The Advocate 04-13-2026 by The Advocate

PrivateLouisiana zoo navigatesturmoil

one of twootters looksout its winter enclosure after

Afterescapes,lawsuits andanarrest, preserve in East Felicianaisupfor sale

BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer

U.S. says it will blockade Iranian ports

Ceasefire talksend

BY MUNIRAHMED, JOSH BOAK, SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

ISLAMABAD President DonaldTrumponSunday said the U.S. Navy would swiftly begin a blockadeofshipsentering or leavingthe Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran ceaseﬁre talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement. U.S. CentralCommand announced that it will blockadeall Iranianports beginning Monday at 9a.m. CENTCOM said the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.” It said it wouldstill allowships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transitthe Strait of Hormuz Trump wants to weaken Iran’skey leverage

ä See BLOCKADE, page 6A

Thearrest capped abusy andtumultuous fewyears for Ligon, who runs Magnolia Wilds, aprivate zoo in the East Feliciana Parish town of Ethel.

ä See ZOO, page 6A

On aFriday in January at theDallas-FortWorth airport, as passengers filed off a flight from Costa Rica into aloomingwinter ice storm, de put ie s were waiting at the gate for aLouisiana zooowner known for sloth selﬁes and otter swims. In his 30s, Gabe Ligonhas spent much of his life traveling the world in thename of conservation —serving as boardpresident of Kids Saving theRainforest, a Costa Rica-based nonproﬁt that rescues and rehabilitates sloths, parrots and primates. But for over four months, awarrant had been out for his arrestfor felonytheft. Upon landing, Ligonwas bookedasafugitive into theTarrantCounty Jail.

BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer

It has protected the New Orleans area fromMississippi River flooding for nearlya century,but changing conditions, environmental damage andnew scientificanalysis are raising athorny question: Is there abetter way to operate the Bonnet Carre Spillway? MississippiGulf Coast communities hit hardbythe influx of fresh water andpollution from recent spillway openings believe there is, and they presented new scientific evidence to make their case last week. But while theremay be

widespread agreement on the problem,addressing it is no simplematter. Suggestions for how to alter the lower river’sﬂood control systems

sionedwould likely require

BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer

Ligon

STAFF PHoToSByMICHAEL JoHNSoN

swimming at the Magnolia Wilds preserve in Ethel.

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-fil-A

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

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian vot-

ers 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.

Stampede in Haiti kills at least 25

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.

HELP@THEADVOCATE.COMor225-388-0200 News Tips /Stories: NEWSTIPS@THEADVOCATE.COM

JUSTIN 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.

HOMES

Continued from page 1A

Real estate agents and locals call the shift in Bay St. Louis striking. Million-dollar properties are selling along the shoreline, but also on small canals and streets a few blocks off the beach Many highend properties sell fast.

Louisiana natives who grew up vacationing on the Mississippi Coast are turning second homes into full-time residences. New Orleanians are spending weekends house hunting in Bay St. Louis. Homes across the city that were once passed down through generations are now selling to buyers from New York and Texas

In Hancock County home to Bay St. Louis, Waveland and Diamondhead, the median home sale price has risen by more than than $80,000 in the last ﬁve years, according to the Gulf Coast Association of Realtors.

Estimates from the U.S. Census

SPILLWAY

openings in recent years, including a record-setting 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 week propose speciﬁc limits on how much river water should be allowed through Bonnet Carre to protect vulnerable oyster reefs in the Mississippi Sound. Future installments of those studies will delve further into spillway-related issues. The Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the spillway, is also engaged in a larger 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’s congressional delegation has prodded the agency to look for alternatives.

The Mississippi Sound Coalition of coastal communities and others affected has also pushed for federal legislation to address their concerns. They say solutions are available that do not put New Orleans in harm’s way

“We’re still dying a slow death — death by 1,000 cuts and we’ve got to turn that around with a massive change in the management of the lower Mississippi River,” said Gerald Blessey, a former mayor of Biloxi who helps lead the coalition.

‘Always been a balance’

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

To keep the lower Mississippi’s flow below 1.25 million cubic feet per second, or more than 550 million gallons every minute, cranes open some or all of the spillway’s 350 bays, sending river water tumbling through a spillway that empties into Lake Pontchartrain. The river water then eventually finds its way through the Rigolets and into the Mississippi Sound.

It has worked as designed, relieving pressure on the river to avoid levee breaks 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.

Eight spillway openings were required between the 1930s and the end of the century but seven have been needed since, including two 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. Studies show that could lead to the pendulum

Bureau also show the percent of households in the county that earn

$200,000 or more a year jumped from 2.8% between 2015 and 2019 to 6.5% between 2020 and 2024.

“It’s getting pretty pricey,” said Regan Kane, a real estate broker based in Bay St Louis. “It’s just really not a local market anymore.”

‘A slower lifestyle’

Newcomers say they are choosing Bay St Louis for its easygoing culture and small-town feel.

“It’s a real neighborhood,” said Joe Barenberg, a retired executive who started a company that became a major global manufacturer of polyester resin 15 years ago. He and his wife will split time between Dallas and their new Bay St. Louis home starting this spring.

“The sense of community in Bay St. Louis is just so gravitational,” Barenberg added.

Rachael Catalanotto, an attorney whose ﬁrm is based in Lafayette and Covington and employs lawyers licensed in Louisiana and

Mississippi, said she loves the Bay because “it’s a slower lifestyle.”

Her family is closing on a waterfront home in May that includes a pool, pier and boat lift

“Bay St. Louis kind of hooks you in,” she said. “You just fall in love with it. It’s hard not to.”

The city has long been a second-home market, but real estate agents say the latest shift is unique The market began surging after the COVID-19 pandemic, when buyers realized they could work remotely

Most newcomers come from New Orleans and Baton Rouge. But the city’s exposure in lifestyle magazines, including Southern Living, has grown so much that buyers from California and other far-ﬂung places are noticing. Real estate agents say they are selling to families from Tennessee and other parts of Mississippi, too.

The market mirrors beach cities across the Gulf Coast. Home prices have doubled over the last decade in Baldwin County, Alabama, where newcomers are

arriving in the popular cities of Daphne, Fairhope and Orange Beach. Some Florida Panhandle buyers priced out of the high-end 30A area are moving to Panama City Beach, where luxury homes are also selling fast.

The Gulf Coast’s inﬂux is arriving as more American families rise into the upper middle class. But Hancock County is still cheap compared to most beach destinations across the region: Its median home price last year was about $270,000.

“It’s still so reasonable and competitive compared to the Panhandle and Orange Beach,” Kane said “That’s a big driver on why this afﬂuent market has picked up so much.”

Holly Lemoine-Raymond, a real estate broker said Bay St. Louis has become a “true lifestyle destination” over the last decade.

“The growth has been steady and intentional, driven by buyers seeking a slower pace and a more reﬁned coastal experience,” she said.

Market challenges some locals

The county’s shifts are bringing benefits and challenges. County leaders say afﬂuent homebuyers send more tax dollars to the region and often do not strain systems like public schools.

Locals and real estate agents also say the rising prices mean young families from Hancock County are struggling to buy their ﬁrst homes in Bay St. Louis Many are moving to Diamondhead, north of Interstate 10, where homes and insurance rates are cheaper

Danny Lee, chief executive officer of the Gulf Coast Association of Realtors, said the group is brainstorming new strategies to spur affordable home developments across the Mississippi Coast to accommodate locals priced out of the market.

“The secret is out,” Lee said. “We have the full beach town community for a fraction of the price of anywhere else. We’re still considerably cheaper than our neighbors.”

swinging more forcefully between higher and lower ﬂows due to both increased rainfall and more drought.

There are potential ways to lessen the amount of water through Bonnet Carre and distribute it elsewhere, but they will likely require more study, discussions with impacted communities and, eventually, changes in federal law

Mark Davis, of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources, Law and Policy, said it was overdue for management of the lower river to be reconsidered, and that the recommendations from Mississippi communities seem “credibly developed.”

But he noted the complications in addressing them, the need to remember Bonnet Carre’s ﬂood control importance and the limitations on the Atchafalaya River, which has been suggested as an alternative route to channel some of the water

“It’s always been a balance between what you put down the Mississippi, what you put into Lake Pontchartrain, and what you put down the Atchafalaya, and all of those things change,” he said.

“There’s only so much water you can put down the Atchafalaya without changing the Atchafalaya and its ability to handle future ﬂoods.”

‘We actually get win-wins’

The University of Southern Mississippi scientists behind the studies released last week presented their findings to the Harrison County Board of Supervisors in Gulfport. The Northern Gulf Institute oversaw the work on behalf of the Mississippi Sound Coalition

The research used complex modeling to identify

tipping points for when oyster reefs 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 the spillway and for how long, while taking into consideration other rivers in the area, including the Pearl and Pascagoula. The studies look at how much fresh water the oysters are typically able to tolerate to reach the conclusions

To allow the ﬁndings to be understandable to nonscientists, it translated water amounts into percentages of the total volume of Lake Pontchartrain.

The research concluded that, generally, the total volume of water allowed through the spillway should be limited to around 80% of Lake Pontchartrain in cases where the opening lasts less than three weeks. If the opening is longer than three weeks, further considerations should be made on amounts

As a comparison, the two openings in 2019 funneled through an amount of river water nearly six times the volume of Lake Pontchartrain — 566% across 123 days.

The studies also go further to recommend the maximum amount of water that should be allowed through per day to allow the Sound to cope with the inﬂux.

“If they operate the Bonnet Carre Spillway and potentially other spillways to minimize impacts by just operating it for three weeks at a time, we actually get win-wins,” said Paul Mickle, co-director of the Northern Gulf Institute.

“We protect New Orleans,

we protect our oysters, the marine resources for Mississippi and Alabama are protected for our generations to come.”

‘Nature forcing our hand’

How to achieve those limits is where the problem becomes complicated.

The Mississippi drains more than 40% of the contiguous United States, and the water must go somewhere. Any change in one location has ripple effects

One potential change being looked at by the Corps is whether to allow greater ﬂexibility in the amount of Mississippi River water sent down the Atchafalaya

through the Old River Control Structures near Angola, the agency said in a statement. Those structures keep the Mississippi from changing course to the Atchafalaya, which would happen naturally if allowed.

The amount of water that can be allowed through to the Atchafalaya is set in federal law: 30% of the combined ﬂow of the Mississippi and Red Rivers.

Greater flexibility could allow more water through when the Mississippi is high, less when it is low The Corps says that “in turn has the potential to impact the duration and frequency of Bonnet Carre Spillway operations.”

Apart from that, Mississippi Gulf Coast officials advocate for using the Morganza Floodway more. Bonnet Carre’s sibling, the Morganza funnels Mississippi water to the Atchafalaya Basin and eventually the Morgan City area. It has only been opened twice since its completion in 1954, most recently in 2011.

The problem with both of those suggestions is multilayered.

The first has to do with objections from residents and businesses. The Port of Morgan City says the increased sediment that

would come with more water would clog up its facilities and prevent deep-water access, putting billions of dollars in business at risk.

Officials in Morgan City itself have also expressed concerns over the potential for flooding, while communities in the Morganza Floodway’s path may have to evacuate more often if its use increases.

The other complication is a legal one. The triggers for when Bonnet Carre and the Morganza are opened are deﬁned in federal law just like the Old River parameters. While the maze of considerations can seem endless, change may eventually be forced upon the nation as the climate evolves, Davis said.

“We’re always one event away from nature forcing our hand. But I can tell you this: When that moment comes, it’s better to have thought through your options than to start thinking in the moment,” he said.

“If there’s one lesson that Mississippi is showing that they’ve learned, it is don’t wait for the crisis, and don’t even wait for the next opportunity Prepare for it.”

Email Mike Smith at msmith@theadvocate. com.

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ASSoCIATED PRESS PHoTo By JACQUELyN MARTIN

Vice President JD Vance, left, talks to Asim Munir, right, Pakistan’s chief of Defense Forces and chief of army staff, and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, center, Sunday before boarding Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan.

BLOCKADE

Continued from page 1A

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

‘If you fight, we will fight’ Iran’s Revolutionary 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-hour talks, the U.S. military said two destroyers had transited the strait ahead of mine-clearing work, a ﬁrst since the war began. Iran denied it.

Trump’s plan to use the Navy to block the strait is unrealistic and he will have to concede on some issues with Iran, said Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London.

“There isn’t any tool in the toolbox in terms of the military lever that he could use to get his way,” Krieg said.

Trump said Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were 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’s side, addressed Trump in a new statement on his return to Iran: “If you ﬁght, we will ﬁght.”

After ceasefire expires

The face-to-face talks that ended early Sunday were the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Neither indicated what will happen after the ceaseﬁre expires on April 22.

“We need to see an afﬁrmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon,” said Vice President JD Vance, leading the U.S. side. Iranian negotiators could not agree to all U.S. “red lines,” said a U.S official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe positions on the record. These included Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon, ending uranium enrichment, dismantling major enrichment facilities and allowing retrieval of its highly 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 a new dialogue in the coming days. Iran said it was open to continuing dialogue, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

ZOO

Continued from page 1A

Federal regulators in 2023 seized a giraffe named Brazos from his zoo — then known as Barnhill Preserve prompting Ligon to rail against what he called government overreach on social media and to wage battle in federal court.

In 2024, he was sued by a Texas business partner over a preserve they had started there three years earlier

The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts. The foreign minister of Oman, located on the Strait of Hormuz’s southern coast, called for parties to “make painful concessions.” The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “emphasized his readiness” to help bring about a diplomatic settlement in a call with Iran’s president.

Key sticking point

Iran’s nuclear program was at the center of tensions long before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,055 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and damaged infrastructure in half a dozen countries.

Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insists on its right to a civilian nuclear program. The landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump later pulled the U.S. out of, took well over a year of negotiations. Experts say Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away

An Iranian diplomatic ofﬁcial, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of closed-door talks denied that negotiations had failed over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Inside Iran, there was new exhaustion and anger after months of unrest that began with nationwide protests against economic issues and then political ones, followed by weeks of sheltering from U.S. and Israeli bombardment.

“We have never sought war But if they try to win what they failed to win on the battleﬁeld through talks, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” Mohammad Bagher Karami said in Tehran.

Elsewhere in the region, airstrikes calmed over the past day except in Lebanon

Israel presses ahead Iran’s 10-point proposal for the talks called for a halt to Israeli strikes on the Iranianbacked Hezbollah in Lebanon Israel has said the ceaseﬁre did not apply there, but Iran and Pakistan said it did.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited parts of southern Lebanon under Israeli control on Sunday, for the ﬁrst time since the current ﬁghting. Attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside the ground invasion renewed after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in the war’s opening days.

Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite their lack of ofﬁcial relations Israel wants Lebanon to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, but the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.

The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people, according to the Health Ministry

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported six people were killed Sunday in Maaroub village near the coastal city of Tyre. Associated Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing; Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington; Kareem Chehayeb 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.

By early 2025, he was working to improve a different private zoo, a venture with a north Louisiana couple that also ended in a lawsuit — and, eventually, the warrant.

And since the news broke of his arrest, former employees have criticized Ligon’s management of his Ethel zoo, claiming frequent animal deaths and escapes as well as substandard facilities that pose dangers to workers.

On a recent weekday in March, Ligon showed off his zoo — which he put up for sale a few weeks before his arrest — to explain his side of the story

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

He defended himself against the mismanagement claims by his former employees and denied the allegations of theft. He did acknowledge that some of his former practices were not ideal.

“I’m not saying we’re perfect. We’ve had issues,” he said.

But he insisted the zoo has since improved its standards. He pointed to a federal inspection report issued just last month that found no violations there.

“There’s definitely things we’ve done in the past that I regret doing and we’ve evolved from,” Ligon added.

Deals, lawsuits, arrest

A year before the ﬁght over the north Louisiana zoo, a separate business venture soured.

In 2021, Ligon and his friend Tyler Thomas bought land in Los Fresnos, Texas, and started a wildlife preserve called Fragile Planet Three years later, that partnership had unraveled to the point 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 for weeks at a time, Thomas claimed.

Eventually, Thomas ﬁled a restraining order to keep Ligon off the property

“Since his departure, I will say staff morale is higher than it’s ever been and the park is performing better than it ever has,” Thomas said recently

Ligon declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a nondisparagement clause as part of a settlement that was reached between the two in 2025.

By that time, Ligon was heavily involved with another zoo. A central Louisiana couple — John and his wife Paula Cormane — were considering closing down a drive-thru safari and petting zoo they’d owned for 18 years in Grant Parish. But they decided to give the family business, Gone Wild Safari, one more shot. So they reached out to Ligon, the couple said, for help.

As a 20-year-old, Ligon had bought a single acre from his grandfather in Ethel and, within a decade, had turned it into a 100-acre wildlife preserve called Barnhill Preserve, now Magnolia

for three 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 and fired in August, tells a different story

“The contract itself the Cormanes were reneging on it left and right,” said Blanchard. “They weren’t doing their part.”

partment 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.

Wilds.

In the small world of private zoos, the Cormanes had known Ligon for 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, Ligon and Hunter Hullet, the executive director of Magnolia Wilds, proposed a 90-day contract to “leverage our successful blueprint” and transform the Cormanes’ safari park.

“With a strategic investment of $130,000, we will implement critical infrastructure, marketing, staffing, and guest-experience upgrades that position Gone Wild Safari to generate $1 million or more in additional revenue,” the contract says.

The deal was inked in April 2025. John Cormane says he took out more than half a million dollars in loans to build new animal enclosures, remodel the bathroom and gift shop, create a new website and digital records system, and train new staff. Cormane added he paid Ligon another $90,000 for more animals, including sloths, anteaters and porcupines.

But Cormane claims none of the animals arrived, and according to the lawsuit the couple later ﬁled, Ligon spent much of the 90-day contract period out of the country

“He stayed in Costa Rica

She says Ligon or Hullet came up each week to oversee progress, hired professionals to build enclosures and found two veterinarians for the park. But the Cormanes repeatedly ignored or undid the work and refused to hire the vets, she said, and Ligon withheld animals like sloths and anteaters only after seeing that their enclosures were not ready

As reopening day in October drew closer, it didn’t appear any of the work was going to be completed, and the disagreements turned explosive in front of staff, Blanchard recalls.

“It sounded like a domestic violence episode,” Blanchard said. “I had seen them argue before in front of me, but never that bad.”

In August, John Cormane reported to authorities that he was still owed $93,200 worth of work from Ligon, and the arrest warrant was soon issued.

Grant Parish Sheriff Stephen McCain says deputies contacted Ligon multiple 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. De-

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 offlimits 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.”

ä See ZOO, page 7A

PRoVIDED PHoTo

Gabe Ligon shows off a sloth during an animal education presentation at Jackson Elementary School in East Feliciana Parish.

STAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNSoN Clyde, a 1,200-pound dromedary camel, walks around the safari area at Magnolia Wilds in Ethel.

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 anything 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 seconds, 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 organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Animal Legal Defense Fund.

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 animals from the wild every day to eat them,” he said “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 heightened oversight, but Brazos — who was later found to have a parasite — was tak-

en 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.”

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.

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.”

A spectacled owl sits on a branch in an enclosure.

STAFF PHoToS By MICHAEL JoHNSoN

A giraffe stands in its barn at the Magnolia Wilds preserve in Ethel.

METRO

Fun festival turns chaotic

Calls for safety changes follow Lao New year crash

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

The Lao New Year Festival, a celebration of culture, music and community ﬁlled the streets of a tiny Iberia Parish community over the ﬁrst weekend in April.

But what began as a lighthearted celebration filled with traditional Lao dishes, vendors selling bamboo crafts, handmade jewelry and dancing along the parade route quickly turned into a scene of chaos.

Within hours of the parade starting, Devin Eschette, who traveled from Baton Rouge to attend the festival with friends, recalls a moment he’ll never forget: A vehicle barreled into a crowded parade route, sending people scattering and leaving more than a dozen injured.

“Everybody was having a good time. Everybody was pretty much just hanging out,” Eschette said.

He said he brieﬂy noticed a man, who later would be identiﬁed as Todd Landry, standing near a parked vehicle along the route, but nothing about it seemed unusual

It was Eschette’s ﬁrst time attending the festival, and he continued taking in the scene, describing it as a relaxed, festive atmosphere.

Families lined the narrow Savannakhet Street as parade groups moved steadily forward, performing dances and skits. The festival, centered around the Wat Tammarattanaram Buddhist Temple, is one of the largest Lao New Year celebrations in the country It is known as a place where generations gather to reconnect with family and preserve cultural roots.

The temple itself, standing prominently among the rural Louisiana landscape, has served as the heart of the celebration for about a decade. While Lao New Year is traditionally observed in mid-April, the Iberia Parish community holds its festival on Easter weekend, drawing visitors from across the state.

Another attendee, Wendy Hebert, said she and others had just repositioned themselves along the route after watching part of the parade near the temple. They walked down Savannakhet Street to meet friends and stopped near the edge of the road.

At roughly 2:30 p.m., the calm was shattered.

Authorities say Landry, 57, of Jeanerette, got into his blue muscle car just before 2:30 p.m.

Bystanders recalled hearing the engine rev before the vehicle surged forward into the crowd, overturning a golf cart and striking paradegoers near the intersection of Savannakhet Street and Melancon Road.

Investigators said Landry showed signs of impairment and later recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.137%, well above the legal limit for driving. He was arrested and booked on counts including driving while impaired, first-degree negligent injuring,

careless operation and having an open container

Witnesses said there was little warning. “We were standing on the edge of the street when all of a sudden he just comes barreling in and running over people,” Hebert said.

“A couple people got thrown.

He hit the golf cart and drove it all the way through,” Eschette added

“There were about 20 people between the golf cart and the next ﬂoat.”

For many witnesses, the presence of children made the scene especially difﬁcult.

“Nobody wants to watch a kid get thrown,” Eschette said, recalling a young girl screaming for her grandmother in the chaos.

The vehicle continued through the crowd before coming to a stop in a ditch, according to witnesses. In the immediate aftermath, panic spread through the area.

Some people ran away Others ran toward the injured.

“You got two types of people: the ones that run and the ones that ﬁx the problem,” Eschette said. “I went to help where I can.”

Eschette said bystanders quickly stepped in, joining in pulling victims from beneath the vehicle and assisting those who were hurt.

As witnesses called 911, emergency crews began to mobilize.

According to Acadian Ambulance, the call came in at 2:40 p.m., prompting an initial deployment of seven ambulances and one helicopter. As the ﬁrst unit arrived and assessed the severity, additional resources were requested, bringing the total response to 14 ambulances and two helicopters.

Multiple agencies responded, including local ﬁre departments, sheriff’s deputies and police departments from surrounding areas, forming a coordinated, largescale emergency effort.

Paramedic John Need, a nearly 17-year veteran based in New Iberia, was among the ﬁrst to arrive, reaching the scene in about 15 minutes and assuming incident command.

“When I ﬁrst got there, I had to get a general idea of what we had,” Need said. “How many patients, how big the area was before we could really start assigning resources.”

Fire crews quickly briefed him on what they were seeing.

“From there, we worked to establish a central area and ﬁgure out how many patients we had and how severe their injuries were,” he said. Videos from the scene showed multiple victims on the ground and at least one person trapped beneath Landry’s vehicle. An Iberia Parish sheriff’s deputy was seen pulling Landry from the car while the victim remained underneath.

First responders used a colorcoded triage system to prioritize care, which identiﬁed those with minor injuries, those who needed urgent treatment and those in critical condition.

“We call out to the walking wounded ﬁrst,” Need said. “If they can move and follow commands, we group them together Then we assess the others based on severity and who needs help immediately and who can wait.”

Ultimately, 13 patients were

transported by Acadian Ambulance crews, 11 by ground and two by air, while others may have gone to hospitals in private vehicles.

Despite the urgency of the moment, he said, responders are trained to compartmentalize.

“You kind of switch off the emotional side while you’re working,” Need said. “It’s usually after everything is done that it really hits you.”

At least 18 people were injured, according to Louisiana State Police.

A spokesperson for Ochsner Lafayette General said seven patients were brought to their facility Three were treated and released the same day, while four remained hospitalized.

Even as emergency crews cleared the scene, the emotional weight lingered among those who witnessed it.

“It’s just been really terrible and sad,” said Phanat Xanamane, a festival volunteer “We’re very tight-knit, and so it’s been difﬁcult having to wait to hear information about those that were injured. We never anticipated a tragedy like this.”

In the wake of the crash, organizers canceled portions of Saturday’s events and halted alcohol sales. By the next day, parts of the festival resumed in a quieter atmosphere.

For many, the sudden shift from celebration to catastrophe is still hard to grasp.

“Such a tragedy that this had to happen,” Hebert said. “I pray for everyone involved.”

Lanexang Village residents have continued to spend the past week processing the tragic turn the annual festival took. While most residents wished to remain unidentiﬁed, those who knew Landry personally insist the incident was one of reckless behavior, not malice.

“He’s not a bad person”, one resident said. “He’s worked with the Lao community for so long. I think he got drunk and was careless, but he’s not a bad guy.”

Others suggested security measures at this year’s festival were not as stringent as in years past, with some residents noting a reduced police presence during the parade where the accident took place.

“There were too many gaps during the parade,” one resident stated. “We have to have more security ﬁlling in those gaps so that people can’t get in their car and start driving.”

While Melancon Road remains barricaded from through trafﬁc during the parade, many festival attendees park their cars inside the neighborhood. Several residents suggested that with the heavy drinking that takes place during the festival, more security ofﬁcers are needed to ensure attendees do not operate their vehicles during the parade.

“If there’s people in the streets, and you see someone who is drunk trying to get in their car, why wouldn’t you try and stop him? It’s a matter of protecting the people who are here,” said another Lanexang Village resident.

As of Tuesday, Landry remained in the Iberia Parish Jail with bail set at $247,500. Staff writer Joel Thompson contributed to this report.

Rollin’

down the river

STAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNSoN

Colorado college a leader in hurricane science

BY KASEY BUBNASH Staff writer

Located in a landlocked town about 5,000 feet above sea level and an hour’s drive from the foothills of 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 sciences at LSU. “Shouldn’t they do mountains or blizzards or something?”

But Miller said the renown is welldeserved. Boasting a top-rated, 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 ﬁeld. Miller’s team at LSU recently launched an annual seasonal forecast specific to the Gulf, and they often look to CSU’s broader Atlantic predictions for comparison.

“If we can hang with Colorado State, we’re feeling pretty good about it,” he said.

A pioneer of forecasting

Gray wasn’t the ﬁrst person to analyze the many large-scale 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 forecast, 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 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 weath-

er 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

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.

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

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.

LOTTERY

SATURDAY,APRIL 11, 2026

PICK 3: 6-6-7

PICK 4: 0-1-3-6

PICK 5: 1-7-0-1-3

EASY 5: 5-17-22-25-37

LOTTO: 3-9-15-16-19-34 POWERBALL: 6-47-49-53-60 (6)

Kayakers navigate Bayou Manchac near the Bayou Manchac Park on Sunday in Baton Rouge.

Former St.Francisville MayorBilly D’Aquilladies

BY JAMES MINTON Contributing writer

Funeral services are pending for former St.Francisville MayorBilly D’Aquilla, one of the longest-serving public ofﬁcials in the Feliciana parishes.

FuneralsToday

D’Aquilla, 85, died Sunday morning at his home,according to his son, District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla Billy D’Aquilla left ofﬁce in December 2020 after a48-year career that included service as the town’s mayor, mayorpro tem and alderman. His survivors also include adaughter, Mary Dreher,and St. Francisville’s currentmayor,son Andy D’Aquilla. He served 12 years as an alderman, including eight yearsas mayor pro tempore, beforehewas elected mayor in 1984.

Aproclamation issuedwhen his

ﬁnal termended in December 2020 commendedBilly D’Aquilla for maintaining an open-door policy as mayor,for leaving the town in excellentﬁnancialshape,working withotherpublic officials in the parish and stateand promoting the town through his service in various capacities through the Louisiana Municipal Association.

His ﬁnal accomplishment in ofﬁce was promoting the successfulpassage of ahalf-cent salestax to partially fund anew sewagetreatment

plant to replace an oxidation pond system that wasoften floodedby theMississippi River.The treatment plant is now operating, and the town is now ﬁnishing the project by closingthe oxidation ponds accordingto state environmentalstandards.

Whenheleftofﬁce, Billy D’Aquilla circulated alist of grants, totaling $5.38 million, that he helped obtain duringa15-year periodfor public works projects, utility system improvements, streetsand bridges and new equipment.

NASA workingonnextArtemis flight

BY MARCIA DUNN AP aerospace writer

HOUSTON Never-before-glimpsed views of the moon’sfar side. Check. Total solar eclipse gracingthe lunar scene. Check. New distance record for humanity.Check.

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

“Topeople all around theworld who look up and dream about what is possible, the long wait is over,” NASAAdministratorJared Isaacman said as he introducedArtemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover,Christina Koch and Canada’sJeremy HansenatSaturday’sjubilant homecoming celebration. Now that the first lunar travelers in more than ahalf-century are safely back in Houston with their families, NASA has Artemis III in its sights.

“The next mission’srightaround the corner,” entry flight director Rick Henflingobserved following thecrew’sPacific splashdown on Friday In amission recently added to the docket fornextyear,Artemis III’syet-to-be-named astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with alunar landeror two in orbit around Earth. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are racing to havetheir company’s lander ready first.

Musk’sStarship and Bezos’ Blue Moon arevyingfor theall-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028.Two astronautswillaim for the south polar region, the preferredlocation for Isaacman’senvisioned $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.

Thedocking mechanism for Artemis III’sclose-to-home trial run is already at Florida’sKennedy SpaceCenter. The latestmodel Starshipisclose to launching on a test ﬂight from SouthTexas,and a scaled-down versionofBlue Moon will attempt alunar landing later this year.

NASA promises to announce theArtemis III crew “soon.” Like 1969’sApollo 9, Artemis III aims to reduce risk for the moon landings that follow Apollo 9astronautRusty Schweickart loved ﬂying the lunar moduleinlow-Earth orbit —“atest pilot’sdream.”But there’snoquestion, he noted, that “thereal astronauts” at least inthe public’smind were the ones whowalked on the moon. Wiseman andhis crew puttheir passion and feelings on full display as they ﬂew around the moon and back, choking up over lostloved ones as well as those left behind on Earth.

During thetheir nearly 10-day journey, they tearfully requested thatafresh,bright lunarcrater be named afterWiseman’slate wife,

Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020. They also openly sharedtheir love for one another and PlanetEarth, an exquisite yetdelicate oasis in theblack voidthattheysaidneeds better care.

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

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

Apollo’smanly,all-business moon crews of the 1960s and 1970s certainly did not do group hugs.

For those oldenough to rememberApollo, Artemis —Apollo’s twinsister in Greek mythology couldn’tcome fast enough.

Author Andy Chaikin saidhefelt like Rip VanWinkle awakening from anearly 54-year nap. His 1994 biography “A Manonthe Moon”led to the HBO miniseries “From the Earth to theMoon.”

“It’s amazing how far we’ve come and how differentthis experience is from back then,” Chaikin said from JohnsonSpace Centerlate last week.

The hardest part, according to NASA AssociateAdministrator Amit Kshatriya, is becoming so close to thecrews andtheir families and then blasting them to the moon.Heanxiously monitored Friday’sreentry alongsidethe astronauts’ spouses andchildren.

“You knowwhat’satstake,” Kshatriya conﬁded afterward. “It’s going to take risktoexplore,but you have to makesure 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 arallying crytothe rowsofblue-ﬂightsuited astronauts at Saturday’scelebration.

“It is timetogoand 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.”

Swalwell suspends campaign forCalif.governor

BY BEN FINLEY Associated Press

WASHINGTON Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell suspendedhis campaign for California governor on Sunday following sexual assault allegations that he has denied.

“I will ﬁght the serious, false allegations that have been made —but that’smyﬁght, not acampaign’s, Swalwell said in asocialmediapost. His announcement came as Democrats quickly abandonedhim after the allegations were published Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle and later CNN that he had sexually assaulted awomantwice,including when she worked for him.

Agrowing number of Democrats urged the congressman both to quit therace and resign his seat in Congress. His statement made nomention of resigning from Congress. The allegations came as Swalwell became aleading contender in the race for California governor to replace outgoing DemocraticGov Gavin Newsom.

Though Swalwell has denied the allegations, he has seemingly referenced inﬁdelity in multiple statements.

“Tomyfamily,staff, friends, and supporters, Iamdeeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’vemade in my past,” he wrote. That followed avideo post on Friday where he apologized to his wife.

Pressseeking comment

Over the weekend, with Swalwell’sgubernatorial campaign already teetering, Democrats in Congressbegan to call for his resignationfrom the House.Some even said they would support the rare step of expelling himshould he refuse to step aside FellowCalifornia Reps. Jared Huffman, Ro Khanna andSam LiccardosaidSwalwell should resign,asdid Reps. Teresa LegerFernández of New Mexico and Pramila Jayapal of Washington state “This is not apartisanissue,” Jayapal saidSunday on NBC’s“Meet thePress.” “This cuts across party lines. Anditisdepravityofthe way that women have been treated.”

Swalwell’sgubernatorial campaign didnot immediately respond to an email from The Associated

It alladded to themountingpolitical pressure on Swalwell, who has already seen his most prominent supporters, including Sen. Adam Schiff and powerful laborunions, pull their endorsements and callfor his exit from the race. Rep.Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., who helped run Swalwell’scampaign, said he was immediately ending his role.

With the House returning to session Tuesday,the question of whether to expel Swalwell could come to ahead quickly.Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said Saturday that she would be ﬁling amotion to start the process Expulsion votes in theHouse are rare andrequire atwo-thirds majority,but there is recentprecedent for taking the step. Republican George Santos of New York in 2023 becamejust thesixthmember in Househistorytobeousted by colleagues for his conduct.

The SanFranciscoChroniclereportedFriday aboutallegations that Swalwell sexually assaulted awoman in 2019 and 2024. The woman said she did not go to police at the time of the assaultsbecause shewas afraid she would not be be-

lieved.

Thewoman worked for Swalwell when theﬁrst alleged assault occurred in 2019, while the 2024 assault allegedly occurred at acharity gala,the Chronicle reported. In bothcases the woman said she was too intoxicated to consent to sex.

The paper didn’tnamethe woman, and The Associated Press has not been abletoindependently verify heraccount and identity.Her lawyer declined to comment.

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

After theallegations surfaced, Swalwell said Friday in avideo on social media thathewould spend the weekendwith family and friends and share an update “very soon.” He is not running forreelection for his House seat.

“These allegations of sexual assault are ﬂat false. They’re absolutely false. Theydid nothappen, they havenever happened, andI will ﬁght them witheverythingthat Ihave,”the congressman said.

Bass, Haywood Broadmoor PresbyterianChurch 9340 FloridaBoulevard, at 11 a.m. Collins, Wiley Rabenhorst FuneralHomeEastat 12:30 p.m

Hebert,Josie St.Thomas More Catholic Church 11441 Goodwood Boulevard, at 9a.m Johnson Sr., Donald Greenview FirstBaptistChurch in Columbia, SC,at10a.m Patin Jr., Charles Hall DavisCelebrationCenter, 9348 Scenic Highway,at11:30 a.m.

Obituaries

Jackson, Mitchell Wayne

Mitchell WayneJackson, 67, of Baker,Louisiana, enteredintoeternal rest on Saturday, April 4, 2026. A proudBaker High School graduate,multisportathlete,coach, community servant, and devotedDallas Cowboys fan,helived fully andloved deeply. He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Rosalie N. Jackson;daughters Myrikle (Will)Rosette, Asia (Corey) Redwine, and Yvette (Rico) Wyatt; son Brian (Kecia) Coulter; seven grandchildren;four great-grandchildren;siblingsBrendaWilliams, LouveniaJackson, Curtis (Maryette) Jackson,and Gene(Martha) Jackson; uncleFreddie King;and a host of nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends He wasprecededin death by hisparents;stepfather Sam Braxton Sr.; sisters CynthiaW.Young and Patricia Minor; brothers Willie Brown,Joseph Jackson, Hayford Jackson Jr., LeeJackson, andWilliam T. Jackson;son Mitchell;and daughters Michelle, Rochelle,and Kayla. Viewing: Friday, April 18, 2026 |9:00 AM.Funeral Service:11:00 AM |RoseHill Church,Zachary, Louisiana. Interment: Southern Memorial Gardens, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Funeral arrangements entrusted to Miller &Daughter Mortuary, Zachary, Louisiana. Johnson,GregoryOwen

"Godisbetterthan good!"

BY DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN and HARUNA UMAR Associated Press

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria ANigerian Air Force strike targeting jihadirebels hit alocal market in northeastern Nigeria,killing over 100civilians includingchildren and injuring many others, arights groupand local media reported on Sunday.Officials confirmed amisfire without providing details.

include children,”Isa Sanusi, AmnestyInternational’sNigeria director,toldThe Associated Press, referring to the casualties.

“Weare in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital,” he said. “Wespoke withthe person in chargeofcasualties, and we spoke with the victims.”

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 theBorno-Yobe border is known to be often used by Boko Haramjihadis to buyfoodsupplies

astronghold of the Boko Haram jihadigroup in the area and that “some people …who went to the Jilli weekly market wereaffected.”

Amnesty Internationalcited survivorsassaying that at least100 people were killed in the airstrike on Saturdayonavillage in Yobe state, near the border with Borno state,which is theepicenter of the jihadi insurgency that hasravaged the region for over adecade.

Aworker at the GeidamGeneral hospital, in Yobe,said at least 23 peopleinjured in the incident were receiving treatment. Theworker spoke anonymouslyashewas not authorized to speak to the media.

Abdulmumin Bulama, amember of aciviliansecurity group working with theNigerian military in the northeast, said there was intelligence that Boko Haramterrorists had gathered very close to themarket and were planning an attack on nearby communities.

“The intel was shared and the air force jet acted basedonthe credible information,” Bulama said.

Amnesty International has called foranindependent investigation into the incident, adding that the militaryis“fond of”labelingcivilian casualties as bandits. At least100 dead in

“Wehave their picturesand they

Such misfires are commonin Nigeria,wherethe military often conductsair raids to battle armed groups who control vast forest enclaves.Atleast 500civilians have died since 2017 in such misfires, accordingtoanAPtally.Security

The Yobe StateGovernment conﬁrmedina statementthat aNigerian military strike was targeting

Nigeria’smilitary issued astatement saying it conducted asuccessful strike on a“terrorist enclave andlogisticshub”belonging to jihadis in the area, killing scores of them as they rodeonmotorcycles It did notprovide any detail about apossible misﬁre,but noted that motorcycles remainprohibited in conflict hot spots. and “any such movements in restricted areas are therefore treated with the utmost seriousness.”

Gregory Owen Johnson, age 75, anative of Brusly, LA, passed away on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, at The Crossing at Clarity Hospice in Baton Rouge,LA. He was born July 16, 1950, to the lateHumsey andLillie Mae Miller Johnson. He is survived by his daughterJessica Johnson of Baton Rouge;three stepsons: Louis(Paquita) Seymour, Jr of Gonzales; Tyrone SeymourofDenham Springs; andDwayne Seymour, Sr of Houston, Texas; former wife Judy JohnsonofBaton Rouge; threebrothers: Larry Johnson of Brusly,Gerald Johnson of Temple Hill,Maryland, and Terrence (Margaret) Johnson, Sr of Hammond;foursisters: BeverlyJohnson of Houston,Texas; Karen Johnson of Baton Rouge;and Manyaand PatriceJohnson of Brusly; and one brotherinlaw:Reginald Grace, Sr of St.Gabriel. He waspreceded in death by hisparents, Humsey Johnson and Lillie MaeMiller Johnson, hisbrother Elton Johnson, andhis sister RhondaGrace. Apublicviewingwillbe held Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at Hall Davisand Sons Celebration Center 9348 Scenic Highway, Baton Rouge,LA70807, 11 a.m.--12:30 p.m.,followed by aprivateburialat Louisiana NationalCemetery, 303 West Mt.Pleasant ZacharyRoad, Zachary, LA 70791. Hall Davis andSons entrusted to services.

Swalwell

PHoTo PRoVIDED By NASA

TheArtemis II crewcaptured this view of an Earthset on April 6as they flew around the moon.

ASSoCIATED PRESS PHoTo By MICHAEL WyKE

The ArtemisIIcrew, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and VictorGlover, gathers withHansen as he speaks during acrew return event SaturdayatEllington Field in Houston.

B. D’Aquilla

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

identifying name and 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 arguments on whether President Donald Trumpcan denycitizenship to children borntoparents whoare in the United 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

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

Alon Shaya GUEST

CoLUMNIST

During my lifetime, whether at home or in my restaurants, I’vecome to believe the most powerful stories that end up staying with you aren’tdelivered by spokenword; they’reexperienced around adining room table. With afork and knife in hand, you preparetofeel something intimate. 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 everreach as deeply If you want to teach alesson,ortell a story that you hope lasts, share ameal with someone. The body becomes a sponge, absorbing the lessons of the 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 cookingrecipes from afamily cookbook rescued from Steven Fenves’ home in 1944, as his family was being sent to Auschwitz. We’ve raised close to $1 million for the UnitedStates HolocaustMemorial Museum by hosting intimate dinners acrossthe country to tell astory —one of heroism,horrorand food.

Theheroine wasMaris, theFenves family’scook, who had the bravery and foresight to save Steven’s mother’shandwritten recipe collection from the kitchenastheir neighbors looted their home. The horror was life under the Nazis, from beginning to end. And the food was memory.Memory of afamilygathered at thetable, sharing ameal in away so many of us take for granted. At these dinners, which we call Rescued Recipes, Iwatch people gather; children,teenagers, young andold, 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 being told. Isee feeling take shape and memory born. That perspective carries even greater weight as our communityobserves Holocaust Remembrance Day,orYom HaShoah.

We are losing ﬁrst-person accounts every day.Stevenpassed just last December,and we now carry theresponsibility of ensuring our children 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, buthow will

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.

we continue to teach them?

What does it mean to teach Holocaust history through food? Acrust of breadshared in secret. Agrandmother’sreciperemembered but never written down.A holiday meal reimagined from scraps. That may be where our minds go first when asked. Thoughall true, they are just part of astory andnot reflective of the whole. Anormal Tuesday night dinner in 1938, asimple breakfast before seeing the children off to school in 1940. A family,talkingabout their day,inthe flickering shadows of Shabbat candles in thedining 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

ArtemisII, socialismhavethisincommon

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.

Coffin nails andthe habit that deﬁes burial

when their degrees in African American or women’s studiesdon’tqualify them for real jobs in an increasingly technologicaleconomy

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

Cal Thomas

Most have never served in our allvolunteer military and in too many instances have been pampered by parents who allow them to liveathome

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.

George Will

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.

THEADVOCATE.COM | Monday, april 13, 2026 1Bn

RoryMcIlroy, celebrates after winning the Masterstournament at the AugustaNational Golf

Ga.McIlroywon hissecond consecutiveMasters title.

MASTERFUL COMEBACK

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.

Former LSUstarlooking aheadfollowing abrupt ending to collegecareer

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 draftprocess. Johnson was only aweek into it when she received akey to the city of Baton Rouge in aceremony 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. LSUhas produced top-10picks in each

See WNBA, page 4B

guard Flau’jaeJohnson waits for playto resume in agameagainst TexasTech on March 22 at the PMAC.Johnson is expected to be selected in the first round of the WNBA draft.

Ayear ago, McIlroy became just the sixth man ever and ﬁrst European to win

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 after36holes, theNorthern Irishman hithis ball all overeastern Georgia. Left. Right. Water. Woods. He made adouble bogey on the 11th hole Saturday and another one on the fourth hole Sunday. But here he was, at theend of another Masters Sunday,sliding intohis green jacket for the second straight year,the World No. 2holding off hardcharging World No. 1 Scottie Schefﬂer by one stroke.

BYLUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

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 theBuckeyes.Tate averaged better than15 yards percatch in his career,and he caught ﬁve touchdownsof40ormore yardsinhis ﬁnalseason, when he averaged 17.2 yards per Pass-catcher optionsinthe mix forSaints aheadofNFL draft

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,

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.

Ex-IowaState guardcommits to Tigers afteracampusvisit

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

The LSU women’sbasketball team secured acommitment Sunday from former Iowa State guard Jada Williams. Williams, a5-foot-6 rising senior,isone of thetop players in thetransfer portal.She scored 15.3 points and assisted 7.7 shots per gamethis past season, ﬁnishing the year as one of only nine Division Iplayers whoboth scored at least 15 points

ä See SAINTS, page 4B

See LSU, page 4B

ASSoCIATED PRESS PHoTo By ASHLEy LANDIS

Club

Sunday in Augusta,

Gibbsearns firstCup victory

By The Associated Press

BRISTOL, Tenn Outdueling two NASCAR Cup Series champions for the ﬁrst victory of hiscareer, Ty Gibbs made an emphatic and emotionalbreakthroughSunday at Bristol MotorSpeedway

The win came in the 131st Cup start for the grandson of NASCAR Hall of Fame team ownerand former Super Bowl-winning coach Joe Gibbs.

Ty Gibbs also is the sonofthe late CoyGibbs,who also helped run hisfather’steam before unexpectedly dying in his sleep on Nov. 6, 2022 —the day after hisson won the championship in NASCAR’s second-highest division.

Ty Gibbs, 23, moved to the Cup series thenext year and hadmultiple near-misses (runner-upﬁnishes at Darlington in 2024 and Chicago last year) before reaching victory lane in his fourth season

“This is one of my bestexperiences,” Joe Gibbs said. “When I think about Coy,hebrought Ty up the entire time. Iknow he’sprobably watching.”

Ty Gibbs interrupted hisgrandfather’spostrace interview in the pits with ahug.

“This is the man righthere,” said Ty,whose mother,Heather, also is aco-owner of JGR. “I’ve never seen somebodyworkso hard in my life, him and my mom. Icome to the shop at 6a.m. or 7p.m., andthere’s nobody there, but they are always there. They work their (butts) off. He’sa great role model. Iwouldn’tbehere unlessitwas for him.” Gibbs led the ﬁnal 25 laps at Bristol, inheriting ﬁrst place under caution on astrategy gamble by staying on track in his No. 54 Toyota while Ryan Blaney pitted from the lead along with Kyle Larson, who led arace-high 284 of 505 laps

Blaney and Larson both restarted outside the top five, and Gibbs was cruising toward awin before the yellow flew again on the498th lap to set up the firstovertime restart at Bristolin11years.

Despite Blaney and Larson having tires that werenearly100 laps fresher,Gibbs fended off thestar drivers on atwo-lap shootout to the checkered ﬂag.

“Honestly,Ididn’treally know or care if Iwas going to win or not,”Gibbs said.“Ithoughtthe racewas awesome. Ireally appreciate always racing Ryan Blaney and Kyle, too. Those guysalways run me really well.” Blaney,the 2023 Cup champion who started fromthe pole position, ﬁnished second afterleading 190 laps in the No. 12 Ford

“Yeah, great battle for sure,” he said. “I fought alot of different cars. Gave it my best shoton thelast restart. Wasclose but just couldn’tget it done.”

Larson, the defendingCup Series championwho won the ﬁrst two stages, finished thirdand remained winless in thepast32

races with his No. 5Chevrolet

TheToyotas of TylerReddick andChase Briscoe roundedout the top ﬁve.

“Super happy for Ty,” Briscoe said of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. It’sbeen along timecoming. To do it the way he did it,on old tires, to beat thetwo guys that dominatedall daylong, that was impressive.Just super happy for himand thewholefamily.”

Gibbs became the sixth NASCAR driver to earnhis ﬁrst Cup victory at Bristol, joining Dale Earnhardt (1979), RustyWallace (1986), ErnieIrvan(1990), Elliott Sadler (2001) and Kurt Busch (2002).

“It’s awesome to be with great people,” the younger Gibbs said.

“Tobe in this position is great.I’d love for my father to have seen this.I know he knew it wasgoing

to happen and expected it as well. Yeah,itwas agreat day for us. This is our family,soit’sjust such agreat deal.”

Hendrick woes

While Larson excelled at the front, two of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were struggling mightily

William Byron started from the rear because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 24 Chevrolet, which hadsteering problems in practice and qualifying Saturday Byron, whohas ledatevery active track but Bristol, was off thepace fromthe startand finished five laps down.

Returning from missing four races because of vertigo, Alex Bowman started 27thand ﬁnished last after being involved in amulticar crash startedbyShane van

Gisbergen.

“I wasfine, just afrustrating day,”Bowman said. “Thought we wereOKinpractice andthen obviously qualiﬁed bad and then just really struggled with the handling today.Bummer. Hate that we didn’tget achancetoworkon it and makeitbetter and ﬁnish the race, butit’skind of outside our control.When you run that bad, stuff can happen, and it happened to us.”

Up next

The NASCAR Cup Serieswill race April19atKansas Speedway,the ﬁrst of three consecutive tracks 1.5 miles andlonger. Hendrick Motorsports has won three of the past four races at Kansas with Kyle Larson andChase Elliott winning last year at the oval in Kansas City,Kansas.

IowaState’s Momcilovic will declare for NBA draft AMES,Iowa— Milan Momcilovic, Iowa State’sleading scorer and the nation’smost accurate 3-point shooter,will enter the transfer portal and declare for the NBA draft while maintaining his college eligibility,heannounced on social media Sunday Momcilovic averaged 16.9 points per game and shot 48.7% on 3s this past season, making anation-leading136 on 279attempts. He started 101 of his 102 games and averaged 13.2 points and shot 42.8% on 3s in three seasons forthe Cyclones. Momcilovic said he would turn his focus to the draftbut leftopen the possibility of playing at another college. Underclassmen can maintain their eligibility by hiring an NCAA-certiﬁedagent,receiving an evaluationfromthe NBA undergraduate advisory committee and withdrawing fromthe draftbyMay 27 at 11:59 p.m.EDT

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 Iwas aweek, aweek and ahalf 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 this offseasontocomebackontimeand I honestlynever felt better in my career before.”

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.

By The Associated Press

MONACO Jannik Sinner beat defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Sunday to win the Monte CarloMastersfor thefirst time and reclaim the No. 1ranking from his biggest tennis rival. “The result is amazing,” Sinner said. “Getting back to No. 1means alot for me.” Four-time Grand Slam champion Sinner metseven-time major winner Alcaraz in their ninth final in what is often called the “Sincaraz” rivalry Sinner trimmed Alcaraz’sheadto-head leadto10-7 in clinching his 27th career title overall and his first Masters title on clay.The 24-year-oldItalianwill return to No. 1inthe ATPrankings on Monday Sinner rallied from 3-1down in the second set amidblustery conditions at the Monte CarloCountry Club and served out the match, clinching it on his first match point when Alcaraz returned a forehand long.

“It was abit windy,abit breezy Different conditions from what

ASSoCIATED PRESS FILE PHoTo By REBECCA BLACKWELL Jannik Sinner of Italy,shown returning aball against Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic in the men’ssingles final at the Miami open on March 29,defeated Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday at the Monte CarloMasters.

the tournament has brought,” Sinnersaid. “I am very happy to win abig title on this surface, Ihaven’t done it beforeand it means alot to me.”

Alcaraz had won his last 17 matches on clay but struggled Sunday with45unforced errors. However,hepraised Sinner “It is impressive what you are

achieving right now,” Alcaraz said. “Congratulationsfor everything.”

Sinner dropped to his knees after Alcaraz’sshot landed out and thenjoggedovertocelebratewith his box.

“I felt abit tired, so Itriedto keep the right mentality,”Sinner said. “Having this trophy meansa lot to me.” It was Sinner’sthird titleofthe year after sweeping IndianWells and Miami —also winning those finals in straight sets —tobecome only the fourth mantoreach the final at the first three Masters of theseason. Sinner joined tennis great Novak Djokovic (in 2015) as theonly one to win the first three Masters tournaments. Alcaraz’stwo titles this year include the Australian Open, where the22-year-old Spaniard became theyoungest man to win all four tennis majors. He produced astunning comeback to beat Sinner in last year’s French Open final, then lost the WimbledonfinaltoSinnerbefore beatinghim again in the U.S. Open final.

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,led by A.C. Green’s1,192.

ASSoCIATED PRESS PHoToByWADE PAyNE

Ty Gibbs celebrates after winning aNASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday in Bristol, Tenn.

MASTERS

TWICEASNICE

McIlroygoes back-to-back at theMasters

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

AUGUSTA, Ga Rory McIlroy

joined more elite company Sunday at the Masters when he pulled away with apair of birdiesaround Amen Corner and, as usual, saved alittle drama for the end before takinghis place in AugustaNational history as only the fourth back-to-back champion.

In afinal round where three players had atwo-shot lead,McIlroy seized control for good with a bold shot over Rae’s Creek to 7feet for birdie on the par-312th. Then he blistered a350-yarddrive on thepar-5 13th that setupanother birdie to move three shots ahead.

There were afew dicey moments, includinga shot overthe par-3 16th green that requiredhim to use the slope to get in close for par,having to get up-and-down for par on the 17th and awild drive on the18th that woundupcloserto the 10th fairway.

He tapped in for bogey and a 1-under 71 for aone-shot victory over Scottie Schefﬂer

Ayear 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 andJack Nicklaus as the only repeat winners of the Masters.

“I just can’tbelieve Iwaited17 years to getone greenjacket, and Iget two in arow,” McIlroy said.

“I think all of my perseveranceat this golf tournament over the years has really started to pay off. It was atough weekend. Idid the bulk of my work on Thursday and Friday “But just so, so happy tohang in there and get the job done.

McIlroy stood tall when he

RoryMcIlroyholds

tappedinthe ﬁnal putt to ﬁnish at 12-under 276. There wasnorelief like last year of going 17 years trying to winthe Masters. This was pure joy. Andfor thefirst time since 2002 when Woods went backto-back,itwas up to theAugusta Nationalchairman, Fred Ridley, to help him into the green jacket.

“Itstill ﬁts, which is nice,” McIlroy saidatthe trophy presentation

President Donald TrumpcongratulatedMcIlroy on social mediaasheﬂew back to Washington from Florida.

“With each year,Rory is becoming more and more aLEGEND!”

Trump wrote.McIlroy’snexttournament is likely to be the Cadillac Championship in twoweeks at TrumpDoral outside Miami.

It was more heartache for Rose, andfrustration for the others who had achance. Rose had atwo-shot lead that

evaporated around Amen Corner withtwobogeysandathree-puttpar. He couldn’tmakeupenough ground therest of the way and had to settle for athird close call at the Masters.

Cameron Young lost his twoshot lead much earlier with along three-putt bogeyonthe par-3sixth and taking bogey on the next hole when he hitwedge from thefairway into abunker. One shot behind goingtothe back nine,Young closed with nine straight pars.

“There is no negativetotake away other than obviously I would’ve loveda differentresult,” Young said. “I pretty muchhad a birdie chance on everyholeand didn’t make any.That’show it goes sometimes.”

As for Schefﬂer,the world’sNo. 1player was in position to shatter the Masters record with thelargest 36-hole comeback in history. He was 12 behind going into the weekend. He was twoshots be-

hind as he approached the turn. But he ran off11straight pars that wasn’tgoing to cut it during a ﬁnal round with accessible pins to create excitement.

Schefflerhad to settle forhis third runner-up ﬁnishinthe majorstogoalong with four titles.

His 65-68 weekend made him the ﬁrst player since1942 to go bogeyfree on theweekend at Augusta.

“I put up agood ﬁght in order to give myself achance,” Schefﬂer said.

Rose, at age 45 trying to become the second-oldest Masters championbehindJack Nicklaus (46) in 1986, madeitfeel as though this was going to be his time. He made amost improbable birdie with a shot out of the trees to afooton theseventh. That was the start of three straight birdies to close out the front nine and give him the lead.

But his approach to the 11th was welltothe right and he failed to save par.His tee shot on the 12th was long, and his delicate chip didn’treachthe green, leading to another bogey.And then his 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 13th ran 8feet by the hole and he missed thebirdie putt.

“Chancethatgot away,” Rose said. “I was by no meansfree and clear and was nowhere kind of closetohaving the jobdone, but Iwas right in position. Iwas really in control.And thementality was to run through the ﬁnish line, not just tryand get it done.

“I was playing great, but just momentumshifted formearound theAmen Corner.”

That’swhere McIlroy thrived. No shot at Augustaismoreterrifying thatthe par-3 12th withthe deceptive, swirling wind. McIlroy said he thought back to apractice round at hisﬁrst Mastersin2009 when TomWatson told him to wait forthe rightwind and hit.

Histhree-quarter 9-iron aimed at the middlebunkerdrifted more to the right that he imagined, but it turned out perfect, 7feetaway, closer than anyone all day

Morikawa ﬁghtstoseventh-place tiewithBurns

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

AUGUSTA,Ga.—Collin Morikawa wasn’t sure he would be able to play in the Masters tournament at all this week,much less play well.

Morikawa suffered backspasms last month at The Players that forced him to withdraw from that tournament and continued to plague him coming into this one. But Morikawa pieced his way throughthe week and after an opening 74, shooting 69-68-68 over theﬁnal threerounds to ﬁnish at 9-under par 279. Morikawa tied for seventh placewith former LSUAll-American Sam Burns

“This blew by any expectations Ihad for the week,” the two-time major winner said. “Honestly,for me, Iwas just trying to survive each day,wake up, do theprep I needed to do, and go and teeoff.

“I didn’tknow how uncomfortable it was goingtobe, but we managed to get through all 18 (holes Sunday) and all 72. I’m

RABALAIS

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the career grand slam —the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship —joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, GaryPlayer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. This year,he becomes just the fourth back-toback winner in Masters history, joining Nicklaus, Woods andNick Faldo.

Cervantes wrote in Don Quixote, “Tell me your company,and Iwill tell you what you are.” The company McIlroy keeps onthose two lists tells you agreat deal about his talent as aplayer, even if that talent looked alittle wobbly at times over the past two days withall thosewayward shots.

“Tothe volunteers,” McIlroy said during his green jacket ceremony speech, “I made you work overtime this week to clear alot of patrons out of the way,because Ihit it in alot of

MASTERSNOTEBOOK

going to remember this onefor many reasons.”

Burnsreturns

Though he wouldhave preferred alifetimeinvitation that comes with the green jacket, Burns has at least already stamped his return to the2027 Masters with that tie for seventh

The tournament invites the top 12 ﬁnishers and ties from this year who are not otherwise qualiﬁed.

This wasBurns’ﬁfth Masters appearance.

Garcia’s outburst earnswarning Sergio Garcia has had better Sundays atthe Masters.

The2017greenjacket winner earned arare code of conduct warning from Mastersofficials after an angry outburst on the second tee.

Garciapushed his drive right into the fairway bunker,then took

pine straw.”

This victorywas peak McIlroy

On the demanding par-3fourth hole, he hititleft of left, even missing the greensidebunker, leading to adouble bogey.Heairmailed the greenonthe next par3, thesixth,leading to abogey that dropped himto9-under par andtwo strokes behind playing partner Cam Young. Still, McIlroy had the conﬁdence of amajor champion. The experience of aman who has gotten himself intotight spots before and foundways to wriggle out.

“I looked at the scoreboard after Imade bogey on 6. Isaid, ‘OK,if Iget to 14 under I’ve got apretty good chance to win,’ ”McIlroy said.

Here he was, going south, having droppedtwo strokes to par and having gone from six ahead to start Saturday’sthird round to two behind, and he was thinking about getting all the way to 14 under?

McIlroydidn’tget to 14 under butdidn’thaveto. He went to

two chunks of turf outofthe tee box. He thentooka swipeatanice chest next to the teebox, breaking his driver.Garcia received the warning on the fourth hole.

The green jacket holder said his frustrations had been building through theyear,but alsodidn’t sound too contrite about his tantrum

“Obviously not super proud of it,” Garcia said, “but sometimes it happens.

Garcia shot a3-over 75 to ﬁnish at 8over in 52nd place.

Drive, Chip andPutt

Registration is now open for the 2026-27 Drive, Chip andPutt youthcompetition, with three local qualifying sites in Louisiana.

Qualifying will be held June 10 at the David Toms 265 Academy in Shreveport, June 16 at The Island Golf and Country Club in Plaquemine, and Aug. 3atTPC Louisiana in Avondale. Thereis also aqualiﬁer July 9atDiamondhead Country Club in Mississippi.

18 with atwo-stroke lead over Scheffler,the anti-Rory of this golfing drama, the first man since World WarIItoplay the weekend here without abogey.Scheffler shot 65-68, roaring from 12 strokes back of McIlroy at the Masters’ midway point to the point of still having achance to scoop up athird green jacket. McIlroy looked like he’dgive him thatchance, driving so far right on 18, he was almost in the 10thfairway.But, with typical Irish aplomb, he hooked an iron over the trees, intoabunker and got down in threetofinish at 12 under “I was so happy to hang in there and get thejob done,”McIlroy said. What job is next for him? He now has six majors, tied for 12th mostall-time with Faldo, Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino. He’s about to turn 37, but with two Masters, two PGAs and aU.S. and Britishopen each, you have to say achance at adouble career grand slam —something only

Boysand girls ages 7-15 are eligible to participate. Winners advance from local to subregional and regional qualiﬁers —atotal of 40 boys and 40 girls in four age groups —tothe DCP national ﬁnals on April 4, 2027, at Augusta National.

Thereisnoentry fee. Formore informationvisit www.drivechipandputt.com

Thelastword

“I don’tmakeiteasy. Iused to make it easy back in my early20s when Iwas winning thesethings by eight shots. It’shard to win golf tournaments. Especially around here.” Rory McIlroy

Future Masters

The Masters is traditionally played theﬁrst full week of April. Here arethe dates for the next three tournaments: •April 8-11, 2027 •April 6-9, 2028 •April 5-8, 2029

Nicklaus and Woods have done with three each —isdoable. 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 ashare of the lead with a20-foot birdie putt on the ﬁrst hole after driving in its cavernous fairway bunker

Butthe pushed tee shot on the first was aharbinger of Burns’ struggles mostofthe day.His drive on the second went even farther right, resulting in an unplayable lie that led to adouble bogey 7onatypically gettable hole. Burns rallied late with a 62-foot bomb of abirdie putt on the16th hole and finished in atie for seventh at 9under.Not the finish he wanted,but it matches his best showing in amajor and was by far his best showing in theMasters.

Maybe Burns will one day get there. McIlroy is already there, keeping companywith other golfing greats.

No.17: Nandina

Par4,450 yards

Round 4average: 4.426

Rank: 1

Eagles: 0

Birdies: 0

Pars: 34

Bogeys: 17 Double bogeys or worse: 3

Howitplayed: When an ice stormin 2014 claimedthe famous Eisenhower treeonthe left side of the 17th fairway, there were worriesabout how toughthe hole would playwithout it. No need. No.17has actually played more difficult since.Sunday, it was Augusta National’shardest hole,the only one not to surrendera birdie during the final round. Scott Rabalais

ASSCoCIATED PRESS PHoTo By AP

the trophy after winning the Masters tournament on SundayinAugusta,Ga.

STAFF PHoTo By DAVID GRUNFELD

Pelicans rookie Fears

played in all 82 games

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

That number zero that Jeremiah Fears wears on his jersey doesn’t just represent his zero-fears mentality It could also represent the number of games he missed this season.

The New Orleans Pelicans’ rookie guard doesn’t care about the load management issue that is such a hot topic in the NBA.

Fears played in his 82nd game Sunday in the season ﬁnale against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He became just the 11th player in franchise history to play in all 82 games of a season and the ﬁrst since Jonas Valanciunas in the 2023-24 season.

Fears, drafted with the No. 7 overall pick in last year’s draft, also played in all 31 games in his one season in college at Oklahoma He says the last time he missed a game was his freshman year of high school, when he was dealing with a broken thumb.

“Other than that, I played every AAU game, every college game, every game my sophomore and junior year (of high school) and obviously this season,” said Fears.

Fears reclassiﬁed and didn’t play his senior year of high school and instead enrolled in college. He said

ä Late night finale: Pelicans at T-Wolves ended after this edition went to press. For complete coverage visit theadvocate.com.

playing all 82 games was a goal this season

“Being able to play all 82 games is big time,” Fears said. “Not everybody gets the opportunity to play all 82 games. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity I feel like I’ve made the most of the minutes I get when I go out there.”

The other players in franchise history to play in all 82 games are:

Jamal Mashburn, Jamaal Magloire (twice), P.J. Brown, Jannero Pargo, Rasual Butler, Emeka Okafor, Robin Lopez, E’Twaun Moore, Darius Miller and Valanciunas.

Fears is the only one to accomplish the feat as a rookie.

Fellow rookie Derik Queen played in 81 games. The two of them rank ﬁrst and second in franchise history in games played by rookies.

“It’s a great start to their career,” said Pelicans interim head coach James Borrego. “The No. 1 thing in this league is your health and your availability To have that type of resume at the start is extremely important. It lays a foundation for their career and for our franchise as well. Those are important mo-

ments for our group and for our franchise. Extremely proud of them ﬁghting through injuries and knick knacks.”

Fears was averaging 14 points, 3.4 assists and 3.6 rebounds heading into Sunday’s ﬁnal game. He scored a season high 40 points Tuesday in a win over the Utah Jazz, setting a franchise rookie record. The old record was 38 points by Marcus Thornton in 2010. Fears averaged 28.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists in the ﬁve games before Sunday The key to being so durable?

“Recovery is huge,” Fears said. “That helps in being able to play all 82 games. Focus on your recovery and just continue to stay focused. I’m dedicated to the recovery and the work on and off the court The hot and the cold tub have been huge for me. I just rely on those things to help me get my body for each and every day.”

Fears is one of 18 players in the NBA to play in all 82 games this season. He and former Tulane and Duke guard Sion James of the Charlotte Hornets are the only two rookies to accomplish the feat. Fears is the third leading scorer among the 18 players to play in every game, trailing only Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane (20.2 points per game) and New York Knicks’ guard/forward Mikal Bridges (14.6).

All-Star Williams joins the Valkyries on multiyear deal

BY DOUG FEINBERG

AP basketball writer

All-Star Gabby Williams signed a multiyear deal with Golden State, the Valkyries announced Sunday, while Alyssa Thomas is headed back to Phoenix. Williams averaged a career-high 11.6 points and 4.2 assists and led the WNBA in steals with 2.3 per game for Seattle last season. That effort earned the 29-year-old an All-Star appearance for the ﬁrst time in her career She also was a member of the league’s All-Defensive First Team.

“For a player of Gabby’s caliber to choose us in just our second year means everything,” Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said in a statement. “She is worldclass. One of the best defenders in the world, a WNBA All-Star, and someone who makes everyone around her better.”

The Valkyries had a stellar season in their ﬁrst year, making the playoffs — the ﬁrst time an expansion team had done that Williams was drafted fourth by Chicago in 2018 and traded to Los Angeles in 2021. She didn’t play any games for the Sparks before being traded to Seattle in 2022.

Thomas was a finalist for MVP last season and All-WNBA and AllDefensive ﬁrst team. She helped the Mercury reach the WNBA Finals.

“Alyssa is a generational player, natural leader and one of the ﬁercest competitors our sport has seen, and we’re excited to have her back in Phoenix,” Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren said. “Her ability to control the game on both ends and elevate her teammates helped fuel our run to the Finals last season.” Phoenix also re-signed All-Star

wings Kahleah Copper and DeWanna Bonner The pair was instrumental in getting the Mercury to the WNBA Finals along with Thomas. The team also re-signed veteran guard Sami Whitcomb.

Other moves on Sunday included Sophie Cunningham and Damiris Dantas re-signing with the Indiana Fever Cunningham averaged 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 30 games before suffering a seasonending MCL tear in her right knee in August. Dantas originally signed with the Fever ahead of the 2024 season and has since played in 58 games for Indiana, averaging 4.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game, and was a part of the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup championship team.

The pair join Kelsey Mitchell and Lexie Hull, who announced on Saturday they were returning to the team. Indiana also added Monique Billings in the ﬁrst day of free agency

The Toronto Tempo added forward Isabelle Harrison, whom Sandy Brondello coached in New York before making the move to Canada.

Minnesota Lynx

The Lynx re-signed ﬁve-time AllStar Kayla McBride to a two-year deal at a lower max salary, her agent, Ticha Penicheiro, told The Associated Press Courtney Williams, a two-time All-Star also is coming back to the Lynx. Minnesota also added two-time All-Star Natasha Howard, who played with Indiana last season. Howard helped Minnesota win a title in 2017.

Chicago Sky

The Sky added guard DiJonai Carrington to their roster as well as ofﬁcially re-signing Courtney Vandersloot. The Sky acquired

LSU

Continued from page 1B

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 possibility that they can move her from the post to the perimeter Their lone 2026 freshman signee is Lola Lampley — a 6-foot-2 wing

WNBA

Continued from page 1B

of the past two years. Both Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow were chosen seventh overall in their respective drafts.

IfJohnsonistakenwithoneofthe 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 Johnson will land a long, athletic three-

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from Indiana. On Saturday, LSU signed Florida guard Laila Reynolds, a 6-foot1 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, freshman Divine Bourrage, freshman Bella 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.

level 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 efﬁcient 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.”

Rickea Jackson for Ariel Atkins in a trade with Los Angeles.

Connecticut Sun

The Sun added guard Kennedy Burke and re-signed forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa to a two-year deal. Burke appeared in 36 games for the Liberty, making nine starts and averaging 8.1 points and 2.4 rebounds.

Seattle Storm

The Storm re-signed forward Ezi Magbegor, who had 96 blocks last season to go along with 8.0 points and 6.2 rebounds. She shot 49.3% from the field Seattle also resigned wing Katie Lou Samuelson, who missed all of last season after tearing her ACL in training camp. The Storm also added free agent Stefanie Dolson, signing the veteran center as well as guard Jade Melbourne.

Las Vegas Aces

The Aces re-signed three members of their core group, with Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus all agreeing to deals with the defending champions.

Washington Mystics

The Mystics added forward Michaela Onyenwere to a multiyear deal. She averaged 6.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in her career, last playing with Chicago. Onyenwere was an assistant coach at her alma mater UCLA this past winter and helped the Bruins win their ﬁrst national championship.

Portland Fire

The expansion Fire added center Megan Gustafson, who was with Las Vegas last season when the Aces won the WNBA championship

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.

The intriguing risk

Louisville WR Chris Bell, 6-2, 222: While 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 outstandingseniorseasonatLouisville before he tore his ACL in late November against SMU. While he has said he will be ready for the start oftrainingcamp,itisdeﬁnitelypossible 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. Hisbreakoutcollegeseasoncame 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 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 passcatching 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

USC WR Makai Lemon, 5-11. 192: For someone who draws a lot of comparisons to Detroit Lions All-Pro 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. 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 drafts him is going to have to be comfortable with the medical history

Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears reacts after scoring a 3-pointer against the orlando Magic on April 5 at the Smoothie King Center Fears played in all 82 games this season.

Ole Miss baseball completes sweep of LSU in Oxford

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

OXFORD, Miss. — Jay Johnson knew his offense had to be ready.

Sundays were about putting runs on the board; three of the Tigers’ four series ﬁnales in Southeastern Conference play proved that to be true. LSU scored 16 runs last Sunday, 17 runs the prior Sunday and 16 runs in the ﬁnal game of its opening series in conference play at Vanderbilt.

All of those big days at the plate led to wins. And with junior righthander Cooper Moore still on the mend, the Tigers needed another explosive afternoon from their bats to win without a true starter on the bump.

“We’re going to have to score to give ourselves a chance,” Johnson said after Saturday’s loss to Ole Miss.

“We knew coming into the series that’d be a challenge against this pitching staff.”

LSU’s bats eventually came to life on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to survive a slow start on the mound and a late surge from Ole Miss’s offense. The Rebels took down the Tigers 8-7, marking the ﬁrst time LSU has been swept this season “It seems like we were one play away, one swing away from keeping it a little bit closer or breaking it open,” senior Brayden Simpson said. “… It seems like quite a few (games) haven’t gone our way recently.”

LSU (22-15, 6-9 SEC) scored seven runs in the seventh inning to tie the game 7-7, but Ole Miss shortstop Bryaden Randle hit a single in the botto of the seventh inning that drove home the go-ahead run, providing enough wiggle room for left-hander Walker Hooks to close out the game in the ninth

“Credit their bullpen again,” Johnson said. “They went six up, six down.”

At ﬁrst, the Tigers couldn’t recapture their Sunday magic and were struggling at the plate for a third consecutive game. They were hitless through six innings and had just one baserunner before the ﬁfth.

Ole Miss right-handed starter Taylor Rabe tossed six scoreless innings before he gave up back-toback solo home runs to sophomores Derek Curiel and Cade Arrambide in the seventh. Rabe’s outing was the ﬁrst time he threw more than ﬁve innings this year

“I don’t want to sound like a broken record,” Johnson said. “But (Rabe) threw the ball where pitchers are supposed to throw the ball and did a nice job of that. He only had 16 innings last year and really improved this year

“I thought (Cade) Townsend (Saturday’s starter for Ole Miss), one of the best pitchers in the league, I actually thought he missed over the plate a little more than Rabe did today.”

Curiel and Arrambide’s blasts woke up LSU’s offense, as the Tigers went on to score five more runs in the seventh inning to tie the game. Junior Jake Brown delivered a third consecutive homer before Simpson had the biggest hit of his LSU career with a two-out, two-run single that cut the Ole Miss (26-11, 8-7) lead to two Curiel then followed up his homer with a run-scoring single that shrank LSU’s deﬁcit to one. After his big hit, pinch-hitter and redshirt junior Eddie Yamin scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

“That’s what we can do as a team,” Johnson said, “is we can come back on Sunday against somebody’s bullpen.”

LSU’s slow start at the plate was

JOHNSON GIVES INJURY UPDATE ON DARDAR, STANFIELD

LSU fifth-year second baseman Seth Dardar was unavailable to play on Sunday, according to coach Jay Johnson, after the lower leg injury he suffered last Tuesday got worse as the weekend commenced.

His ailment got to the point where he was replaced by senior infielder Brayden Simpson at second base on Sunday against ole Miss.

“It was obviously affecting his play the last two days,” Johnson said. “So, you know, you get somebody closer to healthy in there.” Johnson also said that senior left fielder Chris Stanfield may have bruised his rib colliding with the left-center field wall on Sunday, an ailment that took him out of the game in the seventh inning Junior infielder Trent Caraway also suffered a cut on a finger on his throwing hand, which forced him out for the entire series.

“I think he’s oK,” Johnson said of Stanfield “I don’t think there’s anything structurally wrong He was having a hard time breathing.”

Koki Riley

exacerbated by its pitching staff placing it in a nearly insurmountable hole.

LSU right-hander fifth-year senior Grant Fontenot mustered just one out as the Tigers’ starter, allowing two earned runs and three hits before getting pulled for redshirt junior right-hander Gavin Guidry Guidry escaped the ﬁrst inning, but he gave up a solo home run in the second and two homers in the fourth before exiting the game.

By the time the fourth inning ended, LSU trailed 7-0, and Ole Miss had seven hits.

“We got dominated for six innings,” Johnson said. “You can’t lose sight of that.”

LSU returns to Alex Box Stadium for a ﬁve-game homestand beginning on Tuesday against Northwestern State. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m., and the game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.

LSU softball hits ball hard in loss to Arizona but wins series

BY JIM KLEINPETER Contributing writer

LSU softball swung its bats hard in search of a three-game sweep of No. 13 Arizona, but hard-hit balls worked against the Tigers this time.

The No. 21 Tigers hit into three double plays and watched an early lead evaporate in a 4-2 loss at Tiger Park on Sunday

LSU (28-14) outhit the visitors 8-4 but left seven on base in addition to the three wiped out in twin killings. That undermined a strong pitching effort by Paytn Monticelli (3-3), who had a strong outing in the circle.

“It feels like we always end up on the wrong side of that, I’m not sure why,” LSU coach Beth Torina said “We work on it and talk about it.

“The offense continues to grow Overall, it’s a great 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 every game. On the other hand, it’s a really great team having a great year so getting two wins is a big deal.”

Monticelli retired 10 of the first 11 batters before Sydney Stewart launched her 15th homer over the left-ﬁeld fence beyond both retaining walls.

Arizona, held to a pair 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 a leadoff single, and one out later, Stewart walked. Jayden Heavener replaced Monticelli and threw out Tele Jennings on a grounder back to the mound. But Sharkey turned third and kept coming, beating the throw from Tori Edwards in a close play at the plate.

Heavener walked third baseman Jenna Sniffen before Emma

Kavanaugh hit a two-run double to left for the margin of victory She hit a sinking line drive that bounced just in front of left ﬁelder Maddox McKee, who had 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 been a big third inning when LSU took a 2-0 lead. Singles by Ally Hutchins and Jalia Lassiter and a walk to Sierra Daniel loaded the bases with one out. Kylee Edwards singled home a run and Alix Franklin was hit by a pitch to score another off of starter Jenae Berry

Arizona ace Jalen Adams entered the game and got Tori Edwards to hit a one-hop smash to Sniffen, who stepped on the bag and threw to ﬁrst to end the inning. Sniffen started all three double plays. In the previous inning, the Tigers had runners on first and second when Lorenz hit a liner

to Sniffen, who threw to second to get Tori Edwards. LSU let another two-hit inning go to waste when Sierra Daniel lined out to Sniffen, who threw Lassiter out at ﬁrst. Kylee Edwards followed with her second hit but Franklin grounded out to shortstop.

“We’re definitely hitting the ball hard,” said Lassiter, who raised her batting average to .323 with three hits. “They made nice plays, they were playing us deep. We had trouble reading the ball right there, freezing on the line drives. That’s how softball goes sometimes.”

“Arizona is a great team and has been for years Coming out with the series (win) was awesome. Today’s game taught us a lot.”

LSU returns to action Tuesday at UL in a 6 p.m. game and hosts Ole Miss in an SEC series next weekend.

“We’re in a good spot with a big week in front of us,” Torina said. “A huge test on Tuesday to play ULL, it’s always a big deal.”

DeGrom recovers to lead the Rangers to win over Dodgers

By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES Shohei Ohtani connected off Jacob deGrom for his second straight leadoff home run, but the Texas Rangers rallied to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2 Sunday and avoid a three-game sweep.

Evan Carter hit a tying home run off Roki Sasaki (0-2) and Brandon Nimmo drove in two runs for the Rangers

Sasaki allowed two runs, five hits and ﬁve walks over four innings while striking out a careerhigh six, lowering his ERA to 6.23.

Ohtani extended his on-base streak to 46 games, ﬁfth-longest in Dodgers history behind Duke Snider (58), Shawn Green (53), Willie Keeler (50) and Ron Cey (47).

Ohtani pulled the first pitch from deGrom (1-0), a 97.9 mph fastball, to right-center for his 26th leadoff homer and ﬁfth home run this season. That was the only run allowed in six innings by deGrom who gave up four hits struck out nine and walked three. He beat the Dodgers for just the second time in 13 regular-season starts. Jakob Junis pitched a hitless ninth for this third save.

Carter’s homer and Josh Smith’s RBI single put the Rangers ahead for good at 2-1 in the third. Nimmo hit a run-scoring grounder in the sixth, and Kyle Tucker pulled Los Angeles to 3-2 with an RBI single off Jacob Latz in the

ASSoCIATED PRESS PHoTo By CARoLINE BREHMAN Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom releases a pitch during the first inning of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday in Los Angeles.

PHoTo By PATRICK DENNIS

LSU outfielder Derek Curiel celebrates his RBI single scoring Steven Milam in a game against Bethune Cookman on Tuesday at Alex Box Stadium. Curiel had 2 hits including a home run in Sunday’s loss to ole Miss.

PHoToS By MICHAEL BACIGALUPI

LSU shortstop Kylee Edwards hits against Arizona on Sunday at Tiger Park Edwards had an RBI in the third inning of the 4-2 loss.

LSU batter Alix Franklin hits against Arizona on Sunday at Tiger Park

GROWTH INDUSTRY

Is it true that Jean Lafitteforgedthe CornstalkFence design in NewOrleans?

BY RACHELMIPRO

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 sickness. Dogs can also suffer from carrelated

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 2C

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

BY CHRISTOPHERWEBER 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 wentontorecord more than10,000 concerts, with increasingly sophisticated equipment, over four decades in Chicago and other cities. Now a 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 into ashow with you, just sneak it in, recordthe show.’ And Ithought, ‘Wow, that’scool.’ So Igot started,” Jacobs, now 59, recalled.

ä See CONCERTS, page 3C

STAFF FILEPHoTo By SoPHIAGERMER

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

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

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

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

Todayinhistory:

On April 13, 1997, Tiger Woods, at age 21, became the youngest golfer to win the Masters 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 the Virginia Colony.

In 1861, Fort Sumter in South Carolina fell to Confederate forces in the ﬁrst battle of the Civil War.

In 1873, members of the pro-White, paramilitary White League attacked Black state militia members defending acourthouse in Colfax, Louisiana; three White men and as 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, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial in Washington on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the ﬁrst Black performer to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.”

CURIOUS

Continued from page1C

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

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

In 1999, right to die advocate Dr.Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Michigan, to 10 to 25 years in prison for seconddegree murderfor administering alethal injection to apatient with ALS,also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. (Kevorkian ultimately served eight years before being paroled.)

In 2005, adeﬁantEric Rudolph pleaded guiltyto carryingout thedeadly bombing atthe 1996 Atlanta Olympics andthree other attacksinback-tobackcourtappearances in Alabama and Georgia. (He received multiple life sentences without thepossibility of parole.)

In 2009, at his second trial, music producerPhil Spectorwas found guilty by aLos Angeles jury of second-degree murder in the shooting of actor Lana Clarkson.(Latersentenced to 19 years to life, Spector diedinprison in January 2021.)

In 2011, afederal jury in San Francisco convicted baseballslugger Barry Bonds of asingle chargeof obstruction of justice but failed to reach averdict on three countsatthe heart of allegationsthat he knowingly used steroids andhumangrowth hormoneand lied to agrand jury about it. (Bonds’ obstruction conviction was overturned in 2015.)

In 2016, theGolden State Warriors became theNBA’s

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

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

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.

Trying outfruitsatthe store

ﬁrst 73-win team by beating theMemphis Grizzlies 125104, breaking the72-win record set by theChicago Bulls in 1996.

In 2017, Pentagon ofﬁcials said U.S. forces struck atunnel complex of the Islamic State group in eastern Afghanistan with the GBU-43/B MOAB “mother of all bombs,”the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by themilitary.

In 2023, FBI agents arrested MassachusettsAir National Guard member Jack Teixeira in acase involving the most consequential national security leak in years. (Teixeira admitted that he shared highly classiﬁed military documentsabout the war in Ukraine on the social media platform Discord and was sentenced in federal court in 2024 to 15 years in prison; he also received a dishonorable discharge at a court-martial in 2025.)

Today’sbirthdays: Singer Al Green is 80. Actor Ron Perlman is 76. Singer Peabo Bryson is 75. Bandleaderdrummer Max Weinberg is 75. Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 63. Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III is 62. Actor-comedian 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 Williams is 38. Actor Filip Geljo is 24. Actor Dylan Conrique is 22.

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.

Dear Heloise: JimR in Houston,wrote about people who areeating produce that they haven’tpurchased. Butthereisanother view on this issue. Purchasing grapes,for example, without tasting them, often leads to sourgrapes —literally

It is aconundrum: If I testagrape, Iameating pesticides; if Idon’ttest agrape, then Iamlikely buying bad grapes, which will go to waste. Often when Ipurchase grapes or cherries without tasting them, Iend up withbad fruit! —Bruce J.P.,inFortWayne, Indiana

Bruce, yes, if you taste a grape without washing it, you are eating pesticides and more. Younever know who else has touched the grapes, and more than likely,whoever they were, they probably didn’twash their hands. Youalso don’t know how manyinsects walked over your grape,

possibly stopping to deposit whatever germsthey carry on their feet, or how manyﬂies landed on your grape. Take your fruit homeand place it in abowl of cold water with ahalf cup of baking soda. Swish it around forafew minutes (after you’ve washed your hands), then rinse well.

Stay safeand healthy!

Heloise

Sittingorstanding?

Dear Heloise: There’sbeen much discussion about men and how so many seem to miss the toilet when they urinate. Why can’taman just sit down? What is wrong with sitting downasopposed to standing up? There would be less of amess, but since so manymen don’tdothe cleaning, Iguess they don’t care about the women who have to disinfect the areas they spray —Kelsey M., in Maricopa,Arizona Kelsey,this is an inter-

esting question. Why can’t men just sit downrather than standing up? Anyone want to tackle this question? Let us know at Heloise@Heloise.com —Heloise Moldycheesehack

Dear Heloise: Ihate moldy cheese, so Isearched for away to keep moldaway from my cheeses and found the answer with my grandmother.She said that in the old country,people would soak apiece of

If the paper towel or cheesecloth dries out, just rewet it with cider vinegar This is asimple, easy way to keep cheese mold-free. —Jessica K., in Delaware

Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

Hints from Heloise

He doesn’t remember offhand what that ﬁrst concert was in 1984, but he taped it with a tiny Dictaphone-type device that he borrowed from his grandmother A short time later, he bought the Sony Walkman-style tape recorder When that broke, he briefly used his home console cassette machine stuffed in a backpack that a generous soundman let him plug in.

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

Jacobs doesn’t consider himself obsessive or, as many call him an archivist. He says he’s just a music fan. He figured if he was going to attend a few concerts a week anyway, why not document them? In the early years, he contended with contentious club owners who tried to prevent him from taping. But they eventually relented as he became a ﬁxture in the music scene, 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’s cultural institutions.

“He’s a character I think you have to be, to do what he does,” Mehr said. “But I

DOG

Continued from page 1C

think he proved over time that his intentions were really pure.”

After filmmaker Katlin Schneider made a documentary about Jacobs in 2023, a volunteer with the Internet Archive reached out to suggest his collection be preserved. “Before all the tapes started not working because of time, just disintegrating, I ﬁnally said yes,” he said Boxes stuffed with tapes

Once a month, Brian Emerick makes the trip from the Chicago suburbs to Jacobs’ house in the city to pick up 10 or 20 boxes each stuffed with 50 or 100 tapes. Emerick’s job is to transfer in real time — the analog recordings to digital ﬁles that can be sent to other volunteers who mix

like home for your dog to keep them comfortable and surrounded by familiar smells.

5 It may be a good idea to buy a special toy that you only give them in the car This can help them associate car travel with fun.

Conditioning, desensitizing

You can take steps to help your dog overcome motion sickness and car anxiety Start by putting your pup in the car with you for a

and master the shows for upload to the archive. Emerick has a room devoted to his setup of outdated cassette and DAT decks.

“So many of the machines I find are broken. They’re trashed. And so I learned how to ﬁx those, get them running again,” said Emerick. “Currently, I have 10 working cassette decks, and I run those all simultaneously.”

Emerick estimates he’s digitized at least 5,500 tapes since late 2024 and that it will take another few years to complete the project. The digital ﬁles are claimed by a dozen 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,

few minutes a day

Slowly increase the progression of exposure by turning on the car and increasing the length of time in the car Be sure to go at your dog’s pace and keep your cool.

Medication for your dog

There are also physical remedies such as medications and natural herbs and plants that may help to calm your dog and settle their stomach, such as lavender, ginger, and valerian. Be sure to consult your vet before giving your dog any medications or herbal remedies. For more information on responsible dog ownership, visit the AKC at www.akc.org.

who said he’s constantly impressed by the audio fidelity of the original tapes, especially considering Jacobs was using “weird RadioShack mics” and other primitive equipment.

“Especially after the ﬁrst couple years, he’s got it so dialed in that some of these recordings, on, like, crappy little cassette tapes from the early ’90s, sound incredible,” deMause said.

Emerick pointed to a 1984 James Brown concert as a gem he discovered in the stacks.

Often, the hardest job is ﬁguring out song titles. Occasionally, Jacobs kept helpful notes, but the volunteers frequently spend days consulting each other, searching and even reaching out to artists to make sure the setlists are accurately documented.

Jacobs said the majority of the artists he recorded are pleased to have their work preserved. As for copyright concerns, he’s happy to remove recordings if requested, but added that only one or two musicians so far have asked that their material be taken down.

“I think that the general consensus is, it’s easier 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, Los Angeles, said that under anti-bootlegging laws, the artists technically own the original compositions and live recordings. But since neither Jacobs nor the archive is proﬁting from the endeavor, lawsuits seem unlikely The Replacements, a foundational punk-alternative band, were so happy with Jacobs’ tape of a 1986 show that they mixed some of it in with a soundboard recording. They released it in 2023 as a live album as part of a box set produced by Mehr Jacobs stopped recording a few years ago as worsening health problems sapped his desire to go out and see concerts. But he still enjoys experiencing live music he ﬁnds online, much of it recorded by a new generation of fans.

“Since everybody’s got a cellphone, anybody can record a concert,” he said.

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

FrAnK And erneSt

bIG nAte

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placingpuzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place thenumbers 1to9inthe empty squaressothat each row, each column andeach3x3 boxcontainsthe same number only once. The difficultylevel of theSudoku increasesfromMonday to Sunday

Saturday’s PuzzleAnswer

THe wiZardoFid

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

Bridge

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Don Marquis, awriter and humorist whodiedin1937, said, “A pessimist is a personwho hashad to listen to toomany optimists.”

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

In today’sdeal, South is in four spades. Westcashes his three top clubs, then shiftsto, say, aheart to South’s ace. How would the approachesvary between an optimistand apessimist?

The auction wasstraightforward. Northhadamaximuminhigh-cardterms for asingle raiseand held four trumps, buthehadtheworstpossibledistribution andoneofhisred-suitqueensratedtobe worthless.

Withnolosersintheredsuits,declarer just hastodrawtrumps safely. Theoptimist, expecting thesuit to break 2-2 or 3-1, would immediately play aspade to dummy’s queen and go down one.

Thepessimist wonders what to do abouta4-0 split, which will happen 10 percent of the time. He will realizethat if East has all four spades,the contract hasnochance. ButifWest holds four of them, they can be pickedupaslongas declarerkeepsdummy’skingandqueen hovering over West’s jack and 10. So South casheshis spade ace at trick five.

wuzzles

WhenEastdiscardsaclub(alwaysthrow black on black if youcan afford to do so), declarercontinueswithalowspade,capturingWest’scardascheaplyaspossible. Then, if necessary,Southreturns to his hand witha heart or diamond andleads anotherspade,pickingupWest’strumps without further loss. ©2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel

Syndication

EachWuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previousanswers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four lettersbythe additionof“s,”suchas“bats” or “dies,” are notallowed.3 Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s”may notbeused. 4. Proper nouns,slangwords, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are notallowed toDAY’sWoRD KnEEcAP: NEE-kap: To shootorotherwise disablethe knee of someone.

Average mark 15 words Time limit 25 minutes Can you find 20 or more words in KNEECAP?

sAtuRDAY’s WoRD —WEREWoLVEs