Montoucet gets 27 months in federal facility in kickback scheme
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
Former Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Mon-
toucet, who pleaded guilty in March for his role in a kickback scheme that forced his early resignation, was sentenced Tuesday to 27 months in a federal facility.
U.S. District Judge David Joseph sentenced Montoucet in federal court in Lafayette on one federal
$4.5B
felony count of conspiracy to commit an offense, namely to receive a bribe. Under federal guidelines, Montoucet could have been sentenced to up to 30 months in prison.
Montoucet also was issued a fine of $40,000 due in 60 days but will not face supervised released when
he finishes serving his sentence. He must report to the U.S. Marshals Service for incarceration on Aug. 14. Joseph said he will ask that Montoucet serve time in a minimum security facility in Oakdale.
In an emotional statement to the court before he was sentenced, Montoucet said he was sorry to everyone in Louisiana. Because of his poor judgment, he said, he lost his career, his reputation and his
legacy
“This is truly the biggest regret of my entire life,” he added.
Baton Rouge attorney John McLindon, representing Montoucet, said 40 people wrote letters of support, extolling the many kindnesses and contributions Montoucet had done in his lifetime.
Joseph said he took into account the letters, but said what Montoucet did was not a single mistake. It occurred over time, he said.
Montoucet, Joseph said, used his position as LDWF secretary to benefit himself personally Montoucet is the final person expected to be prosecuted for the bribery and kickback scheme that involved some of the same men behind a similar scheme involving the 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Lafayette. All the others who were found guilty or accepted plea deals in both schemes are serving time in federal facilities.
La. carbon capture project canceled
Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship
Trump’s proposed limits rejected by 6-3 vote
BY MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
By a 6-3 vote the court struck down Trump’s order A bare majority of five justices, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the
ä Supreme Court strikes down restriction on political party spending. PAGE 4A
long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, makes a citizen of anyone born in the country with very limited exceptions, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights— to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that
ä See BIRTHRIGHT, page 6A
Grand
Lake Maurepas site scrapped in wake of firm’s financial returns
BY ALEX LUBBEN
Air Products canceled its $4.5 billion Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, putting an end to a controversial hydrogen and carbon capture project that proponents saw as a jobs engine and opponents feared would pollute Lake Maurepas. The project, one of many proposed in recent years to take advantage of clean-energy tax credits, aimed to pipe carbon dioxide emissions, a byproduct of its activities, through Louisiana wetlands and to the lake where it would be stored about a mile underground.
The Pennsylvania-based company announced its decision on the project on Tuesday In a prepared statement, Air Products said the project wasn’t going to pay off the way it needed to. The cancellation is part of a series of canceled projects that will cost the company up to $2.9 billion, before tax savings.
Air Products said that it would continue to fulfill contractual obligations around Lake Maurepas and in Ascension Parish related to the project, and thanked “agencies, business and community partners, government officials, legislators, and regulators who worked professionally with us across every aspect of the project.”
First proposed in 2021, the project
ä See CANCELED, page 5A
jury reviewing Murrill’s threats to remove N.O. officials
Attorney general says she is not aware of investigation
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
A criminal grand jury in Orleans Parish is weighing evidence against Attorney General Liz Murrill over alleged intimidation against Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams and five sitting City Council members, according to several sources familiar with the proceeding. The criminal investigation appears to have been initiated by the
grand jury itself, two of the sources confirmed, and at least some council members have been called to testify, other sources said. Williams recused himself, and a special prosecutor former criminal court judge Laurie White, has been tapped to lead the probe. White declined to comment. Judicial Administrator Rob Kazik confirmed only that Criminal District Judge Leon Roche has appointed a special prosecutor for the grand jury, an unusual move. In most cases, local district attorneys with conflicts refer those cases to the attorney general. Kazik declined further details.
ä See MURRILL, page 6A
Montoucet
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Attorney General Liz Murrill is the subject of a criminal grand jury investigation in New Orleans, sources say.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Air Products crews conduct a demonstration test on Lake Maurepas in 2022 for a seismographic survey. The firm has canceled its plans for a controversial carbon capture project under the lake.
BRIEFS
Mississippi DA pleads
guilty to bribery, resigns
JACKSON, Miss. A Mississippi district attorney has resigned and changed his plea to guilty in a bribery scheme that ensnared other officials in the state’s capital city, including Jackson’s former mayor
Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens was indicted in November 2024 after two FBI agents posing as real estate developers offered bribes to him and the other officials to greenlight a development project
The indictment accused Owens of soliciting and accepting at least $115,000 in cash as well as facilitating more than $80,000 in payments to his alleged coconspirators, including $50,000 for Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s reelection campaign. Lumumba, who called the charges a political prosecution, lost his reelection bid last year Owens could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Lumumba and former Jackson City Council member Aaron B. Banks pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to stand trial starting in mid-July.
Angelique Lee, another Jackson City Council member, and Sherik Marve Smith, a relative of Owens, pleaded guilty to the federal bribery charges in 2024.
Fire at eastern India plant injures 20 people
NEW DELHI A fire at a petrochemical plant in eastern India injured at least 20 people, five of them critically, police said The blaze broke out Tuesday in a naphtha pipeline at a facility operated by Haldia Petrochemicals and quickly spread to nearby homes in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district, about 80 miles southwest of the state capital, Kolkata.
Firefighters used 12 fire engines to bring the blaze under control, while the injured were rescued and taken to nearby hospitals, police said. The injured included plant workers and at least two security guards. Naphtha is a highly flammable petroleum product used in the production of fuels and other chemicals.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Haldia Petrochemicals said in a statement it was investigating the incident.
Floods in Ghana, Ivory Coast leave 24 dead
ACCRA, Ghana Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential rain in the capital cities of Ghana and Ivory Coast have left at least 24 people dead, authorities said Tuesday, as emergency workers continued to pull hundreds of stranded residents from submerged buildings.
Entire buildings and roads were submerged in Accra on Monday cutting off access to several areas of the Ghanian capital and in the neighboring city of Tema. At least 12 people have been confirmed dead in Ghana, including a mother and her child who were both swept away in the Achimota-Agbogbloshie district, Alex King Nartey, a spokesperson for Ghana National Fire Service told The Associated Press. In Ivory Coast, several days of rain brought flooding that left more than a dozen people dead, most of them in municipalities of Attécoubé and Yopougon in the capital, Abidjan, according to the Minister of National Cohesion Myss Belmonde Dogo.
Local media reported at least nine of the dead were trapped under the rubble in the same area in the Mossikro neighborhood following the rains that started on Saturday Videos of the floods in Accra showed residents swimming through neck-deep water to rescue trapped neighbors, while vehicles were abandoned on flooded roads.
CORRECTION
A story in Tuesday’s edition about a report on Louisiana’s system for handing sexual assaults incorrectly identified state Rep. Annie Spell of Lafayette as a Democrat. She is a Republican. The Advocate | The Times-Picayune regrets the error
Quakes push health system to limit
Agencies warn Venezuela’s medical system is at breaking point
BY JUAN PABLO ARRÁEZ and ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press
LA GUAIRA Venezuela Aid groups warned Tuesday that Venezuela’s fragile healthcare system is being pushed to its limits nearly a week after two powerful earthquakes, with damaged and understaffed hospitals getting overwhelmed by the injured and infectious diseases flaring in the disaster zone.
Meanwhile, the number of official rescues has dropped dramatically in the last three days, the government said, from 5,380 people saved in the first two days after the quakes to just four people found alive Monday by authorities. The prime window for finding earthquake survivors is typically 48 to 72 hours, but it is possible to survive longer depending on factors such as temperature and access to water or food.
The sole survivor rescued by Tuesday afternoon was a toddler
who had been trapped for six days under a collapsed building, said Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly
Those numbers do not include the many rescues carried out across the country by volunteer groups that, frustrated with the government’s sluggish response, scrambled to save their trapped loved ones days before the arrival of expert international teams.
The government puts the death toll at over 1,900. Experts say that is a significant undercount as more bodies are hauled from the rubble every day and morgues struggle to handle the influx.
Among the living, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. United Nations agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters
The Venezuelan healthcare system, strained by decades of underin-
vestment and years of economic crisis is “under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity of the surge of the trauma cases,” said World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a media briefing in Geneva Venezuelan officials say that more than 15,800 people have been affected by the earthquakes — a figure that reflects the official number of displaced people, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said Tuesday Wolf said that number would continue to rise. Many of those displaced in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira, just outside the capital of Caracas along the coast, are suffering from widespread food shortages, she said. Without access to toilets, showers or soap, displaced Venezuelans have also become increasingly vulnerable to the outbreak of preventable diseases like measles, given the population’s low vaccination
Pope issues plea to breakaway group
Society of St. Pius X intends to consecrate bishops without his consent
BY NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
ROME Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday issued a plea to a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics to call off its plan to consecrate new bishops without his consent, describing the move as a schismatic act and a “sin of extreme gravity.”
“I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” Leo wrote in a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the superior of the Society of St. Pius X. Leo issued the last-ditch appeal a day before the society plans to consecrate four new bishops at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland. Under church law, the consecrations constitute a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church, and incur automatic excommunication for the four bishops and the bishop administering the consecration Pagliarani responded by writing a formal letter to Leo asking him to take time before deciding any penalty
“Far be it from us to separate ourselves from the Roman Church. We desire, on the contrary, to serve her by means that are extraordinary, as one would assist a
mother in distress who requires particular help, even if such help is not understood by everyone,” Pagliarani wrote. SSPX asks pope for more time
The ceremony poses the first major crisis for the American pope, who has stressed the need for church unity since the start of his pontificate. He has worked especially hard to heal tensions with traditionalist Catholics who prefer the old Latin Mass, that worsened in some ways during the Pope Francis pontificate.
The society was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the council revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other religions and the laity and allowed Mass to be celebrated in vernacular languages rather than Latin.
Its members celebrate the ancient Latin Mass and have accused the modern church of being rife with heresies and errors. The society insists that only the SSPX is upholding the true faith of Christ and has justified the consecrations, citing a “state of necessity” to minister to its faithful.
In response to the pope’s letter, MarcAndré Mabillard, media manager for the society expressed “great sadness to not be understood by our leader,” and added: “We are changing absolutely nothing in our plans.”
Congo bans gatherings in areas far from Ebola outbreak
Some say it limits dissent
BY JEAN-YVES KAMALE and MONIKA PRONCZUK Associated Press
KINSHASA, Congo — Opposition and civil society groups are protesting Congo’s new ban on public demonstrations and mass gatherings in the capital and other areas far from the country’s deadly Ebola outbreak, alleging that the decision aims to limit freedom of speech. The decision announced over the weekend came as
the outbreak of a type of Ebola with no approved treatment or vaccine continues to grow, with 1,307 people infected and 377 dead across three provinces in eastern Congo It could be the worst Ebola outbreak yet. Congo’s ministry of interior on Saturday said gatherings and demonstrations were forbidden in the provinces of Kinshasa, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele as fears grow about the outbreak spilling into new areas. None of the provinces have any confirmed cases. Separately, the mayor
of Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city and now under the control of the Rwandabacked M23 rebel group, also banned public gatherings and demonstrations, including celebrations linked to sport events, on Monday Congo is in its first World Cup in over half a century Congo’s political opposition has denounced the ban as unconstitutional Prince Epenge, the spokesperson for the Lamuka coalition, has said the ban aims to prevent a planned demonstration in the capital, Kinshasa, early next month.
rates, Lindmeier said, adding that conditions are ripe for waterborne infections such as dengue, yellow fever and malaria to spread. According to the government, last week’s earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide. WHO said it so far has evaluated 21 of those facilities, three of which are no longer operating. Another six have sustained damage and the rest are now buckling under the influx of injuries. Many specialist doctors are missing in the ruins, including officials in charge of maternity care in La Guaira, WHO said, compounding the challenges to health care in a country that 8 million people, including many doctors and nurses, have fled in recent years.
An increased presence of nongovernmental organizations was noticeable Tuesday in La Guaira and adjacent communities, with tents from the Red Cross, the World Food Program and other organizations set up on sidewalks, waterfront esplanades and athletic facilities.
Cuban official says talks with the U.S. are at a standstill
BY ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press
HAVANA Talks between Cuba and the U.S. are at a standstill, despite the island recently approving a series of free-market reforms, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez announced Tuesday He noted that the newly unveiled reforms were neither mentioned nor discussed in earlier talks between the two nations.
“The recently announced (measures) are a matter of total and absolute sovereignty,” Rodriguez said.
“We have neither listened to nor are we interested in the U.S. government’s opinion on them.”
But he said it was striking that they “were met with a new package of unilateral coercive measures against Cuba.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. slapped new sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel and other officials, as well as on com-
panies key to the island’s crumbling economy
Some of the sanctions were announced after Cuba’s Communist Party and the National Assembly of People’s Power approved 176 economic measures representing the biggest economic shift since the revolution. They align with some of the demands made by the United States, which is pressuring for a change in Cuba’s political and economic model. The reforms include more space for private businesses, free hiring of personnel and authorization for private banks and investment by Cubans abroad.
Rodriguez added that while the conduct of U.S. government officials was “generally respectful” during earlier talks, he said it is accompanied by “constant aggressive statements against Cuba, threats of military aggression, and the imposition of additional coercive measures.”
Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican on June 24. The pope issued a last-ditch appeal to the breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics, the Society of St Pius X, from consecrating new bishops.
N.O. Judge Anna St. John tapped for 5th Circuit bench
Move comes two months after she became federal trial judge
BY MARK BALLARD and TYLER BRIDGES Staff writers
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will nominate Anna St. John to serve on the 5th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, only two months after she became a federal trial judge.
“Anna will continue to defend Americans’ Constitutional Rights on the Fifth Circuit,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Having cleared the Senate confirmation process just months ago, she was sworn in as a U.S. District judge in New Orleans on April 23.
“Maybe it’s a sign that the Republicans think they could lose the majority in the Senate. So, they want to be sure. And she is the quickest way to do that,” said Professor Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who closely follows federal judicial nominations
Congressional Republicans fret that they will lose their majority in the House and perhaps the Senate in favor of Democrats, which would make confirming nominations much more difficult, he said.
Trump nominated St. John after Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill made a strong push for the White House to choose instead J. Benjamin Aguiñaga, her solicitor general. Murrill had key Republican players make phone calls advocating for Aguiñaga to Sen. John Kennedy according to political and legal sources close to the process. The sources said Kennedy ignored those calls.
has the brains, experience and judgment this important court deserves. I’m proud to support her nomination and I know she’ll do an incredible job.” Kennedy has more stroke with the White House than Louisiana’s other senator, Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. Trump backed Rep. Julia Letlow, RBaton Rouge, in the Senate Republican primary, and that played a key role in the senator’s defeat last month.
to the circuit court, Cassidy would select her replacement.
Tobias said confirming Aguiñaga would have taken too long, given the Senate’s upcoming calendar Senators are already home for the July Fourth holiday and don’t plan to reconvene in Washington until July 13
and I’m very happy for her,”
Murrill said, noting that St. John’s husband, Scott, served as her deputy solicitor general when Murrill served as solicitor general under then-Attorney General Jeff Landry “She’s smart, qualified and professional.”
Murrill on Wednesday acknowledged trying to help Aguiñaga get the nod, saying in a text, “Ben is imminently qualified for the federal bench and would make a great judge.”
Aguiñaga has clerked for several high-level judges, including Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Murrill added, “Sen. Kennedy did not ask my opinion and never communicated with me.” She said she didn’t know Kennedy was considering St. John Kennedy declined to comment, but the Madisonville Republican did renew his support for St. John “President Trump made a strong choice in nominating Judge Anna St. John to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,” Kennedy said in a statement Tuesday. “Anna is a real student of the law, knows our Constitution like the back of her hand, and
Harvard professor picked to lead White House UFO council
Group to investigate unidentified phenomena
BY COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A polarizing Harvard astronomer known for splashy theories about alien visits has been tapped by the White House to lead a team of outside scientists to study the national security risks posed by UFOs.
Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who studied black holes and served as head of Harvard’s astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council tasked with investigating the origins of mysterious orbs and other objects reported by military personnel in recent years. It’s part of President Donald Trump’s push to declassify more information about the issue. Loeb’s team will report to a new White House panel focused on UFOs, now often referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena.
“It’s like a detective story,” Loeb said in an interview
“It’s a lot of fun, as long as you don’t pay too much attention to the critics.”
For the last decade, Loeb has been scanning the skies and seas for evidence of intelligent alien life. He began the quest in 2017 as scientists puzzled over an interstellar object soaring by Earth While others proposed it was a comet or ice chunk, Loeb said it could be a thin “light sail” detached from an alien spacecraft. His theories have won
praise in UFO circles but often put him in conflict with academic peers. Other astronomers accuse him of making exotic claims with little evidence Some chafe at his habit of skipping the peer review process and bringing claims directly to the public.
Steve Desch, an Arizona State University astrophysicist who has challenged some of Loeb’s theories, said Loeb uses flawed methods to reach wild conclusions about alien life — all while shunning a more established branch of science searching for life beyond Earth Loeb’s role on the White House panel casts doubt on the entire endeavor, he said.
“I don’t know what’s going to come of this, but we’re not going to get any closer to answering these questions with him in charge,” Desch said. Loeb brushes his critics aside, saying they lack the imagination to consider new ideas. He’s promising a grounded approach to his work for the White House. Nonetheless, he envisions an outcome where his work could lead to something bigger If the government invests in better data collection on UAPs, Loeb said, it could settle the alien debate once and for all.
His hand-picked team includes more than a dozen scientists and UFO activists. Among them is Timothy Gallaudet, a retired rear admiral who has warned about UAP controlled by “nonhuman intelligence,” claiming the United States has recovered crashed aircraft. Also on the team is Ben Lamm, a billionaire working to revive extinct species.
Kennedy also will play a more important role in the confirmation of St. John to the 5th Circuit because he is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has to approve the nomination. Kennedy has leverage because Republicans hold only a 12-10 partisan advantage on the committee.
Kennedy and Cassidy take turns picking trial court judges for the White House to nominate. St. John had been Kennedy’s pick earlier this year If she is elevated
At that point, the Senate is scheduled to meet for four weeks before recessing for most of August, then three weeks in September before leaving town to campaign in the Nov. 3 midterm elections that will decide which party controls the legislative agenda in the House and Senate.
St. John only recently went through the confirmation process. Her paperwork and background checks are fresh and easily adaptable to her appellate nomination.
She’ll have to sit before a Senate Judiciary hearing again. But her confirmation hearing for the district bench was Feb. 4 She was confirmed by the Senate March 17 on a 51-45 vote.
“She will do a great job,
St. John, a 46-year-old Gulfport native, graduated from LSU and Columbia Law School, and clerked for 5th Circuit Appeals Court Judge Rhesa H. Barksdale, of Mississippi. He swore St. John in as a federal district judge.
She was counsel in a boutique New Orleans law firm and was general counsel with the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, a Washingtonbased conservative think tank.
In her work for the institute, St. John fought against what she has called unfair class action settlements.
Her nomination was more controversial than those of some other recent Louisiana judges. Democrats criticized her comments and “friend of the court briefs” in politically charged cases.
Critics also faulted her for testifying against a law that passed in 2022 with bipartisan support that exempted victims of sexual harassment in the workplace from having their complaints considered behind closed doors in forced arbitration. St John said she wanted to make clear to lawmakers that arbitration can often lead to victims getting more money
The progressive leaning Alliance for Justice opposed her nomination to a seat on U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Louisiana.
“Anna St. John’s biases and hostilities toward marginalized communities, including women and LGBTQ+ individuals, demonstrate that she is unfit and unqualified for a lifetime appointment,” the Alliance wrote.
St. John would replace Judge Kurt Engelhardt, who is moving to senior status on the circuit court.
Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate. com.
St. John
Supreme Court strikes down limits on party spending
The court had previously upheld restrictions
BY MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Tuesday erased limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president, striking down a federal election law that is more than 50 years old.
Prodded by a Republicanled lawsuit that includes Vice President JD Vance, the court’s six conservative justices were again in the majority of the latest decision that upended congressionally enacted limits on raising and spending money to influence elections. The court’s
2010 Citizens United decision opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal elections
The limits on party spending stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.
The Supreme Court had previously upheld the limits, in 2001.
But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, said that decision was wrong and should be overruled.
“In short, constitutional text, history and precedent establish that the politicalparty coordinated-expenditure limits violate the First Amendment,” Kavanaugh wrote.
Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent for the three liberal justices said the court “ushers in untold harm” by enabling parties to funnel large contributions to individual candidates, far in excess of what donors can give those candidates directly National parties now will be able to make direct contributions to candidates’ campaigns,
The decision is likely to give Republicans at least a short-term boost because they maintain a sizable cash advantage over Democrats.
The Republican National Committee and its Senate and House campaign fundraising arms have dwarfed Democrats’ in the months before congressional elections where the GOP is defending narrow majorities in both houses.
At the end of May, the RNC
Judge strikes down overhaul
of student loan forgiveness program
Court found agency overstepped power
BY COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press
WASHINGTON
— A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Trump administration overhaul to a public service forgiveness program for student loans, ruling in favor of advocates who said the program risked becoming a tool for political retribution.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts vacated the U.S. Education Department’s changes, saying they overstepped the agency’s power and threatened to violate First Amendment protections for free speech. His ruling came a day before the new rules were set
to take effect. The ruling came in response to a pair of lawsuits filed by more than 20 states along with a coalition of nonprofit groups and cities. The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Congress created Public Service Loan Forgiveness in 2007 to encourage college graduates to work in government and nonprofit jobs. It promised to forgive their federal student loans after they worked in public service jobs for 10 years. Last year the Trump administration moved to add new eligibility rules that would strip the benefit from workers whose employers are deemed to have a “substantial illegal purpose.” The overhaul targeted nonprofits and government
organizations that support causes at odds with the Trump administration’s priorities.
It gave the education secretary power to exclude groups from the program if they engage in the trafficking or “chemical castration” of children, illegal immigration or supporting terrorist organizations. Its definition of “chemical castration” included using hormone therapy or drugs that delay puberty
Joun said the new rules threatened to impose the administration’s policy views on employers. The judge also faulted the department for failing to connect its definitions of illegal activity to criminal statutes
“The Department cannot create new criminal prohibitions through rulemaking,” he wrote.
reported having more than $125 million to spend, its highest-ever cash on hand total, according to its most recent Federal Election Commission filing in May Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had more than $48 million on hand in its most recent report and the National Republican Congressional Committee had more than $81 million.
In the same period, the Democratic National Committee had $14.4 million on hand, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had roughly $37 million and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, roughly $73 million.
The Republican committees for House and Senate candidates filed the lawsuit in Ohio in 2022, joined by
Vance, then a senator from Ohio, and then-Rep. Steve Chabot.
After President Donald Trump took office for his second term, the Federal Election Commission dropped its defense of the law and joined with Republicans in urging that it be overturned.
Democrats had called on the court to uphold the law even though there is wide agreement that the spending limits have hurt political parties in an era of unlimited spending by other organizations.
Last year, the coordinated party spending for Senate races ranged from $127,200 in several states with small populations to nearly $4 million in California, the most populous state. For House races, the limits were $127,200 in states with
only one representative and $63,600 everywhere else. Entrenched divisions between liberal and conservative justices over campaign finance restrictions were on display when the court heard arguments in December
“Every time we interfere with the congressional design, we make matters worse,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor a dissenter in Citizens United and the court’s other campaign money cases.
By contrast, Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the Citizens United majority, described the decision as “much maligned, I think unfairly maligned.” The effect of the decision was to ”level the playing field,” Alito said, by expanding the right to spend freely that had previously belonged only to media companies.
envisioned anew industrial facility in Ascension that would employ 170 people and produce what is called “blue hydrogen,” hydrogen fuel produced with natural gas, which proponents say results in fewer emissions than with coal or some other energy sources.
That hydrogen would havebeen used to produce ammonia, which can be used as fertilizer or as fuel.
The project drew criticism, particularly around its carbon capture component, which residents around Lake Maurepas strongly opposed.
Environmental groups questioned whetherthe projectwould deliver on its promises. Andsome Republican politicalleaders raised concerns about how theproject would impact constituents. Supporters of the project noted thatit would have brought well-paid jobs to the region.
As the company faced bipartisan pushback in the Legislatureover its Lake Maurepas plans, AirProducts hired two dozen lobbyists in
SENTENCED
Continued from page1A
Aresident of Lafayette Parish, Montoucet was indictedinMay 2025 on one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit moneylaundering. He pleaded not guilty in June 2025 to all charges.
Montoucet is aVietnam veteran, aretired Lafayette fire chief and former state representative. Former Gov.John Bel Edwards appointed him LDWF secretary in January 2017, where he oversawservices such as issuing citations for boating and hunting violations. He was set to retire in January 2024 when Edwards left office.
Instead, Montoucet resigned abruptly in April 2023, aday after The Advocate identified him as the unnamed LDWF official who
2023 to defeat efforts to regulate carbon capture.
“I’ve been battling this project since late 2022 becauseLake Maurepas is adelicate estuary,” said Dean Coates,a Livingston Parish Council member.“It deserves to be protected.”
Ascension Parish President Clint Cointment expressed disappointment with Air Products’ decision.
“This is atoughday forAscension Parish and forLouisiana,” he said. “We’re talking about theloss of thousandsofjobsand billions of dollarsinpotential investment.”
Louisiana Economic Development,which supportedthe project with stateincentives, hadpreviously noted that it would have come with 413 “indirect” jobs in addition to theon-site workers.
Susan Bourgeois, LED’ssecretary,said Tuesday that the project was started under the previous administrationand had “evolved significantly over time.”
“While this specific project did not come to fruition, we look forward to continuing to work with Air Products as the companysupports industry across Louisiana, as it has for more than 50 years,” she said.
signed acontract with Lafayette businessman Leonard Franques for his company,DGL1, to provideonline courses for sportsmen to resolve LDWF citations.
The unnamedLDWFofficial was mentioned in a March 2023 indictment against Dusty Guidry,a Youngsville resident at the time, who was the alleged mastermindbehindthe LDWF kickback scheme and another involvingthe District Attorney’s Office of the 15th Judicial District in Lafayette.
Guidry and Franques are serving time in federal prison for their roles in the schemes, as is former AssistantDistrictAttorney Gary HaynesofLafayette. In the LDWF scheme, Montoucet and Franques’ company, DGL1, signeda contract on Oct. 8, 2021. In return for his help getting DGL1the lucrativecontract, Franques agreed to pay Montoucet kickbacks that he wouldcollect after here-
Norwegiancompany backsout
AirProductssaid last year that it was looking to sell off the ammonia and carbon capture componentsofthis project,and stressed that it wasfocusingonits core business of transporting and selling industrial gases.
Also on Tuesday,Norwegian companyYara Internationalannounced thatitwould not acquire the ammonia componentofAir Products’ Louisianaproject, citing low projected financial returns.
Air Productssaid last year in a call with investors that it would not proceed withthe plant if thedeal with Yara fell through.
“The linchpininthe decision was because theproposed partner,YaraInternational, decided not to invest. Andthat was the last straw,”said Anika Juhn, an energy data analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Juhn also wrote areport about the projectlast year questioning whether the project could meet itsgoals to reduce carbon pollution, which contributes to climate change.
“Wefound that there was no net
tiredfrom LDWF,according to courtdocumentsindicate.
TheAdvocate obtaineda copy of the Oct. 8, 2021, contract which identified Montoucet as the lone LDWF signer.Heresigned thenext day
The contract with LDWF was for 10 years. Thestate agency was to receive 20% to 40% of the money thatDGL1 received for the education courses. The statealso would receive 50% of the money that DGL1 collectedtohost classes forthose ticketed for civil violations.
About 11,000 people per year use theagency’shunter education programand 8,000 per year usethe boater education program, according to thecontract. The courses would last three to six hours andcost $29.95, according to the department’s website. The agency issued about 8,000 civil citations per year
ContactClaire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.
climate benefit to this project under reasonable operating conditions,”she said.
Taxcredits anduncertainty
Under the Biden administration, thefederal government upped the tax incentive forcapturing and storing greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to boost projects that would limit the impacts of climate change. That led to the proliferation of carbon capture and sequestration projects alongthe Gulf Coast.
The morecarbon captured,the more companiescould claimin tax credits —and afacilitylike Air Products’ proposedplant would have produced andcaptured alot of carbon. The tax credits it could have claimedwould have covered many of the costs of building the plant,Juhnsaid.
But as the markets surrounding carbon capture have continued to develop, reality has appeared less promising.
Several companies have recently dropped theircarboncapture ambitions. ExxonMobil on Tuesday droppedoffshoreleasesinthe Gulf of Mexico that it had acquired for potential carbon capture proj-
ects. SunGas Renewables dropped another project that involvedcarboncapture in Beaver Lakeearlier this month.
Greg Upton, the executivedirector of LSU’sCenter forEnergy Studies,saidthatthe regulatory landscape has been shifting around carbon capture projects. The tax credits were passed under former President Joe Biden, and at the state level, Gov.JeffLandry put into place amoratorium on new permits forcarbon capture wells.
“At the center of all this is regulatory uncertainty,” he said.
Plus, he said, demand for blue hydrogen products hasbeensoftening, and construction costs are high because of the number of industrial-scaleprojects underway in the regionand nationwide, including data centers.
Regardless of the rationale for Air Products’ decision, local advocacy groups cheered the cancellation. Rise St.James,acommunity environmental advocacy organization, said it would continue to work to oppose development on the site of the unmarked graves of enslaved people at the Orange Grove plantation, where the Air Products facility was sited.
Appointments arefirst come, firstserved, and everyservice is 100% free. Simply call one of our offices to reserveyour spot.
Audibelis NOW Offering...
•Hearing aids at NO COST to those who qualify!•
• That’s Right...No Co-Pay!NoExamFee! No AdjustmentFee! If youhavethiscard, youmay qualifyfor free hearing aids! Call today to verifyyour benefits.
New Lafayette library designs unveiled
Features include rear parking lot, shaded walkway and amphitheater
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
The Northeast Regional Library will have vehicular access off Louisiana Avenue and Carmel Drive, with pedestrian entrances that will face Louisiana Avenue and a rear parking lot that includes a shaded walkway and circular drive with a small amphitheater Designs for the new library were unveiled at a meeting Monday of the Lafayette Public Library Board by Maureen Arndt and Mia Ovcina, of 720 Design, a Dallasbased firm specializing in libraries. “It’s magnificent. It’s gorgeous,” Library Board member Christopher Holmes said after seeing the designs. The designs, Arndt said, incorpo-
Abbeville swears in first Black mayor
Levy promises new direction for city
BY JOEL THOMPSON Staff writer
Anita Levy became the first Black mayor in Abbeville’s history Tuesday, taking office alongside several newly elected officials who promised greater transparency and a new direction for city government. Levy who defeated incumbent mayor Roslyn White in May with 53% of the vote, ran a campaign that heavily emphasized support for police officers and first responders, increased entrepreneurship, and transparency, including establishing an open-door policy
“We will turn the culture of City Hall from one of ‘no’ to one of ‘how,’” Levy said. “We will not paper over our problems anymore.”
Levy addressed the crowd following her inauguration, highlighting safety and affordability as key areas of concern as she takes office
“Many families in our neighborhoods struggle to keep up with the cost of living and find a stable career Others worry about the safety of our streets, the state of our roads and whether their children will have the opportunities that they deserve,” Levy said. “Let’s get to work, Abbeville.”
Newly elected council member
Bang Bui achieved a similar distinction to Levy, as he became the first Asian American elected to any office in Abbeville.
Bui’s address to the crowd in attendance was brief, pledging to “give 110% of myself to the people of Abbeville.”
Both Bui and council member Rachel Touchet Mouton were sworn in alongside Levy, Chief of Police Mike Hardy and fellow council members Brady Broussard Jr and Terry Broussard
Although Brady Broussard Jr and Terry Broussard were present, their runoff victories have not yet been certified by the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office, so they have not officially taken office.
Broussard Jr., who is the son of former mayor of Abbeville Brady Broussard and currently serves as mayor pro tem, echoed Levy’s call for a new direction in city government. “This is the start of a new route for Abbeville,” he said. “We must remember that it is ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’” The council is expected to hold its first meeting under the new administration July 7.
tion costs.
KEEPIN’ COOL
Police chief pleads guilty in
Official pocketed thousands in kickbacks
BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
A small town police chief admitted Tuesday to pocketing thousands of dollars in kickbacks to churn out bogus police reports, marking the fourth and final lawman to plead guilty in an immigration fraud case that has roiled central Louisiana since it became public last year
Former Forest Hills Police Chief Glynn Dixon, one of four cops charged last summer under what federal prosecutors called a yearslong scheme to profit from bogus visa applications, entered a guilty plea Tuesday on a single count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, court records show An attorney listed in court records as representing Dixon, Kevin Stockstill, did not immediately respond to an email and phone message.
The former chief initially denied the charges for which he was arrested last July alongside three other lawmen and an Oak-
dale-based businessman.
Federal prosecutors in a 62-count indictment accused the businessman, Chandrakant Patel, of illicitly paying Dixon, plus Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea, Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle and Oakdale Marshal Michael Slaney to churn out bogus reports naming immigrants as violent crime victims. The immigrants then used the reports to apply for “U-visas” — papers for crime victims who cooperate with police investigations — with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, prosecutors said.
In an affidavit filed Tuesday in Alexandria federal court, Dixon admitted to generating at least 69 doctored reports for Patel between August 2023 and July 2025. But prosecutors said the broader scheme may have started years earlier
Immigrants paid Patel, himself the recipient of U-visa issued in 2023, $20,000 to obtain a police report for them, prosecutors say He then paid the lawmen around $5,000 per bogus report they generated.
The result, on paper, was what looked like a wave of violent crime across a typically sleepy
immigration scam
swath of central Louisiana. (Forest Hills, the Rapides Parish hamlet where Dixon was chief, has a population of just over 600, according to census data.)
Agents from U.S Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigations arm caught on when U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services flagged the huge flare in U-visa applications with corresponding police reports from the sparsely populated, rural area, officials have said.
Doyle, Onishea, Slaney and Patel each pleaded guilty recently under agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana in several court hearings that came in quick succession, records show In Patel’s plea agreement from May 28, he admitted to orchestrating the scheme for at least five years beginning in 2020. He sought law enforcement collaborators to supply and certify the reports needed for U-visa applications, his agreement says.
He admitted to using proceeds from the scheme to buy gold bars, a Swiss Ingot watch, rings, several central Louisiana properties and other items.
The indictment and subsequent plea deals landed as President Donald Trump’s administration has deprioritized federal law enforcement’s focus on public corruption and white collar criminal investigations, focusing instead on its broad immigration crackdown, plus violent crime and drug trafficking enforcement.
Still, law enforcement agents who investigated the central Louisiana case called the wave of guilty pleas a sign of accountability for public officials who breach the public trust.
“When anyone, including public officials, exploits immigration relief programs or commits fraud against the government, HSI and our law enforcement partners will investigate, dismantle these schemes, and work to bring those responsible to justice,” said Matt Wright, HSI’s New Orleans-based acting special agent in charge. By admitting guilt, Patel acknowledged in his plea agreement that he faces revocation of his immigration status and deportation.
Email James Finn at jfinn@ theadvocate.com.
Levy
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Kids cool off in the splash pad at Parc Sans Souci on Tuesday in downtown Lafayette.
Proponents of the line-item veto oftenargue that it helps trim the fat in budgetsoverstuffed by legislators feeding at thepublic trough. Yet in recent years, we have noticed theabuse is more likely to come from theexecutive branch in how it wields this tool.
In vetoing tens of millionsofdollars forprojects across the state, almost all of whichwere located in areas represented by legislators often opposed to him, Gov.Jeff Landry placed raw politicsahead of theneedsofthose areas’residents.
To be sure, Landryisn’t thefirst governor to target political opponents witha veto pen, and he won’tbethe last. It was no less egregious when Gov.John Bel Edwards did it in 2023, to punish conservative legislators who opposedhis plan to raise the state’sspending cap. Butthere’s alegislative remedy that might discourage this behavior
As aco-equal branch of government, the Legislature ought to seriously consideroverriding vetoes to important communityprojects,though it has shown no inclination todoso. Almost all the projects passed the Legislature overwhelmingly or even unanimously,indicating theitems weregenerally recognized,even by conservative Republicans, as worthwhile spending.
The issue here isn’tfiscal responsibility: Both the state’soperating budget andcapitaloutlay budget would be balanced if all the projects are funded. The issueinsteadisamisuse of the lineitem veto authority for what appear to be reasons of political retribution rather thanmerit. Last year,for example, almost every line-item veto targeted Republicans who daredtovote againstaninsurance billLandry pushed against the advice of conservativeInsuranceCommissioner TimTemple
These power plays, however,don’t really hurt the legislators; they hurt constituentsinstead. The vast bulk of the vetoes canceled programs in New Orleans and North Baton Rouge —both heavilyDemocratic areas —along with “blue districts in Shreveport, Monroe, LakeCharles and Opelousas. New OrleansMayor Helena Moreno said the $33 million in cutstothe city amounted to 62% of all Landry’soperational funding cuts and 53% of his capital infrastructure cuts. And the governor shocked legislatorsand local officialsinBaton Rougeby eliminating funding for an $18 million grocery store development in underserved NorthBaton Rouge, even thoughhehad shown up for the groundbreaking ceremony, touting its benefits The New Orleans cuts cameontop of aseries of other slaps at the city,even as thenew mayor andCityCouncil have worked assiduously to eliminate an inherited budget deficitand won widespreadacclaim forreforming theirmanagement practices. Other cuts hit needy people hard across the state. Among the targets are programs foratrisk youth, local law enforcementand education. When the major discernible reason forvetoes is politicalscore-settling rather than thepublic good,legislators of both parties should not be supine. In otherwords, they should dotheir jobs.
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 SENd USA LETTER, SCANHERE
Leaderswanttoignore carbon captureconcerns
Carbon capture and sequestration, wherein toxic industrial waste in the form of pressurized CO2 is injected over amile deep underground, beneathresidential areas, lakes, parks and other land, has become ahighly contentious subject in the last few months in Louisiana. Almostall heavy industry and their powerful backers in this state have applied great pressureatthe highest levels (thegovernor and the state environmental agencies (Louisiana DepartmentofEnvironmental Quality,the Department of Conservation and Energy and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries). In the public arena, there have been at least 48 pieces writteninThe Advocate, The Wall Street Journal and other media since August,2025; over 87% of these have been opposed toCCS. Well-financed industries like ExxonMobil (currently worth well over $600 billion) have bought six full-page and half-page ads themselves. Why is CCS causing such awide uproar?
Physical Danger.InAugust 2025,
LakePontchartrain experienced seismic aftershocks allthe way from major earthquakes in Alaska and Russia, oscillating the lake’swaters. By theend of 2025, the U.S. Geological Survey had recorded astring of earthquakes in northwest Louisiana; from March 2026 until now,there have been several other earthquakes in north Louisiana.
Tainting of drinking water in aquifers is amajor concern to citizens around the state. Explosions or leakage from high-pressure pipelines and wells is also an omnipresent threat. Expropriation. The real and legally sanctioned removal of residents from their own property through eminent domain remainsanexistential threat to residents.
What can we in this heavily influential oil-and-gas state do to makeour opinions known? Agroupof18,000 followers on Facebookare actively opposing the negative and lasting effects of CCS. Also, choose your candidates wisely JOHN BERRY Baton Rouge
Who’safraidofa little socialism?
Megan McArdle’seditorial on socialism, once again, seems to critique socialism in absolutes.The United States currently has somedegree or aspects of socialism. Head Start and food distributions are just two of manysocialistic programs resulting in favorable outcomes. These services foster social justice, as in the emphatic and empathic teachings of Jesus Christ
The naysayers tendtoequate socialistic enterprises withcommunism.That is wrong. Communismis ownership by thegovernment. Socialism can encompass awide variety of forms from Marx’ssocialism, Michael Harrington’ssocialism to Erich Fromm’sdemocratic, humanistic socialism
I’ve admired theScandinavian countries since the1970s, when I learned moreabout how their governments function. They implore capitalism operating under ademocratic, socialistic government in which free
enterprise prevails, along with asocial welfare system providing education,healthcare and other necessary prerequisites for well-being. Contrary to what many believe, research affirmsthat the general consensus is that Scandinavians are well satisfied and proud of theirsystem of government Denmark, Norway,Sweden and Finlandare known as low-corruption societies, providing universal benefits on acitizenship basis. They lead global rankings on openness with high levels of public trust in governmentand access topublic documents. It sounds like awin-win to me —a market economyfor competitive monetarysurvival andmoreand better social programsand services for its citizenry This addresses both capitalistic gain potential with free enterprise and humanitarianism.
CAROL POOLEY donaldsonville
Patriotism is in theeye of the beholder
How rich it was of the columnist Rich Lowry to write about how unpatriotic Democrats are, and he even had the “data” to prove it. Maybe he should look at the leader of his own party and explain someofhis statements that are, Iamassuming, what he might describe as patriotic. President Donald Trumpsaid any soldier whowas captured during a warwas no hero to him because they could not fight anymore. He said any soldier whodied foranother man’s warwas asucker.Hewatched as his MAGAmarauders stormed the Capitol and injured morethan one 100 police officers, smeared fecal matter on the walls and did millions of dollars in damage. Iwould like to hear how Lowry or any MAGAmembers can spin that into being morepatriotic than the Democrats whosaid they are not proud of the country.Trumpand his MAGAbuddies have given many Americans agood reason to not be proud of their country To me, Ihave never seen or heard anything moreunpatriotic than what Trumphas said and what his gang has done.
CLIFF JOHNSON St.Amant
Wordsfromapilgrim on theCaminodeSantiago
What ablessing to be alerted by my sister,Helen, about the great article by Joy Holden regarding the walkers of the Camino de Santiago —which I was doing in early June in Spain. Ihighly recommendthis experience, which Istarted by going first to tour Fatima, and then Ijoined my Buen Camino/Follow My Camino group in Porto, Portugal, before heading to Santiago, Spain. And Ididn’trealize that Pope Leo would also be in Spain that same week, so that wasreally cool! So foranyone else yearning to take a“Closer Walk With Thee,” our Lord, on the WayofSt. James, Ipray that you one day take your first step wherever that may begin.
KEITH HORCASITAS Baton Rouge
We allstand to lose in Hegseth’swar on diversity
Is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth resegregating the military?
Ihear that question alot since the news broke that ournation’scurrent secretary of defense has actively blockedordelayed the promotionsof dozens of senior militaryofficers with women and people of color disproportionately affected
Aliberal misunderstanding of ‘Death of aSalesman’ buries itsmeaning
Clarence Page
The Pentagon’srecent track record on promotions is in keeping with broader efforts by the Trump administration to push back DEI (diversity,equity and inclusion) policies in government, academia and the private sector
It also comes at atime when the Trumpadministration has made symbolic moves —such as attempting to rebrand Hegseth as the “Secretary of War” —aswell as actualwarfare in an attempt to project an alt-rightair of manliness.
It’sasifamilitary with Black officers, female officers and —Heaven forfend! —transgender officerscould not possibly defend American interests across the globe.
In March, The New York Timesreported that Hegseth took the “exceedingly rare” step of strikingtwo Black and two female officers from the list of candidates put forward for promotion to the rank of one-star generals. Hegseth had been pressuring Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll to remove the names, but Driscoll had refused. As anonymous military sources told the Times, Hegseth’schief of staff, Ricky Buria, upbraided Driscoll for selecting aBlack woman to command the Military District of Washington, especiallybecause PresidentDonald Trump would not want to have tostand next to aBlack woman at Arlington National Cemetery.Buria denied the account.
But the numbers speak forthemselves.
“Since taking office,” the Times reported in June, “Hegseth has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers as part of abroader campaign designed to purgethe Pentagon of leaders he has disparaged as
‘foolish,’ ‘recklessand ‘woke.’
Whether Trump and Hegsethknow it —orcare —this subject of race relations in the ranksathome and in the fieldreopensa lot of old wounds that have troubled militarylife in the past
After President Harry Truman integratedour military in 1948, theArmy tried thecolor-blind approach. As my first company commander told us in basictraining camp in the Vietnam Warera, “The army doesn’tsee you as anycolor butarmygreen.”
However,asmygeneration dealt with adeeply unpopular war overseas andriots in the streets back home, Gen.Walter T. Kerwin, the army’s deputy chiefofstaff for personnel, made this observation in 1970: “In the past year, racial discord has surfaced as one of themost serious problems facingArmy leadership.”
Concerted efforts were madetoease racial tensions and diversify thenumbers of available jobs and people to fill them.
Yet, today,young Pete Hegseth blames diversity hiring for thefact that evil-doers around the world don’t takethe U.S. militaryseriously.Hehas repeatedly lambasted the notion that “diversity is our strength,” calling it the“dumbest phrase in military history.”
He also has overseen the erasure of Defense Departmenthistories of nonwhite service members, although his office at least partly disputes that complaint,and he has sought to restore tributestoConfederate soldiers and commanders who, let us not forget, took up arms against their country in
defense of the institution of slavery
Amongthose purged or forced toretirehave been achairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thechief of naval operations and the head of the Defense HealthAgency
This has raised alarms on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Someofmycolleagues who cover the Pentagon report an environment of fear where militaryleaders are hesitant to question internal policies for fear of being sidelined, as sometimes happened in theVietnam era.
Decorated retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal memorably weighed in last year on CBS’ “Face the Nation” to downplay Hegseth’salarm over DEI as a“distraction” that’s“not helpful.”
Andlet’sbehonest, right now the Trumpadministration needs all the help it can get to unwind itsrecent militaryand diplomatic misadventures. An impartial observer might say it was exceedingly foolish to alienate our NATO allies by trying to claim U.S. suzerainty over Greenland. It was reckless to start awar with Iran without considering its ability to shut down theStrait of Hormuz, puttingthe world economy in peril. Trump, Hegseth and Co. made those decisions all by themselves, without the help of woke militaryofficers.
Someare calling Trump’swar with Iran America’sbiggest strategic setback since theVietnam War. We’ll see how it plays out.But at this point,it has cost us $29 billion in direct spending, and the bill may exceed $200 billion when all the costs are accounted for For as longasmostofushave been alive, the United States has possessed themost powerful militarythe world has ever seen. Butthe Pax Americana, such as it ever was,was always undergirded by America’sresolve to uphold not only itsown interests but also the ideals of freedom, equality and justice. We may not always live up to these ideals, but Ifear we will be lost if we ever abandon them.
Email Clarence Page at clarence47page@gmail.com
Thetemporary immigration problemthat’sbeenforever
The last two decades havebeen a continuous adventure in redefining the phrase“White supremacy” to include less and less pertinent things.
Thelatestisthatthe Supreme Court has allegedly joined forces with President Donald Trump to “advance an authoritarian, White-supremacist agenda” —in the words of Illinois Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez —bysaying he can end so-called Temporary Protected Status for immigrants.
This would seem like common sense. YetTPS has long been aone-way ratchet —always extended but never revoked. This hasmade amockery of theword “temporary.”
Aheadline in the left-wing magazine The Nation read, “The Supreme Court Once Again Endorses Trump’sRacism.”
Lowry
The court decision is facially correct in that the law says that TPSdesignations or revocations by theexecutive branch aren’treviewable bythe courts. Case closed.
The objections to the decision are policy-based. Trump critics andopenborders advocates don’tlike that Trump is now going to be allowed to end TPS —aprogram for temporary relief from repatriation —for Haitians, Salvadorans and others. But this isn’tacriticism of the court, whichis obliged to make rulings on the basisof the law,not policy preferences.
There’snothing about the decision that forces Trump to end variousTPS designations; rather,itsimply allows him to do so. This is another way in which the court’sruling isobviously correct —ifthe executive branch can extend TPS as amatter of discretion, surely it can end it as amatterofdiscretion as well.
The TPS designation for Somalis has been in effect since 1991, or for 35 years. Roughly 130 million Americansare younger than 35, meaning that what is supposedly atemporary statushas existed for the entire lives of nearly 40% of thecountry
Thetemporary statushas beenextended acouple of dozen times. It hasreached acrossseven U.S. presidencies—ifyou count Trump twice —and has been in place during one-seventh of the existence of the American republic. Granted, Somalia is still misgoverned,but the civil war that was the original justification for the TPS designation is nowless intense than it was at theoutset. Then there are Nicaragua, Honduras andElSalvador,which have each been designated for thelast quarter-century or so. El Salvadororiginally got thedesignation in 2001 after two earthquakes. More than 20 years later,the Biden administration fashioned reasons for extensionsthat had nothing to do with these disasters. These included “significant storms andheavyrainfall in 2023 and 2024,” as well as “dangerously long periods of drought.” In other words, sometimes it rained and sometimes it didn’t, andthatjustified TPS never going
away Yes, theBiden administration admitted,progress had been made repairing earthquake damage, yet “subsequent environmental disasters,infrastructure challenges, continued climate risks, aweak macroeconomic environmentand food insecurity” meantthat Salvadorans couldn’treturn to their native country In other words, theoverall condition of El Salvador was the problem, not a specific event Partofthe justification of TPS is that acountry is temporarily incapable of absorbing its returning citizens. But as George Fishman of the Center for Immigration Studies notes, more than 3million tourists visited El Salvador in 2024. If the country can accommodate millionsofforeign visitors, why is it incapable of accepting its own returning citizens?
Obviously,TPS has becomeanenormousloophole in immigration law.The intent of Congress was never to create an endlessly renewable de facto amnesty. The statute says thesecretary of homeland security “may” extend a designation in response to aspecific event, but “shall” end the designation once that condition no longer applies. This suggests that adesignation is discretionary,but revocation is mandatory
That’snot how it’sturned out. The SupremeCourt has done its part by correctly interpreting thelaw,and now Congress should do itsjob by ending this much-abused program. Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry
NEW YORK Seven times aweek, audiences fill the 1,600-seat Winter Garden, one of Broadway’s largest venues, to see Nathan Lane, 70, an ornamentofcontemporary theater,spend almost three hours strenuously portraying the last day of alost man:Willy Loman, asalesman. “Death of aSalesman” is grand despite what playwright Arthur Miller was thinking in 1949. This durable achievement of American dramaturgy will grip audiences in 2049 and beyond because Miller’sart survived his politics. Apastiche of banal leftist cultural criticisms, they were and are irrelevant to the play’sshattering depiction of something timeless, not context-dependent: the pathos of adespairing individual whose dreamsexceed his capacities. Loman is an aging and failing salesman riding on asmile and ashoeshine whose delusions of just-around-the-corner success are dying. The play is aharrowing depiction of his, and his similarly delusional sons, colliding with reality Theater critic John Lahr,inhis ideologically enthusiastic biography of Miller,says the play presents Loman as “a victim of competitive capitalism.” It “caught the spirit of self-aggrandizement” that Miller loathed about the postwar consumer-driven economic boom after 15 years of Depression and war. Lahr,channeling Miller’s vision of America through a“Marxian lens” acquired in the 1930s, says the play dramatizes “the barbarity of American individualism.” The play depicts “the envy and the exhaustion” of midcentury America. This overwrought and underthought assessmentinsinuates that Loman’stormented, eventually delusional, finally suicidal psyche mirrors America’s. Lahr understands Miller’smentality when writing “Death of aSalesman.” Fortunately Miller’spolitics remain irrelevant to what moves audiences 77 years after the play’sBroadway debut.
The political left, always and everywhere, deplores individualism,which supposedly produces alonely,chilly society needing the warmth of collectivism. Lahr says Loman exemplifies “American individualism,inwhich the value of the self is hopelessly tangled with the question of wealth.” In America, “cultural envy” and “invidious comparison” “drives society forward but also drives us crazy.”
Miller,nostalgic for wartimesolidarity,lamented that Americans’ concentration turned from “society to the self.” He later wrote that his play “opened in peacetimewhen we wereonce again free to destroy each other.” Peace, not war, is hell.
The postwar American lefthas often defined itself by its aesthetic recoil from middle-class American enjoyments (cars with too much chrome, and other “self-aggrandizements”). The leftthinks the pursuit of individual happiness takes too high atoll on social solidarity,anidea discordant with this 250th anniversary Miller’spolitics would have been the death of his play wereLoman presented as Miller thought of him —asasocial symptom.That play would today be as dated and boring as a77-year-old political tract. Loman, like Lear,remains riveting because he is not amere reflection of aparticular social context. He is something moreuniversal: a casualty not of this or that society,but of perennial human foibles.
“The massofmen lead lives of quiet desperation,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in “Walden” in 1854, before American capitalism burgeoned, and acentury before post-1945 America disgusted Miller.And Thoreau was mistaken. Most people meet life’sdifficulties by coping, then moveon.
Loman’sunquiet, raving, finally fatal desperation is not “tragic,” as tragedy is often understood: agreat flaw dooming agreat person. Loman is nevertheless a movingly sad figure eliciting pathos. We go to the theater to be moved, not to be lectured.
“I am not adimeadozen,” Loman cries, trying to convince himself.His wife,watching him stumble toward suicide, exclaims:
“I don’tsay he’sagreat man. Willy Lomannever made alot of money.His name was never in the paper.He’snot the finest character thatever lived. But he’sahuman being, and aterrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.”
If there are moreremembered words in an American play than those last four,they are a similar cri de coeur from Tennessee Williams’s 1947 “A Streetcar NamedDesire.” Blanche DuBois, her delusions of Southern grandeur fading, cries, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Another timeless human condition. In 1950, sociologist David Riesman’s“The Lonely Crowd” diagnosed “other-directed” individuals whose inner emptiness makes them desperate to winapproval by conformity to social norms. After arecent performance, Nathan Lane noted the pursuit of “likes” by people posting on social media. Many are salesmen selling themselves, begging forattention to be paid.
Email George Will at georgewill@washpost. com.
Rich
George Will
ASSOCIATEd PRESS PHOTO defense SecretaryPete Hegseth speaks in the Oval Office of the White House.
Shreveport sports editor named Sports Writer of the Year
BY BRIAN McCALLUM Staff writer
Lang’s win marks his second such award Lang
In the eyes of Roy Lang III, sports editor for the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate, area sports in 2025 were a story of redemption and resilience.
In the eyes of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, it’s a story nobody told better than Lang.
Lang was named the LSWA Sports Writer of the Year for all classifications during the organization’s annual convention that occurred Sunday, this year in Natchitoches. It was the second such award for him; he previously won in 2012.
“We’re so excited about the recognition that Roy and his work received from the Louisiana Sports Writers Asso-
ciation,” Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate Editor Barbara Leader said. “His talent and his work ethic are unparalleled. He gets up early and works late to make sure that our community knows what’s going on in sports and doesn’t miss the stories behind the stories. We are grateful to have him as part of our Shreveport-Bossier team.”
Lang said he writes about “the stories the box scores won’t reveal, to chronicle the dedication and fortitude of coaches, stars, role players, the parents and supporters. These stories are easy to
11 accused of exploiting minors online, grooming
BY MICHELLE HUNTER
Staff writer
A weekend sting by the Kenner Police Department concluded with 11 arrests of suspects accused of exploiting minors online, including a man from New Orleans whose legal name is Santa Claus, according to Kenner police. Claus, 75, was taken into custody Friday on the Kenner lakefront where he arranged to meet up with a 15-year-old boy that he met on the dating app Grindr, according to court records.
In text message exchanges, Claus discussed showering with the teen and engaging in various sex acts, court records showed. The 15-yearold was actually an undercover Kenner police detective Claus arrived at the planned meeting wearing a red shirt, red jacket and red pants. He also had a white beard.
“His physical appearance indicates he does take on the persona of the Santa Claus, which is alarming considering he was attempting to have sex with a boy,” Kenner police said in a statement Monday evening.
Police arrested Claus and booked him on charges of computer-aided solicitation of a minor and indecent behavior with a juvenile. He was
being held without bail Monday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna.
Investigators uncovered images showing the man had worked at some point as a “Santa Claus.” Police couldn’t solidly confirm his employment history or where he might have performed those services, according to Kenner Police Deputy Chief Mark McCormick, who said the case is still under investigation.
Agents did confirm that Claus legally changed his name to match the Christmas figure, though investigators said they don’t know when and where he did so. Claus has no prior criminal convictions under his current or former name, according to authorities.
“We preach daily about the vulnerability of our children on social media and gaming platforms, and now we have arrested a person who dresses up as Santa Claus, inviting parents to drop their young children in his lap for photo ops,”
Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley said in a statement. “This is a cautionary tale to parents and guardians.”
The other 10 suspects arrested by Kenner police were booked on similar charges, including indecent behavior-grooming, Kenner police said.
Bodycam shows S
Incident comes two days after arrest
BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER
Staff writer
Less than two days after being arrested for the widely publicized beating of a 20-year-old man, the Rev Tony Spell was captured on a law enforcement bodycam calling the alleged victim a slur and threatening his father In East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office bodycam footage taken by deputies between 4:40 a.m and 5 a.m June 23, Spell used an antigay slur to refer to the man he also said he “beat the crap” out of.
“He’s just sore because I beat the crap out of his f***** boy,” Spell said.
“And he’s next if he comes over here and harasses these boys” he said, referring to some teenagers alongside him.
Deputies were dispatched to the area near the pastor’s church in Central that morning after his neighbor, Scott Sherwin, called and complained that Spell was across the street from his house mowing the church lawn around 4 a.m. Sherwin, whose son was attacked by Spell last week, has had an ongoing feud with the pastor since 2020. In the bodycam video, Sherwin tells deputies it is his understanding that a judge put a protective order
in place after Spe and the pastor should keeping his distance his home
“He’s doing this date my victim son,” said to deputies “D your grass at 4 in ing?”
Sherwin can be s video raising his m ger in the direction across the street. When deputies ap Spell after speaking neighbor, they aske tor to identify himse
“Everybody in the knows my name,” plied.
In his conversation deputies, Spell can calling his neighbor’ slur twice and commenting on Sherwin’s sexual tion.
“He needs to get sleep with his boyf Spell said to the t him in front of the c
Two days earlier crossed the street up Sherwin’s son 20-year-old yelled “ to the pastor, according arrest warrant and vide the incident Video young man throwing punch at Spell after tor charged across toward him.
Spell punched eight times before
write, thanks to their graciousness.”
Perhaps the biggest story of the year was one that stretched from the baseball field at LSUS to Idaho and then to Washington, D.C., as the Pilots completed an unprecedented 59-0 season, won the NAIA national title and were invited to the White House to celebrate.
One of the many stories Lang told along the way was that of outfielder Cooper Huspen, who lost his father days after graduation as the Pilots neared the NAIA World Se-
ries. “As someone who lost my parents — all three of them — way too early in life, the fortitude Huspen and his teammates showed hit home,” Lang said.
His story on LSUS earning a spot in the World Series won another 2025 LSWA award for college event coverage. As the Calvary softball team neared its season opener a tragic accident claimed the life of senior Elana Franks. Lang followed that team all the way to a state championship win, and he earned an LSWA award for a
high school sports feature in the process. The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate is the region’s website and a partner of The Advocate | The Times-Picayune and Nola.com.
Additionally, Lang placed in LSWA competition for Prep Writer of the Year and for Amateur Sports coverage.
“2025 was meaningful for me, with or without any awards,” Lang said. “I’m honored to be a part of the Advocate team we have in Shreveport and across the state.”
Bench trial set in Madison Brooks case
Attorneys say they expect seven days of evidence
BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer
A new trial date has been set for Casen Carver one of the suspects in the 2023 alleged rape of LSU student Madison Brooks, who was fatally struck by a car after she was dropped off afterward.
The trial has been scheduled for Nov. 16, with attorneys saying they expect a total of seven days of evidence.
Judge Gail Horne Ray, of the 19th Judicial District, will preside over the trial, after the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled not to recuse her from the case over claims she might be friendly toward Carver’s family Since Carver’s case will be decided in a bench trial and not a jury trial, Ray will determine his fate.
Ray had been recused from the case in November after presiding over it for three years. Judge Brad Myers, of the 19th Judicial District, said the move was made to “preserve public confidence” in the proceedings, citing a number of text messages Carver wrote suggesting Ray and his
family were friends and indicating that “she knows to help us.”
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this recusal in March, but the state Supreme Court overturned it in May in a short ruling that said the state “failed to carry its burden to require recusal in this case.”
Joe Long, Carver’s attorney, said at the time that a different ruling would have opened “the floodgates” for attempts from attorneys to have unfavorable judges pulled off their cases.
On Monday, Long and prosecutors were back in front of Ray, after the case had temporarily been reassigned to Judge Fred Crifasi.
The two sides went back and forth over a potential trial date, with Long repeatedly complaining that his client has been waiting for justice for years and faces a life sentence.
Long attempted to reassert a motion for speedy trial that had been filed in April 2025 but withdrawn as the higher courts considered Ray’s recusal.
Prosecutors argued that a new motion for speedy trial would need to be filed, which would require the case to go to trial within 180 days of the filing. To this, Long acquiesced.
What’s at stake Brooks, 19, died early the
morning of Jan. 15, 2023, after a night of heavy drinking in Tigerland. She was allegedly raped in a car before being dropped off in a subdivision and fatally struck by a vehicle.
Carver, 22, of Denham Springs, was one of four men in the vehicle with Brooks when prosecutors allege she was sexually assaulted. He faces charges of first- and third-degree rape and a count of video voyeurism. Should he be found guilty of first-degree rape, Carver would be subject to a mandatory life sentence. The charges facing Carver and two other defendants relate to the alleged rape, not Brooks’ death.
The main issue for Myers in removing Ray from the case were the texts between Carver and his family Myers did not find that Ray showed any bias toward Carver or other defendants during pretrial motions, saying in his ruling that the decision was made to avoid the appearance of an improper conflict of interest. Long argued to the Supreme Court that the request for Ray’s recusal was not timely and prosecutors had not proved actual bias or the potential for bias. Prosecutors originally sought Ray’s recusal after Carver asked for a bench trial, rather than a jury trial.
Offensive boosters
It’ll take more than top-tier transfers for LSU offense to run smoothly
BY JON BLAU Staff writer
LSU and Lane Kiffin’s ambition to win now had the Tigers checking off a couple of expensive items from a transfer portal to-do list in January
A playoff-proven quarterback: Sam Leavitt from Arizona State, check.
An all-conference left tackle: Jordan Seaton from Colorado, check.
Those are premium positions, and LSU undoubtedly spared no expense bringing in two of the best available transfers to anchor Kiffin’s offense in his debut season.
But it takes more than two — no matter how good the duo — to drive an 11-man unit capable of dropping points on opponents like the 36 points per game Kiffin’s teams averaged in six years at Ole Miss.
Which transfers could prove to be true accelerants in LSU’s offensive takeoff this fall? Here are some top candidates, just one month out from preseason camp.
WR Jackson Harris
Harris, a native of Berkeley, California, was a late find for Stanford’s 2023
BY JOSH DUBOW AP sportswriter
SAN JOSE, Calif.
— The U.S team spent Monday like millions of other interested followers of the World Cup, watching thrilling games from other venues that included a major upset with Germany falling to Paraguay, three games that went down to the wire and two nervy shootouts.
ä United States vs. Bosnia, 7 P.M.WEdNESdAy, FOX
BY REED DARCEY Staff writer
recruiting class who bounced to Hawaii after sparse playing time in his first two collegiate seasons. One statistic made the 6-foot-2, 202-pound target worthy of a return to major-conference football: 19.7 yards per catch.
Harris had other good numbers, earning first-team All-Mountain West honors with a conference-best 12 touchdown grabs, but his 963 yards receiving on just 49 catches made him an intriguing add.
Quarterbacks in Kiffin’s offense are tasked with picking apart defenses on short to intermediate throws, but those are possible only if there are receivers to threaten strikes over the top. Harris profiles as a true secondary stretcher
The LSU receivers are totally new sans redshirt freshman Phillip Wright, so there’s ample competition to become Leavitt’s new best friend. Expect Jayce Brown (712 yards in 10 games for Kansas State last year) Tre’ Brown (20 yards per catch for Old Dominion) and Winston Watkins (twitchy slot receiver) to be candidates, plus preseason All-America
At halftime, he interrupted the proceedings to spread his arms out wide and give an impromptu speech, a shot of Jameson in one hand and a glass of Stella Artois in the other
Lance Paddock knew that half the bar couldn’t hear him. Yet he carried on anyway, thanking those who were reveling in the moment alongside him. Everyone packed inside the small, cozy space was thinking what he was thinking that suffocatingly humid Friday afternoon when the U.S. men’s national team won its World Cup group. Paddock, an energetic grayhaired Baton Rouge native who likes to wear Hawaiian shirts and khaki shorts, just needed to voice it.
“We might be good,” he said with a smile, his eyes wide.
BY ANDREW DAMPF AP sportswriter
LONDON The roars began even before Serena Williams stepped on Centre Court. Then they grew louder when the 23-time Grand Slam champion arrived to play her first singles match in nearly four years. And when it was all over and the 44-yearold Williams had performed admirably in a three-set defeat to an opponent less than half her age in the opening round of Wimbledon with her two daughters cheering her on, Williams smiled as she walked off to a loud round of applause
“It was really great to be back at Wimbledon I never expected to be here,” Williams, who did not meet with media after the match, said in a statement released by Wimbledon organizers. “The atmosphere was amazing. Walking out was amazing. I definitely relished it and missed it and enjoyed the moment more than anything.”
In a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 loss to 20-yearold Maya Joint of Australia on Tuesday, Williams showed she can still crank out serves faster than 120 mph and dictate points with her heavy groundstrokes. Movement was an issue for Williams, though, and the 87th-ranked Joint was able to handle Williams’ pace and win more of the big points by hitting beyond the American’s reach.
While Williams played two doubles matches just before Wimbledon to announce her comeback to the sport she once dominated, she hadn’t played a singles match since the 2022 U.S. Open.
“She has such an aura She’s just a legend, and this court has so many huge names that have played on it,” Joint said. “I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.”
Williams has 98 career victories and seven titles in singles on the hallowed grass of the All England Club. By contrast, it was Joint’s first Wimbledon victory in just her second appearance after losing in the opening round last year
The U.S. isn’t just hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, alongside Canada and Mexico. It’s also playing like one of the field’s
Then the reality quickly set in that the Americans soon would be back in the spotlight themselves, with a round of 32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina at 7 p.m. on Wednesday that will go a long way to determining how successful this World Cup will be.
“In the moment you’re a fan, and then afterward you realize that this is also the same tournament that we’re playing. I think it’s a weird
The possibility alone is reason enough to throw a party, which Paddock has been doing almost every day for the last three weeks. The eclectic Mid-City bar he co-owns, Pelican to Mars, has become Baton Rouge’s unofficial gathering spot for soccer fans across the city, which means it’s now staging this moment in the United States’ long, complex history with the World’s Game.
AP FILE PHOTO By RICK SCUTERI
Hawaii wide receiver Jackson Harris looks on before a game against Arizona on Aug. 30 in Tucson, Ariz.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Running back dilin Jones runs with the ball in a drill during spring practice at the LSU football practice facility on April 14.
HOSHIKO
LeBron is leaving Los Angeles
BY TIM REYNOLDS
AP basketball writer
LeBron James is leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, which means another decision awaits.
A mere 16 years after his first famed “decision” the one that saw him leave Cleveland for Miami James is getting ready to change uniforms once again. He has told the Lakers that his eightyear run with them is over and that he’ll play a record-extending 24th NBA season elsewhere.
James has made clear many times in recent years that more championships are his motivation, which means it’s almost certain he’ll pick a team that he believes can contend for an NBA title in 2027. Golden State is believed to be on his list, though there are certainly some who will wonder if reunions with Cleveland and Miami are possible. Or, perhaps, a new landing spot awaits such as San Antonio, where he could partner with 7-foot-4 global megastar Victor Wembanyama
“I’ve done it all. I’ve seen it all,” James said when the Lakers’ season ended in May — after what was his last game with the franchise. “Just being able to compete and trying to win championships, I think that’s a motivating factor.”
The first half of his decision is complete: He’s back for at least one more year, which means his family agreed to that part of the plan — James had said his wife Savannah and 12-year-old daughter Zhuri would have big says in whether or not he continued to play His next decision where to play is among the biggest dominoes that will fall during the NBA’s offseason player movement window, alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo being traded by Milwaukee to Miami.
The Lakers released a statement Tuesday thanking James for his eight seasons with the club.
“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” said Jeanie Buss, part of the Lakers’ ownership group. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers, including the title he led us to in 2020
under the toughest imaginable circumstances, and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.”
What happens now
James could begin talking officially to new clubs after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, when the league’s free agent period opened. He will not be able to sign with a new team until the league’s offseason moratorium is lifted on July 6.
The momentum toward Golden State seemed to pick up when longtime Warriors forward Draymond Green did not exercise his $27.6 million option for this coming season earlier this week in large part to allow his team flexibility to make other roster moves.
It doesn’t mean Green won’t be back in Golden State all indications are that he will — but it gives the team options “Personally I’m always willing to work with the team on whatever is best, especially at this point in my career,” Green said on the
latest episode of his podcast, which was released Tuesday “So my decision to opt out was for a few reasons. As you all know, I’ve always taken the approach of working with the organization. I’ve been in one place for 14 years. It’s more of a family to me than anything.”
Golden State is a franchise James faced four times with Cleveland in the NBA Finals. He also has close relationships with Green, Stephen Curry and Warriors coach Steve Kerr; Curry was his teammate and Kerr was his coach for USA Basketball’s run to the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.
James spent eight seasons with the Lakers, the longest he spent in one stint with one NBA team and led them to the 2020 NBA championship. He became the NBA’s all-time points leader while wearing a Lakers uniform and surpassed a slew of other records while in purple and gold.
He spent the first seven years of his career in Cleveland, then left for four years in Miami where he won the first two of his
four championships That was followed by another four-year stint with the Cavaliers (so he had 11 years there total), and in 2018 he joined the Lakers.
A career like none other
James is the NBA’s oldest active player; he turns 42 in December He was the first player in league history to log 23 seasons; he’ll add at least one more to that this season. He also became the first player in the league to have a son as a teammate, with Bronny James playing alongside him with the Lakers.
The list of James’ accolades to this point are beyond comparison.
He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21time All-NBA selection, a fourtime Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP and was part of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team He’s coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, and for his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.
No standouts in a year of parity for PGA
BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer
CROMWELL, Conn. — The year is at the halfway point. The PGA Tour season is not.
Two months, and only one major, are all that remain for the PGA Tour in 2026 to find some definition. There have been good tournaments, great finishes, redemptions and breakthroughs, and Scottie Scheffler as steady as he has always been.
It’s just that no one has stood out this year
Rory McIlroy became only the fourth back-to-back Masters champion, and the first since Tiger Woods in 2002. It was an example of how much freedom he felt from finally having the green jacket and the career Grand Slam. But that’s his only win this year, and except for a late rally at Riviera, he really hasn’t come close. The eight signature events were won by eight players, no different from last year when seven players won the seven $20 million tournaments. But a year ago, all seven winners were among the top 25 in the world when they won. This year that applied to only three winners — Collin Morikawa (19) at Pebble Beach, Matt Fitzpatrick (7) at Hilton Head and Cameron Young (4) at Doral It also is not unusual to start a season with three different major champions — that’s been the case each of the past 11 years But it’s the first time since 2010 that two of the three major champions were not among the top 30 when they won. Aaron Rai was at No. 44 when he captured his first major at the PGA Championship, and Wyndham Clark was at No. 34 when he won at Shinnecock Hills for his
Cromwell, Conn.
second U.S. Open title.
(This requires an asterisk because Brooks Koepka was No. 44 when he won the 2023 PGA Championship. He was No 19 when he left for LIV, and his two wins came with no ranking points). There were two multiple winners of individual tournaments last year at this point Scheffler and McIlroy. There are four this year with Clark, Young, Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup. The last two months, highlighted by the final major at the British Open and three FedEx Cup playoff events, should go a long way toward shaping the season.
Scheffler and Xander Schauffele won the British Open each of the past two years, and it was their second major of the season. Even in a game that moves slowly, outlooks can change quickly Scheffler looks about the same Scheffler began his year with a four-shot victory in The American Express. Thirteen tourna-
ments later, he still only has one victory He still leads the PGA Tour in overall strokes gained and tee-togreen, though his numbers are down from a year ago. Scheffler has nine finishes in the top 5 in his 14 starts. His playoff loss to Viktor Hovland at The Travelers Championship was his fourth runner-up of the year Take only the money from those four runner-up finishes — $8.9 million — and that would rank him at No. 4 on the PGA Tour money list. He hasn’t been as sharp at times. He had a bad habit of giving the field too much of a head start. But he doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
Fitzpatrick seizes the opportunity
Fitzpatrick leads the PGA Tour in victories this season with three because one of them was Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he teamed with younger brother Alex to win. That gave Alex Fitzpatrick a two-year exemption,
Yankees LHP Fried throws during simulated game
NEW YORK New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried took another step in his recovery from a bone bruise in his left elbow, throwing about 30 pitches in a twoinning simulated game Tuesday Fried was on the mound for about 20 minutes and used all his pitches while facing Ryan McMahon and Trent Grisham, who are slated to be activated off the injured list Friday Fried recently started throwing bullpen sessions and will face hitters again before Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Twins.
The 32-year-old left-hander has been out since May 13, when he left a start in Baltimore after three innings when his velocity noticeably dropped and he threw only 34 of 61 pitches for strikes. He also had an MRI and CT scan.
Aces rule out Wilson for Commissioner Cup final NEWYORK — Las Vegas star Aja Wilson has been ruled out of the Commissioner Cup final against New York on Tuesday night because of a right leg injury.
The four-time MVP rolled her ankle in the fourth quarter of the Aces’ win over the Chicago Sky on Sunday She came back into the game after a quick trip to the locker room.
Aces coach Becky Hammon said that it’s just a tweak and that Wilson should need “a few days to move.” Wilson, who leads the league in scoring at 25.7 points a game, has been remarkably durable in her career She’s now only missed seven games since the 2020 season. New York will be missing Satou Sabally, who is in concussion protocol after getting hit in the face.
USC guard Watkins back on court after ACL tear LOS ANGELES Southern California’s JuJu Watkins is back on the court preparing for the upcoming college basketball season over 14 months after one of the biggest stars of the women’s game suffered a torn ACL.
“I’m just really blessed to be here, feeling back like myself and being able to practice with the team,” Watkins said Monday “It’s been a long time coming. I’ve just been working out, grinding every day so that I could be in this position, so to see all of that hard work kind of pay off right now is really fulfilling.” Watkins missed the entire 202526 season as she recovered from the injury she suffered in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
seen at the time as one of the great gifts ever from big brother
Instead of flying to Turkey for the next European tour event, Alex Fitzpatrick headed to Doral for a signature event. And he got in the next one, and the one after that. He went from that supposed “gift card” to registering four top 10s in the signature events against the strongest fields. His world ranking has gone from No. 140 to No. 62. More importantly, he is at No. 17 in the FedEx Cup and a lock for all the big stuff next year — and all the majors if he reaches the Tour Championship.
Clark as the front-runner
Clark is dangerous when he gets on a heater, and he’s on a heater
He won his first U.S. Open in 2023 a little over a month after dusting the field at Quail Hollow.
He shot 60 to win at Pebble Beach in 2024, then was runner-up two straight weeks to Scheffler at Bay Hill and The Players Championship the following month.
Clark had another closing 60 to win at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson, followed that with contending late Sunday afternoon in the Memorial and early Sunday afternoon in the Canadian Open, and then he stood down a hostile gallery at Shinnecock to win the U.S. Open. And then running on fumes, he got within two shots of the lead late Sunday at the Travelers and tied for fifth.
How long will it last? Two more months and it might be enough to end Scheffler’s four-year run as PGA Tour player of the year
But that depends on Scheffler
He is the defending champion at the British Open, and a victory by him or a half-dozen others could be what it takes to bring some clarity to the season.
Sorsby eligible for ’27 NFL draft, opts not to sue league NEW YORK Brendan Sorsby is moving on to 2027.
The NFL sent a memo to all 32 teams on Tuesday informing them that Sorsby, a quarterback whose college career ended when the NCAA banished him for gambling activity that included wagers on his own team while on the roster at Indiana in 2022 and betting on pro sports, will not seek legal action against the NFL after the league denied his petition to enter the supplemental draft.
Sorsby, who moved from Indiana to Cincinnati to Texas Tech before revelations about an extensive gambling problem surfaced, tried to enter the draft just three days before the scheduled deadline. The league denied the petition.
Porzingis re-signs with Warriors for 2-year deal
SAN FRANCISCO Center Kristaps Porzingis has reached agreement on a two-year, $40 million contract to remain with the Golden State Warriors, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
The 30-year-old Latvian joined Golden State at the February trade deadline from Atlanta in a swap that sent Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga to the Hawks. Porzingis missed significant time last season even after coming to the Warriors. The 7-foot-2 veteran played just 32 games, averaging 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He appeared in 15 games for Golden State with 11 starts. The Warriors finished
in the
ASSOCIATEd PRESS PHOTO By JESSICA HILL
Scottie Scheffler tees off on the first playoff hole of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands on Monday in
ASSOCIATEd PRESS FILE PHOTO By NATE BILLINGS Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James prepares to shoot during a second-round playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on May 7 in Oklahoma City James will not return to the Lakers next season.
Mbappé’s 2 goals help France beat Sweden
By The Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J Kylian
Mbappé put France ahead with a brilliant crossover step in the 45th minute and then added a secondhalf goal to break a World Cup knockout round scoring record, and Les Bleus beat Sweden 3-0 Tuesday to set up a round of 16 match against Paraguay
Bradley Barcola added a 53rdminute goal for France and Mbappé capped the scoring in the 74th minute for his third two-goal game in four matches His six goals tied Argentina forward Lionel Messi for the tournament lead and gave him 18 in his World Cup career, one shy of Messi’s record.
Mbappé’s 10 knockout round goals are two more than the previous high by Brazilian greats Leonidas and Ronaldo. France coach Didier Deschamps bowed when his star came to the bench after he was substituted in the 85th minute France, the World Cup runnerup four years ago and a tournament favorite this time, has outscored opponents 13-2, with Michael Olise assisting on five goals. On a brutally hot afternoon at MetLife Stadium, site of the World Cup final in July 19, France outshot Sweden 25-7, including 15-3 in the first half
Seeking to reach its third straight World Cup final, France plays Paraguay on Saturday in Philadelphia, and the winner ad-
LSU
Continued from page 1C
tight end Trey’Dez Green.
But Harris is a name to watch, partly because his family has a history of putting up big numbers. His grandfather Carl Ray Harris, still holds Fresno State’s single-season record for interceptions with 14 in 1970. Clay Harris, an uncle, averaged 17 points per game in his Fresno State basketball career
If Jackson Harris averages close to 20 yards per catch at LSU, the Tigers will be happy
RB Dilin Jones
When in need of a running back, it’s never bad to look north
WILLIAMS
Continued from page 1C
But Joint won a Wimbledon warmup in nearby Eastbourne last year and knows how to play on grass.
Williams, who has no singles ranking after being out for so long, was given wild-card invitations by Wimbledon organizers to play singles and also doubles with older sister Venus. Her doubles match will come later in the week.
Fans started cheering when Williams’ name was announced as the next match on Centre Court and then they gave her a standing ovation as she walked out before the match started under a closed roof. Several supporters held up signs with messages such as “Welcome Back” and one wore a T-shirt that said “Unstoppable Queen.”
Williams executed a delicate topspin lob winner early on and then cranked out a 121 mph ace to hold for 3-3 in the first set. But Williams also had a costly doublefault that led to the only break of the first set.
In the second set, Williams came back from 0-40 and saved four break points to hold for 6-5. Then Williams saved a match point in the tiebreaker with a big serve down the T followed by a fore-
BAR
Continued from page 1C
American Outlaws calls the place its “home bar,” in part because it shows every match of the World Cup. That distinction began to take hold not long after Pelican to Mars opened in February 2023, when a former manager who roots for the English club Liverpool suggested that the bar open early on Saturday and Sunday mornings so it could show Premier League games. The move, which Paddock said he and his two co-owners made out of a post-pandemic “desperation,” stuck Three years later, the bar is reap-
ASSOCIATEd
France’s Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring the team’s third goal during the World Cup round of 32 match between France and Sweden in East Rutherford, N.J., on Tuesday.
vances to a quarterfinal against Canada or Morocco five days later at Foxborough, Massachusetts. It was 90 degrees, sunny and humid at the 5 p.m. kickoff with poor air quality During the first-half
The Wisconsin Badgers have a lineage of great runners, including Ron Dayne, Montee Ball, Melvin Gordon and Jonathan Taylor Jones, a top-150 recruit nationally in the 2024 class, had the talent to be the Badgers’ next premier running back. He emerged as their lead back last season before a turf toe injury knocked him out midseason; he had also battled through a leg injury coming out of preseason camp. His stats at Wisconsin (just 92 carries, 388 yards, 2 TDs) made him an under-the-radar transfer, but now, fully healthy, Jones has impressed Kiffin in drills with his quick feet and body control. The latter isn’t surprising, considering the 5-11, 211-pound redshirt sophomore was both a foot-
hand approach winner Another big serve — clocking in at 122 mph set up Serena’s first set point, which she converted when Joint missed a forehand long.
After winning the set, Williams pumped her fist calmly
But Joint took control early in the third, and a forehand from Williams sailed long on Joint’s third match point to conclude the encounter after 2 hours, 22 minutes. In other matches Tuesday, French Open champion Alexander Zverev and reigning Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek made it into the second roundy
In a match between hard servers, the second-seeded Zverev beat Alexander Blockx 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0) Swiatek struggled with her serve and committed nine doublefaults before overcoming Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. No. 2 Elena Rybakina also advanced, beating Lois Boisson 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Fourth-seeded Ben Shelton, a quarterfinalist here last year, lost to 140th-ranked Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen in five sets, going out 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (9). Also, 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini beat Stan Wawrinka 6-7 (7), 7-6 (16), 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5). It was the final Wimbledon match for Wawrinka, who plans to retire at the end of the year
ing the benefits of a World Cup on home soil and a USMNT that looks like it can make a deep run through the knockout stage.
“That’s how it started,” Paddock said. “It was like, ‘Well, what the hell? Why not? Why not try?’ And now we’re kind of the soccer bar in Baton Rouge.” Paddock considers himself a typical American soccer fan. He really tunes in only for the big events on the global calendar The World Cup. The Champions League final. The Euros. But the time Paddock got his first true taste of the global game was anything but ordinary It happened when he and his soccer-playing college friend took a trip to Barcelona in 1983 and saw the city erupt after legendary striker Diego Maradona
ahead four minutes later on Olise’s spectacular bicycle kick from just inside the penalty area, which also clanked off a post.
In the first World Cup meeting between the nations, Mbappé scored after goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström tipped Olise’s shot just outside the post. Olise played a short corner kick to Ousmane Dembélé, who passed to Mbappé near the byline. Mbappé took a crossover step to get around Viktor Gyökeres and from just outside the 6-yard box sent a diagonal shot inside the far post.
NORWAY 2, IVORY COAST 1: In Arlington, Texas, Erling Haaland scored the deciding goal in the 86th minute and Norway won a knockout game at the World Cup for the first time.
Three defenders converged on Patrick Berg as he moved into the penalty area with the ball. He kicked it over to a wide-open Haaland, who scored his fifth goal in three games at this year’s tournament.
Antonio Nusa scored in the first half with a curling kick for Norway, which is in its fourth World Cup and will next play five-time champion Brazil in the round of 16 on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey
ance, when the team got to the knockout round only after scoring goals in the 83rd and 89th minutes for an incredible 2-1 comeback win over then-reigning World Cup champion Brazil in the group finale.
Amad Diallo, who had kept Norway from taking a two-goal lead earlier in the second half, evened the match for Ivory Coast with a left-footed kick in the 74th minute.
After Haaland’s goal, his Norway-record 60th in 53 matches, Ivory Coast kept pressing and had a chance to equalize with a direct free kick by Diallo in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Orjan Nyland made a leaping stop, the last of his four saves, when he deflected the ball away as he extended his left hand across his body
Haaland, who won the Golden Boot in the Premier League last season with 27 goals for Manchester City, has scored in 13 straight competitive international games — a total of 25 goals in that span.
hydration break, France defender Lucas Digne let himself be doused by a sprinkler Mbappé hit a post in the 32nd minute, raising both hands in disgust, and France nearly went
ball and wrestling star at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Maryland.
Quarterbacks Matt Corral, Jaxson Dart and Trinidad Chambliss starred in Kiffin’s system but not without backfield mates who established the run. Kewan Lacy just produced 1,567 yards and an SECbest 24 scores on the most carries, 306, of any rusher in the nation last season.
An emphasis on running the ball certainly helped in retaining a pair of talented backs, Caden Durham and Harlem Berry but it also attracted Jones to LSU. There’s only one football, and the Wisconsin transfer could have his arms around it plenty
OL Aliou Bah
The strength of the running back
U.S. SOCCER
Continued from page 1C
dynamic,” U.S. defender Chris Richards said Tuesday before the team’s final practice ahead of the knockout round. “But we saw an upset yesterday, so it’s making sure that we don’t allow that to happen to us.”
After starting the tournament with convincing wins over Paraguay and Australia that clinched the top spot in the group before a meaningless loss to Turkey last week, the Americans enter this knockout round as the favorites to advance for a change against a Bosnian team that never has made it past the group stage before this year
But history is against the team as the U.S. men have had little success in the knockout round of the World Cup or against European opposition.
While the Americans made it to the semifinals at the inaugural tournament in 1930 by winning their group, their only win ever in a knockout round came in 2002 when they beat rival Mexico 2-0 in South Korea before losing to Germany in the quarterfinals.
In the eight other tournaments since the U.S. returned to the World Cup in 1990 for the first time in 40 years, the U.S lost its first knockout game — the round of 16
delivered one of the most famous goals of his career in a match against Real Madrid.
“I became somewhat of a, I don’t know if fan’s the right word,” Paddock said, “but I just always had this attachment to follow that club ever since.”
The problem, though, is that Paddock lives in a bit of a soccer desert. Louisiana doesn’t have a professional team. The U.S. men have never played within 250 miles of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and the last time the U.S women visited the state, they drew a crowd of fewer than 10,000 fans for a 2017 friendly in the Superdome. The challenge then for Paddock and his Pelican to Mars employees was to bring as much of the
The match comes 28 years after what many considered the greatest win ever for the Norwegians against Brazil.
Norway is playing in its first World Cup since that 1998 appear-
room doesn’t matter if there aren’t blockers capable of paving rushing lanes — and if the Tigers offense was woeful at anything last season, it was establishing the line of scrimmage.
Seaton and returning center
Braelin Moore are top-tier talents on a refurbished line. But LSU needed to find three more, and Bah should be experienced enough to whittle the search down to two.
Bah, recruited to Georgia by current Clemson O-line coach Matt Luke, spent two years on the Bulldogs’ bench before he jumped to Maryland and started 24 games at right guard. The 6-5, 327-pound native of Memphis, Tennessee, was incredibly proficient as a redshirt junior,
instead of the round of 32 — four times, failed to make it out of the group three times and failed even to qualify in 2018.
Christian Pulisic said the approach doesn’t change in this round and that the mood around the team remains light even with the high stakes in this part of the tournament. Pulisic said he’s healthy and ready to start after missing one game with a calf injury and playing the last game as a second-half substitute.
“You just want to extend it as long as you can, because some of the best memories I have in my life was last World Cup in Qatar,” Pulisic said. “Now being here, it’s just special to be here. You just don’t want it to end. So there’s definitely a lot of enthusiasm within the team.”
The U.S. lost its knockout game four years ago to the Netherlands 3-1 That came after a 2-1 loss to Belgium in 2014 and is part of a long run of futility against European teams.
The U.S. is 1-13-7 against European teams at the World Cup since 1990, with the only win coming in 2002 in the opener against Portugal. The Americans are winless in their last 13 matches against European squads at the tournament since then.
While Bosnia, 61st in the FIFA rankings, lacks the pedigree of many of those past European opponents, the Americans know this
World Cup as possible to the folks who stay home and swing by their bar Paddock has been doing it by making sure he greets almost everyone who walks in — both regulars and new faces. When the USMNT played its group-stage match against Australia on June 19, he handed out dozens of the stickers he had printed and each time quipped that he was trying to hide them from FIFA, throwing a jab at the governing body’s notoriously draconian licensing restrictions. Pelican to Mars is also pet friendly It supplies doggie bowls, and if your pooch is thirsty, Paddock may even reach down and offer to refill the dish himself. “No matter where you’re at in
The Elephants, ranked 31st by FIFA, had never before won twice in the same World Cup. This was the fourth World Cup appearance for the West African nation, the same as Norway Nusa scored his first World Cup goal in the 39th minute when he took a few strides past the left corner of the area and sent a rightfooted kick between two defenders toward the far post.
whistled for one penalty all season and allowing no sacks for a Terrapins line that surrendered a Big Ten-low nine sacks. If the fifth-year senior proves just as reliable in 2026, LSU will have a much easier time forming a front five, keeping the focus on whether Weston Davis rounds into shape at right tackle or if a younger Ole Miss transfer, Devin Harper, and a longtime LSU reserve, Bo Bordelon, can fill those last two spots.
LSU needs to see improvement upfront, and Bah could be a piece that prevents LSU fans from crying “Bah humbug” at the sight of the offense in 2026.
Email Jon Blau at jon.blau@ theadvocate.com.
matchup won’t be easy The Bosnians secured a spot in the World Cup for the second time ever by winning penalty shootouts against Wales and four-time World Cup champion Italy in the European playoffs, then advanced out of the group thanks to a draw in Toronto against host Canada and a 3-1 win over Qatar
“Every team brings different challenges,” Richards said. “Ultimately the Bosnia team, they were good defensively and good going forward. It’s making sure that we take care of business on both ends. They have a very experienced attack, so it’s making sure we do our best in the back to take that away from them.”
With a victory on Wednesday, the U.S. would advance to the round of 16 next Monday in Seattle against the winner of Wednesday’s game between Belgium and Senegal. It only gets tougher after that with powerhouses such as Spain still alive in their half of the bracket, but the results so far in this tournament with teams such as Germany and the Netherlands getting knocked out early show what’s possible.
“It’s our chance to go further in this tournament,” Richards said “We’ve seen two big boys fall. So it’s just a matter of us getting through this game and putting in a good performance and hopefully we continue that. It’ll start to open up. So it is very exciting for us.”
this bar,” said Adam Deville, the Pelican to Mars event manager, “you can always hear (Paddock) He’s loud, he’s proud, and he loves to talk about his bar — for good reason.”
Kendall Losee, president of the American Outlaws’ Baton Rouge chapter, watched the USMNT’s World Cup opener vs. Paraguay at Court to Table. But he visits Pelican to Mars “almost every week,” he said. That’s where he saw the U.S. fall 3-2 to Turkey in the waning seconds of its last group-stage match.
“I love the different crowds that come in here,” Losee said. “It’s a lot of great people that just show up, and there’s always something interesting going on here. It’s always so much fun.”
PRESS PHOTO By PAMELA SMITH
p.m Miami(Meyer9-0) at Colorado (Freeland 1-7), 7:40 p.m. L.A.Dodgers (Ohtani 8-2) at Athletics (Ginn 6-4), 8:40 p.m. San Francisco (McDonald2-6) at Arizona (Gallen 3-7), 8:40 p.m. Pro basketball WNBAGlance
Atlanta at Washington, 6:30 p.m.
Dallas at Connecticut, 7p.m.
SeattleatPhoenix, 9p.m.
Pro soccer
World Cup glance
ROUNDOF32
June 28 Canada 1, South Africa 0 June 29 Brazil 2, Japan 1 Paraguay1(4-3 PK), Germany1 Morocco 1(3-2 PK), Netherlands 1
Tuesday Norway 2, IvoryCoast1 France 3, Sweden 0 Mexico vs.Ecuador, n Wednesday England vs.Congo, 11 a.m. Belgium vs.Senegal, 3p.m.
Forthe second timethis year,Department of Wildlife and Fisheries secretary Tyler Bosworth hasadded one fish to the allowed daily catch of red snapper for private recreational anglersfor the Fourth of July weekend.
Beginning Thursdayand running through Sunday, the daily catch will be five red snapper measuring aminimum of 16 inches. The usual daily creel limit is four Bosworth approved asimilar plan for the Memorial Day weekend in May.The private recreational red snapper season opened May 1. Bosworth also signed off on an across-the-coast closure of spring inshore shrimp seasontotakeeffect at sunset Monday. An exception to the closed area will allowwaters in Breton and Chandeleur sounds to remain open. The closure comes after sampling by state marine biologists showed the presence of undersized white shrimp migrating into inshore waters.
Theclosure allows these shrimptogrow to amarketable size for an inshoreseason that generally opens in August.
Wildlife and Fisheries managersalso announced that floodwaters hadreceded to apoint where roads on the Grassy Lake (Avoyelles Parish) and Pearl River (St. Tammany Parish) wildlife managementareas couldopenin time for the holidayweekend. Thereopening of the Pearl RiverWMA also includes the Honey Island Shooting Range.
Love meets tech
Artificial intelligence adopters have been using chatbots in varied ways to find modern romance
BY KAITLYN HUAMANI
AP technology writer
Marie Lansley recently started a new job in a new city while searching for a new partner In her dating pursuits, the freshly minted San Franciscan said she’s been “trying everything”— including some help from artificial intelligence.
AI chatbots have become for her and many others — de facto dating coaches and relationship experts.
Lansley, 36, consults AI chatbots for help in starting conversations, something she said she finds difficult on dating apps despite being comfortable doing so in person. Although she’s optimistic about the possibilities, she acknowledges the incongruency between the art of romance and the precision of technology
“I am open to AI finding me the love of my life, but I’m also not fully convinced that it can,” Lansley said. “AI is great at making dating more efficient. But the chemistry — that’s always going to be analog.”
AI adopters have been using the tech in varied ways to find romance. Some patronize AI matchmaking services. Others use AI tools to help build their dating profiles. But the most common way is enlisting chatbots to draft messages to potential matches and interpret messages they receive. Lansley goes back and forth between OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Others turn to Elon Musk and X’s Grok, Google’s Gemini and other chatbots. Dating apps and AI companies are leaning into it. ChatGPT and Gemini have posted content on TikTok showcasing their chatbots’ customized, personality-laden relationship advice.
“Claude is the new Cyrano,” said dating coach Carey Gaynes, referencing the 19th-century French play “Cyrano de Bergerac” in which the titular character is the brains behind another man’s romantic words.
“You’re using a voice that isn’t yours.” Gaynes said she has heard of daters of all ages turning to the technology, both from her client base and her following on her YouTube channel, Coffee with Carey She sees how it could be useful in dating, but like many others, she worries about overreliance Like the platitude used to describe many a modern dating arrangement, it’s complicated when it comes to people’s feelings about AI’s role in romance. There’s a range of excitement, resistance and skepticism.
AI writing suggestions
Lansley said she has been startled by how chatbots can appear to display emotional intelligence.
When doing an onboarding call with the AI matchmaker on the app Known, she said the
COOKOUT CRAVINGS
BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer
If you are lucky enough to get invited to a barbecue this summer, you have one mission ahead of you deciding what to bring for the table.
The privilege of the barbecue guest is that they are typically not obligated to worry about the meat. That is the purview of the host, or whoever wants to show off their grill that weekend. But ribs, burgers, hot dogs and steaks can’t shine on their own — they need something green, fresh or creamy to go on the side.
That’s where the guests come in.
Most of us have a favorite shareable side that no barbecue is complete without, like a classic macaroni and cheese, or — and we’re stretching the definition of “side” here a frozen, fruity drink.
I asked several Lafayette chefs and restaurant owners if they have a favorite dish to bring to a barbecue, and their answers were just as unique as they are From Santi Sarrica’s homemade tiramisu, to a simple salsa recipe from Hub City Diner’s Jason Redmon, these sides, desserts
and drinks would elevate any summery occasion — just in time for Fourth of July get-togethers.
Favorite cookout dishes No barbecue is complete without a potato salad, and chef Will Baxter from Jane’s French Cuisine said
he goes for a mustardy dish called “Colonel Mustard Potato Salad, with a candlestick.” I had not heard of this recipe — and online forums don’t include a candlestick but as a mustard fan, it looks like a
AP ILLUSTRATION By PETER HAMLIN
STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Troy Primeaux, creator of the 7 Pot Primo Pepper, talks about his collection of hot sauces made using his pepper at his home in Lafayette in 2024.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAd BOWIE
Chef Will Baxter, left, and Marshall Robinson, inspect a shipment of lobsters at Jane’s French Cuisine in Lafayette in 2022.
See COOKOUT, page 6C
By The Associated Press
Today is Wednesday, July 1, the 182 day of 2026. There are 183 days left in the year
Today’shighlight in history: On July 1, 1867, Canada became aself-governing dominion of Great Britain as the British North America Act took effect. Called Dominion Day until 1982, the national holiday is now known as Canada Day
Also on this date:
In 1863, the pivotal, threeday Civil WarBattle of Gettysburg, resulting in aUnion victory,began in Pennsylvania.
In 1903, the first Tour de France began. (It ended on July 19, won by Maurice Garin.)
In 1944, delegatesfrom 44 countries began meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, where they agreed to establish the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
In 1963, the U.S. Post Office inaugurated its fivedigit ZIP codes
In 1973, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
TODAYINHISTORY
was established. In 1984, thefirst movie rated PG-13 (“Red Dawn,” starring Patrick Swayze) was released. In 1991, PresidentGeorge H.W.Bush nominatedfederal appeals court judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, beginningan ultimately successfulconfirmation process marked by allegationsofsexual harassment
In 1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as aBritish colony. In 2004, actor Marlon Brando died in Los Angeles at age 80. In 2015, after more than ahalf-century of hostility, theUnited Statesand Cuba declared theirintent to reopen embassies in each other’scapitals, leadingto ahistoric full restoration of diplomatic relationsbetween theCold Warfoes.
In 2018, LeBron James announced that he would be signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, leaving Cleveland for the second time in hiscareer In 2019, 15-year-old Coco
Gauff, the youngest player to qualify at Wimbledon in the professional era, defeated 39-year-old Venus Williams in the first round. Today’sbirthdays: Actordancer Leslie Caron is 94. ActorJamie Farr (TV: “M*A*S*H”) is 92. Dancerchoreographer Twyla Tharp is 85. ActorGenevieve Bujold is 84. Rock singer Deborah Harry (Blondie) is 81. ActorTerrence Mann is 75. Rock singer Fred Schneider (The B-52s) is 75. Popsinger Victor Willis (Village People) is 75. Actorcomedian Dan Aykroyd is 74. ActorAlan Ruckis70. Mystery novelist Louise Penny is 68. Singer Evelyn “Champagne” King is 66. Olympic track champion Carl Lewis is 65. Actor Pamela Andersonis59. ActorHenry Simmons is 56. Hip-hop artist Missy Elliott is 55. ActorJulianne Nicholson is 55. Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens is 51. Actor Liv Tyler is 49. Hockey Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla is 49. Actor Hilarie Burton is 44. Actor Lea Seydoux is 41. Actor-singer Chloe Bailey is 28. Actor Storm Reid is 23.
California chicken club from Our Mom’s
Continued from page5C
Word of advice: Save room for the tres leche cake. Afriend and Ishared aslice, and it was heavenly —Judy Bergeron, features assistant editor California chicken club
n Our Mom’s, 250 W. Lee Drive, Baton Rouge
Our family chose Our Mom’sfor dinner last weekend, which was a perfect place to watch the World Cup games. Although Our Mom’shas famous and unique burgers, Iwanted achicken sandwich. Iordered the California chicken club, which comes with grilled chicken breast, melted Swiss cheese, bacon, sliced cucumbers and sliced avocado dressed with mayo, lettuce and tomatoes on whole wheat bread, except
Igot mine on sourdough. The sandwich was huge. Ihad to cut it in half, and even then, Ibroughtmost of it home. Thegrill of the chicken was spot on and, combined with the other dressings, delivered on abundantflavor.Asabonus, the sandwich was just as goodthe next day forlunch.
—Joy Holden, features writer Wedding cake sno-ball with cream n Meltdown Snoballs,1500 Johnston St., Lafayette Meltdown Snoballs, which hasfour locationsinthe Baton Rougearea, recently opened aLafayette location at 1500 Johnston St.The building it moved into, adjacenttoUL’scampus, has sat empty since Burger King closed that location and another in early 2024.
ZeinClayton, who opened the first location in 2021 when hewas 16 years old,
is the owner.Healso has locations in Brusly and New Roads.
BeforeImoved to Louisiana in 2010, Idid not have a concept of “sno-ball weather.” However,the past week has been just that, so I decided to head over there at lunchtime for afrozen treat. The restaurant was empty when Ivisited, but thestaff was efficiently managing abrisk drivethru line.
We self-ordered at the front counter from an extensive list of flavors, and moments later,Ihad my treat —asmall wedding cake sno-ball, with cream, of course.
Not all sno-balls are created equal, and this was a good one. The ice was soft there was plenty of syrup, and they were not stingy with the cream. It was a great way tocool off abit on asummer workday,and Iwill definitely be back.
—Kristin Askelson, managing editor
good one. Recipes alternate between using aspicy Creole mustard or asmoother Dijon, but whatever your preference, this is apotato salad with akick.
Troy Primeaux is the mastermind behind the“7Pot Primo Pepper,” which was featured in theHulu documentary“Superhot.” In the competitivepepperworld, Primeaux’sisone of the hottest, coming in around 300 times hotter than ajalapeño. He uses the 7Pot Primo for his line of hot sauces, ranging from the brain-melting Primo Army saucetothe gentler but still very bold Primonition verde-style hot sauce.
Primeaux’swife, Kara Farmer-Primeaux, also produces aline of jams called “Farmer’s Daughter,” whichshinesatbarbecues. “Weoften tendtodothings alittle differently when we hit the grill,” Primeaux said. “A party favorite is Kara’samazing burger.”
They use abison or beef patty,topped with caramelized onions,lettuce,tomato, Duke’s mayonnaise,Point Reyes blue cheese, and
CHATBOTS
Continuedfrom page5C
questions thebot asked went “one or two levels deeper” than traditional dating app questions and it seemed to be striving for empathy
It doesn’tnecessarily lead to better results—her first match was not aperfect fit.
MasonNaung, a25-yearold student in Los Angeles, said he doesn’tuse chatbotsfor message ideas, but could see the benefit of it for “icebreakers” during the early back-and-forth with someone.
“I’vebeen on Hinge on andoff fora year or two, andsometimes Ikindof struggle to think about what theopening line should be like with this girl, right?” he said. But if the AI-written messages go beyond those initial exchanges, that would be a“small red flag” in his mind.
Justaschatbots can help startconversations,they also can help endthings.
Dani Cohen, a27-year-old businessowner in San Diego, said she would much rather be sent an AI-written farewell message by someone she’s been on afew dates withthan be “ghosted,” or cut off without a word.
“Obviously,ina perfect world, everyoneknows exactlywhatthey want to say and howtosay it in the kindest way possible and they do that. That’snot the world we live in,” she said. “Anything to getpeople to communicate, and to communicate theirthoughts kindly and effectively,is great.”
Skepticism persists
Several people who spoke with The Associated
Farmer’sDaughter Fig and Habanero hotpepperjelly on atoasted brioche bun.
“It checksoff allthe boxes,” according to Primeaux. “Sweet, spicy,tangy and a full depth of flavor.”
We haven’tcovered dessert yet, and if youinvite the Sarrica family to your barbecue, you’ll be in fora treat. Santi and Gina Sarrica own Sarrica’sLittle Italy in Lafayette, and they have recently expanded with morningpastries. SantiSarrica said they bring fresh bread andhomemadetiramisu to barbecues as anod to Italian heritage.
“The bread isn’tjust food, it’s thefirst thing people
Press, including those who have turned to AI for dating help, expressedreservations about using the technology to help with deeply personalaspectsof their life. Many adopters said they had aline they wouldn’tcross whenit would be inappropriate to use AI fordating. Others couldn’tdream of turning to achatbot for help with their love life at all.
Clara Sullivan, a22-yearoldstudent in Los Angeles, said she would not reply to apotential partner if she knewtheyweresending her AI-written messages.
“I think it’sreally scary howreliant people are on it,”Sullivansaid. “It’s completely gotten rid of people’sability to think creatively and on their own.”
Many feel the same way A2025 survey fromthe Pew Research Center found 53% of U.S.adultssay AI will worsen people’sability to think creatively.Half of those polledsaidtheyfeel AI will worsen people’s ability to form meaningful relationships.
Still, the marriage of AI withthe highlylucrative dating industry was likely inescapable. Many dating apps have been integrating AI into their platforms for years.
Tinderhas an AI-powered feature calledChemistry that suggests profiles tailored to auser’sinterests.
Hinge has AI-powered conversation starters and feedback tools to help build users’ profiles and makeinteractions smooth.
The founder of the app Bumble recently said the platform will soon ditch the well-known swipe feature, instead pivoting toward AIdriven matchmaking. After facing some backlash to the decision, Bumble CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe
naturally gather around,” he said. “Someone tears off apiece, someone else passes it, and before you know it, strangers are sharingatable like oldfriends. That’swhatItalianculture has always been about.
“I also bring homemade tiramisu,whichisdeeply rooted in Italian tradition. Its name means‘pickme up,’ andIlovethe idea that thelast thing youshare at the table leaves everyone smiling. That’swhathospitality is all about.” Of course, everyone needsa colddrink in their hand at the barbecue. Leonard Louvierre, owner of Zea Rotisserie&Bar,saidhis top choice to bring to the party is abatch of frozen cosmopolitans. “It’sagreat summertime item,” he said. “They’rerefreshing and light and summery-looking; people love them.” We’ll closewith arecipe fromJason Redmon, owner of Hub City Diner in Lafayette. He says, “everyone lovesmyquickand easy salsa,” and as acilantro fan, it’s easytosee why. This recipe calls fora lotofit, andI’d love to try it with aslice of steakfresh off the grill, letting the flavors of the land and garden take me into the summer evening.
Herd wrote in astatement that said what they’re building “is rooted in asimple belief: technology should makelove and connection feel morehuman, not less.”
Some seetradeoffs
Mohammed Nizami,23, said he turns to AI forsome things in his life, but not his dating pursuits.
“We’re allcraving for somedegree of authentic connection.Certainly with your partner,you want that,” he said. “If there’s some filter or barrier between you and your partner or potential partner,I think that’sjust not agreat way to start arelationship.”
Nizamisaid chatbots may not even provide the best guidance. The sycophantic nature of manychatbots, he said, might be “good for your ownmental comfort” but does not necessarily lead to the soundest advice. AI is likely going to play agrowing roleinmodern dating life, despite the hesitations.
“It’skind of asad commentary on thestateofthe world. Dating is supposed to be one of the things that cannot be replaced, right?” said Jake Clay,a 30-yearold content creator in New York City.“It’skind of sad to think that something so pivotal to your life journey is being outsourced to an AI who can’tunderstand the emotions around it.” Clay did say he’sbeen receiving fewer texts from friends asking him to decodeamessagefrom potential partners, as they now turn to chatbots.
Clay wryly said he appreciates AI “lifting the load” there but also called the situation a“Catch-22” since it’s“circumventing some of the normal processes in life that Ifeel like should be a little bit moresacred.”
STAFF PHOTO By JOyHOLdEN
cAncER (June 21-July 22) Shedanyconflict you face by being straightforward, decisive in your actions. Choosing the path that feels right for you is better than letting someone else push you in the wrong direction.
LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Pick up the pace, switchyourmindtoautopilotandletyour intuition lead the way. What you accomplish will put a smile on your face and help you maintain your momentum.
VIRGo (Aug 23-sept. 22) Take a pass if you don't feel comfortable with what's unfolding around you. Being a friendly observer will offer insight that can lead to something more suitable and inviting.
LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Mix business with pleasure, network and engage in conversations that can initiate change or make a difference to something that concerns you. Apply more friendly pressure to those slowing you down.
scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Take greater interest in your friends, neighbors and relatives. How you conduct yourself and the suggestions and help you offer will have an impact on you as well as those you chat with.
sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Pay attention to detail when dealing with matters that affect your cash flow or your health. Setting up guidelines to ensure those you deal with are of the same mindset as you will help.
cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Research is essential if you want to avoid interference. Ask questions, and find out how
you can accommodate others without disrupting your plans. Conflict is likely to develop if anyone decides to become pushy.
AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Shine brightly in all your interactions, and you'll turn into the go-to person in your circle. Improving your surroundings will bring you joy and invite new friends or lovers into your life.
PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Handle others with care. Socializing with people who share your concerns will produce good results. You'll discover what's possible if you volunteer your time to help bring about positive change.
ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Sort through any differences you have with those close to you. Being straightforward will spare you unnecessary grief. Don't choose to ignore issues that affect your relationships or domestic situation.
tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Overlooking what's available or doable will be your downfall.Questioneverything,andapply your intelligence and open-mindedness to ensure you achieve the best results.
GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Hurry up, time is of the essence, and structuring how and what you accomplish will eat up valuable time. Reach out to those who can help make whatever you choose to do easier and more efficient.
Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.
toDAy's cLuE: o EQuALs H
FAMILY CIrCUS
CeLebrItY CIpher
Sudoku
InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers1 to 9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.
Yesterday’s PuzzleAnswer
THe wiZard oF id
BLondie
BaBY BLueS
Hi and LoiS CurTiS
By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, said, “A leader or aman of action in acrisis almostalways acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons forhis action.”
Some bridge experts are like that, playing almost by instinct. Othersgrind it out, calculating the correct actions Theless capable tend to react almost subconsciously, making the “natural” play withouttime for analysis.Itwould be agreat idea for almosteveryone to slow down.
In this deal, for example, look at the Northand East hands. Against four spades, West leads theclubqueen. How shouldEast plan the defense?
West wasaggressiveinraisingtotwo clubs, but he had asingleton and liked thefavorable vulnerability. North’s three-club advance was amodern cuebid raise.
It guaranteed at least three-card spade support and aminimum of game-invitational values. Southhad sufficient highcard power to jump to game.
Thedefenders need four tricks.East can anticipate two clubsand one spade, but whereisthe other winner?
That singleton diamondshouldbe smiling at East.But it is probablypointlessdiscouraging clubs at trick one. West would surelyshift to hisheart10. Instead,Eastshould takecontrol.He
Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON
Previous answers:
word game
InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3 Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit wordsare not allowed toDAy’s WoRD soJouRnER: SOH-jurn-er: Atemporaryresident.
Average mark 22 words
Timelimit 30 minutes
Can you find 27 or morewords in SOJOURNER?
yEstERDAy’s WoRD —MEDALs
wuzzles
loCKhorNs
marmaduKe
Bizarro
hagar the horriBle
Pearls Before swiNe
garfield
B.C.
PiCKles
hidato
mallard fillmore
BRIEFS
FROM STAFFAND WIRE REPORTS
iHeartMedia lays off on-air personalities
Riverside, California-based radio station KGGI has lost its last local on-air hosts.
Longtime radio personalitiesEvelyn Erives, Nick Nack and Garrison King were all cutfromthe Inland Empire station last week as part of iHeartMedia’slatest round of national layoffs. In an internal memo, the media giant said it would restructure its radio programming to better “leverage” thecompany’s technology iHeartMediadeclinedtocommentonhow many people lost their jobs, but dozens of on-air and other staff positions have reportedly been cut across the country The memo —attributed to Chief Programming Officer TomPoleman and Ann Marie Licata, thechief executive of the company’smultiplatform group —framed the changes as away to “move faster and operate with greater precision across markets” and to “position us not just to adapt to the future, but to lead it.”
The cuts are part of abroader push to reduce costs. In May, iHeartMedia launcheda newsavings program, set to begin in the second half of 2026, aimed at trimming an additional$50 million on top of the $100 million in savings the company had already announced.
iHeartMedia is the nation’s largest radio operator,with more than 850 stations across 160 markets and asizable presence in Burbank. Its Los Angeles-areastationsinclude KFI-AM, KLAC-AM, KOST-FM and KIIS-FM.
Ford recalling more than 741,000 vehicles
Ford is recalling more than 741,000 vehicles in the U.S. because atransmission issue may damage theparksystem,which couldincrease the risk of acrash or injury
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a report that the recall includes certain Ford F-150, Lincoln Aviator, Ford Explorer,LincolnNavigator and Ford Expeditionvehicles with model years between 2018 and 2021.
The report states that affected vehicles may experience temporary engagement of their transmissionparking pawl while the vehicle is in motion when certain shifts are commandedbythe transmission, potentially damaging park system components.
The NHTSA said Ford is aware of 24 allegations of property damage and nine alleged injuries,withtwo of those being allegationsofemotional injuries, related to the issue.
Vehicle owners will be notified by mail and told to take their vehicle to aFord or Lincoln dealer to have their vehicle’sPowertrain Control Module updated to thelatest level software. Dealers will also inspect thevehicle’stransmission forpark system damage and replace damaged transmission components as needed. There will be no charge for the service.
Vehicle owners may contact Ford customer service at (866) 436-7332 or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at (888) 327-4236 for more information.
U.S. stocks rise, trim losses for June
NEWYORK— U.S. stocks rose Tuesday and trimmed their losses in what had been arocky June.
The S&P 500gained 0.8%, though it still fell to its first losing month following two fabulous ones. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 136 points, or 0.3%, to its record, and the Nasdaq composite climbed1.5%.
The main reason for the past month’sweakness was afallto Earth for stocks in the artificial intelligenceindustry.After soaring to tremendous heights in the frenzy around AI, such stocks came under pressure because of worriesthat they shot too high. That’sa bigdeal forall investors because AI stocks havegrown into someofWall Street’slargest and most influential, pulling indexes behind them.
AI stockswerefirmer Tuesday, andNvidiawas thestrongest force lifting the S&P 500 after rising 2.6% and trimming its loss for the month. That was even though the majority of stocks within theindex fell Tuesday All told, the S&P 500 rose 58.93 points to 7,499.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added136 46 to 52,319.20, and the Nasdaqcomposite climbed 393.58 to 26,213.72.
THEADVOCATE.COM/news/business
Egg producerssettleprice-fixingclaims
Firmsto pay$3.3M,donate53M eggs
BY WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP business writer
NEW YORK The U.S.JusticeDepartment and 17 states reached settlement agreements with three majoregg producers this week to resolveallegations that thecompanies illegally colluded for years to raise prices, including when the cost soared to recordhighs last year.
Thestates andthe federalgovernment accusedCal-Maine Foods, Versova and Hickman’s Egg Ranch of abehind-the-scenes arrangementto“artificially inflate the dailyprice quotations foreggs” between June 2022 and March 2025. In particular,theirinvestigation found thatthe companies coordinatedonwhatbidstheywould submittoUrner Barry Publications,a
company that runs an index key to determining how much grocery stores, restaurantsand otherspay for billions of eggs each year
In turn, that meant“higher prices for eggs sold to consumers,” alleged the complaint, which was filed in Iowa on Monday,the day the settlementterms wereannounced.
“When powerful corporations collude behind the scenes to raise prices, working families sufferthe costs,”New York Attorney General LetitiaJames,who helped lead the investigation, said in astatement. “These egg producers manipulatedthe market to squeeze even moreprofit out of consumers and businesses.”
None of the companies admitted wrongdoing under thesettlements. But to settle the states’ claims, Cal-
Maine, Versova and Hickman’swill collectively be on the hook for $3.3 million and 53 millioneggs, James and others said. Those eggs would be donated by the companies and make their ways to food banks and nonprofits.The money will be distributedtothe states.
The JusticeDepartment and thestates also outlined actions thecompanies will needtotake, including adopting antitrust compliance programsand banning communicating with competitors on pricing and bidding strategies.
The settlements would still need court approval. TheJustice Department’sOmeed A. Assefi said Tuesdaythatthe proposedsettlements “resolve years of conduct that dragged on Americans’ finances and their everyday lives.”
Average U.S. eggprices soared to arecord high of about $6.23 per dozeninMarch 2025,amida bird flu epidemic that forced farmers
Asia seekstodiversify itsenergysupplies
Movesmay undermine climategoals
BYANTON L. DELGADO Associated Press
BANGKOK Asian nations hit hard by theIran war’sprice shocks are rushing to diversify and strengthen their energy security,potentially undermining their commitments to curbclimatechange.
As negotiations on ending the wardragon, countriesinenergy hungry Southeast Asia are exploringnuclear power and promisingrenewable rollouts. But they are also investing in coal power to provide abuffer during times of crisis.
The Iran war hasnot shaken coal’sstatusasapillarofSoutheast Asia’senergy security, said Sandeep Pai at Duke University’sNicholas Institute for Energy,Environment andSustainability
Until recently,coal was slowly being phased out to reduceclimatechange-causing emissions and address air qualityconcerns. Butthe conflict hascomplicated that scenario.
“At the end of the day, energy security triumphs anyother climateconsiderations,” Pai said.
In East Asia, South Korea and Japan began burning more coal to keepnationalenergygrids poweredwhilethe closureofthe Strait of Hormuz due to the war disrupted flows of oiland gasto Asia.
SoutheastAsian nationslike Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines didthe same.
This emergencyresponse has ledto longer-termpolicies that have given coal an extension of life, Pai said.
Coal investmentsare predicted to rise globally to $180 billion in 2026, according to the International EnergyAgency,which is the highest it has been since 2012.
In 2021, the United Nations declared coal hadbeen consigned tohistory after nearly 200 countriesagreed to phase out coal power.After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine disrupted gas supplies, European nations burned morecoal and built morefossil fuel pipelines andimport terminals.
Now,this second energy shock in less than adecadeisreinforcing coal’s value to energy security in Asia, according to Michelle Manook of FutureCoal,agroup backed by thefossil fuel industry that wasformerlyknown as the World Coal Association Global coal-firedpower generationdeclinedby0.6%lastyear, accordingtothe Global Energy Monitor,but newcoal powercapacityincreased3.5%.
Indonesia, theworld’slargestthermal coal exporter and a bellwether forthe fossil fuelindustry,isoverhauling its trade rules and imposing new taxes after coal prices hit multiyear highs.
But it’salso chasing new solargoals, planning to install 100 gigawatts of rooftop solarby 2034, up from 1.3 gigawatts of capacitynow
“Indonesia’sobviously tied to coal in so manyways, but it’s seen beyond that,” said Dave Jones, with theenergy think tank Ember.
Renewables stilldominate growth in regionalpower generation,henoted Likewise, Vietnam has increased itsuse of coal but also hascommitted to installing rooftop solar on 10%ofpublic offices and homes nationwide by 2030 After the warbegan,the
to slaughter millions of egg-laying chickens. Egg producers blamed pricespike on the outbreak,but critics accused big companiesof taking advantage of their market dominance, andthe government began its investigation.
Monday’scomplaint notes that price quotations “dropped significantly” after Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman’slearned of the Justice Department’sinvestigation and were instructed to preserve documentsinMarch 2025. Consumer eggprices also later tumbled —to under$2.20 perdozenasofMay 2026 —asreplenished flocks caught up despitethe ongoing outbreak Cal-Maine maintained Monday that allegationsofprice manipulation were “baseless” and that it believesits conducthas been legal. It also noted that while it was part of acooperative with the other egg producers, it left the group in May 2024.
WASHINGTON Americans’ attitudes toward theeconomy improved slightly this month as gas prices declined, but theiroutlook is still mostlynegative by historical standards.
The ConferenceBoardsaidTuesday that itsconsumer confidence index rose 0.6 point to 91.2 in June, afigure that is still below its year-ago reading of 95.2. Consumerattitudes worsened after theIranwar causedoil andgas prices to spike,accelerating inflation and causing Americans’ inflation-adjusted incomes to decline. Before the pandemic, theindexregularlytopped 120.
Philippines burned more coal anddeclared anational energy emergency.Itconsideredlifting aban on newcoal plants but decided not to.Earlier approved projects will still be built
In themeantime Philippine consumers have been putting up rooftop solar in record rates
“This really doesn’t cancel out any of the green energy gains,” said Brenda Valerio,ofthe nonprofit New EnergyNexus in the Philippines. “But it does really show that the energy transition is nonlinear andcontested.”
Muchofthe liquefied natural gas going through the Strait of Hormuz wenttoSouth Korea andJapan, countriesthat import nearlyall their energy needs.
Facing ashortfall, South Korea delayed the retirement of three coal plants, potentially slowing progress toward its climate goals. It raised power generation at its active nuclear plants andspedupmaintenance at five offline reactors.
Japanhas been pushing ahead with restarts of nuclear power plants that were idled after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, said Michiyo Miyamoto, of theInstitute for Energy Economics and FinancialAnalysis. That disaster led Japan to stepupuse of coal as those plant closures temporarily cutits total generating capacity by aboutathird.
India wants to spend $3.9 billion to convert coal into industrialfuels and chemicals to replace imported products, maintainingits useofcoal
Effortstoreduce emissions andhit netzero ambitions are long-termcampaigns that require years of effort and focus, said Luke Holt, the Asia-Pacific director of energy forthe consultancy firm Ramboll.
“But we see that they are easily distracted,” he said. “We’ve hada number of shocks to the decarbonization plan.
The report suggests that consumer confidence is recovering only slowly fromthe hit caused by the Iran war. Even so, Americans have continued to spend despite their dour outlook, which has kept the economy growing even as inflation accelerated. Measures of consumer sentiment have been less predictive of how Americans actually shop since the pandemic.
“Consumer confidence inched up in June as falling oil prices in recent weeks provided somerelief to consumer inflation fears,” Dana Peterson, the Conference Board’schief economists, saidina statement. “Consumer appraisals of current business conditions were slightly more positive compared to last month. However perceptions of the current labor marketsoftened measurably.”
Earlier this month, agovernment report showed that consumers stepped up their spending in Maydespite higher gas prices. Analysts expect the steady consumer outlays kept the economygrowing at about a2.5% annualrate in theApril-Junequarter Falling gas prices mayalso help boost Americans’ outlook in the coming months. On average nationwide, gasprices spikedabove $4.50 afterthe U.S.-Iran conflict beganFeb.28. They have since fallen back to $3.85 agallon, according to AAA. The survey also found that consumers had adimmerviewofhiring and the job market this month. The proportion of Americanswho saidjobs are “hard to get” rose to 22.5% from 19.8% theprevious month, anoticeable increase.
But on Wednesday the government released areportshowing that the numberofopenjobs remained at a solid 7.6million in May,indicatingthat companiesare showing moreinterest in recruiting workers.
The Labor Department will release itsmonthly jobs report forJuneon Thursday,and economists forecast it will showthatemployers added 100,000 jobs, asolid gain. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at a low4.3%, according to data provider FactSet.
ASSOCIATEd PRESS FILE PHOTO By yANNICK PETERHANS Khanh Hoa Thermal PowerStation, acoal-fired powerplant, operates in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam.
