The Advocate 03-23-2026 by The Advocate

BelaireHigheyes laterstart time

sTAFF PHoTosByJAVIERGALLEGos

students maketheir waytoward theexitafter the final bell at Belaire Magnet Highschool on Tuesday. The school may changeits start time to betteralign with student learning,followingapilot program withtwo otherpublic highschools in the district.

50 BR schoolstohavechanged schedulesbyfall2028

BY CHARLES LUSSIER staff writer

Belaire MagnetHigh School may soonbecomethe third Baton Rouge public high school to shift its start times to better align with when children learn, based on research on their sleep patterns.

Some faculty and parents, however,are raising concernsthatthe newstart times so far are falling short of promises andare having unintendeddownsides.

Belaire,home to almost 600 students, wouldfollow in the footsteps of Capitol High and Glen Oaks High. Those schools, along with four feeder schools, dramatically altered their daily schedules in August, with middle and highschool studentsbeginning classes much later than they have in thepast

Results from the ﬁrst semester of thissix-school pilot program were mixed, according to arecent report from aconsultant hired by theEast Baton Rouge Parish school system. But that has notdimmed the enthusiasm of Superintendent LaMont Cole, who plans to change start times across the entire

districtbyfall2028. The next step is to add Belaire and its ﬁve feeder schools.

“Wehave aton of quantitative data from around the countrythat tell us that later starttimes arebest for kids, but we still want to hear from people withboots

on the ground to understand howwecan do this better,” Cole said.

Thelatest schedule would go into effect in 12 schools this coming August. He says the newschedule reflects what’sbeen learned so far from thepilot.

Middle andhighschools would start the day 80 minuteslater than the normaldistrictstart time, at 8:30 a.m.,while elementary schoolswould start 40 minutes earlier,at7:45 a.m They would end their days at 3:40 p.m. and2:55 p.m., respectively

The 12 schools include the six in the pilot and ﬁve that feed into Belaire High. Thoseschools would adjust the schedule they implemented seven months ago, startingand ending their days afew minutesearlier than they do now.

ä see START TIME, page 4A

BY MARTHASANCHEZ staff writer

Providerssay patients aregoing to suffer

BY SOPHIEKASAKOVE staff writer

Formonths, around half of the 147 beds at one of New Orleans’ largest addiction treatmentfacilities have sat empty

It’snot because there’snodemand. In fact, thewaitlist forthe Odyssey House Louisiana’sBroadmoor building runs dozens of names long.

It’sbecause the facility cannot treat the growing number of people arriving at its doors without health insurance.

It’s aproblem health care facilities are confronting across the state, as roughly half amillion Louisianans have lost coveragethrough Medicaid since 2023. More are continuing to fall off the rolls each month, as the Louisiana Department of Health hasramped up eligibility checksahead of federal requirements that will take effect across the country next year

Treatmentprovidersand advocates say the changes have barred low-income people from receiving needed health careand arethreatening thebottom lineofhealth centers that relyon Medicaid payments.

“Itishaving real-time effects andis areason whypeople are not able to access the health care they need,” said Raegan Carter,director of health policy at the Louisiana Primary Care Association, whichrepresents Odyssey House and dozens of other community health centers across the state. “If our uninsured numbers increase, if we begin to serve even moreuninsured patients we mayend up closing health centers.” Louisiana Health SecretaryBruce Greenstein, who took over the department in April, hassaidthe

tourists

Carolyn

studentslook at the front board while learning alesson in shauntelle Moses’ social studies class at Belaire Magnet High school on Tuesday.

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

At least 64 killedin strike on Sudan hospital

CAIRO— At least 64 people were killed, including at least 13 children, in astrike on ahospital in Sudan’swestern Darfurregion last week, the World Health Organization said Saturday

The strike on the Al Daein Teaching HospitalinEast DarfuronFriday also injured at least 89 people and renderedthe hospital nonfunctional, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, said on X.

Sudan slid into chaos in April 2023 when apower struggle between the military andthe rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into war throughout the country

TheRSF has blamed themilitary for the strike on the hospital. The army has denied the attack, but two military ofﬁcials said the strike was targeting anearby police station. They spoke on the conditionofanonymity as they werenot allowed to discuss the matter openly

Thedevastatingwar haskilled more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. ﬁgures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher

The WHO has said that over 2,000 people have been killed in attacks on medical facilities since the start of the war

“Enough blood has been spilled. Enough sufferinghas been inflicted. Thetimehas come to de-escalatethe conﬂict in Sudan,” said Ghebreyesus.

Deadly avalanche kills 2skiers in Italy

An avalanche in high alpine terrain in Italy‘s South Tyrolon Saturday killed two skiers, according to the country’s mountain rescue service. The avalanche happened at an altitude of around 7,874 feet on the slopes of the 8,757-foot Hohe Ferse (also known as Monte Tallone Grande) nearthe town of Ratschings, close to the border with Austria.

The CNSAS rescue service’s Bolzano emergency center reported that 25 skiers were caught in the avalanche. Besides the two dead, three were seriouslyinjuredand two lightly injured, it said.

The avalanche took place at 11:40 a.m. Arescue operation involved six helicopters and around 80 rescuers from CNSAS, the Alpine Association, police and firefighters, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

This season has seen an unusually high number of death from avalanches.European Avalanche WarningServices reports in its website avalanches. org that fatalities average 100 perseason. As of March 16, reported deaths this season starting Oct. 1were at 127, including 33 in Italy,31inFrance and 29 in Austria.

In early February,just as Italy was hosting the Winter Olympics, arecord 13 skiers haddied on the slopes during one week, including 10 in avalanches. Experts attributedthe deaths to an exceptionally unstable snowpack and the rush of skiing enthusiasts to off-piste slopes after recent heavy snowstorms.

Japanese national held in Iran released

TOKYO— Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Sunday that one of two Japanese nationals detained in Iran hasbeen released and is headed home.

Motegi, speaking on aFuji Television talk show,saidthe person had beendetained since last year and was released on Wednesday.Hesaid the person took aflight from Azerbaijan which was scheduled to arrive in Japan on Sunday Kyodo News agency and other Japanese mediasaid the former detainee later returned to Japan.

Motegi said another Japanese national who was arrested earlier this year is still in custody Motegi said the releasecame after his repeated demands to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and that he is “working to win an early release” of the otherdetainee while communicating with his family and other concerned parties.

Iran responds to Trump’sultimatum

Tehran threatens to ‘completely’ close strait, hitpower plants

BY ALON BERNSTEIN, SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

ARAD,Israel

TheUnited States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region.

Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil and other exports, wouldbe“completelyclosed” immediately if the U.S. follows up on President Donald Trump’sthreat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday seta 48-hour deadline to open the strait.

Israel deniedresponsibility for hitting Natanz on Saturday.The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike.

TheInternational Atomic Energy Agency has saidthe bulkofIran’s estimated 972 pounds of enriched uranium —the issue at the heart of tensions —iselsewhere, beneath the rubble at its Isfahan facility

Fighting intensifies in Lebanon

An Israeli civilianwas killedin his car in the northern town of MisgavAminwhatIsrael’s military originally said appeared to be a rocket attack. It later was looking into the possibility that the death was caused by Israeli soldiers’ ﬁre. Israeli authorities identiﬁed him as 61-year-old farmer Ofer “Poshko”Moskovitz. Twodaysago,he told aradio stationthatlivingnear the Lebanese border waslike “Russian roulette.”

Israelileaders visited one of two southern communities near asecretivenuclearresearchsite struck by Iranian missiles late Saturday,with scores of people wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a“miracle” no one was killed.

Netanyahu claimed Israel and theU.S.werewellontheir wayto achievingtheir wargoals.The aims have rangedfrom weakening Iran’s nuclear program, missile program and support for armed proxiesto enablingthe Iranian people to overthrowthe theocracy

There has been no sign of an uprising, norofanend to theﬁghting that has shaken theglobaleconomy, sent oil prices surging and endangered some of the world’sbusiest aircorridors. The war, which the U.S. and Israel launched Feb.28, haskilledover2,000 people.

TheIranian-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrikethatkilled aman in northern Israel, while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called Israel’snew targeting of bridges in thesouth“a prelude to aground invasion.”

“More weeks of ﬁghting against

Iran and Hezbollah are expected forus,” saidIsraelimilitaryspokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin. Power, waterplantsthreatened Iran has effectively closedthe Strait of Hormuz that connects thePersian Gulf to therest of the world, while claiming safe passage for vessels from countries other thanits enemies.Roughly one-fifth of global oil supply passesthrough it,but attacks on ships have stopped nearly all tanker traffic.

Trumpsaid if Iran didn’topen the strait, the U.S. would destroy its “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONEFIRST!”

The U.S. has argued that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard controls much of the country’s infrastructure and usesittopower thewar effort. Under international law, power plants that beneﬁt civilians can be targeted only if themilitary advantage outweighs the suffering it causes them, legal scholars say Iranian parliamentspeaker Mohammad BagherQalibaf responded on Xthat if Iran’spower plants and infrastructure are targeted,then vital infrastructure across the region —including energy and desalination facilitiescritical fordrink-

Family asks forclues in disappearance of NancyGuthrie

By The Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. Savannah Guthrie is renewing pleas to neighbors,friendsand residentsofTucson, Arizona, to jogtheir memoriesinthe hopesofsparking new leads in the disappearance of her mother

Nancy

The “Today Show”cohost posted anew family statementonher Instagram account Sunday morning, hours after the show’sInstagram account shared it.

After expressinggratitude to the community, thefamily said in its statement that it believes someone in Tucson or in southern Arizona may “hold the key to findingthe resolution in this case ”

“Someone knows something. It’s possible amember of this community has informationthattheydo notevenrealize is signiﬁcant.”

The family urgedpeople to go back overtheir memories between Jan. 31 —whenNancyGuthrie was last seen —and Feb. 1aswell as theeveningof Jan.11.

“Please consult camera footage, journal notes,

text messages, observations, or conversations that in retrospect may hold significance,” the statement said “No detail is toosmall.”

They also acknowledged in the statement that theirfamily’smatriarch may no longerbe alive.

“Wecannot grieve; we can only ache and wonder.”

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on Feb.

1. Authorities believe the 84-year-old was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will. The FBI released surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’sfront door on the night she vanished.

TheGuthriefamily hasoffered a$1million reward for information leading to therecoveryof their mother Savannah Guthrie visited the NBC “TodayShow” studio in NewYorkCity for the ﬁrst timesince her mother’sdisappearance on March 5. The show said she plans to return to the air at some point but “remainsfocused right now supporting her family andworking to help bring Nancy home.”

ing water in Gulf nations—would be considered legitimate targets and “irreversibly destroyed.”

Qalibaf later added that “entities thatﬁnance the US military budget arelegitimate targets.”

Attacks on power plants would be “inherently indiscriminate and clearly disproportionate”and a war crime, Iran’sU.N. ambassador wrote to theSecurityCouncil, according to the state-run IRNA news agency

Strikesbring nuclearconcerns

Iran said its strikes in the Negev Desertlate Saturdaywere in retaliation for thelatest attack on Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site in Natanz, according to state-run media.

Tehran praised itsattack as a show of strength,evenasIsrael’s military asserts that Iranian missile launches have decreased since thewar began.

Southern Israel’smain hospital received at least 175 wounded from Arad and Dimona, deputy director RoyKessous told The Associated Press. Israel is widely believedtopossess nuclear weapons, though it doesn’t conﬁrm or deny their existence.

Hezbollahlaunchedstrikeson Israel soon after the war began, calling it retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader AyatollahAli Khamenei. Israel thentargetedHezbollahwith airstrikes and expanded its ground presence in southern Lebanon.

Israel on Sundayexpandedits target list to include bridges over the Litani River that Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah is using to move ﬁghters andweapons to the south. Israel later struck the Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre, givinganhour’swarning. Destroying bridgesfurtherisolatesresidents from the rest of Lebanon.

Katz also orderedthe military to accelerate destruction of Lebanese homes near the border Lebanese authorities say Israel’s strikes have killed more than 1,000 people anddisplaced more than1 million. Meanwhile, Hezbollahhas ﬁred hundreds of rockets intoIsrael.

Iran’sdeathtollinthe war has surpassed 1,500, its health ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. More than adozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have been killed in strikes.

California sheriffrunning for governor seizes 2025 ballots

By The Associated Press

RIVERSIDE, Calif. ACalifornia sheriff running for governor has seized more than half amillion ballots castina November special election from countyelection officials, saying he’s investigating aballot count discrepancy County elections ofﬁcials have disputed the claims by Riverside CountySheriff Chad Bianco, aRepublican. California Attorney General RobBonta, a Democrat, called Bianco’s move unprecedented and says it is designedtosow distrust in elections Biancoheld anews conference Friday saying his office hadlaunchedthe investigation after receiving acomplaint from alocal citizens group about the ballot count from aNovember 2025 special electiononredistricting.

In the special election, votersapproved ameasuretoredraw congressionaldistrict lines to favor Democrats in the upcoming midtermelection. Themeasure passed in the countybyamargin of morethan 80,000 votes.

Biancoseized ballots in Riverside County, the inland California county of 2.5 million people where he hastwice been elected sheriff. He called the effort “a fact-ﬁnding mission.”

“Thisinvestigation is simple: Physically count theballots andcompare thatresult withthe total votes reported,”hesaid Friday

Bianco is one of two prominent Republicans running forgovernor in acrowded June primary that includesmorethan half adozenDemocrats. California runs atop-two primarysystemthatputs all candidates on the same ballot, regardless of party,

and sends the two candidates who getthe most voters onto the Novembergeneral election.

Leading California Democratsare worried thattheir partyhas so many candi-

be astunning outcome in the heavily Democratic state.

theadvocate.com/subscribe E-Edition: theadvocate.com/eedition

AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By MoHAMMAD ZAATARI smoke and flames rise sunday after an Israeli airstrike hit the Qasmiyeh

Bridgenear the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon.

dates, they risk splitting the vote and sending Bianco and Steve Hilton, another top Republican, onto the general election. That would

AssoCIATEDPREss PHoTo By REBECCA NoBLE yellow flowers and notes were left at the Tucson, Ariz home of NancyGuthrie, the missingmother of ‘Today’ showhost savannah Guthrie.

Plan for use of ICE officers at airports draws concerns

BY SEUNG MIN KIM and LISA MASCARO Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s decision to order federal immigration agents to U.S. airports to help with security during a budget impasse is drawing concerns that their presence may escalate tensions among air travelers frustrated over hourslong waits and screeners angry about missed paychecks

Trump made clear on Sunday that he was going ahead with the plan to have immigration enforcement ofﬁcers assist the Transportation Security Administration by guarding exit lanes or checking passenger IDs unless Democrats agreed to fund the Department of Homeland Security Democrats are demanding major changes federal immigration operations and showing no sign of backing down.

Hundreds of thousands of homeland security workers, including from the TSA, U.S. Secret Service and Coast Guard, have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month.

“Bad idea,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, about the new airport security plan, which Trump said would start Monday

“What we need to do is, we need to get the DHS issues resolved, we need to get the TSA agents paid,” she told reporters at the Capitol, where the Senate held a rare weekend session.

“Do you really want to have even additional tensions on top of what we are already

Cuba

facing?”

Senators advanced the nomination of Sen Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to be Trump’s next homeland security secretary by a largely party-line vote, 54-37, with two Democrats joining most Republicans. A vote on the conﬁrmation could come as early as Monday Mullin has tried to make the case that he would be a steady hand after the tumultuous tenure of Kristi Noem, Trump’s ﬁrst DHS secretary

Border czar leads effort

White House border czar Tom Homan, named by Trump to lead the new airport security effort, has also been meeting with a bipartisan group of senators over the partial shutdown While he characterized those ses-

sions as “good conversations,” he said they were “not at a point yet where we’re in total agreement.”

Meanwhile, Homan said in Sunday news show interviews that the increased role of U.S Customs and Immigrations Enforcement at airports — their speciﬁc duties and numbers — was subject to discussions with the leadership of TSA and ICE. DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said “hundreds” of ICE ofﬁcers would be deployed, but she would not disclose the airports where they would go, citing security reasons.

“It’s a work in progress,” Homan said. The priority, he said, was “the large airports where there’s a long wait, like three hours.”

That was the case Sunday at Atlanta’s Hartsﬁeld-Jack-

son International Airport. Some travelers waited in line for nearly six hours at the main security checkpoint, where only two TSA agents were on hand midafternoon to check IDs. Many missed their ﬂights and scrambled to book later flights or add themselves to standby lists that were already dozens of names long.

Homan said immigration ofﬁcers, as an example, could cover exits currently monitored by TSA agents, freeing them to work screening lines. Another option, he said, was having ICE agents check identiﬁcation before people enter screenings areas.

“We’re going to be a force multiplier,” Homan said, while also acknowledging there were limits.

“I don’t see an ICE agent

looking at an X-ray machine, because we’re not trained in that,” he said. He pledged to have “a plan by the end of today, where we’re sending — what airports we’re starting with and where we’re sending them.”

But Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 50,000 TSA employees, condemned Trump’s plan, saying in a statement that ICE agents are not trained or certiﬁed in aviation security

“Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe,” Kelley said Sunday “They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”

Budget talks stall

Democrats have said they are willing to fund TSA and most other parts of DHS as they press for immigration operations changes after the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement operation. ICE and other immigration operations are largely being paid during the partial shutdown, thanks to an inﬂux of cash from Trump’s big tax breaks bill last year

“There are lots of ideas swirling right now,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “The good news in all that is people realizing this has to get ﬁxed, it has to get solved.”

As budget talks stayed behind closed doors Sunday,

senators said they had few details of which airports or how many immigration ofﬁcers were being dispatched. Some welcomed the effort.

“I don’t think it can hurt,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, RS.D. “They can help relieve some of the pressure.”

Trump said in a social media post that on Monday, “ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job” despite the partial government shutdown. He further criticized Democrats. Travelers at some airports worried about reaching their gates Sunday At Atlanta’s airport, lines wrapped from one end of the airport to the other The scene appeared more chaotic at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Large crowds of anxious travelers piled toward security checkpoints, and TSA staff shouted through megaphones to tell people not to push one another For Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, one concern is the uncertainty that passengers are facing over possible wait times at any airport on any given day

“So

begins to restore power after nationwide grid collapse

BY ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ

Associated Press

HAVANA Cuba began restoring its energy system on Sunday, a day after a nationwide collapse of the entire grid left millions of people in the dark for the third time this month.

Some 72,000 customers in the capital, among them ﬁve hospitals, had electricity again early Sunday, according to a report from the state-run Electric Union and the Ministry of Energy and Mines, but it’s only a fraction of Havana’s total population of approximately 2 million. In Havana and provinces such as western Matanzas and eastern Holguin, local power microsystems were set up to supply the most vital centers. Residents in some areas of the capital told The Associated Press that power returned during the early morning hours Cuba is currently facing an unprecedented energy crisis. Its aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, but the government has also blamed the outages on a U.S. energy blockade, after President Donald

EsPINosA

AssoCIATED PREss sPHoTo By RAMoN

People spend the night in the dark on the Malecon during a blackout on saturday in Havana.

Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba His administration is demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions. Trump also has raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba.”

Another reason Cuba has been struggling with dwindling oil is the removal by the U.S. of Venezuela’s former President Nicolás Maduro, which halted critical petro-

leum shipments from the nation that had been a steadfast ally to Havana.

President Miguel DíazCanel has said the island has not received oil from foreign suppliers for three months. Cuba produces barely 40% of the fuel it needs to power its economy Daily blackouts have a significant impact on the population, whose lives are disrupted by reduced work hours, lack of electricity for cooking and damage to household appliances, among many other consequences.

settlers smash cars and set fires in the West Bank

BY SAM METZ Associated Press

RAMALLAH,West Bank Israeli settlers rampaged through multiple Palestinian villages overnight Saturday and into Sunday, smashing cars, setting ﬁres and wounding several men in the latest ﬂare-up of violence in the occupied West Bank.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported attacks in at least six communities on Sunday The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said at least three Palestinians in the village of Jalud suffered head wounds from beatings and were hospitalized after confronting settlers, who were also reported injured. The rampage came a day after an 18-year-old Israeli settler was killed in a collision with a Palestinian vehicle in an area near two of the villages attacked. Police

said they are investigating the settlers’ claims that the collision was deliberate. The violence came as Israel’s government also presses ahead with new settlements in the occupied West Bank. Attacks by settlers have intensiﬁed alongside a broader surge in violence since the Iran war started. Israel’s military said it responded to Israeli civilians carrying out “arson against structures and property, as well as engaging in disturbances in the area,” but did not report any arrests or indicate whether investigations were opened. WAFA reported attacks in the villages of Silat al Dahr and Fandaqumiya, both near Jenin; in Jalud and Salfit, both south of Nablus; and in the agricultural regions Masafer Yatta and the Jordan Valley Homes and cars were set ablaze Palestinians were pepper-sprayed and at least

ﬁve people were wounded in the overnight assaults, which took place during the Eid alFitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the agency said.

The United Nations Ofﬁce for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year as of March 15. The Palestinian Authority has also documented a series of arson attacks, including on mosques, across the territory Also on Sunday, four Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said.

One strike hit a vehicle in the central Nuseirat refugee camp and killed three police officers, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Ten others were wounded, it said. Another Palestinian was killed in Gaza City according to Shifa Hospital.

“With the blackout and low voltage, my refrigerator broke — that was today The day before yesterday, the voltage also dropped

around 10 at night,” Suleydi Crespo, a 33-year-old woman with two small children, told AP on Saturday “If there’s no electricity tomorrow, we

won’t be able to get water.” Residents also expressed exhaustion from the constant outages, whether nationwide or partial.

BY JESSICA HILL Associated Press

HONOLULU More than 2,000 people remained without power Sunday afternoon after Hawaii suffered its worst ﬂooding in more than 20 years when heavy rains fell across the islands.

Heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week ago. Raging waters lifted homes and cars, causing an expected $1 billion in damages. The storm prompted evaluation orders for 5,500 people north of Honolulu though they were later lifted — and more than 200 people were rescued from the rising waters. No deaths have been reported as of yet, Molly Pierce, spokesperson for Oahu’s Department of Emergency Management,

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Continued from page 1A

Collectively, these 12 schools educate about 5,000 students. Cole says he plans to change schedules at more schools in fall 2027 and add the remaining directrun schools in fall 2028 That’s roughly 50 schools, educating about 27,000 students. Free hand

The superintendent is receiving strong support thus far — and broad autonomy — from the parish School Board. Several board members say they’ve been pushing for new start times for years, especially for older students

The board voted unanimously Thursday to give Cole a free hand for three years to reset individual school schedules without having to get board approval each time In so doing, it handed over authority that it historically has reserved for itself.

One reason for the handover is uncertainty over how quickly the district’s beleaguered Transportation Department can handle that much change. Reform efforts have been slowed by an ongoing shortage of drivers The new start times work only if there are enough drivers to allow for direct bus routes without the need for transfers.

To attract more drivers, Cole plans to propose districtwide employee pay raises in May which will include drivers.

“I am concerned about granting the superintendent a three-year blank check to change school start times,” said Michael Stevens in an online comment Thursday.

Board member Dadrius Lanus rejected the idea that the board is giving away its authority

“The board still holds the voting power to change, modify or ﬁx this plan at any time we feel like,” Lanus said. The issue is personal for Lanus. Growing up, he recalled having to leave a high-performing but distant school in Baton Rouge.

“My mom had to go to work before I had to go stand on the corner at 6 a.m. So if I missed the bus, that was a problem,” Lanus said. “And I missed the bus quite frequently because (I was) not getting enough sleep.” Lanus persuaded his colleagues

said Sunday afternoon. By Sunday afternoon, Hawaiian Electric restored power to about 1,200 people in Waialua on the

North Shore of O’ahu, according to the company Customers’ power was proactively turned off Friday because of the ﬂooding.

Crews continue to assess the damage and make repairs, and Hawaiian Electric expects to return power to 2,000 more people later Sunday. On Maui County about 100 people were without power Sunday afternoon, and all major outages were addressed on Hawai’i Island, according to the company The worst of the storms appear to be over, Hawaii meteorologist Matthew Foster told The Associated Press. By Sunday afternoon, the weather shifted from widespread showers to scattered rain from Oahu, Maui County to Big Island, Foster said Less than 5 inches of rain is expected for the Big Island, with between 1 to 2 inches in other areas. Winds will pick up out of the northeast sides of the islands, which have more vegetation and can handle more rain, Foster said. It will take a couple days for the moisture to push past the islands, and drier and more typical March weather can be expected by Wednesday Additional ﬂooding could still oc-

to have the superintendent hold four public meetings each year, one virtual, to inform communities in town of what’s happening with start times.

Takeover fears

The start time changes coming for the six Belaire-area schools are part of a larger package of changes for those same schools and consequently still need to be voted on by the board. Cole anticipates bringing that proposal back to the board in April.

As part of the package, the four elementary schools that feed into Belaire High would pivot from traditional elementary grade conﬁgurations It is modeled on similar changes instituted this school year at four elementaries in the Capitol and Glen Oaks areas.

Two of the four Belaire schools would become prekindergarten-tosecond-grade-only schools, dubbed “foundational learning centers.”

The other two would have classes only in third to ﬁfth grades.

All four schools, though, would have larger attendance zones, pulling students from a wider swath of this eastern stretch of north Baton Rouge.

The foundational learning centers are a key change. They represent an experiment in trying to advance the youngest children faster One feature is these schools have added staff to allow for team teaching in core classes

“We have seen growth in our

students, particularly at our foundational learning centers,” Cole said.

Louisiana’s new, tougher school accountability system is fueling the urgency to change. High schools, in particular, are expected to lose substantial ground under the new system.

Capitol High’s latest state-issued letter grade is a C, up from an F the previous year Glen Oaks and Belaire high schools have Ds. All three are at risk of declining under the new system, which relies much more heavily on standardized test results.

Of the five feeders to Belaire High, two have Cs, two have Ds, and one, Park Forest Middle, has an F. The middle school this year forced its faculty to reapply for their jobs. The school also adopted an intensive reform known as the Teacher Advancement Program.

The Louisiana Department of Education has resumed taking over and threatening to take over low-performing schools across the state and handing them over to charter schools. Cole alluded to this development.

“There is often times a movement to do something with our schools that we don’t have a choice in,” Cole said.

Body of research

Louisiana has among the earliest start times in the country for its secondary schools, and East Baton Rouge’s are among the earliest in the state.

students make their way toward the exit after the final bell at Belaire Magnet High school on Tuesday.

sTAFF PHoTo By

JAVIER GALLEGos

Since 2003, public middle and high schools in Baton Rouge have started their day at 7:10 a.m. If students eat school breakfast, they need to be at school before 7 a.m. And students who transfer to a second bus have to be at the bus stop well before sunrise.

A backlash has built up over time.

School ofﬁcials argue that the new start times have several potential beneﬁts: fewer children waiting for and riding buses in the dark; teenagers getting a better night’s sleep; increased student achievement; less truancy and absenteeism; and improved student transportation.

They also point to academic research documenting the negative effects of early start times on teenagers and the potential benefits they’d gain if they could sleep in.

They’ve cited research from several organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“We hope that this will have an impact on student learning,” Cole told an audience of more than 150 people who gathered Monday at Belaire High.

Promise,reality

While a mixed bag on the whole, the recent consultant report on start times found that Capitol and Glen Oaks high schools have shown some signs of promise, including reduced tardies, a dip in expulsions and fewer students earning Ds and Fs.

cur, but more on an isolated scale rather than widespread, Foster said.

A boil water notice remained in place Sunday for North Shore areas from Mokuleia to Turtle Bay, and residents were encouraged to report damages to the city Gov Josh Green said the cost of the storm could top $1 billion, including damage to airports, schools, roads, homes and a Maui hospital in Kula.

Ofﬁcials were concerned that the 120-year-old Wahiawa dam could fail, though that worry has primarily passed since water levels have dropped, Pierce said. The dam continues to be monitored.

Winter storm systems known as “Kona lows,” which feature southerly or southwesterly winds that bring in moisture-laden air, have been responsible for the deluges in the past two weeks The intensity and frequency of heavy rains in Hawaii have increased amid human-caused global warming, experts say

spoke at the Belaire community meeting and had good things to say

“As far as academics, (the students) are alert, they’re ready to go,” Randall said.

Several audience members, however, expressed concern.

Drawing on data from her grade book, Laura Efferson, a magnet teacher at Glen Oaks High, said she’s not seeing better attendance in her classes, saying many students are missing far too many classes.

“They’re missing nine, 10, 11, 16, 17 days,” Efferson said. “They may not even have enough minutes to pass.”

Efferson said moving the end of the school day to so much later this year has led to students leaving early or skipping school entirely so they can work midafternoon shifts at places like Amazon.

“We are a town of shift workers,” she said.

Kendra Jackson, parent at Park Forest Elementary said the changes, which will mean older students transferring to nearby Greenbrier Elementary, will undermine that school’s creative arts and science magnet programs.

“What will happen to those magnet dollars, and what will happen to the programs that have been implemented, and will they still be implemented?” Jackson said.

Myron Smothers, a broadcast and digital media teacher at Belaire High, said he might support new start times, but he resents learning about them so late.

“Why are the teachers not involved?” Smothers asked pointedly “I feel like we don’t get asked. We know we’re having this meeting, but it has already been decided for us.” Cole detailed multiple meetings he’s had with teachers, and he said he will have more meetings, but he said he has to keep his focus on what will help students the most.

“Some of the conversations I’ve had were positive. Some were not so positive,” Cole said. “None of those conversations were about what I consider the most important thing, which is putting kids in a position to be successful.”

The superintendent said he’s open to changing direction if data ultimately tells a different story

Email Charles Lussier at clussier@theadvocate.com.

Glen Oaks High Principal Eric Randall

Board of County Commissioners

The ﬂights are transforming the Florida Panhandle city from aregional retreat for vacationersfrommetros like New Orleans and Atlanta to agetaway popular with travelers from across the nation. It is also asign of how much tourism is expanding across the Gulf Coast as the region’spopulation keeps rising.

“This opens up the door to alot of new people,” Fort Walton Beach Mayor Nic Allegretto said this month, afew days after the airline JetBlue launched its first nonstop ﬂights to the region from Boston and New York

City.Southwest Airlines is startingseasonal nonstop service from Pittsburgh in June. New Allegiantroutes from Denver and Columbia, Missouri, will also start this spring andsummer.

“We’reready forit,” he said Locals say the newcomers are shifting Fort Walton’s fortunes. The city is still less crowded and developed than Destin,just afew minutes’ driveaway.But it is growingfast.

Hotelsand restaurants have so many new job openings that somebusinesses areturning to visa programs that allow employees from around theworldtoclean rooms or waittables for the summer

there going to be sharks down here?’”she said.

Flightsfueltourism

department’spriority is to improve efficiency and “fight fraud, waste, and abuse” in the state’sMedicaid program.

In astatement, Health Department spokesperson AmyWhitehead said“a combination of proper eligibility redeterminations and arobust economy has led to appropriate Medicaiddisenrollment.”

Confirmingeligibility

Like in states across the country,Medicaid enrollment in Louisiana expanded in recent years as pandemicera protections kept people from being kicked off the program— from 1.6 million people in February 2020 to just over 2million in March 2023, according to state Health Department data

Those protections included automatic renewals of Medicaid coverage,regardless of incomeorother changes.

But people in Louisiana and across the U.S. rapidly lost coverage when states resumed eligibilitychecks at Congress’ direction— a process known as “unwinding.” In Louisiana, enrollment has since dropped to below pre-COVID numbers, falling below 1.5 million in February for the ﬁrst time since 2016, according to state data.

Astate law that took effect last year requires the state to verify eligibility information using existing government data and by conﬁrming directly with Medicaid recipients.

Medicaid recipients must be Louisiana residents, and state health ofﬁcialsbegan last year to check residency through the Ofﬁce of Motor Vehicles, Whitehead said. The state has also begun to do more frequent eligibility checks for people who have not used Medicaid services for at least 21/2 years.

The state discovered more than 39,000 people on the Medicaid rolls who wereno longer eligible or who are dead, she said.

At aHouseAppropriations Committee meeting review-

And as advertisements go national, some Fort Walton Beach attractions are already serving customers from the Midwestwho are not used to thewater

The tourists arebringing more tax dollars and thrillinglocal leaders. Tourism jobs are energizing the economyand leading to low unemployment.The boost is funding city amenities, including parks. And visitors arriving by plane could bring in even more money because theycannot bring coolers packed with food, andtheyoften visit local storestobuy beach toys.

The shift is also fueling debate and creating some challenges. Some leaders disagree on whether the visitorseason should last year-round. Local housing is hard to ﬁnd, so businesses are trying to lure employees who can drive to workfrom Alabama. The city wants to improve road infrastructure to easetraffic andis working with thestate on a $171 million bridge replacement

“Visitors will hopefully pardon our dust,” the mayor said.

The shift is intentional.

Walton Beach, amilitary townofabout 21,000.

“That’sgoing to all change as the growth comes this way,”Ketchel,the county commissioner, said. Locals say they are noticing thedifference. Regional tourists arestill visiting, but charterboat captains are also reassuring waryinland tourists that life jackets are on board.Other visitors are often delighted to seedolphins forthe ﬁrst time.

“They arewondering if they’regoing to get seasick,” said AmyPayne,who owns Sandy BottomBoat Tours in FortWalton Beach and is increasinglymeeting first-time visitors whoare leery of marine life.

“People arelike, ‘Are

“Itopens it up to atotally new demographic of visitors,”saidTed Corcoran, president of theGreater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not just peaking in thesummer,” he added. “Now youhave folks ﬂying down here in March.”

ingthe HealthDepartment’s budget last week, Rep. Stephanie Berault, R-Slidell, applauded thestate’swork.

“I even saw thatwe are downnow to thelowest we’vebeen since 2016,” said Berault.

“It seemstomeatleast from what I’veheard that no onewho is eligible has lost their benefits to this point, which Ithink is great,” Beraultsaid, as Greenstein noddedinagreement.

Experts estimate that as many as 100,000 more people in the state could loseMedicaid coverage when federal work requirements for the program begin nextyear, though stateofficials have put thatﬁgure muchlower Those rules willrequire Medicaidrecipientstobe workingonengaging in other activities like community serviceorschool Snagsinthe process

Butsomehealth care providers say the state’spracticesare ﬂawed.Dr. Alecia Cyprian, CEO of Southeast Community Health Systems, which operates health centers across foursoutheast Louisiana parishes,said the statehas at timesstripped people of coverage after attempts to reach them have failed. Often, the state has outdated patientcontact information.

“Sometimes their phone numbers,their physicaladdresseschange Notkeep-

ing thatinformation updated is impacting the abilityof people to maintain coverage,”said Cyprian, who noted the uninsured rateamong patients at the 21 healthcenters sheoversees increased from 5% in 2022 to 11% in 2025.

InaSimmons, 83, is one of those people. The West Bank resident said sheand her88-year-old brother both found themselves without health insuranceinFebruary aftertheymissedordidn’t understandstate letters that asked them to submit information as part of eligibility checks

Simmons’ daughter Nanette McCain rushed to renew their plans, and thefamily is hopefulthatMedicaid will retroactively reimburse themfor bills theyincurred during thein-between time. But the experience was frustrating.

“I think it’shideousthat you would take older people.

Iam83years old, and they’remaking me suffer, said Simmons.“We worked allour livesand nowwe’re on retirement, and this is what you’re doing to us?”

Whitehead did not respond to aquestionabout Simmons’ claim.

Impact on health providers

At the same time, dwindling Medicaid income has hurt the budgets of some Louisiana health care providers.

Kevin Gardere, CEO at Bridge House, aresidential addiction treatment facility, said thefacility’spercentage of patientsonMedicaid droppedfrom 82% in 2021 to 61% in 2025.

The organization now relies more on other sources of incometokeep up services,like revenues from its usedcar lot andthrift store.

County and airport leaders have pushedfor more carriersoverthe last decade, and Allegiantmade theDestinFort WaltonBeach Airport ahub in 2018. For years, Destin has boasted higher name recognitionthanFort

It’salso hadtocut into savings.

“Wenever hadtodip into savings until the end of 2023,” said Gardere.“We’ve been operating at adeﬁcit.

Dr.Rochelle Head-Dunham, executivedirectorof the Metropolitan Human Services District, amental health andaddiction treatment organization, said the organization saw an 11% decrease in clients with Medicaid from 2024 to 2025 and then another20% decrease over the past year

“Wemake it happen regardless,”saidHead-Dunham, whose organization receivesmostofits funding from the state’sgeneral fund andfrom federal grants.“We don’thavethe luxury of choice here. They still have to be seen by us.”

Odyssey House, too, has worked hard in recent years to treat patients, regardless of their ability to pay.From ﬁscal year 2024 to 2025, the organization spent$2.4million at itsNew Orleansfacilitiestocover care that wasn’t coveredbyinsurance, said its CEO, Ed Carlson. While theorganization hastypically receivedreimbursement for services

“If Icould take it off the map as atourist destination andhaveitjust be thequiet littleplace it was, I’dprefer that,” said Michael Percy, whoteaches kiteboarding and electric-powered surfing at his Fort Walton Beach business,XLKites

“But there’snoputting that cat in thebag,” he said. “The word is out.”

by helping patients enroll in Medicaid once they are in treatment, Carlsonsaid the denialrate hasskyrocketed in recentmonths. Just around aﬁfth of participants who’ve applied have been approved sinceJuly1.He saidthe deniallettersdon’t include areason

“I’m dealing with people who only have the shirt on theirback —Idon’t understandhow they wouldn’t qualify,” said Carlson. But this year,the organization’sboardvoted to limit spending on care foruninsured people. With fewer patients being treated, Odyssey House has reduced stafﬁngstatewidebyaround 90 people —roughly aﬁfth of itsworkforce —overthe past several months, Carlsonsaid.

Theconsequencesofcutting back on treatmentcan be deadly,Carlsonsaid. “People aren’tgetting access to care, so they’re on the streets,” said Carlson. “Theyjustkeep using and they either getarrested, or they’re doing illegalactivity, or they’re dying.” Staff writer Emily Woodruff contributed to this report.

BREC unveils plan for park

Fairgrounds renovation would be economic boon for st. George

BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT staff writer

A massive redevelopment of the Baton Rouge Fairgrounds — also known as Airline Highway Park is planned over the next two years that will allow the facility to host baseball championships, vintage car shows and farmers markets.

Bound by Airline Highway and Ward Creek, the 133-acre park in St. George has been slated for redevelopment for years. The park has been redesigned somewhat from an initial master plan completed in 2021, with current renderings including a large baseball complex, sports ﬁelds, a walking trail and a recreation center St. George City Council member at-large David Dellucci emphasized the variety of sports and events the park will be able to host, saying it would be a boon to the city

“The economic impact that this is going to have on St. George is going to be enormous. Enormous,” he said. “Families spend anywhere from $700 to $1,000 a week on sports. They travel. I’m a traveling parent. There are other traveling parents in here. This is an opportunity where we can stay here. We can stay in our own city and host those events and those sports.”

At a meeting at the St. George Fire Station on Thursday, BREC ofﬁcials said the park will be built in phases Funds of around $9 million to $10 million have been allocated for the ﬁrst phase, which will likely include much of the area along Airline Highway The back half of the park is planned for later development, although there isn’t a set timeline yet.

Angela Harms, the director of project development at BREC, said construction is planned to begin in 2027 after the design is ﬁnalized from public input.

“Our timeline is for this wonderful team to have all of these plans ready by the end of the year,” she said. “So we’re taking it from our master plan level — kind of a broad level of detail — getting it down to the nitty-gritty, going out to bid by the end of the year, and construction for all of 2027.”

A survey is currently open for St George residents to solicit feedback on the plans.

BREC ofﬁcials also explained a new tiered recreation center model they’re working on for the entire parish. Brett Wallace, the assistant director of planning and development at BREC, said the goal was to use resources more efﬁciently to add air conditioning to some of these centers.

“We have one of the highest per capita rates for rec centers in the nation; that’s roughly 56 rec centers in the parish,” he said “The problem we have is that many of those gyms were built in the ’70s and ’80s and did not feature air conditioning.”

The tier model will split the centers into one of three categories.

The ﬁrst tier will be for major parks, with recreation centers being upgraded to include indoor air conditioning, indoor tracks and an option for outdoor sports courts. Recreation centers in the second tier will have air conditioning, but will also be used as community meeting spaces and include possible covered outdoor courts. The third tier will be for outdoor covered or uncovered courts.

“By creating these three tiers, the tier one is the heaviest maintenance costs and stafﬁng costs, and as we move down the tiers, it relieves the burden of the costs but still provides the recreation access and facilities,” Wallace said.

METRO NEWS

Woman granted bail in rape case

Girl told police mother ignored reports of molestation

BY QUINN COFFMAN staff writer

A Baton Rouge woman has spent six months in jail over allegations she ignored her young daughter’s reports that a family friend had been molesting her Now, the mother’s family is trying to clear her name.

Kadijah Selders, 32, has been in the East Baton Rouge Parish jail since September after being arrested on a count of principal to ﬁrst-degree rape of a minor

On Thursday, she was granted a chance to get out of jail on bail, which was set at $300,000.

Selders’ family originally contacted Baton Rouge police in September, looking to have 60-yearold Gary Head arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting Selders’ daughter multiple times over two years.

The girl reported Head to four older family members after traveling with him out of state to visit them on a family vacation. The last alleged assault, which the girl said regularly happened in

the car, reportedly was committed just before the start of the trip.

Head had been a close friend of the family for nine years, their attorney David Capasso, told The Advocate.

“This man entered their life, went to church with them, had meals with them, drove them around, went shopping, did babysitting, did day care. He was always a pleasant old man,” Capasso said. “They had no idea they had a pedophile in their midst.”

According to Capasso, Selders ﬁrst met Head online and rejected the older man’s attempts to date her. She was pregnant with her daughter at the time.

Head, however, slowly became a part of the family when he and Selders’ mother, Alexis Selders, became friends. Alexis Selders also introduced Head to their church, and the man claimed to become a Christian with her guidance, Capasso said.

Alexis Selders, speaking to The Advocate, said Head acted as a helper for the family and had experience with his own grandchildren.

When Kadijah Selders took on a night-shift job, Head began watching her children overnight. He would have rarely been alone with the children, except for when driving them somewhere or after other family members had gone to

sleep, Capasso said.

Head’s alleged predation wasn’t revealed until Sept. 5 after he had driven the children to Alabama to join the rest of the family for a vacation.

While in front of Head and multiple family members, the child said she didn’t want to go anywhere with Head and was sick of him touching her

“Can you imagine the feeling of a grandmother and an aunt listening to this, with their mouths open? And Gary is standing right in the same room,” Capasso said.

Alexis Selders then ordered the family back to Baton Rouge to take the child to a hospital and made Head accompany them to turn himself in.

In an affidavit for Head’s arrest, an interviewing officer notes the family’s stories of the child’s admission were all consistent with each other The affidavit notes the family told police Head acted strangely after being called out, and later attempted to pack his things and leave.

He was arrested two days later on a count of ﬁrst-degree rape of a child under 13. Head’s afﬁdavit describes him as Kadijah Selders’ boyfriend.

Kadijah Selders, who did not go on the trip to Alabama, was told by her family to come to the hos-

Pop of color

pital for her daughter’s forensic interview

In the interview, the victim detailed the abuse to police, saying it had been ongoing for two years.

The girl also told police that she had reported the assaults to her mother multiple times but was called a liar, according to the afﬁdavit. Kadijah Selders never reported the alleged assaults to the police.

In her own interview, Kadijah Selders denied having any knowledge of the abuse. The afﬁdavit for her arrest describes her version of events as “inconsistent.”

According to Capasso, the child, who has been in the care of an aunt since her mother’s arrest, has recanted what she said about her mother ignoring her reports about the molestation.

Capasso believes the state’s case against Kadijah Selders is based only on this initial conversation with the child and won’t hold up to re-evaluation.

He added that if she is subject to any charge, it should be closer to neglect or contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, not a charge that is equivalent to the assault itself.

Kadijah Selders’ next hearing is scheduled for April 20 her attorney said.

Head’s next hearing is set for April 22.

slidell bird was emaciated, had infection, lab says

BY WILLIE SWETT staff writer

Lab results reviewed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries shed new light on what might have caused the death in January of a Slidell bird that captured the attention of birders around southeast Louisiana, earning the nickname the “Goth Heron.”

Photos of the bird’s striking black feathers drew observers to Davis Landing in Slidell and sparked widespread debate online about whether the bird was a rare melanistic great blue heron or if its feathers were stained. Experienced birders at the Orleans Audubon Society at one point said it might be a great egret.

Wildlife and Fisheries identiﬁed the bird as a juvenile female great blue heron. Then after the bird died, there was further debate about what

caused it.

In an initial examination, Jonathan Roberts, the LDWF state wildlife veterinarian, found that the bird was stained due to exposure to an oily substance. The bird was not melanistic, meaning its black feathers were not the result of a genetic mutation.

Roberts sent the bird’s carcass to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study diagnostic laboratory in Georgia for a necropsy an autopsy performed on an animal.

The necropsy showed multiple factors contributed to the heron’s death, Roberts said in a statement. The heron was suffering from extreme emaciation, a severe gastrointestinal parasite infection and exposure to the chemical compounds contained in the oily substance that coated it, he said.

“Initially, I thought, ‘Did this thing get hit by a car?’” recalled Greg Capranica, an avid birder who found the heron dead in a ditch on Jan. 5.

“It’s validating to hear that something environmental did have to play in this bird’s death,” Capranica said, adding that he

hopes the attention the bird generated will lead to more attention to any possible environmental pollution in the area.

The chemical compounds found in the oily substance are usually created by the burning of petroleum products, Roberts also said, and chronic exposure to them typically causes immune suppression, red blood cell damage and infertility Roberts said it was unknown where the bird might have been exposed to burning petroleum products. The home range of great blue herons is not usually greater than 10 miles from their nesting sites, he said.

The oily substance coated and matted the bird’s feathers, causing it to lose the ability to repel water, regulate body temperature and sustain ﬂight, Roberts said.

He said there was also cold weather around the time the bird was sighted, Roberts said, which may have caused the bird to have some level of hypothermia because of the oily feathers.

The repeated bouts of hypothermia, the reduced flight and the reduced ability to hunt all likely

contributed to the bird’s emaciation, Roberts said, as did its gastrointestinal infection.

If a resident sees an oiled animal, they can contact the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries by calling LDWF’s Oil Spill Hotline at (337) 735-8677 and contact the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality by calling (225) 219-3640 or the toll-free number (888) 763-5424. Email Willie Swett at willie. swett@theadvocate.com.

sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN

A male northern cardinal perches in a tree in the Forest Community Park recently in Baton Rouge.

Lookingtoward2028, Democratssharpen criticisms of Vance

BY JULIE CARR SMYTH and JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press

FAIRFIELD,Ohio

Although President

Donald Trump is the top Democratic nemesis, some of the party’smost ambitious leaders are increasingly looking past him and at Vice President JD Vance.

In the latest example, Kentucky

Gov.Andy Besheartraveled to Vance’shome county in Ohio, where on Saturday night he said the vice presidenthad abandonedthe communities that he wrote aboutinthe memoir that made him famous.

Beshear said “Hillbilly Elegy, which detailed Vance’shardscrabble upbringing, had “trafﬁcked in tired stereotypes.”

“His book ‘HillbillyElegy’ was really hillbilly hate,” the governor said at aDemocratic fundraiserin ButlerCounty.“It is povertytourism, becauseheain’t fromAppalachia.”

The broadside was not only asign of Beshear’sown potential presidential aspirations, but areﬂection of Vance’sstatus as the Republican heir apparent to the coalition that twice elected Trumptothe White House

“With everyday that passes,we get closer to aday when Donald Trump is no longer president. And we need to prepare forthat day,” said Lis Smith, aDemocratic strategist. “Right now,JDVanceisaclear front-runner for the 2028 nomination. And so we should begindeﬁning him —not in 2027,not in 2028 —but today.”

Vance spokesperson TaylorVan Kirk brushed off Beshear’scriticism as coming from aﬂawed messenger

“Every time Andy Beshear attacks the vice president to tryto gethimselfpublicity, he endsup humiliating himself in the process,

supremeCourt to hear election case Monday

BY BECKY BOHRER Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska

The tiny Alaska Native village of Beaver is about 40 minutes —by plane —from the nearest city.Its roughly 50 residents relyonweekday ﬂightsfor mail and many of their basic supplies, from groceries to Amazon deliveries of everyday household items.

Air service plays an outsize role in thenation’smost expansive state, where most communitiesrely on flights for year-round access. Planes also play acritical role in elections, getting voting materials and ballots to and from rural precincts such as Beaver and in deliveringballots forthousandsof Alaskans who vote by mail some in places where in-person voting is not available

The vast distances and relative isolation of so many communities make Alaska unique and are why its residents have asigniﬁcant interest in arguments taking place Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many here worry that a case from Mississippi challenging whether ballots received after Election Day can be counted in federal elections could end Alaska’s practice of accepting latearriving ballots. Alaska countsballots if they are postmarked by Election Day and received within 10 days, or 15 days for overseas voters in general elections.

“These processes have beeninplace for along time just to ensurethatour ballots are counted,” said Rhonda Pitka, apoll worker and ﬁrst chief in Beaver, which sits along theYukon River 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Fairbanks.

If the court decides ballots in all states must be received by Election Day,she said, “They’ll be disenfranchising thousands of people —thousands of people in these rural communities. It’sjustbasi-

but maybe that’ssomethinghe’s into?” she said.

An earlyfoil

U.S. Rep. RoKhanna of California was among theﬁrst Democrats to beginfocusing on Vance last year Khanna stopped at the City Club of Cleveland and Yale University, where he and Vance studied law, and gave speechesthatattempted to cast Vanceasmoreextremethan

Trump.

Pennsylvania Gov.Josh Shapiro, another potential presidential contender in2028, singled out Vance in November while making theargument that the Trumpadministration didnot care about working people.

“At least with Donald Trump, he’s transparent about that,” Shapiro said. “JD Vanceisatotal phony.”

Some Democrats have coalesced aroundCalifornia Gov.Gavin Newsom as astrongcandidate because of his aggressive strategy in going after Republicans.

He coined the nickname “JD ‘Just Dance’ Vance”onsocial media, and he hasmocked thevicepresident’s appearance,sayingVance grew a beard andlost his spine.”

Smith, the strategist wholed Pete Buttigieg’s2020 presidential campaign and still workswith the former Biden administration transportation secretary,said every line of criticism of Vance is an audition.

“There’sdeﬁnitely value in taking on Vance to show Democrats, hey, this could be me on the debate stage against him,” said Smith.

Vanceinvokes hisroots

The vice president was bornand raised in Butler County’sMiddletown, and he rose to prominence with the publication of ”Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016. The book earned Vance areputationassomeone whocould help explain Trump’sappealinmiddle America, especially

cally sayingthat their votes don’tcount, and that’sareal shame.”

Alaska is one of 14 states that allow all mailed ballots postmarkedbyElectionDay to arrive days or weeks later and be counted, according to theNational Conference of State Legislatures and the Voting Rights Lab. An additional15provide grace periods formilitary and overseas ballots.

But Alaska’sgeography, weather and great distances betweencommunities

Alaska is more than twice the size ofTexas,the nation’s second-largest state —raise the stakes for voters. The unusual way the state counts its votes also makes agrace period important, advocates say Under Alaska’srankedchoicesystem forgeneral elections, workersinsmall rural precincts call in voters’ first choices to aregionalelection ofﬁce.All ballots, however,ultimately are flown to the stateDivision of Elections in the capital, Juneau. There, the races not won outright are tabulated to determine awinner.

Even with Alaska’s current10-day grace period ballots from some villages in 2022 were not fully counted because ofmaildelays.They arrivedtoo late for tabulations in Juneau, 15 days after ElectionDay

If theSupreme Court rules that ballots cannot be counted if they arriveatelection offices after ElectionDay, scores of Alaska voters could be affected.About50,000 Alaskans voted by mail in the 2024 presidential election.

“I think there’sprobably no otherstate wherethis ruling could have amoredetrimental impact than ours,” Alaska’ssenior U.S. senator, RepublicanLisa Murkowski said in an interview. Murkowski sees the case achallenge by theRepublicanNationalCommittee and otherstoMississippi’sallowance of late-arriving ballots —asaneffortto endvoting by mail nationwide.

The RNC arguessuch grace periods improperly extend elections for federal ofﬁce, but Mississippirespond-

AssoCIATED PREss PHoToByPAULsANCyA

Vice PresidentJDVance speaks WednesdayatEDsICables in Auburn Hills, Mich.

amongthe working class, rural white voters who helped Trump win thepresidency Vancecarried that reputation to theU.S. Senate, winning election in 2022, and later to the vice presidency.Thatsame background is likely to be central to anyfuture presidential run— and it is precisely what Democrats are nowworkingtoundercut

At Saturday’sDemocratic fundraiser,the meremention of Vance’s name drewachorus of boos from theaudience.

“I don’tthink he’s gotthe magic that everybody looksatwith Trump,” said Theresa Vacheresse, aretired physician and business owner who attended the event.

“I thinkwhen Trumpisgone, the Democratsmight have achance. My god, Ihope so.”

The focus on Vance is not unusual for avice presidentwidely seen as apotential futurenominee, particularly one as young as 41. Republicans went after Kamala Harris early in her tenure under President JoeBiden to undermine herpolitical future.

Jamal Simmons, Harris’ communications director in 2022 and 2023, saidvicepresidents can be vulnerable.

“The partyisbuilt to defend the president morethan it is the vice president,” he said. “The vice president’skind of out there on their own, to defend themself, and ﬁnd friends where they can.”

Republicans, including Vance,

ed that no voting occurs afterElection Day— only the deliveryand counting of already completed ballots

The Supreme Court will hear arguments as theU.S. Senate is debating legislation being pushedbyPresident Donald Trumpthatwould requirepeople to show proof-ofcitizenship to register to vote anda photoIDtocasta ballot.

Takentogether, Murkowski said such effortscould discourage people from voting.

“I think we’re seeing a levelofvoter intimidation, I’ll just say it,” shesaid. “I feel very,very strongly that theeffort that we should be making at thefederal level is to do all thatwecan to make our elections accessible,fair andtransparentfor every lawful voter out there.”

Alaska’s other congressional members, Rep.Nick Begich andSen.Dan Sullivan, bothRepublican allies of Trumpwho are seeking reelection this year,support the SAVE America Act now before theSenate. But they alsosaid they want to ensure that ballots properly cast on or beforeElection Day get counted.

“We’llsee what thecourts choose to do on that issue, but Idothink thatweneed to allow for timefor ballotsto comeinfromthe rural parts of our state,” Begich said during arecent visit to Juneau.

Acourt filing in the Mississippi case by Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox and Solicitor General Jenna Lorence did not takesides but outlined geographic and logistical challenges to holding elections in Alaska

In Atqasuk, on Alaska’s North Slope, poll workers countedvotes on election nightin2024, tallies they would normally relayby phone to election division ofﬁcials. Butthe ﬁling said they could notget through and “chose what theysaw as the next best solution —they placed theballots and tally sheetsintoasecurepackage and mailed them to the Division, who did not receive themuntil nine days later.”

Thefilingseeks clarity from theSupreme Court particularly around what it

frequentlytied Harris to someof the Democraticadministration’s most politically difficult issues, such as immigration andborder security

“Being vicepresident is avery mixed blessing,”saidDavid Axelrod, whowas atop adviser to DemocraticPresident Barack Obama.

“You often don’thavethe assets of thepresident, but you inherit all of thepresident’s record.The good, thebad, and the ugly.”

Beshearseessuccess

Beshear is the rare Democratto lead ared state, and he is positioninghimself as someone who can reach voters who have tuned out his party

He said Democrats can “actually go andwin back those voters that JD Vance is so condescending to” if they stay focusedonAmericans’ basicneeds such as affordable health care and public safety

“We’ve gotta start talking to peopleand not at them,” he said. “That’s how Iwon counties in eastern Kentucky that normally vote for Republicans by large margins —including Breathitt County.That’sthe county JD Vance pretends to be from. DonaldTrump won it by 59 points. Iwon it by 22 points the year earlier.”

The audience appeared delighted with Beshear’smessage.

“I think he’sﬁrst-rate,” said Mark Kaplan, wholives in Butler County “What he’sgot is compassion, empathy,charismaand intellect, but he’s also down-to-earth.”

means for ballots to be received by Election Day

While it is clear when aballot is cast,“when certain ballots are actually ‘received’ is open to differentinterpretations, especially given the connectivitychallenges for Alaska’s far-ﬂung boroughs,” Cox and Lorence wrote.

Lawyerswith theNative American RightsFund and Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center said in filingswith thecourtthat limited postal serviceinrural areas means that some ballots might not be postmarked until they reach Anchorage or Juneau, which can take days

In the 2022 general election, between 55% and78% of absentee ballotsfrom the state House districts spanning from the Aleutian Islands up thewesterncoastto the vast NorthSlope arrived

Asign hangs outside the director’soffice of the AlaskaDivision of Elections on Thursdayin Juneau, Alaska.

AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By BECKy BoHRER at an election ofﬁceafter Election Day,they wrote. Statewide, about20% of all absentee ballots in that election were received after Election Day Requiring ballots to be received by Election Day, they warned, would “disproportionatelydisenfranchise” Alaska Native voters.

FuneralsToday

Bahlinger, Claire Sacred HeartofJesus Catholic Church at 10:30am. Grezaffi,Tyler NewLifeWorship in NewRoads,LA at 11am

Gross, Erin Holy Family Catholic Church,319 N. Jefferson Avenue in Port Allen, at 11 a.m.

Hubbs,John St.Thomas More Catholic Church 11441 Goodwood Boulevard, at 11 a.m. LegendreJr.,Henry St.Michael theArchangelCatholic Church,1801 Sage Road in Houston, TX,at10a.m

Tircuit, Dereck JeffersonUnitedMethodist Church at 11:30a.m

VanSickel, John SealeFuneralHomeonRange Ave. in DenhamSprings,LAat11am. Varnado, Belvarie Greenoaks FuneralHomeat2pm

Obituaries

Hoffman, James Mortimer

JamesMortimerHoffman III,75, of Baton Rouge LA died peacefullyon March17th, 2026 surrounded by hislovingfamily. He wasbornAugust 5th, 1950 in NewOrleans,LAto JamesMortimerHoffman II andDorothyFrancisNelson. Jimgrewupin Richardson,Tx andwas an elite3-sportathlete,where he coined thenickname "Jimmy Grits" He later attendedLSU andwas amember of PKT fraternity, wherehemet hislifelongfriend Collin ('DaCoach')Andrews, alongwith numerous brothers whom he still had monthly luncheswith.He wasa well knownyouth baseballcoach for Unit Design and helped develop many high school and collegiate players. Jimwas adevoted husband ,to his wife Kathy of 52 years, father ,grandfather,brother,cousin, coachand friend. Jimissurvivedbywife Kathy Hoffman, son Jimbo Hoffman,daughterKatie leigh Hoffman (John Green); grandchildren, Hayden Kathryn Hoffman, ScarlettGraceHoffman, Declan Mcauliffe Champion Green;sistersDottie Miles, JaneBoles, sister-inlaw TaraMcauliffe Brown, and numerousnieces, nephews, and cousins; whom he caredfor deeply. Funeral serviceswillbe held at St.Aloysius Church March26th. Visitation9:3011:00 AM,witha mass to follow Familyasks in lieu of flowersthat amass intention be read in hisname.

Charli and Susie Coburn, brother Eric St. Amant and wife Diane, nephews William "Paul" Tweedy and wife Rexie and nephew William "Clyde" Tweedy, nephew Scott St. Amant and wife Vanessa. His is missed by all.

Look to founders to understand whyTen Commandments

areimportant

OurFounding Fathersplaced much emphasis on religion and morality when structuring the laws of our nation, and the Bible was their primary educational tool. From theOld Testament comes the TenCommandments. Our ﬁrst president, GeorgeWashington, warned us in 1796 that “religion and moralityare indispensable supports for political prosperity,”cautioning against “assuming thatmorality canbe maintained withoutreligion.”

The Bill of Rights amended the Constitution in 1791, and the First Amendment conﬁrmed religious freedom. Our second president, John Adams, said our Constitution “was made only for amoral and religious people as it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

In 2022, the Supreme Court set anew precedent when it ruled in theKennedy case,sayingthe new standardisthat alaw must be consistent with the country’s “original meaning and history” in order to comply with theFirst Amendment and going forward the court will be abandoning the Lemon Test —which bringsus back to George Washington and John Adams. Why were they so adamant about religion and morality?

Our Founding Fathers were educated, and theirstudy of history included the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D., which resulted from the slow collapse of family structures andsociety.Historians noted that early Romans valued marriage, ﬁdelity and honorand looked down on self-indulgence.However, late Rome had an epidemic of divorces, sexual freedom and frequentremarriages such that theybecame aformoflegal adultery-prostitution, resulting in low birth rates with thepractice of infanticide and abortion Translation, they lost all morality which resulted in population and societal collapse —with asmaller taxbase, declining economic productivity,declining military,erodingfamilies —which made them susceptible to eventual invasions. So, are the TenCommandments and moralityimportant?

STEVE GARDES Lafayette

Talkingabout whypeople leaveLa. won’t fixanything

This is aresponse to aletter written by JulienneLouis-Anderson about people leavingLouisiana. First off, what people do after they turn 18 is their business. I’minnoposition to tell someone where to live, work or enjoy their lives. If you ﬁnd abetter opportunity elsewhere, morepower to you. Some of us, however,like where we are and are not interested in moving to an area withtwohour trafﬁcjams and high rent prices.

Second, if you want people tostay here, stop voting forpoliticians who think thatlife is only about guns and abortions. We had a governor in the mid-’90s who sat in Baton Rouge and let two car plants and adefense manufacturing factorypass us by.You can’t make peoplestay where there are no jobs to stay for.This statehad an oil bust in the

1980s and after that happened, we missed so manychances to bring good jobs here. We’re apoor state that has areputation forbeing corrupt, and that has hurt our image as a whole.

Andlastly,stop complaining about an issue if you’re not going to help solve it. Talking about people leaving thestate every year and writing about us being abad No. 1on a“list” isn’tgoing to help solvethe issue. Either step up and help ﬁx what’swrong or leave it alone. Talking and complaining will not magically solve Louisiana’spopulation issues. Andbesides, there are other things we need to be proud of as astate,regardless of how manypeople live or leave here.

KRYSTAL

WILSON shreveport

Drug warinLatin Americamisguided

Thearticle, “Trumpencourages military actiontoﬁght cartels,” on March 8does not provide enoughinsight into aseverely misguided and dystopic U.S. policy towardits neighbors in Latin America.

It is time to recognize that drug addiction in the U.S.isa public healthproblem as well as apersonal health problem for its victims, andothers —family members and those affected bydrug-related crimes in the U.S. That meansprioritizing the study of the biological andsocio-economic causes, searching for new treatment strategies and providing adequate care for addicts.

In other words, we must reduce thedemand forillegal drugs in the U.S., andnot engageinthe fantasy that destroying the cartels is thesolution —something thatthe article seems to say. As to “combat(ing) violent cartels,” the president and Congress should focus on keeping U.S.-madeweaponsfrom reaching thecartels, rather than vague notions of taking military action, which can lead to worse

consequences.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow asuit by Mexico to go forward against U.S. gun manufacturers whose products reach cartels in Mexico tothe tune of nearly 600,000 guns, amounting to sales of $170 million everyyear.And that’sjust Mexico. Thecourt based its ruling on a2005 statute that was neither written nor enacted to deal with the large-scale transfer of weapons to cartels.

It is not clear what theoutcome of atrial would have been, but it would have drawn attention to the magnitude of the problem and the need for Congress to take effective action.

It is sheer folly to ofﬂoad our domestic public healthproblem of drug addiction by allowing the transfer of untoldquantities of U.S.-made weapons to cartels, and then ramping up militaryaction against those to whom we are supplying weapons.

BRUCEWILDER Neworleans

Newspapers hold aposition in our democracy, unlikeany other business

Iread with interest Duke Truby’s viewpoint about anewspaper print medium being a“business” in the strictest sense. As such, that business should cater to its customers and clients. However,asthe newsmedia in its mostnoble form is the “Fourth Estate,” protected by the U.S. Constitution.

It engenders something far moresigniﬁcant. Informational, educational, entertaining, and yes, even intellectually challenging or stimulating. Much like my favorite comedian, George Carlin, whosaid outrageous things, he always hit a nerve.

Truby does not state objectively what “liberal” meanstohim.Inmy case, it would be freedom of choice in women’s health, well-funded public education, corporate tax rates in the Reagan era of 34%, worker protections, afully funded Social Security trust fund and abalanced budget. (and banning pharmaads on TV.)

Roger Ailes, whowas the media consultant to Nixon’s1968 presidential campaign, went on to found Fox News

He envisioned aTVstation news that affirmed the beliefsofthe viewers, or confirmation bias. As Katie Couric recently quipped, it’s an “affirmation station” rather than an information outlet. Iprefer to deem it an echo chamber and comfort zone.

MATTHEW MCCANN Marrero

La.elections maybe secure,but sAVE Act wouldapply to all

To sEND Us ALETTER sCAN HERE

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

Lawyer adscan influencejuryawards

With all duerespect to my colleague Fred Herman, he misses the point. Billboards, radio spots and TV ads for plaintiffs’ lawyers all tout“big paydays” of the millions that lawyers haveobtained for their clients. These ads have desensitized jurors to the valueofadollar,driving nuclear verdicts, such that it’snothing for jurors to make

disproportionateawards. I’ve seen this personally as adefense attorney.That said, as someonewho does plaintiff worktoo, Ihave no problem withjust compensation, just not because aTVlawyer says what that award should be.

JACK TRUITT Covington

Letlow wouldhaveearnedrespect by opposing Landry’s judicial district plan

In the article. “Jeff Landry wants to changeAngola’sdistrict,” on March 1, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow is quoted as standing with Landry and President Donald Trumpinsupporting “conservative judges.”I would have preferredacandidate for U.S. Senatesaying

she supportsimpartial judges. Otherwise, what’sthe point of aseparate judicial branch of government? Toadies to narrow-minded politicians do not makeideal judges.

MARYANN STERNBERG Baton Rouge

Youhave printed letters of opposition to the SAVE America Act. The writers have cited the security of Louisiana elections to support their opposition. Here’swhat Idon’t understand: Do these folks not realize that other states have sway over national elections, yet their elections are not as secure as Louisiana’selections? For example, California’smotor voter law requires automatic voter registration unless one opts out. Citizenship is not veriﬁed. Over 1 million immigrants here illegally have driver’slicenses in California. We have no idea how manyhave been registered to vote, nor if they have voted. Why shouldn’tother states be required to have the same election security as Louisiana?

MICHAEL GALLAGHER Prairieville

Will someone please give our president the Nobel Peace Prize, so that maybe he might stop bombing countries and abducting foreign leaders and becomethe president of peace, as he claims?

JULES LEGER Lafayette

AssoCIATED PREss FILE PHoTo

Atruck passes awelcome sign along Interstate 10 in orange, Texas,near the Louisiana border

AMERICA250

PRoVIDED By HIsToVERy

Adepiction of asiegeduring BernardodeGálvez’s Pensacola campaignin“American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition,”ondisplaynow at The Historic Neworleans Collection.

Aplace that embodies whatAmerica is about

French Quarterplayedkey role in ournation’shistory —fromthe beginning

By DanielHammer

What are themost historic places in the United States places that bring all Americans together,despite ourdifferences, real andperceived,toexperience something we bear in common? In other words, are there places best suited to reminding us thatweare Americans? Places that allow us to celebratebothour commonalities and differences as we reﬂect on250 years of nationhood? Yes. Places like this do exist, and in fact, there is one right here in Louisiana. It is perhaps thegreatest oneofall: New Orleans’ French Quarter. Don’t let the name fool you. The French Quarter embodies thehistory and culture of this nation.Its story begins before ourcountry’sfounding, butinforms what America is today.

Earlysupport

ABOUTTHE IMAGE

Daniel Hammer GUEsT CoLUMNIsT

Cabildo, were part of alarger strategy to support theAmerican Revolution by using the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River to funnel money and supplies to theContinental Army.The Irish-born merchantOliver Pollock acted as an American agent in New Orleans. From his French Quarter residence, in what today is the 500 block of Chartres Street, he served as one of the most important ﬁnanciers of the war effort. Somehistorians credit him with the earliest use of the dollar symbol, claiming the “PF” notation he madethroughout hisledges, meaning “pesos fuertes,” or strong pesos, evolved to become theU.S dollar sign.

Expandinghorizons

Centuries ago, Indigenous people from across theMississippiValley met each other andtraded goods from as far away as Mexico and Canada in aplace theycalled Bulbancha, Choctaw for “place of many tongues.” Todaythatsiteis part of what we now call the French Quarter.In1718, the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, established anew cityfor France’svast Louisianacolonyat this same strategic location.Thanks to his Indigenous allies, he knew the site allowed access to boththe Mississippi andthe Gulf ofMexico via Bayou St. Johnand Lake Pontchartrain.

In 1776,when Great Britain’s13 American colonies declared independence,planning got underway in NewOrleans that proved critical to the success of the American Revolution. Great Britain was Spain’s greatest enemy,and justacross Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans was British West Florida, extending from Natchez and Baton Rouge east to Pensacola. From his seat in the Cabildo on what wasthen known as the Plaza deArmas, Louisiana’sSpanish colonial governor, Bernardo de Gálvez, began plotting to attackthe British. In aseries of successfulmilitary campaigns between 1779 and1781, Gálvez was able to force theBritish from the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. These moves by theSpanish against the British,plottedinthe

In 1803, officials gathered once again in the Cabildo and Jackson Square to complete the Louisiana Purchase, raising theAmerican flag over this territory for the first time. Amoment of supreme national and geopolitical significance, the Louisiana Purchasenot only exponentially expanded the U.S. land mass, it positioned thenew nation to seize dominion over partsofthe Western Hemisphere that warring European powers had wrestled over for centuries.

In many ways, it propelled America towardbecoming what it is today.Also, from this momenton, what happened in New Orleansdid not just influence America, it was, itself, American history In 1862, New Orleans, thelargest city in the rebellious Confederacy, surrendered to the United States’ Union army without afight Thanks to this,the French Quarter today looks much thesame as it did then. The history of one buildinginparticular stands out In 1862, at 527 Conti St., Dr.Louis Charles Roudanez and Paul Trévigne publishedL’Union, the first Black-owned newspaper in the South, and,in1865, they established the New OrleansTribune,the first Black-owned daily newspaper in the United States. In the pages of these newspapers, in both French andEnglish, New Orleanians of color demanded liberty and equality.Inmany ways, the origins of the civil rights movement can be traced through this very building, which still stands on Conti Street.

As thenation rebuilt itself following the Civil War, New Orleans becameacultural nexus of extraordinary inﬂuence. Through the19th and 20th centuries, immigrantsfrom all over theworld brought their cultures their languages, religions, foodways and music —tothe city. Newculture is born In the19th century,they came from Haitiand Cuba; from Germany,Ireland and France; from China and the Philippines. In the20th century,they camefromSicily,from Eastern Europe, from Vietnam, from Honduras. They joined an already diverse population, shaped by Indigenous peoples and earlier immigrants from France, Spain, Africa, Canada and the Caribbean. Outofthis diverse milieu,new foodways, musical styles and customs developed. The food Americans eat, the music we dance to, the way we say things would all be very different without New Orleans. And you don’thave to take my word for it, just takealook at an Applebee’s menu thenext time you’re on aroad trip and ask yourself if they’d have all that blackened stuff if 416 ChartresStreet had never been K-Paul’s restaurant

Living history

Just as theMississippi River valleyisthe nation’stopographic watershed, theFrench Quarter is the nation’scultural watershed. Strollingthe French Quarter riverfront, walking its historic streets and admiring its beautiful old buildings, you can get something of afeel for it today

To truly see it though, step into theFrench Quarter’sunparalleled history museums. Here, our nation’s history is revealed withthoughtful intention and in new and engaging ways. As we commemorate 250 years since thesigning of the Declaration of Independence, we invite themillions of Americans who will visit New Orleansthis yearto visit our French Quarter museums to learn our nation’shistory.We, likewise, invite every Louisianan to come to French Quarter museums to reﬂect on our consequential role in American history and imagine our shared future.

Daniel Hammer is president and CEO of theHistoric New Orleans Collection.

The imageabove features ascene from “American Revolution,”which made its United statesdebutatthe Historic New orleans Collection on March 20.Thisfree, interactiveexperience utilizes360-degree augmentedreality to immerse visitors in 20 defining moments of the nation’s founding,from the sparks of theBoston TeaParty to the victoryatyorktown

Developedbyleading historians and scholars, this exhibition celebrates the figures whoshapedthe United states and sharesthe Revolution in afreshway that speaks to the hearts and minds of the American people today.The exhibition will serveasafocal point of theLouisiana America 250 commemorations and coincideswith HNoC’s 60th anniversary.

ABOUTTHE HNOC

over the last six decades, HNoC has become avital communityinstitution, preserving the world’slargest collection of materials relatedtoNew orleans and the Gulf south. Locatedinthe heartof the French Quarter, its campus spans 14 historic buildings which serveasacatalyst fordialogue and historical understanding “American Revolution” is producedand designed by Histovery with promotional supportfrom Neworleans &Company and Louisiana America 250.The exhibition offersa fresh, technologically driven way to explore the American story. Plan your visit at hnoc.org

For more information on events near you commemorating America’s250th birthday, visit america250la.org

Have us take alook!

Tigers toughout to advance in NCAA tourney

LsU‘locking in’to become titlecontenders

LSU was pouring in thepoints and Texas Tech was frantically,futilely trying to bail outthe boat

The tipping point came with 5:44 left in the third quarter, just after Flau’jae Johnson hit astreaking ZaKiyah Johnsonwith a50foot pass —the kind of throw LSU fans hope new quarterbackSam Leavitt will be able to make this fall —for a fast-break layup that put the Tigers ahead 60-28.

Scott Rabalais

Tech coach Krista Gerlich called atimeout andtold her team straight:

“If you don’twant them to hang a hundred on you,” Gerlich said, “you’ve got to quit shooting it so quickly.” Toolate. Even though LSUcoach Kim Mulkey beganpulling herstarters with 7:44 left —startingwith Flau’jae, asenior,toathunderous andtearful standing ovation —the LSU scoring dreadnought never really dropped anchor.The Tigers indeed hung ahundred on Texas Tech, winning 101-47 Sunday in their NCAA tournament second-round no contest to advance to the18thSweet 16 in program history

“It was the most beautifulthing

ä see RABALAIS, page 3B

sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN LsU guardMikaylah Williams races overtocelebratewith teammate Bella Hines at the end of thethird quarter against TexasTech on sundayat the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

BY CHARLESSALZER

Contributing writer

The Southern women’sbasket came to an end with Saturday’sﬁrs to South Carolina in the NCAA T but it was one the Jaguars can u view as successful.

After ﬁnishing fourth in the So western Athletic Conference reg lar season, the Jaguars swep through three games in the postseason tournament. Including 2020, whenthe tournament was canceled becauseofCOVID, that run earned the Jaguars their fourth automatic bid to th NCAA Tournament in eight sea headcoach Carlos Funchess. Southern ﬁnished the season 20 its fourth 20-win season underFu 12-6 in the SWAC. As for the Big Dance, no SWA team had won an NCAA Tourna until Southern did it last season. T added to that legacywitha 65Samford in this year’sFirst Four. wereunable to challengeSouth C No. 1seed in the Sacramento Reg

guard Flau’jae Johnson celebrates withguard ZaKiyah

Texas Tech on sunday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

during asecond-round NCAATournament

Tigers shineinLsU star Johnson’sswansongatthe

BY REED DARCEY staff writer

Afew moments after she assisteda3-pointer,Flau’jae Johnson looked up into thePete Maravich Assembly Center crowd. She wanted to take amoment or twotosoak it all in.

This was Johnson’slast game in that building. Herlast chance to toss passes across its ﬂoor to Mikaylah Williams. She was running out of opportunities to provide dishes like the one sheﬂipped over herhead and out to theleft wing, where Williams paused for abeat and rattled in a3

That bucket gave the LSU women’sbasketball team a 40-point lead on Sunday late in thethird quarter of its 10147 second-round NCAA Tournament winover Texas Tech. Johnson and Williams scored 24 points apiece, teaming up

to lead the No.2-seeded Tigers back past the No.7-seeded Lady Raiders into the Sweet 16.

LSU has now set the NCAA DivisionIrecord for most 100-point games in asingle season (16). The 54-point winis tied forthe most lopsidedsecond-round NCAA Tournament victory since 1983.

The commanding nature of the win allowedcoach Kim Mulkey to sub Johnson out of the game with more than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.The star senior broke down in tears when she realizedshe was checking out, and then she walked off the ﬂoor to astanding ovation.

“Itwas the mostbeautiful thing that I’ve been apart of,” Johnson said.

WithoutRHP

BY KOKI RILEY staff writer

This weekend was another rough one for LSUbaseball, which droppedtwo of three games in itsseries with Oklahomaand fell to 2-4 in Southeastern Conference play

The Tigers, in their ﬁrst home series in their SEC schedule, won 7-1 on Thursday butdropped Friday’sgame 4-2 and lost a late leadinanother defeatonSaturday, losing 4-3. Here are ﬁve takeaways from another rocky weekend for LSU. PotentialCooperMoore replacements LSU suffered asetback it likely couldn’t affordonFridaywhen juniorright-hander CooperMoore exited hisstart earlyon Fridaydue to soreness in his triceps.LSU coach Jay JohnsonrevealedonSaturday that the best-case scenario for theKansas transfer is that he’ll be out for three weeks. Moore had been solid for the Tigers this season, posting a3.38ERA in six starts. His losslikely meansthat sophomore right-hander William Schmidt moves into

his Saturdaystarting spot, andthatLSU will have to find anew Sunday starter Acouple of names cometomind for Moore’sreplacement, but the first is likely seniorright-handerZac Cowan. Cowan struggled during nonconference play,but he’sturned things around as of late, giving up just one hit in his last 42/3 innings against Vanderbilt andOklahoma. He also hasplenty of starting experience, starting 17 games at Wofford in 2024 and starting in LSU’swin over Arkansas in Omaha that sent the Tigers to the College World Series final. But after Saturday’sloss, Cowan may have somecompetition.Seniorright-hander Gavin Guidry threw 70 pitches in relief on Saturday,showing that he can go deep into agame. In comparison with Guidry, Cowan hasn’tthrown more than 44 pitches in an outing this year Guidry,who lasted31/3 innings against the Sooners, appeared to lose steam once he began his fourth inning in relief.Healso haslessexperienceasa starterand still allowed twoearned runs withfourwalks

ä see LSU, page 5B

sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN

LsU

Johnson

game against

3 p.m.

LSU posts ‘best defensive effort’ of year

BY TOYLOY BROWN III staff writer

The ﬁnger wag.

It was a gesture performed by LSU women’s basketball forward Grace Knox after rotating from the left block and delivering an emphatic rejection 33 seconds into the fourth quarter of a dominating win.

The celebration was Knox’s way of saying “not in here” and was paired with a death stare toward the closest baseline camera. The moment encapsulated the defensive tenacity of No. 2-seeded LSU in its 101-47 victory over No. 7 Texas Tech in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

“I feel like this was our best defensive effort of the year, honestly, as a whole team,” Flau’jae Johnson said. “We do defensive player of the game, but I think it’s a team defense award today because everybody was everywhere. We were helping each other I just thought it was amazing.”

Texas Tech finished with season lows in total points, field goal percentage (25%) and field goals made (16). While LSU set the NCAA Division I record for most 100-point games in a single season (16), the first word uttered by ZaKiyah Johnson in the locker room was defense.

“It was literally our defense,” said the freshman, who finished with a team-high three steals in 16 minutes. “That’s what brought everything around us offensively We got steals, we got deflections, we were on the floor we got every loose ball and we were just so active. I’m so proud of the way we really were intentional with our defense today.”

The root of LSU’s activity was a mindset that is frequently discussed inside the program walls: relentlessness. The approach maximizes the athletic gifts and instills a ferocity that makes every moment that the opposing offense tries to score feel unbear-

able. This level of intensity starts in the summer workouts when defensive conditioning is the only focus.

“We really talk about it every day,” said Knox, who had a steal and a block. “Just what it takes to be relentless. But just coming together as a team and knowing that if we want to be elite, if we want to be the best, if we want to get a ring, we’re going to have to be relentless in all areas. Relentless every possession, every defensive possession, on the offensive end, relentless on the boards.”

If you ask Knox what moment was her favorite on defense, she won’t say the block paired with the ﬁnger wag. Her mind goes to a play where she sacriﬁced her body With 1:32 left in the third

quarter, Texas Tech’s Denae Fritz retrieved the long rebound after her missed 3-pointer The 5-11 guard drove for a rare layup attempt and plowed through Knox who was prepared to take a charge.

“I really wanted it to go through,” Knox said of her charge. “I’m glad that it worked. And we had great energy, and I feel like it just kept going on after that Bella (Hines) had her and-one right after that. It was a great couple possessions.”

The early offense that LSU enjoyed came once it shut down the paint. Texas Tech scored zero paint points in the ﬁrst half — ﬁnishing with 12 overall and went 5 of 14 on layups. LSU’s suffocating interior defense forced its

opponent to settle for long-range shots because it couldn’t get any dribble penetration.

Johnson also credited the perimeter pressure for helping the inside defense.

“Definitely pressure on the ball,” the freshman said. “Doing your work early in the paint is definitely important, but on the perimeter as well, they help a lot, making sure they can’t see inside. Kate (Koval), she did really good today (especially with deflections).”

LSU’s 6-5 center was an intimidating presence in the paint as she used her size and physicality to fend off any post shots from Texas Tech. Koval had 10 rebounds, two blocks and two steals with 10 points. Multiple teammates in the locker room said Koval’s improvement in physicality has helped her throughout the season.

The Notre Dame transfer also credited assistant coach Bob Starkey for the growth she has made on defense. The two have watched plenty of game ﬁlm and analyzed details she needed to improve upon.

“A lot of times it’s defensive positioning and knowing their next move, trying to predict their next move,” Koval said. “So understanding where to be. That has helped me a lot.”

Maintaining the crispness on defense is a necessity if the team wants to achieve its championship aspirations. In the meantime, LSU enjoyed giving its fans a show one last time at home and getting equal applause for defensive stops just as much as scoring.

“I think they just know what it takes,” Knox said of fans cheering on defense. “To be able to get those stops, I know that means a lot to them, too. Because it’s proving to them that we can go a long way I think they’re just, they’re the best fan base in the country, in my opinion. I just know they’re going to support us through anything, especially when we get stops because it usually means we’re going to score.”

Thomas, Fournier lift No. 3 Duke over Baylor

By The Associated Press

DURHAM, N.C. — Delaney Thomas had 17 points and Toby Fournier scored 13 of her 15 points in the ﬁrst half, helping No. 3 Duke beat No. 6 Baylor 69-46 in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday Arianna Roberson had 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench and Ashlon Jackson added 12 points for Duke (26-8), which never trailed.

The Blue Devils advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third straight season and 20th time overall. They will play No. 2 LSU, a 101-47 winner over No. 7 Texas Tech, in the Sacramento 2 Regional Baylor (25-9) was held to its worst offensive output of the season. The Bears managed just eight points in each of the first two quarters and ﬁnished 0-of-14 from beyond the arc, failing to make a 3-pointer for the ﬁrst time this year They shot 30.2% overall.

Taliah Scott, who scored 24 points in a season-opening 58-52 win over Duke in Paris, led Baylor with 13 points on 3-of-17 shooting NO 1 TEXAS 100, NO 8 OREGON 58: In Austin, Texas, Madison Booker scored a career-high 40 points in a dazzling display of shot-making and No. 1 Texas rolled past No. 8 Oregon, sending the Longhorns back to the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive year

The Longhorns’ three-time AllAmerican was dominant from the opening tip as she created shots from all over the ﬂoor She scored 19 in the ﬁrst half, and her 3-point play early in the third quarter, when she muscled through and over three defenders for a layup, sparked a 19-4 run that turned the game into a rout.

Booker’s previous high was 31, set just a few weeks ago against Ole Miss in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

3-pointer against Baylor in a second-round NCAA Tournament game sunday in

Texas (33-3) ran its home win streak to 44. A No. 1 seed for the third year in a row, the Longhorns now head to Fort Worth in a bid to return to the Final Four for the second consecutive season.

Katie Fiso scored 16 points to lead Oregon (23-13), which last made the Sweet 16 in 2021. NO 4 MINNESOTA 65,NO.5 OLE MISS 63: In Minneapolis Amaya Battle hit a tiebreaking jump shot with 0.7 seconds left, lifting Minnesota to the Sweet 16 for the ﬁrst time in 21 years.

Battle, who finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and ﬁve assists, took the inbound pass near the paint and dribbled out along the baseline for more space before swishing the winner and landing on her back.

The No. 4 seed Gophers (24-8) swarmed their senior point guard in a frenzied celebration before regrouping for the ﬁnal possession. Tianna Thompson’s 3-point try for the No. 5 seed Rebels (2412) from the top of the key on the other end hit the front of the rim

and fell short.

Mara Braun scored 17 points for the Gophers, including the tying 3-pointer with 1:17 remaining before helping force a shot-clock violation by the Rebels on the ensuing possession Sophie Hart, who added 10 points, gave the Gophers their ﬁrst lead since early in the third quarter with a determined drop-step to the basket for a short bank shot with 18 seconds left.

Latasha Lattimore answered with the tying layup with 3 seconds left before Battle sent the Gophers to Sacramento, California, to face the winner of the game on Monday between No. 1 seed UCLA and No. 8 seed Oklahoma State. NO 4 NORTH CAROLINA 74, NO. 5 MARYLAND 66: In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Elina Aarnisalo had 21 points, Lanie Grant scored 20 and North Carolina used a strong fourth quarter to beat Maryland and reach the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row

Nyla Harris had 14 points and eight rebounds, and Indya Nivar added 11 points to help the fourth-

Phillies agree to 6-year contract with Sánchez

PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia Phillies have agreed to a new sixyear contract with opening day starter Cristopher Sánchez. The deal announced Sunday for last season’s NL Cy Young Award runner-up begins in 2027 and will run through 2032 with a club option for 2033. Terms were not immediately available.

Sánchez had been pitching under a $22.5 million, four-year contract that was through 2028. He went 13-5 with a 2.50 ERA in 32 starts last season and struck out a career-high 212 batters. He’s 3021 overall in four full big league seasons.

Originally signed by the Tampa Bay Rays as an amateur free agent in 2013, Sánchez was acquired in a trade by the Phillies on Nov 20, 2019, for inﬁelder Curtis Mead.

Champagnie, Mitchell suspended for fighting NEW YORK Washington forward Justin Champagnie and Oklahoma City guard Ajay Mitchell each received a one-game suspension for ﬁghting and escalating an on-court altercation that spilled into the seating area during a game, the league announced Sunday

Both were suspended without pay Thunder forward Jaylin Williams was fined $50,000, while Oklahoma City guard Cason Wallace and Wizards forward Anthony Gill each received $35,000 ﬁnes for their roles in the altercation in the ﬁrst half of the Thunder’s 132-111 victory on Saturday night. Following a basket by Gill, Williams and Champagnie began shoving each other Gill and Mitchell became involved, and the quarrel quickly escalated.

Arozarena apologizes to Raleigh over WBC snub Randy Arozarena has apologized to Seattle Mariners teammate Cal Raleigh after Arozarena cursed out the catcher for not returning a handshake at the World Baseball Classic.

seeded Tar Heels (28-7) advance in the Fort Worth 1 Regional later in the week.

Oluchi Okananwa, who helped eliminate North Carolina last March in the Sweet 16 when she played for Duke, scored 21 points for No. 5 seed Maryland (24-9).

Addi Mack had 13 points and Mir McLean had 12 points and 14 rebounds. The Terrapins couldn’t overcome 3-for-23 shooting on 3-pointers. NO 2 MICHIGAN 92, NO. 7 NC STATE 63: In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Olivia Olson had all 27 of her points in the second half and Syla Swords bounced back from a slow start to score 26 and help Michigan rout short-handed N.C. State. The Wolverines (27-6) will play the winner of third-seeded Louisville vs. sixth-seeded Alabama in the Fort Worth Regional semiﬁnals. The seventh-seeded Wolfpack (21-11) was without All-ACC guard Zoe Brooks, who had a protective boot on her right foot.

That hurt against Michigan’s swarming and trapping defense that forced 22 turnovers, including 10 in the third quarter NO 4 OKLAHOMA 77, NO. 5 MICHIGAN STATE 71: In Norman, Oklahoma, Raegan Beers had 18 points and 14 rebounds to help No. 4 seed Oklahoma beat ﬁfth-seeded Michigan State.

Aaliyah Chavez added 18 points and six assists for the Sooners (277), who advanced to play in the Sweet 16 for the second straight year They’ll play the winner of Monday’s matchup between No.1 seed South Carolina and No.9 seed Southern California. Oklahoma defeated South Carolina in overtime during the regular season. Michigan State led 42-37 at halftime behind 47.1% shooting. The Spartans held Oklahoma to 38.9% shooting and forced the Sooners into 14 turnovers.

The incident took place March 9 when Arozarena reached down to greet Raleigh in his catcher’s squat at home plate, and Raleigh declined to offer his hand back in a game in which the U.S. beat Mexico 5-3. Arozarena, speaking to Mexican journalist Luis Gilbert in Spanish, said Raleigh “has to thank God that he has nice parents, well educated,” and added he recently hugged them during a friendly greeting at the team hotel. He then used profane Cuban and Mexican slang to insult Raleigh before pivoting to English and saying Raleigh could shove his “good to see you” in his rear Arozarena was born in Cuba but defected to Mexico to pursue an MLB career

Kim keeps Korda at bay for Founders Cup victory

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Hyo Joo Kim held off Nelly Korda on Sunday at Sharon Heights to complete a wire-to-wire victory in the Fortinet Founders Cup. Her opening ﬁve-stroke advantage gone after 10 holes, Kim regained the lead on the next hole and ended up with a one-shot margin after a closing bogey Kim shot a 1-over 73 for a 16-under 272 total. The 30-year-old South Korean player also won the 2015 event in Phoenix. She has eight LPGA Tour titles to go along with 14 KLPGA Tour victories. Korda shot 69.

DeChambeau wins again by beating Rahm in playoff MIDRAND, South Africa Bryson DeChambeau won for the second straight week by saving par on the final hole for a 6-under 65 and blistering a 3-wood from a wet lie in the rough on the par-5 18th in a playoff to set up birdie and defeat Jon Rahm at LIV Golf South Africa on Sunday DeChambeau’s final start before the Masters brought out some of his best work in winning his fifth overall LIV title. He won last week in Singapore. The large gallery began singing the national anthem as DeChambeau was just off the 18th green, needing to get up-and-down to force a playoff with Rahm (63), and to give his Crushers the team title over the South African-based Southern Guard. He did that to finish at 26-under 258 and join Rahm in the playoff.

WOMEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT ROUNDUP

AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By BEN MCKEoWN Duke’s Toby Fornier reacts after hitting a

Durham, N.C.

sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN

LsU forward Grace Knox, left, blocks the shot by Texas Tech’s sarengbe sanogo in their second-round NCAA Tournament game on sunday at the PMAC.

NCAA WOMEN’STOURNAMENT

SWEET 16

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LSU rode adifferent record-setting offensiveperformance into its matchup with the Lady Raiders (27-8). The Tigers (30-5) scored morepoints on Friday in the Baton Rouge regional (116) than Texas Tech and Villanova combined (109). The Lady Raiderscut their teeth on the defensiveend of the ﬂoor,asthey showed in their tough, physical ﬁrst-roundgame. On Sunday,though, they couldn’t corral LSU’stransition offense.

The Tigers ignited that attack in the first half, when they forced Texas Tech into 18 missed shots and 12 turnovers. Mostofthe shots theLadyRaiders didmake—at least in the first two quarters— came at the end of the shot clock and outside the lane. They didn’t score their first paint pointsuntil their first possession of thesecond half.

LSU created much better looks for itself, thanks to Johnson and Williams. They combined to shoot 18 of 28fromtheﬁeld(64%),whiletherest of the Tigerssolidiﬁed the defense. SophomorecenterKateKovaltallied 10points,10rebounds,twostealsand two blocks. Freshman forwardZaKiyahJohnson addedeight points and three steals. Senior forward Amiya Joyner tallied 11 points and 11 boards.

Texas Tech shot only 25%from theﬁeld, committed19turnovers and finished with just 12 paint points. Its leading scorer,senior guard Bailey Maupin, wound up with19points but none of her teammates scrounged together more than eight. “There wasatimeinthe third quarter,” Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlichsaid, “that we called a

RABALAIS

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I’ve been apart of,” said Johnson, who set LSU’sscorching scoring pace with 24 points in 24 minutes of court time. “SomethingI’m goingtoremember forever.”

Will this end up being ateam LSU fans remember forever,like the 2023 team that AngelReese and Flau’jae Johnson helped lead to the program’sﬁrstNCAA championship?

Despite all the ﬁreworks, it’s still hard to tell. No offense to Texas Tech or Jacksonville, which LSU obliterated 116-58 Friday with its most points ever in an NCAA Tournament game,but these were two mighty outclassed opponents. Gerlich, who is trying

kept extending throughout the second half.

“It was agreat day,”Mulkey said. “Itwas agreat dayinthe PMAC.You just wish youcould bottleitupand takeeverybody in this arena with you to Sacramento, but unfortunately,alot of people can’tafford to go.”

Before Sunday,Texas Tech hadn’tallowed more than84points all season. LSUhas nowheld two powerconferenceteams to fewer than 50 points this year:Auburn and Texas Tech.

MarchMadness shutsout mid-majors for firsttime

BY DOUG FEINBERG AP basketball writer

March Madness wasn’tfor midmajors this year

For the first time since the women’sNCAATournament expanded to 64 teamsin1994, no programsfrom mid-major conferencesadvanced to the second round, leaving 32 teams representing the Power Four conferences andthe Big East. In the men’stournament, ﬁve midmajor teams made the second round.

“NIL at work,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo told The Associated Press. “There have got to be some players who helped midmajors last year and excelled that are nowonPower Four rosters becausetheycould make more (money) by jumping ship. Typically,you wouldn’tdothatif it meant less playing time. That’s abig part of that.”

There were23teams in the ﬁrst round from smaller conferences, and they went 0-23. Colorado State, a12seed, gotthe closest, losing 65-62 to Michigan State. The rest lost by double digits, including Southern, which fellby 69 points to South Carolina.

“I’m all about getting amid-ma-

SOUTHERN

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jor in. Ithink it’s good forthe game, but we got to get some of them to win some of those games, too,” said Illinois coach Shauna Green,who previouslycoached Dayton. Green was an assistant with the Flyers in 2015, whenthey became the last mid-major to reach the Elite Eight.

“I don’tknow if that will ever happen again,” she said.

DebAntonelli hadn’tworked as abroadcaster forwomen’s first- or second-roundgames over the last decade, instead calling the men’stournament. She wasn’tsurprised by the lack of mid-major successthis year when she returned to the women’sside.

“Weknow the landscape has changed. There is real investment at thehighest levelfor women’s sports,” she said. “The rich are getting richer.”

Antonellisaidthat with teams now getting ﬁnancial incentives for winning games in the tournament as the mendo, the trend could continue.

“It’seven more impressive that those schools that are investing aregetting some small return,” shesaid. “Itdoesn’t equalwhat their investment is, but it’ssomething.”

“I knew we would be in contention coming down the stretch,” Funchesssaid. “Itwas just amatter of putting it all together at the right timebecause we had the talenttodoit.”

timeout and said if you don’twant them to hang ahundred on you, you’ve got to quit shooting it so quickly. We have to limit their possessionstokeep them from scoring the ball because theycan score it so well.”

LSU opened the game on a10-0 run, but TexasTech cut that deficit in halfbythe timethe first quarter wrapped up. Maupin willed the Lady Raiders back in, first by earningtripstothe free-throw line and then by draining contested 3s.

TheTigers, though, madesure that threat was short-lived.

Theyforced Texas Tech into sixturnoversinjust the ﬁrst ﬁve minutes of the second quarter, thenturned those giveaways into points atthe other end. LSU scored the first 10 points of the second quarter,too, propelling itself to an 18-point halftime lead that it just

to getTexas Tech back to thelevel it was when she played on the Red Raiders’ 1993 NCAA title team, candidly admitted that.

“There’sabig gap between 1 through 8and 8through 64,”she said.

“You saw it today,right? We’re a7 seed. There’smore parity coming, butthere’sstill theupper echelon of NCAA Division Iwomen’sbasketball andthere’sthe rest of us.”

LSU(29-5), theNo. 2seed in the NCAA Sacramento 2regional, is part ofthat upper echelon. In fact, the Tigers are doing things that put them in their own echelon Their back-to-back 100-point gamesthisweekendinthe Pete MaravichAssembly Center (that’s217 points total) gave LSU thesolo NCAA Division Irecord for most 100-pointgames with

The Tigers have advanced tothe Sweet 16 in each of thepastfour seasons —their second-longest streak in program history.Mulkey hasled herteams to at least that round of the bracket in 19 of her 24 NCAA Tournament appearances. Under Mulkey,the Tigers are 3-0 in the Sweet 16. Last year, they beat No. 2seed North Carolina State in Spokane,Washington, to set themselves up for aclash with No. 1seed UCLA in the Elite Eight LSU could ﬁnditselfinamatchup with theBruins again,thistime in Sacramento, California. Butﬁrst,itwill have to win in the Sweet 16 againstNo. 3seed Duke. Thosetwo teams met in Durham, North Carolina, back in December, and the Tigers won 93-77. Johnson scored agame-high 18 pointsthat night

The starsenior was even better on Sunday, when she moved LSU one step closer to the Final Four in her PMAC swan song.

“SomethingI’m going to remember forever,”Johnson said. “Just so thankful for thefans. Thankful to coachMulkey.The wholeprogram.It’sjustbeen unimaginable.” Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

16. That eclipsed the 15 “hang a hundred” games by the1986-87 LongBeach State team, which it must be said, did that without the beneﬁtofa3-point line.

LSU’s54-point margin of victory Sunday is tiedfor the third-biggest in an NCAA second-round women’sgame, or for adifferent perspective, tied for the largestmargin in asecond-round game since 1983. The Tigers, who outscored the Lady Raiders33-7 in the third quarter,already have four 30-point quarters in this tournament after posting threeagainst Jacksonville. That’sthe most30-point frames in the NCAATournament since the women went to quarters 10 years ago. Butitwasn’tjust scoring. LSU’s defense also put theclamps on aTexas Tech squad that had to grind out a57-52 win Friday over

103-34 loss on Saturday. Still, the way Southern came together to get to that gamewas satisfying. Southern began its SWAC schedule with a7-1 record, but consecutive losses to Alcorn State, Alabama State and Alabama A&M had the Jaguars reeling.

“My mainconcernwas Ididn’t want us to lose confidence,” Funchess said of the losing streak. “When you lose your confidence, it doesn’tmatter how good you are or how much talent you have. That can be adeath sentence so we dida good job of bouncing back.”

Thebounce-back was afivegamewinning streak that put Southern in contention for a second-place regular-season ﬁnish. Road losses at AlabamaState andAlabama A&M left the Jaguars fourth, but, like the twoearlier losses to the Alabama teams, theywere both games in which Southern had chances to win.

As it turned out, Southern playedthe Alabama teams again in theSWACTournament. First, in the semiﬁnals, Jocelyn Tate’s latebasketliftedSouthern to a 51-49 winover regular-season champion Alabama A&M. In the ﬁnal,Southern overwhelmed Alabama State, pickingupthe automatic NCAA bid with a73-56 win.

Villanova to get here. Still, the Tigers outscored the Lady Raiders 26-0 in the paint in the ﬁrst half and 24-0 on fast-break points for thegame.

“That’s just atestament to everybody buying in and locking in and knowing what we need to do to get far in this tournament run,” said Mikaylah Williams, whoalso knocked down 24 points. “When we lose those games, we slack off defensively.Wehave mishaps, but Ithink locking in and buying in on the defensive end is what really,really got us here.”

So theTigers are in the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year under Mulkey,set to take on Duke in Friday’sregional semiﬁnals out in Sacramento, California. Duke (26-8), which LSU beat 9377 on Dec. 4onthe Blue Devils’ homecourt, took out Baylor 69-46

Putting it alltogether meant improvement at the free-throw line, aproblem area for much of theseason.Inthe SWAC semiﬁnal and championship games, Southern made acombined 23 of 31 free throws.IntheNCAAwinoverSamford,Southernmade14of22,which was just above its season average of 62%.

“Weshot 48% from the free throw line in our six (SWAC) losses,” Funchess said. “When you shoot 48 percent from the line in your losses, that’stough. That’sone area where we’re going to have to improve going into next year.”

The First Four win over Samford was astatement for the Jaguars, who proved themselves to be the stronger team in the fourth quarter.The game was tied 5151 with seven minutesleft in the game,and Southern closed outthe remaining time with a14-2 run. Ablowout loss to SouthCarolina notwithstanding, it was agood season forSouthern.

“Overall, I’mprettyhappy with the season,” Funchess said. “If we can get our core group back next year,Ithinkwe’ll be back in the mix again. We’re recruiting hard right nowand Ithink we’re on the right track.”

Sunday.That has to be arelief to Mulkey,who now won’t have to deal with the distraction of facing the program she leftfor LSU in 2021 after leading the Lady Bears to three NCAA championships. Beating Duke won’t be abreeze —“They’re better,I’m sure, and I think we’re better,” Mulkey said —but everyone anticipates an LSU-UCLA rematch in the Elite Eight. The Bruins, whomust beat OklahomaState on Monday to advance, should have been the No. 1 overall seed over UConn. They’re that good and that scary

But, based on the games here, so is LSU.The Tigers appear to be playing their best ball at the best timetodoit, pouring in the points and clamping downondefense in equal measure. Can you say “Tough out?” That’s what LSU has become.

sTAFF PHoTosByMICHAEL JoHNsoN

LsU guard Flau’jae Johnson gets readytoplacethe school tag on abracket after defeating TexasTechina second-round NCAA Tournament game on sundayatthe PMAC.

Tigers guard Flau’jae Johnson hugs head coach Kim Mulkey while beingsubbed from agameagainst TexasTechfor the ﬁnal time of her LsU career on sundayatthe PMAC.

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Flau’jae Johnson, LSU Guard

Iowa State shuts down Kentucky 82-63

By The Associated Press

ST LOUIS Tamin Lipsey knew he had to step up for Iowa State with All-America forward Joshua Jefferson sitting on the bench, his sprained left ankle still encased in a boot, as the Cyclones played Kentucky on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.

Lipsey, who grew up in the shadows of the Iowa State campus in Ames, answered with the ﬁnest game of his four-year career

The senior guard poured in a career-high 26 points, tied a career high with 10 assists, and led a suffocating defense that shut down the Wildcats in the second half, allowing the second-seeded Cyclones to pull away for an 8263 victory in the NCAA Tournament.

“All the guys knew we had to step up in different ways,” Lipsey said, “however that presented to us.” Lipsey didn’t do it alone, of course — he needed someone scoring to pile up all those assists. Milan Momcilovic scored 20 points and Nate Heise getting the start in Jefferson’s place, added 12 to help the Cyclones (29-7) advance to a Midwest Region semiﬁnal against No. 6 seed Tennessee on Friday night in Chicago The Vols defeated third-seeded Virginia 79-72 on Sunday.

It will be the eighth Sweet 16 trip for the Cyclones and the third under T.J. Otzelberger, though the question now is whether they will be whole for it. Jefferson, their second-leading scorer and top rebounder, is scheduled to have an

MRI exam on Monday No. 5 ST. JOHN’S 67, No. 4 KANSAS 65:

In San Diego, Dylan Darling hit a driving layup as time expired for his only bucket of the game, and St John’s advanced to its ﬁrst Sweet 16 since 1999 with a victory over Kansas in the NCAA Tournament Darling, the Johnnies’ tenacious point guard, coolly won it after Kansas (24-11) erased a 58-45 deﬁcit with 7 1/2 minutes to play, making a furious 20-7 run capped by Darryn Peterson’s two free throws to tie it with 13.1 seconds left.

The Jayhawks had four fouls to give, and they used all four to wind the clock down to 3.9 seconds. That was plenty of time for Darling, the Idaho State transfer who had missed his four previous shots.

NO.1 IOWA 73, FLORIDA 72: In Tampa, Florida, Alvaro Folgueiras nailed a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds remaining and Iowa eliminated defending national champion Florida, sending the top-seeded Gators home with a 73-72 victory on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Under first-year coach Ben McCollum, Iowa reached the Sweet 16 for the ﬁrst time since 2015, while Florida (27-8) became the first No. 1 seed to be knocked out of this year’s March Madness.

The ninth-seeded Hawkeyes (23-12) wasted a 12-point lead in the second half but rallied in the ﬁnal minutes. They will face No. 4 seed Nebraska in the South Region semiﬁnals Thursday night in Houston.

After Thomas Haugh missed a 3-pointer, Stirtz missed a running layup and Isaiah Brown grabbed the rebound with 8.9 seconds left. Brown made his second free throw NO 6 TENNESSEE 79,NO 3 VIRGINIA

72: In Philadelphia, Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 21 points, Nate

Purdue coach Painter wins 500th game at alma mater

BY DAVE SKRETTA AP basketball writer

ST LOUIS Matt Painter was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and he grew up in Muncie in the days when Bob Knight had the Hoosiers humming like a college basketball juggernaut. So, it makes sense that Painter would have rooted for the crimson-and-cream as a youngster

“I know that’s sacrilegious now,” Painter said with a smile. Well, Purdue fans have long forgiven him.

After spending four years playing point guard for Boilermakers legend Gene Keady, and eventually succeeding him as the head coach, Painter has turned Purdue into a juggernaut of its own. He has the black-and-gold headed back to the Sweet 16 after a 7969 win over Miami in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday that also gave Painter his 500th win at the school.

“These guys — I know coaches talk about it but they’ve put in so much in all areas to be the best they can be,” Painter said afterward. “That’s how you end up getting a lot of victories, because you have really good players that are committed.”

The Boilermakers will play No. 11 seed Texas on Thursday night in the West Region semiﬁnals in San Jose, California

“It’s awesome,” said Purdue guard Braden Smith, who has been part of 116 of Painter’s wins. “Coach Painter is the reason we’re here, because of who he is and how he conducts himself. Five-hundred wins is a huge accomplishment.”

Painter improved to 525-328 for his career, which includes a single season at Southern Illinois in which the Salukis when 25-5 and he was voted the Missouri Valley coach of the year

The Boilermakers quickly tapped him to be Keady’s successor, and after a transitional year spent as the associate head coach, Painter took over for good for the 2005-06 season.

The success wasn’t sudden Purdue won just nine games his ﬁrst year — but it did come quickly and consistently

The Boilermakers made their first NCAA Tournament under Painter the following season, the ﬁrst of six straight in which they won at least one game. Their current tournament streak is 11 in a row, which includes seven trips through the opening weekend, an Elite Eight appearance in 2019 and the Boilermakers’ ﬁrst title game appearance since 1969 just two

years ago. They still have never won a national championship But behind Smith, now the NCAA’s career assists king, and veterans like Fletcher Loyer and Trey KaufmanRenn, they have a good shot at cutting down the nets in a couple of weeks. The Final Four, by the way, will be played in Indianapolis. It all started for Painter in the early 1970s, with games shown on TV in the family home in northern Indiana.

“The ﬁrst thing that I remember is Indiana winning the national championship when I was 6 years old,” Painter said of Knight’s 1976 team, the last unbeaten to win the title. “So then, like, you just kind of followed it ever since.” Painter grew up on the Ball State campus, though, and he’d go to games there as a kid. He also remembers watching Jim Valvano run around the court after N.C. State beat Houston for the 1983 title, and he loved Georgetown in the days of Patrick Ewing.

“But I grew up watching the Big Ten,” Painter said, “and seeing, before cable hit like, you’d have the three channels, then you would have that fourth one that was kind of fuzzy That was the Big Ten channel, Channel 4. And so we would always watch the games.

“When I had a chance to play in the Big Ten,” he continued in a moment of reﬂection, “like, that was very, very surreal for me because I wasn’t somebody — I grew a lot in high school. I wasn’t that great of a player when I was younger.”

He’s become a heck of a coach.

Five times Painter has been voted the Big Ten’s best. He’s guided the Boilermakers to ﬁve regularseason conference championships, and a win over Michigan a No. 1 seed in this NCAA Tournament — last weekend gave him three Big Ten tourney titles, too. Painter needs just 12 more wins to match Keady for the most in school history He might be able to pick up a few of those before this trip through March Madness is over

A year after he helped Maryland reach the Sweet 16, Gillespie led the way for the Vols Tennessee has been a consistent first-weekend winner under coach Rick Barnes, who has yet to lead the school to the Final Four Gillespie had 50 points in two games in Philly he scored 29 against Miami (Ohio) in the ﬁrst round.

NO.1 ARIZONA, 78, NO. 9 UTAH STATE 66: In San Diego, Jaden Bradley scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half, Motiejus Krivas had 11 points and 14 rebounds and top-seeded Arizona beat No. 9-seeded Utah State on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in ﬁve seasons under coach Tommy Lloyd.

The Wildcats (34-2) take an 11game winning streak into Thursday’s game against No. 4-seeded Arkansas in the West Region in San Jose.

Ament and Bishop Boswell made critical free throws down the stretch and sixth-seeded Tennessee advanced to its fourth straight Sweet 16. The Vols (24-11) will face No. 2 seed Iowa State in a Midwest Region semifinal in Chicago on Friday night.

The Wildcats will be looking to reach the Elite Eight for the ﬁrst time since doing so in both 2014 and 2015 They began their March Madness run by breezing to an opening 92-58 victory over Long Island on Friday Arizona, which won the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles, led the whole way in front of a loud, red-clad contingent of fans that made it feel like a home game some 400 miles from campus. But the Aggies (29-7), who won the Mountain West regular-season and tournament championships, didn’t fold despite trailing 51-33 ﬁve minutes into the second half after giving up a 9-0 run.

Frager’s layup pushes Huskers past Vandy to reach Sweet 16

BY CLIFF BRUNT AP sportswriter

OKLAHOMA CITY Tyler Tanner nearly sent Nebraska’s boisterous fans home in stunned silence. Braden Frager made a driving layup with 2.2 seconds left to put Nebraska in front, and Tanner’s heave from beyond half court rimmed out at the buzzer as the Cornhuskers outlasted Vanderbilt 74-72 on Saturday night in a scintillating second-round NCAA Tournament game and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the ﬁrst time. March Madness, indeed.

“I just froze for two seconds,” Frager said. “I thought it went in. I didn’t know how to react. I was, just — everybody started celebrating. I was like, he actually missed it.”

The relieved Cornhuskers celebrated in style, climbing into the stands to join a sea of scarlet-andcream-clad fans. Some were still chanting “Go Big Red!” inside Paycom Center 30 minutes after Nebraska’s victory

“That’s one of the best environments or toughest environments that I’ve ever coached in,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said. “The fans were incredible for them. Supportive and loud.”

Frager scored off a pass from Pryce Sandfort, the team’s scoring leader Each finished with 15 points for the fourth-seeded Cornhuskers (28-6), who had never won in March Madness until beating Troy two days ago.

Nebraska advances to the South Region semifinals in Houston, where it will face either top-seeded Florida or ninth-seeded Iowa on Thursday

“I think they’re all driving down to Houston in the morning,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said of the Husker faithful. “We expect another big turnout again next weekend.”

Tanner scored 27 points and Tyler Nickel added 16 for No. 5 seed Vanderbilt (25-9), which was trying to reach the Sweet 16 for the ﬁrst time since 2007.

“The hardest thing when you’re in a tournament like this is there’s a side of it with hurt and dejection, and you put everything into it,” Byington said. “We were a play away, an inch away, from being in the Sweet 16.” Rienk Mast added 13 points for the Huskers. Sam Hoiberg, the coach’s son, ﬁnished with eight points, none bigger than his putback with 1:20 to go that tied the game at 70-all. The teams traded

the lead four times over the ﬁnal 2:08.

Cornhuskers fans took over the arena, just like they did in the ﬁrst round. “Husker Power!” chants broke out during the second half of Houston’s win over Texas A&M, about an hour before the Nebraska game tipped off. Duke Miles, the Commodores’ No. 2 scorer, had his left thumb taped and was held to nine points. His quiet night put the scoring burden on Tanner whose layup with 58 seconds left gave Vanderbilt its ﬁnal lead at 72-70. The Cornhuskers broke out to an 8-0 lead. Mast, Nebraska’s 6-foot-10, 250-pound center, made two 3-pointers in the first five minutes.

Sandfort did not score until just over five minutes remained in the first half, but his turnaround jumper put the Cornhuskers up 27-19. Nebraska led 39-32 at halftime, despite Tanner’s 15 points. Vanderbilt chipped away in the second half. Tanner made a layup and was fouled with 9:05 remaining. He missed the free throw, preventing the Commodores from taking their first lead. Moments later, AK Okereke’s 3-pointer finally put Vanderbilt ahead, 58-55.

Vandy pulled in front 67-62, its largest lead of the game, on a 3 by Nickel with 5:34 left. Sandfort responded with a jumper and the margin was no bigger than three points the rest of the way

“We withstood their run,” Fred Hoiberg said. “They went on a big run. We knew they would at some point in the game. As we talked going in this tournament, if you want to advance, it’s all about how you handle adversity, and our guys did a masterful job of hanging in there.”

Huskers on the rise

Hoiberg, the Big Ten coach of the year, has overseen steady improvement over his seven years at Nebraska. He took the Huskers to the NCAA Tournament two years ago, and this season Nebraska got national attention for a 20-0 start that vaulted it to No. 5 in the AP poll.

Alberts watches his alma mater Former Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts, who now holds that title at Texas A&M, stuck around to watch his alma mater after the Aggies lost to Houston. Alberts won the Butkus Award in 1993 as a linebacker for the Huskers.

AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By ALI oVERsTREET Purdue head coach Matt Painter is seen on the sidelines during the first half in the second round of the NCAA tournament against Miami on sunday in st Louis.

AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By JEFF RoBERsoN

Iowa state’s Tamin Lipsey drives past Kentucky’s Denzel Aberdeen during the second half in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on sunday in st. Louis.

PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN

sTAFF

LsU first baseman Tori Edwards, showndriving the ball foranRBI hit against Texas A&M on March 14 at Tiger Park, had the game-winning hitagainst south Carolina on sunday

LSUsoftballrallies past S. Carolina,winsseries

COLUMBIA, S.C. Tori Edwards’

lone hit of the series against No.21 SouthCarolina was aclutch one. Edwards hit atwo-out, two-RBI double in the sixth inning that lifted No. 22 LSU to a2-1 win over the Gamecocks on Sunday Trailing 1-0 in the sixth with runners on first and third with two outs,Edwards blasted a1-0 pitchto right center ﬁeld, scoring Destiny Harris and Sierra Daniel. Tigers starter Jayden Heavener (7-6) worked a1-2-3 inning in the sixth, and adiving catch by Daniel

at second base and astrikeout by Heavenerinthe seventhsecured the victory LSU (21-10 overall, 3-6SEC) earned its first SEC series win while SouthCarolina(21-12, 1-5) droppedits second Heavener threw her 11th complete game of theseason,finishing with five strikeouts and giving up one run on twohits. South Carolina’sJori Heard (43) took theloss after pitching 5 2/3 innings, striking out five,walking one and allowing two runs on Edwards’ hit.

After four scoreless innings,

South Carolina broke through in the fifth with aleadoff home runbyJamie Mackay,but LSU answered in the topofthe sixth. Harris reachedonanerror,advanced to secondbase on Avery Hodge’ssacrifice bunt and went to thirdonJalia Lassiter’sflyout to right field. Daniel drew awalk to putrunnersonthe corners, and Edwards gave LSU itsfirst hit of the game with the two-run double Next,LSU will face Louisiana Tech at Tiger Park on Tuesday before hosting athree-game seriesvs. No. 6Oklahoma on March 27-29.

Bradycan stillsling it butTeam USAdominates ﬂagfootball

BY ROBMAADDI AP pro football writer

TomBrady started out likethe GOATofflag football before Team USA dominated the day Brady fired aperfect touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs in thecorner of the end zone on hisfirst play in a competitive football gameinmore than 1,000 days.

The 48-year-old, seven-time Super Bowl champion even showed unusual elusive skills by evading a sack on afree rush, stepped up and delivered astrike for the TD after replacing Jalen Hurts on fourthand-goal on the opening drive of the game. Brady followed up with another beautiful pass to his longtime buddy and formerteammate Rob Gronkowski for the 2-point conversion, giving his team an 8-0 lead over the USA squad in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic It was all downhill from there as Gronk went down with ahamstring injury,and Brady and histeam of current and former NFL players coached by SeanPaytoncouldn’t

LSU

Continued from page1B

on Saturday.Given those factors, Cowan appears to be the more likelycandidatetostart among the two, but Johnson’s trust in Guidryand thelength he’sprovided in relief can’tbeignored.

GettingSerna in thelineup

Johnson made it clear this weekend that freshman Omar Serna isn’tcoming out of the lineupanytime soon, and probablywon’t sit again this season.

That’sbecause Serna wasthe only Tiger who accumulated at least four hits over the weekend. That included ahome runonSaturday and adouble on Thursday His recent hot streak, which began last weekend against Vanderbilt, has raised his average to .280and his slugging percentage to .520.

The only question that remains for Serna is where he will play Serna started in three spots this weekend: catcher,first base and designated hitter.He’sconsistently caught Moore in weekend series and has spent some time at DH before this recent hot streak, buthis start at ﬁrst base on Saturday was the ﬁrst time he’d started at the position. He didn’t make any mistakes there, even grabbing atricky bounc-

keepup.

Team USA crushedBrady’s FoundersFFC 43-16 after dismantling Joe Burrow’sWildcats FFC squad 39-16. Burrow,Jayden Daniels, Saquon Barkleyand the Wildcats then eliminated Brady, Hurtsand the Founders from the round-robin tournament with a3426 victory.

The Founders kept it closer in thechampionship game but Team USA pulled away24-14. The national team couldn’tbestopped on offense inthreegames, scoring on every possession except a kneel-down at the end of one victory

“My heart is really hurting right now,” Brady said between losses.

Playing with afamiliarscowl and intensity thathelped him become thegreatest quarterback in NFLhistory,Brady hadafew other highlightsdespite histeam’s dismalperformance.

He called his own version of the “Philly Special” and tossed aTD pass toHurtsagainst the national team.

It was clear NFL players and

ing ball thattookanabnormally high hop in the second inning.

“You have to be creative alittle bit to do that,” Johnson said, referring to how he got Serna into the lineup on Saturday.“Andthat was our way today with theleft-handed starter.”

Evenifthe startatﬁrst base felt somewhat experimental, don’tbe surprised if Serna spends moretime atthepositionmovingforward.First baseman Zach Yorke hasstruggled defensively andatthe plate. He struck out four times in four at-bats on Friday and committed an ugly error on Thursday before he spending Saturday’sgame benched. If Johnson isn’tascomfortable startingYorke, perhaps that means he canturntoSerna at ﬁrst and play whichever hitter he feels is the best matchup against the starting pitcher that day at DH.

Offensetooka step back

LSU’sattack appeared to take a step forward last weekend when it scored 31 runs in three games against Vanderbilt on the road. But this week was acompletely different story for the bats.

The Tigers scored just 12 runs againstOklahoma.Theywereheldto just11hitsovertheirlasttwogames. Circumstancesplayedapartin LSU’soffensive explosioninNashville. Aturf ﬁeld, multiple pitching injuries for Vanderbilt —including weekend starter Austin Nye and a

Fitzpatrickwins theValspar Championship

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

PALM HARBOR,Fla.— Matt Fitzpatrick took longer than usual to get over his loss last week at The Players Championship,mainly because he played so well and did so little wrong until Cameron Young wononthe difference of onetee shot at ﬁnal hole.

“Tolose it right at the death is always difﬁculttotake,” Fitzpatrick said.

Seven days later,hefound the best antidote. Fitzpatrick was locked in aduelwithDavid Lipskyinthe ﬁnal hour at the Valspar Championship and this time delivered the goods, abirdie putt from just inside 15 feet on the ﬁnal holefor a3-under68and a one-shot victory

“I knew that Iwas playing well,” Fitzpatrick said. “And it was like, ‘Let’sjust keep pushing and give ourselves the best chance we can.’”

That’s allhecould askedona tough Copperheadcourse at Innisbrookthatdoomed54-hole leader Sungjae Im andcrushed the hopes of 45-year-old Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker.They were among five players who had ashare of the lead at some point, all jostling for position.

coaches were learning thegame and the rules on theﬂyafter holding just acouple practices before the 5-on-5 tournament.

They nearly had morepenalties called against them than flags pulled. Team USA’s mastery of thesport,sophistication on offense andoverall speed overwhelmed agroup of players who barely practiced together

Brady was penalizedfor tossingone of his ﬂags to the ground because he couldn’tquickly insert it into place before taking asnap during ahurry-up situation.

Payton was angry an official told him it was third downon thesideline and then switched to fourth down before the snap.

With ﬂag football set to make itsOlympicdebut at the 2028 LA Games, many NFL playershave already said they would like an opportunity to playfor gold

Darrell “Housh” Doucette III, Nico Casares and the USA squad aren’tabout to give up their spots. Nor should they have to. They provedthey’re the kings of flag football.

handful of top relief pitchers —and asmaller parkwithwinds blistering out to center ﬁeld resulted in an extremelypositive environment for the Tigers’ offense to thrive.

Buteven when factoring in the morepitcher-friendly elements at Alex Box Stadium and Oklahoma’s better staff, LSU still should’ve gottenmorefromits attack.And most importantly,LSU needed more production from its stars.

SophomoreDerek Curiel and juniors Steven Milam andJakeBrown combined to go 4for 29 against Oklahoma. SeniorChris Stanfield was alittle better since he homered on Saturday,but even he went just 3-for-11. The foursomewent7for 40 after going 14 for 47 with plenty of extra-base hitsthe week before.

ForLSU’s offense to getwhere it needs to be,Milam, Brown,Curiel and Stanﬁeld have to be at their best at theplate. Relying on thelikesof Serna andsophomore JohnPearson, whohomered on Thursday, will only take this attack so far.The stars will need to play like stars.

Pitching took astepforward If thewinds andthe parkat Vanderbilt helpedLSU’s offense, those same conditions created theoppositeeffect for theTigers’ pitching staff. Butthe drastically different resultsfor LSU on the mound against Oklahoma have moretodowithits improvement

Fitzpatrick missedfour birdie chances from inside 10 feet in aseven-hole stretch around the turn, his body language indicating he wasletting it slip away.His big surprise was seeing aleaderboard at the turn that showed him tied —hefigured he would be a few shots behind. And then he holed a30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th to take thelead, onlyfor Lipsky playing in the group behind him —tomake a7-foot birdie on the 14th to catch him. Fitzpatrick,who won the DP WorldTour Championship to close out theEuropean tour season last November, had the final say.His birdie putt was pure and the 2022 U.S. Openchampion was emphatic thrusting his fist down to celebrate.

Lipsky’sbirdie chance from just outside30feetonthe 18th just missed to theleft.Heclosed witha70tomatch his best ﬁnish on tour.

The victory for Fitzpatrick, his third on the PGATour to go along with nine European tour titles, cameone week after he had a one-shot lead going to the 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass only for Young to make birdie and winwith apar on the closing hole when Fitzpatrick’s teeshotran through the fairway andforced him to lay up. He misseda7-foot parputt to force aplayoff. But there was no letdown at Innisbrook.

“The big thing wasIfeltIwas playing well,” Fitzpatrick said. “I wanted to continue that and felt like Ihad the conﬁdence in myself to do so. To do that forfour rounds was special this week.”

and not the fairer conditions. In the starting rotation, sophomoreright-handerCasan Evans threwalot morestrikes andhad spectacular command of his offspeed pitches. Moore wasn’tallowing as much hard contact and kept theball lower in the strike zone moreconsistently.Schmidt also did abetter job of limiting hard contact, even if he wasinefﬁcient for asecond consecutive outing.

The bullpen was also muchbetter this weekend. Cowan recorded four outs without aproblem on Thursday.Fifth-year senior righthanderGrant Fontenot and junior left-hander Santiago Garcia combined to allow just one earnedrun in four innings on Friday.OnSaturday,Guidry and redshirt sophomore right-hander Deven Sheerinwere a double play away from allowing one earned run in four innings LSU gave up runs late on Friday and Saturday,but it’shardtopin that on the reliefgroup, givenhow little help they received from the offense andthe errorfromfreshman Jack Ruckert at second base on Saturday,whichcost LSU two runs in the eighth inning.

The Tigers always had the talent to be adangerous team on the mound. This weekend was abig step toward fully realizing it. Arocky road moving forward Oklahoma entered this weekend

Fitzpatrick finished at 11-under 273 on aCopperhead course that wasastern test, with the putting surfaces already having ayellow sheen during the opening round and the course getting firmer and faster each day under an abundance of sun. Lipsky missedabirdie chance from 15 feet at the par-3 17th —on about the sameline as Fitzpatrick missed momentsearlier— and his tee shot went into aquirky lie in the rough on the18th. Adding to thedifficultywas hearing the big roar ahead when Fitzpatrick made birdie.

“I was right in between clubs,” Lipsky said. “I took amore aggressive play.Almost pulled it off. It wasclose.Hatsoff to Matt.” It still was abig week for Lipsky,who began the year with conditional status after ﬁnishing at No. 107. He moves to No. 33 in the FedEx Cup and is likely to get him into the next signature event aweek after the Masters.

Jordan Smith of England finished third.

Im began the ﬁnal round with a three-shot lead, and that was gone quickly duetoa putterthatwent coldonhim. The South Korean, who hadled since the opening round, shot 40 on the front nine and didn’tmake his ﬁrst birdie until the 11th hole.Heclosed with a74and tied for fourth.

Snedeker,the 45-year-old who last won in August 2018, birdied the opening hole and didn’t makeanother birdie. He was still tied for the lead until threeputting fordouble bogey on the 12th hole, the start of arough back nine thatsent himtoa40 and a76totie for 17th.

“Stood on the 10th tee tied for thelead, which is allyou can do,” Snedeker said. “My swing left me on the back nine. Ireally struggled. All those putts I’ve been makingall week dried up today.”

as the No.8team in the nation, but theTigers’ road moving forward only gets more difficult, as they’ll be without their Saturday starter foratleast three weeks and own a pedestrian 2-4 record in SEC play LSU hosts No. 15 Kentucky next weekend and then hits the road for its following two series against No. 22 Tennessee andOle Miss. The Volunteers have struggled out of the gates, falling to Missouri on Friday andlosing four games in nonconference play,but the Rebels and Wildcats have gotten off to strongstarts. OleMiss beat Kentucky in atight three-game series this weekend, and Kentucky swept Alabama the weekend before the Ole Miss series. For the Tigers to have any hope in hosting aregional this year, they’ll need to come out of these nine games with at least fivewins. That would keep them in contention for 15+ conference victories, which would likely be good enough forthemtoplaytheir first round games at Alex Box Stadium But this weekend’sseries loss likely dashes any hope of earning atop-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament. And if LSU continues to struggle over the next three weekends,itmay finditselfinafightfor tournament eligibility

The Tigers are 8-9 over their last 17 games. That’satrend LSU must turn around, and soon, if it still wants to reach its lofty ambitions.

AP PHoTo By JAsoN BEHNKEN Matt Fitzpatrick celebrates after winning the Valspar Championshiptournament on sunday in Palm Harbor,Fla.

LIVING

“The waywe’ve pivoted andnavigated is just ensuring our shows are tightand clean.Itmightbea little over 30 minutes, but audiences are engaged. When you see characters, even when they’re heightened or over-the-top, peoplestill connectwith them.”

PAyDEN ADAMs,Knott’sBerry Farm vice president of entertainment

opened in 1954, the BirdCageTheatrehas specialized in vaudeville-style melodramas.

Curtaincall

Inside

Knott’sBerry Farm,a tiny theaterboasts rowdyshows andalums like SteveMartin

BY TODD MARTENS

LosAngeles Times (TNs)

LOS ANGELES— TheBird Cage Theatre has stood inside Knott’sBerry Farm for 72 years —albeitnot always soundly. Long framed by atin roof and atent,the theater had a reputation for discomfort, as it was asource of punishingheat andthe occasional mouse sighting.

“It was hot, it stunk and it was dirty,” says Payden Adams, the park’sVPof entertainment.

Still, though it has long felt like an endangered species, the Bird Cage Theatre is one of Southern California’smost historicrevival houses, aplace for vaudevillestyle, fourth-wall-breaking shows that deviate from the expected theme park fare.Toquote the theater’smost recentproduction,its entertainment can be “ﬂirtatious and alittle bitsaucy.”

And now,againstall odds, the Bird Cage is gettingasecond life. Knott’s Berry Farm recently completed arenovation designed to keep it thriving for another 72 years. Gone is the tarpaulin roof:

‘NO OFF-LIMITS’

TheBirdCage is now afully enclosed, soundstage-like structure. And blessedly,ithas modern air conditioning.

Thetheater reopenedthis past weekendwith“TheGreat Bank Robbery,”a30-minute-plus show in which audiences are encouraged to boo,hissand swoon over thecharacters, aBird Cage tradition since 1954. Charactersare caricatures, be it avillain that feels plucked froma cartoon western, complete with apurringraccoon fora sidekick,toa greedy wannabepolitician of abankmanager.Though setinGhost Town with period

garb, there are modern ﬂourishes, such as tongue-in-cheek nods to the theme park’sattractions anda damsel in distress who ultimately proves to be anything but Though it once operated as adaily theater, theBirdCageistoday most active during holidays and seasonal events, such as the park’s annual Boysenberry Festival, whichalso beganthis weekend. Popular summer show “Miss Cameo Kate’sWestern Burle-Q-Revue” is a20-minute cabaret-style performance, complete with atorch song and aslightly risqué cancan ﬁnale. When it’s running, theBird Cage is amust-see attraction.Livetheater in theme parks can feel like amoving target, as conventional wisdom oftenarguesthattoday’s smartphone-addled guests areafterthrills and more attention-grabbing, interactive experiences. But when it works,such as during the over-the-top sillinessof“TheGreat Bank Robbery,” or at Universal Studios’ “Waterworld”-themed stunt show,itcan offer guests

ä see BIRD CAGE, page 2C

Marc Jacobs letSoﬁaCoppola ﬁlmand didn’t

BYLINDSEY BAHR

AP film writer

VENICE, Italy NeitherSofia Coppola nor Marc Jacobs were convinceda documentary was agood idea. Jacobs wasn’tsure he wanted to be the subject of one and Coppola wasn’tsure she wanted the pressure of being the person behind thecamera.

Thiswas her friend of over 30 years, after all. What if theﬁlm wasn’tgood?

Yetthe idea,which theycredit to producers R.J. andJaneCha Cutler,started to takehold. Coppolahas alwaysbeen interested in fashion and the creative process. Jacobs knew that if anyone couldmake himfeel less self-conscious, it would be her And they decided to jump into the unknown. At leastitwould be together

“There was no off-limits,” Jacobssaid in an interview,alongside Coppola, with TheAssoci-

ated Press before the Venice Film FestivalinSeptember.“It was just likecome as you are andyou getwhatyou getand that’sthe way it’s going tobe.” “Marc, by Soﬁa,”which opens in theaters Friday,isanevocative,and very Coppola, collage of Jacobs’ inﬂuences,his biography and his team at work putting together aready-to-wear collection.

ä see FILM, page 2C

After7 marathons in 7dayson7 continents,Florida runner places first amongwomen

BY PATRICK CONNOLLY orlando sentinel (TNs)

ORLANDO,Fla. Imagine running onemarathon, an impressive feat by anyone’sstandards. Now trytoenvisionrunning seven marathons in as manyconsecutive days, all on different continents.

That’sexactly what Orlando resident Beth Reed did, and she made quickworkofittoo. With an overall average time of 3hours, 39 minutesand 28 seconds, Reed placed ﬁrst among 16 womencompeting in the World Marathon Challenge, whichcelebrated its ninth edition this year with morethan 50 total entrants. Theraces began at Ultima Basecamp,Antarctica, before continuing to Cape Town,South Africa, then Perth, Australia. The challenge then headed to the Middle East for arace in Dubai, then Madrid, Spain, then Fortaleza, Brazil,ﬁnally wrapping up in Miami.

As someone who hasrun 31 marathons, including allsix of the originalworld marathon majors, Reed, 42, was no stranger to goingthe distance Still, there’sabig difference between running one marathon in aweek versus seven.

“I was doing 90-100 milesa week,” she said of her training regimen. “In typical marathon training, you’ll do alongrun every weekend. For this one, Iwas doing back to back long runs mostweeks.” Reed raninjuniorhigh, then fell in love with the sport again while living in New York City, where her run club convinced hertorun theNew York Marathon in 2010. More than adecade later,she signed up forthe World Marathon Challenge as a 40th birthdaypresent to herself. “It’saonceina lifetime thing,”Reed said. “I hadsome idea of whatwas going to happenbut Ireally didn’t, actually, as it turns out.”

It’squite the contrast going

ä see RUNNER, page 2C

Marc Jacobs, left,and sofiaCoppolaposefor aportraitphotograph for the film ‘Marc,by sofia’ during the 82nd edition of the Venice Film FestivalinVenice, Italy, on sept. 2.

KNoTT’s BERRy FARM/TNsPHoTos

Awagon at Knott’sBerry Farm in 1970.

Carbsare thekey to lowering bloodsugar

Dear Doctors: Iama 66-year-old woman, and my blood testfrom aphysical exam shows thatmy bloodsugar is getting higher.Iam not in prediabetes yet, but Ireally don’twant to get there. Other than cutting out sweets, how do you eat to improve your blood sugar numbers?

Dear reader: Gettingajumpon even minor changes to measurements like blood glucoselevels is asmart move.Abeneﬁt of getting regular metabolic measurements, such as at annual physicals, is they give you ahistory of baseline readings. As in your case, they offer an overview of the trajectory of your health. This often gives you enough time to make any positive changes that may be needed.

Dr.Elizabeth Ko

Dr.Eve Glazier

AsK THE DoCToRs

When it comes to healthy blood glucose levels, the goal is twofold.One part is tostay within a speciﬁc range. In theU.S., blood sugar is measured in milligrams perdeciliter,ormg/dL.For those withoutdiabetes, thetarget range is afastinglevel below 99 mg/dL, and amaximumlevel below 140 mg/dL two hours after eating.The second part of the goal is to avoid

large or sharp swings in blood sugar.Research now suggests that these types of swings can play arole in developing Type 2 diabetes.

When thinking about sugar in the diet, it is easy to focus on sweets. Butgaining control of blood sugar levels requires a morenuanced understanding. It’s not just counting the actual sugar that you consume, but thetotal carbohydrate load. Yes, that does mean simple carbs like candy, soda, processed snack foods and desserts. Butitalso includes hidden added sugars in ordinary productssuch as ketchup, soups, pastasauces, salad dressings, fruit juices,ﬂavored nut milks and frozen dinners. The total carbohydrate load also includes

BIRD CAGE

Continued from page1C

some of the most memorable, personal moments at the parks.

“You’re not wrong,especially when it comes to attention spans. We experience that,” says Adams, who oversaw the theater’s restoration. “The way we’ve pivoted and navigatedis just ensuring our showsare tight and clean. It mightbe alittle over 30 minutes, but audiences are engaged. In melodramas, we ask the audience to participate, andwe can train them how to participate beforehand. When you see characters, even when they’re heightened or overthe-top, people still connect with them.”

The Bird Cage Theatre ﬁrst opened in the summer of 1954, itsfacadeanearreplica of the original Bird Cage in Tombstone, Arizona That the family-focused Knott’swould nodtothe Arizona locale is an oddity in and of itself, as the actual theater had abawdy reputation. Stories today speak of aplace that initially opened with grand ambitions but

Continued from page1C

“I’ve never done anything like this wherethere isn’ta plan or ascript,” Coppola said. “What Iwas tryingto do is show his creative process around this one collection and then interweave inspiration and references and artists who collaborated with him to have this full portrait.”

Creating ‘Marc, by Sofia’

It wasa very lo-fi production, they said. Sometimes it would just be Coppola coming into the officewith her own handheld camera Sometimes her brother Roman Coppola would come to help. Coppola had never done afeature length documentary before and found the process exciting, though she said it’snot signaling a new phase or director for her as afilmmaker

She also got to see some of the behind the scenes things she’srarely privy to, including being backstage at arunway show “I had total freedom, which was great. Iwas just ﬁlming what interested me,” she said. “It was really the sameas like taking snapshots, which wasn’tunfamiliar to me.”

The twomet in theearly 1990s in NewYork, when Coppolaasked her mother if she could go see the Perry Ellis show that Jacobs was

eventually succumbed to gamblingand prostitution. At Knott’s, thetheater was built around existingstructures, although park founder WalterKnott,according to the book “Knott’sPreserved” by ChrstopherMerritt andJ.Eric Lynxwiler, oftentalkedabout completing it as afull tribute to the Arizona space. Thatnever really happened. Andyet over theyears the Bird Cage wonover audiences thankstoprogramming from vaudeville veterans. Earlyon, students from nearby colleges would appear at the space, including Steve Martin,whose signed photograph graces acelebrity wall in the Bird Cage’s introductory hall. Donna Mills and singer Rick Nelson havegraced theBird Cage’shorseshoeshaped stage, as have Dean Jones and Skip Young. It was, to say the least, a quirky placetoperform.

“Knott’sPreserved”tellsofa show in whichamouseonce sat at the base of the stage, andquotes Martin as reminiscing over performances affected by the weather “When it rained,noone could hear eachother because the rainwas beating so hardon that tarp,” Martin said.

working on. They quickly hit it off,bonding over shared loves of art, music, fashion and movies, and have collaborated manytimes, on handbags,dresses, commercials and more. Jacobs has visited her ﬁlm sets and even providedclothes for some of hercharacters,including some of the coats Scarlett Johansson wore in“Lost in Translation ” While Coppola wanted to acknowledge their friendship, even makingalittle cameo in her ﬁlm, shealso didn’twant it to be about heroreven them, necessarily.The focus wouldremain on Jacobs.

“I didn’twantittobetoo much about me,” Coppola said. “But Iwanted it to feel that it’spersonal and made by me andthat I’m part of it andinthatway it’s notjust agenericinterview or portrait.”

Marc Jacobs’influences

In additiontothe behind the scenes of designing the Spring 2024 ready-to-wear collection, “Marc by Sofia” is full of film and artreferences, with clipsfrom “Hello, Dolly!” “All that Jazz,” “Sweet Charity” and many more of Jacobs’ most beloved films.Hewas particularly blown away thatshe was able to get the rights to use theclips.

“It made me feel very special. And Icouldn’timagine allthose things coming through for just anyone,” Ja-

KNoTT’s BERRy FARM/TNsPHoTo

Noneofthatshould be a problemanymore, although returning guestswilllikely feel they’re in afamiliar space. Thoughthe Bird Cage has been outﬁtted with modern lighting capable of new theme park tricks and projections, the rigishidden among curtains designed to re-create the look of the original tent. Lights, in bird cage enclosures, still hang abovethe audienceseating area,which hasroom for about 250 guests. And alongthe way afew discoveries were made. Adams says that when they began strippingawaywooden walls added sometime in the 1970s, theyfound the Bird Cage’soriginalwallpaper ascarlet-red strip that surrounds the spacewith ﬂower-adorned bird cages. Not all of it could be salvaged, so Knott’smeticulouslyrecreated thelook.With the new-old wallpaper intact, Adams estimates that guests can count about11,055 bird cages throughout the theater The original pieces will be preservedinthe park and gifted to important Bird Cage players. Adams jokes, “Ifyou have amailing addressfor Mr.SteveMartin, Ihave agift to send him.”

cobs said. “I felt like it was OK because it was for Soﬁa. That maynot be thetruth but that’sthe way Ilike to thinkofit.”

It also includes some biography,big career moments, and some rare glimpses of Jacobs’ grandmother,an inﬂuential ﬁgure in his life who he lived with as ateen in New York and who instilled in himthe importance of caring for beautiful clothes.

Afterthe runway show,Coppola andher brother visit Jacobs at his home where, in his silk pajamas, he discusses his comedown.Helikesto borrow aphrasecoinedby his friend, ﬁlmmaker Lana Wachowski, to describe the feeling: Post-art-um.

“I just sort of just felt like it could have been any conversation,” Jacobs said. “Nothing felt like director and subject. It just felt completely easy.”

Still, Jacobswas nervous theﬁrst time she screened it for him. He worried about what he was going to look like, and sound like, and what it was going to be.

“In very typical me fashion, when it was over Isaid I don’thate myself after seeing it,” Jacobs laughed. “I just thought it all felt natural. Iwasn’tpretending. Therewas just nothingsynthetic or false or anything. So whether people like it or not, IknowthatI just felt good about mebeing me and Soﬁa, you know,sort of seeing that her way.”

complex carbs. Whole fruit, fresh vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, unsweetened dairy productsand nuts all have complex carbs. Thanks to the magic of ﬁber,complex carbs are apowerful tool.

Limitingsimple sugars often focuses on the foods you need to avoid. It can be easier,more interesting and even funtoset apositive goal. Think about increasing your daily intake of ﬁber,which you can get through complex carbs. Fiber slowsdigestion,keeps you feeling full and helps preventblood sugar spikes. For women over 50, national guidelines recommendatleast 21 grams of ﬁber per day.For men over 50, the daily target is 30 grams.

When you focus on ﬁber-rich foods and also meet the protein goals and calorie range appropriate foryour body,your overall carbohydrate intake often moderates naturally.Focus on complex carbs forsteadier blood sugar For people whodon’thave diabetes, blood sugar levels often respond quickly to thoughtful dietary changes. And it doesn’tjust give you good results in your next checkup. It supports long-term metabolic health.

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

Understandingprotein overload

Dear Heloise: Forty years ago, when Iwas doing Weight Watchers, Ihad terrible dandruff until anew hairdresser told me, “It is caused by eating too much protein.” So, I cut back, and lo and behold, Ihaven’t had any moredandruff since then P.M., in St. Louis P.M., dandruff isn’tdirectly caused by protein. It comes primarily from afungus (Malassezia) that feeds on sebum.A diet withprotein helps the scalp maintain a healthy balance. On theother hand, adiet that is heavy in reﬁned sugars, dairy and processed foods seems to worsenthe problem.

desert, it’simpossible to be dust-free formore than a day or so. Idolike to iron, though! I’mretired, so I don’thave work clothes to iron anymore. But ironing napkins and pillowcases is so relaxing to me. —Paula M., in Tucson,Arizona Paula, whenit comes to ironing, I’m with you. Ironing relaxes me,and it’ssonice to see a ﬁnished product. —Heloise Vent-hoodtrick

The term“protein overload” (hair,not diet) applies to using far too many protein-heavy hair products. Inﬂammation and yeast growthare sometimes caused by sugary foods, carbohydrates and alcohol —all of which can lead to dandruff. —Heloise Favoritechores

Dear Heloise: Iabsolutely hatedusting! Livinginthe

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday, March 23, the82nd day of 2026. There are 283 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On March 23, 1998, “Titanic” tied an Academy Awards record by winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, best director for James Cameron and best original song for “My Heart Will Go On.”

Also on this date:

In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which it is said he declared, “Give me liberty,orgive me death!”

In 1806, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their return to St.Louis, Missouri, after completing the ﬁrst U.S. overland expedition to thePaciﬁc coast. The explorers had begun their journey from St. Louis

RUNNER

Continuedfrom page1C

from frigid, blustery Antarctica to Australia, where thetemperature soared into triple digits.

“Wewent through some extreme temperatures,” Reed said. “(Perth) was my favorite because you’re running along on abike path alongthe water.You hadthe sunsets and the moonrise with the city just absolutely beautiful and stunning in thebackground.”

Each marathon had an 8-hour time limit, and Reed was done in under four hours in all but one race, Antarctica. That gave her alittleextratime to pack and dineout in eachplace, but witha new continent to visit everyday,therewasn’t much time to spare. “You can only seeso much of aculture through

Dear Heloise: Iread your column daily and have seen manyhints on how to chop onions tear-free. Ihave never seen the one that Iconstantly use, so Ithought Iwould send it along: Iplace achopping block on my stovetop under the vent hood and turn it on high. Chop away without tears! —Elisa, in California Larger duvetneeded

Dear Heloise: We love sleeping with aduvet and acover on our split king adjustable bed. However, king duvets do not seem to go beyond the top of the

TODAYINHISTORY

in May 1804 and trekked thousands of miles to and from the coast.

In 1919, Benito Mussolini foundedhis Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.

In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.

In 1942, the ﬁrst Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. Armyduring World WarIIarrived at the internment camp at Manzanar,California.

In 1965, America’sﬁrst two-person space mission took place as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young aboard foranearly 5-hour ﬂight orbiting Earth.

In 1993, scientists announced they’d identiﬁed the gene that causes Huntington’sdisease.

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Afford-

one dining experience, but Iwas able to get out a little bit,” she said, highlighting the experience of eatingManchego cheesein Spain.

Eventhough the experience of running back-toback marathons is exhausting, sometimes sleep was hard to comebyonthisepic journey

“You’remeeting allthese new people and you’re excited. When you’re done running and you get on the plane,you almostwantto just chat all night or hang out. Youhave to remember the plane is where you sleep,” Reed said. “There’s people who Imet who I’ll probably be in touch with for the rest of my life. Some of us have already talked about, ‘When’sour next marathon?’ ” The runner’sfastest and ﬁnal marathonofthischallenge was run close to home in Miami. Finishing with a

bed, and if one of us turns and takes the duvet with them,the other is not covered. Ineed awider duvet. Any advice will be helpful! —Jan H., via email Jan, this is afairly common problem.You might want to try aCalifornia king duvet or look online foranextra-wide comforter and duvet. —Heloise Clothnapkinhint

Dear Heloise: Along with Cathie D.,I,too, use cloth napkins forcompany and on adaily basis for my husband and me. Iuse ﬁngertip towels in various colors (nothing too light) and have never seen stains on them. They get washed like bath towels do and never need to be ironed. Karen, in Hastings, Michigan Staple removeruse

Dear Heloise: Iuse astaple remover (the kind that is similar to ascrewdriver but wider) to pry open the lids of refrigerator storage containers. —Margaret, in La Mirada, California Send ahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

able Care Act, a$938 billion health care overhaul aimed at making health insurance more accessible and affordable in the U.S. In 2021, acargo ship the size of askyscraper ran aground and became wedged in the Suez Canal; hundreds of ships would be prevented from passing through the canal until the vessel was freed six days later Today’sbirthdays: Singer Chaka Khanis73. Basketball Hall of Famecoach Geno Auriemma is 72. Fashion designer Kenneth Cole is 72. Actor Amanda Plummer is 69. Actor Hope Davis is 62. Musician Damon Albarn is 58. Basketball Hall of Famer Jason Kidd is 53. Actor Randall Park is 52. Actor Michelle Monaghan is 50. Actor Keri Russell is 50. Country singer Brett Young is 45. Actor Vanessa Morgan is 34. Actor Victoria Pedretti is 31.

time of 3hours, 20 minutes and 55 seconds, Reed crossedthe Florida finish line around 2:30 a.m. on the lastday with herhusband andmother-in-lawthere to celebrate with her

“They sprayed me with Champagneand brought ﬂowers, then we got cheeseburgers at like 5a.m. It was one of the best nights in recent memory,”she said.

“It was anicelittle bonus to win.” On heradventurous journey,Reed brought home life lessons in additiontoher medals.

“This is one example of remembering to live and not just exist. It sounds so simple but it’ssomething that’shard to do,” she said. “I think that’sanimportantreminder. Youdon’t always know whenyou’ll be injured or sick.When you’re healthyand youcan do things, you should deﬁnitely capitalize on that.”

Hints from Heloise

The Bird CageTheatre nowhas aproperly enclosed roofand air conditioning

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Discipline, along with pioneering ideas, will lead to something tangible. Trust and believe in what you can achieve, and bring about positive change.

tAuRuS (April 20-May 20) Get everything in place before you invite others to weigh in on your progress. You'll accomplish far more on your own than you will while facing criticism.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Take pride in what you do, and finish what you start. Less talk and more action will help pave the way forward and help you distance yourself from emotional confrontations.

CAnCER (June 21-July 22) Stop short of letting others take advantage of your kindness, connections and skills. Offer only what's feasible and what will help you get closer to your personal and professional goals.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Look, leap into action and put your energy into making a difference. Refuse to let the changes others make daunt you. Know your destination and complete your mission.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) A window of opportunity will open through communication and honoring your promises. Be the one to lead the way if you want to achieve what you set out to do.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-oct. 23) Follow the pack and embrace the chance to build strong relationships with the people who are most influential in your life. Let your

actions be your calling card and make your motives clear, and you will make headway.

SCoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Breathe, relax and obliterate any notion that using force will surpass using intelligence. Your emotions will be difficult to control when contracts, shared expenses or joint ventures come into play.

SAGIttARIuS (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Stick close to home. Avoid initiating a situation that could lead to harsh words. Puttering around the house, you'll find a way to lower your overhead and better utilize your space.

CAPRICoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Slow down, think and plan your next move. Trust your instincts, not what others lead you to believe. Don't limit what you can do or pay too much for what you want.

AQuARIuS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) You are sitting in a better position than you realize. With a little ingenuity and discipline, you'll come out ahead of the game, with cash in hand and a sense of accomplishment.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Be nice, kind and a good listener, and you'll ward off an emotional setback. An open mind and heart will help you maintain good relations and positive results.

FAMILY CIrCUS

CeLebrItY CIpher

better or For WorSe

GooSe And GrIMM

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle basedona9x9 grid with severalgiven numbers. Theobjectistoplace the numbers1 to 9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column andeach 3x3 box contains thesame number only once. Thedifficulty level of the Sudoku increases fromMonday to Sunday

Saturday’s PuzzleAnswer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Emile-Auguste Chartier, a French philosopher and journalist who died in 1951, said, “We prove what we want to prove, and the real difficulty is to know what we want to prove.”

At the bridge table, we want to prove whether or not a contract is makable.

This is usually easier when we can see all 52 cards, or have been warned there is a trap somewhere. When we are just playing at the table, it can be easy to make a mistake almost on autopilot.

In today’s deal, South is in three notrump. West leads his fourth-highest heart. East wins with his king and returns the heart nine. Who should prevail, declarer or the defenders?

After a one-no-trump opening, some pairs use a jump-response of three of a major to show game values with a singleton (or void) in that suit, three cards in the other major and 5-4 (or 5-5) in the minors. Partner can usually judge the right contract. However, without that agreement, North should just jump to three no-trump.

Declarer has seven top tricks: two spades, four diamonds and one club. He can get at least one heart trick and three more club winners. How might he go down?

Onlyiftheclubfinesseislosingandthe defenders take four hearts and one club.

The key play is almost counterintuitive.

At trick two, South must play his second low heart, which cuts the communication between the defenders. If instead he covers with the queen or jack, West can play low. Then, when East gets in with his club king, a third heart through declarer defeats the contract.

Watch out for this difficult duck.

2026 by NEA, Inc., dist.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

wuzzles

Each Wuzzle is a word riddle which creates a disguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD = GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

game

InStRuCtIonS: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2.

Average

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles hidato

IBERVILLE PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES PUBLIC HEARING, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY24, 2026 PROPOSED ORDINANCES

The Parish Council of Iberville Parish, State of Louisiana, held aPublic Hearing in the Council Meeting Room, 58050 Meriam Street, Plaquemine, Louisiana, on the 24th day of February,2026 at 6:00 P.M. pursuant to a Notice of Public Hearing published on the 26th day of January,2026 in The Advocate and posted on the Iberville Parish website.

The Council Chairman, Steve C. Smith, called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. followed by the roll call with the following Council Members in attendance: Chasity B. Easley; District 2; Freddie Frazier,Sr.,District 4; Steve C. Smith, District 5; Raheem T. Pierce, District 6; Nadia Jenkins, District 7; Hunter S. Markins, District 8; Terry J. Bradford, District 9; Charles Dardenne, District 11; Matthew H. Jewell, District 12; Bart B. Morgan, District 13.

Absent: Allen, Dominique.

Chief Administrative Officer-Dwayne Boudreaux, Chief Operating OfficerRandall Dunn, and Legal Counsel- Nedi Morgan werealso in attendance. Chief Administrative Officer-Dwayne Boudreaux, read the following ordinance in entirety

ORDINANCE1 ORDINANCE TO AMEND PORTIONS OF CHAPTER 9OF THE COMPILED ORDINANCES OFIBERVILLE PARISH ENTITLED “GARBAGE,TRASH AND DISPOSAL”, ARTICLE III ENTITLED“SOLID WASTE COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL”, SECTION9-36 ENTITLED “INTENT AND PURPOSE” THROUGH SECTION9-45 ENTITLED “VIOLATIONS, PENALTY”

The floor was opened to comments and questions. Therewas no opposition to this ordinance from the public.

Therebeing no further business to be conducted, the hearing was adjourned at 6:04 p.m.

/s/ MACY W. OURSO /s/ STEVE C. SMITH COUNCIL CLERK COUNCIL CHAIRMAN IBERVILLE PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES REGULAR MEETING, TUESDAY,FEBRUARY24, 2026

The Parish Council of Iberville Parish, State of Louisiana, met in Regular Session, in the Council Meeting Room, 2nd Floor, Courthouse Building, 58050 Meriam Street, Plaquemine, Louisiana, on the 24th day of February 2026.

The Council Chairman, Steve C. Smith, called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. followed by the roll call with the following Council Members in attendance: Chasity B. Easley; District 2; Freddie Frazier,Sr.,District 4; Steve C. Smith, District 5; Raheem T. Pierce, District 6; Nadia Jenkins, District 7; Hunter S. Markins, District 8; Terry J. Bradford, District 9; Charles Dardenne, District 11; Matthew H. Jewell, District 12; Bart B. Morgan, District 13.

Absent: Allen, Dominique.

Parish President- Chris Daigle, Chief Administrative Officer-Dwayne Boudreaux, and Legal Counsel- Nedi Morgan was also in attendance. Aquorum was present and due notice had been posted and published in TheAdvocate newspaper on the 19th day of February,2026. The Pledge of Allegiance followed. Council Chairman Smith called for anyone wanting to make public comments to register with the Clerk.

ADDENDUM

A) VLS Solutions

Upon amotion by Councilman Morgan, seconded by Councilman Markins, it was moved that the addendum item will be added to the agenda under Presentations and Appearances. The motion having been duly submitted to avote was duly adopted by the following yea and nay votes on roll call:

YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell, Morgan.

NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT:Allen, Dominique.

The motion was declared adopted by the Chairman.

PRESENTATIONS AND APPEARANCES

A) VLS Solutions

•Wade Grundmeyer representing VLS and John Clark with Iberville Parish came beforethe Council to give an update on what is being done to look into the potential vibrations coming from the VLS facility across the river.The Parish is looking into some sort of monitoring system that would help determine wherethe vibrations arecoming fromand how VLS can help remedy the situation.

B) Westside Master Gardener –Lorrain Hidalgo

•Lorrain Hidalgo came before the Council to give abrief presentation on the Westside Master Gardener Greenhouse and their impact on the community.They have 2annual fundraisers ayear that directly support 4-Hyouth in the Parish.

C) CareSouth Introduction

•Matthew Vallierewith CareSouth Medical and Dental came beforethe Council to give abrief presentation about CareSouth, their mission, the services they offer and how they arebeginning to service the St. Gabriel community

D) Bert Callais

•Bert Callais came beforethe Council to give the Council information on Carbon Sequestration and why is thereisa push for it from the Federal government.

E) Glenn Patrick

•Was not in attendance.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Upon amotion by Councilwoman Jenkins, and seconded by Councilman Dardenne, it was moved to wave the reading of the minutes of January 20, 2026 and approve as written. The motion having been duly submitted to avote was duly adopted by the following yea and nay votes on roll call:

YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell, Morgan.

NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT:Allen, Dominique.

The motion was declared adopted by the Chairman.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Daigle reported on the following:

•President Daigle started with announcing that Clint Moore, director of 911/Office of Emergency Preparedness will be leaving and he recognized him for his years of service to Iberville Parish.

•Hestated that the IPRD bathrooms for White Castle and Bayou Goula areout for bid. The work on the splashpad in Bayou Blue has started and should be completed in the next few months. Batting cages will be added at the Crescent park and the Rosedale ball park will be having anew fence installed.

•Hestated that on March 10 and March 12 therewill be public Bridge meeting on Tuesday and Thursday.April 15 is Iberville Day at the Capital and April 18 is the ‘Keep Iberville Beautiful’ Day Clean-up Day

FINANCIAL REPORT

Finance Director,Randall Dunn stated that the council received their budget to actual financial statements. He stated that the Brittany Dupont, the Grant manager was successful in getting agrant to study wherethe Parish needs to improve the gas system across the Parish.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

(pursuant

discuss aPersonnel Matter.The motion having been duly submitted to avote was duly adopted by the following yea and nay votes on roll call:

YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell,Morgan. NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT: Allen, Dominique.

The motion was declared adopted by the Chairman. Upona motionbyCouncilman Jewellat7:24 p.m., seconded by Councilman Markins, it was moved to go out of Executive Session. The motion having been duly submitted to avote was duly adopted by the following yea and nay votes on roll call:

YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell,Morgan. NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT: Allen, Dominique.

The motion was declared adopted by the Chairman.

OLD BUSINESS

ORDINANCE IPC #001-26

ORDINANCE TO AMEND PORTIONS OF CHAPTER 9ENTITLED “GARBAGE, TRASH AND DISPOSAL”, ARTICLE III ENTITLED “SOLID WASTE COLLECTIONAND DISPOSAL, SECTION 9-36 ENTITLED “INTENT AND PURPOSE” THROUGH SECTION 9-45 ENTITLED “VIOLATIONS, PENALTY”

WHEREAS,the Iberville Parish Council recognizes that, as the parish governing authority,ithas been delegated by the State the authority to enact ordinances regarding the regulation of solid waste disposal;

WHEREAS,the Iberville Parish Council has in effect an ordinance regulating the collection and disposal of solid waste within the parish;

WHEREAS,the IbervilleParish Council recognizes aneed for more specificand additional regulations of the collection and disposal of solid waste within the Parish in order to promote the publichealth, safety and welfareand to prevent the mass accumulation of trash and creation of nuisances that accompanies such sites when each resident is responsible of for their own containers placed in acommon pick-up location.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE IBERVILLE PARISH COUNCIL that Section 9-36 through Section 9-45 be amended as follows: ARTICLE III. -SOLID WASTE COLLECTIONAND DISPOSAL [3]

Sec. 9-36. -Intent and purpose.

(a) Intent.The general intent of the Council of IbervilleParish, Louisiana, is to provide acomprehensive collection and disposal service from the road right-of-way line for all residential and small commercial garbage (which includes churches and camps), trash and light tree debris on aonce aweek basis. Intent: Collection and disposal of industrial garbage and trash, large commercial garbage and trash, construction refuse, hazardous waste, insurance covered claims, and/or renovations areexpressly excluded.

(b) Purpose

(1) Protect the public health, safety and welfare.

(2) Prevent land, water or air pollution.

(3) Prevent the spread of disease and the creation of nuisances.

(4) Conserve natural resources.

(5) Enhance the beauty and quality of the environment.

(c) This article is applicable to all solid waste storage, collection, transportation, processing and disposal operations within the parish, except within incorporated communities.

(d) The IbervilleParish Council hereby delegates to the Parish President the authority to promulgate, adopt, and publish administrative regulations necessary for the proper implementation and enforcement of this Chapter.All regulations issued under this authority shall be consistent with this Chapter,with all other parish ordinances, and with the Constitution and laws of the State of Louisiana. Such regulations shall have the force and effect of law upon publication and filing with the Council.

(Ord.of6-17-75, §1)

Sec. 9-37. -Definitions.

[As used herein the following words, terms and phrases shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section:]

(1) Collection unit means aresidence, smallcommercial establishment, church and camps.

(2) Parish means the Council of Iberville Parish, Louisiana.

(3) Solid waste means all various types, or combination thereof, of garbage, trash and light tree debris.

(4) Construction refuse means waste material or debris resulting from firesorconstruction, repairs, alterations or demolition of buildings, or other structures and pavements.

(5) Department means the State of Louisiana Department of Health.

(6) Disposal site or disposal facility is any place at which solid waste is disposed of by incineration, landfilling, composting or any other method, and which has been approved by the department and issued apermit.

(7) Hazardous waste includes, but is not limited to, such items as petroleum waste; paints; plastics; explosives; acids; caustics; chemicals; poisons; drugs; radioactive materials; asbestos fibers; pathogenicwastes from hospitals, sanatoriums, nursing homes, clinics, and veterinary hospitals; offal waste, and the like, which by virtue of their particular composition and inherent dangers require handling and disposal methods different from those used in other waste materials. In the way of further explanation, “hazardous waste” is solid waste [and may] be infectious, explosive, poisonous, caustic or toxic, or otherwise dangerous or injurious to humans, plant or animal life. (Residential solid waste normallycontains some hazardous materials, but because such materialsare usually present in very small quantities, their safe disposal either in asanitary landfill or incinerator presents no special problem. Therefore, residential waste is not considered to be “hazardous waste”, as used in this text.)

(8) Nonputrescible describes solid waste that is not liable to spoil, decompose or putrefy and become offensive.

(9) Permit shall mean written authorization issued by the department, permitting the construction, maintenance and/or operation of a specificsolid waste disposal site.

(10) Putrescible describes solid waste that is liable to spoil,decompose or putrefy and become offensive.

(11) Residential and small commercial garbage means all kitchen and table waste and every accumulation of animal, fish, fowl, fruit and vegetablematter that attends or results from the handling, preparation, cooking, storage and/or consumption of foodstuffs, including the cans, containers, wrappers and servicing objects wasted along with such material which emanates from aprivate household or smallcommercial establishment.

(12) Rubbish refers to trash.

(13) Tree debris a. “Heavy” means trees, stumps, branches, trunks, or logs in excess of three (3) inches of individual diameter b. “Light” means tress, tree branches, brush and shrubbery trimmings of three (3) inches or less in individual diameter

(14) Trash means nonputrescible solid waste of residential and small commercial establishments consisting of both combustibleand noncombustiblewastes. “Combustibletrash” includes paper rags, cartons, wood, rubber,plastic, grass trimmings, leaves and similar material. “Noncombustibletrash” includes glass, crockery cans, dust, scrap metal and like materials. “Trash” excludes abandoned or junked vehicles and major components thereof, bulky wastes, large commercial establishments, construction refuse, hazardous wastes, tree debris and garbage.

(15) Apartment complex is amultifamilydwelling composed of multiple units in which the physical properties of each separate unit provides the basic elements of ahome, including appropriate and customary appliances and facilities.

(16) Mobilehome park is alot, tract, or parcel of land that has two (2) or moremobile homes on the land that do not front apublic road regardless of whether the land has been approved by the parish for multiplemobile homes.

(17) Recreational vehicle (RV) is avehicular type unit designed for temporary occupation such as recreational camping, travel, or seasonal use and which has its own motive power or is mounted on or towed by another vehicle.

(18) Recreational vehicle (RV) park is atract of land that is occupied or designed to be occupied by two (2) or morerecreational vehicles for transient dwelling purposes regardless of whether said land has been approved by the parish for multiple recreational vehicles.

(Ord. of 6-17-75, §2;Ord.No. 007-13,

not less than ten (10) gallons nor morethan thirty (30) gallons in capacity,and the combined weight of contents and containers shall not exceed fifty (50) pounds. Containers shall be kept covered at all times, except during placing or removal of contents. Residential and small commercial containers shall be provided by the occupant, maintained in good condition and kept in as sanitary condition as is compatiblewith their intended use.

(c) Disposable containers.Disposablecontainers such as paper or plasticbags may be used for residential and smallcommercial nonputrescibletrash, provided they arespecifically designed for such purpose, protected against precipitation, vandalism, animal damage and overloading, having aholding strength capableofwithstanding stresses while being handled and collected, the bag opening is securely tied and the filled weight shall not exceed fifty (50) pounds. Nonputrescible materialswhich cannot be properlycontained in bags shall be containerized in garbage cans, except that such items as magazines, newspapers, cardboardand light tree debrismay alternativelybebundled as hereinafter provided.

(d) Methods of use of containers (1) Containers shall be kept covered

themselves to temporary storage in amanner other than placement in the regular trash containers or carts provided pursuant to residential garbage collection service contracted through or provided by the Iberville ParishCouncil: (1) Alltrash and garbage, beforebeing placed into containers for collection, shall

(2)

refuse/garbage dumpsters for the disposal of the solid waste by their occupants within thirty (30) days of the enactment of the ordinance from which this subsection(g) derives, he/she will be notified to do so by personal service, certified letter,orFedex deliveryofa written notice from the parish.

b. If the violation is not corrected within seven (7) days after receipt of such notice, the parish shall have the authority to provide arefuse/garbage dumpster for the above purposes and to organize the collection of the refuse/garbagedumpster,all at the owner’sexpense. The parish shall prepareastatement of the costs incurred which will then be mailed certified return receipt requested or FedEx to the last owner of the property as shown on the tax rolls. The statement shall include anotice that if not paid in full within thirty (30) days after receipt, the amount thereof shall be included in and form apart of the taxes due by the owner of said property and when collected shall be credited to the general fund of the parish. The costs incurredshall include all costs of service of notices and recording of statements with the clerk of courtofthe parish. Any and all costs incurredbythe parish in providing the refuse/garbagedumpster and the notices under the provisions of this sectionshall then be added to the annual ad-valorem tax bill of the property involved if the charges remain unpaid.

c. Any and all costs incurredby the parish in connection with theabatement of anuisance and preventing the spread of disease, promoting of public health, safety and welfare, to prevent pollution, the accumulation of trash, refuse, junk and other abandoned materials under the provisions of this sectionshall constitute a lien against the property uponwhich such nuisance existed, which lien may be filed with aclerk of court of the parish and collected as provided by law.Such lien shall be notice to the public from the time of its recording and shall bear interest at the legal rate thereof until paid.

(6) Severability.Itishereby declared to be the intention of the Iberville Parish Council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, and phrases of this subsection(g) areseverable; and that if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or sectionofthis subsection be declared unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs or sections of this subsection (g), since the same would have been enacted by the Iberville Parish Council without the incorporation in this subsection (g) of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.

(Ord. of 6-17-75, §4;Ord.No. 007-13, 8-20-13)

State Law reference— Powersofparish governing authorities, R.S.33:1236(31)(a), R.S.33:1236(7)

Sec. 9-40. -Terms of service; number of pickups, point of collection, hours of collection, etc.

(a) Frequency of collection.For the residential and small commercial solid waste material covered herein, each applicable unit shall receive unlimited collection of authorized material at aminimum (b) Standards for collection. Garbage andother putrescible material shall only be collected from containers as delineated in subsection9-39( above and in carts which maybeprovided by the Parish through a contractor employed by the Parish to provide residential garbage collections services. Nonputrescible trash material shall only be collected from containersasdelineated in subsections 9-39 above,

(b) Point of collection Containers and othermaterial authorized for collection shall be placed within the right-of-way of an accessible public road, readily accessible to the collectors and shall not interferewith the safe use of nearby buildings, sidewalks, or roads Containersand other material authorized for collection shall be placed on ahardand stable surface to prevent them from sinking into the ground or tipping over (c) Schedule for collection.The parish shall provide aminimum of ONE (1) collection per week on aschedule to be determined by the parish.

(d) Hours of collection.Collection shall be completed between the hours approved by the parish for any collection day.Emptied containers and uncollected material shall be removed from the road right-of-way promptly after the collection vehicle has completed collection in their particular geographical area. No collections shall be made on Sunday without the expressed approval of the parish.

(e) Person’sresponsibility to dispose of solid wastes not collected by parish.Residential and small commercial establishments originating solid wastes in types other than that specified above as being the parish’sresponsibility shall disposeof such at theirown expense.

(Ord. of 6-17-75, §5)

Sec. 9-41. -Solid waste transportation.

(a) Vehicles, carts or containersused for the collection and transportation of garbageand other putrescible wastes, or refuse containing such materials, shall be steel covered, leak-proof, of durable metal and of easily cleanable construction. These shall be cleaned at appropriate intervals to prevent nuisances, pollution or insect breeding and shall be maintained in good repair

(b) Vehicles or containersused for the collection and transportation of toxic or hazardous wastes shall be durable, enclosed and leak-proof and shall be constructed, loaded, moved and unloaded in the same manner and in compliance with the applicable regulations of the department and the parish.

(Ord. of 6-17-75, §6)

Sec. 9-42. -Salvaging and scavenging of solid wastes. Scavenging is strictly prohibited at any locationunder any circumstances. Salvaging shall be unlawful for any person, except by specificpermission of the owner of the premises on which salvaging is or istobeconducted. Salvaging will normally only be permitted in the interest of recycling,and then only when done in asafe, nuisance-free and pollution-free manner (Ord. of 6-17-75, §7)

Sec. 9-43. -Littering, burning of solid wastes prohibited No person shall litter any public or private premises, nor shall any person kindle or set on fire any combustible uponany public or private premises for the purpose of disposing of solid waste material. (Ord. of 6-17-75, §8)Cross reference— Littering,§ 9-29

Sec. 9-44. -Solid

or otherwise disposed of within the boundaries of the Parish of Iberville, Louisiana, or any land within the confines of said parish.

(b) Any person, firm, corporation or commercial establishment who causes, suffers, allows or permits the dumping, discharging, storing or injecting of any hazardous waste or land contaminants as defined herein, shall be fined the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) per day,for each violation with each day constituting anew violation, the penalties imposed herein to be in addition to those penalties which are outlined in section 9-45.

(Ord. of 8-3-78, §§ 1, 2)

Sec. 9-45. -Violations; penalty

(a) It shall be unlawful to violate any provisions of this article. Any violation shall be amisdemeanor

(b) Any person who violates any of the provisions of the article, or any order of the parish issued pursuant thereto, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars($25.00), nor morethan one hundred dollars ($100.00), or imprisoned for not morethan thirty (30) days, or both. Each day of violation shall constitute aseparate offense.

(c) Any unauthorized accumulation of refuse, garbage, trash or other waste matter on any premises or property is hereby declared to be anuisance and is prohibited. The failureofany person to remove an unauthorized accumulation within 48 hours after having been given due and proper written notice to do so shall be deemed aviolation of this chapter

(Ord. of 6-17-75, §§ 10, 11)

This ordinance shall become effective on this the _________day of _____________, 2026.

The foregoing ordinance which was previouslyintroduced at the meeting of the Iberville Parish Council on January 20, 2026 and acopy thereof having been published in the official journal on January 26, 2026

the public hearing on this ordinance held on the 24th day of February 2026, at 6:00 p.m., in the Council Meeting Room, 58050 Meriam Street, Plaquemine, Louisiana, was brought up for final passage with amotion by Councilman Jewell, and seconded by Councilman Bradford, having been duly submitted to avote, the ordinance was duly adopted by the following yea and nay vote on roll call:

YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell, Morgan. NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT:Allen, Dominique.

The ordinance was declared adopted by the Chairman on the 24th day of February,2026. NEW BUSINESS

A) Introduction of Ordinances 1. None.

RESOLUTION COMMITTEE REPORT

The Resolution Committee met on Tuesday,February 24, 2026 at 6:15 p.m., followed by the roll call with the following Resolution Committee Members only in attendance: Jewell, Dardenne, Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Morgan, Frazier Absent: Dominique.

The following resolution was read aloud by Mr.Boudreaux:

A) Approve Resolution to Appoint Member to Fill Vacancy for Parish Council District Number 10 and to Call Special Election to Fill Unexpired Term for Council Member District Number 10

B) Approve Resolution authorizing the Lease of Property for Two Public Boat Launches from A. Wilbert Sons LLC

C) Approve Resolution to authorize Parish President to submit an application under the Community Water Enrichment Fund (CWEF)

D) Approve Resolution authorizing the Parish President to submitan application for the State of Louisiana Division of Administration Community Development Local Government Assistance Program (LGAP)

E) Approve Resolution authorizing the IbervilleParish Council to prepareand submit aPre-Application to the Statewide Flood Control Program for assistance in the implementation of aproject for the purpose of reducing existing flood damages; Providing for the necessary documentation of said flood damages; and providing for other related matters in connection therewith

F) Approve Resolution authorizing intergovernmental agreement between Iberville Parish and the Village of Grosse Tete, the Town of Maringouinand the Village of Rosedale Councilman Jewell made arecommendation to forwardthe resolution to the regular meeting, seconded by Councilman Dardenne. The recommendation having been duly submitted to avote was duly adopted by the following yea and nay votes on roll call by Resolution Committee Members only:

YEAS: Jewell, Dardenne, Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Frazier,Morgan.

NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT: Dominique.

During the Regular Meeting:

RESOLUTION IPC# 2026-007

RESOLUTION TO APPOINT MEMBER TO FILL VACANCY FOR PARISH COUNCIL DISTRICT NUMBER 5AND TO CALL SPECIAL ELECTION TO FILL UNEXPIRED TERM FOR COUNCIL MEMBER DISTRICT NUMBER 5

The following resolution was introduced by Councilman Bradfordand seconded by Councilman Markins.

WHEREAS,therecurrently exists avacancy in IbervilleParish Council District Number 10 due to the resignation of Council Member Chasity Martinez. effective on February 20, 2026 to commence his term as newly elected State Representative for District 60.

WHEREAS,Section 2-04 of the IbervilleParish Home Rule Charter provides that the office of aCouncil member shall become vacant upon that Council member’sresignation.

WHEREAS,ifthe vacancy in the council office occurs morethan one (1) year beforethe expiration of the term, the appointee named by afavorablevote of the majority of the remaining members of the Parish Council shall serve until the office is filled by the vote of the qualified voters voting in an election called by the Parish Council for that purpose and the person duly elected assumes the vacant council position.

WHEREAS,a vacancy on the Parish Council shall be

lled by appointment of aperson meeting the qualifications for that office and the person appointed to fill the vacancy shall not be eligible to be acandidate for that office in the next election (that is, election to fill the existing vacancy).

WHEREAS,Trent Martinez, meets the qualifications to serve as a Parish Council member from District Number 10 and has expressed a desireto fill the vacant seat until such time as the special election can be held and the elected council member assumes the

YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell, Morgan.

NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT:Allen, Dominique.

The resolution was declared adopted by the Chairman on February 24, 2026.

RESOLUTION IPC# 2026-009

RESOLUTION TO AUTHORIZE PARISH PRESIDENT TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION UNDER THE COMMUNITY WATER ENRICHMENT FUND (CWEF)

The following resolution wasintroduced by Councilman Bradfordand seconded by Councilman Markins.

WHEREAS,the Iberville Parish Council has been informed that the State of Louisiana, Division of Administration, Office of Community Developmentwill be accepting applications for the FY 2026/2027 Community Water EnrichmentFund (CWEF). NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,that the President is hereby authorized to submit aCWEF Application for SCADA System Improvements/Upgrades and to execute all assurances and certifications requiredfor the application; and,

The foregoing resolution having been submitted to avote by roll call wasadopted in regular session this 24th day of February,2026 by the following vote: YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell, Morgan. NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT:Allen, Dominique.

The resolution wasdeclared adopted by the Chairman on February 24, 2026.

RESOLUTION IPC# 2026-010

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PRESIDENT TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR THE STATEOFLOUISIANA DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATION COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

The following resolution wasintroduced by Councilman Bradfordand seconded by Councilman Markins. WHEREAS,the Parish of Iberville has been informed that the State of Louisiana, Division of Administration,Office of Community Development will be accepting applications for FY 2026/2027 Local Government Assistance Program (LGAP); NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,that the President is hereby authorized to submit an LGAP Application for Grinder Attachment for Excavator and to execute all assurances and certifications required for the application; and, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,that the President is hereby authorized to workwith Pan American Engineers, LLC on the developmentofthe LGAP Application.

The foregoing resolution having been submitted to avote by roll call was adopted in regular session this 24th day of February, 2026 by the following vote:

YEAS: Easley,Frazier,Pierce, Jenkins, Markins, Bradford, Dardenne, Jewell, Morgan.

NAYS: None.

ABSTAIN: None.

ABSENT:Allen, Dominique.

The resolution was declared adopted by the Chairman on February 24, 2026.

RESOLUTION IPC# 2026-011

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE IBERVILLE PARISHCOUNCIL TO PREPARE AND SUBMIT APRE-APPLICATION TO THE STATEWIDE FLOOD CONTROL PROGRAM FOR ASSISTANCE IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF APROJECT FOR THE PURPOSE OF REDUCING EXISTING FLOOD DAMAGES;PROVIDING FOR THE NECESSARYDOCUMENTATION OF SAID FLOOD DAMAGES;AND PROVIDING FOR OTHER RELATED MATTERS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.

The following resolution wasintroduced by Councilman Bradfordand seconded by Councilman Markins. WHEREAS,Iberville Parish has been adversely affected by damages from flood waters; and WHEREAS,The Iberville Parish Council desires to apply for State matching funds pursuant to L.A. R.S. 38:90.1