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The Acadiana Advocate 08-13-2026

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T h u r s d ay, au g u s T 13, 2026

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Meta won’t have to release electric, job data La. regulators override judge’s recommendation BY SAM KARLIN Staff writer

STAFF PHOTOS By BRAd KEMP

Superintendent Francis Touchet Jr., center, watches Wednesday as parents register their children on the first day of school for Lafayette Parish at Truman Early Childhood Education Center in Lafayette.

‘A JOYFUL DAY’

28,000 Lafayette Parish students return as schools debut new technology and campus upgrades

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

Lafayette Parish schools began welcoming students Wednesday, with elementary students and some middle and high schoolers officially kicking off the 2026-27 school year. The system uses staggered start dates, which means that different grade levels are reporting to school throughout the week. By Friday, all students in grades 1 through 12 will be back on campus, with around 28,000 students enrolled across 44 school sites in the Lafayette Parish school system. Parents and guardians are using a new app this year to manage bus transport, call My Ride K-12. The app works via real-time location tracking, with students required to use their school IDs to record when the enter and exit the bus. On Wednesday morning, some parents reported challenges using the app, such as their bus not showing up on the live route — but they anticipate that any kinks will be worked out of the system in a few days.

ä See SCHOOLS, page 3A

Meta will not be required to turn over more details about exactly how many jobs it expects to create and how much electricity it will use at its massive Hyperion data center in north Louisiana, after Republicans on the Louisiana Public Service Commission on Wednesday overrode a judge’s recommendation that the tech giant should provide the information. The decision, made in a party-line vote, was the latest by Republican leaders in Louisiana to support Meta in its push to build its data center in Richland Parish, after setting up tax incentives, approving electric infrastructure and fast-tracking Entergy’s plans to support a large expansion of the project. And it was a blow to opponents of the data center who are seeking more information about how many permanent jobs it will ultimately create as they try to build a case against Entergy’s plan to build seven new power plants to support Meta’s plans for a massive expansion. The company has said it will create 1,000 new jobs at the data center and that it will pay for its own power needs. A report by a commission consultant found that Entergy’s acquisition of a power plant would effectively mean residents subsidize part of the power needs. Meta disputed the report, saying it is paying for its own power, though Entergy later postponed that plan. The meeting exposed an increasingly tense atmosphere at the PSC, which regulates utilities and has become a central

ä See META, page 3A

Children play with blocks at Truman Early Childhood Education Center in Lafayette.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

The Meta data center site in Holly Ridge takes shape in March.

Millions crowd Spanish cities to see total solar eclipse Spectacle the first in the country in more than a century

BY SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press

ASSOCIATEd PRESS PHOTO By ALBERTO SAIZ

A beachgoer wearing special eclipse glasses looks up Wednesday during the beginning phase of a solar eclipse at Puerto de Sagunto beach near Valencia, Spain.

WEATHER HIGH 95 LOW 76 PAGE 6A

MEDINACELI, Spain — Millions of people crowded cloudless cities and towns in Spain on Wednesday in search of the best views of a total solar eclipse, when the alignment of the sun, moon and Earth briefly plunged parts of the planet into darkness. The crowds brought lawn chairs and umbrellas as they eagerly awaited the celestial spectacle,

which began early in the evening. As the sky darkened, gradually at first and then quickly, people broke into applause and cheered. It was the country’s first total solar eclipse in more than a century. “It’s simply impossible to imagine,” Rosa Celiberti, a language teacher who watched from Medinaceli, a Roman-era hilltop town in northeast Spain, said with tears in her eyes. “No matter how many photos or videos you’ve seen, nothing comes even close to what it actually feels like.” Across a wide band of northern and central Spain and Portugal, millions of people enjoyed some of mainland Europe’s best views of the eclipse. It also passed over slivers of

Business ......................4A Commentary ................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................10C Living............................5C Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C

Greenland and Iceland. Totality — when the moon completely covers the sun’s light — was expected to last less than 21/2 minutes, reaching its maximum duration off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it got to a small patch of Portugal and then to Spain, just before sunset, totality dwindled to a minute or so. The total eclipse then ended over the Mediterranean. The eclipse was expected to draw at least a half-million additional visitors, Spanish authorities said. Demand for hotel rooms along the path of totality, including in the northern cities of A Coruña, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela, soared.

ä See ECLIPSE, page 3A

102Nd yEAR, NO. 44


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