The Acadiana Advocate 06-23-2026 by The Advocate

Recovery begins after Avoyelles flooding

Residents can report damage through state website

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

At 91 years old, former Moreauville Fire

Chief Robert Lemoine was one of dozens of volunteers ranging from children to adults at the Moreauville Volunteer Fire Department, distributing cleaning supplies and recovery kits to neighbors after Tropical Storm Arthur ﬂooded areas of Avoyelles Parish. Lemoine, who’s been involved with the department for 65 years, said the response reﬂected the close-knit nature of his small community that lies just south of La. 1 as residents are helping each other recover.

After Tropical Storm Arthur moved through Louisiana, the National Weather Service reported major ﬂooding across Avoyelles Parish, with more than 195 homes affected. That number includes Moreauville, where more than 100 homes were reported ﬂooded.

Twenty to 30 inches of rain fell in Avoyelles last Thursday from about 4 a.m. to 4 p.m., mainly in the nearby town of Cottonport and the village of Plaucheville

both in the southern part of the parish, according to Jonathan Brazzell with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles A rain gauge between the two communities recorded 29.06 inches, he said.

Teachers union opposes Landry cuts for stipends

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

Louisiana educators overwhelmingly want to receive pay stipends, but they oppose Gov Jeff Landry’s plan to bankroll the pay boost by cutting public school funding, according to the results of a statewide teachers union survey released Monday Nearly 70% of survey respondents said they support giving teachers and certain

Audit: Regulator benefited off state contracts

Former official accused of helping associates secure deals to manage orphan wells

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer

A former state regulator helped longtime associates obtain a lucrative state orphan well contract through a series of “shell” corporations that allowed them to “run it how we see ﬁt, no questions asked” and avoid scrutiny if the “Commissioner or anyone goes looking,” according to emails obtained in an investigative audit. Johnny Adams, the former assistant commissioner in the Office of Conservation, later received a $780,000, below-market loan from those corporations to buy a Baton Rouge home, auditors said. And two of his children got jobs from the associates in a possible violation of state law, according to the report.

Robert Lemoine, the 91-yearold recently retired Moreauville fire chief, helps unload supplies Monday.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Ofﬁce has been investigating the Louisiana Oilﬁeld Restoration Association and its associated companies since at least October 2024. The contract was part of the state’s effort to address “orphan wells,” which are abandoned oil wells that are potentially dangerous without costly procedures to cap them.

The company shut down last year amid scrutiny over alleged “self-dealing” and excessive management fees On Monday, the auditor released a 72-page report that includes emails between Adams and four people involved with LORA. Reached Monday afternoon, Attorney General Liz Murrill whose ofﬁce previously opened a civil case against LORA — said in a statement that “we will be further reviewing the case for criminal charges that may be appropriate as well.”

In Moreauville, the ﬂooding was like nothing anyone had ever experienced. Sandra Lemoine, an 18-year resident of ä See RECOVERY, page 4A

Landry

school support staff one-time stipends again this year, according to the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the state’s largest teachers union. If the state fails to fund the stipends, educators who have received the bonuses the past three years instead of

ä See STIPENDS, page 3A

In response to the auditor’s ﬁndings, Adams’ attorney, Steve Moore, said the report contained “misstated facts” that he believes are “unfounded, misleading or completely inaccurate conclusions.”

LORA’s attorney, J. Eric Lockridge,

ä See AUDIT, page 4A

UL shutters Picard, Marine training center

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

Two centers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette the Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning and the Marine Survival Training Center — have been shut down. The closures occurred last week, according to senior communications specialist Eric Maron. While UL has faced a ﬁnancial deficit resulting in cuts, Maron said closing the centers is part of an “organizational re-

structuring effort.”

“These decisions were not made because of the university’s ﬁnancial position,” he said. “The changes were part of an overarching effort to better align research programs with the University’s academic mission, address programmatic alignment and streamline operations.”

Two primary research programs at the Picard center, Maron said, and seven researchers supporting those programs, have been moved

ä See UL, page 4A

STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK Eighth graders participate in the School Garden Initiative Training Day in 2016 at the Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning in Lafayette.

STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Relief workers unload supplies from National Guard trucks Monday at the Moreauville Volunteer Fire Department a drop-off and pick-up location for flood relief supplies, in Moreauville after Tropical Storm Arthur flooded areas of Avoyelles Parish.

Federal judge blocks effort to subpoena Walz

A federal judge has blocked an attempt by the Trump administration to subpoena Minnesota Gov Tim Walz and other state ofﬁcials, accusing the Justice Department of using its investigatory powers to retaliate against state ofﬁcials for not cooperating with federal efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

In a ruling unsealed Monday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz found the “dominant purpose” of the subpoenas was to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”

Tensions between the Trump administration and Minnesota’s Democratic leaders escalated in January as federal immigration ofﬁcers clashed with protesters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, especially after officers’ fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

President Donald Trump even threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests and accused Walz, who was Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024, and others of encouraging protesters to disrupt Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity

The subpoenas seeking records were served in January as part of an investigation into whether Walz and other officials obstructed or impeded law enforcement actions. They were sent to the ofﬁces of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and ofﬁcials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.

High court reinstates conviction in Patz case

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz.

The justices, by a 6-3 vote granted an appeal from New York prosecutors who had urged them to undo a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict. The three liberal justices dissented.

Prosecutors had been preparing to try the man, Pedro Hernandez, for a third time. His ﬁrst trial ended in a mistrial.

The unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Hernandez’s murder and kidnapping conviction in the second trial because of how the judge had answered a question from jurors Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had called the basis for overturning the conviction “a slender reed” that essentially ignored a ﬁve-month-long trial with 66 witnesses.

The justices agreed, in an unsigned opinion, that federal courts should not second-guess state courts under a 1996 federal law that was intended to reduce federal court oversight of state criminal trials.

Trump-endorsed hopeful leads Colombia vote

BOGOTA, Colombia Conservative political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella held a narrow lead Monday with almost all votes counted in Colombia’s polarized presidential runoff, as the ruling party’s progressive candidate vowed to challenge the results. De la Espriella, a business owner and lawyer who earned President Donald Trump’s endorsement despite never having run for ofﬁce, led with 49.7% of the votes over lawmaker Iván Cepeda, with 99.9% of results released by electoral authorities Cepeda, ally of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, had 48.7%.

Election ofﬁcials have not formally announced a winner A victory by de la Espriella is expected to usher in policies that will reverse Petro’s agenda, including a contentious plan to hold parallel peace negotiations with illegal armed groups. Cepeda, Petro’s protégé, had pledged to push forward that strategy and other social reforms if he won Sunday’s vote.

The election was colored by people’s fears of renewed internal conﬂict.

talks at the Bürgenstock Resort in Obbüergen, near Lucerne, Switzerland

Vance: Iran talks set foundation for deal

VP, officials claim progress toward peace agreement

BY AAMER MADHANI, JAMEY KEATEN, SEUNG MIN KIM and JOSH BOAK Associated Press

OBBÜERGEN, Switzerland Vice President JD Vance on Monday said his lengthy talks with senior Iranian officials in Switzerland created a “good foundation for a successful final deal” as they seek a permanent end to the war that the U.S and Israel began in late February Vance and U.S officials claimed progress on multiple fronts, including the establishment of “mechanisms” to ensure the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy shipments, stays open and to address fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, where a ceasefire appeared to be holding.

The vice president departed Switzerland as technical teams were still negotiating, and President Donald Trump talked up the efforts to keep the strait open to create “an oil gusher.”

“We’re doing very well with respect to the Hormuz Strait,” Trump said from the Oval Ofﬁce “We have an open strait, and we have a country that will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran effectively closed the strait after the U.S. and Israel attacked on Feb. 28, causing fuel prices to skyrocket far beyond the region. The interim agreement to end the war was supposed to reopen the channel. Dozens of ships passed through it over the weekend, even though the main route is still mined and closed.

Shortly after those attacks, Hezbollah and Israel also went to war with Hezbollah ﬁring rockets and drones at civilian communities in northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.

Iran has insisted that addressing the ﬁghting in Lebanon is a critical component of any deal to end the wider conﬂict

Iran noted “major progress” to end the ﬁghting in Lebanon and called that the ﬁrst real test of the negotiations.

In other developments, the U.S Treasury issued a 60-day license waiving sanctions on Iranian oil as part of the interim agreement. Notably the license allows Iranian oil to be imported into the

U.S., which has not imported signiﬁcant amounts of Iranian oil since the 1990s.

Also on Monday, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would travel this week to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain to discuss the latest developments in Iran.

The mediation effort in Switzerland started Sunday and stretched into early Monday

“We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people,” Vance told reporters after initial talks with Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.

Trump did not attend what was dubbed the “Lake Lucerne Summit,” but his presence certainly loomed large The talks were jolted by statements from Trump, who, from thousands of miles away, ﬁred off comments that offended the Iranians. Iranian state media said talks had paused after the “publication of an insulting message by the U.S. President.” The negotiations later continued.

The vice president suggested that the U.S. could agree to unfreeze Iranian assets for purchases of U.S. soy, corn and wheat. He said Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and one of the lead U.S. negotiators, came up with the idea with ofﬁcials from Qatar

Vance said Qatar would have approval over the process, and Iranian money that would be accessible as sanctions were lifted would buy American products “for the beneﬁt of the Iranian people.”

Iran, which has pressed for the unfreezing of billions of dollars in assets, has not commented on the idea. The assets have been frozen over years of sanctions, banking restrictions and legal disputes imposed by the U.S and international community.

In a joint statement, mediators Pakistan and Qatar hailed what they called “encouraging progress.”

The interim deal to end the ﬁghting in Iran, signed last week by the leaders of the U.S. and Iran, sets a 60-day period for negotiations on key issues, including the future of Tehran’s nuclear program amid concerns that Iran wants to use it for military purposes, a claim the country denies. Vance said the technical talks, which were to continue this week, were critical. U.S. envoys Kushner and Steve Witkoff are handling many of the technical details.

Judge blocks use of federal database to check citizenship

Court says use could wrongly purge voters

BY ALI SWENSON and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON A federal judge on Monday ruled that a recently revamped version of a federal tool central to the Trump administration’s election integrity strategy is unlawful and can no longer be used.

U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups that argued the recent upgrades to the program, called Systematic Alien Veriﬁcation for Entitlements, or SAVE, aggregated Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls.

“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan said in an order explaining the decision. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.” She said Congress had expressly prohibited the government from centralizing Americans’ personal identifying information and that the federal agencies that created the SAVE program “knew that the database violates those statutory protections.”

The decision is a major legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to use federal agencies to encourage a nationwide crackdown on noncitizens illegally on state voter rolls. The modified SAVE system, which critics had referred to as an unlawful centralized federal database of voter information, had been a key pillar of the second election executive order the Republican president signed earlier this year The ruling leaves its future uncertain.

“It’s amazing how hard the Left will ﬁght to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” James Percival, general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, said of the ruling in a social media post.

The department referred to his post as its comment on the ruling. The Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment.

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government beneﬁts from going to noncitizens. At least 25 states used it to check their voter rolls since April 2025, after the Trump administration signiﬁcantly expanded its search abilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls

Starmer says he’ll resign as U.K. prime minister

BY JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

LONDON British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday he will resign, forced out by his own party after missteps and mistakes soured voters’ goodwill following a landslide election victory two years ago on a promise of steady leadership and economic growth.

Starmer says he will remain caretaker prime minister until his Labour Party chooses a new leader — with expectations growing that it will be former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Burnham confirmed on social media that “I will put myself forward as part of this process.” Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who was considered his main rival for the top job, said he will back Burnham. It was Burnham’s victory in a special parliamentary election last week that triggered Starmer’s decision to resign, as Labour lawmakers ﬂocked to the charismatic former mayor in the hope he can revive the party’s fortunes. After nearly a decade as mayor of the northwestern city, Burnham returned Monday to Parliament, where he took the oath of ofﬁce in the House of Commons. Only members of Parliament are eligible for the party leadership

Streeting’s statement makes it more likely that Burnham will be selected without a leadership contest.

Burnham was cheered loudly by lawmakers and heckled by one, who shouted “He’s not the Messiah!” as he was sworn in, before posing for selﬁes and a group photo with dozens of Labour MPs in another part of Parliament. Britain’s next election does not have to be held until 2029 Asked if he would call an early vote if he becomes prime minister Burnham said: “You’re jumping several hurdles ahead there.” Starmer is the sixth prime

minister in a decade to stand outside No. 10 Downing St., and announce a departure His statement came the day before Britain marks the 10th anniversary of its vote to leave the European Union, a decision that still roils the country’s economy and politics.

After weeks of insisting he would fight to keep his job, Starmer conceded to growing pressure to hand over to a new leader who can try and revive the government’s flagging fortunes. He led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024, but since then his popularity and that of the party have plummeted. Starmer made the announcement outside his official residence, where he delivered his first speech as prime minister two years ago. His voice choked with emotion near the end of the brief statement, which was watched by his staff, Cabinet ministers and scores of journalists.

“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election,” Starmer said. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.” He said he spoke to King Charles III, Britain’s constitutional monarch, to inform him of the decision.

Starmer said nominations for a leadership contest will open July 9, and the new leader will be in place by the time Parliament returns from its summer break on Sept. 1.

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REUTERS PHOTO By NATHAN HOWARD

Vice President JD Vance speaks to members of the media Monday after the U.S and Iran held

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces his resignation to the media on Monday outside 10 Downing St. in London.

Ex-Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan dies at 100

BY PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP economics writers

WASHINGTON Alan Greenspan, the jazz-playing U.S. Federal Reserve chair who was celebrated for engineering a decade of prosperity but later shared the blame for a devastating financial crisis, died Monday He was 100.

Greenspan died from complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his wife of 29 years, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

“To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very ﬁrst date in 1984,” Mitchell wrote. “He had ‘irrational exuberance’ for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf, and music, especially jazz. He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner was the joy of my life.”

The Fed said Greenspan helped to cement trust in the Fed during a time of economic uncertainty.

“Under his leadership, the Federal Reserve achieved a sustained era of price stability that supported economic growth and helped anchor the public’s conﬁdence in the institution,” the central bank said in a statement Monday ‘Maestro’ — then crisis hit

In 181/2 years at the Fed, Greenspan presided over a breathtaking surge in stock prices and a 10-year economic boom that started in March 1991. He was celebrated as “Maestro” and “Oracle” — an economic virtuoso whose every utterance was dissected for clues on where interest rates and the economy were headed

The intense scrutiny of Greenspan’s intentions gave birth to new Fed folklore: the “Briefcase Indicator.” A stuffed briefcase carried into Fed meetings implied changes might be afoot because Greenspan carried with him charts and research to make his point. But his reputation began to suffer almost as soon as he left the Fed in 2006. American housing prices tumbled rapidly causing huge losses for banks that had repackaged mortgage loans into a dizzying array of complex securities. The growing financial crisis pushed the U.S. economy into the Great Recession of 2007-2009 — the deepest downturn since the 1930s.

Critics blamed the devastation on Greenspan’s easy money policies and his support for deregulated ﬁnancial markets. Greenspan himself later acknowledged “I made a mistake” in assuming that banks could essentially regulate themselves.

STIPENDS

Continued from page 1A

raises could potentially face a pay cut. But nearly two-thirds of respondents also oppose an executive order by Landry that seeks to pay for the $2,000 stipends for teachers and $1,000 for eligible support staff by cutting state education funding by $168 million. School system leaders have warned that the cut could force schools to eliminate some programs or staff positions, though Landry has argued that school systems have enough extra money to weather the reduction.

“This is not a simple yes or no from educators,” union President Larry Carter Jr said in a statement. “They are saying: Protect our pay, but do not cut school funding to do it.”

On Friday, a Baton Rouge judge temporarily blocked Landry’s order after several education advocates sued, arguing that the governor exceeded his legal authority by effectively reallocating education funding, which is controlled by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Legislature.

Lawmakers have until Tuesday to vote remotely on the funding cut, which needs the approval of two-thirds

expansion that ran from June 2009 through February 2020.) During Greenspan’s tenure at the Fed, the nation’s unemployment rate briefly dropped below 4% for the ﬁrst time since 1970.

And inflation, which had bedeviled the United States and much of the global economy during the 1970s, was remarkably dormant during Greenspan’s chairmanship, something many economists thought impossible for so long a period.

Authority on U.S economy

For almost two decades, it seemed that Greenspan could do no wrong. Not only in the United States but across the world, he was regarded with a mixture of reverence and awe. Many openly dreaded the day when he would leave the Fed Investors hung on his sometimes inscrutable observations. In the most wellknown such remark, Greenspan sent financial markets reeling on Dec. 5, 1996, when he suggested with just two words “irrational exuberance” — that stock prices were too high. Mindful of his power to move markets, Greenspan typically resorted to obfuscation. At times, he even joked about his habit of doing so. “I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant,” Greenspan once told a befuddled congressional committee.

Greenspan was one of the few Fed chairs that Kevin Warsh, chosen by Trump to lead the Fed, praised at his swearing-in last month. Warsh has said one of his goals is to dial back the Fed’s communications, particularly the guidance it gives ﬁnancial markets, an approach closer to Greenspan’s than to Warsh’s immediate predecessors as chair Yet for all his circumspect comments, Greenspan did make the Fed more transparent. He was the ﬁrst chair to issue a statement explaining the Fed’s interest-rate decisions. Before Greenspan, investors had to divine the Fed’s intentions from market changes. Greenspan also began to release minutes and even full transcripts of meetings, though those changes were in response to pressure from Congress.

A protégé is born Born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, the young

of the Legislature to take effect. However, the judge’s temporary restraining order has put the voting process in limbo.

The survey results come after statewide associations representing superintendents, school boards and principals have all come out against Landry’s June 2 executive order Now that the largest teachers union also is opposing the plan, that could put pressure on some lawmakers to abstain or vote against it.

“Legislators should listen carefully to what educators are saying,” Carter said.

“They do not deserve a pay cut. But cutting school funding is not the answer.”

‘Bottom of the list’

There is wide agreement that Louisiana’s public school teachers are underpaid. The state ranks 49th for average teacher pay, which was $56,785 last school year, according to a recent analysis by the National Education Association, a national teachers union.

Landry has sought to boost educators’ pay without raising taxes. But state voters last month rejected the initial plan he championed, which called for liquidating three education trust funds to ﬁnance permanent teacher raises. Landry responded by ordering a roughly 5% cut in state education funding

Greenspan was a math whiz who was trotted out by his mother to show off for visitors.

“I was a prop at parties,” he said in a 2007 interview with PBS NewsHour A Julliard School dropout, he worked as a professional musician in his teens, playing clarinet and saxophone alongside the future jazz great Stan Getz. It was a humbling experience that persuaded the young Greenspan to seek another line of work.

He pursued undergraduate and graduate study in economics at New York University, eventually earning a doctorate there. For most of three decades, he ran an economic consulting firm. During the 1950s, he became a disciple of the libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand, who stuck him with the nickname the “Undertaker” for his dark clothes and quiet bearing. When Greenspan was sworn in as President Gerald Ford’s chief economic adviser in 1974, Rand stood beside him.

An early trial President Ronald Reagan tapped Greenspan to run the Fed in 1987. He was tested almost immediately. On Oct. 19, 1987, which came to be known as “Black Monday,” the stock market suffered the worst one-day percentage loss in American history just two months into his term. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 22.6% for reasons that remain opaque to this day Greenspan was credited for helping restore stability He assured Wall Street that the Fed would supply as much money to the ﬁnancial system as was needed to restore calm. Stocks recovered, and the American economy emerged unscathed by the market crash.

During his tenure at the Fed, Greenspan drew praise for presiding over what was at the time the longest economic expansion in American history (It was later surpassed by a 128-month

to pay for another round of stipends.

Jenny Guidry, a specialeducation teacher in Acadia Parish, said she and her colleagues desperately need a raise. She earned about $53,000 last school year — not much more than when she started teaching over 20 years ago, she said, and certainly not enough to keep up with the soaring cost of living.

“I’m not sure how to make ends meet anymore,” she said.

Yet as much as she cannot afford to see her paycheck shrink, she questioned why the state must slash school budgets to give teachers the modest stipends this year

“They can ﬁnd money for everything else without blinking,” she said. “But when it comes to teachers, we’re always at the bottom of the list.”

Rep. Charles Owen, RRosepine, said that after voters in May rejected the ballot measure to pay for permanent teacher raises, there wasn’t time to find money for the stipends in the state budget before the legislative session ended June 1.

While it was a “tough vote,” Owen said he cast his ballot in favor of Landry’s plan to pay for the stipends by reducing education funding.

“This is what we could do,” he said, adding that educators earned the extra pay “I voted with the teachers.”

while working as an adviser to President Gerald Ford.

According to a biography of Greenspan, “The Man Who Knew” by Sebastian Mallaby when Ford read a newspaper item about the pair, he cut it out and sent it to his chief of staff, Dick Cheney, with a note that said, “I don’t believe it.”

Faith is challenged

During the long boom, Greenspan argued that improvements in technology had made the economy so efficient that it could run faster and at lower rates of unemployment, without unleashing inﬂation. As a consequence, the theory went, the Fed could keep interest rates low even when the economy was roaring.

The economy soared in the late 1990s, expanding by 4% or more for four straight years, and Greenspan was credited with holding off on rate hikes and allowing the boom to run.

Warsh has said that AI could reproduce the 1990s experience of high growth with low inflation, though economists are skeptical it will play out the same way Passion for numbers, life

As Fed chair, Greenspan relished poring over obscure economic data, from monthly boxcar loadings to steel production, all in a bid to assess where the economy was going. He would often phone economists at other government agencies to discuss details. He would rise early each morning for a two-hour soak in his bathtub, time that he used to review statistics and Fed staff memos.

Improbably Greenspan also made the gossip pages as an unlikely ladies’ man. He dated the television journalist Barbara Walters and later married Mitchell after a 12-year courtship. They had no children.

Greenspan dated Walters

All along, Greenspan held fast to the belief that ﬁnancial markets could largely regulate themselves. With officials from President Bill Clinton’s White House he helped block efforts by Brooksley Born, the nation’s top commodities regulator, to bring federal oversight in the late 1990s to the shadowy market in over-the-counter derivatives. The derivatives allowed speculators to make bets on everything from the price of oil to high-risk mortgages.

Eventually, history would vindicate Born, not the Maestro.

The low interest rates

Greenspan had engineered helped swell housing prices into a dangerous bubble. And the financial deregulation he supported allowed banks and other financial firms to pile up huge risks, often hidden from government supervision. Bad derivatives bets helped sink insurance giant American International Group, which required a $180 billion taxpayer bailout. Vaunted investment firms Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers failed and U.S. financial markets nearly collapsed.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was assigned to investigate the debacle by Congress, concluded:

“More than 30 years of deregulation and reliance on self-regulation by ﬁnancial institutions, championed by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and others had stripped away key safeguards, which could have helped avoid catastrophe.”

Life after the Fed

In the years after stepping down as Fed chairman in 2006 just shy of his 80th birthday Greenspan kept busy doing what he loved to do most — following the economic data. He ran his own consulting firm, Greenspan Associates, through which he dispensed advice to Wall Street clients and collected handsome speaking fees. He kept up a busy schedule well into his 90s, writing his memoir and two other books on the economy, as well as opining on the latest economic developments on television news shows. He also signed onto opinion articles and statements defending the Federal Reserve’s political independence from President Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks. In January 2026 he signed a statement criticizing the Trump administration’s investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The statement, which was also signed by two other former Fed chairs and five former Treasury secretaries, called the investigation “an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine” the Fed’s independence and warned it would have “highly negative consequences for inflation.” In his 2013 book “The Map and the Territory,” Greenspan defended himself against critics who assigned him significant blame for the 2008 financial meltdown. He argued that traditional economic forecasting was no match for the irrational risk-taking that can feed catastrophic price bubbles.

“Bubbles go up very slowly as euphoria builds,” Greenspan said in a 2013 interview with The Associated Press. “Then fear hits, and it comes down very sharply When I started to look at that, I was sort of intellectually shocked.”

AP economics writers Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By BARRy THUMMA

President Ronald Reagan, right, congratulates Alan Greenspan after he was sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve Board at the White House on Aug. 11, 1987.

the area, said the waterarrived faster than she expected.

Although her home remained undamaged, she said she watched water rise and worried forher neighbor,anelderly woman living alone and has physical limitations and cannot clean out her ﬂooded home herself.

Lemoinesaid she delivered supplies to her and is now trying to connect her with volunteer groups to help her

“It was not predicted to be that amount at all,” she said. “Itlooks like the tropical storm hung up and just spun over Avoyelles Parish and dumped everything right here. It was scary because you’re watching it rise so quick.”

Jan Blankford, who haslived in the area for six years andlives not far from Lemoine,said alocal church she attends in nearbySimmesport was destroyed.

“The whole church is going to have to come down,” Blankford said. “It’sacomplete loss. It’s been there over 50 years.”

Blankford said the ﬂooding overwhelmed drainage systems, creating what she described asa “soup bowl effect” in some low-lying areas, where levees and elevated roads trapped rising water

Despite the devastation, residents, government officials and responders came together to help

AUDIT

Continued from page1A

said Monday that the report lacks important context, including that the company has complied with repayment since the state terminated the program. In astatement Monday,the Department of Conservation and Energy —formerly the Department of Energy and Natural Resources —saidit has already taken steps to reorganize under new leadership to prevent problematic third-party contracts like the one with LORA. The auditor“has been workingfor more than two years to fully understand what wentwrongwithin LORA and what went wrong within the agency prior to this administration,” said Dustin Davidson, the department secretary.“The lack of accountability and oversight thatthe LLA reported was frankly shocking.”

‘Probablybestkeptprivate’

In 2019, whileAdams was an attorney supervisor for the Office of Conservation, the agency enteredinto an agreement with LORA to provide financial security to oil well operators. The companies would give LORA money,and LORAwould take responsibility for “plugging” wells that were orphaned. Between 2021 and 2023, after LORA had beganto receive money for the program, it loaned nearly $2.4 million to two affiliated companies that then loaned more than $1 million to Adams and two of his family members, officials say “Because Mr.Adams and his daughter receivedapersonal benefit from the belowmarket-rate loans, Mr.Adams may have violatedstate law,” investigators said. The report says Adams who is married to East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council memberLaurieAdams not only assisted LORA owners VanMayhall III, Chad Lott and Jacob Dickinson in obtaining the state contract but also took part in structuringthe company andits related entities.

Mayhall said in astatement Monday afternoon

in the recovery Gov.Jeff Landry andhis wife, Sharon, visited the fire station Monday to helpdistributecleaningsupplies andannounce temporary housing and debris removal plans for affected communitiesas part of thestate’srecovery effort. Landry said thestate is focused on immediate recoveryneeds,including helping residents clean out flood-damaged homes and document lossesthat could qualify the parish for federal assistance. Residents should report anydam-

that LORA operated in “full compliance” with applicable laws and plugged morethan 120 orphan wells forthe state —all with private funds

Accordingtothe report, during the selection period, Adams sent emails from his personal account to the trio with Ofﬁce of Conservation documents attached, telling his associatesthe materials “would probablybebest kept private.” He also sent the trio questions in advanceoftheir interviewsfor theproject.

Investigators say Adams’ emails suggest he had a personal relationshipwith LORA’s ownerssince at least 2012 Adams’ attorney said the report lacks evidence showing that there was any relationship,outside of asingle email. Moorealso said it was inaccurate for the auditorto imply that Adams inﬂuenced the selection ofLORA to run the program.

Mayhall also said thereport lacked key context, “includingthe contractuallanguage that shows LORA actedatthe request of the state.”

He added that the company has cooperatedwith the auditor’sinvestigation,even though it didn’thave to “LORAvoluntarily cooperated with theLouisiana Legislative Auditor’sinvestigationasa gestureofgood faith and transparency even though, as aprivate company that never received or utilized any state or public funds, it wasunder no obligation to do so,” Mayhall said. ‘Might look suspicious’

In one email sent before LORA got the contract, Mayhall wrotethat “Johnny (Adams) and Ihave changed the organization’sstructure” to include threeseparate entities, according to the report

“It looks like this will be the best structure fortax purposes,liability reasons, etc.,” Mayhallwrote.“(LORA) will initiallybeowned by me,because Iwantthatto be reﬂected in the Articles andSecretary of Stateifthe Commissioner or anyone goeslooking.”

That email lays out the relationshipbetween LORA —whichMayhall said “will basically just be ashell with thereserves andthe liability”— and aseparate LLC

Continued from page1A

tothe College of Education andHuman Developmentto preservekey research and outreach activities.

The university assessed the Marine training center, which opened in 1989, and found that the center’soperating costs consistently exceeded the industry’ssupport and demand for its services,leading to its closure, he said. As aresult, two administrative positions at the Picard

center wereeliminatedand four positions at the Marine training center were cut

Thesavings,Maron said, is about$300,000ayear from the Picard center actions and about $403,000 fromclosing theMarine center,although those ﬁgures arenot yet ﬁnalized.

“Theuniversity will provide updatedinformation regarding its ﬁnancial position andremaining shortfall as additional ﬁscal year-end information becomes available,”hesaid

ContactClaire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate com.

agethrough thestate’s assessment website, damage.la.gov.

“Wedon’tget the federal help until we knowhow manypeople are impacted,” Landry said. “But that’snot going to stop thestate’s response.”

The Moreauville ﬁre station has been designated as adistribution hub for cleaning supplies, fans, dehumidiﬁers andice, with additional support being sent to nearby hard-hit communities,including Bordelonville andPlaucheville Landry also announced plans to

and anonprofit that later loaned Adams money to buy ahouse.

“One of thebest parts of this arrangement,aside from isolating us from liability of (LORA), is that when the DNR wantstolook at our books, we can showthem the books of (LORA),” Mayhall wrote.

In an email sent amonth later,Mayhall notes that he did not want to list others’ names on LORA’s website yetinorder to avoidsuspicion, as they were thethree ﬁnalists to run the program at the time —though it appears the plan was for them to later run it together “A little waysdownthe line,wecan easily saythat

deploy 50 trailers to the Paragon Casino campground in Marksville forthose whomay not be able to return home while the state continuesworking to secure hotel rooms. Sandra Lemoine said neighbors have also steppedintohelpone another by delivering supplies andchecking on elderlyresidents living alone.

“Wereally cametogether again,” she said. “It’sawesome to see.”

Landry credited volunteer groups,faith-basedorganizations

Ireached out to Johnny (Adams) andasked forsome names of people to help me,and he gave me y’all’s names,” Mayhall said. “But right away like this, it might look suspicious. And that’s the last thing we needright now.”

In August lastyear,afew months after the state terminated its agreementwith LORA, Murrill filed acivil suit againstthe company,accusing Adams, Mayhalland othersof“self-dealing.”

That lawsuit is still ongoing.

Mooresays Adams paid back his loan from LORA-related entitiesinfull. He said nothing improper occurred, noting thatnone of the funds

and first responders forhelping stabilizerecovery efforts, including the National Guard, wildlife andfisheries agents, AcadianAmbulanceand volunteer firedepartments. He saidnodeathsormajor injuries have been reported Landry said thenextphase of thestate’s responsewillfocus on transitional sheltering and debris removal as residents begin cleaning outtheir homes. Staff writer EllynCouvillion contributed to this report

discussed“ever contained asingle penny” of taxpayer dollars.

“At no time hasJohn Adams ever possessedorexercised any authority,supervision or control over any aspect of the LORA program,” Moore said.

Excessivefees?

By creating separate shell companies, LORA’s owners were able to effectively pay themselves salaries and loan themselves money,investigators said.

Forexample, while LORA took in the money from companies and assumed the liability for the wells, it paid a company owned by the same people, Arkus Management

Services, to actually operate the orphan well program. Theamountofadministrative fees Arkus charged LORA rose steeply during the course of the contract, auditors noted. As part of itsinitialagreement with the state, the association was allowedtouse no morethan20% of what it collected on management fees. But, three years into the agreement, LORA increased those fees paid to Arkus to 36%, which investigators say resulted in a$1.85 millionin salary paid to LORA/Arkus’ owners.

Email Patrick SloanTurner at patrick.sloanturner@theadvocate.com.

NOTICE Advertisementfor Re‐questfor Proposal Notice is hereby given thata sealed Requestfor Proposal(RFP) will be re‐ceivedbythe Lafayette ParishSchool System PurchasingDepartment located at 202 Rue Iberville, Lafayette,LA 70508, or electronically at www.centerlinebidco nnect.comuntil 4:00 p.m. CST on August 5, 2026 for RFP# 06-27, Invest‐ment& FiduciarySer‐vices –Lafayette Parish School Board403(b) Plan Proposals received after thistimewillnot be con‐sidered.Deliverytoany departmentother than the Purchasing Depart‐mentisunacceptable and mayresultinnonconsideration of thepro‐posal Sealed proposalsshall be clearly marked: Investment &Fiduciary Services-

(LPSS)

firmstoserve asthe discretionaryout‐sourced investment advi‐sor forits 403(b) defined contributionplan. Theselected firm will be responsible forproviding comprehensive invest‐mentconsulting, advi‐sory, anddesignated managementservices.

g j y and all proposalsand to waive anyinformalities or irregularities in thepro‐posalsreceived, when suchactionisdeemed to beinthe best interest of the School System Lafayette Parish School System KristieSam Purchasing andProcure‐mentCoordinator AdvertisementDates: June 8, 2026 June 15, 2026 June 23, 2026 189987-JUN8-15-23-3T $84

time statedabove.Questions about this procedure shouldbedirectedto: Centerline-Phone: 504291-5738, emailbidcon‐nect@centerline.co. Speciﬁcationswillbe available beginningJune 16, 2026. TheLafayette Parish School System strongly encouragesthe partici‐pationofminority-owned and smallbusinessen‐terprises TheLafayette Parish School System reserves the righttorejectany and allproposals andto waive anyinformalities or irregularities in thepro‐posalsreceived, when suchactionisdeemed to beinthe best interest of the School System Lafayette Parish School System KristieSam Purchasing andProcure‐mentCoordinator AdvertisementDates: June 16, 2026 June 23, 2026 191360-JUN16-23-2T $64

j p g Zoom using the following link:https://us02web zoom.us/j/86599727923? pwd=cZP18juQuNbsFD6 pPXRD5lL5YAyZeY.1 In accordance with LouisianaRS38:2212 electronic Bids maybe submittedonVendorAc‐cess (https://lafayettecs dgovla.tylerportico.com/ va/vendor-access/ registration). Bidders wishingtosubmittheir bidelectronicallymust firstberegisteredwithin LCGVendorAccess at the websitelistedabove.The registration processcan take some time;there‐fore,LCG recommends registeringdaysinad‐vanceofthe time that bids aredue.Itisthe sole responsibility of the bidder to ensure theirbid is delivered(whether electronically viaVendor Access, in person,orvia mail)to thePurchasing Division priortothe scheduleddateand time of thebid opening. Ven‐dors mayrequest thebid electronically from Lay‐ciaBatiste at lbatiste@ lafayettela.gov.Official BidDocuments areavail‐able on Vendor Access (https://lafayettecsdgov la.tylerportico.com/va/ vendor-access/ registration). Forques‐tionsrelated to theelec‐tronic biddingprocess, pleasecallLayciaBatiste at 337-291-7173. Vendorssubmittingbids electronically arere‐quired to providethe same documentsasbid‐ders submitting through themailassoon as avail‐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 Bids must be signed in accordance with LRS Title38:2212(B)5. ACor‐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 thePurchasingOffice locatedat705 West Uni‐

STAFF PHOTOSByLESLIEWESTBROOK

Gov. Jeff Landryand his wife, Sharon, next to him at right, meet with flood relief workers Monday at the Moreauvillie fire station, where volunteerswere distributing cleaning supplies and recovery kits to neighbors after Tropical StormArthur flooded areas of Avoyelles Parish.

Relief workers unload supplies from National Guard trucks Monday at the fire station. After Arthur movedthrough Louisiana, the National Weather Service reported major flooding across Avoyelles Parish, with more than 195 homes affected. That number includes Moreauville, where more than 100 homes were reported flooded.

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BY NEKESA MUMBI MOODY and MARIA SHERMAN AP music writers

NEW YORK Clive Davis, a music industry mogulwho launched or resurrected the careers of Janis Joplin,Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana and Alicia Keys, has died. He was 94. Davis died in hisManhattan apartment, weeks after being hospitalized for an upper respiratory issue,his publicist Aliza Rabinoff said. Many artists mourned his passing on Monday.Carlos Santana called him “a visionary.” Patti Smith thanked him for ahalf-century of “love and support.” Davis’ family said in astatementthathe “shaped the soundtrack of countless lives. He discovered,mentored, and championed the greatest artists in modern music history.” Davis’ inﬂuence grew since the 1960s to span genres and labels as he directed the careers of everyone from Barry Manilow to “American Idol” winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. His groundbreaking support for Black artists earned himthe

NAACP’sVanguard Award. His exclusive pre-Grammys gala has been an institution since he ﬁrst threw the party in 1976

“Clive’stalent has always beenseeing and hearing what other peopledon’t,” former President Barack Obamasaid in avideo message played at this year’s gala.

ABrooklynbackground

Clive Jay Daviswas born on April 4, 1932 in Brooklyn, NewYork, the son of atravelingsalesman, and attended New York University and then Harvard Law School He became an in-house lawyerata time whenColumbia Recordswas resisting rock ’n’ roll. Seven years later,he was companypresident and seekingtocapitalizeonthe counterculture spirit hewitnessedatthe 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival

His successstorieswere astaggering who’swho of America’smost iconic and enduringmusical acts— with Houston both acrowning achievement and adevastatingtragedy.Davis signed hertohis Arista record label

CliveDavis,music industry starmaker, hasdiedat94

“I signed Patti Smith, the great Renaissance woman Isigned Lou Reed I signed theGratefulDead,” he proudly touted in an interview with The Associated Press in 1999.

He also signedthe up-andcomingproducer Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose BadBoy Records under Davis scored huge hits, most notably with Notorious B.I.G., long before Diddy landedinprison.

An exec whobuilt careers Davis also kept veterans relevant. Aretha Franklin ﬂourished in her later years at Arista as did Luther Vandross at another Davis label, JRecords.

when she was justateen and turnedher intoAmerica’s reigning popprincess.

Houston racked up multiple No. 1hits before drug abuse hobbled her career She died in aBeverly Hills hotel room in 2012, hours beforeDavis’ annual gala downstairs. He hadbeen convinced she was turning her life around.

“Maybe Ishould have been

more skeptical,” Davis wrote in his 2013 memoir,“The Soundtrack of My Life,” “but I’ve always been optimistic, and Ifelt hopeful. It felt like old times.”

Davis proudly noted the othertalentshesigned,including Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, BloodSweat &Tears andother “all-timers,”ashe so often put it

Senate settopassbipartisanhousing bill

BY MICHAEL CASEYand MARYCLARE JALONICK Associated Press

WASHINGTON— The Senate is set to pass abipartisan housing bill on Monday that aims to bring downprices and increase supply in one of the most sweeping efforts in recent decades to reduce federal regulations and increase local control. The bill has been the focus of intense House-Senate negotiations in recent weeks as lawmakers in both parties try to address housing costs in an election year.The ﬁnal versionofthe legislation bans corporate investors

from buying single-family homes but doesn’tinclude a Senateprovision that would have requiredinvestors to sell newly constructed homeswithin sevenyears. The measure was the result of years of work to “lower costs, expand housing supply,cut red tape, protecttaxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream ofhomeownership, said Senate Banking CommitteeChair TimScott,RS.C., who workedwith Democrats to get the bill passed. MassachusettsSen. Elizabeth Warren, the topDemocrat on the banking panel, told TheAssociated Press

that shebelieves the bill is significant “because it acknowledges that thefederal government hasaroleto playinlowering housing prices andbecause forthe ﬁrst time ever,private equity will be blockedfrombuying up single-family homes and trying to turn housing into one more Wall Street investment.”

Senate passage of the bill shapes up as arare bipartisan legislative achievement when much of Republicans’ agenda hasstalled. The House is expected to give ﬁnal approval later this week and send thebill to President Donald Trump, who has sig-

naled his support

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, of California,who helped negotiate the legislation,said it was a“huge step toward finallyaddressing theaffordablehousing and homelessness crises in this country.”

Republicansand Democrats have embraced the bill as away to showthey are addressing thenation’saffordability crisis,driveninpart by rising home prices due to ashortageofaffordable housing. The U.S. housing market hasbeenina slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climbfrom pandemic-era lows.

It was Davis who conceived of the 1999 album “Supernatural,” pairing guitar god Santana with some of the day’shottest talents to win eight Grammys. And he persuadedmiddle-aged rocker Rod Stewart to try standards from “The Great AmericanSongbook.”That album,released in 2003, sold millions and wassosuccessfulitspawned four titles in all. His collaborators didn’t

always agree —Davis won abitter ﬁght withproducer David Foster over Houston’s all-timehit,a cover of Dolly Parton’s“IWill Always Love You” —and the song was published with its iconic a cappella intro. And Manilowstrongly objected to recording “I Write the Songs” —asong he didn’t write —but it too became asignature hit.“He’sjust brilliant at picking ideas he thinks the public will connect,” raved Manilow Butnot an infallible figure Columbia fired Davis in 1973, accusing him of mismanaging funds.Davis pleaded guilty to tax evasion and had to pay a$10,000 ﬁne, but said Columbia funded Arista to resolve the dispute. That label became another huge success, with country superstars Brooks&Dunn, sassyR&B group TLC, Babyface, Houston, Franklin and others. Arista also signedMilli Vanilli, the male pop duo that was strippedofits best new artist Grammy after revealing they were lip-syncing their songs.

Last quarantinedcruise passengers released

BY JOSH FUNK and MIKESTOBBE Associated Press

OMAHA,Neb The last eight American passengers who endured42daysina specializedhospital quarantine unit after exposure to an unusual hantavirus outbreak on acruise ship that killed three people have left the Nebraska facility

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials on Monday confirmedthe endofthe quarantine. “Through close collabo-

ration among federal, state, andlocal partners, HHS helpedprotect the American people,containpotential risks, and bring this response effort to asuccessful conclusion,”HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email. More than 120 people were evacuated fromthe MV Hondius in Spain’s Canary Islands early last month —including the 18 Americanswho wound up in theNationalQuarantine Unit in Omaha —though mostwere from other countries.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JOHN SALANGSANG

Barry Manilow, from left, CarlySimon and CliveDavis arrive on Feb.14, 2016, at the CliveDavis Pre-Grammy Gala in BeverlyHills, Calif. Davis, amusic industrymogul, has died at age94.

Cutting for a cause

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

The Romaine family has transformed their family farm field in Kaplan into a seasonal destination where visitors can cut their own sunﬂowers while supporting a good cause. What started with Catherine Romaine’s senior photos and her father’s passion for farming has grown into a beloved community tradition beneﬁting children and families at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Sunflowers for St. Jude, located in Kaplan and organized by the Romaine family, invites visitors to cut their own sunﬂowers for a suggested donation of $1 per stem or more if they choose with 100% of donations going directly to St. Jude. According to the family, donations help support the hospital’s mission of ensuring families never receive bills for treatment, travel, lodging or food while their child receives care.

“This is a way to provide help, even if people will never visit the hospital or meet a patient,” Catherine Romaine said. “Everyone still gets to make a difference and have something to show for it.”

Although the fundraiser has existed for nine years, it is currently in its ﬁfth year operating under a pickyour-own model, allowing visitors to make donations directly to St. Jude

while enjoying the ﬁeld.

“Prior to the handpicking, we took orders and cut them ourselves,” said Ashlyn Romaine, Catherine Romaine’s mother “We made Mason jar bouquets, delivered them and even sold them at farmers markets.”

The idea first took root in 2018 after Catherine Romaine wanted senior portraits taken in a sunflower field. At the time, Catherine Romaine had become a St Jude Hero, a fundraising program that encourages participants to raise money for the hospital.

Rather than asking family and friends for donations, Catherine Romaine combined her passion for giving back with her father’s passion for farming and turned the idea into a fundraiser selling sunﬂowers grown

Movie theater to open again in New Iberia

BY ADAM DAIGLE

Australian charged with voter fraud tells her story

Longtime La. resident says she didn’t know she broke law

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

An Australian native and longtime Louisiana resident who was indicted in connection with noncitizen voting said she didn’t know she was breaking the law and thought state ofﬁcials would have stopped her if it was illegal.

When Denise Migliore registered to vote online, she was asked whether she was a U.S. citizen, she said, and she clicked “yes.”

“I have been here almost three decades, I had a pending application for citizenship, and I just considered myself a citizen,” said Migliore, who lives in Franklinton. “I just didn’t realize that it was such a big deal.”

Now she faces felony charges of making false statements to register to vote and fraudulent voting in 2022 and 2024, according to an indictment ﬁled this month in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. She could face up to ﬁve years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

President Donald Trump’s administration and Louisiana ofﬁcials have ramped up efforts to catch noncitizen voting. They argue it undermines the democratic process.

Migliore said she simply didn’t know the rules. She said she received solicitations from the state encouraging her to register, and nobody stopped her when she tried to sign up or when she cast her ballot.

“I feel like I’m being used as a guinea pig to show how ﬂawed the electoral system is, and I’m being unfairly targeted,” she said.

Migliore’s is the first criminal prosecution resulting from a protocol Louisiana election ofﬁcials began last year in which they check the citizenship status of all registered voters in the federal SAVE database administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

“Using the data from SAVE, we identiﬁed 403 noncitizens registered to vote in Louisiana, with 83 of those individuals voting in at least one election,” Secretary of State’s Ofﬁce spokesperson Trey Williams said.

Williams declined to say if any other noncitizens are being investigated for fraudulent voting or have been referred for prosecution.

Louisiana has roughly 3 million registered voters.

Migliore said she thought legal permanent residents could vote, and she didn’t know it was illegal for noncitizens to vote.

She said she doesn’t remember voting in the 2022 election, but she does remember 2024, when she voted at the St. Tammany Parish government building on Koop Drive.

Elections workers “were very polite to me, very welcoming,” she said, and helped make sure she was able to cast a ballot. She said they scanned her ID card, but they didn’t ask her whether she was a citizen.

“Shouldn’t they have said to me, ‘Ms. Denise, you can’t be here?’” she said. St. Tammany Parish Registrar of Voters Dwayne Wall referred questions to the Secretary of State’s Ofﬁce. The Secretary of State’s Ofﬁce did not respond to questions about Migliore’s claims.

Migliore also said she has received multiple solicitations over the past decade about registering to vote and volunteering as a poll worker

She showed one example of a communication from the Louisiana Department of Health addressed to her in April 2025, when she updated her address for the Medicaid program, which is administered by the Health Department.

“When you report a change of

PROVIDED PHOTO

The Romaine family has transformed their family farm field in Kaplan into a seasonal destination where visitors can cut their own sunflowers while supporting St. Jude

La.small businesses need our supportthis summer

It’sthe summer,and while many Louisianans head to the beach or to cooler climes, we know that plenty of others are enjoying time with familycloser to home. It’swiththat in mind that our thoughts turn to the local restaurants, shops and attractions that so often suffer when there are fewer people around to patronize them.

Small businesses account for 99.5% of all businesses in our state and employed 889,000 workers in 2025, or about 53% of the state’s entire private sector workforce, according to Louisiana Economic Development.These businesses are the backbone of our economy,and they deserve our support

Our state thrives on tourism, but that’s mostly during the high seasons of Mardi Gras and festivals. With some notableexceptions including the always exciting Essence Festival of Culture which arrivesinNew Orleans on July 3—during our typically sweltering summer months, the number of touristsdrops and so does the number of potential customers to these businesses.

That’swhy we encourage residentstoshop localthis summer.Whether it’s taking the family to alocally owned restaurant or visiting local sites where you can experience true Louisiana culture, it’simportant to support the small businesses that are staples in our communities year-round.

Make no mistake, this year has been especially tough on these businesses. High tariffs and fuel prices have eaten intotheir bottom lines. And in some places, other unforeseen issues have emerged. Several French Quarter businesses, for example,have been grappling with ongoing construction thathas led to aloss of foot trafﬁc. Somewere forced toclose. We were glad to see agrant program planned to those businesses that remain.

But ultimately,the success or failure of any local business depends on us. We know it’s easy nowadays to clickonAmazon and have whatever you need delivered toyour door.Still, where we spend our dollars matters. And if we want to continue to have the community-based businesses that do so much for Louisiana, we have to choose wisely

So insteadofgoing to afast-food chain, try the mom-and-pop restaurant down the street Instead of ordering books online, visit your local bookstore. And if you’re looking foraway to entertain the kids this summer,look around for sites around the state that you perhaps havenever visited. As we are getting close to the America 250 anniversary,several Louisiana cities are offering unique local entertainment to mark the occasion.

Small businesses support our communities every day; it’stime that we show them how much we appreciate that.

OPINION

Polluting industries defended at theexpense of La.citizens

StateRep.BrettGeymannrepresentsthe citizens of Lake Charles, but it is apparent that he representsthe industries of LakeCharles much more effectively

His House Bill 804, the“Louisiana Energy Protection Act,” passed by theLegislature and signed into law by Gov.Jeff Landry,will makeLouisiana —the statemost likely to suffer the maximum climate change disasters in theU.S. —one of the strongest explicit anti-climate legal bases in theU.S.

How it helps polluting industries is obvious, but how does alaw that immunizes thefossil fuel industry from legal liability help citizens who are harmed by their ﬂawed practices?

There has never been alawsuit in Louisianathat ﬁtsthe description of what Geymann’sbill “protects” us from, but just in case someonehere would be desperate enough to consider such alawsuit, Geymann has decided to strike them down ﬁrst! What aman!

And, since thelaw applies to other in-

dustries, he has effectively protected theindustries of Louisianafrom ever having to worry aboutbeing sued for their lack of care for the environment or the people of Louisiana. This law will makeitalmost impossible for citizens affected by climate change to take companies to court; this would include carbon capture and storage-related lawsuits.

Carbon dioxide, methane and several “forever chemicals” are among those deﬁned in thebill as “greenhouse gases.”

Of course, Geymann had widespread support from those who beneﬁt: the state’soil and gas, chemical industries and agricultural interests. The fact that every humanity-based NGO asked him to pull his bill madenodifference.

In what utopian world does Geymannthink that industries are worried about taking care of the citizens? Does he really live in Lake Charles?

MARGIE VICKNAIR-PRAY Lacombe

Hillyer’scolumns offerfoodfor thought

Quin Hillyer seems arare bird in today’sopinion journalism because he gives thoughtful reasoning from abasic conservative perspective. Several other conservative opinion writers featured in this paper trytoo hard to convince by offering their viewpoint, supported by moreoftheir viewpoint.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com. TO

Iprefer agame played fair and square, by opponents that respect their rivals, on aplaying ﬁeld that has not been tilted one way or theother andwithout regard for any “special interest.”

Ihave tended to agree with many of Hillyer’scolumns of late. He recently compared Louisiana voters’ rejection of all ﬁve amendments to their rejection of Bill Cassidy’sbid for reelection.The argument correlates liberal outrage with Republican outrage and questions the resulting wins for angry votersonboth sides.

Iwritetoboth of our senators often. They know that Iamangry.Ibelieve in the United States of America and its

founding principles. Those concepts have endured now for 250 years, surviving all threats, foreign and domestic, while gradually achieving so much for so many. However,our country cannot survive reckless leadershipthat shuns responsibilityinorder to dilly-dally with endless bickering. We need defense, not war.Weneed abalanced budget, not asermon. We need disagreement, not distrust.Weneed leadership that unites us instead of feeding us adaily diet of political rage. Idon’tlike what’sbeing served up, but Iamangry.Iamdead set against thedestruction of our nation in favor of any minority.Idonot trust our governor or our Legislature, both of which seek to take advantage of a gullible citizenry.Ivoted against all ﬁve amendments because Iknow who wrote them, and Idonot trust them. What amess.

ROBIN LEAKE

NewOrleans

Spirit wasfelled by COVID, tough competition, notpolitics

BrianHennessy’sletter about the demise of Spirit Airlines reads less like afact-basedopinion piece than apolitically chargedcondemnation of Donald Trump. Rather than presenting balanced analysis supported by evidence, the letter adopts an authoritative tone that frames opinion as settledfact while dismissing the broader economicand industry realitiessurrounding Spirit Airlines’ struggles.

First, the claimthat Spirit’s strugglesstemmedprimarily from political decisions —whether attributedtoDonaldTrump or any administration—isanoversimplification. Spirit wasprofitable as recently as 2019, showing thatits model worked undernormal conditions. What followedwas COVID-19, which devastatedglobalair travel, collapsed demand andforced airlines, including Spirit, to take on significant debt just to survive Second, Spirit’schallenges went well beyond fuel prices. Its ultralow-costmodel depends on volume andfees,leaving it vulnerable when travelpatterns shift. After the pandemic,largerairlinesadaptedby offering basic economyfares that directly competed with, andoften undercut, Spirit’sprices, eroding its coreadvantage Finally,blaming geopolitical events for rising jet fuel costs ignoresthe complexity of global oil markets, which are driven by supply chains, production decisions and post-pandemic demand. Reducing this to asingle political cause is not serious analysis.

Spirit’sdecline is best understood notasa partisanstory,but as abusiness one: intense competition, structuralweaknesses and exposure to globalshocks. Turning it into apolitical talking point obscures more thanitexplains.

GEORGE LASTRAPES Gretna

TheDemocrats’ patriotism gap

Democrats take great offense at being accused of being unpatriotic, but the data doesn’tlie.

Anew NBC News poll captured the partisan gap over pridein America. Overall, 56% of Americans are extremelyorvery proud of the country,but only 29% of Democrats, compared to 90% of Republicans.

rational patriotism is loyaltytothe nation all thetime, loyalty to thegovernment whenitdeserves it.”

That’sayawning gap, and about amatter that really shouldn’tbecontroversial. We aren’ttalking about abortion,or Donald Trump’sWhite House ballroom, but an elemental thing —pride in country —that in most times andplaceshas been taken for granted.

Rich Lowry

Even if youhave contempt for the partyinpower,there’sthe country’sfounding, its constitutional system, its stupendous wealth, its greatheroes, its victories in two world wars, its natural beautyand itsendlessly interesting, fair-minded and inventivepeople to feel proud of.

like —which progressives tendtoconsider crude or jingoistic.

The Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, James Talarico, once called the American ﬂag “a complicated symbol.” If thenational banner doesn’telicit an instinctive feeling of devotion, one’s attachment to the country is likely attenuated as well.

Midterm‘blue wave’dreams face an icy challenge

Once upon atime, that wasthe case here. AGallup poll foundinJanuary 2001 that nearly90% of Americans were extremely or very proud of the country In 2017, according to Gallup,75% of the public said that they are extremely or very proud of America, alow at the time, and it’sbeen down since. The decline has been driven largely by Democrats.

Their disdain for President Trump clearly is responsible for some of the drop, but not all of it. Democratswere less proud of the country than Republicans when BarackObama and Joe Biden were president.

Obviously,pride in country shouldn’t depend on who is president;the country is so much more than itspolitics. Mark Twain said, aptly,that “the only

Many Democrats areunmovedbythese things or consider them sources of embarrassment The founding? Tainted by racism. The constitutional system? An antiquated obstacle to progress. The economy? Rigged byand for billionaires. Ourheroes? Feet of clay or worse.

Akey word here is “systemic,” as in “systemic racism,” which suggests that racism is not aproduct of historicalcircumstance, but endemic to the American project itself.

Whyfeel pride in acountry that is not yet redeemed, indeed may be unredeemable?

Theleft —especially in academia —has longadvanced the view that America’srole in the world is predatory and imperialistic, and over time this radical critique of U.S. foreign policy has gained moretraction within theDemocratic mainstream.

Then there’sthe attitude toward small-scale expressions of patriotism —American ﬂag imagery,lapel pins, ﬂyovers, LeeGreenwood songs and the

Many progressives would counter that America is aset of ideals and we should feel fealtytoitonly to the extent we realize those ideals. Butthe country and its people are also aconcrete reality,and you either like them or not, feel connected to them or not, and —this is close to thecrux of the matter —feel grateful for them or not. Nearly everyone who isn’tparticularly proud of America is still incredibly indebted to it, beneﬁting from its liberty and prosperity.

It’sa profound act of ingratitude not to return thedebt with asense of reverence and obligation. It’snot enough to say,ineffect, you’ll feel proud of thecountry at some future point when it has met certain social and political benchmarks. This amountstoaversion of St.Augustine’sfamous prayer, “Lord, makemepatriotic, but not yet.”

In short, patriotism shouldn’tbea partisan issue, rather afoundational commitment of both parties and all factions.These days, though, we can’t even agree to feel proud of the nation we share and owe so much

Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry

Apresident whoisnever toobusyto celebratehimself —atour expense

What does it mean to be an American in 2026? Twodistinctlyand signiﬁcantly different visions showed themselves in recent days.

Speculation about aNovember “blue wave” wafting Democrats into power ignores the Law of Political Hydrology: There are no waves on frozen seas. The sheet of ice suffocating politics represents abalance of negative partisanship: Millions of voters have mild, ﬂickering affection for their party,but detest the other one.

Clarence Page

On the South Side of Chicago, there was the long-awaited opening of the Obama Presidential Center.Inthe presence of three past presidents and an assembly of dignitariesand music stars, former President Barack Obama saluted “American values we can all share,” and he expressed his faiththat Americans “are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect, that deep in our gut we want to ﬁnd away to turn towards each other again, not further away.” Afew days earlier,onthe White House lawn in Washington, avery different celebration took place. Its centerpiecewas aless permanent yet still pretty expensive structure, a600-ton steel and star-spangled “Claw,” which to Gal Beckerman of The Atlantic “lookedlike it was about to pick up the White House like astuffed animal in an arcade game.”

This was the setting of UFC Freedom 250, an evening of mixed martial arts matches stagedtocelebrate President Donald Trump’s80th birthday and, apparently,our nation’ssemiquincentennial.

Among other crowd-pleasers, it included an Air Force ﬂyover,aMarine Corps band with singers, military honor guards and “Octagon Girls” in sequinedred-white-and-blue costumes to parade around the big cage between roundsfor aspectacle that,perhaps intentionally,reminded many of ancient Roman gladiator matches. Trump Fight Club, as some wags called it, drew 17 million viewers on Paramount+, in addition toafew thousand lucky spectators on White House grounds.

Machismowas the theme of the evening, and it inspired at least one brawl to break out at the watchpartyheld at the Ellipse nearby

To say it was tacky would be to give quiet satisfaction to all involved in the planning and production of the event. That was certainly the intent

To bring cage ﬁghting into the inner sanctum of American political power was the ultimate hat tip from Trump to his base.

Yetintypical MAGA fashion, they took it too far. After Josh Hokit defeated Derrick Lewis in aheavyweight bout, he failed to show some class when he needed it most. While

speaking to UFC analystand podcast star Joe Rogan, he decided to be cute by taking averbal shot at former ﬁrst lady Michelle Obama. While the crowd’srowdiest members cheered and others grimaced, even Trump appeared toregister how wrong this was, as TMZ’scamera captured him quickly removing from around his neck the necklace that Hokit had given to him earlier

Wasthis arare display of shame on Trump’spart,evidence of ashred of human decency? Don’tbet on it.

Earlierinthe month, after all, he posted to Truth Social an AI-generated image of adecrepit Obama Center as an overflowing garbage can, sitting amid abombed-out hellscape that was supposed to be theSouth Side. It’shardly the first time Trump has gone viral with adepiction of Chicago created by or for people who have never been to Chicago. There’s atendency to acceptthat Red vs. Blue America is anatural consequence of an intractable difference in culture. AndTrump has willingly exploited that. Unfortunately,too many of us accept the idea. Alot of people are upset by the notionofbringing cage fightsto the WhiteHouse, shuddering at the bad taste of it all. This is amistake.

President TheodoreRoosevelt engaged in regular sparring on the premises, which left him withadetached retina in his left eye —which he kept secret for more than adecade. Manliness is atouchy subject these days, but there was atime when hon-

orable combat was respected above themere running of one’smouth. ErnestHemingway famously declared, “Mywriting is nothing, my boxing is everything.” To him, thering was aprofound philosophical stageonwhich thevirtues of discipline, resilience, and raw honesty were tested,reﬂecting much thesame demands he placed on his writing. Trump, afan of rough-ridin’ TR,no doubt covetsthe imputed manliness of enjoying agood ﬁght, although you’ll never catch him in thering. Still, Isay let him indulge in his UFC fandom if it distracts him enough to go quietly after histerm is up.

Let’sleave him and his manosphere fanatics to theirlame trolling and hijinks,while remembering that plenty of ordinary Americans seek more than entertainment.

For his entire life, Trump has been driven by grandiosity, solipsism, impulsiveness, lack of empathy,obsession with power and dominance and a bottomless need for praiseand adulation,and an obsession with avenging thelittlest perceived slights. He’sdone alot of damage to the American body politic, and to American interests at home and abroad, but he has not snuffed out Americans’ conviction that, together,wecan form amore perfect union. As America approaches its 250th birthday,that’s worth celebrating.

Email Clarence Page at clarence47page@gmail.com

In the 25 presidential elections since 1928, eight were won by 10 points or more. But the last such landslide (Ronald Reagan’s1984 defeat of Walter Mondale) was 11 elections ago. Since Republicans ended 28 years of Democratic control of the Senate in 1980, Republicans have controlled it 12 times, Democrats 11 times (once because aRepublican senator defected). Forty-eight of today’s53Republican senators represent states Donald Trump carried by at least 11 points in 2024. Florida was, until recently,the most important swing state (Barack Obama carried it twice). But in 2024, Trump won Florida more decisively (by 13.1 points) than Kamala Harris won New York (12.5 points). Ohio was aswing state when George W. Bush narrowly carried it twice, with 50% in 2000 and 50.8% in 2004, and Obama carried it with just 51.5% in 2008 and 50.7 in 2012. Trump carried it three times, by about 8points in 2016 and 2020, and 11.2 points in 2024. In 1988, 34% of congressional districts voted for apresidential candidate from one party and arepresentative from the other.In2020 and 2024 just 3.7% did. The last four times apresident’sparty entered midterm elections controlling both congressional chambers (1994, 2006, 2010, 2018) voters ended this trifecta, twice with Democratic presidents, twice with Republicans. About 70% of House Republicans were ﬁrst elected after Trump took ofﬁce in 2017. They have known nothing but enforced subservience; they fear nothing other than aprimary challenge instigated by acranky Trump. Most red-state Republican senators also fear only that. Election analyst Charlie Cook says: Since 2000, 115 elected red-state Republicans have been reelected, just six were not; 74 have been reelected since the last one to lose, in 2008. Technologically sophisticated and ethically uninhibited gerrymandering has left few competitive congressional districts. Four huge waves washed over Congress relatively recently: In 1994 and 2010, Democrats lost 54 and 63 seats, respectively; in 2006 and 2018, Republicans lost 30 and 40, respectively.This year,Republican losses might not comeclose to the post-1945 average of 26 seats lost by the president’sparty

Youthink things cannot get worse? Remember the Law of American Political Geology: There is no such thing as rock bottom. Michael Barone, the mind behind the Almanac of American Politics, reports (in the Washington Examiner) that an Illinois Democrat, dissatisﬁed with his party having only 14 of the state’s 17 congressional seats, wants to “get over the mental hurdle of contiguity” in redistricting. Surplus Democrats in Chicago districts could be declared parts of downstate districts —hundreds of milesfrom being contiguous —where Republicans are intolerably competitive.

The political freeze will thaw when party competition again occurs between the 40-yard lines, around the center of the ﬁeld. Republicans will not think ice-breaking thoughts until Trump’s spell is broken and Republican thinking is again permitted. Democrats, however,can think about what Ezra Klein of the New York Timeshas noted about their party between 2012 and 2024: “Democrats became more uncompromising on immigration and lost support among Hispanic voters. They moved left on guns and student loans and climate, and lost ground with young voters. They moved left on race and lost ground with Black voters. They moved left on education and lost ground with Asian American voters. They moved left on economics and lost ground with working-class voters.”

In 2024, Trump improved his 2020 share of the vote in 90% of all counties. In three consecutive elections, the GOP has increased its presidential vote share in 1,433 counties (almost half the nation’scounties). The Democratic Party has increased its share in 57. What death wish has Democrats including Kamala Harris in their 2028 presidential conversations?

Harris’ persistence beyond the call of plausibility is symptomatic. Until the freeze thaws, we are in “Groundhog Day,” in the bar where the character played by Bill Murray has this exchange with anew acquaintance: Murray character: “What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?”

Acquaintance: “That about sums it up for me.”

EmailGeorge Will at georgewill@washpost. com.

George Will

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALEX BRANDON

President Donald Trumpand first ladyMelania Trump stand in the ring at UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House last week.

Search continues for missing BR teen

Police believe boy, 15, killed in confrontation

BY AVERY WHITE and QUINN COFFMAN Staff writers

The search for the body of a missing Baton Rouge teen continues weeks after his disappearance, as volunteer groups scour thousands of acres for answers.

The United Cajun Navy, a volunteer search and rescue group, and a canine tracking outﬁt from Texas have searched roughly 3,000 acres over the past week, including more than 90 dumpsters and trash cans, in search of Ja’Derrius Minnieweather’s body

The ongoing search began June 6, after police say 15-year-old Minnieweather was beaten to death by 51-year-old Maurice Parms outside a north Baton Rouge home.

The volunteer groups have been searching Baton Rouge-area parks, landﬁlls and suspected dumpsites, originally under the assumption Minnieweather was alive. Now, they continue their search using human remains detection dogs as local police believe the teen is dead.

United Cajun Navy Incident Commander Jason Gill works with Team Texas K-9s, using ﬁve of their certified canines trained in scent tracking and detecting human remains to search on land and in water

“We’ve got five certified canines, overly qualified canines, probably some of the best in the country,” Gill said. “I mean, the dogs will do everything but ﬁght and sniff out drugs, so they’re anything to do with the person.”

The canines, when facing into the wind, can smell something up to 10 miles away While the team is searching much smaller areas on foot, the scent range makes for faster search times.

“As far as what the dogs do, and how they can smell everything,” handler Crystal Fields said. “When you’re making breakfast, you got sausage cooking, bacon cooking, your eggs (The canine) smells the

AUSTRALIAN

Continued from page 1B

vote,” the letter states.

“Please find the enclosed voter registration forms. If you want to apply to register to vote, complete the Voter Registration Application and mail the original form to the Registrar of Voters in your parish.”

The letter asks the recipient to check a box indicating either “I want to register to vote,” or “I do not want to register to vote,” and it has a Louisiana voter registration application. Under the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law that passed in the 1990s, state agencies that provide individuals with public assistance, like Medicaid, SNAP or vehicle registration services, have to offer voter registration applications.

Gov Jeff Landry in 2024 signed an executive order

CAUSE

Continued from page 1B

on the family’s farm.

Over the years, the effort has grown well beyond what the family originally imagined.

“We have raised over $50,000 over the last nine years,” Catherine Romaine said. “It’s really cool to see how far the reach has grown.”

egg she smells the bacon, she smells every ingredient in that sausage, the grease, anything, salt, pepper, she smells all of it.”

When searches began two weeks ago, hundreds of community members joined group searches, canvassing several areas in search of Minnieweather

Only Gill and Fields’ teams have continued looking along with local law enforcement

“We’re more proficient and efﬁcient; we can knock s*** out fast,” Gill said “I’m always concerned with if (volunteers) do stumble upon him, that’s a life changer.”

The groups will continue their search until they have to move on to another search and rescue later in the week, but until then they will continue searching areas of interest given through tips by the community

Connection to teen girl

Police said they believe

requiring these agencies to notify potential registrants that it is illegal for noncitizens to vote. Migliore said the April letter she received did not include any kind of notice to that effect

Migliore said Louisiana should stop sending letters about voter registration and volunteering for elections to people who can’t vote, and polling places should have better citizenship checks when people go to cast a ballot.

In response to questions about the notices Migliore said she received, Williams said the Secretary of State’s Office does not send communications to voters on an individual basis.

“We are unable to address generalized claims or allegations without speciﬁc details,” he said The case

In August, Migliore received a letter from the Washington Parish Registrar of Voters in Franklinton

Parms beat Minneweather to death following a dispute over how Parms was treating a 16-year-old girl. The girl was a longtime friend of Minneweather’s, whom police say Parms had recently begun grooming.

Before his arrest on a first-degree murder count in Minneweather’s disappearance, Parms was arrested on counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and computer-aided solicitation of a minor

He was confronted by Baton Rouge police at his home Saturday morning.

Police say that, following the confrontation between the teenage boy and Parms, they believe Parms stashed Minnieweather’s body and threw away evidence. Police say he came back to retrieve the evidence and possibly the victim’s body and transported them elsewhere in his truck.

Minnieweather was last seen around 2 a.m. June 5 on Bradley Street in the Foster and Winbourne area, police

notifying her that she was no longer qualiﬁed to vote due to not being a U.S. citizen.

She said the FBI called her, and then two FBI agents visited her home around April to interview her for an investigation into the alleged fraudulent voter registration, and then they called her on the phone again in May to ask more questions.

She learned about the federal criminal charges from news reports, she said.

A July 1 arraignment is scheduled at the federal courthouse in New Orleans, and she said she learned about the hearing after speaking with someone at the Australian consulate.

The Australian consulate did not respond to a request for comment.

Migliore said federal authorities called her Monday to ask about serving her with court documents, and she has not yet retained an attorney because of financial constraints.

said.

In their investigation, detectives learned that Minnieweather went to see the 16-year-old longtime female friend on June 4, riding a small children’s bike to her residence on Bradley Street.

Police said Parms admitted he had been at the residence on Bradley Street on June 4. Parms told police he met Minnieweather only briefly and left soon after the encounter. However, police said security footage contradicted Parms’ account and showed Parms riding from the scene on a bicycle that is similar to one used by

Minnieweather

Video footage

Security footage obtained by police showed Parms left his residence early on the morning of June 5 in his white truck and returned within an hour, the arrest warrant states.

Detectives obtained a search warrant for Parms’ cellphone, which showed the phone was left at his home during the time frame when he was on camera leaving in the truck It also shows that Parms was at home when he is seen on foot and riding a small kid’s bike, the arrest warrant states.

Detectives obtained video of a tall Black man dragging a garbage can to a spot in the 3200 block of Conrad Street.

They also found a video from a minute later of a man matching Parms’ body type riding a small kid’s bike away from Conrad toward Charles Street. A tall male was also seen getting off the bike and throwing it into some bushes. He is then seen taking off a black mask, gloves and a T-shirt, which he throws into several garbage cans.

Additional video showed Parms in his truck as he returned to the garbage cans to retrieve the shirt, gloves and mask, police said. He then returns to his residence and is seen wiping down areas of his truck with a rag.

After witnesses described observing a tall man beating a smaller person while a kid’s bike was in the middle of the roadway, detectives were able to locate blood that had soaked into the ground. Detectives obtained a search warrant for Parms’ truck, which tested positive for the presence of blood, police said.

Email Quinn Coffman at quinn.coffman@ theadvocate.com.

“We’ve had people get engaged, take birthday photos and create a lot of special moments,” Ashlyn Romaine said “Seeing those moments has really moved me.” The sunflower fields remain on the same family property where the ﬁrst crop was planted nine years ago. Bloom times vary each year, with no set season, as planting and growing conditions depend largely on weather The Romaines say they hope to establish a second ﬁeld later this summer to create more opportunities for visitor’s next season

Some visitors now make annual trips to the field, turning the fundraiser into a summer tradition. Families visit to take photos, relax at picnic areas, enjoy the swing, eat lunch or watch the sunset.

The ﬁeld is open daily and accessible 24 hours a day The sunflower field is located on Romaine Road in Kaplan. Visitors who wish to cut stems are encouraged to bring a bucket, clippers, water to keep blooms fresh for the trip home and bug spray

LOTTERY

SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2026

PICK 3: 8-1-8

PICK 4: 2-5-0-1

PICK 5: 1-1-8-5-3 Unofficial notification, keep your tickets.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Bloodhound Boogie looks to Josh Gill, incident commander with the United Cajun Navy, during a search for Ja’Derrius Minnieweather in fields around Monte Sano Park on Greenwell Street on Monday in Baton Rouge.

Horn took unconventional routetoSaints, HOF

Editor’snote: This is one of 12 proﬁlesof inductees for the LouisianaSports Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Festivities will take place from Thursday-SaturdayinNatchitoches.

BY SHELDON MICKLES

Contributing writer

Compared to some of his NFL peers, Joe Horn ran adecidedlydifferentpass route to stardom.

After all, the many twistsand turns that led Horn, amultisport high school star,tobecoming one of the league’spremier wide receivers would have probably left even aHollywood scriptwriter abit dizzy

From his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina, to being selectedinthe ﬁfth round of the 1996 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, Horn’slong, wind-

ingjourney was special to say theleast. It was unconventional,unimaginable and— mostofall —highly unlikely It wasalso largely unfulﬁllinguntil a 28-year-oldHorn, who toiled in relative anonymity in his four seasonswith the Chiefs, joined the New Orleans Saints as an unrestricted freeagent on Feb. 13, 2000

Before signing afour-year,$9.9 million contract with the Saints, one of Horn’s top highlights came when he andChiefs teammates Derrick Thomas andNeil Smith performed thenational anthem before aMonday Night Football game in ajam-packed Arrowhead Stadium. Manymorehighlights were to come within the white lines after Horn’spro career took off with the Saints, which led him to induction intothe Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as amember of theClass of 2026

For starters, the many obstacles Horn hadtonavigate beforehecould contribute and put together aproductive sevenyear stintwiththe Saints from 2000-06 would have made even themosttalented players give up on the sport But his determination paid off.

Yearslater,Horntold reportershow he was down to two or three dollarsinhis pocket, which he usedtobuy aJerryRice workout video from aBlockbuster store. Studying and emulating the drillsthe future Pro Football Hall of Famer was doingled Horn to put togetherhis own tape, which he sent to multipleNFL and Canadian Football League teams

The CFL, which expanded to the United States ayearearlier,was ﬁrst to spot Horn’spotential. He was withthe Baltimore Stallions andShreveport Pirates

GOAL ACHIEVED

BYSTEPHEN HAWKINS AP sportswriter

ARLINGTON, Texas Scoring goalsand breaking records are what Lionel Messi does, and he is already doingthat again in his sixth World Cup.

The Argentina captain now has the World Cup scoringrecord all to himself after another standoutperformance,one that began with frustrationafter missing apenalty kick and ended in pureelation with another victory Messi, who many consider the greatest player of all time, scoredbothgoals in his team’s2-0 victoryover Austria on Monday.That gavehim 18, six daysafter his ﬁrst-ever hat trick in the tournament had matched Germany strikerMiroslav Klose’sprevious record of 16 WorldCup goals.

“Beyond anything, I’m so happy for the win,” Messi said. “It was huge, tough and difﬁcult. It would allow us to be relaxed to what’sahead. All matches in this World Cup are very even,very intense. I’menjoying this moment and craving to enjoy with my teammates.”

The ﬁrstgoal against Austria came in the 38th minute and two days beforehis 39th birthday.Itwas the sixth consecutive World Cup game in which Messi has scored —joining France strikerJust Fontaine and Brazilgreat Jairzinhoas onlyplayers to do so.

That was about ahalf-hourafter he missed apenalty kickwith achance to match the record.

“There were moments whenI wasreally angry about missing the penalty,but Iwas able to make up for it,” said Messi, who has won arecordeight Ballon d’Or awards as the best player in Europe Argentina advanced to theknockout round by winningits first two group games. Messi also scored all of his team’s

goals in a3-0 win over Algeria in Kansas

City

Messi added his 18th World Cup goal in the waning secondsofstoppagetime when he shot one throughseveral defenders afterthe ﬁrst attempt wasturned away by goalkeeper Alexander Schlager

“I knew it wasn’tgoing to be easy,” Messi saidintranslated remarks. “The way things aregoing in the World Cup, the way it’sbeing played, it’savery even game. No one is giving away anything.”

Thegoal record became Messi’salone in the ﬁrst half when he caught Schlager leaningthe wrong wayafter Thiago Almada let Facuno Medina’s pass go by him and directly onto Messi’sleftfoot from about20yards.

“I have no more wordstotalk about Leo,” Argentinacoach Lionel Scaloni said through an interpreter

As the ball went intothe netonthe record 17th goal, Messi ran toward acorner and thrust his right arm into the air to celebrate the markwith the decidedly pro-Argentina crowd among the 70,649 fans in the sold-out home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

“Someone who is 39 years old and can score two goals, and ﬁve goalsoverall at the beginning of theWorld Cup, well, that makes adifference,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said through an interpreter “Weknew that he is on alevel of his own,

There won’tbeanoverflow of New Orleans Pelicans fans flooding Fulton Square in downtown New Orleans on Tuesday night like they did on NBAdraftnight seven years ago. The only people you’ll likely see in the area are just afew tourists strolling through to make their way to Manning’s Sports Bar and Grill or to the slot machines at Caesars casino. Yeah, draftnight 2026 will be alot different than the one in 2019 when the Pelicans selected Zion Williamson with the No. 1overall pick. The Pelicans don’teven have afirst-round pick in the draftthat will begin with the first round on Tuesday and conclude with the second round Wednesday But don’tworry,local basketball fans. There are plenty of reasons to tune in.

BY BRIAN MAHONEY AP basketball writer

NEWYORK For anyone seeking clues in theﬁnalhoursbeforethe NBA draft, AJ Dybantsa’sFather’sDay message to his dad apparently wasn’tone.

ä NBA Draft round 1, 7P.M.TUESDAy

In the ﬁrst of two picturesthat went alongwiththe posting on X, Anicet Dybantsa(“Ace”) is holdingyoung AJ in front of theWhite House. The White House, of course,isinWashington, D.C., the homeofthe team that has the No. 1pick on Tuesday night. ButDybantsa wasn’t revealing anything aboutthe Wizards’ intentions. He wasjust trying to avoidrevealingtoo much of himself “Actually,itwas just arandom photo that I found,”Dybantsa said Monday.“Iwas going to do one and I was ababy,but Iwas naked, so Ididn’t want to do that one. So the next one to the right just happened to be in front of

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JULIO CORTEZ

Lionel Messi, center,ofArgentina scores the openinggoal during the WorldCup Group Jsoccer match against Austria in Arlington, Texas, on Monday

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO ByJULIO CORTEZ

LionelMessi, front, of Argentinacelebrates with Leandro Paredes after scoring his side’ssecond goal duringthe WorldCup Group J match against Austria in Arlington,Texas, on Monday.

Rod Walker

See WALKER, page 3C

Dybantsa

STAFF PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD

JoeHornscores atouchdown in the second quarter, giving himthe Saints’ record, against the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 29, 2006, at the Superdome. Hornis goinginto the Louisiana Sports HallofFame.

Michigan coach May heads to Mavs

Boynton promoted to interim coach

BY SCHUYLER DIXON AP sportswriter

DALLAS The Dallas Mavericks and Dusty May of national champion Michigan are finalizing a deal for the coach to make the jump from college to the NBA, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Monday

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal wasn’t completed. May and the Wolverines won their first NCAA championship since 1989 with a 69-63 victory over UConn in April to wrap up a 34-3 season. They opened the NCAA Tournament by becoming the first team ever to score at least 90 points in five consecutive games. That came three years after May led Florida Atlantic to its only Final Four appearance. The Owls returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2024 before May was hired by Michigan.

The 49-year-old May replaces Jason Kidd who was let go two weeks after Masai Ujiri was hired as president of basketball operations and alternate governor of the Mavericks.

He comes to the NBA with a chance to mold 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick and reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg. Veteran star Kyrie Irving is also on the roster for now after missing the entire 2025-26 season following an ACL tear in March of last year May’s ﬁrst job as a college assistant was at Murray State in 2005-06. He then served on staffs at UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida before getting his ﬁrst head coaching job at Florida Atlantic.

The Owls went 35-4 during their dream season in 2022-23, which ended with a 72-71 loss to San Diego State in the national semiﬁnals when Lamont Butler hit a buzzer-beating shot for the Aztecs.

“I was a fan of Dusty’s when he was at FAU,” said Yaxel Lendeborg, who played for May at Michigan and is expected to be a lottery pick in the ﬁrst round of the NBA draft on Tuesday night.

“And now, after playing for him,

I’m a bigger fan. I have so much respect for Dusty May, I can’t even tell you.”

Lendeborg said at last month’s draft combine that he believed May ran Michigan’s program like an NBA program in many ways.

“A lot of schemes, a lot of switching and stuff. And his offense was very much a pro-style offense,” Lendeborg said. “We played fast-paced, physical, all of that. I’ve gained so much knowledge from him as far as those actions and just those little communication keys.”

May’s rise in coaching has been meteoric, particularly after the last four seasons.

He took over at Florida Atlantic in 2018 and had four consecutive seasons of ﬁnishing just over .500 before striking gold in the 2022-23 season, going 35-4 and taking the Owls on that improbable Final Four run.

May went 25-9 at FAU the following season, then went to Michigan and brought the Wolverines back to prominence.

He was 64-13 in his two seasons after replacing Juwan Howard with Michigan coming off an 8-24 season, the school’s lowest win total since going 7-20 in 1981-82.

Michigan went 27-10 in May’s debut, won the Big Ten Conference Tournament and made it to the NCAA Sweet 16.

May’s record in his last four college seasons was 124-26, an .827 winning percentage that was third best in all of major college men’s basketball over that span behind Houston’s Kelvin Sampson (.861) and Duke’s Jon Scheyer (.832).

The Indiana native was a student manager for the Hoosiers and coach Bob Knight while he was in school there from 19962000. He gained experience in scouting, video operations and player development while with the Hall of Fame coach, who died in 2023. After graduating from Indiana, May spent two seasons as an administrative assistant and video coordinator at Southern California He returned to the Hoosiers in similar roles from 2002-05.

Who is Mike Boynton?

Michigan chose to give Mike Boynton, a two-year assistant under May and a former Oklahoma State coach, another chance to lead a program.

The school is hoping continuity will help convince players on the

roster to stay out of the transfer portal.

Boynton recruited Cade Cunningham to play for the Cowboys in 2020 even though they were facing NCAA penalties from rule violations under a former assistant coach.

“There’s not a lot of coaches that would say, ‘Do what you want to do, I’m going to help you if you want to leave,’” Cunningham said at the time. He went on to be drafted No. 1 by the Detroit Pistons in 2021.

Two years ago, Boynton was ﬁred with a 119-109 record over seven seasons.

May said during the NCAA Tournament that his top assistant should get another shot.

“He’s an elite basketball coach,” May said in April. “He did a really good job at Oklahoma State, especially considering the circumstances.”

The 44-year-old Boynton, who is from New York, previously was an assistant with the Cowboys and Stephen F. Austin under current Illinois coach Brad Underwood.

Clark proves perfection isn’t needed for victory

BY EDDIE PELLS AP national writer

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y Long before he smashed the locker, won a single trophy or had any inkling he’d play in a U.S. Open one day, golf for Wyndham Clark was a test of patience, will and temperament.

So, perhaps it’s only right that for Clark to sew up his latest, sweetest triumph, he had to rescue himself from a potentially history making collapse — and do it in front of a New York crowd that, for the most part came out to Long Island to watch him fail.

Clark’s second U.S Open victory will be remembered as the one where he handled Shinnecock Hills and somehow salvaged a ﬁnalround Sunday that saw a six-shot lead at the start dwindle to a single, precious stroke by the end. It will also be remembered for the cheers when he missed shots, and for a winning, tap-in putt on the 18th green that was greeted with an awkward dribble of applause a strange reaction, especially given the hills Clark has had to climb to become a champion,.

“We’ve dealt with his anger issues since he was that high,” said Clark’s father, Randall, explaining the journey as he held his hand about hip high. “It’s because golf is not a game of perfection. And he wants to be perfect.” Clark, 32, was open about his struggles at his last U.S. Open victory in 2023, explaining his mother’s death 10 years earlier had left a scar and that the rage came out most viscerally in the aftermath of missed golf shots.

Wyndham Clark holds the trophy after winning the U.S Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.y. on Sunday.

His felt like a simple tale about overcoming obstacles and personal growth.

But that journey is never truly ﬁnished.

His demons came back into full view a year ago when he smashed a locker at Oakmont after missing the cut at the U.S. Open. He has since apologized and the suits at Oakmont, appalled at first, have moved on, as well.

The fans in New York clearly haven’t. It made for an awkward stroll across the course Sunday, where Clark was paired with topranked Scottie Schefﬂer Schefﬂer, trying to complete the career Grand Slam, likely would’ve been a fan favorite against anyone No problem there, he said, but even he found himself cringing at the cheers ringing out when Clark missed shots, which happened a lot on a front nine in which he shot 38 and saw his lead shrink to one. Clark’s winning moment came

on No. 16. Nursing the one-shot lead, he teed off into the deep fescue a horrendous lie, according to caddie-turned-TV analyst Jim “Bones” Mackay Clark made it look better than that, lashing into the fairway, then hitting an 8-iron that straightened out along the back of the green He nailed the 30-foot birdie putt his longest make of the day to give himself a two-shot lead over Sam Burns with two holes to play About a half-hour later, Clark two-putted from 50 feet on 18 to become a two-time winner instead of the player to blow the biggest 54hole lead in U.S. Open history The two-putt was reminiscent of the way he wrapped up his win three years ago at Los Angeles Country Club

So much has changed since then.

“It’s been part of every question in every interview for the last 12

LSU softball shortstop Edwards decides to stay

LSU softball shortstop Kylee Edwards has withdrawn her name from the NCAA transfer portal three days after entering it, she announced on social media Sunday

Edwards, a senior who transferred from Mississippi State last offseason, ranked second on the team with a .341 batting average, 10 home runs and 40 RBIs.

“After exploring my options, it’s clear there is nowhere I’d rather be than here at LSU with my teammates and coaches,” she wrote in the post. “The Purple and Gold will always be home for me. The fans, the place, the people - some things you can never let go of.”

Eight other LSU players have entered the portal from the 2026 squad that reached the super Regionals, where it lost to Alabama.

Reds shortstop De La Cruz expected to return from IL

CINCINNATI Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz is expected to be reinstated from the injured list Tuesday after missing 19 games with a strained right hamstring, manager Terry Francona said Monday De La Cruz took batting practice prior to Monday night’s series opener against the ﬁrst-place Brewers.

He made three rehab starts for Triple-A Louisville going 2 for 8 with a home run and two RBIs. After homering in his ﬁrst rehab start on Friday, De La Cruz texted Francona, “Be there tomorrow” but the Reds didn’t want to rush things.

De La Cruz left the May 31 game against the Atlanta Braves with right hamstring tightness after he had a base hit in the ﬁfth inning.

Young agrees to 4-year extension with Wizards

Trae Young has agreed to a fouryear extension with the Washington Wizards, one that would be worth about $212 million if he picks up the ﬁnal year of the deal. The fourth year of the agreement is at Young’s option, said the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Wizards had not revealed the terms. Young will make around $49 million this coming season.

The deal is part of what could be a big week for the Wizards, who hold the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft that starts Tuesday night.

Young is averaging 25.1 points and 9.8 assists per game for his career The only other player to average at least 25 points and nine assists for the entirety of an NBA career is Oscar Robertson.

Pulisic returns to training with U.S. team after injury

months,” his dad said of the constant rehashing of the locker incident, all of which Clark has handled with patience. “I do think it’s gone on too long.” In response to Oakmont, Clark has paid for the repairs to the locker He has given money to charity and participated in anger-management courses. He did not feel much love on Long Island.

“A little disappointing,” said Randall Clark, who took a red-eye ﬂight from Denver to be there for the win. “At the same time, he’s a warrior He ‘bowed up and said ‘I’m going to ﬁgure this out and still get through.’ It’s too bad. We’ve seen this before in the New York area with the Ryder Cup.”

But this was no Ryder Cup, the likes of which was marred by unruly behavior from the New York fans last year at Bethpage.

Clark conceded he heard it all and concluded, “man, they definitely don’t want me to win.”

All he could do, though, was turn to his caddie and laugh, especially when they heard from one of those rare fans who were actually pulling for him.

Now, the question is will this show of grit in the face of adversity give Clark a fresh start? Or will it always be about the locker and some meltdown lurking around every corner?

“I sure hope it closes the door on it,” he said “I ﬁgured in my mind that this would maybe be the last time just because it’s one year removed. I’ll probably always get (those questions). But I hope I don’t become the heel of the PGA.

“I guess if I am, any press is good press, right?”

IRVINE, Calif Christian Pulisic returned to training with his U.S. teammates on Monday after missing their most recent match of the World Cup with a calf injury

Pulisic participated in warmups and ball drills during the 15 minutes of practice open to the media in Orange County The team gave no formal update on the status of the AC Milan midﬁelder, who has been limited to one dynamic half of play in the unbeaten Americans’ home World Cup.

Pulisic didn’t play in the Americans’ 2-0 victory over Australia in Seattle last Friday He played the ﬁrst half of their tournamentopening victory over Paraguay catalyzing two of the U.S. team’s three goals in the ﬁrst half of a historic 4-1 win.

Vondrousova

gets 4-year ban for refusing test

Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova was suspended for four years on Monday for refusing an anti-doping test, the latest high-proﬁle player sanctioned.

The Czech cited “mental stress” and fear when the testing agent “rang my door late at night without properly identifying themselves.” The International Tennis Integrity Agency made the announcement, saying Vondrousova refused a test in December and the maximum four-year ban for a routine first offense was reached by an independent tribunal following a hearing this month.

Vondrousova became Wimble-

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By LON HORWEDEL

Michigan head coach Dusty May talks with the media after a win over Michigan State in Ann Arbor, Mich., on March 8. May is leaving the Wolverines for the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA.

Boynton

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By SETH WENIG

Jordan gets more upfront moneyindeal

BY MATTHEW PARAS and RASHADMILLIGAN Staff writers

The details for Cam Jordan‘s new contract are in.

After aresurgent 2025 season that saw him record double-digit sacks for the first time in four years, Jordan signed aone-year, $7.5 million contract with the New Orleans Saints last week —anupfront increase over the pay cut he took last year

Jordan’s new deal contains aoneyear,$1.35 million base salary and a prorated signing bonus worth $6.15 million. Thedeal contains fouryears to spread out Jordan’scap hit, which is $2.58 million in 2026. The contract voids the following year and is set to leave $4.9 million in dead money

Jordan’scontract, like his last one, includes incentives that could make it worth up to $11 million Jordan is coming off arestructured contract that was initially worth $6.05 million for one year.But based on incentives, Jordan earned an additional $2 million after he led the Saints with 101/2 sacks With hisnew deal,Jordan earned more money before the season begins and has the chance tosurpass the total he earned last year

The Saintsand Jordan did not reacha deal untilJune16, two months after his previous contract expired. Jordan saidtherewere a “coupleofbumps that got cleared up recently” to help facilitate adeal. “In any negotiation, there’salways going to be things that you want andcan get through,” Jordan said. “When it comes down to it,it’slifestyle. It’sthe idea that I(can) play for the same team my entire career There’snoamount of money in the league that says, ‘Hey,just turn your back on everything that youbuilt,’ ” Jordan hassaid he intends forhis 16th season with the Saints tobe the last of his career Top100

If Jordan’snew contract is asign

HOF

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practice squads before getting a big break with the Memphis Mad Dogs in 1995.

Flashing speed and shiftiness, Horn piled up 71 catches for 1,415 yards with along of 90, averaging 19.9 yards per reception on the way to earning CFL SouthernAll-Star honors.

But the CFL’s South of the Border experiment failed because of ﬁnancial woes and poor attendance, which meant players had to head north to continue their careers.

ThenumbersHornput up in Memphis led the Chiefs to take a ﬁfth-roundﬂier on Horn with the 135th overallpick.

It was vindication for Horn, who took acall from Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer welcominghim to the NFL.

Nicknamed “Hollywood” for his ﬂashy clothesinthe locker room and swagger on the ﬁeld, Hornwas willing to do anything to stayin the league. So, in his third season in 1998, he switched to defensive back. When aChiefs wideout went down with an injury in apreseason game, however,Horn went in at wide receiver Acatch on ago-route prompted Schottenheimertogive hisreceivers coach adirective: “‘Put Joe Horn at wide receiver,and don’t you change him,’ ”Horn recalled him saying. “That’swhen IknewI wasn’tgoing to be cut.”

Ayear later,Horn had 35 receptions, 586 yards and six TDs. Butas an impendingfree agent, his bid for abig payday from the Chiefsnever materialized.

Horn woundupinNew Orleans as the second UFAsigned by the new Saints regime led by general managerRandy Mueller and coach Jim Haslett after they picked up veteran quarterback Jeff Blake. It didn’t hurtthat new offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy was the Chiefs quarterbackscoach during Horn’sﬁrst three years in Kansas City So did Mueller,who was the Se-

SAINTS NOTEBOOK

of respect, the pass rusher is also receiving it from his peers.

The36-year-old was named to the NFL’s Top100 players listMonday at No. 100.

In atwo-minute video released by the NFL, ArizonaCardinals tight end Trey McBride,New York Giants pass rusher KayvonThibodeaux andformerBaltimore Ravens linebacker

Kyle VanNoy explained whythey hold Jordan in such highregard

“Cam Jordan —that dude just ﬁnds away,” VanNoy said. “He’s evolved his game andhe’sreally, really goodatwhathedoes.”

Added Thibodeaux: “He don’t carewhatthe clock say,what the time say.He’sgoing to keep going. Whetherit’shis last snap, or his ﬁrst snap, he’sgoing to go,he’sgoing to do it the right way.”

Since2011, the year the liststarted,2025was the firsttimezero Saints were featured. Jordan being No. 100 avoids a2026 repeat.

Datesset

Saints coach Kellen Moore wanted histeam to have joint practices against three teams this summer, and he got his wish.

Now,those dateshavebeen ﬁnalized.

The Saints will host the Jacksonville Jaguars at their team facility in Metairieon Aug.13. The team will then head to California to practice againstthe DallasCowboys in Oxnard on Aug. 18 andthe Los AngelesRams on Aug. 20.

“It’llbegreat work,” Mooresaid during mandatory minicamp.

The Jaguars will visit ahead of their Aug.15 preseason game against New Orleans, while the Saintswill get two joint practices in before theirAug.22preseason contest against the Rams.

Thedates were unveiled Monday as part of aleague releasethatalso ﬁnalizedthe start of training camp for teams. The Saints’rookies and veterans will report on July 28, with camp to begin the next day

EmailMatthewParas at matt. paras@theadvocate.com

attle Seahawksvicepresident of footballoperations when his team faced Horn and the Chiefs twice a year Horn didn’tdomuch in his ﬁrst three seasons against theSeahawks. But late in the 1999 season, he had a76-yard TD —the longest gain of his 12-year NFL career andhad 92 yards on threereceptions with Mueller watchingfrom thepress box.

Mueller said theSaintsneeded the skills Horn possessed to rebuild afranchise that had sufferedsix consecutive losing seasons—capped by a3-13 mark in 1999.

When Horn’scareer blossomed with 94 receptions for1,340 yards and eight TDs, theSaintswon 10 games and theNFC West title and shocked thereigning Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams forthe franchise’sfirst playoff victory Horncontinuedtorack up big numbers, catching 80 or more passes and pilingupatleast 1,250 yards in four of hisfirstfive seasons in New Orleans —earning Pro Bowl berthsin2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004. In those five years, he set numerousclub records while averaging 87 catches, 1,257 yards and nine TDsinplaying 79 of apossible 80 games.

Knownfor hiscrowd-pleasing touchdown celebrations, Horn had amemorableone when he pulled in thesecond of acareer-high four scores in a45-7 rout of the New York GiantsonDec.14, 2003.

Upon reachingthe endzone, Horn reached under the goalpost’s padding and retrieved acellphone to keep apromise to his children.

“Since it was aSunday night game, my kids couldn’tgo,”said Horn,who was fined$30,000 by the NFL for the stunt. “When Iwas leavingthe house,theywere yelling and crying, so Isaid,‘I’ll call you.’ Ihad to saysomething because Ihad to go.”

By thetime nagging injuries took atollonHorninhis ﬁnal two seasons with the Saints, he had a club-record27100-yard receiving gamesand was second in receptions (523), yards receiving (7,622) and TDs (50).

MESSI

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and Lionel Messi showed us today that he’sone of the best,and he is thebest.”

There hadbeen agasp from thosesame fans when Messi missed the penalty kickinthe ninthminute.

His left-footed attempt went just wide of the right post. He is now4of7onpenalty kicks in regulation play at the World Cup withmisses in threeconsecutive tournaments

Klose played in 24 WorldCup matches for Germany,which

wrappeduphis fourthtournamentbywinning the 2014 ﬁnal 1-0 in extra timeover Messi and Argentina. In an interview published on June 12, Klose said he expected Messi to break thescoring record.

“Withthe larger ﬁeld of competingteams thereare more games and so morechances to scoregoals. And Iassume Argentina and France will go far,” Klose told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “That’s perfectly OK,the record will be broken eventually anyhow andMessi is welcome to be the one who does it. I’m abig fan of Messi, always have been. Messi

is agenius.”

Messi’shat trick in the previous game, in his 200th international appearance, came 20 years to thedate of his WorldCup debut in Germany,when he also scored. Monday was his FIFA-record 28th match in the tournament. The penalty kick cameafter Lautaro Martinez was running free in the box and was tackled from behind by Xaver Schlager andStefan Posch,the defender playing with abroken jaw Play continued formore than a minute with Martinez still on the ground near the goal. When the gamewas stopped forhim, ofﬁcialsreviewed the playand called the penalty

WALKER

Continuedfrom page1C

Here are ﬁvereasons for local fans to watch thedraft Anotherdraft surprise?

Joe Dumars, thePelicans executive vice president of basketball operations, said two days after the season ended that the Pelicanscould possibly trade back intothe ﬁrst round of the draft.Ifthe Pelicansdothat, it meansthey have identiﬁed a player in this strong draft class that they really covet.

The best guess is that it would be abig man,the one position that is the team’sbiggest need. Michigan center Aday Mara would be ideal, but he is expected to be alottery pick. The Pelicans will have to give up alot to movethat high in thedraft.One thingweknow is that Dumars putsfull trust in right-hand man Troy Weaver,the Pelicanssenior vice president of basketball operations.

“Troy’sabilitytoidentify talent in this league is elite,” Dumars said last June. If there is player that Weaver wants, thePelicanscould do whatever it takes to go get him.

Moving on

If thePelicans end up in the ﬁrst round, it meansthey are willing to move on from one (or more) of their key pieces. That’swhat it’s going to take.

While it wouldn’tbeasign of a full rebuild, it would be acontinuation of ayouth movement that started with last year’stwo ﬁrst-round draft picks: Jeremiah Fearsand Derik Queen.

NBA

Continuedfrom page1C

theWhiteHouse.”

There’sastrong possibilityDybantsa is headed back to Washington. The 6-foot-9 forward from Bostonled the nation with 25.5 points per gameinhis lone seasonatBYU and has drawn comparisons with his size and skills to Kevin Durant, whoisDybantsa’s favorite player

The Wizardsalsocould consider other players from astrong group of one-and-done stars, including Darryn Peterson of Kansas, college player of the year Cameron Boozer of Duke or forward Caleb Wilson fromNorth Carolina. Behindthem are anumber of talented scoring guards.

“I think this draft, top to bottom, is elite. Ithink you look at guys even outside of thetop group, guys in the16-to-20 range, those are all great players,” Boozer said. “I think our draft is really strong, strongerthan alot of classes thatcame before us. I guess we’ll see how strong we really are in acouple of years from now, but Iamsuperexcited,for sure.”

The Utah Jazz has theNo. 2 pick, followed by the Memphis Grizzlies andChicagoBulls.As-

Before last week, Dumars was gettingseveral inquiries about Trey Murphy and Herb Jones, two staples on theteam. But according to sources, what other teams were offering wasn’t enticing the Pels. Perhaps those conversations have picked up over the past fewdays.

Moving on from afan favorite such as Murphy or adefensive stopper such as Jones would get aheavy share of criticism, especially in exchange foran unproven draftpick. It would, however,also say the franchise isn’tjust running the sameteam back from aseason ago. It’s a risky move, but one to keep an eye on.

NBAAll-RookieTeamtrend

While Dumarstook alot of heat last year forgiving up the 2026 ﬁrst-round pick to draft Queen, the overall draftwas a success. Fearsand Queen both were named to the second team of the All-Rookie Team, showing some promise forthe future. The Pelicans also drafted Micah Peavy in the secondround and he was a contributor,playing in 61 games with four starts. The year before that, center Yves Missi madethe All-Rookie Team. Continuing a run of identifying quality talent is how you build winning teams.

Second-round gem

It’shard to get excited about the58th overall selection, which is the only pick the Pelicans have in the draft. Alate second-round pick may not last past the Summer League roster The Pelshave hit on secondround draftpicks before. In addition to Peavy in 2025, they got Jones early in the second

suming thefourforwards areall gone by then, theLos Angeles Clippers at No. 5would have the first choice among the likes of KeatonWagler of Illinois,Darius Acuff of Arkansas, Kingston Flemings of Houston or Mikel Brown of Louisville.

Dybantsa, with his strong resume against topcompetition, is obviously hard to pass up. But the Wizardsalso have to weigh Peterson’spotential against what he was able to deliver at Kansas.

AMcDonald’sAll-American in high school, he averaged 20.2 pointslastseasonasone of the top recruits ever landed by the Jayhawks. Butthere areplenty of questions when it comes to his availability.Peterson dealt with full-body cramping issues before the season thatled to abrief hospitalization, and other injuries and illnesses kept him from playing in 11 gameswhile limiting him in several others.

The 6-5 guard said teams haven’tshown any concerns about his health.

“Not at all,” he said. “Every team’sgot my medicals and I’m cleared, so there’snoissues.”

He doesn’t seem stressed about notknowing where he’sheaded after draft night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“Oh, it’sbeen my life forawhile now,”Petersonsaid. “I wentto

round in 2021. They drafted Karlo Matkovic with the 52nd overall pick ayear later.The Pels have also found some undrafted free agent gems such as Jose Alvarado and Naji Marshall. So it’spossible to ﬁndsometalent late in the draft. The Pels hosted the following players for workouts last week, according to areport by The Athletic: Maliq Brown(Duke), Malik Dia(Ole Miss), Xavian Lee (Florida), JJ Starling (Syracuse) and Peter Suder (Miami(Ohio)). Alocal player,former Carver standout Solomon Washington (Maryland), also had aworkout with the team.

Otherlocal players

Twoplayers who played their high school ball in the greater New Orleans are expected to hear their names called.

ChrisCenac, a6-foot-11 forward, played two seasons at Newman in Uptown New Orleans. The LaPlace native ﬁnished his career at Link AcademyinMissouri before playing one season at the University of Houston. He led Houston with 7.9 rebounds per game and helped the Cougars reach the Sweet 16.

Twoyears ago, Allen Graves was finishing up his high school career at Ponchatoula High School on his way to being named Louisiana’sMr. Basketball. After redshirting his first season at SantaClara, he averaged 11.8 points per game and was named both Freshman of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year in the West Coast Conference. Both Cenac and Graves are expected to go in the first round.

threedifferent high schools. I’ve been on the move my entire life, so no problem at all. That’spart of the process and I’membracing it.”

The host Nets have the No. 6 pick, hoping to generate some buzz in acity where they’ve never felt less significant after the Knicks won their first NBA championship since 1973. Dybantsa wasatGame4at Madison Square Garden —the other photo with his father was taken at the NBA Finals —when the Knicks made the biggest finals comeback on record by erasing a29-point deficit.

“Craziest game I’ve ever watched in real life,” he said. “Like, it wassoloud in there.”

NowDybantsa is looking forward to being the player creating the cheers. The Wizards’ title drought is almost as long as the Knicks’ was, having last won in 1978 when they werestill known as the Bullets. If they tab Dybantsa as the playerwho can turn them around, he’sready forthe expectations.

“Obviously,it’sgoing to be a little bit morepressure probably, target on my back,” Dybantsa said. “I mean, I’ve been No. 1my whole lifeand people gunning after me, so it’d be abigger motivation for me going into the league.”

STAFFFILE PHOTOByBRETT DUKE

Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears, left, slaps handswithcenter Derik Queen after Fears made a3-pointer against the Utah Jazz at the Smoothie King Center on April7

Former Comeaux AD hired as boys hoops coach at Acadiana

BY ERIC NARCISSE Staff writer

With Comeaux High closing, Spartans coaches along with athletes have been looking for their next landing spot.

After six years at Comeaux, Montrelle Taylor, the Spartans athletic director and boys basketball coach, has found his. Taylor has been named the boys basketball coach at Acadiana High, replacing former Rams coach Ahmad Onezime.

“I’m very excited about this opportunity,” Taylor said. “Acadiana High is a place where all my family — mom, aunties and cousins — graduated from. I’m very grateful for the opportunity.”

A 2010 graduate of Lafayette High, Taylor, who was part of the Lions’ 2008 state championship team, went on to play at Talladega

(Alabama) College. Prior to coaching at Comeaux, Taylor served as the head basketball coach at Centerville for two years.

“Acadiana High is a pivotal program in Lafayette Parish,” Taylor said. “It’s only moving up and it’s only getting better We know Acadiana for football and we know it for how great it is. I think with my coaching skills and with me being from the area that I’ll be able to elevate (the basketball program).”

In his career, Taylor has led teams to the playoffs four times — two times each at Comeaux and Centerville. When asked what can be expected of teams led by him, Taylor quickly responded “we play hard.”

“The No. 1 thing they can expect is a team that will play hard,” Taylor said. “They can expect our players to be disciplined and for us to hold our kids accountable. The

last couple of years we have been down in talent, so we had to do the small things to have a chance to win. We might not have been the biggest or the fastest, but anyone who has ever seen my kids play knows they play hard.”

Among the things Taylor, who is taking over a program that went 1217 last season, is looking forward to having at Acadiana is an improved pool of talent to choose from

“My ﬁrst two to three years at Comeaux, I had enough talent to compete with anybody But the last couple of years, that wasn’t the case,” Taylor said. “At Acadiana High, you know you’re going to get athletes, and we’ll also have feeder schools. So, being able to have athletes, I think the sky will be the limit.”

Email Eric Narcisse at enarcisse@theadvocate.com.

Cape Verde’s sights set on round of 32

BY TIM REYNOLDS Associated Press

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Here’s something very few could have reasonably expected coming into this World Cup: Cape Verde controls its own destiny with one match left in group play

That’s right. With a win on Friday against Saudi Arabia, the tiny nation of about 500,000 people and about 15 million new Instagram followers will be headed to the round of 32. Even a draw might be — should be — enough to earn a spot in the knockout round. The Blue Sharks were long shots entering the World Cup; some books had them at no better than 12% to advance from the group stage. They’re currently favored to move on.

“It’s in our hands,” defender Roberto Lopes said. “We have to go and take it.” A pair of draws — ﬁrst against Spain to begin group play, then rallying for a 2-2 result against Uruguay on Sunday — has Cape Verde still searching for its ﬁrst win in its initial World Cup appearance. Still, the team is in an ideal position. Spain leads Group H with four points. Uruguay and Cape Verde are next with two points each, while Saudi Arabia is last with one point. The top two teams from each group advance to the round of 32 along with the top eight third-place teams in the 12 groups.

A win over Saudi Arabia by Cape Verde would give it five points; it would then be mathematically certain to be no worse than second in the group. A draw would give the team three points; that, combined with a Spain win over Uruguay, would also assure a second-place finish in group play

“One game at a time,” Cape

SCOREBOARD

6:10 p.m. L.A. Dodgers (Wrobleski 8-2) at Minnesota (Ryan 5-3), 6:40 p.m. Arizona (Rodriguez 6-2) at St. Louis (Leahy 5-4), 6:45 p.m. Boston (Gray 8-1) at Colorado (Sullivan 0-1) 7:40 p.m. Atlanta (Ritchie 1-2) at San Diego (Canning 1-5), 8:40 p.m. Athletics (Civale 5-3) at San Francisco (Ray 5-6), 8:45 p.m.

Verde backup goalkeeper CJ dos Santos said. “This is just another challenge for us.”

There is a real chance that if Cape Verde beats Saudi Arabia, its reward would be a round of 32 game against Lionel Messi and reigning World Cup champion Argentina. And the interest in that game would be overwhelming, if it happened. On one side, there would be Messi, the biggest draw in the sport and possibly the biggest draw right now in any sport. On the other, there would be a team that the world seems to have adopted — the improbable story, replete with a 40-year-old goalkeeper whose mother needed help just to obtain a visa and ﬂy to the U.S. to watch her son play on soccer’s grandest stage.

More than half of the team was born somewhere other than Cape Verde; Kevin Pina, who scored against Uruguay, spent part of his youth living in Massachusetts, which has the largest concentration of the Cape Verdean diaspora in the U.S.

That stems from how in the 1800s, Cape Verdeans found work on American whaling vessels in the Atlantic and eventually settled in port cities in states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

“We come from a country of immigrants,” Cape Verde coach Bubista said. “We want every child and every young person to feel proud to represent their country We want our success to make them want to represent Cape Verde.”

The team has worked hard The round of 32 is very possible now A tiny country with big hopes is poised for its biggest sports moment.

“Now nobody can ask, ‘Where is Cape Verde?’ ” said 22-year-old soccer fan Micaelle Nunes. “The whole world will know.”

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

Former Comeaux head coach Montrelle Taylor has been hired as the new head boys basketball coach at Acadiana High.

sink

Stay on topof difficult-to-control torpedograss.

Herbicides arethe go-to, says scientist

When the subject of torpedograsscomes up, some folks can’tresist responding with a little humor.The best way to get rid of this reviled weed, they advise, is to stick a“for sale” sign in your yard. That may be taking thingsa bit far.But there is agrain of truth in this joke.

“It’sone of the most problematicand difﬁcult grass weeds to control in Louisiana,” said Colton Blankenship, ahorticulture weed scientist at the LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station.

It’snearly impossible to eradicate torpedograssonce it hasestablished in yourlawn or garden —but there are things you can do to keep the fast-growing weed from taking over,Blankenship said.

For starters, you need to know how to identify torpedograsssoyou can take action as soon as you spot it.

Torpedograss (Panicum repens)isa perennial, warmseason weed that thrives in wet conditions, even tolerating standing water.Ithas adistinctive, blue-gray color that stands out in the landscape. Its stems and leaves are stiff, and you’ll sometimes see hairs along leaf sheaths.

LSU AGCENTERPHOTO

By OLIVIA McCLURE

Torpedograss is notoriously difficult to control. It can be identified by its uniqueblue-gray color and aggressivegrowth habit.

More often, however,the plant’sgrowthhabit is what gives it away “It’svery likely to be taking over an area,” Blankenship said.

“You’re very unlikely to ﬁnd just asmall amount of torpedograss.”

The weed has sharplypointed rhizomes that resemble torpedoes —hence its name.

“This is what helps it spread underground and becomesuch aproblem in the landscapesetting,” Blankenship said. “It can go for very great distances, just tunneling through everything that might stand in its way.Ifyou cut these rhizomes up, they’regoing to regenerate into brand-new plants.”

It’simportant to avoiddoing anything that might break up and spread those rhizomes.

Tilling your garden space, for example, would be abad idea if torpedograss is present. Moving soil from torpedograssinfested areas also wouldbe ill-advised. Because it anchors into the soil using rhizomes, torpedograss is hard to hand-pull. To keep populations in check, herbicides are the way to go, Blankenship said. Just make sure you have realistic expectations.

“A lot of the herbicides we have available,especiallyin landscape beds, may suppress ä See WEED, page 6C

FRIDGE BENEFITS

BY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

After thecommunity fridge on Government Street wascompletely redone in June, anew campaign callsoneveryone in Baton Rouge to beat thesummer’sfood scarcity Located at 2303 Government St., the community fridge was knocked down and replaced with two new fridges, apantry,roof and walls. The fridge is located next to and operated by TheRed Shoes, alocal nonproﬁt and center for spiritual growth.Localﬁgures and organizations joined forces to make theupgrade happen. It was completed right in time for Fill theFridge of July,acampaign ledbyThe RedShoes thatcalls on Baton Rouge businesses, organizations and individuals to schedule aday in July and stock thefridge withfood. The goal is to have 31

BYMADDIE SCOTT Staff writer After Sammy’sGrill on Highland Road closed earlier this month, anew tenantwith afamiliar face is movingin. Willie Chapman, owner of Willie’sRestaurant

days pledged, said associatedirector of The Red Shoes Dorcas Brandon. All slots have been scheduled. “School is out, and many kids in Louisianasuffer from food insecurity,”Brandon said. “Since they’re not in school, where’sthat meal coming from? Well, what we can do is makesure that there’s something in that fridge every day in themonth of July.”

Building thefridge Before,the community fridge wasfacing west, toward the sun, and the metal roofalsomeant that the appliance and pantry weren’t optimally cold. Brandonknewit needed an upgrade, and she leaned on her immediatenetwork by making phone calls. That eventually led her to Jhonn Jackson, acontent creator in the Baton Rouge area known online as Uncle Jhonnwith2.5 million

followers

PROVIDED PHOTOS Volunteers stock the pair of newfridges at The Red Shoes on June 4.

Jhonn Jackson, left,worksonthe newcommunity fridge at The Red Shoes next to First Tuesdayfounder StuartGilly on June 2.

Privatepropertybadly needsa fence

Dear Miss Manners: The Fourth of July is quickly approaching. Every year,due to my home being in close proximitytothe city’sﬁreworks display,I am bombarded with uninvited visitors. Idoinvite some friends over,but I spend the evening chasing trespassers off my property How do Ipolitely tell people in advance that I do not want smoking or alcoholic beverages on my property? The smoking is just because Idon’tlike the habit.The alcohol is because my teen invites friends over,and Ialsodonot want the responsibility for people overdoing it. In the past, people

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

have just shown up with whole coolers of beer without asking. Gentle reader: Do you have a fence? Apparently you needone,with aspeciﬁc entrance. And at that entrance, youseem to need a bouncer. This neednot be aburly bully who sizes up wardrobes andcoiffures to decidewho would best decorateyour party.Miss Mannerssuggeststhat you ask for teenage volunteers to rotate manning thegate and saying politely,“I’m sorry; this is aprivate party,” “Please leave your liquor in yourcar” and “This is ano-smokingarea.” This may requiresome rehears-

als, but surely thebragging rights of having been bouncerswill compensate them for doing this duty.

Dear Miss Manners: There are so manyetiquette rules stiﬂing the truth. You’re not allowed tosay that you had aterrible time at a party, that someone is ugly,that you hated agift, etc.

Don’tyou believe in free speech?

Gentlereader: Of course Miss Manners, an American and ajournalist,believes in free speech. She also believes in having the good sense to realize that you don’talways need to exercise it. Andthat is because she also believes in maintaining the peace.

Dear Miss Manners: Ioften social-

FRIDGE

Continued from page5C

focus on DIY construction, landscaping, home improvement projects and oftentimes, helping the community Jackson built the community fridge with hiscrew over the course of four days He partnered with Lowe’s, which is what provided the fridges and building materials, and efforts were also joined by First Tuesday, a localnonproﬁt that teamsup with businesses to accomplish acommunityinitiative eachmonth

Jackson posted avideo about the project on his social media, which currently has over24,000 likes on Instagram.Inthe video, he said the experience had an impact on him, specifically seeing people come by with their childrengrabbing sandwiches out of the fridge.

“The people here appear to be working-class people, and some of them appear to be homeless, but amajority of them had kids with them,” he said in the video.

“The world has abused all of us so much that sometimes we think when people don’t have nothing to eat, they just ain’tworking hard enough. But y’all, it’salways adeeper reason why,and to be honest, thatain’tnone of our business, because Ibelieve if somebody is hungry, and

OPENING

Continued from page5C

CourseyBoulevard in 2015

Seventeen years into operat-

ing Willie’sRestaurant, the Historic Highland Road Grill is Chapman’snewest project.

we got it, we might as well feed them.”

His crew stocked it with goods like macaroni and cheese cups, canned vegetables, rice, ramen and toothpaste. Thenew structure hasafresh layer of red paintand some signs, oneof which reads“Give what you can.Take what you need.”

Throughout thefew days of construction,The Red Shoes staff felta boost of energy and anticipation. Brandon found herself peaking out thewindow to see the developments.

“There isthisair of excitement, you know? Seeing neighbors walk by and see the excitement in their eyes,” Brandon said Coming together

Severalbusinesseshave pledged to fill the fridge in July,including Parish Pets,Cheba Hut,Red Stick Reads, Center for Planning Excellence andmore. So haveindividualssuch as Brandon and her friend, Yolanda Brown-Matthews, andthey’re viewing it as an opportunityto hang out for aday while cooking red beans, baked chicken and cornbread

“Right now,people are going through some hard times,”saidHeather Sewell Day,owner of Red Cake Events. “Things are expensive. Gas is expensive. I thinkmorethanever, people needalittle help in the heat of thesummer.”

Red Cake Events has par-

ticipated in Fill the Fridge of July every year since the campaign startedin2023.

Located at 2897 Government St.(between BR.cade andSimple Joe Cafe), the business coordinates events from galas to anniversaries to festivals, and it pledged to ﬁll thefridge on July 7.

Sewell Day has seenﬁrsthand how much thecommunityrelies on this resource.

“When you put things in this fridge,itisgonewithin the hour,” Sewell Daysaid.

“I don’tknowabout other community fridges andoutlets, but this one is very well known, and things are gone immediately.”

Red Cake Events shares an office space with Time Warp, so their staffjoins in too, andSewellDay is friends with theowner of Bayou Sarah Farm, which has pitched in things like eggs and blueberries.

“Now the fridges are multiplying,” she said. “So there’s room to put even moreinthere.”

Sewell Day has enjoyed seeingthiscampaigngrow over the past few years, and she thinks Brandon does a great job at encouraging businesses to join theeffort. Even though all days in July have been pledged, donationsare still encouraged.

“I love having adedicated day for us to really rile up the troops and allour supporters and friends,”Sewell Day said, “and ask themto help outand make the fridge full and fat.”

ize with amarried couple Ihave known for afew years. They are lovely people, but both of them have ahabit I’mnot fond of. Whenever I’malone with one of them, theycomplain incessantly about their spouse. Once, the wife proceeded to inform me of an argument they’d had just before Igot to their home, while the husband was walking in and out of theroom and undoubtedly could hear her Iwas too embarrassed to tell her to stop and just sat looking like adeer caught in headlights, hoping the husband knew Ihad not solicited the information in theﬁrst place. Ithink that what goes on in a marriage should be kept between

the spouses, not aired out to friends and acquaintances. How do Ipolitely say Iwould prefer not to hear the details of their marriage without giving offense?

Gentle reader: “I’m sorry to hear this. Youknow I’msofond of you both. But Ishould warnyou that I have trouble keeping secrets —I ﬁgure that if people tell me something personal, they don’tcare if it gets around.”

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,MO 64106.

Dear Heloise: Apparently, there’struthtothe saying “You’re never really too old to learn new things.” Several monthsago, at the tender age of 77, Ilearned that I’d been purchasing the wrong type of toilet paper for decades. Iaccidentally purchased a no-frills, plain ol’ roll of single-ply toilet paper versus the multiply,quilted, supersoft stuff that I’d bought for years. Here’swhat Ifound out: For ourhousehold of two, asingle-ply roll costs less than $1 and lasts for eight full days. The quilted rolls, on the other hand, cost more than $1 and barely last for two days. That’sright —the single ply lastsfour times as long and costs far less than its

By The Associated Press

quilted cousin. Equally important is that there’s absolutely no difference in comfort and efﬁcacy when using the single-ply roll. —Richard Y.,in West Linn, Oregon Richard, according to my research, as single-ply roll of toilet paper can last up to 18 days fora single person —or possibly 4.3 days, assuming that there are ﬁve bathroom visits per day.For ahousehold, a two- or three-ply roll can last for1-2 days. Of course, the major factor is the number of people in the household and how many squares are used. Iuse single-ply because my plumbertoldmeto only use single-ply.He said thathesaw more cloggedpipeswith thicker

TODAYINHISTORY

to limit the power of organized labor

Today is Tuesday, June 23, the 174th day of 2026. There are 191 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Education Amendmentsof1972, including Title IX, which barred discrimination on thebasis of sex for “any education program or activity receiving Federal ﬁnancial assistance.”

Also on this date:

In 1888, abolitionist Frederick Douglass received one vote from theKentucky delegation at the Republican convention in Chicago, making him theﬁrst Black candidate to have his nameplaced in nomination for U.S. president.

In 1931, aviators Wiley Postand Harold Gattytook off from Roosevelt Field in New York on an aroundthe-world ﬂight that lasted eight days and 15 hours.

In 1947, theSenate joined theHouse in overriding President Harry S. Truman’sveto of the Taft-Hartley Act, designed

In 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States by his predecessor,Earl Warren.

In 1985, all 329 people on an Air India Boeing 747 werekilled when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland after a bombplanted by Sikh separatists exploded onboard.

In 1992, mob boss John Gotti was sentenced to life after being found guilty of murder,racketeering and other charges. (Gotti would die in prison in 2002.)

In 2013, daredevilNik Wallenda successfully completed a22-minute walk without asafety netorharness on atightropespanning theLittleColoradoRiver GorgeinArizona, near the Grand Canyon. Thequartermile crossing was seen by people worldwide via TV andonlinestreaming

In 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union after abitterly divisive referendum campaign, toppling PrimeMinister David Cameron, who led the drive to remain in the bloc.

paper. —Heloise A flying garden flag

DearHeloise: Ihope this hint will help other readers. Ilove having different themed garden flags on my fence on adrop-down rod. When the flags aren’tin use, Ican just fold the rod up. Unfortunately,onvery windy days, the flag would sometimes comeoff the rod. Itried using asafety pin and trying other ways of keeping it on the rod, like wrapping the flag around it. But nothing worked until Ifinally tried clipping the flag with asmall regal clip. NowIjust clip it on the middle of the rod, and there’snomore wrappedor lost flag. Love your column! —Gena, in Little Rock,Arkansas Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

In 2018, 12 young soccer players and their coach became trapped in aﬂooded cave in northern Thailand. All wereplucked to safety, emaciated but weary,after Thai navy SEALS began arescue operation more than twoweeks after the team becametrapped. In 2022, in amajor expansion of gun rights, the SupremeCourt said Americans have aright to carry ﬁrearmsinpublic forself-defense. Today’sbirthdays: Author Richard Bach is 90. Computer scientist Vint Cerf is 83. Actor Bryan Brownis 79. SupremeCourt Justice Clarence Thomas is 78. MusicianGlenn Danzigis 71. Actor Frances McDormand is 69. Golf Hall of Famer Colin Montgomerie is 63. Actor Selma Blairis 54. French soccer manager andformer player Zinedine Zidane is 54. Actor Joel Edgerton is 52. Singersongwriter Jason Mraz is 49. RapperMemphisBleek is 48. Actor Melissa Rauch (“The BigBangTheory”) is 46. Figure skater Alexandra Ignatovais22. Model and actor Laneya Grace is 22.

“I think everyone is slightly concerned that the history of that building is going to be changed,”hesaid. “That is just not going to happen.

WEED

Continued from page5C

“We’re going tohonor the history of the building, and I’mtrulyexcited to kind of give back life to what people really want.” The menu is still in the works, so details are limited.

Onething Chapmanknows forsureisthatthere will deﬁnitely be crawﬁsh.

it, but it’sgoing to be challenging to eliminateit, especiallywith just one application,” he said. “In alawn setting, there are some different herbicides available to suppress it, but it depends on your turfgrass species, so you’ve really got to check those labels.”

Thelarge staff at Willie’s Restaurant means staffing thenew spot should be easy

“We’ve got anice big staff, and I’m excited to provide them moreopportunity,” he said. “These guys have been working their tails off, and now there’sa little bit of fruit to their labor,soeverybody is ready to go.”

Formore information about torpedograss control strategies, visit lsuagcenter.com/torpedograss Blankenship said it takes regular herbicide applications —plustime and patience —tobring atorpedograss infestation down to a manageable level.

“There’sreally not avery effective way to completely eliminate torpedograss once it gets to anew location,which is why it’ssoimportant toprevent it from gettingthere in theﬁrst place,” he said.

Hints from Heloise

STAFF PHOTO By By MADDIE SCOTT

The community fridgeatThe Red Shoes was rebuilt from the ground up.

CANCER (June 21-July22) Questioneverything. Misinformation is likely if you aren'tdiligentaboutthefactsandfigures of any situation that crops up. Taking a risk that can affect your status quo can putyou in avulnerable position.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Put your energy to work foryou. Don'twaste timeondeadendprojects, users and situations that don't concern you or help you reach your objective. Pour your heart and soul into what's feasible.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Easy does it; don't try to buy love or favors. Honesty is the best policy.Say what's on your mind, andpursueyour goalswithout putting your health,wealthorreputationin jeopardy.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Choosetoobserve andestimate your next move. Think aboutthe possibilities, andfollowthe dotsuntilyougetaclearpictureofwhat's at stake. Refuse to let someone getaway with empty promises.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) An open discussion will revealwhereyou standwith someone andwhatyou candotomake things better.Put your energy into understanding and changing what is causing disruptions

SAGITTARIUS (Nov.23-Dec. 21) Spend more time at home or withloved ones.Surrounding yourself with the right people will help build confidence. Achange to howyou earn your living will boost your lifestyle

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Completion will help dodge criticism. Oversee your

plans,dowhatyousayandlookforopportunities to match andmirror thoseyou respect and love most. Put your energy whereitcounts.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Don'tsettle for less. If change is what you want, make it happen. Put together aroutine that is focused on how you look and feel about yourself. Exercise.

PISCES(Feb. 20-March 20) Gather your thoughts. You maynot relish change, but if an opportunity comes up thatrequires you to be resourceful andexplore possibilitiesyou haven't considered in the past, push forwardwithenthusiasm.

ARIES(March21-April 19) Useyour superpowers and diligence to winover those whoshowskepticism. Aprudent,disciplinedapproachtogettingwhatyouwant will pay off and change how you move forward professionally or financially.

TAURUS (April20-May 20) Build your strengthcarefully. Whether it's physical improvements, mental growth or both youwant to harness, having aroutine and plan in place will help you avoid unnecessary setbacks

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Listen, elaborate and consider what you can do without Decluttering your life mentally and physically will help you put things in perspective and encourage you to clear apaththat leads to asimpler lifestyle.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, pastand present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another. TODAy'S CLUE:Z EQUALS U CeLebrItY CIpher

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to place thenumbers 1to9 in the empty squaressothat each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontainsthe same number only once. Thedifficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS CurTiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Duffy Daugherty,who wasthe head football coach at MichiganState University from1954 to 1972, said, “Three things can happen when you put aball in the air—and two of them are bad.” In this deal, East hasthreepossible plays at trick one —and two of them are bad. South is in three no-trump. West leads theheart eight anddeclarer coverswithdummy’s10.Whichheartshould East play?

East made atwo-heart weak jump overcall, promising arespectable sixcardsuitand5-10high-cardpoints.South responded with anegative double, indicatingfourspades. North cue-bid three hearts to show game-forcing values and to ask South if he had aheartstopper for no-trump purposes. South starts with eight top tricks: one heart(giventhelead),fourdiamondsand three clubs. If clubs are 3-3, the contract is safe, but if that suit is not breaking favorably,declarer will have to score a spade trick.

If East wins the first trick with his heart ace and returnsthe suit, South willmake hiscontract. Suppose instead East plays his heart queen. South will get home if —admittedly abig if —hedoes not take the trick.

However, East should recall that when an opponent has only one stopper in the suit he is trying to establish, give that trick to the opponent as quickly as possible. East should signal enthusiastically with hisnine. Declarer wins, tries the clubs, cashes his diamonds, and turns to spades. But West grabs the trick, cashes his club jack and leads his second heart to defeat the contract.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

InstRuctIons: 1. Words mustbeoffourormoreletters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the additionof“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 HuMIDoRs: HYU-mih-dors: Cases in which theair is maintained at aproperlevel of moisture

Average mark14words

Time limit 25 minutes

Can you find22ormorewords in HUMIDORS?

YEstERDAY’s WoRD —BoonDocKs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

hidato

mallard fillmore

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Oil prices ease as Big Tech stocks fall

NEW YORK U.S. stocks drifted through amixed day of trading on Monday after oilprices eased and falling BigTech stocks weighed on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.4%, coming off its 11th winning week in the last 12, and pulled 1.8%below itsall-timehigh set early this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Averageadded 148points, or 0.3%, andthe Nasdaq composite slumped 1.3%.

In the oil market, pricesfell following talks over the weekend betweenthe United States and Iranontheir war.U.S. Vice President JD Vance said they created a“good foundation for asuccessful ﬁnal deal.”

An end to the war couldclear the Strait of Hormuz foroil tankers andallow for the undisputedresumption of deliveries from the PersianGulf. Iran’s military hadsaid Saturday that it closed the Strait of Hormuz again, though U.S. Central Command has disputed that.

The price for abarrel of Brent crude oil fell 3.2% to $77.52, closer to its roughly $70price from before the war.Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 2.6% to $73.86 perbarrel.

The lower oil prices, though, did not pull down Treasury yields in the bond market. Yields have been climbing because of speculation the Federal Reserve mayhike interest rates this year to keep alid on inflation,which has been accelerating because of expensiveoil caused by the Iran war.Economists expect areport on Thursday to show ameasure of inflation forU.S. consumers sped up to 4.1%in May from 3.8% in April. High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by worries about inflation are threatening to slow economies, andthey have alreadysentrates higher for mortgagesand other kinds of loans.

Mexico seeks to restart oil shipments to Cuba

MEXICO CITY Mexican PresidentClaudia Sheinbaum said Monday that her country seeks to restart oil shipments to Cuba soon, amove that couldprovidemuch-needed relief as the island’scrises deepen given a lack of petroleum.

Sheinbaum said her administration would seek to send the oil viacommercialand privately owned ﬁrms instead of stateowned companies as it has done in the past.

Mexicobecame akey fuel supplier to Cuba afterthe U.S. attacked Venezuela in early January and halted critical oil shipments. Butthose shipments, which had alreadybeen reduced, werecompletely suspended after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any countrythat provides or sells oil to the island

Google invests $75M in A24 movie studio

Google on Monday announced it hasinvestedinmovie studio A24,asthe two companies collaborate on newtools for artists that useartiﬁcial intelligence technology

The Mountain View-based tech giantinvestedaround $75 million into A24, the studio behind popular movies including horror ﬁlm “Backrooms” and drama “Everything EverywhereAll At Once,”according to aperson familiar with the partnership who declined tobe named. The collaborationis not adata training agreement, the source added.

The deal wasﬁrst reported by the Wall Street Journal

“By anchoring Google DeepMind’sinnovations directly within the creative process, A24 and its ﬁlmmakers canhelp shape new technology in serviceoftheir vision and expand their storytelling possibilities,” EliCollins, avicepresident of product withGoogle DeepMind, said in ablog post Monday “This hands-on collaboration providesGoogle DeepMind with invaluable feedback and guidance from leading artists.”

THEADVOCATE.COM/news/business

ChinahitsbackatU.S.sanctions

By The Associated Press

BEIJING— China on Mondayannouncedsanctions on 10 American military-relatedcompanies in responsetoarecent U.S.movethat bars some leading Chinesetech companies from defense contracts.

TheCommerce Ministry said that Chinese companies would be blockedfrom exporting “dual-use” itemstothe 10 companies, which include military drone makersand some involved in rare earthmining. Dual use refers to goodsthat can havemilitary as well as non-

militaryapplications.

The ministrysaid the export ban was both to safeguard China’s national security and in response to what it called the U.S. government’s“wrongful expansion of its so-calledList of Chinese Military Companies.”

George Chen, partner for Greater China at the advisory ﬁrm The Asia Group,saidthe ban wasanunsurprising and proportionate response to the U.S. restrictions.

“Most of themare U.S. defense industry players or they have close connections with the U.S. govern-

ment forcontracts andother reasons,” he said. “Those companies are not going to do business in China, so theimpact will be quite symbolic.”

Separately, the Finance Ministry said that government entities would be prohibited from buying products from 46 American companies including multiple units of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and GeneralDynamics.A briefstatement did not give any reason for the prohibition.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Defense Department added several

tech companiesincluding Alibaba andBaidu to its list of ﬁrms thatit says have links to the Chinese military.Baidu said the suggestion that it is amilitary company is “totally baseless.”

The designationprevents them from getting U.S. military contracts.

The Commerce Ministry said at the time that the American sanctions run countertothe consensus that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump reached during Trump’svisit to China in May

High oilpricesdrive asurge in Chineseelectricvehicle sales

Butamountofcharging networks arelagging behind

BY CHAN HO-HIM,ALLANOLINGO and ANTON L. DELGADO Associated Press

HONG KONG

The war in Iran has helped reshape the global electric vehicle market, givingChinese automakersanopening across the developingworldassoaring fuel prices push drivers towards electric vehicles, even as charging infrastructure lags behind a waveofimports.

The blockade of the StraitofHormuz disrupted shipping of aboutafifth of the world’s crude oiland liquifiednatural gas, first hitting Asia —the main destination for the fuels —followed by Africa.

Thisshock accelerated atrend that was already spreadingacross thedeveloping world. In April, global exports of Chinese EVs hit arecord $9.4 billion, according to an analysis bythink tank Ember of Chinese customs data. Shipments surgedtocountries such as Australia, Brazil and regions like Southeast Asia and East Africa.

China exported about 435,000 passenger EVs andplug-in hybrids in May,morethan doublefrom ayear earlier,according to the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

As fuelcosts rise,moredrivers areswitching to EVs to save money,while governmentsfrom Laos to Ethiopia are embracing electriﬁcation to curb oilimports andreduce costs of fuel subsidies.

But faster EV adoption is outpacing the expansion of chargingnetworks. Governments and state-owned utilities in Africa are taking aleadingrole in buildingthem— a modelanalysts saycould help otheremergingmarkets, likeAsia,speed theshift away from fossil fuels.

When anation lacks sufficient charging infrastructure andEVfleet size, it is a“classic chicken-and-egg problem” regarding what comes first,saidPaulGong, head of UBS bank’sChina automotiveindustry research.

“At that stage, government support for infrastructure couldhelp accelerate adoption,” hesaid Across the developing world, driversare looking beyond the gas pump.

BY J.M. HIRSCH Associated Press

BOSTON Which wine pairs well with Shark Week? Does apinot noir have enough acidityto cut through thegrime of aTough Mudder race?

Is abig,brassy cabernet bold enough of aquaff for anight of naming dead rodents after an ex?

Andisawine named SEX too provocative or not provocative enough?

Absurd as they may sound, theseare the questionshauntingwine marketers grappling with slumping salesand increasingly elusive drinkers. How consumers— especially younger drinkers—answer them will determine whether an industry long deﬁnedbyfuddyduddy pretense canﬁnd itsfooting in 2026 and beyond.

“That self-important way that wine can refer to itself —we’re really trying to tip thatonits head,” said Helen Kurtz, chief of marketing for TheWine Group, which hopes that offerings suchasits easy-drinking CupcakeVineyards wines can attract ageneration that came of age on Frappuccinos and gas station BuzzBallz.

“It’sabout being less seriousabout ourselves, because that’swhat this consumer is demanding,” shesaid By which shemeans partnering the company’sMD20/20 (yes, it’sa wine) with World WrestlingEntertainmentmatches (“Mad Dog Enters theRing”), and launching theaptly

In Southeast Asia, imports of Chinese EVs have surged in Thailand,Laosand thePhilippines. In May, Laos bannedthe importof fuel-powered vehicles for therest of 2026 to cutoil import costs andencourage the EV shift Africaimportedaround 44,000 Chinese EVs in 2025, a130% jump from the year before, according to ChineseCommerce Ministry data.

Across Asia and Africa, transport is one of thelargest household expenses.

Limited public transit, long commutes and areliance on private vehicles make families vulnerabletovolatilefuelprices. In South Africa,transportation accounts fornearly aﬁfth of household spending, according to a2024 study by Stellenbosch University in SouthAfrica’sWestern Cape province. So,asfuelprices surge,globalinterest in EVs has been growing, said Mark Wakeﬁeld, with the consultancy AlixPartners.

One in four new cars sold worldwide last year were electric, according to the International Energy Agency Global electriccar sales are expected to grow further in 2026 andreach 23 million,

named Fuel by Franzia line of boxed wine beverages for NASCAR (“Full Throttle Flavor”).

It’safresh lesson on theimportance of ﬁnding your customer rather than hoping they ﬁnd you. Because almost across the board, alcohol consumption is down, atrend that accelerated post-pandemic. Ahost of factors is at play including aging Boomersseeking healthier lifestyles,Gen Z’sgravitation to low- and noalcohol beverages, andwidening availabilityof alternatives such as marijuana. Each segment of the alcohol industry —valuedataround $560 billion in the U.S. —isre-

making up nearly 30%ofall carssoldworldwide,according to the IEA’s latest EV outlook.

“In thenextﬁve years, we will accelerate (our)overseasexpansion,” said JerryGan, CEO of Geely Auto,one of China’s biggest automakers, at acompanyevent in March as the auto group makes inroad into regions like Southeast Asia including selling EVs. Chinese automakers supplied around 60% of electric carssold globally,the IEA said. Theyhavealso been targeting Europe, Africa and Latin America. In Vietnam, automaker VinFastalsologged strongersales.DemandfromSoutheastAsia helped drive a42% year-on-year increase in thecompany’sJanuary-Marchquarterly revenue.

On most mornings, NguyenThien Bao threads his VinFast electric motorbike throughthe jammed trafficofVietnam’s capital Hanoi —ferrying passengers and deliveries.The EV bike hassharply cuthis expenses as fuel prices rise.

“Before,somuchofmyincome went into fuel,” he said. “Now,Ican actually save some money.”

sponding differently.Hard liquor,for example, hasfound araregrowth categoryinready-todrink cannedcocktails. Butthe wine industry faces its ownconstellation of challenges, many of its own making.

For anyone new to wine —particularly muchcoveted 20-somethings —ﬁnding one’sway can be daunting, something of aChâteau du Stuffy effect.

“You’ve got abunch of things, what you might call friction points, with wine, that are particularly salient to younger consumers,” including costand drinkability,said Christian Miller, director of research forthe Wine Market Council.

Wine, from the labels to the language used to describe it, historically has leaned pricey and pretentious.

Wine trends also have favored boozy and bracing styles, ahard sell forfolks used to sipping hard seltzers at the club.

Fewerthan athird of Gen-Z households own a corkscrew,according to atrends report by the British household products company Lakeland. Acadre of wineries hasbegun pushing the bounds of wine culture by ditching thefussy façade in favorofasassy vibe and accessible language. Price matters, too (the sweet spot seemstobethe $8 to $20a bottle range),but not nearly so much as the message.

It’sabout using contemporary communication to pitch “something that’sbeen made for centuries,”saidCharlesSmith, founderof House of Smith, the company behind younger, shopper-friendly brands such as Kung Fu Girl Riesling and SEX Rosé.