Issuu

ON VIEW THROUGH FEBRUARY 14

Second Nature

Japanese Rinpa Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection

SAINTS AT GIANTS • NOON • FOX 1C

LSU ROUTS MISSISSIPPI STATE IN SEC SHUTOUT 1C

N O L A.C O M

S u n d ay, O c t O b e r 18, 2026

A pedestrian walks past an Elon Musk mural that reads ‘BOCA CHICA TO MARS’ in Brownsville, Texas. STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER

How SpaceX transformed the Texas coast Brownsville saw downtown revival, job growth along with pollution and sonic booms

$2.50X

Glut of N.O. condos on real estate market Sales slow to a crawl in once-popular areas

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

A decade ago, New Orleans developer Earl Weber spent millions on a project that, at the time, seemed like a good bet. He purchased the former Musee Conti Wax Museum in the French Quarter and converted the historic Conti Street building into 16 luxury condominiums with a rooftop pool and views of the city skyline. As of this year, six of the units remain unsold, with no potential buyers on the horizon. Weber, as a result, has walked away from several other New Orleans real estate development deals. “We had a bunch of projects we pulled out of,” he said last week. “The condo market has completely ﬁzzled.” Weber’s experience is symptomatic of a larger problem in the heart of the city’s historic center, including the Central Business District, French Quarter, Marigny and Treme. In those neighborhoods, the market for residential properties — mostly condos and townhomes built during the post-Hurricane Katrina boom years — has slowed to a crawl, raising questions about the future of

ä See REAL ESTATE, page 8A

As Voting Rights Act ebbs, many Black voters are fired up

Tesla Cybertrucks are lined up near the production facility in Starbase, Texas. BY ALEX LUBBEN

Louisiana elections could see midterm changes

Staff writer

BROWNSVILLE,Texas — Elon Musk hadn’t yet flown a single person to space when he approached local leaders here with a plan 15 years ago: He wanted to save humanity by colonizing Mars, and to get there he proposed building a giant rocket facility in this impoverished town. Gilberto Salinas, a local economic development ofﬁcial, said he laughed it off initially: “This is just crazy, right?” Salinas ﬂew to Hawthorne, California, to see SpaceX’s early rocket factory and to “kick the tires” on the Salinas company, as he put it, because it was then still essentially a startup. “They were, in fact, building rockets,” Salinas said. “But they were a bunch of kids that were in their late 20s, early 30s. To me they looked like skateboarders.” Still, Salinas wondered: What if this could be the project to revive his downtrodden hometown on the Mexi-

WEATHER HIGH 74 LOW 60 PAGE 8B

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

JONESBORO — It was the mid-1960s, and young Black activists in this blue-collar mill town in central Louisiana were determined to overturn the decades of Jim Crow laws that treated them as second-class citizens. They picketed the “Whites only” public library and were arrested on charges of “disturbing the peace.” H H H H H H They drank out of the “Whites only” drinking fountains and were hustled to jail. They organized an armed vigilante group called Deacons for Defense and Justice to stop the Ku Klux Klan from intimidating civil rights workers who were registering Black people to vote. But segregation laws slowly fell by the wayside in Jonesboro, the seat of Jackson Parish, after President Lyndon Johnson pushed through Congress the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Black voter registration surged, and Black candidates began to win

ELECTION

Justin LeClaire, an avian conservation biologist, walks through the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area near the SpaceX launchpads in Starbase, Texas, last month. LeClaire and his group, the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, have documented SpaceX’s ecological impact. can border? “We could potentially become the next space city,” Salinas remembers thinking. “Fast forward to today and we are that.” SpaceX has dramatically transformed the Brownsville region in the last 15 years — for better or worse, depending on who you ask. Here, the

company is building the world’s largest and most powerful rocket in a newly formed company town called Starbase, just east of Brownsville on Boca Chica Beach. Since SpaceX arrived in 2014, the

ä See SPACEX, page 6A

Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C

ä See VOTERS, page 4A

14TH yEAR, NO. 67

2A ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

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Search continues after boat capsizes off Mexican coast

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

3 sentenced in surfer killings in Mexico

ENSENADA, Mexico — A judge on Friday sentenced three Mexican men to more than 158 years in prison each for the 2024 murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend, a case that tarnished Mexico’s image by exposing the risks foreigners face when visiting the tourismdependent country. The sentencing, which came a week after the men were found guilty, marked the end of a lengthy legal process over the killings of Australians Callum and Jake Robinson, and American Carter Redd Rhoad. Their bodies were found in May 2024, and at least four people were arrested for their alleged involvement in the crime. A judge in the coastal city of Ensenada, in Baja California state, ruled that Jesús Gerardo García, known as “el Kekas,” Irineo Francisco “N” and Ángel Jesús “N” would each serve 158 years and nine months in prison for murder, robbery with violence and vehicle theft with violence. Antonio Otañez, president of the Baja California surfers’ association, welcomed the outcome, saying “justice has been served.” But he acknowledged that the killings had caused a “major drop” in tourist visits, particularly by surfers, to the region known for its beautiful beaches. The Robinson brothers — Callum and Jake — and their American friend decided to travel to Mexico in late April 2024 to pursue one of their passions, surfing, at a beach in Punta San José, about 50 miles from the city of Ensenada in Baja California state. Unaware of the risks they faced, the three friends decided to camp on the beach on the night of April 27, 2024. Their attackers confronted them there, shot them dead in the early morning hours and then dumped their bodies into a well more than 50 feet deep. The bodies were found on May 3 after several days of searching.

Fisherman killed by alligator in Florida

A 71-year-old man fishing on the shore of a Florida lake was killed Friday by a nearly 12-foot alligator, the second fatal attack reported this year. Steven Hamilton, of Winter Garden, was standing on the shore of Lake Apopka at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park, 15 miles northwest of Orlando, when he was attacked about 5 p.m., the Winter Garden Police Department said. The presence of other active alligators in the water complicated any chance of rescuing Hamilton, whose body was recovered about two hours later, Winter Garden Fire Chief Jose Gainza told FOX35. Police Capt. Michael Mason said authorities were not alerted in advance that an alligator was near the lake’s shore, possibly because it “has tons of alligators in it.” He said police launched a joint investigation with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose trappers captured and killed the alligator.

16 rescued, but others missing

BY MIKELLA SCHUETTLER Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KATERyNA KLOCHKO

A car burns Saturday after a Russian airstrike on a neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Ukraine urges support for sanctions on Russia

Lindsey Graham, the legislation had Trump signed order sought to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fueling to put restrictions on hold Russia’s 4½-year-old war against Ukraine.

BY SUSIE BLANN and KATIE MARIE DAVIES The bill had sought to sanction Russian ofAssociated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged supporters Saturday to speak out in favor of new U.S. sanctions against Russia, hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order putting the sweeping restrictions on hold. The White House decision has heightened fears that Ukraine could be left exposed to Moscow’s escalating attacks as winter approaches. Overnight Russian attacks killed at least four people, including an ambulance driver, and wounded dozens, ofﬁcials said. Ukrainian drones killed a woman in a Russian border region and disrupted ﬂights at Moscow’s airports, according to Russian authorities. In a social media statement, Zelenskyy called Trump’s decision unfortunate but avoided directly criticizing the U.S. leader despite deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington in recent days. “A decision was unfortunately made in America to completely disregard the Lindsey Graham Act, which was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end,” Zelenskyy wrote. “This Act could have helped enormously – and still can! But it needs to actually work, and every voice in support of it matters.” He separately thanked Democrats and Republicans who supported the legislation, saying that blocking it would encourage Russia to continue killing and that limiting Ukraine’s ability to retaliate would not bring peace. “Nevertheless, we very much hope — and I personally hope — that the president of the United States of America will do everything possible to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin stop the killing, stop the attacks on our energy infrastructure, and end this war,” he said. Asked about contacts with Washington, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, had met Friday with U.S. presidential envoy Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Zelenskyy said the U.S. was working to arrange a three-way meeting involving him, Trump and Putin, potentially in the Middle East, Europe or the United States. Named after late South Carolina Sen.

ﬁcials, banks and a shadow ﬂeet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving. Trump personally signed the legislation just last month and his move came just two days before a deadline set in the law itself for its implementation. Trump told Congress that the pause was in the national interest but gave no further details. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who co-drafted the bill, criticized Trump’s move, saying the president was turning his back on “the majority of Americans, their representatives in both houses of Congress, and our European allies.” Trump’s unexpected decision comes a week after he had agreed to purchase diesel from Russia to try to bring down global energy prices, despite that potentially hurting Ukraine. Republicans and Democrats alike say the purchase will help Russia execute its war against Ukraine — without making a difference to global fuel prices, which are elevated mostly due to Trump’s war on Iran.

Starlink restrictions Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was investigating sudden speed restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Starshield, the militarygrade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, which is the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communication. The restrictions, imposed without warning early Thursday, cut the internet data connection when a communication terminal moves faster than 100 mph. The cap forced Ukrainian drones to fly slower than usual, making it easier for Russian weapons to target or evade them. Zelenskyy said that there were no similar restrictions in European Union countries and that they apply only to Ukraine. “In other words, this is a planned operation,” he said. It was unclear who was responsible. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said this week that the U.S. government owns and controls the system, with decisions about its use resting with the U.S. military and, ultimately, the president. The Pentagon has not answered questions from The Associated Press about the restrictions. Trump told reporters Friday that he did not order restrictions on the system. He also doubted that the disruption came from Musk.

Trump’s decision on Russian Pakistani forces, Afghan sanctions outrages Congress Taliban exchange fire

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani forces and Afghan Taliban personnel exchanged fire at several locations along Pakistan’s northwestern border Saturday, with Pakistani security officials and state-run media saying troops backed by artillery destroyed Taliban posts. The officials also said Pakistani troops killed an unspecified number of Pakistani Taliban militants trying to cross into Pakistan from a remote area of eastern Afghanistan during the clashes. The fighting lasted for hours along the border in Kurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to three Pakistani security officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

CORRECTION A story that ran Saturday misstated the 2027 status of NOPD civilian furloughs. Furloughs will not continue in 2027. The Times-Picayune regrets the error.

BY LISA MASCARO

AP congressional correspondent WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to waive sanctions on Russia days before they were to take effect drew outrage Saturday from members of Congress, which had overwhelmingly passed the legislation in a bipartisan display of American support for Ukraine in the war with Russia. Lawmakers from both parties blasted the executive order late Friday, the latest in a series of steps that the Republican president has taken drawing the United States closer to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Trump recently announced a diesel deal with Putin to import Russian energy in a long-shot effort to curb high gas prices in the U.S. that are roiling the midterm elections on Nov. 3. “I think it’s clear Russia is the aggressor, and we’ve got to do everything we can to put economic pressure on Russia,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in an interview with The Associated Press. “So it’s not the ﬁrst thing I would be doing.” “Beyond irresponsible,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on social media, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope that the sanctions that were supposed to take effect Sunday targeting Russia’s economy

Authorities are continuing the search for 11 people believed to be missing after a boat departing from Mexico capsized off the coast of Baja California. Sixteen Mexican nationals were already rescued on Friday, including one who was treated for shark bites. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy are searching the waters using multiple aircraft and boats, along with assistance from the Mexican Navy. An additional helicopter will be deployed later today, according to the Coast Guard. The boat capsized in an area frequented by smugglers and did not happen in U.S. waters, according to the Coast Guard. Survivors told ofﬁcials there were 27 people on board. “We were able to help, and that’s why we launched our assets,” said Petty Ofﬁcer Charlie Valor on Saturday. The region is popular with fishing and leisure boats, but fatal attempts to transport migrants from Mexico to the U.S. have occurred in the past. The Mexican consulate in San Diego said all those rescued were Mexican nationals. The Coast Guard said Customs and Border Protection was investigating

and interviewing the survivors, but the agency did not immediately respond to requests for updates. If survivors were witnesses to a crime, they may be eligible for humanitarian parole and permitted to remain in the country for a limited period. Rescuers were searching the area with helicopters, a fixed-wing plane, a cutter and a Navy combat ship on Saturday. The efforts remain ongoing. A mayday call was transmitted from someone on the boat around 1 a.m. on Friday, said Coast Guard Lt. Santiago Tamburini. A rescue helicopter reached the site about two hours later. It took about 90 minutes for the crew, which included a rescue swimmer, to pull the 16 people from the water, Tamburini said. The boat went down about 140 miles west of Ensenada, Mexico. The Coast Guard said at least one person was treated with injuries consistent with shark bites. Three were taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, including the person with a suspected shark bite and two people treated for cold exposure, said hospital spokesperson Janice Collins on Friday. Three others were evaluated at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and later discharged, said Steve Carpowich, a Scripps Health spokesperson, on Friday.

could be revived. “What part of enforcing a law passed 8611 by the Senate does the President and his advisers not understand?” Tillis said. “It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine.” Republican Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, said “Lindsey would be appalled,” referring to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who worked endlessly on the bill before he died this summer. The bill is known as the Lindsey Graham Russian Sanctions Act. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, said in a statement that “by giving the Russian economy life support, Trump’s deal with the devil keeps getting dirtier.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump is “thumbing his nose” at Congress and “enabling Vladimir Putin to continue his war of aggression.” She urged her colleagues to take action to reverse course. The next steps are highly uncertain with the House and Senate on recess until after Election Day. Trump said he was waiving the sanctions indeﬁnitely, citing national security concerns. It is unlikely Congress would be in a position to take any action to challenge Trump’s moves until lawmakers return to Washington.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DENIS POROy

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter lifts off Friday at Coast Guard Station San Diego. Authorities continued the search Saturday for 11 people believed to be missing after a boat departing from Mexico capsized off the coast of Baja California.

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The Times-Picayune ✦ nola.com ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ 3A

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Pope returns to Vatican days after surgery

in the first major Surgeon: Leo XIV Tuesday health event of his 17-month pontificate. The surgery should be fit for conﬁrmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common Latin America tour type of lung cancer. He left

BY COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV returned to the Vatican on Saturday days after lung cancer surgery, as his surgeon said there are “no clinical reasons” to prevent his planned trip to Latin America next month. “The Holy Father has put his heart and soul into his recovery,” Dr. Stefano Margaritora told Vatican News, adding that he expected the pope to recover fully from surgery “in another 10 days or so.” Leo, 71, is scheduled to make an ambitious Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Peru and Argentina, including a dozen ﬂights and two helicopter rides to high altitudes. “As for a long trip involving air travel in about three weeks, I would say there are no clinical reasons why it should not take place,” Margaritora said. Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on

the hospital on Saturday, well ahead of the week-long hospital stay the Vatican had initially anticipated. “I am much better, thank you,” the pope said when asked how he was as he was driven away in a black SUV. Leo greeted patients inside the hospital accompanied by his surgeon, before waving to well-wishers outside who cried out “Holiness” as he walked to a waiting vehicle. He paused when a 13-yearold Ukrainian girl presented him with a homemade papal doll that she said had helped her through successful cancer treatment. She had briefly met Leo at an audience in St. Peter’s Square last December—an encounter she told reporters “gave her the strength to overcome the illness.” Since the surgery, Leo has shown signs of recovering well. He had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held meetings with senior aides and celebrated Mass in a make-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GREGORIO BORGIA

Pope Leo XIV leaves Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic on Saturday after Tuesday’s surgery to remove lung cancer. shift hospital chapel. He will take on his ﬁrst ofﬁcial duty on Sunday, delivering the traditional Angelus blessing to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. It comes exactly one week after the pontiff revealed to throngs in the square that the nodule had been found and would be surgically removed — an unusually candid revelation for the Vatican. Margaritora, the chief

thoracic surgeon at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, also conﬁrmed that the nodule was discovered by chance during routine abdominal examinations. It appeared as “a small spot” at the base of the lung, which extends down to the diaphragm, he said. He added that if the spot had been higher up, “it certainly would not have been seen.”

The cancer was in its early stages, and the pope had “no respiratory symptoms, and felt perfectly well,” Margaritora said. He described Tuesday’s procedure to remove the lobe as “routine” and “without complications,” but acknowledged that it “stirred deep feelings ... to operate on a pope, who for the ﬁrst time – at least in modern history – is undergoing surgery

for a malignant tumor.” The Vatican did not disclose that the tumor was malignant until after Tuesday’s successful surgery. It later confirmed that the pope had undergone a biopsy before being admitted to Gemelli. Experts say the state-of-the-art Ion robotic bronchoscopy would have indicated whether the tumor was malignant and possibly whether cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. Histological testing of the tumor and related lymph nodes was underway. The results, along with details of the tumor’s molecular and genetic makeup, will help doctors determine whether the pope needs additional treatment. Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, or targeted oral therapy based on the tumor’s genetic characteristics. Margaritora said the pope’s recovery so far had required “very little assistance from us.” “His determination to recover quickly has been effective in every respect. It was truly commendable,” the surgeon said.

Masked settlers attack European diplomats in West Bank BY CARA ANNA

Associated Press

JERUSALEM — Masked settlers wielding metal bars attacked a group of European diplomats during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Saturday, one of those assaulted said, on a second straight day of violence against Palestinians and foreigners during the sensitive olive harvest. At least four people have been killed and over 100 injured since the harvest began earlier this month, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Activists say Israeli authorities do little to stop attacks that involve weapons ranging from slingshots to guns. An attack on Friday seriously injured a Washington Post photographer and others. In the attack in the Christian village of Taybeh on Saturday, settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. He linked the attack to Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledged to push for further European Union sanctions. “Impunity for violent settlers must end,” he added. Bernard Baudoux, a French mayor among those attacked, described it in a Facebook post. “Three vehicles arrived. Several masked individuals, armed with metal bars, got out and came toward us with extreme aggressiveness,” he wrote. Baudoux said he put on his French tricolor sash. “That didn’t stop them. I was struck with metal bars and

kicked before being thrown to the ground. We were finally able to get back to our vehicles.” He said he was fine. He and others had traveled to Taybeh to formalize a twinning agreement between the village and his community, and then participated in the residents’ olive harvest. Religious leaders in Taybeh also conﬁrmed the attack. Video shared by an activist at the scene, Amit Orfali, shows Baudoux leaning against a vehicle while sitting on the dusty ground. Other clips showed young masked men knocking insistently on a driver’s side window and asking for IDs, while other masked men carrying sticks advanced in the distance. Orfali said the masked men “threatened to kill us.” The attacks came less than two weeks before closely contested elections that could end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s time in office. His government, the most nationalist and farright in Israel’s history, faces domestic criticism over security failures and international criticism over the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Some of the government’s senior ofﬁcials are settlers themselves. The French mayor was “violently assaulted by extremist settlers,” France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on X, adding that Israeli authorities “must urgently put an end to this criminal violence and ensure the safety of civilians, as they are required to do under international law.”

“We are deeply outraged by this incident,” Poland’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Israel’s military in a statement conﬁrmed the attack on the diplomats and called it a “severe act of violence,” but said the visit had not been coordinated with it and no soldiers were at the

scene. Israeli police said they had opened an investigation and vowed to work “until everyone who took part in these cases is brought to justice.” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on X condemned the “severe acts of violence by Israeli rioters,” adding that his ministry was in contact

with ambassadors from the countries concerned. But Netanyahu’s office later issued a statement warning against “premature conclusions” in the incident and noted concerns about “a coordinated campaign to smear Israel.” Netanyahu’s main rival in the elections, Gadi Eisenkot,

said on X that “a handful of criminals is burning up the last shreds of legitimacy left to the state of Israel.” Eisenkot called it “Jewish terror” — the same term the photographer for The Washington Post, Heidi Levine, used when speaking to The Associated Press on Saturday from her hospital bed.

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Authorities: Kenya’s Ebola cases rise to 7 BY EVELYNE MUSAMBI

Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya — Three Kenyan health workers have tested positive for Ebola after caring for the country’s first confirmed case, the Health Ministry said Saturday. Another person linked to the ﬁrst Ebola case also tested positive while in quarantine, bringing the total number of infections in Kenya to seven. The ministry said the four new patients were in isolation and receiving care. The other two patients were in stable condition. The first patient died on Oct. 5, days after he arrived in Kenya from Congo, where an outbreak has killed at least 4,300 people since May, accounting for nearly half of all conﬁrmed cases there.

The outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, including blood and vomit, or through contact with contaminated materials and surfaces, such as bedding and clothing. About 130 people who had been in contact with the first patient, a 40-year-old Kenyan man, were identified, the ministry said. Of those, 128 were in quarantine and two were being traced, it said. Kenya has strengthened screening and established an emergency hotline for anyone who suspects they may have been in contact with an Ebola patient or develops symptoms.

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4A ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

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VOTERS

Annie Johnson sits in front of the former public library in Jonesboro, where in 1964 she was arrested for picketing.

Continued from page 1A elections to local offices. They worked to ensure that Black residents had better roads, better schools and access to government jobs. Now Black political leaders in Jonesboro — and throughout Louisiana — believe that their hard-fought political gains are at risk in the upcoming elections after the U.S. Supreme Court in April weakened voting rights protections in the Louisiana v. Callais decision, and the state Legislature promptly eliminated the Black-majority congressional district represented by Cleo Fields. Republicans could redraw political boundaries at every level of government throughout Louisiana to eliminate Black-majority seats. “We need to think back about how long it took for us to become voters,” said Annie Johnson, 82, who was among those arrested in 1964 for picketing outside Jonesboro’s library. “We found out that voting could do some things for us.” Conditions are ripe for a disproportionately large turnout of Black voters this fall because of high fuel and grocery prices from President Donald Trump’s war against Iran, Gov. Jeff Landry’s moves against Black elected officials in New Orleans, the loss of Fields’ congressional seat and the potentially historymaking campaign of Jamie Davis, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate. He is attempting to become the first Black person elected statewide in Louisiana in 150 years. Davis, a farmer from Tensas Parish in northeast Louisiana, has built a grassroots network that is aiming to drive a big turnout, and he has drawn enthusiastic crowds in Jonesboro and elsewhere throughout the state. Nonprofit groups such as the NAACP and the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice and such individuals as Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis and Gary Chambers Jr., an activist based in Baton Rouge, have been speaking at events throughout the state to rally voters. So have officials from the Louisiana Democratic Party. But no one can say for sure whether these activities will actually result in a big Black voter turnout. The first indication will come on Wednesday when the Secretary of State’s Office reports the numbers from the day before, the first day of the weeklong early voting period in advance of the Nov. 3 election. To be sure, Republicans are making their own effort to get their voters to the polls to elect U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow to the Senate, win the Baton Rouge-based congressional seat that Fields is vacating and retain the four seats held by incumbent Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who represents northwest Louisiana, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who represents suburban New

STAFF PHOTOS By JILL PICKETT

pushed for change in Jackson Parish, and it finally came there — and throughout Louisiana. After passage of the civil rights acts, the number of Black voters in Jackson Parish increased by 35% from 1964 to 1970, according to ﬁgures supplied by the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office. The old sheets list Black voters as “colored.” Today, life has improved

Monroe

167

Jonesboro 61

Mississippi River Alexandria LA.

MISS.

Opelousas

Baton Rouge

165

Lafayette

Staff map

for Black residents in Jonesboro, local leaders say, although acute problems remain. Streets in predominantly Black neighborhoods are paved, kids are graduating from high school and Black people have many of the same job opportunities that White people do. James Bradford and Eddie James Barnes were the ﬁrst Black people elected to the Jackson Parish Police Jury, in 1973, after a court order led to the creation of two Black-majority districts. Leslie Thompson was elected as the first Black mayor of Jonesboro in 2006, and he has been succeeded by two more Black mayors. Many White residents have moved to other parts of Jackson Parish, giving Black voters a numerical majority in Jonesboro.

ä See VOTERS, page 5A

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Leslie Thompson leans against the front porch of a house in Jonesboro on Wednesday. Thompson said the house was used by Deacons for Defense. Thompson was the first Black mayor of Jonesboro. Orleans. “The liberal left is angry, and I believe they’re motivated and will show up,” said Derek Babcock, chair of the Louisiana Republican Party. “We can’t take it for granted that Louisiana will vote red. We need our people to show up. I’m telling everyone to get their friends and family out to vote as well. We need to elect candidates who hold traditional conservative values, want to reduce government regulation and are pro-life.”

Echoes of history Over time, Jonesboro has declined like a lot of small towns in Louisiana. Its oncethriving downtown has withered, and its population has dropped from its peak in 1970 to about 4,200 today. Its main tourist attraction is the Jimmie Davis Tabernacle, built just outside the city limits to honor the two-term governor with a place for music and Christian worship. Davis is buried there. The beginning chords of his famous song, “You Are My Sunshine,” are etched into his gravestone. Davis completed his second term in 1964, a time when Black residents led a hardscrabble existence in Jonesboro.

“Nearly eight out of every ten Black families lived in poverty,” wrote Lance Hill, then a Tulane grad student, in his 2004 book, The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement. “Ninetyseven percent of Blacks over the age of twenty-ﬁve had never completed a high school education. The ‘Black quarters’ in Jonesboro and Hodge consisted of dilapidated clapboard shacks, with cracks in the walls that whistled in the bitter winter wind. Human waste ran into the dirt streets for want of a sewerage system.” Black people had to sit in the upstairs balcony to watch movies at the Palace Theater downtown, remembered Herbert Simmons, who grew up outside of Jonesboro. The Klan that was active in central Louisiana burned a cross in front of his father’s funeral home. Two Black churches were burned to the ground early one morning in January 1965. As a teenager then, Simmons was struck that, when he visited downtown with his grandmother, she stepped off the sidewalk to let White people pass. When Simmons ques-

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ORLEANS PARISH REGISTRAR OF VOTERS ANNOUNCES EARLY VOTING FOR THE NOVEMBER 3, 2026, U.S. SENATE GENERAL/ OPEN U.S. REPRESENTATIVE PRIMARY/ OPEN PRIMARY ELECTION Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters WILL CONDUCT Early Voting for the November 3, 2026, U.S. Senate General/ Open U.S. Representative Primary/Open Primary Elections 8:30 am to 6:00 pm, Tuesday, October 20th through Tuesday, October 27th Except Sunday, October 25, 2026 at the following locations:

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The Times-Picayune ✦ nola.com ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ 5A

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VOTERS

Continued from page 4A

Redistricting? While they don’t think Louisiana might return to Jim Crow, Black elected ofﬁcials worry the Callais decision means that Republican-controlled school boards, police juries and parish commissions could redesign their voting maps to strengthen Republican majorities. Today, two of the seven members of the Jackson Parish School Board are African American. They cast the only two votes this year against closing JonesboroHodge Middle School. Gerry Mims, who is one of the two and is completing 36 years on the School Board this year, doubts that his Republican colleagues on the board would want to eliminate a Black-majority seat. Mims noted that Republicans already have a solid majority. Two of the seven Jackson Parish Police Jury members also are African Americans. Sheketia Combs, one of the two, said she has good relations with her colleagues. But, she said, referring to influential White people in Jackson Parish, “If they could get every seat on the Police Jury White, they would do it. This area is racist. They don’t want to acknowledge that. But they know it’s the truth. It shouldn’t be, but it is. We have to face the fact that we have race issues.” Todd Culpepper, the Police Jury president, who is White, said he hadn’t heard any discussion about redrawing the police jury lines because of the Callais decision. “We work together,” Culpepper said. “I can’t ever imagine going in and changing a minority district to a majority.” One area where it might happen is in East Baton Rouge Parish, where Republicans hold a one-seat majority on the School Board and a two-member majority on the Metro Council. “The (school) board can add seats to create more Republican districts,” said Dadrius Lanus, one of the four Black Democrats on the board and the executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Lanus said Democrats would vigorously ﬁght that change if proposed. The bigger fight would come if the Republican majority in the state Legislature attempts to use the Callais ruling to redraw its political boundaries to eliminate Black-majority House and Senate seats in an effort to increase the Republican ranks. Some GOP legislators have begun advocating for that move before the 2030 census — redistricting normally occurs afterward — said state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, who chairs the House committee that handles redistricting. “The jury is out on whether or not it happens,” he said, noting that neither Landry nor legislative leaders have

STAFF PHOTOS By JILL PICKETT

Jackson Parish School Board member Gerry Mims stands in front of the Jackson Parish School District offices in Jonesboro. Jonesboro Alderman Devin Flowers stands in front of the former Jackson High School, a Black high school in Jonesboro. Flowers’ mother and father both graduated from the school, and his father was a member of the Congress of Racial Equality. come into a certain status, the Whites are totally against that,” said Windy Calahan, a longtime NAACP leader in Jackson Parish. “They don’t want to see us in a position of authority or power. If we had more African Americans in ofﬁce, there would be maybe less crime and economics would be different. I’m praying that the turnout will be high.”

out amounts to about 11,000 additional Black voters, based on the secretary of state’s preliminary estimate of a 40% overall turnout for the Nov. 3 election. Black voters typically cast about 90% of their votes for Democrats. Famed Democratic strategist James Carville is buoyed about the prospects in Louisiana because Black voters are turning out in disproportionately larger numbers during the early voting period in Georgia, which began on Tuesday. “You don’t see that in one state and not another,” Carville said. State Sen. Sam Jenkins, DShreveport, is hopeful. “Many Black voters want to use the midterms to put guardrails on Trump,” he said. Ashley Shelton, who heads the New Orleans-based Power Coalition, has been organizing forums for voters for months. “Voter apathy runs strong,” she said. “The thing that’s different about this election is that there are so many different pain points for voters — at the gas pump, at the grocery store, your paycheck is not matching inﬂation. SNAP recipients are down.” What could dampen Black voter turnout is that Davis, a political unknown before this year, doesn’t have enough money to fully introduce himself to voters statewide. Nor does he have much money to spend on a get-out-thevote effort. “There has been a lot of publicity and lot of people initiating for a good turnout,” said Annie Johnson, the onetime civil rights activist in Jonesboro. “If they don’t turn out, it won’t be because different organizations haven’t tried. We just have to wait and see.”

The closed primaries in May — which occurred just after the Legislature decimated Fields’ congressional seat – give hope to Calahan and others. African Americans accounted for 34% of the voters in that election, although they account for only 31.8% of registered voters, said John Couvillon, a BatonRouge based pollster and demographer. This occurred even though the Republican candidates combined spent $36 million on that election, while the Democrats combined spent only $440,000. Black voters typically turn out at proportionally lower rates than White voters in Louisiana, however. In the June runoff election, the Black voter share was Email Tyler Bridges at only 27%, said New Orleans- tbridges@theadvocate.com. based pollster Greg Rigamer. In 2023, when Landry was elected governor outright in the primary, the Black voter share was only 25%, Couvillon said. Every one percentage point increase in Black turn-

SERVING LOUISIANA SINCE 1991 Windy Calahan, head of the Jackson Parish NAACP, stands in front of Jackson Parish Courthouse in Jonesboro on Wednesday. called for moving up the redistricting schedule. Of the Democrats’ 42 seats in the 105-member Legislature, 36 are held by African Americans. Meanwhile, some conservatives remain dissatisﬁed that the Legislature turned only Fields’ seat into a Republican-majority district. The plaintiffs and lawyers behind the Callais case are pushing for a court order to turn the district of U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a Black Democrat from New Orleans, into a Republican-majority district as well. “The Constitution says we’re not going to allocate

power by race but by common interests,” said Paul Hurd, a lawyer in Monroe who is the co-lead attorney on the case. “Callais says quit segregating voters. Segregation inherently creates racial problems.”

Will voter turnout go up? African American political leaders say the best way to protect their seats is to generate a big turnout in this year’s election — and next year’s, when Landry, the other statewide elected ofﬁcials, all legislators and numerous local elected ofﬁcials will be on the ballot. “Any time Blacks have

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6A ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

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ranch home, 15 miles from SpaceX’s launchpad, Rene Medrano can feel the sonic booms. “When the rocket takes off from over there,” he said, gesturing toward Boca Chica Beach, “we feel it.” Medrano, 66, and his wife, Ida, 65, have lived here for 40 years. They keep chickens and goats in their backyard. They’re in the country, the kind of place you’d choose to build a life if you valued quiet and nights with dark skies. “It’s not quiet anymore,” said Rene Medrano, taking a sip of his beer. “You would come out here and you’d be silent and you could see the stars. Now you see glows of light from all the construction.” They said they’ve had items fall off their shelves when the rockets launch. Their dog, Miller, “turns herself into a little ball” and hides under a chair trembling, Ida Medrano said. Trafﬁc snakes through their small community. The road to Boca Chica Beach, previously used only by beachgoers, now shuttles and carries the Starship rocket to the launchpad. Locals now have less access to Boca Chica Beach, a place that Brownsville residents value. “It was known as the ‘poor man’s beach,’ ” Medrano said. “Families would go. They would barbecue; they would ﬁsh; they would enjoy the day.” Salinas brushed off the concerns about beach access. “It was a very dirty beach,” Salinas said.

Continued from page 1A

region has added about 25,000 jobs. The company and local officials boast that it has injected $13 billion into the South Texas economy in 2023 and 2024. And Brownsville, which not long ago was the poorest community in the U.S., now has new, upscale restaurants and coffee shops downtown. An estimated 20,000 spaceflight tourists flock to town for every launch of the company’s 40-story prototype rocket, dubbed Starship. Still, on a regular basis, protesters take to the streets with signs labeled “¡Fuera SpaceX!” — “SpaceX leave!” in Spanish. That’s because residents say their homes shake during launches, and some allege in class-action litigation that their foundations have been damaged by sonic booms. The launch site, STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER tucked between wildlife Starbase launchpads are seen in the distance from the top of the lighthouse in Port Isabel, Texas, about 6 miles from the sanctuaries, has also polluted wetlands, according launch site. to regulators, and the spaceport’s impact on migratory Jobs jump in Brownsville dez, 42, who cooks at The its Texas launch site. That birds relying on the habitat Library, a Brownsville bar. would mean up to 912 landBrownsville, Texas, among the poorest communities in the is not fully understood. “Me, personally, I’ve seen a ings, since both stages of the As Musk and SpaceX U.S., has seen job growth since SpaceX broke ground in 2014. lot of people come in from rocket would touch down. get ready to bring rocket out of town. There’s a lot of Every launch will feature 1 2 3 4 launches to Louisiana’s Ver- 190,000 jobs, a lot of good stuff.” three explosive, window-ratSpaceX is eyeing big ex- tling blasts. milion Parish with a planned $100 billion spaceport, the So far, the company has pansion there, too, well bewarp-speed transformation 180,000 yond what local officials launched that rocket, which Peak: 179,464 of Brownsville may offer a originally bargained for. The is still a prototype, on just view of what’s to come. Federal Aviation Administra- 14 test launches. In Louisi170,000 tion this week posted a notice ana, Musk has said he hopes A business boom that it will look into the envi- to launch it 30 times a day, 151,819 176,474 ronmental impact of SpaceX or more than 10,000 times a In Brownsville, population 160,000 185,000, downtown murals launching Starship, a rocket year. funded by the Musk Foundanearly as tall as the Louisition depict Starship barreling 150,000 ana State Capitol building, Growing pains ä See SPACEX, page 6A toward the moon and Mars. up to 456 times a year from From the porch of his Pandemic: 156,571 At bars in town, beer from Starbase Brewing, an Austin- 140,000 based brewery that aims to ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23 ’24 ’25 ’26 be the first to brew beer on the red planet, is served in 1 2 3 4 pint glasses that read “Beer August 2014: July 2019: April 2023: May 2025: today, Mars tomorrow.” The SpaceX announces First test First Starship Starbase, Texas local boat tour companies on its launch site near flight launch incorporates as its South Padre Island, which Brownsville own city traditionally ferried tourists Staff graphic to spot dolphins, have added Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics tours focused on watching SpaceX rockets launch. million incentive package for a company that will build Among local leaders, to bring SpaceX in, accord- AI-powered battleships and there’s an optimism about ing to Salinas, now the presi- promises to bring 10,000 jobs Brownsville’s future that dent and CEO of the Greater to the region. hasn’t been felt in years. “Twenty years ago, if we Brownsville EDC. “When I go talk to the kids That package was much could get a development at schools, they tell me they smaller than the $27.5 billion or a project of $30 million, want to work at SpaceX, in incentives that Louisiana that was just unbelievable. they want to be astronauts, just offered the company. Now all of our projects are or they want to be engineers. “We got SpaceX here for in the billions,” Treviño said. And they want to work here,” pretty cheap back then,” Sa- “We’re spoiled. And it’s led to said Eddie Treviño, the Cam- linas said. a lot of other issues. Our inBrownsville officials and frastructure needs to catch eron County Judge, a role comparable to that of a Loui- residents said the compa- up.” As the region has indussiana parish president. ny’s presence has paved the Once the nation’s leading way for big-ticket industrial trialized, residents see their cotton exporter, Brownsville projects bringing jobs and home values increasing and was an agricultural com- money to an area that was, feel the uptick in economic munity in the first half of in Salinas’ words, a “sleepy activity. “There’s just a certhe 20th century known for border town.” SpaceX says it tain vibe in town now that ranching and a shrimp fleet has created more than 4,300 did not exist before,” Salinas By Amanda McElfresh | amcelfresh@theadvocate.com well-paid jobs, with plans to said. largely worked by Cajuns. This article is brought to you by Tulane Medicine. Then, in the 1980s, oil expand. Still, Brownsville remains New business has flocked largely poor. The city no lonprices tumbled and led to Forpeoplelivingwithtrigeminalneuralgia,someModern techniques mean that many procedures a collapse in the value of to surrounding Cameron ger has the highest poverty thingassimpleaseatingamealorbrushingtheirteeth can be done on an outpatient basis. People who must the Mexican peso. Because County, too, which local of- rate in the U.S., as it did in can trigger excruciating facial and head pain. These remaininthehospitaloftenonlystayoneortwodays, Brownsville’s economy was ficials attribute to SpaceX’s 2013, according to census attacks may strike repeatedly throughout the day, andarefrequentlybacktotheirnormalroutineswithin so intertwined with Matam- presence. A liquefied natural data. But roughly a quarter disrupting normal activities and leaving patients acoupleofweeks. oros, Mexico, just across the gas terminal is slated to open of people in the Brownsville “It’s the best feeling when patients come back and searchingforrelief. border, it took a hit. Unem- at the Port of Brownsville. A region still live below the Dr. Joseph Lockwood, a Tulane Medicine neuro- ask to give you a hug,” Dr. Lockwood said. “When data center broke ground in poverty line, more than douployment surged. For decades, Brownsville nearby Harlingen. And the ble the national average of surgeon, is helping patients find answers through a they come in, they are generally terrified, which is was in dire need of an eco- first new oil refinery to open about 1 in 10. Down the street comprehensiverangeoftreatmentsforthecondition understandable.Youcanseethechangewhenwetell in the U.S. in nearly 50 years from Brownsville’s new and expanding access to advanced, minimally inva- themwecanhelpthem.AssoonasIwalkintheirroom nomic boost. French restaurant, many sive procedures for brain tumors and other complex afteraprocedure,Iknowtheyarehappy.Theirentire After those early meetings is planned for the county. demeanor and attitude is completely different when Vice President JD Vance buildings remain boarded up. neurologicaldisorders. between Musk and Salinas in “Collaborationisthemostimportantthing.That’s youopenthedoor.Youcansensethetremendousrelief.” “It’s bringing money into 2011, the local and state gov- was here last month for a In addition to treating trigeminal neuralgia, Dr. ernment put together a $50 groundbreaking ceremony the place,” said Joseph Men- whyIloveworkingatanacademiccenterlikeTulane,”

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Dr.Lockwoodsaid.“Everythingwedohappensafter a conversation with at least one other specialist, and often many more. When you get more eyes looking at a case, you get more ideas. That’s the essence of how thingsaredoneatTulane.” Dr.Lockwoodhasbeeninstrumentalindeveloping theTrigeminalNeuralgiaCenteratTulane,whichis the only location in the region offering the full range of available treatment options for the condition. The Center regularly treats patients from multiple states, including Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Alabamaandmore. Trigeminalneuralgiaaffectsthetrigeminalnerve, which carries sensations from the face to the brain. The condition creates severe, debilitating facial pain andusuallyoccursunexpectedlyinpeopleovertheage of 50. While the condition can be somewhat random basedoncertainanatomicaldifferences,Dr.Lockwood said multiple sclerosis and a history of shingles may increaseaperson’srisk. Although medication is often the ﬁrst treatment, Dr.Lockwoodsaiditoftendoesnotprovideadequate reliefforpatients.However,thecenteroffersmultiple other approaches that have proven to be effective in severalcases. “We do ablative procedures, where we essentially insertaneedleinthepatient’scheek,gotothebaseof the skull and inﬂate a balloon that crushes the nerve to relieve some of the pain,” Dr. Lockwood said. “We can also insert a wire and burn the part of the nerve that is causing pain. If a vessel is striking a nerve, we oftenrecommendamicrovasculardecompressionto putpaddingbetweenthenerveandthevesseltotake awaythatconsistentpoundingpeopleexperience.We canalsodoaGammaKnifesurgerytobasicallyradiate thebaseofthenerve.”

Lockwoodalsotreatscomplextumorsandotherconditionsinvolvingthebrainandskullbase.Hefrequently performsprocedurestoremovepituitarytumors,often throughthenose,repaircerebrospinalﬂuidleaksand reconstructareasoftheskullbase.Healsoworkswith ophthalmologistsonorbitalsurgeriesandENTphysiciansonotherprocedures. Dr. Lockwood said the main trend in neurosurgery has been smaller incisions – sometimes even through a patient’s eyelid – and an overall less invasive approach that means shorter hospital stays and quickerrecoveries. “Theevolutionhasbeentomakesurgeriessmaller while being just as effective,” he said. “We’re always trying to ﬁnd new corridors to remove tumors or otherabnormalities.” Dr. Lockwood said he encourages people to talk to a doctor if they have abnormal head or facial pain, including during normal daily activities; worsening headaches, long-lasting headaches, weakness (especiallyononesideofthebody)orconfusion. “Ifyoujustdon’tfeellikeyourself,itisworthchecking out,” he said. “There are often more treatment optionsthanyoumightthink.” AnativeofArkansas,Dr.LockwoodmovedtoNew OrleansformedicalschoolatLSU.Helatercompleteda neurosurgeryresidencyatTulaneUniversitySchoolof Medicineandaskullbaseandcerebrovascularsurgery fellowshipattheUniversityofCalifornia–Irvine.But New Orleans has been home for more than a decade now,anditholdsspecialmeaningforDr.Lockwood. “Ireallylovebeinghere,andIfeltfortunatetohave the opportunity to come work at Tulane,” he said. “I think we have done a lot of good in the region for a lot of patients, and we’re working all the time to make theirliveseasier.”

The Times-Picayune ✦ nola.com ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ 7A

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Continued from page 7A “I never knew people cared so much about the beach until we started working on this project. Suddenly now, they’re very worried about it.” Now, the city of Starbase decides if the beach is open or closed, thanks to a Texas law passed last year. Treviño, the county judge, said that he opposed the law — he previously had the authority to close the road and he would occasionally veto SpaceX’s requests to do so. Treviño said he took heat from his constituents for allowing SpaceX to incorporate as its own municipality. Starbase, Texas, became a city unto itself last year, after 212 residents there — mostly SpaceX workers — voted to do so. It is largely closed off to anyone who is not a SpaceX employee. The city’s mayor is a SpaceX vice president, Bobby Peden, who ran for his position unopposed and declined an interview request for this story. “I was blamed for giving away Boca Chica Beach,” Treviño said. “But people have to understand that I don’t have the authority to say, well, you know what? I don’t want your business. … If you meet your requirements and ask for an election, I’m duty-bound.” Treviño lost his bid for reelection earlier this year and is serving out the end of his term. Still, he said, SpaceX has been a good partner, for the most part. “All of our dealings with SpaceX have been more positive than negative,” he said. “I understand the concern from the environmental standpoint. We probably won’t know until down the road whether or not this was worse than we anticipated or whether all the precautions are working.”

STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER

When the SpaceX rockets take off from Boca Chica Beach, Texas, Rene and Ida Medrano say, ‘We feel it.’ The Medranos, Rene, 66, and Ida, 65, are 15 miles from the Starbase launch site where they have lived for 40 years.

‘When I go talk to the kids at schools, they tell me they want to work at SpaceX, they want to be astronauts, or they want to be engineers. And they want to work here,’ Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño says in his office in Brownsville, Texas.

Water ‘so clean you could drink it’ Two hours after SpaceX launched its 14th Starship test ﬂight in late September, shorebirds — blacknecked stilts and sandpipers — waded in water that had ﬂowed off the launchpad. At liftoff, a “deluge” system blasts hundreds of thousands of gallons of water beneath the rocket, soaking up some of the blast’s heat and noise. Much of that water instantly turns to steam. Some sprays into the surrounding area. It may con-

tain heavy metals, like mercury, according to environmentalists and regulators. “SpaceX says it’s so clean you could drink it,” said Justin LeClaire, an avian conservation biologist. LeClaire doubts that. Federal and state regulators cited the company in 2024 for discharging that water into surrounding wetlands without

a permit. But the site remains a birdwatcher’s paradise. On a single winter day on Boca Chica Beach, in the shadow of the launch towers, LeClaire counted 1,000 reddish egrets, a record-high number for the rare North American bird. He and his group, the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, have documented

But the next launches shot debris at the nests, decimating many of them. It’s also not entirely clear what kinds of impacts the launches have on birds’ bodies. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, said during a speech announcing the company’s Louisiana spaceport that birds return to their habitat after each launch. Some clearly do. But no one has yet fully taken stock of the impact of a sonic boom on, for instance, a snowy plover. The fast-ﬂying, hollow-boned creature weighs as much as a small lemon, and its populations are declining. As the frequency of launches increases to a pace that humanity has not previously attempted, the environmental impacts will only increase. Rocket launches aside, LeClaire said, the sheer scale of the development at Starbase, in a crucial migratory bird habitat, hasn’t done the birds and other wildlife any favors. “We’re only looking at the impacts of launch every few months,” LeClaire said. “We don’t know how it will be if it’s every day, or multiple times a day.” That’s exactly what’s planned now, in both Texas and Louisiana. To the richest man in the world and his followers, cracking a few bird eggs may be a small price to pay to achieve their interplanetary ambitions. And if his plans come to fruition, it appears that Musk thinks that SpaceX will ultimately save the birds — and all life on Earth. “Extremely severe extinction events happen every 100M years or so and just switching to sustainable energy will not be enough to stop them,” Musk posted recently on X, the social media platform he owns. “Space satellites to control temperature and massive geo-engineering will be needed or it will be game over.” The idea: to blot out some small percentage of the sun’s rays with a swarm of what Musk has described as “sentient satellites” to scale back global warming. While Musk thinks his rockets can save the planet, Bekah Hinojosa, a Brownsville resident and a founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, thinks the city’s ambitions would be better directed at problems closer to home. “We do need jobs,” Hinojosa said. “But we need jobs that don’t shake and crack people’s homes.”

SpaceX’s ecological impact. Paradoxically, the launchpad lured in shorebirds at ﬁrst, LeClaire said. When SpaceX blew up its launchpad in 2023, it sprayed hunks of concrete and smaller pebbles over a sandy stretch near the pad. Plovers and terns like a beach with small rocks, according to LeClaire; Email Alex Lubben at alex. they moved in and nested there. lubben@theadvocate.com.

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REAL ESTATE

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Changing fortunes of downtown real estate

Continued from page 1A

The supply of residential property for sale has grown over the past six years to historic highs, as fewer homes and condos change hands.

once in-demand areas that are vital to the city’s identity and visitor economy. According to a recent analysis by Gary Wagner, an economist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, there’s more unsold residential property in downtown and French Quarterarea neighborhoods than at any time in the past 25 years and 50% more available inventory in those areas than across the 10-parish metro region as a whole. Real estate brokers attribute the dynamic, in part, to broader economic factors that have made it more expensive to own the condos and townhomes that many buyers purchased as second homes or investment properties. Changes to the city’s shortterm rental rules and greater enforcement against illegal operators, though widely supported by residents and the hospitality industry, have added to the glut, as some investors are now trying to sell units they can no longer rent out on a shortterm basis. There are also more troubling reasons, including concerns about quality of life and public safety, which some believe is having a chilling effect on downtown and French Quarter property sales. Though Mayor Helena Moreno has made tackling those issues a key priority of her new administration, and a recent survey suggests that crime and quality-oflife metrics are improving across New Orleans, real estate brokers say the market has yet to respond. “The city ignored the French Quarter and downtown during COVID, and a lot of people started putting their properties on the market,” said Shaun Talbot, a broker with Talbot Realty Group. “It has gotten better, especially over the past year. But it’s not back yet.” In a prepared statement, Moreno said that while the overall picture of New Orleans real estate has been encouraging, there are some challenging areas, including downtown. That’s why major projects like Charity Hospital, the River District, the new Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine and others are of critical importance, she said. “We are seeing billions of dollars in investment that will bring new jobs, students, residents, businesses and economic activity into the heart of New Orleans,” Moreno said. “Our focus is on building that momentum.”

70113

Ripple effect The glut of unsold property is concentrated primarily in three ZIP codes, according to Wagner’s analysis of data from the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors. They are: 70113, which includes parts of Central City, the Central Business District and the South Market District; 70112, also the CBD, parts of the upper French Quarter and Treme;

Central City, medical corridor, South Market Closed sales Days on market Months supply of inventory

2026 YTD 22 110 15.2

Change since 2019 -58% 72% 158%

2026 YTD 22 141 15.1

Change since 2019 -21% 40% 174%

70112 Parts of CBD, French Quarter and Treme Closed sales Days on market Months supply of inventory

70116 Most of French Quarter, parts of CBD and Treme Closed sales Days on market Months supply of inventory

2026 YTD 119 102 9

70130 Warehouse District, Lower Garden District Closed sales Days on market Months supply of inventory

2026 YTD 188 102 9

Source: New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors/Gulf South Real Estate Index

and 70116, mostly French Quarter, Treme and a few blocks of the upper Marigny. Both 70113 and 70112 had more than 15 months’ worth of inventory for sale at the end of September, meaning the number of months it would take to sell all the homes and condos currently listed. That’s at least twoand-a-half times what was on the market in those ZIP codes in 2019. In the years since, the number of sales in those areas has fallen dramatically — dropping nearly 60% in 70113 and more than 20% in 70112 — while properties spend more time on the market. The Warehouse District, where dozens of older buildings were converted to condos and apartments in recent decades, also is showing signs of struggle, though the current supply of inventory in 70130 is not as high as in other nearby ZIP codes. It currently has a nine-month supply of inventory. That’s about the same as in 2019, though sales are down 13% and units are taking more than 60% longer to sell. In 70116, where many historic French Quarter properties have been subdivided into townhomes and condos, more than a year’s worth of inventory is on the market, about the same as in 2019, and sales are ﬂat. The number of days properties spend listed for sale is up nearly 25%. “It is troubling,” said Paul Richard, a broker with NAI Rampart. “Because it has a ripple effect. Fewer people buying means fewer people down there, which affects your restaurants and businesses.”

Unintended consequences

est rates, now around 7%, and ever-higher insurance premiums, Wagner said. But areas with a lot of investment properties and second homes, like downtown neighborhoods and the French Quarter, have been particularly vulnerable to those market dynamics, experts say. That’s in part because higher borrowing costs, coupled with rising condo fees that have resulted from higher insurance premiums, mean the numbers on a French Quarter or Warehouse District condo may no longer make sense for someone with a mortgage. “With the exorbitant condo fees and insurance, on top of everything else, carrying costs have gone up dramatically, and that impacts what someone can afford,” Talbot said. Greater enforcement of short-term rental rules also has impacted the market, brokers say. Though such units have been banned in the French Quarter since the city enacted rules around transient lodging in 2017, some investors were illegally renting out their properties anyway until August 2025, when Airbnb delisted thousands of units that were not properly licensed. “There’s no question that’s slowing condo sales,” said Michael Wilkinson, co-owner of FQR Realtors. “It’s great the rules are being enforced now. But this is, in part, a consequence.” Weber said the slowdown began years earlier, when the new rules went into effect. “When they banned shortterm rentals in the Quarter, they killed the condo market,” he said. “I also own hotels, so I’m not saying it was a bad thing. It’s just a fact.”

PHOTO PROVIDED

A pool sits on the rooftop overlooking the French Quarter at The Residences at 917 Conti, a luxury condominium development on the site of the former Musee Conti Wax Museum.

ing up the city’s historic her building. And the Four thoroughfare and attracting Seasons Hotel and Private new businesses. Her Down- Residence, which enlisted town Development District a national broker early this is repairing infrastructure. year to help sell the nearly The NOPD is working to 30% of its luxury condos continue reducing the crime that were still for sale after four years, have sold ﬁve of rate. Despite the pressure them in recent months. Wilkinson said after 43 Change since 2019 points in much of the market, wealthy buyers are still years in the business he’s -13% paying top dollar for homes seen many boom and bust in the French Quarter and cycles. He’s hopeful things 62% luxury downtown buildings. are set to rebound. 0% “Part of the negativity Wilkinson said six French Quarter homes and condos around the city is getting Staff graphic have sold over the past six better, and there is a new months for prices ranging optimism about this adminfrom $1.5 million to nearly istration,” he said. “We’re crime is down 71% since $3 million. starting to feel good about Bach, who specializes in it.” 2022, there’s still some sense that downtown and One River Place on the edge the French Quarter are of the Warehouse District, Email Stephanie Riegel dirty and dangerous — neg- said demand is also strong at stephanie.riegel@ ative impressions that are for the high-end condos in theadvocate.com. reinforced by vacant storefronts, panhandlers and a change in the makeup of retail tenants along Canal Street and the French Quarter. “I had a listing in the French Quarter with a nice CRS, GRI, BRC, HRS view of the river that I couldn’t even get anybody to Top Residential Producer look at,” said Glenda Bach, 504.891.1142 a broker with Compass Real Estate. “People don’t like 504.669.0211 going down there as much 2727 Prytania Street anymore.” Suite 15 in The Rink Moreno’s administration New Orleans, LA 70130 has spent the past year tackling those quality of life Come See Me at The Rink, Suite 15 issues. The mayor has apWWW.ELEANORFARNSWORTH.COM pointed a Canal Place “czar” to implement a three-part strategy focused on clean-

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It’s not just New Orleans historic core. Real estate Perceptions and paradox across the metro area, and Others say there are beyond, has been hurt by broader forces behind the persistently elevated inter- slowdown. Though violent

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LSU, Ogden partner on ‘Prosperity Institute’ Business school initiative to aims promote capitalism BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

LSU will launch a new research and educational initiative in the business school focused on teaching young people about capitalism, an effort led by Louisiana developer and major university donor Roger Ogden. “In the most recent polling, it is really, truly, shocking,” Ogden said at a board meeting Friday. “Sixtynine percent of people under the age of 39 think socialism is OK. What’s led to that? It’s a lack of education.” At the meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved the request to establish the LSU Prosperity Institute, which will be housed in the E.J. Ourso College of Business and study the “institutions, policies, and economic systems that contribute to economic growth, innovation, opportunity, and improved quality of life,” the resolution said. LSU Chancellor Jim Dalton said Ogden made

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

LSU donor Roger Ogden, center, shakes hands during the LSU Board of Supervisors meeting at the University Administration building on Friday. a “major gift” to start the institute, although the dollar amount was not disclosed. Business school dean Russell Crook said the new institute will conduct research, teach, offer study abroad opportunities and operate a fellows program.

“This was really inspired by Mr. Ogden’s vision, and we’re trying to carry this forward,” Crook said. “We recognize that there’s an opportunity here to share many of the important things that are going on, and we feel like maybe there’s been a little bit of a misunderstanding,

so our goal is to bring an evidencebased approach.” The institute could potentially partner with Louisiana Economic Development, the Board of Regents and banking and real estate industries, according to the resolution. Academic centers focused on capitalism have popped up at universities in the past couple decades, with institutes dedicated to the study and advancement of free markets at Clemson University, the University of Kentucky and Oklahoma State University, for example. Ogden said the initiative is needed at LSU because his generation has done a “lousy job” passing down the “secret sauce” to national prosperity — what he identiﬁed as labor, capital and free markets. Capitalism, “when compared to other major economic systems throughout history, no matter whatever nation in the world has adopted them, by far creates the greatest prosperity for the greatest number all through the socioeconomic level,” Ogden said. “I don’t believe that a lot of the younger generation, and really a lot of our media and journalists, understand that.”

Ogden, a real estate developer, has previously served as chair of the LSU Board of Supervisors. He is known for co-founding and leading Stirling Properties for 20 years, managing a $200 million portfolio of shopping centers, according to his biography on the Greater New Orleans Foundation website. He also founded the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. In 2014, he donated $12 million to the LSU honors college, which was renamed to the Roger Hadﬁeld Ogden Honors College. Economics professor Areendam Chanda will serve as director of the new Prosperity Institute. Chanda’s research specializes in long-term economic growth, according to his faculty proﬁle. “For a long time, I’ve been teaching the importance of markets and the role of trade and deregulation,” Chanda said. “This is an incredible opportunity to carry this message forward and talk to a larger student body and do other things in addition to teaching to get students to appreciate the importance of markets.” The Prosperity Institute will now go to the Board of Regents for state-level approval as a new academic institute.

Lifetime term limits for governors on the November ballot Amendment sets permanent maximum of two terms BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

When Louisianans head to the polls for early voting on Tuesday, they will decide whether to bar Louisiana governors from ever serving more than two terms. Currently, governors cannot serve more than two consecutive terms — but after spending time out of ofﬁce, they can run again. The lifetime limit would be implemented if more than 50% of voters approve

Amendment 4, one of 10 proposed changes to the state constitution that will be decided next month. Proponents of the measure say it would help bring fresh leadership to the state, while critics say voters H H H H H H ought to be able to elect whomever they choose, regardless of whether that person has previously served. State Rep. Mike Bayham, R-Chalmette, who sponsored the legislation that put Amendment 4 on the ballot, said term limits help bring fresh perspectives to government and give candi-

ELECTION

dates with fewer resources than established politicians a fairer shot at being elected. “Bringing back recycled politicians isn’t the path forward,” Bayham said. “It just hearkens back to: There are big personalities that dominated our state that are more sizzle than steak.” The amendment could prevent former Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat with conservative views on issues like abortion and gun laws — and who could threaten Republicans’ hold on the state — from running for ofﬁce again. But some attorneys have argued the law may not apply to Edwards because it does not include speciﬁc language making it retroactive. State Rep. Kyle Green,

No Kings rallies across U.S. urge voters to vote early in midterms By The Associated Press Rallies organized by the No Kings network opposed to President Donald Trump were held Saturday in cities and communities across the U.S., with an aim of getting people out to vote early in the midterm elections. The hundreds of planned events were billed as nonpartisan, though they sought to build on nearly two years’ worth of No Kings marches and demonstrations by people upset with Trump’s presidency. A band entertained what appeared to be a few hundred people in caps and coats at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Despite the chilly weather, many in the crowd danced to the tunes. “VOTE EARLY” and

“HANDS OFF MY VOTE!” were among the many signs held aloft. At an Atlanta rally, City Councilman Michael Julian Bond told the crowd to urge others to vote ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. “The Constitution gives you one power, right? That is the power to vote. Are you gonna use that power?” he said. “You don’t see Superman giving up his power,” Bond continued. “You don’t see Black Panther giving up his power. You don’t see Wonder Woman giving up her magic lasso. So why would you give up your right, your power, your obligation to vote? Be a super hero, use your power. Go to the polls and vote.” Gatherings were also held in Louisiana, including

in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Trump has long been suspicious of mail voting and has claimed without evidence that voting fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election. His administration sued California election officials Thursday, asking a judge to bar the state from counting mail-in ballots for the midterm elections from people whom the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed. On Friday the Justice Department warned that local officials who process and tabulate ballots submitted by suspected noncitizen voters are putting themselves at risk of criminal investigation and potential prosecution.

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and it will not allow Landry to run for a third term, he said. Landry is in his ﬁrst term and faces reelection next year. A spokesperson for Landry said the governor does not want to seek a third term and provided a statement from him in response to a question about whether he would support Amendment 4. “I am done with amendments. The people have an opportunity to read them, but I am done with amendments,” Landry said. “I am not inﬂuencing amendments.” Landry backed a set of amendments in the spring that voters resoundingly re-

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12A ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

Trump touts power in second term at Ky. rally BY MICHELLE PRICE and JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — President Donald Trump touted his power in his second go around in the White House Saturday while rallying in Kentucky to bolster Republican turnout as his party struggles in the midterms, saying, “I can do stuff that is unbelievable.” Trump, who spoke in the city of Highland Heights to boost Republican candidates including Ed Gallrein for the U.S. House, was riffing on his decision to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. “I don’t think I could have done this in my first term. This is a much more powerful term,” Trump said. “Google wouldn’t have taken my call in the ﬁrst. Now, they kiss my ass.” “Well, I also changed the name of a lake in Canada to the Lake America,” he continued, referring to Lake Ontario. Trump’s self-proclaimed power is set against voter

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But Republicans privately worry that growing disapproval of his administration is a liability. Trump nominated one of his personal lawyers to serve as attorney general, ordered military strikes on accused drug smuggling boats, is trying to put his name on the Kennedy Center, and has enriched himself and his family while he’s been in office. While meandering through topics onstage in Kentucky, Trump touched on gas prices, saying that the war with Iran was going to end soon — an assertion he’s made many times over the course of the nearly eight-month conflict — and that gas prices will drop to lower than previously. The crowd cheered. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEFF DEAN Facing the electoral headPresident Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on winds, Trump is working to Saturday at Truist Arena in Highland Heights, Ky. paint a portentous picture of Democrats in the final weeks frustration with how he’s bers of Congress on the line, before the midterms. That wielded it, with tariffs and and with it the prospects of the Iran war driving up pric- Democratic-led investigaes and more Americans see- tions of his administration ing the president looking out should they win, Trump has for his own interests and not put himself at the fore for voters, asking them to “prethose of the country. With control of both cham- tend that I’m on the ballot.”

includes the claim that if his opposing party wins, the U.S. will “have a depression,” and that the Democratic platform includes abolishing the U.S. Senate and U.S. Supreme Court. Those are not on the Democratic Party’s platform. But Trump is trying to lump them in with the Democratic Socialists of America, which have had a few candidates win in this year’s primary elections. Trump also rehashed his dubious promise that if Republicans win the House and the Senate then every adult American would get $5,000. That would most likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, while exacerbating the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deﬁcit. Trump added a new, seemingly conditional promise for Kentucky. That if Republicans win, he said, the De-

partment of Defense would invest in revitalizing a drug manufacturing facility in the state. The president pulled Gallrein on stage, the Republican candidate for the U.S. House district who beat Rep. Thomas Massie in the GOP primary. Massie had aggravated Trump by pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and opposing the Iran war, and the president responded by successfully backing Gallrein in the party’s primary. Massie, however, still has a following for standing on his staunchly conservative principles, even when it meant voting against his own party. When Trump lashed out at Massie as a “jerk” and “loser” and trumpeted Gallrein as a more loyal replacement, the crowd’s response was tepid, with about half the arena clapping at Trump’s barbs and other half silent.

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Activist to receive new trial in free speech case Court cites misconduct by attorney for St. John officials

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A federal appeals court panel on Friday ordered a new trial for Joy Banner, a local environmental activist who accused St. John the Baptist Parish leaders of violating her rights by shutting her down from making critical comments about a controversial grain terminal project. A federal jury in January 2025 rejected Banner’s claim that Parish President Jaclyn Hotard and Parish Council Chair Michael Wright violated her free-speech rights and Louisiana’s open meetings laws in 2023 when they stopped her comments and threatened her with jail time. But a panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said the jury verdict was negated by a parade of misconduct by attorney Ike Spears, who represented the parish at trial. “The sheer volume of misconduct in which defendants engaged at every stage of trial casts a pall over the jury’s deliberations,” the panel of circuit Judges Stephen Higginson and Jerry Smith wrote. Higginson was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama, and Smith by former President Ronald Reagan. They found that Spears ignored directives from District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown to stop cross-

ing ethical lines and “potentially prejudiced the verdict on dozens of occasions.” The case involved a November 2023 Parish Council meeting at which Banner, who co-runs the advocacy organization The Descendants Project, attempted to speak. The group opposed the grain elevator in Wallace, a historically Black and rural town on the West Bank of the parish. Banner had ﬁled an ethics complaint against Hotard over her mother-inlaw’s potential ﬁnancial stake in the project. She alleged in her lawsuit that Hotard and Wright violated her rights by stopping her comments and threatening her with jail time under a law deemed unconstitutional. In defending the parish, Spears crossed several lines, the appeals court found. From questioning witnesses about the law, to testifying to the jury, to improperly impeaching Banner, the court found Spears stepped out of bounds over and over, then ignored the judge’s admonishments to stop. “The record tells a sordid story,” the panel said. “Regardless of how frequently and aggressively the court declared these prejudicial subjects to be out of bounds, defendants petulantly persisted in tainting the jury with their barrage of ill-conceived statements.” Brown had ruled that her instructions to the jury were enough to cleanse it of Spears’ misconduct, denying Banner’s motion for a new trial, but the appeals court disagreed. “On these facts, not even the district court’s curative instructions can salvage the verdict. To put it bluntly,

November 14-15, 2026 9 AM - 4 PM

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

A court on Friday ordered a new trial for environmental activist Joy Banner, who accused St. John the Baptist Parish leaders of violating her rights by shutting her down from making critical comments about a grain terminal project.

‘you can throw a skunk into the jury box and instruct the jurors not to smell it, but it doesn’t do any good,’ ” its opinion read. Spears did not respond to a message Friday seeking comment. The Descendants Project was embroiled in a series of lawsuits about industrial expansion in the corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, a region sometimes dubbed “Cancer Alley” for its concentration of facilities linked to health risks. The $800 million grain elevator plan collapsed in 2024. William Most, an attorney for Banner, praised the ruling in a statement quoting the activist. “This win is momentous for me and many in the community who’ve had our rights blocked and our freedom disregarded,” Banner said. “The judges demonstrated their commitment to justice by ensuring that my rights, the court, and the law are all respected.”

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LOUISIANA POLITICS Looming midterms have big implications for La. WASHINGTON — Asked one too many times about predictions that the Republican majority’s days are numbered, Speaker Mike Johnson said he’d probably mow lawns for a living after ballots are counted in the Nov. 3 congressional midterms. Within hours, Johnson had to clarify during a campaign stop in Shreveport that his response was tongue-in-cheek, meant to convey that he would attack any job with fervor. In the recent past — going back to Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., in 1998 — Republican speakers who don’t deliver majorities have soon left the Mark House. Ballard Johnson still believes, as he always has, that Republicans would defy history to maintain control of the U.S. House. “If we didn’t, I’m sure most of my colleagues would call upon me to continue to lead, even in the scenario of a divided government,” he said. Also wedded to the speaker’s “we’re gonna win” narrative, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the Jefferson Republican who is the House’s second highest-ranking leader, refuses to entertain the “what happens next” question. Both their staffs say nothing will be decided until after the election. If their prediction proves too cheery, as many prognosticators now say, Louisiana will no longer be “punching above its weight” in national politics. Both Johnson and Scalise will lose their jobs running the lower chamber, deciding everything from what legislation to move to assigning ofﬁce space. Under the rules, GOP leadership doesn’t automatically move one rung down. They will be elected through a secret ballot when the new Congress convenes

tion is how many, he said. Sabato, whose Crystal Ball publication out of the University of Virginia is one of the most respected handicappers, said past polls have been burdened by many White blue-collar workers, mostly Trump supporters, refusing to participate. The election cycle is different in that voters are voicing disappointment in Trump, the ongoing military conflict with Iran, and the high prices for housing and fuel. Trump has been campaigning to shore up support in states he won by double digits in the 2024 presidential election. Sabato pointed out that his estimates could undercount Democratic gains because he has been burned so often by the election results out of deep red states. But this year, Kansas is in play, and that state last elected a Democratic senator in 1930 as part of FDR’s historic wave. Even then, George S. McGill failed to win a second term in 1936, Sabato pointed out. If Republicans keep their House majority, Johnson has said the House will focus on more reductions in federal spending, shoring STAFF PHOTO By JILL PICKETT up Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Speaker of the House Mike Johnson addresses the audience during a campaign stop for his reelection bid on Act, and more tax cuts. House Minority Leader HaOct. 10 in Shreveport. keem Jeffries, the Brooklyn Democrat who likely will become Guard. in January. Polls favor Democrats speaker if power shifts, has said a That is, provided both win elecRepublicans could face a leadJohnson shifted Wednesday to Democratic majority would vote ership fight that could include tions in January to chair member saying the pollsters are all wrong. to reinstate the tax credits, which He’s been seeing “huge crowds” expired in 2025 and are used Johnson squaring off against conferences. at rallies he’s held with about 40 by lower income people to buy Scalise to lead the minority. A Carter is the only announced third candidate, House Judiciary candidate to lead the Congressio- Republican candidates around the health insurance through the Afcountry. Committee Chair Jim Jordan, Rnal Black Caucus. fordable Care Act marketplace. Johnson could be correct about Ohio, is also said to be interested. Higgins has not revealed if he Democrats would then try to at least some of the surveys, said The two highest-ranking memhas any intentions of running but reverse the restrictions that are Larry Sabato in a podcast with is routinely included on lists of forcing thousands off of Medicaid bers of the Louisiana delegation United States Studies Centre at and food stamps. then will transition from two LSU possible candidates to run the Freedom Caucus — an influential the University of Sydney that was Carter predicted a couple grads to — maybe — an Xavier group of right-wingers that is los- published in Australian newspaweeks ago, “We’re going to be University alum, Rep. Troy A. very busy.” Carter Sr., D-New Orleans, and ing some of its most prominent pers Thursday. But all the polls Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, members. are agreeing that Democrats will Email Mark Ballard at who didn’t graduate college but “It’s a time of transition,” Higpick up enough House seats to joined the Louisiana National win the majority — the only ques- mballard@theadvocate.com. gins told Roll Call Wednesday.

Kennedy stumps for Republicans

Klux Klan imagery to call him reporters have rushed to buttona racist, as did U.S. Sen. Bernie hole Kennedy for a pithy quote Sanders, Independent-Vermont. about the day’s events. “What an original defense,” That has made Kennedy a popuKennedy, R-Madisonville, said on lar candidate among Republicans Fox News Sunday. “How seeking election. could I possibly be a racAt a steak fry on behalf of Sen. Pete Ricketts, Rist? I’m not a Democrat.” Nebraska, Kennedy told Polls, forecasters, and diners that in Louisiana, commentators give El“We eat things that you Sayed a very slight edge would call an exterminain the contest with Rogers. Republicans hold a 53-47 tor for to get it out of your majority in the U.S. Senbackyard.” He added, “We have the ate but many polls suggest Kennedy best food in the world as Democrats have a shot at long as you don’t ask too many taking control in the Nov. 3 midquestions.” term elections. Kennedy helped raise about Republican candidates have called on Kennedy to join them on $400,000 at a recent event in a Jackson, Mississippi, suburb for the campaign trail and add some Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. He’s also star power to their events. Kennedy is a best-selling author on the road to Alaska, Ohio and Texas – all red states in which and a favorite on conservative Democratic candidates seem media, like NewsNation and Fox competitive. News. And now that Kennedy has ﬂirtKennedy’s bent towards rural witticisms have been a welled with a presidential run in 2028, known facet of his public face in CNN, along with other national Louisiana since he ﬁrst entered media sources, are following his public life in 1996 as state revappearances more closely. Kennedy says he’s running enue secretary. He was then state treasurer for for a third term as Louisiana’s over a decade. Since he joined the soon-to-be senior senator in 2028 but reserved the right to run for U.S. Senate in 2017, Capitol Hill

Louisiana U.S. Sen. John Kennedy and his homespun wit sparked a war of words with the Michigan candidate vying to become the ﬁrst Muslim in the U.S. Senate. During a campaign appearance in Michigan for Republican candidate Mike Rogers, a former member of the U.S. House, Kennedy told reporters last week that Abdul Elthe DemoCapitol Sayed, cratic candidate, Buzz “sleeps in a Bin STAFF Laden jersey,” reREPORTS ferring to the chief instigator of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. El-Sayed struck back on social media, writing: “That’s rich coming from someone who wears his bed sheets out at night.” While Fox News host Larry Kudlow said he didn’t understand El-Sayed’s response, Kennedy did. A Mississippi native who grew up in Zachary, Kennedy pointed out that El-Sayed used the Ku

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president if he feels Republicans have rallied behind a “goober.” He won’t deﬁne who might be a “goober” or what it would take for a candidate to be considered one.

Carter sponsors college preparedness bill U.S. Rep. Troy Carter has introduced a bill that would distribute $100 million through FEMA each year for colleges and universities across the country to better prepare for hurricanes and other disasters. A release from Carter, D-New Orleans, and cosponsor Jared Moskowitz, D-Florida, said the need for greater emergency resilience in higher education was clear after Hurricanes Katrina, Ida and Irma “devastated universities in Louisiana and Florida.” “Our climate crisis makes extreme weather events more frequent and severe, so we need to ensure uniquely vulnerable communities, such as our colleges and universities, have the support and resources they need to prepare for and respond to disasters and emergency situations,” Carter said in a statement. Carter and Moskowitz are co-

chairs of the Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Caucus. The legislation would create a grant program for colleges and universities to enhance their disaster preparation and response. Institutions could use the money to pay personnel related to emergency management, update their institutional emergency plans, or construct emergency operations or refuge centers, according to the Carter bill text. The grants would run from $250,000 to $5 million under the proposal. The bill would appropriate $100 million for each ﬁscal year from 2027 to 2031 for FEMA to carry out the program. After three years, FEMA would be required to submit a report to Congress on how the grants were used and if they were effective. Because the bill proposes a national grant program, the Bayou State would not be guaranteed funding, but a spokesperson for Carter said Louisiana universities are the types of applicants the program has in mind.

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The Times-Picayune ✦ nola.com ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ 15A

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2 remain hospitalized after Oregon school shooting Community mourns 4 killed in attack

BY MARTHA BELLISLE and SAFIYAH RIDDLE Associated Press

BEND, Ore. — A special-needs teacher and student wounded in a deadly shooting at an Oregon elementary school remained hospitalized Saturday. But friends said their survival was a spot of hope in a community in mourning. The youngest shooting survivor, 7-year-old Saylor Graham, is a feisty, vibrant ﬁghter with a sweet nature whose story inspired other children, said Matt Sampson, executive director of Sparrow Clubs, where she was a member. She has a genetic disorder, usually uses a wheelchair and is nonverbal, but “she doesn’t even need

words to connect with people,” he said. “She’s just an amazing spirit who just immediately draws people to her and you just feel inspired by Saylor when you meet her,” Sampson said. “And she’s always wearing these iconic glasses, whether they’re pink or they’re red. She’s just such a cutie.” Teacher Becky Drury, 54, is recovering in a Bend hospital with wounds to her arm and hand but hopes to go home soon, said Zack Hall, a family friend who is serving as her family’s spokesperson. Three children — ages 5, 8 and 11 — and a teacher were killed at the Silver Rail Elementary school in Bend, Oregon, Thursday when a former student there, 16-year-old Grifﬁn J. John II, entered a special needs classroom and began ﬁring with a shotgun.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOE KLINE

From right, Kyle Ketchum embraces Christina Edwards on Friday at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., a day after a deadly shooting. One teacher was grappling with John for the weapon when the father of two students came in and shot him to death. They were credited with stopping the rampage and saving many people’s lives. While police continued to

investigate John’s motive, distraught parents, teachers and others gathered outside the school Saturday to leave ﬂowers, pray and cry. Savannah Patton, a mother who has a 1st and 4th grader at the school, sat on the grass Saturday across from a me-

morial of flowers, stuffed animals and balloons, and wiped tears from her eyes. She told an Associated Press reporter that the teacher who died, Megan Lambert, 25, had been a substitute for her daughter’s class last year. Patton said she has struggled to explain what happened to her daughter, who asked her, “Mommy, why would someone want to take a gun and kill us at school?” Patton said it was a question she didn’t know how to answer. For several years, Saylor worked with students from Bend High School through the Sparrow Clubs, a volunteer group whose mission is to empower “kids to help kids in medical need” through kindness and community service, according to their website. In a video on the Sparrow Clubs page, Saylor intro-

duces herself, saying she loves watching Bluey and being around other kids, especially her brother. She said that while she is challenged by physical and cognitive issues, she can communicate with her eyes and a computer tablet. “I prove every day that I’m a fighter who doesn’t give up,” she wrote in the video. “Living with CASKrelated challenges is full of unknowns, which can be very hard and scary for my whole family,” she said, “But it doesn’t keep me from smiling, laughing and living with joy!” Some of the high school students who worked with Saylor said helping her gave them hope that there is still humanity in this world. After the shooting, she was taken to a hospital in Portland. A Go-Fund-Me for her family has raised almost $400,000.

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PARIS — Violent clashes, ﬁres and looting marred demonstrations across France on Saturday as hundreds of thousands of people marched against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. About 400 people were arrested nationwide, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said. Nuñez said 110 marches drew about 550,000 people across the country. Organizers, including the CGT labor union and students’ organizations, said about 800,000 demonstrators took to the streets. Nuñez described troublemakers as “extremely violent, radical far-left groups” whom, he said, sought con-

added. In Paris, police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back people wearing hoods and masks and throwing fireworks, paving stones and other objects at officers in the Place de la République, northeast of the Paris city center. Associated Press reporters saw thick black smoke rising from cars, bicycles and other vehicles, and trash bins on fire. A newspaper kiosk also burned, while several shops were looted. Several people have been injured in the clashes. Many metro stations were closed Saturday at police request, including those around the Champs-Elysées and near the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.

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frontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and local government ofﬁces. He said those groups have been joined by offenders willing to loot shops. Most of those arrested are adults, he said. Some incidents were still ongoing in central Paris on Saturday evening. “There is no place for violence in our Republic,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a message on X. “Those who vandalized property, attacked government ofﬁces and businesses, and even looted our town halls will be prosecuted and punished.” “We will stand united against those who sow chaos … and who prevent people from peacefully expressing their demands,” Macron

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EDUCATION

‘I never set out to homeschool my kids’ Her son has serious disabilities and public school didn’t help

BY BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS AP education writer

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, Mont. — “You can’t hit me, Will. You know that,” Katherine Walter says to her 11-year-old son, deﬂecting a swat. “Why?” William asks, half-heartedly pushing his chest into his mother’s open hands. “You are in the red zone,” she says. “I need you to take it back to the green. What can I do to help you?” A few hours later, Will is curled up in his favorite chair, listening to his mother read. It takes skill and patience to teach Will, who has autism and a neurological disorder that makes it difﬁcult to speak. The Walters say they no longer trust their school system to educate him without restraining him. Katherine Walter teaches him herself. America’s public education system offers some of the world’s best services and protections for students with disabilities, guaranteed by federal law. But more parents like the Walters are abandoning their rights to those services. They say public schools are failing their kids and they’re better off teaching them at home. In many states, they’re receiving thousands of dollars from taxpayers to do it. Before the Walters even married, they debated where their future children would go to school. Mike insisted their children would attend the same rural Montana school district he did. “He had such a good experience,” Katherine says. “But I’m not sure the school is the same now.” The Walters’ children also have more complex needs than Mike had. Their oldest child, Lester, 15, has dysgraphia, a neurological

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William Walter, 11, and his mother, Katherine, read a book together during homeschooling hours in White Sulphur Springs, Mont. condition that made it difﬁcult to learn to write. Along with autism, Will has apraxia, a rare speech disorder. Will thrived in a privately run preschool program, owned by a former special education teacher. But the academic expectations of elementary school would pose a challenge. “Will’s speech and language delays will make it difﬁcult for him to learn to read in kindergarten,” his preschool teacher wrote in his special education plan. Will’s mom was most concerned about Will’s inability to communicate, fearing he would get frustrated if he wasn’t understood. Federal law guarantees students with disabilities the right to study in what’s called the “ least restrictive environment.” That means they receive support to learn alongside children without disabilities as often as possible. The school district agreed to place Will in a mainstream classroom and provide him a teacher’s aide.

Hitting a roadblock Two weeks before Will would start kindergarten, Walter called the White Sulphur Springs superintendent. She says she was

told the district had hired neither Will’s aide nor a special education teacher. Later, the superintendent disputed some of this, saying he did hire “extra” aides. Walter kept Will home for kindergarten — plus his siblings, for convenience. She planned to send Will back to school for ﬁrst grade. In March, on a visit to meet the newly hired special education teacher, Will’s future ﬁrst grade teacher stopped by to meet him too. Written accounts collected by law enforcement and the school district and supplied to The Associated Press by the Walters portray different versions of what happened that day. According to the first grade teacher, Will hit her early in their encounter. Then, he approached her with an object she thought was a toy, holding it in front of her face. In interviews, Will’s mother explained it was actually his communication device — an iPad with software that speaks the pictures he chooses. The teacher said she gripped Will’s wrists and moved “the toy” down from her face. He tried to pull away, dropping to the ground. She followed him, still gripping his wrists, and he kicked her.

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Will’s mother described the incident in starker terms. She told the superintendent that the first grade teacher pulled Will from where he had fled under a table and “pinned” him to the floor. Walter filed a complaint with the sheriff, alleging the teacher had assaulted Will. The county attorney concluded the teacher was defending herself. However, he said, “her actions escalated an already difficult situation.” The superintendent at the time determined the teacher had acted appropriately, calling Walter’s allegations “not credible.” “I never set out to homeschool my kids,” Walter says. “But we needed the school to say they would never restrain a child to the floor again.” Walter filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, to no avail. Finally, the family filed a personal injury lawsuit against the district, arguing it was negligent and didn’t properly train its staff. They settled last year for $40,000, with no admission of wrongdoing by the district. The whole Walter family kept homeschooling.

Driving hours for therapy Every Wednesday for the last nine years, Will and his mom have driven 90 minutes to Helena for his specialized therapies. At occupational therapy one morning in July, Will sits on a platform swing. He reaches a noodle into the pretend water and almost loses his balance, then rights his body. The exercise helps Will strengthen his core, but more importantly, he practices managing his emotions and behavior. Practice like this has helped Will and the Walters minimize conﬂict. But Will does still occasionally get frustrated. The reasons can vary — a change in routine, guests in the home — and sometimes they’re not apparent at all. This year, Will is working on ﬁrst and second grade reading, third

grade math and sixth grade science and history. He’s progressed to doing more things independently. Therapies are vital for Will, and the public school would have provided them at least partially. Now, the Walters pay for them through their health insurance, which covers one visit a week for occupational and speech therapy. His apraxia diagnosis calls for speech therapy three to ﬁve times a week. At $100 an hour, the Walters can’t afford that. On average, they told AP, they already spend $10,000 to $12,000 a year on his therapies and evaluations.

Taxpayers could help After the incident at the public school, Walter lobbied the Montana Legislature for a ban on physical restraint in public schools. It didn’t pass, but lawmakers took interest in the Walters’ work to homeschool Will on their own dime. In 2023, Montana created a taxpayer-funded scholarship to help students with disabilities pay for therapies, homeschooling expenses or private school tuition after they leave public school. Seventy-ﬁve students were approved for the scholarship, worth $6,600 on average, before meeting a court challenge. The state paused the scholarship distribution this year. Advocates for children with disabilities argue the scholarships hurt students with special needs because their rights are no longer protected when they leave public school. And, they say, the money is insufﬁcient to educate them adequately. They say these programs incentivize parents to pull their children out of schools, taking funding from other kids. Walter doesn’t think her decision has hurt remaining public school students. And she’s convinced she’s the best person in White Sulphur Springs to provide Will’s education. She plans to homeschool him from now on.

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THE GULF COAST Orange Beach hopes drones stop drownings BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer

STAFF PHOTO By JUSTIN MITCHELL

The Markham Hotel recently opened at 14th Street and 23rd Avenue in Gulfport, Miss. It began operating in 1927. Hurricane Katrina flooded the ground floor and damaged the roof in 2005.

BOUTIQUE STAyS, HISTORIC REBIRTHS Hotels are opening along the coast BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer

More than a dozen new hotels have opened over the last several years on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and more are under construction as the region attracts a growing number of visitors from Louisiana and across the country. The building boom includes small boutique stays, legacy hotel brands and historic redevelopments. Developers and local leaders say the investments are helping invigorate the region’s economy and will position cities to attract even larger festivals and events in the future. “The demand for rooms is there,” said Pat Fontaine, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association. Among the region’s most anticipated projects is a 114-room Marriott Tribute hotel being built as part

of a $105 million town center development in downtown Gulfport. The town center, called Channel South, will also include stores and luxury apartments. It is expected to open next year at the intersection of U.S. 90 and 49, across from the beach. Gulfport is also celebrating several other new hotel projects. The 115-room Markham Hotel — which was founded 100 years ago but closed in 1970 — reopened in April a few blocks from the Channel South project. A new Hampton Inn by Hilton opened about three miles east of downtown over the summer, and a Holiday Inn is also under construction nearby on U.S. 90. The proliferation of hotels is driven largely by the region’s growing festival and event scene, said Pattye Meagher, director of communications for Coastal Mississippi, the local tourism agency. The annual car show Cruisin’ The Coast attracted more than 10,700 registered participants this year, breaking a previous record. Meagh-

er said sporting events — including a triathlon and golf tournaments held along the coast — are also bringing in thousands of new visitors. The number of boutique hotels is growing too, especially in the artsy city of Ocean Springs. The Marble Springs Hotel, which includes suites and a three-bedroom house, opened in the city in August. Jonathan Cothern, the architect behind another new boutique development called the Pullman House, said many guests come from southern Louisiana and northern Mississippi to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays and bachelorette parties. In Biloxi, an 11-room development called Hotel Biloxi opened last summer in a property that formerly held a nightclub and a breakfast restaurant. Jourdan Nicaud, the hotel’s owner, is also redeveloping the historic Magnolia Hotel in Biloxi, and runs several other hotels from Pass Christian to Ocean Springs. “They’re all slammed,” Nicaud said.

First responders in Orange Beach, Alabama, are hoping to respond faster to drownings and other 911 calls starting next summer with a new tool: self-launching drones. City leaders said the drones, which could begin flying in June, will drop life preservers to struggling swimmers and improve safety across the popular Gulf Coast vacation spot. The drones will use information from 911 dispatchers and callers’ cell phone coordinates to reach emergencies before ﬁrst responders arrive. Similar technology is growing more popular among public safety agencies around the country and in New Orleans, where police are defending a new drone program that has also raised privacy questions among some residents. Orange Beach leaders said the city’s program could be useful for both locals and Louisiana visitors on the city’s shoreline, where lifeguards have responded to 260 water rescues so far this year. The drones “can do so much ahead of time,” said Jeff Silvers, a city council member in Orange Beach. “Any time you can take beach rescue to the next level in response time, it’s huge down here.” Orange Beach officials called the program a necessary step as the region’s population grows and tourism increases. Almost 9 million visitors vacationed in Baldwin County last year, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimates Orange Beach is now home to about 9,000 people — a nearly 9% increase since 2020. Orange Beach Fire Chief Jeff Smith said the city’s surf rescue team now responds to more 911 calls about distressed swimmers than he can

remember over the past three decades. The drones will operate around the city and be able to carry several kinds of cargo, including flotation devices for beach rescues, AEDs for heart attacks and medications for drug overdoses. Emergency responders will be able to maneuver the drones to the specific area of an emergency if it differs from a 911 caller’s phone coordinates, Smith said. The drones will also send video feeds to first responders. The technology could be a regular sight for beachgoers as early as this summer. Smith estimated the city’s surf rescue team responds to 15 to 20 calls each month in the height of summer tourist season. Under an agreement with the electronics company Motorola, Orange Beach will use the drone program for free for one year, then decide whether to buy it for about $176,000 a year, according to city records. Leaders in Orange Beach said the drones will not replace lifeguards. Many cities around the country are also starting to use drone technology in response to fires, emergencies and crimes. Those contracts are leading to some controversy among residents who argue the drones threaten privacy, and are demanding more transparency over how law enforcement agencies use them. Public safety agencies — including in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish — have credited the drone programs with improving emergency response times and more safely chasing and identifying suspects of crimes. Jack Robertson, another city council member in Orange Beach, called the program “a great system.” “All it does is save lives quicker,” he said.

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UKRAINE

Civilians risk lives to escape from Russian-held city BY YURAS KARMANAU and HANNA ARHIROVA

Associated Press

Food and medical supplies have been scarce for months in Oleshky, which sits on the Dnipro River that separates Ukrainian forces from the city’s Russian occupiers. There’s no electricity, heat or running water. Roads leading from town are mined and dotted with burned-out cars. Menacing drones buzz overhead. One desperate resident watched the front-line city slide further toward a humanitarian crisis as its trapped population dwindled to fewer than 2,000 people. She decided it was time to escape via what’s been dubbed “the road of death.” So the 40-year-old former hairdresser walked — for 12 miles, along the partially mined road — fearing that “every step could have been my last,” she said. Once a city of about 24,000, Oleshky was captured by Moscow’s forces on the first day of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Its buildings were shelled and burned, and its infrastructure damaged. Further calamity struck in June 2023 when floodwaters inundated the city after the Kakhovka Dam collapsed from an explosion that an Associated Press investigation found was likely caused by the Russian military, killing hundreds of residents. And now those still left in the battered city along Ukraine’s southeastern front face death from hunger or disease as another harsh winter looms, with no agreement in sight for even a humanitarian evacuation. “There is nothing left in Oleshky,” said the woman, who fled in August and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared for her security. “No food, no supplies, no medical care, no aid what-

soever.” Both sides blame each other for the catastrophe. Russia says Ukraine deliberately blocks supplies and evacuations; Kyiv counters that Moscow is effectively holding civilians hostage. Ukraine has appealed repeatedly for a local ceasefire to organize evacuations. Russia, which as the occupying power is obligated by international law to ensure civilians under its control have what they need to survive, has made no commitment. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Oleshky’s suffering at the hands of Russia on Oct. 12 at an international forum in Poland, saying the city had been “razed to the ground.” Ukraine is “trying to help these people, but they are under occupation,” he said. “Unblock the city of Oleshky and bring our citizens back.” In a phone call Friday with President Vladimir Putin, Pope Leo XIV urged a ceasefire to allow food and medicine deliveries to Oleshky and to safely evacuate civilians, the Vatican said. The Kremlin said Putin voiced support for the Vatican efforts to help protect the population and secure vital supplies, and voiced readiness to cooperate. Remaining residents reportedly scrounge for food amid destroyed buildings, or try to grow vegetables in garden plots. Water is drawn from wells. Firewood is used for warmth. Bodies at the city morgue decompose with no electricity. Another 100 bodies fill the basement of Oleshky’s hospital, said Tetiana Hasanenko, the exiled head of the city’s Ukrainian military administration. The U.N. human rights office said the last regular food delivery by road was May 26. Oleshky’s Russian-installed officials said this month they delivered 2 tons of aid, although they admitted it was

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Destroyed cars are seen on Sept. 30 on a highway from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the Kherson region of Ukraine. hardly enough. The U.N. ofﬁce said Oleshky’s hospital lacks medicine and basic supplies, drone attacks prevent ambulances from reaching patients, and it’s unsafe to take them elsewhere. “It is impossible to live in Oleshky, there is no life left there,” said another resident who fled to Russian-held Mariupol and spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his security. Even the Russian soldiers have moved deeper into the occupied part of the Kherson region, farther from the Dnipro, according to the former hairdresser. The Moscow-appointed authorities seemed to have “given up on us a long time ago,” she said. She considered herself lucky to have survived the journey from Oleshky to the village of Radensk, also occupied by Russia but farther from the front line and thus better off. She said an acquaintance who tried to bring food into Oleshky was killed on the road when his car came under ﬁre, adding that she saw a photo of him “covered in

blood, with bread and chicken legs scattered around him.” Hasanenko said the route from Oleshky to Radensk is known as “the road of death” because “corpses lie on this road and no one is taking them away.” She cited an explosion this month that killed four people and left an 86-year-old man badly wounded. Russian troops were driven out of the larger city of Kherson across the Dnipro in 2022 but mined the roads around Oleshky, said Lt. Yevhen Voronetskyi, a spokesman with Ukraine’s 34th Separate Marine Brigade. Kyiv’s drones also remotely mined forest paths used by Russian troops, he said. Some evacuees who make it to Radensk try to return to Oleshky with food “because they have children waiting at home, or immobile elderly parents,” Hasanenko said, saying at least 35 children remain there. Ksenia Arkhipova, who fled Oleshky in 2022 and now helps others leave, said nearby occupied towns and villages in a zone along the Dnipro face similar dire con-

ditions and mined roads. It takes six to eight hours to walk or cycle from Oleshky to Radensk, she said, because evacuees might be older and weakened by hunger, or they have to wait out attacks or carry their bikes to avoid the mines. Travel is only possible in dry weather, Arkhipova said, and “I’m terrified at the thought of the coming winter, when many people in Oleshky will be simply doomed.” Some of them don’t want to leave their homes or risk a dangerous journey, Voronetskyi said. Russia and Ukraine have discussed a possible temporary ceasefire and humanitarian corridor but reached no agreement, the U.N. human rights office said. “With winter approaching, the issue is urgent,” it said. While communications with Moscow continue, “Russia has not provided clear, verifiable guarantees for conducting a humanitarian operation,” according to the office of Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets. The mined roads make

an evacuation impossible, and not all residents want to leave, according to the city’s Russian-installed ofﬁcials. Vladimir Saldo, who was appointed by Moscow as governor of the occupied part of the Kherson region, promised earlier this month to help anyone who wants to leave the town. The former hairdresser told AP that residents have appealed to local authorities several times for a humanitarian corridor and submitted lists of those hoping to leave, but nothing came of it. The International Committee of the Red Cross was ready to assist an evacuation but only if both countries agree and there are security guarantees for civilians, said ICRC spokesperson Sarah Davies. Voronetskyi, the Ukrainian lieutenant, said the food shortages in Oleshky have persisted for months and are getting “worse and worse.” His brigade has flown drones capable of carrying at least 44 pounds each over the Dnipro into the city with food aid for at least a year, he said, adding that more than 7 tons were delivered since September. The parcels contained canned food, ingredients for baking bread, along with buckwheat, rice, sugar and candy for children. along with hygiene kits and medicine, including insulin, he said. But Voronetskyi cautioned that these supplies weren’t meant to get people through the winter but to help them “gather their strength, pack their things ... and still try to leave Oleshky.” Russia should “come in and take the people out,” he said. “No one will stop you.”

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Cathedral restoration delayed until next year But preliminary work to begin soon

BY BOB WARREN Staff writer

STAFF PHOTOS By DAVID GRUNFELD

Michael ‘Mike’ Lester, owner of Nawlins Sports, stands in the doorway of his shop on Decatur Street in New Orleans on Thursday. French Market District tenants have raised concerns about rent increases and lease renewals involving the French Market Corp.

French Market tenants concerned by rising rents

District managers hire company, seek to bring in new businesses BY WILLIE SWETT

Staff writer

A “for lease” sign hangs in the colonnade outside Nawlins’ Sports in the French Market District. The owner, Michael “Mike” Lester, doesn’t understand why. It’s true that business hasn’t been great at the sports apparel store since the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Since then, there have been President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Decatur Street construction and the Saints’ poor performance. “I live and die by the Saints,” Lester said, and he meant it both personally and in terms of sales. Drew Brees and other players even had a nickname for him because of how many games Lester has gone to: “Red” for his hair. Unlike Saints home games — he’s missed one since 1993 — Lester said he’s never missed a rental payment in his 26 years at the French Market District. He was the only bidder for his lease from the French Market Corporation, a public beneﬁt corporation that manages six cityowned blocks in the French Quarter. But the “for lease” sign outside Lester’s shop still went up around Mardi Gras, not long after the French Market Corporation hired a real estate company to pursue a more competitive leasing strategy,

ä See MARKET, page 2B

Pedestrians walk past French Market shops along Decatur Street in New Orleans on Thursday. In 2023, a market study commissioned by French Market Corp. found numerous properties being rented well below market rate, prompting the board to implement a new strategic plan that involved raising rents.

The start of an ambitious restoration of St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter has been delayed by a few months as project leaders worked to raise money and gather additional historic and building data. But church officials now expect the project to get underway in earnest next year. Later this month, utility upgrade work will begin on Pere Antoine Alley and Pirates Alley, which flank the cathedral. That work is a precursor to the larger restoration ahead, officials say. Sometime this year — a specific time frame remains fluid, according to Eve Peyton, assistant director and development liaison at St. Louis Cathedral — massive scaffolding will go up to essentially encase the cathedral’s exterior, with actual restoration work starting in 2027. The work to be done beneath Pere Antoine and Pirates alleys includes power supply upgrades from Entergy, as well as water and sewer work, Peyton said. She said the flagstone that covers the alleys will be pulled up, but pedestrian access will remain open. The flagstone will be replaced once the work is complete. The $45 million restoration project is aimed at restoring some of the luster to St. Louis Cathedral, perhaps New Orleans’ most iconic and photographed building. The current cathedral, which dates to 1851 and carries the formal name “Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France,” is pocked by termite damage, water damage and the general wear and tear that comes along with being nearly 200 years old. Long a focal point for tourists and residents, officials have said the cathedral, perched outside the gates of Jackson Square between two other historic structures, the Cabildo and Presbytère, is too important to let decay. Archdiocese of New Orleans and church leaders earlier this year announced the restoration plan, which will be funded entirely through donations raised by a private campaign, “Our City Our Cathedral,” spearheaded by New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson, a longtime parishioner at the Roman Catholic church. The campaign has an overall goal of $75 million. Once it begins, the restoration is expected to take between 18 to 24 months, according to architects and builders involved with the project. Exterior work will be handled first before the work moves inside. Ryan Gootee General Contractors and

ä See RESTORATION, page 3B

Slidell zoning panel to consider 160-home subdivision

As a critic of the proposal of a area that currently Developer to present plans for Kingspoint Soccer Fields on Monday lyhashalf-mile new subdivision, she said, “Every none.

BY JIM DERRY Staff writer

A northshore real estate developer wants to construct a 160-home subdivision on the area of land known as the Kingspoint Soccer Fields in Slidell, the latest move to add more housing in St. Tammany Parish, where resistance to new developments has grown in recent years. Developer Jeff Vallee will pitch his plans to members of Slidell’s zoning commission, which will vote on a measure Monday that would allow the project to continue moving forward. If approved, 41 of 55 acres that were annexed into city limits this past Tuesday will be rezoned as R3 High Den-

sity Residential, paving the way for Vallee’s H1 and Associates to keep pursuing the subdivision plan. The remaining 14 acres would be zoned for commercial use. The proposal comes as some residents have raised concerns about new developments across the parish, with several turned back in recent years due to worries about increased trafﬁc and other issues. Two months ago, a plan by Vallee to build two subdivisions near Goodbee on the western side of St. Tammany was shot down by Parish President Mike Cooper, who vetoed the St. Tammany Parish Council’s approval of the projects. The area of the new proposed de-

velopment is on the south side of U.S. 190 and bordered on the west by Brookter Street. It is about six blocks to the southwest of Northshore High School and on the other side of Interstate 10 from the popular Fremaux Town Center. On Tuesday, the Slidell City Council approved the annexation of the land, which was a key step toward moving the project forward. No critics were present at the meeting, and council member Megan Haggerty cast the sole vote against the annexation. Proponents said that the development is a win for Slidell and local residents, as they would be able to extend city water and sewer utilities to an approximate-

“There’s a development of new jobs at the Textron Center and some other places on Fremaux, and those new employees will need some place to live. And we need to provide that,” City Council member Leslie Denham said. “I did my homework. Maybe the same homework that Megan did, but I had a different outcome.” Vallee said Friday that the utility line extensions were “the main driver” to request annexation into the city. Haggerty on Tuesday proposed moving the approval for annexation until November so that the council could “thoughtfully, strategically and responsibly” study the request a bit longer. In the end, her request failed 5-4 and the annexation passed 8-1.

new residential development affects our roads, our drainage, our infrastructure, emergency services, schools, trafﬁc and housing market. We need to understand the collective impact.” The zoning commission already recommended annexation in August. The land is owned by Soccer Field LLC of Slidell, and a vast majority of the property is wooded. The Kingspoint Soccer Fields sit in the southwest corner of the area, and it would be demolished and become part of the new subdivision if the plan is approved. Vallee said his group has a conditional agreement to buy the property, and he already has

ä See ZONE, page 3B

2B ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

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Former JPSO deputy sentenced on 2 counts

Investigators learned that TrayThe victim had already graduand obstruction of justice on If convicted of computer-aided Man pleaded guilty nile Oct. 8. Judge Adrian Adams of ated from the school when au- lor met up with the girl twice at the solicitation, Traylor faced a mini24th Judicial District Court thorities say Traylor began com- Bonnabel Boat Launch in Metairie mum of ﬁve years in prison and a in sexting case the sentenced Traylor to two years municating with her on Facebook on March 24 and 25, 2025. The two maximum sentence of 10 years,

BY MICHELLE HUNTER

Staff writer

A former Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce deputy and school resource ofﬁcer accused of sending sexually charged text messages to a 14-year-old girl was sentenced last week after he pleaded guilty in the case, according to court records. James Traylor, 58, pleaded guilty to indecent behavior with a juve-

in prison on each count. The sentences are to be served at the same time, court records said. Traylor was a 34-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Ofﬁce who was arrested March 27, 2025, following an investigation by the department. Traylor and the victim met while he was working paid security details as a resource officer at St. Angela Merici School in Metairie, which serves pre-K through seventh grade students, investigators said.

in September 2024. Detectives determined that Traylor and the 14-year-old exchanged 5,000 texts on Facebook and Snapchat over a two-week period. Many of Traylor’s texts were ﬂirty and sexually suggestive in nature, according to authorities. Traylor also repeatedly asked the girl for nude photos of herself as well as pictures of herself in a bikini or getting into the shower, the Sheriff’s Ofﬁce said. The texts included tongue and kissing emojis.

hugged, but no sexual activity was reported. A concerned friend notified the victim’s parents the next day, and they contacted the Sheriff’s Office to file a report. The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office charged Traylor with computer-aided solicitation of a minor and obstruction of justice. He faced the latter charge because authorities allege he tried to wipe data from his cellphone and iPad to hide evidence.

according to court records. But he agreed to plead guilty to indecent behavior with a juvenile, which carries a maximum punishment of seven years in prison. Adams ordered that Traylor register as a sex offender for 15 years after his release, court records said. He also issued a protective order barring any contact with the victim.

Email Michelle Hunter at mhunter@theadvocate.com.

Banana Ball to make Tiger Stadium debut in March 2027 tour brings entertainment baseball back to Baton Rouge

BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer

The Bananas are coming back. This time, on a much bigger stage. The Savannah Bananas entertainment baseball team will return to Baton Rouge next year after visits in 2024 and 2025. They will play the Firefighters at Alex Box Stadium on March 4 before taking on the same team at Tiger Stadium on March 6. Visit Baton Rouge announced the team’s return Thursday evening, alongside the 2027 Banana Ball tour schedule drop. The March games are next in the lineup for Death Valley Live, a series of events in Tiger Stadium meant to boost entertainment opportunities in Baton Rouge and put on by LSU, Visit Baton Rouge, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the Greater Baton Rouge Economic Partnership. The Bananas’ 2024 run in Baton Rouge generated the team’s thirdhighest demand for tickets that season, according to owner Jesse Cole. In March of this year, the team made its New Orleans debut in the Caesars Superdome; Saints quarterback Tyler Shough threw out the first pitch, and Saints legend Drew Brees had an at-bat in the game. The first two Banana Ball series

The Banana Ball Championship League, a crew of six entertainment baseball teams including the Bananas, intertwine traditional baseball with choreographed dances and eye-catching costumes. The game comes with a unique set of rules, including no mound visits, no bunting and a two-hour time limit on matches, turning America’s favorite pastime on its head. Though they play an unconventional game, the Banana Ball teams still play to win, second baseman Jackson Olson explained on a podcast, with the season culminating in a Banana Bowl championship that was played at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. The Bananas battled the Texas Tailgaters in this year’s championship game, ultimately losing to the Lone Star State team. The Bananas were the inaugural entertainment baseball team founded in 2016, stemming from a college summer team in Savannah, Georgia, that wanted to boost STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK game attendance and “make baseThe Savannah Bananas kick off the Baton Rouge portion of their 2024 world tour with a game against The ball fun.” Since its launch, the team has garnered national atParty Animals at Alex Box Stadium at LSU. tention and taken social media by in Baton Rouge each generated past season — and growing awareThe Metro Council approved storm, with 11.8 million followers $1.5 million in estimated direct ness of the concept of entertain- sales and tax rebates for tickets, on TikTok. Banana Ball sells tickets excluand indirect economic impact, said ment baseball, the Bananas were concessions and parking sales at Laura Cating, senior vice presi- ready to bring the game to Tiger its meeting Wednesday evening. sively through a lottery system, The return of Banana Ball will which means fans can sign up for dent of marketing and communi- Stadium’s more than 100,000 seats. cations for Visit Baton Rouge. The The added capacity brings the es- be the second Death Valley Live a drawing to grab a seat at a game event drew visitors from states timated economic impact for the event, the first being a Zach Bry- rather than first-come, first-served such as Utah, Texas, Mississippi, 2027 games to $24 million, Cating an concert in March that gener- ticket sales. The lottery opened New York and as far as Canada, said. ated about $25.1 million in visitor Thursday night and closes in two she said. “It is such a family-friendly ex- spending. A second concert with weeks. With the increased popularity perience and something that is at- Post Malone and Jelly Roll had of the team — more than 3.2 mil- tractive to all kinds of audiences,” been scheduled for May but was Email Ianne Salvosa at ianne. canceled. salvosa@theadvocate.com. lion people watched its games this Cating said.

MARKET

Continued from page 1B one that the group’s leader argues is needed to drive revenue and increase fairness for all businesses interested in operating in the historic area.

New strategic plan The six blocks near Decatur Street and St. Peter Street, which have been managed by French Market Corporation since 1934, include some of the city’s oldest and most iconic businesses. There’s the open-air French Market that dates to the 18th century, Café du Monde’s packed outdoor café, and the shops by Jackson Square. In 2023, the group began looking at how much businesses were paying for rent. A market study commissioned by its board found numerous properties being rented well below market rate. In response, the board hired New Orleans-based Corporate Realty in 2025 and tasked them with developing and implementing a new strategic plan. The plan not only recommended higher rents, but also new tenants that “better fulﬁll the FMC’s broader mission of encouraging tourism and incubating and supporting small businesses.” While the corporation’s historic approach to leasing helped keep the shops ﬁlled, “it has not resulted, however, in the maximization of revenue, quality, or image,” the plan said. KC Guidry, executive director of the French Market Corporation, said in a statement that “by expanding the pool of prospective tenants,” the organization has been able to attract businesses and retailers that in the past may not have been able to compete for the space. “We believe that a healthy

STAFF PHOTOS By DAVID GRUNFELD

ABOVE: Michael Lester, owner of Nawlins Sports, is reflected in a mirror amid a display of hats inside his shop on Decatur Street in New Orleans on Thursday. LEFT: Pedestrians pass Café du Monde as customers line up outside on Decatur Street in New Orleans on Thursday.

commercial district requires a balance of long-standing businesses, emerging local entrepreneurs, and uses that serve both residents and visitors,” Guidry wrote. “The fact that somebody’s been there for one year or 20 years, I don’t want to say it’s immaterial, but it doesn’t give someone a license to be there in perpetuity,” Michael Siegel, president of Corporate Realty, said. He noted that his company is a “service provider” that takes directions from the French Market Corporation.

Fears about the future For some longtime tenants, the corporation’s new approach has spurred uncertainty about their future. Shakor, an artist who has operated Gallery Cayenne across from St. Louis Cathedral since 2008, said he has been on a month-to-month lease since 2023, when the French Market Corporation didn’t sign his lease renewal. He said the group informed him in April that his rent would increase from $1,878.74 to $7,500 starting in November. “You would think, given our tenure, there would be some

sort of ‘come to the table, let’s talk about an increase,’ not just to throw a $5,000 increase without giving me the opportunity,” he said. Guidry said staff met with Shakor to discuss the rent increases multiple times. Ultimately, Shakor decided not to submit a bid. On Tuesday, the French Market Corporation’s board met to consider whether to approve three new tenants: Dat Dog, which would replace Shakor’s store; The Rising Son clothing store, which would replace retail shop Pop City; and Mess Hall Truck Shop, which would take over OMG!, a retail space. The changes had been recommended by the group’s staff using a scoring rubric. The meeting erupted, and after hours of clashes among tenants, French Market Corporation management and city leaders, the board delayed its vote on whether to approve the new leases, according to a WWL-TV report. Rhonda Findley, who has operated Pop City since 2008, said she took issue with the lease renewal process and said the high sales marks the French Market Corporation expected her

to hit were unrealistic for a retail store like hers. Joshua Saladino, general manager for The Rising Son, meanwhile, said that while he was frustrated by the delay, he felt the process has been “fair and legitimate.” He said they decided to put a bid in on the Market District space after reaching out to Corporate Realty, which they’ve worked with before. On Thursday, Mayor Helena Moreno, who held a roundtable for some vendors and French Market Corporation staff at City Hall in September, called on the corporation’s leadership to “establish a transparent and competitive process for future leases.” She said the “lack of clear standards, transparency and

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inconsistent communication in the current process is alarming and has raised legitimate questions about fairness and favoritism.” In response, Guidry said the French Market Corporation shares “the Mayor’s commitment to transparency, fairness, and accountability.” “These principles are fundamental to FMC’s mission and are among the reasons the Board undertook the strategic leasing initiative in the ﬁrst place,” Guidry said. For Lester, anxiety about his shop’s future has re-

mained high since the lease signs went up. He said employees quit because they thought he was going out of business. He hasn’t been able to get anything longer than a one-year lease, something Guidry chalked up to his declining sales. She said the French Market Corporation has met with Lester on how to improve sales. “I am the oldest sports store in the entire city of New Orleans,” he said as he stood in front of a stack of mini NFL helmets, shaking his bright red head of hair.

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The Times-Picayune ✦ nola.com ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ 3B

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New Orleans Area Deaths

NOPD makes 4 homicide arrests in 24 hours Official: Murder clearance rate tops 100% as department solves current, past cases

A department’s annual murder clearance rate measures murders solved that year, including older cases, against murders reported that year. In 2022, when New Orleans became the nation’s murder capital, the NOPD posted a clearance rate of just 40.2%. At the height of the violence, the city BY MISSY WILKINSON recorded as many as four homicides in Staff writer a single day. Wednesday’s four murder arrests New Orleans Police Department detectives made four arrests in four sep- offered a striking contrast to those arate homicides Wednesday, including times. “This doesn’t happen without emone same-day arrest, capping a busy 24-hour span that included an unrelat- bedded partnerships and collaboraed SWAT roll and murders in Milan and tion that we do every day, on every New Orleans East. case,” Waldron said. The latest arrests have boosted the NOPD’s already historically high A same-day arrest clearance rates as violent crime has Five hours after ﬁnding a woman dramatically dropped in the city and shot dead near a New Orleans East detectives have solved those that re- storage facility, the NOPD had a susmain at a rapid clip. pect in custody. “Currently, our clearance rate for “(Detectives) got a full confession, homicides in New Orleans this year and we believe we have the murder is 102%,” Lt. Andrew Waldron, head weapon as well,” Waldron said. of the NOPD’s homicide unit, said at Police believe Sheila Scott, 45, a Thursday media briefing. “We’ve targeted the victim, a woman she cleared more murders than we have knew, shooting her shortly after noon had occur. That includes some from Wednesday in the 10300 block of the past, which we are continuing to North Interstate 10 Service Road beinvestigate.” fore ﬂeeing to Mississippi.

Buckel, Susan Castagnetta, Heidi Dominick, Patricia LaFrance, Leo Leon, Ferdinand Majoria, Ryan Perkins Scholl, Della Ratcliff Jr., Hubert Romair, Frank Ryan, Edward Summers Williams, Linda Taormina, Patrice Taylor, John Todd, Elizabeth Verrett, Marie Wood, Caridad

Investigators tracked down the vehicle Scott used to ﬂee, along with a second vehicle, and set up surveillance in Hattiesburg. Working with the FBI, Louisiana State Police and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, they arrested Scott without incident.

Three other bookings In Nashville, Tennessee yesterday, U.S. marshals booked Devin Clayton, 19. Clayton is accused of fatally shooting Sylvester Jenkins, 23, in the 2900 block of Freret Street on Aug. 1. The NOPD Violent Offender Warrant Squad also located and arrested Raymond Scott, 34, who is accused of shooting Stephanie South, 31, at the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Old Gentilly Road on Oct. 6. Scott was booked in the 9100 block of Old Gentilly Road. Finally, police made a second arrest in the monthslong homicide investigation of missing person Alphonse Hogan Jr., 69. Michael Adams, 36, was booked into Orleans Justice Center late Wednesday on counts of accessory to second-degree murder and obstruction of justice, court records show. Hogan’s remains have yet to be found, the NOPD said Thursday.

New Orleans DW Rhodes Summers Williams, Linda Jacob Schoen Romair, Frank Lake Lawn Metairie Buckel, Susan Ryan, Edward Taormina, Patrice Todd, Elizabeth Majestic Mortuary Ratcliff Jr., Hubert

River Parish Millet-Guidry Verrett, Marie

St Tammany EJ Fielding Dominick, Patricia

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Kevin Morris, president of Holly & Smith Architects, stands behind the clock in the central bell tower of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans on March 17. A $45 million cathedral restoration has been postponed to 2027.

RESTORATION

Serenity FH

Peyton said Wednesday. “We want to do it right. We don’t want to cut any corners.” The restoration also comes as unrelated street and utility work in the French Quarter has lingered, causing headaches for residents and business owners dealing with closed streets and limited access. Peyton said church ofﬁcials are cognizant of what’s happening. They have been working to make sure the cathedral work doesn’t add to any problems and have reached out to the businesses nearest the cathedral to discuss the restoration. “We’re committed to minimizing the chaos,” she said. “We deﬁnitely are mindful of our neighbors.” The scope of the work is eye-popping. Exterior work includes removing and repairing the slate roof, as well as repairing the masonry and stucco on

the building. The foundation will also be stabilized. Interior work includes restoring all of the stained glass, which depicts the life of Louis IX, the 13th century king of France who was canonized in 1297 and is the church’s namesake, as well as removing and repairing the ceiling. The murals on the ceiling will also be restored. The architect and contractor have been vetting the professionals who will handle various components of the work, including the delicate process of restoring the murals and stained glass. Additional money from the fundraising includes $10 million envisioned for renovating and repurposing the church’s rectory, and $20 million to be set aside to create endowments to cover future operating and maintenance costs, ofﬁcials have said.

infrastructure studies, such as impacts on drainage and trafﬁc. Continued from page 1B “If this gets approved, I plan on setting up a town hall type of meeting to allow local residents to come and invested $200,000 in engineering, voice their concerns and learn more surveying and legal fees. If approved, about the project,” Vallee said. If all goes right for him, he said closhe also would then have to pay for

ing would come sometime in December or shortly after the start of 2027 and that construction could not commence until after the studies were completed.

Continued from page 1B

Holly & Smith Architects, both New Orleans companies, are managing the project.

‘Minimizing the chaos’ Last spring, church ofﬁcials thought the work would have begun by the end of summer. But Peyton said various delays cropped up to push the timeline back. Peyton said leaders had to make sure they had raised adequate money to begin the work. The fundraising campaign continues, she said. She also said additional work to study the structure and consult with historical experts pushed the start back a bit. “It’s just the nature of this project,”

ZONE

Castagnetta, Heidi LaFrance, Leo

West Bank Mothe Majoria, Ryan

Obituaries Buckel, Susan Eiserloh

raised on Tchoupitoulas Street. She attended St. Francis of Assisi School and graduated from Mercy Academy in 1977. She dedicated decades of service to the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals before her retirement this past year. Susie had a beautiful gift for making the people in her life feel deeply loved. To Susie, family was always a reason to celebrate. She never needed a reason to bring everyone together and would invent one if needed, just to spend time with her loved ones. She adored her children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews and treasured every opportunity to make memories with them. Her most treasured role was being "Gammie" to her five beloved grandchildren. A true New Orleans girl, Susie loved Mardi Gras. Every year, she looked forward to the balls and traditions of Carnival season. And when her birthday fell during Mardi Gras, she was especially happy to share her day with her favorite holiday. In 2002, she proudly reigned as Queen of the Krewe of Atlas. Susie also loved the beach, especially Waveland, Mississippi, where family vacations became beloved traditions. The magic of Waveland was spending time with family, fishing off the seawall, and crabbing at the train bridge. More than anything, Susie will be remembered for the extraordinary way she loved. She never let those closest to her wonder how much they meant to her. She told them often, with the words that became so unmistakably hers: "I love you the whole world and a mile." Susie is survived by her loving mother, JoAnn Hahn Eiserloh; her significant other, Harry Ward; her children, Matthew Buckel and Shelly King (Brad); along with her cherished grandchildren, Kaitlyn King, Nathan Buckel, Brad King, Jr., Bennett Buckel, and A.J. Buckel. She is also lovingly remembered by siblings Sharon Scullin (Larry Vanderbook), Lynne Yanez (Jose), Robert Eiserloh (Dawn), nieces, nephews, extended family, and dear friends. She was preceded in death by her father, Warren Eiserloh. Her family was luckiest to have spent 67 years with her and will continue to celebrate her at every family gathering, every Mardi Gras event, every trip to Waveland, and every moment in between. When they think of her, they will always hear those familiar words, spoken with all the love in her heart: "I love you the whole world and the mile." And we love you, too, Gammie, the whole world and a mile times infinity. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Funeral Mass in the Chapel of Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home on Tuesday October 20, 2026 at 1:00pm. Visitation will begin at 11:00am. Interment in Greenwood Cemetery.

Susan "Susie" Marie Eiserloh Buckel passed away on Wednesday, October 14th, 2026 leaving behind a lifetime of cherished memories, treasured traditions, and a family who loved her. Susie was born on February 8th, 1959, at Baptist Hospital and was

Email Jim Derry at jderry@ theadvocate.com.

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4B ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune Castagnetta, Heidi Ann

Heidi Castagnetta, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, passed away peacefully on October 12, 2026, at the age of 66. She leaves behind a lifetime of cherished memories, lasting friendships, and a legacy of love, dedication, and service that will never be forgotten. Heidi is survived by her loving husband of 22 years, Jay Castagnetta, and her four sons: Harold Allen III and his wife, Taylor, of Robert, Louisiana; her stepson, Joshua A. Castagnetta, of New Market, Alabama; Joshua R. Tzuanos, of Metairie, Louisiana; and Michael A. Castagnetta, of Mandeville, Louisiana. She was a proud grandmother to three grandchildren, Karson, Hope, and Thane Allen, who brought joy and love into her life. She is also survived by her sisters, Sherrie Winkler Helbach and her husband, Donald, and Rebecca Winkler Vath and her husband, Ray, sister-in-law Pam Winkler along with numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and dear friends. Heidi was preceded in death by her beloved parents, Jacob "Jake" Winkler and Shirley Alexander Winkler, and her brother, Randy Winkler. Heidi attended and graduated from the Academy of the Holy Angels in New Orleans in 1978. From an early age, her first love was horses. Some of her fondest memories were made alongside her father, Jake, and her brother, Randy, spending countless hours riding, caring for horses at the stable, participating in parades, and riding throughout New Orleans East. Her love for those days never faded, and she could always be counted on to share stories of her youth and the special bond she had with her family and their horses. Throughout her life, Heidi worked in the food and beverage industry, sharing her warmth, hospitality, and unmistakable personality at many establishments including Amber Jacks on the Lakefront, Fletcher's Nightery in Fat City, and the Ernst Café in New Orleans. She was an outstanding hostess with a natural gift for making people feel welcome. When it came to planning a party or bringing people together, Heidi was the "go to girl"! Her energy, enthusiasm, and attention to detail made every gathering special. Heidi was also proud to serve as Captain of the Les Papillion's Social Club, an organization she cherished, and she eagerly looked forward to its annual Bal Masqué. Perhaps one of Heidi's greatest joys was her involvement with the Washington Artillery Veterans Association (WAVA) of the Louisiana Army National Guard. As an Associate Perpetual Member, she devoted countless hours to the association, overseeing both its food and merchandising programs. Her dedication and service earned her the Artillery Order of Molly Pitcher Award, along with repeated recognition for her contributions to WAVA and the Battalion Washington Artillery. She especially loved attending the annual Saint Barbara Celebration, an occasion that reflected the pride, camaraderie, and friendships she held so dear. Heidi gave generously of her time and talents to the organizations she loved, and her impact extended far beyond the work she did. She was a familiar and beloved presence to those around her, remembered for her welcoming spirit, her willingness to help, and her ability to make people feel like family. She touched countless lives through her service, friendship, and love, and she will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing her. Heidi's life was defined by the people she loved, the traditions she treasured, and the communities she served. Though

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her passing leaves an immeasurable void in the hearts of her family and friends, the memories she created and the love she shared will continue to live on in all who knew her. Heidi will be interred at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery, 34888 Grantham College Dr., Slidell, Louisiana, at 11:00 AM on Friday, October 23, 2026. A Celebration of Life, including a brief Memorial Service, will follow at 1:00 PM, at Jackson Barracks, 6400 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, Louisiana, in the WAVA Room, Building 4800. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be made in Heidi's name to the Washington Artillery Veterans Association at www.washingtonartillery .org. Arrangements entrusted to Serenity Funeral Home of Covington, LA.

Dominick, Patricia Mary Capella

Patricia Mary Capella Dominick, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and cherished matriarch of her family, passed away on October 11, 2026, in Abita Springs, Louisiana. Patricia was born on May 12, 1935, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Mary Maude and Frank Capella. Born and raised in New Orleans, she carried with her a deep love for her family, her roots, and the traditions that shaped her life. Above all else, Patricia was the heart and matriarch of her family. A wonderful cook, she showed her love in one of the most meaningful ways she knew how: by bringing her family together around the dinner table. Family dinners at her home became cherished traditions, creating memories that her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will carry with them for a lifetime. Her home was a place where family gathered, stories were shared, and love was always served alongside the food she lovingly prepared. Through these gatherings and countless ways, she cared for those around her, Patricia created a legacy of togetherness that will continue for generations to come. Patricia was the beloved wife of the late John Henry Dominick, Sr. Together, they built a family and a lifetime of memories that will be treasured for years to come. Her greatest legacy lives on through her five children, 10 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren, each of whom carries a piece of her story and the love she shared so generously. She is survived by her five children and their spouses: Susan Nehlig (Ray), Pamela Kobe (Carl), Jamie Voorhies (Regan), John Dominick, Jr. (Jamie), and Tammy Dominick (Dave Morales); her 10 grandchildren, Chantelle, Tracie, Falyn, Joshua, Casey, Nicole, Kristen, Ashley, Tyler, and Corey; and her 15 great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister, Lauralee Brady (Wayne), and her brother, Frank "Chick" Capella. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, John Henry Dominick, Sr.; her parents, Mary Maude and Frank Capella; her brother, James "Jimmy" Capella; and two sisters-in-law Carol and Durinda. Patricia will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing and loving her. Though her presence will be missed beyond measure, the traditions she kept, the meals she lovingly prepared, and the love she gave will remain woven into the fabric of her family. As its matriarch, she leaves behind a legacy that extends far beyond her years—a legacy of family, connection, and enduring love that will live on through every generation. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Mass of Christian Burial on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 11:00 am at E J Fielding Funeral Home, 2260 West 21st Avenue, Covington, LA and the visitation will begin at 9:00 am until service time. Interment will follow at Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Slidell, LA.

E. J. Fielding Funeral Home has been entrusted with funeral arrangements. Please sign the guestbook at www.ejfieldingfh.com.

Majoria, Ryan Sargent

memories and condolences online at mothefunerals.com

Perkins Scholl, Della Rose

LaFrance, Leo Paul

Leo Paul LaFrance, Jr. , age 95, passed away at his daughter Victoria's home in Red Oak, Iowa on Monday, October 5, 2026. Born on May 27, 1931 in New Orleans to Leo Paul LaFrance, Sr and Irma Margaret Nelson LaFrance. Leo lived a life rooted in family, craft and community. A native son of New Orleans, he served four years in the Marine Reserves and fours years in the Navy Reserves, an experience he carried with quiet pride. He built and ran Creative Concrete, formerly known as Gentilly Novelty Company, crafting stepping stones, birdbaths, fountains and religious statues, many of which were painted with care by his wife, Anna E. Lala LaFrance and daughter, Cathy. He was interviewed several times by the Times -Picayune for his creative work. In 1980, he and his wife moved to Folsom, Louisiana, where they made their home. He is survived by his brother Donald R. LaFrance, sister Hollie LaFrance DeHarde his children Leo P. LaFrance, III, Stephanie LaFrance Reed, Joel LaFrance Swindler(Gary), Victoria LaFrance Kennedy(Tom), Anna M. LaFrance, as well as eight grandchildren and fourteen Great-Grandchildren. He was proceeded in death by his parents, along with his daughters Mary Katherine LaFrance and Cathy Lynn LaFrance and his loving wife, Anna of 65 years. A Memorial Service and Interment were held at St. Vincent DePaul Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, Louisiana on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. Arrangements entrusted Serenity Funeral Home of Covington, Louisiana.

Leon, Ferdinand

Ferdinand Leon III was called home to be with the Lord on October 6, 2026, at the age of 81. He was born on March 8, 1945, to Ferdinand Leon, Jr. and Norma Reine Leon. He attended Joseph S. Clark and then worked in the construction industry, for 42 years. He loved entertaining and spending quality time with family and friends. He was a member of the ETG and Plantation Revelers Social Clubs, and a member of St. Maria Goretti's Holy Name Society. He leaves to cherish his memory his loving wife, of 60 years, Lydia Leon, beloved children Michele Johnson (Errol) and Rodney Leon (Trenese), grandchildren Tyler Johnson, Jr. and Rodney Leon, Jr., great grandchildren Tyler Johnson, Jr. and Kairi and Kyle Hayes. He is also survived by his siblings Gregory Leon and Gail Mc Donald (Byron-deceased), and a host of family and friends. He is preceded in death by his parents Ferdinand Leon Jr. and Norma Reine Leon, siblings Sandra Morgan and Linda Leon, and grandson Kirk Hayes, Jr. Family and friends are invited to attend a Mass of Christian Burial on Tuesday October 20, 2026, at St. Maria Goretti Church, 7300 Crowder Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70127. Visitation will begin at 10:00 am and Mass will begin at 11:00 am. Interment St. Louis #3. 3421 Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119. Charbonnet Labat Funeral Home entrusted with arrangements

With heavy hearts, we share the sudden passing of Ryan Sargent Majoria, who found everlasting peace on October 11, 2026, at the age of 21. Ryan was a young man with so much life left to live and so much more to give. He had a kind heart and was always willing to lend a helping hand. He was the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back without a second thought. Ryan had the best giggle. It was the kind that was so contagious, you'd find yourself giggling right along with him. To those who didn't know him well, Ryan may have seemed quiet and reserved. He wasn't necessarily the most outgoing person in the room, but once you earned his trust and friendship, you got to know the Ryan we all loved, our Roo. He was goofy, sweet, and fiercely protective of the people he loved. He always stood up for what he believed was right. Ryan was a talented athlete and an excellent volleyball player. He enjoyed playing alongside his late older brother, Devin Repath. He also loved working with his hands. Like many young adults, Ryan was still finding his path in life, but he was especially happy when working alongside his brotherin-law, Ronald Poole Jr. Above all, Ryan loved his family deeply. He was the beloved son of Brett Majoria (SiSi) and Carmella Poole (Kenny), and a loving brother to his sisters, Michele Dalon and Megan Majoria, and his step-siblings, YingHong, JingYu, Jonathan, Justin (Kelsey), and Julia. Ryan was also a devoted uncle to his niece and goddaughter, Devin Poole, and his nephews, Carmelo Repath, Liam Repath, and Ronald Poole III. He held a special place in their lives and will forever hold a place in their hearts. Ryan leaves behind a family who loved him beyond measure, along with many extended family members and friends whose lives were made brighter by knowing him. He is reunited in Heaven with his beloved older brother, Devin Michael Repath ("Bub"); his paternal grandfather, John Herman Majoria ("Pop"); and his paternal grandmother, Mamie Sargent Majoria ("Mawmaw"). Ryan's life was far too short, but the love he gave, the laughter he shared, and the memories he leaves behind will remain with us always. Rest in peace, Roo. Until we all meet again. Family and friends are invited to attend the Memorial Visitation at MOTHE FUNERAL HOME, 7040 Lapalco Blvd., Marrero, Louisiana on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, beginning at 4PM until 6PM. A Memorial Mass will be held at the funeral home on Wednesday at 6PM. Immediately following the Mass, visitation will resume until 8PM The family invites you to share thoughts, fond

Della Rose was born February 23, 1943 and left this life on October 13, 2026. Following a period of health challenges, she passed away peacefully in her home. She graduated from John McDonough Sr. High in the city of New Orleans, her birthplace. As an educator, she believed in and encouraged always learning. After high school, newly married to Steven Patrick Scholl and having her first child, she continued her studies and received a B.A. in Education from the University of New Orleans. She then taught English in the New Orleans public schools, including Bell Jr. High and Capdau Jr. High. Proudly receiving her UNO Master's in Special Educ., she devoted herself to special needs students, teaching at St. Elizabeth's Girl's Home then Bethlehem Children's Home until Katrina forced retirement. She was an avid reader and continued her learning until her passing. Among her many interests she loved gardening, multiple daily word puzzles, and genealogy. She was strong, independent and principled, passionate about justice, righteousness, and all things beautiful and good. She was a longtime faithful member of the Northshore Democratic Women's Club, the Board of the City of Covington Housing Auth., and often a volunteer voting site poll worker. Preceded in death by her parents, Della (Husser) & James Perkins. Survived by her three younger siblings Beverly, Evelyn with husband Anthony Perpere, and James Jr. (Buster) with wife Susan. Survived by daughters Stephanie Rose Scholl with husband Rick, Dorothy Scholl, and son Jeffery Scholl with wife Jessica. Grandkids Sarah Rose with husband Ian, Jonathan, James, Juliana, Ella, her nieces Meredith and Megan, and many family members and friends. Services Wed., October 21st with Bagnell & Son Funeral Home, Covington, LA, the visitation 10am Noon, with funeral service following. May her soul rest in peace, and perpetual light shine upon her.

Ratcliff Jr., Hubert 'June'

Hubert Ratcliff, Jr., affectionately known as "June," departed this life on September 3, 2026. He was preceded in death by his parents, Hubert Ratcliff, Sr. and Suvilla Ratcliff, and his sister, Cheryl Ratcliff. June leaves to cherish his memory his beloved wife, Mable W. Ratcliff, and his brother, Rodgers Ratcliff (Jennifer). June dedicated 30 years of

service to General Motors in Detroit, Michigan. Following his retirement, he returned home to New Orleans, where he and Mable shared 25 wonderful and happy years together, creating lasting memories filled with love and companionship. A private Catholic Memorial Mass was held in his honor.

Romair, Frank Charles 'Frankie'

It is with deep sadness and immeasurable love that we announce the passing of Frank "Frankie" Charles Romair, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, and friend. Frank passed away peacefully at his home in Pass Christian, Mississippi, with his loving wife, Mary Martinez Romair, at his bedside. Frank was born and raised in New Orleans' Irish Channel. He spent his earliest years on Pleasant Street until the age of eight, when his father purchased a plot of land at the corner of Toledano and Laurel. There his father built a home and a tavern named Frankie's Tavern after young Frankie. The family lived in the shotgun back house and around the business. Frank grew up in that tavern with his younger brother Charles amid the colorful characters of the Irish Channel, absorbing the stories, humor, and spirit of the neighborhood that shaped him. He attended Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic School and Jesuit High School before graduating from Redemptorist High School. After graduation, Frank became one of the first from his neighborhood to leave for college. He attended Southeastern Louisiana University and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. Upon graduation he married his first wife, Brenda Marshall Romair. Together they had five children—Monette, Jason, Kirstie, Erin, and Marisa—who became the heart of his legacy. Frank's commitment as a parent was unwavering. He loved his children with a steadfast, unconditional love that never faltered, offering them guidance, support, and presence through every season of their lives. He showed up, listened, and stood by them without reservation, making sure they always knew they were his greatest pride and priority. Frankie and Brenda started their first business, the Chattabox Boutique, a New Orleans fashion icon. From there Frank's entrepreneurial career continued across many businesses, real estate investments, and restaurants,

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including Mardi Gras World, Jason's Men's Wear, the Gunfighters Lounge, the Hayloft, Romair's, the Bucktown Kitchen, the Brooke Hollow Apartments, and many others. In 2000 he moved to Destin, Florida, where he helped his son build an empire through Romair Construction. He had a natural gift for business, a strong work ethic, and a passion for creating something meaningful from the ground up. Yet business is not what defined Frank. What defined Frankie was his relationships with people and his easy-going, joyous approach to them. A true New Orleanian, he spent many years with his best friend Blaine Kern building the Krewe of the Alla and fishing the waters of Barataria Bay—days of camaraderie, stories, and the simple pleasure of being on the water with friends. In the 1970s and 1980s, he also coordinated group trips known as "junkets" to Las Vegas, where he and one of his best friends, Dominick "Buster" Gullo, hosted planeloads of highrolling New Orleanians on gambling excursions. For the past 29 years, Frank shared a beautiful life with his wife, Mary. Together they enjoyed a coastal lifestyle in Destin, Florida, before eventually settling in Pass Christian, Mississippi. In the later years of Frank's life, he and Mary traveled the world and made lasting memories. To the very end, they took joy in fishing, cooking, dining, and simply being in each other's company. Frank is preceded in death by his parents, Frank and Dorothy Romair. He is survived by his beloved wife, Mary Martinez Romair; his brother, Charles Romair (Ava); his children, Monette Millet (Dave), Jason Romair (Renee), Kirstie Carollo (Ben), Erin Schaumburg (Justin), and Marisa Fortenberry (John); his stepdaughter, Gillian Digorgio; 31 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren. His legacy lives on through the many lives he touched and the generations of family who will carry his love, stories, and spirit forward. The family welcomes you to share your thoughts, favorite memories, and condolences online at schoenfh.com.

Ryan, Edward N.

We are sad to announce the death of Ed Ryan, who peacefully passed away on Wednesday, October 14, his beloved wife by his side. He was born and raised in New Orleans, graduating from Jesuit High School in 1949. During the Korean War, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and proudly served his country for the next four years. While stationed at McChord Air Force Base, he attended a dance for service men, where he met his future bride for the next seventy-four years Merdith Patterson, although friends in Louisiana know her better as Pat. Their union produced six children, eleven grandchildren, and twelve greatgrandchildren. For over thirty years, he was the owner and operator of Ryan's Hearing Aid Center, providing his customers with honest, reliable, and cheerful service. A devout Catholic, he was active in the Knights of Columbus. After retirement, Ed and Pat traveled the country in their RV along with their faithful dog Casey and had many wonderful adventures, which they were eager to share with friends and family and complete strangers. Ed kept active most of his life, enjoying slow-pitch softball, the Senior Olympics, and most of all golf, hitting the links into his nineties. Ed was preceded in death by his parents Ed and Anna Murphy Ryan; his infant son Patrick; his brothers Donald and the Reverend Kenneth Ryan; his nephew Warren Pope; and his sonin-law Michael Cobb. He is survived by his wife; his sister Peggy Pope; children Patty Farlow (Bob), Eddy (Maria), Laurie Lewis (Dennis), Robert

(Gretchen), and Mary Ryan Cobb. He is also survived by his grandchildren: Ryan Farlow (Rayma), Barbara Jackson (Andrew), Jose Antonio Aguirre Sotelo, Maria Aguirre Sotelo, Raymond Lewis (Jenny), Jeffrey Lewis (Nicole), Craig Ryan, Mark Ryan (Kyndil), Scott Ryan (Kate), Parker Cobb (Brittney), and Ashley Cobb (Taylor). He is also survived by his great-grandchildren: Cora, Vivian, Quinn, Anna, Alex, Jaden, Madison, Clementine, Gemma, Patrick, Dean, and Thomas.; along with nieces Donna Ricalde and Becky Gonzalez. He lived ninetyfive years, not nearly long enough for those who knew and loved him. He will be greatly missed. The family wishes to thank all the doctors and nurses and caretakers who through their professionalism and compassion helped ease Ed's transition to his new life. Relatives and friends are invited to attend services at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. New Orleans, LA on Monday, October 19, 2026. Visitation will be from 11:00am until 1:00pm when the Mass begins. Interment will follow in Lake Lawn Park.

their biggest cheerleader, their prayer warrior, and a steady source of love and encouragement. Nothing made her smile brighter than having her grandchildren around her, and she made sure each of them knew how deeply they were loved. She was preceded in death by her parents, Eddie and Cora Price and Hazel and James McClendon, and her brother, Alan Loftin. She leaves to cherish her memory her sons: Bertrand Antoine Williams, Jr. (Rosalind); James McClendon Williams, Sr. (Elizabeth); and Jared Marc Williams (Bridgette); her grandchildren: Kaci, Kori, Jordan, Kendall, James Jr., Cade, and Carsyn; her sisters: Brenda McClendon; Christina McClendon (Darren Hill); and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, godchildren, other relatives, and friends. A Homegoing Celebration for Linda will be held on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at 10:00 AM at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, 8282 I-10 Service Road South, New Orleans, LA 70126. Visitation will be held from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM at the church. Interment will follow at Lakelawn Cemetery. Arrangements are entrusted to Rhodes Funeral Home, New Orleans, LA. Please visit.www.rhodesfu neral.com to sign the online guestbook.

Summers Williams, Linda Rae

Taormina, Patrice 'Patty' Lockwood

Patrice "Patty" Lockwood Taormina, age 68, of Covington, Louisiana, passed away on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Born on March 2, 1958, in Arlington, Virginia, Patty lived in New Orleans before later making her home in Covington, Louisiana. She embraced the vibrant culture, traditions, and spirit of celebration that made New Orleans so special to her. Patty was truly one of a kind. Known for her infectious laughter, quick wit, impeccable style, and larger-than-life personality, she was always the life of the party. The ultimate "hostess with the mostest," she had a gift for bringing people together and making every gathering memorable. A playful prankster, she never missed an opportunity to make someone laugh. Patty devoted her professional life to her career as a dental hygienist. Her warmth, humor, and genuine care for others made her beloved by her patients, many of whom followed her from one dental practice to another throughout her career. Their loyalty was a testament to the personal connections she formed and the lasting impression she made. For decades, Jazzercise was a cherished part of Patty's life, combining her love of music, movement, and having fun. She also loved traveling, entertaining, attending festivals, and listening to live music. Mardi Gras held a special place in her heart, reflecting her joyful spirit and love for a good celebration. Above all, Patty loved her family. She shared 48 years of marriage with her beloved husband, Joseph Walter Taormina, and was a loving mother to her two daughters. Affectionately known as "Bebe" to her six grandchildren, she will be remembered for the laughter, love, and memories she shared with them. Patty is survived by her husband, Joseph Walter Taormina; her daughters, Lindsay Carnegie (Trey) and Caroline Mayronne (Bryson); her six grandchildren, Carson Carnegie, Greisyn Carnegie, Camille Carnegie, James Carnegie, Ellis Mayronne, and Wyatt Mayronne; and her siblings, Michael Lockwood, Craig Lockwood, and Ingrid Lockwood Howd. She was preceded in

The Times-Picayune ✦ nola.com ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ 5B Todd, Elizabeth Blount 'Beth'

In true Patty fashion, she would want those she loved to remember her with laughter, good music, and a celebration of a life well lived. Family and friends are invited to attend visitation on Thursday, October 22, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70124. The funeral service will begin at 1:00 p.m., with burial to follow.

Taylor, John W.

John W. Taylor, 79, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on October 3, 2026, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Elizabeth "Beth" Todd, 68, passed away peacefully at home on October 10, 2026 after a courageous battle with corticobasal degeneration. She is survived by her husband, Trey; daughters, Amie Gillie and Alex Sheffield; four grandchildren, Luca, Bo, Sophie, and Kemper; mother, Irene Fager; and brother, Clay Blount. She was preceded in death by her father, Neil Blount. Beth will be remembered for her adventurous spirit, her fierce loyalty, her sense of humor, her adoration of the mountains, and her love for her family and friends. A visitation will be held on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, followed by a funeral service at 11:00 a.m. in the chapel.

Verrett, Marie Reine

Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, John later relocated to California, where he raised his three sons and built a lifelong career as a sound engineer in television and film. His work eventually took him from Los Angeles to Brussels, Belgium, and Marin County, California. John served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, an experience that became a formative part of his life story.

July 13, 1945 - October 11, 2026 Linda Rae Summers Williams, a woman of deep faith, boundless warmth, and unwavering devotion to her family, entered eternal rest on October 11, 2026, at the age of 81. Linda was born on July 13, 1945, in San Francisco, California, to William "Bill" Summers and Hazel Loftin McClendon. She was raised in Winnfield, Louisiana, by Eddie and Cora "Mama" Price. It was in Winnfield that her faith took root. She was baptized at an early age at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, and her love for the Lord guided every season of her life. After graduating from Pinecrest High School in Winnfield, Linda enrolled at Grambling State University, where she became a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and earned her Bachelor's degree in 1967. She then made New Orleans her home, joining Tulane Memorial Baptist Church, where she was an active and faithful member for many years. She later joined Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, where she continued her faithful service in the Women's Ministry and the Women's Choir. Linda dedicated 40 years to the children of New Orleans through the Orleans Parish School System. She began her career as a Speech Pathologist. While working and raising her sons, she earned her Master's degree plus 30 hours in Special Education from the University of New Orleans. She then continued her career with the school system as an Educational Diagnostician, helping children with special needs receive a meaningful education. Countless students and families were blessed by her patience, expertise, and genuine care. Linda had an outgoing spirit and a true gift for making people feel welcome. Whether you were a lifelong friend or meeting her for the first time, she greeted you with warmth and made you feel at home. Her home, her dinner table, and her heart were always open. And on Sundays, after church, you could count on finding her cheering for her beloved New Orleans Saints. Win or lose, she was a faithful member of the Who Dat Nation. Above all, Linda's greatest joy was her family. She married Bertrand Williams, Sr., and was blessed with three sons, Bertrand Jr., James, and Jared. She took great pride in each of them and in the men they became. Her grandchildren were the light of her life. She delighted in every milestone, from first steps to graduations. She was

death by her parents, Frederick Waldo Lockwood and Leafy Guichet Lockwood.

A talented artist, John enjoyed drawing, watercolor painting, photography, and the culinary arts. Paris, France, held a special place in his heart, inspiring both his photography and his development as an excellent cook. Whatever captured John's interest, he pursued it with a passion bordering on obsession, whether mastering a recipe, perfecting an artistic technique, or designing a piece of soundboard furniture. He was a man of strong convictions, never short on opinions or letting the truth get in the way of a good story. As a father, John passed along his insatiable curiosity, love of music and good food, and deep appreciation for compassion, kindness, and the connections we share with one another. He is survived by his three sons, Jason Taylor and his wife, Georgette; Cassady Taylor; and Stuart Taylor; and his grandchildren, Dylan Taylor, and Lauren Taylor. John will be remembered by his friends all over the world for his creativity, spirited conversations, memorable stories, and the laughter he brought to those around him. He leaves behind a lifetime of memories, lessons, and moments that will continue to connect those who loved him. He will be deeply missed, and his spirit will live on in the music we hear, the meals we share, the art we admire, and the stories we tell. To honor John's memory, the family invites you to make a donation to the Seva Foundation at SEVA.org, an organization he cared about deeply.

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Marie Reine Verrett passed away on Friday October 16, 2026 at the age of 87. Beloved wife of the late Edward "Ed" Verrett, Jr. Loving mother of John Verrett (Barbara), Wendy Baldwin (Stephen), David Verrett (Kim), Michael Verrett (Frances), Christopher Verrett (Dorothy), and the late Patrick Verrett (Kay). Grandmother of William Verrett (Rachel), Kelly Van Hoof (John), Colleen Verrett, Nicholas Baldwin, Mallori Baldwin, Paul Verrett, Ann Verrett, Edward Verrett, Joseph Verrett, Evelyn Verrett, Lillian Verrett, and Michelle Verrett. Greatgrandmother of Jack, Caroline, and Kate Van Hoof. Daughter of the late John Abel Reine and Marie Schexnaydre. Sister of the late Joan Kennedy (the late Donald) and Juanita Louque (the late Lester). Survived by numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. Marie graduated from Leon Godchaux High School, upon graduation she immediately began her 35 year career at the Welfare Office in Reserve, LA. Marie and Ed knew how to pass a good time with family and friends. In their earlier days they were known to enjoy dancing and would often go to dance halls and jazz clubs. After retirement she volunteered at St. Joan of Arc and enjoyed her trips with friends and family visiting Rome, England and Alaska. Her best times were spent with family and friends, joking, laughing and playing games.

Relatives and Friends are invited to attend the Visitation and Funeral Mass at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Visitation will be from 12:30 pm -1:30 pm, followed by the Funeral Mass at 1:30 pm. Burial will follow at St. John Memorial Gardens in LaPlace, LA.

Wood, Caridad B.

Caridad B. Wood, known and loved as "Grandma Wood," passed away peacefully in Panama City, Florida, on October 7, 2026, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. She was 100 years old. Born February 9, 1926, in Miraflores, Lima, Peru, she became a flight attendant for Pan American-Grace Airways. In 1947 she met Richard B. Wood Jr., "Dick," and they were married six months later. The couple settled in New Orleans in 1956, where she raised their three daughters and built a career in residential real estate. Widowed at 55 when Dick died in 1981, she never remarried and devoted her long life to her faith and her family. A consummate host whose hospitality warmed every gathering, she was famous for "The Flan." She was preceded in death by her husband, Dick. She is survived by her daughters, Cristina Wood Christianson (Brian), Yvonne Wood Dickerson (Jim) and Dolores WoodEuart (Woody); five grandchildren; and five greatgrandchildren, with another great-grandson due in March. A Celebration of Life will be held February 9, 2027, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Hackberry Creek Country Club, 1901 W. Royal Lane, Irving, Texas 75063. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Emerald Coast Hospice. Condolences may be offered at www.kentforestlawn.com.

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OPINION N O L A.C O M/opinions

OUR VIEWS

Good jobs forecast a positive sign for La. future

It should be no surprise, given the raft of major new projects around the state, that Louisiana could see significant job growth in its near future. In fact, the number of new jobs could reach 55,000 over the next two years, a 2.7% increase, according to the Louisiana Economic Forecast, an annual report prepared by economist Loren Scott that he presented at a forum in Baton Rouge last week. Among Louisiana metros, Baton Rouge is expected to add the most total jobs, 16,500, while Lake Charles is expected to have the biggest percentage growth. The New Orleans area, on the other hand, won’t benefit as much. The long post-pandemic decline in convention business will limit the city’s growth to one of the slowest among the state’s metro areas, the report says, even if the planned Louisiana International Terminal in Violet will offset that somewhat. Similarly, St. Tammany Parish, which was recently designated as a stand-alone metro area by the U.S. Census Bureau, is expected to see the slowest growth in the state, driven partly by the uncertain future of two local companies that were sold to multinational corporations. Overall, the forecast is a welcome one. But it doesn’t come without caveats. Many of the new jobs are in the energy sector, which is a volatile market right now, especially given the ongoing war with Iran. Scott based at least part of his forecast on the conflict resolving and oil dropping to around $68 per barrel, both of which are far from assured. And we would be remiss if we didn’t note that many of the new jobs are due to the surge in construction for data centers, LNG plants and other new facilities. Those jobs are not permanent. For instance, while the Monroe area is expected to hit a record level of employment next year, once construction on Meta’s massive new data center is complete, the number of folks employed there will drop precipitously. And of course, many of these new projects were lured, at least in significant part, by the offering of massive tax breaks to the companies responsible. We understand the necessity of presenting a competitive package to firms willing to invest in our state, but we worry that, like too many times in the past, the eventual payoff will disappoint. But if we can hold companies to their promises, we will reap the fruits of an extraordinary period of economic development. The state is in a unique position now to build a diversified economy with high-paying jobs in industries of the future. So we urge our elected leaders, both current and future, to commit to the long view to truly benefit the state. Scott’s rosy forecast is a positive sign, but the optimisim will only be worth it when the his prediction becomes reality.

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identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’s city of residence. The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and phone 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.

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The lessons coming from Boca Chica shorebirds appear to have adapted, The potential effects of SpaceX’s more research is needed on the effects massive facility in Vermilion Paron wildlife. ish are, at this point, little more than All of that has come with just a handspeculation. The project is years from completion. ful of launches each year, far less than But about 500 miles to the west and the nearly 500 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk south, near Brownsville, Texas, wants for Boca Chica or the it has been more than a decade thousands he would like to see since SpaceX arrived in town, in Vermilion Parish. and about seven years since it There are a couple of clear began sending rockets up into takeaways from Lubben’s low-earth orbit from the state’s piece. coast. First, the SpaceX project Faimon in Texas, at least so far, deReporter Alex Lubben recentRoberts fies easy narratives. Certainly ly traveled to the site, called Boca Chica, to understand how some good has come from it, the presence of a spaceport had but not everybody has benchanged what was once a poor, sleepy efited. The area still has poverty that is community. far above average, for instance. The answers he got depended largely The second is that, even more than on whom he was asking. a decade in, much is still unknown. A Local economic development offull accounting of the repercussions is still years off. ficials say the company has transThere’s no reason to think it won’t be formed the town. They point to new the same in Louisiana. restaurants, housing developments Right now, the massive $100 billion and coffee shops. The area has seen planned investment, thousands of new industrial development as well. rocket scientist jobs and the idea of a But some worry that the region’s “spaceport” are enough to put stars in poor are being left behind. Similarly, the environmental effects anyone’s eyes. But what that will look like once it’s remain only partially understood. Regulators have said the launches pol- actually up and running — if it ever is, as there is plenty of skepticism lute local wetlands, and while some

about SpaceX’s ability to realize its interplanetary ambitions — is largely a mystery. And what it will do to one of Louisiana’s pristine wildernesses, a haven for birds and those who hunt them, is is a matter of conjecture. By the time those things are known, the project’s political champions, perhaps Musk himself and probably this columnist, will have departed the public stage. Some of us will probably have exited planet Earth, though not on one of Musk’s spaceships. It will be up to future Louisianans to contend with the blessings and curses of what we do today. That’s why it’s so important that we resist the urge to fall into easy narratives about what the project will bring. If we do, and we dismiss those who disagree, it makes it far tougher to develop steps that will protect future generations from truly negative outcomes, at least to the extent possible. One way to do that is to heed the lessons that have come, and will come, from Boca Chica. The site may be only 550 miles away, but it’s more than a decade ahead. Email Faimon A. Roberts III at froberts@theadvocate.com.

Elections require special consideration late to correct the record. As the midterm elections approach, On constitutional amendments and we get many letters about candidates ballot measures, we also welcome letand issues. We are happy to provide a forum for ters that seek to illuminate what voters readers to share what they are should consider before casting thinking about as they prepare their ballots. to go to the polls. We generally And generally we want to fosallow letters praising or criticizter discussion that may raise issues that would otherwise go ing a candidate on the issues. unnoticed. We published our However, so our Opinion pages don’t become a forum Arnessa recommendations on the 10 for blatant electioneering, we Garrett constitutional amendments on the Nov. 3 ballot last week. You reject letters that exhort readcan find them on our website ers to vote for Candidate X or under the Opinion tab. Candidate Y. We believe readers can The Editorial Board considered all look at the issues and make their own the arguments for and against the decisions. And it’s easy to imagine a letter-writ- amendments and discussed how they fit in with the principles we generally ing campaign designed to create the impression that one candidate has a lot espouse on the role of government and how it should run. more support than another. In recent With early voting starting Tuesday, years, we have also stopped publishwe know many of you are looking for ing letters on races for public office information on what is on the ballot. a week before Election Day. That’s We hope our recommendations prove because if there are some claims in a useful. We know people have busy letter that are disputed, it is often too

lives and don’t always have time to dive deeply into some of these issues. There’s a lot of information online, but we hope you ﬁnd our reporting and opinion content a trusted resource as you make your decisions. It is one of the most important things we do. Turning to our letters inbox, for the week of Oct. 8-15, we received 56 letters. The midterm election was the topic you were most interested in, and we received eight letters on the topic. Next, the announcement of a potential livestreamed federal execution concerned a lot of readers. Though the idea was later nixed by President Donald Trump, we received seven letters on the topic. Lastly, we have received four letters on the idea of socialism and what that means in America. Arnessa Garrett is Managing Editor | Opinion Page Editor. Email her at arnessa.garrett@theadvocate.com.

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ARNESSA GARRETT STEPHANIE GRACE WILL SUTTON QUIN HILLYER FAIMON ROBERTS

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 7B

COMMENTARY La. constructs an impressive business-friendly profile for its “breadth and consistency Louisiana keeps doing well in sustained over time.” important ratings of state busiThe ratings are compiled in ness climates, while policy initiafour broad categories with ﬁve tives and practices by Gov. Jeff subcategories each, so the thorLandry’s administration should further improve the situation. oughness adds heft. Louisiana has The latest ranking came always done reasonably early this month from well by Area DevelopArea Development magament’s standards because of its inexpensive and zine, which said Louisiana abundant energy supplies. has the ninth-best overall Indeed, this year it ranks business atmosphere in second in the country for the country, with signiﬁQuin lowest energy costs and cant improvement in some Hillyer fourth for energy availareas of focus. State business rankings ability and grid capacity. sometimes can seem a dime-aThis year, though, our state’s dozen, but GNO Inc. President advantages are far more wideMichael Hecht — referring to spread, ranking in the top 10 in an the heavy-analytics approach impressive nine of the 20 factors to baseball made famous by the analyzed: fourth in workforce book (and subsequent movie) training programs; seventh for by New Orleans native Michael labor cost competitiveness, water Lewis — calls Area Development and wastewater capacity, regula“effectively the ‘Moneyball’ of tory environment and property economic development journals. tax environment; eighth for busiIt is the journal of record for site ness incentive programs; and selectors and business consulninth for what’s called “overall tants.” Hecht particularly lauded speed to market.” And as Justin Shea, media the journal’s “level of detail and director at Area Development, … level of credibility.” told me by email, even where Adam Knapp, CEO of Leaders Louisiana is weakest — ranked for a Better Louisiana, agreed number 32 for “climate risk and that Area Development is “well resilience” — that’s hardly the respected across the industry”

fault of Louisiana residents ourselves. The natural problem we face, he said, is that “roughly 40% of Louisiana’s developed land is in a high-risk flood zone.” Asked an open-ended question about “the most hopeful signs for Louisiana’s business climate,” Shea highlighted its fourthranked workforce training, plus the reports they are getting “about the state’s focus and investment in site readiness.” As it happens, Hecht, when asked the same question, also immediately noted site readiness, which he called a huge factor in what Area Development categorizes as “overall speed to market.” What that means, Hecht said, is “the time that’s going to develop between a project being considered and the doors literally opening or the first product being delivered or the first container being moved off the dock.” Both he and Knapp said that recently enacted policies will serve to hasten Louisiana’s move up the rankings in “speed to market.” Hecht particularly pointed to the Fast Sites initiative overseen by Susan Bourgeois, the secretary of Louisiana Economic

Development. As described in an earlier column here, Fast Sites is a “revolving fund” used to get potential business sites ready at the front end with water service, roads, high-transmission wires and other infrastructure, so companies can actually get operational much more quickly once they move in. The other element improving our speed to market, Hecht said, “is less a policy and more an attitude” involving the Landry administration’s highly focused “whole of government” approach to “bring everybody together in the same room” to coordinate business-recruitment plans. Knapp speciﬁcally identiﬁed the same thing, with the administration “making sure we’re better coordinated up and down the chain of government. ... It’s this idea that if you have the Public Service Commission talking to the department of economic development talking to the transportation department, talking to local governments, too, that they have this ability to have a kind of crossgovernment coordination.” Finally, Knapp credited — among a longer list of improvements in the state’s business

climate — the Landry-backed tax changes passed in late 2024 which reduced business and personal income taxes, along with investments in Louisiana’s transportation infrastructure, including the major new port facility coming in the town of Violet. As Bourgeois told me, “Louisiana is delivering at a speed and a scale that we have never delivered on before … with multiple projects in diverse regions in diverse kinds of companies.” She said that with high-proﬁle new business investments from Hyundai and SpaceX and Meta, among others, people are saying, “Louisiana is ‘having a moment.’ But we’ve turned that ‘moment’ into ‘momentum.’” Better yet, she stressed, she sees that momentum continuing at full tilt. Shea, speaking from Area Development’s analytic perspective, summed it up: “Louisiana is working on the practical things that matter when companies and their advisers are trying to get shovels in the ground.” Good. Let’s keep it up. Email Quin Hillyer at quin. hillyer@theadvocate.com

Constitutional amendment fatigue is real and understandable Gov. Jeff Landry was definitely that delves far too much into the not on the same page as most Lou- weeds, hamstringing state and in some cases local government offiisiana voters back in the spring of 2025, when they decicials — an intractable probsively rejected his call to lem that could theoretically pass four constitutional be addressed by the type of amendments, including a overhaul Landry had promassive overhaul of the posed if not for the aforesection dealing with taxes mentioned lack of trust. and the budget. As for the fatigue, well, Stephanie the current slate of quesHe might be today, Grace though, as voters try to tions is unlikely to solve decipher a whopping list that one. of 10 proposed amendments on Probably the most talked-about the Nov. 3 ballot. proposed amendment this time Asked by the USA Today netaround would limit governors to two terms in office over their lifework’s Greg Hilburn if he had any thoughts to share, Landry had times; currently they can serve this to say: “Oh Lord, I’ve given two consecutive terms, sit one or up on the amendments.” more out and then run again, as Judging by the crowded ballot, former Gov. Edwin Edwards once the same can’t be said of the Leg- did. Is this actually a pressing probislature, even though five more attempts to amend the constitution lem? fell to defeat this past spring. Well, a lot of Democrats believe Both times, there was sigRepublicans think so, because one person it would theoretically nificant, organized opposition to prohibit from a future ballot is some of the questions. And both John Bel Edwards, the still-intimes, that opposition morphed his-prime former governor who seamlessly into a “vote no on all” managed to leave office with his vibe. Chalk it up to fatigue over being popularity intact, despite being a asked to make too many nuts-and- Democrat in a Republican state. Edwards himself seems to buy bolts decisions. And to distrust into that theory. When the Legisin the motives of the people putting the questions before voters. lature placed it on the ballot, he And to a bloated constitution tweeted: “I think this is what the

Gov. Jeff Landry kids call ‘living in somebody’s head rent free.’” To be fair, the amendment’s author, state Rep. Mike Bayham, R-Chalmette, says the measure is not aimed at anyone in particular. But then why, and why now? It’s not even clear that the new restriction would legally apply to Edwards, Bobby Jindal or eventually Landry — which makes this question even less necessary. That’s not the only proposed amendment that seems to be aimed at particular political constituencies. One would re-

STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK move judicial discretion over post-conviction bail for certain heinous crimes — which sounds tough on crime but would likely do little other than preclude full consideration of the speciﬁc cases. Another would prevent a far-fetched scenario in which Louisiana politicians help foreign adversaries acquire land through expropriation. Elsewhere on the list are several attempts to offer property tax relief for speciﬁc constituencies — or at least let localities do so — although voters must consider the

flip side of who pays more if the beneficiaries of the amendment pay less. Some of the proposals appear pretty commonsense. One would give local governments more flexibility to adjust the property taxes they collect between assessments, which could allow them to more nimbly react to circumstances and avoid rolling millage collections forward to cover unknown future costs. Another would allow governments to use one-time windfalls to pay down their most expensive debt rather than their oldest, which would benefit everybody. Yet another would make it clear that federal money slated for lead remediation can be used on pipes that run to homes on private property, a condition of the funding in the first place. If voters were only asked to approve fixes like these, maybe they’d be inclined to vote yes. Facing 10 questions, some of which don’t seem remotely urgent, I’m wondering how many will make like Landry and just wash their hands of the whole thing. Email Stephanie Grace at sgrace@theadvocate.com.

Xavier Ochsner medical school takes off, thanks to help It recognizes more than 150 It’s a big deal that Xavier Ochmedical schools, including only sner College of Medicine (XOfour predominantly Black instituCOM) has received pre-accreditation, positioning the college to tions. enroll medical students as early The Howard University College as fall 2027. of Medicine in Washington, D.C. If Xavier University of and the Meharry Medical Louisiana, the nation’s only School of Medicine were Catholic HBCU, were a Rofounded in the 1800s. Neither received accrediman Catholic priest or sister, it might be considered tation until decades later. for sainthood since that The Morehouse School of pathway requires veriﬁed Medicine in Atlanta was Will miracles. founded in 1975 as a twoSutton year Morehouse College Xavier has a national reputation for preparing program, separated from students for medical school. In the college, became an indepenthe 2025-2026 academic year, dent institution and was accredXULA was one of the top three ited in the mid-1980s. The Charles undergraduate institutions placR. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles was ing 15 or more Black or African created after the Los Angeles American students in U.S. mediWatts uprising in the 1960s. cal degree programs. Xavier had Started as the Charles R. Drew 102 students apply; 98 got admitPostgraduate Medical School, ted. Drew later teamed with the Now, Xavier students — and UCLA David Geffen School of students across Louisiana — can Medicine. consider XOCOM. Students could get two years of Ochsner and Xavier announced science basics at UCLA, then two that the Liaison Committee on more years of medical training at Medical Education has authoDrew. UCLA and Drew amicably rized XOCOM to recruit up to 50 separated as Drew became an students for its desired August launch. That has been a short run- independent, four-year medical program. The ﬁnal joint cohort is way to accreditation.

scheduled to graduate in 2027 — as Xavier plans to start its first medical program cohort. After 40 years together, UCLA and Drew are separated, but they can’t do without each other. They’ve started a joint Urban Health Equity Pathways program. Xavier’s pathway has been significantly different. XOCOM was founded in 2022. With an October 2026 preliminary accreditation, the new college can recruit and officially open its doors to students. XOCOM can gain provisional accreditation status as it proves it is on the way to graduating qualified medical students. Usually, full accreditation is granted once the first cohort is about to graduate. That could happen in just four years. Xavier has a history of producing medical school-ready students. About a third of the university’s enrolled students are pre-med majors. Most of them major in biology or biology-pre-med, though the formal pre-med curricula also include biology pre-medical, B.S., chemistry (pre-professional), B.S., and pre-medical psychology, B.S. Since 2022, Xavier students have gone on to medical

programs including LSU New Orleans, Howard University, Meharry Medical, Morehouse College, LSU Shreveport, the University of Rochester in New York, Tulane University, the University of Pennsylvania, and others. Xavier will continue to produce successful pre-med students for these and other med programs. With XOCOM, Xavier students will have the option of continuing a Xavier education while pursuing an M.D. with the Ochsner brand name. They might be Xavier students for eight years. Xavier students won’t be the only students applying. Annually, the existing four Louisiana medical colleges and schools have more than 24,000 applications. Fewer than 700 are accepted. XOCOM gives thousands of applicants another Louisiana medical college option — and one based in New Orleans, a magnet for many students, tourists and visitors. There’s a place for some of them at XOCOM’s Benson Tower headquarters in downtown New Orleans’ BioDistrict. Laini Tuboku-Metzger of Dunwoody, Georgia, right outside of Atlanta, graduated from Xavier

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the

in 2023, then spent two years at Brown University in a fully funded health degree program. Now she’s a ﬁrst-year Morehouse medical college student. She told me she loved Xavier and New Orleans. Though she wanted to be closer to family and had experience with the Morehouse medical program in middle school and high school, she said she might have considered XOCOM if it had been an option. In an April 2022 column, I wrote: “If there is a higher education institution with the sort of track record of fundraising, partnership and student success needed to pull this off, it’s Xavier.” I added, “Stand by and watch the university’s leaders go to work.” It’s 2026. Consider how long it took other four-year M.D. programs to be founded, to enroll students, to become successful and to achieve full accreditation. Now consider how quickly Xavier and Ochsner have moved toward accreditation. Stand by and watch these leaders work. Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

writer’s city of residence. The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and phone 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, SCAN HERE

8B ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

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with meteorologist Damon Singleton

TODAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Breezy this morning

Mostly sunny and beautiful

Sunny and pleasant

Plenty of sun

Plenty of sunshine

HIGH

LOW

HIGH

74° 60°

LOW

HIGH

76° 61°

LOW

78° 61°

HIGH

Beaumont 75/56 Port Arthur 73/62

High/low Normal high/low Last year’shigh/low Record high Record low

Hattiesburg 75/42

Alexandria 75/48 Baton Rouge 77/47

Lafayette 76/49 Lake Charles 76/51

10s

20s

30s

Houma 74/51

40s

LOW

YESTERDAY

TODAY

READING 33 MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates

50s

60s

70s

80s

90s 100s 110s

FIRST

OCT 18

LAST

OCT 25

Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Dallas Denver Houston Las Vegas

Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

HIGH

7:05 a.m. 6:27 p.m. 2:07 p.m. none

FULL

City

24-hour total Month to date Normal month to date year to date Normal year to date

12:59p 7:13a 3:13a 3:50a 2:54a 1:58a 4:02a

Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

TODAY

66 75 54 64 63 72 74 75 78

47 46 42 42 42 51 42 55 63

NEW

NOV 1

s s s s s s pc s s

NOV 9

70 78 58 70 66 75 69 80 82

GOOD

PRECIPITATION

71°/57° 80°/64° 88°/67° 91° in 2016 43° in 1977

TODAY’S TIDES Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) Shell Beach South Point, Marsh Island Cypremort Point Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) Wine Island

New Orleans 74/60

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

HIGH

81° 62°

New Orleans through 5 p.m. Saturday

Jackson 75/44 Many 75/45

LOW

82° 61°

TEMPERATURE

Longview 73/45

-0s

LOW

Monroe 75/43

Shreveport 74/46

-10s

HIGH

81° 58°

The gale warning, wind advisory and red flag warning have all expired. The breezy conditions will remain. Winds today are northeasterly at 10 to 15 mph, so the air will remain dry, dew points will be low and humidity will hardly be noticeable. Expect a sunny, dry and breezy Sunday. Temperatures this afternoon will be below average rising to the low to mid-70s after morning lows in the 40s and 50s. High pressure has taken over our weather, so expect sunshine and mild temperatures for the next few days.

MON. Lo

49 51 47 44 45 54 45 54 64

s pc s s s s s pc s

FT.

0.9 2.0 2.3 2.0 1.5 1.9 1.8

LOW

1:08a 7:46p 2:41p 6:51p 3:05p 1:26p 4:07p

0.00” 2.44” 1.95” 53.95” 52.91”

FT.

HIGH

0.2 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.4

---------------

FT.

---------------

SOURCE: LOUISIANA DEQ AND AIRNOW.GOV

LOW

---------------

FT.

---------------

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter. MAJOR MINOR MAJOR MINOR

Today Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

City

5:50a 12:02p 6:15p ---6:38a 12:26a 7:01p 12:49p 7:21a 1:10a 7:44p 1:32p 8:02a 1:51a 8:24p 2:13p 8:40a 2:29a 9:02p 2:51p 9:18a 3:07a 9:41p 3:29p 9:59a 3:47a 10:22p 4:10p

Los Angeles Miami Nashville New york City Philadelphia Phoenix St. Louis San Francisco Seattle

TODAY Lo

89 83 69 57 61 82 66 68 59

66 76 39 46 44 68 41 56 46

s t s s s t s pc pc

GOOD

84 86 74 63 67 86 70 65 60

MON. Lo

63 75 42 52 51 70 44 55 45

s pc s pc pc pc s pc c

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

MISSISSIPPI Memphis Vidalia-Natchez Red River Landing Baton Rouge Donaldsonville Reserve New Orleans OHIO Cairo COMITE Near Olive AMITE Near Darlington Denham Springs Port Vincent TICKFAW Montpelier Holden ATCHAFALAYA Simmesport Melville Krotz Springs Butte La Rose Bayou Sorrel Morgan City

FLOOD STAGE

34 48 48 35 27 22 17

SAT. 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE

5.60 24.80 26.70 11.90 6.49 5.70 4.70

+0.35 +0.06 +0.20 +0.40 -0.31 +1.34 +0.38

22.40

-0.34

-1.65

-0.06

18 29 8

-1.37 9.69 2.49

-0.03 -0.02 +0.02

13 15

1.40 0.56

+0.01 none

47 34 29 20 12 6

10.42 6.94 5.38 4.98 3.40 2.13

-0.05 -0.14 -0.23 -0.02 -0.60 -0.35

data as of 7 a.m. Saturday

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1 “Medicare & You,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2025. 2 “Aging changes in teeth and gums”, medlineplus.gov, 4/17/2022. 3 FairHealth, Inc. National average dental fees. Data current as of July 2025; subject to change.

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OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

SPORTS

N O L A.C O M

S U N D AY, O C T O B E R 18, 2026

1CN

Saints’ O-line investments losing ground Envisioned foundation shows signs of crumbling

BY MATTHEW PARAS

Staff writer

When the New Orleans Saints signed veteran guard David Edwards to a four-year, $61 million deal in March, the contract was another signiﬁcant commitment for a team that consistently invests heavily in the offensive line. Over the past five seasons, the Saints have drafted three tackles in the first round. New Orleans has given big-money extensions to homegrown interior linemen whom they also drafted relatively high. And they’ve spent big in free agency.

ä Saints at Giants NOON SUNDAy, FOX

in position to be more successful. We’ll just keep getting better.”

All those resources haven’t paid off. The Saints entered the season expecting their offensive line to be a main strength. Instead, as New Orleans prepares to face another blitz-heavy team in Sunday’s game against the New York Giants, quarterback Tyler Shough has faced more pressure than any other quarterback in the league. The run game again has struggled to get off the ground. And the two cornerstone positions, left tackle and right tackle, vastly have underperformed. It’s not for a lack of trying. “We’ve got some good guys up there,” coach Kellen Moore said. “Obviously, we’re all continuing to work hard, put ourselves

LSU

Grounded run game On Monday after a loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Saints showed footage from the team’s 15-play, 66-yard drive to players. To offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, the series was an example of how the run game is supposed to look. Physical. Downhill. Creating movement. “That’s what we’re capable of,” Nussmeier said. To this point, those clips have been hard to ﬁnd. Like last season, the Saints have one of the worst rushing attacks in the league.

AP PHOTO By TyLER KAUFMAN

Saints guard David Edwards lines up during a game against the Las Vegas Raiders on ä See SAINTS, page 4C Sept. 27 at the Caesars Superdome.

M I S S I S S I P P I S T.

ZERO SUM RECORD: 5-2 UP NEXT: AT AUBURN, 11 A.M. SATURDAy, TBD

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU wide receiver Malik Elzy, right, celebrates after a touchdown against Mississippi State in the third quarter on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. LSU won 31-0.

Kiffin said LSU had no ‘option’ but to win, and Tigers respond with shutout

Tigers carry no empathy for Bulldogs on peculiar day at Tiger Stadium

BY JON BLAU

Strange game. compli once word was passed Day games in Tiger Stathat dangerous Bulldogs quardium always have an odd terback Kamario Taylor and feel, like someone invited you their talented running back to a fancy steak dinner but Fluff Bothwell were both plopped a still frozen ﬁlet on out with injuries. State was your plate. forced to start redshirt freshScott Adding to the oddity on Rabalais man Parker Puckett at quarthis bright blue, blustery Octerback, a player with only 14 career pass attempts, which tober Saturday was a game happens to be 14 more than you or I between ranked Southeastern Conhave in an SEC game. ference opponents that seemed like From kickoff, it was evident the anything but. Tigers were going to go all anaconda Mississippi State was ranked higher (16th) than LSU (22nd), but ä See RABALAIS, page 7C the entire thing felt like a fait ac-

Staff writer

LSU coach Lane Kiffin doesn’t like talking to his teams about the College Football Playoff, because it would deviate from his process-oriented approach. But there was no getting around the implications of Saturday’s game with No. 16 Mississippi State. Not only because of what a third SEC loss in four games would mean for the Tigers’ season but also what it would mean for Kiffin’s first year in Baton Rouge. “I’m human, too,” said Kiffin, who

would have been subjected to loud criticism nationally and locally if he started 1-3 in SEC play at LSU. “Last night’s speech to the team, last thing I said, which I never usually say, ‘We have to win. We have to win tomorrow.’ “There’s no other option but winning this game, because I can’t imagine what this would have looked like.” Kifﬁn didn’t need to let his imagination run wild for too long. Partially because the Bulldogs wouldn’t have star quarterback Kamario Taylor nor lead

ä See LSU, page 6C

2C F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

lll

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noon New Orleans at N.y. Giants FOX 3:25 p.m. Buffalo at Las Vegas CBS 7:20 p.m. Dallas at Green Bay NBC MEN’S SOCCER 8 a.m. Crystal Palace at Brighton NBCSN 8 a.m. Man United at Leeds United USA 8:55 a.m. Hearts at Celtic CBSSN 10:30 a.m. Arsenal at Nottingham NBCSN 3:55 p.m. Sevilla FC at Real Madrid ABC WOMEN’S SOCCER 9:45 a.m. Canada vs. Brazil FS2 noon Orlando at Houston CBSSN 4 p.m. Portland at Bay FC ESPN

Tepid optimism brewing for Pelicans BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

The New Orleans Pelicans are coming off back-to-back seasons when they failed to reach 30 wins. Outside of a coaching change, they didn’t make many changes. As a result, the oddsmakers in Vegas have the over/under on Pelicans’ wins at 29.5 We surveyed 18 credentialed New Orleans media members who cover the Pelicans regularly to get their predictions for the season. The outlook is a tad bit more optimistic, with the win total averaging 35.7 wins among the participants. Here is what each local media member had to say: Madeline Adams, WVUE: I think this is a deeper Pelicans team than we’ve seen in recent years. Because of that, I think they’re good enough for 13-15 more wins than last year. If (and I know that’s a big if) they have better injury luck, I think this team can surprise a lot of people. Record: 40-42 Chris Dodson, ClutchPoints – SouthCoast Swish podcast: Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy both make the AllStar team. Jeremiah Fears becomes undeniable, but the 20-year-old still needs another year of seasoning. The Saddiq Bey business is booming. And yet the Pelicans still finish the season with a couple of play-in games. Maybe they win their way in. Either way, Dejounte Murray, Jordan Poole and Bennedict Mathurin’s production cannot overcome Yves Missi’s lack of help against the West’s best. Record: 37-45 Shamit Dua, In The N.O.: The Pelicans are bringing back mostly the same roster as last year, and I am bringing back mostly the same prediction as well. Last year I predicted 32 wins on the basis of a lack of shooting, center depth and guard play. The Pelicans did little to address these issues. This year I project 29 wins, a three-win improvement from where they finished last season. Record: 29-53 Les East, Crescent City Sports: Jamahl Mosley is an important upgrade as head coach, and the team at least starts out healthier than the last two years. The young but also experienced core will evolve, and the addition of Bennedict Mathurin amid no significant departures will be significant. If the health mostly holds and the center position proves to be adequate, this team will sneak into the play-in tournament. Record: 40-42 Meagan Glover, WGNO: I believe the Pelicans will finish the regular season under .500 but make steps in the

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

New Orleans Pelicans coach Jamahl Mosley shouts during a preseason game against the Washington Wizards at the Smoothie King Center on Friday. right direction. The Pelicans can win 35 games, with the potential to reach 40. New coach Jamahl Mosley brings in more defensive depth. The return of Dejounte Murray with a healthy roster should play a factor, which is what we witnessed in the back half of the year. The Pelicans could at least reach the play-in tournament. Record: 35-47 Sharief Ishaq, WDSU: I like the Jamahl Mosley hire. I think he will bring some toughness and physicality. I just don’t know how these pieces will work together. Can they get some production from the center position? Will spacing improve? Do they have enough perimeter shooting? Record: 30-52 Oleh Kosel, credentialed Pelicans writer: The most crucial pieces missing from last season were undoubtedly buy-in and defense. The addition of Jamahl Mosley and his coaching staff should start turning those weaknesses into strengths sooner than most believe. This is a maturing, deep and talented enough roster. Predicting a record well above .500 feels too ambitious with several pertinent question marks still remaining, so let’s go with last year’s prediction and another play-in but no playoffs vote. Record: 40-42 Jared Paul Joseph, WGNO: No playoffs, no play-in. I don’t think this team has been as aggressive as the front ofﬁce claimed it would be. The the lack of key additions will cost them when injuries inevitably happen. Record: 38-44 Terry Kimble, New Orleans Pelicans on SI: While the Pelicans have some tal-

ent, the pieces don’t fit well. New Orleans did little to address two glaring offseason needs: 3-point shooting and a bona fide starting center. Zion Williamson played 62 games last season, yet the team won just 26. With largely the same roster back, expect more of the same in the Big Easy. Record: 32-50 Ricardo Lecompte, WWL-TV: Since the 26-win Pelicans from a year ago didn’t make any significant moves this offseason, I’m going to give my same prediction from last year. However, I do think we’ll see overall improvement under new coach Jamahl Mosley. That may come toward the back half of the season. The potential is there to see the best version of Zion Williamson. Plus, having Dejounte Murray available will be a huge benefit. The ceiling for this group is being a play-in tournament team. Record: 31-51 Seth Lewis, WWL-TV: I believe Jamahl Mosley will improve this team in Year 1. I believe the rotation is 1011 deep. I’m just not sure there’s been enough changes for me to believe they’re in position now to be a playoff/play-in team. Record: 35-47 Fletcher Mackel, WDSU TV: Interesting mix of players but hard to see how they fit together to equal winning. The Pelicans should have started a rebuild around Jeremiah Fears last summer. They will in 2027. Record: 30-52 Jake Madison, Locked On Pelicans podcast: The Pelicans have enough talent to be competitive, and Jamahl Mosley should improve their defense and establish a much-needed identity.

But coaching can only overcome so much. The roster still has serious questions about spacing, defensive rebounding and how its pieces fit together. Development from Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen provides optimism, but the Western Conference leaves little margin for error. Record 34-48 Rashad Milligan, Times-Picayune/Nola. com: Every season, with the amount of talent on paper, I drink from the fountain of optimism. With Jamahl Mosley in the fold and a preseason in which Jordan Poole looked like he could be an asset, Zion Williamson is still in shape and Jeremiah Fears is the future leader of the franchise, I am once again all in. I think New Orleans returns to the play-in tournament. Record: 40-42 Dylan Sanders, Pelicans Roundtable: This roster is mostly the same as the one that went 26-56 last year, but it is healthier and now has Jamahl Mosley as coach. They should look more cohesive by the end of the season, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see some early growing pains that make it hard to make the playin. This team has a lot of poor habits to fix on both sides of the ball. It needs time. Record: 36-46 Chrissy Smith, The Kneaux: I think the defense is going to make a big difference in winning close games, and I think the Pelicans will make the playoffs. This roster has depth, and as long as Jamahl Mosley can find the right lineups, they will have a winning season. Record: 45-37 Jon Sokoloff, WGNO: The Pelicans are running it back with the same core from last year’s group that won 26 games. While I think Jamahl Mosley’s defense-first mindset will help them improve slightly from a win perspective, I don’t think they did enough from a personnel standpoint to address their rim protection/rebounding issues. The West is also incredibly tough, thus making it less likely for them to make some real noise. Record: 33-49 Rod Walker, The Times-Picayune/Nola.com: One thing is for sure: The Pelicans won’t be worse than they were last season. Mosley has a good track record of winning close games. That, along with his emphasis on defense, should be enough to get them another 10 wins or so. They’re pretty healthy and have the depth to overcome injuries. I think this team is going to be a little grittier than most people think, and that toughness can go a long way. I say they squeeze into the play-in tournament as a No. 9 or 10 seed. Record: 39-43

Williams leads Valkyries past Dream in Game 1 BY JANIE MCCAULEY

AP sportswriter

SAN FRANCISCO — Gabby Williams so believes in Golden State’s poise in crunch time because of the way the Valkyries have won all along with their defense. They believe in each other to make the play in the biggest of moments. Williams converted two free throws with 1:18 left to put Golden State ahead, two more with 4.1 seconds to go on the way to scoring 26 points while facing constant pressure from Atlanta’s stingy defense, and the Valkyries held off the Dream 68-64 in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday. “Even though we were down with a few minutes left I think we had the game right where we wanted it because it just came down to getting stops,” Williams said. “That’s been our bread and butter all season. That’s why we harp on it so much because we’ve built great defensive habits for these moments.” It was the first loss all postseason for Atlanta, snapping a 10-game winning streak overall. And coach Karl Smesko was ready to get right back to work watching film to figure out what to do better in Game 2. The Dream are still yet to win a finals game, swept in each of their previous three trips. “We were right there, right there,

so that’s why it hurts a little bit but it also motivates us,” he said. “We know what we’re capable of doing so we’ll have one day to get ourselves as ready as possible and then I think we’ll play even better.” Finding a way to slow down Williams — and all of her capable supporting cast — is going to be a challenge. After a quiet first quarter, she scored 16 of her points in the second and no other Valkyries finished in double figures as they shot 32.1% and 7 of 33 from 3-point range. “We always knew we were going to find a way somehow,” Williams said on the microphone postgame as fans chanted “Gabby! Gabby!” Rhyne Howard missed a 3-point try with 1:09 left but Angel Reese made a steal moments later. Naz Hillmon also missed from deep. Kiah Stokes gave the Dream another chance when she missed the first of two free throws with 23.8 seconds left. Then Allisha Gray couldn’t knock down a 3 with nine seconds left. Williams converted two free throws with just over four seconds left to seal it. Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Monday night back at Chase Center, where the ear-piercing noise from a raucous “Ballhalla” crowd made for the exact hostile environment Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase requested from the home fans.

AP PHOTO By JEFF CHIU

Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams, left, reaches for the ball against Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard during Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday in San Francisco.

One of these two franchises will capture its first championship, and if the first game is any indication it’s going to be an all-out defensive fight. Gray returned from injury to score 19 points, while Reese added 14 points and 12 rebounds. Jordin Canada contributed eight points, seven assists and five rebounds for the Dream, hitting a timely 13-foot jumper with 4:23 remaining. Williams made a driving layup with 3:22 to play that pulled Golden

State within 62-61. Canada banged awkwardly into Williams’ knee on a box out during her late free throws and the Valkyries star was being cared for by an athletic trainer on the bench in the waning moments. “I’m OK, it was a long, physical game,” she said afterward. Gray was in the starting lineup and had gone through a light practice Friday after missing the last two games of Atlanta’s sweep of the New York Liberty in the bestof-three semifinal series with an injured left ring finger — on her shooting hand. Golden State guard Tiffany Hayes hit her face hard on the floor trying to make a steal in the closing minutes and was down with 2:38 remaining before walking off the court on her own to the locker room. Nakase said “so far” her indication was Hayes would be good for Game 2, “so I’ll know when the medical tells me.” She was undergoing her normal treatment. The 37-year-old Hayes spent her first 10 WNBA seasons with Atlanta. “It was a physical game, we understand, it’s playoffs, that’s just part of it. Tip’s OK, I just gave her a little hug,” Nakase said. “I’ll tell you what, she’s a fighter. I don’t think there’s someone more, maybe our whole team, but she wants this. And I can I say I’m going to put a little bit more energy tonight in film because I want to win this for Tip.”

Gymnast, LSU pledge Rivera out of world championships ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — The U.S. women’s national gymnastics team will have to make a go of it at the world championships without Hezly Rivera. The 18-year-old LSU gymnastics commitment is the youngest member of the U.S. team that captured gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, as well as a two-time national all-around champion, withdrew from worlds on Saturday because of a left ankle injury. Rivera had been dealing with pain in the ankle during training. She told reporters on Thursday she was “day to day.” Rivera will be replaced on the five-woman team by alternate Dulcy Caylor. The U.S. women, who are seeking their eighth straight world team title, are scheduled to compete in qualifying on Sunday.

Kartal beats Ostapenko to reach Wuhan Open finals

WUHAN, China — British player Sonay Kartal continued her fine run by beating former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 7-6 (9), 7-6 (5) to reach the Wuhan Open final on Saturday. Kartal’s victory over the 2017 Roland Garros winner added to previous big wins over Elina Svitolina and two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini. “That was probably one of the toughest matches I’ve ever played,” Kartal said after beating the Latvian. “At times she is unplayable and you have to ride that wave. Mentally, this is one of the best performances of my career.” She faces another Grand Slam finalist in the final, after French Open runner-up Maja Chwalinska beat six-time major winner Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 an all-Polish semifinal.

MIchigan QB Underwood benched, replaced by Carr

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Bryce Underwood got benched and Tommy Carr was given a chance to lead Michigan’s lackluster offense. Kyle Whittingham, in his first season as coach of college football’s winningest program, made the move in the third quarter when the Wolverines were trailing Penn State 3-0 on Saturday in the eventual 21-18 victory for Michigan. Tommy Carr’s brother is Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, grandson of 1997 national championship winning coach Lloyd Carr and College Football Hall of Fame defensive back Tom Curtis, a former Wolverine. Tommy Carr is the son of Michigan graduates, including former walk-on quarterback Jason Carr. Underwood’s job has been in jeopardy since his shaky performance in the season-opening.

Nuggets’ Strawther will be re-evaluated after sprain

DENVER — Denver Nuggets guard/ forward Julian Strawther will be out indeﬁnitely after spraining his left knee while playing a preseason game at the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. The Nuggets said Friday night that Strawther will be re-evaluated in six weeks. He was projected to come off the bench for Denver this season. Strawther played in 57 games a season ago and averaged 7.2 points. He also saw action in two playoff games as the Nuggets were knocked out in the ﬁrst round by Minnesota. The 24-year-old out of Gonzaga was taken 29th overall in the 2023 draft. Strawther has started 18 games over his career.

Fokina to face Jodar in Shanghai Masters final

SHANGHAI — Alejandro Davidovich Fokina upset future No. 1 Alexander Zverev 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the Shanghai Masters final on Saturday. The 25th-seeded Spaniard, who won the ATP 250 Chengdu Open in China last month, reached the second Masters final of his career after losing on clay at Monte Carlo in 2022. He will try for his third title of the year — and of his career — against 20-year-old Spaniard Rafael Jodar, who also secured a big win by toppling 2019 champion Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first Masters final. The No. 12-seeded Jodar is looking for his second career title after winning on clay at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, Morocco in April.

WEEK 6

SUNDAy Texans vs. Jaguars 8:30 a.m., NFL

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ON TV THIS WEEK

SUNDAy Panthers at Eagles Noon, CBS

SUNDAy Saints at Giants Noon, Fox

SUNDAy Bills at Raiders 3:25 p.m., CBS

SUNDAy Cowboys at Packers 7:20 p.m., NBC

MONDAy Commanders at 49ers 7:15 p.m., ESPN

STANDINGS, SCORES & SCHEDULE AFC East

Buffalo New England N.Y. Jets Miami South Jacksonville Indianapolis Houston Tennessee North Baltimore Cleveland Pittsburgh Cincinnati West Kansas City Denver Las Vegas L.A. Chargers

NFC East

N.Y. Giants Philadelphia Dallas Washington South Carolina Atlanta Tampa Bay New Orleans North

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MIKE STEWART

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix throws a pass during the first half of a game against the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 11 in Atlanta.

TOP TOPICS FOR WEEK 6 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bears, Falcons hope QBs start The Chicago Bears (3-2) and Atlanta Falcons (2-3) hope to have their starting quarterback Sunday. Chicago QB Caleb Williams and Atlanta QB Michael Penix appear to be on paths to starting after each returned to full participation in practice this week. Williams is looking to play his first game since he hurt his right hamstring in the fourth quarter of a 9-3 loss to Minnesota on Sept. 20. Penix missed the first two games while he continued his rehabilitation from a torn ACL that ended his 2025 season. Penix then suffered a rib injury in the fourth quarter in last week’s loss to Baltimore.

Eagles aim to slow WR McMillan The Eagles secondary will need to do its best to slow down Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan. McMillan is coming off a mammoth game against the Lions before the bye with 14 catches on 16 targets for 192 yards and two touchdowns in a 32-26 Carolina win. He was the focal point of the Panthers offense with wide receivers Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette out with injuries. Coker is expected to return this week, so look for Bryce young to spread the ball around more. The Eagles come into the game ranked 26th in the league in pass defense, allowing 238.8 yards per game.

Raiders search for running room vs. Bills The Raiders will want to get RB Ashton Jeanty going against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. Just like last season, Jeanty has little room to run after receiving the handoff, and now he’s facing a team that’s the best in getting into the backfield against the run. Jeanty averages 0.3 yards per rush before contact, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, and Buffalo allows a league-best 0.4 yards. In Monday night’s victory over the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen improved to 50-33 in games in which he commits a turnover, including 2-1 this season. He’s 42-7 when turnover-free.

Bucs, QB Rodgers to match wits Todd Bowles will have to be quite creative to surprise Aaron Rodgers. Known for his complex defensive schemes and disguising his blitz packages, Bowles and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers are facing an elite quarterback who has seen everything in a distinguished NFL career. Rodgers just passed Peyton Manning to move into third place for most career passing touchdowns, including the postseason. It’ll be quite the chess match when Rodgers and the Steelers (3-2) face the Buccaneers (1-4) Sunday. Rodgers has thrown three TD passes in three straight games, but he’s 1-2 against Bowles with Tampa Bay, including a loss in the 2020 NFC championship game.

Browns coach Monken faces old team Browns coach Todd Monken and Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley won’t be in a sentimental mood when Cleveland hosts Baltimore in an AFC North matchup Sunday. Monken, in his first season leading the Browns, was the Baltimore offensive coordinator for the previous three seasons. Huntley will make his second straight start because Lamar Jackson is still recovering from an ankle injury. Cleveland (3-2) can win each of its first three home games for the first time in six years and third time since 1999. Baltimore (4-1) is looking to go 4-0 on the road for the second time in franchise history.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Packers look to build vs. Cowboys BY STEVE MEGARGEE

AP sportswriter

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers are aiming to build off their best win of the season as they prepare to host a Dallas team attempting to bounce back from an embarrassing loss. The Packers (3-2) are above .500 for the first time this season after a 31-7 blowout of the Chicago Bears. They’re chasing their third straight win in a Sunday night matchup with the Cowboys, who fell 24-16 at home to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 8. “You’ve got to keep stacking,” Love said. “We talk about it in the locker

room all the time and team buildings. You have a game like that, you’ve got to be able to follow it up with another great performance.” The Cowboys (2-3) are eager to make up for their bad performance against Tampa Bay and fix their slumping defense. Dallas has allowed a league-high 6.4 yards per play. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer brought longtime NFL defensive coach Mike Pettine out of retirement this week to work as a senior assistant to beleaguered defensive coordinator Christian Parker. Pettine was the defensive coordinator for the Packers from 2018-20.

“We have to coach better,” Schottenheimer said. “We’ve got to play better. I think our players will be the ﬁrst ones to say there’s things that they need to do better. There’s things I need to do better. And so no one is sitting here pointing the fingers at Christian Parker. But as the head coach, you have to make decisions that you think helps you win games. And that’s in all three phases.” These teams met last year at Arlington, Texas, and tied 40-40 in a shootout that ended with nine straight scoring drives. It was the most consecutive scoring drives to end a game since at least 1933. Last year’s matchup

also marked the return of Micah Parsons to AT&T Stadium, a month after the Cowboys traded the superstar edge rusher to the Packers. Parsons won’t be playing Sunday as he continues his recovery from a torn ACL that ended his 2025 season, but this game features two former Packers ﬁrstround picks coming to Lambeau Field as visiting players for the ﬁrst time. Defensive tackle Kenny Clark earned three Pro Bowl selections in nine seasons with the Packers before heading to Dallas in the Parsons trade. Linebacker Rashan Gary went to Dallas in a separate trade earlier this year after collecting 46 1/2 sacks for the Packers from 2019-25.

Minnesota Green Bay Detroit Chicago West San Francisco Seattle L.A. Rams Arizona

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WEEK 6

WEEK 7

Thursday’s game Denver 17, Seattle 14, OT Sunday’s games Houston vs Jacksonville at London, GBR, 8:30 a.m. Baltimore at Cleveland, noon Carolina at Philadelphia, noon Chicago at Atlanta, noon N.Y. Jets at New England, noon New Orleans at N.Y. Giants, noon Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay, noon Tennessee at Indianapolis, noon Arizona at L.A. Rams, 3:05 p.m. Buffalo at Las Vegas, 3:25 p.m. L.A. Chargers at Kansas City, 3:25 p.m. Dallas at Green Bay, 7:20 p.m. Monday’s game Washington at San Francisco, 7:15 p.m..

Thursday, Oct. 22 New England at Chicago, 7:15 p.m Sunday, Oct. 25 Pittsburgh vs New Orleans at SaintDenis, FRA, 8:30 a.m. Cincinnati at Baltimore, noon Cleveland at Tennessee, noon Indianapolis at Minnesota, noon Miami at N.Y. Jets, noon N.Y. Giants at Houston, noon San Francisco at Atlanta, noon Tampa Bay at Carolina, noon Denver at Arizona, 3:05 p.m. Green Bay at Detroit, 3:25 p.m. L.A. Rams at Las Vegas, 3:25 p.m. Kansas City at Seattle, 7:20 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26 Dallas at Philadelphia, 7:15 p.m.

NFL BRIEFS

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALASTAIR GRANT

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts stands on the field during a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 11 in London.

Blood clot lands Eagles QB Hurts on IR

PHILADELPHIA — Quarterback Jalen Hurts was placed on injured reserve Saturday, two days after the Philadelphia Eagles revealed he has a blood clot in his calf. Hurts was initially ruled out Thursday against Carolina. The Eagles said then that Hurts was injured when he took a cleat to his calf area on Oct. 4 against the Los Angeles Rams. Hurts informed the medical staff of the injury Oct. 8. He was back at practice the next day before the team left for London to play Jacksonville.

Packers place three on injured reserve

The Green Bay Packers placed wide receiver/kick returner Skyy Moore on injured reserve along with defensive tackles Jonathan Ford and Javon Hargrave on Saturday. The designation means each of them must miss at least their next four games. The Packers (3-2) also activated wide receiver Savion Williams off injured reserve, clearing him to make his season debut Sunday night when they host the Dallas Cowboys (2-3). Moore has seven catches for 35 yards this season.

Cardinals rookie RB Groin injury puts Rams Love out against Rams CB McDuffie in doubt Rookie running back Jeremiyah Love won’t play for the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams because of a lingering left ankle injury. The No. 3 overall pick out of Notre Dame hasn’t practiced all week and was ruled out on the team’s injury report released Friday. Love has been a big part of the Cardinals offense through the first five weeks with a team-high 245 yards rushing and a touchdown. He’s also caught 11 passes for 36 yards and a TD.

LOS ANGELES — Cornerback Trent McDuffie has a groin injury that could prevent him from playing in the Los Angeles Rams’ game against Arizona on Sunday. Coach Sean McVay said McDuffie picked up the injury near the end of Thursday’s practice, and the Rams held him out of Friday’s practice. McDuffie will be listed as questionable. McDuffie has been outstanding in his first season with his hometown Rams, who traded four draft picks to Kansas City last March for the former AllPro. He has 16 tackles and one interception.

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SAINTS GAMEDAY

ROSTERS SAINTS No. Player Pos Ht Wt Exp College 1 Kool-Aid McKinstry CB 5-11 199 3 Alabama 2 Spencer Rattler QB 6-0 211 3 South Carolina 4 Oscar Delp TE 6-4 245 0 Georgia 5 Kendre Miller RB 6-0 220 4 TCU 6 Tyler Shough QB 6-5 219 2 Louisville 7 Jonas Sanker SAF 6-1 211 2 Virginia 10 Daniel Carlson K 6-5 222 9 Auburn 11 Zach Wilson QB 6-2 214 6 ByU 12 Chris Olave WR 6-0 187 5 Ohio State 13 Cedric Tillman WR 6-3 215 5 Tennessee 14 Devaughn Vele WR 6-5 210 3 Utah 17 Ryan Wright P 6-3 245 5 Tulane 18 Bryce Lance WR 6-3 204 0 North Dakota St. 19 Barion Brown WR 5-11 177 0 LSU 20 Pete Werner LB 6-3 242 6 Ohio State 21 Justin Reid SAF 6-1 207 9 Stanford 22 Martin Emerson Jr. CB 6-2 201 5 Mississippi State 23 Julian Blackmon SAF 6-0 202 7 Utah 25 D. Richardson CB 6-2 188 4 Mississippi St. 28 Danny Stutsman LB 6-3 233 2 Oklahoma 29 Quincy Riley CB 5-11 195 2 Louisville 31 Jordan Howden DB 6-0 209 4 Minnesota 33 Anfernee Jennings DE 6-2 255 7 Alabama 36 Lorenzo Styles Jr. SAF 6-0 194 0 Ohio State 41 Alvin Kamara RB 5-10 215 10 Tennessee 42 Mike Reid SAF 6-2 200 1 South Dakota 43 CJ Donaldson RB 6-1 230 0 Ohio State 44 Isaiah Stalbird LB 6-1 215 2 South Dakota St. 49 Zach Wood LS 6-3 255 10 SMU 50 Colby Wooden DL 6-4 273 4 Auburn 51 Cesar Ruiz OL 6-4 316 7 Michigan 52 Christen Miller DT 6-3 321 0 Georgia 53 Jaylan Ford LB 6-2 240 3 Texas 55 Kaden Elliss LB 6-2 238 8 Idaho 58 Chris Rumph II LB 6-2 244 6 Duke 65 Jeremiah Wright G 6-5 331 0 Auburn 66 William Sherman G 6-4 300 2 Colorado 72 Asim Richards OL 6-4 307 4 North Carolina 74 Mason Murphy T 6-5 315 0 Auburn 75 Taliese Fuaga T 6-6 324 3 Oregon State 76 David Edwards G 6-6 308 8 Wisconsin 78 Erik McCoy OL 6-4 303 8 Texas A&M 82 Treyton Welch TE 6-4 240 1 Wyoming 83 Juwan Johnson TE 6-4 245 7 Oregon 87 Noah Fant TE 6-4 249 8 Iowa 91 Vernon Broughton DL 6-5 311 2 Texas 92 Davon Godchaux DL 6-3 330 10 LSU 93 Nathan Shepherd DL 6-4 315 9 Fort Hays State 94 Cameron Jordan DE 6-4 287 16 California 95 John Ridgeway III DL 6-5 321 5 Arkansas 96 Carl Granderson DE 6-5 261 8 Wyoming 97 Khristian Boyd DL 6-2 320 3 Northern Iowa 98 Tyree Wilson DE 6-5 263 4 Texas Tech 99 Chase young DE 6-5 265 7 Ohio State

GIANTS No. Player Pos Ht Wt Exp College 1 Malik Nabers WR 6-0 200 3 LSU 2 Deonte Banks CB 6-2 200 4 Maryland 3 Abdul Carter OLB 6-3 252 2 Penn State 5 Kayvon Thibodeaux OLB 6-5 258 5 Oregon 8 Jevón Holland SAF 6-1 207 6 Oregon 9 Isaiah Likely TE 6-4 241 5 Coastal Carolina 12 Colton Hood CB 6-0 195 0 Tennessee 13 Jake Haener QB 6-1 200 3 Fresno State 15 Jordan Stout P 6-3 214 5 Penn State 17 Darnell Mooney WR 5-11 177 7 Tulane 18 J.J. McCarthy QB 6-3 219 3 Michigan 19 Jameis Winston QB 6-4 231 12 Florida State 20 Greg Newsome II CB 6-0 192 6 Northwestern 22 Dru Phillips CB 5-11 180 3 Kentucky 23 Najee Harris RB 6-1 232 6 Alabama 24 Ar’Darius Washington SAF 5-8 180 5 TCU 25 Jason Pinnock SAF 6-0 200 6 Pittsburgh 26 Devin Singletary RB 5-7 203 8 Florida Atlantic 27 Tyler Nubin SAF 6-2 210 3 Minnesota 28 Elijah Campbell DB 5-11 190 6 Northern Iowa 29 Tyrone Tracy Jr. RB 5-11 210 3 Purdue 31 Nic Jones CB 6-0 189 3 Ball State 34 Dominic Zvada K 6-3 187 0 Michigan 35 Nikko Reed CB 5-10 180 2 Oregon 41 Micah McFadden LB 6-2 232 5 Indiana 44 Cam Skattebo RB 5-11 215 2 Arizona State 45 Patrick Ricard FB 6-3 300 10 Maine 46 Zaire Barnes LB 6-1 232 4 Western Mich. 49 Tremaine Edmunds LB 6-4 251 9 Virginia Tech 51 Jack Kelly LB 6-1 240 0 ByU 52 Arvell Reese LB 6-4 243 0 Ohio State 53 Jihad Ward OLB 6-5 285 10 Illinois 54 Malik Harrison LB 6-3 255 7 Ohio State 58 Ben Mann LS 6-5 232 0 Boston College 60 Bryan Hudson C 6-5 305 1 Louisville 61 J.Michael Schmitz Jr. C 6-4 320 4 Minnesota 64 Aaron Stinnie OL 6-3 312 9 James Madison 65 Francis Mauigoa OL 6-6 335 0 Miami (FL) 71 Marcus Mbow OL 6-5 300 2 Purdue 72 Jermaine Eluemunor OL 6-4 338 10 Texas A&M 74 J.C. Davis OL 6-4 322 0 Illinois 76 Jon Runyan Jr. G 6-4 307 7 Michigan 78 Andrew Thomas T 6-5 315 7 Georgia 84 Theo Johnson TE 6-6 264 3 Penn State 85 Chris Manhertz TE 6-6 235 11 Canisius 86 Thomas Fidone II TE 6-6 255 2 Nebraska 88 Malachi Fields WR 6-4 222 0 Notre Dame 89 Charlie Jones WR 6-0 188 5 Purdue 91 Darius Alexander DL 6-4 310 2 Toledo 93 Shelby Harris DT 6-2 288 12 Illinois State 97 Bobby Jamison-Travis DL 6-3 328 0 Auburn 98 DJ Reader DL 6-3 335 11 Clemson 99 C.J. Okoye DL 6-6 365 2

INJURY REPORT SAINTS OUT: LB Kaden Elliss (calf), EDGE Anfernee Jennings (knee). QUESTIONABLE: RB Alvin Kamara (back), WR Chris Olave (illness), DL Nathan Shepherd (illness), DB Lorenzo Styles Jr. (knee), LS Zach Wood (calf).

GIANTS OUT: CB Colton Hood (concussion), TE Theo Johnson (neck), S Tyler Nubin (neck). QUESTIONABLE: OLB Abdul Carter (calf), OT Jermaine Eluemunor (calf), OT Andrew Thomas (groin). LIMITED: CB Greg Newsome II (groin).

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Former Saints QB Jameis Winston is now running the Giants offense after Jaxson Dart’s Week 2 knee injury. Winston (20-1 as the starter) has thrown three touchdowns and for more than 250 yards in each of the past two games. He’s been sacked nine times, so the Saints pass rushers need to get to him. The more uncomfortable they can make him, the better chance they have of forcing a mistake or two. Winston is completing just 57.6% of his passes.

The Saints are only as good as Tyler Shough makes them. Shough is coming off his worst game and will need to bounce back to get the offense going. Shough completed 16 of 26 passes for a career-low 96 yards and two interceptions in last week’s loss to the Vikings. Even worse, the Saints converted just 2 of 10 third downs. That’s simply not good enough. The Giants will send their fair share of pressure, but it won’t like the Vikings brought.

The Saints have plenty of weak spots, but none is bigger than their inability to run the football. They rank 29th in rushing, averaging 81.8 yards per game. Their 3.5 yards per carry is 28th in the NFL. The Giants may be just exactly what the Saints need to finally get the ground game going. They are allowing 5.2 yards per carry, which is 30th in the league. So if the Saints can’t run against them, they may not be able to run against anybody this season.

If losing three straight home games isn’t enough to light a fire under the Saints, perhaps the words of owner Gayle Benson earlier this week will. Benson called the Saints’ start to the season “unacceptable.” The players heard the message loud and clear. Now that we know the Saints heard Benson, it’s time for them to show it on the field. The Saints, still in the thick of the NFC South race, have played better on the road. Maybe that trend continues. Rod Walker

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

From front left, Saints guard Cesar Ruiz, center Erik McCoy and guard David Edwards line up in front of quarterback Tyler Shough during the first half against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sept. 27 at the Caesars Superdome.

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C Their 3.5 yards per carry ranks 28th in the NFL. Is it the running backs? Is it the line? Is it the scheme itself? The blame can be passed around. But the line hasn’t generated enough physicality consistently. Moore regularly speaks about the importance of creating a push to attack the second level of the defense. But this season, according to Next Gen Stats, the Saints’ running backs have averaged 0.83 yards before contact, also 28th. The stat suggests defenses are making contact with the backs quickly in part because there’s little space for them to run. The line has done its job at times. It ranks 16th in an ESPN metric called run block win rate, which judges whether a unit or player can sustain a block for 2.5 seconds or longer. And according to Next Gen Stats, the Saints have rushed for 81 fewer yards than expected. That stat suggests the running backs aren’t taking advantage of their blocks. Whatever the case, the outcome hasn’t been what the Saints have wanted. “Our motto is and always will be, ‘Take care of the down guys first,’ ” center Erik McCoy said. “That’s how you create the most interior push. Do I think there’s room for growth there? Yes. It’s hit and miss. Some plays yes; some plays no. Some games yes; some games no. There’s not a consensus.” Individually, the offensive linemen are also hit and miss when it comes to run blocking. McCoy ranks ninth among all interior linemen in run block win rate at 77%. Edwards is at 75.2%, followed by tackles Taliese Fuaga at 74.1% and Asim Richards at 72.2%. Guard Cesar Ruiz is last among the current starters at 71.6%. Kelvin Banks, before going down with an ankle injury, led the Saints at 80.6%. The league average run block win rate among offensive linemen with at least 100 snaps is 72.1%. “Success in the run game starts and ends with, ‘Did we do our job that we practiced at the beginning of the week?’ ” Edwards said. “Did I use the technique that applies to the defense’s technique? Did I hit the block the way that Erik is expecting me to hit the block? Did I hit the block that Asim is expecting me to block? “I don’t worry about the back’s track. I don’t worry about the tight ends. I worry about my role within the overall big picture. … Then you just try to get everyone to do that together, and that’s when you have successful run games and high ef-

ficiency outputs.” According to Next Gen Stats, Shough’s Cornerstone issues 86 pressures lead the league, and the One reason the Saints aggressively second-year quarterback ranks 15th in pursued Edwards in the offseason is pressure rate at 38.3%. His play style that left guard appeared to be the missalso opens him up to a higher sack rate since he has an aggressive mindset and ing piece for a promising offensive line. tries to keep plays alive. Through five games, the Saints’ When the Saints give up pressure, they splashy signing has been mostly fine. give it up quickly, with opponents’ averHe’s allowed 11 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, but zero sacks. Acage time to pressure just 2.59 seconds, the NFL’s seventh-fastest cording to ESPN, he holds speed. a pass block win rate of Per FTN Fantasy, which 85.1%. charts pressures differBut a greater concern has emerged, one that ently than Pro Football changes the potential Focus and Next Gen Stats, long-term outlook of the seven of Fuaga’s allowed line. pressures have come in The tackles haven’t been under 2.5 seconds. cornerstones. In his third season, Banks suffered a seriFuaga’s regression raises uncomfortable questions. ous ankle injury in Week 2 New Orleans will have to that reportedly will keep decide in the offseason him out at least until Dewhether to pick up the cember. 24-year-old’s fifth-year opRichards, his replacement, has struggled. Detion, projected to be $22.3 million. And that’s a large spite giving up only one number for a tackle who pressure against the Vihas gotten beaten as often kings, Richards has givas Fuaga. en up a pressure rate of If his option is declined, 12.7% — the NFL’s secondwould the Saints be bethighest rate, according to Pro Football Focus. The ter off trying Fuaga at Saints flirted with benchguard — the spot where many draft experts ing Richards for thirdthought if he’d be better string tackle Mason Mursuited for given his size. phy against the Vikings That would then leave the but stuck with Richards DAVID EDWARDS, Saints searching for anafter Murphy was uneven Saints offensive guard in his lone drive. other tackle, which may Richards isn’t the only require another premium Saints tackle in the top 10 draft pick. of pressure rate allowed. Since drafting McCoy Fuaga ranks eighth at 9.4%. And because with a second-round pick in the 2019 the Saints throw the ball so much, Fuaga draft, the Saints have used a first- or secactually leads the league in total presond-round pick on an offensive lineman with a third of those selections. That’s sures allowed with 21. tied for the league’s second-highest rate, Right below Fuaga in pressure rate behind only the Texans, who have draftallowed is Los Angeles Chargers tackle Trevor Penning, the Saints’ first-round ed seven offensive linemen across 18 bust whose own inconsistencies led New first- or second-round picks since 2019. Orleans to draft Fuaga. General manager Mickey Loomis “We’ve played in a couple obvious pass believes in investing heavily in the situations, and those become challenging trenches — 18% of his picks have been for everyone,” Moore said. “We’ve got to offensive linemen, the 14th-highest rate do a better job overall as an offense to among all teams since 2002 — but the upexecute and play cleaner football. Tali’s swing of late reflects some of the Saints’ certainly had some good moments in this problems in either identifying or develseason, and like any player, he’s just tryoping the offensive line. The Saints drafted Fuaga because ing to get better.” they missed on Penning. A year later, The Saints’ approach hasn’t done any the Saints drafted Banks with the ninth favors for pass protection. overall pick, partly because it let Fuaga Moore is right that they haven’t helped move from left to right tackle, his coltheir linemen by falling behind and putting them in obvious passing situations, lege position. which in turn makes it easier for opposMore resources may be required soon. ing teams to apply pressure. But the Saints often leave their tackles on an Email Matthew Paras at island with no help. matt.paras@theadvocate.com

Success in the run game starts and ends with, ‘Did we do our job that we practiced at the beginning of the week? Did I use the technique that applies to the defense’s technique?’ ”

The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 5C

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SAINTS at GIANTS

Noon Sunday, East Rutherford, N.J. Line: Saints by 1½ (Over/Under: 46½) TV: FOX | Radio: WWL-AM, 870; WWL-FM, 105.3

six-day-a-week newsletter

OFFENSIVE LEADERS Saints

Giants

PASSING

Player

Cmp-Att-Pct Yds TD Int

Tyler Shough

137-205-66.8

1299

RUSHING

Player

Att

Net

Avg TD

Player

Rec Yards Avg TD

Player

30 29 28 16

128 83 86 72

4.3 2.9 3.1 4.5

Chris Olave Devaughn Vele Juwan Johnson Alvin Kamara Travis Etienne Noah Fant

39 25 25 13 11 9

537 252 248 41 51 73

6 3

Net

81 27 11

3 0

Avg TD

294 97 54

3.6 3.6 4.9

1 0 0

RECEIVING 13.8 10.1 9.9 3.2 4.6 8.1

1 2 3 0 0 3

Isaiah Likely Malik Nabers Malachi Fields Cam Skattebo Darnell Mooney Devin Singletary

Rec Yards Avg TD 33 29 10 10 8 4

284 329 146 79 109 22

8.6 11.3 14.6 7.9 13.6 5.5

4 2 1 0 0 1

KICKING

XPM XPA FGM FGA

Daniel Carlson

805 250

Att

Cam Skattebo Najee Harris Jaxson Dart

KICKING Player

76-132-57.6 26-34-76.5

RUSHING

RECEIVING Player

Cmp-Att-Pct Yds TD Int

Jameis Winston Jaxson Dart

0 2 2 1

Travis Etienne Kendre Miller Alvin Kamara Tyler Shough

PASSING

Player

XPM XPA FGM FGA

Dominic Zvada

DEFENSIVE LEADERS TACKLES Tot Solo Ast TFL Sk

Pete Werner Jonas Sanker Danny Stutsman Justin Reid Julian Blackmon Kaden Elliss Kool-Aid McKinstry Carl Granderson Quincy Riley Davon Godchaux Nathan Shepherd Colby Wooden Tyree Wilson Chase Young Khristian Boyd Isaiah Stalbird Cameron Jordan Anfernee Jennings Vernon Broughton

35 33 31 29 26 24 21 16 14 13 12 12 11 9 9 9 8 7 6

18 22 13 20 14 11 1 7 9 4 3 4 6 5 5 5 2 3 1

17 11 18 9 12 13 7 9 5 9 9 8 5 4 4 4 6 4 5

3 1 0 1 0 2 0 4 0 1 0 1 1 3 2 0 0 0 0

Player

Tot Yds Avg TD PD

Julian Blackmon

Love between Winston, TEAM STATS the Saints still remains “I’m grateful for it. I love that organization. My heart and soul is with Who Dat.” JAMEIS WINSTON, Giants quarterback “Teammates always respect Jameis,” Saints defensive end Cam Jordan said. “On the outside looking in, you think he’s light and kind-hearted. And he is kind-hearted. But he’s as focused as they come. In his mind, he practices like he’s the No. 1 (quarterback) that he was and that he now is. I think it goes a long way with having a professional at quarterback like Jameis. Whatever you want to put on him, winnability, whatever it is. He gets the job done.” The Saints were the team that gave Winston a chance after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers replaced him with Tom Brady. He started just 10 games in New Orleans. He sat behind Drew Brees in 2020. The next year he beat out Taysom Hill for the starting job in a training camp battle that divided the fanbase. In his very first start, he threw five touchdowns to beat Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in a game moved to Jacksonville, Florida, because of Hurricane Ida. “That win was for the city,” Winston said that day. Winston would have loved to get more wins for the city that embraced him. He went 6-4 as the starter. His first season as a starter ended a month after that Packers game when he suffered a season-ending knee injury on Halloween against the Bucs, the team that drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick six years earlier. The Saints won that game to improve to 5-2. They have gone 32-51 since. Winston started the first three games of the 2022 season, but he never got his job back after a back and foot injury. He finished that year as Andy Dalton’s backup and spent the 2023 season as Derek Carr’s backup. That was Winston’s last season in New Orleans. His final play in a Saints uniform came in the regular-season finale against the Atlanta Falcons. He was supposed to take the snap from McCoy

and take a knee in the waning seconds of the lopsided win. Instead, he handed the ball to running back Jamaal Williams, who hadn’t scored a touchdown all year. That was Winston, choosing to shun conventional wisdom to do something for one of his teammates. Winston never has been afraid of taking chances. There are times when he will throw a pass that makes you say, “Wow, how did he do that?” And there are other times he may throw an interception that makes you say, “Dang, why did he do that?” Some have labeled his willingness to take risks as the Jameis Winston Experience. “Risk taker?” Jordan asked rhetorically. “He’s been a ball mover. You know he’s going for points, for sure. Sometimes you see it in every throw and it can be taken advantage of. At the same time, he can make all the throws, so you have to be aware of where he’s at and what he can do.” Winston has shown he’s willing to try anything. When he’s not playing football, he’s doing commercials or one of his side gigs, like being a correspondent for the Super Bowl or the World Cup. He signed with the Cleveland Browns after he left the Saints and stayed there for one season. He faced the Saints that year, completing 30 of 46 passes for 395 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-14 Saints win. Now he’s on his fourth NFL team. “I’m grateful to be a New York Football Giant,” Winston said. “And the New York Football Giants have given me the privilege to be their starting quarterback, and I’m going to honor that and do my very best at that.” And more times than not, the guys on Winston’s second NFL team will root for him. “Every other week, I am wishing him the best,” McCoy said. “Just not this one.”

Player

Tot Solo Ast TFL Sk

Arvell Reese 43 Tremaine Edmonds 41 Greg Newsome 22 Jevon Holland 21 Tyler Nubin 19 Andru Phillips 19 Abdul Carter 14 Deonte Banks 14 D.J. Reader 12 Chauncey Golston 12 Shelby Harris 10 Colton Hood 10 Zaire Barnes 8 Keyvon Thibodaux 6 Ar’Darius Washington 6 CJ Okoye 5 Brian Burns 4

30 27 15 13 14 16 4 9 8 9 4 7 5 1 4 2 4

13 14 7 8 5 3 10 5 5 3 6 3 3 5 2 3 0

4 3 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0

1 2 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

INTERCEPTIONS Player

Jevon Holland Deonte Banks Arvell Reese Greg Newsome

Tot Yds Avg TD PD 3 1 1 1

0 98 8 0

0 1 0 0

OFFENSE PER GAME Yards gained: 322.0

OFFENSE PER GAME Yards gained: 308.2

Plays: 64.2

Plays: 62.6

PASS 240.2

Jameis Winston is not in New Orleans anymore, but New Orleans is still in him. Truth be told, it always will be. Memories of playing in the Superdome, attending secondline parades or just mingling with the locals on a random day in some New Rod Orleans neighWalker borhood tend to stick with a person. So those four years Winston spent as quarterback for the Saints have shaped the 12-year veteran, as he reminded the New York media Wednesday. Winston, now in his second season with the New York Giants (3-1-1), will play his former team Sunday when the reeling Saints (1-4) make the trip to MetLife Stadium. For Winston, who often talks about his appreciation for getting to play the game he has loved since he was a kid growing up in Alabama, the opportunity to face his former team means even more. “I’m grateful for it,” Winston said. “I love that organization. My heart and soul is with Who Dat.” So yeah, Winston still loves the Saints. And the Saints players who shared a locker room with him still love him. “He is the best,” Saints center Erik McCoy said. “Always in a good mood. Always going to see the bright side of things. Funny. And honestly, just a good guy to be around. I love the guy. I think anybody who has played with him would say that.” When the NFL schedule was announced in May, this game was expected to be a matchup between two of the ﬁrst three quarterbacks selected in the 2025 draft — the Giants’ Jaxson Dart and the Saints’ Tyler Shough. But Dart injured his knee in Week 2, opening the door for Winston. The Giants haven’t lost since Winston took over. They are 2-0-1 after last week’s tie against the Washington Commanders. Winston has thrown for 805 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions. The Saints respect what he’s done.

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.5 0 0 0.5 0 1 4 1 0 0 0 0

INTERCEPTIONS

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEROME MIRON

New york Giants quarterback Jameis Winston warms up before a game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 14 in Arlington, Texas. Winston played for the Saints from 2020-23.

TACKLES

Player

RUSH 81.8

PASS 41.0

RUSH 23.2

Turnovers: 2.20 INTERCEPTIONS 1.00

FUMBLES 1.20

PASS 199.2

RUSH 109.0

PASS 33.2

RUSH 29.4

Turnovers: 1.40 INTERCEPTIONS 0.60

FUMBLES 0.80

DEFENSE PER GAME Yards allowed: 361.0

DEFENSE PER GAME Yards allowed: 327.0

Turnovers forced: 1.00

Turnovers forced: 1.60

PASS 148.8

RUSH 212.2

INTERCEPTIONS 0.20

FUMBLES 0.80

SCORING PER GAME

SCORED ALLOWED

30.2

23.6

2026

PASS 199.4

RUSH 127.6

INTERCEPTIONS 1.20

FUMBLES 0.40

SCORING PER GAME

SCORED ALLOWED

22.5

18.0

21.2

21.8

2025

SCORED ALLOWED

25.8

22.4

2026

2025

CONVERSION SUCCESS

Third down

45.8%

Fourth down

25.0%

54.2%

Fail

44.3%

Fail

Fourth down

25.0%

55.7%

75.0% Convert

4 7 4 5

Convert

Fail

75.0% Convert

Fail

Convert

STAFF PREDICTIONS ROD WALKER

JEFF DUNCAN

SAINTS 26, GIANTS 17: Despite everything the Saints have shown the past three weeks, I think they can turn things around.At least for this one game. For whatever reason, they have played much better on the road than they have at home. This feels like a must-win.They can’t go to Paris on a four-game losing streak.

SAINTS 27, GIANTS 26: It might be now or never for the Saints, who were put on blast by owner Gayle Benson this week. This game could be a high-scoring affair as both defenses are missing key starters. Sometimes the most desperate team wins. In this case, it’s the Saints over their old friend Jameis Winston.

LUKE JOHNSON SAINTS 27, GIANTS 20: I don’t think the Saints are as bad as their three-game losing skid suggests, and I don’t think the Giants are as good as their 3-1-1 record suggests — especially with backup quarterback Jameis Winston standing in. After the comments from owner Gayle Benson this week, I expect the Saints to come out strong.

MATTHEW PARAS GIANTS 19, SAINTS 14: The Giants are a beatable opponent.And maybe this is the game that everything will come together for the Saints. But after Gayle Benson put on the pressure coupled with Kellen Moore’s inability to solve recurring problems, I’m less than confident this will be the week the Saints figure it out.

6C F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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LSU 31, MISSISSIPPI ST. 0 NOTEBOOK

BOX SCORE No. 22 LSU 31, No. 16 Mississippi St 0 Mississippi St. LSU

0 14

0 7

0 10

0 0

— —

0 31

First Quarter LSU—E.Wilson 10 pass from Leavitt (Starzyk kick), 9:57. LSU—J.Harris 27 pass from Leavitt (Starzyk kick), 3:27. Second Quarter LSU—J.Harris 17 pass from Leavitt (Starzyk kick), 6:13. Third Quarter LSU—FG Starzyk 26, 6:45. LSU—Elzy 6 pass from Leavitt (Starzyk kick), :31. MSST LSU First downs 17 29 Total Net Yards 291 380 Rushes-yards 42-170 31-91 Passing 121 289 Punt Returns 0-0 0-0 Kickoff Returns 1-34 1-18 Interceptions Ret. 0-0 1-0 Comp-Att-Int 16-26-1 31-38-0 Sacked-Yards Lost 3-9 2-16 Punts 2-32.0 2-35.0 Fumbles-Lost 2-0 1-1 Penalties-Yards 7-66 3-30 Time of Possession 30:10 29:50 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING—Mississippi St., Wilson 18-71, Puckett 11-40, Gayten 8-36, Hill 5-23. LSU, D.Jones 18-85, Leavitt 4-11, Wilson 2-9, Berry 1-3, (Team) 1-(minus 1), Barber 1-(minus 1), Clark 3-(minus 5), Watkins 1-(minus 10). PASSING—Mississippi St., Puckett 16-26-1121. LSU, Leavitt 31-38-0-289. RECEIVING—Mississippi St., A.Evans 7-40, Magee 3-36, M.Johnson 3-26, Wilson 2-15, Ragins 1-4. LSU, D.Jones 8-58, Harris 6-85, Watkins 4-31, Wilson 3-32, Barber 3-24, Z.Grace 2-21, Elzy 2-20, Gage 2-9, Mothershed 1-9. MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU safety Tamarcus Cooley celebrates after the defense stuffed a goal-line play by Mississippi State in the second quarter on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.

Umanmielen, Harris make early exits BY REED DARCY Staff writer

LSU lost two starters to injuries on Saturday in its 31-0 win over Mississippi State. Defensive end Princewill Umanmielen left in the first quarter after he was injured while tackling a ball carrier near the line of scrimmage. Wide receiver Jackson Harris exited in the third quarter after injuring his left ankle on a 24yard reception. Trainers attended to Umanmielen on the field after he made the stop. They then took away his helmet and walked with him slowly toward the sideline and into the injury tent. The senior emerged after a couple of minutes and rejoined his teammates near the bench. The LSU radio broadcast said Umanmielen hit his head on the tackle. Harris limped off the field and into the locker room before appearing on the sideline later in sweats with a walking boot on his left foot. The reception in which he was hurt was his sixth of the game, and it gave him 85 yards on the day. He also had two touchdown catches. Umanmielen, an Ole Miss transfer, is LSU’s top defensive player. He entered Week 7 ranked second among FBS defenders in sacks (eight), squarely on pace to break the Tigers’ single-season sack record, which Arden Key set when he dropped opposing quarterbacks 12 times in 2016. Umanmielen had two tackles, including one for a loss, before he was hurt Saturday. Harris, a Hawaii transfer, has emerged as one of quarterback Sam Leavitt’s top targets. The redshirt junior caught six passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns in LSU’s Week 4 win over Texas A&M, then added a combined 10 receptions for 91 yards and a score across the next two games. LSU put redshirt junior Dylan Carpenter in Umanmielen’s spot on the edge. Redshirt junior Malik Elzy and freshman Corey Barber rotated in at receiver in place of Harris. LSU wide receiver Tre Brown was also injured against Mississippi State. He walked off the field on crutches in the first half but returned to the game at the start of the second half.

Rushing milestone

LSU has rushed for more yards in seven games this season than

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU defensive end Princewill Umanmielen is escorted off the field by the LSU medical staff in the first quarter of the game against Mississippi State on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. it did across the 13 contests it played last season. The Tigers needed to tally 70 yards rushing on Saturday in their game against Mississippi State to eclipse the 1,352 yards that the team piled up in 2025. They wound up with 90, which was more than enough to have a productive offensive day against a struggling Bulldogs defense. Sophomore Dilin Jones was the leading rusher for LSU. He picked up 84 yards on 18 carries. LSU was stuck outside the top 100 nationally in rushing offense in each of the last two seasons of coach Brian Kelly’s tenure. With Kifﬁn in charge of the offense, the Tigers were able to begin the back half of their schedule on Saturday ranked 27th among FBS teams in rushing offense (214 yards per game) and third in

rushing touchdowns (20). Those ranks should improve after Week 7. LSU piled up 379 total yards and scored three touchdowns on its four trips to the red zone. Leavitt completed 31 of 38 pass attempts for 289 yards and four touchdowns. It was his ﬁrst game of the year without a turnover.

A rare meeting

Before Saturday, LSU and Mississippi State had met 87 times in the AP poll era (since 1936), but only four of those games had been ranked matchups. Saturday’s clash was the fifth, and it was also the first of the five in which the Bulldogs were ranked ahead of the Tigers. Mississippi State was slotted at No. 16 ahead of the Week 7 clash, while LSU was ranked No. 22.

LSU

Continued from page 1C running back Fluff Bothwell available Saturday because of injuries. But mainly because No. 22 LSU (5-2, 2-2 SEC) was equipped with a “kill mentality,” as quarterback Sam Leavitt put it, during a 31-0 win in Tiger Stadium on Saturday. “We had a rough outing last weekend,” said Leavitt, referring to a 35-34 overtime loss at Kentucky. “Had another opportunity in front of the best fans in the nation to go put on a show and a performance.” As hostile as road venues have been to LSU, home has been like heaven. All five of LSU’s victories have come in Tiger Stadium by a combined score of 225-44. LSU is 29-4 against Mississippi State since the conference expanded in 1992, and the Tigers’ shutout marked their first in SEC play since a 45-0 win over the Bulldogs in 2007. This game was never in doubt, even with Leavitt aggravating his hamstring injury during practices for Mississippi State and star edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen getting roughed up on a tackle early in the game. It wouldn’t matter. The Bulldogs (4-2, 2-2) gained just 24 yards on their first three possessions, which featured a forced fumble by LSU edge rusher Jordan Ross to force a punt and a pick by Ty Benefield to shortcircuit another possession. Leavitt, who finished 31-of-38 passing for 289 yards and four touchdowns, continued to hone in on his decisiveness as a passer as he’s literally hamstrung as a runner. He dinked and dunked, rolling out and hitting Eugene Wilson just outside the end zone for a

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU running back Dilin Jones looks to stiff-arm Mississippi State safety Kendel Dolby in the first quarter on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. 10-yard score to get things going. Wilson pushed and shoved his way across the line. After Beneﬁeld’s interception, Leavitt continued picking apart the opposing secondary, completing an 85-yard march on a 27-yard catch and run by Jackson Harris. LSU would fumble away its third drive, but Leavitt picked up where he left off on the Tigers’ fourth possession. In the red zone, he found a wide-open Harris over the middle for a 17-yard touchdown to make it 21-0. “Every single week, we’ve just

gotten better, and I’m gonna keep saying it,” Leavitt said. “We keep playing cleaner ball, understanding just how this offense works. And then once it starts and gets going, it’s pretty magical.” The Tigers would hold onto the shutout thanks to a goal-line stop with under two minutes left in the ﬁrst half, sacking Parker Puckett on third-and-goal at the LSU 2 and holding Mississippi State’s receiver out of the end zone on a quick fourth-down pass. The Bulldogs’ last ﬁve drives of the game ended with a turnover

The Tigers were still the heavy favorites to win, in large part because the Bulldogs were missing both quarterback Kamario Taylor and running back Fluff Bothwell. The two injured starters were each ruled out prior to kickoff. Taylor, a sophomore, emerged as one of the nation’s top quarterbacks in the first five weeks of the season. Even though Mississippi State had an open date in Week 6, he still entered Week 7 with more passing touchdowns (17) than any other SEC quarterback and more passing yards (1,450) than all but two. The Bulldogs gave redshirt freshman Parker Puckett his first career start in Taylor’s place. He completed 16 of 26 pass attempts for 121 yards and an interception.

the start of the third quarter, stringing together a 16-play, 74yard field goal drive that consumed 8:10 of the clock. Tigers running back Dilin Jones not only had 84 yards rushing but also 58 yards receiving on eight catches. Mississippi State wouldn’t touch the ball in the second half until the 6:45 mark of the third quarter. The possession ended with another turnover on downs as a Puckett pass went incomplete on fourth-and-7 on the LSU 35. The very next LSU drive, Leavitt capped the Tigers’ ﬁfth series of 60-plus yards with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Malik Elzy to make it 31-0. Every positive was on the Tigers’ side of the ledger Saturday, aside from the injury count. Along with Umanmielen, Harris — who had six catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns — came up limping after an injury to his left leg. He jogged off to the locker room soon after. “Doctors held him,” Kifﬁn said. “Obviously, the right thing to do. That’s all I got for you.” LSU has just one more game to survive, a road trip to Auburn, before a Halloween weekend bye. There is a chance tight end Trey’Dez Green and, possibly, linebacker Whit Weeks could return on the other side of that break. That will set up back-to-back home games against Alabama and Texas that could revive the Tigers’ playoff chances. The Tigers are 2-2 in SEC play, rather than a disastrous 1-3. They had only one option, and they took it. “I feel like we can’t lose, we can’t lose another game,” Ross said. “That’s our mindset.”

on downs. Puckett completed 11 of 15 for 82 yards through two quarters, but the Bulldogs had just 45 yards rushing on 21 carries. Puckett ﬁnished 16-of-26 passing for 121 yards. “If we’re trying to shut somebody out, we don’t really ever talk about it,” said Ross, who ﬁnished with a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. “We really focus on one player at a time, and we try to dominate our opponent that way.” Email Jon Blau at jon.blau@ LSU would play keep-away at theadvocate.com

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 7C

LSU 31, MISSISSIPPI ST. 0 THREE AND OUT: SCOTT RABALAIS’ TOP THREE TAKEAWAyS FROM LSU’S WIN OVER MISSISSIPPI STATE

ALL HANDS A week earlier at Kentucky, mistakes on offense, defense and special teams conspired against the Tigers in a frustrating 35-34 overtime defeat. On Saturday, LSU was much sharper in all three areas to produce a convincing win against a ranked though offensively shorthanded Bulldogs team. The Tigers scored a touchdown on their first drive for just the second time this season, the defense produced a secondquarter goal-line stand, and special teams simply avoided any major damage.

NO DUEL IN THE SUN What would a Sam Leavitt versus Kamario Taylor quarterback battle have been like Saturday? We never got the chance to find out because Taylor was ruled out (turf toe) before kickoff, as was State running back Fluff Bothwell. State backup QB Parker Puckett was no match for Leavitt, who came out crisp and threw three first-half touchdowns on his way to a 289-yard, four TD day. And, for the first time as a Tiger, no interceptions. LSU will take that over the potential of a glitzy Taylor-Leavitt duel.

GROUND, LITTLE POUND If there was anything to nitpick about LSU’s dominating victory it was that the running game again did little. The Bulldogs outrushed the Tigers 170-90 (sacks included). LSU’s well-executed plan was clearly to rely on a controlled passing game, but the Tigers were unable to dictate terms with their ground attack for the second straight game. That’s a caution light for LSU as it travels next week to face an Auburn team whose best quality is its defense.

A DISRUPTIVE FORCE Defensive end Ross tapping into his potential at LSU

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

When Jordan Ross arrived at LSU, it was hard to know what to expect. Ross was a five-star recruit and the No. 3 edge rusher in the nation out of high school, according to the 247Sports Composite, but he didn’t produce much in two seasons at Tennessee. He played fewer than 270 snaps and registered only 13 quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus. Lane Kifﬁn was taking a risk by bringing in Ross to start. So far, his bet is paying off. Through seven contests, Ross leads the Tigers in quarterback pressures (24), has more sacks than he had at Tennessee (2.5) and has missed only one tackle all season, according to PFF. His strong start continued Saturday when the junior recorded 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble in LSU’s 31-0 win over Mississippi State. “(LSU defensive ends) coach Sterling Lucas emphasizes, ‘You practice how you play,’ ” Ross said. “So me going into practice every day, training hard, I feel like it played into the game today.” Ross was disruptive despite playing without his running mate and arguably LSU’s most valuable defensive player. Star edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C on the Bulldogs, just wrap them up and never let go. LSU scored a touchdown on its first drive, just the second time this season that’s happened, and basically put State in a sleeper hold en route to a 31-0 victory. The Bulldogs churned up a lot of turf between the 20s and a couple of times threatened to score, including one drive that ended at the LSU 2 just before halftime. But really, threatened is too strong of a word. State was defanged, shorthanded, outgunned. Pick your adjective. LSU lost menacing edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen early in the game when he took a blow to the head but still was able to hold the Bulldogs offense at arm’s length. To a college football world outside Louisiana (and some in it) that is rooting for LSU and Lane Kiffin to go careening out of the College Football Playoff picture three weeks before the first CFP rankings are released, it seemed like a bully bad break for State. Kiffin, in remarks sure to en-

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU defensive end Jordan Ross hits Mississippi State quarterback Parker Puckett to force an incomplete pass in the first quarter on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. fensive line and what I see and what he sees.” Without Umanmielen, LSU turned to Dylan Carpenter and Lamar Brown. Carpenter has rotated in for the starters since the opener, but Brown’s playing time in Southeastern Conference play has been limited despite being a freshman ﬁve-star recruit. He didn’t play against Ole Miss and played only one snap at Kentucky.

left the game in the ﬁrst quarter with an injury and didn’t return, putting even more pressure on Ross to disrupt Mississippi State quarterback Parker Puckett and make plays in the backﬁeld. “(Princewill), he is like an older brother to me,” Ross said. “I learn from him, he learns from me. And we really just talk about how, as the leaders of the (edge rushers) room, we talked about we get an advantage on the of-

dear him to his detractors even more, was having none of it. “I don’t have a lot of empathy for injuries and bad breaks,” he said. “This team from Day One has gotten more bad breaks this season, phenomenal leaders sitting game after game. “I’m really proud of our coaches and players for moving people around. You’re seeing people playing different positions than they were supposed to play. This team was built to be a championship team with significant players, starters, that could match up with anyone when they’re healthy.” Sounds harsh, but as former ESPN broadcaster and New Orleans native Stan Verrett said amid the hail of criticism lobbed at LSU and Kiffin after his hiring, it’s a cold game. One in which empathy scores no touchdowns and sentimentality forces no turnovers. Kiffin was wary that Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby could conjure up some magic even with a backup quarterback and a couple of cowbells playing on offense. Like Kiffin, Lebby is an offensive whiz with strong influences from the Art Briles’ coaching tree. In fact, Lebby is Briles’ son-in-law. “That’s a great offensive coach

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt runs up field in the first quarter against Mississippi State on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. over there,” Kifﬁn said. “I’ve watched him with backups over the years play really well. Their system can move without great play from the quarterback position.” Speaking of great play from

Brown has talent and Carpenter’s been steady, but Ross was most responsible for making plays off the edge and pressuring Puckett, who started for the injured Kamario Taylor. “Shoutout to the edge room,” linebacker TJ Dottery said. “Those are some good leaders, Ross and Princewill. So I have (great) conﬁdence of whoever comes in behind them.” Taylor’s absence, along with

running back Fluff Bothwell’s unavailability, put the Bulldogs in an insurmountable hole before the game even started. But Ross still won consistently at the line of scrimmage against either of Mississippi State’s offensive tackles, using his speed and athleticism to disrupt Puckett from the start. It’s unclear how long Umanmielen will be unavailable, although Dottery said after the game that Umanmielen told him that he’d be OK. LSU has one more game against Auburn next Saturday before a muchneeded off week arrives at the end of the month. But if Umanmielen is out next week or longer, the Tigers will have to lean on Ross as their primary edge rusher. LSU’s front four has been the strength of the defense this year. The Tigers have consistently disrupted quarterbacks thanks to defensive tackle Deuce Geralds and Umanmielen, who have 13 combined sacks. That’ll be hard to maintain without Umanmielen, unless Ross can tap into his considerable potential even more. “Leadership, for sure,” Dottery said after he was asked how Ross has improved since coming to LSU. “And on the ﬁeld, I think his football IQ in general, understanding of the game and not only what he has to do, but, honestly, all 11 around him.” Email Koki Riley at koki. riley@theadvocate.com. For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/ lsunewsletter

the quarterback position, that’s what LSU got Saturday from Sam Leavitt. Maybe his day seemed more impressive contrasted against the fact that the former Arizona State transfer had thrown at least one interception in every previous game this season — the only FBS quarterback to do so. There is something counterintuitive about Leavitt. Like in LSU’s similar-looking 35-6 rout of Texas A&M on Sept. 26, his hamstring was acting up again. Leavitt was able to extend plays with his feet, but mostly he was forced to commit to the pass instead of scrambling and putting the football in harm’s way. As against the Aggies, Leavitt was on target Saturday. He carved up a Bulldogs defense angled to dissuade LSU from throwing a lot of deep balls with short and intermediate routes, ﬁnishing his matinee performance going 31 of 38 for 289 yards and four touchdowns. “Sam really played well for not being 100%,” Kifﬁn said. “We talked a lot this week about trusting the receivers to go make plays.” The receivers reciprocated that trust with no dropped passes or passes tipped up in the air for de-

fenders to intercept. “Just taking a profit,” Leavitt said, a quote truly fit for the NIL era. “Getting to the check-down, making guys miss and always having positive plays.” After two frustrating defeats — 32-24 at Ole Miss and 35-34 in overtime at Kentucky — creating some positivity for themselves was the Tigers’ main mission. Kiffin told his players plainly at their Friday night meeting that they had to have this win. Yes, it took something off LSU’s conquest that arguably the Bulldogs’ two best players were out. But there was nothing Kiffin’s Tigers could do about that. You play who is playing, period. And State didn’t hold back anything just because LSU was without guys like Trey’Dez Green on offense and Whit Weeks on defense. Next week is another week. Another challenge. LSU has to try to snap an eight-game SEC road losing streak at Auburn, which went on the road and stunned No. 1-ranked Georgia 27-24. Strange game for LSU? Strange win? Perhaps. But one the Tigers need not apologize for earning. For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

LSU SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

Sept. 5

Sept. 12

Sept. 19

Sept. 26

Oct. 3

Oct. 10

Oct. 17

31-0 W W L W 63-14 W 35-34 L W

51-10 45-14 32-24 35-6 OVERALL: 3-2 ACC: 2-1

OVERALL: 3-2 SUN BELT: 1-0

OVERALL: 5-1 SEC: 3-1

OVERALL: 4-3 SEC: 1-3

OVERALL: 3-4 SOUTHLAND: 2-2

OVERALL: 5-1 SEC: 3-1

OVERALL: 4-2 SEC: 2-2

Oct. 24

Nov. 7

Nov. 14

Nov. 21

Nov. 28

at Auburn 11 a.m. TV: TBA

Alabama TBA TV: TBA

Texas TBA TV: TBA

at Tennessee TBA TV: TBA

at Arkansas TBA TV: TBA

OVERALL: 4-2 SEC: 2-2

OVERALL: 5-2 SEC: 3-2

OVERALL: 4-2 SEC: 1-2

OVERALL: 6-1 SEC: 3-1

OVERALL: 2-4 SEC: 0-3

8C F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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TULANE 31, MEMPHIS 17 THREE AND OUT: GUERRy SMITH’S TOP TAKEAWAyS FROM TULANE’S BIG WIN OVER MEMPHIS

WHAT WE LEARNED Tulane has the heart of a champion if not the all-around execution at this point. Needing a dominant defensive performance to help out freshman quarterback Trace Johnson in his first start, the Green Wave got exactly that in a must-win game to remain relevant in the American Conference. Pass rushers who struggled through the first five games sacked Memphis quarterback Marcus Stokes seven times, stripped him repeatedly and made him mistake-prone the rest of the way.A conservative plan on offense backfired when the backs had little room to run, but Johnson made some off-schedule completions that moved the chains just enough to assure victory.

TRENDING NOW The Green Wave has its quarterback. Johnson’s first starting assignment came in incredibly tough conditions. Playing in a howling wind that got worse as the game went along and facing the American Conference favorites, he hardly was perfect, but he was good enough and exhibited the “it” factor coach Will Hall knew he had. Overcoming a bad interception near the end of the first half, the freshman from Laguna Niguel, California, completed 11 of 21 passes and came up big when it mattered most. He will get better from this performance, but the clutch third-down pass to Garrett Mmahat late in the fourth quarter showed what he is made of.

FINAL THOUGHTS Tulane is back in the mix in a wide-open conference. It is mid-October, and the only teams with undefeated league records are Texas-San Antonio, North Texas and Florida Atlantic.Tulane hosts UTSA on Saturday and gets North Texas for its home finale in November. In between, it plays winless Charlotte, cratering Tulsa and offensively challenged Rice.The Wave needs to get better offensively to take advantage of that schedule, but with a deep, talented group of running backs, receivers who underachieved in the first five games but were much sharper against Memphis and Johnson’s upside, the outlook is infinitely more promising than it was before Saturday night.

‘I believe in our team’

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Tulane running back Johnnie Daniels heads to the end zone to score a 48-yard touchdown against Memphis on Friday night at yulman Stadium.

Gutsy fourth-down conversion secures Tulane win over Memphis BY GUERRY SMITH

Contributing writer

Six days after LSU’s Lane Kiffin elected to punt on fourth-and-1 from his own 43-yard line while holding a three-point lead on Kentucky with 1:37 left, Tulane coach Will Hall faced a remarkably similar situation. The Green Wave led Memphis 23-17 and faced a fourth-and-1 at the Tigers’ 48 with 1:42 left on Friday night at Yulman Stadium. Hall never considered punting. He trusted his offense with a chance to seal a statement victory. Quarterback Dagan Bruno handed off to running back Johnnie Daniels, who burst through the line and did not stop until he was in the end zone for a clinching touchdown that propelled Tulane (3-3, 1-1) back into the American Conference race after a 31-17 victory. “I just believe in our team,” Hall said. “We had to get 1 yard to beat Memphis (5-2, 1-1), and everything that we’ve been through with all these guys, it culminated to that moment. Were we going to punt and play soft or were we going to be who we say we are? We say we’re the toughest program in our league. We’ve got to get that 1 yard right there.” Kiffin, relying on his defense last Saturday, watched as Kentucky drove 67 yards in 77 seconds with no timeouts left for a tying field goal and ultimately won in overtime. Hall did not give Memphis, which also had no timeouts remaining, any opportunity. Bruno, Tulane’s running quarterback substituting for freshman Trace Johnson, had a choice of two plays. He checked to the right one.

“We had to get 1 yard to beat Memphis, and everything that we’ve been through with all these guys, it culminated to that moment. Were we going to punt and play soft or were we going to be who we say we are? We say we’re the toughest program in our league. We’ve got to get that 1 yard right there.” WILL HALL, Tulane coach The only mistake was Daniels not giving himself up after he got the first down, which would have allowed the Wave to run out the clock. His touchdown and a subsequent two-point conversion still left Memphis with the nearly impossible situation of making up a 14-point deficit in the final 1:34, but defensive tackle Ed Smith suffered a leg injury on the Tigers’ desperation drive, which ended in an end-zone interception by safety Kevin Adams. “We really don’t need Johnnie to score,” Hall said. “He needed to go down. We have a word (for that) called flounder, but we obviously have to do better than that.” The Wave, which had talked all season about its championship pedigree after reaching the American championship game a leaguerecord four years in a row, demonstrated that quality in a must-win game coming off a frustrating 20-17 loss at Army. Criticism of Hall mounted in a sloppy seasonopening road loss to Duke, a double-digit defeat at Kansas State, narrow home victories against South Alabama and Southern Miss and the failure to execute down the stretch against Army. Going for the first down against Memphis and converting it easily alleviated much of that negativity on a night when Tulane also sacked Memphis quarterback Marcus Stokes seven times and forced six

turnovers. “We’ve had a really tough schedule,” Hall said. “We haven’t played well. I take responsibility for that and own that, but hey, baby, this was big tonight. The level of urgency had to pick up from me through our leaders. “There had to be some tough conversations, some tough days and some tough moments because we’re good enough to beat anybody, but we’re also just not good enough to lose to anybody.” Looking for a spark on offense, Hall turned to Johnson, the first Tulane freshman to start at quarterback since eventual four-year star Michael Pratt in 2020 when Hall was the offensive coordinator. Johnson’s numbers were pedestrian (11 of 21 for 165 yards and a touchdown with an interception), but he threw a go-ahead scoring pass to wideout Destyn Hill, two key completions that set up field goals and a third-down strike to receiver Garrett Mmahat that prolonged the clinching touchdown drive. “It’s surreal,” Johnson said of winning his first start. “I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a kid. I grew up knowing I wanted to play football in college. This was one of the coolest moments of my life.” To make this moment truly matter, Tulane will need to back up the big win by beating Texas-San An-

Tulane 31, Memphis 17 Memphis Tulane

First quarter

3 0

7 23

0 0

7 8

— —

17 31

MEM — FG Laforge 44, 10:20.

Second quarter

TULN — FG Helmke 56, 14:48. MEM — Burnside 76 pass from Stokes (Laforge kick), 14:08. TULN — FG Helmke 40, 6:42. TULN — Hill 38 pass from Tr.Johnson (Helmke kick), 4:18. TULN — FG Helmke 29, 1:00. TULN — T.Smith 76 interception return (Helmke kick), :00.

Fourth quarter

MEM — J.Davis 6 pass from Stokes (Laforge kick), 3:34. TULN — J.Daniels 48 run (Hill pass from Tr.Johnson), 1:34. A — 20,083. MEM TULN First downs 27 12 Total Net Yards 488 325 Rushes-yards 44-182 38-150 Passing 306 175 Punt Returns 1-8 1-3 Kickoff Returns 0-0 1-0 Interceptions Ret. 1-37 3-90 Comp-Att-Int 20-37-3 12-22-1 Sacked-Yards Lost 7-38 1-4 Punts 3-32.333 6-48.0 Fumbles-Lost 6-3 2-1 Penalties-Yards 3-12 9-80 Time of Possession 29:12 30:48

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Memphis, Carter 23-135, Stokes 15-18, Covey 4-17, Hayden 2-12. Tulane, J.Daniels 7-55, Turner 11-38, McClure 6-18, Bruno 3-14, Lucas 4-13, T.Johnson 6-13, (Team) 1-(minus 1). PASSING — Memphis, Stokes 20-37-3-306. Tulane, T.Johnson 11-21-1-165, Bruno 1-10-10. RECEIVING — Memphis, Burnside 7-151, Davis 4-89, Carter 3-15, Tipton 3-13, Hayes 2-32, O’Callaghan 1-6. Tulane, Hill 4-62, BrownStephens 3-41, Mmahat 2-28, C.Roberts 1-18, Z.Lewis 1-17, Richardson 1-9. MISSED FIELD GOALS — Memphis, Laforge 54. Tulane, Helmke 47.

tonio next Saturday at home. The Wave likes its chances if it comes anywhere close to repeating its big-play defensive effort while Johnson continues to grow into his role. “We talked about the urgency we needed right after the Army game,” said Adams, who became Tulane’s ﬁrst player with two interceptions in a game since Javion White in the 2025 season opener against Northwestern. “That’s the way we played today.”

Tulane ‘D’ has record night vs. Memphis BY GUERRY SMITH Contributing writer

How extraordinary was Tulane’s seven-sack, six-turnover defensive performance against Memphis on Friday night? Consider this. It was the first time any FBS team reached both of those numbers in the same game since Louisville versus Wake Forest on Oct. 29, 2022. The uptick was off the charts. The Green Wave entered with only one take— tied Notebook away with Army for last in the FBS — and five sacks — the secondlowest total in the American Conference. Edge rusher Jah’rie Garner had two sacks, with fellow linemen Ed Smith, Warren Roberts, Geordan Guidry, Jordan Crites and linebacker Makai Williams registering one. “That was the big question mark going into the season,” coach Will Hall said. “What are you going to do with your young D-line? Those guys are growing. They made plays tonight.” Smith made four tackles and forced two fumbles after missing the Army game with an injury. The Wave front enjoyed by far its best night despite playing without injured nose tackle Kam Hamilton, its most productive interior lineman through five games. “When they pressured (Memphis quarterback Marcus Stokes), it caused him to scramble,” said safety Kevin Adams, who intercepted two passes in the second half. “That’s when we got all our turnovers.” TJ Smith returned an interception 76 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the first half. Roberts and Guidry forced fumbles on their sacks, with Roberts recovering his strip. Adams and end Josh Lewis had the other two fumble recoveries. It was the first time Tulane caused six or more turnovers since getting eight against Army in 2003. Memphis had committed only five turnovers in its first six games.

Fighting the wind Hall elected for Tulane’s offense to play into a stiff wind in the third quarter as a cold front arrived in New Orleans, hoping the Wave could protect its 23-10 lead before getting the wind at its back in the fourth quarter. Tulane’s defense came up huge, stuffing Stokes for a 1-yard loss on a keeper on fourth-and-goal from the 2 and getting an Adams interception in the red zone on the Tigers’ two third-quarter series. “We rolled the dice and were able to keep a two-score lead going into the fourth quarter,” Hall said. “That wind was a huge factor in the game.” The wind, which was blowing at 15 miles per hour before kickoff, increased as the night progressed. Passes with the wind sailed over receivers’ heads. Throws into the wind fluttered short. Neither quarterback completed a deep ball after receiver Jemyri Davis made a sliding catch for 48 yards on Memphis’ first snap. “It’s hard for normal people to understand how tough it is for a quarterback whenever it’s blowing 50 knots,” Tulane’s Trace Johnson said. “Later in the game it definitely was blowing, but just getting through it and getting the win was the main thing.”

Lagniappe Tulane has won four of five against Memphis overall and four of the past ﬁve meetings at Yulman Stadium, taking all four by double digits. … Hall improved to 4-0 as a head coach at Yulman Stadium — 3-0 with the Wave this season and 1-0 with Southern Miss in 2022.

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 9C

COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOP 25 ROUNDUP

GAME OF THE WEEK

Ohio St. loses QB Sayin, beats Indiana By The Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By COLIN HUBBARD

Georgia running back Bo Walker, left, gets tackled by Auburn linebacker Elijah Melendez, right, during a game on Saturday in Athens, Ga.

Auburn upsets No. 1 Georgia as time expires BY CHARLES ODUM AP sportswriter

ATHENS, Ga. — Alex McPherson kicked a game-winning 34-yard field goal as time expired and Auburn, led by quarterback Byrum Brown’s dominant running game, upset No. 1 Georgia 27-24 on Saturday. It’s the second straight week the top team in the AP Top 25 lost to an unranked foe after thenNo. 1 Texas fell to Oklahoma last Saturday. Auburn’s win meant the team ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 lost in consecutive weeks for the first time since October 1990, according to Sportradar. Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton led a long game-tying touchdown drive in the fourth quarter but lost a fumble with 58 seconds remaining and the Bulldogs driving for a potential go-ahead field goal. Stockton, who also threw two interceptions, fumbled on a run from the Auburn 46. Safety Sylvester Smith-Reed recovered for the Tigers at the Auburn 44. A roughing-the-passer penalty on Georgia’s Gabe Harris helped set up McPherson’s gamewinning kick. Auburn players swarmed the field. “It’s pretty neat,” said Auburn first-year coach Alex Golesh. “I’m really proud of our guys. Really proud of them. “We’re going to build Auburn back to where everybody wants

it, one game at a time. Just hang with us.” Brown ran for 115 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries and added a scoring pass. Georgia (6-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) saw its streaks of nine straight wins over Auburn and 53 consecutive wins over unranked teams come to an end in a loss that also will end the Bulldogs’ short one-week stay atop the AP Top 25. Auburn (4-2, 2-2) beat the Bulldogs on the ground, outrushing Georgia 192-113. Tailback Nate Frazier returned from a rib injury to start for Georgia but was ineffective, gaining only 19 yards on nine carries. Georgia trailed 24-14 before rallying with a 42-yard ﬁeld goal by Peyton Woodring. Stockton led a tying touchdown drive that began at the Georgia 6 and covered 94 yards in 13 plays, capped by his 4-yard pass to London Humphreys. Stockton’s two interceptions doubled his previous season total through six games. The Bulldogs also were hurt by mistakes, including three personal foul penalties. “We helped them,” said Georgia coach Kirby Smart. “We had three turnovers and critical penalties. ... We had some really, really untimely, uncharacteristic and undisciplined penalties.” After Georgia took a 14-0 lead, Auburn scored the next 24

points. Georgia looked dominant in the opening minutes, even after Stockton had to leave after hitting the field helmet-first on the first play of the game. Ryan Puglisi completed each of his three passes, including a 41-yarder to Craig Dandridge, before Dwight Phillips’ 15-yard scoring run. Stockton returned for the next possession and threw a 24yard touchdown pass to tight end Lawson Luckie for the 14-0 lead. Auburn responded with a physical run-first attack led by the 235-pound Brown, who was effective both on designed runs and when taking off after dropping back to pass. Top-ranked teams had won 93 consecutive home games against unranked teams since LSU lost to Arkansas 50-48 in two overtimes on Nov. 23, 2007.

Stinger for Stockton Smart said Stockton was cleared after being checked for a concussion following the opening drive but also was seen by trainers following a hit to his throwing shoulder. “He had a stinger in his shoulder that numbs your shoulder,” Smart said. “That happens a lot in football.” Stockton completed 22 of 34 passes for 272 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.— No. 4 Ohio State got the victory it craved. It just came at a hefty price — the loss of starting quarterback Julian Sayin for several weeks with an injured right arm. Sayin threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Smith on fourthand-1 early in the fourth quarter before leaving, and the Buckeyes held on Saturday for a 19-15 victory over No. 5 Indiana when wide receiver Nick Marsh’s left foot came down out of bounds on what would have been the go-ahead score for the Hoosiers with 1:02 to go. The defending national champions had won 22 straight overall and 19 in a row at home, the two longest active streaks in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Buckeyes (6-1, 4-0 Big Ten) also got a measure of revenge for last December’s loss to the Hoosiers in the league’s title game. Instead, the Buckeyes simply ran out the clock. But the Hoosiers (6-1, 3-1 Big Ten) sure didn’t go down easily. After Smith’s score gave the Buckeyes a 19-7 lead, Josh Hoover returned from a right arm injury, led the Hoosiers down the field and capped the 75-yard drive with a 19yard TD pass to Marsh and a 2-point conversion pass to Turbo Richard to cut the deficit to 19-15 with 10:30 left. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti suffered his first home loss in three seasons in the first top five game ever played at Memorial Stadium. NO. 24 SMU 23, VIRGINIA 13: In Dallas, Kevin Jennings threw two touchdown passes, former SMU soccer player Brendan Baird boosted the struggling special teams with three field goals and the Mustangs beat Virginia. Kendrick Raphael ran for 124 yards as SMU (5-1, 3-1 Atlantic Coast) improved to 10-0 at home in ACC games since rejoining a power conference league in 2024. The Mustangs are 17-3 overall in the ACC. The Cavaliers (4-3, 2-2) were held to fewer than 300 total yards for a third consecutive game by an SMU defense that led a win over Boston College two weeks ago despite Jennings’ offense gaining just 218 yards. Virginia finished with 258 yards. NO. 25 NORTHWESTERN 24, MICHIGAN ST. 21: In East Lansing, Michigan, Jackson Kleather kicked three field goals, including the game-winning 34-yarder with 2 seconds left Saturday to rally Northwestern to a win over Michigan State. Aidan Chiles tied the game at 21 with 7:24 remaining when he scored on a 1-yard run and threw to Alex

AP PHOTO By DOUG MCSCHOOLER

Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin returned to the sideline with his arm in a sling after leaving the game in the second half on Saturday in Bloomington, Ind.

Honig on a 2-point conversion for Northwestern (5-1 overall, 2-1 Big Ten). After Matthew Smith blocked Michigan State’s Liam Boyd 33-yard field-goal attempt, Chiles then drove the Wildcats 64 yards in eight plays to set up the winning kick. Chiles, who started 20 games at Michigan State the past two seasons before transferring to Northwestern, completed 18 of 27 passes for 226 yards and also had 16 carries for 25 yards. The Spartans (2-5, 0-4) had led 2113 early in the fourth quarter when Alessio Milivojevic tossed a 53-yard touchdown pass to Chrishon McCray. He completed 19 of 30 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns. NO. 10 TEXAS TECH 53, ARIZONA ST. 25: In Lubbock, Texas, J’Koby Williams ran for a career-high 165 yards with two long touchdowns after an early fumble, Ben Roberts returned an interception for a touchdown and No. 10 Texas Tech overwhelmed Arizona State on Saturday in a matchup of the past two Big 12 champions. The reigning champion Red Raiders (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) broke a school record with their eighth consecutive regular-season conference victory, since a 26-22 loss last year at Arizona State. Their 12th home win in a row is one short of the longest streak in school history set in 1942. The Red Raiders scored on the last seven drives of the first half, with four TDs and three field goals by Stone Harrington (31, 42 and 37 yards) for a 43-10 halftime lead. They already had 404 of their 502 total yards by then. Reed Harris had his Big 12-leading eighth TD catch for Arizona State (3-3, 1-2) on the first drive after halftime, on a 2-yard pass from backup Mikey Keene.

SEC ROUNDUP

No. 14 Tennessee hands No. 6 Alabama second straight loss The Associated Press KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — DeSean Bishop rushed for 159 yards and two touchdowns, lifting No. 14 Tennessee over No. 6 Alabama 26-10 on Saturday. The Crimson Tide (5-2, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) have lost consecutive regular-season games for the first time since 2007 after also losing to No. 1 Georgia last week. The Volunteers (6-1, 3-1) relied on a stout defense and the steady play of quarterback George MacIntyre (197 passing yards) to win their third straight game. Alabama had just 201 yards of total offense, including 54 rushing, and turned the ball over four times. Crimson Tide quarterback Keelon Russell threw for 147 yards and scored the only touchdown on a 19-yard run. Alabama lost two fumbles, and Russell threw two interceptions. Tennessee led 12-10 at halftime after both offenses struggled. The teams combined for five turnovers and were 3 of 17 in third-down conversions. The Crimson Tide generated just 93 yards of offense in the first half while coming up empty on all seven third-down tries. The Vols knocked on the door throughout the half but could only manage four field goals by Cooper Ranvier. FLORIDA 27, NO. 7 TEXAS 24: In Austin, Texas, Florida quarterback Tra-

mell Jones threw two touchdowns to Lacota Dippre in his first career start, Jadan Baugh scored a fourth-quarter touchdown and the Gators rallied to beat No. 7 Texas and hand the Longhorns their second consecutive loss. Texas led 17-3 in the second quarter after Ryan Niblett returned a punt 63 yards for a touchdown, the third of his career. Florida rallied to tie it on a pair of touchdown passes from Jones to Dippre. The first came with 18 seconds left in the first half and the second capped a 15-play drive that took eight minutes of the third quarter. NO. 9 OLE MISS 31, NO. 13 MISSOURI 3: In Oxford, Mississippi, Trinidad Chambliss threw for three touchdowns and ran for another Saturday as No. 9 Mississippi beat No. 13 Missouri. Ole Miss (5-1, 3-1 SEC) was never seriously threatened after trailing 3-0 in the opening 10 minutes. Chambliss had a five-yard touchdown run and finished 20-of-36 passing for 241 yards, including touchdown passes of 10, 21 and 17 yards to Caleb Odom, Horatio Fields and Caleb Cunningham. Missouri (5-2, 2-2) trailed 21-3 at halftime and did not reach the red zone in the second half until the final two minutes. Jamal Roberts, after consecutive 200-plus yards rushing performances, rushed for 39 yards on 20 carries.

Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell, right, is sacked by Tennessee linebacker Jeremiah Telander, left, during a game on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.

AP PHOTO By WADE PAyNE

TEXAS A&M 41, THE CITADEL 0: In College Station, Texas, Texas A&M scored touchdowns on all four of its drives in the ﬁrst half, including three on the ground by running back Jamarion Morrow, and the Aggies shut out The Citadel on Saturday. Morrow entered the game with a lone rushing touchdown over the first half of the season, but collected three scores totaling six yards in the ﬁrst two quarters. A&M (4-3), in a brief reprieve from league play, rebounded

from a 27-6 setback at No. 13 Missouri, while The Citadel (2-5) has dropped four of its last ﬁve games. With the Aggies leading comfortably 28-0 at halftime on Saturday, A&M coach Mike Elko

turned to backup quarterbacks Brady Hart and Helaman Casuga over the ﬁnal two quarters. The Aggies added two field goals, a punt and a touchdown pass from Hart to Aaron Gregory in the second half.

SPORTS

24/7

10C ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

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STATE ROUNDUP

Southeastern upsets No. 10 Lamar By The Associated Press HAMMOND — Quarterback Kyle Lowe had two of Southeastern Louisiana’s four touchdown runs and the Lions held on for a 34-31 upset victory over Lamar on Saturday night. Lamar (5-2, 3-1 Southland Conference), ranked 10th in the Stats Perform FCS poll, took a 6-0 lead on 42- and 28-yard ﬁeld goals by Andres Sandoval on its ﬁrst two possessions. Southeastern (4-3, 2-2) answered with receiver Kyree Paul’s 60-yard touchdown run on his only carry of the game for a 7-6 lead after one quarter.

Lowe broke loose for a 25-yard touchdown run and an eight-point advantage, and Calvin Smith added a 2-yard scoring run to make it 21-6. Lamar cut it to 21-13 at the half when Jojo Uga scored on a 2-yard run with 49 seconds left. Lowe scored on a 1-yard plunge to up SE Louisiana’s lead to 28-13 in the third quarter, but Aiden McCown threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Blake Thomas to get the Cardinals within 28-20 heading to the fourth. Drew Talley had 37- and 39yard ﬁeld goals on both sides of a 36-yarder by Sandoval for a 34-23 advantage.

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN 56, NICHOLLS STATE 0: In Thibodaux, Gavin Rutherford threw four touchdown passes, Preston Alford added two rushing touchdowns and Stephen F. Austin beat Nicholls State for the Lumberjacks’ seventh straight win. Stephen F. Austin (7-0, 4-0 Southland Conference), ranked No. 3 in the Stats Perform Top 25, tied the program record consecutive wins to open a season set by the 1995 team. The Lumberjacks have won 17 straight regular-season games and 12 in a row in conference play, both program records. Bugs Mortimer had 103 yards

receiving and three touchdowns on six receptions for the Lumberjacks. JT Kitna pulled the handoff on a zone-read play and raced untouched for a 94-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter that made it 49-0. Nicholls (2-5, 1-3) had just 227 total yards, converted 4-of-15 third downs and went 0 for 3 on fourthdown conversions. The Colonels offense went three-and-out six times. UL 33, TROY 6: In Lafayette, Lunch Winﬁeld threw a touchdown pass, three different players ran for scores and the Cajuns controlled the Trojans. Winfield threw for just 70

yards on 11-of 21 passing, but found Kedarius Wade for a 3-yard score after Harrison Kidder recovered a muffed punt at Troy’s 8. Winﬁeld was the leading rusher for the Ragin’ Cajuns (5-2, 2-1 Sun Belt Conference) with 65 yards. JJ Garner, Anthony Reagan and Steven Blanco all reached the end zone. UL gained 243 yards rushing and had a more than 13-minute time of possession advantage. Goose Crowder and Tucker Kilcrease combined to go 14 of 26 for 141 yards. Kilcrease scored on a 23-yard run in the third quarter for Troy (3-3, 1-1).

SCOREBOARD Odds

Ruoning Yin Carlota Ciganda Rio Takeda Alison Lee Grace Kim Yuli Shi A Lim Kim Jennifer Kupcho Ruixin Liu Jeeno Thitikul Yuri Yoshida Erika Hara Nanna Koerstz Madsen Lauren Coughlin Jodi Ewart Shadoff Linn Grant Esther Henseleit Soo Bin Joo MinJi Kang Narin An Allisen Corpuz Sei Young Kim Lucy Li Gaby Lopez Liqi Zeng Gina Kim Yijia Ren Sophia Schubert Karis Davidson Leona Maguire Yealimi Noh Patty Tavatanakit Lindy Duncan You Min Hwang Andrea Lee Yujie Liu Rose Zhang Pajaree Anannarukarn Celine Boutier Jin Hee Im Minami Katsu Chanettee Wannasaen Weiwei Zhang Shuying Li Ziyan Meng P. Roussin-Bouchard Mao Saigo Yana Wilson Aditi Ashok Robyn Choi Nataliya Guseva Yan Liu Yu Liu Runzhi Pang Cassie Porter Angel Yin Minjee Lee Menghan Li Jenny Shin Jing Yan Mary Liu Yuting Shi Shiyuan Zhou Jinghan Cui Wei-Ling Hsu Danielle Kang Jenny Bae Xiang Sui N. Vongtaveelap Lauren Walsh Dewi Weber Arpichaya Yubol Julia Lopez Ramirez Ningyao Xu Yuai Ji

Sports Betting Line NFL Sunday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG at JAX 1½ 2½ (42½) Houston Pittsburgh 1½ 2½ (39½) at TAMPA at IND 3½ 6½ (44½) Tennessee Chicago 3 1½ (52½) at ATL New Orleans 2½ 1½ (46½) at NYG at NE 9½ 7½ (43½) NY Jets Carolina 6½ 3½ (39) at PHILA Baltimore 7 3½ (39½) at CLE at LA RAMS 13½ 12½ (51½) Arizona at K.C. 2½ 7½ (41½) LAC Buffalo 6½ 4½ (53½) at VEGAS at GREEN BAY 3 1½ (53½) Dallas

Monday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY at SAN FRAN 5½ 7½

MLB

O/U UNDERDOG (52) Wash

Sunday

American League FAVORITE LINE Tampa Bay -122

NHL

Sunday

FAVORITE LINE at MINNESOTA -199 Carolina -204

UNDERDOG at CLEVELAND

LINE -110

UNDERDOG Columbus at CALGARY

LINE +160 +165

Pro basketball WNBA Playoff Glance (x-if necessary) Finals (Best-of-5)

No. 2 Golden State 1, No. 4 Atlanta 0

Saturday, October 17: Golden State 68, Atlanta 64 Monday, October 19: Atlanta at Golden State, 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 21: Golden State at Atlanta, 7 p.m. Saturday, October 24: Golden State at Atlanta, noon x-Monday, October 26: Atlanta at Golden State, TBA x-Thursday, October 29: Golden State at Atlanta, TBA x-Saturday, October 31: Atlanta at Golden State, TBA

Major League Baseball MLB Postseason Glance LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Best-of-7)

American League

(TBS, TruTV, HBO Max)

Cleveland 2, Tampa Bay 1

Monday, Oct. 12: Game 1: Cleveland 7, Tampa Bay 3 Tuesday, Oct. 13: Game 2: Tampa Bay 3, Cleveland 1 Thursday, Oct. 15: Game 3: Cleveland 3, Tampa Bay 2 Saturday, Oct. 17: Game 4: Tampa Bay at Cleveland, n Sunday, Oct. 18: Game 5: Tampa Bay at Cleveland, 4 p.m. x-Monday, Oct. 19: Game 6: Cleveland at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m. x-Tuesday, Oct. 20: Game 7: Cleveland at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.

National League Milwaukee 4, Los Angeles Dodgers 0

Sunday, Oct. 11: Game 1: Milwaukee 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 1 Monday, Oct. 12: Game 2: Milwaukee 7, Los Angeles Dodgers 4 Wednesday, Oct. 14: Game 3: Milwaukee 6, Los Angeles Dodgers 2 Thursday, Oct. 15: Game 4: Milwaukee 6, Los Angeles Dodgers 4

Auto racng NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 Lineup After Saturday qualifying; race Sunday

At Phoenix Raceway Avondale, Ariz. Lap length: 1.00 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 137.143 mph. 2. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 136.976. 3. (19) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 136.825. 4. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 136.809. 5. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 136.617. 6. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 136.374. 7. (54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 136.291. 8. (71) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 136.199. 9. (21) Josh Berry, Ford, 136.142. 10. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 135.936. 11. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 135.782. 12. (88) Connor Zilisch, Chevrolet, 135.649. 13. (34) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 135.338. 14. (7) Daniel Suárez, Chevrolet, 135.308. 15. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 135.059. 16. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 134.998. 17. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 134.943. 18. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 134.933. 19. (35) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 134.600. 20. (38) Zane Smith, Ford, 134.569. 21. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 134.524. 22. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 134.484. 23. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 134.419. 24. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 134.419. 25. (97) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 134.338. 26. (60) Ryan Preece, Ford, 134.333. 27. (41) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 134.253. 28. (77) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 134.223. 29. (43) Erik Jones, Toyota, 134.193. 30. (4) Noah Gragson, Ford, 134.118. 31. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Chevrolet, 133.744. 32. (42) John H. Nemechek, Toyota, 133.615. 33. (10) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 133.546. 34. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 133.403. 35. (33) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 133.383. 36. (67) Corey Heim, Toyota, 133.323. 37. (51) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 132.964.

College football Major Scores Friday’s games EAST

Columbia 28, Penn 27

SOUTH

Appalachian St. 35, Coastal Carolina 32 Tulane 31, Memphis 17

68-74-67—209 67-74-71—212 68-73-71—212 74-73-67—214 68-72-75—215 71-73-71—215 73-74-69—216 74-75-67—216 70-76-70—216 69-73-74—216 75-74-67—216 69-72-76—217 69-75-73—217 71-75-72—218 75-73-70—218 74-72-72—218 74-69-75—218 73-75-70—218 75-71-72—218 72-74-73—219 73-71-75—219 75-74-70—219 74-75-70—219 73-74-72—219 70-77-72—219 69-77-74—220 70-78-72—220 76-71-73—220 72-74-75—221 71-73-77—221 73-72-76—221 72-78-71—221 76-75-71—222 74-75-73—222 74-74-74—222 73-75-74—222 74-70-78—222 73-76-74—223 73-75-75—223 76-76-71—223 70-78-75—223 68-79-76—223 70-75-78—223 73-77-74—224 73-77-74—224 78-74-72—224 75-76-73—224 74-78-72—224 75-74-76—225 76-79-70—225 77-74-74—225 76-76-73—225 73-75-77—225 80-76-70—226 76-76-74—226 74-78-74—226 75-75-77—227 81-76-70—227 73-79-75—227 75-77-75—227 71-77-80—228 78-76-74—228 78-77-73—228 76-76-77—229 80-78-71—229 74-80-75—229 75-80-75—230 75-76-79—230 80-74-76—230 70-82-78—230 70-78-82—230 81-78-72—231 73-78-83—234 81-82-83—246 87-83-78—248

-7 -4 -4 -2 -1 -1 E E E E E +1 +1 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +4 +4 +4 +5 +5 +5 +5 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +10 +10 +10 +11 +11 +11 +11 +12 +12 +12 +13 +13 +13 +14 +14 +14 +14 +14 +15 +18 +30 +32

Transactions FOOTBALL

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By SUE OGROCKI

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero hits an RBI double against the Cleveland Guardians during the sixth inning in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday in Cleveland. This game ended after press time. MIDWEST

Washington 38, Purdue 26

Saturday’s games EAST

Albany (NY) 48, Stony Brook 31 Army 56, FAU 24 Boston College 27, Pittsburgh 21 Bryant 17, Maine 14 Buffalo 25, UMass 18, OT CCSU 43, Mercyhurst 40 Charlotte 38, Temple 31 Cornell 48, Lehigh 38 Dartmouth 27, Merrimack 21 Duquesne 14, Stonehill 7 Georgetown 27, Colgate 17 Harvard 30, Holy Cross 7 Howard 31, Morehouse 17 LIU Brooklyn 14, Wagner 9 Lafayette 20, Bucknell 7 Monmouth (NJ) 42, New Hampshire 21 New Haven 26, Robert Morris 15 Princeton 16, Brown 10 Rhode Island 41, Yale 23 Rutgers 37, Maryland 30 Sacred Heart 35, Hampton 21 Villanova 38, Fordham 17 West Virginia 45, Cincinnati 42

SOUTH

Alabama A&M 61, Grambling St. 31 Auburn 27, Georgia 24 Austin Peay 24, West Georgia 10 Bethune-Cookman 34, MVSU 14 Campbell 24, Towson 20 Clemson 37, Charleston Southern 0 Davidson 34, Morehead St. 31, OT Jackson St. 27, Florida A&M 17 James Madison 49, Georgia St. 22 LSU 31, Mississippi St. 0 UL 33, Troy 6 McNeese St. 24, Northwestern St. 21 Mississippi 31, Missouri 3 NC A&T 27, Chicago State 12 North Carolina 24, Duke 20 Presbyterian 47, Stetson 43 SE Louisiana 34, Lamar 31 South Dakota 48, Murray St. 20 Stephen F. Austin 56, Nicholls 0 Tennessee 26, Alabama 10 Tennessee St. 25, Morgan St. 16 Tennessee Tech 49, E. Kentucky 20 UT Martin 17, Gardner-Webb 6 Virginia Tech 34, Georgia Tech 24 West Florida 37, West Alabama 3 Wofford 41, VMI 14

MIDWEST

Ball St. 32, Bowling Green 31, OT Dayton 19, Butler 9 Illinois St. 35, S. Illinois 14 Kansas St. 35, Kansas 24 Lindenwood (Mo.) 20, E. Illinois 13 Marist 27, Drake 22 Miami (Ohio) 34, Akron 14 Michigan 21, Penn St. 18 North Dakota 21, S. Dakota St. 10 Northwestern 24, Michigan St. 21 Ohio St. 19, Indiana 15 SE Missouri 40, W. Illinois 30

Toledo 34, E. Michigan 14 W. Michigan 21, Cent. Michigan 14 Youngstown St. 35, N. Iowa 22

SOUTHWEST

Alabama St. 21, Ark.-Pine Bluff 15 Florida 27, Texas 24 Prairie View 41, Alcorn St. 38 SMU 23, Virginia 13 Texas A&M 41, The Citadel 0 Texas Tech 53, Arizona St. 25 Tulsa 38, Rice 17

FAR WEST

Air Force 41, UNLV 31 Idaho 42, Montana 35 Oregon St. 48, Washington St. 30 San Diego 38, Valparaiso 13 Weber St. 27, Idaho St. 20 Wyoming 41, N. Illinois 23

Hockey NHL Glance EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division Boston Tampa Bay Ottawa Florida Buffalo Toronto Montreal Detroit

GP 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7

W 6 6 6 4 4 3 3 2

L OT Pts GF GA 2 0 12 30 18 2 0 12 25 21 2 0 12 23 20 2 2 10 22 22 3 1 9 24 30 3 2 8 28 28 3 1 7 23 27 3 2 6 16 21

Carolina N.Y. Rangers Washington New Jersey N.Y. Islanders Pittsburgh Columbus Philadelphia

GP 9 9 8 8 7 8 5 9

W 7 6 5 4 3 3 2 0

L OT Pts GF GA 1 1 15 34 21 3 0 12 28 21 3 0 10 28 24 4 0 8 25 27 3 1 7 20 17 4 1 7 27 27 3 0 4 16 21 6 3 3 11 33

Utah Colorado Minnesota Winnipeg St. Louis Dallas Nashville Chicago

GP 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 8

W 6 5 5 4 3 3 2 3

L OT Pts GF GA 2 0 12 31 21 2 1 11 36 24 2 1 11 26 20 2 2 10 23 24 3 1 7 25 23 3 1 7 16 13 2 3 7 18 22 5 0 6 21 32

Vegas Edmonton Seattle Anaheim San Jose Vancouver Los Angeles Calgary

GP 9 7 8 7 7 10 5 7

W 7 5 5 4 4 2 0 1

L OT Pts GF GA 2 0 14 36 22 1 1 11 31 22 2 1 11 32 23 3 0 8 22 21 3 0 8 19 25 7 1 5 30 45 3 2 2 11 21 6 0 2 14 35

Metropolitan Division

WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division

Paciﬁc Division

NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

Friday’s Games

Colorado 5, Pittsburgh 2 Boston 4, Anaheim 2

Saturday’s Games

Washington 4, New Jersey 2 Carolina 3, Winnipeg 2 Tampa Bay 4, Vancouver 2 Seattle at Florida, 5 p.m. Buffalo at Montreal, n Dallas at Chicago, n N.Y. Islanders at Toronto, n N.Y. Rangers at Columbus, n Ottawa at Philadelphia, n San Jose at Detroit, n St. Louis at Nashville, n Boston at Los Angeles, n Edmonton at Utah, n Pittsburgh at Vegas, n

Sunday’s Games

No games scheduled

Tennis WTA Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open Results

BASKETBALL

Saturday

At Optics Valley International Tennis Centre Wuhan, China Purse: $4,088,211 Surface: Hardcourt outdoor Results Saturday from Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open at Optics Valley International Tennis Centre (seedings in parentheses):

Women’s Singles

Semiﬁnals Sonay Kartal, Britain, def. Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia, 7-6 (9), 7-6 (5). Maja Chwalinska (16), Poland, def. Iga Swiatek (7), Poland, 7-5, 6-1.

Women’s Doubles

Semiﬁnals Gabriela Dabrowski, Canada, and Luisa Stefani (1), Brazil, def. Nicole MelicharMartinez, United States, and Cristina Bucsa (5), Spain, 6-2, 6-1. Storm Hunter, Australia, and Katerina Siniakova (3), Czechia, def. Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini (8), Italy, 5-7, 7-5, 12-10.

Golf Buick LPGA Shanghai Saturday

At Sheshan International GC Shanghai Purse: $3.2 million Yardage: 6,735; Par: 72 Third Round 64-74-69—207 Hye Jin Choi Amy Yang 69-71-68—208

National Football League ATLANTA FALCONS — Signed OLB Bralen Trice to the active roster. Signed S Jammie Robinson to the practice squad. ARIZONA CARDINALS — Activated S Kitan Crawford from injured reserve. BALTIMORE RAVENS — Activated WR Ja’Kobi Lane from injured reserve. Signed LB Carl Jones from the practice squad. CHICAGO BEARS — Activated CB Kyler Gordon from the PUP list. Signed DB Nick McCloud to the active roster. Placed DL Dayo Odeyingbo on injured reserve. Waived DB Xavier Woods. GREEN BAY PACKERS — Activated WR Savion Williams off injured reserve. Placed DTs Jonathan Ford, Javon Hargrave and WR Skyy Moore on injured reserve. HOUSTON TEXANS — Activated LB Henry To’oTo’o and S Ja’Marcus Ingram. Waived LB Aiden Fisher and CB Collin Wright. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Activated TE Will Mallory from injured reserve. LOS ANGELES CHARGERS — Activated WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith from injured reserve. Released WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Signed OLB Caleb Murphy to the active roster. LOS ANGELES RAMS — Activated OT Keagen Trost. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — Activated WR A.J. Brown. Released RB Hassan Haskins from the practice squad. NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — Activated S Zach wood. NEW YORK JETS — Activated WR Omar Cooper Jr. from injured reserve. PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Placed WR Roman Wilson on injured reserve. Signed RB Lew Nichols to the active roster. TENNESSEE TITANS — Activated CB Joshua Williams from injured reserve. Waived DB Erick Hallett.

-9 -8

National Basketball Association LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS — Signed G Cam Christie to a Two-Way contract. PHOENIX SUNS — Waived Fs Haywood Highsmith, Phillip Wheeler and G Kennedy Chandler. TORONTO RAPTORS — Converted the contract of C Nate Bittle to a Two-Way contract. UTAH JAZZ — Converted the contract of F Harrison Ingram to a Two-Way contract.

HOCKEY

National Hockey League BUFFALO SABRES — Assigned G Topias Leinonen to Rochester (AHL). DETROIT RED WINGS — Placed RD Jacob Bernard-Docker on waivers. EDMONTON OILERS — Reassigned C Josh Samanski to Bakersﬁeld (AHL). FLORIDA PANTHERS — Recalled RW Cole Reinhardt from Charlotte (AHL). LOS ANGELES KINGS — Recalled RW Taylor Ward from Ontario (AHL). Reassigned RW Jared Wright to Ontario. MONTREAL CANADIENS — Placed LW Florian Xhekaj on injured reserve. NEW YORK RANGERS — Recalled F Jonny Brodzinski from Hershey (AHL). ST. LOUIS BLUES — Loaned F Félix Trudeau to Springﬁeld (AHL). TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS — Placed C John Tavares on injured reserve. Sent C Dakota Joshua to Toronto (AHL) for conditioning. WASHINGTON CAPITALS — Placed C PierreLuc Dubois on injured reserve. Recalled RW Jonny Brodzinski from Hershey (AHL).

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 11C

OUTDOORS

Hunters note change in suppressor rules LDWF explains how change in federal law will affect Louisianans

FISHING RESULTS

The S.T.A.R. The ﬁnal leaderboard as listed on the CCA-Louisiana website for the 2026 Statewide Tournament & Anglers’ Rodeo with categories/divisions, anglers & weight of catch in pounds. Top anglers won boats, outboards, trailers & tackle packages. All entries in Kayak, Ladies-Only, Fly Fishing & Calcasieu Calcutta are speckled trout: TAGGED REDFISH: Robert Groht Jr.; Byron Feverjean; Wayne Toups. SPECKLED TROUT: East, Brad McAdam, 8.33 pounds; Southeast, Conrad Grifﬁth, 5.48; Southwest, Andre Clement, 3.8; West, Jonathan Fisher, 6.6. COBIA: Travis Landry, 64.72. MANGROVE SNAPPER: Ren Cheramie, 12.9. RED SNAPPER: Lloyd Pickering, 27.87, SHEEPSHEAD: East, Logan Turgeau, 9.38; West, Dominic Smith, 6.42. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Thomas Engquist, 125.0. BANK FISHING: Anthony Tuttle, 5.9. CALCASIEU CALCUTTA: Gary Fesco Jr., 4.95. FLY FISHING: East, Tony Perrin, 2.62; West, Tony Hayden, 2.01. KAYAK: East, Andrew Haase, 4.5; Southeast, David Arceneaux, 3.72; Southwest, Vincent Palumbo III, 2.54; West, Brady Howle, 3.52. LADIES ONLY: East, Elysha Cuevas, 4.23; West, Leah Logan, 4.71.

Hunters have been using what firearms folks call “suppressors” for year. Most of the hunters using those supresin LouiNotebook sors siana do so to take feral hogs. Years ago, these add-ons to the end of a firearm’s barrel were called “silencers,” the kind you saw in James Bond and gangster movies. Until earlier this month, a hunter had to possess some sort of permit from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives certifying it was a legal suppressor. That came after the U.S. Congress nullified the federal tax on suppressors. In August, a Texas federal judge ruled the federal government through the ATF could not enforce selected parts of the regulations regarding suppressors, and the ATF bosses said the bureau will not require approval of purchase or registration for suppressors. Well, all that led state Wildlife and Fisheries’ Enforcement Division to explain how its agents will deal with hunters using suppressors because our state allows hunters to use this equipment. Since federal laws existed, state agents relied on a hunter having the ATF’s tax stamp to prove a suppressor was legal, but without having to show that federal

STAFF PHOTO By JOHN BALLANCE

Stars of summer

The summerlong CCA Louisiana S.T.A.R. fishing tournament, a multi-species fishing competition that features more than $750,000 in total prizes, concluded Sept. 7. Winners were announced at a banquet in Baton Rouge on Thursday. The youth division winners are pictured, front row from left, Ryann Mitchell, Lincoln Neyhard, Lane Jesop and Megan Paige. stamp, the enforcement division’s position changed. In a release last week, the agency stated, “If your suppressor is legally possessed, and it is attached to a ﬁrearm that is legal for the season you are hunting, you have not violated state law. Agents will not cite you or seize your suppressor just because you do not have an ATF tax stamp or registration papers.” The release also clariﬁed what has not changed, that all hunting regulations are

in place; that suppressors can be used to take game birds, wild quadrupeds, outlaw quadrupeds, nutria and beavers; that the ﬁrearm a hunter is using must be legal for the season and the game hunted; that people, mostly felons, who are banned from having ﬁrearms may not have a suppressor; and, that a person convicted of a Class Four or greater hunting violation may not hunt with a suppressor for five years after conviction.

The agency also provided a link on its website to contact the enforcement division with any questions: wlf. louisiana.gov/page/contactlocal-law-enforcement.

Closures A note to inshore, nearshore and offshore fishermen. The recreational and commercial seasons on all species of flounder along with greater amberjack are closed. The flounder season will

reopen Dec. 1, and the closure comes at a time when ﬂounder begin showing up in numbers in the Pontchartrain Basin.

Reporting The last phase of the experimental black-bellied whistling duck season — it closed last Sunday — is all hunters who obtained a special permit and participated in hunts for this ﬁrst season must report “both harvest and effort,” even if they did

not hunt. Failure to report means you will not get a special permit for a 2027 whistling duck season. Reports must be turned in by Oct. 27 on Wildlife and Fisheries’ website: wlf. la.gov under the “black-bellied whistling duck reporting page.”

Terrebonne waters Terrebonne Parish officials teamed with the BoatUS Foundation for a first effort in removing two more abandoned and derelict vessels from local waterways. The parish ofﬁce and the foundation termed the effort “a major milestone” in clearing bayous and canals of abandoned boats. The overall plan calls for removing more than 70 boats, and the latest two brings the total to nearly 50 this year.

FLIES & FLIGHTS: 7-9 p.m, Rally Cap Brewing, 11212 Pennywood Ave., Baton Rouge. Casual fly tying & quarterly gear swap. Open to public. Email Chris Williams: thefatfingeredflytyer@gmail. com

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY

BASSMASTER ELITE QUALIFIER: Cypress Bend Park, Toledo Bend. Second in qualiﬁer series with overall top 10 moving to 2027 Elite Series. 3 p.m. daily weigh-in. Website: bassmaster.com

THURSDAY

ACADIANA BUGS & BREWS: 6 p.m., Pack and Paddle, 601 E. Pinhook, Lafayette. Casual ﬂy-tying and local beers provided. Open to the public. Email Darin Lee: cbrsandcdc@gmail.com. Website: www.packpaddle. com

SATURDAY

HIKING, BIRDING, NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS: 7:30-11:30 a.m., Wildlife & Fisheries Education Center, Woodworth. A Geaux Play Outdoors event. Ages 10 and older, 17-under must be accompanied by adult. Email Chuck Jones: cjones@wlf. la.gov

DEER/PRIMITIVE FIREARMS: Through Oct. 30, State Deer Areas 2. DEER/MODERN FIREARMS: Oct. 31-Dec. 9, with/without dogs. SNIPE: Oct. 31-Jan. 10, ﬁrst split, statewide. DOVES: North Zone: Through Nov. 15; South Zone: thru Nov. 29. DEER/MODERN FIREARMS: Through Nov. 29, State Deer Areas 3, 7, 8 & 10, still-hunt only. DEER/ARCHERY: Through Jan. 15, State Deer Areas 3, 7, 8 & 10; thru Jan. 31, State Deer Areas 1, 2, 4 either-sex take allowed; thru Feb. 15, State Deer Areas 5, 6 & 9. RABBITS/SQUIRRELS: Through Feb. 28, statewide, private lands only & selected wildlife management areas.

AROUND THE CORNER

OCT. 25 — SOUTH LOUISIANA HIGHPOWER CLUB & F-CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS: 8:30 a.m., Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Range, St. Landry Road, Gonzales. Fee $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 juniors. $25 annual club (ﬁrst match free). Call Mike Burke (337) 380-8120. Email: SouthLAHighPower@hotmail.com OCT. 26 — RED STICK FLY FISHERS FLY TYING SESSION: 7 p.m., Bluebonnet Regional Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd., Baton Rouge. Open to the public. Materials and tools available for beginners. Website: www.rsff.org

FISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Fall inshore season open statewide; all outside waters open. OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Gray triggerfish; lane, blackfin, queen & silk snappers & wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers except closed for goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters. CLOSED SEASONS: Recreational & commercial flounder (through Nov. 30); recreational & commercial greater amberjack; private recreational, state & federal charters red snapper; bluefin tuna; gag, goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

WEDNESDAY

HUNTING SEASONS

LAFAYETTE KAYAK FISHING CLUB MEETING: 6 p.m., Pack and Paddle, 601 E. Pinhook, Lafayette. Call (337) 232-5854. Website: www.lafayettekayakﬁshing.com

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THE VARSITY ZONE WEEK 7 FOOTBALL REPORT Friday’s games Area

District 6-5A Fontainebleau at St. Paul’s Mandeville at Ponchatoula Northshore 24, Hammond 13 Slidell 19, Covington 7 District 7-5A Destrehan 35, Hahnville 14 Thibodaux 28, East St. John 27 District 8-5A Bonnabel 20, West Jefferson 6 John Ehret vs. Riverdale District 9-5A Chalmette vs. Holy Cross Edna Karr 7, Rummel 20 District 7-4A Salmen 20, Lakeshore 17 Franklinton 49, Pearl River 14 District 9-4A Kennedy 26, McDonogh 35 7 District 10-4A Shaw 34, Belle Chasse 6 Willow 43, Kenner Discovery 0 District 9-3A St. Charles 63, Patterson 18 District 10-2A Pine 50, Northlake Christian 0 District 11-2A Country Day 70, Fisher 13 Newman 50, Houma Christian 7 District 10-1A Ascension Catholic 26, St. Martin’s 21 Riverside 50, South Plaquemines 22 Nondistrict De La Salle 42, Jefferson Davis 14 Hannan 26, Opelousas Catholic 7 Sarah T. Reed 28, Abbeville 20

State

St. Amant 27, Denham Springs 21 Catholic-PC 51, Varnado 14 St. Michael 42, McKinley 0 Catholic High 70, Zachary 38 Ascension Christian 31, White Castle 20 East Ascension 49, Live Oak 24

Madison Prep 53, Brusly 20 West Feliciana 49, Port Allen 0 Southern Lab at North Iberville Istrouma 12, Glen Oaks 6 Kaplan 27, Parkview Baptist 6 University 66, Collegiate-BR 0 Opelousas 33, Livonia 0 Woodlawn 46, Liberty 14 Dunham 35, Donaldsonville 6 East Feliciana 50, Helix Mentorship 6 Dutchtown 20, Tioga 16 Prairieville 26, Walker 7 Lutcher 35, St. James 20 West Feliciana 49, Port Allen 0 Episcopal 42, Slaughter Community Charter 8 Ascension Catholic 26, St. Martin’s Episcopal 21 Kentwood 53, Central Private 0

Saturday’s games

District 9-5A Jesuit vs. St. Augustine, n District 9-4A Carver 28, Abramson 21 District 11-3A Cohen 28, Thomas Jefferson 22 Sophie B. Wright vs. Jefferson Rise, n

Holy Cross 21, Chalmette 3

Team CHA HC First Downs 6 13 Yards Rushing 29-37 39-110 Yards Passing 74 171 Passes (C-A-HI) 7-14-0 7-10-0 Punts-avg. 6-34.2 5-26.8 Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0 Penalties-yards 3-28 9-80 SCORING SUMMARY Chalmette 0 3 0 0 —3 Holy Cross 7 7 0 7 —21 HC: Talon Meyers 5 pass from Garrett Chittenden (Drew Aguirre kick) HC: Collin Chiappetta 24 pass from Cooper Odie (Aguirre kick) CHS: Tristan DuBose 26 FG HC: Meyers 45 pass from Odie (Aguirre kick)

WEEK 8 SCHEDULE All games 7 p.m. unless noted.

Thursday’s games

District 8-5A East Jefferson vs. Higgins at Memtsas, 6:30 p.m. John Ehret vs. Bonnabel at Yenni, 6:30 p.m. District 9-5A Chalmette vs. Edna Karr at Morris F.X. Jeff District 9-4A McMain vs. Kennedy at Gormley District 10-3A Booker T. Washington vs. De La Salle at Pan American Nondistrict Baker vs. Morris Jeff at Joe Brown

Friday’s games

District 6-5A Hammond at Covington Northshore at Fontainebleau Ponchatoula at Slidell St. Paul’s at Mandeville District 7-5A East St. John at Hahnville Terrebonne at Destrehan District 9-5A John Curtis vs. Jesuit at Strawberry Stadium, Hammond St. Augustine vs. Brother Martin at Gormley District 7-4A Franklinton at Lakeshore Hannan at Pearl River District 10-4A Kenner Discovery at Belle Chasse Northlake Christian at St. Helena Young Audiences at Willow

District 8-3A Pope John Paul II at Albany District 9-3A Berwick at St. Charles District 10-3A Sarah T. Reed vs. Haynes at Yenni District 11-3A Cohen vs. L.B. Landry vs. Morris F.X. Jeff Sr. Stadium Sophie B. Wright vs. Patrick Taylor at Memtsas District 11-2A Covenant Christian at Country Day, 4:30 p.m. Fisher at Newman District 10-1A Ascension Catholic at Riverside South Plaquemines at West St. John Nondistrict Carroll vs. Abramson at Joe Brown Calvary Baptist at Shaw Jewell Sumner at Salmen North Iberville at Ben Franklin Riverdale at Central Lafourche St. Martin’s at Varnado

Saturday’s games

District 8-5A West Jefferson vs. Warren Easton at Pan American, 3 p.m. District 9-5A Holy Cross vs. Rummel at Yenni, 2 p.m. District 9-4A Carver vs. McDonogh 35 at Gormley, 2 p.m. District 11-3A Thomas Jefferson vs. Jefferson Rise at Memtsas

5-star WR Royal ‘locked in’ after Florida commitment

BY CHRISTOPHER DABE Staff writer

Wearing orange-and-blue cleats matching Florida’s school colors, Easton Royal scored two touchdowns Thursday in Brother Martin’s comeback win over John Curtis, with Florida coach Jon Sumrall in attendance at Muss Bertolino Stadium. After picking up a first down, Royal celebrated with a Gator chop. The game was Royal’s ﬁrst since he switched his commitment from Texas to Florida. The five-star wide receiver said after the game he had canceled his remaining visits to Texas and LSU. He will sign with Florida during the early signing period Dec. 2-4 and arrive in Gainesville as a midyear enrollee. “I’m done,” Royal said. “I canceled all my visits. I’m locked in.” Royal had planned to attend Texas’ home game Saturday against Florida and LSU’s home games Nov. 7 against Alabama and Nov. 14 against Texas. “It feels good to finally make a decision and stick to it,” Royal said. Royal already knew Sumrall, who coached at Tulane for two seasons before leaving for Florida after last season. Royal believes Sumrall’s best teams are still ahead, even after Florida opened the season 4-0 before losing its next two games against Missouri and South Carolina. “I tell this with everybody, not just with Florida.

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Florida coach Jon Sumrall watches Brother Martin and Gators commit Easton Royal play John Curtis on Thursday at Muss Bertolino Stadium in Kenner.

FILE PHOTO By JOEy MICHEL

Brother Martin receiver Easton Royal tries to fend off a St. Paul’s defender on Sept. 11.

With Florida and LSU, these are going to be their worst teams,” Royal said. “(Sumrall and LSU’s Lane Kifﬁn) haven’t even had a full year to go in the portal and, most importantly, recruit out of high school.

get going, touching the ball just twice on offense before halftime. During the break, Sumrall encouraged him to keep playing hard when the two crossed paths near the Brother Martin sideline. “He was just motivating me to keep playing, keep going and be there for my teammates when they need me,” Royal said. Royal finished with six catches for 80 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown reception from Justin Morgan. He also ran four times for 35 yards, including a 13-yard, tackle-breaking touchdown run. “I’m going to get doubled and tripled every week,” Royal said. “That defense, no matter where I am on the ﬁeld, all 11 eyes are going to be looking at me. I’m always with my coaches. I’m always happy being the decoy. “Tonight, I got a little bit more of a chance to block. I really take that serious when I don’t have the ball. When I need to make a play, I’m the ﬁrst one in my coach’s ear — ‘Give me the ball, give me the ball’ — to make it happen.”

“That’s a big thing that I like the most, and a reason why I chose Florida over any other school: kids coming out of high school. That’s a big piece for them and developing guys.” Sumrall’s presence at Thursday’s game reinforced Royal’s decision to switch his commitment. “That just goes to show why I changed my decision to go from Texas to Florida,” Royal said. “He’s a great Contact Christopher Dabe guy. Coach (Marcus) Da- at cdabe@theadvocate.com vis, great guy, great coach. Coach Buster (Faulkner), the whole receiver coaching room. That’s the type of SPORTS guy I want to play for and be led by and look up to and be developed by.” Against John Curtis, Royal scored twice as Brother Martin overcame a 21-9 deficit to win 36-28, scoring four touchdowns in a fourth-quarter barrage. Royal took some time to

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LOUISIANA INSPIRED: Mechanic launches program to help teens learn car skills 7D

LIVING

N O L A.C O M

S u n d ay, O C T O B E R 18, 2026

1dn

Jan Risher

Maybe not hip for a young person, but Glen Campbell was good One afternoon in the spring of 1978, I was riding shotgun in my mom’s white Delta 88 Oldsmobile. That car had the stickiest seats I’ve ever known — black pleather. As we pulled into our driveway on Marion Boulevard in Forest, Mississippi, the DJ at the local radio station, WQST, announced a giveaway. The second caller would win an album. I’m not even sure I caught the album or the artist. I was too excited about the possibility of winning something. We had a big ole driveway. I ﬂung the car door open before my mom pulled all the way into the carport. I ran inside and dialed, as in literally dialed — on a rotary phone — 469-3701. (There are enough clues in the preceding sentence for a good archaeologist a thousand years from now to date it within 25 years.)

AP FILE PHOTO By DANNy JOHNSTON

Singer Glen Campbell performs during his ‘Goodbye’ Tour in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2012.

The DJ answered. I breathlessly asked, “What caller am I?” He said, “You’re caller No. 1.” I hung up and dialed all seven digits again. To my amazement, the phone rang. I said, “What caller am I?” He said, “This time you’re caller No. 2 and have won a double album of ’Glen Campbell Live at the Royal Festival Hall.’” The station had experienced a fun two-year run by bringing in a DJ named Big Daddy Bobaloo and rebranding from WQST to T92. Hence, every morning, Big Daddy Bobaloo would say, “This is Big Daddy Bobaloo on T92.” For that brief period, T92 was like magic. Everybody I knew had been listening to Big Daddy in the morning. On the day I was caller No. 2, I was ecstatic, but even at 13, I understood what my big win meant. If one eighth-grader on a rotary phone could be both caller No. 1 and caller No. 2, T92’s days were numbered. That afternoon, I did my best to convince my mother to take me to pick up my prize, never mind that we didn’t have a working record player. She was of a more reasonable mind and said we could go the next day. And so we did. I had been babysitting a lot and had a little stash of cash. Within weeks, I had enough in hand to go to the Western Auto and buy myself a stereo with two large speakers. It had a cassette player, and I could make mix tapes. The combination of the Glen Campbell double album and the stereo changed my life. I retired the ﬂip-clock radio Santa brought me two Christmases earlier. Granted, Glen Campbell was the only album I had for a month or so, but at least it was a double album — there were

ä See CAMPBELL, page 9D

PROVIDED PHOTO FROM THE NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

European fans were excited to meet Saints quarterback Tyler Shough and lineman Taliese Fuaga at the Moose Bar in Paris on March 25.

Vive lesSaints! Can black and gold fans from Europe be true Who Dats? Ahead of the game in Paris, they say ‘oui’

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer

aints fans watching the 2026 NFL Draft may well have wondered why a dude with a thick French accent announced the team’s fourth-round pick. John Arieira Silva was born and raised in Paris and now lives in Nantes on the west coast of France. But he is hardcore Who Dat — or, in French, a “Qui c’est.” How hardcore? A ﬂeur-de-lis is tattooed down his right calf. In 2014, he traveled to New Orleans from France speciﬁcally to see the Saints play the Vikings.

PHOTO PROVIED By ELIO AMAZOUZ

Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, left, is interviewed by Saints fan Elio Amazouz, co-host of the French-language, Saintscentric ‘French Quarter Podcast,’ aboard a boat on the Seine River in Paris in March.

ä See FANS, page 8D

NELL NOLAN’S GUIDE TO PARIS FOR SAINTS FANS they should do in the Editor’s note: Long an city. Of course, that icon of New Orleans is very personal, but and chronicler of high here are some overall society, Nell Nolan is suggestions. also a Francophile and speaks ﬂuent French. Say bonjour Nell Ahead of the Saints Nolan game in Paris, she’s Always, upon entersharing her view on how ing a shop, restaurant, to best enjoy the City of Light hotel, etc., say “bonjour” to for any fans crossing the pond. staff. A pleasant smile helps. AP FILE PHOTO By AURELIEN MORISSARD

The Eiffel Tower rises above the rooftops of the department store Les Galeries Lafayette, a must-visit for shoppers.

I am a lover of Paris, where I studied, lived and have visited in many capacities over decades. People always ask me what

See the sights Take an overall tour of Paris. There are hop-on, hop-

ä See GUIDE, page 9D

2D F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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DINING SCENE Warbler Hotel, its martini bar bring luxe vibes ‘We wanted it to be worthy of St. Charles Avenue’

tail, which is like a martini that went to New Orleans and discovered how a dash of absinthe adds a whiff of intrigue. Following the menu cues, Mildred’s wine list includes many bottles from Spain, and thus plenty that are good values under $60.

A well-crafted martini captivates the eye ﬁrst and then purrs with a sense of graceful luxury as it settles in. The same feeling pervades the new Warbler Hotel and Mildred’s, its martini bar and restaurant. The Warbler and Mildred’s both opened this week, along with the hotel’s rooftop patio bar, called Upstairs, and its lobby Ian coffee counter, McNulty called Milly’s. WHAT’S The hotel’s entire COOKING property is new, built from the ground up over the past two years at 1923 St. Charles Ave. But it ﬁts the streetscape of this epic avenue more like a piece of the city’s past brought back to life. The six-story, 58-room hotel was developed by Verdad Real Estate, led by principal Joe Mann, a New Orleans native who lives nearby. When the old diner Trolley Stop Café closed at this address in 2021, he saw an opportunity to build something grand and meaningful in his hometown. “We wanted it to be worthy of St. Charles Avenue; we wanted it to be a place with charm and character and a story to tell,” Mann said. That story is told through the Jazz Age design style of Streamline Moderne, all smooth curves and straight lines. There’s aerodynamic grace to the contours that evokes a feeling of smooth motion, accentuated by the next streetcar sliding past the windows between oaks. The glamour and romance of a bygone era feel built in. If a dirigible were to moor by the rooftop deck, it wouldn’t look out of place. That feel continues in Mildred’s, a long room taking full advantage of its avenue-facing windows and bringing to mind a Roaring Twenties supper club. The 68-seat space is split between bar and dining room, with counter spots

Upstairs, downstairs, family ties

STAFF PHOTOS By IAN MCNULTy

Mildred’s is a martini bar and restaurant in the Warbler Hotel on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.

THE WARBLER HOTEL, MILDRED’S 1923 St. Charles Ave. Mildred’s is open daily for breakfast, 7-11 a.m., and opens for drinks from 3 p.m. and dinner from 5 p.m. Upstairs opens to the public daily at 3 p.m.

The Warbler Hotel is home to the restaurant Mildred’s, the coffee shop Milly’s and the rooftop bar called Upstairs. for socializing and semi-private table nooks. The Warbler takes its name from the songbird, and it’s also slang for a jazz singer. Mildred’s is named for Mann’s grandmother. The past and the modern feel hand in hand across these spaces.

On the menu, at the bar The Warbler’s food and beverage programs were developed in partnership with Neal Bodenheimer and Kirk Estopinal, from the local cocktail destinations

Cure and Cane & Table. To consult on the culinary side, they brought in Estopinal’s longtime friend chef Andrew Zimmerman, who spent years at Chicago’s Michelin Star-rated restaurant Sepia. His opening menu is strongly Spanish, though not exclusively so, with big ﬂavors that can match strong cocktails. The fresh simplicity and clean lines seem to carry the room’s design motif to the plate. The tortilla española ripples

Licensed in Louisiana 138 N Cortez St New Orleans, LA 70119

with velvety layers of egg and potato, and Mildred’s version of patatas bravas transforms another tapas bar staple. Instead of the usual cubes, potatoes are whipped and piped into a knot pattern and fried, giving waves of crisp texture, clung with spicy bravas sauce and cool aioli. Boquerones and avocado are stacked on baguette from the Marigny’s standout Ayu Bakehouse for an avocado toast with a bold upgrade from the sharplysour marinated anchovies. A martini beckons. The menu runs through larger dishes, including mussels cooked in cider, secreto Iberico pork steak, and cataplana, the Portuguese seafood stew, and continues the Iberian ﬂavors at dessert with a Basque cheesecake. The cocktail list leads with martinis in eight varieties, from the “inverted” (heavy on vermouth, light on gin), to the obituary cock-

Email Ian McNulty at imnulty@ theadvocate.com.

Love Where You Live

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(504) 210-2014

The rooftop patio bar Upstairs, also run by the Mildred’s team, serves its own cocktail list and menu, with some small plates from Mildred’s (including the boquerones and avocado), plus sandwiches. It feels like a Mediterranean tropical beach club perched just above the avenue’s oak canopy. Upstairs could be the place to watch a sunset with a cocktail before dinner at Mildred’s or the after-dinner hang. Mildred’s has its own entrance on the corner, underscoring that the restaurant is a destination in its own right apart from the hotel. The Warbler’s main entrance, down the block, leads through a trellis-covered walkway. In the lobby, one of the curving corners is the counter-service cafe Milly’s for coffee from the local brand Cherry Coffee Roasters. The creative team behind the Warbler has strong New Orleans ties including local architecture ﬁrm EskewDumezRipple, interior design studio Jamie Bush & Co., and design ﬁrm Sweet Olive, founded by Dorothy Mann, the developer’s wife, and her cousin Legier Goldsmith. Family ties manifested in another foundational way too. A spirit guiding the overall approach at the hotel is Dorothy Mann’s father, the late Robert Henry Sarpy Jr. He’s remembered as being the ultimate New Orleanian, a character who embraced a celebratory spirit and exuded personal warmth, making time around him feel well spent. “We wanted a hotel that would make people feel the way we did when we were around him,” said Joe Mann. “We built this for the neighborhood as much as for the guests. We want it to be a gathering place for the community.”

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SOCIAL STREAMING

The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 3D

Nell Nolan

SOCIETY Contact: nnolan@theadvocate.com

Brent Barriere and Judy Barrasso, Eugene Priestley

PHOTOS By NELL NOLAN PHOTOS By JEFF STROUT

Antonis Alexandridis, Alexandra Papadopoulou, John and Dathel Georges

n Hellenic Happenings

Judith Oudt, Bob Gettys, Nicole Hackmann

Betsy and Steve Clement

n All the Whirl A theater triumvirate in spouses Judy Barrasso and Brent Barriere and Eugene Priestley positioned themselves to welcome the Curtain Call Ball crowd at Le Petit Theatre, the beneﬁciary. They, the co-chairs, were assisted by Betsy and Steve Clement, the Young Players Committee chairs. New to the scene was returned-New Orleanian Nicole Bégué Hackmann, the LPT executive director, who joins such staff members as A.J.Allegra, artistic director, and nine others. Main Stage Sponsors, the top ones, were Dickie Brennan’s Tableau restaurant, where Witne and Gabriel Perkins, Aubrey cocktails, dinner and the silent aucSchlanker, Alice Hoyt tion were held; The Times-Picayune| NOLA.com; Barrasso and Barriere; and the Rosemary B. and Brunswick G. Deutsch Foundation for the theater. First Horizon Bank, Friend & Company Fine Jewelers, and Kathleen and Charlie Van Horn ﬁgured as Red Carpet Sponsors. The immediate past CCB committee chairs were Elizabeth Bryan Bragg and Edwin Bragg and Carroll Gelderman Zimmer and Emory Zimmer. Headliners of the LPT board are Helen Young, chairperson, vice chairpersons Robert Gettys and Judith Young Oudt, treasurer Ned Benjamin, and secretary Anne Redd. Kathleen’s mother, Mrs. H. Mortimer Favrot Jr., who answered to both Kay and Toots, was honored in memorium for her generosity to the theater. Funds raised at the Curtain Call Ball support LPT’s mission of serving the community by inspiring a love of live theater. Contributions underwrite the Education Program, which serves 2,000 students in the Greater New Orleans area annually. After the initial shoulder-rubbing in Tableau, along with sipping and supping, the ball brigade beelined to the LPT theater for a welcome by A.J. Allegra, who announced that LPT was in its 110th season and then asked board members to stand. Musical performances by Stephanie Abry, Keith Claverie, Leslie Claverie, Garrin Mesa, Eliza Mullins, and Kadejah One followed, as did Mark Romig’s masterful auctioneering of a handful of unique items and his subsequent paddle-raise requests. He also recognized Bryan Batt, who recently starred in London in “Here Comes J. Edgar.” Young Conservancy Students, notably Bobby Albares, Eli Albares, Egan Peychaud, Parker Portera-Dufrene, Oliver Wallace, and Caroline Womack, added presence to the stage along with Max DoVale as the piano accompanist and trombone player Cameron Clark. Post-performance partying in Tableau was formatted as dessert, nightcaps and the closure of the silent auction. Quite a few of the lively lot were humming “The Lullaby of Broadway,” the on-stage vocal valediction that was tweaked with locally referenced lyrics. The new words became a testament to the decades of fondness for Le Petit Theatre, where the play’s the thing!

A recent Monday overflowed with Greek awareness when the reopening of the Hellenic Republic Honorary Consulate – New Orleans was realized. A luncheon at Galerie de Galatoire hosted by the Louisiana Consular Corps, which has Honorary Consul of Portugal Bill Hines as the dean (succeeding the in-attendance Honorary Consul of Albania Bret Clesi), honored Alexandra Papadopoulou, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hellenic Republic, and Antonis Alexandridis, Ambassador of the Peri and Nike Georges, Liza Georges Freeman Hellenic Republic to the U.S. Shortly afterward, the two dignitaries, along with Honorary Consul of the Hellenic Republic John Dennis Georges, spearheaded a ribboncutting ceremony at the Hellenic Republic Honorary Consulate – New Orleans, 840 St. Charles Ave. During both assemblies, guests were reminded that “Greeks have been part of New Orleans’ history since the 1700s, arriving alongside the Spanish and French” and that in the 1860s, the Greek Consulate was established in the Crescent City by prominent businessman and community David Kerstein, Christina Papastavros Fay, leader Nicholas Benachi, who became the Bill Hines first Honorary Consul of Greece in the city. William Helis Sr. and son William Helis Jr. (who established The Helis Foundation) became the successive such consuls. An inauguration dinner in the National WWII Museum capped the day’s activity with, once again, the two dignitaries, Deputy Minister Papadopoulou and Ambassador Alexandridis, who garnered special thanks during the program, and Honorary Consul Georges extending the invitation. Honorary Consul for Thailand in Louisiana Mark Romig emceed, prominent Greek Robert young, Judi Terzotis soprano Irini Kyriakidou sang the national anthems of Greece and the U.S., and, in a video presentation, tribute was paid to Georges, who then thanked everyone for their presence at the dinner. Tables were bedecked with pretty arrangements of red and white roses inserted with small Greek and U.S. flags done by Pam Georges (Pamela Dennis Flowers). Both the first and last dinner courses, shrimp remoulade and banana bread pudding were pre-set, flanking the served sautéed Gulf fish with ratatouille. Among the many in attendance were French Consul General Rodolphe Sambou, and, as honorary consuls Bill Hines (Portugal), Dr. Quinn Peeper (Great Britain), Maria Isabel Page (Spain), Cecilia Kjellgren (Sweden), Gary Mannina (Luxembourg), and John Fay (Denmark). His wife, Christina Papastavros Fay, is of Greek heritage. Noted, too, were representatives from The Advocate and The Times-Picayune| NOLA.com, which is owned by Mr. Georges and spouse Dathel, as well as from the business and Greek communities. Included were Kevin Hall, Rene Sanchez, Stephen Watson, Robert Elliott Young, Bill Hines, the Rev. and Mrs. George Wilson, Elaine Papoulias, Dr. Nick Moustoukas, Barry and Tina Kern, Kyle and Kendra France,Wayne and Arkesha Baquet, Liza Georges Freeman, Maria and Sophia Yiannopoulos, and from the Zissis family, Ginny, Steve and Maria. Also, Helen Malachias, Darryl and Louellen Berger, Susan Taylor, Jennifer and Fred Heebe, Dr. Olle Kjellgren, Anne and Edmund Redd, Xavier and Susanne DeBerry Cole, Betsy Nalty, David Kerstein,Walt Leger, Bill and Karyn Kearney, Michael Harold, Suzanne and Michael Mestayer, Aulston Taylor,Todd Trosclair, Chad and Vanessa Berg, Kristi and Scott Ballard, Sally and Ron Forman, and Robert and Kathy Zetzmann. Weeks later, Athens-born Kathy enjoyed a conversation with Queen Sofia of Spain, queen emerita, at The Historic New Orleans Collection. Her majesty, who was promoting the role Spain played in the American Revolution, is the eldest and last surviving child of King Paul and Queen Frederica of STAFF PHOTO By NELL NOLAN Greece and chair of the Queen Sofia Foundation.

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4D F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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TRAVEL A Florida road trip reveals freshwater treasures BY PATRICK CONNOLLY Orlando Sentinel (TNS)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Decades before Walt Disney ever set his sights on bringing Mickey Mouse to Florida and building theme parks that have drawn countless millions, the Sunshine State’s tourism revolved around springs. From the glass-bottom boat tours of Silver Springs, which began in the 1870s, to the Weeki Wachee mermaid show, which began in the 1940s, Florida’s freshwater gems have long drawn visitors from around the world and still do. Beginning in Central Florida, it’s possible to embark on a road trip to see several of these pristine blue jewels in one go. Florida has more than 1,000 natural springs throughout the state.

Silver Springs State Park When visitors ﬁrst started ﬂocking to Silver Springs for tourism more than 150 years ago, the area had 19th-century steamboats churning up and down the Ocklawaha and Silver Rivers. The glass-bottom boat tours started in the late 1870s when Hullam Jones and Phillip Morrell attached a piece of glass to the bottom of a rowboat, allowing visitors to gaze down into the crystal-clear springs without getting wet. On a modern-day glassbottom boat tour, visitors learn about the movies filmed at Silver Springs, including “Tarzan” and “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” the health of the

TNS PHOTO By PATRICK CONNOLLy

Karissa Bellile experiences the underground cavernous spring at Devil’s Den Spring in Williston, Fla. springs and the Florida fauna people might encounter. There’s a chance of seeing alligators, native birds and nonnative monkeys that were introduced by a jungle boat captain in the 1930s. The 30-minute tour stops at several major springs that make up the Silver River headwaters, including the largest and most stunning one, Mammoth Spring. A lot has changed in Florida over the history of Silver Springs tourism, but the boat tours feel like a time capsule in the best way. While a glass-bottom boat tour is the highlight of many visits to Silver Springs, the park also offers a gift shop, food, paddling experiences, camping and hiking. It’s recommended to book

tours online in advance, especially during times of peak visitation. Address: 5656 E. Silver Springs Blvd. in Silver Springs Fee: $17 per 30-minute tour; $2 per person admission fee (before taxes) More information: ﬂoridastateparks.org/silversprings or silversprings.com

Devil’s Den Devil’s Den Spring is a private diving and snorkeling site housed within a 120-foot-wide cave. When early settlers came upon the “Devil’s Den” prehistoric spring, they noticed what they thought was smoke rising from the underworld and kept their distance. In reality, it was just

harmless steam rising from the spring. If only they had known how beautiful the place was, they could have discovered something truly remarkable. Now, the site welcomes divers and snorkelers to enjoy the refreshing spring waters while exploring a whole other hidden world located beneath the earth. Camping is also available on site, as is the “new and improved” John’s Oasis swimming pond. Visitors are welcome to swim, snorkel or dive in the oasis before or after their experience swimming in Devil’s Den. Serenity is abundant, especially for a place with such a menacing name. Address: 5390 N.E. 180th

Ave. in Williston Fees: $30 per person for a 90-minute snorkeling session; $15 per person for a nonsnorkeling day pass. Equipment rentals and diving are available. More information: devilsden. com

Springs Trail in Crystal River Fees: $12.50 per adult in the summer; $20 in winter. Discounts available for seniors ages 55+, military members and children. More information: crystalriverﬂ.org

Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River

Honorable Mentions

When visiting the “manatee capital of the world,” there are multiple ways to engage with Florida’s fabled and beloved sea cows. The most intimate manatee encounters can be experienced while swimming with the gentle giants on a guided tour. There are several dozen area outﬁtters to help in achieving this bucket-list endeavor. For people hoping to see manatees without hopping onto a boat or getting wet, it’s possible to see the marine mammals during a visit to Three Sisters Springs, a unit of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. On a winter day this past season, around 500 manatees were spotted congregating in the springs at once, keeping warm as temperatures in the Gulf dropped. A network of trails and boardwalks at Three Sisters Springs helps visitors see manatees up close. Ranger-led discussions and volunteer-guided walking tours provide more information and context during manatee season, ensuring an educational experience. Address: 917 Three Sisters

In the world of Central Florida springs, the above gems are only the start. Many other freshwater gems are worth visiting for tubing, swimming, snorkeling and sightseeing. Ichetucknee Springs State Park: Northwest of Gainesville, this park offers paddling and tubing on a picturesque spring run, perfect for cooling off on hot summer days. The three-hour tube run makes for a great spring-fed lazy river. More information: floridastateparks.org Wekiwa Springs State Park: In Seminole County, this park is one of Central Florida’s favorite outdoor playgrounds with a large swimming area, kayaking opportunities and a long hillside for soaking in the sun. The park also offers a network of hiking trails and a campground. The park requires online reservations in advance. More information: floridastateparks.org De Leon Springs State Park: This Volusia County park presents fresh, cool water in a large swimming area at the spring for cooling off in the heat. The park is also famous for its Old Sugar Mill Pancake House, a cookyour-own-breakfast restaurant. More information: floridastateparks.org

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER By Christopher Elliott

Holland America cruise changes price after payment My husband and I are loyal Holland America Line customers. Since we live in south Florida, we often look for last-minute deals. A few months ago, I saw a 10-day cruise on the Zuiderdam posted on its website. The prices were changing as I watched, but I managed to book an ocean-view room for $479 per person.The total came to $958. We applied a $200 cruise credit and paid the remaining $758 in full. I received an email confirmation showing our booking was paid. Three days later, I received a new confirmation from Holland America indicating we now owed an additional Christopher $1,530. I immediately called our personal Elliott cruise consultant, who was completely unhelpful. She told me the original price was a pricing error.When I asked to speak with a supervisor, she refused. I followed the advice on your site and emailed guest relations managers. I even

sent screenshots of the pricing I saw online. Holland America wouldn’t budge.We felt this was a bait-and-switch.We ended up canceling for a full refund because we weren’t going to pay double the price. But we really wanted to take this cruise to see crew members we know. Is there any way Holland America can be held to the original price it advertised and accepted? — Cindy Woodring, Coral Springs, Fla. Holland America should have honored the price it published on its website. When a company displays a price, accepts your payment and sends a “paid in full” conﬁrmation, it should be a done deal. The only exception is when the company made an obvious fare error — for example, moving a decimal point and charging $9.58 instead of $958. The cruise line pointed to Section 2 of its cruise contract, which it says lets it off the hook for pricing errors. I didn’t see anything

in Section 2 about pricing errors, but in several places on its site, Holland America gives itself the right to cancel a cruise for any “lawful” reason. In supplemental pricing terms, the company says, “Holland America Line reserves the right not to honor any published prices that it determines were erroneous due to printing, electronic or clerical error. Holland America Line shall have the right to refuse or cancel any bookings made at an incorrect price whether or not the order has been conﬁrmed and your credit card charged.” But was this an obvious error? I think $47 a day on a luxury cruise, with all meals included, is almost too good to be true. But for a lastminute deal during the offseason? Maybe not. You did the right thing by taking screenshots and keeping a paper trail. You also tried to esca-

late the issue within the company. When a front-line agent refuses to let you talk to a supervisor, it’s time to stop calling and start writing. You can find the names and email addresses of the Holland America executives on my advocacy site, Elliott.org. I reached out to Holland America on your behalf. “We regret that a pricing error briefly appeared for this voyage and apologize for the confusion this caused,” a representative told me. “Once the issue was identified, we promptly notified affected agents and guests.” Holland America says it won’t honor the incorrect fare, but it has offered complimentary stateroom upgrades to anyone who chooses to continue with their voyage. That “goodwill” upgrade required you to pay the extra $1,530 first. This is a disappointing result,

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonproﬁt organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.

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especially considering your loyalty status. When a cruise line makes a mistake on its own website, it should own it — not ask its best customers to pay for the glitch. Next time, consider keeping your booking while you escalate your complaint to the executives. Once you hit “cancel,” your leverage disappears faster than the shrimp buffet on formal night. I’m writing this column as a public service for the rest of us. I’m not happy about the resolution, but now you know: Even if you paid for everything, your cruise line can withdraw its offer and ask you to pay more.

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 5D

Photos reflect the moment — for better or worse mother has said very hurtful things Dear Miss Manners: New partners to me about our timeline, and also should not be in the family pictures. about my career. She can’t If the relationships don’t last, seem to get it out of her head it ruins the pictures. Believe that my life should go at the me, I learned this the hard same pace hers did. She was way. married at 24 and right away I know, others may get dibought a house and cars, and vorced, etc. but I think the worked at the same company one-year rule is a good one. Judith 30 years. She keeps inGentle reader: Sure. But Miss Martin for Manners thought the point sisting that my time to have MISS of taking pictures was to get children is almost over, and MANNERS a time capsule from the mothat he should have proposed to me a year ago. She says that ment. What better way to do so than to remember Samson’s kooky he doesn’t really love me if he doesn’t want to get married, and that she is girlfriend from college who was into competitive duck herding? Whatever embarrassed of me because I don’t have a job. happened to her? My usual reply is that God will give Dear Miss Manners: I have been with me children at any age if I am supmy boyfriend for three years. We have agreed that when he graduates posed to have them, and that if my from college, we will get engaged, boyfriend didn’t love me, he wouldn’t and then marry about a year later (or have been taking care of me for so whenever it feels right). He has also long and planning his life with me. been taking care of me while I have I don’t know how else to respond to been unemployed for the past year. get her to stop saying these hurtful We’re both 28. things to me. “I’m happy” and “it’s out All through our relationship, my of my control” aren’t working.

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Today is Sunday, Oct. 18, the 291st day of 2026. There are 74 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 18, 1977, Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in Game 6 of the World Series to lead the New York Yankees to an 8-4 win and a 4-2 series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers; his success in the Fall Classic earned him the nickname “Mr. October.” Also on this date: In 1867, the United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia. In 1898, the American flag was first raised in Puerto Rico, shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the U.S. In 1931, inventor Thomas Edison died at his home in West Orange, New Jersey, at the age of 84. In 1954, Texas Instruments unveiled the Regency TR-1, the first commercially produced transistor radio. In 1962, James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for determining the doublehelix molecular structure of DNA. In 1968, American Bob Beamon shattered the previous long jump world record by nearly 2 feet, leaping 29 feet, 2¼ inches at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, overriding President Richard Nixon’s veto. In 1977, West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia,

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Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com or to her email, dearmissmanners@ gmail.com.

TODAY IN HISTORY

Dear Heloise: Fans don’t cool the air, whether it’s a ceiling fan or another type of fan. They remove the heat from one’s body, be it a human or an animal. So, if you leave a pet at home, leave a fan running for them. My dog laid right in front of our floor fan for most of this sumHints from mer. Turn fans off Heloise if no one’s there. Leave a house fan on for pets if you don’t have a portable fan. — Frank A., in Ventura, California Frank, after consulting with a fan manufacturer, here’s what they suggested: n Air flow: The moving air flows across your skin and hair, making sweat evaporate faster and lowering your body temperature. n Room temperature: The room’s actual temperature stays the same, or on occasion, the fan can even cause the room to feel warmer due to its motor. n Cost savings: If you or others aren’t in a room, you can turn off your ceiling fan to help lower your energy bill. — Heloise

SANDY WARD

Gentle reader: We need a new tactic. Your being happy is subjective, and it being out of your control is not entirely true — in your mother’s mind, at least. To be clear, Miss Manners does not defend your mother berating you and your boyfriend. It is unkind and unfair. But pleading with her for a different response is proving ineffective. Perhaps you can take a stronger approach: “I’m sorry you don’t like it, but this is what works for us.” And then change the subject. Dear Miss Manners: What do I say to a neighbor who brought us a carrot soufﬂe to try? We did not care for it. She’s having the car club over and is making four dishes of it! Gentle reader: “Thank you.” And then hope — as Miss Manners does — that if the soufﬂe is really that bad, the car club has the means to make a quick getaway.

1 BD • 1 BA • 756 SF

freeing all 87 hostages and four crew members and killing three of the four hijackers; the Lufthansa flight had been hijacked five days earlier by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and made multiple stops before the rescue raid. In 2007, two bombs exploded near a motorcade carrying former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi hours after her return from eight years in exile, killing more than 130 people; Bhutto herself was unhurt but would be assassinated in December 2007. In 2018, President Donald Trump threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico if authorities could not stop a caravan of migrants from Central America. In 2019, the first all-female spacewalking team made history high above Earth, replacing a broken part of the International Space Station’s power grid. It was the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that no men were part of a spacewalk as NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the job with wrenches and power-grip tools. Today’s Birthdays: Composer Howard Shore is 80. Author Terry McMillan is 75. Tennis Hall of Famer Martina Navratilova is 70. Boxing Hall of Famer Thomas Hearns is 68. Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme is 66. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is 65. Musician Ne-Yo is 47. Olympic gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn is 42. Actor Zac Efron is 39. WNBA player Brittney Griner is 36. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is 35. Actor Sophie Thatcher is 26.

Jenkins-Blackwell Mr. and Mrs. Larkin Calvin Jenkins III joyfully announce the marriage of their daughter, Miss Abigail Grace Jenkins, to Mr. Blaise Dane Blackwell, son of the late Mr. Timothy “Bo” Blackwell and Mrs. Jessica Cox, and stepson of Mr. Christian Cox. The couple exchanged marriage vows on Friday, the ninth of October, two thousand twenty-six, at five o’clock in the evening at Oak Hill Farms in Kentwood, Louisiana. The ceremony was officiated by the bride’s grandfather, Mr. Robert S. Younge, lending a particularly meaningful touch to the occasion. Surrounded by their closest family and friends, the couple celebrated their union in an intimate gathering filled with love and joy. Mrs. Jacquiline Sticker served as Matron of honor, and Mr. Owen Guth served as best man. A reception followed at Oak Hill Farms, where guests gathered to honor the newlyweds and celebrate the beginning of their life together. The bride is a graduate of Bowling Green School in Franklinton, Louisiana, and is continuing her education at Louisiana State University in pursuit of her dream of becoming a trauma surgeon. The groom is a graduate of Mandeville High School and Northshore Technical Community College, having completed both programs concurrently through dual enrollment. He continues his career in the HVAC industry. Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell will make their home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as they begin their new life together.

6D F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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BOOKS

BETWEEN THE PAGES WITH CHRISTOPHER RICE

Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ turns 50 Christopher Rice reflects on his mother’s legacy Anne Rice BY RIEN FERTEL

Contributing writer

As Halloween descends, what better way to celebrate New Orleans’s greatest contribution to the spooky-verse than the 50th anniversary of Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire”? Knopf, the novel’s original publisher, recently issued a special edition decorated in blood-red paper edging and featuring an afterword by the author’s son, Christopher Rice, that adds several fascinating layers to the “Vampire” mythos. Christopher Rice is a bestselling novelist in his own right, as well as the co-manager, alongside his longtime production partner, Eric Shaw Quinn, of his mother’s literary estate. Over the coming weeks, the pair will appear at a coven of vampire-centric events in New Orleans to mark the golden anniversary of the birth of Lestat, Louis, Claudia and the rest of the Vampire Chronicles collective. On Oct. 24, they will serve as co-grand marshals of the Krewe of Boo! parade, which will feature an Anne Rice-themed float. The next night, the Prytania Uptown will host a special screening of the 1994 camp-classic film. On Oct. 30, the sold-out Anne Rice Vampire Lestat Fan Club Ball returns to town for its 38th iteration. And on Halloween, Christopher Rice and Quinn will commemorate the novel’s jubilee at Loyola University’s Roussel Performance Hall — tickets on sale from Garden District Book Shop, the site of Anne Rice’s most legendary signing events. Last week, I spoke on the phone with Christopher Rice about the legacy of his mother’s debut novel, coming of age just as Lestat captured the attention of a culture hungry for fresh blood, and what he misses about New Orleans. This interview was edited for length and clarity. You make the point in your afterword to “Interview with the Vampire” that the book was not initially a success but rather “a critically reviled flop,” in your mother’s assessment. What really defines a flop is something that didn’t live up to expectations. The things that line up for a book prepublication can be elements that work against it. The advance, movie and paperback rights. It’s something that all of these people have invested in, all this marketing, and the New York Times is calling it, essentially,

other, surprising direction in understanding Lestat’s journey throughout the Chronicles, which is that this character is a mix of your parents, Stan and Anne. Anne always blended herself into her characters in a way without respect for gender boundaries. I think Louis was who Anne was at one point in her life, and Lestat is who she had to become to survive her grief for my sister. It is a misnomer to say that my father was the model for Lestat — though my father physically might have been the model. My dad never struggled with a belief in God; he was a devout atheist. And my mother, even though she was not always a member of the Catholic Church, was always open to the idea that there was a spiritual world beyond the material. That interplay between the two of them, especially when they lost someone so close to them, is very much in the relationship between Louis and Lestat. When you start to continue in the series, you realize that Lestat’s STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER quest for adventure, his constant seeking, his refusal to be pinned Nancy Smith stands next to the tomb of author Anne Rice as Smith walks around Lake Lawn Metairie down by anyone’s dogma — that’s Cemetery in New Orleans in 2023. Anne. There’s no denying it. I don’t know if she was ever cisco, which is where we were very open to that idea, but she living at the time, in the Castro District where people were walk- did repeatedly say, “If I was going up and down the street in ing to be a vampire, I would want BDSM gear. So it didn’t really to be Lestat. And, if I was going catch me too off guard. to be a man, I would want to be 6 What did captivate me was the feet tall and blonde.” historical nature of the costumes, You moved to New Orleans at the age of the transportive ambitions of 10, leaving at 23. What do you miss most how these people were dressed. about the city? What memories are conThe book had taken them out of jured up about this place? the time that they were living The food, the food and the food. in and put them in a time where There is just a sense of artistry they wanted to remain. around food in that city that I There was a paperback edition have not found anywhere else on of “Interview” that had a famthe planet. I truly haven’t. I live out in Southern California. We’re ily portrait with Louis, Lestat either the taco and hamburger and Claudia hanging around our capital of the world or this sort house. But the nature of that book seemed very different from of maniacally trendy nutritional what my mother was working on ideology — and I just don’t have patience for it. currently, when I first began to So that’s what I miss. Some of retain memories of her as a pubmy most nostalgic memories STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE lished author. She was writing historical fiction; there was noth- are about going down to Mr. B’s Christopher Rice is photographed in New Orleans last year. with my mother and my father. ing supernatural about it. There were no witches or vam- They would allow me to read a book at the table, which I thought pires in these stories, and this preposterous — and comparing view with the Vampire” shook was very progressive of them. it to a “Spider-Man” comic book, off the dust, if you will, of all this little paperback book off to the I would read “The Indian in the side of the console table in the which at the time was the kiss of dismissal that had been heaped front hallway was this odd thing. Cupboard” and sit in that beautideath for any sort of literary am- on it in the beginning. That story about encountering those first So for people to show up dressed ful restaurant, this fine dining bition. So it stung her for a while. like the characters from that experience surrounded by the I don’t think it was until the mo- cosplayers who were influenced by “Interenergy of the French Quarter. ment I describe in the afterword, view,” the beginnings of a second life for the book cover was jarring. It was the beginning of the shift from Those are some of my greatest where people started showing up book. What did that mean to you? Was it something that had been almost a memories. in costume and saying again and any sort of revelation? coping skill for her. There are two cities in this again, steadily over time, that The story of your mother channeling Rien Fertel is the author of four this dismissed book had reached country where you are not surthe grief over the death of her daughter, books. He recently won his fifth them, affected them. Everything prised to encounter costumed Michele, into the character Claudia is well Best Critical Review Award from began to turn. It wasn’t really people. One of them is New Orknown. But you also point readers in anthe New Orleans Press Club. until the early 1980s that “Interleans, and the other is San Fran-

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 7D

LOUISIANA INSPIRED Mechanic launches training program for teens It honors his sons who drowned in 2011

BY DESIREE STENNETT Staff writer

With a gray Chevy Malibu hoisted to chest height on a mechanical lift, 15-year-old Tali Vernon and 17-year-old Juel Hatch Jr. stuck their arms behind the front wheel, looking for the strut. Replacing it would stop the car from bouncing too much, making it easier and safer to drive. For the boys, it was considered a “big job” and one of the most difﬁcult they had tackled. Over their shoulder stood Aaronne “Seven” Simmons, offering guidance. He peppered the teens with questions about which tools and attachments they would need, instructing them to keep everything organized. He watched as they wiggled the old part loose, arms ready in case they needed help. “The same way you got it out, put it back,” he said. The boys are part of NOLA Service Circle, a program Simmons created in the spring out of his Central City auto shop of the same name. He teaches kids as young as 13 to change oil, replace tires, work on brakes, and do other routine car maintenance. They can work their way up to “big jobs” like the one Tali and Juel had. Juel completed the 16-week curriculum months ago but still goes to the shop most days after school. He hopes to learn about transmissions soon, and so far, his favorite kind of car to work on is the Nissan Maxima. “They just makes sense to me, the way they’re built,” he said. “They’re easy for me to understand.”

A stolen start

Simmons never planned to start a nonproﬁt.

STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER

Juel Hatch, 16, left, a student at Eleanor McMain Secondary School, asks questions to shop owner Aaronne Simmons, who runs a mentorship program where he teaches boys and young men how to do basic car maintenance. Amyn Scott, 17, a student at New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School, sorts a wrench set at NOLA Service Circle in New Orleans.

Five years ago, he started selling old, worn-out cars to junkyards for scrap metal. It was a good living. Eventually, he met a mechanic who taught him routine car repairs. When he came across a ﬁxable vehicle, he’d repair it and sell it to someone in need for cheap. Most of the work was done in an empty lot he rented in New Orleans East. He also operated Forever Lounge in the Lower 9th

Ward, but there were problems. Someone started breaking windows at the lounge and surrounding homes and cars. One night, someone broke in and stole a laptop and other items. In an Instagram post, Simmons offered a reward if it was returned. It worked, but he was struck by how young the culprits were. “They were kids,” he said. “Instead of trying to hurt them or put them in jail or something like that, I decided to do something

Mars platform

for them. I decided to teach them that you don’t have to steal people’s things out of their cars; you can just fix (the cars) and charge them for fixing it.” He sold drinks at second lines to raise a little money, started a GoFundMe, and put out a call for donations. He told parents they could bring their kids all summer. He raised more than $12,000, but the money went quickly. He started with 25 boys and bought everyone work boots and uniforms and socks. He provided lunch every day. Eventually, Simmons was able to secure a yearlong lease on an auto shop on South Galvez Street in Central City so they could work more comfortably. At $4,000 a month, expenses to run the nonprofit keep adding up even as donations have slowed. Simmons, determined to keep it going, has been paying for everything out of his own pocket until donations start flowing again or he can secure a grant. “I just wanted to give these kids some hope,” he said.

Tragedy sparks service

Simmons started the program in honor of his two 13-year-old sons, Aaronne Mitchell and Aaronne Russell. In 2011, the boys drowned in Lake Pontchartrain while taking an afternoon swim with their neighbor’s dogs near Lincoln Beach. Their bodies were recovered after a dayslong search. “I often ﬁnd myself wondering what kind of young men you would’ve grown into,” Simmons wrote in a July Facebook post dedicated to his sons. “I wish more than anything that y’all were here to see your dad today. I wish you could see the work I’m doing in the community, pouring into young men, teaching them life skills, showing them love, and helping them ﬁnd their purpose.

“Every young man I encourage reminds me of the opportunity I never got to have with you,” he wrote. Their memory drives him to be a role model to as many young men as he can, Simmons said. And as the program grows, he’s hoping girls may want to join as well. In less than a year, he’s been able to get nine young men certifications to become mechanics. Six have found jobs at Take 5 Oil Change, Firestone and Walmart auto centers. He’s also helped two boys fix up cars to take with them to college. Elijah “Eman” Carter, now a freshman at Southern University, was among the first wave of students to join the program over the summer. One of his favorite moments happened during a downpour. He was in the middle of replacing a starter on a truck when it started to rain, but they didn’t stop. “That was what made the program fun,” said Carter, who is studying electrical engineering and plans to open his own auto shop one day. “We all wanted to be there, and we all wanted to work and get our hands dirty.” Now away at college with a car he fixed up himself in Simmons’ program, Carter, 19, is offering oil changes and other car maintenance services to other students to make extra cash. He hopes the community will keep supporting the program, and that teens will keep signing up to learn, even if they don’t know much about cars. “Every time we got a new student, they fit right in no matter what you know or don’t know,” he said, calling the program “a brotherhood.” “You’re going to learn about cars, but it’s going to feel like you’re at home because everyone is so positive.” Email Desiree Stennett at desiree.stennett@theadvocate.com.

“It’s just a great sense of pride to be part of the energy past and energy into the future. We have produced a billion barrels and we are not done yet.” Billy Lott Operation Supervisor

reaches historic 1-billion barrel milestone

Since 1996, the Shell-operated Mars platform has played a defining role in deep water energy production. Designed for waters nearly 3,000 feet deep, Mars was a bold step forward at the time and helped redefine what was possible offshore. Nearly 30 years later, continued investment, enduring engineering, and the commitment of generations of people have helped bring Mars to this landmark achievement. To be the first platform in the Gulf to reach one billion barrels is a momentous milestone, but for those who have been part of Mars, it has never been just about the number. The Mars community identifies as Martians, united by the enduring principle, “once a Martian, always a Martian.” This milestone carries the weight of long days offshore, shared challenges, and moments of problem-solving that happen when people rely on one another. It reflects years of dedication and quiet perseverance, and the deep sense of pride that comes from being part of something that continues to move forward.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry joined Shell GOA and Pipeline staff to commemorate one billion barrels produced from the Shell Mars asset via the Mars booster station in Port Fourchon. From L to R: Greg Mouras, Nick Stone, Ken Duplantis, Jeff Bergeron, Gov. Jeff Landry, Lynn Belanger, Shawn Danos, Wayland Neil, Colette Hirstius, Chris Nace, Kevin McMahon, Richard Krebs, Sean Guillory

shell.us/louisiana | #PoweringProgress

8D F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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FANS

national Fan of the Year. Silva loves the city’s ultra-heavy metal scene as represented by Down, Crowbar and Acid Bath. Down vocalist Phil Anselmo ﬂaunts his Saints fandom; that got Silva interested in the team. The ﬂeur-de-lis on his calf was inspired by Anselmo’s similar tattoo. Silva added the word “Lifer,” the title of his favorite Down song and a comment on the duration of his Saints dedication. In 2008, he started live-tweeting games as they aired in the middle of the night in France. In 2015, he took over the Twitter account, @SaintsFrance. Other French fans joined him in an effort to grow the Saints community in France. In 2023, Silva launched the French-language, Saints-centric “French Quarter Podcast” with Bertrand Bille and Elio Amazouz. Amazouz became a Saints fan in high school. He’d long dreamed of visiting New Orleans, so the Saints became his team once he discovered “American football.” He thought the rebuilding of the city after Katrina was “fascinating.” His wife, Grace Poley, is from Maryland, so they spend a lot of time stateside. They try to catch Saints road games in the Northeast and were in the Superdome when the Saints beat the Texans to start the 2019 season. Bille, who lives in Lille in northern France, was researching New Orleans for a school project in 2009 when his older brother showed him an illegally downloaded Saints game. “That was the moment I knew that this sport, this city, and this team were going to mean something special to me,” Bille said. He studied the rules and offensive and defensive strategies. He appreciated how “incredible” the Drew Brees/Sean Payton era was with the likes of Jimmy Graham, Marques Colston and Reggie Bush. “They were the players who helped me learn and fall in love with the game,” said Bille, who also admires Cam Jordan and Alvin Kamara. That New Orleans is the “most French” city in America also appealed to Bille. “Compared to other NFL cities, New Orleans has a European-style fan culture. The passion, the sense of belonging, the way the team is part of the city’s identity — that’s what I love about the Saints and what I love experiencing as a fan.”

Continued from page 1D

discovered American football in the late 1990s, when games were rarely available in France. Like Silva, Lefebvre’s fondness for New Orleans hard rock music, especially the bands Down and Crowbar, steered him to the Saints. The city/team’s recovery after Katrina deepened his affection. Super Bowl XLIV — the first Super Bowl he watched live on TV — sealed the deal. “I knew then that they were definitely my team,” Lefebvre said. “What I love is the team’s resilience, its determination to keep going despite the challenges, just like the city itself. “The natural connection between New Orleans and France makes my love for the team even stronger. I’m proud to wear the Black and Gold every day and to support them from thousands of kilometers away.” That distance is shrinking. When then-Saints linebacker Demario Davis visited Paris in July 2025 as part of an NFL outreach, Bille and Silva met him at a small bar/café near Notre-Dame Cathedral called New Orléans Saints. (The owner’s wife is from New Orleans. Fleurty Girl, the local boutique that sells New Orleanscentric attire and accessories, is installing a pop-up store there for the upcoming game.) The “French Quarter Podcast” crew covered quarterback Tyler Shough and offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga’s promotional trip to Paris in March. They interviewed Shough and Fuaga aboard a boat on the Seine and hung out at The Moose, a Parisian bar that airs NFL games. Weeks later, Silva and Bille went to Pittsburgh for the NFL Draft. As the Saints’ International Fan of the Year, Silva stepped up to the podium and announced, “With the 132nd pick, the New Orleans Saints select Jeremiah Wright.” He then ad-libbed, “We getting Shough’d tonight!” Shough rhymes with “duck,” so that shout-out earned Silva some Saints social media notoriety. That his team is playing in his home country is “mind-blowing,” even if such authentic touches as bucket drummers and smoked sausage vendors will be harder to find outside Stade de France. “We are beyond excited,” Silva said. “It all started with live tweeting games at 2 a.m. in France, translating news for a small audience. We can’t be thankful enough for everything that has happened since then.”

Three years ago, he and three friends launched a French-language podcast devoted to the Saints. And in early 2026, the team named him its International Fan of the Year, earning him an invitation to the NFL Draft. Silva will join thousands of Saints fans — fellow Frenchmen, other Europeans, expats and a sizable number of New Orleanians — at Stade de France in Paris on Oct. 25 to see their beloved Black and Gold take on the Steelers. PROVIDED PHOTO FROM JULIAN ‘DOC’ LEFEBVRE Some homegrown Who Dats may Julien ‘Doc’ Lefebvre, center, poses with Saints quarterback Tyler Shough question the depth and breadth of Saints fandom in Europe, where and lineman Taliese Fuaga at the Moose Bar in Paris on March 25. the “other” football — soccer — reigns supreme. He knows plenty of fellow Amer- ern Italy to Paris next weekend, Doug Keese, a New Orleans ican expats with whom he can dis- “ready for the Who Dat Nation native who is now a Paris-based cuss football. Italian fans to give our best.” photographer, organized a “booze Zanatta’s connection is “some“I do not try to push football on the cruise” on the Seine River for 20 Dutch,” he said. “They do not care.” thing more than the team and the friends from the Krewe of Tucks Clark, his wife and two children city. It’s something magic. My love ahead of next weekend’s game. will be in Stade de France on Oct. for Louisiana will never stop, and “I know zero French people 25. It will be his 19-year-old daugh- the Saints neither.” that are American football fans,” ter’s first Saints game: “Paris is Keese said. only about a 3.5-hour train ride for The French connection But they exist. And despite the us, so it was an easy decision to The French may be historically Saints’ losing record, they’re fired make the trip.” predisposed to favor the Saints up to see the team play in Paris. The NFL’s yearslong initiative to thanks to the Louisiana Purchase. The night before the game, Silva, build an international fanbase has Napoleon, then, is the godfather of his “French Quarter Podcast” co- steadily increased the league’s vis- the European Who Dat Nation. hosts and other Saints podcasters ibility and popularity overseas. Maxine Depert lives with his from Europe and New Orleans will Gabriele Zanatta is a 30-year-old wife and two daughters in Clerhost a fan gathering at Paname Italian who lives in Verona. His han- mont-Ferrand in central France. Brewing Company in Paris’s 19th dle on X is “@GabrieleWhoDat.” The 30-year-old logistics team arrondissement. He discovered the leader at a company that rents “It is obviously the Saints thanks to “des- furniture and tableware was intromost exciting opportutiny and a mix of good duced to the Saints as a boy when luck and bad luck.” a friend at his swimming club nity,” Silva said. “AnStuck at home in suggested he watch a 2008 Saintsnouncing the (draft) February 2010 while Packers game. pick was a dream come recuperating from an “He was a Packers fan, so I fell in true, and representing illness, Zanatta tuned love with the Saints,” Depert said. the Who Dat Nation in to Super Bowl XLIV “The colors were all I needed to like around the world was “to see this event the this team. The players made me truly a gift. Americans are always love it. Drew Brees first, but also “But having grown a talking about but in Ita- Pierre Thomas and Lance Moore.” community (of fans in Depert watches every game. France) and gathering PROVIDED PHOTO FROM ly is not really famous.” everyone around, then That was the Su- Two years ago, he attended a Saints JOHN ARIEIRA SILVA going to the game the per Bowl the Saints practice at Tulane University and next day and celebrat- John Arieira Silva got won. He subsequently went to a preseason game against delved into the sport the Titans. ing, will be a full circle a fleur-de-lis tattoo moment.” on his calf modeled and the Saints. Drew “Despite the loss, it was my most Brees, Sean Payton and beloved trip,” Depert said. “I loved ‘It’s something magic’ after New Orleans Alvin Kamara became everything about New Orleans and hard rock singer Phil it made me feel like a true fan now his heroes. Allegiance to a proTwo years ago, Zanat- that I saw a home game.” fessional sports team Anselmo’s similar He hopes to score tickets to the is often, but not always, tattoo. ta visited “the city that tied to geography. is the mother of the Paris game for his whole family. “If that doesn’t work out, then we For New Orleans expats in Eu- Who Dat Nation.” He attended a rope, the Saints-Steelers show- game at the Caesars Superdome and will go back to New Orleans,” he down is an opportunity to see a fell “more and more in love with the said. “That’s not a problem.” city, the lifestyle, the people.” game in their new backyard. He traveled to Canton, Ohio, in Hard rock Saints Rummel High School graduate Nick Clark has lived in the Neth- August to witness Brees’ induction Legions of European musicians Interviewing Shough on the Seine erlands for 11 years. He and his into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. play traditional New Orleans jazz. Julien “Doc” Lefebvre, a longfamily tune in to Saints games on He’ll return to New Orleans for the A very different kind of New Or- time follower of @SaintsFrance, Sundays, which start at either 7 Saints-Packers game in December. leans music first enticed John Ari- joined the “French Quarter Pod- Email Keith Spera at kspera@ He plans to drive from north- eira Silva, the Saints’ future Inter- cast” team for the 2026 season. He theadvocate.com. p.m. or 10 p.m. Amsterdam time.

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 9D

GUIDE

Continued from page 1D off buses and other types of tours. This way, you can see the whole layout of the City of Light. Try the Métro, which is like the subway, even if it’s for a short ride.

All who wander Paris is a walkable city, and it’s a thrill to “ﬂâner,” the French verb meaning to wander aimlessly. Get an actual paper map from your hotel (or elsewhere) to have a feeling of where you are and what there is to see.

Steep in the culture Embrace the interminable list of music venues, opera shows, ballet performances, art galleries and ﬁlms. For theater, the Comédie Française is the oldest active company in the world with a permanent troupe of actors.

Bonne cuisine Indulge in French food. If you have a meal planned at a Michelinrated restaurant, there is no doubt you reserved it weeks ago. Often, it’s nice to ﬁnd a spot near your hotel (or lodging) which will not require more than a brisk walk. For smaller, less expensive restaurants, often a “formule” will be displayed. It’s a set meal for a ﬁxed price. Important: Most always, the tip is included on your bill, called an “addition.” Look to see that it is — don’t ask the waiter — and leave a bit of small change. Cafes are great for relaxing or lunch. A favorite of many is a croque monsieur, a deliciously prepared ham and cheese sandwich. Add a glass of red wine. The oldest continuously operating cafe in Paris is Le Procope. Pastry and bread shops are abundant. Note: French people don’t eat in the streets.

Nightlife advice The nightclub scene is a fast-

CAMPBELL

Continued from page 1D lots of song options. I listened to the album over and over again, stacking the two records, listening all the way through and then turning them over. Glen Campbell wasn’t exactly what the rest of the eighth-grade cool kids were listening to,

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By AURELIEN MORISSARD

The iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral has been restored to glory and is open to the public after a 2019 fire and three-year reconstruction. changing one. Consult your hotel concierge. The famous Le Lido is conveniently located on the Champs-Elysées, which is an ideal street for strolling and window shopping.

Luxury shopping

Ile St. Louis, attract tourists and French alike. A cruise at night is a delight.

Hotel hopping There are many beautiful and historic hotels. To enjoy the ambiance, have tea or a drink. The Ritz, arguably the most famous hotel, has the historic Bar Hemingway.

In terms of shopping, you can ﬁnd it all in Paris, from the top deluxe stores like Hermès to fun fads and fashion. People ﬂock to the Monoprix stores for gifts and clothing. There are beautiful classic department stores, such as Galeries Lafayette, le Printemps and Le Bon Marché.

The top ﬁve monuments: the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré Coeur Basilica and Sainte-Chapelle. The list goes on and on.

Consider the water

Many museums

The symbol of Paris is a boat; consider taking a tour. Two famous islands, Ile de la Cité and

Reservations are suggested for all museums and their on-site restaurants.

but I dissected those songs and what he said in between them like a science experiment. To this day, I can quote pieces of what Campbell said between the songs. He had traveled to England for the concert on the Concorde. “And that thing goes so fast,” he said, stretching out the word “fast” like it had 19 a’s in it.

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Must-see monuments

A year ago, I decided to revisit as many of the songs I’ve loved along the way. I highly recommend the exercise. I hadn’t listened to Glen Campbell earnestly for years. When I did, I was struck by how good the music was — not how good it was for a 13-year-old girl who didn’t know any better. Just how good it was. He opened the album with a song by Janis Ian

The Louvre: the world’s largest art museum that houses the famous Mona Lisa Palace of Versailles: a former royal residence that contains French 17th-century art and the Hall of Mirrors Musée d’Orsay: has an extensive Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection, including works by Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas Hôtel des Invalides: contains a military museum with the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte Musée National Picasso-Paris: dedicated to Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, featuring over 5,000 works Musée Rodin: a sculpture museum with a garden dedicated to the life of artist Auguste Rodin Musée Marmottan Monet: an intimate

called “Stars” that segued into “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Jimmy Webb conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for much of the album, including his own song, “Wichita Lineman,” which has remained one of my favorites throughout the decades. I’ve tried twice to buy a copy online and have come up empty. This week, I listened to as many of the re-

museum housing the world’s largest collection of pieces by Claude Monet Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris: Paris’ museum of modern art, showcasing 20th- and 21st-century art Fondation Louis Vuitton: a contemporary art museum funded by the luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Musée Jacquemart-André: a museum in a 19th-century mansion, one of my favorite spots in Paris and has a delightful lunch/tea room. If you do all the above, you’ve just scratched the surface of what this amazing city offers. Finally, use some French words, get a guidebook and read a short history of Paris. Amusez-vous bien! (Have fun!) Allez les Saints! (Go Saints!)

cordings as I could on YouTube. Music is the closest thing I know to time travel. I am happy that 13-yearold me appreciated that music. Back then, on occasion, I quasi-forced my friends to listen to my big prize. They were kind about it, but they never shared my enthusiasm. So, mostly, I listened to Glen on my own, dreaming about what it would

be like to be a rhinestone cowgirl or to ﬂy on the Concorde. That thing went so fast. Email Jan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.

10D F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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ARTS & CULTURE Laura Plantation in Vacherie offers educational tours Austin Wilson was 18 years old when he was purchased for $850 by the Duparc-Locoul sugar plantation in Vacherie in January 1841. He worked there as a plowman and ﬁeld hand until November 1862, when the Union gunboat Itasca appeared on the Mississippi River 600 feet away. Wilson walked to the river and boarded the Itasca to enlist in the Union Navy, where he worked as a second-class ﬁreman until his discharge in 1865. After the war, WilDave Walker son returned to the plantation, married and was active in the local First Baptist Church. He died in December 1888. His wife Clarisse, also formerly enslaved, applied for a Civil War widow’s pension, which paid her $8 a month until her death in 1903. It’s largely through the Civil War pension records — and especially the personal narratives that emerged there — that Laura Plantation, as it’s now known, can tell Wilson’s story. A walking tour of the grounds introduced in April recalls the Civil War experiences of nine enslaved men (out of the 186 enslaved workers on the plantation at the start of the war) who fought with the Union for their freedom.

Hearing their voices Since its restoration and public opening in 1994, Laura Plantation has emphasized the lives of the enslaved who farmed and processed its lucrative sugar crop or served as domestic laborers, as well as the Creole lineage of their

CALENDAR

n Departing from the 1850 House at 5 p.m., Friends of the Cabildo will offer “Historical Haunted Ghost Tours” on Wednesday,Thursday and Oct. 28. friendsofthecabildo.org. n The National WWII Museum will host a Meet the Author event at 5:30 p.m.Wednesday featuring Leah Garrett, author of “The Flight Nurses’War: The American Women Who Saved Thousands of Lives at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.” A 4:30 p.m. reception will precede the presentation, which will take place in person and online. nationalww2museum.org. n The Historic New Orleans Collection’s French Quarter Fridays session, scheduled for 5 p.m., will feature Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band performing a selection of “the devil’s music.” Costumes are encouraged. hnoc.org. n The Friends of the Cabildo’s annual Ghostly Galivant will carry a yellow Fever theme this year.Tours depart the 1850 House PHOTOS By DAVE WALKER starting at 5 p.m. Friday. friendsofthecabildo.org. n At 6 p.m. Oct. 29, a reception at the New Orleans Jazz The Laura Plantation in Vacherie offers tours exploring the Creole history of the families Museum will open a new exhibit devoted to photographs who lived and worked there, as well the stories of nine enslaved men who fought for their remembering the Rampart Street musical landmark Donna’s Bar freedom on the Union side during the Civil War. and Grill. nolajazzmuseum.org. n The Historic New Orleans Collection’s annual Chess Fest will “It’s being recorded by take place at 10 a.m. Oct. 31 at the Tate, Etienne and Prevost different individuals who Center.Activities will be offered for players at all skill levels. come from an extraordinarily different backhnoc.org.

The Laura Plantation has been operating as an educational destination in Vacherie since 1994. enslavers. The plantation is named for Laura Locoul, the great-granddaughter of Guillaume Duparc, a French Navy veteran of the American Revolution who acquired the property in 1804. “Researching enslaved individuals is a very delicate and tedious process because we only pick up fragments, you know, and that can take many, many years,” said Sand Marmillion, a cultural anthropologist and historian who, with her late husband, Norman “Johnny” Marmillion Jr.,

restored the plantation and stewarded it to life as an educational destination. The expanded narrative of the “Laura Nine” and the ensuing tour came to life in through military service pension documentation. To establish eligibility, veterans and their widows submitted claims supported by testimony, afﬁdavits and other documentation. Language differences and limited literacy often complicated the process, and the narratives were sometimes recorded decades after the service period.

ground,” Marmillion said of the testimony process. “Educated men, not necessarily from the South who don’t have a clear understanding of what (the applicants’) way of life has been. However, we are essentially hearing their voices through these translators. And when we start ﬁnding these ﬁrst-person accounts of the events of their lives, we can begin to, if you will, hear their voices more clearly.”

Unknown to the known A compact museum housed in a restored overseer’s cottage describes the soldiers, in addition to providing an overview of plantation jobs for the enslaved, their health, religion, methods of resistance and the larger economics of the slave trade. The tour travels the plantation, including the upstairs/down-

stairs of the main building, outbuildings and cabins for the enslaved. Mark Pernosky, who co-developed the tour, leads visitors through the grounds. His tour sets the historical context before introducing visitors to Wilson, Joseph Isom (a plantation carpenter who was 42 when he enlisted in the 96th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops), Justin Stuard (who was 21 when he enlisted and rose to corporal and then sergeant) and the others. Pernosky said the goal of the tour is to elevate the soldiers “from the unknown to the known.” Louisiana sent more Black soldiers to the Union than any other state. Some descendants of the Laura Nine are still living in the area and have taken the tour. “These men are the fore-

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runners of modern freedom ﬁghters and modern civil rights movements, and we honor their service,” Pernosky said, concluding a recent tour. “We honor their decision to leave to go ﬁght in a war that would end slavery in the United States. So, thank you for coming out here. Thank you for hearing their stories and letting us give them the space that they are due.”

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S U N D AY, O C T O B E R 18, 2026

SCARE TACTICS Ghosts, vampires and witches are major contributors to state’s ‘dark tourism’

1EN

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

Morgan Black used to be a social worker in Los Angeles. Then, in 2024, during one of her frequent visits to New Orleans, she had an epiphany that led her to change careers and switch hometowns all at once. “I was walking around the French Quarter and heard several people complain about their boring walking tours,” Black said. “Later, I went on Indeed. com and saw an ad for a paranormal tour guide and I said to myself, ‘I can rock this.’” Shortly after, Black moved to New Orleans and began dressing as the “French Quarter Nun” five days a week to lead tours about ghosts, vampires, voodoo and other more esoteric topics. “People love the spiritual and paranormal, and I love to entertain,” Black said. She’s not the only one. For three decades, tourists

interested in the paranormal have made pilgrimages to New Orleans — often billed as one of the country’s most haunted cities — to immerse themselves in the atmosphere. Every day in the city’s oldest neighborhood, scores of guides regale visitors with oft-told stories that range from the tragic ﬁre at Lalaurie Mansion to the legend of a ghostly priest wandering Père Antoine’s Alley to a table permanently set for the ghost of a former property owner at Muriel’s Jackson Square restaurant. Tour companies with names like Haunted History or French Quarter Phantoms — and even, incongruously, Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours — fight for consumers’ attention online, often sharing a third of the revenues from their tickets, which start around $30, with third-party sales platforms.

IDEAS &

INNOVATION

PROVIDED PHOTO

Morgan Black says she became a paranormal tour guide in 2024, taking on the persona the ‘French Quarter Nun.’

STAFF PHOTOS By ENAN CHEDIAK

Tour guides, top and above, stop at the LaLaurie Mansion during haunted New Orleans tours through the French Quarter. New Orleans is often billed as one of the country’s most haunted cities.

ä See SCARE, page 2E

Industrial real estate demand in south Louisiana is hot Other sectors are more sluggish

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

Louisiana’s industrial construction boom is fueling demand for warehouse space across the region, including the Greater New Orleans area — a welcome trend in an otherwise lackluster real estate market that is showing signs of improvement in some sectors and battling ongoing challenges in others. Megaprojects like new artiﬁcial intelligence data centers, liqueﬁed natural gas export terminals and the Hyundai steel mill in Ascension Parish, though located outside the region’s largest cities, are creating a ripple effect that extends to New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where industrial space is approaching full occupancy and developers are building new

Commercial Brokers, said at a forum last week. “I could see a million square feet of industrial development coming out of the ground on spec in the next few years. It’s already happening.” Juge’s comments came at the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors’ annual Economic and Real Estate Forecast, where local experts painted a mixed picture of the area’s real estate market. The state’s industrial boom, they said, offers hope. But it’s still unclear whether mega construction projects will be enough to diversify the area’s economy and reverse decades of population decline. Here are key takeaways from STAFF PHOTO By GRACE MAyER the forum, held Oct. 8 at the JefTowering cranes unload 15,000 tons of aluminum from the MV Lipsi shi, ferson Performing Arts Center. Industrial properties in the docked at Avondale Global Gateway. Greater New Orleans region are projects before even locking in ment projects in this state that roughly 97% occupied on average, tenants. we’ve never ever seen,” Richard outperforming the national aver“You’re seeing spec develop- Juge, CEO and owner of RE/MAX age by 4 points. Rental rates are

continuing to climb, and 137,000 square feet of new warehouse space is under construction. Demand in the capital region is even greater. In Ascension Parish, more than 2 million square feet of new industrial space is under construction, while in Baton Rouge, another 200,000 square feet is going up — and it’s all speculative, an encouraging sign, experts said. Juge predicted that more construction is to come, particularly around Baton Rouge and further north toward data centers in Rapides, Bossier and Richland parishes. Closer to New Orleans, he sees opportunities on the West Bank in Jefferson Parish near Waggaman and Avondale, where prices for large undeveloped tracts remain attractive. Lack of infrastructure in those areas, such as water and sewage systems, could slow some of the growth, he said.

ä See INDUSTRIAL, page 2E

2E F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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Here’s why your pay raise still leaves you feeling broke “I hate payday.” Who dislikes the day they get paid for all their work? Yet over the years, as I’ve sat across the table from individuals and couples trying Michelle to stretch their Singletary income, I’ve heard THE COLOR variations of that OF MONEy same disheartening line. “I hate it because all my money is gone as soon as it hits my bank account,” one guy told me during a ﬁnancial meeting in which I was trying to help him and his wife balance their budget. The feeling he described is the reality for millions of households: mounting debt payments make it hard to save for emergencies, invest for retirement or achieve other ﬁnancial goals. You expect necessities — housing, transportation and food — to take up much of your pay. But nonmortgage debt (credit cards, auto loans and student loans) is steadily consuming an increasing share of what remains. A new report reveals that, for the average worker since late 2022, debt payments have risen 14.8%, compared with 1.7% real income growth, meaning the debt people are servicing has grown eight times faster than real takehome pay, according to the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, and Protect Borrowers, an advocacy group focused on consumer debt. About 80% of working-age adults carry consumer debt, with required monthly payments claiming roughly 10% of aftertax household income, up from 8.9% at the end of 2022. Credit cards and auto loans drive nearly all of this burden, accounting for 44% and 40% of monthly debt obligations, respectively. For a single earner, real monthly take-home pay has risen by an average of $109 since late 2022, while required monthly debt payments have increased by $57. This means 52 cents of every dollar in wage gains was absorbed by nonmortgage debt service before it could be spent on basic necessities or used to build a savings cushion. In a dual-earner household where both partners experienced the average increase in debt payments, their combined monthly debt obligations rose by $114, outpacing their total household real income gain of $109. As a result, 100% (and then some) of the household’s net income gain

was wiped out by rising debt obligations. “For the average family, it really feels like we’re on the precipice of a cliff where they’re trying to manage their finances with this kind of Jenga of different types of debt,” said Julie Margetta Morgan, president of the Century Foundation. “The rest of the economy is humming along almost without them buoyed by AI stocks.” Without adequately considering the liabilities side of a household’s budget, “conventional measures of real earnings increasingly understate workers’ financial insecurity,” the report notes. With the midterm elections a few weeks away, affordability is on the minds of many voters. The analysis raises an important question: Is your wage growth largely an illusion? To emphasize the drag debt has on household finances, the two organizations propose a new economic metric: Real Income Net of Debt. The goal is to force policymakers to confront the extent to which debt is precariously propping up American households, Margetta Morgan said. I’ve often heard critics characterize consumer debt as the result of reckless or unnecessary spending. But the data disputes that narrative. The reality is many households are turning to debt to afford the basics, such as groceries and gas. “There are these stereotypes that debt is some kind of frivolous spending,” Margetta Morgan said. “It is absolutely unfair. What we see time and again is people making pretty rational choices. ... People are putting their basic expenses onto credit cards.” When government safety nets pull back, families have no choice but to borrow to bridge the gap. Millions of Americans, including more than a million children, have lost access to federal food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive policy organization. At the same time, about onethird of Americans — roughly 82 million people — say they have had to make financial sacrifices, cutting back on essentials like food and utilities to cover healthcare expenses, according to findings from the West HealthGallup Affordability Index. “Families are increasingly re-

lying on consumer debt to build their own safety nets,” Margetta Morgan said. Auto loans are also straining family budgets. A monthly car payment that includes a comma is the new normal for an increasing number of borrowers. A record 21.2% of new-car buyers took out $1,000-plus monthly loans in the third quarter of 2026, borrowing an average of $44,664, according to recent data from Edmunds, a car-shopping website. The average new-car payment rose to $787, up from $756 a year earlier. Used-car shoppers aren’t escaping the squeeze either. The average payment was $582 on $30,703 in debt, pushing a record 6.5% of used-car buyers into four-figure monthly payments. Debt taken on for basic necessities disproportionately impacts working-class families, the report said. Monthly credit card and auto payments are surprisingly similar across income tiers, but lower-income earners pay far higher interest rates for less valuable goods. “It is much more expensive to be poor in this country, and as a result, it’s also much harder to climb out of that kind of mountain of debt,” Margetta Morgan said. For millions of working families, student debt adds another layer of burden. Student loans account for just 7.5% of total consumer debt payments, a share that could rise as more borrowers face higher monthly payments due to recent policy changes, according to findings from the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers. Traditional economic metrics measure affordability by looking at wages and prices. But that leaves out the hidden siphon draining family budgets every month: debt. Workers are losing ground as prices outstrip paychecks. When required debt service is factored in, net earnings drop even further. Wages, inflation and debt form an economic trio that provides a fuller picture of a household’s financial well-being. Taken together, these factors explain why families feel broke in an economy that looks good on paper. The affordability crisis isn’t a hoax or a phony talking point. It’s real people looking at their bank accounts and realizing the math simply isn’t mathing. Email michelle.singletary@washpost.com.

SCARE

Continued from page 1E There’s no economic impact report for Louisiana’s haunted tourism industry, which is concentrated in New Orleans and has outposts in St. Francisville, Baton Rouge, the River Parishes and other spots, but the region is widely recognized as a domestic hub that contributes to the $34 billion global “dark tourism” sector, a much larger category that also includes travel to battleﬁelds and the sites of disasters and infamous crimes. Activity revs into high gear every October, when American consumers — who spend $13.5 billion annually on Halloween costumes, decorations and candy — look for more haunted tours, attractions and other forms of supernatural exploration. And these fall visitors in search of scares are anything but frightening to tourism boosters, who hope to reverse the 3% dip in downtown hotel occupancy from 2024 to 2025 due to a nationwide drop in international visitors, higher travel costs and a more competitive market for meetings and conventions “Haunted tourism is a signiﬁcant part of New Orleans’ visitor economy,” said Alice Glen, an executive at New Orleans & Co., the city’s destination marketing organization. “When approached thoughtfully and respectfully, these experiences can deepen historical understanding and build appreciation for the people and places that tell New Orleans’ story.”

Vampire movie starts industry Today’s haunted tour companies in New Orleans are carrying on a tradition that started in the 1990s, when industry pioneers like Richard Rochester, founder of Magic Tours, and Sidney Smith, founder of Haunted History Tours, began escorting visitors through the French Quarter and telling stories that captured interest piqued by

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville bills itself as ‘One of America’s Most Haunted Homes.’ There’s no economic impact report for Louisiana’s haunted tourism industry, but the region is widely recognized as a domestic hub that contributes to the $34 billion global ‘dark tourism’ sector. the local filming of the Tom Cruise movie “Interview with the Vampire” in 1993. Rochester’s initial source material was the book “Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans” by Jeanne deLavigne, according to Randy Bibb, a veteran guide who teaches classes on the topic. “He was a big, tall guy dressed like a vampire with a loud voice,” Bibb said. “When he was putting together the tours, there were no vampire stories, so he had to start making some up — and since he couldn’t create enough of those to satisfy people, he turned to ghosts.” Bibb said some of Rochester’s tales, like the story of five boys killed in an 18th-century fire at the current site of the Andrew Jackson Hotel, were created for a practical reason: to fill a blockslong gap between the locations of other existing ghost stories in the Quarter. Though Rochester himself left town in the early 2000s and Magic Tours is gone, Smith led Haunted History for three decades until his death last year and witnessed the growth of the industry he helped create as TV shows like “Ghost Adventures” reeled in a new generation of thrill seekers.

Rob Florence, a three-decade veteran of the walking tour industry, said when he launched his company, NOLA Historic Tours, in 1995, there were only a handful of other similar businesses in town. Florence Now, there are dozens, including many dedicated to paranormal themes. A spokesperson for the New Orleans Ground Transportation Bureau, which regulates tour companies, said there are about 900 active tour guide licenses in the city, but that number includes guides of all types. “There seems to be a ghost tour on every corner,” said Kalila Smith, Sidney Smith’s exwife and the current operator of the tour company K. Smith she helped create. “And you can only slice the pie so many ways.” Most nights outside the Lalaurie Mansion at the corner of Royal and

INDUSTRIAL

Continued from page 1E

Commercial occupancy By one measure, the downtown New Orleans office market is holding steady, with occupancy rates averaging a little below 80% — not bad compared with some other small and midsized markets. But occupancy rates tell only part of the story. In 1989, New Orleans had 70 office buildings. Today, it has 25, 64% fewer than it did four decades ago, due to a wave of historic building renovations and conversions to hotels and apartments post-Hurricane Katrina. “The CBD has held steady occupancy not because of new demand but because we keep removing supply from the market,” said Scott Graf, of Corporate Realty. At the same time, construction costs have risen — 67% in the last decade alone — and operating expenses have increased 25%. During the same period, lease rates for Class A office buildings have only increased about 9% — about $1.75 per square foot since 2016. And after expenses, net rents have actually fallen about 4% over the past decade, making it impossible to justify new construction.

Retail space is at a premium On the retail side, anchor tenants are increasingly important in affecting the performance of strip malls. Centers anchored by supermarkets outperform those without by several points and ﬁll up more quickly, according to Carly Plotkin, a senior adviser with Stirling. Demand is high and supply is limited, with only about 30,000 square feet of new shopping center space under construction across the New Orleans metro area. Value and off-price retail are continuing to expand, with chains Dollar Tree and Five Below showing the most growth. Traditional retail centers, meanwhile, are ﬁnding opportunity in diversifying to mixed-use, lifestyle centers like Clearview City Center and The Francis at Elmwood.

Residential market uncertainty

STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

New Orleans’ occupancy rate only tells part of the story. While office space is averaging about 80% occupied, the city has fewer buildings compared with four decades ago.

and 2025, with St. Tammany Parish leading the region with a 3% jump in sales. The bigger story in the residential sector, however, is the glut of inventory on the market, which Wagner said is the highest at any time since 2000. In September, the supply of available homes on the market topped 8 months, meaning the amount of time it would take for them all to sell. That’s 50% more inventory than was available between 2013-19, a period of relative stability in the market after the Great Recession and before the pandemic that Wagner uses as a benchmark. “It’s not just New Orleans,” Wagner said. “The whole region has excess supply right now except Acadiana, which is back to ‘normal.’” He said the lack of excess inventory in Acadiana is not related to SpaceX’s recently announced plans for the area but, rather, a more general recovery.

Captializing on the moment With $250 billion worth of new megaprojects announced or under construction across the state, experts said there’s no question Louisiana is having a moment. But how can the New Orleans region and its real estate sector capitalize on the moment? “If we don’t have a strong, diversified growing economy, we are not going to be solving any of our community problems,” said Andy Kopplin, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Kopplin said the nonproﬁt is focused on developing the biomedical district on the edge of the CBD. Keith Schneider, managing director and head of real estate for Benson Capital, said focusing on making the area more affordable, efﬁcient and providing incentives to get real estate projects done is key. “That is what we need to focus on,” he said. “Because if we don’t improve the quality of life, how are we going to bring people here?” Staff writer Grace Mayer contributed to this story.

Homebuying activity in the Greater New Orleans area started to heat up at the start of 2026, as interest rates inched down, and several new insurance carriers began writing homeowners policies in the market again. More recently, however, with uncertainty around the war in the Middle East, inﬂation pressures and interest rates rising again, the recovery appears uncertain. “We’re in a thawing market, but it’s still a cold market,” said Gary Wagner, an economist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The number of closed sales in the metro area through Septem- Email Stephanie Riegel at stephaber nudged up about 1% over 2024 nie.riegel@theadvocate.com.

Governor Nicholls streets, one of the most famous haunted houses in the country, a half-dozen tour guides compete with each other for volume, outlandishness and theatricality, according to Florence. Sometimes, the spectacle leads to controversy. An unpermitted marketing stunt in July prompted complaints that the “haunted house” treatment of the Lalaurie Mansion is insensitive to the memory of the actual enslaved people who were tortured and killed there in the 1800s. That incident illustrates a bigger challenge for the industry, according to Nitasha Sharma, an assistant geography professor at the University of Alabama who studies dark tourism. “The immersive spooky side shouldn’t take over the real histories,” Sharma said. “People actually suffered at some of the sites where recreational horror is created, so they shouldn’t get pushed into the background.” Drew Cantwell, the general manager of The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, said that issue is top of mind at a remote historic home with a reputation for hauntings that’s been a tourist attraction since the 1990s. “We’re fully aware and transparent about the terrible things that happened on these grounds year ago,” he said. “We encourage guides to tell the history and explain those things, because it’s a great opportunity for learning, and then we also talk about how we’re moving forward.”

20 guides is half of what it was at its peak. Jennifer Talley, co-founder of the New Orleans Paranormal Society, which offers “ghost-hunting experiences,” blames the downturn she’s witnessed on broader trends. “Tourism in New Orleans has just tanked since 2024,” she said. “There’s just too much going on and I think everybody is ’New Orleansed out.’” Susan Weidmann, an assistant professor recreation management at Appalachian State University, said economic challenges aren’t just affecting tourism locally. “Everyone has to cut from their budget, and tourism/recreation and leisure is one of the ﬁrst things to go,” she said.

Branching out

Not all the tour companies are sitting idle through the slump. In July, Talley and her husband, Christopher, hosted their ﬁrst New Orleans ParaCon, a gathering of psychics, paranormal investigators, UFO experts and more. The event drew several hundred attendees, and she’s already working on next year’s follow-up. Black, the former social worker, meanwhile, continues to suit up and hit the street ﬁve nights a week, counting on her glowing online reviews to boost business. “This work is way more taxing than people realize because, rain or shine, you’re outdoors doing tours in the summer heat,” she said. “But I love it. I may make less money than I used to, but my mental health is better.” ‘Too much going on’ Florence, the tour company Despite the increase in haunted owner, said the paranormal tours, tour operators and guides in New like it or not, are a part of the city’s Orleans, Smith said the business landscape. “It’s fashionable for hip French is “not near what it was” when Haunted History debuted more Quarter people to complain about them,” he said. “But that would be than three decades ago. She said increased competition like moving to Aspen, Colorado, combined with declining visitation and complaining about skiing.” meant the company’s revenue was down 17% year-over-year from Email Rich Collins at rich.col2024 to 2025, and its stable of about lins@theadvocate.com.

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 3E

TALKING BUSINESS A S K T H E E X P E RT S

Firm building city’s affordable housing for past 25 years Q&A WITH TERRI NORTH

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF PROVIDENCE COMMUNITy HOUSING

Terri North and three partners formed Providence Community Housing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and spent the next two decades leading, among other things, the $250 million redevelopment of the former North Laﬁtte public housing complex, which included creating roughly 150 housing units in the surrounding neighborhood. They also took over management of some of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ portfolio of apartments for low-income seniors, Christopher Homes. Last month, Providence closed on the financing for its biggest single project to date: the Rivana Apartments in the River District, a planned neighborhood being built from scratch on vacant industrial land just upriver from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Providence was brought in by the neighborhood’s original developers to help land an investor and get the $111 million project started before deadlines ran out to take advantage of state funds. It’s due to break ground in the next few weeks and be complete by 2028. In this week’s Talking Business, North talks about why she founded Providence and how rising interest rates and inﬂation have made the job much harder. This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. How and why did Providence Community Housing begin? I spent much of the 1990s as a banker, then felt the calling to switch careers and work for Willwoods Community, a Catholic organization that focuses on housing. I helped convert several

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Providence Community Housing, formed after Hurricane Katrina by Terri North and three partners, was instrumental in the redevelopment of Lafitte Housing Project, now known as Faubourg Lafitte. buildings while there. Father Michael Jacques, Jim Kelly, Charlotte Bourgeois and I created Providence after Hurricane Katrina, when the federal government passed the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, which included a large supply of LowIncome Housing Tax Credits and Community Development Block Grants. The intent was to encourage developers to come to town and build. What have your signature projects been? One of our first acts was to buy and renovate five senior living homes from the archdiocese. The second was redeveloping the Lafitte Housing Project, now known as Faubourg Lafitte, as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was looking to transform the city’s “big four” public housing complexes: Lafitte, the B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete and St. Bernard. They all have different names now. Large, out-of-town developers did the other three, but Father Jacques, who was at St. Peter Claver in Treme, really wanted to have an involvement with the

Lafitte, and we joined forces with Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that works with developers like us, and HUD chose us for the job. Why did Enterprise need a small local organization like you? We had a local presence and an association with the neighborhood, and we were able to reach out to the residents. We took a very community-driven approach. We started working in 2007 to build out the infrastructure, the street grid, the plumbing underneath, the utilities, everything that would work with the new design. We just completed construction of the final phase this summer, nine years after it began. There are now 516 units — far fewer than the original 896 — on the 12-acre Lafitte site. We created additional units throughout Treme and Mid-City, including rentals and homes sold. What’s your business model? How do you keep the lights on? Our primary source of income is developer and management fees. We also raise money and get grants, but we’re a nonprofit in a

for-profit world. That’s why we’re always looking to create more units. How did you wind up joining the Rivana project? We have worked with VPG, one of the Rivana developers, before. They purchased a property that we developed on the West Bank after Hurricane Ida. Years earlier, they built a home for us when they were first getting into business. The Rivana team had taken the project a very long way, but they were running into brick walls and running out of time. They needed to use the money that the state has in it, about $16 million, but the state was going to be reticent to give that extension without knowing some definite time frames: Who’s the investor? How are we going to get this done? We have those relationships, we’ve been doing these projects, and we’re well known for sticking with things. The big challenge was finding an investor and getting things to move. Right now, the market here for Low-Income Housing Tax Credit investments is very limited. We have a very close relationship with Capital One, which is the primary investor down here now. VPG looked at some other people but decided we were the best partner for the job and asked us to join in February. What happens next with the Rivana? We’re in charge of building it, placing it into service and getting people to live there. As a developer, we make guarantees, so we have to finish the construction or else we’re on the hook. We have to lease it up correctly or else we’re on the hook. That’s the risk all developers take. How has the financing for affordable housing evolved?

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When I first started doing this, the key piece was predominantly just a mortgage using a lot of the government-backed products combined with tax credits. Occasionally, you needed a little help from a private grant, community funds or something else. But those gaps were usually small. But as interest rates go up, you can afford less mortgage and the gaps have grown, so now you have to find way to fill these gaps. There was pushback from some on the New Orleans City Council before approving a payment in lieu of taxes agreement for the Rivana. How did you pitch it? They’re in a really tough position with the budget crisis, but I told them this is an investment in the city’s future. We can’t stop doing that because we’re having budget problems. How do you respond to critics who say the Rivana units are too expensive? The need was already great for affordable housing, and it’s growing because people are still making what they were making in 2015, and all their expenses have risen — and we’re building at such a slow rate. To have any sort of major impact, this is the kind of project that you can do. I’m not saying it’s the best way. It is the way that is set up now to get something done. I hope we get to the point where people make living wages, that they are able to work and support themselves, but we have residents that work 60 hours a week and still qualify for affordable housing because their income isn’t high enough. I always say, and I’m totally serious about this, I want someone to put me out of business. Email Rich Collins at rich.collins@theadvocate.com.

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ACROSS THE REGION

Haynesville Shale is seeing billion-dollar changes Energy prices expected to stay high BY LIZ SWAINE

Staff writer

Mergers and acquisitions in the Haynesville Shale have reached $7.8 billion so far in 2026, which has outpaced even West Texas’ Permian Basin, according to a J.P. Morgan Securities analyst. The investments in the Ark-LaTex region of the Haynesville have involved upstream and midstream operations, which is both the exploration and production of natural gas and the moving and cleaning of it. In the Permian Basin, $7.4 billion was invested on crude oil and what is called “wet” gas — things like propane and butane — which gives companies multiple revenue streams. Earlier this month, Dallas-based Silver Hills Energy Partners sold its portfolio of upstream and midstream assets in the Haynesville Shale to the multinational Centalion Group Ltd. for roughly $1.5 billion, giving Centalion a $2 billion position in the Haynesville. The Wall Street Journal reports Centalion already holds a number of lucrative long-term contracts to export U.S. liquefied natural gas overseas. Another deal in which Williams Cos. acquired Momentum Midstream was finalized in September. Williams, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, offered Momentum $5.5 billion in a combination of cash, debt consideration and stock. Momentum has been a significant player in the northwest Louisiana/ east Texas Haynesville Shale, with roughly 1 million acres under lease and 4,000 miles of gathering and transmission pipelines. Chad Zamarin, Williams president and CEO, said the purchase enhances his company’s position and growth potential. “With the acquisition now complete, Williams has established a

STAFF FILE PHOTO By LIZ SWAINE

The investments in the Ark-La-Tex region of the Haynesville Shale have involved upstream and midstream operations, like this midstream facility in Red River Parish, which is involved in both the exploration and production of natural gas and the moving and cleaning of it. premier Haynesville position that strengthens our ability to serve rapidly growing LNG, power and industrial demand along the Gulf Coast,” he said in a statement. Williams’ purchase of Momentum makes the company the largest gatherer of natural gas in the Haynesville Shale and will accelerate two planned major pipeline expansions, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings presentation. The most recent quarterly report of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank showed additional expansion in the oil and gas sector even though uncertainty remains high, especially among exploration and production companies. The Fed noted that costs of doing business for both exploration and production and oilﬁeld service

firms are growing at a faster-thanaverage pace. Oilfield services firms are also dealing with longer supplier delivery times. The Dallas Fed asked companies to look into their crystal balls to guess the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil at the end of the year. The average was $88, but responses went as high as $126. For reference, as of Oct. 12, the price was hovering at $93. “My oil price crystal ball broke when the administration first hit Iran,” one industry respondent to the Fed’s survey said. For natural gas, respondents believe the forecast for the next five years is going to trend higher for producers and more expensive for homeowners, moving from a maximum of $3.29 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in six

months to a maximum of $4.28 in ﬁve years. Natural gas closed Oct. 12 at $3.18 per MMBtu. When asked when crude oil exports from the Persian Gulf might return to normal levels, the energy business respondents were roughly even on the belief that it might be the second quarter or 2027 or 2028 or later, showing additional uncertainty. The majority of respondents feel it will be at least another year before the spread between fuel prices and crude oil prices to return to 2025 levels. That means they expect higher prices at the pump to continue for a while. “Diesel is the mother’s milk of the economy. We are just starting to see the impact on the wider economy,” one respondent told the Dallas Fed. The Dallas Fed doubled down on

the likelihood of continued higher fuel prices. There are a variety of challenges affecting the crack spread, which is the difference between the price of oil and wholesale prices of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. Fed economists believe the likely outcome is that even when the Iran war ends and the ﬂow of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz normalizes, U.S. fuel prices will remain high. “As inventory buffers dwindle, consumers will be increasingly forced to balance the market through reduced consumption, greater price volatility and potentially higher prices,” the report said. Email Liz Swaine at liz.swaine@ theadvocate.com.

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IMPRE MPRESSIVE TECH ECH TALENT RIGHT HERE.

With our universities and employers helping to build and nurture talent, we’re tackling some of the world’s s most complex challenges right here in Louisiana. a.

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6E F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F nola.com F The Times-Picayune

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NATION & WORLD

More Latino nonproﬁts are helping entrepreneurs BY TERRY TANG

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — From the pink neon sign on the sunshine yellow wall to the multicolored Mexican paper garlands, Mission Lotería’s storefront emits cultural pride everywhere you look. After seven years of promoting local businesses in San Francisco’s predominantly Latino Mission District, the nonprofit has a brick-andmortar space that reflects its passion for the neighborhood. Now, beyond events like taco tours and a Bad Bunny look-alike contest, it can provide a spot for Latino entrepreneurs and artists to sell their goods. Luis Quiroz, Mission Lotería founder, is still nervous about hitting monthly numbers amid a rough economy in one of the country’s most high-priced cities. But he and his team believe in their — for lack of a better word — mission. “What’s the economics term? High risk, high reward,” Quiroz said. “I feel like we’re at a really good place. Almost every day, people come in, they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve been following you for so long.’” Despite both a rise in costs and fears around immigration crackdowns, some Latinos are making it their business, literally, to champion other Latino entrepreneurs. But beyond just shelf space, they are giving artists and business people advice, resources and connection to a bigger audience. The complex political and economic climate has only intensified their desire to invest their own time and resources in uplifting other Latino and Hispanic creatives. More places are starting to recognize Latino businesses and the inherent disadvantages they encounter. Yesi Chavez has stocked greeting cards, magnets and “Trader Jose’s” minitotes at Mission Lotería since it opened just before the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. It’s been a brand boost as store shoppers recognize her merchandise when

TNS PHOTO By AKASH PAMARTHy

Mission Loteria CEO Luis Quiroz explains Loteria cards to Ashley Creek, 45, at the store in San Francisco. Inspired by the traditional Mexican game of lotería, Mission Lotería features cards representing real businesses in the Mission District, encouraging players to visit local establishments and collect cards.

“An incubator space for business owners to come together, mitigate risk — so now their risk is so low that they’re able to be bold and they’re able to really play in their businesses.” STEPHANIE VASQUEZ, Amor Collective founder she sells at pop-ups. It’s also special to Chavez, who works full-time as a hotel events administrator, to display alongside other Latinos. “I feel like Latinos, as far as I’ve seen, they really come together and try to support their own and try to make sure that, especially, Latina women are well supported,” Chavez said. Amor Collective, where you can ﬁnd fun merch made entirely by Latinas, like concha bread earrings or Día de Muertos (Day of the

Dead) candles, opened in August in downtown Phoenix after quietly operating in the suburbs. Founder Stephanie Vasquez made the bold relocation move despite it meaning higher rent. A space next door to her coffeehouse became available and the shop, in Vasquez’s opinion, deserved to be in the bustling downtown. The grand opening “was emotional,” Vasquez said. “I will say that the Latino community truly supports us.”

A decade ago, Vasquez established a nonprofit, Empowering Latina Leaders in Arizona, or ELLA (Spanish for “her”). She created it after seeing how underpaid Latinas remain. In fact, Hispanic female full-time workers make 79% of the median earnings their White counterparts earn, making them the lowest earning by race and gender, according to a July quarterly earnings report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vasquez started monthly pop-up

Working What’s

markets for Latina entrepreneurs. A permanent storefront seemed like a natural next step, so she opened Amor Collective four years ago in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria. “An incubator space for business owners to come together, mitigate risk — so now their risk is so low that they’re able to be bold and they’re able to really play in their businesses,” she said. More than 35 entrepreneurs have signed a one-year lease with Amor. They are invited to monthly meetings where Vasquez arranges for guest speakers on topics like public relations and banking. A few members have been afraid to come because they’ve had family detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So Vasquez made them Zoom-friendly, too. “It’s very clear that coming together as a community is very necessary,” Vasquez said. “This is where I think it’s important for the consumer, whether you have the privilege of not being afraid to come out, then to come to spaces like this and support communities that might be in need.” The current mood of Latinos nationwide is divided when it comes to achieving the American dream. Nearly one-fifth of Latino adults say it is out of reach for them, according to Pew Research. Nearly 3 in 10, or 27%, believe the American dream doesn’t exist altogether. For Quiroz, who was undocumented as an infant and carries proof of his legal permanent status, he wants Mission Lotería to feel welcoming for Latino and Hispanic people whether they were born in the U.S. or somewhere else. Future plans include creating content to introduce entrepreneurs via social media, YouTube and a podcast. The ongoing construction inside includes carving out a podcast room in the back. “People can really hear the stories of these business owners and their journey,” Quiroz said. “Anytime I get a chance to speak to them, their stories are so fascinating.”

with

in Greater New Orleans business

Michael Hecht President & CEO GNO Inc.

New Investment + More Validation A double-dose of good news for you today: First, last week GNO, Inc.’s Startup Noir NOLA initiative hosted its second Venture Voir, an inperson experience that introduces out-of-state venture capital funds, angel groups, and CDFIs to the region’s diverse startups. Investors in major markets don’t historically source deals in the Gulf South, so Venture Voir brings them here to meet founders of color directly. This year’s tour included panels at Newlab New Orleans and the Shop Workspace, a visit to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, and a closing dinner where investors sat down with local founders raising capital. Key local partners included Idea Village and Corridor Ventures. In two years, Venture Voir has introduced over 20 out-of-state funds to local startups including: Munivestor, Bea’s Bayou Skincare, Dreamland Koffucha, Codegig, Zenistry Labs, Zokoyo Potty Pal, Kinkz Hair Products and MilestoneMate. Venture Voir also brought Kiva, a crowdfunding platform for small business loans, into the Greater New Orleans market. Unlike equity investment, Kiva contributions are loans, not donations, and lenders are repaid as borrowers make payments.

You can learn more about Startup Noir NOLA here

Next, Area Development released its 2026 Top States for Doing Business last week. Based on a survey of 50 site consultants, the rankings placed Louisiana as #9 overall in the nation and backed up the case Venture Voir made to investors. Louisiana ranked:

•

• •

After falling out of the Top Ten, Louisiana has been back at the top of the rankings for the past two years.

#2 for energy costs #4 for energy availability; grid capacity; and workforce training programs

You can see the full Area Development rankings here

• •

#7 for labor cost competitiveness; water and wastewater capacity; regulatory environment; and property tax environment #8 for business incentives programs #9 for overall speed to market

A greater choice for business

gnoinc.org

ECONOMY

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 7E

Mattel eyes new revenue amid slowing Barbie sales Upcoming water park features characters, games BY ELLA CHAKARIAN

Los Angeles Times (TNS) With Barbie sales slipping, Mattel is looking to its characters and games to build a new revenue stream: water parks. The El Segundo, California, company has been trying to ﬁnd more ways to turn its roster of beloved toys into bigger moneymakers. Former chief executive Ynon Kreiz, who spearheaded a campaign to upgrade earnings from Mattel’s intellectual properties, recently stepped down amid investor disappointment. As Roger Lynch, the former CEO of Condé Nast, takes over as Mattel’s chief, he inherits a struggling strategy to turn Mattel’s portfolio of toys and games into entertainment franchises and experiences that generate revenue away from the toy aisles. One of the latest bets to reduce dependence on Barbie is Mattel’s first Wonder Indoor Waterpark, which is slated to open at the end of 2027 in Bellevue, Nebraska. The park is expected to cover roughly 100,000 square feet and have a retractable roof for yearround operation. Construction is underway in a mixed-use area designed to boost tourism in Omaha’s southern suburbs. Some planned attractions include a Barbie activity pool and a Hot Wheels slide tower. It will also feature a lazy river that ﬂoats past scenery inspired by Mattel games, including UNO, Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots and Magic 8 Ball. A Mattel spokesperson said the company is exploring opportunities to bring such interactive experiences “beyond traditional destination markets.” Outside Nebraska, the company is planning water parks in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

A girl picks out a Barbie toy at Target in Lafayette. The 2023 film ‘Barbie’ had revitalized sales for the decades-old doll for Mattel, sparking more than $150 million in sales from dolls and other related products. “We see a real opportunity to take the kind of immersive entertainment traditionally concentrated in major markets and bring it to more communities in a scalable, year-round format,” Natalia Premovic, Mattel’s chief consumer products and experiences ofﬁcer, said in a news release. Mattel’s other park ambitions have had rocky starts. In Arizona, the original developer for the ﬁrst Mattel Adventure Park exited the project and a neighboring resort took over. In Kansas, a theme park was origi-

nally slated to debut in 2026 but received a formal operating deadline extension to May 2031. The toy company is trying different things in hopes of repeating the huge success of the 2023 “Barbie” ﬁlm. The movie that was the fun half of the “Barbenheimer” summer took in close to $1.5 billion at the box ofﬁce and revitalized excitement around the 60-something Barbie, sparking more than $150 million in sales from dolls and other related products. This year, the company hoped

for another revenue rush from a movie tied to its buff action ﬁgures, “Masters of the Universe.” The movie failed to dominate the summer like “Barbie.” It generated less than $120 million worldwide despite a production budget of about $170 million. In the second quarter, Mattel reported a net loss of $18 million, compared with net income of $53.4 million a year earlier, even as sales rose. Net sales were up 10%, but toy performance was mixed. Doll billings dipped 5%, with

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Barbie gross billings falling 16%. Infant, toddler and preschool billings dropped 11% on lower FisherPrice demand. Hot Wheels, games and action ﬁgures sales grew. Kreiz’s departure came as investors grew increasingly impatient with the company’s strategy and wider performance. Mattel shares had fallen more than 35% this year on concerns about how it planned to drive growth, before rebounding more than 30% recently amid reports of a potential takeover bid.

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PEOPLE IN BUSINESS Staff report South Louisiana businesses and nonproﬁt groups recently announced the following promotions, new hires and resignations.

New Orleans Melissa Dunn has been hired by the market research ﬁrm Rep Data as its executive vice president of marketing. D u n n previously worked as executive Dunn vice president for marketing and communications for the New

York-based marketing orga- commercial interior furnishnization Suzy. ings and manufactured interior construction firm AOS The His- Interior Environments, have toric New both joined the board of the Orleans Col- French Quarter museum, relection ap- search center and publisher. pointed two new direc- Baton Rouge tors to its Ted Jones has been named board. head of the Baton Rouge ofGriffin Tracie Haydel fice of the Griffin, a reslaw firm Jones Walktaurant manager er. at Dooky Jones, a Chase’s Resformer intaurant and vestment a fourthbanker with generation Jones Stephens Russ member of Inc. and a the Chase family, and Shelby corporate attorney in Silicon Russ, president and CEO of the Valley, succeeds Brandon

Fool’s Take: Broadridge, behind the scenes

Fintech and regulatory behemoth Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR) is in the business of helping banks send documents to investors, managing the voting process for many companies’ Motley shareholders and Fool providing technology to handle investment trades. It’s also an attractive, seemingly undervalued stock with a recent dividend yield of 2.7%. Broadridge’s earnings report for fiscal 2026 featured full-year revenue and adjusted earnings per share rising by 8% and 12% year over year, respectively. The company also announced a 12% dividend increase. But Broadridge’s stock has declined some 30% over the last year, as the shift toward digital financial transactions and communications threatens to disrupt the company’s seemingly steady operations. Some analysts see these fears as excessive, though. Helping to facilitate the transition away from mail-in proxy voting and mailed-out annual reports, Broadridge hopes to reshape the financial regulatory business as it moves into an increasingly digital world. The company is intent on incorporating agentic artificial

intelligence into its platform for its customers. Broadridge shares recently traded at a forward-looking priceto-earnings ratio of 15, well below their ﬁve-year average of 22. The stock doesn’t need outrageous growth to justify its valuation. (The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Broadridge Financial Solutions.)

Fool’s School: Shorting stocks, explained Buying low and then selling high isn’t the only way to make money in the stock market. You can also proﬁt by reversing that order and betting against stocks you expect to fall. This is “shorting,” and it’s perfectly legal. Here’s how it works: Imagine that many investors are excited about the Home Surgery Kits Co. (ticker: OUCHH) and have bought lots of shares, sending the stock price up. You, however, are skeptical, and you don’t think home surgeries will catch on. You expect the company to fail. So you contact your brokerage and place an order to short Home Surgery Kits — a stock you don’t own. Your brokerage will borrow shares from a Home Surgery Kits shareholder and will sell them for you. (Again, this is legal, and plenty of people short stocks.) If the stock does fall in value, you’ll “cover” your short by buying shares on

Black, who will depart to become chief legal ofﬁcer of Cajun Industries in January. Natalie Parsons has been hired as the event sales and operations manager of Louisiana Hospitality Group’s St. Francisville locations, which include GreenParsons wood, The St. Francisville Inn, a soon-to-be announced venue and several private facilities managed by the ﬁrm. Parsons previously managed event sales for a private event venue in Baton Rouge.

the open market at the now lower price to replace the ones that you borrowed. If you short Home Surgery Kits at $100 per share and cover when it hits $75, you’ll make $25 per share (less commissions, fees and interest). Shorting can be proﬁtable if you are good at identifying stocks that will fall. But what if, instead of falling, shares of Home Surgery Kits rise to $150? If you cover your short then, you’d lose $50 per share (plus commissions, fees and interest). If you invest in a stock expecting it to rise and it falls to zero, you’ll lose 100% of your money — but no more. However, if a shorted stock keeps rising, it might double or triple in value; if you hang on through all that, your loss could be 100%, 200% or even more. Also, the most you can gain with shorting is 100%, if the stock falls to zero; if you buy a stock the usual way, your potential gains are almost unlimited. Shorting is really only for experienced investors, and all of us could do quite well without shorting.

Ask the Fool: Buyout stock moves If a company gets bought by another company, does its stock price go up? — E.B., Wilmington, Delaware It often does. Much depends on what investors think of the acquiree’s value and the acquisition price. For example, if a company’s total market value is around $10

Emergent Method announced a pair of promotions of its senior staff. Keesler Morrison has been promoted to managing Morrison director, ﬁve years after joining the firm as an entry-level consultant. Hannah Walters has been promoted Walters to human resource director, where she will lead its human resources operations and re-

billion and it’s bought for $15 billion, its shares may pop on the news, largely reﬂecting the new valuation. Acquiring companies will often pay a premium price if the acquiree is seen as desirable, perhaps due to strong brands or valuable technology. Offering a premium price can also keep rivals from trying to buy the acquiree. A struggling company, though, might be bought for relatively little. The acquiring company’s stock, meanwhile, might drop if investors think that it’s paying too much or that the deal is not a promising one. What are “vested” and “unvested” options? — A.A., Germantown,Wisconsin Companies often award stock options to employees; frequently, they use a “vesting” schedule to incentivize employees to stick around. Unvested options have been promised to you, but you don’t yet have the right to exercise them. With vested options, you do have that right. Imagine you work at the ThreeLegged Chair Co. (ticker: OOOPS) and you receive options for 100 shares of its stock, with 25% of them vesting each Jan. 1 over the next four years. On Jan. 1, 2027, you can exercise the ﬁrst option and buy 25 shares. Every Jan. 1, another 25 shares “vest.” On Jan. 1, 2030, you’ll be “fully vested” and can buy all 100 shares (or any shares you haven’t bought yet) if you want to. (You might also receive additional options each year.)

cruitment efforts. Dr. O’Neil “Jay” Parenton has been named chief physician executive of Woman’s Hospital. Parenton Parenton has more than 15 years experience as an OB-GYN. This is a new position at the hospital, providing physician leadership for medical staff affairs. Do you have personnel changes to share or other ideas for our business coverage? Drop us a line at biztips@theadvocate.com.

My Smartest Investment: Beat the bankruptcy odds

My smartest investment move was due more to luck than to good planning. In 2011, shortly before American Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection, I purchased about 1,000 shares of its then-parent company, AMR, at well below $1 per share. I occasionally checked on the stock over the next few years, but I never paid much attention until it surpassed $50 per share.At that point, I sold. My eventual gain was over $50,000, and the best part was that it was in a small Roth IRA account. I know The Fool doesn’t recommend buying penny stocks, but it worked out for me. — J.W., via email You may not realize how incredibly lucky you were. When companies emerge from bankruptcy protection, they almost always do so with new shares of stock, leaving holders of their former shares with little to nothing. This was an unusual case, where American Airlines worked hard to win some value for its former shareholders — and succeeded. The fact that you held the stock in a Roth account means you can withdraw from the account tax-free in retirement: Well done! We still advise against buying most penny stocks (those trading for $5 or less per share), though, because they’re notoriously volatile and risky.

Do you have a smart or regrettable investment move to share with us? Email it to tmfshare@fool.com.

The biggest stories in business, delivered to you every weekday

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The Times-Picayune F nola.com F Sunday, October 18, 2026 F 9E

MADE IN LOUISIANA 117-year-old reﬁnery undergoing major capital investments Arabi plant pumps out 6M pounds of sugar daily

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

Deep within an upper floor of the Domino Sugar Chalmette refinery, there’s a high-tech hub hidden beneath the plant’s antique shell. Here, in the control room in an upper story of the 1.5 million-squarefoot facility, operators watch over walls of monitors alit with a multicolored array of trendlines that show the status of key refinery operations. “That green line is the production line that we have,” said Refinery Technical Manager Chris Combs. “We want that line to be flat, and as high up that graph as possible.” Other screens show the status of individual batches as they undergo the filtration processes that transform the millions of pounds of raw cane sugar processed by the plant around the clock into 32 types of sugar products — white, brown, powdered, liquid, extra-fine, coarse, cubes, molasses and more. The mammoth refinery, located in Arabi although named after the nearby historic Chalmette Battlefield, has shaped St. Bernard Parish for more than half of its 117-year history, surviving fires, a deadly explosion and devastating flooding. Today, its 535 employees produce about 6 million pounds of processed sugar a day — about one-sixth of all cane sugar consumed in the U.S. — and for the last quarter-century, the refinery has been owned by the world’s largest cane sugar producer, ASR Group, whose executives have described it as the Florida-based

The mammoth Domino Sugar Chalmette Refinery in Arabi has shaped St. Bernard Parish for more than half of its 117-year history, surviving fires, a deadly explosion and devastating flooding.

firm’s largest and most important American asset. Now, the plant is undergoing the largest capital investment in ASR’s history with construction underway on a $785 million filtration building that executives say will significantly reduce the refinery’s energy and water usage.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Sizable scoops Louisiana sugar farmers supply 100% of the raw cane sugar that feeds the reﬁnery’s 24-hour-a-day operations, with a majority arriving via the Mississippi River. Every year, about 200 barges, plus a steady stream of trucks, deliver more than 750,000 tons of it from sugar mills upriver. The plant produces its own potable water and electricity, pulling water from the river to run a 9-megawatt natural gas power plant on site. It takes workers a full day to unload a single barge, each of which can hold about 3.5 million pounds of sugar. Whenever a sugar-filled barge is moored at the refinery’s wharf, longshoremen operate giant clamshell cranes that roll on rails as they scoop up bucket after bucket of the beige granules, 10,000 pounds at a time. At the riverside, the raw ingredient is dropped onto scales and weighed before it’s carried via the plant’s vast conveyer belts network to a pair of multistory sugar sheds piled high with colossal dunes of raw sugar. Delivery trucks are weighed before and after unloading onto their loads directly into the sheds, which resemble an A-frame airplane hanger and can, together, hold more than 120 million pounds of sugar, with a special retractable conveyer belt depositing incoming loads onto the pile. From there, a front-end loader

scoops up the sugar into a hopper and begins the reﬁning process.

to attach. “That’s where our actual crystals will start to grow from,” he said. Crystal method A batch of everyday table sugar The goal of refining is to remove might take 90 minutes, while the the color — the whiter the sugar, the large-grain crystals found in cookpurer the sucrose — and to shape its ies or candies can take up to six crystals to meet a range of customer hours. specifications. Monitors inside the control room First, the raw sugar is “washed” show little green dots indicating the to strip the film of molasses that size of the crystals as they’re culticoats each crystal through a process vated. called affination, leaving behind a brown, crusty waste product called Shake it up “mud” that’s distributed to farms. From the pans, the sugar spins “We call it melting. We’re not ac- through centrifuges and tumble tually melting the sugar; we’re dis- dryers, then waits in silos with solving it in water,” Combs said. “At enough space for more than 15 milthat point, it stays in a liquid phase lion pounds of finished product. until we purposely make it back into Vibrating screeners sort the cryssugar crystals again, after we filter tals by size, and gravity carries it.” them down to the production floor, In the 12-story “pan house,” the where dozens of packaging lines fill syrup is boiled under a vacuum, everything from 1-pound bags to which lowers its boiling point to 2,000-pound totes. prevent scorching or coloration, in Each line needs only one or two 11 large vacuum pans — seven for people. Networked machines seal white sugar, three for molasses and and weigh the bags while workers one for brown sugar. watch for problems, with a robotic “We boil the pan at about 150 to arm knocking out any package that 165 degrees. That allows us to con- misses its weight. The equipment trol the supersaturation of the pan, monitoring the line is checked regthen we’ll introduce what we call ularly to make sure it’s functional, ‘seed’ to the pan,” Combs said. with a metal-filled dummy container The “seed” crystals are created on hand for testing purposes. on-site by finely grinding up exist“The operator will plop it on the ing sugar, which provide surfaces scale and send it through the metfor the dissolved sugar molecules al detector,” Peter O’Malley, ASR

Group’s vice president of corporate relations, said on a recent tour of the facility. “That way, we know that’s going to trigger the metal detection.” As much as the refinery feels like a modern, automated assembly line inserted into a turn-of-the-century landmark, the historic 70-acre plant is expanding as it continues, as this newspaper predicted in 1909, to play an important role in the development of St. Bernard Parish and “in enhancing the commercial interest of New Orleans.” Over the summer, workers took down an old, unused smokestack, and distributed its bricks to members of the community, longtime plant workers and their families. Foundation work is underway for the new filtration building, due to be completed in 2028, behind the sprawling complex. It will “significantly” cut down on production costs, though the final system design is still under review, O’Malley said. Nevertheless, some things will stay the same in the sticky-floored factory. The refinery’s iconic Christmas tree remains on the 14th floor of the filtration building, now staying up year-round to spare staff from an intimidating installation, unplugged until the holidays. Email Jonah Meadows at jonah. meadows@theadvocate.com.

LOOKING BEYOND:

Jones Walker on Representing Louisiana’s Construction Industry Leaders Pt. II

Beyond Blueprints. Few industries depend on such a vast array of raw materials and high-tech products, or have such complex business relationships among suppliers, designers, vendors, or contractors as the construction industry. Jones Walker’s Construction Team helps clients from across the industry manage all of these moving parts. We understand the complex dynamics between — and the unique priorities of — industry participants and craft solutions that minimize disputes, manage risks, and help keep projects moving from conception to completion. Our clients’ projects are equally diverse and include major infrastructure, manufacturing facilities and plants, hospitals, marine facilities, and airports, as well as the products and services necessary to complete such facilities.

Protecting the Bottom Line When Construction Disputes Turn into Claims Owners occupy a position in construction disputes because they bear the ﬁnancial burden and risks of project failure. Unlike contractors who move on, owners live with the results for years. Claims may come from contractors, subcontractors asserting liens, or third parties alleging injury or property damage, often long after completion.

Chris Cazenave

Private owners enjoy ﬂexibility but face exposure, while public owners operate under strict rules providing protections — in either case, a prompt response is critical. Enforcing notice requirements, preserving documents, and relying on contracts, insurance, and indemnity provisions give owners a defense, while contract enforcement and early strategy protect business interests. Jones Walker is proud to help lead the way for Louisiana’s construction industry as it navigates a complex legal environment.

William H. Hines Managing Partner bhines@joneswalker.com 504.582.8000

201 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70170-5100 joneswalker.com

Attorney Advertising. No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other attorneys.

Scan the QR code to read the full article.

LA-26-20301

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Global experience. Louisiana expertise. Gallagher is committed to serving Louisiana, combining client-centric service with global resources. We’re a trusted partner for businesses and individuals seeking insurance, risk management and consulting solutions.

Connect with your local broker today. AJG.com/louisiana | The Gallagher Way. Since 1927.

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homes.nola.com Search & Place Ads Online at classiﬁeds.theneworleansadvocate.com • Call Us Monday - Friday 8AM - 5PM at (504) 636-7435

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Charming 2-story home on quiet street off Fontainebleau Dr. Beautiful renovation w/ wood floors throughout, 9ft ceilings, crown molding & wonderful natural light. Living & dining rooms are extra spacious. Kitchen has a lrg island & breakfast area that opens to back patio & yard. Primary bdrm suite is down, w/ 2 bdrms & bath up. 2-car drvwy & rear shed. A gem in a convenient location! Letty Rosenfeld 504-236-6834 Compass • Uptown Office 504-866-2785

Call Gwen 504-300-6411

GEAUX BLACK & GOLD!

2F ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

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FEATURED HOME LISTED BY

NEW TRULY 305 Highland Bluff Drive PRICE ONE OF Adrienne LaBauve Slidell / The Bluffs A KIND! & Geoffrey Green ABOUT THIS HOME Address:

305 Highland Bluff Drive Slidell, LA 70461

Neighborhood: The Bluffs

Price:

$1,399,000

Bedrooms:

Five

Bathrooms:

Five Full & One Half

Square Footage: 5,531

Marketing Agents:

ADRIENNE LABAUVE 504-344-0877 alabauve@gmail.com LaBauveGrp.com GEOFFREY GREEN 646-407-5435 LaBauve Group Brokered by eXp Realty, LLC 650 Poydras Street, Suite 1400 New Orleans, LA 70130 504-513-3109 ext 165 Licensed in Louisiana Licensed by State of LA Real Estate Commissioner

Garage Sales WESTWEGO 539 Dumonde Dr. Saturday & Sunday 10/17-18, 7a-4p Indoor, Outdoor Garage Sale. China, crystal, linen, household items, dolls, books, albums, home decor, toys, ﬂoral, Elvis memorabilia, clothes plus ladies formals, wigs, hats, & so much more.

New Orleans Rental APARTMENT Belle Chasse Louisiana GLEN OAKS APARTMENTS 2-and 3 -bedroom 2 bath apartments All appliances included From 944.00 mo. 504-366-4611 EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY Section 8 Welcome

305 Highland Bluff Drive, a spectacular residence in The Bluffs, offers timeless European influence, architectural detail, and over 5,500 square feet of thoughtfully designed living space. This custom home reflects refined craftsmanship with cypress plantation shutters, copper gutters, rich wood flooring, layered millwork, and a brand new roof. The floor plan is intentionally designed to balance openness with defined spaces, creating a home that feels substantial yet inviting. The recently renovated kitchen is a home chef’s dream with gorgeous stone counters, a huge island with a prep surface and sink, double ovens, professional gas range with pot filler, wine fridge, custom cabinetry, and a hanging pot holder. A breakfast nook overlooks the patio and pool, offering a bright place to enjoy morning coffee. Formal living and dining rooms provide elegant entertaining spaces that are also comfortable for everyday living. The primary suite is privately positioned on the first floor and showcases tray ceilings, detailed crown molding, and a luxurious bath accessed through French doors. An additional downstairs bedroom and full bath provide flexibility for guests. Upstairs features three additional bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a spacious sitting area, and a dedicated office. Outdoor living rivals that of a private resort. The courtyard style pool is framed by brick accents, manicured landscaping, and multiple covered entertaining areas including a pergola seating space and fully equipped outdoor kitchen. A convenient yet luxurious bath is accessible from the pool area. The attached three-car garage includes a climate controlled wine storage that holds approximately 7,000 bottles. The property is supported by a 36KW Kohler whole home generator with automatic transfer switch, irrigation system, and hurricane shutters for added peace of mind. Set on beautifully maintained grounds, this exceptional property is a truly special, private oasis! APARTMENT 2 Bedroom, $1000/month. Offstreet parking. 1615 N. Derbigny. Section 8 OK. 504-488-4084

APARTMENT

APARTMENT 2 Bedroom half double, 462 Maple Street, Harvey LA $750/month. 504366-9448 APARTMENT 3806 LaSalle Street. 1 Block from Freret St. 1 Bedroom 1 Bath, stove, refrigerator & Utilities included. $1000/month. 504-782-7837 APARTMENT 4631 West Metairie Avenue 3 Bedroom Double, 1.5 Bath, Central air/heat. Backyard $1600/month. 504-888-1592

APARTMENT METAIRIE

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METAIRIE 3201 RICHLAND AVENUE 1/2 Block off Vets * by Paretti Jaguar 1 Bed * Prkg * Pool * Rent $675/mo 504-320-6958 * 504-454-1333

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ByWater: 2BR 1BA Elegant Historic Property, Offstreet Parking, Backyard $1000/mo $1000/Dep. 504274-2806 or email jraepropertiesllc@gmail.com

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GENTILLY 2544 ALLEN TOUSSAINT BLVD. NEWLY RENOVATED!!! 1-2 Bdrm Apts * From $800/mo Parking * Sec Gate 504-209-8054 * 504-454-1333

10,000 Apt Homes and 75 Locations with Studio, 1, 2 & 3 Bedrooms Pools, Access Gates, Garages (504) 360-9347

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KENNER 2850 IDAHO AVENUE 1 Block to Vets & Williams All Amenities * Pool * Parking Studio/1 Bed Apt * Starting $675/Mo 504-385-5482 * 504-454-1333

METAIRIE 2720 WHITNEY PLACE UNIT #504 • $1,500/Mo 2 Bdrm / 2 Bath Condo. ALL UTILITIES INCLUDED! New Carpet & ﬂrg, quartz countertops in baths. No pets. 2-yr lease. Laundry Rm on 1st ﬂoor. Guard @ night. Sandy Ward * 504-259-2616. Re/Max Living * 504-475-1011. Ea ofc indpntly owned & operated.

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METAIRIE 3513 EDENBORN AVENUE Lrg 2 Bed, 1 Bath * $925 * Off St Prkg Blocks from Lakeside 504-982-4040 * 504-885-8060 504-454-1333

APARTMENT N.O. EAST * LITTLE WOODS SPECIAL 7819 SANDS STREET * 3 BD/2 BA Central A & H * Fenced Backyard Sec 8 Welcome. No Deposit. $1,200 504-241-6189 * 504-430-1162

APARTMENT Efﬁciency #E $800. 4327 & 4329 Hollygrove Street: 1 Bedroom. Water Pd $900. 504-313-2192 HOUSE 2 Bedroom Double, $1400/month. 327 S. Cortez St. Off-street parking. Section 8 okay. 504-488-4084 MOBILE HOME 3 Bedroom, 2237 Washington Ave, Harvey LA $800/month 504-366-9448

jobs.nola.com Search Place Onlines at jobs.nola.com • Call Us Monday - Friday 8AM 8AM - 5PM at at (504) Search &&Place AdsAds Online at classiﬁeds.theneworleansadvocate.com • Call Us Monday - Friday - 5PM (504) 636-7435 636-7435

Announcements

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Anthony Davis, Jr., please contact Attorney Tony Dooley at 504-5100286 or tdooley@thedooleylawofﬁce.com. 204316-Oct 17-19, 3t $69.10 Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Dorothea Wilkinson Montgomery please contact Attorney Edwin A. Lombard at 504-943-7071. 204172-Oct 17-19, 3t $67.00 Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Unknown Heirs of Calvin McClintock, please contact Attorney Donald W. North at (225) 505-6714. 204120-Oct 17-19, 3t $73.30

United in Marriage and declare their commitment to one another as Husband and Wife.

L8YTCK PM9CY500318 2012 ZHEJIANG motorcycle Is stored at 6100 Old Gently Rd., New Orleans, LA 70126 phone number 504-777-5615. If all charges Are not paid and scooter or motorcycle claimed by owner by November 25, 2026 permit to SELL maybe obtained. 203075-Oct 17-18, 2t $88.00

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Edward Franklin Bell, his children, heirs, or legatees, please call Peyton B. Burkhalter at (504) 2662044 or send written communication to 2540 Severn Avenue, Suite 129, Metairie, LA 70002 or pete@peytonburkhalterlaw.com. 204054-Oct 15-19, 5t $125

STAY INFORMED Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Alonda Conchata Anderson, l/k/a 914 Leboeuf St., N.O., LA; call Raashand Hamilton, Esq. 504-9401883. 204260-Oct 17-19, 3t $73.30

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Employment EDUCATION Jefferson Parish Schools is hiring

Speech Language Therapists, School Psychologists & Certified Teachers

LEGAL Paralegal, defense litigation, billing experience required. Please email resumes to mcurrault@deutschkerrigan.com

to fill the following critical shortage areas: ELA, ESL, Math, Science and Special Education. A hiring stipend is offered for teachers hired at target schools and/or in target content areas. For more information and to apply, visit www.jpschools.org/teach EDUCATION The St Bernard Parish School Board has immediate openings for the following positions: Certified positions - ALL levels and Areas Including: * Physical Therapists * Occupational Therapists * Speech Therapists * Interpreters * School Counselors * Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN's) * Support positions - ALL To apply, visit the school district website athttps://www.sbpsb.org EOE

ENGINEERING Intertek USA, Inc seeks an Inspector III, Petroleum in St. Rose, LA to perform the necessary volume measurements, temperature measurements, sam‐ pling, calculations, documentation and reporting which ensures that the cus‐ tomer receives an independent, accu‐ rate and complete assessment of quantity and quality of material. Posi‐ tion requires 25% domes tic travel. To apply, send resume to lorna.schnauber@intertek.com, please reference job title and location.

SALES

ACCOUNT REP -

SALES & MARKETING

existing accounts • Coordinate and support blood drive events • Help meet collection goals that di‐ rectly impact patient care • Represent a respected community or‐ ganization with a life-saving mission What We're Looking For • Self-motivated, energetic, and goaloriented individuals • Strong communication and relation‐ ship-building skills • Sales, marketing, customer service, or business development experience pre‐ ferred • Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Sales, or a related field preferred • Valid driver's license and reliable transportation required What We Offer * Competitive Guaranteed Salary * Incentive and Bonus Opportunities * Medical, Dental, and Life Insurance Ef‐ fective Day One * Paid Holidays * Paid Time Off * Employer-Contributed Retirement Plan * Supportive Team Environment * The Opportunity to Make a Difference Every Day

* Guaranteed Base Salary + Unlimited Bonus Incentive Potential * Medical, Dental, Life Insurance & More Begin on Your Date of Hire

Apply online at: www.thebloodcenter.org

Are you energized by building relation‐ ships, meeting goals, and making a real impact in your community? If you're a motivated, outgoing professional who thrives on connecting with people, this is your opportunity to turn your talent into a meaningful career.

EDUCATION Preschool Teacher. (mult.) Teach lan‐ guage, motor, and social skills to preschool children. Req’s: Bachelor’s in Education or closely related; LA ECAC or eligible; Send resume to St. John Berchmans Early Childhood Dev. Ctr., New Orleans, LA at stjohnberchmans1@gmail.com

At The Blood Center, you'll be the dri‐ ving force behind successful blood dri‐ ves that provide lifesaving blood prod‐ ucts to area hospitals. Every donor you recruit and every blood drive you coor‐ dinate helps save lives throughout our community. What You'll Do • Develop relationships with busi‐ nesses, schools, churches, and com‐ munity organizations • Schedule, plan, and promote blood drives • Generate new opportunities and grow

HEALTH CARE CAREGIVERS NEEDED – METRO NEW ORLEANS Home Instead Home Instead is hiring compassionate, motivated caregivers to help seniors remain safe and independent at home. $13–$15.50/hr | Full & Part-Time | Per‐ sonalized Shifts | Paid Training | Med‐ ical Insurance Requirements: Age 21+, high school diploma/GED, reliable transportation, valid driver's license/ID, and ability to pass background check & drug screen‐ ing. Caregiving experience preferred. Apply today! Interviews within 24–48 hours. Apply at HomeInstead.com/339 Call us at 504-455-4911

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MARINE NOW HIRING Galleyhands Night Cooks Must hold TWIC card, pass drug test & physical. 985-851-0727 or email: personnel@sontheimeroffshore.com

Merchandise MISC FOR SALE Antique (Foreign) Tea Pots 10-12 Must See $300 Take All 504-994-7385

CATS Siamese kittens, males, 9 weeks. Very sweet & Playful. Litter trained. Indoor home only. $75. 985-542-1681

Public Notices

CATS Young Male Cat, Gray Colors, Have too many cats, Looking for another home for him. Please call 504-861-9617 ($50)

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N O L A.C O M & T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

S U N D AY, O C T O B E R 18, 2026

Reading food labels PAGE 3

Molly Kimball 1XN

Nursing home beds becoming increasingly scarce

GETTy IMAGES PHOTO

Oldest baby boomers turning 80 this year

BY PAULA SPAN

KFF Health News (TNS)

PIECE

BY PIECE Dementia rates are high in Louisiana. These experts have tips to keep our brains healthy.

BY MATT HAINES Contributing writer

As executive director of the Louisiana’s Alzheimer’s Association chapter, Delores Hurst thinks a lot about dementia. Part of that is professional: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60% to 80% of all cases. But it’s also personal. Hurst had grandparents who died of dementia. As a Baton Rouge resident, she’s aware that the problem goes well beyond her family, though. According to the National Library of Medicine, Louisiana has the nation’s ﬁfth-highest rate of Alzheimer’s, with 12.4% of residents over 65 living with the disease. Commercial insurance data shows that Louisiana’s early-onset Alzheimer’s and dementia diagnosis rates also track above national averages. “We have some things working against

us,” Hurst said. “We love our fried foods, and we don’t always exercise as much as we could — especially during the hot summer. Add that to a lack of access to adequate healthcare and a high rate of other diseases like obesity, heart disease and diabetes, and the result is 95,000 Louisianans with Alzheimer’s.” The rate of those living Hurst with the disease is even higher in minority communities. Hurst and many other experts in the ﬁeld believe there is reason for optimism, however. “We understand so much more about dementia than we used to,” she said, “which means there is a lot we can do to protect ourselves from potentially getting these horrible diseases.”

You are what you eat Dr. Demetrius Maraganore, chair of Tulane University’s Department of Neurology and the founding director of the Tulane Healthy Brain Aging Initiative, has been focused on helping people achieve healthy brain aging for more than four decades. “A lot has changed in a short amount of time,” he said. “It wasn’t long ago that the message around Maraganore dementia was bleak: ‘There’s no cure and no way to slow it down or prevent it, but send us a check so we can keep researching.’” “The outlook,” he added, “is different now.”

ä See DEMENTIA, page 2X

The San Vicente de Paúl Nursing Home in New York’s South Bronx hasn’t admitted a patient since December 2024. ArchCare, which operates the facility, has reduced its capacity from 120 available beds to 53 and plans to shrink it further. Another ArchCare nursing home, on Staten Island, has shut down a full floor. North of the city, in Dutchess County, its Ferncliff Nursing Home has contracted from 309 available beds to 196. The eight nursing homes owned by ArchCare, a nonprofit that provides eldercare through the Archdiocese of New York, have 269 fewer usable beds than they did 18 months ago, a nearly 12% decline, creating waiting lists for patients seeking long-term care. Across New York state, 24 nursing homes have closed since 2020, resulting in a loss of more than 3,000 licensed beds, according to LeadingAge New York, which represents nonprofit senior living organizations. That mirrors a national trend. In 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services certified 15,648 nursing facilities. A decade later, that number had fallen by more than 900. With the oldest baby boomers turning 80 this year, an age when the need for long-term care climbs sharply, researchers are sounding alarms. Will there be enough nursing home beds for a rapidly graying nation? “We’re seeing a serious problem and it’s heading in the wrong direction,” said David Grabowski, a health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School. He is an author of a study in JAMA Internal Medicine that found a 5% decrease in national nursing home capacity from 2019 to 2024. “As you look at the demographics, this is only going to get worse, maybe a lot worse,” he said, especially given looming Trump administration policies on immigration and Medicaid financing. The reasons for the shrinkage? ArchCare blames inadequate state reimbursement for Medicaid, a perennial industry complaint. The primary payer for nursing home care, Medicaid provides less than the daily cost of care, said Clif Porter, chief executive of the American Health Care Association, an industry trade group. “Before the pandemic and inflation, the losses were sustainable,” said Jason Hutchens, ArchCare’s chief operating officer. More recently, he said, “we were running at an unsustainable loss — we had no choice.” Nursing homes, most of them forprofit, try to compensate by attracting short-stay patients covered by Medicare, which pays higher rates

ä See BEDS, page 3X

ochsner.org/EndCancer

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HEALTH MAKER BR hospital adds machine to help save babies ECMO an advanced life support device

damage can happen. Recovery includes physical therapy for muscle stiffness and speech therapy.

Esperanza’s hope

BY MARGARET DeLANEY

Staff writer

In a ﬁght to save more of Louisiana’s smallest patients, a Baton Rouge hospital invested in a device that replaces the function of the heart and lungs by pumping blood outside of the body. Called ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine), the machine is an advanced lifesupport used for infants, children or adults with respiratory or cardiac failure. At Woman’s Hospital, the ECMO will be used for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit who are experiencing lung failure. The machine’s tubes, pumps, filters and monitors take over a patient’s heart or lung function, allowing the body to rest. “(It) allows the body to heal the process that initiated the problem to begin with,” said Dr. Danielle Thompson, a neonatologist for InfaMedics neonatology group and medical director for the ECMO program at Woman’s Hospital. “It just gives the time for the body, for the lungs and the heart to heal.” At Woman’s, ECMO can be used for babies born with meconium aspiration syndrome (breathing issues when a baby inhales meconium), sepsis, respiratory distress syndrome (immature lungs), pulmonary high blood pressure (when blood pressure in the lungs is elevated and prevents blood oxygenation) or congenital abnormalities that prevent lungs from developing properly. “The condition has to be reversible,” said Dr. Steven Spedale, medical director of InfaMedics, and champion of bringing ECMO to the Baton Rouge hospital. “It’s not a life-saver for all babies. But for very speciﬁc cases, when the condition is reversible, it can be lifesaving.” There are five Louisiana hospitals with ECMO machines, but Woman’s is only the third in the state with one for newborns. The other two infant-sized machines are in New Orleans hospitals. As a non-ECMO hospital, Woman’s Hospital used to make a critical decision before it’s too late: to move a patient to New Orleans or not. “We have to get the baby there before the baby is too sick to be transported. For us, it’s really been a dicey game,” Spedale said. “This is a very old technology in some ways, but it’s going to be new for babies in this region. Ba-

DEMENTIA

Continued from page 1X An important factor, he says, is diet. Trillions of microbes live in every human gut. These microbes influence your brain health via the gut-brain axis, he explained. To study the relationship between foods and brain health, Maraganore and his team sorted lab rats into two groups: One group eats a “Western diet” common in places where many foods are fried, high in fat and “ultraprocessed.” The other group eats a “Mediterranean diet” featuring fruit, olive oil, nuts, fiber and seafood. “The diet high in fats produces unhealthy gut bacteria that triggers the immune system to attack it,” he said. This attack makes the gut inflamed and leaky, allowing the bacteria to enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain, where inflammation is once again triggered and memory networks are disrupted. The Mediterranean diet, he said, “keeps our immune system quiet and happy.”

Heart rate up Eating habits can affect the brain in other ways, as well, said Bianca Coats, a registered dietician based in Zachary. Poor heart health, for example, signiﬁcantly increases the risk of developing dementia by reducing oxygen and nutrient delivery to the brain. High blood pressure also damages the brain by stressing blood vessels, impairs the brain’s ability to clear away the toxic waste proteins — like betaamyloid and tau, which are known to lead to Alzheimer’s disease. High blood sugar, which can lead to diabetes, creates these same issues while also contributing to brain cells’ ability to absorb the glucose needed to support memo-

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Bill Harris, a perfusionist and ECMO coordinator for Integration Health, explains how the ECMO works to oxygenate a patient’s blood at Woman’s Hospital. ton Rouge is just growing up in terms of its medical capabilities.”

How it works The heart of the system, a centrifugal pump, rotates blood without oxygen “like a tornado,” said Bill Harris, a perfusionist and ECMO coordinator for Integration Health. “It’s sucking the blood in and pushing it out forcibly through the artiﬁcial lung, the oxygenator,” he said. The oxygenator blows off carbon dioxide and circulates warm water into the blood to keep babies warm. The arterial oxygenrich blood then goes back into the body’s circulation. For babies, ECMO tubes are typically inserted into the neck, where blood vessels are bigger and more easily accessible. “If we didn’t have this, and a baby was really ill, we would have to turn the ventilator up to very high settings to normalize blood,” Harris said. Extended time on ventilators on high settings can make the lungs stiff or, because pressure on the lungs is so high, it could cause pneumothoraces, or holes in the lung. “Once we try everything we do conventionally and it doesn’t work, we’ll go to ECMO,” Harris said. “And be able to turn the ventilator down to very low settings. We’re

Dr. Steven Spedale, a neonatologist, talks about how Esperanza Pineda, a former ECMO patient, is living proof of the technology’s lifesaving ability. providing a healthy environment for the lungs to heal over time.” To be on the machine, physicians administer a blood thinner, heparin, to prevent blood clots forming inside the closed circuit. This can cause bleeding in the brain in some cases, which is why staff neurologists perform regular EEGs, or tests to measure brain activity. “It’s not like we put you on (ECMO) and everything is going to be rosy,” Spedale said. “There will be some babies we put on ECMO that won’t survive.”

Survival rates vary widely for patients on ECMO, determined by certain illnesses, existing health conditions and age. Younger patients experience higher survival rates, while adult patients over 65 face signiﬁcantly lower discharge rates. Babies are typically on the machine for ﬁve to seven days, and up to two weeks depending on the condition. Adults can be on ECMOs for weeks, months or over a year. Even if a newborn is discharged from the hospital, long-term brain

A good night’s sleep

In the 1960s, heart-bypass machines were imperfect, especially for babies. As a young surgeon, Dr. Robert “Bob” Bartlett, the “father of ECMO” who died in October 2025, looked to create an alternative option for patients who needed more time. He used silicone rubber to create a “membrane lung,” allowing free movement of gases and blood to flow more easily outside of the body. However, Bartlett’s first trial on adult humans was cut short after 90% of the patients died. Then, hope arrived. Esperanza Pineda was born in 1975 in Irvine, California, where Bartlett was conducting research on his new machine. She was born cyanotic, a baby with underdeveloped lungs that turned her skin blue. Pineda’s mother was an immigrant from Mexico who, after hearing of her condition, fled the hospital believing her baby would not survive. Just 20 hours after her birth, Bartlett wheeled in the ECMO. “With today’s regulations, you can’t just take your equipment out of lab and put it on a human being. But that’s what they did,” Spedale said. “That’s like launching a rocket for the first time.” Pineda was hooked up to the machine for a week, and went home to her foster mother at 10 weeks old. As an adult, she was put in contact with Bartlett after her annual doctor’s appointment in Missouri. Since reconnecting, she’s traveled far and wide to share her story with other ECMO patients and parents alike. “My mom never named me. It was the nurses. The nurses named me Hope, which translates to Esperanza,” Pineda said. “I would like to be that hope for parents. I survived. You can’t always guarantee what’s going to happen, but I would like to give them that hope.” When Pineda was born, ECMO “seemed to work for the neonatal population much better than it did for the older pediatrics or the adult population,” Harris said. Woman’s Hospital cannot prepare for when a newborn will need an ECMO, but medical teams spent several months building policies and protocols for their first patient. “We’re not going to have a baby every single day that’s going to qualify for this type of treatment,” Spedale said. “When we reach the point of having a baby that is in need of it, we’re prepared.”

“Clonazepam, Valium, Benadryl and all of those ‘PM drugs’ can inAnother essential component in crease the risk of Alzheimer’s, so staving off neurological decline is if you’re having trouble sleeping naturally, you really need to speak sleep. “I always tell people, ‘Don’t sleep to a doctor.” on sleep,’” said Hurst from the Louisiana chapter of the Alzheim- Taking brain health seriously er’s Association. Both the Alzheimer’s Association She said it’s a myth that elderly and the Tulane Healthy Brain Agadults require less sleep; the aging ing Initiative outline 10 habits to adult brain needs sleep more than follow to help maintain a healthy ever to rebuild and regenerate. brain. These lists are available on The brain is very active given its their websites, and both organizasmall size, consuming a massive tions also encourage questions by share of the body’s total energy, email and telephone. including 25% of its glucose. A Reducing stress, eliminating healthy brain produces metabolic smoking, regular visits to the denbyproducts such as amyloid-beta tist, staying social and challenging and tau. During deep sleep, the the brain with mental exercises or brain is given the opportunity to learning new skills can all help. clear out these proteins. Without Protecting your head from potenthis cleaning process, known as tial injury, such as wearing a helthe glymphatic system, amyloid met when biking, is also important. and tau are allowed to accumulate Also important: educated about into dense, insoluble plaques be- dementia and its symptoms, and tween the neurons that infamously seek out a diagnosis when potenlead to dementia. tial symptoms emerge. Maraganore suggests that seven “There is no cure to dementia, PHOTO PROVIDED By BIANCA COATS hours of sleep is the nightly sweet but we no longer have to sit here spot for adults. like a sitting duck,” Hurst said. Bianca Coats, a dietician, is passionate about the connection of food “We need that to preserve brain “We have learned that there is and neurological health. health and we need to do it with- quite a bit we can be doing to grow out unhealthy sleep aids,” he said. older with a healthy brain.” beating can lower our risk of disry and thinking. “This is why I always encourage eases like Alzheimer’s.” my patients to avoid the processed The Tulane Healthy Brain Aging sugars you find in things like store- Initiative agrees. Maraganore sugWE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU bought cookies and pies,” said gests five days per week of aeroCoats. “Instead, we want to go bic exercise that gets your heart for leafy greens — cabbage, kale pumping faster than 100 beats The Louisiana Health Health editions will also and spinach — grains, crucifer- per minute for at least a half-hour. section is focused on profile people who are ous vegetables like broccoli and This can include running, dancing, providing in-depth, personal advancing health for the cauliflower, Omega 3s in salmon, brisk walking, and so much more. tuna and flaxseed, as well as teas, But for those that don’t like aeroaccounts of health in the state of Louisiana. berries and walnuts. Walnuts have bic exercise, Maraganore says state. This section looks Do you have a health story? healthy fats that are great for our walking 7,000 or more steps each brains.” day can also help. at medical innovations, We want to hear from you. Just as important for brain “Exercising in these ways can rehealth discoveries, state and Email margaret.delaney@ health, Coats says, is exercise. duce your odds of Alzheimer’s by national health statistics and theadvocate.com to submit “Exercise helps with every- 40 to 50%,” he said. “They actually thing,” she said. “It reduces our cause the hippocampus to grow so re-examining tried and true health questions, stories and stress levels, which helps with physical activity leads to a bigger methods on ways to live well. more. long-term brain health, but it’s also brain. But not only does exercise more direct: getting your heart grow the brain. It also repairs it.”

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Eat Fit Live Fit

Molly Kimball RD, CSSD

B R O U G H T TO YO U BY

How I actually read a food label

amount in a typical slice of bread. Sodium moves higher on my list with soups, frozen meals, sauces and other prepared foods. I also check the serving size. A nutrition panel can look fantastic until we realize the numbers are for a portion much smaller than what we’d actually eat.

’ve been a dietitian for decades, but I don’t stand in the grocery aisle carefully reading every line of every Nutrition Facts label. When I do look, I don’t start at the top and work my way down. I don’t tally up percentages of daily values or have a cutoff that determines whether a food goes into my cart. And sometimes, the label barely impacts my decision at all, because not every food choice is about protein, ﬁber or added sugar. Sometimes, it’s about ﬁnding that cracker with exactly the right texture for a particular cheese, or the thick, ridged potato chip that’s perfectly salty and extra crunchy. But when nutrition is part of my decision, especially with foods I buy week after week, what I look at depends entirely on what I’m buying.

Then I Scan the Ingredients

The Nutrition Facts panel gives me the numbers, but the ingredient list tells me the bigger story behind the numbers. I scan for artiﬁcial colors and other ingredients I don’t necessarily avoid completely but don’t want making up a large part of my everyday diet. I’m also skeptical about those front-ofpackage claims like keto, high protein or plant-based. Rather than taking them at face value, I turn the package around and see what’s really inside.

What Is This Food Giving Me?

The main question I ask: What is this food actually giving me? With yogurt, I’m usually checking protein and added sugar first. With bread or cereal, I look at total carbohydrate, fiber and protein. When looking for a soup or a prepared meal, sodium matters more. When I want something sweet, I’ll look at added sugar and total carbohydrate, along with what’s being used to sweeten it. Are there meaningful protein, fiber or nutrient-dense ingredients? Or am I mostly getting calories, refined carbohydrates and sweetness? Protein is one of the first numbers I look for in foods where I expect it. A product may say “protein” in giant font across the front, but if I turn it over and see three grams, that’s not particularly impressive. For perspective, a 3-ounce portion of chicken is about the size of a deck of cards and has around 25 grams of protein.

The same goes for fiber. If a label brags about 10 grams, I want to know where it’s coming from. Beans, nuts, seeds, vegetables and whole grains naturally provide fiber with other nutrients. Other products get much of their fiber from isolated fibers added during manufacturing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but 10 grams from lentils isn’t quite the same nutritional package as 10 grams added to a highly processed snack.

I’m Not Looking for Perfection

What Deserves a Closer Look?

If you want to simplify it, ask yourself three questions:

Added sugar is one of the ﬁrst places I look, and the Nutrition Facts label now separates it from total sugar. I don’t evaluate the naturally occurring sugar in plain Greek yogurt with berries the same way as 15 grams of sugar added to ﬂavored yogurt. Total carbohydrate matters to me, too, especially with breads, cereals, snack foods and sweets. For perspective, 15 grams of carbohydrate is roughly the

1. 2. 3.

What is this food giving me? What deserves a closer look? Do the ingredients back up what the front of the package is telling me?

Most of us don’t need to analyze every gram and ingredient every time we shop. For foods we buy regularly, ﬁgure out the two or three things that matter most and check those. A food label is information. It doesn’t have to be the reason we choose a food, but when nutrition matters to us, knowing how to interpret that information can help us make choices that better ﬁt what we’re looking for nutritionally.

Molly Kimball, RD, CSSD, is a registered dietitian with Ochsner Health and founder of Ochsner’s Eat Fit nonproﬁt initiative. For more wellness content, tune in to Molly’s podcast, FUELED Wellness + Nutrition, and follow @MollykimballRD and @EatFitOchsner on social media. Email nutrition@ochsner.org to connect with Molly or

BY THE NUMBERS

LOUISIANA’S RATE OF TRIPLE-NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER IS HIGHER THAN U.S. AVERAGE Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer where cancer cells don’t have estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, or too much of a cancer protein called HER2. It gets its name from the “negative” test results for all three receptors. It tends to grow and spread faster. It also has fewer treatment options. Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for 10% to 15% of all breast cancers, and is more common in Black women, women who have not gone through menopause and women who have an inherited BRCA1 gene mutation. Most breast cancers are detected before a woman shows any symptoms through regular breast cancer screening such as mammography.Triple-negative breast cancer, however, is more likely to occur in younger women before they reach screening age at 40 years old.That’s why it’s important for women of any age to be familiar with their breasts so they can spot any changes, such as a hard lump, according to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In Louisiana, 548 women were diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2022, at a rate of 19.4 cases diagnosed per 100,000 women, according to data collected by the Louisiana Tumor Registry from LSU Health New Orleans.That’s higher than the national incidence rate of 14.1 cases diagnosed per 100,000 women. These parishes had the highest average incidence rate of triple-negative breast cancer, per 100,000, between 2018 and 2022: n East Feliciana Parish with 31 cases per 100,000; n Natchitoches Parish with 30.6 cases per 100,000; n Iberville Parish with 29 cases per 100,000; n Morehouse Parish with 27.4 cases per 100,000; n St. John the Baptist Parish with 25 cases per 100,000; n St. Bernard Parish with 24.9 cases per 100,000; n West Baton Rouge Parish with 24.6 cases per 100,000; n De Soto and East Baton Rouge parishes with 24.4 cases per 100,000; n and Pointe Coupee Parish with 23.7 cases per 100,000. Twenty-eight parishes had an incidence rate of triple negative breast cancer too small to be significant, according to the Louisiana Tumor Registry.

BEDS

Continued from page 1X than Medicaid. When they can’t, “unless you’re extremely rapacious or extremely efﬁcient, you’re not going to make it,” said Vincent Mor, a health services researcher at the Brown University School of Public Health who is an author of an article, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, raising concerns about reduced capacity. “The numbers don’t add up.” Staff shortages, which have plagued nursing homes for decades, have also caused contractions and closures. Nursing home aides work stressful, low-paying jobs with his-

torically high turnover rates. Their median hourly wage last year was $20.67, according to federal data compiled by PHI, a research and advocacy group for direct care workers. Although pay has risen over the past decade, about 40% of nursing home aides rely on some form of public assistance, such as Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, PHI reported. The number of nursing home aides has rebounded from the COVID pandemic, according to PHI, but fewer are working than in 2015. And while hiring and retention have improved, Porter said, “there’s still a signiﬁcant gap between demand, especially future demand, and where the workforce

Triple-negative breast cancer The incidence rate, per 100,000, for women diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in each Louisiana parish from 2018 to 2022.

Webster Webster

Lincoln Lincoln

Bienville Bienville

Richland Richland

Caldwell Caldwell

Franklin Franklin

Winn Winn

20% to 25%

Madison Madison

Jackson Jackson

Red R ed River River

More than 25%

EEast ast Carroll Carroll

Ouachita Ouachita

Caddo Caddo

DeSoto DeSoto

West West Morehouse Carroll Morehouse Carroll

Union Union

Claiborne Claiborne

Bossier Bossier

15% to 19.9% Tensas Tensas

Less than 15%

Catahoula Catahoula Natchitoches Natchitoches

Grant Grant

Sabine Sabine

LaSalle LaSalle

Rapides Rapides

Vernon Vernon

Avoyelles Avoyelles

Beauregard Beauregard

Allen Allen

Evangeline Evangeline

W. Feliciana W. Feliciana E. FFeliciana E. eliciana

JJefferson efferson Davis Davis

Cameron Cameron

Tangipahoa Tangipahoa

St. S t. Helena Helena Pointe Pointe St. LLandry St. andr y C Coupee oupee WBR WBR

Calcasieu Calcasieu

Too small for data collection

Concordia Concordia

EBR EBR

Livingston Livingston

Washington Washington

St. Tammany St. Tammany

Acadia A cadia St. John St. John Iber ville Iberville Lafayette St. Lafayette Ascension A scension St. M Martin artin JJefferson efferson St. James St. James St. St. Iberia Iberia Assumption Assumption Charles Charles Vermilion Vermilion St. Mary St. Mar y

Lafourche Lafourche

Orleans Orleans St. Bernard St. Bernard Plaquemiines Plaquemines

Terrebonne Terrebonne

Staff map Sources: Louisiana Tumor Registry, LSU Health New Orleans

currently is.” National occupancy rates, which fell sharply during the pandemic, have returned to a more typical 80%. That ﬁgure can be misleading; it doesn’t mean 1 bed in 5 sit empty, awaiting a patient. Occupancy counts state-licensed beds, but the more meaningful number is operating beds — how many are actually available depending on a facility’s stafﬁng and other factors. That number is usually lower and, in many cases, sinking. The American Health Care Association reported in 2024 that almost half of nursing homes were limiting admissions and 57% had waiting lists for new residents. It’s possible, of course, that they

also face ﬁnancial losses because of lower demand. “Nursing homes close because people don’t want to go to nursing homes,” said Sam Brooks, director of public policy for the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, an advocacy group. “The quality is so low that people avoid them like the plague.” Last year, Medicare inspectors found at least one quality violation serious enough to harm or jeopardize residents in 27% of nursing homes, according to an analysis by KFF, a health information nonproﬁt. In recent decades alternatives emerged that diverted patients from nursing homes. About a million older adults currently live in assisted living facilities. And among Medicaid recipients, the ongoing

policy shift called “rebalancing” has enabled more people to receive services at home (where most want to be) rather than in nursing homes. In 1988, only 10% of Medicaid expenditures for long-term services went to home- or community-based services; the rest paid for institutional care. By 2020, more than 60% of expenditures funded home and community care, said Priya Chidambaram, a KFF senior policy manager specializing in Medicaid, citing a staff analysis. How big a problem these trends pose depends partly on geography. The decline in the number of nursing homes in rural locations — about 10% from 2015 to 2025 — was much greater than the national drop of about 6%.

4X ✦ Sunday, October 18, 2026 ✦ nola.com ✦ The Times-Picayune

lll

Early Detection Saves Live es Breast health starts with knowing you ur risk and staying up to date on screenings..

A breast cancer diagnosis can be life-changing, but early detection can make all the difference. Regular sscreenings can help identify breast cancer before symptom ms appear, when treatment may be more effective and ou utcomes may be improved. Ochsner MD Anderson Canccer Center is committed to helping women understand ttheir risk, stay informed and access screening services clo ose to home.

Claire C. Breast Cancer Patient

Understanding Breast Cancer Risk

Know the Facts

1 in 8

You may be at increased risk if you have: A personal history of breast cancer A family history of breast or ovarian cancer Certain inherited genetic mutations

women will face a breast cancer diagnosis during their lifetime.*

Dense breast tissue

Breast Cancer Awareness Month serves as an important reminder that screening saves lives. Understanding your personal risk and staying current on recommended screenings are among the most important steps you can take for your health.

Talk with your primary care physician about your individual risk factors and whether additional screening may be appropriate.

Why Regular Mammograms Matter

Beyond Mammograms: Breast Health Tips for Every Woman

A mammogram is a low-dose X-ray that can detect breast cancer early, often before it can be felt or causes symptoms. Regular mammograms can:

Make breast health a priority:

Detect cancer at earlier stages

Increase treatment options

Reduce the need for more aggressive treatments

Improve outcomes through earlier intervention

Women at average risk should discuss annual screening mammograms beginning at age 40 with their physician.

Schedule regular screenings Know your family’s cancer history Maintain a healthy lifestyle Speak with your doctor about changes in your breasts Ask if genetic risk assessment may be right for you Keep annual wellness visits on your calendar

Comprehensive Breast Care Close to Home Ochsner Health and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are partnered to bring advanced cancer care close to home. Through Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center, patients across Louisiana and Mississippi have access to the expertise and innovation of two leading cancer organizations, including advanced treatments, clinical trials, innovative therapies and multidisciplinary care.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

1 When should I start screening?

4 Should I consider genetic testing?

2 How often should I get a mammogram?

5 What additional screenings might be appropriate for me?

3 Am I at increased risk for breast cancer?

Learn more or schedule an appointment at ochsner.org/EndCancer

Preventive screenings save lives. Talk to your physician about scheduling your mammogram today.

SUNDAY, OctOber 18, 2026

CURTIS / by Ray Billingsley

SLYLOCK FOX / by Bob Weber Jr.

GET FUZZY / by Darby Conley

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE / by Chris Browne

ROSEBUDS / by Supr Dee

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM / by Mike Peters

ZIGGY / by Tom Wilson

SALLY FORTH / by Francesco Marciuliano & Jim Keefe

ZITS / by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE / by Stephan Pastis

wonderword

scrabble grams

word game

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.

instructions: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters 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 words are not allowed.

todAY's Word — nestLinG: NEST-ling: A young bird that has not left the nest. Average mark 47 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 60 or more words in NESTLING?

For more information on tournaments and clubs, email NASPA – North American SCRABBLE Players Association: info@scrabbleplayers.org. Visit our website: www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzle inquiries contact scrgrams@gmail.com. Hasbro and its logo SCRABBLE associated logo, the design of the distinctive SCRABBLE brand game card, and the distinctive letter tile designs are trademarks of Hasbro in the United States and Canada. ©2026 Hasbro. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

cryptoquote AxyDLBAAxR iS LONgFELLOW One letter stands for another. in this sample, A is used for the three L’s, x for the two O’s, etc. Single letters, apostrophes, the length and formation of the words are all hints. Each day the code letters are different.

AnsWers to ALL PuZZLes Are on inside BAcK PAGe

Sudoku

ken ken instructions: 1 - Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 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.

instructions: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

hidato directions: Complete the grid so that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

AnsWers to ALL PuZZLes Are on inside BAcK PAGe

Los angeLes Times sunday Crossword puzzLe — Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis “CaLiFornia sCHemin” By paTTi VaroL aCross 1 Come & Get It! pet food brand 5 “Scrubs” role for Judy Reyes 10 Some language exams 15 Escalator part 19 Large Hadron Collider org. 20 Orca habitat 21 Upgrade, as machinery 22 Simplicity 23 Fizzled out 24 Versace parent company 25 “12-Point Type: A History”? 27 Prankster? 30 Fortune 31 Corporate VIPs 32 Dance club version, say 34 Like fabric in a quilting kit 38 Silver-white metal 41 Audition hopeful 43 Like a car made between 1919 and 1930 44 “You for Me” singer Rita 45 Cut-rate vacation rentals? 49 Issa of “Insecure” 50 Chutney fruit 52 D-backs st. 53 Chimp kin 54 Helsinki native 55 Perform terribly 56 Barbie’s boo 57 IRS convenience 58 Pickles 59 Rowlands with an Honorary Academy Award 60 Poor grade 61 Played a pipe in a parade 62 Figure in the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition

63 Decorative jugs 65 Teams 66 Home network need 67 “MasterChef” host Gordon 69 Bank investment? 70 Word with brow or blow 71 __ bean 74 Noisy, as a crowd 75 Driveway brick 76 With 16-Down, official cocktail of the city of Oakland 77 Shot in the arm, say 78 Eyelash treatment 79 Basic framework 80 Frames 81 Leftover 82 Playpen denizen 83 Motto of a therapist who uses origami to teach anger management? 86 Cake mix need 87 Traditional source of wood for baseball bats 89 On the periphery 90 “No __!” 92 Had a snack 93 Fillable flatbreads 95 H-Town ALer 96 Gain back 98 Morning-afterthe-wedding stories? 104 Useful tool in making some Thanksgiving pies? 108 Vedder of Pearl Jam 109 Make mittens, perhaps 110 Winged archer 111 Primer mes del año 112 PowerPoint unit

113 Periphery 114 Well-worn trail 115 Showed again 116 Words to live by 117 Short message of gratitude down 1 Adapter letters 2 “Help me, ObiWan Kenobi. You’re my only hope” speaker 3 Slice and dice, perhaps 4 Coming right up 5 “Priscilla” writer/ director Sofia 6 Ranch units 7 Raise 8 Some pub pals 9 “Devious Maids” star 10 Magic, on sports tickers 11 Form of energy healing 12 Tack on 13 “Not one word of this is true!” 14 Walking noisily 15 The continents, e.g. 16 See 76-Across 17 PC “oops” key 18 Split __ soup 26 Forest plants 28 Hoka rival 29 Highlighter hue 33 Automatic dripbrew pioneer 35 One with next-level skills in being thoughtful and compassionate? 36 Tanzania neighbor 37 Wee 38 Claim on some menus 39 Mighty mad 40 The dog days of summer? 41 Correspond 42 Adam’s eldest 43 Ivy, for one

46 Tools with teeth 47 Zodiac ram 48 Un-locked? 51 Really bothers 54 Mozilla web browser 57 Down source 58 Figure, casually 60 Towel off 61 Fin 62 “I don’t have all day!” 64 Tuner’s asset

goren Bridge

65 Cut 66 Damp 67 Lanai furniture material 68 Melodic passage 69 Strike zone? 70 Pulitzer-winning rapper Kendrick 72 Brink 73 Wise words 75 Leader of the Holy See 76 Attic pests 77 Strong urge 79 Big name in

wuzzLes

94 Prefix with structure 95 Slyly cutting 97 Hathaway of “The Odyssey” 99 Just chilling 100 All-father of Norse myth 101 Roddick who was the last American man to win the US Open 102 __ in a blanket 103 Half note feature

104 Energy 105 Cy Young stat 106 Basic bed 107 Long time

super Quiz Take this Super Quiz to a Ph.D. Score 1 point for each correct answer on the Freshman Level, 2 points on the graduate Level and 3 points on the Ph.D. Level.

One more for luck

Today’s deal is from a recent team match. The auction is quite normal for tournament play. West led the ace of spades and East followed suit with the 10! West read this unnecessary high card as a suit-preference signal for hearts, the higher ranking of the two remaining suits other than spades and trumps. West shifted smartly to the queen of hearts and defeated the contract. On any other play, the king of spades say, South would have won, drawn trumps, and led the queen of diamonds. That finesse would lose, but the favorable position of the 10 of diamonds would give South two heart discards and 11 tricks. Nice defense! At the other table, the bidding was the same except that East persevered to five spades, which was doubled. North led a club. West ruffed in dummy, drew trumps, and led the queen of hearts. He was able to discard a diamond on the jack of hearts and the favorable location of the ace of diamonds

classic travel guides 80 Disorderly place 83 Primp 84 Island feast 85 Springsteen’s __ Band 88 Clobber 91 “Guardians of the Galaxy” voice role for Bradley Cooper 93 Overly inquisitive sort

SUBJECT: ITALY (Example: The capital city. Answer: Rome.) FRESHMAN LEVEL 1. Italy extends into what large sea? Answer________ 2. Italy is not an island, it is a _____. Answer________ 3. What Italian island is near the “toe” of Italy? Answer________ 4. What city is built on a group of about 120 islands linked by bridges? Answer________ 5. What is the most popular sport in Italy? Answer________

gave him 11 tricks and a huge gain for his team. There is a way to defeat five spades. North must lead a low diamond at trick one! Would you have found that lead? Neither would we. Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, Ny. 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2026 Tribune Content Agency

GRADUATE LEVEL 6. What sea is on Italy’s east coast? Answer________ 7. What mountain range is on Italy’s northern land border? Answer________ 8. What are the three

colors on the national flag? Answer________ 9. It is the third largest city and the largest in southern Italy. Answer________ 10. Name either of the two enclaves within Italy. Answer________ PH.D. LEVEL 11. What is the largest metropolitan area in Italy? Answer________ 12. What fascist dictator titled himself “Duce”? Answer________ 13. What active volcano is on the east coast of Sicily? Answer________ 14. What large Italian island is located about 125 miles west of mainland Italy? Answer________ 15. Italy is nicknamed “Lo Stivale,” which translates to ____. Answer________

ANSWERS TO ALL PUZZLES ARE ON NEXT PAGE

zodiaC LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Be the stabilizer when chaos or discord surfaces. How you handle situations will be how others judge you. Situations that require mediation will be a perfect platform to demonstrate how valuable you are. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Breathe. Let your physical condition determine whether you should stop or go. Whether you push yourself or are trying to heal, having a clear head and a plan in place are the best ways to approach what’s next. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Putting more energy toward expanding your expertise and vying for posi-

tions that will lead to higher income will change how you feel about your relationships, commitments and the lifestyle you want to pursue. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Devise a plan that will help you meet both work and domestic demands. Listen to what others say, and assess the validity of how they interpret situations. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) You can put emotional energy to good use — or you can overreact and be met with opposition. Put yourself first, walk away from drama and channel your energy into enhancing your skills.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) It’s time to take care of yourself and your heart’s desires. Stop worrying about what everyone wants from you, and start manifesting what makes you feel good. ARIES (March 21-April 19) If you step away from certain situations, you’ll get a unique view of what’s possible. Protecting yourself without hurting others is the solution. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Curb bad habits, and refuse to let the little things get to you. When in groups, keeping a positive attitude will help deter troublemakers from goading you into an argument.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) You’ll thrive on change. Research, then develop a plan that fits your schedule and helps you reach your destination. Helping a meaningful cause will encourage you to be more giving with your time and money. CANCER (June 21-July 22) Use your connections to bring about change or to gain access to a group you want to join. Offer your time and expertise rather than cash donations. Starting a healthy lifestyle will be uplifting. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Tiptoe through conversations that can damage your reputation or cost you a friendship.

Reflect before you speak, and verify your facts before you share. A problem at home will require an expert. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Trust yourself and your ability to get the facts. Suggestions you receive will fall short. Protect your assets, reputation and earning capability from those trying to implement changes that favor them more than you. The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

dustin / by Steve Kelley & Jeff Parker

Answers to puzzles super quiz 1. Mediterranean Sea. 2. Peninsula. 3. Sicily. 4. Venice. 5. Soccer. 6. Adriatic Sea. 7. Alps. 8. Red, white and green. 9. Naples. 10. Vatican City or San Marino. 11. Milan. 12. Benito Mussolini. 13. Mount Etna. 14. Sardinia. 15. The Boot.

SCORING: 24 to 30 points — congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points — honors graduate; 13 to 17 points — you’re plenty smart, but no grind; 5 to 12 points — you really should hit the books harder; 1 point to 4 points — enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0 points — who reads the questions to you?

Cryptoquote Answer Saturday's Cryptoquote: The flame-red moon, the harvest moon, rolls along the hills, gently bouncing, a vast balloon. — Ted Hughes

word GAme Answer nest nesting nine egis enlist ensign sent sign signet silent silt sine sing singe single singlet site

sling slit snit stein stile sting tennis tensing tile tine ting tinge tingle tinsel legist lenis lens

lent lest lien line linen ling lint list listen lite ingest ingle inlet inset intel isle islet

istle gelt gent gest gilt gist glen glint glisten

sudoKu Answer jumble Answer

Crossword Answers

jeFF mACnelly’s shoe / by Gary Brookins & Susie MacNelly

sCrAbble Answers

FoXtrot / by Bill Amend

wuzzles Answers

Ken Ken Answers

hidAto Answers