The Acadiana Advocate 03-05-2026 by The Advocate

TOUGHTICKET

Aselloutcrowd fills the seats at M.L. ‘Tigue’ Moore Field on Wednesdaytowatch the University of Louisiana at Lafayette host LSU. TheCajuns gave the fans somethingtocheer aboutastheyjumped on LSU for threeruns in the first inning andnever trailed, earning a 7-2 victoryoverthe No.2 ranked Tigers.

ä Complete coverageinSports, 1C

The University of LouisianaatLafayette hasreceived an appraisalfor afour-acre tract of land which is currently partofthe Cajun Field parking lot.

UL receives $2.4Mappraisal for CajunField parkingproperty

University says it’s not planningtosellsite

BY MEGAN WYATT Staff writer

The University of Louisiana at Lafay-

ette has received appraisals onthree properties so far as the school’s new president aims to selloff propertiesinan effort to close a$12 million deﬁcit bythe end the ﬁscal year

The UL system board has already ap-

proved thesaleoftwo of those properties, which are a$2.1million ecology center nearCarencro and a$350,000 housenear theuniversity’sresearch park. Athird property at the cornerofCongress Streetand Cajundome Boulevard hasnot gone to the board for approval. TheJanuary appraisal, which The AcadianaAdvocate received through apublic records request, estimates the four acres of theCajunField parking lot to be worth $2.4 million,with the “extraordinary

U.S. sinks Iranian warship

Iran vows widespread destructioninregion

BY JON GAMBRELL, ELENA BECATOROS and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

DUBAI,United Arab Emirates Iran launched missilesatIsrael early Thursdayasaerialattacksinthe Middle East commenced for a sixth day after an American submarine sank an Iranian warship and Iran threatened the destruction of military and economic infrastructure across the region.

Israel announced multiple incoming attacks, andair sirens sounded in Tel Aviv andJerusalem shortly after the Israeli military said it had begun new strikes in Lebanon targeting the Iranianbacked Hezbollahmilitant group in Beirut’ssouthern suburbs. The ﬁghting continuedafter the U.S. and Israel intensified their bombardment of Iran on Wednesday The tempo of the strikes on Iran was so intense that state television announced themourningceremony for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the conﬂict,

See WARSHIP, page 4A

BY TYLERBRIDGES Staff writer

First impressions count, and that explainswhy U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy andanallied group are launching attacksonU.S.Rep.Julia Letlow now that the Senate campaign is formally underway Apro-Cassidy super PAChas been hitting Letlow for amonth with TV,radio and digital ads that tie her to formerDemocratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi because of stocktrades she failed to disclose and to former President Joe Biden because of some votes in Congress. The early beneficiariesofthe attacksappear to be Cassidy and

Treasurer John Fleming, who is pitching himself as the mostconservative among the three Republican candidates. The pro-Cassidy adslabel her “Liberal Letlow” in an effort to tarnish her conservative credentials in advance of the May 16 Republican primary Letlow has responded with an ad that playsher strongest card, her endorsement by President Donald Trump. For now,Cassidy’sside has a huge money advantage, and the “Liberal Letlow” ads are drowning out her broadcasting of the Trump endorsement.

Cassidy’sside “is making the smart playright now,”saidPearson Cross, aUniversity of Louisiana at Monroe political science professor.“Right now,voters don’t know whoLetlow is.”

STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD BOWIE

House panel launches probe of Rep. Gonzales

WASHINGTON The House Ethics Committee announced Wednesday it would investigate Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is facing sexual misconduct allegations and intense public scrutiny over how he treated a former staffer who later died by suicide.

The committee voted to establish an investigative subcommittee, announcing it would also look into allegations that Gonzales had “discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.” House rules prohibit members from engaging in a “sexual relationship” with a staffer

After the New York Post published text messages last month it said were received by the late district staffer, a handful of Gonzales’ Republican colleagues called on him to step down. But Gonzales, who has previously denied wrongdoing, told CNN he would not resign, saying, “What you’ve seen is not all the facts.”

“We don’t leap to conclusions here, whether you’re talking about Republicans or Democrats, with regard to legal processes and all of that,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, told reporters last week.

Johnson also said the allegations are “alarming” and that Gonzales needed to address them “directly and head on with his constituents.”

Johnson is navigating a tight majority, and a potential resignation by Gonzales would shrink that even further

The Ethics Committee announcement comes the day after primary elections in Texas, where no candidate in Gonzales’ race reached the threshold to secure the Republican nomination. Instead, Gonzales now heads into a runoff campaign against pro-gun activist Brandon Herrera, who is challenging Gonzales from the right.

Bodies of 2 half-sisters found buried in suitcases

CLEVELAND Authorities in Cleveland were working Wednesday to identify two young half-sisters whose bodies were found buried inside suitcases on the city’s east side

The bodies were recovered on Monday in the city’s Collinwood neighborhood after a tip from a dog walker according to police. One of the girls is believed to be between 8 and 13 years old, and the other between 10 and 14 years old. Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd said at a Tuesday news conference that it was not clear how the girls, who were both Black, died, but that their bodies had been there for some time

“We are hoping to find answers,” she said. “This is a terrible, tragic situation.”

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Ofﬁce used preliminary DNA relationship testing to confirm that the two girls were half-sisters, according to a statement. The ofﬁce said further information would be released as it became available.

The circumstances didn’t appear to match any active missing persons cases in the area, Todd said.

Police: Parolee set man on fire at Penn Station

NEW YORK A parolee with a criminal record that includes 131 prior arrests in New York City was busted Wednesday for setting a homeless man on ﬁre as he slept at Penn Station, according to police and prosecutors. Damon Johnson, 47, is charged with attempted murder and assault for the attack on Monday that left a 37-year-old man with second-degree burns on his arm and back.

The victim was dozing near an entrance to Penn Station’s Amtrak rotunda when three men approached him and one of them set ﬁre to the man’s clothes around 8:30 p.m., cops said After the attack, the three men ﬂed deeper into the station.

Ofﬁcers with the Amtrak Police Department arrested Johnson on Wednesday Johnson, who is currently on parole for robbery until 2027, was ﬁrst busted for a Bronx assault in 1995, cops said.

Report finds decades of abuse by R.I. priests House committee subpoenas Bondi

BY KIMBERLEE KRUESI, MARYCLAIRE DALE and LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Catholic priests in Rhode Island preyed on hundreds of children for decades, and were protected by bishops more concerned with the church’s reputation than the victims, according to a new report on clergy sexual abuse that echoes ﬁndings elsewhere.

The report, released Wednesday by Attorney General Peter Neronha, follows a multiyear investigation into the Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island.

Neronha said the full scope of the priest abuse problem in Rhode Island — the smallest U.S state but the one with the highest Catholic population per capita at nearly 40% — had long remained elusive. He agreed with victims who say not enough has been done to address the problem long after it was exposed in the nearby Boston diocese in 2002.

“If you’re the Diocese of Providence and you’re listening, this is a scandal you need to own and you need to fix,” Neronha told reporters Wednesday “We can’t slow-walk solutions and we can’t slow-walk justice.”

Neronha hopes the report will spur legal reforms to boost investigative powers and help victims seek justice.

The investigation found that 75 Catholic clergy molested more than 300 victims since 1950, but ofﬁcials stressed that the number of victimized children and abusive priests is likely much higher

The diocese, in response, acknowledged the scourge of child sexual abuse especially by clergy — but said the report reﬂects the church’s willingness to share internal records under a 2019 agreement with the state.

“The report presents this 75year history in ways that might lead the reader to conclude these issues are an ongoing diocesan problem or that these are new revelations. They are not,” the statement said.

3 priests awaiting trial Church records show the diocese transferred accused priests to new assignments without fully investigating complaints or contacting law enforcement, a practice exposed in investigations in Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

A statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is displayed Feb 24 outside St. Mary’s Church in Cranston, R.I. An investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office found that 75 Catholic clergy molested more than 300 victims since 1950, but officials stressed that the number of victimized children and abusive priests is likely much higher

And, as in other cities, the Diocese of Providence opened a “spiritual retreat-style facility” in the early 1950s for accused priests to seek treatment. Later, when the abuse was deemed a mental health problem, priests were sent to more formal treatment centers.

By the 1990s, accused priests were sometimes placed on sabbatical leave.

Most accused priests, the report found, avoided accountability from both law enforcement and the diocese.

Neronha’s office has charged four current and former priests with sexual abuse for allegations stemming from 2020 to 2022. Three of them are still awaiting trial. The fourth priest died after being deemed incompetent to stand trial in 2022.

Only 20 people — about a quarter of the clergy identiﬁed in the report — faced criminal charges, and just 14 were convicted. A dozen others were laicized or otherwise dismissed.

Board member among accused

One survivor described being groomed more than a year before he was abused by the pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Cranston in 1981. The survivor, who is not named in the report, said the late Monsignor John Al-

Texas judge declines to close Camp Mystic

BY JIM VERTUNO and SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

AUSTIN,Texas

A Texas judge on Wednesday declined to order the closure of Camp Mystic, the all-girls youth camp where 25 girls and two counselors were killed in catastrophic ﬂoods last year

While a lawsuit ﬁled by one of the girls’ families is pending, District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble did order Camp Mystic’s owners not to alter or demolish the cabins where campers were housed during the ﬂoods and to avoid using the portion of the camp closest to the Guadalupe River where those cabins were located.

The family of 8-year-old Cile Steward, who was swept away in the flood and whose body still has not been recovered, had asked the judge to prevent the owners from reopening the facility and to halt any construction while the lawsuit is pending. Their request for a temporary injunction maintains that any changes at the camp could destroy evidence needed for their lawsuit.

The campers and counselors were killed when the fast-rising floodwaters roared through a low-lying area of the summer camp before dawn on the Fourth of July All told, the destructive ﬂooding killed at least 136 people, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

The camp, established in 1926, did not evacuate and was hit hard when the river rose from 14 feet to 29.5 feet within 60 minutes.

lard showered him with attention. By ninth grade, he said, the sexual abuse began in the priest’s bedroom.

“His comment to me was always, ‘You need a hug,’ and that’s something that I can hear him saying very clearly to this very day,” the survivor told ofﬁcials in 2013.

While a review board deemed the abuse credible, the Vatican — at the urging of then-Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin — let Allard retire rather than be defrocked.

In at least one case, a member of the diocesan review board hearing abuse complaints was himself accused, the report says. The Rev Francis Santilli stepped down after the complaint, but remained in active ministry even after other complaints surfaced in 2014 and 2021. He was not removed until 2022. A message left at a possible number for him on Wednesday was not immediately returned.

Church disagrees with AG Neronha launched the investigation in 2019, a year after a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a landmark report that found more than 1,000 children had been abused by some 300 priests since the 1940s.

However, Rhode Island law does not allow grand jury reports to become public a hurdle that Neronha has long tried to change. Instead, he forged an agreement with the diocese to access its trove of records on clergy sexual abuse.

The church turned over 70 years’ worth of material, including complaints from its secret archives, civil settlement records, treatment costs and other documents. Yet Neronha called the diocese’s help limited at times, saying it refused to provide diocesan personnel for interviews.

Neronha criticized the diocese on Wednesday for treating the report as “ancient history,” arguing that more needed to be done by clergy leaders to address ongoing concerns about abuse. His ofﬁce outlined multiple changes for the diocese, which include providing clear investigative timelines and guidelines. He also stressed the need for the diocese to abandon the practice of requiring victims take polygraph tests and to stop refusing to investigate third-party complaints about priests.

The diocese, in its response Wednesday pushed back on that view, saying the report would not have been possible without the church’s cooperation.

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN PHOTO

Alli Naylor mother of Wynne Naylor who died at Camp Mystic, reacts Wednesday as attorneys at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, argue for a temporary restraining order regarding the camp.

“The worst thing you can do is put a bunch of 8-year-olds on a bus and try to drive them out of there, They all would have drowned,” said Mikal Watts, an attorney for Camp Mystic and its family of owners.

In a packed courtroom Wednesday, family members of the deceased girls wore buttons depicting their images as lawyers for Camp Mystic displayed pictures of trees planted in their memory and architectural renderings of plans to rebuild parts of the camp outside a 1,000year ﬂood zone.

Attorneys for Camp Mystic have expressed sympathy for the girls’ families but maintained there was little they could have done during the catastrophic ﬂooding that quickly overcame the camp.

“Nobody had every seen a prior ﬂood anything like we saw in 2025,” Watts said. More than 850 campers have already signed up to attend camp this summer, he said.

The camp’s decision last year to partially open and to construct a memorial on the grounds drew outrage from many of the girls’ families who are mourning their loved ones and who said they weren’t consulted on the plans.

BY ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

WASHINGTON The House Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions over the Justice Department’s handling of files regarding the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

Five Republicans joined Democrats to support the subpoena proposed by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina in a sign of continued frustration among conservatives with the department’s review and release of a tranche of documents related to the disgraced ﬁnancier The move amounted to a sharp rebuke of Bondi by Republicans who have been clamoring for information about Epstein’s abuse of young girls and his interactions with rich and powerful people.

“The American people want answers on the Epstein ﬁles, and so do we,” Mace said in a post on X.

The Epstein ﬁles remain a political headache for the Trump administration more than a year after Bondi sparked backlash by handing out binders of documents to conservative inﬂuencers at the White House that included no bombshells.

Bondi has defended the department’s handling of the ﬁles and has accused Democrats of using the Epstein ﬁles to distract from Trump’s successes, although some of the most vocal criticism has come from members of the president’s own party

The Justice Department said last week that it was looking into whether it had improperly withheld documents from the ﬁles after several news organizations reported that some records involving uncorroborated accusations made by a woman against Trump were not among those released to the public. That announcement followed news reports saying that a massive tranche of records released by the Justice Department did not include several summaries of interviews that the FBI conducted with an unidentiﬁed woman who came forward after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and claimed to have been sexually assaulted by both Trump and Epstein when she was a minor in the 1980s.

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AP PHOTO By CHARLES KRUPA

FDA regulator wants to hire antidepressant critic

Petition seeks warning about pregnancy risks

BY MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration’s top drug regulator, Dr Tracy Beth Hoeg, is working to hire a researcher and friend who wants the agency to add new warnings to antidepressants about unproven pregnancy risks, The Associated Press has learned.

Dr Adam Urato, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and critic of antidepressant safety, is pressing the FDA to add a boxed warning to SSRIs, the drugs most commonly prescribed for depression. Urato’s petition says the medications can cause pregnancy complications, including miscarriages and fetal brain abnormalities that may lead to autism and other disorders in children.

That proposed labeling change has become a top priority for Hoeg, who regularly consults with Urato and is working to bring him on as a full-time FDA employee, according to people familiar with the situation. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss conﬁdential FDA matters.

Within the agency Hoeg’s close relationship with Urato is viewed as a clear conﬂict of interest that, under normal FDA standards, would result in her recusing herself from any work on the petition. But Hoeg is actively working to speed up the agency’s review of her

friend’s proposal, according to the people familiar with the situation.

Outside experts say the petition relies on ﬂimsy data, including animal studies and small trials in people. They fear a new FDA warning could cause pregnant women to stop medication unnecessarily, leading to serious health risks from untreated depression.

“A black box warning is a big red ﬂag with both practitioners and patients,” said Dr Jennifer Payne, a University of Virginia reproductive psychiatrist.

“What’s missing in this petition is an understanding of the risks of maternal mental illness during pregnancy not just to the woman, but to the pregnancy and ultimately the infant.”

The FDA is legally required to respond in writing to each citizen petition and explain its reasons for granting or denying the request.

SSRIs include most of the bestselling depression medications, including Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and their generic equivalents.

More than 15% of U.S. women, or about 26 million people, take medication for depression according to the latest federal ﬁgures. Professional guidelines state that antidepressants are generally safe during pregnancy and should be discontinued only after careful consultation with a doctor

Last fall, Hoeg gave a talk on the SSRI petition to top FDA drug ofﬁcials, presenting the work as her own. Staffers who reviewed her slides found they were created by Urato, according to the people who

spoke to the AP The incident was ﬁrst reported by Stat News. Urato said in an email Wednesday that Hoeg is “an excellent scientist,” and that they have known each other for several years.

“I am friendly with her, as I am with many colleagues, but we do not have a longstanding personal friendship that would in any way prevent her from reviewing the citizen petition,” Urato said.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services which oversees the FDA, said that the agency would respond directly to Urato about his petition.

In January, Urato was named to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s panel on vaccine recommendations, which has been completely reshaped by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr to include a number of anti-vaccine voices.

The antidepressant review is the

latest in a series of controversial topics taken up by Hoeg, a sports medicine physician with no previous government or management experience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hoeg attracted attention as a critic of masking, vaccine mandates and other public health measures. She co-wrote papers with medical contrarians who would go on to join the Trump administration, including FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and FDA’s vaccine chief, Dr Vinay Prasad. All three have become top surrogates for Kennedy Before the pandemic, Hoeg had published only a handful of medical papers, including one on health issues affecting ultramarathon runners.

A Danish American citizen and marathon runner, Hoeg was instrumental in the Republican administration’s recent decision to drop a number of vaccine recommendations for children. That is a change she has long proposed, to bring the United States more in line with Denmark.

Like many critics of vaccines, including Kennedy Hoeg has also been skeptical of antidepressants, questioning their safety and beneﬁts. Last July, she hosted a panel of outside experts at the FDA on SSRIs that included Urato and nine other critics of the drugs.

“Never before in human history have we chemically altered developing babies like this, especially the developing fetal brain, and this is happening without any real public warning,” Urato said at the

meeting.

On a podcast shortly afterward, Hoeg echoed many of Urato’s points. “I think women should be informed about the potential risks so that they have time to come off SSRIs if they want to when they’re trying to get pregnant,” Hoeg told the hosts of the “Mom Wars” podcast. FDA officials typically avoid making public comments about matters under review because it could suggest the agency is basing its decision on individual opinions, rather than science.

But Hoeg has taken a hands-on approach to the SSRI petition, telling FDA staffers that their proposed review timeline of nine months needed to be shortened, according to the people familiar with the situation.

Hoeg was tapped to the lead FDA’s drug center in December She is the sixth person to lead the center in the past year

Staffers did not hear from Hoeg directly until a town hall last month, where she voiced her concerns about the safety of SSRIs and injectable RSV shots for children, a class of drugs that FDA is reviewing at her request. RSV is a respiratory virus that sends thousands of children in the United States to the hospital each year

The safety of antidepressants has been scrutinized for decades, leading to several updates to their FDA label, including the addition of a black box warning about the risk of suicidal behavior in children.

Early primaries show incumbents on shaky ground

Texas’ Crenshaw first to lose race

BY SEAN MURPHY and MEG KINNARD Associated Press

The ﬁrst round of primary elections is showing how this year’s midterms will be taking place on shifting political ground for incumbents.

That was particularly true in Texas — the ﬁrst state to redraw its congressional districts last year where incumbent members of Congress have been pushed to runoffs and another has been scuttled from the House altogether

Former Rep. Colin Allred, who abandoned his initial U.S. Senate run to pursue Texas’ 33rd Congressional District, is headed to a runoff with Rep. Julie Johnson, who holds the U.S. House seat that used to be his. Democratic Rep. Al Green, an outspoken liberal who has twice been ejected from President Donald Trump’s State of the Union addresses for protesting, and newly elected Rep. Christian Menefee will compete in the May 26 runoff for a Houston-area district.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican and former Navy SEAL with an independent streak, faced attacks from the party’s hard right that he was not in lockstep with Trump, and was the state’s only House Republican not to win the president’s en-

dorsement.

Tight Dem contest in N.C

In a North Carolina primary rematch from four years ago, two-term U.S Rep Valerie Foushee is angling to hold off a primary challenge from county ofﬁcial Nida Allam in a race testing the heft of Democrats’ progressive and establishment wings Foushee, a former local elected official and state legislator, represents the 4th Congressional District, which includes liberal strongholds of Durham, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, as well as about half of Cary In the primary she boasts backing from Democratic Gov Josh Stein, his predecessor and current U.S Senate nominee Roy Cooper Allam, a Durham County commissioner backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, is aiming to tap into discontent among liberals that Democratic Party leaders and elected officials haven’t been forceful enough in resisting the agenda of Trump and fellow Republicans. The daughter of Indian and Pakistani immigrants, she said she was driven to politics by the shooting deaths of three of her friends — Muslim university students — in 2015. Whoever wins the Democratic contest should be a heavy favorite in November over Republican and Libertarian candidates.. Incumbents paired in runoff

The unusual primary between two sitting Democrat-

Trump: Candidate

ic congressmen in Texas was the result of redrawn voting maps that Trump ordered ahead of November’s midterm elections. Green, 78, switched to run in the newly redrawn 18th Congressional District after his current district was redrawn to favor Republicans. Menefee, 37, was sworn in to Congress only a month ago after winning a special election to fill the remaining term of Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died last year For some Houston voters, Tuesday’s primary was their third time casting ballots in a congressional race in four months, sowing confusion.

Green, who was ﬁrst elected to the U.S. House in 2004, is one of his party’s most outspoken Trump critics and filed articles of impeachment during the president’s ﬁrst term.

The primary is one of the generational competitions among Democrats this year as younger candidates argue it’s time for a new crop of party leaders.

Crenshaw ousted by Toth

Crenshaw, seeking his ﬁfth term in Texas’ 2nd Congressional District, was the state’s only House Republican whom Trump didn’t endorse heading into the nation’s ﬁrst big primary of 2026.

The former Navy SEAL, whose independent streak sometimes clashed with fellow Republicans, spent the primary trying to fend off attacks from the party’s

he doesn’t endorse in Texas should quit

BY JOSEPH MORTON and GROMER JEFFERS JR.

The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

DALLAS — President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded an end to the Republican Senate primary race in Texas, promising to soon endorse either incumbent Sen. John Cornyn or his challenger Attorney General Ken Paxton.

After being locked in a bitter contest for many months, Cornyn and Paxton now face a May 26 runoff that promises to become an even more expensive and caustic campaign — which Trump said cannot happen. The race must end for the good of the party and the country Trump posted on Truth Social.

“I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE

RACE!” Trump said. “Is that fair? We must win in November!!!”

With nearly all of the expected statewide vote counted, Cornyn held a slim lead over Paxton as the two were set for a runoff. Cornyn has already promised to make the rematch Paxton’s “judgment day” while the attorney general has slammed huge spending by Cornyn and his allies, saying they cannot buy the Senate seat.

The two have spent months bashing one another, pausing at times to direct their ﬁre at a third candidate, Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, who played spoiler and ﬁnished a distant third Tuesday. With Hunt out of the picture, the contest between Cornyn and Paxton could turn especially ugly as more Republican donor money pours in to help Cornyn. A continuation of hostilities

could leave the nominee further bruised.

Democrats, meanwhile, have chosen their candidate, state Sen. James Talarico of Austin who defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas in a primary that was dominated by talk about electability

In his Wednesday post, Trump highlighted his strong Texas support in presidential elections and described his endorsement as “virtually insurmountable” in GOP primaries, especially in Texas.

“We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively!”

Trump said.

At the Capitol, Cornyn’s Republican colleagues told reporters Trump should back the incumbent in order to keep the seat in Republican hands.

hard right that he wasn’t in step with Trump’s agenda.

Steve Toth, a state representative and member of the GOP’s hard-right caucus in the Legislature, picked up a big endorsement late in the primary from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

“This campaign has been a referendum on representatives who campaign one way and govern another and the people have spoken,” Toth said in a statement after his victory

Crenshaw, who lost his right eye when he was hit with an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2012, had clashed with Cruz over the senator’s support of Trump’s unfounded claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. He was one of the few Tex-

as Republican candidates for Congress in 2022 who acknowledged that President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was legitimate, a position that occasionally found him at odds with fellow Republicans. Crenshaw also drew the ire of conservatives when a video clip went viral of him criticizing some Republican politicians as “grifters” and “performance artists” who simply tell conservative voters what they want to hear

Crenshaw

would be postponed.Millions attended the funeral of his predecessor,AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini, in 1989.

The U.S. and Israel launched the war Saturday, targeting Iran’s leadership, missile arsenaland nuclear program while suggesting that topplingthe government is agoal. But the exact aims and timelineshave repeatedly shifted, signaling an open-ended conﬂict.

President Donald Trump praised the U.S. military Wednesday for “doingverywell on the war front, to put it mildly.” Fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate stood with Trump on Iran as they voted down aresolution seeking to halt the war.

Iranfired on Bahrain, Kuwait and Israel as the conﬂictspiraled. Turkey said NATO defensesintercepted aballistic missilelaunched from Iran before it entered Turkey’sairspace.

The war has killed morethan 1,000 peopleinIran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around adozen in Israel, according to ofﬁcials in those countries. It has disrupted the supply of the world’soil and gas, snarled international shipping and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.

Neighboring countries braced forpotential dangersThursday, aday after Iran’sparamilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened “the complete destruction of the region’smilitary and economic infrastructure.” Qatar’sInterior Ministry said authorities wereevacuating residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as atemporary precaution, without providing further details.

Fighter jets could be heard overhead Thursday morning in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai And anew attack off the coast of Kuwait appeared to expand the areawhere commercial shipping was in danger

An explosion rocked the area earlyThursday, accordingtothe United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center run bythe British military.It said atanker apparently came under attack, but the agency did not offer acause. Iran in the past has attacked ships by attaching limpet minestothem.

SENATE

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The Letlow campaigndid not respond to arequest for an interview What thepolls show Letlow’spublic support has dropped, polls show That might explain why Gov Jeff Landry endorsed Letlow on Wednesday,afterhaving said recentlyhewould “follow the president” when it came to the Senate race. “The D.C. swamp is spending millions of dollars flat out lying about Julia Letlow because they know they can’tcontrol her,” Landry said in anewsrelease from the Letlow campaign. “I’m excited to join President Trumpin backing Julia for the U.S.Senate. I know Julia’scharacter,and she has the kind of raw Louisiana grit that Washington desperately needs. I’ve seen her stand when others would fall. She has what it takes.” The Times-Picayune |The Advocate reported last weekthatthe governor had asked donors tosupport Letlow’scampaign, and he and his allies havebeen pushing for the state Republican Executive Committee to endorse her.The party effort has stalled, severalRepublicans said Wednesday Fleming criticized Landry’sinvolvement in the race when he disclosed Wednesday thatRalph

APPRAISAL

Continued from page1A

assumption” the property is available for commercial use. Current zoning prohibits commercial activity at theproperty becauseitis owned by the university Because of the property’s prime location, the “most productive use” of the site would be for acommercial business, such as asports bar,restaurant, retail store or parking garage, according to the report UL spokesperson Eric Maron said Wednesday thatthe university only got the property appraised to get an idea

Prior attacks since ﬁghting began Saturday have happened in theGulfofOmanand theStrait of Hormuz,the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulfthrough which about aﬁfthofthe world’soil is shipped.

Oilprices have soared as Iranianattackshavedisrupted trafﬁc through the strait, andglobal stock marketshave been hammered over worries that the spike in oil prices maygrind down theworld economy

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said atorpedo from an American submarine sank an Iranian warship Tuesday night in the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lankan authorities said 32 peoplewere rescuedfromthe ship, while the country’snavy said it recovered 87 bodies Israel said it hit buildings as-

Abraham, who stepped down last week from atop position at the federal Centers for Disease Controland Prevention, offered him that job if he dropped out of the Senaterace.

“I politely declined of course,” Flemingwrote on Facebook. “Now we ﬁnd he is chairman of the Letlow campaign.”

Abraham did not respond to arequestfor aresponse.

Askedabout the state of the campaign,Fleming on Wednesday said, “So far,sogood.”

Letlowand Landryhave brought aboard Kyle Ruckert to oversee Letlow’scampaign. Ruckert, who just stepped down as Landry’s chiefofstaff,has worked forthe top Republicans in Louisiana over the past dozen years

Cassidybatted away troublesome poll resultsbyothers,saying on Tuesday that he hasseen more favorablesurveys

“I am goingtowin,” the senator predicted.

Newtohardballcampaigns

An administrator at theUniversity of Monroe atLouisiana, Letlow lived outside of Monroe when she was ﬁrst elected in the 5th Congressional District in 2021 after her husband,Luke, who hadjustwon the seat,died of COVID-19. She won reelectionin2022 and 2024 without facingastrong opponent.

She has never been under attack before.

Political pros arewatchingclosely to see how she handles it.

sociated withIran’sBasij, the allvolunteer forceofthe paramilitary Revolutionary Guard whose bloodycrackdown on protesters in January left thousands dead.

The Israeli militaryhit buildings associated with Iran’sinternalsecurity command. Israel and the U.S. have said theywant to seeIranians overthrow the country’stheocracy,and strikesagainstIran’s internal securityforces may be aimed at hastening that.

However,Iranian Foreign Minister AbbasAraghchi has said his country’sforceshavedecentralized leadership, withunitsacting largely on their own, which could blunt the effect of attacks on top commandand control hubs.

During hisPentagon briefing, Hegseth did not give adeﬁnitive timelinefor U.S. operations.

Jim Brown said he still remembers his dismay when an opponent hithim hard in an insurance commissioner’srace years before.

“You’re devastated by theattack on you,”Brown said. “You feel like everybody in thestate is watching the ad.”

Rodney Alexander,who held the 5thCongressional District seat from 2002-2013, saidLetlow knew she would comeunder ﬁre.

“You just have to ignore it as much as youcan andgoforward with your agenda,” Alexander said.

Polling indicatesthe pro-Cassidy attacks havepulled some voters away from Letlow

Asurvey of 600 mostly Republicanvoters six weeks ago, taken by New Orleans pollster Greg Rigamer,showed Letlow ledthe ﬁeld with 27%, followed by Cassidy with 21%, Fleming with14% and the rest were undecided or supported candidates no longer in therace.

AnotherRigamer poll of 600 mostly Republican voters on Feb. 21-23 found Cassidy leadingwith 27.5%, Letlow with 21.3% and Fleming 20.8%, astatistical tie with the congresswoman.

The top two finishersinthe Republican primary will advance to aJune 27 Republican runoff, if no candidate winsmore than 50%in theprimary Unaffiliated voters can vote in theRepublican (and Democratic) primary, althoughtheywillhave to fill out aform on election day to do so. In Rigamer’ssurvey,15% of

of other propertiesare in the area.”

“You cansay four weeks, but it couldbesix.Itcould be eight. It could be three,” he said. “Ultimately,weset the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance, and we’re going to keep themoff balance.”

Adm. Brad Cooper,the top U.S. militarycommander in the Middle East, said American forces have damaged Iran’sair defenses and taken out ballistic missiles, launchers and drones.

U.S. and Israeli military ofﬁcials say launches from Iran have declined as the war has progressed Israel’s Homefront Command announced it was easing restrictions that closed workplaces nationwide. It said workplaces could reopenThursdayifthere’s ashelternearby.Schoolswould remain closed.

those polled wereunafﬁliated voters.

CassidyorFleming benefiting?

Still, for the second month in a row,the latest poll contained concerning results forCassidy He was what pollsters call“underwater”: Only 34%ofvoters viewed him favorably,while 50% viewed himunfavorably

Head-to-head, Cassidy trailed bothLetlow(34-42%) and Fleming (32-43%). Meanwhile, Fleming led Letlow,36-27%. Fleming, Rigamer said in an analysis,“is the clear momentum candidate.”

Rigamer conducted both surveys forprominent business lobbyistAlton Ashy,who hasdozens of federal andstate clients and who helped organize amajor fundraiser for Letlow during Washington Mardi Gras in January

Another poll taken on Feb. 2324, releasedbyQuantusInsights, had Fleming leading the race with 34.2%, followedbyLetlowwith 24.6% and Cassidy 19.8%.

This poll also had Fleming and Letlow defeating Cassidy head-tohead, and Fleming beating Letlow Jason Corley,the principal at Quantus, said his ﬁrm startedin 2024, is based in east Texas and paid for the poll of 1,400 predominately Republican voters to show what it can do forpotential clients.

During acall with reporters Tuesday,Cassidy highlighted the latestmoney he hashelped bring from WashingtontoLouisiana

Still, explosions soundedearly Thursday in Israel, which said its defensive systems were moving to intercept Iranian missiles.

At least1,045 people have been killed in Iran,the country’sFoundation of Martyrs andVeterans Affairs said Wednesday.Eleven people have died in Israel. Six U.S. troops have been killed. Thedeath toll hasexceeded 70 in Lebanon, where the health ministrysaidWednesday that three people died when drone strikes hit two vehicles on aBeirut highway The Israeli military said it wastargeting aHezbollah member IsraeliDefense Minister Israel Katz said the offensive against Iranwas originally plannedfor mid-2026, but “the need arose to bring everything forward to February.”

He listed events inside Iran, Trump’spositionsand thepossibility of “creating acombined operation” as reasons. The protests in Iran put unprecedented pressure on its leadership. Trump threatened militaryaction in response to the crackdownbefore shifting his attention to Iran’s disputed nuclear program White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday thatthe U.S. launchedits operation partly out of concern Iran might strike American personnel and assets in theregionﬁrst. Aphone call between Trumpand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the airstrikes began wasalso “important with respect to the timeline,” she said.

Iran’sleadersare scrambling to replace Khamenei, who ruled the country for37years. It’s only the secondtime sincethe 1979 Islamic Revolution that anew supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with theWesttoreformists who seek diplomatic engagement. Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei’s son, has long been considered among them —though he has never held agovernment position. In asign that Iran’sleadership will onlyseek to consolidate its power,the head of the judiciary warned that “those whocooperate with the enemy in any waywillbe considered an enemy.”

Israel’s defenseminister, Katz, said on Xthat Iran’snext supreme leader —ifhecontinues to threaten Israel, theU.S.and others— “will be atarget forelimination.”

to improve the state’sroadways, drinking water and anti-ﬂood defenses.

Cassidy also called on Democrats to approve the proposed budget for the Department of Homeland Security to end the partial shutdown of thefederal agency Democrats are insisting that Republicansagree to limitsonimmigration agents to prevent the violence in Minneapolis that led to the deaths of two protesters.

Echoing Letlow,Cassidy said he is backing Trump’sdecision to attack Iran.

“Weshould back ourpresident and back our troops,” he said.

Answering areporter’squestion,Cassidy said he hasn’t decided whether to support Dr.Casey MeanstobeTrump’ssurgeon general.Letlow is supporting her, while Fleming on Wednesdaysaid he doesn’thave enough information yet on Means.

Fleming said he hasbeen crisscrossing the state this week in his 2008 Toyota 4Runnertospeak to various groups.

Letlow held ameet-and-greet with metro New Orleans elected ofﬁcialslastweek, where she was introduced by Eric Skrmetta,a member of the Public Service Commission who droppedout of the Senate race and endorsed her Besides the three major candidates, Mark Spencer is also running as aRepublican. The Democrats competing in the Democratic primary areNickAlbares, Jamie Davis and Gary Crockett.

of what other properties in the university commons vicinity are worth “They have no intention of selling that property,” Maron said. “It just gives them agauge forwhat the value

Ramesh Kolluru, who was namedthe seventh president of the university last week, said during an interview that he intends to close theremaining $12 million of a$50 million deﬁcit by June 30 throughsellingproperties and fundraising.

The university owns numerouspropertiesinmultiple parishes, including: n 145 acres on the main campus

n 23 acres at the health sciences campus along St. Mary Boulevard andSt. Landry Street

n 391 acres in theuniversity commons area that includes the Cajundome, the

athletic complex and the research parkalong Congress Street and Cajundome Boulevard

n A10-acre portion of Moncus Park

n The 51-acre ecologycenter near Carencro.

n 16 houses in Lafayette Parish

n 15 former businesses, parking lots and vacantlots in Lafayette Parish

n A600-acreexperimental research farm near Cade that includes three houses

n 100acres of theNew Iberia ResearchCenter

campuses

n A2,500-acreenvironmental research site across St.James and Lafourche parishes

n Aﬁve-acrecoastalrestoration site in Vermilion Parish

n Aﬁve-acre concentrated solar power site in Acadia Parish. The UL systemboardapproved the sale of ﬁve propertieslastweek.Inaddition to the 50-acre ecologycenter and the house near research park, the board approved the sale of the experimental research farm near Cade, an empty lotnear the main campus anda fraternity house near the Cajundome. Appraisals are pending on theresearch farm andthe empty lot. Theuniversity will seek permission from theLouisiana Legislature’s House andSenate natural

resources committees for the approval of each sale, except for the fraternity house, before publicizing the sale and conducting apublic auction. The appraised value of each property will establish the minimum bid. TheULsystemboardlast week approved the sale of the Sigma Nu fraternity house to thelocal chapter’salumniassociation forabout $111,000. UL graduate student Maddy Moore started apetition at change.orglast weekin an effort discourage decision makersfromselling the university’sexperimentalresearch farm andecologycenter.The petitionhas received more than 1,200 signatures in six days.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByBADERKHAN AHMAD

Ashepherdboy walks away from an unexploded Iranian projectile that landed in an open field in the outskirts of Qamishli, Syria, on Wednesday.

Hegseth: U.S. ‘can’t stop everything’ Iran sends

Secretary says U.S. is gaining air superiority

BY KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged on Wednesday that some Iranian air attacks may still hit their targets even as he asserted that U.S. military superiority is quickly giving it control of the Islamic Republic’s airspace.

The United States has spared “no expense or capability” to enhance air defense systems to protect American forces and allies in the Middle East, Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in a war that has widened throughout the region.

“This does not mean we can stop everything, but we ensured that the maximum possible defense and maximum possible force protection was set up before we went on offense,” he said.

The acknowledgment that additional drone or missile strikes in the region could cause damage and harm to troops comes as President Donald Trump and top defense leaders have warned that more American casualties were expected in a con-

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

take questions during a press briefing Monday at the Pentagon.

ﬂict that began Saturday and could last months.

Risk to troops ‘still high’

U.S service members remain in harm’s way, and we must be clear-eyed that the risk is still high,” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the news conference with Hegseth.

Six soldiers were killed when an Iranian drone strike hit an operations center Sunday in the heart of a civilian port in Kuwait, more than 10 miles from the main Army base. The husband of

one of the slain soldiers, who was part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa, says the center was a shipping container-style building and had no defenses.

Caine declined to answer a question about the possibility of deploying ground troops in Iran, which Trump has not ruled out.

“I’m not going to comment on U.S. boots on the ground,” Caine said. “I think that’s a question for policymakers. And I don’t make policy, I execute policy.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told re-

porters that it was “not part of the plan for this operation at this time” but noted that “I’m not going to remove an option for the president that is on the table.”

3 weeks or up to 2 months

Hegseth also signaled a possible longer time frame for the conflict than has previously been ﬂoated by the administration, saying it could last eight weeks but that the U.S. has the munitions and the equipment to beat Iran in a war of attrition. He declined to set a speciﬁc time range, saying

the speciﬁc duration of the war would depend on how it unfolds.

“You can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three,” Hegseth said. “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance, and we’re going to keep them off balance.”

More forces are arriving in the region, including jet ﬁghters and bombers, Hegseth said, and the U.S. “will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.”

U.S. has enough munitions

Supplies of weaponry are not an issue, Hegseth and Caine said, with the defense secretary noting that the military used more advanced weapons at the start of the campaign but was switching to gravity bombs now that the U.S. has gained control of the Iranian sky.

Stockpiles of the advanced weapons remain “extremely strong,” Hegseth said.

Caine said U.S. attacks on Iranian missile sites and other offensive targets have been successful enough that forces can strike deeper inland, allowing for the shift from sophisticated weapons that can be launched from far away to more traditional, precision bombs dropped by aircraft.

Caine said the U.S. has “sufﬁcient precision munitions for the task at hand,

both on the offense and defense.” He noted that the military would not be releasing quantities, citing operational security “Our air defenses and that of our allies have plenty of runway,” Hegseth said. “We can sustain this ﬁght easily for as long as we need to.”

Trump said this week the campaign is likely to last four weeks to ﬁve weeks but he was prepared “to go far longer than that.”

The number of ballistic missiles fired by Iran is down 86% from the ﬁrst day of the U.S military’s campaign, with a 23% drop in the past 24 hours, Caine said Wednesday, and Iran’s use of one-way attack drone shots is down 73% from the opening days. The decrease could indicate that Iran is holding some weapons in reserve to prolong the conﬂict.

Scramble to leave Mideast

The State Department said it has assisted nearly 6,500 Americans since the start of the war and was working to arrange charter ﬂights or other transportation. Caine said the military has opened up available seats as military transport planes arrive “to try to help folks get out.”

The State Department said more than 17,500 Americans have returned to the United States from the Middle East since Saturday

Senate rejects limiting Trump’s authority on Iran actions

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON The Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, on a largely party-line vote, rejected Wednesday an effort to limit President Donald Trump’s ongoing military campaign against Iran.

The resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., would have stopped hostilities until Congress approves. The administration failed to show that the military actions were necessary to prevent imminent threats to Americans, he said.

The House, which also has a GOP majority, is set to consider Thursday a similar resolution also expected to fail.

The Senate voted 47-53 to defeat the Kaine resolution. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., joined the Republican side. Louisiana’s senators, both Republicans, voted against the resolution.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said, “President Trump

makes the case that Iran would have continued to build up their arsenal, including eventually obtaining nuclear weapons, and used them against Americans. God bless the men and women in uniform who keep us safe.”

The key point is the application of the War Powers Act that became law after Vietnam. Supporters say only Congress has the constitutional authority to declare war Presidents since the act passed argue the law infringes on the executive’s constitutional authority Presidents have the ability to launch military actions when the nation’s safety is in imminent danger Every president since the Eisenhower administration has ordered strikes.

Democrats claim those attacks were focused and differ significantly from Operation Epic Fury’s bombing of more than a thousand targets in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the destruction of Iran’s navy and the killing of its leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump said the

military action could last four to six weeks but put no deadline. Republicans in Congress argue the attacks on Iran are not a war, therefore no congressional declaration is necessary Cassidy said a declaration of war “typically means you’re committing boots on the ground. Now, I don’t think the American people want boots on the ground.”

Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, declined to comment.

But Kennedy did comment of the death of Khamenei.

“He won the coin toss and elected to receive, and he got it,” Kennedy said. “May he rest in pieces. The world’s better off.”

Democrats argue that Trump hasn’t articulated why a massive deployment of military force was immediately necessary They argue the president has given inconsistent reasons for the campaign, ranging from stopping the development of nuclear weapons to regime change. They point to 2002, when then-

President George W. Bush gave speeches, sent ofﬁcials to the United Nations, and briefed elected officials before Congress voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq before invading in 2003.

The effort to invoke congressional oversight of the Iran attacks shifts to the House on Thursday Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky are using the rules to require a full chamber vote on their resolution that also would require congressional approval for Trump to continue the military operation.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, described the attacks in Iran as a “military operation,” not a war

“This course of action was necessary, lawful and effective, and reversing it now would weaken America,” Johnson told reporters.

“The administration has detailed its rationale behind the operation and it bears repeating: The largest state sponsor of terrorism — Iran and its proxies have killed

more Americans than any other terrorist regime on Earth. They are dedicated to it,” Johnson said.

“They have been and they say the quiet parts out loud. They wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and they would like to take us out as well. We’re the ‘Great Satan’ in their analogy, in their misguided religion, and there was no way to appease them.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, noted Wednesday that the Iranian government has worked for years to build nuclear weapons capabilities. When Iran’s nuclear weapons operations were bombed early in the Trump administration, “they still went back and started trying to rebuild a nuclear weapons program, continued enriching uranium. They were never going to stop,” Scalise said.

“President Trump is the leader, the commander in chief, who said, we are going to protect America against evil dictators who chant ‘Death to America,’” he said.

U.S. soldiers who died remembered for their service, devotion to their families

BY HANNAH FINGERHUT, KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and REBECCA BOONE Associated Press

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa Sgt.

Declan Coady had been checking in with his family from Kuwait every hour or two after the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran, even as Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab states that host U.S. armed forces

When he didn’t respond to messages Sunday, “most of us started to wonder,” Coady’s father, Andrew, told The Associated Press. “Your gut starts to get a feeling.”

A drone strike at a command center in Kuwait killed 20-year-old Coady of West Des Moines, Iowa, and ﬁve other service members of the U.S. Army Reserve who worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment.

The other soldiers identiﬁed Tuesday by the Pentagon were: Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska.

U.S. Army base Fort Knox, Kentucky said in a Facebook post that two additional names would be released once their next of kin has been notiﬁed Their unit, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, is temporarily operating under the 1st Theater Sustainment Command at Fort Knox.

“Sadly there will likely be more, before it ends. That’s

the way it is,” President Donald Trump said of the deaths. Trump will attend the digniﬁed transfers of the soldiers when they arrive in the U.S., the White House said Wednesday A mother of two

Amor was just days away from returning to her husband and children

“She was almost home,” her husband, Joey Amor, said Tuesday “You don’t go to Kuwait thinking something’s going to happen, and for her to be one of the ﬁrst it hurts.”

Amor was an avid gardener who enj oy ed making salsa from the peppers and tomatoes she grew with her son, a high school senior She enjoyed rollerblading and bicycling with her fourth-grade daughter

A week before the drone attack, Amor was moved offbase to a shipping containerstyle building that had no defenses, her husband said.

“They were in fear that the base they were on was going to get attacked and they felt it was safer in smaller groups in separate places,” he said.

‘He loved being a soldier’

Coady recently told his father he had been recommended for a promotion from specialist to sergeant, a rank he received posthumously He was among the youngest people in his class,

trained to troubleshoot military computer systems, but he impressed his instructors, Andrew Coady said Tuesday

“He trained hard, he worked hard, his physical fitness was important to him. He loved being a soldier,” Coady said. “He was also one of the most kindest people you would ever meet, and he would do anything and everything for anyone.”

Coady, an Eagle Scout, was close to his family and often called, even if for only a few minutes. He was studying cybersecurity at Drake University in Des Moines, and he wanted to become an ofﬁcer

had a degree in political science.

His family described him as “the life of the party, known for his infectious spirit, generous heart, and deep care for those who served alongside him and for everyone blessed to know him.”

A loving father, husband Tietjens, who came from a military family, previously served alongside his father in Kuwait. When he returned home in February 2010, he

reunited with his overjoyed wife in a local church’s gym.

“I thought he was going to be the last person in, because he hates all this (hoopla),” his wife, Michelle Tietjens, told the Lincoln Journal Star at the time.

Tietjens’ 12-year-old son, wife and parents, as they navigate “unimaginable loss.”

Tietjens’ cousin Kaylyn Golike asked for prayers, especially for

“We lost a brave soldier this weekend and many hearts are broken,” Golike wrote on Facebook Tuesday

Tietjens earned a black belt in Philippine Combatives and Taekwondo and was “an instructor who gave his time, discipline, and leadership to others,” the Philippine Martial Arts Alliance said on Facebook.

A calling to serve country Khork was very patriotic and wanted to serve in the military from childhood, his family said in a state me nt Tuesday He enlisted in the Army Reserve and joined Florida Southern Co lle ge’ s ROTC program.

“That commitment helped shape the course of his life and reﬂected the deep sense of duty that was always at the core of who he was,” his mother, Donna Burhans; father, James Khork; and stepmother, Stacey Khork; said in a statement. Khork, who loved history,

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN

of Staff Gen. Dan Caine

Amor

Coady

Khork

Tietjens

Landry urges schools to display posters

Governor

vows legal support of Ten Commandments

mandate

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

Gov. Jeff Landry is urging public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, which he says will “greatly beneﬁt” students, as he vows the state will defend any schools that are sued for exhibiting the biblical text.

In a new letter to school superintendents, Landry noted that a federal appeals court ruling last month allowed a contested state law to take effect that requires public schools and colleges to hang Ten Commandments posters in every classroom

“The Fifth Circuit’s decision removes any obstacles to the im-

plementation of Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law,” Landry said in the Feb 26 letter “and schools should now proceed with placing the posters in classrooms.” Landry’s directive comes as some school district leaders have expressed concerns that displaying the Ten Commandments will expose them to litigation from civil liberties groups that already sued to block Louisiana’s law, which they argue violates students’ constitutional right to religious freedom. The Feb. 20 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower court’s preliminary injunction on the law, but the majority opinion did not take a stance on the law’s constitutionality

Landry

UL WELCOMES NEW PRESIDENT

ABOVE: New University of Louisiana at Lafayette President Ramesh Kolluru gives the UL hand sign during a celebration of his taking ofﬁce outside the Student Union on the university campus in Lafayette on Wednesday

RIGHT: Kolluru stands for photos with UL cheerleaders during the celebration on Wednesday

STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE

WESTBROOK

Neighbors mourn couple found dead in Mamou fire

BY KRISTIN ASKELSON

Terry said. “I feel so terrible for their family and their grandkids. I’m sending my condolences to them and I’m here to support them in any way that they need.” Terry also said the fire appeared to burn for several hours before it was fully extinguished. Investigators with the Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Ofﬁce have not released details about what caused the ﬁre. The investigation remains ongoing.

Landry who sent the letter a day after The TimesPicayune | The Advocate reported on superintendents’ concerns, assured them that state Attorney General Liz Murrill “stands ready to defend schools”

Woman found mentally unfit for trial

Suspect accused of setting fire, killing sister

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

A Lafayette Parish woman who allegedly set her mother’s house on ﬁre, killing her sister and injuring her mother and brother, has been found unﬁt to stand trial.

Kalayshia Lagrange, 24, on Dec. 2, 2024, allegedly set ﬁre to the house at 207 Latin Drive near Scott, where she was a resident.

The ﬁre killed her sister, Malayshia Conley, 19, who was trapped in the burning home. Her mother suffered third-degree burns over 50% of her body, her brother suffered minor burns and both suffered from smoke inhalation.

The preliminary cause of Conley’s death, according to the Lafayette Parish Coroner’s Ofﬁce, was “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal injuries.” The preliminary manner of death was homicide.

Lagrange was charged with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder Judge Michelle Billeaud, of the 15th Judicial Court in Lafayette, at a December hearing indicated two mental health evaluations by different doctors conﬂicted on whether Lagrange was mentally ﬁt to assist with her defense.

BY JOEL THOMPSON Staff writer

St. Martin Parish intends to remain in the Acadiana Regional Juvenile Justice District, according to parish President Pete Delcambre. At a recent justice district meeting, members of the board reported concerns that St. Martin was considering leaving and sent a letter requesting a continued commitment to remaining in the district.

The renewed commitment will likely ease

Adubious rationale forshifting judicial districts

Gov.Jeff Landry’srequest to shift Louisiana’s federal judicial districts so that theLouisiana StatePenitentiary at Angola would be moved from the Middle Districttothe Western District might have been something reasonable people could support based on thefacts. Indeed, in his letter to Congress asking that West Feliciana Parish, where Angola is located, be put in the Western District,the governor cites the crowded caseload in the MiddleDistrict, which includes East Baton Rouge Parish. Angoladrives alot of judicial activity,asmany prisons do, so judges in the MiddleDistrict have seen a35.2%increase in filings since2020. Judges in theMiddle District also have 25% more newfilings per judgethan thoseinthe Western District,accordingtoLandry. So it might make sensetoshiftsomeofthat workload in the name of judicialefficiency But based on the words of Landryand others, there’salot more going on here. And that gives us pause. The ink was barely dry on Landry’sletter to Congress requesting the changebefore thegovernor took to Xlast week,excoriating“liberal judges” in the Middle District.His complaint was prompted by aruling by U.S. DistrictJudge Shelly Dick in acaseinvolving detainee at the Department of Homeland Security’s“Louisiana Lockup,” which is located at Angola. Landry apparently was angered that Dick determined theman, Roberto La Coss, anativeofthe Philippines who was living in Mississippi, hadbeen unconstitutionally detained.

Dick is the chief judge in theMiddle District, which is headquartered in Baton Rouge and covers nine parishes. Sheand thetwo other trial judges in the district wereappointedbyPresident Barack Obama. In the Western District, sevenjudges cover 42 parishes. Five of them were nominated by PresidentDonald Trump. There are also indications that theissue could nowplayintothe Louisiana Senate race, as Rep. JuliaLetlow,who is Trump andLandry’s pick to challenge incumbent Sen.Bill Cassidy,has introducedthe billtochange the districts in Congress. Letlow has also jumpedonthe bandwagon to whip up the issue,echoingLandry’s criticism of Dick.

All this might have Louisianaresidents wondering whether the proposed reform is driven by their needs and the courts’ mandate to provide impartial justice, or thedesires of those trying to score political points.

It is interesting to us that themove to quickly shiftthe districts came notbecause of longwait times for justice for Louisiana victims andfamilies, but because of casesinvolvingpeople from far-ﬂung places.

This newspaperhas doneextensivereporting on the dysfunctional state court systeminNew Orleans and Baton Rouge. Real familieshave cried out for help for years. Wouldthattheir plight would get the same urgentattentionfrom ofﬁcials elected to serve thecitizens of this state.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

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

Congress should supportsmall farmers

Muse 3Farm is asmall, startup family farm established in 2015 by four brothers —Allen, Burnell, Chris, and Mittie Muse —who chose to return homeafter more than 35 years working in government and corporate careers. We came back to theland where we were raised to reinstate our family farm and provide healthy,local food to our community.The Save OurBacon Act and Food Security and FarmProtection Act would devastate farms like ours. Ourfarm spans morethan 200 acres, with timberland and pristine pasture where cattle, sheep, goats and chickens graze freely on Bahia grass. We steward our soil and animals with traditional and modern care, ensuring

sustainable growththat supports both our region and future generations. Our mission is simple: to offer farm-fresh food directly from farm to table to promote healthier eatingand better living. Stateand local agricultural laws play avital role in making this possible. They allow smallfarms like ours to meet community needs, uphold responsible farming practices and remain economically viable. The proposed legislation wouldstrip states of that authority,replacing local decisionmaking with policies that favor large, industrialized corporations. Family farms already face signiﬁcant hurdles, fromrising costs to market consolidation.Removing state-level protections would makeit

even harder forindependent farmsto survive and would push agriculture further into the hands of afew corporate interests —atthe expense of food quality,farmer livelihoodsand rural communities. Healthyfood begins with healthy farms. We need policies that support farmers whoare committed to the land, their animals and their community —not legislation that undermines them.Weurge U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow to ﬁrmly stand against the Save Our Bacon Act and Food Security and Farm Protection Act and stand with family farms.

Thomas Homan was brought by President Donald TrumptoMinnesotaasnew and more reasonable ICE leadership.Itisimportanttoknow just who he is. In 2014, theObamaadministration was trying to handle theinﬂux of immigrants, especially children and families

As reported by Jonathan Blitzer in his book, “Everyone Who is Gone Is Here,”citing two Department of HomelandSecurity officials, Homan, an ICE official, was involved in a meetingwith Obamaadministration officials.

He “ﬁrst broached theprospect of separating parents and children at the border by charging theadults with amisdemeanor for entering the country illegally.While they were

Does Clarence Page have eyes? Does he have ears? Apparently,he doesn’tfrom what Ihave read of his Feb.23column.

He putsdown Attorney General Pam Bondi withaone-sided view, which is not that of aDemocrat. In hispersonal view,hedoesn’tsee justice for all, he sees his own justice. Did he not hear how Rep.Jerry Nadler treated Bondi? He would not allow her to answer aquestion. He kept interrupting her as though he were ajudge, jury and agod. Nadler is only acongressman; he is not God and not ajudge. Bondi was treated very rudely by theentire Congress. In fact,Bondi

being held on criminal charges, the government would temporarily take custody of their children. It would be painful, he said, but not fatal —a deterrent.”

Homan has described himself as a Catholic who goes to Mass regularly In addition, he reportedly accepted a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover FBI officials.The investigation was closed when Trumptook office. So, he is definitely in line with Trump—accepts bribes, deliberately harmschildren and hides behind his religion. Republicans need to oust him Except, they are also harming children, accepting of Trump’s numerous and very public bribesand absolutely hiding behind their Christianity JOSEPH KEEGAN Baton Rouge

was being treated like achild, being treated as though she had to listen to congressmen and women and follow orders. That is not how it works. Apparently,Page is aone-sided view Democrat who does not view thingsinthe middle anddoes not weigh things in any other fashion but his own opinion. Things that do not go his way do not jivewith him.Page is narrow-minded and does not seem to listen to reason of anysort. The way Bondi was treated wasnot the wayfor Congress to treat an attorney general.

MORGAN

LANDRY Pierre Part

Recently,I read where one parish is considering afour-day-a-week school. Education is so important forour children. If anything, maybe we should lengthen the school year Ipresumethat in China and Russia and other competing countries, they don’thave as manyholidays as we have in Louisiana. It seemslike every other week, kids are getting out for somereason, such as spring and fall break, teacher conferences, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mardi Gras, Presidents Day,Martin Luther King Day and various others.

Iknow Iamold, but Iremember Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays weremuch shorter then they are now Ithink our children would beneﬁt from morestructured school time than so manyholidays, especially if we are to compete with other countries in today’scomplex world.

DR. RONALD MARKS Baton Rouge

As disturbing as it is to have our president’sname associated as being acontact of someone involved in a global sex trafﬁcking ring involving children, teenagers and young adults, it warrants frequent, if not daily,updates in the newspaper

ALICE DUVALL Baton Rouge

CHRISMUSE Greensburg

An anti-Klanbodyguard and bouncer foundredemption

Redemptions come in different sizes and guises.

Politics included. Tommy Gaudet was acousin of sorts the adoptive son of the second husband of my widowed great-aunt. Twodecades olderthan Iam, he wasn’taround much when Iwas akid. At age 84,hedied of natural causes on Feb.18.

Thirty-seven years to the daybefore Tommy died, on Feb. 18, 1989, Ileft my Uptown New Orleansabode at 3:30 a.m. to drivetoa Metairie campaign headquarters. It was theday of aspecial election for astate House seat between businessman JohnTreen and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Iwas in acrewthat the Treen campaign was sending throughout thedistrict to put thousands of little Election Daysigns at every major intersection —you know, those placards that by law should beremovedagain within 24 hours.

The organizer pointed to aman with a pickup truck and said he wasmypartner for the morning. Bleary-eyed, in the dark, Iintroducedmyself —only to hear: “Ofcourse Iknow you; I’myourcousin Tommy Gaudet! Hop aboard;let’s go to work!” Tommy was aformer Marine, starting offensive guard for the Vanderbilt football team and bar bouncer.(He also was smart,acompetitivebridge player,but that’sanotherstory.) He wasn’t tall, but he was astonishinglyburly,withawalrus mustache that addedtothe tough-guy effect —and he looked like he could knock somebodyinto another solar system. For three hours, while poundinghundreds of signs into the dirt, Tommy spokeinmartialterms.

“This is ashow of power,Quin,” he kept saying.“We’re gonnashowthose Kluxers we aren’tintimidated. We’ll show the voters there’senthusiasmfor Treen;it’s

aboutimpressions, about who’sgot the juice. People wanttobewith winners!” Alas, Dukeeked out a227-vote win. ButTommy was on the case. As anew member ofthe Republican StateCentral Committee, Tommy decided that state chairman Billy Nungesser (father of the currentlieutenant governor) needed protection from violent elements in the Klan. Nungesser,though 12 years Tommy’s senior,was atough guy himself and probably wanted no help, but that didn’tmatter: At every public event or Republican committee meeting for several years, Tommy,asself-appointed bodyguard, attached himself at thehip (ﬁguratively speaking)ofthe chairman.

Referring to himself in thethird person, he’d tell me, numerous times:“If they wanta piece of Chairman Billy, they’regonna have to go through ol’ Tommy Boy here, and there’snoway they’re gonna getpast ol’ Tommy.”

My father at thetime was the state’s Republican National Committeeman, so sometimesTommy would add: “Now you tellyour daddythat I’ve got his back, too, if he needs anything on thecommittee; if

he needs someone totalk sense into other members, cousin Tommy is right here for him!”

Tommy was abundle of aggressively coiled zeal, and uber-loyal to family and to those he thought were “doing right.”

Well, the Duke threat ﬁnally,blessedly faded, and Imoved to Washington,D.C., and stopped seeing Tommy except at random family funerals. Butabout adecade ago, Isat with him in Bay St.Louis, Mississippi, for aburger and beer

For two hours, we traded old political stories, and he talked of his life.Hespoke movingly about how much he loved his sisters Michelle and Meg. He spokeof thingshehad done in his teensand 20s, somethat madehim proud, some that madehim agonizingly ashamed —some of the latter (details not needed here) of a racial nature.

“But Ihelped stop that Kluxer,Duke,” he said. “Maybe that makes up, at least alittle, for those things Isaid and did way back then. Those Kluxers are full of hate: They needed to be stopped. And we stopped them, didn’twe, boy? We stopped ’em good.”

In later years, Tommy Gaudetcraved lots of space.Achildhood friend owned major acreage15miles north of the Mississippi coast,and Tommy set up a trailer.The friend’sfamily,the Lukes, included Tommy at nightly dinners, andhe taught their grandchildren to drive.

At his funeral, one of the Luke grandchildren noted how Tommy had set up bird feeders all around his trailer,and how he would sit there in alawn chair in total peace. This man,who once was overly wound up with kinetic energy, now happily could sit so still that birds literally perched on his arms.

Tommy Gaudet found blessings.

Andwecan say to Tommy,touse the vernacular: Youdone good Email QuinHillyer at quin.hillyer@ theadvocate.com

Living in theage of missiledefense

We ofﬁcially live in the age of missile defense. The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has been the showcase for missile-defense systems —interceptors, radars, and complex command and control —that areextremely robust and have largely defanged Iran’sforemost military threat to Israel, U.S. forces and other countries around the region If it weren’t for these defensive systems, the U.S. and Israel probably wouldn’t havedared launch thismilitary campaign,orat thevery least would have done it knowing Iran could exact an enormous cost on the Israeli population and U.S. forces. We’ve seen the toll of onesuccessful Iranian ballistic missile strike. Amissile that hit asynagogue in the Beit Shemesh area where people were shelteringkilled nine people and wounded more than 40, accordingto the latest reports. It left a massive crater and destroyed cars and setﬁre to other buildingsinthe vicinity

Imagine that destruction multiplied dozens or hundreds of times aday in Iranian retaliatory attacks.

That’swhat Tehran has been going for withits massivebarrage. So far,it has ﬁred more than 500 missiles andmore than 800 drones, and gotten tragic but minimal results from expending asigniﬁcant share of its overall arsenal.

That is thanks to the integrated, highly effective U.S. and Israel missile-defense systems —most famously,inIsrael’s case, Iron Dome —that have knocked down almost everything thrown their way These intercepts aren’tone-off tactical successes, but have amajor strategic effect. The purpose of the stocksofIranian missiles is to deter its enemies and to protect its regime, its weaponsprograms and its broader geopolitical project. By blunting the missile threat,defenses opened up avista for what President Trump hopes will be the most emphatic counter-proliferation campaigninrecent memory In other words, missile defenses may make it possible to ensure that theIran regime never gets anuclear weapon.

We now know that all thescorn that has beenpoured on missile defense over the years was perverse and wrong.

Defenses were supposedtobetechnologically impossible. Not only do we see their practicality demonstrated every single day,Israel has begun deploying anti-missile and anti-drone lasers out of a 1950s-era comic book, although the technologyisstill in its infancy

Defenses were supposedbedestabilizing. In reality,they have allowed Israel room for maneuver —last year,when Iran launched missile barrages against theJewish state, it could carefully calibrateits responsesince the missile attacks weren’tmass-casualty events. Missile defenseissuch akey aspect of thecurrent war that one of the biggest questionsinthe conﬂict is whether the U.S., Israel and the Gulf states will run outofinterceptors before Iran runs out of missiles.

All of this suggests that in theU.S., missile defense should be amatter of bipartisan consensus, like deploying radar or anti-aircraft weapons. Butinahangover from the1980s when they mocked Ron-

ald Reagan’svision of amissile-defense shield, progressives persist in believing that nothing is morepreposterous or dangerous than someone wanting to shoot down ICBMs directed at theUnited States.

The Trumpadministration shouldbe racing toget as much of its Golden Dome defense system —especially the spacebased elements—deployed as quickly as possible.

If aDemocrat gets elected president in 2028, he or she will be determined to stop the program in itstracks and keep theU.S. as vulnerable as possibletoan adversary’smissiles.

The age of missile warfare began dawning withthe advent of Nazi V1 and V2 rocketsinWorld WarII, and missiles featured prominently during the Cold War. Now,the interaction between offensive and defensive missile systems is an unavoidable part of warfare, and we should be very glad that in the Iran war,U.S. and Israel defenses havesofar proven dominant Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry

Irecently came across acurious headline:“The Retirement Crisis No One Warns YouAbout: Mattering.” Very few people leaving the workplace have preparedfor losing abig part of their identity,according to The Wall Street Journal article.Theylongto“feel seen”inthe next chapter of life

Muchhas been written aboutthe desire to “be seen”or“feel valued” or “to matter.” And not only for retirees.Muchsocial research centers on the “visibility” problems faced by so-called marginalized people. And YouTube is awashin“style after 50” videos for women who fear no onenotices themanymore.Certain skirt lengths and colorsare keytolooking younger,so theysay

The piece about“mattering” in retirement centers on acouple —aformer medical school dean andhis college-employedwife.Theyretiredand moved to their newhome in Sarasota, Florida, only to ﬁnd little demand for their talents. The doctor,for example,triedbut failed to geta positionteaching biology Nearly athird of retirees report depressive symptoms, one study found. Anotherpoints to alikely driver: Many retirees feel “less valued, needed or connected.”

In aculture thatcan feel relentlessly impersonal, it’scommontofeel overlooked.Still, remedies exist. First on the list, if youwanttobeseen,see others. And notjust people youwanttoimpress but the cashiers at the big-box store, the mail personand the guy who delivers pizza Iwould venture that many who feel “unseen”treat these serviceworkers like inanimate objects. They barely look at them, much less smile and say “hello” andthen“thank you.” If you’re notseeing them, why should theylook back? Lack of recognitionisn’tjust impolite;it reﬂectsa lack of respect. It doesn’tmatterifyou never encounterthemagain. But if youdo, so much the better. Youhave made humancontact thatcan spark againand again. Ioncespent time in ahospital where most of the patients were American-born andmostofthe staff were immigrants. WhenIﬁrst went over my meals with adietitianfromEcuador,she kept her distance— perhaps because experience hadtaught hertoexpect condescension. Iaskedwhere she wasfrom as amatter of curiosity,and we took the conversationfromthere.Webothwarmed up, and Iwas treated to daily smilesinwhatcan be alonelyplace. She appreciated being treated with respect. Igot as many Fig Newtons as Iwanted.

Nowadays, people who do most of their socializing online canlosethe habit of seeing the ﬂesh-and-blood person right in front of them. Theybreeze past those theydeem lowerinsocial or occupational rank, people who offer no advantage, failing to recognize the inherent worth of anyone who doesn’tmatter in the power hierarchy.Yet the simple fact thatthey showupfor us should make themspecial

Anotherfactor for the couple profiled andfor many otherretirees is relocation. Theyleavebehind the social network built over the yearsand land in a newplace where they must start from scratch. They’dhad friends and family back home —plus allthe small familiar tiesthatmakeaplace feel like yours: the mechanic who fixed their car,the waitress who servedwaffles, the dentist they’d seen for decades WhenIlivedinItaly,Ilearnedthat onedidn’twalkinto ashop without saying “buongiorno”(good morning) and making eyecontact with the proprietor or assistant. There was no ignoring that shopkeeper’shumanity,and the warmth was returned. If you want to be “seen,” try seeing others.

Froma Harrop is on X, @FromaHarrop. Email her at fharrop@gmail.com.

Tommy Gaudet

Froma Harrop

Quin Hillyer

Rich Lowry

Attorney expandspresenceinN.O.market

McKernan purchases$6M

Metairie building

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

Gordon McKernan, the Baton Rouge-basedpersonalinjuryattorneywho announced his entry into the New Orleans legal market a year ago with ahigh-proﬁle ad campaign, is continuing his local expansion with the purchase of a30,000-square-foot office building in Metairie.

McKernan said he paid alittle more than $6 million for the three-story building at 3900 Veterans Memorial Blvd., which is afew blocks from the temporaryoffices he currently leases.

The move by McKernan, aubiquitoussight on Louisiana billboards and one of the state’smost-advertised attorneys, injects anew element of competition in the big-money triallawyer business. While McKernan’sis the largest firm in Baton Rouge,the New Orleans market has long been dominated by MorrisBart, followed by Dudley Debosier, which recently spun offpart of its business to aprivate equity ﬁrm.

Now one yearinto afive-year plan to compete in Louisiana’slargest market, McKernan expressed conﬁdence his ﬁrm can continue to grow its local clientlist.

30,000-square-foot office buildingat3900

million in February.

“I want bricks-and-mortar and boots on the ground. I want to be apart of that community,” said McKernan by phone Wednesday.“There are some other attorneys that don’tdothat. They might just have areceptionist in one of those executive ofﬁces, and all the attorneys and staff are housedinone central city.”

Shintech

Expansionwill provideover 150jobs

BY TIMOTHY BOONE Staff writer

“NewOrleanshas alot of attorneys,and some may say it’ssaturated,” he said.“But Ithink giving people anotherviable choice is alwaysa good thing.”

Swag room andstudio

The lawyer’s long-term investmentinEast Jefferson follows feedback from clientsand colleagues who favored setting up shop in a convenientsuburban location, he said. The law ﬁrm will inhabit the third ﬂoor of theneoclas-

sical building at the corner of Veterans and Cleary Avenue,which wasformerly occupied by Jefferson Financial Credit Union and currently consistsofthree large executive ofﬁces with wood paneling, fireplaces anda private shower,McKernan said.

Thecredit union —now operatingasKeesler FederalCredit Union on the building’sfirst floor —and medical ofﬁces on the second ﬂoor will remaininplace as McKernan’stenants.

With its latest purchase, McKernan’sfirmwill own

the buildings housing13of its 14 offices, with Alexandria itsonlyleasedspace. McKernan also has various other commercialrealestate investment properties owned separately fromhis law ﬁrm, he said.

Remodeling of thenew Metairie ofﬁces is settobegin soon andtakefourtosix months. McKernan, whose slogan is “GetGordon.Get it Done,” saidthe buildout will include a“swag room” with gifts for clients, arecording studio available for public use anda mock courtroom for trial preparation.

Once in use by his staffof about adozen, half of whom will be attorneys, the new Metairie ofﬁcewill also host the ﬁrm’sannual bike giveaway andMardi Grasparties.

“We’re certainly going to take market share fromother attorneys,”headded. “It’s aﬁnite numberofcases,and if we’re getting them, it just means we’re taking them fromotherattorneys that usedtoget them.”

Email JonahMeadows at jonah.meadows@ theadvocate.com.

announces$3.4B Plaquemine augmentation

Shintechannounced

Wednesday it will spend $3.4 billion to boost manufacturing capacity at its Plaquemine chemical plant, amove that will create 163 good-paying jobs. The jobs will haveanaverage annual salary of more than $117,000, according to

TRIAL

Continued from page1B

Louisiana Economic Development. Theexpansion is also expected to create about 3,000 construction jobs. Construction employment is expected to peak in 2029. This is the seventhmajor expansion at Shintech over the last 20 years, the most recent of which was a$1.25 billion project announced in early 2021 and completed in late 2024. The company has725 employees at its Iberville Parish facility The expansionwill involve building asecond ethyleneunitand afourth

On Feb. 20, prosecutors and the defense agreedwith athird doctor’sevaluation that found Lagrange mentally incompetent to stand trial, according to court records.

POSTERS

Continued from page1B

that follow the law

“Schools should implement the law without fear of litigation,” he wrote.

In astatement Wednesday,Murrill said her ofﬁce has issued guidance on the lawtoschools andprovided sample posters.

“All public schools need to follow the law,” she said, “and Istand ready to vigorously defend them for doing so.”

DISTRICT

Continued from page1B

to do it,” said council chair Chris Tauzin. Like other parishes located in the district, St Martin Parish often hasto house juvenilesinfacilities located acrossstate lines or hundreds of miles away at taxpayer expense.Once built, the proposed facility would signiﬁcantly reduce costs associated with juvenile detention. However, two parishes, Vermilion and Evangeline, announced their intention to leave the justicedistrictafter the sales tax proposal was introduced,citinganundue

ﬁnancial burden they felt it would place on taxpayersin their parishes. Parishes do not have the authority to remove them-

Billeaud remanded Lagrange to amental health facility in East Feliciana Parish when abed becomes available. The doctors’ evaluations were ﬁled under seal.

chlor-alkali and vinyl chloride monomer unit. It will alsoadd new technologies designedtoreduce emissions. Theplant produces PVC,chlor alkali andvinyl chloride monomer PVC is used in theconstruction industry but also other sectors such as health care, manufacturing electronics and vehicles

Work on theexpansion has already started and the ﬁrst phase is expected to be completed in 2030.

“This investment aligns withShintech’sstrategy to ensure reliable andcost-ef-

The District Attorney’s Office filed abill of information against Lagrange in Decemberof2024, shortly after the incident. Lagrange entered anot guiltyplea at that time. She was arrested at the scene of the ﬁre for aprobation violation relatedto aprevious conviction. In Julyof2023, Lagrange was charged with aggravated second-degree battery and

State officials have not said whatwill happenifany schoolsdon’tcomply. The lawdoes not specify penalties, though it requires the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to adopt rulesfor enacting the law.

At their meeting next week, BESE members will vote to update state policy to incorporate the law,accordingtotheir meeting agenda.

Louisiana’s staunchly conservative governor has championed the law since the Republican-controlled

selves from thedistrict; any changes tothe district’s boundaries need approval from the stateLegislature.

Delcambre andthe St Martin Parish Government have yet to express support forthe sales taxorthe district’spreliminary plans for the new facility,but will continuetoremainin the district for now

“Until Isee numbers, until Isee what the project will entail, there’snoway I’ll even venturetomake adecision. For right now, we’re still in, and we look forward to seeing the speciﬁc plans the districtpresents,” he said. Delcambresaidthe parish would reply to theletter of commitment with a copy of aSeptember 2023 resolution passed by the Parish Council, along with a cover letterexpressing its intention to remain in the

state Legislature passedit in 2024, when he calledon his supporters “to standup forJudeo-Christian values” after thelaw was quickly challengedincourt. In his message lastweek to superintendents, Landry argued that “Western Civilization” and the United States “are founded on theprinciples” of the TenCommandments, whichcome fromthe Old Testamentofthe Bible.

“Our founders were undoubtedly influenced by the TenCommandments,” he wrote, adding that, “itis my solemnhope thatfuture

district. Delcambre also expressedsupport forthe operation of anew juvenile justicefacilityinthe parish.

“Right now, we spend $300 aday for each juvenile we shipoff to northernLouisiana, Mississippi, or anyother place. We obviouslywant to ﬁx that andthatincludes having aregional facility right here in St. Martin Parish,”said Delcambre.

Asecure care facility operated by the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’sOffice under the Louisiana Ofﬁce of Juvenile Justice exists in St. Martinville,but has been used predominantly as atrainingfacility for law enforcement.

SMPSOrecently opened anew facility to be used for theexplicit purpose of training ofﬁcers, which would free up space on the propertyfor apotential annex to the facility

fective supply of keyfeedstocks for ourbusiness, Yasuhiko Saitoh, president of Shintech,said in astatement.

Shintech is asubsidiary of Japanese plastics giant Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. The company alsohas aplant in Addis that makes PVC resin, along withpackaging, distributing and warehousing PVC.

To secure theShintech expansion, the state offered the company an incentives packagethatincludesthe specialized workforce training offered by LED

batterywitha dangerous weapon —scissors —in separate incidents on the same day,according to court records. In apleadeal with theDistrict Attorney’sOfﬁce, she pleaded guilty to seconddegree battery.The other charge was dropped. Lagrange was sentenced

leadersofLouisiana will be likewiseinspired.”

The law requiresschools to accept donatedTen Commandments posters, which must measure at least11 by 14 inches and feature “large, easily readable font.” The Louisiana Family Forum has shipped posters to 60 of the state’sparish school systemsand plans to reach theother four parishes soon,said Gene Mills, who is president of the conservative advocacy group.

In rural Grant Parish, Superintendent Erin Stokes said she received Landry’s

Delcambreﬂoated the idea of making necessary improvementstothe existing facility to meet the district’s needs

“I think withthis property openingup, it’s somethingthe districtcan look into and explore.Itwould be more cost-effective than building anew facility from scratch whether here or in St.Landry Parish or wherever,” he said. “Ifwe’re goingtoask fora newtax to fund this project,weneed to make sure we pick the most sensible solution.”

The next meeting of the AcadianaRegional Juvenile Justice District will take place March 10 to determine whethertocall an election for thesales tax

Other matters discussed at theTuesday St. Martin Parish Council meeting includedthe approvalofmore than $700,000 for repairs to

FastStart. The company will receive a$23.5 million performance-based grant tied to equipmentinvestments andinfrastructure improvements.

Shintech is expected to apply for the Quality Jobs program,which is acash rebate to companies that create good paying jobs. It is also expected to ﬁle an application foraproperty taxabatement through the Industrial TaxExemption Program.

Email TimothyBoone at tboone@theadvocate.com.

to eight years at hard labor but Billeaud dismissed the sentence, instead ordering her to spend ﬁve years on probation beginning Jan 11,2024, less than ayear before she allegedly set the fatal ﬁre.

Contact ClaireTaylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.

letter and has distributed the donated posters to school principals. She expects the displays to be up in every classroom by the endofthis week

“As with anynew requirement, we are working to ensure the rollout is handled thoughtfully,respectfully, andina way thataligns with ourresponsibility as a public school system,” she said in astatement, adding thatlocal community members have expressed “consistent interest and support” in the TenCommandments law

be made to Box Car Road in the far western portion of the parish along its border with Lafayette Parish.The road, which sits along the VermilionRiver, suffered damage causedbyshifts in sediment,and forced the parish to take emergencyactiontorepairthe road.The project hasnow reached substantialcompletion.

PHOTO PROVIDED By GORDON MCKERNAN INJURy ATTORNEyS Baton Rouge-based attorneyGordon McKernan closed on the purchase of a

Veterans Memorial Blvd. formore than $6

McKernan

SPORTS

JMU’s offense toopotent forCajuns

TourneylossendsUL’s season at 11-22overall

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

After Tuesday’sopening-round win over Georgia State at the Sun Belt Men’s Tournament in Pensacola, Florida, the UL Ragin’ Cajuns hearkened back toearly-seasonissues in an 87-72 loss to No. 9James Madison on Wednesday at the Pensacola BayCenter

“Congrats to James Madison,” UL coach Quannas White said. “They did areally good job and had areally good game plan. Offensively, they did agood job of moving the ball. Our rotations were alittlebit slow andallowed them to take really goodshots. We just weren’tasconnected defensively as we used to be.”

The loss ends UL’s season at 11-22 overall, while thered-hot Dukes improved to 18-14.

“I’m so so proud of this team —myﬁrst as ahead coach,”Whitesaid. “The things we’ve been through this season, theseguys are resilient.Welost the game, but to me, we really didn’tlose. These guys fought every single day.”

The No. 12-seeded Cajuns got offtoan encouraging start, taking a10-7 lead after

ä See CAJUNS, page 3C

PROVIDED PHOTO By SUNBELTCONFERENCE

Dorian Finister finished off hisstellar season for UL with 27 points in the loss toJames Madison on Wednesdayatthe Pensacola BayCenter in Pensacola, Fla.

UL eliminated from SBC tournament by UL-Monroe

ELECTRIC WIN

UL infielder Lee Amedee celebrates arun-scoring

won7-2.

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

As it turnedout, UL coach Matt Deggs decided to reverse theorder of things and it worked like acharm in a 7-2win over the No. 2-ranked LSU Tigers on Wednesday at Russo Park.

The game was played in front of 5,736 —the thirdlargest crowd in school history and thelargestunder the park’snew conﬁguration.

“I’m just so happyfor ourguys andthe city of Lafayette and our university,” Deggs said. “Itwas such aspecial night.”

The Cajuns improve to 10-3 and will nowhead to Dallas Baptist to open athree-game series Friday.LSU dropped to 11-3 and will host Sacramento State on Friday

“The crowd waselectric,” Deggs said. “Itshowswhat this place is capableofonanightly basis. When you pack this place, it’sadeﬁnitive advance.

“When this crowd gets electriﬁedand we’re making pitches and making plays and putting the ball in play and creating alittle chaos, this place is hard to handle.”

The mysterious starting pitcher forthe Cajuns against the defending national champions wascloser Cody Brasch.

The allowedfor normalmidweek starter Sawyer Pruitt to eat up the last four innings to notch the ﬁrst save of his collegiate career Brasch delivered three shutout innings, allowing just twohits, one walkand struck out ﬁve.

See UL, page 3C

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

As it turned out, any momentum gained from the opening-round win by theUL women’sbasketball team escaped before Wednesday’ssecond-round contest against UL-Monroe.

The No. 10 Warhawks jumped out to an early 15-2 startand never looked back in a 69-53 victory over the Ragin’Cajuns at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola,Florida. “The way that the tournamentisset up,it makes it tough,” UL coach Garry Brodhead said. “You’ve got to play seven days straight, so it’stough. It makes it tough, you know, I think they’re always trying to ﬁx it to where the best teams win, butIdon’t think the best teams win. Ithink the toughestteamswin.” TheCajuns’ season ended at 5-26,while ULMimproved to 15-15. The Warhawks will now play No. 7Southern Miss at 2p.m.

Thursday Jazmine Jackson hit three straight 3-pointers early in the second quartertoextend ULM’slead to 26-9, before Marcavia Shavers’ three-pointplay got it to 31-9 with 7:03 left in the second quarter

Cajuns women’sbasketball team ends season at 5-26 ä See UL, page 3C

BY MATTHEWPARAS Staff writer

Decision day is approaching for the New OrleansSaints. When the league’snegotiating windowfor free agency opens Monday,the Saints are slated to have 17 free agents hit the market—barring alast-minute extension that would keep them underwraps. And depending on how the next few weeks unfold, this offseason could markthe end of an era for anumber of longtime Saintscontributors. “Obviously,wegot abunch of veterans thatwe’d love to keep here andbeapart of this,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said at the NFL scouting combine last week. Let’stake alook at the more notable decisions theSaints have to make, and whether those players will be staying or leaving.

DEMARIO DAVIS: Davis and the Saints have a mutual interestingetting adeal done, but the37-year-oldlinebackermight reach the market ﬁrst to ofﬁcially see his options. Even at his advanced age, Davis is still

playing at arelatively high level and would be anice fit foracontender.Could the DenverBroncos,fresh off an AFC championship gameappearance, be afit? Former Saints coach Sean Payton, now in Denver, haslisted linebacker as aneed,but the Broncos typically have skewedyoungeras they’ve fleshed out the roster.The Bears arealso remodeling their linebackerroom, but based on feedback from the combine, a reunionwith defensive coordinatorDennis Allen doesn’tappear likely If Davisleaves, second-yearlinebacker Danny Stutsman would be in line to see moreplaying time—but there’sasense the Saints would miss Davis’ veteran presence. And, as well as NewOrleans’ defense played last season, would the unit see asignificant drop-off without Davis? Throw in the fact that Davis has been in New Orleans for eight seasons, and there are alot of reasons forthe relationship to keep going, so long as price doesn’tget in the way Prediction: Staying

ANALYSIS

STAFFPHOTO By BRAD BOWIE

single against LSU on WednesdayatRusso Park. The Cajuns

BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS

Brawl in Sun Belt game hurts ref, forces 8 ejections PENSACOLA, Fla. — A brawl between South Alabama and Coastal Carolina in the women’s Sun Belt Tournament on Wednesday left eight players ejected and knocked a referee to the ground where she required medical attention. There was less than six minutes left in the fourth quarter when South Alabama’s Cordasia Harris and Coastal Carolina’s Tracey Hueston began ﬁghting under the basket. Harris appeared to bump Hueston slightly from behind before Hueston turned around and began pushing and swinging at Harris, who pushed back.

Coaching icon Holtz dies at 89

Hall of Famer led Notre Dame to 1988 national championsip

BY ERIC OLSON and TOM COYNE

Associated Press writers

Lou Holtz never met an opponent that couldn’t beat him. Somehow, he squeaked out nearly 250 wins and a national title while cementing himself both as one of the most lovable and unlikable characters in college football — a one-of-a-kind iconoclast in a profession brimming with originals.

The pint-sized motivator who restored greatness at Notre Dame and demanded it everywhere else he went died in Orlando, Florida, Notre Dame announced Wednesday He was 89.

Spokeswoman Katy Lonergan said the family did not provide a cause of death.

“Notre Dame mourns the loss of Lou Holtz, a legendary football coach, a beloved member of the Notre Dame family and devoted husband, father and grandfather,” Notre Dame president the Rev Robert A. Dowd said in a statement. His son, Skip, who followed Holtz into coaching, said in a post on X that his father died and was “resting peacefully at home.”

“He was successful, but more important he was Significant,” Skip Holtz wrote

Four LSU players earn All-SEC nods

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

The SEC unveiled its annual end-of-year women’s basketball awards on Tuesday, and four LSU players were recognized A vote of the league’s coaches gave MiLaysia Fulwiley the SEC’s sixth woman of the year award. Mikaylah Williams and Flau’jae Johnson were one of 10 players named first-team All-SEC, while ZaKiyah Johnson earned one of five spots on the conference’s all-freshman team Fulwiley also took home the SEC’s sixth woman of the year award last season, which means she’s now only the third player to win it multiple times Just two other LSU players have received the honor Sylvia Fowles earned it in 2005, and Allison Hightower landed it in 2008. Both Williams and Flau’jae Johnson were also named to the All-SEC first team last year Because ZaKiyah Johnson was given a spot on the all-freshman team, LSU has now had at least one of its players earn that distinction in three of the past four seasons. Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes was named Player of the Year with her teammate Aubrey Galvan named Freshman of the Year Ole Miss’ Cotie McMahon was named Newcomer of the Year while South Carolina’s Raven Johnson was voted as Defensive Player of the Year Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph was named Coach of the Year The Tigers will begin their postseason at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. They’ll

PHIL SANDLIN

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By

Arkansas coach Lou Holtz is carried by his players after defeating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2, 1978, in Miami. Holtz went 249-132-7 over a career that spanned 33 seasons and included stops at Minnesota, Arkansas, South Carolina and Notre Dame.

Holtz went 249-132-7 over a career that spanned 33 seasons and included stops at Minnesota, Arkansas, South Carolina and, most notably, Notre Dame. It was there that he won his lone national championship, in 1988, capped with a win over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl but highlighted by a 31-30 victory earlier in the season over Miami one of the notable meetings in the socalled “Catholics vs. Convicts” rivalry of the 1980s. For all the big personalities coarsing through college football during the day, none stood bigger than Holtz. He was only 5-foot-10,

but commanded the sideline like someone much bigger The leadup to the big games were sometimes his best theatre.

Armed with a homespun brand of folksiness that could trickle into corny but always contained a kernel of truth, Holtz lit up bulletin boards and motivational posters with dozens of memorable quotes and pithy observations, virtually all of them constructed to inspire:

n “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.”

n “When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

n “You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win,

and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.”

He could make any team — from Akron to Army to Alabama — sound like a world beater on any given week. More often than not, his Fighting Irish ﬁgured out a way to scratch out the wins. Restoring Irish to greatness

Before Holtz arrived in South Bend, Notre Dame was wallowing in mediocrity — a mere shell of the program built on a foundation of Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus. Holtz turned things around quickly and had the Irish in the Cotton Bowl in Year 2 and winning the national title the season after that.

His 1988 and 1989 teams won a school-record 23 consecutive games and he beat three teams ranked No. 1 — Miami in 1988, Colorado in 1989 and Florida State in 1993.

The Irish ﬁnished No. 2 in the AP poll in 1993. Holtz left South Bend after the 1996 season with a record of 100-30-2.

“Lou and I shared a very special relationship,” said current Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who led the Irish back to the national title game in 2025 — a contest Holtz attended and spiced up with some trolling of the Ohio State program that beat the Irish that day “Our relationship meant a lot to me as I admired the values he used to build the foundation of his coaching career: love, trust and commitment.”

coach Matt McMahon saw his team commit a season-high 16 turnovers in Tuesday’s 88-74

Turnovers doom Tigers in Tuesday’s loss at Auburn

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Max Mackinnon darted from the right corner to the left wing, flying off a customary off-ball screen set by Mike Nwoko.

The LSU guard received the pass curled to the middle of the ﬂoor with his dribble and seemed destined to ﬁre his patented short jumper Mackinnon’s go-to shot was denied. The senior transfer from Portland lost the handle of the basketball, and Auburn’s Keyshawn Hall and Kevin Overton tag-teamed for the takeaway The duo created a fastbreak opportunity that ended with Hall throwing an alley-oop pass to 6-foot-8 Elyjah Freeman for a dunk.

This moment was the third turnover that led to an Auburn transition score in less than ﬁve minutes into the contest. Sequences like this happened repeatedly and doomed coach Matt McMahon’s

team in a 88-74 loss to Auburn on Tuesday at Neville Arena in Auburn, Alabama. LSU (15-15, 3-14 SEC) tied a season-high with 16 turnovers to Auburn’s nine in the game. LSU also shot 13 fewer ﬁeld goals, mainly because of the giveaways.

“When we executed offensively and the ball moved, I thought we played with efficiency there,” McMahon said on the LSU sports radio network. “You come on the road and shoot 55% from the ﬂoor and 47(%) from 3, 73(%), at the line, you would hope that would be good enough to win. But then the (11) first-half turnovers really hurt us, not only because we didn’t get a shot on goal, (but) it led to some transition 3s that they hit.”

The fourth-year coach also spotlighted how his group gave up early offensive rebounds in the second half that made it a challenge to climb back into the contest.

In a season where the Tigers are tied for last in the Southeastern Conference, it’s not surprising that most statistical indicators will have their name near the bottom. One area that wasn’t the case was ball security as LSU entered its most recent game eighth in turnovers per game (10.5). It eclipsed that mark in the first 20 minutes. The 16 turnovers were created by 13 steals by Auburn, via snatching the ball away from players’ hands and jumping passes lanes. In its previous three road games, LSU had 10 turnovers in a double-overtime win at Ole Miss, five turnovers in a loss to Texas and three turnovers in a defeat to Tennessee. Against Auburn (16-14, 7-10), LSU had four players with at least two turnovers. Freshman point guard Jalen Reece had a careerhigh five and junior center Mike Nwoko, who had a team-high 19 points, had three.

Two referees, multiple teammates and staff members quickly worked to separate the women and a referee was knocked to the ground in the melee. She appeared to be hit in the head or neck area by Hueston.

Judge crushes long homer in preparation for WBC

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Aaron Judge looks ready for his first World Baseball Classic.

The U.S. captain crushed a 453-foot solo homer in the first inning of the team’s exhibition game against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday, drawing a roar from the crowd and then “U-S-A!” chants in a packed stadium at Salt River Fields in Arizona.

Judge’s no-doubter to left ﬁeld was off lefty Kyle Freeland, leaving his bat at 115.9 mph. The threetime MVP is trying to lead the Americans to their ﬁrst WBC title since 2017.

It’s the second of two exhibition games for the U.S. team, which will travel to Houston for Friday’s opener against Brazil.

Tourney teams face fines for not reporting injuries

INDIANAPOLIS — Schools participating in the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments could face ﬁnes starting at $10,000 if they fail to submit player availability reports required for the ﬁrst time this year, the NCAA announced Wednesday Player availability reports are intended to combat betting-related pressure, solicitations and harassment athletes receive from bettors connected to playing status Conference availability reports have become common in recent years.

The requirement for the NCAA basketball tournaments is a pilot program.

The reporting system will not be used for other NCAA championships in 2025-26 while the program is evaluated.

Patriots tell Pro Bowl WR Diggs he’ll be released

The New England Patriots have informed wide receiver Stefon Diggs that he’ll be released when the new league year begins next week, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.

Diggs posted a goodbye on social media, thanking the Patriots for the season and saying: “We family forever.”

Diggs led the team with 85 receptions and 1,013 yards receiving with four touchdowns in his only season in New England, helping the Patriots reach the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Seattle Seahawks.

Diggs became the go-to target for Drake Maye, who ﬁnished runner-up to Matthew Stafford for the AP NFL MVP award.

QB Rodgers noncommittal about playing in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH Aaron Rodgers made his ﬁrst public comments of the offseason on Wednesday in an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” and anyone hoping for news on his playing status for the 2026 season were disappointed. Rodgers talked glowingly of his year in Pittsburgh with the Steelers and of his relationship with new coach Mike McCarthy But when it comes to whether he’ll be the quarterback for the Steelers in 2026, things remain murky

“Free agency starts in a week,” Rodgers said. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with my wife. I’ve talked to Mike and Omar (Khan). There is no deadline. There is no contract offer

“I’m a free agent. I’m enjoying this time with my wife at this point in the offseason.”

Fulwiley

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU

loss at Auburn.

‘Our goal is to wina statechampionship’

Teurlings girls basketball team making firsttripto statesince 2009

BY ERIC NARCISSE Staff writer

Teurlings Catholic’s girls basketball programisinthe state semiﬁnals for the ﬁrst time since 2009. So the natural question iswhether their lack of state tournament experience willhinder them

Aside from some typical nervousness due to the magnitude of the game, the Rebels don’tthink their lack of experience will bea factor “I have been talking about nerves for the past few days and trying to getthemready to play in this arena,”Rebel head coach

Alyssa Credeur said. “I’ve told them that we can’tstart out slow We can’tgoout and be nervous. We have to go out and play ourgame. At the end of the day,itisjusta basketball game. We’ve played many basketball games.So, once you go out there, yourfocus has to be on just playing your game playing for your teammates, and getting that win. Youjust have to shake the nerves out.”

SAINTS

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CAM JORDAN: At the end of his seasonmedia availability,Jordan made clearhewouldn’ttakeanother “half-off” contract after a resurgent 101/2-sack season. But wasthatsimplyposturing —ora hard-line stance that could derail negotiations? Regardless of whether Jordan returns, the Saints would like another pass rusher to addtothe fold. That addition could, in theory, move Jordan downthe pecking order even further.Would Jordan be OK with areduced roleafter his best season in years? That’d be a tough ask. But Jordan was contenttoprove the Saintswronglastyear, and he could do it again while on the roster for another year.Though he’s another year older,Jordanshowed he at least could ﬁnish at the right moments —something that had been missing for New Orleans over the last few years Keeping Jordan, afranchise icon, would make sense. Prediction: Staying

ALONTAE TAYLOR: The gap between what nickel cornerbacks arepaid andwhat Alontae Taylor wants to be paid could be too muchfor the Saints to overcome.

Taylor saw former teammate Paulson Adeboget athree-year, $54 million contract from theNew York Giants last year, andinthe prime of his career,hecan’tbe blamed for seeking acomparable deal. That said, Taylorhas played most of hissnaps in the slot— a position whose highest-paid player (Kyler Gordon) earns only $13.3 million peryear. That dynamic creates atricky negotiation, and the Saints and Taylor haven’tseen eyetoeye yet. Perhapsthe sides can reach acommon ground,but there’s bound to be other teamsinterested in Taylor.The Las VegasRaiders have tons of cap space and acoaching staff that’sfamiliar withTaylor.The Dallas Cowboys, accordingtoSportsIllustrated,are also expected to be in the mix. Taylor has shownplenty of versatility throughout his career,soateam may very well be ﬁnewith paying —oreven playing —him as an outside corner The factthat the Saints tried to get an extension doneduring the season andcouldn’talso doesn’tseem to

The Rebels will face St. Joseph’s in the Division Iselectsemiﬁnals at 4:30 p.m.Thursday in the University Center on Southeastern’s campusinHammond. And St. Joseph’steam doesn’t have much tournament experience either,considering theirprogram is in the semifinals for the first time since 2022.

“I know they made it to the state tournament acouple of years ago, butthey are ayounger team this year,”Credeur said. “So, I’m not sure if they have any experience in Hammond. We may both be goinginwith no experience.”

To help with the lack of experience playinginanarena, the Rebels practiced in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge Wednesday afternoon. Theyalso went to Hammond afterwards to watch districtfoe North Vermilion play in the Division II non-select semiﬁnals.

“Wehaven’tplayed in an arena this year,sothat’s why we went to practiceatthe PMAC,” Credeur said. “Wewanted them to get used to shootinginanarena like that. I also thinkit’simportantfor us to watch agameinthe arena before we actually play

“I think going to the PMAC and getting agood shoot around in, and getting to experience agamein the arenawill hopefully ease their nerves alittle bit.”

They’reveryaggressive on the ball defenders,” Credeur said. “Theyplaygoodteambasketball. It’sgoing to be important that we takecare of the basketballonoffense. We have to play smart because they are pretty aggressive on defense.Theygive alot of effort.”

The Rebels’ Ja’Nia Senegal said Teurlings needs to keep the same approach they’ve had in the playoffs.

“I feelifwegoout thereand play how we played in our last two games,wewill be OK,” Senegal said.

While the Rebels are happy to be headed to Hammond, they agree they aren’tsatisﬁed.

“The girls areexcited.I’m excited,” Credeur said. “The past coupleofpractices, they’vejust been so pumped up, eager to get there, and ready to play

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“Weexecuted the game plan,” Deggssaid. “Wewanted to go to the best stuff we had, to give us a chance to score, and Cody,and he was able to escape that ﬁrst,settle in, and pitch three reallygood innings for us.” So why did Deggs reverse the roles?

“These 6,000Cajunshere,” Deggs said. “I’m not going to let them down.” Pruitt somehowdid even better, giving up no runs on twohits, one walk and striking out four in four innings. “All Iknew was, if it was aclose

TheRebels, whoare 23-8 on the year,wereimpressed by what they saw of St.Joseph’sonﬁlm.

“It looks like they’re pretty good passers,” Rebels junior Cate Taylorsaid. “Theymight be able to break our press. ButI think that

if we play as ateam, communicate on defense and just lock in, Ithink we’ll be ﬁne.” Credeur saidamongthe things that stood out about St. Joseph’s on ﬁlm was their aggressiveness.

“They’re great defenders.

bode well for Taylor’sreturn.

Prediction: Leaving

LUKE FORTNER: Acquiring Fortner from the Jacksonville Jaguars in the preseason proved to be such aprudent move that owner Gayle Benson touted it as one of Mickey Loomis’ accomplishments when defending the longtime general manager AndLoomis did deservecredit Fortner became adependable starter after center Erik McCoy went down, so much so thatthe Saintsare anticipating he’llreceive an opportunity to start elsewherenextseason. That opportunity,as well asthe price tagthat comes with it, makesFortner’s return for another year unlikely Prediction: Leaving

ALVINKAMARA: Kamara isn’tafree agent, buthe’sworth includingin this discussion becauseofthe uncertainty aroundhis situation. Seen as apopular cut candidate, Kamara holds an $18.2 million cap hit for next season —which has led many to assume the Saintswould be willingto move on from the 30-year-old. New Orleans could clear $8.5 million in salary cap space with apost-June 1release. But what the Saints will do is anyone’sguess. NewOrleanshas beentight-lipped aboutwhether it is willing to moveon, or whether it even sees Kamara’scap hit as too high. Would Kamara be willing to

game, Iwas goingin, Iwas getting the ball, and Iwas prepared to do it ”Pruittsaid. “Itwas electric out there. Thisiswhateverybody dreams of. Youcould tellIgot a little amped up, but it wasamazing. Ilovethe fans.”

After Wednesday’souting, Pruitt’sERA for the seasonremainsat0.00.

“I grewupabout 30 minutes from LSU and Iwent to alot of gameswhenIwas younger,sothis meant alot,” the Live OakHigh product said. “It (0.00) is pretty cool, butItry not to worry about stuff like that.”

The plan also worked with the Cajuns’offense, putting up apair of three-runinnings. In theﬁrst, Drew Markle walked withone out and scored on Lee

takeapay cut if the Saints asked? Andwhat happens if he’snot open to such amove?

The Saints could very well bring in another back, but that doesn’t mean Kamara’stime in New Orleans is automatically over There’sstill alot here to play out Prediction: Staying on areduced cap hit

TAYSOM HILL: Like with Kamara, the Saints haven’tsaid much about Hill’s future.They’regivinghim the space to decide whether to retire

If he does hang up his cleats, Hill’sperformanceagainst the New York Jetswas aperfect sendoff. He not only setaleague record by becoming theﬁrst player since the NFL-AFL mergertorecord at least1,000 career yards in passing, rushing and receiving, but the Saints speciﬁcally made sure he went out withstyle in his last home game.That’sagreat memory to go out on, even if Hill’s2025 campaign wasn’t what he expected coming off atorn ACL.

Barring an unexpected extension, Hill will be afree agent come next week. That makes himeligible to sign withanother team. But is there even amarket if he wants to keep playing? It would be helpful for theSaints if Hill announced his plans soon.

Prediction: Leaving(retired)

Email Matthew Paras at matt paras@theadvocate.com

“It wasjustreally special. This is why you come back …you want to build something likethis, so it’s really special.”

LEE AMEDEE, UL infielder

Amedee’s double to left. After Amedee scored on athrowing error, Steven Spalittamadeita three-runframewitha sacriﬁce

ﬂy to center “That was huge,” Amedee saidof scoring ﬁrst. “Weknew we had to get thecrowd behind us early.You

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That lead grew to 39-11 at 3:44 of the second after a3-pointer from Katelyn Chomko. UL finally responded with a 10-0 run —including eight points from Mikaylah Manley —tocut it to 18 at 39-21 with 1:05 leftuntil halftime. In the second half, the Cajuns cut it to a14-pointdeﬁcitmultiple times,but never gotany closer than that.

Shavers ledall scorerswith21 pointson9-of-15 shooting and 13 rebounds to help the Warhawks rule theboards 42-27. Jackson endedupwith four 3-pointers on her way to 17 points.

J’Nami Ingram added16points, ﬁve rebounds and six assists.

CAJUNS

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Jaxon Olvera jumper at 13:02 of theﬁrst half

No.9-seededJames Madison, though, respondedwitha 17-2 run to gain a24-12 lead after two Kose Egbule free throws.

The Cajuns played the catch-up gamethe rest of the nightand ﬁnally ran outofsteam

The closest UL gotinthe second half was 55-51 with 8:30 left on an Olvera bucket.

The Cajuns then trailedjust 66-60 with 5:01 leftafter Olvera’s layup, butthe Dukesjustkept scoring.

“It was extremelyfrustrating,” White said. “Ourwholegoal at thebeginning of the season was to make the NCAA Tournament, so once you get in the conference tournament, your goal is to win every game. That doesn’talways happen.

“When that doesn’thappen, it hurts. The locker room was full of guys in tears. Thatmeansthe world to me, because that means they care. I’ll coach guys like that for therest of my life.”

James Madison finished the gameshooting 59% from the ﬁeld. The Dukes outscored UL 56-32 in the paint and 29-4 in benchpoints. Thelack of balancethathaunted UL formuchofthe ﬁrst half of theseason hurt the Cajuns in

know,it’shuge, especially an environment like this, getthe crowd behind us. And Ithink it really played apart in us winning.”

AfterLSU’sTrent Caraway’s two-out, two-run homer of UL reliever Parker Smith cut the Cajuns’ lead to 3-2 in the fifth, UL posted itssecond three-run inning to build a6-2 cushion. Donovan LaSalle gotthe rally started with adouble and scored when Markle’sbunt single was thrown into right ﬁeld. Later in the inning, Rigoberto Hernandez’sRBI singletoright scored Markle. Hernandez then scored on awild pitch forthe sixth run. Gavin Guidry,who entered the game witha0.00 ERA, surrenderedthree runs on two hits, one

“Our goal is to winastate championship. Idonot think our girls would be satisﬁedwith just making it to Hammond,” Credeur said. “They want to makeitall the way They want to get astate championship. To me,they’ve never seemed OK with just making it to Hammond. If we were to lose, they would be extremely disappointed. They wanttowin astate title.”

Email Eric Narcisse at enarcisse@theadvocate.com.

The Cajuns were led by Imani Daniel with 17 points and seven rebounds.

“It’sbeen fun,” Daniel said of her freshman season. “Just because the record didn’tshow,it’s still been good.I’vebeen learning awhole lotofstuff with coach (Temeka) Johnson.

“So, it’sall about taking everything in, and it’sjust, it’shonestly been fun to say it’sbeen happening …the team was great. The coach was great. It just sucks how it ended.” Manley settled for16points on 4-of-9shooting withtwo rebounds, andAmijah Pricefinished with 12 points and four boards.

With Wednesday’swin, the Warhawks swept the Cajuns in the threegames played this season –winning 61-51 and 102-58 in the tworegular season games.

this rematch. UL defeated James Madison 64-61 on theroad in the regular season.

TheCajuns ﬁnished the game with only four assists, compared to 14 forthe Dukes. Olvera hadanotherspectacular gamewith 28 points and eight rebounds after scoring acareerhigh 29 points in Tuesday’swin. Dorian Finister ﬁnished off his spectacular season with 27 points on 9-of-13shooting andthree boards.

The problem was that no other Cajunscoredmorethanthree points— other than De’Vion Lavergne, whoscored eight points with tworebounds.

“It’sjust been ablessing to be apart of it,” UL seniorDariyus Woodson said of his season in Lafayette. “The culture is amazing, thepeople have been amazing. These guys are going to be family forlife.”

On the otherside, Old Dominion wascarriedbya trio of bigscorers in Cliff Davis, Justin McBride and Bradley Douglas. Davis scored 21 points with ﬁverebounds andthree assists. Justin McBride, whodidn’tplay in the ﬁrst meeting against UL, poured in 20 pointson8-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds. Douglas added18points, four rebounds and three assists. James Madison led for36:09 to 1:19 early on forUL.

Email KevinFoote at kfoote@theadvocate.com.

walk and struck out two in 2.1 innings.

AfterEthanPlog’seffective 1.2 innings of relief, ConnorBenge was tagged fortwo runs without getting an out.

Mavrick Rizzy struck out four in 1.2 innings, but gave up arun on a hit and awalk as well.

UL added an insurance run in theseventh when Spalitta’s twoout RBI single to leftchased home Colt Brown, who had twosingles on the night. “It was just really special,” Amedee saidofthe win. “Thisis whyyou come back …you wantto build something like this, so it’sreally special.”

Email KevinFoote at kfoote@theadvocate.com

AP FILEPHOTO By JACOB KUPFERMAN

Saints cornerback Alontae Taylorintercepts apass intended for Carolina Pantherswide receiver Tetairoa McMillan on Nov. 9inCharlotte, N.C.

STAFFPHOTO By BRAD KEMP

Teurlings Catholic center JaydaSenegal and the Rebels takeonSt. Joseph’s in state semifinals ThursdayinHammond.

Lafayette Renaissance advances to quarterﬁnals

Tigers avenge loss to rival Knights

BY ERIC NARCISSE Staff writer

There have been losses this season that Lafayette Renaissance boys basketball coach Brad Boyd would like to have back.

In those losses, Boyd said he felt like his Tigers “let one slip away.”

A case in point was the District 6-2A opener in January against Lafayette Christian, which the Knights won 59-58. That loss ultimately cost the Tigers the district championship. When the two teams met again Tuesday in the Division III select regionals, Boyd and the Tigers were leaving nothing to chance. Behind a strong defensive effort, the fifth-seeded Tigers cruised past No. 12 LCA 58-32 to advance to the quarterﬁnals

It’s the second time the Tigers have reached the quarterﬁnals after also doing it last season.

“It’s a little sweeter this time when you get to beat a district rival like LCA to get there,” Boyd said.

“It’s a good feeling. We let one slip away for the district championship game against them, so to come back and beat them by 26 points was big.”

The Tigers held the Knights to 16 points in each half, including seven in the ﬁrst and third quarters.

“We really locked in on defense,” Boyd said. “We had a game plan coming in and we were able to execute that game plan.”

The Tigers, who will play at No. 4 De La Salle in the quarterﬁnals at 6:30 p.m. Friday, were led by JonTavion Etienne and Evan Ledoux. Etienne finished with a game-high 16 points, eight rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot, while Ledoux added 13 points.

St. Thomas More blows past Pineville into quarterﬁnals

BY NEAL MCCLELLAND

Contributing writer

Last week, No. 20-seed Pineville came to Lafayette and upset No. 13 Lafayette High on the strength of 13 3-pointers.

St. Thomas More coach Danny Broussard and several STM players watched the game that night from the stands.

That real-time scouting paid off.

“We knew they could shoot the 3-pointers,” STM point guard John Michael Charbonnet said. “The plan was to guard them close and not let them have any good looks at 3-point shots.”

The plan worked as the Cougars held Pineville to three 3-pointers in a 58-29 win in a Division I select regional game at STM. Charbonnet led the way with 15 points.

“I got comfortable early and it just carried on all night,” he said. “I want to thank my coaches and my teammates, because without them this wouldn’t have happened.

“We did what our coaches told us

to do on defense and we were able to execute that and that carried over to offense.”

Charbonnet said he was zoned in.

“I was a little rusty because we hadn’t played in more than a week and I missed that first one,” he said. “But after I hit one I knew it was going be a good night for me.”

It was St. Thomas More’s first game in 10 days and Broussard said he was worried how his team would fare.

“The last two weeks of the season, we played a lot of games,” he said. “So in one aspect, it was good to have the break so we could get our legs underneath us. But at the same time, playing after a 10-day layoff, you’ve got to be concerned about how your team is going to respond.”

It turned out ﬁne for the Cougars, who built a 19-7 ﬁrst-quarter lead and never looked back.

Now riding a 14-game win streak, the Cougars advance to face No. 12 Catholic of Baton Rouge at 7 p.m. Friday in Lafayette for a shot to return to the state tourney

“Bubba Etienne had a big game. He’s our senior and man he was feeling it all night,” Boyd said “Evan had a bunch of key layups for us throughout the game. He’s just so scrappy.”

Graham Comeaux led LCA with eight points. Josh Wilson added seven and Christian Glenn six.

“We wanted to just get up (close to) them,” Boyd said. “We wanted to make them have to dribble the ball. Their game is to shoot a lot of (3-pointers). We held (Graham) to (eight) points and he scored 32 on us the last time we played. That was the key to shut him down and make other guys score.”

The Tigers will look to punch their ticket to the state tourney in Lake Charles against De La Salle.

“De La Salle has some scrappy guards,” Boyd said. “We’re looking forward to it. It’s going to be a battle.”

Email Eric Narcisse at enarcisse@theadvocate.com.

Hot start carries Catholic past Teurlings

No. 12 Bears pull upset in Division I select regional

BY NICK FONTENOT

Contributing writer

A blistering ﬁrst quarter where Catholic High of Baton Rouge hit six 3-pointers propelled Bears 55-37 upset win over Teurlings Catholic on Tuesday Catholic coach Derrick Jones said the goal limit the effectiveness of the Rebels’ 6-foot-8 duo Jordan Senegal and De’Von Warren.

“We knew we had some difficult matchups with (Senegal) and (Warren),” Jones said. “The thing that makes us so good is that everyone on the team knows their roles. We did a great job of making (the Rebels) uncomfortable and got them out of doing what they wanted to do.”

The defensive pressure, combined two 3-pointers each from Tyler Brazier, Bradley Fife and Luke Moreau sparked the No. 12-seeded visitors. The Bears stretched the floor and forced No. 5 Teurlings to chase from the outset.

“They can shoot the ball re-

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“They can shoot the ball really well and the six 3s in the first quarter set the tempo. After that, we hung with them but that early barrage forced us out of what we wanted to do.”

JAKE DUEITT,

Teurlings coach, on Catholic High

ally well and the six 3s in the ﬁrst quarter set the tempo,” Teurlings coach Jake Dueitt said. “After that, we hung with them but that early barrage forced us out of what we wanted to do.”

Teurlings worked to claw back into contention, including an 8-2 run to close the third quarter that cut the lead to 10.

“The second and third we were right with them,” Dueitt said. “If we take away that barrage in the ﬁrst quarter we are right there with them. We needed to get it to single digits with four minutes to play Once they started passing it around and playing a version of ‘stall ball,’ it got away from us.”

Despite Senegal finishing with a game-high 17 points, Dueitt said Catholic’s pressure on the perimeter disrupted the Rebels’ offensive rhythm. Dueitt said their struggle with the entry pass was something Teurlings hasn’t experienced this season.

“They put a lot of pressure on us on the wings and we strug-

gled to get it inside,” he said. “We really haven’t had that problem all year, but I thought we played hard. We just ran into a bad draw (Catholic) is not a normal 12 seed.”

Jones said Catholic prides itself on being defense ﬁrst, but the Bears’ 11 3-pointers was a welcomed addition to the game plan.

“We have our nights where we get going offensively,” Jones said. “There are nights where we struggle shooting the ball, but to get a night like tonight when we are knocking them down, it’s obviously big.”

Jones said he thinks Catholic is primed for a run at the state championship. He said the losses on their record are only a testament to the difﬁcult road that’s lead them here.

“We feel like we are as good as any team in this bracket,” Jones said. “We are as good as anyone in the state. We play a tough schedule to get us ready for games like tonight and we are ready for the challenge ahead.”

SCOREBOARD

23 22 34 — 110 3-Point Goals—New Orleans 8-29 (Murphy III 3-7, Murray 2-6, Bey 2-9, Fears 1-3, Jones 0-4), L.A. Lakers 11-37 (Doncic 3-10, Kennard 2-3, Smart 2-6, Reaves 2-7, LaRavia 1-2, L.James 1-5, Hachimura 0-4). Fouled Out— None. Rebounds—New Orleans 41 (Murphy III, Murray 8), L.A. Lakers 48 (Doncic 10) Assists—New Orleans 29 (Murray 8), L.A. Lakers 29 (Doncic, L.James, Smart 7). Total Fouls—New Orleans 24, L.A. Lakers 17. A—18,248 (18,997) College basketball State men’s scores, schedule Tuesday’s games Southern 71, Alabama State 64 Alabama A&M 77, Grambling 63 Auburn 88, LSU 74 Sun Belt Conference Tournament At Pensacola, Fla. Tuesday’s games No. 12 UL 84, No. 13 Georgia State 75 No. 11 Old Domin. 87, No. 14 ULM 80 Wednesday’s games No. 12 UL vs. No. 9 James Madison, n No. 11 Old Dominion vs. No. 10 Georgia Southern, n UL 64, James Madison 61 LOUISIANA (8-16) T.Jones

Goals_Louisiana 10-25 (Woodson 4-5, Ratliff 2-2, Lavergne 2-6, Finister 1-3, Olvera 1-6, Bilal 0-1, Collins 0-2), James Madison 7-20 (Davis 3-8, Egbule 2-2, Taylor 1-2, Fowler 1-4, Douglas 0-2, Ricks 0-2). Fouled Out_Bilal. Rebounds_Louisiana 32 (T.Jones 8), James Madison 33 (Wilborn 8). Assists_Louisiana 11 (Olvera 4), James Madison 13 (Egbule 4). Total Fouls_Louisiana 19, James Madison 12. A_4,140 (8,500). Late Tuesday UL 84, Georgia State 75 GEORGIA STATE (10-22) Chappelle 3-5 6-6 13, Beam 1-1 2-2 4, Brown 6-11 0-2 14, Hamilton 8-12 2-3 20, Tucker 5-14 8-10 18, Enoh 1-5 0-0 2, Scott 2-3 0-0 4, Berthe 0-2 0-0 0, C.Jones 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-53 18-23 75. UL (11-21) T.Jones 1-2 3-6 5, Finister 5-11 3-4 13, Lavergne 4-10 2-2 12, Mejia 1-5 0-0 3, Olvera 9-16 9-11 29, Bilal 2-7 5-6 10, Woodson 1-4 0-0 2, Evans 2-5 2-4 6, Ratliff 1-1 2-2 4, Collins 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-61 26-35 84. Halftime—Georgia State 38-36. 3-Point Goals—Georgia State 5-17 (Brown 2-4, Hamilton 2-5, Chappelle 1-2, Enoh 0-1, Scott 0-1, Berthe 0-2, Tucker 0-2), UL 6-17 (Olvera 2-2, Lavergne 2-6, Mejia 1-2, Bilal 1-3, Finister 0-2, Woodson 0-2). Fouled Out—Hamilton, Berthe. Rebounds—Georgia State 25 (Chappelle, Enoh 6), UL 39 (Olvera 9). Assists— Georgia State 12 (Hamilton, Tucker 4), UL 12 (Lavergne 5). Total Fouls—Georgia State 20, UL 20. A—629 (12,000). Late Tuesday Auburn 88, LSU 74 LSU (15-15) Nwoko 4-6 11-13 19, Sutton 4-6 1-2 10, Tamba 6-9 0-2 12, Mackinnon 1-6 0-0 3, Reece 3-8 4-5 12, Carter 3-5

PHOTO By ROBIN MAy

Lafayette Rennaisance’s Evan Ledoux makes a move against Lafayette Christian’s Graham Comeaux during the regional playoff game on Tuesday.

Bone-in chicken thighs thesecret to ﬂavor

BY LINDAGASSENHEIMER Tribune News Service (TNS)

n Diced onion from the produce department can be used to save preparation time.

n Any typeofchorizo can be used. Or ham cubes can be used instead.

Spanish Style Chicken (Tender Chicken and Savory Rice)

Yields 2servings. Recipe is by Linda Gassenheimer

2teaspoons

chorizo sausagecut into ½-inch cubes

½cup long-grain white rice

2cups no-salt-added chicken broth Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2tablespoons cilantro leaves

1. Heat oil in alarge skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and onion. Cook 3minutes. 2. Turn chicken overand add garlic and green bell pepper to the skillet. Cook 3moreminutes.

3. Add tomatoes, chorizo, rice and chicken broth. Stir to combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce to asimmer,cover with alid andcook20minutes. Liquidshould be absorbed and rice soft. Cook afew more minutes uncovered if needed. A meat thermometer should read 165 F. 4. Addsaltand freshlyground black pepper to taste. Divide in half and serve on two dinner plates. Sprinklecilantro leaves on top.

NUTRITION INFO PER SERVING: 624 calories (33 percent from fat), 22.9 gfat (6.4 gsaturated, 9.3 gmonounsaturated), 181 mg cholesterol, 47.7 gprotein,53.1 gcarbohydrates, 5.2gﬁber,562 mg sodium.

Shrimp Cake Salad with Blanched Asparagus and Lemon GarlicSauce

Serves 4

4cups of mixed greens

20 cherrytomatoes (sliced in half)

Catholics around the world abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent as aform of sacrifice and spiritual discipline.Historically, eating meat is considered aluxury and is connected with times of celebration. In Louisiana, practicing Catholics and everyone else rejoice that fresh, seasonal seafood is an abundant liturgical exception to meatfree Fridays during Lent. Lately, whenI drive around town, it’shard not to notice signs forFridayfish fries. While we’re lucky to have so many optionsfor going outto eat seafood, it can be difficult to find fresh local seafood to cook at home. Grocery store fish counters aren’tvery inspiring. Recently, though, Iread about Porgy’sSeafood Market

BY GRETCHENMcKAY PittsburghPost-Gazette (TNS)

Liz Faul

in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, run by two “lady mongers” whodecided to open aneighborhood fish market. It’s part of their mission to teach people moreabout fish and how to prepare fish forhome cooking. So Iwent to Porgy’s Seafood on Carrollton Avenue to buy some fresh local seafood to cook. The smell of boiling crawfish welcomed me at the door. As Iperused their fresh seafood selections, Iwatched the fishmonger butcher a whole amberjack into steaks. After considering my seafood options, Idecided to buy fresh Louisiana shrimp. At home, peeling and deveining the shrimpfelt like a penance, but it was worth it in the end because the taste of freshly caught shrimpis

12 blanchedasparagus spears (see recipe) 4tablespoonsof toasted pumpkin seeds (or slivered almonds)

1. In alarge salad bowl, add the mixed greens,slicedtomatoes, blanched asparagus and toasted pumpkin seeds.

2. Add the mixed greens,tomatoes andblanchedasparagus to aplate. Add two shrimp cakes on top of each salad. Garnisheach shrimp cake with a lemon wedge. Place asmallbowl of the lemongarlicsauce on the side to use as adressing.

TNS PHOTO By LINDAGASSENHEIMER

Makes 8tacos. Recipe is byGretchenMcKay,Post-Gazette

FORFISH:

1teaspoon chili powder

1teaspoon cumin

1teaspoon smoked sweet paprika

2teaspoons kosher salt

½teaspoon black pepper

1teaspoon garlic powder

Juice of 1lime

1pound thick white fish filet, such as cod or haddock, cut into strips or chunks

Olive oil, for pan

Shredded green cabbage

8 flour tortillas, warmed Lime wedges, for serving FOR SALSA:

5canned pineapple slices, diced (about 1cup)

½red bell pepper,diced (about ½cup)

½red or yellow onion, diced (about½cup)

½bunch chopped fresh cilantro (about ½cup)

½jalapeno pepper,seeded and diced

Juice of 1lime, or more to taste

Olive oil

FOR AVOCADO CREMA:

1avocado, seeded Juice of 1lime, or more to taste

½cup plain Greek yogurt

½teaspoon garlic powder

Kosher salt, to taste

1. Prepare ﬁsh: To alarge pan or bowl, add chili powder,cumin, paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder.Use a fork or your fingers to mix together

2. Sprinkle lime juice over

cessor or blender.Pulse until thesauce is silky smooth. Removetoabowl,and seasontotaste withsalt and morelime juice, if needed.

6. Prepare tacos. In alarge pan over medium heat,add adrizzleortwo of olive oil. When hot, add fish to the pan and allow to cook until fish is golden brown, opaque and flakes easily with afork, about 3minutes per side. (You want aslight crust so thefish holds together in the taco.)

7. Build your tacos: Warm ﬂour tortillas in adry skillet over medium-high heat until soft and slightly charred, about 15 seconds.

Initialonphonechargerswithink

Dear Heloise: When our family of 30 gathers together,every outlet ﬁlls up with phone chargers. By theday’send, everyone’sasking, “Is this mine?”Toprevent mix-ups,each person marks their power adapter and USB cable with the initial of their ﬁrst namebyusing a permanent marker We also assign different ink colors so that chargers are easy to spot at aglance. This simple system saves time, preventsaccidental swaps, and makes cleanup much easier when guests are heading out the door.A

little identiﬁcation goes a long way! —RubyKent, in New Boston, New Hampshire Silverware smarts

eating surfaces, having the handle up is moresanitary

Recipe adapted by Liz

Makes 6-8 servings

2cups all-purpose flour 1cup whole wheat fl

molasses Butter (optional for serving on the slices of bread)

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.Prepare abaking sheet by lining it with parchment paper

2. In alarge baking bowl, combinethe flours, baking soda, salt, ginger and caraway seeds (if you choose to add them), and combine these ingredients with aspoon.

3. In amedium bowl, combine the buttermilk and molasses and mix together

4. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the ﬂour mixture. Mix together to form adough.

FESTIVE

Continued from page5C

far better than frozen shrimp from the grocery store. Once the shrimp were peeled, it was easy to chop them into abowl with mayonnaise, panko breadcrumbs and spices to form individual shrimp patties. Like crabcakes, shrimp cakes offer amild ﬂavor proﬁle that pairs well with atangy lemon sauce Shrimp cakes are a versatile dish that can be served as appetizers or on abun. On this day,served the shrimp cakes on aspring salad with mixed greens, crisp asparagus, sweet cherry tomatoes and adrizzle of lemon-garlic sauce. Serve thisdish with friends or family,orsave it for yourself to have leftovers. Either way,this is aseafood dish worth celebrating during Lent or all year long.

Ahearty Irish brown breadisa tasty addition to serve with this seafood salad. In Ireland, brown soda bread is served at almost every meal. St. Patrick’sDay is just around the corner,sothis easy recipe is for those who may want aculinary celebration. Wear green and treat yourself to a slice of brown bread with Irish butter this St. Patrick’sDay.Slainte!

Liz Sullivan Faulisa registered dietitian nutritionist who enjoys cooking and sharing meals with her friends and family

the ﬁsh, addtothe panwith seasoning and tosswell to combine.Remove ﬁsh to a plate, shaking offexcess seasoning

3. Prepare salsa. Combine pineapple, red pepper,onion, cilantro and jalapeno pepper in amedium bowl. Stir until well combined.

4. Add lime juice and a drizzleofolive oil. Let it sit at room temperature, or in thefridge, for at least 15 minutes to allow the ﬂavors to blend

5. Prepare crema. Addavocado, lime juice, yogurt and garlic powder to afood pro-

8. Layer warmed tortillas with shredded cabbage, and add afew chunks of seasoned fish. Topwith pineapple salsa and adollop (ortwo) of avocado crema. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

TACOS

Continuedfrom page5C

The tacos are best served warm, but my husband also ate one cold for breakfast. Youalso can deconstruct thetaco and serve it in a bowl over rice instead of tucking the ingredients into ataco shell.

5. Prepare afloured surface, then transfer the dough to the ﬂouredsurface. Knead the dough to shape around loaf. Do not overwork the dough. Transfer theloaf to the prepared baking sheet.

With aknife,gently score the topofthe loaf intoquarters.

6. Place the dough into the oven,and bake for about 35 minutes. Take outofthe oven andlet it cool.Serveit warm with butter

Shrimp Cakes

Recipe by LizFaul.Serves 4-6 people.

1pound rawshrimp(peeled and deveined and cut into smallpieces)

½onion (finely chopped)

2cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

3green onions(finely chopped)

½cup mayonnaise

2tablespoonsfresh lemonjuice

1cup pankobreadcrumbs

2tablespoonsfresh parsley (chopped)

½teaspoon salt

½teaspoon smoked paprika

½teaspoon cayenne pepper

½teaspoon dried thymeleaves

2tablespoons canola oil FOR THE LEMON-GARLIC SAUCE:

½cup mayonnaise

¼cup plainGreek yogurt

2cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1teaspoon of lemon zest

2tablespoonsfresh lemon juice

1tablespoon fresh chopped parsley (fresh choppeddillworks, too)

Salt and peppertotaste

1. In alarge mixing bowl, placethe chopped shrimp pieces, onion, garlicand greenonions. Stir the onions andgarlic into theshrimp, then add the mayonnaise and lemon juice and stir Next,add the breadcrumbs, parsley,salt, paprika, cayenne pepperand driedthyme leaves. Mix the breadcrumbs andspicesintothe shrimp. Place the shrimp mixture in

the refrigerator (this makes forming the patties easier). While the shrimp mixture is chilling, makethe lemongarlic sauce.

2. In amixing bowl,add mayonnaise, yogurt, garlic, lemon juice and zest and stir all of the ingredients until combined. Then add chopped fresh herbs, salt and pepper.Taste and add moresalt if needed.

3. Removethe shrimp mixture from the refrigerator and formthe shrimpcake patties.Start by shapinga 3-inchballofthe shrimp mixture and thengently ﬂattening the ball into apatty Transfer each of the shrimp cakes onto aparchmentlined baking sheet.

4. Heat theoil in alarge nonstick pan over medium heat.Place shrimp cakes in thepan in batches to give themspace to cook. Cook each of the shrimp cakes for about 4minutes per side or until each side is golden brown.

NOTE: Iput the cooked shrimp cakes on aclean bakingtray lined with parchment in awarm oven set at 200F to keep them warm while Iprepare asalad to serve with theshrimp cakes.

1. Fill alarge bowl withice and water.Place it close to where you’ll cook the asparagus. 2. Bring alarge pot of salted water to aboil, add the trimmed asparagus to the boiling water for about one minute. Then use aslotted spoon to transfer theblanched asparagus from thepot to thebowlofice water. Letthe asparagus chill in the ice for aboutone minute.

3. Drain the asparagus and pat them dry to be usedinthe shrimpcake salad.

By The Associated Press

Dear Heloise: Iwanted to write in with my thoughts on two common household debates. First, the silverware debate: In the dish drainer,should they go up or down?

For everyday use, Ithink you should place forks and spoons with the handle down(tines and bowls up) to improve air circulation and drying. If you are unloading adishwasher or wantless contact with

The real key? Clean the drain basket often! Food and water collect underneath, so wash and disinfect it weekly to prevent buildup and odors. In summary, choose the best utensil position based on your cleaning method, but always keep the drain basket clean. Ihope this helps put your household debates to rest. Wishing you manyhappy and efﬁcient days in the kitchen! —Lizabeth Ellison, in Miamisburg,Ohio Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

Today is Thursday, March 5, the64th day of 2026. There are 301 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre took place as Britishsoldiers who had been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened ﬁre, killing ﬁve people. The killing fueled colonists’ outrage in the run-up to the American Revolution.

Also on this date:

In 1856, amajor ﬁre destroyed Covent Garden’s royal theater and opera house in London, marking the second time ﬁre destroyed atheater on thesite since1808. (The theater was rebuilt and has since undergone major reconstruction and modernization.)

In 1933, in German parliamentary elections six days after the Reichstag ﬁre, theNazi Party won 44% of the vote; the Nazis joined with aconservative nationalist partytogain aslender parliamentary majority

In 1946, Winston

Churchill delivered a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which he marked the onset of the Cold War, saying: “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”

In 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died from a stroke at age 74 after nearly three decades in power

In 1963, country music performers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the crash of their plane, aPiper Comanche, near Camden, Tennessee, along with pilot Randy Hughes (Cline’smanager).

In 1979, NASA’s Voyager 1space probe madeits closest approach to Jupiter,sending back photographs of the planet and its moons.

In 1982, comedian John Belushi wasfound dead of adrug overdose in arented bungalow at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont hotel; he was33.

In 2004, Martha Stewart wasconvicted in NewYork of conspiracy,obstructing

justice and lying to the government about why she’d sold her Imclone Systemsstock just before the stock’sprice plummeted; her ex-stockbroker,Peter Bacanovic, also wasfound guilty in the scandal. (Each later received aﬁve-month prison sentence.)

In 2022, apromised ceaseﬁre in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol collapsed amid scenes of terror in the besieged town. The number of people ﬂeeing the country reached 1.4 million just 10 days after Russian forces invaded. Today’sbirthdays: Actor Fred Williamson is 88. Magician Penn Jillette is 71. Actor Adriana Barraza is 70. Football Hall of Famer

Blanched Asparagus

Irish Brown Bread

Faul.

Hints from Heloise

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE/TNS

PHOTO By GRETCHEN McKAy Cod Tacoswith Pineapple Salsa

PHOTO By LIZ FAUL

Slices of Irish Brown Bread

Warsh nominated for Federal Reserve chair

WASHINGTON The Trump administration has formally nominated Kevin Warsh, a former top Federal Reserve ofﬁcial, to be the next Fed chair when Jerome Powell’s term ends in two months.

Warsh’s nomination, which was initially announced Jan. 30, was forwarded to the Senate Wednesday, where it will be taken up by the Senate Banking Committee.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican on the committee, has said he will oppose conﬁrming Warsh until a criminal investigation into Powell is resolved. Powell revealed Jan. 11 that the Justice Department had subpoenaed the Fed over Powell’s Senate testimony last June about the central bank’s $2.5 billion building renovation project.

Tillis said last month that the committee could hold a hearing about Warsh’s nomination, but he would vote to block conﬁrmation. If all Democrats on the committee voted against Warsh as well, the nomination wouldn’t pass out of the committee to the full Senate.

Warsh has harshly criticized the Fed’s policies in recent years, including its low interest rate policies coming out of the pandemic, which he says contributed to the United States’ largest inﬂation spike in four decades in 2021-22.

Yet Warsh now has echoed President Donald Trump’s demands for lower rates.

U.S. issues permit for nuclear reactor

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved its first construction permit for a commercial nuclear reactor in eight years, one that will allow a Bill Gatesbacked company to build a sodium-cooled reactor in western Wyoming.

TerraPower filed for the permit in 2024 and construction is now set to begin within weeks. Completion of the up to $4 billion plant is targeted for 2030, according to TerraPower Microsoft co-founder Gates, who is eyeing nuclear generation as a power source for the electricity-hungry data centers behind artiﬁcial intelligence, is a founder of TerraPower and its primary investor

The TerraPower plant is set to be built near a coal-ﬁred power plant that is being converted to burn natural gas outside Kemmerer, 130 miles northeast of Salt Lake City Gates and his energy company are seeking to develop a next-generation nuclear plant that would “revolutionize” how power is generated. The 345-megawatt reactor is expected to produce up to 500 megawatts at its peak, enough energy for up to 400,000 homes.

The reactor construction permit for a TerraPower subsidiary is the NRC’s first approval for a non-light-water commercial reactor in more than 40 years the NRC said in a statement.

Starbucks to open Tenn. corporate office

Starbucks has tapped Tennessee as the home of a new corporate operations ofﬁce.

The Seattle-based coffee giant decided to expand into the Southern state’s Davidson County later this year, according to a Tuesday news release by Starbucks and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

Starbucks spokesperson Lori Torgerson said Wednesday that “Seattle remains our North America and Global Support HQ.” The new ofﬁce will support the growth of Starbucks coffeehouses and “rising customer demand, in particular, the southeast region of the U.S.,” according to the news release Starbucks said the location will house the company’s direct and indirect

and

Economic updates propel stocks

Market rebounds as oil prices stop spiking

BY STAN CHOE Associated Press

NEW YORK The U.S. stock market rebounded Wednesday from two days of punishing swings after oil prices stopped spiking and reports gave encouraging updates on the economy

The strength followed a scary start to Wednesday, when South Korea’s Kospi stock index plunged 12.1% for its worst loss in history

Uncertainty about the war has sent prices in ﬁnancial markets careening up and down this week, with most taking their cues from what the price of oil is doing. Oil prices moderated as trading moved westward from Asia to Europe and across the Atlantic. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.1% to $74.66.

One report said growth for U.S businesses in the real estate, finance and other services industries accelerated last month at the fastest pace since the summer of 2022. Encouragingly for inﬂation, it also said prices for such busi-

nesses are increasing at a slower rate, at least before the war with Iran began. A second report suggested U.S. employers outside of the government picked up their hiring last month. That could be a hopeful signal for the more comprehensive report coming Friday from the U.S. government about the overall job market. In financial markets, worries are centered on how long the war with Iran could last, how high inflation will go because of more expensive oil and how much corporate profits will sink because of it.

The U.S. stock market has a history of shaking off military conﬂicts in the Middle East relatively quickly, though that comes with the caveat that oil prices don’t jump too high. That has some professional investors suggesting patience through the volatility, at least when it comes to financial markets.

Not everyone is optimistic. “I think the Iran situation is getting out of hand, and I think that U.S. President Donald Trump miscalculated enormously,” said Francis Lun, CEO of Venturesmart Asia. “The situation is very grim.”

BY SHAWN CHEN

AP technology writer

NEW YORK Apple CEO Tim Cook’s promised “big week” of product announcements has seen the introduction of a new budget-friendly iPhone trim, an entry-level MacBook tier, updated iPad Air models, refreshed monitors and higher-end chipsets — all put on display at hands-on media events held Wednesday in New York, London and Shanghai.

The tech titan recently saw quarterly earnings rise to a new record, thanks to strong sales of iPhone 17 models, even though it still hasn’t delivered on its 2024 promise to smarten up its Siri assistance with artiﬁcial intelligence.

Perhaps looking to capitalize on this sales momentum, Apple started the week off announcing the latest model in its more budgetfriendly phone lineup, the iPhone 17e, and the MacBook Neo, an entry-level laptop that represents the company’s most aggressive attempt at moving into the affordable laptop market. Everything announced is available for preorder iPhone 17e

This updated version of iPhone targeting budget-conscious shoppers will include the same A19 chip as the one powering the base iPhone 17 and offers double the standard storage space (256GB) as the previous 16e model (128GB).

The camera has been updated to a 48-mega-

BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP technology

pixel system and its C1X modem promises faster cellular speeds.

As for display, the 17e clocks in with a slightly smaller screen compared with the base 17 model, has a slightly lower refresh rate and may be a little dimmer to the human eye, but you’re still getting the super retina display used in the rest of the lineup and Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2 system to guard against scratches.

Starting at $599, the iPhone 17e comes in $200 cheaper than the base iPhone 17. Colors include black, white and light pink. iPad Air M4

The midrange iPad refresh runs the slightly older M4 chip — for reference, the topend iPad Pro model uses the newer M5 chip. But it’s still powerful enough to handle your streaming habits, web browsing, email and video editing. Cellular versions of the Air also include the updated C1X modem.

You wouldn’t think there’s a RAM shortage in the world with what Apple has announced this week. The company bumped the Air’s RAM up from 8GB to 12GB without a price increase.

The 11-inch iPad Air starts at $599 while the 13-inch version starts at $799, each with 128GB of storage.

Chip and MacBook updates

Apple’s high-end Pro lineup of laptops received newly announced chip upgrades (the

M5 Pro and M5 Max), which claim higher performance for intensive usage and battery efﬁciency But the new upgrades come with a higher price tag too.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro chip set comes with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. It’s priced at $2,199, a $200 increase compared with 2024 base M4 Pro. For an extra cost, you have the option to upgrade to a higher tier of the M5 Pro or jump to the M5 Max chip. You can also bump the system’s RAM up to 48GB.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro already comes standard with the highest tier M5 Pro chip set, and starts with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. It’s priced at $2,699, a $200 increase from previous model. You do have the option to upgrade to the M5 Max chip set and bump up the RAM. The brand new entry-level MacBook Neo made its debut at the in-person event on Wednesday This new 13-inch laptop comes packed with Apple’s A18 Pro chip (also found in the iPhone 16 Pro), 256GB of storage, two USB-C ports but only 8GB of RAM The upgraded 512GB model includes a TouchID sensor With the Neo, it’s apparent Apple is trying to gain a foothold in the budget laptop ﬁeld, which is currently ﬂooded with Google Chromebooks and economy Microsoft Windows machines. The 256GB model is available for $599, while the upgraded model is available for $699.

U.S. James Donato still must

approve the proposed changes as an alternative to a more dramatic shakeup that he ordered in October 2024. Google is seeking an April 9 hearing before the judge to answer any questions about the revisions, which are being backed by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose North Carolina company is best known for making the Fortnite video game. “Epic has been advocating for open platforms for a long time and this really brings Android up to the status of a truly open platform,” Sweeney told The Associated Press.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TED SHAFFREy

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Work hard and playhard. Getinto the swing of things and do your part. Your contributions will attract attention,new friendships and opportunities you don't want to miss.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Check out suggestions, offers, grants or funding that can help you turn your dream into areality. Simplify your plans to meet your budget. Partnerships require equality.

tAuRus (April 20-May20) Consider what you can do to make your life easier. Surround yourself withpeoplewho share your plans, and work toward acommon goal.A change will require time and energy.

GEMInI (May21-June 20) Say little and do alot. Show compassionand understanding, but don't take on someone else'sproblems. Offer suggestions and get back on track. Living up to your expectations and reputation will help youexcel.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) There is aprice foreverything; make sure your aspirations don't cause you to go over budget. Time, patience and planning are all called for. Personal growth looks promising.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Delve into new possibilities; study, research and include what youdiscover into your routine and plans. Achange will lead to an interestingalternative or connection.

VIRGo(Aug. 23-sept.22) You have plenty going foryou, so don't let negativ-

ity stand in the way of your desires. Speak up and act fast if you want personal, emotional and financial growth to unfold.

LIBRA (sept.23-oct. 23) Try not to involve yourself in circumstances that can get you in trouble. Don't exaggerate your qualifications; update your knowledge and grow your expertise.

scoRPIo(oct. 24-nov. 22) Instigate what you want to see happen. An encouraging word, hands-on help andmixingbusiness with pleasure will fuel your success. Focus on the important relationships in your life.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Look inward and prepare to change whatever is no longer working for you. Dismiss thosewho continually disappoint or take advantage of you. Make choices that protect you from risk and scammers.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec.22-Jan. 19) Put more thought into your investments and how you earn aliving and spend your cash. Honesty and transparency are essential to avoidproblems.Use yourenergy to fine-tune your agenda and make it flow.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Put your energy to work, and you can bring in more cash. Sell unwantedbelongings, develop aproduct that you can turn into alucrative business or become aminimalist.

FAMILY CIrCUS

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, pastand present. Each letter in the cipher stands foranother.

toDAy's cLuE: PEQuALsK

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

SALLYForth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon

bIG nAte

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9inthe empty squaressothat each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Eric TempleBell, amathematician andscience fiction writer who was born in Scotland but lived most of hislifein the United States, said, “Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine theassumptions.”

That certainly applies at the bridge table.During anydeal,each participant makes assumptions based on the bidding and cards played. Themore accurate these assumptions, the more likely that person is to win.

Whenthis deal was originally played, West made an assumption that proved to be invalid and cost hispartnership a gamecontract.

After West opened one spade and two passes followed, South leapt straight to four hearts, thecontract that he hoped he could make.

West led the diamond queen. East overtook with his ace, dropping South’s king. ThenEastshifted to the spade jack. When South played low, West, assumingthathis partner had asecond spade, encouraged with his 10.

Now East did the besthecould by shifting to aclub. Perhaps West could ruff, or maybe thiswould cutSouth off fromthedummy.Here,though,declarer won with dummy’s ace, played aheart to his ace, returned the trump three to dummy’s eight, and ranthe clubs for an overtrick. West did not need to assumethat East had two spades. It couldnot have costto overtake the spade jack with his queen and cash the spade ace. Then he would have given East aspade ruff to defeat the contract.

Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguisedword, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOONGOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

word

InstRuctIons:

Average

Canyou

wuzzles

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles