The Times-Picayune 04-18-2026 by The Advocate

STRAIT OF HORMUZ OPENS; U.S. BLOCKADE

Ruling undermines $745MChevron verdict

Justices’ decision affectsmanycases againstoil companies

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON —A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Friday undermined a huge jury verdict from Plaquemines Parish that found oil giant Chevron responsible fortearing up the state’s coastal marshes in search of fossil fuels. The 8-0 decision, written by Justice Clarence Thomas in ChevronUSA Inc v. Plaquemines Parish,isanarrow rul-

ingona technical legalissue. It says an appeals court erred when it denied Chevron’srequest to move its caseinto federal courts, rather than decide the case in state district courts.

Theruling hasimplicationsfor many other Louisiana lawsuits that seek to make oil companies pay for alleged pollution and hastenederosion along the coastline.

Justice Samuel Alito, the ninth memberofthe high court, didn’tparticipate

because he owned stock in oneofthe energy companies.

Thomas and the justices found that lower courts and the 5thU.S. Circuit Court of Appeals incorrectly interpreted thefederal removallaw.The case was returned to the5th Circuit.

Thejustices didn’tlook directly at a$745million statedistrictcourt jury verdictinPlaqueminesParish against

Former krewe memberstosplit $90,000

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

After public controversy nixed theMystic Krewe of Nyx from New Orleans’ Carnival parade calendar several years ago, its members are nowbeing paid asettlement from aclass-action lawsuit ﬁledagainst the organization and its leader

Nyx wasthe largest parade in Mardi Gras history in 2018, with 44 ﬂoatsand more than 3,300riders. But six years ago, members fled theall-femaleorganization in droves, leaving the krewe in shambles.

Nyx’slast paradewas in 2024, after whichitwas cut from the Mardi Gras lineup and disappeared —except in the courts, thanks to alawsuit brought by formermembers seeking arefund of their dues. The case was settled in January,with the Mystic Krewe of Nyx agreeing to pay $90,000 to cover claims without accepting blame. In the past few weeks, the Nyx sisters, as krewe members were known, have receivedpaymentsof $260.50 each. The exact number of members paid does not appear in court documents. The class-action lawsuit accused kreweCaptain Julie Lea and associates of alaundry list of offenses

See NYX, page 4A

BelleChasseshipyardgetspiece of tugboatcontract

Charles.

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

APlaquemines Parish shipyard has landeda piece of a $300 million contract to build tugboats that will guide tankers in and out of Woodside Energy’smassive liquefied natural gas export terminal under construction near Lake

At anews conference surrounded by state and local ofﬁcials on Friday,Gov.Jeff Landry announcedthat C&C Marine andRepair’s Belle Chasse shipyard will build four new diesel-electric hybrid tugs forthe $17.5billion LNGfacility,which is expected to becompleted in 2029 The deal is expectedtocreate about60 construction jobs at C&C, ofﬁcials with Louisiana EconomicDevelopment said. Another 40 permanent jobswill be createdbythe

jointventurethatwas awarded thecontract to operate the tugboatsfor Woodside.

The deal is thelatesteconomic development win from Landry’sadministration, which has aggressively courted industrial megaprojects in the energy,manufacturing and technology infrastructure sectors.

Landry touted theAustralianpetroleumcompany’s commitmenttobuild the boatsin-stateasevidence that

Gov. Jeff Landry, center reacts Friday after welding on aboat keel during an event at C&C Marine and RepairinBelle Chasse. Landryannounced that Woodside Energy has awarded a$300 million contractto Louisiana-based Green TugTowingtobuild four newtugboats to be built at C&C for itsliquefied natural gasproject.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Aunanimous U.S. Supreme Courton Friday undermined ahugejuryverdict from Plaquemines Parish that found Chevron responsible for tearingupthe state’scoastal marshes in search of fossil fuels.

STAFFPHOTO By BRETT DUKE

1 million bees hold up Tennessee traffic

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Travelers on an East Tennessee interstate were forced to brake for workers and drones, perhaps even a queen — when a truck carrying about 1 million bees crashed Friday

The swarm shut down an exit of Interstate 40 in Knoxville, said Mark Nagi, Tennessee Department of Transportation regional spokesperson. There were no injuries, he said.

“The ramp from I-40 East to Henley Street is back open but the truck is destroyed and the bees are well… buzzing,” Nagi posted, along with a photo of a person in beekeeper garb “Unless you are dressed in this outﬁt please stay in your vehicles in this area.”

Later Friday, Nagi conﬁrmed that all of the bees had been moved from the area and the truck was removed.

What could not be as easily quelled were the puns.

“So, this is the buzz around town?” U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett wrote on social media. “This stuff just writes itself.”

Alleged crime boss

Daniel Kinahan arrested

LONDON Daniel Kinahan, the alleged leader of one of Ireland’s biggest criminal networks, has been arrested in Dubai, Irish media reported Friday Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Síochána, said an Irish man in his late 40s was arrested on Wednesday under a warrant from Irish courts over alleged seriousorganizedcrimeoffenses.

The force said it was “steadfast in our determination that we would pursue those allegedly involved in serious organized criminal activity, wherever they go.”

Dubai Police said they had arrested an “Irish fugitive for his alleged role in an international organized crime network.”

Police did not identify Kinahan, who is in his late 40s, by name. Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, conﬁrmed he was the arrested man.

The High Court in Dublin previously named Kinahan, who lives in the United Arab Emirates, as a senior ﬁgure in an organized crime gang involved in international drug trafficking operations and ﬁrearm offenses

A feud between the Kinahan cartel and the rival Hutch gang has been linked to 18 killings in Ireland since 2015. In 2016, David Byrne, an associate of the Kinahan cartel, was shot dead at a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Dublin. Authorities believe Kinahan was the intended target. He later moved to Spain and then Dubai.

In 2022 the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the “ﬁnancial destruction” of the Kinahan crime gang or the arrest and conviction of its leaders.

2 soldiers injured in brown bear encounter

ANCHORAGE, Alaska Two U.S. Army soldiers have been injured after encountering a brown bear in a mountainous training area in Anchorage, the military said Friday

The incident happened Thursday as the soldiers were participating in a “land navigation training event” in Arctic Valley, part of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s training area

The soldiers were receiving medical care as of Friday, a military ofﬁcial told the Anchorage Daily News. Messages sent to base spokespersons were not immediately returned to The Associated Press Friday

The soldiers’ conditions were not released pending notification of relatives.

Both soldiers used pepper spray on the bear, the official said. Few other details were available about the incident because it was still under investigation.

“The safety and well-being of our personnel is our highest priority,” Lt. Col. Jo Nederhoed, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division, said in an email to the Anchorage Daily News.

The base encompasses 100 square miles within the Municipality of Anchorage, where up to 350 black bears and 75 brown bears roam freely

Senate votes to extend surveillance powers

Congress approves renewal of controversial program

BY JOEY CAPPELLETTI and LISA MASCARO Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Senate approved a short-term renewal until April 30 of a controversial surveillance program used by U.S spy agencies, following a chaotic, postmidnight scramble in the House to keep the authority from expiring in a matter of days.

The measure cleared the Senate by voice vote Friday, without a formal roll call the same way it was approved hours earlier in the House as Congress raced to meet a MondaydeadlineandsendittoPresident Donald Trump for his signature.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune gave a nod to the political difficulty ahead as they assess options when the temporary extension expires at the end of the month. “We’ll be preparing accordingly,” the South Dakota Republican said

It’s all setting up another showdown, in a matter of weeks, as Congressdivesintothesurveillancetool that pits Americans’ privacy rights against what U.S. ofﬁcials have long said is a uniquely effective program for the security of the country

The stopgap came after House Republican leaders hurriedly

unveiled an ambitious five-year extension late Thursday with revisions to appease skeptics of the surveillance program — a sharp pivot from the clean 18-month renewal Trump and GOP leaders had pushed all week. But both those Republican bills collapsed, failing to advance, forcing leaders to pivot.

Early Friday Sen. Ron Wyden, DOre., a longtime critic of the surveillance system, stalled further action in the Senate as he pressed for changes.

Wyden said he has never seen this level of support on both sides of the political aisle — and in both chambers of Congress — for real revisions to the surveillance tool, although he did not stand in the way of a short-term extension, for now “It’s not making a choice between security and liberty That’s garbage,” Wyden said. “We’re going to show that the two aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, and the White House had spent the week trying to line up support for an 18-month renewal of the spy tool with no changes. But holdouts held ﬁrm, forcing a late-night scramble.

GOP leaders in the House rushed lawmakers back into session late Thursday for a series of back-to-

back votes that fell apart before pivoting to a stopgap to keep the program from expiring Monday First, they came out with a new plan that would have extended the program for ﬁve years, with revisions. Among the changes were new provisions to ensure that only FBI attorneys could authorize queries on U.S. people, and to require the Ofﬁce of the Director of National Intelligence to review such cases, said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., during the debate.

That plan also would enhance criminal penalties on those who unlawfully conduct such inquiries or disclose the surveillance information, Scott said. It provides a way for members of Congress and certain staff to access the proceedings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, which handles such requests.

But the ﬁnal product, a 14-page amendment, did not go far enough for some holdouts in either party GOP leaders then tried to salvage a shorter 18-month renewal that Trump had demanded and Johnson had previously backed. It failed as well, with some 20 Republicans joining most Democrats in blocking its advance.

Shortly after 2 a.m., they quickly agreed to the 10-day extension.

Judge sides with election official, conﬁrms authority

Arizona ruling has implications for midterms

BY JOSH KELETY Associated Press

PHOENIX The top election official in Arizona’s most populous county will get more authority in running elections after a judge sided with his office in a prolonged legal fight with the local board that shares responsibility for overseeing the vote

The decision could have broad implications in one of the nation’s most prominent battleground states, which will have several high-proﬁle races this fall. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, has been roiled by election conspiracy theorists ever since President Donald Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden during his bid for reelection in 2020.

Justin Heap, the Republican recorder in Maricopa County, sued the predominantly Republican county board of supervisors last summer alleging it had illegally taken control of certain aspects of election administration. Heap claimed the board transferred funding, IT staff and some key functions including management of ballot drop boxes and establishing early voting sites — away from his ofﬁce through an agreement negotiated with his predecessor, whom he had recently defeated in a GOP primary Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney mostly sided with Heap’s office in his ruling, which was filed Thursday but appeared on the public docket Friday The board of supervisors “acted unlawfully and exceeded its statutory authority by seizing the Recorder’s personnel, systems and equipment and refusing to return them” to the recorder,

he wrote.

Blaney also ruled that the recorder’s ofﬁce is responsible for overseeing inperson early voting, among other duties, while the board is responsible for other operations, such as selecting Election Day voting locations, supplying polling locations and hiring poll workers.

“The Board’s assertion of plenary authority over election administration through its general supervisory powers is inconsistent with Arizona law,” the judge wrote.

BoardChairwomanKateBrophyMcGee said the board will consider an appeal.

“I disagree with other portions of the ruling, and I will explore all options with the Board of Supervisors, including an expeditiousappeal,”McGee,aRepublican,saidin a statement. “From day one, the Board of Supervisors has provided Recorder Heap the resources and staffing needed to fulfill his statutory duties. We will continue to do so because voters always come first.”

In a statement, Heap praised the ruling as a “clear and decisive victory for the rule of law and for the voters of Maricopa County.”

“The court conﬁrmed that the Board cannot override state law, use funding as leverage, or take control of election duties assigned to the Recorder,” Heap said. “This ruling restores both the authority and the resources necessary for my ofﬁce to do its job.”

Heap, a former Republican state lawmaker, was elected in 2024 after unseating incumbent Stephen Richer in the GOP primary and defeating a Democratic candidate in the general election. In the past, Heap has stopped short of repeating false claims that the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen, but has said voters don’t trust the state’s voting system and that it’s poorly run.

Trump’s lawyers, IRS in talks to resolve litigation

President filed a $10B lawsuit over leaked tax information

BY FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON LawyersforPres-

ident Donald Trump are engaged in talks with the IRS to resolve a $10 billion lawsuit the president ﬁled against his own tax collection agency over the leak of his tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

In a federal court ﬁling Friday, Trump asks a judge to pause the case for 90 days while the two sides work to reach a settlement or resolution.

“This limited pause will neither prejudice the parties nor delay ultimate resolution,” the ﬁling says. “Rather the extension will promote judicial economy and allow the Parties to explore avenues that could narrow or resolve the issues efﬁciently.”

Tax and ethics experts say the lawsuit raises a plethora of legal and ethical questions, including the propriety of the leader of the executive branch pursuing scorched-earth litigation against the very government he oversees.

Earlier this year Trump filed a lawsuit in a Florida federal court, alleging that a previous leak of his and the Trump Organization’s confidential tax records caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.”

The president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, are also plaintiffs in the suit.

In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn, of Washington, D.C. who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense and national security tech ﬁrm — was sentenced to ﬁve years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about President Trump and others to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, and fellow Republicans approved a renewal of a controversial surveillance program through April 30, setting up another showdown for an extension at the end of the month.

Sterling credentialsnot required forICE hires

BY RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press

Their backgrounds stand out. And not in agood way Twobankruptcies and six lawenforcementjobsinthree years. An allegation of lying in apolice report to justify a felony charge against an innocent woman —anincident that led to a$75,000 settlement and criticism of his integrity.Athird job candidate once failed to graduate from apolice academy,then lasted only three weeks in his only job as apolice ofﬁcer

Their common bond:All were hired recently by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during an unprecedented hiring spree —12,000 new officers and special agents to double its force —after the agency received a$75 billion windfall from Congress to enact President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign

The president put apremium on swift action, and for ICE that meant rapid-ﬁre recruitment andhiring, which in turn led to new employees with questionable qualifications. Their backgrounds and training have come under scrutinyafternumeroushighproﬁle incidents in which ICE agents used excessive force.

“If vetting is not done well and it’sdone too quickly, youhavehigherriskofincreased liabilitytothe agency because of bad actions, abuse of power and the lack of ability to properly carry out the mission because people don’tknow what they are doing,” said Claire TricklerMcNulty,who served as an ICE officialduringthe Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations.

The agency has said the majority of new hires are police and military veterans. Butevidenceismounting that applicants with questionable histories were either not fully vetted before they were broughtonor were hired in spite of their past, an investigation by The Associated Press found.

On Thursday,prosecutors

announced felonyassault charges against ICEofﬁcer Gregory DonnellMorgan Jr.for allegedlypointing a handgun atthe occupantsof acar after pullingalongside them on aMinneapolis-area highwayinFebruary.Maryland Court records show Morgan had ahistory of ﬁnancial problems

And while Morganclaimed on an onlineresume to have worked for the policedepartment in Alexandria, Virginia, adepartment spokeswoman said he wasanentrylevel recruit for six weeksin 2022 but never completed its police academy.Itisunclear when he started at ICE, which didn’treturn messages seeking comment. Phone numbers listed in Morgan’s name were incorrect, and a message left for an attorney whorepresented him in civil court was not immediately returned Friday ICE’sacting director,Todd Lyons, said duringa congressional hearinginFebruary that he was proud of thehiring campaign, which drew more than 220,000 applications. “Thisexpansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce will helpfurther ICE’sability to executethe president’sand secretary’s bold agenda,” he said.

Issues in backgrounds

Unlikemany local law enforcementagencies, ICE said it shields the identity of employees to protect them from harassment, making afull accounting of the new hiresimpossible.

The AP focused on more than 40 ofﬁcers whorecently made publictheir newjobs as ICE ofﬁcers on LinkedIn pages, usingpublic records to check their backgrounds.

All but onewere male.

While most of them had conventional qualifications as former correctional officers, security guards, military veterans and police officers, it’sunclear howmany should have potentially been disqualifiedbecause AP did nothaveaccess to theirfull personnel files. But several had histories of unpaid debtsthatresulted in legal action, two hadfiled for bankruptcy and threeothers had faced lawsuits that alleged misconduct in prior

law enforcement jobs, the AP found.

Marshall Jones, an expert on police recruiting at the Florida Institute of Technology,said it’s hard to get afull picture of ICE’snew employee pool without more data. But he said ICEhas likely hired some “less than ideal candidates” who meet minimum requirements but would be passed over in a normal hiring cycle.

“If you’re hiring hundreds or thousands of people, even with the best of background processes, there are going to be outliers,” he said. “The questionis, arethese normal outliers from human beings doing things, or is therea systemic challenge in properlyvetting folks if there are issues?”

‘Anongoing process’

TheDepartment of Homeland Security,ICE’s parent agency,did not answer questions aboutspeciﬁc hiring decisions.But it acknowledged someapplicantsreceived “tentative selection letters” and offerstobegin working on atemporarystatusbefore they had been subjected to full background checks.

“ICEiscommitted to ensuring its law enforcement personnelare held to the highest standards and rigorously vetsthemthroughout the hiring process,” the department said. “Vetting is an ongoing process,not aonetime occurrence.”

The process includes reviewing theircriminal histories andcredit scores and conductingbackground investigations thatinclude interviewing prior employers and other associates, which can take weeks. Butthe deluge of hireshas strainedthe agency,whichpromisedsigning bonuses of up to $50,000 andadvertisedthatcollege degrees were not required.

An internal memo, first reported by Reuters in February,told ICE supervisors that if they receive “derogatory informationabout anewly hiredemployee’s conduct” theyshould refer the allegations to an internal affairsunitfor investigation.Such information could include the employees’ termination or forcedresignations, thememo said.

Defenseteam: Camerasin courtroom tiltingcase

Lawyersfor alleged Kirk shooterargue it feedsspeculation

BY MATTHEWBROWN and HANNAHSCHOENBAUM Associated Press

PROVO, Utah Adefense witness in the prosecution of the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk said Friday that conjecture in the mediaabout his courtroom demeanor and alleged confessions are making it impossible for Tyler Robinson to get afair trial.

The testimony from defense team consultant Bryan Edelman came as Robinson’sattorneys presseda Utah judge to bancameras from his case. They say live broadcasts of theproceedings are feeding into speculativestories and tainting potential jurors.

Robinson’s parentssat behind himinthe half-full courtroom. Hisfatherlowered his head andstared at hishands while prosecutors played aFox News clip in which acommentator identiﬁed as aformer FBI agent opined that Robinson was a sociopath.

“It’screating outside the courtroom areality TV show,”saidEdelman,asocial psychologist who has a California-based trialconsulting business. “I think it creates pressure on everybody to have cameras in here,from the jury to everyone involved.”

Media organizations, prosecutors and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, want the courttoallow cameras. They argue transparency is thebest way to guard against the misinformation and conspiracy theories that concern Robinson’sdefense team.

Robinson, who turned 23 on Thursday,has notyet en-

tered aplea. Atrial date has not been set.

Camerasmoved

Media sensationalism around the case has cut bothways.InaMarch 30 headline, the U.K.-based DailyMailreportedthe bullet that killed Kirk “did NOT match”a rifle allegedly used by Robinson. The story was basedonan inconclusive, preliminary ﬁnding by ballistics experts and led to speculation about Robinson’spossible exoneration. The FBI is running additionaltests, according to court documents.

Utah Countyprosecutor

Chad Grunander noted that nearly allofthe clipsEdelmanshowed as examples of media biasdid notactually include material from the courtroom livestream Still, livestreaming by media outlets hastested the patience of Judge Tony Graf.

During aDecember hearing, Graftemporarily stopped the livestream after it showed the defendant’sshackles in violation of acourtroom decorum order

AJanuary hearing was interrupted when Robinson’sattorneys said close-up shots of Robinson beinglivestreamedbya local television station could again lead to claims based on lip reading. That, too, wasa violation of Graf’s decorum order.The judge ordered the camera operator nottoﬁlm Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.

In recenthearings and again Friday,pool cameras for the media were stationed at the rear of the courtroom,behind Robinson. Graf also made camera operators come before him to acknowledge they understand the rules. Mike Judd, alawyer fora

coalition of media organizations including The Associated Pressthatare ﬁghting to preserve access, said Graf so farhas focused on whetherhis rules inside the courtroomare being followed, not what the media is saying outside of court. “The court can do allof that in order to try to control what gets fedinto that media ecosystem,” Judd said. “You reduce the likelihood of somebody publishing things that you think may be of potentially biasing concern later on.” Policiesoncameras and livestreaming vary among states. Cameras are generally prohibited in federal courts.

Sufficientevidence

The preliminary hearing scheduledfor Mayisfor prosecutors to showthey have enough evidence to proceed to trial. Authorities have said DNA consistent with Robinson’swas found on the triggerofthe rifle the fired cartridge casing, twounfired cartridges and atowel used to wrap the rifle.

But the defense argued Friday it cannot move forwardwith the hearing until law enforcement agencies turn over more details about their DNA analysis of evidence. Prosecutors responded that they have sufficient proofbeyondDNA to tie Robinson to Kirk’skilling. Thatincludessurveillance video of Robinson near the university from the morning of the shooting wearing thesame clothes as when he turnedhimself in.Robinson left ahandwrittennote for his romantic partnerconfessing to thecrime before it happened, andalso confessed to friends on thechatroom platform Discord, prosecutors said.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMESFILE PHOTOByANTHONyVAZQUEZ

Federal immigration enforcement agentsdetain an individual near West 27th Street and South

Strait of Hormuz opens; U.S. blockade of Iran remains

Trump says Tehran must reach a deal

BY KAREEM CHEHAYEB, AAMER MADHANI and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press

BEIRUT Iran said Friday it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels, but President Donald Trump said the American blockade on Iranian ships and ports “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that the crucial waterway, through which about 20% of the world’s oil is shipped, was now fully open to commercial vessels, as a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to hold.

Araghchi said ships will use routes designated by the Islamic Republic in coordination with Iranian authorities, suggesting Iran planned to retain some level of control over the channel.

It was not clear if vessels would have to pay tolls

A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained conﬁned to corridors requiring Iran’s approval.

Trump initially celebrated the Iranian announcement, posting on social media that the strait was “fully open and ready for full passage.”

But minutes later, he issued another post saying the U.S Navy’s blockade would continue “UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE.”

Iran protests blockade A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the blockade was a violation of last week’s ceaseﬁre agreement between Iran and the U.S. In comments published by

NYX

Continued from page 1A

including illegitimate personal enrichment, fraud, unfair trade practices, conspiracy and racketeering.

An attorney for Lea and Nyx did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The public backlash started with a social media post by founder and captain Julie Lea. In May 2020, an unarmed Black man named George Floyd had been killed by a Minneapolis police ofﬁcer, provoking protests across the country

Iranian state media, Esmail Baghaei said the strait is still under the supervision of Iran, which is serious about its commitments But if the U.S violates its own commitments, then Iran “will take the necessary reciprocal measures.”

“No leniency will be shown in this regard,” Baghaei said.

Trump also said Iran, with help from the U.S., is working to remove all mines from the strait.

Trump imposed the blockade earlier this week after Iran restricted traffic through the strait due to ﬁghting in Lebanon, which Iran claimed was a breach of the Pakistan-brokered ceaseﬁre.

The president’s decision to continue the blockade despite Iran’s announcement appeared aimed at sustaining pressure on Tehran as the fate of the two-week ceaseﬁre reached last week remained uncertain. The ceasefire paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.

Direct talks between the U.S. and Iran last weekend were inconclusive, as the two nations could not agree about Iran’s nuclear program and other points.

Talks could happen soon

Trump suggested a second round of talks could happen this weekend

“The Iranians want to meet,” he said in a brief telephone interview with the news outlet Axios. “They want to make a deal. I think a meeting will probably take place over the weekend.”

Oil prices fell Friday on hopes the U.S. and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. The head of the International Energy Agency had warned that the energy crisis could get worse if the strait did not reopen

Two Iranian semiofficial news agencies seemed to challenge Araghchi’s announcement about the strait. Considered close with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, the Fars news

affi

woman member of the Basij

gun

a state-organized

agency issued a series of posts on X criticizing what it said was a lack of clarity over the decision to reopen the waterway and a “strange silence from the Supreme National Security Council and the negotiating team.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has recently acted as the country’s de facto top decision-making body, amid doubts over the status of the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly wounded early in the war

The Mehr news agency also said the decision to reopen the strait needed “clariﬁcation” and required the supreme leader’s approval.

Truce in Lebanon

The ceaseﬁre in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement between Iran, the United States and Israel to end the war But it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a deal it did not play a role in negotiating and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.

Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the U.S. from further

strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war

The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in selfdefense.

Shortly before Trump’s post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceaseﬁre in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump,” but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.

He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90% of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces “have not ﬁnished yet” with the dismantling of the group.

Celebrations in Beirut

In Beirut, celebratory gunshots rang out at the start of the truce. Displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs despite warnings by ofﬁcials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceaseﬁre would hold.

The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon had reported sporadic artillery shelling

The Mystic Krewe of Nyx parades on the Uptown route on Feb 7, 2024. After public controversy nixed the krewe from New Orleans’ Carnival parade calendar several years ago, its members are now being paid a settlement from a class-action lawsuit filed against the organization and its leader

in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceaseﬁre took effect.

An Israeli strike in the area of Kounine hit a car and a motorcycle, killing one person and wounding three, including a Syrian citizen, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Friday It was the ﬁrst airstrike and ﬁrst fatality reported since the truce took effect.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli army or Hezbollah.

An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week’s ceaseﬁre with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that deal did not cover Lebanon.

The ﬁghting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Israeli troops in Lebanon

Israel’s hard-line Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue to hold all the places where it is currently stationed, including a buffer zone extending six miles into southern Leba-

against Lea and her organization in small-claims court hoping to get their dues back.

Attorney Taetrece Harrison, a former Nyx member who’d quit the club before the controversy, consolidated those small claims into a class-action suit in Civil District Court, open to all former members.

non. He said many homes in the area would be destroyed and Lebanese residents will not return.

Hezbollah has said Lebanese people have “the right to resist” Israeli occupation and that their actions “will be determined based on how developments unfold.” Israel and Hezbollah have fought several wars and have been fighting on and off since the day after the start of the Gaza war Israel and Lebanon reached a deal to end the earlier fighting in November 2024, but Israel has kept up near-daily strikes in what it says is an effort to prevent the Iranbacked militant group from regrouping. That escalated into another invasion after Hezbollah again began firing missiles at Israel in response to its war on Iran.

Seeking compromise

In the Iran war, mediators are pushing for compromise on three main points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional ofﬁcial involved in the mediation efforts.

Trump on Friday suggested Iran has agreed to hand over its enriched uranium.

“The USA will get all the nuclear dust,” Trump said in a speech in Arizona. “We’re going to get it by going in with Iran with lots of excavators.”

Nuclear dust is the shorthand Trump frequently uses to refer to the highly enriched uranium that is believed buried under nuclear sites the U.S. bombed during last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran. If true, it would be a major concession from Iran and would lock in a key demand of the U.S. to end the conflict. Neither Iran nor countries acting as intermediaries in the conﬂict have said Tehran has made such an agreement.

Trump said no money would exchange hands to end the war

the krewe comradery. “I met so many friends.”

Former krewe member Holly McKenny had a similar reaction. “Nyx was special,” she said, and when she left, she regretted losing the community of women and the sense of empowerment it provided. McKenny, a social worker and Southern University professor, said she felt vindicated that Nyx had its parade permit revoked.

A public protest and exodus of members followed.

The slogan “Black Lives Matter” became a rallying cry against police brutality Lea, a former police officer, posted a photo of a Black child and White child with the caption “All Lives Matter,” which was widely seen as a rebuttal of the Black Lives Matter movement. The post outraged the membership, which was approximately half Black. Some Nyx members called for Lea to resign, but she refused

Even before Lea’s polarizing Instagram post, Nyx members claimed there was dissatisfaction over ﬁnancial management of the organization, and the political controversy seemed to

bring everything to a head.

By the time the controversy hit social media, many members had already paid their $1,100 membership fee. Several former members then ﬁled claims

Nonetta Pierre was the ﬁrst to make a claim against Nyx in court. But she insists “it wasn’t about the money,” it was the principle of the matter Pierre said that sometime during the crisis, the krewe leadership promised that anyone wishing to cancel their membership would have their dues refunded.

But after she quit, “they ghosted,” Pierre said. “If you say you’re going to give it back, then give it back,” she said.

For Pierre, the dissolution of Nyx was an emotional blow “I loved it,” she said of

Attorney Suzanne Montero of the Sternberg, Naccari & White law firm helped arrange the settlement agreement. Nyx’s insurer covered the cost, she said. There was no admission of wrongdoing, she added Lawyer’s fees amounted to roughly $36,000.

The lawsuit, she said in her opinion, didn’t lead to the demise of Nyx, “but it was a real nail in the cofﬁn.” Email Doug MacCash at dmaccash@theadvocate. com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By VAHID SALEMI

paramilitary,

liated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, holds her

Friday during

rally in support of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei marking National Girls Day in Tehran, Iran.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

large-scale private investments like LNG terminals, data centers and steel mills have positive ripple effects throughout Louisiana.

“This is absolute proof that when you have the size of investment and commitment of folks like Woodside to come into Louisiana and to do large-scale projects, it is like a high tide that lifts all boats.”

Major player on the scene

LNG, which is processed by super-chilling natural gas into a liquid form that can then be loaded onto tankers and shipped overseas, is a booming sector in global energy markets, and Louisiana has emerged as a major player

More than 60% of the nation’s LNG exports now travel through the state.

LNG has been billed as a cleaner source of energy than coal as much of the world moves more toward renewable energy

It is also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, and critics have argued that new export terminals will lock in gas consumption for decades to come and undermine efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.

Louisiana currently has four operational LNG terminals. Two others, including Woodside, are under construction. Four others have been approved but are not yet being built, accord-

RULING

Continued from page 1A

Chevron USA. But the high court’s new definitions for the federal removal law likely would require the case to be retried in federal district court. More broadly, the court’s interpretation affects litigation across the nation arising against private companies that contracted with the federal government. The law says those companies should be shielded from local bias for damage caused in local communities Chevron praised the ruling. “As the Court recognized, the plaintiffs’ claims are related to activities that Chevron and other energy companies performed under federal supervision during World War II. Those claims are ﬂawed as a matter of both state law and federal law, and Chevron looks forward to litigating these cases in federal court, where they belong,” Chevron spokesperson Matias Miranda Vaira said Friday in an emailed statement.

But John Carmouche, the Baton Rouge lawyer who represented Plaquemines Parish and other local governments in similar cases, voiced disappointment.

“The Supreme Court has decided the people of Plaquemines did not have the right to make this decision. So, while we strongly disagree, we accept what the court has said,” Carmouche said.

The decision impacts 11 of 42 cases against oil companies, Carmouche said.

“These 11 cases require decisions by a federal court and we intend to pursue this avenue as aggressively as we will pursue the other cases in state court. Simply changing where the case will be heard, as has happened, will not deter our efforts to have Big Oil held accountable for the damages they caused and the enormous restoration they owe the people of Louisiana,” Carmouche said.

Gov Jeff Landry said Friday he hopes for a “resolution” in these cases. The governor recently announced a settlement with ConocoPhillips, a named defendant in 13 of the 42 coastal lawsuits.

“Federal court moves faster than state court — those oil and gas companies that want to litigate it, go litigate it,” Landry said at an economic development event in Belle Chasse. “I’m not here to tell them not to. I wish we could ﬁnd a resolution I’m

ing to the Energy Information Administration. Just 30 minutes down the road from C&C’s sprawling shipyard, Venture Global operates one of the largest LNG export terminals built to date and is building an expansion that would double capacity Partnerships

Woodside’s contract for the new tugs was technically awarded to Green Tug Towing, a joint venture between a longtime Lake Charles maritime company, Harbor Docking & Towing,

and Seattle-based maritime conglomerate Saltchuk Marine.

Green Tug will manage construction and operate the tugs once they’re completed, creating 40 permanent jobs, according to President Thomas Springer.

C&C is effectively acting as a subcontractor for Green Tug, providing the labor and shipyard space for the vessel construction.

It is not clear how the three companies will split the $300 million over the 20-year life of the contract.

The 8-0 U.S Supreme Court decision in Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish says an appeals court erred when it denied Chevron’s request to move its case into federal courts, rather than decide the case in state district courts.

working hard to try to get a resolution.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill represented the state in the lawsuit “A jury in one of the most conservative, pro-oil and gas communities in the country found that Chevron was liable for billions of gallons of toxic waste dumped into the Louisiana marsh,” Murrill said. It doesn’t matter whether this case is in state court or federal court I am confident the outcome will be the same.”

The lawsuits

In 2013, a group of local parishes and the state ﬁled 42 lawsuits against energy companies whose predecessors sought and produced crude during World War II. They argued the oil and gas companies damaged wetlands and didn’t remove production equipment, fill in waste pits, or restore “as near as practicable” the canals dredged upon abandoning an oil field. They also failed to get or comply with the proper permits for that work or for dumping wastewater into the marshes, the plaintiffs say After a three-week trial, a Plaquemines Parish jury sided with the state in one of those cases and awarded a $745 million verdict against Chevron and two other companies.

But the companies challenged the verdict, saying the lawsuit should have been heard in federal court, not state court.

The questions before the high court centered on a law that governs when a case should be moved to federal court — known as the “federal ofﬁcer removal law” and how far its application could extend. Generally, that law allows a defendant, usually a corporation, to remove a lawsuit from a state court to a federal court when it can show that it was “acting under” a federal ofﬁcer and the work

is related to “any act under color of such ofﬁce.”

Chevron argued its case should be heard in federal court because its Texaco subsidiary had contracted with the U.S. military during World War II to deliver high-octane gasoline for the war effort when the damage took place. Though the contract didn’t speciﬁcally mention the search and production of crude in Louisiana marshes, that activity was part of their work for the federal government.

The U.S Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans and considered one of the nation’s most pro-business benches, sided with the state, ruling that the federal government didn’t speciﬁcally instruct oil companies “relating to” ﬁnding crude in Louisiana. Without that direction, or “causal nexus,” the case couldn’t be removed to federal court.

The Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that finding crude was clearly necessary for the federal work it was doing.

“The ordinary meaning of ‘relating to’ does not require the defendant to show that his federal duties specifically invited his challenged conduct; Chevron’s contract did not have to expressly direct or invite Chevron’s crude-oil production for that conduct to ‘relate to’ its avgas (aviation gas) reﬁning,” the majority wrote.

Unusual politics

The ongoing legal battle has been drawn along unusual political lines.

Louisiana leaders like Landry and Murrill, both Republicans who normally ﬁnd themselves on the side of industry, have joined the lawsuits.

President Donald Trump released statements in support of Chevron’s position. Pro-industry groups like U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, also

“This contract, and our commitment to partnering with local suppliers, highlights our focus on building our project hand in hand with Louisiana communities, lands and businesses,” Daniel Kalms, international chief operating ofﬁcer for Woodside, said at Friday’s announcement.

‘Anchor job’

C&C Marine and Repair

President Tony Cibilich said it will take two years to build the new tugs — significantly longer than the

in support of Chevron, argued that a ruling in favor of Plaquemines Parish would bar federal contractors from a forum necessary for them to avoid potential bias from a state jury and judicial bench.

Former Gov John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who has often clashed with Landry, also supported the suit. Notwithstanding Chevron’s “insinuations to the

quick turnaround work that usually comes through his Engineers Road shipyard, where repairs usually take 45 days and one-ship orders about eight months.

“This is almost like an anchor job, where the rest of your business can really expand on it,” Cibilich said.

The Woodside contract, signed about six weeks ago, will take up about 30% of the Belle Chasse shipyard’s capacity at any given time

C&C has been building workboats on the West Bank since 1997, starting

contrary, there is no reason to doubt the fairness or impartiality of the Louisiana citizens serving on parish juries. Louisiana is the nation’s second largest producer of oil and gas. Coastal residents are hardly hostile to the industry,” Edwards wrote in a brief to the court. Landry noted that the state is currently grappling with a growing number of “orphan wells,” former oil and gas

with three employees, one crane, a cherry picker and a small amount of dock space, according to Cibilich.

“We took on the jobs nobody else wanted We worked hard, and we kept building,” Cibilich said.

Today, it has more than 500,000 square feet of space and is one of the Gulf Coast’s most technologically advanced shipyards, Cibilich said, noting that it houses the largest robotic painting and blasting facility In addition to tugboats, the company builds barges, ships for dredging and offshore support ships. It has nearly completed building a pair of prototype landing crafts for the U.S. Marine Corps.

The tugs built at C&C will add to Green Tug’s ﬂeet of hybrid vessels, and, when complete, will give it the largest ﬂeet of hybrid tugs in the nation.

“There’s about a 60% fuel savings, tremendous emissions reduction and less maintenance as well,” Springer said. Because of the wind and current effects of their massive size, LNG tankers require the use of more tugboats than other ships, Springer said. So Green Tug will have one escort boat attached to them at all times during the process.

“Then for docking, we’ll have a total of four boats docking the vessel,” he explained. “So you’re turning it, docking it safely and then undocking it, and then we’ll be able to escort it all the way back out again.”

wells that have been abandoned and not capped.

“Whether they believe that there’s some responsibility there to them, those wells, they at one time had chain of title,” Landry added. “We know that they have the means to help us We’ve been good to them. It’s time for them to be good to us and let’s resolve this.”

Staff writer Alex Lubben contributed to this story

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Gov. Jeff Landry speaks Friday during an event at C&C Marine and Repair in Belle Chasse. Landry announced that Woodside Energy has awarded a $300 million contract to Louisiana-based Green Tug Towing to build four new tugboats to be built at C&C for its Louisiana liquefied natural gas project.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JOSE LUIS MAGANA

Short-term rentals’ fees unaccounted for

Account emptied ‘in circumvention of the actual law,’ council president says

BY BEN MYERS Staff writer

More than $10 million in New

Orleans short-term rental fee

revenue is unaccounted for, city ofﬁcials reported Thursday during an update on the city’s fragile ﬁnances at the City Council Budget Committee.

Short-term rental fees paid by tourists accrue to a special fund

Moreno calls for reform at RTA

Employees file lawsuit against agency

BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno has said for months she wants to see major changes at the Regional Transit Authority to improve regional connectivity and make public transit more accessible for riders.

But the mayor’s demands for reforms intensiﬁed this week after a dozen current and former employees of the RTA ﬁled a bombshell lawsuit alleging rampant discrimination and wage theft at the agency

“Stories like this underscore exactly why meaningful reform and structural change at the RTA are not optional, they are necessary,” Moreno’s communications director, Isis Casanova, said in a statement Friday

“The Moreno administration remains committed to ensuring that every public agency operates with integrity, transparency and respect for its workforce.” Moreno, who took office in January, swept out the board that served under former Mayor LaToya Cantrell in March, arguing that new leadership was needed to take the agency in a new direction.

Her own picks for the RTA board were ofﬁcially sworn in on April 8.

Two days later, the 76-page lawsuit was filed in federal court, painting a sordid picture of the agency’s internal workings.

“We take all matters of this sort very seriously and we will work with staff and the attorneys to determine what the realities of this suit is,” board Chair Ann Duplessis said in a statement Thursday

The lawsuit describes the RTA as a workplace where physical violence is minimized, excused or ignored; homophobic slurs, sexual harassment and assault are met with little to no disciplinary action; female supervisors are subject to gender-based epithets without consequence; and employee complaints are deliberately suppressed.

The lawsuit also says that the RTA turned a blind eye to dangerous working conditions and required its employees to drive buses with flat tires or missing mirrors.

It cites as evidence for its claims at least nine audio recordings in which RTA ofﬁcials allegedly admit to “suppress(ed) salaries”; an “out of balance” and “unjust” disciplinary system; and other management failures.

The RTA declined to comment on Friday and in a statement Thursday said it’s committed to fostering a respectful workplace.

“We take all allegations involving our employees and workplace environment seriously and remain

dedicated to city code enforcement, and internal budget documents showed the fund with a $10 million balance to start the year

But Chief Administrative Ofﬁcer

Joe Giarrusso told council members that he and his staff recently discovered the account is actually empty He said they found the discrepancy while sifting through dozens of special revenue for balances that might be tapped to im-

prove the city’s cash ﬂow

“Apparently the last administration just considered that like general fund money, and just constantly moved it around,” Giarrusso said after the meeting, referring to former Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration, which left ofﬁce in January

The short-term rental fund requires council approval for withdrawals, according to city ordi-

nance. Council President JP Morrell said there were no such votes last year, and the account was emptied “in circumvention of the actual law.” Special revenue funds contribute to the city’s overall fund balance, but aren’t typically combined with recurring taxes and fees that make up the general fund operating budget. City Finance Director Alyssa Rambeau said she is working to

figure out how the short-term rental money was spent, and also to validate the balances of other special funds.

“I’m trying to come up with some way to rebuild our records,” Reambeau said. “We can’t rely on the balances that we saw.”

The emptying of the short-term

FUN FEST

Chef Aarón Sanchez to close N.O. restaurants

locations may be considered as new concept is developed

BY MATT BRUCE

BY IAN MCNULTY Staff writer

STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER

ABOVE: Crowds gather on the recently opened stretch of Mississippi River riverfront between the Moon Walk and Crescent Park during the French Quarter Festival on Friday in New Orleans.

DANCING DUO

Shari Wilson, left, and Sabrina Sawyer swing around the dance ﬂoor as they move to the music of Rickie Monie & the Traditional Jazz Ramblers as the band plays on the French Market Traditional Jazz Stage at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans on Friday

STAFF PHOTO

CHRIS GRANGER

Gretna man guilty of raping girl for years

Jury convicts defendant of multiple charges

BY MICHELLE HUNTER Staff writer

Jefferson Parish jurors deliberated for more than three hours Thursday before voting to convict a man accused of repeatedly raping and photographing a girl over the course of

FEES

Continued from page 1B

taking office on Jan. 12 the outgoing Cantrell administration notified incoming officials that federal grant money set aside for New Orleans Police Department bonuses had been spent, forcing Moreno to come up with $9.5 million to pay the bonuses.

Most of that money came from the Sewerage & Water Board, which Moreno was relying on to help balance the $800 million operating budget.

Still, Giarrusso said there are glimmers of hope for stabilizing the city’s ﬁnances. For starters, he said he expects the city’s official revenue forecast to increase by more than $20 million when the Revenue Estimating Conference meets on April 22. That money will come from the fund balances of external agencies with surpluses.

Continued from page 1B

said. “It was a tough decision. We’re all betting on New Orleans, but we’re not able to ride it out.”

The restaurant, near the corner of Poydras Street and O’Keefe Avenue, is a block from the road closure caused by the partial collapse of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities building in December 2024 Last summer, the restaurant posted a plea for help, describing “a steep cost” in lost business and hassles with access for customers, deliveries and staff. New location?

There may be a new location for Johnny Sanchez on the horizon, however Drew Mire, a third partner in the restaurant brand, said they hope to find a new home outside

several years, according to court records. Holiver Figueroa, 38, of Gretna, was found guilty of ﬁrst-degree rape, thirddegree rape, sexual battery of a victim under 13, sexual battery, indecent behavior with a juvenile under 13 and indecent behavior with a juvenile following a four-day trial. The victim in the case told investigators that Figueroa began sexually abusing her when she was

Giarrusso said no decisions have been made on what to do with the additional cash, since the city is still barely treading water with hurricane season on the horizon.

The administration has also cobbled together nearly $90 million from the Sewerage & Water Board, the Wisner trust fund and other one-time sources to hold in reserve for cash liquidity.

“Finding $90 million in four months is no easy task,” Giarrusso said Overtime spending was down 44% in the ﬁrst quarter, and, with annual property taxes rolling in after a slow start, revenue exceeded expenditures by $91 million at the end of February, according to the administration Meanwhile, the city has paid back $80 million on a $125 million emergency loan, and is on track to pay the rest by the end of next month. The Cantrell administration obtained the loan in November after it ran out of cash to pay city employees.

about 10. The abuse progressed into rape and continued for ﬁve years until she conﬁded in a relative, according to authorities.

Figueroa was ﬁrst arrested in March 2022 following an investigation by the Gretna Police Department. The victim had revealed to her father and another relative that Figueroa, a man known to their family, had been raping her, authorities said.

The victim told investi-

REFORM

Continued from page 1B

committed to maintaining a professional, respectful, and compliant workplace,” RTA ofﬁcials said in a prepared statement.

“We will respond through the appropriate legal process, and we are conﬁdent that the process will allow the full set of facts to be reviewed in the proper context,” the statement added.

The lawsuit, which seeks damages and other compensation, names as defendants the RTA, 12 RTA employees and one former employee. Nine plaintiffs are employees, and three are former employees.

Five plaintiffs have ﬁled concurrent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints against the agency, the suit states.

The RTA, under the leadership of CEO Lona

gators that it started with Figueroa inappropriately touching her, court records showed. He eventually began raping her whenever he could get her alone, according to authorities.

Police seized Figueroa’s cellphone as part of the investigation and sent it to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce Digital Forensic Unit for analysis.

The search later resulted in the discovery of more

Edwards Hankins, has faced a string of complaints from former employees in recent years, some of which have resulted in six-ﬁgure settlements, according to public records.

The board in 2023 agreed to a $150,000 settlement with the agency’s former chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer after Hankins fired her along with three other top officials.

The following year, the board signed off on a $224,000 settlement with another one of those ofﬁcials, the agency’s former chief operating officer, after he claimed Hankins wrongfully terminated him after he reported drivers’ complaints about former board Chair Mark Raymond Jr.’s alleged misuse of the paratransit system.

The agency’s former paratransit director also claimed she was wrongfully terminated by Han-

against each of the eight defendants and set a “must go” trial date for Sept. 15. Roche said he will deny any request to postpone it.

One of the most daring jailbreaks in Louisiana history, last year’s escape drew international attention and set off a monthslong search that involved several agencies over some ﬁve months before all 10 were returned to jail.

The breakout came just after 1 a.m. on May 16, when the inmates crawled through a hole from a ripped-out toilet in a cell pod on the jail’s ﬁrst ﬂoor, leaped off loading dock, scaled a fence and ran across Interstate 10. The escape revealed glaring security gaps at the jail under Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, helping trigger a state audit of the agency Hutson, who claimed it was an inside job, afterward lost her reelection bid.

Groves, 29, remained a fugitive the longest. On Oct. 8, authorities found him hiding out in a southwest Atlanta home. On Friday, Groves ﬂashed a series of wry grins and appeared jovial as he sat with the other accused men.

than 1,600 illicit photos and videos of the victim, including recordings of Figueroa having sex with her, court records said.

Figueroa is scheduled to be sentenced May 1. Firstdegree rape, the most serious charge for which he was convicted, carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Email Michelle Hunter at mhunter@theadvocate. com.

kins for raising concerns about Raymond’s behavior, leading the board to approve $200,000 settlement in October In July the board agreed to a $525,000 settlement with the agency’s former chief of staff, Katherine Bush Felton, after she claimed she was the victim of a hostile work environment.

The latest lawsuit names Felton as a defendant, alleging she made antigay remarks and referenced with co-workers a “hotties” list she maintained of RTA mechanics. She did not respond to a request for comment.

The RTA is also facing a lawsuit from former executive Mark Major, who is seeking damages after he says Hankins wrongfully terminated him as the agency’s deputy CEO in 2024.

Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate. com.

early May as well. Meanwhile, the group is continuing to develop a fast casual Mexican concept called Adobo Cantina, working in the niche of college campus locations. More are in the works in Texas and Arkansas. And in 2023, the partners opened a second Johnny Sanchez in Lake Charles at the L’Auberge Casino Resort. This location remains open. Sánchez, best known for his appearances on travel and cooking competition shows, originally opened Johnny Sánchez in 2014 with the company then called the Besh Restaurant Group (now BRG Hospitality). The name was a play on the chefs’ names, John Besh and Aarón Sánchez. It became an independent restaurant when that company was bought out following Besh’s sexual harassment scandal.

Lenton Vanburen Jr., Leo Tate, Dkenan Dennis, Gary Price Robert Moody, Jermaine Donald and Antoine Massey were also in the courtroom for the hearing. Kendrell Myles and Corey Boyd were the two defendants not present in court. Roche has declared both incompetent to stand trial. Murrill’s ofﬁce said Friday that both men continue to undergo treatment at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where all 10 accused escapees are being housed.

Sterling Williams, a former Sheriff’s Ofﬁce maintenance worker was charged with malfeasance and 10 counts of principal to simple escape. Investigators said he cut off the water supply in the jail cell, which allowed inmates to remove the toilet.

Louisiana State Trooper Sgt. Jack Uhle, who led the state’s search effort, testiﬁed Friday that troopers weren’t notified until around 10 a.m nearly nine hours after the escape. Uhle testified not all the doors were locked in the pod from which the inmates escaped. Francesca Buzzi, Donald’s attorney, cross-examined Uhle about jail conditions and reports of chronic understaffing, suggesting there was a period on the night of the escape when no guards were supervising the cell block.

Leo Callier III, Massey’s attorney, grilled Uhle on any inside help the men may have had from jail employees.

“There’s deﬁnitely questions related to the depth of the investigation as it relates to whether these individuals had any permission to leave the facility,” Callier argued. Later, outside the courthouse, he elaborated.

“There’s no question that they walked out of the jail,” he said. “I think the question is whether or not anyone relative to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office allowed that to occur or not.” Assistant Attorney General Daniel Smart told the judge it didn’t matter if the state plans to charge others later who may have helped the men escape.

“That is irrelevant for what you need to consider today,” he told Roche. “These men were supposed to be in point A and they weren’t there. They were in point B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J and K.”

Email Matt Bruce atmatt. bruce@theadvocate.com.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Chefs Aaron Sanchez, left, and Miles Landrem at Johnny Sanchez restaurant in New Orleans on Aug. 11, 2016. The restaurant is now closing, with its last day falling on Cinco de Mayo

LSUdebuts$148million sciencebuilding

State-of-the-art facility will attractscientists, school says

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

LSU science students

will have anew buildingto call their academic home this fall, as the$148 million Our Lady of the Lake Health Interdisciplinary Science Building opens its doors.

“These new research spaces are state of the art,” said Morgan Kelly,associate dean forresearch and administration at the LSU College of Science. “It’sgoing to allow us to recruit new scientistsand researcherstothe stateof Louisiana.”

The science building,a 148,000-square-foot facility at the corner of South Stadium Drive and Tower Drive, began welcoming researcherslast month.It will fully open to students for classes at the start of the 2026-27 academic year

LSU leaders said the newspace deepens the university’sfootprint in STEM, or science, technology,engineering andmath, and will help addressthe state’s workforce needs in health care and other industries.

They also said it will bring the university closer to its goal of reaching the top 50 in research spending among U.S. higher education institutions.

“Graduates from these programs go on to promising careers in the STEM fields and earn graduate and health professionaldegreesall across thestate of Louisiana,” LSU Chancellor Jim Dalton said in anews release. “Alongside the elite academic experience students will receive here, world-class

Biologygraduate studentManizheh Sarikhani looks at samples under amicroscope in aresearch lab

facultywill partnertogether and with industry leaders in the state-ofthe-art laboratoriestoadvance scientiﬁc discovery and move the LSUflagship toward itsgoal of becoming atop-50 research

university.”

Building features

The facilityincludes an auditorium, research and teachinglaboratories, collaborativestudy areas and classrooms with technol-

ManID’dintheft of school buses

BR police say he took them on joyrides

BY OLIVIA TEES

Staff writer

Baton Rouge police are looking for aman whoallegedly stole seven school buses from multiple area schools overthe course of a month, abandoning each one after ajoyride, accordingto awarrantfor his arrest.

Investigators identified Christopher Johnson, 20, using surveillance footage, and issuedawarranttoarrest him on seven counts of motor vehicle theft. This wasn’tthe ﬁrst time Johnson has been accused of stealing aschool bus —hehas aprior arrest warrant froma2024

heistinwhich he allegedly painted the bus white to try to getaway with it, accordingtocourt documents.

On April13, BatonRouge police received acallfrom The Dufrocq School, off GovernmentStreet in Baton Rouge, where astolen Iberville CharterAcademybus had beenparked in front of the building for some time. Police said they later found that the same buswas abandoned in alot on Spain Street

While investigating the April 13 incident, police found multiple other cases of school bus theft from HelixAcademy and Inspire Charter Academythatstarted on March 19, according to an arrest warrant. In total, five buseswere stolen from Helix AviationAcademy, andone bus

each from Iberville Charter Academy and InspireCharter Academy,the arrest warrant said.

Thebusesstolen from Helix Aviation Academy wereabandoned behind the former Save-A-Lotat5186 Evangeline St. Another bus was recoveredina lot in the 100 block of McClelland Drive, near Evangeline Street

Three of theschool buses had keys inside when police recovered them.According to the police, these types of school buses are keyed alike and can usethe same key unless it hasbeen professionally changed.

Police saidtheyusedthis information,along with surveillancefootage inside the buses, to determine that Johnson was the person behind thealleged thefts.

ogysupporting the biology, chemistry,geology,math, physics andastronomy disciplines

It also contains specialized research zones like the Ann &Billy Harrison Trace Metals Laband the LSU TheoreticalInstitute, where scientists will study quantuminformation theory

“This is huge growthin terms of ourability to do both teaching and research at LSU,” Kelly said.

The building wasfunded through $105 million from the state and $43 million from donors, including FMOL Health |Our Lady of the Lake.

“Weall know that we have lots of talent in the state of Louisiana,but we also have alittlebit of atalentdrain

going on,” FMOL Health

President and CEO E.J. Kuiper said. “Part of thatis becausewedon’thave the

facilities and thetechnology in an educational environment, and that’swhy we felt it wassoimportant to be part of thisstate-of-theartfacility.”

The building wasdesigned by EskewDumezRipple, aNew Orleansbased architectureﬁrm. In addition to academic spaces,ithouses astudent commons with locations of the LSU Dairy Store, PJ’sCoffee and Shaq’sBig Chicken, as well as the Applewhite BozemanDean’sGarden whichfeatures awaterfall drawnfromrainwater and condensation fromthe building’s airconditioning system.

“The building is beautiful,” biological sciences graduate student Joshua Gill said.

Gill, who wasstudying the effect of intermittent fastingonworms during abuilding tour Friday said he moved his research to the new space in March.

He said theopen concept layout andwindows throughout the building facilitateworking with other researchers.

“Wecan easily collaborate with one another and discussideas in this environment,” Gill said.

STAFFPHOTOSByJAVIER GALLEGOS

FMOL HealthPresidentand CEO E.J.Kuiper,left, shakes hands withLSU President Wade Rousse during aribbon-cutting ceremonyfor the newOur Ladyofthe LakeInterdisciplinaryScience Building at LSU on Friday.

NewOrleans Area Deaths

Dodds,Charles

Hirschey III, Christopher Wirth, Helen EJefferson

Garden of Memories

Hirschey III, Christopher NewOrleans

Lake Lawn Metairie

Wirth, Helen

Obituaries

Dodds, Charles Samuel 'Skip'

Charles Samuel "Skip" Dodds, abeloved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend, passed away peacefullyonMarch 29,2026, at his home in Douglasville, Georgia,at the age of 85. He was born on June 26, 1940, in Bowling Green, Kentucky,tothe late Mr. Earl Glendon Dodds and the late Mrs. May Miller Dodds. In addition to his parents, Skip is preceded in death by his wife, Mrs. Margaret Abele Dodds. Skip is survived by his son, Jeffery Dodds. He is also survived by his significant other, Margaret Feinberg; stepdaughters, Lydia Betenia, and Rachel Harrison; grandchildren, Tyson, Jamie, and Colin; great-grandchild, Grayson; as well as several beloved friends and family in the state of Louisiana In accordance with his wishes, Skip was cremated. Acelebration of life will be held on Sunday, April 19,2026 at 1712 Twisted Oak Lane, Baton Rouge, LA 70810; friends and family may visit at 2:00 PM. Messages of condolence may be sent to www.joneswynn.com. Jones-Wynn Funeral Home &Crematoryof Douglasvilleisincharge of the arrangements. (770-942 -2311)

Hirschey III,Christopher Eric ChristopherEric Hirschey IIIpeacefully

passedawayinthe arms of his parentsonFriday, April 3,2026, at OchsnerBaptist Hospital. Christophercame intothe livesofKelli and EricHirscheyonMarch 21, 2026. From themomenthe entered theworld,hewas cherished beyond mea‐sure. Hisfamilysur‐rounded himwithlove, staying faithfullybyhis sideeachand everyday Theyreadtohim and spoke to himdaily,ensur‐ing he always knew com‐fort, warmth,and the sound of familiar voices.In those quietmoments,he was neveralone.Though small in size,hemadean immeasurable impact on the hearts of thosewho loved him. Christopherwill be forevermissedand loved by hisparents;his grandmother,JaniceCross; his grandparents,Claire and ChrisHirschey; his aunts, RachelWestphal (Branden) andCaroline Gardner (Kyle);and his cousin, Henry. Christo‐pher’sfamilywillholda private serviceinhis honor and memory on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Garden of Memories.

Helen Wolfe Wirth, was born on July 22, 1942, passed awaypeacefully in the presence of herloving family on April13, 2026. Shewas the beloved wife of herhighschoolsweetheart, Charles R. Wirth,Jr. for65 years. She was born in BaySt. Louisand moved to New Orleans in 1954. Helen graduated from UrsulineAcademy honor class of 1960 andwas the president of her senior class. Helenforged friendshipsfrom Ursulinethat she maintained throughout her life.Ofher many endeavors,Helen served with pride as Secretary of the Mother's Club, adocent of the Old Ursuline Convent, andPastPresident of the AlumniAssociation

Adevoutly faithful Catholicduring herlifeand was dedicated to Mother Mary.Helen'sfaithwas not something she simply practiced, it infused how she livedand loved.Her unwavering faith provided her with an inner strength and positivity that carried her through her life. Helen traveled allover the UnitedStates and abroad. Hermost treasureddestinationwas Medjugorje,whereshe vis-

ited 19 times staying with thevisionary Ivan, attending dailyapparitionsof Mary. She was also amemberofthe Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchreof Jerusalem.

Helen enjoyed celebrating October Fest at the Deutches Haus withher family and friends where she was alifetimemember. She was always dressed in her German attire with asmileonher face.

Helen owned Passages Antiques on Magazine Street forten years with her friend, Jennifer. They enjoyed buying tripsto France and were very successful.

Helen is preceded in death by her dear father, MarionJoseph Wolfe, Sr. MD, and loving mother, Lillian VetterWolfe;brothers, MarionJoseph Wolfe, Jr., O.D. and Bernard James Wolfe;and niece, Angel Wolfe.

She is survivedbyher dedicatedhusband, Charles R. Wirth, Jr., as wellasher children, Charlene Wirth Faucheaux (Tommy) and Charles Roy Wirth, III(Chalena A.).

She wasthe proud grandmother of Dr. Thomas J. Faucheaux, IV (Sydney), Dr. Lillian F. Burger (Matthew),Charles R. Wirth, IV (Breanna), William B. Wirth, and EvelynClaire Wirth. Aloving great-grandmotherto Reese E. Faucheaux, Thomas J. Faucheaux, V, Isabella F. Burger,Willow M. Wirth, and AlderM Wirth.

Helen is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews that she loved dearly and always keptin her prayers. Helen's family was the joyofher life.She willbe remembered affectionately as alovingand kind wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. The family wouldliketo thank Dr. St. John and Dr. Bagert for taking such good care of Helen. On Monday, April 20, 2026, friends and family are invitedtoattendvisitation from10:00 AM to 11:45 AM, 11:45 rosary,and noon Funeral Mass at The NationalShrine of Our Lady of PromptSuccor, 2701 StateStreetNew Orleans, LA 70118. Interment willfollow at MetairieCemetery.

In lieu of flowers,the family requests donations to The National Shrine of Our LadyofPrompt Succor, 2701 StateStreet NewOrleans, LA 70118. To view and signthe online guestbook, visit www.lakelawnmetairie.co m

Many Americans are fortunate to have dental coveragefor their entire working life,through employer-provided benefits. When those benefits end with retirement,payingdental bills out-of-pocket can come as a shock,leading peopletoput offoreven go without care.

Simplyput —without dental insurance, there may be an importantgap in your healthcarecoverage

Whenyou’recomparing plans ...

 Look forcoveragewithnodeductibles. Some plans mayrequire you to pay hundredsout of pocket before benefits are paid.

 Shop forcoveragewithnoannual maximumoncash benefits.Some plans have annual maximums of $1,000.

Medicare doesn’tpay for dental care.1

That’s right. As good as Medicare is,itwas never meanttocover everything. That means if youwant protection, youneed to purchase individual insurance.

Early detectioncan prevent small problemsfrom becomingexpensive ones

The best way to preventlarge dental bills is preventive care. TheAmerican Dental Association recommends checkupstwiceayear.

Previous dental work canwearout

Interested in Print?

Access to thedaily e-replica of thenewspaper is also included.

Consider these national average costsof treatment. $274for acheckup $299 for afilling $1,471 foracrown.3 Unexpected bills likethiscan be areal burden, especially if you’reonafixed income  Look forcoveragethat helps pay formajor services. Some plans maylimit thenumber of procedures —orpay forpreventive care

Even if you’ve hadqualitydentalworkinthe past, youshouldn’t take your dentalhealth forgranted. In fact, your odds of havinga dentalproblemonly go up as youage.2

Treatment is expensive especially theservicespeople over 50 often need

Wirth, Helen Wolfe

Ford recalls 1.4M F-150 pickup trucks

Ford is recalling almost 1.4 million of its F-150 pickup trucks in the U.S. because of a gearshift issue that may lead to the loss of control of vehicles and increasing the risk of a crash.

The automaker is aware of two injuries and one accident possibly related to the issue.

The recall includes F-150 light trucks with a six-speed automatic transmission that were produced between March 12, 2014, and Aug 18, 2017.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s safety recall report says that some of the pickup trucks may experience an intermittent selection signal of the transmission range sensor to the powertrain control module, which may lead to a temporary, unintended downshift into second gear. This may cause an abrupt reduction in wheel speed for a short period of time, which in some situations could cause the rear tires to slide until the vehicle speed slows.

Ford is aware of 444 warranty claims and 105 customer service reports that could be linked to the issue as of early this month.

Vehicle owners will be notified about the recall by mail and instructed to bring their vehicle to a Ford or Lincoln dealer to have their powertrain control module calibration updated at no cost

Target offering exclusive Pokémon merch

As millennial parents pass down their love of Pokémon to a new generation of fans, Target is lining up an exclusive collection to capitalize on the enduring phenomenon that is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year On May 2, Target is releasing a limited-edition set of clothing, accessories, toys and other goodies designed with input from Pokémon fans and “nostalgic” brands, the Minneapolis-based retailer announced this week.

The collection will only be available in stores before popping online May 3. A second helping of swag will drop June 6.

This summer also marks 10 years since the mobile game Pokémon Go captivated the nation with its augmented-reality gameplay that had people out in parks, staring at their phones, trying to catch ’em all

While Pokémon cards have enjoyed a massive resurgence among players, collectors and scalpers in recent years, the “Target x Pokémon” collaboration doesn’t feature any Target stopped selling Pokémon cards in 2021 following a violent altercation outside a Wisconsin store

Air Canada suspends JFK flights

NEW YORK Air Canada will suspend service to New York’s JFK International airport over the summer as the war in Iran creates jet fuel shortages that have sent prices soaring Canada’s ﬂag carrier said Friday that service from Toronto and Montreal to JFK will cease June 1 and resume Oct. 25. Service to the New York metropolitan area’s two other airports — LaGuardia and Newark will continue. Air Canada offers 34 ﬂights a day to those two airports from six Canadian cities. Air Canada says it will reach out to customers who are impacted by the suspension with alternate travel options.

“As jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the Iran conflict and some lower profitability routes and flights are no longer economic, and we are making schedule adjustments accordingly,” a spokesman for the Montreal-based carrier said Friday

The average price for a gallon of jet

Oil prices drop after strait opens

U.S. stocks race to another record

BY STAN CHOE AP business writer

NEW YORK Oil prices dropped back to where they were in the early days of the Iran war, and U.S. stocks raced to another record Friday after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is open again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The S&P 500 leaped 1.2% to an all-time high and closed out a third straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween. A freer ﬂow of oil could take pressure off prices not only for gasoline but also for groceries and all kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately help people

pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged as many as 1,100 points before paring its gain to 868, or 1.8%. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5%.

The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in late March on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite their war Friday’s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which may only be temporary, is the clearest signal yet for optimism, and President Donald Trump said late Thursday that the war “should be ending pretty soon.”

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude plunged immediately after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial vessels through the strait “is declared

completely open” as a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon. He said it would stay open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, and the price for U.S. oil dropped 9.4% to settle at $82.59 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 9.1% to settle at $90.38 per barrel. To be sure, it remains above its $70 price from before the war, indicating some caution is still embedded in financial markets. Several times since the war began, optimism on Wall Street has quickly deteriorated into doubt about a possible end to the fighting That in turn has caused vicious and sudden swings of prices for everything from stocks to bonds to oil.

Minutes after the Iranian foreign minister’s announcement of the Strait of Hormuz’s reopening, Trump said on his social media network that the U.S.

Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports remains “in full force” until both sides reach a deal on the war He, though, also suggested that “should go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated” and emphasized it by using all capital letters.

Companies with big fuel bills soared to some of Wall Street’s biggest gains following the easing of oil prices.

United Airlines flew 7.1% higher and Southwest Airlines climbed 5.1%. A day earlier, the head of the International Energy Agency had said that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet fuel supplies.

Operators of cruise ships, which guzzle fuel, also steamed higher Royal Caribbean Group gained 7.3%, and Carnival rose 7%.

Housing and auto-related companies likewise got some relief from the drop in oil prices.

Oil, gas lease sale set for Alaska

Indigenous leaders, advocates continue litigation

BY BECKY BOHRER Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska

The U.S. government plans another oil and gas lease sale for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — following two prior sales that saw no interest from major oil companies and amid ongoing litigation aimed at blocking drilling in a region seen as sacred by the indigenous Gwich’in.

The sale will be held June 5, the U.S Bureau of Land Management announced Friday It would be the first in the region under a law passed by Congress last year calling for four lease sales in the refuge’s coastal plain over a 10-year period. But it would be the third in the refuge overall, following one held near the end of President Donald Trump’s first term that has been tangled in litigation and another in early 2025, shortly before then-President Joe Biden left office, that yielded no bids

Drilling supporters, including Alaska political leaders, argued last year’s sale was too meager an offering to draw interest

The upcoming sale also would be the third federal oil and gas lease sale this year alone in Alaska under an aggressive push by the Trump administration to expand development in the state. There were no bidders in a sale last month for the aging Cook Inlet basin, while a lease sale in the National Petroleum ReserveAlaska — where the large Willow oil project is under development — drew hundreds of bids despite pending legal challenges to the sale.

Bill Groffy the land management agency’s acting director, in a statement said the success of last month’s petroleum reserve sale signaled a “robust and continuing demand for Alaskan energy, underscoring the need for more opportunities like the Coastal Plain sale.”

Leaders from Gwich’in villages near the arctic refuge and conservation groups

vowed to continue ﬁghting efforts to open the refuge’s coastal plain to drilling. The Gwich’in consider the coastal plain sacred, as it provides calving grounds for a caribou herd they rely on The plain, bordering the Beaufort Sea in northeast Alaska and featuring rolling hills and tundra, also provides habitat for wildlife including muskoxen and migratory birds.

“The Trump Administration’s relentless push to auction off this sacred land despite overwhelming public opposition and industry that has already signaled they are not interested makes clear that this administration values corporate interests over the rights and lives of Indigenous peoples,” Galen Gilbert, ﬁrst chief of Arctic Village Council, said in a statement.

“We will continue to ﬁght with every tool available to protect the Coastal Plain for our children and all future generations.” Debate over drilling in the region spans decades.

Leaders of Kaktovik, an Iñupiaq community within the refuge, consider responsible development key to their

region’s economic well-being and have welcomed efforts by the Trump administration to open more lands for drilling.

The Bureau of Land Management has said the coastal plain could contain 4.25 billion to 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, but there is limited information about the amount and quality of oil. Meanwhile, conservation groups see the refuge as the crown jewel of the country’s refuge system and a place that should be offlimits to development. The refuge itself is the largest in the country covering an area roughly the size of South Carolina Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at Alaska Wilderness League, said the planned sale “simply runs counter to common sense.”

“Any oil and gas company that is even thinking about buying these leases should know that, if they do, they will be sending a clear message to the American people that no place in Alaska is too sacred to drill in a quest for corporate proﬁts,” he said in a statement urging companies to sit out the sale.

Scrutiny of ‘dystopian’ prediction markets growing

Washington pushing for oversight

BY STEVEN SLOAN and KEN SWEET Associated Press

WASHINGTON — As the United States was preparing a daring mission to rescue an airman whose ﬁghter jet was shot down by Iran, there was money to be made.

Users on Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market, could place bets on when the airman would be rescued. When Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., shared a screenshot of the activity on social media, an April 3 rescue was trading at 15% compared with 63% who were betting on April 4.

After Moulton posted the screenshot and blasted this “dystopian death market,” Polymarket stopped the betting, saying the market “does not meet our integrity standards.”

A former Marine who served four tours in Iraq, Moulton said he was

“absolutely not satisﬁed with Polymarket’s response” and blamed the site for being “completely unwilling to self-regulate when it comes to betting on the lives of our service members.”

“This is war proﬁteering and Congress needs to step in and stop it,” he said.

A confrontation is brewing in Washington over prediction markets, the online exchanges that allow users to bet on the outcome of everything from a baseball game to when Jesus Christ will return.

In a highly polarized Congress, the need to guard against the prediction markets being used for insider trading has become rare common ground. Members of both parties pressed the leader of a typically low-proﬁle regulatory agency on the issue during a hearing on Thursday The market debate is also drawing in the White House, potential presidential candidates and state leaders.

“It’s a national conversation about what it means to have mar-

ket integrity,” said Kristin Johnson, a former commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets in the U.S.

In a capital that was slow to respond to the perils of tobacco, opioids and social media, the push to put guardrails on prediction markets has been uncommonly swift.

The markets, which include Polymarket and its chief rival Kalshi, have been criticized for everything from undermining the integrity of sports to contributing to an online betting addiction crisis among young men. Polymarket has come under particular scrutiny as a venue for offshore trades that are beyond the reach of U.S. regulators.

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, is on Polymarket’s advisory board and is a paid adviser for Kalshi. 1789 Capital, the venture capital ﬁrm where Trump Jr is a partner, has invested in Polymarket.

The Associated Press reported this month that a group of new ac-

counts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers. On the same day the report was published, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets. Earlier this year, an anonymous Polymarket user collected more than $400,000 on a January bet predicting the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, prompting concerns that someone with access to private U.S. government information may have engaged in insider trading. Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican and former Marine, said he had been concerned about trading in the sports market, “but I became especially concerned about market distortions, improper decision making, and undermining of public trust through self-enrichment after the news broke about Venezuela.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By LINDSEy WASSON

The Kaktovik Lagoon and the Brooks Range mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the U.S. government plans another oil and gas lease sale

The50th anniversary of our independence

Soon, America willcelebrate its 250th birthday. As we approach July 4, this column will look at milestone anniversaries along the way and howthey were commemorated.

Ron Faucheux

We start with July 4,1826,the 50th celebrationofAmerican independence At that time,the nationhad 24 statesand about 11 millionpeople. To mark the occasion, businesses closed,cannons were fired, paradesrolled and fireworks lit the sky.Insmall townsand growing cities, dignitaries mounted hastily built platforms to hold forth onthe young nation’s short history In Louisiana that year,HenryS.Johnsonwas thegovernorofastate only 14 years old. Count Louis Philippe Joseph de Roffignacwas the mayorofNew Orleans and waspreparing for the city’sfirst recorded Mardi Gras celebration,set for February the following year. But according to the Louisiana State Gazette,Independence Day festivities werenearly nonexistent in the Crescent City in 1826.Ofits roughly 35,000residents, only one man was found celebrating. He had “procured avenison ham, twobottles of ‘Newark cider’ and thirteen peaches” for the occasion. He readthe Declaration of Independence, offered 13 toasts and chasedeachone withasliceofpeach Oldfriends andrivals John Adams, the second president and signer of the Declaration, and ThomasJefferson,the thirdpresident andsigner,were invited to attend the July 4jubilee in the nation’scapital. Aged, slowed and ill —Adams was 90, Jefferson83—neither could make the trip. The only othersurviving signer (and the only one whowas Catholic), Charles Carroll of Carrollton, couldn’t makeiteither; he would live six more years, dying at 95 Jefferson’sgraceful letterdeclining the invitation wassent to Washington’sMayor Roger C. Weightman Using his artful pen to express delight, the former president and principal author of the Declarationpointed out that the “small band” of those who signed the document had donesoin“the bold and doubtful election we were to make, for our country,between submissionand the sword.”Headdedthat it was acomfort to know that their fellow citizens, after halfacentury of experience,still approvedofthe choicetheyhad made. The letter became Jefferson’slasttestament to his country John Quincy Adams waspresident in 1826 and would preside over the nation’s 50th birthday.Hewas theson of thesecond president, who 50 yearsearlierhad championed Americanindependence. The National Intelligencer reported that the capital city’s observance that yearwas “simpleand dignified.” It began on the morning of the Fourth, whenmilitary companies assembled in Lafayette Square. Between an opening and closing prayerinthe House chamber, the Declaration was read and an oration delivered by alocal lawyer At the ceremony,afriend ofJefferson’smade “an eloquent appeal to the audience for contributions to the fund being raisedtopay Mr.Jefferson’sdebts.” The thirdpresident was always in hock. Drought and subsequent flooding had damagedhis farmland, but Jefferson, asophisticated connoisseur of fine food andwine, was well known for spending more moneythan he had Twodays later,President Adams was informedthat Jefferson had died at Monticello on July4.“Astrange andverystriking coincidence,” the younger Adams wrote in hisdiary

Three days later,letters written on the morning of the Fourtharrived at theWhite House notifying the president that his father’s“death was fast approaching ”The president immediately left forthe family home in Quincy,Massachusetts.But before he reachedBaltimore, while having breakfast, he was told that his father,too, haddiedonJuly 4, just afew hoursafterJefferson It was the elder Adams in 1776who wanted Jefferson to write the ﬁrst draft of America’s most sacreddocument. In atwo-houreulogy for Adams and Jefferson, thenCongressman Daniel Webster said the death of these founders on the 50th anniversary of theDeclaration was “strikingand extraordinary,” implying something higher was at work. “As their livesthemselves were thegifts of Providence,’ Webster continued, “who is not willing to recognize in their happy termination, as well as in their long continuance, proofs that our country and its benefactors are objects of His care?” July 4, 1826 —that’show it was 200 yearsago Ron Faucheux is anonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writer based in Louisiana.

Apossible consequence of ICEenforcement

Enforcing thelaw is necessary to ensure accountability and order in society, thereby contributing to a stable environment in which we can function. However,the manner in which we enforce the law is equally important.

As apracticing attorney and former federal law enforcement ofﬁcer,Isupport theenforcement of our nation’slaws. However,the central question is not whether laws should be enforced.

Rather,how should enforcement be carried out so that it advances stability and engenders trust, rather than inadvertently undermining it?

In light of theadministration’sapproach to immigration enforcement, it may have created an unforeseen and potentially signiﬁcant legal risk for law enforcement ofﬁcers who have participated in these operations.

While courtshave traditionally focused on how individual ofﬁcers’ personal conduct can affect their credibility as awitness, organizational practices may alsocreate impeachment risk by introducing uncertaintyabout how enforcement activities were carried out. Col-

lective practices such as identity obscuration, reliance on race or ethnicity in initiating detentions and systemic departures from established procedures can undermine credibility even when an ofﬁcer acts lawfully and in good faith. The practical result may be an organizationally derived impairment that follows ofﬁcers into unrelated cases and expands prosecutorial disclosure obligations.

The potential ramifications of this derivative risk are significant. Legitimate criminal investigations may face unnecessary obstacles if otherwise capable law enforcement officers are not called to testifyor if their credibility is questioned due to their participation in recent immigration enforcementoperations. This is not ajudgmentofindividual officers. Rather,itraises abroader question: whether organizational leadership has fully considered the unintended consequences of the methodsemployed in immigration enforcement operations and the impact on the individuals tasked with carrying them out.

MAURICEBRUNGARDT NewOrleans

Oschner, EatFit deal should be amodel forothers

As an abdominal transplant surgeon in Louisiana, Iamthrilled to see Eat Fit’s efforts to make healthy eating more affordable for Ochsner’spatients, visitors and employees.

Nearly half of the patients who need liver and kidney transplants need them due to alifetime of poor diet or chronic alcohol use. When I operate on these patients, it makes me happy to return them to their families and community in better health. Iamalso saddened because their health issues are preventable with access to affordable and delicious healthy foods.

The best health outcomes don’t come from medicine or surgery, but from healthy habitslike eating

well. According to the Rockefeller Foundation, theAmerican diet is so bad for our health that forevery dollar spent on food in the U.S., another dollar is needed to pay forhealth care to treat the resulting nutritionrelated diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer andobesity

As acommunity,wecan do more to support one another in eating well —and so spend asmaller part of our lives suffering from preventable diseases.

Ihope Eat Fit and Ochsner’sleadership will inspire other businesses andinstitutions to begin similar programsfor their employees and communities.

W. PETERSAWYER, M.D NewOrleans

THOMAS

“T”

DIEMER Kenner

Guestcolumnist used fl

awed

moralargument to justify Iran war

As any child —ordecent human —would tell him,Arnie Fielkow is wrong on Iran. Twowrongs never makearight —especially where it involves killing people.

The wrongs done to the United States and Israel will never make right the ﬂagrant violations of international law they commit. The worthy cause Fielkow refers to will never makeright the hardly comparable thousands killed by Iran —which has no atomic bomb and has never used it to incinerate tens of thousands of innocent civilians (as the U.S. has done twice).

Yes, the United States should work forademocracy in Iran. But, as other columnists have noted, the attacks by the U.S. have, if anything, strengthened the violent dictatorship in Iran. Twowrongs always makefor worse and deeper wrongs.

MARK GONZALEZ NewOrleans

Adding

three-year degree doesn’t addupto excellence at LSU

AccB —athree-year degree.

What do the letters stand for? Almost completed curriculum bachelor’s?

“At the ﬂagship, we’ll measure excellence the way the world measures it, by becoming atop 50 research institution,” LSU President Wade Rousse said.

This is amove in the opposite direction. LSU will never makethat list because its priorities are 180 degrees opposite and have been since Iwas astudent there. The average time to afour-year degree is approximately six years. States would do welltotighten that up rather than reducing the number of credit hours.

BILL HUEY Baton Rouge

LATE-NIGHT

TIGERS

LSU-TexasA&M endedafter this editionwenttopress.For complete coverage,visit nola.com

EIGHT’SFATE

Oneofthese playerscould land with Saints at No.8

BY MATTHEWPARAS Staff writer

At this time last year,Kelvin Banks wasn’tonmost people’sradar for the New Orleans Saints.

Thecommonthought wasthe Saintswould takeeither an edge rusher such as Jalon Walker or atight end such as Tyler Warren ahead of coach Kellen Moore’sﬁrst year.Instead, the Saints selected Banks ninth overall to be their left tackle.

The pick was areminder that, as loud as thepre-draft discourse can be,sometimes apick doesn’tcomeinto focus until the ﬁnal days —oreventhe ﬁnalminutes— before commissioner Roger Goodell announces it on draft night With that said,let’s takeaneducatedguess at eight players the Saints could take with the eighthpick on Thursday

CARNELL TATE•OHIO STATEWR

The Saints took steps tooverhaul their running gamethisoffseason but that alone likely isn’tenough to jolt the offense. EnterTate.

The 6-foot-2, 192-pound wideout plays fasterthan his 4.53 40-yard dash suggests. He can get vertically up the ﬁeld and has astrongtrack record of hauling in contested catches He had zero dropson66targets last year,according to The Athletic.

New Orleansdoesnot have another burneroppositeChris Olave, and while Devaughn Vele emerged as a go-to target in theintermediatepart of the field, Tate can complement those two and replace what has been absentsince theteam traded Rashid Shaheed

FORT WORTH,Texas —The LSU gymnastics team is trying to retrace the path that twoyears ago led the Tigers to their ﬁrst NCAA championship.

They’re staying at the samehotel in downtownFort Worth as they did in 2024, where they held the sameFriday afternoon rooftop pep rally as they did back then. In Thursday’ssemifinal, the Tigers wore white leotards, dubbed “Ivory Krewe,” costumes that looked remarkably similar to the ones they wore in the final two years ago. They’re even finishing on beam, where Aleah Finnegan made indelible LSU gymnastics history, nailing her routine to sew up the title.

The Tigers are going to compete in the samerotation again: starting on floor,followed by vault, uneven bars and balance beam.For the first time, coaches have their pick of rotations in order of national seeding. LSUcoach Jay Clark chose this one forhis No. 2-seeded Tigers after No. 1 Oklahomapicked the Olympic rotation of vault, bars, beam and floor It isn’tjust the choice of next best. Clark

RABALAIS, page 3C

RUEBEN BAIN •MIAMI EDGE RUSHER Bain is not the Saints’ prototypical pass rusher. He’s notonly undersized at 6-2, but his under-31-inch

ä See SAINTS, page 3C

One of thebig questions around this draftiswhetherTatewillstill be on the boardwhenthe Saints pick. The Tennessee Titans(fourth), Cleveland Browns (sixth) and WashingtonCommanders (seventh) all have needsatwide receiver, and Tate is seen as the top prospect at theposition.

SGAgetsmy nodovermany worthy hopefulsfor MVP

Apologies, New OrleansPelicansfans

There won’tbemany Pelicans mentioned in this as Itell you how Ivoted for the NBA’s postseason awards. Other than votes for rookies Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, there likely won’t be any Pelicans receiving recognition.

Ballots for postseason awards had to be turned in Friday on the eve of the playoffs.

Here’sa look at who Ivoted for in all categories.

MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC Thunder):You could write the names Shai GilgeousAlexander,Nikola Jokic andVictor Wembanyama on apiece of paper, place them in ahat and pull out one and havea legitimate candidate. There’salso an argument forLuka Doncic,CadeCunninghamand Jaylen Brown. Forme, it came down to Gilgeous-Alex-

ander andJokic. Ieventually settled on SGA to repeat as MVP The Oklahoma City guard was consistent andefﬁcient all season long while shooting 55.3%. SGA averaged 31.1 pointsthis season, marking the fourth time he’saveraged 30 or more pointsina season. The only other players to do that? Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and OscarRobertson. Jokic, who has three MVPs already,became the ﬁrst player to lead the league in bothrebounds and assists. That made it really hard for me not to vote for him. ButSGA was also eighth in the league in defensive rating and is thebest player on the NBA’s best team, which tilted me oh-so-slightly in his favor

Coachofthe Year J.B. Bickerstaff (Detroit Pistons):Two seasons

Rod Walker ä See WALKER, page 3C

The transfer portal has been acritical aspect of LSU’ssuccessundercoach Jay Johnson. Paul Skenes, TommyWhite,Anthony Eyanson, Daniel Dickinson and several othershavehelpeddelivertwo national championships in three years. Whilethe portalhas provided LSU alot, it also has servedasanexitrampfor plenty of Tigers.

Here’salook at how each former LSU player is faring afterleaving the program via the transfer portal. BradyNeal, Alabama

Carnell Tate AP FILE PHOTO

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON LSUgymnast Kylie Coen celebrates with teammates after her balancebeam routine during the NCAAsemifinals on Thursdayat Dickies ArenainFortWorth, Texas

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER Oklahoma CityThunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander movesaround Pelicans guard Micah Peavyduringa game on Nov. 17 at the SmoothieKing Center

On TV AUTO RACING

11:30 a.m. ARCA Menards: Tide 150 FS1

12:30 p.m. NTT IndyCar:Practice FS2

3p.m. IMSA: GP of Long Beach NBC

4:10 p.m. NASCAR Cup: QualifyingPRIME

5:30 p.m. NTT IndyCar:QualifyingFS1

6p.m.O’Reilly Series: Kansas 300 CW COLLEGE BASEBALL

11 a.m. Georgia Tech at NorthCarolina ACC

11 a.m.Auburn at Florida ESPN2

NoonMississippi St. at So.Carolina SEC

6p.m. Georgia St. at Co. Carolina ESPNU

7p.m. Texas A&M at LSU SEC COLLEGE FOOTBALL

11 a.m. Ohio State springgame BTN

1p.m. Michigan spring game BTN MEN’S COLLEGE GYMNASTICS

6p.m. NCAA Tournament championship ESPN2

WOMEN’S COLLEGE GYMNASTICS

3p.m.NCAA Tournament championshipABC COLLEGE SOFTBALL

2p.m. North Carolina at FloridaSt. ACC

2p.m.Arizona at Oklahoma State ESPN2

3p.m. TexasatGeorgia SEC

5p.m. South Carolina at MissouriSEC

6p.m. Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech ACC

8:30 p.m. South Carolina at Clemson ACC

COLLEGETRACK ANDFIELD

7:30 p.m. OregonInvitational BTN FISHING

7a.m. Bassmaster Elite: Arkansas River FS1 GOLF

Noon PGATour:RBC HeritageGolf

12:30 p.m.LIV Golf: Mexico City Fox

2p.m. PGATour:RBC HeritageCBS

2p.m. Champions: Senior PGAGolf

3p.m. LIV Golf: Mexico City FS1

5p.m. LPGA: JM EagleLAGolf

HORSE RACING

Noon America’s Dayatthe Races FS2

12:30 p.m.America’s Dayatthe Races FS1

3p.m. America’sDay at the Races FS2

9:30 p.m. America’s Dayatthe Races FS1

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

1p.m. N.y.Mets at ChicagoCubs MLB

4:30 p.m. White Sox at Athletics MLB

6p.m. Atlanta at Philadelphia Fox

NBA PLAYOFFS

Noon Toronto at Cleveland PRIME

2:30 p.m.Minnesota at DenverPRIME

5p.m.Atlanta at Newyork PRIME

7:30 p.m.Houston at L.A. LakersABC NHL

2p.m.Ottawa at Carolina ESPN

4:30 p.m.Minnesota at Dallas ESPN

7p.m.PhiladelphiaatPittsburgh ESPN MEN’S SOCCER

6:25 a.m. QueensParkatMillwall CBSSN

8a.m.BorussiaatTSG Hoffenheim ESPN2

9a.m.Wolverhampton at Leeds NBCSN

9a.m.BournemouthatNewcastle USA

11:30 a.m. Brighton at Tottenham Hotspur NBC

2p.m.Tampa BayatCharleston CBSSN

2p.m.Man. United at ChelseaNBCSN

10 p.m.TolucaatClubAmérica CBSSN

WOMEN’S SOCCER

9a.m.Spain vs.Ukraine CBSSN TENNIS

6:30 a.m. Barcelona-ATP,Munich-ATP Tennis UFL

11:30 a.m. St. LouisatDCABC

3p.m.Orlando at Birmingham Fox

Thundertries to endthe parity

Challengersset to crashthe party, quell OKC’shopes to repeat

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

Oklahoma Cityguard Shai Gilgeous-Alexanderdoesn’tsound allthat excitedabout theidea of becoming aback-to-back NBA champion.

That might seem strange.It’s not. It’sjust who Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder are. They live in the present. They trynot to skip steps or wasteenergy on things out of their control. The Thunder —the NBA’s reigning champions and No. 1overall seed in this year’splayoffs, which open Saturday —just keep things simple and see how things work out.

Andthat’swhy,tothe reigning NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP in Gilgeous-Alexander,any talk of the Thunder going back-to-back and snapping the league’sunprecedented run of parity —seven different champions in asevenseason span —can wait, at least for afew more weeks.

“That’ssofar down the line,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.“So many things are going to happen before we get to the ﬁnals-clinching game.

“Yeah, it’scool. To have the opportunity to repeat means you won before, so it’scool. I’ll keep it there.”

Translated: Round 1, Game 1is all that’sonOklahoma City’smind rightnow

The road to the titlewill go through OKC yet again, with16 teams set to start the two-month journey to decide who will raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy sometime in June. Detroitisthe No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference,

Oklahoma City centerChetHolmgren shoots as Clippersguard Kobe SandersdefendsonApril 8inInglewood, Calif. The Thunder will trytobethe first team to repeatasNBA champions since Golden State in 2017-18.

theThunder is atop the West bracket, San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyamaisabout to go to theplayoffs for theﬁrst time and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James is about to go for the 19th time in thepast 21 seasons.

“It’scompetitivebasketball,”

James said. “Anytime you’re able to beinmeaningful games, it deﬁnitely means alot more for sure.”

Thematchups In the East: No. 1Detroit awaits Orlando, No. 2Boston plays No. 7Philadelphia in aseriesfor the 23rd time(themost common postseason matchup theNBA has), No. 3New York takes on No. 6Atlanta andNo. 4Cleveland meets No. 5 Toronto.

Spurs’ Wembanyama hoping to make NBA titledream areality

BYTIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

He’sprobably going to be the runaway,ifnot unanimous, choice for defensive player of the year He’s goingtomakethisseason’s All-NBA team. He’s goingtoget some MVP votes. He’salready a global superstar. Victor Wembanyama hasmet every expectation. Except, perhaps, his own. He came to theSan Antonio Spurs three years ago as theNo. 1 draft pick and hoping to lead arevitalization, one where aperennial title contender that got stuckina rebuilding cyclewould ﬁnally rise again. So far,sogood —the Spurs just ﬁnished their best season in a decade, going 62-20. And now,the really goodstuff the playoffs —awaits.

“How ready? As ready as you can be,” Wembanyama said when asked about his level of preparation for his ﬁrst lookatthe NBA postseason. “These moments, it’s really what you work on allyear,

but alsoyour wholecareer.We’re dreamingofplayoffsaskids before we comehere.”

History says these second-seeded Spurs, who open the Western Conference playoffs at home against No. 7Portland on Sunday night,couldbepoised to make a deeprun.

Of the other 15 clubs in franchise history that finished with a winning percentageof.700 or better,14won at least oneplayoff series, 10 madethe NBA’s final four, six went to the NBA Finals and five won championships

The corethen: Gregg Popovich as coach, leading names like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The core now: Mitch Johnson as coach, leading names like Stephon Castle,De’AaronFox andWembanyama —who seems to make allthings possible.

“He’sembraced the city and the city’s embraced him, the stepping foot into the community,”Johnson said.“And it’sbeen genuine and it’sbeen authentic. It’spretty cool to witness upfront.”

In theWest:No. 1Oklahoma City awaits PhoenixorGolden State (decided Friday night), No. 2San Antonio meets No. 7Portland, No. 3Denver gets No. 6 Minnesota (the thirdmeeting of those franchises in the past four years) and the No. 4Lakers will play No. 5Houston —setting up amatchup for the ages and of the ageless, the41-year-old James leading his team against the 37-year-old Kevin Durant and the Rockets

“Obviously it’s thebiggest stage of basketball and there’salot that comes around the game,” Durant said. “Butatthe end of the day, when that ball’stipped up, it’s just basketball. We allknow how to play at this level. We all know what it takes to win basketball

games. Just gottodothatconsistently.”

Oklahoma City—whichgot off to a24-1 start, then went 19-3in theirfinal22games as well didn’tspend asingle day this season outside of first place in the West. The Pistons came close to pulling off that feat in the East; it took them about21/2 weekstoget to theNo. 1spot on that side of the league,and they stayedthere the rest of the way.

“Wefeel like we play aplayoff brand of basketball every night,” Pistons coach J.B.Bickerstaff said. “We’re aphysical team. We’reagritty team. We’re atough team. We orchestrate well in the trenches.

“Those are things youhavetodo in the playoffs.”

LSU footballgetsits third commitment for’27 class

LSUpickedupa commitment from Hollywood, Florida, wide receiver Ah’Mari Stevens on Friday Stevens, a5-foot-11, 160-pound junior,isafour-star recruit, according to 247Sports composite rankings. LSU’sthird commitment for2027, Stevens is ranked among thetop 350players in thenation and 50 best wide receivers. He was previously committed to Miami. The Tigers now have three players committed to their 2027 class. The other twoare Jaiden Bryant, afive-star edge rusher from SouthCarolina,and Peyton Houston, afour-star quarterback from Shreveport. Bryant committed to LSU about amonth after the school hired Kiffin, and Houston pledged to the Tigers in September,more than amonth before coach Brian Kelly was fired.

Falcons,Jaguarsswap

DTs Orhorhoro, Smith Atlanta and Jacksonville swappedunderperforming defensive tackles selected in the second round of the2024 NFLDraft on Friday, with theFalcons sending Ruke Orhorhoro to the Jaguars in exchange for former LSU player Maason Smith. The 6-foot-4, 295-pound Orhorhoro had36tackles, including 31/2 sacks, in 25 games since Atlanta selected him 36th overall two years ago. He played at Clemson.

The 6-5, 306-pound Smith has 32 tackles, including threesacks, in 24 games since Jacksonville chose him 48th overall that sameyear Neither guy had developed into asteady starter or an every-down player,soAtlanta and Jacksonville swapped them in hopes that achange of scenery might lead to better results.

Anderson, Angels’career hits leader, dies at age53

ANAHEIM, Calif. Garret Anderson, the multitalented outﬁelder who became the Los Angeles Angels’ career hitsleader andled theteam to its only World Series title, has died. He was 53. The Angels announced Anderson’sdeath Friday morning without immediately disclosing the cause, but it was later reported he died of aheart attack.

Anderson reached the majors with the then-California Angels in 1994 andplayedfor theclub until 2008,primarily as aleftﬁelder. He was aﬁxture in the heart of their batting orderfor hisentiretenure, becomingthe franchise’scareer leader in games played (2,013), hits (2,368), RBIs (1,292), total bases(3,743),extra-base hits (796), doubles (489) and grand slams(8).

Schmidt, Basketball Hall of Famer of Brazil, dies at 68

SAOPAULO Oscar Schmidt, the Basketball Hall of Famer whom hisBrazilcompatriots know as the“Holy Hand,” died on Friday He was68.

Schmidt’sfamily said in astatementthat he fought abrain tumor for 15 years “with courage, dignity and resilience ...while remaining arole model of determination, generosity and love of life.” Schmidt never played in the NBAbut he’sbeloved in Brazil for committing to the nationalteam for19yearsand becoming one of the mostproliﬁc scorers in basketball history He also starred in ahistoric win against the United States in the finalofthe 1987 Pan American Games.

Nicholls State names Johnson-Joubert coach

To say Wembanyama —who is at least7-foot-4, andsomehow hasother 7-foot men in the NBA gawkingabout howtallheseems —isunique is somehow an understatement Howmany other 21-year-olds in the NBA draw headlines for spending part of their summers at aBuddhisttemple (ashedid last summer) as part of basketball training,bring books to readat the All-StarGame(to the disbelief of some fellow All-Stars) and can show offmath skills during news conferences (as he did of late while debating the NBA’s 65-game rule)?

Not many “He’sunique,” Spurs forward Harrison Barnes said, knowing

he was stating the obvious. Wembanyama’s numbersthis season: 1,600 points, 736 rebounds, 199 assists, 197 blocked shots, 122 3-pointers. Nobody in NBA history has ever ﬁnished aseason with those totals, and the blocked shots arethe biggestfactor in why he stands alonethere. So,takethe blocks out. Grade him in history on points, rebounds, assists and 3s fora season.Do that,and here’s thefulllist of players to reach his totals in just those categories in oneseason: Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, DeMarcus Cousins, Karl-Anthony Towns (twice), Nikola Vucevic, JuliusRandle and Nikola Jokic. That’sit.

Nicholls State named Jayln Johnson-Joubert as its women’s basketball coach on Friday Johnson-Joubert, who spent last season as an assistant coach with the Colonels, is the 11th head coach in program history

She takes over forJustin Payne, who resigned on Tuesday to take an assistant coaching position at Georgia.

Anative of Jennings,JohnsonJoubert graduated in 2016 from McNeese State, where she was an all-SouthlandConference and all-Louisianaselectionasapoint guard.

After playing three seasons professionally in Spain, she was an assistant coach at UL-Monroe before making other stops as ahead coach at Bethel Christian and Jennings High School.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVID ZALUBOWSKI

SanAntonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyamalookstopass the ball as DenverNuggets forward Aaron Gordon defendsonApril 4inDenver.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByMARK J. TERRILL

Pistons to a60-22recordand theNo. 1seed in the Eastern Conference. That should give Pelicans fans some hope on how quickly things can turn around.

Rookie of theYear

Cooper Flagg (Mavericks):No, Ididn’t base this on how poorly Kon Knueppel played in the Charlotte Hornets’ play-in game against the Miami Heat on Tuesday night. These awards are supposed to bebased strictly on the regular season, and Isided with Flagg before the play-in game. TheNo. 1 overall pick had to do most of theheavy lifting in Dallas and he delivered, including atwo-game stretch where he scored 51 and 45 points. His team wasn’t good, but he was.

Most Improved Player

Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Atlanta Hawks): Alexander-Walkerspent theﬁrst 21/2 seasons of his career with the Pelicans. He’s now with his fourth differentteam and his ﬁrst season in Atlanta. He went from averaging 9.4 points last season in Minnesota to

HowIvoted

averaging20.8 points for the Hawks. The Hawks —who also have former Pelicans players CJ McCollum, Dyson Daniels and Buddy Hield on their roster —ﬁnished strong to get the sixthseed in the East

Sixthman

Keldon Johnson (SanAntonio Spurs):This was one of the easier decisions. Johnson cameoff the bench and averaged 13.2 points and 5.4rebounds. He’sa bigreason the Spurs ﬁnished with the second-best record in the league.

Defensiveplayer Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs):The big manblocked 3.1 shots per game, which wastwice more than theleague’ssecond leader in blocked shots (Chet Holmgren of OKC). This will probably be theﬁrst of many times Wembywins this award.

Clutch player

Gilgeous-Alexander: This is just the fourth year of this award. The NBA defines clutch games as ones where the score is within five points with less thanfive minutes remaining. Gilgeous-Alexanderled the league in clutch points and did it while shooting 51% from the floor down the stretch. This would give SGA two postseason awards.

3. DeniAvdija (Trail Blazers) Clutch Playerofthe Year 1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder) 2. AnthonyEdwards (Timberwolves) 3. Cade Cunningham (Pistons) All-NBA First Team Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder) Nikola Jokic (Nuggets) Victor Wembanyama (Spurs) LukaDoncic(Lakers) Cade Cunnigham (Pistons) Second Team Jaylen Brown(Celtics) Kawhi Leonard(Clippers) Kevin Durant(Rockets) DonovanMitchell (Cavaliers) Jamal Murray (Nuggets) ThirdTeam Jalen Duren(Pistons) Jalen Brunson(Knicks) Tyrese Maxey (76ers) Chet Holmgren(Thunder) Jalen Johnson (Hawks)

SAINTS

Continued from page1C

arms raise questions about whetherhehas the length to be successful at the next level

That said, Moore said to pick aprospect that goes against type, that player hasto have enough production toovercome physical shortcomings. Bain had production in spadesduring his time at Miami.

Coming off a91/2-sack season, Bain is bendy and explosive enough to makeup forhis lack of size. He hasstronghands and apowerful frame to shed tackles. He has compared himself to Mike Tyson, saying: “When you felt him, you felt him.” The Saints could use that New Orleans has adistinct need forpassrushinghelp, even after ChaseYoung and Cam Jordan recorded 10-plus sacks lastseason. Despite ranking 10th in sacks, the Saints ranked only 21st in pressure percentage

DAVID BAILEY •TEXAS TECH EDGE RUSHER

After transferring fromStanford to Texas Tech last year,Bailey exploded onto the scene with 141/2 sacks. That eye-popping number wasbacked up by atantalizing blend of power and speedonﬁlm.

He has solid measurables (6-4, 251 pounds) and tested wellathletically at the combine, notably running a4.5 40-yard dash.Togo with his athleticism, Bailey has anice range of pass-rushing techniques thatshoulddevelop furtherinthe NFL. There’sbuzz that Baileycould go as high as No. 2tothe NewYork Jets, so perhaps he won’tbeonthe board for theSaints.But there are scenarios in whicha pass rusher like Bailey or Baincould fall —particularly if offensive linemensuch as Francis Mauigoa and Spencer Fano go early

CALEB DOWNS •OHIO STATESAFETY

Though he’slisted at safety, Downs likely wouldﬁll Alontae Taylor’srole as aslotcornerback in defensive coordinator Brandon Staley’s scheme.StaleyusedAll-Pro safety Derwin James in similarsituations when coaching the Los AngelesChargers, and teams aroundthe league increasingly have used safeties in the slot with much success. Aversatile defender,Downs isone of the most intriguing prospects in this year’s class. He hits hard and can line up all over theﬁeld, drawing comparisons to Baltimore safety Kyle Hamilton.

Downs is ahighly regarded teammate, serving as acaptain with the Buckeyes, and he would be acandidate to ﬁll the leadership void left by DemarioDavisafter the linebacker departedfor theNew York Jets in free agency Downs also earned playingtime as atrue freshman at Alabama, an impressivefeat in itsown right. He transferred to Ohio State after Nick Saban’sretirement.

MANSOOR DELANE •LSU CB

Like Bailey,Delane used the transferportaltohis advantage. Afterthreeyears at Virginia Tech, Delane emerged as an elite cornerback at LSU.

The 6-foot playmaker allowedjustseven ﬁrst downs on 357 coverage snaps. He was aunanimous All-American, and he’sconsidered versatile enoughtoplayinany scheme in the NFL, whether that’s azone-heavysystem like the Saints or apress-man style that former Saints coach Dennis Allen now runs in Chicago. Drafting Delane would present an interesting conundrum for the Saints. It likely would mean keeping himonthe outside,which could move eitherQuincy Riley or KoolAidMcKinstry inside to replace Taylor.But would that work? It took Taylor time to get

BY TOYLOY BROWNIII Staff writer

LSU point guard Jalen Reece will enter the transfer portal, he announced Friday on Instagram.

The freshman is theninth LSU player to enter the portal. New coach Will Wade currently hasnoplayers on the team as the program hasn’tmade any additions since thetransfer portal opened April 7.

Reece averaged 5.8 points, 3.6 assists and 1.3 turnoversin23.8minutes last season He started 10 games andwas among the mostimproved players during the season. He played all 32 games and ﬁlled in forinjured startingpoint guard Dedan Thomas, who played only three games in Southeastern Conference play

Reece averaged 4.7 assists in conference play,which wasfifth in the SEC. In the final 10 games, he averaged 10.2 points on 37.9% from the field, 6.2 assists and 1.1 steals in 37.8 minutes.

Theannouncementofhis entryintothe portal comes 18 days after Wade had his introductory newsconference. Reece was in attendance. The6-foot point guard is anative of Orlando, Florida, and was rated the No. 76 player in the 2025 class on the 247Sports Composite.

Reece is the last player to announce he will enter the transfer portal from former coach Matt McMahon’sroster, joining Thomas, Jalen Reed, Mike Nwoko, Robert Miller,Ron Zipper,Mazi Mosley,Matt Gilhool and Marcus Vaughns.

All-DefensiveTeam

First Team

Victor Wembanyama (Spurs)

Chet Holmgren (Thunder)

Derrick White (Celtics)

Ausar Thompson (Pistons)

ScottieBarnes (Raptors)

Second team

Rudy Gobert (Timberwolves)

Amen Thompson (Rockets)

Bam Adebayo(Heat)

Cason Wallace(Thunder)

OG Anunoby(Knicks)

All RookieTeam

First Team

Cooper Flagg (Mavericks)

KonKnueppel (Hornets)

VJ Edgecombe (76ers)

Dylan Harper (Spurs)

Jeremiah Fears (Pelicans)

Second Team

AceBailey (Jazz)

Derik Queen (Pelicans)

Cedric Coward (Grizzlies)

Maxime Raynaud (Kings)

Collin Murray-Boyles (Raptors)

AP FILE PHOTO By JULIO CORTEZ

USC widereceiver Makai Lemon runs adrill at the NFL scouting combine on Feb.28in Indianapolis.

used to the slot, and just because his move paid dividends, that doesn’tmeanRiley or McKinstrywould be anatural ﬁt there

Still, Delane is talented enough that he might be worth picking and ﬁguring out the rest later

JEREMIYAH LOVE •NOTRE DAME RB

Signing running back Travis Etienne to a four-year, $52million deal should notpreclude theSaintsfromtaking Love, if he’sstill available at No. 8. Justlook at Mickey Loomis’ history.This is thegeneral manager who drafted Deuce McAllister despitehaving RickyWilliamsonthe roster,and wholater took Reggie Bush despitehaving McAllister. Need amorerecentexample? TheSaints traded up for McKinstry in 2024 when cornerback, on paper,wasn’taglaring need. Elite talent wins out,and Love is an elite talent. He’d be an instant spark forthe offense, and he has theskill set to pair wellwith Etienne.But it would be asurpriseifLove wasthere at No. 8. Butnever say never

MAKAI LEMON •USC WR

Receiver Jordyn Tyson from Arizona State easily could have been on this list instead, but with Tyson’s lengthy injuryhistory,let’sgowith Lemon. Avery speciﬁc type of receiver, Lemon projects to be aslotheavyoption with theabilitytocreate havoc based on his yards-after-the-catch prowess. That’s an area theSaints have struggled in over the last few years. Olave led the Saints with 286 yards after the catch last season, butthatranked 60th in theNFL. In 2025, 43.2% (502 of 1,156) of Lemon’s yardsreceiving came after thecatch It is worth wondering whether New Orleans would be interested in Lemon, given how manyslot options it alreadyhas.Olave saw39% of his snaps come from the inside, while the team also heavilyusedtight end Juwan Johnson and wide receiver Brandin Cooks there. Does Lemon, at 5-11 and 192 pounds, have the size to play outside on occasion?

SONNY STYLES •OHIO STATELB

This would truly be abest-player-available option.Inthis scenario, to bypass areceiver, the Saints wouldhavetoloveStyles’ athleticism and versatility.Stylestestedoff the charts athletically at the combine, running a 4.46 40 to go with his 43.5-inch vertical jump.

Aformer safety turned linebacker,Styles hasthe range to hold up in passcoverage.

Buthe’sa violentplayerwiththe burst to ﬂy downhill and make the tackle. He’s laterally quick, able to diagnoseplays at agood rate.

TheSaints signed Kaden Elliss to replace Davis, but Elliss has spent alot of his career at weak-side linebacker.Taking Styles wouldn’t necessarily be redundant, butit would create alogjam, with starterPete Werner potentially the odd manout.

RABALAIS

Continuedfrom page1C

told fansatthe pep rally that his team convinced him this was the way to go, to trytogive the Tigers thespark of their best event (LSU is ranked No.1nationally on ﬂoor) to propel them forward into title contention.

After aThursday semiﬁnal performance with slick gymnastics on vault and ﬂoor bookending unsteady performances on bars and beam, it’scertainly worth a try.

“It gives us thebest chance to get off to afast start,” Clark said. “Typically,when we do that, we gain momentum and our conﬁdence grows as we go. We’re used to ﬁnishing on beam half theseason, every time we go on the road.

“Hopefully that warms us up on vault, then we can ride that wave.”

LSUlikely will need apositive wave to win.The sport’s final four looks like a reprise of the Southeastern Conference championships: No. 1Oklahoma, No. 2 LSUand No. 3Florida, plus No. 13 Minnesotainits first NCAAfinal and probably as surprised as anyone else that it is in this company

BasedstrictlyonThursday’sscores, LSU looks like therank outsider of the four Oklahoma made it appear an eighth national title in 12 years is in the offing with its 198.300 to winthe secondsemifinal. Florida won LSU’ssemifinalwith asolid 197.7875 that belies thefact the Gators have looked like the nation’sbest team the past six weeks. And even Minnesota outpointed the Tigers, 197.4625-197.4375.

In short, LSU must do better —much better —ifthe Tigers hope to win.

“It should be agreat four-waymeet,” Clark said. “I thinkwe’re right in the mix. Idon’tthink there’sany doubt that we can win this thing. Butwe’ve got to show up.”

Clark is hopeful his Tigers can shake off Thursday’sperformance. He said and it isn’tanoutlandish notion that LSU still was shadowed by thefact that it couldn’t get out of last year’ssemiﬁnal when it was theNo. 1seed.

“I thinkalot of yesterday was probably

rooted in last year,” he said, “and they got alittle tight. So Iexpect them to come out and attack (Saturday). There’sreally nothing we can do other than just try to makesure that they’re free of mind and ready to go.”

Iasked Clark how he would sleep Friday night. There was no answer.This isn’t ateam that has troubled him this season with personality clashes or intrasquad squabbles. They have worried him with injuries that always lurk beneath the surface of agymnastics campaign like an unseen iceberg mass.

As great as Kailin Chio has been this season —Thursday she finished second in the chase forthe NCAA all-around and vault titles —itwas junior Konnor McClain whowas the reason the Tigers advanced. She rescued apoor LSU bars routine with a9.9125 in the anchor spot, then tied forfirst in the session with a9.95 in the second-to-last spot on beam when the Tigers also needed abig score. But McClain has been battling injury issues all season, exacerbated by ahard fall off the high bar in the regional final in Baton Rouge. Clark said if LSU had to compete Friday,hewas doubtful McClain could have gone, as she wasexperiencing pain in her arm. Thatsaid, the offday andcompetitive nature of theformer U.S. nationalsall-around championmakes heralikely clutch candidate forthe Tigers on Saturday “I don’tthink anyone will be able to keep her out of the lineup,” Clark said. How did LSU fare by comparison in the NCAA semis twoyears ago? The Tigers handily outpaced California 198.1125197.7125 before going on to awinning score of 198.225 in the final. This LSU team is capable of such ascore again, evidenced by the Tigers’ season-high 198.375 to winthe regional semifinal in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Based on Thursday’sshowing, this is ahard team to handicap. LSU madeitto the final, the no substitute goal forthis program every year now.From here, the Tigers could finish anywhere from first to fourth and not be asurprise. But the path from 2024 still glimmers like the sequins on agym costume, if these Tigers only have the mettle to findit.

LSUcoach

JayClark

Inside-the-parkHR ralliesLSU softball

BY JIM KLEINPETER

Contributing writer

Offensive frustration by LSU andthe Ole Miss pitching both were building toward abreaking point Friday night.

In the sixth inning, it was the Rebels who collapsed.

Tori Edwards hit an inside-thepark grand slam to wipe out a4-2 deﬁcit and carry the No. 22 Tigers to a6-4 victory in the opener of a three-game SEC series at Tiger Park.

TheTigers(30-14, 7-9SEC)entered the sixth trailing 4-1 despite having ﬁve hits and nine walksoff of Ole Missstarter Emilee Boyer

But Ally Hutchins led off with a walk, and one out laterJalia Lassiter singled. Afielder’schoice movedHutchins to third before Kylee Edwards, who had homered earlier in the game, singled to score Hutchins.

Alix Franklin singled up the middle to loadthe basestobring up Tori Edwards, who hit asink-

ingliner to right field thatcurved away from right fielderMadi George and into the corner.She sped around thebases and slid home easily ahead of thethrow to trigger ahugeroar from the crowd OleMissdidn’trollover.The Rebels(27-19, 2-12) opened the seventh with singles by Taylor Malvin andKennedy Bunker off of reliever Paytn Monticelli, who got the next batterMackenzie Pickens on afoul out to first base. LSU coach Beth Torina then brought in left-hander Jayden Heavener,who struck out Persy Llamas and George to get her second save. Llamas andGeorge had each hit home runs earlierin the game. Ole Miss was in the driver’sseat after scoring three runs in the fifth inning to break a1-1 tiewith the help of some LSU mistakes Malvinled off with awalk off of starting pitcher Cece Cellura, and Bunkerwas safe on afielding error by LSU second baseman Sierra

Daniel.

LSU catcher Char Lorenz allowed apassed ball to move the runners up one base, and Pickens gotthe run home with aground out to Daniel fora 2-1 OleMisslead Llamas capped the inning by hitting a1-1 pitch just over thecenter-ﬁeld wall for athree-run lead. Monticelli replaced Cellura and gotapop up andﬂyout to end the inning.

LSU, which had left nine runners on base andhad twoothers thrown outtrying to steal going intothe sixthinning, caught abad break theinning before. Hutchins drew aone-out walk, and No. 9hitter Avery Hodge dumpeda single over drawn-in third baseman Ryan Starr. AwalktoLassiterloaded the bases, andDanielhit the ball on the nose but right back to the pitcher Boyer,who easily doubled Hutchins off thirdtoend theinning.

Theteams meet again at 5p.m. Saturday in the second game of the series.

Padres owners nearingrecordsaleofteam

BY GREG BEACHAM

AP sportswriter

ANAHEIM, Calif. The family of late San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler is nearing asale of theteam, aperson with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday

The Wall Street Journal first reported the imminent deal with private equity billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones. The team is expected to be sold at avaluation of $3.9 billion in arecord deal for aMajor League Baseball team, easily topping the approximately $2.4 billion paidby Steven Cohen for the New York Mets in 2020.

The 53-year-old Feliciano is the co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, aprivate equity ﬁrm based in SantaMonica, California. The ﬁrm was part of an investment group that purchased

Continued from page1C

CamJohnson,Oklahoma

Johnson had alot of trouble throwing strikes in his return to Alex Box Stadium earlier in the year,walking six LSU batters.

The control issues the junior left-hander had against the Tigers were alow pointinwhat has been an up-and-down season. Johnson holds a3.93ERA and gave up just two earned runs in 111/3 inningsovertwo starts against Alabama and Texas. But last week against Vanderbilt, he recorded just one out while allowing four earned runs and walking four batters.

MikeyRyan, NC State

After hardly playing as afreshman at LSU, Ryan is hitting 317 with eight home runs and a.585 slugging percentage for the Wolfpack. As the shortstop, he’shelped NC State crack the top halfofthe ACC standings.

PremierLeague club Chelseain 2022, with Los Angeles Dodgers minority owner Todd Boehly becomingthe Blues’ chairman. Seidler’sfamily began to explore asaleofthe Padres last November, two years after the death of the popular PeterSeidler.His brother, JohnSeidler,has served as the Padres’ chairman since then. Peter Seidler waspartofagroup that bought the Padres in 2012 for $800 million, and he became the team’s primary owner in 2020. He enthralled San Diego’sbaseball fans with his free-spending eagerness to win the Padres’ ﬁrst World Series, and general manager A.J Preller built aseriesofexciting teamsthathave reached the MLB playoffs in four of the last six seasons —aﬁrst in team history —despiteplaying in thesamedivision as thedominantDodgers.

“I can’t comment on (the sale),” first-year San Diego manager

Ashton Larson,Texas

Larson is hitting .328 witha.512 on-basepercentage in 25 starts for the Longhorns this spring. He has onlyﬁve extra-basehits, but the junioroutﬁelder’sconsistency at the plate hashelped Texas sprint out to a28-7record entering the weekend.

Ryan Costello,Maryland

TheformerLSUﬁrstbasemanhas 13 home runs and a.627 slugging percentage in 32starts. He’s tied with projected No.1 overall pick Roch CholowskyofUCLA for third place in the Big Teninhomers.

Ryan Kucherak,Northwestern Kucherakbroke out forthe Wildcatsin2025with 18 home runs anda.639 slugging percentage in 52 games. The power hasn’tbeen quite as prolific thisseason,but theshortstop stillhas sevenhomers and a.380 on-basepercentage.

Austen Roellig, ArizonaState Roellig transferred to Utah after redshirting for the 2024 season and impressed as aﬁrst-year start-

Reesebelievesthe Dreamprovides what she’smissing

BY CHARLES ODUM AP sportswriter

ATLANTA— Angel Reese was surrounded by the love —and talent —duringher ﬁrst news conference with the Atlanta Dream she felt was missing in her twoyears in Chicago. The Dreamacquired Reese from the Sky on April 6. Chicago obtained ﬁrst-rounddraftpicks in 2027 and 2028. Atlanta also receivedthe right to swapsecondround picks withChicagoin2028.

Oneofthe WNBA’s mostrecognizable stars, theformer LSU star led the league in rebounds in each of her two seasons with theSky

“I’malways gonna be grateful for that because Idid experience alot of great things,” Reese said Fridayabout her time in Chicago. “I enjoyed being able to grow within my ﬁrst two years, but I wanted more. Ilove to win, Ilove to competeand Iwantedtobe surrounded by peoplethat can makemebetter

“AndIamnot satisfied with what Iamasa playerand Ifelt like being around these kinds of players would help me be better Ican help them in different ways to help them win, andthat’sall I ever wanted. Idon’tcareabout anything else that comes withit.”

Reese was joined at the news conference by thefive players Atlanta has re-signed this offseason. Guard Rhyne Howard said Reese, atwo-timeAll-Star forward, could help Atlanta win achampionship.

“Angel is special forusbecauseshe could be exactlywhat we were missing,” Howard said. Reese averaged 14.7 points and aleague-best 12.6 rebounds last season.She joins ateam that won afranchise-record 30 games last season under coach KarlSmesko before losing to Indiana in the

playoffs

Atlanta also re-signedAllisha Gray,Brionna Jones, Jordin Canada and NazHillmon. Grayfinished fourth in MVP voting last season.Howardbecame thefastest playerinWNBA history to make 300 3-pointers. Hillmon wasnamed Sixth Player of the Year,and Jones wasanAllStar Thetrade to Atlanta came after Reese expressed frustration late last season withChicagoonthe waytoa10-34 ﬁnish. She told the ChicagoTribune theSky needed to improve itsrosterand added she “might have to moveinadifferent directionand do what’s best forme” if that didn’thappen. She later apologized to theteam forthe comments.

The Sky suspendedReese for half agame for comments deemed “detrimental to the team.” The team held her out for its ﬁnalthreegames with aback injury,raising speculation about her future in Chicago.

Reese said the interest from the Dream “wasmutual on both sides, and Iwas able to choose a destination Ireally wantedtogo to.”

General manager DanPadover said adding Reese capped asuccessful offseason.

“When we went into this offseason, we had two main priorities,” Padover said. “That was retain ourcore. Andtoremain opportunistic. And over the last week, I’m thrilled to say we did both.

“And then to have someone like Angelcome in and say,‘Hey guys, Ilovewhatyou’re doing. Ilove that city.Let me jumpin here.’ And to have this whole groupaswellasthe othersthat are here today cometogether to try to build something andwin a championship. That’swhat sports is all about.”

Craig Stammensaid Fridayafternoon in Anaheim beforethe Padres opened aseries withthe LosAngelesAngels. “We’re excitedtosee what happens, and let the people that are handling thatﬁgureitout on their own.”

ThePadres’potentialsaleprice reflects their value as San Diego’s only franchise in North America’sfour traditional major sports leagues, leading to apassionate fan base in theirattractive home at downtown Petco Park.The Padres have set attendance records in each of thepast three seasons, capped last season by drawing a whopping3,437,201 fans—the second-most in the majors to the Dodgers, whoplayintheir much larger stadium in Chavez Ravine. The club finished last season with the majors’ ninth-highest payroll at around $217 million, still down significantly from its peak under Seidler

er,hitting .341 with just two errors in 50 starts while primarily playing third base. He then transferred to Arizona State over theoffseason andishitting .291with a.404 onbase percentage in 35 games.

MicPaul, Washington

Paulhas struggled at the plate in his ﬁrst season at the Washington center ﬁelder.He’shitting .239 with one home run and a.345 slugging percentage in 34 games.

BrennanHolt, Alabama

Holt has jumped around quite abit after leavingLSU afterhis freshman year.The inﬁelder started nine games at Oklahoma State in 2023 before spending two years at South Alabama, hitting .283 during his time with the Jaguars. Now at Alabama, Holt has become the Crimson Tide’severyday second baseman andishitting.281 with a .450 on-basepercentage.

Blaise Priester,Southeastern Priesterhad only seven at-bats for theTigerslast season,but this year at Southeastern Louisiana, he’s

started 32 games andhas a.252 batting averagewithsix home runs

ZebRuddell,LouisianaTech

After apromising ﬁrst season at LouisianaTech, Ruddell has taken acouple of steps back. He’shitting .173 with a.279 on-base percentage this year after the outﬁelder hit .278 with nine homers ayear ago.

KalebApplebey, Austin Peay

Applebey never appeared in a game at LSU, but he has become atrustedarm in twoseasons at Austin Peay.The right-hander had eight savesin18reliefappearances in 2025 and hasstarted ﬁve games this season.

Chandler Dorsey,UCF Dorsey hasn’tpitched since mid-March, as the seniorrighthander holds a10.13 ERAinjust 51/3 innings forthe Knights. One of hissix appearancescameagainst LSU, and he didn’tallow arun in 12/3 innings.

DavidHogg, GraysonCollege Hogg has accumulated video

game-like numbers at the juniorcollege level. In 38 games, the infielder has 10 homeruns, 21 extra-base hits and a.733 slugging percentage.

DylanThompson, Blinn Thompsonhas thrived since transferringfromLSU to Blinn College,the same juniorcollege TannerReaves attended before transferring to LSU. Thompson, aright-hander,has a2.14 ERA andjustninewalks in 332/3 innings.

NicBronzini, Little Rock Bronzini transferredtoWashington after the 2024 season, but he madeonly one appearance with the Huskies and then headed to Little Rock. The left-hander hasa 6.00 ERA in 18 innings.

Derrick Mitchell,AustinPeay Mitchell has seen moreofthe ﬁeld this season afterhavingjust three at-bats last year with Austin Peay.The redshirt sophomore outﬁelder has started four games and is 3for 13.

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

LSU slugger Tori Edwards drives the ball against Nicholls State on

Park. Edwards hit an insidethe-park grand slam against Ole Miss on Friday.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByBRyNN ANDERSON

Former LSUforward AngelReese holds up her Atlanta Dream jersey during anewsconferenceonFriday in Atlanta.

with meteorologist DamonSingleton

After several mostly sunnyand warmdays, our weatherwillstart changing abit today. Acoldfront willbring cloudyskies and scattered showers,mainlythis evening.But for most of the day, expect partlycloudy, very warm, humid and breezy conditions. Temperatureswillrise into the mid- to upper 80s. Windswill be southwesterly at 10 mph,bringing moisture from the Gulf.Humidity will be high. TheFrench Quarter FestUVIndex is “veryhigh,”and rain chances will rise significantly tonight and overnight.

Tulane coach Will Hall willwatch his team end spring practice on Saturdaymorning with aspring game. ‘The fans will see the full gamut of what Tulane practice looks like that’s full-speed tackling and highly competitive,’he said. ‘It’sgoing to be areally rugged, tough Tulane day.’

By SOPHIA GERMER

‘We’ll go untilwecan’t go anymore’

Hall says Tulane’s spring game will be

BY GUERRYSMITH

Contributing writer

Tulane’sspring game on Saturday morning at Yulman Stadium is going to be like aregular practice, but coach Will Hall guaranteed no onewould be bored.

“The fans will see the full gamut of what Tulane practice looks like that’sfull-speed tackling and highly competitive,” he said. “It’sgoing to be areally rugged, tough Tulane day. We’ll go until we can’tgo anymore, knock the crap out of each other and headtothe offseason.” Hall’sfull-pad sessions have been more physical than the ones under predecessors Willie Fritz and Jon Sumrall. With the exception of veterans Zeon ChrissGremillion and Kadin Semonza, the quarterbacks have been fair game for tackling in every 11-on-11 drill —ararity in modernday football. The contact across the boardhas been hot and heavy

“It’sjustwhatwedo,”Hall said. “It’swhat we’ve always done. It’savery old-school, Alabama-Georgia practice model. Iwas blessed when I

was the head coach at West Alabama (from 2008-10) to be able to go to Alabama 45 minutes away whencoach (Nick)Saban was building that program. It’sthatpractice model.I think our kids love it. It’s full speed. It’s highly competitive. If you don’twant to compete, you’ll get beat out.”

Quarterback Dagan Bruno,a sophomore quarterback from John Curtis whomHallhas praised in the spring, raved about the practice energy.

“Everybody’sflying aroundhaving fun,”hesaid.

“It’sagreat environment.”

The drawback is thepotential for injuries,but Tulane has avoided any long-term ones through14 spring practices. Hall attributes that fact to good fortune asmuch as anything, but he alsopraises Tulane’s strength and conditioning undercoordinator Colin Kenyon, thenutrition program and the playersfor theirdiligence.

He expects practice No.15 to be justashigh energyas the rest. From9-11 a.m. at Yulman Stadium,the Wave will proceed through spe-

cial teams drills, one-on-one battles with receivers versus defensive backs in the redzone, aseven-on-seven portion, 11-on-11regular scrimmage possessionsand aconcluding red zoneperiod with points awarded for stops and scores.

“Splittingthe team up (as in atraditional scrimmage), youend up short at some positions and you don’tget better,” Hall said. “I want to use Day 15 toget better and keep pushing forwardtowin another championship.”

Several 11-on-11 sessions have gotten chippy with short tempers between the offense anddefense. Hall never shies away from creatingcompetition,which is why he will showcase theone-on-one battlesbetween thereceivers and defensive backs.

“I want toput these young men in settings where everybody who shows up is lookingattheminhigh-pressure situations,” he said. “If they lose, there’snobody to blameitonbut themselves Iwant the winner to be gloriﬁed. It’s what I’ve always done.”

Offensive coordinator Russ Callaway said Hall’s

aggressive approach beneﬁts Tulane every day

“He does atremendous jobof(making sure) no one is evercomfortable,”Callaway said. “The constant pressure of competition is always keeping those guys fresh andsharp. When you’re really cooking is when guys are going into the room everyday wondering if they are astarter or not.”

The enthusiasm is evident after every big play,aswas thecase when sophomore wide receiver Oliver Mitchell caught adeep ball in Thursday’spractice.

“I lovethisoffense,” said Mitchell, an Edna Karr graduate.“It’squick game, alot of tempo,just like when Iwas at Karr.(Hall’s) got a great offensive mind. Ican’t waitfor theseason to start so the world can see how good this offense can be.”

Hall will be watching closelySaturdaytosee if Mitchell or anyone else provestheyare ready to contribute to achampionship run.

“Everybody wantsanopportunity,”Hall said.“This is your opportunity,soshow it right now.”

HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL

Lambert tosses 3-hitshutout in Hahnville’swin

BY SPENCER URQUHART Staff writer

Hahnville freshman London Lambert got her ﬁrst taste of varsity playoff softball and proved that the moment wasn’ttoo big forher

Lambertstarted in the circle and pitched ashutout in a5-0 ﬁrst-round playoff winagainst No. 25-seeded Haughton in Boutte.

Theeighth-seeded Tigers will advance to the Division Inonselect regionals.

Runs were hard to come by earlyfor Hahnville, which stranded sixrunners through thefirst four innings.

The Tigers broke through with two runs in the bottom of the ﬁfth and added three moreinthe sixth to back up Lambert’spitching effort.

“Wewere getting people on base, butwejustcouldn’t quite getthem to the plate,” Hahnville coach Jeremy Duplantis said. “Webattled defensively andLondon battled in the circle.That deﬁnitely kept us where we were conﬁdent.

Atwo-way standout who serves as Hahnville’stop pitcher and akey middleof-order bat, Lambert struck out nine in seven innings. She allowed three hits and one walk.

“I was just remembering what Iworked forall season,”Lambertsaid. “We worked so hard to get here, and it’sshowing now.” Hahnville’sdefense was strong behind Lambert. The game ended on sophomoreShelby Theriot’sdiving catch in leftﬁeld in the top of the seventh. It was

Theriot’ssecondoftwo diving catches.

Hahnville third baseman RyleeVillasenorsparked the Tigers’ scoring effortin the bottom of the fifth with aleadoff double to deep left field. Villasenorscored the first run after Sophie Baudoin reached on abunt.

“Rylee was seeing the ball well today,” Duplantis said. “I knew she wasgoing to square one up.” Villasenor scored with ease on aHaughton throwing error after Baudoin’s bunt. Baudoin reached second base and scored Hahnville’s secondafter Emma Jackson hit asacriﬁce ﬂy to left.

Haughton starting pitcher Charlee Prothro held Hanville scoreless through four innings butended up allowing four earnedruns on six hits and ﬁve walks in 51/3 innings.

Hahnville catcher Addison Walton drew abasesloaded walk in the bottom of the sixth for the third run, and Jill Lirette followed with atwo-run single to put the Tigersupby ﬁve.

Hahnville(20-12) will be back at home next week in the regionals against No. 9Ouachita Parish (2311),which defeated No.24 Northwood-Shreveport 16-0 in four innings on Friday

“We’re going to focus on us alittle bit, ﬁx some things that we did wrong (Friday),” Duplantis said. “We’ve played the best of the best in thestate(in the regular season). We played all those hard teams to sharpen us up forthe playoffs.”

ARIEs (March21-April 19) Do what's best andright.Aquick responsewill surprisesomeone whodoesn't know or understand you.Use your instincts to navigate your way through the highs andlows you encounter.

tAuRus (April 20-May20) Before rushing into something, question whether you aredoing the right thing or if your emotions are causingyou to overreact.Pay attention to detail and focus on what makes you happy.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Mingle, listen andengage in conversations offering insight into something that interests you. Aphysical or emotional change will have apositiveimpact on your life.

Personal growth is the goal.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Don't make unrealistic promises. Consider what's necessary,and don'tpile on more than you can handle. It's time to take care of your needs. "Me time" will do you good.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Keep life simple and your plans doable. Be willing to listen, but don't buy into someone else's dream when you haveyourown ambitions to fulfill. Choose to modify your routine, not your appearance.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Youmay not want to venture out, but doing so will lead to an eventful encounter. Socialize or try something new,and an opportunity will develop. Anew hobby or skill will motivate you to embrace change.

LIBRA (sept. 23-Oct. 23) Take time to nurture what and who is meaningful to you.

Having apurpose will make life easier and increase your ability to focus. A change of scenery will lead to apositiveattitude and new beginnings.

scORPIO (Oct. 24-nov. 22) Premature decisions will disappoint you. Slow down, observe what others do and say, and sizeupsituations to determine how good afit someone or something is for you.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Put extra effort into declutteringand making your life easier. It's up to you to engage in conversations and to discover what's available and who interestsyou.

cAPRIcORn(Dec.22-Jan.19) Bypass the drama and do something that soothes thesoul. Spend more timenurturing your needs and doing things that boost your confidenceand encourage youto findeventsorentertainment

AQuARIus(Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Look for more options; check the job market, and something will stand out.Stop procrastinating and start moving in a directionthat will buy youthe freedom you desire.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Put your money whereyour mouthisand investin something that excites you. Anew look, travel, educational pursuits, networking, socializing and making new contactswill all pay off.

Celebrity Ciphercryptograms are created fromquotations by famous people, pastand present. Each letter in the cipher stands foranother.

tODAy'scLuE: PEQuALs M

CeLebrItY CIpher

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers1to9 in the empty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Yesterday’sPuzzle Answer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

W. Somerset Maugham said,“It’s asking agreat deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as to your sense of theaesthetic.”

Bridge deals are sometimes aesthetic, butthe right answer to all of them can usually be found by applying reason In today’s deal,what is the reasonable approach for South in four hearts after West leads the clubqueen?

North used atransferbid followed by a jump to three no-trump to show the values for gamewith exactly five hearts and, probably, abalanced hand. Here, Southwouldhave done besttopass, butitishard to quibble with opting for the eight-card major-suit fit. (Note that thetransfer did its job. Four hearts by North goes down if Eastleads the spade queen.)

Takeninisolation, declarerwould finesseinhearts.Buthereaheartfinesse ought to be fatal. East would win with hisqueen and should shifttothe spade queen. Not wanting aspade lead through hisking, declarer should trytokeep East offthelead.Southwinsthefirsttrickand cashes dummy’stwo top hearts. When the queen does not drop, he turns to the diamonds. Yes,East ruffs the fourth round, but declarer has discarded one of dummy’s spades, so losesonlyone heart andtwo spades.

wuzzles

Note that if West has queen-third of hearts, South’s play costsonly an overtrick. And if East can ruffthe second or third diamond, declarer is still all right when East either does not switch to spades or holds the spade ace. Always take the full deal into account. ©2026 by nEa, inc., dist. By andrewsmcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddlewhich creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. Forexample: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previousanswers:

word game

InstRuctIOns: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” suchas“bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. additional wordsmade by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. proper nouns,slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

tODAy’s WORD GuAcAMOLE: gwak-uh-MO-lee: Mashed avocado that is spiced and served as adip.

Average mark 33 words

Time limit 50 minutes

Can you find 45 or more words in GUACAMOLE?

yEstERDAy’s WORD —nEItHER

niter either enter entire erne ether inert inhere inter teen tern thee their then there therein thin thine three tier tine tire tree trine heir here herein hint hire hiree rein rent retie rite

loCKhorNs

This world will be abetterplace when we obey the Lord.— G.E. Dean

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles hidato

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letter word from the lettersineach row.add points of each word using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition. For moreinformation on tournamentsand clubs, email naspa –north

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

sCraBBlE playersassociation:info@scrabbleplayers.org. Visitour website: www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzleinquiries contact scrgrams@gmail.com. Hasbro andits logo sCraBBlE associated logo,the design of thedistinctive sCraBBlE

and

ken ken

InstructIons: 1 -Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

WiShinG Well

HErE is aplEasanTliTTlE

Scrabble GramS

Get fuzzy

jump Start

roSe iS roSe

DuStin

Drabble Wallace the brave

INSIDE SOURCES

Splashyadditions to the home landscape. PAGE 4

ONEINAMILLION

Enjoyviewofthe Quarter from penthouse. PAGE 6

GREENTHUMB

Whyyou should use native plants. PAGE 8

GARDEN ADVICE

Brighten up without breaking the bank. PAGE 9

INSIDE INFO

Home and garden happenings. PAGE 11

COVERSTORY

Home design focus is on special needs. PAGE 12

Native plantscan help protectlandscape. PAGE 16

REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS

Recent transactions in the metroarea. PAGE 17

InsideOut’smission is to givereaders peeks inside the many different ways that people in the New Orleans area live. We proﬁle spaces that are opulent, or just offbeat; sophisticated or simple; functional or lighthearted; historic or brand-spanking new.And anything in between. Please help us by sending information and JPEG photos of your home, or speciﬁc spaces inside it, to insideout@theadvocate.com. We love gardensand outdoor spaces, too. And we’re waiting to hear from you.

The InsideOut homeand garden section is published everySaturdayby The Times-Picayune. Questions about InsideOut should be directed to theeditor

INSIDEOUT EDITOR: Lauren Walck, lauren.walck@ theadvocate.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Victor Andrews,Jyl Benson, Dan Gill

COVER DESIGN: Andrea Daniel

COVER PHOTO: Jeff Strout TO BE FEATURED: Send information and photos to insideout@theadvocate.com

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Penthouseofferspanoramic MississippiRiver &FrenchQuarter viewsfroma wraparound balcony.Featuresinclude expansiveprimary suitew/dualwalkinclosets, 3private garage spaces,&white-glove amenities: 24/7 concierge, valet,pool, fitnesscenter, gardens, &private access to Hilton &Riverwalk GlenndaBach504-583-2792

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Primelocationfor this largeduplex: 6Beds, 4Baths w/ ampleparking.Steps to AudubonPark, Tulane/LoyolaUniversities&Street-car. Offers flexibilityto convert to single-familyORlivebelow w/ income potentialupstairs. Features includeupdated kitchens, wood floors,10-foot ceilings, andnew roof. Spaciouslot with backyard.Easyaccess to dining,shopping, &entertainment CharlotteDorion•504-237-8615Chris Dorion •504-451-4274 Berkshire HathawayHSPreferred,REALTORS504-799-1702

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INSIDESOURCES

BY JYL BENSON Contributing writer

Dennis Weese knew nothing about fountains and water features when he started working at the erstwhile American Aquatic Gardens 22 years ago.

His fascination grew as he moved beyond understanding the basic premise of recirculating water in a closed system with a sub-

mersible pump and into the realm of alternate ways to guide water back into the main reservoir.

That’s when it became creative for him and came to embody both a mission and his life’s work.

“Anything goes when creating a one-of-a-kind water feature,” Weese said. “The tranquil sound of moving water truly brings about a drug-free, therapeutic and primal sense of peace.

PROVIDED PHOTOS Fountains

“When our body hears moving water, it knows hydration is close and releases the chemistry that makes us feel more secure and at peace.”

A growing niche

Weese founded Aquatic Landscapes in 2006. In the years since, his nicheindustry business has come to serve most of southeast Louisiana.

The company now makes hundreds of service calls annually and offers new construction, cleaning and leak repair services to an extensive design portfolio and customer referral database

Before the end of the year, Weese and his wife, Jill, will expand their business to include Driftwood Gardens, a moniker they’ve given to their one-third-acre property in Arabi, where they plan to offer workshops at which people will learn to make their own fountains from vessels they bring

“We will offer small classes where participants can create their own oneof-a-kind fountain,” he said “Guests will bring a favorite container or object, and we will provide the pumps, tubing and guidance needed to bring each idea to life.”

Many beautiful fountains can be created from simple items people already have at home, making the process both accessible and creative, Weese said

Weese’s wife lives with a chronic pain condition “that often makes it difﬁcult for her to leave home, so I used

INSIDESOURCES

her daily discomfort,” he said. “The change has been remarkable — she smiles more than she cries — and these features have become an important part of her overall well-being.

“Our hope is to inspire others to create their own peaceful spaces and discover how even small water features can make a meaningful difference in daily life.”

Could peace and tranquility from doomscrolling, overcommunicating and freaking out over ﬁnances be as close as a simple water feature?

Taking the plunge

Ponds and fountains come in many styles and sizes, with prices to match.

“The average price of a water feature varies from zero dollars to tens of thousands,” Weese said. When people inquire about the cost of a water feature, “it really is kind of like asking, ‘What’s the average price of commissioned art?’ It just comes down to your vision.”

tremely large pumps. The only thing that counts is that the pump stays submerged and all the water pumped through the feature stays inside the feature, he said.

The next element to consider is how frequently you will have to add water: The less water a reservoir holds and the “splashier” the fountain, the more frequently you’ll have to add water, he said.

“Also, as a rule of thumb, the larger the feature, the more time it takes to maintain,” Weese said, adding “the more sun and heat a feature is exposed to, the funkier” it becomes.

“People also need to keep in mind that it’s a pond, not a pool,” he said. “You will always have some algae. The goal is to minimize its potential invasiveness.”

Customers’ tolerance for algae varies, he said. But most of his customers have their water features drained and cleaned annually.

my experience to transform our yard into a small oasis we now call Driftwood Gardens,” he said.

“The sound of 14 fountains throughout the space provides a calming backdrop that helps her ﬁnd real relief from

The ﬁrst thing to consider is personal style, he said. Anything goes, from a formal modern structure to a genuine folk art vibe and from a large in-ground pond to a small tabletop fountain.

There are very tiny pumps and ex-

“Either they don’t like how dirty the features can get, or there is so much sludge built up that the pump keeps clogging,” he said.

Jyl Benson writes about homes and gardens. Email her at jylbenson@ gmail.com.

PROVIDED PHOTOS

The great room has great views indeed, with a glass wall and doors

Penthouse packs plenty above the New Orleans skyline

BY VICTOR ANDREWS Staff writer

Festival season focuses on the French Quarter this time of year, with the music, food and fun of the city on full display. And the streets of the Vieux Carre are thriving this weekend with the beat of “bon temps” and bounty during French Quarter Fest.

Perched above the streets and the Mississippi River with a panoramic view of the festival and the waterway, which provides the Crescent City nickname, is the penthouse at One River Place, 15F

A three-bedroom, more-than-fourbath beauty with 5,000 square feet, this condominium also features a plethora of public spaces that include multiple living rooms and studies and walls of windows to enjoy the city’s skyline for $5.9 million.

A “manor in the clouds” deserves a fitting foyer, and 15F has the first look finessed with a patterned marble floor, classic columns and stacked molding

that holds indirect lighting to keep the space bright. Arched passages into the living areas create broad access. To the right of the foyer lies the living room behind pocket doors. The curved wall of windows has a prime view of the Crescent City Connection and the linear space is a somewhat separate sector from the great room through the double opening.

ONEINAMILLION

A true workspace in the center of the condominium, the kitchen has numerous stations for culinary creations, including a large island with prep sink and seating.

More commanding views are hallmarks of this main living area of the home. Blond wood ﬂoors create a light feel, counterbalanced by the multitiered molding and lighting of the tray ceiling. The double glass doors leading to the balcony are set in more windows to make the already expansive room feel even larger

Another arched opening leads into the formal dining room, which also enjoys double glass door access to the balcony. The intricate tray ceiling is anchored by marble ﬂoors. A built-in buffet area provides plentiful storage and a vast amount of serving area that follows the unique shape of the room.

Through the doorway is the large kitchen, centered by a spacious island with a prep sink. Loaded with stainless professional-grade appliances, the kitchen has abundant storage and the island includes space for seating and casual dining. The home’s laundry is

One of two closets in the primary suite has plenty of storage and a dressing table.

also located off the kitchen.

A second entrance returns to the foyer and the hall to the more private areas of the home. Also off the hall are two powder rooms and a secondary entrance to the condo.

A branch off the hall leads to a bedroom or den with an en suite and access to a balcony that connects to the main outdoor space off the great and dining rooms. The bedroom is a generous pie-shaped space with a large walk-in closet.

The second branch off the hall leads to the primary suite, an array of spaces that provides an inner sanctum of relaxation and rejuvenation.

A study that could double as an ofﬁce is the ﬁrst space in the sanctum that opens onto a large den.

The broad bend in the river is the majestic view from the wall of vertical windows that overlook the city from Poydras Street down to the Bywater and Algiers Point on the West Bank. Built-in cabine-

A cozy spot for restful relaxation, the primary sleeping chamber has a coffered ceiling

try offers multiple spaces for books or objet d’art, as well as shelves and sequestered storage behind doors.

The primary bedroom is certain to be slumber-inducing with a coffered ceiling and architectural details on the high walls.

Walk past a pair of walk-in closets with room for dressing, one with a self-contained vanity. Both also lead to baths — one using contrasting tones of marble and a standing shower while the other features a spalike tranquility and soaking tub.

An additional bedroom suite occupies a private space at the end of the hall. A full bath and walk-in closet are ﬁrst on the inner hall that opens to the sleeping chamber. A curved wall of vertical windows provides views from downtown and the sports arenas and out to Lake Pontchartrain. Builtins provide additional storage and display area.

And while the penthouse itself is bristling with amenities and ambiance (and three parking spaces in the garage), the signature building boasts much as well. Round-the-clock concierge and security, valet parking, a resort-style swimming pool,

ﬁtness center and gardens are all part of the property, as well as entertainment areas and access to the neighboring

hotel and shopping district. The penthouse is listed by Glennda Bach, of Compass Uptown, (504) 866-2785.

GARDEN TIPS

TROPICAL TIME: Nowthat the weather is getting warmer it’sagreat time to plant tropical plants in the landscape, liketropical hibiscus, angel’strumpet, bird of paradise, ixora, gingers, caladium, bananas, cannaand split-leaf philodendron, to name afew

SEED OR SOD? Nowisanexcellent time to plant warmseason grassessuch as St.Augustine, centipede,bermudaand zoysia.This maybeneededinmany lawns damaged by thedroughtand/ or the massivechinch bug outbreak last summer.Except for common bermuda, solid sodding is the preferred method of establishing alawnwheneverpossible. Although more expensiveand labor intensiveatthe beginning, solid sodding more than makes up foritinadvantages

REAP FLAVOR: Harvest herbs that do better in the cool season generously now as theywill lose quality as temperatures rise.This includes such herbsasparsley, dill, cilantro, thyme, sage,French tarragon, lavender andchives. Nowisagreattime to plant warmseason herbslikebasil, Mexican tarragon, perilla and sesame.

WATER WITH CARE: As we move into summer,hot, dryweatherwill be more common. Be sure to payattention to watering newly planted beds of bedding plants and vegetables.Also check container plants growing on decks and patios often and water as needed.During extended dryperiods, youmay also need to irrigate established shrubs and lawns.

FERTILIZE PERENNIALS: Established perennials should be fertilizednow if you have not alreadydone so. Useagranular general-purpose fertilizer or organic fertilizer scattered evenly through the bed, following packagedirections.

GREENTHUMB

OK,BLOOMERS

Zero in on theright beddingplantsfor your flower garden as thetemps rise

With theonset of hot weather, cool-season bedding plants begin to languish. Now it’stime to plant warm-season bedding plantsthat will bloom through the coming summer

Warm-season bedding plantsgrow and ﬂower best in the warm to hot months of April to October/ November.Now is the time to plant warmseason bedding plantsintonew or empty beds in your landscape. If your cool-season plantings still look good, there is no hurry to replace them. As theweather gets hotter and they begin to go downhill, youcan replace them then.

Someofthe warm-season bedding plants,such as coleus, impatiens, periwinkles, blue daze, pentas and begonias, are actually tender perennials rather than true annuals. They canbloom for morethan one year here if the winters are mild.

But these plants are generally grown as summer annuals because they do not reliably survive winter freezes.

Theadvantage of planting these tender perennials is that they have more stamina than true annuals. Theyhave excellent longevity in the summer ﬂower garden, often blooming from late spring until theﬁrst freezes arrive. True annuals rarely make it all theway through our exceptionally long summer growing season.

Letthere be light

Choose bedding plants well suited to the light conditions provided by thelocation where they will be

planted. While many need full sun (at leasteight hours of direct sun) to part sun (about six hours of direct sun),there are alsothose that thrive in part shade (about four hours of direct morning sun) or shade(about

twohours of direct morning sun or dappled light).

Prepare your beds carefully before putting in the summer

ä See RAINBOW, page 10

FILE PHOTO By JEFFSTROUT

Warm-seasonbedding plants, including salvia, from top left,multicolored coleus, begonias and twohues of torenia, create acolorful arrangement.

Dan Gill GREEN THUMB

Bird of paradise

GREENTHUMB

Peppers can cross-pollinate but that won’t aff

BY DAN GILL

Contributing writer

Is it possible for different pepper varieties to cross-pollinate? Someone I knew had sweet bell peppers planted near jalapeño peppers and the bell peppers were hot like the jalapeño peppers. — Amanda

That’s a great question. The answer is: Yes, while peppers are generally self-pollinating, different varieties/types of peppers can cross-pollinate if planted near each other But, no, it does not affect the ﬂavor of the peppers.

The type of fruit a pepper produces is determined by the genetics of the mother plant.

A sweet pepper produces sweet fruit, and a hot pepper produces hot fruit regardless of the pollen that pollinates their ﬂowers.

If a hot pepper’s pollen is transferred to the ﬂower of a sweet bell pepper and pollinates the ﬂower leading to a fruit, all the genes of the hot pepper go into the embryos inside the seeds.

The hot genes of the hot pepper that provided the pollen do not inﬂuence the fruit itself.

Crossing between hot and sweet peppers is expressed in the next generation when saved seeds are planted. The bell pepper that is formed from pollination by a hot pepper is sweet.

But if you save the seeds and plant them, you may ﬁnd both sweet and hot peppers among the offspring.

Then, someone could say, “Hey, what gives? I got these seeds from a sweet pepper. Why are some of the offspring making hot peppers?”

The answer would be a hot pepper pollinated the ﬂower that produced that sweet pepper.

So, unless a home gardener wants to save seeds of a particular variety, cross-pollination of peppers in the home garden is of no concern.

time (sunlight breaks them down), and they must regularly be reapplied to maintain control. Check the label for directions on how often to apply the product you are using. Spraying is generally done about every seven days.

persist longer

Insecticides do not keep bees away but can negatively impact them. Make your spray applications in the late afternoon or early evening when bees are generally not active.

If you do want to save seeds and you are growing more than one variety of pepper in your garden, separate them as far apart as possible.

I have a small vegetable garden where I grow tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers. I’ve had a lot of issues in past seasons with pests such as aphids, cutworms, caterpillars and tomato hornworms.

This year, I’m using Sevin spray (not the dust) to control insect pests. If I spray the garden with this and it rains or even after watering, do I need to reapply? How often should I spray? Does the product keep the pollinators (bees) away? — Bob Sevin should effectively control the types of insects you mentioned (as well as many others). To answer your questions. Sprays stick to the plants better than dusts. Once the insecticide is dry it is not so easily washed off. If it rains before the insecticide is dry (and you really should not spray if rain is imminent), you should reapply. But, otherwise, no. When you water, direct the water to the base of the plant and avoid wetting the leaves. Not only does this preserve the insecticide on the plant, but it keeps the foliage dry. Wetting the foliage of vegetables encourages fungal leaf diseases.

After they are applied insecticides lose effectiveness over

Be sure you spray thoroughly under the leaves when you spray Many insects hide under the leaves, so applying insecticide there enhances control. In addition, the insecticide residue under the leaves is sheltered from the rain and protected from sunlight, allowing it to

Dan Gill is a retired consumer horticulture specialist with the LSU AgCenter. He hosts the “Garden Show” on WWL-AM Saturdays at 9 a.m. Email gardening questions to gnogardening@agcenter.lsu. edu.

RAINBOW

Continued from page 8

bedding plants.

A common mistake is to pull out the old bedding plants, halfheartedly turn the soil and then plant the new plants

It takes a lot out of the soil in our ﬂowerbeds to produce vigorous plants and abundant ﬂowers, and we must give back to the soil if we expect each new planting of bedding plants to do their best.

First, remove any weeds or other unwanted plants from the bed. You may physically remove them or use herbicides.

If you choose physical removal, be sure to dig out the weeds thoroughly removing any bulbs, rhizomes or runners.

Next, turn the soil to a depth of at least 8 inches.

Spread a 2- to-4-inch layer of any combination of compost, rotted leaves, aged manure, ﬁnely ground composted pine bark or mushroom compost over the bed.

Then evenly sprinkle a light application of a granular allpurpose fertilizer or organic fertilizer according to package directions. Thoroughly blend the organic matter and fertilizer into the bed, rake the soil to level and you’re ready to plant.

GREENTHUMB

Warm-season bedding plants like these periwinkles are available in local garden centers now.

How many plants to buy?

WARM-SEASON BEDDING PLANTS

For sun to part sun

For shade to part shade

Before you go to the nursery, look at the size of the area to be planted and try to estimate how many plants will need to be purchased.

On average, bedding plants are spaced about 8 inches apart.

Keep a record of how many plants are used in a bed from one season to the next to make this process simpler

Also, think about a color scheme — just like you would for an interior room of your house.

Don’t plant a ﬂower garden with every color you can get your hands on. The results will be just as chaotic in a ﬂower-

Ageratum, amaranthus, angelonia* , balsam, blue daze* , celosia, cleome (particularly Senorita Rosalita), coleus (sun-tolerant types)* , coreopsis, cosmos (yellow gold and orange flowered types), dusty miller* , gaillardia (short-lived perennial), gomphrena, lantana* , marigold, melampodium, narrowleaf zinnia, ornamental pepper * , periwinkle* , pentas* , portulaca, purslane* , rudbeckia (Goldsturm is a long-lived perennial), salvia* , scaevola* , sunflower, SunPatiens* , tithonia, perennial verbena (hardy perennial), zinnia (Profusion and Zahara perform best).

bed as they would in your living room.

Watch your spacing when planting transplants. It’s tempting to plant the young, small plants too close together to make an immediate show, not appreciating how large they will eventually grow.

Ideally, the plants should grow together at maturity completely covering the soil without excessive crowding and competition.

Make sure you plant the transplants into the bed no

Balsam, begonia* , browallia* , caladium (perennial tuber)* , coleus* , impatiens* , pentas* , salvia* , torenia (Kauai series).

* Tender perennials

deeper than they were growing in their original container

Once the bed is planted, mulch and thoroughly water the plants.

I like to use a hose-end fertilizer applicator to apply a soluble fertilizer as I water them in to get them off to a good start.

Newly planted bedding plants do not have well established root systems and should be watered thoroughly every few days if the weather is dry the ﬁrst few weeks after planting.

Ongoing care

Flowerbeds are not low maintenance, and you should keep in mind the care that they will need through the long, hot summer when deciding where, how large and how many beds you will plant.

Mulch will reduce problems with weeds, but regular weeding will still be necessary.

Regular watering, pest control and grooming (removing dead ﬂowers and unattractive leaves) will keep them looking their best.

In containers, hanging baskets and window boxes bedding plants need regular watering and fertilization.

Invite a rainbow into your landscape this summer: plant ﬂowers.

FILE PHOTO

Pentas

Plant sale, seminars set for northshore

The St. Tammany Master Gardener Association will host aspring plant sale April 2425 at the St. TammanyParish Fairgrounds in Covington.

The sale will feature more than 60 plant and garden art booths, food trucks, children’s activities and two days of seminars. Cooking demonstrations and educational exhibits will be included.

Presentations will include:

n Understanding understory plantings

n Louisiana Super Plants 2026

n Preventing plant diseases in home gardens

n Backyard citrus care

n Fertilizers and soil testing

n Gardening with roses

n Container gardening

Entry is $5 at the gateat 1301 N. Florida St. Visit stmastergardener.org.

Longue Vuetoserve up ‘HAPPY Meal’

Learn about the healingpower of plants during LongueVue House and Garden’sHAPPY* Meal Experience (*Healthy And Plant-Powered, Yay!)with trombonist Fred Wesley from 5p.m. to 7p.m. April 28. Enjoy acommunity dinner featuring plant-based dishes and desserts, plus avisit with children’sbook authorNatalie Guess, who will read from “The Biggest, The Oldest and the Strongest ... All Eat Plants” and help kids in ahands-on food prep activity.Children will receive acopy of the book while supplies last.

Tickets start at $50 andkids eat free for the event at 7 Bamboo Road in New Orleans. Visit longuevue.com.

Orleans residents can get free wood chips

The city will be distributing free wood chips to Orleans Parish residents from 8a.m. to noon everySaturday through May 30 at 1Green Parade Lane.

INSIDEINFO

PROVIDED PHOTO

Children’sbook authorNatalie Guesswill readfrom‘The Biggest, The Oldest and the Strongest ... All Eat Plants’ on April28atLongue VueHouse and Gardens.

Parkways,which generates the chipsfrom routine tree-trimming operations, is continuing its efforts to divert green waste from locallandﬁlls and promote sustainable practices. This initiative supportsthe city’sbroadersustainability goals while providing apractical beneﬁt to residents.

n Chips areavailable on a ﬁrst-come, ﬁrst-served basis.

n Residents mustbring their ownloading supplies, including shovels, gloves, bags,containers andany othernecessary equipment.

n Staff will notbeable to assist with loading. For information, follow the department on Instagram or Facebook.

Volunteer projects

abound at City Park

Avariety of cleanup days and initiatives areontap at City Parktoimprove and maintain the extensive urban green space. Those coming up include:

n Urban Forest SupportInitiative: 9a.m. Saturday.Volunteer Center, 1031 Harrison Ave.

n Love The Boot Week: City Park Clean-up: 9a.m. Tuesday.Pan American Stadium, 194 Zachary Taylor Drive. Litterremoval around the park.

n Earth DayofService: 9a.m. Wednesday.GrowDat Youth Farm, 150 ZacharyTaylor Drive.

n Big LakeNative Plant Trail Restoration Project: 9a.m. Friday.Big Lake Native Trail near 7Friedrichs Ave.

n City Park Kayakcleanup: 8a.m. to 11 a.m. Feb. 28. Meet at the gravel launch at the intersectionofDueling Oaks Drive and Dreyfous Drive. Volunteers are sought to joinCityPark’skayak krewe thatwill work withstaff to remove litter from waterways withthe use of personal kayaks.

Have ahome and garden event coming up? Send it to events@theadvocate.com.

The Department of Parks and

WAvery’s ORLD

Hammond home and garden create a haven with art, color and space

A bridge, above, leads over the koi pond from the driveway and into the Alvis family’s home. The pond is a source of delight for Avery Alvis, right, who was born with a chromosomal defect and is largely homebound.

BY JYL BENSON Contributing writer

Though nonverbal, Avery Alvis easily communicates her desires with a beckoning gesture, followed by a sweeping one.

She compels others to follow as she leads them on a tour of her family’s home and 2-acre plot in Hammond, which her parents developed with her interests at heart.

“When she was younger, we worked with geneticists to try to have her diagnosed,” Janelle Alvis said of her 25-year-old daughter.

“We wanted some idea what to expect so we could meet her needs, but her genetics came back normal, which indicates there is some very tiny irregularity with one of her chromosomes.

“So, her syndrome has no name. She is just Avery, and this is her world.”

ä See AVERY’S, page 14

LEFT: The Avis family lives on a 2-acre plot in Hammond.

BELOW: The Alvises created a large, screened, comfortably furnished space for entertaining Dubbed ‘The Catio’ for its primary occupants, it affords a view of a large, organically shaped swimming pool with a deep slate-blue interior.

LEFT: The Alvis family’s kitchen is the central hub of the Hammond area home.

CENTER: The Alvis family’s great room is awash with natural light and features a ceiling that rises to the roofline.

PHOTOS By JEFF STROUT

Louisiana garden inﬂuencer is a leading grower of tropical ﬂowers

Todd Alvis became “obsessed” with the genetics of hibiscuses in 2012 while recovering from rotator cuff surgery after his mother encouraged him to attend a plant show and sale at LSU.

As past president of both the American Hibiscus Society and the Red Stick Chapter of the organization, Alvis estimates he has developed over 2,000 cultivars in the years since by cross-pollinating established varietals to create new ones, many of which he has registered with the International Hibiscus Society.

He has almost 20,000 followers on Instagram (tj_tropicals) and 4,000 followers on Facebook (Todd Alvis). He offers advice on propagation and plant care on both platforms.

He picked up 17,000 new followers and garnered 500,000 views earlier this month after posting a video on Instagram from a New Orleans chapter show and sale.

By the numbers

Alvis keeps track of all his cultivars by number through a program his wife, Janelle Alvis, created for him.

He estimates that he goes through 30 pounds a year of Space City Hibiscus fertilizer, which is stored in plastic garbage cans connected to a system of hoses and delivered to his many plants and seedlings via a drip system within a series of greenhouses on his land in Hammond.

He does all of this for “fun” and refuses to accept money for the award-winning seedlings, which he gives away every spring at a luncheon he and his wife host for friends and fellow hibiscus enthusiasts at their home in Hammond.

Todd Alvis gives people packets of seeds collected from the pods of new cultivars. He also invites others to name his new blooms, which remain tagged with numbers

until they earn a moniker from him or someone else.

“I don’t have a relationship with them until they have a name,” he said.

‘I just want to share’

“I just don’t want it to be about money,” said the entrepreneur/owner of Lube-Tech, a ﬁrm that serves operators of industrial machinery throughout the Southeast. “I just want to share this with others.”

The Red Stick Chapter of the

AVERY’S

Continued from page 12

Focused on caring

Janelle Alvis, a native of Marrero, left her career as a math teacher to focus on caring for her daughter, who was born in need of numerous surgeries and specialized therapies.

It was February 2005 when Janelle and Todd Alvis bought the 4,000-square-foot home where they raised their three children.

Built in 1999, the two-story home features an asymmetrical design with European elements, including a multigabled rooﬂine with varying heights and widths and Palladian-style windows.

Hibiscus cultivars, left, are a passion of Todd Alvis, above. As past president of the American Hibiscus Society and the Red Stick Chapter of the organization, Alvis estimates he has developed over 2,000 cultivars.

PHOTOS By JEFF STROUT

American Hibiscus Society will host its annual show and sale from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. May 3 at the LSU Agricultural Center’s Parker Coliseum (South Entrance), 143 E. Parker Blvd, in Baton Rouge.

The show is free and open to the public.

Hibiscus blooms can be entered by anyone for judging from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Experts in hibiscus care and propagation will be on hand to answer questions.

Dupont Nursery in Plaquemine will supply more than 1,600 of its famous, robust and colorful Cajun Hibiscus plants for sale in 1-gallon pots, 10-inch pots and hanging baskets.

Hibiscus fertilizer will also be for sale, as will plastic 10inch terra cotta-colored pots ideal for transplanting new 1-gallon specimens.

— Jyl Benson

of industrial machinery throughout the Southeast.

“We call this place ‘Barbie’s Dungeon,’” said Todd Alvis.

Adjacent to the driveway at the side of the home is a sinuous koi pond swirling with large ﬁsh. The pond is ﬁnished with irregular slabs of slate and shaded by a frilly Japanese Dissectum Atropurpureum maple tree with a tiered structure and gracefully weeping branches.

“Avery’s job is to feed the ﬁsh,” said Janelle Alvis. “She takes this very seriously She will never let us forget.”

The aquatic specimens seem to thrive in her care.

An especially large arched central window and the three vertical arched windows on the right wing of the home are a signature of European and postmodern residential design.

The façade combines both brick and stucco elements.

A deeply gabled roof accommodates interior ceilings that soar from the ﬁrst ﬂoor to the roof in several places.

‘Barbie’s Dungeon’

“We bought the house and incorporated things to keep Avery entertained,” said Todd Alvis, a native of Lutcher and owner of Lube-Tech, a ﬁrm that serves operators

A small bridge over the pond leads inside, where Todd Alvis, an internationally celebrated hybridizer of tropical hibiscuses, is prone to lay out ﬂawless displays of hundreds of blooms from the 1,000-plus hibiscus plants growing in his large greenhouse.

On a recent day, displays covered the kitchen island and counters as well as the dining room table in the next room.

Avery Alvis is clearly delighted by the kaleidoscopic blooms, some of them the size of dinner plates. She frequently accompanies her parents to the many shows they visit throughout the region, where Todd Alvis displays his many blooms

Avery Alvis retreats to the office she shares with her father to listen to the Kidz Bop music she favors. Todd uses the space to display the medieval and medieval-inspired antiques and weaponry he collects, as well as some of his many awards for the showstopping hibiscus varieties he has created.

PHOTOS By By JEFF STROUT

Todd Alvis works in his greenhouse.

and hybridized seedlings in competitions.

Beyond the dining room is Avery Alvis’ ofﬁce. She does not watch television; music is her passion, and her ofﬁce is her domain.

“She loves Kidz Bop,” said Janelle Alvis. “Anything with kids singing. She has a huge collection. She has an iPhone and an iPad, both with communication programs, so she can tell us what she wants to listen to.”

Minnie Mouse and more

The home’s second ﬂoor is occupied largely by spaces reﬂective of Avery Alvis’ interests. Her bedroom is decorated in a palette of pinks and blues, where she displays her vast, treasured collection of stuffed Minnie Mouse dolls, which she arranges on her bed just so.

The ceiling in her room is painted to look like a cerulean sky with puffs of white clouds. The walls are hung with framed artworks featuring colorful ﬂowers, butterﬂies and princesses.

An adjacent room is de-

A Japanese-style garden surrounds the koi pond, which is shaded by a frilly Japanese Dissectum Atropurpureum maple tree with gracefully weeping branches.

signed for time with her siblings — Kendall Alvis, 29, an artist, and Ian Alvis, 21, an engineering major at Louisiana Tech — when they are home.

The rooms are ﬁnished with a pair of comfortable sofas scattered with colorful pillows.

The room is dominated by a mural painted by Kendall Alvis based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s

“The Lord of the Rings.” It features the silhouettes of the nine members of the “Fellowship of the Ring” as they journey through Middle-earth, set against a vibrant sunset background.

The “Lord of the Rings” movies are an “obsession” shared by Janelle Alvis and her daughters.

“We watch the extended

ABOVE: Work by the

LEFT: The organically shaped swimming pool with a deep slateblue interior speaks to Avery Alvis’ fascination with water.

The greenhouse is where Todd Alvis, an internationally celebrated hybridizer of tropical hibiscuses, goes to work on blooms.

versions every year at Christmas,” Janelle Alvis said.

Downstairs, the Alvises created a large, screened, comfortably furnished space for entertaining.

Dubbed “The Catio” for its primary occupants, it affords a view of a large, organically shaped swimming pool with a deep slate-blue interior, which speaks to Avery Alvis’ fascination with water.

She likes to feel the water

on her skin. She likes to drop her toy mermaids into the pool and watch them swirl about.

“Inside, we really can’t leave her alone because she loves water,” said Todd Alvis. “She will turn on a faucet and ﬂood the house without a care in the world.”

Jyl Benson writes about homes and gardens. Email her at jylbenson@gmail.com.

Alvises’ elder daughter Kendall, an artist, fills a wall.

INSIDESTORY

Native plants offer stormwater solutions

Plus they are attractive and tough in your landscape

By LSU AgCenter

At the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden in Baton Rouge, senior landscape manager Jason Stagg and his colleagues have been busy lately with an expansive, exciting project: planning, and planting, the landscape for the soon-to-be-opened welcome center

The facility will serve as a central information hub for visitors to the entire Burden Museum & Gardens complex, which also includes LSU’s Rural Life Museum and Windrush Gardens. It will be available for event rentals, too.

All of that is to say the landscape surrounding this building will have plenty of eyes on it, creating a ﬁrst impression for guests — so, of course, it needs to look attractive and inviting. But Stagg and the Burden team are taking it a step further, using the project as an opportunity to spotlight interesting, functional plants.

“This landscape is a teaching landscape,” Stagg said. “We’re using 100% native plant material for the entire landscape. Because a lot of this site is actually in a bottomland hardwood area, we’ve chosen wetland plants and used them in rain garden and bioswale installations to manage water.”

Many plants that are native to Louisiana thrive in soggy conditions, making them outstanding choices for low-lying settings like the one where the new welcome center sits. They excel at soaking up rainwater and reducing runoff and ﬂooding.

As a bonus, native plants are

tough, handling Louisiana’s challenging climate with ease. And they have striking aes-

thetics.

“When you take these out of nature, you get some really cool architectural features that you see when you mass them in front of a modern building,” Stagg said.

One of the core components of the welcome center landscape is dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor).

You’ve likely seen this plant — which resembles a short, fanlike palm — growing as an understory in wetland and bottomland areas along roadsides. Because it’s evergreen, dwarf palmetto stands out in the winter when deciduous trees are bare.

“This plant is super, super tough,” Stagg said. “The stalk, or trunk, actually grows underground, meaning that this plant never gets tall, but you still get the wonderful palm

Dwarf palmetto is an evergreen plant with a deep root system and unique, fanlike aesthetics.

fronds. It also can tolerate a lot of wetness.”

Dwarf palmetto’s deep root system also makes it a champ at ﬁghting soil erosion.

The landscape also features two kinds of rush, a grasslike plant that’s sometimes referred to as juncus. Stagg likes the vibrant green of common rush (Juncus effusus) intermingled with the blue tinge of Blue Dart rush (Juncus tenuis).

Both species have ﬁne stems reminiscent of grass blades and are evergreen during typical Louisiana winters. Their spikey appearance lends a unique look to the landscape.

“Another great quality about these juncus or rush plants is that they’re clump forming, so they’re not going to spread wildly or become messy or grow out of bounds,” Stagg said. “They’ll always maintain a neat shape, just like ornamental grasses we use in the landscape.”

These plants are being combined with native trees and shrubs — including pond cypress, Southern magnolia, black gum, yaupon holly, dwarf wax myrtle, American beautyberry and buttonbush.

“All of these wonderful native plants are going to come together in a landscape that will show people how to use plant material to help absorb and survive some of these big rainfall inundation events,” Stagg said.

PROVIDED PHOTOS By LSU AGCENTER

The teaching landscape at the Burden Museum & Gardens welcome center in Baton Rouge is made up entirely of native plants. It’s designed to manage stormwater on the property while showing off beautiful, functional native plants.

As its name suggests, Blue Dart rush has a blue tinge.

NEW ORLEANS

n TRANSFERS FOR APRIL 1-5

DISTRICT 1

ALEXANDER ST. 132-34: $257,500, Succession of Anita Wimmer McKlinski and Monica McKlinski to Skip Ronald Rea Bolen

EUPHROSINE ST. 4401: $2,000,000, Gregory R. Abide, Keith Abide, Michael Abide, Richard E. Abide, Cynthia A. Pacaccio, Lisa S. Polizzi, Kelle A. Reichert, succession of Anthony J. Salvaggio, Mary A. Richardson, John A. Salvaggio and succession of Marian J. Salvaggio to 4401 Euphrosine LLC.

MAGAZINE ST. 1370-72: $843,000, Katell Gwenola Orjubin to April Sandifer and Matthew Sandifer.

MAGAZINE ST. 1432: $740,000, Malanie A. Leavitt to Christine Tuong Quyen Cao Ly and Kowloon Ly.

POEYFARRE ST. 920, UNIT 387:

$330,000, Gregory B. Hutcherson to David Matthew Fournier and Emily Haycock Fournier.

S. CARROLLTON AVE. 4630: $360,000, Hadoco Investments LLC to Wengate Real Estate Properties LLC.

S. CLARK ST. 332-334: $225,600, Home Bank NA to Michael Ryan Rosas.

S. SALCEDO ST. 739: $8,355, City of New Orleans to Alexander Joseph Dupuy Jr. and Nancy Fontana Dupuy

THALIA 1113-15-17: $1,360,000, Shannon Garcia Manimtim Levine and Steven M. Levine to Easter Seals Louisiana Inc.

DISTRICT 2

BARRACKS ST. 1005, UNIT 6: $385,000, Michael Glen Ramke to Green Sprout Investments LLC.

BIENVILLE ST. 4727-4729: $528,000, Susan Elizabeth Westphal and William Dean Westphal to Pamela E. Rabe.

CANAL BLVD. 6423: $490,000, Michael Joseph Kingsbery to Gretchen Michelle Jeffreys Stewart and Timothy Scott Stewart

DUMAINE ST. 2229: $600,000, Sea Series LLC Series Elyton to Leesha Ingram.

DUMAINE ST. 929, UNIT 9: $169,000, Rebecca Lynn Melson to David B. Brown.

GENERAL HAIG ST. 6960, UNIT A: $407,500, Donald Paul Dorenkamp II and Lauren Bernard Dorenkamp to Blake Hebert and Claudia Hebert.

REALESTATETRANSFERS

HARDING DRIVE 933: $765,000, Arlene M. Nesser to Jeremy Minh Hieu Le.

LOUIS XIV ST. 6409: donation, no value stated, Wendy Jeandron Enright to Richard Enright Jr.

LOUISVILLE ST. 6939: $350,000, K2C Investments LLC to Joseph Paul Wiche and Melanie Ott Wiche.

NASHVILLE AVE. 1617-19:

$1,200,000, Camille Bourgeois to Audobon Properties LLC.

N. RAMPART ST. 1206, UNIT 1206B: $210,000, Geoffrey Alan Maus to Curtis Loyal Freeman and Lynn M. Freeman.

N. RENDON ST. 800, UNIT 204:

$448,500, Rendon Partners LLC to Alison Gootee McGuiness.

OLGA ST. 840-842: $825,000, Aaron Murphy Gailmor and Cassie Preston Gailmor to Jack Adam Yanovski and Susan Zelitch Yanovski.

ORLEANS AVE. 2829-31: $162,500, Sandie McCarthy Brown to Keith Elliot Pfefferle.

ORLEANS AVE. 6958: $578,000, Katherine Dicarlo Banquer and Ryan M. Banquer to Louis G. Muldrow Jr.

ROOSEVELT PLACE 827, 829, 29 1/2: $430,000, Brandi Becnel Johnson and Melody Renee Becnel to Justin Tyler Serrett and Tate Johnson Serrett.

SHERWOOD FOREST DRIVE 114116: $1,510,000, Lilah McQuilkin Ancira to Colleen A. MacKay Clements and Nathan L. Clements.

SNIPE ST. 5: $712,500, Blantons Properties LLC to Jeffrey Katz and Lauren Katz.

ST. ANN ST. 2512: $110,000, Raynet Marie Ridgeway to Keith Elliot Pfefferle.

ST. PETER ST. 811: $380,000, Sanjay S. Maharaj to Lee Morris Davenport.

URSULINES ST. 514: $860,000, Joseph H. Kavanaugh to Elizabeth Anne Colistra.

WOODLAWN PLACE 5607: $545,000, Carl Allen Woods III and Leah Mary Seddelmeyer Woods to Brynn Andrew Wimberley and Taylor Elise Beadle Wimberley

DISTRICT 3

ANDRY ST. 1708: $218,000, Jorge Gomez Remodeling LLC to Giancarlo S. Chavez and Sonia Yolanda Torres Chavez.

ANNETTE ST. 2134: $210,000, Carl Andrew Falstrom and Charlotte Andrews to Nyjah Miller Richard.

AVOYELLES PLACE 12: $140,000, Lien Kim Nguyen and Nam V Nguyen to Frances Knight Lala.

BERG ROAD 7531: $163,650, Keonia Hargrove to Tulio Castro.

CAMERON BLVD. 6242: $54,000,

Erick Alexander Ventura to E&O Cordova 1 LLC.

CAMERON BLVD. 6029: $335,000, Christopher Lee Branch and Katie E. Debruhl Branch to Charlotte K. Corn and Mark J. Corn.

CHAGNARD DRIVE 4530: $125,000, Christy Kay Cartaginese to Stephen Michael Madary

CHARLTON DRIVE 1617: $295,000, David P. Muth and Wendy Boldizar Muth to Kimberly Edwards and Lamar Scott Edwards.

CHEF MENTEUR HIGHWAY 11033: $45,000, LA Property Team LLC to Brandon F. Silva.

CHEF MENTEUR HIGHWAY 26420: $45,000, Mickey Bernard Maitre Sr. to Burch Island LLC.

CROWDER BLVD. 5630: $585,000, 5630 Crowder LLC to Joshua Land LLC. ä See ORLEANS, page 18

REALESTATETRANSFERS

ORLEANS

Continued from page 17

D’ABADIE ST. 2520-22: $278,600, OTB Trust to Ashley M. Mullins.

DAUPHINE ST. 1416: $398,000, Janet Elaine Johnson Parry to Anne Pillow Olsen.

DESAIX BLVD. 3253: $200,000, Brad Michael Nolan, Thomas E. Allard and Yoshika Alexander to Knpire LLC.

DREUX AVE. 10101: $205,000, Anthony Gutierrez to Korina Harrison.

FRANCE ST. 826: $825,000, Megan E. Fisher Doxtater and Oliver Michael Doxtater to Valerie Beatrice Whiting.

FRIAR TUCK 4901: $215,000, Ricky Tien Tran LLC to Santos Marlene Coreas and Waldis Maurieio Rivas Coreas.

GOOD DRIVE 5040: $193,500, Willie B. Martin to Nora R. Pleitez Ochoa and Rigoberto Bonilla Ochoa.

JAPONICA ST. 1444: $400,000, 1444 Japonica Investments LLC to Japonica Street Six LLC.

KILLDEER ST. 1712: $810,000, Rochelle Jakubek Ramczyk and Ryan Ramczyk to Craig Trentecosta Oliveros and Josephine Trentecosta.

LAFAYE ST. 4430: $375,000, Lisa Sydor Dire Harris and Richard Jeffrey Harris to Laura Lee Mancuso.

LIZARDI ST. 640: $225,000, Amy Beth Novelli and Robin L. Novelli to Lauren Ashley Sasson.

MAUREPAS ST. 3043: $220,000, Christopher Michael Atkinson to Michael Brent Hicks and Willa Rebecca Leblanc Hicks.

MENDEZ ST. 4318: $60,000, Bryan Hithe, Carlyle C. Hithe Jr., Gary Hithe, Hybebah Ahmed Hithe and Judith Anne Hithe Faciane to Homes By Levi LLC.

MYRTLE ST. 2678-2680: $325,000, CV3 Alpha Re LLC to JPW Investments LLC.

NIGHTHART ST. 4819: $16,500, Mega Real Estates to Good Money Global LLC.

PECAN ST. 4939: $4,500, Julie M. Lattanzi to Dyamond Terrynae McDaniels.

PORT ST. 1037-1039: $395,000, Lauren Collignon Haskins to Kimberly N. Chehardy Roberts.

RON EAGLE WAY 4215-17:

$100,000, Merryn G. Guidry Miller to Southshore Family Homes LLC.

ST. CLAUDE AVE. 4104-06:

$335,000, C & P Properties Inc. to Emma C. Ledgerwood.

ST. ROCH AVE. 4976: $368,500, Glenn L. Morgan and Tia F. Morgan to Andrea J. Wardlaw.

SUN ST. 7808: $77,300, Emma Stephens Sims to J Square Properties LLC.

WILL STUTLEY DRIVE 11411:

$19,000, Big Cap Investments LLC to Palesa LLC.

DISTRICT 4

EIGHTH ST. 917: $655,000, Luz De Dios Rubio and Oscar B. Rubio Jr. to Joshua Richard Tomblin.

BARONNE ST. 2410: $175,000, Baronne LLC to Douglas Stern.

CHIPPEWA ST. 3221-23: donation, no value stated, Vicki A. Mayer Aranovich to Torbjorn Einar Tornqvist.

LAUREL ST. 2511: $380,000, Beaux Geaux LLC, Gail Trumps Wells and Louis R. Wells to Anne Louise Sun Juttner.

PHILIP ST. 2014: $310,000, Alex Culbreath to Jonathan Mark Schaeffer and Shannon Leigh Schaeffer.

PLEASANT ST. 715-17: donation, no value stated, Torbjorn Einar Tornqvist to Vicki A. Mayer.

PLEASANT ST. 922-924: $365,000, Gail M. Langos to Jessica McDonald Top Debord and Nathan R. Debord.

SEVENTH ST. 1306: $400,000, Pythia LLC to Marta Irene Pineda II Trust.

ST. CHARLES AVE. 3000, UNIT 211: $480,000, Queen Bs Hive LLC to Gallagher Family Irrevocable Protective Trust.

DISTRICT 5

ATLANTIC AVE. 313-15: $500,000, Michael & Rebecca Devault Family Trust to Shawn Michael Nehiley and Shawna Joelle Nehiley.

CUPID ST. 2670: $315,000, Arthur Allen Jr. to Justin Alphonse Henderson.

DEARMAS ST. 320: $136,350, CWABS Inc. Asset Backed Certiﬁcates Series 2004-BC4 to Kari Francis.

ELIZARDI BLVD. 1518: $56,000, Cheryl Ann Lavalais Scholz, Cynthia Windsor, Debra Lavalais Anderson, Kenneth Lavalais, Michael Anthony Lavalais and succession of Rodney Lavalais Sr. to Coretha Banks Harvey

JOYCELYN DRIVE 4472: $90,000, RMV LLC to C&AN Investments LLC.

LANG ST. 608: $235,000, Mejia and Sons Construction LLC to Valerie Jean Hesse.

PACE BLVD. 1761: $166,300, Morgan Kolby Lagrue Smith to Stephen Sousa.

DISTRICT 6

COLISEUM ST. 3440: $1,090,000, Stephanie Gaylord Colden to Sabrina Brooke Stone.

COLISEUM ST. 5914: donation, no value stated, Peter Charles November II and Stephanie Lynn Stephens November to Eleven Four Trust.

CONSTANCE ST. 3971, CONSTANTINOPLE ST. 803: $685,000, Daniel and Polly Henderson Family Trust to Tall Term Rentals 7D LLC.

DELACHAISE ST. 826: $760,400, NAW LLC to Sarah Katelyn Harrell.

ELBA ST. 4310: $340,000, Bruce Yu Sun Lin to Nancy Lynn Lalka.

GENERAL PERSHING ST. 1929: $100 and other good and valuable consideration, Michael Martinovich and Susan Linton Martinovich to Allison Katherine Mahler Wohlstadter and Justin P. Wohlstadter.

GENERAL PERSHING ST. 2506:

$640,000, Charles Clark Jr. and Christine Dixon Clark to Jonathan Chance Ortego and Nicholas Martin.

JENA ST. 4325-27: $307,500, Estella Garza Hunt to Wesley David Parker Edwards.

JOSEPH ST. 1514: $360,000, Patricia Landry Veazey to William B. Carwell revocable trust.

MAGAZINE ST. 5224: $585,000, Tchoupitoulas Holdings LLC to Jeffrey T. Smith and Terry A. Zundel.

MAGAZINE ST. 7001: $1,940,000, Gulfcoast Allied LLC to Christopher Weldon and Karin E. Netland Weldon.

NASHVILLE AVE. 1617-19: $1,200,000, Camille Bourgeois to Audobon Properties LLC.

Beautifuland impeccably maintained privateoasis on English Turn’s covetedstreet, Island Club.Graciously spread throughout threelevelsall connectedwithhome elevator,this7,700 square foot home hasitall.Oversized living room with gas fireplaceopens to awelcoming kitchen, breakfastroomand backyard pool andspa.The firstfloor is home to one

PITT ST. 4510-12: $416,000, Camilla Kehoe Lewis and John H. Lewis to Ann Maureen Stotts.

ROBERT ST. 1900: $964,275, Anne Douglas Bisbano and Larney John Bisbano to James Diven and Yvette Diven.

ROBERT ST. 2604: $410,000, What The Hell LLC to Adam Gregory Lourie and Katharine Bolen Lourie.

TCHOUPITOULAS ST. 5814-16: $325,000, Amelie St. Romain Zamora, Christopher Adam St. Romain, Donna Schwartz St. Romain and Jeanne St. Romain Arceneaux to Rae Major.

UPPERLINE ST. 2722: $895,000, Glenn G. Gapultos and Sandra S. Chan Gapultos to Charlie Luu and Stephen Armstrong.

VALENCE ST. 529-31: $700,000, Jo Ann Tukey Daly to Joseph Garza and Keeli Garza.

VERSAILLES BLVD. 25, YORK ST. 6330: $100,000, John Paul Gonzalez and Patricia Elise Weeks Gonzalez to John W. Joyce and Lacey Langlois Discon. DISTRICT 7

APRICOT ST. 8220: $537,500, William Scott Andrews to Claire Franklin Cronin and Patrick Cronin.

APRICOT ST. 9009: $6,425, City of New Orleans to PawsForACause LLC.

AVE. B 6523, PORTLAND ST. 152: $495,000, Emily Schiffman Cook and Thomas David Cook to Tyler Parnell.

DERBES ST. 7024: $625,000, Andre A. Hotard and Lunden C. Hotard to Lilah McQuilkin Ancira.

DRIFTER LANE 9: $325,000, Lauren Loeffelholz to Amy Marie Orgeron.

FERN ST. 1338: $650,000, Max Milton Cusimano and Samantha Daniel Fritz Cusimano to Carrie L. Wyland Paculba and Nathan Alan Paculba.

JEANNETTE ST. 8534: $538,000, Frederick P. Lemann to Gina Hughes Smith and Todd A. Smith.

JOLIET ST. 3334-3336: $229,000, Basin St. Properties LLC to 333436 Joliet St.

MONROE ST. 1522: $325,000, Jessica Rich Drews and Kevin Charles Drews to Colin Douglass Huddell and Skylar Alyssa Christine Dillon Huddell.

OLEANDER ST. 9102: $58,066, RCF2 Acquisition Trust to Elvis Lee Joseph Jr.

SHORT ST. 1718: $419,000, Camille Bryant to Frederick William May III Trust.

EAST JEFFERSON

n TRANSFERS FOR APRIL 2-10 HARAHAN

DOESCHER DRIVE 8: Robert M. Israel to Blake L. Chatagnier, $525,000.

DONELON DRIVE 119: William P. Farrington to Quiggle Deanne Trust, $328,000.

EAST AVE. 246: G Laborde to Sophia M.R. Varela, $249,000.

RAVAN AVE. 167: Genelle B. Gueno to Donald J. Lagarde, donation, no value stated.

JEFFERSON

DECKBAR AVE. 416: Kelly A.H Grace to Donna Piediscalzo, $220,000.

GELPI AVE. 526: Caroline E. Kral to C Maheu, $307,500.

GELPI AVE. 621: Thor W. Rohr to Joseph A. III Rohr, donation, no value stated.

HIGHWAY RIVER RIDGE 11510: Todd E. Mcdowell to Hollander Realty LLC, $29,900.

KENNER

ACRON ST. 2706-08: Nolvia A. Sarios to Carla D. Cabrera, $310,000.

ARIZONA AVE. 3620: Kristian S. Coates to Thomas Rice Jr., $189,900.

CALIFORNIA AVE. 4237: Kamal Zeitoun to Trent Evans, $339,900.

CHATEAU DU LAC 87: Patrick J. Eagan to Ashley B. Fischer, $475,000.

COCONUT BEACH COURT 400: Gabriel Shores LLC to Four Hundred Coconut Beach Exchange LLC, $2,500,000.

GERRY DRIVE 711: Ivan Suazo to Felicia H. Villafranca, donation, no value stated.

HUNTSVILLE ST. 3128: Gordon S. Massicot Sr. to Assia K. Baig, $127,000.

INCARNATE WORD DRIVE 439: Monica I Rickey to Fely R. Mateo, donation, $249,000.

PLATT DRIVE 4101: Mary A.K. Kimball to Ls Realty LLC, $290,000.

RONSON DRIVE 644: Mary E.H. Feeney to Aguilera Properties LLC J. A., $110,000.

SUGAR MILL ROAD 3340: Rachel Cusimano to Khitam Suleiman, $260,000.

VETERANS MEMORIAL BLVD. 29: Grass Group LLC to Resiak Investments LLC, $700,000.

REALESTATETRANSFERS

METAIRIE

42ND ST. 3531: CJ Entity LLC to Anida I S. Bazzi, $295,000.

ARLINGTON DRIVE 111: Dardel Properties LLC to B Elliss, $2,200,000.

ATHANIA PARKWAY 513: Truc

T.M. Nguyen to R. Ray Orrill III, $385,000.

ATHANIA PARKWAY 524: Rachel G. Douglass to Claire A.B. Dinwiddie, $307,500.

AVRON BLVD. 4904: Terri Zahn to Maria D.H. Euceda, $175,000.

BELLE DRIVE 4504, UNIT C: Patricia M. Cave to Melissa B. Pellerin, $145,000.

BEVERLY GARDEN DRIVE 43: Taylor M. Norton to K Norton, donation, no value stated.

BROCKENBRAUGH COURT 504: Five Hundred Four Management Company LLC to Charlotte Tebbe, $525,000.

BURNELL COURT 2101-2103: Lucille S. Giordano to Arcadian Investments LLC, donation, no value stated.

CARNATION AVE. 237: Two Hundred Thirty Seven Carnation LLC to Cameron Machen, $263,000.

CARROLLTON ST. 242-244: David R. Bennett to Abbey E. Bennett, donation, no value stated.

CHEROKEE AVE. 1330: Eugenie S. Pelas to Kristin O. Landry, $300,000.

CODIFER BLVD. 617: Erin Sullivan to Avd LLC, $487,800.

COURTLAND DRIVE 3801: Jennifer M. Schmidt to Madison M. Kadinger, $335,000.

DEARBORN AVE. 8901: Jng Construction LLC to Raygan Hardee, $440,000.

DERBIGNY ST. 3821: Brian Bowes

to Melissa T. Bua, $320,000.

DIVISION ST. 2116: Jacob M. Jenevein to Kyle L. Desplas, $370,000.

EIGHTH ST. 3016: Alan J. Marasco to Stephen C. Schrempp, $148,723.

EISENHOWER AVE. 1616: Rose Z. Bocchieri to Oscar A. Cardoza, $210,000.

FOREST AVE. 14: Kirk D. Bienvenu Jr. to Ryan Gill, $605,000.

GLENDALE ST. 6409: Home Equity Mortgage Loan Asset Backed Certiﬁcates Series Iabs 2006e to Omkar Solutions LLC, $114,500.

GREEN ACRES ROAD 3820: Dana A.W. Vaughn to Luke Lowry, $215,000.

GRUNER ROAD 157: Jan R. Harper to Jennifer J. Medo, $212,000.

HAMMOND HIGHWAY U310 420: Cynthia Hogan to Grant Bostick, $365,000.

HARING ROAD 2520: AJ Homes LLC to Melissa A. Davis, $625,900.

HOUMA BLVD. 2812: TJC Rental Properties LLC to Faizan I Malik, $500,000.

HOUMA BLVD. U308 2500: Cesar A. Ceballos to Thelma M. Ceballos, donation, no value stated.

ITHACA ST. 5028: Diana L.W. Parker to Flash Housing LLC, $195,500.

KAWANEE AVE. 4712: Lillian C. Couvillon to Frank W. II Webb, $310,000.

KENT AVE. 508: Eugene M. Riggleman Jr. to Fabl LLC, $380,000.

LAKE VILLA DRIVE 2920: Caspian Properties LLC to Gustavo F. Banegas, $255,000.

LILAC ST. 104, UNIT A: Mary L.S. Mcglinn to Ade Marais, $90,000.

MASON SMITH AVE. 1713: Joan S. Rednour to Edward A. Rednour, donation, no value stated.

METAIRIE HAMMOND HIGHWAY

U231 420: Thomas B. Calvert to Luke B. Schwoyer, $243,000.

MISTLETOE ST. 7222: Jefferson Parish Council to Peggy B. Small, $6,750.

N. ARNOULT ROAD 3521, UNIT B: Jeplr LLC to T&R Real Estate Holdings LLC, $415,000.

N. LABARRE ROAD 3404: Carolyn V Klepfer to Three Thousand Four Hundred Four N. Labarre LLC, $300,000.

N. STARRETT ROAD 1101: Renee H. Touchard to Kevin Gamez, $235,000.

N. WOODLAWN AVE. 813: Catherine B. Fuselier to Eugenie S Pelas, $372,000.

OLNEY ST. 3735: Manthana Boonjindasup to Muhua S. Qiu, $308,000.

RICHLAND AVE. 4609: Gloria Y.G Roque to Brian Lovett, $445,000.

RIDGEWAY DRIVE 545-47: Five Hundred Forty Five Ridgeway LLC to Donna M. T. Siebenman, $300,000.

RIVIERE AVE. 2113: Quinlivan Homes LLC to Amanda Patek, $319,000.

SENA DRIVE 324: Janet S.G Austin to Morgan III Gautreaux, $399,000.

SHAW ST. 4501: Michelle N. Mazerat to AJ Homes LLC, $130,000.

SOUTHSHORE DRIVE 4732: Katherine A.F. Lanphere to John J. IV Fenerty, $170,970.

TARTAN DRIVE 3413: Cornelia O. Damico to Mi Group LLC, $163,335.

ORPHEUM AVE. 1622: Chiﬁci Barbara A. Testamentary Trust to Fidelis Orpheum House LLC, $305,000.

ä See EAST, page 20

REALESTATETRANSFERS

WEST JEFFERSON

n TRANSFERS FORAPRIL 2-10 AVONDALE

GOODWOOD COURT 3604: DSLD LLCtoCarter Becnel,$295,483.

N. BETTY LANE 168: Ashlee J.H. Vazquez to TabithaE Ramsey, $158,000.

RETREATDRIVE 3824: DSLD LLCto TyshekaDouglas, $289,935.

ROSALIE DRIVE181: Joann G. Porter to Todd Washington, $105,000.

RUTH DRIVE 240: Jefferson Parish Council to Corey Borne, $6,750.

BARATARIA

JOHN ST.4961: Katherine L.C Mcclelland to Scott A. Snow, $245,000.

GRANDISLE

GRAND ISLE PARKWAY125: Julie L. Duet to Howard Hartley Jr., $100,000.

LA. 12938: KathyB.Fournier to Cynthia K. Darois, $449,900.

SANTINY LANE 167: Joseph A. Walter to Judy L. Larson, $280,000.

EAST

Continued frompage19

TOBY LANE 4409: Charlotte C. Rogers to Makayla E. Stjohn, $425,000.

TRUDEAUDRIVE 212: AboveAll Properties LLCtoMarie&Mat-

GRETNA

DERBES DRIVE 70: R.F.Cameron Jr. to Glen Lawson,$355,000.

DOVER LANE 574: Nicole F. Lohman to Victoria E. Morazan, $205,000

FAIRFIELD DRIVE 701: Abdelhadi Abdelbaqui to Willie L. Sims, $520,000

LAUREL AVE. 2149: Amanda M. Laliberte toKevinK.Encalade, $319,900

PRATT ST.1414: Robert Harrison Sr. to Bobbie Harrison, donation, no value stated.

RUE ST.MICHAEL 729: HCLDLLC to WeiChen, $321,900.

SUGARPINE DRIVE 179: Three Whales LLCtoKenneth J. Firmin Jr., $355,000.

HARVEY

CHRISWOOD LANE3889: SecretaryofVeterans Affairs to Elegant Houses LLC, $120,000.

JUSTIN LANE2347: OsmanyDelacruz to H&I RealtyGroup LLC, $415,000.

MELISSADRIVE 3712: James D. Lloyd to Maria IH.Manon, $237,000.

thew Properties Inc., $105,000.

VELMA ST.1320: Suzette M. Bourgeois to ElegantHouses LLC, $215,000.

VETERANS MEMORIAL BLVD. 1925: Constance M. Puglia to Donna P. Lally, $240,000.

W. WILLIAM DAVID PARKWAY 417: Thomas C.Maher to Jenna R. Hotstream, $345,000.

N. WOODBINE ST.4060: Ryan B. Joseph to BobbyD.Joseph Jr., donation, no value stated.

ORCHID DRIVE 1025: William F. Diehl to Jacqueline A.B. Aube, $250,000.

PAIGEJANETTE DRIVE 2476: Steven JethrotoInvestar Bank National Association, $135,000.

REDWOOD DRIVE 1552: Ricky P. Dunn to One Thousand Five Hundred Fifty TwoRedwood Dr LLC, $140,000.

LAFITTE

JEAN LAFITTE BLVD.426: James A. Fish Jr. to George III Lutz, $40,000.

MATHERNE ST.4982: Gage E. Lopez to Mortgage Solutions of Colorado LLC, $120,000.

MARRERO

AMES BLVD.4809: Venice L. Henderson to QuickenLoans LLC, $210,000.

AMITE DRIVE 5520: Stanwich Mortgage Loan TrustF.toSecretary of Veterans Affairs, $105,000. AVE. F1517: L.J. Relle to Nguyet T.L. Nguyen, $308,500.

BARK AVE. 2501: Paul B. Bair to BrittanyG.Maes, $363,000.

RIVERRIDGE

CHARLOTTE DRIVE 9621: Carolyn L. Barnett to Caroline M. Dibenedetto, $355,000.

DILTONST. 713: GC Investments LLCtoDiltonStreet LLC, $215,000.

JANE COURT10101: St.Matthew Apostle Roman Catholic Church

$1,150,000 “TheKalorama”Sophisticated 1-Bd,1.5BaCondow/huge gardenterrace,398 SqFt,fully landscapedoverlookingGirod Stw/viewsoftheriver Primary en-suite,gourmetkit,whiteoak hdwdflring +1interiorpkngspace.

BARK AVE. 2513: Melissa R. Adams to Annie T. VPham, $320,000.

BLANCHE DRIVE 2729: Elegant Houses LLCtoAnthony Couch, $244,000.

BROAS DRIVE 2209: Rhonda D. BeardtoMiguelJ.Reyes, $370,000.

BUCCANEER ST.2604: Sonya S.M. Parrish to Susan A. Maida, $239,000.

FOURTH ST.4612: De Boe 2. Investments LLCtoTassinInvestments LLCK.C., $575,000.

FOURTH ST.5800: Mt Realty LLCto Iron Gate Storage LLC, $140,000.

HARDWOOD DRIVE2740: Brittany M.M. Gisclair to Dustin Trosclair, $230,000.

JEANNE ST.2629: RaulRomero to Martha L.R. Guerrero, donation, no value stated.

MANSON DRIVE 1210: Maerine D. Dean to Gv Trust2025 1., $124,900.

PAGE ST.5069: Holly R. Naginto Moya Investments LLC, $95,000.

WOOD FOREST DRIVE 4901: Nicole S. Mccrea to JameshaA.Smith, $265,000.

TERRYTOWN

HERITAGE AVE. 401: Manuela G. CabreratoNancy E.C. Rodas, $80,001.

River Ridge LouisianatoAlex Hotard, $350,000.

JEFFERSON HIGHWAY 11510: Todd E. Mcdowell to Hollander Realty LLC, $29,900.

MELROSE LANE 8808: Sheila H. Brummet to Dana W. Vaughn, $469,000.

TULLULAH AVE. 713: Allison M.L. ScurriatoAustin Hill, $440,000.

$739,000 Behindaprivwall&irongate beneathastatelycypresstree, newlyrenovatedcamelback

Banks &Carrollton corridorof Mid-City. Enjoyperks of neighborhood,in-unit laundry, D/W& amplebkyd. Pets areconsidered

HOLMESBLVD. 409: Horton Inc. Gulf CoastD.R. to Janelle Mosley, $248,900.

HOLMESBLVD. 415: Horton Inc. Gulf CoastD.R. to MariciaL Edwards, $269,795.

HOLMESBLVD. 427: Horton Inc. Gulf CoastD.R. to Garrion D. Mason,$284,900.

WAGGAMAN

CAMELLIA LANE41: Frank H. WilsontoTanner R. Eaton, $145,000.

DAFFODIL LANE24: Bernice S. Connor to RACDevelopment LLC, $85,000.

DAVENPORTST. 20: RACDevelopment LLCtoJessieDiffrient, $200,000.

WESTWEGO

DUFFY ST.59: Pennymac Loan Services LLCtoSecretaryof Veterans Affairs, $125,000.

LANDERST. 804: CBreaux to Nicholas Sposito, $212,000.

LAYMAN ST.305: I&U Investment LLCtoKaela A. Mckenzie, $172,000.

WEST DRIVE 714: Silogrem LLC to Chinchilla Investments LLC, $55,000.

ST.TAMMANy

n TRANSFERS FORMARCH 23-27

ABITARIDGESUBDIVISION, PHASE 3B, LOT66: Abita RiverParkLLC to Darling DesignHomes Inc., $95,000.

BOSSIER CITY, LOTS 1- 3, SQUARE 23: D&P Carpenter LLCtoDupont Quality Homes LLC, $100,000. CYPRESS ST.72056: Michel E. Lanaux Jr.and Brenda H. Lanaux to Michel Emile Lanaux Jr.and Brenda AnnHanrahanLanaux Living Trust, donation, no value stated.

DUNDEE DUPLEXES SUBDIVISION, PHASE 1, LOT10: Raymond M. McDougall to Donna A. Giordano, $205,000.

GREATSOUTHERN DRIVE 905: Lisa Morris, Dennis J. Morris, London R. Webb andGarrett Webb to KPM Construction LLC, $135,000. HAYNES AVE. 71381: Anne Marie C. Spilotroand Michele S. Capozzoli to Christopher G. McNeil and Victoria B. McNeil, $373,000. HILLCREST COUNTRYCLUBESTATE,PORTION OF GROUN: Kamal H. Sbih to Dorbah D. Williams, $12,000.

Continued from page 20

NEAR ABITA SPRINGS, PORTION OF GROUND: Elizabeth L. Ragas to Jason D. Burns and Julie M. Ragas Burns, donation, no value stated.

S. DUNDEE LOOP 3060: John R. Hingle and Anne W Hingle to Jessica T. Bordelon, $198,000.

COVINGTON

10TH ST. 70323: Kelly R. Stephens to Miguel R. Moradel Mejia and Wendy E. Nunez-Garmendia, $215,000.

ABITA RIVER DRIVE 1105: Penny D. Held to Patricia A. Marks, $475,500.

BERTEL DRIVE 159: Succession of Sharon G. Hanselman Hatﬁeld to Jon J. Blossman and Victoria R. Blossman, $470,000.

CALDEN COURT 19677: DSLD Homes LLC to Lawrence Eikel and Edna Eikel, $298,991.

CALDEN COURT 19681: DSLD Homes LLC to Lawrence Eikel, $300,352.

CALDEN COURT 19689: DSLD Homes LLC to Lawrence Brown and Shelley Brown, $286,772.

CALDEN COURT 19714: DSLD Homes LLC to 19714 Calden Court LLC, $288,239.

CHRISTIE LANE 2025: Lori D. Tranchina Daigle to Robert W. Blackwelder and Rhonda R. Blackwelder, $250,000.

COLT COURT 312: Nicole M. Farris to William T. Lee, $280,000.

CYPRESS POINT DRIVE 4281: Haaswood Development LLC to Billy Rich III, $741,694.

D ST. 70448: Matthew G. Howell and Kelly A. Saucier Howell to Gisselle P. Castro Andonie, $199,000.

DIVISION OF NEW COVINGTON SUBDIVISION, LOT 9, SQUARE 2207: Brian A. Kline to Paul R. Stoop and Suzanne R. Stoop, $140,000.

DIVISION OF NEW COVINGTON

SUBDIVISION, LOTS 6, 7, SQUARE 2011: Charles S. Williams and Mary Ashley H. Williams to St. Tammany Parish, $83,000.

DIVISION OF NEW COVINGTON SUBDIVSION, LOT 10, SQUARE 3101: Capstone Properties LLC to West 30’S Redemption Co. Inc., $18,500.

E. THIRD AVE. 614: Lawrence S. Diehl to Clifford P. Howell and Stacey Emick Howell, $295,000.

EMERALD FOREST BLVD. 350, PHASE 2, UNIT 27108, PARKING SPACE 136: Jan Hagen Buras to Gina L. Reviere, $145,000.

EMERALD FOREST BLVD. 350, PHASE 2, UNIT 27108, PARKING

REALESTATETRANSFERS

SPACE 136: Crystal Gleason Richard to Jan Hagen Buras, $144,500.

EMERALD FOREST BLVD. 350, UNIT

28109: Susan A. Upton to John S Hages and Heidi Simone K. Hages, $125,000.

EMERALD OAKS DRIVE 278, UNIT 4: Christine Wood to Alfred Loupe, $253,000.

G ST. 70421: Brandon Ducre to Trudy C. Barbier, $224,000.

GRAND TURK COURT 958: Bryan A. Trevathan and David C. Mouledous to Jill L. Marshall, $525,000.

HONEYSUCKLE 79371: Michelle Oliver to Christina Oliver, donation, no value stated.

HUSEMAN LANE 549: Best Nelly’s LLLC to Meghan A. Leonard, $450,000.

LOWE DAVIS ROAD 24050: Robert R. Boyd and Kelly T. Boyd to RP Real Estate Holdings LLC, $250,000.

MILLION DOLLAR ROAD 16843:

Beryl J. Pernod Moss to Gretchen H. Moss, $85,909.

MONGA DRIVE 18183: Gale V. Raziano to Raziano Investments LLC, $275,000.

MONGA DRIVE 18193: Barry J Raziano and Gale V. Raziano to Raziano Investments LLC, $80,000.

NEAR COVINGTON, PORTION OF GROUND: Timothy P. Beattie and Elizabeth A. Beattie to Ethan A. Esquerre and Olivia D. Esquerre, $90,000.

NEAR COVINGTON, PORTION OF GROUND: Gregory A. Gilmore and Rhonda M. Gilmore Joint Living Trust to Jeffrey A. Borne and Sharon C. Borne, $1,031,000

NORTHLAKE DRIVE 712: Gracewater LLC to Lisa K. Blume and Larry W. Quandt Jr., $120,000.

RAY KEEN ROAD 22401: Jeffrey S.

Martin Sr. and Andrea D. Smith Martin to Soliman Holdings LLC, $218,000.

RIVERBEND DRIVE 41: John Heatherly and Annette Heatherly to Gary C. Nunez and Noble-Bates Young Nunez, $695,000.

RIVERLAKE DRIVE 13394: Timmy J. Landry to Stacey Williams, $309,000.

S. TAYLOR ST. 434-36: Egan Properties Covington LLC to Jason P Huff, $299,000.

SAGE ALLEY 107: Bardwell Construction Co. LLC to Marco Macera and Christine Macera, $759,501.

SANDERS ROAD 24473: Leonel A. Cano and Angela J. PonceMendoza Cano to Roy K. Burns Jr., Mary D. Burns, Roy K. Burns III and Molly D. Burns, $85,000.

SIXTH ST. 70076: Planet Home Lending LLC to Hayden J. Songy and Elizabeth H. Songy, $163,250.

SWALLOW ST. 114: David H. Bernstein to Brandon M. Zeringue and Lauren C. Zeringue, $385,000.

TAMMANY HILLS SUBDIVISION, LOT 19A: Succession of Sandra Mary Hammer Morin to Timothy H. Dardar, $244,500.

TAMMANY TERRACE SUBDIVISION, PORTIONS OF GROUND: Tammany Terrace LLC to J. P. Huff Construction LLC, $1,582,000.

W. 16TH AVE. 1016: Gary C. Nunez Jr. to Chanz Ayo, $228,000.

W. 21ST ST. 1117: Charles S Williams and Mary Ashley H. Williams to St. Tammany Parish, $45,000.

FOLSOM

NEAR FOLSOM, PORTION OF GROUND: DRCI LLC to Rita Schellang Bernal, $60,000.

NEAR FOLSOM, PORTION OF GROUND: Succession of Harlean Jean Davis Core and Gary W. Core to Victor L. Papai Jr.and Nancy B. Mock Papai, $425,180.

NEAR FOLSOM, PORTION OF GROUND: Jeremiah K. Wille to Tonya W. Anderson, donation, no value stated.

LACOMBE

CHENE DRIVE 29188: Quest Trust Co. to Ireon A. Sterling and Kendrick J. Davis Jr., $8,000.

EAST OAKLAWN TOWN SUBDIVISION, LOTS 209 210 & 211: Keith M. Kornfeld, Kerry Kornfeld Catalano andd Kim J. Kornfeld to Kayla R. Couvilier and Charlene A. Berns, $15,500.

LA. 434 61555: Jami L. Jones to Brock M. Peltier, $183,672.

LANCASTER COURT 30336: D.R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Joshua

E. Mullis and Sydney L. Hart, $254,900.

MARKHAM DRIVE 66321, 66325: Mark & Kasey LLC to Dupont Quality Homes LLC, $54,000. N. MILL ROAD 61064: Fallon Investments LLC to Mason Shane Cialona and Jessica L. Cialona, $253,000.

NEAR LACOMBE, PORTION OF GROUND: Genevieve L. Zeigler to Cleveland H. Cryer and Joann Zeigler Cryer, donation, no value stated.

ROUQUETTE DRIVE 65740: D. R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Charles L. McMillan Jr., $259,900.

MADISONVILLE

BEDICO CREEK SUBDIVISION, LOTS 997, 998, 1000: Santa Maria

ä See TAMMANY, page 22

TAMMANY

Continued from page 21

Interest LLC to Alvarez Construction Co. LLC, $312,700.

EMPRESS COURT 273: Gary J. Schwartz Jr. and Lory G. Schwartz to Patrick C. Reive and Lauren Leblanc Reive, $585,000.

NIGHT HERON LANE 631: Alvarez Construction Co. LLC to He Chen and Li Chen, $532,058.

OLD PLACE LANE 341: Jason D. Collins and Allison C. Collins to Catherine R. Waters, $345,000.

SPRING HAVEN SUBDIVISION, PHASE 3A, LOT 111: Spring Haven LLC to Brandon W. Knobloch and Melanie S. Knobloch, $100,000.

SWEET CLOVER WAY 1253: Robert P. Fleury and Angela G. Fleury to Garrison Toole, $485,000.

SWEET PEA COURT 1653: J.P. Huff Construction LLC to John Heatherly and Annette Heatherly, $579,999.

MANDEVILLE

BEAU PRE DRIVE 125: Sean P Glynn and Misty L. Jenkins to Earl E. Egan IV and Kelsey Q. Egan, $690,000.

BOCAGE LANE 683: Jordan W Treistman and Rachel La Donne Bowie Treistman to Sean-Michael Carolan and Michelle B. Carolan, $515,000.

CARIBBEAN COURT 9, UNIT 9: Christopher Fox to Mihail E. Karasoulis and Dana M. Reed, $192,000.

CARMEL ROAD 70050: Charlie Rick Investment LLC to Natalie N. Rick and Gage C. Phillips, $295,000.

CEDARWOOD DRIVE 543: Edward A. Kurtz, Maureen G. Kurtz and Danielle Kurtz Pittari to Melvin L. Simmons II, $134,000.

CINDY LOU PLACE 148: Mark E. McGwee to Kenneth P. Dickerson, $385,000.

DESERT COURT 2948: Chantell G. Vitrano and Anthony J. Vitrano to Ian M. Correnti, $510,000.

EVANGELINE DRIVE 228: Gaelen C. Daly and Jennifer Webre Daly to Keith A. Rider and Drielle S. Rider, $587,000.

GERARD ST. 115: 115 Gerard Street LLC to Aperitif Terrace LLC, $880,000.

GISELLE DRIVE 22099: Conley W. Bantom to Christine T. Schellang, $325,000.

LABARRE ST. 669: Naquin Family irrevocable trust to Margot Brignac, $265,000.

LEXINGTON DRIVE 316: Anthony J. Chapron Jr. and Rebecca S. Chapron to Mandeville Lexi Property LLC, $345,000.

REALESTATETRANSFERS

MADEWOOD DRIVE 127: CPP Rentals LLC to Patricia M. Gravois, $390,000.

MAKO NAKO DRIVE 228: Jeffrey Saucier to Sonia Templet, $447,000.

MANDEVILLE ANNEX SUBDIVISION, LOTS 15, 17, SQUARE 33: Guillermo E. Vielman and Evelyn C. Vielman to All About House LLC, $185,000.

MAPLE STREET, PORTION OF GROUND: Raymond J. Schaub and Caroline H. Schaub to Andrew F. Wallace and Michelle A. Waites, $69,000.

MCNAMARA ST. 2029: Mailys C. Dias and Laurent J. Dias to Hilary F. Heintze, $260,000.

MESA COURT 20628: Rebecca J. Trimble revocable living trust to Kelly R. Evans and Pamela E. Evans, $577,500.

NANCY ROAD 70244: Mark Dick Holmes Estate to Charlie Rick Investment LLC, $136,000.

NEAR MANDEVILLE, PORTION OF GROUND: Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to John T. Allen, $58,500.

NEAR MANDEVILLE, PORTION OF GROUND: Alan Petit Durel and Ann Murry Durel to Sinclair Design Group LLC, $360,000.

NEAR MANDEVILLE, PORTION OF GROUND: St. Tammany Manor to Rouquette Lodge Owner LP, $100 and other good and valuable consideration.

OLEANDER COURT 213: Mark J. Grillo Sr. and Mary C. Grillo to Grillo Family Trust, donation, no value stated.

PLANTATION BLVD. 664: Succession of Frank R. Taormina and Althea S. Taormina to Christina A. Bodenheimer, $275,000.

RUE WELLER 2761: Rebecca Fuzy and Adelaide A. Faciane to Dante Rivera and Maria S. Rivera, $210,000.

STEEPLE PLACE 460: Timothy M. Simmons and Halie D. Simmons Family Trust to Timothy M. Simmons and Halie D. Simmons, donation, no value stated.

SUNSET PARK SUBDIVISION, LOT 10, SQUARE 354: Jeremy M. Brouillette and Lauren R. Brouillette to MJ&R Properties LLC, $33,000.

SWEET BAY DRIVE 610: Marco J. Macera and Christine C. Macera to Wallace P. Vogel III and Frances L. Vogel, $435,000.

TOWN OF MANDEVILLE, PORTION OF GROUND: Canvas Man LLC to Sinclair Design Group LLC, $135,000.

WINNERS CIRCLE 8092: Paul M. Bovet and Cara L. Bovet to Jeffrey T. Zack and Thiago R. Zack, $630,000.

PEARL RIVER

FARMING

Homes LLC to Andy Duvio and Amy Duvio, $353,757.

LA. 41 SPUR 65224: Charles B. Fornea and Amanda A. Fornea to Niles Jones and Gabriela Garcia, $185,000.

MAGNOLIA ST. 39449: Lakeview Loan Servicing LLC to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, $69,000.

MAX MERCER ROAD 34404: Robert K. Carlan and Linette C. Carlan to Thomas J. Daniel Frey, $272,000.

NEAR PEARL RIVER, LOT C4: Kyle R. Singletary and Dan R. Singletary to Lori A. Meyers and Greg S Meyers, $135,100.

NEAR PEARL RIVER, LOTS C2, C3: Dan R. Singletary and Kyle R. Singletary to Randy D. Crowe Jr. and Chalynn B. Crowe, $250,000.

SUMMERFIELD ESTATES, LOT 18: Daniel E. Walley to Antoinette Walley, donation, no value stated.

THIRD ST. 315: M&W Homes LLC to Ryan W. Krewsky, $177,900.

RURAL LAND

BUSINESS PARK CONDOMINIUM, UNITS 26, 27: Boudreaux Turnpike LLC to H1 Associates LLC, $350,000.

SIXTH WARD

NEAR SIXTH WARD, PORTION OF GROUND: Frederick R. Heebe to Christopher W. Van Dervort and Colin W. Van Dervort, donation, no value stated.

NEAR SIXTH WARD, PORTION OF GROUND: Albert J. Ward Jr. to Colin W. Van Dervort and Christopher W. Van Dervort, donation, no value stated.

NEAR SIXTH WARD, PORTION OF GROUND: Patrick J. Samaha and Victoria A. Samaha to Michael S. Samaha Jr. and Jennifer Samaha, $100,000.

SLIDELL

ABNEY COUNTRY AIR SUBDIVISION, LOT 37, SQUARE A: Jeanie D. Hussey Pichon McNeill to Brett J. Robinson and Leah G. Robinson, $25,000.

ABNEY COUNTRY AIR SUBDIVISION, LOT 38, SQUARE A: Jeanie D. Hussey Pichon McNeill to E. J. Milligan Construction Co. LLC, $25,000.

BLUEGILL DRIVE 112: Steven M. Gleason and Angela D. Spencer to Mark C. Polk, $315,000.

CARA MAE ST. 40690: D.R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Fortune Property LLC, $287,900.

COIN DU LESTIN SUBDIVISION, LOT 80, SQUARE 7: Tracey V. Naquin to 3304 Desaix Blvd., $15,000.

CONSTITUTION DRIVE 1433: Jean Weiskopf to Justun Pardo, donation, no value stated.

CROSS CREEK DRIVE 189A: Hazel T. Gleason to Gloria P. Kingrey, $275,000.

CULPER DRIVE 60404: D.R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Rendell E. Jones and Xenafren Jones, $279,900.

DOCKSIDE DRIVE 644: Stacy Taylor to Marc Miller Dapremont, $590,000.

E. LAKE DRIVE 320: Clifton Melerine Jr. to Aaron M. Lamarca, $245,000.

FORNEA GLEN WAY 5457: D.R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Brandon Anderson, $239,900.

FOXCROFT DRIVE 105: Marie B. Diliberto to Gavin G. Grundmeyer, $179,000.

FRENCH BRANCH ESTATES, PHASE 8B, LOT 147A: National Residential Nominee Services inc. to Phillip H. Taylor Jr., $620,000.

HIGH RIDGE LOOP 612: Jason A. Minardi to Spencer V. Bishop, $320,000.

KINGS ROW 1409: Succession of Gameel Gabriel to Love N Loyalty Design Builder LLC, $132,000.

MAINEGRA ROAD 57468: Succession of Kelvin P. McDaniel to Kelvin P. McDaniel testamentary trust, donation, no value stated.

MALLARD ST. 2502: Janis Y. Forar and succession of Larry G. Forar to Blain N. Gros, $172,000.

MEGAN LANE 202: Mack D. Stewart and Angie G. Stewart to Shelmyra Dionne Clark, $289,900.

MOONRAKER DRIVE 184: Kim M. Ledt to FEH 184 LLC, $243,000.

N. NORTH MILITARY ROAD 61179: Brenda D. Josey, Kieth G. Dorr Jr. and Katherine D. Patrick to Terrell M. Brunet Jr. and Julie Sylvera, $398,950.

NEAR SLIDELL, PORTION OF GROUND: Villa Additions to Villa Additions Owner LP, $100 and other good and valuable consideration.

NORTHWOOD VILLAGE SUBDIVISION, PHASE 1, LOT 22: Magee Financial of Slidell LLC to Magee Properties LLC, no value stated.

OLD RIVER ROAD 2015: Daniel B. Greenwald and Karen G. Greenwald to Jason A. Adams and Scottie S. Adams, $470,000.

PANTHER DRIVE 577: Freddie Mac Seasoned Credit Risk Transfer Trust Series 2020-1 to NOGA LLC, $150,000.

PARKPOINT DRIVE 1013: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. to Nicole P. Hoban Graves and Andrew Graves, $510,000.

PENNINSULA DRIVE 1071: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. to Ryan K. Walsh and Mary M. Walsh, $341,000.

PINE CREST SUBDIVISION, LOTS 27, 28, SQUARE 5: Linda G. Broussard to Melodie Trahan, $38,000. PINE CREST SUBDIVISION, LOTS 27, 28, SQUARE 5: PBJ and MLT Ven-

tures LLC to Melodie L. Trahan, donation, no value stated.

PUTTERS DRIVE 229, UNIT 31-C: Bret J. Villars and Kimberly C. Villars to Tiffany J. Schaff, $127,500.

QUEEN ANNE DRIVE 501: Bradley Jensen to Quinetta E. Hebert, $225,000.

RENELL DRIVE 1737: Ronald Chatelain Jr. and Stephanie L. Chatelain to Kirby O’Connor Jr., $125,000.

SGT. ALFRED DRIVE 2760: Maritime Services Group of Louisiana LLC to Deep Roots Property Solutions LLC, $10 and other valuable consideration.

SILVERWOOD DRIVE 132: Anita D. Parker to John N. Parker, donation, no value stated.

SLEEPY HOLLOW LANE12: Secretary of Veterans Affairs to Ashley H. Patterson, $211,350.

SOUTHPARK DRIVE 145: Charles H. Arthur Jr. to Brandie E. Antill, Chadwick M. Antill and Karen Antill Brown, $180,000.

SPARTAN LOOP 301: Shannon M. Duplessis to Dominique L. Smith, $23,000.

SPILLWAY MANOR DRIVE 5124: D.R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Donnell M. Washington and Jessica J. Acosta, $264,900.

WEEMS ISLAND AREA SUBDIVISION, LOT 10: Otis W. Favre Jr. to Michael R. Judge and Kathleen W Judge, $126,750.

SUN/BUSH

DOLPH BREWSTER ROAD 32285: Clifford Anglin and Charlotte W. Anglin to Randal W. Anglin, $25,000, donation.

E. ELLIS DRIVE 29001: Michael G. McConahay to Piera P. McConahay, donation, no value stated. LA. 40 29303: Michael P. Collins and Shelley M. Collins to Ashley N. Adelﬁo, $270,000.

NEAR BUSH, PORTION OF GROUND: Brenda Sue Melancon Cornwell to Jeremiah G. Cornwell, donation, no value stated.

NEAR BUSH, PORTION OF GROUND: Naomi J. Puhlman to David S. Talley, donation, no value stated.

NEAR BUSH, PORTION OF GROUND: Frankie G. Smith and Lisa M. Talley to David S. Talley, donation, no value stated.

NEAR SUN, PORTION OF GROUND: Arthur Grundmeyer III, Darnell Grundmeyer Smith and Darlene Grundmeyer Foster to Robert E. Cottier and Samantha M. Cottier, $60,000.

VILLAGE OF SUN SUBDIVISION, PORTION OF GROUND: Dorman F. Talley to Connie Mae Urich, $15,000.

VILLAGE OF SUN SUBDIVISION, PORTION OF GROUND: Dorman F Talley to Donna M. Hinkle, $15,000.

Trying to keep privatematters from becoming public knowledge

Dear Annie: Ilove your advice and the fact you’re able to cut to the chase. I ﬁnd myself in need of your level head, too!

The Associated

Press

TODAYINHISTORY

Today is Saturday,April 18, the 108th day of 2026. There are 257 days left in the year

I’ve been (mostly) happily married for 26 years. My husband is very gregarious and never met astranger.Infact, he happily opens up his life to anyone and everyone. Ifeel like he constantly overshares, but as long as he keepsittohis own information, that’sﬁne.

However,hedoesn’tkeep my information private,especially my health information. Afew years ago, Ihad acancer scare and chose not to tell evenmyadult children until I knewfor sure. He told his coworkers, his side of the family,our friends —all before Iknew what my test results were.

Everyone thoughtI had cancer,soIeventually had to explain that no, Ididn’t. Ialso had surgery acouple years ago andwanted to keep it private, but Istarted getting messages like, “I’msosorry you have to haveahysterectomy.What happened?”

Ihave avery public job in a small community.Most people know me. It’shighly embarrassing when Ihave to step in the spotlight, knowing that all these people know my personal, private information.

I’ve talked to him over and over about this. He always apologizesand says he “forgot” that Iprefer to keep things private. Ieven tried keeping my health information away from him —my own husband —sohecouldn’t share it. But he also opens my mail and sees my bills and test results before Ido. There is no “hiding” anythingfrom him.

How do Ihandle this, Annie? I’m getting desperate. —Personal InformationIsPrivate Dear Personal Information: Your husband’sfriendlinessshouldn’tbeconfused

with what’shappening here —breachingtrust.Medical information is yourstoshare, not his to broadcast.

You’ve already explained your wishes. Now’sthe time for ﬁrmer boundaries. Tell himplainly that sharing your private information is unacceptableand that “forgetting” is no longeranexcuse. This is about respect.

If he still doesn’tget the message, protect your privacy in practical ways, like having mail sentelectronically or asking your doctors notto share information with anyone butyou.

Agood marriage includes trustand discretion. He doesn’tneed to stop being outgoing.Hejust needs to learn that your life is not his story to tell.

Dear Annie: I’m retired, married and have been alongtime cross-dresser.My wife’s aware of my littlehobby,and although she doesn’twantto participate in it with me,she’s OK with me dressing when she’snot around.

This worked great up until last year when she retired. Now Ihave very little time to express myself, andit’svery frustrating. When sheworked, Iwouldgotolocal malls, grocery stores, etc., dressed as a woman. I’m very passable and

have never hadany issues. I’dloveitifmywife could acceptmemore in my feminine role.I knowother cross-dressers with wives that are fully supportive Any ideas that might help? —NoPlace to Be Me

Dear No Place: Your wife has accepted this part of you in alimited way,but retirement changedyourrhythm. What workedbefore no longerﬁts, and it’stimefor an honest, gentle conversation —not aboutpushing herto participate, but aboutmaking room foryou to still be yourself.

Tell herwhatthis means to you. It may be less about the clothes andmore about howyou feel when you’re in them. Thenlistenjust as carefully to what feelscomfortable —and uncomfortable —for her. Compromise might mean setting aside agreed-upon time or space to dress, or ﬁnding waysyou can still go outoccasionally like you usedtowithout straining the relationship. If youﬁnd yourselvesstuck, acouples counselorcan help youwork through it together

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@ creators.com.

Todayinhistory:

On April18, 1906, the deadliest earthquakeinU.S.history struckSan Francisco, followed by raging ﬁresacrossthe city Morethan3,000 people are believed to havebeen killedby the quake, which wasestimated to have reached as high as 7.9 magnitude.

Also on this date:

In 1775, PaulReverebegan hisfamousride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning colonists that British Regular troopswere approaching.

In 1942, in the ﬁrst World War II attack on the Japanesemainland, 16 U.S.Army Air Force B-25 bombers conducted an air raid, led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle, over Tokyo andseveral other Japanese cities.

In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton,New Jersey,atage 76.

In 1978, the Senateapproved the Panama CanalTreaty, providing for the complete turnover of control of the waterway to Panama on the last dayof 1999.

In 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killedat the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by asuicide bomber driving avan ladenwith explosives.

In 2016, “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’ship-hopstage

PROVIDED PHOTOByDISNEy+ Lin-Manuel Miranda, left,and Leslie Odom Jr.star in the Broadwaymusical‘Hamilton.’

biography of America’sﬁrst treasury secretary, wonthe PulitzerPrize fordrama.

In 2023, Foxand Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787.5 million settlement in the voting machine company’sdefamationlawsuit, averting atrial in acasethatexposedhow the top-ratednetwork promoted falsehoodsregarding the 2020 presidentialelection.

Today’sBirthdays: Actor Hayley Mills is 80. ActorJames Woods is 79. ActorRickMoranis is 73. ActorEric Roberts is 70. Actor JaneLeeves is 65. VentriloquistcomedianJeffDunhamis64. Talk showhostConan O’Brien is 63. ActorEric McCormack is 63. ActorMaria Bello is 59. Football Hall of Famer Willie Roaf is 56. ActorDavid Tennant is 55. Filmmaker Eli Roth is 54. Football Hall of Famer Derrick Brooksis53. Filmmaker Edgar Wright is 52. ActorMelissa Joan Hart is 50. FormerMLB All-StarMiguelCabrera is 43. ActorAmerica Ferrera is 42. ActorVanessa Kirby is 38. ActorLilleeJean is 25.

Annie Lane

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