Larry Tatman, left, and TerryPalmisano walk past ahole while playingatCityPark Golf Course on April 23. Twopotential designs have been created as apartofthe City-Brooks Park Master Plan, which aimstotransformthe park ‘intoaworld-class, central park experience.’
Community torn on future of BR golf course
BY CLAIREGRUNEWALD
staff writer
As the plan to redevelop one of Baton Rouge’smost notableparks movesforward, some community members are contentiously divided over whether majorchanges should be made to the city’s oldest public golf course.
Twopotentialdesignsfor the park have been createdasa part of the City-Brooks Park MasterPlan, which aims to transform the park “intoaworld-class, central park experience,” according to BREC, East Baton Rouge Parish’s parksagency
Some people have publicly advocated leaving the park asis, emphasizingthe golf course’shistoric designation.
Others want to see it significantly changed, with more wide-ranging featuresadded to thesite.
So how do the park and itsgolf course fare in the latest two proposed future designs forthe area?
The firm hired tocreate the master plan for City-Brooks Parkproposedconcepts that keep the nine-hole golf course as a keypart of the park.But both plans carve
outafew hundred yards from thecourse and propose newservices for the park, such as expanding pedestrian space and adding new features to the golf experience.
Joshua Brooks, alandscape architect and plannerwith Sasaki Associates, said the concepts do not have to be a“binary choice” andblending ideas from both conceptsispossible for thefinal plan.
“You can have alot of improvements and still have golf,” he said.
Sasaki is theprivate firm hiredby BREC to create the master plan forCityBrooks Park, the design of Wampold Park anda structure forguiding the University Lakes system
The golf course is proposed to remain
ä see PROPOSALS, page 7A
3Democrats arerunning to be La.’snextsenator
Trio have varied reasons forentering race
BY TYLER BRIDGES staff writer
For Jamie Davis, his decision to run for the U.S. Senate came last year after former Gov.John Bel Edwards chose to stay out of the race. For Nick Albares,his decision to runcame after President Donald Trump and the Republican Congresspassed abill last year that will lead to big cuts in theMedicaid program for the working poor
For Gary Crockett, hisdecision to runcame after seeingSen. Bill Cassidy,House Speaker Mike Johnson and Gov.Jeff Landry repeat-
edly supportTrump in ways that Crockett believesare hurting ordinaryLouisiana citizens. Davis, Albares andCrockett —all Democrats —are crisscrossingthe state as each one mounts along-shotbid to be thestate’s
next senator Here’sameasure of theodds: Louisiana has notelected aDemocratsince then-U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu won reelection in 2008. Cassidy knocked her out six years later and won reelection in 2020.
He’snow facing atough reelection battle in the Republican primary against state Treasurer JohnFleming, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and business owner Mark Spencer
The Democratic and Republican candidates will compete in separate party primarieson May16, with earlyvoting running through Saturday. No-party voters will have to decide whether to vote forthe Republican or Democraticslate of candidates in all races on the ballot.
4-day week limits spark debate
Billseeks to tighten requirements over school calendar
BY CHARLESLUSSIER staff writer
Roughly aquarter of the school districts in Louisiana hold classes only four days aweek,mostof them shifting to shorter weeks sinceCOVID.Statelawmakers are poised to makeitmuch harder for anymore districts to join them In doingso, they mayforce the latest adopter,East Feliciana Parish, to pull the plug on plans to movetofour-day weeks in August. Instead, the parish would need to revert at the 11th hour to afive-day-a-week calendar Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, is leading the charge. She suggests that four-day weeks, if expandedfurther,could reverse recent gains on national standardized tests that have led to accolades forLouisiana.
“We’ve gotten to thepinnacle and are beginning to chisel away at what we have accomplished,” Mizell said. In Louisiana, 15 out of 69 school districts have four-day weeks Twelve of those have adopted the shortenedweek since2020. Many of them did so to attract and retain teachersduringatime of historic teacher shortages. Theytendtobesmaller,rural school systems. Theyrange from
ä see DEBATE, page 7A
Presidentsays operationtohelp strandedvessels to startMonday
BY ADAM SCHRECK, MELANIELIDMAN and CARA ANNA Associated Press
DUBAI,United Arab Emirates The UnitedStates will launch an effort on Monday to “guide” stranded ships fromthe Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trumpsaid, giving fewdetails aboutwhatcould be asweeping attempt to help hundreds of vesselsand some20,000 seafarers. Iran quickly denounced it as a ceasefire violation.
Trumpsaid in asocial media post on Sunday that “neutral and innocent” countrieshavebeen affected by the Iran war,and “we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”
ä see RUNNING, page 5A ä see IRAN, page 5A
sTAFF PHoTosByJAVIER GALLEGos
Professional golfer Matt Berry tees off at City Park Golf Course on April 23.
Albares Crockett Davis
BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS
Hoax calls prompt zoo evacuations, closures
Hoax calls involving alleged bomb threats and even claims of active shooters have prompted evacuations and closures at several zoos around the U.S in recent days, disrupting family plans and taxing public safety resources in some cities.
No explosives or real dangers have been found in the latest string of what authorities are describing as swatting incidents. The FBI considers swatting an increasing national problem. Aside from diverting resources, such calls can cost thousands of dollars per incident, endanger first responders and the public and can lead to federal charges. In the latest case, police on Sunday swept the Akron Zoo in northeast Ohio after a threat led to the evacuation of visitors. Authorities gave the all-clear, but zoo managers opted to close for the rest of the day
Just hours later, police were seen stationed outside the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo as visitors were evacuated due to a threat there. Some visitors took to social media, expressing anger that they had to leave.
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in central Ohio was evacuated on Saturday. Zoo president and CEO Tom Schmid told television station WCMH that due to similar threats at other zoos, employees had a safety drill last week and an exercise Saturday morning that helped prepare them for the emergency evacuation.
“This is part of life now around the country, around the world,” Schmid said, noting the uptick in such threats. “And so we have to make sure we’re vigilant.”
Threats also have been called in to zoos in Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and Arizona.
Police seek 2 in fatal Texas party shooting
AMARILLO, Texas Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying assailants in a shooting at a party in Amarillo, Texas, that killed two teenagers and wounded 10 other people.
City authorities say they are looking for two people who opened fire at an apartment complex about 2 a.m Saturday and are asking residents to check their doorbell and surveillance cameras for any unusual activity around that time. Details on a motive were not released Surveillance video released by police shows two people opening fire outside of an apartment.
Yelling and screaming follow, then more gunshots ring out
“When I looked outside and came outside it was complete chaos,” neighbor Phillip Thrasher told KTVT-TV “I mean there was kids running everywhere, just screaming and running. They didn’t even know where they were running to, you know And then moms and dads showed up and came to their kids’ rescues. The ones that could, the ones that couldn’t were so upset I mean there was nothing you could do.” Amarillo police said two teens, ages 16 and 17, were killed and 10 others injured. The conditions of the wounded were not released.
Fire destroys lab on university campus in Fla.
ST PETERSBURG, Fla. — Firefighters worked through the night to extinguish a blaze at a laboratory on the University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg and officials said Sunday that the building could be a total loss.
The fire Saturday night prompted evacuations and sent up plumes of billowing smoke from the marine science lab building. No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials were released, USF President Moez Limayem wrote in a message to students and staff.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation.
Limayem said damage assessments were ongoing, but the destruction was extensive.
“Our recovery teams are working with the College of Marine Science to prioritize key research material and equipment for salvage assessment when the building is cleared,” Limayem wrote Classes and exams scheduled for the lab building will be relocated.
2 service members missing in Morocco
U.s. soldiers were part of military exercise
BY OPE ADETAYO and AKRAM OUBACHIR Associated Press
CASABLANCA, Morocco Two
U.S. service members are missing in southwestern Morocco after taking part in annual multinational military exercises in the North African country, the United States Africa Command said Sunday
The service members are U.S. Army soldiers who went missing while on a hike, a U.S. defense official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the issue.
“They were not actively taking part in any training.
The day’s exercises had concluded, and from our understanding, they were out on a recreational hike,”
the official said
AFRICOM said the U.S., Morocco and other countries participating in the African Lion exercise have launched a search and rescue operation
U.s. and Moroccan military forces take part in the African
Tantan, south of Agadir, Morocco, on May 31, 2024. Two U.s service members are missing in the North African country after taking part in the annual multinational military exercises, the United states Africa Command said sunday.
tary, including the National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force, and the Marine Corps. In all, over 7,000 personnel from more than 30 nations are participating across the four host countries.
“The incident remains under investigation and the search is ongoing,” it said in a statement.
The incident happened about 9 p.m. Saturday, the Moroccan military said, near the Cap Draa Training Area near Tan Tan, close to the Atlantic Ocean. The terrain is mountainous, a mix of desert and semidesert plains.
The search team includes
helicopters, ships, mountain rescue units and divers, the defense official told the AP
“The soldiers were last seen near ocean cliffs in the vicinity of the Cap Draa Training Area during scheduled training. When they did not return as expected, U.S. and Moroccan personnel immediately
initiated a joint search effort,” the official added.
The war games exercise started in April and runs across four countries, including Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal. It is scheduled to end in early May
The exercise began in Tunisia with active-duty members of different branches of the U.S. mili-
African Lion, which has been running since 2004, is the largest U.S. annual joint military exercise on the continent and usually features high-ranking military officials from the U.S. and its top African allies. U.S. military officials have said the annual multinational engagement serves as a venue for strengthening regional security cooperation and refining the readiness of participating forces for global crises. In 2012, two U.S. Marines were killed and two others injured during a helicopter crash in Morocco’s southern city of Agadir while taking part in African Lion. Morocco is a major ally of the United States in a troubled region. Since 2020, military officers disillusioned with their governments’ records of stemming violence have overthrown democratically elected governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and began distancing themselves from Western powers.
Officials: Buckshot from suspect’s gun struck agent
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON Authorities have determined that buckshot from the gun of the man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in an attempt to kill President Donald Trump struck a Secret Service agent, according to the federal prosecutor overseeing the investigation.
PREss PHoTo By MANUEL BALCE CENETA Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, from left, U.s Attorney Jeanine Pirro and FBI Director Kash Patel speak during an April 27 news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington following an initial appearance in federal court of the suspected White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman, Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, Calif.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said last week there was no evidence the agent was hit by friendly fire during the incident at a Washington hotel on April 25, but she went beyond that Sunday in saying a shot from one of Cole Tomas Allen’s weapons hit the officer’s bullet-resistant vest. “We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant’s Mossberg
Officials: Suspected hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship kills 3
BY GERALD IMRAY Associated Press
CAPE TOWN, South Africa A suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people, including an elderly married couple, and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organization and South Africa’s Department of Health said Sunday
In a statement to The Associated Press, WHO said an investigation was underway but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed. One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the U.N.’s health agency said, and it was working with authorities to evacuate two others with symptoms from the ship.
The Dutch company that operates the cruise said the ship was now sitting off the coast of Cape Verde, an island nation off Africa’s west coast, and local authorities were assisting but had not allowed anyone to disembark. It said the two sick people onboard requiring urgent medical care were crew members.
Hantaviruses, which are found throughout the
world, are a family of viruses spread mainly by contact with the urine or feces of infected rodents like rats and mice. They gained attention after the late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus infection in New Mexico last year Hackman died around a week later at their home from heart disease.
Hantaviruses cause two serious syndromes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe disease that effects the lungs, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, a severe disease that affects the kidneys.
While rare, WHO said hantavirus infections can be spread between people. There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
“WHO is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise vessel sailing in the Atlantic Ocean,” the organization said “Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing, and epidemiological investigations. Medical
care and support are being provided to passengers and crew Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing.”
South Africa’s Department of Health said the ship, the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, had left Argentina around three weeks ago for a cruise that included visits to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other stops. It was due to ultimately head to Spain’s Canary Islands on the other side of the Atlantic.
The first victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was removed in the British territory of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, the South African health department said in a statement. The man’s wife collapsed at an airport in South Africa trying to take a flight to her home country of the Netherlands, the department said. She died at a nearby hospital.
The department identified the patient in intensive care in a hospital in Johannesburg as a British national. It said that person fell ill near Ascension Island, another remote island in the Atlantic, after the ship left Saint Helena and was transferred from there to South Africa.
pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It is definitively his bullet.” Allen, who remains behind bars for now pending his trial, was injured during the attack but was not shot. The officer survived. His attorneys on Sunday filed a document with the court saying they learned he was no longer on suicide watch and sought to withdraw a motion formally seeking to remove him from such supervision.
On Thursday, Pirro posted a video on social media showing the moment that authorities say a man with guns and knives attempted to storm the media gala. Questions
have lingered about whose bullet struck the officer as the suspect ran through security with a long gun toward the ballroom packed with journalists, administration officials and others. A phone call to lawyers representing Allen went unanswered on Sunday Allen has been charged with attempted assassination of the president, as well as two additional firearms counts, including discharging a weapon during a crime of violence He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone. Allen, 31, is from Torrance, California. He worked as a part-time tutor for a test preparation company and is an amateur video game developer
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launched a wave of strikes against Russian oil targets, hitting a key loading port on the Baltic Sea and two tankers that Ukraine alleges were illegally used to transport Russian crude.
A nighttime drone strike sparked a blaze at Russia’s largest oil exporting port on the Baltic Sea, the port of Primorsk, according to Russian regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.
The port, operated by Russia’s state oil firm Transneft, is capable of handling hundreds of thousands of barrels per day Primorsk, which was targeted multiple times in March, lies over 620 miles from Ukraine, between the RussianFinnish border and Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg
Local Gov Drozdenko said that the drone strike did not cause an oil spill, but gave no immediate further comment regarding casualties or damage.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces destroyed several military and other targets, while also inflicting significant damage on oil
port infrastructure.
“One more Russian carrier of Kalibr missiles is out of action. Major General Yevhen Khmara reported on the successful destruction of targets in the Primorsk port,” Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post on Sunday
According to Zelenskyy, Ukrainian drones also hit a Karakurt missile ship, a patrol boat, and a tanker belonging to Russia’s socalled shadow oil fleet, used to evade Western sanctions and price caps on Russian energy
In a separate post earlier on Sunday, Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces had struck two more “shadow fleet” tankers near the entrance of the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk
“These tankers were actively used to transport oil. Now they won’t,” he said. He added the operation was led by the chief of Ukraine’s general staff, Andrii Hnatov
Moscow did not immediately acknowledge Zelenskyy’s claims regarding either strike.
Kyiv has recently stepped up its attacks on Russia’s oil export infrastructure. Ukrainian officials argue that oil revenue directly
OPEC+ countries OK modest rise in oil production
By The Associated Press
VIENNA Seven countries in the OPEC+ grouping of oil-producing countries including Saudi Arabia and Russia — say they’ve decided to a modest increase in production starting in June as part of a commitment to “market stability.”
The commitment from the seven countries, also including Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait and Oman, to raise production by 188,000 barrels per day comes after a virtual meeting they held on Sunday
The move is mostly symbolic because it comes as Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where about a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes, in the midst of the U.S.Israeli war That has stopped much of the oil shipped from Gulf producers and knocked millions of barrels a day off the global market
funds Moscow’s full-scale invasion of the country, now in its fifth year
Elsewhere, two people were killed and three others wounded as Russian drones struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s Emergency Service reported. It said the attack damaged three residential buildings.
The drones also hit port infrastructure, causing a fire that was
It also follows a decision by the United Arab Emirates to leave the OPEC oil cartel, shaking up the 65-year-old alliance that produces some 40% of the world’s crude oil and exerts major influence over the price of energy around the globe. Iran is one of OPEC’s 12 member countries, and Russia is not — it works with the Vienna-based oil producers alliance through the OPEC+ grouping.
The seven countries said they would hold monthly meetings “to review market conditions, conformity, and compensation” and plan to meet again on June 7.
later extinguished by emergency teams, the emergency service reported.
Nighttime Russian strikes also wounded six people in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, the agency said. A passenger bus transporting 40 children was damaged, but no one inside was injured, it added.
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike west of Moscow killed a
77-year-old man, local Gov Andrei Vorobyov reported on the Telegram messenger app He said the fatal attack occurred near the town of Volokolamsk, some 75 miles from central Moscow Vorobyov added that six drones were shot down in the Moscow region, which surrounds but does not include the Russian capital. At least five more drones were downed on the approach to Moscow itself, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Separately, in Russia’s western Smolensk region, a man, woman and child were injured after Ukrainian drone debris flew into an apartment block, according to local Gov Vasiliy Anokhin.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that a total of 334 Ukrainian UAVs were downed overnight over Russia and occupied Crimea. Also overnight into Sunday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 269 drones and ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Ukrainian forces shot down and repelled 249 drones, while hits from ballistic missiles and 19 drones were recorded in 15 locations, the air force said in a Facebook update.
Suspect booked in case of rat poison found in baby food jars
By The Associated Press
Austria say a 39-year-old suspect has been arrested after rat poison turned up in some HiPP baby food jars on supermarket shelves in central Europe.
HiPP, which recalled some of its baby food jars in Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic after the case came to light last month, said in a statement Saturday it was “greatly relieved” by the arrest, and would provide further updates as verified details come in.
The Burgenland State
Criminal Police Office, under the direction of prosecutors, said a probe was launched after poison turned up in a baby food jar purchased at a supermarket in the city of Eisenstadt on April 18.
It said the suspect was being questioned, and that no further details would be immediately provided. The Burgenland public prosecutor’s office has announced an investigation into suspected “intentional endangerment of the public.”
In an email to The Asso-
ciated Press on Sunday, the Burgenland police office said the suspect was arrested in Salzburg state, to the west.
The Austrian Press Agency reported that an expert report on the toxicity of the poison was pending. A total of five tampered baby food jars were seized before they could be consumed, APA reported. Authorities said previously they believe the tampering occurred in 6.7-ounce jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-olds that were sold from SPAR supermarkets in Austria.
BY AREF TUFFAHA Associated Press
NABLUS West Bank One Palestinian man was killed and four others seriously wounded during an Israeli military raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the man’s wife was in labor at a local hospital when she was informed of his death.
The Red Crescent said five people were hit by gunfire during an Israeli military operation. Nayef Firas Ziad
Samaro, 26, was killed, according to the Health Ministry, and his body was brought to the hospital where his wife was giving birth. Additionally, a 12-year-old was shot in the shoulder according to the Red Crescent. The raid took place as schools were letting out for the day, in an area crowded with civilians, witnesses said. Israel’s military in a statement said it responded to a confrontation in the Nablus area in which several “terrorists” threw rocks toward soldiers. Soldiers fired and “several hits were identified.”
Palestinians, rights groups and international observers are warning about the worsening violence, where young Palestinian men are being killed with increasing regularity amid a broader climate of arson, vandalism and the displacement of farming communities near Jewish settlements and outposts in the West Bank.
At least 42 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the year, according to the United Nations humanitarian office. Armed settlers were responsible for at least 11 of those fatalities.
AUSTRIA
PHoTo PRoVIDED By UKRAINIAN EMERGENCy sERVICE
A Ukrainian emergency crew responds to a fire in Ukraine’s southern odesa region after a Russian attack overnight on sunday.
VIENNA — Police in eastern
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By FATIMA sHBAIR Cargo ships sail Friday near the strait of Hormuz, as viewed from a rocky shoreline near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates.
RUNNING
If no candidate wins at least 50% in either party primary in the Senate race, the top two finishers advance to a runoff on June 27 to determine who will be the party’s candidate in the November general election.
The Senate race, which is statewide, is unaffected by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that will likely force Louisiana to postpone its elections for the U.S. House of Representatives.
The three Democratic candidates sharply criticize Trump, favor at least doubling the federal minimum wage and want to make life more affordable for struggling people.
Why they entered the race Davis has raised the most money of the three, has the official backing of the Louisiana Democratic Party and
IRAN
Continued from page 1A
“Project Freedom” would begin on Monday morning in the Middle East, Trump said, adding that his representatives are having discussions with Iran that could lead to something “very positive for all.”
U.S. Central Command said the initiative would involve guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 aircraft and 15,000 service members. The Pentagon did not immediately answer questions about how they would be deployed.
Iran’s effective closure of the strait, imposed after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb 28, has shaken global markets.
Ships and seafarers, many on oil and gas tankers and cargo ships, have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began. Crew members have described to The Associated Press watching intercepted drones and missiles explode over the waters, and running low on drinking water food and other supplies.
Many sailors come from India and other countries in south and southeast Asia.
“They are victims of circumstance,” Trump wrote, and described the effort as a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran.” But he sounded a warning: “If, in any way, this Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.”
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency called Trump’s announcement part of his “delirium,” and Ebrahim Azizi head of the national security commission of Iran’s parliament, said on X that any interference in the strait would be seen as a ceasefire violation.
Trump spoke hours after Iran said it was reviewing the U.S. response to its latest proposal to end the war and made clear these are not nuclear negotiations. The fragile three-week ceasefire appears to be holding.
Cargo ship attacked
Earlier Sunday, a cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz said it was attacked by multiple small craft, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported It was the latest in at least two dozen attacks in and around the strait since the Iran war began, and a reminder of the risks if the new U.S. effort goes forward. All crew on the unidentified northbound cargo ship were safe after the attack off Sirik, Iran, east of the strait, the British monitor said Iranian officials have asserted that they control the strait and that ships not affiliated with the United States or Israel can pass if they pay a toll, challenging the freedom of navigation guaranteed by international law Iran denied an attack, the semiofficial Iranian outlets
tells audiences that he is a farmer who gets his hands dirty Davis, 55, said he hoped that Edwards the two-term predecessor of Landry, would challenge Cassidy But when Edwards decided he didn’t see a path to victory Davis felt a need to step up and became the first candidate to announce in December
“Democrats needed a reason to stand, and I chose to stand,” said Davis, who farms cotton, corn and soybeans on 3,200 acres in Tensas, Catahoula, Franklin and Concordia parishes.
Albares, who has an undergraduate degree from Notre Dame and a masters in public policy from Georgetown University, has the chops to talk fluently on most issues.
Albares, 39, said what pushed him to run was Republicans passing the One Big Beautiful Bill that contained tax cuts weighted to benefit the wealthy and up to $1 trillion in cuts over the
next 10 years for the Medicaid expansion, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“We have to reverse these cuts that go into effect on Jan 1,” Albares said. “Healthcare is on the ballot.”
Crockett, 61, is the only one of the three who has military experience, saying he spent 24 years in the Navy He said he owns five companies with 21 full-time employees.
Crockett said he decided to run after concluding that political leaders were not serving the people.
“I saw citizens being ignored, and the same thing happening over and over again,” he said.
Crockett said he owns four companies that operate under the umbrella of Branae Holdings They do work in the fields of aerospace, construction, management consulting and cyber security. A fifth company is Mixed Bag Entertainment, which he said distributes music films
and TV shows.
Crockett said he grew up in Tallulah in northeast Louisiana, obtained an associate degree from Delgado Community College and an undergraduate degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.
He said he decided to move to New Orleans in 2019 to be closer to family
“I became quite disenchanted after moving here,” he said. “We ride on roads that are horrible, the lack of services. We had trash pickup twice a week. Now it’s once. Seeing all of this, it was like: Run or run away. I’m running (for the Senate).”
Where campaigns stand
Crockett’s campaign finance report, through March 31, shows he did not receive any contributions. He did lend his campaign $350,000 and spent only about $12,000 of that.
Albares grew up in Dothan, Alabama, worked as a budget analyst for Invest
in Louisiana, a progressive group in Baton Rouge, worked as a policy analyst for two years for Gov Edwards and worked for Volunteers of America’s New Orleans office before stepping down to campaign full time.
Edwards has endorsed his candidacy
“When I looked at this race, I looked at the Republican side and saw candidates only focused on fighting each other to see who was closest to the president,”
Albares said. “I felt like we needed someone who is closest to the people.”
His campaign finance report showed that he had raised only $70,000 through March 31, had lent his campaign $5,200 and had $54,000 on hand.
Davis said he attended LSU for two years before being put on academic probation, dropping out and returning home.
“I got a Ph.D. in partyology,” he said. “I made a bad
Fars and Tabnak reported, and said a passing ship had been stopped for a documents check as part of monitoring. It was the first reported attack in the area since April 22. Tehran has effectively closed the strait by attacking and threatening ships, and the threat level in the area remains critical.
Iranian patrol boats, some powered only by twin outboard motors, are small, nimble and hard to detect. Trump last month ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the strait.
The British military monitor also said Sunday that ships near Ras al-Khaimah, the northernmost emirate in the United Arab Emirates and close to the strait, reported receiving radio warnings to move from anchorages. It was not clear who sent the VHF messages.
Tehran reviews response
Tehran is reviewing the U.S. response to its latest proposal to end the war, Iran’s judiciary Mizan news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei as saying.
But “at this stage, we have no nuclear negotiations,” Baghaei said. Iran’s nuclear program and enriched uranium have long been the central issue in tensions with the U.S., but Tehran would rather address it later
Iran’s proposal wants other issues resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire, according to Iran’s state-linked media. Trump on Saturday said he was reviewing the proposal but expressed doubt it would lead to a deal.
Iran’s 14-point proposal calls for the U.S lifting sanctions on Iran, ending the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdrawing forces from the region and ceasing all hostilities, including Israel’s operations in Lebanon, according to the semiofficial Nour News and Tasnim agencies, which have close ties to Iran’s security organizations
Pakistan’s prime minister, foreign minister and army chief continue to encourage the U.S and Iran to speak directly according to two officials in Pakistan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Pakistan hosted face-to-face talks last month and has passed messages between the two sides.
Iran stands firm on strait
Trump has offered a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where about a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes, along with fertilizer badly needed by farmers around the world and other petroleum-derived products
Tehran “will not back
Notice is hereby givenpursuanttoArticle 7, Section23(C) of theConstitution andR.S. 47:1705(b) that apublichearing of theWest BatonRouge Parish Councilwillbeheldat West BatonRouge Parish Governmental Building/CouncilRoom, 880 N. AlexanderAvenue,PortAllen,Louisiana on Thursday,June 25th,2026at5:30pmtoconsiderlevying additionalor increasedmillage rateswithout furthervoterapprovaloradoptingtheadjusted millage rate afterreassessment androlling forward toprates not to exceed theprior year’s maximum. TaxRecipient body intends to considerlevying additionalorincreased millage rateswithout furthervoter approval (R.S.47:1705(B).The estimatedamountoftax revenues to be collectedinthe next year from theincreased GeneralAlimony andCentral Communications millagesis$5,216,000and theamountofincreaseintax attributable to themillage increaseis$800,000.
choice in not focusing on my school work,” he said.
“I was a small-town guy in a big city My focus was not on education at the time.” Davis got focused back home He said he has taken over his family’s small farm on Lake St John in Tensas Parish and expanded his holdings into neighboring parishes.
“When I am not in politics, I drive tractors, order chemicals, buy seed, order fertilizer and make deals on buying and selling grain and cotton,” he said. “I’m a real day-to-day farmer.”
Davis served a term on the Tensas Parish Police Jury but was defeated for reelection. He also lost races to be a state representative and to serve on the Democratic State Central Committee. He did win a spot on the committee because he chairs the Tensas Parish Democratic Party Davis raised $315,000 lent his campaign $10,000 and had $141,000 as of March 31.
digital assets, to transit the strait safely
Meanwhile, the U.S. naval blockade since April 13 is depriving Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy The U.S. Central Command on Sunday said 49 commercial ships have been told to turn back.
“We think that they’ve gotten less than $1.3 million in tolls, which is a pittance on their previous daily oil revenues,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Sunday He said Iran’s oil storage is rapidly filling up and “they’re going to have to start shutting in wells, which we think could be in the next week.” Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Anna from Lowville, New York.
Nikzad, said earlier Sunday
The U.S. has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran in any form, including
Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
down from our position on the Strait of Hormuz and it will not return to its prewar conditions,” Iran’s deputy parliament speaker, Ali
PROPOSALS
Continued from page1A
the bulk of City Park, but there arealsoideastoadd an enlarged putting green, miniature golf and arestaurant and beer garden to create more activities for nongolfers,according to Brooks.
Brooks said it is important for people to know that such plans continue to evolve and that it could take up to 20 years to reach the look of a proposed concept. Thereis no final cost estimate yet, but he said it could be range
from $50 millionto$100 million.
Apublic meeting to discussthe designs and plan wasoriginallyscheduled for last week but wasbumped to June 11 toallow more time forfeedback from the community,BREC says. The City-Brooks Park Master Plan andLakes VisionCommitteerecently mettodiscuss the concepts, andoverall, multiple committee members seemed agreeable with either option being selected in thefuture. The committee comprises several Baton Rouge leaders to oversee boththe park’s
redevelopment and the revitalization of theLSU lakes.It includesthe BREC interim superintendent and representatives from theLSU Foundation and the nearby Knock Knock Children’s Museum.
BREC Commission Chair Michael Polito,speaking at afull commission meeting April 21,summed up the plans being considered by thecommittee.
“They both have golf, they both have abetter golf course,” he said. “These are thetwo optionsthat arein front of thesteering committee and, in this state,
could be changed because theyare going to go back out for more meetings.”
Apublic survey about the master planreceived over 3,000 comments.Suggestions to preserve the golf courseasit is nowwhile creating more family-friendly and everyday recreation led theresponses,according to Sasaki.
Peter Davis, of Friends of CityPark Baton Rouge, said the two designs would change the footprint and shorten the golfcourse
The group has long been a staunchadvocatefor keeping the golf course intact
and recently put out apetition and hundreds of yard signs with that message.
“The two submitted plans do notshowthe original footprint of City Park Golf Course as it currentlyexists,” he said.
However, other people have asked forthe opposite, calling forexpanding the park’sservices with new additions.
Maggie Conarro, aBaton Rougeresidentand adirectorwithServe Louisiana, saidshe was excited about the tworecent designsbut hopes athird one is presented.
“I do think the designs right now are good;I’d love to see athird option with no golf,” she said. Conarrohas publicly spoken out about changing the park to provide more services, including possibly eliminating the golf course. For ahypothetical third design with no golf course, Conarro said some people would want open public space that could be used for avariety of activitiesrangingfromfestivalstokickball games.
“It can kind of be anything,” she said. “Right now, it just has one use.”
CatahoulaParish,home to about 800students,toAcadia Parish, with about 9,000 students.
Mizell’sproposedlegislation, Senate Bill 82, aims to halt that growth. Her bill sailedthrough the Senate and, more recently,cleared the House Education Committee by a10-3 margin. It awaits actiononthe House floor.The legislative session ends June 1.
Mizell floatedasimilar bill in 2024, initially with no exemptions,but it died in the Senate. She proposed that measure after adistrict she represents,Bogalusa City Schools, shifted in 2023 to afour-day week.
State law currently gives public schools, including charter schools, the authority to set their ownannual calendars —infact, it forbids state educationleaders from imposing or requiring preapproval for calendars. Schools just have to hold classes for aminimum number of minutes each year SB82 would add anew restriction on that authority.It would require thatschools operate for “five consecutive days” each week, except for legal holidays.
Mizell’slatest bill would exempt school districts with astate academic letter grade of an A— her 2024 bill, as revised, would have also exempted districts with Bletter grades. There are 12 Adistricts currently in Louisiana. Two of them, Cameron and Vernon parishes, already have four-day school weeks. Cameron is the oldest in the state, having adopted afourday week in 2008. Vernon shifted to afour-day week last fall.
In thecrosshairs
Theproposedlegislation wouldalsograndfather
“any city,parish, or other local school system that participates in afour day school week on or before December 31, 2025.”
The 15 districts with fourday weeks would qualify St. Helena Parish would also likely qualify; it goes back and forth between four-and five-day school weeks.
East Feliciana Parish, however,would not qualify It didn’tadopt afour-day week until Feb. 3—33days
Four-dayschool
when it opened in 2011.
“The whole reason for acharter school is to try something different,” Freiberg said. “They’re concernedyou might be tying their hands for things their schools might want to do.”
Mizell countered that school leaders are urging her to remove the four-day week as an option.
instruction by extending the length of the four remainingschool days.Mizell said longer school days are counterproductive.
“I’ve hadsuperintendents come to me and say,‘Please run the bill. We’re getting so much pressure in our districts. We need something to give us guidance so we can quit talking about it,’ ”Mizell recounted.
“If youextendthe day, they mayhavethe same (number of) hours in the week, but they are having very long school days,” Mizell told committee members. “A child’sbrain is pretty well fried by 2 (o’clock) in the afternoon.” Jackson Elementary Principal Megan Phillips disputed that assertion. She said many of her students stay in school late in the afternoon as part of afterschool programs.
too late.
East Feliciana’spublic schools Superintendent Keisha Netterville and seven other administrators from her district testified against SB82 at the April 23 House Education Committee meeting.
Netterville noted that East Felicianahas improved its state letter grade from aDtoaBinrecent years.
“Whendistrictsare meetingexpectations and makingthoughtful decisions, their authority should be respected and not removed retroactively,” Netterville said.
“Employees have signed contracts, families have made arrangements and districts have aligned instructional plans.Reversing thesedecisions at this stage creates confusion and instability and ultimately impacts students the most.” Mizell was unmoved.
Thestate senator toldthe committee that thefifth day of school children miss each week is too crucial to allow schools to skip.She waved away arguments that districts can offset student’slearningloss and hunger with special programsheldonout-of-school days or that an extra day away from school will free familiestodoproductive things on those days.
“It would be lovelyifon thefifth day when they are
‘Fried’or‘engaged’
not attending school, they could be attending music lessons, they could be going on family outings, they could be having appointments to have their braces done,” Mizell said. “That’s notthe reality in lots of Louisiana.”
Changessought SB82stillhas at least one hurdletosurmount.
Rep. Roy DarylAdams, D-Jackson, has proposed aHouse floor amendment that would push back the grandfathering dateuntil Feb.20, after East Feliciana, aparishherepresents, made its decision. If the House approvesSB82 with Adams’ amendment, it would need to return to the Senate for afinalvote.
Adams said that before theHouse Education CommitteeheaskedMizell to consider his amendment then,but he said Mizell was unwilling to consider any changes to herbill.
Adams said thestate should notbeimpinging on local autonomy in favor of aone-size-fits-all approach
“Whatworks in Shreveportmightnot work in East Feliciana,” Adams said.
During the committee meeting, Rep. Barbara Freiberg, R-BatonRouge, aretired educator,asked Mizell if she would be willing to amend her bill to grandfather in East Feliciana or perhaps add ways
thatdistricts could get a waiver so they could have afour-dayweek,but Mizell did not express any willingness to do so Freiburg said she alsohas been hearing from charter school leaders—atleast onecharterschool,A-rated Slaughter Community Charter School, has afourdayweek,dating back to
Four-day school weeks have clearly increased in popularitynationwide sincethe COVID pandemic.
For instance, in Texas, the numberofschoolsusing such ascheduleincreased from 30 pre-pandemicto more than 500 today
The research over the past few decades on the impact of afour-day week has been mixed.
In areview of 11 studies publishedinJune,the University of Oregon found that overall “there wasno evidence of large positive effects.” The schools that faredbest, though, did not cutback on overalltime in class.
School districts typically compensate forthe loss of
“Those kids are still engagedeventhoughthey have days later than we would have with our fourday school week,” Phillips testified.
Jonathan Loveall, adata and communications supervisorinEastFeliciana rattled off multiple benefits of alonger school day,saying it allowsteachers to really dig into whattheyare teaching.
“What it really allows forare extendedblocks throughout the school day forour students to have more time with reading, more time withmath,” Loveall said.
Email CharlesLussierat clussier@theadvocate. com
Rapper moves annual Boosie Bash DUO IN TUNE
BY JA’KORI MADISON staff writer
As Boosie Bash heads into its seventh year things are different, with the event coming to Lafayette for the first time.
On Wednesday, rapper Torrence Hatch Jr., better known as Boosie Badazz, visited Northgate Mall ahead of a string of events in Lafayette, including the annual Boosie Bash, which will be at the Cajundome this summer with a lineup of special guest appearances.
“I’m blessed, and every year I get more excited. It’s my biggest show of the year,” Hatch said. “I do it by myself, and of course, I have a team around me, but it’s something I invested in and prepare for mentally all year round as soon as the previous bash is over.” Lafayette Parish School Board member Joshua Edmond and the athletic department at Carencro High School, including coach Gavin Peters, welcomed Hatch with an official Carencro High football jersey featuring his birth year, along with a helmet signed by students.
“We wanted to present something to him, raise the bar for our students and give them an experience they can remember while also bringing exposure to our schools,” Edmond said.
The bash has been held in Baton Rouge, the rapper’s hometown, since its inception in 2017. But this year, it will be in Lafayette. Saturday’s Boosie Bash VII will feature guests YFN Lucci, Plies, Sexyy Red, Big Boogie, H3ADBAND, BG, Baby Mel and Flau’jae.
“I wanted to bring it to the flats this time I think it will not only give a different atmosphere and vibe, but it also brings revenue to the city So it’s a win on both ends,” Hatch said.
When asked why Lafayette, Hatch said things in his hometown were not aligning.
“You know, I had problems. Between prices with extra fees and just some people being against me, it just felt like I needed to try a different space,” he said “I mean this is a place for fun and it has shown that because every year has been successful with no issues.”
Back in February, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill took legal action against Hatch, saying the rapper used the hazing death of Southern University student Caleb Wilson to promote the 2025 Boosie Bash. Wilson was a trumpet player in the university’s Human Jukebox.
Hatch announced at the time that he was working with the Wilson family and the Human Jukebox to launch the Caleb Wilson Memorial Scholarship, and added that some of the proceeds from the festival would go to that scholarship fund. But according to Murrill, neither Wilson’s parents nor Southern gave consent for organizers to use their son’s name in connection with the event. Murrill said in a statement she intended to take legal action, “due to their misappropriation of his name and image to promote their forprofit event. This is not a charitable event.” Hatch did not directly respond to Murrill’s allegations.
“Outside of what people may portray this fest to be, this is all about a good time and bringing something back to my state,” the rapper said. “I look forward to doing this every year so nothing can stop that. It’s for the community to have something fun and enjoyable.”
For information on Boosie Bash tickets, VIP packages and event details, visit cajundome.com.
Roman tombstone returns home to Italy
2,000-year-old marker found in N.o. backyard
BY POET WOLFE staff writer
A 2,000-year-old Roman tombstone that captured global attention when it was found in a New Orleans backyard last year is back home in Italy
The ancient grave marker was one of two relics found in the U.S and returned to Italy as part of an effort to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property. Both items, including a reliquary urn recovered in Boston that carries the remains of a possible saint, were presented during a ceremony in Rome. The event celebrated an ongoing collaboration between American and Italian officials to help preserve cultural heritage.
The grave marker will return to the National Archaeological Museum in Civitavecchia, its original home, though the museum is temporarily closed for renovation, according to Susann Lusnia, an associate professor of classical studies at Tulane University who helped investigate the relic
It was one of 21 tablets that disappeared after the museum was destroyed in Allied bombings in World War II before it reopened in the 1970s.
The grave marker made its way to the U.S and eventually New Orleans, where it was inherited by Erin Scott O’Brien from her grandparents, who met in Italy while her grandfather was stationed there during World War II. It remains unclear whether the stone was brought back by her grandmother or grandfather O’Brien placed the stone in her garden but forgot about it when she moved out of her home in the Carrollton neighborhood in 2018.
It remained hidden under a tangle of thick vines and dirt until the home’s current owners, Danielle Santoro and her husband, Aaron Lorenzo, discovered it while doing yard work. The unearthing set off a global mystery that stretched across continents and was eventually solved by local experts, underscoring New Orleans’ instinct to preserve history in all of its forms.
Soon after the discovery Santoro an anthropologist at Tulane
— reached out to her colleagues in Latin and classical studies for help.
Using key phrases from the stone’s Latin engraving, Lusnia
determined the tombstone originated in a cemetery in Civitavecchia, Italy, long before its display in the museum. She also identified the man it honored.
The gravestone begins with the words: “To the spirits of the dead for Sextus Congenius Verus,” according to a translation by Lusnia. It notes he served in the
military for 22 years and lived to the age of 42. His heirs, who commissioned the marker, described him in the engraving as “well deserving.”
Meanwhile, Ryan Gray — an archaeologist and professor at the University of New Orleans zeroed in on census records to learn who lived in the Carroll-
ton home after the war and who their neighbors were. The search initially led nowhere, but after Gray wrote an article about the discovery for the Preservation Resource Center, national outlets picked up the story, eventually reaching O’Brien.
This summer, Gray will travel with a group of students conducting an excavation in Italy, about an hour outside of Civitavecchia. They plan to view the tombstone at the museum and meet with experts in cultural preservation to celebrate its return.
Both Gray and Lusnia welcomed the news of its repatriation, which was announced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday “We’re delighted that it has made its way back to its proper home,” Gray said, “And we’re really excited that we’re going to be able to bring some of our New Orleans people to see where it’s supposed to be.”
PHoTo PRoVIDED By DANIELLA sANToRo
The ancient grave marker was returned to Italy as part of an effort to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property
PHoTo PRoVIDED By THE U.s MIssIoN To ITALy, PUBLIC DIPLoMACy sECTIoN
An ancient Roman tombstone found in the backyard of a New orleans home in March 2025 is now back home in Italy
sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN
A pair of black-bellied whistling ducks walk along the shore of Capitol Lake recently in Baton Rouge
Landlordsseektobepaidfor pandemic losses in lawsuit
Plaintiffs hope to reacha deal with the Trumpadministration
BY MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press
BOSTON Just monthsintothe pandemic, MatthewHaines, likelandlords across the country, learned he was barred from evicting tenants who didn’tpay their rent undera federal eviction moratorium that lasted almost ayear —costing himand his investors over $1 million Now,the 57-year-old Texanishoping to get some relief.
Haines is among more than1,500 property owners who filed afederal lawsuit arguing the moratorium enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violated the Fifth Amendment by unlawfully denying them compensation. Plaintiffs range from those who lost thousandsofdollars to one who lost over $14.5 million.
After initially losing in the Court of Federal Claims in 2022, theplaintiffs wononappeal andare nowinsettlement discussions with the Justice Department. Landlords are hoping to recoup as much as $1.5 billion— a fraction of what the industry lost.
“It’s importantfor us to stand up when agroup like the CDC unilaterally,functionally,decides that they have aright to oversee our business,”said Haines, who owns three rental communities with 240 units in Arlington and Irving, Texas
“What Ihope that we will accomplish and, to some extent, we already have,isvindicationfor ourselves,” he said. “But what’smoreimportant to me is that hopefully my investors will recover some of thatmoney that they should have had coming in over the last six years.”
The federal eviction moratorium lasted from September 2020 through July 2021, and was among the pandemic’smost divisive policies. It ended after the SupremeCourt ruled the CDC lacked authority to impose the ban without congressional authorization. The Justice Department,responding to Associated Pressquestions about the landlords’ case, saidit does not comment on ongoing litigation. Moratoriums werealso imposed in 43 states and scoresofcities,which lasted longer than the federal ban because states and cities have broader regulatory powers than federal agencies like the CDC.
Landlords say the bans devastated their businesses. Unable to collect rent, many were forced to take on debt, lay off staff, delay repairs and,in some cases, sell their property. They say the impact lingers, with longer delays forevictions, tighter screening for riskiertenants and growing numbers of owners getting out of the rental business altogether
Tenant advocates counter that eviction bans were alifesaver.They credit them with keepingmillionsof tenants housed during the pandemic and slowing the spread of thecoronavirus. They also argue landlordswere already paid —inthe form of tens of billions of dollars in rental assistance From the moment the pandemic hit, Haines said he knew he was in trouble: Many tenants lost their jobs, so he didn’trequire new leases and tried to be flexiblewith thosewho couldn’t pay. But when the moratorium took hold, it was the biggest threat he’dfaced in 30 years in real estate.
“It was terrifying,” Haines said. “Weknew almost immediately that we
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violated theFifth Amendment by unlawfully denying them compensation.
were going to amassive deficit in cash flow that we probably weren’tgoing to be abletocover.”
Asurvey by the National Rental Home Council,a tradeassociation, published weeks after thefederal moratorium ended, found that half of small landlords had tenants whomissed rent and athird sold or planned to sell properties. Themoratorium andbacklog of eviction cases cost owners $57 billion, according to thelawsuit, with more than 10 million delinquent renters in just the ban’s first four months
“Public health measures like this, theymay be well intentioned,” said CreightonMagid, alawyer for the plaintiffs. “Butwhen thegovernment imposes this type of moratorium, the financial burden should be borne by thegovernment, notindividual property owners.”
Liz Leone, who has 52 apartments in Las Vegasand is part of the lawsuit, said themoratorium almost forced herout of business.She lost over $250,000, she said, and borrowed $60,000 from the federal Small Business Administration “just to keep my nose above water.” She’sstill paying it off.
“I was definitely questioning whether Iwould survive,” said Leone, who’s been in thebusiness for 35 years.“You delay allthe expenses you can, but we still had to pay ourproperty taxes. We still have to pay our utilities. So that’swhatyou did: Iborrowed.”
Housing advocates maintainthe policykeptfamilieshoused, noting a significant spike in evictions after the moratorium ended.
Eviction bans “were apowerful intervention to keep people in their homes,” said Kathryn Leifheit, assistant professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health andlead author of astudy publishedinApril in the medical journal JAMA Network Open thatfoundhomelessness rose 11% in atypical statein2022, and would haveincreased 20% without state eviction moratoriums.
That was the case for Dulcee Barnes.
The 28-year-old andher two roommateslost their restaurant jobs in Miamiduring the pandemic. Twomonths behind on rent, theywould have been evictedifnot for themoratorium
“It gave us breathing room. It took away the fear of having to possibly pack up within 24 hours and live in somebody’scar or couch surfing,” she said Eric Dunn,director of litigation at the NationalHousing Law Project,a
tenants’ rights nonprofit,disputed that landlords suffered significant losses, saying they were able to collectrent and selltheir properties during the moratorium.
They alsobenefited from $46.5 billioninfederal emergency rental assistance, whichthe Eviction Lab at PrincetonUniversityfound in April was largely targeted to areas where landlords filed the mostevictions before thepandemic.
Landlords saidrental assistance neverfully compensated them for their losses, contending programs were often mired in red tape andpoorly run. States were slowtospendthe money,struggledtoset up programs and, in the case of Arkansas and Nebraska, didn’taccept all federal funding.
Landlords alsocomplainedsome tenants took advantage of the moratorium to liverentfree. “They were doingthingslike buying cars,” Leone said. “They didn’thave to pay rent, and here Iwas driving acar that was 18 years old.”
Despite themoratoriumending five years ago, landlords sayfallout from the policy remains. They are taking fewer risks and being morecautious aboutrenting to tenants with checkered rental histories.
Rick Jones,vice chairman of Management Services Corporation, which owns 4,000apartment units in Virginia and is party to the lawsuit, said that’spartly due to increasing fraud. Applicantsfake employment records and payroll checks,hesaid, adding: “There are companies thatjust advertise really creating awhole new identity for you.”
“Most propertyowners and managers realize that it’smore important to keep thatunit vacant thantoput a badresident in. That’sprobably what theeviction moratoriumreinforced,” said Jones, whose company lostmore than $230,000 in unpaid rent during thepandemic.
“When you have somebody that’s bad and you can’tget them out, you’re helpless.
Haines said he’s increased tenant screenings and turns away somelowincome applicantshemight have accepted beforethe pandemic.That’s partly because evicting atenant takes months longerthan beforethe pandemic, he said.
“It’sdone moreharm,” he said, to low-income people “that we might have considered leasing an apartment to that now we simply can’t take the risk.”
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Mt.ZionBaptistChurch Innercity 24400 Eleanor Dr Plaquemine,LAat 11am
Huey Pierce Trahan, Jr., affectionately knowntoall as "Butch" passedaway peacefully on May1,2026. An experthunter, trapper, andfisherman, Butchlived with adeep respectfor the outdoors andsharedthat knowledge with others throughout hislife. Butch retiredfromFeliciana Forensic Facility after manyyearsofservice.He wasa giftedstoryteller whose tales captivatedall wholistenedand theauthor of TheGobbler and theLooking Glass. He was also an accomplished NMLRA champion and record holder. As alongtime Assistant Scoutmasterwith Boy ScoutTroop 51 and afoundingmember of theCollegeofKnowledge,Butchsharednot only skills but valuesthatwill endure in those he mentored. Hisinvolvement with youth also included coaching Little League baseballand Peewee footballteams. Hisgrandsons were hispride andjoy though.Heleaves them with alegacyofrespectfor nature, aheart of wonder, anda thirst for adventure He is survivedbyhis sister, Linda Young;brothers, DeWayneTrahan (Florine) andRonald "Rocky"Trahan(Shannon); sister-inlaw,Sharon"AuntShay" Thompson,grandsons, Warren"Tray" Torrance (Mandy), Logan Pierce Torrance (Shelby), andSage Yetta; great-grandchildren William "Willy,",Juniper "MissFussy Pants," Wilder
Pierce "Mud Turtle,"Cooper "PrincessWhinyBaby," Rivers "Fritz" Torrance, andAxel Yetta; nephews, Thomas Ray Freeman and Troy Freeman (Sandi); niece, Shelley"Shell Shock Shelley" Milliken; greatnieces, BreannaHopkins (Richard), Lynzlee Milliken, andCarley"T-Baby" Milliken(fiancé Sammy); and hisbest huntingbuddy, CharlieSue Moss, and the many scouts he mentored in Troop51. He wasprecededindeathbyhis parents, Huey P. Trahan and Naomi Trahan;his beloved wife, MarshaTrahan;stepmother, Margie Trahan; daughter, Daria Nicole Gregg; son,Warren Ladd Trahan;nephew, Ret Michael Thompson;and brothers-in-law,Keith Thompson andBobby Young.Pallbearers will be JameyNorsworthy, Sean "Jim"Moss, Walter Bradley, Damon"MudCat" DeLee,Kevin Tomb, and Nolan J. Parrenin. Honorary pallbearers will be Gerald "Scooter"Boyette, Robert Threeton,Hal Ware, Ronald "Coonie" Giroir, Steve Lea, RoyDarryl Adams, Mark Anders, andDarren Gidel Butch- proudArmyveteran,giftedstoryteller,and mentor to many young men -was alivinglegend He will be deeply missed, buthis stories,lessons, and love for theoutdoors will live on in all whoknew him. Visitation willbeat Charlet Funeral Home in ZacharyonTuesday, May 5, 2026 from 5pm until 8pm. Visitation continues on Wednesday, May6,2026 at Jackson United Methodist Churchfrom 9am untilservice at 11am. Burial will be in Jackson Cemetery Share memoriesat www.CharletFuneralHome com.
BYDONATO PAOLO MANCINI
Bloomberg News (TNs)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome later this week, according to people familiar with the matter,after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Donald Trump clashed over the Iran war and her defense of Pope Leo XIV Rubio’sstaff sent details of his visit to Italiancoun-
terpartslast week, the people said,speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss advance planning. Rubio plans to meetwith Vatican officials, as well as Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, they added. Ameeting with Meloni is also possible,they added.
Meloni and Trump clashed publiclylast month aftershe said Trump’sattacks on the Pope were“unacceptable.” Trump, in turn, said he
was “shocked” by Meloni’s stance on the Iran war in an interview withItalian daily Corriere della Sera,saying she lacked courage. Trump alsosaid last week that was open to reducing the U.S. troops presencein Italy,athreat thatmay seem morereal after the Pentagon said Friday that it plansto draw down about 5,000 U.S. troops in Germany,another NATO ally Trumphas been feuding with.
ByThe Associated Press
AssoCIATED PREss FILE PHoTo By ToNy GUTIERREZ
MatthewHaines, owner of the oakwood Apartments, standsonMarch 17 at thecommunityhousing location in Arlington, Texas.Haines is among more than1,500 property owners who filed afederal lawsuit arguing the moratorium enacted by
Beef up
soccer coverage before U.s. hosts WorldCup
On March31, the last of 48 teams bookedtheir place in this summer’sFIFAMen’sWorld Cup
The U.S. Men’sNational Team hosted Belgium and Portugal in some of their final matches before the tournament starts. The stage is now finally set for what is advertised to be themost well-attended edition of themostwatched sporting event on Earth There are much more important topics to discuss right now.But,I wasdisappointed to see no mention.
Soccer is often relegated inthis publication. Full-length stories are nonexistent.Neither MLS nor NWSL scores appear.Readers are left to scrape the wire reports and peruse highschool scores. Perhaps understandably so. Louisianahas no professional team and other sports rationallydeserve attention.
But, will the content come? This summer,the United States, along with Canada and Mexico,will host the Men’sWorld Cup. The last time the United States hosted the tournament was in 1994. This golden opportunity to embrace the sport may not come again for another three decades.
Some may balk at such arequest. The sport is, relatively speaking, unappreciated in Louisiana. But, its popularityconsistentlygrows. Sources vary and aredifficult to localize, but nearly as many Americans watch soccer as they do baseball.Exposure and coverage are vital to the growth of asport.Just look at the explosion of the WNBA. This newspaper’scoverage of the last Men’sWorld Cupleft muchtobedesired. In 2018, reporter Stephen Rea passionately educated us. In 2022, however, nearly all of the coverageappeared as sports betting andprop betadvice, which minimized the sporting spectacle.
Storylines of the tournament already abound. The World Cup trophy willvisit New Orleansin May. Will the publicknow? When soccer arrives, will you inform your readers commensuratewith this once-in-a-generation chance?
MJ HERNANDEZ Neworleans
YOUR VIEWS
Utility linesand apower pole stand on March 23 along Claiborne Avenue in Neworleans as part of EntergyNew orleans’ accelerated resilience plantostrengthen the electric grid
WhyruinLouisiana’s affordable electricity?
Louisiana’s electric grid is thenation’smost affordable. According to theconservative American Legislative Exchange Council, Louisianans paid an average of 8.8 cents per kilowatt hour to rank second in affordable electricity in the U.S. in 2024. While electricity priceshave increased acrossthe country due mainly to therising price of natural gas and the expense of deferred maintenance, this monthElectricChoice.com ranks Louisiana numberone for least costly for residential powerat12.44-centsper kWh in April 2026. It’s atestament to theeffectivenessofthe elected regulators of the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
But the conservative Pelican Institutefor Public PolicyinNew Orleans justpublished “Shock to theSystem” calling for radical changes to themanagement of Louisiana’selectricity supplychain. In short,every change the Pelican Institute calls for would make Louisiana more like the mismanaged and moreexpensive grids
of Texas and California.
The Pelican Institute calls for breaking apart the supply chain into independent components to give consumers choices for electricity suppliers. As therankings demonstrate, every statewith so-called “consumer choice”has electricity thatcosts morethan Louisiana. These electric suppliers would buy electricity from thesame generatorsLouisiana usestoday and, of course,add markups to thecustomers.
In my home state of Texas, the retailers aren’t requiredtoprovide reliable service, andTexas consumers were forced by the legislature to paybillions of dollars to bail out the retailers following thedeadly grid failure of 2021. Why does thePelican Institute want to bring those sameunreliable retailers to Louisiana?
It begs the question, if theLouisiana grid isn’t broken, why does thePelican Institute want to fix it just to benefit special interests?
ED HIRS energyeconomist, University of Houston
schulerstatuedeservesplace of honor
Iwas very disappointed with your article aboutthe Schuler Statue. It was my understanding that the statue was commissioned to honor UncleJack, not to show him as humble andsubservient. In 1926, the sum of $4,300 was asmall fortune. Statues were being made of generals andpresidents, not old Black servants. As he stood in thecircular entrance to the
LSURural Life Museum, one of the finest historical exhibitsinthis country,I took it as aplace of honor,welcoming us to the facility Now he is back somewhere in the woods where you almost have to search tofind him.Let us be adultsand move him back to the entrance. I would be glad to donatetothis cause.
MICHAEL DEFELICE
Zachary
Legislature’s disgracefulact in Duncan case will be remembered by voters
As avoter,watching the governor and Republicans in the Legislature race to nullify the election of Calvin Duncanfor Clerk of Orleans Criminal Court before he could even be inaugurated was painful. It is undemocratic, un-American, disrespectful to Duncanand disrespectful to all voters, including supporters of other candidates. If the powers-thatbe in Baton Rouge wantedtoconsolidate the two clerk of court offices in New Orleans because they think it is more efficient, why didn’tthey do it in 2023, or 2024, or 2025? That would have allowed timefor transition. Moreover,itwould have allowed the voters to pick who would hold that new office. Instead, it was only after Duncan won the election last fall by awide margin, no less —that the push to eliminate the office became an urgent priority.Itdoesn’thave to be this way.The bill to reduce the number of judges is timed to the end of the sitting judges’ terms. That does right by both elected officials and voters. Targeting Duncan for different treatment —Why? Because he was wrongfully convicted and later exonerated? —isshameful and unjustifiable.
We,the people, should get to vote forour local officials —not have the governor and his legislative allies nullifyour choices. I wonder how they would feel if this happened in their city or town, or to them personally? These are the samepoliticians that supported posting the TenCommandments in classrooms. Maybe we need to post the Golden Rule in the State Capitol: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, forthis sumsupthe Law and the Prophets.”
Isincerely hope the governor and Legislature reconsider what they have done and respect the will of the voters.’
STEVENSPIRES Neworleans
Worrymore aboutvictims
OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.o. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@theadvocate.com. To sEND Us ALETTER sCAN HERE
Data centershave moreimpacts than just on energy and water consumption. They drive an influx of newcomerstoanarea, and manyof those areas are quiterural and thus unprepared in terms of infrastructure. Consider: The higher volume of traffic on unequipped streetsand roads, ahighercompetition for food and goods in places already likely food deserts, the lack of enough space to accommodate public “slots” such as hospital beds or school seats,and so on This all drives up costs for locals and increases bills and the cost of living.
Iprompt the imagining of an even worse scenario: the rerouting of water and ousting
of people who can no longer afford to live and work in an area, again, often farmland in such acase, leading to less food readily available; which, again, would drive up costs, but now in agreater area, and then, given the scale of these projects, later nationwide. Idon’tmean to be an alarmist or adoomsdayer,but Iurge greater thought regarding the impacts of data centers, not just within our state, but within our nation. This is an issue that will transcend generational and geographic boundaries and needs to be taken very seriously ELISE VERHEUGEN Metairie
Trumphas no business tellingpopeanythingabout Christianity
President Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV,saying the Pope is “a veryliberal person,” “not doing avery good job”and “radical left.” Examplesofirony would be afire station burning down, apsychic canceling an appointment due to unforeseen circumstance andbe-
ing stuck in traffic on your waytothe gym
Now top of the list: Trumptelling the pope how to be aChristian. Anonymous quote could be thepope’sresponse: “It’sOKifyou don’t like me, not everyone has good taste.” TERRYGRUNDMANN Kenner
Letter writer TiaFields bemoans the loss of judicial control of the East Baton Rouge Parish District and the number of Black criminals on death row
Twopoints should be brought up. These criminals were convicted of such serious crimes they merit the death penalty.They put themselves in this situation. It wasn’tshoplifting or parking tickets.
What about the impact on the families of these victims who have lost abrother,husband or wife,father or mother? Where is their justice? Who is going to be afather or mother to achild killed by one of these criminals?
Fields worriesabout the criminals on death row? Where is the advocate for the victims? RICHARD LEVY Neworleans
sTAFF FILE PHoTo By DAVID GRUNFELD
Duncan
COMMENTARY
THECALLAIS DECISION
Thesupreme Courtstruck down amajority Black congressional district in Louisiana on Wednesday in a landmarkruling withwide-reachingeffects across the country.
What kind ofdemocracy will we leave forour kids?
The Supreme Court’sdecisioninLouisiana v. Callais is more than alegal ruling. It is amoment that asks all of us, regardless of party or background, to reflecton a simple but powerful question: Who gets to be fully represented in ourdemocracy? Here in Louisiana, that question is not abstract. It is real, and it affects communities across our state. At its core, this case is about whetherevery citizen has afair chance to elect leaders who understandtheir lives, their concerns and their hopesfor the future.
tunity.When representation is weakened, those issuesdonot disappear.They simply become harder for some communities to influence.
High courtgot Louisiana redistrictingrulingright
For generations, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has servedasa guardrail. It was never meant to sit quietly on ashelf. It was designed to ensure that the right to vote leads to real representation. Over time,wehave seen those protections weakened. This latestdecisionraises serious concerns about whether that promise can still be fully realized.
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter GUEsT CoLUMNIsT
This decisionalso has implications beyond Louisiana. It signals ashift that could affect how representation is shaped in states acrossthe country That is why this moment matters, notjust to onegroup or one region, but to the integrity of our democracy as awhole. We arenow at acrossroads.We canchoose apath that strengthens participation and builds confidence in our institutions. Or we can allow divisions to deepen and voices to be diminished.
Some will say this ruling movesustoward amore neutral, colorblind system. But Louisiana’shistory reminds us that policies that seem neutralcan still have unequal effects. We have seen it before Rules once defended as fair were used in ways that left many voices unheard. That is alesson we cannot afford to forget. The reality is that representation matters. When people feel seen and heard in government, trust grows. Whenthey do not, that trust beginstoerode. And when trust erodes, our entire system feelsthe strain. This is not just about maps orlines onpaper.Itisabout whether communitieshave ameaningful voice in decisions that shape their daily lives. It is about health care, education, jobs, publicsafety and oppor-
Ibelieve Louisiana is better than that. Ibelieve our country is betterthan that. The promise of America has always been rootedinthe idea thatevery voice counts. Thatpromisehas never been easy, and it hasnever been automatic. It requireseffort, vigilance and ashared commitment to fairness
While Ivehemently disagree withthis decision, Iremain committed to the work ahead. That meanscontinuing to engage, to listen and to seek solutions that bring peopletogether rather than pull them apart.
At the end of the day,this is not just about one ruling. It is about the kind of democracy we want to leave for the next generation.
And that is something every Louisianan hasa stakeinprotecting.
Troy Carter represents Louisiana’s second district in the U.S. Houseof Representatives
After theSupreme Court decisionin Louisiana v. Callais, state legislators must return to the congressionalmap drawing board. This time,don’t use race. The Supreme Court struckdownthe congressional maps, saying that states may notredistrict to achieve racial purposes. When legislative sponsors in Baton Rouge were asked during debateonthe now-overturned mapswhy theydrew theoffending map in Callais, they were honest: They wanted districts based on skin color Vice Chair of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee Rodney Lyons, D-Marrero, saidthey wantedto“createtwo majority Black districts.” WhenRep BerylAmedee, R-Houma, askedcommittee chair and mapsponsor Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, if the bill was intended to create Black districts, he responded: “yes ma’am.” The legislative record is full of explicit statements from lawmakers about how they deliberately created congressional districtstoallocate power by race. It was 1960 all over again —but the racial gamesmanship was reversed. It is immoral and wicked to give one person power because he is Black, just as it was to give others power a century ago because they were White. The courtheld that Section 2ofthe Voting RightsAct is alive and well, and sometimes remedial districts must be drawn after aplaintiff satisfies an extraordinary burden. The Supreme Courtdecision is on the
moral side of history.Myorganization’samicus brief on behalf of eight legislators, including Rep. Amedee, stakedout the moraland historical imperative of treating people equally andwithout regard to race. The authors of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitutionprohibitedthe use of race to allocatepolitical power.It was arainbowafter the storm. The amendment containedthe promise thatvoting rights and powerallocation should never be leveragedbased on race. Since1870, ournation has struggledtofulfill the raceblind promisesinthe Constitution. Separate wasn’tequal. Soon afterpassage, the dream of the Fifteenth Amendment began to wither in state capitals, registration offices andinthe gunfire of the White League on New Orleansstreets.
Thenthe pendulum swung toofar the otherdirection, with racial setaside districts, seemingly endless court battlesand thenthe brazen racial gerrymandering like the Supreme Court struckdowninCallais. With this decision, the dignity of everyAmerican wasprotected. Place this opinionalongside other great moments of courage from the high court —like Brown v. Board, Loving v. Virginia andStudents for Fair Admissions vHarvard.
J. Christian Adams is the president and general counsel for the Public InterestLegal Foundation and serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Louisiana voters should defeat Amendment1
at thepolls
Consider this hypothetical. Anew governor takes officealong with asubstantially new legislature. On day one, thegovernor fires hundreds of attorneys, engineers and other state employees. Mostof those dismissed are longtime classified government workers who have developed expertise in matters related to state contracts, procurement, administrative procedure and, in thecase of engineers, road and bridgedesign and construction practices. All of the new employees hired to replace them are paid substantially more than their predecessors. Most have made campaign contributions to the governororwell-placed legislators. Far-fetched? Improbable? Unlikely? Not if Amendment 1onthe May 16 ballot is passed by voters statewide Currently almost 90% of stateemployees are classified and cannot beremoved at the whim of an elected official. They cannot engage in political activity either.This is afair trade-off. Unclassified employees, on the other hand, are “at will” workers answerable only to theofficial appointing them. They can be politically active.Many typically supportthe political campaigns of the individuals for whom they work. They also generallyare paid ahigherwage than their classified counterparts.
Proponentsofthe proposed amendment argue that it is toodifficult to fire bad employeesand thatthe state has difficulty attracting good talent. The latter is often true, but it will not be remedied by passage of this amendment
Jay Dardenne GUEsT CoLUMNIsT
It is correct to saythat thereisa process for firing aclassified worker.Itcan take moretime than firing an unclassified employee and it certainly takes documentation, but this is precisely what managers must do. They mustmanage their workforce, provide counseling when needed and properly record deficiencies thatultimately may justify termination. Ispent almost 20 years running three departments of Stategovernment: the SecretaryofState’soffice; the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and the Division of Administration. Iwas authorized to hire alimited number of unclassified employees and supervised thousands of classifiedemployees,the vast majority of whom were hard working, dedicated publicservants. Ialso fired anumber of individuals, some unclassified but most classified. Under the regimes of Huey Long, Earl Long and others, therewas no classified civilservice system.This changed with reform governors suchasSam Jones and Bob
Kennon. During the latter’s single term, the Department of Civil Service obtained constitutionalstatus. Gov.Jones implemented early vestiges of acivil service program only to seeitrepealed during asubsequent Earl Long term. Until Gov.Kennon made it afocal point of his 1952 campaign andsaw it enshrined in thestate constitution, political spoils werethe order of the day.The civil servicesystem created an opportunity for workers to obtain employment with the securityofknowing thatthey could notbe fired, without cause, for political reasons.
In 2025, Gov.Jeff Landrysought to reclassify 394 attorneyslots and 506 engineer positions from classified to unclassified. The proposal would not have affected anycurrent employees.However,ifthose positions had been reclassified, thedoorwould be opened for politics to inevitably impactthe hiring process. The constitutionally created Civil Service Commission, which is the human resourceentityfor state government, properly refused this request. Thereafter, this proposed constitutional amendment passed the Legislature. Stateemployees are subject to pay scales that allow for advancement and raises, but they typically earn far less than comparable positions in theprivate sector.This is as it should be. State employees are protected from political abuse andben-
efit from astrong retirement system and benefits package. Numerous studies have been undertaken to makestate pay more competitive, but it will never nor should it exceed that in the private sector.Itis inconceivable that well paid professionals will leave the private sector to enter unprotected employment with the state unless unclassified salaries go up dramatically
The ballot language is deceptively simple:
“Doyou support an amendment to allow the legislature to remove or add officers, positions, and employees to the unclassified state civil service?”
Without any details identifying potential next steps, it will be lefttoamajority of the Legislature to provide the proverbial “devil in the details.”
The passage of Amendment 1would be ahuge step backward forLouisiana at a timewhen we need manyforward steps to improve our overall economy and to make government moreresponsible and efficient. Converting classified jobs to unclassified jobs will not do so.
JayDardenneisa former Louisiana state senator,secretary of state, lieutenant governor andcommissioner of administration
AssoCIATED PREss FILE PHoToByRAHMATGUL
J. Christian Adams GUEsT CoLUMNIsT
If youenjoyed the weatheryesterday, youwillenjoyitagain today.Expect amostlysunnyand mildday with alight breeze. Temperaturesthis afternoon will be slightly below average, rising only to the upper 70stolow 80s.Winds will be southerlyat5 mph.Rain chanceswillbeatzero and likely won’t rise again until Wednesday. TheUVIndex is at the “veryhigh” level, so if you’re outdoors for anyextended period, be suretoprotect your skin. Looking ahead,there is achance of severe storms Wednesday.
Trumpkeeps us up in theair over batchofUFO files
Possible release generatesbuzz, skepticism
BY COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO files uncovered by his administration,generating amix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new revelations around questionsof alien life.
Trumpstarted stoking interest in the extraterrestrial in February,directing federal agencies to release their records relatedtoextraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has built suspense with tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never before shared by the U.S. government.
“We’re going to be releasing alot of thingsthat we haven’t,” Trump said Wednesday at aWhite House event celebrating NASA astronauts. “I think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people.”
Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the secrets In the first week returning to office, he orderedthe release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.The disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known.
In the buildup to that release, Trump said “the American people deserve transparency and truth.” Now,asheturns to the sky, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-oldquestions may be on the way.His February directive on social media called for transparency around “alien and extra-
“Thefirst releaseswill beginvery,very soon,” he told supporters in Aprilata TurningPointUSA event in Phoenix. “So you can go out and see if that phenomenais correct. You’llfigureitout.”
Even before Trump’sdirective, the Pentagon was years into aprocesstodeclassify andrelease government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
Citing concerns over national security,Congress created an office in 2022 to investigateUAP anddeclassify as much material as possible.The office’s2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAPincidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever confirmed asighting of alien technology.Asecond report covering more recentsightingsisexpected to come soon
Thatagency,the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, is now working with theWhite House to release “never-before-seen UAPinformation,” accordingtoa Pentagon statement
Theoffice’sprevious director, however,said Trump’spromises were bluster,a“shinyobject” to distractAmericans fromthe war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, aphysicist andformer career intelligence officer who led theoffice until2023, said he hasseen thegovernment’s records andbelieves there are no bombshellrevelationstobefound
“Readers should notget their hopes up that there’s goingtobesome document with photos, interviewing thealiens when theycame down,” he said. “Because that just doesn’texist.”
Videospurporting to show alientechnology tend to have mundane explana-
tions, he said. Modern infraredcameras usedbythe U.S. military often capture jetengines andother hot objectsina long thermal bloom,which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of speedy,pill-shaped objects.
On Capitol Hill, thosetypes of videos have caught the attention of asmall group of Trump-alignedRepublicans who insist the Pentagonis holding back secrets.
The Task Forceonthe Declassification of Federal Secrets hasbeen conducting its owninvestigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military installations, whichthe panelsayspose athreat to national security andthe armed forces.
Lastfall, the task force heard testimonyfrom current and former service members whodescribed UAPencounters. In one case,asenior Navy officer saidhewas offthe coast of California in 2023 when he sawa glowing “Tic Tac” shapedobject emerge from
theocean and link up with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.
Trump’sinterest in the subject has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna,anAir Force veteran who co-chairs the taskforce. Luna has criticized what she calls “less than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.
In aMarch letter to DefenseSecretary Pete Hegseth,Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identified by whistleblowers andlabeled with names such as “Spherical UAP in clouds.”Her deadline for Hegseth came andwent,and no videos were produced.
Trump’sentry to theUFO fray drewapplause from Luna, who last year told podcaster Joe Roganthat she has seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can’thide from our docs request anymore!” Luna saidonsocial media after Trump’sdirective.
Trump appearsskeptical aboutthe existenceofextraterrestrial life. Addressing theTurning Point USA crowdinPhoenix,hesaid, “I figured this wasagood crowd because Iknow you people, you’re really into that. Idon’tknow if Iam.” Why he madethe revelation at that event, held at amegachurch, is unclear Aday earlier,Trumphad spoken in Las Vegas, not far from Area 51, atop-secret Cold Wartestsitethathas fueled UFO conspiracy theories.
Vice President JD Vance has described himself as “obsessed” with UFO files.
In March, he said he has been trying to find time to investigate Area 51 since he took office.
“I’ve still got three more years as vicepresident,” Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
“I will get to the bottom of the UFO files.” Invoking his Christian faith, Vance saidhebelievessightings reported to be aliens are ac-
tually the work of spiritual demons.
Even before Trump tackledthe topic, alienbuzz was already in the air
It’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie, “Disclosure Day.”Former President Barack Obama made a splash in February when he declared on apodcast that aliens are real. He later clarified that he had seen no evidence but that “the odds are good there’slifeout there.” Trump is hardly the first presidentdrawn to UFO mysteries. PresidentBill Clinton has said he once ordered areview of theRoswell Incident —something hadcrashedin1947 at aNew Mexico ranch and officials later said the debris wasthe remnants of ahigh-altitude weatherballoon —around its 50th anniversary in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter andRonaldReagan claimed to haveseenUFOsbefore their timeinthe White House. The U.S. government has been investigating UFO reports since the 1940s, in part to determine if they represent advanced technology from competing nations or “evidence of off-world technology,” according to the Defense Department’s2024 report. In onlinecommunities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump’spromise as astep in the right direction; others believe it will come to nothing. For people whofollow the topic closely, promises of big revelations have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, aPennsylvania State University professor whowrote abook on the history of UFOsightings. “There is almost no satisfactionthatispossible for manyofthe reallydiehard folks,”hesaid. “Soin asense, Ithink disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected no matter what comes out of this.”
Healthy pitching lifts LSU past S.C.
Tigers earn first sweep of season in sEC play
BY KOKI RILEY staff writer
LSU’s pitching was in a bad place last week.
The Tigers had lost their Friday starter less than an hour before the game. Their Saturday starter was already out for the year with an elbow injury, and their bullpen had struggled for much of the season. Those issues resulted in LSU getting swept on the road against Mississippi State But even without sophomore right-hander Casan Evans for another week, this weekend against South Carolina (22-27, 7-17 SEC) back at Alex Box Stadium was a completely different story LSU (28-21, 9-15) took down the Gamecocks 7-0 on Sunday thanks to another lengthy outing from senior right-hander Zac Cowan. The Tigers only needed four pitchers to get through 18 innings during Saturday’s doubleheader before Cowan tossed six innings to start the series finale.
Sunday’s victory completed a series sweep over South Carolina, LSU’s first of the season in Southeastern Conference play
“It’s great to sweep a series,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “Taking a look at the names that aren’t on the roster, this is a pretty good accomplishment for this group.” Cowan, in his second start in six days, allowed just two hits and didn’t give up a run. He threw a season-high 82 pitches after tossing 73 pitches (his season-high before Sunday) on Tuesday After surrendering a two-run walk-off home run last weekend at Mississippi State, Cowan has 14 strikeouts in 10 shutout innings this week.
“(He) should be hands down SEC pitcher of the week,” Johnson said. “I’ve talked about him for two years, how important he
ä see LSU, page 5B
SPORTS
Derby win pitted brother vs. brother down the stretch
BY JON HALE
Lexington Herald-Leader (TNs)
LOUISVILLE,Ky.— Brotherjockeyshavesquared off against each other in the Derby 11 times, but never before has a family rivalry played out like the 152nd Run for the Roses. Down the stretch, brothers Jose and Irad OrtizonGoldenTempoandRenegade,respectively, both came charging from the outside. As the pair passed leader Ocelli, it appeared eithercouldwin,butGoldenTempogainedthe edge, eventually winning by a neck.
Neither brother had won the Derby in a combined 19 starts. Now, Jose, the younger by a year can walk away with familial bragging rights in addition to the careerdefining victory
“Good for him, he ran second,” Jose said of his brother with a smile “Hopefully, he
gets the opportunity to win it one day. But it wasn’t today.”
Of the 11 previous matchups between brother jockeys in the Derby, Jose and Irad accounted for eight. They had squared off in each of the past five Derbys, but neither had finished in the money since 2019.
That year Jose finished third on Tacitus and Irad finished fourth on Improbable in the previous best combined finish for brother jockeys. Jose finished second on Good Magic in 2018, but Irad finished seventh on Hofburg.
Entering Saturday, Irad appeared to have the better shot at the win.
Renegade was the morning-line favorite and went off at 5-1. Golden Tempo was a long shot at 23-1.
ä see RIVALRY, page 5B
LSU football adds JUCO CB Williams
Tigers land five-star 2027 commitment
BY REED DARCEY and KOKI RILEY staff writers
Coach Lane Kiffin and his staff were look-
ing for cornerback depth, so they dipped into the junior college ranks to find it.
LSU’s newest defensive back is Lavonte Williams, a Georgia Military Academy corner who told Rivals on Saturday that he’s moving to Baton Rouge. Williams, a South Carolina native, appeared in 11 games last season, his first in junior college. He recorded 17 tackles, an interception and five pass break-ups.
Now he’ll join a cornerback room at LSU that was in need of an extra player
In a spring scrimmage, sophomore Aidan
Anding suffered a torn Achilles while intercepting a pass. He was expected to play a reserve role in 2026, behind starters DJ Pickett and PJ Woodland.
After Anding was injured, LSU’s second-team cornerbacks were Ja’Keem Jackson and Michael Turner
In previous years, the Tigers could’ve added a transfer to replenish their depth, but this offseason, the transfer portal will not reopen in the spring. So they recruited a junior college cornerback instead. Williams is expected to enroll this summer, Rivals reported.
LSU adds five-star commitment
Five-star tight end and Class of 2027 recruit Ahmad Hudson has committed to LSU football, he announced on social media
Sunday Hudson is the No. 1 tight end in the nation and the No. 18 player in the country,
according to the 247Sports Composite. He attends Ruston High in Ruston and is listed at 6-foot-6 and 239 pounds.
He’s also a star basketball player with scholarship offers from LSU, Alabama, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Ole Miss, among others Nebraska was the other finalist in his football recruitment.
Hudson is the fifth high school recruit to join LSU’s 2027 class, joining five-star edge rusher Jaiden Bryant, four-star quarterback Peyton Houston, four-star athlete Braylon Calais and four-star wide receiver Ah’Mari Stevens With Hudson committed to LSU, the Tigers now have pledges from three of the top-10 players in Louisiana’s 2027 class, per the 247Sports Composite. Hudson is the No. 3 player in Louisiana, only trailing five-star wide receiver and Texas commit Easton Royal and five-star interior offensive lineman Albert Simien.
Good for him, he ran second. Hopefully, he gets the opportunity to win it one day. But it wasn’t today.”
Jockey on his brother Irad oriz Jr
sTAFF FILE PHoTo By JAVIER GALLEGos LsU coach Lane Kiffin watches his team run drills during spring practice on March 24 at the team’s practice facility
JosE oRTIZ,
Golden Tempo ridden by Jose ortiz, left, wins the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby followed by Renegade ridden by his brother Irad ortiz Jr on saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. AP PHoTo By ABBIE PARR
FILE PHoTo By MICHAEL BACIGALUPI
LsU pitcher Zac Cowan warms up in a game against Texas A&M on April 19 at Alex Box stadium. Cowan tossed six innings in sunday’s series finale against south Carolina.
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Young finishes off wire-to-wire win
BY TIM REYNOLDS Associated Press
DORAL, Fla. The only person who gave Cameron Young any trouble on Sunday was, well, Cameron Young.
He called a one-stroke penalty on himself while playing the par4 second hole, after he caused his ball to move in the fairway. And then he made par anyway It was that sort of week: Young was unflappable and unbeatable. He went wire-to-wire alone on the lead at the Cadillac Championship a final round of 4-under 68 getting him to 19 under for the week and six shots clear of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (68).
“When the golf course is difficult, when the conditions are difficult, that tends to make it easier for me mentally,” Young said. With President Donald Trump in place to watch most of the round at Trump National Doral, Young picked up $3.6 million for the second-biggest payday of his career He made $4.5 million earlier this year for winning The Players Championship Trump arrived with several members of his family — including granddaughter Kai Trump, who plans to play at the University of Miami when she enrolls later this year — shortly after noon and remained until the tournament was over. He stood for the ovation as Young walked up the 18th hole, as a number of fans in attendance were allowed to move into the fairway for a look at the final putts of the week. And when it was over, Young got a thumbs-up from Trump, followed later by a quick handshake.
“It’s very unique. He’s nothing if not a very, very interesting man,” Young said. “He’s very powerful and it’s an honor to get to play in front of him.”
A bit more than an inch of rain fell on the course in the early morning hours Sunday, delaying a planned 7:30 a.m. start (which had already been rescheduled Saturday in anticipation of bad weather) to the final round by
two hours. And the Blue Monster was no longer a monster, not with everything softened by the rain.
The average scores in the first three rounds were between 71 and 71.6. The average score Sunday, with preferred lies, was 69. There were nine birdies total — on the par 18th in the first three rounds and 12 at the finishing hole on Sunday alone.
Scheffler finished second for the third consecutive start, after finishing a shot behind Rory McIlroy at the Masters and losing a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick at Hilton Head. Those were nearmisses; this one wasn’t.
That’s how good Young was. Even the best player in the world never had a real chance on Sunday
“Some good takeaways from this week,” Scheffler said. “Cam played fantastic golf all week. I played with him three out of the
four days and he was hitting a lot of quality shots and making putts from anywhere. He was going to be to be a tough man to beat this week.”
Young called the violation on himself with his ball in the middle of the fairway on the second hole — it moved at address, something he said has happened to him before — and said he didn’t hesitate to do the right thing.
“Your heart sinks when you see it move,” Young said. “But it moved. That’s part of what’s golf about. There’s no one who’s going to give me a penalty there but myself.”
Ben Griffin (68) was third at 12 under, while Si Woo Kim (70), Sepp Straka (66) and Adam Scott (64) tied for fourth at 11 under Scott likely clinched a spot in the U.S. Open — which would be his 100th consecutive major start, assuming he starts in the
PGA Championship later this month — after shooting 66-64 on the weekend. Scott finished at 11 under, meaning he should remain comfortably inside the top 60 in the world ranking and qualify for the U.S. Open.
“To win a major I’m going to need to put four days together, not just a weekend coming from behind,” said Scott, who was the winner of the World Golf Championships Cadillac Championship — until this week, the most recent PGA Tour event at Doral in 2016. “I feel like my game is there. I’m doing all the things that I think I need to do to be in that kind of contention.”
Young can say the same. The world’s No. 4 player was 67th in those rankings at this time last year, and is already over the $11 million mark in earnings in 2026. “I think the self-belief just continues to build,” Young said.
LSU men’s tennis falls short in regional final
Tigers miss out on super regional for first time since 2005
BY CHARLES SALZER
Contributing writer
There was no margin for error
Saturday evening when the LSU men’s tennis team faced Pepperdine on the second day of their NCAA regional.
For an LSU team that had earned the right to host the regional with its best season in more than 15 years, the margin was too much to overcome.
After winning the doubles point, LSU got off to a slow start in the singles competition and eventually fell to Pepperdine 4-3 as every set of every match need-
ed to be completed to determine the winner
LSU (26-7) fell short of reaching the NCAA’s final 16 for the first time since 2005. The Tigers’ win total was their highest since 1999. Pepperdine (19-9) advances to face Baylor, which defeated Auburn 4-1 in the Waco regional final.
“We got off to a good start,”
LSU coach Danny Bryan said.
“We haven’t lost a match after winning the doubles point all year We didn’t play our best in the first sets on a lot of courts, but we did a really good job coming back at the start of the second sets.”
LSU’s only first-set win in singles came from Erik Arutiunian, who defeated Lasse Poertner 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2. Pepperdine tied the team match 2-2 with wins at No. 5 and No. 6, but LSU edged back
ahead when Olaf Pieczkowski finished off a 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 win over Edward Winter at No. 1.
That left two matches, both of which went three sets, to decide the winner LSU was up a break early in the third set of both matches, but Pepperdine rallied each time. At No. 4, Gustavo Almeida dropped the first game on his serve before storming back with a 6-1 victory in the third set of his match with LSU’s Matias Ponce De Leon.
LSU’s Andrej Loncarevic battled through muscle spasms to tie up his match with Aleksa Pisaric at No. 3. Pisaric broke Loncarevic’s serve to take a 4-2 lead, then won the next two games to close out the team win for Pepperdine.
“It was a match of momentum swings,” Pepperdine coach Andy Schaechterle said. “Coming in, I
thought we had the advantage in doubles and to lose that, it took a little of the wind out of our sails. Our guys did an amazing job responding to win the five first sets and take the momentum back but then I thought LSU did great for about 45 minutes and flexed on us.”
LSU opened the match with a win at No. 2 doubles as Arutiunian and Ponce De Leon defeated Almeida and Poertner 6-4. The Waves then got a 6-4 win from Maxi Homberg and Pisaric at No. 3.
The Tigers secured the doubles point when Sasa Markovic and Loncarevic edged the Waves’ top duo of Winter and David Fix 6-4.
“Going into the match, we knew it was going to be very tough,” Bryan said. “I don’t feel like we played our best in singles. It’s tough to process it right now.”
LSU women’s tennis advances to super regional
BY CHARLES SALZER
Contributing writer
In a match that felt closer than the final score indicated the LSU women’s tennis team got past an inspired performance by Rice to take a 4-1 win in the Baton Rouge regional on Sunday at the LSU Tennis Complex
The win moves 10th-seeded LSU (21-9) into a super regional matchup with No. 7 Virginia. The Tigers and Cavaliers will play in Charlottesville, Virginia, at 1 p.m. Saturday The super regional appearance will be the second straight for LSU. Virginia advanced out of its regional by defeating both St. Francis and Washington by scores of 4-0.
Against Rice (18-10), LSU picked up the doubles point
with wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. Cadence Brace followed that with a straight-set win over Rice’s Darya Schwartzman at No. 1 singles to give LSU a 2-0 overall lead before the match tightened up.
“The score did not indicate at all how competitive that match was throughout,” LSU coach Taylor Fogleman said. “Rice pushed us in every which way I knew that they would.”
Rice earned its only point of the day with Ema Mravcova’s 2-0 win over Kinaa Graham at No. 6 singles, leaving LSU with a 2-1 edge.
Meanwhile all four of the other matches split their first two sets as Rice refused to go away LSU ultimately made its way to four points with wins from Ella McDonald at No. 3 and Carolina Kuhl at No 5. Both players won
two straight sets after losing the first. “It was a very tough match,” said Kuhl, whose 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Nithesa Selvaraj clinched LSU’s fourth point. “I felt like I had to get used to the conditions at the beginning of the match. It was not easy to play her I managed that well in the second set, and I was just happy that I was able to come back and fight through it.”
When the match ended, Rice led that match at No 2 singles while LSU had the advantage at No. 4. The fight displayed by Rice did not come as a surprise to Fogleman, who served as assistant to Rice coach Elizabeth Schmidt from 2014 to 2017.
“I knew that they would push us,” Fogleman said. “That was
Sinner wins record fifth straight Masters 1000 title
MADRID Top-ranked Jannik Sinner cruised past Alexander Zverev in the final of the Madrid Open to win the tournament for the first time and become the first man to win five consecutive Masters 1000 events.
Sinner beat the third-ranked Zverev 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday for his 23rd straight win. He had already won Master 1000 tournaments in Monte Carlo, Miami and Indian Wells this year, and in Paris last year “I think there is a lot of work behind it,” Sinner said.
Zverev lost to Sinner in the semifinals of each of those tournaments. He won in Madrid in 2018 and 2021, and was runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in 2022.
Korda crushes in Mexico, nabs third win of season
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico Nelly Korda delivered an early knockout punch Sunday and stretched her lead to as many as seven shots before cruising to the finish line with a 3-under 69 and a four-shot victory in the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba for her third win of the young season.
Korda went 60 consecutive holes without a bogey She finished at 17-under 271, four shots ahead Arpichaya Yubol of Thailand, who celebrated her 24th birthday with a 70 to finish alone in second. Yu Liu of China (69) was another shot back. Arkansas senior Maria Jose Marin, who delighted the crowd with her Augusta National Women’s Amateur title last month, had a 69-69 weekend to finish fifth. The top 10 would make her eligible for next week at the Mizuho Americas Open, but she has finals.
Cink adds another senior major with a 3-shot win
BIRMINGHAM, Ala Stewart Cink pulled away with consecutive birdies early on the back nine Sunday that stretched his lead to four shots, and he closed with a 3-under 69 for a three-shot victory in the Regions Tradition for his second major this year on the PGA Tour Champions.
Cink, who won the Senior PGA Championship two weeks ago in Florida, became the second player in two years to capture the first two majors on the 50-and-older circuit.
Angel Cabrera won the Senior PGA and the Tradition last year in consecutive weeks.
Scott Hend (65) was the runnerup.
Lindberg notches his first European tour victory
ANTALYA,Turkey Mikael Lindberg closed with a 3-under 69 to win the Turkish Airlines Open on Sunday for his first European tour victory that earned him a spot in the PGA Championship by leading the tour’s Asian swing. Lindberg has three birdies on a four-hole stretch on the front nine at National Golf Club to take control, and he added consecutive birdies on the back nine. He two-putted for par on the last to finish at 10-under 278 and win by two over Daniel Rodrigues (71) and Guido Migliozzi (70). The PGA Championship, to be played May 14-17 at Aronimink, set aside spots for three players from the Asian swing. Lindberg will be joined by Bernd Wiesberger and Jordan Gumberg.
Song tops Cho to prevail in playoff in South Korea
my old boss, and I don’t think anybody does much of a better job at getting their team ready to compete, especially at this time of year.”
LSU opened the afternoon by taking the doubles point. The Tigers got a 6-2 win from Kenna Ericson and McDonald over Francesca Magunia and Mravcova at No. 2. Kuhl and Addison Lanton were next to finish when they beat Divna Ratkovic and Daniela Chica 6-4 at No. 3.
“If you can nudge yourself ahead (with the doubles point), I think it is very difficult to find four singles when you’re playing very good teams,” Fogleman said “To get that point, and then to get a relatively quick win from Cadence at No. 1 (singles), it gave us a little bit of breathing room.”
SEONGNAM South Korea Minhyuk Song shot 1-under 70 and defeated Mingyu Cho with a par on the first playoff hole Sunday to win the GS Caltex Maekyung Open on the Asian Tour Cho was poised to win, leading by two shots, until missing a 3-foot bogey putt on the 18th for a 70 to fall into a playoff. Adding to the drama was Inhoi Hur closing with a 64 to also finish at 11-under 273, only for officials to assess a twoshot penalty from an incident in the third round that kept him from playing for the title. Hur hit a wild tee shot on the seventh hole on Saturday, and then a provisional in case it was not found. A spotter picked up the ball out-of-bounds, but that led to questions whether it was beyond the boundary
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By DAVID J PHILLIP
Cameron young holds the trophy after winning the Cadillac
Championship on sunday in Doral, Fla.
THE VARSITY ZONE
Brusly’s bats silenced in championship game
North Desoto pitcher hurls a no-hitter
BY JACKSON REYES staff writer
SULPHUR Brusly softball couldn’t catch a break against North DeSoto.
Down 1-0 in the top of the seventh with two outs, the Panthers’ Marnet Jackson knocked a fly ball to right field. The Griffins’ right fielder leaned back and grabbed the ball out of the sky for the final out.
The final out summed up Brusly’s day offensively The Panthers put bat to ball throughout the game, but every grounder, lineout and fly ball led to an out.
North DeSoto’s Macie Cameron shut them down and pitched a complete-game no-hitter Her performance helped top-seeded North DeSoto defeat No. 3 Brusly in the Division II nonselect state title game 1-0 on Sunday at Frasch Park. The win marks the second
straight title for North DeSoto (27-8).
“They made every play,” Brusly coach Beau Bouvier said. “We didn’t give them the game. They earned it.”
Cameron struck out the side to start the game. After North DeSoto’s Carsyn Curtis doubled to lead off the bottom of the first, Cameron knocked a two-out double to right field for the game’s only run.
Brusly (26-7) managed just five baserunners off four walks and a hit batter Panthers pitcher Abigail Heidbrink struck out six and allowed five hits across six innings.
The Panthers nearly swung momentum in the third inning.
Emma Guarisco led off the third with a walk. After a sacrifice bunt, Zoe Fabre then drew a four-pitch walk to put runners at first and second.
After a fly out, Lilly Albarez thought she was hit by a pitch and trotted to first base and the runner on first went to second, but the home plate umpire ruled she wasn’t hit.
As Albarez walked to first, the
catcher threw the ball back to the Griffins’ pitcher Fabre, the runner at first, left base early and didn’t return to first after the pitcher had control of the ball, triggering a “look-back” rule that led to the final out of the frame.
“It is what it is,” Bouvier said.
“There’s not much I can say on that.”
In the bottom of the fifth, Brusly ran into trouble after a walk and a single put two runners on.
A sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position. The next batter hit into a fielder’s choice, but the Panthers shortstop threw home to keep a run off the board, loading the bases with just one out.
Brusly escaped the inning after Cameron hit a grounder to Emma Loupe. She flipped the ball to the second baseman, who made the throw to first in time for an inning-ending double play
The Panthers went down in order in the final frame. The team graduates four seniors.
“They reset the standard for the young ones to keep on fighting,” Bouvier said.
Live Oak softball falls just short against Hahnville
BY JACKSON REYES staff writer
Live Oak’s comeback attempt against Hahnville was spoiled by inches.
In the top of the fifth, a wouldbe three-run line drive by Molly Latham landed just foul. Live Oak settled for one run to tie it 5-5.
In the bottom of the seventh with two outs, No. 8 Hahnville’s Jordyn Chaix hit a shallow fly ball to left field with a runner at first. Live Oak’s left fielder dived to make the grab, but the ball touched down to the turf inches in front of her outstretched glove.
The runner at first took off the moment the ball left Chaix’s bat and slid across home plate before the catcher could tag her to seal a 6-5 walk-off win over No 10 Live Oak in the Division I nonselect state softball championship on Sunday at Frasch Park in Sulphur
“To win a state championship, you’ve got to be really good, and you’ve got to be a little lucky,” Eagles coach Katie Prescott said. “I just think we drew the short straw on that one today.”
She said she thought both teams played well, but bad breaks proved the difference between lifting a trophy and second place.
“We put ourselves in a great spot,” Prescott said. “We just got a bad ball right there.”
Live Oak (20-15) jumped on Hahnville in the first after capitalizing on two errors. With one out, Halle Maxwell reached first on a grounder after the shortstop fumbled a ground ball.
Jeanne Janise then smacked a single to left field. The left fielder failed to field the ball as it rolled to the fence, scoring Maxwell and allowing Janise to reach third.
Ava Kate Phillips made the score 2-0 after she ripped a line drive to center field.
Hahnville (21-12) responded in the bottom of the frame. The Tigers put two runners on after a walk and Live Oak’s second baseman dropped a pop fly Rylee Villasenor made Live Oak pay for the error with a three-run
homer to left field to put Hahnville up 3-2 after one inning. After three scoreless innings, Maxwell singled with two outs in the fifth. Janise smashed a double that tied the game.
Villasenor answered with her second home run of the game to put the Tigers in front 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Prescott credited Villasenor for her timely hitting in the win.
“She was ready for the moment,” she said. “I think we’re capable of the same thing. We really just didn’t have that key hit in a few of the innings.”
Live Oak drew a walk to lead off the sixth. The Eagles put two on with another walk after a sacrifice bunt. After a second out, Taylor Mattingly managed an infield single to score one run.
Latham then nearly flipped momentum with a line drive that was ruled a foul ball in the top of the sixth. She went back to the plate and hit a slow roller to the pitcher She beat the throw to first to drive in one run and tie the game. In the seventh, Hahnville walked it off on Chaix’s single.
Calvary Baptist too much for Parkview Baptist in title game
BY JACKSON REYES staff writer
SULPHUR For three innings, Parkview Baptist and Calvary Baptist failed to plate a run. Then came the fourth inning. The Eagles loaded the bases with a single and two walks with two outs. A golden opportunity presented itself for the Eagles to jump out to the game’s first lead against the top-seeded Cavaliers. The scoring opportunity faded fast after a groundout to first base. Calvary Baptist then zapped all momentum in the bottom of the fourth when Baylor Bockhaus smashed a home run for the game’s first run. A pair of doubles made the score
2-0. Calvary Baptist (37-1) added three more runs to prevail 5-1 over
No. 2 Parkview Baptist on Sunday at Frasch Park in Sulphur in the Division III select state title game.
“That would’ve been a huge inning for us,” Parkview coach Ashlee Ducote said. “(Calvary Baptist) did a great job, and sometimes you’ve got to take advantage against a good pitcher and a good team like them, for sure.”
Parkview Baptist (30-7) managed just three hits in the loss.
The Eagles’ lone run came in the sixth off a solo home run by Aimee Gawlik.
Calvary Baptist stretched out the lead in the bottom of the sixth. After a leadoff walk, Jaycee Sledge doubled down the left-field line to score one run. Two more runs were scored off a wild pitch and a single.
The Eagles went down in order in the seventh.
While Parkview was on the opposite side of Sunday’s championship, Ducote was still optimistic about her team, which does not graduate a single player
She hopes to be in the same spot next year, and the team’s youth gives reason for optimism The Eagles, who won 30 games and finished as runner-up, feature five freshmen, two eighth graders and one seventh grader
“Now they know what it feels like, what the energy feels like,” Ducote said. “Honestly, I don’t think their youth showed up today.”
She credited her team’s ability to continue fighting through mistakes defensively and stay loud in the dugout.
“They’re going to be hungry for even more,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll be back here next year.”
Live Oak softball rallies to win
BY JACKSON REYES staff writer
SULPHUR Live Oak waited 18 years to make it back to a state title game The Eagles trailed by two runs in the sixth to West Monroe, but Live Oak wasn’t ready to wait another year Before the inning began, Live Oak coach Katie Prescott got onto her team.
“If you want it,” she said, “you’ve got to go take it.”
No. 10 Live Oak (20-14) rattled off three runs in the sixth to take the lead and held on to knock off No. 3 West Monroe 4-2 on Saturday at Frasch Park in the Division I nonselect semifinal.
“The girls responded because our girls are tough,” Prescott said “They want to play hard for each other They want to play hard for our city.” The win marks the Eagles’ first
appearance since 2008. A state title win would be the team’s first since 1995. After making the semifinals in 2023 and 2024, the Eagles finally got over the hump.
“Just getting over this semifinal hump, it’s a lot harder than people think,” Prescott said. “For us, the journey’s not over, but this was definitely a step in the right direction.”
West Monroe (24-9) scored in the third and fifth innings to take a 2-0 lead The Eagles managed just four hits across the first five innings.
Live Oak then led off the top of the sixth with a walk. After a flyout, the Eagles scored a run after a pair of singles. Another walk loaded the bases when Kylee Seals came to the plate.
She knocked a double to left field to score two runs and put Live Oak up 3-2. “We came to fight, and we
showed up,” Seals said. “We knew we had to do a job, and I know when my teammates got on, it was my turn to do the job in the box.”
Seals was a freshman when the team lost in the semifinals in 2024. She wasn’t ready to experience that feeling of defeat again.
“I know the feeling of going home on this note,” Seals said.
“Nobody wants it again, and I didn’t want it for these seniors.”
She said she was excited to experience a new feeling of getting to play in a state title game.
Live Oak added a fourth run in the seventh for insurance. Eagles pitcher Ava Kate Phillips shut down the Rebels in the seventh to seal the win. Prescott credited the team’s difficult schedule for preparing them for their playoff run, which included two road games against higher seeds.
“March beats us up pretty good,”
she said. “I believe if you can be confident through those losses and still learn, then it prepares you for this moment when the game is really challenging.”
St. Amant’s rally falls short
St. Amant fell in the other Division I nonselect semifinal to Hahnville 6-4. Hahnville (20-12) struck first with four runs in the third inning. After Kyndall Landry struck out the first batter she faced, the Tigers hit three straight singles that scored one run. An error and a sacrifice fly scored two more runs. Hahnville managed another single to go up 4-0. The Gators (23-9) trimmed into the deficit in the fourth. With one out, Devin Tanner singled to center field. Landry then doubled on a line drive to left field. Tanner scored St Amant’s first run on a passed ball. Kaydi Landry then hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2. In the sixth, Kyndall Landry singled with one out. Her sister, Kaydi, doubled to left field to put two runners in scoring position. Kinly Triche hit a sacrifice fly to score one run. Madeline Stevens tied it with a line drive to center field. Baylee Ducote hit a pop fly to end the inning. The tie didn’t last long. Hahnville’s Addison Walton led off the seventh with a single. She reached third after a steal and an error on the play Emma Jackson laid down a bunt to score Walton and reached base safely Hahnville loaded the bases after a walk and a hit-by-pitch St. Amant pitcher Brently Bourque got two outs, but then walked in another run to make it 6-4. St Amant went down quietly with two strikeouts and a fly out.
sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN
Brusly’s Marnet Jackson walks off the field in dejection as North Desoto storms the field after the final out in the LHsAA Division II nonselect state championship game on sunday at North Frasch Park in sulphur
sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN Live oak pitcher Ava Kate Phillips delivers a pitch against Hahnville in the bottom of the fourth inning of the LHsAA Division I non-select state championship on sunday at North Frasch Park in sulphur
sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN
Parkview Baptist’s Emma Conerly pulls off her helmet after the final out against Calvary Baptist in the LHsAA Division III select state championship on sunday at North Frasch Park in sulphur
NBA PLAYOFFS
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By DUANE
Pistons win their first playoff series in 18 years
BY DAVE HOGG Associated Press
DETROIT Cade Cunningham had 32 points and 12 assists, Tobias Harris added 30 points and the Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic 116-94 in Game 7 on Sunday to win a playoff series for the first time in 18 years. Cunningham averaged 32.4 points for Detroit, which last won a postseason series by beating Orlando in the second round in 2008. The Pistons advance to play the winner of Sunday evening’s Game 7 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors. Game 1 will be Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena. The Pistons became the 15th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit and the second in the last two nights, after the Philadelphia 76ers came back to eliminate Boston.
They trailed by 24 points in Game 6 in Orlando before rallying to take the series at home. Orlando only scored 113 points in the final six quarters of the series an average of 18.8 per period.
Cunningham and Harris became the first Pistons teammates to score 30 points in a playoff game since Bob Lanier (33) and Howard Porter (30) against the Golden State Warriors on April 17, 1977. Paolo Banchero scored 38 for the Magic.
Each team needed a second scoring option in Game 7. Cunningham had carried the Pistons while Banchero was Orlando’s only weapon after Franz Wagner was injured in Game 4.
Harris filled that role for Detroit, but Orlando only had one other player reach double figures in the first three quarters, as Desmond Bane had 10.
The Pistons also got a big game from All-Star center Jalen Duren He was outplayed by Wendell Carter Jr in the first six games, but put up his first double-double of the series with 15 points and 15 rebounds.
Harris scored 17 points in the second quarter as the Pistons finished the half on a 9-2 run to take a 60-49 lead.
The Pistons’ surge continued into the second half, as they opened the third quarter with a 11-2 run to go up 71-51. Nine of the points came from Cunningham and Harris. The Magic finished the third quarter with 15 points the third time in their last five periods they couldn’t reach 20 points.
Daniss Jenkins hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give Detroit a 8364 lead going into the fourth, and the Magic never threatened down the stretch.
Wembanyama, Gobert set to match wits as Spurs, Timberwolves meet
BY TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
Rudy Gobert knew long before the rest of the world.
Victor Wembanyama was only 13 when Gobert first heard of him. It didn’t take long for Gobert to see the enormous potential in his French countryman. When they would talk, Wembanyama asked the questions and Gobert gave him the answers.
“And the rest is history,” Gobert said. The basketball world is now fully aware of what Gobert saw in Wembanyama years ago. A French center will be headed to the NBA’s Final Four in a couple of weeks; which one it’ll be hangs on the outcome of a Western Conference semifinal series between Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs and Gobert’s Minnesota Timberwolves Game 1 is Monday night in San Antonio.
“I’m very, very proud and I’m very excited to watch him grow every day, to see his work paying off,” Gobert said. “Outside of the talent, he’s someone that has a very unique soul, a very unique mind and nothing is an accident. It’s not an accident that he’s having the success that he’s having.”
There’s never been a playoff series that is entirely about a 1-on-1 matchup, though it’s easy to understand why so much attention will be devoted to the Wembanyama vs. Gobert element of these games. It’s reasonable to think many basketball fans learned of Wem-
ä Timberwolves at Spurs.
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banyama when the now-infamous video of a 2-on-2 game featuring he and Gobert came out six years ago
The first three baskets on the clip were Wembanyama making two jumpers over Gobert, then cutting free for a dunk
Wembanyama is now a defensive player of the year and MVP
finalist, a bona fide superstar But he’s still asking Gobert for advice — including a recent query about what water filter Gobert uses in his home. A small detail, sure, but an illustration of how Wembanyama’s thirst for knowledge remains in place.
“He’s meant a lot as a role model,” Wembanyama said. “There’s lots of (ways) that he inspired me and I think he should inspire more people in terms of taking care of your body He should be a model for all big men. So, I would say that’s the main thing.”
Minnesota is trying to reach the Western Conference finals for the third consecutive season, while San Antonio is bidding for its first trip there since 2017. The Timberwolves found a way to defeat third-seeded Denver in Round 1, finishing that off even after Donte DiVincenzo tore his Achilles and Anthony Edwards was sidelined with a knee injury
DiVincenzo is lost for the season; Edwards is lost for the short-term and the belief is that he’ll have a chance to play at some point in this series — possibly as early as
Allen, Mitchell lead Cavaliers past Raptors in Game 7 win at home
BY JOE REEDY AP sportswriter
CLEVELAND Jarrett Allen tied his playoff career high with 22 points and grabbed 19 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 114-102 victory over the Toronto Raptors in Game 7 of their series Sunday night.
Donovan Mitchell led the Cavaliers with 22 points and James Harden added 18 in a series in which the home team won all seven games. Cleveland, the No. 4 seed, will visit top-seeded Detroit on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the second round. The Central Division rivals split their four regularseason meetings. Scottie Barnes had 24 points and nine rebounds and RJ Barrett scored 23 for the Raptors,
who were in the playoffs for the first time since 2022. Allen had 14 points and 10 rebounds, including five on the offensive end, as Cleveland went on a 49-21 run during a 15-minute span over the second and third quarters where it turned a nine-point deficit into an 19-point advantage. Toronto led for most of the first half and had a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter before Cleveland began its comeback.
The Cavaliers were down 47-38 with 2:58 remaining before going on a 11-2 run to close the half and tie it at 49. The Cavs were 4 of 17 on 3-pointers before Harden, Max Strus and Jaylon Tyson connected from beyond the arc. Cleveland took the lead with nine straight points to open the third quarter as Mitchell scored five and Mobley added four
of a first-round
As 76ers-Knicks rematch returns, star pleads with fans not to sell tickets
BY BRIAN MAHONEY AP basketball writer
Game 1, after Minnesota listed him as questionable with his left knee injury And the Spurs insist they won’t have any false sense of security just because Minnesota’s typically starting guards are either out or hurting.
“They guard. They’re physical. They try to impose that will and impose their will and their competitiveness on you,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “And they’ve got a lot of individuals that take pride in that.”
The series Minnesota went 2-1 against San Antonio this season, and Edwards was certainly among the biggest reasons why — he averaged 36.7 points in the three games on 58% shooting, 52% from 3-point range.
The Spurs blocked only seven shots against the Timberwolves, by far the lowest total they had against any Western Conference opponent this season. Wembanyama appeared in only two of those three games, but that’s still a sign of how Minnesota probably picked the right shot more often than not.
“It’s going to be decisions that you make in the paint,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said.
“It’s going to come down to them.” Wemby vs. Gobert
The French centers have gone head-to-head eight times in the regular season, and both can claim bragging rights.
Gobert’s teams have gone 6-2 in those games Wembanyama has scored 20 or more points in five of those meetings.
GREENBURGH,N.Y Finally finished with Boston, a trip to New York came quickly for the Philadelphia 76ers. So did the memories. The Eastern Conference semifinals are a rematch of a tight series between Atlantic Division rivals from nearby Northeast cities, a Knicks victory in six games in 2024. Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxey delivered unbelievable performances. Both teams made unimaginable rallies. Knicks fans were deafening inside Madison Square Garden — and in Philadelphia. (And no, Joel Embiid hasn’t forgotten).
When it was over, the Knicks had outscored the 76ers 650649. They start up again Monday night, believing this series can be even better
“I expect nothing less. Actually more,” Maxey said. “That was a first-round matchup. This is a second-round matchup. So I think both teams are going to come out there and be extremely competitive. It’s going to be a dogfight, it’s going to be a chess match and I’m just ready to get started.”
The Knicks had a few days to rest after finishing off Atlanta with a 140-89 victory on Thursday in Game 6, setting an NBA postseason record by building a 47-point halftime lead. The 76ers have only one full day to recover after completing the NBA’s 14th comeback from a 3-1 deficit by beating the Celtics 109-100 on Saturday Philadelphia became the first No. 7 seed to beat a No. 2 since the first round became a best-of-seven format.Thatwasthematchupwhenthe 76ers and Knicks met two years ago. The 76ers were on the verge of tying that series in Game 2 before the Knicks came from five points down with under 30 seconds remaining. Brunson scored a Knicks playoff-record 47 points in Game 4 and New York was poised to wrap it up at home in Game 5 before Maxey scored seven points in the final 25 seconds of regulation and the 76ers won in overtime.
“Man, that was a fun series. We
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were going punch for punch,”
Josh Hart said after the Knicks practiced Sunday “When you think about that, you always think of the good games, so you guys can guess what games those are But you know that you’ve got to turn the page. Those are memories. They don’t affect tomorrow but they’re fun memories.”
Embiid returned midway through the Boston series after an appendectomy and was limping late in Game 7 after a player fell into his knee. He appeared in worse shape in the series two years ago, dealing with lingering problems from a surgically repaired left knee and having been diagnosed recently with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis.
“I had a lot going on at that time, so hopefully everything is good this time,” Embiid said. “We’ve got a much better team than we had at that time, so it’s going to be a fun series.”
The Knicks also appear better, having since acquired All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges. They are in the second round for the fourth straight season and the No. 3 seed surprisingly ended up with home-court advantage in it thanks to Philadelphia’s first-round rally
Now the Knicks have to deal with the Embiid-Maxey duo that’s clicking.
“If we expect to be who we are,” coach Mike Brown said, “we’ll figure it out.” Embiid’s plea
Brunson received booming “MVP! MVP!” chants in the Game 4 victory in 2024 after Knicks fans poured into Philadelphia, and Embiid expressed his disappointment with 76ers fans after the game. He implored them not to let the noisy New Yorkers take over again. “Last time we played the Knicks it felt like this was Madison Square Garden East. So we’re going to need the support,” Embiid said. “Don’t sell your tickets. This is bigger than you.
BURLEsoN
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham drives against orlando Magic forward Jamal Cain during the first half in Game 7 of a first-round playoffs series on sunday in Detroit.
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By sUE oGRoCKI Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen shoots next to Toronto Raptors forward Collin Murray-Boyles in the first half in Game 7
playoffs series on sunday in Cleveland.
ElliottwinsTexas,becomes second multiple-win driver
BY STEPHENHAWKINS
AP sportswriter
FORT WORTH, Texas ChaseElliott went low,got apush from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and held on to become only thesecond NASCAR Cup driver with multiple wins this season. Elliott stayed ahead of Denny Hamlin for theclosing four laps after afinal restart at Texas on Sunday for his second victory thisyear. He finished just ahead of Hamlininbothof those wins.
On that final restart at the 11/2mile Texas track, Elliott took the bottom line and had teammate Alex Bowman behind him. He cleared Hamlin going onto the backstretch and remained in front to the checkered flag.
“I just felt like, man, if Ididn’t get clear off of (Turn) 2, Iwas going to be in alot trouble,” Elliott said. “So fortunately Alex gave me agreat push. Iwas able to execute Turns 1and 2, get clear,and then just kind of manage thelast few laps.” Elliott, voted NASCAR’smost popular driver each of the past eightseasons, got his 23rd career win and his second at Texas, where two years ago he ended a 42-race winless streak. He led five times Sunday for arace-high 87 laps, finishing 0.407 seconds ahead of Hamlin, closer than the 0.565-second margin when they finished 1-2 at Martinsville in late
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Golden Tempohad used his closing style to win the Lecomte Stakes in his first raceasa 3-yearold but finished third with the same strategy in the Risen Star Stakes and Arkansas Derby inhis lasttwo racesbeforethe Derby He waslastofthe 18 horses, more than 3/4 of amile into the Derby
“It’snot like we really didanything different that he hadn’tdone in his previous starts,”trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “There was a lot of speed on tap, on paper,and that materialized. Iwatched Jose come up and get himself in position going into the final turn, and at about the 3/16 pole, Ithought we’re probably going to win this.”
The Derby win capped ahistoric weekend for Ortiz, who also wonthe Kentucky Oaksaboard Always aRunner on Friday.Heis justthe ninth jockey to win bothof Churchill Downs’signatureraces in the same year
He won six races across Friday andSaturday
“When you’re riding in azone, it’s very good,” he said. “It seems like youmake every right move. You move at the right time. I’m glad Ihad thatthisweekend. Some other times, every move you make is wrong.
“I’m 32. I’m hitting kindofprime for ajockey.…Ithink I’m young still, but I’m very experienced. I’mcalm, trust my horses. Part of remaining calm is to have the confidence of the trainers Iride for,who believe in me, trust me,trust my judgment and let me ride the horse theway Iwant to ridemyhorses.” Ortizwon the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey in 2017. That year,hewon his firstTriple Crown race on Tapwrit in the Belmont Stakes. He won the Preakness Stakes on Early Voting in 2022. He has won six Breeders’ Cup races, including the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Mile on More Than Looks,
Antonelliwinsthe MiamiGrand Prix forhis thirdF1victory
BY JENNA FRYER AP auto racing writer
MIAMI GARDENS,Fla. Kimi Antonelli madehistory as the first drivertowin his first three Formula 1races from the pole when the 19-year-old Mercedes driver wonthe Miami Grand Prix on
Sunday
It was the third consecutive victory for Antonelli, the current points leader whoisproving early this season to be a legitimate championship contender
“Itisjust the beginning, the road is still long, but we’re working super hard,” Antonelli said. “The team is doing an incredible joband without them Iwouldn’tbehere. I’mgoing to enjoy this one and then get back to work.”
histrophyafter
March.
Bowman,whose spin brought out acaution on lap 93,finished third.
Tyler Reddick was fourth after winningfive ofthe first 10 races this season for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing
Hamlin said the late push Elliott got fromhis teammate was the difference in Texas.
“It was just enough to slow my momentum and pick his momentum up,” Hamlinsaid. “Good,decentday,just one (spot)short.”
Elliott, who started 14th, had already taken the white flagwhen John Hunter Nemechek wrecked in thebackofthe field aftercontact with Kyle Busch. The caution flag never came outsince Nemechek was able to get his car to the apron
Chris Buescher was fifth, his first top-10 finish in 17 starts at track less thananhour from his hometown of Prosper Carson Hocevar,the polesitter at Texasfor thesecondyear in a row,finishedseventh, aweek after his breakthrough win at Talladega. He also won the Truck Series race in the Lone Star State on Friday night. He finished aspotbehind Daniel Suarez, his Spire Motorsportsteammate.
Hocevar led the first 22 laps last year,three more than he did at the start of this 267-laprace, though he didget back in frontfor 18 more laps later Sunday
Corey Heim, in only his third start this year for 23XI Racing,
led 69 laps, but with 11 laps left brought out the final caution of the day,the fourthbecause of asinglecar spinout. The 23-year-old Heim was theTruck Series champion last year
Bell rung outofthe race
Christopher Bell, an Oklahoma native who considers Texashis home track, led22lapsand was still near the front on lap69when he got clipped by Todd Gilliland, whospun ahead of him
Bell bobbled and then slammed hard into the outside wall along the frontstretch, doing significant damage to the front right of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He finished last in the38-car field.
“I thought that Icould shoot the gap on the bottom,” said Bell, who had led only six laps total his first seven starts in Texas. “I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom but Igot clipped.”
Pitroadcrashes
Joey Logano, whowon at Texas last year,was going about180 mph when he just avoided hitting the spinning car of Byron on lap 93.
Going much slower on the ensuing yellow-flag stop,the front left of Logano’scar was crushed when he was unable to avoid contact when Cole Custer stopped on pit lane with Ty Gibbs pulling out ahead of him. That knocked outLogano, whose winlessstreak is now 36 races.
who was also trainedbyDeVaux. As one of thetop jockeys in the world, Ortiz likelycould have found hisway onto aDerby horse with better odds than Golden Tempo. DeVaux admitted to some apprehension when she called Ortiz’sagent to confirmhe would be available to rideGolden Tempo in the Derby
“Wealwaysknewthis horse had alot of ability, buthe’sverylazy, as youcan see early in the race,” Ortiz said. “...(DeVaux) has been very loyal to me, so Ifeel like Ishould give thatback. Iknew always Golden Tempo was gonna be my mount.”
That confidence served Ortiz wellwhenGoldenTempoappeared out of contention almost as soon as theracestarted.He pointed to moreexperience in recent years at Churchill Downs as being key in identifying the pointsonthe track when he needed to make his move.
Knowing his brother’shorse was acloser who should be in contentionfor the win didn’thurt either JoseidentifiedRenegadeasone of the horses he should follow and imagined he wouldbebattling his brother at some point, even if he didn’texpect it to be for thewin.
When Irad and Renegade moved to the outside, Jose took Golden Tempoeven farther outside. “Wecame flying late,” Irad said. “But the winnerjust gotthe jump on me.”
The Italian and teammate George Russell have won the first four races of this season for Mercedes and allfourpoles to date. They were blocked from the podium in Saturday’ssprint race, which was a1-2 finish for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren in the only thing the Mercedes drivers have not won this season.
“Kimi,that wasvery,very impressive. Youknow Ilike to complain, but there was nothing to complainabout today,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told his young driver.“Very good.”
Antonelliholds a20-point lead over Russell in the championship standings.
Antonelli started from the polebut had aslick start on adampsurface at the Miami International Autodrome. Threats of heavy rain led F1 to move up thestartofthe race by three hours, and therewas an earlymorning thunderstorm with lightning strikes directly over the Hard Rock Stadium, but it cleared by thetime the event began. Still, the first 25 laps were attacked by the drivers as if the rain couldreturn at any moment, and that led to earlychaos, even for Antonelli.
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari had aspectacular start from third and surged to theleadwhenAntonelli went wide off course trying to defend. Asplit-second later,Max Verstappen spun trying to hold off Leclerc when the two cars madecontact.
The contact caused Verstappen, who started aseason-best second,toplummet to ninth after the spin.
Antonelli recovered and reclaimed the lead on the fifth lap, and the leaders briefly swapped positions as Leclerc moved back to the frontbefore reigningworld champion Norris took over on Lap 14.
Verstappen worked hisway
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is to our program and to me. That was awesome.
“Super proud of him. Pitching staff all weekendwas great, and no outing wasbetter than that one today.”
Hisouting further preserved a Tigers staffthat used 20 pitchers at Mississippi State. This weekend, sophomore right-hander WilliamSchmidt tossedsix innings in Game1onSaturday,and freshman right-handerMarcos Paz got through five innings in Game 2.
“It started on the mound,” Johnsonsaid. “That’saheck of alot closer to the standard we wantto pitch at.”
Thehealthy pitching plan allowed LSU’soffense plenty of time to build leadsonSaturday andSunday, when theTigers jumpedout to a6-0 advantage just before Cowan exited the contest.
through the field and briefly took the lead as others pitted, but Antonelli beat Norris off pit lane and reclaimed the lead for good once everything cycled out.
“A mixed bag, really.Wejust got undercut (in the pits). There’s no excuses other than that,” Norris said. “Weshould have boxxed first. Kimi did agood job. Hats off to Merc and Kimi.They drove a good race.”
Leclerc was poised to finish third until Oscar Piastri of McLaren passedhim on the final lap. Leclerc spun and settled for sixth.
Russell wasfourth andVerstappen finished aseason-best fifth for Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari wasseventh. Cadillac, in itsfirstraceinthe United States, had an unimpressive weekendonthe track even as it splashed its way through Miamiwith appearances and events. Sergio Perez finished 16th and Valtteri Bottas was 18th —the last car to finish in the 22-driver field.
Messystart
Isack Hadjar had been disqualifiedafter qualifying andstarted last, but his race lasted five laps before he drove his Red Bull into the wall. Hadjar wasopenly angryatthe resultashepounded his helmetbeforeclimbing from his car and angrily stomping away
Seconds later,Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson madecontact that caused Gasly’scar to do afull rollover. The Frenchman’scar ended stuck withits rear tires atop abarrierand he climbed fromthe half-suspended BMW on his own.
LsUcatcher
LSU added two runs in the thirdinning on atwo-run home runfrom freshman Omar Serna, scored twicemoreinthe fifth on asac fly and arun-scoring single, andtooka6-0 advantageonfreshman Jack Ruckert’sbase-hit that eventuallydroveinfreshman William Patrick because of an error and Serna’sground ball fielder’s choice that allowedRuckert to touch home. SophomoreCadeArrambide and Ruckert finished with two hits apiece. Serna drove in three runs, and LSU’sleadoff hitters finished the day going 6-for-8.
“Weneeded this, not only to boostour chances in thepostseason and everything, but we needed this as ateam to feel confidence goingforward,” Arrambide said. “Our next two weekends are against really good teams.”
LSU faces Tulane in its final nonconference midweek game of theseasononTuesday.First pitch from Alex Box Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m.,and thegamewill be available to stream on SEC Network+
Email Koki Rileyatkoki.riley@ theadvocate.com. For more LSU sports updates,signupfor ournewsletter at theadvocate. com/lsunewsletter LSU
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By GEoRGEWALKER IV
congratulated by his brother,jockey Irad ortiz
Golden Tempo to victory in the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby on saturday at Churchill Downs.
sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN
omar serna puts his helmet on during agame against Kentucky on March 29. serna hit atwo-run home runinsunday’s winoversouth Carolina at Alex Box stadium.
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By LM oTERo
Chase Elliott celebrates afterwinning aNAsCAR Cupseriesrace on sundayinFortWorth, Texas.
AP PHoTo By DANNy KARNIK
Mercedes driverKimi Antonelli holds
winning the Miami Formulaone Grand PrixraceonsundayinMiami Gardens, Fla
CLOSE TO HOME
Thered brickhouse on BatonRouge’s NorthStreet is obscured by treestoday.What’s itsstory?
BY ROBIN MILLER staffwriter
The story of theorphanage was relegated to amention on page eight of theMorningAdvocate’s Aug. 12, 1926, edition, downpage from afiery story about gangster outfits battling it outin Chicago. “Protestant OrphansWill Get New Home,” theBatonRouge headlineannounced.“Plans are now being made by theboard of the ProtestantOrphans Home for the erection of anew home on the site of the North Streetorphanage property in the near future.” Anew homefor orphaned girls was news in thecapitol city, but not the kind that warranted front page headlines. Ayear later,next to the silentmovie listingsfor the downtown Columbia, Louisiana and People’stheaters, the
ä see CURIOUS, page 2C
BY IRIS KWOK
$31 million for the fashion department’soperations, exhibitions, publications andacquisitions. The2026 galawill be thefirsttotakeplace at the
and raises funds for the museum’sCostume Institute. Last year’sgala collected arecord
Farfromthe original in Philadelphia, thesefanshuntfor theLiberty Bell replicaineachstate
BY ALLEN G. BREED AP national writer
RALEIGH, N.C.
Want to seethe
Liberty Bell this semi-quincentennial but don’thave the time or cheese forapilgrimageto Philadelphia? Have no fear: Chances are, there’sone at a state Capitol, museum or even afire station near you. It won’tbethe original, but it’ll be adead ringer For asavings bond drive in 1950, the Treasury Department commissionedcopies of the famously broken bell, one for each U.S. state and several territories. Exceptfor theserial numbers, they were faithfulreplicas —right downtothe Pass and Stow trademark and a faux crack.
There’sasmallbut growing group of “bell hunters” who’ve dedicated themselves to visiting as many of the replicas as possible.Iftheywereagang, TomCampbell would be the ringleader “It was acasual thing that turned into an obsession,” Campbell, agraphic designer,said.
Letfreedom ring!
Although Fort Collins, Colorado, is now his home, Campbell was born andraised in Philadelphiaand visitedthe original Liberty Bell as aboy Ordered for the Pennsylvania State House, now known as IndependenceHall, thebellcracked on its first test ring in the 1750s, wasmelted down and cast anew There’snoevidence it was even rung on July 4, 1776;abolitionists rechristened it in the 1830s forthe Bible verse encircling itscrown,“ProclaimLiberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.”
No oneknows exactlywhen or how the bell cracked again, but the last major attempt to restore it to ringing condition was in the 1840s.
Campbell didn’tknowabout the replicas until he moved to Denver in the late 1990s.
“I was wandering around, meetinga friend at abar fora drink, and cutacross the Capitol lawnand saw afull-size Liberty Bellsitting there,” he recalled. He read about the bond drive on asmallbronze plaque, and a quest was born.
As Campbell and his wife, DawnPutney, traveled the country,they began building bell trips into their itinerary One day,she surprised him with hisown website: tomlovesthelibertybell.com
“Itwas just akindofa fun goof,” he said. Butthree decades after he stumbled on that first bell, Campbell has become the go-to expert on these pieces of Americana.
From France,avecamour
The replicas were cast by the Paccard Foundry,run by afamily who’ve been making bells in southeastern France since 1796. ä see BELL, page 2C
sTAFF PHoTo By RoBIN MILLER
The redbrick house, built as the Protestant orphanagein1927, as it appears todayat1328North st. in Baton Rouge
AP PHoTo By JENNy KANE Aperson walks by aLiberty Bell replicaatthe oregon state Capitol on April 14 in salem, ore.
By The Associated Press
Today is Monday, May 4, the 124th day of 2026. There are 241 days left in the year
Today in history:
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on student demonstrators during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.
Also on this date:
In 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eighthour workday turned into a deadly riot when a bomb exploded, killing seven police officers and at least four civilians.
In 1904, the United States took over construction of the Panama Canal from France.
In 1961, the first group
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newspaper announced the building’s completion on page 12 in its Sept. 15, 1927, edition.
“The new home is of red brick with white pillars in front giving a colonial effect,” the article states
“Modern comforts have been provided within the building, which include a hot water heating system a small infirmary and other equipment.”
Total construction cost was $42,000.
Which answers Dee Jeffers’ question about the grand red brick building standing atop a hill at 1328 North St.
What’s the story?
“I grew up in Branch, Louisiana, so I wasn’t familiar with the house’s history,” she said. “A friend told me it was once an orphanage, but from the street, it just looks like a big house. What’s its story?”
The house is actually the conclusion of the orphanage’s story, which was said to have been established in 1847 as the Female Orphan Asylum.
But reporter Orene Muse’s Nov 19, 1939, front page feature for the Morning Advocate offered up a comprehensive history that uncovered orphanage records from as early as 1845.
“The ‘asylum’ was formed here at least 95 years ago,” she wrote. “For in the files of the orphanage are musty old documents, brittle with age and slightly yellow now, which tell of the days of 1845. There is no mention made of the founding of the institution, so it is presumed that its inception must have ante-dated 1845.”
Late author Mark T. Carlton, best known as the Louisiana history professor at LSU, wrote in his 1981 book, “River Capital, An Illustrated History of Baton Rouge,” that the first buildings of the asylum were built before 1854 with contributions from Baton Rouge ladies who supported the home with dues, money and donated items. Yet he provided no definitive location.
Orphanage’s third home
Muse’s story points out that the red brick house was the third home for the orphanage, its first being the “Bird Building,” which stood on the 500 block of Main Street in downtown Baton Rouge. It was rented out in 1870 to the Louisiana School for the Blind, now known as the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired, and the orphans moved to a “conveniently located” cottage on Main Street. Where on Main Street? Again, no definitive address is provided, but what is known is that the orphans were living in this cottage when their North Street home was completed. According to The Morning Advocate’s Sept. 15, 1927, article, once the orphans moved out, the “old home facing Main Street will be offered for sale and will be torn down by the successful bidder.” So began the story of the North Street house. These
of “Freedom Riders” left Washington, D.C., to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals.
In 1998, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, California, under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty In 2023, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted of orchestrating a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol seeking to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election. (Tarrio was later sentenced to 22 years in prison but was pardoned by Trump when
he began his second elected term in January 2025.)
Today’s Birthdays: Jazz musician Ron Carter is 89. Pulitzer Prize-winning political commentator George Will is 85. Actor Richard Jenkins is 79. Country singer Randy Travis is 67. Comedian Ana Gasteyer is 59. Actor Will Arnett is 56. Basketball Hall of Famer Dawn Staley is 56. Rock musician Mike Dirnt (Green Day) is 54. Designer and TV personality Kimora Lee Simmons is 51. Sportscaster/ TV host Erin Andrews is 48. Singer Lance Bass (NSYNC) is 47. Actor Ruth Negga is 45. Golfer Rory McIlroy is 37. Singer-songwriter Rex Orange County is 28. Actor Navia Robinson is 21. Soccer player Kenan Yildiz is 21.
Volunteers from the community redid the room for the oldest girls in the Protestant orphanage with bright paint and new draperies and spreads in 1963
days, the house is obscured by trees on an otherwise pristine lawn. It stands about a block from U.S. Interstate 110, where North Street flows into Spanish Town, the city’s oldest neighborhood. The concrete steps the girls climbed each day stretch from the street level sidewalk to the entrance’s French doors.
Accommodated 25 girls
According to the Genealogy Trails History Group’s website, genealogytrails. com, the house accommodated 25 girls, and the staff consisted of a superintendent, two matrons, a cook and laundress.
“According to journals and letters, the home also provided and paid for weddings, camps extended education to business schools and LSU,” the genealogy site continues. “Records provide a powerful insight as maintenance of this orphanage and its orphans was not your ordinary ‘orphanage.’ Great lengths were taken to provide a natural home environment for the children, one that was kind and understanding with always the welfare of the child its priority. It is noteworthy that the home was always a private institution, and at one time was paid by the Department of Welfare $60 per month per child to house their children until they were found foster homes. The children were accepted on a case by case basis subject to the approval of the association’s board and were expected to live by the rules set up by the association.”
The genealogy site is correct the Protestant Orphanage was a happy environment for its occupants.
Advocate reporter Carol Anne Blitzer found proof of this in Anna Bryant Hingst’s memoir, “Memories of a Louisiana Girlhood,” in the Lousiana State Archives’ permanent collection.
Blitzer included excerpts from Hingst’s memoir in her April 24, 2000, feature for The Advocate.
A happy place
Though Hingst lived in the orphanage when it was in the Main Street cottage, her manuscript describes the orphanage as a happy place.
“Born in Lottie in 1901, Hingst and her two sisters were moved to the home on June 12, 1912, after their fa-
ther a railroad worker fell from a railroad bridge and
MET GALA
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Is Art,” with guests asked to explore their relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate depictions of the dressed body throughout art history
Who are the chairs?
Beyoncé — returning after a 10-year hiatus — Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour will co-chair this year’s gala.
The host committee, cochaired by Yves Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz, includes Sabrina Carpenter Doja Cat Gwendoline Christie, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, Lisa, Chloe
BELL
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They weigh the same as the original — 2,080 pounds — but differ from the OG bell in one very important respect: metallurgical makeup.
According to the National Park Service, the original was 70% copper, 25% tin and “small amounts of lead, gold, arsenic, silver, and zinc.” In a bell, those other metals amount to “impurities,” said Anne Paccard, the foundry’s communications director and chief for “art of sound” projects, like sculptures that feature bells.
Malle, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, Lauren Wasser, Anna Weyant, A’ja Wilson, Yseult, Adut Akech, Angela Bassett, Sinéad Burke, Rebecca Hall, Aimee Mullins, Tschabalala Self, Amy Sherald and Chase Sui Wonders.
Who else is on the guest list?
The guest list is always a tightly guarded secret, but frequent guests include Lady Gaga, Zendaya, Blake Lively, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gigi and Bella Hadid, members of the KardashianJenner family and Rihanna, who revealed her third pregnancy at last year’s gala. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, are expected to attend, as lead sponsors of the event. Saint Laurent and Condé Nast are also sponsors. Anne Hathaway, Meryl
to the elements have taken their toll.
Some of the painted-on cracks have faded or disappeared completely Others bells are displayed without their clappers and/or yokes, or in steel frames that prevent them being rung.
“At that point, it really transitions to more of a monument than a functional bell,” Campbell said. “And, to me, that’s kind of sad.”
But as the nation prepares to celebrate 250 years of liberty, some of those orphan bells are getting a new life.
Streep and Emily Blunt, stars of the fashion extravaganza “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” may also attend the gala. The sequel hits theaters a few days before the gala. There are typically 400 to 600 attendees. Last year, individual tickets cost $75,000, according to CBS. In a break from tradition, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and wife Rama Duwaji will not be attending.
How can I watch the livestream?
Vogue will livestream the Met Gala starting at 6 p.m. Eastern across its digital platforms, including YouTube and TikTok. The livestream will be hosted by Ashley Graham, La La Anthony and Cara Delevingne, and influencer Emma Chamberlain will return as red carpet correspondent.
cent visit to Arizona’s newly restored bell — which was touring the state, complete with a rope for the tugging — brought his toll up to 40. Why does the Liberty Bell resonate with him?
“The fact that a cracked bell is the symbol of the United States is really the perfect symbol of an imperfect union,” he said.
Nothing to see here
drowned in the Atchafalaya River,” Blitzer writes. “There was no assistance at that time from the government for widows and orphans, and the railroad company provided no compensation.”
Hingst wrote that each of the older girls were given a smaller child to care for, and each of the orphans attended Sunday School in the downtown church of her original denomination, followed by services at one of the four downtown Protestant churches.
Blitzer also shared Hingst’s recollection of how she and a group of girls broke into “hard-to-control laughter” when they realized they could see the minister’s undershorts through his white linen suit.
“I had to hide on the floor and found it hard to keep from laughing out loud!”
Hingst wrote.
By 1969, only two orphans lived in the house, and the orphanage’s board couldn’t maintain its “home atmosphere” while meeting all of the state and federal governments’ rules and regulations.
The orphanage’s assets were liquidated with part of the money divided among the Cancer Radiation and Research Foundation, Capital Area United Givers Fund and the Methodist Children’s Home in Ruston. The remainder of the funds were placed in a trust with the annual income going to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.
“In 1970, attorneys Bill Beck and Joe Thompson purchased the home,” Blitzer writes. “In 1983, Beck bought out Thompson’s interest in the building. Beck had his law office in the matron’s suite on the first floor from 1983 until 1996. After renting the remainder of the building to several organizations, Beck decided to convert it to nine apartments.”
Today a “Private Property” sign is posted on one of the entrance’s French doors.
In the end, Blitzer writes, “nearly 1,000 children had lived at the home, with many staying 10 years or longer.”
Do you have a question about something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phone number and the city where you live.
“I must say that the original Liberty Bell is a very poor quality bell, metallurgically speaking,” she told The Associated Press in a recent email. “The bells we delivered in 1950 are made of a specific alloy of bronze called ‘airain’: 78% copper, 22% tin, nothing else.”
The Treasury bells toured the country on the backs of flatbed Ford trucks equipped with loudspeakers and festooned with redwhite-and-blue banners.
“You could buy a savings bond, ring the Liberty Bell, have a party,” Campbell said. At drive’s end, Treasury gifted the bells to the 48 states and the then-territories of Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The District of Columbia and the Treasury Department each got one as well. (Three others went to Tokyo, a church in Paccard’s hometown and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, giving that state two bells.)
Trouble is, they came with no guidance and no funds to preserve them.
“A local or state historian described it to me as an ‘unaccessioned artifact,’ ” Campbell said. “Not every state wanted them necessarily, and not every state knew what to do with them.”
Virginia held a contest, and the people voted to send the bell to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. It later went into a storage shed until finally finding a home outside a local fire station.
More than half have spent most of their lives outdoors. Time, neglect and exposure
Just like new sort of Kansas’ bell languished, disassembled, for years in a Capitol parking garage until state Sen. Elaine Bowers got involved. In October, the reassembled bell — resting on a heated concrete pad and supported by a custommade wooden yoke, but still sans clapper — was given a place of honor outside the new Docking State Office Building.
“It just belongs here,” said a beaming Bowers as she stood beside bell No. 21. “It’s a fascinating piece of artwork, but also history that we all should be proud of.”
The Alabama and Idaho bells were shipped to the Bell Foundry Christoph in Charleston, South Carolina, for restoration and are expected to be home in time for the Fourth. Several other bells have also received recent touchups.
Campbell doesn’t set out to guilt states into fixing up and displaying their bells. But if his website happens to nudge them a bit, “maybe I’ll take a little credit for that.”
He’s also helped inspire a new generation of bell hunters. By age 4, Zoe Murphy of Morris County, New Jersey, knew all the state capitals and their flags. At 5, she saw her first replica in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Now a 14-year-old high school freshman, she has her own website zlovesamerica.com. She’s visited 39 of the bells over the years, from Alabama to Wyoming and even far-off Alaska.
Zoe says traveling the country has given her a deeper appreciation for America’s “collective mix of people and our culture.”
Meanwhile, Campbell’s re-
Try as they might, it’ll be nearly impossible for these Liberty Bell fans to check all the replicas off their list. Three replicas remain totally unavailable to the public this anniversary year, as far as Campbell can tell. Ironically, one of them is Pennsylvania’s.
For many years, the Treasury bell was the centerpiece of a museum in the former Zion’s Reformed Church of Allentown, where the original was briefly hidden to prevent the British redcoats from melting it down for munitions. But the building changed hands in 2023, and the bell is no longer accessible to the general public while the church is being renovated. (Local officials are placing a lighter, taller replica in front of the church for the anniversary.)
Last June, North Carolina’s bell was hoisted from its spot across from the Legislative Building in Raleigh amid a multiyear renovation of the state history museum. When the AP asked to see it, the request was politely denied
“Our Liberty Bell is in a secure storage facility,” spokeswoman Mary Huntley said. The only replica that’s truly lost is the one sent to Washington, D.C., which went missing from storage in the early 1980s. Campbell suspects it’s long since been melted down.
“That’s 2,080 pounds of bronze,” he says. “So, that has a scrap value.” But if anyone has information about the capital bell, feel free to give Campbell a ring.
Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; and video journalists Thomas Peipert in Fort Collins, Colorado; and Ted Shaffrey in Mount Olive, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
FILE PHoTo
one of the bedrooms as it appeared when the two-story, red brick house at 1328 North st. was the Protestant orphanage.
tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Choose your words wisely Focus on self-improvement, not trying to change others. Refuse to let stubbornness be your downfall.
GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Concentrate on creating partnerships, learning and keeping busy. The less time you focus on who and what you don't like, the easier it will be to let go of the past.
cAncER (June 21-July 22) Think matters through. Size down, not up, and protect your rights, possessions and reputation. Stick to the truth and do what you can to be of help. Stress will require a positive outlet.
LEo (July 23-Aug 22) It's what you do that counts. Honor promises, mix business with pleasure and be kind to those you encounter throughout your day. Go out of your way to lend a helping hand and to offer support to those who need it most.
VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Observe what's happening in silence and make small adjustments to counter any fallout that might put you in a vulnerable position. Let kindness and practicality lead the way.
LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Learn from the experiences you encounter. Taking a bold step in a direction that offers others insight into what you can do will also make you fully aware of who you can and cannot count on for backup.
scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Think matters through before you say something you regret. Revealing personal information
will put you at a disadvantage. Ask questions and show interest in what others think and do.
sAGIttARIus (nov 23-Dec. 21) Stop procrastinating; put your ideas into practice. Make domestic changes that will add to your convenience and comfort, and sign up for activities that will encourage looking and feeling your best.
cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) A simple lifestyle will help you handle any trials and tribulations that surface. Keep your communications honest and brief, and refuse to let anger and impatience seep into your dialogue.
AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Stick close to home. Focus on personal money management and how you can generate more cash or lower your overhead. An interview will go better than anticipated.
PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Erratic behavior can lead to miscommunication. Think before you speak, and search for a kind and helpful agreement without putting your health or financial wellbeing in jeopardy.
ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Focus on what you can do, not the impossible. Happiness comes from doing what's best and right for you. Speak up, ask questions, show interest and give back.
InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle basedona9x9 grid with severalgiven numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the emptysquares so that eachrow,eachcolumn and each3x3 box contains the same number onlyonce. Thedifficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.
Saturday’s Puzzle Answer
THe wiZard oF id
BLondie
BaBY BLueS
Hi and LoiS CurTiS
By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge
Percival, one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, supposedly said, “One hour of thoughtful solitude may nerve the heart for days of conflict — girding up its armor to meet the most insidious foe.”
Many play far too quickly at the bridge table. True, taking one hour would be considered excessive. But a minute or so is perfectly acceptable. And if someone complains to you, reply, “You have just ruined my train of thought. I will have to start all over again.”
In this deal, West leads the club ace against four spades. How should he plan the defense?
North’s auction showed four spades and game-going values. So South, who also had four spades, corrected from three no-trump to four spades.
Many would cash the club king at trick two, then look around for the next step. But that would be too late. West needs to realize that his partner has only one heart. (South showed four, dummy has three and West holds five.) West must also hope that his partner has a speedy trump entry.
At trick two, West shifts to a heart.
Declarer wins on the board and plays a trump, but East wins with his ace and returns a club. West takes the trick with his carefully conserved entry, the king, and gives his partner the lethal heart ruff.
Finally, note that if North had raised one no-trump to three no-trump, West probably would have led the heart nine, top of nothing. Then, when East got in with his spade ace, he would have
