The Times-Picayune 07-08-2025 by The Advocate

ATASTE OF WEST AFRICAAND NEWORLEANS

JULY17, 6–9PM

Palace Café closes

BY IAN McNULTY Staff writer

Amajor restaurant that once signaled anew generation for New Orleans Creole cuisine has closed after 34 years amid alegal dispute Palace Café, the ﬁrst restaurant from the Dickie Brennan &Co. restaurant group, served its last meal on Sunday,atleast forthe foreseeable future. It’sanabrupt closure for arestaurant that has been aprominent presence on Canal Street and within the New Orleans restaurant scene since 1991.

The restaurant, at 605 Canal St., covers three floors in the historic

“There’sasense of loss, but things do happen for a reason, and we’re challenged to make the best of the situation we’re in.”

STEVE PETTUS,managing partner of Dickie Brennan &Co.

former Werlein’smusic storewith diningrooms andbanquetrooms done in the style of aclassic brasserie.

Restaurant staff learned thenews Monday.About half of therestaurants’ 60-personstaffare being offered positions at other restaurants

Changesmade to La.ethicslaws

Supporters tout protection for public officials; criticsworry aboutsafeguards being eroded

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

Gov.Jeff Landry and the Legislature have changed how the LouisianaBoard of Ethicsoperates, adding new rules to how it investigatesallegations of conﬂicts of interest,nepotism and other forms of corruption. Supporters say they are protectingpublicservants against frivolous investigations over dubious allegations of ethical misconductand ensuring those who faceinvestigation are afforded basic due process. But critics worry the new laws chip away at safeguards Louisiana putinplace in responseto the state’slong history of government corruption.

ä See ETHICS, page 4A

in the group, which includes numerous large properties; othersare being offered severance terms,according to the company

Themovecomes as Palace Café nears theend of a35-year lease. A purchase agreement was includedin that lease, and the restaurant’soperators were working toward adeal to purchase thepropertyfrom itsowner,Philip Werlein, Ltd., acompany withmembers of the Werlein family Adispute on thefair market value brought both sides into Civil District Court. It centered on thevalue of improvements made to the property by therestaurantgroup,and whether

ä See PALACE, page 4A

Cantrell vetoes Charity deal

$20M agreementwithTulane wouldprovide renovations to long-vacanthospital

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

Mayor LaToya CantrellonMondayvetoed $20 millionNew Orleans had promised for renovationstoCharity Hospital,deepeninga feud over the city’sright to proceeds from adonated swath of oil-rich Louisiana coastline. The city’s$20 millionpledge to Tulane University,which plans to turn the long-vacantDepressionera hospitalintoanew research center,emerged from negotiations over whoshould receive proceedsfrom the 38,000-acre plot around Port Fourchon, which is owned by the Wisner Trust. Tulane is oneofseveral legacy recipients of proceeds from that land. Late philanthropist Edward Wisner donated the land to New Orleans in 1914. But for years, Cantrell resisted attemptsbythe City Councilto solidify city control over around $9 million the plot generates each year.She hassided withWisner’sdescendants, ﬁghting to maintain asystem that gave the mayor anda private panel broad authority to divvy up the proceeds among alist of long-standing recipients, including the heirs,the city,Tulane,LSU and the Salvation Army.

Cantrell

ä Cantrell says she faced ‘crucifixion’ during second term. PAGE 1B ä See CANTRELL, page 4A

The council’s$20 million pledge followed a judge’sorder in late May identifyingthe city as

SEEWER Associated Press

KERRVILLE, Texas The death toll from catastrophic ﬂooding in Texasoverthe July Fourth weekendsurpassed 100 on Mondayassearch and rescue teamscontinued to wade into swollenrivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees as part of the massive search formissing people.

Authorities overseeing

the search for floodvictims saidtheywill wait to address questionsabout weather warnings andwhy some summer camps did notevacuate ahead of the ﬂooding that killed at least 104. The officialsspoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a centuryold all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country,announced that

ä See FLOODING, page 7A

ä Flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal forces dozens to flee N.C.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ELIHARTMAN First responders carry out search and rescue operations near the Guadalupe River on MondayinIngram, Texas.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVIDGRUNFELD

The PalaceCaféhas been a fixture on Canal Street for 34 years.

Ousted librarian steps back in national role

NEW YORK The former librarian of Congress abruptly fired by President Donald Trump has found a new position with the country’s largest philanthrop ic supporter of the arts. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation exclusively told The Associated Press that Carla Hayden will join the humanities grantmaker Monday as a senior fellow whose duties will include advising on efforts to advance public knowledge through libraries and archives

The yearlong post places Hayden back at the center of the very debates over American culture that surrounded her dismissal. The White House ousted Hayden, the ﬁrst woman and the ﬁrst African American to hold the title, after she was accused of promoting “radical” literary material by a conservative advocacy group seeking to squash Trump opposition within the federal government.

Manager confirms

beloved hotel burned PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Haiti’s once-illustrious Grand Hôtel

Oloffson, a beloved Gothic gingerbread home that inspired books, hosted parties until dawn and attracted visitors from Mick Jagger to Haitian presidents, was burned down by gangs this weekend.

Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned the news as it spread across social media, with the hotel manager conﬁrming the ﬁre Monday on X. Even though gang violence had forced the hotel in Haiti’s capital, Portau-Prince, to close in recent years, many had hoped it would reopen.

“It birthed so much culture and expression,” said Riva Précil, a Haitian-American singer who lived in the hotel from age 5 to 15 In a tearful phone interview, Précil recalled how she learned to swim, dance and sing at the Oloffson.

At least 11 dead in Kenya protests

At least 11 people were killed in violent clashes between Kenyan police and protestersdemandingtheremoval of President William Ruto.

In addition to the fatalities, 63 people were injured and 567 arrested, the police said Monday on X.

The protests held to commemorate the July 7 marches that marked the beginning of multiparty democracy in the East African nation 35 years ago, took place in nearly half of Kenya’s 47 counties, with looting reported in at least six, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said. Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron leaving Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron said Monday that he’s leaving the band after nearly 30 years. The 62-year-old Cameron announced his departure in a social media post.

“After 27 fantastic years, I have taken my final steps down the drum riser for the mighty Pearl Jam,” Cameron said. “Much love and respect to Jeff, Ed, Mike and Stone for inviting me into the band in 1998 and for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime, ﬁlled with friendships, artistry, challenges and laughter.”

“Matt Cameron has been a singular and true powerhouse of a musician and drummer He has propelled the last 27 years of Pearl Jam live shows and studio recordings. It was a deeply important chapter for our group and we wish him well always,” Pearl Jam members said in a statement posted to the band’s social media accounts

He just ﬁnished a yearlong tour with the band in support of its 12th studio album, “Dark Matter.”

Troops descend on MacArthur Park

L.A. operation was close to immigrant neighborhood

BY TARA COPP and CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press

LOS ANGELES Federal ofﬁcers and National Guard troops fanned out around a mostly empty Los Angeles park in a largely immigrant neighborhood on foot, horseback and military vehicles on Monday for about an hour before abruptly leaving, an operation that local ofﬁcials said seemed designed to sow fear

The Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t say whether anyone had been arrested during the brief operation at MacArthur Park Federal ofﬁcials did not respond to requests for comment about why the park was targeted or why the raid ended abruptly.

About 90 members of the California National Guard were present to protect immigration ofﬁcers, defense ofﬁcials said.

“What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” said Mayor Karen Bass, who showed up at the park alongside activists.

She said there were children attending a day camp in the park who were quickly ushered inside to avoid seeing the troops. Still, Bass said an 8-year-old boy told her that “he was fearful of ICE.”

The operation occurred at a park in a neighborhood with

large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations and is lined by businesses with signs in Spanish and other languages that has been dubbed by local ofﬁcials as the “Ellis Island of the West Coast.”

Sprawling MacArthur Park has a murky lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports ﬁelds where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.

Among those who spoke with Bass were health care outreach workers who were working with homeless residents Monday when troops pointed guns at them and told them to get out of the park.

Photos show federal officers riding on horseback toward a mostly empty soccer field.

Heavily armed soldiers and other agents stood guard nearby alongside armored vehicles.

“The world needs to see the troop formation on horses walking through the park, in search of what? In search of what? They’re walking through the area where the children play,”

Bass said.

The operation in the large park about 2 miles west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. It came after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of Guard members and active duty Marines to the city last month following protests over previous immigration raids.

In response to questions about the operation in MacArthur Park, the Department of Homeland Security said in an email that the agency would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.”

Two defense officials told reporters that what happened at MacArthur Park on Monday was not a military operation but acknowledged that the size and scope of the Guard’s participation could make it look like one to the public. That is why the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the raid that were not announced publicly The primary role of the service members would be to protect the immigration enforcement officers in case a hostile crowd gathered, one of the officials said.

“It’s just going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,” that ofﬁcial said.

Gaza war looms over Trump, Netanyahu meeting

BY TIA GOLDENBERG and MICHELLE L PRICE Associated Press

WASHINGTON Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump might look to take a victory lap this week after their recent joint strikes on Iran, hailed by both as an unmitigated success.

But as Netanyahu arrived at the White House for his third visit this year, the outwardly triumphant visit will be dogged by Israel’s 21-month war against Hamas in Gaza and questions over how hard Trump will push for an end to the conﬂict.

Trump has made clear that following last month’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran he would like to see the Gaza conflict end soon. The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu could give new urgency to a U.S. ceaseﬁre proposal being discussed by Israel and Hamas, but whether it leads to a deal that ends the war is unclear

“The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters ahead of the leaders’ private dinner

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

After sharing dinner Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, is set to again meet President Donald Trump on Tuesday to discuss the war in Gaza.

Before departing for Washington on Sunday Netanyahu praised the cooperation with the U.S. for bringing a “huge victory over our shared enemy.” He struck a positive note on a ceaseﬁre for Gaza, saying he was working “to achieve the deal under discussion, on the terms we agreed to.”

The prime minister met on Monday with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio before his dinner with Trump Netanyahu is slated to meet Tuesday with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“I think that the discussion with President Trump can certainly help advance that result, which all of us hope for,” Netanyahu said. White House ofﬁcials are

urging Israel and Hamas to quickly seal a new ceasefire agreement that would bring about a 60-day pause in the fighting, send aid flooding into Gaza and free at least some of the remaining 50 hostages held in the territory, 20 of whom are believed to be living.

Leavitt announced on Monday that Witkoff will travel later this week to Doha, Qatar, for ceaseﬁre and hostage talks.

But a sticking point is whether the ceaseﬁre will end the war altogether Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile — something it refuses to do.

Demonstrators, including hostage family members, gathered outside the U.S. Capitol before the leaders’ meeting to press for the release of all remaining hostages in any agreement.

“We cannot accept a deal for a partial release,” said Ilan Dalal, father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal. “A partial deal would mean that some of the hostages will stay in the tunnels for more time and this would be a death sentence.”

Flooding forces dozens to flee N.C. homes

BY ALLEN G. BREED AP national writer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal swept a woman in her car from a rural road and forced dozens of people to ﬂee their homes, ofﬁcials in North Carolina said Monday

Parts of central North Carolina experienced hazardous conditions overnight including 3 to 8 inches of rain, according to North Carolina Emergency Management. Multiple water rescues were conducted in Alamance, Orange, Chatham and Durham counties overnight, and several areas have declared local states of emergency ofﬁcials said.

About 120 roads were closed Monday across the state, but several major roads had reopened, including parts of Interstate 40 and 85 in Alamance County, according to Gov Josh Stein’s ofﬁce.

An 83-year-old woman from Pittsboro was killed when her car was swept off a rural Chatham County road by ﬂoodwaters Sunday night, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. Responding troopers found the submerged vehicle about 100 feet from the road, and the woman was found dead inside, ofﬁcials said.

The Chapel Hill Fire Department and neighboring agencies completed more than 50 water rescues, many of them in areas where ﬂoodwaters entered or threatened to enter apartments, ofﬁcials said. More than 60 people were displaced. After helping with rescues in Chapel Hill, the Durham Fire Department said in a social media post that its crews performed more than 80 more rescues in the Old Farm area.

Alesia Ray, 65, stood on a second-floor staircase at her apartment building in Chapel Hill for five hours, clicking a flashlight, until rescuers in a rubber boat got her out. Below her, floodwaters wrecked her home.

“It was really scary,” she said Monday as she and ﬁance Thomas Hux worked to salvage some of their belongings. “I’ve never experienced anything like that. I don’t want to go through that again.”

Several solid-waste trucks and police cars were also totaled from rushing ﬂoodwaters at a facility used to service local government vehicles in Carrboro, a town near Chapel Hill, the town’s public works director, Kevin Belanger said at a news conference Monday In Chatham County, authorities were searching for two canoers who went missing during the storm on Jordan Lake, according to a county sheriff’s ofﬁce statement.

The Eno River crested early Monday at Durham at 25.6 feet, surpassing the previous record of 23.6 feet, according to the National Water Prediction Service’s website.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAMIAN DOVARGANES

Federal agents ride an armored vehicle Monday at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.

Will Abrego Garcia make it to trial?

Justice Department attorney says U.S. settoinitiatedeportation proceedings

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and BEN FINLEY Associated Press

GREENBELT, Md.— The U.S. government would initiate deportation proceedings againstKilmar Abrego Garcia if he’sreleased from jail before he stands trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee, aJustice Department attorney toldafederal judge in Maryland on Monday The disclosure by U.S. lawyer Jonathan Guynn contradicts statements by spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House, who said last month that Abrego Garcia would stand trial and possibly spend time in an American prison before the government moves to deport him.

Guynn made the revelation during afederal court hearing in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia’sAmerican wife is suing the Trump administration over his mistaken deportation in March and trying to prevent him from being expelled again.

Guynn said U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcementwould detain Abrego Garcia once he’s released from jail and send him to a“third country” that isn’this native El Salvador.However,Guynn said he didn’t know which country that would be U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said trying to determine what will happen to Abrego Garcia has been “like trying to nail Jell-O to awall.” She scheduledahearing for Thursday for U.S. ofﬁcials to explain possible next steps if AbregoGarcia is released.

Abrego Garcia became aﬂashpoint over PresidentDonald Trump’simmigration policies when he was deported in March to anotorious megaprison in his native El Salvador.The Trump administration claimed he

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, center,wife of Kilmar AbregoGarcia, joins supporters rallying outsidethe U.S. DistrictCourtinGreenbelt, Md., where ahearing wasscheduled Mondayonreturning him to Maryland

was in theMS-13 gang, although Abrego Garciawas nevercharged with acrime andhas repeatedly deniedthe allegation.

When the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, it violated aU.S.immigration judge’sorderin 2019thatshieldedhim from being senttohis native country.The judge had determined that Abrego Garcia likely faced persecution by local gangsthathad terrorizedhim and his family and prompted him to ﬂee to the U.S. Facing increasingpressureand aSupreme Court order,the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to theU.S. last month to face federalhuman smugglingcharges The chargesstem from a2022 trafﬁc stop forspeeding in Tennessee, during which Abrego Garcia was driving avehicle with nine passengers without luggage.

Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.His lawyers tolda judge that some government witnesses cooperated to getfavorsregarding theirimmigrationstatus or criminal charges theywerefacing.

They’vealsoaccused the Trump administration of bringing Abrego Garcia back toconvict himinthe court of public opinion” withthe intention of deporting him before he can defend himself at trial.

Afederal judge in Nashville, Tennesseewas preparing to release Abrego Garcia, determining he’s notaﬂightriskora danger.But she agreed to keep Abrego Garcia behind bars at the request of his own attorneys, whoraised concernsthe U.S. would try to immediately deporthim.

In courtdocuments, AbregoGarcia’slawyerscited“contradictory statements” by the Trumpadministration. Forexample, Guynn told

Xinis on June 26 that ICEplanned to deport AbregoGarcia, though he didn’tsay when.

Laterthat day, DOJspokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Pressthat the Justice Department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him.

White House spokespersonAbigailJackson posted on Xthat day thatAbrego Garcia “will face the full forceofthe American justice system —including serving time in American prison forthe crimes he’s committed.”

Abrego Garcia’sattorneys asked Xinis to order the government to take him to Maryland upon hisreleasefrom jail, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before trial. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland formore than adecade, working construction and raising a family

Xinis is still considering that request. Guynn told the judge on Monday that she doesn’thave the jurisdiction to decidewhere Abrego Garcia would be detained. Xinis responded by asking whyshe couldn’t orderan“interim step”toensure that Abrego Garcia isn’t“spirited away again.”

Anrew Rossman, an attorneyfor Abrego Garcia,saidheshouldbe givennotice andanopportunity to challenge his removal in court.

“That’sthe baseline of what we’re asking for,”headded.

Meanwhile,Xinis denied the Trump administration’smotion to dismiss the lawsuit over Abrego Garcia’smistaken deportation.

The government hadargued the litigation was moot because it returned himtothe U.S. Xinis said “the controversy” isn’toversimply because he’sback.

Health groups sueKennedy over vaccinepolicychange

BY MIKE STOBBE AP medical writer

NEW YORK Acoalition of doctors’ groups and public health organizations sued the U.S. government on regardingthe scientiﬁcreview processthat has been in place for decades —inwhich experts publicly review current medical evidenceand hash out the prosand cons of policychanges The new lawsuit repeats

And it’shappening after U.S. pediatric flu deaths hit their highest mark in 15 years and as the nation is poised to have itsworst year of measles in more than threedecades,she added. HHS spokespersonAn

asmallpox outbreak. Paul Revere was the ﬁrst leader of Boston’shealth commission. And alegal disputeinCambridge led to alandmark1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision

thatupheld states’rights to compel vaccinations.

“Wethinkitissigniﬁcant and very meaningful” that the case is happening there, Hughes said.

BY ILLIANOVIKOV and AAMERMADHANI Associated Press

President Donald Trump said the U.S. will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after ordering pause in critical weaponsdeliveries to Kyiv

The comments by Trump on Monday appeared to be an abrupt change in posture afterthe Pentagon announced last week that it would hold back delivering to Ukraine some airdefense missiles, precisionguided artillery and other weaponsaspartofits announced pause to some armsshipments amid U.S. concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much.

“Wehave to,” Trump told reporters about additionalweaponsdeliveries forUkraine.“They have to be able to defend themselves.” Russian attackson Ukraine killedatleast 11 civilians and injured more than 80 others,including sevenchildren, officials said Monday Meanwhile,Russian’s transport minister was found dead in whatauthorities said was an apparent suicide —news that brokehours after the Kremlin announced he had been dismissed by President Vladimir Putin. The firingofRomanStarovoit followed aweekend of travelchaos whenairports grounded hundreds of flights due to the threat of drone attacks from Ukraine, although Russian officials did not give areason for his dismissal.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN

PALACE

Continued from page 1A

these should be included in the purchase price. In June, Judge Ellen Hazeur ruled in favor of the Werlein family, court records show. A representative for the Werlein family was not immediately able to comment.

The ruling is being appealed. In the meantime, Steve Pettus, managing partner of Dickie Brennan & Co., said it was no longer “ﬁscally responsible” to continue to operate the restaurant. The disparity between the assessed values for the property is too great to purchase it, and terms offered for a new lease to continue operating were ﬁve times higher than the previous lease, Pettus said.

Depending on the appeal, Pettus said reopening Palace Café at its original location was a possibility The company is also “interested in reimagining and reopening Palace Café” elsewhere should the right location arise.

“There’s a sense of loss, but things do happen for a reason, and we’re challenged to make the best

Continued from page 1A

At its monthly meeting Thursday, two members of the Louisiana Board of Ethics raised concerns that the changes could undermine the board’s power and independence. La Koshia Roberts, the longest serving member, argued they will quickly render the ethics board “nonessential” and ultimately lead it to become “extinct.”

The new rules could deter people from coming forward with complaints, leaving the board in the dark about problems it would otherwise address, she said.

The Board of Ethics enforces ethics and campaign ﬁnance laws It can undertake investigations into potential violations in either area as well as file formal charges against someone when it has evidence a law was broken.

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana also argues the new laws “continued to whittle away at sunshine in government.”

However, the changes did avoid “severe damage to our ethics code,” said PAR President Steven Procopio, who said lawmakers heeded many of his organization’s concerns and recommendations.

Rep. Beau Beaullieu, a Republican from New Iberia who chairs the influential House and Governmental Affairs Committee, sponsored House Bill 674, which changed the ethics code. Beaullieu has said some of the board’s investigations have been “egregious” and led some under investigation to feel they were guilty until proven innocent.

CANTRELL

Continued from page 1A

the trust’s sole recipient. It formed part of a broader deal meant to end the legal feud and solidify plans for renovations to Charity Hospital, which has sat vacant since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. On Monday, though, Cantrell said she was vetoing legislation containing the funding pledge because it represents “another attempt by the City Council to usurp executive authority.” The payment risks “depriving funding from multiple projects impacting the quality of life for New Orleanians,” she wrote in a veto letter

The City Council can override Cantrell’s veto. All seven members praised the May ruling that ended the previous revenue-sharing agreement.

Still, the mayor’s decision illustrates the acrid tenor of the legal spat between the council and the mayor over who controls the proceeds of the Wisner Trust.

And it underscores broader discord that has animated Cantrell’s second term, during which council members have routinely accused her

of the situation we’re in,” Pettus said.

Palace Café was ﬁrst conceived by the city’s leading restaurant family, the Brennans, as the next generation’s read on the Creole dining experience. Initially, it was a more casual offshoot of the family’s Garden District landmark

He said he committed to ensuring greater fairness and due process for Louisiana residents who could ﬁnd themselves subject to a board investigation

“I think we were successful, and I think the people of Louisiana are going to beneﬁt from having a fair and judicious ethics system,” he said Stephen Gelé, an attorney who played a key role in crafting some of the changes, said the board “plays a crucial role” in enforcing laws.

But the new laws, Gelé says, “provide clear procedural safeguards” that ensure those being investigated have “due process rights guaranteed by the Louisiana and United States Constitutions.”

Gelé is representing Landry in charges ﬁled by the board over failing to disclose complimentary private airfare he received to a conference in Hawaii in 2021 when he was attorney general.

Under the new law, the board must follow more stringent protocols when considering formal complaints of alleged ethical misconduct and in investigating those allegations.

The 15-member board must now have a two-thirds vote that there is probable cause a law was broken before it can proceed with an investigation.

Should the board issue a subpoena as part of an investigation, it can now only do so if “the importance of the information sought outweighs the burden of producing the information.”

The subject of the investigation is also allowed to ask a district court to block or limit a subpoena from the board.

of mismanagement and the mayor, in turn, has claimed the city’s legislative branch is unfairly attacking her authority

“This veto does not make sense either for New Orleanians or the city’s future health,” council member Joe Giarrusso said Monday in a statement. “The council members understood what was at stake, were all co-authors of the vetoed ordinance, and chose to support a vital economic development project that is in (Council) District B but will benefit the entire city. We will take up the veto in due course.”

Under its agreement with Tulane, the city would provide $20 million for the explicit purpose of renovating the Charity Hospital building. The project aims to anchor the university’s downtown medical school with labs, offices, apartments and retail space. Tulane officials have estimated the new facility would create 2,300 jobs.

The city’s pledge would cover only a fraction of the facility’s full cost: Renovating the hulking hospital is estimated to carry a price tag of $650 million. A Tulane spokesperson declined to comment Monday on Cantrell’s veto.

Commander’s Palace.

The chef Dickie Brennan, his sister Lauren Brower and Pettus, their business partner, would soon take on the operation as the ﬁrst location for their Dickie Brennan & Co. group. Dishes like crabmeat cheesecake, catﬁsh pecan meuniere and

The subject of the investigation will also be provided with a copy of any subpoenas or requests for information, as well as any responses to those requests.

Alfred “Butch” Speer, a member of the board, said Thursday that if the board requests information from someone who made a conﬁdential complaint the new procedures risk revealing that person’s identity to the person under investigation.

David Bordelon, the board’s general counsel, replied that ethics staff will work to develop procedures to keep that from happening.

Under the new laws, at the conclusion of an investigation, the respondent will now get a copy of a ﬁnal report of the investigation, have a chance to address the board directly over the allegations, and be reminded of having a constitutional right to counsel and to not incriminate oneself.

The board can now only ﬁle formal charges for ethics law violations with a twothirds majority vote.

Once the board’s charges are filed with the Ethics Adjudicatory Board, the administrative panel that handles the formal legal proceedings, the person accused gets a copy of all the evidence gathered during the investigation and has a chance to ﬁle an initial response.

Bordelon on Thursday told board members that if ethics staff find that the new rules dampen investigations, he’ll work with them and the Legislature to rectify that.

Roberts, however, said she is not “optimistic” that the Legislature will be willing to work through issues that arise, based on past criticism of the board by some

The City Council and Cantrell have been at odds over the Wisner Trust since 2022, when the council sued after learning that Cantrell had quietly extended the decades-old income sharing agreement with the previous beneﬁciaries.

The mayor did so in deﬁance of a 2014 court which found that the trust’s old structure had expired, the council’s lawyers argued They contended that the proceeds now belonged solely to the city, and moved to block money from going to any of the defendants — including Tulane while the lawsuit was pending.

When a judge ruled in the council’s favor in May, Cantrell appealed that decision In doing so, she again sided with dozens of Wisner’s heirs, who contend they have interests in the land despite the 2014 ruling.

Cantrell’s veto drew backlash from City Council President JP Morrell, who has emerged as one of the mayor’s sharpest critics during her second term.

“The mayor has consistently taken the side of greedy, out-of-state heirs over the people of New Orleans, who need this revenue stream,” Morrell said in an interview

white chocolate bread pudding are among its signatures.

The debut of Palace Café also marked a rebirth of a historic building, with its Beaux Arts façade and intricate architectural details. It was the ﬂagship for the Werlein’s music store brand from 1905 to 1990. Generations of New Orleans residents came here to buy their instruments and sheet music, including some of the city’s most famous musicians, including Dr John and Fats Domino.

Palace Café was also an early adopter of outdoor dining downtown, adding a sidewalk cafe to help spruce up its block of Canal Street. The restaurant underwent a major overhaul in 2015 to mark its 25th anniversary, which added a new lounge and its Black Duck Bar on the second ﬂoor

“Over these 34 years, millions of diners have broken bread with us here on Canal Street. We’ve had the honor of sharing our passion for hospitality with these guests as well as our thousands of team members who trained and worked in our historic building,” Brennan said in a statement.

“Although we are saddened to so suddenly have to close the doors,

ethics code:

lawmakers.

Procopio said that an earlier version of the bill would have made the decision to undertake an investigation a “logical impossibility.” Lawmakers shelved a proposal requiring the board to consider if “it would more likely than not” find the law had been broken — even before having the chance to gather evidence.

“If the Board of Ethics would have chosen to follow the law, then they honestly would never have to do an investigation,” he said. “That would have been a death blow.”

As the legislations stands, Procopio said he’s worried that investigations could be delayed or hampered under the new subpoena rules. But he also said new reporting requirements on the board’s investigations and subpoenas should give insight into that question.

Outside of ethics investigation procedures, the bill made other changes to the

we are optimistic about a next chapter for Palace Café on Canal Street, or elsewhere in our city Don’t count us out yet.” Within blocks of Palace Café, the same company runs Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse, Bourbon House and Tableau, part of Le Petit Theatre. Lately the story at Dickie Brennan & Co. has been about growth and diversiﬁcation. In 2023, it acquired the historic Pascal’s Manale Restaurant. The same year, it took over catering and events for Audubon Nature Institute properties, from the zoo to the aquarium, and runs the restaurant now called the Audubon Clubhouse by Dickie Brennan & Co. in Audubon Park. Across town, it has Acorn, the cafe in the Louisiana Children’s Museum in City Park, and the market/cafe Commissary in the Lower Garden District, where Bellegarde Bakery, acquired by the restaurant group this year, is now based.

The company is the operations partner in the forthcoming The Josephine on Napoleon, an event space now transforming the former Our Lady of Lourdes Church, near Freret Street.

n Expands the distance state lawmakers can travel to include anywhere in North America and U.S. territories when they are giving a speech and have food, transportation and lodging costs paid for by someone else.

n Expands the distance lawmakers can travel for “informational” or “educational” purposes to include anywhere in the U.S. and its territories and have travel costs paid for by someone else.

n Defines how public officials should value complimentary private airfare they receive on financial disclosure forms.

n Clarifies that public school educators who get paid for work at their school that’s in addition to teaching duties aren’t in violation of ethics rules.

n Allows athletic trainers who work at public schools to be compensated for that work by a private entity

n Allows Louisiana Racing Commission members or the executive director to own a racehorse that participates in races licensed by the racing commission.

n Requires high-level public ofﬁcials to ﬁle annual financial disclosure statements electronically

n Requires the Board of Ethics to produce monthly reports on the number of subpoenas issued and twiceyearly reports with aggregate data on complaints, investigations fines it imposes, types of violations, charges filed and judgments. Another proposal the Legislature considered during the session, House Bill 160, ultimately died in the final weeks of the legislative session. It would have prohibited the filing of anonymous or confidential ethics complaints.

Senate President Cameron Henry R-Metairie, said lawmakers were worried it would have had a chilling effect on ethics enforcement.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Palace Café owner Dickie Brennan, back to the camera hugs Geordie Brower after announcing the closure of the restaurant on Monday as Richard Brennan III, right, looks on.

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OPEC+ to boost oil by 548K barrels

Eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries say they will boost production by 548,000 barrels per day in August in a move that could further reduce gas prices this year

The group that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia made the decision at a virtual meeting Saturday They cited a “steady global economic outlook” and low oil inventories.

Oil prices spiked sharply last month during the bloody, 12-day conﬂict between Israel and Iran but then tumbled back down as the U.S. helped broker a peace deal after dropping bombs on three of Iran’s key nuclear sites.

Saudi Arabia holds signiﬁcant inﬂuence in OPEC+ as the dominant member of the OPEC producers’ cartel, and Russia is the leading non-OPEC member in the 22-country alliance.

Along with Saudi Arabia and Russia, the group that met Saturday is made up of Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman.

A statement said the new measures were in accordance with a December decision to put off increasing production at that time, but gradually increase it by 2.2 million barrels per day over an 18-month period starting in April and ending in fall 2026. The delayed ramp-up reflected weaker-than-expected demand and competing production from nonallied countries.

Wall Street falls with Trump’s new tariffs

Stocks on Wall Street closed broadly lower Monday as the White House stepped up pressure on major trading partners to make deals before punishing tariffs imposed by the U.S. take effect.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8% for its biggest loss since mid-June. The benchmark index remains near its all-time high set last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.9%. The Nasdaq composite also ﬁnished 0.9% lower, not too far from its own record high.

The losses were widespread Decliners outnumbered gainers by nearly 4 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Monday’s market sell-off came on the ﬁrst day of trading in the U.S. after a holiday-shortened week.

Nearly all of the sectors in the S&P 500 index closed in the red, with technology ﬁnancial and consumer-related stocks among the biggest weights on the market. Apple fell 1.7%, JPMorgan Chase dropped 1.4% and Home Depot slid 1.1%. Molina Healthcare fell 2.9% after the insurer lowered its proﬁt guidance due to rapidly accelerating costs.

Shares of Tesla stock continue to slide

Shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla tumbled 7% as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and Trump reignited over the weekend.

Musk, once a top donor and ally of Trump, announced that he was forming a third political party in protest over the Republican spending bill that passed late last week.

In a social media post Sunday, Trump said that the billionaire owner of SpaceX, Tesla and X had gone “off the rails” in recent weeks. Since hitting an all-time high of $479.76 on Dec. 17, Tesla shares have lost about 40% of their value. Investors fear that Musk’s companies, which receive signiﬁcant subsidies from the federal government, could suffer further if his feud with Trump continues to fester “With the autonomous future ahead and the AI Revolution in full force Musk/Tesla do not need to keep poking the bear as Trump can create more hurdles for Musk/Tesla/SpaceX over the coming years if this political battle gets nastier heading into mid-terms in 2026,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients late Sunday

BUSINESS

NOLA.COM/BIZ

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY AP technology writer

Less than a month after extending a deadline to ban TikTok for the third time, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday night that, “We pretty much have a deal,” on TikTok — but he did not offer details.

The details and timing of a potential deal are not clear TikTok did not immediately respond to messages for comment on Monday

Emarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman said while TikTok is “reportedly planning” a U.S. version of its

app to comply with legal restrictions, the platform — if it launches without the original TikTok algorithm — “risks losing the very personalization that drives user engagement.”

In other words, TikTok just isn’t TikTok without its algorithm.

“And getting millions to download a new app is no small feat, to say the least,” Goldman added.

Though he has no clear legal basis to do so, Trump has continued to extend the deadline for TikTok to avoid a ban in the U.S This gives his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.

It is not clear how many times Trump can — or will — keep ex-

tending the ban as the government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance. While there is no clear legal basis for the extensions, so far there have been no legal challenges against the administration. Trump has amassed more than 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. He said in January that he has a “warm spot for TikTok.”

For now, TikTok continues to function for its 170 million users in the U.S. Tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle were persuaded to continue to offer and support the app, on the promise that Trump’s Jus-

tice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep ﬁnes against them.

Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago.

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren’t sure.

Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users’ data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.

Japan, South Korea

BY JOSH BOAK Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Monday set a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea, as well as new tariff rates on Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar and Tunisia, all of which would go into effect on Aug. 1.

Trump provided notice by posting letters on Truth Social that were addressed to the leaders of the various countries. The letters warned them to not retaliate by increasing their own import taxes, or else the Trump administration would further increase tariffs.

“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge,” Trump wrote in the letters to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jaemyung.

The letters were not the ﬁnal word from Trump on tariffs, so much as another episode in a global economic drama in which he has placed himself at the center His moves have raised fears that economic growth would slow to a trickle, if not make the U.S and other nations more vulnerable to a recession. But Trump is conﬁdent that tariffs are necessary to bring back domestic manufacturing and fund the tax cuts he signed into law last Friday

He mixed his sense of aggression with a willingness to still negotiate, signaling the likelihood that the drama and uncertainty would continue and that few things are ever ﬁnal with Trump.

Imports from Myanmar and Laos would be taxed at 40%, South Africa at 30% and Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Tunisia at 25%.

Trump placed the word “only” before revealing the rate in his letters to the foreign leaders, implying that he was being generous with his tariffs.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated at a news brieﬁng that similar letters to approximately four other countries also would be issued Monday Following a now well-worn pattern, Trump plans to continue sharing the letters sent to his counterparts on social media and then mail them the documents, a stark departure from the more formal practices of all his predecessors when negotiating trade agreements. The letters are not agreed-to settlements

BY JENNIFER MCDERMOTT Associated Press

Submerged in about 44 yards of water off Scotland’s coast, a turbine has been spinning for more than six years to harness the power of ocean tides for electricity a durability mark that demonstrates the technology’s commercial viability. Keeping a large, or grid-scale, turbine in place in the harsh sea environment for that long is a record that helps pave the way for bigger tidal energy farms and makes it far more appealing to investors, according to the trade association

but Trump’s own choice on rates, a sign that the closed-door talks with foreign delegations failed to produce satisfactory results for either side. Leavitt said that Trump was by setting the rates himself creating “tailormade trade plans for each and every country on this planet and that’s what this administration continues to be focused on.”

Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute who formerly worked in the ofﬁce of the U.S. Trade Representative, said the tariff hikes on Japan and South Korea were “unfortunate.”

“Both have been close partners on economic security matters and have a lot to offer the United States on priority matters like shipbuilding, semiconductors, critical minerals and energy cooperation,” Cutler said “Moreover companies from both countries have made signiﬁcant manufacturing investments in the U.S. in recent years, bringing high-paying jobs to U.S. workers and beneﬁting communities all around the country.”

Trump still has outstanding differences on trade with the European Union and India, among other trading partners. Tougher talks with China are on a longer time horizon in

Ocean Energy Europe Tidal energy projects would be prohibitively expensive if the turbines had to be taken out of the water for maintenance every couple of years.

Tidal energy technologies are still in the early days of their commercial development, but their potential for generating clean energy is big. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, marine energy, a term researchers use to refer to power generated from tides, currents, waves or temperature changes is the world’s largest untapped renewable energy resource.

The MeyGen tidal energy project off the coast of Scotland has four turbines producing 1.5 megawatts each, enough electricity collec-

which imports from that nation are being taxed at 55%.

Trump has declared an economic emergency to unilaterally impose the taxes, suggesting they are remedies for past trade deﬁcits even though many U.S. consumers have come to value autos, electronics and other goods from Japan and South Korea

The constitution grants Congress the power to levy tariffs under normal circumstances, though tariffs can also result from executive branch investigations regarding national security risks.

It’s unclear what he gains strategically against China — another stated reason for the tariffs by challenging two crucial partners in Asia, Japan and South Korea, that could counter China’s economic heft.

“These tariffs may be modiﬁed, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country,” Trump wrote in both letters.

Because the new tariff rates go into effect in roughly three weeks, Trump is setting up a period of possibly tempestuous talks among the U.S. and its trade partners to reach new frameworks.

tively to power up to 7,000 homes annually On Thursday the Swedish company SKF announced that its bearings and seals on one of the turbines had passed the 61/2-year mark without needing unplanned or disruptive maintenance. It has been working closely with the industry for a decade on design and testing. Achieving six years in the water with constant operations is a “very signiﬁcant milestone” that bodes well for the future of tidal energy, said Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe. Scotland and the United Kingdom are global leaders in tidal energy

The MeyGen site, operated by SAE Renewables, has been sending electricity to the grid for about eight

years. There are very few tidal energy projects generating electricity continuously Most have been tests and demonstrations, said Andrea Copping, an expert in marine renewable energy development. Copping said there are still large hurdles to overcome before tidal energy can be adopted more widely such as dealing with regulatory issues, potential environmental effects and conﬂicts with other ocean users. Still, the Scotland project seems to have addressed the question of whether the turbines can last in seawater, added Copping, a distinguished faculty fellow in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington.

State board rejects public defenders’ appeals

5 challenged nonrenewal of contracts

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

A Louisiana board on Monday

narrowly rejected appeals from five top parish public defenders who sought to keep their jobs after the state public defender said he would not renew their contracts.

In a 5-4 vote, the Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board sided with State Public Defender Rémy Starns, agreeing that the nonrenewals did not constitute terminations and that the district chiefs therefore did not have the right to appeal.

Rick Schroeder, an attorney for the chiefs, said they are considering taking the case to court

“I have to get approval from my clients to say what the next steps will be, but the potential next step includes a declaratory judgment and damages action in state court and a civil rights action in federal court,” he said. “Those are the two that we are reviewing.”

The defenders’ contracts ended

they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Kerr County officials said Monday 10 campers and one counselor have still not been found.

Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in the county home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, ofﬁcials said. With additional rain on the way, more ﬂooding still threatened saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise.

The raging flash floods — among the nation’s worst in decades — slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past ﬂoating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks Monday The debris included reminders of what drew so many to the campgrounds and cabins in the Hill Country — a volleyball, canoes and a family portrait.

Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local ofﬁcials said.

Among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing. Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to ﬂooding

July 1. Starns, who could not immediately be reached for comment, has replaced them with interim chiefs.

The ﬁve public defenders whose contracts were not renewed are: n Trisha Ward, of Evangeline Parish n Michelle AndrePont, of Caddo Parish n Brett Brunson, of Natchitoches Parish

n Deirdre Fuller, of Rapides Parish

n John Hogue, of East Carroll, Madison and Tensas parishes

Starns clashed with those defenders during several policy debates, including last year when he supported a bill in the Legislature that gave him more power over the public defense system. They also opposed a compensation plan he proposed that would have cut some district chiefs’ salaries by tens of thousands of dollars.

In February, he sent the five chiefs letters saying their contracts would not be renewed. They

appealed to the board, arguing they were ﬁred without cause and in violation of state law, and that Starns’ decision was retaliatory

Starns argued that the board did not have the authority to change his decision because he simply let contracts lapse instead of terminating the defenders.

The interim public defenders Starns appointed include Christopher Ludeau in Evangeline Parish, Mary Harried in Caddo Parish, James Calhoun in Natchitoches Parish, Chad Guillot in Rapides Parish and Pamela Grady in East Carroll, Madison and Tensas parishes.

The five board members who sided with Starns were all appointed within the past month after a slew of previous members resigned. The new members include Stephen Dwyer and Jeffrey Hufft, who were appointed by Gov Jeff Landry, along with Mary Devereux, a Louisiana Supreme Court appointee.

Kevin Landreneau, named to the board by Senate President Cameron Henry, and Medlock Harbison, appointed by House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, also voted with the

winning side. Frank Thaxton, Adreijia Boutte, Paul deMahy and Phyllis Keaty all voted to overrule Starns. All four members have been on the board since it was reconstituted last year Landry appointed deMahy and Keaty, and he picked Boutte off a list of nominees from the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Public Defender Association of Louisiana. The state Supreme Court appointed Thaxton.

At the crux of Monday’s debate over the former defenders’ jobs was whether state statute protected them from being ﬁred without good cause.

During the meeting, the defenders argued the nonrenewals were illegal, citing a state statute that says: “In an effort to maintain continuity of public defender services in each judicial district, any person serving as the district public defender of a judicial district shall continue to contract with the ofﬁce and serve as the district public defender of that district.”

They also cited quotes from legislators who indicated that the

statute governing the state public defender was written to protect local chiefs from arbitrarily losing their jobs.

“We do not seek more than the law provides,” Fuller said. “Much to the state public defender’s chagrin, you have the authority and the obligation to follow the law.”

But Christopher Walters, deputy executive counsel for Landry, argued state statute did not give the board the authority to intervene He contended that, when legislators overhauled the public defense system in 2024, they only intended to protect the current public defenders’ contracts for a year citing quotes from hearings at that time.

The Attorney General’s Office also offered an opinion that the nonrenewals did not constitute terminations, which Tom Jones, director of the ofﬁce’s civil decision, defended Monday

“If you’re terminated yeah, you get a hearing but nowhere in those statutes does it say that anybody is entitled to a hearing when the contract expires,” Jones said. “Who in the world would think that a contract lasts forever?”

that some local residents refer to as “ﬂash ﬂood alley.”

That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received.

One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said.

“We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,” he said. “We’re looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.”

Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the ﬂoods.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings

“There’s a time to have political ﬁghts, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time,” Cruz said. “There will be a time to find out what could been done differently My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a ﬂood.”

The weather service ﬁrst advised of potential ﬂooding

on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing ﬂash

ﬂood emergencies — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger Authorities and elected ofﬁcials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.

President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, said he plans to visit the state on Friday He had said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were ﬁred this year

“This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,” the president said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufﬁcient warnings.

More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov Greg Abbott said Sunday Search and rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been

directed to Kerr County Kerrville city officials urged people to stop ﬂying drones over the area after they said a private drone

operating illegally Monday afternoon collided with a helicopter involved in emergency operations. The helicopter was forced to make

an emergency landing and is out of service until further notice.

Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her “Then they were able to reach their tool shed up on higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said. Elizabeth Lester, a moth-

JanRisher

LOUISIANA AT LARGE

Join food bank challenge

I’ve done alot of volunteering through theyears, but Imust say my time at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank last week was one of the most user-friendly volunteer experiences ever Talk about having an effective system!

Other organizations that need volunteers could learn alot from the experience. Ihighly recommend signing up online at volunteer.brfoodbank.org/volunteersign-up? and giving it atry

First, Ichecked in at akiosk and then entered alarge warehouse to ﬁnd avariety of tasks from making boxes, to sorting food,to ﬁlling boxes.

Mark Walker,the food bank’s volunteer manager, went beyond justmanagingthings. He was also the DJ and had aboom box playing upbeat music, which was not too loud, but just right —ﬁnding the right music for adiverse crowd and keeping everyone happy with the volume is agift in itself.

Steadfast volunteers whoshow up almost daily wore red T-shirts and helped lead the effort

The efﬁciency of the 28 people volunteering on aThursday morning was impressive. Asmall group of high school and college students assembled500 boxes.

Iworked with students and volunteers from OmniCable tofill boxes with cans of green beans. Each box neededto weigh between 35 and 40 pounds. Figuring out the math was easy,and the process was oddly satisfying— though Idid fill my firstbox too full. Never fear

The kind Amir Jaffar,arising junior and premed student, helped me take it to the scale. I didn’tmake that mistake again

Brian Hightower,chief development ofﬁcer,gave me atour of the giant facility,including the refrigerator,freezer,locally grown fresh produce, disaster relief, dry storage and the room where they

ä See RISHER, page 2B

Orleans, Jefferson make gainson LEAP tests

St.Tammany students’rates dip

BYELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

Students throughout the greater New Orleans region saw little growth in English on this year’s state LEAP tests but madeslight improvements in math,reﬂecting atrend in school districtsacross Louisiana, according to newly released statetest scores. There were some victories for local school systems

NOLA Public Schools was one of the state’sdistricts to make the most progress, withthe number of students in third through 12th grades who achieved mastery or above increasing by 2percentage points over last year.The St.Tammany Parish school systemwas among the state’s top-performing

METRO

Cantrell addressescriticism

Mayorclaps back at naysayers focusedonher second term

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

Mayor LaToya Cantrell deﬁantly addressed critics of her administration during aweekendpanel discussion atthe EssenceFestival of Culture,clapping back forthe second time in as manymonths at naysayers who have seized on

aseries of scandals during her second term

Cantrell noted how she rose to the Mayor’sOfﬁce with more than 60% of the citywide vote in 2017 and was reelected withnearly 65% of the vote in 2021.

Three monthslater,she faced a recall campaign.

“Itgoes fromcelebration to cruciﬁxion real fast,” Cantrellsaid, according to videoofthe panel posted on YouTube.

Cantrell deliveredthose remarks in thewaning days of a tumultuoussecond term during which her approval rating has tumbled. Arecent citywide poll estimated her popularity at 27%.

Atangle of factors have fueled herplummeting popularity includingthe ultimatelyunsuccessful recallcampaign, surging violent crimeinthe wakeofCOVID-19, dysfunctional city sanitation services after Hurricane Ida in 2021 and afederal investigation into her spending and political activities.Her inner circle shriveled and Cantrellhas been left with few trusted advisers to shape her decision-making. On Sunday,Cantrell said much of that criticism was baseless.

“We’re in aclimate that wants to tear mayors down, Black ones,

N.O. communitymourns

Life of Walmartworker stabbedtodeath celebrated with second-line

BY POETWOLFE

writer

Staff

Crowds dressedinglitter andrainbow attiremarched in the rain-slicked streets of the TremeonMonday afternoon, their steps syncopated to the bellow of brass horns, as they celebrated the life of Edwin

BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer

French Quarter leaders are seeking an emergency trash hauler to keepthe historic neighborhood clean, flexing itsnewfound authority over sanitation

“Buggy” Johnson Jr

The 27-year-old Walmart stockclerk —belovedfor his warmth,flair and a larger-than-life personality that outshone hisprofound hearing disorder— was stabbedtodeath last monthnearLake Catherine, according to NewOrleans police. The crimestunned the diverse communitiesthat Johnson touched in his relatively short life. As agay,Black, deaf man, he thrivedatthe intersectionofmultiple marginalized identities,and his joyful

contracting thanks to astate law approved in June. Therequest for proposals issued Monday by theFrench Quarter Management District, a state-created board, is the latest maneuver in an ongoing power struggle over the futureoftrash

authenticityinspired thosearound him, accordingtothose who remembered him Monday

More than60friends and strangers alike turned out to honor Johnson, despite spotty rain showers. Minutesbefore the second-line, some distributed ﬂower chains andrainbow-printedfans as the brassbandtuned theirinstruments and aman grilled oysters nearby. Waving handkerchiefs and feathered umbrellas

See MOURNS, page 2B

pickup in the Vieux Carre. The battle has pitted state leaders, City Council members and neighborhoodpropertyownersagainst Mayor LaToya Cantrell. The solicitation comes after Louisiana lawmakers approved abill in June, with the support of council members, allowing the 13-member board to secure “emergency contracts” for sanitation services when city government failstoprovidethose services in theneighborhood. Thecity

BY MICHELLEHUNTER Staff writer

Relativesare desperately searching for a17-year-old boy from Georgiawho disappeared a week agowhile visiting afriend in Kenner

AntonRoss, arising seniorat Lovejoy High School in Hampton, gotinto a vehicle at theintersection of 27th and Salem streets in Kenneronthe night of June 30.

“He never came home,” saidKenner Police Deputy ChiefMark McCormick. No one has heard from or seen

Anton since then, according to authorities. The department issued amissing person bulletin forthe teen on Sunday Anton’sparents, Tanisha and AnthonyRoss, have been in the NewOrleans area searching for theirson sinceJuly1.They’ve heard disturbing rumors that Anton was killed, Tanisha Ross said. Kenner policeonMondaysaid they are taking the case seriously andhavenot uncovered any indication,thus far,that Anton is no

longer alive. But Tanisha Ross said Anton would never go this long without contacting his family

“I knowmychild wouldcome homeifhewas able to. Something is wrong,” she said. Antonand his family had lived in the New Orleans area. He attended Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie andplayed football andbasketball, according

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

N.O. MayorLaToyaCantrell talksat the opening news conferencefor EssenceFestival of Culture at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in N.O. on Thursday.

See CANTRELL, page 2B

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Rainbowcolors are everywhere, especially thewarmhues of pink that match the crape myrtle flowers that line the streets around Treme, as the mother,right, of Edwin ‘Buggy’ Johnson, whowas recentlyfatally stabbed,leadsasecond-line in memory of her son on MondayinNew Orleans.

in the air, they channeled Johnson’s vibrant spirit with a second-line that began at Tuba Fats Square and concluded at The Original Nite Cap, the speakeasy where Johnson had worked.

His siblings, including his sister Kennedy Johnson — who all wore hot pink shirts featuring a photograph of him surrounded by the words “Justice for Buggy Johnson” — remembered their brother and the joy he radiated.

“He was the true definition of someone loving who they are,” said his brother Corey Johnson, recalling Buggy Johnson’s “angelic” personality “Why care about someone else’s opinions when you can live for yourself?”

“And he was living, honey,” said his sister Katelyn Johnson, laughing.

Profoundly deaf, Buggy Johnson communicated via sign language,

CANTRELL

Continued from page 1B

Black women especially,” she said “I can look at some of my sister mayors who did the job, but that were taken out,” she said. “And I was one of them — but the fact of the matter is, they didn’t take me out, but they tried.”

Though once considered a fiery politician known for taking critics to task, Cantrell has adopted a much more reserved persona over the past 18 months

Last summer, she rarely acknowledged claims of an alleged romantic relationship with her bodyguard or the intensifying federal probe. The federal investigation has since ﬁzzled, sources have said.

The mayor has remained a steady presence at public events, particularly around planning for Super Bowl LIX and in the wake of the Jan.

LEAP

Continued from page 1B

districts, with 45% of students in third through 12th grades achieving mastery or above in English, math and science combined. And ﬁve Jefferson Parish schools were lauded for being among the state’s top-scoring. Students who achieve “mastery” or “advanced” on the annual LEAP tests the highest of ﬁve score levels — are considered ready to move to the next grade. Most high schoolers must pass the LEAP tests to graduate.

New Orleans

In Orleans Parish, where almost all of the roughly 44,000 students attend charter schools, students in third through eighth grades made modest gains. The percentage of students who scored mastery or above in English (37%), math (24%) and science (23%) all improved by 1 percentage point. Broken down by groups, the share of students who hit state targets in all subjects combined was:

n 72% of Asian students (4 percentage points above 2024)

n 22% of Black students (+1)

n 22% of Hispanic students (+2)

n 74% of White students (+1)

n 21% economically disadvantaged (no change)

n 6% English learners (no change). High schoolers saw substantial

body language, facial expressions and the Notes app on his phone. State prosecutors said last month that an iPad he used to communicate was stolen by Nicholas Ortega, 33, and used to lure him to a fatal ambush.

smile and willingness to help.

FOOD BANK DROP-OFF SITES

would have to repay the board for the work. A spokesperson for the Cantrell administration did not respond Monday to a request for comment.

State Sen. Jimmy Harris, DNew Orleans, drafted the legislation as a stopgap to make sure the tourist hub doesn’t go without sanitation services after July 31, when the administration is set to terminate an emergency contract with IV Waste, the ﬁrm currently picking up trash in the Quarter

The Cantrell administration has entered a long-term contract with another ﬁrm, Henry Consulting, to take over on Aug. 1. But residents and business owners have rallied around IV Waste in recent months, and an ongoing legal battle over the city’s contract with Henry Consulting is unlikely to be resolved by then.

The French Quarter Management District is requesting submissions from interested companies by July 18, and will select a contractor July 28 with services to begin Aug. 1.

Police did disclose a motive in the fatal stabbing but said Ortega confessed to the crime.

Buggy Johnson was from Mobile, Alabama, and graduated from the Alabama School of the Deaf in 2017.

His siblings Monday recalled growing up together as children and Buggy Johnson’s favorite hobbies, play things and foods. Kennedy Johnson remembered her brother’s love for animals especially their chihuahua named Bella.

They readily listed out his favorite foods — their mother’s macaroni and cheese and mint chocolate ice cream. They also shared memories of playing Wii games together as children.

He moved to New Orleans in recent years and in 2022 started working for Walmart, where friends and co-workers recalled his beaming

1 terrorist attack on Bourbon Street.

Yet she has mostly avoided confronting those who have questioned her leadership or investigated her affairs.

As her mayoral career nears its ﬁnal months — a period when public ofﬁcials often seek to cement their legacies she appears to be breaking that relative silence.

In June, she told a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors that her treatment as mayor has been “very disrespectful, insulting, (and) in some cases kind of unimaginable.

On Sunday, two other panelists she appeared with moderator Quinting Lacewell, a Wells Fargo lobbyist; and Savannah, Georgia, Mayor Van Johnson — heaped praise on Cantrell during the panel focused on generational wealth. The panel was hosted by the Global Black Economic Forum.

“Mayor Cantrell has set a very high bar for anybody coming after her,” Johnson said. “And I hope (vot-

growth in math, with mastery and above rates increasing by 6 percentage points in Algebra I (38%) and geometry (25%).

English was more mixed. The share of high schoolers reaching the state benchmark in English I (38%) increased by 5 percentage points, while the share for English II (37%) did not change.

“These outcomes underscore our district’s resilience and persistence toward delivering on our promise of a high-quality education for every child,” NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Fateama Fulmore said in a statement.

“While we acknowledge the hard work ahead, our commitment to progress remains steadfast.”

Jefferson Parish

Serving more than 48,000 students, the state’s largest school district saw very few changes on this year’s LEAP test.

For third through eighth grades, the share of students who scored mastery or above in English (37%) was ﬂat, while the percentage who hit the mark in math (27%) and science (26%) each rose by 2 percentage points over last year

The mastery or above rate among student groups was:

n 66% of Asian students (no change from 2024)

n 23% of Black students (-2)

n 24% of Hispanic students (+2)

n 45% of White students (+1)

n 25% economically disadvantaged (+2)

n 6% English learners (+1).

Buggy Johnson also worked as a porter at The Original Nite Cap, a St. Bernard Avenue speakeasy owned by burlesque performer and American Sign Language interpreter Bella Blue. The two collaborated to bring a sign language workshop to the bar January’s snowstorm forced them to postpone the event.

In his free time, Buggy Johnson could often be found at downtown gay bars, including OZ New Orleans, Cafe Lafitte in Exile, Good Friends Bar, Rawhide Lounge and the Phoenix Bar He loved fairies, rainbows and any excuse to get dressed up, Blue said last month.

As they remembered him Monday, his family and friends celebrated the light and love that he brought to his adopted city and, even through their grief, were able to reﬂect with gratitude for the joy New Orleans brought to him.

“New Orleans made him blossom and become who he is,” Katelyn Johnson said.

ers) get as half as good as she is (in the next mayor).”

Lacewell noted Cantrell’s leadership on the 2019 “Fair Share” deal, which brought a higher share of hospitality industry revenue to city coffers, and her role in planning this year’s Super Bowl LIX.

In the mounting election to succeed Cantrell, four major candidates have sought to cast themselves as change agents who can set the city on a different path from what many voters view as Cantrell’s failure to deliver functional city services.

On Sunday, Cantrell seemed to suggest that the next mayor should put politics aside and seek to preserve aspects of her administration’s approach, though she did not specify which ones.

“You see Atlanta right now, it is that mecca because it has been able to sustain that support and investment, and not killing it because it was a different administration,” she said. “We fall victim to that sometimes.”

The percentage of high schoolers who achieved mastery or above rose 6 percentage points in Algebra I, to 37% The rate in all other subjects either did not change compared to last year or fluctuated by just 1 percentage point.

Five Jefferson Parish schools Haynes Academy, Metairie Academy, Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy, Gretna No. 2 Academy and Airline Park Academy — were among the state’s top-performing, with 90% or more of students achieving the state benchmark, the district noted in a news release. Each is a selective-admissions school that requires students to meet academic standards to enroll.

“This growth in the number of students reaching mastery and above reﬂects the focus, dedication and collaboration happening across every level of our system,” said Laura Roussel, the district’s chief academic ofﬁcer St Tammany

St. Tammany Parish, which serves around 37,000 students, saw a 1 percentage point decline in the share of third through eighth grade students who met the mark in all subjects combined. Its 45% mastery or above is still well above the statewide average of 35%.

The English rate (54%) declined 3 percentage points from last year, the science rate (38%) dipped one point, and the math

n Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday at 10600 S. Choctaw Drive, Baton Rouge n Foodbank of Northwest Louisiana: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at 285 Mt Zion Road, Shreveport

n North Shore Food Bank: 9 a.m. to noon, Monday,Tuesday and Thursday at their Community Donations door facing West 29th Ave., Covington

n Second Harvest Food Bank Houma: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, 223

700 Edwards Ave., Harahan

RISHER

Continued from page 1B

package rice and beans, which they sell at a low price to food banks across the country High school student Eli Miller, a junior at St. Michael’s, worked with Dexter Ricard Jr., a sophomore at Southern Lab, and Ja’Van Williams, a sophomore from Madisonville, to build boxes.

“I think volunteering is important because I want to be a helping hand in the community any way I can,” Ricard told me when I asked why he was volunteering. “I know some people aren’t as fortunate as others, so I want to be a part of the helping.”

He’s right on all counts. There is a growing sense of urgency at food banks. The number of people who need food is increasing. Be like Dexter Be a part of the helping. The ongoing 100item Food Challenge encourages people across Louisiana to donate food to any food bank. The 100-item Challenge lasts for 100 days and runs through Oct. 6. It’s simple: We ask readers, as individuals or groups, to donate a speciﬁc list of 100 items (in to-

rate (42%) was ﬂat.

The share of each student group who reached mastery or above in all subjects combined:

n 58% of Asian students (down 2 percentage points from 2024)

n 24% of Black students (-1)

n 33% of Hispanic students (no change)

n 54% of White students (-2)

n 31% economically disadvantaged (-1)

n 7% English learners (+1).

High schoolers saw mixed results, with some notable bright spots.

The mastery and above rate in English I (55%) increased by 7 percentage points, the biggest improvement in any grade or subject across the three districts. However, the share who scored the same in English II (52%) declined by 5 percentage points from last year

In math, the Algebra I rate (54%) rose by 4 percentage points, while the geometry rate (39%) inched up 1 percentage point.

In a statement on its website, the district celebrated tying for fifth in the state for its share of students scoring mastery or above, and credited giving teachers the chance to regularly collaborate, saying the gains are thanks, in part, to long-range plans and school-level goals set by district leaders.

Email Elyse Carmosino at ecarmosino@theadvocate.com.

the “highest and best value” to the board.

The contract will last “until such time as the city resumes service through its own employees or pursuant to a lawfully procured and executed contract.”

The solicitation states that the contractor will conduct regular trash pickup, street sweeping and pressure washing using a “lemon fresh cleaning solution,” a hallmark of IV Waste’s services.

“We are 100% bidding on it and will be ready if we’re chosen, as we already have the equipment on the streets working,” said Sidney Torres IV, owner of IV Waste.

Torres added, though, that he hopes “the mayor reconsiders” and allows the company to continue under its existing contract, “so that we don’t have to go through changing contracts.”

“It would be a much smoother and easier process,” Torres said.

tal) to their local food banks.

Here’s the list: n 10 cans of tuna n 10 jars of peanut butter n 10 bags of dry beans n 10 cans of canned meat n 10 cans of vegetables n 10 cans of chili n 10 cans of soup n 10 bags or boxes of pasta n 10 cans of tomato sauce n 10 boxes of cornbread mix.

The 100 items in the challenge add up to about 82 pounds. I originally imagined tracking a speciﬁc number of tons donated. However, with so many food banks involved — and no way to tag which donations are part of the challenge — it just isn’t possible. And the truth is, it really doesn’t matter, does it? The important part is helping others. I encourage you to contact your local food bank and give volunteering a try While you’re at it, see if you can ﬁnd some friends to help donate the 100 items. You can drop off the items when you volunteer Whether it’s 100 cans or just one, your contribution matters. Show up. Chip in. Be like Dexter Be a part of the helping.

Email Jan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.

TEEN

Continued from page 1B

to his mother

The family moved to Georgia, but Anton would frequently return home to see friends and relatives

He was here visiting a friend when he disappeared, Tanisha Ross said. Anton was last seen between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. June 30, getting into a gray Inﬁniti sedan, according to relatives and police.

The friend Anton was visiting phoned his parents the following morning when the teen didn’t return to the friend’s Kenner home, according to Tanisha Ross. Anton’s relatives canvassed the neighborhood searching for him and shared social media posts about the missing teen with no luck.

The family heard rumors that Anton had been killed and his body was dumped in the Mississippi River, according to Tanisha Ross. Kenner police conducted a search but did not ﬁnd the teen, McCormick said.

However Anton’s family still believes the teen may be in the river and has been pleading for help from boaters to search the water

“I’m just trying to get help with recovering his body,” said Tanisha Ross, who was back out with other relatives at the Mississippi River on Monday Anton’s friends and relatives hold out hope that he’s alive and well. But his mother also has come to terms with rumors about Anton’s ﬁnal hours and the son she knows would never put his family through so much uncertainty.

“Unfortunately, he may not be here anymore,” Tanisha Ross said. “My baby would have come home.” Anton was last seen wearing a white tank top under a long-sleeved black hooded shirt. He had two pairs of shorts, red underneath black, with white sneakers and black socks. Anton is 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs about 175 pounds. Anyone with information on Anton is asked to contact Detective Katherine Stroyewski with the Kenner Police Department at (504) 712-222.

The public can also call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111 or (877) 903-7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn a reward of up to $2,500. Email Michelle Hunter at mhunter@theadvocate.com.

According to the request for proposals, which is separate from the city’s standard bid process, the board will evaluate contractors based on “specialized experience and technical competence,

including specialized equipment speciﬁc to the French Quarter” along with “performance history.” The board is not required to choose the lowest bidder but rather the bidder that provides

Troy Henry owner of Henry Consulting, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Email Sophie Kasakove at sophie.kasakove@theadvocate. com.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Signs calling on the city of New Orleans to keep IV Waste as the downtown sanitation vendor appear in windows and on balconies thoughout the

Gretna father jailed on crueltycount

4-month-old dies of braininjury

BY MICHELLEHUNTER Staff writer

Gretna police areinvestigating the deathofa 4-month-old baby whose father was arrested on acruelty count.

Kamari Joneswas hospitalized June 17 after his father,Nicholas Pogozelski, 26, dialed 911 seeking medical help for the infant, accordingtothe Gretna Police Department.

Doctors toldinvestigators the baby had suffered ahead injury,according to Deputy Chief Jason DiMarco Pogozelski said Kamari was hurt when he felloff a bed at their Gretna home.

But police don’tbelieve that’s how the baby was injured, according to DiMarco

While Kamari lay in critical condition, police arrested Pogozelski on June 25 and booked him with

second-degree cruelty to a juvenile, authorities said. Karmari died of his injuries on June27. An autopsy determined the babydied from bleeding on the brain, according tothe Coroner’s Ofﬁce.

Pogozelski has not been rebooked on anyupgraded counts in the wake of his son’sdeath. Police arestill investigating and will refer the case to theJefferson Parish DistrictAttorney’s Ofﬁce, DiMarco said. Pogozelski was beingheld Monday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna.Bailwas set at $500,000.

Pogozelski was one of four defendants charged with brutallymugginga pairof touristsfromBoston who were visiting theFrench Quarter in 2017. Ajudge suspended 10 yearsofa 15-year sentence after he pleadedguilty to twocounts of second-degree robbery

Email Michelle Hunter at mhunter@theadvocate com.

NewOrleans Area Deaths

Barrios,Mark

Bourgeois, Margaret

Carreras, Robert

Costa,Antoinette

Foulon, Marie

Friedman,Richard

Gayden, Christa

Johnson, DeAnya

Landry,Alicia

Maddin, Gayle

Payton, Octavia

Recer,Ervin

Saporito,Craig

ayouth sports organiza‐tion or donate your time to alocal park.The family kindly invitesyou to share thoughts,fondest memo‐ries,and condolenceson‐line at www.MotheFunera ls.com.Comecelebrate the life of agreat manwithus.

Bourgeois, Margaret 'Peggy'

Robert wasariding member of the Kreweof Okeanos for over 45 years, and served as aFloat Lieutenant andBoard Member for over 30 years. He managed all of the Krewe'sprintingneeds including theCoronation Ball programs and coordinated theparade'smarching bands andbands for all krewefunctions for decades

Relativesand friends are invited to attendhis servicesatJacob Schoen & SonFuneral Home at 3827 Canal Street,New Orleans, on Wednesday, July 9th, 2025. Visitation will be from11:30 am to 1:30 pm. A Funeral Mass will follow at 1:30 pm. Father PatrickJ Williams will officiate.

Costa, Antoinette Artall

Covington intersection confrontation leadstocharges

BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer

ASt. Tammany Parish man has been arrested and accused of hitting aperson holding an anti-President Donald Trump sign at a busy Covington intersection on Friday Jeremy Judice, 44, turned himself into the Covington Police Department on Sunday and was booked into St. Tammany Parishjail on countsofsimple battery and criminal damage of property,said Covington Deputy Police Chief Kevin Collins. Judice was released later Sunday,according to the St. Tammany Parish jail roster,which listed his bail as $500 for the simple battery count and $750 for the criminal damage to property count.

Collins said the altercation on Friday happened after asmall group had gathered at the corner of East Boston and North New Hampshire streets —a popular site for antiTrump protests in recent months —toread the Declaration of Independence. The event was organized by the St. Tammany Chapter of Indivisible, anational progressive organization, according to JoanSimon,a chapter leader Collins said, “It was my understanding it wasn’t technically aprotest.” Most of the group left after 20 or 30 minutes, he said, then some time later an individual held up an anti-Trump sign at the intersection.

Simon said the person with the sign had participated in the Indivisible event, but the altercation happened after the event was over The sign-holder claimed Judice hitthem in the face

Email Willie Swett at willie.swett@ theadvocate.com Manaccused

and damaged thesign, Collins said.

Police declined to release any video of the incident. In response to apublic recordsrequest, Christopher Lang, adeputyinthe Covington police evidence division, saidthe videoisnot considered apublic record until thecriminal case has beenadjudicated.

AYouTube video posted on Friday withthe title, “Fascist attacks peaceful July4protester in Covington,Louisiana,” shows part of an altercation involving twoindividuals on the cornerofNorth New Hampshire Street and East Boston Street On the video, abystander can be heardyellingfrom across thestreet, “I got the police on thephone,don’t do nothing stupid. Iwill call the police, don’t fight.” In atextmessage, Judice said under the adviceofhis lawyer, he could not comment In astatement, Indivisible condemned the alleged attack saying, “We stand firmly behind those exercising their right to speak freelyand safelyin public spaces. We also reaffirm our commitment to peaceful civic engagement and reject any attempts to silenceorintimidatecommunity members through violenceorthreats.”

Covington police described the incident as a “battery on acitizenexercising their First Amendment right of free speech” in aFacebook post Monday “Thiskindofbehavior will not be tolerated in the City of Covington,regardless of anyone’spolitical ideology,” Police Chief MichaelFerrell said in the Facebook post. “Weare committed to upholding therightsand safetyofall individuals in our city and will take decisive action against thosewho seek to undermine them.”

EJefferson

Garden of Memories

Bourgeois, Margaret Villa,Emile Stewart, Margaret

Foulon, Marie

NewOrleans

DW Rhodes

Landry,Alicia

Payton, Octavia

Lake Lawn Metairie

Friedman,Richard Costa,Antoinette

Saporito,Craig

River Parish

Hobson BrownFH

Johnson, DeAnya

St Tammany Bagnell Son

Maddin, Gayle

West Bank Mothe

Barrios,Mark

Obituaries

Barrios,MarkAnthony 'Geese' 'DonaldDuck'

Margaret “Peggy”Bour‐geois, alifelongresidentof Metairie,Louisiana,passed away peacefully on July 1, 2025, at theage of 78. Peggy wasthe beloved wife of thelateO'NeilBour‐geoisJr.,withwhomshe shared nearly 50 yearsof marriage.She wasthe cherisheddaughterofthe late Nell Snee Moragasand Joseph MoragasJr. She wasalsoprecededin deathbyher infantson, O'Neil Jean Bourgeois III, andher brother, Joseph MoragasIII. Sheissurvived by herdaughterMelissa Mashaw,and herson Tim‐othy Bourgeoisand his wife CammieBourgeois Peggy wasa proudand loving grandmothertoIan Smith, KatieSmith,Ilana Marrero, Gage Bourgeois, Kole Bourgeois, andHenry Bourgeois. Herjoy contin‐uedthrough hergreatgrandchildren: Roman Marrero, Margaret Girault, andKohen Bourgeois. She also leaves behind EsJay Canchola,who waslov‐inglywelcomedintothe familythrough hergrand‐sonIan.She is also sur‐vivedbyher dear sister ChristineHerry andher husband Paul Herry;her nephew Phil Sondes;and herniecesCrissie Schillage, JanelZinna,Pam Robbins,and Peggy Bearb. Peggy will be remembered forher quietstrength, kind spirit,deep devotion to her family, andunwavering love that touchedeveryone around her. Herlegacy livesonthrough thelives of thoseshe lovedsowell. Avisitationwillbeheldon Tuesday, July 8, 2025, from 10:00 AM to 12:00PM, fol‐lowedbya funeralMassat St.Benilde Catholic Church,1901 Division St Metairie,LA70001. Peggy will be laid to rest at Gar‐denofMemoriesCeme‐tery,4900 AirlineDr, Metairie,LA70001. In lieu of ﬂowers, the familyasks that youkeep Peggy in your prayersand honorher by cherishing time with your lovedones. Online condolencesmay be of‐feredatwww.gardeno fmemoriesmetairie.com.

Antoinette Artall Costa, alifelong resident of New Orleans, passed away on July 2, 2025, at the age of 95. Born on October 6, 1929, to Michael Joseph Artall andAngelina Roppolo Artall.She was thebeloved wife of Victor Frank Costa for 75 years and forever his "Honey".Antoinettewas deeply rootedinher faith, family, andcommunity.A devotedmember of St DominicCatholic Church, Antoinette served faithfully on theAltar Society, finding joyand purpose in helpingprepare thechurch she loved so dearly. Her deep spirituality waswovenintoeverypartofher life. Antoinette hada gift for nurturing —whether it washer beautiful garden, atreasuredhobby that led hertojointhe Lakeview Garden Club, or the warm, welcoming home shecreated for herfamily. She wasa talentedseamstress and found peace in sewing andcrocheting,often crafting pieces filledwith love.Her kitchen wasthe heartofmanygatherings, whereshe expressed her love throughher delicious home-cooked meals, always made with care and tradition.She foundjoy in life'ssimple pleasures traveling, sharing stories laughingwith lovedones —and hergentle spirit and generous heart touched everyonewho knew her.

Antoinette'slegacyof love,faith, andquiet strength will live on in the hearts of herfamilyand friends.

Preceded in death by herparents; grandson, Robert (Robby) Callahan; andher son-in-law, JackB Jones.

MarieCaronne Foulon passedawayonFriday, July 4, 2025 at theage of 94. Shejoins in heaven her belovedhusband of 72 years, Eugene "Gene" Foulon;her son, Randy Foulon;her parents, Josephineand Phillip Caronne;and hersiblings, NancyVaz andJay Caronne.She will be dearly missedbyher son, Barry Foulon (Dotti); hergrand‐children:Sally Turnipseed (Jon), MandyToomey (John),JenniferLund (Jeff); great-grandchildren: Haley, Julia, Sara,Katherine, Logan, Mallory, Arden, Ava, andMolly;aswellasher sister,PatriciaMurray, and ahostofnieces, nephews, otherrelatives,and friends. Mariewas anative of NewOrleans anda long‐time resident of Metairie LA.She enjoyedcooking, home decorating,and throwing parties. Shesup‐ported thelocal commu‐nity theaterand wasa member of “The Tuesday Night” ladies club.Rela‐tivesand friendsare in‐vitedtoattendthe Funeral Services at Garden of Memories FuneralHome, 4900 AirlineDrive Metairie, LA 70001 on Thursday,July 10, 2025. Visitation will beginat10:00 am with a Mass starting at 12:00 noon followed by inter‐ment at CypressGrove Cemetery in NewOrleans, LA.Toorder ﬂowersor offercondolences,please visit www.gardenofmem oriesmetairie.com.

Carreras, Robert Raymond 'Slim'

Robert Raymond Carreras passed away at his home on July30th, 2025, at theage of 88. He was borninNew Orleans and was alifelong resident of thecity. JacobSchoen & SonFuneral Home has been entrusted with hisarrangements.

Survivors include her husband, Victor Frank Costa; daughters, Karen Costa Kirkley(Thomas), Judy Costa Jones, and Michelle Costa Taravella (Joe); sister,LucilleArtall; grandchildren, Victor Jones (Nicole), Daniel Kirkley(Stephanie), Jeremy Jones (Jessie) David Kirkley(Jen), Angela Williams (Paul), Andrea Codina, John Callahan (Tré), Meghan Callahan, Nicholas Taravella (Monica), and Joseph Taravella, Jr.(Jeana); great -grandchildren, Andrew, Max, Jasper,Thomas, Theodore, Thatcher,Selah Hayden,Victoria, Juliana PaulMichael, Perri, Aubrey, Joshua,Anthony, Maxwell, Margot, Millie, andMae; andnumerous nieces andnephews.

The familywould like to give special thanks to her caregivers, Leslie Kennedy, Tonya Myers, andEureka Miller

Robert was married to thelate JoyLowery Carreras for66years, and was father of Bret A. Carreras (Gernell),grandfather of Justin T. Carreras (Amy),Nolan M. Carreras, and thelateCourtney Carreras, and great-grandfather of Julia Carreras.

He is precededindeath by his wife, Joy, his parentsJohn B. Carreras and Mercedes R. Carreras, and hissister Elaine Carreras Touro

Visitation will be from 11 a.m. until1 p.m. Thursday, July 10, 2025, at Lake LawnMetairie Funeral Home. Afuneral mass will follow in the Chapel at 1p.m. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery.Condolences may be expressed at www.lakelawnmetairie.co m.

Mark Anthony“Geese” BarriosAKA Donald Duck, wasborninNew Orleans, LA on January29, 1956, and left us waybeforehis time on Thursday,July3,2025, at theage of 69 doingwhat he loved. Mark is the belovedhusband andbest friend of JulieWardBar‐rios,married for52years He is theson of thelate Levi andVivianFolse Bar‐rios.Proud father of Greg AnthonyBarrios andAmy BarriosHamilton(Brian) Proudgrandfather of Ralph Rodgers, Noah Barrios, BraydenBarrios,SethBar‐rios,and Isabel Hamilton Theproud greatgrandfa‐ther of Vivian Rodgers. He is thebeloved brotherof Patricia BarriosPitre (War‐ren) andWalterBarrios (Bonny).Heissurvivedby many much-loved nieces, nephews, cousinsand friends. He wasa member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church andthe Westwego Senior Center.Heretired after 38 yearsfromAvon‐dale/NorthropGrumman Shipyard.Hewas aProduc‐tion Plannerinthe Plan‐ning Department at the endofhis career.Heen‐joyed ﬁshing, crabbing andspendingtimeonthe water. He lovedtocook dance, andentertain everyone he met. HisDon‐aldDuckvoice will be re‐membered by allwho met him. Hismostbeloved ac‐tivity wasspendingtime with hisfamily. In his younger yearshehad a passionfor softball.Thank youeveryonefor your thoughts andprayers.A wake will be held at Mothe FuneralHome, 7040La‐palcoBoulevard,Marrero, LA on Saturday,July12, 2025, from 4:30 PM to 8PM. Thefuneral servicewillbe on Sunday,July13, 2025, starting with avisitationat 12 PM with services to fol‐lowat1:30PMinthe Fu‐neral Home chapel.Inlieu of ﬂowerspleasedonateto

Robert,known as "Slim" by many of his friends, graduated from Nicholls High School and received his Building Trades Drafting certificatefrom DelgadoTrades and Technical Institute.Hewas manager and then owner of Marrero Blueprint and Supply (Marrero Reproductions) for over five decades. He retired withthe COVID epidemic of 2020 at theage of 83.

NewOrleans Louisiana -Richard Samuel Friedman devotedhusband, father,retired banker, Vietnam Veteranand philanthropist,passed away at theage of 81 in theearly morningofJuly7,2025, with hislovingwife,Linda Norman Friedman at his side. Born on May8,1944, in DesMoines, Iowa, Richard was theson of Harriet and AbeJ Friedman.Hegraduated from HarvardUniversity and served in Vietnam as an infantry officer.A New Orleansresident for over 50 years, he wasanactive member of theNew OrleansLawn Tennis Club, Rotary Club andJewish CommunityCenter. Richard wasanenthusiastictennisplayerand never missed an opportunity for achallenging tennis game. He wasanactivemember of TouroSynagogue and regularcontributortoits ShabbatMorning Weekly Torah Study. Additionally, he supported several other organizations throughout theGreater NewOrleans Jewish Communityand communityatlarge.He freely gave histime, talent andtreasure to numerous charitableorganizations. Richard's generosity was only exceededbyhis sense of humor and appreciation of thespecial humanity of everyonewho came into hislife. He had an infectioussmileand freely gave complimentstoeveryone whocrossedhis path. Richard is preceded in death by hisprecious son, Brian Roussel Friedman He is survived by hisloving wife of fifty-three years, Linda Norman Friedman; sister,Margo Friedman; brother-in-law, Maurice Frank Norman; sister-inlaw,SandraNorman;niece, Lisa Friedman (Philip) Miller;nephews, Mark (Alex)Friedman and Kenneth(Elizabeth Lempert) Norman; and many friends. Alover of dogs, he will be sorely missed by hisfaithful, canine friend, Muffin. Funeral Serviceswill be held at the Touro Synagogue Chapel, 4238 St Charles Avenue,New Orleans, LA 70115 on Thursday, July 10, 2025, at 11:00 AM,with visitation beginningat10:30 AM InternmentatHebrewRest

See more DEATHS page

Foulon,Marie Caronne

Friedman, Richard Samuel

OUR VIEWS

To ourTexas neighbors, Louisianais readyto help

The scenes out of Texasoverthe weekend were all too devastatingly familiar to many Louisianans: Houses wiped off their foundations. Mangled cars andtrees lying in a wrecked landscape. And the water —everywhere the water,even in places it should not be.

More than 80 people are confirmed dead in flash flooding along the Guadalupe River that began Friday night in central Texas. Dozens more are still missing in one of the deadliest floods in the last 100 years. Our hearts go out to the residents of our neighboring state. We were glad to see that the Officeofthe StateFire Marshal sent aspecial team from Baton Rouge, Zachary,West Feliciana, East Side and Shreveport fire departments to Texas on Saturday to assist in recovery efforts.

We know that Louisiana and its residents stand ready to help our neighbors in any way we can in the coming days, weeks and months. We will always remember the kindness of Texansasweapproach the 20thanniversary of Hurricane Katrina in August —withHouston’s Astrodomebecoming amassive shelter and other cities around the statetaking in evacuees from the storm.

Texans stood with us then, and many times overthe years, as Louisianans experienced natural disasters, Texanshave been among the ﬁrst to offer shelter and support.Weare glad to return the favor As the names and the stories of the victims become known, we also grieve with those affected. The young girls who were experiencing the wonders of Camp Mystic, the families who were enjoyingaFourth of July break in the beauty of Texas Hill Country —all of those lost are going to be in our prayers for along time.

We know that Texans are in just the ﬁrst stagesofthis tragedy,with shock and disbelief mingled with mourning for the lives lost. We know there is along road ahead torecovery and healing. We alsoknowthere are many questions everyone wantsanswers to. Allthat will come in time. However,wedowant tosay in this moment that we hope this tragedy will lead to renewed support for the systems we’ve devised over the years to help prepare for and respond to natural disasters.

We all rely on the work of the trained scientists and researchers at theNational Weather Service andthe NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We all are vulnerable to increasingly extremeweather events caused by climate change that grants funded by the National Science Foundation aimed to study We all need aFederal Emergency Management Agency that can be there quickly on the ground with aid when all seems chaotic.

Alongthe Gulf Coast, when tragedies like these occur,it’sa given we’ll band together to help one another.But we also need to rememberthat as anation we arestronger when we recognize our shared interests and humanity

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

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

OPINION

Parisa far-better city to bike in

Iwritethis as Iconclude my second biking excursion through the streets of Paris. Between this trip and theﬁrst one, I’ve now biked over 200 miles through all sections of that storied city Ialso bike about 150 miles aweek at home, in New Orleans, and as that form of transportation provides great insight into thecharacter of alocale, Ican now share with you some differences between these two urban legends.

Paris will immediately strike aNew Orleanian as aplace where public breaches of civilityare nottolerated, either by thepeople or the govern-

ment. There is acode of conduct that will garner you icy stares if you break it. Iexperienced this one day when I accidentally dropped an empty Coke can in the street. Before Icould bend down to pick it up, Iwas met with half adozen angry scowls.

Now,astobike riding, one difference between Paris and NewOrleans is the very large number of bike lanes on the streetsofthe former and the many thousands of bikers one constantly sees, bothonnarrow cobblestone paths and large avenues. Many bikers use bike paths that are only about 2feet wide, which puts themdirectly in the face of cars and

Indoor pool greatlyaddstoBehrman Park

Iwould like to commend the New Orleans Recreation and Development Commission and the city of New Orleans for the indoor pool, the George Rainey,atBehrman Park. Orleans Parish did not have an indoor pool on the West Bank. Several of us who go there think it was the bestspent money of our taxpayer dollars.

IgoMondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the morning since it opened. What amazes me is the numberofpeople who attend the water exercise class these days. There are anywhere from 40 to 70 people who

participateinthoseclasses three days aweek. Ithink it is the healthiest thing that has been added to our community Aside noteisthat the staff who work there are talented, skilled, kind and maintain the rules to keep us in line and safe. It is ashame that the powers-thatbe didn’tput thesame thought into restoring Brechtel Park Golf Course. It would have been the only public golf course on theWestBank in Orleans Parish.

FRANCES WEBB NewOrleans

Leveeboard commissioner hasfaced unfair taunts

Iread with great disappointment about the tumultuous recentmeeting of theSoutheast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority –East Board of Commissioners, speciﬁcally caustic insultshurled by one member at Commissioner Clay Cossé.

Ihave known Commissioner Cossé for many years and served with him brieﬂy on the St.Bernard Parish Council. Beyond being aman of unquestioned integrity,Cossé is hardly feeble. I’ve witnessed him standup to powerful interestswhile standing up for thegeneral public good and withstand threats to him personally and his business.

Few Louisiana politicians who

have had to endurewhat Cossé has during his time as acommissioner remainwilling to remain involved in politics

This resilience is in no small part due to Cossé beingaman of sincere religious conviction and having spent the ﬁrst part of his life working on thewaters of south Louisiana as acommercial ﬁsherman.

Ihope the levee ofﬁcial who engaged in these personalattacks will reconsider his harsh words about Cossé and ask himself if alevee boardmeeting is the appropriate venue to engage in such conduct.

MICHAEL BAYHAM Chalmette

trucks going the opposite direction. It could be arecipe fordisaster except forone thing: Both bikers and drivers pay careful and thoughtful attention to one another Parisians seem to respect what one might call the Rules Of Civilized Conduct morethan NewOrleanians do. Hence, their city is cleaner and safer, and it also appears to be economically stronger.When the inhabitants of a city exhibit self-control, it turns out, businesses can thrive, jobs abound and the city “works.” Perhaps we can learn from this example.

MIKEWEINBERGER

Metairie

Many reasonstobe concernedabout howjailbreak was handled

To say I’m ﬂabbergasted about the New Orleans jailbreak is an understatement.

Out of the 10 escaped inmates, there’sstill one on the loose. Antione Massey,known as “Houdini” to the authorities, is the latest to be captured, and boy does he have atrack record. He’sbeen convicted of robbery,possession of aﬁrearm, theft, domestic abuse, and on top of that, he’swanted for rape and kidnapping in St. Tammany Parish. His reputation scares me

This jailbreak is causing concern to citizens, and Iknow I’m not the only one. Plus, the search for these escapees has cost the city $250,000 per week Now,considering the costs from the Bourbon NewYear’sattack, which contributed to adeﬁcit of over $70 million, this isn’talot of money.But the fact that it’scosting this muchisvery unsettling to me Massey posted avideo, claiming to prove his innocence. This proves to me that these inmates didn’tescape for the plot, they escaped to show out and show off.

To be honest, these past few months have been eventful for New Orleans. First, the New Year’sattack, then Mardi Gras was late this year,and now this. I’m ﬂabbergasted, I’m bewildered and have abunch of other emotions. My concern throughout all of this is to be safeinmyown city IMARIDUPREE senior,Thomas JeffersonAcademy

Washington Parish Sheriff Jason Smith, on the job for one year as of July 1, doesn’tlike the word “progressive.” And why should he? He’s aRepublican sheriffinavery conservative parish. Progressive is adirty word there, applied to the likes of New York Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the liberal firebrand. When Iasked him if it applied to him, he grimaced. “Please don’tuse that word,” he said. Ididn’t comeupwith it, though. It came from one of his captains, a Washington Parish native and longtime deputy who, when Iasked him to describe what working for Smith was like, said “refreshingly progressive.” That term is not one you expect to hear in places like the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office. Iasked the captain what he meant. It had nothing to do with being conservative or liberal, the captain said. Rather,Smithis turning law enforcement in the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office “from a political occupation to aprofessional one.” Smith certainly wouldn’tbecalled aliberal firebrand. Or aliberal anything.Inaddition to being aRepublican, he’saformer Marine Corps officer who earnedthe Silver Star for hisactions duringintense fighting in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. Hismilitary bearing is still very much evident.

Butwhat he’sdoing in Washington Parish is progressive in the most basic sense: He’strying to move the office forward. And by doing so, he may be creating amodel for other officials, especially sheriffs, to balance fiscal responsibility and improving the qualityofservice.

Nowhere are Smith’sefforts more apparent than in the jail kitchen.

The day Iwas there, trustees charged with cookingwere slicing apples and making salad to serve withthe inmates’ lunch. Before Smith took over,inmates —who are mostly awaiting trial and thus haven’tbeen convicted —got premademeals that were more costly and less nutritious. Thekitchen was only used to prepare meals for staff.

Now,meals for those incarcerated there are made in-house. They include fresh fruits and vegetables. Supplies come from the local salvage grocer, whodonates things he can’t sell. In other words, inmates are getting better,more nutritious meals, and theofﬁce is saving money.It’spart of what Smith calls fulﬁllinghis “moral,

legaland constitutional responsibility” to the inmates and thetaxpayers of Washington Parish. That’sprogress.

Outside the kitchen, other changes are evident

Smithhas had theﬂoors waxed, the halls painted and new lightsinstalled. Thejail’soutside areas, once littered with trash and used as ad hoc storage, have been tidied up and will soon be used for outdoor group visitation.

That’s not to say theWashington ParishJail is some breezy retreat on the Bogue ChittoRiver Its blocks are busting at the seams —“the most overcrowded jail in the state,” Smith says. The day Iwas there, the jail housed 252 inmates, far beyond its ofﬁcial 144-inmate capacity. The air conditioning in one unit wasn’tworking. Because ofthe space issues, some inmatesare sent to other prisons around the state, somethingthat costs theparish extra money

Theparish needs anew jail, but it’s atough sell because nobody —especially notparish government, which is constitutionally required to provide thejail —wants to spend the millions it would cost to build one.

So Smithhas to make do with what he has.

Outside of the jailwalls, Smith is working to upgradethe responsiveness and approach of his deputies

To do that, he has established district stationsaroundthe parish, each headed by acaptain. He has moved thedispatch operations,which were in acramped corner of the jail offices, to astate-of-the-art communications office in thecenter of the parish. He has instituted physical fitnessstandards. He has begun training deputies on modern policing and de-escalation. Smithsays he wants to “create a culture” in which all of the deputies and employees have bought in and are held to high standards.Some of his ideals areborrowed from his stint in theMarine Corps, others come from different agencies and leaders. What Smithisdoing is moving the agency forward. That’sprogress. And Smith, as much as he may hateit, is a progressive. It would be ashame if calling him that makes what he’sdoing bad in some people’seyes.The foundations of Smith’sprogressivism—discipline, professionalism and respect —are not political terms. They don’tbelong to “conservatives” or “liberals.” We shouldn’tallow them to be hijacked, for good or for ill, by either side. Smithissimply doing what residents deserve. Louisianacould use more progressivism likethat

Faimon A. RobertsIII can be reached at froberts@theadvocate.com.

Musk should return to Democratic Party

Elon Musk warned that if Republicans passed their big domestic policy bill, he would form anew “America Party” to primary those whovoted for it. He doesn’tneed anew party. He hashis old one,the Democrats. Many Democratshave grown to intensely dislike Musk,and they have their reasons.His prancing around with achain saw as he gleefullyﬁred thousands of valued federal employees wasugly.But his most damaging act wasspending nearly $300 million to get DonaldTrump reelected. As it happens, the rightdoesn’t like Musk, either.Trump’sserialabuse of him is something to behold. When Musk opposedhis “bigbeautiful” bill, Trump let loose on Truth Social. “Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head backto South Africa,” Trump bellowed. “No more Rocket launches,Satellites, or Electric Car Production BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!” Look, Musk is aweird guy. He’s been agenius at building new companies, making him the richestperson on earth. But his understandingofhuman behavior is sketchy, especially with a personality as diabolical as Trump’s. By putting Musk at the head of DOGE, Trump made him the fall guy forunpopular budget cuts.

Alongtime Democrat, Musk was

It seems bizarre, in the year of our Lord 2025, to be debating whetherthe government should run the grocery stores. History has thoughtfully answered this question with multiple experiments, from the old Soviet Union to modern-day Venezuela. The answer is: “No! Absolutely not! Are you crazy?”

turned off by the woke thing. It’strue that Democrats let some activists’ obsession with transgender issues and use ofpronouns get out of hand. The reality is that most Democrats aremoderate.

case, areturn to the environmental fold —which theeccentric Musk could pull off —would become aspectacular turnaround.

If Musk wants to exert power in primary races, he’d have moreimpact in Democratic primaries. Removing fringe leftists from the national stage woulddoaworld of good for Democrats,helping the party regain control of Congress. In sum, Muskcould use his smarts, moneyand controlofXtosupport the Democratic mainstream.

Trumphas argued that Musk is angry because the bill ends federal subsidies for electric vehicles.Why theman who built up Tesla went over tothe anti-EV sidemystiﬁes to this day.But Trumpwas correct in noting that “Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that Iwas strongly against the EV Mandate.” Fact check time: ThereisnoEV mandate,never was.The subsidy was to encouragepeople to buy EVs. No onehad to. It was also to help domestic automakers compete in aworld that is rapidly moving to electric vehicles Musk’sassociation with Trumphas trashed Tesla sales in this country and in Europe. Areconnection with the worldwidecampaign for green energy could makeTeslas cool again. In any

Musk’sdescription of the massive bill as “the biggest debt increase in history” is accurate. It’sodd how little Americansrecognize that Democrats have been better at controlling deﬁcits and growing theeconomy than Republicans.

Democrat Bill Clinton was theonly president to balance thebudget in over half acentury.Republican George W. Bush ran through thesurpluses, leaving Barack Obama with the Great Recession and adeﬁcit of nearly $2 trillion. (This and the numbers that follow are in today’sdollars.) By his last year, Obama brought deﬁcits down to $759 billion.

Trumpinhis first term oversaw an almost $1 trillion deficit before COVID, almost $4 trillion in his last year.Joe Biden brought deficitsdown to $1.87 trillion byhis last year —and that was after big investments in America’sinfrastructure and chip manufacturing. Today’sbudget monstrosityisprojected to increase budget deficits by roughly $4 trillion over the next decade. Musk should return to theDemocratic Party,and Democratsshould welcome him.

Froma Harrop is on X, @FromaHarrop.

But here is Zohran Mamdani, the winnerofNew York’sDemocratic mayoral primary,suggesting that the city needs a“public option” for groceries: five pilot stores, one in each borough, to help bring prices down and provide oases in the city’s“food deserts.” Mamdani wants to socialize the means of consumption. Noristhere any reason to think the government can make the food in its stores more affordable than what’savailable privately.The idea of apublic option is drawn from left-wing health care advocacy.Though I’m skepticalit would work, at least you can argue the health care sector has serious market failures thatthe government might be able to solve. The grocery business, by contrast, is one of the most hypercompetitive and efficient parts of our economy, with profit margins that have historically averaged around 1% to 3%.

Even saving NewYorkers that percentage would be achallenge, because it’sreally hard just to break even in the grocery business. It takes extensive experience and arelentless focus on implementation to keep the right stock on the shelves, to prevent theft while providing attractive and easily accessible displays, to cultivate workers who provide excellent customer service, and to keep spoilage down to acceptable levels.

Even Amazon, with one of the best logistics operations in the world, hasfaced challenges trying to enter the brick-and-mortar grocery market. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.) Why would the government do better? Because it will save money by buying in bulk? A ﬁve-store chain has less negotiating power than Whole Foods. What’sthat Ihear from the back? They can save on rent by parking stores on city-owned land? My friend, let me introduce you to the economic concept of opportunity costs: A“free” location isn’tactually free if it means forgoing money you could have collected by leasing it, not to mention the tax revenue you’ll lose by substituting acity operation for asuccessful business. Now let’sadd in the factors that could drive the city’scosts well above those of private stores, like civil service salaries and onerous government procurement rules. It seems as though the only waythe city can outcompete private grocers is by selling at aloss, which would harm the private sellers, give richer New Yorkers asubsidy they don’tneed and createblack markets where people resell their subsidized groceries. It would cost the city alot of money that could have been spent on more useful projects. The best you can say about any of this is that Mamdani might not really mean it. It’sjust something that sounds great in aTikTok video In fact, that’sthe best you can say about many of his policy proposals: the rent freeze that will distort New York’salready grossly misshapen housing market, the free buses that would open up a$700 millionhole in the transit authority’s budget, the stiff tax increases that risk an exodus of higher-income taxpayers who pay the bulk of the city’sincome taxes. Indeed, that’sahope I’ve heard expressedsurprisingly often —surprising, Imean, givenhow clear Mamdani is about his distaste forcapitalism. He’snot just playing asocialist for the cameras; he clearly means every word of it. Nonetheless, I’ve seen center-left people suggesting that once the campaign is over and reality kicks in, he’ll focus on delivering good services,not pie-in-the-sky dreams of aworker’sparadise. There’ssomething to that, given that the City Council and/or the state legislature would have to sign off on many of his proposals. That would seem to leave some of them already deadinthe water —I’m skeptical Albany would authorize an extra $30 billion of borrowing to build affordable housing —and others, such as the free buses, unlikely at best.

On the other hand, the rent freeze, one of Mamdani’smost destructive policies, would be well within his powers, because the mayor appoints the members of New York’sRent Guidelines Board. And surely it matters that his instincts tend toward meddling in markets that are already working well, just as it mattered that Donald Trump wasirrationally obsessed with imposing tariffs on our trading partners. Youcan argue, as Trump’ssupporters did, for taking him “seriously,but not literally.” But in the hands of acharismatic zealot, seriously bad ideas have away of becoming literally awful realities.

MeganMcArdle in on X, @asymmetricinfo.

Faimon Roberts

Froma Harrop

ega McArdle M n

STAFF FILEPHOTO

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Jason Smith, nowthe sheriff of Washington Parish, is recognized duringa2023 Veterans Dayprogram at Franklinton Junior High School.

Cemetery No.3,2101

Pelopidas St, New Orleans LA 70122 will follow the service.

Gayden, Christa Magee

Christa MageeGayden transitioned to her home in HeavenonWednesday, July 2, 2025. She loved the Lord and worshipped at several churches throughout her life.

She married Johnny Gayden who she shared a life with for 35 years. She is survived by her mother Eloise Magee, her four children Condra, Melissa, Johnika, and John, her sons-in-law Edwin and Denyan, her six grandchildrenAmari, Jai, Ean, Sarai Ethan andEvan, siblings and anumber of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.

The Homegoing Service will be held Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 12p at Milesville Memorial COGIC at 129 Apple St, LaPlace, LA 70068.

Johnson, DeAnya

DeAnya L. Johnson passed away on Wednesday June 25,2025, Daughter of Paulina Johnson and Charles MickeyJulien DeAnyais also survived byher siblings, anda host of relatives,and friends.

Family and Friends are invitedtoattend the visitation scheduled for Monday July 7, 2025,11a.m.at the above name funeral home. Bishop Ronald Frank,officiating.Interment in St. MichaelCatholic Church, Convent. LA

ProfessionalServices entrusted to the Caring Staff of Hobson Brown Funeral Home 134 Daisy St., Garyville La 70051 (985)535-2516.

Landry,Alicia JosephineZeno

Alicia JosephineZeno Landry wascalledhomeon Monday,June 30, 2025,sur‐rounded by herlovingfam‐ily. Sheentered eternal rest at theage of 101 years. Shewas born on January16, 1924, to thelate GilbertF.Zenoand Bertha M. Madison-Zeno.Alicia wasa womanofimmense strength andcompassion. AdevoutCatholic, faithful to herLordand Savior JesusChrist. Herunwaver‐ingfaith werehallmarks of herlife. Thosewho knew herwillrememberher gen‐tlesmile,her kind words andeverencouraging sup‐port.She prepared amaz‐ingmeals forevery family celebration, which brought warmth to herheart and happinesstothe family's appetites. Shewas often describedasthe nicest person you'll ever meet Knowntomostas, "Mama Alicia"or"Mrs. Landry", herpassing marksthe end of an era, buther spirit will live on in theheartsofher children,grandchildren andthe countless livesshe touched. Alicia leaves to cherishher precious mem‐ories, herchildrenAnthony J. Landry Sr.(Evelyn)of Lafayette,La.,BertrandC Landry Jr.(Denise), Cheryl A. Landry-Lampton.Her loving grandchildren, An‐thonyJr. (Jovelle), Bertrand,Corey,Brandy, Kenneth(Nigel),Steven (Rachel) andAngelle (Feli‐cia);25Great grandchil‐dren.Devoted Godchil‐dren;Deanne Z. Simmons (Floyd), Gloria B. Aaron (Floyd)and KevinZeno (Nefertiti). Honorary Son PercyLee Spencerand the sparkleofher eyes Amarin Alongwitha host of nieces,nephews,relatives anddearfriends.She is preceded in deathbyher parentsGilbert F. and Bertha M. Zeno.Her hus‐band Bertrand C. Landry Sr ,and herson GregoryM Landry.BrothersAugust Joseph,RobertAnthony

(RuthV.),AlfredBernard (Sarah W.), RaymondPaul andManuelFrancis Zeno (Pauline N.).Sister, Marie Bertha Zeno.Half-sister, Cecile Zeno.Sisters-in-law

FeliciaL.St. Ann(Forrest) andMelanie L. Phillips (Peter). Brothers-in-law MorrisLandry(Julia) and Felix Landry (Carita) Belovedcousin, HelenL Sylve. Also,nephews Ronald (Terri), Robert Zeno Jr andRoosevelt Watson Relativesand friendsalong with employees of theCae‐sars Superdomeand the NewOrleans Fairgrounds areinvited to attend aFu‐neralMassofChristian Burial at Corpus ChristiEpiphany Catholic Church, 2022 St.Bernard Ave. New Orleans, 70116 on Thurs‐day, July 10, 2025 at 10:00am.Visitationbegins at 8:00 am until 10:00am OfﬁciatedbyFatherHenry DavisS.S.J.Interment: Mount Olivet Cemetery 4000 Norman MayerAv‐enue.New Orleans, La 70122. Arrangements en‐trustedtoD.W.RhodesFu‐neralHome, 3933 Washing‐tonAve,New Orleans, LA 70125. Please visitwww rhodesfuneral.comtosign theonlineguestbook, sharememoriesand con‐dolences with thefamily.

Gayle WalkerMaddin passedpeacefully on Friday, June 27, 2025, in Covington, Louisiana. Gayle, daughter of Claude and Eunice Walker, was born in NewOrleans, Louisiana.She was preceded in deathbyher first husband, Rene Davidson, and laterbyher loving husband, Rev. Dr. James Lawrence ("Larry") Maddin; as well as three siblings, GregoryWalker, Jessica Walker Held, and C.B. Walker. Gaylewas a devotedmothertoher children, herpride and joy: MargeuriteLynn Davidson Morris (Michael), Cynthia Ann Davidson Bennett (Kevin), AlysiaGayle DavidsonBennett (Keith), Rene EdwardDavidson II (Stacey), and acherished presence in the livesof Becky Maddin Dufrene (Kerry), Bruce Maddinand thelateJim Maddin. She was also blessed with nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. She is survived by her devoted and lovingsister, Claudette Walker,who was a loving, caring companion during Gayle's later years. Gayle was adevoted member of St. Timothy MethodistChurchand was actively involvedinmany organizationsthroughout Louisiana,along with her husband, Rev. Dr. Larry Maddin, who was alongtime pastorofSt. Timothy Gayle was afabulous cook and talented seamstress! Shepoured love into every dish she prepared and everystitch she sewed. Her love for serving her family, friends, and community was aguiding light throughouther life andwill be rememberedbyall who knew her.The family wouldliketothankBrenda Cunningham for heryears ofservice, devotion& care to Gayle, along with the staffatPassages Hospice, CreoleCottage& Avanti SeniorLiving.A funeral service willbeheld on Wednesday,July9,2025, at 11:30AM, following visitation from 10 AM to 11:30 AM, at St.Timothy MethodistChurch on the Northshore,335 Asbury Drive, Mandeville, LA. In lieu of flowers,donations may be made to St. Timothy Methodist Church onthe Northshore

Payton,Octavia AnnLockett

OctaviaAnn Lockett Payton departed this life on Monday,June30, 2025 at theage of 97. Beloved wife of thelateAbraham Payton,Sr. Loving daugh‐terofthe late Joseph M. Lockettand Elnora (French) Lockett. Devoted mother of Barry F. Payton, Sr JoycelynP.Hines,Da‐

was 73 years of age.

reen P. Butler,Christsandra P. Holmes,and thelate Ronald D. Payton,Sr. and AbrahamM.Payton, Jr Loving sister ofSisterMary E. LockettPayton, andthe late ElouiseL.Stephens, andJoseph“Murray”Lock‐ett, Jr.Granddaughter of thelateAlbertand Mary Hill French andBetsy and NorahLockett. Octaviais also survived by 9grand‐children,15great grand‐children anda host of nieces,nephews,other rel‐atives andfriends.Rela‐tivesand friendsofthe family, also pastors, ofﬁ‐cers,and membersofPure LightB.C., Pleasant Zion MBC, TheNew Genesis BibleChurch,and St.Mark MBC, also employees of Payton PlaceMotel and Restaurant andAbraham Payton Rooﬁng andCon‐tracting Companyare in‐vitedtoattend aFuneral ServiceatPleasantZion Missionary BaptistChurch 3317 Toledano St., NewOr‐leans, LA 70125 on Thurs‐day, July 10,2025at 10:00am.Visitationwill beginat9:00am until 10:00am. Interment: Provi‐denceMemorialPark, Metairie,LA. Arrangements entrustedtoD.W.Rhodes FuneralHome, 3933Wash‐ington Ave.,New Orleans, LA 70125. Please visitwww rhodesfuneral.comtosign theonlineguestbook, sharememories, andcon‐dolences to thefamily.

Ervin Lee Recer, most recently of Roanoke, VA, and formerlya long-time resident of Mandeville,LA, passed away on Thursday, July3,2025. He was 95 years old. Ervin is fondly remembered as afather, grandfather,and generous friend. He was born in Fort Worth, TX on May 19, 1930, and was agraduateofthe Texas Tech University journalismprogram. After school, he served two years as an officerinthe United States AirForce, stationedinMobile, Alabama during the Korean War.In1954 he became an FBI specialagent servinginmultiple resident agencies and FBI Headquarters in Washington,DC. He was Assistant Special Agent in Chargeinthe Philadelphia, PA fieldoffice and Special Agent in Charge in the Albany, NY and New Orleans,LAfield offices. Among many career highlightswas hiscoordination and supervisionofsecurity forthe 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY

After retiring fromthe FBI in 1980, Ervin volunteered forover 25 yearsas thePersonnel Director for theMandevilleLACity Police Department,establishing and directinga civil -serviceprogram to professionalizethatdepartment Ervin was predeceased by hisparents, Lennie and B.W.,and by his wife of over 66 years, Betty, who died in 2019. He is survivedbyhis children, Karen Higgins (Mark) and Gregg Recer (Catherine Graichen); his grandchildren, Megan, Rachel, and Bryce; brothers, HaroldRecer (Marcia) and Paul Recer (Lenna); many nieces and nephews; and numerous other family and friends

Afuture memorial gathering for family in Ft Worth, TX willbearranged In lieu of flowers,donations can be madetoThe FormerAgents of theFBI Foundation at:https://ww w.socxfbi.org/SFSA/Dona te/Donate.aspx.Online condolences may be made at www.Oakeys.com

Arrangementshandled by Oakey's Funeral Service -NorthChapel, Roanoke, VA (540) 362-1237.

Saporito,Craig Ernest

Craig Ernest Saporito,a NewOrleans native and executiveinfinance across several industries,died Thursday,July3,2025. He

Mr. Saporito graduated high schoolfrom New Orleans Academy in 1969. He receivedhis Bachelors of Science from Tulane University followedbya Masters Degree in Epidemiologyfromthe Tulane School of Public Health and aMasters Degree in Business Administrationfromthe University of NewOrleans.

Mr. Saporito beganhis career at McMoran Oiland Gas in 1978. In 1984, following the merger of McMoRan Oiland Gas and FreeportMinerals, he relocated to NewYork as Director of Investor Relations. The following year Freeport-McMoRan Inc. relocated to New Orleans where he returned as well. He then spent twenty-twoyears in various positionswith Freeport, eventually retiring as aSenior Vice President and Treasurer. However, retirement was never awordheembraced. He then joinedHibernia SouthcoastCapital as Director of Research. Due to his extensivebackground in oiland gas, he co-foundedBeryl Resources LP,anoil and gas company, in Houston, Texas,which wouldbe soldfour years later.Next he served as Deputy Commissioner forFinance and Development forthe LouisianaBoard of Regents, overseeing the budget forall highereducation in theStateof Louisiana. His most recent endeavor was an affiliation with Beau BoxCommercial Real Estate in NewOrleans. He established areputation forexcellence in financial administrationand communications throughout his career.

Craig was activelyinvolved in the NewOrleans community.Hecontributed hisknowledge and experience by servingonthe boards of several prominent organizations, including theAmerican Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Catholic Charities, theLouisiana Superdome and Exposition District (LSED), and Mount Carmel Academy. He played an integral role in there-opening of Mount Carmel Academy following Hurricane Katrina.Mr. Saporito was also amemberofthe NewOrleans Country Club,The Houstonian Club, theCrillo Club (Krewe of Achaens), theKrewe of Osiris and the Rotary Club of New Orleans. Craig was afun-loving, caring man with ahuge heart and an even bigger soul.Hetook agenuine interest in everyone he met, and had away of making every personfeelas thoughtheywere themost important personinthe room. He leaves alarge legacy of faith, compassion,discipline and love He had atrue love of all music. As acollector of music he amassedanextensive Beatlescollection that has itsown storage room to this day! Mr. Saporito is preceded in deathbyhis parents, Maybelle Klimm Saporito and Andrew Leonard Saporito.Heissurvivedby his loving wife, Anne Merrigan Saporitoand daughter, ErinSaporito Mosely, his son-in-law, Russell Long Mosely and grandsons, Jack Merrigan Mosely and Charles Long Mosely. He is also survived by his brother, Jerry Saporito,sister-in-law RhendaSaporito and nephews, Scott Saporito (Megan) and Chris Saporito (Heidi). In addition, he is survivedbyhis sister-in-law, Martha Merrigan(wife of thelate Lawrence J. Merrigan), nieces, Kerry Merrigan Latiolais(Chris) and Konnie Merrigan Duncan (Kurt), nephew, Charles Merriganand brother-in-law, Scott Merrigan (Anita).

Funeral Serviceswillbe held on Thursday,July10, 2025 at St.Catherine of SienaChurch, 105 BonnabelBlvd.,Metairie, LA.Visitationwillbegin at 10:30 a.m. followedbya ChristianMass at noon. Interment to follow at All SaintsMausoleum in Metairie Cemetery In lieu of flowers,donations can be madeto Mount Carmel Academy of NewOrleans, Inc., 7027 Milne Blvd., NewOrleans, LA 70124 or to SacredHeart of Jesus Church, 2251 Main St., Baton Rouge,LA70802.

Margaret Elizabeth "Peggy" Stewart,age 81, wife of thelateRobertJ Stewart, passed away peacefully at herhome on Thursday, July 3, 2025. Peggywas born in Baltimore,MDon November 18, 1943, to the lateJoseph and Mary (Thomas) Garvis. Peggygraduatedfrom High Point High School in Greenbelt Maryland During school she wasinvolved in multiple sports and loved theoutdoors After school she went to work for the federal government.Her first jobwas clerical withthe departmentofAgriculture.Years later she workedthrough many otherdivisions of the federal government and attained aratingofGS13. Peggyenjoyed asuccessful and fulfillingcareer as aHumanResource Specialist with the Department of Veteran Affairs for 42 plus years. In addition to federal career,Peggywas also licensed beautician anda dental assistantand workedinboth fieldsduringdifferentperiods of her life. Peggy foundjoy in many outdooractivitiesincludingfishing, boating,water skiing,and winter sports. Shewas atalentedartist wholoved to draw and replicatedynamic images. Peggyalso hada deep love foranimals andcherished the companionship of her many cats, especially Pie andSamantha.She leaves behind herbeloved Phoenix.

Sheissurvivedbyher son David K. Speerof Townsend, DE,stepson PhilipStewart of Newark, DE.Peggyisalso survived by herbrother Michael Garvis (Muriel)ofIdaho andsistersDiane Elizabeth Baird(Debbie)and Francis Fassett Baird(Fancy) of Colorado.She is preceded in death by herparents Mary Francis (Garvis) Baird and father Joseph Garvis also herstepfather, AndrewNelson Bairdof

Colorado.She is also precededindeathbyher first husband RowlandK.Speer, andher second husband, Robert Stewart Committal Serviceswill be held at 2:00PM on Monday, July 14, 2025, at the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery,2465 Chesapeake CityRd., Bear, DE 19701. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Peggy's name may be made to Toys for Tots at www.wilmingtonde.toysfortots.org. an organization especially meaningfultoPeggyand Robert DohertyFuneral Homes of Wilmington, DE is assistingthe familywith arrangements. To sign online guestbook, please visit www.dohertyfh.com.A committal service will be held from2:00 PM to 2:30 PM on 2025-07-14 at DelawareVeterans Memorial Cemetery ,2465 Chesapeake CityRd., Bear, DE 19701.

EmileLeo "Pete" Villa With heavy hearts we announce thepassing of Pete Villa, on July 4, 2025. Pete wasborninNew Orleansand wasa resident of LaCombe, Louisiana. He wasa mechanic andspent many years working to provide forhis family. Pete loved hisfamilyunconditionallyand always doted over hisgrandchild. He wasa loving "Gramps" and woulddoanything for him. Pete will be forever cherished by hisfamilyand missed by everyonewho hadthe chancetoknow him.

Pete is survived by his loving wife, Brenda Villa; daughter, Eleanor Anthony (James); son,Dylan Villa; grandchild, Brendan Anthony; sister,Laurie Lambert, andnumerous nieces andnephews. Pete is preceded by his parents, Charlesand Mina Villa, his3 sistersand 2 brothers. Acremation hasbeen held

Recer, ErvinLee

Maddin, Gayle Walker

Villa, EmileLeo 'Pete'

Stewart, Margaret Elizabeth 'Peggy'

Is corner covered?

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

At this point last year, cornerback was a strength for the New Orleans Saints.

On paper, it was arguably the team’s deepest position.

That’s not the case anymore.

Marshon Lattimore was traded to Washington in November. Paulson Adebo signed with the New York Giants in March. And the Saints appear to be relying on youth to take a step forward in 2025.

New Orleans drafted Louisville cornerback Quincy Riley in the fourth round

and signed veteran Isaac Yiadom to help offset the departures. And it’s banking on Alontae Taylor and Kool-Aid McKinstry to dramatically improve under new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley. Is it a risky bet? Perhaps. But as talented as the Saints were at cornerback in 2024, the unit struggled New Orleans gave up the sixth-most passing yards last season, and the explosive plays allowed were hard to ignore. This was a unit that needed some change after how last year unfolded.

ä See SAINTS, page 3C

Djokovic’s push for No. 25 remains alive

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer

LONDON Right before Wimbledon began, Novak Djokovic declared it was the tournament that gave him the best chance to claim an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam singles trophy Made sense, really, given that he’s won seven titles there already and reached the past six ﬁnals. For one uncharacteristically unsteady set in the fourth round Monday it sure didn’t look as if that would happen this year Djokovic, though, turned things around and avoided what would have been his earliest exit at the All England Club since 2016,

coming through for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over 11th-seeded Alex de Minaur at Centre Court.

With eight-time Wimbledon

winner Roger Federer sitting in the front row of the Royal Box, very little went right at the outset for the 38-year-old Djokovic on the grass below during a breezy afternoon with the temperature in the 60s, a week after matches were contested in record-breaking heat.

“A lot of challenging moments for me,” Djokovic said right after the win then later called it a “big, big relief” not to get pushed to a ﬁfth set. He trailed 4-1 in the fourth

ä See TENNIS, page 2C

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIN CHEUNG

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic reacts as he plays Australia’s Alex de Minaur during a men’s singles match at Wimbledon in London on Monday

BY RONALD BLUM AP sports writer

Now comes the U.S. national team’s version of “Survivor.”

Having expanded his player pool during a CONCACAF Gold Cup that ended with a 2-1 loss to Mexico in Sunday’s ﬁnal, coach Mauricio Pochettino has eight friendlies left from September through March to evaluate players to pick for the World Cup.

“All the American players have the possibility,” Pochettino said. “We need to analyze every single player, see the circumstances, the situations, performance, ﬁtness level.” After a CONCACAF Nations

League ﬂop with his A team in March, Pochettino had largely a B squad for the Gold Cup. Star Christian Pulisic wanted vacation time; Yunus Musah opted out for an undisclosed personal reason; Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna were forced to be with their teams at the Club World Cup; Antonee Robinson and Folarin Balogun were hurt; and Sergiño Dest was regaining ﬁtness.

Defender Tim Ream and Tyler Adams were the only holdovers in the lineup against Mexico from the starters in the 2022 World Cup second-round loss to

ä See SOCCER, page 4C

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

A few years from now when the New Orleans Pelicans’ 2025 draft class is evaluated, most of it will depend on how ﬁrst-round picks Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen pan out.

Micah Peavy, the Pelicans’ secondround pick, wants to make sure he’s a part of that conversation, too.

The 6-foot-7 guard out of Georgetown knows exactly on which end of the court he likely will make his mark.

“A lot of guys don’t like playing defense,” Peavy said. “I love it. I don’t like being scored on. I don’t like the other team getting buckets. So I take pride in that.”

Peavy hasn’t taken long to show his knack for playing defense.

“Micah is a really good defender,” said Pelicans Summer League coach Corey Brewer “You can tell that he loves to play defense and he plays hard. For us around here, that’s a breath of fresh air and we are happy to have him.”

The Pelicans are so happy to have him that they signed Peavy to a deal Monday morning reportedly worth $8.7 million over four years, according to HoopsHype.com.

“It means a lot,” Peavy said about signing his first NBA contract.

“I’ve been waiting on this my whole life.” Now Peavy, who turns 24 next week, is waiting to show what he can do in the NBA. He gets his ﬁrst chance Thursday in Las Vegas when the Pelicans play the Minnesota Timberwolves in their Summer League opener

Peavy has watched plenty of Summer League action in the past, particularly his stepbrother Anthony Black who plays for the Orlando Magic. So he knows what these games can mean to a player

“I’ve watched it a lot the past couple of years because I knew I was going to get to this point,” Peavy said. “I see a lot of guys separate themselves, not just by scoring but by playing defense and the little things, and I can’t wait to do that as well.”

Defense always has been a thing for Peavy, who has been around basketball his entire life. His father David coached him at Duncanville High in Texas and instilled a defensive mindset.

“That’s what he preaches,” Peavy said. “My dad didn’t let anything go. I had to play hard at all times. I couldn’t take bad shots. So I think that’s helped me a lot to get to this level and playing the right way and playing hard at all times.”

Peavy, whose college career also included stops at Texas Tech and TCU, isn’t too bad on the offensive end, either He averaged 17.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists this past season for Georgetown. He shot 40% on 3-pointers. If he can continue that success on 3-pointers, it will bolster he chances of getting valuable playing time in the league. It’ll just add to what he brings to the table on the other end.

“He can guard multiple positions 1 through 4,” Brewer said. “Then when you have the size that he has, that’s good. He wants to play defense. Sometimes, playing defense isn’t about how good you are. It’s about the want. If a kid wants to play defense, he is going to

ä See PELICANS, page 4C

WIMBLEDON

Sinner reaches quarters despite injury

Foe Dimitrov retires while up two sets

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis

LONDON Jannik Sinner advanced to the Wimbledon quarterﬁnals despite hurting his right elbow in a fall and dropping the ﬁrst two sets Monday night, because his opponent, Grigor Dimitrov had to quit with an injured pectoral muscle.

Sinner said he will have an MRI exam Tuesday on his elbow “to see if there’s something serious” and added in Italian: “There is some concern.”

The No. 1-seeded Sinner hadn’t dropped a set in the tournament until falling behind No. 19 Dimitrov 6-3, 7-5. But at 2-all in the third set, Dimitrov stopped playing. It’s the ﬁfth consecutive Grand Slam tournament where the 34-year-old Dimitrov failed to complete a match. He also did it at the Australian Open in January and the French Open in May, plus last year’s Wimbledon and U.S Open.

“He’s been so unlucky in the past couple of years. An incredible player A good friend of mine, also. We understand each other very well, off the court, too,” Sinner said. “I hope he has a speedy recovery.”

On the last point against Sinner, Dimitrov served and immediately clutched his chest with his left hand. He took a few steps and crouched, before sitting on the grass. Sinner walked over to that side of the court to check on him.

“My pec,” Dimitrov told Sinner Dimitrov — a three-time major semiﬁnalist, including at Wimbledon in 2014 then went to the

sideline, sat in his chair and was checked by a trainer and doctor

As Dimitrov talked with them, Sinner knelt nearby After a delay of a few minutes, Dimitrov walked toward the locker room with the medical personnel. Soon, he reemerged and said he couldn’t continue.

“I don’t take this as a win, at all,”

Sinner said. “This is just a very unfortunate moment to witness for all of us.”

Two hours earlier, it was Sinner down on the ground and seemingly in trouble He was hurt in the opening game, when his foot gave out from under him and he slipped

ABOVE: Iga Swiatek of Poland celebrates a point during a women’s fourth-round match against Clara Tauson of Denmark at Wimbledon in London on Monday.

on Monday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS By KIRSTy WIGGLESWORTH

TENNIS

Continued from page 1C

before taking the last ﬁve games and 14 of the ﬁnal 15 points.

“Lifted his level,” de Minaur said of Djokovic, “big-time.” Djokovic’s bid for an eighth Wimbledon title and 25th Grand Slam singles trophy overall will continue against No. 22 Flavio Cobolli of Italy Cobolli reached his ﬁrst major quarterﬁnal with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3) victory over 2014 U.S. Open champion and two-time major runner-up Marin Cilic.

No. 10 Ben Shelton improved to 3-0 against Lorenzo Sonego at majors this year by beating him 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 7-5. Shelton’s first Wimbledon quarterfinal will come against No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who moved on despite a painful right elbow and a two-set deficit when No. 19 Grigor Dimitrov

and fell behind a baseline, bracing his fall with his right hand while still holding his racket.

During a medical timeout while trailing 3-2 in the second set, Sinner winced as a trainer massaged the elbow Sinner’s coaches, Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi, looked on from their box with concern.

Sinner was given a pill to take and play resumed. He frequently shook his right arm or rubbed his elbow between points.

Sinner entered Monday having lost a total of just 17 games in the tournament, tying the record for

the fewest in the Open era by man at Wimbledon through three completed matches.

Right after he fell behind by two sets against Dimitrov the match was paused so the stadium’s retractable roof could be closed because of fading sunlight.

The 23-year-old Italian is a three-time Grand Slam champion who will play No. 10 Ben Shelton of the United States for a berth in the semiﬁnals.

Sinner leads the head-to-head series 5-1 and has won their past ﬁve matches, all in straight sets, including at Wimbledon last year and the Australian Open this year

quit because of an injured chest muscle.

Against de Minaur, Djokovic made mistake after mistake double-faulting four times in the first set alone. Djokovic lost five of his first seven service games against de Minaur, a 26-year-old Australian who accumulated 19 break points in all.

Djokovic made 16 unforced errors in the ﬁrst set alone.

All in all, Djokovic was discombobulated, chalking it up afterward to nerves and a swirling wind. He rushed between points. He reacted to flubbed shots by rolling his eyes or shouting and glaring in the direction of his guest box or putting his arms wide as if seeking explanations from someone, anyone.

At changeovers, he placed an ice-filled towel — usually wrapped around necks by players in steamy conditions — on his stomach, which he complained about during his ﬁrst-round vic-

tory last week. But afterward, Djokovic dismissed the significance of that.

A loss would have been Djokovic’s soonest at Wimbledon since he was eliminated in the third round by Sam Querrey nine years ago. Since winning his men’s record 24th major title at the 2023 U.S. Open, Djokovic has come close to raising his total. He was the runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon last year the second consecutive time they met in the final, with the results the same — and departed each of the first two Grand Slams of 2025 in the semifinals. No man as old as Djokovic is now has won a major championship. He keeps showing why it’s not preposterous to think he could. “I didn’t have many solutions, to be honest,” Djokovic said, “but I just reset myself in the second.” By the end, it was almost as

LSU coach Johnson wins D1Baseball’s top honor

LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson, who this season directed the Tigers to their second College World Series title in three years, was named Monday as the 2025 National Coach of the Year by D1Baseball.

Johnson is the fastest coach to win multiple CWS championships during his tenure at a single school. The previous mark was set by Jim Morris, who claimed NCAA trophies in 1999 and 2001 during his first eight seasons at Miami. The Tigers posted a 53-15 overall record and finished the year on an eight-game winning streak, culminated by a two-game series sweep of Coastal Carolina in the College World Series final.

Johnson also won the award after he guided LSU to a national championship in 2023.

Magic, Banchero agree on a five-year extension

Paolo Banchero has checked a lot of boxes since joining the Orlando Magic. He won rookie of the year, has been an All-Star and helped the team make the playoffs twice.

Banchero now has agreed to the richest contract in Magic history, a ﬁve-year extension that is worth $239 million and could reach about $287 million should he become eligible for a supermax deal, a person with knowledge of the agreement said Monday Banchero was the rookie of the year in 2022-23, living up to his billing after being the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA draft.

He was an All-Star in his second season and was well on his way to that again last season before an early-season oblique injury

Astros put first baseman Walker on paternity leave

The Houston Astros placed ﬁrst baseman Christian Walker on paternity leave Monday before the start of a three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians. Walker, who is in his ﬁrst season with the Astros, is batting 231 with 12 homers and 45 RBIs. He’s heated up recently after a slow start and has hit .429 with two homers and eight RBIs in six games this month.

The AL West-leading Astros recalled outﬁelder Kenedy Corona from Triple-A Sugar Land to take his spot on the roster The 25-yearold Corona is hitting .228 with six homers and 28 RBIs in the minors this season. Also Monday, right-hander Jordan Weems cleared waivers and elected free agency

Merlier wins third stage of the Tour de France Belgian rider Tim Merlier won the crash-marred third stage of the Tour de France in a photo ﬁnish and Mathieu Van der Poel kept the yellow jersey on Monday Defending champion Tadej Pogaar and two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard — the main contenders — ﬁnished safely as they rolled in together with the main pack. But Stage 1 winner Jasper Philipsen abandoned after he broke a collarbone in one of the early crashes.

When the sprinters turned for home into a strong headwind, several crashed near the line at top speeds of 40 mph. Merlier just got the front of his wheel in front of Italian Jonathan Milan as they lunged to the line. German rider Phil Bauhaus was third.

though de Minaur was resigned to defeat, knowing he’s only the latest — and perhaps not the last — opponent to succumb to a surging Djokovic “I mean,” de Minaur said, “he’s been pretty good in big moments for a very long time.”

Also on Monday No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, an 18-year-old Russian, became the youngest player to reach the women’s quarterfinals at Wimbledon since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007, beating No 10 Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-3. Andreeva next meets Belinda Bencic, who defeated No 18 Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (4), 6-4. Iga Swiatek, a five-time major champion who is seeded No. 8, was a 6-4, 6-1 winner against No. 23 Clara Tauson and will play No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova, who advanced to her ﬁrst major quarterfinal with a 7-5, 7-5 victory against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.

Miami Heat acquires Powell in 3-team trade

The Miami Heat has acquired Norman Powell, while John Collins is going to the Los Angeles Clippers, and Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson are headed to the Utah Jazz as parts of a three-team trade that was completed Monday Powell averaged 21.8 points last season for the Clippers and is a career 40% shooter from 3-point range. Collins averaged 19 points in 40 games for the Jazz last season, while Love averaged 5.3 points in 23 games with the Heat. Anderson averaged 6.7 points in 25 games after being traded to Miami. Powell figures to give Miami much-needed scoring and shooting, and Love likely will be a Hall of Famer when his playing days end. Anderson is joining his sixth team, and Collins has averaged 16 points per game in eight seasons.

RIGHT: Ben Shelton of the U.S celebrates winning a fourth-round match against Lorenzo Sonego of Italy at Wimbledon in London

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIN CHEUNG

Italy’s Jannik Sinner, left, checks on Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov after he went down with an injury during their men’s singles match at Wimbledon in London on Monday. Dimitrov was forced to retire up two sets.

Saints delegation heads to Paris to bolster ties

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

A contingent from the New Orleans Saints that will include owner Gayle Benson and All-Pro linebacker Demario Davis are traveling to Paris this week to promote the club’s visibility in France.

The NFL granted the Saints international marketing rights in France as part of its Global Markets Program, announced in the summer of 2023. When that partnership was announced, Benson said in a statement that “New Orleans and France have enjoyed a unique cultural connection for centuries and we are excited about working with the NFL and our partners in France to grow the game of American football.”

This trip is designed to strengthen the connection between the team and its fans abroad, as well as making brand inroads with local officials, media and influencers. The team’s delegation will attend a series of events starting Thursday

Kansas City Chiefs

quarterback Patrick Mahomes looks to throw against the Philadelphia Eagles during Super Bowl LIX on Feb 9 at Caesars Superdome.

and culminating in a Bastille Day river cruise Monday Davis is scheduled to attend every event on the Saints’ behalf, which will begin with a happy hour meet-and-greet with fans at the New Orléans Saints Cafe, and include a trip to the U.S. Embassy in Paris as well as a ﬂag football clinic in tandem with the Fédération Française de Football Américain.

Benson will join the trip later in the week to attend a Paris Musketeers game.

Earlier this year, the Saints announced a strategic partnership with the Musketeers, who play in the European League of Football, through which the team hopes to grow the American game while also increasing its own brand visibility in France.

Benson and the rest of the delegation are expected to attend the team’s game this Sunday against the Vienna Vikings, at which the Saints are expected to launch a team-branded boys and girls ﬂag football program in coordination

Mahomes enjoying familiarity with WRs for a change

SAM MCDOWELL

The Kansas City Star (TNS)

Commentary

KANSAS CITY,Mo.— A year ago, Xavier Worthy’s introduction to the NFL came while wearing shorts and a jersey top, a spectator’s ﬁt as he stood next to a coach watching the Chiefs offense begin preparation for the season Mental reps, he called those. A year earlier, Rashee Rice popped out of a summer camp huddle and hurried to the wrong side of the line, prompting his head coach to stop the play and start it anew A few snaps later, he made the mistake again.

There’s a commonality in the subject of those two brief stories: The wide receivers were rookies. Oh, and one more similarity: They were the go-to wideouts on those teams.

Eventually

The No. 1 roles didn’t come immediately because, well, they couldn’t come immediately Rice and Worthy had just arrived in Kansas City and didn’t know the playbook, didn’t entirely know what to expect in the NFL and didn’t even really know the quarterback.

Which offers a direct contrast to this offseason.

Last month, with the Chiefs in a similar stage of summer work, quarterback Patrick Mahomes called a play during mandatory minicamp, and it prompted a verbal “fight” among their wide receivers. That was Hollywood Brown’s tongue-in-cheek word, not mine.

The receivers knew the play, knew every route assignment within it and therefore had a pretty good idea of where Mahomes would look to throw the ball. Thus, the ﬁght.

“Let me get that one,” Brown said of the exchange in the huddle. “Let me get this one.” The top of the Kansas City wide receiver depth chart provides the quarterback with familiarity this year That sentence hasn’t been true since the Chiefs sent Tyreek Hill to Miami in March 2022.

The Chiefs are a couple of weeks shy of packing up for training camp. For three seasons, that “training” has most accurately deﬁned teaching top-of-the-depthchart wide receivers the basic components of the offense.

The Chiefs were educating their wide receivers on snap counts Some of them rarely had even huddled in college.

This year? It’s an opportunity not to simply pass out the playbook but rather to expand it.

between Louisiana and France to help foster a relationship that can be beneﬁcial to Louisiana and the New Orleans community Benson intends to leverage her status as an NFL owner to help bring some of this about.

“(Mrs. Benson) is our best ambassador and her work with the NFL International committee allows her to not only promote the New Orleans Saints but economic development for our state,” Saints senior vice president of communications Greg Bensel said in a statement. “Her presence in Paris for this game demonstrates her commitment to building relationships beyond our region.

“During her visit, she will meet with top French CEOs, politicians, cultural leaders and ambassadors with one goal in mind: promoting the state of Louisiana and the city New Orleans.”

They already have.

“It allows you to jump-start and line up in all these crazy formations,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said “It’s things that as (last) season went on, we were able to expand a little bit. Then we hit it running here.”

The Chiefs have a chance to layer into an offense that ﬁnished just 15th in the NFL in scoring each of the past two seasons. Consider this:

• In his ﬁrst 10 games as a rookie in 2023, Rice averaged 42 yards receiving per game. In his last six games, he averaged 86.3 yards per game. That’s more than double.

• In his first nine games as a rookie in 2024, Worthy averaged 27.3 yards receiving per game In his ﬁnal seven games, he averaged 56 per game. That’s more than double.

It takes time.

It shouldn’t now The Chiefs ﬁnally will open training camp with their best receivers having a foundation

This year, the Chiefs return Rice, Worthy and Brown. Two of the three missed signiﬁcant time with injuries last year, but they didn’t miss the education They return knowing the offense, the playbook, the assignments and the quarterback. So does veteran JuJu Smith-Schuster Fourth-round pick Jalen Royals does not arrive atop the depth chart.

That might not produce a higher ceiling for the offense, but it should give the Chiefs a higher likelihood of reaching it and there’s less of an excuse for them not to reach it far earlier in the season.

“I think you saw even at the beginning of last year, before Rashee got hurt, whenever you have a guy that you spent that time with and have that connection with, you can hit the ground running,” Mahomes said.

It’s the very foundation of Mahomes’ most prominent connection. He and tight end Travis Kelce are terriﬁc talents ﬁrst and foremost, but their production has been undoubtedly elevated not just by experience but by their experiences together

We haven’t see Mahomes develop that level of trust with other receivers recently, but we also haven’t seen much of a chance.

The roster has lacked longevity at the position Rice, Brown and Worthy did not play a single snap together a year ago. If healthy it might be the most talented group Mahomes has had since Hill left.

But it’s not strictly about the talent. It’s the familiarity At long last, the Chiefs have it.

with the Musketeers.

The hope is that the visit and, writ large, the exclusive market-

ing rights to France — goes beyond the scope of football, emphasizing the long-standing connection

Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate.com.

New coordinator, QB Underwood revamp the offense at Michigan

The Detroit News (TNS)

DETROIT It didn’t take long for Michigan receivers coach Ron Bellamy to jump completely on board with the direction of the Wolverines offense under new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey Lindsey, most recently the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at North Carolina, was hired to revive an offense that was ranked among the nation’s worst last season, particularly in the pass game Bellamy wouldn’t share any secrets about what the offense might look like this fall, but he did make clear they’re aligned.

“I love it. Love it that we see it the same way,” Bellamy said to a group of reporters. “Smart guy who understands what Michigan football is, understands what the program is built on, respects it. He’s been around it a long time. Chip is going to do a phenomenal job. Super smart guy, and the kids love him.”

A successful offense certainly is about more than the coordinator It’s about all phases — the quarterback, offensive line, running backs and receivers, everyone working in sync. But having solid quarterback play is key, and that’s where the Wolverines are feeling better about themselves with the

SAINTS

Best case

There are two main reasons for optimism with this group — potential and the new scheme.

addition of five-star freshman Bryce Underwood, the nation’s top recruit. Underwood enrolled early has been with the team since bowl practices in late December and went through spring practice as one of two healthy quarterbacks; Jadyn Davis was the other Bellamy, who also played at Michigan, doesn’t know who Underwood might be comparable to but said he has set himself apart.

“He’s unique,” Bellamy said.

“Big kid, strong arm, accurate, super cerebral, super-smart kid. I know we’ve had a lot of great quarterbacks at Michigan. I don’t think it’s fair to Bryce to say who’s comparable to him now, but, obviously, there’s a lot of great things that he’s done thus far The short term, you can see it.

“I’m most impressed with his leadership and the way he comes out there ready to go every day For a young kid, that’s pretty impressive. Doesn’t get rattled. He’s always working. You love that as a coach, because he’s the quarterback (and he) leads the team and guys follow You can see that following now with summer with some of the guys, not just guys in this class, but some of the older guys.”

Underwood is on the EA Sports College Football 26 deluxe edition cover with a number of other

former and current players and coaches, and he is the ﬁrst true freshman to appear on the cover of the video game. He has remained, Bellamy said, unchanged.

“It’s always big smile, great personality,” Bellamy said. “I haven’t seen a difference. Humble young man, awesome kid.”

Along with finding a quarterback, the offseason has been about shaping the receivers room. Tight end Colston Loveland was the team’s leading receiver, but the quarterbacks — the Wolverines started three different QBs last season and the receivers never found much chemistry Michigan ranked 131st nationally in passing offense.

Michigan added big-body Donaven McCulley and Anthony Simpson from the portal to join returners Semaj Morgan, Fred Moore and Peyton O’Leary, among others. McCulley, 6-foot5, 200 pounds, is considered the Wolverines’ top outside receiver “You like big receivers — you want quarterbacks to be accurate, but they could be less accurate, if that makes sense,” Bellamy said, referring to the advantage of having a taller receiver “(Those) guys have a bigger catch radius. McCulley has been a great addition to our team, more so our receiver room, mentally because he’s a veteran.”

Continued from page 1C Saints cornerback Isaac yiadom breaks up a pass intended for Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Cade Otton in the ﬁrst half on Dec. 31, 2023, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

Taylor and McKinstry have shown promise and are still young enough to believe that there’s room left to grow McKinstry, in particular, stood out during mandatory minicamp with a good feel for disrupting passes. Taylor seems best suited for the slot, and the Saints have put him there primarily this offseason.

Over the last seven weeks of the season, when Taylor and McKinstry were healthy and starting across from each other the Saints gave up 229.9 yards passing per game — which was actually better than when Adebo and/or Lattimore were available during weeks 1-8 (249.1). The nearly 20-yard difference was enough to make the passing defense slightly below average (20th) instead of bottomof-the-league bad.

Staley’s scheme may help matters. McKinstry made a point to note how he, Taylor and Yiadom have played in similar systems before, whether that was college (McKinstry, Taylor) or the pros (Yiadom) Expect the Saints to deploy a match-based zone defense, one that relies more on vision than physicality.

The amount of zone the Saints could run next season might be striking compared to previous seasons. While it was a misnomer to say former coach Dennis Allen didn’t like zone — he still ran it 60.6% of the time after taking over for Sean Payton — the Saints ran the fourth-highest amount of manto-man coverage from 2022-24.

When Staley was with the Los Angeles Chargers (2021-23), the Chargers ran zone coverage 67.1%

of the time. That put him more in the middle of the pack, but it’s still a notable enough difference to wonder whether the philosophy change will beneﬁt this secondary

The ceiling of this group could come down to the third cornerback spot. The Saints used Riley and Yiadom on the outside during the first-team reps across from McKinstry (with Taylor inside), and those two ﬁgure to compete for the job ahead of the regular season. But New Orleans is still asking a lot from whoever emerges. Can Riley really be counted on as a fourth-round rookie? Can Yiadom be a reliable starter after spending most of his career as a backup? The wild card in all of this is Asante Samuel Jr The former Chargers cornerback visited the Saints this offseason and remains unsigned. Though there are health questions — he’s coming off neck surgery Samuel would elevate the talent at this position. Under Staley, the 25-year-old played primarily as an outside cornerback — meaning he’d likely play across from McKinstry Worst case The Saints have invested meaningful draft capital in Taylor and

McKinstry, taking both in the second round. The worst-case scenario for the Saints is that neither can hold up in pass coverage. Despite Taylor’s versatile skill set, it was alarming the way teams went after him a year ago. According to Pro Football Focus, the 26-year-old was targeted 110 times in coverage trailing only Denver’s Ja’Quan McMillian. And the results weren’t good for New Orleans Taylor gave up a leaguehigh 998 yards on 79 catches. His struggles on the outside were particularly surprising since he previously was adamant he felt more comfortable there than on the inside. Even if Taylor bounces back, opposing teams may go after Riley or Yiadom. That spot is a far greater concern at the moment. The track record for rookie cornerbacks becoming a net positive from Day 1 isn’t promising, especially for those picked in the mid-rounds. Although Yiadom has held up when asked to start, the Saints probably prefer to use him as a depth piece. The secondary could bottom out again if the corners don’t take a leap.

A prediction in 10 words or less Saints sign Samuel but still struggle in coverage.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

ANGELIQUE S CHENGELIS

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER Saints head coach Kellen Moore, left, poses with Saints owner Gayle Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis during a news conference at the Saints’ practice facility on Feb 13. Benson is heading to Paris to strengthen ties between the Saints and France.

AP FILE PHOTO By BRyNN ANDERSON

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARTIN MEISSNER

Spain coasts through 2 Women’s Euro matches

BY DANIELLA MATAR

AP sports writer

Roundup

THUN, Switzerland — World Cup champion Spain booked a spot in the quarterﬁnals of the Women’s European Championship after another statement victory, 6-2, over Belgium on Monday It was the ﬁrst time Spain won back-to-back matches at the Euros after beating Portugal 5-0 in its opener With 11 goals in two matches, Spain and its star-packed squad is living up to its billing as the tournament favorite, and two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas had a stark warning for the other teams.

“The team is having an excellent performance. But almost all of us have room for improvement,” Putellas said. She scored two against Belgium and was named player of the match in a second straight game.

“I’m feeling very well mentally and I’m being quick,” Putellas said. “I see things in advance and for me that’s the trigger that I feel good. And that means I can help others.” The result combined with Italy’s 1-1 draw against Portugal in the late match advanced Spain to the last eight. Spain tops Group B with six points. Italy is second with four three more than Portugal. The top two progress to the quarterﬁnals. On Friday, Italy faces Spain in their ﬁnal group match and Portugal plays the eliminated Belgium.

But Belgium can take positives.

The Red Flames went toe to toe with Spain before a ﬂurry of late goals had them more concerned about goal difference, which could be a deciding factor

“I’m really proud of my team because I know 100% that they had the belief that I was looking for,” Belgium coach Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir said. “But, to be honest, I walked into the locker room and I really wanted to cry Emotionally it was difﬁcult because I really believed in what we were doing, and I loved seeing my players give everything We gave them a really good game for at least 60 minutes.”

Spain laid siege to the Belgium goal from the start. Mariona Caldentey played in a lovely pass from the edge of the area to Vicky López, who cushioned it on for Putellas to sweep into the far corner

However, Spain’s 22nd-minute lead lasted barely two minutes before Justine Vanhaevermaet headed in Tessa Wullaert’s corner at the near post.

Spain captain Irene Paredes was playing her ﬁrst match of the tournament after being suspended from the opener, and she made it 2-1 before the break when she headed in a corner

Two-time Ballon d’Or winner

Aitana Bonmatí was brought on at halftime. She was hospitalized for viral meningitis before the tournament and played only eight minutes against Portugal.

Belgium leveled again through Hannah Eurlings shortly after the restart. It was initially ruled

out for offside but awarded by the VAR.

Less than a minute later, Spain led for a third time when Putellas played in Esther González for the veteran forward to score her third goal of the tournament.

When a González effort was blocked, the ball was not cleared and Mariona Caldentey fired in Spain’s fourth.

Claudia Pina curled a 20-yard effort into the top right corner, and there was still time for Putellas to net her second.

PORTUGAL 1, ITALY 1: In Geneva, Portugal desperately pressed Italy to find a goal to stay alive at the Women’s European Championship and finally got it in the 89th minute from Diana Gomes to secure a draw Italy was minutes from joining Spain in the quarterfinals with a lead taken in the 70th on captain Cristiana Girelli’s curling shot from 20 yards.

“The mood of the team is strong, we’re not devastated,” said Girelli, describing her 59th international goal as one of her best. “It would have been great to win in this way.”

Only when Portugal was heading to an early exit did its attacks start to fire. Diana Silva’s 80thminute goal was ruled out for an offside spotted after a two-minute video review

Then Portugal was denied by the crossbar in the 89th when Carole Costa’s firm header rebounded. But the ball was recycled down the left ﬂank, and Gomes met a low cross with a looping shot that eluded Laura Giuliani’s dive.

Nuggets intend to keep center Valanciunas in NBA

BENNETT DURANDO

The Denver Post (TNS)

DENVER The Denver Nuggets intend to hold Jonas Valanciunas to his NBA contract commitment despite his reported interest in an offer to return to the EuroLeague, a league source confirmed to The Denver Post. Denver is set to acquire Valanciunas who spent three season with the New Orleans Pelicans starting in 2021 — from the Sacramento Kings in a trade that was agreed on last Tuesday but hasn’t been finalized yet with the league office. On Thursday, a report surfaced out of Europe that Valanciunas was considering a three-year contract offer from the prominent Greek club Panathinaikos. But the 33-year-old Lithuanian center is still under contract through 2027 in the NBA, where the Nuggets are inheriting his $10.4 million salary for the 202526 season. If Valanciunas wants to play in Europe, he needs to work out a buyout with the Nuggets that would release him from his NBA contract and would likely require him to forfeit his salary Then he can receive a letter of clearance from the international basketball body FIBA, allowing him to sign with Panathinaikos.

But the Nuggets traded for Valanciunas with a vital role in mind for him, and they have a clear motive to make him honor his contract. On paper, the longtime starter should be Nikola Jokic’s best backup center in years, the type of player who can play signiﬁcant minutes and ease the physical strain on Jokic. The three-time MVP averaged 36.7 minutes per game last season, fourth-most in the NBA. Valanciunas was in Europe as of last weekend. He’s also listed on Lithuania’s preliminary national team roster for the upcoming FIBA EuroBasket tournament. Refusing to release Valanciunas does involve some risk

for the Nuggets. If he still feels averse to playing in the NBA when he reports to Denver for training camp later this summer it could establish an awkward environment around the team going into a new season.

But that might just be a chance worth taking for Denver, considering the shortage of centers available on the open market at this point. Valanciunas is a known commodity, with career averages of 13.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. If the Nuggets do reach a buyout agreement, they would be left scrambling for frontcourt depth after the majority of offseason moves have been completed around the league. The silver lining: Denver would have access to the full nontaxpayer mid-level exception, a salary cap mechanism worth $14.1 million.

Veteran big man Al Horford is still uncommitted in free agency He’s been linked to the Golden State Warriors for most of the last week, so he might not be available for much longer Nonetheless, he would be the natural place for Denver to start its search for a Plan B if it came to that.

Longtime Raptors big man Chris Boucher is another option, but he would be another smaller center at 6-foot-9, similar to Denver’s DaRon Holmes.

Reports have circulated that Nikola Vucevic’s trade value has declined in Chicago enough for the Bulls to contemplate buying him out. While that seems unlikely at his $21.5 million salary, he’s a player who could feasibly choose Denver as his next destination if given the opportunity to be a free agent. He and Jokic are friends off the court.

Options are otherwise limited. The Nuggets could identify potential trade partners with a center surplus, such as Phoenix and the soon-to-be relegated Nick Richards. But the team’s preferred solution seems to be keeping Valanciunas at this point.

the Netherlands.

Players who boosted themselves during the Gold Cup included goalkeeper Matt Freese, right back Alex Freeman, midﬁelders Malik Tillman and Sebastian Berhalter, and forward Patrick Agyemang.

“Guys have stepped up who were maybe taking a back seat previously, not that they’re quiet mice and they just sit there and listen to everything,” said Ream, the 37-year-old who captained the U.S. against Mexico Pochettino has 10 wins and six losses since replacing Gregg Berhalter last fall A segment of the team’s fan base was discouraged by last year’s first-round elimination at the Copa America, this year’s Nations League and a fourgame losing streak entering the Gold Cup, the team’s longest skid since 2007.

Crowds that rooted overwhelmingly for Guatemala in the semifinals and Mexico in the final caused Pochettino to implore the American fan base to support its national team.

“I think it would have been different if we would have played in two stadiums, the other way around, both against Guatemala in St. Louis 90(%) to 10 for USA, and today, instead of 70,000 — I’m not saying 70, but 60 or 50,000 of our people supporting us,” he said Sunday “But, well, this is what we have to deal with.”

Even after Freese’s emergence, the American goalkeeper pool is its weakest since the 1980s Matt Turner has failed to establish

himself with a top-tier European team, just like Zack Steffen. And given a chance to regain the starting spot after returning to Major League Soccer, Steffen got hurt ahead of the Gold Cup. Richards and Ream are the strongest of the central defenders, and Dest and Robinson the top choices at outside back with no clear No. 2s. Midﬁeld has the most depth and no one has seized the striker position Ex-players, including Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard, have criticized the current player pool’s dedication. Speaking late Sunday, Adams acknowledged “so much noise outside of what we were doing on the ﬁeld” heading into the tournament.

“I told every single player after the game how proud I was just of the growth of every single individual,” Adams said He said the positive culture Pochettino established over ﬁve

weeks together has to be maintained for friendlies against South Korea on Sept. 6 and Japan three days later

“I think it has to translate right away or I think Mauricio just probably won’t call people in,” Adams said. “The culture that we have, it doesn’t matter who you are. If it’s guys here that played well, if it’s guys coming back into the group, if you’re coming back from injury, just whatever it is, the culture and the emotion is the ﬁrst thing that he wants to see.”

There also will be a pair of friendlies in each of October, November and March, a possible January training camp mostly for MLS-based players, then two pre-World Cup send-off games in early June. “The most important thing is to have our heads up,” Pochettino said. “I have no doubt that we are going to be really, really competitive and going to be very difﬁcult for the opponent.’

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVID J PHILLIP

States defender Chris Richards celebrates after scoring against Mexico in the ﬁrst half of the CONCACAF Gold Cup ﬁnal match in Houston on Sunday

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By NICK WASS Georgetown guard Micah Peavy plays against Marquette on March 1 in Washington, D.C.

Spain’s Alexia Putellas, who was named player of the match, celebrates after scoring her side’s sixth goal against Belgium at Arena Thun in Thun, Switzerland, on Monday

Sacramento Kings center Jonas Valanciunas runs up to the basket as New Orleans Pelicans center Karlo Matkovic plays defense during a game at the Smoothie King Center on Feb 12.

STAFF

PHOTO

By SOPHIA GERMER

NASCAR’s in-season tournament adds dramatoﬁve-racestretch

BY JAYCOHEN AP sportswriter

CHICAGO NASCAR’sﬁrst in-season tournament hasn’tmade much of an impression on its drivers so far.TyGibbs said Sundayhe didn’t know who his second-roundopponent was until after the Cup Series race That might be about to change.

Gibbs is one of eightdriversstill in the mix for the $1 million prize that goes to the winner of the ﬁve-race, bracket-style competition. While Shane vanGisbergen was closing out his Cupvictory in Chicago this weekend, some of the most compelling action on the downtown street course was at leastconnected to theinaugural In-Season Challenge.

Alex Bowman andBubba Wallace raced each other hard in the final laps after theytangledin Chicago last year.Bowman got the better of the head-to-head matchup, finishing eighthand eliminating Wallacefromthe tournament.

John Hunter Nemechek was 15th, one spot better thanhis opponent, Chase Elliott. Gibbs had astrong day and ﬁnished second, good enough to beat AJ Allmendinger in sixth. Ty

Dillon, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, Zane Smith and ErikJones also moved on.

The 14th-seeded Smith upset No. 3seed Chris Buescher by ﬁnishing 14th.Heismatched up with Gibbs for Sunday’s road race at Sonoma.

“I hate we had to knock another Ford out, but it’ssuper cool to advance,” Smith said With the in-season tournament part of anew media rights deal that includes TNT —NASCAR is following in the footsteps of the NBA and soccer leagues around the world.

After Sonomathisweekend, it concludes with races at Dover and Indianapolis Motor Speedway Bowman said the tournament wasn’tonhis mind as he battled with Wallace at theend in Chicago. Whatever the reason for the contact, their head-to-head matchup certainly added abit of intrigue to the racingbehindvan Gisbergen’s victory.

With the moneyinvolved and the ﬁeld trimmed to eight drivers, there couldbemoremoments likethe duel between Bowman and Wallace in the ﬁnal weeks of the challenge.

“I wasn’t expectingthattohappen or to get raced likethat,but we did,” Bowman said. “Wejust have to move on from it and keep digging.”

It sure sounds as if Dillon is enjoyingthe competition. Dillon, the No. 32 seed,eliminated Brad Keselowski on Sunday after he upset top-seeded DennyHamlin at Atlanta on June 28. There was absolutely no drama in Dillon’swin after Keselowski was collected in an early crash that began with Carson Hocevar hitting the wall and spinning out between Turns 10 and11. Hocevarwas eliminated by Reddick.

“I’mjust so proud of Kaulig Racing and our No. 10 team,” Dillon said. “I knew in abasketball city, goingupagainstBradinagame of knockout, Iwas going to have a good chance.”

Dillon takes on Bowmanand Preece faces Reddick in the next round. But the mostinteresting contestjust might be Nemechek versus Jones in amatchup of Legacy Motor Club teammates.

“I felt like if we could have gotten through theﬁrst round, these next two rounds are really good for us,”Preece said. “Our road course program is prettystrong, and we keep making it better.So going into Sonoma, Ithink we’re up against TylerReddick, so he’s really good at road courses as well, but Ilike being the underdog.”

Jesuit baseball players

BY CHRISTOPHERDABE Staff writer

Several of theJesuit baseball players in the dugout when the prepseason began in February arestill playing games together —now in thesecondweek of July

That’s50-plus games, spanning through the high school season that ended in early May and the Crescent City Sports summer league that ended last week.

This week is the American Legion baseball state tournamentat Kirsch-Rooney Stadium, which includes Jesuit-based RetifOil as the only school-based team in theﬁeld.

“They know at theend of the dayit’sachance to win astate championship,” said Retif Oil coach Kenny Goodlett, who is also the Jesuit coach. “It’s a chancetoplay in atournament with some verygoodteams some olderteams. They treat it as aheck of achallenge.”

Jesuit defeated the Abbeville-based Gulf Coast Bank 29ers 15-0 in five innings on Saturdayonthe opening day of the eight-team tournament butgot no-hitbythe Houmabased Southland Hogs in a7-0 loss on Sunday. Retif Oil and the OpelousasbasedSt. Landry BankIndians played an eliminationgame Mondaythat started late because of rain. RetifOil won 6-2..

The Bossier Phillies, the reigning state champions, wontheir ﬁrst twogames to get within one winofadvancing back to the state ﬁnal for athird year in a row.The championship round is Wednesday American Legion baseball is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and Jesuit has played Legion ball for nearly as long.

“Weplay because it’sastrong tradition and it meanssomething to Jesuit, and it means something to ouralumni,”Goodlettsaid.

Jesuit-based teams have won theAmerican Legion state championship nine times. State champions advance to eight-team regional tournaments, andthe winners theregotothe American Legion World Series in Shelby,North Carolina. Jesuit-based teams have won the World Series three times, with the mostrecent in 2012.

“My dad played in Legion,” said

Jesuitsenior Joe Bosco, whose father,also named Joe, played for Jesuit in the 1980s. “You can look at the history.Wecount the state championships in Legionthe sameway we do in the spring.”

Most Legion baseball teams draw from multiple high schools. Legion eligibility rules allow 19-year-olds to play,sosome players also have ayear of college experience.

JesuitseniorMarshal Serio hasplayedLegiongames since before the start of his freshman year of high school.

“Deﬁnitely whenIwas going into my freshmanyear,itwas very difficult because those guys were throwing alot harder than what Ihad seen,” said Serio, whose father Steven played forJesuit in the 1990s andis nowthe Jesuit juniorvarsity coach Marshall Serio likened the Legiontournament to what he has experienced while playing in travel-ball tournaments. But playing 50-plus games with his high school teammates marks one signiﬁcant difference from travel ball.

“Travelballyou just go out there on the weekends and play,” he said.“This is agrind.Thisis like MLB or college. You’re practicing every day and then you’re going out there and giving it your all. It’s alot of fun.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ERINHOOLEy

John Hunter Nemechek competesinaNASCARCup Series race at the Grant Park 165 on SundayinChicago.

The digital era

‘Social Studies’ team on cellphone bans, Instagram age limits and more

BY GLENN WHIPP Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES “If you’re a parent, Lauren Greenfield’s new doc about teens and social media ‘is a horror movie.’”

That Los Angeles Times headline ran on an August story about Greenfield’s acclaimed five-part docuseries that followed Los Angeles-area high school students during the 202122 school year, tracking their cellphone and social media use for a revealing portrait of their online life.

Greenfield remembers the headline.

“I’ve heard that from parents,” Greenﬁeld says. “And I keep hearing it whenever we screen the series.”

Greenﬁeld has taken “Social Studies” to schools around the country since its premiere last summer airing episodes and answering questions, speaking alongside a rotating group of the show’s subjects. And, yes, the most common takeaway remains: Parents have no idea what’s going on with their teenagers — though “horror” is in the eye of the beholder

Today, Greenfield and three of the “Social Studies” participants — Cooper Klein, Dominic Brown and Jonathan Gelfond, all now 21 are in a Venice bungalow, just back from showing the series to some 6,000 teenagers in San Francisco — young people who, by and large, had a much different reaction than their elders to the depictions of online bullying, body-image issues, partying, hooking up and FOMO culture.

These teens were sometimes gasping and talking to the screen, laughing at points, fully immersed, fully relating, even feeling nostalgic for TikTok trends that were popping three years ago. In one episode, teenager Sydney Shear is having a text exchange with a guy Greenﬁeld describes as “creepy.” We see the message he sends: “Permission to beat.” Right after she tells him no, the group of girls sitting behind Greenﬁeld screamed, “You know he did anyway!”

“It’s really fascinating how differently adults versus adolescents reacted to the show,” says Klein, now a junior at Vanderbilt. “Adults are terriﬁed

LIVING

By JAVIER GALLEGOS

UNCHARTED TERRITORY

Whim of the weather gods? How

a door in Delaware led Jay Grymes to state climatology post in Louisiana

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

Looking back now, Jay Grymes

realizes his fate was subject to forces beyond his control.

Maybe it was the weather gods, who obviously didn’t care that weather wasn’t his particular interest — a strange fact about someone who would eventually be named the Louisiana state climatologist. But it’s true. Grymes’ major at the University of Delaware was environmental biology He’d taken his required courses but needed a few electives to earn his bachelor’s degree.

So, he took a class in meteorology This is where the weather gods stepped in.

If he hadn’t taken the class, Grymes wouldn’t have run into his professor after the ﬁnal exam, no extensive conversation would have followed, and Grymes probably would have been working as a ranger for Delaware’s state park system instead of preparing for the 2025 hurricane season in the Louisiana State Ofﬁce of Climatology Grymes has since made his home in this strange land where he spent the first month trying to figure out the meaning of “Gox Tigers.”

That’s how he pronounced “geaux”

upon his 1986 arrival in Louisiana, where his palate had to adjust to Cajun and Creole spices and where the openness of Louisiana’s residents knocked him off balance at ﬁrst.

People in Delaware were customarily reserved, rarely making eye contact, he said.

“I remember going to Lafayette when I ﬁrst came here,” Grymes said. “People were still doing the side cheek kisses back then, and I wasn’t used to that.”

But he has no complaints. He feels lucky Walking through GOHSEP

“This room,” Grymes said, pointing through a door, “is the press room where the governor gives his updates for the press during emergencies.”

He peers at the podium at the front of the room. It’s probably the most recognizable setting for Louisiana television audiences in the wake and aftermath of hurricanes,

ä See GRYMES, page 2D

BY LAUREN HARVEY Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES Ryan Gosling puts the “not” in “Astronaut” in the new trailer for “Project Hail Mary.” The upcoming sci-fi film, based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, stars Gosling as middle school teacher turned reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace, who’s tasked with saving humanity from the effects of a

dimming sun. However, when he wakes up from a coma as the sole survivor aboard a spaceship, he must overcome his amnesia to remember where he is and why he was sent there.

STAFF

PHOTO

State Climatologist Jay Grymes points to the nameplates marking all of the different agencies that operate out of the Emergency Operations Center during major storms at the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness headquarters on Tuesday.

PHOTO PROVIDED FROM WAFB

Jay Grymes spent almost 30 years as a meteorologist for a TV station in Baton Rouge.

‘Ladies first’ doesn’tapply everywhere

Dear Miss Manners: Iamagentleman who strives to live amannerly life. In that regard, when riding public transportation, I offer my seat to ladies who are standing. Ialso wait for ladies to leave an elevator before me. Now that Iamwell beyond retirement age, does that change any expectations and norms? When, if ever,doIkeep my seat and allow youngermen the privilege of offering their seat to the fairer sex?

applied there.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Gentle reader: First, pleaseget off those elevators when you are in front, instead of creating confusion by trying to standback in favor of any ladies who are behind you. “Ladies ﬁrst” never

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Tuesday,July 8, the 189th day of 2025. There are 176 days left in the year

TodayinHistory:

On July 8, 2018, diversrescued four of the 12 boys who had been trapped in aﬂooded cave in northernThailand with their soccer coach for more than two weeks. (The remaining eight boys and their coach were rescued over the next two days.)

Also on this date:

In 1776, Col. John Nixon gave the ﬁrst public reading of the Declaration of Independence, outside the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

In 1889, the ﬁrst issue of The Wall Street Journal was published.

In 1947, aNew Mexico newspaper,the Roswell Daily Record, quoted officials at Roswell Army Air Field as sayingthey had recovereda“flying saucer” that crashed onto aranch;officials then said it was actually aweather balloon.

In 1950, President Harry S Truman named Gen. Douglas MacArthur commander in chief of United Nations forces in Korea. (Truman wouldﬁre MacArthurfor insubordination nine months later.)

In 1972, the Nixon administration announcedadeal to sell $750 million in grainto the Soviet Union. (However, the Soviets were alsoengaged in secretly buying subsidized American grain, resultingin what critics dubbed “TheGreat Grain Robbery.”)

In 2000, Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport for her ﬁrst Grand Slam title, becoming the ﬁrst Black female champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1958.

In 2010, the largest spy swap between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold Warunfolded as 10 people accused of spying in suburban America pleaded guilty to conspiracy and were ordered deported to Russia in exchange for the release of four prisoners accused of spying for the West.

In 2021, President Joe Biden said the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan would end on Aug. 31; in aspeech in the White House East Room, Biden madeanimpassioned argument for exiting the nearly 20-year war without sacriﬁcing more America lives, but acknowledged that there would beno “mission accomplished” momenttocelebrate.

In 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on astreet in western Japan by agunman who opened ﬁre on him from behind as he delivered acampaign speech.

Today’sBirthdays: Actor Jeffrey Tambor is 81. Drummer Jaimoe Johanson (The Allman Brothers Band) is 81. Actor Kim Darby is 78. Children’smusicianRafﬁ is 77. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is 76. ActorAnjelica Huston is 74. Writer Anna Quindlen is 73. Author and politician Marianne Williamson is 73. Pro Football Hall of FamerJack Lambert is 73. Actor Kevin Bacon is 67. Singer Joan Osborne is 63. Actor Lee Tergesen (TV: “Oz”) is 60. Actor Billy Crudup is 57. Actor Michael Weatherly (TV: “NCIS”) is 57. Musician Beck is 55. Actor Kathleen Robertson is 52. Christian rock musician Stephen Mason (Jars of Clay) is 50. Actor Milo Ventimiglia is 48. Actor Lance Gross (TV:“Tyler Perry’sHouse of Payne”) is 44. Actor Sophia Bush is 43. Actor Maya Hawke is 27.Actor Jaden Smith is 27.

Foryourhabit of yielding seats, Miss Manners commends you, and hopes that ladies alwaystreat the gesture graciously, whether or not they accept. But it is not only your agethat has changed; our system of precedence is in ﬂux. Gender is becoming less of afactor,as it can do damage in the workplace, where deferring to colleagues as ladies undermines their professional identities. There, precedence should be determined by thejob’s hierarchy

Andinsociety at large, age is becoming more of afactor

Shouldayounglady offer you a

GRYMES

Continued from page1D

and it’swhere Grymes will take his place behind the governor during thenext storm.

Thepress room is located inside the Governor’sOfﬁce of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, or GOHSEP, which stands next doortothe Louisiana StatePoliceHeadquarters in Baton Rouge on IndependenceBoulevard.

Thebuildingishometoone of Grymes’ twostate climatologist ofﬁces. He also maintains the LSU LouisianaOfficeofState Climatology in the university’s Energy, Coast &Environmental Building.

But the emergency action happens at GHOSEP,where Grymes nowleadsthe waytoaconference room that looks out at ahigh-tech staging area.

Thegovernor, Grymes points out,meets withhis higher-ups in the conference room while various agencies gather for their marchingordersduring emergencies in thenext room.

Thebuildingisequippedwith afull kitchen and meeting rooms that can be converted to sleeping quarters and showers forovernight stays.

The halls are silent for now,but that’sbecause it’saMonday

“The office was under the National Guardbefore, then Gov (Bobby) Jindalmoved this ofﬁce into theexecutive branch during his administration,” Grymes said. “Gov.(Jeff)Landry,from an administrative standpoint,put it back under the Department of Military —the National Guard.”

And the Guard changed the workingweek here to four 10-hour days aweek

“So tomorrow,you’ll see some people ﬂoating around,” Grymes said. “Normally,Iactually would probably be at LSU on aMonday, butI’m trying to getthe position in aplace where itis almost seamless in termsofwhat Ido, that Ican do my jobateither place.”

Still, GOHSEP is Grymes’ primary station, where he has worked since last summer after retirement aschiefmeteorologist at Baton Rouge’sWAFB, Channel 9. Grymesspent almost 30 years at thestation,the ﬁrst seven workingpart-timeonweekends. He’s the ﬁrst to say he wasn’tprepared for the job.

Well, that is, he had no broadcastingexperience.

Grymes originally moved to Baton Rouge to work on his doctoral degree in meteorology at LSU. He eventually was offered the state climatology position, andthough the job was onlypart-time, he de-

‘SOCIAL’

Continued from page1D

by it, but young people ﬁnd it fun-

ny.It’slike watching reality TV.”

Much has changedfor these “Social Studies” subjects since Greenﬁeld stoppedﬁlming in 2022. How could it not? The years immediatelyfollowing high school usually bring about intense growth and change and, hopefully,alittle maturity.The world around them is different. Palisades Charter High School, which many of the studentsinthe series attended, was

SPACE

Continued from page1D

seat,Miss Manners hopes you will also respond graciously This is not to say that the gentlemanliness you practice should be abandoned —much less condemned, as is done by some. Tradition has its place, and these gestures add grace to society. So theshort answer is: Keep offering seats to ladies if you don’t mindstanding; if you do mind, then stay seated. Dear Miss Manners: Iattended a concert at our church, which has an excellent endowed music program.The concert was an organ and poetry recital, about 40 minutes in duration.

About 15 minutes in, Ibecame aware of askritching sound that didn’tstop.Ilooked in the pew behind me andawoman was sit-

tingthere ﬁling her nails with an emery board. Itried to get her attention but she would not look at me. I reached back andtapped her knee, which startled her and madeher angry.I asked her to please stop ﬁling her nails, which she did. At theend of the concert, she asked my nameand informed me that if Iever touched her again, she would callthe police and press charges on me for assault. I said “please do.” She had already ruined theevent for me. She madeacommotion as she left, which was noticed by others. Should Ihave done something different?

Gentlereader: Tapped her on the shoulder,not the knee.

No,wait. Youshould not be touching strangers at all, unless you are rescuing them from imminent danger.Besides, it would be difficult to reach ashoulder in the pew behind you. And it is difficult, Miss Manners admits, to reach adetermined scofflaw.Ifnochurch authority wasavailable during the incident, it might still be worth reporting in the hope that efforts will be made to restore proper behavior

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

By JAVIER GALLEGOS State Climatologist JayGrymes poses for apicture outside of the Governor’sOffice of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness headquarters.

veloped it intoafull-timeposition.

Then WAFB came calling. The stationneeded aweekendmeteorologist.Grymeshad neverstood in front of acamera, so thestation senthim to Dallas for broadcast coaching.

“They flew me over therethat morning. Itrained forfourhours, they flew me back, and Iwas on television doing the weather at 6that evening,” Grymes said. “I wasbad —I wasreally bad. In fact, those first few weeks, Iwas so bad that Iwas afraid Iwas destroying my reputation in town, because at that point,Ihad been consulting forState Police andthe Department of Environmental Quality andthe DepartmentofEnergy and Natural Resources. Ihad probably half adozen attorneys that had me doing work forthem, and Ijust felt likeIwas abuffoon on TV,because it was just otherworldly.”

Butlate WAFB anchor Paul Gates encouraged Grymes to stay, andwhen then-chief meteorologist Mike Graham took an extensive vacation, Grymes ﬁlled in and found his groove.

“I found Jay the weatherman ratherthan Jay trying to be Mike theweatherman,” he said.

The televisionstation asked Grymes to be chief meteorologist upon Graham’sretirement. Former LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert encouraged Grymes to take the job.

“He said the university couldn’t pay me nearly what the TV station was offering,” Grymes said.

And he has no regrets, but that doesn’tmean he misses television

heavilydamaged in theJanuary wildﬁres. (“The show’slikeatime capsule,” says Gelfond, aPali High grad.“Looking back,the series is even more specialnow.”)

Some things haven’tchangedat all, though. Technology remains addictive, theyall agree. Even when you are aware thatthe algorithms exist to snare your time andattention, it can be hard to stopscrolling.

If thetakeaway from the series was thatparentscouldn’tfully comprehendhow technologyshapes and deﬁnes theirteens’ lives(“They’re the guinea pig generation,”Greenﬁeld notes), watching “Social Studies,” either together or alone, has

life. The schedule of evening hours could be taxing, and though he gradually developed athickskin, it was never athick enough armor against critics in his audience. But Grymes did enjoy the people he worked with, agroupoffellow broadcast meteorologists that he considers the best in Baton Rouge. He’s alsoproudofjoiningupwith WAFB’scurrent chief meteorologist, Steve Caparotta, in using the job to educatethe public about weather

ButGrymes knew he couldn’t pass up asecondopportunityas state climatologist.Now here he is.

Stranger things

“Think about it,” Grymes said. “If Ihad chosen to walk out adifferent door of thebuilding, Iwould probably be working as astate park ranger in Delaware.”

That door was an entrance and exit to the building where Grymes hadjust taken theﬁnalexam for ameteorology elective. He was working as anight janitor at the University of Delawareatthe time to earn themoney needed to take his ﬁnal classes.

Then he ran into his meteorologyprofessor.They struck up a conversation.

What was he majoring in? Well, nothing to do with meteorology or climatology,but it didn’tmatter. They were both headed in the same direction, so theywalkedand talked.

“Weended up in his ofﬁce, and about an hour anda half into the conversation, he told me to wait

served as aconversation starter

“It made me more grateful for the way my parents navigated all this,”Kleinsaid. “I thought they were overstepping boundaries, trying to protect me too much. AndI thinkthis showvalidated that they did areally great job. Because we were theﬁrstgeneration, they were kind of ﬂying blind.”

Now Klein wonders whatshe’d do differently if sheeverhas kids.She started on Instagram at 12. If she could go back,she’d probably delay that entry,eventhough Klein says it nowseemsnormal for kids to join theapp whenthey turn 8or9

So what would be the ideal start-

there,” Grymes said. “He returned withtwo of my professorsand said they hadletters of recommendation forgrad school.”

Grymes’ grad school adviser had aprofessor connection in thelandof “Geaux Tigers.” He drove from Delaware to the university in his truck to workwiththe LSUprofessor WhileinBaton Rouge,hemet his wife, Debi, who managedthe LSU Student Union’sPlantation Room, andeventually became stepfather to her daughter,Carrie,thena grandfather to herson, whoisabout to graduate from Tulane University As he approaches his 70th birthday,Grymes doesn’tplan to spend many yearsinhis second stint as state climatologist. He’d like to one day retire and spend alittlebit of time riding his Kawasaki Vulcan cruiser motorcycle on rural roads. It’sthe secondbike he’s owned, the ﬁrst being a2001 model.

“This is a2003 model,” he said. “I would like to get outdoorsy.”

But fornow,his days arespent monitoringLouisiana’ssummerdroughts,weather systems throughout the state and prepping GOHSEP in cases of tropical disturbances in the Atlantic Ocean.

It is hurricane season, after all, in astate where Grymes feels lucky to live.

“I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “None of these jobs Ihave pursued, but the venues and the people I’ve worked with have all been great. Iamlucky.”

Email RobinMilleratromiller@ theadvocate.com.

er age?

“MaybeI’m crazyfor saying this, but Ithink it should be 16,” Brown says. Greenﬁeld nods her head,noting Australia recently banned social media —Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram andX—for children under 16.

“I got on Instagram when Iwas 10 or 11, and Ihad no idea of the world that Ihad just gained access to,” Browncontinues. “You should waituntilyou gain critical thinking skills. Sixteen, 17, 18, maybe.”

“It is the end of childhood,” Greenﬁeld says. “You get that phone and everything that comes with it, and it is theend of innocence.”

proclaims, “and I’mnot an astronaut.” It then jolts back in time to show Grace pre-launch as he learns from EvaStratt(Sandra Hüller) that if he does not journey into space, everything on Earthwill go extinct. According to Stratt, who heads themission, Grace is the only scientist who might understand what is happening to thesun and surrounding stars.

bie”actor declares at onepoint (Gosling portrayed moonwalker Neil Armstronginanother recent space movie, Damien Chazelle’s “First Man.”)

Thetrailer,which progresses through an intense montage set to Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times,” teases Gosling’ssignature humor. “I can’teven moonwalk!”the ”Bar-

EverythingleadsuptoGrace meeting an alien, who isn’tshown in full —but fans of the book know it plays an integralroleinsaving planet Earth andbeyond. Theﬁlm,directedbyPhilLord and Christopher Miller, marks the second book-to-movie adaptation for Weir,whose novel “The Martian” became an Oscar-nominated 2015 blockbuster starring Matt Damon.Anadaptation forhis book “Artemis” is also in development with the samedirecting team. “Project Hail Mary” hits theaters March 20.

STAFFPHOTO

cAncER(June 21-July22) Embrace a challenge without revealingyournext move.A secretiveapproach will give youthe leverage you require to get things done your way. Own the floor instead of sharing.

LEO (July 23-Aug.22) Find events and activities thattakeyourmindoff your troubles, but remember to respect your budget. Distancing yourself from aggravations will help youresolvelingering issues.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Windowshop, but don't go into the store. It's time to rethink your lifestyle, consider what's essentialand discard what's taking up space mentally, physically andemotionally

LIBRA (Sept.23-Oct. 23) Hands-on learningisthe best; it will change your perspective, direction and dreams. Refuse to let anyone pressure you into making achoice thatisbetterfor themthanit is for you.

ScORPIO (Oct. 24-nov. 22) Plan carefully beforeyou try to navigate your way forward. Preparation is everything whendealingwith relationships, making deals and budgeting forwhat you want.

SAGIttARIuS(nov. 23-Dec. 21) Apply your energy to something worthwhile. If youlet tensionbuild,you will waste yourenergyfightingano-win situation. Instead, consider how youcan physically enforce positive change cAPRIcORn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Use your energy wisely, ponder the logistics of

your actionsand proceed with dignity andgain ground. It's all in the wayyou handleothers; diplomacy is everything.

AQuARIuS (Jan.20-Feb. 19) Look for innovative ways to relax and save money. Investinginyour skills and home and honing your ability to balance work and play will payoff.

PIScES(Feb. 20-March 20) Keep situations in perspective. Maintaining a calm state of mind and an easygoing outlook will help you navigate obstacles. Refuse to let what others do or say makeyou angry.

ARIES(March 21-April 19) Tallyupwhat things cost andconsider howtohandle mismanaged funds or jointventures. When uncertainty setsin, ask an expert andinitiatechange to avoid loss.

tAuRuS (April 20-May 20) Do it yourself Signing up for something or bingeing on something unnecessary will tempt you. Look at the big picture, consider what's essential to reach your goal and eliminatewhat's disposable.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Do things yourself.Don'toverloadyourself with duties or distractions. Focus moreonsaving timeand money instead of casting your fate to the wind andletting things spin outofcontrol.

FAMILY CIrCUS

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, pastand present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another. tODAy'ScLuE: HEQuALSF

CeLebrItY CIpher For better or For WorSe

SALLYForth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM SherMAn’S LAGoon

bIG nAte

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudokuis anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe 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.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

Peter Thomson,anAustralian golfer whowon the British Open five times, said, “Every tournament has its climax, its winning moment. If you’re notwatchful, youwill miss it and lose your best chance.”

Abridge deal often has itswinning moment. If you’re not watchful,you will err and go downinyour contract or fail to defeat the declarer. In thisdeal, South is in five clubs. West leads alow heart, Eastwinning with hiskingand (best) continuing withthe heart ace. Howcan South prevail?

After South’s strong artificial opening and North’sweak artificial response, the biddingwas natural. East thought about sacrificing in five hearts,but was dissuaded by the unfavorable vulnerability. (Five hearts doubled should cost 500.)

Declarer seems to have 11 easy tricks: one spade, five diamonds and five clubs. However, to getfive diamond tricks, Southmust draw trumps, unblock his ace and king of diamonds, and get to the dummy.What is hisdummy entry? It is the club eight. But if Southruffs the second heart in the dummy, that will be the losing moment, destroying that entry when the trumps break 3-1, not 2-2. Instead, declarer should discard aspade from the board at trick two.

If Eastcontinues with athird heart, South’s prettiest play is to ruff with his club nine,drawtrumps, cash the top diamonds,overtake the club seven with dummy’s eight, and runthe diamonds Alternatively,South can ruff low, pitch asecondspade fromthe board, draw trumps, cash histwo diamonds and spade ace,and enter the dummy with a spade ruff.

EachWuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

word game

InStRuctIOnS: 1. Words must be of four or moreletters.2.Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” suchas“bats” or “dies,”are not allowed. 3. additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

tODAy’S WORD LIAISOnS: lee-A-zons: Closebonds or connections

Average mark12words

Time limit 20 minutes

Can you find19ormorewords in LIAISONS?

yEStERDAy’S WORD—ASSERtS

wuzzles

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition For more information on tournaments and

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

info@scrabbleplayers.org.

ken ken

InstructIons: 1 -Eachrow and each column must containthe numbers 1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, calledcages, mustcombine using the given operation (in any order) to producethe target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the numberinthe top-left corner.

WiShinG Well

HErE is aplEasanTliTTlE

thenumber of letters

is your

Scrabble GramS

Get fuzzy

jump Start

roSe iS roSe animal crackerS

DuStin

PUBLIC NOTICE

Sealed Bids forthe FranklintonBAS,1228 Taft St Franklinton, LA 70438 will be received at theFranklinton Readi‐ness Center,1228 Taft St LA 70438, until1:00p.m CT on Friday,July30, 2025. ANYPERSONREQUIRING SPECIALACCOMMODA‐TIONSSHALL NOTIFY KARR A. BENOIT OF THE TYPE(S)OFACCOMMO‐DATION REQUIRED NOT LESS THAN SEVEN(7) DAYS BEFORE THEBID OPENING. Complete BidDocuments forthisproject areavail‐able in electronic form They maybeobtained withoutchargeand with‐outdeposit from CFMO Energy LAANG. Printed copies arenot available from theProject Man‐ager,but arrangements canbemadetoobtain them throughmostre‐prographic firms. Plan holdersare responsible fortheir ownreproduc‐tion costs. Questions aboutthisprocedure shallbedirected to the ProjectManager at CFMO Energy LAANG, 6400 St Claude Avenue,New Or‐leans, LA 70117. Phone (504) 278-8047. Attention: Karr A. Benoit.E-MailAd‐dress: karr.a.benoit.nfg@ army.mil AMandatory Pre-Bid conference andsitevisit is scheduledfor 1:00 p.m. CT on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, Franklinton ReadinessCenter, 1228 Taft St,Franklinton,LA 70438. Attendance at this Conferenceismanda‐tory.Prospective bidders must attend theentire mandatoryPre-Bid con‐ferenceinorder to sub‐mita bid. TheConstruc‐tion andFacilitiesMan‐agementOffice pointof contactisKarrA.Benoit, Email: karr.a.benoit.nfg@ army.mil CFMO Building #3022, Office #220, 6400 St Claude Avenue,New Orleans, LA 70117, 504278-8047. BIDS SHALLBEACCEPTED ONLY FROM CONTRAC‐TORS THAT ATTEND THE ENTIRE MANDATORYPREBIDCONFERENCE. ANYPERSONREQUIRING SPECIALACCOMMODA‐TIONSSHALL NOTIFY KARR A. BENOIT OF THE TYPE(S)OFACCOMMO‐DATION REQUIRED NOT LESS THAN FIVE (5)DAYS BEFORE THEMANDATORY

2025, at the listed abovelocationin ordertosubmitanelec‐tronic bid. TheOwner reserves the righttoacceptorreject anyand allBidsfor just cause. In accordance with directives andguid‐ance publishedbyFacil‐ityPlanningand Control, theLouisiana Revised Statutes,the provisions andrequirementsof thosestatedinthe ad‐vertisementfor bids and thoserequiredonthe bid form shallnot be waivered.The Louisiana Military Department Deputy Director forCon‐tracting andPurchasing andthe StateContract‐

PUBLIC NOTICE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERNDISTRICTOF LOUISIANA IN RE:THE MATTER OF STEWARTBARGE NUM‐BERTWELVE, L.L.C.,AS OWNEROFTHE SC 740 BARGE, PETITIONINGFOR EXONERATIONFROMOR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY CIVILACTION NO.: 25-1300 SECTION: M(1) NOTICE TO CLAIMANTS OF COMPLAINTFOR EXONERATIONFROMOR LIMITATIONOFLIABILITY NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that StewartBarge Num‐berTwelve, L.L.C. ("Stew‐artBarge"),asownerof theSC740 Barge, its equipment, gear,furni‐ture,appurtenances, etc. ("theVessel"), has ﬁled a Complaint, pursuant to 46 U.S.C. §§ 30501, et seq.,for exoneration from or limitation of lia‐bility forall claims for anyand alllossoflife, in‐jury,lossofproperty, de‐struction, or damage arisingout of or related to theIncidentoccurring on January3,2025, al‐legedlyinvolving theSC 740, which happened on navigablewatersinor near NewOrleans Louisiana, allasismore fully describedinStew‐artBarge's ComplaintFor ExonerationFromorLim‐itationofLiability ("Com‐plaint") Allpersons having such claims must ﬁle theirre‐spective claims,aspro‐videdinRule Fofthe Supplemental Rulesfor AdmiraltyorMaritime Claims of theFederal RulesofCivil Procedure, with theClerk of Court forthe EasternDistrictof Louisiana, CarolL Michel,UnitedStates Courthouse,500 Poydras Street,RoomC151, New Orleans, LA 70130, and must servea copy thereofoncounsel for Limitation Petitioner,Jef‐ferson R. Tillery,

OF JEFFERSON That portionofground together with allthe buildingsand improve‐mentsthereon,and allof therights, ways,privi‐leges, servitudes,appur‐tenances thereuntobe‐longingorinanywise ap‐pertaining,situatedin theParishofJefferson StateofLouisiana,inthe Subdivisionknown and dedicatedasCamellia Gardens, accordingto plan thereofmadebyH E. Landry,C.E dated Feb‐ruary1,1950, on ﬁle and of record in Plan Book 15, page 20, Parish of Jeffer‐son, whichportion of ground is describedas follows: LotTwenty-Four (24) of Block“D” bounded by GelpiAv‐enue,and Second Street JeffersonParkSubdivi‐sion andJefferson High‐way. Lot24commences 206.85 feet from thecor‐nerofGelpi Avenue,and Second Street andmea‐suresthence50feet frontonGelpiAvenue same in widthinthe rear by adepth of 114.50 feet between equaland paral‐lellines;all as more fully shownonsketchbyH.E Landry,C.E datedAu‐gust 3, 1950, annexedto an actbeforeNat B. Knight,Jr.,NotaryPublic, datedAugust24, 1960. Theimprovementsbear HouseNo. 561 GelpiAv‐enue Allasmorefully shown on survey of AdloeOrr, Jr &Associates Consult‐ingEngineers, datedJan‐uary 16, 1961, acopyof whichisattached hereto except that thedepth is shownas114.80 feet be‐tween equaland parallel lines.

Beingthe same property acquired by FrancisE Herbet from Jefferson Savingsand Loan Associ‐ationbyact before NatB Knight,NotaryPublic, datedAugust24, 1960 anddulyregisteredin theParishofJefferson StateofLouisiana in COB 514, folio 10, on August 31, 1960.

Beingthe same property whichJosephT,Manger‐chine, Jr andEva Zim‐merleMangerchine ac‐quired from FrancisE Herbet andRosalie Rose AnzelmoHerbet, by Act of Cash Sale datedFebru‐ary8,1961, andduly recorded in thecon‐veyancerecords of the JeffersonParish, Clerkof Court’sOfﬁce Themunicipaladdress being561 Gelpi, Jeffer‐son, Louisiana 70121. 145763-JUN17-18-2T $97.88