The Acadiana Advocate 04-13-2026 by The Advocate

GLEAM TEAM

Ambassadors beautify downtown Lafayette for residents, tourists

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

For the past year, a team of roving, blue-shirted ambassadors have been a visible presence in downtown Lafayette, picking up trash, bagging leaves and cleaning grafﬁti.

The goal is to present clean, welcoming streets for downtown visitors and residents who descend on the neighborhood for its restaurants, shopping, nightlife and festivals. Festival International de

After

BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer

On a Friday in January at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport,

Louisiane is coming up in less than two weeks, and the Downtown Ambassador Program, operated by Block by Block and supported by the Downtown Development Authority and the Downtown Economic Development District, will be right there in the mix.

The majority of cleanup for the ﬁveday event is managed with Festival volunteers, but the four-person ambassador team will split day and night shifts to support the crews and keep an eye on problem areas, according to Downtown

Lafayette CEO Kevin Blanchard.

However, their role goes beyond cleanup and litter management, said ambassador team member Andrew Tucker On March 8, Tucker was pulling weeds from sidewalk cracks in Parc de Lafayette, a tucked-away area popular with vendors and attendees looking for a place to sit and eat.

“One of our main priorities is to go around and help people with finding

BY MUNIR AHMED, JOSH BOAK, SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

ISLAMABAD President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would swiftly begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement U.S. Central Command announced that it will blockade all Iranian ports beginning Monday at 9 a.m. CENTCOM said the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.” It said it would still allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Trump wants to weaken Iran’s key leverage in the war after demanding that it reopen the strait to all global traffic on the waterway that was responsible for 20% of global oil shipping before fighting began. Traffic in the strait has been limited even in the days since the ceasefire. Marine trackers say over 40 commercial ships have crossed since the start of the ceasefire. A U.S. blockade could further rattle global energy markets.

Oil prices rose in early market trading on Sunday after the blockade announcement. The price of U.S. crude rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel

Ceasefire talks end without agreement ä See BLOCKADE, page 4A

Bonnet Carre Spillway openings scrutinized

BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer

It has protected the New Orleans area from Mississippi River flooding for nearly a century but changing conditions, environmental damage and new scientific analysis are raising a thorny question: Is there a better way to operate the Bonnet Carre Spillway? Mississippi Gulf Coast communities hit hard by the influx of fresh water and pollution from recent spillway openings believe there is, and they presented new scientific evidence to make their case last week. But while there may be widespread agreement on the problem,

addressing it is no simple matter Suggestions for how to alter the lower river’s flood control systems have drawn strong opposition in parts of Louisiana, and much of what is being envisioned would likely require Congress to change laws.

Mississippi officials say the time has arrived to do so. More frequent spillway openings in recent years, including a recordsetting deluge of water in 2019, have killed off oyster reefs, fueled harmful algae blooms, badly hurt tourism and taken a toll on local revenue along the Mississippi coast.

The two studies released last

ä See SPILLWAY, page 6A

STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Andrew Tucker, a member of the Downtown Ambassador Program, clears leaves and other debris Wednesday at Parc de Lafayette.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

of two otters looks out its winter enclosure after swimming at the Magnolia Wilds preserve in Ethel.

ZOO, page 4A

Lindsey Buckingham’s alleged stalker arrested

A 55-year-old woman wanted in California on charges of stalking and assaulting Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Lindsey Buckingham in Santa Monica was arrested Saturday, roughly 2,000 miles away in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Michelle Dick was arrested about 7 p.m. at a hotel in the 3000 block of Goshen Road, about 120 miles northeast of Indianapolis, according to Fort Wayne police. Dick, who had a history of stalking Buckingham, had a warrant out of California after being accused of dousing the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist and vocalist, 76, with an unknown substance as he entered a building in Santa Monica for an appointment earlier this month, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Buckingham was not injured Dick was known to the musician and his family from previous incidents, and in December 2024, after years of alleged harassment, Buckingham was granted a restraining order against her that mandated that she stay at least 100 yards away from him, his wife and his son.

1 killed and 6 injured in shooting at a Chick-fi

UNION, N.J Police say one person was shot and killed and six others were injured in a mass shooting at a Chick-fil-A in Union, New Jersey

Investigators do not believe the attack at about 9 p.m Saturday was random, according to a press release issued Sunday from the Union County Prosecutor’s Ofﬁce.

No arrests have been made, but the ofﬁce said “there is no immediate ongoing threat to the general public.”

The injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, the release said.

A ride-share driver told WABC that he heard more than seven shots from close range as he approached the restaurant. N.C. woman says man set her on fire at home

ROSEBORO, N.C. — North Carolina authorities were seeking a possible arson suspect Sunday after a woman with serious burns told authorities a man had doused her with gasoline at her home and set her on ﬁre.

Firefighters and deputies were called to a structure fire Saturday night in the town of Roseboro and found a woman with burns over about two-thirds of her body, the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The woman said a man had forced his way into her home, and that he left the scene on a bicycle, according to the sheriff’s statement. The woman was taken to a trauma center for treatment. Her condition wasn’t immediately disclosed.

After consulting with the local prosecutor’s office, the sheriff’s office said, documents were obtained accusing a named suspect of first-degree arson, first-degree burglary and other charges. The person was still at large Sunday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said.

Roseboro is a small community about 65 miles south of the state capital of Raleigh.

DHS says ICE agent

‘nearly crushed’ in stop

BOSTON An ICE agent was injured after being pinned by a person’s vehicle last week in Quincy, Massachusetts, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson The incident occurred during a “targeted arrest” of someone living in the country illegally, DHS said in a statement.

After stopping the suspect, ICE officers exited their vehicle to make the arrest, but according to the statement, the person, “in an attempt to evade arrest, weaponized his vehicle and nearly crushed a special agent.”

The agent was able to move out of the pathway of the vehicle, the spokesperson said, but the person still struck the door of the ICE vehicle, brieﬂy pinning the ofﬁcer

The person ﬂed and remains at large, the statement said. DHS did not identify the person

Orbán concedes defeat in Hungarian election

BY JUSTIN

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian voters on Sunday ousted long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, rejecting the authoritarian policies and global farright movement that he embodied in favor of a pro-European challenger in a bombshell election result with global repercussions.

Election victor Péter Magyar, a former Orbán loyalist who campaigned against corruption and on everyday issues like health care and public transport, has pledged to rebuild Hungary’s relationships with the European Union and NATO — ties that frayed under Orbán. European leaders quickly congratulated Magyar

It’s not yet clear whether Magyar’s Tisza party will have the two-thirds majority in parliament, which would give it the numbers needed for major changes in legislation. With 77% of the vote counted, it had more than 53% support to 38% for Orbán’s governing Fidesz party.

It’s a stunning blow for Orbán, a close ally of both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orbán conceded defeat after what he called a “painful” election result.

“I congratulated the victorious

party,” Orban told followers. “We are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition,” he said.

“Thank you, Hungary!” Magyar posted on X, as thousands of his supporters thronged the banks of the Danube in Budapest, chanting “We got it! We did it!”

Orbán, the EU’s longest-serving leader and one of its biggest antagonists, who has traveled a long road from his early days as a liberal, antiSoviet ﬁrebrand to the Russia-friendly nationalist admired today by the global far-right.

“I’m asking our supporters and all Hungarians: Let’s stay peaceful, cheerful, and if the results conﬁrm our expectations, let’s throw a big, Hungarian carnival,” Magyar said.

The EU will be waiting to see what Magyar does about Ukraine. Orbán repeatedly frustrated EU efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion, while cultivating close ties to Putin and refusing to end Hungary’s dependence on Russian energy imports

Recent revelations have shown a top member of Orbán’s government frequently shared the contents of EU discussions with Moscow, raising accusations that Hungary was acting on Russia’s behalf within the bloc. Orbán occupied an outsized role in

far-right populist politics worldwide.

Members of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement are among those who see Orbán’s government and his Fidesz political party as shining examples of conservative, anti-globalist politics in action, while he is reviled by advocates of liberal democracy and the rule of law Casting his ballot in Budapest, Marcell Mehringer, 21, said he was voting “primarily so that Hungary will ﬁnally be a so-called European country, and so that young people, and really everyone, will do their fundamental civic duty to unite this nation a bit and to break down these boundaries borne of hatred.”

During his 16 years as prime minister, Orbán launched harsh crackdowns on minority rights and media freedoms, subverted many of Hungary’s institutions and been accused of siphoning large sums of money into the coffers of his allied business elite, an allegation he denies. He also heavily strained Hungary’s relationship with the EU. Although Hungary is one of the smaller EU countries, with a population of 9.5 million, Orbán has repeatedly used his veto to block decisions that require unanimity Most recently he blocked a $104 billion EU loan to Ukraine, prompting his partners to accuse him of hijacking the critical aid.

Russia, Ukraine accuse each other of violating ceasefire

BY DEREK GATOPOULOS and VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating a Kremlin-declared Easter ceaseﬁre Sunday as Orthodox Christians gathered to celebrate the holiday despite Moscow’s 4-year-long war against its neighbor

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceaseﬁre over the Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. on Saturday until the end of Sunday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to abide by the ceaseﬁre, but warned there would be a swift military response to any violations.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement Sunday that it had recorded 2,299 ceasefire violations by 7 a.m., including assaults, shelling and small drone launches. It said that the use of long-range drones, missiles or guided bombs had not been reported.

A Ukrainian military officer told The Associated Press on Saturday that Russian forces had continued to attack their positions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also said Sunday it had

recorded 1,971 ceasefire violations by Ukrainian forces, including drone strikes. The head of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Sunday that rescuers uncovered the bodies of two civilians who were killed in a Ukrainian attack on Saturday afternoon.

Outside Kyiv, thousands gathered at an open-air national heritage park to celebrate Easter despite skepticism that a truce would hold.

Worshippers clustered outside wooden churches to take part in the annual blessing of baskets for the holiday table Families carried dyed eggs and paska cakes baked the night before, while many women wore colorful scarves. Some waited

for the blessing as others picnicked on the grass.

Irena Bulhakova expressed her doubts over prospects for peace, especially as previous attempts to secure ceaseﬁres have had little or no impact.

“Every time a ceaseﬁre is announced for a holiday, the shelling continues regardless,” she said.

But she still reflected on the holiday’s meaning: “Good triumphs over darkness, and we hope for that very much.”

Father Roman, a Ukrainian army chaplain who led the blessing ceremonies described Easter as a moment of faith shared by Ukrainians in their identity and future.

“We are defending our borders. We are defending our identity,” he said.

By The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti A stampede at a mountaintop fortress popular with tourists in northern Haiti has killed at least 25 people and injured dozens of others, authorities said, revising an earlier, higher number of fatalities. Municipal authorities in the city of Cap-Haïtien said in a statement that Saturday’s stampede in Milot “resulted in numerous cases of asphyxiation, trampling and loss of consciousness.” Authorities said dozens of people who attended traditional festivities at the historical site were taken to hospitals while many others were reported missing.

“According to preliminary information a situation of severe overcrowding, linked in particular to deﬁciencies in crowd management measures, triggered a stampede,” local authorities said in the statement.

The Haitian National Police in a separate statement said it had opened an investigation to determine the exact cause of incident. The investigation led authorities to update the death toll to 25 fatalities. Autopsies were underway on Sunday Police said 30 people remained hospitalized. The agency also asked the population to continue to cooperate with authorities and avoid spreading rumors. Haiti’s government offered its condolences to the families of the victims of the incident at the Citadelle Laferrière.

Some of the victims’ bodies remained at the site on Sunday A young man said his sister had traveled there after studying diligently to get the grades necessary to be part of a school ﬁeld trip for the best students. He sobbed after carrying her body, which had been covered with a white tarp.

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SPIKE and SAM McNEIL Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DENES ERDOS

A man waves a Hungarian flag as he celebrates in the streets after the announcement of partial results of the Hungarian parliamentary election Sunday in Budapest, Hungary.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EFREM LUKATSKy Priests bless believers and their Easter baskets Sunday to mark Orthodox Easter in Pyrohiv, near Kyiv, Ukraine.

Energy deliveredatafractionofthe cost, in afractionof thetime.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JACQUELyN MARTIN

Vice President JD Vance, left, talks to Asim Munir,right, Pakistan’schief of Defense Forces and chief of army staff, and Pakistani Deputy PrimeMinister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar,center,Sundaybeforeboarding AirForceTwo after attending talksonIraninIslamabad, Pakistan.

BLOCKADE

Continued from page1A

and Brent crudeoil, the international standard, rose 7% to $102.29. Brentcrude cost roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February

‘Ifyou fight, we will fight’

Iran’sRevolutionary Guard later said the strait remained under Iran’s“full control” and was open for nonmilitary vessels, but military ones would get a “forceful response,” two semi-ofﬁcial Iranian news agencies reported.

During the 21-hourtalks, the U.S. military said two destroyers had transited the strait ahead of mineclearing work, aﬁrst since the war began. Iran denied it.

Trump’splan to use the Navy to block the strait is unrealisticand he will have to concede on some issues with Iran, said Andreas Krieg, aseniorlecturer in security studies at Kings College London. “There isn’tany tool in the toolbox in terms of themilitary lever that he could use to get his way,” Krieg said.

Trump said Tehran’snuclear ambitionswere at the core of the talks’ failure.In comments to Fox News, he again threatened to strike civilian infrastructure.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’sside, addressed Trump in anew statement on hisreturnto Iran: “If you ﬁght, we will ﬁght.”

Afterceasefire expires

The face-to-face talks that ended early Sunday were the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Neitherindicated what willhappen after theceaseﬁre expires on April 22.

“Weneed to seeanafﬁrmative commitment that they will not seek anuclear weapon,” said Vice President JD Vance, leadingthe U.S. side.

Iranian negotiators could not agree to all U.S. “red lines,” said aU.S. ofﬁcial who spokeoncondition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe positions on the record. These included Iran never obtaininga nuclear weapon, ending uranium enrichment, dismantling major enrichment facilities and allowing retrieval of itshighly enriched uranium, along with opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels.

Iranian ofﬁcials said talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called U.S. overreach. Qalibaf, who noted progress in negotiations, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.”

Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate anew dialoguein the coming days. Iran said it was open to continuing dialogue, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts. The foreign minister of Oman, located on the Strait of Hormuz’ssouthern coast, called for parties to “make painful concessions.” The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “emphasized his readiness” to help bring

about adiplomatic settlement in acall with Iran’s president.

Keystickingpoint

Iran’snuclearprogram was at the center of tensions long before theU.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.The ﬁghting has killed atleast 3,000 people in Iran, 2,055inLebanon, 23 in Israel and more than adozen in Gulf Arab states, and damaged infrastructurein half adozen countries.

Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insists on its right to a civilian nuclear program.

Thelandmark2015nuclear deal,whichTrumplater pulled the U.S. out of, took wellover ayear of negotiations. Experts sayIran’s stockpile ofenriched uranium, though not weaponsgrade, is onlyashort technicalstepaway

An Iranian diplomatic ofﬁcial, speaking on condition of anonymity because of thesensitivity of closeddoor talks, denied that negotiations had failed over Iran’s nuclearambitions Inside Iran,there was new exhaustion andanger aftermonths of unrestthat began with nationwide protestsagainst economic issuesand then political ones, followed by weeks of sheltering from U.S. and Israeli bombardment.

“Wehavenever sought war.But if they trytowin what they failed to win on the battleﬁeld through talks, that’sabsolutely unacceptable,” Mohammad Bagher Karamisaid in Tehran.

Elsewhere in the region, airstrikes calmed over the past dayexceptinLebanon.

Israelpresses ahead Iran’s10-point proposal for the talkscalled for a halt to Israeli strikes on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israelhas said theceaseﬁre did not apply there,but Iranand Pakistansaid it did

IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visitedparts of southern Lebanon under Israeli control on Sunday,for the ﬁrst time since thecurrentﬁghting.

Attacks on southern Lebanon have intensiﬁed alongside theground invasion renewed after Hezbollah launched rocketstoward Israel inthe war’sopening days.

Negotiations between Israeland Lebanon are expectedtobegin Tuesdayin Washington after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite their lack of ofﬁcialrelations.Israel wants Lebanon to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, but themilitant grouphas survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.

The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israelpounded Beirut with airstrikes, killingmore than300 people, according to the Health Ministry Lebanon’sstate-run National News Agency reported six people were killedSundayinMaaroub villagenear the coastal city of Tyre Associated Press writers E.Eduardo Castillo in Beijing;Collin Binkley and BenFinleyinWashington; KareemChehayeb in Beirut; Brian Melley in London; Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this report.

ZOO

Continuedfrom page 1A

and rehabilitates sloths, parrotsand primates.

Butfor over four months awarrant had been out for hisarrest for felonytheft. Upon landing, Ligon was booked as afugitive intothe Tarrant CountyJail.

Thearrest capped abusy and tumultuous few years for Ligon, whoruns Magnolia Wilds, aprivatezoo in the East FelicianaParish town of Ethel.

Federal regulators in 2023 seized agiraffe named Brazosfrom his zoo —then knownasBarnhill Preserve —prompting Ligon to rail against what he calledgovernment overreach on social media and to wage battle in federal court.

In 2024, he was suedbya Texas business partner over apreserve they had started there three years earlier

By early 2025, he was workingtoimprovea different privatezoo, aventure with anorth Louisiana couple thatalso ended in a lawsuit—and,eventually, thewarrant.

And sincethe news broke of his arrest, former employees have criticized Ligon’smanagement of his Ethel zoo, claiming frequent animal deaths and escapes as well as substandard facilities thatpose dangers to workers.

On arecentweekday in March, Ligon showed off his zoo —which he put up for sale afew weeks beforehis arrest —toexplain his side of the story

Located off awinding country highway,the place was still open to thepublic, though the parking lot sat empty.Ligon spoke hurriedly but was eager to answer questions.

He defended himself againstthe mismanagementclaims by his former employees and denied the allegations of theft.Hedid acknowledge that some of his former practices were not ideal.

“I’m notsaying we’re perfect. We’ve had issues,” he said.

But he insisted the zoo has since improved itsstandards. He pointed to afederal inspection report issued just last month thatfound no violations there.

“There’sdeﬁnitely things we’ve done in the past that Iregret doing andwe’ve evolved from,” Ligon added. Deals, lawsuits,anarrest Ayearbeforethe fight over the north Louisiana zoo, aseparate business venture soured.

In 2021, Ligon and his friend Tyler Thomas bought land in Los Fresnos, Texas, and started awildlife preserve called Fragile Planet. Three years later,thatpartnership hadunraveledto thepoint that Thomas sued Ligon Thomas and another partner in the business “soon became troubled by Ligon’s volatile temper” and “frequent verbal and emotional

abuse” of the park workers, the lawsuit says. He would often disappear,unreachable forweeks at atime, Thomas claimed. Eventually,Thomas filed arestraining order to keep Ligon off theproperty.

“Sincehis departure, Iwill saystaff morale is higher than it’s ever been andthe park is performing better than it ever has,” Thomas said recently Ligon declined to commentonthe lawsuit,citing a nondisparagement clause as part of asettlement thatwas reached between thetwo in 2025.

By that time, Ligon was heavilyinvolvedwithanother zoo. Acentral Louisiana couple —John and his wife Paula Cormane —were considering closing down a drive-thru safari and petting zoo they’d ownedfor 18 years in Grant Parish. Butthey decided to give the family business, Gone Wild Safari, one more shot

So they reached out to Ligon, the couple said, for help.

As a20-year-old, Ligonhad bought asingle acre from his grandfather in Etheland, within adecade, hadturned it into a100-acre wildlife preserve called Barnhill Preserve,now Magnolia Wilds.

In the small world of pri-

vate zoos, the Cormanes hadknown Ligonfor years through animal trades. In early 2025, they invited him to Grant Parish to see if his model could save their business, they said. Soon, Ligonand Hunter Hullet, the executive director of Magnolia Wilds,proposed a90-day contractto “leverage oursuccessful blueprint”and transform the Cormanes’ safari park.

“With astrategic investment of $130,000, we will implement critical infrastructure, marketing, staffing, andguest-experience upgrades that position Gone Wild Safari to generate $1 millionormore in additional revenue,” the contract says.

The deal was inked in April 2025. John Cormane says he took out more than half amillion dollars in loans to build new animal enclosures, remodelthe bathroom and giftshop, create a newwebsite anddigitalrecords system,and train new staff. Cormane added he paid Ligon another$90,000 for moreanimals, including sloths, anteaters andporcupines.

But Cormane claimsnone of theanimals arrived, and accordingtothe lawsuit thecouplelaterﬁled,Ligon spent muchofthe 90-day contract periodout of the country

“He stayed in Costa Rica forthree months,” Cormane said. “Anything that he did do, we’ve had to go back and redo.” Jan Blanchard, hired by the Cormanes to manage animal care during the overhaul andfiredinAugust, tells adifferent story

“The contract itself, the Cormanes were reneging on it left and right,” said Blanchard. “They weren’t doing their part.” She says Ligon or Hullet came up each weektooversee progress, hired professionals to build enclosures and found twoveterinarians forthe park. But the Cormanes repeatedly ignored or undid theworkand refused to hire the vets, she said, and Ligonwithheldanimals like sloths and anteaters only after seeing that their enclosures were not ready As reopening day in October drew closer,itdidn’t appear anyofthe work was going to be completed,and thedisagreements turned explosive in front of staff, Blanchard recalls.

“It sounded like adomestic violenceepisode,” Blanchard said. “I hadseen them argue before in front of me, but never that bad.” In August, John Cormane reported to authoritiesthat he was still owed $93,200 worth of work fromLigon, andthe arrest warrant was soon issued.

GrantParish SheriffStephenMcCainsaysdeputies contacted Ligon multiple

ä See ZOO, page 5A

STAFF PHOTOSByMICHAEL JOHNSON

Agiraffe stands in its barnatthe Magnolia Wilds preserve in Ethel.

Ahyena walks around its habitat.

times about turning himself in. Ligon counters that he was not notiﬁed of the warrant until January

He was extradited to Grant Parish, where he says he immediately posted bail Ligon said he can’t comment on the ongoing lawsuit until he deals with the criminal charges

Blanchard and others, commenting on widely circulated Facebook posts, question why the dispute ever escalated into an airport arrest. But the fallout renewed scrutiny of Ligon’s wildlife preserve.

‘Coffee pot is broken’

Private zoos are inspected yearly by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Over the years, inspectors have documented violations of the Animal Welfare Act involving enclosure size, cleanliness and security at Barnhill and Magnolia Wilds, though less so after the rebranding.

Between 2021 to 2023, the USDA documented three alpacas and a red river hog dying of parasites, a sloth that died after three weeks of untreated diarrhea and a Mexican hair dwarf porcupine that escaped from its enclosure and was never found.

In October 2023, a boy wandered to the back of a hyena enclosure, stuck his hand through the gates and was bitten, according to several local news reports. In response, Barnhill claimed the enclosure had passed multiple USDA inspections and said the child had ignored clear off-limits markings. However, the enclosure had received several citations years and months before the incident, according to USDA reports.

The 30 Animal Welfare Act violations spanning ﬁve years led the USDA to ﬁne Barnhill $5,200 in 2023, along with seizing the giraffe.

Brittany Peet, a lawyer for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, said it is rare for the USDA to take any sort of action against private zoos, which have far looser oversight than those accredited by the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums. She added that many Animal Welfare Act regulations are vague enough to invite interpretation, and most private zoos are only inspected about once a year “There are essentially no penalties to violating the Animal Welfare Act until the USDA brings an actual enforcement action against you, and that only happens to a handful of facilities each year,” she said.

Five former staff members told The Advocate that when word of an upcoming inspection came in, a warning would go out in code over the radios they carried: “The coffee pot is broken.”

That meant being on high alert, speaking only essential radio traffic and making sure the enclosures look brand new, several employees explained.

Ligon says the term was simply a way of communicating to staff to be professional, “just letting everyone know USDA is here and to be on your best behavior.”

Two days before a 2024 inspection, former employees say, two Indian-crested porcupines dug out of an enclosure and escaped. Shelby Alford and Valerie Nunez say one, named Rebel, was found dead the day of the inspection after being run over by a car They say the carcass was scraped off the road and hidden from inspectors.

Ligon said he was not aware of the incident.

In 2023, employees recall, a Marabou stork a massive scavenger with a wingspan up to 10 feet — escaped a barn while they were trying to clip its wings. It resembled “an alligator ﬂying in the sky,” one employee said.

Nunez says everyone was told to go back to work. She and other employees say it was never found. “We all just left and went back to the barn,” said Nunez. “We didn’t do any-

ened oversight, but Brazos who was later found to have a parasite — was taken and donated to another facility anyway

Shortly after, Ligon launched a campaign to raise money to sue the USDA, a lawsuit that is ongoing.

“The USDA overstepped boundaries and denied us our Fourth Amendment rights,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. “I’m reaching out to you as a Southerner, as an American. please pay attention to this.”

thing to try and catch it or alert local authorities.”

Ligon said he recalls seeing one stork flying but claims it did not escape the premises He added he later sold it to Gone Wild, the park owned by the Cormanes.

The following summer Lyle, a 2-foot baby Nile crocodile, was moved outside a shed after mauling a bird that had escaped its enclosure, Alford and another employee said. After a few days of living in a plastic trough outside, Lyle went missing, they say, and couldn’t be found.

“They didn’t report it; they didn’t do anything,” said Alford. “There is a loose crocodile in Ethel somewhere.”

Ligon said he did not recall the escape, but does remember selling a caiman a few years back.

Staff say in 2024, Ligon brought in a female Geoffroy’s cat to breed with a male, Felix. Former workers, including Nunez, said Ligon directed staff to place the female in the lockdown area of Felix’s enclosure despite warnings that the two hadn’t been properly introduced. They say the male, already highly aggressive and prescribed antipsychotic medication, dug under the barrier that same day and fatally crushed the female’s skull.

Ligon called it an unfortunate but not uncommon outcome when introducing wild cats. Felix he noted, is no longer showing signs of anxiety

“We’re not going to try to breed him again,” he added.

Alford recalls complaining for months about a lack of a lockdown for an African red river hog named Hamilton. Though not required by the USDA lockdown areas are used to secure larger animals to let staff safely clean enclosures or set out food.

Alford said that in 2024, Ligon asked her to scrub algae out of a pool in Hamilton’s enclosure. So Alford threw some food about 15 feet away from the water, on one side of the enclosure, then got to work cleaning the other It wasn’t long before she heard the footsteps she recalls.

“I turn around and he immediately starts mauling me. He hooks me in the knee,” she said.

Alford remembers dropping to a fetal position as Hamilton tried to roll her over Eventually, the hog left her alone.

“You can’t ﬁght a hog, you can’t do that, it just makes it worse,” she said.

Alford said the attack left her with a 3.5-inch gash on her knee.

Soon, Ligon showed up with a rock in his hand, Alford said, then opened the enclosure so she could escape. A visitor who was an emergency room worker fashioned a tourniquet around her knee, Alford recalls, before she was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she was sent into surgery Ligon said the incident was documented and Alford received workers’ compensation.

‘Help the planet’ On a sunny spring morning, Ligon sat on the back of a mud-spattered fourwheeler as his father drove through Magnolia Wilds. Blackbuck antelope and rheas — huge flightless birds similar to ostriches — roamed the ﬁelds, and as the vehicle slowed, Ligon let out a guttural moo. Within sec-

ganizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Animal Legal Defense Fund.

animals from the wild every day to eat them,” he said.

Ligon says the effect of the giraffe seizure on the park’s reputation was drastic. He said Barnhill’s revenue dropped by $1 million that year forcing him to rebrand the park to Magnolia Wilds in 2024. Then, in early 2026, shortly before his arrest, Ligon announced he was selling the park, its branding and the animals. The park is still open and on the market.

onds, Clyde, a 1,200-pound dromedary camel, gingerly approached.

“They pee down their leg,” he said about the onehumped species. “In the desert, the evaporation helps cool them off.”

The camel was in the Safari Park portion of Magnolia Wilds, where most of the animals have already been sold off. In a narrow barn, a giraffe named Manny stood near a small window, waiting to be shipped to another facility within hours.

“We’re trying to restructure right now to stay alive to ﬁght another day,” Ligon said.

Ligon said the park has made many changes, including no longer allowing hands-on encounters with any animals except the otters.

For $200, guests can swim with baby otters. Former workers say that as the otters got older they would start to bite guests, occasionally drawing blood. In 2021, a USDA inspector cited Barnhill with a violation after observing children calling out to employees that they were being bitten by otters.

“They were almost always bites,” said Josh Webb, who worked at the preserve in 2025. “I would guess maybe one or two a week.”

Once a certain threshold of bites was reached, the otters were sold, Webb and other former workers said.

On the recent visit with Ligon, two small otters playfully wrestled in a bathtub, eyeing him as he approached A small swimming pool sat next to their enclosure. He said the pair was ﬁxed, which improved their behavior, and added that he’s unaware of any bites beyond those documented by the USDA.

Another past draw for his park was the opportunity to handle, feed and take pictures with sloths. Two former employees say one juvenile sloth named Rocket had to be restrained during such encounters, stopped eating and eventually died. Ligon said the park no longer lets visitors hold sloths.

Ligon was charming as he showed the property, allowing photos of every exhibit — none of which appeared noticeably cramped or dirty

“Any photos are better than my mug shot these days,” he said.

The previous month, USDA workers had visited the preserve but reported they couldn’t conduct an inspection because “a responsible adult was not available.” Ligon said that was because he wasn’t there though inspectors did meet with the preserve’s veterinarian and front desk staff, he said.

After returning a week later, USDA inspectors found no violations at the preserve, which now houses 151 animals, the report says.

Ligon defends many of his practices — such as stocking his zoo with animals caught in the wild that are condemned by animal rights or-

A self-described “conservationist cowboy,” Ligon called those groups “extremist,” arguing that anyone who supports them also shouldn’t hunt, ﬁsh or own a purebred dog.

In 2021, USDA inspectors found no acquisition records required for all zoo animals — for otters, sloths, goats, armadillos, water buffalo and an African serval cat. One report by the Sloth Institute, a nonprofit in Costa Rica that has been critical of Ligon’s practices, analyzed federal data on the importation of animals and found that from 2011 to 2021 Barnhill Preserve imported 71 wild-caught sloths from the country of Guyana.

Ligon acknowledged some of the preserve’s sloths have been wild-caught but said the trade is allowed and supports the local economy “Everything we have is legal and done with permits,” he said.

He also said up-close encounters with exotic animals ultimately do more good than harm.

“We take tuna fish and

“Most kids that see a sloth are going to be a little more inspired to protect that animal in the future.”

Another practice criticized by animal rights groups — and many of Ligon’s former employees — is taking animals home for care. Three former workers, including Nunez and Alford, say they routinely took home baby sloths, kangaroos, porcupines, lynxes and African servals to provide neonatal care for months at a time.

That would require USDA inspection and approval of homes, says Brittany Peet, the Animal Legal Defense Fund lawyer Ligon said taking animals home is common at zoos, adding that his park has largely moved away from it.

He traces the park’s troubles to one night in September 2023 when the USDA seized Brazos the giraffe. Inspectors had documented continued failure to provide him adequate veterinary care, “resulting in a state of unrelieved suffering.”

Ligon said he ﬁred his attending vet and hired a “giraffe specialist” during a probation period of height-

Ligon chalked up some of the problems at his Ethel zoo to the disputes over his ventures elsewhere.

“Bad business relationships in other states did pull my attention away from here,” he said. After his arrest, Ligon says, he stepped down as board president for Kids Saving the Rainforest but still owns 49 acres of the nonprofit’s land in Costa Rica, which he bought in 2022.

He said he’s looking to get out of the business but hasn’t yet found a buyer for Magnolia Wilds.

“I’m in a very bad situation in life right now and so is my business,” said Ligon.

“I want to do what I can to help the planet and inspire kids for the future, but I don’t know what that’s going to mean for me.”

Ligon doesn’t think the industry will last much longer Cormane, the business partner who accused him of theft, said the same.

“The more things that go on like this, the worse it gets for us,” said Cormane. “In all honesty, the government wants these places shut down.”

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

owl sits on a branch in an enclosure.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

camel, walks around the safari area at Magnolia Wilds in Ethel. PROVIDED PHOTO Gabe Ligon shows off a sloth during an animal education presentation at Jackson Elementary School in East Feliciana Parish.

DOWNTOWN

locations and just anyone who needs it,” Tucker said. Their job is to improve public spaces, and akey componentofthat is simply being afriendly,approachable person in the crowd. The royal blue shirts help identify Tucker and his colleagues as those helpers.

“I’m kind of astickler when it comes to trash, and Ijust love

beautiful, cleanareas,” Tucker said.“It’sabout hospitality.One thing Ican deﬁnitely say for sure is it’sablessing, not only tousasa team, but for everyone in the community.”

On Wednesday,partners in the Downtown Ambassador Program met to celebratethe ﬁrst year of the program, which launched in Lafayette duringFestival International last year. Blanchard gaveanupdateonthe program’simpact, reporting that last yearthe ambassadors cleaned

352 pieces of grafﬁti and removed 937 bills and stickers from downtown surfaces. Trash pickup is their largest categoryofwork, but their remit includes maintenance projects that no one else does —like cleaning dog wastestationsand public benches In year two, thebiggestchange forthe programwill be an expansion to the Catholic Charities of Acadiana campus,whereSt. Joseph Dinerislocated,coveringa 15-block area in theLaPlace neigh-

borhood adjacent to downtown.

CityCouncilmember Kenneth Boudreaux, whochairsthe downtown Economic Development District andrepresents District 5, said he is excited to see whatthe program can accomplish in the St. JohnStreet area, where trash and litter oftencover the public right of way

“People invest in theirproperties,their homes,sowewant to protect community while at the sametime still be able to provide vital services to thehomeless pop-

SPILLWAY

Continued from page1A

week propose speciﬁc limits on how much river water should be allowed through Bonnet Carre to protect vulnerable oysterreefs in the Mississippi Sound. Future installments of those studies will delve further into spillway-relatedissues

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the spillway,isalso engaged in alarger study on the future of the lower river that includes ways of alleviating some of those concerns

There is increasing pressure to act. Mississippi communities have sued the Corps over damage done by spillway openings, though so far unsuccessfully,and that state’scongressional delegation has prodded the agency to look for alternatives

The Mississippi Sound Coalition of coastal communities andothersaffected has also pushed for federal legislation to addresstheir concerns. They say solutions are available that do not put New Orleans in harm’sway

“We’re still dying aslow death —death by 1,000 cuts —and we’vegot to turn that around with amassive change in the management of the lower Mississippi River,” said Gerald Blessey aformer mayor of Biloxi who helpsleadthe coalition

‘Alwaysbeenabalance’

Bonnet Carre, located upriver of New Orleans in St. Charles Parish, has become such an integral tool of ﬂood control that it can almostbe taken for granted. It is part of asprawling protection system built afterthe epochal 1927 Mississippi River ﬂood.

To keep the lower Mississippi’sﬂow below1.25 million cubic feetper second, or more than 550 million gallons every minute, cranes open some or all of the spillway’s350 bays, sending river water tumbling through aspillway that empties into LakePontchartrain. The river waterthen eventually finds its way through the Rigolets and into the Mississippi Sound. It has worked as designed, relieving pressure on the river to avoid leveebreaks or overtopping that would devastate the New Orleans area. But the number of openings needed has drastically increased in recent years,along with the fallout that has come with them Eightspillway openings were required between the 1930s and the end of the century,but sevenhave been needed since, includingtwo in 2019. Five occurred between 2016 and 2020. It is unclear whether the recent trend will continue over the long term, but there are projections of more extreme weather on the way due to climate change. Studiesshowthatcould lead to the pendulum swinging more forcefullybetween higher and lowerﬂows due to both increased rainfall and more drought. There are potential ways

ulation,” he said. “What the ambassador program is going to do is take care of thecleaningpiece,and we can build on that.

“People receive encouragement from seeing that action is actually happening. I’m constantly monitoring it and getting rave reviews, andit’sbeen amazing having an agency able to do the workthat government possibly could not get to in atimely manner.”

Email Joanna Brownatjoanna. brown@theadvocate.com.

to lessen theamount ofwater through Bonnet Carre and distribute it elsewhere, but they will likely require more study, discussions with impactedcommunities and, eventually,changes in federal law

Mark Davis, ofthe Tulane Institute on Water Resources, Lawand Policy,said it was overdue for management ofthe lower river to be reconsidered, andthat therecommendations from Mississippi communities seem “credibly developed.”

But he noted the complicationsinaddressingthem, the need to rememberBonnetCarre’sﬂood control importance and the limitations on the Atchafalaya River, which has been suggested as an alternative routetochannelsomeof thewater

“It’salways been abalance between what you putdown the Mississippi, what you put into Lake Pontchartrain, and what you putdown the Atchafalaya, and all of those things change,” he said

“There’s only so much water you can putdown the Atchafalayawithoutchanging the Atchafalaya and its ability to handle future ﬂoods.”

‘Weactuallyget win-wins’

The University of SouthernMississippi scientists behind thestudies released last week presentedtheir findings to theHarrison County Board of Supervisors in Gulfport. TheNorthern Gulf Institute oversaw thework on behalfofthe Mississippi Sound Coalition

The researchusedcomplex modelingtoidentify tipping points for when oysterreefs are put at risk in the Mississippi Sound. The 2019 spillway openings, for example, essentially killed off all oysters in the Sound.

The suggestions boil down to what volume of water should be allowed through thespillway andfor how long, while taking into considerationotherrivers in the area, including the Pearl and Pascagoula. The studies look at how much freshwater the oysters are typicallyable to tolerate to reach theconclusions.

To allowthe ﬁndings to be understandable to nonscientists, it translated water amounts into percentages of thetotal volumeofLake Pontchartrain. The researchconcluded that, generally,the total volume of water allowed through the spillway should be limited to around 80% of Lake Pontchartrainin cases where the opening lastsless than threeweeks

bids will be re‐ceivedbythe Lafayette ParishSchool System PurchasingDepartment located at 202Rue Iberville, Lafayette,LA 70508, or electronically via www.centralauctionh ouse.comuntil 11:00 a.m. CST on April23, 2026, at which time bids will be publiclyopenedand read aloud at theLPSSPur‐chasing Department,202 Rue Iberville,Lafayette LA70508. Envelope shallbeclearly marked: WarehousePalletRack Bid# 47-26 Opening: April23, 2026 at11:00 a.m. CST Detailed specifications and bidforms maybe obtainedfromthe LPSS PurchasingDepartment byemailingKristie Sam atkpsam@lpssonline. com.Bid documentsmay alsobeaccessedonline atwww.centralauctionh ouse.com. Allbidsmustbesubmit‐ted either in asealeden‐velopeorelectronically via www.centralauctionh ouse.com. Bids received after thespecified time willnot be considered and will be returned un‐opened. In accordance with the Louisiana Public BidLaw all bids must be accom‐paniedbyany required documentation as speci‐fied in thebid package. TheLafayette Parish School System reserves the righttorejectany and allbidsand to waive any informalitiesorir‐regularitiesinbidsre‐

NASA already has next Artemis flight in works

BY MARCIA DUNN AP aerospace writer

HOUSTON Never-before-

glimpsed views of the moon’s far side. Check Total solar eclipse gracing the lunar scene. Check. New distance record for humanity Check.

With NASA’s lunar comeback a galactic-sized smash thanks to Artemis II, the world is wondering: What’s next? And how do you top that?

“To people all around the world who look up and dream about what is possible, the long wait is over,”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said as he introduced Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen at Saturday’s jubilant homecoming celebration.

Now that the first lunar travelers in more than a half-century are safely back in Houston with their families, NASA has Artemis III in its sights.

“The next mission’s right around the corner,” entry flight director Rick Henﬂing observed following the crew’s Pacific splashdown on Friday

In a mission recently added to the docket for next year, Artemis III’s yet-tobe-named astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are racing to have their compa-

ny’s lander ready ﬁrst Musk’s Starship and Bezos’ Blue Moon are vying for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028. Two astronauts will aim for the south polar region, the preferred location for Isaacman’s envisioned $20 billion to $30 billion moon base. Vast amounts of ice are almost certainly hidden in permanently shadowed craters there ice that could provide water and rocket fuel.

The docking mechanism for Artemis III’s close-tohome trial run is already at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center The latest model Starship is close to launching on a test flight from South Texas, and a scaleddown version of Blue Moon

will attempt a lunar landing later this year

NASA promises to announce the Artemis III crew “soon.” Like 1969’s Apollo 9, Artemis III aims to reduce risk for the moon landings that follow Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart loved flying the lunar module in lowEarth orbit — “a test pilot’s dream.” But there’s no question, he noted, that “the real astronauts” at least in the public’s mind were the ones who walked on the moon.

Wiseman and his crew put their passion and feelings on full display as they ﬂew around the moon and back, choking up over lost loved ones as well as those left behind on Earth.

During the their nearly 10day journey, they tearfully requested that a fresh, bright lunar crater be named after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020 They also openly shared their love for one another and Planet Earth, an exquisite yet delicate oasis in the black void that they said needs better care.

Artemis II included the first woman, the first person of color and the first non-U.S. citizen to fly to the moon.

“Wonderful communicators, almost poets,” Isaacman said from the recovery ship while awaiting their return.

Apollo’s manly, all-business moon crews of the 1960s and 1970s certainly

did not do group hugs.

For those old enough to remember Apollo, Artemis — Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology — couldn’t come fast enough.

Author Andy Chaikin said he felt like Rip Van Winkle awakening from a nearly 54year nap. His 1994 biography “A Man on the Moon” led to the HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon.”

“It’s amazing how far we’ve come and how different this experience is from back then,” Chaikin said from Johnson Space Center late last week.

The hardest part, according to NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, is becoming so close to the crews and their families and then blasting them to the moon. He anxiously monitored Friday’s reentry

alongside the astronauts’ spouses and children.

“You know what’s at stake,” Kshatriya conﬁded afterward. “It’s going to take risk to explore, but you have to make sure you ﬁnd the right line between being paralyzed by it and being able to manage it.”

Calling it “mission complete” only after being reunited with his two daughters, Wiseman issued a rallying cry to the rows of blue-ﬂight-suited astronauts at Saturday’s celebration.

“It is time to go and be ready,” he said, pointing at them, “because it takes courage. It takes determination, and you all are freaking going and we are going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every possible way possible.”

Democrats urge Swalwell to quit Calif. governor’s race

BY BEN FINLEY Associated Press

WASHINGTON Fellow Democrats are abandoning Eric Swalwell’s campaign for California governor in droves after allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted a former staffer, with a growing number urging the congressman both to quit the race and resign his seat in Congress.

Swalwell has denied the allegations, which he has said “are absolutely false.” They surfaced after he became a leading contender in the race for California governor to replace outgoing Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom. Over the weekend with Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign already teetering, Democrats in Congress began to call for his resignation from the House. Some even said they would support the rare step of expelling him should he refuse to step aside.

At

least 100

BY DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN and HARUNA UMAR Associated Press

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria

A Nigerian Air Force strike targeting jihadi rebels hit a local market in northeastern Nigeria, killing over 100 civilians including children and injuring many others, a rights group and local media reported on Sunday Officials confirmed a misfire without providing details. Amnesty International cited survivors as saying that at least 100 people were killed in the airstrike on Saturday on a village in Yobe state, near the border with Borno state, which is the epicenter of the jihadi insurgency that has ravaged the region for over a decade.

“We have their pictures

BY BRIAN MELLEY

Fellow California Reps. Jared Huffman, Ro Khanna and Sam Liccardo said Swalwell should resign, as did Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico and Pramila Jayapal of Washington state. “This is not a partisan issue,” Jayapal said Sunday “This cuts across party lines. And it is depravity of the way that women have been treated.”

Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment It all added to the mounting political pressure on Swalwell, who has already seen his most prominent supporters, including Sen. Adam Schiff and powerful labor unions, pull their endorsements and call for his exit from the race. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., who helped run

dead in

Swalwell’s campaign, said he was immediately ending his role.

With the House returning to session Tuesday, the question of whether to expel Swalwell could come to a head quickly Rep. Anna Paulina Luna R-Fla., said Saturday that she would be ﬁling a motion to start the process Expulsion votes in the House are rare and require a two-thirds majority, but there is recent precedent for taking the step. Republican George Santos of New York in 2023 became just the sixth member in House history to be ousted by colleagues for his conduct.

Huffman, Jayapal and Leger Fernández said they would vote to expel Swalwell from the House, though they said they also support expelling Rep. Tony Gonzales, RTexas, who admitted to an affair with a former staff member who later died by suicide.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday about allegations

that Swalwell sexually assaulted a woman in 2019 and 2024. The woman said she did not go to police at the time of the assaults because she was afraid she would not be believed.

The woman worked for Swalwell when the ﬁrst alleged assault occurred in 2019, while the 2024 assault allegedly occurred at a charity gala, the Chronicle reported. In both cases the woman said she was too intoxicated to consent to sex.

The paper didn’t name the woman, and The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify her account and identity Her lawyer declined to comment.

The alleged 2024 incident occurred in New York, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Ofﬁce said Saturday that it was investigating. That ofﬁce urged anyone with knowledge to contact its special victims division.

After the allegations surfaced, Swalwell said Friday in a video on

social media that he would spend the weekend with family and friends and share an update “very soon.” He is not running for reelection for his House seat.

“These allegations of sexual assault are ﬂat false. They’re absolutely false They did not happen, they have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have,” the congressman said. Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker who remains a dominant force in California politics, said the “serious allegations” must be investigated. She said she spoke to Swalwell and suggested that be done “outside of a gubernatorial campaign.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and his leadership team also called for an investigation and for Swalwell to end his campaign for governor Jayapal appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Khanna was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday.”

Nigeria after air force ‘misfire’ on market, sources say

and they include children,”

Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s Nigeria director, told The Associated Press, referring to the casualties.

“We are in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital,” he said. “We spoke with the person in charge of casualties, and we spoke with the victims.”

A worker at the Geidam General hospital, in Yobe, said at least 23 people injured in the incident were receiving treatment. The worker spoke anonymously as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Such misfires are common in Nigeria, where the military often conducts air raids to battle armed groups who control vast forest enclaves. At least 500 civilians have died since 2017 in such

misfires, according to an AP tally of reported deaths.

Security analysts point to loopholes in intelligence gathering as well as insufﬁcient coordination between ground troops, air assets and stakeholders.

The large, remote market located near the Borno-Yobe border is known to be often used by Boko Haram jihadis to buy food supplies.

Abdulmumin Bulama, a member of a civilian security group working with the Nigerian military in the northeast, said there was intelligence that Boko Haram terrorists had gathered very close to the market and were planning an attack on nearby communities.

“The intel was shared and the air force jet acted based on the credible informa-

tion,” Bulama said.

The Yobe State Government conﬁrmed in a statement that a Nigerian military strike was targeting a stronghold of the Boko Haram jihadi group in the area and that “some people who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected.”

The Yobe State Emergency Management Agency also acknowledged that an inci-

dent had occurred resulting in “casualties affecting some marketers” and said it had dispatched response teams to the area.

Nigeria’s military issued a statement saying it conducted a successful strike on a “terrorist enclave and logistics hub” belonging to jihadis in the area, killing scores of them as they rode on motorcycles. It did not provide any detail about a possible misﬁre, but noted that motorcycles remain prohibited in conflict hot spots and “any such movements in restricted areas are therefore treated with the utmost seriousness.” Amnesty International has called for an independent investigation, adding that the military is “fond of” labeling civilian casualties as bandits

Swalwell

PHOTO PROVIDED By NASA

The Artemis II crew captured this view of an Earthset on April 6 as they flew around the moon

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MICHAEL WyKE

The Artemis II crew, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover gathers with Hansen as he speaks during a crew return event Saturday at Ellington Field in Houston.

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Youngsville council kills substation plan

SLEMCO project receives neighborhood backlash

BY JOEL THOMPSON Staff writer

The Youngsville City Council unanimously voted Thursday to deny a land-use variance for an electrical substation that was to be located on Savor Road, effectively killing the project.

The substation was to be located next to the entrance to the Cypress Gardens subdivision, in front of what is to be Phase 2 of the resi-

Thomas Park upgrades underway

Lafayette invests over $600,000 in improvements

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

Thomas Park is undergoing upgrades that highlight a new mural and enhance recreational space in Lafayette.

The project includes a fresh mural bringing new energy to the space, the removal of the four existing tennis courts and the construction of four new courts, and upgraded perimeter fencing and infrastructure for future lighting.

The park’s upgrades are part of a broader investment of more than $619,000 aimed at enhancing Lafayette’s recreational opportunities and modernizing park amenities, according to Lafayette Consolidated Government In January local muralist Marc Fresh Art completed a two-sided mural wrapping around the Thomas Park Recreation Center near the skate park. According to ofﬁcials the artwork adds “bold color and creative energy to the space,” with each side telling its own story reﬂecting the energy of the park, the creativity of the community and the spirit of Lafayette

Ofﬁcials said the mural adds a new layer to the park experience and celebrates the power of public art and local talent to transform shared spaces.

After Lafayette’s only skate park closed in 2018, the new and improved skat epark at Thomas Park opened in 2024.

The project fulfilled a longstanding demand from local skaters and introduced a modern, 11,000-square-foot design featuring ultra-smooth concrete with a small beginner area, a large advanced area, a mini ramp and a 4.5- to 7-foot bowl.

With construction still underway and additional enhancements planned, officials said more updates are on the horizon as the park’s transformation continues.

dential development.

The property in question was purchased by electric utility company SLEMCO in 2024 for $1.2 million.

SLEMCO representatives approached the City Council on Thursday to request multiple land use variances, including a reduction to the requirement to the 100foot green belt for businesses that abut residential areas. Additionally, SLEMCO requested a variance

requiring them to plant new trees on the property to replace four trees the company wanted to remove due to root rot. Youngsville Mayor Ken Ritter said without the variance, SLEMCO would be required to plant around 100 trees should they decide to remove the existing trees.

While SLEMCO has not ofﬁcially canceled plans for construction of the substation on Savoy Road, failure to receive a variance to

the 100-foot setback requirement makes the placement of a substation on the property difﬁcult.

Youngsville’s electrical grid is mostly powered by a substation off Almonaster Road. According to SLEMCO, some of the circuits extended from the station are over 7 miles in length, which can lead to longer wait times for restoration of power and more frequent outages.

“The need for a new station in Youngsville was yesterday The community needs this right now for the present electrical load

brought about by the community’s growth,” said Glenn Angelle, SLEMCO’s engineering supervisor associated with the project.

Residents from the neighborhood who spoke at the Thursday council meeting were unanimous in their opposition to the approval of the variances. The chief concern was that the substation would cause property values in the neighborhood to be substantially reduced.

“I’ve lived in Cypress Gardens

BEST BOUDIN

Colorado State University a leader in hurricane science

School a trusted source for La. residents

BY KASEY BUBNASH Staff writer

the Rocky Mountains, Colorado State University is often subject to freezing temperatures and snowy winters. But it’s certainly never taken a direct hit from a hurricane. Yet ahead of each Atlantic hurricane season for the last 40 years, researchers at CSU have issued painstakingly detailed forecasts for the coming months, predicting everything from the number and intensity of hurricanes that will form to where exactly they might

hit land. The university issued its first — and really the ﬁrst ever — seasonal forecast in 1984. Since then, its comprehensive seasonal predictions have garnered global recognition, becoming synonymous with those issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other climate agencies around the world. It’s a trusted source that Louisianans look to each spring while mentally preparing for the upcoming season.

“It is a bit of a head scratcher if you’re just sort of the average layperson and you’re reading these headlines about, ‘Colorado State? Hurricanes?’” said Paul Miller an associate professor of coastal sci-

ences at LSU. “Shouldn’t they do mountains or blizzards or something?”

But Miller said the renown is well-deserved. Boasting a toprated, 61-year-old atmospheric science department with research areas ranging from cloud microphysics to machine learning, Miller said CSU’s credibility in the meteorology world goes far beyond hurricane forecasting. Among the general public, though, it’s hurricanes that have made CSU famous. That’s largely thanks to one scientist, late professor William Gray who Miller described as “the pioneer” of seasonal hurricane forecasting.

All these years later, Miller said CSU’s forecasts are heralded as a benchmark for others in the

Miller’s team at LSU recently

PHOTO

STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD BOWIE

ABOVE: Festivalgoers dine at picnic tables.

RIGHT: Heather Palmisano and her son, Roman Palmisano, 4, enjoy one of the carnival rides.

TOP: Adam Leger performs at the Scott Boudin Festival on Saturday. In 2012, Scott was named the ‘Boudin Capital of the World’ by the Louisiana Legislature.

Celebrating Meta data center ignores its implications

The AI data center beingbuilt in Richland Parish is projected to require the equivalent of more than half of all the powerEntergy currently generates for the state of Louisiana,along with huge water needs. The state is goingto give Meta tax breaks that could be worth billions of dollars. We are trusting that Meta will do good things with its 2,000acres of computers and employees using them. Meta was already foundliable for the way in which itsplatforms endangeredchildren No doubt AI can be used for good things, such as makingimprovementsinmedicine,but the potential for dangerous outcomes is real. On Facebook or YouTube, you can already see manydisturbing things generated withAI. Not just impossible interactions between animals, but fake yet very realistic videos of members of Congress accusing ofﬁcials of crimes, with documentation,during government hearings. Is blurring the line between what is fake and what is real a good thing? What happensafter AI enables an improvementin the fakes until ajury cannot tell whether the video of amurder is real or fake? Is it possible that eventuallyAIwill enablewidespreadidentitytheft andeventhe looting of people’spersonal accounts? After all the money Meta hasmade, have they shown any indication that they have enough? Should we be trusting them after they failed to enact guardrails to protect children?

BRUCE BAIRD NewOrleans

Processing our crawfish in Mexico alabeling issue

While Iappreciate and agree with the Legislature’spushto make sure imported seafood is labeled as such, I’m wondering how we’ll treat our crawﬁsh that are sent to Mexicofor processing Will these be labeled “foreign?” Will there be tariffs placed on them when the whole crustacean reappears at our border as frozen tails?

Anyone ﬁgured this outyet?

MARYANN STERNBERG Baton Rouge

the writer’scity of

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

YOUR VIEWS

Demonstrators rally outsidethe U.S. Supreme Courtasjustices hear oral

President Donald Trumpcan denycitizenship to children

Statesillegally or temporarily, on Capitol Hill, in Washington on April1

High courtcan unwind legal thicketinbirthrightcitizenship

On the issue of birthright citizenship, which was heard by theSupremeCourt: Hopefully they will identify and resolve the conﬂict that exists between immigration law and the14th Amendment,which grants citizenship at birth, as it applies to families. As thelaw currently stands, parents who enter the country illegally are subject to deportation,while their newborn, because of the parents’ illegal entry,isa citizen and cannot legally be deported.This places thegovernment in the unenviable position of legally separating the parentsfrom their child or risk breakingits own law by deporting the child as well. I’m noattorney,but hypothetically,it seems that under current law,the parents could self-deport and leave behind their

child, who as acitizen would becomeaward of the federal government. Under current law, theparents are legally bound to leave and the child is legally eligible to stay.I know that is an extreme example, because not manyparents would choose to leave their child behind; it illustrates the conﬂict that currently exists between birthright citizenship and immigration law

Perhaps,because citizenship has certain benefits, it might be argued that granting birthright citizenship tothe child of undocumented parentsiscontrary to lawsthat prevent benefiting from an illegal act. I’m confident that the Supreme Court will figure it out. That’swhy they get the big bucks.

SAL RAGUSA Old Jefferson

MPERSstandsupfor officers’rights despitewhatN.O.mayor believes

My husband Russell served as chief of police for the town of Dubach for more thana decade. He then took aposition at Louisiana Tech University,where he was covered by astate retirement system. He came back to Dubach in2024 as apatrol officer at $14 an hourbecause he loved his community. Twelvedays later,while conducting atraffic stop, hewas struck by an 18-wheeler and killed. Russell knew what it meanttolose aparent in the line of duty.His father was apolice officer killed in the line of duty before him In the days, weeks and months following hisdeath, my focus was not on policies, retirementsystems or legal obligations.My focuswas on my children, remembering my husband and simply trying to survive an unimaginable loss. That is still my focustoday

The Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement Systemreached out to me more than

Fifty-six yearsago, Iwas achild looking up into the afternoon sky as Apollo 11 landed on themoon,hoping for avisible sign. It seemed anything was possible. That night, I watched blurry moonwalkers plant aﬂag on the surface of themoon they came to for all mankind.

Last week, Iwas ﬂipping back and forth between two webpages. Onewas showing me thefar sideofthe moon, never before seen by thehuman eye. The other was showing me threats from thepresident of the United Statestowipe outa civilization and sendthe peopleofIran back to theStoneAge. The sentiment was accentuated with curse words. My childhood optimismhas been replaced by aconﬂicting reality Icannot resolve.

JANE GOODMAN Baton Rouge

ayear later.The town that employed my husband never enrolled him,asthe law required. The sametown he had served as chief. He was not protected. Iwas not protected.MPERS is now doing what the law requires them to do —ensuring that the beneﬁts owed to my family are provided.

New OrleansMayor Helena Moreno calls what MPERS is doing bullying. From where Istand, this is not bullying —itisaccountability.Itisthe law being upheldafter it was not followed.

Every officer who puts on abadge deserves to know that if the worst happens, his family will receive the monthly lifetime benefits the law promises —and will not have to wait more than ayear to learn that his employer never enrolled him in the first place. That is not bullying. That is the law

JENNIFER CROXTON Dubach

Agrieving mother’s pleafor gun safety

Guns are everywhere. The Second Amendment protects our right to bear arms. And while I certainly support that, Icannot support reckless gun owners. My son Noahwas 13 when he passed. He had the curliest blond hair and alaugh that came from deep down. Everyone whoknew him loved him Noah’sdad and Iraised him to respect the dangers of weapons. He began hunting when he was 3. Like mostchildren, he wastaught to never point agun at another person. He also was never able to access agun unsupervised. Ithought all parents were as diligent about gun safety as we were. Ibelieved all parents would lock weapons up. It’s simple to do, so whywouldn’tparents make certain that their families were safe?

On Dec.30, 2011, Noahwas accidentally shot and killed by his friend. There wereseveral guns in this child’sbedroom, unlocked. In asplit-second bad decision, Noahbecame astatistic. From my heart, Icannot blamethe foolish decision of achild. My son’s death is because of the shooter’s parents. It wastheir responsibility to keep him safeintheir care. If they had kept their guns out of reach, Imight not wake up every day to the horrible reality that Noahisgone. Nothing has changed since Noah’sdeath. Since 2015, more than 68 people in Louisiana have been shot and killed by children. Just recently,an8-year-old in Baton Rouge accidentally killed her 10-year-old sister.But our state has an opportunity to protect children. House Bill 586 by state Rep. Vincent Cox makes it illegal to allow achild to access agun. Please, let’smake our state safer Please tell Noah’sstory to all who will listen. And please, lock up your guns.

ASHLYN CARRAWAY Plaquemine

In hiring coaches Will Wade andLane Kiffin, LSUbetrays totallackofintegrity

The LSU football and basketball situation is adisgrace. Idon’tblame Lane KifﬁnorWill Wade. Iblame the so-called leadership at LSU. Anything to win. Hire afootball coach whowalked out on his team at the start of ahistoric playoff run. Then, hire abasketball coach whopractically destroyed the same program that you just hired him to lead. Obviously,the LSU board, president and athletic director have no moral compass and no guiding principles. Just win, no matter what you have to do or whoyou have to hire. Ihope they are investing as much money in the academic programs at LSU. Idoubt the board, president and AD care about the engineering department as much as football and basketball.

The so-called leaders at LSU should take alook in the mirror and ask themselves if this is what they want. If it is, LSU has deeper problemsthan we realize.

PAUL HASNEY Metairie

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARIAM ZUHAIB

arguments on whether

borntoparents whoare in the United

PROVIDED PHOTO

The Artemis II crewcaptured thisimageofthe Orientale basin, around crater with ablack patch in the center,onthe Moon during a lunar flyby.

Rescuedrecipes area link to life before Holocaust

During my lifetime, whether at home or in my restaurants, I’vecome to believe the most powerfulstories that end up staying with you aren’tdelivered by spoken word; they’re experienced around adining room table. With afork and knife in hand,you prepare to feel somethingintimate. Your entire body becomes thesetting. Aromas drift through the air in shifting currents. Sounds, from afar to between your teeth, ﬁll your ears and demand an emotional response. Textures from crispytosoft, and temperatures from frozen to steaming,create lasting pathwaysto memory that nopointof view can ever reach as deeply If youwant to teach alesson,ortell a story that you hope lasts,share ameal with someone. The body becomes a sponge, absorbing the lessonsofthe past while the future waitsjustahead, ready for your mind to enter Over the past several years, I’ve begun ajourney that has become some of the most meaningful work of my life. I’ve been cooking recipes from afamilycookbook rescued from Steven Fenves’ home in 1944, as his family was being sent to Auschwitz. We’ve raised close to $1 million for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by hosting intimatedinners across the country to tell astory —one of heroism,horrorand food

The heroinewas Maris, theFenves family’scook, who had the bravery and foresight tosave Steven’s mother’s handwritten recipe collection from the kitchen as their neighbors looted their home. The horror was life under the Nazis, from beginning to end.And the food was memory.Memory of afamily gathered at the table,sharing ameal in away so many of us take forgranted. At these dinners, which we call Rescued Recipes, Iwatch people gather; children, teenagers,youngand old, ﬁlling their plateswhile reconnecting with something in their own lives.As they engage with the gastronomic history of aHolocaust survivor’sstory,I see more than astory beingtold. Isee feeling take shape and memory born Thatperspective carrieseven greater weight as our communityobserves Holocaust RemembranceDay,or Yom HaShoah.

We are losing ﬁrst-person accounts every day. Steven passed just last December,and we now carry theresponsibility of ensuring ourchildren never forget.Six million Jews were murdered. Millions more were persecuted.Millions of non-Jews were killed for opposing the fascist regime These facts are essential, but how will we continue to teach them?

What does it mean to teach Holocaust history through food? Acrust of bread shared in secret.Agrandmother’sreciperemembered but never written down. Aholiday meal reimagined from scraps. That may be where ourminds go first when asked. Though all true, they are just part of astory and not reflective of the whole. Anormal Tuesday night dinner in 1938, asimple breakfast before seeing thechildren off to school in 1940. A family,talkingabout their day,inthe flickeringshadows of Shabbat candles in the dining room.

June Hersh and Iset out to capture these stories for an upcoming cookbook. After years of research and conversations withHolocaust survivors and World WarIIheroes, we found the mostpowerful moments in people’s memories were not only about the worst parts of thewar,but about daily life before it. Perhaps asimple bowl of oatmeal drizzled withFrench honey,handrolled Polishdumplings or asucculent chocolate cake from anearly century-old recipe still carries lessons we can use today.Lessons of family values and our innate ability to inspire change in the world through good deeds. Toooften, we get caught up in theprecision of cooking, or the absence of it, and lose sight of the essence of the meal, the storyline. How we not only nourish our bodies, but how we sustain our spirit Andthat mattersnow more than ever Hatred and division have not only endured since thelast world war; they’ve accelerated at the speed of the internet and caused harm in every facet of life. Even food has not escaped. The simple act of gathering to eat and drink to celebrate culture, practice religion or just have lunch can be weaponized. We may experience this anger moreoften in thecomments section than on street corners, but it happens there too and inﬂicts pain on all. Every time we set thetable, we are given achoice. Food can heal. It can teach.Itcan connect. Let’sremember that this year on YomHaShoah.

AlonShayaischef and co-founder of Pomegranate Hospitality, which includes Saba, Safta’s Table and Miss River

Watching the enthusiasm, especially among people younger than me, over the Artemis II mission around the moon, recalled that the last men to land on the lunar surface did so in December 1972. Twogenerationshave beenbornsince then and for them the excitement of apowerful rocket and the danger involved in such amission is something new

This is about to come true with socialism as it is being imposed in New York City by Major Zohran Mamdani,its longtime American “prophet,” Sen. Bernie Sanders,D-Vt., and others in and outofCongress. Many younger people who voted for Mamdani have no idea what socialism looks and feels like. They weren’taround for the Cold War. They neverhad to liveunder socialism. It sounds so “fair,” thedistribution of wealth to others whohave not earned it; wealth that wascreated by capitalism, which in their schools and among their Instagram-using friends they have come to hate, but don’tknow why.Yet, fornow,theystill beneﬁt from capitalism.

Younger people (and older ones for different reasons) are thrilled by the Artemis II adventure. They seem unaware of what that earlier space program did to bring Americans together in ways we haven’tseen since theterrorist attack on Sept.11, 2001. Again, another generation has been born since that awful day

Most have never served in our allvolunteer military and in too many instances have been pampered by parents who allow them to liveathome when their degrees in African American or women’s studiesdon’tqualify them for real jobs in an increasingly technologicaleconomy

LETTERS TO THEEDITORARE

As ayoung reporter in Houston,Icovered thespace programinthe late ’60s and early ’70s. It was the product of President John F. Kennedy’s vision to send men to the moon by the end of the 1960s. Those astronauts really were “The Right Stuff,” as TomWolfe labeled them in a book that became ahit movie. Spendingtime in Mission Control, sitting in a simulator, meeting some of theastronauts, including Alan Shepard, John Glenn, DekeSlayton and Jack Lousma, andwatching some of them ﬂy to the moon was thrilling. Though the Vietnam Warraged and demonstrators took to thestreets to protest, theU.S. space program was aunifying force. When Apollo 13 got in trouble (“Houston, we’ve had aproblem”said

Jim Lovell), the three TV networks that had become blasé after previous moon landings at ﬁrst didn’tcover it. Not until an oxygen tank exploded in theservice module, disabling itselectrical and life-support system. Suddenly,the world was again watching thedramaasitdid when Apollo 11 ﬁrst landed men on themoon. Even Congress issued astatementcalling for prayer for thesafe return of the astronauts. That might not happen today We’reagain hearing arguments against spending so much money on space missions when the economy is struggling, but we address both. We have before.

It is said that capitalism raises all boats. Socialism sinks them or at least preventsthem from sailing much at all. People —especially younger people —who have never lived under socialism should study it and listen to or read about people who have.

As for therenewed space program, exploration is in our blood, and with even newer technologies soon to come, we will be able to go even further than anyone has before. Younger people: put down your phones and learn more aboutspace andsocialism.

Email CalThomas at tcaeditors@ tribpub.com

In the 1950s, whenhalf of American adults smoked, many freshmen unpacking at college were greeted by upperclassmen paid by tobacco companies to distribute free cigarettes. In 1964, the U.S. surgeon general said smoking causes lung cancer.Most people, however,had long intuited that inhaling smoke from aburning plant is unhealthy.In a1906 O. Henry short story,acharacter asks, “Say,sport, have you gota cofﬁn nail on you?”

To enhance the credibility of the 1964report, ﬁve of the 10 members chosen for the committeethat wrote it were smokers. In her “The Cigarette:A Political History” (2019), Sarah Milov wrote that the committee“convened in aroom at the National Library of Medicine. The air was thick with smoke and the table covered in papers and ashtrays.”

Until the mid-20th century,smoking seemed sophisticated and glamorous. When it became perceived as dumb and déclassé, life became more regressive: The broadly educated, information-acquiring middle class heeded public health warnings, others not so much. Now, because learning, like everything else, is perishable, smoking is making a mild comeback.

During the pandemic, whenhealth fearsleft isolated people with time on their hands, some picked up cigarettes. The COVID-era smoking surge abated, but now some celebritiesare lighting up. (Perhaps celebrity really does subtract from intelligence.) And more smoking is appearing in movies. (Perhaps the surgeon general should label Hollywood carcinogenic.) This is an era in which, depressingly,“inﬂuencer” is an actual job/career category

The writer and professor Katie Roiphe surmises (in The Wall Street Journal) that “in this era of wellness obsession, of kale salads and Pilates, people who are recklessly hedonistic, who choose pleasure over health, still have acertain kind of glamour.” There now are so few norms to transgress, for some aspiring renegades smoking must sufﬁce Another Roiphe speculation: For young people, “the terribleness of everything” —schoolshooters, climate change, the price of eggs, everything —suggests: Why not “a little stylish self-destruction?” Perhaps teaching middle-schoolers thattheyare destined to die on aboiling planet is agateway to smoking.

The health care sector is 18% of the U.S. economy and rising, partly because of known risky behavior, such as eating grilled cheese sandwiches, and smoking. At aSt. Louis hospital in 1919, adoctor summoned some medical students to an autopsy,saying the deceased’sdisease was so rare they might not see it again in their lifetimes. It was lung cancer. One of the students later wrote that he did notsee another case until 1936. Then he saw nine in the next six months.

Technological progress, war and the emancipation of womenchanged things. Manufacturing cofﬁn nails wasa cottage industry until acigarettemaking machine was inventedin1881, making smoking muchcheaper.Cigarettes, freeora nickel apack, were aperk of soldiering during two world wars and Korea. Womenaswell as meninErnest Hemingway’s1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises” smoke constantly

Today,smokers are usually among society’spariahs, shivering in winter as they puff outside their workplaces. Even though the FatherofOur Country wasaVirginia tobacco farmer,today there are more American ex-smokers than smokers. But cigarette manufacturers still prosper because of what the Economist calls “the counterintuitive economicsof smoking.”

Cigarette companies remain economically healthy because of those smokers who,despite dire probabilities, have not quit and are “price-inelastic” consumers. They are nicotine addicts undeterredby rapid price increases that offset tobacco companies’ volume declines.

Cigarettes are among the world’smost heavily taxed consumer products. Some U.S. state governments are addicted to cigarette tax revenuesand impervious to evidence that at high rates, revenue declines. New York’stax is $5.35 apack. Georgia? Thirty-seven cents. Guess whatstate is alarge source of cigarettes smuggled to New York. Calculating the net costs of smoking, America’s largest preventable cause of death, is complicated. The costs are in health care, lost productivity from illness and shortened lives, and ﬁre damages. But mortality from smoking reduces spending on smokers’ Social Security,pensions and nursing-home care. Smoking has generated interesting product liability litigation because cigarettesare by now almost universally known to be harmful whenused as intended

“Only” 1in4cancer deaths is from smoking-related causes, but who would board aplane with a25% chance of crashing? And whoeversaid that kissing asmoker is like licking an ashtray might have done more than the surgeon general to discourage

smoking.

PROVIDED PHOTO By RUSH JAGOE

Chef Alon Shaya discusses the work he pursued withHolocaust survivor Steven Fenvestorevivepre-warfamily recipes, the centerpiece of a2023 benefitfor the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum held at the home of Cathyand Morris Bartin NewOrleans.

Urchin salad,with peppers, tomatoes and cucumber,isone of the pre-war family recipes brought back to life by aproject from chef Alon Shaya and Holocaust survivor Steven Fenzes.

Alon Shaya GUEST COLUMNIST

Cal Thomas

George Will

Presbyterian church celebrates new pipe organ

BY BOB WARREN Staff writer

Steven Blackmon’s ﬁngers danced across the organ keys as he joyfully played a snippet of Charles-Marie Widor’s “Toccata,” whose powerful but melodic notes ﬂoated through St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Orleans on an otherwise quiet Wednesday afternoon

The piece, composed in the late 19th century as part of the French composer’s “Symphony for Organ No. 5,” is mostly heard at weddings. The joy it brings Blackmon was momentarily transcendent, and he felt 15 again, attending a wedding back in the church in his South Carolina hometown.

“I was absolutely entranced,” Blackmon recalled Now, at 72, he feels just like the kid who ﬁrst fell in love with that sound “It’s like I’m in a dream.”

St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian, where Blackmon has been the organist and musical director for almost 40 years, is in the ﬁnal stages of installing and tuning a massive new pipe organ, a roughly $2.75 million endeavor that was years in the making.

“The desire was to have an organ that was built for this space,” said the Rev Chris Currie, the Uptown church’s senior pastor “But we had to do it in a way that was not a burden to the budget. People have been very generous.” Money for the project came from donations and gifts.

Buying and installing a new pipe organ this large isn’t as easy as heading to the music store, plinking a few keys and saying, “This one, please.”

There aren’t a lot of companies that make and install them, Blackmon said.

Létourneau Pipe Organs in Quebec, Canada, got the job, kicking off a yearslong process that included a multitude of steps between signing a contract in early 2021 and now hearing the music waft through the sanctuary

“You sign the contract, then you wait years,” Blackmon said A finely tuned process

Tailoring the pipe organ to the church started with months of site visits and discussions, along with other prep work.

Andrew Forrest, Létourneau’s president and artistic director, said such “instruments,” as he calls them, are built according to the size, shape and acoustics of the space they will occupy This is no one-size-ﬁts-all operation.

After Létourneau’s crew determined what St. Charles Presbyterian needed, the organ was assembled in Canada, in the company’s shop where it was tested. Then, it was disassembled, loaded onto a 53-foot trailer and trucked to New Orleans in two deliveries, one in the spring of 2025 and the other last fall.

Forrest and other Létourneau technicians arrived alongside it and have spent months in New Orleans during the installation and subsequent testing process called “voicing,” during which the pipes are shaped and manipulated to guarantee the sound quality

“We build it and listened to all the pipes in the shop before we came down here,” Forrest said. “Then we come here and do it again.”

The organ, named “opus 138,” is Létourneau’s 138th since its 1979 founding and its ﬁrst in Louisiana. (The company’s website now says it has completed 143 organs around the globe.)

HURRICANE

Continued from page 1B

about it,” he said.

A pioneer of forecasting Gray wasn’t the ﬁrst person to analyze the many largescale environmental factors that fuel tropical cyclones, and he wasn’t the ﬁrst to attempt to predict how much tropical activity a season would bring.

“But he was really the ﬁrst person to take it, run with it and then turn it into a publicly disseminated forecast,” Miller said.

CSU issued its ﬁrst fore cast, authored by Gray 14 years before NOAA’s ﬁrst came out in 1998.

Seasonal predictions are par for the course now, but CSU hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said that before Gray came along, hurricanes were lumped in with other weather events — and

As Forrest spoke, two other Létourneau employees, Michel Godbout and Keith Johnston, worked through the tedious process of voicing the organ’s pipes — all 4,432 of them.

Though the organ includes myriad computer components — it’s the 21st century, after all the voicing work is as much art as science. Teams from the company arrive, set up at a nearby hotel the Residence Inn is a favorite — and then work long days on-site. After a couple of weeks, they head home for a bit and then return later to pick up the job again

On this day, Godbout had set up his laptop computer in the center aisle of the sanctuary Using a WiFi signal, he connected to the organ and, using his keypad as organ keys, sounds ﬁlled the air as he pressed on them. Tucked away in a small room, “inside” the main organ, Johnston listened for the sound.

Using a handful of specialized tools, including a hammer, Johnston reacted to the sounds by adjusting the individual pipe that produced it. It takes hours because each pipe must be adjusted

The work takes a trained ear, and perhaps isn’t always easy to explain to the layperson.

“Is it too loud? Is it too soft?” Godbout said with a smile and shrug when asked for the speciﬁcs of the task. “It is slow-going.” Forrest grinned. It’s obviously

more complicated than that.

“I couldn’t do what Michel does,” Forrest said.

‘A whisper to a roar’

St Charles Avenue Presbyterian’s French Gothic-style sanctuary, built of Indiana limestone with stained glass imported from Germany, was dedicated in 1930.

The church dates to the early 1900s at its location on St. Charles Avenue at State Street and has a congregation of around 1,200 people. Blackmon said Presbyterian churches are given wide latitude in musical choices, but that St. Charles Avenue’s music leans heavily toward “traditional church music.”

He also said the seasons play a big role in the music.

The sanctuary was damaged by wind and rain during Hurricane Katrina, but reopened in 2007 after an extensive interior renovation.

Blackmon said the original organ was replaced in the late 1970s.

Now the new organ, which Currie and church members are calling the “Centennial Organ,” will take that one’s place.

Blackmon said the dream of a new pipe organ dates back to before Katrina.

“It was kind of a dream of mine back in the early 2000s,” he said. “But obviously after Katrina, there were so many other things happening.”

PHOTO PROVIDED By COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITy Late professor William ‘Bill’ Gray, right, pictured with Phil Klotzbach in 2005, was described as ‘the pioneer’ of seasonal hurricane forecasting

you can’t forecast most weather six months ahead of time. This, of course, was long before computer models and satellite imaging changed the game forever Meteorology in general is still a relatively new field. Klotzbach said weather forecasting gained prominence during World War II, when the predictions were used to help forces on both sides better plan for attacks. D-Day in

particular, when forecasters with the Allied forces predicted a break in bad weather that allowed for the surprise invasion of France, is often cited as a pivotal moment in meteorological history

While there’s still disagreement among experts about how large a role the forecast played in that critical battle, Klotzbach said it got people’s attention, sparking interest among younger generations, including people like Gray

The old organ was “just fine,”

Blackmon allows, but had its limits musically

“It was neo-Baroque. It didn’t play anything well after 1750,” he said.

To make way for the new organ, the old one was disassembled in June 2024. “Some of the old pipes and pieces found new homes,” Currie said.

And the new one?

“It can handle anything,” Blackmon said, grinning. “I only had to stay for 40 years to get my baby.”

During construction, worship services were sometimes relocated to the chapel nearby With no organ in the sanctuary for many months, two pianos — one near the altar, and one in the back, with the choir provided musical accompaniment. The absence of an organ was noticeable, Currie said.

“There were probably 50 to 100 hymns I would not choose,” he said.

“They just don’t feel right without an organ.”

“(The congregation) has been amazingly patient and supportive,” Blackmon added. The new organ has been in use for several weeks now, but a formal dedication will come during a weekend of events April 17-19.

While not cheap, it will prove to be well worth the cost, Currie said.

“It’s a good investment if you value worship.” It will also be a teaching tool, open for use by musicians and music students, as well as a way to engage the community through concerts and recitals.

“This is not just a plaything for us,” Currie said. “It’s an important part of who we are.” Blackmon, meanwhile, envisions a new generation of ears falling in love with this new instrument the way he did when he was young. As he continued his demonstration, his hands moved smoothly between the decks of keys and the series of knobs, called “stops,” alongside them.

“So many colors,” he said of the music. “You can go from a whisper to a roar.”

Email Bob Warren at bwarren@ theadvocate.com.

Shortly after graduating from college in 1952, Gray served as a weather forecast ofﬁcer in the Air Force and later joined renowned hurricane researcher Herbert Riehl at the newly formed Department of Atmospheric Science at CSU in 1961.

It was another two decades before Gray would issue his ﬁrst seasonal hurricane forecast, by which time Gray had made a name for himself in the ﬁeld. By then, Klotzbach said he didn’t care much what his peers thought about attempts to forecast tropical activity

“He already had a fair amount of street cred by that point,” Klotzbach said. “He didn’t really have fear.”

Gray’s ﬁngerprints all over the hurricane world stretch well beyond the seasonal forecasts. He’s credited with identifying the connection between El Niño and lower hurricane activity in the Atlantic, and he advised 70 master’s and Ph.D. students over his long academic career, many of whom, including Klotzbach, went on to become titans in tropical meteorology research.

since 2016 because I love it. Everybody in the neighborhood I talk to says they’re worried about property values with this new substation,” said one neighborhood resident.

Many residents argued that the substation would be unsightly and potentially unsafe and scare off new prospective buyers in the neighborhood.

“I’ve got real concerns with safety,” another resident said. “Fire hazards, noise pollution, lighting issues, EMFs; there’s a reason why we have land use regulations: to protect the residents.”

Questions surrounding whether the company can find a different plot to build a substation that could serve the community were raised during the meeting.

“We wanted to build the substation on an existing transmission line, so that we don’t have to acquire a new line and a new right of way That process is lengthy,” Angelle said.

“You also need these stations to be relatively equidistant, so going far outside the city limits doesn’t really put us in a different situation.”

SLEMCO representatives said moving the substation even to an adjacent property would tack additional years onto the project and would potentially balloon the total cost of the project.

The variance requests were ultimately denied by the council in a unanimous decision Several council members expressed that SLEMCO should have approached the council regarding the need for variances sooner

“You have had this property for two years now,” said council member Lindy Bolgiano. “Why are you coming forward today asking for a variance today as opposed to when you were looking to purchase the land?”

SLEMCO representatives said the company was only recently made aware of the need for variances.

Council member Matt Romero echoed concerns from residents that the prospective substation would lead to a reduction in Youngsville’s overall quality of life.

“Quality of life is the most important thing that we have in Youngsville,” Romero said. “It is very important that we need the electricity, but at what cost?”

It’s unclear whether SLEMCO will attempt to purchase new property for a substation in Youngsville. The company indicated that the time frame for completion of a new project would be five to six years should the variance requests be denied.

But, Klotzbach said, Gray and CSU are best known for the seasonal forecast — “for better or worse.”

No storm surge here

CSU researchers study storms in both the Paciﬁc and Atlantic oceans, and Klotzbach said Gray used to joke that Colorado was splitting the difference. Plus, as Gray used to say “the storm surge can’t get you at 5,000 feet.”

But in reality, satellites and other tools have made it possible to study storms without going out into the field, according to Eric Maloney, a CSU professor and head of the Department of Atmospheric Science.

“A lot of the study of tropical meteorology occurs with tools where you don’t necessarily need to be in the tropics,” Maloney said, though he added that researchers like to get out in the ﬁeld whenever possible. Maloney himself has been out on research trips in the Maldives and Costa Rica.

But to Maloney, it’s not that strange that a school in a landlocked state is among the leading hurricane researchers. When it comes to

the weather and climate, it’s ultimately all connected. Hurricanes might not directly impact Colorado, but landlocked states feel the effects of the tropics on a larger scale That’s partly why CSU’s roughly 200 atmospheric science faculty and students study such a broad range of issues.

“It forges a lot of interesting collaborations at the intersection of weather and climate and air quality,” he said.

Email Kasey Bubnash at kasey.bubnash@ theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE

Keith Johnston voices pipes at St. Charles Presbyterian Church on March 4.

Steven Blackmon plays the new pipe organ.

Klotzbach

SPORTS

MASTERFUL COMEBACK

AUGUSTA, Ga. Rory McIlroy didn’thavehis A-game in the ﬁnal two rounds of the Masters tournament. It might not have even been his B-minus game.

After building aMasters record sixstroke lead after 36 holes, the Northern Irishman hit his ball all over eastern Georgia. Left. Right. Water.Woods. He made adouble bogeyonthe 11th hole Saturdayand anotherone onthe fourthhole Sunday

But here he was, at the endofanother Masters Sunday,sliding intohis green

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

Chris Olave rebounded nicely from an injury-plagued2024 season, and Devaughn Vele emerged late in the season as the ballwinner the New Orleans Saints havebeen seeking foryears —yet receiverisstill very much in the mix with the No. 8pickinthe upcoming NFL draft. New Orleans has usedfree agency to shore up some of its offensive shortcomings around quarterback Tyler Shough,signing some of the best available players at guard (David Edwards) and running back (Travis Etienne).But the Saints have not yet added another pass catcher to themix Olave, Vele and tight end Juwan Johnson represent asolid starting point. But beyond them, there are alot of question marks. Former2024 second-rounder Ja’Lynn Polk was an interesting investment,but he missedall of lastseasonwitha shoulder injury and is almost acompleteunknown. Free agent tight end Noah Fant is now onhis fourth team and has been solid, not great,

UL tops Southern Miss for impressive series win

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

UL coach Matt Deggs and the Russo Park fans kept waiting forthe knockout base hit. It never came. Fortunately forthe Ragin’ Cajuns, ace reliever Cody Brasch wears red, and he posted three shutout innings to help

Beltplay, while theGoldenEagles fell to 25-11 and 8-7. The Cajuns don’thave a midweek gamescheduled forthis weekand will next play at Troy on Friday “Yeah, Ireally thought we’dpop one right there, Idid,” Deggs said. “Wehad acouple of bats in there. Ithought,man,kindofthe way we’ve been going the last couple of days,I thought we might pop one, but we didn’t.

jacket for the second straight year,the World No. 2holding off hardcharging World No. 1 Scottie Schefﬂer by one stroke.

That’swhat great golfers do. Winwhen they aren’tattheir best.And after joining another exclusive golﬁng club, that’s what McIlroy is: truly one of the greats this ancient game has ever seen.

Ayear ago, McIlroy became just the sixth man ever and ﬁrst European to win the career grand slam —the Masters,

throughout his career.The rest of the roster is stacked with playerswho should be ﬁghting for roster spots. Three wide receivers in this class ﬁgure to be in the mixfor the SaintsatNo. 8, and several others who could make sense on Day 2if NewOrleans goes in adifferent direction with its top pick. OptionsatNo. 8 Ohio State WR CarnellTate, 6-foot-2, 192: Forget the mini controversy over Tate’s40-yard dash time (4.53 seconds) at theNFL combine;the Ohio Stateproduct can play If his speed was an issue,that’snews to

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

Flau’jae Johnson’sLSU career came to an abrupt, unceremonious conclusion, and she didn’thave much time to sit with the disappointment of that Sweet 16 loss to Duke. Things move quickly forplayers in her position. The ones whowrap up their senior seasons, then quickly turn their focus to the WNBA draft process. Johnson wasonly aweek intoitwhenshe received akey to the city of Baton Rougeinaceremony outside City Hall. That morning, thedraft was only nine days away,and she wastrying to keep up.

“This whole process is crazy,”Johnson said. “It’s like,you’reright into it.I’m doing alot of workouts, training, trying to get ready for training camp, but I’m excited though.” Johnson is widelyexpected to be aﬁrstround pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, which will begin at 6p.m. Monday in New York City(ESPN). ESPN’s latest mock drafthas the Chicago Sky choosing her with the ﬁfth overallselection, andThe Athletic’slatest forecast has the Washington Mystics scooping her up with the No. 9overall pick.

LSUhitsballhardinlosstoArizona

BY JIM KLEINPETER

Contributing writer

LSU softball swung its bats hard in search of athree-gamesweep of No.13Arizona, buthard-hit balls workedagainst the Tigers this time.

The No. 21 Tigers hit into three double plays and watched an early lead evaporate in a4-2 loss at Tiger Park on Sunday LSU (28-14) outhit the visitors 8-4 but left seven on base in additiontothe threewiped outin twin killings. That undermined a strong pitching effort by Paytn Monticelli (3-3), who had astrong outing in the circle.

“Itfeels like we always endupon the wrong side of that, I’m notsure why,” LSU coach Beth Torinasaid. “Wework on it and talk aboutit.

“The offense continues togrow Overall, it’s agreat weekend. Of course we’d like to have this one back. Winning the series is not enough. We need to keep playing and try to win everygame. On the other hand, it’sareally greatteam having agreat year,sogetting two wins is abig deal.”

Monticelli retired 10 of theﬁrst 11 batters before Sydney Stewart launched her 15th homer over the left-field fence beyond both retaining walls. Arizona, held to apair of unearned runs in each of the first two games, used its speed to tie and go ahead with three in the sixth inning. Regan Sharkey hit aleadoff single, and one out later Stewart walked. Jayden Heavener replacedMonticelli and threw out Tele Jennings on agrounderback to the mound. But Sharkey turned third and kept coming, beating the throw from Tori Edwardsina close play at the plate.

Heavener walked thirdbaseman Jenna Sniffen before Emma Kavanaugh hit atwo-rundouble to left for the margin of victory She hit asinking line drive that bounced just in front of left ﬁelder Maddox McKee, whohad just entered the game for Char Lorenz, who moved to catcher when Maci Bergeron was injured on the play at the plate.

One of the double plays shortcircuited what could have beena big third inning when LSU took a 2-0 lead. Singles by Ally Hutchins and Jalia Lassiter and awalktoSierra Daniel loadedthe bases with oneout. Kylee Edwards singled home arun and Alix Franklin was hit by apitch to score another off of starter Jenae Berry Arizona ace Jalen Adams en-

teredthe game and got Tori Edwards to hit aone-hop smash to Sniffen, who stepped on the bag and threw to ﬁrst to endthe inning. Sniffen started allthree doubleplays.

In the previous inning, the Tigers had runnersonfirst and second when Lorenz hit alinerto Sniffen, who threw to secondto getToriEdwards.LSU letanother two-hitinning go to wastewhen Sierra Daniellined out to Sniffen, who threw Lassiter outatfirst. Kylee Edwardsfollowed with her second hit butFranklin grounded out to shortstop

“We’re definitelyhitting the ball hard,” said Lassiter, who raised her batting average to .323 with threehits.“They madenice plays, they were playing us deep. We had trouble reading theball right there, freezing on the line drives. That’show softball goes sometimes.”

“Arizonais agreat team and has been for years. Coming outwith the series (win) was awesome. Today’sgame taught us alot.”

LSUreturns to action Tuesday at UL in a6 p.m. game and hosts

Cajuns suffer anotherSun Belt road sweep

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

As UL’s road series at James Madison this weekend progressed, two things became quite evident.

One, the Dukes can really swing the bat, and two,the Ragin’ Cajuns had no answer for it. One day after run-ruling UL with10runs, James Madison crushed the ball again, completing the weekend sweep of the Cajuns with a15-9 win Sunday in Harrisonburg, Virginia

The Cajuns are now close to the .500 mark at 22-21 overall and 5-10 in Sun Belt play,while the Dukes are now 19-20 and 7-8. UL will next play LSU at 6p.m. Tuesday at Lamson Park.

Suffering another road sweep wasn’t abnormal. TheCajunsare nowjust 2-14 in road games, including 1-8 in Sun Belt play

UL’s lack of pop was even more evident in this seriesagainst the potent JMU lineup. In Sunday’s game, the Cajuns did get home runs from Haley Hart and even agrand slam from Lily Knox, but there was only oneother extrabase hit the rest of the game.

The Dukes powered their way to seven extra-basehitswith three home runs and three doubles in torching UL’s staff

The Cajunsbuilta 4-1 lead after arun in the ﬁrst and three more in the second. Brooke Otto’sRBI single got UL on theboard,and Hart’stwo-run homer followed Natalie Johnson’srun-scoring single for athree-run lead.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD KEMP UL right fielder Lily Knox, shownduring agame earlier this season, had twohits on Sunday,includingagrand slam, in a15-9 loss at James Madison.

But James Madison responded with nine runs in the third inning against three UL pitchers to take fullcontrol of thegame.

Bella Henzler got theball rollingbefore Kylee Gleason’stworun triple. Kendra Lewis later smashed atwo-run homer after Madison Edwardshad arunscoring singleofher own. Cali Legzden and Lili Smith both hit homersinthe fourth to put ULinjeopardy of asecond straight run-ruleloss. Instead, Knox powered aﬁve-

run fifth for the Cajuns with a grand slam, along with Cecilia Vasquez’sRBI singleafter Mia Norwood’sdouble. UL starting pitcherLexie Delbrey was saddledwiththree runs on two hits,three walks and one strikeout in 21/3 innings. Julianne Tipton fell victim to four more unearnedruns in onethird of an inning before Sage Hoover gave up four runs on four hitsintwo-thirdsofaninning. Bethaney Noblefared thebest

on the day,surrendering three runs (twoearned) on three hits, no walks and one strikeout in 22/3 innings. Conversely,JMU’stop two pitchers didn’tfare well, either Starter Kirsten Fleet allowed four runs on five hits in 12/3 innings and Payton List allowed five runs on five hitsinthreeinnings.

Taylor Johnson was the pitching standout of the day, tossing 21/3 shutout innings with no hits, two walks and one strikeout.

Skytrades for rising star Jacksonfrom Sparks

The Chicago Sky acquired Rickea Jacksonfromthe Los Angeles Sparks for Ariel Atkins on Sunday Jackson wasthe No.4pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft andaveraged 14.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and1.7 assists last season.

“It’sthrilling to acquire oneof the great young talents in this league in Jackson,”Sky general manager JeffPagliocca said. “Rickeaisonly going to continue to ascend, and the organization is excited to witness that growth ﬁrsthand.”

It wasa difﬁcult offseason for Jacksonwhenher ex-boyfriend, Atlanta Falcons player James Pearce, wasarrested and charged in adomesticdispute incident in February

The Sky had givenAtkins the franchise tag earlier this week.

Orioles’ Eflin aims for 2027 returnafter surgery

BALTIMORE— Zach Eﬂin is looking forward to 2027, less than aweek after having Tommy John surgery on his 32nd birthday He left his March 31 season debut after striking outseven and allowing onerun in 32/3 innings against Texas. He had elbow reconstruction surgery Wednesday

“I’m in alot better spot than I was aweek, aweek anda half ago,” Eflin said Sunday.“Iknew something happened on the field. Really felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. Iwas going through so much thisoffseason to come back on time and Ihonestly never felt better in my career before.” Eflin was 6-5 with a5.93 ERA in 14 starts while making three trips to the injured list last season.

Blue Jays put DH Springer on 10-day injuredlist

TORONTO— The Toronto Blue Jays put designated hitter George Springer on the 10-day injured list Sunday because of afractured left big toe and selected Eloy Jiménez from Triple-A Buffalo. Springer fouled aball off his foot in the third inning of Saturday’s 7-4 loss to Minnesota. He ﬁnished the at-bat, but was replaced by Myles Straw in the sixth. Springer went 0for 1with awalk and scored arun Saturday.He’s batting .185 with two homers and six RBIsin14games. Springer wasabig part of Toronto’s run to the 2025 World Series, hitting .309 with 32 homers and 89 RBIs in theregular season. He also hit the decisive homer in Game 7 of the ALCS against Seattle.

Father of wheelchair racingHalldiesat74

BOSTON BobHall, achildhood polio survivor whobecame known as the father of wheelchair racing aftertwice winningthe Boston Marathon and then going on to build racing chairs forthe generations of competitors that followed, has died. He was 74. TheBoston AthleticAssociation saidonSundaythatHall’sfamily confirmed his death after an illness. In 1975, Hall convinced Boston Marathonorganizers to lethim into the race and was promised a finishers’ certificate like the one the runners got if he completed the26.2-mile distance in under3 hours. (In 1970, Vietnam Warveteran EugeneRoberts,who hadlost both of his legs in the war,needed morethan six hours to finish.) Hall crossed the line in 2:58.

Bridges extends NBA’s longestactivestreak

NEW YORK MikalBridgeshad anothershort night to extend the NBA’s longest active streak of consecutive games played, logging 23 seconds in the New York Knicks’ gameagainstCharlotte on Sunday That made it 638 consecutive games forBridges, whohas never missedone in his pro career.He recently moved past Andre Miller forthe eighth-longest streak in NBAhistory Bridgeswas the only Knicks starter to play with the team locked into the No. 3seed in the Eastern Conference. Coach Mike Brown said he would only allow the guard to play long enough to extend the streak, and reserve Jordan Clarkson wasalready walking to the scorer’stable to replace him even before theopeningjump ball. Five NBAplayers had streaks of more than 700games, ledbyA.C Green’s1,192.

Ole Miss in an SECseries next weekend. “We’re in agood spot with abig

week in front of us,” Torina said. “A huge test on Tuesdaytoplay ULL, it’salways abig deal.”

PHOTOSByMICHAEL BACIGALUPI

ABOVE: LSU shortstopKylee Edwards hits against Arizona on Sunday at TigerPark. Edwards had an RBI in thethirdinning of the 4-2loss. BELOW: LSU pitcher Paytn Monticelli warms up vs. Arizona on Sunday

LSU has produced top-10 picks in each of the past two years. Both Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow were chosen seventh overall in their respective drafts. If Johnson is taken with one of the first 15 choices on Monday, then the Tigers can say they’ve turned out first-round picks in three consecutive WNBA drafts for the first time in the program’s history Johnson was eligible to declare for last year’s draft, but because she decided instead to return for her senior season at LSU, she’ll now be part of the first rookie class that plays under the league’s new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which was ratified on March 24. Under the old CBA, rookies earned modest five-figure salaries Now, Johnson — and any other player chosen in the draft will each pocket at least $270,000 annually

The LSU star said on March 19 that she was “very excited” that the league and its players hammered out the terms of a “transformational deal” only a few weeks before she begins her professional career Because they did, she now has significantly more earning potential.

“I’ve been watching it all day on ESPN,” Johnson said “It’s so dope. Salaries going from 60K to 300K is a crazy leap. I’m ready to hear about the things they have on housing and traveling and all of that, but this is generational.”

Whichever team chooses John-

Continued from page 1C

we’re used to those games. We’re comfortable there.”

Of course, it helps to have Brasch pitching the final three innings to nail down his ﬁfth save of the season.

“He’s something, man,” Deggs said of Brasch. “He got (Davis) Gillespie to swing at a fastball in the dirt. That’s one of the best hitters in this league. You don’t see hitters swing at fastballs in the dirt very often — breaking balls, yeah, but fastballs, no.”

Brasch got a clean seventh and then stranded two singles in the eighth.

“I was a little bit gassed there at the end,” Brasch said. “I felt like I could have gone at least one more.”

In the ninth, a leadoff walk was quickly erased by a double play ball before a groundout ended it.

“Oh yeah, that felt amazing,” Brasch said of the 5-4-3 double play “I was starting to get gassed at the point. I saw the ground ball and I was like, ‘Let’s go, thank you.’ It kind of lifted a weight off my shoulders.” Brasch walked one, struck out three and threw 45 pitches to close out the win.

“We’ve been in a little bit of a rough patch,” Brasch said. “Winningthisseriesreallymeansalotto me, really means a lot to the team, the coaches, and I’m just thankful that I get to be on this team and win these games with these guys.”

Offensively, the Cajuns couldn’t getmanybighitstoextendthelead, but Donovan LaSalle got one in the second inning to give UL a 3-0 lead.

“My teammates, they just put me in a great situation, getting on base — just doing their job in that situation, “ LaSalle said. “You just have to do whatever you can to do the job and get it done. I was just trying to do it for them.”

On one hand, the Cajuns scored three runs in the second and then again for the next three innings to

SAINTS

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per reception Among the top three receivers in this class, he probably has the best combination of size and big-play ability Tate’s highlight reel is littered with him getting big separation from college defensive backs, but he also showed he could do the dirty work, hauling in 12 of his 14 contested catch opportunities and going through the 2025 season without dropping a single pass. If there’s any downside to drafting Tate with their top pick, it is that his game is fairly similar to Olave’s. He’s a downfield threat who doesn’t bring much juice after the catch. But New Orleans would probably be happy with two Chris Olaves on the ﬁeld. USC WR Makai Lemon, 5-11. 192: For someone who draws a lot of comparisons to Detroit Lions All-Pro

son will land a long, athletic threelevel scorer who has shown she can defend multiple perimeter positions. Her senior year was an uneven one, but she still drained a career-high 39% of her 3-pointers and turned the ball over a careerlow 1.7 times per game.

Johnson is at her best in transition, but because she’s an efﬁ cient outside shooter and a disruptive perimeter defender, she can ﬁt on just about any team in the WNBA.

The league may pick apart some of Johnson’s inconsistencies. This past season, for example, she scored 20 or more points about as many times (seven) as she ﬁnished with fewer than 10 (eight).

But Johnson spent three years as one of the top scoring threats on one of the best programs in the country, and she consistently elevated her play in some of the biggest games of her career

Johnson scored 15.4 points per game on 47% shooting in the regular-season matchups she played across the past three years of her career But in those seasons’ NCAA Tournament contests, she scored 18.6 ppg on 54% shooting.

Only five players have ever scored more points in an LSU uniform than Johnson did. Two of them were ﬁrst-round WNBA draft choices Seimone Augustus (2006) and Sylvia Fowles (2008) LSU has produced nine of those players since the league was founded in 1997.

Johnson should become the 10th on Monday, not even three weeks after Duke ended her hopes of leading LSU back to the Final Four

“I don’t have any expectations,” Johnson said. “I’m just like, wherever I go, I’m gonna kill.”

take a 6-4 lead into the sixth inning.

On the other hand, it could have been a whole lot bigger lead than that. UL stranded 10 runners on base from the second through ﬁfth innings.

“We just kept going, man,” LaSalle said. “Just staying off results, just the key thing We just stuck together and we bonded together It was just a great team win all weekend and we just competed as a whole team.”

Rigoberto Hernandez got things going in the second with a long double to left-center and scored on Colt Brown’s single to right to set up LaSalle’s big single.

The Golden Eagles tied it with three of their own in the third. Gillespie’s sacrifice fly got the first run home. Then Ben Higdon’s ground ball deep in the hole at shortstop was slickly fielded, but the throw to second was wild to chase home two runners to tie the game.

In the third Brown’s sacriﬁce ﬂy made it 4-3, but UL stranded two in scoring positions with a pair of strikeouts.

In the fourth, Hernandez followed three hit batsmen with a bases-loaded walk, but the Cajuns left them loaded with one out on a strikeout and ground out.

The unsettling trend continued in the ﬁfth. Steven Spalitta was hit by a pitch and scored on Lee Amedee’s bases-loaded walk, but again UL left the bases loaded with a strikeout.

During that parade of missed opportunities, the Eagles got an RBI double from Joey Urban in the fourth and a homer from Seth Smith with one out in the sixth to stay close at 6-5. Parker Smith kept UL strong by only allowing one run over 2.2 innings in relief of starter Ty Roman, who gave up three earned runs on six hits in 3.1 innings.

“Ty competed really well,” Deggs said. “I thought the key to the game was Parker holding it so we could get to Cody.

And as usual, the junior righthander from Haslet, Texas, answered his call.

Amon-Ra St. Brown, the 2025 Biletnikoff Award winner is still a somewhat polarizing pro prospect. Unlike the other top receivers in this class, Lemon primarily proﬁles as a slot receiver in the NFL — which is where he played the overwhelming majority of his snaps with the Trojans last year The team that drafts him will need a strong vision for how he ﬁts within their offensive system. But for the Saints, his particular skill set might just be the missing ingredient in their aerial attack: Lemon is one of the best play-making receivers in this class with the ball in his hands. The USC product racked up more than 600 yards after the catch last season, moving more like a running back than a receiver after the catch. He is a strong runner for his size and has a knack for eluding or breaking through tackles. That would be a welcome addition for a Saints team that struggled to generate YAC last year, ranking 22nd.

LSU lands transfer PG Williams

Former Iowa State guard commits to Tigers following a visit Saturday

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

The LSU women’s basketball team secured a commitment Sunday from former Iowa State guard Jada Williams. Williams, a 5-foot-6 rising senior is one of the top players in the transfer portal. She scored 15.3 points and assisted 7.7 shots per game this past season, finishing the year as one of only nine Division I players who both scored at least 15 points and set up at least ﬁve shots, on average, each night. Only two guards assisted more shots per game than Williams did in 2025-26, so she’s a natural ﬁt for

the role at LSU left behind by Jada Richard — the point guard from Opelousas who decided to enter the transfer portal last Thursday after a breakout sophomore year Like Richard, Williams ﬁnished this past season with a 2:1 assistto-turnover ratio. But Williams converted both her ﬁeld-goal attempts (42%) and her 3-pointers (30%) at lower percentages than Richard did.

Williams, though, has more experience She was a top-25 recruit in the Class of 2023, according to ESPN, and she’s started 90 career games — 58 at Arizona and 32 at Iowa State.

With Williams on board, LSU now has as many as six perimeter players on its 2026-27 roster MiLaysia Fulwiley and Mikaylah Williams can return next season. So, too, can ZaKiyah Johnson, and the Tigers are exploring the possi-

bility that they can move her from the post to the perimeter Their lone 2026 freshman signee is Lola Lampley — a 6-foot-2 wing from Indiana. On Saturday, LSU signed Florida guard Laila Reynolds, a 6-foot-1 senior Mulkey and her staff still have a few moves to make this offseason, particularly in the frontcourt. The transfer portal is open until April 20, and LSU can recruit players who entered it both before and after it closes.

So far, they’ve lost four players to the transfer market: Richard, freshmanDivineBourrage,freshmanBella Hines and senior Kailyn Gilbert. Bourrage is signed with Illinois, and Hines is committed to TCU. Williams arrived in Baton Rouge for a visit on Saturday night. Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

TWICE AS NICE

McIlroy goes back-to-back at the Masters

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy

joined more elite company Sunday at the Masters when he pulled away with a pair of birdies around Amen Corner and as usual, saved a little drama for the end before taking his place in Augusta National history as only the fourth back-to-back champion.

In a final round where three players had a two-shot lead, McIlroy seized control for good with a bold shot over Rae’s Creek to 7 feet for birdie on the par-3 12th. Then he blistered a 350-yard drive on the par-5 13th that set up another birdie to move three shots ahead. There were a few dicey moments, including a shot over the par-3 16th green that required him to use the slope to get in close for par, having to get up-and-down for par on the 17th and a wild drive on the 18th that wound up closer to the 10th fairway He tapped in for bogey and a 1-under 71 for a one-shot victory

RABALAIS

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U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship — joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. This year, he becomes just the fourth back-to-back winner in Masters history, joining Nicklaus, Woods and Nick Faldo.

Cervantes wrote in Don Quixote, “Tell me your company, and I will tell you what you are.” The company McIlroy keeps on those two lists tells you a great deal about his talent as a player even if that talent looked a little wobbly at times over the past two days with all those wayward shots.

“To the volunteers,” McIlroy said during his green jacket ceremony speech, “I made you work overtime this week to clear a lot of patrons out of the way, because I hit it in a lot of pine straw.”

This victory was peak McIlroy

On the demanding par-3 fourth hole, he hit it left of left, even missing the greenside bunker leading to a double bogey He airmailed the green on the next par-3, the sixth, leading to a bogey that dropped him to 9-under par and two strokes behind playing partner Cam Young.

Arizona State WR Jordyn Tyson, 6-2, 203: If this were just about Tyson, the player, the conversation would be quite simple He’s a big and twitchy athlete, which makes him a nightmare against man coverage (4.63 yards per route run against man last year, according to The Ringer)

But this is not just about the player, but also his injury history

He started his college career at Colorado but had his freshman season cut short by a torn ACL, MCL and PCL; he then missed the Sun Devils’ 2024 playoff run with a broken collarbone and sat out four games last season because of multiple hamstring injuries.

Tyson only participated in the bench press at the combine, in part because of his hamstring injury

He might end up being the best receiver in the class, but the team that draftshimisgoingtohavetobecomfortable with the medical history

The intriguing risk

Louisville WR Chris Bell, 6-2, 222: While

AP PHOTO By AP

Rory McIlroy holds the trophy after winning the Masters tournament on Sunday in Augusta, Ga.

over Scottie Schefﬂer

A year ago, his playoff victory over Justin Rose made McIlroy only the sixth player with the career Grand Slam. With another green jacket, McIlroy joined Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only repeat winners of the Masters.

“I just can’t believe I waited 17 years to get one green jacket, and I get two in a row,” McIlroy said “I think all of my perseverance at this golf tournament over the years has

Still, McIlroy had the conﬁdence of a major champion. The experience of a man who has gotten himself into tight spots before and found ways to wriggle out.

“I looked at the scoreboard after I made bogey on 6. I said, ‘OK, if I get to 14 under I’ve got a pretty good chance to win,’ ” McIlroy said. Here he was, going south, having dropped two strokes to par and having gone from six ahead to start Saturday’s third round to two behind, and he was thinking about getting all the way to 14 under?

McIlroy didn’t get to 14 under, but didn’t have to. He went to 18 with a two-stroke lead over Scheffler the anti-Rory of this golfing drama, the first man since World War II to play the weekend here without a bogey Scheffler shot 65-68, roaring from 12 strokes back of McIlroy at the Masters’ midway point to the point of still having a chance to scoop up a third green jacket.

McIlroy looked like he’d give him that chance, driving so far right on 18, he was almost in the 10th fairway But, with typical Irish aplomb, he hooked an iron over the trees, into a bunker and got down in three to ﬁnish at 12 under “I was so happy to hang in there and get the job done,” McIlroy said. What job is next for him? He

we’re on the topic of interesting players with a concerning injury history, here is Shough’s former favorite target at Louisville. Bell was in the midst of an outstanding senior season at Louisville before he tore his ACL in late November against SMU. While he has said he will be ready for the start of training camp, it is deﬁnitely possible he is not ready to contribute in a real way until the 2027 season.

That said, Bell is a big, physical receiver who can slot in as an X receiver and also win underneath.

His breakout college season came with Shough at quarterback, when he hauled in 43 receptions for 737 yards (a career-best 17.1 per catch) with four scores. Last season, Bell caught 72 passes for 917 yards and six touchdowns before his injury Day 3 tight ends?

Notre Dame TE Eli Raridon, 6-6, 245: Another player with some concerning injury history (Raridon has torn

really started to pay off. It was a tough weekend. I did the bulk of my work on Thursday and Friday

“But just so, so happy to hang in there and get the job done.” McIlroy stood tall when he tapped in the ﬁnal putt to ﬁnish at 12-under 276. There was no relief like last year of going 17 years trying to win the Masters. This was pure joy And for the first time since 2002 when Woods went backto-back, it was up to the Augusta National chairman, Fred Ridley, to help him into the green jacket.

“It still ﬁts, which is nice,” McIlroy said at the trophy presentation. President Donald Trump congratulated McIlroy on social media as he ﬂew back to Washington from Florida.

“With each year, Rory is becoming more and more a LEGEND!” Trump wrote. McIlroy’s next tournament is likely to be the Cadillac Championship in two weeks at Trump Doral outside Miami. It was more heartache for Rose, and frustration for the others who had a chance. Rose had a two-shot lead that evaporated around Amen Corner with two bogeys and a three-putt par.

now has six majors, tied for 12th most all-time with Faldo, Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino. He’s about to turn 37, but with two Masters, two PGAs and a U.S. and British open each, you have to say a chance at a double career grand slam — something only Nicklaus and Woods have done with three each — is doable.

Meanwhile, former LSU AllAmerican Sam Burns leaves here still seeking his ﬁrst major title. Burns started the day one stroke back of McIlroy and Young, then grabbed a share of the lead with a 20-foot birdie putt on the ﬁrst hole after driving in its cavernous fairway bunker

But the pushed tee shot on the first was a harbinger of Burns’ struggles most of the day His drive on the second went even farther right, resulting in an unplayable lie that led to a double bogey 7 on a typically gettable hole. Burns rallied late with a 62-foot bomb of a birdie putt on the 16th hole and finished in a tie for seventh at 9 under Not the finish he wanted, but it matches his best showing in a major and was by far his best showing in the Masters. Maybe Burns will one day get there. McIlroy is already there, keeping company with other golfing greats.

his ACL twice), he could be an intriguing Day 3 option to develop behind Johnson and Fant. He has potential as a fieldstretching Y tight end (he ran a 4.62-second 40-yard dash) who also adds something as a blocker Raridon didn’t ﬂash his pass-catching ability until his senior season, when he caught 32 passes for 482 yards with a long of 65. Houston TE Tanner Koziol, 6-7, 247: While Koziol may be something of a one-dimensional player at this stage in his development, it’s hard to argue with his body of work as a pass catcher He hauled in a whopping 94 passes in his junior season at Ball State before transferring to Houston, where he became a semifinalist for the Mackey Award after catching 74 passes for 727 yards and six touchdowns — including a 9-76-1 line against LSU in the Texas Bowl. Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate.com.

TheCornstalk Hotel in the French Quarter is well-known for its leafy cast-iron fence. There is alocal legend thatthe notorious pirateJean Lafitte forged this ironinhis Bourbon Street blacksmith shop as acover for his smuggling operations. Most of it actually was imported

GROWTH INDUSTRY

Is

it true

that Jean Lafitteforgedthe CornstalkFence design in NewOrleans?

BY RACHEL MIPRO

Contributing writer

The Cornstalk Hotel in the French Quarter is known for its whimsical cast-iron fencebursting with yellowears of corn,pumpkins and vines In the almost 200 years of its existence, many legends have sprung up regardingthe fence’sorigins. One reader’squestion: “Is it truethatJean Laﬁtte forged theCornstalk Fence?” Whileapirate-blacksmith makes for abetter story,the fence owes its existence to aPhiladelphiaironcompany anda citywide craze for cast-iron work.

The property, at 915 Royal St., was ﬁrst notable as theresidence of Francois Xavier Martin, the state’sﬁrst attorney general. He lived in the house from 1816-26. Theproperty’ssecondowner,Dr. Joseph Secondo Biamenti, bought the brick townhouse in 1834. Biamenti had the fence built in 1856 At the time, cast-iron technology was at its peak in the city.

Ann Masson andLydia Schmalz’s “Cast Iron andthe CrescentCity”

THETIMES-PICAyUNEFILE PHOTO

This pre-Civil Warhomeinthe Garden District is famous forthe Cornstalk Fence which surrounds it. The fence wasuprooted from a home in the Vieux Carreand moved to this home. At the height of New Orleans prosperity,expressionin wrought and cast iron became a waytodenote status.

chronicled theuse of the technology,attributingthe ﬁrst presence of it to the Leeds Iron Foundry in 1825.

Howtokeepyourdog

By the American Kennel Club (TNS)

Carsickness isn’tjust aphenomenon that humans experience. In fact, carsickness in dogs is acommon condition. The American Kennel Club provides tips on howto predict, relieve and control your dog’s carsickness. Just like humans, motion sickness in dogs is relatedtothe sense of balance duetothe structures of the inner ear.Sometimes they neveroutgrow thenauseaand vomiting causedbymotion

Beforethe advent of cast iron, wrought iron was the predominant metal form. While durable, wrought iron was expensive and much morelaborious, apainstaking and time-intensive craft for blacksmiths who hammered out thematerial to produce wrought iron designs. The new technique added carbon to melted iron, which weakened the material enough that it could be poured into molds and mass-produced. While more brittle, this product was much faster to makeand could incorporate moreelaborate designs. Much of New Orleans’ decorative ironwork, such as balconies, fences and galleries, owes its existence to this new form of ironwork.

Wealthy heiress Baroness de Pontalbawas one of the most prominent adopters of the new style, popularizing iron-lace galleries and incorporating the look into her Pontalba Buildings, which still line Jackson Square today “Residentswere especially receptive to the new material and used it to replace earlier wroughtiron decoration,” Masson and

ä See CURIOUS, page 6C

Volunteers turn afan’s recordings of 10,000 concerts into an online treasure trove

BY CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press

On July 8, 1989, ayoung music fannamed AadamJacobs, witha compact Sony cassette recorder in his pocket, went to see an up-and-coming rock band from Washington for their debut show in Chicago. After ablast of guitar feedback,22-year-old Kurt Cobain politelyannounced to the crowd at thesmall club called Dreamerz: “Hello,we’re Nirvana. We’re from Seattle.” With that, the band, then aquartet, launchedintothe riff-heavy ﬁrst song, “School.”

Jacobssurreptitiously recorded the performance, documenting the ﬂedgling band in raw,ﬁery form more than two years before Nirvana’sglobal breakthrough with the album “Nevermind.”

Jacobs went on to record more than10,000 concerts, with increasingly sophisticated equipment, over four decades in Chicago and other cities. Nowa group of devoted volunteers in the U.S. and Europe is methodically cataloging, digitizing and uploading them one by one.

The growing AadamJacobs Collection is an internet treasure trove for music lovers, especially for fansofindie and punkrock during the 1980s through the early 2000s, when the scene blossomed and became mainstream. The collection features early-intheir-careerperformances from alternative and experimental artists like R.E.M.,The Cure, The Pixies, The Replacements, Depeche Mode,Stereolab, Sonic Youth and Björk.

on March19.

There’s also asmattering of hip-hop, including a1988 concert by rap pioneers Boogie Down Productions. Devotees of Phish were thrilledtodiscoverthat apreviously uncirculated 1990 show by the jam band is included. And there are hundreds of sets by smallerartists who are unlikely to be knowntoeven fans withthe mostobscure tastes. Allofitisslowly becoming available forstreaming and freedownload at the nonproﬁt online repository InternetArchive, including that nascent Nirvanashowrecording, with the audio from Jacobs’ cassette recorder cleaned up. Firstrecording wasin1984

By the time Jacobssneaked histape recorder intothatNirvana gig, he had been recording concerts for ﬁve years already As ateen discovering music Jacobsbegan tapingsongs off the radio. “And Ieventually met afellow whosaid, ‘You can just take atape recorder intoashowwith you, just sneak it in, recordthe show.’ And Ithought, ‘Wow, that’scool.’ So Igot started,” Jacobs, now 59, recalled.

ä See CONCERTS, page 6C

STAFF FILEPHOTO By SOPHIAGERMER

AP PHOTO By NAM y. HUH

Brian Emerick playsarecorded tape at hishome in Des Plaines, Ill.,

Carrythe essentials in avacationﬁrst-aidkit

Dear Doctors: My son’sfamily is taking their first road tripvacation this summer.Iwant to pack up afirst first-aid kit forthem and could use your advice. It’s him and his wife and two boys, 12 and 14. They willbedoingtourist stuff, plus stops for hikingand swimming. What are themusthaves?

Dr.Elizabeth Ko

Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THE DOCTORS

Dear reader: It takes alot of planning to get ready for aroadtrip vacation —especially when traveling with kids! We’resure your first-aid kit gift will be wellreceived. The ideal first-aid kit for this type of trip can handle a widerange of day-to-day medical situations. It’salso important that it doesn’ttake up valuable space. First, the family should bring any prescription medications they take. They shouldcarry these in their original containers. Prescriptioncontainers include important information such as dosage, physician andpharmacy information. Theseshould be packedtogether in asturdy,waterproof bagorcase. TheRed Cross recommends making copiesofall prescriptions so if you runout,orthey getlost or damaged, refills are easier Amedical alert bracelet for

anyone with achronic condition, such as diabetes or asthma, is also asmartprecaution. Backup pairs of prescription glasses or contacts can come in handy.Ifsomeone has asevere allergy,itisrecommended to travel with at least two epinephrine auto-injectors. We can expect afamily to deal with scrapes, cuts, sprains, fever, headaches or tummy troubles in any given week. When it’ssummer,add in sunburn, bug bites and, in some locations, poison oak or poison ivy.For pain and headache, you’ll want over-the-counter anti-inﬂammatory medications in the age-appropriate dosages. Keep these in their original packages as well. Scrapes and cutscall for gauze pads, an assortmentofadhesive bandages, saline packetstoclean

CONCERTS

Continued from page5C

He doesn’tremember offhand what that ﬁrst concert was in 1984, but he tapedit with atiny Dictaphone-type device that he borrowed from his grandmother.A short time later,hebought the Sony Walkman-style tape recorder.When that broke, he briefly used his home console cassette machine stuffed in abackpack that agenerous soundman let him plug in.

“I was using, at times, pretty lackluster equipment, simply becauseIhad no money to buy anything better,” he said. Later,hemoved on to digital audio tape, or DAT, and, as technology progressed, to solid-statedigital recorders.

Jacobs doesn’tconsider himself obsessive or,as many call him, an archivist He says he’sjust amusic fan. He figured if he was going to attend afew concertsaweekanyway, why not document them? In the early years, he contended with contentiousclub owners who tried to prevent him from taping. But they eventually relented as he became aﬁxture in the musicscene, and many began letting the “taper guy” in for free.

Author Bob Mehr,who wrote about Jacobs in 2004 for the Chicago Reader,calls him one of the city’scultural institutions.

“He’sacharacter.Ithink you have to be, to do what he does,” Mehr said. “But I think he proved over time that his intentions were really pure.”

After filmmaker Katlin Schneider made adocumentary about Jacobs in 2023, a volunteer with the Internet Archive reached out to sug-

CURIOUS

Continued from page5C

Schmalz wrote. “Ornamental cast iron was most popular during the 1850s, a period of growthand prosperity in New Orleans.”

gest his collection bepreserved.“Before all the tapes started not working because of time, just disintegrating, I ﬁnally said yes,” he said Boxesstuffed with tapes

Once amonth,Brian Emerick makes thetrip from theChicago suburbsto Jacobs’ house in the city to pickup10or20boxes each stuffed with 50 or 100 tapes. Emerick’sjob is to transfer —inreal time— the analog recordings to digitalfiles that can besenttoother volunteers who mix and master the shows for upload to thearchive. Emerick has a room devoted to his setup of outdated cassetteand DAT decks.

“So many of the machines Ifindare broken. They’re trashed. And so Ilearned how to fix those, get them running again,” saidEmerick. “Currently,I have 10 workingcassette decks, and Irun those all simultaneously.”

Emerickestimates he’s digitized at least 5,500 tapes since late 2024 andthat it will take anotherfew years to complete theproject. Thedigital ﬁlesare claimed by adozen or so volunteerengineers in the U.S, U.K. and Germany who provide the metadata and clean up the audio.Among them is Neil deMause in Brooklyn, who said he’sconstantly impressed by theaudiofidelity of the originaltapes, especially considering Jacobs was using “weird RadioShack mics” and other primitiveequipment.

“Especially after the ﬁrst couple years, he’sgot it so dialed in thatsomeofthese recordings, on, like, crappy little cassette tapes from the early ’90s, sound incredible,” deMause said. Emerickpointed toa 1984 James Brown concert as a

For Robert Wood of the Philadelphia-based Robert Wood, Iron Rail Foundry and Manufacturing company,business was booming by 1853, according to the Metal Museum’sresearch on cornstalk fencepatterns. He later partnered with Elliston Perot, merging into theWood &Perot Ornamental Ironworks. To keepup with New Orleans demand for material, thecompany established aNew Orleans branch, Wood,Miltenberger &Co. in the1850s. According to theMetal Museum’s account, Biamenti commissioned thecastiron fence for hiswife, who was from Iowa and missed the ﬁelds. The designwas later featured in aWood &Perot catalog,leading to several reproductions aroundtown.While the fence on Royal Street is the mostfamous, another cornstalk fence can be found at

gem he discovered in the stacks.

Often, the hardest jobis ﬁguring outsongtitles. Occasionally,Jacobs kept helpful notes, but thevolunteers frequentlyspenddaysconsulting each other,searching and even reaching out to artists to makesure thesetlists are accurately documented. Jacobs saidthe majority of the artists he recordedare pleased to have their work preserved. As for copyright concerns, he’shappy to removerecordings if requested,but addedthatonlyone or twomusicians so far have asked that their material be taken down.

“I think thatthe general consensus is,it’seasier to say I’m sorry than to ask for permission,” he said. The Internet Archive declined to comment for this story

David Nimmer,a longtime copyright attorney who also teaches at the University of California, LosAngeles, said that under anti-bootlegging laws, the artists technically own the original compositions and live recordings. But sinceneither Jacobs nor thearchive is proﬁting from theendeavor,lawsuits seem unlikely

The Replacements, afoundational punk-alternative band, were so happy with Jacobs’ tapeofa 1986 show that they mixed some of it in with asoundboard recording. They released it in 2023 as alivealbum as part of a box set produced by Mehr Jacobs stopped recording afew yearsago as worsening health problems sapped his desiretogoout and see concerts. Buthestill enjoys experiencing live musiche ﬁnds online, much of it recorded by anew generation of fans.

“Since everybody’sgot a cellphone, anybodycan record aconcert,” he said.

theCornstalk Fence Mansion in theGarden District. Production of cast-iron designs died down withthe advent of the Civil War, when iron was needed for wartime efforts, but the metal remainsa signature feature for thecity

Do you have aquestion about something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your questionto curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phone number and thecitywhere you live.

wounds andantibiotic ointment. Include elastic wraps formuscle sprains or strains. Antihistamines can help ease allergy symptoms and the itching of ahealing sunburn.

Car sickness can ruin the day, so age-appropriate nausea meds are agood idea. The samegoes for antacids and antidiarrhea meds—aweek or two of eating out can have unexpected consequences. If you know the family’s preferences in sunscreen, include agenerous supply.Ifthey will travel in buggy areas, bug repellent to fend off bites, calamine lotion for rash and low-dose topical corticosteroids forlocalized itch will be helpful. Round outthe kit with afew equipment staples like adigital thermometer and asmallpair of

round-tipped scissors. Tweezers, instant cold packs and disposable gloves would also be good. Asmallfirst-aid booklet might also be useful. For peace of mind, print alist of urgent care centers along the vacation route that take the family’sinsurance. Remind the parents that the first-aid kit, and particularly the medications, must be protected from extreme heat and cold. You’re giving athoughtful and useful giftthat —fingers crossed —will barely be opened.

Send yourquestions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla. edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd.,Suite 1450, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday, April 13, the 103rd day of 2026. There are 262 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On April 13, 1997, Tiger Woods, at age 21, became theyoungest golfer to win theMasters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, ﬁnishing arecord 12 strokes ahead of TomKite.

Also on this date:

In 1743, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was born in Shadwell in theVirginia Colony.

In 1861, FortSumter in South Carolinafell to Confederate forces in the ﬁrst battleofthe Civil War.

In 1873, membersofthe pro-White, paramilitary White League attacked Black state militia members defending acourthouse in Colfax, Louisiana; three White men andas many as 150 Black men were killed in what is known as the Colfax Massacre,one of the worst acts of Reconstruction-era violence.

In 1943, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial in Washington on the200th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became theﬁrst Blackperformer to win an Academy Award for Best Actorfor hisperformance in “Lilies of theField.”

DOG

Continuedfrom page5C

like home foryourdog to keep them comfortable and surrounded by familiar smells.

5. It may be agood idea to buy aspecial toy that you only give theminthe car This can help themassociatecar travel withfun.

In 1999, right to die advocate Dr.Jack Kevorkian wassentenced in Pontiac, Michigan, to 10 to 25 years in prison forseconddegree murder foradministering alethal injection to apatient with ALS, also knownasLou Gehrig’s disease. (Kevorkian ultimately served eight years before being paroled.)

In 2005, adeﬁant Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks in back-toback court appearances in Alabamaand Georgia. (He received multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.)

In 2009, at his second trial, music producer Phil Spector wasfound guilty by aLos Angeles jury of second-degree murder in the shooting of actor Lana Clarkson. (Later sentenced to 19 years to life, Spector died in prison in January 2021.)

In 2011, afederal jury in San Francisco convicted baseball slugger Barry Bonds of asingle charge of obstruction of justice but failed to reach averdict on three counts at the heart of allegations that he knowingly used steroids and human growth hormone and lied to agrand jury about it. (Bonds’ obstruction conviction was overturned in 2015.)

In 2016, the Golden State Warriors became the NBA’s

thecar withyou forafew minutes aday

Slowly increase the progression of exposure by turning on the car andincreasing thelength of time in the car.Besure to go at your dog’space and keep your cool.

Medication foryourdog

There are also physical remedies such as medications and natural herbs and plantsthatm helpt al

first 73-win team by beating the Memphis Grizzlies 125104, breaking the 72-win recordset by the Chicago Bulls in 1996. In 2017, Pentagonofficials said U.S. forces strucka tunnelcomplexofthe Islamic State group in eastern Afghanistanwith the GBU43/B MOAB “motherofall bombs,” the largest nonnuclear weaponeverused in combat by the military In 2023, FBI agents arrestedMassachusetts Air NationalGuard member Jack Teixeira in acase involving the most consequentialnationalsecurity leak in years. (Teixeira admitted thatheshared highly classifiedmilitary documents aboutthe warin Ukraine on the social media platform Discordand was sentenced in federalcourt in 2024 to 15 yearsinprison; he also receiveda dishonorable discharge at acourtmartial in 2025.)

Today’sbirthdays: Singer Al Green is 80. Actor Ron Perlman is 76. Singer Peabo Bryson is 75. Bandleader-drummer Max Weinberg is 75. Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 63. Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III is 62. Actorcomedian Caroline Rhea is 62. Actor Rick Schroder is 56. Actor Glenn Howerton is 50. Actor Kelli Giddish is 46. Singer-rapper Ty Dolla $ign is 44. Actor Allison Williamsis38. Actor Filip Geljo is 24. Actor Dylan Conrique is 22.

tionsorherbal remedies. Formoreinformation on responsible dog ownership, visit the AKC at www.akc. org.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTO By NAM y. HUH

Aadam Jacobs plays aLP(long play) record at his homeinChicagoonMarch 19.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Put some passion into whatever you choose to do. Home improvement projects that lower your overhead or make your life more convenient or comfortable are favored.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Emotional choices regarding how to help others or a cause that concerns you will be difficult. Don't jump to conclusions or make decisions for the wrong reasons.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Put your energy where it helps most and makes you feel good about yourself and what you accomplish. You are overdue for a change, but before you begin, check the cost and time it will take to achieve your goal.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Back away from people eager to take advantage of you or tempt you to overspend, overdo or overindulge. You owe it to yourself to concentrate on personal growth and self-improvement projects.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Take control; if you let others make decisions for you or handle your affairs, your expectations will not be met. Do your research, put in the legwork and finish what you start.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Visit places that inspire you or attend lectures or events that fire you up and get you heading in a direction that motivates you to do your best. Trust your instincts and follow through.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct 23) Stick close to home and to those who make you feel

comfortable. Focus on relationships that offer equality and dedication, not on people who take advantage of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) You have plenty to look forward to if you stick to simple plans and life's little pleasures. Focus on love, relationships and how and where you choose to live.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Put your emotions aside and focus on decluttering your life Address health concerns, implement a fitness routine and start striving for personal growth and a healthy glow.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Finish what you start. Taking on too many projects will lead to uncertainty and mistakes. Pay more attention to your domestic concerns and how you present yourself to the world.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Think matters through before initiating your plans. An opportunity will arise at appointments, interviews or personal discussions with someone who can help you improve your domestic situation.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Pay attention to how you look and act, and opportunities will follow. Charm, enthusiasm and innovation will put you in a leadership position. A change to your environment will work in your favor.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

FAMILY CIrCUS

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

TODAy'S CLUE: U EQUALS E

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

And erneSt

bIG nAte

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudokuis anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers The object is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Saturday’sPuzzle Answer

TimeS CroSSword

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

Bridge

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Don Marquis, awriter and humorist whodiedin1937, said,“Apessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.”

At thebridge table, apessimist will sometimes comeout ahead of an optimist.

In today’s deal, South is in four spades. Westcashes his three top clubs,then shiftsto, say,ahearttoSouth’s ace. How would the approaches varybetween an optimistand apessimist?

Theauction was straightforward. Northhadamaximuminhigh-cardterms for asingle raise and held four trumps, buthehadtheworstpossibledistribution andoneofhisred-suitqueensratedtobe worthless.

Withnolosersintheredsuits,declarer justhas to draw trumps safely.The optimist, expecting the suit to break 2-2 or 3-1, would immediately play aspade to dummy’s queen andgodown one.

Thepessimist wonders what to do abouta4-0 split, which will happen 10 percentofthe time. He will realize that ifEast has all four spades, the contract has no chance. But if West holds fourof them, they can be picked up as long as declarerkeepsdummy’skingandqueen hovering over West’s jack and 10. So South cashes his spade ace at trick five.

wuzzles

WhenEastdiscardsaclub(alwaysthrow black on black if you can afford to do so), declarercontinueswithalowspade,capturingWest’scardascheaplyaspossible. Then, if necessary,Southreturnstohis hand with aheart or diamondand leads anotherspade,pickingupWest’strumps withoutfurther loss.

Syndication

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

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of

letters by the

or more letters. 2. Wordsthat acquire

of “s,” suchas“bats”or“dies,”are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s”may not be used. 4. Proper nouns,

or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAY’sWoRD KnEEcAP: NEE-kap:Toshoot or otherwise disablethe knee of someone.

Averagemark15words

Time