The Advocate 04-09-2026

EAST BATONROUGE PARISH

Democratsurgemayor to reduce police raises

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer

Democrats on the East Baton Rouge Parish MetroCouncil are urging Mayor-President Sid Edwards to reduce his planned pay raise for Baton Rouge police officers so nearly all city-parish workers can have their salaries increased, too.

At anews conference Wednesday, four council Democrats —Carolyn Coleman, Cleve DunnJr.,Darryl Hurst and AnthonyKenney —called on the mayor to scrap his plan,which

is scheduled foravoteintwo weeks.

They unveiled an alternativethat would give smaller increases for police but add raises for departments like the Constable’sOffice, public works and others.

“What Iwould ask the mayor and to our council colleagues is to pull his item and consider what we’ve presented here today,” Dunn said.

Thefifth Democrat —Twahna P. Harris —was not in attendance but said she shares her colleagues’ views. The move sets up apossible clash at thecouncil’sApril 22 meeting. The

mayor saidhe“doubts very seriously” that any changes would be made to his planorthatitwould getremoved from themeeting’sagenda.

“I have made it abundantlyclear to ourcouncil,I’vemadeitabundantly clear to ourconstable, I’vemadeit abundantlyclear …withDPW,that Iamcommitted to getting them a raise,”Edwards said. “But we want to do this first.”

For the mayor’s raise plantopass thecouncil on April22, it will need

ä See RAISES, page 5A

BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer

ä Louisiana schools must justify their placementof students withspecial needs undernew bill. Page 3A

ä Republicans shut down bill to create Louisiana Voting RightsAct. Page 4A

Louisiana’s $1.5 billionannualplanfor coastalprotection andrestoration raninto a delay at the stateLegislature on Wednesday after advocates raised concerns over amajor change in strategy by Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration. The advocacy group Womenofthe Storm, formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, hasposeda series of questionstothe state’s coastal authority related to the cancellation of expansiveriver diversion projects. Senate President Cameron Henry has signaled his intenttohavethose questionsansweredbefore the plan can move forward, officialswere told at aSenatecommittee hearing. The delay is the latest turn in along-running controversy surrounding theLandry administration’s move to cancel the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton Sediment Diversions. Mid-Barataria broke ground in 2023, while construction had not begun on Mid-Breton. Those unprecedentedprojects hadlong been seen as linchpins in the state’scoastal master plan, and around $700 million had already been disbursed for them. But Landry opposed the plans based on cost and the damage they would do to commercial fisheries in those areas. The projects were being largelypaidfor

COASTAL, page 7A

Ceasefire threatenedasIsraelstrikes Lebanon, Iran closes strait

BY BASSEM MROUE, SAMYMAGDY, JON GAMBRELL andSAM METZ Associated Press

TEHRAN,Iran Aceasefiredeal topause the war in Iran appearedto hang by athread Wednesday after the Islamic Republic closed theStrait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The White House demandedthat the channel be reopened andsought to keep peace talks on track.

The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries. At thesametime, Israel intensified its attacks on theHezbollah militant group in Lebanon, hitting several commercial and residentialareas in Beirut withoutwarning. At least182 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in one of the deadliest days in thelatest Israel-Hezbollah war

ä Iran’sStrait of Hormuztoll proposal violatestrade norms. PAGE 5A

Thefresh violencethreatened to scuttle what U.S.Vice President JD Vance called a“fragile” deal.

The Iranian parliament speaker said planned talks with the U.S. to seek a permanent halt to hostilitieswere “unreasonable” becauseWashington broke threeofTehran’s10conditions

ä See CEASEFIRE, page 8A

Pro-government demonstrators in Tehran, Iran, celebrate Wednesdayafter the announcement of atwo-week ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel

ASSOCIATEDPRESS

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL DUNLAP

East BatonRougeParish Mayor-PresidentSid Edwards, second from left, talks withDemocratic Metro Council members, from left, Carolyn Coleman, DarrylHurst, Anthony Kennyand Cleve Dunn Jr.after anewsconference at City Hall on Wednesday held to discuss equal payfor city workers.

Miner rescued after nearly 14 days in mine

MEXICO CITY A miner was rescued Wednesday after being trapped for nearly 14 days following a collapse in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa, authorities said in a statement.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that another miner has been found dead and one more is still missing.

A dam breach caused by a structural failure flooded El Rosario mine on March 25, trapping Francisco Zapata Nájera and three co-workers Of the 25 miners present during the accident, 21 escaped immediately Five days later, rescuers pulled one survivor from a depth of 985 feet.

Zapata Nájera was located on Tuesday by divers, but the rescue teams were unable to reach him through heavily flooded areas until 21 hours later

The survivor was brought to the surface Wednesday morning His condition was stabilized and he was sent in a Mexican Air Force helicopter to a hospital in Mazatlán, where he will be treated by specialists.

Some hours before, Sheinbaum had said that the rescue teams were waiting for the water to be pumped out to complete the extraction.

Mexico’s deadliest mining accident took place in February 2006 at the Pasta de Conchos mine in Coahuila, where an explosion killed 65 workers.

Residents: Attacks in Nigeria leave 20 dead

ABUJA, Nigeria Gunmen attacked two villages in the northcentral region of Nigeria, killing at least 20 people, residents said Wednesday

The attacks occurred in the early hours of Tuesday in Bagna and Erena, located in the Shiroro area of Niger state. Shiroro is about 155 miles or a four-hour drive from the capital, Abuja.

“They came on motorbikes and began shooting. It was a surprise attack, because it was in the early hours of the morning,” said Jibrin Isah, who lives in Erena.

Residents said that at least 20 people were killed, with more missing. However, local police said that only three people were killed.

“Unfortunately, two vigilante members and a driver from the joint security team lost their lives during the attack, while some others were injured,” Niger state police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement. Residents said the attackers operated for hours, raiding homes and sending residents to flee to safety in neighboring communities.

“Those killed in the attacks were above 20,” Muhammad Tukur a resident of Erena, told The Associated Press.

Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country, is battling a complex security crisis, especially in the north where there is a decade-long insurgency and several armed groups who kidnap for ransom.

Man who hit wolf with snowmobile sentenced

PINEDALE, Wyo. A judge in Wyoming sentenced a man to 18 months of probation for hitting a wolf with a snowmobile before taping the wounded animal’s mouth shut, bringing the creature into a rural bar, then killing it.

District Judge Richard Lavery in Pinedale sentenced Cody Roberts, 44, to probation on Wednesday, in accordance with a plea deal Roberts reached with prosecutors in February Lavery also fined Roberts $1,000 and ordered him not drink alcohol, enter a bar or liquor store, nor hunt or fish while on probation.

Roberts told Lavery at his change-of-plea hearing in March that he regretted what he did and apologized to his family and community Roberts avoided as much as two years in prison and a $5,000 fine by pleading guilty He initially pleaded not guilty and a trial was set for March.

The incident happened in February 2024 in Daniel, a town of about 150 people, some 50 miles south of Jackson.

Artemis II astronauts follow Apollo tradition

Crew names lunar features after loved ones

BY MARCIA DUNN AP aerospace writer

HOUSTON Lunar love knows no bounds.

Now hurtling home from the moon, the Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters.

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one small, fresh crater after their capsule called Integrity and another after his late wife, Carroll. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen made the request right before Monday’s lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk. Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020. During Apollo 8 in 1968, astronaut Jim Lovell bestowed his wife’s name upon a prominent lunar peak: Mount Marilyn. It was humanity’s first trip

to the moon and she anxiously awaited his return back home in Houston.

The three Americans and one Canadian of Artemis II are the first lunar visitors since Apollo 17 closed out that grand epoch in 1972, and their crater-naming request temporarily left ground controllers speechless.

“It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,”

NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston “There was not a single dry eye.”

Mission Control’s lead scientist Kelsey Young worked with the Artemis II crew before launch, quietly helping them choose the two bright, relatively young craters which they quickly spied once they were close enough to the moon through zoom lenses as

well as their naked eyes.

Proposed Carroll Crater is at the moon’s left limb on the boundary of the moon’s near and far sides, and occasionally visible from Earth. It’s rather shallow and approximately 3 miles across, according to Watkins The slightly bigger Integrity crater is completely on the lunar far side.

Their request came shortly after they broke Apollo 13’s distance record for deep-space travelers. All four astronauts wept as they embraced in a group hug.

“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen radioed his voice breaking. “It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.”

Mission Control fell silent for nearly a minute before replying: “Integrity and Carroll crater,

Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to murder charges

Long Island architect admits to killing eight

BY MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press

RIVERHEAD, N.Y A Long Island architect who led a secret life as a serial killer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings.

Rex Heuermann, 62, entered the pleas in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims’ relatives, some of whom wept as he detailed his crimes. He will be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Heuermann’s guilty pleas — to three counts of first-degree murder and four of intentional murder — bring finality to a case that bedeviled investigators, tormented victims’ relatives and tantalized a true-crime obsessed public for years. Although he wasn’t charged in her death, he also admitted that he killed Karen Vergata in 1996.

Under questioning by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, Heuermann admitted that he strangled all eight victims and dismembered some of them, that he used burner phones to contact them, and that he wrapped their bodies in burlap before dumping them.

Wearing a black suit coat and white button-down shirt, Heuermann appeared matter-of-fact and unemotional as he answered questions from Tierney and the judge. He never looked back at the packed courtroom gallery

The women, many of them sex workers, were killed over a 17-year span and bur-

ied in remote locations, including along an isolated beach highway across the bay from where he lived, authorities said.

“This defendant walked among us playacting as a normal suburban dad when in reality, all along, he was obsessively targeting innocent women for death,” Tierney said at a news conference hours after the hearing.

He thanked relatives of the victims, including some standing alongside him, for helping bring their loved ones’ stories to life. And he praised members of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, which cracked the case with the help of clues that included DNA lifted from a discarded pizza crust.

“He thought that by killing them, he could silence them forever and get away with murder,” Tierney said. “But he was wrong.”

Gloria Allred, an attorney for some of the victims’ families, described several of the women as young mothers who were just trying to earn extra money to support their children because they didn’t have the means to go to college or get a decent job.

“Little did they know that the defendant, Rex Hermann, did not care about their hopes and dreams, or that they had families and friends who loved them,” Allred said before calling up family members to speak directly about the case and the plea deal.

Elizabeth Baczkiel, whose daughter Jessica Taylor was murdered by Heuermann, said: “I am glad that this is over as far as him pleading guilty. It took a big chunk of stress off of me and my family.”

Fighting back tears, Missy Cann, whose sister Maureen Brainard-Barnes was murdered, said his guilty plea “brings solace” after living 19 years “in the space between heartbreak and hope.”

March smashes heat record

was 50.85 F

BY SETH BORENSTEIN AP science writer

WASHINGTON March’s persistent unseasonable heat was so intense that the continental United States registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to federal weather data. And the next year or so looks to turn the dial up on global warmth even more, as some forecasts predict a brewing El Niño will reach superstrength.

loud and clear.”

The emotion-drenched scene was vastly different from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo moonshots in more ways than one. NASA’s Apollo all-male test pilots were for the most part all business and tear-free.

“This is no fault of Apollo,” Watkins said. “I think we’re seeing just a more human aspect.”

Once back on Earth later this week, the crew will submit the two proposed names to the International Astronomical Union.

Nearly a half century passed between Apollo 8 and the union’s sign-off of Mount Marilyn in 2017.

The IAU’s Ramasamy Venugopal promised a decision on Carroll and Integrity in about a month, the norm “for straightforward requests.”

There already are 81 astronaut-named lunar features on the group’s approved list, including Apollo 16’s Baby Ray and Gator

Not only was it the hottest March on record for the U.S., but the amount it was above normal beat any other month in history for the Lower 48 states. March’s average temperature of 50.85 degrees Fahrenheit was 9.35 F above the 20thcentury normal for March. That easily passed the old record of 8.9 F set in March 2012 as the most abnormally hot month on record — regardless of the month of the year — according to records released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average maximum temperature for March was especially high at 11.4 F above the 20th-century average and was almost a degree warmer than the average daytime high for April, NOAA said.

Six of the nation’s top 10 most abnormally hot months have been in the last 10 years. This February, which was 6.57 F above 20th-century normal, was the 10th highest above normal.

“What we experienced in March across the United States was unprecedented,” said Shel Winkley, a meteorologist with Climate Central, a nonprofit science research group.

“One reason that’s so concerning is just the sheer volume of records, all-time records that were set and broken during that time period,” Winkley said. “But also this is coming on the heels of what was the worst snow year And the hottest winter of record.”

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PHOTO PROVIDED By NASA

The Artemis II crew clockwise from left, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover, take time out for a group hug inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home on Wednesday. The crew proposed naming a crater after Wiseman’s late wife.

Bill could change La. special education hearings

Systems would have to justify decisions

BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

Louisiana school systems would have to justify their accommodation decisions for students with disabilities under a bill that seeks to shift the burden of proving whether a child’s special education plan is appropriate from parents to districts.

Federal law already mandates that districts give families the right to challenge decisions about their children’s education through hearings. House Bill 342 by Rep. Alonzo Knox, D-New Orleans, adds additional provisions requiring that a school system must be the one to make the case during those hearings as to why its decision is the right one and provide enough evidence to

convince the hearing officer

The House Education committee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the proposal. It next heads to the House floor

“These school districts hold all the power and information,” Knox said during Wednesday’s meeting. He added that the bill’s intent “is really to level the playing field” for families.

Advocates say transferring the burden of proof to school districts gives families a needed leg up when navigating the due process system. They say school districts, not parents, are typically the ones with direct access to important student documents and robust legal representation.

But opponents have warned the move could result in more lawsuits and higher costs for districts.

While considering a similar law in 2023, a fiscal and policy note from Maryland’s General Assembly

state Education Department.

“Parents without legal training, without resources and already caring for children with significant needs must prove that the government agency failed,” said parent advocate Kathryne Hart, who noted her family received a favorable ruling.

“Meanwhile, school districts control the records, the evaluations, the experts and have the benefit of in-house legal counsel.”

documentation and better decision-making from the outset among the state’s school systems.

“This change is not radical,” Hart said. “It provides transparency to government decision-making, and most importantly, it helps ensure that children receive the education they’re entitled to.”

pointed out that, after New Jersey shifted the burden of proof to schools in 2008, the state saw a surge in due process hearings within the first year (Data from subsequent years showed numbers eventually fell to where they were before the law was passed).

Still, parents say the current process works against them.

In Louisiana just one out of 43 due process complaints filed during the 202425 school year resulted in a family successfully challenging a school system, according to data from the

In most states, the party who files the due process complaint — typically parents — must prove the school is in the wrong. But if HB342 is signed into law, Louisiana would join a growing handful that place the onus on districts, including Connecticut, Delaware Florida Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Nevada.

Hart and several others said the move would promote accountability, better

The proposal is the state’s latest effort to improve the educational experience for children with disabilities after a 2024 audit found that Louisiana had failed to protect their rights by making sure schools were following federal law Last year, lawmakers passed legislation that placed new restrictions on when and how schools can restrain and seclude students with exceptionalities and mandated districts install cameras in all special education classrooms. The cameras were required to be up and operating in schools across the state as of February

Judge pauses abortion pill case while FDA conducts review

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

A federal judge in Lafayette declined to block, for now, the practice of accessing abortion pills in Louisiana through the mail following telehealth appointments, but left open the possibility of future restrictions that could change how many of the state’s residents access abortion.

In a 37-page ruling, U.S. District Judge David Joseph on Tuesday denied the state’s request to immediately reinstate in-person requirements for the abortion drug mifepristone and instead put the case on hold while the Food and Drug Administration conducts a safety review

The drug is regulated under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, a program the FDA uses to manage safety risks for some medications while keeping patient access.

The agency is currently conducting a safety review to evaluate those rules. The judge said the case should be put on hold while the FDA conducts a safety review of its abortion pill rules, finding that the agency, not the court, should evaluate the evidence first.

The case was brought against the FDA in October by Attorney General Liz Murrill and a Louisiana woman who alleged she felt coerced into taking pills that her boyfriend ordered. It argued that the FDA violated the Comstock Act, a 19thcentury law that restricts the mailing of items intended for abortion, when it stopped requiring that the pills be distributed in person.

The FDA has said it is

conducting a safety review of mifepristone and asked the court to pause the case while that process is underway, but has not indicated whether it plans to change its current rules.

The pause ordered by Joseph, who was appointed in 2020 by President Donald Trump, is temporary. It allows the state to pursue restrictions after the FDA’s safety review is complete. Joseph also left the door open to rule in Louisiana’s favor later saying the state is “likely to succeed on the merits” of their challenge to the FDA.

Murrill said the state would continue with the case, pointing out that the judge also said Louisiana is unable to enforce its laws, causing “irreparable harm.”

“Accordingly, under binding Fifth Circuit precedent, the only thing left to do is vacate the 2023 REMS pending the outcome of this litigation,” Murrill said in a statement. “We will ask the Fifth Circuit to do so.” La. abortions rising

Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban enacted in 2022 af-

ter Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, makes it illegal to perform most abortions in the state with limited exceptions for fetal anomalies or to save the life of the mother

The law is directed at providers within Louisiana but does not include the people who take the pills themselves or directly reach outof-state doctors prescribing abortion pills via telehealth, a gap at the center of this legal challenge.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, abortions tied to Louisiana residents rose from about 7,410 in 2024 to 9,350 in 2025 In 2021, before Louisiana’s ban was in place, 7,444 people received abortions in Louisiana.

All of the 9,350 recorded by the Guttmacher Institute were telehealth abortions meaning pills sent by doctors in states with shield laws that protect prescribing abortion medication across state lines — and do not include people who traveled from Louisiana to other states for abortions.

The 9,350 figure is the

number of prescriptions sent to Louisiana and does not track whether they were used. That number also does not include abortion pills sent from international organizations or received through informal networks. Despite Louisiana and many other states banning abortion after the Dobbs decision, abortion numbers have remained relatively stable. But how people access care is shifting, especially in states where abortion is largely banned, said Kimya Forouzan, a principal state policy adviser at Guttmacher and author of the report “People in this broad swath of states are fairly far from a state where they can access care,” Forouzan said. “So we have seen people increasingly access care via telehealth.”

Safety review

Mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000 and rules over its use have changed over time under the REMS program. Before 2021, mifepristone had to be taken in-person in Louisiana. That rule was suspended during the pandemic and made permanent in 2023. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found the FDA relied on data and its standard review process when evaluating the drug’s safety

The drug has been a lightning rod for groups that oppose abortion. In 2024, Louisiana classified it as a controlled dangerous substance alongside drugs like Xanax and fentanyl, placing

restrictions on how it can be prescribed and dispensed. In his ruling, Joseph said the FDA’s REMS safety review must be completed by early October Any changes stemming from the review could determine whether telehealth access remains available or is restricted. Murrill is pursuing criminal cases against two doctors in California and New York accused of sending pills to patients in Louisiana. Those states have not been willing to have the doctors extradited to face the charges. Without telehealth, advocates said some may turn to less safe options or face more health risks.

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate. com.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

House Bill 342 by Rep. Alonzo Knox, D-New Orleans, is heading to the House floor. The bill would put the burden of proving a child’s special education accommodation plan on the school, not parents.

Senate Democrats push state Voting Rights Act

Republicans shut down the plan

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

A bill to create a Louisiana ver-

sion of the federal Voting Rights Act in the face of a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision failed in the Louisiana Legislature on Wednesday the latest in a running debate over whether and how race should play a factor in drawing election maps in the state.

Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Black Democrat from New Orleans, argued Wednesday that Louisiana needs its own Voting Rights Act because the Supreme Court could “at any moment” issue a ruling that weakens federal voting protections.

His legislation, Senate Bill 365, would have prohibited election practices that disadvantage minority voters and voting maps that unfairly dilute minority voting power

“Every Louisiana voter deserves a fair shot at the ballot box and an equal voice in their government,” he said.

But the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee rejected the bill along party lines, with four Republicans voting no and three Democrats voting yes.

Members of the GOP majority didn’t comment on the bill during the hearing. Afterward, committee Chair Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, declined to comment on his opposition, except to say that Louisiana is involved in the voting case that’s pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

White plaintiffs in that case, which originated in Louisiana, have argued it’s unconstitutional to factor race into how voting maps are drawn during the redistricting process.

Duplessis acknowledged that his plan to create a state Voting Rights Act faced long odds

in the Republican-controlled Legislature from the outset.

But he pointed to the crowd of supporters who flocked to the Capitol to urge support for the bill. Over 130 people formally registered their support for the measure, and more than 70 people sent also emails in support, Kleinpeter noted during the hearing.

“While we were realistic about what the outcome may have been, this is still a case that has to be made and was exhibited by the fact that hundreds of people showed up in support,” he said.

A potentially seminal court case

The lawsuit that spurred the bill is Louisiana v. Callais, a redistricting and voting-rights case that has been argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to issue a ruling before the end of July

The case centers on Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil rights law that prohibits discrimination in voting and in redistricting.

Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office is arguing the law compels states to draw majority-Black districts, which she says is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause and force states to favor one population over another Defenders of the Voting Rights Act argue it is necessary to prevent the return of Jim Crowera voting maps that split up Black communities into separate districts, diluting their voting power

Some legal experts believe the Supreme Court may strike down that key provision of the law and pave the way for redistricting plans with fewer majority-Black districts.

In Louisiana, the ruling could impact voting maps for Congress, the Legislature and even some judicial districts all of which have been challenged in court for discriminating against Black voters.

A Supreme Court decision to overturn Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act could affect the political power of Black and minority voters, said Ashley Shelton, president and CEO of the Power Coalition, a votingrights advocacy groups backing Duplessis’ bill.

“Their ability to elect a candidate of choice is what’s at stake right now,” she said.

Shelton said SB365 would have put voting rights into state law and represented a commitment to fair and equitable elections.

What would the bill have done?

SB365 would have established the Louisiana Voting Rights Act, a new section of law expressly prohibiting state and local governments from infringing citizens’ right to vote.

Voter suppression and voter dilution would have been outlawed under the measure. In the bill, suppression refers to limiting minority access to voting or to the political process, and dilution refers to election maps that lessened the voting strength of minority groups.

A Voting Rights Commission also would have been set up to monitor government election practices and ensure they are not discriminatory

About 20 people testified in support of the bill at the Capitol.

“I carry with me the voices of my ancestors,” said Yolanda Burnette-Lankford. “Those who were denied the right to vote, yet never stopped believing in this democracy.”

Some said they learned from their African American grandparents, born in the early 1900s, about their experiences facing discrimination at the ballot box.

“I never thought that we would be back at this place where we are still having to fight to ensure that we have fairness as it relates to voting rights,” said state Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge.

“Voting is the only equalizer,” Barrow said.

BY JEFF AMY Associated Press

RINGGOLD Ga. Republican Clay

Fuller on Tuesday won Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former U.S House seat in Georgia, turning back a Democratic challenge with the help of President Donald Trump’s endorsement despite uneasiness over the war in Iran.

In a deep red district that Greene won by 29 points and Trump carried by almost 37 points two years ago, Fuller was on track to prevail by about 12 points with almost all votes counted. The result added to a string of special elections where Democrats performed better than expected, a track record the party hopes will create momentum toward November’s midterm elections when control of Congress hangs in the balance.

In another election held Tuesday a Democratic-backed candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court won by double-digit margins, growing the liberal majority there.

Fuller insisted that his victory over Democratic candidate Shawn Harris in Georgia was a testimony to Trump’s staying power

“They couldn’t beat Donald Trump and they never will,” he told supporters in Ringgold, near the border with Tennessee. “And I will be on Capitol Hill as a warrior to have his back each and every day.”

However, Trump’s escalating rhetoric had some Republicans

concerned, even in this deep red district. The president had set a deadline for Tuesday at 8 p.m. one hour after polls closed in Georgia — for Iran to reach a deal with the United States, saying that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” However, he later announced a two-week ceasefire to allow negotiations to continue.

Acworth resident Jason McGinty said he was worried Trump was “about to go too far” and “may be committing a war crime” if he followed through on threats to bomb power plants and other infrastructure in Iran. He voted for Fuller to “make sure the America First party is still in place.” Retiree Judy McDonald agreed with the president’s decision to go to war but was “very anxietyridden” over the conflict.

“Eventually we will have peace and the Iranians will kind of come to a conclusion that they won’t have a country if they don’t stop the terrorism,” she said. Fuller will serve out the remaining months of Greene’s term, bolstering the party’s slim majority in the House, where Republicans control 217 seats to Democrats’ 214, with one independent.

He’ll have to face another Republican primary on May 19 to win a full two-year term, and could face a June 16 party runoff Harris is already the Democratic nominee for November

Iran’s Hormuz toll proposal violates trade norms

BY DAVID McHUGH and JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press

FRANKFURT, Germany To end the war with the United States and Israel, Iran is demanding the right to collect tolls in the Strait of Hormuz as a precondition for reopening the waterway vital to world oil supplies

Yet collecting tolls in the strait would violate a basic and enduring principle of international maritime trade: freedom of peaceful navigation. It’s an ancient idea that was codified by the United

and analysts say the Gulf’s oil producers are, too. Analysts say they have seen no change in traffic through the strait since the ceasefire was announced, despite claims to the contrary from the White House. Here are things to know about Iran’s proposal and the international law with which it collides. After the U.S. and Israel launched the war, Iran immediately exercised leverage by blocking the strait with attacks — and threats of attacks on ships, making passage too risky The

allowed to proceed — and at least two reportedly paid the equivalent of $2 million in Chinese yuan.

Iran’s 10-point proposal for ending the war includes a provision allowing it and Oman to charge ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations they were directly involved in.

The official said Iran would use the money it raised for reconstruction.

But the Law of the Sea Treaty’s Article 17 guaran-

could be closed, then why not the Strait of Gibraltar between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, or the Strait of Malacca off Indonesia?

He called that scenario “the end of an international society.”

While 172 countries have ratified the U.N. convention, Iran and the United States are among those that have not.

“Not having ratified the convention doesn’t give (Iran) total freedom of action in the Strait of Hor-

muz,” said Julien Raynaut, who heads the French Association of Maritime Law, a trade group. “It remains subject to international law and notably this customary right of passage.”

An Iranian tollbooth could lead China to conclude that it could restrict movement in the Taiwan Strait, Raynaut said.

Oman and Iran may face diplomatic pushback to adhere to the convention, said Constantinos Yiallourides, a senior research fellow at the

British Institute of International and Comparative Law Free passage “is in the interest of everyone,” he said. “We all want to get the best products at the best prices.”

Some economists say that, from a strictly financial standpoint, the world would barely notice the additional costs from any tolling in the Strait of Hormuz. For example a $2 million toll on a large tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil amounts to $1-per-barrel increase on that ship’s oil.

BUSINESS

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Southwest Airlines joins others in bag fee hike

Southwest Airlines is raising checked baggage fees by $10, less than a year after ending its “bags fly free” perk that long set it apart, as jet fuel costs have jumped since the start of the Iran war

Customers checking one bag will pay $45 starting on Thursday, while a second will now cost $55, according to Southwest. Some travelers will still receive a free first checked bag, including certain loyalty-tier members, eligible co-branded credit card holders and activeduty military members

The move was made “as part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop,” the Texas-based carrier said in a statement.

Southwest ended its generous, decades-old policy of allowing passengers to check two bags for free in May 2025, a move that marked a major shift for the carrier after years of marketing the perk as a key differentiator

The airline now joins a growing list of U.S. carriers that have increased fees since the war in the Middle East began Feb. 28, sending oil prices swinging as fighting near the Strait of Hormuz disrupted global supplies.

Oil plunges below $95 as the Dow surges

Oil prices plunged below $95 per barrel, and stock markets surged worldwide after President Donald Trump pulled back from his threat of devastating attacks against Iran.

The S&P 500 leaped 2.5% Wednesday after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,325 points, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 2.8%. To be sure, stock prices are still below where they were before the war And oil prices are still higher because the threat remains that the war could continue.

On Wall Street, companies with big fuel bills roared back to trim some of the sharp losses taken on worries about oil prices staying high.

United Airlines soared 7.9% and cut into its loss for the year, which came into the day at 20.1%. Cruise ship operator Carnival climbed 9.6%.

Delta Air Lines rallied 4.2% after it reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Ed Bastian said demand for flights remains strong, and it’s making moves to make up for higher fuel bills. Delta on Tuesday became the latest airline to raise its fees for checking bags. In the bond market, Treasury yields dropped as hopes built that easing oil prices could let the Federal Reserve resume its cuts to interest rates later this year.

GM recalls 270K Chevrolet Malibus

General Motors is recalling more than 270,000 Chevrolet Malibu vehicles in the U.S. because the rearview camera screen may display a distorted or blank image.

The National Highway Traf-

fic Safety Administration said in a letter that a rearview image that doesn’t display properly reduces the driver’s view behind the vehicle, which increases the risk of a crash.

A safety recall report from the agency said that GM’s supplier identified an issue with the bonding process used to assemble the camera housing that could weaken the adhesive bond on some assemblies. The automaker’s investigation found that the mounting configuration of the Sharp Electronics camera on the Chevrolet Malibu could expose it to moisture that may breach an insufficient housing bond

The recall includes Chevrolet Malibu vehicles with model years 2023 through 2025.

GM said that it is not aware of any crashes or injuries related to the recall issue.

More Fed officials see possible rate hikes

Policymakers willing to consider, meeting minutes show

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP economics writer

WASHINGTON The number of Federal Reserve policymakers willing to consider an interest rate hike this year rose between the January and March meetings, as higher gas prices stemming from the Iran war threatened to worsen inflation in the coming months.

Minutes of the Fed’s March 1718 meeting, released Wednesday, showed that “some” of the central bank’s 19 policymakers on its rate-setting committee supported changing their post-meeting statement to reflect the potential for a future rate hike. That is an in-

crease from “several” in January

The Fed doesn’t disclose precise numbers of how many officials supported each position, but in Fed jargon, “some” is considered more than “several.”

And “many” of the officials pointed to the risk that higher oil and gas prices could keep inflation elevated for “longer than expected, which could call for rate increases” to push inflation back down. For about 18 months, the Fed has leaned toward cutting rates, and in its meetings has alternated between cuts and no change to rates. The slow shift toward considering potential hikes marks a major change from that trend. At the beginning of this year financial markets expected several rate reductions. Now investors don’t expect a cut until late 2027, future prices show Ultimately the Fed kept its key

rate unchanged at its March meeting at about 3.6%. It has stood pat in its first two meetings this year after cutting its rate three times at the end of 2025 Chair Jerome Powell, at a news conference after the meeting, downplayed projections by officials that the Fed could reduce its rate once this year

spending to offset higher gas prices, according to the minutes, which would slow growth and raise unemployment.

Another reduction depended on underlying inflation cooling steadily this year Powell said. “If we don’t see that progress, then you won’t see the rate cut,” he said then. The minutes, released three weeks after the meeting, underscore the Fed’s dilemma as it seeks to fill its congressional mandates of low inflation and maximum employment. Fed officials acknowledged that the Iran conflict could also force households to cut back

The central bank typically raises rates to cool the economy and combat inflation, while it would cut them to bolster growth and hiring.

Navigating this “twosided” risk of higher unemployment and higher inflation poses a difficult challenge for the Fed.

On Friday, the first signs of the impact the gas price spike is having on inflation will emerge, as the government is scheduled to release the March inflation report. Economists forecast it will show a huge 0.9% increase in March from February, with prices rising 3.4% compared to a year earlier In February inflation was just 2.4%.

Cyberattacks from Iran-linked hackers will continue, experts say

Warning should be taken seriously by potential targets despite ceasefire

BY DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

WASHINGTON Hackers backing Tehran say an uncertain ceasefire between Iran and the United States and Israel won’t end their retaliatory cyberattacks, a warning that American cybersecurity experts say potential targets in the U.S. and Israel should take seriously

One leading hacking group known as Handala said after the ceasefire announcement that it was temporarily postponing attacks on the U.S. but would continue to target Israel. It vowed to revive its efforts against America when the time was right — demonstrating again how digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict Already, the two-week ceasefire appears at risk of fraying over significant disagreements between the parties, which each are claiming victory in the war

A pro-Palestinian, pro-Iranian network that operates independently of Tehran, Handala has claimed credit for disrupting the operations of the U.S. medical manufacturer Stryker and hacking into FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email account, among other cyberattacks. The group is just one of several proxy hacking networks allied with Iran

“We did not begin this war, but we will be the ones to finish it,” Handala wrote on its X account. “And let it be clear: The cyber war did not begin with the military conflict, and it will not end with any military ceasefire.”

U.S. authorities warned on Tuesday that hackers supporting Iran had burrowed into internet-connected computers used to automate and control technology in a variety of important industrial sectors.

The computers, known as programmable logic controllers, are used in ports, power plants and water plants key targets for foreign hackers looking to disrupt everyday life in the U.S

In a joint advisory from the FBI, National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and

Infrastructure Security Agency, officials urged organizations that use the technology to ensure their security precautions were upto-date. CISA did not immediately respond to questions Wednesday about the impact that the ceasefire would have on cybersecurity Cybersecurity experts say the warning should be taken seriously by potential targets regardless of the sides announcing a temporary truce.

Markus Mueller, a cybersecurity executive at Nozomi Networks, said he anticipates an increase in cyberattacks on American organizations following the ceasefire, not a decrease.

That’s because any lull in hostilities would allow hackers to shift from regional targets directly involved in the conflict to efforts to infiltrate U.S. organizations that participated

in the war effort in some way, a list that includes data centers, tech companies and defense contractors.

He also predicted that some groups based in Iran or Russia may seek to circumvent the truce by launching a significant cyberattack on a U.S. target that is designed to attract the attention of the American public.

“With a ceasefire, we will likely see an expansion of cyber activity both in scale and scope,” Mueller said. “These groups will likely try to execute a high-profile attack such as what we saw with Stryker.”

So far, the attacks attributed to pro-Iranian hackers have been high in volume but low in impact, designed to boost morale among Iran’s supporters while reminding its opponents of continued vulnerabilities despite their military advantages.

EPA head tells climate skeptics to ‘celebrate

Critics say he promotes disinformation

BY MATTHEW DALY Associated Press

WASHINGTON The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday defended his decision to repeal the legal determination that serves as the basis for federal rules to slow climate change, telling a gathering of climate change skeptics they should “celebrate vindication.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made the remarks in the keynote address at a conference hosted by the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank that rejects mainstream climate science and what it calls “climate alarmism.” Zeldin told the gathering that repeal of the 2009 “endangerment finding”

reversed decades of unthinking adherence to liberal politicians and environmental groups about the dangers of climate change.

“Today is a moment to celebrate. It is a day to celebrate vindication,” said Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York who is widely believed to be under consideration for a possible promotion to attorney general, following Pam Bondi’s forced departure last week.

Obama and Biden administrations twisted science to determine that greenhouse gases are a public health risk.

The EPA earlier this year revoked the endangerment finding, a scientific conclusion that for 16 years was the central basis for regulating planet-warming emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources.

The Trump administration argued the finding hurts industry and the economy and claimed the

Zeldin’s prominent appearance at a conference hosted by a group deeply skeptical of the established science around climate change reflected the vast reversal that President Donald Trump’s administration has carried out of traditional policies meant to protect the environment. The EPA has rolled back dozens of air and water protections and has said it does not have legal authority to regulate climate change.

“You were right there on the front lines against there being an endangerment finding in 2009,” Zeldin told the Heartland conference.

vindication’

Environmentalists denounced Zeldin’s appearance before the conservative group, accusing him of “rallying climate deniers” at a time when climate change is creating greater risks of extreme weather, including stronger hurricanes, more dangerous floods and more intense wildfires.

Zeldin’s speech “promotes disinformation” and amounts to doing the bidding of Heartland’s secretive donors, said Joe Bonfiglio, U.S. director of the Environmental Defense Fund.

“The Heartland Institute is not a serious scientific organization. It’s a disinformation factory,” Bonfiglio said. “Having the EPA administrator serve as their opening act isn’t just embarrassing — it’s a signal of how completely the Trump administration has abandoned its obligation to protect the public from pollution.”

Zeldin

Powell

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

From left, Acting Commander of the U.S Cyber Command William Hartman, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe listen during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing to examine worldwide threats last month on Capitol Hill in Washington.

with fines and settlement moneyrelated to the 2010 BP oil spill. The state’s coastal authority nowplans to focus instead on building large-scale “land bridges” and restoring barrierislands.

Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, informed the coastal authority leadership of Henry’swishesat thestart of Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate’s Transportation, Highways and Public Works Committee.

“I think these are serious questionsthatneedtobe answered in atransparent way,” Connick, who chairs the committee, said later in the hearing.

Poll results

The hearing will continue nextweek afterwritten questions can be answered and ameeting can be held to hash out concerns, Connick said. Approval from the committee is one of several steps the annual plan must take at the Legislature.

The annual plan for fiscal year 2027, which begins in July,includes atotal of 143 active projects across the state’scoast, ranging from levee building to marshconstruction and ecosystem restoration.

Coastal authority leadership said at the hearing that they were willing to meet and answerthe questions. Women of the Storm founder Anne Milling said the group was “delighted that Sen. Connick was able to raise these issues.”

The advocacy group was instrumental in pressuring Congress to commit funding toward rebuilding after the twin devastations of hurricanesKatrina and Rita in 2005. It has long pushed for construction of the diversions as anature-based approach to Louisiana’sland loss crisis. They note that land building through dredging alone eventually erodes like the restofthe coast, while river diversions would mimic the way south Louisianawas formed in the first place and nourish those other marsh rebuilding efforts. They point to arecentpoll on behalf of the Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition showing 76% of

residents oppose thecancellation of the two diversions.

Womenofthe Storm’s questionsrelate to what specific projects will replacethe diversions, money alreadyspent on them, and how replacement projects will be evaluated and chosen, among others.

‘Cannotaffordtobuild

Landry and Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority leadershippoint to theballooning cost of the diversions —Mid-Barataria hadgrown to around $3 billion alone —aswell as the influx of freshwater and nutrients theywould bring to commercial fishing areas. Oyster growers and shrimpers in thoseareaswould have been forced to move or find anew lineofwork.

CPRA ChairGordon Dove said large-scale land bridges built with dredgedsediment wouldproduce results faster and forlessmoney. Those ideas are still in the planning stages and details remain to be worked out “You cannot afford to build

this diversion, besides killing the shrimp, theoysters, Dove said.

He disputedthatthe $700 million disbursed would all be lost. He said thatbetween insurance payments, interest on remaining funds andother methods, the losses will amount to between $250 million and $275 million.

Sen. GaryCarter,D-New Orleans, pressed Dove on his contention that land bridges were abetter strategy while expressing concerns over thelosses.

“Even if it’s 275, that’s $275 million,” said Carter, whorepresents parts of Jefferson,Orleansand Plaquemines parishes.

“That’s alot.”

Email Mike Smith at msmith@theadvocate.com.

courtunder which thesaleabove re‐ferredtowas made,or any irregularity or illegal‐ity in theappraisements and advertisements,in the time or themanner ofthe sale,orfor any other defect whatsoever, are citedand admon‐ished to show cause, withinthirty(30) days fromthe date on which thismonitionis firstad‐vertised, whythe sale so madeshouldnot be con‐firmed andhomologated Thepropertyaffectedby thismonitionis: Ward 2-5, Lot:1-B, Subdiv: MORROW, J. RALPH TRACT.TRACT 1-BCONT. 89.765 ACRES, RESUB. OF TRACT 1CONT. 2265.7 ACRES,MOREORLESS, FORMERLYJ.RALPH MORROWTRACT IN SECS 28, 29,32& 33, T4S, R1W. RESUB.1993-94’ BatonRouge,Louisiana November20, 2024. /sWILLIAM“WILL JORDEN Judge /sJOHNC.WHITE East BatonRouge Parish Deputy ClerkofCourt 3-13-26 (SEAL) Certified True Copy 3-13-26 /sBy: JOHN C. WHITE East BatonRouge Parish DeputyClerk of Court CertID:2026031300188 -03/13/2026

servesthe righttolimit and/orterminate any commentarywhen deemed necessaryor outside of public deco‐rum

3. CHANGES/ADDITIONS TO THEAGENDA D. READINGOFTHE MINUTES 1. Approval of minutesof the February 02, 2026 regular meetingand ap‐prove them as written. E. PRESENTATION OF DELEGATION F. ANNOUNCEMENTS G. PLANNING Theconsent agenda con‐sists of itemswithno outstanding issues that donot requireplan amendments, text amendments, variances, orwaivers.Consent

immovable propertybelonging to the Estate of Joseph Lee Jackson andJulia Lee Jackson at privatesalein accordance with thepro‐visions of Article3281 of the Code of CivilProce‐durefor totalprice of Fif‐teen Thousand ($15,000.00)Dollars,asis without warranty except astotitle,withthe Es‐tatereceiving thenet proceedsofsaidsale after paymentofapplica‐ble commissionsand closing costs. Theimmovableproperty proposedtobesoldat private sale is described below as follows: 1241 Avenue B, Port Allen, Louisiana70767, moreparticularlyde‐scribed as: Acertain lotorparcelof ground lyingand situ‐atedinOAKSSUBDIVI‐SION, Town of Port Allen, ParishofWestBaton Rouge,State of Louisiana,and desig‐nated on theofficial map ofsaidsubdivision on file andofrecordinthe office of theClerk and RecorderofsaidParish asbeing LOTNUMBER TWELVE(12)OFSQUARE NUMBER FIFTY-SEVEN (57),measuring twentyfive (25’)feet frontonthe south side of Avenue B, bya depth between par‐allelliesofOne Hundred Twenty(120’)feet,to‐getherwithall buildings and improvements thereon,and allrights, ways, privilegesand servitudesthereto at‐tachedorbeing in any‐wiseappertaining. Anyheirorcreditorwho opposesthe proposed salemust file hisopposi‐tionwithinseven (7) daysfromthe dayon which thelastpublica‐tionofthisnoticeap‐pears BY ORDEROFTHE COURT: DEPUTY CLERKOFCOURT 183633 April9,29, 2t $93.16

NOTICE IS GIVEN that the Administratorofthe Successionhas moved thisCourt forauthority tosellthe immovable propertybelonging to the Estate of Joseph Lee Jackson andJulia Lee Jackson at privatesalein accordance with thepro‐visions of Article3281 of the Code of CivilProce‐durefor totalprice of ThirtyThousand ($30,000.00)Dollars,asis without warranty except astotitle,withthe Es‐tatereceiving thenet proceedsofsaidsale after paymentofapplica‐ble commissionsand closing costs. Theimmovableproperty proposedtobesoldat private sale is described below as follows: a. 1249 Avenue B, Port Allen, Louisiana70767, more particularly de‐scribedas: Two(2) certainlotsor parcels of ground,to‐getherwithall thebuild‐ingsand improvements thereon,and allofthe rights, ways,privileges, and servitudes,appurte‐nancesand advantages

STAFF FILE

PHOTOBySOPHIA GERMER

Work onthe Mid-Barataria SedimentDiversion project beganin2023.

for an end to the fighting. In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf objected to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, an alleged drone incursion into Iranian airspace after the ceasefire went into effect and the U.S. assertion that it will not accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal with the U.S Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon.

“The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” Araghchi said in a post on X. “The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 182 people on Wednesday the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the closing of the strait reported in Iranian state media was “completely unacceptable.” She repeated Trump’s “expectation and demand” that the channel be reopened.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American and Israeli forces had achieved a “capital V military victory” and that the Iranian military no longer posed a significant threat to U.S. forces or the region. The Iranian military said the country forced Israel and the U.S. to accept its “proposed conditions and surrender.”

Much about the agreement was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms.

Iran said the deal would allow it to formalize its new practice of charging ships passing through the strait, a crucial transit lane for oil. But the details were not clear, nor was it known whether vessels would feel safe using the channel or whether ship traffic had resumed. It also was unclear whether any other country agreed to this condition. The White House said Trump is opposed to tolls for ship passage through the strait

Only 11 vessels moved through the strait Wednesday, roughly the same as in prior days, according to

Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. Iran was requiring shippers to pay tolls of up to $1 a barrel for outbound oil, it said. The largest supertankers carry up to 3 million barrels of crude.

The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs — the elimination of which were major objectives for the U.S. and Israel in going to war — also remained unclear Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to remove buried enriched uranium, though Iran did not confirm that Peace talks

Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan that could help end the war the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28. But when a version in Farsi emerged that indicated Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium — which is key to building a nuclear weapon — Trump called it fraudulent without elaborating.

Vance later said the deal was being misrepresented within Iran, though he did not offer details.

Leavitt said Iran’s original, 10-point plan was “fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded.” But a new 15-point plan Iran presented Tuesday could now “align with our own” proposal for peace, she said.

The White House also said Vance

would lead the American negotiating team in talks in Pakistan aimed at finding a permanent end to the war Pakistan said the talks could begin in Islamabad as soon as Friday Iran’s demands for ending the war include a withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from the region the lifting of sanctions and the release of its frozen assets.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ personal envoy arrived in Iran for talks on “the way forward.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel will continue to “utilize every operational opportunity” to strike Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets within 10 minutes Wednesday across Lebanon, the largest wave of strikes since March 1.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli attacks as “barbaric.” Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Israel of “persistently seeking to sabotage” the Iran ceasefire deal.

Hezbollah has not confirmed if it will abide by the ceasefire, though the group has said it was open to giving mediators a chance to secure an agreement. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized

to comment publicly, said the group would not stop firing at Israel unless Israel agreed to do the same.

Threats survive

U.S.-Israeli strikes have battered Iran and its leadership, but they have not entirely eliminated the threats posed by Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles or its support for regional proxies, such as Hezbollah. The U.S. and Israel said addressing those threats was a key justification for going to war Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to “dig up and remove” enriched uranium that was buried under joint U.S-Israeli strikes in June. He added that none of the material had been touched since. There was no confirmation from Iran.

Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing Wednesday that the U.S. would do “something like” last June’s joint strikes with Israel on Iranian nuclear sites if the country refuses to surrender its enriched uranium voluntarily

Netanyahu warned in a televised address that his country was “ready to return to fighting at any time. Our finger is on the trigger.” Tehran insisted for years that its nuclear program was peaceful, although it enriched uranium up to

60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.

Airstrikes reported

Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all issued warnings about incoming missiles from Iran. That fire stopped for a time, then hostilities appeared to restart.

An oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island came under attack, according to Iranian state television. A short time later, the UAE’s air defenses fired at an incoming Iranian missile barrage. Kuwait said three power and water desalination plants were badly damaged after 28 Iranian drones were launched at the country Saudi Arabia said it intercepted nine drones.

More than 1,900 people had been killed in Iran as of late March, but the government has not updated the war’s toll for days.

In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,700 people have been killed, and 1 million people have been displaced. Twelve Israeli soldiers have died.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

Shipping fees

Iranian attacks and threats deterred many commercial ships from using the strait, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime. That roiled the world economy and raised the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.

The ceasefire may formalize a system of charging fees in the strait that Iran instituted — and give it a new source of revenue.

The plan allows for both Iran and Oman to charge ships, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations they were directly involved in. The official said Iran would use the money it raised for reconstruction.

That would upend decades of precedent treating the strait as an international waterway that was free to transit. Such a shift would likely be unacceptable to the Gulf Arab states, which also need to rebuild after repeated Iranian attacks targeting their oil fields.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By HASSAN AMMAR Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday.

‘Our brightest young people’

BY JAN RISHER Staff writer

At her home in Baton Rouge, Bliss Barnes crochets stuffed animals. But when the eighth grader at Sherwood Middle School decided to enter the science fair, she turned her hobby into a hypothesis: What is the best type of yarn for Louisiana weather?

She crocheted sleeves of wool, cotton, and acrylic — keeping hook size and yarn weight identical across all three then wrapped each around glass and plastic cups filled with water heated to roughly 125 degrees Fahrenheit and recorded the temperature every two

minutes until each reached room temperature.

Her hypothesis was that acrylic, being synthetic, would insulate least and therefore stay coolest.

She was wrong. Cotton was the least insulating, because its fibers are more tightly wound, leaving fewer air pockets to trap heat.

“It proved my hypothesis wrong,” she said, without distress

“After further research, I realized it was because of the air pockets in cotton fibers.”

Her father Stephen Barnes, stood nearby. When asked how many hours she had put into the project, Bliss said, “Maybe 24?”

Her father quietly revised the

estimate upward.

“Closer to 40, I think,” he said.

That kind of scene — a kid underselling work and a parent filling in the gap played out across the LSU Student Union ballroom on Wednesday, where 220 students from across Louisiana competed in the 72nd annual Louisiana State Science and Engineering Fair junior division.

These were not students who had simply signed up to compete. Each had already won or placed at their school fair then advanced through one of 10 regional competitions across the state. Wednesday was the state level competition.

The room was abuzz with folded

tri-panel boards and middle school energy Projects ranged from what kind of nail polish lasts longest to whether dogs have preferences for specific treats to whether apple slices can be kept from browning.

And then, a few tables over, there were eighth graders who had spent months building a device designed to address global warming.

“We’ve been hosting this fair since the 1950s,” said Lisa Verma, senior director for professional development and community programs at LSU Online and Continuing Education, the department that organizes the event.

Effort to keep parish attorney stalls

Others look toward successor

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER

Staff writer

POOCH PATROL

In an unusual move, a few Baton Rouge Metro Council members tried to publicly ask Parish Attorney Greg Rome to reconsider his retirement, while others said it’s time to look forward Last month, Rome announced he will be retiring after more than two years as parish attorney and 10 years total in that office — effective April 18. At a council meeting Wednesday members Carolyn Coleman, Denise Amoroso and Cleve Dunn Jr tried to introduce a discussion item to publicly request that he reconsider and stay in his role. But that never took place. Council member Aaron Moak objected, falling in line with some other members who questioned whether it is appropriate to ask Rome to forgo his chosen retirement.

“He has made a decision. If he wants to retire, that’s his decision,” Moak said after the meeting. “That’s his personal decision that he made.” Moak said it was inappropriate to try and discuss the attorney’s own personal decision to move on publicly at a Metro Council meeting.

“If he doesn’t want to retire, he can go to city-parish and say ‘Hey, I don’t want to retire,’” he said “But that was a personal decision between him, his family, and not a discussion item that 12 council members need to have in the middle of a public meeting.”

In a statement announcing his retirement on March 24, Rome called his time leading the Parish Attorney’s Office the “greatest honor of my career” before “welcoming a new season of progress” for the city-parish as he departs.

ä

Board eyes widening pool of candidates

BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer

As the Livingston Parish Library Board begins its second director search in a year the board had the same debate it shot down a year ago about changing director degree requirements in hopes of drawing more candidates for the job. At its Tuesday meeting, the board agreed to raise the starting salary for the future director of the parish’s five-branch public library system but held off on expanding the type of degree required for the job, which would have opened up appli-

cations to those without a library science degree. The board unanimously approved raising the starting salary by about 16% to nearly $91,000 for its next director and agreed to begin advertising for the job on June 1 with an anticipated start date in early fall. But the proposed idea for opening up which master’s degree a director needed to have was polarizing. The board tabled the item and will only search for candidates with a Master of Library and Information Science degree — for now The success of the search could change that.

“I don’t really look at this amendment as saying, ‘We don’t want people with a library science degree to not apply.’ This is just adding additional master’s degrees to the

Authorities have canceled an Amber Alert after a pickup was stolen with a 1-year-old in the back seat at a Baton Rouge gas station Wednesday morning. The child had been found safe, Louisiana State Police said shortly before 9:30 a.m. The thief took the pickup about 7 a.m. from a gas station

mediately available. Police identify woman, 72, killed in train crash The West Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office confirmed Ianthia Washington, 72, of White

Castle, was killed Wednesday morning in a train and vehicle crash near the Iberville Parish line.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Lauren Tomalty walks recently with Chicken Little and Bella over the spillway on University Lake along Stanford Drive in Baton Rouge.

EAST BATON ROUGE

LIVINGSTON PARISH

Rome Moak

CRIME BLOTTER staff reports

Woman pleads not guilty in killing

Police: Victim was helping in-need defendant

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

A Baton Rouge woman pleaded not guilty Monday to accusations she and an accomplice killed a 73-year-old man who had been helping her in a time of need.

Breanna Terrance 31 pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and obstruction of justice in the death of Woodrow Vaughn, a south Baton Rouge patriarch found stabbed to death in a van in November Vaughn, a retired chemical plant

SCIENCE

Continued from page 1B

“These are our brightest young people in math and science and engineering and arts,” Verma said.

Earlier in the day, volunteer judges — engineers, scientists, retired industry professionals, LSU faculty and graduate students, representatives from companies including Turner Industries, Entergy and Dow moved through the aisles, stopping at each display

Students straightened their boards and started their explanations over each time a new judge approached.

Eric Crawford and Knox Grover from Edgar Martin Middle School in Lafayette had coordinated their outfits — both in black — which led nearly everyone watching them near the photo booth to observe they looked like the “Men in Black.”

The two eighth graders lived up to the comparison. They carried themselves with a certain seriousness of purpose.

Their project challenged a widely held assumption. The two argued that the primary driver of global warming is not carbon dioxide but rather the loss of transpiration — the process by which plants release water vapor — from earth’s systems. They built a device designed to reintroduce water into those systems.

“Many people think CO2 is the main reason for global warming and temperatures,” Crawford said. “But we found that the main reason for the heating of the world is because of the lack of transpiration.”

They had started a basic version of the project the year before, refined it over two and a half months leading up to this competition, and worked almost entirely after school.

Neither set of parents works in science — Crawford’s mother manages airport operations. His father is a budget analyst. Grover’s mother is a speech therapist. His father works in IT So, the parents were unable to offer their sons technical assistance.

Rachel Brower, Edgar Martin’s instructional leader and science fair sponsor noted this was Edgar Martin’s first serious year

ATTORNEY

Continued from page 1B

“I commend my dedicated staff for their outstanding service and wish continued success to all who serve this mayor and council,” Rome said.

Since then, Coleman acknowledged that she and others have spoken to the attorney about his decision, but she still doesn’t want him to go, citing an increased need for his expertise currently

“I’ve not heard from anyone

BLOTTER

Continued from page 1B

The train operator was not injured.

Police identify third victim in fatal River Road crash

Police identified George Taylor, 30, as the third victim in the fatal single-vehicle crash on River Road on Monday night.

The other two victims are Zachariah Johnson, 20, and Marqies Duncan Jr., 15.

All three were occupants in the vehicle. Two died at the scene of the crash in the 15600 block of River Road, south of the L’Auberge Casino. One died at a hospital, where they were taken in critical condition, according to the Coroner’s Office.

worker was last seen alive at the A.M. Mart on Highland Road around 2 a.m on Nov 21. Security footage from the convenience store showed a man and a woman beating Vaughn before driving off with him in a vehicle. A witness also saw the incident.

He was found by sheriff’s deputies three days later, stabbed to death in the back seat of a car parked near Lafitte Street Park.

Vaughn’s family was able to identify both suspects as people who lived nearby and who knew him and the rest of their family

The woman was Terrance, who

Vaughn had told the family he was “helping out” because she was facing homelessness The man was 51-year-old Edward Hayes, who lived down the street. Police reports described Terrance as Vaughn’s girlfriend, but his family has said this isn’t true. “She’s not a stranger to our family We’ve been around her multiple times,” Jasmine Vaughn, Woodrow’s niece said in November “So we’ve known it to be platonic, and she needed help and that’s what (Woodrow Vaughn) always said, ‘I’m just helping her out.’”

running a fair voluntary not curriculum-mandated. At an informational meeting, many students sized up the commitment and walked away, but Crawford and Grover did not

“They are two truly miraculous children,” she said

One ‘6-7’ and a small whoop

The awards ceremony at 1:30 p.m Wednesday filled the Union ballroom beyond its available chair capacity Dozens of student competitors sat on the floor in front of the rows of seats so their parents and grandparents could have places to sit Small circles formed by school, students leaning together, waiting for familiar

as to why he should not remain,” Coleman said, adding, “except from Mr Rome himself.”

Coleman said she “undoubtedly” knows “backdoor” conversations are taking place among her colleagues about who might replace him, and has begun to hear names herself.

Council member Twahna P. Harris stood with Coleman, calling Rome the best man for the job right now.

“We need him here with us during this time that we, as council members, are dealing with some things,” Harris said. “There’s a lot

The crash happened at 8:40 p.m.

According to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, the vehicle was traveling north on River Road, when, for reasons still under investigation, it failed to navigate a curve, left the roadway and struck a utility pole.

Investigators believe speed may have been a factor in the crash. Toxicology results are pending, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

According to a GoFundMe organized for Taylor by a relative, he was on his way home from “doing what he loved — fishing.” It is unclear if Johnson and Duncan were fishing with him.

Man fatally shot along Sherwood Street

A man was killed after he was shot multiple times along Sherwood Street on Tuesday evening, according to police.

When he disappeared, Vaughn’s family began a frantic weekendlong search for him, after being told a detective couldn’t start on his case until Monday.

They searched for clues, contacting hospitals and morgues and eventually getting a tip about the A.M. Mart from a witness and contacting the owner for the footage. In an interview with police, Terrance said it was Hayes who actually stabbed Vaughn while she drove.

She told police she later left Vaughn’s remains with Hayes at a park near Ponderosa and Lafitte streets. She denied any involvement in the killing, according to

one “6-7” escaped from a cluster of middle schoolers who could not quite contain themselves when a classmate’s name was announced. Knox Grover and Eric Crawford placed fourth in their category Bliss Barnes placed third in Materials Science.

Ananya Chintala of Sherwood Middle School in Baton Rouge was the day’s big winner She took first place overall after also winning in Cellular and Molecular Biology Her project was called “Mitochondrial respiration.”

Joash Cheriyan of Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge placed second overall for his microbiology project called “Blocking protein kinases to slow down viral infection.”

Glasgow Middle took the top school award.

names. When a name was called, the student made the walk to the stage. They adjusted their skirts. They buttoned their jackets. They waited for each other at the top of the stairs.

Adults applauded politely Somewhere in the room, at least

that’s going on around us, and we need someone like Greg Rome by our side.”

Council member Laurie Adams said she doesn’t think it was odd to wish Rome wasn’t retiring, but characterized the agenda item to ask him to change his mind about retiring as “unusual.”

“These are very personal decisions, and I certainly am sad to see him go,” Adams said. “But I definitely respect that this is a decision that he and his family didn’t reach lightly or easily.”

When Rome hit his 10-year mark as a city-parish employee

The Baton Rouge Police Department responded to a call in the 5100 block of Sherwood Street about 5 p.m. and found Frederick Scott, 47, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Scott was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Police have no motive or suspect.

Woman wanted in attack on former boyfriend

A Baton Rouge is accused of slashing her ex-boyfriend’s tires Sunday to lure him outside and then stabbing him, according to an arrest warrant.

Kaelynn Williams, 37, is wanted by the Baton Rouge Police Department on counts of attempted second-degree murder, battery of a dating partner and simple criminal damage to property Police responded to a call on Canonicus Street, where a man was

her arrest affidavit. Hayes has entered a similar notguilty plea.

“We are hopeful that the jury and judge will render a wellinformed decision grounded in the facts,” Jasmine Vaughn said Tuesday “We appreciate the efforts of everyone working on this case to pursue justice for our family and for our beloved Woodrow Vaughn. Our family is committed to ensuring that Woodrow Vaughn receives the justice he deserves.” Terrance’s next hearing before Judge Gail Horne Ray is scheduled for May 7.

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

LIBRARY

Continued from page 1B

application pool,” board President Jonathan Davis said during the discussion.

The latest director search comes amid three years of director shakeups and is the second search for a new library leader in the past 12 months.

When event director Kelsa Henderson announced that Niyati Attluri had won first place in Engineering Technology: Statics and Dynamics, a sound came from somewhere in the audience unguarded, involuntary, the kind that bypasses a person’s better judgment about decorum in a ballroom. Attluri’s father Seetharam Attluri, couldn’t contain his excitement He was beaming as he watched his daughter crossed the stage to accept her award.

Up to seven junior division students will be nominated to represent Louisiana at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix later this year LSU Online and Continuing Education covers the full cost — airfare, lodging, food, registration fees — for the students to make the trip.

“Socioeconomic background, what money your family has none of that matters,” Verma said.

“We take care of everything.”

Last year two Louisiana students, both high schoolers, won their categories outright at the international competition.

This is the 72nd annual fair that LSU has hosted Wednesday’s competitors will be followed Thursday by the senior division, ninth through 12th grade.

The science, presumably, will get harder The parents, presumably, will not get any calmer

Email Jan Risher at jan.risher@ theadvocate.com.

earlier this month, he became eligible to receive certain retirement benefits.

Adams said that it might be time to start looking ahead at candidates interested in taking over the position, which is set to be vacant in 10 days.

“He has earned his retirement, and I’m happy for him,” Adams said. “But I’ve certainly heard from individuals who might be interested in serving as parish attorney.”

Email Patrick Sloan-Turner at patrick.sloan-turner@ theadvocate.com.

stabbed, according to the arrest warrant. They found a male victim suffering from a stab wound in his forearm.

Police said Williams went to her ex-boyfriend’s house with a knife and cut all four of his car’s tires before banging on the victim’s door, yelling for him to come outside. The victim went outside and was stabbed in the bicep.

The victim went into his backyard, where his dog was, to get away from Williams, according to police. The victim told police that Williams is scared of dogs and fled the scene and went to her mother’s house. Williams and the victim had been in a previous intimate relationship for two years, according to police.

Police said the location of the wound appeared to have been a missed attempt to stab the victim in the chest.

The most recent library director, Na’Chel Shannon, resigned at the beginning of March after less than two months on the job Shannon was hired after the library board, with support from Parish President Randy Delatte voted in July not to renew former library director Michelle Parrish’s contract. Parrish took the helm in 2023, when her predecessor, Giovanni Tairov, unexpectedly resigned after months of controversy over content restrictions for minors. He had served as director for over 10 years.

Board president Davis originally proposed amending the degree requirement for the library director, saying they could have a few different types of master’s degrees, such as a Master of Public Administration, a Master of Business Administration, and a handful of others that dealt with leadership

But several board members swiftly shot down the idea, dropping the conversation Board member Becky Morgan said hypothetically that she could apply for the job under this change, but that she could not “do the job justice.”

“They have more expertise in those particular areas,” she said about people with Master of Library and Information Science degrees. Morgan emphasized that the board needs to at least try to get someone with that particular master’s degree first.

Board member Sheila Goins said it’s best if the director has a library degree, but the change could increase the number of applicants.

“We may be back here again in six months,” Goins said, referring to not getting enough applicants.

She pointed out that each branch manager has to have the same degree.

Ultimately the board members said they would be open to revisiting the conversation down the road if the upcoming applicant pool does not yield a director

“I’m not going to make a motion on this. I’m not going to try and force this,” Davis said after the discussion. “I just don’t want to have this big problem where we don’t have enough people to apply again. I don’t think the salary was the only issue from the first time we proposed the application.”

Before the most recent library director was hired, a similar conversation about changing the master’s degree requirements for the director took place. Davis, back then, proposed that the director only needed a master’s degree, without any specifics. It was not received well by many meeting attendees, and the idea was dropped

These conversations come after a state law that says library directors no longer are required to hold a master’s degree in library science went into effect in August 2024. The Livingston Parish library system’s current policy states that its library director must hold a Master of Library and Information Science degree.

LOTTERY

TUESDAY,APRIL 7, 2026

PICK 3: 6-1-4

PICK 4: 4-5-8-5

Eric Crawford and Knox Grover, of Edgar Martin Middle School in Lafayette, share a laugh.

Bliss Barnes, of Sherwood Middle School, and her father, Stephen Barnes, stand in front of her project.

STAFF PHOTOS By JAN RISHER

Seetharam Attluri beams Wednesday as he watches his daughter, Niyati, cross the stage to accept her first-place award in Engineering Technology: Statics and Dynamics at the Louisiana State Science and Engineering Fair’s junior division.

Funerals Today Church, 38280 Henry Rd., Prairieville, LA 70769. Arrangements entrusted to Lawson and RollinsPurple Shield Funeral Home

Faucette Jr., LeeMichael

Ourso, Barbara

11 a.m.

Washington, Gus

Israelite BaptistChurch at 11am

Obituaries

Buchanan,Donna Schexnayder

Donna Schexnayder

Buchanan, born May 12, 1958, in New Orleans, Louisiana, passed away peacefully on April 5, 2026. Donna lived alife defined by kindness,magnanimity, and adeep love for others. Thoughtful beyond measure, she had arare ability to make peoplefeel seen, cared for, and valued. Her generosity was constant and quiet, woven into everyday moments and given without expectation. She was also incredibly funny, with aquick wit and aplayful spirit, always up for fun and making those around her laugh.

Adedicated financial advisor, Donna approached her work with integrity and compassion, building lasting relationships grounded in trust and care. From ayoung age, Donna held aspecial love for animals. As achild, she cherished horses, and throughout her life, she found great joy and companionship in dogs. Her gentle heart and warmth were evident in the way she connected with them.

More than anything, Donna treasured time spent with family and friends. She is survived by her daughter, Susan Schexnayder Glueck (Ben), and son, Carl Michael Schexnayder Jr.; grandchildren, Ben Patrick Glueck Jr., William Hayes Glueck Lee James Glueck, and Stella Lane Glueck; sister, Dorothy Susan Proper; brothers, Fred Joseph Schuber III (Margaret) and David Walter Schuber (Suzanne); and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Fred Joseph Schuber Jr. and Dorothy Eversmeyer Schuber, and her niece, Lane Michelle Standish

The family wishes to give special thanks to Dr Daniel LaVie, Julie Gomez, NP, and all the staff at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center for their outstanding compassion, care and support. Visitation willbeheld at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd, New Orleans, Louisiana 70124,onSaturday, April 11, 2026, at 1:00 pm, with aMemorial Service following at 3:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Companion Animal Alliance, Baton Rouge Louisiana

With heavyhearts and deepgratitude fora life well lived, we announce the passing of LeeMichael Faucette,Jr.,April4,2026, at the age of 90. Always quick with asmileand a wave,Lee moved through lifewith awarmth and spirit that stayed with him until his final moments. Leelived alifemarked by extraordinary strength, resilience,and asweet, enduring sense of humor.He was born September30, 1935, to Lee Michael Faucette,Sr., andLouise BadgerFaucette,inNew Orleans, Louisiana. Atrue New Orleanianthrough and through, Lee followed the footsteps of hisolder sister,Gloria,whom he called his "devoted protector."Heattended St. Dominic's Elementary School and WarrenEaston High School before entering the United States Army. Lee served his country for three years and cherished his time in Ethiopiawhere he formed lifelong friendships. He continued his commitment to fellow veteransasCommander of the American Legion BoydEwing Post 58. His love of literature and history, along with the blessing of the G.I. Bill,carriedhim forward to Louisiana State University. Lee graduated with honorsand wenton to earn his master's degree in education. Lee beganhis career as ateacher at BakerJunior High School and went on to serve as an assistant principaland principalwithinEastBaton Rouge PublicSchools. As principal, he played akey roleintransforming Baton Rouge High into Baton Rouge Magnet High School and was especially proud of establishing the WBRH radiostation, whosecontinuedsuccess remains a meaningful part of his legacy. He later served as adirector and as anassistant to the superintendent forthe district. Even in retirement,heserved as a student teachersupervisor at both Louisiana State University and SoutheasternLouisiana University. He was also inducted into the HallsofFame at both Warren Easton High School and Baton Rouge Magnet High School.Lee's love of learning livesoninhis four daughters, allofwhom pursued careers in education and publicservice.A dedicated "girldad,"he delighted in fatherhood. Above all, he took great pride in encouraging his daughterstopursue college degrees of their own. In return, his daughters willalwaystreasurehis gentle, steady devotion to their happiness.But perhapsthe greatest joyof Lee's life was his beloved wife, Debi, who survives him. They shared nearly forty-four yearsoflove andcompanionship. Lee adored theirannual retreats to Pensacola Beach, their "happy place,"and when Lee lookedatDebi, his brightblueeyes sparkled.Lee leaves behind afamilywho will carry on his joyfullegacy. He is survived by his wife, Deborah Keebler Faucette; his four daughters: Elizabeth (Jonathan), Mary Bounds (Michael), Natalie Faucette,and Stephanie Faucette (Ryan Stoa); sister-in-law, Susan Keebler; mother-in-law, JimmieLea Keebler;and two nephews, Rene Gaudet (Barbara) and Steven Gaudet. He leaves behind threegrandsons: Kyle (Joanna), Jack, and Wes. Lee'slove forhis grandsons was incomparable. He took immense pride in "his boys" andinthe joythey brought to his daughters' lives. Lee was preceded in deathbyhis parents; sisterGloria Gaudet (Rene); and fatherin-law, Robert F. Keebler. The family would like to thankthe careteamatthe Claiborne at Shoe Creek fortheir care and compassion. Avisitation will be held Friday, April 10, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at St. Alphonsus LiguoriCatholicChurch (14040 Greenwell Springs Rd, Greenwell Springs, LA 70739). Afuneral Mass will follow at noon.Pallbearers will be Michael Bounds, Rene Gaudet,Jonathan Huggins, Kyle Huggins, h i h ll d

Gelpi, Mary Jane Gagnier

JohnMitchell,and Ryan Stoa. tion at St.GeorgeCatholic Church,7808 St.George Drive, BatonRouge, Louisiana70809, on Friday April10, 2026. Public Visita‐tion will begin at 9:30AM until 10:45AM;Words of Re‐membranceat10:45AM FuneralMassat11AMuntil 12 Noon andReception in theKleinpeterCenteratSt. George from 12PMuntil 1PM. Intermentwillfollow at 2:30PM at Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery 1225 WhitneyAvenue, Gretna,Louisiana.Mothe FuneralHomeisassisting thefamilyduringthisdiffi‐cult time.The family in‐vitesyou to share thoughts,fondmemories andcondolences at mothe‐funerals.com

Mary Jane GagnierGelpi of BatonRouge,LApassed away peacefully with her children by hersideon April1,2026 at theage of ninety-four.Devoted wife of fifty-sevenyears to the late John GuyGelpi,daugh‐terofthe late Frances Beaubien Gagnierand EdgarJosephGagnier.Sis‐terofVincent EdgarGag‐nier.MothertoDr. Gregory John Gelpiand wife Debo‐rahKleinpeterGelpi and Judith GelpiJacksonand husband SpencerDavis Jackson, Sr.Grandmother to Amanda Gelpi, Emilie (Andy) Shepherd,Davis (Lex)Jackson,Preston (Danielle)Jackson,and Kendall(Aaron) McLellan Greatgrandmother to Theo Shepherd andJulia and JamesJackson.MaryJane also leaves behind many belovedfriends,family members, nieces,and nephewsand their spouses. Mary Jane was born in Centerline,Michi‐gan. She received herB.S in Food andNutrition from MarygroveCollege,Detroit MI andcompleted herDi‐etetic Internship at theU.S Public Health ServiceHos‐pital, Staten Island,NYbe‐fore acceptingher firststa‐tion in NewOrleans in 1954. Shewas commis‐sioned in theUSPHS,serv‐ingseven years. As an in‐active reservecorps mem‐ber, shewas laterpro‐motedtoCommander.In 1967, on thecutting edge of computerization, she worked at Tulane Univer‐sity,N.O.asa Research Di‐etitianinComputerSys‐tems Research andlater worked forManagement Optimization Systems, Inc. andMedicus Systems Corp,Atlanta,GAasa Con‐sultantSystems Dietitian. As aregisteredlicenseddi‐etitian, shewas employed by Marriott Corp,Washing‐tonDCfor sixyears and WestJefferson General Hospital,Marrero,LAfor fourteen yearsasanAd‐ministrative &Systems Di‐etitian. In heraccom‐plishedcareer sheserved as Director of Food andNu‐tritionalServicesinNew OrleansatEye &Ear Insti‐tute of LA,Mercy Hospital AltonOchsner MedicalIn‐stitutions,HospitalDivi‐sion,and Southern Baptist Hospital.Utilizingher gifts of organizationand admin‐istrationshe enhanced many organizations. She wasespeciallypassionate aboutthe AcademyofNu‐tritionand Dieteticswhich shewas amemberof throughout hercareer and into hereighties. She served as boardmember of theAmericanSociety for Hospital Food ServiceAd‐ministrators (ASHFA); and as Presidentofthe follow‐ingorganizations: Louisiana Dietetic Associa‐tion,ASHFA BayouChapter, P.E.O. ChapterALand AJ FleurdeLis Garden Club, St.Andrewthe Apostle SAGES, St.GeorgeGolden Oaks,and St.Andrewthe ApostleLadiesGuild.She andJohnnyrelocated to BatonRouge in 2007 at whichtimetheybegan playingBridgeatBREC. At theage of ninety-one,she earned herLifeMastersta‐tus. Shewas an active member of theBaton RougeDuplicate Bridge Club until thepresent Mary Jane movedtoSt. JamesPlace in 2024 and immediatelyimmersed herselfintothe community enjoying many connec‐tions. Beyond hernumer‐ousaccomplishments Mary Jane witnessed nearly acentury of history. Sheoften remarked that hergreatestblessings were herjoyfulrelation‐shipswithfamily, good health,and devotion to her Catholic faith. Shewillbe remembered forher abun‐dant energy,devoted friendships, impeccable style, commitmentto keepingfamilytraditions alive, andfor beinga womantruly aheadofher time!Inlieuof flowers, the family requestdonations be sent to honorMaryJane to St.Andrewthe Apostle Church,3101 Eton Street, NewOrleans,LA70131; St George Catholic Church 7808 St.GeorgeDrive, BatonRouge,LA70809 or P.E.O. International(Philan‐thropicEducational Orga‐nization)Chapter AJ: ScholarshipFund in honor of Mary Jane GelpiPOBox 862, BatonRouge,LA70821. Family andfriends arein‐vitedtoattendthe Visita‐

"I havefought thegood fight, 1havefinishedmy course,1 havekeptthe faith."(2Timothy4:7) CurtisHenry HardinJr. was a wonderfulDaddy, Grandfather,Friend,and Uncle. He was born to Curtis Hartwell Hardin and Pearl Spratlin Hardin on April 2, 1929, in Loyd,Mississippi. He was aresident of Denham Springs, LA,but lived in BatonRouge formany years. He was carried in thearms of Jesus to his eternal home on Friday, April3,2026. He was able to celebratehis 97th birthday. He taught his Family how to love Jesus and alwaysbrought them to church to study God's word. He served faithfully in helping to start Jefferson Baptist Church with former Pastor, Tommy French, where he is currently amember; then served faithfully at Lanier Baptist Church as aDeacon, Sunday School Teacher, and on many committees. Curtisalso faithfully served his country as a proud Veteran in the US Army during theKorean conflict.Hewas afaithful husband to Coleen Keller Hardin for 71 years; aloving Daddy to Debra Hardin Raborn (Keith) and Tamela Hardin Jarrell(Mark); and aproud Grandfatherto Ashleigh JarrellMcHugh (Ben), Caleb Raborn (Mikayla), and Sarah Raborn Sotillo (Isaac) and alovinguncle to numerous nieces and nephews. CurtisHardin workedfaithfully and was very loyal employeetoAlliedChemical for 30 years. His many hoursand years of service went way beyond expectations. He taught his childrenthe importance of workethicsand never to be lazy. He was an avid gardenerfor many years. Curtis is preceded in death by hiswife,ColeenKeller Hardin, his parents Curtis Hartwell Hardin and Pearl Spratlin Hardin; his siblings, brother, Hugh Spratlin (Bud) Hardin, his sisters,Dorothy Hardin Crocker,Rebecca Hardin Pilgreen and Beverly HardinBridwell. He is survivedbyhis sisterBillye Hardin, and sister-in-law, Rebecca Ashby Hardin. He was also preceded in death by his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Charlie and Eva Keller,and sistersin-law and brothers-in-law; Frances Dowden(Harold), Viola Dickerson (Boyd), DorothyPrice (Tony), CharlieKeller, Jr.(Dorothy),and Clayton Keller (Joyce). We wouldliketoinvite friends and family to Greenoaks Funeral Home at 9595 Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA on Friday, April 10th, 2026. Visitation willbegin at 9am and go on until11am. Services willbegin at 11am with theburial to follow. His funeralserviceswillbe officiated by hisnephew Dr. BillHardin and Dr. Tommy French. Pall bearers will be Mark Jarrell, Ben McHugh, Caleb Raborn, KeithRaborn, Isaac Sotillo, and Travis May.

of 95. Born in Donaldsonville, LA to Leona Blakeman Smith andHarry Samuel Smith, Barbara lived alifedefinedby grace, resilience, and unwaveringdedication to her familyand hercommunity. Barbara graduatedfrom Donaldsonville High School in 1947 and began working forShellOil Company. She marriedFalcon Patrick Oursoin1954 and together they raisedthree children whilehelpingtocontinue thefamilyfuneral home and startingbusinesses in theinsuranceand nursing home industries.Together she and Falcon builtD'ville HouseNursing Home,currently known as Château D'ville.After Falcon's untimely passing,Barbara, widowedatthe age of 46, wasleft to continuethe businessendeavorswhile raising herchildren. She wasanactivemember of First United Methodist ChurchofDonaldsonville andrecentlyhonored by herfaithcommunityasthe matriarch of theirchurch. Barbara's lifelongcommitmenttocommunity service and improvement of Donaldsonville wasevident in hermany committees andleadership roles. Sheservedasa Board of Director of theDonaldsonvilleAreaChamber of Commerce, memberofthe Louisiana NursingHome Association,Ascension Heritage Foundation,Donaldsonville Marketing Team, Seniorsand Lawman Together andmany more. Shewas afounding member of theDonaldsonvilleAARPChapter, Donaldsonville Women's Business Professionals, and Donaldsonville EconomicDevelopment.In 1997 she wasnamedDonaldsonville Citizenofthe Year.Knownfor herlove of cooking, fabulous dinner parties, andentertaining, she created awelcoming home for familyand friends. She wasanavid sportsenthusiast and lovedwatchingbasketball andfootball. Barbara was thedefinition of a"Die Hard" Saintsfan,never missing agame since the inaugural 1967 season. She waspreceded in death by herbeloved husband, FalconPatrick Ourso, whoshe is nowreunited with after 49 years, herparents Harry andLeona Smith, andher siblings andtheir spouses: Harold Smith (Raine "Betty"), GloriaLong, Norma Vice (Ray), and son-n-law, theHonorablePegram J. Mire.Barbara is survived by herthree children : Clifton NoelOurso(Melanie), Smith PaulOurso(Elda), and Karen Ourso Mire(Butch); herloving grandchildren: Dr.Jennifer OursoStraney(Dr. Michael), Clifton NoelOurso Jr.(Christine), Falcon John Mire(Miranda), John Lucien Mire,Samuel Ourso Mire,Jack Henry Ourso, JuliaLeona Ourso, stepgrandson Christopher Charles Becnel and step granddaughter Vanessa Mire;and great-grandchildren:EleanorOurso, AmeliaNoel, andJoseph FitzpatrickStraney and Gabriella Rose, Clifton Noel III,PorterVincentand Cecily Claire Ourso, whowere thejoy of herlater years. Herlegacy of love,faith, strength,and community will forever guideher family. Visitation will be held on April 8th at OursoFuneralHome in Donaldsonvillefrom5-9pm and April 9th from 9-11am at First United Methodist

Church(400 Railroad Avenue in Donaldsonville) with afuneral service conductedbyDr. John Fletcher.Interment willimmediately follow at Ascension of OurLordCatholic Cemetery. Pallbearers will be CliftonOurso,Smith Ourso, Clifton Ourso Jr Falcon Mire,JohnMire,Samuel Mire,Jack Ourso, and ChristopherBecnel. The familywould like to expresssincere gratitude to hermanycaregiversat home andatChateau D'ville.Donationscan be made to First United Methodist Churchlocated at 400 Railroad Ave Donaldsonville,LA70346.

Patricia AnnLousteau Percywas born on June 3, 1949 in NewOrleans, Louisiana to A.J.and Fabienne Lousteau. The eldest of nine children, Patti grew up in Gonzales, Louisiana andgraduatedfromSt. Joseph's Academy. Sheattended Louisiana State University, whereshe met and marriedRobertRyland Percy, III Despite repeatedly statingshe didn't wanttohave children, Rylandworeher downand they welcomed fivechildren, with Tess and Ben being born on Guam during Ryland's United States Navy deployment. Upon returning stateside, Rylandand Patti returned to Baton Rouge for Rylandtoenterlaw school, beforeultimately moving to Gonzales, where they welcomedColin, Adam andMatthew into thefamily. Patti workedasa homemaker, art teacheratLa Maisondes Enfants, receptionist at Lousteau Ford, and illustratoratRagsland Clothing. Hertruetalentwas in art,with hernumerous painting,sewingand knitting projects always on display. In 1991, Patti returnedtoLSU to obtain her degree in Interior Design whilefightingcancer at thesame time. Her eye for design andcolor was amazing.Itshould also be notedshe wasfrequently referred to as "Dr. Patti" within thefamilydue to her"extensive"medical knowledge.She wasnever afraid to trya newendeavor,whetheritbecoaching boys' soccer or playing tennis, which all found amusing as shehated both sportsand goingoutside. But what Patti trulyloved washer family. Just two days before herpassing, she and Ryland celebrated 56 years of marriage. She wasproud of herchildren andtheir spousesand was especially in love with eachofher grandchildren Sheknewhow to filla home with food andlaughter, wasanamazing gift See more DEATHS page

Hardin,CurtisHenry

Percy, Patricia

Christy, MelodyHilliard

Melody HilliardChristy 71, anative and resident of Gonzales, LA, passed away on March 27, 2026, at her home in Gonzales, LA. She is survived by her two children; Toni Raquel Christy and Jason Anthony Christy, Eight grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, siblings; Madelyn H. Aikens (Cornell), Marlene Hilliard (Jeffery), Veronica Hilliard, William Hilliard Jr (Trenell), Nancy H. Smith (Henry), Valerie H. Edwards and abonus brother, Gary Williams (Mary). A

Ourso, Barbara Smith

OPINION

OUR VIEWS

Time forLa. voters to picktheir primary

Louisiana will soon debutpartyprimariesfor certain major elections, instead of the familiar openprimaries thatallowany voter to choose any candidate. So for those still figuringout not just which candidates to support butalso how to make sure theycan votefor them, it’scrunch time.

Put as simply as possible, registeredRepublicanscan vote in the May 16 Republican primary (with early voting beginning May 2) andthe June 27 primary runoff in the high-stakes U.S. Senate race, U.S.House races and scattered contests for the stateSupreme Court, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education andthe Public Service Commission.Same goesfor registered Democratsinthe Democratic primary and runoff.

Voters registeredas“no party” canpick either of the major party ballots butmuststickwith that party through both the primary and runoff stages of the election cycle. Those registered under athird party —say,Green or Libertarian —cannot take part in either partyprimary, but can vote on constitutional amendments and in elections for other offices that still arechosen by open primary

Bottom line: Now is the time to check your registration to make sure it matchesyour intentions Forthe May 16 electiondate, April15 is the last day to change registration information, including party,atlocal registrar offices.Changes made by mail must be postmarked by that date

Voters who make changes onlineat geauxvote com have alittle more time, until April 25. Because questions of how to vote are so much in the news these days, we’d like toshareafew additionalreminders about how things workin Louisiana.

State law requires that voters present aphoto ID with asignature but does not designate specifictypes of IDs. Voters canobtainafreeID by presenting their voter registrationcardat Office of MotorVehicle locations. They can also sign an affidavit at their polling placeverifying that they are eligible to vote. Officials then confirmeligibility

Roughly455,000 voters have been placed on the inactive voter list, which meansthatthey have not voted or taken action concerningtheir registration in 10 years or thata canvassing mailingrequiredbylaw was returnedasundeliverable, perhaps because the votermoved That’smore than in the past duetolegislation passedin2024, but the secretary of state’s office says inactive status does notpreventeligible voters from participating.

Voters can check their statusatthe secretary of state’swebsite and fix any problems aheadof the April deadlines. Theycan also update their information —anew address, forexample —at their polling place on election day We urge everyone to check,and if necessary update their information now,sothattheydon’t face any unwelcome surprises whentheytry to exercise this most sacred constitutionalright.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

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

Communityneeds to rallytosavegolfcourse

Successive generations of youngsters have cut their golfing teeth on the fairways and greens of City Park Golf Course. Moreover,this historic 9-hole tract has been thehome course for untold thousands of senior golfers. Another constituency,LSU studentscan look to City Park for anearby place to play

Butquestions are being raised again about the future of this golfing treasure. There is talk of “repurposing” City Parkand closing itsgolf course. And with the closure of the LSU course, the timingcould not be worse. Iunderstand that arepurposed City Parkwill include, among other things, walking trails and akayak pool. The former,Isubmit,will require an increased police presence. Regarding thelatter,Imean no disrespect to kayak enthusiasts when Isuggest that thenearby LSU lakes could meet their every need.

Aquarter century ago, our city and

Postingthe TenCommandments in public spaces will not solve thedeeper challenge Louisiana faces. The real issue is not whether moral principles are displayed, but whether they are understood, practiced and lived in a societyasdiverse as ours. The Ten Commandments offer aclear and enduring expression of moral principles. They speak to values that have shaped civilizations, including respect for life, honesty, responsibilityand reverence for something greater than ourselves. In that sense, they are necessary Butthey are not sufficient.Asociety does not function simply because its values are written or displayed. It functions when those values are practiced, reinforced through relationships, and lived out in everyday interactions. America has always been morecomplex than asingle religious tradition. From themoment immigrants passed through Ellis Island, they brought with them different languages, cultures and faiths. What held them together

parish were considered “golf rich.” No longer.Four 18-hole private courses have closed, while BREC offers the golfing public 36 fewer holes. As aresult of closures and increased interest in golf, the number of rounds has increased dramatically at BREC’s remainingcourses. City Park, for instance, broke records in 2025 with 28,000 rounds while Webb Memorial experienced amarked uptick with 56,000. An objective observer would describe today’sBaton Rouge as “golf poor,” asituation that will be exacerbated if BREC courses, especially nearby Webb, are faced with greatly increased play On Wednesday,April 22 at 5:30 p.m there will be apublic meeting regarding the future of HistoricCity Park and its golf course. Those committed to BREC golf and its future are strongly encouraged to attend.

PERRYSNYDER Baton Rouge

was not uniform belief, but ashared expectation about how people should treat one another The real challenge is not whether morality is displayed, but whether it is experienced through everyday life. In fact, we already see this work happening every day across Baton Rouge. Organizations like TopTeens of America and 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge, through initiatives such as Project Excel, along with churchbased youthministries, are actively shaping how young people understand responsibility, trust andrespect. But they are not doing so by posting rules on walls. They do so through relationships, mentorship and lived experience, helping young people practice the very behaviors that hold communities together.Moral principles may be necessary.But without lived experience and formation, they are not sufficient to sustain asociety

ADELL BROWNJR. Baton Rouge

Recent letters makeitclear that manypeople rarely step out of their single-viewpoint media sphere. For example, there’sDuke Truby,who is certain (without evidence) that most readers are conservatives just like him,probably because that’sall he encounters in the rest of his media diet.

Then there are the letter writers whorepeat partisan information, like Michael Gallagher,who wrote to imply that undocumented immigrants can be automatically registered to vote in California when they get adriver’slicense. In under aminute, Ivisited the California Secretary of State website to find that that is untrue. Voter registration information submitted at the DMVissent to the Secretary of State foreligibility to be verified (including U.S. citizenship) before registration is complete; immigrants can get adifferent kind of license, which explicitly does not confer the right to vote.

Checking those facts surely took less timethan writing aletter to this paper,yet that apparently never occurred to Gallagher; he just assumed that what he’sheard in his restricted media space is correct. His is not the only letter to do this, just the most recent.

The primary reason Istill subscribe to this newspaper is precisely because it’sasource that has not been personally curated forme. I want to know about all the newsand opinions, not just what agrees with me. And the moreoutrageous aclaim is, the moremotivated Iamtodouble-check it, because Iknow media intentionally manipulate emotions. I urge everyone to step outside your bubble, check somefacts to assess the reliability of your sources, talk to people whodon’tagree with you and learn that there’salot moreto the world.

ELIZABETH

DIETCH NewOrleans

Caoreemerges as educationpolicymaven

With so much else in the news, few people noticed on Jan. 6when former U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao was appointed temporarily to avacant seat on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Notice should be taken. This new position for Cao, aRepublican from Harvey,isthe latest installmentinone of the most fascinating livesin American politics. Seventeen years ago, three weeks before Cao won arace for Congress against all odds in aheavily Democratic district, Iadmiringly described him as “a Vietnamese refugee-turned physics major-turned Jesuit-turned philosophy professor,lawyer and dual-hurricane survivor.” By then, he already had run and lost astate legislative race. He lost his congressional reelection bid in 2010. He later withdrew from arace for attorney general andran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate and an appeals court judgeship. He also served on the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Clearly,this man lovesthe idea of public service in arepresentativedemocracy As an 8-year-old escapee from communism —“essentially orphaned by the Vietnam War,”he said—this makes sense: He understands that rule via the consent of the governed is aprecious commodity Still, why BESE? It was an appointment for which Cao said he never asked. It came via asurprise email from Gov. Jeff Landry,torepresent St Tammany Parish and partsofOrleans, Jefferson and Tangipahoa, after previously elected incumbent Paul Hollis took ajob with the Trump administration. Cao is now one of three candidates in the May 16 primary to complete Hollis’ term.

The earlier portfolios he served or sought required either apolicy generalist or afocus on law or coastal issues. Why,now,education?

Cao told me this week he actually

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Bob Livingston, right, Louisiana’sformer 1st Congressional District representative, talkswithnewly elected 2nd District Rep. Ahn ‘Joseph’ CaoofNew Orleans at Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington in 2008.

considered “several” other races for BESE, but the district would be very expensive to runfor and it’svery hard to raise money for aBESE race. Inever participated becauseofthe cost.”

When Landry’semail arrived, Cao said, “I was ecstatic. It was adream come true.”

Andintruth, education even more than the law has been his life’swork. When he felt called to the Catholic priesthood inthe early 1990s after graduating from Baylor University with adegree in physics, he joined the SocietyofJesus (rather than other Catholic orders) because“Jesuitsare famous as educators. That was my mainreason for joining the Society of Jesus:soIwould have theabilityto educate kids andyoung adults.”

Forsix years in Jesuit training, that’s what he did, in schools in the Washington, D.C., area and then for “predominantly poor children” in places “all over Texas and Louisiana,” tutoring in English and math.

Afterleaving theJesuits because he “wanted to haveafamily and participateinpolitics, and being apriest you can’tdothose things,” he became aphilosophy instructor at Loyola University in New Orleans while in law school there. He is now at LSU Health Sciences Center as an adjunct professor/guest speaker teaching ethics and

public policy Cao alsoserved on the boards of three public charter schools. He speaks especially passionately about theNew Orleans Military &Maritime Academy in Algiers, an openenrollment high school sitting on land formerly controlled by thefederal government.Itwas Cao who, while in Congress, arranged for the feds to transfer theland to local control specifically to create that school.

“Education is morethan simply intellectual advancement,” Cao said, in explaining one of the fundamentals of bothNOMMA andofhis overall approach to schooling. “It must encompassamorality factor It teaches them abouthelping others, about giving back to thecommunity.”

Himselfaproduct of public schools, Cao saidheisanavid supporter of the LA GATORschool-choice accounts so that poorer children can find instruction that includes this holisticperspective.

“When Iwas in theSociety of Jesus, Iworked with mostly poor families, people struggling to makeends meet, kids not being educated adequately,” Cao said.

“The bestthing that we can do to serveour kids is to hold ahigh level of accountability in regard to our schools, in regard to teachers, in regardtofamily and parental involvement. The reason why we [in Louisiana] have climbed the national report cards revolves around two very importantissues. Oneisaccountability [andthe second] is in getting parents more and more involved.”

Finally,Cao saidthat for children “from broken homes [where parents won’tget involved], the children may need alot of emotional support. That’s why it’ssoimportant to expand school counseling programs focused on truancy and emotional development.”

Cao sounded like an idealist 17 years ago, and he soundslike an idealisttoday.Inaworld of cut-throat politics, that sound is quiterefreshing.

Email QuinHillyer at quin.hillyer@ theadvocate.com

On Thursday morning, Isat downwith one of my chatbots and asked it to round up the best takes on arecent social media controversy.The results were unsatisfying —hallucinations, apologies and search results that weren’twhat I’dasked for. After several prompts and corrections, the chatbot seemed to give up. Shortly thereafter,sodid I.

Fortunately,I wasintimately familiar with this controversy,since Itouched it off. In social media parlance, Iwas “the maincharacter,” so Ialready had plenty of raw material and could see how badly ChatGPT had failed.

So much for journalistic objectivity

The BBC science editor coveringthe launch of Artemis II couldn’tcontain herenthusiasm when thefirst plumes of smoke spread out from thelaunch pad. “Oh, my goodness! Oh,mygoodness!” sheexclaimed, clapping like aschoolgirl. As the rocket lifted off, she got visibly emotional: “It’snot just what you see andyou hear as the rocket lifts off. You can feel the force of it through your body. This is the most powerful rocket that NASA haseverbuilt!”

Rebecca Morelle can be forgiven for falling in love with the subject of her story

Arocket launch is an awe-inspiring event —acontrolled explosion hurling agigantic projectile into theether There’sthe sheer power,the unavoidable risk, the questing spirit.A rocket feels and looks like the future, and there’ssomething very human about gazing intothe sky in wonder NASA hasn’tbeen glamorousindecades. Once upon atime, kids were putting up glossy photos of Apollo rockets and astronauts on their bedroom walls. But the Apollo program was killed long ago —civil-rights activistswere among those mobilizing against it,oddly enough —and nothing has captured the imagination the same way since The space shuttle made space flight routine and boring, and there was nothing particularly ambitious about the International Space Station. Rovers and telescopes wereworthyendeavors, but not thrilling. There is no substitute for manned space flight. The Artemis project is not exactly boldly going where noman has gone before,since it returned to the moon after we were there half acentury ago. But sending astronauts250,000 miles from Earth as part of aproject to eventually set up abase on themoon is the most enterprising NASA project since Apollo. This is all to the good, but Artemis

hasbeen plagued by delays and cost overruns. NASA hasn’tbeen able to replicate the urgent, mission-driven approach that characterized the Apollo program.Ittook eight years to get to themoon thefirst time, while Artemis hasbeen going for nine years and we still aren’tback. NASAprojects tend to get caught in acycle: Onepresident proposes abig newinitiative,onlyfor it to get canceled byhis successor,who proposes hisown initiative that is canceled in turn The worst-case scenario is that a Democratic president elected in 2028 nixesArtemis because President Donald Trumpfavored it. That said,the space expert Robert Zubrinnotes that space is particularly appealingtoAmericans as apeople defined, in part, by thefrontier.JFK talked of “the New Frontier,” and the famous open of theTVshow “Star Trek”called space “the final frontier.”

Certainly,the American space program is amarked contrast with that of theEuropeans, the European Space Agency.NASA’sbudget is several times larger.We’ve sent men to the moon, whereas they haven’t. Andwe’ve

sent multiple successful landers and rovers to Mars (thefirst lander in 1976, thefirst rover in 1997), whereas the ESA has only managed two unsuccessful landers. Getting back to themoon is nice, but it is amanned mission to Mars that should be our ultimateobjective. It would truly be another giant leap for mankind, opening up avista of homo sapiens as amulti-planetary species. The technological challenge would be significant,requiring Apollo-like exertions, while there’smuch of scientific importance to be learned on the Red Planet.

Right now,the mostpopular movie in America is “Project Hail Mary,” a sci-fi thriller about adesperate mission into space. The film plays to our inherent interest in journeys intothe unknown, and toour admiration for those who have thecourage to explore new worlds, from Francis Drake to Neil Armstrong.

Artemis II tapped into the same thing,which is why that BBC reporter —and so manyofthe rest of us —were so moved Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry

But if you’re hoping foracolumnonwhy artificial intelligence is useless, Iregret to disappoint. Irarely read its summaries and never let it touch my copy directly,but it’sstill enormously helpful as asuper search engine, data downloader and interlocutor to steelman opposing views. It also works as asupplementary fact-checker (before it goes to the human ones) and to suggest clarifications and cuts so Ican hand my editor cleaner copy Ironically,saying this on Xiswhat caused all the trouble: Many people think that using AI at any stage of the writing process amounts to outsourcing your thinking to amachine, and they reacted badly to ajournalist suggesting someAIuse might be all right.

Obviously,I disagree, but Irecognize those folks are grappling with important questions, such as “What is writing for?” and “Which uses of AI serve those purposes, and which undermine them?”

The people whowant AI to be off-limits are right that technology changes how you think and write. Iamold enough to have done creative writing in longhand and then on a typewriter,before Igot my first computer

Something waslost in each transition, because the slowness and forced rewriting of the old methods improved the text in certain ways. But they also raised the cost (in time and effort) of making changes, and ultimately mostwriters decided the new wayswere worth it. Most writers have already madethat same decision with machine learning.

My line is that Ioutsource tedious tasks such as “searching the web” or “finding data buried in the footnotes” or “clicking through janky websites.”

Relying on AI summaries or using AI copy short-circuits the work essential to real learning. College term papers have so little value that people must be paid to read them,yet we makestudents write them because the merit is in the struggle: developing opinions, trying to lay them out in order,discovering what’s missing or wrong, and tearing down the whole framework and rebuilding it several times. Used properly,AIcan be away to struggle harder —with better data, morereading, firmer comprehension or sharper criticism. AI meansyou can do moreofthose things in aproject’slimited timeframe. Unfortunately what makes AI an excellent struggle machine also makes it atop-notch struggle avoider.Like mostprofessional writers, I’mappalled that British journalist Alex Preston used AI to pad out aNew York Times Book Review —even though I’dhave been fine if he’d just used it to change “petrol” to “gas.” Using it to provide the actual copy violated the trust of readers who could presumably have queried achatbot if they wanted amachine’sopinion. No one wants journalism to end up like those “hand-highlighted” Thomas Kinkade paintings, aflat expanse of mass-produced schlock sprinkled with adusting of human glitter in the final touch-up process. That makes ahard no very appealing —ifyou aren’tusing AI at all, you can’tbetempted to use it the wrong way.But I doubt that particular line can hold.

Machine learning is simply too useful, and it will tempt even hardcore AI opponents in a thousand ways—searching forhalf-remembered citations, access to untranslated archives in languages you can’tread, downloading of documents scattered across dozens of badly designed webpages. Each of those uses will shape what we know and how we think, just as search and social media algorithms have. Each successful use will invite moreuse. There will be artisanal holdouts whoreject all those possibilities, but Idoubt they’ll be amajority.Sofor the foreseeable future, the rest of us will be figuring out where to draw the lines, knowing that somelines will be crossed by others, if not erased entirely

The best we can hope foristhat in the struggle to draw and redraw them,we’ll learn where they belong.

MeganMcArdle is on X, @asymmetricinfo Email her at Megan.McArdle@washpost.com.

Quin Hillyer Rich Lowry

ega McArdle M n

PHOTO PROVIDED By NASA

The moon is seen from acamera Mondayoutsidethe Orion Spacecraft after the ArtemisIIastronauts surpassed the farthest distance evertraveled by humans from Earth.

Juckniewitz

giver and was always ready to give advice, telling you exactly what she thought about asituation. Her witand candor will be greatly missed.

Patti is survived by her husband, Robert Ryland Percy, III, of 56 years; her daughter Katherine Tess Percy Stromberg (Lee), Benjamin RylandPercy (Bethany), Colin Andrew Percy (Michele), Adam Conner Percy (Meredith) and Matthew Ian Percy (Kaylin). She is also survived by her grandchildren: William, Ian and James Percy; Paige, Lily and Cannon Percy; Hadley and Cullen Percy; River and Poppy Percy, and Grayson, Finn and Rowan Stromberg; as well as numerous siblings and brothers and sistersinlaw. The family would like to especially recognizeher dear friend, Doris Martinez, and sister, Lee Klienpeter, who each showed such love and compassion over the last several years. Visitation willbeatSt. Theresa Catholic Church on April 11, 2026 at 8:30 AM, with the Funeral Mass to followat10:30 AM. The CommittalService will take place afterwards at Serenity Oaks. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations made to acharity of your choice.

Gerard Adam

Gerard Adam Ruth, age 94, of Baton Rouge, passed away at his home on April 2, 2026,ofnatural causes. Born on April 23, 1931, in NewOrleans, Gerard lived along and meaningful life, andtruly enjoyed the ride. He was abeloved father, grandfather, and greatgrandfather. He was alifelong resident of Baton Rouge and attended St.

DEATHS continued from Stanislaus boarding school, Baton Rouge High School and LSU. From 19501953,heserved in the UnitedStatesCoastGuardduring the Korean Waronthe Coast Guardcutter Tampa. He was the proud owner of Gerard Furniture Company, establishedin1966,until his retirement in 2018. He lovedservingthe Baton Rouge community and making countless friends over those 52 years. He lookedforward to his twice ayeartrips to the furniture marketinHigh Point,North Carolina, spending time in the Smoky Mountains, andat his camp on the Tickfaw River. He lovedthe pursuit of fine Louisiana artwork, antique furniture, and especiallyLouisiana decoys. He was fullofenergy and always on the go seeking his nextadventureora new project. He enjoyed greatmealswith hisfamily and friends, nevermet a strangerand always had a story to tell. Throughout his life, Gerardwas deeply involved in his community.Hewas activeinmany organizations including the Baton Rouge Jaycees, Baton Rouge Boat Club,Red StickKiwanis Club,Baton Rouge FurnitureDealersAssociation, Baton Rouge High School Alumni Association, St. James Masonic Lodge, Masonic LodgeofNine Muses, the Acacia Shriners, Baton Rouge Navy Club-Ship661, Manresa House of Retreats Group 34 for 54 years, American Legion Nicholson Post #38, Louisiana Wildfowl Carvers and Collectors Guild,LSU Baseball Coaches Committee, Tara Civic Association and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Gerardwas the proud recipient of the 2019 GoldenDeeds Award,and he was instrumental in bringing the "Lone Sailor" statuetodowntown Baton Rouge "Gigi" is survived by his children, Marsha Morgan (Reece), Andrew Ruth, Larry Ruth (Karen), and Amy Hartwig (Ty); hisgrandchildren Ashley Morgan Bergeson (Ben), Laurel Morgan Malone (Jeff), ChristopherRuth (Kirsten), Brandon Ruth, Caroline Ruth, Madison Hartwig Juckniewitz (Mason), AndrewHartwig,and Greg Hartwig; and hisgreatgrandchildren Bailey Bergeson, BlakelyBergeson,ColtonMalone, Reeves Malone, Brooks Juckniewitz, and Brynn

Gerard was preceded in death by thelove of his life,his wife of over 60 years, Selma ClairRodriguezRuth; by his father AdamNicholas Ruth, his mother Alice Mae Meraux, and his sister, Mae Alice Ruth Hodge. Visitation willtakeplace at Rabenhorst Funeral Home,825 Government St on Thursday,April 9, from 5:00-7:30 pm. Visitation will continue at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, 445 MarquetteAve. on Friday, April10, from 9:00-10:00 am, followedbya Mass of ChristianBurial at 10:00 am conducted by Rev. Cleo Milano.Burial willfollowata laterdateatthe Louisiana NationalCemetery in Zachary.

Pallbearers willbe ChristopherRuth, Brandon Ruth, AndrewHartwig, Greg Hartwig, Ben Bergeson, and Jeff Malone. Honorarypallbearers are Cliff Palmer,EricLane, Frank Rieger, III, William Rieger, John Liter, Rodney Dykes, Carey Beam, Cy Beam, Billy McDonald,Frank Muscarello and TomOlinde. In lieu of flowers,donations may be madeinGerard's memory to Manresa HouseofRetreats, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, or Shriners Hospitalfor ChildreninShreveport.

ermaker buildingand repairing steel tanks and watertowers untilheretired.

He is survivedbyhis loving wife of 34 years, Joyce Charlene Schlecht, his children, Laura Cecile Schlecht,ClaireLucile (Cole) Schlecht,Richard Andreas (Marta)Schlecht and JacobAlexander Schlecht,stepchildren, Neil Hinch and Jenny Hinch Kelly,and five step-grandchildren. He also leaves two sisters, Anita (Edgar) Wall and Joyce (Barry) Langley He was preceded in death by his parents, his son, David William Schlecht,Jr.,stepson, David Hinch, and siblings, Mary Orr,JudithKlute, Margaret Palmer,and Paul Schlecht

Amemorial service will be held on Friday, April 10, at St.John theBaptist CatholicChurch, 402 South Kirkland Dr., Brusly, LA. Visitation willbeat9:00 AM with services following at 10:00 AM. Serviceswillalso be held at St. John's Lutheran Church, 101 SMagnolia Ave.,Newkirk, Oklahoma on adatenot yetdetermined The Family wouldliketo express their appreciation to theICU and PCUstaff at Our Ladyofthe LakeRegional Medical Center In Baton Rouge,LAfor the care they gaveDavid the last three weeks of his life David lovedcatsand had many throughout his lifetime. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in his honormay be madetothe NorthOklahoma Humane Society, 900 WestProspect Ave.,Ponca City, OK 74601.

EdmondAlfredStewart Jr.(NaNu), transitioned peacefully from hisearthly home on March27, 2026 at the age of 77. A40year ExxonMobilretiree anda currentemployee of CATS. Alfred is survivedbyhis loving wife of 54 years, Mary A. Stewart. 4Children;CelesteS.Smith, EdmondIII (Enesa), Brandon and Christon Stewart Sr.3 Sisters; Myralyn Miller, Rosalyn Smith andDr. DanitaStewart (Johnny Beard). 9grandchildren, 2 great grandchildrenand a host of otherfamilyand friends. Alfredisproceeded in death by hisparents, Dr.E.AlfredStewart Sr andS.IonaJ.Stewart. a sister;Norma Mayfield and 1great grandson; Kaden Jackson.Visitationwill be held Saturday April 11, 2026 at 12p.m. noon until religiousservicesat1 p.m. at Hall Davis andSon's 9348 Scenic Hwy. Baton Rouge,La. 70874

DavidWilliamSchlecht, Sr., born in SanAntonio, TX, was theyoungest of seven children of Rev. WillardErnest William Schlecht and Loretta Lucile Benne Schlecht. He passed away on Monday, April 6, 2026 at age 76. He livedin San Antonio, TX, Baton Rouge, LA,Crosby, TX and Brusly, LA prior to settling in Newkirk, OK. He served in theUSNavyasa young man then workedasa boil-

Scioneaux, Tommy 'Hambone' Departed this life Apr 3, 2026 at age 61. Visitation 8:30am-11:30am with funeral mass to follow on Apr 10, 2026 at St.Elizabeth CatholicChurch in Paincourtville, LA.Full obituary can be viewedat www.churchfuneralservic es.com.

quiet strength.Her life wasa testament to love well kept, duty well done,and joyfound in thesimple and sacredthingsofhomeand family. For thepast 50 years, she wasa residentofthe

Central Community andfor over 20 years worked alongsideher husband, HermanStroderd, in their familyowned and operated business, Murray's Central Pharmacy. Additionally, for many years, she volunteered with theSt. Alphonsus NursingHome Ministry and theBereavementMinistry. Shewas also amember of the KnightsofColumbus Council2807 Ladies Auxiliary. Shewas preceded in death by herbeloved husband of 56 years, Herman Stroderd; herparents,W.E. andRoseHebert; hersister, Barbara "Bobbie"LaCombe; and herbrother, Charles Hebert,Sr. Mildred is survived by herchildren, Cindi (Mike) Schlatre; EnaAucoin; Damian (Debbie)Stroderd; Allison (Roger) Istas; and SuzonneHorning. She leaves behind an extensive familytreeincluding 13 grandchildren: Emelie McLellan;Beau (Kim) Schlatre; LoriBeth(Josh) Stewart; Logan (Ashley) Schlatre; Katelyn Marchand; RebeccaMarchand; Ben (Madison)Stroderd; Zoe Istas; Oscar Istas; JacobMarchand; PhoebeIstas; Joshua (Kyleigh)Marchand; andMoira Istas; as well as 6great-grandchildren:Laurel Schlatre; Liam McLellan;Drake Schlatre; Annamarie Stroderd; Thorin Miller;and baby Stewart.

Thosewho knew and lovedher shall remember herlaughter, hercare, her wisdom, and the gentle strength with which she bore both joyand sorrow. Thefamilywould like to extenddeepestappreciation andlove to all those that helped care for Mildred duringthe final season of herlifeincluding: OurLady of theLake Hospital andstaff,Amedisys, Home Instead, Central Guest House,Central Fire Department, Acadian Ambulance,her host of doctors and nursesand all others that helped through various services, prayers andvisits. In lieu of flowers, donations canbe made in Mildred's name to St.VincentdePaulFood Pantry of St.Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church

Stewart, Edmond Alfred 'NaNu'

Stroderd, Mildred Hebert

Mildred Hebert Stroderd was born on September7, 1940, in Iota, Louisiana, and on April 1, 2026, at theage of 85, she passed from this life in Baton Rouge,Louisiana, leavingbehinda legacyof grace, devotion,and

Schlecht,David W.

Ruth,

BY DAVE SKRETTA AP sportswriter

AUGUSTA, Ga. Brooks Koepka was asked acouple of years ago whether it was possible to shoot 59 at the Masters and shatter that most hallowed scoring barrier few will ever touch. The look of incredulitythatcrossed his face was both withering and comical.

“Have you played here?” Koepka replied

“Not yet,” he was informed.

“Yeah,” Koepka said, “I could tell by the question.”

In fact, only two peoplehave managed aroundof63atthe Masters much less59. NickPricewas thefirst to set the record four decades ago, and the most recent was Greg Norman, whose first-round 63 in 1996 came before his epic final-round collapse.

ONE ON OF ONE

AUGUSTA, Ga. The GolfChannel’sBrandel Chamblee caused astirinFebruary in the golf world. In golf,astirisnot likethreatening to bomb aforeign nation or flying to the moon. He simplyput forward anotion

Chamblee saidThe Players should not only be considered a major —like the Masters, U.S andBritish opens, andthe PGA Championship—but the best major.The best because of the quality of its course, fieldand now50-plus-year history

Obviously Chamblee, like anyone,isentitledtohis opinion. Even awrong opinion The Masters isn’tjust oneof the fourmajors, which are all golf needs. It’sthe best major And there areabout as many reasons that’strue as there are magnolia trees lining Magnolia Lane (60).

Golfhas been playedon every continent, including Antarctica, where researchers occasionally playwhatthey callthe “Winter’sEnd Classic,” basically sort of aputting tournamentonice.

Golf even hasbeen played on themoon.Not by the crew of ArtemisII(just aflyby) but in 1971 by astronautAlan Shepard during Apollo

right,pressures Newyork Jets quarterback Zach Wilson on Dec. 12, 2021, in EastRutherford, N.J.

Breaking down Saints’ recent draft-dayswapping

BY ZACH EWING

in the 2025 NFL Draft, and Tyler Shough wouldbe the No. 1answer In fact, there might not be another answer But as uncommon as it is for the Saints to take aquarterback high in the draft, they managed to do something else last year that’seven more rare. It was the first time in 12 years

that general manager Mickey Loomis and the New Orleans front office did not swingatrade during the draft. Someofthe trades have been seismic.Trading up to No.6toselect defensive tackle Johnathan Sullivan in Loomis’ first draft as generalmanager in 2003. Moving up for Mark Ingramin2011. Multiple first-round trades in 2022 to get Chris Olave and Trevor Penning. Many others have beenall but forgotten, pick swaps that happen deep intothe draft on Saturday afternoons.

One thing is forsure: New

BY JANRISHER Staff writer

14. He fastened a6-i sample scoop handle of whichare still somewhere on the Fra Mauro highlands.

Golfasweknow it beganinSt. Andrews, Scotland, whichwill host its 31stBritish Open championship next year.But nowhere is it venerated,cherished andraised to more of an art form than at Augusta National andthe Masters. Why is Chamblee aboutThe Players? youneed to know: N made awinning putt Sawgrass andbroke into sucha blubberi Irish stewasRory M after winning last ye ters, becoming the fi to winthe career gr Ilroy certainly didn’ ground after winnin amonth earlier.

On theday Anton Dubrov opened hisnew tennis center in Minsk, Belarus,ErikArutiunian was 5yearsold. Neither of Arutiunian’sparents weretennis players,but his father took him by the hand and walked him to the courts. Arutiunianhad no say in thematter

“My dadjusttook my hand,” he said withalaugh. “Go.”

That shortwalkchanged the trajectory of Arutiunian’s life. Sixteen years later,heplays on LSU’sNo. 5tennis team with playersfromaround the world— and exactly one American, Charles Hobbs fromVirginia Beach, Virginia.

As afreshman, Arutiunian is ranked No. 22 in the nation in singles and is aleader on LSU’sheavily international roster —redefining “home team” in Baton Rouge Coach Danny Bryan, aNew Orleans native in hisfourth year leading the program, has built something in Baton Rouge that goes beyond thenumbers. Lastseason, the menfinished ranked around 75th nationally This season, they have been afixtureinthe top 10 sinceJanuary and have climbed to No. 5. Bryan,who also played tennis at LSU, is hoping the community can come outand showthe team its support. Whenthe Tigers take the court, they do so as afully international team —afact that still strikes Arutiunianasremarkable. (Hobbs has notplayed in any SEC matches.)

Theteam’sturnaround rests heavily on the shoulders of players who arrived without experiencing anything likea Saturday in

“Everyone is so different Spanish,Romanian, German, Polish,” Arutiunian said. “But we aretogetherall the time. We don’t have small groups.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By BILL KOSTROUN

Saints defender Marcus Davenport,

RoryMcIlroyfalls to hisknees in celebration after winning in aplayoff against JustinRose in the final round the Masters tournament on April13in Augusta, Ga.

ASSOCIATED PRESSFILE PHOTO By MATT SLOCUM

Sergio Garcia reacts to aputt on March20.

AP PHOTO By MIKE STOBE

PHOTO PROVIDED

LSU tennisstar Erik Arutiunian reacts during atennis match earlier this

Midweek blues continue

Tigers suffer another upset loss, this time to Bethune-Cookman

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

LSU baseball’s margin for error on Tuesday was thinner than usual for a Jay Johnson-coached team.

How could it not be? Especially after the Tigers lost five nonconference games before their Southeastern Conference schedule began, which included defeats to 13-20 Sacramento State and 16-16 McNeese State.

If LSU wanted to maintain a solid chance of hosting a regional in June, it likely had to beat Bethune-Cookman.

But that was not the case Tuesday The Tigers lost to another mid-major opponent at Alex Box Stadium, falling 10-7 to BethuneCookman in a loss that damaged LSU’s June aspirations.

“(Johnson) tells us the pressure is on, and it is,” outfielder Derek Curiel said. “And we know that we need to probably win two more SEC games now because we lost this one tonight.”

A disastrous seventh inning sealed LSU’s fate after a backand-forth affair through six innings.

Leading by a run, the Tigers (22-12) surrendered five runs on two walks, two hit batters and an error in the seventh. Righthander Mavrick Rizy’s two walks both forced in runs. Rizy also hit a batter, as did left-hander Danny Lachenmayer Johnson turned to four pitchers in the inning before freshman right-hander Reagan Ricken got a strikeout to end the rally

LSU pitcher Zion Theophilus delivers in the third inning against Bethune-Cookman. LSU used nine pitchers, who combined to walk two batters and hit four more.

“You’re not going to outwill or outwant (anyone with) however many walks or hit by pitches we had in the seventh (Tuesday),” Johnson said.

The error LSU committed in the seventh came from senior Seth Dardar on a ground ball to second base, a mistake that came with two outs and cost the Tigers two runs. LSU’s struggling defense, which has been a constant theme throughout its up-anddown season, suffered another low by allowing three unearned runs to Bethune-Cookman (23-10) on two errors.

“I’ve seen Dardar make that play 100 times,” Curiel said, “and he just didn’t (Tuesday).”

A bad top of the seventh was compounded in the bottom of the

Lucena, Pearson, Braun, Yamin

Anselmo

Zambrano,

Dathe

inning by the offense’s inability to cash in on a perfect opportunity LSU had the top of its order up to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh. But instead of taking a big chunk out of a 10-6 deficit, Steven Milam, Jake Brown and John Pearson all struck out.

“We lost the strike zone with

Injuries to Stanfield, Dardar don’t

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

LSU outfielder Chris Stanfield and second baseman Seth Dardar did not suffer any broken bones during LSU’s loss to BethuneCookman on Tuesday coach Jay Johnson said. But Johnson is unsure of either player’s status for this weekend’s series against Ole Miss.

Both players suffered injuries in the Tigers’ loss to BethuneCookman.

“I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, not just because we lost the game, but (because) those guys are really good guys,” John-

son said. “And they’re seniors, and you’re past the point of like the medical redshirt thing. So I was very happy that neither of them have anything structurally wrong.

“It doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to play because they got beat up pretty good in the two instances.”

Stanfield reaggravated his lefthand injury after crashing into the left-field wall in the seventh inning. He was replaced by junior Daniel Harden in left field.

Stanfield’s original hand injury forced him to miss 15 games

“The hand that was hurt ran into the fence,” Johnson said,

“and it didn’t feel good.”

Dardar hurt his ankle sliding into second base in the sixth inning. He remained in the game for another inning, but fifth-year senior Tanner Reaves replaced him in the eighth.

“He just slid late and jammed it up pretty good,” Johnson said. Johnson also revealed Wednesday that after missing last weekend’s series at Tennessee with a hand injury, infielder Brayden Simpson took batting practice on Tuesday. He also said LSU is searching for alternative treatment options that could accelerate his return to the field. The senior hurt his right thumb

LSU gymnastics star Chio wins top award in region

The accolades continue to roll in for LSU sophomore standout Kailin Chio, as Tuesday she was named the Central Region Gymnast of the Year by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA).

The nation’s No. 1-ranked gymnast in the all-around, on vault and beam, Chio previously was named the Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Year She has 40 individual event titles this season, including the SEC all-around title an NCAA-best 12 perfect 10s.

The WCGA presents awards annually to gymnasts in six NCAA Division I regions as well as two each in Division II and III. Chio and LSU head to Fort Worth, Texas, next week for the NCAA championships. LSU will be in the first semifinal at 3:30 p.m. Thursday

Former LSU center Nwoko finds new home at Xavier

Former LSU starting center

Mike Nwoko found a landing sport Wednesday after entering the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-10 Nwoko is transferring to Xavier, his agent told The Advocate. He entered the transfer portal on Tuesday with a “Do Not Contact” tag.

Nwoko is the first player from LSU’s team last year to decide where he will play next season.

The junior played one year at LSU, averaging 13.4 points on 61% shooting and 5.9 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game Nwoko, who was the team’s third-leading scorer, had five 20-point games and shot 76.1% from the free-throw line, improving from 60.1% the previous season.

Prosecutors want Tiger’s prescription drug records

Prosecutors are seeking Tiger Woods’ prescription drug records from a pharmacy nearly two weeks after his vehicle crashed in Florida and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

some good hitters,” Johnson said.

“It makes it hard to win when you do that against a good team, a motivated team, a rested team.

“They took advantage of us losing the strike zone there, and that was really the difference in the game.”

The Tigers constantly shot themselves in the foot in the seventh inning, but the Wildcats earned their runs before that point.

The SWAC leaders had eight hits, including a home run and two doubles, before scoring five runs in the seventh. LSU had no walks and hit just one batter before the seventh.

“This team was in the NCAA Tournament last year,” Johnson said. “I guess they’ll be in it again (this year).”

Tuesday was another big night for Curiel and Cade Arrambide at the plate. Curiel went 3 for 5 with two RBIs, and Arrambide was 3 for 5 with a double. Their productivity helped LSU score in each of the first four innings.

Brown also produced with the stick, blasting a 388-foot home run in the sixth inning and going 2 for 4 on the day But he couldn’t come up big in the seventh when his team needed him the most.

LSU is back on the road on Friday in Oxford, Mississippi, against Ole Miss. First pitch from Swayze Field is set for 6:30 p.m., and the game will be available on SEC Network+.

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

while attempting to field a ground ball, Johnson said.

“There’s obviously another guy that’s at the end of his baseball career and wants to be able to play, too,” Johnson said. After sitting out the last two weekends with triceps soreness, right-handed pitcher Cooper Moore has started his throwing program, Johnson said. He hopes that the junior right-hander will be available in some capacity the following weekend against Texas A&M. He will not pitch against Ole Miss.

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

Prosecutors in Florida on Tuesday said they planned to issue a subpoena seeking copies of all prescription medication records for the legendary golfer on file at Lewis Pharmacy in Palm Beach, Florida, from the start of the year through the end of last month. Prosecutors in Martin County, Florida, want the times the prescriptions were filled, the number of pills, the dosage amounts and any instructions that accompanied the pills, such as warnings about driving while taking them, according to documents in an online court docket.

Braves pitcher Lopez, Angels OF Soler suspended Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler and Atlanta Braves pitcher Reynaldo López each received seven-game suspensions from Major League Baseball on Wednesday, a day after they were ejected after their participation in a brawl.

Michael Hill, the MLB senior vice president for on-field operations, also announced that the players received undisclosed fines. The suspensions were scheduled to begin with Wednesday’s game but were put on hold pending appeals from each player Soler homered off López in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game. In his next at-bat, Soler was hit by a 96 mph fastball from López.

Prolific Dodgers infielder, base stealer Lopes dies Davey Lopes, a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ record-setting infield of the 1970s and ’80s and one of baseball’s premier base stealers, died Wednesday He was 80. Lopes was a four-time All-Star during his 10 years with the Dodgers. He played in four World Series, winning the 1981 championship. He holds the franchise record for most games played at second base with 1,134. His 1,145 games batting leadoff are second in the organization to Maury Wills (1,279). Lopes established himself as one of the most prolific base stealers in baseball. He stole 418 bases as a Dodger, second-highest career total in franchise history behind

PHOTOS By PATRICK DENNIS

LSU outfielder Jake Brown slides safely into third base during the first inning as Bethune-Cookman third baseman Andrey Martinez can’t come up with the ball on Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium. The Wildcats came away with a 10-7 victory

Fears, Pels givehomefansreasontocheer

Chris Paul didn’tdoit. Neither did Anthony Davis nor Zion Williamson.

In fact, no rookie who has ever put on aNew Orleans Pelicansor Hornets uniform ever had donewhat

Rod Walker

ä Pelicans at Celtics,

6:30 P.M.

FRIDAy,GCSEN

Jeremiah Fears did Tuesday nightin the Smoothie King Center

Even Fears was shocked when he found out that the 40 points hescored in the 156-137 victory over the Utah Jazz were anew franchise record for arookie.

“For real?” Fears asked. “That’s crazy.”

Yes, Jeremiah. For real. And yes, that is crazy

But truth be told, there was plenty of craziness on this recordsetting night in the Pelicans’ home finale.We’ll gettothatlater

First things first, though.

The 40 points eclipsed the previous rookie record of 37 points set by Marcus Thornton in the200910 season. Fears was just 3years old when Thornton came off the bench and scored his 37 points in aroadlossto the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fears’ record-setting night came inamuch-needed win, snapping the Pelicans’ eight-game slide Fears shot17of29from the floor despite making just oneof his seven 3-point attempts.

“That was an impressiverun by him,” Pelicans interim coach James Borrego said. “He made just one 3-pointer.The rest,he’sat the rim all night. He had three or four finishes that were elitefinishes. At this young age to do that?

The skill, the pace, the strength to go do this is elite.” In addition to all the scoring,he alsofinished with sixassists, five rebounds and three steals. That

SAINTS

Continued from page1C

Orleans is among the most active trade partners in theNFL, and history tells us there will be wheeling and dealing during this year’s draftfrom April23-25 in Pittsburgh. Here’sacomplete historyofthe Saints’ draft-day trades under Loomis’ leadership. (Note: Only trades made during the draft are listed here.) 2003 draft

WITH ARIZONA Saints received: No. 6pick(DT Johnathan Sullivan), No. 37 (OTJon Stinchcomb),No. 102 (G Montrae Holland) Cardinals received: No. 17 pick (WR Bryant Johnson), No. 18 pick (LB Calvin Pace), No. 54pick (WR Anquan Boldin) Note: Perhaps it’s fitting that Loomis’ first trade as GM wasanaggressive move up in the first round, although the best players for both teams in this deal came later in the draft with Stinchcomb and Boldin WITH NEW ENGLAND Saints received: STebuckyJones Patriots received: No. 78 pick(flipped to Dolphins, OT Wade Smith), No.239 (LB Tully Banta-Cain) WITH SEATTLE Saints received: No. 203pick(WR Kareem Kelly) Seahawks received: DT Norman Hand 2004 draft WITH MINNESOTA

Saints received: No. 50 pick(WR Devery Henderson), No. 151 (flipped to Washington—see below) Vikings received: No. 48 pick (LB Dontarrious Thomas) WITH WASHINGTON Saints received: No. 139pick(DT RodneyLeisle), 2005 second-round pick (S Josh Bullocks) Washington received: No. 81 (TEChris Cooley), No. 151 (OTMark Wilson) WITH JACKSONVILLE Saints received: CB Jason Craft Jaguars received: No. 150pick (CBChrisThompson) WITH DALLAS Saints received: No. 156 pick (FB MikeKarney)

Cowboys received: No. 182 (flipped to Raiders, LB Cody Spencer), No. 206 (flipped to Buccaneers, WR Mark Jones) 2005 draft WITH HOUSTON

TENNIS

Continued from page1C

During the semester break, he went home to Belarus for four weeks —a time he called a“restart.” Within amonth of his return, he had wonSEC Freshman of the Week. He has won it twice this season. Arutiunian haslearned hisway around campus. He has found food he likes. He has made friends who feel like family

“Second semester,” Arutiunian said, “I feel like I’m home.” Aglobalroster

Arutiunian’sdoubles partner is senior Matias Ponce de Leon from Spain. Their pairing is ranked among the top 20 nationally Team captain Alessio Vasquez is ajunior from Berlin with family roots in Chile. He earnedsecond-

Pelicans

stat line puts him in exclusive company. Over thelast 10 years, the only other rookies to score 40 points with at least fiveassists andfive reboundsare Victor Wembanyama, AnthonyEdwards, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell andCooper Flagg. Fears nodded his head in approval and flashed abig smile as that exclusivelist wasread to him.

“That feels really good,”he said.“Those guys obviously each

Saints received: No. 13 pick (OTJammal Brown) Texans received: No. 16 (DTTravis Johnson), 2006 second-round pick (OTEricWinston)

2006 draft WITH CLEVELAND Saints received: CJeff Faine, No. 43 pick (S Roman Harper)

Browns received: No. 34 (LB D’QwellJackson)

2007 draft

WITH DETROIT

Saints received: No. 66 pick (CBUsamaYoung), No. 145 (CBDavid Jones)

Lions received: No. 58 pick (DE Ikaika AlamaFrancis)

Note: Only fourofthese38trades were the Saints tradingdowninthe draft.Thiswas themost recent. So it wouldgoagainst a 19-year trendifNew Orleans were to move back from No. 8this month.

WITH HOUSTON Saints received: No. 107 pick (RBAntonioPittman)

Texans received: No. 123 (CBFredBennett), No. 163 (OTBrandonFrye) 2008 draft

WITH NEW ENGLAND

Saints received: No. 7pick (DTSedrickEllis),No. 164 (OTCarl Nicks) Patriots received: No. 10 (LB Jerod Mayo), No. 78 (LB ShawnCrable) Note: This wasthe last time the Saints picked as highasNo. 8.

WITH DETROIT Saints received: No. 144 pick (DTDeMario Pressley) Lions received: No. 146 (FB Jerome Felton), No. 218 (S Caleb Campbell) WITH GREEN BAY Saints received: No. 237 pick (WR Adrian Arrington) Packers received: 2009 sixth-round pick (CB BrandonUnderwood) 2009 draft

WITH PHILADELPHIA Saints received: No. 164 pick (P Thomas Morstead) Eagles received: No. 222 (flipped to Colts,PPat McAfee), 2010 fifth-round pick (flippedto Dolphins,S Reshad Jones) Note: Want to impress friends with some trivia?Thomas Morstead and PatMcAfee were traded for each other (sort of)ondraft night. 2010 draft

WITH ARIZONA Saints received: No. 123 pick (DTAlWoods) Cardinals received: No.130 (DE O’Brien Schofield), No. 201 (CBJorrick Calvin) WITH JACKSONVILLE Saints received: No. 158 pick (C MattTennant) Jaguars received: 2011 fourth-round pick (S Chris Prosinski) 2011 draft

WITH NEW ENGLAND Saints received: No. 28 pick (RB MarkIngram)

team All-SEC honors last season. Freshman Olaf Pieczkowskiarrived from Polandrankedinside the ATPtop 500, and he is now rankedNo. 38 nationally in singles. Sophomore Andrej Loncarevic, who carries aFrench passport but is Serbian, is ranked No. 120. The doublespairing ofLoncarevic and Sasa Markovic —also Serbian —is rankedNo. 13 in the country Associate head coach Justin Butsch recruits players through a globalranking database —essentially cold-calling the world’sbest young talent. “Finding bettertalent getsa little easier when your ranking is high,” Butschsaid. The players came from all over because someone called. They stayed because of something hardertomeasure —asense of belonging that built slowly Findingtheir footing Arutiunian described the adjust-

sinking a3-pointeragainst the

and every night go out there and show everybody what they are capable of. They’ve done some great stuff around the league. I know they are going to continue to do their thing. That’sbig time. That’shuge.”

The elite company Fearsjoined didn’tstop there. The 19-yearold became theeighth teenager in NBA history with a40-point game. The others read like a who’swho of basketball: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony,Kevin

SAINTS EXERCISE BRESEE’S FIFTH-YEAR CONTRACT OPTION

The NewOrleans Saints picked up defensivelineman Bryan Bresee’sfifth-yearoption, asource with knowledgeofthe situation confirmed.

The move ensures that Bresee, the team’s2023 first-roundpick, will be under contractfor the 2027 season. By picking up the option, the Saints will payBresee acontractestimated north of $13 million, according to Over The Cap. NewOrleans had until Maytodecide on Bresee’sstatus but officially picked up the option Wednesday.

Bresee, 24, had only21/2 sacks last season, afive-sack drop from the 71/2 he rackedupin2024. But the Saints believe he playedbetter than his sack numbersindicate. Despite missing twogames because of an injury,Bresee played acareer-high 69% of the team’s defensivesnaps.

The Saints drafted Bresee29th overall three years agoout of Clemson.

Matthew Paras

Patriots received: No. 56 pick(RB Shane Vereen), 2012 first-round pick (flipped to Bengals, G KevinZeitler) 2012 draft No draft-daytrades Note: One reason this wasthe outlier year with no trades?The Saints didn’t have many picks to deal. They had already traded their first-rounder in the Ingram deal in 2011, and

menttothe heat,humidity andLouisianaculture in two distinctphases.The first semester was all about being homesick, overwhelmed and counting the weeks until December Butinthe secondsemester,somethingshifted. Professors started recognizing him. Fans showed up to matches On practice days, the Tigers warm up on thetennis courts not by taking turns serving but by playing soccer —shirts versus skins. They allgrewupwatchingit. Aballand agoal need no translation Arutiunian credits thesoccer ritual as part of what holds thegroup together

To further theteam’scohesion, Bryanhas the team over to his house. He andButsch,who also played tennis at LSU,gotodinner withplayers and their visiting parents. The connection to thecommunity is growing organically —through

That disappointment flipped to excitement once Fears and his teammates came out the locker room forthe second half.That’s when they started rewriting the record book.

The Pelicans set franchise records forpoints in aquarter (50 in the third), points in ahalf (95) and points in agame (156). The team got amuch deserved standing ovation at the end.

NowFears gets to take his show on the road forthe final two games of the season. The Pels play the Boston Celtics on Friday and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday

Youcan best believe Fears will play in those last twogames. He has played in all 80 games thus far, which probably shouldn’t come as asurprise. Afterall, Fears hasn’tmissed agame since his freshman year of high school when he broke his thumb. He’s been going strong since.

“I’ve been learning alot throughout the season,” Fears said. “Just trying to get better each and every game. Ithink I’ve been doing agood job with that.”

His coach would agree.

“I’m really just proud of his growth,” Borrego said. “From training camp to where he’sat today,he’staken amassive step. This franchise is in areally good place because of players like him Fantastic.”

Durant, Cliff Robinson, GG Jackson,Edwards and Flagg. Fears’ previouscareer-high was 28 points. It was clear by halftime Tuesday that he was goingtotop that. He had 20 through thefirst two quarters in agame Borrego sat most of his normalstarters.

For the home crowdwanting to see stars such as Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy and Saddiq Bey play one final home game, it was abit of adisappointment.

they had to forfeittheir second-round pick in the aftermath of Bountygate.

2013 draft

WITH N.Y.JETS

Saints received: No.106 pick (flipped to Dolphins —see below)

Jets received: RB Chris Ivory

WITH MIAMI

Saints received: No.82pick (DTJohn Jenkins)

Dolphins received: No.106 (TE Dion Sims), No. 109 (flipped to Packers, OT David Bakhtiari)

2014 draft

WITH ARIZONA Saints received: No.20pick (WR Brandin Cooks)

Cardinals received: No. 27 (S Deone Bucannon), No. 91 (WR John Brown)

2015 draft

WITH WASHINGTON Saints received: No.167 pick (CBDamian Swann) Washington received: No. 187 (WR Evan Spencer), 2016 sixth-round pick (QBNate Sudfeld)

2016 draft

WITH NEWENGLAND Saints received: No.61pick (S Vonn Bell)

Patriots received No.78(GJoe Thuney), No. 112 (WR MalcolmMitchell)

WITH WASHINGTON Saints received: No.120 pick (DTDavid Onyemata) Washington received: No. 152 (DTMatt Ioannidis), 2017 fifth-round pick (TE JeremySprinkle)

Note: The 2017 draft rightfully gets alot of attention, but the year before, the Saints took Sheldon Rankins and All-Pro receiver Michael Thomas in the first tworounds, then swung these twodeals that produced multiyear starters later in the draft. 2017 draft

WITH SAN FRANCISCO

Saints received: No.67pick (RB Alvin Kamara)

49ers received: No.229 (CBAdrian Colbert), 2018

second-roundpick (flipped to Washington, RB Derrius Guice)

Note: Akey component of perhaps the best draft in team history

2018 draft

WITH GREENBAY

Saints received: No.14pick (DE Marcus Davenport)

Packers received: No.27(flipped to Seahawks, RB Rashaad Penny), No.147 (flipped to Rams,LBMicah Kiser), 2019 first-round pick (flipped to Giants, CB DeandreBaker) 2019 draft

WITH MIAMI Saints received: No.48pick (C Erik McCoy), No. 116 (flipped to Jets —see below)

Dolphins received: No.62(flipped to Cardinals, WR Andy Isabella), No. 202 (OTIsaiah Prince), 2020 second-round pick (DTRaekwon Davis)

WITHN.Y.JETS

Fears doesn’trecall scoring this manypoints in agame recently, but he does remember a55-point performance in middle school. His career-high at Oklahomalast year was 31. None of that compares to what he did Tuesday

“It’salot to wrap my head around,” Fears said. “But it’s huge.”

Everyone in the Smoothie King Center forthe Pels’ final home gameagrees.

Email RodWalkeratrwalker@ theadvocate.com.

WITH CLEVELAND Saints received: No.74pick (LB Zack Baun), No. 244 (flipped to Vikings, see below) Browns received: No.88(DT Jordan Elliott), 2021 third-round pick (WR AnthonySchwartz) WITH MINNESOTA Saints received:

Jets received: No. 116 (flipped to Titans, S Amani Hooker), No.168 (flipped to Titans, LB D’AndreWalker) 2020 draft

Saints received: No.105 pick (S C.J. GardnerJohnson)

camps, through the complexbeingopentothe public,through the tight-knit group of dedicated fans whoshow up forall of the matches.Theysupport the playersby name. Theycheer with gusto.Occasionally,one of them invites the whole team to TopGolf.

Natalie Johnson-Ewing, alongtime Baton Rouge tennis coach, comestowatch most of their matches. She said forpeople who like to watchprofessionaltennis LSU tennis is aclose second. “This is just sucha good avenue forthem (to go pro). There are so many professionals who have come through the SEC —and people often don’tevenrealize it until they sayitonTV,”Johnson-Ewing said. Collegeformat

For fans more familiar withWimbledon than SEC tennis, the format takes amoment to grasp. Thecollege matches areplayed in what is called adual match.

The first team to reach four points wins. The match consists of adoubles point—three doubles games played simultaneously

The first school to win two of the matchesclaimsthe point. After that, sixsinglesmatches are played,eachworth apoint.The first team to four points wins the match.

TwoofLSU’smatches last month came down to the final court andfinalset

This Friday’smatch against Kentucky is the last chance to seethe team at home before the SECTournament. First serve is 5:30 p.m. at the LSU Tennis Center,across from Alex Box Stadium. Admission is free for the bleachers.

The tennis is top-tier, played by young menwho crossed oceans to get here.

In Baton Rouge, they’ve found ateam —and, slowly,aplace that feels like their own.

STAFFPHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

guardJeremiah Fears reacts after

OrlandoMagicduring the first half of agame at the Smoothie King CenteronSunday.

THE MASTERS

Scott Rabalais’ five golfers to watch in their bid to win the green jacket

Scottie Scheffler (USA)

Age: 29 Odds: +510

World ranking: 1

FedEx Cup ranking: 7

Previous Masters; best finish: 6; 1st, 2022, 2024

Off the tee: May be rusty after pre-Masters break for the birth of his second child, but has every chance to keep even numberedyear win streak going

Jon Rahm (Spain)

Age: 31 Odds: +900

World ranking: 30

LIV Golf standings: 1

Previous Masters; best finish: 9; 1st, 2023

Off the tee: Rahm has dominated LIV Golf this year, finishing second, second, first, fifth and second. Can that translate into repeat Masters success?

Rory McIlroy (No. Ireland) Age: 36 Odds: +1175

World ranking: 2

FedEx Cup ranking: 31

Previous Masters; best finish: 17; 1st, 2025

Off the tee: Uneven record since historic Masters win, and withdrawal from Arnold Palmer Invitational (back injury) is a red flag Odds of going back-to-back seem long

Xander Schauffele (USA)

Age: 32 Odds: +1750

World ranking: 10

FedEx Cup standings: 13

Masters entered; best finish: 8; T2nd, 2019

Off the tee: No wins in 2026, but strong form (third,The Players; T4, Valspar), two major titles and five Masters top 10s say his time is now.

Cameron Young (USA)

Age: 28 Odds: +2200

World ranking: 3

FedEx Cup standings: 2

Masters entered; best finish: 4; T7th, 2023

Off the tee: The Players win and three straight top 10s (T7 Genesis, T3 Arnold Palmer) suggest his odds should be better Has never really contended at Augusta, though.

Ridley supports distance rollback

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Masters chairman

Fred Ridley, himself a participant in the tournament as an amateur 50 years ago, was taken aback by the distances one of this year’s players, U.S. Amateur runner-up Jackson Herrington, can crush a golf ball.

Ridley

Notebook

“He told me that (Tuesday) he hit it over the bunker on 1 and 5, which is about a 325-yard carry and one was into the wind,”

Ridley said Wednesday during his annual news conference.

Augusta National Golf Club has added length to numerous holes in recent years, including No 5. The course now stretches to 7,565 yards from the tournament tees. But even at Augusta National, there isn’t always room for much more.

“There’s not much we can do to No. 1 unless we tear down the Eisenhower Cabin,” Ridley said, “and we’re not going to do that.”

Ridley repeated his call for golf ball distances to be reined in by the sport’s two governing bodies: the USGA and the R&A. He said that the rollback has been pushed back to 2030, but that it eventually must happen

“My feeling on this subject is failure is not an option,” Ridley said.

Ridley added that he believes a distance rollback will be “immate-

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C

After winning the 2017 Masters, Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia and his wife Angela Atkins (Drew Brees’ cousin, by the way) named their daughter Azalea. It happens to be spelled the same way in Spanish as English, which is handy, but it is also the name of Augusta National’s 13th hole. Sorry Brandel, but I have yet to see any other couple naming their child “Island Green” after the 17th at Sawgrass. And when have we seen the caddie at The Players or any other tournament, for that matter — return to the 18th green to

MASTERS

Continued from page 1C

That remains the highest singleround scoring record of any of the major championships.

“I’m surprised that it has been that long,” said Justin Rose, who has twice shot 65, including the first round last year, which he paired with a final-round 66 that put him in a playoff that he lost to Rory McIlroy Rose also has shot 81 at Augusta National, by the way

“There’s so many great players capable of putting up that number,” Rose continued, reflecting on the longstanding record ahead of this year’s tournament “I think that the course lends itself most ideally to that score on a Sunday, but also if conditions allow, Sunday is kind of when the course is getting its most sort of maxed out,

Actor Kevin Hart left, and Bryson

on Wednesday

rial” to recreational golfers. “Weekend golfers around the world will be hard-pressed to notice the effects,” he said.

Rai wins Par-3

England’s Aaron Rai won the Par-3 Contest with a 6-under 21, making him this year’s man to try to break the event’s “curse.”

Since the Par-3 Contest started in

bow to the course, as Hideki Matsuyama’s bag man Shota Hayafuji did in 2021?

That would be zero, which like Azalea is apparently spelled the same in English and Japanese.

“I don’t think there’s a more beautiful golf course on earth,” McIlroy said. “It’s like you’re playing golf in the prettiest park in the world.”

It’s not just the grounds, the surrounds and the gravitas of the tournament. It’s all the little things that make the Masters great.

There are no seat numbers at the Masters. No skyboxes looming over the 18th green. There are roars for great shots yes, and even the occasional boorish call for a ball to “Get in the hole!”

in terms of green speeds and firmness. So that kind of counteracts some of those more accessible hole locations that traditionally we see on Sunday.”

There’s reason to believe the record could be matched, or even broken. For one thing, scores keep coming down, including in the majors. Branden Grace was the first to shoot 62 when he did it at the British Open in 2017, but four have matched him in the past three years at the U.S Open and PGA Championship, where Shane Lowry and Xander Schauffele both shot 62 in 2024. Then there’s the fact that technology, physiology and just about every other “ology” have improved over the years Players have been hitting the ball farther and just as accurately, and that has forced Augusta National to continually change to keep up. Those changes are one reason,

1960, no one has ever won it and the green jacket in the same year

The Par-3 Wednesday’s low-key prelude to the pressure cooker of the Masters tournament, brought out all the feels.

Jason Kelce caddied for Akshay Bhatia and created a new taste treat by combining pimento cheese and egg salad sandwiches. Comedian Kevin Hart caddied for Bryson DeCham-

(spare me). For the most part, though, gentility reigns. Here you can set down your folding chair next to a green or tee box and come back hours later to find it in the same place. Oh, someone may have borrowed your seat for a moment, but a polite request (or a stern look from one of the everpresent security guards) sends them on their way

There are no cellphones allowed at Augusta National, no cameras except for practice days, when there are more cameras here per square foot than anywhere else on the planet. You can stand by the bend in the 13th fairway looking at the rocky ribbon of Rae’s Creek stretching off toward the 12th and 13th greens

beau

Then there was Tommy Fleetwood’s son, Frankie The 8-year-old went viral during last year’s Par-3, saying he was “trying my hardest” to hit a ball across Ike’s Pond to the ninth green. Frankie had two tries Wednesday but splashed both times. Dad had one of the day’s four holes-inone, though.

in the distance, and think what a lucky human you are.

Speaking of Earth, you can call anywhere on it from banks of free phones scattered across the course. Otherwise, you’re cut off from the normal clutter of our ever more hectic 21st century world.

Sounds nice? For at least this week, it certainly is.

Former LSU golfer Sam Burns missed an ace on the 140-yard sixth hole by a mere 3 inches, the closest shot of the day on that hole.

Scott and Scottie

Two-time Masters champion

Scottie Scheffler (2022, 2024) enters this Masters as the favorite and ranked No. 1 in the world for the fifth straight year That ties Tiger Woods’ record set from 2000-04 that he matched from 2006-10.

Scheffler’s caddie, Lafayette native Ted Scott, is seeking his fifth winning trip around Augusta National. If Scheffler wins, Scott will tie the record for most Masters wins by a caddie.

Scott caddied for Bubba Watson when he won the 2012 and 2014 Masters, the first when Watson hooked that legendary wedge shot out of the trees on 10 to win a playoff with Louis Oosthuizen Amazingly, a 15-year-old Scheffler was among the gallery next to the 10th green.

Scott said when they first got together, Scheffler used to make fun of his old truck, a Toyota with 180,000 miles on it, though Scheffler’s car was of similar vintage. “I said, ‘You talk about my car, you’ve got duct tape on the steering wheel and the handle,’ ” Scott said. “He told me when his dad took him to the Masters in ’12, their car completely died. He bought this beat-up old GMC Yukon to get home (to Dallas) and that’s what he drove.”

Scott first caddied in the Masters in 2001 for Grant Waite, returned in 2008 with Watson and has worked every Masters since.

“It feels like the fans are a little bit more engaged in the golf,” Ludvig Aberg said. “They’re a little bit more attuned to what’s going on. It feels like good golf shots are being appreciated in a different way And it’s also quite nice to just leave your phone somewhere.” Here, sandwiches cost between $1.50 and $3. An entire meal of a sandwich, bag of chips and a beer (try the Crow’s Nest) won’t set you back more than $10. Heck, you can have one of everything on the entire menu, breakfast and lunch, for $78.75. Adjusted for inflation, the concession stand prices are actually cheaper than they were at the first Masters in 1934.

“I think that’s a big thing, a lot of mid-irons into small targets Wedges into small targets. If you’re on and it’s your day, sure, you can make a lot of birdies. But you’re also going to make a bogey or two quite easily.”

JUSTIN ROSE

Rose said, that its current record still stands. Subtle alterations have taken place around greens and bunkers, but the most noticeable changes are in sheer length. The course played to 6,925 yards when Norman shot the most recent 63 It will play to 7,565 when the first round begins Thursday

“I think that’s a big thing, a lot of mid-irons into small targets. Wedges into small targets,” Rose said “If you’re on and it’s your day, sure, you can make a lot of birdies. But you’re also going to make a bogey or two quite easily.” Anthony Kim set the singleround record for birdies at the

Masters with 11 in 2009, but he also dropped enough shots to finish with a round of 65. So, birdies alone probably aren’t enough to challenge Price and Norman; it would take an eagle or two as well.

That’s possible. Four players have even eagled consecutive holes in the same round, including Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson. It just isn’t easy Nothing is at Augusta National.

“The scores are always a little higher than you think they’re going to be,” said 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman, who has just three rounds in the 60s all 69s — in 20 competitive rounds

Speaking of prices, a pass for all four tournament rounds costs $525. That’s $131.25 per day Face value. Of course, good luck getting one at face value, but we digress.

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt said it best: The Masters is one of one.

“You can’t go wrong with this place,” Akshay Bhatia said. “Everything is just top tier.” Amen (Corner), Akshay

at the Masters. “You know, when you come out here and you play, you feel like you can go shoot low numbers. It’s just not a lot of the low numbers out here

“It’s a lot more of a grind than people think.”

The second nine tends to play about a stroke more difficult than the first nine at Augusta National, thanks in part to water that comes into play through Amen Corner

But while seven players have gone out in 30, most recently Min Woo Lee in 2022, only two have come home in 29: Mark Calcavecchia in the final round in 1991 and David Toms in the final round in 1998.

In other words, it would take pairing the best first nine with the best second ever to do to break 63.

“If I want to go play the member tees and maybe play like, 15 holes,” said Koepka, a five-time major winner “yeah, I could do that.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ASHLEy LANDIS

DeChambeau line up a putt during the Par-3 Contest ahead of the Masters

at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga

Red-hot Fitzpatrick brothers commit to Zurich Classic

BY JEFF DUNCAN Staff writer

British brothers Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick will team up again in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this year, tournament officials announced Wednesday

The Fitzpatrick brothers join recent commitments Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry, Sahith Theegala, Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak, among others, in the field for the April 23-26 event at TPC of Louisiana in Avondale.

“The brothers just made history by becoming the first siblings to win on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour in consecutive weeks,” said Steve Worthy, the CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, which operates the tournament for the PGA Tour “In addition, they both have extensive team experience as well.” Now ranked sixth in the world, Matt Fitzpatrick has been one of the hottest players on the PGA

Tour He won the Valspar Championship on March 19 with a 13foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to edge out David Lipsky by a single stroke. He had started the day three strokes behind the lead. The week before that, he missed winning The Players Championship by a single stroke after starting the final round five strokes behind.

Alex Fitzpatrick won his first DP World Tour title on March 28 at the Hero Indian Open to climb to sixth on the Road to Dubai standings. The top-10 players at the end of the season on the DP World Tour earn PGA Tour cards for the next year

Matt finished his 2025 season strong, with four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, highlighted by back-to-back T4 finishes at the Scottish Open and British Open. That record earned him a captain’s pick on the European Ryder Cup team, where he posted

a 2-1-1 record for the victorious side at Bethpage Black in New York. He closed out his 2025 season with a win at the DP World Tour Championship, defeating Rory McIlroy on the first hole of a suddendeath playoff. It was Fitzpatrick’s third DP World Championship title.

Matt won the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he also won the 2013 U.S. Amateur Alex is enjoying his best season ever on the DP World Tour In addition to his first DP World Tour win at the Hero Indian Open, he has posted four top-20 finishes, including a tie for sixth in the Joburg Open at the beginning of March. He stands sixth in the Road to Dubai European rankings. Last year, his best finish was a tie for third in the DP World India Championship to go with two other top-10 scores.

SCOREBOARD

HBP—Detmers (Baldwin). Umpires—Home, Vic Carapazza; First, Nic Lentz; Second, Hunter Wendelstedt; Third, Edwin Moscoso. T—2:45. A—21,375 (45,517).

UTAH (137)

6-10 0-0 12, Williams 8-17 3-4 19, Filipowski 3-9 2-2 9, Mbeng 12-18 1-2 26, Sensabaugh 6-17 4-4 18, Hinson 3-7 2-2 10, Chandler 11-18 7-8 31, Konchar 4-8 2-2 12. Totals 53-104 21-24 137. NEW ORLEANS (156) Peavy 9-13 0-0 20, Queen 6-9 5-6 17, Looney 2-4 2-2 7, Fears 17-29 5-5 40, Poole 12-23 3-4 34, Dickinson 0-2 2-2 2, Oduro 4-7 1-2 9, Alexander 0-3 2-2 2, Hawkins 11-16 0-0 25. Totals 61-106 20-23 156. Utah34352741137 New Orleans24375045—156

3-Point Goals—Utah 10-32 (Chandler 2-3, Konchar 2-3, Hinson 2-5, Sensabaugh 2-8, Filipowski 1-4, Mbeng 1-4, Williams 0-5) New Orleans 14-34 (Poole 7-16, Hawkins 3-5, Peavy 2-3, Looney 1-2, Fears 1-7, Dickinson 0-1). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Utah 41 (Konchar 10), New Orleans 48 (Looney Queen 12). Assists—Utah 38 (Konchar 10) New Orleans 33 (Queen 7). Total Fouls—Utah 18, New Orleans 18. College baseball

State scores, schedule

Tuesday’s games Southern Miss 3, UNO 2 Southeastern 16, LSU-Alexandria 3 Lamar 9, Tulane 5 Bethune-Cookman 10, LSU 7 Wednesday’s games Southeastern 7, UL 6 Northwestern State 9, Southern 3 Friday’s games Southern Miss at UL, 6 p.m. Lamar at Nicholls, 6 p.m. Southern at Grambling, 6 p.m. Texas A&M-CC at Southeastern, 6 p.m. UNO at Illinois, 6 p.m. East Carolina at Tulane, 6:30 p.m. LSU at Ole Miss, 6:30 p.m.

College softball

State scores, schedule Tuesday’s

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick celebrate after completing the third round of the Zurich Classic on April 22, 2023, at TPC Louisiana in Avondale.

Live Oak’s Dylan Rockett, shown squatting set state records in all three lifts at the state powerlifting meet on March 28. Competing in the 181-pound class, Rockett squatted 675 pounds, bench pressed 480 and deadlifted 675 to set records in all three lifts.

Live Oak’s Rockett shatters state powerlifting records

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

For six months, Live Oak powerlifter Dylan Rockett woke up every day thinking about one thing: setting the state record for the 181-pound class.

On Feb. 21, the senior set three state records with a deadlift of 645 pounds, a bench press of 470 pounds, and a total of 1,815 pounds. He surpassed the record of 1,810 pounds, set by West Monroe’s Christian Dunn. He dominated the competition, and with a state meet still in his sights, Rockett’s focus narrowed from outside competition to trying to break his own records.

At the state meet on March 28, Rockett left no doubt. He squatted 675 pounds for his third state record He also benched 480 pounds and deadlifted 675 pounds to set records in all three categories

His total of 1,820 pounds broke his own record and was 240 pounds better than second place in his weight class. Rockett capped his high school career with two individual state titles He lifted more than any athlete across all weight classes and classifications at the state meet. His dominance in the sport comes from a passion for the sport.

“I love powerlifting,” Live Oak coach Cash Littlefield said “Dylan is obsessed with powerlifting ” First lifts

Rockett was working out over the summer for football as an eighth grader when he met then-senior Landon Wall, who introduced him to the sport

“I always loved working out,” Rockett said “I started working out for football. I started liking working out more than playing football.”

He then decided to trade in his helmet and pads for barbells and a lifting belt.

He benched 315 pounds in the 165-pound weight class in his first year to qualify for the state meet Littlefield saw the talent Rockett possessed and thought he had the potential to become a state champion. What his coach didn’t foresee was how far Rockett would take it.

In Rockett’s freshman year, Littlefield showed him the state records for the 181-pound weight class, one of the most competitive classes in the sport.

Rockett never forgot those numbers When he broke the 1,810 total at the regional meet, he made sure to remind his coach as they made it official at the scorer’s table.

“ ‘Hey, remember when you told me that this was

the most impressive record in the record books?’ ”

Littlefield recalled Rockett asking him. “I was like, ‘yeah, buddy, I remember that conversation.’

After the state meet, Rockett looked back at his accomplishments with pride.

“It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time, since I was a freshman,” Rockett said. “It’s pretty cool to be able to break those in three years of work and break the ones that I used to look at the most.”

Love for lifting

Rockett loves the hard work the sport involves. While it began by working on improving himself, he said he almost enjoys helping his teammates more.

“(Powerlifting) personally changed my life completely,” Rockett said. “You do feel a lot more confident. You just feel better about yourself overall.”

Now, he wants to help change the lives around him through the sport. He offers personal coaching and plans to return to Live Oak next year as an assistant coach.

“It’s honestly been more enjoyable to help the other people,” Rockett said. “Just to help them reach the goals that I also want to reach and put the spark in some of the other people.”

Zachary boys coach McClinton, senior Raymond get top honors

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

The Baton Rouge area was well represented on the LSWA Class 5A all-state teams released Wednesday On the boys side, Zachary coach Jonathan McClinton was named Coach of the Year after leading his team to a second straight state title and a 33-4 record.

Broncos guard Ian Edmond earned first-team honors. He averaged 19.7 points, three steals, three assists and three rebounds. He was named outstanding player in the title game victory On the girls side, Zachary senior Ava Raymond was named outstanding player She averaged 17.4 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists. Raymond was the lone returning starter to the Broncos and helped lead them to a second straight state title. She scored the game-winning basket against Slidell in the championship game.

Prairieville senior Rhian Comery also earned a spot on the first team. She averaged 22.9 points, 13.6 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.1 assists. Comery tallied 13 doubledoubles, including four games with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. She helped lead the Hurricanes to a semifinal appearance in the program’s second year

LSWA 5A ALL-STATE BASKETBALL TEAMS

Southern trying to turn around slow SWAC start

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

The Southern baseball team isn’t satisfied. Coach Chris Crenshaw’s team entered the season with the expectation to compete for a Southwestern Athletic Conference title. After a nonconference loss Wednesday at Northwestern State, Southern (11-20, 5-7 SWAC) sits in a threeway tie for seventh place in the SWAC and has the same conference record it did last year at the same point

Doing better on the mound is the simplest way for the Jaguars to improve their SWAC standing starting against Grambling (1120, 8-4) at 6 p.m. Friday at R.W.E. Jones Park.

“We show flashes,” Crenshaw said of his pitching “We just got to be more consistent with doing it on the mound. I think once we do it more consistently on the mound, it’ll ease the stress on the hitters to go out and try to put something up every time.”

Southern has allowed the second-most home runs (34) and fifth-most walks (199) in the conference. Other than senior Bobby Spencer, Southern has had a hard time finding pitchers to deliver quality innings and take advantage of a strong defense. The Jaguars are first in fielding percentage (.966) and have the fewest errors (34) in the SWAC.

Of the Jaguars’ first four SWAC series, two have been against some of the SWAC’s stronger teams: Texas Southern and reigning conference champion Bethune-Cookman, who are tied for first in the conference. Most recently, Southern lost two of three games to a Bethune-Cookman

take the good with the bad.” The lumps have hurt more since the power hitting Southern enjoyed last season has faded. While the Jaguars are fifth in batting average (.273) and fourth in doubles (50) in the SWAC, they are second-to-last in home runs (10).

g player: Ahmad Hudson, Ruston

Coach of the Year: Jonathan McClinton, Zachary Honorable mention: Jayden Austin, Neville; Jordan Bedford, Covington; Jerry Birdlow, Slidell; Ja’Vardes Brazile, St. Augustine; Braylon Carter, Barbe; Jude Chamberlain, Catholic; Cole Doucet, Sulphur; Kaden Downing, Hahnville; Hudson Gautreaux, Thibodaux; Da’Sean Golmond, Denham Springs; Kingston Jarrell, Woodlawn-Baton Rouge; Jace Johnson Terrebonne; LeSean Jones, Covington; Ethan Kimmie, Zachary; Zach LaGraize, Jesuit; Jordan Magee, Live Oak; Noah McDaniel, Brother Martin; KeShun Malcolm, Ruston; Thomas Molette, Bonnabel; Ronald Navarre, Rummel; Amod Randolph, Thibodaux; DJ Schonberg, St. Amant; Jayden Simmons, Scotlandville; Tyrie Spencer, Northshore; Jonnie Walker, John Curtis; Trevez Walker, Destrehan; Justin Ward, H.L. Bourgeois; Kevin White, Airline; Roger Williams, Northshore.

g player: Ava Raymond, Zachary

: Jayla

Avrard, Chapelle; Skylar Branch, Haughton; Shiloh

Shreve; Jayla Carmouche, Acadiana; Urijah Carmouche, Southside; A’myja Clark, Terrebonne; McKenna Cooley, Ouachita; Kaylie Dupree, Huntington; Jaelynn Elliott, Slidell; Joy Fisher, Neville; Trista Gallien Slidell; Harmony Howard, Destrehan; Brooklyn Jefferson, Minden, Maryah Joseph, Riverdale; Akayla McMooian, Salmen; Kennedy Mahoney, Terrebonne; Davelyn Richard, Barbe; Makayla Rogers, Northwood; Deon’ce Theriot, Thibodaux; Kendal Thomas, Salmen; Jayla Thompson, H.L. Bourgeois; Skylar Washington, Scotlandville; Kameya West-Robinson, Neville; Londyn White, Terrebonne; Lauren Williams, Sam Houston; Markayla Williams, West Monroe; Kearra Wilson Ruston.

team that knocked off LSU 10-7 on Tuesday at Alex Box Stadium.

“We played a really tough schedule, and the teams we played against are doing good,” Crenshaw said. “They’re rolling, and like I said, we just had to regroup and get our confidence so we can get going.”

Southern also has had to deal with injuries, including senior infielder Jaylon Lucky (knee), redshirt freshman outfielder Omari Johnson (wrist), redshirt freshman infielder Tyrin Kirklin (hamstring), sophomore pitcher Caiden Stewart (arm) and others who’ve been playing at less than full strength, Crenshaw said.

In its last series against Bethune-Cookman, sophomore infielder Brant Stewart, who leads the team with a .405 batting average, injured his wrist and may be unavailable against Grambling this weekend.

“We’re talking about some frontline guys not being available or playing at 50 to 70 percent,” Crenshaw said. “When you don’t have your guys, and you got to use the guys that was supposed to watch and learn have to step in and play, you

Crenshaw still has faith in the group because of the recent uptick in performance. Southern had a 6-1 advantage after the top of the third inning against LSU before losing 16-6. Sophomore catcher Xavier Bradley has a .309 batting average and has been a steady presence behind the plate.

Crenshaw said Florida International transfer Ryan Hunter, a junior outfielder, also has been rounding into form after a slow start.

“We’re talking about a guy that was hitting .180 four weeks ago. He’s back to .287,” Crenshaw said of Hunter “I think with him being able to play every day, he’s made some mature jumps in what he could do offensively and defensively.”

Hunter’s 21 RBIs are tied for the most on the team along with senior outfielder Kameron Byrd, senior infielder K.J. White and Lucky Southern still can flip the script on the season with 18 SWAC games left before the postseason. “We haven’t caught many breaks, I can say that,” Crenshaw said. “In this game, when you don’t catch many breaks, you can get buried. But when you catch breaks, and you have luck, it comes from the preparation that you put in and understanding that you put in the work to put yourself in a situation to have some luck.”

Getting 3great meals from two chickens

BY BETH DOOLEY Tribune News Service (TNS)

More than the sum of itsjuicy meat and crispy skin, agood roast chicken is all about those luscious pan juices.

Whether you choosetoroast the bird yourself or pick up agrocery store’srotisserie chicken, these juices —golden, sticky,salty— inspire sauces, soups andrice bowls, and provide an excuse to mop your plate with ahunkof sourdough bread.

As we march into spring, Icherishunfussy recipes that look after themselves. As the ingredients work their magic in the oven,I can focus on the changingseasons —cleaning, organizingand eventuallypreppingthe garden. It makes sense to roasttwo birds at once. The first for dinner and lunch the next day; the secondto use for three or more entirely different meals down the road

Over the years, I’ve roasted many chickens many different ways Every cookbook offers adifferent method, each claiming to be the best: start the bird in a hotoven upside down; poach it first before roasting; use low,low heat for along, long time (3 to 4 hours). But the method Irely on now sticks to the basics.

TNS PHOTO By RADU DUMITRESCU

Aroast chicken can providethe basics for dinners allweek

First, choose agood chicken (organic and free range), then salt and pepper it inside and outand set it in the refrigerator to brine overnight. This draws up moisture, adds taste, and helps ensure crisp skin. Bring the chicken to roomtemperature before roasting. Rub it all overwith lots of butter (it is about the butter).Set the chicken in the pan withseveral cloves of garlicand potatoes, the essential accompaniment —they’ll emerge wrinkled and richly seasoned. Whether or not to basteremains up for debate. With enough butter, there is truly no need, butbastingoccasionally helps keep the meat succulent, the skin crackly brown. Afew lemon slices over thebreast make anice touch. Be sure to allow the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes before carving so the juices retreat into the meat. Let’sagree that agood rotisserie chicken is afine option when long on hunger and shortontime. Why not pick up two? The small amount of pan juices thatcollect on the bottom of the packageare dark, thick, gooey and worthsaving. Set the chicken in aroasting pan, add the pan juices, andtop it with afew lemon slices before rewarming in amoderate oven. I’veserved this at adinner party without admitting that Ihadn’t roasted the bird myself. No one complained. That second roast chicken provides the basics for dinners the rest of the week; all you need are afew key pantry staples anda little imagination.

FESTIVE FIXINGS

In New Orleans, there are certain rituals that mark thepassage from childhood to something deeper,your first Mardi Gras parade where you truly understand themusic, your first taste of your grandmother’s gumbo made just right,your first pilgrimage to the New OrleansJazz &Heritage Festival.

For13-year-old me in 1974, that rite of passage came during eighthgrade at Our Lady of Lourdes, when the entire class embarked on what seemed like an unlikely field trip for aCatholic

BY LINDAGASSENHEIMER Tribune News Service (TNS)

school: aday at the racetrack. The irony wasn’tlost on me andmyclassmates, Edward Valteau, Pat Dwyer, TimothyHughes, Shawn Lewis,Freddy Costello, Kathleen Turner,Angela Hayes, Denise Green, John Williamson, Toni Venable and others. As we walked through thegates of the Fair Grounds Race Course

—chaperoned by parents, Coach Williamsand the ever-watchful Sister Edmund —wecouldn’thelp but exchange knowing glances.

ACatholic school taking students to aracetrack? It seemed deliciously rebellious, even if the nuns were right there with us. But this wasn’tabout gambling or horses. This was about something farmore important to the soul of New Orleans: the preservation and celebration of aculture that runs through the city’s veins like the Mississippi River itself.The teachers explained that this festival, still in its infancy,had started just four years earlier in 1970. In the inaugural year,a mere350 people attended nearly half weremusicians.

TNS PHOTO By LINDAGASSENHEIMER Pork Chops Basque StylewithSpaghetti and Peas

PHOTO By MONICA BELTON

Hot sausage po-boy with pickles and chips

Bring home ataste of Jazz Fest by making amangofreezeathome.

JAZZ FEST

Continued from page1D

It was ahumble beginning for what would become one of the world’smost important cultural celebrations.

The festival had moved from the Municipal Auditorium in what is nowArmstrong Park, but by 1972, it had found its home at the Fair Grounds Race Course, the third-oldest racetrack in America, operating since 1872. There was something poetic aboutthat, new culture taking root on historic ground.

As our class of eighth graders walked around the festival grounds, the city revealed itself in new ways. We heard alittle bit of jazz, the music that gave the festival its name with its complex improvisations and soulful horns. We caught snippets of blues, raw and honest, telling stories of struggle and resilience. And we experienced gospel, which felt familiar from church but somehow different at Jazz Fest, more joyful, more free, more con-

Hot Sausage Po-boy

Serves 4.

nected to theearth beneath ourfeet than theheaven above.

This was the New Orleans Jazz &HeritageFestival in its truest form: not just entertainment, buteducation.Not just performance, but preservation.The city had alwaysbeen filledwith music,food and arts, a gumbo ofcultures stirred together by French,Spanish, African,Caribbean and American influences. But in the modern age, there was afear that this unique heritage mightfade, might be forgotten,might be drowned out by the homogenizingforces of television and mass culture.

That’swhy the festival existed,the teachers told us. It was away to share New Orleans culture with theworld,yes, butmore importantly,it was away to share it with young New Orleanians to pass thetorch to thenext generation. My classmates andI weren’t just attendinga concert; we were being initiated into our birthright as children of ourextraordinary city.Walking among the crowds that day,I don’t thinkIfully graspedthe

4-6 hot sausagelinks, split in halflengthwise

2tablespoons neutral oil

4pistolettes

4small Roma tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inchthick

16 dill pickle slices

1head lettuce, shredded Mayonnaise and Creole mustard, if desired

Heatoven to 350degrees.

1. Slice each loaf of bread in half, lengthwise,then place in the oven directlyonthe

MangoFreeze recipe

Serves6

4cups frozen mangopieces

1 1/2 cupswhole milk yogurt

6tablespoons powdered sugaroragave nectar

1/2 teaspoons fresh lime zest

PHOTO By MONICA BELTON

significance of what was happening. Icouldn’tknow that this festival would grow from that modest gathering intoanevent drawing hundreds of thousands of people annually.I couldn’tpredict that Jazz Festwould become synonymous with New Orleans itself, as essential to the city’sidentityasbeignets and streetcars. ButIfelt something. In themusic floating across theinfield, in thesmell of food cooking, in thesight of Sister Edmund tapping her foot to ablues number, Ifelt the heartbeat of my city.And that feeling, that connection to my place and my culture and my community, that was the real rite of passage.

Kevin Belton is resident chef of WWL-TV and has taught classes in Louisiana cooking for 30 years. The most recent of his four cookbooks, “KevinBelton’sCookin’ Louisiana: Flavors from the Parishesofthe Pelican State,” waspublished in 2021. EmailChef at chefkevinbelton@gmail. com.

grates. Toast until crispy and warm, about 3minutes

2. Addoil to alarge skillet over mediumhigh heat.When oil is hot,add sausages cut-sidedown and sear for 5minutes,or until goldenbrown. Flip all sausages and sear on theother side for 3minutes. Sausages should be golden brown and heated through.

3. Add2sausage halves to each bottom slice of bread, then addlettuce, tomatoes and pickles. Coat top slice with mayonnaise, andCreole mustard, if desired, then cutsandwich in half.

1. Combine all ingredients in ahighspeed blender or food processor,blending until smooth

2. Pour into acontainer and freeze for 1-2 hours until firm. Serve: Scoop intobowls or cones.

Anotherday at the‘XYZ’ factory

Dear Miss Manners: Iwork around machinerythat features rotating plastic molds. While not common, the molds occasionallycatch on aperson’sclothing and damage the zipper of one’spants. When that occurs,it is impossible to rezip the pants and the person has to replace the zipper when they get home. If Ihappen to spot one of my co-workers with an open fly,doIsubtly directtheir attention to it in case it is just unzipped? This risks embarrassing them if it is damaged and there is nothing that can be done about it.OrdoIsay nothing, which risks them getting more embarrassed later,when they realize they have been working all day with their fly down?

Miss Mannerstherefore recommendsissuing thewarning,after giving consideration to such delicacies as gender,familiarity, rank andany nearby sharp objects.

evening. After all, this is about the bride and groom, not us. What are your thoughts?

CHICKEN

Continuedfrom page1D

Tostadas

For each tostada, pile 1/4 cup shredded meat onto adeep-fried tortilla, add 1/4 cup sliced red peppers and 1/4 cup shredded queso fresco or mozzarella. Drizzle on any remaining pan juices and run the tostadaunder thebroiler until the cheese is melty,about 2to4minutes. Serve garnished withplentyofchopped cilantro; add afew lime wedges on the side.

Rice bowl

In aheavy pot, heat 2to3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil over high heat, add 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1/4 cup chopped parsley 1/4 cup diced yellow peppers, 1 cup cherry tomatoes,and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the toma-

Roast Chicken

Makes one roast chicken for 4to6 people. Recipeisfrom Beth Dooley.This mealwill keep on giving for the next day or two. Why not roast two chickens while you’re at it? Be sure to roast potatoes alongside for aone-pot meal. The secret?

Butter,and lotsofit

1largechicken (about 3to5pounds)

Saltand freshly ground black pepper

6tablespoons unsalted butter

1pound YukonGold or red potatoes, cut into 1/2inch pieces

5to6clovesgarlic

3to4lemon slices

1. Removeand discard thebag with chicken parts. Season thechicken inside and out withlots of coarse salt and

PORKCHOPS

Continuedfrom page 1D

Pork Chops Basque Style

Yields 2servings. Recipe is by Linda Gassenheimer

2teaspoons olive oil

3/4 pound boneless pork loin chops

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 cup frozen chopped onion

1/2 cup slicedgreen bell pepper

1/2 cup slicedred bellpepper

1/2 cup cubed plum tomatoes

1/4 cup chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1. Heat oil in askillet over mediumhigh heat and add the pork chops. Cook 3 minutes tobrown on one side. Turn chops over and cook another 3minutes. Remove chops to aplate.

2. Addthe garlic, onion and bell peppers to theskillet.Cook, stirring, 1minute.

3. Addthe tomatoes,chicken broth and thyme. Bringittoasimmer and return thepork chops to theskillet. Cover with a lid and simmer 4to5minutes. Do not boil. Ameat thermometer should read 145 F.

4. Place pork chops on two plates and

By The Associated Press

Today is Thursday,April 9, the 99th day of 2026. There are 266 days left in theyear

toes are blistered and shriveled and the peppers have softened, about 3to5minutes. Stir in any remaining pan juices and 1cup chicken stock or moreasneeded, 1 cup shredded chicken meat,and season with 1to2teaspoons za’atar seasoning and 1to2tablespoons lemon juice, to taste. Stir in 2cups cooked white rice. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Chickenstock

Save the bones from your chicken, put them into apot, add enough cold water to cover by 1inch, add half an onion, 1 carrot, 1stalk celery,1bay leaf and any remaining pan juices. Set the pot over high heat, bring to aboil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the stock is reduced and tasty,about 3hours. Remove and discard the bones and vegetables. Strain and transfer to acovered container.Cool, cover and store in the refrigerator foruptoaweek or freeze.

freshly ground pepper.Set on aplate and refrigerate uncovered overnight. Bring the chicken to room temperature before roasting.

2. Preheat the oven to 450F.Set the chicken, breastside up, in aroasting pan andsurround it with the potatoes and garlic.Rub the chicken with the butter, tucking some of it up underthe breast skin.

3. Roast undisturbed forhalf an hour

Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees; lay the lemon slices on the chicken breast and continue roasting, occasionally basting with the pan juices, until the thigh juices run clear when poked and adigital thermometer registers 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh. Allow the chicken to rest forabout 15 minutes before serving with the potatoes and plenty of pan juices.

spoon vegetables and sauce over the chops. Nutrition infoper serving: 289 calories (31% from fat), 10.0 gfat (2.1 gsaturated, 3.8 gmonounsaturated), 96 mg cholesterol, 42.2 gprotein, 8.5 gcarbohydrates, 2.2 gfiber,160 mg sodium

Spaghetti and Peas

Yields 2servings. Recipe is by Linda Gassenheimer

3ouncesspaghetti 1cup frozenpeas

1tablespoon olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring alarge saucepan three-fourths filled with water to aboil. Add the spaghetti and boil 9minutes.

2. Add the peas to the boiling water and cook 1minute. Remove 2tablespoons of the pasta water to abowl.

3. Drain the spaghetti and peas and add to the bowl. Toss with the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with the pork. Nutrition infoper serving: 248 calories (28% from fat), 7.6 gfat (0.7 gsaturated, 4.4 gmonounsaturated), no cholesterol, 7.6 gprotein, 37.1 gcarbohydrates, 3.6 g fiber,5mgsodium.

TODAYINHISTORY

In 1940, during World WarII, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway

In 1942, during World WarII, some 75,000Philippine andAmerican soldiers surrenderedto Japanesetroops, ending the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines. The prisonersweresubsequently forced to march 65 miles to POW campsinwhatis nowknown as the Bataan Death March; thousands diedorwerekilled en route

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Gentle Reader: Doesanyone in such cases —whether the zipper is broken or merely unruly —really decide that the best course of action is to walk around the rest of the day hoping no one will notice? Surely not. There are such things as safety pins, and bathrooms where they can be applied without risking more thanpsychological damage.

Dear Miss Manners: Oneofthe rules my daughter has for her wedding in her opinion, to prevent chaos and trouble —isthatif aperson wants to bring a plus-one,they havetohave beentogether for at least ayear.Plus, she wants to meet the guest first,preferably over lunch or dinner Her mother andIare recently divorced,but we still get along (betterthan when we were married). Her sister is single, andher brotherisbringing hishusband oftwo years. My daughter hasimplemented this rule on all guests,including close family.Mygirlfriend of several months, therefore, cannot attend,nor can my ex’s boyfriend. The bride’ssiblings (my son andother daughter) think that their mom andI should each be allowed to bring ourrespective dates. All of us are 50-plus, andwe feel we can behave for the

GentleReader: We can agree that etiquette rules are meanttoprevent trouble. Butyour daughter’srule, in addition to being arbitrary, fails to meet that basic goal. She is hoping, understandably,toguard against strangers coming as casual dates, but is she really going to exclude someone’s lawful spouse because the wedding was too recent? Or because themeet-and-greet lunch fell through? And even if we establish arule for thirdcousin Oswald, whom no one likes anyway, Miss Manners fails to see thesense in applying it to thepartners of thebride’s parentsorsiblings. Given thateveryone else is keeping theirheads,perhaps you and your ex-wife can approach your daughter together.Ask for special dispensation for thepartners of all the immediatefamily membersbecauseyou know it would mean so much to everyone to be there. Plus, you promise not to tellthe other guests you aregetting special treatment Email dearmissmanners@ gmail.com.

Todayinhistory: On April 9, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union Lt. Gen.Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. (Remaining Confederate units elsewhere would formally surrender by early June of 1865, closing out the bloodiest conflict on American soil without further major combat.)

Also on this date: In 1939, Marian Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,D.C., after the Black singer was denied theuse of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of theAmerican Revolution.

In 1959, NASA introduced the “Mercury Seven,” its first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter,Gordon Cooper,John Glenn, GusGrissom,Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald “Deke” Slayton.

In 2003, Baghdad fell to American troops during the Iraq Warafter six days of fighting. In 2005, Britain’sPrince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, whotook the title Duchess of Cornwall.

Today’sBirthdays: Actor Michael Learned is 87. Drummer Steve Gaddis 81. Actor Dennis Quaid is 72. Fashion designer Marc Jacobs is 63. Model-actor Paulina Porizkova is 61. Actor Cynthia Nixon is 60. Actor Keshia Knight Pulliam is 47. Actor Jay Baruchel is 44. Actor Leighton Meester is 40. Singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan is 39. Actor Kristen Stewart is 36. Actor Elle Fanning is 28. Rapper Lil NasX is 27. Actor Isaac Hempstead Wright is 27. Singer Jackie Evancho is 25.

In 1968, funerals, private and public, were held for the Rev.Martin Luther King Jr.atthe Ebenezer Baptist Church and at Morehouse College in Atlanta, five days after the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Getgoodportion controlwitha tin

Hints from Heloise

Dear Heloise: Portion sizes used to get out of hand in my kitchen until Iput a muffin tintouse in anew way.Instead of guessing or overfilling bowls, I now divide snacks into each cup, which creates instant portion controlwithout any measuring tools.Nuts, cut fruit, crackersand vegetables stayneatly separated, making it much easier to stay

mindful of how muchyou eat. This method has also been especially helpful for children since portions are clearly visible and snack time feels more engaging. During meal prep, ingredients stay organized and ready to grab, whichsaves time when cooking begins. —Danielle V.,inSan Diego

Smartappliances

Dear Heloise: Many people praise energy-efficient appliances, but some find that the new technology doesn’t always work as expected. Modern washing machines

use sensors to set water levels and cycles. This saves energy,but some loads still comeout with detergent residue or aren’t fully clean. So, this means that you should adjust your washer’ssettings. Use a larger load or an extrarinse cycle to remove detergent and improve cleaning. Experiment to find what works. Clean clothes and energy efficiency matter! Know your machine’s features. —Sarah, via email Send ahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Put more pressure on what matters most, and resolve issues of concern before it's too late. Procrastinating will lead to regret; do your due diligence and forgo setbacks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Tidy up any loose ends before starting something new. Show your appreciation and gratitude. How you present yourself, your image and your concerns will captivate someone in a position to help you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Check into how you can make a difference, and start the ball rolling. It's up to you to bring about change. Stop procrastinating and start doing. Put your energy into research, detail and presentation.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Expand your interests, and you'll connect with people who can enrich your life. Opportunities are apparent, but so is exaggeration. Question any offer that's not realistic.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Stretch your legs, participate in events that address your concerns and make a difference. Your discipline and original ideas will help position you for leadership.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept 22) You're in the zone and ready to make a change. Refuse to let what others do or say stand in your way. Avoid those offering the impossible and eager to take advantage of you.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) You can dream all you want, but when reality sets in, realism is what counts. Monitor your cash, reactions and relationships carefully.

Put your emotions aside, and keep your mind on delivering what you promise.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) An open mind and a willingness to compromise will help. If you take an offensive position, you'll meet with similar opposition. Embrace meaningful relationships, and sparks will fly.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec 21) Put yourself first. Invest more time and effort in yourself, your surroundings and your future. Overspending on expensive procedures or entertainment unnecessarily will have a negative impact on your life.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Letting emotions dictate conversations will lead to misunderstandings. Be very concise regarding what you want and expect in return. Pay attention to how you look, live and love.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Monitor how you earn or delegate your money carefully. A wrong decision can leave you in debt. A lifestyle change will require plenty of planning, energy and ingenuity.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Stretch your mind, your body and your soul by being true to yourself. Look for activities that encourage strength, good health and a chance to make new friends with people who share your goals.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact © 2026 by NEA Inc dist By Andrews McMeel Syndication

FAMILY CIrCUS

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

FrAnK And erneSt SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

bIG nAte

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudokuis anumber-placingpuzzle based on a9x9 gridwith severalgiven numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers1 to 9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column andeach3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s PuzzleAnswer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Ernie Harwell, who called the play-byplay for the Detroit Tigers for42years, said,“Everybody in the minor leagues —ifyou’reaplayer,anannouncer,whatever —wants to be in thebig leagues.” At the bridge table,whenwesee along minor suit, we probably wish it were a major suit. Thegamerevolves around majors and no-trump, notminors. However,whenwehave along minor, we must make the best pitchwecan In yesterday’sdeal, openerstarted with one no-trump and responder had a weak hand with alongmajor. He bailed out of no-trump into his long suit via a transfer bid. Today, the responderhas alongminor. What should he do?

Ibelieve everyone should use transfers into the majors, but only take up transfers into the minors with regular partners. (If you would like to learn about these transfers, go to my website: phillipalderbridge.com.)

If you do not use minor-suit transfers, the best way to sign off in aminor is by immediately jumping to three of your long suit, which must contain at least six cards —asintoday’s deal.

If you use minor-suit transfers, follow your partnership methods. And note that one no-trump ought to fail. How should South plan the play in three diamonds after West leadsthe heart jack? Declarerstarts withtwo losers in themajors andatleast onetrump loser.

Hisbasicplanshouldbetoleadtrumps toward his hand, up to his honors, and to take club finesses when in his hand. Here, he will loseone spade, one heart andtwo diamonds to makehis contract.

©2026 by NEA, Inc dist.ByAndrews

McMeel Syndication

Each Wuzzle is awordriddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. Forexample: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previousanswers:

word game

InsTRucTIons: 1. Words mustbeoffour or moreletters.2.Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats”or“dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional wordsmadebyadding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicitwordsare not allowed.

ToDAY’s WoRD EPIsoDIc: ep-ih-SOD-ik:Occurring at usually irregular intervals.

Average mark 21 words

Time limit 25 minutes

Can you find 25 or more wordsinEPISODIC?

YEsTERDAY’s WoRD —AGGREssoR

wuzzles

loCKhorNs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar thehorriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles