Theincident is among several that havecasta harsh spotlight on Juvenile Court in New Orleans, where its four judges now sit in the crosshairs for whatcritics describe as aslipshod ankle monitor program plagued by violent outcomes.

This month, Attorney General Liz Murrill turnedupthe heat, askingthe Louisiana Judiciary Commission to investigate Judge Candice Bates-Anderson for her“actions(or inaction)” regarding two juveniles, later tiedtohigh-proﬁle killings, who were assigned ankle monitors thatweren’tbeing tracked.

last month. Congress is onrecess until Feb. 23, and both sides appear dug into their positions. The impasse affects agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, theFederal Emergency Management Agency,U.S. Coast Guard,the Secret Service, U.S. Immigrationand Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

was unwilling to agree to Democrats’ demands that federal officersclearly identify themselves, remove masks during operations and display unique ID numbers.

“I don’tlike themasks, either,” Homansaid, But, he said, “These men and women have to protect themselves.

not crazy. They’re not way out. They’re what every policedepartment in America does.”

Thework at ICEand CBPgoes on unabated because Trump’stax and spending cut law from 2025 provided billionsmoretothose agencies that can be tappedfor deportation operations. About 90% of DHS employees were to continue working during theshutdown, but do so withoutpay —and missed paychecks could mean financial hardships. Last year there was a record 43-day government shutdown.

White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration

request for comment about Murrill’scomplaint to the commission, which can recommend discipline to the Louisiana Supreme Courtup to removal from the bench.

Murrill’sFeb. 4complaint goes beyond Bates-Anderson, asking the commission to investigate all four Juvenile Court judges. It’sthe latest salvo in aﬁght Murrill has waged since 2024 over enforcement of aprogram meant as an alternative to detention for young offenders.

Criticism has followed whoever has run ankle monitoring programs in the city, fromthe Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office to private vendors and now the state. But the brunt of it has fallen on the Juvenile Court judges who are responsiblefor keeping track of violators and deciding what to do with violators.

“The Supreme Court should address this situation,” Murrill said. “It’sextraordinarily frustrating that people continue to be injured and killed because of juvenile court judges putting individuals with violent charges in ankle monitors then inadequately supervisingthem. It’saﬁxable problem, andthe Courthas the ability to ﬁx it.”

‘Glaring noncompliance’

The Juvenile Court judges did not respond to an email

In her two-page complaint, Murrill cites the2024 slaying of Jacob Carter, the owner of abagel shop in Tacoma, Washington, who was shot in the chestduring an armed robbery.MalikCornelius, who later pleaded guilty,was 16at thetime and had been noncompliant with his electronic monitoring for months, recordsshow A105-page report of GPS data gathered formore than three months leadinguptoJan. 5, 2024, shows Cornelius missed more than 90 check-ins. He also stayed out overnight everynight leading up to Carter’smurder,according to thereport bythe monitoringﬁrm RePath But Murrill wrote that the court’scontract with RePath had expired, so no one was actuallymonitoring Cornelius or others.

“It is glaring, the noncompliance,” said Isaac Carter, JacobCarter’sbrother,of what the records revealed “When youhave a16-yearold,it is not just on him that he did this. This implicates so many other people.”

Murrill’scomplaint cites arecordssearchbyformer Orleans Parish prosecutor Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue that founda differentkind of lapse related to electronic monitors.

KevinNunez, who plead-

Democrats also want to require immigrationagentstowear body cameras andmandate judicial warrantsfor arrestson privateproperty.

Senate Minority Leader ChuckSchumer, D-N.Y. saidDemocrats are only asking for federal agents to abide by rules followed by law enforcement agencies around the country

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, ROkla., said he could back Democratscalls to equip immigration officers with body cameras and would support efforts to bolster training.But he balked at their demands that federal ofﬁcers removemasks and clearly identify themselves, noting some ofﬁcers taking part in immigration enforcement operationshave faced doxing andother harassment.

“And thequestion that Americansare asking is, ‘Why aren’t Republicansgoing along withthese commonsense proposals?’ ”Schumer said. “They’re

ed guilty to manslaughter in the June 2024 killing of French Quarter tourguide Kristi Thibodeaux, had deactivatedanankle monitor ordered by Bates-Anderson by lettingthe battery die.

“Judge Bates-Anderson allowed twojuveniles accused of violent crimes to be released on amonitoring ‘app’ that, due to their noncompliance anda lapsedcontract, was useless,”Murrill wrote in her complaint.

“At the very least she had adutytoreview the reports, ensure the system she ordered wasoperational, and administerconsequences for noncompliance. This apparent failureled to two murders.”

A flawed system

Murrill wrote thatshe’d met withthe judgesbut they “refused to discuss particular instances of wherethey failed to monitor juveniles who later committed murderorengagedinother violent acts.”

She asked the commission to review the system and offered up Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams as awitness to “his struggleswithreceiving information about juveniles facing serious charges.”

In an interviewThursday, Williamssaidhis ofﬁcereceivesalerts of violations inconsistently,through a patchwork of local and state courts and juvenile justice agencies that issue electronic monitors.Williams said he supports Murrill’scall for greater accountability

“There are probably as manygaps (in the juvenile

“Whatare yougoing to do, expose theirfaces so youcan intimidate their families?”Mullins said.

“What we want is ICE to be able to do their job. And we would love for local law enforcement and for states to cooperate with us.”

Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, aTrumpally who had pushed for atwo-week extension of DHS funding while negotia-

monitoring system) as there areankle monitorsout in the community right now. It is notastrong system,” Williams said.

As it stands, thatsystem “really suggests alevel of …publicsafety that’snot there,” he added.

“I almost feel we should put amoratoriumonthe use of electronic monitors until we can correct thatapplication to makesure that there is direct andswift accountability.”

Rodrigue’s research came underarecentstate law loosening public access to juvenile court records.

“Whensomeone commits a heinous murder and they’re 17, the ﬁrst thing you think is, ‘I wonder what theyhad in juvenile court. Could this have been prevented?’” said Rodrigue,the daughterof former Orleans district attorneyLeon Cannizzaro, who now works for Murrill.

“Someone wasn’t doing theirjob. The first instinct

tions continued, said it was “shortsighted of Democrats to walk away” from talks. Trumpmade enforcement of the nation’simmigrationlawsacenterpiece of his 2024 campaign for the White House and he promised to be aggressive in detaining and deporting people living in the United States without legal permission. DHS reports it has deported morethan675,000 migrantssince Trump’sreturn to ofﬁce last year and claims some2.2 million others have “self-deported” as the Republican president hasmadehis immigration crackdown apriority “President Trump is notgoing to back awayfromthe mission, the mission that American people said they wanted him to complete, and that is securing our border and making sure that we actually do interior enforcement,” Britt said. Homan was on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Schumer and Mullin appeared on CNN’s“State of the Union” and Britt was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday.”

is to blame the parents. But the system plays amuch bigger role than the parents do sometimes.”

In response to apublic records request fromthe newspaper,the Juvenile Court’s judicial administrator, Yolanda Johnson, saidthe Ofﬁceof Juvenile Justice is currently “the only entity that performs electronic monitoring in juvenile matters for this court” aftertakingoverin the latter part of 2025.

Aspokespersonfor the state ofﬁce did not immediatelyreturn arequest for commentregarding theOrleansParish electronic monitoring program or the status of the juvenile suspect in the Village de l’Est shooting.

While the victim in the Village de l’Est shooting has been discharged from the hospital, Dennis said the cracksinthe monitoring system are bound to be ﬁlled with more street violence.

Aspokesperson for Mayor Helena Moreno’sadminis-

tration did not immediately respond to questions about Murrill’scomplaintorthe current state of the ankle monitoring program in Juvenile Court.

The city also did notrespond to questions about a$2million pilot program for “real-time” monitoring that Moreno helped set up last spring as aCity Council member.

More than two years after his brother’smurder,Isaac Carter mourns the “beautiful soul” taken toosoon and grappleswiththe circumstances that led to Jacob Carter’sdeath.

“He wasthe best of us. It is unacceptabletomethatwe lost him in the waywelost him,” Isaac Carter said.

“I try not to harbor malice to Malik. …Iknow Jacob’s heart, andhewould have been deeplydisappointed in the way Malik was failed.” Staff writer John Simerman contributed to this story.

Murrill

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Dollshanging from floatspark outrage

Tuckskrewe conducting internal investigation

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

After New Orleans ofﬁcials and residents expressed immediate outrage over viral images of darkskinned dolls hanging by their necks on aKrewe of Tucks ﬂoat Saturday,the krewe has apologized and promised an investigation. Avideo sharedonsocial media

Mardi Gras recycling continues to grow

accountsshows aWhite rider on the top deck of aﬂoat grasping a bundle of plastic MardiGras beads with two Black, Barbie-like dolls dangling by their necks. An earlier photo showed one doll, which appeared to be hung by the neck by beads at theedge of aﬂoat. The images drew immediate backlash and reactions related to the South’s history of lynching Black people andviolence against women.

The dolls appeared on aﬂoat titled “Crack Pipe,” that was meant to satirize the city’sever-fragile sewerageand water system. It was believed to be the22nd ﬂoat in the Tucksparade, whichisknownfor itsbawdy bathroom humor,toiletrelated throws and frequent references to cracks. This year’stheme was “Tucks Finally Cracks.”

On Saturday evening, the Krewe of Tuckstooktosocialmedia to

apologize.

“Sinceits inception, the Krewe of Tuckshas been oneofthe most diverse parades in Mardi Gras,” thestatement read. “Weare offended by this behavior and it will not be tolerated.” The responsible riders “will no longer be permitted to have any association with theparade.” Krewe of TucksCaptainLloyd Frischhertz said Sunday he would provide “preliminary reporting on theTucks (internal) investigation on Monday afternoon.”

On Saturday,asimages and video spread on social media, local and state ofﬁcials immediately issued statements condemning the incident,whichseemed to have obvious racist overtones.

“Let me be clear:the displayis deeply offensive, unacceptable, and has no place in our city,” newly electedMayor Helena Moreno saidinastatementSaturday night. “NewOrleansisbuilt on respect, diversity,and inclusion. Actions

Butbudgetdeficittaking atollonfunding

BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer

Lit-up shopping carts and bedazzled soda cans are probably not what comes to mind when you think of trash collection, but strange days call for strange ways And Mardi Gras season, of course, is among the strangest of days. Those unconventional methods arehow the Re-Cyclists Marching Krewe gathered nearly 140pounds of reusable waste during Krewe Bohème this year.Members of environmental groupsand recyclingadvocates donned costumes like Marie Can-toinette and Recyclopseastheyurged paradegoers to hand over their empty cans andbottles.

“Wetry not to encourage them to chug it, but that does happen alot,” said Brett Davis, founding director of thenonprofit Grounds Krewe, which has been on amission to make Mardi Gras greener Grounds Krewe and the Re-Cyclists are part of alarger effort, combined with city help, aiming to put adent in the mountain-sized problem of Mardi Gras waste. They arepressing ahead this year despite the loss of funding duetoabudgeting crisis that Mayor Helena Moreno’snew administration isscrambling to address.

Last year,the 12-day parade period produced over 2.4 million pounds, or over 1,100tons,oftrashsenttothe landﬁll, according to the city.It’salso aproblem for the city’sdrains,with 93,000 pounds of beads foundacross ﬁveblocks in NewOrleans’drainage system in 2018.

Grounds Krewe’s parade marchers —formerly called the Trashformers —playonly asmall role in the organization’sbroader Mardi Gras sustainability initiative, which includes selling sustainable throws and offering recycling stations along the Uptown parade route through a partnership with the cityand other localgroups.

Since 2023, when the RecycleDAT! collaboration began, the impact of the effort has exponentially grown. Last Carnival season, the groups recycled more than 70,000 pounds of parade waste, more than four times the yield of their ﬁrst year

This season was supposed to be even larger,inresponsetothe positive reception of the programs, Davis said, but the city’sbudgetdeficit anddeep staffing cuts to itsclimate office impacted someofthoseplans. TheNew Orleans City Council had allocated $200,000 for this year’s recycling initiative, butnone of those fundswere distributed, confirmed KeristenHolmes,aspokesperson for Moreno. The city’sclimate office

HUNGRy HANDS

BYSTEPHANIERIEGEL Staff writer

The Louisiana Music&HeritageExperience, along-planned museum intended to tellthe story of thestate’smusical genres, has ﬁnalized adeal with global food and beverage companySodexo LIVE! to help fund and operate the attraction, originally envisioned as a“cultural anchor” for the River District.

Underthe termsofthe deal, Sodexo hasbeen awarded acontract to provide food and beverageservices at theNew Orleans museum, including catering the banquets, parties andprivate eventsthat are expected to generate nearly half thefacility’s revenues. In return,the companyhas agreed to frontmoney to the project’snonprofit backersfor planning anddesign. Sodexo declined to disclosethe amount of its investment, but asource familiarwith the deal,who asked for anonymity to share details of theprivatetransaction, said that Sodexo wasputting severalmil-

MID-CITY: Arider holds outarosetoa crowdof outstretched hands on Sundayasthe Krewe of Mid-City rolls with 15 ﬂoats to thetheme‘Lands Far and Beyond.’

CARNIVAL 2026 FOR MORE, NOLA.COM

lion dollarstowardthe museum. While substantial, the ﬁgure is far short of the estimated $170 million cost. The funding commitment from Sodexo is one of several. Others include $28.5 million in construction funding from the Legislature and $16.5 million in pledges towardagoal of $65 million. The museum is also hoping to raise $80 million from abondissuance. The deal is nevertheless asigniﬁcantdevelopment forthe museum, according to Chris Beary, who is leading the project’sefforts. It comes as plans to locate the attraction in theheart of the River District near the Ernest N.

Morial Convention Center are back on the table after falling apart last year

“Weknewweneeded to bring in an international operator to work the food and beverage side of this,” Bearysaid. “Sodexo coming online nowmeansthey will be involved in things like the kitchen design, supply chain design.” Beary said the funding will comeintranches, once certain milestones —like finalizing a lease foralocation —are met In astatement, Sodexo CEO Belinda Oakley said, “Working

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

THOTH: The krewe rolls Sunday with thetheme ‘ThothToons’ along its Uptown route, aunique onedesigned to pass in front of Manning Family Children’sand several extended healthcare facilities in NewOrleans.

DOLLS,

STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

that seek to demean or intimidate any member of our community violate the very spirit of who we are. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Saturday she wouldbeimmediately opening an investigation into the incident, which she characterized as “disgusting, vulgar (and) racist.”

“This conduct is absolutely abhorrent and entirely unacceptable,” Murrill said.“It is deeply disgraceful that anyone whowas privileged to ride in aNew Orleans Mardi Gras parade wouldchoosetostain the entire Krewe and theevent in this manner.”

In an impassioned video posted Saturday night, New Orleans City Council President JP Morrell described the incident as a“hate level crime depiction.” The hanged doll,which may evoke the history of lynching, is amessage targeting people of color in New Orleans, according to Morrell.

New Orleans Carnival, Morrell pointed out in Saturday’svideo, has ahistory of exclusion of non-Whites.

The symbol was “an intentional effort by someone riding on aﬂoat to remind the people of the city —particularly certain people of the city —that Mardi Gras is not for them.”

‘Poorjudgment’

By Sunday afternoon, the Tucks captain said he’d discovered that the Float 22 rider was throwing both Black andWhite Barbie dolls attached to beads. In several social media comments on the krewe’s post, some speculated that the offensivenature of the incident may not have been intentional.

Crystal Valentine Morrison, of Shreveport, who rides in theKrewe of Centaur,pointed out that, as a floatrider,she and others “wrap beads around the

necks of all of ourstuffed animals and hang them from the ﬂoat for attention from the kids to scream for thestuffed throws.”

Another paradegoer,ChelseaJaneBussey, claimed Tucks riders had strung beads on other toys, too. “I watched quite afew stuffed animals, nutcrackers and dolls with beads tiedaround their necks to hand down easier tothe kids,” she wrote ButBusseysaidshe could seehow the photos could be interpreted. “While it’s deﬁnitely poor judgment,” she wrote, “lets give it the benefit of the doubt about intention.”

Rule breaking

The city’sMardi Grasordinance requires that customthrowsbeapproved by the krewe beforehand, though parade management maynot be awareof everything distributedto thecrowds. Violations of theordinancecan leadto official censure and even thewithdrawal of parade permits.

So far this season, there have beentwo krewes accused of violating ordinances.

Forty-one riders on aﬂoat in theCarrollton parade were ejected during the eventfor “aggressively” throwingbeadsatpolice ofﬁcers.

Riders in the Krewe of Freret threw koozies that advertised akrewe-affiliated THCseltzer and includedaQRcode linking to awebsite advocating for thecontinued legalization of such beverages. Both commercial advertising and political advocacy violate the city’s Carnival rules.

Three years ago, the Krewe of Tucks was involved in another incident, when aﬂoat rider directed an obscene gesture at thenMayor LaToya Cantrell, as the paradepassedthe Gallier Halls reviewing stand. Angered, Cantrell returned an extended finger at the rider.The krewe later apologized for theoffense.

Historyofcontroversy

Over the decades, there have been many controversiesover Confederatesymbols used in paradethrows However,considering that there are more than 30 major ﬂoat parades in Orleans Parish, carrying more than 30,000 riders annually, the incidenceofoffensive throws is veryrare.

n In 2025, two members of the Krewe of Thoth were banned for throwing asack of beads emblazoned with purple andgoldConfederate ﬂags to atourist from Tennessee in the Central Business District. Sixyears earlier,aThoth rider was removedfrom the krewe for thesame offense.

n In 2024 in Kenner,a rider in the Isisparade reportedly tossed Confederate ﬂagbeadscaptioned with thewords“Southern Pride,” which were retrieved by a7-year-old.

n Aclump of Confederate ﬂagbeadswere throwninto theGallier Hallstands during theCleopatra parade in 2022.

n In 2019, Confederate beadswere thrown by a rider in thenow-defunct Mystic Krewe of Nyxparade.

n In 2018, soon after the

statueofConfederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was craned away fromwhatisnow Harmony Circle,anorganization commissioned 10,000 ”Forever Lee Circle” Carnival beads, which were distributed in protest.

n In 2017, aNOLA.com | The Times-Picayune guest columnist reportedthatshe had caught “Rebel” beads with aConfederate flag

motif at theEndymionparade, whichshe described as “anunimaginable symbol of hatred at what should be acommunity celebration.”

n In 2016, a5-year-old Black child standing in the Gallier Hall grandstands caught astrand of Confederateﬂag beadstossed by a riderinthe Krewe of Carrolltonparade.

hadallocated $50,000for Carnival recycling in previous years.

“Despite the lack of direct fundingthisseason, thecity has continued to supportthe programoperationally through planning participation, permit fee waiversand coordination with NOPD for parade recyclingsweeps,”Holmes said.

Stumblingblocks

The additional funding would have helped the city recycle more bottles and cans left alongthe parade route itself, before sanitation workerssend off the heaps of garbage to the landﬁll, Davis said.

“They’re picking up this trash very manually afterevery parade with leaf blowers and rakes and everything,”Davis said “Why not send out aﬁrstwave crew that’sgetting tens of thousands of aluminum cans off the ground and plastic bottles?”

Thecoalitionstill conducted smaller sweeps over aportion of theroute afterthe King Arthur parade and will do thesame after the NOMTOC parade on the West Bank. But the original plan, Davis said, wastodothese sweeps afterthe most waste-producing Uptown paradesin the ﬁnal days beforeMardi Gras.

Franziska Trautmann, the founder of the glassrecycling nonprofit Glass Half Full, another partner in the Carnival recycling initiative, noted that staffing cutsatthe city’s climate office also impactedcoordination for this year’s recycling efforts. The office lostaround half of its staff, including the director “All theprogressthat we’ve been making is threatened nowbecause we don’teven know who’s in charge of what,” Trautmann said. The city did not respond directly to questionson how cuts to the climate office were affecting parade recycling this year ‘Desperatelyneeds it’

MUSEUM

Continuedfrom page 1B

with culturalinstitutions around the world has taught us that hospitalityisabout honoring the story being told. LMHE’s mission to preserve the artistsand communities who shaped American music is work we wanttobe part of.”

tween theConvention Center and the group developing theneighborhood, Louis Lauricella’s RiverDistrictNeighborhood Initiative,or RDNI,fellapart after RDNI missed key performance andpayment deadlines

‘Integratedexperience’

Bearysaidthathaving an establishedfood and beverage provider is essential to the museum’s business plan.

“Whatmakes these institutions workisacombination of revenuesources from tickets and events —private parties, lunches,dinnerand ashow,” he said.

Despite these hurdles, aglassrecycling programwith local bars is significantly upping the season’s recyclingnumbers. Throughout Carnival, Glass Half Full and itspartner groups are offering freeglass and aluminum recycling to barsnear parade routes. The nonproﬁt typically charges establishmentsarecycling fee forglass pickups, which is crushed into sand for Louisiana coastal restoration efforts. Therecyclinginitiative generated over 40,000 more pounds of glass last year with theaddition of the bar program than the 2024 season. Dominic Hernandez, the owner and operator of the Double Clubinthe French Quarter,started participating in thefree program this season and plans to keep up theglass subscription after Mardi Gras.

The museum deal is the latestofseveral local contractsfor Sodexo, which counts the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center,The National WWII Museum, Tulane University and, until recently, theCaesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center among its 500 clients worldwide.

Twooptions

Earlierthis month, RDNI agreed to arevised deal that shrinks RDNI’s footprint and returnscontrolofseveral parcels in the neighborhood to the ConventionCenter.The deal also calls for the boardtorestart talks with Beary’sgroup in hopes of getting themuseumtothe neighborhood.

Bearysaidthe planisto offer aseries of programs to corporate clients, private groups andother organizations who will rent apart or all of the museum forevents and meals thatwill be “integrated into the experience of the museum itself.”

Beyond theenvironmental considerations,hesaid that theglass pickups, on topofthe trash pickups four times aweek, help keep the establishment clean.

“I know that paying to recycle is not themost obvious answer for business owners,” Hernandez said. “But Ithink (theseprograms) can help expand the presence of recycling in aplace that desperately needs it.”

The Louisiana Music & Heritage Experiencehas been describedbybackers as aNew Orleansbasedanswer to Cleveland’sRock &Roll Hall of Fame that wouldtell the story of the state’s rich musical heritage, including jazz, blues,gospel, Cajun, zydeco, swamp pop, funk and hip-hop.

The museum hasalso assumed aspecial signiﬁcance as acultural anchor for theRiver District, the plannedmixed-use neighborhood next to theConvention Center

But the project stalled last year,whentalks be-

While thosetalksare underway,the museum’s board has been scouting for other potential locations and currently is negotiating with the ownersofaparking lot on theedge of theFrench Quarter at theintersection of Basinand St.Louis streets. Apotential site on Rampart Street is no longer an option.

The Sodexo contract, he said,isnot tied to either of thetwo locations currentlyonthe table.

“Weare negotiating with both sites,” Beary said. “Weare veryhopeful that within two to three weeks, we will have terms from both we can compare and evaluatesowecan move forward.”

The Convention Center declined to comment.

“That kind of programming calls for arobust food and beverage operator,” said Beary, who estimates private partiesand eventrentals will account for between 40% and50% of the museum’stotal revenues.

Sodexo’s proposal for themuseum wasselected from among half adozen or so others fromnational companiesthat responded to asolicitation from the museum, Beary said.

Local restaurant groups were given an opportunity to bid on the project, he said, but none responded.

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

Email Josie Abugov at josie.abugov@theadvocate. com.

PHOTO PROVIDED By KREWE OF TUCKS

A float rider dangles apale-skinned Barbie-style doll from the second deckofa float during Saturday’sTucks parade.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Aphoto of a float in the Krewe of Tucks paradewith a Black doll hanging by its neck from astrand of beads has sparked backlash.

Riley, Michael Obituaries Riley, MichaelRyan

Michael Ryan Riley, affectionately known as Poppa Swole, was aNew Orleans native and alifelong New Orleans Saints fan. He was adedicated employee of Shell Oil for more than 36 years and, above all, adevoted husband, father, grandfather, and familyman.

Michael lived as amodel of virtue with astoic presence—quietlystrong, steady, and grounded. He

movedthrough life with a calmstrength that needed no explanation and faced adversity with resilience. He believedcharacter was revealed through consistency,restraint,and how one carried responsibility forthe people they loved He did not seek attention or approval; people simply felt safeinhis presence

To the untrained eye, Michael's purpose may have seemedsimple.To those who understand the deepermeaning of life, it was clear: to pass on his valuesofgoodvirtue, quiet strength, and wisdom to his children, so they could continue to illuminate the light his presence and influence broughtinto the world.

An avid swimmer allhis life, Michael loved long beach days with hiswife Patricia, oftenspending hours treading watertogether.Heenjoyed an unconventional garden,guided by goodsoil, sunshine, and laid-back New Orleans patience.Like any true New Orleans grandfather, Poppa Swole loved fishing, camping, playinginthe waves, and spoilinghis

grandbabies rotten

He was preceded in death by his mother, Dorothy Reilly Riley; his father,Maurice RileyJr.;and his brother, Kevin Patrick Riley.

He is survivedbyhis wife of 42 years, Patricia Robicheaux Riley; his children,Chad Edward Riley, Jeanne Marie Riley, Gary Michael Riley, and ChristopherMaurice Riley; his canine and feline companions, Lakiaand Riley aka Minnie; hissiblings, Regina L. Patterson, Colleen Riley, Maureen Dolese, Patrick Riley, PeggyLulich, and Rae DeWoody; and tenadoring grandchildren.

PerPoppaSwole's request, aCelebration of Life will be held at his brother Patrick's brewery in MidCity, Second Line Brewery, on February 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Children and pets arewelcome.

Cajunculture is welcoming becauseof ourhistory,so don’t forget it

Iwas 16 when Ivisited the beach where my ancestors were deported hundreds of years before.

During the Grand Derangement 10,000-plus Acadians were removed from their home in Nova Scotia, or Acadie, when the landswitched from French to British rule.

They didn’tsign aloyaltyoath to thenew rulers, and they were kickedout because of it. An unassuming cross still marks the spot where the boats set sail. Of those whosurvived, many eventually made anew home forthemselves in the French colony of Louisiana. Cajuns know the trauma of deportation in our bones. We know theanxiety and faith thataccompanies the journey torebuild alife.

We know that caring for our neighbors is the way we all survive and thrive, probably going back to the ﬁrst Acadians arrivinginsouth Louisiana after the deportation from Canada. Or,at least, we used to. Iamappalled witnessing ICE sweep across the nation, terrorizing communities, killing people, even using apreschooler as bait to “catch” hisfather.Iamdisgusted by the administration telling us that the people who’ve died in the past month caused their own demise.

As aCajun, Iwas raised to welcome the stranger,both ﬁguratively and literally,usually over a good meal.

Like any group, we aren’ta monolith and certainly have political disagreements. But some valuesseem elemental. The desire for abetter life for your kids is not monopolized by U.S. citizens.

The courage to start again somewhere new so you and your family can live in freedom, the courage that the Acadian deportees carried in the 1700s, is the same courage that all immigrants carry today.Acadians were given achance and made aculture known globally for its welcoming spirit. Where is that spirit now?

AMANDARICHEY Baton Rouge

D-DBreaux’slegacywillnever be forgottenbythose whoknewher

Iwas one of D-D Breaux’steachers at Donaldsonville High School. To be truthful, the faculty would discussour studentsin the teacher’slounge and knew this student was destined for greatness. She loved all of us, namely our principal, Conrade Goette, and teachers Keith Falcon, Lynn Bouchereau, Sidney Marchand, Sarah Savoia, Floyd Boutte andMary Chauff. Some years ago, the cityofDonaldsonville paid tribute to herwith abanquet and parade down Railroad Avenue. My son Michael was so proud to carry her in the rumble seat of our 31 Model “A”Ford.Itisapicturewehave at home that we cherish.

When giving her talkatthe banquet that was given in her honor,she acknowledged me in the crowd as her teacher,“Mr.Fly High.” This was aslogan Iused when Iran for political ofﬁce with a4-foot by 8-foot sign on ahill by theSunshine Bridge, “Fly High with Cy.” We all know what shedid at LSU with

gymnastics andatthe start when the program was shaky,onthe streets of Baton Rouge, giving outticketsfor free to the events.

What agreat woman who deserves every accolade shecan get. We are proud to say shewas from Donaldsonville and Bayou Lafourche, not only that, her mother,father, Mr.and Mrs. VanP.Breaux, an eye doctor,was one of theﬁnestpeople you would know.Don’tlet anyone forget, she was a product of Donaldsonville High School and theAscension Parish School System, notto mention LSU.

My wife, Marie, and Iare graduates as are ason, Charles and two grandchildren, Michael and Joey.Toyou, again D-D, we love you, love LSU and theaccomplishments you made in coaching there. Irelinquish my title; you arethe one who ﬂew high. Your only surviving high school teacher, VINCENT “CY” TORTORICH Donaldsonville

Trump’sstrengths oftenoverlooked

Arecentletter on the Opinion Pageasks us to listen to President Donald Trump’swords. In every speech he brags, insults, whines andlies. The writer asks if that is “what we wanttobe?”

Trump’swords indicateother qualities. He rambles and is long-winded.

He has abig egoand is conﬁdent He is afamily man and religious. He listens and is compassionate. He is fun-loving and entertaining. He is assertive and goal-oriented. At times Iﬁnd Trumpoff-putting and wish that he wouldbemore gentlemanly.But since we are all human and should be fair in our evaluations of others, perhaps the complete list of personality traits should be

considered.

This makes me question what is important in apolitical ﬁgure.

Areelections moreofapopularity contest or for choosing someone to servethe people?

Should we focus on the abrasive parts of a personalityorwhether we are being governed to ensure our life, liberty andpursuit of happiness? Do we value deportment or safety,security and acomfortable life?

In judging apolitician, it seems that both behavior and accomplishments should be considered.

Butthat’s awhole other topic.

CATHY BROUILLETTE Baton Rouge

School choice respects parents’ rights

School choice is aright, not a privilege. Sen. Cameron Henry is wrong and perhaps miseducated. Hopefully it’snot amatter of being beholden to anyone. First, the money used to educate our children is our money,not the government’s. So we the parents should get to spend it where we deem it most beneﬁcial forour children; not where the progressive teachers’ union tells the government schools to do so.

Second, the primary responsibility and authority for the rearing and education of our children reside with us, the parents, not the government. There is no constitutional authority forthe government to usurp this responsibility and authority from parents. Yes, the general citizenry has an interest in the rearing and education of children, but the outcomes and primary responsibility remain with their parents. School choice and the use of our tax monies in the education of our children is aconstitutional right not aprivilege. It is our money and our children. Also, Idonot think you really wanttoargue about outcomes when it comes to our current government school system; especially in regards to its cost per student compared to other nations and its current success rate in community outreach programs.

Unconstitutional election takeover shouldn’teven be proposed

President Donald Trumprecently stated that the federal government should take over elections in states where he has lost in previous elections.

Article I, Section 4ofthe U.S. Constitution, knownasthe Elections Clause, empowers state legislatures to prescribe the times, places, and manner of holding federal elections forSenators and Representatives. It grants Congress the authority to makeoralter these regulations at any time, except forthe places of choosing Senators.

Trumpiseither ignorant of the Constitution or he simply doesn’t care about the Constitution.

PHILIP FRADY NewOrleans

OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@theadvocate.com. TO SEND US ALETTER, SCAN HERE

KillingsinMinnesota must lead to change

Theunlawful killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis while protecting from federal agents awoman who was engaged in lawful protest reminds us of the killing of Jimmy LeeJackson in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.

Jimmie Lee Jackson and members of his family were marching for theright to vote. The march was broken up by law enforcement ofﬁcers and later while protecting his mother,Jackson was killed by an Alabama state trooper

The1965 Selma, Alabama killings of Jackson, Rev.James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo led to

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress passing theVoting RightsAct of 1965.

What will thekillings of AlexPretti and Renee Good in 2026 Minneapolislead to?

Athorough investigation of theirkillings?

Professional and safe law enforcementtactics by ICE and U.S. Border Patrol? Passage of acomprehensive immigration law by the president and Congress?

People are waiting and history is watching. ARTHUR L. HUNTERJR. NewOrleans

We won’tbescared into silence

We know the truth and we will never be silenced. Those whohide behind their lies are not strong; they are cowards. Martin Luther King Jr said, “Our lives begin to end the day we becomesilent about things that matter.” Speak up. Speak the truth so that all voices matter and may be heard.

MARYFLOWERS Baton Rouge

GREG ARDOIN Lafayette

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Former LSU coach D-DBreaux pumps her fist at the LSU crowd followingthe NCAAGymnastics Championships in 2024 where LSU wonits first NCAAgymnastics title.

COMMENTARY

THE BEST MARDI GRAS IS IN yOUR CITy

Mardi Gras isn’t justinNew Orleans, as we all know.It’sastatewideand evenregional party that everycommunity puts their ownspin on. So we invited some expertstoweigh in on afriendlydebate on whose local Mardi Gras celebrations outside of theCrescent City’sreign supreme.Allopinions, of course, are completely biased.

ACADIANA

More festivities than youcan chaseachicken at

Acadiana’sMardi Gras takes the gold. Purple, green and gold, actually Thisfrom someone who was born and raised in New Orleans.

Ispent my early Februarys on awooden bench on top of aladder,soaking in the Carnival. As Igrew older,Ibranched out into attending Mardi Gras balls, dragging the Quarter,even riding in the parades giving progress reports. When Imoved to Acadiana after college, Ithought I’d lost Mardi Gras as Iknew it forever.But I waswrong

BATONROUGE

Louisiana’s politiciansget skewered at SpanishTown

Acadiana’sMardi Gras is so diverse —there’ssomething for everyone. Take for example, the earliest manifestation of the season: king cakes. There’s one foreverytaste, the doughnut ones, the brioche ones, the fancy ones, the unusual ﬂavors. Imean, aboudin kingcake?! (Eternally grateful, Bob Karriker!)

Then there’sthe parties. Not just balls, but concerts,festivals withcarnival rides, private parties, king caketasteoffs, festivities of every shape and size. Parades? Acadiana’sgot ’em, and again, so many colors and ﬂavors to savor Each community puts on their own version, New Iberia to Kaplan and beyond.

There are walking parades,children’s parades, independent parades,Chick aLa Pie! Mardi Gras Indians struttheir stuff in exquisite intricate costumes, and in rural regions like Mamou and Basile, the medieval French tradition of theCourir de Mardi Gras rides —withanAcadiana twist, naturally Horsemen in cone-shaped hats called capuchons along with wire masks and colorful costumes ride through thetown, singing and begging for ingredients for acommunal gumbo. Then in thebig ﬁnale, they chase alive chicken through theﬁelds to claim the star gumbo component and become the king or queen of the day

We hold acourir every year at Vermilionville to honor thehistory (sans the horses in thehistoricvillage, but plentyofgumbo and achicken to chase!)

Youwon’tﬁnd that anywhereelse. So yes, Acadiana’s Mardi Gras takes theking cake baby,the crown, the chicken and the best beads ever caught midair Happy Mardi Gras, mes amis!

Ellen Fucich is director of marketingand communications at Vermilionville, ahistoric village designed to teach appreciation for the culture of theregion.

SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY

Allthe flavor,style andsoulof Carnival,and no hassles

If Mardi Gras is about connection, culture and community,thenShreveportBossier may be Louisiana’sbestkept Carnival secret In northwest Louisiana, Mardi Gras isn’tconfined to one laneor one tradition, it’safull expression of who we are. Twocities. One heart. Shreveport-Bossier’scelebration reflects the same values that define our destinationyearround: inclusivity,authenticityand adeep sense of belonging.Here, Mardi Gras isn’tsomethingyou watch from the sidelines. It’s something you’re welcomed into Our parade lineup alone tellsthe story. Traditional Krewes likeGeminiand Centaur deliver the classic pomp,pageantry and throws that Carnivallovers expect, while the historic HighlandParadehonors one of Louisiana’smost culturally significant neighborhoods, where creativity community pride and grassrootscelebration take center stage. It’sareminderthat Mardi Gras has always belonged to the people. That spirit shines just as brightlyinour culturally rich Krewes. Krewe of Sobek and Krewe of Harambee celebrate African American heritage and artistry,showcasing how Mardi Gras continuestoevolve while honoring its roots. And for animal lovers and families,KreweofBarkusand

Meow demonstrates that joy comes in all forms —sometimes on four legs and dressed in costume.

Baton Rouge is an amalgamation of all thingsgreat in Louisiana. As theCapital City,weare not too Cajun, too Creole, too redneck,too Black or too White. We are alittle bit of everything.And our Mardi Gras is no different Almostall of our 10 parades have already rolled, including Orion,Artemis,LeKrewe Mystique de la Capitale, Orion and Mid CityGras.

On Friday,the thefamilycentered Krewe of Southdowns, in which Ihad the pleasure of riding for many years rolled. Sunday,there was the Zachary Mardi Gras; and Monday is the Krewe of Shenandoah, which is the City of St. George’sﬁrst krewe. Butwhat really makes Mardi Gras special in Baton Rouge is the irreverent, irresponsible, indiscriminate, irrepressible, insane, irritating and, above all else, entertaining (especially forthe riders!) Spanish Town Mardi Gras. It is not for thesqueamish, prudish or socially sensitive. It’sfor the fun-loving, fun-seeking souls withsenses of humor,atolerance for bad taste and adelight in seeing public ofﬁcials and issues of the day skewered and defamed in clever and artistic ways. It also doubles as afundraiser for

manygood causes in the community This year’sthemewas applicable to any year:” Pink, Proud and Provocative.” It promised to poke, prod, pounce upon and pummel public people from the federal, state and local level. The Mystic Krewe forthe Preservation of Lagniappe in Louisiana never fails to draw thousands to the narrow streets of Spanish Town There is one caveat. We brought our young sons to the parade before they could read. Once they understood the English language, there was ahiatus of several years. Consider yourself warned. One of the highlights of my career in public lifewas serving foranumber of years as ajudge (alongside the late, great Smiley Anders) and attending the judges’ bribery party where fairness and impartiality somewhat reigned. The revelry of Spanish Town is Baton Rouge’sannual letting downofthe hair and casting aside of inhibitions. All in the spirit of Mardi Gras. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Jay Dardenne is aformer Louisiana state senator,secretary of state, lieutenant governor andcommissioner of administration

MOBILE,ALA.

‘People’sParade’ andMoonPiesbring thecrowds

This is Shreveport-Bossier at its best: enough ﬂavor,style and soul for two cities. From locally owned restaurants serving Cajun and Creole favorites to live music and neighborhood celebrations, Mardi Gras here feels personal, not overwhelming. For visitors who want thefull experience without the guesswork,Visit Shreveport-Bossier hosts theannual Red River Mardi Gras Bash –a ticketed event designed to make celebrating effortless. Hosted duringthe Centaur and Gemini parades,the Bash offers aprivatevenue and viewing area alongthe parade route, aLouisiana cuisinebuffet, live music, games, beer and wine and access to private restrooms. It’s our way of saying: come celebrate withus —we’vegot everything covered. That accessibility is what sets Shreveport-Bossier apart. Visitors from south Louisiana,Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee can make an easy driveand enjoy an affordable, familyfriendly Mardi Gras that still delivers the fullness of Louisiana tradition.

Serena Gray is vice president of marketing and communications withVisit Shreveport-Bossier

Growing up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we thought most of the Mardi Gras action was in New Orleans. But amere 40 miles east, “The Mother of theMystics” provided adifferent take on the celebration it began and towhich it still jealously lays claim.

Different cities’ Mardi Gras are like your children they’re all wonderful in their own way,soit’snot fair to be comparative.

is dedicated to Joseph Stillwell Cain Jr., the man whobrought the party back to the Azalea City following the Civil War, dressed as the ﬁctional Chickasaw chief Slacabamorinico.

ButifIhad to assign apersonalitytoit, Mobile’sCarnival is that child who’sgoing to sneak out the back door just before the cops arrive. We like to say it’smore “family friendly,” but that only applies if your family is alittle on the wild side. Someofwhat makes us different is the food —welove throwing and catching it.

Joe Cain Day is “the People’s Parade.”

The ﬂoats are decidedly homemadeand even the city’sbluebloods bow to the proletariat for aday.It’safeast for the senses and moreofa marathon than a sprint. The day begins early at Church Street Graveyard with Cain’sMerry Widowswailing over his grave and arguing over who he loved most. Why so manywidows? Nobody knows.

MoonPies, Star Crunches, ramen noodles and even the occasional ice cream sandwich are theprizes. You may not be eating healthy at aMobile Mardi Gras parade, but you’re eating.

The biggest difference between Mobile’sMardi Gras and all others, though, can be summed up in three short words —Joe Cain Day.

The Sunday before Mardi Gras Day

In more recent years, Joe Cain’sMistresses, adorned in saucy red dresses and veiled hats —JCmust have been a busy man —give the widowsarun for their money Control of carnival reverts to the traditional mystic organizations to ﬁnish out The Gras, but it is Joe Cain Day, twodays before the actual Tuesday of Carnival, that sets the markfor agreat Mobile Mardi Gras.

RobHolbert is co-publisherof Lagniappe WeeklyofMobile

Ellen Fucich GUEST COLUMNIST

Serena Gray GUEST COLUMNIST

U.S. routsGermany to advancetohockey quarterfinals, Page 5C

SERIES SWEEP

LSUtests lineup changesinblowout winoverMilwaukee

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

LSU coachJay Johnson has never been afraidtomake changes to his lineup, but Sunday wassomething different

Senior Chris Stanfield didn’tplay.High Point transfer Brayden Simpson played his first collegiate game in the outfield. SophomoreJohn Pearsonstartedatthird base, while Oregon State transfer Trent Caraway,who had only played third base in college, moved to second.

The revisions didn’tmakea majorimpactonthe outcome, a21-7 drubbingfor LSUover Milwaukee in seven innings at Alex Box Stadium. But they did demonstrate alevel of ﬂexibilitywiththe position player groupthat hadn’tseemed possible before.

“I think we have alot of versatilitywith this team, alot of keyhole matchups,”Johnson said.“AndI thinktoday

Tigers’struggles

was agood indication of what and how we could do what we want to do.”

LSU(3-0) scored three runs in thesecond inning, six runs in the third andeight in the fourthtopull away from the Panthers. JuniorJakeBrownhit two homeruns, a 420-foot blast off theright ﬁeld scoreboard and agrand slam in theﬁfth. Sophomore Cade Arrambide continued his early-season tear withtwo more hits.Kansas State transfer SethDardar hit his secondhomer of the year despitenot starting.

Discoveringmore power has been an emphasisfor Brown heading into his thirdseason.

“Just alot of work in the weight room, getting bigger, faster,stronger,” Brown said. “I think not just me, but across the board.”

ä See SERIES, page 3C

to win tightmatchupscontinue

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

She hit the ﬂoor with athud. Then she spread her arms and tooka few deep breaths. Flau’jae Johnson wasworn down, but now she needed to summon whatever energy she had left and channel it into two free throws. Johnson hadalready piledup21points. On the prior possession, she had snared three offensive reboundsherself, giving theLSU women’s basketball teama third and fourth chance to score.The star senior didn’twant to lose to South Carolina.Not again. What happened next put the Tigers back into afrustratinglyfamiliar position. Johnson missed both herfreethrows,giving the Gamecocks achance to put the ﬁnishing touches on what they had built in the second half. All they needed wasalayup, astop and acouple of free throws to seal their 18th straight win over LSU— a79-72 Valentine’sDay heartbreaker

“Wegotta be better,” Johnson said.

LSU has nowlost three of fourclose gamesplayed this season. Kentucky beat the Tigers on abuzzer-beater.Vanderbilt knocked them off with apair of latebuckets from its star guard. South Carolina defeated LSU because its offense kept churning out high-percentagelooks, even as the contest tightened up late in thefourth.

The No. 6Tigers (22-4, 8-4 SEC) did win a close battle with No. 4Texas on Jan.11. But because LSU lost those other three matchups, it’snow essentially out of the race for an NCAA Tournament No. 1seed.

The NCAA selection committeerevealed Saturdaythat it had LSU penciled intothe last No. 2seed of thebracket andpaired at thetop of aregionwithcurrentNo. 1 overall seed UConn. Then the Tigers felltothe Gamecocks, suffering aloss thatcould drop theminto one of the No. 3seeds —atleast for now.

ä See LSU, page 4C

Team Stars wins NBA All-Star Game

BY GREG BEACHAM AP sportswriter

INGLEWOOD,Calif. Anthony Edwards won the Most Valuable Player award while leading his “Stars” team past their fellow Americans on the “Stripes” team 47-21 to win the final of the NBAAll-Star Game on Sunday The Minnesota Timberwolves star claimed his first All-Star MVP award with a tying 3-pointer in the first round-robin game, followedbyeight pointsinthe final,which wasthe only chapterwithout adramaticlate finish in this mini-tournament comprising themainevent of All-Starweekendatthe Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome. The NBA’s fourth format in four years matched two teams of American All-Stars against ateam representing the World, hoping to stoke nationalistic passion from players and fans during an Olympic year The slightly older Stripes had beaten theslightlyyounger Stars on De’Aaron Fox’s3-pointer at the buzzer in the second 12-minute, round-robin game. But Edwards led the Stars to victory in the rematch with the Stripes, who appeared to run out of

ä See NBA, page 3C

guard AnthonyEdwards,

past Stripes forward LeBron James during the NBAAll-Star basketballgame Sunday in Inglewood, Calif.

BY TOYLOYBROWN III Staff writer

LSU at Texas 8P.M.

Any nervous energy from the LSU freshmanevaporated once he saw the ball go through the basket on his first attempt. Jalen Reece, in his first startsinceJan.10, draineda right-wing 3-pointerthreefeet from thearc in agame againstTennessee. Theconfidence gained from the quick success carried to the second half, when he showed his point guard abilities. Reece expertly rejected a middle ball screen with aspin movethat tripped up his defender.Heengaged the 6-foot-11 senior Felix Okpara on thedrive andflickedanalley-oop passtoa dunking Marquel Sutton, tying the contest at 37 about two minutes after halftime. LSU’s18-year-old floor general did his best Dedan Thomas impression in the Tigers’ 7363 loss to Tennessee on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee. It wasn’tenough as coach Matt McMahon was downhis starting point guard, whohas officially been ruled out forthe season, and his

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson stands at the edgeofthe courtasagame against South Carolina nears itsend on Saturdayatthe Pete Maravich Assembly Center.LSU lost 79-72.

PHOTO By PATRICK DENNIS

LSU outfielder JakeBrown,right, is greeted by teammates Zach yorkeand Cade Arrambide after hitting ahomerun against Milwaukee in the thirdinning of their game on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.LSU won21-7.

AP PHOTO By MARK J. TERRILL Stars

bottom, drives

Morikawa birdies 18th to win Pebble Beach

BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Collin Morikawa had gone 28 months since his last win, and he was reminded Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am why it’s never easy

He was among six players who had a share of the lead at one point in a wild and windy ﬁnal round, one name getting everyone’s attention Scottie Scheffler who nearly pulled off the biggest comeback in the tournament’s history

Tougher still was standing in the fairway on the par-5 18th, the cold Paciﬁc air ripping off the ocean to his left, and having to wait some 20 minutes as Jacob Bridgeman had to ﬁgure out how to play off the beach only for his shot to go into the ocean.

He said he walked down to the ocean and back about 10 times.

“I tried to think about anything else other than golf,” Morikawa said. “Thankfully, you had the nicest backdrop you could ask for so that was very very easy For me, it was how do I stay loose, how do I stay warm and not just think about the shot.”

Morikawa delivered the goods when they mattered, back-to-back birdies to take the lead, and one last birdie with a 4-iron from 235 yards he had to start out over the ocean wall and let the wind bring it back to the green.

Two putts from the collar gave him a 5-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Sepp Straka and Min Woo Lee.

“Great ﬁeld, great leaderboard — looking at it the entire day,” Morikawa said. “And just to be able to pull of those last two shots, it feels great.”

The two-time major champion ﬁnished at 22-under 266. He had gone 45 starts since he last won the Zozo Championship in Japan in October 2023.

He can only hope for bigger things with a new outlook on golf — play the game for the joy, not the technique and in life. Morikawa took the occasion of such a big win to announce he and his wife are expecting their ﬁrst child this spring.

“There’s so much to life, there’s so much to enjoy,” he said Scheffler began the final day eight shots behind and was 7 under through seven holes before the wind began whipping He had three eagles in his round of 63, the

last one a 6-iron to 30 inches on the ﬁnal hole that allowed him to tie Morikawa for the lead.

“I was very aware of Scottie Scheffler’s score today I mean, what a player,” Morikawa said.

Schefﬂer didn’t think it would be enough, and it wasn’t. Moments later, Morikawa holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th to take the lead. He followed with a 6-iron into 8 feet for another birdie. But a bogey on the par-3 17th — his tee shot was dangerously close

to the ocean left of the green and Lee ﬁnishing birdie-birdie for a 65, created another tie.

For all the drama, it was particularly tense on the par-5 18th as Morikawa waited. And waited. It was 20 minutes from hitting his tee shot to hitting his 4-iron, a wait made longer considering what was at stake. “I was able to pull off a great 4-iron,” he said. “And man, I need a drink.”

Akshay Bhatia, the 54-hole lead-

er by two shots, made only two birdies over his last 29 holes. He fell out of the lead after four holes and never caught up, closing with a 72 to ﬁnish three back.

Schefﬂer was 10 shots behind after the ﬁrst day when he shot 72. He was 13 shots back at one point on Friday He still managed to be a major threat. He wound up in a tie for fourth with Tommy Fleetwood (66), extending his streak to 18 PGA Tour starts in the top 10.

“I had to do something special to give myself a chance,” Schefﬂer said. “The back nine, I felt like I had to get to 21 or 22 (under) I played a bit more aggressive than I normally am. It was a fun day overall. These are the weeks I’m proud of. I felt like I was battling to give myself a chance.”

Among his regrets was a wedge to a back pin on the 15th that was a foot away from spinning back to close range. It hopped hard over the green. He chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt.

Morikawa charged his way into the mix with a 62 on Saturday to get within two shots of Bhatia, and he did enough right to stay close six players had a share of the lead at some point during the ﬁnal round — until delivering the goods at the end.

Kim wins in Australia in remarkable career comeback

By The Associated Press

ADELAIDE, Australia Anthony Kim walked out of a PGA Tour scoring trailer at Quail Hollow and straight to the parking lot on May 4, 2012. He put his clubs in the trunk and drove away, vanishing from golf and from the public view for 12 years.

Kim was all the way back Sunday in Australia full of swagger and energy as he capped off a stunning rally — not just in the ﬁnal round of LIV Golf Adelaide but in life. Five shots behind Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, he closed with a 9-under 63 for his ﬁrst win in nearly 16 years. He put on an electric show with leg-kicking, fist-throwing reactions for his four straight birdies before LIV’s largest and loudest gallery of the season.

“I’m too old to be reacting like that because I think I pulled something in my hip,” the 40-year-old Kim said to laughter. “But I will say that was all the lows I went through in my life that I got to dig out of. Every putt that went I felt the struggle and I was overcoming it. It was therapeutic out there to ﬁght through it and come out on top.”

Those struggles include drug and alcohol addiction so severe Kim considers it a minor miracle he is still alive. He is married with a 4-year-old daughter, Bella, who raced onto the 18th green at The Grange Golf Club and into his arms.

“To be able to share this moment — even though Bella won’t understand it, one day she will — and for her to be able to run on the green and see her dad isn’t a loser was one of the most special

the

Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia.

moments of my life,” Kim said.

LIV Golf took a chance on Kim in 2024 when he played as a wild card, often finishing at the bottom of the small fields. Last season wasn’t much better, though he showed signs of the progress 1% better each day is his motto — late last season. He was relegated out of the Saudi-funded league. He tied for fifth in the Saudi International. He had to play a qualifying tournament last month just to get another season on the LIV Tour Perhaps the final boost of confidence: Dustin Johnson signed Kim to his 4 Aces team when former University High standout Patrick Reed decided to leave the league. The three-shot victory over

Rahm was as big as any moment on LIV, at a time when the league lost two of its bigger names in Brooks Koepka and Reed. All that mattered to Kim was coming full circle.

“I know the mainstream media is not going to pick it up,” said Kim, winning amid the Winter Olympics, the Daytona 500 and the NBA All-Star Game.

“But for the people that do hear about it, I want to be a good example,” he said. “I would say that I wasn’t the best person, the best partner the best whatever you want to call it, the best son I could be when I was younger But who I am today is a completely different person. With God, my family my sobriety being the key things to my life, I can go as far

Raiders coach Kubiak quickly filling out staff

HENDERSON, Nev New Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak wasted little time in choosing his offensive and defensive coordinators since being hired less than a week ago. Raiders defensive line coach and run game coordinator Rob Leonard was ofﬁcially elevated to defensive coordinator on Sunday Seahawks quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko will follow Kubiak from Seattle to be the offensive coordinator, a person with knowledge of the hiring process said Sunday Kubiak did what the two previous Las Vegas coaches did in selecting a defensive coordinator — look within the staff. Leonard was the defensive line coach the past three seasons and added the title of run game coordinator in 2025 under then-coach Pete Carroll.

Seahawks expected to hire 49ers’ Fleury as OC SEATTLE The Seattle Seahawks are expected to hire San Francisco 49ers tight ends coach and run game coordinator Brian Fleury as their new offensive coordinator, a person with knowledge of the hiring process said Sunday Fleury has been a member of San Francisco’s coaching staff since 2019. He began his career as a defensive quality control coach and spent the last four seasons as the 49ers’ tight ends coach. Fleury added the title of run game coordinator, in addition to tight ends coach, in 2025. Fleury would replace former Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.

Toms gets first Champions win in nearly three years

NAPLES, Fla. — David Toms made a 25-foot par putt to stay in the game and finished with a tap-in birdie on the par-5 18th for a 1-over 73 and a one-shot victory in the Chubb Classic, his first victory on the PGA Tour Champions in nearly three years. Toms struggled for so much of Sunday with a pair of double bogeys on the front nine to let other back into the mix Boo Weekley closed with a 67 to catch Toms. Defending champion Justin Leonard joined them with birdie on the 17th, though he failed to birdie the 18th from a greenside bunker He closed with a 70. Toms reached the bunker in two on the 18th and blasted out to a foot to finish at 13-under 203. It was his fifth PGA Tour Champions title and first since he won the Galleri Classic in 2023.

as I want.”

Playing in black shorts — with black calf-length socks and white shoes in front of a large crowd on a sunny day at The Grange, Kim caught up to Rahm after nine holes and pulled away Thousands of spectators followed behind him in the 18th fairway when he capped off his amazing day

It was his ﬁrst victory since the 2010 Houston Open, the last of his three titles on the PGA Tour He had not ﬁnished higher than a tie for 22nd on LIV, last week in Saudi Arabia He won $4 million — he made just over $4.6 million in his best season on the PGA Tour Rahm closed with a 71 and DeChambeau shot 74 on a day the average score was 69.8.

Kim reached as high as No. 6 in the world in 2008, the year he played in his only Ryder Cup at Valhalla and needed only 14 holes to beat Sergio Garcia in singles. He moves to just outside the top 200 now that LIV gets world ranking points.

As big a win as it was for Kim, it was popular among the players he beat.

“I cried,” Lucas Herbert said.

“Man, he was a gun,” said Marc Leishman, whose rookie season on the PGA Tour coincided with Kim’s peak years. “He almost had an aura about him, somewhat for his golf, somewhat for his partying I mean, to see where he’s come from I’ve actually spoken to him a fair bit over the last couple of years about a few of his experiences.

“It’s an unbelievable story, the place he got to and how close he was to not being here I’m not talking about in Adelaide, I’m talking about not being on this planet.”

Providence F suspended two games after fight NEW YORK Providence forward Duncan Powell was suspended two additional games by the Big East on Sunday, meaning he will miss three games for his ﬂagrant foul that sparked a ﬁght in a game against St. John’s.

Powell already faced an automatic one-game ban for fighting by NCAA rules, but the conference tacked on an additional penalty stemming from the No. 17 Red Storm’s 79-69 victory Saturday that featured seven ejections. It started when Powell flagrantly fouled Bryce Hopkins — who played three seasons in Providence — from behind as he went up for a fast-break layup. Powell was automatically ejected for the flagrant 2 foul.

Kansas State fires men’s basketball coach Tang MANHATTAN, Kan Kansas State fired basketball coach Jerome Tang on Sunday night, four days after many Wildcats fans showed up with bags over their heads for a home blowout. The school said an interim head coach will be announced soon and that a national search for a replacement has started.

On Wednesday at home in a 91-62 loss to Cincinnati, many fans wore bags over their heads in disgust.

“This was embarrassing,” Tang said after that game “These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform. There will be very few of them in it next year.”

Kansas State (10-15, 1-11 Big 12) fell 78-64 on Saturday at No. 3 Houston, the

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHARLES LABERGE

Anthony Kim celebrates after his putt on the 18th green on Sunday during

final round of the LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS By GODOFREDO A. VÁSQUEZ

Collin Morikawa celebrates after winning the Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Sunday in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Collin Morikawa hits from the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Sunday.

LSU center fielderJaliaLassiter,shown making acatch against Lamar on Feb.8,went 1-for-2with awalk in aloss to UCLA on Sunday.

LSUsoftballshutout by UCLA at tourney

The LSU softball team fell 8-0 to No. 6UCLA on Sunday in the Tigers’ ﬁnal game of the Shriners Children’sInvitational in Clearwater,Florida.

The No. 12 Tigers’ record moves to 7-4,while UCLA improvesto7-3. LSU went 1-4 at the tournament.

Paytn Monticelli (1-1) started and took the loss, giving upthree runs, three hits and awalk while recording two strikeouts in 11/3 innings. Cece Cellura followed with 12/3 innings. Jayden Heavener came on for two innings, striking outthree while allowing onehit, an earned run and two walks. Ashlin Mowery pitched brieﬂy, recordingone outbefore the Bruins ended the game in the sixth with an RBI single.

Maci Bergeron, Alix Franklin and Jalia Lassiter tallied hits in

SERIES

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It was the kind of afternoon where any lineup conﬁguration would have resulted in runs.But Simpson had ahit, and Caraway drove in ﬁve runs, three of which came on abases-clearing triple.

“Great game for Trent. He’sa good inﬁelder,” Johnson said. “We had him at shortstop (at the end of the game) because we believe he canplayshortstop,too.And so if you can play shortstop, you can deﬁnitely play second base.”

Defensively,Caraway,Simpson and Pearson were never tested. LSU’sfirst six outs of the game came viastrikeout,and by the fourth inning, Johnson substituted Simpson for freshman outfielder Mason Braunand moved Caraway back to third base after Dardar replaced Pearson and went to second.

“(There’s) things we’vebeen looking at during practice time and practice settings that give us alittle more versatility,”Johnson said. “Like (with) John, Ilike the wayhe’sswinging the bat.Ithink he was the third or fourth leading hitter in the (preseason).”

As for Stanﬁeld, he sat out after he bruised his hand sliding into home on Saturday.Johnson said he may be availabletoplayon Mondayagainst Kent State.

“I just feltlike it wasgood to let the swelling go down and not reaggravate it,” Johnson said The timing for the changes made sense. LSU’soffense struggled on Saturday,generatingjust oneextra-base hitthrough the ﬁrst seven innings. Andifthere’s ever agood time to experiment with the order,now would be it —the third game of the season against an overmatched opponent. Sunday’sgame was competitive before the bottom of the third inning. In the top of the third, Milwaukee (0-3) had tied the game 3-3 after scoring two runs off LSU starter and right-handed sophomoreWilliam Schmidt. The two-run single Schmidt allowed was alow point in an upand-down afternoon. He had nine strikeouts but also walkedthree hitters, hit abatter and gaveupa solo home run in the ﬁrst inning on afastballleft up and over the plate.His day ended after 91 pitches through four innings.

“I thought he handled small adversity very well today,and that’s my main take from this,” Johnson said. “Obviously,you cansee the stuff, the electricity of it. He’s going to be in agood spot as he keeps developing.”

In relief of Schmidt, LSU turned to Oregon transfer Santiago Garcia, redshirt sophomore right-hander Deven Sheerin and

Dodgerspitcher Vesiaopens up

BY BILL PLASCHKE Los Angeles Times (TNS)

PHOENIX— “Bear with me, please...”

He pitched in one of the most thrilling games of the postseason, throwing one perfect inning in the victory over the Milwaukee Brewers thatsent the Dodgers to the World Series.

Nine days later,his newborn daughter died.

Four months later,inahalting six-minuteaddress punctuated by deep breaths and stiﬂed sobs, Alex Vesia publicly bared his batteredsoul.

“I was not prepared to not bring my baby girl home, but we’re carrying her with us every day...”

the game, highlighted by Franklin’sthird tripleofthe season.

UCLA pitcher TaylorTinsley (4-2) threw acomplete game. Sheﬁnished with four strikeouts, gave up threehits andallowed two walksinsix innings.

TheBruins got out to aquick start with two-run doubles in the ﬁrst and second innings, takinga 4-0lead

UCLApadded its lead witha two-run home run from inﬁelder JordanWoolerytomakethe score 6-0.

An error committed in theﬁfth inning allowed UCLA to stretch itsleadto7-0. Arun-scoring single from pinch-hitter Ramsey Suarez in the sixth inning ended thegame.

LSU returns to TigerParkfor a6 p.m.game on Tuesday against South Alabama before hosting the Purple& Gold Challenge from Feb.20-22.

WHO: Kent State (3-0) vs. LSU (3-0)

WHEN: 6p.m. Monday WHERE: Alex Box Stadium ONLINE/TV: SEC Network+ RADIO: WDGL-FM, 98.1 (Baton Rouge); WWL-AM, 870(New Orleans); KLWB-FM, 103.7 (Lafayette)

RANKINGS: LSU is No. 2by

D1Baseball; Kent State is not ranked PROBABLE STARTERS: LSU— TBA; Kent State —TBA

PREGAMEUPDATES: theadvocate.com/lsu ON X(FORMERLYTWITTER): @KokiRiley

WHATTOWATCH FOR: Expect LSU to turntoredshirtjunior right-hander

Jaden Noot for the start. Noot posted a4.13 ERA and started five games last season. He did not throwagainst Milwaukee overthe weekend.Kent State arrives at Alex Box Stadium aftersweeping Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, where the Golden Flashes woneach game by at least five runs.

—Koki Riley

freshman right-handerMarcos

Paz. Garcia struggled, allowing a three-runhome run, but Sheerin dominated hitters withafastball that was up to 99 mph.

Paz allowed arun in two innings in his returnfromTommy

John surgery.Sunday was also Sheerin’sfirst appearance for LSUafter missingall of last year recovering from atorn ACL.

“It was great. All the guys on the team are my best friends,”

Sheerinsaid.“These are the guys I’m doingeverythingwith, and it was just great to be able to get back out there with them, andit was alot of fun.”

LSU will play its fourth game in four daysonMonday against Kent State. First pitch is setfor 6p.m and the game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.

Meeting with the media at Camelback Ranchonthe ﬁrst day of spring training Friday,Vesia took no questions, instead reading from astatement off his phone while battling the effectsofthe tragedy thatwas his daughter Sterling’sdeathtwo days after the start of the World Series.

“The lessons we’ve learned from this is thatlife can change in an instant. Tenminutes is all it took...”

Vesia had allowed tworuns in seven postseason appearances, including ﬁve scorelessappearances in the heart of the playoffs. He was going to be abig factor against the Toronto Blue Jays, until the unthinkable happened, and he immediately disappeared into his nightmare.

“I can’tthink of anything worse,”Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

While the Dodgers were competing for an unthinkable second consecutive championship, Vesia was mourning an unimaginable loss. While the Dodgers were ultimately bathed in cheers, he and wife Kayla were awash in agony

“Sterling Sol was the most beautiful girl in the world

We got to hold her,change her diaper,read to her and love her Ourtimetogether was far too short.”

Forall the emotion thatenveloped the Dodgers postseason, it turns out none of it could compare to the private hell endured by one of their own. As he spoke Friday, it becameclear why Vesia is such avalued member of this group. He could barely get through his statement, yet he took deep breaths and didn’t stop talking. He couldn’tpitch in the most important games of the year,yet he put his pain aside and wouldn’tstopcheering.

“Stepping away from the team, and the brothers Igotowar withevery day,was difﬁcult

But it was also an easy decision, because my family needed me. We still watched every pitch of the World Series, and for us, in so many ways, thatwas alight in our darkness.”

While the public was unaware of the scope of his pain —one day before the World Series began, the Dodgers announced thathe had left the team for a“deeply personal family matter” —every

NBA

Continuedfrom page1C

gaswhile playing in their third straight mini-game.

“Wechose to compete today,and we came out on top,” Edwards said. “I ain’tgoing to lie, Wembyset the tone.Hecameout andplayedhard, and we had to follow that.”

Indeed, Victor Wembanyamaeffectively challengedhis fellowAllStarstotake this game seriously, and they largely appeared to do it. Despitegoing 0-2, Wembanyama led theWorld team in scoring in both games with14pointsinthe opener and 19 in the third game.

Alongwiththe late-gametheatrics, theevent generally appeared to be played at ahigherlevel of competitiveness than mostAllStarGames in recentyears, suggesting the league might have finally cracked the code on the long-standing question of how to makethis midseason showcase moreentertaining.

“Itwas apretty good displayof basketball,” Wemby said. “Better than lastyear,inmyopinion.Itwas fun. …Ithink being honest with ourselvesisgood.It’sagamewelove,it’s agameIpersonallycherish,sobeing competitive is the least Ican do.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver thanked the All-Stars for playing hard when he presented the championship trophy to the Stars.

Kawhi Leonardthrilled his home crowd with a31-point barrage for theStripes in theﬁnal

player knew the details, and reacted with agiant embrace. The Dodgers wore Vesia’sNo. 51 on their caps. Soon, so did the Blue Jays relievers in an inspiring show of solidarity

“When Kayand Iwere watching the World Series, we noticed thatthere was (No.) 51 on Louie Varland’shat. Iimmediately texted Gus Varland, his brother, and Iasked him if Iwas seeing thatcorrectly.Hetexted me back right away and he said, ‘The Varlands love you, dude. The whole Toronto bullpen has it too. It’s bigger than baseball. We love you all.’ Kay and I. we were very emotional. We were super overwhelmed with emotion.”

That emotion was evident in adifferent way on Friday,with anewly muscle-bound Vesia throwing darts in abreathtaking bullpen session. His vacancy was nicely ﬁlled in the World Series by Will Klein and Justin Wrobleski, who combined to throw 10 scoreless innings. But this team will need Vesia this season as an important setup man for Edwin Díaz and is counting on him to remain his strong self.

“I do think getting back to what he loves to do and play baseball, that’ssomething therapeutic for him,” Roberts said.

Vesia agreed. The road back from grief is often along and rocky one, but as he hugged teammates for arelaxed spring moment Friday,hehad hope.

“Having something to look forward to has helped me.The gym has been my mental clarity.Being around the guys again, preparing for spring training,

it’sbeen really nice. Gotten alot of love so far in the clubhouse, and being able to laugh and joke around, that’sbeen really nice for me.”

While Vesia’sstatement was wracked with sorrow,itwas also ﬁlled with gratitude. He found time to thank the Dodgers, the Blue Jays and most notably,the fans.

Yes, all of you who reached out to him, he heard you, and he is thankful for you. This includes the Rams, who even sent him an autographed jersey as asign of their support.

“The outpouring of love and support Kay and Ihave had over the past few months has been unmatched. We’re both grateful to not only Dodger nation, but the fans worldwide. My DMs, messages, my DMs are basically broken on Instagram from all the love and support that we’ve had. I’ve tried to read all the comments and everything just because it’smeant the world, really.”

At the end of his statement, Vesia put his ﬁst over his heart, wobbled for asecond, and it looked like he was going to faint before he staggered away Remember this on opening day Remember the courage required of Alex Vesia to make this kind of public showing. Remember how he handled his greatest trauma with the sort of strength and conviction that has made these Dodgers one of the greatest teams in baseball history Do they give standing ovations to middle relievers? They do now

round-robingame, buthemanaged just one point in the ﬁnal. Tyrese Maxeyled theStars with nine points in the clincher ScottieBarnes wonthe opening 12-minute game for theStars with agame-ending 3-pointer in overtime, beating the World 37-36 after Edwards forced OT After Fox’sdaggerinthe second game, Leonard utterly dominated thethird game before hitting atiebreaking 3-pointer with3.5 seconds left in the Stripes’ 48-45 victory The Worldteam was loaded with talent, but NBAscoring leader Luka Doncic and three-timeMVP Nikola Jokic both satout its second

game, likelytopreserve the health of two superstars whohave struggled with injury in the past month. John Tesh took the court with his band before the game for alive rendition of “Roundball Rock,” the iconic 1990s theme song of “NBA on NBC,” to mark the league’s return to thenetwork this season Thatnetwork partnership is also the reason the All-Star Game was an afternoon affaironthe West Coast, because NBC airs the Winter Olympics at night. The Intuit Dome crowd included former President Barack Obama, whoreceived astanding ovation pregame.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByJAE C. HONG Team Worldcenter Victor Wembanyama defends Team USA Stars guard AnthonyEdwards during the NBAAll-Star GameonSunday in Inglewood, Calif.

ON DECK

PHOTO By PATRICK DENNIS

LSU coachJay Johnson talks withhis players during atime out duringgame against Milwaukee on SundayatAlex Box Stadium.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByROSS D. FRANKLIN Dodgerspitcher AlexVesiawalksout of the clubhouse prior to working out during spring training on FridayinPhoenix.

Staff report

STAFF PHOTO

MICHAEL JOHNSON

STAFF FILE PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

No. 2 UCLA routs Indiana for their 19th straight win

By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES Kiki Rice had 17 points and nine rebounds, Lauren Betts added 16 points and 14 rebounds, and No. 2 UCLA beat Indiana 92-48 on Sunday to extend its win streak to 19 games.

sets up the offense against UAB

Wednesday

Tulane survives late UAB comeback for road win

BY GUERRY SMITH

Would-be tying 3-point shot after 3-point shot kept ﬂying in the ﬁnal 43 seconds from UAB, and the Blazers kept getting the rebounds when they clanked off the rim.

There were seven shots in all, around two timeouts in the frenetic sequence, but when the last one came tantalizingly close before falling off, the Blazers only had time for a meaningless putback at the buzzer

Tulane built a 15-point ﬁrst-half lead on Sunday and barely held on against the short-handed Blazers, escaping Bartow Arena with a pivotal 55-54 victory that pulled it within one game of second place in the loss column in the bunchedup American Conference.

None of UAB’s attempts to tie were good looks, even with coach Andy Kennedy calling two timeouts to set up plays. Tulane played excellent scrambling defense, but it was an incredibly nerve-wracking experience as the Wave simply could not corral a rebound.

The only shot that came close was Dayjaun Anderson’s lastgasp try after he dribbled past the 3-point line on the baseline and launched a turnaround trey with Scotty Middleton and Rowan Brumbaugh defending tightly The ball hit the inside of the rim and rolled all the way around before coming off on the far side.

“I kept thinking here we go again,” Tulane coach Ron Hunter said of the ﬁnal sequence “But I kept telling the guys so much has happened to us, good things are go-

Continued from page 1C

top scorer in Southeastern Conference play, Max Mackinnon, who was out with a knee injury. Thomas, a junior UNLV transfer, injured his left foot on Jan 2, the day before the Southeastern Conference opener, and reaggravated the injury on Jan. 28 in a game against Mississippi State

The junior will have foot surgery next week. Mackinnon, a Portland transfer, was injured during the team’s loss to Arkansas on Tuesday

LSU is also missing depth guard Ron Zipper who is in concussion protocol, and returning forward Jalen Reed with an Achilles tendon injury

The shrinking depth chart hurt the Tigers’ chances of a miraculous comeback to contend for an NCAA Tournament berth

Regardless, the eight players in the rotation performed with the competitiveness of a group that still has hope.

LSU led by 46-43 with 13:29 remaining in the game. Players like Sutton, who was scoreless in the ﬁrst half, just pushed through the struggles and ﬁnished the game with 15 points and nine rebounds. Reece had a career-high 15 points, four assists and one turn-

ing to come your way if you keep working. That’s what happened today.”

In the ﬁrst half, Tulane (15-10, 6-6) took full advantage of the absence of injured UAB guards

Jacob Meyer and Ahmad Robinson and the early departure of physical forward Kyeron Lindsay-Martin with a shoulder issue, That trio accounted for half of the Blazers’ 82 points in a win at Devlin Fieldhouse in January, with Lindsay-Martin contributing a double-double.

Tulane took control with a 10-0 run midway through the first half, keyed by 3-pointers from Curtis Williams and Scotty Middleton and a buzzer-beating fadeaway from Brumbaugh. Middleton’s third trey extended the lead to 30-17, and when Brumbaugh converted an easy layup for a 34-19 advantage with 3:08 left, it looked like it would be a comfortable day Tulane was in good ﬂow despite early foul trouble for Tyler Ringgold, a recurring problem that bogged down the offense earlier in the year

“The difference is we are playing Luke Rasmussen at the 5,” Hunter said. “He kept the offense going with his passing.”

But the shots stopped falling.

UAB (16-10, 7-6) closed the gap to 36-26 at halftime, and Tulane scored only 19 points after the break on 8-of-27 shooting.

“You could see the misses affecting them,” Hunter said. “They lost conﬁdence.”

Middleton hit a career-hightying fourth 3-pointer for a 41-30 lead, making him 10 for his last 14 from long range — and Brum-

over in 40 minutes in his fourth career start. He also made 3 of 5 3-pointers, which was also a high mark

“I thought Jalen Reece really grew up,” McMahon said on the LSU sports radio network

“Played all 40 minutes, who had the ball in his hands the majority of the time, and we only turned it over three times, which gave us a chance there. I thought he did a great job of organizing us on the offensive side of the ball, and he’s always going to compete on the defensive side.”

Breakout performances will be needed from less heralded players. McMahon, however, doesn’t expect players to replicate the creation skills of Thomas or Mackinnon. Instead of increased ﬁrepower, he demanded effort as LSU played a new style designed to keep the opponent off balance.

LSU switched from zone defense to man-to-man throughout the game The goal was to make the game “ugly” with less scoring. Tennessee won the game in the end due to proliﬁc glass cleaning, outrebounding LSU 45 to 24. Still, LSU made the Volunteers work for the victory

“We learned a lot about our group, and that’s how we need to compete and ﬁght for 40 minutes every night out as we move forward,” McMahon said in the postgame press conference.

baugh drove through an open lane for a layup to restore the 11-point advantage. The Wave then made only five shots in the final 14:45. Still, the Blazers were never able to pull ahead KJ Greene scored his only points on a driving layup and Brumbaugh put back a missed shot in transition right after the lead dwindled to one. When UAB finally tied the score at 52 with 5:13 left, Williams responded with a wide-open 3 from the corner off a feed from Brumbaugh 24 seconds later Somehow, that basket held up as both teams went scoreless until the putback at the buzzer. UAB missed 14 consecutive shots in that span, including 11 3s. Brumbaugh paced Tulane in three categories with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Asher Woods added 14 points and three assists but finished 5-of-17 from the floor after scoring three of the Wave’s first five baskets. Anderson had 16 points and seven rebounds but four turnovers for UAB, which managed only seven second-chance points despite grabbing 17 offensive boards. Eight of those rebounds came on the final possession, which lasted 53 seconds around the timeouts, but the only bucket off them was the irrelevant one at the buzzer Four days after Tulane held Temple to a season-low 33.3% shooting, UAB shot 31.7% in its secondworst outing. Tulane, which is in eighth place but oh-so-close to six of the seven teams in front of it, will play at North Texas (15-11, 6-7) on Thursday

Continued from page 1C

LSU has been given one of those NCAA Tournament seeds in each of the past four seasons. How did LSU get back in that spot?

Start with the fact that it’s struggled to win close games this year

So far, the Tigers have played four games decided by seven points or fewer In the last three minutes of those games, their opponents have outscored them a combined 38-21. They’ve shot only 5 of 24 from the field (21%) in those 12 minutes, and they’ve given up two different fourth-quarter leads. LSU did not have an edge in the last quarter of its loss to South Carolina on Saturday But it did pull within one point of the Gamecocks three times in the fourth quarter alone, coming agonizingly close to earning an upper hand on a team it still hasn’t beaten in nearly 15 years. Johnson was the only contributor who made more than one shot in the fourth, but she missed three free throws in that frame. Guards Jada Richard and MiLaysia Fulwiley missed each of the last seven field goals attempted. Star junior Mikaylah Williams made four of her first five looks but came up empty on five of her last six.

The Tigers had plenty of chanc-

UCLA (25-1, 15-0 Big Ten), which is unbeaten since a 76-65 loss to No. 4 Texas on Nov 26 at the Players Era Championship, has the third-longest active win streak in the nation behind North Dakota State (21 straight) and UConn (43). Betts had her 10th doubledouble this season and the 43rd in her career Charlisse LegerWalker and Gianna Kneepkens had 12 points apiece for the Bruins and Gabriela Jaquez scored 11. Sienna Betts and Lena Bilic each had 10 points. Maya Makalusky led Indiana (14-13, 3-12) with 13 points. Lenee Beaumont added 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting and Nevaeh Caffey scored 10. Shay Ciezki, the Big Ten’s leading scorer who went into the game averaging 24.0 points (No. 5 nationally), left the game due to an apparent ankle injury late in the ﬁrst quarter and did not return. No 4 TEXAS 65, No. 22 TENNESSEE 63: In Knoxville, Tennessee, Madison Booker scored 14 points while Jordan Lee and Rori Harmon each added 12 as Texas held off Tennessee. The Longhorns (24-3, 9-3 in Southeastern Conference) led by as many as 10 points midway through the fourth quarter The Lady Volunteers (16-7, 8-3) closed the gap to one with a 3-pointer from Janiah Barker and two 3-pointers by Talaysia Cooper Two free throws by Booker put Texas up by three with 16 seconds left. Cooper answered with a layup to make the difference 64-63. Lee made one of two free throws for a 65-63 score. Cooper, who led the Lady Vols with 29 points, had the ball stripped as time expired.

GEORGIA 76, No. 5 VANDERBILT 74: In Athens, Georgia, Dani Carnegie scored 29 points to lead Georgia to an upset win over Vanderbilt.

Trinity Thomas made a midrange jumper with 50 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs (20-6, 6-6 SEC) a 75-74 lead. After forcing a turnover on the ensuing Vanderbilt (24-3, 10-3) possession, Carnegie split a pair of free throws to give Georgia a two-point advantage with 22.2 seconds remaining, No 7 MICHIGAN 86, No. 13 MICHIGAN STATE 65: In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Syla Swords had 24 points and Olivia Olson scored 23, helping Michigan beat Michigan State to sweep the season series.

Mila Holloway, who finished with 15 points, made a 3-pointer to give the Wolverines (22-4, 13-2 Big Ten) their ﬁrst lead with 5:53 left in the ﬁrst half and scored eight points in one minute to spark a 10-0 run. The Spartans (20-6, 9-6) were outscored 26-9 in the second

es They grabbed a whopping 12 offensive boards in the fourth quarter alone, which allowed them to take more than twice as many shots in the frame as the Gamecocks did. South Carolina, though, was much more efficient, and it drained all eight free throws it took in the fourth.

“Some of us have to just look in the mirror,” Williams said, “and down the stretch, bow our neck and stop dropping these close games. Doing what we need to do early in the game, so it doesn’t come down to two free throws at the end of the game.”

LSU, however, can take solace in the fact that it minimized its turnovers (nine), won the rebounding battle (46-37) and earned plenty of trips to the free-throw line (23), putting stars such as sophomore forward Joyce Edwards and senior guard Ta’Niya Latson in foul trouble. They combined to score only 18 points on Saturday But the Tigers still fell just short — again. Five of their last six meetings with South Carolina have been decided by 10 points or fewer South Carolina has won the ﬁnal three minutes of the last four matchups 31-17. LSU shot 5 of 28 from the ﬁeld (18%) in those 12 minutes, while the Gamecocks shot 8 of 16 (50%).

“We’re not in there celebrating,” coach Kim Mulkey said. “I hope (the) kids are hurting. I hope that if

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOP 25 ROUNDUP

quarter and didn’t recover losing for the fourth time in five games. No. 10 OKLAHOMA 79, No. 23 ALABAMA 71: In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Raegan Beers scored 21 points and Payton Verhulst added 17 to help Oklahoma beat Alabama. Oklahoma led by double digits on three separate occasions, but each time Alabama cut the deficit down to four points or less. No 11 DUKE 72, No. 21 NORTH CAROLINA 68: In Durham, North Carolina Ashlon Jackson and Taina Mair scored 14 points each on their senior day and Duke edged North Carolina, the Blue Devils’ 16th consecutive win. After a back-and-forth first half that saw 16 lead changes, Duke led 41-33 at halftime and never trailed in the second half. The Blue Devils’ lead was only 56-54 with 30 seconds left in the third quarter but the Tar Heels got no closer No. 12 BAYLOR 93, UCF 63: In Orlando, Florida, Taliah Scott scored 26 points and Baylor breezed to a bounce-back win, defeating UCF The Bears fell a half-game out of first place in the Big 12 on Thursday when they lost at home to No. 17 TCU 83-67. Baylor plays at TCU on March 1.

Led by 12 points from Scott, Baylor rolled to a 27-13 lead through the first quarter against UCF, which lost by 50 points against Big 12-leader West Virginia last time out. Baylor led 5223 at halftime after shooting 65% in the first half compared to 37% for UCF No. 18 KENTUCKY 74, No. 14 Ole Miss 57: In Lexington, Kentucky, Clara Strack had 28 points and nine rebounds, Tonie Morgan added 14 points and nine assists, and Kentucky beat Ole Miss. Asia Boone scored 10 of her 15 points in the second quarter for Kentucky (20-7, 7-6 SEC). Latasha Lattimore scored four points and Cotie McMahon the next five in a 9-0 spurt that trimmed the Rebels’ deficit to 57-51 with 6:45 left in the game, but Strack scored eight consecutive points over the next threeplus minutes before Morgan made a layup to give Kentucky a 16-point lead with 2:59 to play No. 20 MARYLAND 76, No. 8 OHIO STATE 75: In Columbus, Ohio, Oluchi Okananwa had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Yarden Garzon added 17 points and Maryland rallied from a 19-point deficit in the first half to beat Ohio State. It is the Terrapins largest comeback since Nov 13, 2019, when they were down 19 in the fourth quarter at James Madison before posting a 70-68 victory Addi Mack had 14 points and Saylor Poffenbarger 13 for Maryland (21-6, 9-6 Big Ten), which beat a Top 10 team for the first time since it defeated Ohio State in the Big Ten quarterfinals two years ago.

you’re a competitor, you’re hurting individually And then collectively, it’s our job as coaches when we get back on that practice ﬂoor to make sure we get them back in the right mindset to keep winning a few more basketball games.”

LSU has four games left in the regular season. Two of those matchups are against AP-ranked opponents, including a road battle with No. 14 Ole Miss set to tip off at 8 p.m. Thursday (ESPN). The Tigers haven’t dropped back-to-back games twice in the same season since Mulkey’s tenure began in 2021. A win over the Rebels would keep that streak alive, while also moving LSU closer to earning a double bye in the SEC Tournament — a right it can earn by ﬁnishing the regular season in the top four of the league’s standings. As of Sunday, the Tigers are in sixth place, below South Carolina (11-1), Vanderbilt (10-2), Tennessee (8-2), Texas (8-3) and Ole Miss (7-3). Will they bounce back from another close, frustrating loss? And can they win the next tight contest they encounter?

“We’ll see,” Mulkey said. “They’ve done it all year so I hope that they’ll continue to do it as we ﬁnish February and head into March Madness.”

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

Contributing writer

Tulane guard Rowan Brumbaugh

on Jan. 14 at Devlin Fieldhouse. Brumbaugh had a strong all-around game

with

points, six rebounds and seven assists.

MI LA N CO RT IN A OL YM PI CS

Tkachuk, U.S. defeat Germany

Canada scores 10 goals in win over France

By The Associated Press

MILAN Matthew Tkachuk in-

COLD GOLD! BRITAIN WINS FIRST OLYMPIC GOLD ON SNOW: Move over Torvill and Dean, Britain has a great new Winter Olympics pairing Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won the first gold medal on snow in the country’s 102-year history at the Winter Games after crossing the line first on Sunday in the wild sport of mixed snowboardcross.

“It’s unbelievable,” Nightingale said.“GB on a whole is doing great on the snowboard side. We want to keep it going and inspire little kids to do it as well, and maybe one day they can get a gold medal.” In mixed snowboardcross,the first set of riders goes down the mountain four-wide,while the second set waits at the top of the hill in something resembling a relay race.Whichever team crosses the line first in the fourteam final gets gold.

ODINE STROEM WINS 2ND GOLD IN WOMEN’S LARGE HILL SKI JUMP DEBUT: Anna Odine Stroem made the Olympic debut of women’s large hill ski jumping a night to remember for Norway Stroem sailed to her second gold medal of the Milan Cortina Games as Norway took the top two spots, with Eirin Maria Kvandal winning silver Slovenian favorite Nika Prevc settled for bronze.

Women’s ski jumping on the normal hill was first included in the 2014 Sochi Games,but until this year,the contest on the large hill had been limited in the Olympics to men. Stroem won with a final jump of 433 feet. Kvandal’s jump was 438 feet, but Stroem made up for it in style points from the judges and compensation points for wind.

RECORD NINTH GOLD MEDAL FOR NORWEGIAN SKIER: Klaebo stands alone as the most successful Winter Olympian of all time after winning his ninth career gold medal in cross-country skiing Norway’s prime minister was watching as the 29-year-old anchored his team’s relay gold on Sunday.That broke a tie on eight gold medals with three other Norwegians: cross-country skiers Marit Bjoergen and Bjoern Daehlie and biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. Klaebo could get into double figures by the end of the Milan Cortina Games. His next chances for a 10th gold are in the team sprint on Wednesday or the 50-kilometer race on Saturday.

MORE CONTROVERSY ROCKS

CURLING: The typically calm world of curling is being rocked by a controversy over double-touching, and it broadened Sunday as the British men’s team had a stone removed for the violation. Until now, the Canadian men’s and women’s teams had been the focus of scrutiny.An expletive-laden outburst by Canada’s Marc Kennedy after an accusation of a double touch against Sweden on Friday highlighted the problem.A double touch is when a player touches a stone again after releasing it.

sists he and his U.S. teammates were only focused on beating Germany in their preliminary round ﬁnale and never worried about scoring enough goals to pass Canada for the top seed at the Olympics.

“We never talked once about the top seed at all,” Tkachuk said. “None of that seeding stuff. All that handles itself.”

It’s handled now, after the U.S. defeated Germany 5-1 on Sunday night behind two goals and an assist from captain Auston Matthews and 23 saves from Connor Hellebuyck. The Americans finished group play unbeaten to clinch the second seed in the knockout round.

“The conﬁdence just continues to grow within our group,” Matthews said. “Each game I think we’ve taken steps in the right direction of where we want to grow our game going into the quarterfinals and it’s good to see.”

Canada put such a beatdown on France, winning 10-2, that the U.S. would have had to run up the score and beat Germany by 10 goals to pass the tournament favorite.

The North American rivals cannot meet until the gold medal game.

They have to get there first

The U.S. is set to face the winner of the qualification round game Tuesday between Sweden and Latvia, while Canada plays Czechia or Denmark in the quarterfinals on Wednesday

Sweden is the only European team at the Olympics with a full roster of NHL players, won two of its three preliminary round games and only dropped to seventh because of a goal differential tiebreaker

he’s a guy that’s going to protect our guys and do whatever it takes for our team.”

found a way It was a huge win against a really good team.”

Crosby, Canada crush France

Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid each had a goal and two assists in a clinical, businesslike 10-2 dismantling of France. Canada ﬁnished round robin play undefeated, outscoring opponents by 17 goals over three games.

“We did what we came to do,” said McDavid, who leads all scorers in Milan. “We came to win a hockey game and continue to get better.”

The blowout also included Tom Wilson fighting the player who delivered a forearm to Nathan MacKinnon’s face a couple of minutes earlier MacKinnon returned and Wilson was ejected, since ﬁghting is a game misconduct under international rules, but the already popular teammate earned even more respect inside Canada’s locker room.

“He’s going to stick up for his guys,” forward Sam Bennett said. “He’s a leader on this team and

Macklin Celebrini, Canada’s youngest player at 19, scored on a penalty shot and on the power play against France to give him four goals in three games. Wilson, picked by coach Jon Cooper to ride shotgun on the top line on McDavid’s right wing, also had a goal, an assist and some big hits.

Switzerland wins one for Fial Rallying around the absence of injured winger Kevin Fiala, Switzerland beat Czechia 4-3 in overtime to give itself an easy path to the quarterﬁnals.

Winning the preliminary round ﬁnale means captain Roman Josi’s team next faces winless host Italy in the qualiﬁcation playoffs Tuesday

“We knew it was a big game,” said Josi, the Nashville Predators defenseman who scored Switzerland’s first goal by banking the puck off Radko Gudas’ left skate and in. “Obviously a lot of up and downs in that third period but

Former Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Dean Kukan scored the overtime winner In 172 NHL regular-season and playoff games, he had just six goals and ranked this one top three in his career

Timo Meier of the New Jersey Devils and Pius Suter of the St. Louis Blues also scored for Switzerland, and 38-year-old national team goaltender Leonardo Genoni stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced.

Andersen helps Denmark to win Longtime NHL goaltender Frederik Andersen made 33 saves on 35 shots to give Denmark its first victory in Milan, 4-2 over Latvia.

Winning by two on an emptynetter also put Denmark ahead in the seeding, leaving Latvia to be 10th and face No. 7 Sweden in the qualiﬁcation round Tuesday “There’s no easy teams, but we wanted to give our best shot at whatever comes next,” Andersen said.

Kok, Leerdam win medals in speedskating’s 500

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP national writer

MILAN Everyone expected Femke Kok to win the 500-meter speedskating gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics. Even her Dutch teammate, Jutta Leerdam, the woman who beat Kok in the 1,000. Even the defending champion, Erin Jackson.

And, well, Kok did, too. Embracing those expectations rather than ﬁghting them, Kok extended her two-year-plus unbeaten streak at her sport’s shortest distance Sunday, adding a gold medal and the Olympic record to her world mark, beating Jackson head-to-head in the ﬁnal heat and relegating Leerdam to the silver

“I really wanted to prove to everyone that I could do it,” said Kok, who reversed the result from the 1,000 meters on Monday, when she got the silver “I knew for myself the only thing that mattered was gold.” Kok powered through the ﬁnal turn of the 500 and easily pulled away from Jackson, ﬁnishing in 36.49 seconds — a whopping 0.66 seconds ahead of teammate Leerdam

“We’re a really small country,” Kok said about the Netherlands and its population of under 20 million, “but we can do speedskating.”

Miho Takagi of Japan was third in 37.27, picking up her second bronze of these Winter Games and ninth career Olympic medal. Her totals: two golds, four silvers and three bronzes.

Jackson was ﬁfth in 37.32, four years after her 500 triumph for the United States made her the ﬁrst Black woman to win an individual gold medal at a Winter Olympics in any sport.

“Femke has been the person to chase for the past few years. She’s just been amazing,” Jackson said. “If I have the perfect race, I could probably give her a run for her money.”

But Jackson didn’t have a perfect race: Sure, her start was terriﬁc, but she stumbled a bit at one point, losing crucial time.

“I was coming closer and closer and closer,” Kok said, “and then I knew, ‘OK, I’m going fast.’” As she usually does in the 500, an event she last lost in February 2024. When Kok crossed the line Sunday, she threw her arms overhead to the delight of the many many Dutch spectators, then skated a little more before covering her face with both hands.

That was quite a contrast to Leerdam’s reaction after she temporarily took the lead in the 12th of 15 heats.

She got off to something of a slugging start and was behind Takagi’s pace after 100 meters. While Leerdam did manage to better that time, she let out a big exhale afterward and didn’t look particularly pleased.

“She deserves it, for sure. She’s super good in the 500,” Leerdam said about Kok. “Silver in the 500 is such a win for me. I already felt complete after the win in the 1,000 — and now I have this one.” Kok prevented Leerdam from becoming just the third female speedskater to win the 500 and 1,000 at the same Olympics.

“We pushed each other the last couple of years to a higher level,” Kok said. “She’s doing her own thing; I’m doing my own thing. We have a lot of respect for each other She’s doing it her way; I’m doing it my way.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ANTONIO CALANNI

Femke Kok of the Netherlands, left, celebrates winning a gold medal with silver medalist Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands, right, in the women’s 500 meters speedskating race on Sunday in Milan, Italy

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CAROLyN KASTER

United States hockey players react after winning a preliminary round game against Germany on Sunday in Milan, Italy Team USA secured first place in Group C and the second overall seed in the tournament.

Taking home bronze

Making of coveted BAFTAmask trophies an intricatetask

BY HILARYFOX Associated Press

LONDON Those winning aprize at the upcoming BritishAcademy Film Awards willbag acoveted bronze mask trophy —and get abit of an arm workout taking it home. Along with the honor of being named the best of the year in the industry,winners at the BAFTAceremony on Feb. 22 willbeawardedone of thedozens of the 6.6-pound prizes. This year the cast and crew of “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” and “Sentimental Value” are in the running for the trophies at the EE BAFTA ceremony,tobeheld at London’sRoyal Festival Hall.

As with many things in show business, all that glitters is not gold. The BAFTAmasksare made of phosphor bronze, polished to amirror ﬁnish that will reﬂect the happy face of its new owner

INVISION PHOTO By SCOTT AGARFITT

Completed British AcademyFilm Awards masks are lined up at the FSE FoundryinBraintree, England.

Craftsmen at the AATi Foundry in Braintree, about 50 miles northeast of London, usea sandcasting technique tomake about 350 bronze trophies each year for all the BAFTAceremonies —covering the ﬁlm,televisionand gaming industries.

They arecreated in batches, and making one from start to ﬁnishtakesarounda week,the foundry’s director Hugh Bisset said Tuesday

The process starts with apattern by the tooling team, often outoftimber or 3D printing. That tool moves to the molding team which uses sand to make two recessed impressions ofthe mask, one each side. They are then closed together,ready for molten hot bronze —upto 2,192 Fahrenheit —tobepoured into it. The metal takesabout threeor fourhours to cool down, whenit can then be removed from the sand. The masks’ surfaces look dull andabit rougharoundthe edges at this stage, but after fettling, threading and polishing they are ready to be assembled before being checked over extremely carefully Bisset says it’simportantthat the masks areshiny and haveno polish left on them.

“The thing I’m always conscious of is that these amazing actors and actresses, they pick up their awards and my big concern is that asmudge ofpolish will end up over their lovely, beautiful white dress,” he said.

LIVING

MIXITUP

From lump crab to cinnamon buns, home bakers getcreativewithkingcakes

BY MATTHEW HAINES

Contributing writer

“Why would anyone bake aking cake when local bakeriesare turning themout by the thousands every morning from now until Mardi Gras?” an articleinthe Jan.15, 1987, edition of TheTimes-Picayune asked.

Nearly 40 years later,with theavailability of kingcakes proliferating in previously unimaginable shapes, sizesand ﬂavors, the question is still relevant. Butthe New Orleans appetite is endless.Now amateurbakers aregetting creative, too, and king cakebaking competitions have been cropping up across thecity.

Some home bakerssay they enjoy expressing thecity’ssweet tradition in adifferent way,while others see it as an opportunity to build community. Caitlion Hunter,anenvironmental justicelawyer who is vegan, wanted their daughter to see adifferent side of her mother

“I entered my ﬁrst amateur king cake competition at the Humane Society Louisiana last year,” theysaid. “Itwas abig deal for me because my baby was only afew months old,and Ihadn’tdoneanythingcreative for awhile.”

“I was so proud to enter the competition,” Hunteradded, “and to bring my baby along with me and show her that her mom is also a badass chef!” Hunter bakes anew,creative king cake each year forfamily and friends at their annualMardi Gras parties.

See MIX, page 2D

BobSaget documentaryinthe

BY ELIZABETH WELLINGTON

The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

PHILADELPHIA Old City-based 9.14

Pictures is working on an untitled documentary aboutcomedian Bob Saget, the Philly-bred funny man who rose to fame in the 1980s as the affable Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom “Full House.” Deadlineﬁrstreported the news. Theannouncement comes on theheels of thestudio’ssuccessful projects centering on celebrities with local ties including Disney+’s “Taylor Swift:The EndofanEra” andPrimeVideo’smost watched

documentary,“Kelce.”Bothwere directed by the studio’sowners Don Argottand Sheena M. Joyce. According to Deadline, Argott andJoyce will direct this piece, too. The directors, Deadline reports, were given access to Saget’s rare homevideos and tonever-before-seen footage about theactor “The ﬁlm will reveal the complex life,devastating losses andenduring kindness behind the laughter,” thearticle stated. Thedocumentary will ultimately help viewers understand how and why Saget’s comedy turned so darkand raunchy beforehis

untimely death in 2022 at aRitzCarlton hotelinOrlando, Florida, fromwhat medical examiners said was an accidental blow to the head. He was 65 years old. Saget, who also hosted “America’sFunniest Home Videos” for eightseasons, wasbornin Mount Airy,moved to Virginia, andmoved back to theareawhen he wasateenager.Hegraduated from Abington Senior High and went on to attend Temple University, where he studied ﬁlm WhileatTempleUniversity, he

STAFFPHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

Carla Pesono judges apiece of king cakeduring the BakeitTill youMakeItcompetitionatSecond Line Brewing in New Orleans on Jan. 23.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Marielle Pichon’sgallette des rois

FILE PHOTO OldCity-based 9.14 Pictures is working on an untitled documentaryabout comedian Bob Saget, whodied in 2022.

See SAGET, page 2D

Take smallsteps to lowerblood pressure

Dear Doctors: Ijust had my yearly physical, and my blood pressure has movedinto the upper range of normal. The idea that it may be increasing is worrying me. I prefer not to take medications, so Iwant to get ahead of this. What can Idotolower my blood pressure naturally?

Dr.Elizabeth Ko Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THE DOCTORS

Dear Reader: Your instinct to take this change seriously is wellfounded. Blood pressureisan important metric of goodhealth, andanupward trend, even within guidelines, can be concerning. High blood pressure, alsoknown as hypertension, makes your heart work harder It also stresses blood vessels. Over time, uncontrolled hypertension can increase the risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. It also increases risk for kidney disease, plaque buildup in the arteries, sexualdysfunction and vision loss. More recently, research has found that chronic high blood pressure can play a role in cognitive decline. Thegood news is that arange of lifestylechoices can help bring blood pressure into a normal range. These include regular physical activity,a healthier diet,getting enough good-qualitysleep and managing

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2026. There are 318 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On Feb. 16, 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as premier of Cuba, six weeks after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrownand ﬂed the country into exile. Castro’s rise to power marked the start of Cuba’stransformation into acommunist nation

Also on this date:

In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee endedwith the surrender of some 12,000 Confederate soldiers; Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’svictory earned him the moniker “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”

In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’srecently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter In 1960, the nuclearsubmarine USS Triton departed New London, Connecticut, on the ﬁrst submergedcircumnavigation of the globe by a vessel.

In 1996, 11 people were killed in aﬁery collision between an Amtrak passenger train and aMaryland commuter train in SilverSpring, Maryland.

In 2018, special counsel Robert Muellerindicted13 Russiansand three Russian companies on charges of staging an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential electionvia asocial media trolling campaign, aimed in part at helping Donald Trump win the presidency

In 2024, Russia’sprison agency announcedthat Alexei Navalny,activist and Russian opposition leader, had died in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a19-year sentence on charges of extremism; Navalny’s death brought outrage and criticism from world leaders toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Today’sbirthdays: Businessman Carl Icahn is 90. Author Eckhart Tolle is 78.Actor William Katt is 75.Actor LeVar Burton is 69. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 68. Tennis Hall of Famer John McEnroe is 67. Football Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis is 54. Olympic track and ﬁeld gold medalistCathy Freeman is 53. Actor MahershalaAli is 52. Rapper Lupe Fiasco is 44. DemocraticSen. John Ossoff of Georgia is 39. Actor Elizabeth Olsen is 37.Singer-actor The Weeknd is 36. Actor Chloe East is 25

SAGET

Continued from page 1D

practiced his stand-up at then Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr’sQueen Village Club. He also won astudent Oscarin 1978 for his 11-minutedocumentary,“Through Adam’sEyes,” the story of an 11-year-old boy whounderwent agruelingfacial surgery. After Temple, he movedtothe West Coast and attended theUniversity of SouthernCalifornia’s ﬁlm school, but dropped out todo stand-up. For the next seven years, he was the emcee at the Comedy Store,working among such comedians as David Letterman and

stress. No doubt these guidelines sound familiar,which can make them easy to acknowledge and then set aside. Butthe key to successfully lowering blood pressure is making them into daily habits. Incorporating even afew can lead to meaningful improvementsinyour health. And—more good news —itcan happen faster than you might think. Many people begin to see a positive trendinblood pressure within weeks of adopting more healthy habits. When it comes to diet,limit salt. Dietary guidelines recommend that adults not exceed 2,300 mg of sodiumper day That’sclosetoonly ateaspoon. To stick to this limit, pay close attention to added saltinprepared foods. Cutting back on highly processed foods, which

are high in salt andlow in nutrients, is also key. Replace them with whole, fresh foods, including leafy greens, vegetables, fruit, beans, legumes, grains, healthy oils, seafoodand lean proteins.Limit alcohol and quit tobacco. Although sodium gets headlines whenitcomestoimproving blood pressure, potassium is equally important. This mineral helps thebodyexcrete sodium. It’spart of abiochemical process that relaxes blood vesselwalls. For best results, potassium intake should at leastmatch sodium intake andideally exceed it.Following the DASH diet, the fresh food eating planwewrote about quite recently,isanexcellent way to lowersodium and increasepotassium. It is also important to get

moving with amix of aerobic exercise,resistance training and stretching.

The goal is 150 minutesper week in sessions of at least 10 minutes each.Exercise improves sleep,whichalso helps with healthy blood pressure.Regular exercise hasalso been shown to help manage stress. Yoga, tai chi, deep breathing andmeditation can be useful. And remember, youdon’t have to do this all at once. Start small, build gradually andgive your body time to adjust andtorespond.

Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla. edu,orwrite: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd., Suite1450, Los Angeles CA, 90024.

Continued from page 1D

Last year,for example, they made abloodymary-inspired king cake.

“I am the type of person wholooks at store-bought items, whether itis vegan cheese, plant-based meat, or king cake, and thinks, ‘I could totally make that myself,’”they said.

Building community

Marielle Pichonisaspecial education English language arts teacher in New Orleans. Growing up in Houston in aCatholic family with dualFrench-American citizenship, her French father would pick up the popular French version of king cake, agalettedes rois, for Twelfth Night from alocal bakery

Her father has since passed away, butPichon has fondmemories of the family gathering to divvy up slices of thealmond paste-filledgalette to see whowouldget the porcelain fèveand be crownedking or queen of the party

Now living in New Orleans, Pichon makes her own galettes des rois during Carnival season.

“It’sthe most beautiful thing Iknow how tobake, so it’s funto impress my friends with it,” she laughed,beforeadding,“butitis also an opportunity to takethis childhood tradition with my family and memoryofmydad andshare it with my New Orleans community.”

Building communityseems to be amajor theme among thosebaking king cakes at home. They yearn to sharetheir seasonal creations with friends, family andco-workers.

At Second Line Brewing, co-owner Mark Logan said they are always looking for new ways to maketheir brewery acenter for the neighborhood and city.One way they’ve done thatis with amateur baking contests throughout the year

“Weliked thebaking approach given that we live in acity obsessed with food and everyonehas their grandmother’srecipefor étouffée or gumbo or whatever,” Logan said. “Home brewers have abig community and we thought it would be fun to help buildthat same community for homebakers.”

Tellingstories throughbaking

Agood recipe often tells the story of its creator.When, for example, the Honduran-ownedNorma’s Sweets Bakery in Mid-City wanted to make aking cake, it made sense that theirs would have guava and cream cheese filling, commonin Honduran pastries.

Babka king cakes at Saba from Alon Shaya —who grew up eating babkawithhis grandparents in Israel before eventually fallinginlove with the king cake tradition in Louisiana —ora sushiking cakeatRockn-Sake both are additional examples that kingcakes areanavenuefor autobiography and homage.

Thesameistrueforthekingcakes of amateur bakers in New Orleans

Local Fox 8news anchor Shelby

Robin Williams, Michael Keaton, Billy Crystal, Jay Leno,Johnny Carson and Richard Pryor

He also warmed up the crowd before tapings of “Bosom Buddies,” theTom Hanks-PeterScolarisitcom. The producer later hired Saget to play DannyTanneron“Full House,”onwhich he portrayed amorning TV host in SanFrancisco.

Before Sagetturned 38, he’d lost one sister to arare autoimmunedisease andanothertoa brain aneurysm, he told thePhiladelphiaInquirer in a1994 article. Those losses, hesaid, helped him prioritizehis life and ledto hismaudlin sense of humor

The BobSaget documentary will be produced by Story Syndicate, Revue Studios, and 9.14 Pictures.

Latino was born in Louisiana and said she has been baking king cakes since she was in high school.

“Inadditiontotasting allofthe city’samazing king cakes —I’m aManny Randazzo girl —Itry to make aking cakeofmyown each year,” she said. “It’ssuch aspecial Carnival tradition.”

Latinosaid her husband’sgrandfather, Bernie, was agreat baker,and though he passedaway,she found herself thinking about his sticky buns often.

“Sticky buns are closetocinnamonrolls,and cinnamon rolls are sometimes like king cake,” Latino said, “so Idecidedtomakeaking cake inspired by Bernie’srecipe.

She adds soft sprinklesinstead of colored sugar to emulate aManny Randazzo’sking cake, but because her husband loves Dong Phuong, Shelby incorporates acream cheese and heavy cream icing.

She added, “I love that Ican take this special tradition and incorporate family nostalgia anda bit of copycatting, too!”

Growingtradition

AlisihiaBigelow has taken her desire to be part of the king cake traditioneven astepfurther

“I have been taking pottery classes fornineyears at TheLondon Clayworks,” she said, “so last year Isculptedand glazed my ownbaby to stick in theking cake for Mardi Gras day.”

It wasahit.Sadly,thingsdidn’t work out as well thesecondtime around.

“I accidentally decapitatedita few days ago, so there will be no

king cakes

baby this year,” she conceded.

Bigelow experiments with avarietyofﬂavors, from cinnamon sugar to caramelized onions with bacon and Gruyere. This year sheisexperimenting with asourdough king cake.

“People are impressed when I bring aking cake to aCarnival party,” she said. “My husband is a musician and Itell him that this is my version of people clapping for me after asong.”

Scott Crawford can relate to how good thatapproval can feel. He said he remembers, growing up in New Orleans, when it was his turn to bring aking cake to school, his mother sent him with an enormous one from McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppes.

“I would walk into class with a king cake so massive the cardboard

carrying it was the size of afull sheet of plywood,” he said. “It felt like Iwas entering as aconquering hero.”

Today,when he brings his housemade savory jumbolump crab king cake —ﬁlled and topped with two pounds of lumpcrab meat mixed withlemon butter sauce, Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs —Crawford said he gets that sameheroic feeling

He appreciates the attention, and the nostalgia around the tradition. Butthatisn’twhy he makes his signature king cake forparties each year

“It’sloosely modeled after one of my favorite dishes, the Rickey Jackson crab ﬁngers from Impastato’sinMetairie,” he said. “The best part about making this king cake is knowing Iwill gettoeat it.”

Scott Crawford’s housemade jumbo lump crab king cake

INVISION PHOTO By SCOTT AGARFITT

Afurnace worker pours molten metalaspartofthe process to create BAFTAmasks at FSEFoundry in Braintree, England. ShelbyLatino’shomemade

AQuARIus (Jan.20-Feb. 19) Choose the path that opens your mind to ahost of new ideas and opportunities. Putyour strength, courage and discipline to work for you.Self-improvement will encouragenew beginnings.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Take careof unfinished business beforeyou start somethingnew. You'll gain insight into what'spossibleifyou devote your undividedattention to what'snext.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Put your time and energy into helping others. Don't donate money; offer your time, skills and patience to those in need, and the rewards will be more gratifying than youcan imagine.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Don'tlet ego getinthe way.You'll make gains if you put your energy and skills to work. Your efforts will lead to greater security and abetter quality of life

GEMInI(May21-June 20) Getthe facts, pay attention to detail and honor your promises. You'll gain insight by helping others and learning through research, travel andeducational pursuits

cAncER (June 21-July22) Sticktowhatyou know. Act on your own behalf. Howyou respond to otherswill affect how much information people share with you. Be kind, considerate and willing to help.

LEo (July 23-Aug.22) It's OK to dream, butdon't fall short on your promises. Offer onlywhat'sfeasible. Alack of practicalityregarding money, debt and

howyou distribute what youearn will lead to complications

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Pay attention, nurture meaningful relationships and rethink your work-playratio.Apartnership will help you bring about positive change in your life. LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Put moreeffort into making your home user-friendly, and you will find it easier to reach your goals. Size up situations and figureout what you can do to make things better and how much it will costtocomplete your mission.

scoRPIo(oct. 24-nov.22) Think matters through before you implement change. Not everyone will be on the same page as you. Get approval and the support you requiretoreach your destination.

sAGIttARIus (nov.23-Dec. 21) Spend more time acting and less timehyping up what you intend to do next. Actions speak louder than words and help keep criticism at bay. Follow your instincts, not someone else'slead.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Refuse to let anyone talk youinto something youdon't need or cannot afford. Well-thought-out change and doing the legworkyourself will pay off and lead to new opportunities.

bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to place thenumbers 1to9inthe empty squaressothat each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of thesudoku increases from monday to sunday

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

Wayne Gretzky, the ice hockey superstarwho surprisingly won the Stanley Cuponlyfourtimes(the record fora player is 11, held by Henri Richard of the MontrealCanadiens),said,“Youmiss100 percentofthe shots you never take.”

Experts carry afair number of percentages around in their heads. Less capable players know afew. This means that when twolines of play present themselves, theexpertcan usually calculatewhich is mathematically better. But someone else might have to rely on instinct.

In thisexample, how should Southplay in threeno-trump after West leads the clubqueen?

North might have used Stayman to try to find a4-4 major-suit fit. However, with his points in hisshortsuits,itwas reasonable to raise to three no-trump.

Using Stayman is fine when you have a4-4 major-suitfit and game in that suitmakes.But when you do not have afit, employing Stayman justgives the defenders extra information about declarer’s hand.

South starts with seven toptricks: one spade,oneheart,threediamondsandtwo clubs. If declarer can take five diamond tricks,hewill be home. Butshould he cashthetophonorsorstartwithafinesse of dummy’s 10?

Apriori, a3-3 split has aprobability of 35.53 percent.Mostplayersknow that. But fewwill be aware that thefinessing line will work 42 percent of thetime, making it the preferable choice. Win the first trick withyour club ace, play adiamond to dummy’s 10, cash the diamond queen, and claim nine tricks. In general, trynot to bank everything on a3-3 split ©2026 by nEa, inc., dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons:

toDAy’s WoRD DRIVEL: DRIH-vul:Nonsense.

Average

sAtuRDAy’s

wuzzles

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C. PiCKles

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letterword fromthe letters in each row. add pointsof each word, using scoring directions at right.Finally 7-letterwords get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. allthe words are in theOfficial sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5thEdition.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

info@scrabbleplayers.org.Visit

ken ken

WiShinG Well

InstructIons: 1 -Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner. HErE is aplEasanT

Scrabble GramS

Get fuzzy

jump Start

roSe iS roSe

animal crackerS

DuStin

Drabble Wallace the brave

CEMETERY PLOTS Westlawn Cemetery Mausoleum, in theChapel. Corr IV,TierA,holds 6 interments $18,000. 504-259-0505

Anyone knowingthe whereabouts of GuyF.Lawson, please contact Attorney DavidJ.Motter, 3500N HullenStreet,Metairie,

Cramer,Jr, please contactAttorney KatherineBuchler at 504-835-7289 or kfbuchler@att.net. Property rights involved relative to 1505Mimosa Street,Marrero,LA70072. 177441-Feb14-16, 3t $133

FEBRUARY 16, 2026

DEADLINETORESPOND: APRIL7,2026@ 4:00 P.M.

Datesare subjectto changesvia an adden‐dumpostedbythe Bu‐reau of Purchasing on theCity’ssupplierportal.

This RFIdoesnot commit theCitytocontractfor anysuppliesorservices. Further, theCityisnot seekingproposals throughthisRFI andwill notacceptunsolicited proposals. In addition to therightsreservedelse‐where in this RFI, theCity reserves andmay,inits sole discretion,exercise theright to cancel or modify this RFIatany time at will,withor with‐outnotice. This RFIand anyrelated discussionsorevalua‐tionsbyanyonecreate no rights or obligations whatsoever. Responses to theRFI arenon-bind‐ing on theCityorrespon‐d h

OFFI CIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS SPECIAL SESSION CITY HALL: DECEMBER 30, 2025

g y p denttotheRFI TheCityshall notbeli‐able forany cost in‐curred by respondents associated with develop‐inga submission,prepar‐ingfor discussions(if any) or anyother costs, incurred bythe respon‐dent associated with this RFI. Thematerials sub‐mitted in response to this requestshall be‐come thepropertyofthe City TheBureauofPurchas‐ingusescommodity codestonotifysuppliers of therelease of asourc‐ingevent andsubse‐quentmodiﬁcationsvia addendum.Notethatyou wouldreceive thosenoti‐ﬁcationsifyou selected thefollowing commodity code(s)beforethe re‐leaseofthe sourcing event: COMMODITYCODE(s): 968-60 Formoreinformation

JEWELRY/WATCHES Ladies beaut. 10k-14kgolddiamond cross& chn$350 504-994-7385

JEWELRY/WATCHES Ladies Beaut. 10kygDiam. ClusteredHeart Ring Must See$350 504-994-7385

The Council of the City of New Orleans met this day in Special Session, at 9:00 A.M., in the Council Chamber, City Hall, Council President, JP Morrell, presiding. On calling the roll, the following members answered to their names:

(VICE PRESIDENT)

(PRESIDENT)

(Arrived later in the meeting). SIX MEMBERS PRESENT,CONSTITUTING AQUORUM.

BY:COUNCILMEMBER GIARRUSSO

Approving and ratifying the release of $XXXXXXX from the City of New Orleans Employee Emergency PayrollFund to cover the cost of payrollrelated expenses for employees of the police and fire departments (as well as certain employees paid weekly) for the payroll period beginning December 14, 2025 and ending December 27, 2025. The foregoing authorization shallbesubject to concurrence by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor,inaccordance with City Code §70-415.347(d). WITHDRAWN. SUBSTITUTE NO.R-25-674

BY:COUNCILMEMBER GIARRUSSO (BYREQUEST)

SECONDED BY:COUNCILMEMBER MORRELL

WHEREAS, the New Orleans City Council on November 6, 2025 enacted Ordinance No.30522 M.C.S. establishing the City of New Orleans Employee Emergency PayrollFund in Chapter 70, Article III, Division 55 of the Code of the City of New Orleans (the “Fund”) and imposing aseries of requirements regulatingthe payment of expenses from the Fund; and WHEREAS, Section70-415.347(b) of the Code provides that no expenditurefromthe Fund shall be permitted unless authorized by one or moreCouncilresolutions and further provides that any such authorization shall be limited to specificcategories of expenditures delineated in the Code; and WHEREAS, the administration, in accordance with City Code §70415.347(c), has submitted abudget and expenditure plan estimating up to $19,604,369.17 in payroll-related expenses foremployees of the police and fire departments (as well as certain employees paidweekly) forthe payroll period beginning December 14, 2025 and ending December 27, 2025 (the “January 2Payroll”); and WHEREAS, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, working in concert with the Department of Finance, has confirmed that the January 2Payroll includes $5,865,330.47 in actual wage payments and various withholdings, which represents an allowable use of Fund proceeds that will be processed immediatelyupon adoption of this instrument and remitted to employees in their weekly paychecks; and WHEREAS, the remainder of estimated plan of expenses encompasses various fringe benefits and other payroll-related payments thatwill be finalized and processed on asubsequent date and may be paidfromthe Fund if authorized pursuant to aseparate resolution; NOWTHEREFORE BE RESOLVED BY THECOUNCIL OF THECITYOFNEW ORLEANS, That the Council, in accordance with City Code §70-415.347, does hereby approve and ratify the release of $5,865,330.47 from the City of New Orleans Employee Emergency PayrollFund to cover the cost of payrollrelated expenses foremployees of the police and fire departments (as well as certain employees paid weekly) for the payroll period beginning December 14, 2025 and ending December 27, 2025. The foregoing authorization shallbesubject to concurrence by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor,inaccordance with City Code §70-415.347(d). BE IT FURTHERRESOLVED BY THECOUNCILOFTHE CITYOF NEWORLEANS, That certified copies of this

“Fund”)and

aseries of

from

and WHEREAS,

Code provides thatno expenditurefromthe Fund

unless authorized by

or moreCouncil resolutions andfurtherprovides thatany such authorization shall be limitedtospecificcategoriesofexpenditures delineated in the Code; WHEREAS, the administration, in accordance with City Code §70415.347(c), hassubmitteda budget andexpenditureplanestimating up to $11,361,025.02inpayroll-related expenses for City employees (other thanthe police and fire departments) for the payroll period beginning December 7, 2025 andending December 20, 2025 (the“December 26 PayPeriod”); and WHEREAS, on December 23, 2025, the Council adopted Resolution No. R-25-672, authorizingthe release of $6,410,382.45fromthe Fund to cover the cost of payroll-related expenses for City employees (other than the police and fire departments) for the December 26 PayPeriod; and WHEREAS, Resolution No. R-25-672 notedthatthe remainderofthe city’scosts for the December 26 PayPeriod encompassedvarious fringe benefits andotherpayroll-related payments thatwould be finalized and processed on asubsequentdateand addressed in aseparateresolution; and WHEREAS, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor,working in concert with the Department of Finance, hasconfirmedanadditional $5,571,939.88in fringe benefits andotherpayroll-related costs relatedtothe December 26 Period, paymentofwhichrepresents an allowable use of the Fund; and WHEREAS, the Council desires to approve the use of the Fund to cover the cost of the foregoing fringe benefits andotherpayroll-related payments, as described herein; NOW THEREFORE BE RESOLVED BY THE COUNCILOFTHE CITY OF NEWORLEANS, Thatthe Council, in accordance with City Code §70-415.347, does hereby approve andratify the release of $5,571,939.88 from the City of NewOrleansEmployeeEmergency Payroll Fund to cover the payment of the

NOCP 8888

NOTICE TO CLAIMANTS OF COMPLAINTFOR EXONERATIONFROMOR LIMITATIONOFLIABILITY NOTICE is hereby given that GMarineInc.("Peti‐tioner"),a Louisianacor‐poration,asownerofthe M/VMAGGIELYNNatthe time in question,has ﬁleda Complaintfor Ex‐onerationfromorLimita‐tion of Liabilitypursuant to 46 U.S.C. §30501, et seq. andRuleF of the Supplemental Rulesfor AdmiraltyorMaritime Claims of theFederal RulesofCivil Procedure forall claims forloss damage,death,injury, or destructionallegedly caused,arising outof,

BY:COUNCILMEMBER

and WHEREAS, Section70-415.347(b) of the Code provides that no expenditurefromthe Fund shall be permitted unless authorized by one or moreCouncilresolutions and further provides that any such authorization shall be limited to specificcategories of expenditures delineated in the Code; and WHEREAS, the administration, in accordance with City Code §70415.347(c), has submitted abudget and expenditureplan estimating up to $11,361,025.02 in payroll-related expenses for City employees (other than the police and fire departments) for the payroll period beginning December 7, 2025 and ending December 20, 2025 (the “December 26 Payroll”); and WHEREAS, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor,working in concert with the Department of Finance, has confirmed that the December 26 Payrollincludes $6,410,382.45 in actual wage payments and various withholdings, which represents an allowable use of Fund proceeds that will be processed immediatelyupon adoption of this instrument and remitted to employees in their weekly paychecks; and WHEREAS, the remainder of estimated plan of expenses encompasses various fringe benefits and other payroll-related payments thatwill be finalized and processed on asubsequent date and may be paidfromthe Fund if authorized pursuant to aseparate resolution; NOWTHEREFORE BE RESOLVED BY THECOUNCIL OF THECITYOFNEW ORLEANS,

That the Council, in accordance with City Code §70-415.347, does hereby approve and ratify the release of $6,410,382.45 from the City of New Orleans Employee Emergency PayrollFund to cover the cost of payroll-related expenses forCity employees (other than the police and fire departments) for the payroll period beginning December 7, 2025 and ending December 20, 2025. The foregoing authorization shallbesubject to concurrence by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, in accordance with City Code §70-415.347(d). BE IT FURTHERRESOLVED BY THECOUNCIL OF THECITYOF NEWORLEANS, That certified copies of this resolution be delivered immediatelytothe Chief Administrative Officer,the Director of Finance, and the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.

THEFOREGOING RESOLUTION WASREAD IN FULL, THEROLL WAS CALLED ON THE ADOPTION THEREOF,AND RESULTED AS FOLLOWS: YEAS: Giarrusso,Green, Harris, King, Moreno, Morrell, Thomas -7 NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 0 ANDTHE RESOLUTION WASADOPTED.

NO.R-25-673

BY:COUNCILMEMBER GIARRUSSO (BYREQUEST)

Approving and ratifying the release of $XXXXXX from the City of New Orleans Employee Emergency PayrollFund to cover the payment of the fringebenefits and other payroll-related expenses for the payroll period beginning November 30, 2025 and ending December 13, 2025. The foregoing authorization shallbesubject to concurrence by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor,inaccordance with City Code §70-415.347. WITHDRAWN. SUBSTITUTE NO.R-25-673

LORAW.JOHNSON CLERK OF COUNCIL CH/jmr NOCP 8887

BY:COUNCILMEMBER GIARRUSSO (BYREQUEST) SECONDED BY:COUNCILMEMBER MORRELL WHEREAS, the NewOrleansCity Council on November6,2025 enacted OrdinanceNo. 30522 M.C.S. establishing the City of NewOrleans Employee EmergencyPayroll Fund in Chapter 70, Article III, Division 55 of the Code of the City of NewOrleans(the

Krewe of Proteus

February16, 2026

1. PROTEUS CXLV Proteushimselfleadshis glittering procession from his gold and pink shell,astride acascading wave.The design, shell, and wave structureofthisclassic originated in the1930’s.

2. Title: “The Journey of SunWukong” As Proteus emergesfromthe swirling waters, he is escorted by hiscolorful creatures of thesea.The Old- Manof-the-Seareveals therealmsofSun Wukong, the Monkey King

3. 1881: TheDawnofProteus Based on thedesign of theKing’sCar from thevery first Proteusparade; this faithful reproduction of thewing like fins reflects thecolors of therainbow, theglittering scales shed flashes like amilliondiamondsinthe ever-changing illumination of this magnificent float

4. BirthofSun Wukong:Out of thequiet tranquility of Flower FruitMountain, ourlittlemonkey, Sun Wukong,bursts forthfromamagical stoneegg. Wukong quickly gets to work creating an abundant kingdom forhim and his fellow monkeys.

5. Peaches of Immortality:The Jade Emperor appointsSun Wukong as theprotector of the celestial peachorchids. He discovers thethe

peaches will grant him immort theprecious fruitand givesth subjectsback on Earth

6. Punishment of SunWukong: Peaches of Immortality,the mi descend on SunWukong to su meets his match withthe divin successfully binds him, follow trapping him inside amountai

7. The Golden Pagoda:Our hero in distress: their beloved pago of its sacredrelicsand withiti soon discoverthe culprit is the Emerald Wave Lagoon and his Headed Beast. Theydefeat the thepagoda to its former glory

8. ShaWujing and ZhuBajie:He to twoofSun Wukong’scompa harrowing journey: Sha Wujing demon, and ZhuBajie,the glu Both hope to atonefor pasttre journeytoIndia.

9. TheBull DemonKing:The en insurmountable mountain of fi

ality,sohegorges on e rest to his monkey Afterstealing the ghtiestofwarriors bduehim. He finally ewarrior Erlang who edbythe Buddha n. oes approachatown da has beenrobbed tsmagical glow.They e Dragon King of the son-in-law,the Ninee villains andrestore

ere we areintroduced anions on his g,the stoicsand ttonous pig-monster. espasses through their tourage encounter an fire that can only be

extinguishedbya magical fan owned by LadyIron Fan, wife of theBull Demon King. Sun Wukong is able to acquirethe fan throughtreachery, but not withoutthe wrathofthe Bull Demon King, which resultsinamightybattle.

10. TheGinseng Tree:The pilgrimstakerefuge in amonastery withamagical ginseng tree that produces strange baby-shaped fruits that grant longevitywhen consumed.Sun Wukong and his demoncohorts secretly gorge themselves,must to thedismayofthe monastery.WhenWukong is reprimanded, he destroysthe tree in arage, but it is thankfullyrestoredbythe Bodhisattva Guanyin

11. TheRhino Demons:Our protagonists come across avillage celebrating their annual lantern festival. Atrio of rhinoceros demons disguised as buddhas kidnapTripitakaamidst aduststorm.Withthe help of theFourWoodCreatureStars, ourpriest is freed, and they continueontheir journey.

12. TheWhite Bone Demon:Ayoung woman approaches ourtravelers on theroad.OnlySun Wukong can seethat sheisaskeleton demon is disguise, andhe strikesher down. Misinterpreted as asenseless attack, he is banished, but when her

true nature is revealed, Wukong returns and saves hisfriends.

13. Tripitaka:The devout Buddhist priest,Tripitaka, is approached by theBodhisattva Guanyinwith aspecialmission to accompanyagroup of redemption-seeking demons on ajourneytoIndia to retrieve aset of sacredsutras from theBuddha thus bringing greater enlightenment to his people.

14. JourneytoVulture Peak:Asa final trial,our heroes must travelbyboat to VulturePeak wherethe sacred sutrasreside. Tripitaka falls overboardand drowns, onlytobereborn as an immortal

15. The Hundred Eyed Demon:The pilgrim areoﬀered sanctuaryatthe Yellow Flower Abbey only to discovertheir host is actually acentipede demon with manyeyes. Hisspider sisters help him capture Tripitaka, but with thehelp of some celestial beings, thewicked creatures aredefeated.

16. The Defeat of RedBoy:Red Boy, son of theBull Demon King, provestobeadiﬃcult foe, with his ability to shoot flames from his eyes and mouth Withthe help of Guanyin, his magical firesare extinguished,and he becomes afaithfuldisciple of Buddha.

17. The WhiteHorse Demon:Our heroes come across ariver dragon, shamefully banished from his homeland. Welcoming theopportunitytorestore his reputation, he joins thegroup in theformof Tripitaka’s white horse.

18. The Jade Rabbit:The retinuearriveinanIndian town, whereaprincesshas been ousted by an impostor.Theyinvestigateand discoverthat theJade Rabbit has escaped from theheavens and disguisedherself as theprincess. The moon goddess, Chang’e, fetches therabbit,and thetrue princessreturns to her palace.

19. Dragon King of theEast Sea:Sun Wukong travels to thebottonofthe ocean to thepalace of Ao Guang, Dragon King of theEast Sea. There he acquires his magicalstaﬀ as well as his golden armorand pheasant feathered cap.

20. Receiving theSutras:Finally, aftersixteen years and manymiles, our heroes reachthe Buddha to receivethe sacred texts. With their taskcomplete, they can finallyascend to new spiritual heights.

We. Make. MAgic.

February16, 2026

2.THERHYTHMOFORPHEUS

Thebeatingofdrumsandtheflashingofcoloredlightsheraldthe processionofOrpheus,whosemusiccouldsooththesavagehearts ofbeastsandmen.

3.THEORPHEUSTROJANHORSE

ThelegendaryTrojanHorseemergesfromthenight.Uponitsback, atriumphantregimentbringsmerrimenttothecrowdsandbestows bountyuponallrevelersinattendance

4.THECAPTAIN’SGALLEON

Ridinghighatophismagnificentvessel,theCaptainhailshisfellow merrymakersashesailshisdragon-crestedgalleontovanquish thedarkofnightandtotriumphantlygreetthecomingofdawn.The CaptainisjoinedinhisquestbyreturningMonarchsJoeyFatone,Will Forte,JimmiSimpson,JonathanSilvermanandJenniferFinnigan.

7.THEORPHEUSSMOKEYMARY

Withwhistles,steamandbells,NewOrleans’famousSmokeyMary chugsonceagaindownSt.CharlesAvenuefilledwithecstatic passengersbringingjoyandwondertojubilantandenthusiastic crowdsandonlookers

8.TITLE:ALLTHEWORLD’SASTAGE OrpheuscelebratesthetimelessgeniusofthebardofAvon–William Shakespeare.

9.ANDALLTHEMENANDWOMENMERELYPLAYERS

JAQUES.Alltheworld’sastage,Andallthemenandwomenmerely players; Theyhavetheirexitsandtheirentrances;Andonemaninhis timeplaysmanyparts,Hisactsbeingsevenages.(AsYouLikeIt)

10.LORDWHATFOOLSTHESEMORTALSBE! ROBIN.Captainofourfairyband/Helenaishereathand/Andthe youth,mistookbyme/Pleadingforalover’sfee./Shallwetheirfond pageantsee?/Lord,whatfoolsthesemortalsbe!(AMidsummer Night’sDream)

11.WEARESUCHSTUFFASDREAMSAREMADEON PROSPERO.Yea,allwhichitinherit,shalldissolve,And,likethis insubstantialpageantfaded,Leavenotarackbehind.Wearesuch stuffAsdreamsaremadeon;andourlittlelifeIsroundedwithasleep (TheTempest)

12.ALLTHATGLISTERSISNOT THEPRINCEOFMOROCCO.Allt youheardthattold./Manyaman behold:/Gildedtombsdoworms

13.THEREAREMORETHINGSI HAMLET.Therearemorethingsin dreamtofinyourphilosophy.(Ham

14.SOMETHINGWICKEDTHIS SECONDWITCH.Bythepricking thiswaycomes,/Open,locks,/W

15.MYBOUNTYISASBOUNDL JULIET.Mybountyisasboundles moreIgivetothee,/ThemoreIh Juliet)

16.UNEASYLIESTHEHEADTH HENRYIV.Canstthou,Opartialsl boyinanhoursorude;Andinthe allappliancesandmeanstoboot liedown!Uneasyliestheheadtha

17.COMENOTBETWEENTHED LEAR.Peace,Kent.Comenotbet lovedhermostandthoughttose

,Denyittoaking?Then,happylow atwearsthecrown.(HenryIV)

DRAGONANDHISWRATH weenthedragonandhiswrath.I tmyrestonherkindnursery.-Hence

andavoidmysight!-SobemygravemypeaceashereIgiveHer father’sheartfromher!(KingLear)

18.THEORPHEUSLEVIATHAN

Throughthefogandmistoftherollingdeepweheartheroarofthe mostfamousofallbeasts–thegreatLeviathan,frolickingwithher youngoffspringthroughforgottenshipsandbountiesoflongago Resplendentinhertwinklingandever-changingfinery,surelythereare nonetoequalhermajestyandmagnificence.

19.AROSEBYANYOTHERNAME

JULIET.O,besomeothername!What’sinaname?Thatwhichwecall arose,Byanyothernamewouldsmellassweet.SoRomeowouldwerehenotRomeocalled-Retainthatdearperfectionwhichheowes Withoutthattitle.Romeo,doffthyname,Andforthatname,whichisno partofthee,Takeallmyself.(RomeoandJuliet)

20.IFMUSICBETHEFOODOFLOVE

DUKEORSINO.Ifmusicbethefoodoflove,playon;Givemeexcessof it,that,surfeiting,Theappetitemaysicken,andsodie.(TwelfthNight)

21.NOWISTHEWINTEROFOURDISCONTENT

RICHARD.NowisthewinterofourdiscontentMadeglorioussummer bythissunofYork;Andallthecloudsthatlour’duponourhouseIn thedeepbosomoftheoceanburied.Nowareourbrowsboundwith victoriouswreaths;Ourbruisedarmshungupformonuments;Our

sternalarumschangedtomerrymeetings,Ourdreadfulmarchesto delightfulmeasures.(RichardIII)

22.LOVELOOKSNOTWITHTHEEYES

HELENA.Lovelooksnotwiththeeyes,butwiththemind;And thereforeiswing’dCupidpaintedblind.Norhathlove’smindof anyjudgmenttaste;Wingsandnoeyesfigureunheedyhaste:And thereforeislovesaidtobeachild,Becauseinchoiceheissooft beguil’d.(AMidsummerNight’sDream)

23.THEMYSTERYANDMAGICOFCARNIVAL

24.THISISVERYMIDSUMMERMADNESS

OLIVIA.Why,thisisverymidsummermadness!(TwelfthNight)

25.GILDEDTOMBSDOWORMSENFOLD

THEPRINCEOFMOROCCO.Gildedtombsdowormsenfold./Had youbeenaswiseasbold,/Younginlimbs,injudgmentold,/Your answerhadnotbeeninscrolled/Fareyouwell.Yoursuitiscold—”(The MerchantofVenice)

26.THEDEVILCANSITESCRIPTURE

ANTONIO.ThedevilcanciteScriptureforhispurpose.Anevilsoul producingholywitnessIslikeavillainwithasmilingcheek,Agoodly applerottenattheheart.O,whatagoodlyoutsidefalsehoodhath! (TheMerchantofVenice)

27.RHYTHM,RHYMEANDREVELRY