The Advocate 07-07-2026

in

in math, science andsocial

Louisianastudent test scores seeimprovement

Englishachievement remains flat across allgrades

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

Louisianastudentsmadegains or held steady on most state LEAPtests this year, asign that Louisiana has sustained its nation-leading recovery from pandemic learning loss.

Students in grades 3-8 grew in math, science and social studies, while achievement was flat in English,accordingto LEAP results released Monday. High schoolers improved or held their ground in every subject except English I, where

the share of studentshitting thestate target dipped slightly

Theannualtests, whichare required by federal law,measurestudents’ grasp of content the state expects them to learnby theend of each grade. The scores weigh heavily in school ratings, teacher evaluations and high school graduation requirements.

Across all tested grades and subjects, 36%ofstudents metorexceeded state expectations in 2026, thehighest rate on record, accordingtothe state Department of Education. The latest scores follow arecent study that found Louisiana studentshave outpaced their peers in most states in reading and mathgrowth since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and disrupted learning, causing test scores nationwide to plummet

ä See LEAP, page 5A

Data:Obamacare enrollments

Subjectgrowth

Across all tested grades and subjects, 36% of students met or exceeded state expectations in 2026.

shrank dramatically in many states

Math: 1% increase in scoring masteryor above in grades 3-8.

Science: 2% increase in grades 3-8

Social studies: 2% increase in grades 3-8.

Ascension Parish schoolstop statein testing

BatonRouge-area students show improvement

BY CHARLESLUSSIER Staff writer

AscensionParish took first place in the state rankings on LEAP standardized tests, followedcloselybyWest Feliciana Parish, according to results released Monday Central and Zacharyschools scored in fourthand fifth place on theannual standardized tests.

Plaquemines Parish was the only district notinthe Baton Rouge region to makethe top five among the 69 districts across Louisiana.

For the first time, students in amajorityofschooldistricts in theregionare scoring at or above theirlevelbefore theCOVID pandemic. Andthreedistricts in theregionthathavehistorically been amongthe lowest ranked—Baker, East Feliciana Parish and St. Helena Parish —posted the strongest growth in the state.

LEAP tests —short for Louisiana EducationalAssessment Program are given each spring in four subjects: Englishlanguage arts, math, science andsocial studies. The tests aretaken by students in grades three to eight as wellinseven high school subjects. These results are from this spring. The current social studies test wasfirst given in spring 2025, but its results were not included in last year’sinitialLEAP score release. That year,Louisiana added ahigh school civics exam.

The Louisiana Department of Education will use these scores as its primary source for the annual school report cards it releases this fall. The state’s accountability system has changed this year.The new system gives more points forschoolsthat show growth among their lowest-performing students. High schools, though, will be judgedlargely by test scores; several additional factors that lifted high schools foryears above their feeder schools have been eliminated. Student scores aregroupedinto five

Mooreappeals ruling in fundinglawsuit

BY ALI SWENSON Associated Press

NEWYORK Statesacrossthe country saw steepdrops in the number of people covered by the Affordable Care Act over the past year, with Ohio and Oklahoma each losing nearly one-thirdofenrollees, according to new federal data that provides the first complete50-state breakdown of sharp enrollmentdeclines following theJanuary expiration of enhanced subsidies.

Thedata, posted in late June by theTrump administration and first reported on by The Associated Press, revealshow changes in each state’sinsured population led to around 2.6millionfewer Americans havingObamacare plans in February compared with thesame time last year It captures not only how many people signed up fororwere automatically reenrolled in plans in 2026,but how many paid their first monthly premiumstokeep coverage, according to Cynthia Cox, avice presidentand director of the health law program at the healthcare research nonprofit KFF,who reviewed thedataset. She said it accounts for people

whowere retroactively removed from coverage after anonpaymentgrace period ended.

“Thisisthe first time we’ve seen state-level data that shows how much ACA marketplace enrollmenttruly fell,” Cox said. “It’sin line with ourexpectations, butit does show avery steep drop in the number of people withACA coverage.”

Health analysts have kept a close eyeonchangesinmarketplace enrollment since the expiration of so-called enhanced premium tax creditscaused many Americans’monthly health insurance fees to double or triple

Affordable Care Act subsidiesexpired in January ä See ENROLLMENT, page 4A

Judgesaysall EBR cities must be added as defendants

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer

DistrictAttorney Hillar Moore is asking an appeals court to weigh in on his lawsuitseeking millions of dollarsinadditional funding after ajudge ruled thecase cannot move forward unless every municipality in the parish is added as aparty In awrit application filedFriday,Moore argued Judge Tarvald Smithwrongly ordered that the cit-

iesofSt. George, Baker,Central and Zachary must be added to the lawsuit as defendants alongside East Baton Rouge’scityparish government.Moore’sattorneysdisagreed, contending Louisiana lawplaces the responsibility for funding the District Attorney’sOfficeonthe parish government alone. “The statute contains no language suggesting, implying, or authorizing contributions fromthe

4A

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

State scores

grades3-8 grew

studies, while achievementwas flat in English, according to 2026 LEAP results released Monday

Trump says he’s building a White House helipad

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Monday that he’s building a granite helipad on the White House lawn, insisting that the landing area is needed to accommodate new, more powerful presidential choppers.

Confirmation of the project came as construction crews had already begun working on the helipad on the South Lawn, where the president had UFC build a temporary arena for a cage fight celebrating his 80th birthday. He said the project would be privately funded and estimated its cost at up to $6 million.

“It’s got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved granite,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s really a beautiful thing.”

McConnell ‘continuing his recovery’ in hospital

WASHINGTON Staff for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said last week that the senator is “continuing his recovery” in a hospital while the Senate is out of session. But his office has released no details about the former Republican leader’s condition during his weekslong hospitalization or whether he will be at the Capitol when the Senate returns next week.

McConnell was admitted to the hospital on June 14, according to a statement from his office that only said he was “receiving excellent care.” McConnell, 84, was the longest serving Senate leader in history before stepping aside from that role He is serving out his final term, which ends in January

Russia’s missile, drone attacks kill at least 22

KYIV, Ukraine Russia unleashed waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine early Monday, killing at least 22 people in attacks that exposed widening gaps in the country’s air defenses more than four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion, authorities said.

All of the ballistic missiles launched by Russia struck their targets, underscoring Kyiv’s need for more U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles — a point Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely reiterate at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.

Fifteen people were killed in the capital of Kyiv, which was Russia’s main target and 56 were injured, according to administrative head Tymur Tkachenko Another seven people were killed in the wider Kyiv region and 29 were injured, according to Ukraine’s emergency service.

French President Macron visits war-torn Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Monday in Syria, making him the first major western leader to visit the war-torn country since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

The French president’s visit comes during a period of relative calm in the Middle East after the monthlong war in Iran and Lebanon. He will travel next to Ankara, Turkey, for the NATO summit, where Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is also expected to attend and hold a high-profile meeting with President Donald Trump.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said Macron would visit with a business delegation to discuss regional security as well as business and investment opportunities.

Ex-officer describes ‘sniper pad’

Prosecutors begin laying out case in Kirk assassination trial

BY HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press

PROVO, Utah A former campus police officer testified Monday that he found an apparent “sniper pad” on a rooftop near where Charlie Kirk was assassinated, as prosecutors sought to convince a state judge they have enough evidence to put a Utah man on trial for murder

Former Utah Valley University Officer Christopher Bagley said he witnessed Kirk’s shooting while the conservative activist was speaking on Sept. 10 to a crowd of thousands. Soon after, Bagley went to a nearby gravel rooftop, where it appeared someone had been lying prone with a clear sightline to Kirk’s location, he said.

“It looks like a sniper pad,” Bagley said, adding, “you’ve got markings of elbows, knees and feet.”

The testimony came as Kirk’s parents, Kathryn and Robert, and widow, Erika, were in the courtroom for the first time since the case began, along with Donald Trump Jr President Donald Trump’s son.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for defendant Tyler

Robinson. The five-day preliminary hearing that began Monday marked the most significant presentation of evidence to date in the case.

There were no major revelations on the first day, although prosecutors aired new video that investigators believe showed Robinson getting in and out of his vehicle on Sept. 10 and 11.

Robinson’s parents also were present, sitting a few rows behind the Kirks. The 23-year-old defendant is charged with aggravated murder in the assassination of Kirk, an ally of the president. Robinson turned himself in the day after the shooting. Robinson has not yet entered a

plea, and his attorneys have not commented on his guilt or innocence. They have, however, sought to get the death penalty taken off the table, so far unsuccessfully Prosecutors showed several videos of Kirk’s shooting as they made their case to state District Judge Tony Graf.

Attorneys from both sides tried to shield their monitors from courtroom spectators, after Graf said the assassination videos couldn’t be publicized because of their graphic nature.

Utah State Bureau of Investigations Agent David Hull described the videos during questioning by prosecutors: They showed the crowd milling around at the event,

Kirk interacting with some of the spectators, the harrowing moment when he was shot and, finally, an anxious scene as Kirk’s security detail picked him up and took him away while administering first aid. The proceeding resembles a minitrial, but prosecutors need only demonstrate that there are reasonable grounds to believe Robinson killed Kirk and should stand trial. The standard is lower than for a trial, where prosecutors must prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Prosecutors, as a result, should have little trouble advancing their case, said Mark Kouris, a former prosecutor and state judge in Salt Lake City

“This standard is extremely low and the chances of them not getting through it are, quite frankly, almost nothing,” said Kouris, now an adjunct professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law Bagley, the prosecution’s first witness, said he could see the right side of Charlie Kirk’s body as Kirk spoke on campus. Kirk was answering a question when Bagley heard a gunshot.

“I saw him go to the left I could no longer see the right side of his body,” Bagley said. “Then everybody started getting up and started to run, more of a chaos situation.”

Defense attorney Kathryn Nester asked Bagley about finding an empty pistol holster on the ground after the crowd fled. Bagley acknowledged he never took custody of the holster and didn’t know whether it had been fingerprinted.

land and other tiffs.

An article Sunday on the Living front about the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University contained incorrect details The Conversations in Color event is with former Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson and Amistad Board Chair Kim Boyle. The collections include the Congress of Radical Equality newsletters, accounts of the American Committee on Africa, and John O’Neal’s records of the Free Southern Theater The Summer Teacher Institute is Aug 7. The Vinyl Record Listening Party is July 16. The Times-Picayune | The Advocate regrets the error

BY LORNE COOK and SUZAN FRASER Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey — NATO SecretaryGeneral Mark Rutte on Monday demanded that members put forward “clear, concrete and credible plans” to reach the organization’s defense spending targets at its annual summit in Ankara.

Rutte spoke in the Turkish capital ahead of the two-day summit starting on Tuesday at a crucial time for the alliance, with the United States scaling down its security role in Europe. Washington has been pressing allies to shoulder more of the spending burden

The 32 nations agreed last year to invest 5% of their gross domestic product on defense 3.5% on their defense budgets and 1.5% on roads, bridges and ports so troops and equipment can move faster in

times of conflict.

Spain endorsed the goal but said it could fulfill NATO’s security requirements without spending so much. Some countries are still struggling to meet the alliance’s old target of 2% of GDP

Asked what would happen to members that don’t have a clear plan, Rutte said: “If one or two of them still have to be convinced, we have ways to do that.” He did not elaborate.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker suggested last week that the U.S. has something in store for those who do not step up, but declined to say more.

“President (Donald) Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” Whitaker said.

On spending among European allies and Canada, Rutte said that “the

evidence we see so far is impressive.” He said NATO estimates that they will invest a combined $258 billion more in defense in 2025 and this year than they have in previous years. But the numbers might not be enough to satisfy the Trump administration. Trump has repeatedly lashed U.S. allies over defense spending, and in the past threatened not to come to the defense of any member not doing enough — challenging NATO’s key reason for existence.

Trump also has called for “loyalty” from NATO allies, after some of them declined to allow the use of their military bases in the U.S.Israeli war on Iran. As well as airing grievances about how much the U.S. spends on defense compared with other countries, Trump has sparred with allies over the war, his comments about annexing Green-

Islandwide blackout hits Cuba

BY MILEXSY DURÁN Associated Press

HAVANA An islandwide blackout hit Cuba on Monday as the country’s fuel reserves dwindle and its electric grid continues to crumble.

The blackout in the country of nearly 10 million people was reported by the state-run Electric Union, which said on X that the cause is under investigation. The Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote on X that it has activated protocols to restore electricity

Fuel has been running out across Cuba since January when President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island, deepening the island’s ongoing economic and financial crisis. Public transportation has largely been halted, and officials have canceled tens of thousands of surgeries.

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said microsystems were already operating throughout Cuba a couple of hours after the outage: “Vital services continue to be protected, amidst this complex situation exac-

erbated by the energy blockade we face.”

Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused the U.S. of trying to “incite social unrest by strangling Cuba’s fuel supply.”

“The actions of electrical workers in the midst of a genocidal energy blockade are heroic,” he wrote on X.

Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs, while the 730,000 barrels of oil delivered by a Russian tanker in late March ran out by the end of April.

The government also

has been rationing power with intentional outages that can stretch to more than 24 consecutive hours.

A blackout in mid-May affected the island’s eastern provinces, while a blackout in mid-March struck the entire island.

Like many Cubans, Mario Pedroso, a 33-year-old Havana resident, was resigned about Monday’s total blackout.

“Oil hasn’t come in here for a while, and we have no way to solve the problem,” he said. “We have to resist, as we Cubans say. That’s all.”

The Trump administration is promoting what it calls “NATO 3.0,” a vision in which Europe assumes greater responsibility for its own defense, freeing the U.S. to concentrate on other priorities. The approach was laid out earlier this year by Elbridge Colby, a U.S. undersecretary of defense, during a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

“We need our allies in NATO to step up and assume leadership roles, and I mean that not only in sort of loud cheerleading but also the moral authority and the moral compass of the alliance,” Whitaker said last week.

NATO on Tuesday is due to make announcements showcasing the military equipment being bought with billions of dollars more being spent on defense and security The event has been dubbed the “big reveal.”

NATO chief demands credible plans for defense spending GET IN TOUCH

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHTOO By MARIELLE SCOTT

Charlie Kirk’s parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, arrive at the Fourth District Courthouse for a hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, on Monday in Provo Utah.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By RAMON ESPINOSA

A child walks with a bottle of oil past a solar panel set up on the street to charge batteries during a blackout Monday in Havana.

New La. ICE facility could speed up deportations

BY JACK BROOK Associated Press/Report for America

The Trump administration plans to open a 528-bed holding facility in Louisiana for migrant families and unaccompanied children next to an airport hub, positioning itself to speed up deportations.

The location in Alexandria would remove logistical headaches caused by wrangling children from foster homes and shelters across the country and not having anywhere to put them during final preparations for flight. Those obstacles were apparent last year when Guatemalan children were awoken at night and given almost no time to get to Harlingen, Texas, where they waited on an airport tarmac for hours.

A federal judge prevented their deportation, but the chaotic episode illustrated the challenges authorities face because they don’t have anywhere to put families and children near the airport. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is calling the Alexandria facility a “staging area,” not a detention center, and says people would only be there a few days at most. However, several immigration advocates expressed concern that children could be held at the new facility for weeks or months, which happened at other federal immigration holding sites These advocates are also concerned about oversight, and say the facility represents a departure from how the government manages those children

R. Gray Sexton, 84, enforcer of state ethics rules, dies

BY TYLER BRIDGES

Staff writer

R. Gray Sexton, who spent four decades helping keep Louisiana elected officials on the straight and narrow as the top staffer for the board that enforces ethics rules, died Thursday in Baton Rouge following a brief illness. He was 84. Sexton left the ethics board in 2007 and, after a two-year cooling off period, spent the final stretch of his career as a private attorney representing public officials facing ethics complaints. Before then, though, Sexton did it all for the Board of Ethics for Elected Officials and the Commission on Ethics for Public Employees — as the staff director and general counsel of both The board policed public officials and campaign finance laws, while the commission regulated the actions of public employees.

The ethics board had a higher profile. The two entities were merged in 1997, and Sexton continued to oversee both.

Sexton issued recommendations to the board on how to rule when public officials asked whether they could do something, such as hire a nephew to work in their office.

He oversaw staffers while they investigated public officials to determine whether they might have violated state ethics rules. He acted as the prosecu-

tor when the board decided that enough evidence existed to pursue an ethics case against a public official, with the board serving as the jury

“Gray was a very smart person. He was a good lawyer He’d always give a straight answer, even if he disagreed with you ” said Emile Peppi” Bruneau Jr., a former state legislator from New Orleans who oversaw the House committee that handled ethics laws. “I wish we had more Gray Sextons in the world.”

But over time, Sexton faced complaints that he was wearing too many hats for the board and that representing clients as a private attorney at the same time presented a conflict of interest.

In 2007, the Legislature passed a law that prohibited his position from having outside employment.

“He was the executive director, and he had clients come before the board. We wanted to make sure that that situation wouldn’t present itself anymore,” said William Daniel IV, a top administrator under East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sid Edwards now who sponsored the 2007 legislation as a state House member.

Sexton responded to the legislation by resigning to begin representing clients facing issues before the ethics board.

“He went from prosecutor to defense,” Bruneau said. Sexton’s law firm also handled licensing cases and disputes involving construction law

Sexton, who was from Pineville, came to Baton Rouge to study at LSU’s law school and never left.

“It’s an expansion of the deportation system in ways we haven’t seen before,” said Leecia Welch, chief legal counsel at the nonprofit Children’s Rights. “There’s just so much that could go wrong with this facility.”

Unaccompanied children who are in the U.S without parents or close relatives are not taken to facilities overseen by ICE. Instead, the law says they must be swiftly placed in the care of state-licensed shelters and foster care programs.

Those are run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services. However, that agency isn’t involved in the Alexandria facility’s operation, according to a spokesperson at the airfield where

it’s being built. Instead, the facility would be run by a nonprofit arm of LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor, according to Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark Authority He said it could be operational as early as August.

ICE officials signed a contract late last month to build the facility at the former military base near Alexandria International Airport, roughly 175 miles northwest of New Orleans, Hennessy said. It would operate as a 72-hour holding center for migrants awaiting deportation, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Compass Connections, a Texasbased nonprofit that runs shelters for unaccompanied immigrant chil-

dren, had originally been tapped to help operate the facility and laid out plans during a public presentation in February

But the company’s president, Sonya Thompson, told the AP last week that it was no longer involved. She did not elaborate.

In public board meetings, airpark officials said the facility is a “humanitarian effort” for families that are “self-deporting.” Immigration advocates say families and unaccompanied children sometimes make that decision under pressure or because they don’t understand their options.

“These are people that are volunteering to go back home and they’re going back home as a family unit,” Hennessy told the AP

Democrats pulling support for Platner

Maine Senate candidate accused of sexual assault

BY KIMBERLEE KRUESI and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press

A woman who previously dated Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop, according to a Politico report released Monday, leading prominent supporters to pull their endorsements and throwing a must-win race for the party into turmoil.

Platner denied the allegation, but said he would be considering next steps for his campaign.

“Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we’re taking the time to reflect on the best path forward,” he said in a video released on social media.

Jenny Racicot, who lives in Maine, told Politico that Platner entered her home in 2021 while drunk and assaulted her Racicot said she had been in an on-andoff relationship with Platner, but she cut off contact with him after that night and told him the incident wasn’t consensual. A voicemail left at a number listed for Racicot seeking comment did not receive an immediate response.

Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to an email and phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment

“Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false,” Platner said in his video.

Still, the allegation sparked a flight away from a candidate who has long been controversial Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who’d stood by Platner even as the insurgent candidate was hit with prior allegations, said Monday’s was enough.

paign town halls planned in Maine.

Platner was a first-time candidate who won the primary with backing of the party’s left wing While some Democrats came around to support him after his commanding primary win, Platner’s controversial history had already left others openly despairing of their chances of winning the race.

A Marine veteran who also worked for a private security contractor, Platner has a chest tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, had a history of controversial statements on social media and reportedly sexted with other women shortly after getting married.

lowing the Politico report.

“If new evidence presents itself, I’m going to change my perspective it’s that simple,” Piker said during a livestream on Twitch, adding: “This is a clear-cut instance of verifiable sexual assault allegations. It’s completely irredeemable.”

BY JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press

Heat wave-breaking rain caused part of the roof of a New Jersey warehouse store to collapse Monday, sending a shopper a cart and tables of baked goods skidding through rushing water

Two people were briefly trapped in debris at the BJ’s Wholesale Club in Ocean Township but managed to escape, and no injuries were reported, according to the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office. Flooding rains were reported in parts of New York City Philadelphia and New Jersey as rounds of storms moved through the area Monday, breaking a heat wave that gripped much of the area last week. On Sunday, New York City

Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned about heatstroke and shared locations of pools and cooling centers By Monday, he was urging people to leave basement apartments immediately if they saw water rising in their homes.

Heavy rain stranded cars on flooded highways across northern New Jersey and sloshed water into businesses and at least one hospital.

“Nothing too serious. They have us running from call to call,” said Lakewood Police Capt. Leroy Marshall. The rain and storms broke the heat dome that settled over much of the Northeast last week.

LaGuardia Airport in New York set a record high Thursday of 104 degrees.

Low temperatures in many places barely made it below 80 degrees, preventing people from cooling off even at night. The temperature at LaGuardia hovered just below 70 degrees Monday with the rain.

Officials in New Jersey were investigating at least 29 deaths last week that were possibly heat-related. The people were found dead on the street or in homes without air conditioning. They ranged in ages from their 30s to their 80s New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Raynard Washington said. Autopsies and other investigations will be needed before the deaths are officially blamed on the heat, Washington said. Other states have not announced possible deaths from the heat.

“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego also announced he was pulling his endorsement, as did the Democratic-leaning political group End Citizens United.

The Democratic leaders of Maine’s legislature called for Platner to withdraw, as did top officials at the state Democratic Party

“Over the past several weeks, multiple women have made serious, credible allegations against Graham Platner Today’s statements take those allegations even further,” party chair Charlie Dingman, vice chair Imke Schessler and executive director Devon Murphy-Anderson said in a joint statement.

“This Senate race comes at a pivotal moment in the struggle against a government, supported by Senator Collins, that serves the interests of the wealthy

and powerful at the expense of ordinary Maine people. It is essential that we refocus this campaign on that struggle,” the statement continued.

Platner commandingly won Maine’s Democratic primary in April, but state law allows him to be replaced on the ballot if he withdraws by July 13. The replacement candidate must be named by July 27.

As of Monday, Platner had canceled a handful of cam-

In 2013, Platner posted on Reddit that people shouldn’t get so drunk “they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to” and that sexual assault victims should “just take some responsibility for themselves.” He’s since apologized for the post and says he no longer holds those beliefs.

Hasan Piker a leftist commentator and streamer who’s backed Platner, seemed to reverse himself Monday fol-

Maine’s Democrats have long sought to oust Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who’s held on despite representing a state that reliably votes for the other party at the presidential level. After Collins’ solid 2020 win, several Maine Democrats passed on the opportunity to challenge her this time and instead looked at other offices. That left the state’s 78-year-old governor, Janet Mills, as the Democratic establishment’s best hope. Platner rode into the political void and pitched himself as a blue-collar oysterman and veteran who could reach disaffected voters who had supported President Donald Trump. But as allegations began mounting against him, some state Democrats had heartburn, embodied by Mills’ refusal to endorse Platner after she dropped out of the primary

Sexton

forcing some to forgo coverage entirely The subsidies had been at the center of a bitter fight in Congress last fall, with Democrats and some Republicans calling for their renewal.

Central voting issue

Health insurance costs have been rising across the marketplace and other health insurance programs at a time when voters in the approaching November elections say affordability is among their top concerns

In a report released last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggested the significant drop in enrollment this year could be attributed to a federal crackdown on fraudulent or “phantom” enrollment. But analysts have said it was more likely related to the Jan. 1 expiration of federal subsidies, and other changes, including tightened requirements on which immigrants could access subsidized plans.

Mike Rhoads, deputy commissioner of life and health at the Oklahoma Insurance Department, cited a crackdown on fraudulent enrollments as one reason marketplace enrollments dropped. But he said in his state, the biggest factor was money

“It’s all about affordability at this point in time,” he said in an interview, adding that he expects the problem to continue with insurers forecast to raise rates again next year

Significant drop-offs

An AP analysis of the data finds that Ohio and Oklahoma each saw a more than 32% decline in ACA enrollment over the past year They lost larger shares of their covered populations than any other state. Following closely behind, and losing more than a fourth of their enrollees, were Arizona, South Carolina, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Louisiana and Missouri.

Florida, a state that relies highly on ACA insurance in part because it did not expand Medicaid and is home to many gig workers and entrepreneurs, still has more residents in the marketplace than any other state, at nearly 4 million But it also saw the highest number of enrollees drop coverage this year — around 443,000. The data doesn’t show whether

people who dropped ACA health insurance this year found coverage elsewhere, and chances are some of them became insured through employer plans or other options.

But Cox said most people who left the marketplace are likely going without insurance, because it is typically a “place of last resort” to get health coverage for people who aren’t eligible elsewhere.

APPEAL

Continued from page 1A

municipalities,” Moore attorney Lauren Foshee Morrison wrote. Moore sued the city-parish in April, alleging the parish has failed to adequately fund his office.

Shortly after he filed his lawsuit, the city-parish responded and said Moore should have sued St. George, Baker Central and Zachary too. Because of the current tax structure, city-parish attorneys say none are contrib-

uting funds to the District Attorney’s Office.

Arguing for the city-parish, attorney Brett Furr pointed to testimony from the St George incorporation lawsuit, in which a witness testifying on behalf of the city’s founders said the city would give money to the District Attorney’s Office once it was up and running. St George leadership did not make good on that promise, Furr said.

In Smith’s ruling last month, the judge cited “fundamental fairness” as his reasoning for forcing the other cities to join But Moore said any funding

quarrel involving St. George or other cities is irrelevant, and the law clearly puts funding on the shoulders of “the Parish, and the Parish alone.”

“This case is not about what the Parish, the district court, or an expert witness in another case believes should happen as a matter of policy or perceived fairness, it is about what the law actually requires,” his attorney wrote.

Moore has asked the 1st Circuit to expedite his appeal.

Repeatedly, Moore has contended that his office is underfunded compared to other district attor-

Some of the states that saw the largest enrollment declines were the same ones that saw the biggest enrollment gains after the federal government introduced enhanced subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cox said that isn’t surprising, because those states likely had large numbers of people who enrolled only because the enhanced subsidies made coverage much more affordable.

Only one state saw an increase in its covered population New Mexico gained some 14% more enrollees in the government health insurance program compared with the same time last year It was the only state in the nation that fully replaced the lost federal subsidies using its own funds.

Biggest enrollment losses

About three in five states use the federal marketplace Healthcare. gov, while the rest operate their own state-based marketplaces for ACA insurance.

The new data shows that federal marketplace states overall lost larger shares of enrollees than states with state-based exchanges. One reason for that could be that many states with their own marketplaces took steps to offset costs for their residents when the enhanced subsidies expired in January

New Mexico, which saw doubledigit enrollment gains, is the most extreme example of that. In a special legislative session last fall, lawmakers in the state approved a plan to use state funds to make

neys in Louisiana.

In recent years, the mayorpresident and Metro Council have allocated between $7 million and $8 million to the District Attorney’s Office. Moore believes that number should be closer to $22 million, an amount he says would bring him up to par with his Louisiana peers.

According to Moore’s appeal, Smith ruling to add the five cities will unnecessarily delay his case and complicate what should be simple proceedings. His attorneys say this will potentially push the case past the end of the 2026

budget year and leave his office underfunded while appeals from St. George, Baker, Central and Zachary drag things out.

“The Parish’s ongoing failure to adequately fund the District Attorney’s Office has already resulted in staff attrition, overwhelming caseloads, and significant delays in prosecutions,” his attorney wrote “The district court’s incorrect ruling necessarily will impose substantial procedural delays.” Email Patrick Sloan-Turner at patrick.sloan-turner@ theadvocate.com.

“I’m proudofour progress,” said state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley.“For us to be a state that is lookedatacross thecountry for making gains is just so positive.”

Amongthe state’slargest school systems, NewOrleans led the pack. Making the state’slist of top-growing districts for the third straight year,NOLA Public Schools saw 31% of tested students hit the statetarget across all subjects —1 percentage point higherthan Jefferson Parish and East Baton Rouge. Still, the tests students took this spring raise some concerns.

Statewide English scores have stayed the same for the past three years, suggesting that students’ rapid recoveryfrompandemiclearning declines has leveled out. Math scores continue to grow,yet about two-thirds of studentsstillfall short of state expectations.And the score gaps betweenstudents of different racialand socioeconomic backgrounds remain about as wide now as they were before the pandemic.

“While we’re pleased that the net results are positive and trending upward, I think we should be expecting more,” said Erin Bendily, seniorvice presidentatthe Pelican Institute for Public Policy, aconservative Louisiana think tank, and aformer state education official.

What thescoresshow

In English language arts, 43% of students in grades 3-8 scored at the “mastery” level or above, indicating they are ready to moveto the next grade level. The rate was the same in 2025

SCORES

Continued from page1A

achievement levels, ranging from unsatisfactory to advanced. Louisiana’s goal is for studentstoscore at least at mastery,the secondhighest achievement level.

Statewide, 35% of students achieved masteryor above in the spring, up 1 percentage point from the year before.

Ascension Parish topped the list with amastery rate of 53%, followed by West Feliciana with amastery rate of 52%. Also ranking high were Central at 49% and Zachary at 47%. Livingston and West Baton Rouge parishes beat the state average, with mastery rates of 44% and 41%, respectively. Livingstoncame in 10th place statewide, tied with Lafourche and Lincoln parishes.

“These resultsreflect the determination of our students, the unwavering commitmentofour teachers and staff, the supportof our parents, and acommunity thatbelieves in andinvests in its public schools,” Ascension Parish Superintendent Edith Walker said in astatement.

West Feliciana Superintendent Hollis Milton credited students and employeesfor this year’s strong LEAP results

“Every day,they bring their Agame, demonstrating acommitment to excellence that makes our schools exceptional,” Milton said. “Their passion, perseverance and teamwork are the driving forces behind all that we accomplish together.” At the subject level, Ascension either narrowly led or tied West Feliciana, with both outperforming every other district in the state in every tested subject.

The once perennially toprankedZachary schooldistrict continued its slow decline.Itslipped 1percentage point overallthis past year,and it is down 8points from where it stood in 2019, before the pandemic.

East Baton Rouge Parish, the second-largest traditional school district in Louisiana, scored 30% mastery and above, up 2points from the prior year.The district is one of eight in the region

and2024.

In math, 34% hit that mark, as did 31% in science and33% in social studies. In math,thisyear’smastery or above rate was1 percentage pointhigherthan last year’s, and in theother subjects it was 2points higher In high school, most studentsmust pass atleast one English, mathand biology or civicstestpass to graduate In allsubjects combined, 36% achieved masteryor above —2percentage points abovelast year Louisiana students’reboundfrom COVID-era learning disruptions has beenthe envy ofthe nation. It’sthe only state wherestudents noware reading above 2019 levels, and one of only two where math scores have surpassed pre-COVID levels, according to arecent analysis of state test scores by researchers atHarvard, Stanford and Dartmouth But while mathscores continue to climb, they have plateaued in reading, according to the latest LEAP scores.

that hasfinally returned to pre-pandemic levels of academic performance. It improved or held steady in almost every tested area.

East BatonRouge Superintendent LaMont Cole said theresults show that his initiatives for theschool district are working.

“When we launched our Dare to be Great vision, we committed ourselves to raising expectations, investing in our schools, and believinginwhat our students andemployees arecapable of achieving,” Cole said. “These results show that commitmentispayingoff.”

As far as individual schools, thetop rankswere dominated by selective public schools in theNew Orleans region. The highest-ranking schoolinthe Baton Rouge-area parishes wasLSU Lab School, where 87% of the studentsscored at mastery or above. It was followedbyBatonRouge Magnet High and Mayfair Lab School,which bothhad 85% mastery rates.

The highest-performing public charterschoolwas BASIS Materra, where students demonstratedLEAP mastery of 73% and above. Its sister school, BASIS Baton Rouge Primary Mid City,had a29% mastery, down2points from the year before.

The next highest-performingcharter schoolin thelocal region, after BASIS, was GEO Prep Academy of Greater Baton Rouge with a33% mastery rate.

The neighborhood school with the highest achievement in the BatonRouge region was Bluff Middle SchoolinAscension Parish, with a72% mastery rate.

East Baton Rouge Parish is hometothreeschoolsthat are most improved,increasing their mastery rates by 10 percentage pointsormore. The mostimproved among them is CrestworthElementary School, which jumped 14 points; theschool this yearsentits middle schoolage students to Scotlandville MiddleSchool. The Baton Rougeschools with big improvementwereRiveroaks andWedgewood elementary schools.

East Feliciana Parish’s Jackson Elementary saw its mastery rateimprove by 11 points Baker’sLEAP performance this spring was no-

Students grewinmostsubjects

Theshare of Louisianastudents reachingstate benchmarks in 2026 increased in most subjects. English was flat.

Brumleynoted thatonly thirdgraders saw adecline in Englishmastery this year; theother grades were flat or grew slightly. He saidthat third graders’ scorescould reflect the shiftfroman intense focusinthe early gradesonlearning to sound out words, aphonics-based approach known as the “science of reading,”toanemphasis in thelater grades on reading comprehension. The LEAP English test “doesn’tperfectly align with

table. This suburban district north of Baton Rouge has been in the academic cellar for most of its 23-year existence. In 2025, facing apotential state takeover, Bakerconvertedits two remaining schools to charter schools,contracting with Baton Rouge-based Helix Community Schools. Both schools showed improvement,particularly Park Ridge, where twoelementary and one middle school merged into one with thecharter conversion.ParkRidge’s mastery rate improved 7percentage pointsover itsperformance the year before,while Baker High’simproved 1point. Baker celebrated the improvement in asocial media post:“We know ourworkis notfinished, and we are not yet where we intend to be.

Butthe directionisclear: City of Baker is moving forward —and no Louisiana school system mademore progress this year.”

The lowest-performing schools in the Baton Rouge region weremostly public middle and high schools.

At Belaire, Broadmoor, Capitol, Glen Oaks, Istrouma, Northeastand Tara high schools,the masteryrate ranged from 6% to 11%. All of themimprovedover the previous year, except Northeast, whichwas unchanged. Of those schools, Belaire, Capitol and Istrouma high schools showed the most improvement.

School turnaround efforts in BatonRouge areproducing mixed results. Claiborne and Dufrocq elementaries as wellasPark Forest Middle all showed improvement. On the otherhand, CapitolElementary, Glen Oaks ParkElementary and Scotlandville Middle showed notable declines. Those threeschools have amuch different set of students thanks to adistrictwide realignment plan. Capitaland Glen Oaks Park have different grade configurations and much larger attendance zones.

Meanwhile, two charter schools that replaced TexasbasedIDEA Public Schools went in different achievementdirections in their first years of operations. IDEA Bridge, now Bridge Academy and run by Coloradobased Third Future Schools, improvedbyatleast6 points over the mastery rate of the school it replaced. IDEA In-

French Settlement fourthgraders raise their hands in October as state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley asksa question about math.

STAFFFILE PHOTOBy

MICHAEL JOHNSON

their peers grew or held steadythis year,including Black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities, thosestill learning English and students from low-incomefamilies.

also wererequired to provide tutoring to struggling students, anda revamped rating system rewards schools that help students improve their scores. Other stateshave adopted similar policies, includingphonics-based reading instruction, yettheyhave not made similar academic gains.

“What we’ve done differentlyhere in Louisiana that we’ve seen drive the results is the mixture of accountability and support,” said Jenna Chiasson, the LouisianaDepartmentofEducation’sdeputy superintendent of teaching and learning. “I have anumeracy team and aliteracy team whoisout in schoolsand school systems pretty much everyday providing training, providing support.”

ourfocusaroundteaching kids to read in those early grades,”Brumleysaid, adding that the test eventually will be updated to incorporatemorephonics. He pointedout that on adifferent testcalled DIBELS, which assesses students’ basic reading skills, 64% of third graders met or exceeded the benchmark this year —2percentage pointshigher than in 2025. Student groups whohave traditionally scored below

novation, nowAudubonBatonRouge and run by New Orleans-based Audubon Charter, declinedby5 points as far as its mastery rate.

However,the gaps between those groups andother students remain stubbornly large. For example,22% of Black studentsand 29% of Hispanic students metstate expectationsonthe grades 3-8 tests this year,compared with 49% of White students —achasm that was similarly wide in 2019. “The gaps stillremain, Bendily said. “So obviously, there’swork still lefttodo.”

What’s working

Several statepolicieshave likely contributed to Louisiana students’ academic gains,state officials andexperts say Teachersweretrained in the science of reading, which is backed by extensive research,and schools began assessing young students’ reading skills. Schools

In VermilionParish,55% of students in grades 3-8 met state expectations in reading and 50% did so in math, making it oneofthe school systems with the highest mastery rates and biggest year-over-yeargains. Superintendent Thomas Byler said multiple strategies boosted the scores, includingbuilding time into math and English class for struggling students to get extra help andhiring retired teachers to work as tutors.

“It’sreally nicewhenthe data support someofthe decisionsyou make,” he said.

DeSoto Parish, where 54% of students achieved mastery in English and 47% did in math, was another topachieving and top-growing school district. The results owe mainly to the hard work of educators and their desire to keep improving, said Superintendent ClayCorley

“We’ve stopped asking what program to try or what strategy to use,”hesaid. “Wereally just continue to ask ourselves, ‘How do we getalittle better every singleday?’”

Third Future’s other school in Baton Rouge, Prescott Academy, slipped in its second year of operation, with a mastery rate 3pointslower than its first year Email Charles Lussier at clussier@theadvocate. com.

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs, many at Xbox REDMOND,Wash. Microsoft is cutting 4,800 jobs, about 2.1% of itsglobalworkforce, including alargenumber of workers at its Xbox video game business.

The layoffs included 1,600 Xbox workers, with more to come this year in abroader reorganization designed to “reset”Xbox as it faces heightened competition, the company said Monday

“Our business today is not healthy,” said amemo from XboxCEO Asha Sharma, who took over the gaming division earlier this year.“We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.”

Sharma said the industry, in which Xbox competeswith Sony’sPlayStation and Nintendo’sSwitch,isfacing asevere “hardware crisis” as costs soar for console components.

Beyond the layoffs announced Monday,Sharma said Xbox expectsanother1,600 jobcuts over the course of the fiscal year that began last week.The company is also spinning off four video game development studios previously acquired by Microsoft.

Nearlythree yearsago, Microsoft closeda$69 billion deal to acquire gaming giant ActivisionBlizzard, maker of “Call of Duty” and other blockbuster franchises. Thecompany said at the time it wanted to broaden its game developmentportfolio and offer aNetflix-like streaming subscription service, but the strategydoesn’tappear to have been enough to get ahead of the competition.

“Whilethose businesses have created meaningfulvalue, they didnot grow at the pace we expected,” Sharma said.

The Xbox cuts are in addition to broader Microsoft layoffs that the softwaregiant’sChief PeopleOfficer AmyColeman tied to unspecified changesin customer needs.

Skyagrees to buy British broadcaster

LONDON Sky,the U.K.-based TV,internet and mobile phone provider owned by Comcast, has agreed to buyITV’smedia and entertainment arm forupto $2.1 billionafter months of talks to create amajor competitor to theglobal streaming giants.

The deal includes the terrestrial TV channels and streaming serviceofITV,Britain’s largest commercial broadcaster.ITV’sproduction arm,ITV Studios,known for shows such as the “I’m ACelebrity” series, will remain an independent company

The transaction will create aUK champion with the scale andresources to better compete with global streamingplatforms,” ITV Chairman Andrew Cosslett said in astatement.

The combined Sky-ITV entity will become part of NBCUniversalfollowing the completion of its split from Comcast, ITV said Pipeline proposed to carry Canada oil TORONTO— Alberta and Ontario proposed apipeline Monday to carrywestern Canadian oil east andeventuallytoAtlantic exportterminalsasCanada seeks new markets beyond the UnitedStates, reviving aproject that was abandoned nearly adecade ago.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the proposed 2,050mile pipeline would run from Hardisty,Alberta, to Sarnia, Ontario, carrying up to 500,000 barrels of oil aday withpotential forupto800,000 barrels. Shesaid the corridor eventually could extend to Canada’s Atlantic coast, opening thedoor to oil exports to Europe.

The United States is by far the largest buyer of Canada’s crude oil, while Alberta holds one of the world’slargestproven oil reserves. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said thepipeline wouldbe a sound investment regardless of whether it is publicly or privately financed. Afeasibility study is planned.

RINGING THEBELLS

market gains

AI stocks rebound to lift U.S. market

BY STAN CHOE AP business writer

NEW YORK Arebound forartificial intelligence stocks lifted the U.S. market on Monday. The S&P500 rose 0.7% andpulled back within 1% of its all-timehigh, even though themajority of stockswithin the indexfell. The strength for companies in the artificial-intelligencetechnology industry sent the Nasdaq composite 1.1% higher,and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 155 points, or 0.3%, to a record.

AI stocks have swung sharply in recent weeks on worriesthattheir prices shot toohigh. Doubtsare rising aboutwhether allthe dollarsflowingintoAIchips and data centers can possibly createenough gains in productivity and profits to make back allthe investments.

BY JOSH BOAK Associated Press

WASHINGTON PresidentDonald Trump onMondayrang the openingbells forthe NewYork StockExchange and the Nasdaqfrom the golden confines of theOvalOffice, asymbolic act that reflects how he has increasingly tied his presidency to the stock market.

With high inflation hurting Trump’spopularity,the Republican president has tried to get more Americans to focus on their 401(k) investments, claiming thathis policies should get the credit for any gains,particularly as the November midterm elections drawcloser

“It’s going to go up —I thinkthe market’sgoing to go through theroof,”said Trump afterformallylaunching the start of trading.

Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s economic leadership, according to a June survey by TheAssociated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Still, the act of ringing the opening bell suggests why the president’semphasisonthe stock market might not help his partymuch with voters this fall.

The Oval Office eventwas promotingthe launchofTrump Accounts, whichwerecreated as avehiclefor children to have investments in stock indexes aspartofRepublicans’ big 2025 tax and spending cuts bill. In championing theaccounts, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has emphasized that manyAmericans have no direct exposure to stocks. This means that millions of people arenot benefiting from

GeorgesMedia

investmentsthatlargely accrue to more affluent householdsorthatthe benefits they’re receiving are forretirementsdecades away Bessent declaredbefore the bell ringing that “38% of American families do not have any exposuretoour great equity markets.”

The S&P 500 stock index postedgains of 17.9% in 2025, but that came after annual returns of 25% in 2024 and26.3% in 2023, during thepresidency of DemocratJoe Biden. The benchmark stock index has risen roughly10% so far this year But just as inflation crushed public supportfor Biden, Trumphas also seen his approval fall prey to acycle of rising prices. Trumpwon the 2024 election by promising to bring down costs, but his tariffs and thestart of thewar in Iran created new inflationary pressures. Theconsumerprice index hasclimbed4.2% over thepast 12 months, up from 3% when Trump startedhis secondterm

in January 2025.

Trump, however, is betting that thestock investments that are being seeded by the government andbysome prominent companiesand billionaires will give futuregenerations adeeper stake in the U.S. economy.The accounts alreadyhavegotten aboostfrom billionaires beyond the $1,000 from the government. Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies, and his wife, Susan, appeared by Trump on Monday as they have pledged $6.25 billion for the accounts,while there have been separatepledges by billionaires including investor RayDalio andSpaceXPresident GwynneShotwell, who said Mondaythat she would donate stock in the Elon Muskled company to the accounts.

Trump jokingly acknowledgedthatchildren had missedthe stock market gains that have occurred so farbecauseofthe delay in launching the Trump Accounts. “Weshould have acted faster,” Trumpsaid.

Broadcom was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 androse3.7% after announcing long-term agreements to provide silicon products to Apple. It was coming off twostraight losses of more than2%onWednesday andThursday at the end of last week, before Friday’sholidayinadvance of the Fourth of July The globalappetite forAIfrominvestors will face an additional test later this week when SK Hynix, theSouth Korean maker of computer memory,plans to raise $28 billionbysellingshares of stock that will trade in the United States on the Nasdaq. That would makeitone of the biggest U.S. offerings ever,behind SpaceX’sIPO from last month, whichraised$75 billion. SK Hynix’sstock in Seoul has already morethan tripled so farthis year because of the AI boom,but its day-to-day swings have included sharp losses in recent weeks. It fell 14.6%onThursday alone, for example.

SpaceX, which owns the xAI business, hasseen its stock likewise swing following its ballyhooedinitial public offering. It erased an early gain to fall 1% in the last day of trading before it’s scheduled to join the Nasdaq 100 index of the largest non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq. That inclusion will force funds like the QQQ exchange-traded fund, which mimic the index, to buy SpaceX themselves. In theoil market,prices drifted after OPEC+ announced Sunday that seven of itsmembersplantoexpand oilproduction by acombined total of 188,000 barrels per day in August. It wasthe fifth straight month that OPEC+ members have agreed to raise output, moves that tend to weigh on oil prices.

Theprice of abarrel of Brent crude, theinternational standard, fell 0.2% to $71.99. That’sclose to where it was before the United States andIsraelattacked Iran in late February and sent prices spiking.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased abit.The yieldonthe 10-year Treasury fell to 4.47% from 4.49% late Thursday.

Areport showed that growth last month forU.S.recreation,financeand otherservices businesses was roughly in line with economists’ expectations. The survey by the Institute for Supply Management said thatsome businesses said theywere seeing lowerprices for gasoline anddiesel, easing inflationary pressures. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly acrossmuchofEurope and Asia. Hong Kong’sHangSeng was an outlierand rose 1.1%.

announcement.

Columbus, amarketing agency in the state.

namesChase Heatherlyaschief revenueofficer SouthCarolinanative to lead salesteam

Staff report

ChaseHeatherly,a veteran mediaexecutive,has joined the parent company of TheTimes-Picayune and The Advocate as itschief revenue officer

Theformerchief revenue officer of The Post&Courier parent Evening Post Publishing in South Carolina, Heatherly,34, joined Georges Media at the end of June. He will be responsible for leading the sales teamsacross all of the Louisianabased media company’sbrands, according to an internal company

“Chase’sexperiencescalingrevenue organizations, growing digital businesses, andleading through transformation makes him an outstanding fit for whereweare headed as acompany,” said Publisher Kevin Hall. “This is an important stepforward for GeorgesMedia as we continue to invest in leadership thatsupports our long-term growthand positions us for continuedsuccess.”

ASouth Carolinanative,Heatherly led salesatEvening Post afterstints at Gannett, McClatchy and other media organizations, including as president of King&

Heatherlyjoins Georges Media as the locally owned media company is expanding across Louisiana andinto adjacent markets, includingalong the Gulf Coast. Local news outlets across the country are facing big new challenges in the accelerating digital era, though somecompanies with strong local brands and independent ownership are managing to weather the changes.

In recent years, Georges Media has acquired local Louisiana brands with strong followings, including Arthur Hardy’sMardi

Gras Guide, and has expanded coverage into new markets, such as Shreveport-Bossierand Lake Charles.

In addition to its growth digitally and its acquisitions, the company hasalso launched newprint offerings,including an expandedbusiness section and coverage focused on health.

Heatherly said he’sready to take on the challenge of growing those businesses.

“I have seen firsthand the leadership and innovation that Georges Mediabrings to ourindustry and the commitment its staff hasto serving readers and the community at large,” he said. “I am excited to dive in and contribute.”

Heatherly

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOSByMARKSCHIEFELBEIN

President DonaldTrump ringsthe openingbell for the Newyork Stock Exchangeand the Nasdaq in the Oval Office at the White House on Monday.

TreasurySecretaryScott Bessent speaks before President Donald Trumprings the opening bell for the Newyork Stock Exchangeand the Nasdaq.

Hamas dissolves its government

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

DEIRAL-BALAH,Gaza Strip

The Hamas militant group said Monday it had dissolved its government in Gaza and is preparing to transfer power to a technical committee backed by the United Nations as part of a U.S.brokered ceasefire deal.

Hamas did not say whether it planned to take the crucial step of disarming or handing over security to an international force, but described its decision as evidence of its commitment to Gaza’s reconstruction after years of war

It was unclear if the move, announced by a lower-level official, would lead to any meaningful change on the ground.

The Board of Peace, the new entity led by President Donald Trump with the mandate of governing and rebuilding Gaza, said it was aware of the Hamas announcement but would assess the impact based on “actions, not promises.” The board stressed in a statement on X that the technocratic committee must control all weapons in Gaza, as laid out in the ceasefire agreement.

At a news conference Monday, Ismail al-Thawabta, general director of the Hamas-run Government Media Office, said “only technical and professional staff” would remain in their positions to run the Palestinian enclave’s day-to-day affairs.

“All employees working in service provision are ‘state employees’ and are fully prepared to work under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza,” al-Thawabta said during a news conference in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem called it “a positive step forward on the path to implement the ceasefire deal.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the move, saying it was designed to avoid disarmament.

“As long as Hamas retains its weapons, any civilian government will of course operate as Hamas dictates,” he wrote on X.

The committee of technocrats, which is based in Cairo, is chaired by Ali Shaath, a Gaza-born engineer and former official with the Palestinian Authority It has a mandate to restore essential services and oversee civilian affairs under the supervision of the U.N. and the Board of Peace.

In a statement on X, Shaath acknowledged the Hamas announcement Monday and said that in order for the committee to function effectively, there must be “a single governing authority operating under one legal framework” and “a unified security apparatus accountable to that authority.”

Nine months after the ceasefire was signed, negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Hamas has insisted on implementing the first phase before moving to discuss its weapons.

The Oct 7, 2023, attack by Hamasled militants that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 others taken hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed 73,098 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry

The ministry part of the Hamasled government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities

Israeli strikes have lessened considerably since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, but they continue almost daily Israel’s military says it targets Hamas and other militants, often asserting they were planning attacks. The strikes have also killed many civilians.

On Monday, Israeli strikes killed at least five people in Gaza, including three in Khan Younis in the south and two in an apartment in Gaza City, health officials said.

collecting

recovered from

Venezuelans are left alone to recover their dead after quakes

BY FERNANDA PESCE and ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela When the high-rise where Noel Márquez lived with his family crashed to the ground and burst into flames in Venezuela’s twin earthquakes, Márquez, who happened to be at his girlfriend’s apartment, raced home and called out for his mother, grandparents and siblings. Only his 17-year-old brother, his legs pinned under columns that required heavy machinery to lift, responded.

Márquez and his father who also survived, spoke through layers of concrete, hearing Leonel suffer, shout for help and inhale suffocating smoke as he waited for a crane to remove the columns crushing him. But it never came. After several hours, Leonel’s cries gave way to silence, Márquez said. But even that, terrible as it was, was not what disturbed him the most. The worst, Márquez said, was trying to recover his families’ tangled remains with little more than his bare hands and a saw He sliced off limbs to free the corpses of Leonel and his mother but was forced to abandon his sister, who was eight months’ pregnant, grandmother and other relatives beneath the ruins — and with their bodies, the hope that if he couldn’t save

Hemingway masterpiece on Spain’s bull runs turns 100

BY JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press

PAMPLONA, Spain Bill Hill-

mann has been gored three times while running with the bulls in Spain, but he wouldn’t miss this year’s San Fermin festival for anything It marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s book “The Sun Also Rises,” which launched the future Nobel Laureate to literary fame and put Pamplona on the map for millions of people around the world.

On Monday, the festival kicked off with a firework blast over a jam-packed plaza. The first of eight bull runs is on Tuesday Hemingway’s 1926 novel captivated generations of readers with its sexy Jazz Age tale of American and British bohemians trying to fill some inner void with the distractions of exotic travel, vast quantities of alcohol and the anguishing pursuit of impossible love

Its success established “The Sun Also Rises” as a cornerstone of the American literary canon, right up there with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” It also popularized the term “lost generation” to describe the tight-knit group of early 20thcentury writers expatriated in Paris. Hemingway’s terse style forever changed American literature. In Spanish, its title is translated as “Fiesta.” Hillmann, who hails from Chicago, was 19 when Hemingway’s vivid depiction of the bull running festival first enthralled him, especially descriptions of average Spaniards risking their lives sprinting through the streets to guide the bulls to the bull ring during the nineday festival.

“I sat there for about six hours, well past midnight, reading the book,” Hillmann told The Associated Press in

Pamplona as he looked down on the pen where the bulls are held before being set free on the cobblestoned route. “And by the time I was done with that book, I was going to be a writer and I was going to be a bull runner.”

Since that literary encounter, the 44-year-old Hillmann has run with the bulls in Spain hundreds of times, counting both his trips to Pamplona and his participation in dozens more bull runs in other Spanish towns. His infatuation with Hemingway and Pamplona has never waned, even though he nearly died one time that he was gored by a bull horn.

Hillmann’s appreciation led him to earn a doctorate in English, and now it is his turn to teach “The Sun Also Rises” at East-West University in Chicago, and write about bull running.

Hemingway is etched into the landscape of Pamplona.

Hotels and bars have busts of him or signs up that he was once there. Outside the Pamplona bull ring, which also has a statue of the writer, a huge banner hangs in honor of the novel, including a quote that shows how the festival left the writer

speechless: “At noon of Sunday the 6th of July the fiesta exploded. There is no other way to describe it.”

When Hemingway made his last visits to Pamplona, he would frequent the Perla Hotel; his suite still has furniture from the 1950s when he stayed there. The room, which overlooks the bull run route, also has two glass bookcases holding dozens of copies of “The Sun Also Rises.”

“Hemingway did a lot for Pamplona because he made it known around the world,” said Fernando Hualde, who worked for four decades as a receptionist in the hotel.

Hemingway’s local legacy, however, is mixed.

Beside a feminist critique of his hyper masculine public persona, Hemingway has drawn criticism from the animal rights movement for his praise of bullfighters.

Hualde says that some Pamplona residents rue his early promotion of the festival due to the ills of overtourism the sleepy provincial city is now experiencing.

Pamplona has 200,000 residents and receives over a million more people for the festival.

them, he could at least give them proper burials.

“It’s unfair It’s inhumane, everything that is happening,” 26-yearold Márquez said from the overflowing makeshift morgue at La Guaira port. “We couldn’t get my brother out because we didn’t get a response from the state and after 11 days, we are still requesting a crane.”

Márquez is one of countless Venezuelans who, after days of torment, has been left alone to search, if not for signs of life, then for loved ones’ remains — and for some semblance of closure.

International rescue teams, quietly acknowledging the possibility that no more victims would be found alive after 12 days under the rubble, are preparing to depart.

Local authorities are turning their focus to finding shelter for thousands of displaced people. But the recovery of the dead has become a pressing, and horrifying, duty for Venezuelans still missing their loved ones. Many say that just as they were left without government help to rescue survivors in the immediate aftermath of the quakes, so too are they now under-equipped to unearth their dead nearly two weeks later

The more time passes, the more gruesome the recovery process

becomes, said William Gomez, a firefighter in La Guaira. “It has been difficult because the bodies are already in an advanced state of decomposition, decomposed to such an extent that many times when we try to remove them, they fall apart.”

Authorities announced that the death toll rose on Monday to 3,535, with another 16,740 people injured. Beyond that is an untold toll: those whose bodies have yet to be found. There are no official statistics on how many people are buried under the rubble, but more than 30,000 reports of missing people have been sent to a website set up by the Venezuelan opposition.

There are 1.2 million tons of debris in the most affected parts of La Guaira, according to the United Nations Development Program.

“We are the ones helping ourselves: our family Nobody else helps us except for a few volunteers,” said Yeikhary Urbina, who found the bodies of her mother and brother on Saturday suspended under piles of concrete, seemingly locked in an embrace.

In several WhatsApp chats on Monday, neighbors who could no longer wait for authorities to help them recover their dead discussed pooling their own money to rent a crane — for the price of $11,500, in one case.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Bill Hillmann, of Chicago, center left, falls seconds before a Victoriano del Rio ranch fighting bull gored him on his right leg during the 2014 running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain.

JanRisher

LOUISIANA AT LARGE

N.O. home’s writingon thewall is 168years old

My friends Tammy Theis and Rick Jordan live in the BlanquePaturzo-Sessums House in the New Orleans Bywater.The home dates to 1826. Like many of the older New Orleans homes, there’s alot more to the house than meets the eye from the street.

The home’sexterior is painted the kind of locally inspired terracotta that has been apart of New Orleans since Spanish colonial days.

It’safascinating place, witha courtyard Iadore,but this is not a house story

Several years ago,onmyfirst visit, Theis took me upstairs to see fournarrow strips of exposed plaster left bare against awall they had painted teal. The rectangles,floating in asea of bluegreen, preserved handwriting in French. Beneath each strip was a typed translation:

n “Be happy,Eugenie! These are the vows of the one wholoves you more than life. Let the one who courts you at the moment make you happy.”

n Then aname, written large and stylized: “Ant. Frederick.Jr.” Beneath it: “Eugenie Ram.”

n “I’ll always love you. My last sigh will come out with your name.”

n And finally: “You were an ungrateful person. Youtricked me. Godwill pardon you, but others, never.”

The last line appearsto be dated “January25, 1857.”

For years, that was the whole story Theis and Jordan hadtogo on. They had built their ownprivate theory: aFrenchteenager,alone in his room, unrequited, working out hisheartbreak on the wall because maybe therewas no paper to be found. Or maybe permanence was the point?

And that’swhere the mystery has remained.

Until recently

One day last year,Theis came home andnoticed aman andan older woman on the otherside of the street. They seemed to be looking at her house.

Theis said, “Can Ihelp you?”

The man said his name was Raul Mier,from Fort Collins, Colorado. The woman was his mother,Carmen Mier,who lives in Metairie. He explained that he’d traced his family back to this exact address. Then he mentionedthe name of one of his ancestors:Antonio Frederick.

With that, Theis invited them in and told them there was something they needed to see

“I said, ‘You’re not going to believe this. Come up these stairs,’” Theis said. “His little 95-year-old Cuban mama just ran up those stairs.” Theis had always assumed the handwriting on the wall belonged to someone French. But the family surname was Frederick,and the line traced back through Menorca, Spain, and thentoNew Orleans, where the youngman’s grandfather had worked as a drayman, hauling people by horse and buggy

When Raul Mier,74, looked at the wall his great-great-greatuncle hadwritten on more than 150 years earlier,hecried.

“I’ve been using ancestry.com to do research alot, and Ilook at theseold photocopies .but to actually see his handwriting on the wall —unreal,” Raul Mier said

Attempttoquash rape countfails

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

As the trial nears for multiple defendantsinthe rapeofMadison Brooks, one suspect’s defense team attemptedMonday to have hisfirst-degree rape charge dismissed as unconstitutional. Desmond Carter,21, is one of three suspectsindicted in the rape ofBrooks in avehicle before herdeath.His trial on charges of first-degree and third-degreerapeisscheduled for Aug.17. Amongmultiple pretrial mo-

tionsput forward by Carter’sdefense team in thelead-up to trial, Judge GailHorneRay heard a motion to quash Carter’sfirst-degree rape charge on the grounds thestate law is unconstitutionally vague.

Raydismissed themotion, but said thefirst-degree rape lawis “oneofthe worstwritten statutes that Ihaveseen in the course of my practice.” In hermotion,defense attorney Caitlin Fowlkeschallenged the section of the state statute that says acharge of first-degree rape is called for “whentwo or

more offenders participated in theact.” Fowlkes argued in her motion that thefirst-degreerape statute’slanguage is circularand implies that asex act is “deemed to be without lawful consent” only because it is group sex. She also argued the lawpresupposes the defendant’sguilt by using the word “offenders” in itsdefinition, which would push the responsibility of proving innocenceontoCarterratherthan having the state prove his guilt. Ultimately,Ray dismissed the motion to quash despite the state

RIVERSIDEVIEW

Officialsapprove raisefor Zacharyschoolworkers

Move comesjustdays aftervoter approval

BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer

Capitalizingquickly on astrongshow of confidence from voters,Zachary school leaders have approved an acrossthe-boardpay raise for district employees, thefirst of likely several raises over thenext few years.

Ayear ago, Zachary approved an identical set of pay raises in advance of the 2025-26 school year.Thatraise andthe latest raise increaseannualsalariesby $4,000 for teachers and $2,000 for support workers. Andthere’smore to come.

TheZacharyForwardplan freezes in place 24 mills in property taxes that were set to expireover the next seven years. Instead of paying for school construction,the tax will finance raises for teachers and staff. Over time, the taxes are estimated to generateatleast$8.4 million annually for increased pay

statute being “sloppily written.” She citedcaselaw thatclarifies the law’sintention is not to criminalize consensual sex with multiple partners. Other pretrial motions are still being considered, including a motion to quash on the grounds the first-degreerape charge and the third-degree rape chargecreate adouble jeopardy forCarter because they are in reference to the sameact. Another motion seekstokeep courtroom spectators and Brooks’

TheZachary School Boardvoted unanimously for the raises threedays after votersonJune 27 endorsed thedistrict’s Zachary Forward initiative. The annual raises, which go intoeffect immediately, are $2,000 for teachers and $1,000 for support workers.

“Thisshows ouremployees that we’re actually serious about this,” Yolanda Williams, humanresources director for the suburban Baton Rouge school district, told theboard. “We’re notjust holding off on it. We wanted to make sure that salary was there.”

The raises won’tappear in thepaychecksofclassroom teachers until the Aug. 15 payroll. Teachers return from summer break on Aug. 3and classes start Aug.6

Thevote by the Zachary School Board was taken at aspecially calledmeeting last week. For starting teachers, salaries areincreasing from $52,022 to $54,022 ayear

The district’sgoal is, over time, to increase starting teacher salaries to more than $60,000 ayear In the Baton Rouge region, only Iberville Parishpaysmore than $60,000 in annual salary to starting teachers. Other districts are getting close. Forinstance, West FelicianaParish recently approved a$7,000 stipend forthe next two years for all its school employees, bringing its

CRIME BLOTTER staff reports Attorneysfor suspectinMadison Brooks case argue charge wasunconstitutionally vague

Thefirst shooting occurred around 5:20 p.m.inthe 8500 blockof Scotland Avenue at itsintersection at Robin Street. Three people were inside avehicle, talking to amaleoutside the vehicle,whenanSUV pulled up. Three suspects got out of the SUV and began shooting at the others, striking two people. One victim, the maleoutside the other vehicle, was taken to ahospital fortreatment and is expected to survive his injuries, police said. The other victim, afemale, was grazed by abullet. The second shooting cameat6:50 p.m. in the 4400 block of Sherwood Street. Twomale juvenileswerestruckbygunfire as they were walking from aconvenience store. The juveniles were taken to ahospital and are also expected to survive their injuries, police said. Police:4 hurt in separate

Atotal of four victims —including juveniles —were injured when shots were fired frominside vehiclesintwo separate shootings on the night of July 4, Baton Rouge police said.

STAFF

PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Agrass apron holdsback the waters of the Mississippi along the leveerecentlyinBaton Rouge.

Cause of fire under investigation in N.O.

French Quarter explosion led to evacuations

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

Entergy engineers on Monday were still working to determine the cause of a late-night French Quarter explosion that knocked out power and prompted evacuations to the area on Saturday, with workers focused on repairing and remediating an underground electrical vault damaged in the blast The incident, which didn’t cause any injuries, occurred about an hour after the conclusion of the July Fourth fireworks display on the riverfront. Police evacuated a roughly one-block radius around the intersection of Bourbon and Conti streets after the fire resulting from the explosion sent smoke billowing into the area. In a statement on Monday Entergy New Orleans spokesperson Beau Tidwell said the fire remained under investigation, with engineers “reviewing our data to determine where and how the event originated.”

“Entergy crews and our environmental remediation contractor are currently cleaning out the burned vault and working to effect repairs,” he added.

The New Orleans Fire Department, which responded to the blast on Saturday, did not provide any additional information on the incident Monday City Hall referred questions to Entergy

ZACHARY

Continued from page 1B

starting teacher salary to just shy of $60,000 a year

Lifting Zachary teacher salaries above $60,000 annually looked doubtful just a few months ago

In November, voters defeated the initial version of the Zachary Forward proposal. Voter discontent that day was amplified by opposition across East Baton Rouge Parish to the Thrive initiative, which sought to

BLOTTER

Continued from page 1B

Investigators learned that an SUV pulled up along the juveniles and someone inside began shooting at them. The two shooting incidents on Saturday involved two different SUVs, a police spokesperson said. Anyone with information on the shootings is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.

Here is a list of commercial and residential building permits issued by East Baton Rouge Parish Government from June 26 to July 2. BUSINESS

8540 FLORIDA BLVD.: clothing store; applicant, Kevin Smith

3130 BALIS DRIVE: mixed-use commercial space with a private fitness training studio and office space for a real estate brokerage; applicant and owner, Fredlicia Phillips.

2769 MISSION DRIVE: new construction for a 3,320-square-foot factory/ industrial building, $250,000; applicant, C. Joseph Richard; owner, Steven Waguespack; contractor, Harvey Honore & Company.

8856 S. CHOCTAW DRIVE: general office and warehouse space, including a call center; applicant, Daniel Reid.

2106 PERKINS ROAD: new twostory medical center with 2,292 square feet of space, $550,000; applicant, John Pourciau; contractor, Leblanc & Fresina Investments.

11315 FLORIDA BLVD.: remodel suite into a restaurant

Speaking at a news conference early Sunday, Fire Department Chief Roman Nelson said crews used dry chemical extinguishers on the fire because it was electrical in nature, so they

needed to wait to use water until power was disconnected. While power lines and other electrical infrastructure are typically above ground in most of New Orleans, in

the French Quarter much of that infrastructure is buried. That buried equipment can cause problems, particularly when it interacts with other underground infrastructure.

redirect some library, Council on Aging and mosquito abatement property taxes. Zachary leaders tweaked their initiative, focusing the money solely on employee compensation, and tried again. Zachary voters this time gave their strong assent, voting for the initiative by a 62% to 38% margin. Between November and June, turnout increased from 25% to 33%. That equates to almost 1,600 additional voters. “We just connected with every group, everybody we could think of, to give them the information,” said Su-

1 dead, 1 arrested after July 4 shooting

What started as an argument on Calumet Street led to one dead and one arrested in the early hours of July 4, according to a Baton Rouge Police Department release.

Tray Young, 30, was found dead from a gunshot when officers arrived to the scene in the 6600 block of Calumet Street, according to the release. The shooting is believed to have occurred at 1:17 a.m.

Detectives said a dispute

$40,000; applicant, Chau Pham; owner, Minh Nguyen; contractor, Elvin Trung Do. 9257 FLORIDA BLVD.: tattoo studio lobby; applicant, Salena Alvarado; owner, Branden Barker.

1880 FLONACHER ROAD, ZACHARY: add limestone to 2,000-square-foot parking lot to prevent rainwater from leaving the property, $103,000; applicant, Hooper Price; contractor, Empire Integrity Services.

7570 JEFFERSON HIGHWAY: interior completion of space for a 5,325-square-foot store that sells pet food and pet accessories, $400,000; applicant, Thomas Donaldson; contractor, Centurion Construction Management.

8281 GOODWOOD BLVD: renovation of 2,000 square feet on the first floor of an existing building, $100,000; applicant, Britany Dealminana; owner, Chris Town; contractor, Arkel Constructors.

2040 O’NEAL LANE: commercial pylon sign, $11,500; applicant, Kimberly Gremillion; contractor, Gulf South Signs.

11834 MARKET PLACE AVE:

perintendent Ben Necaise.

The 24 mills are not yet available for employee pay That won’t start happening until January, when local property owners pay their annual tax bills. The school district is financing the initial months of the pay raise with existing funds.

Zachary is likely to increase pay again soon, in the form of one-time stipends It’s an outgrowth of Gov Jeff Landry’s plan to cut nearly $170 million from school budgets and use the money instead for one-time stipends to school employ-

between Young and Precious Holliday, 25, escalated to gunfire. Holliday was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a count of negligent homicide.

The BRPD said the investigation is ongoing.

Gonzales man booked in shooting

A Gonzales man was arrested on a count of attempted second-degree murder in a Sunday night shooting in a store parking lot, the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office

offices for Greater You Counseling Center, an outpatient practice that provides professional mental health services; applicant, Charme Thompson.

7225 ADELIA LANE: office for design-build contractor; applicant, Bill Firesheets.

6800 SCENIC HIGHWAY: converting existing building into student housing, $400,000, applicant, Dexter Henderson; contractor, I G H Contracting Services.

6347 GREENWELL SPRINGS ROAD: patio addition to Dee’s Blues Box, $40,000; applicant, Kelvin Hunter; owner, Demetris Chambers; contractor, Covenant General Contractors.

5425 GALERIA DRIVE: salon usage for one occupant; Markeisha Hills. 9257 FLORIDA BLVD.: change in use/occupancy for an 800-square-foot Paint Remix, $8,000; applicant, LaTaoya Moore-Jett.

10330 AIRLINE HIGHWAY: health and life insurance sales; applicant, Kenneth Wright.

2621 MEEKER DRIVE: heavy equipment business; appli-

ees. A lawsuit was dropped last week that sought to block the plan. The new stipends — $2,000 for classroom teachers and $1,000 for support workers — will go to most, though, not all of the school employees who’ve been receiving identical state-funded onetime stipends since 2023. The state refused to continue funding those stipends with additional money after the May 16 failure of a statewide ballot measure that would have financed slightly larger permanent pay raises. As part of his plan, Landry

said.

Darrian Washington, 18, turned himself in after a vehicle used in the shooting was found by investigators at a home on South Richland Avenue in Gonzales, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The shooting happened about 10 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of the Double A Discount store on Airline Highway in Gonzales. The victim had approached a vehicle there, when multiple shots were fired from the vehicle.

The victim was taken to

cant, Gaynell Sanchez.

5557 GOVERNMENT ST.: hair studio; applicant, Kelli Hutchinson.

2040 O’NEAL LANE: nail salon; applicant, Thi Thu Minh Huynh.

8201 JEFFERSON HIGHWAY: law firm; applicant, Kirk Guidry

5250 CHENEAU LANE: renovation of Rouzan supply storage structure to create HOA meeting office; $40,000; applicant, Amy Whitsell; owner, Joseph Labbe; contractor, Level Construction and Development.

325 FLORIDA ST.: renovations to install new elevator in a 5,950-square-foot office building, $325,0000; applicant, Landon Rainey; owner, Renee Amar; contractor, Buquet & LeBlanc.

4260 EVANGELINE ST.: commercial change in occupancy, using part of a church as a daycare; applicant, Destiny Chatman; contractor, Power House Developments.

13431 PERKINS ROAD: foundation for new elementary school; applicant, Cecilia Gomes; owner, Roosevelt

Danny Raines, a veteran electrical safety consultant based in Georgia, said there are various triggers that can lead to blasts like the one that occurred Saturday night. Speaking generally, and without any specific knowledge about the July 4 incident, he said that aging equipment, commonly including faults on older cables, can create stresses that result in a blast.

“Of course it makes a big old fireball with a lot of smoke,” Raines said, noting that sometimes moisture getting into electrical lines can be a factor and that utilities are typically responsible for clearing their underground vaults. In its statement, Entergy said crews carry out vault inspections twice annually in an effort to prevent incidents.

The explosion was reported a little after 10:30 p.m. and Entergy said power had been restored by 6 a.m. the next morning.

Initially, Entergy representatives said the repairs were delayed after workers were “menaced by an individual threatening to shoot our lineman with a gun.” New Orleans police and Entergy later confirmed that the threat had come in the form of a phone call to the utility’s call center and that there was no reported in-person threat.

In December 2019, a earlymorning blast on Dauphine Street near Toulouse shot several manhole covers high into the air and set fire to a parked car An investigation indicated that methane from sewage had collected inside one of Entergy’s transformer vaults and ignited, though officials never determined how it got there.

Email Jonah Meadows at jonah.meadows@ theadvocate.com.

is stripping roughly 5% out of the normal state education funding that school districts were anticipating In response, some school leaders say they may have to cut programs and personnel.

Zachary’s newly approved pay raise may well exempt the school district from Landry’s order In a June 15 social media post, the governor said districts that have approved their own pay increases will be able to use the new “stipend allocation to backfill their budgets,” but state leaders have been mum pub-

a hospital with multiple wounds, the Sheriff’s Office said. In addition to the count of attempted second-degree murder Washington was also booked on one count of illegal use of a weapon.

2 arrested in killing near Ville Platte

Two people have been arrested in the fatal shooting of a Baton Rouge man near Ville Platte more than two years ago, authorities said.

Daijah McClay, 29, of

Haney; contractor, Lincoln Builders of Baton Rouge.

NEW HOMES

7639 WHITETIP AVE.: $200,000, 2,382 square feet; applicant, Jacob Harelson: owner, Carlos Alvarez; contractor, Alvarez Construction Co.

7337 RICHARDS DRIVE: $2.7 million, 7,422 square feet; applicant, Nick Cagley; contractor, Cagley Custom Homes.

2351 PLANTATION DRIVE: $125,000, 1,520 square feet; applicant, Butch Evans; owner, Ron Julien; contractor, Andre Denelle Newton Sr.

7727 SILVERSIDE COVE: $200,000; applicant, Jacob Harelson; owner, Carlos Alvarez; contractor, Alvarez Construction Co.

963 ROBERTO AVE., BAKER: $163,950, 2,186 square feet; applicant, Starts Department; owner and contractor, D.R. Horton.

802 ROBERTO AVE., BAKER: $172,500, 2,300 square feet; applicant, Starts Department; owner and contractor, D.R. Horton. 7116 LASALLE AVE.: $700,000, 5,200 square feet; applicant,

licly thus far about how that would work. Even so, Necaise said he’s likely to recommend that Zachary go ahead to match the state stipend so employees see their total paychecks increase rather than stay flat, thanks to the loss of the state support.

“We don’t want in any sense, to do a pay increase and, based on the (expired) stipend, that it is really not an increase,” Necaise said. Email Charles Lussier at clussier@theadvocate. com.

Plaquemine, and Kamrein McClay, 21, of Houston, each face one count of principal to second-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Jonah C. Lee, according to the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office. Lee was found lying in a street on the outskirts of Ville Platte with gunshot wounds and died at a hospital on March 30, 2024. Bail was set at $150,000 for each suspect. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities said additional arrests are expected.

David Nelson; contractor, Nelson Custom Builders.

EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH BUILDING PERMITS

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

The New Orleans Fire Department fights an underground fire after a transformer blew Saturday in the 700 block of Conti Street in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

Henry, Frances Broadmoor BaptistChurch, 9755 Goodwood Boulevard, at 11 a.m. Musso Jr., Michael

OurLadyofMercy Catholic Church at 10 a.m.

Obituaries

Babin, Harold Bond

Harold Bond Babin, age 90, of Zachary, passed away peacefully on Sunday, July 5, 2026. Harold wasborn on August 7, 1935, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In his early years, he attended elementary school in Clinton, Louisiana. His family later moved to Baton Rouge, where Harold attended Baton Rouge Junior High School, Baton Rouge High School, and Louisiana State University. He completed the Ministerial Course of Study of The United Methodist Church and was ordained adeacon in 1971. Beginning in 1963, Harold served as alocal pastor in The United Methodist Church, ministeringtothe congregations of Angie, Varnado, Day's Center, Darlington, Bluff Creek, Slaughter, Corbin, Wilson CommunityChurch, Tunica, and St. Francisville. He served St. Francisville United Methodist Church from 1972 until his retirement in 2005. Haroldbegan working in the Road Design Section of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development in July 1956. At the time of his retirement in 1986, he was aSenior Road Design Squad Leader. Harold is survived by the former Patricia Pope of Zachary Louisiana, his wife of 70 years. Theylived in Zachary beginning in 1958 and in St. Francisvillefrom 1986 to 2005.Heisalso survivedbyhis five children and their spouses: Brenda Babin Triche (Glenn), Cliff Babin (Johnnie), Linda BabinStovall (Greg), Jimmy Babin (Marlene), and Bobby Babin (Janet) Harold is also survived by his17grandchildren: Dr. Jason Triche (Grant Lane), Brandie Triche, Justin Triche (Lacey), Brad Thibodeaux, Mikki Helm, Ben Morgan, Greyson Stovall, Emery Stovall, Brittney Nichols (Dustin), Brooke Hafliger (Adam), Derek Babin(Caitlin), Stephen Babin (Anna Grace), Rebekah Babin, KatieBabin, Bond Babin (Rebecca), Rachael Vince (Patrick), and Bryce Babin(Jensen); 32great-grandchildren; seven great-great-grandchildren; and anephew, Hunter Babin (Joyce). He was preceded in death by his parents, V.V. and Essie Bond Babin, and his brothers,Clifford Babin (Sis) and Dr. Claude Babin (Barbara). Visitation will be held at Zachary United Methodist Church on Wednesday, July8,2026, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Visitation will continue on Thursday, July 9, 2026, from 9:00 a.m until11:00 a.m., with the funeralservice beginning at 11:00 a.m. The service will beconducted by the Reverend Austin Rinehart Dr. Greg Davis, and the Reverend Chris Andrews. Burial will follow at Azalea Rest Cemetery. Pallbearers will be his grandsons with honorary pallbearers being Dr. Kemp Amacker, Ted Landaiche, Joe Kelley, and the Reverend Mike Clark Share sympathies, memories, and condolences at www.CharletFuneralHome. com

Brusly.Chuck was amachinist with Industrial Parts Specialties LLC. Visiting willbeatWilbertFuneralHome in PortAllenon Wednesday,July 8th, from 5to8 p.m. and againon Thursday, July 9th, from 9 a.m. until religious service at 11 a.m.,conductedby Rev. SteveChadwick and Rev. Troy Romig. Entombment willfollow in St.John the Baptist Catholic Church Mausoleum in Brusly.Pallbearerswillbe BillyDeshotel, Jesse Peavy, Jon Barbier, Phillip Deshotel, BarryDaigle Todd Leray. Honorarypallbearers will be MikeyRayburn, LandonMartinez, Easton Bezet, Jeremy "Frog" Bezet. Chuck issurvived by his father, Charles Curtis "Curt"Bezet Sr.; brother, Jeremy "Frog" Bezet; daughters,Savannah Bezet Rayburn and husband Christopher "Mikey" Jr and Emily Bezet;grandchildren, EastonBezet and EloiseRayburn; honorarygrandchildren, Dylan and Allie Behrnes, Ava Grace Franklin. Chuck was preceded in death by his mother, Patricia "Pat" King Bezet. Chuck was amember of Red Diamond Hunting Club. He spent hisfree time at the ballpark supporting hisdaughtersand his grandson.Chuck enjoyed hunting, balinghay with his dad, spending time with his friends and cooking.

FrancesTurner Henry, April 30, 1937- June 30, 2026. FrancesTurnerHenry, beloved mother,grandmother,educator, civic leader, and pioneering businesswoman, passed peacefully from this world on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, atthe ageof89. Born on April 30, 1937, in Hodge, Louisiana, Frances was the daughterofArnold A. Turner and Mary ElizabethEubanks Turner. From an earlyage,she distinguished herself as anexceptionalstudent, graduating with honorsfrom Jonesboro-HodgeHigh Schoolin1955. Following highschool Frances attended Louisiana Tech University, whereshe earnedher Bachelor's Degree in Educationin1957and her Master's DegreeinEducation in 1958. Herlifelong devotion to education and public service wouldeventually lead to her being recognizedasthe Louisiana Tech University Collegeof Education Alumna of the Year in 2019, one of the university's highest honors. In the spring of 1958, Francesmarried her high schoolsweetheart, E.L. "Bubba"Henry.The newlyweds movedtoBaton Rouge after Bubba's acceptance to LSU Law School. Frances supported theiryoung family by teaching schoolwhileBubbapursued his legaleducation. Upon hisgraduation,they returned to Jonesboro, whereBubba establishedhis lawpractice and Francescontinued herbelovedwork as an educator. Throughout their marriage, Franceswas Bubba's greatest champion. When he decidedtorun for the Louisiana Legislaturein 1968, she stood steadfastly by his side throughout his distinguished political career.During histwelve years of legislative service, Frances balancedher responsibilities as ateacher and mother,often driving herself and their children to Baton Rouge on weekends whenBubba was unabletoreturn home.She alsomadeBaton Rougea second home for the family during the legislative summers. In 1980, the familypermanently relocated to Baton Rouge when Bubbawas appointed Commissioner of Administration under Governor David Treen. Aftermore than twentytwo years as an educator, Francesembarkedonan entirely new professional journey. Shebecameone of the first successful fulltime female residential general contractors in the Baton Rouge area, building arespectedcareer that spanned threedecades and breaking barriers for women in the construction

industry Frances' impact on Louisianaextended far beyond her professional accomplishments. Apassionateadvocate foreducation and public service, she served fortwo decades on theLouisianaBoard of Regents, where she played an influential role in shaping highereducationpolicy, teacherquality initiatives, and systemichigh schoolreform throughout thestate.Her expertise anddedication to education also ledtoseven years ofservice on President GeorgeW.Bush's No Child Left Behind National Commission.

Formorethan twenty years, Frances served as a member of the BoardofDirectors of Blue Cross and Blue ShieldofLouisiana, including as chairofthe board. Through this work, she helpedadvance the Foundation's mission of improving thehealth and well-being of Louisianians, especiallychildrenand families

Above all,Frances was devoted to her family.She embodied grace, intelligence, perseverance, and generosity,leaving alegacy of serviceand love that touched countless lives.

She was precededin death by her belovedhusband, E.L. "Bubba" Henry, and her eldest son, Preston Henry.

She is survivedbyher son, PatrickE.Henry and daughter-in-law, LydiaL Henry; her daughter, Lori H. Taylorand son-in-law, Brunson Taylor; and her cherished grandchildren, Mary Elizabeth Gordon, Mona Taylor, Jacob McKenzieHenry, John Paul Shelton, James David Shelton, and Eva Shaw, along with numerous extended family members and dear friends

Avisitation willbeheld at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 825 Government Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Monday, July 6, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Acelebration of Frances' life will be held at BroadmoorBaptist Church, 9755 Goodwood Boulevard Baton Rouge,Louisiana, on Tuesday, July7,2026, at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers,the family asks that donations be madetoThe Greater Baton Rouge FoodBank

MaureenRichard Herbert,born in NewOrleans on March 29, 1952, to AmedeeS.Richard and Audrey Davis Richard, entered God's heavenlykingdomonJuly 5, 2026, following alongand bravebattle with cancer. Maureenwas agraduateofSacred Heart of Jesus High School in NewOrleans and attended UNO. She taught at Jefferson Baptist Church in BatonRouge,asa Kindergarten PhysicalEducation Teacher for8 years and she served her community formany years as aschool crossing guard providing safe travels forstudents. Maureenwas an integral part of Reliance Valve and Machine, thefamily-owned business, operatinginBatonRouge since 1988. Maureen was always afun-loving person, who found good in everyone and cherishedher relationships withher family and friends.Being generous was one of herstrong pointsand she believed when yougive, you receive tenfold. Shehad always been strong physically emotionally and spiritually in theface of multiple obstacles in her life.Maureen was adevoutChristian who attended Most Blessed Sacrament CatholicChurch. She enjoyed idyllic weekendsin Grand Islewithfamily and friends,fishing and relaxing witha good book. Viewing thelatest movieat themovie theaterwas her delight.Her talent for woodworking was afocal point forthe neighborhood during theholiday seasons with decorative lawn displaysand she left alegacy with thehandmadeChristmas ornamentsfor her lovedones. Her generous heart was abeaconof friendship to allwho met her. Maureencherished her family and is survived by her husband,Stafford Herbert, sons John Herbert (Regan), PatrickHerbert (Crystal), and daughter, Lauren Herbert,her grandchildrenElizabeth Herbert, Step-grandchildren BrooklynFalcon, TannerFalcon, Hunter Falcon, Kaylie

Davis, Alexis Limbers, and Payton Limbers, hersiblings, Amedee S. Richard, III, Mary EllenWeaker (Frank), PatrickRichard (Audra), EileenPerson (Dwight), Daniel Richard (Melinda), TimothyRichard (Terri), Brothers-in-law, Arthur Herbert, III, (Irene), Robert Herbert,(Carrie), and Aunt Martha Walker, along with numerous nieces and nephews. Maureen was preceded in death by her parents, AmedeeS.Richard and Audrey Davis Richard;her father-in-law and mother-inlaw, Arthur Herbert, Jr.and Gloria Herbert;and her uncle, John Walker. We would like to expressour gratitude to thestaff of Clarity Hospice for theirprofessional and compassionate care of Maureen,asthey provided comfort in a warm and tender manner. Pallbearers will be Johnny Herbert,Patrick Herbert, Danny Richard,Pat Richard, Timmy Richard, Arthur "Bud"Herbert,III. Visitation willbefrom 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM prior to aMass of Christian Burial at 1:30 PM on Friday, July 10thatMost Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 15615 Jefferson Highway, Baton Rouge, LA 70817. Interment willfollow Mass at Serenity Oaks Memorial Park, 15304 Highway73Prairieville, LA 70769.

Rev. Linda Carter Joseph was born on January 15, 1948, to thelateEdward CarterJr. and Elma CrockettCarter. She departed this life on June 26, 2026. She dedicated27years to theEast Baton Rouge School system as ateacher and Guidance Counselor.Rev.Joseph leaves behind cherished memories withher sonAndre Joseph(Osjeta) and five grandchildren, Imani, Caleb,London, Khary and Carter. She was preceded in deathbyher husband, Ulysses Josephand son Bryant, her parents, and sisterGlenda Bernard. A funeralservicewillbeheld from10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

on 2026-07-11 at Hall Davis andSon Celebration Center, 9348 Scenic Hwy.

Mrs. Odette Catlett Losavio, age 85, of LettworthLA, passedaway July 4, 2026 surrounded by theoneswho love her. Visitationwillbeheld on Wednesday, July 8at9am11am. Serviceswill be held at 11:00 AM at St.Ann's Church in Morganza LA, with interment to follow at St.Steven'sChurch in Lettsworth,LA. directedby

Nilands funeral home. Mrs. Losavio wasa retired postmaster from Innis, a devoted wife,motherto herchildren, grandmother to hergrandchildrenand great-grandchildren. She wasa pillar of hercommunity andwillbesolovingly missed by herfriends and family. Survivors include herhusbandof67faithful years, Anthony"Buddy" Losavio whooften referred to heras"The only rose he ever wanted",foursons, Andy, Marvin, Sam, and Vince Losavio; 10 grandchildren;and numerousgreat grandchildren. Buddylovingly referredtoher as "Theperfectwife,Perfect mother,and most wonderfulcook". Mrs. Odette, Maw, Mama; Namesreferred to herfromones whoknowthe weight that she carried daily. The glue that held the family togetherand neverlet anyonesee thepain.

in Manhasset,NY, before moving to Natchez, MS,at age 11, graduating from Natchez High School in 1953. Will graduatedfrom LSUin1959 and wasa lifelong LSUTiger fan, attendingnumerous LSUfootball basketball, baseball, and Lady Tiger basketball sportingevents. He wasa cartographerwith the U.S. Geological Survey, serving therefor 37 years before retiring. Will lovedcaring for andtaking hisdogs (Duchessand Sophie)for walks aroundthe neighborhood. He wasa longtime member and usherat Broadmoor United Methodist Church, and most recently amember at St.John'sUnited Methodist Church. He wasa beloved husband, father,grandfather,great-grandfather, andfriend. He waspreceded in death by his father, William ThompsonMartin, Jr andmother, Eliza ConnerMartin. He is survived by hisbeloved wife of 55 years, Loretta Shuffield Martin; threedaughters, Lisa MartinLudwig and husband Trip, Holly Martin Miller andhusband Leon, andMary Kathryn "Tat Martin; oneson,Teddy Martinand wife Nicole; seven grandchildren, Caroline Ludwig,EddieLudwig, CatherineMiller,Sarah Miller,Michael Miller, Meredith Martin, Grace Martin; twogreat-grandchildren, Edward Ludwig andLucie Ludwig.Also survived by hisbrothers-in -law Phillip Ross "Ross" Shuffield, Jr.(Gwen), and George Richard "Ricky" Shuffield (Pat); and sisterin-law Sudie Shuffield LeMasters (Earl). The family wouldliketoexpress their heartfelt gratitude to thecompassionatecaregiversatthe Baton Rouge General Hospital andthe Baton Rouge Rehabilitation Center.Relatives and friends are invited to celebrate Will's life on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at ResthavenFuneral Home. Visitation will take place from6:00 PM until8:00 PM Visitation will resume on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, at St.JohnMethodist Church beginningat9:00 AM until funeral service at 10:00 AM.Burial will take place at NatchezCityCemetery in Natchez,MS. In lieu of flowers, please send donationstoSt. John'sUnited Methodist Church.Family andfriends may sign the online guestbook or leave apersonal note to thefamilyatwww.resthavenbaton rouge.com.

Baxley,Charles St.Thomas More Catholic Church, 11441 Goodwood Drive, at

Losavio, Odette Catlett

Joseph, Linda Carter

Henry, FrancesT.

Martin, William Conner

William Conner Martin, Baton Rouge,LA, passed away on July 3, 2026, at the age of 91. Will was born in Philadelphia, PA,and lived

Herbert,Maureen R.

Bezet Jr.,Charles Curtis'Chuck'

Charles "Chuck" Curtis Bezet, Jr. passed away on Wednesday, July 1, 2026,at

his home in Brusly, at the age of 57. He was anative andlifelong resident of

Arecent report by the LouisianaLegislative Auditor found that Louisianaisfailing to use funds designated to help low-incomepregnant women gain access to healthy foods. The Special Supplemental NutritionProgram for Women, Infants, and Children —morecommonly known asWIC —isentirely federally funded.Itprovidesroutine testing, nutrition counseling and money for healthyfoodstoeligible women. Louisiana ranks last in therate of participation among allthe states. Add Washington, D.C., and the territory of Puerto Ricotothe list, andwe’re still dead last Between 2021 and 2024, Louisiana did not use approximately$111 million worthoffederal WIC funding, the auditor found.

That astate with one of thehighestrates of infant mortality isn’tusing aprogram designedto help women deliver healthy babies should shock the conscienceofeveryone who caresabout Louisiana’smothers and children

The report lists several reasons for the state’s low participation rate. Many of them areeasy to remedy.For example, around80% of the clinics that screen participantswerenot open beyond normal business hours. Most women in the program must completeregularclinic visits in order to maintain their benefits. But for working mothers, finding aclinic thatcould accommodate their schedules proved challenging. In north Louisiana, for example, only oneclinic nearShreveport operatedinearly morning hours or lateinto the evening.

For other would-be participants,the problem was that clinic hours and phone numbersposted on their websites werenot accurate,and staff did not answer the phone. The audit also found that manyclinicswere not doing at least one outreach event permonth as required by state policy to let potentially eligible moms know about the program

We are glad to note that theLouisianaDepartment of Health, which oversees WIC, agreed with the audit recommendationsand has already begun to address these issues. It will conduct reviews of clinic informationonline and will institute a“secret shopper” program to randomly call clinics to make sure phones are being answered. It has set agoal to improve participation by 25%thisyear Surveys of participants also found thatthe programwhere beneficiaries receive EBTcards to redeem at participatingstores forspecific food products wasnot meeting theirneeds. Some products, like yogurt, were offeredonly in large quantities so theydid notredeem the itemsfor feartheywould spoil, participants shared. TheDepartment of Healthagreed to have more flexibility in what products were offered. Some parishes only had one vendor that accepted the food benefit program, so thedepartment is looking at expanding that. Allofthese measures mean thata lifeline for needyfamilieswillnow be strengthened. But outreachiskey —a lifeline is only useful if it reaches those in need.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE

WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE

Agigantic Roman triumphal arch would absolutely contradict the American liberal democratic experiment framed in our Constitution. It seems that Rome’searly republican Senate rarely approved such monumentstovictorious generals, but theempire grew lousy with arches after the Caesars and subsequent power struggles destroyed theRoman Republic.

In our time, these symbols of Rome’s long decline and misplaced imperial pride, antithetical to American ideals, cannot represent true historic milestones. The end of monarchy, aristocracy and slavery,progress towardcivil rightsbased on rule of law,and celebration of civic rather than ethnic, racial, or gendered national identity have all underscored theidea of American exceptionalism. In stark contrast,Rome’spersecution of Christian martyrs spannedahistory longer than our own semiquincentennial observance. The OED further defines “arch” as denoting cunning or slyness, often personified in an arch villain or arch fiend.

Agarish, bellicose arch in our nation’s capital associated withPresident Donald Trumpmight also conjure images of “fallen arches,” or flat feet, which, like shin splints and bone spurs, have exempted draftees from military

Iwanted to support Muhammad Yungai’sopinion on the hypocrisy of those people pushing theposting of the TenCommandments in schools.

It is thecontinuation of brainwashing of children that self-righteous people employ to further their,and only their,religious views on others.

Yungai’sletter was well-written and on point. Older kids, moreacquainted with diversity in this world, will have thewherewithal to figure out the bias behind this propaganda.

Istill hear people talk about the glory of war and their sanctimonious

service.

Should we copy arches sponsored by European monarchs and emperors, like Napoleon’sArc de Triomphe? No

Though arising as aJacobin son of the revolution, Napoleon actuallyreversed hard-won French liberties that took two moremajor revolutions to restore. Over the past 250 years, Americans have preferred to express sincere gratitude to our old French ally with heartfelt appreciation of Lafayette and LadyLiberty

WILLIAM BERTOLETTE Baton Rouge

certainty in the correctness of capital punishment while witnessing their disregardfor children after birth and their denial of pedophilia by priests (to nameafew of the obvious hypocrisies) Many now worship that gold-plated statue of aself-proclaimed god. They did then, and still do, parade as peacocks of “Christian” virtue. It doesn’t takekids long to connect the dots. Thank you to Yungai forspeaking thetruth.

DENISE VERRET Breaux Bridge

So there is agovernmental proposal brewing that would makeiteasier to mailguns directly to purchasers’ homes. At the sametime, there are ongoing attempts to makeitmore difficult to mailballots to legally vote forgovernment officials. Is it a coincidence that Donald TrumpJr. is positioned to directly benefit from easy internet and mailordering of firearmsresulting in increased revenues at GrabAGun? He holds aboard position and is an official consultant to that company Louisiana consistently ranks among the states with the highest per capita firearm death rates in the United States. Louisiana typically ranks between second and sixth nationwide. The U.S. has the highest rate of firearm deaths —both homicides and suicides —byawide margin compared to similarly developed, high-incomenations. Do we really need to makeiteasier forcitizens to obtain guns and the Trumpfamily to further enrich itself?

While efforts are being madeby the current Congress and administration to makevoting moredifficult, other advanced countries are embracing online voting. Today,you can obtain just about anything online in the U.S., but you cannot vote online unless you are disabled, out of the country,inthe military and living abroad, or tribal voters living on reservations.

Other countries that allow online voting include Switzerland, France, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and India. Why not the U.S.? So manyissues, so manyquestions. Please, America, pay attention to the information coming from reliable sources. Do your research and think about what this meansfor our country and all of its citizens.

ROSE MARYWILLIAMS Baton Rouge

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByJEN GOLBECK

The U.S. Capitol and amock-up of PresidentDonald Trump’sproposed triumphal arch are seen fromthe Ferris wheel at the GreatAmericanState Fair on the National Mall.

Whether the Rev.Tony Spell will be convicted of acrime is aquestion that will be answeredbyaLouisiana jury. Whether he holds views traditionally labeled heretical, however,is averdict rendered more than 1,500 years ago. Letmeexplain. Spell, the fiery —some might say pugilistic —pastor of Life Tabernacle in Central, first cametoprominence when he refused to abide by pandemic-era lockdown restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus. More recently,he was arrested last month after an incidentwithhis neighbor,inwhich Spell repeatedly punched his neighbor even after he had pinned the man to theground. Thefight, which was caught on camera, landed Spell in the parish jail fora few hours on acount of second-degree battery.His case will work its way through our criminal justice system. When he’snot fighting, Spell is running his church. Life Tabernacle is part of amovement withinPentecostalism that denies the ancient Christian formulation of God as atrinity: Father Son and Holy Spiritas oneGod in three persons. The church’swebsite makes this explicit: “the Father,Son, and Holy Ghost are not names of separatepersons, but titles of positions held by God.”

Such adescriptionis“classic modalism,” Lloyd Harsch, aprofessor of church history at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary,told me. Modalism emphasizes the oneness” of God. It sees God as onebeingacting in threedifferent “modes.” Andwhile Pentecostalism is arelatively new movement —itgrew out of an early 20th century revival in California modalism goes back into thechurch’s early centuries. It was “a heresy that was dealt with and resoundinglycondemned as being outside orthodox Christianity”bythe 5th century because it denies the Trinity, Harsch told me.

The reason for those decisionswas simple: Modalism denies the Trinity, which “was an early foundational doctrine of the church,” Harsch said.

This issue was settled more than 500 yearsbefore the RomanCatholic-EasternOrthodoxsplit and more than 1,000 years before MartinLuther kicked off the Protestant Reformation

Today, themajorityofchurches, including Catholic, Eastern Orthodox andProtestant, are firmly trinitarian. Spell’sviews on the Trinityare aminority even within Pentecostalism. Letmebeclear here: Iamnot saying that Spell andhis congregantsshould notbefree to practice their religion as they see fit;they absolutely should. But Iamnotingthat his beliefs fall outside of historicChristianity,and go against oneofits bedrock doctrines. Of course, one needn’tdive into dusty theological tomes or ancient church history to see the gaps between Spell’s versionofChristianity and the one taught by Jesus Jesustaughthumility, and Spell seems to revel in his own notoriety. Afew daysafter the fight, Spell told adeputy in acomment recorded on a body camera, “Everybody in theworld knows my name.” He also used aslur for gay people to describe the man he beat,and said he would beat the man or his family again if he felt it necessary,per body camera footage. Jesusalso taught nonviolence. When one of his followerscut off the ear of asoldier who had come to arrest Jesus, Jesus healed the man. He also famouslysaid, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them theother

cheek also.”

Spell took adifferent tack: He charged across the street to confront his neighbor,and even after he was arrested, he boasted about the incident, saying in anews conference that he, as theshepherd, had to protect his flock. Later,during achurch service, he madelight of it.

“I fulfilled Scripture because Ilay hands on the sick. Idon’tknow how much recovery they’re going to have, but Ilaid hands on them,” he said.

Spell’sdevotion to Scripture is clear

Andhis church website calls the Bible “the inspired Word of God …Moreover,there is no salvation outside of what is taught in its pages.”

That presumably includes theletters of the Apostle Paul, who in 1Corinthians holds aloft the three great Christian virtues: “faith, hope and love. And thegreatest of these is love.”

AndinGalatians, Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit, which include love, peace, gentleness and self-control, among others. Andagainst those things, Paul notes, “there is no law.”

Butitseems those virtues, like the Trinity,aren’timportanttoSpell and his version of Christianity.

Email Faimon A. Roberts III at froberts@theadvocate.com.

Afterbeginning the war,but before his conduct of it turneditinto an embarrassment, President Donald Trump said: “On the wayback”fromIran “we will be taking over”Cuba “almost immediately.” Now, humiliatedand bewildered, he hungers fora successbeforethis autumn’selections. Cuba’s 67-year-old regime hassurvived13U.S presidencies. But abumptious 14thhas big plans. Looselyspeaking.

Communist Cuba,athreadbare museum of Marxism, hasalways attracted tyranny tourists, leftist pilgrims eager to experience, briefly, appliedsocialism. The only good its evil ever produced is “Against All Hope,” Armando Valladares’smagnificent1986 memoir of 22 yearsas apolitical prisoner. Beatings were neverperfunctory,always ferociousand imaginatively cruel. He was fed watery soup laced with glass, or dead rats, or half the length of acow’s intestine,rectum included, filledwith waste

The welcoming reception that so many European soccer fans have received as they have crossed the nation in pursuit of World Cup games has struck many as ahappy surprise of the summer of the 250th anniversary of the DeclarationofIndependence.

“The World Cup is at our shores, and allthese people aredoing us agreat service,” comedian Bill Maher posted. “They are reminding Americans that this place is kind of awesome.”

“They are seeing an America they never imagined,” The Wall Street Journal’sPeggy Noonan noted withsomethinglike awe. “They expected adark and brooding nation; they discovered a sun-filled magnificence. It’s so big, so spacious,has such wondrous shops, the best food and absolutely wonderfulpeople.”

land migration from eastern and southern Europe,1892 to 1914, you heard constantly that America was suddenly becoming —for some, dangerously becoming— multicultural.

“Weforget too easily,” British-born American Andrew Sullivan wrote, “the loving, generous, beautiful culture that is still America at its core. If it takes asoccer tournament rather than achoreographed 250thanniversary celebration to remind us of that so be it. We’re worth celebrating no less.” Sullivan took special care to hail “the multicultural miracle we have already achieved in this quarter of a millennium.” It’sarefreshing contrast with the notion, widely prevalent in the pre-Trump years of this century, that America had suddenly,for the first time, moved from being astiflingly,insensitively monocultural society to amultiracial, multicultural one. Whenyou go rifling back in American history,you encounter this notion time andagain. In the years of peak Ellis Is-

In the decade from 1846 to 1857, when immigration as apercentage of the preexisting population was at a similar peak, thesudden inrush of German and Irish Catholic immigrants inspired similar ruminations. The fact that many newcomers, rather than fanout into farms and the frontier, clustered in high-density neighborhoods in central cities seemed especially threatening.

Butcultural diversity was part of the American experience, going back tocolonial days and through the Revolution andthe first tenuous years of independence, which produced the Constitution

America’srevolutionary patriots had grownupduring aperiod when recent history was centered on foreign and civil wars centered on differences in religion. England’sGlorious Revolution, the ouster of aCatholic king by aProtestant foreigner,was as distant in time from revolutionaries active in the 1770s and 1780s as WorldWar II is as distant in time from us today

TheEnglish Civil War, which resulted in the execution of the king, was contemporaneous with the demographically devastating Thirty Years’ WarinEurope and 120 to 130 yearsin the past —not much further distant than World WarI and thetotalitarian fascism and communism of the 20th century that followed. Against such abackground, the variedreligious origins of the different colonies must havebeen disquieting.

The New England colonies had been founded by Calvinist rebels against theChurch of England, and Virginia and the Carolinas by faithful Anglicans.Maryland had been established by Catholics,Pennsylvania by Quaker proprietors, and New York by Dutch Reformed Protestants.

Article VI of the Constitution, approved by theconvention in September 1787 and ratified by theninthstate and rendered effective in June 1788, provided that, unlike in Britain, “no religious test shallever be required as aQualification to anyOffice or public Trustunder theUnited States.”

Andthe First Amendment to the Constitution,approved by theFirst CongressinSeptember 1789 and ratified by thestates in December 1791, even before guaranteeing “the freedom of speech, or of the press,” provided that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting thefree exercise thereof.” States could keep their established religions —Connecticut did until 1818, Massachusetts until 1833 —orhave none at all.

In thenearly 250 years since, Americans have grappled with the difficulties of maintainingtheir “multicultural miracle” even as thepopulation has increased from 4million to 349 million. Butthat there have been difficulties should not blind us to thefounders’ achievement in declaring independence and establishing aframe of government appropriate to an always, and always-changing, multicultural society

Michael Barone is on X, @MichaelBarone.

Otherthanthose pilgrims, no one believesthe Havana regime hasa shredoflegitimacy.Whatshould be done?

Fordecades,Communist Cuba,a mendicant nationprickly aboutits revolutionary dignity,dependedon subsidiesfromthe SovietUnion, thenonbarteredoil fromVenezuela. Now it experiences electricity blackouts, sometimes lasting 22 hours aday.Some airlineshavestoppedserving Havana because fuelisscarce forreturn trips. Tourism hasevaporated. The Economist says “harvests arevirtually non-existent.”The Wall Street Journal’sMary Anastasia O’Grady reports, “Output fromonce-vibrant export industrieslike sugar, tobacco, coffee andfruit can’t even supply the domestic market.” Like North Korea, anotherfamily business, Cuba’s regime,inwhichFidelCastro’s brother Raúl, 95, still matters, hasone priority: survival. It understands the threat posedbypermitting any freedom in tyranny’sfissures. Hence, it’sfear of freeenterprise,socialism’ssolvent.

Raúl Castro (with whom President Barack Obama posedfor photosduring his “engagement” with Cuba) cannotbeaninterlocutor, giventhe properU.S.indictment of him formurder. In 1996, he orderedCubanmilitary jets to shoot down two U.S. civilianaircraft over internationalwater Theywerehelping escapees fromthe prisonisland.

Trump’sbaseincludesCubanAmericans, a large majority of whom, according to aMiami Herald poll, favormilitary interventionand oppose anyeconomicengagement thatpreserves the regime.InteriorSecretaryDougBurgum, an adult in Trump’sCabinet, says Cuba’s economic trajectory“will notchange as long as the people who areincharge of it nowremaininpower.” Gaesa, an army-run conglomerate, controls 70% of the economy Cuba’s economy shrank 11% from2019 to 2024, andmorethan1 million people,about 10 percent of the population, fledthe country between 2022 and2023. The Trump administration insists that prostrate Cuba threatensU.S.“nationalsecurity.” Cuba’s army hasabout one-fifth of its former 200,000 soldiers; its tiny airforce is ramshackle. Cuba reportedly hasmorethan300 drones, but what use arethey? And surely there is sufficient U.S. leverage to pressure Havana into ending Russia’s andChina’s use of the island forlistening to U.S. military communications. Is there, however, aU.S obligation toward this unfortunate neighbor?

Thomas Gradgrind, the villain (until he softened his coldutilitarianism) of CharlesDickens’s “Hard Times,” probably believedthat“the Good Samaritan was aBad Economist.”Meaning: Charity skews incentivesfor self-reliance, etc. Some ethicists, however, wonderwhethera Good Samaritan nationwith the powertodogood hasan obligationtodoit.

All agree, however, thatthere is no obligationto do whatcannotbedone. And whatcan be done for anationthatbynow is allregime andnomeaningful citizenry?

In March, amob sacked aCommunist Party headquarters in centralCuba.This spark of insurrectionwas aberrant andfleeting. Totalitarianism always hasone foundationalobjective,whichit hasachievedinCuba.The populationisa dust of wary individuals, easily blown about. Their capacity forcollaboration—for politics—has atrophied. Asmooth democratic transitionisa chimera

In January,Trump said, “Cuba is readytofall.” Into what? HasTrump thought through his vow to “take care” of Cuba with a“friendly takeover” during “a little briefstopover”?

Before he skitteredawayfromdemanding Iran’s“unconditionalsurrender,”hejovially said of Cuba:A U.S. aircraft carrierwill “stopabout 100 yards offshore,and they’ll say‘Thank you very much. We give up.’”

Sucha cutup. Our MetternichfromMidtown Manhattanisnot intimidatedbythe aphorism thatifyou want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

Email Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

Michael Barone

Faimon Roberts

George Will

PHOTO By MICHAEL BACIGALUPI

Life Tabernacle Church’sTonySpell speaks to the media on June 24 at thechurch in Central.

Regional Summary

Authoritiessay body foundonHornIsland

Miss.teenwent missing during holidayweekend

BY POET WOLFE Staff writer

Mississippilaw enforcement found abody Monday morning on Horn Island, a day after ateen went missing in the area while ona Fourth of July trip with friends, according to Jack-

son County SheriffJohn Ledbetter

TheNational Park Service located the body on the island’snorth shore nearits western tip at8:45 a.m., Ledbetter said. He added that the Coroner’sOffice said the description of the body matched themissingteen and that it was “likely”him. Officials are waitingto confirm the identity and informfamilymembers before releasing any additional details. DNA results

are pending. Authorities said 18-yearold Nolan Wells was last seen on Horn Islandabout 3p.m Saturday wearingblack shorts and sunglasses. Wells disappeared during aFourth of July outing with friends on the popular barrier island off Mississippi’scoastnear Ocean Springs, whichdrew large boatingcrowdsover the holiday weekend.

Family members turned to Facebook on Monday afternoon to comment on Wells’

disappearance. Hismother, ChristineWonsley,thanked friends, family andlaw enforcement for their support, andsaid sheand loved ones are “absolutely devastated.”

“I’m heartbroken for my sweet son who was always willing to cheer and uplift others,” Wonsley said. “Nolan wasaspecialsoul, God took his timecreating our son. Iask that you please give me andmyfamily time to grieve.”

His grandfather,Christo-

pher Wells, said in aFacebook post that Wells’ mother and father “prayed for apositive outcome, but they also had to prepare themselves forthe worst.”

“Now that my grandson hasbeen found,it’stime for answers,” he wrote, “But be mindful they need space and need to grieve. There has been enough fingerpointing. Let law enforcement do their job.”

Multiple agencies, including the Jackson County

Sheriff’s Office, the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department, the UnitedStates Coast Guard, the United Cajun Navyand theMississippi Department of Marine Resources, assisted in the search.

“On behalf of the United CajunNavy, we extend our deepest condolences to Nolan’sfamily,friends, teammates, and everyonewhose lives weretouched by him,” the group said in astatement.

Continued from page1B

From there,hehas continued his research —nearly three years of digging through census records and city directories. He has pieced together a story far messier than the romantic sketch we had imagined.

Some Louisiana habits apparently go back along way —Frederick was 22 in December 1856, and he was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct at Elysian Fields and St. Claude, about a30-minute walk from his home. Six weeks later,hewrote his lines about Eugenie Ramel on the wall of his family home on Independence Street. Mier has wondered whether the arrest and the wall are connected. In aturn we didn’tsee coming, Frederick already had ason by then, born months earlier in June to aDutch immigrant named Wilhelmina Prost, out of wedlock. He didn’tmarry Prost until October 1857, nine months after he wrote of being fooled by Eugenie. Meanwhile, Ramal married anotary named John

McClelland and had a daughter,Dolorita,inJune 1859,about two and ahalf years after the inscription. Frederick died in 1866, at 31,having barely lived past the Civil War. Ramal diedin 1872,at34. Raul Mier has beengenerouswith what he’sfound, though he is shortoncertainty about whatany of it means. He saidthe research hasmade him consider howhistoryechoesthrough families. Frederick’ssister fledNew Orleansfor Cuba

during the Civil War. Nearly acenturylater,Mier and his parents fled Cuba for New Orleans in 1961. Despitethe writing on the wall and Raul Mier’s research, we don’tknow what Ramal did to earn Frederick’sdevotion or his eventual fury. What we do know is that a young man’sheartbreak outlived him. It survived renovations, storms, changing ownersand generations. When Frederick wrote those words on the wall, he

Continued from page1B

family fromwearing pink in the courtroom during Carter’strial.The color has becomeasymbolfor supporters of Brooks, and is used in graphics and apparel tied to the nonprofit Madison Brooks Foundation, foundedbyBrooks’ mother Fowlkes argues acrowd of supportersinthe pink merchandise could intimidate or otherwise biasthe jury

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals previously barred Carter,aswell as defendant Casen Carver, from using Brooks’ recent sexualhistoryaspart of their defenses.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Carmen Mier and her son Raul Mier stand besidethe home in the Bywater area in NewOrleans where theirfamily lived in the mid-1800s.

STAFF PHOTO By JANRISHER AntonioFrederick Jr.wrote astylized version of his name above that ofEugenie Ramal’sonthe wall of his home in 1857. The writing has been preservedonthe wall of the NewOrleans home, which nowbelongstoRickJordan and Tammy Theis

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TEDS.WARREN

United States goalkeeper MattFreese, right,reacts after Belgium scores its third goal duringthe WorldCup round of 16 match on MondayinSeattle.

END OF ROAD

Belgiumthrottles U.S. in roundof16, to face Spainnext

BY RONALDBLUM AP sportswriter

SEATTLE The United States’ hopesfor adeepWorld Cup run at home endedwhenCharlesDeKetelaere scored twiceand assisted on another goal, helpingBelgium expose the Americans’ defensiveliabilities in a4-1 win Monday night that earned aquarterfinal berth.

While the U.S.was boosted bythe presenceofstarforward FolarinBalogun,whose one-game red-card suspensionwas controversially lifted by FIFA, American defenders were at fault in apair of first-half goals, and goalkeeper Matt Freese’s gaffe gave the RedDevils athirdearly in the second half.

Second-half substitute Romelu Lukaku added Belgium’sfinal goal in the third minuteofstoppagetime after Chris Richards’ giveaway “Everyone sawfrom the beginning we didn’tconnect with thegame,” said U.S.coach Mauricio Pochettino, who showed his frustrationafter Belgium’ssecond goal by kicking arack in front of the bench, sending four water bottles flying. “It’s aprocess to learn. We need to assess that gameand we need to see why we didn’tapproach the game in thesameway that (we approached) therest of theWorld Cup.”

Seeking its first WorldCup title, Belgium knocked the U.S. outinthe round of 16 for thesecondtime in 12 years and extended itsunbeaten streak to18games.The RedDevils play 2010 champion Spain on Friday at Inglewood,California,for asemifinalberth against France or Morocco.

Malik Tillman tied the score 1-1 midway through the first half with his second free kick goal of the tournament, but theAmericans conceded just 61 seconds afterthe ensuing kickoff.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MADDyGRASSy

Belgium’sCharles De Ketelaere, right, celebrates after scoring against the United States on MondayinSeattle.

American star Christian Pulisic could only watch from the bench after injuring hisrightfootwhenhehit aboot of Belgium captain Youri Tielemans on a52nd-minuteshot attempt. Pulisic favored his foot after that and was replaced seven minutes later

After winning three games in aWorldCup for thefirst timeinthis expanded 48-nation tournament, the U.S. failed in itsquest to reach the quarterfinals forthe first timesince

ä See WORLD CUP, page 5C

Absences highlightPels’ Summer League roster

The New Orleans Pelicans announcedthe roster for their Summer League team on Monday The players not on the roster proved to be bigger news thanthe players who were named.

Here are the five most notable things about who will be suiting up for the Pelicans when they tipoff Summer League play in Las Vegas starting Thursday No FearsorQueen

It’sYear 2for Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, who made theirrookie debuts in Vegas lastsummer.After ayear when they both were secondteamselections on the All-Rookie team, they won’tbeplaying in Vegas this time around. First-year Pelicans coach Jamahl Mosley discussed the decision after Monday’spractice.

History noton Kiffin’s side

Odds areagainst LSU to winchampionship in coach’sdebut

BY JON BLAU Staff writer

There was atime when college football coaches such as LSU’s Lane Kiffin didn’texist in awinnowechochamber pressurized by 24/7media cycles

But this isn’ttosay everything was peachy

“Coaching football is arotten life,” former Michigan coach Bennie Oosterbaan, one of just three college footballcoaches to win a national titleinhis first season, toldTime magazine just afew years after his glorious debut in 1948.

“I’m on top now,and there is a lotofbackslapping,” Oosterbaan said. “Let me lose theopeneror acouple of othergamesnext fall, andthenwatch howI’m blasted.” Oosterbaan, considered the “best offensive mind in college football” by hispredecessor,soured on scheming. When he left Michigan in 1958, he said “the pressure”got to him.

“Not from my bosses or the fans,”Oosterbaan said. “I mean the pressure thatbuilds up inside ahead coach whether he wins or loses.”

The coaching profession appliespressure.Kiffin, arenowned offensive mind in today’sera, said he doesn’tfret about outside expectations because none are greater thanhis own.

But the LSU job is apressurecooker

It’sa place where three coaches —Nick Saban, LesMiles and Ed Orgeron —have won national titles this century.It’saplace where BrianKelly wasaxed, with $54million left on hiscontract, because 34-14 with no playoff appearanceswasn’tgood enough. To putitlightly,Kiffin must win. To put it not so lightly,LSU fans are“nuts,”according to Hall of Fame coach UrbanMeyer,who proclaimed ahead of the Fourth of July weekendthatKiffin has to win anationaltitle in 2026 —orat leastcome close— to stayinthe fans’ good graces

ä See LSU, page 3C

“They’ve been in here working with these guys,” Mosley said. “A bigportion of that is them playing 82 gamesand beingable to be up and playthese games against theheavy hitters in the league.”

Countmeamong those who agree with that decision after seeing Fears playinall 82 games andQueen in 81. They both have room for

ä See PELICANS, page 3C

GENEVA With the integrity of FIFAand the World Cup under attack from European soccer leaders, FIFAPresident Gianni Infantino acknowledged taking acallfromPresident Donald Trump before U.S. forward Folarin Balogun wascleared to play against Belgium later Monday Balogun wasissuedared cardinthe U.S. match vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina last week,resulting in a suspension for the Belgium contest. Trump called Infantino after thegame with Bosnia to plead his casetooverturn the call, andFIFAlifted thesuspensionSunday. That prompted aday of off-field furoratthe World Cup. The Belgiansoccer federation challenged FIFA’s

ä See BALOGUN, page 5C

Rod Walker

Kiffin

DAVIDGRUNFELD

guard Micah Peavyreacts after hitting a3-pointer against the Detroit Pistons during agameonJan. 21 at Smoothie King Center

Cobolli victorious over de Minaur

Paolini also gets to Wimbledon quarterfinals

BY ANDREW DAMPF AP sportswriter

LONDON On his first match point, Flavio Cobolli stepped up and unleashed a 135 mph first serve down the T that landed on the line and sent a puff of chalk into the air on No 1 Court at Wimbledon.

Fifth-seeded opponent Alex de Minaur could barely touch the serve and the Australian’s weak return didn’t even go past his own service line.

Cobolli reacted by leaping into the air and pumping his fist. He launched a ball into the crowd before moving forward to shake hands with De Minaur

Then the Italian moved on to the performance he’d been waiting for Cobolli put his racket down and went back out into the center of the court and launched himself into the most iconic celebration in soccer: twirling in mid-air like Cristiano Ronaldo, he then landed on the grass with his feet planted wide and jerked his arms down by his side.

The mostly English crowd knew just what was going on and shouted “Siuuu” along with Cobolli.

“I love his celebration. I love him,” said Cobolli, who was once a promising soccer player himself in Roma’s youth system. “I will cheer for Portugal (against Spain at the World Cup) tonight because of Ronaldo.”

In his previous match, Cobolli performed a surfing celebration borrowed from Brazil striker Matheus Cunha.

Antonelli and Sinner

While four-time champion Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup, the country has no lack of sports stars and a few of them were in the spotlight at the grass-court Grand Slam on Monday Cobolli’s 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over a fellow top-10 player to reach the quarterfinals was a statement win as he attempts to back up his run to the French Open final.

At the same time over on Centre Court, Jasmine Paolini ended the run of rising Filipino player Alexandra Eala with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory to return to the last eight at a Grand Slam for the first time since back-to-back runs to the Ro-

land Garros and Wimbledon finals

two years ago.

Watching Paolini from the Royal Box was Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old Italian driver who leads the Formula One standings for Mercedes.

“I met Kimi afterward,” Paolini said. “I’ve been following him a lot lately I’m becoming an F1 fan. He seems like a real nice kid and very down to earth.”

Coinciding with Italy’s troubles in soccer, Antonelli and defending Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner — who plays Jan-Lennard Struff on Tuesday for a spot in the semifinals have become the country’s most popular athletes.

Cobolli, too, is rapidly gaining attention after his run to the Paris final, where he pushed Alexander Zverev to five sets

De Minaur led 5-2 in the second set and was up a break twice in the third. But Cobolli wouldn’t be deterred.

“Alex is a stratospheric player

So beating him three sets to none makes me feel like I’m ready,” Cobolli said when asked if he’s ready for another deep run. “This gave me a lot of answers, and I think it provided a lot of answers to my opponents, too.”

World Cup and gelato

After the victory over de Minaur, Cobolli’s grandfather had to go and find a new house for their team in the Wimbledon village since they had only reserved through the first week.

Now they can maintain Flavio’s nightly routine during the fortnight: dinner cooked by his father and coach, Stefano, and shared with his best friend, Watford midfielder Edoardo Bove, before watching a World Cup match and downing a tub of gelato (pear and white chocolate is Cobolli’s flavor for the tournament).

“An Italian family give us all the house here in Wimbledon,” Cobolli said. “So it’s really cool.”

Cobolli’s quarterfinal opponent will be Arthur Fery the 23-year-old British player who grew up just five minutes from the All England Club.

Paolini doesn’t allow distraction

Besides the challenge presented by the 21-year-old Eala, who eliminated defending champion Iga Swiatek in the previous round, the 5-foot-4 Paolini also had to try and not to let the presence of Roger Federer in the

Royal Box distract her

At one point, Antonelli sat right next to Federer, the owner of a men’s record eight Wimbledon singles titles.

“He is my idol,” the 30-year-old Paolini said of Federer in an oncourt interview “I was like during the match, ‘Please stay focused stay focused Don’t think about he’s here.’ I was watching all the finals and all the tournaments he was playing here.”

Paolini’s next opponent will be Marta Kostyuk, the Ukrainian player who reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinal by beating American qualifier Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-4.

It was the hottest day of the tournament so far, as the temperature rose to 90 degrees, prompting players to place bags of ice around their necks on changeovers.

Another women’s quarterfinal will feature Linda Noskova against Elise Mertens.

The strong performance by Italian players follows similar results at the French Open, where three men reached the quarterfinals despite Sinner’s secondround meltdown in a Paris heat wave.

Stars Wilson, Clark nearing a return from injuries

BY DOUG FEINBERG

toward playing again after she aggravated a back injury Clark has started practicing again and potentially will return during the current road trip that the Fever are on with games in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas. The star guard missed the first game of the trip against Las Vegas on Sunday Plum is out with a lower left leg injury and is expected to be evaulated in late July right around the All-Star break. Los Angeles has struggled without her Last season’s MVP runner-up

Napheesa Collier has yet to play this year after she had offseason surgery on both her ankles. She has started practicing again for Minnesota and also should be back soon. Power poll rankings Minnesota remained atop the power poll this week barely edging New York. One point separated the top two teams. Golden State was third with Las Vegas fourth, The Valkyries picked up some first-place votes Dallas was fifth Indiana, Washington and Atlanta were next. Phoenix

Toronto and Portland followed the Dream. Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Connecticut rounded out the poll.

Player of the week

Breanna Stewat of New York was the AP player of the week She had a huge game in the Liberty’s win over Minnesota last Friday Stewart scored 36 points to go along with seven rebounds and two blocks in the victory Other players receiving votes included Paige Bueckers of Dallas, Shakira Austin of Washington and Gabby Williams of Golden State.

Ovechkin is back for another season with NHL’s Capitals WASHINGTON Alex Ovechkin is returning for a 22nd season with the Washington Capitals. Will this be the final act of his illustrious career?

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see.”

The NHL’s career leader in goals didn’t formally commit to returning in 2026-27 until last week, so it was perhaps no surprise that Ovechkin remained noncommittal on whether this is going to be his swan song in Washington. Ovechkin said his wife suggested he play “one more year or maybe two years, I don’t know” — so if anyone was expecting him to announce a retirement tour for this season, that did not happen. Instead, Ovechkin is focused on showing he can still be effective — he’ll be 41 — and help the team win.

Forward Hachimura agrees to 2-year deal with Clippers Free agent forward Rui Hachimura and the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed on a twoyear contract that would be worth $28 million if a team option is exercised, a person familiar with the talks said on Monday Hachimura will be joining his third team, after splitting his first eight NBA seasons between the Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Lakers. His departure means all five of the players that the Lakers started in Game 1 of last season’s playoff run — Hachimura, LeBron James (still choosing a new team), Deandre Ayton (trade to Washington), Marcus Smart (agreed to sign with Houston) and Luke Kennard (agreed to sign with Phoenix) — will play elsewhere this season.

Kings cut loose veteran DeRozan after two seasons

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — DeMar DeRozan is finally free to pursue other opportunities following two seasons with the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are waiving DeRozan in a move that has been expected for weeks, sources told The Sacramento Bee on Monday, making the six-time All-Star an unrestricted free agent. DeRozan, 36, could have a number of potential suitors as he enters his 18th season at No. 16 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 26,711 points. ESPN reported that multiple contenders are expected to have interest in DeRozan, including those that are rebuffed in their pursuit of LeBron James. DeRozan had one year remaining on a three-year $74 million contract

Braves place LHP Perez on IL with arm contusion

Throwback game

Geno Auriemma and Robin Roberts will call the Dallas-New York game Tuesday night on ESPN. The pair called the first WNBA broadcast on the network 30 years earlier

“Yeah, I was nervous the first time I did it, because I didn’t know what I was doing and now that I remember back and having to do it again, knowing what could go wrong, I’m even more nervous,” Auriemma joked on a conference call. “We just tried, just figure out, let’s watch the game and see what happens and talk about what we see.”

There will be a lot of familiarity for Auriemma as three of his former players will be in the game with Dallas having Bueckers and Azzi Fudd and the Liberty having Stewart. Roberts has been impressed how the league has grown over the past three decades.

“To see the respect it has earned, the players are just incredible, and I’m just very grateful to see that it is getting the recognition that it’s getting right now,” she said.

Game of the week

New York at Minnesota, Saturday. Two of the top teams in the WNBA will meet again in Minnesota with the Lynx hosting the Liberty Star Minnesota forward Napheesa Collier might be ready to play in that game as she’s been working back from offseason ankle surgeries.

ATLANTA The Atlanta Braves placed left-hander Martín Pérez on the 15-day injured list on Monday with a left forearm contusion. Pérez was hit by Juan Soto’s line drive in Sunday’s 10-9 loss to the New York Mets and left the game. Afterward, Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said X-rays were negative. Pérez (6-6) allowed six hits and five runs, four earned, in 41/3 innings. He has a 3.54 ERA in 18 games, including 14 starts. Right-hander Carlos Carrasco was designated for assignment after allowing five runs on five hits in two innings on Sunday

The Braves recalled right-hander JR Ritchie from Triple-A Gwinnett and called up right-hander Owen Murphy, who has pitched for Gwinnett this season.

Cornerback Douglas agrees to 1-year deal with Commanders Veteran cornerback Rasul Douglas has agreed to terms with the Washington Commanders on a contract for next season, according to a person familiar with the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because the contract had not yet been signed.

Douglas, who turns 31 on Aug. 29, returns to the NFC East after beginning his NFL career in the division with Philadelphia. A thirdround pick in 2017, he helped the Eagles win the Super Bowl in his rookie year With Washington coming off a season in which it ranked last in the league on defense, general manager Adam Peters has been active in adding talent on that

of the ball.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MICHAEL CONROy

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, right, drives on Atlanta Dream guard Te-Hina Paopao, left during a game in Indianapolis on June 18.

Wilson

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MAJA SMIEJKOWSKA

Flavio Cobolli of Italy returns the ball to Alex de Minaur of Australia in their fourth-round singles match at Wimbledon in London on Monday.

Briscoeholds offBell in return to Chicagoland

BY JAYCOHEN AP sportswriter

JOLIET,Ill. Chase Briscoe was on an offseason bonding trip to the United Kingdom with crewchief James Small when the NASCAR driver discovered chocolate buttons,a popularBritish treat. He boughtsomeonlineafter he returned to the U.S., but he said it wasn’tthe same.

Late Sunday

Small purchased some on areturn trip to the U.K.,and he promised to share if Briscoe won on the crew chief’s birthday.That made Sunday night’svictorypretty sweet.

Briscoe held off Christopher Bell in NASCAR’sreturntoChicagoland Speedway,racing to his first Cup Series win of the season And Small delivered thechocolates to Briscoe moments after it was over

“They were pretty dang good,” Briscoe said Briscoe was followed closelyby Bell in the final laps on the 1.5-mile oval about50miles southwest of downtown Chicago. But Bell was unable to rundown hisJoe Gibbs Racing teammate.

The 31-year-old Briscoe, an Indiana native, celebrated hissixth career win with aburnout before standing on his car and waving to the sellout crowd.

“This has beenaplace that I’ve always loved coming to, back when we used to, and I’vemissed it,” Briscoe said. “It’salways been oneofmytop-five tracks.”

It was Bell’sfourth runner-up finish this season. He was wearing asplint on his arm as he continues his recovery after breaking his left wrist in acrash at Michigan

LSU

Continued from page1C

“He’sgottabewithin aswingof it,” said Meyer,who won anational title in his second season at Florida and his third at OhioState.“That’s one place, Iremember when Iretired, Isaid ‘Good, I’m never going there again’ —because (LSU) fans are nuts.”

It’squestionable whether Meyer’s take is fair,but talk of Kiffin’stitle timelinewas fair game as soon as he jumped fromOle Miss ahead of aplayoff run because he considered Baton Rouge more fertile soil to build acontender Kiffin has promised the Tigers will win atitle during his tenure, though he didn’toffer aspecific timeline. But the question is certainly being asked locally andnationally How long should it take?

There is aperception that titles can be won more quickly these daysbecause of transfers and athlete pay.Curt Cignetti just led one of the least successful programs in collegefootballhistory,Indiana,to the mountaintop. But many of Cignetti’sstars followed him from James Madison, a Cinderellascript that can’tbe repeated. It wasn’tuntil the coach’s second year, with aHeisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, that the Hoosiers won it all. The 2025 CFP includedfive coaches in their second seasons including Texas A&M’sMike Elko, Alabama’sKalen DeBoer,Tulane’s JonSumrall andJames Madison’s Bob Chesney.The only first-year coach was Pete Golding, who took over for Kiffin in the postseason

on June 7.

“I think he’shandled that as well as you can handle it,” team owner JoeGibbs said. “He’sgot aburning desire to stay in there and win. I think he had, you know —hehad a real good cartonight,too.”

Denny Hamlin, who started on the pole, was third. William Byron, who wontwo stages while leading arace-high 94 laps,and Alex Bowmanrounded out thetop five.

“I thought Iwas incontrol early on,even though Iwasn’t leading,” Hamlin said. “I felt in control and probablygot alittlelazy on some restarts and things likethat.Just taking for granted that I’lljustgo up there and get it.”

NASCAR ran 19 Cup races in Joliet before pulling out after the 2019 season. It tried to build interest in the event in acrowded sports market, butthe race struggled with attendance After racingonastreet course in downtown Chicagoeach of the previous three years, NASCAR decided to go back to Chicagoland —eager to seehow the Next Gen cars woulddo on therough and bumpy asphalt at thefacility. Rain on Friday and Saturday caused some parking issues, but the racing was compelling Led by Briscoe, Bell andHamlin, Toyota accounted for seven of the top 10 cars for the first time in aCup Series race —continuing astrong season forthe manufacturer “Yeah,Toyotas arefast,”Bell said.

Driving a“Space Jam”-themed carinhonor of the 30th anniversary of the Looney Tunes movie, Bubba Wallacewas sixth in hisNo. 23 Toyota Camry.Wallace is part of the 23XI Racing team that is co-

Title contenders typically take time to build. In two 12-team playoffs, theaverage tenure of coaches in the tourney was 4.8years. The average was seven years forcoaches in the final trio of four-team playoffs, right afterNIL started in 2021. Coaches can buildtoward the playoff quickly,but national titles in Year 1are rare, and they have not translated to long-term happiness.

The only coaches other than Oosterbaan to win titles in their firstseasons were Miami’s Dennis Erickson andLarry Coker.Erickson, whowon it allin1989 anddid it again in 1991, jumped to the NFL andbounced between levels,with fading success, fortwo decades Coker,achampionin2001, was out of ajob within fiveyears.

At LSU,there’s apace in which footballcoaches win titles. Saban arrived in 2000 and claimed his in 2003. Miles took chargeofthe Tigers in 2005and won it all in 2007. Orgeron succeeded Miles in 2016 andtook home thetrophyin2019. It usually takes afew years.Even in this era, where rosterscan turn over in theportal, those new pieces have to mesh.Sometimes, they need to mature.

Indiana starters in 2025 averaged 4.3 years in college ball, including 11 players whowere either fifth-or sixth-year seniors. LSU’sprojected 22 is abit younger, averaging 3.5 years.

“We’re going to have theteams androsters backtothe waythey were playingwhen (LSU was) great. Idon’tknow how fast, that might not be today,” Kiffinsaid in June, “butit’sgoing to happen.”

Thepressure is on

Email Jon Blau at jon.blau@ theadvocate.com

NASCAR uses 3ofits youngest driversfor RollingStonesvideo

BY JAYCOHEN AP sportswriter

JOLIET,Ill. The first Rolling Stones album wasreleased in 1964. NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch was born in 2006.

Of course, when it comes to Mick Jagger and company,time seems almost irrelevant.

“No matter who you are or where you’re from or howold youare, you knowwho the Rolling Stones are,” Zilisch said.

Zilisch joined fellow drivers CarsonHocevar and Jesse Love for amusicvideo as part of acollaboration between NASCAR and the Stones ahead of theband’s25th studio album, “Foreign Tongues,” which comes out on Friday

Acustom NASCARshowcar served as alistening lounge forthe Stones’ new music during events at Chicago’sNavyPierand Plaza of the Americas in the run-up to thestock car seriesreturning to Chicagoland Speedway over the weekend.

Tube automotive influencer known as “CleetusMcFarland,” also was part of the video.

“I think whenyou look at all of those drivers, they have great personalities, very rebellious spirits andtheykind of have arock and roll nature about them,just kind of at heart,” Malayter said.

Set to “In The Stars,” the first single off“Foreign Tongues,” the music video envisions the drivers as atouring rock band.

Zilisch, 19, Love, 21, and Hocevar,23, clownaround during a photo shoot before jumping on a tour bus driven by Mitchell. The drivers play cards before stopping at abar.Back on the bus, Hocevar, who drives the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports in the Cup Series, writes 77 on the face of a sleeping Zilisch in black marker

The video ends with the drivers at the track in their fire suits, signing autographs and posing forpictures with fans.

ownedbyMichael Jordan,one of the stars of the 1996 movie.

Ryan Blaneywas seventhinhis seventh consecutive top-10 finish Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst completed thetop 10. Tyler Reddick’schampionship hopesweredamaged by an oil leak with about32lapsleftin Stage 2. There was along caution while Reddick’s23XI Racing crew worked on his No. 45 Toyotainthe garage, replacing theradiator because of ahole.

Reddick, who won thefirst three races of the season, finished 36th. He trails Hamlin by 44 points at the top of Cup standings after he was down by one going into the weekend.

Kyle Larson alsohad arough dayafterqualifyingsecond behindHamlin.Hewas in third place when he spun out of Turn 4onLap 93. He drove his No. 5Hendrick MotorsportsChevrolet into the wetinfield grassand hadtobe pulled out of the mud.

Larsonfinished 34th, extending his winless drought to 43 races. He finished second in each of the previous two Cupraces at Chicagoland.

Updating theIn-Season Challenge

Briscoe, Bell,Hamlin and Blaney wereamongthe winners in the second round of NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge. Byron, ChaseElliott, Todd Gilliland and Alex Bowman also moved on. Thewinnerofthe five-race, bracket-style tournament receives $1 million.

Briscoe eliminatedTyGibbs, whowon theinaugural competition last year.Byron defeated Larson,his teammate with Hendrick Motorsports.

PELICANS

Continuedfrom page1C

improvement, but what they did as rookies along with the work they have put in during theoffseason suggest they are headed in the right direction. Playing against Summer League competition won’tdomuch to enhance that.

Peavybackatit

While thePelicans’ two firstround draft picks from 2025 won’tplay,their second-round pick (Micah Peavy) will.

“I’membracing it big time,” Peavy said. “I’mgoing to go out and showwhat I’ve been working on and what this new coaching staff has been putting in place.”

Peavyplayed in 61 games as a rookie. His best asset is his defense, which is why thePelicans drafted him.But Peavy, who averaged 4.3 points per game last season, knows Vegas is achance to show strides on offense.

“Mainly,(Ican show) just how manyshotsI’ve been putting up,”Peavysaid. “My confidence is there.”

Newkid on theblock

Jaron Pierre, the New Orleans native and St.Augustine High School alum,isthe only player in the Pelicans’ 2026 draft class. He was drafted late in the second round with the 58th overall pick.

All eyes will be on him. At Pierre’sintroductory news conference last week, he described playing withhis hometown team as surreal.

“It’s not surreal anymore,”he

Thepartnership also includes amerchandise collectionfeaturingthe band’s tongueand lips logo, along with two NASCARthemed vinyl editions of “Foreign Tongues.”

Megan Malayter,vice president of licensing and consumer products for NASCAR, said the organization was approached by representatives of the band about working together

“The Rolling Stones,they’re iconic, they’ve been around since 1962, and so they appeal to that generation that was there, but they have just such history,folklore, andnostalgia around them that they appeal to the younger audiences of today,” Malayter said. “So there really is amazing crossover.”

NASCAR walks atricky line when it comes to satisfying older racingfans whileappealingtoits youngersupporters andexpanding its audience. While itsolder fans are likely more familiar with the Stones, whowere inducted into theRock andRollHall of Famein 1989, Zilisch, Hocevar and Love are three of its younger drivers. Garrett Mitchell, apopularYou-

“It wascool. It was fun,” Hocevar said. “Yeah, just nice to kind of let loose, Iguess, on avideo.” Hocevar saidhelikestosee NASCAR try new waystointeract with potential fans.

“Yeah, they have to,” he said. “I feel like theyjust gottokeep throwing stuff at the dartboard and hopefully something sticks here.”

Zilisch described himself as a hugemusic fan. He grewuplistening to Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and the Red Hot ChiliPeppers with his father in the car.Hesaid he has paid more attentiontothe Stones musicsince he became part of NASCAR’spartnership with the band.

Filming the video, Zilisch said, wasamemorable experience.

“Theymadeusdress up like we were in the 90s and wearleather and have all this jewelry on,” he said. “It definitely wasalittle bit unique and outside of what Iwould normally be wearing butregardless it wasjust acool shoot. We got to go inside this old tour bus and, you know,just kind of feel like I wasback in theday even though I’ve never lived in that era of time.”

SUMMERLEAGUE ROSTER

(NBA experience in parentheses)

Chris Bell 6-7 Forward (0)

KobeBufkin 6-4 Guard (3)

Melvin Council 6-4 Guard (0)

Dominique Daniels 5-10 Guard(0)

Malik Dia 6-9 F/C(0)

Hunter Dickinson 7-1 Center (1)

Nate Mensah 6-9 Center (1)

JalonMoore 6-7 Forward (0)

Markquis Nowell 5-7 Guard (1)

Josh Oduro6-9 F/C(1)

JohnnyO’Neil 6-10 Forward (0)

Micah Peavy6-7 Forward (1)

Jaron Pierre 6-5 Guard (0)

Jordan Riley6-5 Guard (0)

Christian Shumate 6-6Forward (0)

SolomonWashington 6-7 Forward(0)

SCHEDULE

Thursday: vs.Timberwolves,2:30 p.m.

Saturday: vs.Hornets, 3p.m.

Sunday: vs.Suns, 2p.m.

July 15: vs.Cavaliers, 4:30 p.m.

July 17, 18 or 19: TBA

said Monday.“I’mreally living it.”

Home again2

Pierre isn’tthe only player from New Orleans on the Summer League roster.Solomon Washington, whoplayed at Carver and was Louisiana’sMr. Basketballin2022, is getting his shot to play forthe Pelicans. The 6-foot-7 forward played his first three seasonsatTexas A&M before finishing up this past season at Maryland.

“I wanttoshow that Ibelong here and that Ican compete with anybody on any given night and probably be the best player on the floor forwhat Ido,” Washington said.

Most intriguing players

There are plenty to choose from. The high-flying Christian Shumate, whoplayed at McNeese State, returns to the Summer League team forasecond straight year

There’salso KobeBufkin, whowas drafted by the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2023 draft. That wasone pick after the Pelicans drafted Jordan Hawkins.

Ican’tleave off Markquis Nowell, a5-foot-7 guard whoset an NCAA Tournament record with 19 assists in Kansas State’s overtime winover Michigan State in 2023. And there’sDominique Daniels, whoplayed at California Baptist. Daniels averaged 23.2 points,including a47-point game against Utah Valley. He made18of21 free throws in that game.Heis one of 10 players on the Summer League roster with no NBA experience. He andthe othernine are hoping to change that witha strong showing in Vegas.

Email RodWalkeratrwalker@ theadvocate.com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By NAM y. HUH

Chase Briscoe celebrates after winning aNASCAR CupSeries race at Chicagoland SpeedwayonSunday in Joliet, Ill.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByNAM y. HUH

Connor Zilisch drivestothe trackbefore the startofaNASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland SpeedwayonSunday in Joliet, Ill

WORLDCUP 2026

Merinokicks SpainpastPortugal

BY SCHUYLER DIXON AP sportswriter

ARLINGTON,Texas

Mikel Merino was still on the bench in the final minutes of regulation, with Spain coach Luis de la Fuente worried about hanging on to his substitutes as long as possiblebecause of looming extra time.

The Arsenal forward made all that fretting moot.

Merino scored in the first minute of second-half stoppage time, and Spain beat Portugal 1-0 on Monday to end the World Cup career of superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Merino had just been knocked down and afoul was called. While Portugal’sBernardo Silva argued, Merino played the ball back in, ran toward the goal and easily beat goalkeeper Diogo Costa after aseries of passes capped by Ferran Torres’ nifty ball through the middle.

“He’sone of the best in his position worldwide, and he has given us afantastic result and afantastic goal,” de laFuente said through atranslator.“Iwant to express the importance of substitutes that came in later inthe game. Not just today,but the contribution in other games has been enormous.”

Spain advanced to thequarterfinals for the first time since winning its only World Cup title in 2010.

Ronaldo was trying to get Portugal to the quarterfinals in asecond consecutive tournament for the first time. Instead, the career on soccer’sbiggest stage is over for the all-time leader ininternational goals (146) and appearances (233). Merino didn’tenteruntilthe 85th minute, and his heads-upplay showed some of the versatility that helped Arsenal win its first Premier League title in more than 20 years this spring.

TheWorld Cup was in doubt for Merino,who turned 30 during the tournament, after right foot surgery cut shorthis Arsenal season. In the biggestmoment of the year for Spain, therehewas with fresh legs, finishing with his left foot into the left corner of thenet.

Afteremerging from agroup hug with histeammates, Merino made acircle around the flag in acorner before lettingout aguttural scream while clenching bothfists.

That’show his father, Miguel Merino, celebrated more than threedecadesago during his club career in Spain. And his sonfirst emulated it after alate goal to beat host Germanytosend Spain to the

semifinals of the European championship two years ago.

This was MikelMerino’s first World Cup goal, and11thfor the national team.

“Whatbetterway to celebrate,” Merino said. “You remember all the good and the bad, and there have been difficultmoments for me this year.”

The latest meeting of Iberian Peninsula rivals that first played in afriendly in Madrid 105years ago was quite thecontrast to their most recent World Cup match

It was eight years ago thatRonaldohad his only World Cuphat trick in a3-3 drawwithSpain in a group stageopenerthat is consid-

Mexico comesbacktoearth afterexit

Co-host’sWorld Cup dreams endedafter loss to England in Mexico City

BY CARLOS RODRIGUEZ AP sportswriter

MEXICO CITY Fornearlya month, millionsofMexicansallowed themselves to believe this World Cup would be historic. They daredbigger andbrighter dreams as the national team racked up win afterwin in fortress Azteca. Then they woke up to acruel reality on Monday morning: The WorldCup was marchingon withoutMexico. The team lost to England 3-2 in around of 16 thriller on Sunday night and officiallydisbanded in themorning. Supporters reluctantly returned to their daily routines, their team no longer acontender and their country no longer a host in atournament running for another two weeks across the United States.

“It’spainful because we dreamed and had high hopes, and crashing out like this hurts alot,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said. “It wasn’tmeant to be .wecouldn’t sealthe deal and give the people another night of joy.” Mexico staged the opening ceremony and first match on June 11 for a2-0 victory over South Africa. South Korea was beaten 1-0, the Czech Republic 3-0 and Ecuador 2-0 in the round of 32 for Mexico’sfirst knockout stage success in 40 years.

But Mexico stumbled in the round of 16 for theeighth time in the past nine World Cups. The sole exception was 2022 in Qatar, where El Trifailed to survive the group stage.

“Breaking through thatbarrier isn’taseasy as everyone thinks, butwe’re on the right track,” midfielder Erik Lira said. “This time was different because we

match between Mexico andEngland on SundayinMexico City.England won3-2

were playingasone of the best teams out there; we’re leaving with our heads heldhigh.”

Butunlike previous heartbreaks —late-game collapses against Germany in 1998 and the Netherlands in 2014, andthe penalty shootoutdisaster against Bulgariain 1994 —thisexit was on home soil with everyadvantage.

Mexico was ridingawave of four consecutive clean-sheet victories. Estadio Azteca was fiercely partisan. And Mexico City’s altitude was expectedto hamperan unacclimatized England squad.

Then ared card left England playing aman short for most of thesecond half.

But Mexicocouldn’t capitalize “Losing didn’thurt so much just because it was England; it hurt because this time it really seemed possibletogofurther,” saidEduardo Juárez, a63-yearoldretiree still wearinghis green jersey on Monday.“We hada great teamand high hopes but now it’sover.” On Monday morning, Mexican PresidentClaudia Sheinbaum used her daily news conference

to offer wordsofcomforttothe country

“Theyplayedvery, very well, and the moment Mexico is experiencing is one of great pride, hope andunity,” Sheinbaum said “Weneed to keep our spirits up, acknowledge theeffort andmove forward.”

With Mexico’srun over,Aguirre’s contract hasexpired. According to the federation’s original roadmap, his assistant coach —Barcelona great Rafael Márquez—isslated to take the helm for the 2030 World Cup cycle. Márquez has asigned agreement in principle but his official appointment must still be ratified by the owners of the18Liga MX first divisionclubs. This review will take place next month after Aguirre submits his final tournament report. “I had Rafa as aplayer and now as acolleague;heismore than qualified,” Aguirre noted. “He is avaluable asset, he’llprove it, andI hope he achieves better results thanwedid.” For Mexico’sfans, that transition will become

GLANCE

Scores, schedule ROUND OF 16

ered one of the tournament’sbest games

The 41-year-old superstar scored three timesinthistournament, but he didn’thave many chances againstSpain’sUnai Simón, who extendedhis WorldCup record to 609 minutes without conceding a goal. Spainbecame the first team to record six straight shutouts at theWorld Cup. The best chance was Ronaldo’s niftybackward kick in the 37th minute whenJoao Felix’sheader deflected off Simón’sleft shoulder and popped in the airtoRonaldo. He flicked the ball with his right foot, but it was softenough to give Simón time to recover and makea

leaping grab.

“I’ll wake up tomorrow like I wokeuptoday,with aclear conscience,” saidRonaldo,who aday earlier had repeated his previous declaration that his sixth World Cupwould be his last. “I gave my best. Iwon three titles with Portugal. Before Cristiano, Portugal hadn’twon any title. So, I’mhappy

The biggest title thatIwon with the national team wasin2016 (European Championship), which for me had the same dimension as a World Cup, honestly.”

Portugal desperately pushed for an equalizer in the final eight minutes of stoppage time. Silva had a header that went just over the top of the net.

The defensive struggle came just twodaysshy of ayear since Portugal beat Spain in ariveting UEFANations League final that went to penalty kicks after a2-2 draw

The otherWorld Cup meeting was Spain’s1-0 victory —alsoin the round of 16 —when La Roja won the title in South Africa. “Itwas agreat match. Twosuperb teams,” de la Fuente said “As we had said it, it was like an anticipated final. As it was expected,wehad to sufferuntil the very end.”

TUESDAYLOOKAHEAD

More starsaim to shineinround of 16

BY JOHN MARSHALL AP sportswriter

Kylian Mbappé pushed France through to the World Cup quarterfinals. Erling Haaland and Norway will be there, too.

So will Harry Kane afterEngland’sepic 3-2 win over Mexico.

Thestars are shining in this World Cupand it’sabout to get brighter, even after Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo bowed out for thelasttime.

Thelasttwo roundof16games are Tuesday,includingSwitzerland against Colombia in Vancouver, British Columbia. Topping the marqueeisashowdown between Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah in Atlanta.

One star will moveonand add to his legacy.The other will head home from the World Cup, maybe for the final time. Messiadded theone thingmissing from his resume by leading Argentina to the World Cup title four yearsago and hasshown he’s still oneofthe world’sbest at age 39.

Messihas scoredseven goalsin four matches, matching Mbappé and Haaland in astar-studded Golden Boot race. Messi has scored in arecord eight straight World Cup matches, dating to the 2022 titlerun, andkeepsadding to his record career total of 20 goals. Salah, 34, has been the face of Egyptian soccer,afour-timePremier League Golden Boot winner andthe league’sall-timeleading foreign-born scorer The 34-year-old “Egyptian King” has an Egypt-record three World Cup goalsand is one behind national team coach Hossam Hassan’srecordof69international goals. Perhaps Salah’sbiggest accomplishment is pushing Egypt deeper into theWorldCup than it’s ever been.The Pharaohs earned their

firstWorld Cup victorybybeating New Zealand3-1 in the group stage and earned theirfirst knockout stagewin by outlasting Australia in apenalty shootout after a1-1 draw

At aWorld Cup in which powers such as Germanyand Brazilwere oustedbyunderdogs, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said there was danger of underestimating Egypt.

“I think this World Cup has been, is very tricky for everyone. It seems there is no clear favorite,” Scaloni said Monday.“Iamconvinced that if we didn’tresort to our character in the last match we would be out as Cape Verde was giving us avery hard day.” Egypt is confident it can test Argentina as well and produce the tournament’s latest upset —especially because it has Salah.

“My dreams have no limits. My ambitions have no limits. Ipromise that we will do everything to live up to the expectations (of fans),” Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said. “We’re no underdogs. We’re bigin every respect. We area civilization that is 7,000 years old, even more than 7,000 years.”

Colombiavs. Switzerland

With stops alreadyinMexicoand the UnitedStates, Colombiawill become the only team to play in all three host nations when they play Switzerland in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday Colombia opened witha 3-1win over UzbekistaninMexico City beat Congo 1-0 in Guadalajara, Mexico, andplayedPortugaltoa scoreless draw in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Colombians opened the knockout stage with a1-0 win over Ghana in Kansas City, Missouri,and nowhavethe chance to clinch their first quarterfinal berth since2014. Switzerland beat Algeria 2-0 for itsfirst knockout-round win since 1938 to earn the trip to Vancouver

the new anchor for their fractured hopes.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By NATACHA PISARENKO

Mexicofans look on after the WorldCup round of 16

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByJULIOCORTEZ

MikelMerino celebrates scoring agoal for Spain during the WorldCup round of 16 match against Portugal on MondayinArlington, Texas. Spain won1-0 and advances to the quarterfinals.

the WorldCup round of 16 matchbetween Brazil and NorwayonSunday in East Rutherford, N.J.

WorldCup runstirs Norway’s national pride

Viking Rowshows ‘we’re alltogether”

BY STEPHENWHYNO AND STEVE DOUGLAS AP sportswriters

EAST RUTHERFORD,N.J Erling Haa-

land banged the drum to lead Norway fans in the Viking Row that has become asignature part of the World Cup.

After celebrating carrying his nation into the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time by scoring both goals in a 2-1 win over Brazil on Sunday, his thoughts drifted to the scene back home where tens of thousands of Norwegians partied into the night.

And, of course, performing the Viking Row themselves.

“Look at the streets in Norway,” Haaland said. “I’ve never experienced anything like it before. I kind of wish that Iwas in Oslo now celebrating with all the people.”

Thankfully for his teammates, the Manchester City striker is in the U.S. piling up the goals and making this the best World Cup in thehistory of the Norway men’s nationalteam.

This improbable run that took another leap forward by knocking off five-time champion Brazil is stirring up pride in fans at stadiums and in thestreets where the games are taking place, and across the Scandinaviancountry of just more than 5.5 million people.

As manyas50,000peoplewere watching the match against Brazil at Rådhusplassen —the square outside the town hall —inNor-

BALOGUN

Continued from page1C

ruling not to enforce aban on Balogun.

The European soccer body UEFAdescribed the decision as an “incomprehensible” breach of soccer’srule of law.Trump acknowledged calling Infantino and took credit for getting FIFAtoreview the red card.

Achaotic and unprecedented dayinmodern World Cuphistory then saw aFIFAappeals judge dismiss Belgium’slegal challenge, fewer than eight hours before kickoff in Seattle with aquarterfinals place at stake.

The Belgian soccer body “is not aparty to theproceedings and,as such, has no standing to appealthe decision,” FIFAsaid in astatement.

TheBelgian federation said it “has informed the United States Soccer Federation that it contests the eligibility of the player,should the player be listed on thereferee’steam sheet. This leaves all further actions open.”

The fallout from Balogun’sredcard challengeagainsta BosniaHerzegovina defender in a2-0 win forthe U.S. in the round of 32 last Wednesday has turnedscrutiny on Infantino’sexecutive control of FIFAand his years-long close ties to Trump. Infantino insisted in asocial media post that FIFA’sdisciplinary committeeactedwithindependence and judgedcases such as Balogun’son“applicable regulations and the specific facts.”

“During our conversation,” In-

wegian capital Oslo, according to thecity council. Wearing aNorway soccer scarf around his neck, CrownPrince Haakon even met athrong of fansoutside the royal palace andwas seen taking part in amass Viking Row after the game.

Fireworks exploded at Ullevaal Stadium,the homeground of Norway’s national team and where thousands more satonlong tables to viewthe game.

“The wholenation is rowing together,” coach Ståle Solbakken said. “Weare having agreat party here and in Oslo and in all the other bigand smallcities all the way through Norway,and therowing is in away asymbolofthat andthat we’re all together.”

Giant crowds of fans in the red, whiteand blue colors of theflag turnedthe rowing intoa viral sensation by taking over Times Square and doing it in thestands at aNew York Mets baseball game. They will get at least one more chance to seeNorway play, against EnglandonSaturday outside Miamiwith the chance to reach the semifinals.

“Wehavetokeepthe feet on the ground,” captainMartinØdegaardsaid.“We’veshown that we canbeatanyoneand thatwe are really enjoying what we’re doing. We’re having fun, and in football everything is possible so just keep the foot on the floor, keep working hardand we’ll see what happens and just go with the flow.” Norway is in theWorld Cup for just the fourth time and thefirst since 1998 after failing to qualify each of the past six times. Haaland, who turns 26 on July 21, was not even born then and joked that

fantino said of his call withTrump, “I explained that there was an ongoing legal processinvolvingFIFA’s independent judicialbodies andthatthe casewould be decided in duecourse bythe competent bodies.”

AFIFAdisciplinary judge’sruling Sunday leftBalogun free to face Belgium in the round of 16 instead of serving amandatory one-game ban

TheBelgianfederation earlier said FIFAhad not provided key documents for its appeal, and the soccer body ofNorway— which faces England in the quarterfinals Saturday —saidthe lack of legal explanation from FIFAwas “reason for concern regarding the integrity of the competition.”

The SwissFootball Association declared that the “credibility of thecompetition depends on clear rules that areapplied consistently.”

Trump on Monday defended calling Infantino, saying he merely pointed out a“horrible”decision by areferee to issue Balogun ared card for an illegal tackle.

“All Idid was ask for areview.I didn’tthink it was afoul,” Trump told reporters at the White House about lobbyingInfantino,aclose ally,not to impose aone-game ban. Instead, the ban wasdeferred for one year of probation and flared into an all-time controversy in the World Cup’s96-year history just hours ahead ofthe U.S.-Belgium matchinSeattle.

UEFAearlier criticized FIFA for an “incomprehensible andunjustifiabledecision”thatitsaid “crossed ared line,”and other stinging criticism came globally

StevenssaysBrown tradeabout flexibility

BY KYLE HIGHTOWER AP sportswriter

BOSTON Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and team owner Bill Chisholm want to make one thing clear:The decision to trade perennial All-Star Jaylen Brown wasn’tarrived at lightly

But from their perspective, it was necessary to give the franchise theflexibilityitneedsto compete withthe changing landscape of an NBA in which managing the team’s balancesheet will be more importantthanretaining multiple homegrown stars with pricey contracts.

That said, Stevens said Monday that he is fully awareofthe criticism that surrounds Boston’s frontoffice in the aftermath of its stunning decision last week to trade Browntodivisionrival Philadelphia forPaul George and multiple draftpicks.

Boston Celtics guard

drivestothe basket against the Philadelphia76ers during the first halfofGame 2ofa firstround playoff series on April 21 in Boston.

no one can blamehim for previous defeatswhen he wasn’tplaying.

“You can blame me for coming here,” said Haaland, whose seven goalsathis first World Cup are tied with Argentina’sLionel Messi and France’sKylian Mbappé. “It’s unbelievable. I’m proud. I’m proud of my country,and I’m proud of everyone.”

It continuesafairytale season for Norwegian soccer,withBodø/ Glimt —atiny team that plays in an 8,000-capacity stadium —delivering one of the mostextraordinary stories for years in the European game by qualifying for the Champions League and beating astring of top teams, including Haaland’sMan City, to reach theknockout stage.

Now thenational men’s team is taking center stage in its first major international tournament since 2000. Theplayers are looking to emulate the Norway women’s team, which won theWorld Cup in 1995 and has long been atop international side.

Haaland said several times after beating Brazil that he could not believe sucha victorywas possible andthatitwas beyond hiswildest dreamstopull it off. He also hopes Norway’s successtranscendsthis year andmakes kids want to represent their country

“I want toactually also cultivate aculture where we areproud to playfor thenationalteam,and if you play for Norway then you should do it proudly andIthink we should cultivate this kind of attitude in young people,” Haaland said. “Toall thekids who see and watch now,Iwant you to do like me, andIwant you to play proudly when you grow up.”

from former WorldCup stars and coaches at the tournament.

“It’s abad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup,” Norway coach Ståle SolbakkensaidSunday after histeam beat Brazil to reach the quarterfinals.

UEFA, whose member federations include Belgium, insisted: “Sometimes rules are open to interpretation. In this casenot. When the certainty of rulesisno longer guaranteed by itsguardians, the integrity of thegame is at stake and the credibilityofa competition is undermined.”

UEFAhas often clashed with Infantino during his decade in FIFA power

“Weexpress our disbelief at such an unprecedented,incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,”said UEFA, where Infantino was its CEO-like generalsecretary from 2009 until being elected to lead FIFAinFebruary2016.

Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter,who was forced from office in 2015 in fallout from corruption scandals, posted Monday on social media: “Red cards are notoverturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies.”

Balogun was sentoff directly for planting his cleated foot on the ankle of Bosniandefender Tarik Muharemovic during a2-0 win for theU.S. in theround of 32.

Thatkind of challenge hasbeen aroutine red card allseason in competitionsworldwide, andBalogun could have expected atwogame banfor serious foul play under theFIFAdisciplinary code.

“As Jaylenand Isat down in early June and we talked about potentialfuturesinBostonand elsewhere, Itold him if we were ever to trade Jaylen that would be asad day for me personally,” Stevenssaid. “And certainly the emotions that all of us have felt Idothink we are empathetic and understand. This is areally hard thing.”

Hard, butalsowhatStevens saidthe front office collectively deemed vital for the ability of the Celticstocompete going forward despite coming off back-to-back 50-pluswin regularseasons after their 2024 NBA championship.

“The pathlooked alittle bit more challenging to me,” Stevens said. “I might be wrong. I’m not going to stand up there andbedefensiveabout that.But the path looked alittle bit more challenging with 70% of our (salary) cap, and such ahigh percent of our usage tied into two players.”

Brown enters next season with more thanabout $185 millionremaining on afive-year,$304 million contract he signed with Boston in July 2023. Had he stayed, the team would have to decide whether to give hima two-year extension of around another $140 million.

That,combined with the almost$190 million left on Jayson Tatum’s$314 million deal, was deemed too muchfor the Celtics to carry and maintain roster flexibility

George will make $54 million this coming season, whichcombined with Tatum’s$58 million will constituteabout 70% of the Celtics’ salary cap in 2026-27.

WORLD CUP

Continued from page1C

2002 and lost to Belgium for the seventh straight time since avictory at the initialtournamentin1930. The Americans have dropped 11 of theirlast 12 games against European opponents, winning only their round of 32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Aheralded generation led by Pulisic, Weston McKennie and TylerAdams only partially accomplished their goal of lifting soccer’sstature closer to that of the NFL, MLB and the NBA. De Ketelaere put Belgium ahead in theeighth minute, the first time in thisyear’sWorld Cupthe U.S. conceded first. Tillman’s goal in the31st minute energized alargely red-white-and-blue crowd of 66,925 at Lumen Field, but De Ketelaere dampened that and assisted on Hans Vanaken’s 57th-minutegoal after Freese lost controlofthe ball in front of hisnet. Belgium, which left stars Jérémy Doku and Kevin DeBruyne on the bench, pressed from the start andexposeda defense that was regarded as the Americans’ weak spot.

Dodi Lukébakio made along diagonal pass to theopposite corner,leading to theopening goal.Leandro Troussard con-

With George having only one season anda playeroptionremaining after that, Stevens said the future flexibility and draft compensation is what they value. Additionally,Chisholm was adamant thatthere was no directive from him aboutkeeping the salary cap at acertain level.

“This was all about basically trying to win, andreallytrusting in our process,” Chisholm said. Stevens also defended against a sentiment thatthe trade return, which includes two first-round picks and two second-round picks, was low

In George, the Celtics get back asix-timeAll-NBA and nine-time All-Star wing, but aplayer who has played 50 or moregames just three times since 2019 due to various injuries.

“Welike Paul.Paul’sa really good player,” Stevens said. “We’re not very far removed from all sitting, in our series againstPhiladelphia andwatching Paul be aguy that could carry you...but also playa complementary role on both ends of the floor at the highest of levels.”

Along withendingBrown’s 10-year tenure in Boston, it also ends thenine-year partnership between Brownand Tatum,who played in seven conference finals and two NBAFinals together Tatum celebrated the duo in an Instagram post in the days after Brown’strade. “Fromfirstroundexits to winning achamp togetherand respect foryou as aplayer and as a person,” Tatum wrote.

Stevens said Tatum was not consulted about the decision to ultimately trade Brown.

“I know how little Isleep. I don’tthink anybody else needs to feel that,” Stevens said.

trolledthe ball andhis cross was blockedbyAlexFreeman and popped into the air Freeman headed the ball into the penalty area and Timothy Castagne chargedafteritand hooked acentering pass around Richards.

De Ketelaere split TimReam and Antonee Robinson and with his right foot redirected the ball into an open net.

Pochettino held out his arms, as if to ask: What was going on?

Tillman scored after Brandon Mechele knocked down Balogun about 25 yards fromgoal Tillman’skickdeflected off Vanaken’shead and deflected to the left of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who had dived right. Troussard got around Sergiño Dest for across andDeKetelaere outjumped Ream and headed the ball past Freese in the 33rd minute forhis eighth international goal.

Belgium built atwo-goal lead when Mechele lofted along ball that Freese chested after two hops. Freese hesitated with atouch,thenscrambledand kicked theballoff De Ketelaere. Vanakenone-timeda shot from 35 yards thatdeflected in off Ream, who tried for an offbalance clearance.

Vanaken replaced midfielder AmadouOnana midway through the first half after Onana suffered whatcoach Rudi Garcia feared might be aserious knee injury

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By FRANK FRANKLIN II

Norway’sErling Haaland leadsthe team as they participate in avikingboat rowafter

AP PHOTO By CHARLES KRUPA

Jaylen Brown

LIVING

LSU AGCENTERPHOTO

By RANDyLABAUVE

The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station is home to trial gardens wherenew plant introductions are evaluated on their performance in Louisiana’s challenging climate.

Trial run

Before plants make it into gardens, this LSUAgCenter stationputs them to thetest

GARDEN NEWS

Plant breeders and marketing companies are constantly coming up with new cultivars to satisfy consumer preferences,fill market gaps and respond to industry needs. How do they decide which ones are good enough to be sold at garden centers across the country and planted in your landscape?

Youmight be surprised to learn that, in many cases, the LSU AgCenter plays arole in this process.

In the heart of one of Louisiana’sclusters of nursery production, scientists at the AgCenterHammond Research Station put about 150 annual bedding plants to the test every year in expansive, sunsoaked gardens. They also trial perennials, woody shrubs and ornamental trees.

The researchers mostly study new introductions from companies seeking the AgCenter’sdata on how the plants performinLouisiana’schallenging climate.

“It’simportant for consumers to know what will work best in their environment,” said Caroline Blanchard, trials coordinator at the station.“We trial these plants so that consumers in Louisiana will know what works best in these hot and humid conditions.”

If aplant withers in the heat, doesn’tbloom as expected, struggles during dry spells or proves susceptible to pest problems, that information is noted. Of course, faculty and staff keep track of plantsthat shine, too. After all, if aplant can survive the Louisianasummer in fullsun, there’sa good chance it can handle justabout anything.

Other universities and private entities operate gardens that evaluate the performance of plants and provide data tohelp companies determine whether they’re worth puttingthemon the market. But the Hammond trials gardens are unique.

“This is different from other trialing companies who will trial in raised beds and really add alot of inputs to their plants such as fertilizer andirrigation,” Blanchard said.“Our plants really take all of it.They take the heat, the sunlight, the water and all of that.”

At Hammond, plants are trialed in the ground in pine straw-mulched beds much like whatyou’d seeoutside someone’shome. That’sonpurpose. The gardens re-create the conditions where the flowers, shrubs and other specimens are most likely to be used

The original Triplet’s Blue

BY JUDYBERGERON Staff writer

While producer TommyHarper focuses on production for Season 3ofNetflix’ssupernatural, coming-of-age tale “Wednesday” in Ireland and France, his producing partner,Roberta Sparta, arrived in Louisianalastweektooversee anotherofHollywood heavyweight Harper’sprojects,the microdrama “BecauseofHer.”

Early last week, lead actor Kasey Esser shared videoonsocial media as he prepared to film scenesatthe home of Elona and Kyle Sharbaughoff Highland Road. On Thursday,cast and crew re-assembled at the Shaw Center for theArtsdowntown for more filming.

It’shumid; it’s humid.And I grew up in St.Louis,soIknow what that feels like, but after being in LA for over adecade you

sort of losethe fortitude on that one,” Esser,37, said on Facebook shortly after arriving in town. For those unfamiliar, microdramas, sometimes calledvertical dramas or vertical series, are short-form shows designed to be watched on aphone held upright. Episodestypically run60to90 seconds, with full seasons binged in about two to three hours.

Think soap operas with a21stcentury delivery

Subscribers download platform apps, including Harper’s newglobal VeYou, andreceive afew free episodes before being charged afee to view more. Average costs can range from $10 to $20 aweek.

BatonRouge company IrrevocableDesignee LLChas athreeyear deal with Harper’sTiny Verticalsproductionarm to shoot

BY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

KaseyEsser, center in dark suit, is readied to film ascene for‘Because of Her’ in the Baton Rougehome of Elona and Kyle Sharbaugh on Wednesday.

PROVIDED PHOTOBy PATRICK MULHEARN

Bickeringover leftover birthday cake

Dear Miss Manners: Iknow this will probably sound trivial,but:Who should decide who gets the leftover birthday cake?

See? Itold you it was trivial.

Imade abirthday cake for my nephew.WhileI was icing it, Imentioned to his mom (my sister-in-law) that we could share the leftovers. She replied that it was his cake, so he got all of it.Idropped the subject at the time, as it wasn’t worth fighting over.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

That night, we sang “Happy Birthday”and sliced into the cake. Thenmysister-in-law said, “Just think, Jasper: That’sall yours.”

This timeIwas not silent. In my sweetest voice, Isaid, “But you’ll share some withme.” Then my sister-in-law started talking about how it wasn’tgoodmanners, that the cake belonged to the birthday boy and that even thoughImade it, it wasn’t mine. So, is the cake part of his birthday present?Oristhe hostess or the baker the onewho decides how the food should be distributed?

Gentle reader: Apparently you do consider this worthfighting over And amost unseemly battle it is, on both sides. MissManners’ only sympathies are with

thechild, whose birthday was hijacked by two grown-ups haggling over his leftover cake. She is forced to rule that the cake was, in effect, presented to thenephew,asthe dessert to be shared with everyone at the table. So, no —the baker should not makeoff with what is left.

Yearslater,your nephew’swife will wonder why he begs her not to present him withabirthday cake, which would stir memories of his mother and aunt quarreling.

Dear Miss Manners: Iamonavery limited income. Astamp is nearly adollar,and that dollar can buy me acan of generic soup. Iget free internet access, so email messages are how Iwrite.

LSU AGCENTER PHOTO By RANDyLABAUVE

At the Hammond ResearchStation trialgardens, plants areinstalled in beds, providing important information on howtheyperformintypical landscapesettings.

TRIAL

Continued from page1D

while giving scientists and visitors asense of how the plants might fit into atypical landscape. Founded in 1922, the 140-acre station originally focused on work that sup-

MICRODRAMA

Continued from page1D

as many as 72 such series in Louisiana over the next three years, so “Becauseof Her” is just the beginning.

“It’saromantic comedy Kasey Esser is abig actor in the space,” Harper saidin late May Something to watch for besides Esser,who’sreferred to as “theBrad Pitt of microdramas,” is brand integration, according to Harper.New Orleans clothier Haspel has signed on for “Because of Her,” so expect to see Esser and other chiseled-featured actors entering the screen in Haspel’s signature seersucker suits.

“It’skind of ano-brainer for abrand andfor us to work together,because you can integrate the brand into the story avery natural way, and then you can also use the brand to help promote the series,” Harper said.

ported thetruckfarming industry, which was popular in the Florida Parishes region at the time. The facility retooled in the mid2000s to support thegreen industryasitgrewintoa majoreconomic driver of the area. In addition to the trial gardens,the station also houses researchaimed at

improving various facets of nursery production.

The station is located at 21549 Old Covington Highway about 6miles east of Hammond. The trial gardens are open for selfguided tours from 7:30 a.m to 4p.m. Monday-Friday For moreinformation, visit lsuagcenter com/hammondorcall (985) 543-4125.

PROVIDED PHOTO

ExecutiveproducerTommy Harper,second from left, at work on the set of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Should Igive up ameal to send someoneathank-you note in the mail? Aretheir delicate sensibilities moreimportant than me eating?

Gentlereader: Congratulations on your attempt to makeitseem heartless to express gratitude to others. No doubt you picture Miss Manners harassing the unhoused for not giving dinner parties. Butyes, the delicate sensibilities of people whohave been generous to you are important. You should be thanking them as best you can. Arethose emails more than perfunctory notes? Are they specific andconvincingly grateful? Miss Manners worries about

that. The example of how you approached her,towhom you owe nothing but common civility,is not reassuring.

Dear Miss Manners: Is it proper to have ahousewarming party fora man and womanwho are building ahouse together,but aren’tmarried?

Gentle reader: Only if their building permit is legal.

Send questions to Miss Manners at herwebsite,www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO 64106.

Ending toothpaste tube drama

Dear Heloise: The letter from Jan M. purports to end all the toothpaste drama. However, there’sone more thingthat nobody has mentioned Because of mycuriosity,Icut open the tube after thinking I’d effectively removed all thetoothpastewithin —only to discover that no matter how one chooses toempty thetube, it still has lotsof toothpasteremaining. Icut theend of the tube, then cut along the creases of each side, and found that not only is there still toothpastealong the length

By The Associated Press

Hints from Heloise

of the tube, there is a significant amount at the end where the toothpaste exits the tube. It is impossible to fully squeeze this out, so several applications of toothpaste sit there unused. So, if one really wants to fully use up atube of toothpaste, it must be cut open to access the remaining amount, whichwill then be good for several brushings. And this is what should end the toothpaste drama! —Rick B.,inPortland, Oregon Cotton swab trick

Dear Heloise: Iuse aviscous

TODAYINHISTORY

Today is Tuesday, July 7, the 188th day of 2026. There are 177 days left in the year

TodayinHistory: On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to become thefirst female justice on theU.S. SupremeCourt.

Also on this date:

mingo and Jose Carreras performed amid the brick ruins of Rome’sBaths of Caracalla on the eve of the FIFA World Cup final.

In 2005, terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and adouble-decker bus killed 52 people and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World WarII.

liquid cleaner to clean my sinks. After afew uses, the bottle clogs up, and the opening has to be cleaned out until the next fewuses. So, Idecided to cut off one end of acotton swab and put masking tape around the other end. Iinserted the non-taped end into the bottle, and the taped end on top prevents the cotton swab from sliding all the waydown into the bottle. When I’mdone, Ireinsert the cotton swab until the next timeI have to clean the sinks. —Linda, in Roanoke Virginia

Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

BLUE STORE

Continued from page1D

Microseries shootsare quick, to say the least,lasting justseven tonine days Three to fourmonths later, the series is up and on the platform. Look for “Because of Her” on VeYouinlateAugustorearly September said Harper

“They (Tiny Verticals’ series) will be on other viewingplatformseventually,but all of our originals will go to VeYouexclusively for at least thefirstfour weeks,” he said. Harper also offered insights into what’scharting

Harper,one of the creative minds behind many blockbuster films including “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Star Trek Beyond” and “Star Wars: Episode VII —The Force Awakens,” is familiarwithshootinginLouisiana, having worked as unit production manager on the “Battle Los Angeles” shoot in Baton Rouge “I had agood experience. It was all positive for me.” Harpersaid of the 2011 project starring Aaron Eckhart.“Dealing with thecity and the governmentwas great. Everybody was very accommodating. The crew was great. The facilities were amazing. …I’m sure it’ll be the same when Iget backout there.” Locals were used in multiple facets of the“Battle Los Angeles” production, and eventually 95% of talent signedontoHarper’smicrodrama projectswill be local as well, heexplained. Harper will be in the city periodically to oversee Tiny Verticals’ productions firsthand, although probably notfor “Because of Her,” he said.

the local fried chicken dynasty after taking overTriplet’sFood Mart near Southern University in 2000. He set himself apart from other convenience stores when he started selling chicken wingsin2003.As

within the soaring trend of microseries, which first became popular in China:

n Thirty- to 60-year-old women arethe biggest consumers of vertical entertainment, and VeYou’score demo.

n There are also titlessuited for theGen Zdemographic, light thrillersand action, while high school romcom dramas andsimilar genres are still in the mix.

n For the male audience, thrillers, action pieces and somesportsare available.

With the accelerated production window for microseries, taking advantage of location shoots in Louisiana will be agiven.

“For this one(‘Because of Her’), Idon’teven tell you where this series is located,but I’m just going to lean into the look and feel of Louisiana because it’s so picturesque,” he said. “Why wouldn’tIdothat?”

Email Judy Bergeron at jbergeron@theadvocate. com.

patriarch of the Blue Store Chickenfranchise, Phan’s dream was for each of his 10 children to own and operate aBlue Store Chicken. Hisdaughter,Hue Tran, who nowhandlesthe legal andfinancialoperations for all BlueStorelocations, confirmedthatthe familyowns thebuilding they plan to vacate.

“Legends will never be forgotten,” the post’scaptionsaid. “Legends will neverdie.Thank youall for thejourney.We’re not going anywhere. But maybe only alittlefurther down the street

In 1865, four people were hanged in Washington,D.C., for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln:Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, thefirst woman to be executed by thefederal government

In 1898, President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution, approving theannexation of theRepublic of Hawaii.

In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (known today as Hoover Dam).

In 1976, theUnited States Military Academy at West Pointincluded female cadets for the first time as 119 women joined the Class of 1980.

In 1990, thefirst “Three Tenors” concert took place as opera starsLuciano Pavarotti, PlacidoDo-

In 2010, Los Angeles police arrested and charged Lonnie Franklin Jr.inthe city’s“Grim Sleeper” serial killings. (Franklin, who wassentenced to death for the killings of nine women and ateenage girl, died in prison in March 2020 at the age of 67.)

In 2013, Andy Murray becamethe first British man in 77 years to winthe Wimbledon title, beating Novak Djokovic in the final.

In 2016, Micah Johnson, aBlack Armyveteran who served in Afghanistan, opened fire on Dallas police, killing five officers in an act of vengeance for the fatal police shootings of Black men;the attack ended with Johnson being killed by abomb delivered by apolice robot.

In 2021, asquad of gunmen assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and wounded his wife in an overnight raid on their home.

In 2022, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation after top government officials quit over the latest scandal to engulf him,this one involving his appointmentofa politician who had been accused of sexual misconduct. Today’sbirthdays: Musicianconductor DocSeverinsen is 99. Former Beatle Ringo Starr is 86. World Golf Hall of Famer Tony Jacklin is 82. Actor Joe Spano is 80. Actor Roz Ryan is 75. Actor Billy Campbell is 67. Basketball Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson is 66. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 63. Actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan is 60. Actor AmyCarlson is 58. Actor Jorja Fox is 58. Actor Robin Weigert is 57. Basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie is 54. Actor Kirsten Vangsness (“Criminal Minds”) is 54. Actor Berenice Bejo (Film: “The Artist”) is 50. Actor Hamish Linklater is 50. Olympic figure skating medalist Michelle Kwan is 46. Guitarist Synyster Gates (Avenged Sevenfold) is 45. Pop singer Ally Brooke (Fifth Harmony) (TV:“The XFactor”) is 33. Pop musician Ashton Irwin (5 Seconds to Summer)is 32. Country

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Whether you are dealing with money, joint ventures or health issues, knowing what's possible and what isn't before you make decisions will help you dodge letting someone take advantage of you.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Keep discussions going. You have more opportunities than you realize, and engaging in activities that can help you visualize the outcome and turn it into something realistic is encouraged.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) A positive attitude will help you acquire information that's geared toward better health, finances and negotiations. Dissect what you hear, and rework the information to suit your schedule and needs.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Refrain from offering personal information. Someone will use what you say against you. Concentrate more on what you can do to improve your life, prospects and financial situation.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Set a budget, draw the line and be realistic about what you want and what you need. Refuse to let anyone pressure you into something that isn't necessary. Do your research.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Spendmore time nurturing meaningful relationships and fixing up your space to offer a convenient and comfortable place to excel. Don't hesitate to do things differently if it enriches your life.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Do a double take if someone surprises or pressures

you to do something that makes you uncomfortable. Being upfront will lead to the least amount of tension.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Changes at home that add to your comfort and convenience will also bring you peace of mind and help you open doors that have been off limits. Don't let love cost you.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Simplify your life and question anything that sounds too good to be true Put more thought into what you enjoy doing and how you can implement what brings you pleasure into your everyday routine.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Look for ways to expand, and explore new outlets for your skills. Staying updated and accepting new means and methods for your talents will keep you in the running when faced with competitive situations.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Get your facts straight, and stick to the bare minimum. Too much of anything will cost you mentally, physically or financially. Take an innovative approach to decluttering.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Explore, live, learn and discover what excites you most. A change of scenery will spark your imagination and encourage you to explore new possibilities, but don't take a chance that can cost you.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

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

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

MargeryAllingham, commenting on hercrimesolverAlbertCampion,wrote, “He did not arrive at this conclusion by the decent process of quiet, logical deduction,nor yet by theblinding flash of glorious intuition, but by the shoddy, untidy process halfway between the two by which oneusually gets to know things.”

It is, of course, better to draw conclusionsfromlogicaldeduction.Inthisdeal, South is in four hearts. West leads the spade nine. Howshould East deduce the correct defense? North made agame-invitational limit raise,showingfourormorehearts,10-12 supportpoints(here,allhigh-cardpoints no short-suitpoints) and eight losers (here, two in each suit).

Eastknows that West has ledasingleton or high from adoubleton —but which?

Eastshouldaskhimself,“Ifmypartner has asingleton, how many spades does that give declarer?”Here, theanswer is five. AndwouldSouth have opened one heart with fivespades in his hand? It would have been most unlikely, because with 5-5 in the majors, South wouldhave opened one spade, not one heart. So East should deduce that hispartner has led from adoubleton and shouldsignalencouragementwithhisspadeseven. South wins, cashes the heart ace, and plays another heart. ButWest winswith hisking,leadshissecondspade,receives aspade ruff and cashes the diamond ace for downone. Note finally that declarer does bestto callfordummy’sspadekingattrickone, making it morelikely that East will have areflex reaction and win withhis ace.

©2026 by NEA,Inc., dist.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

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

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3 Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit wordsare not allowed

toDAy’s WoRD sAMEnEss: SAME-ness: Monotony; uniformity.

Average mark 16 words

Timelimit 20 minutes

Can you find 21 or morewords in SAMENESS?

yEstERDAy’s WoRD —GInGIVAL

today’s thought “And in the morning, rising up agreat while before day, he went out, and departed into asolitaryplace, and there prayed.” Mark 1:35

wuzzles

loCKhorNs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

hidato

mallard fillmore

193179-jul7-1t $449.08

PUBLIC NOTICE REQUISITION11297765

OFFICIAL PUBLIC NOTICE OF THE REGULARZONING MEETINGOFTHE METROPOLITAN COUN‐CIL OF THEPARISHOF EAST BATONROUGE ANDTHE CITY OF BATONROUGE Notice is hereby givento allcitizensofthe City of BatonRouge,Parishof East BatonRouge andto allother interested per‐sons,ofthe introduction at theregular meetingof theMetropolitanCouncil of theCityofBaton RougeandParishofEast BatonRouge,heldon June 24,2026, of thepro‐posedordinances, theti‐tles of which areset forthhereinafter,and that public hearingwill be held thereonbythe Metropolitan Councilat 4:00 P.M.,Wednesday July 22, 2026, in theCoun‐cilChambers(Room 348) on thethird floor of the City-ParishGovernmen‐talBuildinginthisCity, theseproposedordi‐nances beingentitledas follows: ORDINANCE

Amending theCompre‐hensiveZoningMap of theCityofBaton Rouge andParishofEastBaton Rouge, as containedin andmadepartofthe “Unified Development Code “, as amendedso as to change thezoning on thepropertylocated at 11635 NicholsonDrive To rezone from Ruralto LightCommercialThree (LC3)onpropertylocated on theeastsideof NicholsonDrive,north of GardereLane, on prop‐erty noworformerly knownasTract C-5-A-2-A of Chatsworth Planta‐tion.Section 41, T8S, R1E, GLD, EBRP,LA(Council District 3- Gaudet) CASE 16-26

ORDINANCE

y g and Parish of East Baton Rouge, as containedin andmadepartofthe “Unified Development Code “, as amendedso as to change thezoning on thepropertylocated at 12891 CourseyBoule‐vard To rezone from RuraltoLight Commer‐cial One(LC1) on prop‐erty locatedonthe north side of CourseyBoule‐vard,westofStumberg Lane,onpropertynow or formerly knownasLot C of theA.G.SavellProp‐erty.Section 29, T7S, R2E, GLD, EBRP,LA(Council District 8- Amoroso) CASE 18-26

ORDINANCE Amending theCompre‐hensiveZoningMap of theCityofBaton Rouge andParishofEastBaton Rouge, as containedin andmadepartofthe “Unified Development Code “, as amendedso as to change thezoning on thepropertylocated at 1407 and1419 Curtis Street To rezone from LimitedResidential (A3.1) to High Density Multi-Family Residential (A3.3) on property lo‐catedonthe northside of Curtis Street,eastof Scenic Highway, on prop‐erty noworformerly knownasLots8 and9 of Moreco Subdivision, Square 1. Section50, T6S, R1W, GLD, EBRP,LA (Council District 2– Ken‐ney) CASE 19-26

ORDINANCE

PUBLIC NOTICE

TheLouisiana Officeof StateParks is requesting proposalsfor aPublicPrivatePartnership pro‐ject to design,construct andoperate ahigh-qual‐ityrecreationalvehicle campground andrelated amenities. Formorein‐formationgotoopportu‐nitiesinlouisiana.com. 192994-jul2-aug15-45t $207.90

PUBLIC NOTICE

Amending theCompre‐hensiveZoningMap of theCityofBaton Rouge andParishofEastBaton Rouge, as containedin andmadepartofthe “Unified Development Code “, as amendedso as to change thezoning on thepropertylocated at 9965 Meadowdale DriveTorezonefromSin‐gleFamilyResidential (A1) to Single Family Res‐idential (A2) on property locatedonthe west side of MeadowdaleDrive southofGreen Acres Drive, on property nowor formerly knownasLot 26-BofGreen AcresSub‐division.Section 77, T6S, R1E, GLD, EBRP,LA(Coun‐cilDistrict2 -Kenney) CASE 17-26 ORDINANCE Amending theCompre‐hensiveZoningMap of theCityofBaton Rouge d i

Amending theCompre‐hensiveZoningMap of theCityofBaton Rouge andParishofEastBaton Rouge, as containedin andmadepartofthe “Unified Development Code “, as amendedso as to change thezoning on thepropertylocated at 2865 MillervilleRoad To rezone from Ruralto LightCommercialTwo (LC2)onpropertylocated on theeastsideof MillervilleRoad, northof SouthHarrell’sFerry Road,onpropertynow or formerly knownasLot C2-2-2ofthe G. B. MundingerTract.Section 47, T7S, R2E, GLD, EBRP LA (Council District 8Amoroso) CASE 20-26 ORDINANCE Amending theCompre‐hensiveZoningMap of theCityofBaton Rouge andParishofEastBaton Rouge, as containedin andmadepartofthe “Unified Development Code “, as amendedso as to change thezoning on thepropertylocated at 2627 and2629 South Sherwood Forest Boule‐vard To rezone from RuraltoCommercialAl‐coholicBeverage (restaurant) (C-AB-1) and LightCommercialOne (LC1) on property located on theeastsideofSouth Sherwood Forest Boule‐vard,south of SouthHar‐rell’sFerry Road,on property noworformerly knownasTract Cofthe MaxTobiasTract.Section 49, T7S, R2E, GLD, EBRP LA (Council District 8Amoroso) CASE 21-26 192612 July 7, 14, 21, 2026 3t $242.44

NOTICE theLouisiana De‐partment of Conserva‐tion andEnergy, Office of Permitting andCompli‐ance (OPC)has received thefollowing applica‐tion(s)for aCoastal Use Permit (CUP)inaccor‐dancewithLa. R.S. 49:214.21 et seq.,and the rulesofthe CoastalMan‐agementProgram.Appli‐cationsfor coastaluse permitsmay be in‐spectedat617 North3rd Street,Room 1078, Baton Rouge, LA or on theOPC webpageat: https:// denr.louisiana.gov/page/ public-notices.Copies areavailable,costs apply. Writtencomments aresolicited from the public andmustbere‐ceived within 25 days of thedateofthisnotice. Comments must be up‐loaded directly to our electronic record throughthe OPCweb‐page or mailed to:OPC Administrator, Kyle Balkum,P.O.Box 44487, BatonRouge,LA708044487. Allcommentsmust containthe appropriate CUPnumber andthe commenter's full name andcontact information. Beloware thereferenced application(s):******* CUPNUMBER: P20250245 Name:VermillionParish Police Jury c/oSellers & Associates 148 B. EASY ST.SUITE BLAFAYETTE LA 70506 Attn:Matthew VincentLocation: Vermil‐ionParish, LA;Lat.29-4450.12 N, Long.92-6-5.97 W Description:Install shorelineprotection structures alongthe NorthShore of Vermilion Bay. Approx.250,000 cy will be excavatedtocre‐atea temporaryaccess channelthatwillbe backfilled prior to demo‐bilization.Approx.68,000 cy of rock fill will be re‐quired forthe shoreline protection installation ************ CUPNUM‐BER: P20260539 Name: Southern OilOfLouisiana c/oRccs,Llc POST OFFICE BOX2182 COVINGTON, LA 70434-2182 Attn:Kasey Hebert Location:Plaque‐minesParish, LA;POBLat. 29-27-39 N, Long.8908-32 Wand POE- Lat. 2927-05 N, Long.89-09-40 W; Blocks 52 &53, Breton Sound Area.Description: Proposal to P&Athe SL 12806#1-Dwell, remove a caissonsupported well platform and4-inch pipeline, andperform site clearanceactivities. Approx.5,948 cy will be jetted to remove the pipeline. 193350 July 7, 1t $25.77 CLASSIFIEDS.THEADVOCATE.COM

REQUISITION11297764

NOTICE OF INTENTION TO DECLARE ADJUDICATED TAX PROPERTY SURPLUS AND TO SELL SAME UNDER THE

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