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‘BUILDINGA FOUNDATION’

Landry trumpets impact on Louisiana from massiveexpansion of Meta AI data center

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL andALYSE PFEIL Staff writers

Gov.Jeff Landry and other Louisiana leaders on Monday cheered the announcement that Facebook parent Meta is more thandoubling the size of its mammoth Hyperiondata center in Richland Parish, asthe scale of the investment— andwhat it could mean for the state —came intogreaterfocus.

At anews conference hours after the tech giant released details of its planned expansion,Landry,who has aggressively courted new industrial development in the state, championed it as amomentthat “Louisiana has been waiting for.”

“We’re building afoundation for the next generation of American prosperity,” he said during apresentation that included remarks from Meta executives and some Richland Parish leaders who welcomed the expansion.

Meta will now spend $50 billion on

Street conditions worsened by ‘human error’

BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer

Though weekend streetﬂooding across swaths of New Orleans had receded by Monday,a currentof frustration withthe city’s struggling water utility continuedto run strong. Residents and political leaders on Monday said the New Orleans Sewerage &Water Board should

Gov. Jeff Landrydiscusses the impact on the state’seconomy Mondayafter announcing Meta’s plans to expand its Richland Parish datacenter

Hyperion, up from $10 billion just 18 months ago. Its footprint has more than doubled to roughly 5square miles. And its computing power has doubled, making it oneofthe fastest,

be held accountable for pumping failures that left parts of the city without working drainage during theheight of severe storms Saturday.

One pumping station, which drains the Mid-Cityand Lakeview neighborhoods, wasofﬂine for 45 minutes due to “human error,”

S&WB Executive Director Randy Hayman said Sunday,while an automated pump at thestation servingHollygrove trippedoff, requiring employees to restart it by hand.

Thepumpfailures come as concernsabout management of the waterutility have continued to

most sophisticated andpower hungry datacenters planned to date. Theproject also will take longer to buildand come online,meaning moreworkers will move into the area and more permanent jobs will eventually be created, even as concernsremain about power,water usage andthe return on the state’s investments via tax breaks.

Hyperion will be one of the ﬁrst 5-gigawatt data centersinthe U.S., andonly ahandful of othersare in the planning stagesorunderconstruction. Oracle and OpenAI are building amore expensive data center in the desert of New Mexico with a$165 billion price tag,but it’s roughly the same sizeasHyperion and, for nowatleast, is aplanned 2.5-gigawatt facility Since the project broke ground in January 2025, it hasfueled aboom in Richland Parish,atiny rural community of 20,000 full-time residents. Richland Parish Assessor Lee

ä See META, page 5A

mount and as the City Council preparestogaincontrol of theutility Aug. 1, after the Louisiana Legislatureapproved alaw authorizing council oversight of S&WB’s budgets, personnel and internal policies.

“At the end of the day,the responsibilityfor makingsure that everything is being done properly, that people arebeing properly trained and that there is operational redundancy.These are all leadership issues,” councilPresident JP Morrell said. “Wehave signiﬁcant concernsabout existing

Mayor outlines work to manage budget, fixinfrastructure

BY JONI HESS Staff writer

Mayor Helena Moreno gave arundown Monday of herﬁrst six months in ofﬁce, outlining herwork to manage the city’sbudget crisis, reform the New OrleansSewerage& Water Board and repair basic city infrastructure.

The wide-ranging report highlights her accomplishments since taking ofﬁce Jan. 12, aperiod also dominatedbyescalating clashes with state Republican leaders, a fiscal crisisand problems with the city’sembattled water utility In the past six months, Moreno secured state approvalfor more local oversight over S&WB and has called foradditional revenues that could help fund stormwater management projects through arecurring parcel fee. Moreno also obtained a three-year extension forinfrastructure projects funded underthe federalJoint Infrastructure Recovery Request program,and hired additional city stafftorepair thousands of potholes and broken streetlights. To address community development issues, including blight and park maintenance, the

See MORENO, page 5A

U.S. begins new Iran strikes

Trumpsaysships will be charged to usethe Strait of Hormuz BY JON GAMBRELL, KONSTANTINTOROPIN and WILL WEISSERT

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday morning, hours afterPresident Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” ablockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trumpseparately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundredsofyears of American policy supportingfreedomofnavigationacrossthe globe.

Iran respondedwith attacks targeting Bahrain and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates traveling through the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others. The Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially

ä See STRIKES, page 7A

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA

STAFF PHOTOSByMICHAEL JOHNSON

Dina Powell McCormick, president andvicechair at Meta, talks about Meta’scommitmenttoRichland Parish and Louisiana on Monday.

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Yemen’s Houthis strike Saudi airport

CAIRO The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport on Monday in response to airstrikes they blamed on Saudi Arabia that struck Sanaa International Airport earlier in the day

No casualties were reported but the attacks marked an escalation not seen since a Saudi-led coalition struck Houthicontrolled areas several years ago. Saudi Arabian ofﬁcials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the airstrikes in Yemen.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, in a video statement on Telegram, warned airlines against flying through Saudi airspace, saying these warnings should be taken “seriously until the blockade on Sanaa International Airport is lifted.”

The internationally recognized government in Yemen said earlier that the strikes that hit Sanaa International Airport were meant to prevent an Iranian plane from landing.

The Houthis vowed to retaliate for the strike, which marked the ﬁrst major escalation between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia following a period of relative calm.

The U.N. Security Council, in an emergency meeting on the developments Monday afternoon, officials expressed concern about the risk of a wider escalation.

“Yemen and the wider region cannot afford another cycle of escalation,” U.N Assistant Secretary-General for political affairs Khaled Khiari told the 15-member council. “We call on all actors to constructively engage in negotiations under UN auspices.”

Police: Family targeted in Illinois mass shooting

EAST ST LOUIS Ill. Five people were killed in a “targeted mass shooting” against a family in southwestern Illinois, police said.

Two more people were wounded, and two teenagers, ages 15 and 16, were in custody, police said.

The shootings occurred primarily Sunday at three locations in East St. Louis, including a park. East St. Louis, population 17,500, is across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. It had 15 homicides in 2025, down from 34 in 2020, records show

“It’s terrible. It’s evil. But it will not keep this city down,” Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly told reporters Sunday referring to the shootings. “The progress we have made will not be lost.”

Troopers stopped a vehicle and arrested two teens, including one who is suspected of having a direct role in the shootings, Kelly said.

A motive remained under investigation, he said. The victims who died were 74 years old, 49, 25, 24 and 21.

Coalition aims to guard Europe against missiles

PARIS Ukraine and nine other countries announced Monday they were forming a coalition to protect Europe from ballistic missiles, utilizing Kyiv’s experience in ﬁghting Russia’s full-scale invasion for over four years

“Our goal is to build a shared ballistic missile defense capability for Europe,” the 10 nations said in a statement in Paris at talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

He was asking two dozen leaders for help in developing measures against Russia’s missile attacks that have pummeled his country and made the rest of Europe wary of Moscow’s wider ambitions on the continent. Zelenskyy and the leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy the Netherlands, Norway Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom said they recognized “the growing threat posed by ballistic missiles,” which are harder to stop than cruise missiles or drones.

The statement gave no time frame for setting up the defense system and said the plan remained open to other countries.

Sister to fill Graham’s Senate seat

Special

election for nominee set next month in

South Carolina

BY MEG KINNARD and JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, has been named as her late brother’s temporary replacement in the U.S. Senate after his unexpected death over the weekend.

South Carolina Gov Henry McMaster announced at a news conference at the Statehouse on Monday that Nordone would serve the remaining months on Graham’s current term, which expires in January She’s expected to be sworn in this week, making her the ﬁrst woman to represent the state in the Senate

“It is such an honor,” Nordone said, as dozens of Graham staffers and campaign advisers stood behind her, some with eyes glassy from welling tears “Lindsey has always been there for me. And now, I will be there for him.”

Graham died on Saturday night at age 71. He never married or had a family of his own, but Nordone was

often by her brother’s side for the political touch points of his career, speaking at events and appearing in some of his campaign ads.

After their parents died at a young age, Graham was left to raise his sister, for whom he later became legal guardian. They were very close, and she was there as he ﬁled reelection paperwork earlier this year, along with her children and grandchildren.

“To Lindsey, I miss you more than I can even put into words,” Nordone said, emotion rising in her voice.

“But I’m going to do this. I got it.”

ROBERT F BUKATy

Lawmaker: Man killed by ICE not target of warrant

BY PATRICK WHITTLE, LEAH WILLINGHAM and JACK BROOK Associated Press

BIDDEFORD, Maine The motorist killed by ICE ofﬁcers in a Maine shooting Monday was not the target of the warrant the ofﬁcers were executing, Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him.

It’s the second time in a week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have used deadly force and at least the ninth since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown

Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed as a 26-year-old native of Colombia

King, an independent senator from Maine, said Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against officers in Biddeford, a coastal city roughly 15 miles southwest of Portland.

“He was in a vehicle — pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was ‘weaponized’ the vehicle and was shot by an ICE agent,” King said.

King had initially said Mullin told him the man was the target of a deportation effort. Mullin later called King with new information he had received, a spokesperson for the senator said.

The Maine attorney general’s ofﬁce which is investigating along with

the FBI and other agencies, said initial statements suggest the motorist was trying to flee in the direction of the agent The ofﬁce said the agent who killed him has been placed on leave.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Ofﬁce of Inspector General did not immediately respond to a request for comment Messages seeking comment were left for ICE and the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-ﬂoor window after hearing a “pop, pop, pop” sound and saw a small car “turned 90 degrees to the curb” with an SUV behind it. The driver was wounded and the car started moving down the street until the SUV hit it again, Boucher said.

“His face was bloody His head was bloody,” Boucher said, getting choked up. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop’ — clearly heard him say that.”

Boucher said he saw an ICE officer bring a medical bag to where the man was lying before an ambulance and ﬁre truck arrived. At one point, Boucher said, the agent who shot the man walked close to him.

“I was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”

Introducing Nordone, McMaster said the two had spoken in “in the wee hours of Sunday morning” after Graham’s death, and he asked her to serve.

“I had wondered what you would say, and I was humbled by your quickness to see the duty that you had to serve,” McMaster said. He added that President Donald Trump “thought it was a great idea” when he later told him of his pick. Trump announced his support for Nardone to ﬁll the seat earlier Monday Nordone has worked as an optician and at various state agencies, including the

South Carolina Commission for the Blind and the Department of Employment and Workforce. She lives in Lexington, is a graduate of the College of Charleston and has a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling.

A special election will be held next month to pick a new Republican nominee in the general election for Graham’s seat. He had been seeking a fifth term this year

The rare open Senate seat has ignited a scramble among South Carolina’s most ambitious conservatives, who have been eager to climb the political ladder

Republicans just finished a sprawling and bruising contest to figure out their nominee for succeeding McMaster, who is wrapping up his second term State Attorney General Alan Wilson won the nomination, overcoming a field that included Lt. Gov Pamela Evette, Rep. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman — all of whom are now eyeing Graham’s seat following his death over the weekend. According to South Carolina law, a one-week filing period for a special primary election begins on the second Tuesday after the candidate’s death, or July 21. The special primary election would be held on the second Tuesday after that filing period closes, or Aug. 11. Any necessary runoff would follow two weeks after that, or Aug. 25. From that point, the new nominee would have just over two months to campaign for the general election on Nov 3. All of this is problematic according to federal law, which requires military and overseas ballots to go out 45 days before any federal election. For the special election primary, that would have been June 27. Federal Election Commission officials didn’t immediately return a message seeking clarity about the process.

Judge says Trump IRS lawsuit was filed for ‘improper purpose’

Lawyer referred for possible discipline

BY ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over his leaked tax returns was ﬁled for an “improper purpose,” a judge said Monday in a scathing decision that referred one of his lawyers for potential disciplinary action and characterized the $10 billion complaint as an exercise in self-dealing.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams accused Trump and his lawyers of having manipulated the court system when he sued a federal agency under his control, bypassing a requirement that parties in a lawsuit must have adverse interests and laying the groundwork for a settlement that granted him immunity from tax audits and created a fund to compensate allies of the president who say they were unjustly persecuted.

The judge stopped short of explicitly voiding the deal shielding Trump from tax scrutiny but said the government cannot claim that the agreement was the result of a legitimate legal process.

“Whether Executive Branch actors can privately agree to give themselves and their former clients blanket immunities and billions of dollars in tax monies for legally undeﬁned grievances was never an issue advanced to this Court,” said Williams, an appointee of President Barack Obama “The question is whether the Parties could do so by claiming to be adverse and engaging the legitimacy of a court proceeding. The answer is a resounding ‘no.’”

Though the practical impacts of the ruling may be limited since the lawsuit was withdrawn months ago and the administration had already abandoned the $1.776 billion “AntiWeaponization Fund” that came out of it the order nonetheless amounts to a

scathing rebuke and tees up a politically uncomfortable line of questioning for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as faces the Senate Judiciary Committee for his conﬁrmation hearing on Wednesday

“The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not deﬁned in the law,” Williams wrote in her ruling.

She added: “The President may be the functional “dominus litus” of the Executive Branch, but as a party to a civil suit, he, as well as all the parties and lawyers before a court, are bound by the rules. Ensuring that our courts are used only for the express purpose created by the Constitution is the obligation of every judge and an obligation that this Court must discharge in light of the matter before it.” The suit against the IRS and Treasury Department in January accused the federal agencies of a failure to prevent a leak of the president’s tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

MAINE

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By SEAN RAyFORD

Newly appointed interim U.S. Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, center, with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, right, speaks Monday after being appointed of to fill the vacancy created by the death of her brother, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham at the statehouse in Columbia, S.C.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By

Protesters gather Monday at a park near the scene of a shooting involving U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Biddeford, Maine.

‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘The Piano’ actor Sam Neill dies at 78

BY MARK KENNEDY and CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Sam Neill, the smoothly elegant and versatile actor whose proliﬁc career moved from art ﬁlms to blockbusters as he dodged velociraptors in “Jurassic Park” and played Holly Hunter’s cruel husband in “The Piano,” has died. He was 78.

In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He died on Monday in Sydney, according to a statement posted to the actor’s social media page.

His death was “sudden and unexpected,” the statement said, adding that he “remained cancer free” when he died. A cause of death wasn’t speciﬁed. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” his family wrote.

Tributes were paid by fellow actors and directors, including Steven Spielberg, who helmed the ﬁrst “Jurassic Park” movie.

“I adored making all the ‘Jurassic’ movies with him.

Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the

world,” Spielberg said in a statement.

Actor Sharon Lawrence wrote on Instagram: “Condolences and appreciation for the immense joy and mastery Sam Neill brought our industry.”

Neill was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian ﬁlms that began in the late 1970s, along with Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong. His range was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham

Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy “Sweet Revenge” to chopping off Hunter’s ﬁnger in “The Piano” to poking his own eyes out in the sci-ﬁ horror “Event Horizon.”

He portrayed both saintly and sinner: In “Omen III: The Final Conflict,” he played Damien the Antichrist, and he also played Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in “The Tudors.”

The actor ﬁrst came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong’s 1979 film “My Brilliant Career,” which also introduced Judy Davis. He later appeared in Phillip Noyce’s “Dead Calm,”

a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman. Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi’s “Plenty” and — again for Schepisi — in “A Cry in the Dark,” a ﬁlm about the sensationalized aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback.

He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 miniseries “Merlin” and another as narrator of 2017’s “Wild New Zealand.” Neill also earned three Golden Globe nods — for “Merlin,”

“One Against the Wind” and “Reilly: Ace of Spies.”

Richard E. Grant, a longtime friend who co-starred with Neill in 2019’s “Palm Beach,” described him in a post on Instagram as “an officer and a gentleman in the truest sense.” Grant said Neill had “guided and helped me through a very difﬁcult time in my life.”

Perhaps Neill achieved his highest level of fame in “Jurassic Park,” playing paleontologist Alan Grant, who is summoned to an island off Costa Rica where a theme park has been built to house herds of cloned dinosaurs.

His character was thoughtful and reasonable, a scientist who warned the mastermind of the theme park before the chaos: “Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?”

Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures get loose, but didn’t return for “The Lost World: Jurassic Park II” in 1997. He came back for the third episode in 2001 and “Jurassic World: Dominion” in 2022.

“It’s probably a little late to learn these things,” he told the New York Daily News in 2001, “but I ﬁnally feel I’ve worked out how to be an action hero. I’m hap-

pier with Grant this time.

He’s gnarly and grizzled, but he looks like he knows what he’s doing.”

Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, Neill emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 7. He was born Nigel Neill, but told interviewers he started to go by Sam because there were too many Nigels at his school. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island and he was sent to boarding school in Christchurch. After college, he took the lead in “Sleeping Dogs” in 1977, the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade.

Neill’s other ﬁlm roles included playing a Soviet submarine ofﬁcer who memorably dreams of a home in Montana in “The Hunt for Red October” and an investigator in director John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness.” On the small screen, Neill played the malign Chester Campbell in TV’s “Peaky Blinders” and Thomas Jefferson in the four-hour CBS miniseries, “Sally Hemings: an American Tragedy.” On Apple TV+, he was on “Invasion,” playing Oklahoma Sheriff John Bell Tyson, a man late in his career searching for his purpose In 2024, he starred opposite Annette Bening in the Peacock series “Apples Never Fall.”

Many U.S. cities to see record overnight temperatures

BY JOHN SEEWER Associated Press

Another week of blistering heat will bring even more health risks in the coming days, as overnight temperatures won’t provide much relief.

The National Weather Service is predicting that more than 90 temperature records across the U.S. will be tied or broken this week through Wednesday and most of those will be overnight heat records.

Health experts say overnight temperatures that fail to cool down are even more dangerous than daytime temperatures that soar. It has already been a sweltering start to the summer across much of the U.S. due

Fire in forest near Paris sparks evacuations

BY ALEX TURNBULL,

OLEG CETINIC and SUMAN NAISHADHAM

Associated Press

FONTAINEBLEAU, France A fire raging in the historic and much-visited Fontainebleau forest south of Paris on Monday prompted evacuations of some residential neighborhoods and disrupted train and highway trafﬁc.

It was among several wildﬁres in western Europe as the region bakes under its third red-alert heat wave this year

In Spain, 10 people were still unaccounted for Monday from a ﬁre that ripped through a remote southern expatriate community last week, killing 13 people in one of the country’s deadliest blazes.

The Fontainebleau forest fire is unusual for its proximity to the French capital — about 42 miles. The region hosts the Fontainebleau Chateau favored by Napoleon and is popular with visitors from Paris and beyond.

French President Emmanuel Macron said all necessary means were being deployed to ﬁght the ﬁre of exceptional scale.”

Tw o water-dumping planes were deployed over the area along with hundreds of firefighters, regional fire service spokesperson Paul Laurain told public broadcaster France-Info.

The head of the regional administration, Pierre Ory, told French media that an investigation is underway and that arson was being considered a possibility

A new ﬁre has broken out in another section of the forest, Ory said. The initial ﬁre is still not contained and was continuing to spread at

a moderate rate.

“Winds are turning, which is significantly complicating the work of the ﬁreﬁghters,” he said.

Trains to and from the bustling Gare de Lyon train station were disrupted late Sunday but were returning to normal Monday morning.

A section of the busy A6 highway leading southeast of Paris was shut down because of ﬁre risk.

Large fires in southern France have already scorched thousands of acres since last week, disrupting the Tour de France cycling race and stretching ﬁreﬁghting resources.

France is experiencing the peak of its third heat wave of the summer, with temperatures surpassing 104 degrees across western and central areas and around 98 in Paris.

to the long-lasting heat dome expected to blanket much of the country this week. The blistering temperatures over the past few weeks have caused heat-related deaths in New Jersey and helped fuel wildﬁres in the West.

Temperatures were not forecast to drop below 80 at night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Miami; Tampa, Florida; Galveston, Texas; and

Charleston, South Carolina, the National Weather Service said.

Over the next few days, places in the Midwest and Northeast known for frigid winters will see nighttime temperatures remain above 70, including Fargo, North Dakota; International Falls, Minnesota; and Portland, Maine.

“That’s where the health outcomes are ampliﬁed, particularly for the elderly and vulnerable communities,” said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.

Health experts say that high overnight temperatures are particularly dangerous because there’s no time for the body’s core temperature to cool down and recover from daytime heat.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By RICHARD SHOTWELL Actor Sam Neill, who dodged velociraptors in ‘Jurassic Park’ and played Holly Hunter’s cruel husband in ‘The Piano,’ has died at age 78

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ELLEN SCHMIDT

A swimmer dives into Cedar Lake on Monday during an extreme heat warning in Minneapolis.

Prosecutors obtain evidence in protest shooting deaths

BY PHILIP MARCELO and REBECCA BOONE Associated Press

The Trump administration has turned over evidence long sought by Minnesota investigators in their ongoing probe into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during pitched protests against an immigration enforcement crackdown earlier this year, state prosecutors announced Monday

The progress came as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a motorist in Maine on Monday, and Houston prosecutors complained the administration was still withholding critical information in their investigation into a fatal shooting by an ICE ofﬁcer last week

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the evidence turned over by federal investigators included previously withheld hard drives containing statements, police body camera video and other materials in the Minnesota killings. They also turned over Good’s badly damaged SUV, she said “The wonderful thing now is we have all the evidence,” Moriarty said. “Any time the government is responsible in whatever way of taking the life of a community member we need to have a full and thorough investigation.”

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed in her vehicle while leaving an anti-immigration enforcement protest in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.

Her death and that of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse shot and killed by federal officers just weeks later during a Jan 24 protest, sparked outrage across the country and calls to rein in immigration enforcement.

The Minneapolis immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” was billed as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever It ended in February after thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents withdrew from the state.

At least nine people have been killed since the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign began last year No one has been charged in connection with the deaths, and the federal government has suggested state prosecutors don’t have jurisdiction to investigate federal ofﬁcers.

Lawyers for Good’s family said the transfer of evidence represented “an important and meaningful step towards justice and accountability.”

Spokespersons for the U.S Attorney’s ofﬁce in Minnesota, as well as ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment

Monday

officials “have recently re-engaged in discussions about the prospect of mutual information sharing.”

Ellison, in a statement Monday, said he remains “deeply troubled” it took more than half a year for federal officials to hand over the materials, despite long standing cooperation between the agencies on major investigations.

“It should never have taken this long,” he said in a statement. “I hope that this is the beginning of a major course correction on the part of the federal government.”

other man.

BY MATTHEW BROWN and SAVANNAH PETERS

Associated Press

President Donald Trump on Monday reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, undoing protections established by former presidents on public lands that are sacred among many Native Americans.

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah have ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and scenic canyons, as well as coal and uranium deposits that state ofﬁcials want made available for development.

Trump, a Republican, issued proclamations under the Antiquities Act to reduce

Moriarty said local investigators have been poring over the evidence after receiving it in recent days, but declined to provide details on what prompted the federal government to turn it over Documents recently ﬁled in the lawsuit brought by state and local officials against the Homeland Security and Justice departments, however, suggest the breakthrough came after federal officials asked the state in June for evidence gathered in the investigation of ICE agent Christian Castro.

State and local prosecutors said they would provide evidence in Castro’s case as soon as the federal government agreed to share its evidence in the shootings of Pretti and Good. Minnesota officials last month sued the administration for access to evidence for investigations into the three shootings.

in this case has declined to do so thus far None has provided any substantive reason for its refusal aside from relaying the perspective that these shootings are solely ‘federal’ matters.”

Castro, 52, was charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime in connection with the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis. Prosecutors say Castro ﬁred through a home’s front door and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh while in pursuit of an-

“We are willing to share evidence with you if the exchange is reciprocal,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans wrote in a legal ﬁling to federal ofﬁcials “Each of the federal agencies with whom we have discussed sharing evidence

The pressure may have increased on June 18, when Moriarty and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison amended their lawsuit against the federal government to add details about the federal government’s refusal to share the evidence collected in the fatal shootings.

Just four days later Ellison and Moriarty asked the federal judge to push back some deadlines in the case, saying the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s office and state

Prosecutors in Houston, meanwhile, echoed similar concerns about obtaining critical information from federal officials as they look into last week’s death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who had lived in the U.S. for decades. The homeland security department has acknowledged officers stopped Salgado Araujo while looking for someone else, but maintains the homebuilder rammed an ICE vehicle while attempting to leave the scene. The agency says that prompted an ofﬁcer to open ﬁre in selfdefense, though it has yet to provide evidence to back up that claim.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Monday that his office doesn’t even know the identities of the ICE ofﬁcers involved in the shooting or where they are nearly a week later, which he said is highly unusual when an ofﬁcer shooting results in a death.

their size. He took similar actions during his ﬁrst term, but those were reversed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

The latest move comes as Trump and other Republicans have drastically reshaped the management of vast taxpayer-owned lands concentrated in Western states Trump administration ofﬁcials and congressional Republicans have sought to expand drilling, mining and logging on public lands, while removing protections for imperiled species and rolling back rules for conservation.

President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, established Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, and President Barack

Obama, also a Democrat, created Bears Ears National Monument in 2016 under the Antiquities Act. The 1906 law gives presidents the powers to protect sites considered historic, archaeologically signiﬁcant or culturally important.

Davina Smith-Idjesa, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said tribal leaders had braced for a reduction since Trump was elected to a second term. She said Monday it was “heartbreaking” and accused federal ofﬁcials of sidestepping their legal responsibility to consult with tribal nations that would be impacted.

“From a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is not sim-

ply a piece of federal public land,” Smith-Idjesa said “This is a living cultural site that holds our histories, our ceremonies, our traditional foods and medicines and our ancestors’ footprints.”

Utah officials have long fought against the monument designation and have argued that the state should be in charge of controlling its own lands. Trump in his ﬁrst term reduced their size, calling their creation a “massive land grab.” Combined they span more than 3.2 million acres, an area nearly the size of Connecticut.

“This is a big day for Utah,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at a White House signing ceremony with Trump. “These monument designations are supposed

to be the smallest area as possible to protect the antiquities.” Bears Ears was the ﬁrst national monument protected at the request of tribal nations that consider the land sacred The landscape contains ancestral villages, ceremonial and burial sites and features in some tribes’ creation and migration stories Its designation honored ﬁve tribes in the region: Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute and Uintah-Ouray Ute.

Home to hundreds of thousands of objects of cultural and scientific significance, Bears Ears is jointly managed by an agreement between tribal nations and federal agencies. Grand Staircase-Escalante

consists of cliffs, canyons, natural arches and archaeological sites, including rock paintings. It holds large coal reserves, while the Bears Ears area has uranium. The national monument designation provides sweeping protections not just for significant geological features or artifacts but also for the surrounding landscape, banning drilling, mining and new construction nearby Proponents of Trump’s plan to downsize say the protective boundaries stretch too far and hinder mining for critical minerals.

Biden designated or expanded more than a dozen monuments and had a goal to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

EU rallies $1 billion in pledges for Gaza’s recovery funding

BY SAM MCNEIL Associated Press

BRUSSELS The European Union has coordinated efforts to raise $1 billion in pledges of aid for Gaza’s rebuilding following two years of Israeli bombardment that left much of the Palestinian enclave in ruins, a senior EU ofﬁcial said Monday

How much of the money will be delivered, and when reconstruction of Gaza can begin, is unclear The ceaseﬁre between Israel and the Hamas militant group that took effect in October is effectively stalled.

European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica announced the fund after a meeting in Brussels of the Palestine Donors Group, which includes EU and Middle East nations along with international organizations and ﬁnancial institutions.

“The ceasefire in Gaza remains fragile, and the situation on the ground for civilians is not getting better,” Šuica said. She said the money will move through “trusted partners” but didn’t give details

Few places in the Palestinian territory of over 2 mil-

lion people have been left unscathed, and the United Nations, World Bank and EU estimate that reconstruction will cost $70 billion.

The U.N. has said Gaza has more than 60 million tons of rubble, enough to ﬁll nearly 3,000 container ships. It will take over seven years to clear, with additional time for demining.

The meeting also brought together Nickolay Mladenov, the head of the Board of Peace set up by U.S. President Donald Trump to lead Gaza’s reconstruction; Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Ali Shaath, the

Dozens at Ebola treatment center in Congo strike over unpaid salaries

BY PROSPER HERI NGORORA Associated Press

ever recorded on the continent. Congo since May has been battling the outbreak of a type of Ebola with no approved treatment or vaccine. Last week, the Congolese health minister Roger Kamba, said the virus had spread to two more provinces The striking staff at Rwampara General Hospital in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, includes epidemiologists, case investigators, drivers and gravediggers who say they have not been paid by Congolese authorities. The protesting

staff shut the hospital and blocked the road leading to it, even burning a tire outside.

“We don’t know how it is possible to not have been paid for two months,” Bahati Claude, a health worker at the hospital, told The Associated Press. “We don’t want to give up the job.”

The treatment center is different from the one in Ituri where a study of two badly needed treatments began earlier this month.

head of the new Palestinian committee meant to administer Gaza’s daily affairs but still unable to enter; and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.

that the next steps in implementing the ceasefire are stalled over the difﬁcult issue of disarming Hamas militants in Gaza.

“We are investing not only in the Palestinian future but also in the regional stability

shared security and just and lasting peace for everyone together,” Mustafa said, calling for “a resilient, sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state” — something Israel’s current government has opposed.

Mladenov has made clear

MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE PHOTO By ELIZABETH FLORES

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty addresses the media Monday at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.

Brown has seen it in property tax collections, which he estimateswill be up by 30% overall by years end compared with 2025,rising to $28 million or so from $22 million.

“You always want more taxpayers, not people paying more taxes,” he said in an interview Monday. “This gives us more taxpayers.”

Meanwhile, Richland Parish schools Superintendent Sheldon Jones said that since the data center groundbreaking, Richland Parish has worked closely withMeta. Many teachers in Richland Parish got $50,000 bonuses this year owing to ashortterm increase in tax revenues fueled by the project.

“Meta’spresence has made atangible difference in our classrooms,” he said. “This partnership is directly strengthening the educational experience for Richland Parish.”

Powerconcerns

Still, amid the staggering spending numbers and hopes from many local leaders and residents, there are also concerns. Some residents, advocacy groups and academics have raised questions about the impact of the projects on the environmentand utilityrates, the quality of life in the rural communities wheretheyare locatedand whether big data centers can deliver longterm, sustainable economic growth.

“The academic research, peer-reviewed research has not been as optimistic about thebeneﬁt of data centers and job creation as elected officials are,” said Gary Wagner,aneconomist at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.

Speaking with reporters on Monday,Landry acknowledged that massive data center projects fueling the global artificial intelligence race bring challenges related to water usage and electricity rates. But he said

MORENO

Continued from page1A

administrationhas launched ahandful of task forces to exploresolutions. One of them —the Adjudicated Property Task Force —aims to resolve tax and title issues for aset of blighted properties in the Lower 9th Ward and Hoffman Trianglearea.

“I’m proud of what our team has accomplished in just six months, especially considering the challenges we inherited, but Iknow there is still so much work to do,” Moreno said in anews release. “Wewill keeptackling our ﬁnancialchallenges responsibly,improving city services, making ourneighborhoods safer,creating more opportunity,and building astronger New Orleans. We are just getting started ” The short period hasn’t come without pushback from those opposed to some

the Meta project will enable Louisiana to strengthenits aginggrid

“It’seasy to sell fear,” Landry said. “We’regiving hope.We’regiving opportunity.”

According to documents ﬁled earlier this yearwith theLouisiana PublicService Commission, Entergy will build seven new natural gas plantstopower the Meta datacenter in addition to three alreadyunderconstruction

Meta officials said the company is paying the full cost to build the plantand to payfor what itconsumes.

“What was announced todayfrom aMeta perspective was alreadyrun through the PSCand ﬁled forbyEntergy months ago,” Louisiana EconomicDevelopment Secretary Susan Bourgeois said

administrative decisions. Upontaking ofﬁce, Moreno stripped City Hallofsome departments, cut 36 unclassiﬁed positions and 62 probationary status employees andfurloughed some workers in an effort to save an estimated $27 million. Critics said cuts atthe Office of Resilienceand Sustainability left several projectsinlimbo and went againstthe city’sclimate action goals.Others see some revenue boosting efforts —ramped up parking enforcementmeasures, for example—asa movethat could hurt residents’ pocketbooks.

Still, thereport argued that thecity has beenput on sounder financial footing, generating $125 million in newrevenues through various efforts. Theadministration also recentlyinked a deal to sell thecity’srights to nine years ofleasepaymentsfrom the Caesar’sCasinoand Hotel in exchange

during thenews conference

Monday

EntergyLouisiana President and CEO Phillip May said thecompany is taking an “all-of-the above” approach to meet thedemands of the project. That includesthe 10 power plants, six of which will be on-sitenear Meta’sfacility, he said. Entergy is also putting in 760 megawattsof batteries, increasing output at its existing nuclear plantsand building 4,000 megawatts of solar power, he said.

Thoseplans for power generation will “cover the entiretyofthe scale” of the $50 billionproject, create additional power beyond Meta’sneeds and improve the reliability of thegrid, May said. Meta also hassaiditwill

for$103millionthis year fromprivate equity firm TPG. At the same time, Moreno hasworked to address quality-of-life issues that have long drawnthe ire of residents. Amongthe initiatives wereblight reduction moves, including major projects, such as the advancementofCharity Hospital andthe demolition of Lindy Boggs Medical Center.And CityHall has also madestrides on the repair of road infrastructure.

The report notedthat the cityhas fixed more than 5,100 streetlights andﬁlled morethan 15,000 potholes.

Email Joni Hess at joni hess@theadvocate.com.

try to hire as manylocals for permanent jobs as possible. To thatend,itdonated $5 million to the local community college systemto help students with scholarshipsfor job trainingprograms

While elected officials have largely welcomed the project, residents have often voiced optimismcoupled with worries aboutwhat might be ahead. Shelbie Stephenson, whoruns afood truck nexttothe construction site, saidher business has tripled this year and she welcomes whatever Meta brings.

“But Iknow alot of people who arereally concerned aboutwhatitisdoing to the quality of life here,”she said. “I’mlike, ‘It’schange andit’shere. Youhaveto embrace it.’”

On theradar

For now,there are still questions about whether that short-term prosperity will be sustained through permanent jobs and spinoff industries, according to some economists and consultants.

Wagner said studies have shown littlelong-term growth in states that have subsidized data centers, though the boom is happening so quickly there still isn’t alongrecord thateconomists and academicscan look to.

“Evidence is weak at best that economic development incentivesfor data centers helpincomeand job creation,” he said.

Michael Gucke, an economist with ConstructConnect, aconsultant to data center builders, said Louisiana’s regulatory environment abundance of land and welldeveloped natural gas infrastructure are factors that makeLouisiana attractive to companies like Meta and Amazon.

Those advantagescome as states on the East Coast like Virginia, which have haddata centers for two decades, are running out of land andencountering greater pushback because of worries about water shortages,utilityrateincreases andotherenvironmental concerns.

“Louisiana wasn’tinthe game in the past,” Guckesaid. “But this is a forward-looking business andLouisiana is in the gamenow because these companiesare lookingto the future.”

“It’shard to say,though, because data centers are so new,” Wagner added. “We just don’thavealot of data that looks 10 years out.” Still, it appears that Meta’s investment has landed Louisiana on the radar of tech companies andrealestate developers racing to build AI data centers, aconstruction boom expected to exceed $700 billion alone this year across the U.S. Earlier this year,Amazon Webservices announced plansfor asignificant, though muchsmallerAI data center,inBossierParish. That’s proof,Bourgeois said at the time,thatMeta washelping attractother megainvestments to the state.

Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@ theadvocate.com.

STAFFPHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Oil prices jump while AI stocks sink

NEW YORK Oil prices jumped Monday following aweekend of attacks in the Middle East,while more losses for computer chip companies and other winnersof the artiﬁcial-intelligenceboom dragged stock markets lower.

The price for abarrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard,climbed 9.6%to$83.30 after the United States and Iran each said the Strait of Hormuz is under its control. Fighting in the region haskept oil tankers from using the strait to deliver crudetocustomersfrom the Persian Gulf, which drivesup fuelpricesworldwide.

Brent’sprice, though, remains well belowits wartime peak of nearly $120 per barrel for its most actively traded contract.

On Wall Street,the S&P500 fell 0.8%, coming off its fourth winning week in thelast five. The Dow Jones Industrial Averagedropped 138points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6%.

Chip stocks like Micron Technology helped lead the way lower.Micron fell 4.4%, eating into what had been astellar rise of 243.1% for the year so far.

Real profits are behind the rise because the AI rush has created surging demand for computer memory and other computing building blocks. But worries are rising thatstock prices have shot too highand that the demand may not be sustainable if AI doesn’t deliver as much proﬁt and productivity as expected.

Nvidia fell 3.5%. Because it’s the largeststock on Wall Street by value thanks to the euphoria around AI, it was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500. The day’slosses began in Asia, where South Korea’sKospi index dropped 8.9%. That included a15.4%plungefor SK Hynix’sstock in Seoul, the worst since it began trading in 1997 EU chief weighs age limits on social media

BRUSSELS Atop European Union ofﬁcial on Monday called for limits to be placed on children using social media, as a special EU panel looking into the challenge recommended forbidding access for those under 13 until tech companies can prove their platforms are safe Growing awareness of the dangers social media posesfor young, developing brains has shown up in awave of newrestrictionsglobally. Australia, the U.K., Turkey,Indonesia and others have passed bansonkids under 16 or 15 from using platforms likeTikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

Laying out alist of her concerns aboutthe useof social media by kids, European CommissionPresidentUrsula von der Leyen—adoctor by training —said that children under 3should have no exposureto screens at all.

“I believe we need to consider phased and gradual accessfor different age rangesbecause childhood won’twait and once it’sgone, we can never give it back,” von der Leyen told reporters. Volkswagen CEO says it’sworking to cutcosts

BERLIN Volkswagen’s CEO indicated in comments Sunday that he’s trying to avoidclosing plants as he seeks to turn around the automaker’sperformance.

The Wolfsburg, Germanybased company faces pressure to cut costs at home and increasinglyintense competition in the lucrativeChinese market,in particular

Last week, Volkswagen said its “fundamental realignment” overthe past three years had reachedits next phase, announcing plans to streamline the model lineup by up to half. It didn’tprovide speciﬁcs, and questions remain over how else it will cut costs. There has been renewed speculation about the future of several plants.

“There are more intelligent solutions than closing plants,” CEOOliver Blume told the Bild

am Sonntag newspaper

BUSINESS

NOLA.COM/BIZ

Paramount’stakeoverofWarner Bros.challenged

12 states saymerger would‘extinguish competition’

BY WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP business writer

NEWYORK Twelve states challenged Paramount’stakeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday,filing alawsuit that argues the $81 billion mega merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and threaten jobs across the industry.

The ofﬁceofCalifornia’sattorney general, who is leading the case,saidthe statesare asking Warner and Paramount to not

close their merger “until after the judicial process concludes” —and if thecompanies do not agree, the coalition will then ﬁle atemporary restraining order

“The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for ﬁlm and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately,audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in astatement.

The additional states joining the suit include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey,New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.

Skydance-owned Paramount said Monday’s lawsuit “distorts settled antitrustlaw” and maintained itsmerger wouldcreate a“stronger competitor against dominant streaming and technology platformswho have harmed the market fortheatrical exhibition and jobsinthe entertainment industry.”

The company vowed to “vigorously defend” the transaction. Warner deferred to Paramount for comment.

AParamount-Warnercombo would mean putting HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like “Harry Potter” andevenCNN underthe same roof with CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service.

The states’ lawsuit could throw a

wrench in those plans, at least for now

The antitrust case arrives at a pivotal time forthe ParamountWarner transaction —which, after months of what becamea very public bidding warwith Netﬂix, receivedshareholders’ stamp of approval in April and then ablessing from theTrump administration just last month.

The U.S. JusticeDepartment isn’tchallenging the deal —and instead released an unusually lengthy statement in support, maintaining aParamount-Warner combo would “increase competitionacrossthe media andentertainment ecosystem, withbeneﬁts forAmerican consumers and workers.”

MassiveAIbuild-out poses latest U.S. inflationthreat

Consumerspayingmore forlaptops andelectricity

BY CHRISTOPHERRUGABER AP economics writer

WASHINGTON— American consumers— and the FederalReserve —are being hit with another high-costheadache.

The gusher of investment in datacenters —likely topping $700 billion this year —to power artiﬁcial intelligence has madememorychips, computer processors and other equipment, as well as electricity,more expensive.Economists expect it will continue to push up inﬂation at least through the end of this year

Whileitwon’tbeaslarge aspike as occurred in 2021-2023, when inﬂation peaked at 9.1%,massive AI spending is likely to keep prices rising morequickly than the Federal Reserve would like.Suchincreases could lead the central bank to lift itskey interestrate later this year to cool spending and bring down inﬂation.

Higher rates from the Fed often boost borrowing costs for auto loans, mortgages, and business loans.

Fedofficialswillclosely watchJune’sinflation report,tobereleased Tuesday,for further signsofAI’simpact on prices. Inflation last month likely cooled as gasolineprices have fallen after aceasefirewas reached betweenthe U.S. and Iran,thoughwhether that trend continues is now unclear as theU.S andIran haveresumed fighting.

Just four large tech companies —Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, andMicrosoft— are expected to invest $720 billion this year,mostlyondata centers, including one in RichlandParish in Louisiana.

Thosedatacenters use alot of semiconductors, and chip supplies have run low. As aresult,economists at JPMorgan Chase estimate that the cost of some computer memorychips will have soared by as much as 400% between 2024 and the end of this year

Americans are alreadyseeing higher prices fora range of consumer electronics, including laptops, smartphones, video game consoles, and computers. Electricity prices are also jumping as datacenters absorb a growing share of new electrical capacity

In ahigh-proﬁle announcementlast month Apple announced it was boostingprices for

BY FATIMA HUSSEIN and KEN SWEET Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Trump administration is takingadditional steps to prevent people living in theU.S. illegally from using the nation’s banking system, cracking down on financialinstitutionsthat are lendingmoney to them. On Monday,agroup of financial regulatorswere expected to issue guidance intended to remind banks and other financial institutions of their know-your-customer requirements with respecttocredit risk management, particularly as it relates toborrowers whoare not authorized to work in the U.S. Thenewest warning is one of several measures the Trumpadministration has taken to discourage people in theU.S. illegally from interactingwiththe larger U.S

laptops andiPads by about15% to 25%. A toplineMacBook will nowcost $1,999, up from $1,699.

Many analysts expect price hikes will come for iPhones next.

“The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memoryand storage,” Apple said in astatement. “Wehave neverseen a componentprice increase this much, this quickly.”

On thesame day,Microsoft announced that the price of its Xbox video gameconsole will increase $100 by Aug. 1, citing higher prices for memory chips. Sony is also charging more for the PlayStation, while Dell Computer and HP have raised prices fortheir laptops.

A“wave of AI-related cost pressures spillingoverintoconsumer pricesisstill in the early stages of building,” analysts at investmentbank Evercore ISI recently wrote.

The impact on broader measures of inﬂationmay be relatively modest,with many economists forecasting that AI investment will boost core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy,byroughly ahalf-

percentage point by the end of this year

Still, that could be enough to offset declining prices elsewhere, as the impact of President Donald Trump’stariffs continues to fade andasrentalcosts cool. Core inﬂation according to theFed’s preferredmeasure, was 3.4% in Mayand some economists now expect it maydecline only slightly by the end of the year,remaining wellabove the Fed’s2%target.

The boost from AI may provetemporary, but it followsprevious waves of higher prices stemmingfrom tariffs and thegas price spike resultingfromthe Iran war. TheFed typically “looksthrough,”orignores,temporary price increases, rather than boosting rates to fight them, but an ongoing seriesof temporary price shocks could threaten to create more sustained inflation, which has alreadybeen abovethe Fed’s targetfor more than five years.

“Inisolation one or two such shocks is perhaps transitory,something they’rewilling to live with,” said Abiel Reinhart, an economist at J.P.Morgan. “A sustained series of shocks, or awiderrange of shocks, becomes more concerning to them.”

financial system. The measures, over the last nine months, are designed to stronglyencourage banks to remove themascustomerswhile not expressly mandating that the banks do so. Thejoint announcementwas planned from threeofthe nation’s

bank regulators: the Ofﬁce of the Comptrollerofthe Currency,the Federal DepositInsurance Corporation, and theNationalCredit UnionAssociation.The agencies saidthat banks should take into account that people in theU.S.illegally may notbeable to repay

aloan because of deportation. In short, they say,people working in theU.S.illegally pose overallrisk to the financial system. There is limited data on how many people in the U.S. illegally have bank accounts and have loans through the banks. This comes as part of President Donald Trump’sexecutive order signed in Maythatrequires banks and other financial institutionsto take acloser look at the citizenship of their customers. That order started the mostrecent waveof banking regulation changes, ordering bank regulators andgovernment departments to look for signs that people withoutlegal status are opening accounts or obtaining loans or credit cards. Among other things, the guidance advisesfinancial institutions to “identify,measure, monitor,and control these risks through safe and sound underwriting practices that assess aborrower’swillingness and capacity to repay according to the termsofthe credit obligation” according to anews release.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByDAVID ZALUBOWSKI Americans are alreadyseeing higher prices for arangeofconsumer electronics,including laptops, smartphones, videogameconsoles, and computers

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILEPHOTO

Agencies said banks should takeinto account that peopleinthe U.S. illegally maynot be able to repay aloan because of deportation.

drawing the nation hometoAbu Dhabi and Dubai back into ﬁghting with Tehran.

The attacks come as Iran and the U.S. both vie for control of the strait through which aﬁfth of all crude oil and natural gasonce passed in peacetime. The price of benchmarkBrent crudeoil rose 7.8% to $81.92 abarrel,still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher Trumpinsists strait will be open

U.S. Central Command announced on social media that the U.S.military had begun another round of strikes againstIran

“These strikes will continue imposing aheavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their abilityto attack innocent civilians andcommercialshipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. military said.

Moments after the military announcedthe newstrikes,Trump called it “another major attack.”

“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the OvalOfﬁce.“We’reknocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re puttingthe blockadeback.”

Trump also provided new detailsonhis administration doing an about-face and suggesting it will charge tolls for ships going through the strait, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t

“We’re protecting avery rich portion of the world,” he said.

“We’re spending money.And so, whatwe’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.”

It’sachange in U.S. policy that, until now,said the straitshouldremain open to all without tolls— as it was before the U.S. and Israel

FLOODING

Continued from page1A

leadership at the S&WB.”

Morrell said the council will begin introducing legislation to reform the utility within the coming weeks.

“I think you’re going to see the S&WB taken in adramatically different direction,”Morrell said.

Council member Aimee McCarron, whose District Aincludes both pumps that failed this weekend, said in the meantime, thecouncil will press S&WB ofﬁcials on the “human error”atacommittee meeting July21.

“Was this anew person? Wasitthat they weren’tpaying attention? Idon’twant to pick on aspeciﬁc employee if they were doing everything they could,” McCarron said. “But it just brings to light that thereneedsto be some kind of supervisor that has experience with these pumps. …There has to be some backup here.”

In his statement Sunday, Hayman said that as utility staffers worked to bring two pumps online at the Lakeview station to aid the one that was already running, “there was an error made with avacuum system, which meant that we did not have any pumps online at this station for around 45 minutes.”

attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the U.S. or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedomofnavigationand raise tensions, likely causing further economicdisruption far beyond theregion

AttacksresumeacrossMideast

The UnitedArabEmirates’ Defense Ministry said early Tuesday that Iran attacked two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, killing one marinerand wounding eight others.

TheEmirati Defense Ministry said Iran launched two cruise missilesatthe tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah.

The attacks set both tankers ablaze, though the ﬁreswereextinguished.

Iran’sparamilitary Revolutionary Guardclaimedthe attack on the tankers, saying the vessels “ignored repeated warnings.”

“They chose to pass through a mineﬁeld and were subsequently targeted and disabled,”the Guard said.

Bahrain also came under renewed attack early Tuesday morning as Iran retaliated over thelatest round of U.S. airstrikes. Bahrain sounded its missile alert siren, urging the public to seek shelter.There was no word on any damage or casualties from the attack

The EmiratiDefense Ministry said the attack on the tankerskilled oneIndiannational andwounded six Indians and two Ukrainians.

“The UAEreserves its full right to respond to this escalation and to take all necessarymeasures to protect its territory,its citizens andresidents,”the Defense Ministry added.

The Emirates used similarlanguage beforelaunching attacks against Iran during thewar.Fight-

er jets could be heard overheard Tuesday morninginDubai.

TrumpsaysIranfailedatest

Earlier Monday,Trumptold conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that theagreement reached last month was “built to test” Iran, adding that “when you’re dealing with sleazebags (agreements) don’t mean much.”

“They didn’thonorthe test,” the president said. Iran assertsithas theright to manage trafﬁc through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with the interim peace deal. The U.S. has disputed that.

The American military and the United Nations’ International MaritimeOrganization have tried to establish aroute through the strait along thecoast of Oman that would be outside of Iranian control. Iran has attacked ships using that route, saying the U.S. is vio-

lating the interim peace deal. The U.S. has attacked Iran in response, drawing Iranian attacks on U.S.allied Arab states.

Exchanges of ﬁre in recent days hadalreadycast furtherdoubt on the interim peace deal. Washington had lifted ablockade it imposed in mid-April as part of that deal, which also calledfor the strait to be fully reopened.

“Weare reinstating theTHE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,”Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”

The president said the U.S. would be “reimbursed” by 20% of the value of cargo to help cover “any andall costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security.”

TheU.S. military saiditwill resumeits blockade of Iranian ports at midnight local Wednesday in Dubai.

He saidthe utility is adding additional staff at the Lakeviewstationtemporarily and is conducting an internal investigation intothe employee error

“Weare reviewing and will enhance any trainingprotocolsaccordingly,”Hayman said. S&WB ofﬁcialsdid not respondtoa requestfor additional details on thecause of the pumpfailures Monday Mayor HelenaMoreno said in asocial media post Saturday that her office would be “looking atwhat is happening in particular with DPS 7, because it is just continuously having issues,” referring to theCanalBoulevard station. “Let’s getthese issues ﬁxed.”

The utility’slack of automatedinfrastructure among its aging plants has contributed to numerous mishaps over theyears. In 2018, two S&WB supervisors fell asleep on the jobamid a drop in water pressure that ledtoaprecautionary boil advisory on theeastbank In 2024, aworker was unable toturn pumps back on after apower issuedue to an injury,leadingtoacitywide boil-water advisory

Lakeviewresident Tony Patinosaid that hewas frustrated to hearthat it was “human error” that led his manicured lawn to be submerged by nearly afoot of

water

“If it’shumanerror,it’s manageable; that means that they didn’tdosomething,” said Patino, who moved to New Orleans last year from California. “Wepay really high taxes here, and our water bills ain’tcheap.”

Patino said the rising waters ﬁlled himwith anxiety about the S&WB’sabilityto respond to ahurricane.

“If this is going to happen on just astorm, Ihave no conﬁdence in thewater board none, zero,” Patino said.

Kristin Boring said she was hardly surprised to see ﬂoodwaters rising on Banks Street during her shift at Finn McCool’sinMid-City on Saturday,marooning patrons watching the World Cup game inside thebar for hours and swamping neighbors’ cars —again. Nor was she surprisedtolearn the cause of theﬂooding.

“It’sinfuriating and frustrating, but with all of the stuffthatwekeep learning about the organization that is the Sewerage&Water Board,nothing shocks me anymore,” Boringsaid.

She added that shewas relatively glad to hear that the pumpfailure was caused by employee errorrather than an equipment issue.

“Everytimethey say it’s equipment …amonth turns into adecade for them to ﬁx that part,” Boringsaid.

McCarronsaidcouncil

members will also seek an explanation of why one of two automated pumps at thePritchard Pump Station, whichdrains the Hollygrove neighborhood,shut offon Saturday and had to be restarted manually

“That’swhy thatone took 21/2 hours (to be turned back on),” McCarron said. “They clearly need to build in some redundancy with their employees.” McCarron said the council should considerrequiring that automated pumping sta-

tions haveemployees on site during rain events.

“Somebody hastobeavailable right away,because we have seen timeand time again that there are issues,” McCarron said. “There’sgoing to have to be some additional accountability.”

• That’s Right...No Co-Pay!NoExamFee! No AdjustmentFee! If youhavethiscard, youmay qualifyfor free hearing aids! Call today to verifyyour benefits

Murrill seeksrecords from DA,prosecutor

Subpoenasseekdetails aboutstate grandjury’sindictment

BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer

Lawyers

for

AttorneyGeneral

LizMurrill asked ajudgeMonday to issue subpoenastoOrleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and special prosecutor Laurie White for records about how astate grand jury came to indict Murrill this month over alleged threats to New Orleans leaders.

The subpoena requests are part of Murrill’sattempt to have the criminal caseagainst her thrown out before she mustanswer to16 felony countsof publicintimidation and malfeasance in office from aJuly2indictment.

The Louisiana Supreme Court swiftly stayedthe case before Murrill could be booked.Last week, thehighcourt named aretired appeals court judge, Robert

Chaisson, to oversee it after the12 judges on theOrleans Parishcriminalcourt recused themselves. Chaisson had not yet signed the subpoenas as of lateMonday Murrill is accused of actingillegally when she sent lettersinMay to Mayor Helena Moreno, Williams and five CityCouncil members. Theletters suggested theirjobs could be at risk if they continued to back aspecial election for auniﬁed court clerk forthe city

The Legislature had just merged New Orleans’civil and criminal courtclerk offices in abill that declared the elected civil clerk,

DOGGy DOWNPOUR

Richard Napoleon, its leader

The new law cost criminalclerk-elect

Calvin Duncan hispost andset offa political firestorm pitting state Republican leaders against the city’sDemocraticleadership.The council majority argued that the merged clerk’sofﬁce was anew one that called foranelection. The

Chewie, 14,bundled up in his raincoat, keeps an eyepeeled for squirrels and cats during his daily walk with Mikeand MaryEshenour in MetairieonMonday.‘We alreadyhad adog,but this one wormed his way into my husband’sheartafter we found himroaming on Memorial Day,’MaryEshenour said. ‘That’swhy we’reout here walking him even in the rain.’

The prettiest rose andits namesake

Complaints aboutBricolage Academyspark district inquiry

PeggyMartin rose

Near the entryway of Peggy Martin’sGonzales home hangsa large yearbook-style photo of a teenage girl. Underneath it: “Prettiest Girl: Peggy Dupuy.” Many know some versionof the Peggy Martin story: After Hurricane Katrina, she returned to what had been her home in Plaquemines Parish and found that one rose had survived. For most of us, the story stops there —arose that lived when almost nothing else did. These days, many are reminded of the story every spring when Peggy Martin roses bloom with wild abandon all over Louisiana. The rose is easy to grow,thornless and pink,and now sold widely

But theshort version of the story leaves outmuch of what Martin,now 80 and still very much the prettiest girl,” told me as we walked through her garden early Friday morning. Like, for example, her middle name is Rose She andI metearly because sheplays bourré at 10 a.m. every Friday around her kitchen table with the same four women. Back in 2005, her 82-year-old parents refused to evacuatetheir homein Phoenix, in Plaquemines Parish —even after shebegged, pleaded andwent back again for them. They didnot survive the storm that her rose did. Standing by her pool Friday and admiringher garden,Iasked if sheswims often.

“No, and I’ll tell you why,” she said, lookingatthe pool. “My parentsdrowned.Iusedtobeon aswim team, butI know what I’m going to think of if Iput my head below thewater.SoIjust don’t

ä See RISHER, page 2B

Leadership questioned,open meetinglaw violations alleged

BYMARIE FAZIO Staff writer

NOLAPublic Schoolsofﬁcials are looking into complaints by staffmembers at Bricolage Academy aboutthe school’s leadership and allegations that the charter school violated open meetings laws,according to a letter from the districttothe school’sleaders.

The June 26 letter said the school did not respond to thedistrict’sprevious inquiries about theschool’spublic meetings and “other concerns and allegations.”

TheB-rated schoolonEsplanade Avenue enrolls about 1,000 students in pre-kingerdarten through eighthgrade.

The letter ordered Bricolage to provide information about how it responds to employeegrievanc-

es, including ones filed in March, and how the board handles complaintsabout the school’sleadership. It warned that if the school does not provide the requested information and post missing School Board documents on its website by Aug. 14, theschool could face “escalated consequences.” The letter was signed by Kelli Jordan, the district’schief of school support and improvement. The inquiry,first reported by independent newssitethe Lamplighter,follows arecent staff shake-upatBricolage. It also comes afterthe school’sparentteacher organization raised concerns to the district about the school’sleadership andgoverning board. In March, more than 20 Bricolage employees sent anonymous letters to the school’sboard criticizing decisions by theschool leadership, including the firing of aveteran elementary school teacher.Theyalso said there wasnoway to filecomplaints aboutthe leadership because

Bricolage CEO Edward Brown had been performing the duties of thehumanresources director after that person resigned in January

Staff members who spoke on the conditionofanonymity for fear of retaliation said the board did not respond to the letters. Theyalso accusedthe school’s governing board of violating open meetings laws and district policy that requires schools to post meeting minutes within two weeks of their approval.

Norman Barnum,who has served as chairofBricolage’s boardsinceAugust, declined to commentonspecifics but said the board has responded to the district’sletter and is in the processofresolving the issuesthe district raised. He said the board hasrequested ameeting with New Orleans schools Superintendent FateamaFulmore.

BricolageCEO Edward Brown, who took over leadership of the schoollastyear after Antigua Wilburn stepped down, did

STAFFPHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Chelsey

LOUISIANA AT LARGE

Murrill White

See MURRILL, page 2B

Williams

Rapper whodidn’tget pardon wantsrefund

Boozie Badazz contract with lobbyists under scope

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

The way his hired lobbyists made it sound, Baton Rouge rapper Boosie Badazz was all but guaranteed clemency last year through apresidential pardon from President Donald Trump. But as sentencing came for the rapper’sfederal felon in possession of aﬁrearm conviction in January, no ofﬁcial pardon had been signed by the president.

Now,Boosie, whose legal name is Torence Hatch, has entered into arbitration with his former representatives in hopes they will refund himhalf of the $600,000 he paid as part of the campaign for clemency Targeted in the dispute areattorneys Jacob Wohl andJackBurkman,ofthe Washington ﬁrm JM Burkman and Associates. The two previously pleaded guilty to telecommunica-

RISHER

Continued from page1B

go in.”

tions fraud in 2022 for operatinganOhio robocall scam discouraging peoplefrom votingbymail. According to Baton Rouge attorneyJill Craft, who’s representingHatch inthe arbitration,Burkman and Wohl strung the rapper along with promises that his pardon was making its way through the capital’s corridors ofpower

be New Year’s2026.

“Generally speaking, the law will provide thatiffolks geta date wronginacontract or something like that, and it’svery clear from the termsofthe contract that that’swhat the parties intended, obviously thenthe contract can be reformed correctly,” Craft said.

In acopy of the pardon representation contract providedtoThe Advocate by Craft, both Hatch’sand Burkman’ssignatures are dated Sept.30, 2025.

“It was alot along the lines of ‘It’s in thepresident’s office, it’sadone deal.Don’t worry,you know we got this taken car eo f. Those types of things,” Craft said. At issue in the contract is aclause underwhichHatchcould request arefund of halfof the funds he paid the firm, shouldhenot be pardoned by aspecificdeadline.

Oddly,however,the contract’sset deadline was Jan.31, 2025—a full nine months before Hatch contacted the attorneys and penned the contract in the ﬁrst place. That was atypo, accordingtoCraft, and the truedate was supposed to

Her parents, Rosalie andPivon

J. Dupuy,were married 63 years. Pivon stormed Omaha Beach in World WarII.

Martin started collecting old gardenroses in 1974. By the time Katrina happened, she had 137 roses and more than 1,000 other plants covering her home next door to her parents. One rose, planted against afour-bay tractor shed between her house andher parents’, had grown 40 feet across and 30 feet deep.

In her home in Gonzales, just around the corner from her “Prettiest Girl” photo, she showed me her RoseRoom. Some of her glass andporcelain rose pieces survived Katrina and now sit amongher prized possessionsonrose-colored carpet, arose bedspread anda rose needlepoint chair.

In 2005, nearly three weeks passed before the National Guard andthe Federal Emergency Management Agency cleared thehighway enough for Martin to getback to what wasleft of her home.

“It looked like Hiroshima,” she said. “You’ve ever seen pictures of Hiroshima? Black sticks andgray ash.”

Walking the ruined property toward her parents’ house, Martin passedthe old tractor shed and sawgreen leaves —the giantrose atop the shed, the one with no name, had survived.

“My parents knew Ineeded something to help me survive,” shesaid.

William C. Welch, alandscape architect and founder of the Texas Rose Rustlers, had seen the rose before Katrina when he and his wifewentdown for seafood off Martin’shusband’sboat. Welchsaid he had never seen anything like it. After the storm, he returned for cuttings and pushed Martin to get the rose into commerce. Years earlier,she had gotten the plant from her hairdresser’sfamily in New Orleans. They thought it might be aSeven Sisters rose. It was not. SevenSisters is thorny,needs cold to bloom and has big leaves. As Welch’swife, Diane, was dying of breast cancer in the months after Katrina, Welch called Martin

MURRILL

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Louisiana Supreme Court later disagreed. Williams recused his ofﬁce after the grandjury sought to investigate Murrill, sources have said. District Judge Leon Roche went on to appoint White, aformer criminal court judge who stepped down in 2023, to handle the case. The subpoenas to Williams and White each seek emails and other communications related to the case against Murrill, the grand jury and the investigation.

Among the records that Murrill’sattorneys want from Williams are correspondence between the dis-

In the most recent ﬁling, Burkman and Wohl’sattorney Charles Campmotioned to dismiss the arbitration on the grounds thatthe lobbyists had signed thecontract only after the expiration date —the New Year’sEve 2025 date Craftconsiders a typo —had already passed, making the contract void.

In aMonday statement to The Advocate, Burkman saidthe provision over the refund was never agreed to by his ﬁrm

“Boosie has no reason to be unhappy,” Burkman wrote. “In 30 yearsoflobbying, Idoubt we have ever done morework and harder work. …Wetried very very hard.”

Burkman added that their campaign was made “much tougher”due to Hatch being arrested again in Houston earlier this year —for allegedly striking anightclub security guard with ahookah. Withoutthe pardon, Hatch was sentenced to three years of supervised release, 300hoursofcommunity serviceand a$50,000 fine for the possession of aﬁrearm conviction. Following his new Houston arrest,aCalifornia probation officer filed to revoke theabove probation conditions on June 23. Should ajudge agree torevoke Hatch’sprobation,he could face up to two years in prison, according to the ﬁling.

Burkman and Wohl provided Hatch and his defense attorney,Meghan Blanco, with updates in earlyJanuary thatthe rapper’spardon hadbeen endorsedbyseveral MAGA inﬂuencers and GOP politicians, according to reporting by news organization NOTUS.

Thosewho had supposedly signed in support included Erika Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USAand widowofTurning Point founder Charlie Kirk, and

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, of Benton.

Representatives for Erica Kirk and Johnson denied granting this support, NOTUS reported Monday. In Erica Kirk’scase, arepresentative said she wasn’t even aware of whothe rapper is.

Thepublication further reported that Burkman and Wohl gave repeated assurances that the pardon was moving through Washingtonwith momentum, even messaging on NewYear’s Eve that the pardon was in Trump’shand and “ready to sign.”

Blanco told NOTUS that days later,aWhite House aidesaidthat they hadnot seena pardon application for Hatchatall. Blanco has since ﬁled apardon application on Hatch’sbehalf.

In March, afterHatch requested areturnofhalfof his money,Burkman reportedly sent the rapper atext message saying the firm couldnot deliverthe funds because it was near bankruptcy due to ﬁnes from the Ohio robocall conviction.

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

bourré on FridayinMartin’skitchen in Gonzales.

late one night. He needed to tell hersomething important.

“He said,‘Something just overcame me. It was like it was whispered to me. Name that rose Peggy Martin,’”Martin said.

She said sheknew immediately whohad donethe whispering.

“My mama told him what to name that rose,” Martin said.

The rose that carries Martin’s name has sincespread through nurseries across the Southand beyond.

Peggy Martin has becomeshorthand in gardening circles for resilience. In June, it became the ofﬁcial state rose of Louisiana, thanks to state Sen. Patrick Connick and state Rep.Jacob Braud. Martin hasnever made adime from it. “It’safound rose,” she said,“so Icannot claim it.”

What she gets instead arrives in letters from strangers, photographs ofblooms climbing fences and porches from people who say they’d never managed to grow anythingbefore.

“It ﬁlls yourheart,” she said. “People go gaga over this.”

trictattorneyorhis staffand Moreno, City Council President JPMorrell, formerU.S. Rep.Cedric Richmond,state Sen. Gary Carterormembers ofthe news media. From White, Murrill’sattorneys want any correspondence the special prosecutor has hadwith Williams, Roche, Moreno or members of the news media. Murrill’s attorneys are seeking recordsdatingtoMarch 1. Williams’ ofﬁce could not be immediately reached for commentMonday aboutthe subpoena requests. White declined to comment Thesubpoenas follow letters Murrill’sattorneys sent last week to Moreno, Williams, White and the fivecouncilmembers who backed aspecial election demanding they retain all

Florida Avenue Bridge reopens

BY MARCO CARTOLANO Staff writer

The Florida Avenue Bridge over the IndustrialCanal in New Orleans reopened over the weekend following equipment repairs tied to an April pipe break that leaked millions of gallons of sewage into the canal, according to the New OrleansSewerage &Water Board. The blue bridge in the9th Ward officially opened Saturday,nearly three months after it closed April 17 when aboatcrashedintothe 54inchsewer main at Florida Avenue. The pipe break caused a 10-dayleak thatpoured50 million gallons of sewage into the water The S&WB plans to perform more watervalve repairs at the site, which may cause additional impacts on traffic near thebridge, officials said. Any additional closures will be announced in advance.

22-year-old identified as shooting victim Marreroman killed inside conveniencestore

BY MICHELLE HUNTER Staff writer

PeggyMartin, 80, in the RoseRoom of her Gonzales home, standsnear glass and porcelain pieces she wasable to recoverafter Hurricane Katrina.

Istarted packing up my notebook as the bourré ladies began to arrive, each bearing stacks of dollar bills and shallow Tupperware rectangles ﬁlled withcookies and

messagesand phone records related to the grand jury investigation or Murrill’sallegedthreats.Those letters suggest apossible civil lawsuit in theofﬁng. In itsorderstaying the case against Murrill, the LouisianaSupreme Court took issue with theindictmentand noted possible conﬂictsinWhite’soversight

The court’s unsigned opinion cited “considerable support for the view thatthe Attorney General is likely to succeed on the merits of amotion to quash this indictment on either alegal basis or due to apparent procedural irregularities.” Murrill’sattorneys had not yetﬁledthatmotion Monday. Landry hassaidhewill pardonMurrill in the event of aconviction.

dips. They set up individual side tables for drinks and snacks.

“Wedon’tstop playing cards,” StephanieFrederic said. “You get your snacks, and you put it right here, andyou keep playing.” Martin’sfriends know her well, but they still appreciate that their hostess is, after all, “the” Peggy Martin. They told me about stunned cashiers whonotice her nameonher credit card.

As the gamewas about to start, Icould see the backyard and therambling Peggy Martin rose through the window.Ithad long since ﬁnished its spring show but even in July’sheat, Ispotted two smallpink blooms. In my own backyard, Igrow Peggy Martinroses. Last year,I was propagating eight morewhen we had our house ﬁre. Those cuttings were lost, but the older plants survived. I’ll propagate more. And whenthey bloom, I’ll think of Rosalie and Pivon Dupuy and their “prettiest girl.”

Email JanRisheratjan.risher@ theadvocate.com.

BRICOLAGE

Continuedfrom page1B

not respond toseveral inquiries.

SariLevy,presidentof theschool’sparent-teacher association, contacted adistrict ofﬁcial in May to raise concerns about the school’sleadership, including what Levydescribedasthe board’s lack of transparency The association also submitted apublic recordsrequest to the Bricolageboardseeking the anonymous letters submitted by teachers, Brown’sperformance evaluations, staff surveys about Brown’sleadership and aresignation

letter the former human resources director sent the boardinDecember Therecords have not been turnedover, she told the district. In hermessage to the NOLA Public Schools official, Levyalso said she is concerned that the longtime principal of Bricolage’selementary and middle school resigned under Brown’sleadership. She addedthat she is worried more teachers will leave the school.

“Weare askingthat the Board be held to its governance obligations,” Levy wrote, “that the concerns of teachers and families be taken seriously, andthatthe proper oversight mechanisms function as they should.”

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Coroner’sOffice identified aman killed in ahomicide at aHarvey convenience store Sunday morning.

Donte Vallee, 22, of Marrero, waspronounceddead after he was shot inside the business, located in the 2000 block of Woodmere Boulevard.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce investigators arrested asuspect, Desmond Bergeron, 26,ofHarvey, and booked him on counts of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with aﬁrearm,according to Sgt. Brandon Veal, spokesperson forthe department.

Authorities said Bergeron and Vallee knew one another andenteredthe Woodmere store together just before 5:40 a.m. Bergeronisaccused of fatally shooting Vallee once they were inside. No details were available Monday about asuspected motive forthe killing.

ASheriff’s Office deputy dispatched to the scene arrived to find Bergeron standing outside with agun, accordingtoauthorities. The deputy fired his service weapon multiple times, but Bergeron wasnot injured, the Sheriff’sOffice said. Bergerontried to run from authoritiesbut was quickly taken into custody.Hewas being held Monday at the JeffersonParish Correctional Center in Gretna. Bail wasset at $750,000.

LOTTERY

SUNDAY,JULY12, 2026

PICK 3: 3-7-9

PICK 4: 8-6-3-3

PICK 5: 0-9-0-6-3

Unofficial notification, keep your tickets

HARVEY

STAFF PHOTOSByJAN RISHER

Stephanie Frederic, from left, Vicki McCoy,PeggyMartin, Glenda Landryand PugBabinstartdealing the cardsfor

Brown, Jeanne Faciane, Darrin Faciane, DarrinJamil

Kennedy,Douglas

Sins Jr., George

Thiele Sr., Maurice

Obituaries

Brown, Jeanne Canal Breaux

Jeanne CanalBreaux

Brown aresident of Kenner, passed away on Saturday,July 11, 2026at the age of 90.

Loving wife of Henry Brown andthe late Thurman Breaux. Mother of Glenn Breaux (Suzette), Kenny Breaux (Annette), Sharon Massie(Louis), Michael Breaux, and David Breaux (Debbie). Grandmother of Chad, Scott (Caroline), Katie, Nicholas Massie, Kyle Travis, Jessica Maehler (Luke), Abbie and Matt. Great-grandmother of Madden and Manning Breaux. Daughterofthe late Eugene and Naomi Canal. Sister of the late Gene, Everette, Leo, and Patsy (Liberto). Also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.

Jeanne graduated from Redemptorist High School in 1953. Married the boy across the street, Thurman Breauxin1955 and moved toKenner in 1964, until his death in 2006. While on a trip to Oregon in 2007, she met her current husband, Henry Brown. Which he has never left her side and missing her dearly

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Visitation and Massof Christian Burial on Thursday, July 16, 2026 at L.A. Muhleisen and Son Funeral Home, 2607 Williams Blvd. Kenner, LA.

Visitation will be from 9:00 am to 11:00amwiththe Mass of Christian Burial to begin at 11:00am. Burial at JeffersonMemorial Gardens to follow the service.

Family and friends are invited to celebrate the life of Darrin Jamil Faciane, who passed awayonJune 20,2026inNew Orleans, LA. Darrin was 33 and deeplyloved by hisfamily, friends and coworkers. He leaves behind his mother,DarnellA.Faciane, father, JeffreyFaciane,sister, Jessica Faciane Arevalo, brother,Cody Faciane, daughter, Harmonie Faciane and a wide circle of friends and family.Hepreceded in death by hisgrandfather, Leon C.Armwood Sr. grandmother, Lillian Brooks Armwood,grandfather, Norvell Faciane, stepgrandfather, Clarence Stein and uncle, Corvell Armwood

Please join us for acelebrationoflifeonJuly17, 2026atResurrectionofOur Lord church at 10:30a.m. New Orleans,LA.

Kennedy, Douglas Michael 'Bird' Douglas "Bird" Kennedy 64, of New Orleans, Lo Ju Mi Al he Comm Memori be Jul Ch in

GeorgeFrederick "Rick" Sins,Jr.,beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, and friend,passed away peacefully on July9 2026, at his home in St Francisville,Louisiana. He was 85 years old.

Born on April 11, 1941, in NewOrleans, Louisiana, Rick liveda life defined by devotion—tohis family,his friends,his work, and the countless people whose liveshetouchedthrough his kindness, generosity and genuine interestin others.

Nothingmattered more to Rick than thepeoplehe loved, and his family always knew they were his highestpriority. Rick is survivedbyhis wife, Janet GarrettSins, whomhe married in August 1969. Over nearly57years of marriage, they builta life centered around thefamily they cherished. Rick was theproud father of Stacy Sins Ingram and her husband, John; George F. Sins, IIIand his wife, Amy; and Katherine Sins LeBlancand her husband,Loren. He was adevoted grandfather to ChristopherIngram, Caroline Ingram, Madeline LeBlanc, and George Miller LeBlanc, and took greatjoy in watching each of them grow and pursue their pas-

leagues alike. He took prideinhelping others plan fortheir futures and was especially proudthat thebusiness he built wouldcontinue through his son, George.

While Rick enjoyed a successful professional life,those who knew him best understoodthat his true passion was people. He never met astranger and could strike up aconversation with anyone, anywhere. Hiswarmth, curiosity, and gift for storytelling allowed him to form friendshipsthroughout every stageofhis life

Rick lovedsports and rarely missed an opportunitytocheeronhis childrenand grandchildren. Hisenthusiastic voice from thestands was unmistakable,and his family always knew he was there. He generously supported his children's and grandchildren's schoolsand athletic programs,helpingprovide opportunitiesfor young athletes to pursue the sports they loved. Rick also had aspecial love for animals, particularlyhis beloveddog Dixie, who brought him companionship and joy in recent years.

Aboveall else, Rick lovedlife. He embraced each daywithenthusiasm, found happinessinsimple moments, and treasured time spent with family and friends.Those who knew him understand that he would notwant to be remembered withsadness, butwithgratitude,laughter, and celebration.

Rick's greatest accomplishment was notthe business he builtorthe success he achieved;it was thefamily he lovedso deeply and thejoy he

www.filltheneeds.org. To view andsignthe Familyonline guestbook, please visit www.lakelawn metairie.com

Thiele,MauriceGerard

Maurice G. Thiele passedawaypeacefullyat home on July 3, 2026, at the age of 103. He wasbornon March21, 1923, in New Orleanstothe lateHenry AlbertJoseph Thiele and LucilleDesForges Thiele He wasthe brotheroflate Henry"Duke" J. A. Thiele Jr Noemie "Mimi"Thiele Raymond,and Lucille Thiele Massicot Maurice was marriedfor nearly 70 years to his belovedlatewife,Merrill AgnesKnecht Thiele. He is survived by hischildren, Maurice G. "Mickey" Thiele, Jr (Cindy), Merrill AnnThieleBabin(Steve), and William H. "Billy" Thiele (Jeannine). He was theloving grandfather of Stephen BabinJr. (Brittany), Mark Babin, Matthew Babin(Emily), Michael Thiele, Scarlett Thiele Tierney (David), and Brett Thiele, andgreat-

Orleanshome in Oak Park, Maurice wonthe warofattrition with the various recovery and insurance agenciesfinallyenabling himtoconstruct anew home wherehis pre-hurricane housestood. He wasanoriginal Saints season ticket holder andheld season ticketsfor thirtyyearssupportingthe team throughgoodtimes andbad Adevoted Catholic, he wasa parishionerofSt. Francis CabriniChurchfor 50 years. Following Hurricane Katrina, he became aparishionerofSt. Pius XChurch. Maurice's familywishes to extendtheir heartfelt gratitude to hispersonal caregivers andtoSerenity Hospice forthe kindness, compassion and dedicated care that they providedto himinhis final years. Afuneral service will be held on Friday, July 17, 2026, at Lake Lawn MetairieFuneral Home, 5100 PontchartrainBlvd NewOrleans,LA. Visitation will be held from12PM- 2 PM with afuneral Mass to begin at 2PM. Interment will follow at Lake Lawn ParkMausoleum. In lieu of flowers, donation in Maurice's memory may be made to St.PiusX Church,6666 Spanish Fort Blvd,New Orleans, LA 70124.

flooded hislongtime New

Sins Jr., George Frederick

Meta’s investment in workforcehas impact beyond data center

Meta’sinvestment in amassivedatacenter in Richland Parishhas grabbed headlines for months. It seems that each new turnof the growing endeavor has major economic implications for the future of our state. Thisweek, the company more than doubled the size of the project, upping the sizeofits investmentto$50 billionfromthe $10 billion planned just two years ago. As construction proceeds, theHyperion data center has already created an economic boom in acorner of ourstate that needed ashotin the arm. When ﬁnished, the 4-million-squarefoot data center will sit on 3,200 acres. Meta is spending $1 billion to upgraderoads and wastewater systemsinthe area. It is alsopaying for10new power plants Entergy is buildingto power the computing facility

While that’sall impressive, today,we’d like to point out an investmentMetaismaking that will be even more transformative. Andthatisin Louisiana’speople.

In June, the company announcedthat Baton Rougewould be oneofthe four sitesinthe nation where it is launchingAmerica’s Workforce Academy.The other cities areColumbus,Indianapolis and Houston. The $115 million initiative is aimed at training people in the skilledtrades thatare directly linked to the datacenterboom —which requires more welders, ﬁbertechnicians,electricians and plumbers. Applications areopennow for the four-toﬁve-week training thatrequires no prior experience and leads to aguaranteedjob with aMETApartner at the end. The participants getastipend while theyare training.

In Baton Rouge, the trainingthisfall will be held at the Associated Builders andContractors Pelican Chapter trainingcenter,which hasreceived thousands of applications. But that’snot the only investment in education Meta has made in our state. It gave$5millionto theLouisiana Delta Community College, whose main campus is in Monroe, to train residents for data center jobs, and alsodonated $250,000 to theNew Orleans Career Center to provide technical training to high school juniors and seniors. That’stosay nothing of thebonuses teachers in Richland Parish recently got,courtesy of surging sales taxrevenue due to the Meta project Forthe workforceacademy, recentgraduates career changers, veterans and newentrants to the workforce from all partsofthe countryare welcome to apply.Wesee noreason whyevery slot available shouldnot beﬁlledcome fall with Louisiana residents leadingthe way. Make no mistake. Thisisagame-changerfor workforce development in Louisiana.Creating pathways to long-range stable employmentfor more people has long been agoal of the state’s economic development leaders. With Meta’s backing, that goal has never been more within reach.

Economic development should exponentially beneﬁt people,not just bottomlines. That’sreal power Louisiana can harness from the data centerboom.

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

Will it take an actofCongress to getcoastal restorationdone?

Those representing Louisianain Congress need to carve out exemptionsfrom the Jones Act and Foreign Dredge Act for coastal restoration projectshere in thestate of Louisiana. With thestate’sdecision to pull the plug on the long-planned Mississippi River diversion projects, the only signiﬁcant alternative for coastal restoration projectsisdredging. However,under theJones Act and Foreign Dredge Act, all dredging in U.S. waters must be done by U.S. ﬁrms.

These firms charge up to 60% more than foreign firms. Netherlands firms in particular,are much moreefficient and much less costly With Louisianahaving already lost a

For years, violent crimeinNew Orleanswas seen as unavoidable. Two years ago, Troop Nola was created at thedirection of Gov.Jeff Landry and stateleaders because we refused to accept that narrative. Built on collective efficacy,Troop Nola recognizes that public safetyrequires law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, community organizations, businesses and residentsworking together Since itsinception, Troop Nola has mademore than 1,200 felony arrests, seized over 300 illegal firearms, recovered 115 stolen vehicles, confiscated morethan $180,000 tied tocriminal activity and seized more than 40 ATVs used in criminal conduct.Troop Nola cases now account for roughly 22% of the OrleansParishCriminal District Court docket. Ourstrategy focuses on deterrence, targeting repeat violent offenders,

In reference to theletter by Ernest L. O’Bannon regarding theClerk of Criminal District Court’soffice: He references that he worked in Civil District Court. Reasons for fighting for the criminal clerk’soffice are twofold One, 68% of voters voted for the clerk of criminal court. The voters cannot and should not be discounted after

chunk of land equivalent to the size of thestate of Delaware and with no end in sight for continuing loss, we need to makeevery coastal restoration dollar go as far as possible.

The choice is asimple one. What is moreimportant, thefuture of the 2.5 million people who live along the Louisiana coast,orthe proﬁts of ahandful of U.S. dredging ﬁrms?

Ithink it’s us folks on thecoast, and Ithink our congressional representatives should show they believe the samebyamending the Jones Act and ForeignDredge Act to exclude land restoration work in Louisiana.

MICHAEL NUSBAUM

NewOrleans

intelligence-driven enforcement and proactive intervention using modern technology,including drones and realtime intelligence. That strategy is working. In 2025, violent crime wascut nearly in half and crime remains well below historical averages. Troop Nola’spartnerships with the LouisianaNational Guard, NOPD and FBI continue to strengthen operations through initiatives like Operation Twilight and Operation Golden Eagle. Most notably,every Troop Nola trooper was deputized as an FBI Task Force Ofﬁcer,anunprecedented milestone that strengthensintelligence sharing, federal prosecution opportunities and uniﬁed public safety efforts. Challenges remain, but New Orleans is proof that coordinated policing works.

ROBERT P. HODGES superintendent, Louisiana State Police

‘Prescriptions’for healthyfoods help patients manage chronicdiseases

As apharmacist with morethan 20 years of clinical experience, and as aNew Orleanian living with high blood pressure myself,I’ve seen both sides of the prescription pad.

Ican counsel awoman on her medications all day,but if she can’t afford fresh produce or reach a grocery store, that prescription only does half its job. Here in Louisiana, where dietrelated chronic disease and food insecurity both run high, that gap costs lives.

That’swhy Isupport “Food is Medicine” policies.

The American Heart Association deﬁnes Food is Medicine as healthy food prescribed within ahealthcare setting to prevent, manage and treat diet-related chronic disease.

Approaches such as produce prescriptions and medically tailored mealshave been showntoimprove outcomes and expand access to nutritious food.

Yes, Louisiana is ready.Arecent New Orleans study funded by the association’sHealth Care by Food initiative, ﬁttingly named “Makin’ Healthy Groceries,” showed these programsare feasible and promising right here, in our neighborhoods, in our language.

As amember of the Health Care by Food Lived Experience Patient Advisory Board, I’ve seen how lived experience shapes this work.

Now our policymakers must act by funding and implementing these programstoimprove health and reduce disparities statewide.

ALISHA REED Metairie

records.

theelection. If the governor wanted to abolish theposition,itshould have been done before the election was held. Two, the reason Calvin Duncan ran was that he didn’twant what happened to him to happen to anyone else. When Duncan asked forhis records, he was not greeted in ahelpful manner.Hedid not receive any help or any

O’Bannon was alaw clerk in civil court, which he claims ran smoothly This was not the case in the criminal clerk’soffice. Records being stored in moldy areas and tossed in alandfill don’tmake forawell-run office.

GLORIA PRESTON NewOrleans

COMMENTARY

The fixationsofDonaldTrump

Steve Roberts

Donald Trump is ﬁxated— even obsessed —with making it harder forAmericans to vote in November’s elections. Apresident who accused his rivals of “CHEATING!” in a recent social media post is trying to do exactly that. He is theCheater-inChief. In his most recentattempt at subvertingdemocracy,the president is pressuring Congressional Republicans to pass what he calls the SAVE America Act, aset of stringent new requirements for registering and voting that could disenfranchise as manyas21million citizens, according to astudy by the Brennan Center for Justice.

“The administration is doing asmuch as possible to inject chaos into theelection cycle,” Wendy Weiser,the center’s vice president for democracy,told the Washington Post. “A top priorityfor this administration is to try to interfere in this election.”

Moreover,the president’scampaign is based on alie: the accusation that noncitizens vote in vast numbers. In fact, every study has shown that the American electoral system is remarkably sound and that fraudisexceedingly rare.

Trump clearly knows that without his insidious intervention, Republicansare highly likely to lose at least onechamber of Congress this fall. Andheknows that the Democrats— afteryears of being bullied and bludgeoned —would use their power to make his lasttwo years in ofﬁce as miserableaspossible.

Trump also knowshecannot wina fair ﬁght. He’seven saidthatwithout rigging the system, Republicans “will never win anotherelection.”

In 20 of the last 22 midterm contests, the president’sparty has lost seatsin Congress, and that trend is rooted in political reality.Magneticpresidential candidates like Trump energize marginal voters who stay home in off years. More seriously,all presidents make promises they cannot keep, leadingtoa certain amount of buyer’sremorse. And Trump is aclassic example. He won 49.8% of the popular vote in 2024, but withinﬂation rising and war raging,his approval rating stands at 39 5% inthe Silver Bulletin’saverage of reputable national polls.

That means that roughly 1in10Americans, and1 in 5Trumpvoters, have lost faith in the president. In thelatest Quinnipiac poll, for example, only 33% approveofhis handling of the economy, and64% disapprove, the worst rating he’s ever received on this critical issue. Those grimnumbers have enraged thepresident and inﬂamed his tantrums. He hascalled passing theSAVE Act a“national emergency” and urged theSenate to end centuries of tradition andterminate the ﬁlibuster in order to enact themeasure.

Knowingthat won’thappen, he’scraftinga last-ditch strategythat would attach thebill to aspending measure that, underCongressional rules, could evade aﬁlibuster.

TheSenate parliamentarian would probablyrulesuch chicanery out of order,and Trump has already demanded that Senateleaders ﬁre her.Which they won’t

Not only is the SAVE Act based on afalsehood,italso violates one of the core tenets of traditional conservatives: that thestates, not thecentral government,shouldcontrol crucial functions like voting

“When Iwas in ofﬁce,” Trey Grayson, the former Republican secretary of state in Kentucky,told CNN, “the numberone principle of election administration was that the states run elections and Congress should be minimally involved. On theRepublican side, we really believed that. It was really,really important.”

The congressional measure is only one of many efforts by theCheaterin-Chief to violatethat principle. He pressured statelegislatures to defy convention and redraw congressional boundaries before thenext census, and experts estimate their actions could give Republicans anet gain of about 10 seats.

Trumpalso issued executive orders establishing anational database aimed at purging some voters from therolls and making it harder for others to cast ballotsbymail. Herehe’sbeen less successful.

Several federal courtshave recently rebuffed these orders, with U.S.District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan deﬁantly declaring, “The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rightsofAmerican citizens in amanner that threatens the sacred right to vote. This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.” Andjudge Indira Talwani ruled that Trump’sorders “unconstitutionally violate theseparation of powers.”

The Cheater-in-Chief has assaulted thesystem of democracy for his own political and personal beneﬁt.He’swon somebattles and his chaos crusade will continue.

Buthe’slost many other ﬁghts, thanks to courageous lawmakers and judges who have stood up for the“sacred right”he’strying to trample.

Email Steven Roberts at stevecokie@ gmail.com.

Court limpsawayfromits campaign ﬁnance sins

Any adequate history of human shortsightedness, which would prettymuch encompass all of human history,would mention America’shalf-century dalliance with “campaign ﬁnance reform.”

The Supreme Court recentlyissued another decision distancingitself, but not nearly enough, from its original 1976sin of notinvalidating limitson coordinated expenditures byparties when it invalidated expenditure limits on candidates.

Areyou chasing false gods?

Thisyear,the issue before thecourt was, incredibly,whether political parties can spendoncampaign activities in coordination with their own candidates With hairsplitting complexity disproportionate to the issue’ssimplicity, the court (6-3) said yes, reversing a2001 decision.

notes: “For nearly 200 years after the ratiﬁcation of the First Amendment, parties could spend freely” to support, and in coordination with, their candidates.

George Will

Academia hasbeen egregiousin diminishing the First Amendment, but this began in Congress. All campaign ﬁnance laws are written byincumbent legislators,and, unsurprisingly,servetheir interests. Ostensibly responding to Watergate, but primarily codifying its members’ interests, Congress imposedlimits on the quantity, contentand timing of political (campaign) speech, the First Amendment’score concern Limits on campaign contributionsand spending magnify the importance of incumbents’ many communications advantages. When achallenge to the law’sconstitutionality reachedthe court in1976, the court disallowed limits on campaign expenditures, all of which fund, directly or indirectly,the dissemination of political speech: advertising, voter mobilization, etc. But the courtallowed limits on contributions because they might“appear”problematic.

Limits on parties’ spending— on parties’ speech —survived. This caused contributions to ﬂow to unregulated outside groups (PACs) that oftenhave narrowideological axes to grind, and away from parties, which specialize in coalition-building. In the 2024 election cycle, PACs raised more than $15.7 billion; parties raised $2.7 billion. Result: more polarization caused byshortsightedness.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr andJustices Clarence Thomas,Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, noted that the court has heldthatthere is only one purpose that permits government torestrict campaignfinancing: preventing quid pro quo corruption (an official act done in response to aspecific campaign contribution)orthe “appearance” thereof. The majority held that modern technology(principally the internet) enables swift disclosure that deters “earmarking” (see below) without restricting a party’sorcontributor’scoordinated political speech. Justice Elena Kagan, joined in dissent by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, made apoint that illustrates how thecourt continues to miss thepoint about political speech. She said that an individual’shuge contribution to aparty could be directed by theparty,with awink and anod, to the contributor’spreferred candidate. This “earmarking,” Kagan laments,would nullify, by circumvention,limits on contributionstocandidates.

But these should be nulliﬁed. The court’slong and still-incomplete limp back to conformity with theFirst Amendmentwill be incompleteuntil earmarking is considered protected unlimited —donors’ speech. The court has heldthatthe political debateshould be “uninhibited, robust,and wide-open.” Not merely as open as Congressconsiderspreferable.

Thecourt has hitherto ruledagainst limits on individuals’spending their own money.(Candidates cannot corrupt themselves.) Now thecourt belatedly

“Reformers” have long fretted about donors having “undue” influence on officeholders, and even, nonsensically, parties having “undue” influence on their candidates. This year,the court rattled on in favor of campaign regulationsthat are “closely drawn,”“narrowly tailored” and not “disproportionate.” Good grief.

Campaign regulations and their rationales about “appearance” breed the sort of cynicism they are supposed to combat.Consider the following: The largest political spending today that could raise quid pro quo “appearance,” probably is by teachers unions, whose support goesalmost entirely to Democrats. Butdowewant corruption sniffers trying to establish where politics ends and corruption begins? Does arecipient’sopposition to school-choice programscause aunion’scontributions, or do thecontributions ﬂow to therecipient because he or she opposes schoolchoice programs? Supporting aparty or candidate because one supports particular policies is called politics.

Quid pro quo corruption has long been illegal. Restricting speech in order to deter such corruption also should be illegal. It is, under the First Amendment (“Congress shall makenolaw …”) properly construed. Actually,any doctrine that permits limits on contributions and spending for political advocacy is inconsistent with theconstitutional proscription of laws abridging freedom of speech. The court could have spared thecountry much trouble if in 1976 it had responded to Congress’sspeech-rationing regime with athree-word opinion: “You’re kidding, right?”

Email George Will at georgewill@ washpost.com.

My sadly departed friend, Frank, was a unicorn. He lived 89 years in the townhe grew up in, avillage on the Connecticut shore. Areporter at his local newspaper forover half acentury,hehad turned down offers to work formore glamorous publications, among them Sports Illustrated and The New York Times Frank had considered the priesthood in his youth. He stopped going to church and claimed he wasn’tpart of it anymore, but the church’smoral teachings clearly stayed put. Frank approached reporting as akind of ministry,spending much time talking with his “flock.” He showered equal interest in the rich, the poor,the Black, the White, the newcomers and the old-timers. Frank stayed put in his weathered little house. The Rowayton of his youth was amodest place, inhabited by artists, teachers and electricians. At acertain point, the hedge fund crowd decided it was their place. It had abeach on the Long Island Sound and aNew York commuter line. It wasnext door to the very affluent Darien. And it had little cottages that the finance bros could tear downand replace with suburban palaces. They bought the cottages from older residents forced out by rising real estate taxes.

Frank becameakind of spiritual leader to the new super-rich neighbors. He felt zero envy of them. On the contrary,hekeenly observed their discontent amid their plenty and diagnosed the reason. “They are chasing false gods,” he’d often say

The phrase relates to the Old Testament story of Moses descending Mount Sinai with the TenCommandments, only to ﬁnd the Israelites partying and worshipping gods of other peoples: Moloch, Baal, plus Aaron’s golden calf. Hence, the phrase “golden calf” meansanidol that people create when they lose faith. Note that the First Commandment is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Frank wasnot necessarily attaching areligious meaning to the line. He interpreted “chasing false gods” as devoting one’slifeto ultimately unimportant things.

Someofthe false gods. Fame: It does not makeone safe. Pursuing youth: Everyone whoages eventually loses it. Money: It doesn’tprove superiority or provide security against suffering.

Frank recalls ﬁnding ayoung neighbor in his garage, hanging from arope over his Ferrari. True story

F. Scott Fitzgerald’sGatsby died in pursuit of false gods. He yearned forDaisy,not so much as awoman, but forthe wealth and status she symbolized. Daisy was Gatsby’s golden calf.

Frank’spresence preserved adesired vintage feel. He ﬁt in with Rowayton’scharming, if increasingly fancier,main street. He represented continuity foryoung men who holed up at homemonitoring overnight trading on Asian markets. Frank wasone of the town’sremaining oaks. Basically,Frank just observed. Every morning, he would see young women jogging behind baby carriages, ponytails bobbing up and down. The older locals joked that the women “were working out like hedge fund wives.” Lose their looks, and they’d be replaced with something younger and slimmer (A lot of that wasgoing on.)

Rowayton is perched on the southwestern border of NewEngland. Many residents, fancying themselves upper class, dressed with Yankee understatement. This wasa place where “quiet luxury” hollered. Except forthe cars. Big, expensive German SUVs predominated. Abeaten truck or modest sedan parked in adriveway suggested atradesman wasthere to ﬁx the airconditioning.

Frank died, his house wassold, and now there’sahulk built high to catch the water views. But the memoryofFrank’slifelessons goes on. Whenever Ichase false gods, and sadly Idosometimes, his voice comes rushing in —and Ireconsider

Froma Harrop on X, @FromaHarrop. Email her at fharrop@gmail.com

Froma Harrop

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JULIA DEMAREENIKHINSON

President Donald Trumpwalks to speak at alunch in the White House Rose Garden.

with meteorologist DamonSingleton

After several days of numerous showers and storms,weare once again under arisk of excessive rainfall that could lead to some measure of flash flooding. Whilerainchancesare lowertoday than theyhavebeen for the last fewdays, somethunderstorms couldstill be very strong and result in minor flooding. With the cloud cover and the rainfall, temperatures will only rise to the mid- to upper 80s, and while rainchances are high, theywill startfalling tomorrow as temperatures startrising

Nation’s firstoffshoreLNG plantsurviveslegal challenge

Ruling says environmentalgroups lacked standing

BY DAVID J. MITCHELL

Staff writer

Afederal appellate court has thrown out alegal challenge calling for anew environmental and public review for what would be the nation’sﬁrst offshore liqueﬁed natural gasexportterminal, to be located off southwest Louisiana.

The ruling from the three-judge panel came about amonth after the backers of the Delfin LNG terminal announced they were proceedingwith an initial $5billion investment to build the ﬁrst anchorageand ﬂoating LNGprocessing vessel, with planstobegin export by 2030.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals didn’tdeal with the meat of the challenge, however,instead finding that the three plaintiffs lacked the standing to bring the petitiontocourt

The court found none of the plaintiff environmental groups the Center of Biological Diversity the SierraClub and the Habitat Recovery Project —showedthey had members with aconcrete injury from the proposed terminal 40 miles off the coast of Cameron Parish.

“Petitioners have identified no member who has made that show-

ing —noone who ﬁshes near the port,boats besideit, works around it, or otherwise uses project-affected waters or nearby areas in away the project would impair,” the 13-page opinion from Circuit JudgeDon R. Willettstated. “Their concern forthe Gulf may be heartfelt. But concern, without injury,is notstanding.” Willett was joined by Circuit Judges Jerry E. Smithand Irma Carrillo Ramirez.

Proposed for adecade, the Delﬁn LNG terminalhas sparked concern that theport’sconstruction and subsequentvesseltraffic would harm aquatic species,including the endangered Rice’swhale and rare sea turtles, and ﬁsheries relied upon by the seafood industry in Cameron Parish.

February explosion

In May 2025, the plaintiffs alleged theterminal’spermitting agencies,the U.S. Departmentof Transportation Maritime Administrationand the U.S. CoastGuard, reversed themselves on an earlier planned delayfor more review afterthe project was revised.The alleged reversalfollowed President Donald Trump’s“Unleashing American Energy” order on his ﬁrst day in ofﬁce.

To establish standing, the plaintiffs citedmembers whoincluded arecreational and commercial fisherman who plies Lake Calcasieu andthe Gulf as much as 30 miles offshore who has seen

aquaticspecies decline, scientists whostudy imperiledGulf species and alandowner living afew miles from the terminal’sonshore pipeline station who enjoys hunting, ﬁshing and birding in thearea.

The vastness of theGulf’s 600,000 squaremiles of open water factored heavily in thecircuit judges analysis to deny standing, ﬁnding those plaintiffs didn’tshowa speciﬁcenough connection to theproposedterminal’slocationnor from its possible environmental impact

The court also rejected broader concerns aboutcontinuedoil and development on declining Gulf species andclimatechange as too generalized.

In February,a sectionofthe aged natural gas pipeline that Delﬁn plans to repurpose for theproject exploded onshorenear Johnson Bayouduring preparatory work, injuring one person.

The explosion blew open acrater, released 56 million cubic feet of gas and burned for hours. Delﬁn was later ordered by separate federal pipeline regulators to make corrections.

The appellate ruling didn’tnote the explosion in its analysisofpotential harm but did say that the Maritime Administration had concluded last year thatthe modiﬁed terminal would have less impact than the earlier design.

The new design would have one fewer LNG vessel and mooring from four to three—with fewer pilings driven in the seabed, would

use acooling system that no longer relied on water out of the Gulf and would be located outside the core range of theRice’swhale.

About 50 of the northern Gulf whalesubspeciesare thoughtto remain alive.

Delﬁn Midstream and one of its attorneys didn’timmediately respond to arequest for comment on ruling.

‘It’scommonsense’

Attorneys with the Center for Biological Diversity said the public deserved to knowmore about oil andgas projects before they are approved.

“Wewere disappointed in the 5th Circuit’sdecisionbecause it’s commonsense that harm from oiland gas activities extends farbeyond anyartificial border you draw around aproject,” said Kristen Monsell, the group’soceans legal director.“The pollutiondoesn’t mindtheseborders,the whales andsea turtles migrate widely, and people who use the Gulf waterswill experience harm from this LNG project.”

The project will include vessels anchored to the Gulf seabed that would receive natural gas through pipelinesand then supercool and liquefy it for transfer to docking ships. Those ships would carry LNGtomarkets in Asia andEurope.

The owner,Delfin Midstream, hopes to export 13.2 million metric tonsofLNG per year at full build-

out. The ﬁrst phase announced in early June would produce 4.4 million metric tons of LNG annually

The Maritime Administration grantedthe terminalits ﬁrst permit in 2017 during Trump’sﬁrst term after areview that included an environmental document with more than 1,800 pages,but afterward, the project encountered slowdowns and then changed investors, ownership and project design.

By 2024, the Maritime Administration under then-President Joe Biden found the decision in 2017 no longer supported the modified project and directed Delfin Midstream to submit an amended application that would have triggereda newenvironmentalimpact statement. The company never submitted the application.

Trump’sexecutive order followed thenextyear, tellingthe Maritime Administration to decide within 30 days whether the modiﬁcations were “likely to result in adverse environmental consequences thatsubstantially differ from those associated with the originally evaluated project,” according to the appellate opinion.

The orderalso directed the Maritime Administration to issue the permit unless the changes presented “seriously different consequences.” Anew approval followed in March 2025.

DavidJ.Mitchellcan be reached at dmitchell@ theadvocate.com.

Incident was caught on video

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

Weeks after running across Hooper Road in Central to beat hisneighbor’s 20-year-oldson, the Rev Tony Spell muststay away fromtheir home unless he’s checking his mailbox.

Spell was arrested on a count of second-degree battery on June 23 after allegedly beating the 20-year-old

for havingyelled “f*** you” at him across thesame road.

Video shows the young man throwing the first punchatSpell after thepastor charged toward him, sprinting across the street. Spellpunched theman eighttimes before tackling him to theground, then hit himanother 27 times. The majority ofthe 35 punches were to the head and chest, accordingtothe warrant for Spell’sarrest. Thefight is the latest episode in anongoing feud between thepastor and his

neighbors that beganin2020 when Spell sued the family for having setupsecurity cameras on their home, which sits directlyacross thestreet from hisLife Tabernacle Church. On Friday aprotective order was issuedagainst Spell on the 20-year-old’sbehalf in Commissioner Kory Tauzin’scourtroom. The order stipulates that

Spell is nottocontact the victim or his family directly or electronically, including through social media.

Spell

It also restricts Spell from coming closer than 50 yards from his neighbors’residence, withone exception. “Mr. Spellmay walkover andcheck his mailbox; other thanchecking his mailbox, he is to be 50 yards away from the protected person’s property,” ahandwritten noteonthe order states.

In comments after his arrest, Spellcomparedhis actionswith ashepherdpro-

tecting his ﬂock. He also claimed the man had previously threatened to rape and murder his family Spell grabbed national headlinesfor holding church services during the COVID pandemic, challenging thenGov.JohnBel Edwards’ restrictions on large gatherings. The prolonged legal battle over holding church services wentall the waytothe Louisiana Supreme Court —where he won in 2022, and his charges were dismissed. The court ruled that

Edwards’ early COVID-19 restrictionsonreligious gatherings violated the state and U.S. constitutions, ﬁndingthat even in theearliest days of apublic health emergency,the First Amendment must notberelegated to a mere“proposition.” He was also arrested the same year in connection with allegedly almost hitting aprotester with abus. Those charges werelater dropped. Email Quinn Coffman at quinn.coffman@ theadvocate.com.

PATH TO THEMAJORS

LSU coach JayJohnson gives encouragement duringa CollegeWorld Series game against Arkansas on June 14, 2025, at Charles SchwabFieldinOmaha, Neb.The Tigers were able to hold on to 16 of the22players taken in the2026 MLB Draft

Johnsonabletoretaintop recruits from MLBdraft by stressingdevelopment

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

The 2026 MLB Draft wasanundeniable success for Jay Johnson and LSU baseball.

The Tigers were able to retain multiple toprecruitsin their signing class,holding on to 16 of their 22 players during the draft this past weekend. Thatgroup joins astrong eight-man transfer portal classand acore of returning players, headlined by StevenMilam and Cade Arrambide.

In an exclusiveinterview with The Advocate, Johnson shared his thoughts on the classand where LSU’s roster standsafter the draft. Hereare the ﬁve biggest takeaways from that conversation

Powerhouse

clashinTexas

NeitherFrancenor Spainhas trailedatthisyear’sWorld Cup, butonlyone canreach the final

BY STEPHEN HAWKINS AP sportswriter

ä Spain vs. France.

2P.M.TUESDAy,FOX

ARLINGTON,Texas Kylian Mbappé and Francehaven’t trailed at all at this year’sWorldCup. Neither has Spain with teenage sensation Lamine Yamal and clutch goal-scoring substituteMikelMerino. Only one of those teamscan makeittothe final France and Spain are both playing attheir 17th World Cup, but have metonly once previously on soccer’sbiggest stage. They play Tuesday at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys in the first of two powerhouse semifinal matches.

After entering this tournament as FIFA’stoprankedteam, France has outscored its opponents 142. Mbappé,the 2022 Golden Boot winner,has eight goals to match Lionel Messi for thescoring lead this time, and is one behindthe Argentina captain’scareer record of 21 at the World Cup.

“Weare focused,” France midﬁelderAdrien Rabiot said. “Weare conﬁdent,ofcourse, with the course we have done so far,and we have to be, but always with this humility that has characterizedus sincethe

HowLSU didit

After losing eight signees to thedraft last summer,LSU was determined to keep more of its recruiting classintact this year

The 2026 season wasastruggle, and the smaller freshmanclass meant that the programneeded to replenishits young talent.

The Tigers accomplishedthatthis weekend by getting the likesofDominic Santarelli, MalachiWashington, Cooper Sides, Kolby Stringerand more through the draft andonto campus

“Once aplayersigns with us andplays their way into adecision betweencollege and professionalbaseball, at leastatLSU, we don’tmakeitacollege versus pro thing,”Johnson said. “We just make it apath to being amajor league player thing, and show them howwefeel like we can advance themtoget to that point. Ithink we did agood job of that this year.”

Alongwith countless hours of phone calls and meetings with signees, Johnson addedthatLSU had afew of its current players help convincetop recruits that college baseball was their best path forward.

“Some of our players have also contributed to that and shared

ä See JOHNSON, page 3C

beginning of the competition.” The27-year-old Mbappé has20goals in his 20 World Cup matches, including one in the 2018 win over Croatia when he joined Pele as theonly teenagersto score in aWorldCup final. And the star striker for Les Bleus had saidheisfine despiteexiting in the77th minuteoftheir 2-0 quarterfinal win over Morocco after scoring agoal. Yamal, whoturned 19 on Monday,has already been part of two semifinal wins with Spain over France. He wasjust days shy of his 17th birthdaywhenhescored in a2-1 win during the 2024 European Championship semifinals, and Spain then won 5-4 in Nations League

ä See CLASH, page 4C

The 2026-27 LSU athletic year was already overﬂowing with storylines.

Can Lane Kifﬁn lead the Tigers back to the College Football Playoff in his ﬁrst season?

How good can men’sbasketball be in the Will Wade 2.0 era?

Can LSU baseball bounce back for another College World Series appearance?

Will Kim Mulkey have aUkranian (Kate Koval) and aRussian (Anna Mineava) on the roster as the Tigers try to return to the Women’sFinal Four?

How many perfect 10s will gymnastics’ Kailin Chio possibly have?

Last week, LSU added one more huge, off-the-field story line to the mix. News broke Thursday that Gov.Jeff Landry and LSU president Wade Rousse plan to host 40 top boosters at the governor’smansion the first week of August to discuss the financial future of the athletic department. The news immediately sparked acouple of questions: 1. What will this future look like, especially since the letter LSU sent to the 40 made no small boast about “a first look at an alternative revenue generating opportunity” that could “quite possibly change the future of college sports in America”?

ä See RABALAIS, page 3C

LSUpresident Wade Rousse, above,and Gov. Jeff Landryplan to host 40 top LSUboosters at the governor’smansion in early August to discuss the financialfuture of the athleticdepartment.

DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

SOUTHPORT,England Jordan Spieth was four days shy of turning 24 when he delivered pure magic in the final hour at Royal Birkdale to win the British Open forthe third leg of the Grand Slam. It was among the mostastonishing finishes in amajor championship. Perhaps even more astonishing? He hasonly twoPGA Tour victories since. He has played in the final group at amajor only once. What hasn’tchanged is his optimism that he can get back to his best golf,now matter how far away that looks for aplayer who is No. 51 in the world, who has not been to theTourChampionship the past two years, who has notbeen in theconversation at a major in five years. “If you give up on reaching your ceiling, then Idon’tsee a

ASSOCIATEDPRESS

point in playing anymore,” Spieth said Monday.“So for me it’s always about I’ll do everything I can to be trying to be at the very best in the world, because Iknow

Scott Rabalais

STAFFFILE PHOTOByJOHNBALLANCE

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARTIN MEISSNER

Kylian MbappéofFrance celebrates after his team’s quarterfinal win against Morocco

FILEPHOTO Jordan Spieth kisses the trophy after winning the British Open on July23, 2017, at RoyalBirkdale in Southport, England.

STAFF FILEPHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Sinner keeps evolving his game

The Wimbledon triumph over Zverev showcased the new variety in his play

BY ANDREW DAMPF AP sportswriter

LONDON A perfectly-placed topspin lob winner that sailed beyond reach of his 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) opponent and landed on the outside of the baseline in the second game. A delicate drop shot which made Alexander Zverev change direction so suddenly that the German player over-extended his right knee at a crucial point of the third set.

Sure, there were plenty of the usual whizzing, missile-like baseline winners from Jannik Sinner in his four-set victory over Zverev in the Wimbledon final He also showed off the new variety of his game, though — which came in handy when Zverev unleashed more power than he had used before against the top-ranked player

The variety of shots were what Sinner’s two coaches, Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi, appreciated most from their player in Sunday’s match.

Just like the Big Three and Big Four before them — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — Sinner, Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz (who is

out injured) are continually evolving their games, Cahill noted.

“Alexander is now playing a different style of tennis against Jannik,” Cahill said. “We know Jannik is going to have to improve in certain areas to handle that type of game. Carlos is going to come back really strong, as well — as we all hope You need to keep adding things to his game.

“We saw a lot of the stuff he doesn’t normally like doing, even in the final today: sliced backhands, a couple lobs, couple drop shots. Really stepping up when he needed to in the big moments.”

Deficit to Alcaraz in Slams count

Sinner’s second consecutive Wimbledon victory matched the two titles that Alcaraz won before him at the All England Club and raised his overall tally to ﬁve Grand Slams — narrowing the gap to Alcaraz’s seven

Alcaraz missed the French Open and Wimbledon this year due to a right wrist injury and it remains unclear if he’ll return in time for the year’s ﬁnal Grand Slam at the U.S Open.

Zverev’s performance in London leapfrogged him ahead of Alcaraz into the No 2 spot when the new rankings were released Monday

Zverev’s run on the grass followed his ﬁrst major title at the French Open last month – after Sinner’s stunning second-round meltdown in Paris.

“Big, big respect to Sascha,

because he’s doing something amazing. His game is growing and growing,” Sinner said, using Zverev’s nickname. “You have always someone who is pushing you to the limit. We hope that Carlos is coming back, as well, because tennis needs him.

“Having Novak still around, having all the young players coming, it’s really, really nice,” added Sinner, who beat the 39-year-old Djokovic in the semifinals. “At the same time, you always need to work hard.”

Sinner’s mom couldn’t watch Sinner twice had to come back from a set down in a ﬁve-set marathon against Miomir Kecmanovic in the ﬁrst round — when he also had to deal with blood seeping through his shoe due to a toenail issue.

He didn’t lose another set until Zverev unleashed a barrage of serves at up to 139 mph (224 kph) and backed those up with huge forehands to the corners.

Sinner knew he had a challenge to face when the ﬁrst-set tiebreaker was decided by an inside-out forehand winner from Zverev

So did Sinner’s mom, Siglinde, who couldn’t bare to watch some of the more tense moments on Centre Court.

“My mom, I see her, she left the stadium a couple of times,” Sinner said on court during his victory speech, glancing over after she had returned in time for the trophy ceremony “It’s not easy.”

Chasing the sun

Amid stiﬂing heat and humidity in Paris in late May, Sinner had his 30-match winning streak ended after coming within one game of a straight-set victory over Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who was ranked No. 56.

Sinner went in for medical exams in Milan after the Paris defeat and acknowledged during Wimbledon that doctors discovered what was bothering him — without revealing the details.

“His medical records are his medical records. We won’t speak about any of that,” Cahill said. “But it’s up to us to make some changes, to do some little things differently.”

Sinner now leaves the court often between sets to refresh himself, change his shirt and get a moment of air-conditioning. During another heat wave the week before Wimbledon began, he used an ice vest to cool down.

“Look, he’s a redhead that lives in the north of Italy that grew up in the snow and the Alps. Hot weather is a little bit different for him than it is for most people,” Cahill said.

“The more time he spends in the heat, the better he’s going to be at it,” Cahill added. “We might even make some changes to the preseason, chasing the sun a little bit more, getting him more acclimatized to playing in these types of conditions.”

Win helps Blaney close NASCAR points lead

BY CHARLES ODUM AP sportswriter

HAMPTON, Ga. — His thick moustache wasn’t the only feature that made Ryan Blaney look like Richard Petty in a dominant performance at EchoPark Speedway

Blaney drove like NASCAR’s King while ruling the Cup Series race from qualifying through every stage in a weather-delayed victory which left the Team Penske Ford driver in contention for the points championship.

Blaney won every stage after starting on the pole and led 171 laps in his win. The race was delayed 3 hours, 9 minutes by rain and lightning and ended at 1:45 a.m. on Monday The 171 laps led are the most at a drafting-style track since Petty led 184 of 200 laps for his first Daytona 500 win in 1964.

As a result, Blaney is third in the NASCAR points race, only 65 behind leader Denny Hamlin Tyler Reddick is second.

Even Blaney was shocked to learn he is in the thick of the championship race heading into Sunday’s race at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

“Really?” Blaney asked when told he is only 65 points out of the lead “Wow! Wow!”

It was a race to remember for Blaney and Team Penske Blaney’s dominance began when he won the pole while joined by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano on the front row He then survived the long weather delay to answer every challenge while winning Stage 1, Stage 2 and then surviving a three-wide battle on the ﬁnal lap.

“I couldn’t ask for a better weekend,” Blaney said. “Sat on the pole, won both stages and won the race.

“My car was incredibly fast, leading. I could defend moves without having to throw, like, lowpercentage blocks. I just never really did that.”

Blaney knew he had the speed to recover if he brieﬂy lost the lead.

“Some moves are kind of un-

beatable to defend as the leader,” he said. “I would just let people get to my inside. If they passed me, great, I think I can probably develop a run to get them back.”

Blaney’s crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, made the crucial decision to keep the No. 12 Ford on the track after Blaney brushed the wall with 29 laps remaining. Blaney worried he felt a “terrible” vibration following the contact with the wall but Hassler was able to quickly determine there was no serious damage. “We were able to get some pictures really quick, see that the damage wasn’t too bad,” Hassler said. “Obviously we saw there was a little bit. We looked at it, there were 30 cars on the lead lap, not a lot of laps left. Our chance to win was to stay out, take a little bit of a risk. Fortunately it worked out for us.”

Blaney fought off challenges from Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell, who ﬁnished second, on the ﬁnal lap. Carson Hocevar and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top four

NCAA women’s tourney to seed top 16 teams

Beginning with next year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament, the top 16 teams will be placed in the bracket in their true ranking regardless of conference afﬁliation.

In the past, the top four teams in a conference would be placed in different regions to protect them from playing each other until the Final Four For example, the tournament this past season had four SEC teams in the top eight overall seeds. Texas was third, South Carolina fourth, LSU ﬁfth and Vanderbilt seventh LSU was dropped down to seventh and Vanderbilt eighth in the bracketing to avoid having them be in the same regions. Now if that happened going forward, the teams would remain where their seeds should have them.

Struggling A’s dismiss pitching coach Emerson

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Heading into the All-Star break on a brutal nine-game losing streak, the Athletics dismissed pitching coach Scott Emerson on Monday Emerson was a longtime staple of the A’s organization, joining as a minor league pitching coach in 2002 and coaching at several of the club’s afﬁliates for over a decade. He was hired as the A’s bullpen coach in 2014 and served in that role for three seasons before getting elevated to pitching coach in 2017.

Many things have gone wrong for the A’s (41-55) in a stretch that has seen them lose 17 of their past 20 games.

As a starting staff, the 5.30 ERA posted by the A’s rotation also ranks 29th in MLB.

Case of Rams’ Jackson assigned for diversion

LOS ANGELES Los Angeles Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson, who was arrested on June 9 on suspicion of felony domestic violence, has the opportunity to avoid criminal charges.

Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office spokesman Ivor Pine confirmed in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday that Jackson’s case has been assigned for a pre-filing diversion available to eligible individuals. The City Attorney Hearing is an alternative to misdemeanor criminal prosecution.

Though charges will not be filed against Jackson at this time, the case remains open and can be re-evaluated if there are more developments.

Schwarber to lead off for NL in All-Star Game

PHILADELPHIA Kyle Schwarber of the host Philadelphia Phillies will lead off for the National League in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game as the replacement for designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, who is skipping the showcase to have a knee procedure ahead of the season’s second half. Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene and two New York Yankees, first baseman Ben Rice and outfielder Cody Bellinger, gained American League starting spots because of injuries. Rice, third in the major leagues with 29 home runs behind Schwarber (32) and the Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez (31), starts at first because Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr is skipping the game to rest a bad back. Guerrero’s initial replacement, the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz, sprained a thumb.

Wallace was penalized for passing below the double yellow lines and ﬁnished 29th instead of second.

Blaney said he didn’t have the best-handling car but enjoyed being able to rely on his superior speed with the race on the line.

“That was kind of a fun dynamic of my car is really fast, handles a little worse than theirs,” Blaney said. “Their car handles better but isn’t quite as quick down the straightaway Fun how all that played out.”

Now Blaney will continue to chase the Toyotas of Hamlin and Reddick for the points lead. Blaney’s strategy is simple: “Just keep doing what we’re doing.”

Asked if he can win the championship, Blaney said “I don’t think it’s out of the question.

“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. That surprises me we’re that close. I think before San Diego I was like 160 out. It shows you how quick things can kind of ebb and ﬂow Never know when we can get there or not.”

The USWNT will play reigning champion Spain

PHILADELPHIA The U.S women’s soccer team will return to town in October for a game that will be about as big as a friendly gets. The reigning Olympic champions will face reigning World Cup champion Spain at Subaru Park on Oct. 13, three days after the teams open a two-game set in Washington. It will be the U.S. women’s team’s 16th all-time visit to the region, dating back to 1991, and its 10th game at the Union’s home Its last game at Lincoln Financial Field was soon after the team’s 2019 World Cup title, when it set an attendance record for a standalone friendly that the venue still holds. Various

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIN CHEUNG

Jannik Sinner of Italy plays a return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during the men’s singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championshipson Sunday in London.

England hopes to double up

Sports fans in Great Britain dreaming of super Sunday

BY STEVE DOUGLAS Associated Press

SOUTHPORT, England How’s this for a dreamy scenario for English sports fans on Sunday?

An Englishman becomes “the champion golfer of the year” by winning the British Open at Royal Birkdale. Then, a few hours later, England’s soccer team wins the World Cup.

“It would be mega,” said Matt Wallace, one of 21 English golfers in the ﬁeld for the ﬁnal major of 2026 taking place on the northwest coast of England starting Thursday So, is this joyous sporting double a possibility? Sure. A probability? That would be pushing it. It might be the most wellknown fact in all of sports in these parts that England — where soccer is king — hasn’t won the World Cup since 1966. This year, the men’s team is into the semifinals and will face Lionel Messi and Argentina on Wednesday

Less known is that no Englishman has won the Open Championship in England

SPIETH

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that I can be. I have been. It’s nice to have the blueprint.”

The blueprint was nearly a decade ago — the pursuit of the calendar Grand Slam that ended with a bogey on the 17th hole at St. Andrews in 2015, his British Open title two years later, and playing in the final group at Carnoustie in 2018 as he tried to keep possession of the claret jug.

He feels he is on the right track and keeps getting a bad hand. The analogy he used earlier this year was having a bad shoe at the blackjack table, staying put because as soon as he walks away, fortunes surely will turn.

He’s still at the table.

“I’m quite frustrated with the results considering I know where my game is at,” Spieth said. “It’s better than it was four or ﬁve years ago when I got back to top 10 in the world. It’s without a doubt better than it was

JOHNSON

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ly,” Fitzpatrick said of the Thursday/Friday tee times. “That would be great.” They weren’t so lucky. Each of the ﬁrst eight groups to go out in the ﬁrst round on Thursday will contain an Englishman.

World Cup effect

RABALAIS

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2. How do you feel if you’re No. 41 on the LSU athletic donor list? Has that person been glumly trudging away from the mailbox day after day, ﬁnding only unsolicited timeshare offers and some random coupons in there?

within the SEC for an example, has already done that. It’s asking a lot to believe, but perhaps LSU’s hierarchy has come up with something truly novel.

since Tony Jacklin in 1969

Soccer fans call it six decades of hurt, and the wait is getting excruciating for the golfers, too. Indeed, since Jacklin, only one Englishman has won the Open, and that was Nick Faldo — three times (1987, ’90 and ’92) and all of them in Scotland Local lad is fan favorite

Tommy Fleetwood might be England’s best bet this year and boy how the locals would celebrate a win

As a kid, Fleetwood lived just around the corner from Royal Birkdale, which he’d sneak on when accompanying his father, Peter, on evening dog walks. He’s the poster boy for this championship but is aware he’s sharing the limelight with the country’s more

then. It’s just not quite showing up in results. “At the same time, it’s a stay-the-course mentality,” he said. “Sometimes you get rewarded right away, like I did back then maybe in a bit of a lucky fashion, and I understand that sometimes it’s delayed. And that’s how it feels like it is right now. So I’m just waiting for that opportunity.”

The return to Royal Birkdale at least allows him to remember how it felt to walk up to the 18th green with victory secure, sitting on the edge of a pot bunker with the claret jug as dozens of photographers captured the image of a 23-year-old often referred to then as “Golden Child.”

What he can’t relive is the finish. He lost the lead on the 13th hole even though his bogey felt like stealing a shot he took a penalty drop from a dune covered in high grass, hit a blind shot from the driving range and limited the damage with a chip-and-putt for bogey, just like always. Then came the 6-iron he

their experiences,” Johnson said. “It helps when you get a Derek Curiel or a Jake Brown getting drafted as high as they did at LSU. Having ﬁve top-six overall picks in ﬁve years, we’re not selling something we don’t know something about.”

After Curiel was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the No. 5 overall pick on Saturday, he spoke about what he’d tell LSU’s signees regarding their decision to go pro or head to LSU.

“I’d tell them, do what’s best for you and always bet on yourself,” Curiel said. “It could work out two different ways. I mean, Konnor Grifﬁn (a former LSU signee) and I are on two completely different career paths.

“He was ready for the major leagues. He was ready for the minor leagues right out of high school, and it showed. For me, I wasn’t. I needed that development in college (and) it paid off So it’s different for every person.”

Thoughts on Washington, Santarelli Washington and Santarelli were the biggest names LSU mustered through the draft. Despite both outﬁelders getting picked in the 18th round, they conﬁrmed on social media after the draft that they will be on campus for the 2027 season.

Santarelli hit seven balls over 114 mph with a wood bat at the MLB Draft combine last month The top recruit from Wisconsin was a top-85 prospect in the draft, according to ESPN.

“Dom’s performance at the MLB combine was pretty well documented,” Johnson said. “And there’s not many people on planet Earth that hit the baseball as hard as he does, and can impact the ball with authority, the way that he does.

“He’s also got really good strike zone discipline. He’s a phenomenal human being,

globally recognized soccer players this week.

“For those guys, they deﬁnitely carry a nation on their shoulders a lot more than we do,” the No. 9-ranked Fleetwood said.

“They’ve been doing a great job.”

And yes, the soccer will be intruding on the golf.

On Monday, Matt Fitzpatrick — the highest-ranked English golfer at No 3 — pleaded to be given a later tee time for the ﬁrst round on Thursday The EnglandArgentina game kicks off at 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday night and wouldn’t ﬁnish until close to 11 p.m. if it goes to extra time and penalties.

“If anyone’s listening, it would be nice if all the English lads were late/ear-

nearly holed on the par-3 14th and the 50-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th hole —

“Go get that,” he famously said to caddie Michael Greller — and two more birdies.

“Maybe the best shot and best putt I’ve ever hit don’t exist anymore,” Spieth said with a smile.

The par-3 14th is gone now The R&A instead wanted the 15th hole to play as No 14, and it built a new par-3 15th that measures 241 yards and has yet to get many positive reviews.

“Undecided,” Rory McIlroy said last week.

“As is always the case in par 3s, you have to wait until a tournament plays to see how the par 3 plays,” Tommy Fleetwood said on Monday Perhaps the biggest change for Spieth are the conditions. It was wet and green and lush in 2017, the wind coming out of the opposite direction. Now it is mostly yellow, brittle and ﬁrm, and much of England is coping with a heat wave.

Players were in shorts for the Monday practice round, which followed a “Last

great character

“It’s what you hope to get. It’s what pro baseball, oftentimes, doesn’t allow you to get from a talent standpoint.”

Washington has a chance to start in center ﬁeld as an athletic power hitter with excellent speed. He also grabbed a spot in the top 85 of ESPN’s draft rankings.

“Just really uncoachable tools,” Johnson said, “Speed, power, solid hitting skills, plays with a ton of conﬁdence. I’m very excited.”

Left-handed pitchers who can step up

LSU heads into next season with a deep stable of left-handed pitchers. The Tigers brought back Cooper Williams, Ethan Plog, Danny Lachenmayer and Jonah Aase, and added Lucas Nawrocki, Bradyn Cupit and Braxton Beaty from the high school ranks.

There’s talent within the group, but one could argue that the Tigers lack a reliable go-to option in tight spots. Johnson acknowledges that reality but he enters this fall conﬁdent that at least one arm will emerge as a top option.

Johnson expects Williams to bounce back from a poor sophomore season after showing promise as a freshman. Lachenmayer and Plog struggled in their ﬁrst year, but Johnson believes both players will be better in 2027, going so far as to label their 2026 seasons an “acclimation year.”

“That kind of pocket of those three guys, I’m expecting a much better contribution out of,” Johnson said. “If I didn’t, we probably would not have brought them back, but I believe that they will be better.”

He also said he thinks highly of the three freshmen LSU got through the draft, and said Aase will be ready to throw again this fall after missing all of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery

“Braxton Beaty pulling out of the draft was a big deal,” Johnson said. “I don’t know where he would have been drafted, but I believe he’s really really good.

“(Adding) Lucas is a big deal. I mean,

The World Cup effect is certainly evident around Royal Birkdale, which is a short drive from the soccer hotbed of Liverpool. Watching players on the practice putting green on Sunday was a young girl wearing an England jersey with “Bellingham” and “10” on the back — a nod to England star Jude Bellingham — and with a tattoo of the England ﬂag on each cheek.

R&A chief executive Mark Darbon has said the final round of the Open could be brought forward to avoid a clash with the World Cup ﬁnal, which begins at 8 p.m. local time. The last round might not ﬁnish until around 6:30 p.m. — and that’s if there’s no need for a playoff.

Just imagine if it’s Fleetwood making that late-evening walk down the 18th ahead of collecting the claret jug and watching England in the soccer ﬁnal.

“It would be outrageous,” said Roger Shutt, a 70-yearold Englishman who was one of the thousands of fans to attend Monday’s practice round.

“If they coincide, it’ll be a holiday for everyone.”

Chance Qualifier” that Joe Dean of England won with a 68 to secure his spot in the ﬁeld.

“It’s going to play quite different than the last time we were here,” Spieth said. “We’ve had an opposite wind, too, the last couple days. Holes that are close to being drivable become mid- to long irons, and just with the wind switch, the difference into and down are so dramatic over here that picking a strategy is going to be key.”

A change of scenery might not be the worse thing for Spieth. He arrived over the weekend and relived some of those shots in the closing stretch, at least on the holes still there. But at this stage in his career it’s more about looking forward.

“I’m always comparing myself a bit to myself at my best, but not to try to be the exact player just more so that I know that I can do it,” Spieth said. “I know my ceiling is where that level was, and so I’m going to strive for it with the type of player that I am now.”

We’ll leave that last one for now Like you, I don’t spend a lot of time pondering the mental outlook of multimillionaires. The ﬁrst question is of course highly intriguing, as no word has yet spilled as to what that “alternative revenue generating opportunity” could be. Initial thought naturally gravitates toward the notion that it could be some sort of private equity scheme. Southeastern Conference schools, in general, and LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry, in particular, have not gone chasing after private equity capital like an edge rusher pursuing a quarterback, but they haven’t ruled out the possibility either That said, a straight private equity deal wouldn’t live up to the hype in the letter of “quite possibly changing the future of college sports,” would it?

Private equity is a refuge of last resort for a wealthy athletic program like LSU. Yes, Louisiana the state may be poor, but its ﬂagship athletic department generated more than $220 million in 2024-25. While privae equity brings piles of cash needed by everyone in this NIL era, it’s money that comes not with strings but giant oil tanker-sized mooring lines attached. Schools see their autonomy instantly eroded by these people who are mostly there seeking a return on their sizable investment, not because they love LSU or Whatever U. What if LSU’s big 40 donors are the ones asked to put up the private equity? That would be a group not only ﬁnancially but emotionally invested in LSU’s athletic success. But the letter said the meeting is “not an ask for money It’s not a fundraiser It’s informational.”

A timeshare pitch does come to mind once again, but maybe the letter is to be taken at its word. LSU could also be looking to detach its athletic program into an LLC, but that’s not new either Kentucky, just searching

there’s plenty of ability there. You can look up the performance in high school. You can look up the metrics from a pro side, and you can piece together what we believe he’s going to be capable of doing.”

Why Nawrocki will play both ways

LSU has added an abundance of players with two-way ability since Johnson took over the program. Paul Skenes, Jake Brown, Gavin Guidry and Casan Evans were all talented athletes who arrived in Baton Rouge as possible contributors on the mound and at the plate.

But Johnson decided to peg all of them to one side of the ball once their careers in Baton Rouge began. In fact, the only Tiger who’s been used as a two-way player under Johnson is Dalton Beck, who played a small role on LSU’s 2025 national championship team.

That trend, however, is set to be broken this fall with Nawrocki, who Johnson says LSU would’ve recruited as an outﬁelder if he were just an outﬁelder or as a pitcher if he were just a pitcher

“He’s going to do both at LSU,” Johnson said.

So what makes Nawrocki different than, say an eventual Cy Young Award winner in Skenes?

“Paul was a legitimate two-way player too,” Johnson said.

“The only way that changes is if it becomes in the best interest of the player (to play one side of the ball). And the difference there is that you have one year with Paul until he was going to be the ﬁrst pick in the draft.

“With Lucas, we have three years now before (he gets drafted). And just as I thought with Paul, it’s a different body type, but a player that could be drafted on both sides of the ball. And there was serious consideration by teams to draft him on both sides of the ball.”

Remaining signees help create depth LSU’s remaining signees help ﬁll up

Rousse, it’s certainly worth remembering here, is an economist by trade and helped raise millions in new support while president at McNeese State, once was a research specialist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and founded what his LSU bio calls an “alternative investment company.” Another Rousse bio says the company specialized “in a market strategy with an objective of absolute returns.” Absolute returns are what LSU, and athletic departments across the country, could use right now

I’m only speculating on what LSU might do, completely conﬁdent only in the knowledge that something must be done. It is a broken record of a statement by now, but the current trajectory of athletic spending is not sustainable.

LSU has found millions to invest in coaches buyouts and funding for roster building over this past unprecedented year, but it’s hard to imagine deep pockets are bottomless pockets.

Despite the protests of student-athletes like incoming LSU women’s basketball point guard Jada Williams, and the SEC and Big Ten writ large, college athletics does need some sort of outside oversight like the Protect College Sports Act. Schools are clearly unwilling and/ or incapable of policing themselves.

If so, the money now earmarked for revenue sharing with athletes would eventually be workable as a budget line items for schools. But they insist on continuing to blow past it. Something like the PCSA must eventually come. Meanwhile, schools are looking for new revenue streams and or cutting back, as in cutting entire sports programs. That, to this writer is completely wrong thinking. Meanwhile, I’m trying to think of what LSU may have up its ﬁnancial sleeve. Word will come eventually How much impact it has remains to be seen. Email Scott Rabalais at srabalais@theadvocate. com.

roster needs at multiple spots that needed insurance.

On the mound, Coleton Brady, Sides and Stringer are a trio of right-handed pitchers who can start midweek games immediately and work their way into bigger roles as the season progresses.

All three arms drew interest from MLB clubs as prospects Stringer and Sides were top-110 players in the draft, per MLB.com, and Brady was a top-75 prospect in The Athletic’s rankings.

“I think (because of) the pro demographic of being scared off by high school righthanders,” Johnson said, “Major league teams beneﬁted us in getting both of them (Stringer and Sides) onto campus And I’m thankful for that.

“I think Coleton is incredibly mature, both physically and mentally I think he’ll get the beneﬁt of (being) a three-year college performer.”

On the position player side, Johnson is excited to have added shortstop Parker Loew third baseman Jordan Martinez, third baseman Luke Tucker and ﬁrst baseman Dylan Minnatee as freshmen to a position player group that had already entered the draft with a strong lineup. Johnson also mentioned using Martinez as a two-way player One scout had told The Advocate before the draft that he thought Martinez could be a pitcher in the future.

“Parker is a true, true shortstop. He has elite, elite defensive ability I’m really excited about that,” Johnson said. “Jordan’s got tremendous power He is also an excellent defensive player

“Luke Tucker is another one I’m really excited about (as a) left-handed hitting infielder On the first base side, Dylan Minnatee is a left-handed hitter and a tremendous first baseman.

“Very similar to Tre Morgan in terms of talent (and) ability.” Email Koki Riley at koki.riley@ theadvocate.com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GERALD HERBERT

Tommy Fleetwood waves after a putt at the U.S. Open on June 19 at Shinnecock Hills golf club in Southampton, N.y Fleetwood is a fan favorite for the upcoming British Open.

WORLDCUP 2026

Whichsemifinalist should yourootfor?

BY STEVE DOUGLAS Associated Press

So, your team of choice has been knocked out of the World Cup. You want to keep watching,but you may need arooting interest to stay invested. The idea of supporting any team butyourown maybeunfathomable to some, but we’re not going to call you afair-weather fan. In fact, we’re here to help, witha handy guide to the semiﬁnalists.

We’ve included the odds of each team winning the ﬁnal, based on various U.S. sportsbooks as of early Sunday,and even thrown in the chants you need to ﬁt right in. Here are your options,inalphabetical order

Argentina

ODDS OF LIFTING THE TROPHY: +360 (bet $10, win $36)

STAR PLAYER: Have you heard of this man called Lionel Messi?

WHATTOKNOW: TheArgentines are looking to become the ﬁrst nation

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play last year

“I believe if France has to fear anyone, it should be us,in my opinion,” Yamal said after Spain’squarterﬁnal victory over Belgium.

“Wewere the ones that knocked them out before.”

The teen has only one goal while putting 10 shots on target after coming into this World Cup still nursing aleft hamstring issue that forced him to miss theﬁnal weeks of the season forSpanish club Barcelona.

France defender Jules Koundé also plays for Barcelona, so he knows Yamal well and didn’t feel disrespected by those comments.

“For me he is asign of conﬁdence. He always doesitwith (Barcelona). He trusts alot in his virtues, in the virtues of the team where he plays,” Koundé said in translated remarks.

“So Isee nothing as an extra motivation forhim andthat’sit, that’sall.”

Spain has outscored opponents 10-1 since astunningscoreless draw against surprising Cape Verde to open groupplay, butLa Roja needed latedecisive goals from Merino after he entered the last two gamesasasecond-half substitute.

All while goaltender Unai Simón set aWorld Cup recordof 650 minutes without allowing a goal until Belgium found the net in the 41st minute of their quarterﬁnal game.

“I think that from the first game until today,the team needed to catch the rhythm, we had been without seeing each other fora long time,” Spain midfielder Alex Baena said, adding thatwith more gamesand practices “the better the team has been.” Merino scoredinthe 88th minute for that 2-1 win over Belgium on Friday.That came after the Arsenalforward’s goal in thefirst minute of second-halfstoppage time for the 1-0 win over Portugalinthe round of 16 at thesame stadium where Spain’ssemifinal match will be played.

Quartetofpastchampions

This is the first World Cup since 1990 thateach of thefinal four teams are former champions. Messi and defending champion Argentina, which beat France for the title in 2022, play England in the other semifinal match Wednesday in Atlanta.

Thechampionship match is Sunday at MetLife Stadiumin

to retain the men’sWorld Cup title since Brazil in 1962. Messi —yes, him —isthe World Cup’sall-time leading scorer with 21 goals and has atournament-topping eight goalsthis year

CHANT OF CHOICE: “Vamos, vamos Argentina”(“Let’s go,Argentina”)

CHOOSE THIS TEAM IF YOULIKE: Safe bets, ﬂavorful steak, supremely talentedNo. 10s. England

ODDS OF LIFTING THE TROPHY: +330 (bet$10, win $33)

STAR PLAYERS: Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham

WHATTOKNOW: It hasn’tbeen spoken about much but England’s men’steam hasn’t wona major tournament since the 1966 World Cup. The English inventedsoccer but have rarely been the best at it.

CHANTOF CHOICE: “It’scoming home”

CHOOSETHIS TEAM IFYOU LIKE: Oasis, lions, ﬁsh and chips, decades of pain.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Lamine yamal of Spain waves after his team beat Belgium on Friday in Inglewood, Calif.

East Rutherford, New Jersey, across the river from New York City.A third-place game will be played SaturdayinMiami Gardens,Florida.

In their only previousWorld Cupmeeting, France beat Spain 3-1 in aroundof16game at the 2006 tournamentinGermany

Both teams have won the World Cup since then. Spain claimed its only title in 2010, and France won its second World Cupin2018. France, which willbeplaying on itscountry’sBastille Day national holiday,istrying to join five-time champion Braziland four-time winnerGermany as theonlyteamstomake three consecutiveWorld Cupﬁnals.Brazil did it in 1994, 1998 and 2002 winning two titles and losing to host France in the middle of that run. Germany’schampionship in 1990 came after being runner-up in theprevious two World Cups —all playing as West Germany at thetime.

Argentina beat France in apenalty shootout in 2022after playing to a3-3 draw.

Wrapping up in Dallas

AT&T Stadium in North Texas will be hosting its tournamenthigh ninthgame, and in that onemonthrun there have been some soccer superstar moments in the building that hashosteda Super Bowl andNCAAchampionship games for footballand men’s basketball.

Messiscored threegoals in Argentina’stwo group games, the first on June 22 when after missing apenalty kick he broke the World Cupcareer scoringmark with thefirst of his twogoalsin a2-0 win over Austria. He added another goal as alatesubstitute in the group finale June 27 against Jordan Cristiano Ronaldo,the 41-yearold superstar from Portugal, finished hissixth andfinalWorld Cup in the1-0 round of 16 lossto SpainonJuly 6

France

ODDS OF LIFTINGTHE TROPHY: +150 (bet $10, win$15)

STAR PLAYERS: Kylian Mbappé, Michael Olise

WHAT TO KNOW: France was the championin2018, therunner-up in 2022 and manypeople’s favorite this year.France’sdeparting coach,DidierDeschamps, is alreadya WorldCup great, having won thetitle as France’scaptain in 1998 and led the team to the trophy 20 yearslater

CHANT OF CHOICE: “Allez les bleus” (“Go Blues”)

CHOOSE THIS TEAM IF YOULIKE: Baguettes,big towers, Champagne, fearsome attacks.

Spain

ODDS OF LIFTINGTHE TROPHY: +330 (bet $10, win$33)

STAR PLAYERS: Rodri, Lamine Yamal WHAT TO KNOW: Spain hadn’tconceded agoal in ﬁve games, until thequarterﬁnalagainstBelgium. And in Yamal,the team hasa

wingerwho was a16-year-old revelation on its way to winning the European Championship in 2024. It’s Yamal’sbirthdayon Monday,when he’ll be the vet-

eran age of 19.

CHANTOFCHOICE: “Lolololo

CHOOSETHIS TEAM IF YOULIKE: Tapas, shutouts, possession soccer,precociouswingers.

Ex-Spanish leader criticized for comments aboutFrenchteam

BY SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press

MADRID Aformer Spanish prime ministerisfacing criticism for saying that France’sWorld Cup team “does not have any French players,” which French andSpanish leaders have called racist. Mariano Rajoy,a memberof Spain’sconservative Popular Party,made the comment in acolumn for Spanish outlet El Debate ahead of Tuesday’sWorld Cup semiﬁnal match between the European neighbors.

“They’ve won every match they’ve played at this World Cup and arecurrently top of theFIFA rankings. They also have an exceptionally strong squad. That said, onething they don’thaveis any Frenchplayers,” Rajoy wrote on July 10.

On Monday,French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrottold French broadcaster BFM TV that “France hasnoskin color.Any contrary claim stems from stupidity,racism or acombination of the two.”

Aday earlier, French Football FederationPresidentPhilippe Diallo wrote on Xthat “Mariano Rajoy’s remarks about the French team carry intolerable whiffs of racism,”addingthat“they also

raisequestions aboutthe deplorable climate that gives rise to suchsentiments. Our players do not need acertiﬁcate of nationality from aformer Spanish prime minister.”

Aspokespersonfrom Rajoy’s PopularParty on Monday said the remarks were sarcastic and made without malice.

“These columns arewritten without ill intent,” spokesperson BorjaSémpersaid. “Thisexpressionisusedwithout ill intent.”

Spain’sruling Socialistgovernment swiftly condemned the remarks by Rajoy,who was prime minister from 2011 to 2018.

On Sunday,Prime MinisterPedroSánchez referencedthe comments without naming his predecessor,writing on X: “There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin color.Others measure it by our roots in acountry andour will to contribute to it. Playing soccer Caring for our elders. Or opening businesses.France, we’ll seeyou in thesemiﬁnals. May the best one win and may racism lose.”

France will face Spain on Tuesday at the homeofthe NFL’sDallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. France midﬁelder Warren ZaireEmery was asked about the commentsthe daybeforethe game in a newsconference at the venue and said he hadn’tseen them.

“This French team has players from different backgrounds and origins,” Zaire-Emery said through atranslator.“So does the country.Weare aunited group, a united team,and that’sall that matters.”

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares also spoke out Monday,saying the Popular Party’sleader,Alberto Núñez Feijóo, needed to disavow the remarks. It’s notthe first time France’s team has faced racism during this year’sWorld Cup.

Earlier this month, France captain and star player Kylian Mbappé condemned aParaguayan senator over remarks she madefollowing Paraguay’sloss to France in the round of 16.

Celeste Amarilla, asenator from Paraguay’sLiberal Radical Party, posted aseries of comments on Xmockingthe French player’s origins, upbringing, education and appearance after France won on July 4with apenalty by Mbappé.

DeathofSouth AfricanWorld Cup player Adamsbeing investigated

BY GERALD IMRAY Associated Press

CAPE TOWN,South Africa Police said Mondaytheyare investigating the deathofSouth African soccer player Jayden Adams after his body was discovered this weekend at apropertyinCape Town.

The 25-year-old Adams died two weeks after helping South Africa reach the knockout stage of a World Cup for theﬁrst time.

Authorities have notreleased a cause of death.

“CapeTown centralpolice registeredaninquest forinvestigation following the discovery of the body of a25-year-old maleonSaturday,” police said in astatement sent to The Associated Press. “Circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation.” Police said the body was discovered at apropertyinthe neighborhood of Schotsche Kloof at around 11 a.m. Saturday but gave no more details.

Adams’father,JuanitoAdams, told South African TV news station eNCA on Sunday that the family was awaiting theresults of an autopsy and had not yet madeany funeral plans. “As youall know,itwas an un-

timely death. The family is struggling to process it,” Juanito Adams said. “It won’t be easy to carry on. People say it will becomeeasier, but it won’t.You just learn to live with it.” Adams played in all three of South Africa’sgroup games as it produced itsbestperformance at theWorld Cup. He did not feature in the 1-0loss to Canada in the round of 32 on June 28. South AfricaSportsMinister Gayton McKenzie said Adamshad

played in his team’sgroup game against Czech Republic hours after learning that his grandmother had died. McKenzie asked the public and media to “exercise restraintand compassion” andnot speculate on the cause of Adams’ death while authorities conduct an investigation. Moments of silence and tributes forAdams wereheldatthe England vs. Norway and Argentina vs. Switzerland quarterﬁnal

Rajoy

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByTHOMAS PADILLA

French fans in Parisreact after Francedefeated Morocco during their WorldCup quarterfinal match on FridayinFoxborough, Mass.

Area prospects boost stock after summer camps

12 recruits to watch entering the season

BY SPENCER URQUHART Staff writer

The New Orleans area has produced some of the best high school football players in the state, and there’s a new wave of local talent emerging.

Spring scrimmages and summer recruiting camps provided the area’s next group of football prospects an opportunity to showcase their skills in front of college coaches and receive scholarship offers.

Listed below are 12 New Orleans area prep football recruits that have put themselves on the map this year as sought-after Division I prospects.

TE Captain Best, Mandeville (Jr.)

Best is a promising tight end with excellent size at 6-foot-6, sporting an 80-inch wingspan and nearly 10-inch hands Division I

schools have taken notice of Best this summer, and he’s received offers from Florida State and North Carolina.

WR Branden Boles, Kennedy (Jr.)

Boles emerged as a sophomore and showed off his skills in this year’s spring game against reigning state champion Edna Karr

The 6-1, 180-pound wide receiver is up to nine Division I offers, a list that includes Syracuse and Washington State.

DT Ronald Crawford, De La Salle (Jr.)

Crawford is one of the state’s top defensive tackles at 6-3 and 340 pounds. He enters his junior season with more than 10 Division I offers after shining as a sophomore, which includes Power Four programs such as Oregon, Auburn, Ole Miss and Missouri.

DL Edward Dailey, Edna Karr (So.)

Dailey is trending toward becoming Karr’s next elite Division I prospect given the early recruiting buzz surrounding

him. Mississippi State, Colorado, Cal and UTSA have offered the 6-3, 276-pound defensive lineman heading into his sophomore year

S Brandon Green, Holy Cross (Jr.)

Green was a standout at safety last season as a sophomore and has gotten the attention of Power Four schools. Florida State was the ﬁrst to extend an offer to the 5-11, 180-pound defensive back prospect, and Arkansas and Purdue followed suit.

WR Nasir Parker, Shaw (Jr.)

Parker has seen his recruitment blow up as a 6-5, 200-pound wide receiver prospect and is up to ﬁve Division I offers. LSU, Arkansas and Tulane are among those to have offered Parker, who is the younger brother of former Shaw running back Jasper Parker

QB Jaelle Noble, St. Augustine (Jr.)

Noble has proven to be a difference-maker with the ball in his hands and has seen his recruitment take off. The 6-1, 200-pound

Bills’ Allen is voted the NFL’s top quarterback by AP writers

BY ROB MAADDI AP pro football writer

Josh Allen doesn’t need to win a Super Bowl to be No. 1.

The Buffalo Bills’ franchise player was voted the NFL’s top quarterback by The Associated Press in a preseason survey

The 2024 AP NFL Most Valuable Player beat out Patrick Mahomes, who earned the top spot each of the three previous seasons.

Allen received five first-place votes from a panel of eight AP pro football writers, who ranked the top ﬁve quarterbacks entering the 2026 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through ﬁfth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

Allen appeared on all eight ballots and also got one second-place vote, one third and one fourth.

Mahomes finished second just ahead of reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford. Lamar Jackson came in fourth and Joe Burrow was ﬁfth.

1. Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills

Allen followed up his MVP season with another excellent campaign in 2025, but the Bills had their streak of five straight AFC East titles ended by New England and were knocked out of the playoffs in the divisional round against Denver, costing coach Sean McDermott his job.

Allen threw for 3,668 yards, 25 TDs and had 10 picks for a 102.2 passer rating. He ran for 579 yards and 14 scores, making his fourth Pro Bowl and finishing third in MVP voting.

Allen and the Bills are still seeking their ﬁrst Super Bowl appearance since the 1993 season despite seven straight playoff appearances.

2. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

Mahomes ﬁnished his worst season in the NFL on the sideline after suffering a torn ACL in Week 15 The Chiefs were 6-8 with Mahomes and lost all three games without him.

Still, the three-time Super Bowl MVP a unanimous choice for No. 1 in this survey in 2023 and 2024 — commands enough respect to earn two ﬁrst-place votes and ﬁnished second behind Allen. He had 3,587 yards passing for 22 TDs with 11

picks before going down with his first significant injury in the NFL. Mahomes is aiming to be ready for Week 1 as Kansas City tries to rebound from its first losing season under Andy Reid.

3. Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams

Stafford earned ﬁrst-team AllPro honors for the first time in his 17-year career, and beat out Drake Maye for his first NFL MVP award last season. He got one ﬁrst-place vote, two seconds and appeared on all eight ballots in this year’s preseason survey The Rams went 14-6, including a pair of playoff victories and a loss to Seattle in the conference championship

Stafford led the NFL with 4,707 yards passing and 46 TDs He threw eight picks and ﬁnished second to Maye with a 109.2 passer rating.

4. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens

Jackson, a three-time All-Pro

and two-time NFL MVP, had his ﬁrst losing season as a starter, going 6-7, and the Baltimore Ravens missed the playoffs.

Jackson threw for 2,549 yards, 21 TDs and seven picks, posting a 103.8 passer rating. Jackson had a career-low 349 yards rushing and two scores. Jackson got two third-place votes and appeared on six ballots.

5. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals

Burrow played only eight games last season because of a toe injury, leading the Bengals to a 5-3 record. It was the third time he played 10 or fewer games due to injuries.

Burrow bounced back the following season to win the AP Comeback Player of the Year award the previous two times.

The three-time Pro Bowl QB threw for 1,809 yards, 17 TDs and ﬁve picks with a passer rating of 100.7. Burrow appeared on five ballots with one thirdplace vote.

McGregor outlines plan for surgery, rehab and another ﬁght

The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS Conor McGregor outlined a plan for surgery, rehabilitation and another fight following his knee injury in his shortened UFC 329 fight with Max Holloway “Surgery. Prehab. Return to martial arts practice. Go again. Final ﬁght of the contract. Please God!” McGregor wrote on Instagram on Monday. McGregor’s first fight in five years lasted only 1 minute, 9 seconds because of a knee injury sus-

tained while attempting an opening roundhouse kick on Saturday McGregor’s return to the octagon was highly anticipated but ended in disappointment when he awkwardly landed on his right knee in the opening seconds. McGregor went to the mat two more times in failed attempts to continue before the scheduled ﬁveround match was halted by the referee. On Sunday, McGregor’s manager, John Kavanagh, said his client did not have a previous knee injury

“That opening jump switch kick was drilled daily for months, multiple times in warmup. Never an issue,” Kavanagh wrote on Facebook. “Knee went when he (threw) the very first kick. Doesn’t get any worse than this.” Following the ﬁght, McGregor also said he had no previous injury “I was throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight,” McGregor said on X. “I had no injury / injuries going into the ﬁght.”

dual-threat quarterback was initially offered by Arkansas and saw his offer list grow after a promising spring.

DL Broderick Sanders, John Curtis (Fr.)

Sanders, who saw playing time for John Curtis as eighth grader, is already drawing major Division I recruiting attention heading into his freshman year The 6-4, 220-pound defensive lineman picked up SEC offers from LSU, Texas A&M and Ole Miss this summer

OL Andrew Shofstahl, St. Paul’s (Jr.)

Shofstahl has been a starting guard at St. Paul’s since he was a freshman and has emerged as one of the state’s top offensive line prospects. He’s up to 6-4, 320 pounds and has more than 10 Division I offers to his name, a list that now includes LSU.

WR Jarvis Stevenson, John Curtis (Jr.)

Stevenson suffered a season-ending knee injury after emerging as

a freshman, but he’s back healthy heading into his junior year and has the attention of major Division I schools. The 6-5, 195-pound wide receiver holds offers from LSU, Alabama and Texas.

OL Jayden Taylor, St. Augustine (Jr.)

Taylor has seen several Division I offers come his way as a 6-4, 255-pound offensive line prospect with an 80-plus inch wingspan Florida State and Tulane offered Taylor after St. Aug’s spring game, and he received an LSU offer after a strong camp showing.

DB Jaden Turner, John Curtis (So.)

Turner enters his sophomore year as one of six John Curtis defensive backs with Division I offers. The younger brother of LSU cornerback Michael Turner, Jaden was offered by Miami, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Arkansas and Tulane after shining at camps.

Email Spencer Urquhart at surquhart@theadvocate.com.

Chiefs’ Reid voted the NFL’s top head coach for 4th-straight season

BY ROB MAADDI AP pro football writer

Big Red is No. 1 again. Andy Reid was voted the NFL’s No. 1 coach by The Associated Press in a preseason survey for the fourth straight year

Despite coming off his ﬁrst losing season in Kansas City, Reid remains the standard for coaches.

A panel of eight AP pro football writers ranked the top ﬁve coaches entering the 2026 season. Firstplace votes were worth 10 points. Second through ﬁfth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

Reid, who has three Super Bowl rings and leads both Kansas City and Philadelphia in all-time wins, received ﬁve ﬁrst-place votes and one second. He was left off two ballots.

Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay got the other three ﬁrstplace votes and ﬁnished second.

Seattle’s Mike Macdonald, who led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title last season, finished third. San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan placed fourth and Denver’s Sean Payton came in ﬁfth.

Nick Sirianni, John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson also received votes.

1. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs had 12 straight winning seasons, made 11 playoff appearances, won nine consecutive AFC West titles and reached ﬁve Super Bowls in six years before going 6-11 in 2025.

Injuries slowed the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes ended up suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 15 last season. Reid won more games than any coach in the history of the Eagles before going to Kansas City and doing the same with the Chiefs, along with winning three Lombardis.

From 1999-2012 in Philadelphia, Reid guided the Eagles to five NFC title games and one Super Bowl. He is fourth on the NFL’s all-time career list with 307 victories.

2. Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams

The Rams fell short against the Seahawks in the NFC title game in January after going 12-5 and winning two playoff games on

the road. The 40-year-old McVay has led Los Angeles to one Super Bowl title, two NFC championships, four division titles, seven double-digit win seasons and seven playoff appearances in nine years. McVay got four second-place votes along with the three ﬁrsts and was on seven of eight ballots.

3. Mike Macdonald, Seattle Seahawks

Macdonald led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory in just his second season, beating New England 29-13 to capture the franchise’s second NFL title.

At age 38, he became the thirdyoungest head coach to win a Lombardi behind McVay (36) and Mike Tomlin (36).

The Seahawks went 10-7 in Macdonald’s ﬁrst season in 2024. He previously spent two years as the defensive coordinator in Baltimore. His “Dark Side” defense allowed an NFL-low 292 points (17.2 per game) last season. Macdonald appeared on seven ballots, getting three third-place votes.

4. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers

Shanahan is the only coach on the top 5 list who hasn’t won a Super Bowl.

He guided the injury-depleted 49ers to a 12-5 record last season and a Week 18 matchup against Seattle for the No. 1 seed. San Francisco beat Philadelphia on the road in the playoffs before losing to Seattle in the divisional round.

In nine seasons, Shanahan has led the 49ers to ﬁve playoff appearances and two Super Bowl appearances, including an overtime loss to Kansas City

5. Sean Payton, Denver Broncos

Payton led the Broncos to a 14-3 record and the AFC’s No. 1 seed last season in his third year in Denver They fell short against New England in the AFC championship game after quarterback Bo Nix was injured in the divisional round win against Buffalo. Payton, who won a Super Bowl with New Orleans, has taken the Broncos to the playoffs twice in three seasons.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JOHN RAOUX

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen looks for a receiver during a wild-card playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Jan. 11 in Jacksonville, Fla.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JEFF LEWIS Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is seen during a game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Jan. 4 in Las Vegas.

MLB pitchers throwing harder than ever

Average fastball velocity is up for sixth straight year to 94.7 mph

BY RONALD BLUM

NEW YORK Chad Tracy notices how much baseball has changed in the 13 years since he took his last big league at-bat.

“You watch a Triple-A game, most everybody that’s coming out of the bullpen left-handed or right-handed is throwing 95-plus,” the Boston Red Sox manager said. “Back in the day, it was you’d get a lead and you’d get to the lower part of a bullpen and you’d see some guys coming out throwing 88.” Heading into the All-Star break, velocity is on track to set a record for the sixth straight season.

Four-seam fastballs averaged 94.7 mph through Saturday, up from 94.5 mph last year, 93.7 mph in 2021 and 91.9 mph when Major League Baseball first started tracking in 2008. The average was 94.4 mph for the first half of 2025, and this year’s final figure could increase by a tick.

“Definitely expecting anybody you’ve never heard of to throw a 95-plus,” said the New York Mets’ Marcus Semien, a three-time AllStar who made his major league debut in 2013, when four-seamers averaged 92.7 mph. “Before you’d know who the guys were who were throwing 98. Now, you just expect that this new guy is probably throwing 98. So that shows how everybody’s trained.”

Expectations have changed. In David Auburn’s “Proof,” which

won the 2001 Pulitzer Price for Drama, a mathematical research work is described as “streamlined: no wasted moves, like a 95-mile-anhour fastball. It’s just elegant.” That ﬁgure no longer is notable.

Right-handed pitchers are averaging 95.2 mph in 2026, up from 95.0 mph last year Right-handed relievers are averaging 95.6 mph.

The Triple-A average of 93.6 mph is up from 92.7 mph when tracking started at that level in 2022.

“People are learning the biomechanics of the body a lot better and

it’s easier to ﬁgure out why people are throwing hard,” said Athletics pitcher Hogan Harris, whose fourseam average has increased from 92.6 mph as a rookie in 2023 to 95.0 mph this year “There’s so many young kids throwing hard now and then you see a lot younger people in the big leagues, so my thought is they see a guy that’s throwing 100 when he’s 22 and, boy, he’s not going to throw 100 when it’s 30, so let’s get in there now.”

Six pitchers are at 100 mph in average four-seam velocity led

by a pair of relievers, the Athletics’ Mason Miller (101.3 mph) and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Edgardo Henriquez (100.6 mph). Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, a 24-year-old starter, is averaging 100.5 mph, up from 99.3 mph as a rookie last year He has thrown a big-league high of 670 pitches at 100 mph or higher The Brewers skipped his start Sunday because of arm fatigue.

“I think it’s always been there,” Misiorowski said. “Jumping up that next tick was really cool, so I

think I’m happy where I’m at and I think is free and easy.”

As velocity increases, so does pitch mix among fastball types.

Four-seamers are 30.4% of pitches this season, down from 31.8% last year and 35.8% in 2019.

Sinkers increased from 15.5% last year to 16.6% and cutters from 7.5% to 7.8%. Offspeed pitches rose from 13.6% to 14.3%.

“It is exponentially harder to hit, and I hit .200 in my career, so that should show you how well I would do in the game today The thing that I think gets me when I watch games is it’s not just one fastball anymore,” said New York Mets interim manager Andy Green, whose last big league season with extensive playing time was in 2006. “It’s easy for us that played a couple of decades ago to malign the offensive players for not hitting from a batting average perspective what used to be hit, but there’s so much to contend with, so much information, so much awareness of what hitter handles what fastball shape. The game’s gotten harder, there’s no doubt about it.”

Big league batters are hitting .244, just below last year’s .245 and above the .243 in 2024.

“At the end of the day, us as hitters have to ﬁnd a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,” Chicago Cubs third baseman and former LSU star Alex Bregman said. Hard-throwing has become part of youth player development, according to San Diego closer Mason Miller, who leads all pitchers with a 101.3 mph average for his fourseamer

“It’s kind of just been that trajectory,” he said. “But it’s hard to be successful for a long time and healthy for a long time doing it.”

Schwarber enthralls home crowd at Home Run Derby

BY DAN GELSTON Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA Kyle Schwarber

kept his bid for a Home Run Derby title in his home park alive when the Phillies’ slugger and major league home run leader hit 10 in the ﬁrst round and advanced with Boston’s Willson Contreras, St Louis’ Jordan Walker and Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero to the next round Monday night.

Bryce Harper hit only eight home runs and was the ﬁnal slugger of the round to try and advance. He provided a late jolt with Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park going wild trying to will Harper into one more round.

Harper won in 2018 in Washington when he played for the Nationals.

Kansas City’s Jac Caglianone and New York Yankees slugger Ben Rice also failed to advance. Contreras and Walker each hit 13, and Caminero had 12. Schwarber failed to launch one of his famed Schwarbombs until his sixth swing, then connected on his seventh, eighth and ninth in a four-homer stretch that harkened back to his four-homer game last season in Atlanta.

He could only watch as Harper failed to join him. Schwarber, then with the Chicago Cubs, made the ﬁnals in 2018 at Nationals Park before losing to Harper

“Bittersweet,” Schwarber said after the first round Monday “I wanted both of us to move on.”

MLB ditched the timed clock this season and returned to a swing format, with each hitter continuing to swing if he went deep on his ﬁnal one.

Each player had 20 swings in the first round and the top four advanced. Hitters were seeded for the second round, where No. 1 faces 4 and 2 meets 3.

Each player takes 15 swings in the second round, with batters homering on their final swings continuing until not homering.

Schwarber and Harper — the ﬁrst pair of teammates to participate in the Derby since 2018 received roaring ovations when famed ring announcer Michael Buffer introduced them ahead of the competition

As for the other six sluggers in the ﬁeld, all wearing their home jerseys with red, white and blue uniform numbers?

Yeah, they were about booed out of the ballpark, with the loudest

jeers saved for Rice. He gamely laughed as he walked out of his Liberty Bell entrance.

Harper who said earlier Monday this would be his last Derby — waved his arms and exhorted the crowd to get louder as he walked to the home plate platform placed at second base. Harper about broke the ring ropes as he shook them like a pro wrestler, and the Philly crowd went bonkers for the star known as The Showman.

The Derby’s public address announcer implored the fans to cheer during some quiet stretches when homers non-Phillies edition — were hit.

The fans did get a rise when Caglianone smoked one into Ryan Howard territory into the third deck in right field. Contreras socked ‘em into the rarified air of the left field upper deck. One homered cleared the last row of stands in that section and bounced off the concourse in front of a bar His 490-footer was the longest of the first round.

Caminero last year’s runnerup to Seattle’s Cal Raleigh — watched stunned as his ﬁnal swing just hooked foul in left ﬁeld and stuck his homer total at 12. The longest Derby homer since

Statcast started tracking in 2016 was 520 feet by Juan Soto in the mile-high air of Denver’s Coors Field in 2021. This was the first Home Run Derby and All-Star Game held at Citizens Bank Park since it opened in 2004 and the first derby in Philadelphia since Barry Bonds outslugged Mark McGwire in 1996 to win an afternoon event in front of thousands of empty seats at Veterans Stadium. This derby was sold out and aired on Netflix for the first time, with the streamer getting into the game this season with a threeevent package. Netflix already aired the opening night game, and the third attraction is the Field of Dreams game between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 13.

SCOREBOARD

15. (18) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 263, 22.

16. (26) William Byron, Chevrolet, 263, 21.

17. (33) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 263, 20.

18. (24) John H. Nemechek, Toyota, 263, 19.

19. (21) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 263, 18.

20. (16) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 263, 17.

21. (5) Daniel Suárez, Chevrolet, 263, 22.

22. (6) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 263, 15.

23. (15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 263, 14.

24. (19) Ryan Preece, Ford, 263, 13.

25. (17) Josh Berry, Ford, 263, 12.

26. (10) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 263, 11.

27. (36) Noah Gragson, Ford, 263, 10.

28. (25) Connor Zilisch, Chevrolet, 263, 9.

29. (22) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 263, 9.

30. (34) Zane Smith, Ford, 262, 7.

(30) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 261, 0.

(35) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 259, 6.

(38) Chad Finchum, Ford, 259, 0.

(3) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 258, 11.

(29)

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEFF ROBERSON Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski throws during the first inning in the first game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals on July 7 in St. Louis.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MATT ROURKE

Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber gestures during the MLB All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday in Philadelphia.

PROVIDED PHOTOSByUNIVERSAL PICTURES

Matt Damon is Odysseus and Zendaya is Athena in ‘TheOdyssey.’

Who is that?

Aguide to thecharacters of ChristopherNolan’s adaptation of ‘The Odyssey’

BY LINDSEY BAHR

AP film writer

NEW YORK Haven’tcracked “The Odyssey” since high school?Don’tworry,you don’tneeda classics degree to understand ChristopherNolan’sadaptation. Oneofhis primary goals was to make it accessible andrelatable to amodern audience

“It’ssomething that we all know alittle bit about, some of us know alot about it, some of us know nothing about it,” Nolan told The Associated Press. “We’re making the ﬁlm for that whole rangeofpeople’s relationship withthis foundational text of this incredible story.”

But, just in case, here’salittle primeron who is playing who in “TheOdyssey.”The ﬁlm hits theaters on July 17

Matt Damon(Odysseus)

The King of Ithaca and themastermind behind the Trojan Horse trick thatended the war,Odysseus’s long journeyhome to reclaimhis kingdomand reunitewith his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, whom he left as ababy,iscentral to the poem.

“He’savery complicated protagonist, which Ilove, and Chris reveals how and why in his way,and alot becomes clear by theend of the movie, which explainsa lot of howhe’sbehaving at thebeginning,”Damon said. “I think for astory that’sthisbig, it’swonderful to have acharacter that’s very human at the center. He’s certainly not perfect. And he’sliving with theconsequences of hisactions. Andthat’sdictating his behavior.”

Anne Hathaway (Penelope)

The Queen of Ithaca, Penelopehas been waitingfor the return of her husband Odysseus for 20 years while over 100 men (the suitors) take up residency in the palace,eatingtheir foodand drinking their wine, hoping that she’ll marry one of them She’salso been the subject of debatefor thousands of years,anenigmatic character whom every generation projectstheir own views on.

“She’sprobably the most well-known character that I’ve ever played.But we only know her as far as we can see,”Hathaway said. “I didn’twant to negate anything that anyone had ever felt aboutPenelope, that she was, you know,the picture of modesty,she’saparagon of patience,all of those things. But aparagon isn’taperson. And so Ithought, OK, so let’s allow that that’s the way world sees her.Who when no one’s looking?”

TomHolland (Telem Odysseus’sonly chil Telemachus, hasn’ts father since he was baby.Now grown and with the threat of the suitors intensifying, he goes on his own journey to ﬁnd more information about his missing father.The two quests provide parallelnarratives in the ﬁlm, which Nolan said is

ä See ODYSSEY, page 2D

is Telemachus in ‘The Odyssey.

STILL

ROLLING

andjamming

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

It was one of those stickySaturday evenings in June. Yetacapacity crowd had packed itself around the edgesofarollerderbytrack in an unairconditioned, sheet metal warehouse near Alvar Street in New Orleans East.

The Acadiana Roller Derbyteam, based in Lafayette, was facingoff against the hometown Big EasyRoller Derby team, formerly known as the Big Easy Roller Girls. The New Orleansclubwas celebrating two decades of existence, having gotten rolling —ifyou will —during the early 2000s Regional, amateur roller derby was an early 21st-century phenomenon —especially after the star-studded2009 movie “Whip It” —with teamscropping up acrossthe country. But the sport seemstoﬁtespecially well in the eternally eccentric and performative Crescent City In ways, Big Easy Roller Derby is likea skatingCarnivalkrewe. Playersappear in several parades throughout the year,plus they donned horned helmetstoperform as “rollerbulls” in thelocal Running of the Bulls event. The trill of thereferees’whistles echoed off thewarehouse walls, along with the clattering of hard plastic wheels, plus the hoots and hollers of the skatersand their fans.

Theplayersraced around the track, collided with one another,and tangled intopacksastheyattempted to score points.Rollerderbyis

It’snot foreverybody.Some players, Peters said, “have found their place here, but might have had trouble ﬁnding their place somewhere else.”

agame of artfully thrown hips and elbows. It’s physical, aggressive, dangerous and “tempers happen” as Sarah “Goldie Knocks” Peters, a legal assistant, put it

Sherri “Beatrix Skiddo”Montz, who’sbeen with theNOLA team almost from the beginning, said she wasn’tjusta “rink rat,”she wasthe child of “rink rats.” Her parents met at aroller-skating rink, andasa teenager she got ajob at the old Airline Skate Center Montz, whoworks foraconveyor belt manufacturer,said she’slearned more about life on the track than in the real world.Inclusiveness, acceptance andconﬂictmanagement

10 states stilltogofor Postcard Project

BY JANRISHER Staff writer

Eight weeks in, and thecount stands at 142 postcardsfrom 40 states and 14 countries. They keep arriving —from GrandCoteau,from Chicago, from Irelandand points beyond John James Makela took the challenge of making his own postcard,inkeeping with part of this year’stheme. He sent his interpretation of Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona. TheMcGovernfamilywent on an unconventional pilgrimage to Iowa.

ä Theinvitation stands. Send postcards to: JanRisher,TheAdvocate 10705 RiegerRd. Baton Rouge, LA 70809.

“My mom worked for John Deere,” Mr.McGovern wrote. “Wealways have to bow our heads when we see aDeere tractor.So, of course,wehad to visit the John DeereMuseum in Iowa. From tiny Grand Coteau, theBlanchardskeptitsimple: “Precious lodging, cute shops, lovely homes, good food great experience.”

Michele Snyder wrote from Little Rock, Arkansas, with a New Orleans history lesson on apostcard, explaining that Sicilian immigrants landed in New Orleans in the late 19th and 20th centuries and left their mark on the produce trade —fruit, oysters —and on thecity’stable,fromthe muffuletta to the St. Joseph altar tradition. Tenstates remain unclaimed: Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Vermont. The 2026 Postcard Project ends on Labor Day.

The Big Easy Roller Derby team warmsup in aNew Orleans warehouse on July 2.

STAFFPHOTOSByCHRIS GRANGER

The Big Easy Roller Derby team practices on July 2.

Jasmine ‘Quiet Fire’ McDonald tightens her glovesasshe gets ready for aBig Easy Roller Derbypractice.

TomHolland

Skip overpriced hair treatmentand tryvegetable oil

Dear Heloise: Years ago, when I was growing up on an Iowa farm, my hair would dry out because Iwas outside so much of the time. We also had what people called “hard water,” which would dry out each strandof hair Instead of buying an overpriced hot oil treatment, my mother would warmupsome

vegetableoil and use adisposable cotton pad to rubthe oil on my scalp.Then she would comb the oil throughmyhair and cover it with aplastic shower cap; the oil and cap were left on while Islept. In themorning,Ishampooed my hairasalways, making sure that Ilathered andrinsed twice, and I didn’tneed to use aconditioner It’sanold-fashioned method, but it worked well on my hair as well as my three sisters’. Maybe this will help someofyourreaders,

ROLLING

Continued frompage1D

allcome into play.Not to mention catharsis.

“I’m not saying Ihad anger management issues,” she said, laughing. “But now Iget to hitmy friends.”

Alanis “JaggedLittle Spill”

Stoner has played on New Orleans’ junior team —the Crescent City Crushers —sinceshe was 13. Now,atage 20, she’sgraduating into the adult squad. She said she tried swimming, soccer,volleyball andall the sports. Butfor her,“it wasgoing to be roller derby or boxing.”

Stoner said the bruises on her forearms “are like trophies.”

Though early on, her parents had to forewarn her high school that those were sports-related. Nowadays, Stoner said, “I just tell people Igot into aﬁght at the Walmart.”

All kidding aside, Stoner said, “When I’m on the track, it feels good mentally and physically.”

Shesaid it’sanadrenaline rush, andsomeofthe otherplayershave become her best friends.“It’s easy to talk to people here, she said.” In thebeginning

Patti“Crushin’Roulette” Rowsey,abartender who was intocontact sports like boxing and rugby introduced modernroller derby to New Orleans. Rowsey hadmoved from the Crescent City to Austin —where the “Whip It” ﬁlm was set —sometimeafter the millennium. She fell in with someskaters and soon set out to transplant the campy sport back home.

Rowsey said she and some likeminded pals spread thewordin New Orleans, seeking women who were willing to givethe demand-

ODYSSEY

Continued from page 1D

“homecoming” and part “comingof-age”story

“There are times whereitfeels like you’re on this kind of actionadventure roller coaster,but he doesn’tsacriﬁce any of the heart and the intimacy between our characters,” Holland said Although Telemachus hasyet to meet his father as agrown man, Holland added: “Throughout the ﬁlm, there’sthis real sense of connection between the two of us.”

Robert Pattinson(Antinous)

In the poem, there are 108 suitors vying for Penelope’shand (and the Ithacan throne), including Antinous who in the ﬁlm is the main antagonist on thehomefront. Nolan said Pattinson unleashed “his inner Alan Rickman to play the part.

“The thing he really focused on was this idea of his relationship to Telemachus. He’scontinually saying to Telemachus,‘I’m going to beyour stepdad, I’ll be your daddy.’ It was such afascinatingly creepy and amusing basis for villainy,” Nolansaid. “I just love how Rob based it on real world things, real truths about his character and who he is, and the

ByThe Associated Press

Today is Sunday,July 14, the 195th day of 2026. There are 170 days left in the year

TodayinHistory: On July 14, 1789, in an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners held there. Also on this date: In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it afederal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing aboutthe United States government.

In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat

just as many of your hints have always helped me. —Gail N., in Iowa No wasted water

Dear Heloise: Ihave awater container on thekitchen counter All unusedwater goes into the container —leftover water from drinking glasses or cooking, unused coffee maker water,dog bowl water …everything. I’m amazed by how much water now goes into the garden versus down thedrain. Iappreciateall of your hints!

MikeC., in Manitou Springs, Colorado BoyScout donations

Dear Heloise: Afriend of mine told us that she’scollecting plastic grocery bags forthe local Boy Scout troop. Apparently,these bags are collected in order to makeapark bench. Ihad no idea that this was athing! FYI,ittakes 3,000 pounds of bags to makeone of these benches. So, check with your local Boy and Girl Scout organizations to see if they partici-

ing game atry,though “some of them couldn’tevenskate.” Players from Austin put on askating workshop, and the nascent team gainedmomentum, but Rowsey said, “Wewere just starting to get theleague together when (Hurricane) Katrinacame.”

Jeannie“GalaxyGrrl” Detweiler was in the original batch of Big Easy Roller Girls, after possibly seeing one of Rowsey’srecruitment ﬂyers. Detweiler,anartist, said she was never into competitive sports, but she liked to skate

cowardly nature of that. Ithink cowardice is one of the hardest things for actors, particularly moviestars, to play.”

Zendaya(Athena)

Thegoddess of “craft, warfare andwisdom”and the daughter of Zeus, Athenaappears toOdysseus from time to time throughout the story

“I was likehow doIbring to life what is a, you know,agoddess,” Zendaya laughed. “But Ithink so muchofitwas in thestoryand the way he’stellingit. Ithink the humanity of it andbringing that morehuman element to this idea of agoddess butwhat they kind of representtoOdysseus in this story.The lessons that they’re teachinghim andwhy she presentsthe way she does and in themoments that she does, Ithink, ultimately, are teaching him alesson and guiding him through something that’svery difﬁcult.”

Lupita Nyong’o(Helenand Clytemnestra)

TheOscar-winner plays both Helen, the Queen of Sparta andoccupant of the“face that launched athousand ships,”who is married to Menelaus, and her sister Clytemnestra, who is married to Agamemnon.

“He (Nolan) mentioned his

Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.

In 1912, American folk singersongwriter Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma. In 1933, all German political parties, except theNazi Party, were outlawed bythe government of NaziGermany

In 1945, Italy formally declared war on Japan,its former Axis partner during World WarII.

In 1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall ﬁrst arrived at the Gombe StreamReserve inpresent-day Tanzaniatobegin her study of the wild chimpanzees living there.

In 2004,the Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gaymarriage.(Forty-eight senatorsvoted to advance themeasure

and, for some reason, roller derby appealed to her Despite the profound disruption of the storm and ﬂood, and the scattering of many of theoriginal players, the team reformed. Sally “SmasHer” Asher,awriter and historian, recalls that roller derby players from Las Vegas flew to New Orleanstohelp train the new recruits.

Laura “Little Mascara” Hawkins, another of theearliest Roller Girls, credits Kate “Cherry Pi” Parker,a former math teacher,withbring-

interest in telling this story and really not shying away from the cost of war,actually investigating and exploring it, and so as such with Helen’scharacter,it’slike she’sknown to be thereason for this war.Isthat even really true?” Nyong’o said. “What is her life after the war? Ilove that we get a glimpse of that, and we really get to see thecost of everything. The rage, resentment, guilt,shame, disappointment, endurance of it all.

Charlize Theron (Calypso)

Anymph in Greek mythology, Odysseus spends along period of his journey homewith her on the island of Ogygia. Hermotivations have been thesource of much debateover theyears.

John Leguizamo(Eumaeus)

An Ithacan swineherd who is loyal to Odysseus even after manyhave given up on his return.

“He (Nolan)told me it was the mostloyal character in Western literature,” Leguizamosaid. “I was like, oh, OK, that’sa lot of responsibility.”

In theﬁlm, Eumaeus is nearly blind, which, Leguizamosaid, is a nod to Homer,who somehistorians believe was blind.

JonBernthal(Menelaus)

The King of Sparta and husband

TODAYINHISTORY

—12short of the 60 needed —and 50 voted to block it.)

In 2009, disgraced ﬁnancier Bernard Madoff arrived at theButner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to begin serving a 150-year sentence for his massive Ponzischeme. (Madoff died in prison in April 2021.)

In 2013, thousands of demonstratorsacross the U.S. protested aFlorida jury’sdecision one day earlier to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting deathofTrayvon Martin.

In 2015, world powers and Iran struck adeal to curb Iran’snuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

In 2016, terrorstruckBastille Day celebrations in the French Riv-

pate in something like this! —Joe, in Valparaiso,Indiana Cleaneyeglasses

Dear Heloise: Here’sasimple way to clean your eyeglasses: Take a spot of shaving cream and rub it on each side of the lens. Rinse it off with hot water and dry the glasses with asoft towel. They’re like new! —Larry S.,via email

Sendahinttoheloise@heloise com.

theOrpheus parade’s dragonshaped Leviathan float. Tickets sold out forthe clash between two squads, the Ain’ts and Hornots.

“That’swhen we learned how important entertainment andrevelry was to healing,” Asher said. Beforehand,she said,someplayers worried that the event seemed too trivial and disrespectful for the painful recovery era.

Changing with thetimes

Old-timers think the roller derby was probably moreviolent and more theatrical in the beginning. “There werealot morebodies ﬂying and hitting,” Detweiler said. This dovetailedwith thescrappiness of the era.

Over the years, the sport has taken aturn toward athleticism andsafety.Whichmight be for thebest. Many of the originators report that they got pretty banged up back then.

The BigEasyRollerGirls settled into agroove, spending two seasons amongthe ﬂoatsatMardi Gras World, then held bouts at the University of NewOrleans before moving into the current warehouse location. In 2022, they changed the nametoBig Easy Roller Derby in ordertobetterreﬂect theirinclusiveness.

ing the flock back together after thestormand flood. Hawkins, who wasa real estate agentatthe time, said there was more to it than skating and jamming. They had to establish anonprofit corporation, raise money and pay the costs of hosting and traveling to bouts. The first official bout was held at one of the mosticonic of Crescent Citylocations, MardiGras World on the West Bank in September 2006. Atrack waslaidout on the hardconcrete floor,surrounding

of Helen, whotells Telemachus what he remembers about Odysseus while they fought together in the Trojan War.

BennySafdie(Agamemnon)

The King of Mycenae, husband of Clytemnestra, and commander of the Greekarmy during the Trojan War

Samantha Morton (Circe)

Apowerful sorceress whoencounters Odysseus and his men on their journey home.

Himesh Patel(Eurylochus)

Odysseus’ssecond-in-command who is there formany of the obstacles on theirjourney to Ithaca, from thecave of the Cyclops to Hades.

“On‘Tenet,’ Ipopped in and, you now,ﬂew,ordrove, aplane to a building andthen left…Whereas on this, Iwas there by Matt’s side, you know almost the entire shoot,”Patel said. “It’skind of the mostphysicallychallenging role I’ve ever played.”

Elliot Page (Sinon)

Sinon, acharacter in Greek mythologywho appears in the “Aeneid,”isaveteran of the Trojan War.

Bill Irwin(Cyclops)

Poseidon’sson also encounters

iera city of Nice as alargetruck plowed into afestive crowd,killing 86 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State extremists; thedriver was shot dead by police.

In 2020, researchers reported that the ﬁrst COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. boosted people’s immune systems as scientists had hoped;the vaccine wasdeveloped by the National Institutes of Healthand Moderna Inc.

In 2022, the National Galleries of Scotland said apreviously unknown self-portrait of Vincent VanGogh was discovered behind another of the artist’spaintings when experts took an X-ray of thecanvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition. Today’sBirthdays: Former football

Thenextopportunity to seethe Big Easy RollerDerby is July 25 at theBig Easy Warehouse, 3632 Desire Parkway,New Orleans.The CrescentCity Crushers face the Cyber Punks Junior Roller Derby from Augusta, Georgia, at 5p.m., and the Big Easy Second Line faces the Montgomery Roller Derby at 7:30 p.m.The season continues through October,and moreinfo is available at bigeasyrollerderby com.

Email Doug MacCashat dmaccash@theadvocate.com.

Odysseus and his menontheir journey home. Nolan and production designer Ruth De Jong used Francisco Goya’spainting “Saturn Devouring His Son” as inspiration for the design, but it was the actor (also behind the “Interstellar” robots) who helped give the character its soul.

“Wedidn’tknow how we were gonna achieve it. We knew we were going to need every trick in the book, from animatronics to puppetry to computer graphics. But Iknew Ineeded aperformer to really look at it and help us ﬁnd the design of it and ﬁnd how this character would live and move and so forth,” Nolan said. “He doesn’t treat the Cyclops as just amonster.And that’ssomething I’ve very muchpicked up from the work of my friend Guillermo del Toro over the years. You know,Guillermo is someone who’schief lesson, Ithink, in his work is amonster is never just amonster.”

MiaGoth(Melantho)

Aservant of Queen Penelope. CoreyHawkins (Polybus) One of Penelope’ssuitors. Travis Scott Abard in the court of Ithaca.

player and actor Rosey Grier is 94. Actor Vincent Pastore (TV’s “The Sopranos”) is 80. Music company executive Tommy Mottola is 78. Movie producer Scott Rudin is 68. Singer-songwriter

STAFF FILEPHOTO By MICHAEL DEMOCKER

Abby VanDeerlin of the Big Easy Roller Girls tries to recoverafter acollision during about at MardiGras World on Sept.16, 2006.

Anjelique Kidjo is 66. Singer-guitarist Kyle Gass (Tenacious D) is 66. Actor Jane Lynch is 66. Actor Jackie Earle Haley is 65. Actor Matthew Fox is 60. Rock singer-musician Tanya Donelly is 60. Olympic gold medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati is 55. Country singer Jamey Johnson is 51. Hip-hop musician Taboo (Black Eyed Peas) is 51. Actor/writer/producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge is 41. Rock singer DanReynolds (Imagine

Hints from Heloise

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Help a cause you believe in, and it will rejuvenate you. The time, patience and love you offer will matter and personify how you can make a difference. Take the feel-good path to hope.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Put your own unique twist into everything you do. Communicate with charisma, and you'll persuade others to join your team Scour the rules to ensure you are doing everything by the book.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Rethink your path forward. Don't get caught up in someone else's dreams. Take the path that leads to your heart's desires. Reach out to those who share your concerns.

LIBRA (sept. 23-Oct. 23) Rethink your strategy. Set boundaries with people who take advantage of you. Be authentic when assessing, pursuing or offering advice, and follow through with actions.

scORPIO (Oct. 24-nov. 22) Haste makes waste. Assessing, planning and budgeting will encourage progress and longterm success. Don't let anyone talk you into something you don't need or want.

sAGITTARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Stick close to home, and don't make promises you cannot deliver or that put you in debt. Look at the possibilities and the reasonable changes you can craft that will make a difference and serve you well.

cAPRIcORn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Point your thoughts and energy in a direction that is self-serving. Refuse to let oth-

ers take advantage of your talents and skills when it's you who needs to come out ahead.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Taking on too much or making unrealistic promises will require time and effort you may not be able to provide. You need to focus on what's happening in your personal life.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Set rules, stick to your plans and use your voice to get your way. Let your powers of persuasion help get you where you want to be without jeopardizing your reputation or letting anyone outmaneuver you.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Don't play games; a direct approach will lead to answers that allow you to move forward with confidence and no regret. Connect with those traveling in a similar direction.

TAuRus (April 20-May 20) Keep your thoughts to yourself until you have figured out what's best to do. Listen to the opinions of experts, but formulate plans that will serve your purpose without overspending.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Turn up the volume, listen, discuss and create a plan that will help you reach your destination of choice. Take better care of your physical well-being and your relationships with those who look up to you.

FAMILY CIrCUS

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

cLuE: s EQuALs I

CIpher

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of thesudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

Agatha Christie said, “Itisridiculous to set adetective story in New York City. New York Cityisitselfadetective story.”

Littledidsheknowwhatwouldhappen aftershe wasgone. Butworking out the rightplayordefenseisoftenlikeadetectivestory.Therearenumerouscluesthat shouldbeused to find the solution.

In this deal, South is in four hearts. Westleadsthediamond10:four,six,ace. Howshould East plan the defense?

South opens with atextbook weak twobid at unfavorable vulnerability: agood six-card suit and 6-10 high-card points. North knows game might have no play, but thevulnerable game bonus is very tempting. East shouldask himself whichhonors areheld by South. He has already producedthe diamondace andthe bidding stronglysuggeststhat he also has the heart king and queen. So he cannot have theclub king. As aconsequence, East can hope fortwo clubtricks,the heart ace and either adiamond trick or aclub ruff.

South immediately takes twoofdummy’s top spades to discard his diamond loser. Then he calls for the heart jack, feigningafinesseforthequeen.ButEast shouldnot fallfor it.Heshouldgrabthe trick with his ace and shift to hisclub four.Westwinswithhiskingandreturns the club three. East takes that trick and gives hispartner aclubruff. When defending, keep your eye on the target: thenumber of tricks your side needs to defeat the contract. ©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 ILLusORy: ih-LOO-ser-ee: Deceptive.

Average mark14words

Timelimit 25 minutes

Can you find 23 or morewords in ILLUSORY?

yEsTERDAy’s WORD —REAMERs

loCKhorNs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

hidato

mallard fillmore

dIrectIons: make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

Puzzle Answer ken ken

InstructIons: 1 Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 thorugh 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner. HErE is a

WiShinG Well

Scrabble GramS

rsiqs-contracts/

SION OF AARON

“G,”

JDC, JeffersonParish, Louisiana. NOTICE IS GIVENthatLinda H. Brown, Administratrix, has ﬁledanAmended FinalTableau of Distribu‐tion andPetitionfor Ho‐mologation.Nocashdis‐tributions areproposed. Property at 2093 Benedict Drive, Marrero, LA 70072 to be sold by judicial sale.The Tableaumay be homologatedafter 7 days from publication. Oppositionsmustbe ﬁledbeforehomologa‐tion.Hearing:August18, 2026, 10:00 a.m.,Division