With statefunding uncertain, toughchoices areahead
St. LandryParishschoolbuses areparkedoutsidethe school system warehouse in OpelousasonMonday
BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
Joey Richard likes to say that he conductsresearch from behind his barber chair.
It’swhere Richard, theowner of Holliwood Cutz barber shop in Opelousas, deducedthat thelocal school system is shrinking.
“Every year I’ve been in business,”hesaid, “I’m cutting less and less kids.”
Like nearly everyother school district in Louisiana, St. Landry Parish has seen enrollmentfall as families have fewer kids, move away or opt forcharters or homeschool. Yetevenasthe school system lost roughly a quarter of its studentsover the past decade,its workforce grew by nearly20%.
School officialssay the positionsare necessary to serve the area’smanystudentswithcomplex needs —but it’s not clear thedistrict can afford them. Richard, who has two schoolaged children andwhose wife is aclassroom aide, watched with dismaylastmonth as local voters rejected atax hike that would haveboostedschool employees’ lowpay,leading frustrated busdrivers —who earn less than $25,000annually— to stageasick-out. When Richard attended the School Board meeting afew days after the May vote,anofficial in the financedepartment said he would cut some positions and reduce hisown salary to chip away at the district’snearly $8 million deficit.
School enrollmentdown, employment up
Nearly 40%ofLouisiana school districtsloststudentsfrom 2014 to 2024 even as they addedemployees
School district
roll down to their neighborhood mailboxes in Sunset on Monday. Dylanwill enter 6th gradethis fall at Helix AI and Medical Academy
Legislature passes more than 900bills
Louisiana’s 2027 budget includes economic incentives, raises forstate workers
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
When the U.S. Supreme Court issuedits April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, it sent the state Legislature into overdrive. The high court’sruling —which found the state’scongressionalvoting map unconstitutional because the legislature relied too heavily on race in drawing it —causedGov.Jeff
Landry to cancel elections for the U.S. House just days before early voting, andsentthe Houseand Senate scrambling to assemble a new map in the final month of the session.
Landry and the Legislature’s GOP supermajority eliminated oneofthe state’s two majorityBlack,Democratic-leaning districts. Thatleft one such district that ties together NewOrleans and Baton Rouge and five solidly Republican districts. The push to eliminate the majority-Black districtdrewintense opposition. Severalhearings on the newmap lastedfor hours as speakersaccusedRepublican leadersofdisenfranchising Black voters,undermining decades of hard-won civil rights progress.
Officialssay secrecy necessarytoprotect deals from competingstates
BY SAM KARLIN Staff writer
As Louisiana officials negotiated with Hyundai to build amassive steel mill in the state, they used confidential agreements to provide much more generousincentives than have been publicly known.
Records obtained by The Times-Picayune show that Louisiana —through the state and local governments and Entergy —collectively offered incentives worth $2.6 billion to Hyundai, apackage that amounts to roughly half the overall cost of the $5.8 billion steel plant that the company plans to
in Donaldsonville.
STAFF PHOTOSByLESLIEWESTBROOK
Joey Richard and his son Dylan, 12, chat as theywalk and
Landry
Multiple people shot near festival in Ohio
Multiple people were shot Saturday near a busy community street festival in Toledo, Ohio, and a search for the suspects was ongoing as victims were taken to nearby hospitals, police said.
Toledo police officers responded to a report of a person shot near the Old West End Festival at about 5:30 p.m. When they arrived, they found multiple shooting victims, the police department said in a statement.
Police said “many victims” were transported to medical facilities but did not provide further details on the injuries and how many people were shot. Authorities also did not provide any details on what may have set off the shooting.
Kevin Berry said he was sitting in the neighborhood arboretum listening to live music with his friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out.
“Everybody hit the deck,” he said. When he looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 50 feet away from him Police officers who were already on-site for the festival immediately responded to the scene.
Berry, who has medical training and served in the U.S Navy, said he walked around the area looking for potential victims who might need help.
He said he saw at least five people with gunshot wounds.
“The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said.
Trump pardons former GOP congressman
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information after he left office. Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.
The Supreme Court in May rejected Buyer’s appeal without comment or noted dissent.
In granting “a full, complete, and unconditional pardon,” Trump cited Buyer’s career as a judge advocate general in the Army and in the House that was “distinguished and highly productive.” The pardon was dated Thursday and released by the White House late Friday
Buyer said the pardon “corrects a politically motivated prosecution” and that it was “horrific to be imprisoned for a crime that I did not commit.” He maintains that he is innocent.
India’s ‘cockroaches’ hold first street protest
NEW DELHI Hundreds of supporters of the Cockroach Janata Party, an online joke that has drawn millions of followers across India, gathered for the first time in the capital on Saturday for its biggest real-world test yet.
The protest near Parliament in New Delhi marked the movement’s first step into street politics after weeks of dominating social media feeds and news headlines, attracting widespread support among young Indians.
The immediate trigger for Saturday’s protest was the reported irregularity in a recent exam that quickly became a broader outlet for frustration over India’s education system and limited job opportunities.
“Time to turn this tiny joke into a revolution,” the official CJP account on X posted Friday Young people in India make up more than a quarter of the population.
Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the online movement, joined the protest after arriving from the U.S. Police had laid steel barricades at the arrivals section of New Delhi’s international airport.
Dipke said in a social media post shortly after arriving that police granted permission to the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, to hold the protest, adding: “Cockroaches gather at Jantar Mantar.”
U.S. exchanges fire with Iran
BY SAMY MAGDY and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
CAIRO Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones toward Bahrain and Kuwait that were intercepted early Saturday, Bahrain’s government said, and called on Tehran to halt attacks on Gulf neighbors that test a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East conflict.
Iran said that it targeted American military assets in both countries, after the U.S. attacked surveillance facilities on Qeshm Island and near Sirik that Iran said were used to protect borders and “ensure the security of navigation in international waters.” Tehran called the attack a ceasefire violation.
sites in response.
“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,”
U.S. Central Command said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted the Ali Al Salem air base, which hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency
The U.S. military said there were no reports of harm to U.S. personnel. Earlier in the week, Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person and wounding dozens.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is seeking to ratchet up economic pressure on Iran.
The U.S Treasury Department is considering using Iranian assets to help Gulf
The latest exchange of fire came as the Trump administration presses Iran to make a deal to end the war, which has strained the global economy and threatened a hunger crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.
Palestinian officials: Israeli troops kill baby in West Bank
BY MAHMOUD ILLEAN, SAMY MAGDY and SAM MEDNICK Associated Press
HEBRON,West Bank Israeli troops shot at a car in the occupied West Bank, killing a 7-month-old Palestinian baby and wounding his parents, the Palestinian health ministry said, with the bullet striking the boy in the face
The Israeli military said that soldiers shot at a vehicle perceived to be accelerating toward them near Hebron. It said an initial inquiry found that the three Palestinians wounded were uninvolved civilians.
Israeli military activity, and settler violence against Palestinians, have surged in the territory since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
The baby’s father, Bethlehem University lecturer Fahd Abu Haikal, told The Associated Press that a bullet struck the windshield before piercing his right hand and striking his son and wife in the back seat Friday evening. Another bullet struck the hood, according to AP journalists who saw the car
The bullet passed through Sam Fahd Abu Haikal’s face.
“He was the entire world,” Haikal said of the boy, who turned seven months on Friday
The mother was in critical condition, with shrapnel close to her heart.
The baby’s body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag. His father carried him. The men placed the small bundle at their feet and bowed in prayer
The father demanded justice. “At the end they tell you it was a mistake,” he said. “Nothing is called a mistake.”
The baby’s grandmother, Feryal Abu Heikal, was also in the car She said that they were driving near a checkpoint and stopped when they saw Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the distance. She said she initially thought the gunfire was warning shots.
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are seldom penalized, and were indicted in fewer than 1% of cases based on 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing between 2016 and 2024, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
allies pay for damages they sustained in the war, according to a person familiar with Secretary Scott Bessent’s thinking who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations.
By The Associated Press
Residents of St. Petersburg were told not to leave their homes after a largescale Ukrainian drone attack targeted Russia’s second-largest city Saturday morning, underscoring Kyiv’s growing ability to hit deep inside Russia.
The attack came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin refused an offer to meet his Ukrainian counterpart
St. Petersburg Gov Alexander Beglov said three people sustained minor injuries in the attack. He advised residents not to go outside and warned of possible disruptions to mobile internet service, while regional Gov Alexander Drozdenko said 141 drones were shot down over the surrounding Leningrad region in what he called an “unprecedented attack.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 376 Ukrainian drones.
“Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St Petersburg region — to the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that drones also hit an oil depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region.
The renewed attack on St. Petersburg is the latest embarrassing blow to Putin’s efforts to cast the conflict as a distant event that doesn’t affect Russian daily life. A Ukrainian drone strike set ablaze an
Pakistan’s interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, arrived in Iran on Saturday as part of mediation efforts.
The U.S. military said it shot down several Iranian missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies, and struck some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar
The U.S. military kept up its blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s grip on the strait, a crucial corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments. Energy prices have spiked, posing political problems for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party before the midterm congressional election.
Israeli airstrikes kill 9 people in Lebanon after ceasefire deal
BY BASSEM MROUE Associated Press
BEIRUT Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed nine people including three members of the Lebanese military, the Lebanese army and state media said, days after the two sides reached a new ceasefire deal.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun called the strike against its military a “flagrant violation” of the country’s sovereignty and international law during an “ongoing escalation that threatens stability and security in the south.”
An airstrike on a vehicle on a road linking Nabatiyeh city with Marjayoun town killed a brigadier general, a captain and another soldier, the army said, without releasing their names. Another airstrike on Saksakiyah village killed six people and wounded four, the staterun National News Agency said.
Lebanon’s army said the “continued, deliberate, and repeated Israeli aggression” aims to thwart efforts toward a solution “that would restore stability, establish a comprehensive ceasefire and lead to the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Leba-
oil terminal in the city and hit a nearby naval base Wednesday, hours before the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin’s annual showcase for investment Speaking at the forum, Putin said Thursday that Russia will strengthen its air defenses to counter recent Ukrainian drone attacks which have reached deep inside his country and cast a cloud over the event in his hometown of St Petersburg. Putin on Friday rejected a proposal by Zelenskyy for a face-to-face meeting on the 4-year-old conflict, saying he sees “no point” in it. Thursday’s letter, the first public message Zelenskyy has written directly to Putin since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, was
nese territories.”
The Israeli military confirmed hitting a vehicle and said it was “moving suspiciously” toward soldiers near Kfar Tibnit village, after the military received “concrete indications” that the Iranianbacked Hezbollah militant group would direct fire toward Israeli soldiers from the same area.
The military said it operates against Hezbollah and not against the Lebanese army
Meanwhile, Israel’s military announced the deaths of two soldiers in southern Lebanon, without the dates they died.
The latest ceasefire, an-
nounced in Washington, came through U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon’s government, which accuses Hezbollah of dragging the country into war and made efforts to disarm it before the latest hostilities. Hezbollah has refused the truce. Israeli troops have seized around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing farther into the country’s south than at any time since the end of Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation. More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. began attacking Iran.
People walk Sunday past anti-U.S graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
plume of black smoke rises Wednesday over the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Lebanese Red Cross personnel and rescue workers stand next to a destroyed vehicle on Saturday after an Israeli strike in Kfar Tebnit, Lebanon.
PROVIDED PHOTO By THE LEBANESE ARMy
To Richard, the right answer is both obvious and agonizing: The district needs fewer schools and workers.
“I’m not the superintendent,” he said, “but I’m surethat he’sgoing to have to cut the fat off the chicken.”
Nationwide, schoolshavebeen staffing up for years, even as they enroll fewer students. The pandemic turbocharged thetrend as schools used federal relief funds to hire counselors, tutors and other staffers to helpstudentsovercome COVID-related learning setbacks, even as many families pulled their kids out of public school.
In Louisiana, the schoolworkforce grew by 6% overthe past decade while enrollment fell by 7%, according to federal data from 2014 to 2024. Post-pandemic,the state’s public schools lost nearly 44,000 students, yet added more than 11,000 staffers —mainly teachers, but also classroom aides and administrators, according to 2019 to 2024 figures
Part of the statewide staffing increase is due to public charter schools, which expanded rapidly over the past decade to meet surging demand. But about 40% of traditional public school districtshad larger workforces in 2024 than a decade earlier,even though their student counts were smaller,according to federal data.
District leaders say theyused extrastaff to respond to students’ soaring academic and mental health needs, especially after COVID, as well as state priorities like the push to expand career education. The additional educators have led to lower class sizes, apriority for many teachers and parents, and likely contributed to Louisianastudents’ remarkable rebound from pandemic learning loss and recent reading gains.
State leaderscould embrace theenrollment declines as an opportunity to boost Louisiana’sperstudent spending, whichishigher than most Southern statesyet below the national average. But when the state education board sought to give school districts some of the$42 million the statesaved this year in education funding,which is tied to enrollment, lawmakers rejected the idea.
Instead, Gov.Jeff Landrylast
week proposed slashing nearly $170 million in state funding for schools, saying the money should instead pay for teacher stipends that theLegislature left outof the state budget.Despite the rising cost of insurance and utilities, Landry argued that schooldistricts canafford the cutbyreducing “the waste and thebureaucracy.”
The number of people “that school boards are employing, noninstructional, has risen at the detrimentofour teachers,” he said, calling for greater “fiscal discipline.”
Now,with federal COVID money long gone and statefunding uncertain, shrinking districts that have tried to stave off school closures and layoffs might soon have no other option
“Wejust have to continue to get our stafftoalign with our student numbers,” said St. Landry Parish SchoolsSuperintendent Milton Batiste III. “As long as we can dothat, we can survive.”
Whystaffing surged
tween enrollment and spending.
“I’m going to keep hammering this until people understand,” Landrysaid Tuesday,standing before agiant chart with twointersecting lines.“The amount of students in thesystemkeeps going down, and the amount of money we spend keeps going up.”
How is that possible? The explanation centers on staffing because employee salaries and benefits are by far thelargest school expense.
Onecost driver is the changing student population. While total enrollment has declined, groups with greater needs have grown —and those students often requireadditional support from staff.
Louisiana’spopulation of students still learning English, manyofthem recent immigrants, soared over 150% from 2010 to 2021, more than any other state, according to an analysis by New America, anational think tank. The share of students with disabilities grew 3percentage points over the past decade, according to state data.
pandemic. Many usedthe money to hire staffers whohelped reopen classrooms andcatch up students who fell behind.
Schools also added employees to meet new state demands, which in recent years have calledfor enhanced tutoring, career training, revamped reading instruction and mandatory courses in computer science and financial literacy
On the flipside, school systems can’tautomatically cut positions as enrollment slips because declines typicallyare spread across campuses. Classrooms andschools need somepersonnel, like principals andcustodians, no matter how few students they have.
“The challenge forschool districts is that theircosts don’tdecline at the same rateastheylose students,”said Carrie Hahnel, senior associate partner at Bellwether,a national education consultancy,who hasstudied the impact of student loss on school budgets.
How can shrinking schools afford to add employees when state funding is based on enrollment?
K-12 education spending —over
$5 billion —comes from local revenue.
For example, St. TammanyParishreceivedabout $43 million moreinlocal revenue in 2025 than it did adecade earlier,adjusted for inflation, even though it lost about 2,800 students, according to state data.
When the governor unveiled hisplantocut school budgets, he pointedtothe growing gap be-
Anotherfactor is the $4 billion in federal COVID funds that Louisiana schools received during the
The main reason is that school districts get somefederal aidand their local taxrevenue regardless of howmany students they serve. AndinLouisiana,nearlyhalfof
“A school district doesn’tcall forareferendum whenthey have decliningenrollmenttosay,‘Hey, we’regoing to reduceour property taxes, said MatthewH.Lee,an economics professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Because somefunding doesn’t fall in proportion to enrollment, shrinking school districts have increased per-student spending andstaffing more than growing districts, Lee andhis colleague, Benjamin Scafidi, found in astudy of national data from 1999 to 2019. The additional staffing might benefitsome students, but it typically comes at the expense of higher salaries —including for teachers, whoearn less in Louisiana than almostanywhere else.
“Adjusted forinflation, teacher salaries have been flatoverafew
ä See SCHOOLS, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Helix AI and Medical Academy is seen in Opelousas on Monday.
Batiste
decades,” Scafidisaid, “because the money went to the staffing surge.”
Schools have been adding employees for decades, so the trend could continue,he added.But other experts see aperfect storm—sharply falling enrollment, rising operational costs and tightening budgets —that will force districts to downsize.
“I anticipate that we’re just at the front end of this,” Hahnel said. “We’re going to see much more shrinking of ourschool systems in the future.”
District downsizing
Caddo Parish might offer aglimpse of this future.
The school system, which includes Shreveport, shed nearly 8,500studentsover the past decade.Inresponse, officialssay,they’ve taken aggressive stepsto rightsize the district.
More than 20 schools have been shuttered since 2000, and the district had about 1,050 fewer employees in 2024 than adecade earlier Superintendent Keith Burton said he tried to make the district less top-heavy, moving central office staffers into schools and putting principals in chargeof teacher training rather than district officials.
“If astaff member can’t draw astraight line between their daily work and the impact on ateacher or a student,” he said, “then we question the need for that position.”
During the pandemic,enrollment crateredatschools like University Elementary in Shreveport, which went from about 1,100 students to just over 600. Principal Ashley Atkins had to letgo of teachers and clerks —for awhile, she was answering the school’smain phone line —and repurposed empty classrooms as office and storage space.
While enrollment has climbed back to about860 students, andthe school improved its state rating, Atkins has had to do more with less —including fewer staffers.
“That has been the hardest thing,” she said. “When you don’thave the children, you don’thave the jobs.”
Reckoningenrollmentloss
While some Louisiana school districts have started to rightsize, others haveput off the reckoning.
Nearly all of Louisiana’s roughly 70 traditional school districts lost students over the past decade. Meanwhile, their employment levelsoften seesawed, going up one year anddownthe next Most added workers during the pandemic as student needs spiked and federal aid flooded in.
But by 2024, 30 districts with declining enrollment had fewer employees than they did adecade earlier, according to an analysis of federal data.Bycontrast, 26 districts had fewer students, but more staffers than in 2014. Some of the difference
could stem from funding, as school systemsinwealthier communities get more localtax dollars, while those serving needier students getmore stateand federal money. Yetstaffing can differ greatly even between districts with similar funding levels, said Maggie Cicco, aresearch fellowat Georgetown University’s EdunomicsLab, which has highlighted thedivergence of school enrollment and employment.
“How much money getsto adistrict is just thebeginning of theconversation,” she said. “They really made very different decisions in their staffing.” St. Landry Parish in southcentral Louisiana is richin Cajun-Creole traditions
“It’sgumbo for your soul,” the tourism tagline goes
but limited in resources. The school districtgetsabout $53 million in local revenue, compared with $330 million in St. Tammany,according to state estimates.
The St.Landry school system lost about 3,500 students during the decade that endedin2024. Thedistrict’s workforce fluctuated over that period, but in 2024 it employedabout 270more people thanadecade earlier, according to federal data. Batiste, whostarted as superintendent in 2023, explained that many of the positions are federally funded; others, including literacy coaches, were required by state law.Henoted that the sprawling 900-square-mile district complicates school consolidation andrequires abig transportation team. Andhearguedthatsome
resources, an abundance of people,” he said, “and this is not one of them.” But the district also did not close schools as enrollment plummeted, which drove up per-student spending. After parish voters soundly rejected atax hike in 2022, the School Board considered consolidating schools but took no immediate action.
“There’s been study after study after studysaying that St. Landry Parish is operating toomanyschools,” said RodSias, aformer Opelousas city official and local NAACP chapterpresident, at adistrict meeting in 2024. “Now, we’re in asituation where if we do not do something extremewithin three years, it’sgoing to be unsustainable.”
Under Batiste’sleadership, thedistrictmoved to close three schools in 2025. In March, the board voted to merge an underenrolled middle school with ahigh school after state Superintendent Cade Brumley threatened to take over the F-rated junior high. In an interview,Brumley praised Batiste’s“courageous decision” to downsize, saying districts can use the savings to pay teachers more.
“I just believe that school closureworks,” he said.“It makes your system moreefficient.”
The St. Landry Parish school systemstill faces abudget shortfall, and in Mayvotersagain refused to raise taxes to fund school employee raises andcampus upgrades.
recently added positions, such as assistant principals, arestandardinmostschool systems. “I’ve seen districts where you have an abundance of
Sias, whotried to rally support for the ballot measure,now is helping launch afoundation to raise private moneyfor theschoolsystem. He argues that,while the district must do its part to cut costs by consolidating more schools, the state and taxpayers must adequately fund the system —otherwise morefamilies will choose other options. “How do you reverse that?” he said. “You have to invest in your schools.”
RodSias is helping launch afoundation to raise moneyfor the St.Landry school system.
But, while redistricting dominated the final month of the session, it was far from the only thing of consequence that legislators did.
They passed a $47 billion budget for next year that includes more money for early childhood education and tutoring programs, economic development incentives for business that create highpaying jobs and road and infrastructure improvements.
The budget includes raises for a number of state employees like judges, firefighters and prison guards.
Notably, the budget does not include a $2,000 stipend teachers have received for the past few years. But Landry and legislative leaders have said they will find money for those raises by cutting other spending in the state K-12 education budget.
All told the Legislature passed more than 900 bills and hundreds more resolutions and other legislation over the course of 85 days.
Here are some of the most important and controversial things they addressed.
Expanding death penalty
Louisiana broadened its definition of first-degree murder through a last-minute Senate amendment to House Bill 102 by state Rep. Jeff Wiley, R-Maurepas.
The change means more people could be subject to the death penalty, a punishment that can only be given for first-degree murder
The law adds killings carried out in public places when the defendant puts at least three people at risk of great harm. It also adds killings committed by people with illegal firearms and by people out on bail, probation or parole.
Lawmakers cited the Mall of Louisiana shooting to justify the change, but critics argued it was far too broad and questioned its relevance to the shooting.
House Bill 102 became Act 120 after the governor signed it into law
New homelessness laws
A proposal that drew some of the most public opposition made “unauthorized camping on public property” a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison It also allows courts to set up homelessness programs that could help homeless people charged with that crime or others to avoid jail time and get connected with rehabilitative programs.
Proponents said it would help the state improve homeless people’s lives, but critics said it would do the opposite, making it more difficult for people to get housing and work by giving them arrest records.
House Bill 211 was sponsored by state Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, and backed by Landry As of Thursday it had not yet been signed into law
No more inspection stickers
Drivers across most parishes in Louisiana will no longer need a vehicle in-
spection sticker thanks to House Bill 1085, by Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall.
Instead, they will get a new Louisiana Vehicle Identification Program sticker that has a QR code listing the vehicle identification number when scanned.
Starting Jan. 1, there will be an annual $6 fee for the QR code sticker that will be assessed when registering a vehicle and renewing the registration.
However, the cities of New Orleans, Kenner and Westwego have local vehicle inspection programs that remain in effect. And drivers who live in Baton Rouge metro area are still subject to federal emissions testing requirements.
Marijuana near campuses
Anyone caught using marijuana within 2,000 feet of any school, college or university could be charged with a felony under House Bill 568. A conviction could result in up to a year in prison and up to a $1,000 fine.
Outside of a school zone, first-time possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor Possession of 14 grams or less comes with a maximum fine of $100.
Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock, said he was inspired to bring the bill to address marijuana use at LSU football games. Landry celebrated the new law writing in a social media post: “We are bringing back the greatness of these family-friendly environments — especially on game days!”
Critics argued the penalty was too harsh at a time when most of the country is scaling back punishments for marijuana.
Removing elected officials
Several bills by state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, sought to give the Legislature more power to remove elected officials from office for bad behavior They were controversial, with opponents saying they could easily be abused to target political enemies.
The Legislature did not pass Senate Bill 123, which arose amid calls for greater oversight of judges from Morris and Landry Though it went through several iterations, the final version of SB123 would have let voters decide whether judges ought to be subject to impeachment It’s not currently clear whether they are.
However, Morris successfully pushed through Senate Bill 479, which began as a companion bill to SB123 but evolved into a bill that lays out an impeachment process for judges and other elected officials. Hypothetically, that could be used to test whether the constitution allows judges to be impeached.
Another measure by Morris, Senate Bill 425, also passed. Now Act 510, it allows the Legislature to vote to file civil lawsuits against elected officials they believe are guilty of “malfeasance” or “gross misconduct.” A judge would then oversee proceedings to decide whether the official should be removed.
The law does not apply to the governor, the lieutenant governor or judges, who are exempt from “removal by suit” under the constitution.
New Orleans court system
Republicans also passed bills specifically targeting New Orleans’ court system, which Landry and others have argued is over-funded and inefficient.
Perhaps most controversially, Senate Bill 256 consolidated the civil and criminal clerk of courts offices Proponents argued New Orleans’ dual clerk role was unusual and inefficient, but supporters argued the bill was a thinlyveiled move to oust incoming criminal clerk Calvin Duncan, overturning the will of the voters.
Lawmakers also reduced the number of judges in the New Orleans area courts and cut funding for the city’s district attorney as a last-minute amendment to a bill that increased funding for prosecutors in other jurisdictions.
Child abuse oversight
The Department of Children and Family Services will be subject to stricter oversight if Landry signs Senate Bill 237, by Sen. Regina Barrow, DBaton Rouge.
Some state lawmakers, furious over a spate of child abuse or neglect deaths, at first called to completely dismantle the agency But they settled for new rules: DCFS would be required to report more detailed information about child abuse deaths, including prior agency involvement with the child or perpetrator, to the office of the Louisiana Child Ombudsman, a government watchdog for agencies that deal with children.
it would put the state at a competitive disadvantage
The aerospace industry
A package of bills aims to attract the aerospace industry to Louisiana — including a rumored SpaceX project along the cost in rural Vermilion Parish.
So far, state officials have not shared any details about project plans, and many say they signed nondisclosure agreements.
Some companies could get huge tax breaks, Including a big property tax exemption and state and local sales tax breaks for aerospace equipment Aerospace companies would have stronger protections against lawsuits people file related to noise and other disturbances from flight activities, and they can more easily ask a judges to toss out any kind of lawsuit against them. Some aerospace activity and facility records will be exempt from public disclosure laws.
Prescription drugs costs
Lawmakers approved a package of four bills aimed at lowering prescription drug costs and setting tougher regulations for pharmacy benefit managers. PBMs are businesses that administer prescription drug benefits on behalf of health plans.
PBMs will no longer be able to tie the service fees they charge health plans to the amount of savings on drug prices they negotiate with drug manufacturers. And any savings they achieve through negotiations have to be passed onto health plans, rather than retained as profit. Starting in 2028, PBMs will only be able to charge health plans through a flat fee-for-service model.
versions that have the same effect. And a new “Prescription Drug Accountability Board” will collect drug pricing information from manufacturers to study how drugmakers determine prices. Stricter photo ID to vote
Voters who can’t show a photo ID at their polling place will no longer be able to just sign an affidavit. Under Senate Bill 319, by Sen Thomas Pressley, R-Shreveport, they would need to instead provide a “primary” document like a birth certificate or Social Security card and a “secondary” document like a recent pay stub, bank statement or utility bill. Without either a photo ID or other identifying documents, voters could cast a conditional ballot, but would have to return to the registrar of voters within two days with the documentation.
glasses — and then posting the footage to social media — state Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, sponsored legislation this session that aimed to tighten recording laws. House Bill 410 requires anyone using glasses to record an in-person interaction to notify those who are being recorded. It has a number of exemptions, however Among them are recordings made by on-duty police officers, recordings that aim to capture evidence of a crime and recordings made in one’s own home.
Earlier versions of HB410 applied more broadly to other recording devices, but resistance to the bill prompted Schlegel to narrow it down. As of Friday, HB410 was still awaiting the governor’s signature.
Disrupting church services
Under a separate measure, House Bill 691, by Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, the secretary of state every year will now check the citizenship status of all registered voters in a federal database administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Noncitizen voters could be prosecuted. Supporters argued the bills will protect against voter fraud. Critics argued they could make it harder for people to vote.
Money for fortified roofs
A new “critical incident review team” led by the attorney general’s office would meet quarterly to review child deaths caused by severe abuse and make recommendations on preventing future incidents. And trained professional interviewers from child advocacy centers will now handle interviews of children when DCFS or a law enforcement agency gets a report of child abuse.
Carbon capture
After intense debate, the legislature rejected some attempts to rein in carbon capture and storage, the practice of storing carbon from industrial emissions deep underground to avoid contributing to climate change.
Residents of some areas where carbon capture projects are planned pushed for bills that would give local governments the ability to ban the practice in their area Others pushed for tougher laws on when companies can use eminent domain to place pipelines to transport the carbon.
But those bills failed amid opposition from industry groups that said carbon capture is important to the future of petrochemical industry, and restricting
The package also sets a higher dollar amount that PBMs must reimburse local pharmacies for dispensing drugs to patients. Health plans are now required to make less-expensive generic drugs or other “biosimilar”
Louisiana expanded its fortified roof program, which gives $10,000 grants to homeowners in some areas of the state toward a fortified roof designed to better withstand hurricane-force winds. The sought-after program got an injection of $50 million, enough for 5,000 more roofs. That’s a big addition to the $30 million already slated for 3,000 roofs.
‘Smart glasses’
Worried about rising reports of so-called “manfluencers” surreptitiously recording women using smart
House Bill 294 by state Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock now Act 148 legalizes the forcible removal of church “trespassers,” with some limitations. House Bill 68 by state Rep. Laurie Schlegel, RMetairie, expands the definition of disturbing the peace to cover certain types of disruptive behavior at worship services. It became Act 115 after the governor signed it into law And Senate Bill 306, now Act 379, adds the crime of obstruction of freedom of worship. Sponsored by state Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, it features a broad definition of the crime, which could apply to people who engage in protests or “disorderly conduct” in a way that interferes with religious services, or to those who block church entrances or exits. The bills were inspired by a high-profile incident in Minnesota where antiICE protesters interrupted a church service. A number of people, including journalist Don Lemon, were arrested.
Schlegel
The company is expected to receive a significant break on sales and property taxes, direct cash payments from the state, free land and infrastructure, and a $300 million electric bill discount from Entergy Louisiana, according to emails and an internal breakdown of incentives reviewed by The Times-Picayune.
At the same time that they negotiated the tax breaks, state officials sought to assure the company that their emails around the negotiations would not become public through freedom of information requests, thanks to the NDAs signed by Louisiana Economic Development, Gov Jeff Landry’s lead agency on business deals.
“The NDA protects the confidentiality of the project until the project is officially made public,” wrote LED Director of Business Development Jacob Ellis in an email to Hyundai executive Hyo Joon Park. “Because the NDA is in place, all project information is redacted if it ever was caught up in a public records request.”
Two weeks before Landry announced the project last March alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Park, of Hyundai, memorialized their agreement in an email to Ellis and provided a breakdown of the $2.6 billion in incentives
The new manufacturing plant, set to create 1,300 jobs, represents an important economic development and political win in Landry’s tenure.
The deal also illustrates how Landry’s administration is aggressively using nondisclosure agreements to negotiate with companies in secret, leading to announcements where the state has already committed billions in tax breaks and other benefits before some legislators or the public can see what has been offered. In the case of Hyundai, the company is getting $2 million in benefits for every permanent job it says it will create, the documents show Susan Bourgeois, the secretary of LED, said in an interview that the incentives are only one side of the ledger On the other side is a host of benefits for the state, she said.
She said it’s “apples and oranges” to look at $2.6 billion in incentives for a nearly $6 billion plant, because Hyundai’s operations will create billions more in value to Louisiana workers over the long run
centers are popping up.
“These NDAs continue to spread throughout the country as data centers and others hope to evade public scrutiny,” said David Cuillier, director of the University of Florida Brechner Freedom of Information Project. “Even when they say they comply with state public records laws, they chill the flow of information and open the door to corruption and public mistrust.”
Bourgeois defended the use of NDAs, saying it’s common practice for companies to request them as they evaluate several potential sites.
“From a business side it makes total sense,” she said. “Why would you telegraph to your competitors Or why would we telegraph to other states what we’re offering?”
Hyundai Steel spokesperson Youngshik Shin said that “NDAs are common practice in competitive site selection to protect proprietary information shared by both companies and the state.”
Secrecy agreements
From Landry’s inauguration in January 2024 to the summer of 2025, his office had signed or facilitated more than 150 NDAs, according to a Times-Picayune analysis of the agreements. That’s two nondisclosure agreements per week, on average.
Previous governors also have used nondisclosure agreements in some cases for economic development. LED officials said that the agency under former Gov John Bel Edwards’ administration initially signed an NDA with Deloitte, the firm who worked as Hyundai’s site selection consultant. Under Edwards’ administration, LED also signed NDAs with ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge.
The Landry administration has greatly expanded the use of such agreements, signing them with companies big and small and taking the unusual step of using NDAs between government agencies and having elected officials sign them, including state legislators, city council members and mayors.
“There’s a multi-multi-billion dollar value to the state and the parish,” she said.
“It’s not a one-time, $6 billion investment. It’s payroll, it’s a multiplying effect of manufacturing jobs.”
Critics of the secrecy say that the use of NDAs for generous tax incentives unfairly leave the public in the dark.
“When you cover these situations with NDAs, even local elected officials can’t talk to their constituents about it,” said Pamela Spees, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is representing plaintiffs in several lawsuits about Hyundai, including about NDAs in Ascension Parish and LED’s incentive deal. Across the country, NDAs have garnered pushback from public transparency advocates, especially in communities where data
The practice is drawing scrutiny and lawsuits from local advocacy groups who argue the agreements are shielding the public from what officials are doing with their tax dollars. Spees, the attorney representing Rural Roots, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and others in suits against Ascension Parish, LED and the Port of South Louisiana, said the NDAs are “hugely problematic.”
“It’s turning the way our government is supposed to work on its head,” she said. “There’s supposed to be transparency for a reason.”
‘Very awkward position’
State Sen. Eddie Lambert said the Hyundai deal was still “super secret” when LED officials approached him in the fall of 2024 with an NDA to sign. Lambert, R-Gonzales, joined several Ascension Parish elected officials and Landry for a trip to South Korea to visit with Hyundai.
“It puts you in a very awkward position,” Lambert said. “Because if you don’t sign it, they’re not going to tell you anything And if you sign it, you can’t tell anybody anything.”
The company showed off its steel plant and hydrogenpowered 18-wheelers on the trip. At the time, Hyundai was still scouting several
other sites across the south.
Lambert said he understands why the company wants confidentiality, likening it to a real estate deal where the buyer is pitting various sellers against each other Hyundai did the same thing with incentive packages as they considered several sites.
“They’re just going to keep playing you until they see who gives you the best deal,” he said “That’s what I would do.”
During the legislative session that ended this week, Landry’s administration asked state Sen. Alan Seabaugh, R-Many, to amend a bill he sponsored to allow aerospace companies to expropriate land as long as the site was 20,000 contiguous acres with no residences.
The bill became part of a push by Landry’s administration to roll out the red carpet for companies like SpaceX, offering secrecy and tax breaks Sources have confirmed to The TimesPicayune that an aerospace company is eyeing a large tract of land in Vermilion Parish, where ExxonMobil owns 136,000 acres.
But Seabaugh said he doesn’t know who the expropriation law is aimed at because he refused to sign an NDA.
“I don’t believe as a legislator, I can sign an NDA,” Seabaugh said. “If somebody is going to give me information because I’m a senator, I certainly don’t feel good, and I’m not sure it’s legal to keep that information from my constituents, so I’d rather just not have anything to do with it.”
‘What companies expect’
More than 20 Louisiana officials signed NDAs for the Hyundai deal, records show But Hyundai is only one of dozens of companies that have negotiated with Louisiana in secret. Landry’s administration began signing NDAs as soon as he took office, records show
Most of the NDAs involve companies who are negotiating with officials at Louisiana Economic Development. They include Hyundai, Meta, Google, LIV Golf, an entertainment company tied to the rapper 50 Cent who has bought up land in Shreveport — and a littleknown company associated with state Sen. Mike Fesi’s son, records show Several of the state’s NDAs are with site selection consultants who worked on behalf of anonymous clients.
LED has also signed an NDA with People Who Think, a Mandeville-based GOP consulting firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign. The firm has two contracts with LED worth a collective $5.75 million to provide messaging strategy on economic development deals and to carry out a marketing campaign to attract businesses and retain workers.
And LED has facilitated nondisclosure agreements with state legislators, mayors, sheriffs and other local elected officials. LED has signed NDAs with state agencies including the Department of Transportation and Development and the Division of Administration.
LED said the interagency NDAs are associated with Landry’s “lightning speed” executive order aimed at “breaking down silos” between agencies for economic development.
LED appeared to draft NDAs in the fall of 2024 for state Treasurer John Fleming, but they went unsigned. Fleming spokesperson Jeff Crouere said no one sent
him the NDA, and that he wouldn’t have signed it anyway
Bourgeois said the Landry administration is using NDAs more because it has more deals in the pipeline than past administrations. She also said that while companies often demand the state sign them, the state also benefits by not allowing other states to see what tax breaks LED is offering.
Bourgeois said the NDAs cover “all details of the project.” Because Louisiana was competing with other sites until the last minute for Hyundai, it would put the state at a “competitive disadvantage” if another state found out the details of its offer, she argued.
“It’s what the companies expect and it’s how you remain competitive to land these projects,” she said. Multibillion-dollar deal
By the time the secret negotiations were over with Hyundai, the company had amassed a package of incentives that is among the largest in Louisiana history
The state would provide $100 million for land, another $100 million in cash grants and nearly $100 million in Quality Jobs incentives, among other carrots, according to an internal Hyundai document breaking down the value of the incentives over 30 years. The state has bought several huge tracts of land in Donaldsonville with
plans to lease them to Hyundai for $1 a year for 99 years, then allow the company to buy it for less than $100.
The deal between the state and Hyundai also bakes in several large local tax breaks that have not yet been finalized by Ascension Parish officials. Those include a PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, that will allow the company to pay $609 million over 32 years, saving Hyundai a staggering $1.6 billion, according to the company document. The plant would be deemed a “public asset,” the document said, meaning it’s exempt from sales taxes, and Hyundai wrote that LED “found a way” to let it take a separate facility rebate immediately maximizing its value.
Entergy Louisiana is also providing Hyundai with more than $300 million in benefits, largely by giving the company a special “economic development” rate that gives it cheaper electricity for a decade.
Entergy declined to answer questions about the incentive. Entergy spokesperson Brandon Scardigli said such incentives are a “valuable tool” in attracting companies to the state, and promised that other customers won’t see rate hikes because of the discount. He added that such incentives are overseen by the Public Service Commission, a state regulator In all, the document shows the scope of the incentives reached $2.6 billion. The size
of the package has raised questions about whether Louisiana’s state and local governments will ever recoup all the revenue. LED commissioned an economic impact report by Greg Upton and Greg Albrecht, two LSU economists, which found that the project will support nearly 7,000 jobs and generate hundreds of millions in wages for Louisiana workers. But that report was done before the final incentive package was finalized, meaning it didn’t assume the state and locals were giving Hyundai nearly the level of incentives that the company is ultimately getting. Upton noted that the economic impact report is not a cost-benefit analysis, which determines whether a project is a net benefit to society Hyundai is still waiting on Ascension Parish officials to ratify its side of the deal, which includes some of the biggest incentives. Rural Roots and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade are fighting in court to unseal documents related to the case.
“Budgets are about choices and priorities,” said Jan Moller, head of Invest in Louisiana, a nonprofit advocating for low-income residents. “When the state can afford a $2.6 billion incentive package for a single global corporation but can’t fund a teacher pay raise and other basic needs, something is seriously out of balance.”
Bourgeois
EDUCATION
Trumpofficials rewritingrules forall of academia
BY COLLIN BINKLEY AP education writer
WASHINGTON Ayear ago, the White House was unleashing a blitz on higher education. At one campus afteranother,Trump officials opened investigations and cut federalfunding unless schools fell in line with the Republican president’spolitical agenda.
Now, aftera campaign that put dozens of universities underinvestigation, President Donald Trump’s administration is takingawiderapproach, moving to rewrite the federal rules that govern all of higher education. Demands that were being pressed on individual schools are being written into the fine print for thousands of U.S. universities.
“We’recomingover the higher education system and course correcting,” Nicholas Kent, undersecretary for the EducationDepartment, said in an AssociatedPress interview.Unlike investigations that target individual campuses, he said the new tactic has power “to affect 6,000 institutions.”
The shift comes afterfederal judges blocked Trump’sadministration from making crippling cuts at Harvard and the University of California, Los Angeles. It also follows a mass exodus in civil rights lawyers who traditionally guide investigations against universities. Still, Trump hasn’tbacked down from hiscampaign to end what he calls “wokeness” run amok in academia. Through regulation, the administration is going after many of the targets it hammeredwithinvestigations —diversity,equity and inclusion policies, transgender athletes, antisemitism and avariety of practices perceived as anti-White discrimination.
Agencies proposenew rules
One new rule being proposed by theEducation Departmentwould overhaul the system thatdecides which colleges can receive federal money,knownasthe accreditation process. Among other changes, the proposal would require accreditors to make sure colleges have “intellectualdiversity,” aveiledcall for
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JAEC.HONG After acampaign that put dozens of universities under investigation, President DonaldTrump’sadministration is taking awider approach, moving to rewrite the federal rules that govern allofhigher education.
more conservative voices
Many people in higher education are alarmed by aproposal from the Office of Management and Budget that would order agenciestoensure federal grants“advance the President’s policypriorities.”Trump officials would verify that grants aren’t usedtopromote DEI, “anti-American values”oranything denying “thesex binary in humans,” according to the proposal issued last week. An OMB spokesperson said therule aims to promote transparency. Anotherproposalfromthe General Services Administration would require federal grant recipients,including universities andtheir contractors, to certify theydon’thave DEI policies deemed unlawful by the administration.
At least 11 new rules have been proposed atthe Education Department, including one aimed at “streamlining theprocess” to cut money for schools thatviolate the Trump administration’sinterpretation of civilrights law
Making federal rules can take months of debate in humdrum bureaucratic processes. But unlike earlierstrategies that testedthe limits of White House power,the rulemakingprocessisawidelyaccepted route to establishfederal policy into law —without needing to go through Congress. Some in higher education wel-
comethe change. Unlike last year’s attacks, the new approach opens the door for aconversation, said TedMitchell, president of the American Council on Education, which represents college and university presidents.
“We’replaying agamethat has rules andreferees, and that’s good,” said Mitchell, aformer EducationDepartmentofficial under President Barack Obama, aDemocrat. “It gives us an opportunity to talk about where we might agree with the administration. That was impossible to do when these were just straight-on attacks.”
Fewernew investigations
Meantime, theEducation and Justice departments have announced fewer higher-education investigations, issuing news releases on roughly adozen at U.S. universities so far this year.Inthe same span last year,theyannounced more than 70, according to an AP analysis.The exact numberofnew investigations is unclear —apublic databasehas notbeen updated sinceJanuary2025.
Kent said the EducationDepartment will continuetoopen investigations as needed,describing it as using a“scalpel to cut out the bad.” But he said colleges have started to cometoheel on the administration’spriorities.
“Folks realize that it’s anew day and that we’re paying attention,” Kent said. The vast majority of the investigations opened last year are still open. The White House struck dealswith Columbia, Brown and ahandful of othercampuses, but most cases are unresolved with no public update in months.
Catherine Lhamon, who led the Education Department’sOffice for Civil Rights under President Joe Biden, aDemocrat, said the barrage of investigations amounted to “performance art” that grabbed attention but hadlittle impact.After pushback from schools, she said, theTrump administration is backing off.
“Itstopped putting itself in aposition to lose,”saidLhamon, whonow leads the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley Still, some fights have intensified.
TheWhiteHouse has doubled down on battles with Harvard and UCLA after federal judgesblocked the administration from cutting off research fundingfromthe campuses.
The Justice Department has sued Harvard andUCLAfourtimes since February,alleging that both campuses tolerated antisemitism and that Harvard refused to release admissions data sought by theadministration. Leaders of both universities say they have worked to fight antisemitism.
Admissions casesa toppriority
AWhite House official said the investigative slowdown is also theresult of amounting focus on college admissions. The administration has been building cases against colleges accusedofconsidering race in admissions decisions even after theSupreme Court struck down affirmative action. Those investigationscan take more time because theyrequire large data collections, said the official, speaking on the conditionofanonymity to discuss internalstrategy
Some of those cases arenow coming to bear
The Justice Department recently concludedthat medical schools
at Yale andUCLAdiscriminated against White andAsianAmerican students by allegedly favoring Black and Latino applicants. The universities have defended their admissionsprocesses,saying they were rigorous and based on merit. On Thursday,the Justice Department said it was opening 15 similar investigations at other medical schools, alleging “potentialrace discrimination”intheir admissions processes.
Trump officialsare taking ahardline approach against any use of race in admissions, clashing with colleges that invite students to discuss their race in applicationessays. In its 2023decision, the Supreme Court said nothing stopsschools from considering how applicants’ race speaks to broader qualities.
“Weare making sure,” Kent said, “that we are elevating our best and ourbrightest andthatwe’re not putting the thumb on the scale because of somebody’sskin color.” Colleges alreadychanged Facing last year’sblitz, many campuses quietly made changes to avoid scrutiny.Someclosed DEI offices. The NCAA moved to limit transgenderathletes. Universities from UCLA to Columbia tightened campus protest rules after pro-Palestiniandemonstrationswerethe subject of federal investigations. Research hasbeen scaled back as top schools face continued funding cuts.
In theclassroom,there’s been a chilling effect as professors fear that whatthey say or teach could attract federal attention, said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of UniversityProfessors. Still, he’soptimistic thebalance of power is shifting in universities’ favor.Students and faculty members on severalcampusesbuilt pressure to reject aWhite House invitation last fall to sign on to aspectsof Trump’s agenda in exchange for favorable accesstoresearch funding, he said.The AAUP hasbrought several lawsuits against the administration, including one that stopped funding cuts at UCLA.
LeoXIV makespapal visittoSpain
ActorAnthonyHead,
BY NICOLE WINFIELD and SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press
MADRID PopeLeo XIV
urged Spaniards on Saturday to stop “fanning the flames of polarization” as he arrived in Spain at amoment of political turmoil for the Socialistled government and acredibility crisis for the Catholic Church.
The American pontiff traveled to Spain dozensoftimes as apriest, butthisisthe first visit here by apope in 15 years. And Spaniards turned out in droves to welcome Leo with an estimated 500,000 people —many of them young —cheering “This is the youth of the pope” at a raucous evening prayer vigil in Plaza de Lima in Madrid, where Leo was treated to a rock star’swelcome.
Leo’svisit signals areturn of papal attention to Europe’s Christian roots afterPope Francis largely stayed away from the traditional centers of Christianity in favor of smaller Catholic communities farther away Leo is seemingly keen to
ishpast,whencities like Toledo and Córdoba became, he said, “centers of dialogue between languages, religions and knowledge.”
“For the love of truth, I invite everyonetoset aside the divisive and polarizing narratives of your societal realityand history,”hesaid. Doing so will help Europe “overcome sterile simplificationsthrough the fruitful appreciation of complexity.”
Spaniards find themselves increasingly divided over issuesincluding immigration, feminismand political corruption,while historically Spain was riven by territorialand independence movements.
bring hismessage of peace, unity and human dignity to acontinentsorely polarized over migration, the RussiaUkraine war and anxiety over artificial intelligence.
The pope, known as León XIV in Spanish, openedhis weeklong trip in Madrid, greeted at theairport by the country’sCatholic monarchs, KingFelipeVIand Queen Letizia,and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He told reporters, while traveling, that he wasparticularlyheartened by reports of aspiritual awakening among young peopleinthe once-staunchly Catholic but nowsecularized country
Duringhis welcome address, Leo appealed to Spaniards, especiallypolitical leaders, to put polemics aside and investineducating young people to appreciate diversity andcomplexity ratherthan shunning them.
“Today,the temptation to gain popularity by fanning theflames of polarization seems to have grown rather than diminished,and human dignity continues tobeviolated,” Leo said.
He appealed to Spain’s placeatthe heartofChristian Europetoserveasa model for the rest of the continent, while also recalling the country’s800-year Moor-
The highlight of Leo’svisit to Madrid will be his speech on Monday to ajoint parliamentarysessionofthe Congress of Deputiesand the Senate—the first by apope Such speeches are rare and often become oneofthe most important of apontificate.
But Leo will find ahighly polarizedlegislature, with the government Socialist party hammered by aseries of corruptionscandals. Conservative parties, including thePopular Party and Vox, have called for Sánchez to step down before ageneral election due by next year, andhaveroundly criticized hisgovernment’smigration policies.
BY JILL LAWLESS and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press
LONDON Anthony Head, the suave, smooth-voiced British actor known for roles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Ted Lasso,” has died, his family said Friday.Hewas 72.
Head’sdaughters, actors Emily and Daisy Head, told the Press Association news agency that the actor passed away due to complications from pneumonia.
The stage andTVperformerbecame well known to British audiences in the 1980s as one half of awillthey,won’t-they romantic couple in aseries of ads for NescafeGoldBlend instant coffee. The ads were later re-shot foraU.S.audience forTaster’sChoice.
Head achievedwider fame as librarianRupert Giles, mentor to the title character in thecult-favorite supernaturalseries “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” whichran from 1997 to 2003.
He mostrecently played Rupert Mannion, the villainous ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character Rebecca, in “Ted Lasso.” “Our griefisfar greater than the hole he has leftbehind, but we know his legacy will live on,inthe showshewas a part of, andinthe audiences that love them,” his daughters said. “How lucky we are to know we are able to watch himdoing what he loved, even whenheisnolonger with us.”
Head was born in London on Feb. 20, 1954, to Seafield Head, adocumentary filmmaker,and Helen Shingler, an actor.His older brother Murray,isalso an actor Other notable roles included playing Geoffrey Howe, the deputy to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,played by Meryl Streep, in the Oscar-winning “The Iron Lady.” He was predeceased by hislongtimepartner,animal welfareactivistSarah Fisher,61, in 2025.
By The Associated Press
PARIS U.S.Defense Sec-
retary Pete Hegseth used a D-Day anniversary speech on Saturday to appear to link immigration by sea to the wartime liberation of Europe, warning that the freedom won by Allied troops during commemorations for the 82ndanniversary of the June6,1944, lan ding s, said that today,“different European beaches are stormed by different
“Whenwill European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?” he added. “I pray not, andI believe not.”
Hegseth did notuse the word immigration, but his remarks echoed broader
Trump administration criticismofEuropeovermigration, bordersand what U.S. officials have describedas censorship of nationalist and far-right voices.
On Saturday,British Prime Minister Keir Starm-
er’soffice condemned U.S. Vice President JD Vance for blaming immigration forthe killing of HenryNowak, an 18-year-old British student stabbed to death in Southampton, even though both Nowak and his killer were
British. In December,the Trump administration’snational security strategy warned that Europe faced the “prospect of civilizationalerasure” andcould become “unrecognizable” within 20 years.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALESSANDRATARANTINO
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Spain’sKing Felipe VI and Queen Letizia as he arrives Saturdayatthe RoyalPalace in Madrid on the first dayofhis seven-dayapostolic journeyto mainland Spainand the CanaryIslands.
LOUISIANAPOLITICS
Landry toutsprojectsCassidy made possible
WASHINGTON —Freed from having to toe the party line after losing a Republican primary,U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy last week expandedhis list of GOP politicos he’scriticizing to include Gov.Jeff Landry —one of the chief architects ofhis political downfall —for undermining acornerstone of hiscampaign strategy
“I’m alittle bit amused by my contributions not being acknowledged by Gov.Landry,” Cassidy, RBaton Rouge, told local reporters in ateleconference newsbriefing.
Attacked by many Louisiana Republicans for his 2021 vote to convictPresidentDonald Trump of impeachment charges, Cassidy focused his 2026 campaign message on how effectively he has added federal bacontolocal plates —even when it meant compromising with Democrats.
But, after ballots were counted May 16, Cassidy was votedout.
U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow,the Baton Rouge Republican whoLandry and President Donald Trump endorsed, and State TreasurerJohn Fleming, the Minden Republican and former Trump staffer,will meet in the June 27 runofftodecidewho will representRepublicans in the Nov.4generalelection.
The loss untethered ausually cautious Cassidy,who now is criticizing Trump and some of his top allies.
“Mr.President, I’m speaking to youjust for asecond, I’m speaking to President Trump, Mr.President, Mr.President Trump, getengaged,” Cassidy said Wednesday during afloor speech about healthcare affordability,slamming the podium for emphasis.
Landry refused to comment on Cassidy’sobservations.
Whodelivered themoney?
Cassidy’s“effectiveness” messaging never gained traction
Keyhearing on voting
maps delayed
partially because he was the only Louisiana Republican reminding voters ofhis work during thepast 11 years as senator Now Landry is trotting out some of theprograms Cassidy helped secure, the senator says. The governor has couched them as major victories for hisadministration withoutmentioning Cassidy’s role.
Forinstance,Cassidy points to Landry’sApril29ribbon-cutting ceremonyfor anew Interstate 10 Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles. The$2.3 billion project will feature six to eight lanes, full shoulders, center barriers, lower approach inclines, and increased overhead clearance to replace the
officials argued that Louisiana’s newmap must be used for the 2026 midtermelections.
74-year-old bridge built by Gov Earl K. Long, which now carries upward of 90,000 vehicles per day House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton,and U.S. Rep.Clay Higgins,R-Lafayette, delivered videotaped messages at the ceremony extolling the official start of along-sought project.
Landry then name checked a long list of contributors, demanding standing ovations for some. “A deal like this doesn’thappen by accident.Ithappens because we demand people thinkoutside thebox and awillingness to do thingsdifferently,” Landrysaid. Cassidy’sname went unmentioned. Buthewas the only
Kennedy pushes for better accesstocourtrecords
Republican in Louisiana’scongressional delegation to vote for Democratic President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investmentand JobsAct, which was widely criticized by Trumpand Republicans. It was that bill that brought $150 million forthe Calcasieu Bridge.
Trumppromised anew bridge during avisit in 2019, which was mentioned alot in the ribboncutting ceremony Biden used the bridge as avisual backdrop in 2021 to demonstratethe need forupdating infrastructure. When he was governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards came up with a$2.1 billion plan
that stalled because of Republican opposition.
Upon becoming governor in 2024, Landry jump-started the bridge project, which also includes money forthe state general fund, bond proceeds, redirected road taxes, and apublicprivate partnership that hinges on tolls.
It’s not just the Lake Charles bridge the Landry administration touts as major victories forthe governor,Cassidy said.
Initiatives to expand broadband across rural areas of Louisiana, which the Landry has rolled out at aseries of ribbon-cuttings, includes alarge pool of federal money from Biden’sInfrastructure Act.
And last month, Landry announced the launch of the state’s Rural Tech Catalyst Fund to support companies seeking to improve healthcare access in Louisiana.
Cassidy said that money comes from wording in last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill he secured through his workonthe Senate Finance Committee and as chair of the Senate Health Education Labor &Pensions committee. The bill included a$50 billion appropriation forrural hospitals to expand access to health technologies in rural areas.
“I was deeply involved in all parts of it, but particularly the healthcare portion, working closely with Dr.Oztomake sure that Louisiana rural families and rural communities got their fair share,” Cassidy said, referring to Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers forMedicare &Medicaid Services.
“Again, you wouldn’tknow that from Gov. Landry speaking about whotoacknowledge. But Iam glad that he acknowledges the worthiness of those programs,” Cassidy said.
Email Mark Ballardat mballard@theadvocate.com.
It appears likely that November’scongressional elections will use the new voting map Gov.Jeff Landry signed last month, after a federal court postponed akey hearing on apotential legal challenge to the new map. The Legislature redrew Louisiana’s congressional map to eliminate one of the state’stwo majority-Black districts after the Supreme Court ruled in Louisianav Callais that the previous map was unconstitutional. The plaintiffs in that case have asked afederal courttodetermine whether the new map —which still hasone majority-Black district —isalso an illegal racial gerrymander
The three-judge panel of the U.S District Court for the Western District of Louisiana that is handling the case quickly set ahearing for June 17 to address that question. But the court reversed itself Thursday and, for the time being, canceled the hearingafter state
To make that point,Attorney General Liz Murrill’soffice cited another Supreme Court opinion that came down last week in aseparate Alabamaredistricting case, Allen v. Milligan. “While federal courts should not impose changes close to an election,States are free to decide for themselves whether last-minute changes to an election are in their best interests,” thejustices wroteinthat opinion
Sen. John Kennedy,R-Madisonville, has sponsored abill to removethe paywall on the online systemsused to access federal court records and further modernize them.
Murrill’soffice argued that, in light of the new guidance this week from the justices, any “judicial modifications” to themap Louisiana passed lastweek would likely be blocked by theSupreme Court
The plaintiffs didn’ttake issue with thestate’sargument about the 2026 election, but theydid suggest that they are preparedto litigate whether the new mapis constitutionalahead of the 2028 elections
The Louisiana Republican’sOpen Courts Act would require thefederal court system to develop anew, moremodern replacement for thePublic Access to Court Electronic Records system, known as PACER. The new system would be merged with theCase Management/Electronic Case Files system
“Americans should not have to sell plasmaorwrestle with clunky government websites just to read public court records.
PACER is old, very expensive and extremely burdensome to use,” Kennedy said in anews release.
“The Open Courts Act would drag this outdated system into the21st century,protect court records from hackers and give taxpayers abetter deal. Government servic-
es ought to serve the American people —not makethem want to put their head through awall.” PACER is used to access everythingfrom criminal proceedings to immigration cases to bankruptcies. The files it contains are public records, but critics have long argued that the system’s paywall blocks much of the public from viewing them
“For far too long, unnecessary paywalls have kept the American people from freely accessing public court records,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., whoisco-sponsoring the bill with Kennedy State seeks more election workers
Louisiana Secretary of State
Nancy Landry is looking formore people to work as poll commissioners for electionslater this year
Workers are needed forboth the June 27 runoff election from last month’s closed party primaries and for the Nov. 3election, which will have the U.S. Senate general election andopen primaries for theU.S. House, among other ballot items. Commissioners can makeup to $200, and commissioners-incharge can makeupto$350. To qualify, you must be registered Louisiana voter whoisat least 17 years old and ahigh school senior or older Youwill have to attend aone- to two-hour training course.
Commissioners workthe entire election day,from 6a.m. to 8p.m., arriving at least 30 minutes before polls open and staying until ballots are finalized. Applications can be submitted at aparish clerk of court’soffice. More information is available on the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website.
“Poll commissioners are the backbone of Louisiana’selection process,” Landry said in anews release. “Their commitment helps ensure voters have asmooth experience at the polls and that elections are conducted with integrity.Weare looking forindividuals whowant to serve their communities, support the democratic process, and earn extra income while playing an important role on Election Day.”
STAFF FILEPHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Gov. Jeff Landryspeaks during aribbon-cuttingceremony for the newInterstate 10 CalcasieuRiver Bridge on April 29 at the Lakefront PromenadeinLakeCharles.
Mark Ballard
Capitol Buzz STAFF REPORTS
Murrill Kennedy
NancyLandry
THE GULF COAST
Famed restaurant draws diners to Alabama town
Lambert’s Cafe known for throwing dinner rolls
BY POET WOLFE Staff writer
At Lambert’s Cafe, diners crane from their seats to catch softballsized rolls spinning through the air
Waiters carrying steaming pots weave through the room, stopping at booths to pile fried okra onto paper napkins and dollop apple butter onto the yeasty bread. Every so often, an announcement crackles through the megaphone about grandpa’s 75th birthday or Alan’s first visit, briefly cutting through the din until diners break into applause. The walls are just as busy as the dining rooms. Plastered with country kitsch decor, each and every corner tells stories from different eras and places. License plates from as far north as Illinois hang beside biblical phrases painted on wooden planks and rooster paintings that would look right at home in a Texas grandmother’s kitchen. Watching over it all is a portrait of a squinting, cigarillo-smoking, poncho-wearing Clint Eastwood
The roadside spectacle in Foley, Alabama, has drawn families and road-trippers since 1996, when the small town “didn’t really have much from here down to the bridge of Gulf Shores,” manager Greg Felix recalled during a recent dinner rush. Today, Foley is among the fastest growing cities in the country and the three packed dining rooms at Lambert’s on a weeknight served as evidence.
The restaurant celebrates Southern customs through potpies, painted prayers and friendly servers whose bluejeans are yanked up by suspenders and finished with a bow tie. But its origins trace back
to the Midwest.
The original restaurant, opened by Norman Lambert in 1942, was located in Sikeston, Missouri, and it was far different from the Lambert’s in Foley, where 3,000 plates are served and more than 6,000 rolls are tossed by waiters each day.
The original eatery opened during World War II — when many restaurants were forced to ration and some shuttered altogether — and it had enough seats for only 41 people. But through hard work, and a menu shaped by family recipes, Lambert’s persevered.
The restaurant’s signature touch came decades later, in 1976, when Lambert was working his way through a busy lunch rush, passing rolls from table to table, until a customer yelled, “Just throw the damn thing!” It was then that it became “home of the throwed rolls.”
With its popularity surging, Lambert’s moved into a larger location and opened a second restaurant in Ozark in 1994. Two years later, Lambert decided to bring his busi-
ness near Gulf Shores, where he
frequently vacationed, and opened the Foley location, now run by the family’s fifth generation, Felix said.
Minutes later, a bowl piled high with golden fried catfish, shrimp and smoked hog jowl — think thick-cut slices of bacon arrived at the table. Plates only kept coming: rib-eye, sweet carrots, chicken tenders, chicken potpie, rolls and more rolls.
Between bites of steak, servers would approach the table, carrying pots filled with free additional sides: black-eyed peas, fried potatoes and onions, macaroni and tomatoes. The portions were, to say the least, generous. Even the water arrived in bulky tumblers.
The dinner rush grew as the evening wore on. Walking toward the exit, Felix pointed to faded framed photographs on the walls that showed the street back then — once bare and now lined with businesses — and said, “Norman saw the future. He knew the potential, and he was right.”
BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer
The waves of summer visitors arriving at some Gulf Coast beaches this month are encountering a problem: Seaweed is everywhere.
So much of it has washed up in recent days in Dauphin Island, Alabama, that some visitors have reported not being able to swim there. It has also appeared near Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, and in the Florida cities of Pensacola and Miramar Beach.
The seaweed, called sargassum, is a natural occurrence that is harmless in the ocean or in small quantities near shore. But it becomes a nuisance on beaches when large piles of it accumulate on the sand.
Researchers at the University of South Florida said the amount of sargassum floating through the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and the Gulf could break records this summer and is already nearing extraordinary levels on the Gulf Coast.
“It’s not the overall biggest bloom ever,” said Brian Barnes, an assistant research professor who tracks the seaweed at the University of South Florida. “But in the larger Gulf of Mexico, for this time of year, this is the most we’ve seen.”
Forecasting where the seaweed will go, and when it will reach land, is difficult because it moves in patches and can die quickly But researchers at South Florida are tracking patches of seaweed on satellite imagery and expect the amount washing up on beaches to increase throughout June.
The biggest seaweed piles usually hit the Caribbean islands, and that trend is continuing this year But the amount of seaweed
floating in the Gulf is higher this year because its seed population grew farther west, and because the loop current, which funnels water from the Caribbean to the Gulf, is extending farther north.
The seaweed floats across the ocean in large mats and protects sea creatures including turtles, crabs and sea horses. The patches of seaweed can be hundreds of feet wide.
But once the seaweed reaches beaches and begins decaying, it can attract flies, disrupt turtle nesting and produce gas that smells like rotten eggs, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Large patches of it can also lower oxygen levels in the water, which can kill fish near shore.
The seaweed shows up in the Gulf most years, in varying quantities. But the risk of accumulations are high this week on most beaches from Biloxi, Mississippi, through Panama City, Florida, according to a NOAA map. The University of South Florida bulletin also said some seaweed may reach the Louisiana and Texas coasts in June.
PROVIDED PHOTO By LAMBERT’S CAFE
A vintage photo shows Norman Lambert as he winds up to throw a dinner roll to a customer at his restaurant, Lambert’s Cafe. The Foley, Ala., location is now run by the family’s fifth generation.
UL may have fix for new pay schedule
Proposed transition may provide August checks
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
University of Louisiana at Lafay-
ette leaders are expected to host a town hall meeting next week to discuss a new pay schedule for professors, graduate student workers and others with a possible change that could provide them with two paychecks in August.
President Ramesh Kolluru recently announced that UL was switch-
Juneteenth celebration works for broader inclusion
Festival returns to downtown Lafayette
BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer
As Juneteenth returns to downtown Lafayette, organizers are working to expand the celebration beyond its traditional audience while remaining rooted in the holiday’s historical significance.
This year’s festival will return to downtown Lafayette near Parc International, a move organizers hope will attract new audiences and reinforce a message that Juneteenth is a celebration that welcomes the entire community Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved people that they were free. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, an army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as “Juneteenth,” by the newly freed people in Texas.
For Abram Freeman, founding president and current vice president of the Southwest Louisiana Juneteenth Committee, honoring that history does not mean limiting who participates.
“Juneteenth is not just a Black holiday,” Freeman said. “It’s an American holiday We want people who are non-African American to come and celebrate with us learn with us and be one community.”
Freeman said the move downtown is part of a long-term effort to broaden participation and build the same community support seen at other cultural events across the region.
“We as a community support every festival,” he said. “We’ve been to Festival International We’ve been to the Irish festivals. We’ve been to all of those events. If we’re going to be one community, then let’s be one.”
That push for inclusion comes as organizers continue to face increasing challenges, including declining attendance and reduced support
According to Freeman, the festival once had between 10 and 15 major corporate sponsors. In recent years, however, support has declined. Freeman said many companies that previously sponsored the event pulled back amid a broader national trend of companies backing away from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
“We lost so many of our supporters. It’s like they all started drying up,” Freeman said. “To do all of this costs about $50,000. We lost about $30,000 in support.”
Despite those challenges, Freeman credits longtime partnerships with Lafayette Consolidated Government, local churches, volunteers and community organizations for helping sustaining the event.
This year’s Southwest Louisiana Juneteenth celebration will feature events throughout June. It began with an opening ceremony, flag raising and proclamation at Lafayette City Hall on Tuesday Other events
ing all employees to a biweekly pay schedule. Professors and some others have been paid once a month for years.
The original proposal would mean some professors, graduate student workers and adjunct professors would not receive a paycheck in August. The proposal drew concern from some employees, including the faculty senate president.
At a virtual town hall meeting last week, Leah Orr, faculty senate
president and head of the English department, said some of the nearly 500 employees attending strongly expressed their concerns about the pay schedule and asked administrators to reconsider the transition period.
Annual pay won’t change under the new schedule.
“They’re not taking away pay,” she said, “just delaying when it’s paid out, and that’s what’s causing the hardship.”
Kolluru, in a letter distributed Friday, said he and other university leaders met with representatives of the faculty senate, staff council and UL chapter of the American Association of University Professors about transitioning to the biweekly pay schedule.
“Today’s discussions helped us identify a solution designed to address several of the concerns employees have raised,” Kolluru wrote. The proposal, he said, would ensure employees receive two paychecks in August and would not jeopardize healthcare coverage,
retirement and other benefits. Details of the plan are still being finalized, Kolluru wrote.
“Our goal remains to implement this transition in a way that minimizes disruptions to faculty staff, graduate students and their families,” he said.
The next step, Kolluru wrote, is a town hall meeting next week with employees. No details were provided. Last week’s town hall meeting was held virtually because many employees are not on campus during the summer
SUMMER OF FUN
ABOVE: Pranika Nallamolu, 4, enjoys chasing down bubbles during the Bubble Bus at the Lafayette Parish South Regional Library summer reading kickoff on Saturday
LEFT: Vincent Sneed, left, 6, and Zayden Offard, 8, make an electric fan with electricityconducting Play-Doh.
St. Tammany Parish reacts to sheriff’s arrest
Locals express surprise, dismay
BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer
Sitting with friends under the veranda of the Haven coffee shop in Covington on Friday, Nettie Burguieres replayed her initial reaction when she learned St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith had been arrested on Thursday in connection with a fight at a Madisonville steakhouse the week before.
“The first thing I said was, ‘Did he arrest himself?’ ” recalled Burguieres before taking a bite of her chicken salad sandwich. Debbie Lapeyrouse, sitting beside her, shook her head.
“A public display from a public official — a sheriff. They should be held to a high standard,” said Lapeyrouse. Around St. Tammany, residents expressed surprise, voiced dismay, made jokes and hinted at a quiet exasperation that another northshore elected official had been accused of behaving badly And while disappointment was the common theme in interviews and online commentary following the Thursday arrest, some took Smith’s side, arguing he’d been pushed too far by a critic known for lobbing relentless personal attacks.
“It’s unfortunate that the community is having to deal with it and experience it,” said Covington City Council member Jimmy Inman. “Now we gotta see how
this plays out.” After turning himself in Thursday at the Tangipahoa Parish jail, Smith’s case will now play out in the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse. He is set to appear for an arraignment on Aug. 20 and has said he plans to remain in office.
An arrest warrant filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office listed three criminal counts one for felony battery and two for disturbing the peace, both misdemeanors.
Smith is accused of physically attacking one his harshest critics, parish resident and social media personality Bobby Couvillion, at Keith Young’s Steakhouse near Madisonville during happy hour on Friday, May 29. Couvillion was transported to a hospital, and suffered a concussion and had his
two front teeth moved from their normal position as a result of the attack, according to Murill’s investigators. The investigators found that Smith approached Couvillion from behind as Couvillion was sitting at the restaurant’s bar, grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground, causing Couvillion to hit his head on the floor Smith then struck him while he lay on the ground, before a group of bystanders managed to pull him off. The receipt from Smith’s visit to the steakhouse, investigators found, included vodka martinis, wine and gin. It’s not clear who Smith was with. Smith has not appeared in
PHOTOS By ROBIN MAy
Studentrallies peersoneducation issues
Rising senior founds advocacy group
BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer
Wearing agray suit and blue button-down, 16-yearold Victor Romerostepped up to the podium and faced the eight Jefferson Parish School Board members whosedecisions shape his education.
The rising senior at Patrick F. Taylor Academy had cometoadvocate for higher teacher pay,tourge the board to stop shuttering schools where the majority of students are Black or Hispanic and to remind members that their policies impact thousandsofteachers and students.
“I’ve never attended a School Board meeting before,” he said at the June 3meeting. “But I’ve come here this time because I believe that people like myself shouldshow up and be acknowledged by the people who affectour everyday lives.”
Aside fromafew of his friends, there were no other students at the meetingto hear Romero’sremarks. But he’shoping to change that with his group, the Student Action Movement, which aims to get Jefferson Parish students involved in local politics.
While its membership to-
JUNETEENTH
Continued frompage1B
include the Juneteenth Banquet and Scholarship Pageant held Friday,aCommunity UnityWalkonJune 13, educational programs on June15and 17, and performances of “The Juneteenth Story” at the Acadiana Center for the Arts on June 19 and 20. The celebration’slargest public events will take place June 20 and 21 at Parc International, featuring the SWLA Juneteenth MusicFestival andStone Soul Picnic on Saturday,
ARREST
Continued from page1B
public to address the incident, but he issued astatementaround the same time as he was turning himself into authorities. He apologized to parish residents his employees and his family,while also offering something of an explanation for his alleged actions.
Smith said he has had “hundreds of personal attacks directed at me by an individual who hides behind acomputer screen,” likely a reference to Couvillion. He said he had an especially hard time ignoring “worsening public harassment”ofhis wife. Smith didn’tspecify the harassmentagainst his wife, but afew days before theincident Couvillion shared aFacebookpost by someone else that personally attacked Smith over his love life. Couvillion tagged Smith’swife in his repost.
ing Patrick Taylor,Haynes, Riverdale and Higgins high schools. They meet once a month, often at someone’s house or anearby park, to talk about district issues.
Their goals include giving communitiesmore control over their schools, shifting resources from school police to student mental health servicesand putting more money into arts education.
One of the mainissues the group is focused on is improving district employees’ pay,which Romero said affects students as well as staff, noting that oneofhis favorite teachers quit last year because he couldn’tget by on his low salary.Alack of qualified teachers has also led to large class sizes at his school, Romero added.
dayhoversaround 15 students, he wantstosteadily grow the group’snumbers and eventually have apresence at every School Board meeting.
Even if students thinkthey have little power to influence anyone, Romerosaid he wants them to know that change only happens when people getinvolved.
“Peopleinhigh positions tell us againand again that the youth arethe future,” he saidinaninterview.“We can only bethat future if we take that power.”
Howthe groupstarted Romero founded Student Action Movement earlier this year when students across thecountry were organizing walkouts to protest the Trumpadministration’s
followed by the return of GospelUnder the Stars on Sunday Organizers say the gospel eventisreturning after several years as part of an effort to bring churches andcommunity members together
Themonthlong observancewill conclude with a Juneteenth OpenMic Night on June28. “Wewantpeople to come in asafe environment and see what Juneteenth is really about,” Freeman said. “Wewant to spread that love all over Acadiana.” For acomplete list of scheduled events,visit SWLAJuneteenth.org.
To many residents, Smith’sarrestwas ashockingoutcome for someone who has served as alaw enforcement officer for decadesinSt. Tammany,includingsix years as police chiefinSlidell and nearly a decade in his current role as themost powerfullaw enforcementofficial in the parish.
But others, even if they saw Smith’sbehavior as unacceptable, saiditwas not all thatsurprising, given thelong history between Smith and Couvillion. In 2019, Smith’s office arrested Couvillion on acharge of cyberstalking. At the time, Couvillion said it was because of hispublic criticism of Smith, something Smith denied.
“We’re all human at the end of the day.But when you put alcohol together with anger,etcetera, what do you thinkyou’re going to get?” said Stephie King, 34, while she was having coffee at Haven in Covington King saiditwas unfortu-
immigration crackdown.
The son of amother who immigrated to theU.S. from Honduras, Romero was angered by the fear the immigration enforcement caused his community, and he wanted to do something to supporthis peers. Children of immigrantsmake up alarge percentage of the students who attend the district’spublic schools, and many stayed home during theraids
In March, Romero’sgroup successfully organizedits
first student-leddemonstration, when an estimated 150 studentsacrossfourhigh schoolsstaged protests during their lunchperiodsto voice their opposition to the crackdown.
Today,the group’smembers hail from schools across the district, includ-
The group tackles issues “from the bottom up,” Romero explained, drawing inspiration from grassroots organizing tactics of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement,when activists mobilized community members by hosting meetings and encouraging those supportive of thecause to show up at local town halls
What’s on theiragenda
Whilenational politics around immigration catalyzedthe group, lately they’ve turnedtheir focus closer to home. They believe they canmake abigger impact locally,where theysee alot of need for change.
Romero said theywere galvanized by Jefferson Parish School Boardmember Steven Guitterrez’ssuddenresignation lastmonth, when he criticizedhis colleagues for prioritizing “selfinterest(ed) politicalpositioning” over students. The message convinced Romero that the board’s members need to hear from students aboutthe issues that really mattertothem.
“When teachers aren’t paid enough,” he said, “it impactsthe kind of education students receive.”
Romero raised the issue during his comments at the School Board meeting, imploringmembersto“commit to paying all professionals in the school systema livable wage.”
Board members applauded Romero for speaking up.
Some also said the board is doing its best amid mounting financial pressures, and others noted that the district gave employees a2%raise last school year and a5% raise the year before.
Afterwards, Romero said he was glad he voiced his opinion to the board, but he also wished that more community members and studentshad done the same: “More people should have been in that room,” he said.
Still, he’s hopeful that future meetings will draw more and more students.
“Weliveina democracy,” Romero said, “and everyone should be able to participate and feel safe in their own community.”
nateSmith reacted the way he did, but she respected Smith forturning himself overtothe authorities.“He turnedhimself in. He took accountability like aman.”
Someothers have defended Smith’sactions, citing theirown run-ins withCouvillion.
St.Tammany Parish resident Terri Lewis Stevens, aregular and vocal critic of local officials, saidina Facebook post thatCouvillion has harassed her online for years and said she supported Smith’sattack
“Asa long time victim of Couvillion, I’ll gladly contribute to theSheriff’s GoFundMe!” shewrote, referring to the online fundraising website.
Smithhas proved popular through his tenure, winning reelection twice as he has touted alow crime rate, though he’salso faced criticism over high-profilecases, like forhis office’sarrest of federal agent Jerry Rodgers,which afederal court ruled in 2022 was illegal.
St. Tammany politicians have largely avoided speaking publicly about theallegations againstSmith.Parish President Mike Cooper and council Chair Cheryl Tanner bothdeclined to comment at agovernment meetingThursday evening.
Many residents have pointedout the poor timing of the incident for the Sheriff’sOffice, whichis asking votersatthe end of the month to approve a propertytax.
On Friday, DanielSeuzeneau,the interim police chief for the Slidell Police Department,encouraged St.Tammany voters to support the Sheriff’s Officetax, regardless of how they feel about Smith.
“Please understand the powers that be will not always be there,but the men and women who wear the uniform will,” he said on his personal Facebook
Seuzeneau said in an interview he is strongly considering running for sheriff,though he hasnot made
afinal decision. According to northshore DistrictAttorney Collin Sims, Murrill’sinvestigation is ongoing. Once the investigation complete, Sims said he will have to determine whether he needsto recuse himself fromprosecuting Smith. Formal charges, whether in the form of an indictmentbya grand jury or abill of information, have not yet been filed.
Email Willie Swett at willie.swett@theadvocate. com.
LOTTERY
FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2026
PICK 3: 8-7-9
PICK 4: 7-6-4-0
PICK 5: 1-9-7-3-7
MEGA MILLIONS: 13-30-50-52-66
MEGA BALL: 2
STAFFFILE PHOTOByBRAD KEMP
Residents use the shade of oak trees while listening to the music of MikeDopsie and Zydeco Entourageduring the SWLA Juneteenth Music Festival &Stone Soul Picnic at Heymann Park on June 21 in Lafayette.
STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK
Victor Romero, arising senior at Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy, poses for aportrait in front of theJefferson Parish public school system administrative building in HarveyonFriday
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DEADLINEFOR QUSTIONS OR EXCEPTIONS:All question or exceptions regardingthisproject must be submittedno laterthannoon 12:00p.m. (CST)onMonday, June 22, 2026. Anyquestions and/or exceptions per‐tainingtothisproject specificationsand bid documentsmustbesent in writingvia emailto DabneDover @dabne‐dover@lafayettela.gov Allexceptionsand ques‐tionsaffecting thepro‐ject,specificationsorbid documents, shallbead‐dressedinthe form of an addendum andwillbe sent to allbidders on record.Noverbalcorre‐spondencewillbebind‐ing.
re‐quired
PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE TO BIDDERS Notice is hereby given that sealed bids will be received either electroni‐callyathttps://lafayet tecsdgovla.tylerportico. com/va/vendor-access/ registration or in theof‐fice of thePurchasingDi‐vision at theLafayette Consolidated Govern‐ment Building,located at 705 West University Av‐enue,Lafayette Louisiana, until11:00 AM CentralTimeonthe 29th dayofJune,2026 for the following: WASTEWATER COLLEC‐TION SYSTEM REHABILI‐TATION –2026 POINTRE‐PAIR PROJECT andwill, shortlythere‐after,beopenedand read aloudina room lo‐catedat705 West Univer‐sity Avenue,Lafayette LA.Bidsreceivedafter theabove specified time foropening shallnot be considered andshall be returned unopened to thesender. Biddersare encouraged to join the bidopening in-personor mayjointhe bidopening virtuallyvia Zoom using thefollowing link: https://us02web.zoom us/j/88090643735? pwd=Op0NINDas4j6V35 j
SCOPEOFSERVICES: The rehabilitation of deterio‐ratedwastewatercollec‐tion mainsusing point repair will requireexca‐vationtocorrect struc‐turaldefects andtore‐duce inflow/infiltration Allworktobecompleted within 180 calendar days from theNoticetoPro‐ceed In accordance with LouisianaRS38:2212. vendorsmay submit theirbid electronically at thewebsite listed above. Bidderswishing to sub‐mittheir bidelectroni‐callymust firstberegis‐teredwithinLCG Vendor Access at thewebsite listedabove.The regis‐trationprocess cantake some time;therefore LCGrecommendsregis‐tering days in advanceof thetimethatbidsare due. It is thesolerespon‐sibility of thebidderto ensure theirbid is deliv‐ered (whether electroni‐callyvia Vendor Access in person,orvia mail)to thePurchasingDivision priortothe scheduled date andtimeofthe bid opening. Vendors may requestthe bidpackage electronically from DabneDover at dabne‐dover@lafayettela.gov
Contractorswishing to submit theirbid electron‐ically must firstberegis‐teredonlinewith Lafayette Consolidated Govern‐ment as apotential sup‐plieratthe websitelisted above.
Contractorssubmitting bid l i ll
List of jurors randomly drawn and to serve forthe term beginning on June 15, 2026:
BROUSSARD, SAVANNA FARRIS BUTEAUX, SARA ESTES BYRD, RICHARD DOWELL BYRON, CLAUDIA H CALDWELL, AMANDA ANN CAMBRE, BRANSON MICHAEL CAMPBELL, THELMA L CAMPBELL, MARIETTAP CARDENAS, HECTOR DAVID CARRION, JOSE CASTILLE, MICHAEL SHANE
CATALANO, PETER JOSEPH
CHAMPAGNE, DONALD PAUL
CHAMPAGNE, STAFFORD CHARLES CHARLES, PATRICK WAYNE
CHASTANT,CHRISTOPHER ANTHONY CHAVIS, GEROLD JUWAUN CHERAMIE, NICHOLAS JOSEPH CHRICEOL, RONALD J CLARK, MERLIN CLARK, MAGGIE FAYE CLARKE, DEAN JERMAIN CLOTIAUX, LAWRENCE M CLOUD, COLLIN SCOTT
COMEAUX, CHARLOTTE CONQUES
COMEAUX, MICHELLE
COMEAUX, CYNTHIA BROUSSARD
COMEAUX, COLIN JAMES COPE, DUSTYN LANCE
CORMIER, BRANDI YVETTE NICOLE
CORMIER, NICHOLAS JOHN COURVILLE, SETH KRISTOFFER
COURVILLE, JULES RAY
CREDEUR, BRADLYJ
CRUTCHFIELD, BRIAN MICHAEL DANIELS, THADDEUS DWAYNE
DANIELS, NIYJEE SHATCHRA
DARBY,ERIC PAUL DARBY,KARMESHA QUANETTE
DENAIS, KIMBERLYHICKS
DEPRIEST,BENJAMIN ERIC
DESHOTELS, TERRYH
DEVILLIER, DELORES A DOMINGUE, KENDRICK JOSEPH
DOMINGUEZ-SANCHEZ, OMAR
DOUANGPHACHANH, CHANSAMONE
DOUCET,DAMIEN PAUL
DOUCET,BETTY J
DOUET-HEBERT, TAMMY S
DOZIER, ROBERTL DRESSEL, JACOB JUDE
same documentsasbid‐ders submitting through themailassoonasavail‐able.Onlya bidbond, certified checkor cashier’scheck shallbe submittedasthe bidse‐curity.Electroniccopies of both thefront and back of thecheck or bid bond shallbeincluded with theelectronicbid.If avendorfails to provide theoriginalhardcopies of thebid documents within 48 hoursofthe bid opening, theirbid shall be considered nonre‐sponsive Bids must be signed in accordance with LRS Title38:2212(B)5.A Cor‐porate Resolution or Cer‐tificate of Authorityau‐thorizingthe person signingthe bidisre‐quired to be submitted with bid. Failuretosub‐mita CorporateResolu‐tion or Certificate of Au‐thoritywiththe bidshall be causefor rejectionof bid. Copies of thebidding documentsare available at theoffice of Purchas‐ing& Property Manage‐ment ATTN: DabneDover (337-2918262) locatedat705 West University Avenue Lafayette LA 70506. Bid Documentsshall be availableuntil twentyfour hoursbeforethe bid openingdate. Questions relative to the biddingdocuments shall be addressedtoDabne Doveratdabnedover@ LafayetteLA.gov or 337291-8262. Each bidshall be accom‐panied by acertified check, cashier’scheck or bidbondpayable to theLafayette Consoli‐datedGovernment, the amount of which shallbe five percent(5%)ofthe base bidplusadditive al‐ternates.Ifa bidbondis used,itshall be written by asuretyorinsurance companycurrently on theU.S.Departmentof theTreasuryFinancial Management Servicelist of approved bonding companieswhich is pub‐lished annually in the FederalRegister, or by a Louisianadomiciled in‐surancecompany with at leastanA-Ratinginthe latest printing of theA.M Best’s KeyRatingGuide to writeindividualbonds up to ten percent (10%) f li h ld l
DUFFY,HAROLD J
for the openingofbids. Each bid shallbesubmitted only on thebid form provided with thespecifications. The successful contractor will be required to exe‐cute performanceand laborand material pay‐ment bondsin thefullamount of the contract as more fully definedinthe biddocu‐ments. Bids will be evaluated by thePurchaser basedon thelowestresponsible andresponsivebid sub‐mitted which is also in compli‐ance with thebid docu‐ments. Contractorsorcontract‐ing firmssubmittingbids in theamount of $50,000.00 or more shall certifythatthey arelicensedcontractors under Chapter24ofTitle 37 of theLouisiana Re‐visedStatutesof1950 andshow theirlicense numberon thefrontofthe sealed envelope in which their bidisenclosed. Contrac‐tors shall be licensed forthe clas‐sification of “Municipal andPublicWorks Con‐struction”.Bidsinthe amounts specified abovewhich have notbid in accor‐dancewiththe require‐ments, shallberejected andshall notbe read.Additional informa‐tion relative to licensing maybeobtainedfrom theLouisiana State Li‐censing Boardfor Contractors, BatonRouge,Louisiana
DUGAS, SHANEANTHONY
DUGAS, DYLAN JOSEPH
DUGAS, DUANEDAVID DUGAS, JANELMARIE
DUHON, ADELINA DUHON, IMANI FAYE DUNN, MICHAEL J DUPRE, CINDYW EDWARDS, EMILY C EDWARDS, KIMBERLYMICHELLE
ESKINE,DELIAG FAULK,JOHNWILLIAM FERGUSON, JAIEL DANIEL FISHER, JAMES EDWARD
FLOTT,MICHELLE ELIZABETH FONTENOT,RICHARD ALLEN FRANZ, ERNEST WILLIAM FRYOU, ERINLESLIE
GARRETT,ESTER COWARD
GEE, RODNEY
GEISS, PATRICIA TRAHAN
GILLIAM, RODRICK JAMES
GIROUARD, LYNNZIE KAY
GIROUARD, RAYFORD M
GLAZE, DARIEN P GRANT, COURTNEY HANLEY
GREEN,VANASSA SAM GREENE, ETHAN DAKOTAGOSS
GUIDROZ, SAMANTHA A
GUIDRY,MARSHALL W
GUIDRY,JOSIERAE
GUIDRY,PEGGY S GUILLORY,BRIAN K
GUILLOTTE, BAILEY CLAIRE
HADDICAN, JOSEPH MYKAL
HAGER-MANY,BRIAN CARLTON
HAMILTON,RONJOEROX DAMISO
HAMILTON,BARBARA CHAUVIN
HARB, STEPHEN ALI HASNI
HARMON,CECIL W
HARRIS, WILLARD DARREN
HARRIS, TANGELA JOY
HART,PATRICIA ANN
HARTER, ALBERTA HEBERT
HATCH, SPENCER THOMAS
HEBERT, CHARLES ANATOLE
HEBERT, MELODYE O
HEBERT, MICHELLE
HEBERT, LILLIAN HOPE
HELAIRE, CHRISTOPHER ROBERT
HESTERLY, NATALIE ANNE TUMINELLO
HICKS, GREEN WILSON
HILDEBRAND, STEPHANIE
HOFFPAUIR SHELIAB
HOLLEY,TROY ALAN
HOLLIER, SHOSHONIA S
HOLLIER, JAKE ALEXANDER
HOPKINS,BROOKS LOPEZ
HUSSAIN, ALICIA DIANA
HUTCHINSON,KAREN L
HUVAL, KRISTI MARIE
ISHEE, ELLEN HUVAL
JEANLOUIS,CLAYMOND
JIMENEZ, ALBERT
JOHNSON, DONNA DEMORUELLE
JOHNSON, CHRIS PATRICK JOHNSON,ALAINAGAUTHIER
JOHNSON,BERTHAPITRE JOHNSON,CYNTHIA STUTES
JONES,KELLYKARA KING, KATHARINE LEIGH
KNOX, JEROME FLYNN
LABORDE, ELIZABETH MARIE
LAM,YEN HONG
LANDRY, AMBER RENEE
LANDRY, ROBYN M
LANGLINAIS, PATRICK MICHAEL LANTHIER, LEXI FAYE
LARIVE, TRAVISJOHN
LASSEIGNE, ANNETTE L
LAVERGNE,MARCELLA KAY
LAZZAROLEBLANC, STEVEN CHRISTOPHER
LEBLANC, RICHARD J
LEBLANC, DONNA B
LEBOEUF, EDWARD L
LEMAIRE, BREANNA DIEBOLD
LEVY,NIECY S LEWIS, LINDA LOU
LEWIS, KEISHA S LOPEZMARTINEZ, VALERIA ELIZABETH
LOUVIERE, ELDON J
LOUVIERE, JEANNEDAVY
MADANI, SIROOS
MALVEAUX, RONALD LEE
MARCINKOWSKI-FLORIO,BAILEIGH M
MARSHALL, PETER JOHN
MARTIN, MARVINLEE
MARTIN, JENNIFER ANN
MARTIN, RAYMONDGERARD
MARTINEZ, DIEGOANTONIO
MATTOX, AYLA AZUCENA
MATURIN, JOSHUA JAMES
MCGUFFIN, EDWINDAVID
MCNAMARA, JORDAN ALEXANDRA
MENARD, ANGELA NICHOL
METZEL, AMANDA EMMARITE
METZLER, JOHN ARTHUR
MILLER, JOSEPH ADAM
MILLER, TREY CHARLES
MILLER, DESMONDK
TheLafayette Consoli‐datedGovernment strongly encourages the participationofDBEs (Disadvantaged Business Enterprises) in allcontracts or procure‐mentslet by the Lafayette Consolidated Government for goodsand services and laborand material.To that end, allcontractors andsuppliers areen‐couraged to utilizeDBEsbusinessen‐terprisesinthe purchase or sub-contractingof materials, supplies, ser‐vicesand laborand material in which disadvantaged businesses areavailable Assistance in identifying said businesses maybeob‐tained by calling2918410. PURCHASING DIVISION Lafayette Consolidated Government PUBLISHDATES:6/4/26, 6/7/26, 6/14/26 DPR1006184 189704-JUN4-7-14-3T $216.84
MITCHELL,ROYLETTE D MOLINSKI, STACEYDAMIELLE MONTGOMERY, ETHEL MOORE, JAMES NATHANIEL MORVANT,DAVID NATHANIEL MOUTON, KEVIN JOSEPH MOUTON, WILFRED J MOUTON, CARLTON J MUNOZ,EDWARD PIERCE NILOV, KARLIE MARIE NOEL, JAVEN DOMENGEAUX NOEL, KHALIL DEVON NORBERT, LARRY WAYNE PADGETT,VERNON CARROLL PARK, JOELI PATRICK, RONALD CHRISTOPHER PATTERSON, CASSANDRA DAVIS PELLERIN,RAYMONDJAMES PERKINS, ASHLEYANN PERRODIN,MACKENZIE DENIZE PETE,TAMEKA MARIE DEMOUCHET PHILLIPS, TREVOR DEPAUL PICARD,KENNETH J POST,CHRISTOPHER DANIEL POTIER, JOCELYN NICOLE PREJEAN, KAISHA DANE PRICE,SHELIAR PROSPERO, DANIELLE RENEE QUEBEDEAU, CHRISTOPHER CONLAN QUINTANILLA, SHYANN ALIZE RAINWATER, CHRISTIAN ANTHONY TALGAT RATLIFF,NAKELLA ANN REALE, JACLYNS REAUX, VIRGINIA FAY RENE, ANNA MARIE RICHARD, KEVIN RICHARD, LANCE TEE RIZZOTTO, LUKE ANTHONY ROBERTS, BOBBY GARY ROBERTS, JOSIE CLAIRE ROBINSON, CASEYANGELLE ROBINSON, TAVORUSJAMES RODRIGUE, ANGELMARIE ROGERS, ALEXIS LYNN ROGERS, DENISEMARIE ROMERO, ELLA CLAIRE RONQUILLO, RAYMOND MCCULLUM ROSS, BRYANT RASHAD ROULY,JUDITH LYNN ROYER, AZELIE H ROYER, KATHRYN TRAHAN RUBIN,KIERRA SIMONE RYAN, ROITERRA RAYLETTE RYAN, SHAKEIR DEDRICK SAM, CHISTOPHERPAUL SAVOIE, CHRISTIAN LEVI SCHAAL, CAREYCOLLEEN SCHENDEL, ANNA W SCHEXNAYDER, ALISHA CHRISTIAN SCHOUEST,KIMBERLYANN SENEGAL,MICHAEL SHAW, FRANCES T SIMON, PALLAVIDUTTABARUAH SINEGAL,LISA DERNICE M SINEGAL,PATRICIA M SMITH, CASEYLYNN SNELLING, STEVEN RAY SOILEAU, RAYMOND ANTHONY SOLANO, FRANCISCA R SONNIER, ASHLEYNICOLE STELLY, SHIRLENE NOEL STEVENS, JOSEPH H STJULIEN, ERIKA SJENKINS SUIRE,CHRISTINA COOLEY TALLEY, TERYN CLAUSE TEMPLET,ANNEMARIE ZAUNBRECHE TEZENO, CENTRANAE S THOMAS, PRUNELLA FLUGENCE THOMAS, JNIYANIORI THORNHILL,CATHY JEAN TOUCHET,KENNETH J TRAHAN, IAN RANDLE TRAHAN, CHARLOTTE ANN TRAVASOS, JEANNE C TURPEAU, AHYMA DENAY TYNES, LANNISLEE USELTON, GREGORYALLEN VALLOT,KENNETH W VENABLE,ANNETTE M VERRET,AMY G VERRETT,HOWARD MICHAEL VICTOR, JUAN CHRISTOPHER VICTORIA, LYNN POUSSON VONDENSTEIN, MORGAN ELIZABETH WARD, CARMEN MARANTA WASHINGTON, ALCIDECOLBY WASHINGTON, CIERA DAWN KARLAS WIDDEL,JEFFERYTHEODORE WIESE, DYLAN MICHAEL WIKSTROM, LANE ALEXANDER WILLIAMS, NAOMI DENISE WASHINGTON WILLIS, RONALD JAMES WILSON, JASMINE CARON WILSON, ALISA TRENALL WIRTZ, CALLY LARAE ZENO, ALCOBY JAMOL
OPINION
Legislature recognizes limitsofits power
If the close of the 2026 Legislative sessionoffered one lesson, it’sthis: Even with aRepublican supermajority in aruby red state,legislative andexecutive power has itslimits. Watching Gov.Jeff Landry and lawmakers tangleatthe statehouse this year felt very different from those early,heady days of his administration when they pushed through sweepingchangesto elections, criminal justice andtaxation
This session, lawmakersappearedprimed to tackle the nuts and bolts of governancewith little flash and perhaps moresubstance.(Of course, the Legislature’s swift passage of newcongressional maps afterthe Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais was ahead-turner,but one that deserves lengthier considerationata laterdate.)
There were some ambitiousideas floatedat the start —abolishing the Board of Regents and abolishing the DepartmentofChildrenand Family Services —but those seemed towitheronthe vine as lawmakers grappled withthe realities of the Louisiana budget. They also sawtheir plan to fund teacher raises through constitutional amendment roundly rejected byvoters fora second time. Still, there were accomplishmentstobeproud of.The budget gave priority topaying down debt and puts dollars toward much needed upgrades to our juvenile prison system. Lawmakers also gave more money to foster care and home care for developmentally disabled people.Wewere also pleased to see they bolstered the successful fortified roof program that promises to help lower insurance rates. But lawmakers declined to get behind more funding for Landry’s signature LA GATORprogram that gives taxpayer money to parents who optout of publicschools. And they did notinclude money for teacher stipends, though the governor now is promoting aplan to payfor them, which some school leaders say would make their budgetsevenmore precarious. Onething is certain: It’s past time to make teachers’ raises permanent, instead of aconstant political football. We also can’thelp being alarmed by agrowing trend toward less transparency ingovernment. Watchdog groups like PARpoint to the $180millioninearmarks for local pet projects decided behind closed doors. These actionserode trust in government. So do votes toshield thedetails howpublicuniversitiesspend public money on athleticsand to shield the records of applicants for certain top universityjobs. That’s to say nothingofthe meddling inNew Orleanscourts with no say from its citizens that went so far as to undo an election. And that brings us back to where we started. Perhaps we see politiciansreachingthe limits of their power becausethey are notseeking the people’sinput.Wesee no shared visionfor the future of our state and little grassroots campaigning for specific policy priorities. Perhaps if lawmakers want to buildsupport forsweeping change next session,they need to startplanting the seeds now.
LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE
HERE AREOUR
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Pope LeoXIV delivers moralclarity
“The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.”
Mother Teresa famously said this while standing on adais with President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton in aNational Prayer Breakfast Speech in Washington, D.C., in February1994. It was big news at the time. Ayear into the reign of PopeLeo XIV,the first pope born in theUnited States —South Side Chicago, to be exact —it isn’tnews that Leo cited Mother Teresa’squote.
yards from her while Iwas astudent at theCatholic University of America, at aMass at theBasilica of the Shrine of theImmaculate Conception, adjacent to thecampus, where new Missionaries of Charity,the religious community she founded were making their vows.
Speaking to young people participating in a“Political Innovation Hackathon,” Leo said: “No policy can genuinely serve the people if it denies the unborn thegift of life, or if it neglects to support those in need, whether in their material circumstances or in their spiritual distress.”
“Her words remain prophetic,”Leo said about the fearless, mighty, tiny nun who captured the attention of theworld. Her merepresence would challenge us —Iremember being just
“The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is awar against thechild, adirect killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself,”Mother Tsaid bluntly in her Nobel acceptance speech. Ihave an unspoken rule that if you’re going to talk to me about something evil like pornography,Idonot want graphic details. Don’tput an image in my head that might not have entered in another way.Idonot have thesame rule when it comes to abortion. Mother Teresa’s words need to be heard by citizen and politician alike, so that public figures will realize that awell-informed conscience is abeautiful thing to have and aterrible thingtowaste.
Athrowback to clarity on moral issues is not aradical departure from PopeLeo’spredecessor,Pope Francis. “Leo does follow Francis when it comes to speaking out on immigration, the environment, poverty and capital punishment,” according to one CNNanalysis. The media longs forafight between Trump andthe pope. They did it with Pope Francis —putting him on the cover of Rolling Stone only to warn him to notdisappoint their desires for him. But if youthought Francis was changing the Church to endorse the whims of conventional society and Western liberalideologies —especially sexualrevolutionary ones —you were mistaken. He likened abortion to hiring ahit mantokill your unborn baby andtalkedabout gender ideology as the equivalent of anuclear bomb destroying the nuclear family.HecanonizedJohnPaulII, calling him “the pope of the family.” Pope Leo has ajoy and steadiness about his Catholicism.Itseems to come naturally to him.For all the headlines, he really wants you to take away one thing: the love and mercy of GodinJesus Christ.
Email Kathryn Jean Lopez at klopez @nationalreview.com.
Journalism has been famously called “the first rough draft of history,” and working in theOpinion section, that takes on new meaning for me. Iamvery aware that theworries and concerns of readers today will look very different 100 years hence. It’s hard not to wonder what future generations will make of our fears of artificial intelligence or our debates over climate change. It’s likely they will face new problemsthat we can’teven imagine. That’swhy newspaper archives offer afascinating trove of information for readers curious about the past. You can find our archives at theadvocate. newsbank.com and nola.newsbank.com It does require asubscription to search thearchives, but somelibraries offer access to their patrons. Thanks to our long history in Louisi-
ana, the newspapers’ archives go back decades. Recently,asthe Supreme Court was deliberating Louisiana v. Callais, Iwas able to look at what was written about the Voting Rights Act when it passed in 1965. Needless to say, thesignificance of the law’s provisions becamemore apparent over time. Sometimes readers write in to seeif we can locate an article abouta family member from longago. Newspapers used to have librarians who were whizzes at locatingold clippings in what used to be called a“morgue,” usually somewhere in the basement with stacksoffile cabinets containing yellowed papers. Butnow,ofcourse, everything is online, so Isendthemto our archives. Searching thearchives is relatively easy,but it can take afew tricks to find theright keywords to get to what you want.And you can download pages from thesite for afee. Or you can browse to your heart’sdelight.
The archives are especially useful to researchers and historians, but they are just afun read foranyone whois interested in the past. If you haven’t checked out our archives, Iencourage you to do so. As July 4approaches and we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country,wehave asked you to reflect on aquestion: What are the quintessential texts of American history? We know the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are on there. But what other documents would you recommendfor an understanding of what this country is?
Send your ideas to letters@ theadvocate.com.Wewill publish aselection of the best letters from readers later in the year
Idon’thave acount of the letters we received foryou this week, but we will catch up next weekand let you know what your fellow readers are mostconcerned about —atleast fornow
Kathryn Jean
Arnessa Garrett
COMMENTARY
La.AGbrought home wins at legislativesession
When state Attorney General Liz Murrill leaves aside her hardball political power plays, she can notch common-sense wins that benefit everybody Granted, Murrill does seemtorevel in extravagant assertions of authority.Witness her threat to remove from office(or even imprison) NewOrleans officialsmerely for acting on adifferent interpretationof aconfusing new law regarding court clerks. Witness how she risked disruption of health care for 330,000 Medicaid recipients while pressing alargely unrelated case against ahealth care provider
Still, this column comes not to bury Murrill but to praise her When the Louisiana legislative session ended on June 1, Murrill issued anews release boasting about the finalpassage of 24 billsshe hadhelped originate. And, with one exception (not worth deep discussionhere), it looks at first glance to be an impressive, well-considered list indeed. Almost all the bills focused on key nuts and bolts ofcriminal justice, not on partisanorhighly ideological crusades.
The first one listed in the release,for example, Act 285 by Rep. Debbie Villio, prohibits post-conviction bail for offenders convicted of an aggravated offense, such as rape or kidnapping, against aminorvictim. It boggles the mind that acourt would even consider bail in such asituation, so the Legislature is right to take that option away
Another good one, Act 120 by Rep. Jeff Wiley,passed as aresponse to the April 23 Mall of Louisiana shooting, “expands the definition of first-degreemurdertoinclude shootings and gang violence in public venues.” Not directly related but also important, the new law “createsthe crime of
aMay
second-degree crueltytothe elderly and persons withinfirmities,” akin to theprotections already afforded children. It recognizes that justlike children, people with “intellectual disabilities, in mental health facilities, and nursing homes” can be less ableto defend themselvesthan most adults. Othersuccessful bills providing more protectionfor children include Act211 by Sen. Heather Cloud and SenateBill 42 by Sen. RickEdmonds, bothofwhich penalize the use of new technology to portray child sexual abuse. For the cause of supporting youngsters, House Bill 1224 helps ensure that the Louisiana Department of Children andFamily Services can readily support pregnantminors, including child victims of first-degreerape.
In awonderful example of crossing the ideological divide, theconservative Murrill supported progressive stateRep. Mandie Landry’sAct 538 to “givecrime victims the opportunitytobeheardbefore vacating a final conviction or reducing an offender’s sentencethrough resentencing.” Surely everyone has heardofinstancesinwhich victims or their families were noteven told, much less consulted, about the release of the criminals,even violent ones, who preyed on them. Well, no longer.Good! Amoretechnical one supporting victims’ interestsisAct 104 by Speaker Pro TemMike Johnson, putting atime limit on “habeas corpus”petitioners (contesting imprisonment)sothey can’tfile endless post-conviction motions.Ofcourse such
petitions should be allowed, but not repeatedly and not forever.AsMurrill’sstatement explains, the new requirement protects “victims’ interest in finality of criminalconvictions.”
Some of the bills depart from traditional criminal-justice issues, on subjects ranging from collegiate name-image-likeness regulations to workers’ compensation to protection for at-risk home renters to interest-rate limits in personal-injury cases.
Goodfor Murrill. It is not the main part of an attorney general’sjob, but still an important one, to work with the Legislature to improve the laws she will be expected to enforce. And while of course governing philosophy plays arole here, most of these bills seemed more in the old-style mode of careful, consensus-driven policy changes. There was atime when those sorts of things, along with the main job of job of overseeing investigations and prosecutions —not heavily ideological agendas or assertions of political might —were all thatwas expected from an attorney general. Even those of us on the same (conservative) side of the political spectrum as Murrill should recognize that aneutral, evenhandedapproach is crucial for public confidence in law enforcement.
For those old enough to remember,agreat model of that approach was the moderate Democrat William “Billy” Guste, who was elected arecord five times (1972-92) as a low-key but honest, dutiful and generally effective chief legal officer of the state. Surely there should be ahappy medium between Guste’sstyle and the headline-grabbing methods oft employed by Murrill. Either way,Murrill’ssuccessful legislative package this year is well worthy of a favorable verdict.
EmailQuin Hillyer at quin.hillyer @theadvocate.com
Landry couldhavedoneright by OrleansParishjudges
After blasting Orleans Parish judges for not being good, for not doing enough work and becausethere are too manyjudges in New Orleans, Gov.Jeff Landry had a choice: Sign abill that would do whathe promised he would do, or do theright thing by vetoing the bill.
The guv said clearlyand directly in Marchthat he would push for the “rightsizing” of the courtsinNew Orleans when he spoke during the Louisiana Legislature’sopening session in March. He rallied Republicans legislators to the cause, identifying state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, as the one who would carry the legislation to make it happen.
As originally proposed,Senate Bill 217 would’ve cut the number of civil court judges, cut the number of criminal court judges, cut the number of municipal and traffic courtjudgesand cut thenumberof juvenile court judges. New Orleans legislatorsweren’tconsulted in advance, and they were angry
As the bill moved throughthe legislative process, changes weremade, as recently as Monday.The bill that passed thestate House and the state Senate would cutno
civil court judges; cut the number of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judges from 12 to nine; cut the number of municipaland traffic court judges from seven to five; and cut thenumber of juvenile court judges from four to two. The number of juvenile court judges would be reduced over time as one judge then another leaves thebench through attrition. The municipal andtraffic court judges would be go away as two judgeship terms expire at theend of the year
Thecriminal court judge cut would happen asofDec. 31, meaningthree court sections would be eliminated. Just afew days ago, the three eliminated judges were to be newly-elected Judge John Fuller and judgesLeon Roché and Simone Levine. Butsomething happened Monday.Fuller andLevine would be cut. Butinstead of Rochébeing cut, Judge Rhonda GoodeDouglas would be cut.Morris said the switch-a-roo happened after conversations with thegovernor’soffice and theNew Orleans delegation. That didn’tsit well with Landry. “Nobody called and asked me. If they would have, Iwould’ve told them that’sridiculous,” Landry said Monday “They’re taking the best judge off the bench.”
Goode-Douglas was stunned.
On WBOK Wednesday morning, she told me that she doesn’tintend toretire or step aside, and she still will run fora new term as criminal court judge, her seat if the bill doesn’tbecome law and someone else’s seat if it does. Who told her whythis has happened? “No one can tell me,” she said. “Tohave to now pit myself against somebody I’ve worked withthe last six years is really not anything Ilook forward to having to do.”
Goode-Douglas was aprosecutor in New Orleansfor 12 years, including timeunder former OrleansParishDistrict Attorneys Eddie Jordan and Leon Cannizzaro, before her time as adefense attorney,then her elevation to judge. She has more seniority than nearly all of the judges. Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill haven’tbeen friendly to OrleansDistrict Attorney Jason Williams lately.The governorwent after OrleansParishCriminal Clerk-elect Calvin Duncan, denying him aposition he wonby election, and voters statewide rejected all five constitutional amendments on the May ballot.Could it be theCannizzaro-LandryMurrill connection?
It seems this has been about GoodeDouglas and Roché, one or the other. But it’s really about whether it wasright to go after any New Orleans judges without a
thorough reviewand consideration of the financialimpact. Cut threejudges, by any name,and watchthe intake at the Orleans Parish jail quickly rise, costing more money.Cut threecriminal court judges, by anyname, andwatch docket numbers increaseand justiceslow.Cut threecriminalcourt judges, by anyname, and watch defense attorneys sue to pursue speedy trials andcomplaints fromBaton Rouge thatthe remaining judges aren’tdoing their job.
Once Landry receives the bill, he has up to 20 days to veto the bill, sign the bill or let it becomelaw without his signature. Early Wednesday afternoon, the guv said on social media that he will sign the bill. “Of course I’mgoing to sign Senate Bill 217 into law!” he wrote. He blamed the situation on “Democrat gamesmanship.” Morris might’ve been disappointed, hurt or even embarrassed if the governor didn’t sign the bill. But Landry had achance to veto it, let the courts stand as they are and pick this matter up later —ifhewere truly focused on having the right number versus the wrong person.
Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com. Findhim on Instagram at @editorwillsutton.
Bill revealsthatCongresshas an animal crueltyproblem
That case went to theSupreme Court, which ruled in California’sfavor and memorably produced Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’smajority opinion in 2023 that “while the Constitutionaddressesmany weightyissues, the type of pork chopsCalifornia merchants may sell is notonthat list.”
pork-producing state. If the Senate committee does cut the provision, Iowa’stwo Republican senators, Chuck Grassleyand Joni Ernst, co-sponsors of the Senate counterpart to the Save Our Bacon Act, could try to re-add it as an amendment. But ultimately, the two chambers will have to reconcile the bills in conference.
When you think about the2026 farm bill —but of course you do! —you’d be forgiven if root canals suddenly seemed alluring. The bill is amassive package of federal legislation that includes regulations for everything from rural health and nutrition to multinational farming practices. It is the latest iteration of a bill signed into law in 2018. The legislation expired in 2023 and has been slogging through Congress with annual extensions. The current version lasts until Sept. 30. It’sunlikely anyone has read the nearly 1,000-page tome, outside of animal welfare activists and special-interest groups, namely owners of large pig factories. The bill passed the House in April and is expected to be unveiled in theSenateearly this month. Of particular interest to people who value the humane treatment of animals over,say, hot dogs, the bill includes the proposed Save OurBacon Act, which is designedtooverride state animal welfare requirements and potentially ahost of otherstate and local regulations.
The act aims to reverseCalifornia’s Proposition 12 and Massachusetts’sQuestion 3, whichvoterspassedin2018 and
2016,respectively,toprohibit thesale of food products derived from livestock raised in extremeconfinement —that is, without enough space for animals to turn around and stretch their limbs. This hardly seems an unreasonable request for amodern, enlightened society. Besides, amajorityof residents in those two states,among several others, want it thatway Whatever happened tothe Republican love affairwith states’rights? Iguess it all depends on whosebacon is getting fried. Though it’salmost irresistibly amusing to poke fun withpunny takes, this legislation is serious and mattersbeyond the humane treatmentofanimals intended for slaughter and consumption. (Globally,humans slaughter more than 80 billion land-raised animals annually,and thenumbers are climbing.)
Should the Save Our Bacon Act make the final version of thebill, federal legislators would be undermining states’constitutional rights to self-determination, while potentially strengthening foreign countries such as China.In2013, theChinese company WH Grouppurchased Smithfield Foods, America’slargest pork producer,witha$4billion loan from thestate-owned Bank of China. Smithfield Foods is amember of the NationalPorkProducersCouncil, whichfiled a lawsuit challenging Proposition 12 in 2019.
The Save Our Bacon Act could nullify hundreds of state and local laws affecting livestock production, according to areport fromHarvard LawSchool.This would mean thatscores of farmers who have retrofittedtheir factories tomeethigher standards would have spent their money needlessly.These include, it must be said, Smithfield, even though the company still lobbies against the rules. It also would end legislative progress on animal wellness issues.
The Senate Agriculture Committee could issue its version without theSave Our Bacon Act provision, but this largely will be determined by Republican Chair John Boozman (Arkansas) and ranking Democrat AmyKlobuchar (Minnesota). At aNational Association of FarmBroadcasting event in April before the House passed its bill, Boozman indicated thatthe Senate version wouldn’thave the Save Our Bacon Act. Klobuchar hasn’tcommitted to killing the act,perhaps becauseshe’srunning for governor of Minnesota, the second-largest
Or,ifhistory is our guide, not. The Senate should reject the act for several logical reasons. A2024 study by NSF, apublic health and safety nonprofit, found that nearly 70% of Americans say that animal wellness is important to their purchasing decisions. Most Americans would instinctively oppose handing over state jurisdictional power to foreign countries, especially China. It is philosophically and economically un-American to punish smalland medium-size farms to fund corporate interests. Finally,scientific evidence shows that stress and improper handling of farm animals before slaughter can lead to lowerquality meat —and taste.
If enough senators join the act’ssupporters in the House to infringe upon the rights of citizens not to participate in animal cruelty,their next act maybetosave their own bacon.
EmailKathleen Parker at kathleenparker@washpost.com.
Quin Hillyer
Will Sutton
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks during
18 news conference at the Louisiana Department of Justice in Baton Rouge.
Kathleen Parker
We need to listen to Saban, not mock him
We need to listen to Nick Saban.
More importantly,we need to figureout away to adopt the Protect CollegeSports Act, which Sabanendorsed during his testimony at acongressional hearingwhere thelegislation was introduced Wednesday in Washington,D.C
Yes, the bill hasflaws that need to be addressed, tweaked andadjusted. But it’sacomprehensiveplan and goes along way toward fixing the mess that modern college sports has become. Wednesday’sthree-hour session featured several distinguished panelists, including Notre Dame athletic director PeteBevacqua, former Ohio State presidentGordon Gee, Pac-12commissionerTeresa Gould and Utah defensive end Lance Holtzclaw,but Sabanwas clearly the star witness. And, predictably,his testimonywas what most critics have seized upon in thewake of the session.
Speaking as aneutral observer rather than arepresentative of Alabama, theSEC or ESPN, Saban delivered several bluntassessments of where the sport stands. His commentswere vintage Saban:calculating, analytical and full ofthe same sharp analogies he used to dominatenews conferencesduring his time as head coach at LSU and Alabama. Saban is one of the most astute minds and accomplished coaches in college footballhistory.His opinionisinformed by decades of work at the highest levelsof college athletics.
BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer
uringthe final7-on-7periodoftheir OTA
practice Wednesday afternoon, New Orleans
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough dropped back, surveyed thefieldand ripped athrow toward theright hash to an open receiver It was notChris Olave, whowas notpresent. Norwas it first-round pick Jordyn Tyson, who was there butnot participating as the team eases him intoregular on-field work after he injured his hamstring during his final college season.
Instead it was theman who hadn’tplayed ball in ayear hauling it in. Ja’Lynn Polk, wearing No. 13, had beaten thecoverage easily and made the play for abig gain.
“Itwas just friendly,”said Polk,describingthe throw from thereceiver’s perspective.“Seeing the ball in the air, that was awesome.” It had been along time coming, too.
Polk represents an interesting project for ateam that hasrevamped its cast of offensive playmakers in the past nine months. Once ahighly touted prospect coming outofthe University of Washington,Polkstruggled in his2024 rookie season with the New England Patriots, then missed all of last season with ashoulder injury that required surgery New England effectively gave up on Polk, sending him andthe final three years of his inexpensive rookie contract plus afutureseventh-round pick to theSaintsin exchange forasixth-rounder
He was one of three young receivers the Saints acquired last season, with the others being Devaughn Vele (bytrade) andTrey Palmer (viawaivers).Since, New Orleanshas continued to fortify its offense. It drafted receivers Tyson and Bryce Lance along with tight end Oscar Delp, anditsignedhigh-profile free agents suchas running back Travis Etienne and guard David Edwards.
BY RAUL DOMINGUEZ AssociatedPress
SAN ANTONIO New York Knicks center and Chalmette graduate Mitchell Robinson was neither offended nor frustrated when the San Antonio Spurs began intentionally fouling him in the first quarter of Game 2ofthe NBA Finals on Friday night. While he did go 3of6on free throws in the opening quarter,the Hack-aMitch strategy inspired Robinson and the restof the Knicks.
“It means alot when I ruin their strategy,but Imean, it seemslike they just want me off the court,” Robinson said. “So, in my eyes, IfeellikeI’m athreat.” Washeever Robinson, Landry Shamet and the other New York role players cameuphugeas the Knicks held on to beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-104 for their 13th straight
BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer
Senior right-hander Charlie Krebs is like most pitchers who enter the transfer portal: He’ll fill any role his new coaching staff believes is necessary
“I believe my role is just whatever they need to help us win,” said Krebs, who joins Marshall teammate Blaine Albright as players to commit to UL out of the transfer portalthis offseason. “If that’sany position or any spot in thestaff or the rotation, whatever that is, I’m all forhelping us win whatever that could be
“I love to play baseball, and this is the spot where IthinkI can play baseball the best.”
UL pitching coach Taylor Sandefur was Krebs’ pitching coach at Marshall two years agoand knows the 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior as good as anyone.
“Charlie is themost versatile of the two,” Sandefur said. “He’shot all the time. He loves to throw.Imean he lovestothrow. He can get hot in apanic.He’llrun down
there if aguy loses andthrow one pitch off the mound and say,‘Tell them I’mready.’
“It’s alot like (ULreliever) Parker (Smith),but he’s even faster than Parker, which is impressive.” Sandefur foresees Krebs being aprimary option out of the bullpen.
“He’sthrownalot of late-leverage innings in his career,soit’shardtothink that he wouldn’tstay in that role here,” Sandefur said.
In 2025, Krebs was 5-2witha2.92 ERA in 27 outings forthe Thundering Herd. He gave up up 36 hits in 521/3 innings with 24 walks and 40 strikeouts.
This past season, Krebs was 2-3 with three saves anda6.08ERA in 24 appearances.In40innings, he surrendered45 hits, 23 walks and struck out 38.
“Obviously,abig reason coming down here and playing with Sandy again is hopingtoget back to my fastballand hoping they could open up my slideragain, just some things thatkind of dulledout last
AP PHOTO By JOSE LUIS MAGANA
Former University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban testifies beforeaSenate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday at Capitol Hill in Washington. Abipartisan bill in the Senate aims to changethe landscape of collegesports.
Jeff Duncan
PHOTO By
Russian teen wins French Open
Andreeva defeats
Chwalinska for first Grand Slam victory
BY ANDREW DAMPF Associated Press
PARIS Bent over with her hands covering her face, her knees getting dirtied on the red clay court, Mirra Andreeva was celebrating processing might be the more appropriate word — how she had finally overcome “so many demons inside” that came with being a teenage tennis phenom.
After bursting onto the scene at 15, Andreeva became a Grand Slam champion at 19 when the Russian ended the run of 114thranked Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the French Open final on Saturday “I’ve done a lot of visualizations before. Not just this tournament, but I’ve had dreams, I’ve had a lot of thoughts on how it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, where,” Andreeva said, still hardly breathing as she talked quickly in true teenage style. “The feeling in real life is so much better than in your dreams “I can call myself a Grand Slam champion,” Andreeva said The biggest challenges for Andreeva have not been on the court, as she already has one of the best attacking baseline games in the sport. It’s been the mental side. And her stubbornness
“Her attitude is difficult,” said Conchita Martinez, Andreeva’s coach and a former Wimbledon champion. “You tell her something, and maybe she’s not open to listening. When she works hard and when she listens and she does everything, she has no limits.”
Andreeva acknowledged as much during the trophy ceremony.
“I know I can be a tough cookie sometimes, and it’s pretty hard to put up with me,” Andreeva said The victory took Andreeva one step further than Martinez, who lost the 2000 French Open final to Mary Pierce.
Pierce presented the winner’s trophy to Andreeva, who became the youngest woman to win the clay-court Grand Slam since Monica Seles was 18 when she claimed her third straight French
Open in 1992.
“You’re so young and talented.
It’s so annoying,” the 24-year-old
Chwalinska told Andreeva.
Andreeva took the unusual step of thanking herself “for believing in myself, always giving my 100%, even when it’s tough, trying every day to be better as a person and as a player, believing that I can do this, fighting so many demons inside of me.
“Only I know how tough it was for me,” Andreeva added. “How nervous I was throughout these two weeks.”
Andreeva also thanked her psychologist, who she said was watching from Florida: “Everything that you’ve told me I’ve been trying to use these two weeks.”
Chwalinska’s depression
Chwalinska was attempting to become the first qualifier to capture the Roland Garros title. She was a promising junior alongside four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek before she began struggling with depression in 2019.
“Tennis is such a tough sport.
It’s so individual. We start so early We are basically kids when we start,” Chwalinska said. “People
are expecting that we are going to behave like adults already and we are just kids really So the pressure is huge.”
Andreeva was born in Siberia and moved to Sochi and eventually France to develop her tennis career
She drew loud applause from the crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier when she spoke a few words of French during the trophy presentation.
“Thanks for your support today and over these past two marvelous weeks here in Paris,” Andreeva said in French. “It was very important for me.”
Breakthrough at 15
Andreeva has been considered a Grand Slam contender since she burst onto the scene as a 15-yearold at the 2023 Madrid Open, where she became the thirdyoungest player to win a maindraw match at a WTA 1000 tournament and made the quarterfinals.
Lately, Andreeva has had to contend with playing under neutral status and without her country’s flag because of the war with Ukraine.
When she beat Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals, Kostyuk refused
to shake her hand, as has been the custom for Ukrainian players facing Russians ever since the war started in 2022.
“Every person doesn’t want to have a war in the world,” Andreeva said. “I never think about those things when I play.”
Mastering the wind
The final was played under a mostly sunny sky, though wind was a factor in the first Grand Slam final for both players.
Chwalinska double-faulted on the opening point of the match, but she was the first player to hold serve in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead.
But then Andreeva won nine straight games to take control as she found a way to hit through the wind and answer Chwalinska’s array of spins and drop shots.
Whereas Chwalinska would retreat to handle high balls in the wind, Andreeva often would move forward and take balls on the rise.
“She definitely handled wind much better than me,” Chwalinska said. “She was not running away from the ball.”
Andreeva produced 25 winners to Chwalinska’s 10 and also had fewer unforced errors: 26 to 29.
Stars fell in tournament full of surprises
BY ANDREW DAMPF Associated Press
PARIS Jannik Sinner and his 30-match winning streak melted away during the opening week’s heat wave. Fellow No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka had just as astonishing a mental meltdown during a quarterfinal defeat in which she described finding herself in a “very deep, deep, dark hole.”
No former major champions reached the men’s and women’s semifinals for the first time at a Grand Slam in 49 years
The French Open that concludes this weekend has been unlike any other major tournament in recent memory
“It’s always exciting when crazy things happen,” said Madison Keys, the 2025 Australian Open champion who reached the fourth round. “As a tennis fan, it’s been fun to watch.”
Here’s a look at some of the more surprising developments that have characterized Roland Garros this year:
Heat wave
With the temperature rising to at least 90 degrees every day of
the first week, players struggled to keep cool.
After Jakub Mensik edged Mariano Navone in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the second round, he cramped up and fell to the clay following match point and required medical attention on the court. He was eventually removed in a wheelchair Mensik bounced back to reach the semifinals, where he lost to Alexander Zverev, who will meet Flavio Cobolli in Sunday’s final.
Two-time runner-up Casper Ruud was on the verge of fainting during a five-set win over Roman Safiullin in the first round, saying he felt “like a zombie almost.”
Ruud conceded the fourth set 6-0 “to get my pulse and body temperature down” to see if he could recover in the fifth: “Luckily that ended up working.”
Groundskeepers at Roland Garros had to drench the clay courts with water at night to keep them from drying out during the day
Still, the heat made for unusual conditions: The pace of play was faster and balls bounced higher Sinner, Djokovic waste leads
Already without two-time reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz, who
missed the tournament with an injured right wrist, it was a shock when Sinner wasted a two-set and 5-1 lead in the third against 56thranked Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round.
The top-ranked Sinner came to Paris on a 29-match winning streak and was an overwhelming favorite for the title. But the Italian said he started feeling dizzy and “very low on energy” when he needed to win just one more game against Cerundolo. It was a match for the ages when 39-year-old Novak Djokovic also surrendered a two-set lead and lost to 19-year-old João Fonseca. The 24-time Grand Slam champion also had physical issues.
“I was barely standing on my legs toward the end of the match,” he said.
Sabalenka wanted to quit
Sabalenka was leading 4-1 in the second set of her quarterfinal with Diana Shnaider and was within two points of victory when she proceeded to lose 12 of 13 games.
Sabalenka said later that she wanted “to quit tennis right now
“You know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything,” she added. “Probably I
Storms halt Memorial;
Poston, Gerard still lead
DUBLIN,Ohio J.T Poston and Ryan Gerard were tied for the lead Saturday at the Memorial when a second round of storms arrived and wiped out the rest of the third round before it had time to take shape. It might have come at a good time for Scottie Scheffler, who was making quite a charge until two bogeys in three holes, the last one from an iron off the tee into a creek. And it probably won’t help the players like Poston who face a long Sunday to make up for the lost time and then have 36 holes of U.S. Open qualifying Monday Poston and Gerard were tied at 9 under through five holes, one shot ahead of Sam Burns, who was through six holes. The third round was to resume at 7 a.m., followed by a final round off both tees in threesomes.
Rays moving LHP Matz to bullpen after rough starts
MIAMI Steven Matz is moving from the starting rotation to the bullpen after a pair of poor starts by the Tampa Bay Rays left-hander, manager Kevin Cash said Saturday Matz, who signed a two-year, $15 million deal with Tampa Bay in December, allowed five runs on six hits, including two home runs, in an 8-0 loss to Detroit on Tuesday It was his second straight loss and raised his ERA to 5.48.
The 35-year-old had gone on the injured list on May 4 because of left elbow inflammation and returned on May 20. In his past two starts, he has allowed 11 runs, 13 hits and three home runs.
Cash said right-hander Mason Englert, who was recalled from Triple-A Durham on Wednesday, could work bulk innings in his place.
Rangers place Jansen on 10-day IL with arm strain
ARLINGTON,Texas The Texas Rangers placed catcher Danny Jansen on the 10-day injured list retroactive to Wednesday before Saturday night’s game against Cleveland with right forearm strain. The Rangers signed catcher Elias Díaz to a major league contract.
Jansen has hit .171 in 41 games with three home runs and 12 RBIs. The ninth-year major leaguer signed with Texas as a free agent last December after splitting 2025 with Tampa Bay and Milwaukee. Díaz was granted free agency by Kansas City on Wednesday after playing 10 games with the Royals this season, hitting .227 with two homers and five RBIs He signed with Kansas City as a free agent in late February
Yankees catcher Wells on IL with cervical headaches
NEW YORK Austin Wells, in the midst of a season-long slump, joined Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on the 10-day injured list Saturday when the New York Yankees said the catcher was sidelined by cervical headaches.
will spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe it will help. Maybe not.”
Shnaider then went on to lose in the semifinals to Maja Chwalinska, who became the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the championship match.
A new champion
The 14th-ranked Flavio Cobolli reached his first Grand Slam final with the help of a retirement and withdrawal by two fellow Italians.
Matteo Berrettini retired because of a left hip injury with Cobolli leading 7-5, 5-2 in their quarterfinal and then Matteo Arnaldi withdrew before their semifinal because of a virus.
Zverev will be playing in his fourth major final on Sunday as he seeks an elusive Grand Slam title. Whoever raises the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy will become the first man other than Alcaraz, Sinner, Djokovic or Rafael Nadal to win a Grand Slam since Daniil Medvedev at the 2021 U.S. Open.
“We’ve had so many long eras of these four people are the only people that we think are going to win,” Keys said. “Makes the sport interesting, at least.”
Catcher J.C. Escarra was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/ Wilkes Barre after being optioned to Triple-A after Friday night’s 5-3 loss to Boston. New York selected the contract of Ali Sánchez from the RailRiders, giving the Yankees a right-handed-hitting catcher for the first time since 2024. Wells is hitting .166 with four homers and seven RBIs in 47 games in his third full season as New York’s starting catcher He is hitless in his last 13 at-bats and 1 for his last 18.
Lightning’s Vasilevskiy wins best goaltender trophy
NEW YORK Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning has won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender the league announced Saturday
It is the second Vezina honor of Vasilevskiy’s career after he also won in the 2018-19 season. The 31-year-old Russian was a runaway winner in voting by the league’s general managers. Vasilevskiy received 17 first-place votes among the 31 ballots cast. Vasilevskiy led all goalies with 39
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By THIBAULT CAMUS
Mirra Andreeva is overcome with emotion after winning the women’s final match against Maja Chwalinska on Saturday at the French Open in Paris.
postseason victory and a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Knicks with 21 points, but he said in a postgame interview with ESPN that those players, along with the likes of Miles McBride and former Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, were the MVPs of the game.
“Our team play had got us here,” Towns said.
After Towns went to the bench with foul trouble and fellow AllStar Jalen Brunson was resting, Knicks coach Mike Brown went to his reserves and they rewarded him with a big burst.
“Somebody is always there,” Brown said. “Again, a lot of contributions from a lot of guys, and that’s why you like having a team, because it could be anybody’s night on any given night. Our guys don’t care They sacrifice for one another and we found a way to get a win.”
The New York bench accounted for 27 points and 10 rebounds, and Robinson defended Victor Wembanyama when the San Antonio star missed a jumper that would have won the game.
“Our effort, it’s been crazy,” Robinson said. “We just came out there just fighting, you know talking to each other Communi-
cation, that’s been key for us.”
Clinging to a four-point lead late in the third quarter, the Knicks bridged the third and fourth quarters on an 11-3 run fueled by Robinson, Alvarado, McBride, Shamet and starting guard Mikal Bridges.
Shamet finished with 13 points while Robinson had seven, McBride added five and Alvarado had two. Shamet’s 3-pointer put New York ahead 87-75 a minute into the fourth quarter
Bridges had four points, one assist and one rebound during the run and helped the Knicks hold the Spurs to 1-of-5 shooting.
“I think started just defensively getting stops,” Bridges said. “I think that’s the biggest thing, us getting stops and getting out. Just him giving me confidence to try to make the right play.”
Robinson did the same.
After thwarting the Hack-aMitch strategy in the first quarter, Robinson sealed the victory in the final minute with two defensive stands against Wembanyama.
With the game tied at 104, Wembanyama missed a 17-footer with 30 seconds remaining with Robinson defending. Wembanyama then missed a 20-footer with two seconds remaining and the Spurs trailing by one point.
“In my mind, I was just like, defend without fouling,” Robinson said “So, that was kind of like how it went. Just great contest, and just kind of how it went.”
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Shooting slings and arrows at the people trying to save college sports won’t solve the crisis at hand. Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell, a passionate advocate for the Protect College Sports Act, had an astute observation of its opponents.
“What they talk about is that any plan that isn’t exactly what they want to do has all these problems with implementation,” Campbell said on the Powers podcast. “They don’t have good reasons, but the issue is complex enough and it’s poorly understood enough that they can throw those things out there as kind of red herrings and confuse people enough to where people take their eye off the ball and they just revert back to the most simple form of legislation possible, which does not solve the problem.”
Longtime sports media executive Gordon Whitener had a great analogy of the situation:
“The house is on fire, and everyone’s arguing over who owns the hose.”
A look at some of the most important things Saban said and why we should take them to heart:
n “If you had the biggest baddest Ferrari that you could ever have, and it was going 150 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon, somebody needs to tap the brakes.”
Critics accused Saban of being one of the reckless drivers who mashed the accelerator and careened the Ferrari into danger in the first place. But this classic “shoot-the-messenger” argument ignores the larger point: College sports are out of control and facing an existential crisis without guardrails. They need governance, which the NCAA can no longer provide after being dismantled by widespread legislation and litigation
n “Congress does not need to micromanage college athletics Congress does need to fix the mess in the courts and create a national framework so the people inside college sports can enforce fair rules.”
Saban understands that congressional intervention is needed to provide the governance structure necessary to run the sport, implement rules and enforce regulation. He’s advocat-
Streaking Knicks on a historical NBA run
BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer
It was April 23. The New York Knicks had just endured their second consecutive one-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks, and this one left them trailing 2-1 in their Eastern Conference first-round series. Signs of trouble were everywhere.
The mood in New York was abysmal.
Mike Brown’s future as coach was a hot topic.
“Stuff’s going to happen,” Brown, the Knicks coach in his first year, said that night in Atlanta. “Plenty of teams have been down 1-2. I even think Oklahoma City was down 1-2 last year and they ended up winning it. I’m not saying we’re going to win it or anything like that, but the reality of it is it’s seven games and you take one game at a time.”
The Knicks have played 13 games since. The results: win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win and win again. One game at a time, one win at a time and, quite possibly, one championship at a time.
The Knicks are back in New York with a 2-0 lead over San Antonio in the NBA Finals, still riding the strength of a 13-game winning streak.
A streak like that has happened once before in NBA postseason history, when counting just singleseason winning runs. Golden State won 15 in a row on its way to the 2017 title.
The common thread between those Warriors and these Knicks? That would be Brown. He was an assistant on that Golden State staff and went 12-0 as acting head coach during the playoffs while Steve Kerr was sidelined by back issues.
“You’ve got to have good players,” Brown said. “I’m not that smart. You’ve got to have good players that carry you.”
Brown’s playoff record, officially, is a stellar 64-42 as a head coach.
Phil Jackson and Kerr
Either way, Brown now has to be considered the coaching king of the playoff winning streak.
A look inside this run by New York:
Dominant margins
n The Knicks have outscored Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland and San Antonio in these 13 games by 273 points, the biggest 13-game margin in NBA playoff history Before this stretch, the biggest 13-game playoff pointdifferential margin was 225, by those Warriors — the team that Brown led on an interim basis — in 2017.
more in four different games during the streak, including a 61-point lead at Atlanta in the clinching game of that East first-round series.
Rarely in trouble
n The Knicks have faced double-digit deficits in just four of the games, with two of those the first two of these NBA Finals against the Spurs. They trailed by 14 in Game 1 and by as many as 12 in Game 2.
n They also trailed Philadelphia by 12 in Game 3 of the East semifinals and Cleveland by 22 in Game 1 of the East final.
Road warriors
ing a regulated framework, not full federal control — essentially guardrails rather than takeover
n “Student-athletes should profit as long as those things are authentic endorsements [but] name, image and likeness has turned into pay-for-play
This bill recognizes the difference between real NIL and disguised pay-for-play.”
Saban isn’t against athletes getting paid. But, as he predicted years ago, schools have gamed the system and are simply using NIL to pay players for performance, which was not the original intent of the legislation. The College Sports Commission was created to oversee NIL transactions, but schools are already fighting its enforcement.
n “We’re going to lose Olympic sports nonrevenue sports scholarships you’re going to have football and basketball succeed and club sports for everything else.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) noted that more than 100 varsity sports teams and more than 1,000 NCAA scholarships have been lost since the 202425 NCAA antitrust settlement. More will fall by the wayside if we continue down this path. No one wants to see college sports reduced to just football and men’s basketball.
n “Athletes should have real freedom. A young person should not be trapped in a bad situation. But unlimited transfer freedom, combined with pay-for-play incentives, has created something very close to unlimited free agency without contracts, without rules and without stability.”
Saban’s point here is primarily about the transfer portal, which has led to a decline in graduation rates while also jeopardizing health care for athletes The Protect College Sports Act would implement more stable transfer policy, while balancing player freedom with program continuity
n “I’m not here to represent a conference or a team, but to preserve college athletics as a whole. I really want everybody to know I’m just a former college coach who cares about college sports.”
Major college football — particularly the SEC and Big Ten — is suffering from the Disease of Me. An exclusive Super League of 30 to 40 schools, which would regulate the rest of the Power Four programs to JV status, is not the answer Even Saban, an SEC devotee, understands this.
Throw those 12 games with the Warriors on his record which, by NBA rule and precedent, doesn’t happen because Kerr was still head coach, just not present on the sideline for those games — and Brown’s playoff winning percentage would rise to .644. That would be third best in NBA history among coaches with at least 100 playoff games, behind only
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Though he’s been with the team since September while rehabbing his injury, Polk is part of that equation. It had been a long time since he had been able to make a play like he did in practice Wednesday, but he said the “hunger never left” him while he endured the disappointments of his first two seasons. And while there is suddenly a lot of competition for the football in New Orleans — as things currently stand, Polk is at best fourth or fifth in the offensive pecking order — he sees this as a positive.
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year,” Krebs said. “So I’m hoping to sharpen up and get competitive again.”
Krebs became a huge fan of Sandefur at Marshall.
“Sandy was the guy that recruited me at Marshall, and then helped bring me up to who I am now, so that was obviously a big plus,” said Krebs, who is a native of Purcellville, Virginia. “His energy is infectious He’s always there to help you, and he always has a direction for you to do. Honestly, there’s no one else I’d rather have coach me, so obvious it was a transition when he left.”
Even though Sandefur was busy helping the Ragin’ Cajuns reach the Starkville Regional finals, he always had thoughts on Krebs and Albright.
“Just watching Charlie from afar he just has to stay sideways longer,” Sandefur said. “He has to keep his chest facing third base longer and allow his body to resist the urge to open up until the last moment. Then when it does, his hand works a lot faster, and
n All but two of the Knicks’ wins in this streak were by double figures. The exceptions: Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Philadelphia (a sixpoint win) and Game 2 of the NBA Finals against San Antonio (a one-point win) Six additional wins have come with a final margin between 10-16 points, and the other five were total blowouts — the Knicks winning those by 29, 30, 37, 39 and 51 points.
n The Knicks have led by 40 or
“(The hunger is) never gone. It’s always there, it’s always going to be there,” Polk said. “And a lot of these guys, pretty much everybody in here, is hungry as well.
“We’ve got a big old plate, and everybody is going to have the opportunity to go out there and eat.”
The shoulder injury that erased Polk’s 2025 campaign is, hopefully, a thing of the past. He praised the training staff for making him feel like himself again throughout the rehabilitation process and said “everything is great” now in respect to his body
He welcomed the opportunity to come to New Orleans, which brought him closer to his hometown of Lufkin, Texas. But he mostly stayed in New Orleans this
n New York is 8-0 on the road during this winning streak, the final margin in those games — even with a one-point game from Friday in there — averaging a staggering 21.5 points.
n The only team in Knicks history with a longer road winning streak, either in the regular season or playoffs, was the 1969-70 team that once won 12 in a row away from home. That team went on to win New York’s first NBA title.
offseason to work on his recovery which also afforded him the opportunity to get a head start on refining his connection with Shough. That may be paying dividends now for both the Saints and Polk, who is grateful for a fresh slate to show what he can be as a professional.
“I feel like I’m supposed to be here,” Polk said. “For them bringing me in here and having that trust of seeing the player I’m capable of being, it speaks a lot. I just want to go out there each and every day and show them they made the right decision of bringing me in here.”
Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate.com.
the ball jumps out of his hand, and everything’s cleaner and crisper.”
The two Marshall transfer pitchers will join two high school and six junior college signees to UL’s
PROVIDED PHOTO
Former Marshall pitcher Charlie Krebs is one of two Herd pitchers committed to transferring to UL.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVID J PHILLIP
The New york Knicks celebrate after winning Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday in San Antonio.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVID J PHILLIP San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell defends as New york Knicks guard Jalen Brunson goes for a layup during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Friday in San Antonio.
shot as Germany forward LeroySanécelebrates during the first half of afriendly soccermatch on Saturday in Chicago.
U.S. soccer dropsninth straight vs.Europeanfoes
BY JAYCOHEN AP sportswriter
CHICAGO Leroy Sané scored a tiebreaking goal in the 57thminute, giving Germany a2-1 winover the United States in afriendly on Saturday and anine-game winning streak headinginto the World Cup. Kai Havertz put the four-time champions in front with aheader from afree kick in the second minute, but Antonee Robinson tied the score in the 37th with aleft-foot volley from the top of thearc after Christian Pulisic’scornerkick.
Sané scored off ashort pass from Havertz, adiagonal shot between the legs of Miles Robinson that appeared to take aslight deflection off the defender and beat goalkeeper Matt Freese to the far post.
The 16th-rankedUnitedStates has lost ninestraight games to European opponents dating to 2022. Hosting the WorldCup for the first time since 1994, the Americansopen againstParaguay on Friday, then play Australia and Turkey.The U.S. hadn’tlost its last match heading into aWorld Cup since 2002.
No. 10 Germany starts against Curaçao on June 14inagroup that includes Ivory Coast and Ecuador
The match drew asellout crowd of 63,636 to Soldier Field,site of the 1994 WorldCup opener.Chicago refused to bidtohost 2026 World Cup matches, citing what it said was alack of financialassurances byFIFA.
TheU.S. played without top defender ChrisRichards, sidelined since tearing apair of left ankle
ligaments on May 17.
Germany was missing 18-year-
old midfielder Lennart Karl, ruled outfor theWorld Cupafter injuring athigh in training. Oliver Baumann started in goal as Manuel Neuer rested while recovering from acalf muscle issue. Freese started in goal for the 15th time in 18 matches.
DieMannschaftwentahead after Tyler Adams’foul just outside the penaltyarea. Joshua Kimmich’s free kick was headed in by Havertz at thetop of the 6-yard boxfor his 22nd international goal,
Robinsonscored his fifthinternational goal after Jonathan Tah’s headedclearance attempt on Pulisic’scorner kick went just outside thearea. Robinson celebrated with acartwheel and abackflip.
Golden Tempotakes the second legofTripleCrown
TheAssociated Press SARATOGA SPRINGS,N.Y.— Golden Tempo won the 158th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, capturing the third leg of the TripleCrown five weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby and making more history fortrainer Cherie DeVaux. With jockey Jose Ortiz aboard, Golden Tempocharged downthe stretchatSaratoga Race Course to win the Belmont, holding off Commandment before thefinish line at the historic track to winat odds of 6-1. Commandment was second andfavoriteRenegade third
“Golden Tempo is amazing. Jose is amazing,” said DeVaux, whowas born in Saratoga Springs andbegan her training career there. “I think he needed to do this to kind of showthathewas meant to win the Derby and that he is ahorse that belongs in that conversation of being one of the top 3-year-olds.”
DeVaux, afterbecoming the first woman to train aKentucky Derby winner,isthe second in four years to do so at the Belmont. JenaAntonucci wonit with Arcangelo in 2023. DeVaux is the first woman to winmultiple Triple Crown races.
“It’soverwhelming,” DeVaux said. “Allthe credit goes to Golden Tempo, who won the race and Jose did awonderful job of making it happen. But I’mjust so fortunate to be in this position. It’s history-making, and I’ve kind of shied awayfrom it, but I’mreally gracious that Iamthat person.”
The pace was not nearly as fast as it was at Churchill Downs, yet Golden Tempo still was able to closeintimetowin the 11/4-mile race in 2:03.49. It didn’tmatter,as he was the best in the field of nine horses
“He wasn’tgoing to getthat setup as he did in the Derby,” Ortiz said. “Weall knew that, and I
SCOREBOARD
Most outstanding player: Hadley Hardesty,Westlake
Coach of the year: BlakeReed, Westlake
Honorable mention: AJ Armand, Buckeye;Alex Baggett, South Beaugard; Bryce
Bankston, Albany; Drew Barrow,South Beauregard; Luke Becnel, St. James; Layf Bella
Berwick; Jacob Bourgeois, Fisher; Kaylor Broussard, Iota; TreBurch,Sterlington; Carter Champagne, Erath; Tate Collins, Erath; Beau Cormier, Acadiana Renaissance; Ty Curtis, Buckeye; Seth DeGeorge, Parkview Baptist; Sabe David, Kaplan; Reece Dommert, Iota; Malachi Dunn,Madison Prep; Hudson Dupuis, Jennings; CamdenFisackerly,DeLaSalle; Jack Garcille,St. Louis;JeremyGibson, PatrickTaylor;Landon Gravois, St. James; Jonah Grob, Albany;Trent Helwig, Haynes Academy; LinzyHoward, Patterson;JustinHunt, Buckeye; Sy Jackson, St. James;Jonas Jenkins,Jena; Collin Jensen, Jena; BrodyMayeaux, University; Tyler Mike, Fisher; Cain Milligan, Bunkie; Trace Moreau, St. Louis;Caleb Ortiz, Albany;Noah Pearson, Caldwell Parish;Parker Pilgreen, Bunkie; JacquesRiche, Bunkie; Karson Robichaux,DeLaSalle; Grayden Ross,Westlake; Cole Schexnaider, Acadiana Renaissance; Braden Scioneaux, St. James;Riley Sinclair, Caldwell Parish; MaddoxSoileau,St. Louis;TreySotile, University; Lucas Surcouf, Haynes Academy; Dylan Vital, Lake Charles College Prep; Grant Vollmer,University; CooperWilliams,Westlake; TJ Williams Vidalia; CarsonWillis, Jena; JakeWooten, Parkview Baptist;Jakson Yeager, Iota; Jackson Yellot, South Beauregard. Softball
Kiette Cooper, Jena
Jeff Tannehill, Sterlington
mention: Calli Grace Baum, Caldwell Parish;Andi Bettevy, Bunkie; Jai Bright, St. James; Austin Carter, Sterlington; Saige Cherry,Iota; Aubrey Crochet, Iota; Aubree Ducote, Bunkie; Ellie Gage, St. Louis;Azyria Garrison, Berwick; Liberty Greene, Kaplan; Gabriella Grogan,Patterson; Olivia Harmson, Buckeye; London Harvey, University; Anna Hebert, Kaplan;Rylee Henson, South Beaureguard; Kenadee Jeansonne, Buckeye;Mia Knight, Patterson;Emmarie Lacy,Parkview Baptist;Ava Landry,Parkview Baptist; Addisen Lipari, Berwick, Genie Lovett, Doyle; Charlotte Lowe,University; Makinley Miller, Buckeye; Myca Mudd, South Beauregard; Elaina Newman, Westlake; Rosalee Richey,Buckeye; Makayla Richoux, Cabrini;KenzieSonier,South Beauregard; CharliSonnier, Iota; Malaya Sonnier, Jennings; ShiyaSteib, St. James;Bailey Thomas, Albany, Shelby Taylor, Berwick; Rayleigh Thompson,Caldwell Parish;AbbyTraub, St. Louis; Savanna Triche, Albany; Ava Webb, Bunkie; Triniti Williams,Jena; Hayden Williamson, PatrickTaylor; Piper Wimberly, Vidalia; Mary Wood,Jena; AddieYoung, Parkview Baptist.
(Nola3-4), 12:35 p.m. Pittsburgh (Chandler 2-6) at Atlanta (Elder 5-3), 12:35 p.m. TampaBay (Jax1-4)atMiami (Alcantara 4-4), 12:40 p.m. Cincinnati (Lowder3-3)atSt. Louis(McGreevy 3-5), 1:15 p.m. Milwaukee (Drohan 2-1) at Colorado(Freeland1-6),2:10 p.m. Washington (Cavalli 3-3) at Arizona (Soroka 7-3), 2:15 p.m. L.A. Angels (Soriano 6-4) at L.A. Dodgers (Sheehan 3-2), 3:10 p.m. N.Y. Mets (Manaea 0-1) at San Diego (Vásquez 5-3), 3:10 p.m. San Francisco (McDonald 2-3) at Chicago Cubs (Taillon 2-5), 7:30 p.m. College Baseball Super Regionals BestofThree x-if necessary At Foley Field,Athens,Ga. Georgia1,Mississippi St. 0 Saturday: Georgia13, Mississippi St. 12 Sunday: Georgiavs. Mississippi St 11 a.m. x-Monday: Georgiavs. Mississippi St TBD At Plainsman Park,Auburn, Ga. Ole Miss 2, Auburn0 Friday: Ole Miss 6, Auburn 4 Saturday: Ole Miss 5, Auburn 3 At UFCU Disch-FalkField, Austin, Texas Texasvs. Oregon Saturday: Texasvs. Oregon, n Sunday: Texasvs. Oregon, 7p.m. x-Monday:
wasalittle worried about it. He needed somekindofsetup.But today,there wasn’tone and he showed up today and won.” Golden Tempowon two-thirds of theTripleCrown afterDeVaux andownersdecided to bypass the Preakness. He is the second horse in as manyyears to winthe Kentucky Derbyand theBelmont after not running in the middle jewel.
“Wemade our decision, and we won today and we’re going to be happy about that,” DeVaux said. This wasthe thirdand finaltime forthe BelmontatSaratogainupstate New York while itstraditional home on the borderofQueens and Long Island is getting demolishedand rebuilt.The race is set to return to BelmontPark next year
“It’ssomeaningful,” DeVaux said. “A lot of familyhere. Saratoga, it’sbeen wonderful to have suchahistoric race here. It’sso meaningful because the town gets to have this and celebrate it along with us.” Golden Tempo paid $14 to win, $7.32 to place and $3.88 to show Commandment paid $7.02 to show and$4.08 to place, while Renegade —the Derby runnerup —paid $2.52 to place.
Ortiz said he followed Renegade, ridden by older brother Irad, just as he did in the Derby It worked out just the sameinthe first Saturday in June as the first Saturday in May
“He was abouncing abit today, which made me very happy because Iwanted him to be alittle bit sharper today,” Jose Ortiz said. “You can seehim, he’svery relaxed.Hedoes what Iask him to do. That’sthe mainthing.” Co-owner Vinnie Viola dedicated theracetolatefriendDominic DiPrisco, whodied Wednesday at age 70.
“I know you’re in heaven, and I love you and this race is foryou,” Viola said. “Itmeans morethan I can express in words right now.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By NAM y. HUH
U.S. forward Christian Pulisic, right, reacts after amissed
DannyHeitman AT RANDOM
Traveling remindsme of wonders of home
As my wife and Ilanded back in Louisiana after atrip to California lastmonth, Ibegan thinking of aJane Kenyon poem that Itreasure. It’scalled “Coming Home at Twilight in LateSummer,” and it’sabout all the urgencies that greet you after you’ve been gone from home awhile.
“So much to be done,” Kenyon laments, “the unpacking, the mail and papers …the grassneeded mowing.” Her poem reminded me whatwas ahead when we turned into our driveway Ahome misses you while you’re gone, which is agood thing, Isuppose, although the longing can take complicated forms. As soon as we placed our bags into the car at the airport, our little household, peeved by our absence, began to air its grievances. The air conditioning in our car went out as we paid the airportparking fee, signaling abig repair bill that made me wince abit after our vacation splurge. Pulling into the driveway after ourride home, Inoticed that the gas lantern on our porch had blown out in one of the rainstorms we’d missed while we were gone. Fire ant mounds rose like volcanoes from the corners of our lot, and our grass, of course, was as tall as corn.
included
Inside, akind someone had saved our newspapers,arranged as neatly as cordwood just beyond the threshold.A little mountain of unopened parcels sat on the rug, and there was astack of junk mail at its summit Slowly,webegan to empty our luggage of laundry,which quickly formed ahillnear the washer.Like amidden of relics from alost civilization, it yielded small clues aboutthe life we’d led on the road. There were swimsuits from our evening in ahot tub, ashirt stained with caramel from an afternoon at an ice cream parlor and socks still crusted with sand from alovely Pacific beach. Over severaldays,wereclaimed our regular life
Ipushed our mower overthe high blades of grass, and the yard shed its shaggy excess and revealed acalmer,saner self. Irestocked our birdfeeders, repairing one that had been pillaged by asquirrel. The garden fountain, which had shorted out when we weren’taround, is fixed and working again.
It’sonly now,inthe return to routine,thatI’ve had timeto think about the second part of Kenyon’spoem. In the concluding stanza, after reciting the humdrum list of chores that awaits areturning traveler,she remarks on ahouseholdpear tree, heavy with fruit, that had worked up its bounty while she and her husband wereonthe road What Kenyon seems to say is that leaving home is agood way to savorits wonders when you return —something I’m learning againnow that our luggageisback on the shelf.
FESTIVAL OF FESTIVALS
BY JOANNABROWN Staff writer
When Festivals Acadiens et Créoles was founded in 1974, it helped usher in anew era for Cajun andCreolemusic— big stages, bigger crowds, and more far-reaching recognition for theartistryof southwest Louisiana stars likeClifton Chenier and Dewey Balfa.
According to festival founder BarryAncelet,the initial concert that becameFestivals Acadiens et Créoles was thefirst time anyone had ever undertaken to gather major Louisiana musicians of the day on onestage, at Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette. In addition to Chenier and theBalfa Brothers, players likeMarcSavoy,Jimmy C. Newman andthe Ardoinfamily captured an audience of thousands that would return, and grow,year after year Today,the festival is the world’s biggest free Cajun and zydeco music event, held each October in Lafayette’sGirardPark. In recognition of theroleithas played in promotingthe breadth anddiversity of Acadiana’sculture,Festivals Acadiens et Créoleswas selected by the SmithsonianCenter forFolklife andCulturalHeritage
America’s250th anniversary, and will highlight roughly 40 festivals across the United States that serve as vital spaces for cultural exchange and engagement. Festivals Acadiens’ involvement will be reflected in this year’spre-festival symposium, “Revolution and Evolution: Celebrating 250 Years of Cultural Fusion on the Bayou.”
“We’re taking alook at some of the elements that contributed to the cultural and social fusion that produced everything we love about this place,” said Ancelet. “The way it looks, the way it sounds, the way it tastes, the way it moves —it’s all afusion of influences. Alot was Frenchand African, but there were otherelements: Appalachian, Irish, Spanish, Native American.”
Ancelet said that Festivals Acadiens et Créoles has alongstanding relationshipwiththe Smithsonian,going back to that first concert. Ralph Rinzler worked for the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, where he was transported by the performance of oneDewey Balfa.Ten yearslater, Rinzlercame down to Louisiana to help run the Blackhamevent, this time as the director of folklife programs for the Smithsonian.
to join aspecial initiative this year called “Of the People: TheSmithsonian Festival of Festivals.”
The project is in honor of
“Over the years, because of
Staff report
Lt. Gov.Billy Nungesser
selection for youngreaders is “Soggy Like Cush
Cush” by KarlyPierre, illustrated by Kristen Uroda. Acelebration of Creole culture, family and community, thestoryfollows Petite Marie and her Gran-moman
PHOTO By DANNyHEITMAN
DannyHeitman’s recent trip to California
great views, likethis beach scene in La Jolla.
Julien ‘JuJu’ Daigle, 3, plays
STAFF FILEPHOTOSByBRAD KEMP
The 4Generations of the Dopsie Family band playonthe Scene Ma Louisiane stageduring FestivalsAcadiens et Creoles at Girard Park in 2025.
Summer is for reading. Ask anyone in anewsroom and they’ll prove it. When asked for recommendations, our staff came back with alist that spanssevenvolume Danish time-loopnovels, Che Guevara’sroad memoir,ancient Mesopotamian history told with wit, aPulitzer winner and a debut from aSlidell playwright
One book made acolleaguecry
Another prompted arereadingof everything by the same author These are not assigned readsor trend pieces —they’re the books people actually reached forwhen given afew hours and achoice Hereare highlights of what the newspaper staff is reading this summer:
Alex Lubben says he will be reading the “On the Calculation of Volume” books, written by Solvej Balle. There are seven of them, all about asingle day,orabout the repetition of asingle day thousands of times over.The protagonist, Tara Selter,finds herself stuck in atime loop, Groundhog Day-style, living Nov.18again and again. Lubben read the first book in one sitting He’salso reading “The Gulf: The MakingofanAmerican Sea” by Jack E. Davis. Lubben says the panoramic portrait of the ancient Gulf, overabundant with fish and birds before Europeans got here, will stick with him. And he plans to read more Percival Everett this summer,but “Telephone” is Lubben’s favoriteof theauthor who wrote “James,” which won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Joanna Brown says she just read “They Can’tKill Us Until They Kill Us,” a2017 book of essays by culture and music writer Hanif Abdurraqib. This book is apoignant look at contemporary America throughthe lens of awriter who grew up as aBlack, Muslim, Midwestern kid in the early 2000s,
heavily immersed in the emopunk scene of that era.
“If you’re of acertain age and remember the bands that paved your way through high school (Fall Out Bo anyone?), th book might make you cr Brown says will definitel expand the wy you think about music, community, identityand being from Ohio.”
BY RIEN FERTEL
Contributing writer
The New Orleans-based investigative journalist and historian Robert W. Fiesler is quickly building adynamic and laureledcareer uncovering forgotten storiesof ordinary individuals confronted —one might say trapped —byextraordinary circumstances.
His first book, 2018’s“Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the RiseofGay Liberation,” chronicled the 1973 French Quarter arson attackthat, despite claiming the lives of 49 individuals, thenation’s deadliest attack on agay bar for four-plus decades, was largely ignoredin NewOrleans.
Fiesler’slatest book,“American Scare: Florida’sHidden Cold WaronBlack and Queer Lives,” exposes achilling episodein the Sunshine State’shistory, the closed-door inquisition of ordinary Americans by apower-mad, gerrymandered state senator.Composed like aprocedural thriller, it has also earned severalhonors, including being named aKirkus Best Book of 2025.
He completed his next project, a documentary film he co-directed titled “By George, ALife,” while pursuing aPh.D. from Tulane’s History Department. The story of the Rev.George St. Angelo,a civil rights activist from Fiesler’s hometown of Napierville,Illinois, is currently competing on the festival circuit. This interview was edited for length and clarity
AidanMcCahill said he recommends “The Motorcycle Diaries,” Ernesto CheGuevara’stravelogue as a23-year-old medical student driving arickety motorcycle up the western side of South America,accompaniedbyhis doctor friend, Alberto Granado. Throughout the short and easy read, Guevara describes poverty exploitation andthe treatment
of lepers in 1950s Latin America, lightening the memoir with some hilarious descriptions of his own debauchery and shamelessness.
Regardless of one’sfeeling toward Guevara or the Cuban Revolution, McCahill notes that it’san interesting window into theroots of his revolutionary fervor and showcases an impressive literary ability and eye for detail for a 23-year-old.
Faimon Roberts is reading “Between TwoRivers” by Oxford scholar
NewOrleans-based investigative journalist and historian RobertW Fiesler
How did you find the storythat became “American Scare”? It startedwith aquestion many people have probably asked themselves:“What’swith Florida? How could it be home to such atoxic formofpolitics that, it seemed to me,onceadecade bred akind of sociopolitical panic that would then sweep acrossthe country in ahysteria?
In 2019,I wenttothis exhibit at the History of Miami Museum called“Queer Miami.”One corner of theexhibit was devoted to this largely forgottenMcCarthy-era purge runbythis gerrymandered, segregationiststate senator namedCharlie Johns. It focused on an era of the ’50s and ’60s where white supremacy was the shared oppositiontoboth the na-
scent,veryhidden queer community of Florida and also thevery public Black civil rightsmovement in Florida.
Iwas like, Ineed to dive in.
I’m all about lost or forgotten stories. My mantra is this line writtenbythe former U.S. poet laureate LouiseGlück: “Whatever returns from oblivion returns to find avoice.” I’m all about those unapproved stories thathave been suppressed, censored, buried, that don’tdie but return withavengeance. Iwant to ask about your first book,“Tinderbox.”I’m interested in what happened after its publication, its aftereffects.
The profile of theUpStairs Lounge has become so elevated thatit’snow regardedwithin queer Southern history and queer American historyasprobably the
Moudhy al-Rashid, whowrites thebook about ancient history in alight tone with easy readability
“The book takes on the massive complexity of 3,000 years of Mesopotamian history and distills it into digestible, even whimsical, sections,” Roberts said. “In that, she turns what can be amusty topic into afresh, enjoyable trip through history.”
He also recommends “Eros the Bittersweet” by Anne Carson, aclassic examination of Greek poetry
that’spart essay,part literary criticism, part philosophy andpart love song. Though Roberts doesn’tusually read classical Greek, he saysthe book madehim think about things in ways henever did before: “There are parts to ove,parts to dislike and parts thatyou won’tget unless youread classical Greek, which Idon’t. And regardless of howone feels about the book as awhole, there are some sentencesthat are almost the Platonic ideal of the form.” AndrewCanulette recommends “Travis Moon and theGhost Train” by Donald G. Redman, who is aSlidell resident. In his first book, the award-winning playwright and journalist blurs grief and wonder with reality and fantasy
Author seeksto give voicetomarginalized, forgotten
mostimportant event in the queer South. It was this emergency moment thatrevealed such nascent ugliness and bigotry,that it challenged the queer community in Southern societies, but also many Louisianans, to evolve their notions about homosexual citizens and to reveal the consequences of demonizing people and criminalizing them.
In 2022, JP Morrell invited me to help (the New Orleans City Council) draft aresolution to recognizethe atrocity of the Up Stairs Lounge, to apologize, and then to name all of the victims. From there,the knowledge of the Up Stairs Lounge has only expanded.
Youhavepublished several recent articles detailing the overlooked lives of queer men with local roots: Reggie Adams, theonly knownBlack victim of theUpStairsLounge fire, and BayouLafourche activist Peter DeLancey.What is it about theselostorforgotten stories?
Iwas acloseted gay kid in a Chicago suburb where gay people supposedly did not exist. Iwas a child and then an adolescent who was not heard. As an adult, I’ve devoted myself to ensure that marginalized people are heard in some way,especially individuals in the past who were ignored. History can offer some sort of redemption to validate the fact that their voices were of value despite what others said about those individuals within their lifetimes.
The voices of the marginal within any society oftentimes can tell us the most about whatthat societywas at agiven point, agiven place in time.Ifyou really want
to know what asociety was, you need to find individuals who were un-famous —individuals who attempted to be successful but were denied.
Your bio states that you live withyour husband on “the gayest street in New Orleans.” What makesitsogay?
I’m not going to name the street, because Iwant it to be like Brigadoon. It exists in aplace in the imagination, but Iwant you to know it’sreal. If you walk down my street, it’shard to find ahouse without arainbow flag on it. There’sabunch of people named Ryan on my street. They’re all gay and there’sone guy named Ryan who’s straight, and we call him “Straight Ryan” to sort of delineate him from the gays. There’s two head lesbians who are in charge. They’ve bought an empty lot in the middle of the street that they’ve converted into asort of queer,semi-public pool. We have queer pool parties. They cook meals for the whole block. It’savision for intentional queer community living that is inspiring and special and very real, akind of society that can exist anywhere. The fact that it exists in Louisiana is crazy,but Iknow it exists in many places throughout the country,and it’sthis revelation of human goodness. Every day I wake up it validatesthe fact that living in NewOrleans is the correct decision formeasaqueer American.
RienFertel is theauthor of four books. He can be reached at rienfertel@gmail.com.
PROVIDED PHOTO
TRAVEL
2new speciesoffireflies turn up at LSU
Attorney thinksmore maybehiding in her Mississippiwoods
BY JANRISHER Staff writer
When Amanda Butler Schley,a New Orleans attorney,emailed about Magee’sCreek Retreatin Walthall County,justacrossthe Mississippi/Louisiana state line offInterstate55, shementioned the fireflies.
She said she and her husband have been working on the cabin for ayear and again mentioned fireflies.
The more we communicated, the more Icould tell that fireflies were not something Schley thought about on occasion —she was afirefly evangelist. Yes, she has built acabin that she rents, but it’sthe fireflies that really light her up. Turns out, there’sasmall window to see fireflies in and around south Louisiana,and we’re closing in on the use-by date, with fireflies being in the area from mid-May to mid-June.
So, Iheaded out to see the fireflies —something Ispentmuch of the summers of my childhood doing. My husband and our friend joined me, one who had never seenafirefly
We were on amission.
Once at the cabin, Schley took me on atour and explained that she and her husband are working to make their 37 acres ahaven for fireflies.
They’ve also spent much of the past year turning the site into the kindofspot thatlooks like it has already been photographed for a magazine. The two-bedroom cabin is thoughtfully outfitted, with an outdoor fire pit overlooking the creekand sandbarsnearbyfor exploring. Out back, there’safire pit near the water with an old VW van pressed into service as astorage shed, lanterns and s’mores supplies.
Schley framed thefirefly hunt as achoose-your-own-adventure.
Level 1, sit on the porch. Level 2, sit by the fire pit. Level 10, walk a trail deeper into the woods in the dark of night. The deeper in, the better theshow. Rarely have Imet someone so excitedabout something as Schley is about fireflies. She had her facts ready.Fireflies thrive in hardwood forests with deep leaf litter.Insouth Louisiana and south Mississippi, theyappear from Mother’sDay through midJune. They like damp. They do not like rain.
So, at 8p.m. on aWednesday theexact hour the fireflies were supposed to put on their best show —the rain began. The screened-in porch at Magee’sCreek Retreat, it should be said, was afine place to be rained on.
We sat. We watched water sheet off the roof. We talked about our grandparents. It was the kind of night each of us will likely remember for years to come —easy conversation, comfy seats and rain coming down.
WHERE TO FIND FIREFLIES
Entomologist Christine Gambino recommends thesespots,all with documented fireflysightings. The species’activewindowin south Louisiana is roughlyMother’s Daythrough mid-June,between dusk and 10:30 p.m. Damp eveningswithout activerainare ideal.
In Baton Rouge
n BREC’s BluebonnetSwamp Nature Center,10503 N. Oak Hills Parkway, featureshardwood forest, boardwalksand documented fireflysightingsoniNaturalist.
n LSUAgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden, 4560Essen Lane, where Gambinoisworkingto designateBurden as Louisiana’s first formal fireflysanctuary.
n BREC’s Comite River ConservationArea, 8900 Hooper Road, features more than 100 wooded acres alongthe Comite Riverand CypressBayou.
Within aday’s drive
n St.Francisville/Tunica Hills Wildlife Refuge —La. 66, St. Francisville n Bogue Chitto State Park, 17049 StatePark Blvd., Franklinton,features cypresstupelo swamps andupland and bottomland hardwood forests in WashingtonParish.
n Tammany Trace —Covington Trailhead, 419 N. NewHampshire St ,Covington n Abita SpringsTrailhead, 22049 Main St.,Abita Springs, features a31-mile rail-to-trail corridorthrough five northshore communities.
n Atelier de la Nature, 1050 Andrew Gautreaux Road, Arnaudville, features a25-acre naturereserve and STEAM educationcenter in Cajuncountry. It’s freetovisit and open daily
Fartherafield Kisatchie National Forest, Kisatchie Ranger District,229 Dogwood Park Road,Provencal, is Louisiana’s only national forest with more than 604,000acres across seven parishes
By 10:30 p.m., wewere readyfor bed. And then, the rainstopped. Iwas alreadystanding when I sawa single yellow blink in the dark high in the trees past the screen. Igasped. With that, andagainst my friend’sbetter judgment, off we went to Level 10. My husband went to bed. In doing so, he missed asmall but real firefly show.Adozen or so were blinking in the trees, including one newly emerging adult working its way through the leaves.
Gambino said Lynn Faust,an independent firefly researcher in Knoxville and one of the country’s foremostauthoritiesonthe insect, suspects Louisiana may have its ownSnappy Sync —avariant potentially distinctfrompopulations farther north andeast. Nobody yet knows. Andthat’swhere you comein. Gambino andher team are looking for firefly samples.
After allSchley’swarnings about the narrow firefly season, I leftthinkingless about whatI saw thanwhatwestill don’tknow There may be species blinking away in Louisiana woodsthat scientists haven’tfully identified yet. And that’senough to make a person look morecarefully the next timeatinylight appears in the trees
To submit a fireflyfor ID
Christine Gambino, an entomologist at the LSU AgCenter and one of the few people in Louisiana doing seriousfirefly work, shed more lightonthe subject.Gambino saidfireflies areanindicator species of ahealthy environment.
“Leaf litter”iscritical to the life cycle of fireflies.
Leaving leaves on the ground, undisturbedand foralongtime, is theonly way for fireflies togrow to adulthood,which takes the larvae two or three years in the leaves —hunting snails and slugs, beforethey emerge as the briefly glowing adultswerecognize. Theadultsonly liveand shine their lights as amating call for four to five weeks.
Schley is convinced synchronous fireflies —those thatflash in unison, theones people enter a lottery to see in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee— could be in herwoods, too. Gambinosays Schley maybe right The mostfamous synchronous species, Photinus carolinus, lives only in the southern Appalachians. The chance to seethem draws roughly 20,000 lottery applicationsfor fewer than athousandparking passes each year
Butthereisa secondsynchronous species, Photuris frontalis, nicknamed the Snappy Sync, whichisfound in centralMississippi.
“There is zero baseline knowledge aboutthe types of fireflies that we have here,” she said. Her team recently submitted aseed grant to begin DNA sequencing every firefly people send to the LSU Arthropod Museum. Until that work is done, identification comes down to comparing flash patterns and, when it really counts, examining the genitalia under amicroscope.
Remarkably,LSU scientists have identified twonew firefly species within thepastfew months found by ataxonomist working through specimensalready on the shelves. More than 2,000 firefly species areknown worldwide. In theUnitedStates, more than 150 species areknown —but that numberkeeps climbing because no one had looked closely enough untilnow Gambino says the reasonsthere arefewerfireflies than there once were turn out to be the obvious ones, in the obvious order Pesticides kill thelarvaeand the soft-bodied things they eat. Mowing and raking strip the leaf litterwherethe babies live.Urban sprawl removes the forest edge. LEDstreetlights drown out the females’ answering flashes, andthe males neverfind them.
So,Schleyisright:apesticidefree cabin on acreek bank near the Mississippi/Louisiana line, with leaf litter left alone, is exactly whatfireflies need.The good news is that fireflies canbefound even closertohomewith more spots in Louisiana thanmostpeople realize
Gambino said the LSU AgCenter accepts firefly specimens for identification through its Insect Identificationservice. She recommends sending threetofive samples. Submission Checklist
n All specimens aredead
n Specimens are on tape or in a tightly sealed container
n Specimens have been killed and preservedbyfreezingorin alcohol or vinegar n There are no bodily fluids or tissues.
n Photos have arule or reference itemtodetermine size.
n Theincludedaddress labelis tapedtothe box.
n Youincludeyourcontact informationwithin the box.
n Youinclude adescriptionof where specimens were collected Pleaseadherethis mailing label to insect sample submission: Department of Entomology Attn: Small Insect Specimen ID 404 Life Sciences Building Louisiana State University BatonRouge,LA70803 Formoreinformation: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/ portals/our_offices/departments/ entomology/id
To stay wherethisstory began Magee’sCreek Retreat is aprivate, two-bedroom cabin on 37 acres in Walthall County,Mississippi, between McComb andTylertown. For more information: mageescreekretreat.com.
Email Jan Risher at jan.risher@ theadvocate.com.
Magee’sCreek in Walthall County,Mississippi, borders woodsripe for fireflies.
Fireflies are actually beetles that light up using achemical reaction.
Amomentwith adragonflyand a messagefor alifetime
BY LISA G. STAFFORD Contributing writer
Ihave been fascinated with dragonflies for as long as Ican remember
Human Condition
Unlike some insects, dragonflies are great to have around. They eat pesky mosquitoes and they have four wings that allow them to do amazingstunts,like flying backwardand snatchingtheir prey midflight. They alsoare beautifully arrayed in amultitude of colors.
Ioften have attempted to lure the plentiful yet elusive insects onto my hand afterIsaw a friend coax adelicate dragonfly onto his extended finger
One day,Imoved closer to my goalwhen, as Iwatered plants adragonfly rested on my outstretched arm. Amazed, Istood motionless, reluctant to scare it away. It seemed to look into my face as it tilted its tiny head and with bulging eyes,seemed to try to anticipate my next move. Its body and wings, in emerald and sapphire hues,glistened in the dazzling sunshine, contrasting beautifullywith the bright red petals of hibiscusand jatropha flowers, and blending harmoniously with my greenand navy blouse. After afew seconds of studying each other,the dragonfly zipped away, and Imarveled that with so many options, it chose me for ashortrepose.
Dragonflyonjatropha
Over the years, Ihave attempted to get extra special photos in my garden, like that of two Eurasian collared doves perched atop the mandevilla-draped arbor,orablue jay sitting among its pink blossoms, or the golden confetti of falling leaves in November,orbrilliantly colored butterflies dancing on abreeze. Some photos Icaptured; others Istill seek. But after trying for severalyears to replicate my friend’sfeat with the dragonfly, Isnapped an event when Ileast expected it
During an evening walk,I tried to persuade adragonfly to rest on my hand and to my surprise, it accepted my offer.I stood completely still to prevent startling it, then IrealizedI had no way to document the rare occurrence, because Ididn’thave my phone with me.
After the dragonfly flew away, Ihurried to get my phone, then stationed myself back at the scene of my good fortune. Could
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year,affiliate centers from all50 states, the District of Columbia and United States territories are invited to selecttwo titles that reflect their literary heritage: one for young readers andone for adult readers. Selected books maybewritten by authors who live in or were born in thestate or may focus on the state’speople, culture or history Pierre grew up in Louisiana’s Creole and Cajun countryside, surrounded by sugarcanefields and afamily of farmers and educators whofostered her love of nature, culture and storytelling. Mann is the author of 10 books on U.S. and Louisiana political history.Heserved as asenior aide to U.S. Sen. Russell Long and Sen. John Breaux andtoGov Kathleen Blanco. Mann spent
THEWAY OF ST.JAMES
Louisianawalkers of Camino de Santiago sharestories of journey
BY JOYHOLDEN Staff writer
At 29, Heidi Nowakowski had been walking for four days across Spain withher brother,Josh, 25, and her friend Rowan Knight from Scotland. As happens with siblings, the big sister fussed at her little brother for oversleeping. They argued. He got ready.She was not. He hit the road without her and herfriend —and he wasn’t at their preplanned meeting spot that night.
When Nowakowski and Knight arrivedatthe Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela the next day at noon, her brother was therewaiting for them with water in hand.
“Then we had lunch and churros and hot chocolate. It just made the arrival all the moresweet,” she said. “My brother and Iare very close. So we fight alot, but we always make up.
‘For severalseconds we stood motionless, intentlystudying each other,communicating without words,’Lisa G. Stafford writes of her enlightening dragonfly experience.
lightningstriketwice?
Stealthy as acat, Istalked my target. With my phone recordinginmyright hand, Igently stretched my left hand to the enchantingcreature. Realizing that Iwas nothreat,itgingerly stepped onto my hand. For several secondswestood motionless, intently studying each other,communicating without words.
Theday Imet adragonfly
The magical moment ended when the dragonflyflew to anew perchtoawait the passing of a hapless mosquito or gnat that would become its next meal. I continued my walk, full of awe andinspiration
Even thoughwewerevery different,wetook amomentto trulysee each other
AndIwondered,how many other bonds can be made if we reach outtoothers —people, animals, birds, insects —that we don’tusually connect with, or even notice? Andhow much richer would our lives be for having made theeffort?
—Stafford lives inNew Orleans.
Advocate readers may submit stories of about 500 words to The Human Condition at features@theadvocate.com or The Advocate, Features, 10705 Rieger Road, Baton Rouge,LA 70809. There is no payment, and stories will be edited. Authorsshould include their city of residence
Thepilgrimswerethree of 530,919 who walked the Camino de Santiago, earning aCompostela Pilgrim Certificate in 2025. Twenty years ago that number was 93,923, evidence of the increase in popularity of thejourney
Many make thewalk without receiving the Compostelacertificate, which requires proof of the journey using aCamino Pilgrim Passport, withcertain stipulations —either 100 kilometers walked or ridden on horseback or 200 kilometerscycled.
Along the way,pilgrims stop at cafes and churches to get theirpassport book stamped at least twice per day from Saria to Santiago.
More than athousandyears
Dating back to the ninthcentury,pilgrims have walked various routes of the Camino de Santiago, “The WayofSaint James,”tothe Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, where theremains of the apostle St. James the Great are believed to be buried. Itsrecent popularityisnot afirst During the medieval period, it was oneofthe three most important Christian pilgrimages, along with Jerusalem and Rome.
Martee Fry,atthe Southeast Louisiana ChapterofAmerican Pilgrimsonthe Camino,assisted Nowakowski with her planning.
“She helpedmesomuch,”Nowakowski said. “She gave me some pointers on whichtrips would be thebest for what Iwas looking for andwith my time constraints. She also toldmeabout the right guidebooks to use and little things to look out for.”
‘The Camino will tell you’ Somewalk the Camino for spiritual reasons. Somewalktohonor alost loved one. Some walk for fitness. Somewalk for travel reasons. Somewalk to markapivotal momentintheir lives.
Fry,a76-year-old pilgrim who has been on the Camino three times, says that the Camino revealsits purpose to each participant. She walked her first Camino at 66 years old. Fry lives in Poplarville, Mississippi, but for manyyears,she lived in New Orleans, working as an operating room nurse at Ochsner.
The movie “The Way” withMartin Sheen motivated her to go on theCamino about 10 yearsago. After atrip to Italy with friends was canceled, she pivoted to walking
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theCamino in Spain —byherself.
“Whenyou’re out in the countryside, you can see the raindrops or the dewglistening on spider webs,”she said. “You cansee the beautifulflowers.You canactually hear thesheep lowingout in thefields. Youcan see the little old ladies out sweeping their steps.”
She said the people who met along the wayasked each other one major question: “Why are you walking the Camino?”
“The powerful thing aboutthe Camino,” Fry said, “is you don’t have to have apurpose when you putyourfirststeponthe Camino, because the Camino is going to tell you why you are there.”
Nowakowski, the child of Catholic Polish immigrants, said the Camino was aspiritual journey for her Even though her compatriots were not motivated by religion, they hustled to make sure she madeittoSunday Mass at one of their stopovers.
“It was so sweet that they were trying to get there forme,” Nowakowski said. “I remember getting to that church, and it was abunch of smelly pilgrims.Wewere allsitting together,and Icried because it was so beautiful. Ididn’tunderstand the Spanish very well, but I just felt so like lucky to be there.”
‘Catholic or not’
For Nancy Hicks, aBaton Rouge pilgrim who went on theCamino with her brother and her niece, every morning started with prayer
“Whether Catholic or not, we wanted this to be aspiritual walk becauseyou are walking the walk that St.James’s ashes were brought to thecathedral,” Hicks said. “We prayed that God would show us something during the day.”
Larry and Jiji Jonas, who went in May,wanted to achieve the challenge of doing the Camino Portuguese, the second mostpopular route that begins in Portugal. As master naturalists, Larry,83, said they alsowanted to experience Spain’sflora and fauna. Jiji, 81, said she was able to identify wildflowers and birdsounds along the walk.
Asocialexperience
Frysaid manypilgrimstake the trip with the expectation of having aquiet andmeditativeexperience, but it’s surprisingly social.
“Asyou walked,a lotofpeople were doing your same walk and same distance, so after you slept for the night andgot back on the trail, you’d run into the same people,”Hicks said. “You build up friendships along the way,and they would tell what they had seen and talk about their lives.”
Robert Hawkins andNellHuard, twooctogenarian Baton Rouge
Josh and Heidi Nowakowski pose with Rowan Knight, center,in frontofthe zero kilometer marker in Santiagoafter theyhad arrived.
friends whowalk together,have done the Camino twice. Both had memorable interactions along the way Huard met ayoung man who askedher whereshe wasfrom, andwhenshe told himBaton Rouge, he asked if she knew Jay Johnson, the LSU Tigers baseball coach.Turnsout he wasone of Johnson’sformer players.
For Hawkins, it wasaconnection from hispast that impacted him themost. He befriended aVietnamese Canadianpilgrim who was from the sametown that Hawkins wasstationed in whileserving in theVietnam War. They gotalong great and learned their timelines just missed each other Nowakowski, who is from Gonzales, pickedupa bunchoffree pins from Gonzalez City Hall and LSU that she handed out to people shemet. Travelers from allover theworld nowhaveJambalaya Festival and LSU pins as mementos from their Caminos.
Shouressoote
Just as Geoffrey Chaucer says in “The Canterbury Tales,” the best time for European pilgrimages is thespring— particularly April and May Nowakowski first heard about the Camino when she was in 10th grade at St. Michael the Archangel High School in Baton Rouge.Her religionteacher,RyanHallford, sharedhis Camino experienceand told his students something she carried fornearly two decades.
“He saidthat it wasthe first time he realized that to experience beauty,you need to experience pain. He had aleg injury along the way,but he saidwhile he was walking, it wassopainful, yet he was surrounded by such beauty,” Nowakowski said.
She went on to attendLSU and medical school. When her residencyendedand she finally had abreak, she decided it was time for the Camino. She was ready to encounter the pain and the beauty After walking 23 kilometers on the first day,her knees and feet started aching in ways she hadn’t expected.
“I hadnever felt my joints like that,” shesaid. “I remember thinking, ‘I’m notsure howI’m gonna do this every day.’” She did —afterapplications of athletic tape and Tiger Balm After the fight with herbrother andthe reunionatthe cathedral, after the churros and hot chocolate, after everything her joints had to say about it,Nowakowski understood what her teacher meantall those years ago.
“I thinkweunderestimateourselves alot,” she said.
18 years on thefaculty of LSU’s ManshipSchool of Mass Communication before retiring in 2024. The Louisiana Center for the Book was established in theState Library of Louisiana in 1994. Its mission is to stimulate public interest in reading, books, literacy and libraries and to celebrate Louisiana’s literary heritage.
Ralph Rinzler’sinterest in Louisiana French cultures, Cajunand Creole musicians were invited to perform anumber of times at the SmithsonianFolklife Festival, through the’70s and ’80s and ’90s,” saidAncelet, whoalso credits the decades of partnership with the Smithsonian for providing him withessential training on how to produce alarge-scale festival. This year,the relationshipbetween the Smithsonian Folklife Center and Festivals Acadiens et Créoles will culminate with anewly created performancestage,“Scène ’76,” which will highlight theinterplayofCajun, Creole, zydeco and other American musictraditions —including honky-tonk and blues Therewillalsobeanexpanded folklife area centered around the Girard Park pond and the Hilliard Art Museum lawn, withtraditional crafts, foodways, waterfowl and outdoor heritage traditions, and other folk knowledge.
“This is aconstantly evolving, living tradition,” said Ancelet,speakingonthe decision to center “revolution and evolution” for the250th
anniversaryevent. “It’sthe reason we have crawfish
and the reason zydeco has been incorporating hip
and Cajun music has continued to incorporate influences from country music and other sources.” “The
soul and rhythm and
PROVIDED PHOTOS
Capturing adragonflyona jatropha is one thing;havingone rest on your hand is quitethe feat.
tamales,
hopand
blues,
STAFF FILE PHOTOByBRAD KEMP Levi Mouton-Senegal,3,plays the rubboard with the Ruben Moreno’s Zydeco Re-Evolution during Festivals Acadiens et Creoles at Girard Park in 2025.
DINING SCENE
N.O. summer canbegloriousfor diners
The summer slump is notoriously difficult for New Orleans restaurants. What deserves more attention, however, is thepleasure of dining out in New Orleans in the summertime.
checking out the food specials that manyrun alongside drink deals. It’s all about small plates, lighter final tabs and spreading around the support while having different experiences around town.
Like restaurants, which must have aplan to navigate the summer,ithelps for diners to makea plan and perhaps adjust routines to get the most from the season New Orleans summer is atime for the locals. The cityisours again Going around to restaurants, seeing more familiar faces in less crowded dining rooms, it can feel like being on campus during semester break
It’seasier to get tables at even the most in-demand spots. Just as reservation books are looser,often our own social calendars are too.
It’sagood time to get together with people you’ve promised to catch up with but kept missing through the holidays and festival season. What we get from local restaurantsisdifferent in summer,too. If the business end is astruggle, many chefs still call this theirfavorite season for cookingbecause of the quality of local produce and seafood they get Deals abound, from citywide campaigns to creativespecials, extended happy hoursand other individual inducements to dine out (look for more on theseasI explore anew through the season).
Tough, gettingtougher
First though, thereisnosugarcoating just how tough the summer lull can be on restaurants. It can be fatal for restaurants that don’tmanage the downturn beforethe upswing arrives (a moving target sometime in fall, hopefully before the Saintsbye week).
Forstaff, especially tippedemployees,it’sthe lean timetoo, no matter what size companyisover their restaurant. If your favorite restaurant is part of ahospitality group, don’tassume they’re just skating through.
Veterans of the business save
By The Associated Press
moneyinthe good times,knowingsummer iscoming. Butthat balancing acthas gotten harder to maintain.Costs are rising across the industry and local issues twist theknife, like the sky-high price of Louisiana’s insurance crisis
That’swhy this is thetime when restaurants need to seetheir best customers: the returning regulars, the people who form personal relationships with their favorite restaurants and bars andthe people in them (andtheir favorite coffee shops, and wine shops,and brewery taprooms;the list could go on)
Dining with intent
There are waystodine out with intent andmake abigger positive impact that don’tbegin and end with simply spending more money than usual (after all, the higher costs of livingare felt all over).
Consider clock management. The weekend 7p.m. table still remains the most popular at most restaurants. Go instead on aweeknight or an off-peak hour, andyou’re helpingrestaurants doubleortriplethe turns on those tables.
Iloveanearly dinner reservation.It’sanexcusetocut outa little sooner,noneofthe specials are sold out, and watching arestaurant come to life around the
Today is Sunday,June 7, the158thday of 2026. There are 207 days left in the year
Todayinhistory:
On June 7, 1998, in acrimethatshocked thenation and ledtostronger state and federal hate crime laws, James ByrdJr.,a49-year-oldBlack man, washooked by achain to apickup truck anddragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two White men were later sentencedtodeath andexecuted for the crime; athirdwas sentencedtolife in prison.)
Alsoonthis date:
In 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginiaoffereda resolutiontothe ContinentalCongress stating“that theseunited colonies areand of right ought to be freeand independent States.”
In 1892,Homer Plessy,aCreole of color,was arrested for refusing to leavea Whites-only car of theEastLouisiana Railroad.(In an 1896 ruling on his case,Plessy v. Ferguson, theU.S.Supreme Court upheld “separate but equal” racial segregation, aconcept it renounced in 1954.)
In 1929,the sovereignstate of Vatican Cityformally cameintoexistence as theItalianParliament ratifiedthe Lateran Treaty in Rome.
In 1942, the Battle of Midway ended in adecisivevictory for American naval forcesover ImperialJapan,marking a turning point in the Pacific War.
In 1965, the U.S. SupremeCourt, in Griswoldv Connecticut, struck down by a7-2 vote aConnecticutlaw usedto prosecute aPlanned Parenthood clinic in NewHaven for providing contraceptives tomarried couples.
In 1976, New York magazine publishedanarticle by journalist Nik Cohn entitled “The TribalRites of theNew SaturdayNight,” which inspired the 1977film “SaturdayNight Fever” andsparked anationwide discocraze.(Cohn admittedin1997 that the article was actually aworkof fiction.)
In 1979,Texas became the first state to recognizeJuneteenth asanofficial state holiday. (Juneteenth becamea federal holiday in 2021; the June 19 holidaymarks theday in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston at the end of the CivilWar and brought the newsoffreedom to enslaved Black people in Texas.)
In 1982, Graceland, Elvis Presley’sMemphis mansion, was opened to the public as atourist destination,five years after Presley’sdeath.
In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founderofal-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by aU.S. airstrike on his safe house
In 2021,MaggieMurdaugh, 52, and herson Paul Murdaugh, 22, from aprominent South Carolina legalfamily,werefound shot and killed on their family’s property. (In 2026, the South Carolina SupremeCourtoverturnedthe murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh, Maggie’s husband andPaul’sfather.)
Today’sbirthdays: Filmmaker James Ivory is 98. SingerTom Jones is 86. Actor Liam Neeson is 74.AuthorOrhan Pamuk is 74. Author Louise Erdrich is 72. Music producer L.A Reidis70. Musician JuanLuis Guerra is69. FormerVice President Mike Penceis67. Rock musician-TVhostDave Navarrois59. Sen.Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.,is54. Actor Karl Urban is 54. TV personalityBear Grylls is 52. Basketball Hall of Famer Allen Iverson is 51. Actor-comedian Bill Haderis48. ActorMichael Cera is 38.
table has its own pleasure. Conversely,alater seating, after sunset,often means outdoor dining becomes appealing again, even in summer,when courtyards and patios are at their mostlush.
Sometimes Istart with ahappy hour at onerestaurant and make it aprogressive dinner of two stops. Last summer,I spent many aproductive late afternoon happy hour hopping at restaurants,
Being there is key.Itmight be tempting to stay in and order takeout after along summer day But those ubiquitous third-party delivery services can tack on hefty fees. When you go to the restaurant, your support makes moreimpact, and you’ll save money too.
Dining in keeps morestaff working and keeps the money that flowsthrough restaurants going to the network of suppliers and vendors, from linen service to wine purveyors. It’s awhole ecosystem that feels the impact of these simple decisions. Go with theslow
Slow isn’talways adirty word in summertime. Like the preseason forasports team,many restaurants use the downtimeto up their game, train staff, spruce up and stretch their range. With special events and collaborations with other chefs and brands, they shake up their own routines to lure people out.
Sometimes these are ticketed events that can give you alot for your dining dollar in adifferent way,and makeadifference for the restaurants hosting them.One example is the series of upcoming wine dinners around the New Orleans Wine &Food Experience from Wednesday through Saturday,which this year is bringing in somemajor wine producers for luxe dinners.
Start looking ahead. Restaurant Week returns this week with special set-price menus forlunch, brunch and dinner at awide range of places, from the Creole grand dames to modern hot spots. It can add aburst of business to the early summer,the counterpart to the monthlong Coolinary campaign that comes in August.
Bottom line: Any NewOrleans restaurant outing now means morethan ameal.
Email IanMcNulty at imcnulty@theadvocate.com.
Warm gesturegarners cold reaction
Dear Miss Manners: My fiancé and Iwere spending time with an old, close, female friend of his. He noticed she was cold and offered his jacket to her.She wore his jacket for therest of the evening.
He’sa kind, faithful man whoalways looks out for others, and I know his intentions were noble; he truly just wanted tohelp his friend when he saw her shivering. While I’m proud to be marrying such a kind man,Icouldn’thelp but feel atad embarrassed. I’ve always felt this was an intimate gesture between romantic couples —tobe wrapped in ajacket that carries the warmth and scent of your beau. Pop culture seems to have ingrained it in my head that wearing aman’s clothing (such as aletterman jacket in high school, or his favorite hoodie after staying over at his place) is aprivilege reserved for romantic partners only Since this was my first time meeting her,italso left me with aless-
than-favorable impression that she should accept thejacket and wear it in front of me. On the other hand, Ican understand the clear practicality of wanting your friend to be comfortable. I’mnot above admittingthat Imight just need to take thegesture at face value and try not to read too much into it.
So am Ibeing overly sensitive, or is this slightly crossing the line? In thefuture, shouldheoffer? Should she (or any other woman)accept?
Gentlereader: Please deal with this before you are married. And Miss Manners does not mean you should continue to criticize akind man for being kind, and to monitor and restrict his friendships. This is your problem,not his. Surely you do not wanttoalert him that you will be evaluating his every trivial gesture forsuspicion of disloyalty
We are supposed to be beyond theera when it wasassumed that there could be only one relationship between men andwomen, and therefore any claims to friendship are a cover-up. Do some abuse this trust? Sure. Butyou have strong evidence that
he is not in love with this person he has knownfor years. He engaged himself to you, expecting you to join the friendship —which is what you should try to do. What would have been rude of her would have been to say,“Oh, no, Ican’taccept this. Notinfront of your fiancée.”
Dear Miss Manners: When Idine at a restaurant and use aknifetocut my meat,I don’tknow what to do when Ilater wanttobutter aroll. Many places don’tprovide aseparate butter knife, and the dinner knifehas pieces of meat or sauce on it, which Idon’twant on my roll. What am I supposed to do?
Gentle reader: Ask the server for another knife. Contrary to popular belief,itisthe restaurant’sjob to provide proper utensils foreating, not the customer’sresponsibility to figure out how to do without.
Send questions to Miss Manners at herwebsite,www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postalmail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO64106.
Dear Heloise: I’ve hadalot of trouble opening bottles of nail polish. Some bottles have tops with asmoothsurface or ashape that’s not easily grasped. And don’tforget bottlesthat have partially dried shut! My quick fix is to wrap arubber band around the bottle cap. It’s so much easier to grasp the bottle to open it;even the stubborn dried-on tops frequently come loose. Ijust keep rubber bands on the bottle tops while they’re in storage so thatthey’re always ready to be used. —Sandy,inKalamazoo,Michigan Sandy,this is agood hint.I usually put on one of my rubbergloves to help me get the topoff of anail polish
bottle. Do any of my readers have a special tricktheyuse to open nail polish bottles thatget stuck? —Heloise Saving theEarth
Dear Heloise: Years ago, on theoriginal EarthDay in 1970, Iwas young and idealistic, and Iwanted to do some small thing to “help theEarth.” So, while my toddler and Iwalkedaround the neighborhood picking up trash,I decided thatI would sew somecloth napkins and avoid adding paper napkins to the landfill forthe rest of my life. Igot laughed at by family and friends, but this custom has been continual for 56 years. My kidsgrew up withit(not always fancynapkins, just home-sewn 10-by-10-inch cotton napkins), and nowthey do thesame thing out of habit. Iwonder if Imade
anydifference in theworld. Ialsoused cloth diapers. Yes, paper diapers are convenient, but I’ve seen potty training happen much quicker andatayoungerage because cloth diapers getwet anduncomfortable, unlike thepaper diapers that are much morecomfortable —Ruth M.,an old-timer in Michigan Ruth,one of the nicest wedding giftsI receivedwas astack of 12 homemade napkins that weresewn by adear friend. And letmeadd that it might have seemed to be asmall gesture, but if everyone made an effort to keep theEarth healthy, clean up after themselves, andreduce waste, this worldwould be in much better shape. —Heloise Send ahinttoheloise@heloise.com
Judith Martin MISS MANNERS
Hints from Heloise
STAFFPHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
Sidecar Patio &Oyster Bar in downtown NewOrleans is builtaround a lush outdoor dining room.
STAFFPHOTO By IAN McNULTy
The gardenpatio makes an alluring setting for outdoor diningatN7restaurant in NewOrleans.
ART&CULTURE
What musiccamebeforeN.O.jazz?
As alongtime student of African American music history,John Davis came to New Orleans in search of the sound that came before jazz. He had virtually no knowledge of south Louisiana other than of composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk.
“I remember going to the Hogan Jazz Archive, and this guy Lynn Abbott —who’savery well-known guy in the world of jazz scholarship and the early history of Black American music —comes out and he said, ‘So what do you want to see?’ And Isaid, ‘Well,how about box No. 1? Let’sstart there.’” After his second choice was box No. 2, Abbott started to get the picture.
“I could see the consternation on his face because he knew Iwas going to want to see everything, probably.”
Three decades later after examining more than 30,000 pieces of music archived at the now-Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, as well as the New Orleans Jazz Museum, The Historic New Orleans Collection and other repositories —the exhibition “The First Piano Professors and Lost Music of Early New Orleans” is now on view at the jazz museum.
Pre-jazz compositions
New Orleans music of the 19th century was performed in opera houses,
concerthalls, churches, clubhouses of mutual aid societies and in private homes. Some of itscreators were émigrés from Europe,whilesome were Louisiana-born Creoles. They combined European influenceswith piecesinformed byAfrican,AfroCaribbean andLatin cultures.
Sheet musicwas the delivery medium for popular music, most often performed on pianos in private homes. Canal Street-based music publishers brought the music to market. Built of first-edition sheet music unearthed by Davis, “The First Piano Profes-
sors” resurrectspre-jazz compositions that have been seldom heard since their creation.
“The music has been kind of out there in plain sight,” said David Kunian, jazz museum music curator and co-curator of the exhibit.
“Because the other forms of music in New Orleans overwhelm everything else, maybe people haven’tquite looked to this yet.”
There’sa longstanding prejudice against American classical music compared to European pieces, he pointed out
“I also think that the fact that some of thecomposers were Black probably
figured intothat in terms of theway people thinkabout it,” Kunian said.
Before recorded sound
Through two largerooms, theexhibit walks visitors through aworld before recorded sound and into music drawn from cultural influences that infused New Orleansmusic in the20th century Through advertisements, photos and illustrations, thefirst room introduces themusicians and venues where they performed. In thesecond room, publishers, engravers and lithographers who illustrated the covers of the sheet music
are introduced. The printed music is arrayed in cases around the outside of the room,organized by topic (“Creoles of Culture,” “Women and Love,” “Mardi Gras,” “AfroCaribbean and Voodoo Culture,” “The Confederacy”).
Super-sized versions of the sheet music covers are projected, which is credited to the principals of 2x4 Design, whomDavis metbychance in Rome. They worked with the museum’scuratorial and archival teamstocomplete the exhibit’sstellar look.
Performed by Davis, piano pieces featured on the walls playinthe gallery as a musical soundtrack, which
can be comfortably enjoyed in aseating area. “I had to look through all that music to find 25 or so pieces that Ithought were really high-level stuff, or something that Ithought was thematically interesting to begin with, and maybe bore some connection to the music that camelater in New Orleans —20thcentury jazz and rhythm and blues,” Davis said. “But it also had to be good music, right?”
Dave Walkerfocuses on behindthe-scenes coverage of theregion’s many museums here and at themuseumgoer.com.
Broadway’s biggestnight is approaching
BY MARK KENNEDY Associated Press
NEW YORK Twenty-four shows on Broadway received Tony Award nominations this season, but not all will walk away with atrophy and the box office attention they usually bring. Here are some key things to know as Broadway’sbiggest nightapproaches, including how to watch, the top nominees, who is poised to make historyand what shows secured performance slots
When arethe Tonys?
The Tonys will be broadcast to both coasts on Sunday from 7p.m. to 10 p.m., live from Radio City Music Hall.
Howcan Iwatch them?
On CBS and streaming for Paramount+ subscribersin the U.S.
Who’shosting?
Pink, athree-time Grammy Award winner,will make her debut as MC. “I just want it to be, first and foremost, just celebratory and fun and entertaining and over-the-top and ridiculous,” she says. She promises abig, honking opening number —written by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Mark Sonnenblick that ends with some 170 people on stage —lots of costume changes and some wire work, which she has done in her concerts. She has tappedAmber Ruffin awriter and performer for “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” for help withjokes.
Apre-show will be broadcast on Pluto TV from 5:35 p.m. to 7p.m. Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess will host that telecast, in which some technical Tonys will be handed out. Viewers can access it on their smart TV, streaming device, mobile app or online by going to Pluto TV and clicking on the
“LiveMusic” channel, found within the Entertainment category on theservice. What performances?
The seven best new musical and bestmusicalrevivals—“TheLost Boys,”
“Schmigadoon!,”“Titanique,” “Two Strangers (Carry aCake Across New York),” “Cats: TheJellicle Ball,” “Ragtime” and “The Rocky Horror Show.” Whoare thepresenters?
The presenters include: Adrien Brody,AnnetteBening,Ariana DeBose,Ben Platt, Bernadette Peters, Billy Crystal, Bowen Yang, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Carrie Coon,Cole Escola, Darren Criss, Jack O’Brien,Jeremy Pope, John Leguizamo,
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kara Young, Kelli O’Hara, Kristin Chenoweth, Law Roach, Lena Waithe,Lily Rabe, Maya Rudolph, Megan Thee Stallion, Neil Patrick Harris, Nicole Scherzinger, Patrick Wilson, PaulRudd, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Sarah Paulson and Sting.
Howmanyawards?
Atotal of 26 competitive categories, fromleadand featured actors to scenic, costume andlighting design. Sometechnical award handouts may be pre-taped, and winners won’tappear on the live show,only cut down into edited bits sandwiched into thetelecast.
Topnominees?
There are two top nomi-
nees: “The Lost Boys” and “Schmigadoon!”each earned aleading 12 Tony Award nominations. “The Lost Boys” is an adaptation of a1987 teen movie vampire thriller,and “Schmigadoon!”isanadaptation of an Apple TV series that gently mocks Broadway musicals.They’re followed by arevival of “Ragtime,” a big, soaring musicalcelebrating early 20th-century America, with11nominations, and “Death of aSalesman,”Arthur Miller’smasterpiece that looksatthe unravelingofthe American Dream, starring Nathan Lane, which nabbed nine nods.
Vyingfor topspors?
For new musicals,it’s “The Lost Boys,” “Schmigadoon!,” “Titaníque” and
“Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across NewYork).”
For new plays, it’s“The Balusters,” “Giant,” “Liberation” and “Little Bear Ridge Road.”
Canhistory be made?
History hasalreadybeen made, in away.June Squibb becamethe oldest Tonynominated actor in history at 96 and could become the oldest Tony winner,surpassing LoisSmith, who was 90 when she won in 2021. Nathan Laneishopingfor his fourth Tony,whichwould make him tied as the mostawardedmaleperformerin Tony history, alongsideBoyd Gaines and Frank Langella
If he does winfor best lead actor in aplay forthe revival of “Death of aSalesman,”
he’d have Tonysinthree separate acting categories, previously winning featured actor in aplayfor “Angels in America” and lead actor in a musical twicefor “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”and “The Producers.” And forthe first time since2002,the contendersfor best leading actress in amusical are all firsttime nominees:Sara Chase (“Schmigadoon!”), Stephanie Hsu (“The Rocky Horror Show”), Caissie Levy (“Ragtime”), Marla Mindelle (“Titanique”) andChristiani Pitts (“Two Strangers (Carry aCake Across New York”). Oher performances?
Other performances include the original lead cast members of “TheBook of Mormon” —JoshGad, Andrew Rannells, Rory O’Malley and Nikki M. James —this year celebrating its 15thanniversary Anothershowcelebrating amilestone, “Chicago”now at 30, will have aperformance slotfeaturing Queen Latifah, Jesse TylerFerguson, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren,Julianne Hough, Whitney Leavitt, Dylan Mulvaney and Pink. Plus, “A Chorus Line,” which last year celebrated its 50thanniversary,will geta special tribute by Rachel Zegler Leslie Odom, Jr.will sing “Without You” from“Rent” during the In Memoriam section, in honor of that show’s30thanniversary Broadway’s bigseason The2025-26 Broadway season seta newbox office record for the second year in arow.Over the 52 weeks of the season, Broadwaybrought in acombined total of $1,910,903,835, a smidge higher than last season’sthen-historic total of $1,892,650,959.
PROVIDED PHOTOByMATTHEW MURPHy
Ken Ardappears during aMarch rehearsal for ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ in Newyork.
Dave Walker
PHOTO By DAVEWALKER
Covers ofsheet music by 19th centuryNew Orleans composers are projected on the walls of the exhibit ‘The First Piano Professors and Lost MusicofEarly NewOrleans’ at the NewOrleans Jazz Museum.
ON THESETQUIET
Hollywood productions ywood like ‘Hacks,’ Amy Poehler AmyPoehler series andmoreare using Louisianaaccompany’s solar-poweredtrailers
BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer
IDEAS INNOVATION &
In an AprilInstagrampost, Emmy-nominated actress Megan Staltershowedoff hernew high-tech and stylish trailer on the set of the hit HBO Max TV show “Hacks,” filmedona studio lotinLos Angeles. The vehicle comes with Starlink Wi-Fi, an Apple TV,anopen floor planand lotsofnatural light, but most important, the 100% solarpoweredmobile dressing room runs quietly and hasenough excess power to charge up electric vehiclesand otherdevices —and even sendelectricity backtoapower grid
The luxury accommodations were providedbyacompany called Hollywood Trucks, which, despite what itsname suggests, is headquartered in asmall office in the Place St.Charlesofficebuilding in NewOrleans’Central BusinessDistrict. For the venture’sfounder Andre Champagne, anative of Napoleonville, delivering Stalter’strailerand about20others just like it over the
BY STEPHANIERIEGEL Staffwriter
While much of the 2026 legislative session was dominated by battles over congressional redistricting andhigh-profile partisan issues, for the state’sbusiness lobby,aseries of measures designed to ramp up workforce training were arare bipartisan win
Billsthat would restructure the state’sworkforce training programs —and redirect more federal money to the state, expand career programs beginning as early as middle school and create programs to connect college students to career opportunities —passed with support from both sides of the aisle.
“Some of the legislation passed
this year is goingtohaveimplications for our kids and really is goingtohavetremendous impact on ourstate for years to come,” saidWill Green, president and CEOofthe Louisiana Associationof Business and Industry Business-backed initiativesseekingtoreform thestate’s highest-in-thenation workers’ compensation program and to make it harder to tie climate change to fossilfuel activity also were successful. And apackageofgenerousincentives backedbyGov.Jeff Landry’sadministration to attract aerospace companies likeSpaceX sailed through the process Localeconomic development
PROVIDED PHOTOS
NewOrleans-based Hollywood Trucksrents specialty vehicles like the Ecoluxesolar-powered trailer top,which has enough powertorun the factorybuilding behindit, to the film industry. The interiors, above,feature Apple TVs, Starlink WiFi and luxurious spaces.
last few months has been abreakthroughthat’s been in theworks fornearly two decades. During that time, he hasbuilt,sold andthen relaunchedhis truck rental business while designing and patenting cleaner, greener technology that he hopes will find manyother uses beyond thefilm industry Hollywood Trucks recently inked amultiyear deal to rent hundreds of trailers to the globalentertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, which is already using itsEcoluxe models for “Hacks” and other projects,including anew Amy Poehler-
led comedy series called “Dig” and afeature film directed by aworldfamous director
The company also just closed a $30 millionfundraising round led by Louisiana investors to bankroll further expansion.
Champagne, 50, is enjoyinga burst of successthat’sbeen anything but overnight.
“I put 20 yearsofmylife into these vehicles and now they’re finally showing what they cando,” he said.
ä See TRAILERS, page 2E
Session’sworkforce training
groups also notched victories with measures that include funding for infrastructure projectsinNew Orleans anda potential pathforward to clearing blighted properties in Baton Rouge. But thesession wasn’t atotal win for the business community.Workers’ comp reform measures only went so far,and efforts to lower the state’s insurancerates by tackling tort reform stalled. “Not everysession deliversevery reform the business community needs,” Green said. “Wewill continue to work on the missed opportunities and press forward.”
ä See BIPARTISAN, page 2E
Champagne
6money tips newgraduates should know
sive when overused.
Michelle Singletary
THE COLOR OF MONEy
The congratulatory greeting cards are nice, but let’s face it: Whennew gradsrip one open, they really hope to find cash or acheck inside. But you should also give graduates something that endures: financial knowledge to help them build lasting wealth. Alot of personal finance advice doesn’tchange— even whenthe nationisworried about rising inflation, the highcost of buying ahome or car,and a costly war with Iran —soIlike to revisit the guidanceIoften give to high school and college graduates. Poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson complainedthat we fail to teach students basic lifeskills: “Weare shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at lastwith a bellyful of words and do not know athing.” How true that statement is, especially as it relatestomoney Here are six basic yet vital tips to help young adults keep their debt low and their net worth climbing.
TRAILERS
Continued from page1E
From La.toL.A Champagne’scareer has taken him back and forth fromthe nation’stwo “LAs” for more than 25 years.
After moving from Louisiana to Los Angeles in 2002 to climb the ladder in the film and television industry,hecame back home five years later to help makeahandful of filmsfor producers taking advantage of the state’srecently created tax credits.
The movies themselves weren’t super memorable. One was ahorror film called “Autopsy” set during aMardi Gras vacation gone wrong But importantly,Champagne discovered abusiness opportunity amid the new Louisiana film gold rush.
Producers were coming to town lookingfor 25% to 35% rebatesfrom the state, but to qualify they needed to spend money with local companies providing sound stages, cameras,lighting,trucks andother necessities. The problemwas manyofthose vendors simply didn’texist yet. Transportation,inparticular, was an essential need for producers, who use avariety of trucks and vans to move people and gear around and need mobile trailers to house actors, hairand makeup stations, and offices while on set.
Working out of asmall office at Celtic Studios in Baton Rouge, Champagne set out to solve the problem.
He borrowed money to buy a couple of vans and started renting them to producers working in state. About six months later,the business became his full-time job. He reinvested profits in more vehicles, sometimes payingoff purchases in a couple of years because there was so much demand.
By the middleofthe last decade,HollywoodTrucks had amassed afleet of morethan 200 specialty vehicles —from cargo vans to talent trailers that served customers in multiple states. But in 2015, changes to Louisiana’stax incentive program slowed the industry’s growth in the state by capping rebates.In2019, though there was still work to be had, Champagne acceptedoffers from several competitors to sell his company’sfleet whilekeeping the business name and other intellectual property
The deal closed afew months before the start of the COVID pandemic and afew years before apair of strikes in 2023 shut down the entertainment industry formonths. Sincehe sold his fleet, there havebeen some productions in Louisiana, thoughnot enough to keep all in-state sound stagesbusy
“Looking back now,Irealize it was an ideal time,” Champagnesaid. Keepingitclean
Afew years after launching Hollywood Trucks,Champagne became focused on making his fleet cleaner and greener
“Vehicles burn alot of fuel, and they’renoisy,soIstarted looking at ways to save money forproductions and be more
1. Don’tlistentothe collective“they.”
I’m sure you’ve heard someone say: “Well, they say you need to buy ahome to build wealth.” Or maybe: “Paying rent is awaste of money. They may say: “Don’tworry aboutpaying off your college debt right away because it’sgood debt.”
Whoare “they?”
I’ll tell you who. Most often,it’s peoplewith avested interest in howyou spend your money
They are often wrong. Theywill contribute to your financial stress, making youfeel likeyou’re not succeedingfast enough. Forinstance, there’salot of pressureonyoung adults to buy a home. Until youare readyfor such an expensivefinancial move, consider renting
In certain high-cost areas, you maynever beable to afford a home.And for some, that means renting. However,you are not throwingmoney away when you pay to put aroof over your head. Youare nota financialfailure if you are arenter
2. Don’tbelieve people who saythereis good and bad debt
Referring to debt with an adjective is unhelpful.It’sjust debt, and it can be destructiveand oppres-
At aBerkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting, billionaire Warren Buffett was once asked by a14-year-old whichfinancial concepts he would recommendto young people whostill have time to implement them.
Buffett, oneofthe most successfulinvestors in the world, didn’t talk aboutinvesting, as many might have expected
His advicewas to avoiddebt. “If Ihad onepiece of adviceto give to young people …itwould be just don’tget in debt,”Buffett said.
3. Don’tget used to thegrace periodfor your loans. If you’re graduating fromcollege with student debt, don’twait until youhavetostart repaying the loans(for federal loans, typically six months after graduation) to figure outwhatyou owe.
The grace periodisa time to practice. Use this time to see how those payments will affect your monthlybudget. For whatever time youhavebeforethe payments kickin, put that monthlyamount into asavings account. Get usedtohaving less to spend because of theloans.
4. Don’tjust focus on themonthlypayment
Always look at thetotality of
NewOrleans-based Hollywood Trucks has built about 20 Ecoluxe trailers for NBCUniversal and more are on the way. The Ecoluxe is a sortof luxuryhomeonwheels that movie stars and crewmembers use while workingonlocations and studio lots.
“Weare now amobile, clean-energypower company becausewecan pull these vehicles up and exportpower to yourbuilding.They could turn an RV park into apower plant, because hundreds of them together can produce megawatts of free, cleanenergy.”
ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Hollywood Trucks founder
environmentally friendly,”he said.
He couldn’t do much to change trucks and vans that came from third-party manufacturers, so hedecided to focus on thetrailers, whichhe could design and then commission.
He began retrofitting hisfleet with more energy-efficient components, from solarpanels to better HVAC systems. He built dozens ofprototypes over severalyearsbefore creating atrailerthatcould runwithout an external power source. He partnered with different manufacturers throughout the process, forging agreements to protect hisintellectual property.
Afterhesoldhis fleet in 2019, Champagne had to step back from the industry,sohe spent several years consulting forclean energy companies in other sectors. When his noncompeteclausesexpired in 2025, hetransitioned into the business of making clean machines under the Hollywood Trucks banneronceagain. He chose Canada’sJexcar,which has served the movie industry forfourdecades,ashis manufacturing partner and got back to work.
The Ecoluxe is the revived company’sfirst product. Costing $150,000tomanufacture a40-foot version and $250,000 forthe 53-footer, it’sa sort of luxuryhome on wheels that movie stars and crew members use while workingonlocations and studio lots.
The company has built about 20 of the new trailers, which already been used by awho’s who of A-list actors and musicians. Another 12 vehicles are in production, and Champagne is excited to show more users what they can do.
“You justpull it up and never turn it off,”hesaid. “It hasits own internal power system, so it doesn’tmake asoundeven when everything’srunning.”
what you’reborrowing. By that, I don’tjust mean whetheryou can handle the monthly payment and the interestyou’recharged. Whatwill that loan costyou over the long run?
Consider what else youcould do with that money if youweren’t constantly servicing debt
If youborrowtoo much for a car,that’smoney youcan’t invest If your mortgage is too high and overextends your budget,you can’t build an emergencyfund for when lifehappens.
5. Don’ttreat yourbudget likeanadversary. Everbeen in love?
Treat yourbudgetlike alove interest. Stay connected to it Change when necessary andappropriate to make things work.
If youdon’t knowthe song “And IAmTellingYou I’mNot Going, go find it on YouTube.I like Jennifer Hudson’sversionfromthe movie“Dreamgirls.”
Here’show it starts:“AndIam telling you, I’mnot going. You’re the best man I’ll ever know. There’s no way Ican ever go.No, no,nothere’snoway.No, no,no, no wayI’m living without you.”
Now replace thewords “best man” with “best budget.”
BIPARTISAN
Continuedfrom page1E
Bigwin on workforcetraining
The most significant win, business leaders say,was apackage of bills that consolidated power and millions of federal workforce training dollars under Louisiana Works, the former Louisiana WorkforceCommission, which wasrestructured during the 2025 legislative session.
Those federal dollars, which totaled $115 million this year,previously flowed to 15 differentregionalcouncils charged with devising and overseeing workforce training in their respective geographic areas. Abill approved during the sessionwould effectively funnel the money and control to the state, which advocates saywould allowfor greater coordination, oversight and efficiency
Adam Knapp, president andCEO of Leaders for aBetter Louisiana, said the movewas “a longoverdue restructuring” thatwill“move the needle on workforceinwayswehave not seen in more than a decade.”
Otheruses
Hollywood Trucks’ supplier agreement with NBCUniversalisabig win for Champagne, whose long-term goals include bringing trailers back to Louisiana,where his headquarters will remain.
“I was bornand raised here, so that’swhy we’re standing here,”hesaidlastweek. “I wanttobuild aglobaljuggernaut from here.”
Champagne said he is encouraged by theway his new vehicles have performed since their rollout. He hopestoprove their usefulness to other industries, possibly serving as mobilepower plants for disaster relief or construction sites.
“Weare now amobile, cleanenergy power company because we can pull thesevehicles up andexportpower to your building,” he said. “They could turn an RV park intoa power plant, because hundreds of them together can produce megawatts of free, clean energy.”
Afew weeks before delivering thefirst Ecoluxe trailer to NBCUniversal’sstudio lotin LA earlier this spring, Champagne and his manufacturing partners in Canada conducted an experiment, connecting the vehicle’s50-amp electric output cord to the breaker panel of thefactorybuilding where it was made.
Champagne flipped aswitch andproved somethinghehad been theorizing for years: Even thesmallestversion of his new vehicles can power an entire building for aperiod of time. “Itwas areally surreal moment,” he said. “At first, we were just afraid we’d blow something up at thefactory,but now I’m thinking about disrupting several industries by creating fleets of fully autonomous vehicles.”
EmailRich Collinsatrich. collins@theadvocate.com.
That’show youshould approach your budget. No, no,no, no wayyou should be living without it 6. Don’tkeep saying“Idon’t know.”
Me:What’syourtotal student loan debt?
Young adult:I don’tknow. Me:Whatisthe differencebetween gross payand netincome?
Young adult:I don’tknow. Me:What’sFICA?
Young adult:I don’tknow?
Financialilliteracy can keep you broke or hinderyourabilityto growyourwealth
There’s apoint in your life when ignoranceabout your personalfinances is achoice, andit’sone that won’tserve youwell.
Childrencan saytheydon’t knowbecause they typically have parentsorguardians who aresupposedtoknowfor them. Butby thetime yougraduate fromhigh school or college,you have to take responsibilityand learnasmuch as youcan aboutbudgeting, credit, saving andinvesting.
Youcan no longerafford to say “I don’tknow.”
Email Michelle Singletary at michelle.singletary@washpost. com.
needs, also died in committee.
Differingperspectives
Avictory for the business community on the energy front came in the form of abill that blocks lawsuits against oil and gas companies over the impacts of climate change.
Business lobbyists also successfully fought back bills by environmental groups and local governments that would have made it hardertomoveforward with carbon capture and sequestration projects. The measures, Green said, would have created, “more regulation and more uncertainty at atime when we’re trying to create more jobs and opportunities.”
Another measure created thefunding mechanism for anew workforce traininginitiative, establishing the Bayou Growth Opportunity Fund, which also wouldbeadministeredbyLouisiana Works. Modeled afterasuccessful program in Michigan, “BayouWorks,” as the local program is called, would award competitive grantstobusinesses that partner with qualified training providers to build skills and increase productivity Lawmaker did notfundthe program. But Green saidestablishing aframework to get more workers up to speed is an important first step.
“The funding will eventually get there,” he said. “It’s too importantnot to seethrough.” Lawmakers also expandedaccess to workforcefinancial aid, expanding theTaylor Opportunity Program for Students’ Tech scholarship to include part-timestudents, streamlining dual enrollment processes and increasing instructional capacity in community and technical colleges for high-demand fields.
Mixedresults
As in thepast, business lobbyists pushed bills seeking to lower the duration and cost of workers’ compensation claims. The state’sclaims areamong thecostliestinthe U.S. even though Louisiana has some of the nation’slowestrates of on-the-jobinjury
Onemeasurethat business groups claimed as avictory requires the Office of Workers’ Compensation to collect andanalyze detailed billing, payment utilization and access to care data in order to determine why some doctors charge so much more than others when treating workers’ compclaims.
Leah Long, state director forthe National Federation of Independent Businesses,which lobbies forsmall businesses, said the measure is an “important first step towards amore modern andaccountable workers’ comp system.”
Key tort reform measures failed, however, with lawmakers opting not to advance out of committeeabill that would have established damage caps in civil lawsuits.Green said the measure had been “a reasonable bill,modeled after other states” that LABI will bring up again in the future.
Otherbills, including one that would require expertwitnesses to face greater scrutiny in jurytrialsand another to ensure that medical awards are used for legitimate long-termcare medical
As it did whensuccessfully passing incentives two years ago used to secure the Meta artificial intelligence data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana Economic Development asked lawmakers to sign nondisclosure agreements and pass incentives to benefit aerospace companies like SpaceX. Invest in Louisiana President and CEO Jan Moeller,whose organization advocates for equitable taxand spend policiesand is often at odds with the business lobby,saidthe widespread use of NDAs forincentivesistroubling especially because it’sunclear what the state is getting in return for giving away tax dollars.
On other business issues, Moeller saidhis group applauds many of the workforce training bills.
“In asession that was so deeply polarized, this was an area where bipartisanship reigned,”hesaid. “I think people of good will on both sidesbelieveswe need to train workers for good jobs.” He lamented,though, that lawmakersdid notaddress wages for low-incomeworkers.
“You can have allthe workforce training in the world and you still are going to need custodialworkers, inhome care workers, and without a meaningful minimumwage, they are going to continue to struggle financially,” Moeller said.
Localvictories
Local economic development groups supported many of the broader statewide initiatives around workforce training and education and say they representwinsfor localcommunities as well as for the state as awhole.
The Greater Baton Rouge Economic Partnership celebrated the passage of ameasure establishing aframework forpaidinternships that provide high school credits connected to business partnerships.
The group also hailed the passage of aprogram that addresses the shortage of qualified instructors in high-demand industry sectors. It creates astructure in the Louisiana Community and Technical College System by creating astructure to recruit, train and retain teachers capable of providing technical educationthataligns with the needs of industry Ablight redevelopment initiative backed by the partnership also passed thissession. Thelaw sets up avote in November on aconstitutional amendment that would allow for property taxexemptions on blightedand derelict properties that havebeen rehabilitated.
In New Orleans, GNO Inc.’sMichael Hecht said one of thekey highlights wasthe creation of the Louisiana State Infrastructure Bank, which delivered anew financing tool to deliver more infrastructure projects, leverage public and private dollars, and stretch state resources further Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com.
Knapp
Moeller
PROVIDED PHOTO
TALKING BUSINESS
ASK THE EXPERTS
La. Lottery quintupled
BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer
Rose Hudson describes her first
role at the Louisiana Lottery Corp.
as a “Swiss Army knife.”
She started her journey at the company at its inception in 1991, after the state Legislature approved a lottery to generate revenue without raising taxes, taking on tasks like cleaning toilets and writing checks. She took a brief hiatus from the company but has headed the organization for the past 20 years. As president and CEO, Hudson still sees herself in a do-it-all role, which she says comes in handy in an ever-changing gaming market.
As mandated by law, the lottery contributes $500,000 to the state
Office of Addictive Disorders and at least 25% of revenue to the Minimum Foundation Program, which funds public education
According to preliminary revenue numbers for 2026, the organization’s 35th year, the lottery will contribute about 30% of its revenue to the MFP, Hudson said. The legislative mandate is the organization’s “north star,” she said, guiding the lottery toward maximizing dollars for the state.
In recent years, the organization has posted $500 million to $600 million in earnings, which Hudson attributes to the lottery’s marketing strategy to partner with brands like the New Orleans Saints, create experiential prizes like a “Warehouse Dash” shopping spree and work one-on-one with its 2,900 retailers on product display That’s up from about $100 million to $200 million in revenue in the lottery’s early years.
Retailers earn a nickel for every $1 ticket sold and can earn additional commission for selling big jackpot tickets, totaling about
Q&A WITH ROSE HUDSON
LOUISIANA LOTTERy PRESIDENT AND CEO
$800 million retailer commission over the years.
“We take our part of that very seriously, hence all of the games that we come up with, the approaches to marketing, all of that drives back to our part in the revenue generation effort,” Hudson said.
In this week’s Talking Business,
Hudson discusses changing consumer behaviors, upcoming lottery technology and her tenure at the organization.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Are there any changes recently in what customers are wanting?
The visual appeal of the tickets themselves is a really big deal right now Tickets that are more in line with what else they’re seeing in the marketplace, let’s say the Saints. That’s something that they’re familiar with.
Customers like to go to games or watch the games on TV so matching up what they’re accustomed to seeing in their typical consumer life with our tickets.
We did a Hasbro ticket, so we did a suite of tickets with (the game) Clue, and so that’s kind of fun.
Whether they played the game or are familiar with the game, those are some of those things that we see that are very attractive to our customer and really pop out of the display
How would you describe the organization when you first joined?
It’s night and day We are a smaller organization. We’ve been able to really kind of tighten the way we operate.
We’re lean, following some re-
ally good business principles to make sure that we again are maximizing revenue. We operate on less than 5% of gross revenue for our operations, which is unheard of.
We are innovative and creative in a way that we weren’t in the beginning.
We’ve really been able to take advantage of some very bright minds coming into the organization and being able to say, “What if we try this?” or “This would be an excellent way to market our tickets or develop our games.”
The industry has changed, consumer behavior has changed, and so I think we’ve been really good at kind of being flexible and changing for what the consumer and what the marketplace looks like.
I was reading that other state lotteries use somewhere around 10% of their revenues for operations How are you guys able to operate with 5%? What do you feel like deters other states from doing a similar thing?
The legislative mandate to give 25% really has been a driver and helped us from day one be able to kind of outline how we spend the money, how we spend that revenue, and what we can’t do, or what we can do within the parameters. If that were removed, I think we would still be, as a part of our core business principles, operating in the same way using those same guidelines.
What’s the latest technology relating to gaming that’s on your mind right now?
The big one is what we would like to do is internet lottery We would love to be able to have our customers be able to purchase
tickets via the mobile app.
It’s happening in probably 13 other states right now very successfully They’ve been able to partner with retailers to make sure that those brick-and-mortar retailers don’t lose out.
It’s kind of a rising tide lifts all boats concept. When we pull that information, we’re able to see that we would not do any harm to our 2,900 partners by expanding into the mobile arena, but that is a policy decision that the Legislature would need to agree to, hopefully, at some point.
It seems like other states have done this already Why now for the organization?
I want to emphasize that we would need legislative approval to do that, and that has not happened yet, so I don’t want to get out in front of them, but it’s a perfect time for us, in that we see what other states are doing, we’re
listening to the consumer, and so
we’re trying to kind of walk carefully with the Legislature and say, here’s the information.
It does not do harm to our current retailer base, and actually we can help drive traffic to those stores, whether it be that first download incentivizing the retail for a customer to get a download to download the app there, so there are ways that we can put their minds at ease, and see that this is next. You can buy a car, and you can buy wine and shoes online.
We can do this, we can protect our consumer we can geofence to make sure only Louisiana residents are purchasing, we can agegate to make sure that our customers are 21 and over. It’s just a process. I think that change will come, but it’s a process that we work with the Legislature on.
AROUND THE REGION
DefensefirmtoexpandLSU operations,createnew jobs
Integersaysnew salaries will average $130,000
BY TIMOTHY BOONE Staff writer
ASouth Carolina-baseddefense technology companysaiditwillexpand its operations on the LSU campus, amove that will create 23 goodpaying jobs.
The new jobs at Integer Technologies will have an average annualsalary of $130,000, according to Louisiana Economic Development. LED said the expansion will create 28 indirect jobs and keep the nine current employees at Integer
Company officials saidthey plan to increase the numberofemployees year-over-year by about 35% over the next four years. Integer,headquartered in Columbia, SouthCarolina, established operations at LSU in 2023. Earlier this year,the companymoved into aspace in the LSU Digital Media Center.The company works with several universities, including theUniversity of SouthCarolina,the University of SouthernMississippi, the University of Wisconsin-Madisonand Florida StateUniversity,totransform scientificresearch into software and systems that help the military and commercialcustomersmake faster, better decisions
“Integer Technologies’Baton Rouge presence proves LSU’sresearch and
Integer Technologies’ Baton Rouge presenceproves LSU’sresearch and talent is a powerful engine for recruitment and innovation.”
WADE ROUSSE, LSU president
talentisa powerful engine forrecruitment and innovation,and we’re proud to workwith them on next-generation technology for thenation,” LSU President Wade Rousse said in astatement
The expansion is building off a$9.8 millionNavyresearchcontractthat Integer was awarded in 2024.
That money led to the development of aresearch team from the LSU College of Engineeringand the Collegeof Science to improve the intelligence, autonomy and decision-making abilities of maritime systems, such as underwater robots.
“Our partnership with LSU has created aunique environment where industry,academia, and government canworkshoulder-to-shoulder to bring innovations from the labtothe warfighter,” Duke Hartman, Integer
CEO andco-founder, said in astatement. “Together,we’re developing cutting-edge, predictive intelligence software to support the national security priorities of theU.S.Department of War, while building on the substantialmaritime infrastructure and know-how that already exists at LSU and in Louisiana to create meaningful, well-paying careers forLSU grads and the local workforce.” Integer was awarded acompetitive incentive package from LED to expand itsoperations, including participating in the Digital Interactive Mediaand Software program, which providestax credits forpayroll and production expenditures.
Email TimothyBoone at tboone@ theadvocate.com.
Gulf SouthAngelsmergeswithD.C.-basedinvestorgroup
BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer
Louisiana’slargest angel investor network just got bigger
In May,the New Orleans-based Gulf South Angels announcedit was absorbing members of the Washington, D.C.-based MEDA Angels,a healthcare-focused group.
Founded as the NO/LA Angel Network in 2014 by former Weather Channel executiveMike Eckert, the nonprofit investment group changed its name two years agoasitexpanded itsfocustothe region. It has more than 170 investors across20states.
MEDA Angels, established seven years agobyElizabeth Cho-Fertikh, is anetwork of approximately 50 high-net-worth physicians and healthcare professionals basedin 18 states, Canada, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.
Eckert, Gulf South Angels’ board chair,said he and his fellow investors areexcited to bringinnew blood, especially those with medical expertise.
“This transition enhances our
connections within the healthcare communitynationwide and continuestobuild onthe momentum of GSA’sever growing membership base and brand name,” he said in aprepared statement.
Cho-Fertikh said the deal made sense because her group had been looking for an expanded base of investors within astrong support structure
“I’m thrilled for the additional camaraderieour members will enjoy,access to even more expansive deal flow,and the opportunity to further establish ourselves as a trusted, go-to healthcare investor group for startups seeking both strategic and financialsupport,” she said.
Gulf South Angels meets monthly and employs twopart-time staffers to organize meetingsand analyze potentialinvestments.
The group’sboard of directors, executive committee and due diligencecommittees gather at other times. Members payanannual fee andagree to aminimumannual investment amount of $10,000 to stay active. The group’smembers, who make individual investment
decisions, have participated in 151 funding rounds in 75 companies. Theindividual investmentsadd up to $34 millionsince thegroup was formed.
Approximately40% of thenonprofit’s allocations are concentrated in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical devicesand healthcare IT.Nineteen of its companies have “exited,” which is investorlingo forasale, merger or public offering that leads to apayout.
MEDA Angelsisafor-profit organization witha concentration of physician, scientist,insurance and healthcare industry investormembers. The group’smembers have invested approximately $10 million in 26 early-stage healthcare startups.Three of thosestartups —Atraverse Medical, Citus Health and Allotrope Medical —have had successful exits, according to a company spokesperson.
The transition of MEDA Angels members into Gulf South Angels will begin immediately and continue throughout thesummer Email Rich Collinsatrich. collins@theadvocate.com.
Places Dozens of Local StudentsinPaid
Recently,GNO,Inc.launchedthe sixth year of our InnovationInternship Program, placing 45 college students with 39 companiesacrossSoutheast Louisiana.
•Promising local students getreal-world experience andbusinessconnections
•Regional businessesget talent
The2026 internship cohort is our largest andmostdiverse ever:
•45paidinterns,39hostcompanies across six career tracks: STEM, Startup, Engineering, Energy,Trade &Logistics/Maritime,and PrivateEquity/ VentureCapital
•Students from12institutions,including DillardUniversity,LSU,Loyola, SUNO, Southern BatonRouge,Southeastern,Tulane, UNO and Xavier
•Hostcompanies ranging from newcompanies likeNewlab andObatala Sciences, to major operatorslikeCFIndustries,PortofNew Orleans, MSC MediterraneanShipping Company,and Vivace(Michoud) [Seefull list of host companiesinimage below]
•Since theinternship programlaunchedin2021, students have maintained a 97% retention rate with host companies 65% percent of alumni have been invited back forextended placements. When thiscohortfinishes in late July, GNO, Inc. will have served nearly150 students total.
The2026 internship programissupportedby Chevron, Boeing,the Tulane Innovation Institute, LA Works, theBrown Foundation,the Walton Family Foundation,and NOBIC.Thank you!
Youcan read the full press release here
Companiesinterestedinhosting an intern can reachDaphineBarnes at dbarnes@gnoinc.org
Student applications forthe 2027 cohort open this fall at gnoinc.org.
PROVIDED PHOTO
MikeEckert, aco-founder and former CEO of The Weather Channel, founded Gulf South Angels after moving to NewOrleans in 2013 and recognizing aneed forstartup capital in the local market.
MichaelHecht President &CEO GNO Inc
LouisianaLegislature ChoseBalance on Menhaden: Stronger OversightWithout Sacrificing CoastalJobs
Louisiana’smenhadenfisheryisoften scrutinizedfromafar, whichmakes it easy to forget that behindthe headlinesare working families,multi-generationalfishingoperations, andblue-collarjobsincoastal communities like Plaqueminesand Vermilionparishes, and localitiesinbetween,thatdependonthisresource Thatiswhythecommercialmenhadenfishery approachedthislegislativesessionwithasimple goal:workcooperatively with lawmakerson practical, science-based measures that improve transparency,reporting,and accountability withoutinflictingunnecessaryharmonthepeople whomaketheir living on thewater That is exactlywhathappened.
Lawmakersconsideredseveralproposalsthis sessionimpacting wherethe menhaden fleet operates.The debate wassometimes heated andsomeadvocates cast thefishingindustry as avillain.But ourindustrylistened,engaged, andworkedwiththe Legislaturetoadvance reasonable measures whileopposingproposals thatwouldhaveimposedsevereeconomicharm. TheLegislaturechosetostrengthenoversight andpublicconfidence throughbetterreporting, cleareraccountability,and vessel-tracking requirements,while rejectinganapproachthat wouldhavepushedthefisheryintoanunworkable corner First, HB 872requirespurse seinevessels engagedincommercialmenhaden reduction fishing,touseAutomaticIdentificationSystems. Thelargersteamersormotherships arealready equippedwiththetechnology.AIScreatesavessellocation record that cansupport enforcement, improveaccountability, andanswerwhether boatsare respecting establishedboundaries. It willrequire industry investment in equipment, installation,maintenance,and compliance, but it is a practical andtransparentbill.
Second,lawmakers strengthened accountability forcertain violations.Our fishermenrespectthelawanddesignatedfishing areas.Someproposalsincludedafirstoffensefine of$50,000.TheLegislaturetookamorebalanced approach.HB757,nowsignedintolawasAct316, includes afirstoffense fineof$2,500, roughlya tenfoldincreasefromthe prior$250 penalty. Boundariesmatter,andthelawnowreflectsthat Third,inHB886,lawmakersimprovedpublic understandingofthemenhadenfishingindustry withoutcompromisingsensitive details. We are transparentinour operations,but commercial catchrecords canrevealoperational strategies anddetailedfishing patterns.The proper balanceistogivethe public aclearer pictureat anaggregatelevelofharvestwithoutturningover specificset-by-setlocationinformationthatwould unfairlyexposeindividualcompany’soperations. Thesereforms occurred in afisherywitha strong management andconservationrecord. Louisianarecentlyconducted abycatch study, funded througha$1million legislative appropriationand administered by theGulf States Marine FisheriesCommission, using onboardobservers andelectronicmonitoring to evaluate 418purse-seine sets,3.2 percentof Louisiana’stotal 2024 menhaden fishingeffort. Theresultsdid notsupport widely circulated claims that menhaden fishing is an unchecked driver of sportfish mortality. Totalbycatch was estimatedatroughly3.6percentbyweight,below Louisiana’s5percentcap,andreddrummortality from thefisherywas asmall shareofoverall red drum removals.Thisdemonstratesthatany furtherreformsshouldbeproportional,targeted, andgroundedindataratherthananecdotes or worst-case assumptions.
ThatiswhytheLegislatureactedprudentlyin declining to advanceHB855, whichwould have
required thefleettoonlyfish in waters deeper than 22 feet.Supportersframeditasabycatch solution,but it wouldhave removedmiles and milesofavailablefishinggroundsthatsustainthe fishery.Landingsrecords show that roughly85 percentofmenhaden landings occurinthe zone thebillwould have restricted.Thisstructural disruption wouldhavethreatened jobsand the establishedfishing practices in Louisiana’s coastalcommunities Thestakesarereal.Louisiana’sGulfmenhaden industrysupportsmorethan2,000jobs,generates more than $419 millioninannualeconomic impact,purchases tens of millions of dollarsin goodsandservicesacrossdozensofparishes,and supportsdockworkers,plantemployees,welders, mechanics, truckdrivers,fuelsuppliers,vesselservicebusinesses,andcoastalsmallbusinesses. Noresponsiblepolicymakershoulddismissthose livelihoodsascollateraldamage. Policymakersalsoshouldn’tignorethebroader management context. Louisianahas already adoptedsignificant nearshoreprotections includingcoastal buffer zonesand additional protectionsinsensitive andhigh-priority areas. The questionbeforelawmakers waswhether to
pair thoseprotections with practicaloversight toolsortoimposeasweepingdepth restriction that wouldhavedisplaced most of thefishery’s historic landings
Thescientificclaim behindthe depth restrictionwas also farlesssettled than some advocatessuggested.Asdiscussed during the session,pushingboatsincrementallyfartherfrom shoredidnotshowaconsistentbycatchreduction. Amajor reductionappearedonlyatthe 22-foot threshold,thesamepointatwhichthefleetwould loseaccesstomostofitstraditionallandingsarea Louisiana’sLegislature weighedthattradeoff honestly andchose balance. Themenhaden fishery is sustainable,heavily scrutinized, andeconomicallyimportant Gulf menhaden arenot overfishedand arenot experiencingoverfishing.That’swhythefishery wasrecentlyrecertifiedassustainable by the Marine StewardshipCouncil This legislativesession demonstratedwhat is possible when thepeopleclosest to thework engage legislatorsand follow thescience to advancereasonable oversightmeasuresthat retain valued jobs and livelihoods
Broughttoyou by theLouisiana Commercial Fishing Coalition, LLC
Issued May27toJune 2
Commercial alterations
OFFICE: 1921 Kaliste Saloom Road, description, office for EdwardJones in Parc Lafayette; applicant, Lawrence Group;contractor, Gleason Ledet Construction; $320,000.
CHURCH: 4129 VerotSchool Road, description, Youngsville Community Church; applicant, Brad Lechtenberger AIA; contractor, Mark Allen Jellks; $2.2 million.
COFFEE: 3200 Ambassador Caffery Parkway, description, new location of 7BrewCoffee;applicant, BUF ArchitectureStudio; contractor, MackieReaux Construction; $1.5 million RETAIL: 3500 N.E. Evangeline Thruway,Carencro; description, 8,000-square-foot
Popularcoffeeshop7Brew will open asecond locationinLafayette.
The chain was granteda permit for alocation at 3200 Ambassador Caffery Parkwayatthe corner of Inez Lane afterthe buildingwas sold two weeks ago, records show. Thework is valued at $1.5million. Site work has already begun. Tennessee-based commercial builder Hutton closed ona purchase of about half an acre at the site from the Stutesfamily,land records show.Hutton hascontracted with 7Brew to build locations across Louisiana.
7Brew opened its first Lafayette location last year at 4308 Ambassador Caffery Parkway.Ithas 21 locations in Louisiana, according to its website.
Rachael’sCafétoopen
Maurice location
Apopular Lafayette eaterywill open aMaurice location after the building’sprevious tenant closed itsdoors.
Rachael’sCafé announced June 1 on Facebook that it will occupy the former Classic Cup Café building, 8218 Maurice Ave.
“Wecouldn’tbemore excited to bring Rachael’sCafé to Vermilion Parish,” the post read.
Owner Rachael Hebert used her decades of experiencecooking to open Rachael’sCafé, 104 Republic Ave. Suite B, in 2012, archives show Hebert had worked at Soop’sin Maurice, which was in the building that will be the new home for Rachael’s.
Classic Cup Café closedMay 31
BUILDINGPERMITS
building for secondphase of Center Squareshopping center; applicant, Carrol Castille; contractor, Manuel Commercial; $1,155,252.
Commercial demolition
OTHER: 589 N. Pierce St description, none listed; applicant and contractor, JH Alfred Construction; $2,000. OTHER: 1320 General Mouton Ave.,description, none listed; applicant and contractor, Castle Row Construction; $10,000.
Fool’sTake:Growth and dividends from real estate
Newresidential
105 WATERFOWLROAD: BellardConstruction, $460,750.
315 BELLEWOOD DRIVE: DR Horton, $386,125.
103 BELLE LAKEDRIVE: DR Horton, $260,500.
104 BELLE LAKEDRIVE: DR Horton, $360,625.
101 BELLE LAKEDRIVE: DR Horton, $417,625.
102 BELLE LAKEDRIVE: DR Horton, $347,125.
100 BELLE LAKEDRIVE: DR Horton, $394,500.
each month, as they have for decades.(The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Realty Income.)
While most dividend-paying stocks pay their shareholders quarterly,Realty Income (NYSE: O) is oneofthe relativelyfew that pay each month. As areal estate investmenttrust, to be exempt from corporate income taxes,itmustreturnatleast 90% of its income to shareholders as dividends.Realty Income has paid adividend for 670 consecutive months and has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Its dividend yieldwas recently ahefty5.2%.
Realty Income’s dividend is highly reliable because its business generates steadycash flow It owns more than 15,500 propertiesacross all 50 U.S. states, the U.K. and eight other European countries. Itsnearly1,800 tenantsspan 92 industries; roughly 91%of its base rentcomes from tenants operating nondiscretionary,discount or service-oriented retail businesses.
Thecompany’s total occupancy rate is arobust 98.9%. It has consistently maintained a rate of at least 96.6% since 2000, aperiod that included the Great Recession andthe COVID-19 pandemic’searly years. And its historical median occupancy rate of 98.3% is well above the industry historical median of 94.4%.
Realty Income’sgrowth prospectsare encouraging —especially in Europe. That makes it likely thatits juicy andgrowing dividends will continue to flow
Fool’sSchool: Rethinking debt
It’seasy to think of debt as an undesirable thing. You(or acompany) borrow money for some purpose, such as buying acar (or buying another company),and then you areonthe hook for repaying that money along with interest on the loan.
It’struethat for us individuals being debt-free is great,and that high-interest-ratedebt,such as credit card debt, can lead to big financial problems.And when you’reresearchingstocks, generally the less debt each company holds,the better Still, debt isn’tnecessarily a deal-breaker in life —orinvesting. Withouttaking on debt in theform of amortgage or auto loan, mostpeople could never buy ahome or anice new car Debt can be necessary to pay for schooling, too.
Alltheseforms of debt can enhance our lives, as long as the terms andinterestrates are reasonable and the payments are manageable.
Similarly,it’snot always bad for companies to carry debt.The infusions of cashthat companies get when they take on debt can help them grow —oreven just survive.
Toomuch debt is risky, though, becauseacompany can end up in trouble if, at any point,it doesn’thave the cash to make thepayments. Even if it does, it will be spendingmoney that it might otherwisehave used in more productive ways
Beyond Blueprints.
Fewindustriesdependonsuchavastarray of raw materialsand high-techproducts, or have such complex business relationshipsamongsuppliers,designers, vendors, or contractorsasthe construction industry JonesWalker’sConstruction Team helpsclients from across theindustrymanage allofthese moving parts. We understand thecomplexdynamicsbetween —and theuniquepriorities of —industryparticipantsand craft solutions that minimizedisputes, managerisks,and help keep projects moving from conception to completion
Ourclients’projectsare equallydiverse andinclude major infrastructure,manufacturing facilities andplants, hospitals, marine facilities,and airports,aswellas the products andservicesnecessary to complete such facilities
Investors considering companies withdebtneedtoevaluate whether the debt is manageable and whether the moneyraised and invested is earning more than it costs. Forexample, imagine you’re worriedabout the debt load of Buzzy’sBroccoli Beer (ticker:BRRRP).
The notesinits annual report should detail the interest rates it’s being charged. If the effective interest rate on its debt is 4% and Buzzy’sisputting its borrowed money to work earning, say,8%, that’snot tooproblematic. But if Buzzy’sisgenerating $500 million in cash each year while owing$800 millionin annual interest payments, that’s worrisome.
Ask the Fool: Why
Walmartmoved
Iread that Walmart left theNew York Stock Exchangelastyear and is now listed and trading on theNasdaq stock market. Why? —T.P., LaCrosse, Wisconsin Thereare severalpossible reasons, suchascost, image and listing requirements.
The NYSE datesback to 1792, and many consideritmore prestigious. Companies listed on the NYSE include Berkshire Hathaway,ExxonMobil, Bank of America, Coca-Cola and Home Depot. The Nasdaqstarted in 1971 as acomputerized trading system, and it’snow home to gobs of fast-growing tech companies, among many others. Its listings include Apple,Microsoft, Amazon.com, Costco Wholesale and PepsiCo. Walmart’sreasoning seems tied to its image,asitexplained: “The move to Nasdaq underscores the strong alignment
between Walmart andNasdaq’s sharedvalues: atechnologyforward approach. and redefining their respective industries through innovation.”
My Dumbest Investment:
Bad blood
Ihavemanyregrettableinvestment decisions.For example, Ibought shares of Northfield Labs on news that it was near asynthetic blood substitute, which I thought wouldbeabig seller.I kept buying even as theprice declined, and eventually Irode it down to bankruptcy Then there wasBerkshire Hathaway— Warren Buffett’scompany. Ibought it in 1996, whenitannounced anew classof shares that weremore affordable. After one year withlittle movement, Isold my shares. Of course, they’ve appreciated immensely sincethen. —D.R., via email Northfield Laboratoriesspent more than20yearstrying to developaneffective blood substitute,one with alonger shelf life thanactualblood. The idea easily excitedinvestors, as the possibility of an unlimited artificial blood supply seemed like a great investment. But in suchsituations, it can be risky to invest before the productisapproved
ments, the
themand letthemgrowover time,through ups and downs, while you keep an eyeonthem. Do you have asmart or regrettable investment move to sharewithus? Emailitto tmfshare@fool.com.
Largecommercial construction projects often face disputes over delays, defectivework,cost overruns,and subcontractorfailures. ForLouisiana projectowners, resolvingtheseconflictsisalegal obligation andbusiness strategy.Early planning, contracts, andclaimscan turn setbacks into recovery opportunities, protecting investments andstrengthening delivery
Effective preparationevaluates projectriskand contract structure,sincedeliverymethods and pricingshaperesponsibility.Indemnification provisions,schedules,and liquidated damages provideleverage, whilealigned litigationstrategy andearly insurerinvolvementsupport business objectives.Documenting issues, preserving evidence,meeting bond requirements,and presenting supportedclaimsenhancecredibility resolvedisputes, andsafeguard projectsuccess.
Jones Walker is proudtohelpleadthe wayfor Louisiana’s construction industry as it navigatesa complexlegal environment.
SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
French Quarter skate shop has built a global reputation
BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer
In a narrow storefront nestled between Jackson Square and the French Market sits the oldest operational skateboarding shop in Louisiana.
It’s a distinction that might go unnoticed among those unfamiliar with skateboarding, a sport with a cultlike following that emerged in the 1960s and has grown into a $3.5 billion global market with more than nine million U.S. skaters, a corporate sponsorship ecosystem and permanent status at the Olympic Games.
But for devotees, Humidity Skate Shop is something of an institution, one whose reputation has spread over three decades through the international yet tight-knit skateboarding community to draw customers from far beyond Louisiana’s borders.
Owner Phil Santosuosso began working at the shop, then under its previous ownership, shortly after Hurricane Katrina. He was 20 at the time and an avid skateboarder who wanted to be around the sport as much as he could, so he gave up his day job at a Honda dealership.
Four years later, with the help of a loan secured by a lien against his mother’s house, he bought the shop and started working ‘round the clock, seven days a week. At the end of two years living on couches, paying himself just enough to eat and motivated by the fear of failure, Santosuosso paid off the lien.
While he remembers that time as nerve-wracking, he was fully immersed in the culture, living, breathing and bleeding skateboarding and still is.
“I’m a skateboarder, not a business owner That’s how I live,” he said. “Without this, I’d still be skating. That’s been my approach the whole time, so I don’t get burnt out.”
‘No big price jump’
There are a couple of keys to sustainability in the skate shop business, which is niche, rare and
increasingly challenging in an era of e-commerce and premium rents.
Humidity runs on a staff of two full-time and two part-time employees. Santosuosso supplements his own income through sponsorships from Australian skateboard brands Butter Goods and Cash
Only who pay him to wear and represent their products while riding. It’s an arrangement that allows him to draw a smaller salary from the shop and keep more money in the business.
Humidity has also teamed up with international brands on limited-release products, helping to drive sales and cement the shop’s reputation as a skateboarding trendsetter Collaborations have included Spitfire wheels, boards from Baker Skateboards, work with artists David Harouni and Sal Barbier, a Nike sneaker and a Vans all-weather skating shoe.
Santosuosso also credits the shop’s survival to its longtime landlord, who he said has prioritized leasing the block at reasonable rates to small independent retail-
ers over chain perfume shops and T-shirt outlets.
The shop carries the shoes, shirts and hats worn by skaters, including niche streetwear brands only available at a few stores in the U.S But the core of Humidity’s business is sales of skateboards and their components which comprise more than half its revenue of less than $1 million a year
Santosuosso said his store won’t carry any products that he and his staff wouldn’t skate on themselves. Plus, top-tier skateboarding equipment is available at a far more attainable price point than other sports.
“We sell the same exact thing the dude that won the Olympics rides, and that could be $180,” Santosuosso said. “That’s what I love about skating. If somebody really, really wants to skate, you can figure it out. There’s no big price jump.”
Déjà vu
The biggest competitive pressure on Humidity doesn’t come from other shops, Santosuosso said It
comes from the brands themselves.
And it’s more of an issue with shoes than the store’s boutique clothing selection.
“Something like Adidas, sometimes we get the shoe and they already have it on sale on their website,” he said. “That’s the hardest thing.”
An even bigger threat, of late, has been the ongoing road work in the French Quarter that has decimated sales at nearby businesses over the past year
“This is our second time dealing with this,” Santosuosso said. “We didn’t have a street for two years already once.”
And it’s not just the decline in foot traffic that’s costing Humidity
Last week, the shop’s air conditioner broke down, a failure its owner attributed to dust kicked up by the digging at the corner
Doubling down on Dumaine
Still, Humidity recently doubled both its square-footage and its rent, expanding into an adjacent unit in the building. Santosuosso dubbed it “the Annex” and plans to keep it as a white box and use it for temporary events like art shows, pop-up shops, video screenings or concerts.
“There’s so many creative people in skating,” he said. “Art and music
and everything, and I want to be able to celebrate that on a better level.”
He also hopes to construct a temporary skate ramp in the new space in conjunction with the X Games, which is set to hold its first-ever league championship event at the Caesars Superdome in July
Later this month, Humidity is partnering with New Balance and a prominent skateboard photographer for a series of events around National Go Skateboarding Day, including a demo and cookout at Parisite DIY Skatepark, where Santosuosso annually builds or donates a new element — this year, a picnic table from Los Angeles school yards made famous in influential skate videos of the mid-1990s. Santosuosso, who is also planning a benefit show to fund repairs of a community-built skate ramp in the 8th Ward, said giving back to the local skate community has always been his main focus.
“I did this because I genuinely love skating,” said Santosuosso. “Even to this day, we still skate every day and have art shows. If it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t do this. I can go stress out somewhere else and make a lot more money.”
Email Jonah Meadows at jonah. meadows@theadvocate.com.
Santosuosso bought Humidity Skate Shop on Dumaine Street in the French Quarter shortly after Hurricane Katrina.
STAFF PHOTOS By ENAN CHEDIAK
Humidity Skate Shop owner Phil Santosuosso has been able to keep the small, niche operation in the French Quarter running through sponsorships and international partnerships.
PRESSURE POINTS
Canhyperbarictherapy live up to the hype?Louisiana expertsweigh in.
BY IAN FAUL Contributingwriter
When Jessica Moroux’s4-yearold son experienced asevere concussionthat resulted in prolonged behavioralsymptoms,she tried everything to help him.
“He was really having difficulty with impulse control and irritability,” said Moroux,who works as a nurse in Lafayette. “He came to me and said, ‘Mama, Idon’twant to haveanger issues anymore.’
Her research led her to hyperbaric oxygen therapy,ageneral treatment that involves breathing highly concentrated oxygen in a pressurized chamber.Long used to treatpatients with nonhealing wounds by increasing vascular supplytositesoftissue damage, she thought perhaps it could help with the effects of her son’sinjury
Hisrecoveryafterundergoing HBOT,Moroux said, was “tremendous.”
She has since founded Acadiana Hyperbarics, one of agrowing number of clinics that provide offlabelHBOT for traumatic injury woundhealing andgeneral wellness.
HBOT can sometimes give hope to patients with chronic symptoms and few treatment options.But as clinicsproliferateand claims expand faster than thescience,
researchers say there is increased need to determine exactly where hyperbaric oxygen therapy truly works, and where enthusiasm may be outpacing evidence.
ä See HYPERBARIC, page 2X
An estimated 1in10 womenhaveendometriosis
Number maybe higher as condition hardtodiagnose
BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staffwriter
Endometriosis is an incurable condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of theuterus, leadingtosignificant pain and complicationsin-
cludinginfertility It is estimated that endometriosis affects 1in10U.S. womenofreproductiveage.
Kao
Dr.Elaine Kao, aNew Orleans obstetrician and gynecologist, thinks that estimate could be even larger based on undiagnosed and underreported cases —ashighas26%.
“I will say that it feels like more
people are becominginterested in women’s pain andmenstrual issues,” Kao said. “It’s great, becauseitwas always alittlebit taboo.”
Here aresix things to know about endometriosis:
It’s hard to diagnose
Stigmacan prevent manyof these symptoms from being flagged or indicationsoffurther diagnosis.
“Severe menstrual pain” has
been largelyaccepted as normal by Americans, Kaosaid. But that’s actually blocking some patients from being diagnosed.
“Patients have to advocate for themselves in their appointments,” she said.
It’s progressive
On average, it takesapproximately 10 years to accurately diagnose endometriosis. Two-thirds of women are misdiagnosed initially andnearly half of those eventually
diagnosed withthe disease see five or moreproviders before aanaccurate diagnosis. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine classifiesendometriosis into four stages, according to depthofscarring andhow far the disease has traveled from the uterus: minimal (Stage 1), mild (Stage 2), moderate (Stage 3) and severe (Stage 4).
Once endometriosis is severe,
See CONDITION, page 2X
PROVIDED PHOTO Jessica Moroux founded Acadiana Hyperbarics in Baton Rouge, which offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy to patients. She first became interested in hyperbaric treatments when her young son suffered a brain injury
HEALTH MAKER
BR nursing director helps staff cope with daily ER dramas
Open-door policy key, she says
BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer
Susan Green, a Slidell native, is an emergency room nurse in Baton Rouge. She started her career after high school graduation, when she saw a newspaper item that offered certified nursing assistant courses for $100 at the Baton Rouge Technical Institute
If a student completed the course and worked for six months, they got their $100 back. She leaped at the opportunity Thirty-two years later Green is a nursing director She has an open-door policy for the members of her team to come talk to her — about anything.
“They just sit in my office sometimes,” Green said. “They have their feet propped up on the desk. They will come in my office all day and talk.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Why did you choose the $100 nursing class?
I’d always wanted to do healthcare. Growing up, I was unfortunate to see quite a few of my family members pass away who were really sick. My grandmother my dad’s mom, she died of a brain aneurysm unexpectedly I was the last person to talk to her I was always liked helping people — do all the things.
I don’t like to be (in) the spotlight of things, but if you ever saw me at work, I’m a totally different person. If I go out into the public, I’m the quiet one. I sit in the corner, and I watch people.
CONDITION
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the scarred tissue can impact the bowels, appendix, diaphragm, heart, lungs and more. The progression of endometriosis is “highly unpredictable” and sometimes does not correlate with pain, according to a 2024 study published in the National Library of Medicine.
“We often see patients being diagnosed at an advanced stage,” Kao said.
Can occur outside pelvic organs
Although endometriosis is associated with an abnormal growth outside the uterus and around organs in the pelvis, it can happen throughout the body as well.
The excess tissue causes a lot of inflammation and pain. The “main” symptoms are painful periods, pain with sex, general pelvic pain in general, urinary and digestive issues, as well as subfertility (a term for when fertility is possible, but conception is taking longer than expected) and infertility
Right now the gold standard is getting that tissue diagnosis through surgery.
Beyond the symptoms
Having a chronic condition takes a toll on the body, but it can also be detrimental to the quality of life.
“Just like any chronic pain, anybody who lives in chronic pain, there’s a significant mental health burden,” Kao said.
No known cause or risk factors
Researchers still don’t know what causes it There are theories that include retrograde menstruation, when the menstrual blood goes out through the tubes, instead of through the cervix and into the pelvis.
Other theories point to genetics.
“Bottom line is we don’t know,” Kao said.
Medical, surgical treatments
Surgery to treat endometriosis is mostly done through laparoscopy, where doctors use a camera to take photos of the entire inside of the pelvis and use specialized tools to remove the endometriosis lesions and restore the pelvic anatomy
There are treatments available other than surgery Hormonebased therapies, like contraception, can control symptoms of endometriosis, but don’t necessarily make the lesions go away, Kao said.
Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.
I like talking to patients and being able to read the room and assess where people are: Do they look anxious? Do they look angry?
Do they look distressed? How do you approach them?
I’ve learned something new every day I always try to focus on that. Every day, when I walk out of the clinic, I reflect on what I learned Maybe sometimes I reflect too much. My role has transitioned over the years. Now, I don’t so much do patient care. I still go out and do things because I want to keep my
HYPERBARIC
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Diving medicine to brain therapy
HBOT involves breathing 100% oxygen in a pressurized chamber, typically at pressures greater than sea-level atmospheric pressure. This allows oxygen to dissolve more efficiently into blood plasma and tissues.
Physicians have long suspected that a high-oxygen, high-pressure environment has potential clinical uses.
The first reported hyperbaric chambers date back to the 17th century HBOT became more widely accepted after World War II when it was used to treat naval divers for decompression sickness, commonly called “the bends.”
The Food and Drug Administration has since cleared HBOT for about a dozen other conditions, including severe burns, chronic nonhealing wounds carbon monoxide poisoning, air embolisms, radiation injuries and gas gangrene.
In the past few decades, some physicians and private clinics have argued for expanding the number of approved conditions for HBOT, including chronic conditions of the brain.
Among the field’s most outspoken advocates is Dr Paul Harch, a hyperbaric medicine practitioner in Metairie and former director of the hyperbaric medicine unit at University Medical Center Harch said his patients since 1989 have included some 180 children injured in near-drownings, as well as children injured during birth and children with developmental delays, cognitive problems, autism and cerebral palsy
“Just a wide range of different injury conditions to the brain,” Harch said.
In adults, he has treated strokes, traumatic brain injury, migraines, cognitive decline and dementia.
Some studies have suggested HBOT’s benefits, including those affecting the nervous system arise from increased blood-vessel growth, immunological activation and tissue regeneration.
Harch believes the same mechanisms underlying HBOT’s success in expediting the healing of external wounds also operate within the brain.
“Internal conditions are similarly wounding conditions, like a stroke, a heart attack, traumatic brain injury And the second there is any tissue damage, you have inflammation associated with it to try to repair tissue,” he said.
“It turns out hyperbaric oxygen, through very basic mechanisms, is reparative for wounding or tissue injury and for inflammation.”
skills up and stay in the game. But also, I want to always be there to support our team.
I like to watch our staff grow and learn. While I don’t treat patients, I feel like I’ve gravitated to teaching the staff, helping them grow and how we can get them to the next level.
How do you unwind after a shift in the emergency room?
I have two kids. My oldest daughter lives in New Orleans (and works) as an attorney My youngest daughter is in Chattanooga finishing her pediat-
ric residency in June. She’s married and has a 5-month-old baby I’m a grandma. My husband’s also in healthcare, he actually spends a lot of time in North Carolina, back and forth. Some days I’m home alone. We live on a lake. In the afternoons, I like to get home and sit on the patio and detox for a minute, just listening to the sounds of nature. You do have to take time to step away and separate yourself from the job. When we have critical patients, it is important that our
Still, much of the basic research on the therapeutic mechanisms of hyperbaric conditions remains to be validated.
Dr Omar Aljitawi, a physicianscientist at the University of Rochester Medical Center who studies the effects of hyperbaric oxygen on transplanted stem cells, said he is optimistic about the therapy’s effectiveness, especially in conditions related to the immune system. But he urges further research to bolster some practitioners’ claims.
“We need studies to examine this really thoroughly the number of treatments, duration of the treatments, the interval of the treatments and the underlying mechanism of how it might be working,” Aljitawi said.
Hyperbarics, wellness boom
The field’s major professional medical group has stated that there is no evidence showing that hyperbaric conditions are effective in treating neurological injury, after three studies found the reported benefits of HBOT could have resulted from a placebo effect.
Harch counters that designing a true placebo control for HBOT is inherently difficult because even modest pressure changes may produce physiological effects.
He also says the debate is shaped partly by economics and medical reimbursement systems, and that less expensive ways of using lower-pressure chambers made of plastic may disrupt the current system.
One HBOT session in a lower-pressure chamber can cost around $200 to $300, about half the price of a hard-shell chamber treatment Multiweek sessions can exceed $10,000.
Moroux sees research funding as a big obstacle to making HBOT more available. “The gold standard, double-
staff takes the time to stop and talk about the situation. Some people want to go sit in their car and cry Some people want to surround themselves with others. Some people just need a few moments of silence by themselves. I just need my own thoughts and head space for a hot minute, and then I’ll be OK.
You can carry so much with you if you don’t take a beat. It’s because you do have to leave your personal life at the door when you come in here, and it’s the same sentiment when you leave. You have to leave this here when you walk out the door
Tell me about leading your nursing team through COVID-19 six years ago.What did you learn?
We learned a lot about our teamwork and how to really support each other
We had a tent outside at one point, and then we added a trailer, and then we expanded space. We commandeered some additional space in the hospital as well. It was a lot.
At one point we had a no-visitor policy They couldn’t have family and, as nurses, we were charged with being there for them while they were here. We were their people.
Now, all of our doors have small, vertical windows on them. We did that during COVID. That was our way of seeing into the rooms, to see the patients and our peers — almost like cheerleading outside the door
We were never closer than we were during that time.
Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.
biomarker associated with aging.
While promising, the results do not yet merit the conclusion that HBOT can help you live longer As Efrati recently told The New York Times, some studies were performed in cell cultures — not humans — and those that were done with humans were carried out under strict conditions in hospital-grade chambers.
“People look at milder (hyperbaric) conditions as if they’re taking a supplement or doing a cold plunge. They don’t look at it as a treatment, per se,” Aljitawi said. “I don’t see a lot of downside to it, but I don’t know the upside.” Hope, hype, questions
blind placebo control study across the board is expensive, and a lot of these studies are funded by pharmaceutical companies,” she said.
“With hyperbarics, there really isn’t that funding because there’s not the chance of patenting a medication or making a lot of money.”
Despite skepticism from some physicians, HBOT has found enthusiastic support in another arena: the booming wellness and longevity industry
Endorsements from some celebrities have helped, including athletes LeBron James, Novak Djokovic and Michael Phelps, and tech entrepreneur “biohackers” like Bryan Johnson and Gary Brecka.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr has also voiced his support for hyperbaric medicine research.
Wellness community members often refer to several studies from a research group led by Dr Shai Efrati, of the Shamir Medical Center in Israel, who has previously found that hyperbaric oxygen can improve cognitive function, increase skin collagen and increase telomere length — a
When administered by a licensed medical professional in an FDA-approved steel chamber, HBOT may be effective in accelerating external wound healing or combating acute gas poisoning, among other conditions. When administered outside the hospital in plastic chambers and in short durations however, HBOT has not been conclusively shown to have robust benefits — nor does it seem to have significant negative side effects.
Louisiana hospitals with hyperbaric medicine units include University Medical Center, Touro Infirmary, East Jefferson General Hospital, Our Lady of the Lake, Our Lady of Lourdes, Natchitoches Regional Health Center, Northern Louisiana Health Center and multiple Ochsner Health centers across the state.
While certified nonphysicians may legally provide HBOT, their doing so may be more dangerous. Risks of incorrect monitoring include ear trauma, air embolism and seizure.
HBOT is generally not advised for those with inner ear infections and some lung diseases, such as severe COPD.
But Moroux said she frames the decision to try hyperbarics this way: “If there’s not side effects and there’s a whole slew of other benefits they could get, why not?”
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state.This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and re-examining tried and true methods on ways to live well.
Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana.
Do you have a health story?
We want to hear from you. Email margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more.
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Susan Green stands inside a room at Ochsner Health Center — O’Neal.
PROVIDED PHOTO
Dr Paul Karch, a hyperbaric medicine practitioner in the New Orleans area, is the former director of hyperbaric medicine at University Medical Center
LA.CONSISTENTLyAMONG STATES WITH HIGHESTSICKLECELLRATES
In 2023, 1,430 people withsickle cell disease were hospitalized in Louisiana—25% were between 20 and 29 years old.
Sicklecelldiseaseisa chronic condition that causes intense pain throughout thebody, often leading patients to multiple hospitalizations in their lifetime.
Louisiana consistentlyranks among states with thehighestsickle cell disease prevalence per capita with about 70 babiesdiagnosed eachyear
Newdata collected by the Louisiana DepartmentofHealth, the Louisiana Sickle Cell Disease Registry, aims to provide the state with an understanding about the people living in Louisiana with sickle cell disease. It is tracking the number of hospitalizations per parish for patients withsickle cell disease.
These parishes hadthe most hospitalizations in 2023 in Louisiana: n OrleansParish with 208; n East Baton RougeParish with 205; n Caddo Parish with 179; n Jefferson Parish with 116; n Lafayette Parish with 67; n Rapides Parish with 59; n Ouachita Parish with 56; n Calcasieu Parish with 47; n and Bossier and St. Landryparishes with 35
These parishes had zero reported hospitalizations due to sickle cell disease in 2023:Cameron,West Carroll and Winn.
Total people hospitalized by parish mayexceed thetotal number of people with sickle cellasanindividual maybehospitalized morethan once, and living in adifferent parish at thetime
In time, the registryhopes to have comprehensivepopulation estimates and illustrate long-termtrends in diagnosis, treatmentand healthcare access for individuals living with sickle cell disease.
Study: Taking adaily multivitamin
aging by about four months on average. Biological aging refers to howold the body is in terms of health and function rather than the number of years aperson has lived. Previous studies on the use of multivitamins and health have given mixed results, with one large
study in 2024 showing no benefit when it comes to preventing early death and others showing theymay have someeffect. In the latest trial, published in Nature Medicine,experts concluded that multivitamins may lead to “healthier,higher-quality” aging.
Dr.Howard Sesso, associate director of thedivisionofpreventive medicine at theMassGeneral Brigham DepartmentofMedicine in the U.S., and lead author,said: “There is alot of interesttoday in identifying ways to not just live longer, but to live better
“It was exciting to seebenefits of amultivitamin linked with markers of biological aging.
“This study opens the door to learning more aboutaccessible safeinterventionsthatcontribute to healthier,higher-qualityaging.” However,other expertscast doubt on the findings.
The study looked at biological aging based on tiny changes to DNA Specificsites in DNA that regulate gene expression (known as DNA methylation)were examined as markersofaging. As the years go by,methylation
patternsshift,forming the basis for what scientists term “epigenetic clocks.” The blood samples of 958 randomly selected healthy peoplewith an average chronological age of 70 were examined for DNA methylation. Experts looked for changes in five epigenetic clocksatthe start of thetrial and at the end of the first and second years. They found that, compared with people taking dummy drugs, those in themultivitamin group hadslowing in all five epigenetic clocks.
The changes equated to about four months less biological aging over the course of two years. Further studies are now being carried out to see if the effects are long-lasting.
“A lot of people take amultivitamin without necessarily knowing anybenefits from taking it, so the morewecan learn about its potential health benefits, the better,” Sesso said.
The study received agrant from Mars Edge, asegment of Mars, whichincluded the donation of multivitamins forthe study
Since launching its esports initiative in 2019, Southern University in Baton Rougehas steadily expandedits competitivepresence
The university fields multiple teams that compete against other colleges and universities nationwide in the EasternCollege Athletic Conference
PROVIDED PHOTOS
‘From hobbytocareerpath’:Southern trains gamers foropportunities in esports
BYERYKA W. JACKSON
Contributing writer
At Southern University,gaming is no longer justa pastime for students interested in playingsports online.
Through aprogram called EDGE —Esports and Digital Gaming Ecosystem —the university is preparingstudents for careersingamedevelopment, production, broadcasting, content creation and emerging technologies. These fields are rapidly expanding alongside the growth of the gaming industry in the country At the same time, the program addresses apersistent representation gap. While African Americans make up approximately 12% of video game players in the United States, they account for only4%to5%ofthe gaming andtech workforce, based on industry analyses anddiversity reports from organizations like the International GameDevelopers Association.
“For too long, our community has beenthe cool factor that drives gaming culture, yet we rarely ownthe platforms or write thecode,” said Christopher Turner,directorofgaming and esports innovation at Southern. “I wantmystudents to feel theshift from being consumers to being innovators.
Turner said the program at Southern is astrategic engine for academic innovation, student recruitment and institutional growth —and it positions the
Coach Christopher Turner says the EDGE program at Southern University is astrategic engine for academic innovation, student recruitment and institutional growth.
universityasarising force in esports (a categoryofcompetitive video gaming) and digital media. He calls academicintegration the department’s“secret sauce.” “Anecosystem requires afoundation that touches every part of student life,” he said. “That’s how youmovefromhobby to career path.”
Since launching its esports initiative in 2019,Southernhas steadily expanded its competitive presence. The university fields multiple teamsthat compete against other colleges and universities nationwide in the Eastern CollegeAthletic Conference, astructuredcollegiate esports league, similar to regular sports leagues. Each team’s performance is tracked through match results, standings and
tournamentprogression.
In April, Southernbecamethe first historically Black college and university to compete in and winthe Eastern College Athletic Conference’sEASportsCollege Football Division II National Championship.
Afriendrecentlyreturned from avacation to Swedenand shared photos from histrip,mentioninga wordI hadn’theard before: fika. Something about the wayhe used the wordonhis social media post pulled me in. The word sounded like something Iwould appreciate.
Loosely translated, afika is a Swedish coffee break. Idon’tdrink coffee. I’ve never been to Sweden, but Iwas right about appreciating the wordand what it represents.
Idecided to contact my friend Erika Sunnegardh. She’saSwede, an international opera soprano whomade her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2006 —and my go-to source forall things Swedish. Imessaged her and learned she wasonaboat off the coast of Portugal. Even so, she took the time to send me avoice message with her take on fika. She said it’sbeen around for several hundred years, but the word itself took hold around 1910. Cleverly,the wordcame about by someone rearranging the letters of the Swedish word forcoffee, kaffi. She said that it started as something women did, gathering over coffee to meet and talk. She used the word “lighthearted” to describe its origins. Eventually,fika becameapart of everyday Swedish life. She emphasized that fika is about much morethan coffee. Logistically,sweettreats are mandatory.They call them fika bread —cinnamon rolls, cardamom buns, pastry or the like. However,cookies are also apart of fika. She shared adetail that struck me as deeply Swedish. “Tradition has it you should treat seven different kinds of cookies,” she said. “Noless, because then you’re stingy,and no more, because then you’re showing off. Seven is the magic number.”
Coby Robinson, asophomore from CrystalSprings, Mississippi, helpedsecure thatlegacy as akey member of the roster that defeated Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky Robinson, who has been gaming since he was 4years old, was a dual-enrolled highschool student when he originally joined Coach Turner.Robinson says the win turned a“lifelong hobby into history.”
“It’s abig accomplishment to be anational champion,”Robinson said. “I hope younger gamers learn to chase their dreams, stay humble,and keep grinding.Always put thework in.”
Southern’sesports league is supportedbyvarsity rosters, club-levelplayers and even a K-12 pipeline that begins at the Southern University Laboratory School.Atthe Lab School, students areintroduced to competitive gaming alongsidefoundational skills in digital literacy, teamwork and content creation The goal is to cultivate early
According to the Visit Sweden website, there are seven specific types of cookies that are the most traditional fika cookies: Brussels cookies, chocolate slices, dream cookies (a type of meringue cookie that melts in the mouth), raspberry caves, oat biscuits, nut biscuits and chessboards (twotone shortbread cookies). Sunnegardh told me that morning and afternoon fika are apart of daily lifeinSwedish workplaces. Work stops. Everybody leaves their desk. Someone may stay to cover the office phones, but fika happens, lasting 10 or 15 minutes —never morethan 20. People bring their own treats and their personal phones are down. Teaispermitted forthe noncoffee drinkers.
“Itsimply is what it is,” Erika told me from her boat. “Itcan’tbe degraded or weirded out by any digital thing. Ihave never heard of anyone skipping fika just because the world has changed.” Irecognized fika from the start. Not from Sweden, but from
ASK THE EXPERTS
Environmentalist helps communities manage water
BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer
Lafayette native Stacey Scarce
is a community infrastructure management specialist for Communities Unlimited, which connects rural Americans to solutions that sustain healthy businesses, communities and lives She is one of four management specialists in Louisiana and helps town leaders with water systems.
Scarce began her career at Acadiana Park Nature Station in 1998 as a naturalist and later advanced to manager During her tenure, she revitalized the environmental education program and expanded offerings for participants of all ages. She also founded the Acadiana Master Naturalist Program and was recognized with the Professional Conservationist of the Year Award by the Louisiana Wildlife Federation. Scarce then became executive director of Our Neighbors Farm & Pantry in Arizona in 2018, where she oversaw farm operations, educational initiatives, a food pantry and a bunkhouse facility Since joining Communities Unlimited in 2022, she has worked closely with rural communities and water and wastewater systems in areas experiencing persistent poverty, providing technical assistance and community development support.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
What does working with a small town look like for you?
We’re funded in part by the United States Department of Agriculture, in part by the Environmental Protection Agency and in part by private foundations.
Q&A
WITH
STACEy SCARCE
COMMUNITy INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST
What was the problem with the water system in Melville?
On a daily basis, I might get a referral from the USDA or the EPA to go work with a system that needs help with writing their water budget or turning in their budget because they have a loan or a grant with the USDA I’ll teach them how to do that, or I’ll do rate studies because their rates are too low and can’t sustain the system. A lot of what I’ve been doing is compliance reviews for the USDA. It takes a while to get the towns in compliance. We’re talking very rural Louisiana, where water systems are out in the middle of nowhere, and they serve outside of cities. The people that they hire are really intelligent people, but they don’t have the experience, so that’s where I come in. I help them with all sorts of things so they can be successful. That’s all we want. For example, I teach them a
lot about how to work on Excel.
I wrote up a 20-page instruction manual that will make their lives just a little bit easier
I’m also a sounding board for some of the things that towns are going through and some of the frustrations that they have.
What are some other things about your job that you find fulfilling?
I think the most fulfilling thing is to see the clerks, the operators and the mayors have success, especially after a long-fought effort.
An example is in Melville, Louisiana. I worked with them for about three years to complete their compliance for a water loan from a previous administration. The new mayor and the new clerk worked so hard for three years. About a month or two ago, they were granted the money because they are now in compliance.
Southern University’s innovation labs function as collaborative hubs for hands-on training, content production and interdisciplinary experimentation in gaming and digital media
GAME
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interest that can transition into collegiate opportunities through EDGE.
The university’s innovation labs reinforce this effort by functioning as collaborative hubs for hands-on training, content production and interdisciplinary experimentation in gaming and digital media.
“People see a headline and think we just started, but Southern University esports has been a force since 2019,” Turner said. “We’ve been building this brick-by-brick for years.” Looking ahead
Competition wins have brought national recognition, but Turner’s goals extend to making esports essential to the university’s approach to the future of interactive tech.
“When I look at our roster I’m
not just looking for the next toptier controller player,” Turner said. “I’m looking at the future of an industry that, frankly, hasn’t always looked back at them.”
His philosophy — “exposure is the equalizer” guides both the academic and competitive sides of the department.
Turner sees opportunity for expansion in the way Southern University is structured, with five campuses across the state, including ones in New Orleans and Shreveport. It is the only HBCU system in the country, and that structure is the foundation of everything the esports department is building
“Most people look at a university as a single campus, but I saw a network,” Turner said. “If we could build the blueprint here, we could export it across the entire system, creating a massive, interconnected web of talent.”
In addition to expanding esports innovation labs across Southern’s system, Turner hopes to reach other milestones, such as plans to
launch the full EDGE curriculum by 2029, with the goal of producing “day one-ready” graduates for the gaming industry
That effort will be helped by an upcoming $70 million STEM complex, expected to open in 2027, which will support esports research, artificial intelligence studies and global gaming summits.
Competitively Turner aims for Southern to secure top-10 national rankings across its varsity titles and maintain a consistent presence in major collegiate esports conferences.
“We aren’t just playing games,” Turner said. “We’re building a system, a pathway and a future.”
This story was reported and written by a student with the support of the nonprofit Louisiana Collegiate News Collaborative, an LSU-led coalition of eight universities funded by the Henry Luce and John D. and Catherine T MacArthur foundations.
Melville has a system, but there was a lot of theft on the system because before, when they had put in some new service lines, they didn’t shut off the old service lines. People were stealing water like crazy They had no meters, so everything was a flat rate. It didn’t matter how much you’re using because you’re all paying the same. That’s not fair especially for people that are low-income or on a fixed income. What they’re going to do now is they are going to add new service lines and cut off all the old ones. Every person will have to tap into a meter, so their water loss is probably going to be tremendously reduced.
Everybody will pay for the water that they use, so that is a huge boost to the town’s economy
How complex is it for these rural communities to have compliant water systems?
People take water for granted. They think that it just shows up at their house. Water needs to be cleaned to be sure that it doesn’t have any bacteria like E. coli in it or if there’s a lot of manganese, it will be treated.
If you have a private well, you can have all sorts of things in that private well, and you don’t even know it unless you test it. Water systems are testing every single day, so they are giving you the best possible water that you can get. Towns have to stay in compliance with whoever the grantor or the loan agent is and with the Department of Health. That’s why every day, they’re testing the water
Small communities often can’t afford to pay an operator, so several communities share an operator
A lot of these little communities have an agreement that if they ever need water for their community, they have a tie-in where they can use water from the next community or the next water system.
It’s hard in a small community because you don’t want to overcharge for water You want to be fair, but you have to charge enough to keep it sustainable. How does this job with rural communities and water tie into your passion for environmentalism?
The environmental part is the water part and making sure people have clean water I explain how important it is to have clean water, and to pay the rates, whatever they may be, to have clean water to drink and not worry about it.
That’s my environmental correlation, but it’s always about community with me. So, even though it’s not about birding and plants and animals, it’s about water What have you learned in three years that you were surprised to find out? I honestly did not give water that much of a thought before this, which is why I think it’s helping me to better understand everyone else. I wasn’t thinking about how hard it was to clean water and how much went into it. I never thought about that, but now I do.
Email Joy Holden at joy holden@theadvocate.com.
Lemon and chocolate Hubig’s Pies, cut open to show their fillings, make a decadent coffee break snack, just as cookies are a part of fika. Swedish coffee breaks are customarily paired with Brussels cookies, chocolate slices, dream cookies (a type of meringue cookie that melts in the mouth), raspberry caves, oat biscuits, nut biscuits or chessboards (twotone shortbread cookies).
RISHER
Continued from page 1y
Mississippi. My parents’ home was fika central. Throughout the day — almost any day usually mid-morning or mid-afternoon, people knocked on the door and were welcomed in. My mother would put on coffee. Somehow, there was almost always cake.
People sat down and visited, and the day went wherever it went. Now that I think about it, they usually stopped by in the mornings around 10 and in the afternoons around 2, which coincides nicely with the Swedish tradition. My parents led productive, even busy lives, but I never remember Mom not sitting to visit when guests arrived — and my dad too when he was home. They didn’t call it fika, of
course. They didn’t call it anything. It was just how things were.
Things stayed that way for my parents until my dad died and my mother moved away from our family home to be closer to my youngest brother
The tradition was not passed to the next generation. Dropping by unannounced is unheard of now We rarely sit and visit without an agenda. We schedule coffee weeks out.
I do like calling it fika.
Names change things. What was an interruption becomes a ritual. What felt like lost time becomes the point. If fika is the word that gets people to put their phones down and sit with each other — really sit, with something sweet nearby and no particular reason to leave — then I am for it.
My mother never needed a word for it. She just opened the door
PROVIDED PHOTO
Stacey Scarce, from left, works with Melville’s assistant town clerk Shakita Brown and Khadiejah Williams, the town clerk.
STAFF PHOTO By IAN MCNULTy
PROVIDED PHOTO
THERE’S GOOD NEWS,TOO
These are stories of global progress, compiledbythe media group Fix the News and shared in partnership with The Advocate/The Times-Picayune.
DECLINE IN LEAD EXPOSURE
Astudyfrom the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that current concentrations of leadinhairfrom individuals living along the Wasatch Front in Utah averagealmost 100 times lower than before the establishmentof the Environmental Protection Agency Researchers examined archived human hair samples from that population to evaluate changes in lead exposure over the past century. Hair samples from the Salt Lake City region population from 1916 to 1969 showedespecially high contaminations, likely caused by gasoline, industrial emissions and lead-based paint. Levels steadily declined after the EPAwas created in 1970 and regulations beganphasing out lead in fuel and consumer products. By the 2020s, average concentrations had dropped to below1ppm, compared with peaks near 100 ppm in earlier decades.
RIVERRECONNECTED
American Rivers —which advocates for local, state and federal protection for the nation’shealthiest waterways —reported in March that 2025 marked arecord-breaking year for dam removals in the United States. Over 100 outdated dams were removed across 30 states.The effort reconnected morethan 4,893miles of river,“the most upstream milesever reconnected in asingle year in the U.S. through dam removal.”
Manyofthe country’sdams are no longergenerating power, supplying water or serving apractical purpose. Instead, the organization says that the dams threaten public safety, accelerate flooding risks, block
More than 4,893 miles of river reconnected
Arock damisseen across the MRGO near the Breton Sound Marina.American Rivers —which advocatesfor local, state and federalprotection forthe nation’s healthiest waterways —reported in March that 2025 marked arecord-breaking year for dam removals in theUnited States.
fish migration and more. Removing them restores river health, allowing native fish andwildlife to return. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Vermont led the nation in removals. American Rivers’hopes to see 30,000dams removedby2050.
HEARTTRANSPLANTS
ResearchersatVanderbilt University Medical Center have developed anew heartpreservationmethod called REUP —rapid recovery with extended ultraoxygenated preservation— that safely recovers heartsfor hearttransplantation.The technique wasrecentlypublished in theJournal of the AmericanMedical Association. It usesoxygenatedblood and a specializedsolution“as a flush for
more than 10 to 12 minuteswith anewly recovered donor heart.”If successful, the method maylower costs, reduce ethical concerns and broaden the pool of available organs “ThestudyshowedREUP resulted in good outcomespreservinghearts foruptoeight hours, includingin older donors and without concern forgeographical limitations to get these hearts, broadening the pool of available organs to people waiting fora lifesaving hearttransplant,” Vanderbilt Health News reported in February.
MILKYWAY
Scientists are studying microscopic crystals to better understand how the solar system formed 4.6billion
years ago,accordingto Quanta Magazine.These crystals, called “presolar grains” are found inside meteorites.
For decades, researchers believed that anearbysupernova triggered the collapse of agiant dustcloud that became the sun andplanets. That theorywas supported by detailed astrophysicalmodels and furthermeasurements of enriched magnesium-26 in pristine meteorites However, newmeasurements show that the solarsystem hasaniron deficiency
“Therefore, if asupernova launched the formationofthe solar system, ‘weshould see quitehigh initial [iron-60] abundances in theearlyformed objects, wrote LinruFang, acosmochemist at the Universityof
Copenhagen, in an email.
Agrowing alternative theory suggests that the winds of aWolf-Rayetstar couldhavedelivered the aluminum-26 in our solar system. Researchers are nowstudying the meteorite to see if there are grains with the right chemical composition to have come froma WolfRayetstar.Their findings could reshape scientists’ understanding of thesolar system’sorigins and the conditions that made life on Earth possible.
Fix theNewsisthe world’s leading solutions journalism newsletter.The organization finds hiddenstories of progress and shares them withreaders from 195 countries. Steven Pinker calls Fix the News “the bestsource forpositivenewson theinternet.”
STEAM
HarryHurst’s Advanced STEAMLab PreparesStudentsfor Real WorldCareers
At HarryHurst Middle School,students aregaininghands-on experience in engineering, broadcasting,journalism, and technology throughthe school’sAdvanced STEAMLab.Theydesignprojects likecircuitboards and mechanicaldeviceswhilealsoproducing news broadcasts,podcasts,videos,and theschool newspaper
Principal Sean Dwyercredits thelab’ssuccess to communitysupport, includingfunding from Shell. “Whatour students do is amazing,” Dwyersaid. “Shell askedhow it could help,encouraged us to think bigger when we answered, and that support transformed ourSTEAMclassroomintoaninnovative Advanced STEAMLab.”
Throughthese uniquelearningopportunities, studentsare discoveringnew passions and preparing forfuturesuccess.Shell’sinvestment is helping open doorsfor thenextgenerationofengineers, creators,and innovators
“I see studentsproblem solvingand accepting taskstheynever thought they could do.Theyare growingasleadersand taking riskslikespeaking in frontofthe entire school or interviewing our principal.”
LINDSAY MAXIE STEAMCoordinator HarryHurst Middle School
STAFFPHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
STEAM LAB
ADVA NCED
Pen pal programs still exist in a digital world
Reporter visits pen pal of 40 years
BY HOLLY RAMER Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. — In 1985, a 13-yearold girl in New Zealand spotted a pair of purple, lip-shaped sunglasses in “Young Miss” magazine. In March, I traveled 9,000 miles from New Hampshire to deliver them to her, finally fulfilling my pen pal’s decades-old request.
International Youth Service, the agency that matched us up 40 years ago, has long since folded, but other pen pal programs have survived — or even began during — the internet age. And even though New Zealand’s postal system has reduced home delivery days, Denmark has stopped delivering letters altogether and Canada is moving in that direction, some see signs of a letter-writing resurgence.
“The hunger is there,” said Rachel Syme, a writer for The New Yorker magazine who created a pen pal program during the COVID-19 pandemic and later published a book encouraging others to take up handwritten correspondence.
More than 15,000 people signed up for Syme’s Penpalooza project in 2020, and she still gets hundreds of takers when she coordinates a new round of matchmaking every few months. She also gets requests for pen pals at book signings for “Syme’s Letter Writer – A Guide to Modern Correspondence,” and the stationery stores she frequents in New York City are always crowded with customers
“People are very interested in physical, analog things right now,” she said. “I think it really has an appeal especially to a younger generation who grew up with a phone glued to their hand, to do something that’s more tactile, slower, more intentional, more mindful, but also just disconnected from the internet in every way.”
‘Yours (hopefully)’
I was still 10 years away from connecting to the internet when I opened my first aerogramme from New Zealand, a sheet of pale blue paper that served as both writing surface and envelope adorned with a 45-cent stamp That missive ended with a formal “Yours (hopefully) Molly Nunns,” but within a year, she was signing off with “Lots and lots of love” or “Your friend forever.”
In letter after letter, Molly drew little hearts on the tails of y’s in both of our first names, asked for updates on my middle school crushes and shared stories about her classmates and family I could clearly picture her life, though it was hard in snowy New Hampshire to imagine celebrating Christmas during the summer
“I am thinking of you heaps and I wonder what you are doing because you’re a SUPER pen friend and I hope that we never stop writing to each other and that one day we will get to meet each other,” she wrote in early 1986.
Julie Delbridge, 65, fostered similar friendships after joining International Pen Friends as a teenager in 1979. Writing to pen pals in more than a dozen countries from her home in Australia was such a positive experience that she began working for the organization as an adult and took over as its president in 2001.
While she loved sharing photos, postcards and treats with her pen friends, it also was a therapeutic experience at a time when her parents were going through a bitter divorce.
“It was a pastime that I totally immersed myself into in a positive way and gained a lot of enjoyment from,” she said. “There was an abundance of non-judgmental friendship, fun and different perspectives.”
Over its 59-year history, IPF has provided pen pals to more than 2 million people ages 8 to 80+, she said. Membership peaked in the late 1990s but surged again during the pandemic, and this year, there’s been an increase in people ages 21-26 joining.
Pen pals in the classroom
In 2021, the U.S Postal Service sent cards and envelopes to 25,000 elementary school classrooms for a pen pal project, but older students also are putting pen to paper
In Texas, a group of medical students created an anonymous pen pal program to promote peer support and personal reflection.
At Villanova University professor Kamran Javadizadeh requires students to send letters to each
other as part of a literature class called “Letters, Texts, Twitter” that examines different forms of epistolary communication in literature.
“I make them put pieces of paper in envelopes and take them to the post office and send them to each other even though they could just as easily hand it to the person in class,” he said. “Something is lost when you have instantaneous communication. So I’m interested in the relationship between synchronous kinds of intimacy and asynchronous forms of intimacy.”
Gordon Alley-Young, dean of communications at New York’s Kingsborough Community College, believes letters are like vinyl records they’re coming back into fashion as young people explore a tangible medium from
the past. He has both studied the history of letter writing and used it to teach students empathy In an interpersonal communication class, he noticed that students analyzing case studies about relationship problems offered matterof-fact, almost insensitive diagnoses. But when he re-wrote the case studies in the form of letters from friends and had students respond in kind, they began sharing their own feelings and offering more open-ended advice.
“We really want students to connect to what they’re looking at,” he said “And letter writing encourages that.”
Pen pals in the digital age
An app called Slowly seeks to combine modern technology with the old-fashioned anticipation inherent to the pen pal relationship. Users send messages digitally but delivery is delayed from an hour to several days to mimic snail mail.
“This delay naturally encourages longer, more thoughtful messages because you wouldn’t just say ‘hi’ if you know you have to wait days for a reply,” said co-founder JoJo Chan.
Since 2017, the app has gained 10 million users in more than 160 countries, most in their 20s and 30s. One user said he was curious about pen pals after hearing about them from his grandparents, Chan said.
“Slowly offers a convenient way and a modern way for them to try that experience,” she said.
Syme, however, is all about the tangible aspects of letter writing. Her book includes advice on paper and pens plus all kinds of goodies that can be tucked into envelopes.
“There is joy to be had once you fully embrace the medium’s outdated extravagance,” she writes. But letter writing, she said in an interview, is like a swimming pool, both shiny and deep. The frippery and embellishments don’t matter in comparison to what you actually put on the page.
“That’s where I think it can get very real, very quickly,” she said. A special connection
Molly and I had been writing for 15 years by the time we met in person, spending a day together in New York when she toured the U.S. in May 2000. We crossed paths in London a few years later, and in 2018, she and her family visited New Hampshire.
“Who would have thought when we started writing in 1985 that one day you’d be sitting here? It’s quite amazing,” she said during my recent visit. “We’ll always have a special connection, I’m sure.” In addition to the sunglasses, I also gave Molly a bound book of 200 pages of her letters that I scanned and printed. At age 13, I never could have imagined that someday I’d have searchable PDFs of our teenage scribblings that could be summarized in 10 seconds by artificial intelligence. But what amazes me more is the depth of the connection I felt during our tearful airport goodbye.
We will for sure meet again. Until then, lots and lots of love, Holly
Cambodians honor spirits to pray for rain, good fortune
Villagers celebrate with a colorful ceremony
BY SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press
PHUM BOEUNG, Cambodia In May, hundreds of Cambodians honored their village’s guardian spirits by holding a colorful centuries-old ceremony to pray for good fortune, rain and prosperity.
The
“He Neak Ta” ritual has been celebrated annually for several hundred years by the villagers in Phum Boeung, about 15 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh. The ceremony, which has become increasingly rare in modern times, coincides with the onset of the summer monsoon as farmers prepare for planting rice, a particularly water-intensive crop. Although most Cambodians are Buddhist, the ritual reflects a widespread faith in animism, the belief that spirits can inhabit all types of living and inanimate objects.
Chamrouen Ratha, a 26-year-old blacksmith, said he was taking the day off from work to join other villagers in honoring the same spirits celebrated by his ances-
tors.
“The significance of this ceremony is to pray for happiness and prosperity for all the villagers in this area and the participants who have joined this ceremony,” he said.
Villagers of all ages congregate about 1.2 miles from the local monastery dedicated to their guardian spirit. Young village men paint scenes inspired by local folklore on their faces and bodies, dress as spirits and don grass skirts. A few wear painted oversized heads atop their costumes.
Many young women wear traditional silk clothing, with gold-colored necklaces and flowers tucked behind their ears. Some dance elegantly to the beat of handheld drums and small gongs. The ragtag procession, including some participants traveling on motorbikes and even on horseback, slowly makes its way to the guardian spirit’s shrine. There, villagers light incense sticks and offer various types of fruit, food, soft drinks and alcohol while praying for good fortune, adequate rain, prosperity and the prevention of disease within their community.
The half-day ceremony concludes with the spraying of holy water on the cheerful participants.
Pov Neak Mao, 64, who brought two horses with him, said he has attended the ceremony since he was young.
“This celebration is to ensure that the traditions of our ancestors are not lost, which they have tried to preserve and we continue to do so every year,” he said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By HENG SINITH
man representing
ghost rides on a horse during a ceremony to invoke rain amid the rice planting season in Pring Ka-ek village, northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on May 21.
PROVIDED PHOTOS
This photo provided by Martin Murray shows longtime pen pals Molly Nunns, left, and Holly Ramer during a walk in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 7.
Some of the hundreds of letters Ramer has received from her pen pal
SUNDAY, JUNe 7, 2026
CURTIS / by Ray Billingsley
SLYLOCK FOX / by Bob Weber Jr
GET FUZZY / by Darby Conley
HAGAR THE HORRIBLE / by Chris Browne
MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM / by Mike Peters
ZIGGY / by Tom Wilson
ZITS / by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman
SALLY FORTH / by Francesco Marciuliano & Jim Keefe
PEARLS BEFORE SWINE /byStephan Pastis
directions: Make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row Add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value All the words are in the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 5th Edition.
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 — oPPortune: op-orTOON: Suitable or convenient for a particular occurrence.
Average mark 49 words
Time limit 60 minutes
Can you find 60 or more words in OPPORTUNE?
ken ken
instructions: 1 -Each rowand each column must contain thenumbers 1through4 (easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlinedboxes, called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (inany order)toproduce the target numbersinthe top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fillinthe single-boxcages withthe numberinthe top-left corner
instructions: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to placethe numbers 1to 9in theempty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficultylevel of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday
directions: Complete thegridso that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally
Sudoku
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
By ricky J sirois
wuzzLes
Weekly bridge quiz answers
Today’s deal was played some years ago in the Buffet Cup. This was a competition between players from the USA against players from Europe, designed to imitate the great Ryder Cup in golf It was much ballyhooed in the beginning, but the interest didn’t last. South was French star Michel Bessis Bessis was regretting his decision to respond on such a light hand, but the sight of dummy gave him hope. He had to play it very well.
super Quiz
Take this Super Quiz to a Ph.D. Score 1 point for each correct answer on the Freshman Level, 2 points on the graduate Level and
LEVEL
What was signed on Aug. 2, 1776?
Which U.S. president was assassinated on Nov 22, 1963?
Bessis won the opening trump lead with dummy’s ace and led a diamond to his 10 and West’s queen. He won the trump continuation in hand and led the 10 of hearts. This was covered by the jack from West, the ace from dummy, and ruffed by East. East shifted to the queen of clubs to dummy’s ace. Bessis cashed the king of clubs, discarding a diamond, and ruffed a club. He ruffed a diamond in dummy, another club in his hand, and another diamond in dummy In this three-card ending, with
only hearts in the North, South, and West hands, Bessis led a low heart to his eight. West won with the nine but had to lead a heart from his queen and Bessis made his contract. Very nicely done!
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Take a moment to sort through mixed emotions and how to deal with any unexpected changes that pop up. Use your memory, experience and charm to zigzag your way through any difficulties you face.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Trust your gut feeling, not what someone else tells you or wants you to believe. Misinformation is apparent, leaving you in charge of what you do next. Learn from mistakes.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Plant your feet firmly on the ground and repeat your mantra until your brain adapts permanently You have plenty to
gain if you are adamant and innovative.Keepthemomentumflowing. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Listen,anddo what you must to get what you want. Speakingoutforthoselessfortunate will lead to interesting connections that offer strength, courage and motivationtomakeyourcommunity a better place. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Whether you lower your overhead or increase your earning potential, hard work, inspiration and originality will carry you forward and help you outperform any competition you encounter
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Whether you are trying to gain physical strength or mental agility your quest will come to pass if you compete with yourself instead of trying to outmaneuver someone else.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Spend time at home, and avoid dealing with emotionally manipulative people. A change of heart will help you sort through what’s important to you and what you can discard CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You can turn a negative into a positive with an energy push to reconstruct how you use your skills to make your life manageable. A heart-to-heart chat
Which war began on July 28, 1914? Answer________ 4. Who was the prime minister of England during World War II? Answer________ 5. What ship sank on April 15, 1912? Answer________
GRADUATE LEVEL 6. What was signed on Sept. 17, 1787? Answer________ 7. Which U.S.
will lead to a better relationship.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Don’t labor overwhatyoucannotchange.Thinking ahead will motivate you to make a long-overdue move that changes your quality of life and turns your negativity into something new and refreshing.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) You aren’t alone, but you do have to be selective when choosing who to believe or hang out with Get out and do things that interest you. It’s time to connect with people who share your interests.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Being emotional about decisions will set you
back. Keep your personal information to yourself. Someone will take advantage of you if given the opportunity Focus on getting ahead financially
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Clean up a mess or unfinished business. Step outside your comfort zone and do what’s necessary to ease stress and togetbackoncourse.Personalsatisfaction will come from self-love.
1. The Declaration of Independence. 2. President John F. Kennedy.3.World WarI 4. Winston Churchill. 5. RMSTitanic. 6.The U.S Constitution. 7. President James A. Garfield. 8. Korean War. 9. Franklin D. Roosevelt.10. RMS Lusitania. 11.The MagnaCarta. 12.President William McKinley.13. American Civil War. 14.Joseph Stalin.15. HMS Hood.
SCORING: 24 to 30 points —congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points—honorsgraduate; 13 to 17 points —you’replenty smart, but no grind; 5to12points —you really shouldhit the booksharder;1point to 4points —enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0points who reads thequestions to you?
They fight not for the lustofconquest.They fight to end conquest.Theyfight to liberate.— President Franklin D. Roosevelt,announcing D-Day invasion
Crossword Answers
jeFF mACnelly’sshoe/ by Gary Brookins &Susie MacNelly
