The Acadiana Advocate 06-06-2026

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JUNE 6, 1944

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‘IT WAS OUR DUTY’

National WWII Museum honors Rosie the Riveters with American Spirit Awards this weekend

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State judge accused of new ethical violations

Man previously suspended for taking ‘$100 handshake’

BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer

STAFF PHOTOS By ENAN CHEDIAK

Delphine Klaput poses by a canvas depicting Rosie the Riveter made with photographs of the Rosies attending The American Spirit Awards at The National WWII Museum on Friday.

More than 30 women travel to N.O. to share their stories

When the Louisiana Supreme Court suspended a state judge last month for 20 days for accepting a “$100 handshake” from a local resident, the high court called the misconduct “a single isolated incident that nevertheless seriously tainted the integrity and reputation of the judiciary.”

Judge John Reeves of the 7th Judicial District Court had insisted that his pocketing the money was out of character as he testified last December before the Louisiana Judiciary Commission.

“I have an unbelievable record, and this is not like me,” he told the body, which recommends discipline for judges.

Yet in early March, the commission again charged Reeves, a veteran judge in rural Catahoula and Concordia parishes, with a fresh set of ethical lapses in four other instances.

Among them, Reeves in 2024 allegedly authorized two court staff members to secure commissions as reserve sheriff’s deputies in Catahoula Parish so they could carry concealed weapons in the courthouse for their safety.

Their new badges were swiftly rescinded when a defense lawyer sought to recuse Reeves,

ä See JUDGE, page 4A

BY VIOLET BUCARO Staff writer

The heads of the factory told Delphine Klaput to guard the aircraft blueprints with her life.

Whenever she needed to bring them out, which was often as a leader of a team of men building planes to be sent overseas, she kept them close so they wouldn’t be lost or seen by someone who shouldn’t know about them. There was a war on, after all.

It was a far cry from her life growing up in a Pennsylvania coal mining town, and she remembers walking through Glenn L. Martin Aircraft factory in Baltimore asking herself, “What did I get myself into?”

Klaput, 101, worked at the aircraft factory during the last years of World War II. From 1944 to 1945, she was one of the millions of young women who took jobs in the factories that built the planes and tanks and ships and trucks that helped the U.S. and its allies win the war.

America’s massive manufactur-

Commandments posters going up in UL classrooms A group of Rosies attend WWII veteran Melvin McMullen’s 101st birthday celebration at The National WWII Museum on Friday. ing capability came to be known as the Arsenal of Democracy. It was powered by women like Klaput, who later came to be associated with the wartime icon known as Rosie the Riveter.

The Rosie the Riveter propaganda poster, created by J. Howard Miller in 1943, depicts a woman with rolled-up sleeves, red lipstick and a pumped fist, with the emblematic motto “We Can Do It.” It was made to

motivate women in the labor force.

Earlier this week, Klaput was among more than 30 “Rosie the Riveters” who traveled to New Orleans to attend The American Spirit Awards at The National World War II Museum, where they are honorees.

The awards are given to people who reflect the spirit and contribution of the men and women who served

ä See DUTY, page 4A

University says it is acting in accordance with state law

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

Students returning to the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette this summer and fall will find posters of the Ten Commandments displayed in classrooms.

The university has begun hanging the posters across campus this week in accordance with Act 676 of the 2024 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature.

ä See POSTERS, page 4A

Nation’s first floating LNG platform secures $5B financing

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

A long-delayed project to build the United States’ first floating liquefied natural gas export terminal off the Louisiana coast has secured the $5 billion in financing it needs to move forward, company officials recently announced, further cementing the state’s key role in global LNG markets.

Delfin Midstream aims to build the largest floating LNG facility in the world connected to an undersea pipeline the Houston-based firm is repurposing to bring natural gas from onshore to a platform about 40 miles off

WEATHER HIGH 84 LOW 76 PAGE 6A

the coast of Cameron Parish.

Delfin’s announcement comes as Louisiana is emerging as the center of gravity for the American LNG boom.

The state is already home to four operating export terminals, and the planned floating terminal is the third to receive a final investment decision so far this year.

“U.S. LNG production is the biggest in the world right now — particularly with our friends in Qatar shut in,” said Eric Smith, associate director of the Energy Institute at Tulane University.

“Arguably, Louisiana has more LNG export capability than anywhere else on earth.”

The offshore facility will initially produce 4.4 million tons of LNG annually, enough to power about 3 million homes for a full year. The company hopes to eventually ramp up production to 13.2 million tons, about half as much as some of the state’s largest facilities.

Delfin CEO Dudley Poston described the investment decision as a “monumental achievement,” secured by a commitment from Global Infrastructure Partners, a subsidiary of private equity giant Blackrock, which joined other global investors in the deal.

IMAGE PROVIDED By DELFIN MIDSTREAM

A rendering shows a tanker beside the Delfin FLNG 1, the first of three floating liquefied natural gas export terminals planned to tap into an existing undersea pipeline and liquefy natural gas about 40 nautical miles off the coast of ä See LNG, page 4A Cameron Parish.

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101ST yEAR, NO. 341

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Trump wants Pulte to cut office

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

3 Siberian tiger cubs born at Slovenian zoo

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — A zoo in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana has presented its newest residents: three Siberian tiger cubs who were born there under two weeks ago.

The Siberian tiger is one of the world’s most endangered big cat species, with experts estimating that about 500 remain in the wild. Their survival is threatened primarily by habitat loss and poaching.

Zoo workers said the cubs were born to mother Arisa and father Ussuri, which arrived in Ljubljana in 2004, after careful planning and much hoping.

“We were not really expecting, but hoping, working on it because we have a good breeding pair,” she said. Though the couple were introduced to each other at the right time “we weren’t completely sure,” she added.

“So we were also a bit surprised and of course very happy,” Strus said.

Breeding wild animal species in enclosed spaces is known to be hard and often does not succeed.

The cubs, born on May 27, are highly vulnerable and need to be isolated from others except their mother, but zoo staff and visitors have been able see them on a screen streaming live video footage.

According to Strus, tiger cubs open their eyes and begin hearing about two weeks after birth.

She said the mother is expected to bring them out of the den for the first time when they are one month old.

Astronauts briefly take shelter during repair NASA on Friday temporarily ordered astronauts to take shelter during repairs to fix a fresh leak aboard the International Space Station.

The five astronauts moved into the SpaceX capsule that is docked at the station while cosmonauts worked to fix the leak, which is on the Russian side of the orbiting laboratory.

The decision was made “out of an abundance of caution,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said via X. The crew left the capsule and returned to regular operations after repair work was paused.

That part of the space station has suffered from cracks and leaks over the years. NASA said Roscosmos decided to do a more extensive repair after fresh problems were found.

The space agencies have been working to determine the cause of the cracks.

Trump to headline rally marking nation’s 250th President Donald Trump said he would headline a rally in Washington on June 24 to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, a week after several artists pulled out of planned shows on the National Mall.

“We don’t want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep, we’ve told them all to stay home,” Trump said in a social media post — a nod to the wave of cancellations by artists who said they wouldn’t be performing shortly after they were announced as featured acts.

“All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years!” he said.

At least five of the nine announced performers pulled out of the previously planned shows on the National Mall, saying the event was more political than they had been led to believe. Freedom 250, which is organizing the events, is a group described by Trump as a publicprivate nonprofit that also organized an overtly Christian prayer meeting on May 17 that included a video message from the president.

Cancellations for the Freedom 250 shows included country music icon Martina McBride, hip hop artist Young MC, The Commodores, Morris Day and The Time and Bret Michaels. Rapper Vanilla Ice defended the event in a social media video, saying it was “not a political platform.”

Trump said the musical acts for his own rally would include “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood and opera tenor Christopher Macchio.

President says national intelligence should be scaled back

BY MICHELLE L. PRICE and SEUNG MIN KIM ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MOSES SAWASAWA

Verité Johnson works at a community radio station on Thursday, providing daily awareness and updates on Ebola in Bunia, Congo.

Congo radio station battling misinformation

Fight against Ebola complicated by skeptism, attacks

BY JUSTIN KABUMBA and OPE ADETAYO Associated Press

BUNIA, Congo — The rare Bundibugyo type of Ebola that Congo is battling took locals by surprise after weeks of spreading unnoticed.

Hundreds of cases were suspected when Congolese authorities announced the outbreak on May 15, but many dismissed the news as a “Western conspiracy.”

At least 63 people have died from 397 confirmed cases, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Yet the outbreak has been challenged by skepticism, attacks on health workers and misinformation.

Vérité Johnson, a journalist and editorial secretary at the Radio Télévision Mont Bleu station in Bunia, the capital city of the eastern Ituri province where the outbreak is concentrated, decided to produce a new program to combat rumors.

The radio show has emerged as a vital tool to win over some residents who have been unaware or skeptical about the facts of Bundibugyo.

Misinformation is dangerous The 45-minute program runs daily at 10 a.m., reminding people of the dangers of Ebola and regularly featuring health specialists who provide updates and answer questions. The show’s jingles about the

virus play intermittently throughout the day and residents are able to call in with questions.

“So far, there’s still a layer of resistance within the population, and that’s where the media plays an important role,” Johnson said.

“Misinformation is almost as dangerous as the virus itself and spreads just as fast. Earning and keeping the trust of communities is at the heart of everything we do,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday as WHO and the Africa CDC launched an Ebola response plan with partners.

Tedros said the new plan aims to raise $518 million to “stop the outbreak where it is, support countries that are responding today and ensure that neighboring countries are ready to detect and act quickly if cases appear.”

Resistance to protocols during public health emergencies is common in Congo, which is battling its 17th Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified there in 1976.

There currently is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo type of Ebola, which has added another layer of fear.

Widespread rumors, often arising from fear and misinformation, discourage residents from adhering to health warnings or seeking medical help during an outbreak, health officials say.

Mistrust leads to delays in care Many residents remain distrustful of health authorities, with some alleging that officials are profiting from the outbreak.

“I can never take the vaccine, I prefer to die because if the vaccine arrives, it can scare us even more,” said Samson Gerson, a 52-year-old Bunia resident and father of seven children.

Analysts say some people in Congo have been receptive to disinformation due to mistrust of the healthcare system and because some local officials have not become actively involved in containing the disease.

“What is key is to involve the local actors at all levels. If we try to impose what we think is right to the community, we are running towards failure,” said Basile Rambaud, emergency programs director for Mercy Corps in Congo. “If people do not trust the response, they end up delaying to seek care, rejecting protective measures, or avoiding working with health teams, giving the virus more time to spread.”

Ituri province residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers, demanding the bodies of deceased patients.

Some people who are believed to have Ebola left the centers during the attacks and health workers could not account for their whereabouts.

Defense Department slashes religious designations list Recognized traditions cut from more than 200 choices to 31

BY TIFFANY STANLEY Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense announced on Friday a significant reduction in the number of religious affiliations it officially recognizes.

The new list of 31 is down from more than 200 previously recognized traditions that troops could choose from.

The list no longer includes atheists, Unitarian Universalists, pagans and Wiccans.

“This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of ‘officially approved’ religions,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. “Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups.”

Parnell added the department values the free exercise of religion and chaplains facilitate service members’ “ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all.”

The list creates broad categories of some Christian traditions — Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist — without specifying denominations within those traditions, which can span the theological and ideological spectrum.

Service members can choose to identify as “no religion,” “other religions” or agnostic. Also included are Buddhism,

Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, the Baha’i faith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Unitarian Universalist Association, which was cut from the list, said in a statement, “This may make it more difficult for our uniformed UUs to access the spiritual care that they need.”

The denomination said it is working on a strategic response to support UU service members.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has infused his evangelical Christianity with his leadership of the Pentagon, hosting worship services for employees and often speaking of the United States as a Christian nation.

He first announced the impending changes to the faith categories in December, saying the large number of faith codes had become unmanageable.

“Secretary Hegseth is not ‘streamlining’ anything. He is elevating one narrow religious worldview from the top of the chain of command,” said the Rev. Paul Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance. “The First Amendment does not allow the government to create a hierarchy of faiths, and it certainly does not allow the Pentagon to decide which beliefs are worthy of recognition.”

The military is religiously diverse, and nearly 70% of troops identify as Christian, according to a 2019 congressional report. Almost a quarter of troops were listed as other, unclassified or unknown.

“As a member of a minority religion, I think it’s really important that we be counted,” said Irene Glasse, a pagan religious professional and Marine Corps veteran. “It erases us, and so many of us have served so proudly, so well, and so honorably.”

Associated Press

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he wants his new acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, to cut the office, which has already been significantly scaled back during his second term.

Trump noted that the size of the office has been “way too high for way too long” and that “if he cut, I wouldn’t mind that.”

“He’ll do a very good job,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Wisconsin for an event on agriculture. “He’ll watch it closely, but Bill Pulte is very good, he’s very talented.”

The Republican president said in an earlier interview with The Wall Street Journal that he has asked Pulte to start the process of firing employees. In the interview, Trump said he has already conveyed his view to Pulte, who has served as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency but has no apparent national security expertise.

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump said, which the Journal said was in reference to intelligence community officials who had served in the Democratic administrations of Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Trump told the Journal that he wants Pulte to “start the process” of firing personnel and that the eventual permanent director of national intelligence should continue it. The president has indicated that he would not formally nominate Pulte for the position.

“Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,” Trump said. “Because, if he (Pulte) reduced the size, in conjunction with me … and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in … he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn’t have to saddle somebody that goes in.”

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Senate OKs $70B immigration bill Judge strikes down Efforts to ban Trump’s settlement fund were rejected

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pauses for questions from reporters before votes on the immigration enforcement funding package at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday.

BY MARY CLARE JALONICK and JOEY CAPPELLETTI

Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE around the fund,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before midnight.

Thune himself has criticized the fund, which was part of a settlement that resolves Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns and has angered many of his GOP colleagues. But he has been pushing GOP senators for weeks to keep the bill focused on the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol and to avoid adding new provisions that could complicate its passage in the House.

Still, a group of Republican senators pushed all day and into the night to block the fund’s payouts through legislation. That effort came after Trump, who has been at odds with the Senate in recent weeks, raised new doubts about the fund’s future on Wednesday when he told reporters that it is “very important” and said “I don’t know” whether it is dead or on hold.

The final 52-47 vote on the bill was nearly party line, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican to oppose it. Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado missed the vote.

Senators push back on ban The first vote on Thursday morning, a Democratic effort to ban the settlement fund, was held open for several hours while Cassidy and two other Republican senators decided whether to support it. The Democratic motion was narrowly defeated when Cassidy eventually voted against it and the two other senators — Jon Husted of Ohio and

Dan Sullivan of Alaska, both of whom are up for reelection this year — voted for it.

The Senate then rejected a second amendment from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina that would also have banned the settlement fund but would have moved the money to a separate anti-fraud fund at the Department of Justice. Most Democrats voted against the amendment, guaranteeing its defeat, but more than 10 Republicans supported it.

Tillis said the fund is a political liability for the party.

“If Blanche says this is largely inoperative, why not use this moment to codify that?” Tillis said. “Otherwise, you’re exposing every one of our members who are in cycle to having to deal with this between today and Election Day, and that makes no sense for something that the DOJ says they’re not moving forward with.”

Cassidy’s amendment to compensate the injured police officers was a pointed rebuke, as payouts from Trump’s fund could have potentially gone to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Cassidy lost reelection last month after Trump endorsed a primary opponent.

He said that, despite Blanche’s comments, the fund is still part of an active settlement and “absolutely can be used.”

The Senate rejected several other Democratic efforts to try to block or limit the fund, including amendments to ban payments to Jan. 6 defendants who injured law enforcement officers.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.,

said Republicans are now “leaving taxpayers to rely on nothing more than a promise from Donald Trump’s personal fixer. That is not accountability. That is a permission slip.”

Money delayed for months Enactment of the bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol would end the blockade by Democrats who demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents in January.

Senate Republicans used a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it took weeks to get the bill to the Senate floor as Republicans navigated various obstacles to passage created

by Trump and the White House — including a $1 billion proposal for White House security and Trump’s ballroom that they eventually scrapped and the fierce bipartisan backlash to the settlement fund.

Democrats say any funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.

Administration’s strategy affected 39 countries

BY MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press

BOSTON — A federal judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy enacted after the shooting of two National Guard members that made it harder for immigrants from dozens of countries to stay and enter the U.S. In a ruling harshly criticizing the administration, U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. said the policy “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” and he accused the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law.

“In enacting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making,” he wrote. “In legal terms that means USCIS’s actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The policies enacted after the National Guard shooting last year meant that immigrants from 39 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries have been “categorically barred” from receiving final decisions on, among other things, their asylum, work

permit, green card, and citizenship applications.

“This ruling reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs in the case.

“These unlawful policies caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylumseekers, and communities across the country who were left in limbo, unable to work, access protections, or move forward with their lives.”

The policies apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS, which approves applications for immigrants to work and become citizens. The agency, which is within the Homeland Security Department, often grants asylum, but only for those already in the United States when they apply. Immigration judges grant asylum to those stopped at the border; the ruling does not affect them, nor do the policies that sparked the lawsuit.

The broad ruling would impact all pending cases at USCIS involving people from the travel ban countries, not just those included in the lawsuit, Shev DalalDheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“It is an important legal victory to ensure that legal immigration pathways remain open and that USCIS is held accountable to doing their congressionally mandated job of adjudicating applications,” she said.

It is part of an ongoing effort by the administration to tighten U.S. entry standards for travel and immigration, which critics say unfairly prevent travel for people from a broad range of countries.

r y ou da tY o ar T St ove M

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies early Friday, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill.

Senators voted 52-47 to pass the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the end of Trump’s term, after Democrats blocked the money for months. The bill will now head to the House, which is expected to take it up next week.

The final vote came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans narrowly defeated multiple attempts by members of both parties to add language to the bill that would permanently ban Trump’s settlement fund for allies who believe they’ve been politically persecuted.

Republicans cleared the last major hurdle overnight when they defeated an amendment proposed by one of their own members, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, that would have redirected payments from the settlement to members of law enforcement who were injured when a mob of Trump supporters seeking to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The amendments were a test of party unity that complicated what should have been an easy vote for Republicans who wanted to keep the focus on immigration enforcement in an election year. Instead, they spent almost a full day haggling among themselves over whether to block the settlement fund, even after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had said earlier this week that it would not go forward.

“This would have been done several hours ago if we weren’t having to deal with some of the issues

immigration policy

ICE will no longer report deaths of recently released detainees Homeland Security frames move as ‘common sense’

BY RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Immigration and Customs Enforcement will no longer report deaths of detainees who have recently been released from its custody, in a change that could obscure the full human cost of the Trump administration’s mass detention policies.

The move rescinds a 2021 policy implemented by the Biden administration that required ICE to report to Congress and investigate deaths of detainees that occur within 30 days of their release.

The goal of the 2021 policy was to ensure that ICE could not avoid accountability for deaths by releasing severely ill people from custody. Detainees who were brain-dead or suffering from infection, for instance, have died shortly after ICE released them in the past.

Two health experts who have investigated ICE custody deaths criticized the change Friday.

“Tracking deaths immediately after custody is a standard approach that allows health systems in jails, prisons and immigration detention to learn about gaps in care that may occur before a person leaves a facility,” said Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of the New York City jail system. “Eliminating reporting of these deaths represents

a willful act of ignoring the most serious health outcome that can reflect inadequacies in care or help track outbreaks.”

ICE detainees also routinely die at hospitals where they are taken for treatment after their conditions deteriorate inside detention facilities, records show. Those detainees, however, have generally been considered to remain in ICE custody.

The Washington Post first reported the policy change Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, later confirmed the move in a statement that framed it as “common sense.”

“Under this updated policy, when an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur,” the statement said.

The statement said ICE remained committed to transparency and that the revised policy includes procedures for “timely notification, review and reporting of deaths occurring in ICE custody.”

ICE did not immediately release its full updated policy.

The decision to limit death reporting comes as a greater number of ICE detainees have been dying. At least 18 detainees have died since Jan. 1, which is on pace to surpass last year’s death toll, which was the highest in two decades. Detainees are dying by suicide at an unprecedented pace, and experts say many other deaths from natural causes likely would have been preventable with

timely medical care.

Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist who recently published an analysis of more than 270 ICE custody deaths, said the policy change will “make the mortality statistics appear lower without any actual improvement in care.”

“The period immediately following release is when deaths attributable to inadequate care during confinement become apparent,” he said. “Missed diagnoses, interrupted medications, untreated infections, and decompensating chronic conditions don’t always kill someone while they’re still in the building.”

As of early April, ICE was holding more than 60,000 detainees across its national network of detention facilities, up from around 40,000 at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

ICE denies allegations that detainees suffer from medical neglect, saying they receive comprehensive health care services.

Before announcing Thursday’s policy change, DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis told the AP on Tuesday that no detainees died in its custody in May. That was the first month without a detainee death since November. At the time, Bis did not address AP questions about whether any death reporting policies had changed.

“As we have repeatedly stated, deaths in ICE custody are exceedingly rare,” she said then.

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DUTY

Continued from page 1A in the war. Former Saints football player Steve Gleason and American composer John Williams will also be recognized at the awards ceremony this weekend.

A difficult time Over 16 million Americans served in the Armed Forces in WWII, and approximately 6 million women filled jobs on the homefront historically reserved for men.

Due to the Depression from 1929 to 1939, many women who worked in the war effort came from poor families. When they got jobs, they sent most of the money to families back home.

Francesca Masters, 104, another honoree in New Orleans this week, said she made $1 an hour and like Klaput sent nearly all her money back to her family.

Masters worked on the airplane wing of the B-24 Liberator, operating heavy machinery in the bomber plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

She felt proud to be working a “man’s job,” she said, and that it “felt like a different world” in the factory.

Peter Crean, vice president of education and access at The National World War II Museum, said that so often the men in uniform

JUDGE

Continued from page 1A alleging an appearance of bias toward law enforcement.

The Judiciary Commission also accuses Reeves of violating several ethical rules in 2021 when he ordered a deputy to pick up a child caught in a heated custody dispute and deliver the boy to his terminally ill grandfather — who attended high school and played football with Reeves. Reeves only told the lawyers afterward. The boy’s mother complained, and Reeves soon recused himself from that

LNG

Continued from page 1A The Delfin floating terminal project has been in the works for more than a decade and will involve pumping natural gas from onshore to a massive vessel with a ship-like hull and an LNG processing plant on top. Initially, the project will consist of one vessel. The company hopes to eventually have five.

Delfin began working on the project in 2014, after purchasing an undersea natural gas pipeline, and received export authorization in 2017. But the project stalled in 2024, as the Biden administration paused new LNG approvals and required it reapply for a port license.

President Donald Trump reversed those decisions after returning to office. His administration immediately issued an executive order to accelerate fossil fuel permitting, issuing Delfin a port license in March 2025 and rolling back environmental protections for the endangered Rice’s Whale in the Gulf.

As envisioned, the floating terminal will use a 42inch pipeline that was built to carry natural gas from offshore wells to the shore and has not been used since 2012 and run it in reverse to push gas drilled inland from

POSTERS

Continued from page 1A The law requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms and state-funded post-secondary institutions.

UL also is installing “In God We Trust” posters, according to an email the university sent to students.

Act 264, approved by the Louisiana Legislature during the 2023 regular session and signed into law by the governor, requires postsecondary institutions to display the national motto in each classroom.

“As a state entity, UL Lafayette follows state law,” the email states.

The posters are to be paid for with donations in accordance with state legislation and guidance from the Louisi-

STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

Earline Gaither, one of the Rosies receiving an American Spirit Award, speaks with Andrea Morris at The National WWII Museum on Friday. are recognized, but in reality, the war touched every family, every woman.

“It was the women that were stepping into the breech on the homefront,” Crean said.

American industrial needs went into hyperdrive, and if women were refused entry for production roles, it would’ve taken over 5 million men out of uniform. He said it would have been much harder to build 2,700 liberty ships and 100 aircraft carriers — and ultimately — to win the war.

Women welded, carried rivet guns and stepped into administrative roles. Before, it was unheard of to apply for those jobs. Crean

said not only did the women help win the war, but the country was fundamentally different because of their example.

“The opportunities for my mother, my wife and my daughters would be very different,” he said.

“That door never really closed.”

Masters remembers the scale of effort, and the small details.

Overwhelmingly large machines surrounded her in the Willow Rum Bomber Plant, the largest war factory in the world during World War II, built by the Ford Motor Company. It was spotless, she said, except when men would spit their chewing tobacco on the floor.

Her parents were Italian immi-

case, according to records.

“As I understand it, you ordered 4 hours of visitation on your own motion?” the mother’s attorney, Clinton Andrew Magoun, messaged the judge later.

“Yes,” Reeves responded, according to the commission.

Another charge alleges Reeves issued an illegal verbal order over the phone in 2024 for a law enforcement search of a home. In a fourth, he’s accused of signing arrest and search warrants for a “longtime personal friend” and his property before stepping off the case.

Through an assistant, Reeves declined to comment on the allegations, saying judicial canons

prohibit it.

The Judiciary Commission can recommend discipline of a judge or justice of the peace to the Louisiana Supreme Court. It has set an August hearing over the latest allegations against Reeves.

Formal misconduct charges against judges don’t become public until after they are filed and a period of time has elapsed to allow the judge to respond. Reeves did not file a response to the latest charges, the court said.

When the Supreme Court considered the previous misconduct case against Reeves and then issued its 20-day suspension without a hearing on May 1, the justices were not

the coast out to a massive vessel. The natural gas will then be supercooled into a liquid form and loaded onto tankers bound for markets in Europe and Asia.

Unlike onshore liquefaction terminals, which require hundreds of acres of coastal land, regular dredging of channels and specialized pilots to navigate, Delfin’s vessel would be built at a Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea.

The company has argued in investor materials that it’s faster and cheaper to produce, while also mobile enough to get away from an incoming hurricane.

Tyler Gray, the director of energy innovation at the LSU Energy Institute and a former oil industry lobbyist, said the facility will need to do more than just reduce costs to be viable. It will also need to be dependable for buyers.

“I would not assume this model works everywhere. It works only where the system already exists,” Gray said.

“You need pipeline access, offshore experience, available gas supply, federal permitting, customers willing to sign long-term contracts and enough redundancy to deliver cargoes reliably.”

Louisiana’s 50,000 miles of pipeline infrastructure and connections to interstate markets give it unique advantages. But the project

will still need to solve the challenges of getting gas out to sea, keeping the pipeline intact, effectively liquefying it offshore, reliably loading it onto tankers and weathering hurricanes, Gray said.

While there are currently only eight operational floating LNG projects, there were another nine already under construction before the Delfin project finalized its financing.

Delfin’s first vessel has already secured long-term agreements to sell LNG to companies including Vitol, Expand Energy, Centrica and Gunvor. Company representatives said it has secured all the permits it needs and is scheduled to begin production in 2030, with hopes to secure financing for the second and third vessels over the next year.

But the project still faces legal and safety hurdles before Delfin can begin offshore gas liquefaction.

The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Habitat Recovery Project have filed a lawsuit challenging the project’s license, arguing the government reversed its own denial without conducting any environmental review and without evaluating how the project had changed since it was initially approved.

“My hope is that the court will see that the Maritime

ana Attorney General’s Office.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in February lifted an injunction that blocked implementation of the Ten Commandments law. The appeals court did not, however, declare the law definitively constitutional.

In April, a majority of judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas’ law, which is nearly identical to Louisiana’s, is constitutional and does not violate students’ religious freedom.

In their majority opinion, the judges rejected the argument that posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms would pressure students to honor the biblical mandates or adopt particular beliefs.

“To plaintiffs, merely exposing children to religious language is enough to make the displays engines of coercive

indoctrination. We disagree,” the majority wrote about the Texas law, known as S.B. 10. A minority of the court’s active judges dissented.

Rejecting arguments made by attorneys for the Texas families who challenged the law, the 5th Circuit majority said that requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments does not amount to the government endorsing a particular religion, which the U.S. Constitution forbids. The law also does not impose religious beliefs on students, the judges wrote.

“As noted, S.B. 10 authorizes no religious instruction and gives teachers no license to contradict children’s religious beliefs (or their parents’),” the majority opinion states. “No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin.”

grants, and her father was a horticulturist for a fruit market. Two of her sisters worked at the plant while her two brothers fought in the war.

Frequently, her family would get letters in the mail from her brothers. A few weeks before the war ended, she came home and saw plants had been thrown out on her family’s back porch.

She said she just knew something had happened to one of her brothers, Salvatore, and the telegram confirmed it. He had been killed in the Battle of the Bulge.

As they waited for news from overseas, the women had to find ways to stay motivated back home. Virginia Rusch, 99, from Detroit, said she had always wanted to work. She wanted to buy new clothes. When she was 15, she dropped out of high school and told Republic Aircraft Products that she was 17 to get hired.

She built airplane nose cones and propellers at the assembly line from 1942 to 1944. Each day she’d solder a cone, place it in a bin and repeat.

She said if she could talk to her younger self, she’d say, “I had good intentions in life. I wanted to succeed, which I didn’t do badly,” she said, “I did pretty good for a person that didn’t graduate from high school.”

riences together at the museum Thursday, the three women said that until recently they didn’t think of themselves as “Rosie the Riveters” who fought on the homefront.

From 2013 to 2017, Rusch’s daughter, Lisa Brown, would dress up as Rosie at Willow Run to raise funds to repair the plant, but she had no idea her mother was considered a Rosie until she learned about her part of the war effort.

“I would say the last five years there’s been a push for the recognition for Rosies,” said Brown.

“But in the first few years, it was very hard for them because they truly didn’t think they had done anything special.”

Rusch would tell her daughter that she quit school and got a job because it was what she needed to do to help the effort.

“It was our duty,” Masters chimed in.

The passing decades have meant fewer and fewer Rosies are still alive. But the ones that are say they try to stay involved in associations around the nation and celebrate one another.

“No matter where you go, if there’s a Rosie, you’re gonna see this,” Klaput said, extending her hands toward the other women.

“They have to hold hands,” Klaput said.

She reached for Ruschs’ hand, and Rusch reached for Masters’ Who are the Rosies? hand.

“We can do it,” Klaput said.

As they talked about their expe-

likely aware of the other allegations lodged against him, said attorney Steve Scheckman, former special counsel to the commission.

In any case, the court couldn’t have taken them into account.

“It would be unfair of them to know. These are unproven allegations,” Scheckman said. “If you turned all that over prematurely, that would be highly prejudicial to the respondent judge.”

The discipline the Supreme Court handed Reeves was less than the 30-day unpaid suspension the commission had recommended in that case. He was also ordered to pay $3,100 in commission costs.

Reeves admitted accepting a

Administration’s licensing of Delfin after previously denying it was egregious and without merit, given

folded C-note from a resident he had agreed to meet at the Concordia Parish courthouse in June 2023 to sign a petition to probate a will.

He at first turned down the money, but the man insisted “lunch is on me” and the judge took it, he admitted. Another judge’s assistant reported the foul. Reeves told the commission he knew it was wrong and told the giver he would donate it to church but never increased his usual tithe.

Reeves “agreed that he created the perception ‘that a little bit of grease on the wheels will make them turn smoother,’ which corrodes the image of the judiciary,” the commission wrote.

the project’s potential significant impacts and the substantial changes to it that have gone unevaluated

in the 10 years since it was initially proposed,” said Devorah Ancel, senior attorney for the Sierra Club.

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The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● 5A

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Lebanon lashes out at Iran Military says it shot

down Iranian drones

Leaders say their country should not be used as ‘bargaining chip’

Weapons were launched toward Strait of Hormuz

BY FADI TAWIL and HUSSEIN MALLA Associated Press

DIBBINE, Lebanon — Lebanon’s president and prime minister criticized Iran on Friday for opposing the latest ceasefire deal between the Lebanese government and Israel, saying their country should not be used by Tehran as a “bargaining chip” in its talks with Washington.

The comments came as the Israeli military struck multiple parts of southern Lebanon and issued evacuation warnings for nine villages, including one that has sheltered thousands of people displaced by the three-month war between Israel and the Iranianbacked militant group Hezbollah.

The strikes killed nine people in six locations in southern Lebanon, the state news agency reported.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard issued a statement Thursday vowing that “there will be no calm in the region” if Israel doesn’t withdraw its troops from Lebanon. In an interview with CNN, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun responded: “It’s not your job to interfere into our country. I reject the statement totally because our people (are) being killed, our houses being destroyed.”

In separate remarks, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on the Lebanese people to put their country’s interest first, saying that Lebanon “should not remain a battlefield for others.”

Both he and Aoun complained that Iran was treating their nation as “a bargaining chip” in talks with Washington about ending the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce should extend to Lebanon.

Some return to ruined villages Even as new evacuation warnings forced hundreds of Lebanese families to flee from some areas, people elsewhere began returning to their homes to survey the aftermath of fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. The militant group has rejected the ceasefire deal and demands a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

An Associated Press team trav-

BY MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS HUSSEIN MALLA

Lebanese soldiers deploy at a road in front of destroyed houses in Dibbine village, southeast Lebanon on Friday, a day after Israeli forces withdrew following clashes with Hezbollah fighters. eling in southern Lebanon Friday saw multiple villages in ruins, including Dibbine, near Marjayoun town, from which Israeli troops withdrew a day earlier. It was the first time Israeli troops exited an area in southern Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in early March.

U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops were at an entrance to Dibbine, clearing rubble and opening roads. The Lebanese army set up barbed wire at one of the entrances, preventing some residents from returning.

At least one family arrived to search the rubble of its home along the road leading to the village, while the owner of a petrol station in Dibbine looked at his destroyed property and called village residents to report on the destruction he saw from behind the barbed wire.

Shrapnel and pieces of missiles were seen in the wreckage of homes lining the road into Dibbine. Israeli troops entered the village weeks ago for the first time and were engaged in heavy clashes with Hezbollah fighters in the area.

The troops returned this week, before withdrawing Thursday.

The road to Dibbine was dotted with villages entirely emptied of residents and destroyed by Israeli strikes, including Khiam. But no Israeli troops were visible from the road.

Nearby Christian villages were largely untouched, and many of their residents decided to stay. The strategic Beaufort castle, recently captured by Israel, appeared in the distance, with a flag of the Is-

raeli Golani Brigade. Smoke from strikes around the nearby Nabatiyeh city billowed above.

New evacuation warnings The Israeli military issued a new set of evacuation warnings on Friday, prompting people to leave the village of Anqoun and the area of Aarnaya, on the edge of the predominantly Christian community of Maghdoucheh, near the southern port city of Sidon.

Nearly three hours after the warning, Israeli warplanes struck Lebanese villages, including Anqoun. About 2,500 people displaced by the fighting were sheltering in Anqoun, the Lebanese news agency NNA reported.

Israel had warned Lebanese residents against returning to villages in the south, saying the area is still a combat zone.

The U.S. brokered the ceasefire agreement Wednesday in Washington. The deal sought to pull Lebanon away from Iran with a statement that any agreement to cease hostilities must be reached directly through Lebanon and Israel “and not through any separate track.”

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been acting as a mediator on behalf of the group, echoed the militants’ demands for a broad Israeli withdrawal. In his first comments since the agreement was announced, Berri said the ceasefire should be “complete and comprehensive,” without any exceptions for land, sea or air, and “without bulldozing and demolishing everything that exists.”

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — The U.S. military said it shot down four Iranian drones that were launched toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday and then struck some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response, raising the risk to a shaky ceasefire as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Iran.

“The attack CO ONFLICT drones posed an immediate IN THE T threat to regionMIIDDLE al maritime trafEAST AST fic,” U.S. Central Command said on social media.

The military is enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s chokehold on the crucial corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments, which has sent energy prices spiking and posed political problems for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of the midterm congressional elections.

U.S. Central Command said it hit the radar sites, including an island in the strait, “to defend against further attacks.”

It was the latest in back-andforth attacks that have strained the tenuous ceasefire in the war and efforts to reach a deal to extend that truce. Earlier this week, Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person, wounding dozens and briefly closing the airfield.

Despite the attacks raising new concerns that the ceasefire could collapse, Trump told reporters Friday that “the situation with Iran seems to be going quite well.”

“We’re going to come out of Iran very quickly and it’s going to be very strong one way

or the other, whether it’s a piece of paper or the very tough way,” Trump said at an event with farmers in Wisconsin.

“The very tough way is maybe the easier way, but we’re going to come out, and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago.”

Trump increasingly appears to be boxed in on a conflict that has settled into a holding pattern.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement a week ago to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program. But Trump has called for unspecified changes and Iranian officials have shown no public signs of signing off on the deal.

Asked on Friday why it was taking so long, Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” it was because “it’s a very hard thing for them,” citing their “great independence” and the fact that “they’re strong, they’re proud.”

“There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do.

They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while,” he said in the interview.

Trump said the Iranians still have 21% to 22% of their missiles.

His administration also has touted the latest ceasefire agreed to this week by the Lebanese government and Israel after U.S.-brokered talks in Washington. However, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group has rejected the agreement and new attacks have put it at further risk.

Besides the drone interception in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said earlier Friday that its forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean as the United States seeks to prevent Iran from profiting off its oil and other goods.

The U.S. also targeted Iran’s energy sector with new sanctions on a group of people, firms and tankers.

Senate blocks extending key surveillance program used by intelligence agencies

BY JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked an extension early Friday of a key surveillance program used by U.S. intelligence agencies as concerns mounted over President Donald Trump’s selection of federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte to serve as director of national intelligence.

Some Republicans joined Democrats in the 47-52 vote against a procedural motion that would have set up a final vote on the extension next week, complicating efforts to extend the critical program before it expires on June 12. The vote came after an overnight session on separate legislation funding immigration enforcement agencies.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said following the vote that the Senate “will take another run at it” next week but that Democrats’ opposition is a “terribly irresponsible position.”

“The naming of Pulte to that position, although the timing arguably wasn’t the best, I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important,” Thune said.

The vote marked the latest setback for Trump and intelligence officials, who have spent months pushing to extend a key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows agencies such as the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets without a warrant.

Concerns that the program

can incidentally sweep up Americans’ communications left Republican leaders only able to pass short-term extensions while negotiations continued. Critics wanted a warrant requirement when those communications are accessed.

Seven Republican senators joined nearly all Democrats in voting against the bill, with Sen. John Fetterman voting for it.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who had worked to negotiate the bill, voted against it. He said earlier Thursday that he and committee Chair Sen. Tom Cotton had reached what he described as a “compromise” on a “strong bill,” but that the “complete irresponsibility of putting forward” Pulte had changed the equation.

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6A ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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TODAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Showers and a heavier t-storm

Humid with drenching t-storms

Humid with a thunderstorm

A couple of afternoon showers

A t-storm around in the p.m.

A little rain in the afternoon

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

LOW

HIGH

84° 76°

LOW

HIGH

85° 75°

LOW

86° 74°

89° 75°

91° 73°

High/low Normal high/low Last year’s high/low Record high Record low

Beaumont 86/77 Port Arthur 84/78

Baton Rouge 85/76

Lake Charles 85/77

10s

20s

30s

Houma 83/76

40s

50s

YESTERDAY

TODAY

READING 35 MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates

60s

70s

80s

Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

90s 100s 110s

LAST

JUN 8

City

Austin Boston Dallas Fairbanks Honolulu Las Vegas Louisville Miami Nashville

Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

24-hour total Month to date Normal month to date year to date Normal year to date

HIGH

11:41p 5:25p 10:48a 1:20p 1:13p 12:40p 2:21p

FT.

0.6 1.4 1.8 1.8 1.1 1.3 1.3

6:06 a.m.

8:07 p.m.

12:19 a.m.

11:27 a.m.

NEW

FIRST

JUN 14

Hi

89 84 87 69 85 102 89 87 87

TODAY Lo

76 68 75 46 74 77 72 77 71

FULL

JUN 21

W

t t t pc r s t pc pc

JUN 29

Hi

88 79 88 66 85 98 83 88 85

GOOD

PRECIPITATION

86°/70° 90°/72° 90°/74° 100° in 2011 54° in 1954

TODAY’S TIDES Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) Shell Beach South Point, Marsh Island Cypremort Point Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) Wine Island

New Orleans 86/78

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

0s

Hattiesburg 82/73

Alexandria 83/74

Lafayette 84/76

LOW

90° 75°

TEMPERATURE Jackson 83/74

Many 83/72

LOW

Lafayette through 5 p.m. Friday

Longview 84/74

-0s

LOW

Monroe 85/75

Shreveport 85/74

-10s

HIGH

Well, with that Gulf low moving inland today, the tropical moisture is back. Expect a partly to mostly cloudy, warm and windy day with scattered showers and thunderstorms. There’s only a 40% chance of rain in the forecast, but we’re all under a marginal risk of excessive rainfall that could lead to some measure of flash flooding today.

Temperatures this afternoon will rise into the mid- to upper 80s.

Partly cloudy skies with isolated showers and a few thunderstorms will be back tomorrow.

SUN. Lo

75 58 76 48 72 74 72 77 73

W

t t t sh r s t t t

LOW

11:13a 3:48a 12:03a 4:16a 12:09a 10:57p 1:11a

0.00” 3.21” 1.11” 29.75” 25.17”

FT.

HIGH

0.0 0.0 0.1 0.4 0.0 0.1 0.0

SOURCE: LOUISIANA DEQ AND AIRNOW.GOV

FT.

---------------

---------------

LOW

---------------

FT.

---------------

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter.

MAJOR MINOR MAJOR MINOR

Today Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

City

New Orleans Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Raleigh St. Louis San Diego Tampa

4:45a 5:32a 6:16a 6:59a 7:41a 8:25a 9:14a

Hi

86 90 94 106 81 95 88 70 92

10:56a 11:43a 12:04a 12:47a 1:29a 2:12a 2:59a

TODAY Lo

78 68 71 81 65 70 72 63 73

5:07p 11:18p 5:53p ---6:38p 12:27p 7:21p 1:10p 8:05p 1:53p 8:52p 2:39p 9:43p 3:29p

W

t pc pc s t pc t pc pc

GOOD

Hi

89 91 90 105 83 95 82 71 93

SUN. Lo

76 73 64 78 59 69 73 63 77

W

t pc t s pc pc t pc pc

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

MISSISSIPPI Memphis Vidalia-Natchez Red River Landing Baton Rouge Donaldsonville Reserve New Orleans OHIO Cairo COMITE Near Olive AMITE Near Darlington Denham Springs Port Vincent TICKFAW Montpelier Holden ATCHAFALAYA Simmesport Melville Krotz Springs Butte La Rose Bayou Sorrel Morgan City

FLOOD STAGE

34 48 48 35 27 22 17

FRI. 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE

19.40 39.30 41.10 24.80 16.10 12.15 8.00

-0.43 +0.20 +0.40 +0.60 +0.60 +0.84 +0.41

40

33.61

-1.23

19

-0.94

-1.12

18 29 8

-0.18 14.49 3.43

+0.27 -2.93 +0.85

13 15

1.98 2.51

-0.46 +0.48

47 34 29 20 12 6

21.27 15.81 13.50 10.57 6.00 3.69

+0.66 +0.67 +0.45 +0.48 +0.10 +0.36

data as of 7 a.m. Friday

Forecasts and graphics, except for Damon’s Outlook, provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2026

President’s troop reversals Trump calls for military to accelerate use of AI in Europe could cost millions

BY BEN FINLEY Associated Press

Soldiers have been left in limbo

BY EMMA BURROWS, BEN FINLEY and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is waiting for clarity from the Pentagon following President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth on troop levels in Europe, upending the lives of military personnel and potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars, two U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press.

NATO allies were bewildered in May when Trump said he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number pulled from Europe, following a spat with Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war. The Trump administration says troop reductions in Europe have long been planned and coordinated with allies.

The Republican president announced on social media two weeks ago that he was sending troops to Poland — the same day the Pentagon had officially ordered the cancellation of a rotation of soldiers heading there, one of the defense officials said.

The unit’s equipment was already on the way. Sending it cost the military $32 million, said U.S. Transportation Command, the military agency largely responsible for moving troops and gear across the globe.

The abrupt changes are forcing the military to “retroactively engineer” a policy in line with the president’s latest pronouncement, the official said. Both officials were briefed on the decisions and, along with others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

The uncertainty is not only rattling European allies worried about the message being sent to Russia, but it also risks hurting morale among American troops — some of whom had their rotations canceled shortly before departure — and comes as the Army budget is already strained.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By AHN yOUNG-JOON

U.S. Army armored vehicles participate in a military exercise. President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth on troop levels in Europe has left military personnel waiting for confirmation on deployment.

Changes add up The rotational deployment to Poland of 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, was canceled in a memo sent to the military at the beginning of May. European allies found out mid-month.

Some of those troops were told shortly before traveling not to get on a flight to Poland, while those who had been sent ahead — initially around 1,000 troops — are still waiting for confirmation they are being sent back, a U.S. military official said.

The military also is still waiting for details from the Pentagon on how to satisfy Trump’s order to send 5,000 troops to Poland, that official said. The working assumption is that they will come from units already in Europe, rather than an additional deployment from the U.S., the official said.

U.S. Transportation Command had chartered a ship to take the team’s equipment from Texas to Poland and transport a departing unit’s gear back to America. The incoming team’s portion of the cost was $32 million, including chartering the ship and loading and unloading the gear.

Because the ship was chartered

to take one unit to Europe and bring another back, it is hard to say if that amount would have been saved had the decision to halt the deployment been made before the new team had already begun moving overseas.

However, the military official said the unscheduled move of personnel and equipment back from Europe is most likely not a cost the Pentagon budgeted for and would be an additional expense.

Total costs of canceling the rotation are hard to quantify because of many factors, said Joe Costa, a former senior Pentagon official who now focuses on challenges faced by the U.S. military as director of the Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense program.

They most likely stem from returning equipment and troops sent ahead of the deployment and would probably be on the low end of the rotation’s overall cost, Costa said. The greater impact is on the readiness of troops who were trained for one mission and may be deployed on another, he said.

U.S. military contracts with private companies to transport troops and equipment contain cancellation clauses that often add extra fees if a deployment is called off, said John Deni, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has studied such costs.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued a memo Friday that calls for the U.S. military and national security agencies to accelerate their use of artificial intelligence, while acknowledging the need to protect civil liberties and maintain oversight over autonomous weapon systems.

The memo comes at a time of growing anxiety over AI in American society, from replacing people’s jobs to helping to identify targets on the battlefield. The Trump administration has been pushing to unleash the power of AI for the U.S. military, while some military leaders and companies that contract with the Pentagon have been noting caution and calling for guardrails.

Trump’s memo addressed much of his Cabinet, including the secretaries of defense and homeland security as well as the attorney general and director of national intelligence.

Trump is requiring an updated directive on autonomous weapon systems to account for AI’s rapidly evolving capabilities. It directs the Department of Defense “to ensure the deliberate adoption of AI systems that respect the chain of command and operational authorities.”

The current directive, issued in 2023 under the Biden administration, states that such weapons systems will be designed “to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force,” according to the Congressional Research Service.

Trump’s memo also restricts the use of AI to “censor free speech, embed ideological bias, or conduct unlawful surveillance against the American people.”

“The use of AI by the national security enterprise must always be consistent with United States civil liberties and protections afforded by the Constitution and laws and regulations safeguarding the privacy of American citizens,” the memo states.

The Defense Department has already been accelerating its use

of AI in recent years. The technology can help reduce the time it takes to identify and strike a target, while aiding in the mundane tasks of organizing equipment maintenance, supply lines and other logistics.

But concerns about protecting civil liberties and human oversight of autonomous weapon systems have drawn increasing attention. They’re at the center of a dispute that erupted this year as the Pentagon seeks to leverage the power of American tech companies to boost the military’s AI capabilities.

The company Anthropic said it wanted assurances in its contract that the military would not use its technology in fully autonomous weapons and the surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the company must allow for any uses the Pentagon deemed lawful.

Anthropic sued after Trump tried to stop all federal agencies from using the company’s chatbot Claude and Hegseth sought to label the company a supply chain risk, a designation meant to protect against sabotage of national security systems by foreign adversaries.

Concerns about military use of AI arose during Israel’s war against militants in Gaza and Lebanon, with U.S. tech giants quietly empowering Israel to track targets. But the number of civilians killed also soared, fueling fears that these tools contributed to the deaths of innocent people.

U.S. military leaders who attended an annual special forces conference in Tampa, Florida, spoke about the benefits of AI as well as the need for human safeguards.

Adm. Frank Bradley, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, told attendees that troops “have to be very careful about how we come to (AI’s) employment and its inspiration into the delivery of lethality.”

Bradley said he can see a future where AI determines what targets to hit but that “we, as humans, have to have the confidence that ... it’s going to deliver violence only where we intend it to be delivered.”

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SoLAcc chancellor receives award June recognized for impact on Acadiana workforce growth

BY KRISTIN ASKELSON

Higher Education Leadership Conference in Pensacola Beach, Florida.

The award recognizes higher edSouth Louisiana Community College Chancellor Vincent June has ucation leaders who demonstrate been named the 2026 recipient strong professional and personal of the Difference Maker Award, values while achieving measurpresented by Studer Education at able success within their organizaits Destination High Performance tions and communities, according

Staff writer

to a news release from SoLAcc. June was recognized for expanding the college’s academic and workforce training programs, strengthening partnerships with industry and advancing efforts to align education with regional workforce needs.

According to the college, an inde-

pendent economic impact study found that one out of every 97 jobs in Acadiana is supported by SoLAcc and its graduates.

The study also June found the college generates more than $13 in societal return for every $1 invested.

Studer Education CEO Janet Pilcher said June’s leadership has helped position the college as a key contributor to workforce development and economic growth in the Acadiana region.

“A college is only as good as its leader, and Dr. June’s vision for South Louisiana Community College has been both intentional

ä See AWARD, page 2B

A NET OF GRATITUDE

ABOVE: Patient Kaiden Jacobs, 7, shoots at a basket held by player De’Vion Lavergne with the other members of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette men’s basketball team during their visit with young patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital in Lafayette on Thursday. RIGHT: Westley Duhon, 5, plays with a light strip with the members of the UL men’s basketball team on Thursday. STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD KEMP

Lake Charles launches new website, app for residents Users able to get info, report issues

BY COURTNEY PEDERSEN Staff writer

The city of Lake Charles has redesigned its digital presence to make it easier for residents to find and use resources.

On May 27, the city launched a new website, cityoflakecharles. com, and its first app, ONELC Action Line, that cost nearly $100,000 to create with its partner, CivicPlus.

“In addition to providing a modern website and mobile application, this project allowed the city to consolidate several services that were previously managed across multiple platforms into a more integrated system,” city

ä See APP, page 2B

Crowley man accused of shooting at police

BY KRISTIN ASKELSON Staff writer

A Crowley man was arrested after authorities said he shot at Eunice police officers and led them on a chase from St. Landry Parish into Acadia Parish following a series of violent crimes.

Dusty Johnson, 35, is charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery, carjacking, simple arson, two counts of hit-and-run driving, simple criminal damage

to property, attempted aggravated kidnapping, aggravated flight from an officer and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to Louisiana State Police, Johnson drove a Chevrolet Trax to a home in Eunice, where he allegedly threatened a homeowner with a gun, attempted to kidnap the victim and stole a 2019 GMC Sierra pickup truck.

Investigators said Johnson later went to a gas station and fired shots at a person in the parking lot, striking the victim’s vehicle.

He then returned to the Eunice

residence, crashed into a vehicle parked in the driveway and intentionally set the Chevrolet Trax on fire, according to state police.

When Eunice police officers responded, Johnson allegedly opened fire on them. Officers returned fire, striking Johnson before he fled in the stolen pickup truck, authorities said.

The pursuit continued into Acadia Parish, where Johnson allegedly struck another vehicle before crashing near the intersection of North Parkerson Avenue and Odd Fellows Road in

Crowley.

Johnson was taken into custody and transported to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. He was later booked into the St. Landry Parish Jail after being released.

Louisiana State Police detectives continue to investigate the officer-involved shooting involving officers from the Eunice Police Department, the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office and Louisiana State Police.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Shreveport women accused of Medicaid, SNAP fraud

BY BRIAN McCALLUM Staff writer

The Louisiana Bureau of Investigation has arrested two Shreveport women suspected of Medicaid and SNAP fraud amounting to more than $150,000.

Tanesha Bowman, 39, of Shreveport, was arrested Wednesday and faces eight counts of govern-

ment benefits fraud along with seven counts of unauthorized use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the office of Attorney General Liz Murrill.

Juleah Seazer, 33, also of Shreveport, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of government benefits fraud, trespass against state computers, filing or main-

taining false public records and malfeasance in office. An employee of the Louisiana Department of Health at the time, she has been booked into the Caddo Correctional Center.

According to Murrill’s office, Seazer helped Bowman, her friend, improperly get reinstatement of benefits after they had been canceled because of alleged

misstatement of marital status and income. Seazer allegedly filed records on Bowman’s behalf in October 2025, knowing they included false information.

Bowman surrendered Wednesday and was booked into the East Baton Rouge Prison. She is suspected of defrauding Medicaid in the amount of $121,182 and SNAP for $35,305.

2B ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Gumball 3000 celebrity car rally coming to New Orleans AWARD

Continued from page 1B

Convoy travels from Miami to Mexico City

and impactful,” said Lana Fontenot, the college’s vice chancellor for institutional advancement and external relations. “He has strengthened our connection to the communities we serve and positioned the college as a leader in workforce development.”

In April, June was awarded the E. Joseph Savoie Chief Executive Leadership Award from District IV of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, which represents institutions across Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

That award recognizes outstanding college and university leaders who demonstrate exceptional vision, inspire others and elevate the role of education through innovation and advancement, according to a news release from SoLAcc. It is one of the highest honors presented by the organization.

June was selected for his forward-thinking leadership and his commitment to strengthening SoLAcc’s impact across Acadiana, aligning the college’s mission with the evolving needs of students, employers and communities, according to the release.

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

A convoy of 100 special automobiles driven by well-known actors, athletes and pop music artists has left Miami for a 3,000-mile road trip to Mexico City with a stop in New Orleans this weekend.

In the midst of the journey the fleet of street-legal sports cars, antique racers and other specialty vehicles, will pause in the French Quarter, for a public exhibition.

The annual charity event, known as the Gumball 3000, is in its 27th year, founded

by Maximillion Cooper, known as Mr. Gumball.

The long-distance drive was inspired in part by American-style unregulated Cannonball runs, in which old-fashioned gumball machines were awarded as prizes, according to online sources. Gumball 3000 organizers are quick to point out that the current event is a rally, not a race.

Gumball 3000 rallies have taken place in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as North America.

APP

Continued from page 1B Public Information Officer Katie Harrington said. “By bringing these services together under a single provider, the city can improve efficiency, streamline administration, enhance the user experience for residents and reduce the need to manage multiple separate contracts and systems.”

The redesigned website has many new tools that were created with a focus on user experience, according to a news release. The site features quick links with graphics as well as a “How Can I?” section that works to connect residents to any direct information they might need.

“Residents can also create personalized profiles and set preferences for the types of information they want to see first when logging in,” the news release states. “Users may additionally subscribe to receive news flashes and updates directly to their inbox or mobile device.”

The site also has a virtual assistant named Charlie that is meant to answer questions as well as lead the city’s residents to the right information and services.

The ONELC Action Line app is the city’s first app.

“In recent years, the Lake Charles Police Department launched the Lake Charles PD app; however, its scope is limited to public safety information and services,” Harrington said.

The Action Line app gives access to city services and

PHOTO PROVIDED By GUMBALL 3000

The international Gumball 3000 road rally gets underway in Toronto.

This year’s celebrity drivers include former New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham, Cooper’s wife and rapper Eve, actor Michelle Rodriguez of the “Fast & Furious” movie franchise, electronic dance music icon deadmau5, soccer star Patrice Evra, Nigerian graffiti

artist Olaolu Slawn and others.

Before reaching New Orleans on Saturday afternoon, the 2027 Gumball 3000 run plans a lunchtime stop in Gulfport, Mississippi.

The cars will assemble on Bourbon Street and Canal Street — no exact location

provided — at 6 p.m. with live music and guest appearances from 9 p.m. through 11 p.m.

The event has a permit from the city and is welcome in the Quarter, New Orleans Police Department Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said this week.

allows users to receive information as well as a way to report issues or concerns to the Mayor’s Action Line directly through the integrated SeeClickFix platform, according to Harrington.

The Mayor’s Action Line is also available through the website.

“Using the platform, residents can pin an exact location on a map and upload photos with their submission,” the release states.

“Requests are then routed directly to the appropriate department for response and resolution.”

These digital options complement the existing Mayor’s Action Line phone number, (337) 491-1346, and email address, mayorsactionline@cityoflc.us.

Harrington said that overall the project cost a total of $97,243.95, which was funded through resources that were allocated for “technology infrastructure upgrades and modernization efforts.”

The components included in the price were the design and implementation of the new website; SeeClickFix, which includes 311/Mayor’s Action Line platform and mobile app; CivicClerk, which manages the meetings, agendas and minutes

for boards and councils; the emergency notification system; support for staff training and implementation, and a 48-month redesign and refresh to keep the site current.

“By redesigning our website with the resident in mind, we have made it easier and more efficient to find information on City services and resources,” Mayor Marshall Simien said in the release. “The ONELC Action Line app and ONE Lake Charles Alerts will also help us communicate directly with residents, keep-

ing them informed not only during emergencies, but also with timely updates to City services and projects. I encourage everyone to visit the website and subscribe to these services through the links on our homepage.”

According to Harrington, the project, which took around six months, was taken on for several reasons.

While the city was already in the process of exploring website options, its longtime website provider CORE was discontinuing its website management platform on Dec. 31, meaning

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The celebrity caravan is expected to reach Mexico City on June 10 in time for the start of the FIFA World Cup 26 soccer championship.

Email Doug MacCash at dmaccash@theadvocate. com.

a new provider was needed to continue the city’s online services.

Another reason the project was necessary is because the U.S. Department of Justice updated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which now requires state and local government websites and apps to be accessible to those with disabilities and to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA standards. Harrington said new website and app were designed with the new ac-

cessibility requirements in mind and that the city will keep working toward full compliance before the federal deadline.

“Finally, Mayor Simien has emphasized transparency, accessibility, and customer service as key priorities of his administration,” Harrington said. “The new website and mobile application provide residents with easier access to city information, services, public meetings, notifications and issue reporting tools through a modern, userfriendly platform.”

.theacadianaadvocate.com Public Notices Meet/Hear/Min

Public Notices

Announcements Ten Eight – Carencro LLC d/b/a Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux is applying to the Office of Alcohol & Tobacco Control of the State of Louisiana for a permit to sell beverages of high and low alcohol content at retail in the Parish of Lafayette at the following address: 3720 NE Evangeline Thwy, Carencro, LA 70520.

Ten Eight – Carencro LLC Members/Owners: Christian Fast 189933-June 6 & 7, 2t $168

Employment EDUCATION Lafayette Parish School System is soliciting applications for future employment of certified teachers.

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PUBLIC NOTICE --Regular Meeting Housing Authority of the City of Youngsville May 28, 2026

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Public Notices Meet/Hear/Min

On the 28th day of May 2026, at 5:30 P.M., the Board of Commissioners met in a Regular Meet‐ ing.

Members Present: Michael Woodruff, Jamie Creed, Sandra Keal, Ar‐ dine Lowery Members Absent: Cyn‐ thia Smith

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Also Present: Hope Landry, Adrienne Brous‐ sard Motion: Introduced by Michael Woodruff and seconded by Sandra l

y Keal, “move to accept minutes from the regular meeting held 1/21/26.” Vote was unanimous, and Motion Carried: Motion: Introduced by Ardine Lowery and sec‐ by Michael onded “move to Woodruff, adopt Resolution #202603 approving the Re‐ wards & Recognition Pol‐ icy as discussed.” Vote was unanimous, and Mo‐ tion Carried: Motion: Introduced by Michael Woodruff and by Jamie seconded Creed, “move to adopt Resolution #2026-04 ap‐ proving the revision to the 2026 Operating Bud‐ get.” Vote was unani‐ mous, and Motion Car‐ ried: Motion: Introduced by Michael Woodruff and by Sandra seconded Keal, “move to adopt Resolution #2026-05 ap‐ proving the new 2026 Op‐ erating Budget.” Vote was unanimous, and Mo‐

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tion Carried: Motion: Introduced by Sandra Keal and sec‐ onded by Cynthia Smith, “move to Adjourn.” Mo‐ tion Carried: Discussion: Monthly Fi‐ nancials, 2022 CFP Funds will be used for addi‐ tional bathtub and shower updates, front and back storm doors and updated all lights to LED (these updates have started), collecting bids for storage units and the Public Hearing was held on May 14, 2026 – No one showed up with comments.

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BUSINESS

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● 3B

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/news/business

DOW 50,866.78 -695.15 -1.35%

NASDAQ 25,709.43 -1,121.53 -4.18%

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Tech sell-off drags U.S. stock market

The U.S. stock market had its worst day since October Friday as a sell-off in big technology companies weighed down the broader market and a strong jobs report boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates at some point this year.

Tech stocks dragged the broader market lower as companies that had powered the S&P 500 to a series of records the past two months saw losses. Nvidia fell 6.2%, Broadcom dropped 7.9% and Micron Technology slid 13.3% for the biggest loss among stocks in the S&P 500.

Shares in Meta fell 5.5% following a published report that the social media giant may seek to do a new stock offering to raise funds for spending on AI infrastructure.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 200.57 points to 7,383.74 on Friday. The Dow dropped 695.15 points to 50,866.78, and the Nasdaq lost 1,121.53 points to close at 25,709.43.

Markets were mixed in Europe after markets in Asia fell.

Anthropic urges ‘pause’ in AI development Anthropic is proposing that the world’s top artificial intelligence companies come up with a coordinated way to pause development of advanced AI systems, warning the technology is improving so quickly there’s a risk humans would lose control.

The company behind the Claude chatbot said in a blog post Thursday that as cutting-edge AI gets increasingly faster at carrying out tasks, “it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause” its development.

Anthropic’s post comes as the company and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI race to sell shares on the stock market, in an IPO that could value Anthropic at nearly a trillion dollars.

Papernot notified Canadian cybersecurity authorities prior to releasing his report, which shows how researchers developed the worm in a laboratory by using an “open-source” AI tool that is easy for software developers to cheaply access and modify.

Anthropic’s post comes after a different warning this week from a team of researchers at the University of Toronto who showed how AI tools could be used to create a new kind of AI “worm” that adapts its hacking strategy as it spreads from device to device and takes over a vast computing network.

“I think it’s really important that people understand that it’s not just the biggest, most powerful language models that pose the security concerns,” lead researcher Nicolas Papernot said in an interview.

Papernot agreed that there should be more collaboration between companies, government agencies and academic researchers to develop countermeasures as AIpowered hacking tools supercharge the search for computer vulnerabilities.

Micronuclear reactor reaches critical milestone WASHINGTON — The Energy Department says a small nuclear reactor under development at a national lab has reached a crucial milestone that could allow it to produce electricity within a few years.

The microreactor being developed by Antares Nuclear Inc. at the Idaho National Lab reached “criticality” on Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. The milestone occurs when a nuclear reactor achieves a self-sustaining chain reaction capable of producing a steady release of energy.

Antares is the first private company to bring an advanced reactor to criticality under a pilot program begun last year by the Trump administration meant to supercharge nuclear energy production in the U.S. The demonstration was conducted in partnership with the Energy Department and other contractors with support from the U.S. Army.

While the Antares system is years away from commercial use, achieving criticality is a notable step.

The Trump administration has set a goal of achieving the criticality milestone in at least three test reactors by July 4 — the nation’s 250th anniversary.

S&P 500 7,383.74 -200.57 -2.65%

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U.S. job market strong, but suffering jobs in March and April. by rising costs, and it’s unclear if Americans face rising costs from the Iran war 93,000 Job growth averaged 188,000 a the strong job numbers this year

BY PAUL WISEMAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP business writers

WASHINGTON — The American job market continues to show surprising strength — good news for President Donald Trump who has taken a beating in the polls over the surging gasoline prices that followed U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

Employers added 172,000 jobs in May — roughly double what forecasters had expected — and the unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Job growth was down slightly last month from a revised 179,000 in April.

Hiring has bounced back this year from a miserable 2025, showing resilience in the face of economic uncertainty and painfully high energy prices since the Iran war started in late February.

The job gains are broad-based.

Local governments added 55,000 workers, restaurants and bars 48,000, healthcare companies 35,000.

In another sign of job market strength, Labor Department revisions added a combined

month from March through May, marking the best three months of hiring since early 2024.

“The hiring recession is over.

American firms are hiring again,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “The job rebound is happening in almost every industry ... This is encouraging news for job seekers and for the U.S. economy. The labor market has stabilized and is showing early signs of a genuine rebound.”

With just five months to go before consequential midterm elections in the U.S., Americans have grown increasingly frustrated

will change their gloomy view of the economy.

Inflation data last week showed that in addition to gasoline, prices for groceries, clothing and electricity are also on the rise, indicating that inflation may be growing more entrenched.

Polls show that Trump’s approval rating on the economy is falling sharply after being reelected largely on the promise of taming inflation.

And despite the pickup in hiring, wage gains were modest.

Average hourly wages rose 0.3% from April and 3.4% from May 2025.

Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge draws limited interest Two corporations bid on a handful of oil and gas lease sales

BY BECKY BOHRER

Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska — Two corporations bid on a handful of leases during the latest oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, a showing critics described as tepid but one that further opens the door to possible development in the pristine region.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state corporation that already has leases in the refuge’s coastal plain, had the winning bid on three tracts and Hex Energy LLC on two, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced. The tracts cover about 72,000 acres. Nearly 690,000 acres had been offered. Winning bids totaled $3.7 million.

The federal agency’s state director, Kevin Pendergast, said a “new era of active leasing and exploration is just beginning to unfold.”

While there is no active drilling underway, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s board last month authorized additional spending for a efforts including a seismic survey program aimed at locating oil formations, as well as lease purchases in this latest sale. A message seeking comment from Hex Energy was not immediately returned.

Opponents of drilling in the refuge’s coastal plain have pointed to a lack of industry interest in the prior two sales held there and ongoing changes in Alaska’s arctic region due to climate change as proof the region should be off-limits to drilling. There is pending litigation over the leasing program, dating to President Donald Trump’s first term.

The Gwich’in consider the coastal plain sacred because the caribou herd they rely upon calve there. The Gwich’in people’s reliance on the coastal plain “will be irreversibly damaged if it is disturbed,” Karlas Norman, first chief of the Venetie Village Council, said in a statement. “Even though we saw minimal bids, we will not rest until this sacred place is permanently protected for our children and for generations yet to come.”

But supporters of development see the coastal plain, which is roughly the size of Del-

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By LINDSEy WASSON

The Kaktovik Lagoon and the Brooks Range mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are seen in Kaktovik, Alaska aware, as a potential untapped resource that could boost U.S. oil production and generate new revenue and jobs. Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, an advocacy group whose members include leaders from Alaska Native communities on the North Slope, hailed the sale a success.

A statement from the group said the sale represented “the culmination of decades of advocacy by North Slope Iñupiat leaders, in particular leaders from Kaktovik, for their right to self-determination on their homelands, including responsible exploration and development.” Kaktovik is the only community within the refuge.

“The Trump-Vance administration is doing the right thing by advancing policies, including those that permitted the sale, supported by our community,” Kaktovik Mayor Nathan Gordon Jr. said in the statement.

The Trump administration has taken a keen interest in Alaska, and his tax and spending bill passed by Congress last year included provisions mandating lease sales in three regions of the state. In addition to the refuge’s coastal plain, leases have also been offered in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and in Cook Inlet, an aging basin that has provided

natural gas for Alaska’s most populous region for decades.

There were no takers in the Cook Inlet auction in March. But there were hundreds of bids, including from major oil companies, for what was the first sale since 2019 in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska — despite pending litigation challenging the leasing program. The Trump administration has moved to open more lands to drilling in the reserve and rolled back protections there. The petroleum reserve is where ConocoPhillips Alaska is developing the large Willow oil project.

On Alaska’s vast, petroleum-rich North Slope, the major oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk lie between the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The arctic refuge’s coastal plain could contain 4.25 billion to 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, according to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, but there is limited information about the amount and quality of oil.

The coastal plain, bordering the Beaufort Sea in northeast Alaska, features rolling hills and tundra and provides habitat for wildlife including musk oxen and migratory birds.

Amazon wrestles No. 1 spot away from Walmart

BY ALEX HALVERSON

The Seattle Times (TNS)

For the first time in its three decades-plus history, Amazon is now No. 1 on the Fortune 500 list.

The Seattle-based tech giant knocked Walmart down to No. 2, ending the Arkansas-based retailer’s 13-year reign on top. The list ranks 500 of the largest American corporations by revenue each year and only four companies have ever held the top spot since Fortune began publishing it in 1955: Amazon, Exxon Mobil, General Motors and Walmart.

Though Amazon and Walmart are retail competitors, vying for hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each year, Amazon also has its cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services, that brings in billions in sales as well.

Amazon reported $717 billion in

revenue for 2025, with AWS sales accounting for $129 billion of that.

Walmart’s 2025 revenue came in near $713 billion.

Despite seesaw tariff policies over the past year that have weakened consumer sentiment, retail sales for Amazon and Walmart showed steady growth each quarter.

But Amazon’s cloud revenue is growing faster than the company’s retail revenue. In 2025, AWS showed 20% sales growth year over year, double what the North American retail division reported.

That trend is continuing this year, as AWS sales grew 28% in the first quarter year over year, while retail sales in North America grew 12%.

Amazon dethroned Walmart based on last year’s revenue, the same year it kicked off a wave of layoffs. From October through January, Amazon ended the em-

ployment of 30,000 workers in a bid to reduce the number of managers throughout the company. While Amazon is pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence, the company maintains job-cutting isn’t to offset the capital expenses, but rather part of CEO Andy Jassy’s fight against bureaucracy.

Further down Fortune 500’s list were more examples of the incongruity between tech’s financial health and the waves of layoffs in the industry.

Microsoft, which laid off 15,000 employees last year, reached its highest ranking at No. 11, climbing three spots from last year. The company reported $281.7 billion in revenue in 2025, a 15% increase from 2024.

Meta, which has undergone multiple waves of layoffs last year and this year, climbed five spots from last year to No. 17, its highest rank-

ing ever. The company’s reported $2.16 billion in revenue in 2025 was a 22% year-over-year increase.

Other Seattle-area companies high on the list were Costco at No. 13, one spot down from last year and Boeing at No. 47, which climbed 16 spots.

Costco’s modest revenue growth may be the reason companies, including Microsoft, leapfrogged it on the list. Costco reported $2.75 billion in sales last year, up 8.2% from 2024.

Boeing’s rise up the ranks was due to increased airplane production, after a rough year in 2024.

The company’s revenue in 2024 suffered due to a midair fuselage blowout early in the year and a Machinists strike later in the year. The aerospace giant also sold one of its business units, Jeppesen, at the end of 2025, which contributed to its total revenue for the year.

4B ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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OPINION T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/opinions

ANOTHER VIEW

America’s 150th birthday marked a calm between two storms On Sunday, July 4, 1926, America marked its 150th birthday. It came during a period of calm between two storms of history, not long after World War I and shortly before the Great Depression.

That year, the U.S. economy boomed, and cities swelled. Auto travel, consumerism, technology and business expansion defined the era. Though the “Roaring Twenties” would crash three years later, Independence Day in 1926 was still a moment to look back, reflect and celebrate.

The main event on Independence Day was the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where President Calvin Coolidge, the only U.S. president born on Ron the Fourth of July, reaffirmed America’s Faucheux founding principles in a speech.

“It was not because [the Declaration of Independence] was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4th, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history,” said the normally reticent president. “We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first.”

Coolidge firmly cast the American Revolution as a breakthrough based on fundamentally conservative precepts to secure God-given liberties. He contrasted it with fomenting violent unrest abroad.

Beyond speeches, the Philadelphia exposition celebrated the Fourth in sundry ways: an 80-foot replica of the Liberty Bell with 26,000 lights, an amusement park, religious ceremonies, a “Freedom” pageant, baseball games and golf tournaments. A new bridge spanning the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey, helped moved the crowds.

The sail-powered USS Constellation, built in 1854, was anchored in the Schuylkill River for public viewing. A 300acre military encampment showcased the nation’s latest weaponry, while veterans from the Civil War, the SpanishAmerican War and World War I held convivial reunions.

Humorist and writer Corey Ford captured New York’s Independence Day parade in Vanity Fair: “Hours before the parade is due, the crowds along the curb have swollen to truly gigantic proportions, lining the street on both sides for blocks, milling and shoving and indulging freely in fistfights in the gutter. People are beside themselves with excitement, waving small American flags and blowing horns … a sight that they will never forget.”

Not every parade float was built to thrill, however, as some bore numbing titles like “Post-War Conditions in the Linoleum Business” and “The Sister Spirits of Osmosis and Capillary Attraction.” Mardi Gras, it wasn’t.

In New Orleans, an early evening show by Harry Mendelson’s Concert Band was held in City Park, along with an address by federal clerk of court A. Dallam O’Brien Jr. and a reading of the Declaration by Mrs. Rene Salomon. In addition to usual picnic fare, there were steaming pots of gumbo and jambalaya, with dancing, film screenings and fireworks to finish.

Louisiana’s governor in 1926 was Henry L. Fuqua, one of the state’s four chief executives who would die in office. Before seeking the governorship, Fuqua owned a large hardware store in Baton Rouge and later managed the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Arthur J. O’Keefe was mayor of New Orleans. A businessman, he previously served as the city’s commissioner for public finance. He assumed the office upon the death of Mayor Martin Behrman. A few years after taking office, O’Keefe resigned for health reasons.

O’Keefe was the grandfather of former state Senate President Michael H. O’Keefe and great-grandfather of former LSU Chancellor and NASA administration Sean O’Keefe.

In Baton Rouge, Wade Bynum was mayor. He would become the longest serving mayor of Louisiana’s capital city, holding office in two stretches totaling 24 years.

In 1926, WBNO and WJBW radio began broadcasting in New Orleans, the State Palace Theatre was built and Tulane Stadium opened. In Baton Rouge, LSU’s new campus was dedicated.

Like other milestone birthdays, the nation’s sesquicentennial reflected the times, the progress that had been made and the challenges ahead.

As Satchel Paige, who coincidentally began his professional pitching career that year, asked, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

That’s why we celebrate the milestones.

This column is third in a series about America’s milestone birthdays, as we head toward the 250th July 4. Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writer based in Louisiana.

YOUR VIEWS

Newspaper’s editorial opinions should stay the course on Coastal Master Plan, science For nearly a decade, the newspaper’s editorial board has been remarkably consistent: pro-Coastal Master Plan, pro-science, pro-CPRA independence, pro-sediment diversion and increasingly alarmed at the political shortcircuiting of the planning process.

The headline “La. should redouble coastal protection efforts” suggested continuity with that record. The substance did not. I read with profound disappointment an editorial offering volunteers bagging oyster shells as the antidote to studies calling for wholesale community relocation.

Volunteerism is an important way to build public understanding and support; oyster-shell recycling is a common-sense practice, but it will not save us. To fall back on volunteerism, when Louisiana built the nation-leading, unanimously supported program designed to harness the Mississippi River’s own land-building power? That is a cop-out.

Three months ago, the editorial, “Don’t let coastal progress slip away” warned against accepting smaller projects as consolation for the canceled

Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton sediment diversions, calling it evidence of “how far off track we’ve gone.” In April, the board insisted policymakers use “hard data, not political pressure” to guide spending.

This latest editorial says nothing about either canceled diversion. Nothing about the Coastal Master Plan unanimously approved in 2023. Nothing about the half-billion dollars already spent on Mid-Barataria.

This newspaper once fielded a deep bench of journalists who covered this challenge with the rigor it demands.

That reporting was itself the rebuttal to alarmist studies and hand-wringing about whether saving these communities was worth it. I know; I was the program officer overseeing national foundation investment in that work.

“Let’s get to work” is the right call.

The work is the science-based, scalematched Master Plan this board has championed for years — not a retreat into volunteerism. Hold the state, and yourselves, to that standard.

KRISTIN TRACZ New Orleans

Not so easy for camps to switch to solar I am writing in response to the May 7 letter related to camp electrical power.

The writer, Mike Norton, made it sound so simple for the camps to switch to solar power. The main issue here is the state allowing the electric utility to abandon the camps after providing power for decades.

The letter failed to mention the approximate $30,000 cost to each camp, let alone the potential that someone would steal their system. The utility should be made to pay, install and maintain these solar systems as camp compensation.

ROBERT WEILER Destrehan

GOP knows it can’t win a fair election In case you haven’t noticed, our democracy is being dismantled.

President Donald Trump and his MAGA followers know they can’t win a fair election because we Americans don’t want his Iran war, like we didn’t want him to tear down the East Wing, like we don’t want his name on the Kennedy Center and don’t want his ballroom, gold statues, arches and gilding of the White House.

He can’t win a fair election because our prices are sky high, and he just said he doesn’t care about the financial suffering of Americans: His agenda is all that matters, and the next gold statue of him, and his name on more of our nation’s monuments.

It’s sickening that our politicians lack the courage to stand up to his grandiosity. And now his faithful follower Gov. Jeff Landry is doing all he can to take away voting rights even to the point of maneuvering, so the legitimately elected Calvin Duncan is deprived of the clerk’s office.

The axiom is clear: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Remember, Trump said we won’t need to vote, just leave our future in his greedy reckless hands.

If we want to save what’s left of our democracy now is the time to protest these attacks and protect our right to vote.

Electricity is not a luxury; it is a basic necessity

Electricity and gas bills are becoming too expensive for many families in our community. Every month, hardworking people are struggling to keep up with rising utility costs while also trying to pay rent, buy groceries and care for their families. For many households, the pressure is becoming overwhelming.

Recently, my utility bill increased so much that it became difficult to manage other important expenses.

Many people are now living in constant fear of disconnection notices or late payment fees.

This situation affects senior citizens, low-income families and working individuals the most.

Electricity is not a luxury; it is a basic necessity. Families need power to cook, preserve food, stay safe during extreme weather and support children with school activities. No one should have to choose between keeping the lights on and meeting other basic needs.

I believe utility companies and policymakers must work together to provide fairer rates, stronger consumer protections and expanded assistance programs for struggling residents. There should also be more transparency in billing and better communication with customers.

Our communities deserve affordable and reliable energy services. I encourage local leaders to listen to the concerns of residents and take meaningful action before more families fall deeper into hardship.

KLAUS SAM New Orleans

JIM O’NEILL Metairie

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S at u r d ay, J u n e 6, 2026

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ACC foes in challenge set for LSU hoops teams

BY REED DARCEY and TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writers

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Saints safety Jonas Sanker, right, celebrates his interception of a pass by New york Jets quarterback Brady Cook, left, during a game Dec. 21 at the Caesars Superdome. New Orleans is looking to Sanker to fill the important ‘Star’ position after losing cornerback Alontae Taylor in free agency.

The LSU basketball programs each added a compelling nonconference matchup to their 2026-27 schedules on Friday, when ESPN unveiled the pairings for its annual ACC/SEC Challenges.

The LSU men will face Wake Forest at home on Dec. 1, and the women will take on North Carolina on the road Dec. 2. The women’s matchup is one of four known nonconference battles already set for the 2026-27 season. For the men, it’s one of five.

Coach Will Wade’s group also will play Gonzaga on Nov. 14 in Spokane, Washington; two of SMU, Arizona State and Southern Cal in the Palm Springs Classic from Nov. 21-26; and Houston at the Toyota Center. The details of that game, including the date, have not been revealed.

Coach Kim Mulkey and her staff already have announced they will compete in the Fort Myers Tip-Off event against North Carolina State and Villanova in late November, and they’re still finalizing the details of a showdown with UConn that will be played in Nashville,

ä See CHALLENGE, page 3C

A ‘Star’ is born?

Saints defender Sanker takes on more responsibilities in possible new role

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

As complex as his new position is, and as important as it is to the New Orleans Saints’ defensive scheme, safety Jonas Sanker said playing the “Star” basically comes down to two simple ideas.

“Cover well,” Sanker said. “But also tackle well.”

The Saints need a player who can do both. After losing cornerback Alontae Taylor in free agency, they believe Sanker — a second-year safety — is the man for the job.

Sanker will have to nail down the spot in training camp, but it is telling that throughout this offseason, the coaching staff has given the 23-year-old the first opportunity to see whether he could handle it.

Last year, Sanker unexpectedly emerged as a solid starting safety after veteran Julian Blackmon suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1. Blackmon himself was a late addition after Tyrann Mathieu’s surprising retirement.

The Saints trust that Sanker can handle the most important position in coordinator Brandon Staley’s defense.

It’s a spot that historically has been filled by some of the biggest names in football. Before Taylor — whose performance earned him a three-year, $58 million contract from the Tennessee Titans — Staley relied on All-Pro safety Derwin James with the Los Angeles Chargers and All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey with the Los Angeles Rams.

They were stars capable of handling the Star, which is Staley’s version of an inside cornerback. Sanker has yet to reach that level of stardom, but excelling in the role could

help him get there.

“The toughest thing about Star is you’re a safety, you’re a corner or you’re a linebacker — maybe a (defensive) end — based on a call,” Saints safeties coach Terry Joseph said.

“It’s a lot of different jobs that you’ve got to be versed in to be a really good Star.

“And I think that’s where we’re at right now: We’re getting him up to speed of the different personalities based on the call.”

The complexities underscore why the position is so important to the Saints. Joseph said the Star has to not only handle motion adjustments — when a receiver runs from one spot to another before the snap — but also be flexible enough to either play the deep middle of the field, the boundary or near the line of scrimmage. Other positions are “pretty much anchored,” Joseph said. The Star relies heavily on a player’s intelligence.

So how did the Saints land on trusting Sanker to replace Taylor? Coach Kellen Moore said Sanker’s college film gave the team confidence.

At the University of Virginia, Sanker spent his freshman and sophomore seasons as a nickel cornerback, which taught him the basics of playing inside. That versatility was enough that Moore said he’d have felt comfortable putting Sanker there last year, if needed. (Taylor played all 17 games and 96% of the defense’s snaps.)

The Saints also saw a “mental toughness” in Sanker last year that assured them he’d be up for the task, Joseph

ä See SAINTS, page 3C

New UL pitcher happy about a reunion

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Marshall pitcher Blaine Albright was not angry when his pitching coach Taylor Sandefur left the Thundering Herd for UL last summer.

But Albright did miss his former mentor, so once the 2026 season ended, the native of Lima, Ohio, decided to do something about it.

He entered the transfer portal with the hope the Ragin’ Cajuns were interested. As it turned out, the Cajuns were and Albright committed to UL with two years of eligibility remaining.

“Yes, it was a pretty easy decision,” Albright said. “When coach Sandy was my pitching coach at Marshall, I loved him to death. He’s probably the best coach I’ve ever had. So when I entered the portal and decided to leave, I was thinking that would be one of my top spots if

Herd, he was 1-0 with a 4.24 ERA in 17 appearances, giving up 14 hits, five walks and striking out 20 in 17 innings. Opponents hit .212 against him.

In his first season without Sandefur, things didn’t go as well. Albright was 1-3 with a 7.92 ERA over 14 outings, including four starts. In 25 innings, he allowed 30 hits, 25 walks and struck out 23.

Albright said his struggles were more complicated than just having a new pitching coach.

“In my first outing of the season against Kennesaw State, I pulled my hamstring, so I was trying to get healed for about a PROVIDED PHOTO month and a half,” he said. “During that time, it kind of messed Former Marshall left-hander Blaine Albright will be reuniting with me up mechanically and that’s former pitching coach Taylor Sandefur at UL. why I sort of struggled with my command. Eventually, it came they were interested.”

Bloomington before transfer- back and I started to feel like I The 6-foot-3, 225-pound red- ring to Marshall for two sea- did the year before.” shirt junior signed with Indiana sons. ä See UL, page 4C and redshirted his one season in In his first season with the

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey and the Tigers will face North Carolina in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 2.

World Cup superfans cite cost, politics for staying away

BY R.J. RICO

Associated Press

Soccer fans soon will crisscross continents to see their beloved national teams compete on the sport’s grandest stage, the World Cup. They’ll pack bars and fan zones, singing chants and debating who is going to win it all.

This time, however, it’s different for some superfans, who say organizers have made this summer’s World Cup the least welcoming one they have experienced. Ticket prices, expensive crosscountry travel and concerns about entering the U.S. have prompted some of them to stay home.

London-based IT worker Mike Wilson has been to four World Cups over the past 20 years. This summer, he’ll be staying in Europe and watching part of the tournament from a Portuguese beach.

Argentine doctor Emiliano Becerra likes to follow his team through every step of the elimination round. This time he’ll attend two early matches and then fly home.

Dutch-born finance manager Peter Bergakker flew to South Africa to watch the Netherlands play in the 2010 World Cup final. But no matter how far the “Oranje” advance this summer, he said

ä See WORLD CUP, page 3C

2C ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS AUTO RACING 12:30 p.m. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series FS1 CFL FOOTBALL 6 p.m.

Edmonton at Ottawa CBSSN COLLEGE BASEBALL 10 a.m. Mississippi St. at Georgia ESPN 11 a.m. West Virginia vs. Cal Poly ESPN2 1 p.m.

N. Carolina vs. Southern Cal ESPN 2 p.m.

Troy vs. Little Rock ESPN2 4 p.m.

Auburn vs. Ole Miss ESPN 5 p.m.

Oklahoma at Kansas ESPN2 7 p.m.

Oregon at Texas ESPN 8 p.m.

St. John’s at Alabama ESPN2 GOLF 6 a.m.

LIV Golf: Real Club Valderrama FS1

11:30 a.m. PGA: Memorial Tournament GOLF 1:30 p.m. PGA: Memorial Tournament CBS 1:30 p.m. Champions: American Family GOLF 4 p.m.

Korn Ferry: BMW Pro AM GOLF 4 p.m.

LPGA: U.S. Women’s Open USA 6 p.m.

LPGA: U.S. Women’s Open NBC HORSE RACING 9:30 a.m. America’s Day at the Races FS2 2 p.m.

Belmont Stakes Festival FOX 3 p.m.

Belmont Stakes Day FOX, FS1 5:30 p.m. 158th Belmont Stakes FOX, FS1 MLB BASEBALL noon Seattle at Detroit MLBN 3 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Atlanta MLBN 6:30 p.m. Boston at N.y. yankees FOX

IN BRIEF

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

9 p.m.

L.A. Angels at L.A. Dodgers MLBN or N.y. Mets at San Diego NHL HOCKEY 7 p.m.

Carolina at Vegas, Game 3 SOCCER (MEN’S) 1:30 p.m. U.S. vs. Germany TNT, TRUTV SOCCER (WOMEN’S) 4:30 p.m. Brazil vs. U.S. TNT, TRUTV TENNIS 5 a.m.

French Open TENNIS, TNT, TRUTV 8 a.m.

French Open TNT, TRUTV WNBA BASKETBALL noon Seattle at Minnesota ABC 2 p.m.

Golden State at Las Vegas ABC 7 p.m.

Indiana at New york CBS

Zverev earns another major shot Second-ranked player seeks first Grand Slam title

Denver Broncos outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper was jailed Friday on domestic violence charges stemming from a fight with his girlfriend.

Cooper, 28, was held on suspicion of two counts of domestic violence and one count of criminal mischief, according to Douglas County jail records.

The Broncos said in a statement that they “are aware of the matter and are gathering information.”

Cooper’s arrest stemmed from an argument between him and his girlfriend, who was also arrested, according to a police affidavit.

Cooper’s girlfriend accused him of cheating and threw his phone against a wall in Cooper’s apartment and a physical struggle ensued, according to the report.

AP sportswriter

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By AURELIEN MORISSARD

Alexander Zverev returns to Jakub Mensik during a semifinal match at the French Open on Friday in Paris.

Zverev advanced to Sunday’s final where he will face 14th-ranked Flavio Cobolli. players. I knew it was going to be the toughest challenge that I had so far. And I managed. I won. I’m happy,” Zverev said.

It will be Zverev’s second French Open final, having wasted a lead of two sets to one against Alcaraz in the 2024 championship match. Zverev had an even bigger advantage — two sets to none — in the 2020 U.S. Open final and lost that one, too, to Dominic Thiem. He was also beaten in straight sets by Sinner in the 2025 Australian Open final.

“That’s in the past,” Zverev said of his loss to Thiem. “I don’t try to think too much about it before Sunday.”

Despite overcast and windy conditions at the start, the roof was open on Court Philippe-Chatrier and both players struggled with mishits early on.

Mensik relied often on serveand-volley tactics while Zverev

was more solid from the baseline of the red clay court.

Mensik double-faulted twice late in the first set, leading to the first break. Zverev broke again early in the second after running down a drop shot from Mensik and then went ahead 5-2 when Mensik double-faulted again.

Early in the third, Mensik had his neck treated by a trainer and then left the court for a medical timeout. When play resumed, Zverev moved Mensik off the court with well-angled shots and the Czech player threw his racket in desperation at a ball he knew he couldn’t reach.

There were more shouts for “Sascha” — Zverev’s nickname — but the crowd attempted to help Mensik back into the match with chants of “Let’s go, Mensik, let’s go.”

When Mensik produced two

well-executed drop shots to finally break Zverev’s serve and take a 4-2 lead in the third, he pumped his fist as the crowd came to life.

It was just the second set Zverev dropped in the tournament.

“He started playing amazing the third set,” Zverev said. “This is best-of-five-set matches: You know things (are) going to happen. Opponents are going to play better. You have to deal with it. You have to manage it. I did. And I hope to play another great match on Sunday.”

When Mensik rushed the net after a slice serve to the deuce court midway through the fourth set and Zverev used his long wingspan to produce a looping crosscourt return that dipped over the net beyond his reach, Mensik just smiled — perhaps realizing in that moment that Zverev simply had too much game for him.

Andreeva’s new calm runs into surprise finalist

BY SAMUEL PETREQUIN

AP sportswriter

PARIS — Mirra Andreeva could not hold her nerve at Roland Garros last year.

Facing the unheralded Lois Boisson for a spot in the French Open semifinals, the Russian teenager lost her temper, losing in straight sets after receiving a warning for angrily hitting a ball into the stands.

There has been no such meltdown over the past two weeks. Still only 19, Andreeva is in her first Grand Slam final. The pressure remains but she knows how to handle it.

“Now I’m also nervous when I play matches like this or when I’m up in the score and ... I’m serving and the opponent breaks me,” she said after stopping the best clay court player of the season, Marta Kostuyk, in the semifinals. “Before I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, if I lost my serve, it’s like the end of the world.’ But now I feel like ... if she broke me, well, so what? I will try to break her back.”

The approach has been working out fine.

The eighth-seeded Andreeva has dropped just one set en route to the final, where she will meet the 114th-ranked Maja Chwalinska, a qualifier. It’s Chwalinska’s first appearance in a major final, meaning a new Grand Slam champion will be crowned at the Court Philippe-Chatrier on Saturday.

Andreeva has been competing at the highest level since she was 15, and it has taken some time for her to manage her temper, emotions and the pressure that ac-

St. Louis outfielder Lars Nootbaar was activated from the 60day injured list on Friday in time to make his season debut in left field as the Cardinals began a weekend series against the Cincinnati Reds.

Nootbaar, 28, had surgery on both of his heels in the offseason and has not played in the majors this season. He is a career .242 hitter. Last season in 135 games, he hit .234 with 13 home runs and 48 RBIs. In 12 games during his 20-day rehab assignment for Triple-A Memphis, Nootbaar hit three home runs and had a .409 on-base percentage, a .543 slugging percentage and a .257 batting average in 44 at-bats.

In other moves, the Cardinals optioned infielder Thomas Saggese to Triple A-Memphis and recalled right-handed pitcher Matt Svanson from Memphis.

Broncos LB Cooper arrested following fight

BY ANDREW DAMPF PARIS — Jannik Sinner lost early.

Carlos Alcaraz withdrew because of an injury.

The pressure has been on Alexander Zverev to finally win an elusive Grand Slam title and now the second-seeded German is only one victory away from raising the French Open trophy.

Zverev reached the fourth major final of his career after beating 20-year-old Jakub Mensik 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the Roland Garros semifinals on Friday.

In Sunday’s final, Zverev will face 14th-ranked Flavio Cobolli.

Cobolli advanced when 104thranked Matteo Arnaldi withdrew before their all-Italian semifinal because of a virus.

Arnaldi spent 19 hours, 42 minutes on court to reach the semifinal — more than anyone at a Grand Slam since 1991. He said he was vomiting overnight.

“I tried to get ready ... but every time I get up I feel dizzy,” Arnaldi said. “I can’t move and I can’t eat and I can’t drink. So there was really no way that I will be able to play.”

Zverev has been an overwhelming favorite for the title ever since the top-ranked Sinner struggled in the first week’s heat wave and wasted a two set and 5-1 lead against Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round.

Alcaraz, the two-time reigning champion, withdrew before the tournament with an injured right wrist.

The 27th-ranked Mensik, who was playing in his first Grand Slam semifinal, struggled with five double faults on Friday.

Mensik overcame post-match cramps that landed him in a wheelchair last week, got past Andrey Rublev in five sets and beat rising Brazilian João Fonseca in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

“He beat so many unbelievable

Cards activate outfielder Nootbaar for season debut

Maja Chwalinska reacts during a semifinal match against Diana Shnaider on Thursday in Paris.

Chwalinska advanced to the final, ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS By EMMA DA SILVA where she will face Andreeva.

Mirra Andreeva returns to Marta Kostyuk during a French Open semifinal 2022. She is the second qualifier to match on Thursday in Paris. ä French Open Women’s final 8 A.M. SATURDAy, TNT, TRUTV, HBOMAX

companies her massive ambition.

Finally, it appears she is ready to step forward and stake her claim for the biggest titles.

“I have been trying to work on me being more calm, more positive,” she said. “I’m very focused, and I felt like recently I have been trying to do a lot of different stuff.

Maybe now I have found what’s been working very well for me.”

In 2024, Andreeva became the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist in more than a quarter-century when, in her sixth major tournament, she defeated Aryna Sabalenka.

Andreeva appeared pretty much insouciant at the time. She said

she would devise plans with her coach, 1994 Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, only to forget everything during matches.

“Now I feel like I completely trust what my team tells me, and now it’s easier for me to do,” Andreeva said. “Whatever they tell me, I will just do it. I just feel like I’m able to trust them fully and not doubt anything.”

Winning the title would make her the youngest French Open women’s singles champion since 18-year-old Monica Seles landed her third straight Roland Garros crown in 1992.

Andreeva and Chwalinska will meet for the first time.

Chwalinska’s best result at a major before the French Open was the second round at Wimbledon in

make a Grand Slam singles final in the professional era (1968), joining Emma Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open.

In Paris, the Polish player has caught the eye of observers not only for her unexpected deep run but also for the variety of her shots and the kind of old-fashioned tennis she plays, peppered with stunning lobs and drop shots.

Her tennis is a stark contrast to Andreeva’s sheer power.

“I know that I’m playing different tennis than most of the girls on tour,” the slightly-framed Chwalinska said. “I don’t have the (physical) conditions to play strong, so I need to develop different kinds of weapons for myself. I’ve definitely played differently, and I think it helps me a lot against these players.”

Poston aces conditions to take Memorial lead

J.T. Poston had eight birdies in a round of 7-under 65 on Friday at the Memorial — a score best measured by the fact he was nine shots better than the field average — enough for a one-shot lead over Ryan Gerard going into the weekend at Muirfield Village.

Poston was at 9-under 135, a score not many saw coming.

The quality of his round could be measured by the comments of some of his peers. The interview with Tommy Fleetwood began with a statement that it seemed tougher out there.

“Is that a question?” Fleetwood replied. “Yeah, we’ll expand on that. It was pretty brutal, actually.”

That wasn’t the case for Poston, who played brilliantly to grab the lead.

Serena adds second date on comeback schedule

Serena Williams’ comeback to tennis will include a stop in Berlin this month.

Berlin Open organizers said Williams will compete in doubles at the grass-court event starting on June 13. Her partner and the date of her first match will be announced later.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion stepped away from tennis in 2022. She has yet to say whether she plans to play at Wimbledon or the U.S. Open.

She will make her return to professional tennis playing doubles alongside Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club next week. Berlin is the week after. Wimbledon is two weeks after that.

“Every tournament I add to my schedule right now feels special, and Berlin is no exception,” she said.

FIFA cancels mistakenly free tickets to World Cup

FIFA has canceled World Cup tickets issued to about 60 fans who mistakenly got them for free because of a website error.

The tickets were “allocated at no charge due to a prior payment issue during the checkout process,” FIFA said in a statement Thursday.

“FIFA regrets the error and any inconvenience caused,” soccer’s ruling body said. “The tickets requested by these fans remain reserved, and the affected fans have been invited to complete payment of the correct amount.”

It is the latest glitch in an often controversial World Cup ticketing program that the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey are investigating for possible violations of consumer protection laws.

The mispriced tickets were sold through the official World Cup site.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● 3C

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Iran World Cup team approved to play in U.S. Players have been granted U.S. visas, clearing them to enter country

BY COLLIN BINKLEY, SEUNG MIN KIM AND MATTHEW LEE Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GEORGE WALKER

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Chimere Dike, left, pulls in a first-down reception as New Orleans Saints safety Jonas Sanker defends in the first half of a game on Dec. 28 in Nashville, Tenn.

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C said. The Saints observed it from the moment Sanker was called on to be a starter in Week 2. And then Sanker’s play further developed, with Joseph praising the safety’s speed, athleticism and ability to hold up in coverage.

“All of those are the characteristics of a good Star,” Joseph said.

Throughout OTAs, the Saints have tested Sanker to see whether their intuition was right. During 7-on-7 drills, New Orleans routinely will send receivers in motion, which often forces Sanker to travel with them. Then, when the ball is snapped, quarterback Tyler Shough hasn’t been shy in targeting the option nearest Sanker.

But Sanker is holding his own.

Safety Justin Reid said Sanker’s speed was instrumental to his rookie year, calling it a “superpower” that helps him make plays. He said at the end of the year, he stressed to Sanker that he shouldn’t do anything that takes away from it.

“As long as he can run, he can play,” Reid said.

Though he has spent most of his time learning his new position, Sanker hasn’t abandoned playing free safety, either. The Saints use

CHALLENGE

Continued from page 1C

Tennessee.

The LSU men, who are 2-1 in ACC/SEC Challenge matchups so far, lead Wake Forest 4-2 in the all-time series and have won the last three matchups, one of which came during Wade’s first stint in Baton Rouge. The last meeting was an 86-80 overtime win in 2023 during the fifth-place game of the Charleston Classic in Charleston, South Carolina.

WORLD CUP

Continued from page 1C

he won’t travel to the U.S. Exactly how many fans are staying away is unclear, but the warning signs are there.

Hotel bookings have been lighter than expected in many U.S. host cities. Meanwhile, the president of the travel agency association in soccer-mad Uruguay said his company has arranged tour packages for about 3,000 fans, significantly fewer than recent World Cups.

Priced out The number of fans able to travel and take weeks off of work to cheer on their team during the World Cup understandably skews to the wealthy. But previous tournaments have remained accessible for fans who, in some cases, would save for years for their flights and match tickets.

Four years ago, lower-tier Category 3 tickets to group stage matches were $69. This year, FIFA has been selling them for as much as $265.

The last two tournaments in Russia and Qatar offered match-going fans free transportation among host cities, though many matches were much closer than the vast area covered by the 16 stadiums hosting matches across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

And while fans there were not permitted by FIFA to sell their tickets on the official resale site for above face value, the sports governing body has taken a different

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Atlanta Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier, left, is tackled by New Orleans Saints safety Jonas Sanker after running for a first down during a game on Nov. 23 at the Caesars Superdome.

Sanker at his old spot when the third-string defense is on the field, perhaps as a way to make sure he stays sharp if needed to go back there. Blackmon, who is now the starting free safety, has a lengthy injury history.

Last year, the Saints relied on Taylor’s versatility by having him line up as an outside corner in their base defense. Similarly, there’s a chance Sanker could be asked to

play safety in base, if Blackmon goes down again.

But Sanker is on board with switching roles. He said he gladly embraced the change when his coaches asked whether he’d be open to the shift.

“A lot of the way we use the nickel is to set the force,” Sanker said.

The LSU women are 3-0 in the ACC/SEC Challenge, and they last met North Carolina in 2016. The two programs also faced off in the Elite Eight in 2008, when the Tigers won 56-50 to secure their fifth trip to the Final Four.

Wade, ahead of the first season of his second stint with the Tigers, is overhauling the program’s entire roster. Mulkey, ahead of her sixth season in charge at LSU, is replacing star Flau’jae Johnson and two guards who decided to transfer: Jada Richard (Ole Miss) and Bella Hines (TCU).

So far, Wade and his staff have

landed four international players and four Division I transfers. They also reportedly have a commitment from RJ Luis, a former Big East player of the year who’s appeared in NBA preseason games.

Mulkey is adding one freshman — McDonald’s All-American wing Lola Lampley — and three transfers, including former Iowa State point guard Jada Williams.

She was one of the 2026 transfer cycle’s top players.

The tipoff time and TV network details for each ACC/SEC Challenge matchup will be announced at a later date.

approach this time — encouraging fans to resell tickets for as high as they want, with FIFA pocketing 30% in fees along the way. FIFA did not respond to a request for comment Thursday but previously has defended ticket prices as a reflection of “record-breaking” demand.

Tomonori Akutsu, who lives outside Tokyo, said if he had realized how expensive this tournament would be when he started making plans, he might have reconsidered attending his sixth straight World Cup. Without question, he believes, the U.S. has been the worst host, and tournament organizers have demonstrated a “complete lack of hospitality in every aspect,” citing things such as ticket prices, an inflated resale market, expensive hotel prices and fan festivals that cost money to attend.

“Simply, my impression is this is America, the ultimate capitalism,” Akutsu said.

Becerra spent $1,100 to see Argentina defeat France in the 2022 final in Qatar. For the past three World Cups, he followed Argentina through the knockout stages.

Not this time.

This year, he paid even more — $1,200 — for a resale ticket to see Argentina’s match against lowranked Jordan in Dallas.

“It’s absolutely crazy. It’s just a group stage match,” said Becerra, a 64-year-old ophthalmologist who lives in Neuquén.

Becerra will head home before the knockout stage begins. The prices, he said, are “just not possible for me.”

Wilson said he and his friends opted to skip this summer’s tournament because they couldn’t justify spending the prices they were seeing.

Wilson never had spent more than $200 for any World Cup match — a price that, on the resale market, barely buys a nosebleed seat at a group stage match between two obscure teams this year. Instead, he and his friends have booked a Portugal getaway.

For Wilson, the World Cup is more about the atmosphere than the matches.

“That’s the great thing about these tournaments: You’re sitting at a hostel, chatting with U.S. fans, and then you go to a bar up the road and there are loads of Chileans who have just taken over the place,” Wilson said, recalling a memorable night in Johannesburg in 2010. “It’s stuff like that which makes the World Cup. But now they’ve just priced everyone out.”

Mark Doidge, a sociologist at England’s Loughborough University, said World Cups have long been defined by their traveling supporters, pointing to Colombia’s famous “Birdman” and the sea of St. George’s crosses at every England match.

Rising costs, he said, risk losing exactly those fans.

“Most of those buying expensive tickets are not those passionate fans, but wealthy people paying for an experience,” he said.

WASHINGTON — Members of the Iran World Cup soccer team have been granted visas to the United States, two U.S. officials said Friday, clearing them to enter the United States from their training base in Tijuana, Mexico, ahead of their first two matches near Los Angeles this month.

The team’s participation in the World Cup has been complicated

by Iran’s war with Israel and the United States. Problems with processing visas had earlier led Iran to move its training base from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, which is on Mexico’s border with California.

One U.S. official said all players on the Iranian team were approved for visas and were in the process of receiving them.

A second official said visas had been issued for players, coaches, trainers and some support staff.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the visas publicly.

The second official could not say whether any Iranian applicants had been denied. It was not immediately clear when the Iranian team’s passports would be returned to them to allow them to travel, but the official said it could be as early as Friday or Saturday.

The squad has been preparing for the World Cup at a training

camp in Antalya, Turkey, before departing for Tijuana. The team said it has already received visas from Mexico’s embassy in Ankara.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack credited the U.S. Embassy in Ankara for processing visas for the Iranian team.

“Sports transcends borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world,” Barrack wrote in a social media post Friday.

Iran plays its first two games in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium six days later, then heads to Seattle to face Egypt on June 26. Iran and the U.S. could meet in the round of 32 on July 3 in Arlington, Texas, if both teams place second in their groups.

President Donald Trump in March had discouraged Iran from participating in the tournament, saying he didn’t think it was “appropriate” and raising concerns over players’ “life and safety.” A day later, Iran’s national team pushed back, saying “no one can exclude” it from playing.

Iran finalized its team Monday, including 17 home-based players whose clubs have not played since February because of the war. Star forward Sardar Azmoun was dropped in March, reportedly because of a social media post that angered Iranian authorities during the war.

Iran’s sports minister said in March that it would “not be possible” for the team to participate in the World Cup, but the republic’s soccer federation said in May it was moving ahead with a team.

The federation had insisted that all players and staff be granted visas, including those who had military service in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Email Matthew Paras at matt. paras@theadvocate.com

Some not deterred There is at least one group of supporters that appears determined to come regardless of the

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KHALIL HAMRA

Iran’s players work out during a training session on Tuesday in Antalya, southern Turkey, ahead of the World Cup soccer tournament.

cost: the Scots, who are eager to see their team compete in their first World Cup in 28 years.

Campbell Lewis and his friends began booking refundable accommodations across the U.S. as soon as Scotland qualified last year before prices rose.

With tens of thousands of Scottish fans expected to attend, tickets for their team’s matches have proven harder to obtain.

But after prices began to drop in recent weeks, Lewis bought two tickets for Scotland’s second match for him and his 10-year-old son. He and his friends are still waiting until the final days to get tickets to the team’s opener against Haiti, though. As of Thursday, the cheapest resale ticket for that match outside Boston exceeded $600.

“For a lot of Scottish people of my generation, this is a once-in-alifetime thing,” he said. “We were all kids the last time we qualified.

And even though the prices have gotten out of hand, there’s just this determination that we want to go.”

U.S. travel concerns U.S. entry requirements also may be limiting international visitors.

Unlike Russia in 2018, which waived visa requirements for ticket-holders, and Qatar in 2022, which streamlined entry for fans, many traveling to the U.S. still face strict visa requirements. Until the U.S. reversed course last month, ticket-holding fans from Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia were even going to have to pay as much as $15,000 in bonds to enter the country.

Carlos Pera, president of Uruguay’s travel agency association, recently told Uruguay’s Subrayado that U.S. visa requirements were among the reasons fewer Uruguayans are making the trip this year.

U.S. officials have pushed back on concerns about visitors encountering an unwelcome environment, and the White House’s World Cup task force has highlighted efforts to prioritize visa interviews for fans with tickets. Andrew Giuliani, who leads the task force, dismissed concerns Thursday that traditional traveling supporters may be staying away.

“We want superfans and firsttime visitors alike to know: America welcomes you to what will be the greatest World Cup yet,” he said in a statement.

For some fans, the concern goes beyond visas and cost.

Bergakker, 48, said President Donald Trump’s “hostile” approach toward European allies has changed his view of traveling to the U.S. A deep Netherlands’ run usually would be all it takes to get him on a plane, no matter the price of tickets. But Bergakker said he worries his criticism of Trump on social media could lead to problems at the border, a concern the White House rejected. A spokesperson said Thursday that a Customs and Border Protection proposal to scrutinize World Cup visitors’ social media accounts was never enacted.

Still, Bergakker said that as long as Trump is president, “this Oranje fan won’t be visiting.”

4C ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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LSU lands first two players from portal

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

LSU baseball landed its first two transfers out of the portal on Thursday and Friday.

Gonzaga freshman right-hander Landon Hood signed with LSU, multiple sources confirmed to The Advocate on Thursday.

Then on Friday, Texas State shortstop Dawson Park announced on social media he is coming to Baton Rouge.

Hood posted a 2.48 ERA in 541/ 3 innings in his first collegiate season, a campaign strong enough for him to win the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year award and become a second-team AllWCC selection.

He’s from Goodyear, Arizona, an area of the country LSU coach Jay Johnson is certainly familiar with.

At Gonzaga, Hood missed a lot of bats, striking out 12.9 batters per nine innings while mostly limiting free passes. He walked 9.3% of the batters he faced and hit six hitters.

Hood was mostly used as a reliever at Gonzaga. Only four of his 16 appearances were starts, and he had five saves.

The Tigers are set to lose at least seven right-handed pitchers from this year’s team, and Hood should help fill the gap.

Park had a .962 on-base plus slugging percentage and 13 home runs as a sophomore at Texas State. He committed 10 errors and experienced a spike in his power thanks to an elevated fly ball rate that rose from 31.1% as a freshman to 45.9% as a sophomore.

Park played in only 48 games this season after leaving the program in early May, after he reportedly got into an on-field altercation with a teammate during Texas State’s loss to South Alabama on May 3.

With Steven Milam possibly off to MLB, Park could take his spot at shortstop. He could also help the Tigers at second base, a position where they have only one player projected to return in Jack Ruckert.

AP PHOTO By LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM

Gonzaga pitcher Landon Hood pitches during a game against Saint Mary’s on April 17 in Moraga, Calif.

SCOREBOARD Odds

Game 1: No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Ole Miss, 7 p.m.

Saturday Game 2: No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Ole Miss, 4 p.m. x-Game 3: No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Ole Miss, TBD

Sports Betting Line MLB

Austin, Texas

Saturday

American League FAVORITE LINE Seattle -136 at MINNESOTA -144 at TORONTO OFF Athletics -110 at N.Y YANKEES -138 Cleveland -126 National League FAVORITE LINE at ST. LOUIS -130 at CHI CUBS -140 at ARIZONA -161 at ATLANTA -120 Milwaukee -248 N.Y Mets -125 Interleague FAVORITE LINE at PHILA -127 at MIAMI OFF at LA DODGERS -338

UNDERDOG at DETROIT Kansas City Baltimore at HOUSTON Boston at TEXAS

UNDERDOG LINE Cincinnati +109 San Francisco +118 Washington +135 Pittsburgh +101 at COLORADO +203 at SAN DIEGO +106

NHL

Saturday FAVORITE Carolina

LINE +114 +123 OFF -109 +116 +106

UNDERDOG White Sox Tampa Bay LA Angels

LINE +107 OFF +270

UNDERDOG at VEGAS

LINE OFF

Saturday Game 1: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 1 Oregon, 7 p.m.

Sunday Game 2: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 1 Oregon, 8 p.m. x-Game 3: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 1 Oregon, TBD

Chapel Hill, N.C.

Friday Game 1: No. 2 Southern California 9, No. 1 North Carolina 5 Saturday Game 2: No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 2 Southern California, 1 p.m. x-Game 3: No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 2 Southern California, TBD

Lawrence, Kansas

Saturday Game 1: No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, 5 p.m.

Sunday Game 2: No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, 5 p.m. x-Game 3: No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, TBD

Morgantown, W. Va. LINE OFF

Pro basketball NBA Playoff Glance FINALS

Friday Game 1: No. 1 West Virginia 12, No. 3 Cal Poly 2 Saturday Game 2: No. 1 West Virginia vs. No. 3 Cal Poly, 11 a.m. x-Game 3: No. 1 West Virginia vs. No. 3 Cal Poly, TBD

New York 1, San Antonio 0

Wednesday, June 3: New York 105, San Antonio 95 Friday, June 5: New York at San Antonio, n Monday, June 8: San Antonio at New York, 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 10: San Antonio at New York, 7:30 p.m. x-Saturday, June 13: New York at San Antonio, TBA x-Tuesday, June 16: San Antonio at New York, TBA x-Friday, June 19: New York at San Antonio, TBA

WNBA Glance EASTERN CONFERENCE W 6 6 5 5 4 3 2

L 3 4 4 5 4 6 9

Pct .667 .600 .556 .500 .500 .333 .182

GB — ½ 1 1½ 1½ 3 5

Minnesota Dallas Las Vegas Golden State Portland Los Angeles Phoenix Seattle

W 8 6 6 6 6 4 3 3

L 2 3 3 4 5 5 8 8

Pct .800 .667 .667 .600 .545 .444 .273 .273

GB — 1½ 1½ 2 2½ 3½ 5½ 5½

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Stanley Cup Finals

Best-of-7; x-if necessary

Vegas 1, Carolina 1

Tuesday: Vegas 5, Carolina 4, Thursday: Carolina 4, Vegas 3 Saturday: Carolina at Vegas, 7 p.m.

Tuesday: Carolina at Vegas, 7 p.m.

Thursday, June 11: x-Vegas at Carolina, TBA Sunday, June 14: x-Carolina at Vegas, TBA Wednesday, June 17: x-Vegas at Carolina, TBA

Major League Baseball American League East Division

Cleveland Chicago Minnesota Detroit Kansas City

W 36 33 29 25 25

L 28 29 35 38 38

Pct .563 .532 .453 .397 .397

GB — 2 7 10½ 10½

Championship Series

Seattle Athletics Texas Houston Los Angeles

W 33 30 30 28 24

L 30 32 32 36 39

Pct .524 .484 .484 .438 .381

GB — 2½ 2½ 5½ 9

College baseball

N.Y. Yankees 2, Cleveland 1 Baltimore 8, Boston 2 Toronto 7, Atlanta 2 Chicago Cubs 7, Athletics 6 Kansas City 8, Minnesota 6 Pittsburgh 5, Houston 1

Seattle at Minnesota, noon Golden State at Las Vegas, 2 p.m.

Washington at Atlanta, 5 p.m.

Indiana at New York, 7 p.m.

College softball Women’s College World Series At Devon Park; Oklahoma City

(Best-of-3) TEXAS VS. TEXAS TECH Wednesday: Texas 7, Texas Tech 3 Thursday: Texas 4, Texas Tech 1, Texas wins national championship

Super regional glance Double elimination; x-if necessary

Athens, Ga.

Saturday Game 1: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 1 Mississippi St., 10 a.m.

Sunday Game 2: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 1 Mississippi St., 11 a.m. x-Game 3: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 1 Mississippi St., TBD

Auburn, Ala. Friday

UL

Continued from page 1C Albright said Sandefur’s value as a pitching coach begins with the personal relationship.

“After coming from Indiana, he made me fall in love with the sport of baseball again,” Albright said. “I just think it’s his ability to connect with players and understand that everyone is going to be coached differently and everyone

GB — 8½ 11 13 14½

Milwaukee Pittsburgh St. Louis Chicago Cincinnati

W 37 34 32 33 31

L 23 29 28 30 30

Pct .617 .540 .533 .524 .508

GB — 4½ 5 5½ 6½

Pct .635 .532 .525 .397 .381

GB — 6½ 7 15 16

Central Division

W 40 33 32 25 24

L 23 29 29 38 39

San Francisco 18, Chicago Cubs 3 Chicago White Sox at Philadelphia, n Tampa Bay at Miami,n Pittsburgh at Atlanta, n Cincinnati at St. Louis, n Milwaukee at Colorado, n N.Y. Mets at San Diego, n Washington at Arizona, n L.A. Angels at L.A. Dodgers, n Cincinnati (Lodolo 2-1) at St. Louis (Liberatore 3-3), 1:15 p.m.

San Francisco (Roupp 5-6) at Chicago Cubs (Brown 2-2), 1:20 p.m.

Chicago White Sox (Burke 2-3) at Philadelphia (Painter 1-6), 3:05 p.m.

Pittsburgh (Ashcraft 5-2) at Atlanta (Strider 3-1), 3:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay (McClanahan 6-2) at Miami (TBD), 3:10 p.m.

Washington (Littell 5-4) at Arizona (Rodriguez 5-1), 3:10 p.m.

Milwaukee (Misiorowski 6-2) at Colorado (Gordon 0-1), 8:10 p.m.

L.A. Angels (Kochanowicz 2-4) at L.A. Dodgers (Yamamoto 5-4), 9:10 p.m.

N.Y. Mets (McLean 3-4) at San Diego (Canning 0-4), 9:10 p.m.

Golf The Memorial Tournament Friday

Seattle (Miller 1-0) at Detroit (Montero 2-3), 12:10 p.m.

Kansas City (Avila 1-2) at Minnesota (Ryan 4-3), 1:10 p.m.

has different personalities. He just finds ways to connect with you. He finds ways to get inside our brains and helped us understand him.”

Albright said he’s willing to be a reliever or starter at UL. “Whatever I earn when I get down there is what I earn — possibly a midweek starter, we’ll see,” Albright said. “I’m just looking forward to see whatever that is.

I know I’m going to work my butt off and see what happens.

“For me, the biggest priority is

just opportunity — whatever I can do that helps the team. I just want to get back to that prior relationship with Sandy, knowing what he got out of me two years ago. “ Because of that prior relationship with Sandefur, Albright committed to the Cajuns without visiting Lafayette. He’ll get familiar with the South Louisiana heat when he visits later in June.

“He (Sandefur) said it takes a little bit of time to get used to, but once you’re used to it, you know, it’s a normal thing down there,”

West Division

Thursday’s Games

Friday’s Games

Chicago White Sox at Philadelphia, n Seattle at Detroit, n Boston at N.Y. Yankees, n Baltimore at Toronto, n Tampa Bay at Miami, n Athletics at Houston, n Cleveland at Texas, n Kansas City at Minnesota, n L.A. Angels at L.A. Dodgers, n

Saturday’s Games

71-76—147 73-74—147 73-75—148 74-74—148 72-76—148 72-76—148 76-72—148 73-75—148 74-74—148 76-72—148 73-75—148 71-78—149 74-75—149 73-76—149 77-72—149 75-74—149 74-75—149 74-75—149

+3 +3 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5

76-74—150 74-76—150 76-74—150 74-76—150 81-69—150 71-79—150 71-79—150 74-77—151 77-74—151 74-78—152 75-77—152 74-78—152 72-81—153 73-80—153 78-76—154 79-76—155 80-76—156 83-76—159 79-82—161

+6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +7 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10 +11 +12 +15 +17

At The International Amsterdam Purse: $2.8 million Yardage: 6,914; Par: 71 Second Round, Overnight Suspended S. Soderberg, Sweden 67-51—118 Callum Tarren, England 69-46—115 Joe Dean, England 66-60—126 Daniel Hillier, New Zealand 70-65—135 Yuto Katsuragawa, Japan 69-66—135 Julien Guerrier, France 65-63—128 J. Gumberg, United States 68-68—136 M. Steinlechner, Austria 67-69—136 Hunter Logan, United States 71-34—105 Oliver Lindell, Finland 69-51—120 Ryan Peake, Australia 70-52—122 Marcus Armitage, England 71-55—126 Angel Ayora Fanegas, Spain 73-65—138 Ewen Ferguson, Scotland 70-68—138 Ross Fisher, England 71-67—138 Dylan Frittelli, South Africa 69-69—138 Calum Hill, Scotland 68-70—138 E. Lopez-Chacarra, Spain 69-69—138 Guido Migliozzi, Italy 70-68—138 Francesco Molinari, Italy 69-69—138 N. Norgaard Moller, Denmark71-67—138 B. Rbinsn-Thmpsn, England 69-69—138 Sami Valimaki, Finland 70-68—138 Danny Willett, England 71-67—138 Davis Bryant, United States 70-52—122 Renato Paratore, Italy 71-56—127 Cameron Adam, Scotland 69-70—139 K. Kobori, New Zealand 71-68—139 David Ravetto, France 72-67—139 Marcel Siem, Germany 67-72—139 Nathan Kimsey, England 70-42—112 Marcus Helligkilde, Denmark 71-46—117 Yanhan Zhou, China 71-49—120 Pablo Ereno Perez, Spain 73-55—128 Paul Waring, England 68-64—132 Adri Arnaus, Spain 69-71—140 Andreas Halvorsen, Norway 70-70—140 Scott Jamieson, Scotland 72-68—140 Frederic Lacroix, France 72-68—140 Alexander Levy, France 68-72—140 J. Skov Olesen, Denmark 72-68—140 Bernd Wiesberger, Austria 69-71—140 K. Aphibarnrat, Thailand 75-38—113 Angel Hidalgo, Spain 72-41—113 Marcel Schneider, Germany 73-40—113 Jason Scrivener, Australia 75-45—120 Antoine Rozner, France 72-52—124 S. Garcia Rodriguez, Spain 71-70—141 M. Hollick, South Africa 69-72—141 S. Kaewkanjana, Thailand 72-69—141 Joost Luiten, Netherlands 69-72—141 James Morrison, England 71-70—141 J. Trey Schaper, South Africa 70-71—141 Richard Sterne, South Africa 69-72—141 Connor Syme, Scotland 73-68—141 L. Van Der Vight, Nethrlnds 68-73—141 Ashun Wu, China 73-68—141 O. Guillamoundguy, France 74-36—110 Dylan Naidoo, South Africa 73-41—114 Matthew Baldwin, England 72-47—119 Nevill Ruiter, Netherlands 74-45—119 Rikuya Hoshino, Japan 73-61—134 Dan Bradbury, England 74-68—142 Rafa Cabrera Bello, Spain 74-68—142 Jens Dantorp, Sweden 72-70—142 David Law, Scotland 70-72—142 Mikael Lindberg, Sweden 72-70—142 Matteo Manassero, Italy 73-69—142 JC Ritchie, South Africa 74-68—142 B. Stone, South Africa 71-71—142 N. Von Dllngshsn, Germany 76-66—142 Matthew Jordan, England 75-40—115 Stefano Mazzoli, Italy 74-41—115

-8 -7 -7 -7 -7 -6 -6 -6 -5 -5 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 E E E E E E E E E E E E E E +1 +1

Friday

At Muirfield Village Golf Club Dublin, Ohio Purse: $20 million Yardage: 7,569; Par: 72 Second Round J.T. Poston 70-65—135 Ryan Gerard 67-69—136 Sam Burns 69-69—138 Tommy Fleetwood 67-73—140 Eric Cole 72-69—141 Patrick Cantlay 70-72—142 Wyndham Clark 67-75—142 Xander Schauffele 72-70—142 Alex Fitzpatrick 72-71—143 Shane Lowry 70-73—143 Aaron Rai 73-70—143 Keegan Bradley 71-73—144 Tony Finau 70-74—144 Harry Hall 73-71—144 Kurt Kitayama 72-72—144 Maverick McNealy 71-73—144 Taylor Pendrith 71-73—144 J.J. Spaun 67-77—144 Jacob Bridgeman 76-69—145 Sungjae Im 73-72—145 Hideki Matsuyama 72-73—145 Rory McIlroy 71-74—145 Alex Noren 71-74—145 Kristoffer Reitan 75-70—145 Justin Rose 69-76—145 Scottie Scheffler 73-72—145 Sahith Theegala 74-71—145 Matt Fitzpatrick 75-71—146 Matt Kuchar 75-71—146 Adam Scott 72-74—146 Nick Taylor 68-78—146 Gary Woodland 72-74—146 Bud Cauley 73-74—147 Harris English 71-76—147 Ryan Fox 70-77—147

Central Division

Ryo Hisatsune Cameron Young Nicolas Echavarria Chris Gotterup Russell Henley Si Woo Kim Michael Kim Denny McCarthy Patrick Rodgers Brandt Snedeker Sudarshan Yellamaraju Ludvig Aberg Corey Conners Lucas Glover Tom Hoge Mac Meissner Sepp Straka Justin Thomas Missed Cut Brian Campbell Jason Day Brian Harman Billy Horschel Matthew McCarty Andrew Novak Jordan Spieth Ben Griffin Robert MacIntyre Nicolai Hojgaard Mark Hubbard Min Woo Lee Daniel Berger Akshay Bhatia Pierceson Coody Sam Stevens Jhonattan Vegas Alex Smalley Rickie Fowler

KLM Open

Philadelphia 6, San Diego 4 San Francisco 12, Milwaukee 9 Toronto 7, Atlanta 2 Chicago Cubs 7, Athletics 6 Pittsburgh 5, Houston 1 Arizona 3, L.A. Dodgers 2

Saturday’s Games

GB — ½ 8 8 11

Saturday’s Games

Pct .667 .532 .492 .460 .435

Hockey

Pct .610 .597 .476 .476 .426

Connecticut at Chicago, n Dallas at Los Angeles, n.

Phoenix at Portland, n

L 21 29 32 34 35

Friday’s Games

Saturday Game 1: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 St. John’s, 8 p.m.

Sunday Game 2: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 St. John’s, 2 p.m. x-Game 3: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 St. John’s, TBD

L 23 25 33 33 35

Friday’s Games

W 42 33 31 29 27

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

W 36 37 30 30 26

Thursday’s Games

Atlanta Philadelphia Washington Miami New York

Thursday’s Games

Friday Game 1: No. 3 Troy 12, No. 4 Little Rock 2 Saturday Game 2: No. 3 Troy vs. No. 4 Little Rock, 2 p.m. x-Game 3: No. 3 Troy vs. No. 4 Little Rock, TBD

Tampa Bay New York Baltimore Toronto Boston

Indiana 83, Atlanta 71 Minnesota 87, Golden State 84

East Division

Los Angeles Arizona San Diego San Francisco Colorado

NHL playoffs

Atlanta New York Indiana Toronto Washington Chicago Connecticut

National League

West Division

Troy, Ala.

(Best-of-7; x-if necessary)

Baltimore (Bradish 3-6) at Toronto (TBD), 2:07 p.m.

Chicago White Sox (Burke 2-3) at Philadelphia (Painter 1-6), 3:05 p.m.

Athletics (Morris 0-0) at Houston (Imai 2-3), 3:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay (McClanahan 6-2) at Miami (TBD), 3:10 p.m.

Boston (Suarez 2-3) at N.Y. Yankees (Warren 7-1), 6:35 p.m.

Cleveland (Bibee 0-7) at Texas (Leiter 3-4), 6:35 p.m.

L.A. Angels (Kochanowicz 2-4) at L.A. Dodgers (Yamamoto 5-4), 9:10 p.m.

-9 -8 -6 -4 -3 -2 -2 -2 -1 -1 -1 E E E E E E E +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +3

Albright said of the heat.

Another former Marshall pitcher Charlie Krebs also has committed to the Cajuns for next season.

The UL roster is also getting a talent infusion from two high school and six junior-college signees. The high school additions are Teurlings Catholic pitcher Evan Vincent and Barbe second baseman Myles Ledoux.

The juco signees include Tallahassee JC infielder Eric Fernandez, Vernon CC pitcher Degan Kubat, Iowa Central CC pitcher

Robin Williams, South Africa 72-51—123 Ricardo Gouveia, Portugal 71-60—131 C. Charmasson, France 69-74—143 Todd Clements, England 74-69—143 H. Du Plessis, South Africa 73-70—143 Marcus Kinhult, Sweden 70-46—116 Tom Vaillant, France 73-43—116 Eddie Pepperell, England 73-55—128 Nacho Elvira, Spain 73-59—132 Jorge Campillo, Spain 73-71—144 Casey Jarvis, South Africa 76-68—144 R. Johnston, United States 71-73—144 Pablo Larrazabal, Spain 71-73—144 Richard Mansell, England 73-71—144 Anthony Quayle, Australia 75-69—144 Daniel Rodrigues, Portugal 69-75—144 Daniel Young, Scotland 74-70—144 G. Forrest, Scotland 78-39—117 I. Cantero Gutierrez, Spain 74-47—121 Z. Lombard, South Africa 75-58—133 Gregorio De Leo, Italy 75-66—141 Niklas Lemke, Sweden 70-75—145 A. Otaegi, United Arab Em 75-70—145 B. Schmidt, England 74-71—145 J. Veerman, United States 71-74—145 S. Woltering, Netherlands 74-71—145 Sean Crocker, United States 74-55—129 Fred Biondi, Brazil 72-74—146 G. Fernandez-Castano, Spain 73-73—146 Yannik Paul, Germany 78-68—146 D. Van Driel, Netherlands 74-72—146 Lars Van Meijel, Netherlands 74-72—146 Euan Walker, Scotland 75-71—146 Jack Yule, England 72-74—146 Fabrizio Zanotti, Paraguay 73-73—146 Sam Bairstow, England 74-52—126 M. Feuerstein, United States 75-52—127 Alejandro Del Rey, Spain 75-72—147 Simon Forsstrom, Sweden 74-73—147 Felix Mory, France 76-44—120 Daniel Gavins, England 76-49—125 Alvaro Quiros, Spain 75-69—144 Albin Bergstrom, Sweden 72-76—148 Martin Couvra, France 76-72—148 Joakim Lagergren, Sweden 74-74—148 Andy Sullivan, England 71-77—148 Jerry Ji, Netherlands 78-39—117 David Micheluzzi, Australia 74-59—133 Quentin Debove, France 73-76—149 Kevin Na, United States 74-75—149 Rocco Repetto Taylor, Spain 73-76—149 Yuvraj Sandhu, India 74-75—149 B.Van Der Voort, Netherlnds 75-74—149 Romain Wattel, France 78-71—149 Mason Howell, United States 73-60—133 Jeong-Weon Ko, France 74-76—150 Yurav Premlall, South Africa 74-76—150 Hugo Townsend, Sweden 74-76—150 Pieter Werner, Netherlands 74-76—150 Wil Besseling, Netherlands 77-62—139 Quim Vidal, Spain 74-77—151 Jeff Winther, Denmark 78-73—151 Wenyi Ding, China 75-65—140 W. De Vries, Netherlands 75-77—152 B. Follett-Smith, Zimbabwe 75-77—152 Tobias Jonsson, Sweden 73-79—152 Mike Toorop, Netherlands 78-74—152 Jack Buchanan, Australia 80-50—130 Kristoffer Broberg, Sweden 78-75—153 Richie Ramsay, Scotland 78-75—153 Guus Lafeber, Netherlands 79-55—134 J. Broomhead, South Africa 75-80—155 Andres Gallegos, Argentina 76-79—155 Daan Huizing, Netherlands 75-80—155 Connor McKinney, Australia 85-67—152 Floris De Haas, Netherlands 79-70—149 T. Der Steen, Netherlands 78-73—151 Filippo Celli, Italy 70-WD Jack Senior, England 78-WD

+1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +5 +5 +5 +5 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +9 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10 +11 +11 +11 +13 +13 +13 +13 +14 +16 +17

Tennis French Open Results Friday

At Stade Roland Garros Paris Purse: €28,900,000 Surface: Red clay Results Friday from French Open at Stade Roland Garros (seedings in parentheses):

Men’s Singles

Semifinals Alexander Zverev (2), Germany, def. Jakub Mensik (26), Czechia, 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Flavio Cobolli (10), Italy, def. Matteo Arnaldi, Italy, walkover.

Men’s Doubles

Semifinals Marcel Granollers, Spain, and Horacio Zeballos (1), Argentina, def. Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori (5), Italy, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Women’s Doubles

Semifinals Taylor Townsend, United States, and Katerina Siniakova (1), Czechia, def. Gabriela Dabrowski, Canada, and Luisa Stefani (4), Brazil, 6-0, 6-1.

Aleksandra Krunic, Serbia, and Anna Danilina (2), Kazakhstan, def. Shuko Aoyama, Japan, and En-Shuo Liang, Taiwan, 7-5, 6-2.

Transactions Major League Baseball

American League ATHLETICS — Designated RHP Joel Kuhnel for assignment. Recalled RHP Elvis Alvarado from Las Vegas (PCL).

Maddox Sullivan, Central Arizona CC first baseman/outfielder Kayle Pisano, Chandler Gilbert CC first baseman Jeremy Kuiper and Bossier City CC pitcher Trent Lape.

UL’s list of portal losses so far includes one part-time starter in outfielder Maddox Mandino, as well as Owen Galt, Kasen Bellard, Trip Dobson, Cole Flanagan, Griffin Hebert, Cowan Alfonso, Jayce LaCava and Wilton Taylor.

Email Kevin Foote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com.

LIVING

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

|

S at u r d ay, J u n e 6, 2026

5Cn

Roy Petitfils

Help teens navigate life now that they’re more exposed A few months ago, I was speaking to a group of parents when a father said something I’ve been hearing more and more lately.

“I just don’t think kids today are as resilient as we were.”

Several heads nodded.

I understood what he meant.

Many adults look at the rising rates of anxiety among young people and wonder what happened. We remember riding our bikes until dark, settling disagreements face-to-face and figuring things out without needing a therapist. Compared to that, today’s teenagers can seem more emotionally overwhelmed.

But after spending more than two decades counseling adolescents and their families, I’m not convinced today’s teens are more fragile.

I think they’re more exposed.

Most of us got to survive adolescence without carrying our peer group around in our pocket. When I was growing up, if you weren’t invited somewhere, you might eventually hear about it on Monday morning. It stung, but there was some distance between the event and the disappointment.

Today’s teens find out in real time. A photo gets posted. A story goes up. A group selfie appears online. Within seconds, a teen knows exactly who was there, who wasn’t, and where they stand — or at least where they think they stand. Many adults underestimate how exhausting that can be and what a toll it can take on an adolescent’s mental health.

Imagine if every awkward moment from your teenage years had the potential to be photographed, recorded, shared, commented on and revisited. Imagine if popularity came with numbers attached to it. Followers. Likes. Views.

Streaks. Most adults would struggle under those conditions.

Teens today aren’t weak.

They’re navigating an environment we never had to face.

Their developmental tasks haven’t changed that much.

They’re still trying to answer the same questions they always have: Who am I? Do I belong? Am I enough?

What’s changed is the volume. The comparison is louder.

The pressure is louder. The audience is larger. And unlike “our day,” it rarely sleeps.

When we judge teens as fragile or “snowflakes” it shows we don’t understand their reality. When we don’t understand what someone is going through, they’ll resist our influence. And influence is the ballgame when it comes to teens. There are already so many obstacles to influencing them positively, we can’t afford another.

Understanding isn’t the same thing as excusing. Teenagers still need accountability. They still need boundaries. They still need adults who challenge them to take responsibility for their choices. But they also need adults who understand the world they’re navigating.

One of the greatest gifts we can offer young people is a place where they don’t have to perform, manage an image, compete for attention or worry about being judged. A place where they can simply be themselves.

ä See TEENS, page 6C

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

The Diamonds Are Forever cocktail is a $5,000 martini served at Supper Club that comes with a diamond tennis bracelet from Anton’s Fine Jewelry.

Served to sparkle Chasing the unusual, Baton Rouge’s Supper Club adds $5,000 cocktail to its menu

BY NATALEIGH PARKER Contributing writer

Four years in, the swanky Supper Club in Baton Rouge continues to delight diners from near and far with intention, whether that’s in its A5 wagyu with 24K gold Ossetra Caviar, creme brulee flamed tableside or the new $5,000 cocktail.

During LSU’s graduation weekend in May, one Alabama guest in town to celebrate a family member was so impressed with the resCarbo taurant that she Facetimed her husband back home to show him the menu and the dining room’s sleek design.

While she was showing him the menu, he noticed the $5,000 martini. After they hung up, he called the restaurant, gave the name of the reservation and his credit card and ordered the drink — and the diamond tennis bracelet that comes with it — for his wife.

“It’s very important that our guests have a certain experience

STAFF FILE PHOTO By LAUREN CHERAMIE

Guests sit inside Supper Club for opening night in 2023.

when they come here. From the enhance all five senses. moment they pull into the parking lot to the time they are leaving, we Intimidation coupled with nerves want to control every aspect,” exSupper Club isn’t like most resecutive chef Leighton Carbo said. taurants in Louisiana, let alone in “So we think of every possible Baton Rouge, but that difference is thing to make that happen.” ä See MARTINI, page 6C Carbo said those aspects aim to

Korean convenience store opening second location Seoul stop is opening a second location on Siegen Lane.

STAFF PHOTO By MADDIE SCOTT

BY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

Seoul Stop will open a second location in Baton Rouge, and this one is two times bigger than the original.

The business opened its first location in 2025 at 7920 Florida Blvd., offering a custom ramen bar and snack shop. But now customers will get access to more products at a new location opening on Siegen Lane, spanning

6,000 square feet — doubled in size compared to the original location’s 3,000 square feet. The new store is located at 6275 Siegen Lane.

There isn’t an official opening date just yet, but general manager Minho Kim hopes the new location will open in mid-June.

He said the second location is in the final stages of construction and remodeling.

ä See SEOUL STOP, page 6C

6C ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Classmate keeps bringing Use dental microbrush applicator up decades-old history Dear Miss Manners: In my senior own choices and trying to year of high school, I got make herself feel better in pregnant, and back in those comparison — or wondering times, I was not allowed to why your life turned out so well. graduate. I married In any case, Miss my child’s father and Manners agrees that it is raised two children with her problem, not yours. him. We were divorced And politely acting many years later, mostly as such and showing because we had not concern will have the finished growing up added benefit of only Judith when we married. annoying her more.

Martin I did go on to attend Dear Miss Manners: There MISS classes at a local was a social media post MANNERS community college, about a woman who and later married wore a black three-piece another man. We had 30 suit, with a white shirt, to her wonderful years together, and brother’s wedding. The bride, were very successful in our groom and bridesmaids treated marriage, our life and with the the woman rudely, stating that multiple businesses we built it was because she was wearing together. I have been blessed a white shirt, which was with wonderful children and inexcusable. grandchildren, all of whom Ultimately, it escalated to the either have successful careers groom’s mother intentionally or are college-bound. spilling red wine on her, and A high school friend, who with the groom stating “You’re married and lives well, cannot dead to me” because she wore see me without bringing up, the white shirt. in some fashion, that I did not Obviously, guests should not graduate when we were in wear white dresses to weddings high school. At a reunion, her unless asked to do so. Does this comment in the group where I stricture extend to wearing was standing was, “Oh, you had white shirts under suits? If so, a child by the time you were does it only apply to women?

18.” I smiled and said, “Yes, I Gentle reader: Apparently. did.”

Because otherwise, Miss I have no idea why she refuses Manners feels certain that most to let go of this — and how of the men attending would now does it affect her life, anyway? be wearing red-stained shirts Truthfully, I feel it is her as well. problem, not mine.

So this reaction is absurd as Because we attend common well as vicious. Because it was interest functions, I see her so awful, Miss Manners will three or four times a year. I’m delicately refrain from noticing certain that Miss Manners that the black suit part was would not wish for me to be also incorrect. Black attire at terribly forward with her, but a wedding looks funereal, and after 50 years, I’ve had enough. was traditionally considered a Gentle reader: Next time she protest. points out your history, try Then again, perhaps this guest saying, “Yes, you mention that was anticipating her hosts’ frequently. Is there a reason? Is atrocious behavior. everything OK in your family?”

Although she may not be Send questions to Miss willing to admit it, this woman Manners at her website, www. is likely dissatisfied with her missmanners.com.

TODAY IN HISTORY

By The Associated Press Today is Saturday, June 6, the 157th day of 2026. There are 208 days left in the year.

Today in history: On June 6, 1944, during World War II, nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, on D-Day as they launched Operation Overlord to liberate German-occupied Western Europe. More than 4,400 Allied troops were killed on DDay, including 2,501 Americans.

Also on this date: In 1889, an industrial accident sparked a devastating fire in Seattle, Washington, destroying 120 acres of the city center, including the majority of the city’s commercial district and waterfront.

In 1912, Novarupta, a volcano on the Alaska peninsula, began a three-day eruption, sending ash nearly 19 miles high; it was the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century and the largest ever recorded in North America.

In 1933, the first drive-in movie theater opened, in Camden, New Jersey.

In 1939, the first Little League

Baseball game was played as Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy 23-8 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

In 1966, James Meredith was shot and wounded by a sniper early in the civil rights activist’s march from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to raise awareness about racial injustice in the U.S. South. (Meredith would recover from his injuries and rejoin the march, which had swelled from a small group to 15,000 marchers, the day before reaching Jackson.)

In 2015, American Pharoah became the first horse in 37 years to claim horse racing’s Triple Crown, winning the Belmont Stakes by 51/ 2 lengths.

Today’s birthdays: Singer-songwriter Gary U.S. Bonds is 87. Civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman is 87. Country musician Joe Stampley is 83. Olympic track & field gold medalist Tommie Smith is 82. Actor Robert Englund is 79. Folk singer Holly Near is 77. Tennis Hall of Famer Bjorn Borg is 70. Comedian Colin Quinn is 67. Music producer Jimmy Jam is 67.

RELIGION BRIEFS FROM STAFF REPORTS

St. Francis Episcopal Church plans 2 events

St. Francis Episcopal Church, 726 Maple St., Denham Springs, will host a pet memorial service of prayer and remembrance at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

In honor of International Pet Memorial Day, the service will provide an opportunity to remember and celebrate beloved pets and animal companions who have enriched lives. Attendees are invited to email a photo of their pet to saintfrands@gmail.com for display during the service or bring a photo with them.

The church will also collect pet food donations for the Den-

TEENS

Continued from page 5C The encouraging news is that I see resilience in teenagers every day. I see it in my counseling sessions, in schools and in conversations after parent pre-

ham Springs Food Pantry, which assists local families and their pets.

The community is invited.

The chuch also will hold its semi-annual garage sale from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday-Saturday, June 19-20.

Shoppers will find a wide variety of treasures, including clothing, toys, home décor, tools, housewares and more. Proceeds will support the mission and ministry of the church.

The public is invited to the sale, as well as to Sunday worship services at 10 a.m.

For more information on the events, call (225) 665-2707 or visit www.stfrands.org.

sentations. I see young people who care deeply, persevere through difficult circumstances and continue showing up despite enormous pressures.

They’re not a weaker generation. They’re just more exposed.

As we adults come to understand that reality we’ll be better equipped to help them.

Dear Heloise: I read L.C.’s letter ples” rather than “we need fewer about recycling mascara wands to apples.” My grandkids don’t see clean hummingbird feedor know the difference.

— John S., in Newbury Park, Caliers. I wanted to share what I use if I need tiny applicafornia John, my pet peeve with tors. I get 400 of them at modern English is the way a very small cost. They’re that so many people use dental microbrush applicathe word “like” as a filler tors that are 2.5 millimeHints from word. Is silence so terrible ters wide, so they would Heloise that we have to say “like” work well for this use and five times in one sentence? are disposable. They come in different sizes if need be. — Pris- When did sounding educated becilla W., via email come something to avoid? — Heloise

Modern language

A clean cook

Dear Heloise: Regarding the letter about using correct English, what about changes that have become acceptable to everyone except us older folk? My pet peeve is the use of “less” in place of “fewer.”

For example, “we need less ap-

Dear Heloise: After ruining too many cookbook pages with spills and splashes, I finally found a simple solution while making a messy chocolate pound cake from a beautiful, new autographed cookbook. I’ve always

used clear top-loading sheet protectors to store recipes from magazines, newspapers and friends in a binder. Now I place one or two sheet protectors over the open pages of my cookbook while it sits on the cookbook stand.

The bottom rim of the holder keeps them in place. If needed, a paper clip can secure the protector directly to the page. I also keep a sheet protector tucked inside the cookbooks that I use most often, so one is always handy.

This works great for online recipes; just prop a clip or a protector over the front of your laptop or tablet screen to guard against splatters! — Jami R., via email

Send a hint to heloise@heloise. com.

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Chef Leighton Carbo chills a martini glass before serving the Diamonds Are Forever cocktail, a $5,000 martini that comes with a diamond tennis bracelet from Anton’s Fine Jewelry, at Supper Club on May 29.

MARTINI

Continued from page 5C the objective.

On Fridays, the servers come in 30 minutes early to learn new details, whether the education is on wine or new items. The goal is to enhance their knowledge and capabilities to provide an elevated level of service.

With a combination of top-tier service, high-quality ingredients and a sophisticated, upscale environment, the restaurant sets itself apart from others.

“We’re not really trying to compete with anyone in town,” Carbo said. “We’re trying to be completely different.”

The initial suspense of Supper Club starts from the outside — it’s a nondescript cement building hidden off of Perkins Road. The building may seem intimidating to guests as they open the gigantic door .

“It’s an intimidation and almost gives you butterflies if you’ve never been here,” Carbo said.

Co-owner Mackenzie Landry, along with husband Brandon Landry, worked with a luxury design team to build an environment that’s sophisticated, yet playful, to create a world apart from the ordinary.

A few, well-thought-out details include the chain walls — handmade in Barcelona, Spain — as well as the chandeliers purchased from Milan.

Carbo introduced “goodie fries,” a small gift from the kitchen to welcome the guests in and provide comfort.

Pushing the envelope To maintain its edgy, mysterious and unapologetic reputation, Supper Club consistently adds new menu items to keep guests on their toes.

The newest cocktail, Diamonds Are Forever, upped the ante — not necessarily for the drink, but for the three-carat tennis bracelet from Anton’s Fine Jewelry that’s presented with it. Supper Club doesn’t do traditional marketing,

SEOUL STOP

Continued from page 5C “The second location will be more large in terms of square footage,” Kim said. “We’re going to be able to offer more variety of deli foods. We’re going to have a full kitchen.”

Among the offerings are Korean

The Diamonds Are Forever martini is crafted with Belvedere 10, a luxury Polish vodka brand, while flashlights shine over the cocktail.

Carbo said. The purpose of the $5,000 cocktail is to push the envelope, elevating the customer experience .

The inspiration came from Papi Steak, a restaurant in Miami, Florida, that sells a $33,000 martini with a Birkin bag.

Supper Club decided to make the cocktail “fit” Baton Rouge by giving their own take on it with Diamonds Are Forever.

“It’s not on the menu for us to sell a bunch of them. It’s not on the menu to be like ‘man, this is going to generate a bunch of sales, and this is going to make so much money,’ ” Carbo said. “We actually don’t even make money on the necklace.”

A lot of psychology went into putting the cocktail on the menu, said Noah Trahan, a Supper Club bartender and server. The restaurant already has steep prices, so the $5,000 martini makes the $200 steak look “normal.”

“What that does is, when you see something that’s so expensive like that, it makes everything else feel less expensive,” Trahan said.

Despite putting the cocktail on the menu with the initial thought that it wouldn’t sell, six have sold in the six months it has been on the menu.

The presentation of the cocktail

isn’t only an experience for the guest who purchased it, but for every guest in the restaurant. The lights go dim, immediately generating suspense, while the song “Diamonds Are Forever” from the James Bond franchise plays over the speakers.

While the martini is being crafted with Belvedere 10, a luxury Polish vodka brand, flashlights shine over the cocktail. Once created, the staff follows the server who presents the cocktail with sparklers and flashlights.

To complete the presentation, the server puts on a white glove and carefully places the diamond bracelet on the guest’s wrist.

“A lot of times, especially after the presentation, I’ll go back to my tables, and they always ask, ‘What was that?’ and I’m like, ‘Well, that is the Diamonds Are Forever,’ ” Trahan said.

Supper Club has earned its reputation as a high-end dining experience by creating one-of-a-kind dishes using premium ingredients — leaving each guest with a new taste and story. No matter the person or the occasion, the “why” behind Supper Club remains top priority.

“You’ve got to have a why,” Carbo said. “And our why is the guest experience.”

Jan Risher contributed to this report.

beauty products, a K-pop section, Korean stationery and two photo booths.

New food items include Korean corn dogs, fried foods and Korean side dishes also known as banchan.

Many of the offerings at the original location will also be at the new spot, such as fruit sandos (one of Kim’s favorites), a popular dessert sandwich made with whipped cream and fruit. The final food

menu is still in the works, Kim said.

Another of Kim’s favorites is the spicy sausage bun made with a milk bun, sausage and drizzled with a spicy buldak carbonarainspired sauce.

Inside, there’ll be a dining area with 30 seats, and the outside patio will have about 16 seats.

“It’s going to be fun, and it’s going to be great,” Kim said. “We’re looking forward to it.”

Supper Club’s ‘why’

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● 7C

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FrAnK And erneSt

bIG nAte

zItS

zodIAC GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Put pressure on yourself to do better. How you present your beliefs and the changes you want to bring about will make a difference to the outcome. Do your research. cAncER (June 21-July 22) Don't waffle; the sooner you take care of your responsibilities, the easier it will be to deal with criticism or someone trying to make you look bad. Carefully choose the information you share.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Live and learn. Experience is the best teacher. Your generous attitude and helping hand will put you in the spotlight, impressing someone you'll enjoy getting to know better.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Timing is everything, and by picking the right moment, you can sway how others feel and what they choose to do. A kind gesture, remark or offer will set the stage for what's to come.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Bypass anyone who stands in your way. Make unexpected changes that will separate you from the crowd. Social settings will give you a chance to pick up on what others are up to. scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Explore your options, and put your energy into something you love doing. Whether it's physical, mental or expanding your options through networking, educational pursuits or travel, pursue what makes you happy. sAGITTARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Invite change into your life. You need to shake things up if you want to get what you

desire in your life. Focus on eliminating what brings you down and holds you back. cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Fix up your surroundings to make your life easier.

The difference a functional space makes will encourage you to entertain more and ensure those you live with appreciate your thoughtfulness.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Money management will pay off. What you budget for will help bring about changes at home that make your life less cumbersome. Take one step at a time; get your facts straight.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) You may feel like celebrating, but before you do, consider the cost involved and the laborintensive recovery you are likely to face. Choose your battles wisely and only change what's necessary.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Take a moment to digest what's unfolding around you.

Question, assess and say no to anything that causes doubt. Be passionate about what you do and say, and you'll be the one to captivate your audience.

TAuRus (April 20-May 20) Deep breaths in and out will help you ward off anxiety that comes with uncertainty. When something isn't clear, ask for more details. Align yourself with people who are on the same page as you.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

For better or For WorSe WonderWord

peAnUtS

SALLY Forth

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

ToDAy's cLuE: A EQuALs E

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon FAMILY CIrCUS

dooneSbUrY

8C ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Hi and LoiS

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Sudoku InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers.

The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

BLondie

THe wiZard oF id

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La TimeS CroSSword

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● 9C

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Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER Thomas J. Watson, a former head of IBM, said, “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure — or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes.

Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.”

You will have trouble finding bridge partners if you make a lot of mistakes.

But if you learn from them and turn your rate of failure nearly to zero, you will become very popular.

In today’s deal, though, “double” is the key word. East opens four hearts, showing a good eight-card suit and limited high-card power. Then, when his opponents cruise into six spades, he doubles.

What message does that transmit to West? What should West lead?

Doubling a slam because you think that it’s going down is mathematically inadvisable. When the opponents are nonvulnerable, you turn plus 50 into plus 100.

But if the slam makes, you have changed minus 980 into minus 1210.

So, many years ago, Theodore Lightner had the idea of using the double as leaddirecting. It says that East has a void somewhere and hopes his partner can find it with his opening lead.

garfield

Pearls Before swiNe

hagar the horriBle

In this deal, West clearly expects his partner to have a diamond void. Therefore, he should lead his diamond ace.

Then, though, when everyone follows suit, West should rethink. East’s void must be in clubs. West should shift to that suit at trick two, here defeating the contract. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

wuzzles Each Wuzzle is a word riddle which creates a disguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD = GOOD AFTERNOON

PiCKles

Previous answers:

mallard fillmore

word game InsTRucTIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters 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 words are not allowed.

ToDAy’s WoRD — PLEnARy: PLEN-un-ree: Complete in every respect.

Bizarro

marmaduKe

Average mark 37 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 50 or more words in PLENARY? yEsTERDAy’s WoRD — soFTEnED seed seen send sent soft soften sonde sone steed steno stone

often onset feed feet fend fest fete fond fondest font teed

teen tend tense tone need nest nested node noes nose note

deet deft denote dense dent does done donee dose dote

loCKhorNs hidato Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

today’s thought “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”

Psalms 19:7 Get in God’s word and let God’s word get in you. G.E. Dean

10C ● Saturday, June 6, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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