The Times-Picayune 06-01-2026 by The Advocate

Ph.D.student EmmaMcCarthy and Christopher Marvel, assistant professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering,hold samples of moon dust alloys near the equipmentused to createthem in thepowder metallurgylab at LSUonMay 19

Scientists at LSU studymoondust

Research couldhelpsustain spaceexploration missions

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

Akey problemfor NASA to solve in maintaining a presence on the moon, or even Mars, is providingthe resources necessaryfor long-term survival.

The more scientists pack on aspacecraft, the heavier it is and themore fuel it uses. Resupply missions are costly

But LSU researchers are exploring how to extract materials from the moon itself.

Mechanical engineering

Ph.D. student Emma McCarthy is investigatingthe possibilities of lunar regolith, the dust and debris that make up the lunar surface.

“Getting materials from Earth and resupply from Earth is very expensive,” McCarthy said.“Energy costsare very high forthat, so we want to try to useas much as we can from the moon already.”

Overseen by Christopher Marvel, assistant profes-

Ph.D.student EmmaMcCarthyholdsupsamples of alloys made from moon dust in the powder metallurgylab on May19.

“Thisstuff could be applied for afuture Mars mission and transferred to the Mars dust.”

EMMA McCARTHy, LSU mechanical engineering Ph.D.student

sor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, McCarthy experiments with using a chemical reaction involv-

inglithiumhydrideto isolate valuable elements found in moon dust —like aluminum,iron and silicon —from oxygen.

The materials canthen be used to build or repair structures on the moon, McCarthy said. Astronauts alsocould harnessthe energyfrom the chemical process, called athermite reaction.

Her research is funded by NASA to further its “in situ resource utilization” initiatives, which focus on how to uselocal resources at mission destinations as opposed to relyingonly on what aspacecraft can carry “That’s really big for supporting the Artemis missionright now,” McCarthy said. “This stuff could be applied for afuture Mars missionand transferred to theMars dust.”

Fortheir experiments, the researchers grind simulated lunar regolith into aﬁne powder using aball mill. They purchase samplesfromSpace Resource Technologies,which specializes in simulating the

Philanthropist Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin dies at 93

Former lawyer,queen of Carnival wasapassionate supporterofsymphony

BY JOHN POPE Contributing writer

Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin, aqueen of Carnival who became alawyer and philanthropistwhose gifts of money, determinationand leadership helped save NewOrleans’ symphony orchestra, died Saturday in hersleepather New Orleanshome, her granddaughter Mary Beth Benjamin said. Shewas 93.

While reigning as Rex’sconsortin1953 might represent apinnacle achievement, it was only astart for Benjamin. Aftergraduatingfrom Newcomb Collegein1954, she enrolled in Tulane University’slaw school when few womenwereentering thelegal profession. Shepracticed lawfrom 1956to 1958 before retiring to raise children and devote hertimeand talenttocommunity service.

Although Benjamin and her friends said family washer top priority,servicewas an ever-present theme in herlife because, she said, her parents, William Bell Wisdomand Mary Freeman Wisdom, alwaysstressed

theimportance of communityinvolvement.The money to back up herzeal came from theLouisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co ,which her grandfather A.B. Freeman had built into abeverage powerhouse. Benjamin described social activism as afamily tradition and served on alonglistofcommittees,mostnotably theboardthat ran the New OrleansSymphony, which she joined in 1983.

Amusic lover whosegrandparents had helped found theorchestra in 1936, Benjamin was convinced that every major

ä See BENJAMIN, page 5A

Gordon Plaza residentssue over unpaid judgments

Plaintiffs owed $75M forcontaminated neighborhoods

BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer

Thousands of people wholived, worked andattendedschool on the formersiteof the toxic Agriculture Street Landfill have sued thecityofNew Orleansand theOrleans Parish School Board over money owed to them in ajudgment, the latest legal battle in adecadeslong fight. The judgment involves Gordon Plaza and Press Park, Black neighborhoods built atop the former landfill, which was so contaminated it waslater designated afederal Superfund site. The federal lawsuit,filedin the Eastern District of Louisiana May 13, allegesthe city is prioritizing otherpayments over the millions owed to the class of 5,000 plaintiffs linked to the landfill settlement. In 2022, Orleans Civil District Court Judge NicoleSheppard ruledthatthe city, the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish School Board owed the plaintiffs $75.3 million forconditions in the two residential neighborhoods, as well as an elementary school on top of thecontaminated landfill.

Israelexpands assaultinLebanon

BY WENDYBENJAMINSON, DANA KHRAICHE and GALITALTSTEIN

Bloomberg News (TNS)

TheU.S. and Iran traded messages over the weekend seeking changes to adraft agreement that would extend aceaseﬁre andopen theStrait of Hormuz, butitwas unclear if the sidesweremaking much progress. As the diplomatic exchanges continued, Israel expanded its ground assault in Lebanon, shattering abrittle truce with its northern neighbor President Donald Trump hasn’tspoken on the subject of Iran since aWhite House Situation Room meeting Friday in which he saidheexpected to announceanagreement. In asocial media post earlier that day he reiterated his demands, including that Iran suspend its nuclear program and fully restore the strait to itsearlierstatusasa free, international waterway

ä See CEASEFIRE, page 5A

STAFF PHOTOSByJAVIERGALLEGOS

Houses in theGordon Plaza neighborhood of NewOrleans aredemolished to make way for asolar panel farmonOct. 30, 2024.

See JUDGMENTS, page 4A

See MOON, page 5A

Benjamin

U.S. strike on alleged drug boat kills 3

WASHINGTON The U.S. military said it carried out another strike Saturday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Paciﬁc Ocean, killing three men in the fourth attack this week and putting the total death toll at 205.

U.S. Southern Command announced the strike with its usual language that the vessel was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence for the allegation.

It’s the latest in a monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Paciﬁc.

Video released by the military on social media shows a small vessel ﬂoating in the ocean before it’s hit and engulfed in a ﬁreball.

The attack brings the death toll to 205 in a series of U.S. strikes that began in early September, with other attacks announced on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The Trump administration has declared that the U.S. is at armed conﬂict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the ﬂow of drugs into American communities.

U.S. Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top U.S commander in Latin America.

Rains threaten to delay search for 2 in Laos

BANGKOK Heavy rains threatened to delay the search for two people missing in a ﬂooded cave in Laos on Sunday, after the rescue of ﬁve other people who were trapped underground for over a week.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi one of the first international rescuers to arrive at the site, told The Associated Press that rains had ﬁlled the cave up to the second chamber, preventing divers from entering the cave until pumps can lower the water level.

Making the situation even more difﬁcult, a drainage pump broke down, said fellow diver Yoshitaka Isaji of Japan.

The seven villagers reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals such as gold before being trapped by a ﬂash ﬂood that blocked their way out. One other villager escaped and alerted the authorities.

Rescue teams from Laos and neighboring Thailand have been working together in the past week at the site in a rugged area in the central province of Xaisomboun, about 75 miles north of the capital, Vientiane They were joined by divers from countries including Finland, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, France and Australia.

Several of the rescuers previously took part in the complicated 2018 cave rescue in northern Thailand that saved 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach from a ﬂooded cave.

Man charged in killings of 3 people in Hawaii

HONOLULU Authorities in Hawaii have charged a 36-year-old man with murder in the killings of three people in a remote community known for its eclectic, communal lifestyle.

Jacob Daniel Baker was charged with counts of first- and second-degree murder Saturday, the Hawaii Police Department said in a news release. Baker remained jailed without bond Sunday and police said his first court appearance was scheduled for Monday It was not immediately known if Baker had an attorney who could speak for him. Charges in the killings came two days after police apprehended Baker following a manhunt on Hawaii’s Big Island, where the three victims were found in the rural Puna community known for its tropical landscape and free-spirited residents. Robert Shine, 69, was found dead Monday partially submerged in a cement pond, according to police. The second victim, a 79-year-old man, was discovered Tuesday a few hundred feet away Friends identified him as Chitta Morse.

Ukraine hits Russian energy targets

Kyiv denies striking Kremlin-occupied nuclear plant

By The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine Kyiv on Sunday launched new strikes overnight on Russian energy sites. It has also denied Moscow’s claims that a Ukrainian drone struck the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Ukraine’s General Staff said Ukrainian drones struck the Saratov oil reﬁnery in southwestern Russia, causing a large-scale ﬁre. It claimed the refinery has been supplying Moscow’s war effort.

The refinery belongs to Russia’s state oil enterprise, Rosneft Local Russian Gov Roman Busargin said Ukrainian drones had damaged civilian infrastructure, but did not give details Astra, an independent Russian news channel, said an oil reﬁnery was on ﬁre in the city of Saratov Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russia’s oil and gas facilities in recent months, arguing the energy sector funds and directly fuels Moscow’s more than four-year invasion.

“Tonight, our soldiers applied Ukraine’s long-range sanctions against an oil reﬁnery in Saratov, Russia — approximately 435 miles from the front line A significant achievement,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media on Sunday.

Drone debris also set ﬁre to a fuel depot in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, which borders Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Gov Yuriy Slyusar reported on Telegram on Sunday He said residents of nearby homes were evacuated.

Ukraine’s General Staff on Sunday confirmed its forces were behind the strike on the facility in the town of Matveev Kurgan.

Local authorities said a drone strike on the depot had caused a large-scale ﬁre across a wide area.

According to its General Staff, Ukraine also struck the Lazarevo pumping station in Russia’s Kirov region northeast of Moscow, more than 745 miles from Ukrainian-controlled land.

The station helps ship Russian oil from Siberia to Belarus.

Regional Gov Alexander Sokolov said drones had hit a facility in the Kirov region, without giving further details.

Kyiv denied that a Ukrainian drone struck the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom said on Saturday that the drone exploded after tearing a hole in the wall of a turbine hall. Rosatom’s CEO Alexei Likhachev accused Ukraine of a deliberate attack

“This afternoon, a Ukrainian kamikaze combat drone struck the turbine hall building of Power Unit No. 6, resulting in a detonation,” Likhachev said. He

added there was no damage to main equipment.

Ukraine’s military said it did not target or strike the plant, describing the Russian claim as “yet another propaganda ploy.” A military statement said that it adheres to international humanitarian law and is aware of the “consequences of any actions targeting nuclear facilities.”

Rafael Grossi, head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — expressed “serious concern” in a post on X following the incident.

Russian forces captured the Zaporizhzhia plant in the early weeks of the war, and it remains close to the front lines in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, one of four Russia has formally annexed despite lacking full military control or international recognition for its actions. The nuclear plant has repeatedly come under ﬁre since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, sparking fears of a nuclear accident. Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for targeting the plant. In an interview broadcast Sunday Zelenskyy told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that Russia treats abducted Ukrainian children “essentially as combatants,” claiming Kyiv has evidence they are being trained to ﬁght against fellow Ukrainians.

“They taught these children to hate their native country, to hate (their) native people. And Ukrainians, can you imagine, such young Ukrainians — young boys — come to the battleﬁeld and kill (other) Ukrainians,” he said. He also alleged that Russians have separated abducted Ukrainian siblings, adopting them out to different families, and offered to trade some children for captured Ukrainian soldiers in prisoner swaps.

The IAEA said in a statement Sunday that its inspectors at the plant “observed damage to the exterior of a turbine building” that was “consistent with the impact” of a drone. It gave no details of where the drone may have come from, but said radiation levels at the site remained normal. It added that its inspectors had requested access to the inside of the turbine hall for further examination.

Paris holds soccer victory parade after overnight clashes

BY SYLVIE CORBET and SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press

PARIS A huge crowd of supporters gathered peacefully near the Eiffel Tower on Sunday to celebrate Paris Saint-Germain’s second Champions League title victory, which was marred by violent clashes overnight across France and led police to detain hundreds of people.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 780 people were detained in Paris and other cities and 57 ofﬁcers were wounded, with most suffering minor injuries, as football fans set off ﬁres and vandalized shops overnight.

Nuñez said at a news conference on Sunday that “the situation has been largely brought under control.”

“Most of the celebrations took place peacefully” across the French capital, he said, noting most incidents happened in the Champs Elysees neighborhood and close to the Parc des Princes stadium, in western Paris, where fans

A car burns Saturday in Paris as supporters celebrate Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League soccer title against Arsenal.

had gathered to watch the match.

Fans began celebrating in Paris after the final whistle on Saturday night in Budapest, Hungary, where Paris SaintGermain was crowned Champions League winners after beating Arsenal in a dramatic penalty shootout. Fans marched along the avenues near Paris’ Arc de Triomphe monument, with some setting off ﬂares and blaring

car horns. Around 20,000 people gathered on the Champs-Élysées, where police worked to contain the crowd.

Planned celebrations for the team’s win on Sunday afternoon at the Champ de Mars, near the Eiffel Tower, went ahead as scheduled. Nunez warned that police would respond with “ﬁrmness and determination” to any potential violence.

With the Eiffel Tower

Blast at building storing explosives in Myanmar kills more than 45

BY GRANT PECK Associated Press

BANGKOK A blast on Sunday at a building in northeastern Myanmar said to have been storing explosives for mining has killed more than 45 people, according to rescue workers and independent media reports. About 70 other people were injured in the explosion that took place around noon in the village of Kaungtup, in Namhkam township.

The area, located about 2 miles south of the Chinese border, is under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army an ethnic armed group which has en-

gaged in sporadic ﬁghting against Myanmar’s central government.

A rescue worker who rushed to the site of the blast told The Associated Press that 46 bodies, including six children, had been recovered by Sunday evening and taken for cremation.

The rescuer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said 74 injured people had been transported to the township hospital and rescue operations were continuing.

Another rescuer in Namhkam, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said about 40 people were killed and more than 100 houses near the blast site

were damaged.

Myanmar media outlets, including Shan State’s online Shwe Phee Myay news agency reported death tolls ranging from 50 to 55. They published photos and videos showing smoke from the explosion and damaged buildings and debris in its aftermath.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported the explosion caused multiple deaths and injuries, with many residential houses being severely damaged, but did not give ﬁgures.

It said that according to preliminary investigations, the blast occurred at a site where large quantities of explosives used for mining operations were stored.

as a backdrop, up to 100,000 supporters showed up at the event that was placed under high security measures. Returning from Budapest late, PSG players — led by captain Marquinhos, coach Luis Enrique and club president Nasser Al-Khelaiﬁ — were greeted by cheering crowds as the club anthem blared from loudspeakers. The players took turns lifting the trophy aloft, relishing their heroes’ welcome back home. The team was then host-

ed by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee presidential palace. Macron condemned the violence.

“I don’t want that we get used to it,” Macron said at the ceremony “This is not soccer, this is not sport, this is not what we love. We will be uncompromising with those who have been caught. We do not want to see this happen again. It’s over We’ve had enough. This must end.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EFREM LUKATSKy

Service members with Ukraine’s defense intelligence set up drones to be used against Russian forces Thursday in an undisclosed location.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By THOMAS PADILLA

WHO chief reports 5 Ebola recoveries amid outbreak

New treatment center opens in eastern Congo

BY JUSTIN KABUMBA and MARK BANCHEREAU Associated Press

BUNIA, Congo Five patients have recovered from a rare type of Ebola virus, the head of the World Health Organization said Sunday during a visit to Bunia in eastern Congo, a city at the heart of an outbreak.

“Four people will be discharged today and there was one that was discharged the day before yesterday,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the opening of a new Ebola treatment center in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.

“Of course, we’re still working on vaccines and treatments but that doesn’t mean that people cannot recover from Ebola,” he added.

The WHO said Friday a patient had recovered from the Bundibugyo virus, the current species of Ebola which has no approved treatment or vaccine. It was the first documented recovery of a confirmed Bundibugyo patient during the current outbreak.

The health organization

said authorities have reported 134 conﬁrmed cases in Congo and neighboring Uganda, including 18 conﬁrmed deaths as of May 29.

Baraka Bulambulu, one of those who recovered, told The Associated Press on Sunday that community members feared contracting an unknown illness from them, keeping their distance while delivering food and medicine.

He said the uncertainty was overwhelming, as he and other patients believed they might die without knowing what disease they had, though testing eventually conﬁrmed Ebola. “Being able to come out of this alive is an immense source of happiness,” Bulambulu said. ”Many people who were in the same situation died.”

Ezo Étienne, a nurse, said his symptoms began during ward rounds when he suddenly felt dizzy, then rapidly deteriorated into vomiting, intense itching, severe diarrhea and extreme weakness. He was tested seven times before Ebola was conﬁrmed.

His treatment remained purely to treat the symptoms: medications to control vomiting, fluids to prevent dehydration and pain relievers. “That was all they could provide,” he said. He urged the public and

BY MEGAN JANETSKY and ASTRID SUÁREZ Associated Press

BOGOTÁ Colombia Tough-on-crime lawyer

Abelardo de la Espriella and peace-builder Iván Cepeda were leading the vote counts in the ﬁrst round of Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday, and are to face off in a runoff in the South American nation later in June.

De la Espriella — a newcomer known as “El Tigre, or “The Tiger,” has sought to portray himself as a supporter of President Donald Trump, vowing to crack down on criminal groups. He leads the race with more than 43% of the votes after nearly 98% of the ballots were counted, Colombia’s electoral authorities said late Sunday He fell short of the 50% of votes needed to win in the ﬁrst round of voting, something that may spell trouble for his path to the presidency Second is Cepeda, a progressive senator and an ally of outgoing President Gustavo Petro who has promised to carry on a fraught push for “total peace.” Cepeda scooped up less than 41% of the vote. Paloma Valencia, a candidate for Co-

Director General of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus meets Sunday with health workers who recovered from Ebola in Bunia, Congo.

healthcare workers not to dismiss early symptoms such as vomiting and headaches, warning that misinformation leads many people to believe they have been poisoned rather than seeking hospital care.

Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said Saturday the virus continues to spread faster than the response despite better-organized health facilities and new aid arrivals It called for the immediate expansion of testing, faster de-

lombia’s establishment party who pitched herself as a centrist, fell short of moving into the next round with less than 7% of the vote.

While Cepeda coasted comfortably ahead in polls throughout the campaign, the senator and de la Espriella were neck-and-neck on Sunday night, which is likely to spell trouble in the June runoff, where de La Espriella is likely to scoop up many of the voters that threw their support behind Valencia.

The election underscored two sharply diverging visions for the future of peace in a country marked by years of conﬂict Voters across South America are increasingly ditching leaders that pitched progressive policies — such as providing opportunities to young people and rooting out corruption, and solving security issues and have instead to heavy-handed security crackdowns like in El Salvador

ployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.

The dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for handling the victims’ bodies, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.

Tedros stressed the importance of involving the community in the outbreak

response during the opening of the new treatment center on Sunday

“If you come to health facilities when you have symptoms, you can get the support and recover, so the key is to come forward as early as possible and to get the necessary support,” the WHO chief said.

“We can stop this Ebola and anyone who has it can also recover But the rule is this thing is everybody’s business and every citizen should be

involved,” he added.

Attacks in the region by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response.

ADF ﬁghters killed seven people Saturday in Beni, North Kivu province, an area also affected by the outbreak, the Congolese army and civil society groups said. The illness also has been reported in both North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu.

“The final message we would like to share with the Ituri community is that there is hope,” Pierre Akilimali, incident manager at Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, said during the inauguration on Sunday

“With the symptomatic treatment that we are currently providing, we are seeing patients recover,” Akilimali added.

“We truly have hope. The virus here is not as complicated as those we have dealt with in the past, and with the support of all our partners, we believe we will be able to bring this outbreak under control as quickly as possible,” said Davin Ambitapio, another doctor at the treatment center

Newark sets curfew after clashes over immigration detention center

By The Associated Press

N.J

NEWARK,

The mayor of Newark imposed a curfew early Sunday around an immigration detention center in New Jersey after a series of intense clashes between protestors and police.

The curfew around Delaney Hall will be in place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. until further notice, Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement.

The move came after another night of standoffs between law enforcement and demonstrators at the facility, as protestors could be seen in photographs and videos fighting over barricades as police used riot shields to push them back. A video posted on social media showed police on horseback marching into crowds attempting to break up groups of protestors.

The high-profile demonstrations at Delaney Hall began earlier this month

ASSOCIATED

Protesters against Immigration and Customs Enforcement take to the streets Saturday during clashes with law enforcement outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, N.J

after advocates said detainees inside launched a hunger strike over poor living conditions at the 1,000-bed facility, the latest hotbed of opposition over the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

New Jersey state police on Friday relieved federal immigration enforcement agents who had been facing off against protestors at the facility for days. In a statement Sunday morning, New Jersey Gov Mikie Sherrill said masked individuals attacked a barrier in a designated protest area set up by state police and were “throwing projectiles, utilizing the barriers as weapons, and lighting tires on ﬁre in the street.”

Candidate’s wife calls reports about Platner’s sexually explicit texts

‘shameful’

BY JESSE BEDAYN and KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press

Graham Platner’s wife called reports that her husband had previously exchanged sexually explicit text messages with several women “shameful” over the weekend, the latest controversy to hit the Maine Democrat’s whirlwind campaign. Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, posted a video taken by his wife, Amy Gertner, who reportedly told his campaign of the text messages last year In the five-minute video, Gertner avoided speaking directly about her husband’s reported texts, dubbing the broader coverage as “gossip” and saying that “being married is hard.”

“I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip,” she said in the informal, selﬁestyle video where she walked along a road. “No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage.”

Platner is seeking the Democratic nomination for one of the most closely-watched Senate races as Democrats hope to defeat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the party’s efforts to win control of the closely divided Senate. The Maine primary is June 9.

The texts were ﬁrst reported by The Wall Street Jour-

nal, which wrote that Gertner had told the campaign in August about the messages she had found on Platner’s phone earlier in their marriage. The New York Times, which also published a story Saturday about the texts, named former aide Genevieve McDonald as one of the then-campaign staffers who conﬁrmed the messages. Both newspapers reported that Gertner wanted to ensure the texts didn’t pose a political liability to the novice candidate. Platner’s campaign team eventually decided that the texts were private and being handled by the couple, who were married in 2023 The two are in counseling, Gertner has said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MOSES SAWASAWA

PRESS PHOTO By ANGELINA KATSANIS

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MATIAS DELACROIX Voters line up at a polling station Sunday during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia.

Bill sets tougher penaltiesfor attackingteachers

Students wouldbe expelled,get anger management classes

BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

Louisiana schools must take stricterdisciplinary action against students who attackpublic school employeesunder abill theLegislature passed last week that requires districts to expel students found guilty of assault.

The House voted 98-0 Wednesday to approve afinal version of House Bill 283 by Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, which mandates thatstudents who assault aschool employee be automatically expelled for at least two semesters and undergo anger management classes. The measure, which now heads to Gov Jeff Landrytobesigned into law, also allows teachers who are assaulted to use up to ayearoftheir sick leave for medical and psychologicaltreatment or physicalrehabilitation.

relatedbill by Newell,House Bill 133, whichdealswithcriminal penalties for assaulting teachers. Under the bill,students convicted of batteryagainst teachers face a minimum ofsix months in prison or juveniledetention without eligibility for parole or probation.

Known as the “Teacher’s Shield Act,” HB283 underwent changes afteradvocates expressedconcerns.

authority over students’ actions outside of school.

“I’mfine withthe bill’sfinal formbecause it still protects teachers,” Newellsaid in an interview Friday. “Thatwas what was really importanttome.”

aclear message,Roemer said: “If youdoharm an educator,there will be consequences.”

What’s in thebill?

Teachers’ unions frequently say districts should take atougher stance on students whoare violent toward school employees,arguing that expellingstudents who attack staff will make schools safer.Opponents, however,say expelling studentscan hurt their futures anddoesn’taddress the root cause of bad behavior

Whiledataonphysical attacks against teachers is limited, research from other states suggests such incidentsare relatively rare.

While current state lawleaves it up to districts to decide how to discipline students whoassault teachers, apart from any legal consequences they might face, HB283 creates new mandatory penalties forstudents and puts more protectionsinplace forschoolemployees.

protections. The measure will work in conjunction with HB133, which also adds disability-related protections and evaluation requirements for students who attack teachers. It also says students convicted of battery that causes teachers “serious bodily injury” can be imprisoned foruptoayear

On Friday,the Housepassed a

JUDGMENTS

Continued from page1A Newell

The lawsuits related to the contaminated neighborhoods date back decades. Suzette Bagneris, lead counsel on the lawsuits, ﬁled suit in 1993 as alaw student and the class of plaintiffs scored their ﬁrst major victory in 2006.

“I’m at aloss for when these people are going to make this a priority,” Bagneris said. “They are literally waiting for all of these people who lived in Gordon Plaza and Press Park to die off ﬁrst.”

The plaintiffs in the current case are suingthe cash-strapped city and its leadership as wellas the school board. (The housing authority is not adefendant inthe lawsuit, as Sheppard creditedthe agency for an earlier payment in insurance money.)

Mayor Helena Moreno’soffice did not respond to arequest for comment. Aspokesperson for the School Board said it hasnot been served the lawsuit.

‘Leverage, institutionalinfluence’

While delaying payments to residents, the city is moving forward with other “substantial settlement payments” and “financial commitments,” the lawsuitalleges. It pointstoanagreement to pay OPSB back millions of dollars beginning this yearover the city’s now-defunct practice of taking hefty fees from taxes it collects from the school district.

The lawsuit argues that “when residents who prevailed in court years ago remain unpaid while new politically important obligations move to the front of theline, the resulting public perception is that judicial rights dependnot on law,but on leverage andinstitutional inﬂuence.”

This situationis“particularly severe,” thelawsuit alleges, given that it involves residentsexposed to years of contamination in which the government has been foundliable. Gordon Plaza and Press Park

Initially,the bill created anear-total ban on allowingstudents to return to the same school after an assault. But after pushback fromrural districts that said they have few alternative placement optionsfor expelled students,lawmakers revised the legislation to allow students to return to thesame school when adistricthas no other school “of suitable grade level” to send them to.

Lawmakers also updated the proposal to only applytooff-campus assaults of employees by students that are “a continuation of” incidentsthat began on school property.Some advocates pushed for the change, saying the original wordinggave school systems too much

Caroline Roemer, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, saidshe wasinitiallyconcerned that someofHB283’sprovisions, particularly regarding off-campus incidents,could impede on students’ rights.

“Our concerns were, how do you protect teachers whilealso recognizing thatthere are rightsfor students?” Roemer said.

Butthe revised measure is more balanced while still sending

In addition to requiring expulsion and anger management classes, thebillmandates that districts document each allegedassault against aschool employee in a student’sﬁle,including disciplinary ﬁndings and school placement decisions. The act also says school administratorscannotdiscourage educators from disciplining studentswho disrupt educational time, anditprohibits administratorsfromretaliating against employees who choose to do so.

Schools must notify their staff annually of those rights.

Therevised bill also adds new protections for students with disabilities, clarifying thatthe measure cannotoverride existing state or federal special-education

residents say that the city’sprioritization of payments is unconstitutional, “arbitrary and irrational,” and are asking the defendants to disclose how theyorder these kinds ofpayments.

“Wecan’tmakethem pay us, but what we can do is make sure that they adhere to theirown policies and procedures and pay in order of thelist,” Bagneris said. She also said that city ofﬁcials have not responded to herrequests about theunpaid judgments.

During former Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration,Bagnerismet with ofﬁcials who “vowed to us it was goingtobepaid within thenext six months,” she said.

“Then Moreno came into ofﬁce and thenext thingweheard was they were not going to pay it,” she said. “They didn’thave the money andthey weren’tgoing to pay it.”

Atoxic site

In the1970sand

’80s, Gordon Plaza was promoted to Black families looking foraffordable home ownership near the Desirearea. The area included multifamily homes, senior apartments, public housing units, the Gordon Plazasubdivision and Robert R. MotonElementary School, all of which have been shut

down. The entirearea was built on top of theroughly 95-acreAgriculture Street Landﬁll, which had operated for nearly 50 years before closing in 1957. After Hurricane Betsy in 1965, thelandﬁll reopened as a burningand disposal site, which left contaminants in the soil and groundwater,suchasarsenicand lead, according to theEnvironmentalProtection Agency.

The federal agency found more than 140 toxic chemicals in the soil, including 49 carcinogens. Areport from the Louisiana Tumor Registry in 2019 found that the broader Desire neighborhood, where thesite was located, hadthe second-highest rate of cancer in the state.

In 1994, the EPAdesignatedthe former landfill aSuperfundsite, which opened federal funding for cleanup, but residentsofthe neighborhoodsought afully funded relocation.

WendyWhiteDavis, 60, lived in the Press Parkneighborhood for 23 years starting at the age of seven. Herfather was oneofthe ﬁrst to buy ahouseinthe new neighborhood in 1971.

She recalled thestring of premature deaths among closefriends andfamily wholivedinthe con-

The brick wall of ahouse is demolished in the Gordon Plaza neighborhood of NewOrleans on Oct. 30, 2024. About 65 homes were torndownto makeway fora solar farm

D’Shay Oaks, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators, oneofLouisiana’s teachers unions, said HB283 shows teachers that their mental health and safety is important.

“Weneed more mandates and immediate removals of children who assault ateacher,” Oaks said. “If ateacher is assaulted, there are alot of mental andemotional issues they will have if the student is allowed back on campus.”

Cynthia Posey,director of governmental relations for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the state’slargest teachers union, said the bill could help schoolsrecruit and keep teachers.

“Louisiana cannot ask educators and school employees to stay in the profession, or convince new people to enter it, if they do not believe they will be safe and supported at work,” she said in astatement.

called the meeting with Green.Like Davis, Shinel Brown Smith’sfamily movedtothe Press Park neighborhood in 1971 andlivedthere until Hurricane Katrina.Two decades after mostofthe family relocated to Texas, Smith’sfather is renting an apartment in New Orleans while paying taxes on the old property

“Wedidn’tget paid for the homes, the suffering, we didn’tget paid for anything,” Smith said.

Green said that he’sopen to communications with anyone relevant to the issue, but that he is notfamiliar with the particulars of the current lawsuit. Aspokesperson for Carter conﬁrmed that the congressman hasbeeninvolved in conversations with constituents about the issue.

taminatedneighborhood, beginning withher best friend who died of cancer at theage of 15. Shehas also lost asister,two brothers and a niece. Twoother sisters are cancer survivors.

“It’sheartbreaking,” she said. “Weran across that dump site, we built things on there, we ran to the gym, we played on there.”

Davis has not received any compensation for growing up on the carcinogenic landﬁll. In fact, her family is stillpaying taxesonthe condemned property

“My dad’s been dead forfour years now,” she said. “But my dad couldn’tenjoy his ownmoney and he worked hard for his money.And that’swhy I’m ﬁghting for it and I won’tgive up.”

Over two years ago, Davis met with New OrleansCity Council member Eugene Green, whose district includes the neighborhood, and arepresentative for U.S. Rep. Troy Carter,she said.She wastold that thecourt-ordered compensationwould comewithin 18 months —a deadlinethat passed last December.Since then, she said city officials are giving her “the runaround.”

Others who lived in Press Park describedsimilar situations and re-

“Through their resilience, the people of Gordon Plaza have fought tirelessly,ensuring that their voices were heard, theirhealth safeguardedand theirrights upheld,” Carter said.

He noted that he helpedsecure EPAdollars to develop asolar farm in place of theneighborhood, aproject backed by Cantrell.

“I will continue to help residents get resolution using every tool at my disposal,” Carter said.

The first set of Gordon Plaza homes were torn down in 2024, two years after the city approved a$35 million buyout forhomeowners. ButPress Parkresidents, including Davis andSmith, have not received anything.

Thebuyout is unrelated to the $75 millionclass-action lawsuit for emotionaldistress andproperty damage, Bagneris noted.

The city’stotal backlog of unpaid judgments and settlements is astonishingly long. ATimes-Picayune analysis of city law department records from 2021 —one year before the Gordon Plaza community was grantedits most recent judgment —found the city owed close to $65 million. Unpaid judgments date back 30 years, according to alist provided by Bagneris.

Email Josie Abugov at josie abugov@theadvocate.com.

identi‐ﬁed in the City Park 2050 Master Plan: City Park Athletic Facilities and ConnectionsImprove‐ments. Respondentsmust demonstraterelevant qualiﬁcations, technical expertise, andprior ex‐perience providingCMAR services forprojectsof similarscope

MOON

Continued from page1A

properties of the moon, Marsand asteroids.

McCarthy said they chose samples that replicate thelunar south pole, the location beingtargetedby NASA’s Artemis missions.

Implications forexploration

McCarthy said her research differs from current approaches to separate metals from their oxides, which are more energy-intensive.

Thethermite reaction sheemploys is already used on Earth —to repair railroads.

“I think we saw an article about NASA’s in situ resource utilization,and we thought, wow, it’s kind of familiar to the reactions that we’re trying to do,” McCarthy said. “Regolith has aton of oxides in it,sowecould usethis. We could

BENJAMIN

Continued from page1A

city needed asymphony.With that determination,she led the board for ﬁve years. During that period, themusiciansstoppedplaying because they hadn’tbeen paid, and Benjamin said she lost count of the number of organizations sheaddressed in an attempt to rally support to erase the $3 million debt “I knew it wasin trouble,”she said in a1985 interview,“but Ilike that kind of challenge. When you get on aboard that doesn’tneed you, the challenge isn’tthere.”

At that interview,she woreher father’sbig Longines watch on her left wrist. She said it was areminder that “my father felt Icoulddo anything.”

Persistence —and the hundreds of thousandsofdollars shecontributed —paid off.When Benjamin passedthe baton to her successor, theorchestra was debt-free.

In 1991, the ensemble became the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra; it is the oldest full-time musician-governed and collaboratively operated orchestra in the country.Ithas thrived. Benjamin’s contributions included an endowment for the orchestra’s music directorand principal conductor; that position bearsher name “There would not be asymphony orchestra in New Orleanswithout Adelaide Benjamin.Full stop,” said Stephen Hales, alongtime member of the orchestra’s board “The musicians adored her,and she adored them.”

One of them was Michael Bucalo, atrumpeter.Ina 1991 letter to the editor of The Times-Picayune, he wrote: “Mrs. Benjamin has no equal in the community in regards to the energy and personal sacriﬁce forthe symphony.Nomatter how bad things looked, shewas always there with money to bail us out and keep things going.”

propose areaction.”

She was one of ahandful of studentstoreceive the awardfrom NASA through the Louisiana Space GrantConsortium. It bridged her experiments that used electron microscopy and her lifelong interest in space, shesaid

“I havealways been super passionateabout NASA and NASA initiatives,” McCarthy said.

She saidthe projecthas abroader scope than the research team originally anticipated,and it plans to reapply to continuethe work after the fundingisup.

Themethod is newer andmore energy-efficientthan existing practices, and it could play acritical role in advancinghumanity’s space exploration,she said.

“It doesn’tcost as much because the aircraft is lighter,you don’t have asmuchfuel, and there’s room for other stuff that’smore important on thespacecraft as well,” McCarthysaid.

Aweek’sconcerts in 1997 were dedicated toher.Atthe ﬁrst concert,she receiveda prolonged standing ovation.

“Shewas brave,” Halessaid.

“She persevered.”

It was in herDNA, her son Edward “Ned” Benjamin said. “She came from afamily of activists. Herparentsfelt that obligation to serve and try to make the city a better place. When shesaw things that could be improved, shewanted to improve them.”

That started in her youth, when she and her mother planted aVictory Garden —mirlitons, green beans and tomatoes —intheir Palmer Avenue backyard during World WarII. It was part of anational effort to supplementfoodrations, ease the strain on commercial agriculture and boost morale.

She graduated from the Louise S. McGehee School and enrolled at HollinsCollege(now Hollins University) but returned home after twoyears for her debut year and entered Newcomb College.

During that period,she wound up bookending Carnival by reigningover Twelfth Night Revelers on the season’sﬁrstnight and as Rex’s queen onMardiGras night

Afterearning undergraduate andlaw degrees, she joined the firm of Wisdom, Stone, Pigman and Benjamin (nowStone Pigman Walther Wittmann).

She married fellow lawyer Edward Benjamin and retired in 1958 to rear afamily

“Her children were the focus of her life,” said Flora Fenner French, alongtime friend.

For the rest of herlife, Benjamin’s passionwas volunteering.

“She entered the world of community servicewhenstrong thoughtful women in community servicewererare,”Hales said.

“She was purposeful and generous withher time. She had astrong moral compassand didnot tolerate unfairness. She always stood ﬁrm on theright sideofissues. If you

Talkingpoints

The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, which has close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Sunday that amendments continue to be proposed by both sides, but noted that both the U.S. and Iran might ultimately reject the changes and the deal would collapse.

“Talks and message exchanges are ongoing,and until adeﬁnite result is reached, it is not possible to judge,” Iranian ForeignMinister Abbas Araghchi said, according to Tasnim. “Everything being said now is speculation and should not be given importance.”

Meanwhile, Israel made its broadest incursioninto Lebanon in aquarter-century as Hezbollah —Iran’s most powerful regional ally —stepped up attacks on Israel’snorth.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired more than 300 “projectiles” at its soldiers in Lebanon and at northern Israel over the weekend. The latest escalation has shattered abrittle ceaseﬁre declared afterthe Tehran-backed group attacked Israel in response to its war on Iran, which it launched with the U.S. on Feb. 28. Israel is not party to the talks between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic and it’snot clear whether it will agree to stop its side warin Lebanon if the war in Iran is resolved.

were on theother side, it wouldn’t go well.”

Amongthe boards on which she satwerethose of family foundations, the Louisiana Museum

Foundation, theNational D-Day Museum (now The National WWII Museum) andthe McGehee School. Benjamin, asoprano, sang in

the New Orleans Symphony Chorus, the Trinity Episcopal Church Choir andTulane’s Summer Lyric Theatre

She graduated in 1982 from the University of the South’sTheological School’s extensionprogram titled “Education for Ministry,” and she was amentor for its programfor six years.

Loyola University gave her an honorary doctorate,and its President’sCouncil gave herits Integritas Vitae Award in 1994. The nominating committee said Benjamin “has made it herlife’s work to contribute time, talent andtreasure to the betterment of our community and its institutions. Her commitment to and love forNew Orleanshavebeen proven time and again, and we are abettercity forit.”

In discussing hergrandmother’s impact, Mary Beth Benjamin said: “She hada deep understanding of legacy.I think she embodiedthe wordlegacy because she lived it. It wasn’twhat you left when you died, but what you dideveryday —whatyou do,whatyou give, whom you love. She saw it as something you’d leave behind everyday,and she did.”

Edward Benjamin died in 2012. Survivors include twosons, NedWisdom Benjamin, of New Orleans, andStuart MinorBenjamin, of Durham, North Carolina; twodaughters, Mary Dabney Benjamin, of Seattle, and Ann Leith BenjaminHill, of Brooklyn, New York; 10 grandchildren; anda great-granddaughter who is namedfor her Having agreat-granddaughter bearing hername“was special to her,” NedBenjamin said. “Her name would live on.” Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of funeral arrangements, which areincomplete

Email John Popeat pinckelopes@gmail.com.

On Saturday, Iranian state TV reported theexistence of anew draft agreement, which it said gives the Islamic Republic “exclusive authority to determine the nature of transiting vessels” in the strait, anegotiating point the U.S. is unlikely to accept Trump once said Iran and the U.S. could manage its trafﬁc in ajointventure.This week, the U.S. leader said that no one country would control thestraitbut that the U.S. would “watch over” it.

The draft also saidthe U.S. hascommittedtogiving Iran access to $12 billioninfrozenfunds within 60 days,to be sent directly to Iranian bankswithout restrictions, accordingtoIranian TV, whichaddedthatthe document was “unofﬁcial” and not “ﬁnalized.”

The White House did not respond to arequest forcomment on the report.

Treasury SecretaryScott Bessent claimed that an Iraniancommitmenttorefrain from seeking anuclear weapon —a longtime key point of conflict—has been on the table in talks with theU.S

“This is the ﬁrst timethe Iranians have ever been willing—in47years—to discuss not having anuclear weapon,”Bessent said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Now it’sonthe tablefor the ﬁrst time thanks to President Trump.” Iran has repeatedly claimed since the 2015 nuclear deal made with the Obama administration that

it was not pursuing anuclear weapon. Andinthat deal, Iran agreed to cap uranium enrichment it said wasfor nuclear power and to ship its stockpile out of the country When Trump rescinded that deal in his ﬁrst term,Iranreturned to enriching uranium beyond what the Obama deal allowed.

Marketshave been whipsawed by the abrupt turns in rhetoric, buthopes of a ceasefire extension helped drive stocks towardahistoric streak of weekly gains by week’send, even as sporadic attacks occurred.

Trump’sformer national securityadviser,John Bolton, said Trump was willing to take an imperfect deal to ease Republicans’ growing worries aboutthe congressional elections in thefallas voters are frustrated with rising energy prices.

“This is adeal about gasoline prices at the pump in the United States,” Bolton said on Bloomberg This Weekend. “Trump worries, obviously,about the price levelspeopleare paying.He’s worried aboutthe effect on inﬂation. He’sworried about theeffect on the elections in November.But this is nota deal thatreally ends the war in asatisfactory way forthe United States.”

Bolton warned that allowingIran’sgovernment to remaininpower would enable it to rebuild itsmilitary and nuclear capabilities. “If the Iranianregimeisallowed to survive, which it looks like Trump is prepared to acknowledge, theywill simply beneﬁt from thereopening

of the strait to sell moreoil, gain more revenue, and entrench themselves in power,” he said.

U.S. troops wounded

An Iranian ballistic missile strike on aKuwaitiair base in recent days caused minor injuries to several Americans and seriously damaged two MQ-9 Reaper strike drones, according to aperson with direct knowledge of the attack,

whorequestedanonymity to describe details that aren’t public.

The missile wasintercepted but falling debris hurt about ﬁve people, including contractors and active-duty personnel, thepersonsaid. One Reaper wasdestroyed and at least one other was seriously damaged. The drones cost about $30 millioneach.

U.S. Central Command didn’trespond to requests

for comment on the attack. The U.S. Navy blockade policing the strait disabled aGambia-flagged vessel heading to an Iranian port on Friday, theU.S. military announced on Saturday. AU.S aircraft disabled the vessel by firing aHellfire missile into the engine room after thecrewignored more than 20 warnings, CentralCommand said in astatement posted on X.

Ph.D. student Emma McCarthy poses with vialsof

PHOTO PROVIDED By MATT ROSS

Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin gets asurprise birthdayserenadefrom members of the NewOrleans Symphony, including guestconductor Alfred Savia, center,and members of their families in 1986.

PHOTO PROVIDEDByLOUISE S. McGEHEE SCHOOL

Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin and Gene Dryattend a2017 dinner

honoring Louise S. McGehee School Headmistress Eileen Powers for 20 years of service to the school at Ralph’s on the Park in NewOrleans.

Audibelis NOW Offering...

Politician in hot seat over lot sales

Community turned idle site owned by nonprofit into garden

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

An obscure New Orleans housing nonprofit’s attempt to sell a community garden in the 7th Ward has drawn widening public scrutiny, renewing criticisms of a state representative whose real estate firm handled the deal and triggering a review by Mayor Helena Moreno’s office.

The origins of the Frenchmen Street Community Garden, which ﬁlls two lots on the corner of Frenchmen and Marais streets, trace to a post-Hurricane Katrina program meant to harness abandoned property for good. The city

NORD CEO leaving post after 7 years

Barabino taking new role at city’s housing agency

BY JONI HESS Staff writer

New Orleans Recreation and De-

velopment Commission CEO Larry Barabino Jr resigned from his post Friday to take on a new role at the Housing Authority of New Orleans, opening the door for new leadership to steer the department through its long-held challenges.

His departure after seven years is the latest exit of a major agency’s top leader after Lona Edwards Hankins resigned as CEO of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority last month.

Barabino’s last day is June 12, he said in an email sent to staff Friday evening.

“In the coming weeks, I remain fully committed to ensuring a smooth transition and supporting the organization in every way possible. I have complete conﬁdence that NORD will continue to thrive because of the extraordinary people who make this agency what it is,” he said

“We are grateful for Director Barabino’s service and contributions during his tenure and appreciate the time, dedication, and professionalism he brought to his role on behalf of the residents of New Orleans,” said Isis Casanova, city communications director Barabino’s departure comes as NORD navigates issues retaining staff amid a citywide hiring freeze, blowback over the condition and management of some of its 160-plus facilities and a reimagined vision from the city’s new mayor On the campaign trail last year, Mayor Helena Moreno drafted a plan to overhaul NORD by calling for a new full-time leader of the NORD Foundation and a new department director Moreno also vowed to expand youth programs and said she would increase the agency’s budget by 20%, or an additional $5 million, if management issues are resolved.

The department is also being overseen with an almost entirely new board after Moreno appointed five new commission members whose priorities include analyzing NORD’s budget, deepening the department’s community ties and ensuring sites are adequately staffed and maintained.

gave the parcels to the nonproﬁt

Neighborhood Housing Services, but the land lay untended for several years and grew into a foliagesnarled dumping ground.

In 2019, a group of residents cleared the site of trash and tangled kudzu, replacing them with jasmine, dill and banana plants, mulberry and fig trees, walking paths and a chicken coop. Gardeners distribute thousands of pounds of eggs and produce to nearby residents each year, said Ashley Schneider, one of the garden’s organizers.

In 2023, the group made one of several overtures seeking to buy or lease the land from the nonprof-

it. The gardeners offered $90,000 for the two lots, plus a separate lot Neighborhood Housing Services owned on North Robertson Street. The real estate ﬁrm run by state Rep. Delisha Boyd represented the nonproﬁt.

Boyd’s daughter Kristen, an agent at the ﬁrm assigned to the negotiations, responded then that the owner would be loath to sell “3 (lots) for the price of one.”

Three years later, on May 15, the garden’s stewards arrived to ﬁnd eviction notices pinned to its chain-link fence.

Delisha Boyd Realty in April quietly went under contract with buyers on both of the garden’s

lots, real estate records show, for

$15,000 each Orleans Parish assessor’s records show one of them sold for roughly that price in 1963.

Garden organizers responded with a public campaign to halt the sale, which has drawn growing attention on social media and in public meetings. “Residents had previously made higher offers for these lots and were fully prepared to do so again had they been notiﬁed of the sale,” the organizers wrote to Moreno.

“The transfer of land designated for public good at below market rates to private interests raises

FOOD & FUN

ABOVE: Nikola Zarak shucks oysters at the Atlantis Oysters booth during the annual Jean Laﬁtte Seafood Festival on Sunday LEFT: Festivalgoers walk down City Park Street.

Zulu crowns Keith Thomas 2027 king

Band director bests ex-congressman

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

In what some saw as an upset, Keith Thomas, band director at John F. Kennedy High School and longtime Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club member, was elected King Zulu 2027 in voting on Sunday Thomas won over former U.S. House of Representative member Cedric Richmond. Thomas received 350 votes, with Richmond trailing with 299. When the results of the election were announced from the balcony of the Zulu clubhouse, the enormous crowd of members and others awaiting the news on North Broad Street erupted in cheers. Thomas was immediately surrounded by a mass of exuberant supporters, who paused their congratulations long enough for the

new Zulu King to shake hands with Richmond.

“I’m so ecstatic,” Thomas shouted over the crowd. “Thank you so much, Zulu It’s a gift of a lifetime.”

Darren Mire, the Zulu organization’s director of public relations, said that in addition to his long career as an educator in New Orleans schools, Thomas served the Zulu club for 18 years, making himself invaluable in the production of the annual parade. It was Thomas’ second campaign to be the Zulu King, one of the most important symbolic positions in all of New Orleans culture.

Established in 1909, during the era of restrictive racial segregation, the Zulu organization has produced a Carnival procession by and for the city’s Black population for more than a century The lighthearted Zulu parade, named for the legendary African kingdom, has long been an iconic part

ä See ZULU, page 2B

STAFF

PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

A chicken walks around the Frenchmen Street Community Garden in New Orleans on Saturday.

Barabino

STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Former U.S Rep. Cedric Richmond hugs Keith Thomas after Thomas beat Richmond in an election for King Zulu 2027 outside the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club in New Orleans on Sunday.

Police: Man fatally shot in ﬁght

BY KASEY BUBNASH Staff writer

A man was shot and killed during a ﬁght in the Broadmoor neighborhood early Sunday morning, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

Police were called at 1:36 a.m. to the 3500 block of Milan Street, where they found the man wounded The victim and suspected shooter had been in a physical fight when shots rang out, police said.

Pa ra me di cs to ok the victim to a hospital and he died there later, according to the NOPD. Police did not immediately release more information.

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

Supporters celebrate Keith Thomas’ election as the

Club in New Orleans.

ZULU

Continued from page 1B

of Carnival. It took until 1969 for the city to permit the Zulu parade to roll on Canal Street on the path formerly reserved for White parades, an important step toward the integration of the New

Orleans Carnival celebration.

Some saw New Orleansborn Richmond as a shooin. Politicly, he’s long been a Democratic stalwart who served as a Louisiana House member from 2000 to 2011. He then ascended to the U.S. House from 2011 to 2021, where he chaired the Congressional Black Caucus. He was co-chair of Joe Biden’s

successful 2020 presidential campaign and subsequently became a senior adviser to the president. Richmond is a practicing attorney Thomas, the 111th Zulu King-elect, was preceded by lifelong educator Ron Tassin, who reigned as king in 2026; musician and club mainstay Rodney P. Mason Jr in 2025; and longtime club member and philanthropy

organizer Melvin Labat in 2024. The most memorable Zulu King of all was international celebrity Louis Armstrong, who wore the crown in 1949.

Known for its flamboyantly costumed characters and hand-decorated signature coconut throws, the next Zulu parade will takes place on Mardi Gras morning, Feb. 9.

Resignation leaves empty seat on Jefferson School Board

Once official, members have 20 days to find replacement

BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

After a Jefferson Parish School Board member’s sudden resignation, the clock is ticking for the board to ﬁnd his replacement.

Steven Guitterrez said Tuesday that he is stepping down from the board six months before the end of his term, leaving an open

PRICES

Continued from page 1B

serious legal and ethical concerns and represents a profound failure of both ﬁduciary and civic duty.”

The transaction is not yet final. Moreno’s office is reviewing whether she has authority to veto the deal under a provision of the Katrina-era program that bequeathed Neighborhood Housing Services the land, a spokesperson for her office said.

“The City is currently reviewing the extent of the mayor’s authority in this matter, but Mayor Moreno’s position is clear: if she has the authority to approve or disapprove this sale she will not approve it,” spokesperson Jonah Gilmore said. He added that “the administration is aware of the concerns that have been raised, and those concerns are being taken seriously as the city evaluates the matter.”

Scrutiny over the attempted sale adds to an alreadysigniﬁcant list of legal and ethical controversies dogging Boyd, a Democrat from New Orleans’ West Bank who regularly ﬁles legislation in the Capitol to raise the state minimum wage and to loosen Louisiana’s abortion ban.

Boyd and her attorneys did not respond to phone, email and text messages for this story Lawyers she hired to review her campaign ﬁnances last fall, after The TimesPicayune reported that her campaign and PAC secretly paid a company she owns with her daughter to market their real estate business,

seat for District 9, which oversees seven schools in Kenner. Under state law, the nine-member board will have 20 days to ﬁll the vacancy once the board is formally notiﬁed of the resignation, which members said has not happened yet.

If the board fails to fill the seat in time, Gov Jeff Landry has the authority to appoint someone to the position

Finding a new board member in such a short timeframe could be difﬁcult, said board member Clay Moise, noting that the replacement must meet all the board eligibility re-

quirements, including living in the district they’re looking to represent.

Once the clock starts, “we have 20 days to get a butt in his seat,” Moise said. The appointed interim member will serve until the board’s next election on Nov 3, when that person could run against any other candidates for the seat.

Moise said Wednesday that the board has not received formal notice from the Secretary of State’s Ofﬁce about Guitterrez’s resignation which will start the 20-day countdown.

After receiving the no-

tification, the board is required to publish an announcement in the local newspaper inviting anyone interested in the seat to apply, Moise added.

Candidates must submit their qualifications and pass a background check proving they live in the district and are not under indictment. The board will then schedule a special meeting at which members will publicly interview the candidates and vote on a replacement, who will be sworn in on the spot.

The last time the board needed to replace one of its own was in 2022, when longtime member Larry

Plants traded for labor and free for elders of the community are placed on a table at the Frenchmen Street Community Garden in New Orleans on Saturday.

have defended Boyd One of those private lawyers, Alesia Ardoin, in February said her ﬁrm’s review found no signs of wrongdoing In an email exchange this week, Kristen Boyd said she has represented Neighborhood Housing Services in property sales for a decade. That included selling “new construction homes,” which she said “expanded affordable housing in our community.”

She said she moved to swiftly sell the Frenchmen garden lots in April after the nonprofit’s CEO, Amy Batiste, texted her saying she intended to “dissolve” the nonprofit and wanted its remaining property sold by “ﬁre sale” for $10,000 to $20,000 apiece.

Mounting controversy

An ally of Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, Delisha Boyd lost a bid for an at-large New Orleans City Council seat last fall. Her loss came after her campaign shed donor support following The Times-Picayune’s reporting on her spending. Last month, the newspaper also reported Delisha Boyd’s ﬁrm had received business from two political allies who were managing a family inheritance — an arrangement that succession attorneys said raised ethical concerns. In January, she filed for bankruptcy in New Orleans, declaring debts of more than $1 million.

Aside from her election loss, Delisha Boyd has faced

little public pushback over the controversies. Consistent with agency policy, officials with the Louisiana Board of Ethics, which investigates allegations of state ethics violations, have neither confirmed nor denied the existence of a probe into her affairs.

Kristen Boyd said opponents of the garden’s sale are unfairly attacking her mother She represented Neighborhood Housing Services when the nonprofit sold the separate plot of land discussed in the 2023 negotiations with the garden organizers on North Robertson Street, as well as on the sale of at least one private home in 2019.

“The decision to target my mother is transparently

Emails between Barabino and HANO officials show that he began searching for job opportunities at the agency days after Moreno took ofﬁce in January

In April, Moreno signed an executive order that created a task force to explore reforms at NORD, including merging the city’s Department of Parks and Parkways with NORD’s maintenance division.

The task force, led by CAO Joe Giarrusso and Moreno’s chief of staff Kevin Ferguson, will also review ways to boost funding, expand partnerships and improve park safety, including addressing lead remediation.

Starting June 15, Barabino will become senior director of community and property operations for the city’s public housing authority, according to a statement Sunday from HANO Executive Director Marjorianna Willman.

“Barabino understands the communities we serve, he has roots in public housing and he has a history at HANO working through the redevelopment of the Big Four Public Housing Developments,” Willman said. In his position, he will lead engagement with stakeholders and be involved in operational improvements as the authority works to stabilize the Guste Community, according to Wilman.

Dale announced he would step down to become the new executive director of a local business advocacy group.

Dale’s initial replacement, Rafael Rafidi, voluntarily resigned just ﬁve days after being appointed to the board after a series of controversial social media posts Raﬁdi had made surfaced.

Rafidi was replaced by Diane Schnell, who was selected from a group of nine candidates. She remained on the board until the October 2022 election, when she was defeated by current member Michael Pedalino.

retaliatory driven by who she is, not by any genuine belief that she or I engaged in wrongdoing,” she said in an email.

“Stop trying to make this about me!” she added “You have all the information you need to make an accurate record, yet you are still sending me emails.”

Questions surround

Public attention on the attempted sale has raised questions about Neighborhood Housing Services, which earned plaudits in the 1990s and 2000s for its efforts to expand loan access for low-income homebuyers.

The group appeared to have functionally ceased operating long before Batiste delivered her directive to Kristen Boyd this spring to sell the properties.

A Freret Street address the nonprofit listed on its most recent ﬁnancial ﬁling, from 2021, is now a salon, and IRS records show the group lost its tax-exempt status last year for failure to file reports. On Thursday, after a reporter tried to contact the organization, its website, which did not appear to have been updated since 2021, was deactivated.

Orleans Parish assessor’s records list Neighborhood Housing Services as the owner of ﬁve properties in New Orleans, including the two lots that comprise the Frenchmen Street garden. Before its deactivation, Neighborhood Housing Services’ website said the group had been run by a four-member board. One of the members listed was Leslie Ellison, a former Orleans Parish School Board member who works as an agent for Delisha Boyd Realty

“I haven’t been engaged in

The new gig marks a return to HANO, where he once briefly worked as a program coordinator Barabino’s resignation closes a second chapter of his role at NORD. He was ﬁrst selected as CEO under former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in 2006 and immediately tasked with rebuilding a public recreation system whose facilities were severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. After three years, he left his position for a role with the Children’s Defense Fund. He was again selected for the job following a nationwide search in 2019 as former Mayor LaToya Cantrell was set to take ofﬁce. Staff writer Jonah Meadows contributed to this story Email Joni Hess at joni. hess@theadvocate.com.

that organization for probably four years or longer,” Ellison said when reached by phone.

She said she couldn’t recall who else was involved in the group or what its mission had been. Other board members could not be reached. Schneider, the garden organizer, said the garden’s stewards have had little interaction with Neighborhood Housing Services over the years in which the garden has been on the land, save for the 2023 discussions over possibly buying the property

She has seen the garden emerge as a hub of connection in a pocket of New Orleans being buffeted by powerful forces — gentriﬁcation, development, rising insurance costs She particularly cherishes visits with older residents, who appreciate gifts of fresh cucumbers or collard greens from the garden’s plots.

“If you walk up to someone and say, ‘Hey, I have these plants would you like some?’ ” she said, “it’s extremely rare that you’ll be greeted with anything other than a smile.”

Email James Finn at jﬁnn@theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

2027 King Zulu on Sunday outside the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure

NewOrleans Area Deaths

King, Lionel

Segue,Esther

NewOrleans

Boyd Family

King, Lionel

Charbonnet

Segue,Esther

Obituaries

King,Rev.Dr. Lionel

Rev. Dr.LionelKingwas bornonApril 20, 1948, to the unionofOreeKing, Sr and LucilleKinginNew Or‐leans,LA. He departed this lifeonMay 19, 2026. Rev. Kingwas oneofseven sib‐lings.Hegraduated from MaryMcLeodBethune HighSchoolin1966, later enlistedinthe United StatesNavywhere he faithfullyservedhis coun‐try during theVietnam War and returned home contin‐uinghis educationat SouthernUniversityatNew Orleans.Hewas marriedto the late Audrey Woolfork, and from this union one son wasborn, Lionel Craig King. Afterhearing thecall topreachheenrolledat Christian BibleCollege where he studiedChristian Theologyand became an ordainedministerpreach‐ing thewordofGod for morethan40years in manychurches in and around theNew Orleans areaand theriver parishes. He leaves to cherish hismemoryand mourn hispassing:his son, Dr. Lionel CraigKing(Adri‐enne),two daughters, Corlisa Webb,and Errolyn Marie Webb-Davis(Rev. Hardy), belovedgrand‐sons, Lionel Austin King and Aden Immanu’el King granddaughter Courtney Rapp, greatgranddaughter BreannaMatthew,siblings,

Oree King Jr., KathrynK Barney, Lorraine K. Payne, and DeSandra K. Rue. A man of conviction,com‐passion,and unshakeable truth.Familyand friends are invitedtoattend the Celebration of Life Service ofadevoted andfaithful servant on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, 10:00a.m.at Pilgrim BaptistChurch, 2114 Rev. RichardWilson Dr.,KennerLA70062. Visi‐tationwillbegin at 8:00 a.m.ReverendDr. Mitchell Stevens Host Pastor,and Dr. KeithB.Cowart, Ofﬁ‐ciant.Interment will follow atSoutheast LouisianaVet‐erans Cemetery,34888 GranthamCollege Drive, Slidell, LA 70460.Guest‐book Online:www.anewtra ditionbegins.com(504)2820600. Linear BrooksBoyd and DonavinD.BoydOwn‐ers/FuneralDirectors

Esther Mary Segue, a native andlifelongresident of NewOrleans,LA, en‐teredintoeternal rest at theage of 89 on Saturday, May16, 2026. Shewas the belovedwifeofVirgil GabrielSegue Sr.(de‐ceased)and theloving mother to sixchildren, AaronJ.Segue (Charmaine Rock)Emile A. SegueSr., Pamela E. Miller,Dr. Vy‐ooneT.Lewis (JohnLewis), Lisa M. Gittens(Maximo GittensSr.)and Eric C. Segue. Mrs. Segueisthe daughter of thelateLous BijouSr. andCamelia Lers‐son. Shehas outlived allof hersiblingsand is survived by ahostofgrandchildren, greatgrandchildren,great greatgrandchildren nieces andnephews anda host of friends. Herfa‐vorite past time waswrit‐ingpoems.She hadprevi‐ouslybeen employed for yearswithFairgrounds Racetrack(NewOrleans), Jefferson DownsRacetrack (Kenner) andthe Natchez

Steamboat(NewOrleans). Relativesand friendsofthe family areinvited to attend aMassofChristian Burial at St.Raymond/St. LeoThe GreatCatholicChurch,2916 ParisAvenue,New Orleans LA on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. Visita‐tion at 10:00 a.m. Interment -Mt. Olivet Cemetery,2060 CatonStreet,New Orleans, LA.Inlieuof ﬂowers, please make donationsto St.JudeChildren’sRe‐search Fund in Mrs. Es‐ther’s memory.Pleasesign theonlineguestbook at www.charbonnetfuneralho me.com.CharbonnetLabat-GlapionDirectors, (504) 581-4411.

Segue, Esther Mary

Don’tignore otherthreats to ourvoting rights

Lost amid the recent Callais decision and suspension of the U.S. House election, as April drew toa close, was another disturbing attack on voting rights in Louisiana. At ahearing on stateSen.Jeremy Stine’sSenate Concurrent Resolution 31 ”memorializing” Congress to amend key provisions of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (known as the“Motor Voter Act”), Secretary of StateNancy Landry testiﬁed on the resolution’ssupposed merits. Those provisions wouldremove voter registration from theOfﬁce of Motor Vehiclesand other public assistance agencies that are required to offer voter registration information underNVRA Section7.Inpart, the proposal seems of apiece with recentlaws tasking OMVs and assistance agencies with citizenshippolicing mandates to rid the electoral system of the approximately two people ayear who have registered and managedto cast avote in Louisiana since 1980. This is theongoing solution in search of a problem that has preoccupied the secretary At acrucial point in the testimony,Landry said that these registration sites are not necessary in atechnological era, that much has changed since 1993 andthat people can go online to register themselves.

This misses the important signaling function that providing voter registration in public agencies conveys about the civic importanceofvoting. It alsomisses that Louisiana ranks 46th in household access to high-speed, reliable, affordable internet (475,000 without). Landry said they could go to apubliclibrary But her testimony alsofailed to note that Louisiana ranks47thin literacy (20% illiterate). Even if people have internet access, illiteracy might prevent them from registering. This is why voter registration should continue to be offered in places where trained public workers can assist them. Missingthat suggests thatthe secretary is either ignorant of or unconcerned about the needs of Louisianavoters.

M. CHRISTIAN GREEN president, League of Women Voters of Louisiana

YOUR VIEWS

Youthsportscomplexes abound, butwhatabout swimming in La.?

I’m writinginresponse to therecent article in thenewspaper highlighting thegrowth and support of youthsportscomplexes in the Lafayettearea, particularly theYoungsville andBroussard sportscomplexes. It’s commendablethat thesecommunity and local government-supported sportscomplexes with many,many ﬁelds and courts have been aboon for youth participation in multiple sports such as baseball, basketball, soccer and volleyball. However,one traditional sport that has been consistently left out of these Louisiana sportscomplexes and has received very little local government support froma facility standpoint is competitive swimming, especially when compared to other southeastern states and their communities

Ihavebeen involved with Louisiana competitive swimmingfor over 40 years as a participant, parent, coach and ofﬁcial, and the difference is glaring as Louisiana’scompetitive swimming facilities have aged over thelast several decades. Louisianaingeneral, and Lafayette speciﬁcally,severely lag

behind other southeastern states and their communities in providing amodern indoor natatorium witha50-meter (Olympic-sized) pool, adequatespectator seatingand locker roomsfor athletes. Current natatorium facilities in Sulphur,Shreveport andeven theLSU Natatorium in Baton Rouge are inadequate venues to hold large-scale swimmingmeets held by Louisiana’shigh schools and USA Swimming club teams that involve hundreds of athletes and their spectator families

The positive economic impact of large swimming meetswith swimming teams from around thestate is similar to that of other youth sports.

Youthcompetitive swimming in Louisiana, and speciﬁcally Lafayette, centrally located as Louisiana’s“Hub City,”deserves at least onemodern competition pool and natatorium facility supported by thecommunity and local government. As theadagegoes, if you build it,they will come.

DR. DONALD BALHOFF Lafayette

Companiesrepaytaxpayer generosity with high utilitybills

My Entergy bill in May was $961. Nearly a thousand dollars just to keep thelights on in southLouisiana —inastate that powers the nation. This morning, Iclimbed ontomysolar-powered schoolbus, opened my laptop andtook my meetings powered directly by the sun. My Zoomcalls ran off thesame Louisiana heat that Entergycharges us to survive under. Somewhere between conversations about “energyaffordability” and “grid resilience,” Ikept thinking: Why are everyday residents carryingthis burdenwhile massive oil and gasfacilitiescontinue receiving enormous taxexemptions through Louisiana’sIndustrial TaxExemption Program?

Politicians playing costly gameswith ourelections

Youwould think that the governor and attorney general of our state would be working to protect the rights of our citizens. Instead, they are playing games with our fundamental right to vote. First, they delay voting on House Congressional races so they can redraw the lines to eliminate amajority Black voting district, even though Black folks makeupathird of the population of our state and should have at least the possibility of equivalent representation in Congress. But wait, they still ran the Senate primary so they could knock off their least favorite Republican, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy.Now we have to pay formultiple elections just to try and get the “right” kind of folks in Congress. At the sametimethey are wasting money on this, they claim to be saving New Orleans money by eliminating the clerk of Criminal District Court position. What alie! Their bill increases the costs of what New Orleans currently shells out. It’s clear these twoalways hated Calvin Duncan because he is the personiﬁcation of someone overcoming justice denied in asouthern state. Ireally hope Duncan’slawsuit prevails, but in reality,weall deserve better in Louisiana than to have to sue to keep our voting rights.

When they are committing such blatant violations of our basic rights and lying about their intent, how can the governor and attorney general look at themselves in the mirror and not feel shame?

THOMAS SHEPLEY NewOrleans

Trumpisthe greatest,compared to what came before

I’mwriting in regard to John Michael Lockhart letter published May 2. In it, he says presidential historians rank President Donald Trumpasthe worst president in American history.Hegoes on to cite the usual Democrat talking points said about Trump. As Iwrite this letter,Trumphas served almost 16 months of his second term.How can these so-called historians rank him worst with twoand ahalf years lefttoserve?

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR

AREWELCOME.HEREARE

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

We are told the grid is strained, aging and vulnerable. But how can we modernize it when someofthe largest industrial users and wealthiest corporations on earth —are notcontributing their fair share towardthe infrastructure communities rely on?

In southwest Louisiana, we live surrounded by pipelines, export terminals, flare stacks and power plants. We sacrifice our wetlands, fisheries, healthand sense of safety in the name of economic development.Yet residents are still left choosing between groceries and electric bills during increasingly brutal heatwaves. The irony is impossible to ignore: Communitiesproducing immense energy

Electrical workers for Linetec Services negotiate their wayaround the high voltage lines.

wealthare struggling to afford energy themselves.

My little solar bus is not going to solve Louisiana’senergy crisis. But it reminds me another future is possible —one where resilienceislocal, communitiesare invested in and ordinary people are not subsidizing billion-dollar industries while being told to simply use less electricity.

Louisiana deserves agrid built for people, not just proﬁt

ALYSSA PORTARO director, Habitat RecoveryProject

Iran’s radicals didn’t submit,theyusedstrategyinstead

Aletter to the editor on May 9, “Trump correctly assessed danger of anuclear Iran,” was of the opinion that President Donald Trump, in hisinﬁnitewisdom, knew that negotiating withradicals was not going to work. He might have known that total submission

is anonstarter.Hehad abig toy to play with and an eager friend to enjoy it with him

The radicals didn’tsubmit.They had a strengththat was beyond Trump’s intelligence to use: strategy

KATHLEEN FISCHER NewOrleans

Now Ihave no idea what planet Lockhart wasliving on during former President Joe Biden’sterm of ofﬁce. I’mnot ahistorian, but Biden will go downinAmerican history right behind Jimmy Carter as the second worst president in American history

Under Biden, inﬂation reached 9%. Under Biden, millions of illegal immigrants crossed our border Under Biden, new mothers could not ﬁnd diapers fortheir newborn babies. Under Biden, gas wentover $4 agallon. Under Biden, 13 American Marines lost their lives. Under Biden, millions in military equipmentwere lefttoour enemies. He couldn’teven ride abike. In other words, this man was too incompetent to be president. I’m acollege-educated U.S. Armyveteran of sound mind whovoted for Trumpinthe last three elections. I also think President Trumpwill go downinhistory as one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had.

PAUL DEMOUY Gonzales

STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Players on the Broussard youngsville youth Association team chat as theylook out onto the field while waiting for the startofatournament.

FILE PHOTO

If La.climatecrisiswereamovie

“The Good, The Scared and The Dangerous.” If amovie were made about Louisiana today,that would havetobeits title.

The reasons are obvious in the statements below and their authors.

TheGood

of research important to humankind. It’sthe same way physicians must be honestwithpatients.

“Imagine you’re adoctor and you ﬁnd out this patient has terminal cancer.Does that mean you’re just going to decide this person doesn’t want to hear and talk about (it),soI should be quiet?”

That was Törbjorn Törnqvist, the Tulane professor and noted researcher who coauthoredarecent paper that made global headlines like this one in The Guardian: “‘Point of no return’: New Orleans relocation must start now due to sealevel, study ﬁnds.’”

It wasn’taTulane paper,but one produced by Törnqvist and fellow climate experts while he was on sabbatical and published in “Nature Sustainability.”

The authors concluded that leaders should develop planstorelocate thecity over the coming decades becauseresearch shows that by 2100, sea level rise and subsidence could make New Orleans aleveed island surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico. This shouldn’tsurprise anyone keeping up with rapidly evolving climate science. Indeed,some of the worst-case scenarios give us even less time.

Törnqvist and his team were only being true to akey responsibilityof scientists, especially those receiving public funding: Sharing the ﬁndings

The study doesn’tsay we have to start packing now

It says we muststart planning now if we are to have ameasured and affordable withdrawal from alocation that eventually will be indefensible. In military terms, it’sthe difference between waiting behind crumbling defenses to be routed or saving lives and resources with a managed retreat to asafer location.

TheScared

“Rather thanscience, the study is an ideologically driven policy argument dressed in the guiseofgeological inevitability.”

That was from aletter to The Guardian about the study from Michael Hecht,the CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., anonproﬁt business economic development organization.

It’snosurprise someone paid to bring businesses to this area would want to downplay its problems. But Hecht should have left thecriticism of ascientiﬁc paper to qualiﬁed scientists.

Anddoes he really supposesharp businesses will not already know how vulnerable we are? They can read insurance rates just like local homeowners. Abetter reply would be to highlight suggestions in thepaper that Louisiana has the time and experience to design projects to slow thechange, as well as the scientiﬁc chops to develop amanaged relocation —perhaps developing aplan other coastal areas could copy

Oh,and maybe he could address theproblem causing this crisis:fossil fuel emissions.

ButHecht reacted theway most Louisianians have since theimpacts of climate change became obvious: Downplay the threat, deny it or ridicule the science because they are scared of the facts, when we really need courage to face achallenging future.

TheDangerous

“It’sabout building projects. We don’tneed to study anything. If we have to study something, Iought to be runoff.”

That was from Gordon Dove, now in charge of Louisiana’sComprehensive Master Plan for aSustainable Coast. He’snot ascientist, but aformer politician from Terrebonne Parish. He was appointed to his post by theU.S. Special Envoy to Greenland, aka Gov.Jeff Landry

Theseare thetwo politicians who hijacked the world-renowned scientiﬁc plan and killed sediment diversions because they’re smarter than theexperts. They now plan for a94mile “land bridge” Dove doesn’tneed to study for Theseare theparadoxes of today’s Louisiana. We develop brilliant coastal science that scares those who should put it to usewhile it’s ignored by thehubris and narcissism of know-nothing politicians

What could go wrong?

BobMarshall, aPulitzer Prizewinning Louisiana environmental journalist, can be reached at bmarshallenviro@gmail.com, and followed on X, @BMarshallEnviro.

Democrats’ autopsyasmalpractice

The Democrats couldn’tcomplete their term paper,but handed it in anyway because too many people were wondering what had become of it.

Under pressure, the DNC ﬁnally released its autopsy of the 2024election, after rampant speculation about what it contained and why it hadn’t yet been made public. Did it include references to Gaza or didn’tit? Why or why not? What explosive revelationswere being kept from us?

doubt on its claims. Andthe report doesn’thave aconclusion.

It turns out that the autopsy is a thoroughly unimpressive, unﬁnished document that, in the sheer incompetence in its drafting andhandling, says more about the low state of the current Democratic Partythan any of its analysis. The DNC Chairman Ken Martin maintains that he delayed so long because he didn’twant tocreate a distraction by releasing apoorly done report, which sounds like atypical Washington excuse for hiding something.

Except it wasn’t.

Once everyone sawthe report,they realizedMartin was right about the embarrassingly poor handiwork of his own outﬁt.

At the start, the autopsy contains adisclaimer that “the DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.” Then,throughout the document, there are hostile annotations casting

TheDemocratswould have been better off going with ChatGPT

That said, the report acknowledges that Democrats are out of touch and too dependent on the Republicans making poor candidate choices (something the GOP just did again in its Texas Senate primary with the Trump-endorsed, scandal-plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton).

It notes how Trump’sthey/them ad hitting Kamala Harrisontransissues wasdevastating and unanswerable.

It recognizes that Harrisdidn’t do enough to separate herselffrom Bidenand makeanafﬁrmative case for herself rather than relying on voters supposedly considering Trump unacceptable.

On the otherhand, it fails to grapple with the issues of inﬂation and immigration(except to complain about Harris being given arole with some responsibility over theborder). Thesewerethe two biggestsubstantive issues in the election, while the autopsy also whiffs on Biden’sage andhis catastrophically poor judgment in trying to run for reelection.

(Italsodoesn’tmention Gaza, bitterly disappointingthe anti-Israel left.)

Yet, our expectationsfor such documents shouldn’tbevery high. What was the report going to say?That Democrats disgraced themselves by pretending that Biden was ﬁt for a

secondterm, and only shifted course when he got exposed in the ﬁrst debate, and then had no alternative but to turn to acharmlessnonentityasa last-minutesubstitute?

The history of party retrospectives like this isn’tgood. Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 by taking therecommendations of the GOP autopsy after its 2012 election defeat and often doing theoppositeinsubstance and tone.

Democrats may be rudderless and increasingly extreme, but that doesn’tmean they won’thave agood election night this coming November Usually,aparty that has just lostthe WhiteHouse rises or falls in the midterms based on theincumbent president’s job approval rating, rather than itsown political creativity or inherent appeal.

As for retaking theWhiteHouse, that typically depends on nominating someonewho is charismatic and fresh, who has an unexpected approach to politics,and who develops a new coalition —think Barack Obama in 2008, or Donald Trump in 2016. None of this comes about by having apolitical strategist talktoabunch of people about the immediate pastelection andwrite along report about it. Needless to say,Democrats should be grateful that the stakes of their autopsy are so low —otherwise, they would have had to endeavor to actually ﬁnish it, andgrapple withtruths about the 2024 election conveniently passed over in thejust-released document.

Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry

Doug Ducey forpresident

The following is an imagined announcement. The fellow supposedly speaking has not been consulted about this.

IamDoug Ducey,aformer two-term governor of Arizona, now acandidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Isay whatBill Lee,Tennessee’sRepublican governor,says: “I’m aconservative. I’m just not angry about it.”

Americans who enjoy the tone and substance of today’spolitics can choose from candidates promising more of the same. But voters who are exhausted and embarrassed by endless turmoil and vitriol from both sides of the politicalspectrum deserve achoice, not an echo.

Ipromise calm after the current storm of animosities. One step toward this is astep back from what has become, under both parties, a hyperactive and inevitably disappointing presidency

ADucey presidency will not be constantly in your face or on your mind. Youmight go weeks without being reminded that Iamthere, out of sight, conducting the president’sprincipalbusiness as the Constitution deﬁnes it: taking care that the laws are faithfully executed.

Iwill try to shrink the president’sprominence by encouraging Congress’srevival. Executive orders will be fewbecause legitimate presidential power derives only from unambiguous acts of Congress, or the Constitution.

Congress has enabled presidents to grabvast power to act unilaterally by declaring “emergencies.” Real emergencies are extraordinary and transitory.Today,declared emergencies aremany, enduring, and usually spurious. Iwill ask Congress to end the approximately 55 emergencies we now live under,and to stipulate that any presidentially declared emergency terminates in 30 days unless Congress enacts aresolution of extension.

Iwill urge Congress to circumscribe executive discretion, and to participate in governing, by voting on all regulations with amajor (at least $100 million) economic impact. If Congress wants protectionism, which inevitably breeds crony capitalism, it must legislate it, not just allow presidential whims to impose it. Washington has blurredthe distinction between public and private sectors. As president, Iwill disentangle the government from big-government semi-socialism —presidentimposed federal ownership in Intel, U.S. Steel and other entities.

The Constitution says the president “shall from time to time” give Congress informationand recommendations about the state of the union. Ishall do this as presidents prior to Woodrow Wilson did: in writing. Thomas Jefferson correctly considered it monarchical for presidents to stand above Congress and lecture it. America would be improved by having one fewer nationally televised, politically saturated, president-centric spectacle. The antidote for presidential grandiosity,and consequent governmental strutting, is rediscovering republican —small “r” —simplicity.Jefferson practiced this with his penchant for informality whenentertaining and his aversion to pomp: He preferred riding alone on horseback ratherthan in gilded carriages. The White House itself, which until recently was devoid of ostentation, exempliﬁed republican modesty,the aesthetic analogue of limited government.

My face, which is nothing to write home about, will appear on no banners draped overWashington buildings. No president should be the face of the national government, or the nation. ADuceypresidency will remember that there are legislative and judicial branches with their own dignity and indispensability

America’sgreatness does not wax andwane with particular presidencies. It is as enduring as Plymouth Rock, and cannot be enlargedbygaudy testimonials it erects to itself. Nations that incessantly boast about their greatness seem unsure of it. Our nation needs no huge triumphal arch. If you seek the most eloquent testimonytoAmerica’s triumphs, look around and see whatyou do not see: the worst of the last century —Asian andEuropean fascism and communism. And see immigrants. Ibelieve the axiomthatimmigration is the sincerest form of flattery Iamthe son of aToledo, Ohio, policeman. As governor of the youngest of the contiguous 48 states, Iwas afull-spectrum conservative. Ichampioned charter schools —nonunionizedpublic schools free from the calcification and conformity that stifles pedagogical experimentation. Charters enlarge options for minorities who cannotafford private schools. Sixty years ago, politicians stood in the schoolhouse door and wouldn’tlet minorities in. Today,union-backed politicians stand in the schoolhouse door and won’tlet minorities out. If Arizona’scharters were the state’sentire K-12 system, Arizona would be among the nation’sleaders in math, reading and science.

Before Ientered politics, Ijoined an Arizona start-up, eventually becoming CEO of Cold Stone Creamery.Toall who will vote in 2028 Republican primaries, my goals for America are:less overheated presidentialism, more ice cream.

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost. com.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

The NewOrleans skylineshimmersinthe distance as seen acrossLakePontchartrain from Lacombeonaclear autumn evening

Bob Marshall

Rich Lowry

George Will

Johnsonsearching for‘elementofcompleteness’

As transfer portal opens, LSU coachtargeting ‘contributors on both sidesofthe baseball’

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

There is no beneﬁt to missing the NCAA Tournament.

It’strue. Because LSU missed the tourney for the ﬁrst time since 2011, Jay Johnson has alot more time to prepare forthe transfer portal and MLB Draft this summer than last, when the Tigers played into late June and won the College World Series. But this summer,hedoesn’tsee the extra time as abeneﬁt. He’d rather be calling agents and players from his hotel room in Omaha, Nebraska, all while preparing his team toplay in the biggest games of their lives

“I’ll never look at that as ahindrance or a negative, playing in the College World Seriesfor anyreason,” Johnson told The Advocate. “… Whatever you lose, it’sworthit to be there.” What LSU lost was alot of baseball games thenext year.The Tigers, despiteentering theseason as theNo. 2teaminthe nation, went 30-28 and won fewer than 12 games in Southeastern Conference play forthe ﬁrst time since 1983.

Injuries played abig part in their nightmare campaign, but so did their troubles in thetransfer portal. Seth Dardar,Brayden Simpson, Trent Caraway and Zach Yorkedid not live up to lofty expectations, and righthandedstarter Cooper Moore was lost for theseason with an elbow injury by the third week of conference play Even with Moore on track to return in

ä See LSU, page 4C

BYMATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

Ask Chris Olave whyhehas attended the New Orleans Saints’ offseason program when he’supfor anew contract, and the wide receiver will say that he’scommitted to winning. The Saintshaven’tdone much of that since drafting him in 2022, but the 25-year-oldwould like thattochange.

Butthere is anotherreason Olavehas shownup—one he acknowledges is directly relatedtothe negotiationthat’s ongoing betweenhis campand the Saints Olave’sparticipation is asign, he says, that talks are going well.

“We’re on the same page,” Olavesaid. “It’sgoing in the right direction. We’ve been talking for afew months, so we’ve just got to get to that point where we agree to adeal.”

He’seven optimistic about whensuchan agreement could take place.

“I feel like we’re gonna come downto that before training camp,” Olavesaid. “I hopewedosowedon’taffect thechemistry and stuff, but Ithink it’s going to get done soon.” If adealisstruckassoonastraining camp, thatwould be aslight anomaly for the Saints. Since 2016, NewOrleans has handed out seven extensionstoplayers drafted by the team. Only one of them— RyanRamcyzk in June 2021 —got done before training camp. Twoothers —MichaelThomasonJuly31, 2019 andPete Werner on Aug. 8, 2024 —got done during camp. The rest (Alvin Kamara, Marshon Lattimore, Erik McCoy and Cesar Ruiz) were completed right before thestartof their respective seasons. But Olave can nonetheless be encouraged by the Saints’ history of retaining their best players —and doingsooncon-

We’reonthe same page. It’s going in the right direction.We’ve been talking for afew months, so we’ve justgot to gettothat point where we agree to adeal.”

CHRIS OLAVE, Saints wide receiver

UL turns tables on Cincinnati to advanceto regional ﬁnal

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Apparently,the team that’splayed the most baseball gamesinthe country so far this season wasn’tyet ready to play its ﬁnal one. No. 3-seeded UL smashed four homeruns to carry the Ragin’ Cajuns to an 8-6 win over No. 2Cincinnati on Sunday to reach the Starkville Regional ﬁnal.

The Cajuns improved to 41-24 overall on the season. They were set to play top-seeded Mississippi State on Sunday evening. The Bearcats’ season ended at 38-22. “It’sbaseball,” Cincinnati coachJordan Bischel said. “If we played Louisiana 10 times,weboth could getabunchofwins Today was their day and the other day was ourday.These aretwo teams that, to me, are hands downtop 30 teams in the country,but one had to go hometoday.I think whoever would have gone hometoday would have felt pretty good,because they sold out for it.”

For UL,it’sthe 11th time the Cajuns have reached the regional ﬁnal, including four championships.

“It’shard to sustainsuccess, not just in our league but all over the country,” Bischel said. “I looked the other day,12teams have playedonSaturdaynight in the winners’ bracket nationally over thelasttwo years and we’re one of those teams (in 2025).

“Half the World Series teamsfrom last year didn’teven get here.”

TheBearcats, whodefeated UL 12-2Friday,opened the scoring in the ﬁrst inning witha two-out, two-run single to left by Enzo Infelise, whogot three hits in the game. UL responded with three runs in the second with the new lineup on its way to scoring 18 runs over the ﬁnal two games. Drew

ä See UL, page 4C

FILE PHOTOByMICHAEL BACIGALUPI

LSU coach JayJohnson walks away fromhis team after delivering hispregame speech before agameagainst TexasA&M on April17atAlex Box Stadium.

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

second baseman DrewMarkle, right, celebrates hissolo home runwith

Kostyuk stuns Swiatek at French Open

BY SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press

PARIS There will be a ﬁrst-time women’s champion at the French Open this year, and two Ukrainian players are among the strongest contenders.

Undefeated this season on clay, 15th-seeded Marta Kostyuk showed her strong credentials as she reached the quarterﬁnals in Paris for the ﬁrst time on Sunday by taking out four-time champion Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 and ruining her birthday

She will be up against her compatriot Elina Svitolina next, ensuring there will be an Ukrainian woman semifinalist at Roland Garros for the first time in the professional era (1968). The seventh-seeded Svitolina rallied past Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.

“There’s going to be Ukraine in the semiﬁnals, so it’s already amazing,” said Svitolina, whose country is in a 4-year-long war with Russia

“I think it couldn’t be a better amazing achievement for Ukrainian tennis. I think in such a difﬁcult situation right now in the war, with the invasion, it’s really, really difﬁcult, and I think it’s really inspiring for the next generation to really believe that it is possible one day to play on this court and win.”

None of the players still in the draw have yet lifted the trophy in Paris, following Coco Gauff’s elimination on Saturday and Swiatek’s exit. It’s the same in the men’s draw, after the defeats of Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic and with Carlos Alcaraz absent because of an injury

In men’s play, Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar moved into his ﬁrst Grand Slam quarterfinal after coming back from two sets down to beat Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6,

4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Jodar, who also played five sets in the previous round, will play second-seeded and former runner-up Alexander Zverev in the quarterﬁnals.

Zverev defeated Jesper de Jong 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1.

Also, 19-year-old Joao Fonseca followed up his five-set victory over Novak Djokovic by beating two-time runner-up Casper Ruud 7-5, 7-6 (8), 5-7, 6-2. Fonseca will next face 20-yearold Jakub Mensik, who held off a comeback from Andrey Rublev in a 6-3, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 2-6, 6-3 win.

Swiatek’s bad day

Kostyuk had lost her three previous matches against Swiatek

and never taken a set against the former top-ranked player who turned 25 on Sunday

“I’m still in shock. To beat such an unbelievable player, who won four times here,” she said.

Kostyuk has been the best player of the clay-court season She defended extremely well, chasing Swiatek’s shots all over the court, and also produced some stunning groundstroke winners while her rival was also undone by her own mistakes.

An intense baseline battle unfolded from the outset. Swiatek showed signs of nerves as she double-faulted, shanked a forehand wide and then missed a volley at the net, allowing Kostyuk to

level at 5-5 in the opener Swiatek hit two more double faults in the 12th game and the 15th-seeded Ukrainian player sealed the set with a backhand passing shot.

Following a ﬁrst week marked by a suffocating heat wave, relief ﬁnally arrived in Paris on Sunday, with temperatures dropping to 70 degrees around midday Kostyuk extended her winning streak on clay to 16 matches.

“The most important thing that I’ve been doing this whole time is really just trying to enjoy,” she said. “It’s helping. I want to keep enjoying. I try not to focus at all on winning or losing because I’m not playing tennis to win. I’m playing tennis because I love it.”

Sabalenka, Osaka set for rare women’s night match

By The Associated Press

PARIS The high-profile fourthround matchup between topranked Aryna Sabalenka and fellow four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka on Monday will be the first women’s night match at the French Open in three years. Roland Garros organizers have been criticized for scheduling only men’s matches under the lights in recent years, with organizers saying they are under pressure from TV broadcasters and that women’s best-of-three set matches are too short compared to the best-of-five format for men It will be only the fifth women’s match in the five years since the night sessions were introduced in Paris. The last women’s match at night

also involved Sabalenka, when she beat Sloane Stephens in 2023.

“YOLO,” Osaka said when asked on Saturday if her match against Sabalenka deserved to be held at night, using the abbreviation for “You only live once.”

Osaka has been putting on a fashion show for her walk-ons before each match of the tournament.

Sabalenka leads 2-1 in career meetings with Osaka, who has reached the fourth round in Paris for the ﬁrst time.

“I’m just ready for the fight,”

Sabalenka said. “It’s great to see her back on her level I really enjoy our battles. It’s high-level matches, and I really enjoy when somebody push me to the limit.”

The match is scheduled to start at 8:15 p.m. local time.

Henley birdies playoff hole to win Colonial

BY STEPHEN HAWKINS Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas Russell Hen-

ley birdied the ﬁnal three holes to force a playoff with Eric Cole, then made it four it a row with a 5-footer on the first extra hole Sunday at Colonial to win the Charles Schwab Classic.

Henley’s late surge denied fellow 37-year-old Cole his ﬁrst PGA Tour win on a day when Ben Grifﬁn came up just short of becoming the only player other than Ben Hogan to win consecutive tournaments at Colonial.

Henley earned $1.78 million for his sixth PGA Tour title and also got the plaid jacket and a customized 1982 Jeep Scrambler vehicle. Playing in the group ahead of Cole, Henley closed with a 3-under 67. After making 15-foot putts at the 171-yard 16th hole and the par-4 17th, Henley got to 12 under with a 17-footer on the par-4 18th Cole shot an even-par 70. He parred the final seven holes — eight counting the playoff. Henley and Cole finished a stroke ahead of Grifﬁn (65), Alex Smalley (68) and Mac Meissner (69).

LSU golfer shoots even par in round 2 of NCAAs

CARLSBAD, California Senior Matty

Dodd-Berry led LSU on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA men’s golf Division I championship with an even-par round of 72 at the OMNI La Costa Spa and Resort North Course.

The Tigers improved by 10 shots on their opening round, playing in sunny and less windy conditions for the first 10 holes, posting a 5-over par round of 293 to stand at 20-over par 596 through 36 holes. The Tigers ﬁnished Saturday tied for 27th place.

Dodd-Berry is wrapping up his college career, which started under second-year coach Jake Amos at East Tennessee State. He had three front-nine birdies in his even-par round on Saturday and posted 2-under 34 on the ﬁrst nine holes.

Finland beats Switzerland, wins men’s hockey worlds

ZURICH Finland won the ice hockey world championship for the ﬁfth time on Sunday, beating Switzerland 1-0 in overtime.

The Buffalo Sabres’ Konsta Helenius scored the gold-winning goal 10:42 into overtime. The 20-year-old Helenius netted from the right circle, beating Switzerland goaltender Leonardo Genoni with his team’s 28th shot on goal. Finland netminder Justus Annunen shut out Switzerland with 22 saves. Finland also won in 1995, 2011, 2019 and 2022. Finland was led by captain Aleksander Barkov who missed the entirety of the Florida Panthers’ season because of a major knee injury at the ﬁrst practice of training camp.

Boutier rallies from 4 back to win ShopRite LPGA

GALLOWAY, N.J Celine Boutier rallied from a four-shot deﬁcit Sunday, making three birdies around the turn on her way to a 5-under 66 for a one-shot victory over Arpichaya Yubol in the ShopRite LPGA. Soo Bin Joo, the 22-year-old South Korean going for her ﬁrst LPGA Tour title, lost her four-shot lead at the turn and then fell behind for good on the 13th hole, the same hole where earlier Boutier had taken the lead with a 30-foot birdie putt.

Yubol, who was penalized one shot in the second round Saturday for going over her maximum time, birdied the last two holes for a 66. It was her second runner-up ﬁnish of the year, having ﬁnished four shots behind Nelly Korda in Mexico.

Jersey worn in Bueckers’ debut selling for $64,720

The drives for Henley and Cole on the extra hole, playing No. 18 again, stopped in the fairway — Cole getting a huge break after his ball somehow bounced through the left rough before settling on the edge of the short grass. Henley hit his approach shot ﬁrst, and Cole hit his to 13 feet and missed the birdie attempt.

Cole, in his 120th PGA Tour start, never fell out of the lead in regulation during the ﬁnal round, even when finishing the front nine with his ﬁrst double bogey (or worse) in a span of 316 holes. He drove well right into the right rough at the 398-yard ninth hole, hit his approach into the water fronting the green and had a long

bogey chance stop an inch from the cup. His only birdie on the back was at the 628-yard 11th hole, but he had some significant par savers down the stretch. He made an up-and-down out of a fairway bunker at the 443-yard 12th hole, lagged a putt inside 5 feet at the par-3 16th after his tee shot on the green was still 47 feet from the cup, then had a short chip for his closing par after his approach at the 18th took an awkward bounce right to the rough and was 15 feet away Henley started the day with an eagle at the 577-yard first hole and a birdie at the 390-yard second, but quickly gave all three of those shots back with bogeys at Nos. 3-5 — the aptly-named Horrible Horseshoe at Colonial. He had another bogey at No. 9, making the turn at 8 under Reigning tournament champion Griffin, who started the day six strokes back after three consecutive rounds of 68, had five birdies on the front nine. But he didn’t have another until a 25-foot putt at the 17th hole to get to 11 under, within a stroke of Cole six holes behind him.

DALLAS Paige Bueckers is setting records off the court with a jersey from her debut game last season selling for $64,720, according to MeiGray MeiGray an authentication company and photo-matching store that partners with the Dallas Wings, reported Friday the jersey that Bueckers wore in her WNBA debut on May 16, 2025, sold for twice the previous mark for a game-worn WNBA jersey A’ja Wilson held the previous record with a uniform she wore in the WNBA Finals last season selling for $32,150, according to MeiGray Bueckers was the WNBA Rookie of the Year last season and had 10 points in her debut game against Minnesota.

Lemieux’s brain is being donated to CTE center

Claude Lemieux’s brain is being donated to the Boston University CTE Center to research the longterm effects of repetitive brain injuries, his family said Saturday in a statement released by daughter Claudia Lemieux Bishop. Lemieux died of suicide at age 60 on Thursday, according to authorities, after earlier in the week serving as the Montreal Canadiens’ torchbearer prior to a playoff game He played nearly 1,500 NHL games with six teams from 19832009 and was known for his hardhitting style and ability to perform in big games on the way to winning the Stanley Cup four times. The family said it gave the CTE Center permission to publicly share any ﬁndings with Lemieux’s name, adding that no conclusions should be drawn regarding any diagnosis.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By THIBAULT CAMUS

Naomi Osaka prepares for a third-round match against Iva Jovic on Saturday at the French Open in Paris.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHRISTOPHE ENA Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk waves to the crowd after a fourth-round match against Poland’s Iga Swiatek on Sunday at the French Open in Paris.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LM OTERO

Russell Henley reacts after sinking a putt on the 18th hole on Sunday during the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DENNIS WASZAK

Smith knows he can likely write ‘superhero movie’ story in return

BY DENNIS WASZAK JR.

AP pro football writer

FLORHAM PARK, N.J Geno Smith

knows what a lot of New York Jets fans are daydreaming about.

The quarterback has been here before, a much younger and lessexperienced version, of course The Jets had only missed the playoffs the previous two years when Smith was selected by the franchise in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft.

He has come and gone elsewhere — four other stops, actually and that postseason drought has since reached 15 years, the longest among teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball. Smith is now 35 years old and back where he began his professional career, a comeback story with the potential to be special if he can help return the downtrodden Jets to the playoffs.

“Yeah, I mean, that would be like a story in a movie, right?” Smith said Thursday with a smile. “It’s kind of like one of those superhero movies, but my life is based on reality We’ve got to focus on getting better every single day.”

After a successful five-year stint in Seattle, where he began as a backup to Russell Wilson before becoming the starter, winning the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award in 2022 and making two Pro Bowls, Smith had a dismal season for lowly Las Vegas. He threw for 3,025 yards and 19 touchdowns after having at least 20 in each of the previous three seasons with the Seahawks — and a league-high 17 interceptions. But the Jets desperately needed a veteran quarterback af-

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C

tracts that pay them at or near the top of the market.

And Olave ﬁts into that mold. Last season was pivotal, in particular for the wide receiver as he posted career numbers and was named second-team All-Pro — all while staying (mostly) healthy

While a blood clot in Week 18 unexpectedly prevented him from playing in all 17 games for the ﬁrst time, that issue was far less of a concern than the concussions that forced Olave to contemplate retirement a year earlier

Olave hasn’t been limited by the blood clot this spring and said he was cleared about a week after it was diagnosed.

“He’s looking better than I’ve ever seen him,” quarterback Tyler Shough said. “His speed, his change of direction, his conditioning, it’s been amazing so far I’m excited to see what he can do ﬂat out. He’s going to be someone we can rely on the whole year.”

Last year, Olave struck a different tone regarding his contract

Though he was eligible for an extension, and he and the Saints held talks, the wide receiver almost didn’t seem in a rush to get a deal done. Sure, he might have signed if the offer had been big enough, but there was a part of him, he said, that felt as if he hadn’t deserved such a deal yet.

Olave’s concussion history — four in three years, including two in 2024 that limited his season to eight games — had raised serious questions over his value. And Olave, realizing this, was content to bet on himself and prove that he was the type of receiver who could command a top contract

This offseason, after an All-Pro campaign, Olave is much more open to putting his pen to paper “Especially going into the last year of my deal,” said Olave, who’s set to make nearly $15.5 million this coming season. “I’ve

Popovich was vital to Spurs’ NBA Finals run

Wemby’s respect for former San Antonio coach is clear

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama barely could get the words out.

ter a failed one-year experiment with Justin Fields and traded for Smith, sending a sixth-round pick to Seattle and also getting a seventh-rounder back.

It was an unlikely reunion, especially since the quarterback’s ﬁrst stint with the Jets was largely remembered for the locker room incident in 2015 that left Smith sidelined with a broken jaw, the result of a punch from then-teammate IK Enemkpali. It changed the trajectory of his career with the Jets. He lasted one more season in New York before leaving.

Because of all that, Smith acknowledged the surreal feeling he had being back at the facility

— nine years later

“Coming in for physicals and just walking down the hall again

— it was the very first hall I walked down when I got drafted

— all those feelings come back,” Smith said. “Just great feelings, great memories, seeing my mom in the locker room, and I started just thinking about my ﬁrst time in the NFL, ﬁrst time here. Immediately, it clicked right back in: I’ve got to get to work. I just got right back to that.

“I’m really excited to be here and even seeing all your faces again, it’s really cool.”

Jets coach Aaron Glenn was in the team’s scouting department during Smith’s rookie season and he has watched the quarterback — mostly from afar — mature on and off the ﬁeld in the years since.

“Just the fact of how he’s grown from that time to now is outstanding,” Glenn said. “And he’s still growing, even being in the league as long as he has. And he will tell you that.”

played four years already, produced at a high level and I feel like it’s time to be able to come to the table It’s really in their hands.”

Negotiations, of course, aren’t always simple. The wide receiver market has exploded in recent years, with 10 players now carrying an average annual value of at least $30 million. Three of those — Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase and Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson — have reached at least $35 million per year And in addition to the average salary, the Saints will also have to weigh Olave’s guarantees. How much is New Orleans willing to take on, given the 2022 ﬁrst-rounder’s concussions?

But Olave has been pleased with the dialogue so far While the talks unfold, Olave has been focused on his body. Olave said he’s gained about 10 pounds, although he says he’s likely to lose about ﬁve or so during camp. His goal is to “get bigger,” which players and coaches have noticed.

“We can tell (what) he’s done from a body standpoint,” coach Kellen Moore said “It’s been awesome.”

It isn’t lost on Moore that Olave has participated throughout the Saints’ offseason program, either Just last year, players like Washington’s Terry McLaurin and Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson held out well into training camp, while a handful of others voluntarily skipped the earlier offseason workouts over their contracts.

The longer the Saints wait, meanwhile, the more costly the deal could become.

The Rams’ Puka Nacua, Atlanta’s Drake London and Baltimore’s Zay Flowers are among the other notable receivers around the league in line for a big-time extension — which could affect Olave’s price tag even further

“It’s in their hands, man,” Olave said with a grin.

Email Matthew Paras at matt paras@theadvocate.com

The question, a few minutes after he and the San Antonio Spurs won the Western Conference title and earned the right to go to this year’s NBA Finals to face the New York Knicks, was about his relationship with former coach Gregg Popovich and what this playoff run likely means to the winningest coach in league history

And Wembanyama paused, clearly emotional, before starting his answer

“I don’t know what it means for him,” Wembanyama said. “That’s a guy who’s got more experience as a coach than almost anybody and has been through so many things in his career and so many things right now as ‘El Jefe.’ He goes through some things we can’t even imagine. So, I need to call him. I need to see him. I need to talk to him because there’s no way I can understand right now how he feels.”

The ofﬁcial title for the 77-yearold Popovich is president of Spurs basketball. Unofficially, the basketball Hall of Famer may as well be coach emeritus — still regularly seen at practices in San Antonio, still seen at games, sometimes walking with the assistance of a cane. He’s still in the ears of players and coaches, even visiting the locker room after the Spurs lost Game 3 of the West ﬁnals to Oklahoma City for a bit of a pep talk and a bit of a chewing out, depending on perspective.

But really, he’s El Jefe. The boss. It’s what he announced himself as when he retired last year, speaking publicly for the first time since the November 2024 stroke that essentially ended his coaching career and led to Mitch Johnson getting the job on basically a couple hours’ notice. He came out for that event in a jacket, then opened it to display the shirt with “El Jefe” on the front.

“You talk about the greatest coach pretty much of all time to be able to sit here and tell you the experiences that they went through

or that he’s been through or that he sees,” Spurs guard Devin Vassell said. “I mean, it’s second to none, honestly He helps out. He helps out a lot. He just has so much wisdom and stuff that you can’t take for granted.”

Game 1 of the Knicks-Spurs series is Wednesday in San Antonio.

Knicks coach Mike Brown saw ﬁrst-hand how Popovich operated the Spurs; he spent three years as an assistant coach under him in San Antonio. Brown still has family members living in San Antonio causing him to joke a few days ago that a Knicks-Spurs matchup in the NBA Finals would save him a little bit of money because he wouldn’t have to ﬂy as many people in to see games.

“He still has a huge presence. He will always have a presence,” Brown said of Popovich. “The job that he’s done, not only on the court with that team or that organization but off the court too, is going to be imprinted for as long as the game of basketball exists. His presence is very, very much felt all the time and I’ve got a lot of respect for the organization for a lot of different reasons.”

And Popovich still commands that respect, even now Popovich met the Spurs at the airport after they ﬂew home from Games 3 and 4 of their West semifinal series against Minnesota a couple weeks ago — for a purpose. Wembanyama was ejected from

Game 4 for a flagrant elbow he threw at Timberwolves forward Naz Reid. When Wembanyama got off the plane, Popovich was waiting. Cameras caught the exchange and it was pretty clear that Popovich was doing the talking and Wembanyama was doing the listening.

“He gives feedback and talks to us regularly,” Wembanyama said, without disclosing what Popovich’s message was that afternoon.

Popovich won five NBA championships as San Antonio’s coach, the first of those coming in 1999 when the Spurs beat the New York Knicks. The next era of Spurs basketball is here, with Johnson coaching, and it’s an interesting coincidence that his first finals as Spurs coach is against the Knicks.

“I’m fortunate my old boss is still around, and has been through this a few times,” Johnson said. “Coach Pop has been a resource.”

And in the immediate aftermath of his biggest win yet — the one that got him to his ﬁrst of what he hopes is many NBA Finals Wembanyama simply could not wait to talk to El Jefe.

“When I talk to him, it’s going to be only stored in my head — except if I record it in secret,” Wembanyama said. “But I need to talk to him, so quick.”

There are more lessons to learn. There are four more wins to get. And Wembanyama knows that if anyone truly knows the way to those wins, it’s Popovich.

Knicks beat Spurs for NBA Cup, but challenge still lies in ﬁnals

BY BRIAN MAHONEY Associated Press

GREENBURGH, N.Y

When the New York Knicks declined to hang a banner after beating the San Antonio Spurs to win the NBA Cup, they did so because they were waiting to celebrate something bigger

That wait is at 53 years and it can only end now by beating the Spurs again.

Nearly a week after clinching their ﬁrst NBA Finals berth since 1999, the Knicks were at last able to practice Sunday while knowing who they were practicing for, after Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs knocked off Oklahoma City on Saturday night in Game 7 of the Western Conference ﬁnals.

“I mean, they’re a special team,” Knicks guard Deuce McBride said.

“Obviously they have the Defensive Player of the Year, obviously a great organization and they’ve got a lot of great young guys, so we’re just excited for this matchup.”

It’s the same one as the last time the Knicks were in the NBA Finals, when the Spurs beat them 27 years ago to leave New York without a title since 1973.

The Knicks believed they were going to have a good shot at ending the droughtthisyearandgotatestrunat chasing a championship back in December, when they beat San Antonio in Las Vegas to win the NBA Cup.

The Knicks then passed on joining the Lakers and Milwaukee, the previous winners of the in-season tournament, in raising a banner at Madison Square Garden to acknowledge it. They aren’t putting much stock in that victory six months later knowing how different both teams are.

“Obviously there was good energy around that, but I don’t think that’s really going to be any equivalent to what the atmosphere or the energy is going to be like at their

place, or obviously at the Garden,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said.

“So technically that game didn’t happen, so I don’t think there’s anything that we can learn from,” Hart added, poking fun at the fact that the Cup ﬁnal, an 83rd game for the two teams, doesn’t count in the standings or statistics.

The teams split the two games that did matter, with San Antonio’s victory on New Year’s Eve starting a midseason spiral for a Knicks club that arrived with a 23-9 record. Then, after the Spurs went undefeated in February New York snapped their 11-game winning streak with a 114-89 home victory on March 1. Game 1 is Wednesday at San Antonio. More than Wembanyama and the Spurs, the Knicks’ biggest problem might be their lack of playing rhythm.

Because they are rolling through the postseason with an 11-game winning streak, that will be just

the 10th game in a 35-day span for the Knicks, starting with the April 30 clincher against Atlanta in Game 6 of the ﬁrst round. They then swept Philadelphia and had more than a week off before opening the Eastern Conference ﬁnals against Cleveland. Their inactivity clearly showed after that extended rest, as they were 4 for 23 on 3-pointers through three quarters and fell behind by 22 points early in the fourth before rallying to win in overtime.

“We understand what happened last time we had a layoff like this, so we’re just trying to be better than we were last time,” center Karl-Anthony Towns said. That was the only trouble the Knicks had with the Cavaliers, easily taking the next three games and ending the series last Monday They have outscored opponents by 262 points during the winning streak the largest margin for any 11-game stretch in NBA history

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOT By DAVID J PHILLIP

Former San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, left, talks with Victor Wembanyama on the bench during a game against the Houston Rockets on March 5, 2024, in Houston. Popovich was vital to the team’s path to the NBA Finals.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TIM PHILLIS

New york Knicks players hold the Eastern Conference championship trophy after a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday in Cleveland. The Knicks will

New york Jets quarterback Geno Smith speaks to reporters on Thursday at the team’s training facility in Florham Park, N.J

Stewart blasts 3-run home run to send Texas past Nebraska

By The Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY Katie Stew-

art’s go-ahead three-run home run in the sixth inning lifted defending-champion Texas to a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Nebraska on Sunday in an elimination game at the Women’s College World Series. Held without a hit and trailing 1-0 through ﬁve innings, the Longhorns rallied in the sixth with one-out singles by Jaycie Nichols and Kayden Henry followed by Stewart’s 250-foot blast toward the left ﬁeld line. It was Stewart’s eighth goahead home run this season and her 28th overall.

No. 2 seed Texas (49-12) advances to the national semiﬁnals against Tennessee on Monday and the Longhorns will have to win twice in order to advance to the championship series. Tennessee defeated Texas 6-3 on Thursday

Fourth-seeded Nebraska (52-

8) was eliminated. The Cornhuskers’ Jordy Frahm (21-6), a two-time national player of the year, dominated the first five innings in the circle and it was her leadoff home run in the ﬁrst inning that had Nebraska in the lead from the start.

Her 20th home run of the season made her the ﬁrst player to have back-to-back 20-win, 20 home run seasons Texas ace Teagan Kavan (27-6) did not allow a runner past second base after Frahm’s home run.

The 2025 WCWS Most Outstanding Player threw a complete-game four-hitter with three strikeouts and walked none.

Texas reached the championship series in three of the past four seasons, winning for the ﬁrst time in 2025. Nebraska has never played for the championship in 10 total WCWS appearances.

2027, Johnson will have to do better this year in the portal — which opens on June 1 — to get his program back to where it was before this past spring.

“We’re looking for Omaha-caliber players, not just from a tool standpoint, but from a mindset standpoint,” Johnson said “that are capable of handling all the things that come along with playing at LSU.

“We’re going to be all in on helping them achieve their dream of being a major leaguer, but I want them equally to be as invested in helping us have the best team and program we possibly can.” With his lineup, Johnson wants to target players who can make an impact on both sides of the ball. Dardar Simpson, Caraway and Yorke all came to LSU with strong reputations as power hitters who were more limited defensively But when they started stumbling at the plate, their issues in the ﬁeld became more glaring.

“This isn’t speciﬁc to transfers.

I think what made the 2025 team special is, maybe except one spot, every player that played the majority of the innings — so we’ll say the top 11 or 12 position players on those teams — they were contributors on both sides of the baseball,” Johnson said. “They had an element of completeness to their games, and that’s what I’m looking for.” On the mound, Johnson said he wants pitchers who throw multiple pitches for strikes. He is also interested in acquiring arms with a strong track record of performance, as opposed to high-upside hurlers that haven’t been as consistent.

Johnson still believes that a team can’t win a national championship without future major leaguers.

But he believes LSU’s best path to landing those talents is through high school recruiting and not the portal.

“(It’s) just the nature of how it seems to go,” Johnson said.

Adding more strike-throwers and pitchers with proven track records should help solve what plagued LSU’s staff this season.

Markle homered to center to get the rally started, before loading the bases.

Blaze Rodriguez got the tying run home with a ﬁelder’s choice grounder and Mark Collins got UL its ﬁrst lead with an RBI single to left.

Then the Donovan LaSalle show emerged in the third. After singling in the second inning, LaSalle smashed a two-run homer to center for a 5-2 Cajuns lead.

The seesaw battle continued when Cal Sefcik collected a tworun single of his own to narrow UL’s lead to 5-4 in the fourth.

The Bearcats took their second lead with two more in the sixth.

Infelise led off the inning with a single to chase Herrmann for Tyler Papenbrock.

The senior southpaw got his ﬁrst two batters, but then yielded an inﬁeld single to Jackson Smith, a run-scoring single to 9-hole hitter Charlie Niehaus and a basesloaded walk to Derrick Pitts for a 6-5 Cincinnati lead.

Herrmann ended up throwing ﬁve innings and 98 pitches, giving up four runs (three earned), six hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. The Cajuns certainly weren’t done just yet, though, with two runs in the sixth.

LaSalle led off the decisive inning with a solo homer to center again. Rodriguez later delivered a clutch two-out RBI single against

Bearcats’ reliever Chad Brown.

LaSalle ﬁnished the game 3-for-4 with three RBIs, while Rodriguez and Lim both added two-hit games. Colt Brown added an insurance run with one out in the seventh with a homer to left for an 8-6 Cajuns lead.

“Yeah, they hit four balls out of the yard, and that’s a team that typically doesn’t hit a lot of home runs,” Bischel said. “Obviously, they have good players. But, yeah, would we have liked to work to the edges a little bit better and keep another ball or two in the yard? Absolutely But what do you do? They made a couple of big-league plays and we lined out a couple of times that’s baseball.”

Cincinnati starter Connor Blue ended up allowing seven runs (six

earned) on eight hits, no walks and three strikeouts in 5.2 innings and 91 pitches.

Papenbrock shined down the stretch on the mound for the Cajuns. Over the ﬁnal four innings, Papenbrock only allowed one run on four hits, two walks and struck out four over 77 pitches.

Infelise, who had five hits in two games against UL, made the final out on a comebacker to Papenbrock, who ran to the bag himself to secure a trip to the regional finals.

“He was kind of just throwing us a little bit of a bowling ball sinker, so it was a little bit tough to just get the barrel to it,” Sefcik said. “I just don’t think our guys

or getting on time, or

second-most wild pitches in the conference.

“You think about Zac (Cowan), Gage (Jump), Luke (Holman), Anthony (Eyanson),” Johnson said. “Those are the pies in the sky of guys that have proven they throw a ton of strikes.”

The transfer portal alone won’t get LSU back to where it wants to be. Returning players such as Mason Braun, Omar Serna and Cade Arrambide will need to take another step forward. Their incoming

The Tigers’ staff had talent, ﬁnishing ﬁrst in the SEC in strikeouts. But they also owned the worst ERA in the conference this

year, in large part because they led the SEC in walks, and they threw 28 more wild pitches than

those guys,” Johnson said. “And they obviously make a difference in your team and program.”

Email Koki Riley at koki.riley@ theadvocate.com. For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

coach Jay Johnson walks onto the field for a pitching change

on March 19 at Alex Box

STAFF

PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

UL starting pitcher Andrew Herrmann delivers a pitch against Cincinnati on Sunday at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, Miss.

AP PHOTO By VERA NIEUWENHUIS

Nebraska infielder Bella Bacon bats during a Women’s College World Series game against Alabama on Saturday in Oklahoma City

AP PHOTO By VERA NIEUWENHUIS

Nebraska starting pitcher/relief pitcher Jordyn Frahm runs to first during a Women’s College World Series game against Alabama on Saturday in Oklahoma City. Alabama won 5-1

Argentina’sarrival doublesas tributeto WorldCup success

BY DAVE SKRETTA

AP sportswriter

KANSAS CITY,Mo. Reigning World Cupchampion Argentinaarrived in Kansas City on Sunday to begin preparing for its title defense, which starts with amatchagainst Algeria on June 16 at Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Chiefs.

The 11-hour flight covering more than 5,500 miles from Ezeiza InternationalAirport touched down in Missouri just after 11 a.m. local time. Theﬂight number forthe Aerolineas Argentinas charter was 1978, an homage to the 1978 World Cup that Argentina won as the host nation over theNetherlands before more than 71,000 fans at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires.

The plane itself, an Airbus A330, also celebrated the Argentine squad with special livery TheNo. 10 of Lionel Messi was featured on the tail amidthe national team’siconic blue and white stripes, whilethree gold stars represented its three World Cup titles.

Argentina is the ﬁrstoffour national teams making theirWorld

Cuphome base in the Kansas City metro to arrive.

The Netherlands, England and Algeria —which will be at the University of Kansas in nearby Lawrence —are due to arrive this week.

Most of the Argentinasquad arrived on its charter,though some players will arrive from clubs elsewhere in theworld. After stepping off the plane, players and staff walked across the tarmac to waiting charter buses for the trip to the team hotel.

Messiand Co. will be staying at the Origin Hotel near downtown Kansas City,Missouri. Fences have beenbuilt around the property and extra security provided forthe team, while inside the relatively newhotel,signage, posters andother nodstothe team known as La Albiceleste areever-present, includinghuge images of some of theteam’sbiggest stars on theoutsideofthe building.

The team planned to spend Sundaydoing light training in thehotel gym while awaiting the arrival of the restofits players. Itsﬁrst full workout is setfor Mondayat theCompass Minerals National Performance Center,the homeof

MLS club Sporting Kansas City. Argentina plays Honduras in afriendly on Saturday at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, the home of Texas A&M. Its ﬁnal tuneup is three days later against IcelandatJordan-Hare Stadium in Alabama, the home of another SEC football team, Auburn. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni revealed his 26-man WorldCup roster on Thursday.ItisheadlinedbyMessi, who turns 39 in lessthana month,and features 17 players thatwere part of the team thattriumphedfour years ago againstFranceinthe ﬁnal in Qatar

Several players were in doubt because of injuries of varying severity ahead of theJune 1deadline set by FIFAfor ﬁnalizing all World Cupsquads. Among them was Messi, who is suffering from musclefatigueand amild strain in his left hamstring.

The club has said that his recovery time will depend on his clinical and functional progress.”Messi will be playing in hissixth World Cup, having previously participatedinGermany,South Africa, Brazil, Russia andQatar

Pulisicendsscoring drought; U.S. defeats Senegalinwarmup

BY STEVEREED AP sportswriter

CHARLOTTE,N.C.— Christian Pulisic endedafive-monthscoring drought for club and country with hisfirst international goal since November 2024,Folarin Balogun broke asecond-half tieand the United States beat Senegal3-2 Sunday in the Americans’ next-tolast World Cup warmupmatch. Pulisic set up Sergiño Dest’s opener in the seventh minute,then madeit2-0 off aRicardo Pepi pass in the20th. Pulisic took atouch, roundedgoalkeeper Mory Diaw and slotted into an open net from atight angle forhis 33rd goal in 85 international appearances.

The top American player,Pulisic hadfinished his AC Milanseason scoreless in acareer-high 19 club games since Dec. 28 and was without agoal eight straight U.S. matches. Pulisic rantoacorner flag, dropped to his knees andrepeatedly pumped his fists.

Sadio Manéscored twice following American mistakes, extending his Senegal record with 54 international goals. He beat goalkeeper MattTurner at thefar post in the 44th offaHabib Diarra pass that followed Antonee Robinson’sgiveaway,then tapped the ball into the net in the52nd after Nicolas Jack-

son had lifted it over onrushing goalkeeper Chris Brady Bradyentered among10U.S changesatthe startofthe second half in his international debut. Balogun, another second-half sub, had agoal disallowed for offside in the49th, then gothis ninth international goal in the 63rd after TimWeah’scross deﬂected offa foot of Moustapha Mbow

The No.16U.S. plays 10thranked Germany on June 6, six days before the Americans open the tournament against Paraguay. No.14Senegal faces Saudi Arabia in aJune 9friendlyand start against France on June 16.

The American starting lineup averaged 44 international appearances, the team’shighest since the October 2017 loss at Trinidad and Tobago that endedthe U.S. streak of seven straight World Cup appearances, according to Opta. Turner,the Americanstarting goalkeeper at the 2022 World Cup, made just his second U.S. appearance since a4-0 loss to Switzerland last June.

In theabsence of ChrisRichards, sidelinedbyanankle injury,the U.S. started Alex Freeman, Mark McKenzie and captain TimReam in athreecenterback formation. Gio Reyna made his ﬁrst start for club or country since Dec. 19.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOBySCOTT KINSER United States forward Christian Pulisic,center left, celebrates with midfielder Sebastian Berhalter after scoring in the first halfagainst Senegal in an international friendly soccer match on Sunday in Charlotte, N.C.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ARIANA CUBILLOS

Apostcarddepicts aduel in 1841 at the old dueling grounds in City Park. Anotation at the topofthe postcard reads: From an old painting

CURT TEICH AND COMPANy, INC.,

PROVIDED By HISTORIC NEW ORLEANSCOLLECTION

Thedaring DUELIST

Jose ‘Pepe’ Llulla is considered by many to be the most famous dueling SpaniardinNew Orleanshistory

BY RACHEL MIPRO

Contributing writer

Jose “Pepe” Llulla is anamesynon mous with New Orleans’ age of darin anddueling. One reader’squestion: What’sthe story of Jose Llulla?

Many legends havesprungup around the famed Spanish duelist, who is said to have participated in over 20 duels, andseconded over 100 duels, winning the titleofone of New Orleans’ most legendary fighters. Llulla lived at the height o dueling culture theCre cent City.Duels werefoughtover ho or,settling major andminordispute One popular spot for fighting cansti be seen today,the “Dueling Oaks” landmark in City Park. While one oak perished in ahurricane decades ago, the survivingoak still marksth sceneofmany asword fight.

The “golden age” of dueling lasted from the 1830s untilthe Civil War, as Herbert Asbury chronicled in “The French Quarter: An InformalHistor of the New OrleansUnderworld.”To ﬁghters achieved celebrity status, an fencing schools, headed byformidably skilled instructors, were all the rage.

“In the New Orleansoftheir day, they occupied much thesame position that champion prize-ﬁghters do in modern times,” Ashbury wrote. “Crowds followed theminthe street in the cafes and coffeehouses they were the darlings of thewaiters, and the young Creoles aped their manne isms.”

In this atmosphere, Llulla thrived, becoming one ofthe city’smost legendary duelists. He died at the age of 72, having lived in thecityfor 58 years, according toalovingtribute that describedhis “singular,well-de veloped” facial muscles andhis “vig orous keen-eyed”looksina lengthy

ä See DUELIST, page 2D

PROVIDEDByHISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION

DonJosé ‘Pepe’ Llulla, left, the great dueling master of NewOrleans, is photographed withMartin Poujuan.

Homegrownheat

California farm growsrarewasabiplants

KATE BRADSHAW

The MercuryNews(TNS)

SAN JOSE, Calif.— Becoming awasabi farmer wasn’tinitially part of the career plan for former electrical contractor Jeff Roller. But for those who know him, his pivot wasn’tall that surprising, he says. He and co-founder TimHall got the idea to start awasabifarm about 15 years ago when Hall learnedthat most of the wasabi Americans eat is fake: Expertestimates cited in the Washington Post

over adecade ago put the proportion of fake stuff at between 95% and 99% of the wasabi consumed in the U.S. The green paste that usually comes withyour takeout sushi is made up of horseradish, mustard, cornstarch, food coloring andsome other ingredients. Hall and Roller hadconstruction backgrounds and wanted to seeif they couldﬁgure out how to grow the notoriously ﬁnicky plants. Wasabi plants generally grow best in cool climates with water flowing over the soil, and they take around two years to reach

maturity.

Aftermonthsofresearch andtrial anderror,theydecided to start their farm,repurposing an old Coastside nursery withgreenhouses dating back to the1960s fort job. Foryears, theystruggle to achieve consistency with plantsthey grew.Every time th tried to scale up their producti anew challenge popped up, Roller says. “We’ve changed the waywe’v grown it abunch of times,”h says. Twoyearsin, Roller gave up,

Common thread

Blue jeanshavelong been associated with theAmericanexperience

MICHAEL LIEDTKE Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO When Americans want to show their patriotism,they often don red, whiteand blueclothing,orsometimes even drape themselves in the U.S. ﬂag. But if you truly want to embody the country’szeitgeist, just slip on your favorite blue jeans. Youprobably already own at least one pair,just like almost everyone else you know Even in divisive times, denim remains an American skinthat’swornbyliberals andconservatives, young and old, rich and poor,the cool crowd and the nerdy outcasts, citizens born in the USA like thedenim-cladBruce Springsteen on his chart-topping 1984 album and immigrants who came here hoping for abetter lifelike Levi Strauss. If there is acommonthread in America’scrazy quilt of racial diversity,it’s blue jeans. The pantsdidn’tstartout blue.They were made from brown tent canvas when they wereﬁrst conceivedin1853 by Strauss, aBavarian immigrant who came to SanFrancisco in the aftermath of California’s Gold Rush.The pants proved so popularamong thegoldminers still looking to strike that Strauss ran outoftentcanvas. So he switched to adifferent fabric —indigo-dyed denim.After Nevada tailor Jacob Davis suggested reinforcing the pockets of Strauss’ pant design with copper rivets,the twomen patented the concept in 1873 to create the style of blue jeans worn today Levi Strauss &Co. and its imitators such as H.D.Lee and Wrangler have made billions selling denim through the decades, but blue jeans have always been more aboutthe culture than the capitalism that shaped America. Besidesharking back to the Gold Rush’ssediments, blue jeans evoke:

n Therugged determination of the railroad workers who worethemwhile laying the tracks for travel and commerce across the country;

n The derring-do of the cowboys and wandering spirits whowore them while settling the frontier;

n The work ethic of the farmers and factory workers who worethemonthe job;

n The rebellious ethos of thebikers and other mavericks who embraced them after Marlon Brando’sperformance in the 1953 ﬁlm “The Wild Ones;”

n The colorful flair of the hippies who stitched flower patches and psychedelic designsonbell-bottomed versionsofthe pants that were conceived in San Francisco during 1967’s“Summer of Love.” In all shapes and styles, blue jeans are the perfect fit forAmerica.

TNS PHOTO By DAISUGANO

HalfMoon BayWasabi has been perfecting their method for growingwasabi in Californiafor 15 years.

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday,June 1, the 152nd day of 2026. There are 213 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On June 1, 2008, aﬁre at Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed 3acresofthe studio’sproperty,including avault holding as many as 175,000 irreplaceable master audio recordings from hundreds of musicians including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin, Elton John and Nirvana.

Also on this date:

In 1813, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, gave the order,“Don’tgive up the ship,” during alosing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon during the Warof1812.

In 1916, the Senate voted 4722 to conﬁrm Louis Brandeis as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the ﬁrstJewish American to serve on the nation’shighest bench.

In 1943, acivilianﬂightfrom Portugal to England was shot downbyGerman bombers during World WarII, killing all 17 people aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.

In 1957, Don Bowden, astudent at the University of California at Berkeley,became theﬁrst American to run amile in under four minutes during ameet in Stockton, California, with atime of 3:58.7.

In 1962, former Naziofﬁcial Adolf Eichmann was executed afterbeing found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions during World WarII.

In 1980, Cable News Network, the ﬁrst 24-hour televisionnews channel, made its debut.

In 1990, U.S. President George H.W.Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to stop producing and reduce existing stockpiles of chemical weapons held bythe two Cold Warsuperpowers.

In 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shot and killed nine members of the Nepalese royal family,including his parents, King Birendra and QueenAishwarya, before mortally wounding himself.

In 2009, GeneralMotors ﬁled for Chapter 11 reorganization, becomingthe largest U.S. industrial company to enter bankruptcy protection.

In 2011, Endeavour concluded its final flight of the 30-year space shuttle era, landing before dawn atNASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Atlantis would carry out the last shuttle flight in history amonth later.)

In 2015, acruise ship carrying more than450 people capsized and sank in aseverestorm on China’sYangtze River,leaving hundreds missing. Only ahandful of people survived thesinking of the Eastern Star

In 2020, police forcefully disbanded aprotest by thousands of people in Lafayette Park across from the White House, using chemical agents, clubsand punches, who rallied against the police killing of a Black man, George Floyd, by a White ofﬁcer in Minneapolis a week earlier

Today’sbirthdays: Singer Pat Boone is 92. ActorMorgan Freemanis89. Actor Brian Cox is 80. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 79. Rock musician Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones) is 79. Country singer-songwriter Ronnie Dunn is 73. Actor Lisa Hartman Black is 70. ActorTeri Polo is 57. Model-TV personality Heidi Klum is 53. Singer Alanis Morissette is 52. Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is 45. Actor-comedian Amy Schumer is 45. Tennis Hall of Famer Justine Henin is 44. Comedian Nikki Glaser is 42. Actor Zazie Beetz is 35. Actor TomHolland is 30. Actor Willow Shields is 26.

Hugging good foryourhealth

Dear Doctors: Is it true that huggingisgood for your health? Whywould that be? Also, Iremember hearing about someone with autism who used akind of squeezing machine tohelp with anxiety. Is that the same thing that’sgoingonwhen we hug each other?

Dear Reader: Your questions lead to afascinatingfield of study: theneuroscience of touch. Also known assensoryneuroscience, it examines how thebrain processes touch.This includes the regionsofthe brain that get activated.Italso looks at the neurochemicals that are released. Researchers in this field are also interested in howthe neurochemical changes that occur during touch affect the mind, emotions andthe body Touchisthe first of our senses to develop. At just eight weeks in utero, afetusisalready gaining touch receptors. By theeighth month,the baby’sentire body is alivetothe sense of touch. Within

DUELIST

Continued from page1D

newspaper column. “It would be adifﬁcult task here to give anything more than abrief outline of thecareer of this really extraordinary character, who won his way to fortune and tofame by rare energy andintrepidity,” read the1888 Times-Picayune account of his death Llulla was born in 1815, near Port Mahon,Spain, in the Mediterranean, and was aseafarer whosailed theroute between New Orleans and Havana, accordingtoThe Times-Picayune account. He settled in New Orleans and learned fencing from oneofthe numerous fencingschools in thearea, becomingthe protege andassistant of prominentduelist Monsieur L’Allouette. When L’Allouettedied,Llulla took over thefencing school, but soon turned to other business ventures. He bought the Louisa Street Cemetery and improved and expanded thearea, which is now St.Vincent de Paul Cemetery He also acquired Grand Terre Island, where heraised livestock. Among other ventures,Llulla had abrief stint of running a bullﬁghting arena in Algiers.

Most accounts speakofhis marked loyalty to Spain. In 1851, when anti-Spanish sentiment was seething in the minds of Cuban revolutionarieswho wanted to

Dr.Elizabeth Ko Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THE DOCTORS

theuterus, thefetus can feel the movementofamniotic ﬂuid; the presence of the placenta, umbilical cord and uterine walls; and contact with its own body.Touch from outside of thewomb registersaswell. Research has shown that when an expectant mother touches her abdomen, fetal movements increase.

After birth andthroughout our lives,the sense of touch plays akey roleinkeeping us alive. Specialized neurons process touch andsend it to the brain for interpretation.Touch allows us to detect and interpret a

continuous ﬂow of information. This includestemperature, pressure, pleasure,pain, itch, vibration andenvironmental shifts. Equally important, andthe subject of your question, is the role of touch in social bonding. It’s so intrinsic to who we are, even just seeing otherpeople touch triggersthe touch-related centers in ourown brains. Andthat brings us to hugging. Hugging is good foryour health. It has been showntomove the needle on arange of clinical and laboratory tests. Before-andafter hug measurements have found it lowers levels of cortisol. It also leads to the release of the “love hormone” oxytocin and the “feel-good”hormone dopamine. The beneﬁts of ahug can also linger.Several studies have found that hugging leads to lower levels of waking cortisol the next morning. Self-soothing with ahand pressed over theheart for10or moreseconds has also proven effective.

While the squeezing machine you mentioned does deliver a sensation akin to ahug, neither the intent nor the result are the same. It waspioneered by Temple Grandin, anoted author and educator living with autism. She developed the deep-pressure device to manage the anxiety and sensory overload common in the condition. It does rely on the physical and neural networks of touch. However,the social and emotional pathways that are intrinsic to human touch are not engaged.

The bottom line: Hugging is a simple act that can calm stress, improve mood and build connection. Have aspare 10 or 20 seconds? Hug someone you love.

Send yourquestions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla. edu,orwrite: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd., Suite1450, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.

PROVIDED

An illustration from 1885 depicts aduel beneath the

be independent from Spain, Pepe acted as security for the Spanish consul. When an angry mob invaded the Spanish consulate, Llulla marched by theconsul’s side, helping him leave thecity safely,according to Ashbury’s account. He then challenged any Cubans sympathizers to face him in aduel.

For his continued, heavily publicized loyalty,the king of Spain gifted himknighthood. Another reward for his loyalty: aportrait of himself, covered in awreath of laurel embroidered with the hair of Spanish ladies whohad cut off locks in tribute to his efforts, according to reporting done at thetime.

While Llulla lived aquieter life after ending his dueling career, he still inﬂuenced the local business and social culture.

“In his last days, ‘Pepe’ Llulla led amodest and retired life, though he had not lost any of his courage and valor,” read an 1888 newspaper account of his life.

Askministerabout disposingofBibles

Dear Heloise: Ihope you or your readers can help me (and most likely manyothers) with learning how to respectfully disposeofused or damaged Bibles Thank you, and Ilove your good work! —Eddie S.,via email

discuss this with your minister to see what they recommend.

Heloise

Atreat forsmellyfeet

Continued from page1D

leaving thefarm to Hall,but then came backsix monthslater.For many years, their wasabifarm was apassion project, funded bytheir electrical work. Now,Hall has stepped back from farming focus on parenting, but is still involved.

“There’snoplaybook of how to do it,” Roller says. But as they struggled, one thing kept them going: They always could sell whatever they grew, mostly to local high-end sushi restaurants and steakhouses.

Between reading ahandful of academic papers and conducting lots of experiments with irriga-

at an animal shelter,I have mixed feelings about seniors adopting cats.

Eddie, this is avery thoughtfulquestion. I’ve heardofpeople taking avery old Bible and buryingitinagarden or placing it underthe hands of adeceased loved one while they lay in their cofﬁn.Some people have theBibleburied with the person, while others remove it before burial. There are others who say that it’sserved its purpose and place it in the trash. Youmight want to

tion,lightingand more, they ﬁnally landed on aconsistent system. They’ve beengrowing their wasabi the same way for seven or eight years now,Roller says.

Thefarm draws on sustainable farming practices like using predatory bugs to keep pests at bayand recirculating waterfor thefairly water-hungry plants, according to Roller. Today,they’re amongjust a small handful of U.S.-based wasabi farmers.

The whole plants are edible, and the farm also sells the leaves and stems, whichcan bemade into salads or chopped andmarinated with soysauce to becomekizami, acondiment. Theflowers, meanwhile, canbeusedasanedible garnish. Then,in2020, the pandemic threwa wrench into theirbusi-

Dear Heloise: Once fabric softener sheetshave been used, they no longer have what it takes to soften laundry items. However,Iﬁgured out asecond use for them. Ikeep asealed plastic storage bag for theused sheets. Although their main purpose no longer applies, theamount of remaining scent is ampliﬁed when they are combined. Ireuse them, especially during spring and summer, by puttingthem in tennis shoes and some closed-toed shoes while they’re waiting to be worn again.

—Deborah R., in Austin,Texas

Thinkofthe animal

Dear Heloise: Having volunteered

ness. “COVID was really difficult for us,”Rollersays.“We lost 90% of our business overnight.” They had to adapt quickly,pivoting to online sales and learning how to ship across theU.S. —particularly to areas where restaurants reopened ahead of the Bay Area, like Texas and Florida. They also began selling to local Japanese supermarkets. So how do you eat it?What you’ll want to eat —and what traditional wasabi is —isthe wasabi plant’s rhizome, or stalk at thebase of theplant, grated very finely into a paste. Shredded over aspecial grater,the resulting flavor and color of the wasabi pastes can differ just based on which end of the rhizome you’regrating, as co-owner Jim Murphy demonstratedona recent

Truthbetold, Ilove cats. I grew up with one and continued to makethem apart of my family for my entire life. However, thewell-meaning people whoare urging theolder person to adopt acat are only thinking of the potential cat owner

What about the cat? Many cats end up in shelters when their owner dies.

Imagine the traumaofbeing transferred from their home, where they’ve been comfortable, to asmall cage that is surrounded by other cats in asometimes noisy environment.

Ihope those who are advocating for the seniortoget acat will also remind the potential owner that theyshould do the

visit to the farm. Murphy joined last year after acareer in human rights work and webdevelopment. Real wasabi oxidizes quickly.It’s ideally consumed about five minutes after shredding, to letitoxidize alittle bit. But it starts to lose heat within 25 minutesofgrating it,hesays. Those timing parametersmake it difficult formany restaurants to work with, especially those serving takeout. But after trying even just atiny tasteofthe real stuff, it’sobvious why it is so sought-after.The fresh, sharp,complex heat that spreads through the palate and nasal passages provides aunique sensation that’sasfleeting as it is subtle. Today, youcan findlocally grown wasabi from Half MoonBay Wasabiatrestaurants like Rintaro in

moral thing andmake arrangements for the cat to be left to a relative, afriend, or someone else who can provide ahome for the rest of the cat’s life. Otherwise, stickwith astufﬁe —Joan B.,via email Joan, the lucky ones go to a shelter.Far too manyanimals both cats and dogs —reach the end of their lives on the streets without ahome, food or water They’re abandoned, and animals aren’ttrash to be thrownaway when someone dies. If apet gave comfort to someone who’snow gone, they deserve to be taken care of and loved by another person whowill honor the service that the animal previously gave.

—Heloise

Sendahinttoheloise@heloise com.

San Francisco; Robin in San Francisco and Menlo Park; the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay; Alexander’sSteakhouse locations in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Cupertino; and Katsu in Mountain View It’salso sold at Mitsuwa Market in SanJose;Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley; Nijiya Market locations in San Francisco, San Mateo, MountainView andSan Jose; and at the Ferry Building Farmers Market in SanFrancisco on the second Saturday of each month. Half Moon BayWasabi also participatesinoccasionalpop-ups at theHalfMoonBay farmersmarket and Pillar Point Harbor.People can also orderwasabi directly online. Go to @halfmoonbaywasabi on Instagram or hmbwasabi.com formore information.

By HISTORIC NEWORLEANS COLLECTION

oaks of NewOrleans’ City Park.

Hints from Heloise

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Keep life simple, don't take on responsibilities that belong to someone else and question information before you pass it along or trust its validity. Protect yourself from those trying to lead you astray.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Offering help to those less fortunate or using your connections or attributes to benefit the needy will satisfy your soul more than pontificating about something that's not entirely true. Choose peace.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Pay more attention to personal growth. Decide what makes you happy, and choose to dedicate more time and effort to reaching your goal. Anger will stand between you and what you want.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Reading the fine print, negotiating on your behalf and getting what you want in writing are important. You have plenty to gain if you are thorough and refuse to take anything less than what's fair.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Networking and discovering how you can turn something you enjoy doing into something profitable will have a positive impact on your life, but first, you must get rid of the excess and declutter your space.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Refrain from letting your personal and professional dreams collide. Separate your emotions from your responsibilities, and use your voice, experience and skills to help you fulfill your ambitions.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Keep the talks going until you reach an agree-

ment. Maintaining balance and equality in your life is necessary if you want to improve your lifestyle and your meaningful relationships.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Someone will interfere in your life if you let them. Keep a low profile and go about your business. What you achieve without an audience will far exceed your expectations.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Stick close to home to work toward the lifestyle you envision. The changes you make to your surroundings will help you tweak your plans and boost your ego. Put your imagination to work.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Plant your feet firmly on the ground and say no to anyone trying to talk you into something you don't need or want. Run the show instead of being a spectator. Stop letting others dictate your next move.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Don't believe everything you hear. Don't be afraid to ask direct questions and to opt out of any situation or deal that appears to be missing important details or hidden costs.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Distance yourself from those who stir the anger or stubbornness in you. Pay more attention to how you look and what you do, and display the best version of yourself.

cLuE: G EQuALs L

FAMILY CIrCUS

toDAy's

CeLebrItY CIpher

SALLY

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM SherMAn’S LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers1 to 9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Saturday’s PuzzleAnswer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

Anoldproverbgoes:Goodhabitsresult from resistingtemptation. That can apply at the bridge table. South is in four hearts. West leads the diamond queen. What temptations must declarer avoid?

In thefourthchair, it was reasonable forSouthtoopen four hearts. Aslam was unlikelyopposite apassed partnerand probably this openingwouldsilence the opponents, who might have been ableto do well in another suit.

From West’slead, South knows that East has the diamond ace. So it is tempting to play low from the board. However, herethatwouldgiveWestachancetobea geniusbyshiftingtothespadeeight.And when declarer plays the queen from the dummy, East ducks it.(He knows West would have led asingleton if he had one, andwouldnothaveshiftedfromfourlow spades.)Then the contract wouldfail; as it would if West had initially ledaspade and East had ducked So, South covers withdummy’s diamondking,ruffstheseconddiamondand drawstrumps. It is then tempting to lead aspade to force away intothe dummy to takethetemptingclubfinesse.However, if East, reading West’s spade eight as the start of ahigh-low withadoubleton, ducks, the contract must fail. Declarer will lose twospades, one diamond and one club.

wuzzles

South has 10 tricks viaone spade, seven hearts and two clubs.After drawing trumps,declarershouldcashhisclubace and continue withthe club queen. Then, when he gets to thedummy in spades, he discards aspade loseronthe club jack. ©2026 by nEa,inc., dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3 additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit wordsare not allowed toDAy’s WoRD oBsEssIon: ub-SESH-un: Apersistent preoccupation with something.

Average mark14words

Timelimit 20 minutes Can you find 18 or morewords in OBSESSION?

Trustthe Lord.Hetakes

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

dIrectIons: make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

ken ken

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

WiShinG Well

Scrabble GramS

Get fuzzy

jump Start

roSe iS roSe

animal crackerS

DuStin

Drabble

Wallace the brave

breWSter rockit

luann

SupremeCourt of Louisiana, GeneralCoun‐sel’sOfﬁce,400 Royal Street,Suite 1190, (504) 310-2550, mlaborde@ lasc.org.A complete copy of theRFP hasalso been posted on the SupremeCourt website (www.lasc.org) This announcement does notcommitthe Courttoaward acon‐tractortopay anycosts incurred in theprepara‐tion of proposals. The Courtreservesthe right to accept or to reject in fullorinpartall propos‐alssubmitted