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LSU BASEBALL DEFEATS TENNESSEE IN 12 INNINGS TO TAKE

‘ITTAKES AVILLAGE’

BY CLAIREGRUNEWALD staff writer

with her Paw Paw side by side, as he told hertopickthem fast and by the stems.

Her grandfather was the second owner of the family farm, taking over in the 1930s, and he and his family put in years of long hours of manual labor to ensure the success of the strawberry business.

“He’d sit in therocking chair and talk to the kids about hismulenamed Ada, andhow they didn’thavetractors then (onthe farm) andhow he andhis mule would work,” Landry-Poché said.

Nowdecades andplenty of technology advances later,at61years old, Landry-Poché owns the family farmas it celebrates itscentennial this year

The fourth-generation, family-owned Landry-Poché Strawberry Farm was established in 1926 and is locatedinthe smalltownofSpringﬁeld. Thisstrawberry season, thefarmplanted 120,000 plants across 6acres. The farm currently suppliesthe Robert Fresh Market stores in theNew Orleans area, but customerscan alsocome to the farm to buy strawberries during the season and even pick them themselves. Thefarm alsohosts ﬁeld trips nearly everyday

Political wedgeon rightgrows on carbon capture

Industry groups push back on opposition

BY DAVID J. MITCHELL staff writer

In avideo posted online, Gov. Jeff Landry called State Treasurer John Fleming aﬂip-ﬂopper; Fleming shot backthat Landry was“aliar.”

In aHouse committee hearing at the Louisiana Legislature,two representativesinvokedthe TenCommandments against lying, stealing and covetousness. And in anew social media promotion, a new conservative advocacy group called MAGA Energy Project has accused community and environmental groups of being in bed with “liberal extremists like George Soros” and Michael Bloomberg. These skirmishes are all part of apolitical battle that is becoming one of the ﬁercest in Louisiana: The ﬁght over carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS. That process pumps carbon dioxide deep underground and stores it there permanently in abid to cutindustrial emissions thatcontribute to climate change and create so-called “low carbon” products. State economicdevelopment officials say $75 billion in economic development —about three-fourths of the totalcapital investment announced underLandry’s tenure —istied to the technology,which the energy industry says is critical for the future of Louisiana’sfossil fuel-reliant industrial base.

Butstrong discontent hasstirred in rural andsuburbanLouisianaamong residents concernedabout property rights, environmental impacts and safety

ä see CARBON, page 5A

BY MATTHEW LEE, BASSEMMROUE, KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran President Donald Trump on Sunday made expletive-filled threats against Iran and its infrastructure if it doesn’topen the Strait ofHormuz by his Tuesday deadline, after American forces

rescued awounded aviator whose Irandowned plane fell behind enemylines.

Adefiant Iran struck infrastructuretargets in neighboring Gulf Arab countriesand threatened to restrictanotherheavily used regional waterway, theBab el-Mandeb Strait off theArabian Peninsula.

Trump on social media vowed to hit Iran’s powerplantsand bridgesand said thecountrywould be “living in Hell” if the Strait

of Hormuz, crucial for global trade, isn’t opened. He ended with“Praise be to Allah.”

Trumphas issued suchdeadlines before but extended them when mediators have claimed progresstowardending thewar,which has killed thousands, shaken global markets and spiked fuel prices in just over ﬁve weeks.

BY MIKESMITH staff writer

New modeling is deepening understanding of whysaltwater intrusion up the Mississippi Riverhas worsened in recent years, pointing to apreviously underestimated factor as the primary cause and raising questions over howdrinking water can be protected in the future. Thestudy of river dynamics by Tulane University researchersshows thatcrevasses, or breaks in the lower Mississippi’sbanks, are the main factor in the recent worsening of saltwater intrusion, which can threaten drinking water for vastareasofsoutheast Louisiana, including NewOrleans.

Sea level rise and the deepening of the river for shipping purposes have also contributed, butthe crevasses located in Plaquemines Parish south of where the main levee system ends are by far the primary cause because of the way they slow the current in the mainchannel, the study shows. The ﬁndings areinline withpreliminary assessments from the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers, which is engagedinits own

intrusion Crevassesslowcurrent in main channel,itreveals ä see SALT, page

sTAFF PHoTos By JoHN BALLANCE

RhondaLandry-Poché, afourth-generation strawberry farmer,shows awooden hand carrierthat wasused to pick strawberries.

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Gasoline tanker burns after hitting power lines

FORT WORTH, Texas A tanker truck in Texas hauling gasoline

erupted into a ﬁery blaze Sunday after colliding with another vehicle and knocking over power lines, leaving the truck driver in critical condition, Fort Worth authorities said.

The 18-wheeler was carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline that began leaking after the truck spun off the road near a gas station. The downed power lines then sparked a ﬁre around 1 a.m., Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson Craig Trojacek said.

“The driver of the 18-wheeler was trying to do everything he could to keep the gas from draining into the parking lot of the Valero gas station when it lit off,” Trojacek said.

The driver was hospitalized with burns, but no one else was injured, Trojacek said. Fire crews spent hours spraying the tanker with water and used sand to try and contain the gasoline, he said. Firefighters left the scene about 7 a.m.

Videos of the fire show what appears to be front of the truck engulfed in ﬂames as plumes of smoke rise.

Toddler hurt by wolf at Pennsylvania zoo

HERSHEY, Pa A toddler was lightly injured by a wolf at a Pennsylvania theme park zoo after he crawled under a fence and stuck his hand into the animal’s enclosure, ofﬁcials at the zoo conﬁrmed Sunday

The child was never inside the wolf habitat at the ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park, which is part of the Hersheypark theme park, and the ofﬁcials characterized the injuries as minor without elaborating

After the “unsupervised” child reached the metal enclosure around the wolf habitat on Saturday morning and put his hand through, a wolf approached “and made contact with the child’s hand,” according to a statement from the zoo.

“This type of response is consistent with natural animal behavior, and was not a sign of aggression,” the zoo said in a statement. “Our habitats are designed with multiple layers of protection, and clear signage and barriers are in place to help ensure safe viewing. Guests are expected to remain within designated areas and closely supervise children at all times.”

4 killed in Alabama car crash during pursuit

TROY, Ala. — Four people died when a car that was being pursued by an Alabama state trooper went off the road and hit a tree, authorities said Sunday.

The driver was trying to elude the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s highway patrol on a rural road in southeast Alabama’s Pike County when the crash occurred late Friday night, ALEA spokesperson Amanda Wasden said in an email No other vehicles were involved. Wasden said the crash was under investigation, and no additional information was available. Her email did not say what prompted the pursuit.

The driver and two passengers, one of them a 17-year-old, were not wearing seat belts and were thrown from the sedan. The third passenger was not ejected, but all four were pronounced dead at the scene.

A story in Sunday’s Books section listed incomplete information about the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival and Rick Bragg’s appearances The Rick Bragg Great Southern Writer and Book Club event will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Doc Voorhies’ Wing of the Bayou Teche Museum, 131 E. Main St., New Iberia, and the Great Southern Writer Symposium and Book Signing featuring Bragg will be at 3:30 in the Sliman Theater at 129 East Main St., New Iberia. Organizers recommend registering for the events. For a complete schedule and more information about the event, visit booksalongthetecheliteraryfestival.com. The Advocate regrets the error

Pope urges peace in first Easter Mass

Christians celebrate in Jerusalem, Gaza and Tehran

BY COLLEEN BARRY and PAOLO SANTALUCIA Associated Press

VATICAN CITY Pope Leo XIV cel-

ebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conﬂicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world’s woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Leo, the ﬁrst U.S.-born pope, emphasized Easter’s message of hope as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being cruciﬁed.

“Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!” the pope implored.

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia’s ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo acknowledged a sense of indifference “to the deaths of thousands of people to the repercussions of hatred and division that conﬂicts sow to the economic and social consequences they produce.”

Without mentioning the wars by name, Leo quoted his predecessor, Pope Francis, who during his last public appearance from the same loggia last Easter reminded the faithful of the “great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day.”

Francis, weakened by a long illness, died the next day on Easter Monday.

The Urbi et Orbi blessing, Latin for “to the city and the world,” has traditionally included a litany of the world’s woes Leo followed that formula during his Christmas blessing. There was no immediate explanation for the shift

Earlier, Leo addressed some 50,000 faithful from an open-air

ish festival of Passover On Sunday, the Jewish priestly blessing at the Western Wall — normally attended by tens of thousands was limited to just 50 people.

The restrictions have strained relations between Israeli authorities and Christian leaders. Police last week prevented two of the church’s top religious leaders, including Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Gaza’s Palestinian Christians

At the Holy Family church in Gaza City, Catholics young and old gathered for a traditional Easter Mass. Singing, they formed a queue in the aisle, waiting for their chance to kiss a sketch of Jesus held by a member of the clergy who wiped the glass frame between turns.

“There is great joy, especially after the ceaseﬁre and after nearly three years of suffering and being unable to celebrate all the holy holidays,” said George Anton from Gaza City “People are somewhat relieved and more stable.”

Armenian Christians

toward the Tiber River and back.

altar in St. Peter’s Square ﬂanked with white roses, while the steps leading down to the piazza where the faithful gathered were filled with spring perennials, symbolically resonating with the pope’s words He implored the faithful in his homily to keep their hope in the face of death, which lurks “in the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of proﬁt that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys.”

Speaking from the loggia, the pope announced a prayer vigil for peace April 11 in the basilica.

Small shifts in traditions Leo greeted the global faithful in 10 languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Latin, reviving a practice that his predecessor Pope Francis had let lapse.

Before retreating into the basilica, Leo stepped forward out of the loggia’s shadow and waved to the cheering crowd below He later greeted people in the piazza from the popemobile that took him all the way down Via della Conciliazione

During the marathon that is Holy Week, Leo also reclaimed the tradition of washing priests’ feet on Holy Thursday, a gesture of encouragement toward clergy, after Francis had chosen a more inclusive path, traveling to prisons and homes for the disabled to wash the feet of women, non-Christians and prisoners.

The 70-year-old pontiff also became the ﬁrst pope in decades to carry the light wooden cross for the entire 14 stations during the Way of the Cross on Good Friday Christians in the Holy Land

Traditional ceremonies at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered by Christians as the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, were scaled back under an agreement with Israeli police. Authorities have put limits on the sizes of public gatherings due to ongoing missile attacks.

The restrictions also dampened the recent Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr holiday, as well as the current weeklong Jew-

Armenian Christians observed Easter at a church in Iran’s capital on Sunday, striving to maintain a sense of normalcy ﬁve weeks into the war Families embraced and children exchanged painted eggs at the St. Sarkis Cathedral in central Tehran. Iran’s capital has been targeted by daily airstrikes since the United States and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.

“Whether we like it or not, we have young children who do not understand what’s going on,” said Juanita Arakel, 40, an English language teacher “They just need to feel normal.”

The Islamic Republic, with a population of about 90 million, is home to some 300,000 Christians, mostly Armenians, and three seats in parliament are reserved for Christians.

“Our calls and prayers are that we will be able to end this war,” said Sepuh Sargsyan, the archbishop of the Armenian Diocese of Tehran. “Our calls and prayers are that we will be able to end this war.”

3 killed as tree falls at Easter egg hunt in Germany

BY DAVID MCHUGH Associated Press

FRANKFURT, Germany

Three people, including a 10-month-old girl, were killed Sunday when high winds toppled a tree in northern Germany during an Easter egg hunt, police said.

Around 50 people from a nearby residential facility for new mothers, pregnant women and children were attending the event in woods near the town of Satrupholm at about 11 a.m. when a 100-foot tree fell on the group, police said in a statement.

Four people were pinned under the tree.

A 21-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl were treated by ﬁrst responders but died at the scene, while the woman’s 10-month old daughter died later in the hospital.

tree on sunday in a wooded area southeast of

people were

sunday

An 18-year-old woman suffered serious injuries and was brought to the hospital by helicopter

The facility is part of the state-funded child welfare system and supports pregnant women and new mothers who need help, according to its website.

Grief counselors were sent to the scene. Pictures from the scene published by the Bild

news site showed several Easter eggs scattered on the ground and two of the victims covered in white sheets.

The area had been under a high winds warning from the German weather service.

Government officials from the Schleswig-Hol-

Congo to receive third-country deportees from U.S. under deal

By The Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo Congo will receive some migrants as part of a new deal under the Trump administration’s third-country program, its government said Sunday, the latest such African nation to receive migrants being deported from the U.S. The deportees will start arriving in Congo this month, the Congolese Ministry of Communications said in a statement, without further details on the date or the number of deportees expected.

It described the arrangement as a “temporary” one that reﬂects Congo’s “commitment to human dignity and international solidarity.” It would come with zero costs to the government with the U.S. covering the needed logistics, it said.

The U.S. has struck such third-country deportation deals with at least seven other African nations, many of them among countries hit the most by the Trump administration’s policies that have restricted trade, aid and migration. The Trump administra-

tion has spent at least $40 million to deport about 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a report released recently by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Lawyers and activists have raised questions over the nature of the deals with countries in Africa and elsewhere. Several of the African nations that have signed such deals have notoriously repressive governments and poor human rights records — including Eswatini, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.

stein region where the facility was located said they were “deeply shaken” by the accident.

“Our thoughts are with the family members of the dead, with the injured, and with everyone who had to

experience this terrible occurrence,” regional Gov Daniel Günther, Interior Minister Magdalena Finke, and Youth and Families Minister Aminata Touré said in a joint statement carried by the dpa news agency

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AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By ALEssANDRA TARANTINo

Pope Leo XIV addresses the faithful after delivering the Urbi et orbi blessing — Latin for ‘to the city of Rome and to the world’ — from the central loggia of st. Peter’s Basilica at the end of Easter Mass in st. Peter’s square at the Vatican.

DPA PHoTo By BENJAMIN NoLTE

Police officers stand next to a fallen

Flensburg, Germany. Three

killed

when high winds toppled a tree during an Easter egg hunt, police said.

Ukraine’s leader: Mideast war could pull away support

Zelenskyy worries Iran operation could further erode U.s. aid

BY SERRA YEDIKARDES and SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press

ISTANBUL Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed

concern that a prolonged U.S.Israeli war on Iran could further erode America’s support for Ukraine as Washington’s global priorities shift and Kyiv braces for reduced deliveries of critically needed Patriot air defense missiles. Ukraine desperately needs more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to help it counter Russia’s daily barrages, Zelenskyy said, speaking to The Associated Press in an exclusive interview late Saturday in Istanbul.

Russia’s relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago has killed thousands of civilians. It has also targeted Ukraine’s energy supply to disrupt industrial production of Ukraine’s newly developed drones and missiles, while also denying civilians heat and running water in winter

“We have to recognize that we are not the priority for today,” Zelenskyy said. “That’s why I am afraid a long (Iran) war will give us less support.”

Loss of focus on Ukraine

The latest U.S.-brokered talks between envoys from Moscow and Kyiv ended in February with no sign of a breakthrough. Zelenskyy who has accused Russia of “trying to drag out negotiations” while it presses on with its invasion, said Ukraine remains in contact with U.S. negotiators about a potential deal to end the war and has continued to press for stronger security guarantees.

But, he said, even those discussions reﬂect a broader loss of focus from Ukraine.

His most immediate concern, Zelenskyy said, are the Patriots essential for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles — as Ukraine still lacks an effective alternative.

These U.S. systems were never delivered in sufﬁcient quantities to begin with, Zelenskyy said, and if the Iran war doesn’t end soon, “the package — which is not very big for us — I think will be smaller and smaller day by day.”

“That’s why of course, we are afraid,” he said.

Interlinked wars

Zelenskyy had been counting on European partners to help make the Patriot purchases despite tight supply and limited U.S. production

capacity

But the Iran war, now in its sixth week, has sent shock waves through the global economy and pulled in much of the wider Middle East region, further straining these already limited resources, diverting stockpiles and leaving Ukrainian cities more exposed to ballistic strikes.

For Kyiv, a key objective is to weaken Moscow’s economy and make the war prohibitively costly Surging oil prices driven by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz are undermining that strategy by boosting the Kremlin’s oil revenues and strengthening Moscow’s capacity to sustain its war effort

In his interview with the AP, Zelenskyy said Russia draws economic beneﬁts from the Mideast war,

citing the limited easing of American sanctions on Russian oil.

“Russia gets additional money because of this, so yes, they have beneﬁts,” he said.

Russian officials said Sunday a fire broke out at a major oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region after a drone attack, while another drone damaged a pipeline at the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsk, home to a major oil export terminal No casualties were reported.

Russia could reap a windfall from a surge in oil prices and the U.S. temporary waiver on Russian oil sanctions designed to ease supply shortages as the Iran war continues. Russia is one of the world’s main oil exporters, and Asian nations are increasingly competing for Russian crude oil as an energy crisis mounts.

In response, Ukraine has intensiﬁed its long-range drone attacks on Russian oil facilities, which have rattled Moscow

Renewed diplomatic push

To keep Ukraine on the international agenda, Zelenskyy has offered to share Ukraine’s hardearned battlefield expertise with the United States and allies to develop effective countermeasures against Iranian attacks.

Pressure mounts on U.K. festival to pull Ye from headline role

BY PAN PYLAS Associated

Press

LONDON Pressure was mounting Sunday on American rapper Ye to be pulled from his headline role at a London music festival this summer, after criticism from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer Pepsi already has withdrawn its lead sponsorship role of the Wireless Festival at Finsbury Park in north London between July 10-12. Other sponsors of the event, including Budweiser and PayPal, are being urged to follow suit.

Pepsi didn’t provide an explicit reason for its decision to pull out of the event, even though publicity for the festival promoted the event under the branding “Pepsi presents Wireless.”

“Pepsi has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival,” the company said in a statement Sunday Ye was booked perform in front of around 150,000 revelers over the course of the festival’s three nights. Ye , formerly known as Kanye West, changed his name in 2021, and he has drawn widespread controversy in recent years for a series of antisemitic remarks, and has voiced admiration for Adolf Hitler Last year, he released a song called “Heil Hitler” — a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.

The 48-year-old musician apologized in January for his antisemitic remarks in a letter published as a full-page advert in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar

disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

Fans of his at a sold-out concert Friday at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, his ﬁrst major U.S. performance in nearly ﬁve years, appeared to separate his personal beliefs and public statements from his music and were ready to forgive after his January apology letter

However, Starmer said it was “deeply concerning” that the rapper was booked to perform at the long-established festival, “Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and ﬁrmly wherever it appears,” he said in remarks published by The Sun on Sunday newspaper “Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure.”

Court reinstates $656M judgment against PLO, Palestinian Authority

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK A $656 million judgment against Palestinian authorities has been reinstated by appeals judges, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Americans killed or wounded in attacks in Israel. The decision from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes a decade after it ﬁrst tossed out a verdict against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority on the grounds that U.S. courts couldn’t consider lawsuits against foreign groups over overseas attacks that were not aimed at the United States. But the appeals court rein-

stated the judgment in light of a Supreme Court ruling last June upholding a 2019 law enacted by Congress to allow the victims’ lawsuits to go forward against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority

“We conclude that the original judgment for the plaintiffs should be reinstated. That conclusion is consistent with the plain import of the Supreme Court’s decision,” the judges said in a decision dated March 30.

“Our client families are very relieved that the court has reinstated the judgment without requiring a new trial They have been waiting for a very long time for justice to be done,” attorney Kent Ya-

lowitz said in an email.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said she was pleased with the decision after 22 years of litigation.

The victims had sued under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was signed into law in 1992 to open U.S. courts to victims of international terror attacks.

The victims and their families assert that Palestinian agents either were involved in the attacks or incited them.

The Palestinians have consistently argued that the cases shouldn’t be allowed in American courts.

Emails seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the defendants on Sunday

Ukraine has met Russia’s evolving use of Iranian-made Shahed drones with growing sophistication, technological ingenuity and low cost.

Moscow significantly modified the original Shahed-136, rebranded as the Geran-2, enhancing its ability to evade air defenses and be mass produced. Ukraine responded with quick innovation of its own, including low-cost interceptor drones designed to track and destroy incoming drones.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to share with Gulf Arab countries targeted by Iran its experience and technology, including interceptor drones and sea drones, which Ukraine produces — more than are used up with funding from Americans and its European partners.

In return, these countries could help Ukraine “with anti-ballistic missiles,” Zelenskyy said.

In late March, as the Iran war escalated, Zelenskyy visited Gulf Arab states to promote Ukraine’s singular experience in countering Iranian-made Shahed drones, leading to new defense cooperation agreements.

Zelenskyy has also positioned Ukraine as a potential partner in safeguarding global trade routes, offering assistance in reopening

the Strait of Hormuz by sharing Ukraine’s experiences securing maritime corridors in the Black Sea.

Zelenskyy was in Istanbul for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a day after the Turkish leader spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy said they discussed peace talks and a possible meeting of leaders in Istanbul. He also said there could be new defense deals signed between the two countries soon.

Following the talks in Istanbul, Zelenskyy and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived in Syria on an official visit Sunday Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

Writing on X, Zelenskyy said he discussed the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and that there is “strong interest in exchanging military and security experience” between Ukraine and Syria. Russia steps up offensive

Each year as the weather improves, Russia moves its grinding war of attrition up a notch. However, it has been unable to capture Ukrainian cities and has made only incremental gains across rural areas. Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.

On the roughly 750-mile front line stretching across eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, shorthanded Ukrainian defenders are getting ready for a new offensive by Russia’s larger army

The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russian troops have in recent days made simultaneous attempts to break through defense lines in several strategic areas.

One thing Zelenskyy says he has insisted on and will continue to do so — a territorial compromise and giving up land will not be on Ukraine’s agenda.

In Ukraine, meanwhile, drone attacks overnight into Sunday killed at least one person and seriously wounded another in the city of Nikopol, authorities said. Three people were wounded in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in a separate drone attack.

AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By GHAITH ALsAyED

syrian President Ahmad al-sharaa, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on sunday before a meeting at the People’s Palace in Damascus, syria.

“This is our 100th year just a lot of history I just hope that we can carry on and be able to do this for many years,” she said. “The strawberry industry is a dwindling industry and that breaks my heart.”

Louisiana’s Berry Belt

Louisiana’s strawberry industry goes back to the 1800s, when many people moved to Louisiana for its warm weather and rich soil, perfect for strawberry farms. The industry thrived in the Florida Parishes due to its proximity to the railroad and the influx of Hungarian and Italian immigrants into the area.

The success of growing the state fruit earned the southeast part of the state the nickname: “Louisiana’s Berry Belt.”

The strawberry industry, mainly in Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes, peaked around 1931, just a few years after the LandryPoché farm was established.

That year, there were approximately 14,500 acres in production, according to Clark Robertson, an assistant county agent with the LSU AgCenter in Livingston. By 1988, that number had dropped to a little more than 900 acres

Last year Louisiana had 49 strawberry producers growing on a reported 193 acres total, the majority being in Livingston, Tangipahoa and St. Tammany parishes, Robertson said. He estimates those numbers to be on par for this season as well. Depending on the weather the season typically runs from February to early May

Surviving changing times

Landry-Poché, with the help of her husband, Darryl, took over the farm 20 years ago.

In the past two decades, the pair and their farm have gone through many changes in the industry

Poché said the price of farming the strawberries has risen, and he knows a couple of farmers who have gotten out of the industry in the past few years.

cery stores and upped their production.

For several years, they increased to 250,000 plants due to the demand from grocery stores. Then the 2016 flood shut down their business for the entire season and destroyed one of the houses where their workers lived So, after that, they scaled down to growing about half as many plants.

“I’m to a size now where I’m happy because I can supply my stores. I can supply to people that come up here, and it really balances out,” he said.

Poché said it’s hard to find local residents who will farm, and the farm relies on migrant workers who come to the country on H-2A temporary agriculture visas. He did note that while there have been recent issues in the crawfish industry due to a shortage of foreign workers, their farm has not had similar challenges. Those who work at crawfish processing plants would fall under H-2B visas for seasonal manufacturing, and those have a federal cap, while H-2A visas do not have a cap

‘It takes a village’

If you go to the Landry-Poché farm, it’s more than likely that the people manning the counter or aiding the ﬁeld trips are all related to each other in some way

Darryl Poche said his son, Jonathan Poché, began growing vegetables on the farm a couple years ago and sells them at farmers markets.

“Hopefully they’ll take it over one day and we’ll work on keeping things going,” Darryl Poché said while pointing out his son and two grandchildren on the farm Thursday

Mark Landry, Landry-Poché’s brother, also helps on the farm with the manual labor and, like his brother-in-law, was crowned the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival King in 2013.

“As a family, we work together It takes a village,” he said.

Landry emphasized how important it is for the family to come together and care for the farm.

“Unfortunately, it’s just a dying business,” Poché said. “We’ve been fortunate; we’ve had some bad years, but we’ve had some good years, too. I don’t like to re-

ally talk about the bad stuff; I like to talk about the good stuff.”

Before they took over, Landry-

Poché’s father was growing 35,000 plants, but he had no outside sales. So then, when the pair began operating, they looked to sell to gro-

“We have been able to keep it going for 100 years. It’s about the tradition of what we are doing, not about the money,” he said.

SALT

Continued from page 1A

three-year study of the phenomenon, but dealing with the problem poses a series of difﬁcult questions related to coastal land loss, shipping and infrastructure

The deepening of the lower river through large-scale dredging to accommodate bigger vessels has long been acknowledged as a factor in exacerbating saltwater intrusion, and that has spurred assumptions that those projects have been the main cause of the recent worsening. The new modeling disputes that.

“Deepening should not be considered as the main issue here,” said Ahmed Khalifa, the lead author of the new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.

“Definitely we showed that it has some part but not as much as, for example, sea level rise or closing any of the passes.”

Yet closing all the crevasses, or passes, is not seen as a viable option, and the Tulane research team, led by Ehab Meselhe, is also examining potential naturebased solutions.

They have presented their ﬁndings to the Corps, whose data was employed in the modeling. The Corps is taking an extensive look on its own, even building a physical model of the lower river at its Vicksburg, Mississippi, research center, said spokesman Ricky Boyett

The research is vital as the region grapples with how to ensure safe drinking water and avoid the corrosion of infrastructure well into the future. Climate change-related effects, particularly sea level rise and increased drought in the Mississippi River basin, are expected to become greater factors in the future. Complex threat

The threat is a complex one that occurs seasonally when river flows drop in the summer and fall. That allows salt water to move upriver from the Gulf in the shape of a doorstop, its leading edge crawling along

“We’re looking at it to, first, determine what’s causing it, if we are appropriately mitigating for it and — if we are and it’s still occurring — what are the other factors and how would one go about addressing that?”

RICKy BoyETT, U.s.Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson

the river bottom because it is heavier

The Corps has deepened the lower river over the years to accommodate the increasing size of oceangoing vessels, with the most recent project completed in 2022 and bringing it to a depth of 50 feet.

Because deepening worsens saltwater intrusion, the Corps developed a plan to mitigate it, constructing an underwater levee, or sill, along the river bottom to slow the salt water’s advance when it projects that it will be necessary

The sill had initially been required about once a decade, but it has now had to be built four years in a row In 2023, initial projections showed the salt water reaching New Orleans, setting off an emergency declaration from the White House and a scramble for a temporary solution to protect drinking water and related infrastructure.

The salt wedge eventually retreated before reaching New Orleans as high ﬂows returned to the river later that year, but it served as a wake-up call for local ofﬁcials. New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno has raised the possibility of building a regional water treatment plant as one potential solution, but that comes with extremely high costs and would require multi-parish coordination.

The crevasses are largely the result of natural occurrences, with the Mississippi breaking its banks in a number of spots downriver, similar to how it formerly behaved before the construction of the vast levee system that keeps it in place. The slower ﬂow of the main channel speeds the advance of the salt intrusion.

The most prominent crevasse in recent years is called Neptune Pass, which at one point expanded so much it was diverting up to 18% of the river into a nearby bay and wetlands.

The Corps recently constructed a rock barrier to partially block Neptune, which is located across the river from Buras bringing the ﬂow down to around 8%.

It is not yet clear what effect the reduction of Neptune Pass ﬂow will have on saltwater intrusion since the Tulane modeling used 2023 conditions as a base.

Other crevasses included in the modeling are also located along the river’s east bank: Mardi Gras Pass, Bohemia Spillway, Ostrica Pass and Fort St. Phillip.

While shipping interests have long called for the closure of the crevasses because of the complications they create for vessels, the passes are also acting as natural river diversions, creating land the way the Mississippi used to do. That has led coastal advocates to argue for keeping them at least partially open.

Closing them could also simply lead to more crevasses being created elsewhere since the river will eventually ﬁnd its level.

The main focus of the $5.5 million Corps’ study, which is in its ﬁrst year, is on whether its current mitigation plans involving the sill remain sufﬁcient to deal with the effects of the deepening, said Boyett. But the research could also lead to other types of projects that address the problem more generally

The Tulane researchers note that the future effects of sea level rise and other climate-related changes will be important. Boyett said the Corps is incorporating future conditions such as sea level rise in its modeling.

“We’re looking at it to ﬁrst, determine what’s causing it, if we are appropriately mitigating for it and — if we are and it’s still occurring what are the other factors and how would one go about addressing that?” said Boyett.

“We don’t necessarily say we’re going to have all the answers at the end of the

modeling. But it may be that modeling gives us recommendations for pilot projects that we should try out.”

‘What is the potential?’

The details of the Tulane modeling are revealing. It showed that, in 2023, sea level rise over the past three decades caused salt intrusion to advance about 4 additional miles, while the most recent channel deepening led to a 2.2-mile difference.

As for the east bank crevasses, the modeling showed that if all of them were closed widely seen as impossible, but instructive for study purposes the salt water would have advanced 75 fewer miles. Closing only Neptune Pass and Fort St Philip resulted in a 47-mile difference, the modeling showed.

The study also looked at whether moving the sill to another location would improve its effectiveness in slowing the salt water’s advance. It concluded that moving it farther downriver would indeed work better

Further the study deter-

mined a river level threshold for when the New Orleans area would face a severe threat. It found that a sustained ﬂow of 125,000 cubic feet per second in the lower Mississippi would result in salt water overtopping the sill and advancing to New Orleans. That level is an extreme low, but it does occur occasionally

One potential solution being examined by the Tulane team as well as the Corps is whether building sand dams in front of the crevasses when the ﬂow is low could help. The idea could potentially satisfy lots of needs since the sand would wash away once river ﬂows increase, building land farther downstream in the passes.

A number of studies are ongoing related to the lower river and the many challenges it presents, particularly as conditions evolve under a warming climate

The Tulane team is part of a larger project on the future of the river’s mouth, known as MissDelta and financed by the National Academy of Sciences. A separate look at how to deal

with the crevasses is being studied by the Baton Rougebased Water Institute, the University of New Orleans, Nunez Community College in Chalmette and the California Institute of Technology In addition to the Corps’ three-year study of salt intrusion, it is also carrying out a ﬁve-year “megastudy” of the entire lower river and how to manage it, from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to the Gulf.

“We also have to look at it from a perspective of, ‘Will there be more crevasses in the future? What is the potential?’” Boyett said of the Corps’ salt intrusion study

“We’re doing it to look to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. But we also need to better understand what’s happening to the river down there.” Email Mike Smith at msmith@theadvocate.com or follow him on Twitter, @ MikeJSmith504. His work is supported with a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, administered by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation

sTAFF PHoTos By JoHN BALLANCE

Emmet Adams, 2, of Denham springs, enjoys a strawberry right off the plant at the Landry-Poché strawberry Farm in springfield.

Rhonda Landry-Poché and Darryl Poché are celebrating 100 years of the Landry-Poché strawberry Farm, which was established in 1926 by Landry-Poché’s great-grandfather santos Bazile.

Workers harvest strawberries at Landry-Poche strawberry Farm, which specializes in growing and harvesting strawberries, in the small town of springfield.

“It seems Trump has become a phenomenon that neither Iranians nor Americans are able to fully analyze,” Iranian Culture Minister

Sayed Reza Salihi-Amiri told visiting Associated Press journalists in an interview in Tehran, adding that the U.S. president “constantly shifts between contradictory positions.”

Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets like oil

ﬁelds and desalination plants critical for drinking water Iran’s U.N. mission called Trump’s threat “clear evidence of intent to commit war crime.”

Iran’s joint military command warned of stepped-up attacks on regional oil and civilian infrastructure if the U.S. and Israel attack such targets there, according to state television.

The laws of armed conflict allow attacks on civilian infrastructure only if the military advantage outweighs the civilian harm, legal scholars say It’s considered a high bar to clear, and causing excessive suffering to civilians can constitute a war crime.

Dramatic rescue

An intense search followed Friday’s crash of the F-15E Strike Ea-

craft’s crew nor where it crashed is known.

On Sunday, Iran’s state television aired a video showing what it claimed were parts of U.S. aircraft

a transport plane and two helicopters — shot down by Iranian forces during the rescue operation.

However, a regional intelligence ofﬁcial briefed on the mission told the AP that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes because of a technical malfunction and brought in additional aircraft to complete the rescue The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission

Iran’s joint military command later said the U.S. bombarded its own aircraft to “prevent embarrassment for President Trump.”

the strait can reopen only if some transit revenues compensate Iran for war damages. A top Iranian adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, warned on social media that Tehran also could disrupt trade on the Bab el-Mandeb, a key chokepoint to and from the Red Sea. Diplomatic efforts continued. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said that deputy foreign ministers and experts from Iran and Oman met to discuss proposals to ensure “smooth transit” through the strait.

Six years ago, Act 61, a bill that set the stage for carbon capture, passed the Legislature without drawing a single “no” in any committee or ﬂoor votes. But now, for the fourth year in a row, some legislators including several who voted for Act 61 — are trying to limit or block the technology in response to their constituents, who have raised concerns about environmental impacts, land rights and safety

As opposition grows, the energy industry is pushing back with increasing urgency Texas is nipping at the state’s boot heel on CCS, industry officials say The federal government recently gave Texas the ability to regulate the technology on its own, eliminating an advantage that Louisiana previously enjoyed.

“We want to be competitive. We want to bring investment to Louisiana. We want to bring the jobs and economic opportunities, but we know if we don’t get it right or if we stall, then companies are going to go across the state line,” said Tommy Faucheux, executive director of the Louisiana Midcontinent Oil and Gas Association. Earlier this month, during a legislative committee hearing, Paige Carter, the state Department of Economic Development’s chief business ofﬁcer said billions of dollars are at stake.

A $2 billion project relying on the potential reuse of captured industrial carbon dioxide backed out of a ﬁnal investment decision to locate in Beauregard Parish, where technology has faced fierce opposition, because of a “lack of confidence around” carbon capture in Louisiana, she said.

Carter said the state is still competing for the project but has shifted from being a front-runner with the Beauregard site to starting over to locate “that type of billiondollar asset in another parish within Louisiana.” Yet the opposition continues to spread.

Hours after Carter spoke to the House Commerce Committee on March 17, the St. Bernard Parish Council unanimously adopted a resolution opposing carbon capture and sequestration due to “significant public concern” in the parish and state. Near the bottom of Louisiana’s Mississippi River industrial corridor, the parish has been a longstanding home for oil reﬁneries and a well-paying, blue-collar workforce tied to fossil fuels. But, with its vote, it became the 16th in the state to formally oppose carbon capture, based on anti-CCS advocates’ count.

Spilling into Senate race

One sign of the increasing prominence of the carbon capture debate is that it has spilled into the mar-

gle, while Iran promised a reward for the “enemy pilot.” It was the ﬁrst known American aircraft to crash in Iranian territory since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.

Trump said that the service member was “seriously wounded and really brave” and rescued from “deep inside the mountains” in an operation involving dozens of armed aircraft. He said a second crew member was rescued in “broad daylight” within hours of the crash.

A senior U.S. administration of-

quee contest in this year’s elections: the race for U.S. Senate. Sen Bill Cassidy is locked in a tough race for reelection against U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who has endorsements from President Donald Trump and Treasurer Fleming Fleming has sought to make carbon capture a major issue, repeatedly calling on state ofﬁcials to block the projects

Last month, Landry — who is backing Letlow directly attacked Fleming on carbon capture, accusing him of voting for bills that supp orted it while in Congress.

“A re n’ t you tired of politicians doing one thing and saying another?” Landry wrot e on social media, linking to the website of MAGA Energy, a new ad v oc ac y group that defends carbon capture The group pointed to several bills for which Fleming voted that funded carbon capture research or pilot programs.

Fleming argues Landry is mischaracterizing his votes, since they were part of broader energy and water bills that addressed more than carbon capture — and carbon capture projects didn’t really gain steam until after he left Congress He said Landry’s attacks reveal the governor is nervous about the threat the issue poses to his economic agenda and Letlow’s candidacy

“It’s a seriously flailing campaign,” he said.

Pearson Cross, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, said Fleming “needs a breakthrough issue and maybe he feels like this is the issue to do it” after Letlow received Trump’s endorsement

Cross isn’t sure carbon capture is well-known enough to break through as a statewide concern. But he said the governor’s attack on Fleming was noteworthy

“Any time the governor wastes some breath on a particular thing, it indicates that he takes it seriously, right?” Cross said. “So it’s a little flattering toward Fleming, you know that Landry chose to go after him, but it may also reveal whatever the polls are during the campaigns.”

Letlow said in a statement that Landry was right to call out Fleming’s shifting positions on carbon capture. She said the state doesn’t need another politician “who ﬁnds his principles during an election year,” as Cassidy already does. Cassidy has said decisions

ﬁcial said that before locating the second aviator, the CIA spread word inside Iran that U.S. forces had found him and were moving him out, creating confusion for Iranians. The ofﬁcial spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public.

Iran also shot down another U.S. military plane Friday, demonstrating the perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of Iran’s degraded military to hit back. Neither the status of the A-10 attack air-

on carbon capture are a local issue that should be decided there.

‘An indictment’

Meanwhile, pressure on local governments and the legislature continues to grow Traditional environmental and social justice groups argue the technology is a false solution to climate change that will delay a transition away from fossil fuels. Opposition is also mounting in conservative parts of the state that normally are prooil-and-gas, where some residents see the technology as a threat to their property rights, in addition to their health and aquifers — and as an acknowledgment of climate change, of which they are skeptical.

The central Louisianabased group Save My Louisiana, which arose las summer, falls in the latter camp.

Mark T. Guillory, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and one of the group’s leaders, argued that Louisiana’s carbon capture policy was quietly developed among state leaders and parties with a ﬁnancial interest.

“It’s actually an indictment of the politicians that have kept this thing under the radar and did not let people know exactly what it was or what it would do,” he said.

As groups like Save My Louisiana hold community meetings and outreach to elected ofﬁcials across the state, they are starting to convince some leaders.

Take state Rep. Mike Johnson, the conservative speaker pro tempore who represents Rapides Parish. Johnson voted for Act 61 in 2020 and usually is a solid supporter of business and industry groups — he once served on the board of the inﬂuential Louisiana Association of Business and Industry

But this year, he has sponsored bills that would limit the use of eminent domain to take property for CO2 pipelines and give local governments more power to reject the projects. Johnson has said that constituents’ concerns have convinced him his earlier support for carbon capture was a mistake.

“All three of my bills were requested by the Rapides Parish Police Jury, which is my parish and my people,” he said.

Before a vote last week on one of Johnson’s bills, he argued the laws violated the state and federal constitutions and also the biblical prohibitions against theft and coveting a neighbor’s property

The biblical comparison wasn’t received well by all on the committee, which rejected HB 7 amid industry concerns. Before the vote, state Rep. Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, R-Houma, reminded Johnson about the Ninth Commandment.

“Yeah, well, you conveniently skipped over nine, that ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,’ so, again, I would offer that we would remove the log from our eye before

Two Black Hawk helicopters were hit but navigated to safe airspace, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information

Diplomacy continues

Trump’sdeadlinecentersonalarm over Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, critical for global shipments of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf as well as humanitarian supplies. Some ships have paid Iran for passage.

An Iranian presidential spokesperson, Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Tabatabaei, said on social media that

we start pulling out splinters, so that’s my contention, Mr Chairman,” he said.

More than 20 other bills on CCS await consideration this session.

‘We’re losing’

With no signs that the opposition to carbon capture is ebbing, industry groups are gearing up to push back more forcefully

They argue opposition groups are spreading misinformation about the risks posed by carbon capture, which has a scientiﬁc grounding and is similar to processes that have been safely used for decades.

During an energy symposium at LSU in October, Desiree Lemoine, who leads a Baton Rouge nonproﬁt that promotes Louisiana’s industrial sector, told a panel that critics have discounted this expert advice as compro-

Egypt said that Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had spoken with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and with Turkish and Pakistani counterparts. Russia said that Araghchi also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Bahrain urged the U.N. Security Council to act on its draft proposal with language authorizing defensive action to ensure safe passage through the strait.

Iran strikes Gulf targets

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said that four people one Nepali and three Pakistani — were hurt in ﬁres caused by debris from the interception of an Iranian projectile at Khor Fakkan port, and interception debris caused ﬁres at a petrochemical plant in Ruwais, halting operations.

mised by industry funding. She said industry can’t speak for itself because it has “skin in the game” and wanted to know what could be done to have that information considered fairly

“What is that balance? I am eager to learn, ’cause we’re losing,” Lemoine said.

In a recent interview, Lemoine said her organization has started working with smaller groups to try to spread its message.

Meanwhile, MAGA Energy — the group Landry cited in attacking Fleming — has sprung up to push back against carbon capture opponents with social media campaigns and advertising.

The nonprofit advocacy group said it is nonpartisan and was formed to push back against misinformation about carbon capture and President Trump’s energy agenda. With legally

conﬁdential donors, it hasn’t shied away from a more bare-knuckled response.

The MAGA Energy Project has accused opposition groups like Save My Louisiana of being beholden to outside, left-leaning inﬂuences and Fleming, a Republican and a former Trump administration ofﬁcial, of joining their ranks in his opposition to CCS.

“Now, he’s flip-flopped, turned his back on President Trump’s agenda, and has joined the side of liberal extremists like George Soros, Mike Bloomberg, and radical groups like the Sierra Club,” MAGA Energy says. Save My Louisiana says it’s a local organization that is not afﬁliated with national environmental groups. David J. Mitchell can be reached at dmitchell@ theadvocate.com.

Preserving a legacy of faith

Long-overdue restoration of st. Louis Cathedral to start this summer

BY BOB WARREN staff writer

Kevin Morris knows St. Louis Cathedral like few other people.

Carefully ascending its creaky wooden stairs, climbing through tight doorways and navigating narrow catwalks as if by rote, Morris points out termite damage here, water damage there, and numerous signs of decay at points in between.

Morris, president of Holly & Smith Architects and the chief architect of an ambitious and expensive cathedral restoration project that will begin this summer and likely last the rest of this decade, has spent countless hours poring over old drawings and peering into the building’s many dark corners. He knows the place like a doctor might know a longtime patient and he knows that the grandeur of St. Louis Cathedral that people see from the outside doesn’t always match what is revealed on the inside.

“People are blown away by the beauty of it, the historic aspect of it, its signiﬁcance,” he said “But I don’t think that the general public knows how much deterioration is going on.”

The cathedral has withstood disasters, war, pandemics and even a bomb blast Churches on the Jackson Square site in New Orleans’ French Quarter have been destroyed and rebuilt over a threecentury history The current structure, which dates to 1851, is easily the most famous landmark in one of the world’s most famous neighborhoods. And it’s showing its age.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans is expected to soon announce details of the extensive work that will cost an estimated $45 million, all paid through donations being raised in a private campaign called “Our City Our Cathedral,” spearheaded by New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson Speciﬁc timetables and other details will come, but in a few months, scaffolding will arise and encase the cathedral as work begins. The exterior overhaul will come ﬁrst, and could last at least two years; work will then move to the interior for another 18-24 months. (Scaffolding covered in plywood is already in place across the front of the cathedral, to protect patrons from stucco that has been falling from the façade.)

The restoration comes as the archdiocese emerges from a grueling, yearslong bankruptcy and as a new archbishop, James Checchio, takes the reins from the now-retired Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

“Our cathedral restoration project is about much more than preserving a historic building,” Checchio said in a prepared statement. “It is also about preserving the legacy of faith in our city — a legacy with 300-year-old roots in the cathedral. This restoration renews that legacy of faith, ensuring St. Louis Cathedral stands as a beacon in our city for generations to come.” Benson is a longtime cathedral parishioner for whom the cathedral holds a special place she met her husband, the late Tom Benson, while doing volunteer work there in the 2000s. She says the importance of restoring and preserving the building cannot be overstated.

“The presence you feel there — St. Louis Cathedral is more than a church,” she said one recent evening from Paris, just hours after she had toured Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral with Philippe Villeneuve, the architect who led its massive restoration after a devastating 2019 ﬁre.

In March, Benson attended a discussion at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University about the Notre Dame and St Louis Cathedral restorations. Toward the end of the discussion, Morris, who was on the stage with Villeneuve, ﬂashed a slide that showed the view from Jackson Square of the Cabildo and the Presbytère — but with a parking lot between them where the cathedral now sits.

There were gasps from the audience as they pondered the absence.

“So powerful,” Benson said.

“It is THE iconic image of New Orleans,” said Ann Masson, a New

Orleans resident and architecture historian who has written extensively about St. Louis Cathedral.

Masson recalled the harrowing time in the city following Hurricane Katrina. “We didn’t even have lights, but when (President) George Bush came to the city, where was he standing?” she asked. “He was in front of the cathedral.”

‘This is a huge job’

As the exterior work takes place, the cathedral will remain open for Mass, weddings and other events until the summer of 2027. Work will then move inside. The cathedral has stopped booking weddings after July 2027, ofﬁcials say The Rev. Patrick Williams, the cathedral rector, said the desire is to keep the cathedral open for Mass as long as possible, but said as the interior work progresses, that might not be possible.

“We’re also trying to minimize how it will impact our neighbors,” Williams said. “Given the geography, it’s going to be a challenge.”

Once the scaffolding goes up, workers and specialists will remove and replace deteriorated stucco and repair the masonry beneath it The scaffolding along the front façade will be shrouded in fabric with the image of the cathedral on it.

New slate and underlayments will be installed on the upper and lower gable roofs, Morris said. Termitedamaged sections of the roof framing will also be repaired.

A roof enclosure on a set of rails will be erected that can slide over exposed areas to protect the building from south Louisiana’s notoriously rainy summers or during periods when tropical weather threatens, Morris said.

Inside, the stained-glass windows depict the life of Louis IX, the 13thcentury king of France who was canonized in 1297 and was the original church’s namesake. Those will be repaired and restored, Morris said. The deteriorating plaster ceilings, nearly 150 years old, will be removed and reconstructed, along with the murals and iconography on them.

Walls and floors will be repaired and refinished. A new fire-protection sprinkler system will also be installed.

“The interior has probably not been touched since 1975,” Morris said. As the ceiling is removed, artist Erasme Humbrecht’s circa-1870s

scenes depicting the life of Jesus will require delicate care. The paintings are on canvas, afﬁxed to the plaster A New Berlin, Wisconsin, company, Conrad Schmitt Studios, will handle the restoration work for the paintings and stained glass.

“This is a huge job,” Morris said, noting the extensive prep work required to ﬁnd the right experts and craftspeople.

Morris, 55, feels a calling to the job. A devout Catholic, the Brother Martin High School and LSU graduate said there’s a “spiritual connection” he feels to this project. His high school years are full of memories of events and Mass at the cathedral And his home is ﬁlled with photos collected by his wife, many of which depict the cathedral.

“Every day I walk out of my house and I see those photos,” he said “For me, it’s sort of a ‘God winks’ moment.”

Holly & Smith, with a New Orleans ofﬁce on Magazine Street, is overseeing the project and has been working closely with the contractor chosen for the job, Ryan Gootee General Contractors of New Orleans, to vet numerous subcontractors.

Many of the project’s details remain ﬂuid, Morris said, and will be decided by review committees. He and others have worked closely with the state Division of Historic Preservation and the Vieux Carre Commission, which is charged with protecting the French Quarter and its buildings.

It’s a complicated organizational effort with numerous moving parts. Problems are bound to be discovered along the way, Morris said.

“We’ve had bigger projects, but this is the biggest historical project we’ve ever worked on,” he said of his company

While the cathedral restoration is pegged at $45 million, the fundraising campaign’s goal is $75 million. Of the additional money, $10 million would be earmarked to renovate and repurpose the rectory, and $20 million would fund two endowments to cover operating expenses, as well as long-term maintenance. Campaign organizers declined to get into details, but Benson said the drive has been very successful and she is conﬁdent the goal will be met.

From ‘garish’ to icon

St. Louis Cathedral, which carries the formal title “Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France,” is a focal point of the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans. The building that is so recogniz-

pointed out signs of its deterioration, Morris said it’s important to fortify the structure, but preserve its identity and appearance. Morris and the others involved in the project have studied the cathedral for the past few years in preparation for this summer’s start. The prep work has been both high- and low-tech Workers strapped with computer-camera equipment walked the interior to create sophisticated Lidar images, while outside, workers used a doorknob-like ball on the end of a stick to perform “soundings” of the stucco walls to determine where it was pulling free from the masonry One thing the research has concluded: St. Louis Cathedral is not sinking.

Such a tragedy had been feared and reported by media outlets over the years. But Morris said extensive testing of the layers of soil beneath the cathedral’s foundation revealed the building is stable.

Morris said a section of the ﬂoor was removed and a team led by University of New Orleans anthropologist Ryan Gray probed the ground beneath it. They found soot from the 1788 fire — “He said it still smelled like ﬁre,” Morris said but no hard evidence that the building is sinking.

“Without some massive geological event, the cathedral is going to stay where it is,” he said.

Notre Dame as inspiration

Morris was part of a delegation that Benson put together to visit Paris in 2023 to closely view the rebuilding of Notre Dame. That trip, Benson and Morris both agree, gave those involved an upclose look at what worked and what didn’t, and some inspiration, too.

During the panel discussion at Tulane for the book fest, Villeneuve said Notre Dame was “very ill,” even before the devastating fire, facing years of backlogged maintenance and the absence of any substantial work since 1937.

able now the popular backdrop to untold thousands of photos and television shots — is actually the latest of a series of church buildings on the site.

Pope Paul VI designated it a cathedral basilica in 1964, but the more formal title never seemed to catch on with the populace. Its history is marked by triumph and tragedy Some histories mention an “early church” at the location around 1722 that was destroyed by a hurricane. A permanent church opened at the site in 1727. That church went up in ﬂames during the Good Friday ﬁre that consumed much of New Orleans in 1788.

A new church was completed and consecrated in 1794. But population growth spurred an ambitious renovation in the 1840s that, complicated by construction mishaps, resulted in the church being substantially rebuilt. The new church was completed in 1851 and is largely the design of Jacques Nicholas de Pouilly, one of the city’s most successful architects, Masson said.

In a 2024 article for the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, Masson wrote that de Pouilly’s “French Romantic” design brought in elements of several different architectural styles, including Greek Revival and Gothic Revival. De Pouilly was “quite avant-garde in his moment,” Masson said in an interview “What we’re looking at is a very modern building from the 1850s.”

Some critics at the time called it “garish” and “showy,” Masson’s research found.

The subsequent years would see very little in the way of change to the cathedral as the city grew up around it. Among the eras and events the cathedral has survived, there was a bomb blast on a quiet Sunday afternoon in 1909 that left the city stunned.

While no one was hurt, newspaper accounts from the time said the blast knocked out many of the windows and caused extensive damage to the organ and choir loft. No cause or attack was ever identiﬁed, but theories abounded. The police at the time insisted it was a deliberate act, but the state’s ﬁre marshal suggested that dust from construction work could have caused the blast. New Orleanians rallied to raise the $5,000 needed to repair the damage.

The cathedral isn’t sinking

As he showed a group around the cathedral one recent morning and

Prior to the ﬁre, Villeneuve and others had done the needed work in a piecemeal fashion, catching it as money and time permitted. The cathedral’s near destruction in an April 2019 fire prompted an outpouring of grief the world over But buoyed by national pride and a large budget — upward of $800 million covered by donations and some government funding — a legion of workers descended on Paris to rebuild that national treasure.

“I was like a bulldog,” Villeneuve told the book festival audience, noting the focus he developed as head of the effort.

“If you don’t go in my direction, I kill you,” he joked, and the audience laughed.

‘There will be bumps’

While comparing the restorations of Notre Dame and St. Louis Cathedral can very much be an exercise in apples and oranges, there are some similarities.

One will be the logistical hurdles.

Working in the French Quarter’s vibrant streets of visiting tourists will be challenging, as will the comings and goings (and parking, lodging, feeding) of teams of workers. Disruptions to life in the Quarter are expected, and those details, like many others, remain a bit in the air Morris said part of St Anthony’s Garden, which sits behind the cathedral, would become a staging area for the scaffolding contractors. Meanwhile, life and worship at the church will go on amid the work.

The cathedral has weekday Mass at 12:05 p.m. Saturday Mass is at 5 p.m. and Sunday Mass is at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Williams, the cathedral’s rector, said St. Louis Cathedral Parish isn’t large, with a “couple hundred families,” but that Mass attendance often swells with visitors.

“They’re going to be our parishioners for an hour,” he said. “It’s our hope we’ll be able to conduct Sunday Mass throughout. But there will be bumps. There always are in something this major.”

sTAFF PHoTos By BRETT DUKE

Tourists and residents walk by the st. Louis Cathedral in New orleans. The current structure, which dates to 1851, is easily the most famous landmark in one of the world’s most famous neighborhoods.

Kevin Morris, a president of Holly & smith Architects of New orleans, walks up the stairs next to the bells in the central spire of the st. Louis Cathedral.

Damaged plaster inside the entrance of st. Louis Cathedral will be part of the $45 million overhaul.

Iran rescue considered acomplicated extraction

BY SEUNG MIN KIM, MATTHEW LEE and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

The United States pulled off adaring rescue of two aviators whose fighter jet was shot down by Iran, pluckingthe pilotfrom behind enemy lines before setting off acomplicated extraction of the second service member who hid deep in the mountains as Tehran called for Iranians to help capture him.

The CIA looked to throw off Iran’sgovernment before the crew member was found, launchinga deception campaign to spread word inside the Islamic Republic thatit had already located him

initial crash, particularly aboutthe first crew member rescued from theF-15E Strike Eagle —aneffort that Trump later saidtook seven hours in broaddaylight over Iran.

The UnitedStates and Iran’sgovernment then were bothracing to find thesecond crew member, aweapons systems ofﬁcer, whose location neither side knew.

CO IN T MI EAST NFLICT HE DDLE AST

Even as President Donald Trump and other U.S. ofﬁcials described an almost cinematic mission, rescuers faced major obstacles, including two Black Hawk helicopters coming under ﬁre and problems with two transport planes that forced the U.S. military to blow them up.

“This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately,deep in Enemy Territory,” Trump wrote early Sunday on his Truth Social platform. “WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND!”

In apair of social media posts, Trump said the operation over the weekend required the U.S. to remain completely silent to avoid jeopardizing the effort, even as the president and top members of hisadministration continuously monitored the airman’slocation.

The White House and the Pentagon refused to publicly discuss details about the downed fighter jet for well over 24 hours after the

On

The CIA spread word that theU.S. hadfoundhim and were moving him by ground to get himout of Iran,according to asenior Trump administration officialwho spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public.

Theconfusion allowedthe CIA to uncover the location of theservice member,who washidingina mountain crevice, the official said.

Theintelligence agency sent the coordinates to the Pentagon and the White House, where Trump ordered arescueoperation.

Meanwhile,ananchor on achannel affiliated with Iranian state television had been urging residents in themountainousregion of southwest Iran where the fighterjet went down to hand over any“enemy pilot” to police and promiseda reward for anyone who did.

Trumpsaid theAmerican aviator was being“hunted down” by enemies who were “getting closer and closer by the hour.” The UnitedStates wasmonitoringhis location continuously,hesaid

At the right moment, Trump said, he directed the military to send dozens of heavily armed aircraft to rescue the crewmember, whothe president said is “seriously wounded”but will recover.

Iranian state media reportedthat airstrikesin

Wreckageisshown at what Iran’sstate TV claimed wasthe site of adowned American transportplane and twohelicopters involved in arescue operation in Isfahan province, Iran.

southwestern Iran on Saturday killed at leastthree people and woundedothers, in thesame area where themissing American crew member was believed to be.

The American rescue mission ran into major challenges behind enemy lines. Iran’sjoint military commandclaimed it struck two U.S.Black Hawk helicopterstaking part in the operation.

Apersonfamiliar with the situation said the two helicopterswere able to navigatetosafe airspace, although it’sunclear if they landed or if crew members were injured. Theperson spokeonthe condition of anonymity to discussthe sensitive information.

Then, theU.S. military was forced to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescueofthe secondservice member due to atechnical malfunction, according to a regional intelligence ofﬁcial briefed on the mission. The U.S. blew up twotransport

planes it was forced toleave behind because of the mishap, said theofficial, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss thecovert mission.

Iran’sstate television on Sundayaireda videoshowing what it claimed were parts of aU.S. aircraft shot down by Iranian forces, along withaphoto of thick, black smoke rising. The broadcastersaid Iran had shot down atransport plane andtwo helicopters that werepartofthe rescue operation.

Iran’sjoint military command said the destroyed aircraftincludedtwo C-130 military transport aircraft andtwo Black Hawk helicopters in the provinceof Isfahan,where the rescue took place.

“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without aSINGLEAmericankilled, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelmingAir

moon mission, biggestheadachehas

BY LOREN GRUSH Bloomberg News (TNs)

As NASA’s ArtemisIIastronauts make their wayto the moon over the weekend, their test ﬂight has gone surprisingly well without any major issues, save forone piece of technologygiving the crew grief: the toilet.

The Lockheed Martin-built Orion crew capsule that’s carrying the Artemis II crew to the moon is equipped with what’sknown as the Universal Waste Management System for the astronauts to use during the 10-day mission. It’sroughly the same space toilet that’sused on the International Space Station.

But getting the complicated piece of equipmentto work properly during the flight has become arecurring issue.

The UWMS co me s equipped with afunnel and hose for urination, and there is aseat with ahole for bowel movements. Since the astronauts are in microgravity the toilet relies on air flow that pulls waste into the toilet and ensuresthe capsule

PRoVIDED PHoTo By REID WIsEMAN/NAsA AviewofEarth in seen Thursdayinaphoto taken by NAsAastronaut and Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman from the orion spacecraft’swindowafter completingthe translunar injectionburn.

staysclean.The astronauts canalsouse footstraps and handlestostay in position. On ArtemisII’sﬁrstﬂight day,the toilet indicated an issue right afterthe crew gottospace. Mission specialist Christina Koch, who proudlydeclared herself the “space plumber,” wasableto get the toilet working again withsome helpfrom Mission Control.

It turned outtobea problemwith the toilet’s pump, which needed extra water to be wet enough and primed for use.

“Once we ﬁguredout that we didn’tput enough water in,weput more in there, made sure that it was essentially primed –the pump was primed –and then thetoilet cameright back up,”said Judd Frieling, the ascent

Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” Trumpsaid on social media. Trump, however,did not mention that asecond military jet also went down the sameday as the F-15E. Iranian statemedia said Friday that aU.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed after being struck by Iran’sdefense forces. AU.S. official,speaking on conditionofanonymity to discuss asensitive military situation,conﬁrmed a second U.S. Air Force combataircraftwentdownin theMiddle East on Friday Theofficialprovidedno otherdetails on what happened and no information on the status of the crew Kim and Leereported fromWashington, and Magdy from Cairo. AssociatedPress writers Lisa Mascaro and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

been toilet

ﬂight director for Artemis II.

Not so fast.

The toilet once again started acting up. Unlike on the International Space Station,where wastewater is contained, treated and recycled in aclosed loop system, thewastewateron the Artemis II mission is periodically dumped overboardthroughoutthe mission. During these dumps, gleaming particles stream across the window of Orion, as seen by video taken by thecrew

One of thosewastewater dumps stoppedprematurely.NASA suspected that abuildup of icemay have been blocking thevent nozzle thatallows thewastewatertodrain out intospace.

As NASA troubleshot the issue, the agency determined that the crew shouldn’tuse the toilet for urination to be safe.

“Copy, we are‘no go’for toilet,” Koch acknowledged at one point.

The problem is there only so muchroom forurine to collect.

“The urine tank thatis in thevehicle is only about the size of asmall, like your office trash can,” Debbie Korth, NASA’s Orion deputy program manager,saidduring anewsconference. “So we want to make sure we can empty it out before we put anything else in there.”

However,the crew was still“go”for bowelmovements, as those waste materialsare collected in water-tight bags. Andasa backup forurination,the crew could still use what are known as Collapsible ContingencyUrinals, which are long tube-like containers that are designed to control the ﬂow of liquids.

“Wecan do alot of extraordinary things in space right now, but nailing this capability is one that we need to certainlyworkon,”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Sunday on CNN’s“State of the Union.”

By The Associated Press

FRANKFURT,Germany— Swedish authorities have released atanker sanctioned by the European Union that had been boarded and detained on suspicion of causing an oil spill in the BalticSea.

The Swedish Coast Guard said they had not found sufficient evidence that the Flora 1tanker was at fault forthe 8-mile-long spillthat had been discovered Thursday Investigators also established that Cameroon had confirmed the vessel was sailingunder that country’s flag, which had not been clear when the vessel and its 24-member crew was stopped Friday,the coast guard said.

TheFlora 1was put on the EU’slist of sanctioned vessels for carrying Russian oil while “practicingirregular andhigh-risk shipping practices.” Unsafepracticescan include turning off the automatic trackingsystem that transmits the vessel’slocation to other ships. The sanctions are aimed at the“shadow fleet”that emerged in response to a pricecap on Russian oil imposed by the Group of Seven democracies to limit the revenues that fund Russia’s invasionofUkraine.The cap was enforced by barring insurance andshipping companies from handlingoil abovethe cap.

Theﬂeet is madeupofagingtankers with ownership and insurance based incoun-

triesthatare not observing the price cap. The age of the vessels andtheir lack of Western insurance has raised safety concerns about oil spills and who would get thecleanup bill.

The Flora1was owned by aHong Kong company as of late 2025 and has also been sanctioned by theUK, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealandand Australia, according to the Ukrainian government.Ithas changed its name six times andits flag country nine times. It has been observed turning off its automatictracking system, astepthathides a vessel’slocation, and engagingina ship-to-shiptransfer,which can be away to disguise theorigins of an oil cargo. Sweden

PHoTo PRoVIDED By sEPAHNEWs

Changing rules to benefit crimevictims deserves support

State Sen. Jay Morris is proposing aconstitutional amendment giving prosecutors and crime victims the right to ajury trialin criminal proceedings —aright presently reserved for criminal defendants alone under existing Louisiana law

The U.S. Constitution gives defendants the right to trial by jury but no right to ajudge trial. In the federal system and 30 other states, the prosecution must agree to ajudge trial. At ahearingonMarch 17, several criminal defense advocates spoke against the amendment Not asingle opponent addressed therights of the victims.For that matter,they never even uttered the word “victim.”

It is curious how criminal advocatescelebrate differences between Louisiana and federal law when they beneﬁt violent criminals and sexual predators but are quicktocriticize differences and argue for parity with federal law when they do not.

They argued that the amendment should be rejected because prosecutors cancharge some felony offenses without agrand jury indictment and that the amendment would mean defendants would have to wait longer for atrial.

These arguments, however,are redherrings, given that under existing law,defendants have a right to apreliminary examination and can ﬁle aspeedy trial motion.

If opponents can tell me why a13-year old little girl gunned down in her grandparent’s home by agang member who initiated astreet war in aquiet residential neighborhood in Shreveport or an infant who was tossed to her death off the Cross Lake bridge by her mother should have less righttoajury of their peers than thecriminals who killed them, then please do so. If theycannot, then Iﬁnd their opposition unpersuasive.

CHRISTOPHERS.BOWMAN assistant district attorney—special Victims Unit, CaddoParishDistrict Attorney’soffice

YOUR VIEWS

THEADVOCATE.COM/opinions

PRoVIDED PHoToByCPRA

West Belle Headland wasrecently restored as partofthe state’sbiggest coastal restoration to be completed to date.Three barrier islands in Terrebonne Basin were restored as part of the project.

CPRA leadershipseems lost andmission forgotten

While listening to Executive Director Michael Hare give testimonyregarding the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s2027 annual plan, Iwondered if the top brass atthe agency had forgotten acritical aspect of their mission. It’sintheir name.

Restoration

During this year’spresentation, Iwas struck by the overwhelming focus on the protection aspect of the mission.Little talk was given to restoration, as the current administration has declined to follow that aspect of their mandate, focusing instead on the festival-ready slogan of “rock the coast.” What happens to rocks on the soft substrate of Louisiana’scoast? They sink. Then they either become boating hazards or require more rocks; rocks piled on rocks. The leadership seems to think this is aprudent use of resources. When the agency does grant attention to therestoration side of its mission, it is toward thevigorous pursuit of land bridge projects. These are not new projects, but

theway they are being modiﬁed and touted gives thereal impression that those atop the CPRA’s chain of command think of these as massive levees. These projects are nowhere near shovelready,extremely vulnerable to storms, require expensive and extensive dredging and don’trely upon thenatural processes of the river to build. Putanother way,these projects will not sustain themselves. They will cost billions and be subject to the sameincreasingly astonishing erosion and sea-level rise rates that our entire coast faces. All that money,work and diesel spent dredging washed away Without projects that engage the river’s land-building capability at ascale that matches thecrisis our coast and the communities face, this version of the agency can hardly be taken seriously.They are missing acritical component of their mission, and the irony is, it is right there in their name.

DONALD DAVIDSON

Neworleans

KennedyatBookFestwas illuminating

Living in La., youtake thebad with thegood

Ilove getting the paper.It’salifelong habit.

As an 88-year-old devoted New Orleanian, Ihave manyreactions to what Iread.

Today,I am overcome and moved to share areaction and opinion. Ron Faucheux writes, “numbers tell whyLouisiana lags other Southern states.”

An example: “Our population fell by about 40,000 between 2020 and 2025. Texas’ population wentup by 2.6 million. Florida’sbynearly 2 million.” And later in the article, he says that “Louisiana’seconomy has been built on the foundation of oil and gas, petrochemicals, reﬁning, ports, agriculture and tourism.” He concludes the interesting and informative article by reminding us that “wehave along way to go.” Well, Iamovercomeeven further to read Alex Lubben’sreport on the front page that there is a“push to shield oil companies” with a“trio of bills” that “would block climate change suits.”

What adisaster forour population! Once again, an obviously uninformed and uncaring legislative schemeisapparently driven by ego and self-absorbed concern over personal financial status. It is ahorrible timetolive in Louisiana, but Iamgrateful beyond words to be aNew Orleans resident and enjoy the benefits and delights of acity of tourism, beauty and joy where “la vie est belle!” Tourism surely is better forusthan the injuries inflicted by oil and gas and petrochemicals.

DEANNE AIME Neworleans

Retiredfolks canhelpshoulder burden of jury duty

OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet 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 ALETTER sCAN HERE

Iapplaud U.S.Sen. John Kennedy for agreeingtoa conversation with Walter Isaacson at therecent NOLA Book Fest, at which there was apacked audience in the 1,000plus seat Dixon Hall. Isaacson was afair and persistent interviewer,and Kennedy was honest, forthcomingand open about some of his positions, which were not particularly popular withthe audience, as well as acknowledging the frequent dysfunction of Congress. He was also clear on anumber of issues, including dignity and respect for all immigrants collared by ICE, and he noted that the Constitution mandates they are presumed innocent until proven guilty by due legal process.Hecondemnedthe politics of hateand anger He was clearthat thebombing of achildren’sschool in Iran was amistake, and as such,shouldbeadmitted openly.Hewas candid aboutsome of the mechanics of the

Senatethat he would change werehegiven thechance. He is against U.S. “boots on the ground” in Iran for regimechange, and he offered many more clearly reasonable opinions on current events, to the agreement of theaudience, for which frequentapplause signiﬁed approval. Not surprisingly,hewas often entertaining, yet theconversation was packed withsubstance.

Iwas left with amost favorable respect for Kennedy,even though I, and manyinthe audience, disagree with some of his political stances. For anyone seeking to understand Kennedy better,Istrongly suggest watching his conversation on YouTube.

Thank you, Sen. Kennedy.And, Icould not agree with your quote more when talking about different races and ethnic origins: “To abear we all taste like chicken.”

DAVID ELIZARDI Metairie

Inspection stickers arenecessary in La.

Theidea of gettingrid of inspection stickers is abit ridiculous. Yes, it’saninconvenience, but for good reason. Whether it be window tinting, working headlights,working tail lightsorworking brake lights, those items need to be checked for public safety.How does getting rid of inspection stickers in any way help lower auto insurance rates, which Ithought was aprior-

ity? And then theproposed $6 ayear sticker which has theVIN or other information like insurance, which can change every six months, is completely ridiculous and atotal waste of money.That is acash grab.

While you’re at it,Iwould like to complain about those pesky stop signs and red lights. They are an inconvenience as well.

HERB WILSON Mandeville

Irecently completed aweek as a jurorona federal trial. The talk in the jury room about serving andthe sacriﬁce to do so was eye-opening. Missed school andpaycheckswerementioned. WhenIreceived my jury duty summons, there was abox to opt outifIwas 70 or older.Idid not check thatbox Iurge those of youwho are in thatcategorytoopt in and maybe spare some youngerworker a missed paycheck.Comeon, Boomers, stepup.

DEBRA BOUDREAUX Gretna

Renewables need to be in theenergymix, especially now

If there was ever atime to emphasize the strategic value of renewable energy,itisnow We may be the largest producer of oilonthe planet, but we still paythe world pricefor oil. Ajudicious mix of EVs, biofuel andregulargas for transportation, andwind, solarand natural gasfor home electric use, would go alongway toward insulating us frominterruptions in any one source.

DANIEL DELAUREAL Lacombe

Honor, don’tmock,the plumbers

Evidently,Jimmy Kimmel disagrees. The late-night host took ashot at newly conﬁrmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who used to run aplumbing business,bysaying, “We have aplumber now protectingus from terrorism.”

The gibe was asetup for aline about SuperMario —the Italian plumber starring inthe Nintendo game —but the premise was that there was something inherently ridiculous about aplumber ascending to aposition of major responsibilityin Washington, D.C. Yes, why couldn’t Markwayne Mullinhave madesomething of himself by getting, say,alaw degree rather than devotinghimself to afamily business involvingnasty little things like pipes and joints?

One problem with callingMarkwayne aplumber is that it drips—no pun intended —with condescension. The other is that it signiﬁcantlyunderstates his businessbackground, which involved leveraging asmall, struggling family concern intoa mini-business empire in Oklahoma, including areal estate ﬁrm, construction company andrestaurant

Anyone doubting the drive and acumen it takes to create and manage such enterprises shouldtry doing it himself.

Before ascendingtoDHS secretary Mullin was the only member of the U.S. Senate without afour-yearcollege degree, which is considered ademerit by the same kind of people who tend to look down on plumbers.

But Mullin’spath is afamiliar one for many Americans. He was in collegewhenhis father fell ill, andhe quit his studiestotake over thebusiness.

Washesupposed to shirk that responsibility and instead complete, say,adegree in sociology or ethnic studies?

In the scheme of things, that Mullin was aU.S. senator is agreater reason to be suspicious or dismissive of him than that he once ran aplumbing business.

No one who has had their life disrupted by some disastrousleak is

AssoCIATED PREss

ever sad to see the plumber show up —it’salittle like how someone who has chest painsmustfeel when seeinga cardiologist. Plumbing requires problem-solving and attention to detail, as well as physical dexterity and stamina. A plumber often has to come up witha hypothesisabout an unseen problem, fashion away to test it with minimal disruption, and then undertake the work to ﬁxitinclose, suboptimal spaces. Years ago, Iwas moving my late mother out ofthe house she had lived in for decades, and therewas —perfect timing —abad leak in the basement

Aplumber showed up, aguy in his 20s, and while looking around the cellar,hestopped and stared at the ceiling After along,awkward silence, I asked,“What are you doing?”

“Thinking,” he replied. He was ﬁguring out where thepipes likely were in the ceiling, and which he shouldtry to cut and join —a puzzle he couldn’tget wrong without inadvertently doing damage and addingtothe problem. It should never be underestimated

how plumbing and other trades require considerable thought and analysis, even if they exist outside the college-education industrial complex. Becomingaplumber takes years of training, just not at acollege campus; plumbers learn their craft during onthe-job apprenticeships

It’sa paththat leads to well-compensated work. The median salary of aplumber is about $62,000, while the median salary of all U.S. workers is roughly$49,000.

That ourculture nonetheless systematically undervalues practical, hands-on skills and, instead, mindlessly valorizes the four-year college degree is adisservice to all the talented Americanswho work in the trades; pushes people to get four-year degrees that they might not need and will saddle them with student debt; and makes it harder to develop the workers that manufacturers —including in the defense industry —are seeking.

In short, that we now have aCabinet secretary that is aplumber is somethingtobewelcomed, rather than mocked.

Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry

Panicthreatens august Starsand Stripes

Oh, no. Stars and Stripes is under ﬁre again.

Controversy is not exactly unknown to the legendary military newspaper Born during the Civil War, Stars and Stripes has taken all sorts of ﬂak and survived, impressively for apublication owned and operated bythe U.S. militarythatnevertheless calls itself an “independent” voice.

As someone who served overseas as adrafted Vietnam-era army journalist, Ican tellyou that military journalism is not an oxymoron. Or,at least, it’snot supposed to be.

commercial messaging app Signal. Included in thechat group was the editor of TheAtlantic, who later revealed details he had learned.

Hegsethalso imposed apledge on journalists nottogather or transmit information about military affairs that hadnot been approved by his department for release. Most credible media groups refused to sign his pledge and have been denied Pentagon press credentials.

But “Stripes,” as its commonly called in the service, has anew and imposing critic: Secretary of Defense PeteHegseth, famous —orinfamous —for his personal crusade against“woke” culture and its imagined effectson the nation’s“warﬁghters,”the Trump administration’sideologically loaded term for the people most of us call service members.

As Stars and Stripes revealed, the Defense Department issued a“modernization plan” for the paper with alarming stipulations. It “limitsthe use of wire services,bars comics and other syndicated features,”and,rather ominously,requires that “content must be consistent with ‘good order and discipline,’ aphraseborrowed from the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” the paper reported As afan of Stripes goingback to my military days, Iimmediately wondered what changes Hegseth’s culture warmight bring. It looks a lot like an attempt to make thepaper less interesting to its readers, not to mention less credible as anindependent voice of news and analysis. It’snot exactly asurprise coming from Hegseth. This is the same secretary of defense, you may recall, who famously shared sensitiveinformation regarding U.S. military strikes on Houthi rebels in YemeninMarch of last year over the unsecured

Stars and Stripes is owned by the Defense Department but is run by civilian editors. Thepaper’sstaff does include service members, who work underthe mentorship of civilian journalists. Congress members of both parties have consistently supported the publication’s mission to produce independent journalism consistent with theprinciples of theFirst Amendment.

Thememo says that Stars and Stripes will continue to “operate with editorial independence.” However,as Stars andStripes reported, Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell asserted that going forward, the paper would be “by the warﬁghter and for the warﬁghter.”

Stars andStripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavintold NPR that the phrase “good order and discipline” raises concerns that reporters who are in the U.S.military might face courtmartial.

“If they were to complete astory that the Defense Department did not like, and did not ﬁnd ‘consistentwith good order and discipline,’ would they be in legal jeopardy?” Slavin asked.“We don’tknow theanswer to that.”

The prospect immediately brings to mindone of the most famous stories in Stars and Stripes history: theclash between Generals George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower during World WarIIoverthe wildly popular “Willie andJoe” cartoons of Bill Mauldin. Grimy,mud-caked and weary,Wil-

lie and Joe portrayed for the folks back homethe thoroughly miserable conditions faced daily by our GIs —and managed to squeeze afew chuckles of knowing laughter out of thereaders.

Patton,anotoriously tough and humorless commander,considered “Willy and Joe” tobeathreat to discipline and morale —quitethe opposite of the way many fans saw thecartoon. Patton threatened to ban Stars and Stripes, but Eisenhower defended thepaper as more of asupport for morale than athreat.The paper remained independent.Mauldin went on to win two Pulitzers and the Army’s Legion of Merit.

Asimilar story is told about the cartoon GI “Beetle Bailey.” The strip was starting to build an audience in theearly 1950s when the Tokyo edition of Stars and Stripes banned it out of fear it would encourage service memberstoadopt Bailey’s generally lackadaisical attitude and behavior

Asecond ban was imposed in 1970 after the introduction of the strip’s ﬁrst Black character,Lt. Jackson Flap,whose Afrotechnically was way too voluminous to pass regulation in thereal world, afact that delighted me andmany of my fellow Black service personnel in the late stages of theVietnam Warera.

Sometimes in media, you don’t know what’s going towork until you tryit. Afree press enables journalists and others to express themselves and react honestly and candidly,which in thelong run builds trust and credibility with skepticalaudiences.

It’sunclear what threat Hegseth perceives in Stars and Stripes as it is currently run, but Isuspect he’sgoing to ﬁnd out that alot of Americans still believe that afree press is worth defending, even and especially when it serves the people who serve our nation.

Email Clarence Page at clarence47page@gmail.com

Thesudden politicalstarof TrumpII: MarcoRubio

“White House deploys Marco Rubio to clarify messaging aboutIranconﬂict.” So readsthe headline on the front page of the Washington Examiner’s website in the early hours of April 1, the third month of U.S. military operations against Iran, which have been taking place since Feb. 28. Thatprominence was overtakenasitwas announced thatPresident Donald Trump would address the nationonthe waronWednesday night. But it’sstill worth noting and could turn out to be more signiﬁcantasthe end of the secondTrump term comes into view.

Rubio’s videomaking the case for the Iran offensive is only two minuteslong, straight to the camera, with adarkbackground relieved only by the redand white stripesof the ﬂag. Succinctly,hemadea case for military actionnow “Undernocircumstances,” Rubio said, “can acountry run by radical Shia clericswith an apocalyptic vision of the future ever possess nuclear weapons, and under no circumstancescan they be allowed to hide and protect thatprogram and their ambitions behind ashield of missilesand drones that no one cando anything about.”

At greater length but in asimilar fashion, he made the same casethat day in atelevisioninterviewonAlJazeera, in terms pitchedtoits audience notjust in the United Statesbut also in the Gulf. Only oneotherpersonbefore hasheldthe ofﬁces of secretaryofstate andnationalsecurity adviser: Henry Kissinger,from 1973 to 1975. In thatcapacity,Kissinger conducted high-level diplomacyinthe Middle East and left no distance in his public statements between his views and those of the president he served, although behind the scenes,aslater revealed, there were differences Similarly,Rubio obviously speaks carefully to leavenodistancebetween his statements and those of the president he serves, to whom he refers in respectful terms. But he’s able to do this andtoappeal to others, including inveterate Trump haters, allatthe same time

Thatwas apparent in his Feb. 14 speech at the MunichSecurity Conference where he earned standing applause fromhis predominantly European audienceeven as he repeated,diplomatically phrased, the same criticisms of what Donald Rumsfeld called“Old Europe”voiced numerous timesbyTrump and, at the same conferencea year before,toaverydifferent reaction, Vice President JD Vance.

Simultaneously pleasing antagonistic audiences is ararepolitical talent, not often seen in anation where most who climb to high elective ofﬁce do so as candidatesofdeﬁnitionally adversarialpolitical parties.

Some presidents have hada charmand sense of humorthatextendedtheir appealsacrosspartisanlines. Some have done so in rallying voters to respond to attacksonAmerica. Trump, perhaps recognizing thatthis is notagift to which he owes his rise to the presidency,makes little visible effort at this.

There aremanydifferences between the two men who were secretary of state and national security adviser. Kissingerwas adazzling scholar who impressed everyone at Harvard University Rubio ﬁrst went to college on afootball scholarship, thenearneddegrees from the University of Florida andthe University of Miami Law School. Kissinger, in his prime, dated movie stars. Rubio is alongtime family man.

OnceinAmerica, Kissingeralways lived in the Northeast Corridor (Manhattan, Cambridge and Washington), Rubio in semitropical Miami and rafﬁsh LasVegas.Kissinger never ran for public ofﬁce. Rubio was elected to the West Miami Councilat27and to the term-limited Florida legislature at 29 (winning aprimary runoff by 64 votes), andhegot his colleagues to elect him as speaker six yearslater

But the biggest political difference is that Kissinger, born acitizen of Weimar Germany,was ineligible to run for president. Rubio notonly ran for president in 2016 but might conceivably have won in the absenceofTrump’scandidacy and the millions spent against him by backers of his former mentor,former Florida Gov.Jeb Bush. And Rubio might conceivably run and win in 2028, though he says he will support Vance, and VancesaysthatRubio is “my closest friend in the administration.” There are obviously some differencesbetween them on foreign policy: Rubio plainly favors the Iran attacks. Vance seems dubious. Of course,there’s lots of time before 2028, and we don’tknowwhat’sgoing to happeninthe Strait of Hormuz over the next week

But Idofeel sure that Rubio, who showed impressive rawpolitical talent in his rise to oneof Florida’s U.S. Senate seatsinthe ﬁrst decadeof this century andwho made aserious presidential run in the seconddecade, has now shown impressive skills as anational leader in the third decade. Is there more ahead in the fourth? Michael Barone is on X, @MichaelBarone.

Clarence Page

Rich Lowry

Michael Barone

PHoTo By ALEX BRANDoN Homeland security secretaryMarkwayne Mullin listens during aCabinet meeting at the White House on March 26.

UCLA storms past S. Carolina to claim NCAA title

BY DOUG FEINBERG AP basketball writer

PHOENIX It’smissionaccomplished for UCLA.

Gabriela Jaquez, Lauren Betts and therest of the UCLA seniors secured the ﬁrst NCAA women’sbasketball national championship in school history —a goal that was setafter losing in the ﬁrst Final Fourlast season. Jaquez scored 21 points, Betts added 16 and UCLA routed South Carolina79-51 Sundayinthe title game.

“I knew we were going todoit. Coming to UCLA, we all set out for agoal, and Iimagined this moment,” Jaquez said. “I imagined it so many times, and Iamjust so,soproud.

Crying alot, the confetti, all of the fans beingheretosupport us,myfamilybeing here,itjust means everything. Celebrating with this group, like .I’m so happy.”

The near-record lopsided victory completed the Bruins’ journey through this year’s March Madness. The Bruins ran through theiropponentsthisseasonwiththeir only loss coming in November,toTexas in a Thanksgiving tournament.

“It’simmeasurably more than Icould ask or imagine,” UCLA coach CoriClose said. “It’sbeyond my wildest dreams.”

UCLA (37-1) was led by Betts and her

ä see NCAA, page 4B

Mulkey facing keyquestions as offseason heatsup

BY REED DARCEY staff writer

Last offseason, the LSUwomen’sbasketball team underwent abit of afacelift. Eight players cycled out of the program, either because they exhausted their eligibility or decided to enter the transfer portal. This year should be quieterfor theTigers. Just ask coach Kim Mulkey, whotoldWAFBTV on Thursday that she expects only one of herpotential returners to enter her name into theportal when it openson Monday: freshman point guard Divine Bourrage. Thingscan change. The portal will be open through April 20, and players who have already decided to transfer have begun the early stages of ﬁnding anew school. But as of Monday,itlooks like LSU will have to replaceonly two regular contributors this offseason: guardFlau’jae Johnson and forward AmiyaJoyner.Star guards Mikaylah Williams and MiLaysia Fulwiley should return. So, too,should pointguard Jada Richard, center Kate Koval andthe bulk of the nation’stop-ranked 2025 freshmanclass:ZaKiyah Johnson, Grace Knox and Bella Hines.

ä see MULKEY, page 4B

‘INTHE ZONE’

PRoVIDED PHoToByLsU ATHLETICs LsU sophomore Cade Arrambide celebrates withteammates after hitting ahome runagainst Tennessee on sundayat LindseyNelson stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. Arrambide

sundaytolead LsUtoa 16-6 win overTennessee.

LsUrides sophomoreArrambide’s historic dayto 12-inning, series-clinchingvictory over Tennessee

BY KOKI RILEY staff writer

KNOXVILLE,Tenn. Chaoshas deﬁned LSU baseball’s series ﬁnales for thepast two weeks.

An error cost theTigers aseries victory against Oklahoma twoweeks ago. Last Sunday,theyscored17runs against Kentucky to take down the Wildcats afterfalling behind 7-0 in the early innings.

But Easter Sunday was awhole new level of bedlam for LSU, as theTigerscame back from a5-0 deﬁcit to win 16-6 over Tennessee in 12 innings.

“I think this is oneofthe better wins that I’ve been a part of since I’ve been here, honestly,” redshirt junior right-hander Gavin Guidrysaid. “It wastough early,and

we had every opportunity to kind of just say,‘Here we go again, things aren’tgoing our way.’”

“… And(instead)just everybody in thedugout refused to say that and just kept ﬁghting, staying in it, and good things are going to happen. Especially on aSunday,anything can happen.”

LSU scored 10 runs in the 12th to pull away from the Volunteers. Junior Steven Milam gave the Tigers a7-6 lead on an infield single before sophomore Cade Arrambide hit agrand slam that gave the Tigers afive-run advantage. Redshirt juniorEddie Yamin, sophomore DerekCurieland Milam then tackedonfive moreruns with atwo-run single, arun-scoring triple and atwo-run

ä see LSU, page 5B

the televised golf world to that effervescent guy with the catchy, earworm of aname whonow seemstobe everywhere. That includes being back at the Masters this week as part of Amazon Prime’sinaugural coverage of the fabled tournament during Thursday and Friday’sﬁrst tworounds (noon2p.m.).

Would he love to own agreen jacket? Who wouldn’t? But the unexpected path his career in golf has taken since that Sunday a decade ago has ﬁt Kaufmanlike a 42-regular “I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” he said. “Once I got in, Iknew Iwanted to workhard to stay there.”

Anative of Birmingham,Alabama, both of Kaufman’s parents (Jeffand Pam) graduated from and played golf forLSU, ä see RABALAIS, page 3B

AP PHoTo By RICK sCUTERI UCLA playerscelebrate after defeating south Carolina inthe national championship game on sundayinPhoenix.

7:50

Teams already eyeing loaded 2027 class

BY RAY FITTIPALDO Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNs)

PITTSBURGH — The NFL draft coming to Pittsburgh later this month is a big deal for the city

The league’s signature offseason event will span three days and is expected to draw more than 500,000 people to the downtown and North Shore areas.

But there are plenty of NFL teams, including the Steelers, who already have an eye toward the 2027 draft. Personnel evaluators are calling the ’27 draft one of the most talented classes in recent history, and the quality and depth of the quarterbacks are a big reason why The jockeying for extra picks in next year’s draft has already begun, and the Steelers are one of the teams trying to position themselves to be a player in quarterback sweepstakes.

General manager Omar Khan already has nine projected selections with two extra coming via the NFL’s compensation pick formula, which is based on the players a team loses and signs in free agency The Steelers are projected to have ﬁfth- and seventhround comp picks next year

That’s nice, but those picks won’t help Khan move up to get a quarterback You need earlyround picks to make a big move up in the draft. With ﬁve picks in the top 100 of this year’s draft, the Steelers have options to trade for picks into next year’s draft.

“The Steelers have three thirdround picks. I’d use one and then trade the other two for secondround picks in next year’s draft,” said Doug Whaley, formerly the general manager of the Buffalo Bills. “Then you would have some ammunition. Now that’s easier said than done. It’s easy to say trade back, but someone has to want to come up.”

Whaley was involved in one of the best known draft-day trades when he sent Kansas City the No. 10 pick in the 2017 draft for the Chiefs’ first-round pick (No 27 overall), a third-round pick and a 2018 ﬁrst-round pick.

The Chiefs used the No. 10 pick to select Patrick Mahomes, who has led the Chiefs to three Super

Bowl victories in his first nine NFL seasons.

“I’m the guy who traded away Michael Jordan,” Whaley said, poking fun at himself.

But there were reasons for Whaley’s decision. For one, Mahomes was not a universally praised prospect. He came out of the Texas Tech’s “Air Raid” system, an offense which had produced a number of quarterbacks who busted out in the NFL.

Whaley said the Bills would have drafted Mahomes had he fallen to No 27, but he was interested in future picks for the same reason Khan is this year

In 2015, Whaley hired former Steelers scout Ron Hughes as a consultant He asked Hughes to do a three-year quarterback study looking at the younger quarterbacks who were coming up through the college ranks. Whaley worked with Hughes when he was a scout with the Steelers and trusted his eye for quarterbacks.

Hughes’ study concluded the 2018 draft was just as strong, if not stronger, than the 2017 draft.

Baker Mayﬁeld Sam Darnold Josh Allen and Josh Rosen were selected in the top 10 and Lamar

Jackson was taken with the ﬁnal pick in the first round. Whaley didn’t get to see his plan come to fruition. He was replaced by Brandon Beane after the 2017 season, but Beane used the draft capital Whaley acquired to move up from No. 12 to No. 7 to get Josh Allen, who, if not for Mahomes, might have a couple of Super Bowl titles of his own.

This year’s quarterback class is viewed as weak among NFL evaluators. Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza is expected to be taken No. 1 overall by the Las Vegas Raiders, but there might not be another quarterback selected in the ﬁrst round. The 2027 and 2028 quarterback classes, however, are viewed as strong and deep. Texas’ Arch Manning, Oregon’s Dante Moore, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin, USC’s Jayden Maiava and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellars are a few of the quarterbacks who could go in the ﬁrst round. Manning, Moore and Sellars returned to college this year rather than turn professional. The 2028 class, with several quarterbacks who burst onto the scene last fall as freshmen, has

just as much buzz. Bryce Underwood of Michigan and Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele are two of the top names to watch in that class.

Trading future picks was a hot topic at the NFL owner’s meetings last week in Arizona. The Cleveland Browns proposed a rules change that would allow teams to trade future picks five years out rather than the current rule of three. They later withdrew the proposal when it was obvious it would not pass, but it could resurface in future years because GMs are always searching for ways to acquire their future franchise quarterbacks.

Browns GM Andrew Berry, before the proposal was withdrawn, said being able to trade picks ﬁve years out would give teams more “ﬂexibility and creativity” in how they build out their rosters.

The other side of the argument comes from the NFL analytics community, which believes future draft picks are overvalued. But as long as quarterback remains the most important position in the game, desperate teams will be willing to do whatever it takes to be in position to draft one.

In Orlando, Woods’ journey comes full circle

BY MIKE BIANCHI

orlando sentinel (TNs)

Commentary

ORLANDO, Fla. — It all started here. That’s the part that’s hard to shake if you live in Orlando, covered Tiger Woods in Orlando, watched Tiger Woods in Orlando, and, in many ways, watched Tiger Woods unravel in Orlando. Before that fateful Thanksgiving night in 2009, Tiger wasn’t just the best golfer in the world; he was something more than that He was pristine. Corporate-clean. Carefully constructed. He was the fist pump at Bay Hill, the Sunday red, the aura of invincibility. And before all of that, there was Augusta in 1997 — Tiger in that red shirt, hugging his father, Earl, after winning his first Masters. And for many, Tiger wasn’t just a golfer He was a breakthrough A symbol. Proof that the world, even the old, stubborn, stodgy, white golf world could change. Those are the memories we used to have of Tiger Woods. Now the image is body-cam footage of a puffy-eyed 50-yearold man hiccupping and nodding off in the back of a police car after another DUI arrest It’s Tiger pathetically trying to impress the police officers as they approached him by telling them he had just gotten off the phone with the president. It’s deputies pulling pills out of his pocket. It’s a once invincible athlete looking confused, injured, medicated and, more than anything, lost And if you trace the line from that police car back to the beginning of the fall, it leads right back here to Orlando; to the gilded gates of Isleworth; to that strange, surreal Thanksgiving night in 2009 when his wife, Elin confirmed and confronted him

about his marital indiscretions. Woods then jumped into his Cadillac Escalade and promptly ran over a ﬁre hydrant and crashed into a neighbor’s tree. In a split second, the most carefully protected image in sports detonated. It’s almost hard to explain now just how fast it all fell apart. One minute he was a global icon, billionaire athlete, loving father and husband, the most dominant golfer who ever lived and seemingly a lock to break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors. The next minute he was a tabloid punchline who was having sex with a local Perkins waitress in a church parking lot. As one woman after another came forward he was the poster boy of the National Enquirer, TMZ and the New York Post. His scandalous behavior was on the Post’s front page for 20 straight days, breaking the record set by the tragic aftermath of 9/11. His image didn’t just crack; it shattered. Sponsors ran. His marriage ended His reputation never recovered. And the golf part was never the

same either When that Escalade hit the ﬁre hydrant, Tiger had 14 majors and was only 33 years old. Everyone assumed he would pass Nicklaus. It wasn’t a debate; it was a countdown. Then he didn’t win another major for 11 years. Eleven years. That’s not a slump. That’s a reckoning. The multiple scandals ruined his image; the countless injuries derailed his golf game. After 2009, we saw everything: the affairs, the divorce, the surgeries, the mugshots, the painkillers, the car wrecks, the comebacks, the relapses, the Masters win in 2019 that felt less like a victory and more like a national group therapy session. But here we are again. Another arrest. Another report. Another sad snapshot of a man with a swollen face and baggy eyes. And it makes you wonder if that night in Orlando didn’t just change our image of Tiger; it changed Tiger’s own self-image. Obviously, his life was already unraveling, but, until that night, he believed he was untouchable

Spaun wins Texas Open for first title since U.S. Open

SAN ANTONIO J.J. Spaun came up with two big shots at the end of a long, wet Sunday one leading to birdie and the other for eagle that carried him to a 5-under 67 and a one-shot victory in the Valero Texas Open for his ﬁrst title since the U.S. Open last summer Spaun won for the second time at the TPC San Antonio, with one big difference. His victory four years ago got him into the Masters. This time, his spot at Augusta National has already been secured. Robert MacIntyre, who had led for so much of the tournament, completed 12 holes Sunday morning in the storm-delayed tournament for an even-par 72 to stay ahead by one shot going into the ﬁnal round. MacIntyre closed with a 70 to share second place with Matt Wallace (68) and Michael Kim (69).

Coughlin wins LPGA event in Las Vegas by 5 shots NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev After coming oh-so-close to winning at Shadow Creek last year, Lauren Coughlin made sure victory was never truly in doubt Sunday in the Aramco Championship in rolling to a five-shot win over Nelly Korda and the rest of the star-studded field. Coughlin shot an even-par 72 for a 7-under total and her first victory in two years, earning the 33-yearold from Virginia $600,000. She won her third LPGA Tour title and first in the United States, after winning in Canada and Scotland in 2024. Korda was runner-up yet again after shooting a 75 and finishing at 2 under This was her third consecutive second-place finish after opening her season by winning in Orlando, Florida, moving up a spot to No. 1 in the world ranking.

Astros place ace Brown on 15-day injured list

WEST SACRAMENTO,Calif.— The Houston Astros placed ace right-hander Hunter Brown on the 15-day injured list Sunday with a right shoulder strain. Brown, who won 12 games with a 2.43 ERA in 2025, pitched six strong innings to lead Houston to a 9-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night. He earned the win by allowing only one hit with two walks and eight strikeouts. Brown reported shoulder discomfort during a routine throwing session on Friday according to manager Joe Espada. Brown then ﬂew to Houston to be examined by team doctors. Espada told MLB.com a timetable for Brown’s return is pending further examinations.

— on and off the course. Ever since that night, his life has felt like a series of crashes. Some literal. Some personal. Some professional. Over and over, the story has repeated itself: Tiger tries to come back, and something else falls apart. I always believed there was something a little distant about Tiger and Orlando. He lived here for nearly 15 years, won all but one of his majors while living here, built his brand here, but he never really did anything charitable for this city He never felt like he belonged to the community the way Arnold Palmer did. Arnie built a hospital and a legacy here. There are streets named after him and statues built for him. There’s not even a park bench in Orlando with Woods’ name on it. The only monument we have to remember Tiger by is a long-ago broken ﬁre hydrant in Isleworth. Which is why, in Orlando, the story always feels a little more personal. Because the rise happened in front of us. And the fall started in our backyard. What’s left now is a complicated legacy Yes, Tiger is still the most inﬂuential golfer who ever lived. He changed the sport. He changed who played it, who watched it, who felt welcome in it. He made golf cool, powerful, global. He made it athletic. He made it young. He made it diverse.

But he also became a cautionary tale about fame and entitlement and about someone who spends his entire adult life being told he isn’t just great; he’s bulletproof. Tiger Woods was never supposed to be a punchline. He was supposed to be a legend carved in marble. Instead, he became something else; something more complicated and more sad.

Oats, Alabama agree to extension after Sweet 16

TUSCALOOSA,Ala. — Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne announced Sunday he has ﬁnalized a contract extension with basketball coach Nate Oats.

Byrne announced on social media Oats has signed the deal “that will make him one of the top ﬁve compensated men’s basketball coaches in the country.”

Byrne said “appropriate members of the board of trustees have been notified of the proposed terms of the new agreement and it will soon be formally approved through the board process.” Oats led Alabama to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, where the Crimson Tide lost to Michigan 90-77 on March 27. Alabama reached the Elite Eight each of the previous two years and the Final Four in 2024, where it lost to UConn.

Georgia hires McNeese women’s hoops coach

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia on Sunday announced Ayla Guzzardo, who led McNeese to a school-record 29 wins this season, has been hired as the Lady Bulldogs basketball coach.

The move announced by athletic director Josh Brooks came only one day after Georgia announced it had reached a mutual decision to part ways with Katie AbrahamsonHenderson after four seasons. In her ﬁrst season at McNeese, Guzzardo led a 19-win improvement for the Cowgirls, who finished 29-6. McNeese lost to Stephen F. Austin in the Southland Conference Tournament final after winning the regular-season conference championship. Guzzardo spent one season at McNeese after three at Southeastern.

AssoCIATED PREss FILE PHoTo By MICHAEL THoMAs

Texas quarterback Arch Manning looks to pass during a game against UL-Monroe last season. Manning is part of a deep quarterback class in the 2027 NFL draft.

PRoVIDED PHoTo, MARTIN CoUNTy sHERIFF’s oFFICE

In this image from police body camera video released by the Martin County, Fla., sheriff’s office, golfer Tiger Woods is taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies after a car crash in Jupiter Island, Fla., on March 27.

THE MASTERS Augusta’s ‘beautiful little hole’ at No. 7 has turned much nastier

PREss PHoTo By DAVID J PHILLIP

AssoCIATED

Scheffler arrives in Augusta

BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Two-time Masters

champion Scottie Schefﬂer arrived at Augusta National on Sunday, and he brought the whole family with him. All four of them.

Schefﬂer, who tends to keep his golf separate from his home life, had not shared any information since withdrawing from the Houston Open two weeks ago because of the impending birth of his second child. He said wife Meredith gave birth to a boy on March 27 They named him Remy “We just liked it,” Schefﬂer said about the name. His first son, Bennett, was born in 2024 before the PGA Championship. “We didn’t have very many good boy names, to be honest with you.”

There he was, in a stroller Meredith was pushing under the famous oak tree by the clubhouse, 9 days old and already at his ﬁrst Masters.

It added to the sights rarely seen anywhere else on the Sunday before a major That holds true with so much about the Masters Reigning champion Rory McIlroy has been at the club all weekend, watching the Augusta National Women’s Amateur on Saturday and handing out trophies to a group of boys in the annual Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals on Sunday McIlroy has talked about how much he looked forward to returning as the Masters champion and enjoying all the perks that go with it He was in his green jacket during the Drive, Chip and Putt, and

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1B

where he played from 2010-14 before turning professional. He quickly shot up through the ranks and won the PGA Tour’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in October 2015, earning him an invitation to the 2016 Masters. Kaufman said growing up playing in his hilly hometown and at LSU’s windy University Club prepared him well for Augusta’s challenges.

“I grew up on a course with slopey greens and fairways,” he said. “And it was a windy week My time in Baton Rouge really helped me as a golfer because it can get really windy out at the U-Club, and you have to be able to shape your ball.”

Kaufman opened the Masters with rounds of 73-72, then shot a 3-under par 69 in the third round that was Saturday’s only sub-70 score That vaulted him into the final group, one stroke back of his friend and Masters champion, Jordan Spieth. Both men struggled. While Kaufman shot 81, Spieth shot 73, a round marred by two balls he dumped into Rae’s Creek at the 12th hole. Spieth would finish three shots behind Englishman Danny Willett, who closed fast with a 67 to finish at 5 under

“It would have been great to have played a great round of golf and have had a chance coming down the stretch,” Kaufman said. “Obviously that didn’t happen ” What eventually happened for

posed with Maria Jose Marin, the ANWA winner and ﬁrst Colombian to join the roll call of Augusta National winners.

Then he headed out to the golf course with his father, Gerry, and Augusta member Jimmy Dunne.

Next up is the Masters Club dinner Tuesday and the elaborate menu he has put together

“It is the most exclusive dinner club in all of sport, and I think we should all feel very fortunate that we are there,” he told Golf Channel after his part in the trophy presentation Sunday “But we’re there because of the hard work and the good play that we’ve been able to produce.”

He also mentioned two players who won’t be at the dinner — Tiger Woods, arrested and brieﬂy jailed for suspicion of driving under the inﬂuence during a March 27 car crash, and Phil Mickelson, who is tending to a personal health matter at home.

“Unfortunately there will be a couple of guys that won’t be in that room, which is a shame, but I want to make sure that they’re acknowledged as well,” McIlroy said.

“They’ve been two of the greatest champions that the Masters has ever seen But it’s going to be a really cool night. I can’t wait. I hope everyone enjoys the dinner and enjoys everything that I’ve selected.”

Bryson DeChambeau also was at Augusta National on Saturday for the end of the ANWA, consoling Asterisk Talley after the 17-yearold hit two shots into Rae’s Creek for a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par3 12th hole that cost her a chance to win

DeChambeau grew up about 45 minutes away from where Talley lives in the central valley of California. They know each other well.

“Obviously, I’ve had difﬁcult moments in my career, and if there’s anything I can do to support her that’s what I’m here for That’s why I’m here to support,” DeChambeau told reporters Saturday He teed off Sunday by himself after the DC&P was over, walking to slap hands and pose for photos with kids and spectators some 100 yards down the right side of the tee. “I’ve got to go play,” he told them before running to catch up with his caddie. There are exceptions for running at Augusta National. Also there was Gary Player, the three-time Masters champion who will be hitting the honorary tee shot on Thursday. The Black Knight was on the putting green as the Boys 7-9 division was preparing for its putting competition on the 18th green.

There was 8-year-old Landyn Kelly from Henderson, Nevada, rapping 40-foot putts toward the hole with 90-year-old Player watching with amazement.

“What a touch! What a touch he has, man!” Player exclaimed. Scheffler took this Sunday to play with Blake Smith, his longtime manager who had never played Augusta National. Scheffler and McIlroy are fighting some history this week. Adam Scott in 2013 is the last player to win the Masters after having three weeks off. “I’ve been practicing,” Scheffler said. “I’ve been able to do a good amount at home.”

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Go back through 89 previous editions of the Masters, every shot on every hole, and no one will ever match what Byron Nelson did on the par-4 seventh hole at Augusta National. Nelson drove the green and twoputted for birdie in 1937 on his way to his ﬁrst Masters victory Share that with any of the 91 players in the ﬁeld, and some explaining is required.

The hole was 340 yards and had no bunkers, only a gully in front of the green. Alister MacKenzie wanted it be similar to the “Valley of Sin” on the 18th hole at St. Andrews, so the best approach would be to run shots up to the green. That shot by Nelson changed everything.

Horton Smith, who won two of the ﬁrst three Masters, suggested the green be elevated and moved some 20 yards back and to the right, with several deep bunkers guarding the front. Augusta National’s co-founders, Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, agreed. They hired Perry Maxwell, renowned for his work at Southern Hills and Prairie Dunes, to do the work at a cost of $2,500. Trees were planted on the left side to along along with those on the right, creating a tight drive And then in a span of ﬁve Masters from 2002 to 2006, the tees twice were moved back some 40 yards. That puts it at 450 yards on the scorecard now Nelson wouldn’t recognize it.

“You have to hit it in the fairway,” two-time Masters champion Scottie Schefﬂer said. When it was suggested that such strategy would hold true on many holes at Augusta National, he stopped walking to emphasize his point.

“No,” he said. “There’s certain holes you don’t have to be in the fairway. If you hit a really good tee shot (on No. 7), it’s not a difﬁcult hole. But if you miss the fairway, you can’t hit it on the green.”

The par-4 seventh is called “Pampas” for the grass bush native to Argentina that grows just left of the members’ tee box. No. 7 was never a favorite of Roberts and Jones. Roberts once referred to it as “the only weak hole of the 18.”

It was inspired by the 18th on the Old Course, a short hole with a boomerang-shaped green that gave players the option to run the ball through the gully in front. Nelson drove the seventh at Augusta in 1937. Players still drive onto the 18th at St. Andrews, most recently Cameron Young.

Former LsU golfer smylie Kaufman hits on the fifth

April 10, 2016, in Augusta, Ga.

Kaufman was broadcasting golf.

He got his ﬁrst chance at the 2022 PGA Championship, which led to a full-time gig in 2023. Again, it was something he felt his experience at LSU helped him with.

“LSU really prepared me for broadcasting,” Kaufman said. “I was a marketing major and Dr (Tommy) Karam really prepared a lot of us LSU athletes.

“Once I started getting into

this ﬁeld, I realized how much I enjoyed it. It’s a sink-or-swim job. You can do it or you can’t.” Kaufman has played an expanding role with NBC and Golf Channel’s coverage. Starting as a roving on-course reporter, Kaufman has also worked as an analyst in the booth. Recently, he’s taken on an enhanced role with Golf Channel’s “Live From …” telecasts from the bigger tournaments,

With the ﬁrst change, it became a tight drive that was typically a 2-iron and a wedge. That led Jack Nicklaus to once call the seventh “a beautiful little hole — a little, short par 4. You got to be pretty precise with your tee shot. Then it’s a very demanding little second shot. It’s very difﬁcult to recover from if you get off track.” Throw in an additional 100 yards, and it’s no longer a hole where players can build some scoring momentum. Par is more than acceptable. The all-time scoring average is 4.156, the 10th-toughest hole at Augusta National.

“You’re not licking your chops unless you’re in the fairway,” Xander Schauffele said. “Even then, you’re conceding a 20-foot putt as a really good golf shot. Maybe even before I was on tour you could think, ‘If I birdie this, I get some momentum.’ Now it’s, ‘Oh boy, I need to hit a good drive or I’m going to have to make a tough par.’”

It’s not as simple as hitting a straight drive on a straight hole. The fairway cants to the right And the trees have grown, so a tee shot too far to the right means the approach is blocked by trees.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only 20% of players have hit the seventh green after missing the fairway in the last five years. Only No. 5 and No. 11 have a lower percentage. It can be done. There have been some remarkable recoveries from the trees. Jon Rahm once holed out after chipping out from the trees Joaquin Niemann once threaded a running shot through two bunkers. Those shots are rare.

“If you get out of position, it’s like No. 10 at Riviera you’re trying to put it in a spot to get the next one on the green,” Harris English said. “You can get in some bad spots. But if you hit a good tee shot, it could be a birdie hole.”

Still fresh was Rory McIlroy in the left trees last year, hitting a 9-iron because of a tiny gap he saw His caddie, Harry Diamond, wasn’t seeing it.

“He wasn’t for it at all, but I just kept seeing this gap up in the trees,” McIlroy said, referring to the shot as “achievable.”

“That’s when Harry does a great job and says, ‘Look, if you feel like you can see it, go ahead and hit it,’” McIlroy said. “My mindset was this is the ﬁnal round of the Masters, and I have a chance to win the only tournament that I’ve wanted to win for such a long time If that isn’t the time to take a risk, I don’t know when the time is.”

in Phoenix in 2023,” Kaufman said. “They were looking for someone to host on the 16th green and no one was saying yes. I got a call from the producer who said, ‘Would you mind doing this?’ and I was like, ‘Heck, yeah!’ I was nervous and scared, but I didn’t pass up the opportunity

“I know all the guys. I know how we talk about golf, communicate about it. What players like and don’t like to be asked. Maybe I can ask a question a non-player wouldn’t ask.”

Kaufman’s media reach also includes the podcast realm with “The Smylie Show,” which has gone from SiriusXM and Apple podcasts to being a regular segment on the Golf Channel.

It’s a hectic life, especially now that Kaufman and his wife, Francie, have a 3-year-old daughter and a 5-month-old son. No, it’s not playing and winning on the PGA Tour or teeing it up in the Masters. But for Kaufman, in some ways it’s better

“I really do miss playing on the PGA Tour,” Kaufman said.

doing shot reenactments or illustrating how players might have played a key shot differently Then there’s “Happy Hour with Smylie” at select tournaments televised by NBC/Golf Channel, where he will sit down to chat with players after their rounds, like his old buddy Spieth at this past week’s Valero Texas Open.

“I was lucky to get the opportunity (to do Happy Hour)

“But it’s such a changed landscape. When I started struggling with my game, and seeing how the PGA Tour has shrunk as it’s gone on, I think about my quality of life and not having to chase something in golf and still being fulﬁlled.

“Something would be missing if I wasn’t around golf. It’s my passion and a great opportunity to cover a great game that I love.” The game, with a guy named Smylie calling the shots, loves him right back.

AssoCIATED PREss FILE PHoTo By CHRIs CARLsoN

fairway during the final round of the Masters tournament on

scottie scheffler walks off the green on the 18th hole during the final round at the Masters last year in Augusta, Ga. scheffler is looking to win his third Masters this week.

DYNASTYBREWING

UConnmust overcome Michigan’s dominancetowin national titlegame

BY EDDIE PELLS Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS— There’sadynasty brewing in college basketball. And, in aperfectly fittingtwist, UConn can cement that status by overcoming aMichigan powerhouse that is rackinguphistorically impressive numbers, hoping to go down as one of the sport’s greatest teams itself.

Thoseare thestakesinMonday night’stitle game between the Huskies and Wolverines.

Connecticut is trying to become the ﬁrst program since John Wooden’sUCLA behemoth of the 1960s and ‘70s to winthree championships over afour-season span, while Michigan is trying to cap off aMarch Madness string of dominance, the likes of which were last seen by this very UConnprogram that won it all in 2023and ’24.

“This run they’re on is oneofthe best —probably the best —since John Wooden,” Michigancoach Dusty May said. “If we think riding in on awave is going to take care of UConn, then we’re goingto be very disappointed atabout 11 o’clock tomorrow night or whenever the game concludes.”

TheWolverines (36-3),seeded ﬁrst in the Midwest, are listed as a61/2-point underdog by BetMGM Sportsbook. Even with his team’s front-runner pedigree, coach DanHurley of UConn (34-5), a No. 2seedout of theEast, is leaning into the underdogrole,not ﬁghting it.

“There’sbeen plenty of times in the history of this tournament where the best team hasn’twon it,”Hurley said. “You’ve just got to be better onenight. The good thing for us, it’snot aseven-game series.”

In yet another twist with plotshifting potential, the status of both Wolverines forward Yaxel Lendeborgand UConn guard Solo Ball could play heavily into this game. Ball was walking around in aboot Sunday after spraining hisleft foot in the firsthalf of UConn’s71-62 win overIllinois Lendeborg tweaked his knee and anklewhen he landed awkwardly on the foot of Arizona’sMotiejus Krivas in the ﬁrst half of Michigan’s91-73 semiﬁnal beatdown of the Wildcats.

Both have vowed they won’tmiss Monday’sgame.

“He played the second half like a38-year-old at theYMCA —and areally good 38-year-old at the YMCA,” May said of his 15-pointper-game All-American.“Whatever version of Yaxel we get, it’s

MULKEY

Continued from page1B

“You cannot understandthe value of having all of them come back,” Mulkey told WAFB. “That’s how you build it. That’show you get overthe hump of an Elite Eight.” If Mulkey and her staff can indeed hang on to those players this offseason,then what partsofthe roster will they still havetoaddress? Let’stake alook at the top questions facingthe 2026-27Tigers before the transfer cycle heatsup. Who’srecruiting?

Mulkey thought she had addressed this question, butthenthe assistant she hired to replace Gary Redus accepted UCF’sheadcoaching job —and he did it aweekafter he agreed to work at LSU Now Mulkey’sback to square one. She stillhas to hire notone, but two assistant coaches to replace the pair wholeftfor Rutgers: Redus and Daphne Mitchell. They ran a large chunkofthe Tigers’recruiting operation for the past three years, but they won’tthisoffseason. As of Monday,the only three coaches on staffare BobStarkey, Kaylin Rice and Seimone Augustus. Mulkey told The Advocate on Saturday that sheplans to hiretwo new coaches “soon.” She can’twaste much time, but the good news for the Tigers is that they don’tnecessarily need to sign alarge transfer class this cycle.

Who’splaying in thepost?

Perhaps LSU’smost urgent needs lie in the frontcourt. Joyner’sout of eligibility,andsheledtheTigerposts in minutes played this pastseason. Mulkey and her staff need to land at least one transfer to round out

AP PHoTo By JEFF RoBERsoN UConnheadcoachDan Hurley speaksduring anewsconference ahead of anational championship game against Michigan on sunday in Indianapolis.

ä UConn vsMichigan. 7:50 P.M.

MoNDAy,TBs

going tobesomebody that helps us play better basketball.”

The Wolverinesare thefirst team to score 90-plus points in ﬁve straight tournament games. They are trying to become the ﬁfthteam to winsix tournament games by doubledigits. The other four: 2009 North Carolina, 2018 Villanova and bothofthe recent UConn teams

“When you get to the Final Four and you know youhave the best team, thatwas adifferent level of pressure than in ’23 wherewe weren’t really sure,” Hurley said of his ‘24 squad. “But there’salso some pressure even if you’re —whatever —the underdog,because we’re one gameawayfromhaving anational championship with this team.”

Roster building

The Wolverines roster is areﬂection of what college hoopslooks like in the transfer-portal era. Four of theirstarterscametoMichigan this season, as May fashioned aquick rebuild in his second year in Ann Arbor.This is May’ssecond tripto theFinal Four in four seasons.His ﬁrst came with Florida Atlantic.

“What makes Dusty May special as acoach is obviously his eyefor talent, hisabilitytoconstruct aroster,the fact that he insulates himself with an excellent coaching staff, and hisability to build team and culture,” Hurley said.“He’s got aspecial eye for how to put together a great team.”

UConn is built differently with what Hurley would calljudicious use of the transfer portal (TarrisReedJr.,for instance, camefrom Michigan) combined with players who have become entrenchedona campus with18 national basketball titles —six for the men and 12 for the women. Thebest example of that: Alex Karaban, who, with atitle, could become the ﬁrst player since the

their frontcourt, and they need to sign at least two if they want to move ZaKiyah Johnsonbacktoher naturalposition.She was recruited as aguard, but LSUslidher down to the postbefore her freshman year to balance out the roster and maximizeher playingtime.

LSU’s last-secondloss to Duke exposed some potential issues here. In that Sweet16clash,the Tigers struggled to grab rebounds.

The Blue Devils pulled down 20 offensive boards, andeach time they earned an extra possession, they deniedLSU achance to run itssignaturetransition offense.

The Tigers scored only fourfastbreakpoints and assistedjust eight ﬁeld goals that night. That’swhy they didn’tget achancetoplay for atrip to the Final Four

“Wejustcouldn’tget threestops in arow,” Mulkey said. “Wecouldn’t rebound the ball so that we could take off in transition.Itwas kind of like we were moving in mud.”

Koval and Knox could form a dependable starting frontcourt duo next season. Koval, a6-foot5sophomore, improved as adefender,screener and rebounder

AP PHoTo By JEFF RoBERsoN Michigan head coach DustyMay speaks during anewsconference ahead of anational championship game against UConn on sunday in Indianapolis.

UCLA dynasty to winthree national titles over his college career

FabFivehistory

UConn isn’tthe only program withadeep history. Michigan redefined collegebasketball in the 1990s with the Fab Five. JuwanHoward, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King came to theschool together as freshmen in 1991. They made thetitle gametwice and lost

But they’re most remembered for bringing abaggy-shorts, mass-marketing brashness to the game, oneunderpinnedby the question: Why are allthese coaches and shoe companies raking in dough while we play for free?

“Wegot to college andstarted understanding the hypocrisy in thegame, with the schools making millions and us sitting around poor as hell,” Jacksonsaidina 2023 interview with TheAssociated Press.

In today’sNIL landscape, players are making money and nobody overlooks the Fab Five’s role in pushing things forward What that group was missing, of course,was thenationaltitle Michigan’sonly championship came in 1989, afew years before the Fab Five arrived.

“Other than Michael Jordan, since I’vebeen alive, Idon’t think there’sever been agroupchange the culture for the better in our sport than the Fab Five,” May said earlier in the week. They’re “just number one. We’reproud to represent those guys andcarrythe ﬂag forthe former playersatthe UniversityofMichigan.”

In need of atailor

Onekey casualty of all this UConn success: Hurley’ssideline wear He has worn the same blue suit at March Madness dating as far back as 2012 when he was coaching Rhode Island.

as theyear rolled along. Knox, an athletic 6-2 freshman, proved that she could defend, run the ﬂoor and ﬁnish tough shotsaround the rim against SEC competition

ButLSU could stilluse some more size. All of Mulkey’sbest teams have hadimposing post players. The portal should have a few she andher staff can recruit. Will LSUadd anotherfreshman?

The transfer portalisn’tthe only avenue through which Mulkeyand her staff can round out their roster

They can alsodip back into the highschoolranks,especially because two of the players they’ve pursuedhavenow reportedly reopened theirrecruitments. Oliviyah Edwards is now reconsidering her choice to enroll at Tennessee, and Trinity Jones is rethinking her decision to begin her career at Clemson. Both arefive-star recruits, according to ESPN. Edwards,a 6-foot-3forward who can dunk, is the second-best player in thecountry.Jones, a6-1 guard, is the nation’sNo. 11 recruit. Because LSUsigned five freshmenin2025, it took amore selective approach to recruiting the 2026 cycle. In November,Mulkeyand her staff inked only one high school prospect: Lola Lampley, an Indiana wing and McDonald’sAll-American. Jones was down to LSU, Tennessee,TCU,UCLAand Clemsonbeforeshe signed. Edwards considered LSU, South Carolina, Southern Cal, Florida andWashington beforeshe committed to theLady Vols.She’s saidthat she has aparticularly closerelationship withGabe Lazo —the former Tennesseeassistant coach who justrecentlybackedout of thedeal he signed to join Mulkey’sstaff so he could become UCF’snexthead coach instead.

UConn’sBall, Michigan’s Lendeborgdealing with injuries aheadoftitle game

BY MICHAEL MAROT AP sportswriter

INDIANAPOLIS UConn starting guard Solo Ball limpedfrom room to room Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium,aprotective boot on his sprained left foot. Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg didn’t even do that much because of an injuredleft ankle and an injured left knee. Just oneday before theteams meet in Mondaynight’snational championship game, the big question forboth was thehealth of two key playmakers. Neither was expected to practice Sunday as theyfocused instead on getting as much treatment as possible, even as teammates andthe players themselves insisted the stars would play Monday night. The coaches, Dan Hurleyand Dusty May, also tried to lighten the mood before college basketball’sbiggest game of the season.

“I’msurehe’ll give it agotomorrow,but that will be entirely up to him and the medical staff, May saidasheupdated the playingstatus of Lendeborg, aﬁrst team All-American. “He’ll tell me if he can go andwewerelaughing because he played the second half, but he played the second half like a38-year-old at the YMCA areally good 38-year-old at the YMCA. So whatever version we get of Yaxel we get, it’sgoing to be somebody that helps us play better basketball.”

Lendeborg playedjust five minutes of the first half before getting hurtinSaturday’s91-73 victory over Arizona, which sent Michigan (36-3) to itsfirst title game since 2018. He finished with 11 points and three rebounds in 15 minutes andmadetwo 3-pointers in the second half

Buthehardlyresembled the guy who was named the Big Ten’s Player of the Year

WhenLendeborg was asked whether missing Monday night’s game wasa possibility, Lendeborg emphatically told reporters in the locker room,“absolutely not.” He reinjured the ankle he initially hurt in the Big TenTournament championship game. The knee injury wasa new oneand Lendeborg said, at worst, he was told it wasasprained medial collateral ligament. May said MRI results came back clean Sunday Still, the combination prevented him from doing the traditional between-games media circuit.

While everyone saw Lendeborg’sinjury Saturday’s, Ball’s injury seemed to surprise everyone including Hurley,who said he saw Ball in awalking boot before being told what happened. Ball has played akey role in helping UConn (34-5) reach its third title gameinfour years, averaging 12.9 pointsand starting all 38 games he appeared in this season. He scored 10 of his13points in thesecondhalf of Saturday’s91-72 victory over Illinois —after getting hurtinthe ﬁrst half —and told reporters played through the injury on pure adrenaline.The injury occurred when Ball andteammate Tarris Reed Jr.got tangled “I’ve just been doing everything Ican to takecare of it,” Ball saidSunday. “It’s just abumpin theroad,soyou’vegot to keep moving forward. Pain is temporary.People sayitpushesyou through your toughest performance, so it’sonly what you’re made of. This is the championship game.” Hurley had other questions, though, as UConn attempts to win its third national championship in four years and the seventh in school history.The Huskies are tiedwith North Carolina forthe third-highesttotal of national championships, behind UCLA (11) and Kentucky (eight).

Continued from page1B

fellow seniors and graduate students, likeJaquez— who played all four years with the Bruins. She also had 10 rebounds and ﬁve assists in frontofher brother Jaime,who playsfor theMiami Heat andﬂew in to attendthe game to watch his alma mater win.

The group that coach Close put together through acombination of high school commitments and transfer portal players capped off their stellarcareers witha championship, scoring allthe pointsinthe title game.

“Connectivity.Attention to detail. Youknow Ilooked them in the eyes beforeinthe locker room, before the game,and Isaid, ‘I’m so proud to be able to saythis,”Closesaid.

“Because all year we’ve been saying the talentisour ﬂoor,but our characterwill determine our ceiling.’” The title is UCLA’s first since winning the 1978 AIAWchampionship, which was the postseason tournament forwomen’s basketball before the NCAAtook over in 1982.

The championship game loss was the second straight for the Gamecocks, who won thetitle in 2024. Dawn Staley andher Gamecocks (36-4) will be favored to return to the game’sbiggest stage with atalented groupofexpected returnees, led by Joyce Edwards and Agot Makeer

Like their 51-44 semiﬁnal win over Texas, the Bruins were lockedindefensively, anchored by Betts. She ﬁnished with 11 rebounds andexited the gamewith 3:45 left, giving Close ahuge hug.

The 6-foot-7 seniorearned Most Outstanding Player honors of the Final Four “UCLA is aquality team with veryexperiencedplayers who got ataste of being in the Final Four last year,and youmakeadjustments,” South Carolina’sStaley said. “From last year to this year —they played determined last year,but they played more determined this year because they were so close.”

Offensively,the Bruins had amuch easier timethan in the semifinal game that saw the team score only 20 points in the first half. The Bruins surpassed thattotal in the opening 10 minutes against South Carolina. Kiki’sRice 3-pointer just before thefirst-quarter buzzer madeit 21-10 as theBruinsgot off to a strong start and South Carolina struggledwith 17% shooting, it’s poorest quarter of the season. The Bruins extendedthe lead to 15 points in the second quarter by clogging up thepaintondefense and working the ball inside on offense fora36-23 lead at the half UCLAput the game away in the third quarter,opening the period with a12-3 run. Jaquez had five pointsduring thespurt.South Carolina never threatened again as the Bruins outscoredthem 25-9 in the period.

“Wejust didn’thave it today.We tried,but we just didn’t haveittoday,” Staley said. “They werethe better team.”

South Carolina avoidedthe mostlopsided loss in championship history of 33 points, setin 2013 when UConndefeated Louisville.The Gamecocks also surpassed the title game record low of 44 points by Louisiana Tech in 1987 against Tennessee.

AssoCIATEDPREss PHoToByRoss D. FRANKLIN UCLA players pose with the trophyastheycelebrate defeatingsouth Carolina in the national championshipgame on sundayinPhoenix.

sTAFF FILE PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN

LsU coachKim Mulkey sits on the benchbefore agame against Texas on Jan. 11 at the PMAC.

Pelicans fall to Magicfor eighth consecutiveloss

BY LES EAST Contributing writer

The New Orleans Pelicans had an opportunitytoend threelosing streaks Sunday night in the Smoothie King Center

But their 112-108 loss to the Orlando Magic extended their losing streak to eight games in their ninth consecutive loss to the Magic and their ninth straighttoOrlandoin New Orleans.

The Pelicans (25-54) led by as many as 15 points in the third quarter,but the Magic (42-36) completed their comeback by outscoring New Orleans 31-20 in the fourth quarter

“It’stough when you’renot scoring andtheygodownand get buckets,” Pelicans interim head coach James Borregosaid of the fourth quarter. There’s nothing tricky going on out there. It’sjust, can go get buckets in the fourth quarter.”

Desmond Bane scored 27 points, Paolo Banchero had23 points and 16 rebounds, Wendell Carter Jr.scored 13 andFranz Wagner,Jalen Suggs and Jevon Carter scored11each for Orlando.

Saddiq Bey scored 32 points,Jeremiah Fears added 19, Yves Missi had aseason-high 18 points and 13 rebounds and Zion Williamson scored17tolead the Pelicans, who will play their ﬁnal home game of the season against the UtahJazz at 7p.m. Tuesday in the Smoothie King Center

New Orleans playedwithout leading scorer Trey Murphy (ankle), starting point guard Dejounte Murray (hand) andreserve center Karlo Matkovic (back) as wellas reserve guard Bryce McGowens (toe), who missed his 13th consecutive game.

Borrego took advantage of the absences to giveadded playing timetothe team’syoungest players. Rookie Micah Peavy (three points and five rebounds in 28 minutes) started the second half in place of Herb Jones, who didn’t play after halftime.

Missi’s40minutes werea season-highand tied his career-high, Fears’ 37 minutes tied the rookie’s season-high andJordan Hawkins’ 26 were aseason-high. Two-way players Hunter Dickinson (four minutes) and Trey Alexander (11 minutes) received rare playing time as Dickinson played for the ﬁrst time since the season opener and Alexander played in his sixth game of the season and his ﬁrst in 39 games.

“These are big moments,” Borrego said. “You can’treplicate

LSU

Continued from page1B

homer,respectively

In ahistoric performance, Arrambide’sblast washis fourth of the day.Hehit three solo homers, including asolo shot in the 11th inning that gave LSU a6-5 lead, before the grand slam. Arrambide entered Sunday’sgame with just four homers. He ﬁnished the day setting the LSU record for homers in asingle game and becoming the first player to ever hit four homers in agameagainst Tennessee.

Arrambide said afterwards that he had never even hit three homers in agame before Sunday,let alone four

“I was just in there focused on my plan… compete, run good (at-bats), and get apitch Ican drive,” Arrambidesaid. “And I knew this morning, Iwas feeling good, my batting practice (and) everything. Ifelt like Iwas in the zone.”

After Arrambide’s11th-inning blast, Tennessee tieditin thebottom half of the inningafter catcher Levi Clark hit asacrifice fly to center field that scored the tying run and was afew feet away from becoming awalk-off homer.But Guidry,despite giving up the run, finished the inning to allow LSU (22-11, 6-6 SEC) to retake the lead in the 12th.

Guidry tossed 51/3 innings in relief after entering the game with two outs in the seventh.Heallowed just two hits and one run.

“(I was) just competing in the zone, letting my defenseplay,” Guidry said. “Andthen justthe offense (came) through big late.” LSU clawed its way back into thegame thanks to four solo home runs, including three consecutive blasts in the seventh in-

sTAFF PHoTo By DAVIDGRUNFELD

Pelicans centeryvesMissi dunks the ball over theorlando Magic during the firsthalf of agameonsunday at the smoothie King Center.The Pelicans lost 112-108

this. There’snopickup game, no workout for this. They have to go through it. These arereal NBA minutes against teams thatare ﬁghting for the playoffs or seeding and are trying to play at their peak.”

New Orleans will conclude the season with games at Boston on Friday and at Minnesota next Sunday.

Fears scored the ﬁrst ﬁve points of thethird quarter, giving the Pelicans a65-52 lead. TheMagic scored the next five points, but Bey’s3-point leadcompleted a 7-0 run that gave NewOrleans a 15-pointlead

Bane’sthree-pointplaystarted a13-4 run that pulled Orlando within 76-70. The Pelicans rebuilt thelead to 13 before a7-0 run helpedthe Magictrimthe lead to 88-81 at the end of the third quarter

Banemade a3-pointer to start thefourth-quarter scoring, but Bey had ﬁve points to helpNew Orleans take a96-88lead. Banchero’sthree-pointplay and Suggs’ 3-pointer completed a10-0 run that gave Orlando itsﬁrst lead sincethe

second quarter,98-96.

The lead changed hands twice and the score was tied once before WendellCarter’s put-back gave the Magic thelead for good,103-101. Orlando extended the lead to six points before Fearsended anearly 41/2-minuteﬁeld-goal drought for New Orleans to trim the lead to 108-104 with 34 seconds left. Bane made fourfree throws in the ﬁnal 27 seconds.

The score was tiedfour times and the lead changed hands four times during theﬁrst quarter.The Magic led by as many as seven points before the Pelicans ledby eight on two occasions, but former Pelican Jamal Cain andWendell Carter scored four points each during aclosing 10-1 run that gave Orlando a29-28 lead at the end of theperiod.

The Magic extended thelead to 45-39 early in the third quarter before going cold. Williamson scored seven points and Bey, Fears and Hawkins added four each during a 21-7 run that left New Orleans with a60-52 halftimelead. The Magic madejust 2-of-20 3-pointers in the ﬁrst half.

Road to theplayoffs

Alookatthe NBA’s stretch run

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

Finally,aseed has been clinched in the NBA playoffs

The road to theEastern Conference title will run through Detroit, which locked up the No. 1 seed on Saturday with awin over Philadelphia. ThePistons are12-3intheir past 15 games, even while Cade Cunningham has been out for much of that stretch while recovering from acollapsed lung. And while the East is locked up, technically,there is still something to play for —home-court advantage in the NBA Finals. Detroit will be no worsethanthe No.3 overall seed but still hasa shotofcatching San Antonio for the secondbest record

Alsoinplay forthe Pistons: the third-best record in team history

At 57-21, they could still get to 61 wins. Only the 2005-06 Pistons (64-18) andthe 1988-89 Pistons (63-19) won more games than that.

Who’sinand who’sout?

Here’swhat we know so far regarding the NBAplayoffﬁeld for this season. EasternConference playoffteams: Detroit haslocked up the No 1seed and will open the postseason on April 19. Boston, New York, Cleveland are in. At this point, Atlanta and Toronto would getthe other two guaranteed spots, butthose are not clinched.

East play-inteams: Nobody is locked into theplay-in yet, butentering Saturday,the four teams headed thereare Philadelphia, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami. East eliminated teams: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington. WesternConferenceplayoff teams: Oklahoma City,San Antonio, theLos Angeles Lakers, Denver and Houston are in. Minnesota is likely to grabthe sixth and ﬁnal guaranteed spot. West play-in teams: Phoenixisprobably going to the play-in tournament. Portland, the LosAngeles Clippers andGoldenState deﬁnitely are. West eliminatedteams: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas,Utah and Sacramento.

Saturday recap

Heat 152, Wizards 136: Good news for Wizards, Bam Adebayo didn’t score 83.Bad newsfor Wizards, everything else. Nuggets136, Spurs 134, OT: Nikola Jokic scores 40, Victor Wembanyama scores 34 in this potential West semiﬁnal matchup.

Pistons116, 76ers93: Detroit clinches No. 1seed in East, Philadelphia falls back to play-in range fornow Monday’s schedule

New York at Atlanta: Hawks are 18-2 in their last 20 games, likely No. 5 seed in East. Knicks could make a statement here. Detroit at Orlando: Magic have threeplayers who finishedat Michigan,Pistons have two. This, during the NCAA title game, is just wrong. Cleveland at Memphis: Cavs could still catch Knicks,withsome help. Aslipup here wouldn’tbe ideal. Philadelphia at San Antonio: Spurs won’t play another road gameuntil Game 3ofWest quarterﬁnals. Portland at Denver: Trail Blazers in extremely close race with Clippers forNo. 8seed in play-in tournament.

Bettingodds

Oklahoma City(+130) is favoredtowin theNBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by SanAntonio (+450), Boston (+550), Denver (+1200), Cleveland (+1200)and New York (+1900). Detroit, the No. 1seed in the East, is +2500. And after Luka Doncic’sinjury sent the Los AngelesLakers’ odds soaring, from +2500 beforehand to +12500, Austin Reaves’injury made them even biggerlongshots. They’re at +50000 now

Keydates

Friday: All 30 teamsplaytheir 81st games of the season. April 12: All 30 teamsplay their regular-season ﬁnales.

April 14, 15 and 17: NBA play-in tournament dates.

April18and 19: NBAplayoffseries openers. May2,3 or 4: Conference semiﬁnals begin.

May10: NBAdraftlottery

May10-17: NBAdraftcombine. May17or19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC. May18or20: Western Conference finals begin on NBCand Peacock. June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10,June13, June 16 and June 19).

Numberswatch

SanAntonioisnow 37-2 this season when scoring 121 points or more.Bothlossesare to Denver— andineachofthe first three meetings between those clubs this season,both teams have reached at least 131 points. Stat of theday The Heat had zero instances of scoring 150 points in their ﬁrst 3,264games.They’ve scored 150 or more threetimes in their past 86 games.

LSU CATCHER SERNA EXITS GAME WITH INJURY

LsUfreshman catcher omar serna was not diagnosed with aconcussion, but he was not healthyenough to returntothe game on sunday, coach Jay Johnson said following the Tigers’ dramatic 16-6win in 12 innings.

serna exited the game after colliding with Tennessee center fielder Garrett Wrightona playathome plate in the third inning.Hewas eligible to return if LsUathletic trainer Isaac Trujillo had medically cleared him to play, but Trujillo didn’t believe he should returntothe game, Johnson said.

“Hewas coherent,”Johnson said.“I mean, he talked to the team (after the game).”

Wright, whowas tagging up fromhomeplate on aﬂyball to right field, ran into sernabeforescoring andgivingTennessee a1-0 lead. Junior right fielderJakeBrown’s throwhomehad forcedserna to position himself further up thethird base line, leavinghim vulnerable to crashing into Wright

Trujillo examined sernabefore thefreshman exitedfor redshirtjunior Eddie yamin. yamin finished sunday’sgame going2 for 5with adouble and an RBI.

—Koki Riley

ning, that cut its deﬁcit to one before an inﬁeld single from junior Jake Brown with two outsand the bases loaded in the ninth inning tied thegameat5-5. Additionally,inthe midstofthe ninth-inning drama, Johnson got ejected afterArrambidestruck out on aquestionable thirdstrike call that resulted in the second out of theninth. “When Iget kicked out of the game,most of the time Iexplain it like I’m deadand watching my life happen,” Johnsonsaid.“I’venever felt more alive in my life than watching theextra innings there.” LSU’safternoon was anything but pretty before the extra in-

nings, particularly in the third, when the Tigers committed three errors andsurrenderedfive unearned runs that placed them in a 5-0 hole. Fourofthe fiverunsTennessee (20-12, 4-8) scored off LSU in the third came with two outs. First, with center fielderGarrett Wright on second andone out, senior first baseman Zach Yorke droppedaroutine throw fromsecond base that allowed Tennesseetoput runners on the corners. The Volunteersthen scored on the next play aftera sacrificeflytoright. Brownhad achance to gundownWrightat home from right field after catchingthe flu out,but his throw was

too far up the third base line, and Wright endedupbeing safeatthe plate. The throw was ruled an error, andthe play resultedinfreshman catcher Omar Serna exiting the gamebecause he collided with Wright on hisway home. LSU athletic trainer Isaac Trujillo checked out Serna before he was replaced by Yamin.

After an intentional walk put two runners on base, another LSU error loaded the bases forTennessee. Fifth-year senior Seth Dardar dropped shortstop Milam’s throw to second with two outs. The big mistakeallowed leftﬁelder Blaine Brown to come up to the plate and blast agrand slam that gave Tennessee a5-0 lead.

“It is what it is. We can’tdothat,” Johnson said when he was asked about the errors. “Like, we can’t do that. That’smyquote.” If it weren’tfor their late rally the Tigers’ defensive struggles

would have wasted astrong day fortheir pitching staff. Fifth-year senior right-hander Grant Fontenot, in his ﬁrst start at LSU,would’ve tossed three scoreless inningsifitweren’t forthe errors in the third. Seniorrighthander Zac Cowangave up just onehit in four innings in relief. Sophomore left-hander Danny Lachenmayer only faced one batter after Cowan, but he handed the ball offtoGuidry, whowentonto have his best outing of the season. LSU returns homefor amidweek nonconference matchup against Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday before hitting the road again next weekend. First pitch forTuesday’s game is setfor 6:30 p.m., andthe game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.

Email Koki Rileyatkoki.riley@ theadvocate.com. For more LSU sports updates,signupfor our newsletter at theadvocate.com/

sTAFF PHoTo By MICHAEL JoHNsoN

LsUcatcher omar serna walks to the dugout before agameagainst sacramentostate on March 8atAlex Box stadium.serna wasinjured duringsunday’sgame at Tennessee.

Still skating at 87

Inside a hockey league where age doesn’t stop the game

BY PANASHE MATEMBA-MUTASA

SAN JOSE, Calif. — As players in the San Jose Sharks Masters League streak across the ice, Ed Asato trails behind the play, stick ready At 87, he still skates in the league’s over-60 division.

Though he isn’t as quick as he was when he ﬁrst picked up the sport decades ago, his enthusiasm hasn’t faded.

“I’m having fun, and I’m thankful,” he said.

Every Monday at midday, teams of older hockey players gather at Sharks Ice in San Jose to face off. Many are fathers. Some are grandfathers.

They say hockey keeps them physically active, socially connected and in touch with their younger selves. At this stage of life, the game is less about speed or winning and more about staying active while maintaining camaraderie.

The recreational league draws players from around the Bay Area, many of whom ﬁrst stepped onto the ice as children.

The hiss of blades gliding over the ice mixed with George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone” as a home team player chased the puck. Sticks clacked in quick succession as passes moved up the ice. Every so often, a shot sailed wide, the puck banging loudly against the glass behind the net.

During a shift change, Dean Tait watched from behind the glass, removing his helmet and taking a drink from his water bottle.

“My ﬁrst skating lesson, my dad tied my skates, pushed me onto the rink and closed the door,” said Tait, 61 the adult hockey manager at Sharks Ice.

Tait grew up in Quebec, where hockey is woven deeply into everyday life.

“In Quebec, there’s an outdoor rink on every block,” he said. “We’d take our sticks, no helmet, no equipment, and just play.”

Tait later moved west and eventually to the Bay Area in 2002, where hockey remained part of his routine even while working in tech and raising two young children

ä see HOCKEY, page 2C

Multi-series microdramas project headed for Louisiana with a Hollywood titan involved

BY JUDY BERGERON | staff writer

Microdramas could help revive Louisiana’s ﬁlm industry

Irrevocable Designee LLC executives say they are ﬁnalizing a three-year, 72-series deal with Hollywood producer Tommy Harper’s Tiny Verticals, with production expected to be based at Celtic Studios in Baton Rouge and the series distributed globally on Harper’s new VeYou platform.

Last agreements are yet to be signed, but production in Baton Rouge could begin as early as May

The new small screen

What’s a microdrama?

A relatively new, but soaring streaming entertainment trend originating in China, microdramas are sometimes called vertical series. They are short-form shows designed to be watched on a phone held upright. Episodes typically run 60 to 90 seconds, with full seasons binged in about two to three hours. Subscribers download the streaming platform’s app and receive a few free episodes before being charged a fee to view more episodes. Average costs can range from $10 to $20 a week. Irrevocable’s Patrick Mulhearn and Baron K. Davis compare

ä see PROJECT, page 3C

By The Associated Press

The camera captures Louisiana native Emily Lemoine on the set of the DramaBox microdrama ‘Hero should Never stay Low.’ Lemoine has acted in more than a dozen microdramas, or verticals.

PRoVIDED PHoTo

The Mercury News (TNs)

AP PHoTo

GIANNIs PAPANIKos Blooming peach trees are seen from above near the city of Veria, northern Greece, on March 22.

Mulhearn

It is possible to getfalse positive TB test

Dear Doctors: Igot atuberculosis skintest for my health care job and tested positive. Afollowup blood test was alsopositive, andIwas diagnosed withlatent TB.However,Ihad no known exposure. Seven months later, both tests were negative.Inever received any treatment. How can thishappen?

Dr.Elizabeth Ko

Dr.Eve Glazier AsK THE DoCToRs

Dear Reader: Your experience is agood example of some of the challenges with testing for latent tuberculosis. Let’sexplore abit about the disease and the testing process forhealth care workers. We hope this will help shed light on what may have happened in your case. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious respiratory disease caused by abacteriumknown as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Itspreads through droplets expelled by an infected person.This could happen when coughing,sneezing, laughing or speaking. People living with weakened immune systems, whether due to illness or medical treatment, have ahigherrisk of infection. Symptoms include asevere cough that laststhree weeks or more, chest discomfort or pain, fatigue, fever andchills. TB can also cause loss of appetite, night

sweatsand unexplained weight loss. For some people withTB, coughing will produce sputum that is tingedpink with blood. Screening for TB is commonin healthcaresettings. The tests are meant to identify people who have been infected withtuberculosis bacteria. This includes ﬁnding those with something known as latent TB. This is when thebacteria arepresent in thebody,but the immune system is able to contain them. Someone withlatent TB is not infectious. However,itispossible for the microbe to become active and trigger an infection. The skin testfor TB is atiny injection on the inside of the arm. It delivers asmall amount of puriﬁed protein called tuberculin. The skin will have areaction to the protein if the person’simmune

system has seen tuberculosis bacteria before. Bottom line: The skin testisdetecting an immune memoryofthe bacteria, and not themicrobe itself. Like the skin test, aTBblood test measures whether the immune system has amemory of the TB bacteria. If so, this would suggest aprior or existing infection. The difference is that the blood test is even more speciﬁc than the skin test. Given your lack of symptoms, the doctorsoverseeing your tests were led to the diagnosis of latent TB. Falsepositives in these types of tests, which identifyimmune markers rather than thediseasecausing bacteria, can happen for afew reasons. One possibility is exposure to non-tuberculosis mycobacteria. These are found in water,dust and soil. They have

proteins that are similar to TB bacteria. Another is abrief exposure to TB bacteria that, thanks to astrong immune response, did not result in alasting infection. Laboratory and testing errors are also possible. In your case, you had no knownexposure to TB and negative results on your repeat tests. It is likely those initial positive tests caught aborderline immune response that wasnot connected to aTBinfection. This response had faded by the time you wereretested.

Sendyour questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd.,Suite1450, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Dear Heloise: Icannot go without responding to Bob, in Santa Ana, California, who said that not thanking someone for agift is somehow acceptable. I feel conﬁdent that most people don’t give gifts to receive athank-you note, as he implies. Gifts are deﬁned with the caveat of “not expecting anything in return.”

But extending acknowledgment and appreciation is just plain common courtesy and decency,especially if arequest is involvedas it is in awedding registry There was certainly time and motivation required to devise and post awish list. This also applies if the gift was mailed, and/or the “thanks” couldn’tbemade in person.

Iunderstand sending thank-you notes via snail mail is obsolete; however, a brief text or email doesn’t seem like toomuch to ask.

Ireduced my own “obligatory” and on-a-budget giftgiving (i.e., giving holiday gifts to adult nieces and nephews) after years of no acknowledgmentorthanks.

HOCKEY

Continued from page1C

In 2008, he joined the over35 division at Sharks Ice. Today,hemanages the rink’s adult leagues, which include about 2,500 players, 16 referees and 40 scorekeepers. Divisions range from 18 and older to special brackets for players over 35, 50 and 60.

Likemany players in the older divisions, Tait has felt the realities of aging on the ice.

Games are slowernow,he said, and injuries take longer to heal. In 2016, he dislocated his knee and spent six months recoveringbefore returning to play Still, the draw of hockey remains strong.

“It’sadrug,” said Mark Belinsky,69, who has been play-

Ididn’tcut them offfrom my life;Ijust stoppedunreciprocated andunappreciated gift-giving.In my circle, no one hasbeen hurt” by this, as he implies. Donna, in Ohio Donna, I’m glad that no onewas hurt, but Ican’thelp wondering why aparent wouldn’tinsist that their child practice the simple art of a“thank you.”

Whether or not athank you is expected, it’sstillakind, classy move to show appreciation.The gift-giver usually feels acertain senseof enjoymentthat their gift meant something to theperson who received it —Heloise

Clothbag uses

Dear Heloise: Therewas a recent query in your columnabout ause for the bags that linen setscome in. Iamaside sleeper who occasionally rolls ontohis back, so astandard-sized pillow is too large for me. I take astandard-sizedbath towel and fold it in half twice (making it 4layers thick), then fold theremainderinfromeach side for atotal of 12 layers. Iplace

ingsince he wasa10-year-old boy in Chicago.“Youget high when you’reonthe ice.”

ForBelinsky,the game still delivers the same rush —the feeling of gliding across theice, thesatisfactionofa clean shot,the bite of cold air ﬁllinghis lungs.

Butexperience has also taught caution.

“If ajumbo-sized guy’sgot thepuck and Iwanna chase himdown,I’ve gotta reconsider now because of physics,” he said with alaugh.

His teammates chuckled nearby

BobGianni, 70, who has been playing since he was 8, said he nowspends more timestrategizing to avoid getting hurt. He’salready had ahip replacement and creditshis ability to keep playing to “good doctors.”

“At our age, you gotta keep moving,” Gianni said

this into my linen bag for a perfect ﬁt

The 12 layers of terry are the perfect height to keep my neck’sspinal column straight as Isleep. This pillow is small enough thatifI roll onto my back, Iroll off the pillow,which keeps my neck straight. This pillow is formable, it perfectly matches my sheet set,and it gets laundered (after the towel is removed) along with the sheets. —Richard D.,inNewYork Shower capuses

Dear Heloise: Regarding tips on shower caps,Ihave a couple: They areperfect for covering acut watermelon (and are reusable).They alsoﬁtover bicycle helmets when cycling in the rain. Sharon R., in Oro Valley,Arizona Perfectpurse storage

Dear Heloise: Irepurpose my sheet and pillowcase sacks by placing my seasonal purses in them. This way,the purses stay free from dust until next season, and the cloth bag can easily be washed when needed. Kristine S.,via email

Send ahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

Asato lives by that principle as well.

The shortest player on the team, he is often dwarfed by younger,faster skaters. When thepuckcomes near him, amore agile player usually reaches it ﬁrst

Still, Asato follows the play,determined.

Before each game, he mentally runs through his rules: recognize the situation, make adecision, execute.

“But when Iget on the ice, Iforgeteverything,”said Asato, whopicked up the sport at 59.

Whatkeepshim playing at nearly 90, he said, is the community,the mental focus the game requires and theoccasional small victory along the way

“I don’ttouch the puck much anymore,” he said. “But once every couple of years I’ll score agoal.”

Today is Monday,April 6, the96th day of 2026. There are 269 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World WarIasthe House joined theSenate in approving adeclaration of war against Germany that was then signed by President Woodrow Wilson.

Also on this date:

In 1830, Joseph Smith and others met in Fayette, New York, to form the Church of Christ —now known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In 1862, theCivil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched asurprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates thefollowing day

In 1896, theﬁrst modern Olympic Games formally opened in Athens, Greece.

In 1954, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy,R-Wis.,

responding to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow’s broadside against him on “See It Now,”claimed in remarks ﬁlmed forthe program that Murrow had, in the past, “engaged in propaganda forCommunist causes.”

In 1968, 41 people were killed by apair of explosions spurred by anatural gas leak at asporting goods store in downtown Richmond, Indiana.

In 1994, RwandanPresident JuvénalHabyarimana andBurundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killedwhen the jettheywereriding in was shotdownbysurfaceto-air missilesasitattempted to land in Kigali, Rwanda

In 2009, apowerful predawnearthquake rocked central Italy,leaving more than 300 people dead, morethan 1,500 injured and thousands of buildings heavily damaged in the historic city of L’Aquila and surrounding villages.

In 2012, ﬁve Black people wereshot, three fatally,

in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Jake England and Alvin Watts, whoadmitted to targeting the victimsbecause of their race, pleaded guilty to murder and were sentenced to lifeinprison without parole.

In 2018, asemitrailer truck collided with abus carrying ayouth hockey team to aplayoffgame in western Canada, killing 16 people and injuring several others. Today’sbirthdays: ActorBilly DeeWilliams is 89. Film director Barry Levinson is 84. ActorJohnRatzenbergeris79. Baseball Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven is 75. ActorMarilu Henner is 74. ActorMichael Rooker is 71. Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz is 62. Football Hall of Famer Sterling Sharpe is 61. ActorPaulRudd is 57. ActorZach Braff is 51. ActorCandace Cameron Bure is 50. Musician RobertGlasperis48. Musician Jack Stauberis30. Actor PeytonList is 28. Formula 1driverOscar Piastri is 25. ActorCasey Simpson is 22.

Hints from Heloise

microdramas to classic soap operas — addictive stories designed to keep viewers coming back day after day

Typically with a small, young and attractive cast, their titles are meant to be tempting to the teen/young adult crowd — “Don’t Mess With a Prep School Princess,” or “The Millionaire’s Billionaire Wife.”

But Harper doesn’t plan to stop there. He sees action series, mysteries and more in Tiny Vertical’s future, Davis said.

Who is Tommy Harper?

Tommy Harper is a veteran Hollywood producer often described as a “franchise whisperer,” with credits that include major studio hits such as “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and work on the Star Wars franchise, as well as television projects like “Wednesday.” He previously worked in Louisiana as unit production manager on the Baton Rouge-shot “Battle Los Angeles” (2011) and remained connected to the state. More recently, as Harper began his search for a home base for microdrama production, he reached out to former Celtic Studios head Kevin O’Neil, who brought the proposal to Mulhearn.

First things first

Mulhearn “Haspel clothing will be prominently featured in ‘Because of Her.’ Laurie Lipsey Aronson, CEO/owner of the clothier (known for its signature seersucker suits), will be serving as an executive producer

“Also look for cameos by some local notables you’ll recognize,” Mulhearn added.

And that’s all he’s saying about the debut series, taking advantage of the unofficial golden rule of soap operas

“Leave them wanting more.”

Show them the money

Financing for ﬁlm and TV projects is multi-layered, with Louisiana’s film tax credits luring some companies to head south. But often, it takes more than that.

Tiny Verticals is set to receive a 40% tax credit from the state on all qualifying production spends in the state.

Expenses incurred outside Louisiana, such as any preand post-production costs in Los Angeles, for example, are not eligible for the credit.

Microdramas require small casts, short shoots and minimal locations.

The average cost per series is $175,000.

In addition, “Because of Her” will receive money upfront from the new Geauxlden Opportunity Media Fund. Through Irrevocable Designee, Mulhearn and Davis created the fund for Harper’s productions as well as other independent Louisiana projects they plan on ﬁnancing in the future.

interested parties in the near future, Davis said.

“We’ve got to get on this path of evolving as an industry. And that, you know means access to capital,” Mulhearn said.

Mulhearn credits the relationship with Harper as the potential difference maker for the projects.

“I’m not saying that it’s going to, you know, bring ‘Top Guns’ here for years, but I am saying that this relationship, it’s priceless — that somebody at that level would want to see us succeed here,” Mulhearn said.

Harper’s VeYou platform will be available for download on April 7. Go to VeYou. com for more info.

A dozen-plus and counting Louisiana native Emily Lemoine already has more than a dozen microdramas to her credit.

Lemoine, 26, headed for Los Angeles just a few weeks after graduating from LSU in December 2021 with a bachelor of arts in theatre performance.

“I did not want to wait tables, so I started doing PA (production assistant) work and also audience coordinating for shows like ‘AGT’ (‘America’s Got Talent’), ‘American Idol’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars’,” she said.

Lemoine began landing paying acting gigs just last year, and is looking for new representation to take her to the next level in her career

mary female villain It was such a fun role to play.”

Such mafia verticals are heavy-hitters in the trending market.

The 2018 Parkview Baptist graduate said she’d jump at the chance to return to Baton Rouge to work on more microdramas.

“It would be so special. And I would love to show my costars around my hometown. I think it could be a great place to shoot,” she said.

‘As long as the story is good’

Microdramas would be something new for New Orleans actor KC Simms (“Boots,” “Hit Man,” “Mike”), and acting back in his Baton Rouge hometown would only add to his interest.

“In terms of auditioning for one of these, as long as the story is good and it’s paying decently, I’m all for it and being back at home would mean the world to me,” Simms said.

“Being able to go on set to shoot something, then being able to see my mom and dad afterwards, or even just driv-

how inexpensive and repeatable they are to create,” he said.

He says he is concerned about the reliance on speed prompting some to take more shortcuts with artiﬁcial intelligence.

Since COVID-19 and the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023, Simms,

“Because of Her,” the ﬁrst series slated for Baton Rouge, is already written and moving into casting It will star Kasey Esser, a prolific microdrama actor whose work has drawn more than 500 million views across dozens of projects.

The production will also lean into brand integration and product placement — a common feature of the format — with a Louisiana-based clothier in a supporting role.

“We’re going to start with Louisiana’s version of ‘brand entertainment,’” explained

“My thinking is this: if you’re going to ﬁnance an independent ﬁlm, it’s very rare that you’re going to have only one source of financing or one person who’s going to be writing a check,” Davis began. “You need to be able to kind of divide that up among a number of people. So, we want mom-and-pop investor types. It could be a dentist and a lawyer and a welder and whoever, you know, who might want to go in together.”

With investors for the ﬁrst few months of vertical drama production in place, the fund will be seeking more

“I’ve been in several vertical microdramas with millions of views. My most recent show, ‘In the Palm of His Hand,’ has over 110 million views after only a month on ReelShort,” said Lemoine. In addition to the Chineseowned ReelShort, her work can be seen on major vertical video streamers DramaBox and GoodShort as well as other smaller apps.

Lemoine portrays Francesca Franconi, daughter of the head of the Franconi family, in “Palm of His Hand.”

“The male lead, Matteo, is my adopted brother who I am trying to marry so that I can lead the maﬁa family,” she explained. “I am the pri-

ing back down Plank Road or Corporate (Boulevard) after getting off set.” Simms, 26, is all for people telling stories in new and creative ways.

“It seems that with microdramas it also might open up a door for new ﬁlmmakers to tell their stories as well, with

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Participate in something that helps you recognize your talents. Choose to fine-tune your spending or projects to avoid unnecessary debt. Peace of mind comes from doing what's right and best for you.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Scrutinize what lies ahead before you take a chance, make a move or start something new. Time is on your side, and ironing out all the kinks is necessary to avoid backtracking.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Personal and financial growth are within reach. A positive attitude will lead to rewards and opportunities to get ahead and to make a difference that will encourage you to broaden your scope and agenda.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Focus on work, not personal or emotional issues. Too much of anything will defeat the purpose. Take a step back and consider the outcome before you initiate change or take on more than you can handle.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Learn and explore the possibilities. You'll gain insight into what's possible if you try something new or volunteer for a cause dear to your heart. Clear the path, and go after your heart's desires.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Truth matters, and being on the right side of history will make a difference. Sign up for events, projects or pastimes that will give you the boost you need to build confidence.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Hold your thoughts before sharing. Enjoy your

time with people who make your life better. Refuse to let raw emotions take over a conversation that can influence your relationships.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) You can talk your way in and out of anything if you are factual and bold. Opportunities will sprout from your ability to be frank and to follow through with confidence.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Emotions and domestic issues will require patience, planning and setting boundaries. Shared space and expenses will lead to stressful situations. Change begins with you.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Observe before stepping into something that has the potential to backfire on you. Get the lowdown, consider the consequences and focus on maintenance and lowering your overhead.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Make a budget, and improve your living space, lifestyle or qualifications. Set yourself up for success, and you'll find your niche. It's time to let your past go and to turn your dreams into a reality.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Expand your mind; consider the possibilities and the cost to reach your goal. A diversion or change of location will spark your imagination and encourage you to revise your plans

FAMILY CIrCUS

toDAy's cLuE: c EQuALs M

CeLebrItY CIpher

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

Sudoku

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 Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

Bridge

By PHILLIPALDER

William Arthur Ward, whocoined many inspirationalmaxims, said, “A truefriendknows your weaknesses but shows youyourstrengths.” Abridge playerwith aweak hand can sometimes do well by sounding strong. Look at today’sSouth hand. North opens onediamond. Whatshould South do?

The textbooks tell South that without six points, he should pass. However, he has two five-card majors —and we love majors. He ought to bid onespade.Yes, itisnot withoutrisk, but he has areasonable chance to improve the contract.

Here, North will raise to four spades. That would perhaps give South momentarypause,butwhenheseesthedummy, it will ease his concerns After West leads theclubqueen, how should declarer planthe play?

If South had passed over onediamond andWest had passed also, that contract wouldprobablyhavegonedownone.But maybe West would have balanced with two clubs or (better) atakeout double. Then, though, North-South would have had asecond chancetofind their spade fit. South has three toplosers: two hearts and one club. He needs to establish his heart suit. And usually, in this situation, declarershouldimmediatelyplayonthat suit.

So,South wins with dummy’s clubace andleads aheart to,say,his nine and

West’sjack.West cashes the clubjack, thenshifts to the diamond 10. Declarer winswith dummy’s ace andplays another heart.

South trumps the next diamond and ruffs aheart high.Whentheysplit 3-3, he draws trumps ending in his hand and cashes his hearts.

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle whichcreates adisguised word, phrase,name, place, saying, etc. For example:NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of fourormore

toDAy’s

Average

wuzzles

loCKhorNs

Lifewithoutthe

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

tractorhaving50ormore employees,and hisSub‐contractorshaving50or more employees and who maybeawarded a subcontractof$50,000 or more,willberequiredto maintain an affirmative action programwithin 120 days of thecom‐mencementofthe con‐tract. 7. Compliance Reports. Within 30 days after awardofthiscontract, theContractorshall file a compliance report (Stan‐dard Form 100) if: a. TheContractorhas not submitteda complete compliance reportwithin h di h p p 12 monthspreceding the date of Award; and b. TheContractoris within thedefinition of “employer” in Para‐graphs 2e (3)ofthe in‐structions included in Standard Form 100. TheContractorshall re‐quirethe Subcontractor on all-tier subcontracts irrespective of dollar amount,to file Standard Form 100 within 30 days after awardofthe sub‐contract if theabove two conditions apply. Stan‐dard Form 100 will be fur‐nished upon request. 8. BuyAmericanProvi‐sion.The proposed Con‐tractissubject to the BuyAmericanProvision under Section9129 of the Aviation Safety andCa‐pacity ExpansionAct of 1990. Detailsofsuchre‐quirements arecon‐tained in theProject Manual In accordance with La R.S. 38:2214 (B) theCity of BatonRouge and Parish of East Baton Rougereservesthe right to reject anyand allbids forjustcause.Inaccor‐dancewithLa. R.S. 38:2212 (A)(1)(b), thepro‐visionsand requirements of this Section, those stated in theadvertise‐ment forbids, andthose required on thebid form shallnot be considered

as informalitiesand shall notbewaivedbyany

entity Foradditional informa‐tion please contact Alaina Spiers at the numberand emailnoted above. 182352 April6,13, 20, 3t $407.46

PUBLIC NOTICE

Sealed bids will be ac‐cepted at theZachary Community School Board, Child Nutrition ProgramOfﬁce,until 4:00 pm April20, 2026 forfur‐nishing ProduceItems Bids will be opened at 9:00 am April21, 2026. Speciﬁcationsand bid formsmay be obtained at 205 East Flanacher Road,Zachary,Louisiana 70791, telephone, 225658-7049. ThePublicisin‐vitedtoattend thebid openingatthisaddress. TheZachary Community School BoardChild Nutri‐tion Programisfunded approximately50% with federalfundsfor atotal of approximately $1,500,000.00 per year 180515-mar14-apr6-2t $46.00

Rouge, LA.Thisordi‐nanceshall become ef‐fectiveon05/03/26, ten days after itsadoption. 182986-apr6-13-20-3t $56.50

Legal Notices

PUBLIC NOTICE Introduction of pro‐posedordinance autho‐rizing thesaleof10.00± acresoflanddescribed as Lot1-D-8,Section 56, T-2-S, R-3-WinBaton Rouge, notneeded for public recreation pur‐poses, forthe minimum priceof$700,000.00 ap‐proximated appraised value. Anyopposition re‐ceived during the15-day notice period of 04/06 through04/21/26 will be heardata public hearing held duringthe regular meetingofthe BREC Commissionon04/23/26 at BREC Administrative Ofﬁce in Womack Park 6201 FloridaBlvd, Baton

$58.51

[SEAL]

Motioncarried.

Ascheduled BoardofDirector’smeeting of VisitBaton Rouge washeld on Thursday,March 26, 2026, at the Visit

Baton Rouge Office located at 359 ThirdStreet.

Present: Rowdy Gaudet

Gary Jupiter

Stephen Hightower

Janice DeLerno

Karen Soniat

Robyn Merrick

Marty Engquist

Claude Reynaud

Jeremy Fontenot

Absent: Gary Patureau

Present but not participating in formal actions:

Jill Kidder,Staff Lisa Clary,Staff

Danielle Prejean, Staff Stacy Simon, Staff Lauralyn Maranto, Staff Emily Mastrantonio, Staff Lauralyn Maranto, Staff Fatima Gautier

Chuck Elkins, Legal Counsel Angela Adolph, Legal Counsel

Shaun Toups, Financial Advisor

Rowdy Gaudet called the meeting to order and opened the meeting for public comment.

On amotion by Claude Reynaud, seconded by Marty Enquist the February26, 2026, minutes wereapproved as presented.

Motion carried.

Danielle Prejean presented and discussed the February 2026 financials.

Jill Kidder presented the President’sReport followedbyLauraCating, Emily Mastrantonioand Stacy Simon’s presentation of the 2025 Louisiana LightsRecap andupdate. Jill Kidder and Lauralyn Maranto gave abrief updateonthe status of 232 LafayetteStreet.

Discussion/Action was held in connectionwith the review of offers to purchase; authorizing the selectionofthe purchaser and terms of not exceeding Seven Million Dollars($7,000,000.00) of RevenueBonds, Series 2026, of Visit Baton Rouge, Parish of East Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana; and providing for other mattersinconnection therewith.

On amotion by Robyn Merrick, seconded by Claude Reynaud the following resolutionwas approved having been submitted for avote.

The following Resolution was offered by Robyn Merrickand seconded by ClaudeReynaud, Jr.: RESOLUTION

Aresolution authorizing review of offers to purchase; authorizing the selection of the purchaser and terms of not exceeding SevenMillion Dollars($7,000,000.00) of Revenue Bonds, Series 2026, of VisitBaton Rouge, Parish of East Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana; and providing for other matters in connection therewith.

WHEREAS,Visit Baton Rouge is abody politic and corporate and apolitical subdivision of the Stateof Louisiana (the “Issuer”)created pursuant to Article VI, Sections 19 and 30 of the Louisiana Constitutionof1974, as amended, and Sections 4574 and 4574.16 of Title 33 of the Louisiana Revised Statutesof1950, as amended; and WHEREAS,the purpose and mission of the Issuer shall be to increase visitation to and awareness of the Baton Rouge area, thereby enhancing economic impact of conventions and tourism in and to the City of Baton Rouge (the “City”) and the Parish of East BatonRouge (the “Parish” and, togetherwiththe City,the “City-Parish”); and WHEREAS,under the authority conferred by Section 1430 ofTitle 39 of the LouisianaRevised Statutesof 1950,asamended (the “Act”), the Issuer may issue revenue bonds, notes, or other obligations for anyauthorized purpose payable from any source whatsoever,including taxesand income,revenues and receipts derived or to be derived from the properties andfacilities owned, maintained or operated by apublicentity or received by a public entity from these properties and facilities, or from contracts or agreements relating to these properties and facilities;and WHEREAS,the Issuerpreviously approved the issuance of not exceeding Seven MillionDollars ($7,000,000.00) of Revenue Bonds, Series 2026 (the “Bonds”),inthe manner authorizedand provided for by the Act, for the purpose of financing the purchase and renovation of an historical unoccupied building located in downtown Baton Rouge to be used forthe provision of its services (the “Project”) to be payable from all available revenues of the Issuer in each of the fiscal years during which the Bonds areoutstanding; and WHEREAS,the Issuerdesires to authorize review of any offers to purchase and the selection of apurchaser and terms of the Bonds; and NOW,THEREFORE,BEITRESOLVED by the BoardofDirectors of theIssuer,actingasthe governing authority of the Issuer,that: SECTION 1.Selection of Purchaserand Sale of Bonds. The Bonds arehereby authorizedtobesoldtoa purchaser,and the Chair and/or Secretary-Treasurer of the Governing Authorityofthe Issuer,inconsultationwith the President of Issuer,are hereby authorized to review any offers to purchase, to select thepurchaser thereof and to approve the terms andconditionsofsuch Bonds. The Chair and/or Secretary-Treasurer of the Governing Authority of the Issuerare herebyauthorized to execute aCommitment Letter and such other documents, in a form and substance satisfactorytospecial Bond Counsel, Municipal Advisor,and President, to approve and effectuate the purchase and sale of the Bonds. The Issuer shall executeand deliver or cause to be executed anddelivered all documents, certificates, receipts, letters and opinions required to be executed on behalfof theIssuer or deemed necessary or advisable facilitate the sale of the Bonds. While theauthority granted in thisSection is complete authority for the sale of the Bonds by the Issuer,furtherdetails of the Bonds may be determined by theIssuer and established by aresolutionadopted subsequent hereto.

SECTION 2.Effective date. This Resolutionshall become effective immediatelyupon adoption hereof.

This Resolution having been submitted for avote,the result thereof: Member YesNoAbstain Absent

ROWDY GAUDET,CHAIR X STEPHEN HIGHTOWER, VICE CHAIR X ROBYN MERRICK, SECRETARY-TREASURER X GARYL.JUPITER, JR. X GARYPATUREAU X CLAUDE F. REYNAUD, JR. X JANICE DELERNO X JEREMY FONTENOT X KAREN M. SONIAT, PH.D. X MARTY ENGQUIST X And the Resolution was declared adopted on 3/26, 2026.

THUS DONE, ADOPTED AND SIGNED this, the 26th of March ,2026. By: /s/RowdyGaudet Rowdy Gaudet, Chair

STATEOFLOUISIANA PARISH OF EAST

/s/Robyn Merrick Robin Merrick, Secretary-Treasurer

PUBLIC NOTICE Introduction of pro‐posedordinance autho‐rizing thesaleof0.838± acresoflanddescribed as Lots 445-A, 446-A, 470, 471, and472, Belfair HomesSubdivision,Ward 1-1inBaton Rouge, not needed forpublicrecre‐ationpurposes, forthe minimumprice of $30,000.00 approximated appraisedvalue.Any op‐positionreceivedduring the15-daynoticeperiod of 04/06 through04/21/26 will be heardata public hearingheldduringthe regularmeetingofthe BREC Commission on 04/23/26 at BREC Admin‐istrativeOfﬁce in Wom‐ackPark, 6201 Florida Blvd,Baton Rouge, LA This ordinanceshall be‐come effectiveon 05/03/26,ten days after itsadoption. 182989-apr6-13-20-3t $58.51

PUBLIC NOTICE Introduction of proposed ordinanceauthorizing thesaleof0.110± acres of land describedasLot 7,

182995-APR6-13-20-3T $56.50

PUBLIC NOTICE

Introduction of pro‐posedordinance autho‐rizing thesaleof2.014± acresoflanddescribed

period of 04/06 through 04/21/26 will be heardat apublichearing held during theregular meet‐ing of theBRECCommis‐i

Discussion/action was held in connection with theCooperative Endeavor Agreementwith theLouisiana Department of Treasury regarding thefunds appropriatedinaccordance with Act 1ofthe 2025 RLS. On amotionbyGary Jupiter,seconded by KarenSoniatthe followingresolution wasapproved as presented.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE BOARDOFDIRECTORSOF VISIT BATONROUGECONCERNING ACOOPERATIVEENDEAVOR AGREEMENT WITH THELOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY MARCH 26,2026

WHEREAS,the BoardofDirectors (the“Board”) of Visit Baton Rouge (“VBR”) is chargedwithassistinginthe economic development of East BatonRouge Parish throughthe promotion of traveland tourism in theParish of East Baton Rouge.

WHEREAS,VBR from timetotime enters into cooperative endeavor agreements (“CEA(s)”) with various agencies and departments of theState of Louisiana and/ or othereconomic development agencies, including without limitationwith the Louisiana Department of theTreasury (the“Agency”).

WHEREAS,Act 1ofthe 2025 RegularLegislative Session of theLouisiana Legislature containsa line item appropriation within the budget of theAgencyfor the benefitofVBR of whichthe sumofOne Hundred Thousand and no/100 Dollars($100,000.00) has been allocated to VBR for itsuse to promote athletic activities, facilities, and sporting events to attract visitors to East Baton Rouge Parish (the“Allocation”).

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBYRESOLVED by theBoard of VBR thatJill C. Kidder, President &CEO of VBR, effective immediately,ishereby authorized anddirected to negotiate,execute,and deliver on behalf of VBR one or moreCEA(s) between VBRand theState of Louisiana,Department of the Treasury concerning the acceptance and use of the Allocation from theState of Louisiana with such agreement to be in aform and substance determinedbyher in hersole discretion to be in thebest interest of VBR.

CERTIFICATE

STATEOFLOUISIANA PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE

I, Robyn Merrick, certifythat Iamthe dulyqualified andacting Secretary /Treasurerofthe BoardofDirectors of VisitBaton Rouge (the “Board”), the governing authority of Visit Baton Rouge (“VBR”). Ifurthercertify thatthe above and foregoing resolutiontowhichthis certificateisattached is atrueand correctexcerpt from theminutes of aproperly constituted meetingofthe BoardheldatVBR’soffice on March26, 2026, andatwhichmeeting a quorum of theBoardwas present and acting throughout. IN WITNESS WHEREOF,witness my official signature on this 26th day of March, 2026 at Baton Rouge Louisiana. /s/Robyn Merrick RobinMerrick Secretary/Treasurer MotionCarried.

Discussion/Actionwas held in connection with theamendment of the2026 Budget On amotionbyRobyn Merrick, secondedbyClaude Reynaud, thefollowingresolution wasapproved as presented.

RESOLUTION OF THEBOARDOFDIRECTORS OF VISIT BATONROUGE CONCERNINGAMENDMENTS TO THE2026 BUDGET MARCH 26,2026

WHEREAS,pursuant to astaffreview of thecurrent marketing, special projects,and operatingbudgetof VisitBaton Rouge, several necessary adjustmentstothe 2026 budget of Visit Baton Rouge (the“Budget”) were identified as shown in thefollowing resolution.

NOWTHEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by theBoard of DirectorsofVBR (the “Board”) thatthe Budgetbe and hereby amended as shown on Exhibit “A” attached hereto. Except as amended, modified, or changed pursuant to thisResolution,the provisions of theBudgetaspreviously adoptedbythe Board shall be unaffected and shall remaininfull legal force and effect