The Advocate 02-28-2026 by The Advocate

BLACKHISTORY TRAILUNVEILED

System consists of twoparts highlighting majoreventsincity

BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT Staff writer

On Juneteenth in1953, Black residents of Baton Rouge launched abus boycott against the city’sracially segregated bus system —a protest later studied by Martin Luther King Jr.ahead of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

In 1961,the U.S. SupremeCourt heard Garner v. Louisiana, the ﬁrst Sit-In Movementlawsuitheardby the high court and acase stemming from three Baton Rougelunch counter sit-ins ﬁghting segregation. And in 1967, A.Z. Young led more than 600peopleinthe longest Civil Rights march from Bogalusa to Baton Rouge.

Thesemomentsinthe city’s history are now memorialized along the new East Baton RougeParish Black History Trail System, which local leaders unveiled Friday morning downtown. Created in partnership by the Walls Project, Downtown Development District and EnvisionNBR, the trailsystem consists of two parts: the downtown Greenway Civil Rights Trail and the EnvisioNBR

ä See TRAIL, page 6A

Eric Dexter,left, andDavid Beach look at oneof19utility boxes that feature artrelated to local civil rights events during the unveiling of the Black History Trail System in downtown Baton RougeonFriday.

“While thistrail doescenter on BlackAmerican history, letusbeclear,thisisAmerican history. It is astoryoforganized courage, discipline, and innovation and democratic progress, andthatissomething that we can all be proud of and inspired by.May this trailremindusthat Baton Rougedid not just witness change. It innovated,tested and perfected it.”

MORGAN UDOH, directorofpublic artfor the Walls Project

Bill ClintondenieswrongdoinginEpstein case

Congressional questioning shedslight on relationship

WASHINGTON FormerPresident Bill Clinton told members of Congress on Friday that he “did nothing wrong”

in hisrelationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse as he faced hoursofgrilling from lawmakers over his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decadesago.

“I saw nothing, and Idid nothing wrong,” the former Democratic president saidinanopening statement he shared onsocial

media at the outset of the deposition. The closed-door deposition ended after more than six hours of questioning from lawmakerswho said he answered every question posed to him.

The deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marked theﬁrst timea former president hasbeen compelled to testifytoCongress. It came a day after Clinton’s wife, for-

mer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, satwith lawmakers for her own deposition. Bill Clinton has also not been accusedofany wrongdoing. Yetlawmakers are grappling withwhat accountability in theUnitedStateslooks like at atimewhen menaround the worldhavebeen toppled from their high-powered posts for maintaining their connections with Epstein after he pleaded

ä See CLINTON, page 5A

LSU reinstates standardized test score requirement

BY HALEYMILLER Staff writer

Students applying to LSU in Baton Rouge will once again need to submit standardized test scores after the Board of Supervisors voted Friday to drop the test-optional policy from the ﬂagship campus.

“It will be just anothervariable thatweuse in atotal comprehensiveevaluation of the students,” LSU system President Wade Rousse said.

Sincethe COVID-19pandemic, applicants have been able to choosewhether to include SATorACT results. LSU madethe test-optional policy ofﬁcial in June 2022, following the trend of otheruniversitiesthat questioned whether test scores serveasareliable indicator of future academicperformance.

But ChancellorJames Dalton said institutional data no longer supports de-emphasizingstandardized test results. For students who chose nottosubmit scores from2021 to 2024, average retention rates were4.3% lower and average ﬁrst-term GPAs were 0.29 points lower than their counterparts who includedscores with theirapplication,according to LSUdata. LSUofﬁcials saidtheywill notdraw alinefor howwellstudentsmustperform on the tests to qualifyfor admissionbut rather use the scores as apiece of theportfolio when considering applicants.

“We’re not setting ahard minimum foradmissions,” Daltonsaid. “We’re going to use it as one component of our comprehensive evaluation of students.

The change to theadmissions policypassed unanimously.Still, some supervisors expressed

ä See LSU, page 4A

fitthatpaidfor talk tied to corruption probe

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer

Ataxpayer-fundedBaton Rouge nonproﬁt that is now part of amassive corruption investigation paid for aman awaiting trial on amurder charge to speak to children about gun safety and violence, city-parish records show

As part of then-Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’sSafe, Hopeful, Healthycampaign, the mayor’shealthy city nonproﬁt paid to have Marvin Payne, 36, speak to children about gun safety alongside Baton Rouge Constable Terrica WilliamsinJune 2022.

Though the murdercount waslater dropped, Payne has been charged with weapons offenses severaltimesoverthe past eightyears andis currently facing trial on allegations that he ran adrug manufacturing operation. Thegun safety event wasfundedbya Safe, Hopeful,HealthyBRcontract awarded to RoderickShannon. Records showatleast ﬁve monthlypayments from thenonproﬁttoShannon for$3,041.66 each in mid-2022.

ä See EVENT, page 5A

STAFF PHOTOSByJAVIERGALLEGOS

Joan Garner,daughter of civil rights activistJohn Garner,gives an oral historylesson highlighted on one of 19 utility boxes during the unveiling of the Black HistoryTrailSystem in downtown Baton RougeonFriday.The utilityboxesalong the trail have been beautified and feature textabout civil rights events tied to Baton Rouge.

BillClinton

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

L.A. firefighter says he warned about brush fire LOS ANGELES A Los Angeles firefighter testified in a newly released deposition that he told colleagues the ground was still smoldering from a brush fire days before authorities say it reignited into the most destructive blaze in city history Scott Pike, a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said he told colleagues the ground was still hot when he was sent in to help clean up a New Year’s Day brush in the hillsides near the scenic Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Pike’s comments came in a sworn deposition taken in a lawsuit that was filed by fire victims. The deposition and those of other fire officials were made public this week after city attorneys had moved to keep it confidential for a month.

“I could feel the heat coming off of it, and I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot, so I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it. And there was like red hot, like coals,” Pike said in the deposition. “I even heard crackling.” Pike said he was working an overtime shift and mentioned it to other firefighters who were out in the ﬁeld, but they didn’t seem to think much of it. He said he told a supervisor there were still hot spots, but it wasn’t his job to challenge orders.

“I felt like I got kind of blown off a little bit,” Pike said “I saw something, I said something Alexander Robertson, an attorney for the fire victims, said he obtained a court order to depose a dozen firefighters tasked with mopping up the Jan. 1 fire. Pike was the only one who indicated fire officials had been warned the blaze had not been fully extinguished when they packed up and left the scene, Robertson said.

Russian drone caught in Swedish airspace

STOCKHOLM A Russian drone carried out an unauthorized ﬂight off southern Sweden earlier this week while a French aircraft carrier was docked in the port of Malmö, the Swedish military said Friday, in what the defense minister said was a violation of his country’s airspace.

The armed forces said in a statement that a Swedish naval vessel detected a drone taking off from a Russian signals intelligence ship in the Öresund strait, which separates Sweden from Denmark.

The military said that systems on board the Swedish ship, the HMS Rapp, took countermeasures to disrupt the drone. It said the Russian ship, the Zhigulevsk, had entered Swedish territorial waters and the Rapp approached it to monitor its transit through the strait.

The French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is in the southern Swedish city of Malmö this week as part of regular NATO exercise activities.

Malmö is located on the Öresund, opposite Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen French military spokesperson Guillaume Vernet said the drone was detected on Wednesday and handled by Swedish forces integrated into a security system around the carrier

2 trans men sue Kansas over law invalidating IDs TOPEKA, Kan. — Two transgender men are suing Kansas over a new law that invalidated their driver’s licenses and about 1,700 others for reflecting people’s gender identities and not their sex assigned at birth arguing that the measure is “dehumanizing.”

The men ﬁled their case Thursday, the same day the law took effect, and argue that it violates rights to privacy personal autonomy and due legal process guaranteed by the Kansas Constitution. The men also are challenging the law’s tough, new enforcement provisions for the state’s 3-year-old policy of barring transgender people from using public restrooms or other single-sex facilities associated with their gender identities.

The men want to block the law, which also invalidated roughly 1,800 transgender people’s birth certificates. They filed their case in district court in Douglas County, where they live, which is home to the main University of Kansas campus and is a liberal bastion in a red-leaning state.

Trump says he’s ‘not happy’ with Iran talks

President indicates he’ll give them more time

BY SAM MEDNICK, MICHELLE L. PRICE and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel

President Donald

Trump said Friday he’s “not happy” with the latest talks over Iran’s nuclear program but indicated he would give negotiators more time to reach a deal to avert another war in the Middle East

He spoke a day after U.S. envoys held another inconclusive round of indirect talks with Iran in Geneva. As American forces gather in the region, Trump has threatened military action if Iran does not agree to a far-reaching deal on its nuclear program, while Iran insists it has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and denies seeking a nuclear weapon.

“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have. I’m not thrilled with that. We’ll see what happens. We’re talking later,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday “We’re not exactly happy with the way they’re negotiating. They cannot have nuclear weapons.”

Despite Trump’s negative assessment, one of the mediators of the talks later Friday appeared to issue a public plea to let the negotiations continue. Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who has been mediating the talks, said on CBS’s Face the Nation that he felt a deal was within reach if the process could play out

“If I was President Trump, my only advice is just to give those negotiators enough room enough space to really close these remaining areas that we need to discuss and agree upon,” he said.

Trump sounded more pessimistic, telling reporters as he visited Texas on Friday that Iranian negotiators “don’t want to quite go far enough. It’s too bad.”

He reiterated that he did not want to see Iran allowed to enrich any amount of uranium and said the oil-rich nation should not need to enrich uranium for an energy program.

When asked by a reporter how close he was to deciding on whether to launch a military strike, he said, “I’d rather not tell you.”

Earlier in the day, he was asked at the

White House about the risks of the U.S. getting involved in a drawn-out conﬂict if it strikes Iran.

“I guess you could say there’s always a risk ” Trump replied. “You know when

there’s war, there’s a risk of anything, both good and bad.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to make a quick trip to Israel early next week, the State Department said. The U.S. Embassy in Israel had earlier urged staff who want to leave to depart, joining other nations in encouraging people to leave the region and signaling that U.S. military action might be imminent.

The announcement of Rubio’s visit and Trump’s latest remarks could indicate a longer timeline for any potential strike.

The State Department said Rubio would visit Israel on Monday and Tuesday to “discuss a range of regional priorities, including Iran, Lebanon, and ongoing efforts to implement President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan for Gaza.” It offered no other details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long urged tougher U.S. action against Iran, and has warned that Israel will respond to any Iranian attack

Before his trip, Rubio declared Iran to be a “state sponsor of wrongful detention,” and the State Department may invalidate U.S. passports for travel to Iran.

He said the move was due to the country’s continued arrests and imprisonment of “innocent Americans” and citizens of other countries for use as political leverage. The move does not automatically carry any penalties, but Rubio said that if Iran doesn’t stop, he could make it illegal to use a U.S. passport for travel to or from Iran. That restriction currently only applies to North Korea.

A confidential report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog meanwhile confirmed that Iran has not offered inspectors access to sensitive nuclear sites since they were heavily bombed during the 12-day war launched by Israel last June. As a result, it said it could not confirm Iran’s claims that it stopped uranium enrichment after the U.S. and Israeli strikes.

The report was circulated to member countries and seen by The Associated Press.

The announcement of Rubio’s visit came just hours after the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem implemented “authorized departure” status for nonessential personnel and family members, which means that eligible staffers can leave the country voluntarily at government expense.

In an email, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee urged staff considering departure to do so quickly, advising them to focus on getting any ﬂight out of Israel and to then make their way to Washington.

Official says Pakistan in ‘open war’ with Afghanistan after latest strikes

BY MUNIR AHMED and ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN Associated Press

ISLAMABAD Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged cross-border attacks overnight in a dramatic escalation of tensions that led Pakistan’s defense minister to say on Friday that the two countries are in a state of “open war. Afghanistan launched an attack on Pakistan late Thursday, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday Pakistan then carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, saying it targeted military installations.

Tensions have been high for months. Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.

A Qatari-mediated ceaseﬁre ended the intense ﬁghting in October, but several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in No-

vember failed to produce a lasting agreement. The two sides have occasionally traded ﬁre since then.

Qatar once again appears to be mediating. Its minister of state, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaiﬁ, spoke Friday with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to de-escalate tensions, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X.

Afghanistan’s attacks against Pakistani military targets was meant as “a message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will respond to every evil act of Pakistan,” Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said. “Pakistan has never sought to resolve problems through dialogue,” he said.

After the Afghan strikes, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif posted on X: “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”

Asif said Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2021 and expected the Taliban, which seized power in the country to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability

President raises idea of ‘friendly takeover of Cuba’

BY WILL WEISSERT Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. is in talks with Havana and raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba” without offering any details on what he meant.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House as he left for a trip to Texas, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in discussions with Cuban leaders “at a very high level.”

“The Cuban government is talking with us,” the president said. “They have no money. They have no anything right now But they’re talking to us, and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

He added: “We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

Trump didn’t clarify his comments but seemed to indicate that the situation with Cuba, a communistrun island that has been among Washington’s bitterest adversaries for decades, was coming to a critical point. The White House did not respond to requests for more information Friday

The president also said that Cuba “is, to put it mildly, a failed nation” and “they want our help.”

His remarks came two days after the Cuban government reported that a Florida-registered speedboat carrying 10 armed Cubans from the U.S opened ﬁre on soldiers off the island’s north coast. Four of the armed Cubans were killed, and six were injured in responding gunﬁre, ac-

cording to Cuba’s government. One Cuban official also was injured. Cuba has been on Trump’s mind since at least early January, after U.S. forces ousted one of Havana’s closest allies, Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolás Maduro. Trump suggested in the aftermath of that raid that military action in Cuba might not be necessary because the island’s economy was weak enough — particularly in the absence of oil shipments from Venezuela that stopped after Maduro was taken into custody — to soon collapse on its own.

“We’ve had a lot of years of dealing with Cuba. I’ve been hearing about Cuba since I’m a little boy But they’re in big trouble,” he said Friday

Then, noting the exile community from the island living in the U.S., Trump said there could be something coming that “I think (is) very positive for the people that were expelled, or worse, from Cuba and live here.” He did not elaborate.

The U.S. has maintained a strict trade embargo on Cuba since 1962, the year after a failed, CIA-sponsored invasion of the island at the Bay of Pigs. Trump nonetheless indicated earlier this month that talks with Cuban ofﬁcials were underway Cuba’s government confirmed earlier this week that it was communicating with U.S. ofﬁcials following the shooting of the American boat. Rubio has said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Coast Guard are investigating what happened.

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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters Friday before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TOM BRENNER

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LEO CORREA

People gather Friday at a lookout to watch for the possible arrival of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of Haifa, northern Israel.

Pentagon, Scouting America reach deal to keep ties

BY BEN FINLEY and JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Pentagon has made a deal with Scouting America that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday would maintain their century-old partnership but refocus the organization away from diversity initiatives and other “woke” policies he accused it of embracing in recent years

Hegseth put heavy emphasis on Scouting America’s acceptance of transgender youth, saying the organization will require members to use their “biological sex at birth and not gender identity.” But Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, said the agreement does not change existing policies regarding transgender youth and that they are welcome.

badge and waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.

Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has taken aim at the military’s partnership with Scouting America, decrying its historic rebrand in 2024 and other changes in recent years that he sees as part of “woke culture” efforts that he wants to root out.

Hegseth

“We have transgender people in our program and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward,” Scouting America

President and CEO Roger Krone told The Associated Press.

Several of the negotiated changes mirror what the organization suggested to the Pentagon in January, including discontinuing its Citizenship in Society merit badge, introducing a Military Service merit

Hegseth said in a video posted on X that Scouting America’s applications will list only options for male and female and the one checked must match the applicant’s birth certiﬁcate He didn’t say how that would be enforced. The group would clarify that youths of opposite genders assigned at birth cannot share bathrooms, tents or other similar spaces, he said.

Krone said the group’s application already has only two boxes one for boy and one for girl and that they were already asking about sex assigned at birth. He didn’t offer clarity on how that was reviewed or enforced.

“We do not put boys and girls together in intimate spaces and in order to do that we need to have some knowledge of who they are,” he said.

Krone said “structures” in the organization accommodate transgender youth, noting that there

MINNESOTA

away from diversity initiatives and other ‘woke’ policies he accused it of embracing in recent years.

are family troops that include both genders but offering no more details. He said there was nothing in discussions with the Pentagon that changes the way the programs are run.

Hegseth, meanwhile said in his video that the Pentagon will “vigorously review” the changes Scouting America has made in six months and cease its support of the organization if it fails to comply

“We hope that doesn’t happen, but it could,” Hegseth said. “Ideally, I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men Maybe someday.”

AG announces indictment against 30 more people in church protest

BY SARAH RAZA Associated Press

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced federal charges Friday against 30 more people who are accused of civil rights violations in a January protest inside a Minnesota church where a pastor works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bondi said on social media that 25 people were in custody and more arrests would follow The new indictment comes a month after independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort and prominent local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong were charged for their alleged roles in a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul Bondi accused the group of attacking a house of worship.

“If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will ﬁnd you, arrest you, and prosecute you,” she wrote on social media.

A livestreamed video posted on Facebook shows people interrupting services at Cities Church on Jan. 18

by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” a reference to the woman who was fatally shot by an ICE ofﬁcer in Minneapolis on Jan 7.

Protesters descended on Cities Church after learning that one of the church’s pastors also serves as an ICE ofﬁcial. The protest drew swift condemnation from Trump administration ofﬁcials and conservative leaders for disrupting a Sunday service. In total, 39 people now face charges of conspiracy against religious freedom and interfering with the right of religious freedom.

The new defendants had initial court appearances and were released Lemon and Fort said they were at the church as journalists covering news Levy Armstrong was the subject of a doctored photo posted by the White House showing her crying during her arrest. The three have pleaded not guilty

The indictment says the “agitators” entered the church in a “coordinated takeover-style attack” and

engaged in acts of intimidation and obstruction.

“Young children were left to wonder, as one child put it, if their parents were going to die,” the indictment says.

A lawyer for the church praised the Justice Department for charging more people.

“The First Amendment does not give anyone regardless of profession, prominence, or politics — license to storm a church and intimidate, threaten, and terrorize families and children worshipping inside,” Doug Wardlow said in a statement.

The revised indictment adds new allegations when compared to the original ﬁled in January It says two people “conducted reconnaissance” outside the church a day before the protest and recorded their visit on video, with one saying, “My thoughts are to be able to close up this whole alleyway right here.”

The court ﬁling quotes one protester as chanting in the church, “This ain’t God’s house This is the house of the devil.”

In a statement Friday, Scouting America noted its need to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump targeting DEI programs. The Irving, Texas-based organization also pointed out that it maintained its new name and “preserved our service to the more than 200,000 girls who participate in our programs.”

The organization began allowing gay youths in 2013, ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015 and announced in 2017 that it would accept transgender students. It began accepting girls as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the ﬂagship Boy Scout program, renamed Scouts BSA, in

2019.

Scouting America said the policy changes deepen the organization’s partnership with the military, which has included Scouts meeting on or near military installations in the U.S. and abroad.

“Scouting America is one of the most reliable pipelines to the United States Armed Forces our country has ever known,” the organization added. “Scouts are signiﬁcantly more likely to serve in uniform than the general population. Eagle Scouts are heavily represented in ROTC programs, service academies and military leadership tracks.”

Hegseth’s other anti-DEI efforts have ranged from ending all military training at “woke” Harvard and other Ivy League schools to claiming that the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes will no longer include “woke distractions.” He rolled out the move with Scouting America on Friday as tensions have escalated with Iran and the Trump administration considers possible military action after massing the largest force of U.S. warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades.

The Pentagon said earlier this month that it was reviewing its relationship with Scouting America, claiming it had “lost its way” in many ways and calling the organization’s DEI efforts “unacceptable.”

Federal prosectors won’t appeal ruling barring death penalty in Mangione case

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK Federal prosecutors said Friday they won’t appeal a judge’s ruling that bars them from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

In a letter, Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley told Judge Margaret Garnett that the government will not ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse her decision, clearing the way for a trial beginning in

September His state murder trial is set to start in June. Garnett last month dismissed a federal murder charge — murder through use of a firearm that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding it legally flawed. She wrote that she did so to “foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” when it weighs whether to convict Mangione in the December 2024 killing in Manhattan.

The judge, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden, also threw out a gun charge but left in place stalking charges that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. To seek the death penalty prosecutors needed to show that Mangione killed Thompson while committing another “crime of violence.” Stalking doesn’t fit that definition, Garnett wrote in a 39-page opinion, citing case law and legal precedents.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ALEX BRANDON

The Pentagon has made a deal with Scouting America that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday would maintain their century-old partnership but refocus the organization

NASA revampsArtemis moon landingprogram

BY MARCIA DUNN AP aerospace writer

NASA said Friday it’srevamping its Artemis moon exploration program to make it more like the fastpaced Apollo program half acentury ago, adding an extra practice ﬂight before attempting ahigh-risk lunar landing with acrew in two years. The overhaul in the flight li neup came just two days after NASA’s new moon rocket returned to its hangar for more repairs, andasafety panel warned the space agency to scale back its overly ambitious goals for humanity’sﬁrst lunar landing since 1972.

Artemis II, alunar flyaround by four astronauts, is off until at least April because of rocket problems.

The follow-up mission, Artemis III, had been targeting alandingnear the moon’ssouth pole by another pair of astronauts in about threeyears.But with long gaps between flights and concerngrowing over the readiness of alunar lander and moonwalking suits, NASA’s new administratorJared Isaacmanannouncedthat mission would instead focus on launching alunar lander into orbit around Earth in 2027 for docking practice by astronauts ﬂying in an Orion capsule.

The newplan calls fora moon landing —potentially even two moon landings by astronauts in 2028.

“Everybody agrees. This is the only way forward,” Isaacman said.

The hydrogen fuel leaks

LSU

Continued from page1A

concernthat the return to mandatory standardized test scores could hurt students who are from rural areas, lackaccesstostudy resources or have other extenuating circumstances.

“There are plenty of kids who we want at LSU who don’tcome from households where they canafford to get that additional help on testing,” Supervisor James Williams said. He also said some tests display known socioeconomic andgeographic biases.

“When the test is designed by so-and-so from the Northeast, and they’re phrasing questions that our kid from Bunkie doesn’t really get because they don’thave to shovel snow or whatever it is they do in their test question, then they don’tget it,” Williams said. “They don’tget the question.”

Other supervisors said they understood the potential weaknesses of test scores but felt admissions officers would be ableto take all aspects of the student’sapplication into ac-

and helium flow problems that struck the Space Launch System rocket on the padatNASA’s Kennedy SpaceCenterearlier this month hadalso plagued the ﬁrst Artemis test ﬂight without acrew in 2022.

Another three-year gap was loomingbetween Artemis II and the moon landing by astronauts as originally envisioned, Isaacman said. Isaacman stressed that “it should be incredibly obvious” that threeyears between ﬂightsisunacceptable. He’d like to get itdown to one year or even less.

Isaacman, atech billionaire who bought his own trips to orbitand performed the world’sfirst private spacewalk, took the helmat NASA in December DuringNASA’sstoried Apollo program, he said, astronauts’ ﬁrst ﬂight tothe moon was followedbytwo more missions beforeNeil

Armstrongand Buzz Aldrin

landedonthe moon. What’s more, he added, the Apollo moonshots followed one another in quicksuccession, just as the earlierProjects Mercury and Gemini had rapid flight rates,sometimes comingjust afew months apart.

Twenty-four Apollo astronautsﬂew to the moon from 1968 through 1972, with 12 of them landing.

“No one at NASA forgot their history books. They knew how to do this,” Isaacmansaid. “Now we’re putting it in action.”

To pick up the pace andreduce risk,NASAwillstandardize itsSpace Launch System rockets moving forward, Isaacman said. These are the massive rockets that will launchastronauts to the moon aboard Orion capsules. At thesame time, Elon Musk’sSpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Originare

speeding up their workon thelanders needed to get the astronautsfrom lunar orbit down to thesurface. Isaacman saidnextyear

NASA’s Artemis II SpaceLaunch System moon rocket with the Orion spacecraft slowly rolls backtoward the Vehicle Assembly Building at the KennedySpace Center on Wednesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOHN RAOUX

will see an Orion crew rendezvousing in orbit around Earth with SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’sBlue Moon or both landers. It’s

similar to themethodical approach that workedso well during Apollo in the late 1960s, he noted. Apollo 8, astronauts’ firstflight to the moon, was followed by twomore missions before Armstrong andAldrin aimedfor thelunar surface. “Weshould be getting back to basicsand doing what we know works,” he said. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panelrecommended this week thatNASA revise itsobjectives forArtemis III “given the demanding missiongoals.”It’surgent the space agency do that, the panel said, if the United States hopestosafely return astronauts to the moon. Isaacman said the revised Artemis ﬂight plan addresses the panel’sconcerns andissupported by industry andthe Trump administration.

count. They argued thechange alignswith other institutionsthat have reversed courseonrelaxed testpoliciesinrecent years.

“You see Chapel Hill, Florida and our peers, Alabamaand others, moving towardsbringingthis back as atool,”boardmember ScottBallard said.“That gives me conﬁdence.”

Though many universities aroundthe countryare bringing back test score requirements,Louisiana’sinstitutions—and even LSU’s individualcampuses have yet to reach aconsensus.Loyola UniversityNew Orleans and Tulane University are both test-optional, whileLSU Shreveport and theUniversity ofLouisiana at Lafayette each maintain testing policies.

Test scores are stillmandatory forthe Taylor Opportunity Program forStudents, the state scholarship programrun by the LouisianaOfﬁce of Student FinancialAssistance, regardless of institutions’speciﬁc testingpolicies.

The renewed focus on test performance comesamid record-breakingfreshman application andenrollment numbers at LSU, with the numberofstudentsapply-

ing nearly triplingoverthe pastdecade.

“Weare committedtoelevatingthe ﬂagship, which includes our broader research enterprise, to become oneofthe top 50 research institutions in America,” Rousse said. “That requires alignment of resources, stronger management,improved facilities and an unapologetic commitment to measuring ourselves against those top-performing peers. It also requires admission standards that reflect our ambition.”

The reinstatement of test scores in Baton Rouge admissions will rollout in two phases, according to the policy. For thesummer 2027 semester,potential students with cumulative weighted GPAs below 3.5 will need to submit testscores with their application. Starting in thesummer2028, allapplicants will be required to include test results.

Rousse said thenew policy mirrors LSU’sbalance of “excellence andaccessibility” moving forward.

“A standardized test score does not deﬁne astudent,” Rousse said. “However, standards do define elite institutions. That is thebalance we are seeking.”

Trump ‘pretty much’ decided who to back in Texas Senate primary

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary So when he travels to the state on Friday for his ﬁrst post-State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race. Sen. John Cornyn is battling for

CLINTON

Continued from page 1A

guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

“Men — and women for that matter — of great power and great wealth from all across the world have been able to get away with a lot of heinous crimes and they haven’t been held accountable and they have not even had to answer questions,” said Republican Rep. James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, before the deposition began Friday Hillary Clinton told lawmakers Thursday that she had no knowledge of how Epstein had sexually abused underage girls and had no recollection of even meeting him.

But Bill Clinton will have to answer questions on a well-documented relationship with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, even if it was from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Bill Clinton, in his opening statement, said that he would likely often tell the committee that he did not

EVENT

his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary ﬁght that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Cornyn got a head start on Friday, when he ﬂew on Air Force One for the Texas trip and posted multiple photos of his ride on social media.

During a brief exchange with reporters in Texas, Trump said he’s “pretty much” decided who to endorse in the primary, but that

recall the speciﬁcs of events from more than 20 years ago. But he also expressed certainty that he had not witnessed signs of Epstein’s abuse.

Still, Republicans were relishing the opportunity to scrutinize the former Democratic president under oath.

“No one’s accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions,” Comer said Bill Clinton questioned Republicans have wanted to question Bill Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafﬁcking charges.

Th os e ca ll s reached a fever pitch late last year when several photos of the former president surfaced in the Department of Justice’s first release of case files on Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted of sex trafﬁcking in December 2021 but maintains she’s innocent. Bill Clinton was photographed on a plane seated alongside a woman, whose face is redacted, with his arm around

Continued from page 1A

At the time, court records show Payne who also goes by “Madd Marvin” — had bonded out of the parish prison weeks earlier and was awaiting trial for seconddegree murder Deputies identiﬁed him as a member of a Zion City gang called the “5400 Boys.” Prosecutors at the time accused him and his brother of fatally shooting a man and wounding another in August 2021 outside Cadillac Discount Grocery on Cadillac Street.

District Attorney Hillar Moore’s office dropped the charge in 2024. According to court records, the living victim could not be located to testify and there was “not sufﬁcient evidence to proceed.”

The Safe, Hopeful, Healthy program that paid for “Madd Marvin Gun Safety With The Constable” is one of the programs at the center of a corruption investigation into Baton Rouge government that has yielded several arrests. Then-Broome staffer Courtney Scott signed the invoice for the Mayor’s Office. Scott was indicted on Wednesday, accused by Attorney General Liz Murrill of orchestrating a kickback scheme that allegedly funneled nearly $200,000 from the nonprofit to herself through other contracts.

An Attorney General’s Of-

fice spokesperson declined comment, other than to say the matter was “all part of our ongoing investigation.”

Broome, who was mayor from 2017-2024, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Photos that Payne posted to social media show him alongside Williams and about a dozen children at the event.

“You’d be amazed how gun violence really affects these kids,” Payne wrote.

Payne, Shannon and Scott did not return requests for comment. Williams, the constable, said she did not pick Payne for the event She said Metro Council member Darryl Hurst suggested him, which led her to believe he had been vetted.

Hurst said Payne told him his story and the councilman took to heart Payne’s desire to change and use his negative experiences to better others A program calledLowering Incidents of Violence through Education — or L.I.V.E. — was developed that reduced violence in the Zion City area and successfully enrolled and graduated at-risk people in a GED program, Hurst said. He said Payne “provided access to individuals often only mentioned in newspaper headlines.”

“While I do not condone any actions that occurred prior to his decision to pursue change, our period of collaboration produced measurable positive outcomes,” Hurst said in a statement Friday “During this time, violent incidents in Zion City declined, com-

“no,” he would not disclose his pick just yet. Trump landed in Corpus Christi shortly before 3 p.m. local time and was greeted by Gov Greg Abbott, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and ofﬁcials at the nearby Port of Corpus Christi. Ahead of Trump’s visit, Energy Secretary Chris Wright authorized a 12% expansion in liqueﬁed natural gas exports at Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi terminal — making it the second largest LNG export project in the U.S. For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tues-

her Another photo showed Clinton and Maxwell in a pool with another person whose face was redacted.

Epstein also visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and the pair later made several international trips together for their humanitarian work. Comer claimed the committee has collected evidence that Epstein visited the White House 17 times and that Bill Clinton ﬂew on Epstein’s airplane 27 times.

Democratic lawmakers said they also posed tough questions to Bill Clinton about his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell.

“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,” Bill Clinton said in his opening statement. “And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.”

Comer pledged extensive questioning of the former president. He claimed that Hillary Clinton had repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.

Bill Clinton went after Comer for calling his wife before the committee, telling him that “including her was simply not right.”

The committee was work-

munity conditions began to improve, and a tangible difference was made.

Payne has a lengthy arrest record that continued after the 2022 event.

He was previously charged with attempted ﬁrst-degree murder in 2008 That count was later reduced to dangerous use of a weapon and he was sentenced to probation.

In 2017, he was arrested on a count of illegal use of a weapon by a felon. The case was dismissed two years later

He was again arrested with illegal use of a weapon in 2021, along with multiple drug-related crimes That case is still ongoing and had a court hearing Thursday In 2023, as he awaited trial for the second-degree murder charge, Payne was arrested on charges of operating a clandestine drug lab, possession of cocaine and possession of fentanyl, court records show That case is still active with a motion hearing scheduled for next month.

The mayor’s initiative also funded an event titled “Madd Marvin Mechanic Work Shop With The Kids,” records show, which was held in June 2022 at the Charles R. Kelly Community Center

Photos from the mechanic event posted to social media show Payne wearing an ankle monitor — a condition of his bonded pretrial release in his murder case pending at the time, according to court records.

day, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.

Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race. Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as

ing to quickly publish a transcript and video recording of her deposition.

Has a precedent been set?

Democrats, who have supported the push to get answers from Bill Clinton, are arguing that it sets a precedent that should also apply to President Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with Epstein.

“I think that President Trump needs to man up, get in front of this committee and answer the questions and stop calling this investigation a hoax,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, on Friday Comer has pushed back on

the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton. Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital inﬁdelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.

that idea, saying that Trump has answered questions on Epstein from the press.

Trump on Friday expressed remorse at Bill Clinton being forced to testify “I like Bill Clinton, and I don’t like seeing him deposed,” he told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Corpus Christi, Texas.

Democrats are also calling for the resignation of Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lut-

nick was a longtime neighbor of Epstein in New York City but said on a podcast that he severed ties with Epstein following a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife. The public release of case ﬁles showed that Lutnick ac-

tually had two engagements with Epstein years later He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home, and in 2012 his family had lunch with Epstein on his private island. “He should be removed from ofﬁce and, at a minimum, should come before the committee,” Garcia said of Lutnick.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace questioned Hillary Clinton about Lutnick’s relationship to Epstein during the deposition on Thursday On Friday morning, Mace joined in calling for the commerce secretary to come before the committee.

“I believe we will have the votes to subpoena him,” Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said.

Hillary Clinton

Legacy Trail in north Baton Rouge. The ribbon-cutting for the Greenway Trail occurred shortly after 10 a.m. downtown, while organizers unveiled the Legacy Trail around 1 p.m. at Mary J. Lands Park.

Morgan Udoh, the director of public art for the Walls Project, said during her opening comments that “while this trail does center on Black American history, let us be clear, this is American history.”

“It is a story of organized courage, discipline, and innovation and democratic progress, and that is something that we can all be proud of and inspired by,” she continued. “May this trail remind us that Baton Rouge did not just witness change. It innovated, tested and perfected it.”

East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sid Edwards spoke briefly at the opening ceremony and thanked the groups for their work.

“To tell our story in Baton Rouge, more of these events, more of these things need to happen,” he said. “But I’m happy that we’re standing here today and we could be a small part. We’re the ones that win from it.”

Trails mark city’s history

The EnvisioNBR Legacy Trail covers the neighborhoods of Bogan Walk, Easy Town, Eden Park and Greenville Extension, and it features signiﬁcant sites including Capitol Senior High School and the Morgan Quality Grocery Store, which recently received new signage and restoration.

Anchoring the trail is a new mural painted across the basketball court blacktop at Mary J. Lands Park.

ground behind the U.S. Supreme Court case her father was involved in, which the Supreme Court Historical Society deemed one of the most signiﬁcant oral arguments in the court between 1955 and 1993.

The case emerged from sit-ins at S.H. Kress, Sitman’s Drug Store and the original Greyhound Bus Station, where Southern University students attempted to integrate the lunch counters. Police arrested the students, including John Garner and they were charged and convicted of disturbing the peace.

The new mural is located on an electrical box in front of the 19th Judicial District Court, the court in which the group was convicted, Joan Garner explained. The group sued, leading to the eventual U.S. Supreme Court hearing.

“This particular case speaks to both the 14th Amendment and the First Amendment, with the First Amendment saying that the students simply sitting, even though they didn’t say anything, constituted an act of free speech,” she said. Many of the desegregation battles were also focused on economics.

At a mural about the Baton Rouge swim-ins, which worked to desegregate the city’s swimming pools, Garner spoke about how Black residents paid taxes for pools they could not use, had to fund separate pools for their communities and paid fees to access those facilities.

She connected that to today’s economic disparity, when more than 31% of Black residents are below the poverty level compared with 12% of White residents.

Along the Greenway Civil Rights Trail, utility boxes decorated with murals showcase landmark events, people and culture beginning with Reconstruction, and the art includes QR code links for more information.

Artist Bryson Boutte designed the downtown mu-

Artist Ashli Ognelodh Curry designed the piece, which depicts three professional basketball players who grew up in the neighborhood: Brandon Bass, Seimone Augustus and Glen “Big Baby” Davis. “I think those images are important for people coming up who think there are some things that are not attainable for Black people, but that’s not the case. This portrays a different narrative,” Curry said. “That’s what I’m constantly trying to highlight. That there’s Black excellency, and also there deserves to be greatness in communities of color.”

rals and said he felt “really honored” for being chosen for the project.

“I’m just honored to be the person that I would look at, as like a 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-yearold and be like, ‘That’s what I want to be,’” he said. “I am speaking for the things that I always wanted to speak for These are the kind of projects that I always wanted to do growing up.”

‘. An ongoing struggle’

Attendees at both sections of the event were invited to explore the trails on foot, by bus or on bikes, and Joan Garner, the daughter of John Garner and a historical consultant, led a tour of the downtown markers. She explained the back-

“While we have policy changes, some policies still need to be changed. The economic impact still exists in the present. That’s one thing I hope people take away from this,” she said. “This is still an ongoing struggle. We can’t say it’s one and done because things are desegregated, because the economic costs still exist.”

Bryson Boutte, project artist, left, thanks Morgan Udoh with the Walls Project after introducing him to speak during the unveiling of Black History Trail System in downtown Baton Rouge on Friday.

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Joan Garner, daughter of civil rights activist John Garner, leads a walking tour during the unveiling of Black History Trail System in downtown Baton Rouge on Friday.

Whitney Hoffman Sayal, executive director for the Baton Rouge Downtown Development District, pats East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sid Edwards on the arm while standing next to a newly-decorated utility box on Friday.

Husband found guilty in stabbing wife

Oil rig chef used gifted knife to kill her, prosecutors say

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

A Baton Rouge man who

dow The question of whether Michael Vallery, 56, killed his wife of 13 years, Stefanie Vallery, was not being argued Thursday; instead, his defense sought only to limit his charges to manslaughter by depicting the killing as a crime of passion.

But prosecutors successfully

argued that Michael Vallery had planned the November 2018 killing as revenge for Stefanie Vallery seeking a divorce and meeting a new man. In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorneys Joshua Campesi and Schyler Brooks highlighted that he had called off work on the rig weeks ahead of schedule, driv-

en hours back to Baton Rouge and eventually entered through a window that he’d previously taken the locks off of

“That is the reaction of a man who believed he owned her and was punishing her for daring to leave,” said Campesi. “The facts don’t support manslaughter.” Prosecutors said that Michael

Vallery waited for his wife to return home before beating and choking her. He then kept her from telling her family about what happened when they arrived at the house. After that, he left only to return through the back window armed with a knife. When the stabbing began, the house had ﬁve other people in it, including Stefanie Vallery’s sister,

ä See GUILTY, page 2B

Playing around

Musical sculptures meant to bring a giggle are on display starting Sunday

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

At the end of each day, Dennis Parker slips into his backyard shed to search for something to make him laugh. He may see it in the way a broken gun grip matches with a saxophone bell or in matching a claw-foot chair leg to a pile of keys and hammers from a trashed piano.

“At the end of the day, I need funny,” Parker said while surveying the newly installed show of his creations in the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge’s Shell Gallery “If I can’t make myself laugh, then it’s not worth doing it.”

The show “Dennisparkercelloetc,” is open to the public on Sunday, with a reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 11 at the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, 233 St. Ferdinand St. It runs through April 17.

The exhibit features Parker’s sculptures created from defunct musical instruments and found objects Also featured are collages by his wife, artist Jaqueline Dee Parker

All art, including the collages is for sale with proceeds benefiting scholarships for the LSU School of Music, where Parker has spent the past 32 years teaching as a professor of cello.

And in those 30-plus years, he’s also been creating sculptures in his shed One of those sculptures, a bird in flight fashioned from a violin, once hung outside the LSU School of Music’s Recital Hall’s entryway

Former Big Lots space to feature food court, specialty items

BY TIMOTHY BOONE Staff writer

Artist Dennis Parker who also is a professor of cello at LSU, stands in front of his gun parody sculptures ‘Weapons of Choice,’ each made from a musical instrument.The sculptures are featured in his exhibit,‘Dennisparkercelloetc,’ in the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge’s Shell Gallery.All pieces are for sale with proceeds benefitting scholarships for the LSU School of Music.

Parker removed the sculpture when renovation work began on the recital hall in August. It now ﬂies among other birds created from violins and cellos in the Shell Gallery

They mingle with his dogs, small pianos and a wall ﬁlled with gunshaped pieces he calls “Weapons of Choice,” each parodying ﬁrearms with a comical title. Take, for instance, the saxophone attached to a detached gun grip. The

sax’s bell points downward, creating the impression that if ﬁred, the bullet would ﬂy toward its shooter

“I call this one, ‘Shoot Yourself in the Foot Gun,’” Parker said, while pointing to a neighboring piece with an imitation cigarette attached to a guitar neck. “And this one is called ‘Smoking Gun.’”

The titles have a way of altering the pieces, smoothing their edges into something light and funny

Parker began making found-object sculptures after buying his ﬁrst band saw

“I’ve always enjoyed making things one way or the other,” he said. “I built my house in Baton Rouge, then went out and bought a band saw and started making bird houses and bird feeders, and that morphed into pianos, which then

ä See PLAYING, page 2B

SU students to receive posthumous degrees

Wilson, Barnhill to be honored in spring commencement

BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer

PHOTO Caleb Wilson plays trumpet with Southern University’s Human Jukebox.Wilson died after an offcampus event.

Exactly one year after Southern University student Caleb Wilson died during a hazing ritual, the school’s Board of Supervisors announced he will be receiving a degree. Southern University Chancellor John K. Pierre said during a Friday Board of Supervisors meeting that Wilson will receive his degree posthumously during the spring commencement Wilson, a 20-year-old student and trumpet player for the Human Jukebox, died after an off-campus hazing ritual involving the Omega Psi Phi fraternity sparking national attention and packed vigils on the campus and in New Orleans. Multiple people involved now face criminal charges, which are moving through the court system. Pierre also announced that Kavon Barnhill, a 21-year-old Southern Student who died in a car crash in December, will also be receiving his degree. “These were both outstanding scholars,” Pierre said “We think this is an honor we should bestow upon the family.”

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

on Siegen Lane in Baton Rouge

currently being

STAFF PHOTO By ROBIN MILLER

PROVIDED

Father accused of kidnapping baby

Viral TikTok

videos capture wild chase

BY MICHELLE HUNTER Staff writer

A Kenner father and his girlfriend are accused of taking his infant son at gunpoint from the child’s mother, leading to a chaotic police chase the conclusion of which was recorded in videos that have been viewed on TikTok more than 20 million times.

Authorities say Kemmion Cage, 25, led Louisiana State Police troopers on a pursuit that ended when he crashed into a Metairie apartment and then barricaded himself inside the residence for 45 minutes.

One of the videos shows a man that Kenner police identified as Cage speeding from pursuing ofﬁcers before violently crashing into a parked, occupied vehicle and the side of an apartment on Elm Street in Metairie. He is then seen scrambling over the hood of a vehicle before dashing into an apartment just as armed ofﬁcers close in.

Cage was later arrested and booked with second-degree kidnapping, domestic abuse-aggravated assault, aggravated ﬂight from an officer and several other charges, according to Kenner Police Deputy Chief Mark McCormick.

The woman identiﬁed by authorities as Cage’s girl-

friend, Kamira Scott, 25, of Norco, was also arrested and booked with aggravated assault with a firearm and disturbing the peace.

According to McCormick, the mother of Cage’s 5-month-old son drove with the baby to a home on Augusta Avenue in Kenner to bring a few items to Cage on Monday evening.

When the mother, 24, parked out front, Cage and Scott stepped out of the house, both armed with handguns, according to McCormick. “They both pointed the weapons at her (the mother) and demanded the child,” McCormick said.

Cage and Scott then took the infant and drove off, authorities said.

As the baby’s father, Cage wasn’t breaking the law by requesting his child. But doing so at gunpoint and as a convicted felon who is not supposed to have a weapon is illegal, McCormick said.

Cage has convictions for burglary second-degree battery and possession of contraband in a correctional center that bar him from possessing a ﬁrearm, according to Jefferson Parish court records.

“That (taking the child) occurred during the commission of a felony, the aggravated assault,” McCormick said. “The child is considered at risk, and it is considered kidnapping.”

The mother went to the Kenner Police Department to make a report. Investigators determined that Cage had taken the child into

New Orleans, so Kenner police asked State Police for assistance, McCormick said.

Around 10:30 p.m., Cage’s vehicle was spotted on Interstate 10 in Kenner and again in the parking lot of a business at the intersection of North Lester Avenue and Airline Drive in Metairie, authorities said.

State Police troopers tried conduct a trafﬁc stop, but Cage sped off, according to arrest reports. He led the troopers on a brief, high-speed chase on Airline that ended in the 600 block of North Elm Street when he crashed into the brick wall of the apartment building, authorities said.

When Cage later surrendered, authorities realized that neither Scott nor the baby were with him, according to McCormick. Investigators learned that Cage had left the baby in good health with a relative in New Orleans.

Scott, who is from Norco, was arrested Tuesday in St Charles Parish, McCormick said. She was later transferred to the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center Cage was also booked with disturbing the peace, hit-and-run driving, driving without a license, aggravated obstruction of a highway, being a convicted felon in possession of a ﬁrearm and illegal use of a ﬁrearm.

Email Michelle Hunter at mhunter@theadvocate. com.

GUILTY

Continued from page 1B

former Olympic volleyball player Danielle Scott-Arruda, her daughters Danielle Scott and Natalie Scott, one of her daughters’ girlfriends and a grandchild.

“This defendant wanted to kill this beautiful lady in front of her family to show that he had power and control,” said District Attorney Hillar Moore following the verdict. “That’s what domestic violence is about. It’s not about being angry It’s about power and control, and he exercised ultimate power and control. He was an executioner in front of his family.”

Both Stefanie Vallery’s daughter and sister received multiple defensive stab wounds from Vallery when they tried to defend her during the killing.

For these injuries, jurors also found Michael Vallery guilty of the attempted second-degree murder of Danielle Scott-Arruda and the attempted manslaughter of his stepdaughter Danielle Scott, in addition to the second-degree murder conviction. Prosecutors used two 911 phone calls to frame the 1.5-hour crime, saying they showed how Michael Vallery’s actions were not a single burst of anger, but multiple, repeated choices made in the pursuit of killing his wife.

The first call came from Stefanie Vallery herself as she and her new boyfriend, Kevin Wilkins, arrived at the Vallery’s home the afternoon of Nov 18, 2018. They got to the house and saw that a light was on, before Michael Vallery came outside to confront them.

She can be heard in the 911 call recording asking Michael Vallery why he was in the house, before Michael Vallery took her phone and

smashed it on the driveway

“She’s realizing right there on that call that her husband is inside her home. He had no reason to be home. He was supposed to be somewhere off the Louisiana coast on an offshore rig,” Campesi told the jury

Vallery told his managers on the rig that he had a family emergency and left work. Then he rode from Port Fourchon to Baton Rouge, prosecutors said. While the married couple was separated and in the process of divorce, Michael Vallery still lived at the home when offshore.

When the police arrived after Stefanie Vallery’s hungup 911 call, Wilkins had left, and the house appeared dark. After no one answered the door, they left.

Prosecutors argued that it was during this time that Michael Vallery had begun to beat Stefanie Vallery, choking her so she couldn’t call for help.

When her family arrived, Stefanie Vallery attempted to communicate that she had been beaten by her husband by mouthing it to her sister and daughters while still in Michael Vallery’s presence. Michael Vallery left the house after a confrontation.

Attorney Victor Woods, who represented Michael Vallery argued that it was then, after overhearing his wife discuss the previous confrontation involving her new boyfriend with her daughters, that Michael Vallery became murderously enraged.

Crime scene photos showed that he slashed the tires of the family’s cars and disconnected the house’s internet connection before going back into the house through the window Michael Vallery’s bags were outside the window, along with a chef’s knife sheath that Stefanie Vallery had given him.

All of these facts pointed to

PLAYING

Continued from page 1B

became music stands and furniture.”

His pianos aren’t actually full-scale instruments but small music boxes, each carrying its own brand of humor One of the pianos in this show is even equipped with keys made of Scrabble tiles spelling out “Off Key.”

“Every year, different ideas come along, and you kind of go with it,” Parker continued. “I’ll make some sculptures until I’m sick of them, then I’ll move to something else. I just love using tools and using my hands.”

premeditation, prosecutors argued.

“He made a decision on that oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, hours before his knife punctured skin, everything that followed: the waiting for her, the broken phone, the slashed tires, the cut wires, the knives, the window, was the execution of that decision,” Brooks said to the jury

The family testified that Michael Vallery continued to stab his wife’s body until “he heard sirens,” at which point he fled the home and was later arrested.

Speaking outside of the courtroom Thursday, ScottArruda told The Advocate she was grateful for the verdict, which carries a mandatory life sentence, even if it took nearly eight years to arrive.

“There’s going to be an enormous continuous, throughout our life, trauma that’s with us,” she said. “The missing of my sister, of a mother, of a friend. Mr Hillar Moore, he mentioned, what would she be doing now? She’d be her loving, giving self. You know, her doors were open to everyone. She was the kindest, sweetest person. Her spirit was so pure. She’d be giving and she would be loving and she would be enjoying living her best life, as she was telling us before she transitioned on.”

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

As a musician, Parker naturally gravitated toward using musical instrument parts in his sculptures. Friends often donate broken and trashed instruments to the stash in his shed, which he said is overﬂowing.

“These are instruments that would have ended up in a landfill,” he said. “I inherit instruments from the Kids Orchestra and the instrument repair people. They include stringed instruments, brass and woodwinds. This is a way to give them new life.”

Old organ pipes and piano pieces also been donated to Parker’s stash. This show features a peacock made from old piano keys and hammers attached to a claw-foot leg from a broken antique chair

But none of the sculptures are complete without its title.

“At the end of the day, I want to make people laugh,” Parker said. “That’s why I want to stick titles on the sculptures, because you can look at it just for what it is visually, but then you wonder what it means. So, if you read the title, and it makes you giggle, then I’m happy.”

It’s made the gallery’s manager, Mike Weary, laugh.

“I love the levity in this show, because some artists tend to be glum,” said Weary who’s also the Arts

Council’s artist-in-residence. “So, it’s a breath of fresh air to get something that’ll make you smile.”

“Dennisparkercelloetc” will open with a reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 11 and run through April 17 at the Shell Gallery in the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, 233 St Ferdinand St Hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday Admission is free. Visit artsbr.org

This house in the 13000 block of Honey Drive is where Michael Vallery is accused of fatally stabbing his wife Sunday night before fleeing the scene.

Dennis Parker’s exhibit,‘Dennisparkercelloetc,’ features several birds in flight created from broken violins and cellos.

STAFF PHOTOS By ROBIN MILLER

Dennis Parker incorporates humor into his sculptures made of musical instruments and found sculptures. Here, he used Scrabble tiles spelling out ‘Off Key’ on a piano sculpture. The piece is featured in his exhibit,‘Dennisparkercelloetc’ in the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge’s Shell Gallery.All pieces are for sale with proceeds benefitting scholarships for the LSU School of Music.

Coleman, Terry Demby& SonFuneralHome, 900 Magnolia St.Donaldsonville,La. at 11am

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TheUnitarian Church of Baton Rouge at 4pm

Preston, Gwendolyn MacedoniaMissionary Baptist Church at 10 a.m.

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Obituaries

Foster, Theresa Maranto

Theresa Maranto Foster, age 76, of Baton Rouge Louisiana, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, surrounded by her family,after bravely fighting Alzheimer's andParkinson's for many years. Theresawas cherished for her gentle, loving, and compassionate nature throughouther life. She graduated from Baton Rouge High and devoted herself to serving others, both through her work and her faith. For over two decades, Theresa was a pillar of the Our Lady of Mercy community. She first served as the assistant bookkeeper and office assistant at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School and later became the receptionist and funeral coordinator at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, makinga lasting impact on countless individualsuntil her retirement. In addition to her ministry work, Theresa joyfully served as amemberofthe church choir, was adedicated member of St.Matthew's Guild, and

offeredher time as aEucharisticminister to the homebound. Her deep commitment to her family matchedher dedication to her service, providing unwavering love and support. Theresa was precededin death by her belovedhusband, Charles"Snow" Foster, Sr.; her parents, Joseph and AntionetteMaranto; her sister, Diana Maranto Gauthier;and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. Sheissurvived by her children, Charles"Chuck" Foster, Jr. (Laura) andDawn Dicharry(Dale);her siblings,ToniRoumain, Cecile Johnson, MaryDeVilleneuve (Jon), Bernadette Sampere,and Joe Maranto (Connie);brother-in-law Roy Foster (Phyllis); as well as many nieces, nephews, and cousins who willdeeplymiss her. Visitation willbeheldfrom 9:00-10:00a.m. on Monday, March 2, 2026,atOur Lady of Mercy CatholicChurch, 445 Marquette Avenue,BatonRouge, LA.Massof Christian Burialwill follow at 10:00a.m.Burialwilltake placeat ResthavenGardens of Memory,11817Jefferson Highway. The family offersour sincere gratitude to Theresa's caregiverswith The Hospice of Baton Rouge, as well as the specialnursing staff at LandmarkofBaton Rouge fortheir compassionate care. In lieu of flowers, memorials in honorof Theresa Maranto Foster may be made to the Traditionsfor Tomorrow CampaignatOur Lady of Mercy CatholicChurch, The Hospice of Baton Rouge and/ or Alzheimer's Servicesof theCapital Area.

Christine

loved ones of Christine "Christy"Scoggins announce the passing of our

amazing and wonderful friend on February 19, 2026 at her home in Baton Rouge after abrief illness. Christywas borninNew Orleans, La on May 7, 1952. She graduated from BroadmoorHighSchool and attendedLSU where she earneda Bachelor and Master of Science and Master of Education.She was amember of Kappa Alpha ThetaSorority. Christyloved working as an educatorinmany schoolsinBaton Rouge, primarilyinphysical educationand resources. Christywas instrumental in theformationofthe La Colleges Intramural and Recreational Sports Assoc. at theUniversity of New Orleans. She also served many clientsastheir Financial Advisor and Insurance agent.She served as an Officer and Board memberofthe ParkviewOaks CivicAssociationand was activeinthe PVOGarden Club. Christyloved gardening,traveling, art, animals, sailing and photography. She was "rich" with friends whomshe cherished over alifetime. Afavoritequote was "Friendsare forever." She waspreceded in death by her parents; Creedand Jean Laudeman Scoggins and brother Richard. There will be aCelebrationofLife held in her honorata future date. In lieu of flowers Christyasked that adonation be madeinthe charity of your choice.

RonStrother was born in Oakdale, Louisiana on January17, 1937 to Lora and Malone Strother. He died on February 18, 2026 in Youngsville,Louisiana, after aprolonged battle withcancer.Heleavesbehind his wife Anne of fiftyeight years, histwo daughters, Roxann Bauerle Fos-

terand AmyStrother, his stepson, Chad Stoma, and his brotherand sister-inlaw, Derrel and Shirley Strother. He was preceded in death by his twodaughters, Ronice and Stephanie Strother. Mr. Strother also leavesbehindfive grandchildren: BrandiStrother, Megan Williams Valenti, Derek Bauerle, Dani Stoma, and CeciliaCarner Mr. Strother worked in radio broadcasting for many years in on-airtal-

ent, management,brokerage, andownership. Later, he boughta home health care agencybased in Baton Rouge whichhemanaged andbuilt into a statewide companywith hisdaughter, Amy.

Mr.Strother attended OakdaleHigh School and McNeese State University on atrack scholarship,departingtojointhe military in 1955. Mr.Strotherserved in Army Intelligence during theCold War,including a

tour in the Far East. Upon returning, he began his broadcasting career as an on-airdeejay. In lieu of flowers, please send adonation in his memory to O'Brien House in Baton Rouge or Hospice of AcadianainLafayette. Hisfamilyencourages those whowish to rememberhim to take awalk in thewoods or read some poetry —thoseactivities beingtwo of hisfavorite pastimes.

Many Americans are fortunate to have dental coveragefor their entire working life,through employer-provided benefits. When those benefits end with retirement,payingdental bills out-of-pocket can come as a shock,leading peopletoput offoreven go without care. Simplyput —without dental insurance, there may be an importantgap in your healthcarecoverage

Whenyou’recomparing plans

Medicare doesn’tpay for dental care.1

That’s right. As good as Medicare is,itwas never meanttocover everything. That means if youwant protection, youneed to purchase individual insurance.

Early detectioncan prevent small problemsfrom becomingexpensive ones

The best way to preventlarge dental bills is preventive care. TheAmerican Dental Association recommends checkupstwiceayear.

Previous dental work canwearout

Even if you’ve hadqualitydentalworkinthe past, youshouldn’t take your dentalhealth forgranted. In fact, your odds of havinga dentalproblemonly go up as youage.2

Treatment is expensive especially theservicespeople over 50 often need

Consider these national average costsof treatment. $274for acheckup $299 for afilling $1,471 foracrown.3 Unexpected bills likethiscan be areal burden, especially if you’reonafixed income

Interested in Print?

Access to thedaily e-replica of thenewspaper is also included.

Strother,Ron

Scoggins,

'Christy'

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

State Farm to issue $5B in insurance dividends

State Farm will issue $5 billion in auto insurance dividends to its customers this summer, with a one-time payment of about $100 per vehicle, the Bloomington, Ill.-based insurance giant announced Thursday

The largest dividend in State Farm’s 103-year history was driven primarily by lower collision repair costs in 2025, the company said.

The distributions cover more than 49 million vehicles insured by State Farm across the country, with the actual amount varying by state and premiums paid. State Farm said the dividend was enabled by “a stronger than expected underwriting performance” last year, according to the news release.

The company also touted lowering auto insurance rates in 40 states in recent months by an average of 10%, amounting to a premium savings of $4.6 billion. Lower premiums were made possible by decreasing repair costs and fewer collisions in 2025, the company said.

Keeping the lid on home insurance rates continues to be a nationwide challenge for State Farm, the company said.

Block, citing gains from AI, cuts 40% of staff

BANGKOK Shares in the financial technology company Block soared more than 20% in premarket trading Friday after its CEO announced it was laying off more than 4,000 of its 10,000 plus employees, reconfiguring to capitalize on its use of artificial intelligence.

“The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders in Block, the parent company to online payment platforms such as Square and Cash App. “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better,” he said Dorsey’s comments explicitly naming AI as a key driver behind the move were also posted on X, or Twitter, a company he co-founded. The assertion that the job cuts will add to Block’s profitability and efficiency led investors to jump in and buy, analysts said.

“For years, we have debated whether AI would dent jobs at the margin. Now we have a public case study in which the CEO explicitly says that intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary “Other large employers have announced tens of thousands of cuts in recent months Some have downplayed the AI link. Block did not,” he said.

OpenAI gets $110B from tech powerhouses

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has received $110 billion in funding from Amazon, SoftBank and Nvidia, putting the technology company’s pre-money valuation at $730 billion.

Amazon is leading the trio of tech heavyweights in commitments, putting up $50 billion, followed by $30 billion each from Nvidia and SoftBank, said OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman on Friday Other investors are anticipated to join as the funding round progresses. Amazon will start with an initial $15 billion investment and will invest another $35 billion in the coming months under preset conditions.

“These partnerships expand our global reach, deepen our infrastructure, and strengthen our balance sheet so we can bring frontier AI to more people, more businesses and more communities worldwide,” he wrote. Altman said that ChatGPT has more than 900 million weekly active users, and more than 50 million consumer subscribers.

“We are entering a new phase where frontier AI moves from research into daily use at global scale,” he said.

Stocks down, oil up on AI, war fears

BY STAN CHOE Associated Press

NEWYORK U.S. stocks sank Friday as Wall Street kept punishing companies that could become losers in the artificial-intelligence revolution, while oil prices climbed with worries about tensions between the United States and Iran.

The losses came as investors returned to knocking down software companies and other businesses they suspect could get supplanted by AI-powered competitors.

Salesforce, whose platform helps customers manage their relation-

ships with clients, fell 2.3%. It gave back much of its 4% gain from the day before after reporting a better proﬁt than analysts expected. The pain has also hit private-equity companies that have bought or lent money to software companies, which need to withstand the AI threat to keep repaying those loans. Apollo Global Management dropped 8.6% for the one of the sharpest losses in the S&P 500. Blue Owl Capital, which has been a target for investors because of the loans to it’s made to the software industry, fell 6%.

Even the companies currently

seeing their revenue and profit soar because of AI-related demand are under pressure. Nvidia fell 4.2% and was the heaviest weight on the U.S. stock market. Rival chip companies also fell. Worries are hurting such companies not only about whether their stock prices rose too high in recent years but also whether the huge spending driving their growth can continue. Can big spenders like Amazon and Alphabet make back all their billions of dollars in AI investments through higher productivity and proﬁts in the future? On the winning side of Wall Street

was Netﬂix,

Trump orders agencies to stop using Anthropic AI technology

Company said it wouldn’t accept DOD’s demands

BY MATT O’BRIEN and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Trump administration on Friday ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artiﬁcial-intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties, culminating an unusually public clash between the government and the company over AI safety

President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other ofﬁcials took to social media to chastise Anthropic for failing to allow the military unrestricted use of its AI technology by a Friday deadline, accusing it of endangering national security after CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards.

“We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!”

Trump said on social media.

Hegseth also deemed the company a “supply chain risk,” a designation typically stamped on foreign adversaries that could derail the company’s critical partnerships with other businesses.

Anthropic had said it sought narrow assurances from the Pentagon that its AI chatbot Claude would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon said it was not interested in such uses and would only deploy the technology in legal ways, but it also insisted on access without any limitations.

The government’s effort to assert dominance over the internal decision-making of the company comes amid a wider clash over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how increasingly capable machines could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance.

Trump said Anthropic made a mistake trying to strong-arm the Pentagon. He wrote on Truth Social that most agencies must immediately stop using Anthropic’s AI but gave the Pentagon a sixmonth period to phase out the technology that is already embedded in military platforms.

“The United States of America will never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our great military ﬁghts and wins wars!” he wrote in all caps.

After months of private talks exploded into public debate this week, Anthropic said Thursday that the government’s new contract language would allow “safeguards to be disregarded at will.” Amodei said his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the demands Anthropic can afford to lose the contract.

BY PAUL WISEMAN AP economics writer

WASHINGTON U.S. wholesale prices came in hotter than expected last month. The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index, which measures inﬂation before it hits consumers, rose 0.5% from December and 2.9% from January 2025. Economists had forecast a 0.3% increase for the month and 1.6% year over year according to a survey by the data

ﬁrm FactSet.

Excluding food and energy prices, which bounce around from month to month, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.8% from

But the government’s actions posed broader risks at the peak of the company’s meteoric rise from a little-known computer science research lab in San Francisco to one of the world’s most valuable startups.

The president’s decision was preceded by hours of top Trump appointees from the Pentagon and the State Department taking to social media to criticize Anthropic, but their complaints posed contradictions.

Top Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on social media Thursday that Anthropic’s unwillingness to go along with the military’s demands was “jeopardizing critical military operations and potentially putting our warﬁghters at risk.” Hegseth said Friday that the Pentagon “must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic.” Trump’s social media post also mandated the company “better get their act together and be helpful” during a six-month phaseout period or there would be “major civil and criminal consequences to follow.”

However, Hegseth’s choice to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk uses an administrative tool that has been designed for companies owned by U.S. adversaries to prevent them from selling products that are harmful to American interests.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted that this dynamic, “combined with inﬂammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.” Anthropic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the Trump administration’s actions.

The dispute stunned AI developers in Silicon Valley, where venture capitalists, prominent AI scientists and a large number of workers from Anthropic’s top rivals OpenAI and Google — voiced support for Amodei’s stand

December and 3.6% from January 2025 — both higher than forecasters had expected. The year-overyear increase in core prices was the biggest since March of last year Driving the increase was an uptick in the wholesale price of services, led by higher proﬁt margins for retailers and wholesalers. The increase suggests that companies are passing along the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs to their customers.

in open letters and other forums.

The move is likely to beneﬁt Elon Musk’s competing chatbot, Grok, which the Pentagon plans to give access to classiﬁed military networks, and could serve as a warning to two other competitors, Google and OpenAI, that have still-evolving contracts to supply their AI tools to the military Musk sided with Trump’s administration, saying on his social media platform X that “Anthropic hates Western Civilization.”

But one of Amodei’s ﬁercest rivals, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, sided with Anthropic and questioned the Pentagon’s “threatening” move in a CNBC interview and a letter to employees that said OpenAI shared the same red lines. Amodei once worked for OpenAI before he and other OpenAI leaders quit to form Anthropic in 2021.

“For all the differences I have with Anthropic, I mostly trust them as a company, and I think they really do care about safety,” Altman told CNBC, hours before he gathered employees for an all-hands meeting Friday Retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan, a former leader of the Pentagon’s AI initiatives, wrote on social media this week that “painting a bull’s-eye on Anthropic garners spicy headlines, but everyone loses in the end.” Shanahan said Claude is already being widely used across the government, including in classiﬁed settings, and Anthropic’s red lines were “reasonable.” He said the AI large language models that power chatbots like Claude, Grok and ChatGPT are also “not ready for prime time in national security settings,” particularly not for fully autonomous weapons

“Retailers’ tariff bill has come down marginally in the last few months, but they have continued to lift their selling prices,” Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a commentary And core good prices climbed 0.7% from December and 4.2% from January 2025 on hefty increases in the prices of cosmetics, pet food, some metals and metalcutting machinery Energy prices were down as gasoline prices dropped 5.5% from December and 15.7% from a year earlier Wholesale food prices also fell. The producer price report comes two weeks after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose just 2.4% last month compared to a year earlier, closing in on the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Economists had worried that Trump’s double-digit taxes on im-

ports would drive inﬂation higher

Their impact has so far been more modest than expected — although inﬂation remains higher than the Fed would like.

Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably measures of health care and financial services, flow into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index. In December, PCE inflation rose faster than economists had forecast, climbing 2.9% from a year earlier biggest such increase since March 2024.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By PATRICK SISON

The Trump administration on Friday ordered all U.S agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties.

Amodei

Hegseth

Altman

Musk

OPINION

If youwant afriendin Washington (oranywhere else),get adog

Harry Truman once said that if youwantafriend in Washington, get adog. Fourteen yearsago,asa resident of the nation’scapital, Idid justthat. More accurately,God gave me adog —and picked exactly the right one. Clipper,awhite Cavachon witha few wisps of light apricot, was aﬂawless mix of CavalierKing Charles spaniel and bichon frisé. He was ahappy,sociable littlefellow,22pounds of charm.You would swear he smiled, and he always seemed toenjoy posing forthe camera. He was the right size —big enough and small enough, atleastfor me —and he adored human interaction He was my ﬁrst dog since Iwas 12. Cavachonsare known for their affectionate, friendly,gentletemperaments, and Clipper was theposter boy for all three. He gavesomanykisses, Isometimes thoughtofrenaming him Licker.Henever bit anyone, norgavea thought to doing so. Clipper was full of love. He stuck by methrough ups and downs.

It was pure joy watching Clipper play with my grandson, Porter.Clipper would lick Porter’sface again and again, and my grandson —laughing from the belly —would pretend hewantedClippertostop while gleefully letting him continue. Asthe referee,I enjoyed the game as much as thetwo delighted participants

Seventeenmonthsago,aveterinariantold me Clipper had bone cancer in one of his front legs. Like anyone who hears news likethat,I wasdevastated. Fortunately,Igot good advice from doctors atthe Metairie Small Animal Hospital and fromsupportive family members. The best option wastoamputateas soon as possible.

Clipper came through surgery with ﬂying colors. He was brave and trusting. Withinafew days,hewas getting around remarkably well. One vettold me that Godgives dogs three legs andone spare. Clipperwas doing his best without the spare.

After six chemotherapy treatments, theoncology staff at MedVet gave him a“Certiﬁcate of Achievement.” They lined up in the hallway at the medical center and applauded my littlefellow as he hopped toward me. Clipper wearing his “graduation”cap —a photo of which now hangs above the computer I’m typingon— ﬁlled me withpride.

Clipper lived agood, longlife —always happy, always ready for the next adventure.But in recent months, he began slowingdown.Day by day,he wasn’t himself. After hours of examinations and Xrays, Iwas told the cancer was back andhad metastasized to his ribs. Another devastatingday

Eventually, you could see the ﬂash of pain in hisbig, brown eyes, as if he was asking me, “What’shappening?”

Three weeks ago, Clipper went to heaven.

Losing abeloved pet brings agrief that is quiet and heavy.Ifyou’ve been throughit, you know

Dogs teach us how to love byshowing whatunconditional love looks like. That’swhy the Almightysupposedly said when he created them, “I will send them without wings so no one suspectsthey areangels.”

All of our pets are angels, andClipperisnow cheerily playing with the others. Ifeel that he’sstill by my side, my perfect little angel. That isn’tmeanttobea tear-jerker,but ahappy fact Fortunately,our society has learned over the years how to best care for pets. They’re notanimals to be left out in the yard; they’re family —tobeloved, respected andprotected.

The American Veterinary MedicalAssociation estimates that more than 56 million American households have dogs and 43 million have cats, up 20% since 1988. In 2024, more than 4million shelteranimals were adopted.

Acartoon Isaw recently uplifted my spirits, andI hope it will hearten yours if you’ve ever had apet. It shows aman arriving at thepearly gates,yearsafter his pet made the journey.He’sgreetedbya beaming St.Peter who tellshim, “Somebody’sbeenwaitingfor you.”

Ican see Clipper,happily wagginghis tail. He was my best friend.

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

Republicansgamingthe system with SAVE act

Iread with great interest the Feb.15column by Mark Ballard regarding theso-called SAVE America Act being pushed by Republicans in Congress.

As stated by Ballard,potential voters would be required to present acertiﬁed birth certiﬁcate, passport or other documentation to prove citizenship when they register tovote.

Also, they would be required to show government-issued picture ID when going to vote. As noted by Ballard,Louisianaalready requires government-issued photo IDs when voting.

Supposedly,this bill is designed to combat voter fraud. However, as stated by Ballard,voter fraud is an extremely rare occurrence in Louisiana. Additionally,from what Ihave often read, voter fraud in national elections is also very rare.

U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise and

Mike Johnson act as if people opposing theSAVEAmerica Act are against having to show apicture ID when going to vote. This makes me wonder if they have cast votes in Louisianaelections, since for years it has been required that voters present apicture ID in order to vote. As indicated in Ballard’scolumn, asserting that opponents of the SAVE Act object to having to present apicture ID when voting ignores thedifﬁculties manypeople, such as thosewho have moved from one state to another or married women, would have in obtaining the required documentation to register tovote.

Thus, it is obvious that the socalled SAVE America Act is really aSave Republicans From Defeat in the Upcoming Congressional Elections act.

JACK QUARLESJR. NewOrleans

Don’tput illegal immigrants in onebasket

It cannot be said enough that “criminals” are different from undocumented immigrants(or “illegal aliens,” if one wants to insist on that term).

The choir director at my church, Orlin,and his wife, Lucia, were “illegals.” Their ﬁrst two daughters died in infancy due to pollution and inadequatehealth care in Honduras. After their thirddaughter Camila was born, Orlin and Lucia had understandable fears about keeping her alive in Honduras. They felt that their best option to protect her was to come to the United States, even though they did not have lawful permission. They trusted that theU.S. was great and graceful enough to offer understanding and compassion

These “illegals” paid our countryback. Lucia raised their children in faith. Orlin worked as a welder in the shipyards. They led our Spanish language choir and were involved in faithformation through thearchdiocese’sHispanic Apostolate.

In my experience as aCatholic

and an immigration lawyer,I have had theprivilege to serve many incredible, even heroic, “illegals.” Ihave also learned that it’snot so unusual for “illegals” to be holy, like Orlin and Lucia.

The New OrleansPolice Departmenthas long recognized that criminal law enforcement is different from immigration enforcement. As has been painfully apparent over the past months, immigration enforcement is often at odds with public safety Idon’tbelieve it’ssimply coincidence that New Orleans’ historic drop in crimeand increased immigrant population overlap.I also believe that trust-building measures, like therescinded 2016 immigration policy,have helped to bring about this incredible accomplishment. The 2016 NOPD immigration policy recognized that immigrants, irrespective of their status, are an integral part of our community.Failing to protect them leaves us all less safe and less great.

MARCO BALDUCCI NewOrleans

Howcan anyone think Trump’s characteris admirable?

Letters like Cathy Brouillette’sin the newspaper on Feb. 16 are worrisome. To me, President Donald Trump’swords and behaviors do not speak of qualities Iﬁnd desirable. Iﬁnd his speech and actions fearfuland provoking of dangerousness if not seen in the light of truthful revelation. His personality traits are found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. An older term would classify Trumpasa “malignant narcissist.”

Iwonder from what precisely Brouillette determines Trumptobe religious? Christianity? The teachings of Jesus Christ and the beliefs of Trumpare diametrically opposite. From the start, his lack of compassion was seen as he tried to provoke humor by making funofthe disabled reporter

Being goal-oriented is aquality when those goals are noble. Assertiveness is desirable when it does not encompass stepping on others’ rights and privileges. Idoﬁnd Brouillette morethan abit confused in her assessments. But, as she concludes in her letter,that’sawhole other topic. CAROL POOLEY Donaldsonville

Protests areabout how deportationbeing carriedout underTrump

Iread with interest Dave Hebert’s letter of Feb. 11 on whobears the blamefor the current unrest over the administration’simmigration enforcement policy.Hebert was correct in that the Biden administration did allow hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into this country.But you can’tblamethe Biden administration forthe current enforcement policies. That is what the protesting is about. It’s about the manner in which the policy is being implemented, not the enforcement itself

CLIFFORD WILLIAMS Baton Rouge

Faucheux

Chio,LSU gymteam hold off Alabama

Sophomore gymnastearns fifthperfect scoreofseason

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

The LSU Tigers were in the dangerzone in the middle of Friday night’s third of four gymnastics rotations against Alabama While the Crimson Tide was throwingout consistent floor routineafter floor routine en route to a49.500, LSU’sAmari Draytonhad afallinthe third spot in theTigers’ balance beam rotation, scoring a9.175.The pressure was on LSU’sfinal three beam competitors —Kaliya Lincoln,Konnor McClain and Kailin Chio —asone more fall could have cost the No. 2-ranked Tigers themeet againstthe No.3CrimsonTide.

What happened next forLSU was clutch city Lincoln recorded asolid 9.875, followedby aseason-high 9.975 from McClain tocap her comeback from an injurythatkept herout of the previous week’smeet at Oklahoma. Then it was Chio’sturn. The result:

ä See GYM, page 3C

Beyshinesin Pelicans’third straight win

BY RODWALKER Staff writer

Saddiq Bey refused to letthe New lose Thursday night. Even when the Utah Jazz rallied keep this from being the blowout tha it once was, Bey shut it down. Bey ﬁnished with 42 points, includ ing 14 in the fourth quarter,tolea the Pelicans to a129-118 victory at th Delta Center It was the second-most points scor by aPelicans player this season, o trailing the 44 points scored by Trey phy in aloss to the Milwaukee Buck For Bey,itwas aseason-high and ond-most points he’sscored in his His career-high of 51 came four seas when he was playing with the Detroit in agame against the Orlando Magic Bey also had seven assistsand g

d ly uresecareer ns ago, Pistons rabbed

ä See PELICANS, page 3C

FRESHMAN FLOURISHING

LSU guard Jalen Reececelebrates after scoring a3-point basket against Missouri in the first halfonJan. 17 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center STAFF

By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSUpoint guardReecetakes bigleapinThomas’ absence

BY TOYLOY BROWNIII Staff writer

With tired legs in double overtime and everypossessionmattering more thanthe last, freshman Jalen Reece was composed with the ball in his hands.

Robert Miller ﬂipped his screen to face the LSUbench on the right sideline, and Ole Miss guard Eduardo Klafke couldn’tstayinfront of Reece, whodribbledonce toward thetop of the key. Thefreshmanpoint guard saw the passing window open as Miller dove to the basket. In thesame way one would roll dice, Reece delivered a right-handed bounce pass to thespot thatonly his 6-foot10 teammate could catch the ball anddunk it withease,

LSU guard Izzy Besselman wavestofans on Thursday at the PMAC. STAFF PHOTO By

giving LSU a92-90 advantage with 4:38 left.

The pass created one of the four field goals LSU scored in the second overtime to beat Ole Miss 106-99 on the road Wednesday.The assist also gave the 6-foot Reece his first career double-double, finishing with 11 points, 10 assists and only one turnover

The 19-year-old is playing his best basketball of the season season and will be crucial in LSU’snext game against Oklahoma (14-14, 4-11 SEC) at 5p.m. Saturdayatthe Pete Maravich Assembly Center

Reece has started the last fourgames and is averaging 13.5 pointson40.5% shooting, 7.0 assists, 1.0 steal

ä See REECE, page 3C

ojustgoout thereone last time’

esselman, LSUguard battling eartcondition,relishes final oments with team at PMAC

REED DARCEY fwriter

ssoon as IzzyBesselman walked onto floor,her smile brightened. She had en here before. But the emotions of this ment feltalittledifferent—and forgood ason. eforeThursday,Besselman hadn’tapared in agame for 705 days. That’snearly ofullyearsofsitting. Watching. Searchg—not only for aﬁrm answertothe ques-

ä LSU at Mississippi State 3P.M. SUNDAy,SEC NETWORK

tion of why she couldn’tplay basketball anymore,but also for an ending she could enjoy on her terms. Not those of the heart condition that took away the past twoyears of her playing career

Besselman gotthatclosure Thursday at the end of the LSU women’sbasketball team’s win over Tennessee. Coach Kim Mulkey subbed her into the action with 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter,giving the Pete Maravich Assembly Centercrowd achancetotoasther senior night.

PHOTO

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU gymnast Kailin Chio leapsthrough the air during her balance beam routine against Alabama on Fridayatthe Pete Maravich Assembly Center.Chio scored aperfect10, her second straightonbeam.

MICHAEL JOHNSON

Head Coach JayJohnson LSUBaseball

4:30

7 p.m. Oregon St. at Santa Clara CBSSN

7 p.m. Villanova at St. John’s FOX

7 p.m. Baylor at UC FFS1

7:30 p.m. Arkansas at Florida ESPN

7:30 p.m. Virginia Tech at North CarolinaESPN2

7:30 p.m. Ole Miss at Auburn SECN

9 p.m. Nevada at UNLV CBSSN

9 p.m. Grand Canyon at Utah St. FS1

9:30 p.m. Gonzaga at Saint Mary’s ESPN

9:30 p.m. UCSB at UC Irvine ESPN2

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

1:30 p.m. Maryland at Michigan FOX

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Buckeyes Tate a fan of QB Shough

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

INDIANAPOLIS

About a month

ago, Carnell Tate was on a podcast when the Ohio State receiver was asked which quarterback he’d love to play with most in the NFL.

He said he’d be happy with whoever could get him the ball. But after mentioning Buffalo QB Josh Allen — who wouldn’t want to be with an MVP? — he brought up a surprising name: Tyler Shough. He noted that the New Orleans Saints quarterback had been “balling.” What made him say that?

“He had a great back half of the season,” Tate said Friday at the NFL scouting combine. “He won five games for the Saints, stretching the field and being very accurate.” It would be a pairing that many would welcome.

Tate is in the mix to be the ﬁrst wideout taken in this year’s NFL draft, but he could still be available when the Saints pick eighth overall.

The Saints, in particular, are in need of another dynamic weapon around Shough, and Tate ﬁts the prototype At 6-foot-3, he ran a variety of routes and won in all

Ohio State receiver Carnell Tate plays against

Columbus, Ohio.

sorts of ways for the Buckeyes.

He averaged 17.2 yards per catch this past season on 51 catches for 875 yards and nine touchdowns.

He d also be a complement to Chris Olave, whom Tate knows

well from their Ohio State connection.

“They might be out there looking for another weapon to pair up with Chris, so to help Tyler in his career,” said Tate, who has met

with New Orleans. “It would be a great opportunity to go out there and help the Saints win.”

Email Matthew Paras at matt.paras@theadvocate.com

Moore active in Saints’ draft work in 2026

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

INDIANAPOLIS — Kellen Moore’s second offseason with the New Orleans Saints has been a lot less hectic than the first. Without the whirlwind of winning the Super Bowl with Philadelphia, finalizing a coaching staff and then sprinting to the offseason Moore finally has had time to take a breath — and to put his energy into different projects. After the Senior Bowl, Moore met with college scouting director Jeff Ireland and his staff to begin a deep dive on the prospects for the NFL draft. As a coordinator, Moore usually would wait to dig into the draft until after he completed his free agency evaluations.

“I’ve already gotten the ﬁrst lap, ﬁrst impression for all these drafteligible guys,” Moore said.

Moore made another lap this week at the scouting combine, where he sat in on prospect meetings to collect additional information. In between, he made time to speak with reporters. Here’s what stood out from the session.

Helping Shough

Moore knows the Saints have to run the ball better in 2026

That was among the glaring issues he noticed during a thorough review of his first season. The Saints failed to have a 500-yard rusher for the first time since 1998, the year before they gave up the farm to draft Ricky Williams Moore said they have to be better on ﬁrst and second down to open up explosive plays. He stressed improving in the red zone and in

short-yardage situations when it comes to the run, too.

Any changes will be made with second-year quarterback Tyler Shough in mind.

“Any offense is going to be steered by the quarterback position,” Moore said. “Once that narrows its focus, it allows me to be a lot more speciﬁc as what you want to do That’ll be a full offseason journey. I’m excited about that just from Tyler’s perspective, just to be able to go through a full offseason, go through in his training camp and clean up the system and narrow our focus.”

Free agents TBD

Moore was asked repeatedly about the Saints’ key free agents, such as cornerback Alontae Taylor, linebacker Demario Davis and defensive end Cam Jordan. Moore kept

close to the vest how the Saints and general manager Mickey Loomis will approach each of those decisions

“Those are obviously conversations that Mickey’s having with those guys just to see where they’re at, ﬁrst and foremost,” Moore said “All those guys we love to death, and we’d love to keep as many of these guys as we possibly can

“We’ll let that process take care of itself.”

That includes running back Alvin Kamara, who technically isn’t a free agent but has an $18 million cap hit that looms large over next season.

Moore didn’t indicate whether the Saints would ask Kamara to take a pay cut or consider moving on but did note it was unfortunate that Kamara missed the last six games with a knee injury

“Our team was finally starting to play a little bit better collectively, (and) I think he would have reaped some benefits from that,” Moore said. Kamara finished with a careerlow 471 yards rushing, and his 3.6 yards per carry average also was a personal worst. Reunions?

Because he’s been an offensive coordinator at three stops before landing in New Orleans, Moore has overlap with some notable players who are set to be free agents.

The 37-year-old, for example, coached tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Kenneth Gainwell in Philadelphia. He worked with Chargers guard Zion Johnson in Los Angeles and Chargers guard Mekhi Becton in Philadelphia. Even less signiﬁcant pieces

QB Pavia plans to throw at NFL scouting combine

INDIANAPOLIS Quarterback Diego Pavia, runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting, said Friday he will throw passes at the NFL scouting combine.

The quarterbacks are scheduled to go through drills on Saturday Heisman winner and expected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza of Indiana said he would wait until his pro day on April 1 to throw passes. Pavia said he will not go through additional on-ﬁeld drills and will instead wait for Vanderbilt’s pro day on March 18.

He is viewed as a later-round pick largely because of his size Pavia measured at just less than 5-foot10. Mendoza, by comparison, is 6-5. Now he hopes to transfer that play over to the NFL, and Pavia perhaps poked fun at himself regarding his on- and off-ﬁeld reputation.

Cowboys place franchise tag on receiver Pickens

The Dallas Cowboys placed the franchise tag on George Pickens on Friday, a move that would guarantee the receiver $27.3 million in 2026 while the sides work on a long-term contract.

Dallas used the non-exclusive tag on Pickens, a person with knowledge of the move told The Associated Press, meaning he can negotiate with other teams but the Cowboys can match any offer The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because details of the tag weren’t announced.

The Cowboys had been expected to use the tag on Pickens since last fall when he began to ﬂourish in his breakout 2025 season coming off a trade from Pittsburgh, where his career got off to a rocky start.

Atlanta Falcons dismiss assistant coach Lewis

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons dismissed assistant defensive line coach LaTroy Lewis on Friday, just hours before he was named as a suspect in a sexual assault case. The dismissal came shortly after the Falcons said they were looking into allegations that surfaced on social media

“We are aware of allegations regarding LaTroy Lewis,” the Falcons said in a statement before making the move to ﬁre Lewis. “We are in the process of gathering information and will have no further comment at this time.”

A direct message seeking comment was sent on social media

The allegations date to Lewis’ time at the University of Michigan, where he served as a graduate assistant for the 2022 season.

Lee moves up the LPGA Singapore leaderboard

like wide receivers Jalen Tolbert (Dallas) and Jahan Dotson (Philadelphia) have crossed paths with Moore. Moore couldn’t speak about any speciﬁcs on those individuals because they’re still under contract.

But generally, is he a fan of getting the band back together?

“It’s a good question,” Moore said “I think there’s value in just having people that are familiar with a system or familiarity with yourself on a personal level, but I don’t think it’s the necessary thing.

“Especially now the rest of the team we’ve been invested with over a year More than anything, when you have coaches who have worked with those guys (before), you just have a better understanding probably who you’re getting and what their strengths are and how they’ll ﬁt into the culture of the team.”

Moore’s ﬁrst year saw the Saints bring in tight end Jack Stoll and wide receiver Brandin Cooks to help others acclimate to his offense. And on defense, defensive end Chris Rumph, defensive tackle Jonah Williams and safety Terrell Burgess reunited with defensive coordinator Brandon Staley.

But those were smaller-scale moves that hardly encompassed New Orleans’ offseason approach, which involved signing safety Justin Reid, trading for defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, and reupping defensive end Chase Young and tight end Juwan Johnson.

A mix of the two strategies again makes sense for Moore’s second season.

Email Matthew Paras at matt.paras@theadvocate.com

SINGAPORE Three-time major winner Minjee Lee improved on her first-round score by eight strokes Friday for an 8-under 64 to move into a tie for second place at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

The No. 4-ranked Lee, one of nine top-10 players in the LPGA Singapore field this week, had an eagle and six birdies and tied for the round of the day on the Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong course. Lee was one stroke behind firstround leader Auston Kim, whose 69 left the American with a leading two-round total of 9-under 135.. Lee was tied with Ariya Jutanugarn (67) and Haeran Ryu (68). Hannah Green finished with three birdies in a row for a 66 and moved into a tie for fifth.

Dodgers don’t expect Snell to be ready on opening day SCOTTSDALE,Ariz. The Los Angeles Dodgers do not expect two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to be ready for opening day as he works on coming back from a shoulder injury that has lingered since last season.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters Friday that the lefty has been throwing on ﬂat ground, not the mound, and is making progress.

Snell was limited to 11 games last year in the regular season, going 5-4 with a 2.35

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JAy LAPRETE

Ohio State during an NCAA college football game on Oct. 4 in

AP FILE PHOTO By JAy LAPRETE Saints coach Kellen Moore walks the field during a game against the Atlanta Falcons on Jan. 4 in Atlanta.

LSU topples Memphis, Nicholls State

BY JIM KLEINPETER

Contributing writer

Kylee Edwards and Destiny Harris hit home runs and Cece Cellura pitched her second complete game as the Tigers beat Memphis 11-2 in the second game of the LSU Invitational at Tiger Park Friday Edwards started a seven-run rally in the second with a solo homer, her ﬁrst as a Tiger after transferring from Mississippi State. Harris hit a two-run shot, her second, as the Tigers put the game away with a four-run fourth inning to win in ﬁve innings via the mercy rule.

LSU knocked off Nicholls State, 3-1, in the early game as pitchers Tatum Clopton and Jayden Heavener combined on a one-hitter

In the nightcap, the No. 17 Tigers took advantage of three walks, a hit batter and four hits in the second inning to break the game open early Edwards hit her ﬁrst home run as a Tiger over the center ﬁeld fence, Jalia Lassiter hit a run-scoring double and Alix Franklin contributed a two-run single up the middle. Three more runs came in on bases-loaded walks to Char Lorenz and Maci Bergeron and another on an error

“We did a good job executing our plan,” LSU coach Beth Torina said. “Not swinging out of the zone. That’s how we felt in a couple of games where we didn’t execute the

REECE

Continued from page 1C

and 1.5 turnovers per game. His improvement comes with rediscovering whom he is, Reece said after his 14-point and ﬁve-assist performance in a seven-point loss to No. 17 Alabama last Saturday

“Just playing more free,” Reece said. “The coaches have great trust in me to do what I have to do to help the team win. So I just got to keep playing hard for everybody Just keep showing why I’m here. This is what I’m supposed to do.” LSU (15-13, 3-12) aims to win a second straight game for the ﬁrst time in Southeastern Conference play on Saturday One reason the feat hasn’t been accomplished is because of the absence of starting point guard Dedan Thomas, who had season-ending foot surgery after playing in only three conference games. Coach Matt McMahon discussed on the LSU sports radio network Monday how Reece had to “evolve” from being a bench guard focused on avoiding turnovers to a scorer

LSU

Continued from page 1C

“It was deﬁnitely surreal,” Besselman said. “It felt good to just go out there one last time. We have the best fans in the country, so it meant a lot.”

Besselman is a Baton Rouge native She starred in both hoops and volleyball at Episcopal, then began her collegiate basketball career as a walk-on. Across her freshman and sophomore seasons, she subbed in at the end of the Tigers’ blowout wins — 39 of them, to be exact.

LSU put Besselman on scholarship in the middle of her junior year At the time, she was about eight weeks into the 10-month ordeal in which she ﬁgured out she was one of about 70 million people worldwide battling some form of dysautonomia — a nervous system disorder that can cause abnormally high heart rates

GYM

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perfection once again. Chio recorded her second straight 10.0 score on beam and made it three straight meets with at least one perfect mark, her ﬁfth this season and the sixth of her career Chio’s dazzling routine not only allowed LSU to erase Drayton’s score but also to narrowly widen its lead over Alabama with a 49.525, paving the way to a tense 197.975-197.600 victory before 13,292 fans in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

Chio finished with a winning 9.975 on floor, earlier won vault with a near-perfect 9.975 and also took the all-around title with a 39.800. The four wins gave the Ti-

LSU’s Kylee Edwards fields a grounder before throwing to first base against Nicholls State on Friday at Tiger Park.

way we wanted.”

The Tigers showed strong defense behind winning pitcher Cellura (3-0), who allowed four hits, struck out three and walked two

and orchestrator of the offense.

“Had a four-to-one assist-toturnover ratio in the nonconference, but was really more as DJ’s backup, just a setup guy,” McMahon said. “Not very aggressive offensively, just looking to get everyone involved and then really guarded defensively I think where he’s taken the next step here, he’s been really aggressive attacking off the dribble.

He’s been very good off our ballscreen actions. You’ve seen his percentages go up from behind the 3-point line.”

As the only true point guard left on the roster, Reece is rarely turning the ball over against ball pressure and is making the right reads. His passing chops are popping on the box score as he’s tied for sixth in assists per game (4.4) in SEC play Among the top 10 leaders in assists in the conference, Reece is averaging the second-fewest turnovers (1.6)

The Orlando, Florida, native also isn’t hesitating to take open shots, making 9 of 19 of his 3-pointers in the last four games and 36.4% in SEC play Reece couldn’t buy an outside jump shot to start his ca-

while pitching her second complete game The infield erased a baserunner when Ariel Davis tried to advance from second and then tried to return to the bag on a

reer, making 3 of 17 in the ﬁrst 13 games.

The shooting growth extends to the free-throw line as he has made 81.8% on 22 attempts in conference compared to 62.5% on 16 attempts in nonconference.

What McMahon appreciates as much as the shooting success and passing reads are the intangibles.

“He’s handled this very well,” McMahon said. “I think he’s a great competitor He’s tough. He’s one of our toughest players on the team He can play the whole game.”

Reece never came out in the Tigers’ 10-point loss at No. 22 Tennessee, finishing with only one turnover He played 47 minutes in LSU’s win over Ole Miss and more than 37 minutes in both of his other two starts.

His growth is coming at the right time because he’s indispensable for LSU.

“We’re just gonna keep ﬁghting for the rest of the season,” Reece said. “I think we just got to keep playing hard, keep playing for each other At the end of the day, we’re a family So if we just keep staying together, everything will work out.”

Besselman told The Advocate on Tuesday that she’s a “very functionable” patient. She just can’t play basketball.

gers’ star sophomore 26 individual wins this season and 49 for her career, pushing her past former LSU greats Kiya Johnson and Angie Topham (47 wins) and into solo 12th place on the program’s career win list in just 23 career meets.

Alabama’s Chloe LaCoursiere won bars with a 9.95. The Tigers improved to 7-2-1 overall and 4-2 in the Southeastern Conference. The Crimson Tide dropped to 5-3 and 3-3 in the SEC with two weeks left in the regular season. As the home team, LSU competed in the Olympic rotation starting on vault.

Highlighting the rotation for LSU was McClain, returning to action after hurting her forearm in pre-meet bars warmups at Oklahoma and being unable to compete there McClain showed no ill

Which means that Besselman had to accept the harsh reality that her playing days were over She said it was a “difﬁcult” process,

effects, though, posting a career high 9.90. However, the Tigers’ Victoria Roberts fell on her next vault, getting a 9.35 that LSU had to erase with three gymnasts to go. They did, getting a 9.875 from Lincoln, a 9.825 from Drayton and a 9.975 from Chio in the anchor spot. Executing her Yurchenko 1.5 ﬂip to near perfection, Chio, the nation’s No 1-ranked vaulter, got a 10.0 score from one event judge and a 9.95 from the other LSU scored a 49.450 on vault. Alabama, led by a pair of 9.90s from Jordyn Paradise and Azaraya RaAkbar went 49.375 on uneven bars, led by a winning 9.95 from Chloe LaCoursiere.

The teams switched events for rotation two. LSU got a seasonhigh 9.925 in the second spot from senior Ashley Cowan, the 2024 SEC

Mack trying to stretch a double into a triple when center ﬁelder Lassiter hit Edwards and her relay to Hodge at third was in plenty of time. The Tigers also turned a double play when Hodge snagged a line drive and doubled Kennedy Semien off ﬁrst base.

“All the girls in the inﬁeld love defense, I love defense, too,” said Edwards. “We’re all athletes and we’re going out there and having fun. We want to make the big plays and it’s something we talked about in the fall. We want to make the hard plays look easy and that’s what we did tonight.”

LSU 3, Nicholls State 1 Runs and hits were hard to come by in the first game, but Clopton and Heavener combined on a onehitter and Tori Edwards drove in the tiebreaking run with a fielder’s choice in the fifth inning. Bergeron, returning to the line after missing two starts because of injury, followed Tori Edwards with a run-scoring single for an insurance run. Lassiter knocked in LSU’s other run with a base hit in the third inning, one of five against three Nicholls State pitchers.

grounder to LSU second baseman Sierra Daniel. She threw to Avery Hodge at third, who threw to shortstop Edwards for the tag out. The Tigers also got Jazmine

PELICANS

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ﬁve rebounds as the Pelicans (1842) won their third straight game.

“I just came in and tried to play hard for my team, my guys,” Bey said in his postgame television interview “I was just trying to be aggressive and take what the team gives me. My teammates did a great job of finding me Coaches did a great job of putting me in great positions.”

Bey shot 14 of 20 from the ﬂoor, including 5-of-9 on 3-pointers. He also knocked down all nine free throws. He had plenty of help. Zion Williamson finished with 20 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

Dejounte Murray, playing in just his second game since returning from a torn Achilles injury, was one assist shy of a double-double. Murray had 17 points, nine assists and four steals.

“It’s amazing,” Bey said about Murray “He really controls the

but she thinks she made the most of her situation and discovered a new perspective along the way Her teammates agree.

“Izzy is probably the most selﬂess person I know,” Flau’jae Johnson said, “only because she literally knows she’s not gonna play She shows up to every ﬁlm session. She showed up on time, ready to go. She always has her opinion about what we’re doing and what we’re trying.

“She’s very smart. She’s like another coach out there, and she’ll do whatever it takes to help us win. Like, whatever we need.”

Besselman and Johnson are the last two holdovers from LSU’s 2022-23 national championship team. They were each honored on Thursday alongside Amiya Joyner, a transfer forward who spent the ﬁrst three seasons of her career at East Carolina.

Johnson is an LSU program great.

She shot only 3 of 10 from the ﬁeld and 3 of 9 at the free-throw line on Thursday against the Lady Vols, but she still made a few key plays in

vault champion, and a 9.90 in the anchor spot from McClain. Chio, with a small step on the landing, recorded a 9.85 as LSU went 49.400 in the event. Alabama went 49.300 on vault, allowing the Tigers to widen their lead slightly halfway through the meet, 98.850-98.675.

The meet was also LSU’s alumni night, drawing dozens of former women’s and men’s gymnasts. Among those in attendance were former LSU All-American and assistant coach Ashleigh Gnat, Olivia Dunne and NCAA champions Sarah and Aleah Finnegan. LSU football coach Lane Kifﬁn was also in the crowd.

LSU and Alabama will both be quickly back in action Sunday, taking part in the four-team Podium Challenge at the Raising Cane’s River Center along with Arizona and North Carolina.

Clopton (5-1) went ﬁve innings and faced only three batters over the minimum with two strikeouts, no walks and two hit batters. Heavener struck out two and walked one to get her ﬁrst save this season.

tempo and controls the pace. He did a great job. To see him play at this level as soon as he got back is great.”

The Pelicans are now 2-0 with the starting lineup of Murray, Williamson, Bey, Herb Jones and DeAndre Jordan. They are 3-0 since interim coach James Borrego moved Jordan into the lineup at center

The Pelicans outscored the Jazz 41-23 in the second quarter to pull away The quarter included a 10-0 run, capped off by a Williamson dunk that gave the Pels a 66-53 lead.

The Pels led by as many as 27 before the Jazz made a late run and cut it to 125-118 late. But Bey answered with back-toback lay-ups to seal the win.

The Pelicans ﬁnished with a season-high 37 assists in what was their sixth consecutive win against the Jazz (18-41).

It was a good start to the 6-game road trip for the Pelicans, who improved to 5-2 over their last seven games. The Pelicans play the Jazz again Saturday and the Los Angeles Clippers Sunday

the second half and ﬁnished with 10 points. Now she needs only 25 more to become just the sixth player to score more than 2,000 career points in a Tiger uniform. In March, Johnson will likely hit that mark, then receive her ﬁnal curtain call at the end of one of the NCAA Tournament games that will be played in the PMAC.

Besselman got hers on Thursday, when Mulkey waved her off the bench and onto the ﬂoor for the ﬁrst time in two years.

“Izzy’s priorities in life are in order,” Mulkey said “While she loves basketball, she’s got her national championship ring, she got to play in front of her hometown friends and family, she understands that she’s trying to play basketball when most people that have her condition are just trying to live and survive.

“So Izzy’s a great, great young lady and teammate.”

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

First vault is set for 3 p.m. The meet will not be televised.

Though the River Center is only three miles north of the PMAC, the meet counts as a road score for the Tigers, an important component in a team’s season-long NQS (National Qualifying Score) Instead of being on the arena ﬂoor on Friday night, all the apparatuses for vault, bars, beam and ﬂoor will be on raised platforms, the same as at the SEC and NCAA championships.

LSU is at Florida next Sunday and returns to the PMAC March 13 for its ﬁnal regular-season home meet against Arkansas. LSU will also host an NCAA regional April 3-5 at the PMAC. For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU guard Izzy Besselman, center, is greeted by teammate Flau’jae Johnson after exiting the game against Tennessee in the the fourth quarter on Thursday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

CarlRoussel of Prairieville, left, and Carson Dwyer of Teurlings Catholic battle for the ball during the Division II state championship game on Fridaynight in Hammond.The Rebels won2-1 in overtime.

OT goal gives Teurlingstitle

Rebels’Brown scores in 92nd minute to lift Rebels past Prairieville

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

In the ﬁnal minutes of overtime, Teurlings Catholic got its lucky bounce against Prairieville.

Rebels senior forward Luke Brown received the ball from a throw-in just inside the right edge of the Hurricanes’ box in the92nd minute. He found space and lofted ashot that ricocheted off the left post into the goal to give Teurlings Catholic a2-1 lead.

Thegoalwould be enough to give No.3 Teurlings Catholic astate title after beating No. 4Prairieville 2-1 in the Division II championshipat Strawberry Stadium in Hammond.

“Weknew it was going to be a long game,” Prairieville coach

Adrian Garcia said.“Onegoal early on didn’t affect us. Ithought we came out with alittlebit more ﬁght in thesecond half.Itcouldhave gone either way with that shot.”

Garcia said fatigue played afactor in the match, but he said his team foughthard “Welost some players there to cramping in the middle,” Garcia said. “I thoughtthe subs did a greatjob, but Imean, Teurlings, they were one shot away.That crazy shot went in andthat’s soccer.”

Rebels junior forward Eden Schlabachwhippedina crossfrom the left wing, but the Hurricanes keeper saved it beforeitcould ﬁnd ateammate in thesixth minute. Teurlings Catholic (18-7-1) dominated much of the ﬁrst half, with

nine shots compared to the Hurricanes’ two.

Prairieville’s best chance came in the17th minute when sophomoreforward Kevin Sanchez Lanza played athrough ball to senior forward CalebIckles, whobroke through Teurlings’ back line. Ickles ﬁred ashot,but it went wide left of thegoal.The Hurricanes (21-4-0) also hadtwo corner kicks andafree kick on the edge of the box, but failed to capitalize.

Just before thehalf, senior midﬁelder LukeBreaux dribbled down the ﬁeld, blazing past defenders. He made hisway into thebox in front of thegoal and slotted ashot past thekeeper to give theRebels a1-0 lead at the break.

In the 53rd minute, Prairieville

drewa penalty after aplayer was takendown in the boxafter acorner kick.

Junior midﬁelder Khoen Tripode stood calm andﬁredhis penalty kick into theleft side of the box.

The Rebels keeper choseright, but his dive attemptwas too late as Prairieville tied the match 1-1.

Teurlingshad two shots on goal in the ﬁnal 10 minutes of the second half,but Prairieville seniorgoalkeeper Benjamin Tilleysaved both shots. The second save came in the 80th minute, and Tilley leaped into the air to deﬂect the shot.

“(Benjamin) was phenomenal,” Garciasaid. “He showed up tonight. He kept us and gave us a chance. Phenomenal person and phenomenal soccer player.”

Playoffsprovide freshstart forSt. Michael

Warriorsopen postseason by clobberingBTW

BY WILLIAM WEATHERS Contributing writer

Aweek after applyingthe brakes to afree-falling end of the regular season, St. Michaelthe Archangel guard C.J. Levingston said the Warriors began anew With the No. 13 Warriors athome in Friday’sDivision II select basketball playoffs, Levingston led abalanced scoring effort with 14 points for a64-44 win over No. 20 Booker T. Washington of Shreveport.

“Welet that record go,” Levingston said of the team’s15-14mark in the regular season. “Wecame in here acting like we hadn’tplayedagame.”

St. Michael (16-14) will make the short trip to No.4Parkview Baptist in Tuesday’sregional at 6:30 p.m

TheEagles swept apair of games that includeda 52-47 decision on Jan. 3— a stretch where theWarriors dropped four gamesbya combined 18 points.

“This is the toughest schedule

I’ve ever coached,” St. Michael coach Drew Hart, whohas coached the Warriors since2006. “We’ve been right there.”

St. Michael’senduredlosses to Brother Martin, St.Augustine and St. Thomas More by atotal of 10 points.Amissed layup against Lake Charles College Prep proved costly in a31-30 setback followed by afour-point losstoNew Iberia.

“There was apoint in theseason where Ilooked at our record and hoped the guys weren’tlosing conﬁdence,” said Hart, whoseteam was 8-8after the New Iberia game on Jan. 10. “The young guys are oblivi-

BOYS BASKETBALL

ous to it. Theyjust playball.”

St. Michael won its 10th consecutive ﬁrst-round playoff game with scoring from nine different players andasolid defensive effort, limiting BTW (12-9) to 36% (17of47) shooting.

Six-foot-9 junior center RokKau had11points and 18 rebounds, while theWarriors also had nine points apiece from Colt Edgecombe and BraxtonRodrigue

St. Michael outscored the Lions 10-0 over the last 4:14 of the second quarter fora 38-23 halftime lead. Levingston knocked down adeep 3-pointer andconverteda turnover into aslamdunk, while his brother BoogieLevingston also cashed in on aturnover with 16 seconds to go.

TheLions compounded their problems with eight straight missed field goal attempts —in-

cluding six from behind the arc.

“When we forced theminto playingkindofisolationbasketball, we’re pretty good at it,” Hart said.

“We’re pretty good at protectingour gaps, taking charges and, of course, we’vegot agood shotblocker (Kau). The difference was defense ratcheted it up andwegot out on the break.”

BTW got within 40-30 on a 3-pointerfromleading scorer Brian French(16 points), but Rodrigue knocked down a3-pointer and found Khy Harvey for a3and 46-30 lead at the 4:52 mark

The Warriors, who ledbyasmany as 23 points(62-39),shot47% (25of 53) with seven 3-pointers in 16 attempts.

“Coach said that teams make their best run in the third quarter,” C.J. Levingstonsaid

“That’s when we come out with the most energy to try and make abig gapinthe game.”

BY CHARLES SALZER Contributing writer

For the Southern men’sbasketball team, the search fora winning recipe will be afamiliar one when it hosts SouthwesternAthletic Conference leader Bethune-Cookman on Saturday The Jaguars need to hit the boards hard against the league’s top rebounding team Rebounding was also apriority for Southern on Thursday againstFlorida A&M.The Rattlersoutreboundedthe Jaguars 40-27, and led by double digits for most of thesecondhalfof their 82-71 win.

“This is oneofthose things that you have to do,” Southern coach Kevin Johnson said of his team’sapproach after the loss. “Wehave to analyze our mistakes andthenflush them Rebounding is going to be the key against Bethune.We’vegot to rebound the ball.” Saturday’sgame will be the second part of adoubleheader. The first game will feature Southern’swomen (15-11, 114) against Bethune-Cookman (6-23,4-12) with tip-off at noon The men’sgamewill follow at 2:30 p.m.Both games will be webcast by HBCU Go.

The Southern men(13-15, 9-6) defeated the Wildcats 77-73 on Jan.8inDaytonaBeach,Florida. Thanks to that win, Southern still had achance this week to overtakeBethune-Cookman’s men (16-13, 13-3), but the loss to FAMU ended those hopes.

“(Friday) was atough day,” Johnson said. “Wehave to try and ﬂush (the loss) and see if we have enough to go against the top team in the league.”

In their win over BCU, the Jaguars won the rebounding battle 41-37. Malek Abdelgowad led the way with what may have been his best game as aJaguarwith 21 points and 18 rebounds.

Along with Damariee Jones, Abdelgowad is one of the team’s top two rebounders, but, like they were against FAMU, both players will be out for Saturday’sgame. Abdelgowadisstill nursing aleg injury while Jones has not been with the team this week whileattending to family matters.

Southern also got 20 points from Michael Jacobs the first time out against the Wildcats, but he has cooled off the past two weeks. Against Florida A&M, Jacobswas part of amomentumstealing sequence at the end of the ﬁrst half

With Southern leading 33-32, Jacobs made asteal and was fouled while shooting a3-pointer at the buzzer.Hemissed all three free throws, and FAMU opened the second half with a16-1 run. TheJaguars were unable to slow downthe Rattlers after that.

No. 16 Vandebilt Catholic 56 No. 13

64, No. 20 Bookter T. Washington-Shreveport 44 No. 4Parkview Baptist, bye No. 7University High, bye Division III bidistrict No. 13 Episcopal 73, No. 20 NorthlakeChristian 51 No. 14 St. Thomas Aquinas 50, No.19Collegiate Baton Rouge47 No. 7GEO Next Generation, bye No. 2Dunham,bye Division IV bidistrict No. 19 Ascension Catholic 59, No.14JSClark Leadership Academy45 No. 11 AscensionChristian52, No.22Vermillion Catholic 36 No. 6Southern Lab, bye No. 10 Central Private 55, No. 23 CatholicPC 37 St.Michael64, Booker T. Washington-Shreveport 44 Booker T. Washington 17 6138-44 St. Michael 15231412-64

SCORING: BTW-SHP: Jackson Bates 16, Brian French 12, Devion Stewart 8, Dakerian Mitchell 5. Caden Harris 3; SM: C.J.Levingston 14, RokKau 11, Colt Edgecombe 10,Braxton Rodrigue 9, Boogie Levingston 7, Andrew DeBarbieris 4, MadduxWatson 3, KhyHarvey3 Beck Morian 3 3-POINT GOALS: SMHS: 7(Rodrigue 2, Harvey,C.J. Levingston, Kau, Edgecombe, Watson); BTW:5 (Bates 2, French 2, Harris) RECORDS: St. Michael 16-14,Booker T. Washington 12-9

Central 73, West Ouachita 39 West Ouachita 7177 8-39 Central1633168 -73

SCORING: WEST OUACHITA:Shawn McDaniel 18, LorenzoPrice 5, George Smith 5,Gabe Green 5, EliCobb 2, Gasca Carson 2, Luke Wheelis 2; CENTRAL: JaceConrad 27, Gavin Douglas 14, Keith Womack 9, Jaylen Thomas 8, Shawn Washington 4, Sam Giles 3, Luke Comeaux3,Carson Peters 3, Jeff LaCour 2 3-POINT GOALS: WEST OUACHITA 5(McDaniel 3, Green, Smith);CENTRAL 12 (Conrad 4, Douglas 4, Peters, Comeaux, Womack, Thomas) RECORDS: West Ouachita 15-14;CENTRAL 22-7 Girls basketball Quarterﬁnal scores DivisionInonselect No. 1Zachary 59, No. 9Natchitoches Central33 No. 3Prairieville 65,No. 6Salmen 54 No. 2Slidell 56, No.7 Denham Springs 38 DivisionIInonselect No. 1Sterlington 70,No. 8WestFeliciana 28 No. 3North

Class B: No. 2Pitkin vs.No. 3Fairview,4:30 p.m. Division III nonselect: No. 2Oak Grovevs. No. 3Westlake, 6:15 p.m. Division III nonselect:No. 1FrenchSettlement vs.No. 5Ville Platte,8p.m. Wednesday’s semiﬁnals Division IV select: No. 2JSClark Leadership vs.No. 3OuachitaChristian, 1p.m. Division IV select: No. 1Southern Labvs.

“Wecouldn’tget stops(in the second half),” Johnson said. “Whenwedid get one, they went and got the rebound. We knew we hadtodotwo things to win— score in transition and rebound the ball. We didn’tdoenough of that.” TheSouthern women are tied with Alabama State forthird in theSWACstandings.Alcorn State is one gameahead, but they are all looking up at oneloss Alabama A&M, whichis closetolocking up the regularseason championship.

DeMya Porter scored 17 points and Zaria Hurston pulled down 13 reboundsonJan.8,when Southern defeated BCU 61-50 on the road. After trailing early, Southern took a13-7 lead after one quarter and held the lead for the rest of the game.

STAFF PHOTO By BRETTDUKE

After awet and at times foggyFridaymorning,conditions this morning are looking very nice. Expect thosemostly clear and sunny skies to be with us all day. Otherwise,expect averywarmand less humid daywithalight breeze. Temperatures thisafternoon willrise to the upper 70s to low80s.Ifyou’re headed to TigerorJaguar baseball, weatherisgood.The BurnBan continues for Ascension Parish if youare there or headed in that direction, and tomorrow, patchymorning fog,slightly higher temperatures and no rain.

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

Jay Johnson has aproblem, but it’sagood one to have. LSU has too many capable hitters and not enough spots in the lineupfor them all to play

It’sanissue the Tigers alsohad last season, when there were ﬁve outfielders for three spots and a platoon at third base. But it wasn’t somethingthatwas expected to pop up again this season, with three fewer positional players on the roster than last year

“I think it’saversatile team,” Johnsonsaid. “There arealot of ways to attack things and skin acat, and things we’ve been looking at during practice time andpractice settings that give us alittle more versatility.”

The LSU offense has been hitting the cover off theballtobegin 2026. The Tigers came into this weekend with .355/.476/.612 splits as ateam and15homeruns.All of their hitters with at least four starts had no worse than a.387 on-basepercentage. Arelatively weak nonconference schedule has played amajor role in LSU’sdominance, but the Tigers’ best performances havecome against thebetter teams they’ve faced to this point. LSU scored 10 runs against Kent State, ateam that won two of three games over Tennessee last weekend. The bats also drove in 14 runs against Indiana, nine vs. Notre Dame and 11 in aseven-inning victory over Central Florida.

“(We) scheduled(Kent State) because Ibelieve they’ll go win aboatload of games,” Johnson said, “and that impact on our RPI andquality wins and all that, and get tested.”

The lineupdepth and versatility have played amajorrolefor LSU. Without senior Chris Stanfield in leftﬁeld, who has beenout since the third game of the year with a bruised left hand,Johnsonhas been able to rotate more playersinto the lineup High Point transfer Brayden Simpson has earned extratime,

moving to aposition —left field —that he’d neverplayed before in college. Sophomore John Pearsoncontinues toget steady at-bats againstleft-handed pitching. Freshman Mason Braun has gotten the sameopportunity against righties.

Fifth-year seniorTanner Reaves andfreshman Omar Serna have been in the mix for more playing time as well.Reaves hasplayed at second base, third and leftﬁeld, while Serna has notched most of his startsatcatcher

“I thinkthe combination of John Pearson and BraydenSimpson has been productive in (Stanﬁeld’s) absence. Ithink Mason Braun is going to be agreat playerhere,”Johnson said.“Omar,getting him extra time is really important. He’sgoing to be agreat player.You’re looking at a really good middle of theorder in 2027, where two of those guys —as freshmen,cominginto anational championship repeating team aregetting significantplaying time.”

Butwhen Stanfieldreturns to an everyday role in left field, opportunities for Pearson, Simpson, Braun and Reaves will be more limited. Junior Jake Browninright field and sophomore Derek Curiel in center are going to playevery day. The samecan besaid for junior Steven Milam at shortstop and Grand Canyon transfer Zach Yorke at first base.

There’sachance that Oregon State transferTrentCaraway at third baseorKansas State transfer Seth Dardar at second could be looped into aplatoon with Simpson or Reaves.But Caraway and Dardar arehitting the ball well and have earned startsagainst samehandedpitchers, Caraway as a righty facing right-handed arms and Dardar as aleftyfacing lefthanders.

Sophomore Cade Arrambide at catcher won’tstart everyday behind the plate, given the physical grind of the position. That should provide Serna with at leastone start aweek moving forward. But given how valuable Arrambide’s batis, he’ll likely be the DH in

LSUbaseballfaces some toughlineupdecisions

games where he doesn’tcatch, meaning that even fewer opportunitieswill be afforded to Simpson, Braun, Pearsonand Reaves “(Chris returning) just gives us more options to utilize guys to be successful at acertainspotthatcan help us win agame,”Johnsonsaid. “SoI’d maybe look at it alittle bit differently.”

AmongSimpson,Reaves, Braun and Pearson, the latter twohave been the betterhitters to this point. Pearson blasted his second homer of the yearonTuesday andwas 5 for 11 at the plate heading into this weekend. Braun wasone of LSU’s best hitters in the preseason and held a.542 on-base percentage before Friday’sgame against Dartmouth. Reaves and Simpson have more defensive versatility than Braun or Pearson, although Braun can play corner outfieldand first base. Simpson has experience at three infield spots, along with left field. Reaves wasina platoon withMichaelBraswell at third base last year,despite arriving in Baton Rouge as primarily asecond baseman andoutfielder. Simpson and Reaves’ versatility on defense could be helpful if Johnsondecided to loop either oneof them in aplatoon with Caraway or Dardar,but it probably won’thelp them in their quest to earn regular at-bats at DH. Braun and Pearson appear to have the upper hand in that department, as Reaves and Simpson haven’ttaken an at-bat as the DH this year. There’sstill alot of baseball to be played, including another week of games in nonconference play followingthis weekend. LSU’slineup depth and versatility won’t be truly tested untilits SoutheasternConference slate begins in March.

But until then, Johnson will be forced to make more difﬁcult decisions as he tries to optimize LSU’s attack heading into SECplay.

Email Koki Riley at koki.riley@theadvocate.com.For more LSUsports updates, sign up for our newsletterattheadvocate com/lsunewsletter

More mixedresults forEvans in Tigers’ winoverDartmouth

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

The past three seasons of LSU baseball have beendeﬁned by startingpitching. In 2023, Paul Skenes had ahistoric campaign at the top of the rotation. Gage Jumpand Luke Holman became one of the best Friday-Saturday combos in the country in 2024. Last year,Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson ledLSU to asecondnationaltitle in threeyears. Those expectations, fair or not,have placed an inordinate amountofpressure on sophomore right-hander Casan Evans, the man coach Jay Johnson has tabbed as LSU’stop starter in 2026. Evans was arguably Johnson’sbest reliever as afreshman last season and proved he could get through SEC-caliber lineups more than once. But there’sstill adifference between being in the bullpen and becoming the Friday starter For Evans, that transition to the top of the rotation has produced mixed results through three starts, as he holds a5.27 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 132/3 innings. His third start came on Friday against Dartmouth, when he allowed two earned runs in 51/3 innings with 10 strikeouts andthree walks in LSU’s5-2 win at Alex Box Stadium. Fastball command was aproblemfor Evans for most of the night, evidenced by throwing four wildpitches.Itwas an issue for him, particularly in the ﬁrst three innings, when he surrendered all of his walks and runs. But Evans found agroove with his command in the fourth and fifth innings, retiringsix straight. His secondary pitches were alsostrong through most of the night. He mixed in an occasional curveball with his hybrid split-changeup and slider Most of the swings and misses he generated came from his off-

speed pitches. The results have been uneven, but Evans has improved since his opening day start, when he allowedfour earnedrunsin31/3 innings. The three runs he allowed last weekend against Indiana all came in an inning where Indiana hit the ball out of the inﬁeld once. His 10 punchouts on Friday are aseason-high.

But that’snot to say Evans doesn’tneedtoimprove before the start of Southeastern Conference play.He’swalked more than one batter for every two innings and hasn’tconsistently thrown hisbestfastball. It hasn’t been abad start to the year for Evans, but there’sstill work to be done for him to be the Friday starterJohnson needs himto become.

After Evans exited in the sixth, redshirt junior right-hander Gavin Guidry entered the game in relief andshut downthe Big Green over the next 32/3 innings to close out the game, allowing just one hit and no runs. Guidry has dominated hitters since returning from back surgery,striking out 16 batters with an ERA of zero in nine innings this year

LSU’soffense struggled for a second consecutive game, garnering just one hit through ﬁve innings. The Tigers didn’ttake thelead until thesixth when sophomore Derek Curiel shot adouble down the leftﬁeldline that scored two runs.

The other two runs LSU scored before the eighth came on bunts in the fourth and seventh innings. Curiel was the only Tiger with multiple hits. LSU will play its second game in four days on Saturday against Northeastern. First pitch is set for 2p.m., and the game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.

Email Koki Riley at koki.riley@theadvocate.com.

LIVING

TerryRobinson

FAITH MATTERS

Lafayette pastor uses ownstruggles to help guideothers

Pornography had astronghold on James Craft.

The longtime pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Lafayette speaks candidly abouthis past struggles —not only with pornography,but alsowith stealing and cursing —and the grace of God that ultimately set him free.

Craft

“I’m just real about all those things, because Ijust feel like the more I’m willing to be straight with people, the more they’re willing to be straightup with me,” said Craft, aBaton Rouge native who grew upin New Orleans. “I’ve always believed in confessional preaching. Idon’ttry to nail other people for what they’re doing.I deal with what I’m struggling with.” Craft, 64, was transparent about his struggles during the interview process and openly shared them with the congregation when he assumed his ﬁrst pastorate role at Calvary22years ago.

“I told them who Iwas, what Iwas, because Ididn’twant anyone to be fooled,” Craft said. “You don’twant to be proud of any kind of sinful activity.Itold them I’m the last one who belongs in the pulpit. Inever saw myself as apastor God believed in me more than Ibelieved in myself.”

Adding to his transparency, Craft said it wasn’tuntil alittle over ayear ago that he ﬁnally broke free from pornographic images resurfacing in his mind.

“It was amiracle of God. He gave me an ultimatum, he said. “God told me, ‘You’re dishonoring your wife, and it’s timetostop, or I’m going to remove you from the pastorate if you don’tget that straight.’ Ihad to deal with that straight up, and he gave me the grace and the mercy to not go backwards.” Even now,Craft is quick to remind others of his journey through messages, his testimony and other opportunities.

“I say,‘Once again, I’m the poster child on what you’re not supposed to do,’”hesaid “God likes to use things that are shameful things of ourlife to help others who are going through it, to encourage them, not to trash them or throw them under that bus.” That fuels Craft’sdesire to assist others engaged in all manner of spiritual warfare.

“We’re more of aspiritual warfare church,” he said.“I work with weird stuff. Iwork with people who arejacked up mentally and dealing with spirits. God has called me to work with those groups The word says Jesus came to set the captives free. I’m helping people to be free in their minds, so their spirits can thrive.”

Craft was 13 when his faith ﬁrst became personal. He heardGod speak to him on a Friday night in his home.

“It blew me away,” he said. “It was different from what I had known before. That’swhy Iknewitwas reallyspecial and something Iwanted more of. So God beganto showme things from his word and talking to me. Church became one of the most important things that Iwas doing. Being with

RAISING THEBAR

Newrestaurantwithexpansive menu brings big flavorsand sweettunes

BY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

Daruma Ramen Bar &Grill is openingits second location on Monday —complete witha toweringred statue, aprivatekaraoke room and aname inspiredbya traditional Japanese good-luck doll.

Located at 3669 Government St the 4,300-square-foot restaurant features an expansive menu with an array of appetizers, dumplings, bao buns, noodles, chicken wings, ramen and more. “Darumaislike adoll,” said owner Stacy Zheng. “A big, big, round doll. It means lucky.You never fall. Even if you fall, you still stand up.”

The private karaoke room seats 34 people and is decked out with partylightsand a100-inch television.The room will be availablefor booking starting Tuesday

Local restaurateurs Stacy and Denny Zheng opened the restaurant’sﬁrst locationinMay 2023 at 36557 Mission St. in Prairieville On atrip to Elsie’sPlate &Pie, they noticed avacant spot on Government Street and jumped at the opportunity to open asecond location.

“I love to eat,” said Stacy Zheng, aPrairieville resident. “I’m always

Long before sunrise, Sambath Lim is rolling out doughtomake donuts andother pastriesfor her shop, Sambath Donuts.

OwnersStacy and DannyZheng first opened Daruma Ramen at a location in Prairieville.The couple jumped at the opportunity forasecond location in Baton Rougeafter seeing avacancyalong Government Street.

alonghere, andthenI seethis location is looking good. That’swhy we’re coming for here.”

Asneak peek inside

The main dining roomseats 150 people and currently features a roughly eight-foot-tall Darumainspiredstatue, aspitting image of Marvel’sIron Man, Stacy Zheng

joked. “My husband brought this here, and Isaid, ‘Wow,this bigger than my closet,’”she said, laughing.

Thestatue willsoon move outside where Danny Zheng plans to afﬁx it securely to the ground. The coupleexpectsthat it will be an

SambathDonutsonEssenLane is now serving authentic Cambodian cuisine. At 5703 Essen Lane, Sambath Donuts is mostly aone-woman operation that opened in 2014 serving doughnuts, kolaches, boudin andThai food. ACambodian emigre, owner

STAFFPHOTOSByJAVIER GALLEGOS

Afull spread of appetizers and entrees at Daruma Ramen

BYMADDIE

Foundation holds Ramadan dinner

The Atlas Foundation will hold its Ramadan Dialogue Iftar dinnerfrom 6p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday,March 7, at 862O’Neal Lane, Baton Rouge.

The public is invited.

The evening celebratesthe spirit of Ramadan through community, conversation and connection. As the sun sets andthe fast is broken,guests will share ameal,experience cultural exchange, and engage in dialogue that fosters unity,friendship and mutual respect.

People of all backgrounds are invited to attend and participate.

Bishop Allen Shin to speak at church

St. Margaret’sEpiscopal Church, 12663 Perkins Road, BatonRouge,willwelcome the Rev.AllenK.Shin,bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of New York,onSunday,March 15, for amorning of worship and apublic presentation on faith and publiclife.

Shin will preach at the 8a.m and 10 a.m.Holy Eucharists. At 11:30a.m. in Lyle Hall, he will present “A Dangerous Liaison: White Supremacy and ChristianNationalism —AChristian Heresy and AmericanIdentity.”

The presentation willexplore the historical and theological roots of Christian nationalism and its relevance for churches today Community members of all faith backgrounds are invited to attend and participate. For more information, visit www.saintmargarets.com

Church offer grief supportgroup

First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, 529 Convention St., will offer GriefShare, a13-weeksupport group for those grieving the death of someone close,beginning March 18. Meetings will be held from 10 a.m. to 11:30a.m. Wednesdays. The only cost is $20 for the workbook,which is usedalong with weekly videos anddiscussion. Register online at griefshare org or at the ﬁrst meeting.For moreinformation,callJohn Westbrook at (225) 768-8863.

RAMEN

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attention-getter for passing cars.

Building renovations started in July2025. The restaurant has since been deckedout with newflooring, red booth seating, awooden barfashioned outofa100-year-old tree, Asian-style panels between booths and lantern lighting fixtures.

Decor includes cascading faux redﬂorals from the ceiling, ﬂower beds and acherry tree next to the hostess stand.

Themenu

StacyZheng saidshe wanted the menu to have options for everybody,somethingshe got to experiment with at thePrairieville location.

“I kept changing the menu every three months (in Prairieville),” she said.“So change, change, change, until now. Ithink it’s good.”

The menu includes avariety of food for people of all ages —Asian American fusion options like honey chicken wafﬂe, with fried chickennuggets tossed in sweet

honey sauce. There are also hibachi dishes that come with rib-eye steak, salmon, jumbo shrimpor chicken.

There are 13 ramen dishes ranging from classicchicken or seafood ramens to spicy ramens, all of which can have extratoppings added. There’sthe SpicyBeef TendonRamen,with sliced beef tendon, marinated egg, bok choy, bambooshoot, corn,Kikurage mushrooms, green onion, garlic chips, black garlic oil, fried onion, nori and wavy noodles in pork broth.

Avegan ramen has sauteed Brussels sprouts, broccoli, mushrooms, onion, bok choy,tofu, fried onion, garlic chips, green onion andthin noodlesina creamy vegetable broth.

Entrees include riceplates like the honeychicken rice platter,orange chicken, Mongolian rib-eye steak and Thai chili shrimp. There are fried rice plates, eight different dumplings,six different bao buns and fivedifferent chicken wings.

On the cold dish startermenuis Stacy Zheng’sfavorite dish: the tuna tataki, seared tuna sashimi with sesame seeds,jalapeños, ginger andponzu sauce. The Firecracker Shrimp is acustomer favorite in Prairieville,she said, a fried shrimp appetizer dish tossed in light wasabi sweet mayosauce.

Lunch specials are available from 10:30 a.m. to 3p.m. every day starting at $13, including fourramen dishesand nine different rice plates, which comewith egg and onion fried rice and aspring roll.

The drinks menuwill be available once the alcohol permitting process is complete, and Stacy Zheng predicts that’ll be on Feb. 27.

Thefullbar will include spirits, sake, wine, ﬂights, beer,Japanese seltzers and signature cocktails, like Tokyo Old Fashionedwith Toki Japanese Whisky,honey syrup, maraschino cherry,blood orange bitters and orange garnish.

Lookingforward

On Monday,customers at Daruma Ramen Bar &Grill will get 20% off theirmeals,she said. At the grand opening on March 3, the ﬁrst 50 customers will receive a giftcard.

In addition to owning King Buffet on Bluebonnet Boulevard, the couple has twomorerestaurantsin the works —adim sum restaurant will be where the recently closed Southern PearlOysterHouse was located at 9460 Perkins Road in Baton Rouge, she said.

Theother restaurantwill be arevolving sushibar at 4914 GovernmentSt. in Baton Rouge.

Daruma Ramen Bar &Grill, 3669 Government St., Baton Rouge Open 11 a.m.to10p.m. daily, but hoursmay change in the future, according to owner Stacy Zheng.

NewOrleans wings are on the menuatDarumaRamen.

Daruma RamenBar &Grill is located at 3669 GovernmentSt.,Baton Rouge.

Thesystem works— the system called reciprocity

Dear Miss Manners: Iam81, and I’m not exactly sure when this problem began, but some people always seem to be looking for slights from others

Iamsure they can always ﬁnd something, but Ibelieve it is the source of much unhappiness We invited people to dinner whose company we enjoyed. We sent wedding gifts, birthday gifts and Christmas gifts to people we liked, if we found something we thought they wouldlike Did they reciprocate? I don’tknow.I’m sure many did, but Ihave no idea who didn’t, and Icouldn’tcare less. Ienjoyed doing it, and that was my reward If we enjoyed someone’s presence, then that was the reciprocity Iassume they would have declined our invita-

By The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2026. There are 306 days leftinthe year

106 million viewers saw the ﬁnale, which remains the most-watched episode of any U.S. television series to date.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

tion if they didn’tenjoy our companyaswell. Iamnot amind reader,soIcan’t determine what reason someone might havefor not reciprocating. And Isuppose Iwas too busy enjoying my life to try to keep score. Ithink having expectationsofhow others may respond to anything,and issuing invitations with expectations attached,can only lead to disappointment Gentle reader: By all means, continuetoenjoyyourlife.

MissManners will not stop you. In general, sheagrees that people aretoo quick to look for slights

Butfeelingappreciated for kindgestures and hoping that invitations will be reciprocatedisnot a new, unusualorirrational problem.Too much onesidedness can deplete both

enthusiasm and resources —and wanting aroughly reciprocal relationship is not unreasonable. So continue your blissful and altruistic existence, but in doing so, please be patient withthose you deem less enlightened —the ones who like to know if their generositywas appreciated (or received at all).They are not the problem.

Dear Miss Manners: Atenured colleague routinely solicits thefaculty to contribute to group gifts. This colleague sends therequests not only to those of us with tenure, but also tosubordinates whose jobsare dependent on the approval of tenured faculty members (including thesolicitor).

My colleague’semail solicitation “suggests” the amount to be contributed ($50 for agift,for example) and asks that contributionsnot be made anonymously.The email states

that thesender wants to be able to “conﬁrm” the contribution.

Those of us with tenure can safely ignore the requestsorsimply make anonymous contributions, but those without job protection do not share that luxury.Isthere away around this conundrum?

Gentlereader: Yes. Tell your colleague to stop it.

Forgive Miss Manners for stating the obvious, but as you are acolleague and not asubordinate, you are in a position to be able toappeal to this person’ssense of equity

Forcingpeople who work for you to give you and others presents is unethical. Appeal to your colleague’s better instincts as an educator and discourage this practice immediately

Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com.

Activatedcharcoalhelps absorb odors

Dear Heloise: When Imoved into an apartment that had recently become nonsmoking, Iquickly learned that the odor from previous tenants can linger for far longer than expected. Even after maintenance aired out the apartment with afan, the tobacco smell was so strong that Iwoke up my ﬁrst night coughing and uncomfortable. The next day,Ivisited a hardware store and asked for advice. Iwas told to try

MATTERS

Todayinhistory: On Feb. 28, 1993, a gunbattle erupted at a religious compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest Branch Davidian leader David Koresh for stockpiling illegal weapons; four agents and six Davidians werekilled as a 51-day standoffbegan. (On April 19 of that year,FBI agents stormed the compound with tear gas and armored vehicles, with dozens dead before the standoffwas over).

Also on this date:

In 1844, amassive 12inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded as the ship wassailing on the Potomac River,killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur,Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others; President John Tyler,who also was aboard the ship, wasuninjured.

In 1953, Francis H.C. Crick announced that he and fellow scientist James D. Watson had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA In 1983, the ﬁnal episode of the television series “M*A*S*H” aired; nearly

In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palmewas assassinated while walking on aStockholm street with his wife; his assailant wasnever captured and remains unidentiﬁed.

In 2013, Benedict XVI becamethe ﬁrst pope in 600 years to resign, ending an eight-year pontiﬁcate. (Benedict wassucceeded the following month by Pope Francis.)

In 2023, apassenger train collided head-on with afreight train morethan 200 miles north of Athens, Greece, killing 57 people in that country’sdeadliest rail disaster

Today’sbirthdays: Rock singer Sam the Sham (aka Domingo Samudio) is 89. Actor-director-choreographer Tommy Tune is

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activated charcoal,which comes in asmall plastic container aboutthe size of an onion-dip tub.Iremoved thelids and placed onecontainer in each room. Theresults were amazing! Within ashort time, the heavy smoke odor disappeared completely Activated charcoal absorbssmells rather than just covering them up, making it an easy and inexpensive solutionfor stale tobacco odors or other

The next morning,doctors informed Craft that the issue with the tumor in the leg had miraculously disappeared overnight.

lingering household smells. —PatriciaMurphy, in St. Louis Outsmartingants

Dear Heloise: Here in Florida, we have extremely tinyants that seem determined to ﬁnd their way into my cat’sfood bowls. Even though Imove the dishes every day and have thehouse treated for bugs yearly,the antsalways show up. Then Idiscovered asolution that really works: Iplaced my cat’sfood and water dishes on an old cookie baking sheet and poured

calling me to something bigger.(The pastor) madea judgment was what he was sensing.”

about acup of water ontoit. The water creates amoat that ants simply can’tcross to reach the food. To make mealtime morecomfortable for my cats, Iset the baking sheet on sturdy cardboard cartons that are about 4-6 inches tall. This raises thedishes to abetter height while keeping them ant-free. It’sinexpensive, easy to setup, and has completely solved my antproblem. —PatriciaBaker,via email Send ahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

DONUT

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onion, garlic, fish sauce, orange leaves,turmeric and coconut flakes. There’salso the Amok fish, atraditional Cambodian curry with lemongrass and coconut milk. When extra hands are needed to help run the doughnut shop and restaurant,it’sher family who steps up.

ter is leading the charge on creating anew beverage menu, and she’salso been marketing the revamped menu online through the business’ social accounts. Grandreopening deals

the Lord and doing what he wanted was far more vital to me.” Then came amoment when he seemingly had to choose between his faith and his passionfor baseball. Goinginto his junioryear at East Jefferson High SchoolinMetairie, Craft suffered aleg injury.Atumorlike growth quickly developed and required surgery

“God said, ‘You’re going to go into the hospital for two weeks, becauseyou get to decide whether you want to serve me or you want to serve sports. And you’re not going to get out of here until you make adecision.’” Craft chose to walk in faith.

“The doctor said, ‘I don’t know howtoexplain it.It was clear as day on theXray (before). Therefore, we don’thave to dosurgery,’” Craft said. “God told me later that he healed me because Iresponded to his call. Ican’tmake that stuff up. That’sjust crazy.”

Later, while still in high school, there was another call on Craft’slife.

During achurchservice, hispastor publicly announced that Craft had a call to preach someday

“I just knew God was stirring in my heart,” Craft said. “I did go and shake the pastor’shandona Sunday morning. Iwas trying to express to himthat God was

However,atleast one member of thecongregation wasn’tsensing it.

“My dad was mad as a hornet because of that. He wouldn’ttalk to me for two weeks because he wanted me to be an engineer,”Craft said.

After graduating from high school in 1979, Craft didn’tpursue an engineering path. He had several jobs, including working with an oilﬁeld company and running apest control business. Craft eventually graduated withageneral studies degree from Excelsior University in New York and aMaster’sof Divinity from New Orleans BaptistTheological Seminary

His foray into ministry started in 1983. He served churches in Livingston, Baton Rouge, River Ridge and Kenner in preparation for his call toCalvary at 4015 Moss St.inLafayette.

“I was gettingmyfeel of all the different ministries that achurch might have,” he said. “Finally,God called me to be thepastor,which I never,ever thought would happen. AndInever looked for it or asked for it. Iwas OK being on staff under a pastor,but had no —zero —desires or even had thoughts of being asenior pastor.That was totally his idea.”

For moreonCraft and Calvary Baptist, visit http:// calvarybaptistlaf.org.

ContactTerry Robinson at terryrobinson622@gmail. com

“Samisanamazing, amazing cook,” said Lin’s husband, WesVeitch, who assists with the business whenhecan.“And she can do anything she sets her heart to.”

Lin’s20-year-old daugh-

Linwillcelebratethe new menu with agrand reopening from10:30 a.m. to 3p.m. on Friday,staying open an hour later than normal hours. Everything will be 25% off on this day There’llalsobefree doughnuts servedwith lunch, while supplies last, she said. Sambath Donuts, 5703 Essen Lane Open 5:30 a.m.to2 p.m Mondays through Saturdays, closed Sundays.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Expand your interests, skills and circle of friends. Participate in events thatoffer greater freedom to be yourself andlive in the moment.Socializing will lead to curious encounters.

ARIEs (March 21-April19) Offer hope to those going through tough times. A kind gesture will lead to rewards that change your life. An unexpected turn of events will alter how you earn or handle your money

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Pay attention to detail and work to makeyourhouseholdrun more efficiently and effectively. Compromise and compassion will be called for today.

GEMInI (May21-June 20) Afinancial change that encourages saving, investingsmartly and working hard to secure your position will put your mindat ease. Aconversationwill change your perspective.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Check the facts and figures, and make choices that raise your profile and possibilities. Be open to suggestions but bold in your opinions. Put your time, energy,heart and soul into gainingground.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Takeapassionate approach to whatever you do,and you'll gain respect and loyalty. Inside information that comes your way will give you an opportunity for financialgain.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Participating in activities will give you awindow into how others are doing. Achange of location or to your surroundings will have a

positive impact on your health, wealth andemotional well-being.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Set boundaries and put abudgetinplace before you get involved in someone's plan. Don't letanyone limitwhatyou can do.Consider the outcome, anddon't sell yourself short.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Set outon an adventurethat offersromance, intrigue, insight and opportunity. Socialize, share your thoughts and intentions, and investmore in selfimprovement, personalgains, love and romance.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec.21) Be careful what you wish for. Someone will be eager to lead youastray if yougive them achance. Don't fallfor emotional blackmailorfakecompliments. Listen carefully and respond with truth and conviction.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Avoid rash decisions that can affect your finances or lifestyle. Lead the waywith gratitude and compassion, and the results will exceed your expectations.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Put your energy where it brings the highest return. Discipline andinnovative ideas will help youget ahead.Look for unique ways to put your skills to good use

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

EQuALs K

FAMILY CIrCUS

zodIAC

CeLebrItY CIpher

SALLYForth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

bIG nAte

Sudoku

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

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

nea CroSSwordS

TimeS CroSSword

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Yesterday, we sawwhatwouldhave been an effective atypical pre-emptive openingbid.Iftheopponentsaregoingto produce wild leaps into the stratosphere, youneedtoknowhowtodefendyourself. Look at the North hand in the diagram. South opens one spade, andWest intervenes with three diamonds, aweak jump overcall. What should North do?

Yes,West’sbidwouldnormallyfeature onlya six-card suit,but he wasswayed bytheunfavorablevulnerabilityandalso wondered if his side might make three no-trump.

Afteraweakjumpovercall,responder, with support for partner’s major, should bidone level higherthanoriginally intended.

Here, athree-spaderesponse would promise anormal single raise. With his actual game-invitational limit raise, North correctly jumped to fourspades. Andifhis hand had been even stronger, he would have cue-bid four diamonds, which would havesaid nothingabouthis holding in diamonds.

Againstfourspades,Westledtheheart five. East won with his king and cashed the ace, West droppinga sneaky two When East led anotherheart, South was not sure what to do. Discarding risked West’s ruffing with alow trump. Then thespade ace would have been the setting trick.

Eventually,Southruffedwithhisspade king, and West inwardly smiled when he followed suit.However,when Westtook the next trick with his spade ace, he was endplayed. He triedthe club eight, but dummy’s nine forced out East’s queen. South won with his king, drew trumps, and claimed fourspades, one heart(dummy’s queen), one diamond, three clubs and adiamond ruffinthe dummy. ©2026 by NEA, Inc.,dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

wuzzles

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

Previous answers:

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the additionof“s,” suchas“bats” or “dies,” are notallowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may notbeused. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAy’s WoRD DEcIPHER: dee-SYE-fer: Decode or interpret the meaning of

Average mark 36 words

Time

Can you find 48 or more words in DECIPHER?

thought

loCKhorNs

Keep your eyes on Jesus. He lovesyou. G.E. Dean

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

A. CALL TO ORDER MayorMcDavid calledthe meetingtoorder at 6:31 p.m.,onTuesday February 10, 2025, at theZacharyCityHalllocated at 4700 Main Street,Zachary, LA

B. INVOCATION ANDPLEDGEOFALLEGIANCE

Invocation by Councilwoman Landry

Pledge of Allegiance by Fire ChiefGordonLipscomb

C. OPENINGPROCEDURES

1. ROLL CALL MAYOR DavidMcDavid COUNCILMEMBERS Brandy Westmoreland –District1 John LeBlanc– District 2 AmbreDeVirgilio –District3 JamesGraves–District4 Jennifer Landry –District5

2. READINGOFCITYPOLICYRELATIVETOOPENMEETINGS Before proceeding with themeeting, MayorMcDavid read astatement into therecord regardingthe Open Meetings Law, andcitizens’ rightto participateinpublic meetings.The statementsetsforth generalrules of conductofthe public meetingand outlined theprocessthrough whicha citizencan have itemsplaced on theCouncil agenda.A copy of therules is availableatCityHall, Mayor’sOffice or by callingthe Clerkofthe City Council. Therules will also be availableatevery Councilmeeting.

3. CHANGES/ADDITIONSTOAGENDA

D. READINGOFTHE MINUTES

1. Approval of Minutes January 27, regularmeeting, andapprove them as written. Themotionwas made by Councilwoman DeVirgilio Themotionwas seconded by Councilwoman Westmoreland To approvethe of Minutes January 27, 2026 regularmeeting, and approvethemaswritten. YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio,Graves, Landry NAYS: None ABSENT:None ABSTAINED: None

E. HONORS,RECOGNITIONS, ANDINTRODUCTIONS

F. CONTRACT ITEMS/CONTRACTSORITEMS RELATING TO PROJECTS

1. Street/Road Projects

2. Sewer

3. Subdivision Inspections

4. Waterand GasProjects

5. OtherProjects

G. PRESENTATION OF DELEGATIONS

1. RequesttoSpeak

a. Harry Langford,6950 Woodland Dr –Relativetoculvert on his property

b. Joanne Saale, 21407 WJ Wicker Rd.- Relative to aconditional usepermit, Council cannotspeak on this duetocurrent litigation.

c. DianeFletcher, 21363 WJ Wicker Rd Questioned Council on conditionaluse permits. Shesubmitteda public records requestformtothe Mayor. Council cannotspeak aboutthis duetocurrent litigation.

2. Hardship Waivers

3. OtherVariances

4. ExceptionsofRegulations

H. ACTION MANDATEDBYHOMERULECHARTER

I. PLANNING &ZONINGMATTERS

1. ReceiveMinutes of theRegular meetingof_ of thePlanning Commission andthe Minutes of theRegular meetingof_ of theZoningCommission

2. Planning mattersREQUIRING aPublic Hearing

3. Planning Matters NOTrequiring aPublic Meeting

4. Zoning Matters REQUIRINGa Public Hearing

a) Reconsider of RZ-11-25 (21490 &21520 OldScenic Highway)— To rezone Lots G-2& G-3ofthe E.D. Annison Sr.Place from Estate Residential(RE)toNeighborhood Commercial (CN) andSuburbanResidential (RS),onproperty located at 21490 &21520 OldScenic Highway, Zachary, La 70791. MayorMcDavid opened thePUBLICHEARING at 6:45 p.m. Owner,Mr. Jimmy Baker, 1237 Midway Rd Slaughter, LA 70777, wasthere to speak in favorofthe rezone.Mrs.Diane Fletcher 21363 WJ Wicker Rd wasnot in favororagainst just questioned theprocedure of theRZ-11-25 item beingplaced on theagenda. Attorney Wilson stated it is permittedbased on theUDC.Mayor McDavidclosedthe PUBLIC HEARINGat6:55p.m.Council Membersdiscussedthe topicofthe rezone Themotionwas made by Councilwoman Landry Themotionwas seconded by Councilman Graves To approveaReconsiderationof RZ-11-25 (21490 &21520 OldScenic Highway) —TorezoneLotsG-2 &G-3 of theE.D AnnisonSr. Place from Estate Residential(RE)toNeighborhood Commercial(CN) andSuburbanResidential (RS),onproperty locatedat21490 &21520 OldScenic Highway, Zachary, La 70791. YEAS: Graves,Landry

NAYS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

b) Discussion of Planning andZoningCommission Attendance andOther Policies. Councilman Graves raised questionsregarding Council policies relatedtomeetings.Healsorequested clarificationfromthe Mayor andstaff regardingPlanning andZoningCommission attendance. MayorMcDavid acknowledgedthe comments. Council Members held ageneral discussion regardingattendance of boards and commissions.

5. Zoning Matters NOTRequiring Public Hearing a) ZOI- Case 8-26 (536 West IreneRoad) -TorezonefromRural to HeavyIndustrial(M2)onpropertylocated on thenorth side of West IreneRoad, west of SamuelsRoad, on aportion of property noworformerlyknown as J. Glynn. Section80, T5S, R1W, GLD, EBRP,LA. Themotionwas made by Councilman DeVirgilio

Themotionwas seconded by Councilman LeBlanc

To approve ZOI- Case 8-26 (536 West IreneRoad) -Torezone from RuraltoHeavyIndustrial(M2)onpropertylocated on the northsideofWestIrene Road,westofSamuels Road,ona portion of property noworformerlyknown as J. Glynn. Section80, T5S, R1W, GLD, EBRP,LA. –Owner,Jim Dowling, 1938 OldCarriage, BR, LA 70807 waspresent YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio,Graves, Landry NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

b) ZOI- 55603-SS PaulaNobleVallottonProperty -Proposed smallsubdivision of Tract C-1-CintoTractsC-1-C-1,C-1-C-2 C-1-C-3, &C-1-C-4 andthe combiningofTractsC-1-C-4 & B-3intoTract B-3-Aofthe PaulaNoble VallottonPropertyon property located at 8086 LemonRoad, Slaughter, La 70777. Themotionwas made by Councilwoman Westmoreland

Themotionwas seconded by Councilman LeBlanc To approve ZOI- 55603-SS PaulaNobleVallottonPropertyProposed smallsubdivision of Tract C-1-CintoTractsC-1-C-1 C-1-C-2, C-1-C-3, &C-1-C-4 andthe combiningofTractsC-1-C-4 &B-3 into Tract B-3-Aofthe PaulaNoble VallottonPropertyon property located at 8086 LemonRoad, Slaughter, La 70777.

YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio,Graves, Landry

NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

6. OtherMatters a) Approval of Resolution 2026-03 -ResolutioninAccordance with theUDC to Direct thePlanning &ZoningCommission to Hold aPublic Hearingand Make Recommendations Regarding theCreationofOne-AcreResidential Zoning Designation. Themotionwas made by Councilman LeBlanc Themotionwas seconded by Councilwoman DeVirgilio To approve Resolution 2026-03 -ResolutioninAccordance with theUDC to Direct thePlanning &ZoningCommission to Hold aPublic Hearingand Make Recommendations Regardingthe CreationofOne-AcreResidential Zoning Designation.

YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio

NAYS: Graves,Landry

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

J. RECEIVERECORDOFPAYMENT OF ACCOUNTSPAYABLE

1. Receive accountspayable report as of January 2026. Themotionwas made by Councilwoman Westmoreland Themotionwas seconded by Councilwoman DeVirgilio

To approvetoreceive accountspayable report as of January 2026.

YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio,Graves, Landry

NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

K. BUDGET ANDFINANCIAL MATTERS

L. OLDBUSINESS PENDING FORFINAL ACTION

M. OLDBUSINESS PENDING

N. NEWBUSINESS

1. Discussion,Clarificationand PossibleCouncil Action regarding theImplementationofthe UtilityTechnology fee. Councilwoman Westmoreland questioned whythe $2.00 technology feewas recentlyaddedtocitizens’ utilitybills when it hadbeen approved by ordinancein2021. Council discussed thematter. Attorney Wilson explainedthatalthoughthe fee wasauthorizedinthe 2021 ordinance, it wasnot implemented at that time.While shewas notpresent in 2021, sheconsulted with former CFOMrs.Mankins,who advisedthatall otherfees in theordinance were implementedexceptthe technology fee. The feewas intended to fund equipmentupgrades; however, dueto supplychain issues at that time that delayedthe acquisition of equipment, thedecision wasmadenot to implementthe $2.00 fee. Nowthatthe equipmenthas been installed, thetechnology feehas been appliedtocitizens’ bills

2. Approval of Resolution 2026-04 –A resolution approvingthe appointmentofa director andanalternate director to represent theCityofZachary, on theBoard of DirectorsofLouisiana MunicipalNatural GasPurchasingand Distribution Authority.

Themotionwas made by Councilwoman DeVirgilio

Themotionwas seconded by Councilwoman Westmoreland To approveResolution2026-04 –A resolution approvingthe

appointmentofa director andanalternate director to representthe City of Zachary, on theBoard of DirectorsofLouisiana Municipal NaturalGas Purchasing andDistributionAuthority

YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio,Graves, Landry

NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

O. CONDEMNED BUILDINGS– PUBLIC HEARINGS OR OTHER ACTION REGARDINGBUILDINGS BEINGCONSIDEREDFOR CONDEMNDATION 1. Receive theminutes from October23, 2025, Condemnation Board meeting. Themotionwas made by Councilwoman DeVirgilio Themotionwas seconded by Councilwoman Westmoreland To approvetoreceive theminutes from October23, 2025, Condemnation Boardmeeting.

YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio,Graves, Landry

NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

Attorney Wilson provided an update on condemnedbuildings andstatedthatthe next meetingisscheduled forFebruary26, 2026. ShealsoreportedthatPublic Worksdemolisheda house on DavidStreet,withapproximately90% of thestructure removed andhauledoff

P. REPORTSFROMDEPARTMENTHEADS

1. Receive theJanuary MonthlyInspectionReport. Themotionwas made by Councilwoman Westmoreland Themotionwas seconded by Councilwoman DeVirgilio To approvetoreceive theJanuary MonthlyInspectionReport. YEAS: Westmoreland,LeBlanc,DeVirgilio,Graves, Landry NAYS: None

ABSENT:None

ABSTAINED: None

Bryant DixonaddressedCouncil regardingthe Comprehensive Master Plan draft. He stated that if Council wishes to expedite completion of theplan, they should coordinate with thePlanning andZoningCommission.Mr. Dixonnoted that he provided the finaldraft to thePlanning andZoningCommission in September 2025. He advisedthatany effortstoacceleratethe timelinewould need to be directed to theCommission

Q. COUNCILDISCUSSION OF BUSINESS NOTONAGENDA

(NoActionMay Be Taken Unless Declared an Emergency) Councilwoman Landry stated District 5quarterly meetingwill be held March17, from 6-8pmatthe ZacharyLibrary Pete Charlet, 1161 Memorial Square –spoke to Council on tech fee, Robert’s RulesofOrder,and Planning andZoningCommissioners attendance. Ellis Whitehead,21921 WJ Wicker Road,statedthatUtilitiesDirector, WayneDay contacted himregarding thecleaningofhis canal.Mr. Whitehead notedthatthere is still abuildup presentand that he intendstoclean hisportion himself. Following hiscomments, Mayor McDavidpresented videos showingcleanup effortsat21921 WJ Wicker Road andareas that have been cleared in Redwood Lakes. Claire Floyd, 6480 Woodland Drive, appeared on behalf of herfather, JasonFloyd,Planning andZoningCommissioner.She requestedthat Council be mindfulofthe personal nature of certain statements and expressedconcernregarding falseaccusations, noting thepotential fordefamation. WayneGravois,1215 Mills Point, addressedCouncil regarding Council manner, behavior,and theneed forimprovedcommunication amongCouncil Members. Claire CoCo,8299 ArgosyCourt,Baton Rouge, Louisiana, representing BREC, stated that spring program bookswould be distributedfollowing themeeting.

R. ADJOURNMENT Themeetingwas adjournedat8:19p.m

KarenBurdette ClerkofCityCouncil CITY OF ZACHARY PARISH OF EAST BATONROUGE STATEOFLOUISIANA

CERTIFICATION

KarenBurdette DavidMcDavid,Mayor Clerkofthe City Council CITY OF ZACHARY PARISH OF EAST BATONROUGE STATEOFLOUISIANA

I, KarenBurdette,doherebycertify that Iamthe duly appointedClerk of theCityCouncil forthe City of Zachary, Parish of East BatonRouge Louisiana.

Ifurther certify that theabove andforegoing is atrueand correct copy of theminutes of theregular meetingofthe Mayorand Council of theCityof Zachary, Louisiana, held on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, aproperquorum beingthere andthenpresent

KarenBurdette,Clerk of theCityCouncil

178832-622025-Feb. 28-1t $519.75

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