The Acadiana Advocate 02-12-2025 by The Advocate

“I am excited to join the New Orleans Saints and deeply appreciate the faith that Mrs. (Gayle) Benson and the entire Saints organization have placed in me.”

MOORE, newly hired Saints head coach

KELLEN

Saints hire Moore

Philadelphia offensive coordinator considered one of NFL’s brightest young offensive minds

BY LUKE JOHNSON and MATTHEW PARAS Staff writers

When the New Orleans Saints last changed the trajectory of their franchise, they tabbed a young offensive mind with NFC East roots to lead them out of the cellar

Perhaps they’re trying to rekindle the spark of the Sean Payton era: The Saints ofﬁcially named Kellen Moore their 12th head coach in franchise history

“I am excited to join the New Or-

leans Saints and deeply appreciate the faith that Mrs. (Gayle) Benson and the entire Saints organization have placed in me,” Moore said in a statement. “I look forward to embracing the challenges ahead and am eager to get started. I would also like to thank the Philadelphia Eagles for an incredible 2024 season. I’m excited to begin this new chapter.”

This marks the end of a monthslong search that began when the Saints ﬁred former head coach Dennis Allen on Nov 4 after the team’s seventh consecutive loss.

New Orleans was the last of seven teams to fill a head coaching vacancy this offseason. The process dragged on for 99 days, as several candidates either accepted another job or withdrew their name from consideration, but within the last few weeks, the Saints zeroed in on Moore as their primary target. “At the start of the interview process, it was important to find a head coach who was the right fit for the New Orleans Saints organization,”

ä See MOORE, page 6A

High court to rule on La. congressional districts

March 24 hearing to address majority-Black districts

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court scheduled a March 24 hearing to determine whether Louisiana will have one or two majority-Black congressional districts.

The high court is being asked to sort out two competing lines of legal thought about how to account for race and politics when state legislatures adjust voting district lines every 10 years to better match population shifts.

Two different federal courts — one in Baton Rouge and one based in Monroe — came to conflicting conclusions when interpreting the standards legislators used to draw the districts. Louisiana has six representatives in the U.S. House.

“If there’s a problem, then the problem is with the jurisprudence on this subject, and the United States Supreme Court will be in a position to ﬁx it,” state Attorney General Liz Murrill said Tuesday In 2022, the Legislature approved a map with five majority-White districts and one majority-Black district, as the state had for years But the U.S. Census showed the state’s Black population now accounts for roughly a third of the state’s 4.6 million residents.

“If there’s a problem, then the problem is with the jurisprudence on this subject, and the United States Supreme Court will be in a position to fix it.”

Several groups of Black voters legally challenged the Legislature’s ﬁrst map. They argued that the census numbers indicated two of the congressional districts needed to be composed in such a way that Black candidates have chance of succeeding in a state with a history of Whites not voting for Black congressional candidates.

The federal court in Baton Rouge found that the 2022 map had violated the dictates of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires minorities to have an equal say in elections, and ordered the state back to the drawing board. In one of his ﬁrst acts after being sworn in as

ä See COURT, page 7A

Government efficiency task force temporarily pauses meetings

Questions raised about panel’s secret sessions

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

A task force that had begun meeting secretly to eliminate wasteful state government spend-

ing will temporarily suspend its work because of questions about whether the group must hold its sessions in public.

Steve Orlando, a business owner who chairs the Fiscal Responsibil-

ity Program, cited news reports for his decision, writing to legislative leaders on Monday that “the media has attempted to complicate our process by framing our informal meetings under public meetings laws.”

Orlando’s letter comes a week

Landry created the commission in December through an executive order

ä See MEETINGS, page 6A

after The Times-Picayune | The Advocate first reported that the group had been meeting privately In a second news story last week, the newspaper quoted Gov Jeff Landry saying the group would keep meeting privately even though experts in this area of state law said the task force is clearly subject to public meetings requirements.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore smiles before the start of Super Bowl LIX on Sunday

LIZ MURRILL, La. attorney general

Stuck astronauts may return to Earth sooner

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA’s two stuck astronauts may end up back on Earth a little sooner than planned.

The space agency announced Tuesday that SpaceX will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights in order to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home in mid-March instead of late March or April. That will shave at least a couple weeks off their prolonged stay at the International Space Station, which hit the eight-month mark last week.

“Human spaceﬂight is full of unexpected challenges,” NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement.

The test pilots should have returned in June on Boeing’s Starliner capsule after what should have been a weeklong ﬂight demo. But the capsule had so much trouble getting to the space station that NASA decided to bring it back empty and reassigned the pair to SpaceX Then SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacements on a brand new capsule that needed more prepping, which added more time to Wilmore and Williams’ mission.

With even more work still anticipated for the new capsule, NASA opted for its next crew to ﬂy up on an older capsule, with liftoff now targeted for March

12 This older capsule had already been assigned to a private crew awaiting launch this spring.

Several brands of canned tuna recalled

Several brands of canned tuna sold at stores including Trader Joe’s, Costco and H-E-B have been recalled because they might be contaminated with a type of bacteria that causes botulism, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning.

Tri-Union Seafoods, of El Segundo, California, last week recalled certain lots of tuna sold under the Genova, Van Camp’s, H-E-B and Trader Joe’s brand names, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The company said that lids on the “easy open” cans may have a manufacturing defect that could cause the products to leak or to become contaminated with the bacteria that causes botulism.

The affected products have retail codes listed in the recall notice and best-by dates in 2027 and 2028. The tuna was also sold at Harris Teeter, Publix, Kroger, Safeway, Walmart and some independent stores in several states. No illnesses have been reported to date, the company said. Consumers should not consume the recalled tuna even if it doesn’t look or smell spoiled. Return the recalled tuna to the store for a full refund, throw it away or contact Tri-Union Seafoods.

Botulism is a rare but serious illness that occurs when a toxin caused by the bacteria attacks the body’s nerves It can cause difficulty breathing, paralysis and death.

Teen sentenced for 100s of ‘swatting’ calls

LOS ANGELES A California teenager was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison in a case involving hundreds of swatting calls, including to a Florida mosque among other institutions and individuals, federal prosecutors said.

Alan W. Filion, 18, pleaded guilty in November to four counts of making interstate threats to injure the person of another Swatting is the practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to get a large number of armed police ofﬁcers dispatched to a particular address.

The U.S. Attorney’s Ofﬁce said Filion made more than 375 swatting and threat calls from August 2022 to January 2024. Those calls included ones in which he claimed to have planted bombs in targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or conduct mass shootings at those locations, prosecutors said. He targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials and people across the United States, prosecutors said Filion, of Lancaster, north of Los Angeles, was 16 at the time he placed the majority of the calls.

Netanyahu threatens to resume Gaza fighting

BY JOSEF FEDERMAN and SAM METZ Associated Press

JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in Gaza and directed troops to prepare to resume fighting Hamas if the militant group does not release more hostages on Saturday Hamas said Monday — and reiterated Tuesday — that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire, including by not allowing an agreed-upon number of tents and other aid into Gaza.

Amid the mounting tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages on Saturday

After meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump predicted Hamas would not release all the remaining hostages as he had demanded.

“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” the president said of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy

We’ll see how tough they are.”

Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas has released 21 hostages in a series of five exchanges for more than 730 Palestinian prisoners A second phase calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce. However, Trump’s statements about both the pending releases and plans for postwar Gaza have destabilized its fragile architecture.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Netanyahu’s threat referred to the three hostages scheduled for release on Saturday or all the remaining hostages, which would be a departure from the terms of the ceaseﬁre. Netanyahu’s ofﬁce said it “welcomed President Trump’s demand.”

As Trump spoke to reporters in Washington and reasserted his demands, an Israeli ofﬁcial who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting, said Israel was “sticking to Trump’s announcement regarding the release of the hostages. Namely, that

they will all be released on Saturday.”

Netanyahu’s ofﬁce also said it ordered the military to mobilize troops on and around the Gaza Strip in preparation for scenarios that could arise.

Trump has said Israel should cancel the entire ceasefire if all of the roughly 70 hostages aren’t freed by Saturday Hamas brushed off his threat Tuesday, doubling down on its claim that Israel has violated the ceasefire and warned that it would only continue releasing hostages if all parties adhered to the ceasefire.

“Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties. This is the only way to bring back prisoners,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday “The language of threats has no value; it only complicates matters.”

The group later condemned Trump’s White House remarks, saying they amounted to a “call for ethnic cleansing” and accusing Trump of seeking to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people.”

It said in a statement it remained committed to the ceaseﬁre, yet did not address its plans to suspend the hostages releases outlined in the ﬁrst phase of the agreement Trump hosted King Abdullah II in Washington as he escalates pressure on Jordan to take in refugees from Gaza, perhaps permanently, as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East

“We’re not going to buy anything We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control of Gaza as the Jordanian king stood by Abdullah II was asked repeatedly by reporters about Trump’s plan to remake the Middle East, but didn’t make substantive comments. He also did not comment on the idea that a large number of refugees from Gaza could be welcomed in Jordan, where millions of Palestinian refugees already reside.

The king said, however, that Jordan would be willing “right away” to take as many as 2,000 children in Gaza who have cancer or are otherwise ill.

Ukraine, Russia trade long-range attacks as officials probe possibilities

BY ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press

KYIV Ukraine Russian forces targeted Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure in a “massive” nighttime missile attack and Ukrainian drones struck an important oil refinery inside Russia, officials said Tuesday, as the near three-year war rumbled on against a backdrop of renewed diplomatic efforts to end it.

Ukraine’s state energy company, Ukrenergo, said it imposed emergency blackouts due to the Russian attack. Russia has repeatedly hammered Ukraine’s power grid throughout the war Meanwhile, as part of its long-range drone campaign against targets deep inside Russia, Ukraine hit a reﬁnery in Russia’s Saratov region about 300 miles from Ukraine’s border, the Army General Staff claimed. The facility produces gasoline, fuel oil and diesel fuel for the Russian military, it said. International efforts are afoot to stop the ﬁghting, with President Don-

ald Trump’s senior advisers expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later this week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss a path toward ending the war Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, are among the U.S. administration ofﬁcials traveling to Germany for the summit.

Zelenskyy said late Monday that Trump’s representatives will visit Ukraine this week, ahead of Munich, though he didn’t provide details.

Trump said he was sending Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to Ukraine to meet with Zelenskyy

“This war must and will end soon — too much death and destruction,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform “The U.S. has spent billions of dollars globally, with little to show When America is strong, the world is at peace.”

Snow

and ice track through mid-Atlantic

BY BEN FINLEY and JOHN RABY Associated Press

A snowstorm blew into the mid-Atlantic states on Tuesday, causing dozens of accidents on icy roads, prompting school closures and stoking worries about possible power outages.

The heaviest snowfall — up to 10 inches — was expected in parts of northern and central Virginia and eastern West Virginia Ice accumulations could range from a glaze in Kentucky and West Virginia to a half-inch in some higher elevations of West Virginia and the Roanoke Valley of southwestern Virginia, the National Weather Service said. Power outages and tree damage were likely in places with heavy ice buildups.

“Did you think winter was over? Think again!” the weather service’s ofﬁce in Blacksburg, Virginia, said in a post on X. Snow mixed and sleet blew into western Virginia and North Carolina early Tuesday, with the system expected to give way to freezing rain in the afternoon, the weather said.

Appalachian Power which serves 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said it had requested 700 additional workers from neighboring utilities to assist with problems.

About 65 Virginia National Guard soldiers were at facilities along the Interstate 95 and state Route 29 corridors and in southwest Virginia to support the storm response, guard

officials said. Another 20 soldiers and members of the Virginia Defense Force were in support roles. Troops with heavy-duty trucks were organized in chain-saw teams to help clear roads and power line routes. Black Hawk helicopters with rescue hoist capabilities were also on standby Winter storm warnings extended Tuesday from Kentucky to southern New Jersey The snow-and-ice mix was expected to become all rain as temperatures climb by Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, a separate storm system was expected to dump heavy snow on an area stretching from Kansas to the Great Lakes starting Tuesday night, the weather service said. In Virginia, where Gov Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency and schools and government offices were closed Tuesday, state police reported dozens of accidents, including four injuries. The Department of Transportation advised the public to stay off the roads. With snow in the forecast for the Washington, D.C., area the Office of Personnel Management recommended that federal workers leave their offices early on Tuesday afternoon. In West Virginia, Smith’s Towing and Truck Repair responded to 10 calls from drivers whose vehicles got stuck in the snow and ice on Interstate 64 near the Virginia border, dispatcher Kelly Pickles said. Four of the vehicles were tractor trailers.

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The Ukrainian government aims to sidestep new U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, according to Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Development Minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko.

Metallurgical products make up nearly 58% of Ukrainian exports to the U.S., earning Ukraine just over $500 million last year, she said.

Ukraine is also offering to make a deal with Trump for continued American military aid in exchange for developing Ukraine’s mineral industry, including rare earth elements needed for modern technology

The Ukrainian air force said Russia ﬁred 124 Shahed and decoy drones across Ukraine overnight. In addition, at least 19 Russian missiles of various types hit Ukrainian gas production facilities, it said.

Reports in Russia of the claimed Ukrainian drone attack were sketchy. Ofﬁcials rarely provide details of successful Ukrainian attacks.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

Displaced Palestinians make their way from central Gaza to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday.

THE REGISTER-HERALD PHOTO By RICK BARBERO Matt

EU vows countermeasures to U.S. tariffs

BY RAF CASERT Associated Press

BRUSSELS U.S tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger tough countermeasures from the 27-nation bloc. It means iconic U.S. industries like bourbon, jeans and motorcycles should beware.

“The EU will act to safeguard its economic interests,” von der Leyen said in a statement in reaction to U.S.

President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum on Monday

“Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said.

“Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered — they will trigger ﬁrm and proportionate countermeasures.”

The EU trade minister scheduled a ﬁrst emergency video meeting on the bloc’s response on Tuesday

“It is also important that everyone sticks together Difﬁcult times require such full solidarity,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU presidency

and aluminum.

Motorcycles, whiskey

Just as Trump imposed similar tariffs during his first presidency, the EU countermeasures could easily amount to those that were used to retaliate then if the measures come into force March 12.

Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, warned that previous trade measures were only suspended and could legally be easily revived.

“When he starts again

now, then we will, of course, immediately reinstate our countermeasures,” Lange told rbb24 German radio.

”Motorcycles, jeans, peanut butter, bourbon, whiskey and a whole range of products that of course also affect American exporters” would be targeted, he added.

The EU Commission, which negotiates trade relations on behalf of the bloc, said it is not clear what countermeasures would apply, but officials and observers have said they would target Republican states and tradi-

tionally strong U.S. exports.

In Germany, the EU’s largest economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament that “if the U.S leaves us no other choice, then the European Union will react united,” adding: “Ultimately, trade wars always cost both sides prosperity.”

Trade war

European steel companies are bracing for losses.

“It will further worsen the situation of the European steel industry, exacerbating an already dire market environment,” said Henrik Adam, president of the Eurofer European steel association.

He said the EU could lose up to 3.7 million tons of steel exports. The United States is the second biggest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16% of the total EU steel exports. “Losing a signiﬁcant part of these exports cannot be compensated by EU exports to other markets.”

Trump is hitting foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tax in the hope that they will give local producers relief from intense global competition, allowing them to charge higher prices.

Lawsuit: Trump administration owes U.S. business millions

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development is stiffing American businesses on hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid bills for work that has already been done, according to a lawsuit ﬁled Tuesday.

The administration’s abrupt freeze on foreign aid also is forcing mass layoffs by U.S. suppliers and contractors for USAID, including 750 furloughs at one company, Washingtonbased Chemonics International, the lawsuit says.

“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct: on businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order,” the U.S. businesses and organizations said.

An organization representing 170 small U.S. businesses, major suppliers, an American Jewish group aiding displaced people abroad, the American Bar Association and others joined the court challenge.

It was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington against President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting USAID Deputy Administrator Peter Marocco, a Trump appointee who has been a central ﬁgure in hollowing out the agency, and Russell Vought, Trump’s head of the Ofﬁce of Management and Budget.

It is at least the third lawsuit over the administration’s rapid unraveling of the U.S. aid and development agency and its programs worldwide.

Trump and ally Elon Musk have targeted USAID in particular, saying its work

is out of line with Trump’s agenda.

Marocco Musk and Rubio have overseen an acrossthe-board freeze on foreign assistance and agency shutdown under a Jan. 20 executive order by Trump. A lawsuit brought by federal employees associations has temporarily blocked the administration from pulling thousands of USAID staffers off the job.

The funding freeze and other measures have persisted, including the agency losing the lease on its Washington headquarters.

EU Commission Vice President Maroš Šef ovi said that the tariffs are “economically counterproductive, especially given the deeply integrated production chains established through our extensive transatlantic trade and investment ties.”

“We will protect our workers, businesses and consumers,” Šef ovi said, but added that “it is not our preferred

scenario. We remain committed to constructive dialog. We stand ready for negotiations and to ﬁnd mutually beneficial solutions where possible.”

The EU estimates that the trade volume between both sides stands at about $1.5 trillion, representing some 30% of global trade “There is a lot at stake for both sides,” he told the EU legislature.

BY MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press

BOSTON The state’s top court ruled Tuesday that Karen Read can be retried on all the same charges in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, the latest twist in the longrunning case that transﬁxed true crime fans nationwide. Prosecutors have sought to retry Read this year on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crime They accused her of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. Read’s attorneys argue she was framed to protect other law enforcement officers involved in

O’Keefe’s death

A judge declared a mistrial in June after finding jurors couldn’t reach an agreement, without polling the jurors to conﬁrm their conclusions. Read’s attorney Martin Weinberg argued that five jurors later said they were deadlocked only on the manslaughter count, and had unanimously agreed in the jury room that she wasn’t guilty on the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene. But they hadn’t told the judge The ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court clears the way for a new trial on all three charges.

“The jury clearly stated during deliberations that they had not reached a unan-

imous verdict on any of the charges and could not do so. Only after being discharged did some individual jurors communicate a different supposed outcome, contradicting their prior notes,” the judges wrote. “Such posttrial disclosures cannot retroactively alter the trial’s outcome — either to acquit or to convict.”

The judges also found “no abuse of discretion” in Judge Beverly Cannone’s decision to declare a mistrial.

“After extensive, multiday deliberations, the jury submitted several increasingly emphatic notes about their inability to reach a unanimous verdict,” they wrote, adding that the record before the judge “suggested complete deadlock.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MARTIN MEISSNER Steel on coil cars ahead of transport at the main factory of struggling steel producer thyssenkrupp in Duisburg, Germany, on Feb 4. EU leaders have said that they will seek countermeasures for U.S tariffs on steel

Steve Bannon pleads guilty, avoids jail in border fraud case

BY MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press

NEW YORK Steve Bannon pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defrauding donors to a private effort to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, ending a case the conservative strategist decried as a “political persecution.”

Spared from jail as part of a plea deal, he left court saying he “felt like a million bucks.”

Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty in state court in Manhattan to one count of scheme to defraud, a low-level felony

The case involved We Build the Wall, a non-proﬁt that Bannon himself once suspected was a scam. Bannon, 71, must stay out of trouble for three years to avoid additional punishment, including possible jail time.

He also can’t raise money or serve as an officer or director for charities in New York and can’t use, sell, or possess any data gathered from border wall donors.

Bannon had been scheduled to go to trial March 4.

His lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said Bannon wanted to “put up a fight,” but opted to plead guilty after weighing how a jury in heavily Democratic Manhattan might judge him. Under the deal, prosecutors agreed to drop money laundering and conspiracy charges against him

Bannon’s plea deal came just days after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Justice Department to investigate what Trump called the “ weaponization of prosecutorial power.” Outside court, Bannon urged Bondi to immediately open criminal investigations into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted him, and New York Attor ney General Letitia James, who sued Trump over his business practices and is leading legal challenges to his administration’s policies. Both are Democrats.

Bragg “can call a grand jury at any time” and “set up criminal charges on the most bogus efforts,” Bannon said. He called James the “queen of lawfare” and warned that Trump and his allies “ought to be worried about this out-of-control city.”

Bragg and James’ office didn’t immediately respond to Bannon’s comments.

Bragg took up the case and charged Bannon with state offenses after Trump cut a federal prosecution short with a pardon in the ﬁnal hours of his ﬁrst term in 2021. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses. Bannon was charged

with falsely promising donors, including some in New York, that all money given to We Build the Wall would go toward erecting a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border

Instead, prosecutors alleged the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project.

The campaign, launched in 2018 after Trump ﬁred Bannon as his chief strategist, quickly raised over $20 million and privately built a few miles of fencing along the border. It soon ran into trouble with the International Boundary and Water Commission, came under federal investigation and drew criticism from Trump, the Republican whose policy the charity was founded to support.

“This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud,” Bragg said in a statement. He added that “New York has an important interest in rooting out fraud in our markets, our corporations, and our charities, and we will continue to do just that.”

Until recently, Bannon appeared set on taking the case to trial.

He hired new lawyers, including Aidala, and began plotting an aggressive defense strategy after Judge April Newbauer ruled prosecutors could show jurors certain evidence, including an email they say showed Bannon was concerned the fundraising effort wasn’t legit

“Isn’t this a scam? You can’t build the wall for this much money,” Bannon wrote in an email, according to prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson. He said Bannon went on to add: “Poor Americans shouldn’t be using hard-earned money to chase something not doable.”

In January, Bannon’s lawyers ﬁled papers asking Newbauer to throw out the case, calling it an “unconstitutional selective enforcement of the law.” The judge had been expected to rule on Tuesday before Bannon’s plea deal made the request moot.

Two other men involved in the We Build the Wall project, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty to federal charges and were sentenced to prison.

A third defendant Timothy Shea, was convicted and also sentenced to prison.

Bannon went to prison in an unrelated case last year, serving four months at a federal lockup in Connecticut for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan 6, 2021. He was released in October

Agency to weigh cost-limiting plan

Affordable housing can also be more expensive to build than market-rate housing, they say, because of extra rules tied to the use of the tax credits.

bills and insurance premiums have only been going up,” Sullivan said.

BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer

At Gov Jeff Landry’s request and to mixed reaction from developers, Louisiana’s housing ﬁnance agency on Wednesday will consider a plan aimed at limiting the costs of affordable housing projects.

The Louisiana Housing Corp.’s plan — which the agency’s board will consider Wednesday, and which Landry will review later determines how the state will allocate $13 million in federal tax credits for lowincome housing over the coming year

After receiving the credits, developers sell them to investors in order to raise money for their projects. The investors in turn get a break on their federal tax bills over a multiyear period. An investor might buy the credits from a developer for $500,000, for example, and save $650,000 in taxes over a decade.

Under the latest proposal, developers seeking credits would have to send the housing agency detailed construction estimates, among other records, to justify their projects’ overall price tags. And when ofﬁcials award the credits, they would no longer give preference to firms who agree to comply with green energy and building standards, as most have done over the past decade.

“We think that by doing this we’ll be able to contain costs save money and build more affordable housing,” said housing agency board President Stephen Dwyer

He said the changes are in line with the request from Landry, who rejected an earlier housing corporation spending plan in July and sent the agency back to the drawing board to “provide the most efﬁcient and costeffective allocation of resources” to help Louisiana’s residents.

In that same vein, Landry and other members of the state Bond Commission delayed for months consideration of two major affordable housing developments in New Orleans until eventually approving them after developers submitted additional records justifying their projects’ costs.

Landry, whose spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday has also asked the housing agency to work harder to provide housing for seniors, single parents and domestic violence victims.

The Republican governor’s push to curb costs, however, has sparked concern from some local developers, who say the costs of building housing, affordable or not, have skyrocketed recently due to inﬂation.

Developers were also surprised to see the agency’s pivot in its latest version of the plan on environmentally conscious projects, such as those that include energyefﬁcient heating and cooling systems. Nearly every project awarded funding over the past decade was built to a “green” standard, Dwyer said.

If the state doesn’t favor those homes, developers may not elect to build them, said John Sullivan, of Enterprise Community Partners, a nonproﬁt housing developer, which operates a green certiﬁcation program.

“We’re going to be building housing that is less energy efﬁcient and less resilient at a time where energy

Chris Clement, the senior vice president of development at New Orleans-based developer HRI Communities, said building to those standards can be costly, but is better for the environment and for residents.

“I think it’s a very worthwhile trade off, and generally the right thing to do,” he said.

Dwyer said eco-conscious projects are costly and that many local building codes, especially south of Interstate 10, require certain energy efﬁcient and stormproof standards anyway

The plan also still requires developments in south Louisiana to be built with stormready roofs, windows and doors, he said.

Clement said that HRI would plan to continue building to the same envi-

ronmental standards regardless of any change to the housing agency’s plan. His team “respect(s) and appreciate(s) the cost-containment concerns,” Clement said, and “support(s) all efforts that aim to maximize utility of every housing dollar.”

The housing agency had planned to award funding to developers in August 2024, but Landry’s revisions pushed that back. If the board members, the majority of whom are appointed by the governor, approves the measures Wednesday and Landry signs off, the credits could be issued in October, ofﬁcials said. A housing corporation committee on Tuesday agreed to forward the changes to the full board. Email Sophie Kasakove at sophie.kasakove@ theadvocate.com.

Jordan’s king says country opposes displacing Palestinians

BY ZEKE MILLER, CHRIS MEGERIAN and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President

Donald Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and renewed his insistence that Gaza could somehow be emptied of all residents, controlled by the U.S and redeveloped as a tourist area.

It’s an audacious, but highly unlikely scheme to dramatically remake the Middle East and would require Jordan and other Arab nations to accept more refugees from Gaza something Abdullah reiterated after their meeting that he opposes.

The pair met in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Marco Rubio also onhand. The president suggested he wouldn’t withhold U.S. aid to Jordan or Egypt if they don’t agree to dramatically increase the number of people from Gaza they take in.

“I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said. That contradicted the Republican president previously suggesting that holding back aid from Washington was a possibility Abdullah was asked repeatedly about Trump’s plan to clear out Gaza and overhaul it as a resort on the Mediterranean Sea — but didn’t make substantive comments on it while also not committing to the idea that his country could accept large numbers of new refugees from Gaza.

He did say, however, that Jordan would be willing “right away” to take as many as 2,000 children in Gaza who are suffering from cancer or otherwise ill “I finally see somebody that can take us across the finish line to bring stability, peace and prosperity to all of us in the region,” the

king said of Trump in his statement at the top of the meeting

Abdullah left the White House after about two hours and was headed to Capitol Hill to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. He posted on X that during his meeting with Trump, “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”

“This is the uniﬁed Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” Abdullah wrote. That was despite Trump using his appearance with Abdullah to repeat suggestions that the U.S. could come to control Gaza.

Trump also said Tuesday that it wouldn’t require committing American funds but that the U.S. overseeing the war-torn region would be possible, “Under the U.S. authority,” without elaborating what that actually was.

“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control in Gaza. He suggested that the redeveloped area could have new hotels, ofﬁce buildings and houses, “and we’ll make it exciting.”

“I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it,” Trump, who built a New York real estate empire that catapulted him to fame, said of Gaza’s residents, while also insisting that he personally would not be involved in development.

Trump has previously suggested that Gaza’s residents could be displaced temporarily or permanently an idea that leaders around the Arab world have sharply rebuked.

Additionally, Trump renewed his suggestions that a tenuous ceaseﬁre between Hamas and Israel could be canceled if Hamas doesn’t release all of the remaining hostages it is holding by midday on Saturday Trump ﬁrst made that suggestion on Monday, though he insisted then that the ultimate decision lies with Israel.

“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” Trump said Tuesday of Hamas “They want to play tough guy We’ll see how tough they are.”

The king’s visit came at a perilous moment for the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas is accusing Israel of violating the truce and says it will delay future releases of hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

BY CAROLYN THOMPSON and HILLEL ITALIE Associated Press

MAYVILLE, N.Y Salman

Rushdie described in graphic detail Tuesday the frenzied moments in 2022 when a masked man rushed at him on a stage in western New York and repeatedly slashed him with a knife, leaving him with terrible injuries and fearful he would die.

Rushdie took the stand during the second day of testimony at the trial of Hadi Matar, 27, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the attack that also wounded another man. It was the ﬁrst time since the stabbing that the 77-yearold author was in the same room as the man accused of

trying to kill him.

Rushdie recalled feeling

“a sense of great pain and shock, and aware of the fact that there was an enormous quantity of blood that I was lying in” after the attack at the Chautauqua Institution — the nonproﬁt art and education center about 75 miles south of Buffalo where he was supposed to present a lecture that day

“It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought,” he said, adding that the people who subdued his assailant likely saved his life.

As he recounted the attack, his wife Rachel Eliza Griffiths cried from her seat in the courtroom’s second row

“I only saw him at the last minute,” Rushdie said of the man who rushed across

the stage and stabbed him repeatedly with a 10-inch blade.

“I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask. I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious.”

Rushdie said he first thought his attacker was striking him with a fist.

“But I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes,” he said. “He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing.” Rushdie said he was struck again in his chest and torso and stabbed in his chest as he struggled to get away Rushdie was blinded in one eye in the attack. “I was

Free Second Harvest Now

An Open Appeal To The Most Reverend Archbishop Gregory Aymond Regarding Your Recent Actions andIntentions For SecondHarvest Food Bank of GreaterNew Orleans and Acadiana

SecondHarvest Food Bank has one mission, one purpose: to provide food for people who need it in 23 parishes across South Louisiana.Itis ashining example of functional philanthropy,providing food to people who need it without regardto religion or race, circumstanceorcondition

Andwhile it is true that Second Harvest cameintobeing (40 years ago) under the wing of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, it has functioned, fundraised, and fed as astand-alone, independent,transparent, and wholly accountablenon-profit corporation for decades. In fact, only eight of its 23 civilparishes areinthe Archdiocese of New Orleans

With your actions over the past two weeks –some open and some quitesecretive –you have completely undermined these decades of independent workand goodwill. With the sweep of your hand, you fired the CEOofnearly 20 years on a pretense. Youfired the executive leadership of the BoardofDirectors, hardworking volunteers who love Second Harvest andrefused to commit itsdonated assets to fund anypotential settlement of the sexabuse cases against the Archdiocese. Theday beforeyou fired Food Bank staff and Boardmembers,you unilaterally amended its Articles of Incorporation to dramatically expand your powersasthe corporatemember,including completedissolution of Second Harvest. Youkept these amendments secret for over aweek, declining to disclose them even at an emergencyBoardmeeting that your new BoardChair called aweek later

Why, Archbishop? Whydid you disrupt the excellent work of one of the best food banks in the United States? Whyweren’t you forthright about the reasons for doing so? Youare,nodoubt, under tremendous pressuretofind the money to settle the sexabuse lawsuits and pull the Archdiocese out of bankruptcy But the Archdiocese does not own the assets of Second Harvest FoodBank. Second Harvestisastand-alone non-profitcorporation, bound by the intent of its donors.

Inthe end, it doesn’tmatter why. Re-allocating Second Harvest’s donated assetstoanythingnot directly related to providing food for those in need is simply wrong. The Food Bank cannot contributetoyour potential settlement fund; it cannot “buy” its separation from you, as you have suggested.

Please, for the sakeofthose 400,000 Louisianians in need –including manychildrenand the elderly –rescind these hateful actions and leaveSecond Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleansand Acadiana.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EVAN VUCCI

President Donald Trump greets Jordan’s King Abdullah II, right, and Crown Prince Hussein at the White House on Tuesday in Washington.

said Saints owner Gayle Benson in a statement “Through the search process, it became clear that Kellen is the right person to help us re-establish a winning program and culture that our fans are accustomed to and have come to expect.” Moore is coming off a recent Super Bowl win with the Eagles another factor in delaying his hire, as neither the Saints nor Moore could not make anything ofﬁcial until after last Sunday’s game.

With the help of a defense that forced three turnovers, one of which was returned for a touchdown and two of which gave Philadelphia a short ﬁeld, Moore’s offense put up 33 of the Eagles’ 40 points against a Chiefs team that finished the regular season with the NFL’s No. 4 scoring defense.

“I think the best part about Kellen’s offensive genius is that we had two weeks to really set up a game plan that has an answer for everything that (Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) has,” Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata said after the game. “It’s such a tough time trying to ﬁgure it out it’s like Rubik’s Cube stuff out there.”

The 36-year-old Moore has called plays for some of the NFL’s more proliﬁc offensive attacks in his short coaching career: In his six seasons as offensive coordinator for the Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers, Moore’s offenses finished top-10 in scoring four times. His 2021 Cowboys unit finished No. 1 in both total and scoring offense. At one point, he was one of the NFL’s most promising

MEETINGS

Continued from page 1A

It includes eight state legislators and has met twice recently — once at the Governor’s Mansion and once in the governor’s suite of ofﬁces at the Capitol without informing the public beforehand or giving the public a chance to observe what it was doing or to participate.

At each meeting, the group heard a pitch from a different consulting company that wants the million-dollar contract to ﬁnd efﬁciencies to save taxpayer dollars.

Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, praised Orlando’s decision.

“It’s a good idea to slow down for a second to see what parts can be made public and which can’t be public,” Henry said, noting that some government contracts might be proprietary. The group could discuss those in executive session, he added.

“You don’t want to violate public meetings law,” Henry said “But you want to be able to dig into some of these contracts to make sure they’re good.” Steven Procopio, presi-

young head coaching candidates, but his star dimmed. Moore and the Cowboys decided to mutually part following the 2022 season with then-head coach Mike McCarthy wanting to take over play-calling duties. Then Moore’s offense underperformed relative to expectations in his one season with Los Angeles.

But he revived his career this year in Philadelphia. “He’s a great football mind,” Eagles tackle Lane Johnson said “I think he’s a football genius, and his best days are ahead of him, too.”

With a talented group of players at his disposal, Moore veered from his typical pass-heavy play-calling to feature running back Saquon Barkley, who rushed for 2,005 yards in 16 regular season games, then added another 499 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns in Philadelphia’s playoff run

“He’s been fantastic as our offensive coordinator,” said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.

“You know you go from an offensive coordinator to leading the entire team, but you’re still in charge of 30 guys there on the offensive side. So it’s a good preview of the type of head coach he’ll be.”

Prior to his coaching career, Moore enjoyed a record-setting run as a Boise State quarterback.

The Broncos went 50-3 in Moore’s four years as a starter He was named the Conference Player of the Year three times in his college career, while he threw for 142 touchdowns and nearly 15,000 yards.

Moore played in only three games as a professional, but he launched his NFL coaching career in 2018 as the Cowboys quarterbacks coach, and one season later he took over as offensive coordinator

Now that he is in place, Moore can officially begin

dent of the Public Affairs Research Council, praised Orlando’s decision, while saying he supported the task force’s goal.

“We hope this pause is temporary and the group will resume its important work to ﬁnd efﬁciencies in government — but this time with full transparency, as required by law,” Procopio said. “Public input is not an obstacle to good governance. It is essential to it Louisiana citizens deserve open discussions about how their tax dollars are managed.”

A commission created by the Legislature and then-Gov Bobby Jindal in 2009 held dozens of public meetings that led to tens of millions of dollars in savings.

On Dec. 12, Landry named Orlando, a close friend from Lafayette, as the chair, along with four state representatives and four senators.

In his letter Orlando said he and Landry have a “shared mission to restore common-sense ﬁscal fundamentals.”

Landry became governor last year after then-Gov John Bel Edwards, a Democrat and the preceding

assembling his coaching staff.

The cupboard of existing coaches is relatively bare in New Orleans — the Saints allowed their existing coaches to seek other opportunities this offseason, and many have, including offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, defensive coordinator Joe Woods and several of their top assistants.

Moore has been linked to Philadelphia quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier — who played for the Saints in the 1990s and is the father of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and San Francisco 49ers assistant head coach Brandon Staley, who was the Chargers head coach during Moore’s lone season there.

Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate. com.

Republican-controlled Legislature produced years of budget surpluses.

Orlando wrote that he had conducted a similar review of spending of the Attorney General’s Ofﬁce while Landry was attorney general. It “resulted in signiﬁcant, real savings for taxpayers,” he said.

But, he added, “I am concerned that these media actions may discourage citizens who are willing to volunteer their time and expertise to help restore ﬁscal sanity to our government. It appears that there is an active effort to create obstacles in our pursuit of efﬁciency.”

Orlando did not specify the obstacles he believes the media has sought to impose and did not identify which citizens might be discouraged from assisting the task force.

“As someone with extensive experience in this area, I find it insulting that the media would imply we are engaged in clandestine negotiations that could harm taxpayers,” he said.

Orlando and the Governor’s Office did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TyLER KAUFMAN

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts speaks with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore during a game against the Saints on Sept. 22 in New Orleans.

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

The presidents of Louisi-

ana’s largest public and private universities this week warned of severe ﬁnancial deficits that would derail critical research, cost hundreds of jobs, and push top talent out of the state if a proposed cut to federal research funding is allowed to take place.

President Donald Trump administration’s plan to slash $4 billion in research support would leave Louisiana institutions scrambling to cover an estimated $28 million funding gap annually, which could devastate projects on cancer, metabolic disorders and environmental toxins.

For now a federal judge has ordered the administration to halt the cuts, which were set to go into effect

Monday

“Without sufficient support, lifesaving discoveries will stall, and research institutions across the state and nation will face crippling financial shortfalls,” LSU

COURT

Continued from page 1A

governor in January 2024, Jeff Landry ordered the newly elected Legislature to draw a new map that allowed for two Black and four White congresspersons, which they did before the month was out.

U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, DBaton Rouge, won the election for the second majorityBlack seat.

A dozen “non-African Americans” challenged that conﬁguration in Monroe federal court, arguing the new maps overly relied on race and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution that requires states to treat its citizens equally regardless of race.

“This (newest) map was passed by a supermajority of the Louisiana Legislature after multiple trips to the appeal courts on our prior map,” Murrill said. “Legislatures have the primary responsibility to draw these maps and they should have more clear rules to do their job and not be mired in litigation for the entire next decade, then it starts all over again.”

An unusual case

The case has attracted a lot of attention in the voting rights world.

Louisiana’s case differs from the usual election-related issues the high court is asked to sort out, said Michael Li, of the Brennan Center at New York University and one of the nation’s leading experts on redistricting law

In most cases the state and minority plaintiffs are on opposing sides.

Proponents of a second minority-majority district pushed the Legislature to

President William F. Tate IV said in a statement Tuesday Tulane University President Michael Fitts said the policy change is “of great concern” in a letter to staff on Monday University ofﬁcials are contacting congressional leaders and working “around the clock” to assess the impact of the potential cut and lobby for continued support, he added

“Ensuring that researchers have the equipment, facilities and staff needed to make their discoveries and breakthroughs is of vital importance to each of us who, at one time or another, have or will beneﬁt from such research,” Fitts wrote in the letter

The funds, provided by the National Institutes of Health cover research infrastructure costs like lab operations, equipment maintenance, support staff, and administrative expenses. Known as “indirect costs,” they are reimbursed as a negotiated percentage of NIH grant funding — ranging from around 40% to 53% for Louisiana’s largest

conﬁgure the second majority-Black district along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to Monroe. That would have linked communities with compatible needs in a geographically compact region with fewer split parishes, as required in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

It was the Louisiana Legislature, with a Republican supermajority, that drew the district to include just about every Black neighborhood from Baton Rouge to Lafayette to Opelousas to Alexandria to Natchitoches to Shreveport.

And Republican legislators did so to include more White voters in the districts of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, and Rep Julia Letlow, R-Start and a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

“No voting rights plaintiffs would have proposed this conﬁguration” that the Legislature used, Li said.

But the Legislature created the second majorityBlack district they wanted, so they accepted the newer map.

The Supreme Court has given deference to legislators when redistricting. Still, the current Supreme Court is skeptical about how race is applied in law That’s the big unknown, Li said

“If they just apply existing precedence, it’ll be pretty straightforward than if they open the door on race,” Li said. “I don’t think they’re going to do great damage on the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.”

A lot of voices weigh in

Dozens of parties have ﬁled briefs detailing for the justices their opinions on how the high court should decide.

The Mandan, Hidatsa and

institutions, though it can be lower depending on how the research is conducted. The Trump administration’s plan would cap this rate at 15% slashing funding for many essential services

“Lights in labs nationwide will literally go out,” said Dr David J. Skorton, CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges and Dr Elena Fuentes-Afflick, chief scientific officer, in a joint statement. “Researchers and staff will lose their jobs.”

The pause was ordered in response to a lawsuit ﬁled by the AAMC and other health care and advocacy organizations. Twelve Louisiana institutions — including hospitals owned by Ochsner Health, LCMC Health, and Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System — are members of AAMC, along with LSU and Tulane medical schools.

Louisiana institutions received over $211 million in NIH funding in ﬁscal year 2024.

If indirect costs were capped at 15%, the state would lose around $28 mil-

Arikara Nation of Native Americans asked the court to accept the Louisiana Legislature’s latest map because courts in North Dakota backed their case using similar arguments.

Several GOP-run states joined Alabama in arguing that, unless minority populations are forbidden from registering to vote and are blocked from voting, then the Voting Rights Act has not been violated.

Attorneys general from 19 Democratic-run states argued that spreading minority voters in small numbers across districts packed with White voters effectively keeps minorities from being represented properly

One of Louisiana’s two Black congressmen, Rep Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, filed a brief arguing that having diversity among the congressional delegations requires the representatives of the same state with different politics and often opposing interests to negotiate, which leads to a better understanding between the races.

Four days after being sworn is as president, Donald Trump withdrew from the case and invalidated a brief Joe Biden’s administration had ﬁled.

“Following the change in administration, the Department of Justice has reconsidered the government’s position in these cases. The purpose of this letter is to notify the Court that the previously ﬁled brief no longer represents the position of the United States,” wrote acting Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris on January 24.

As neither administration was directly involved in the lawsuit, Trump’s withdrawal will have little effect.

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate. com.

lion in funding yearly, according to a calculation based on the 2024 data by James S. Murphy, deputy director of higher education policy at Education Reform Now, a nonpartisan nonproﬁt think tank.

The biggest impact would be on Tulane and LSU. LSU institutions, like the health centers in New Orleans and Shreveport and Pennington Biomedical in Baton Rouge, would lose about $10.7 million, according to Murphy’s estimate. Tulane would face a $15.8 million loss.

Tate on Tuesday pegged LSU’s loss a bit higher, at around $12 million, and estimated that Louisiana could lose hundreds of employees.

“This brain drain will have long-term consequences, pushing top talent out of the state and weakening the very foundation of biomedical progress,” he said.

Other Louisiana institutions would see less signiﬁcant losses but have smaller endowments to make up the difference in funding.

Using 2024 data, Xavier University would see a $1.4 million loss, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette would lose $130,000, Southern University get $82,700 less and the University of Louisiana at Monroe would be down $15,000. Officials there said the cuts would have a “significant impact on our research capacity and overhead costs.”

“One thing I’ve heard loud and clear from my people in Louisiana is that Louisiana will suffer from these cuts,”

Baton Rouge Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy told STAT News. “And research that beneﬁts people in Louisiana may not be done.”

A handful of Louisiana institutions, such as Louisiana

Tech University, could see small gains because of differences in the cost to maintain research infrastructure and the type of expenses that indirect costs can cover Louisiana Tech Executive Vice President for External Affairs Cami Geisman said the impact would be “minimal overall.” The Trump administration said NIH indirect costs are difﬁcult to oversee and cited private research

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Lafayette orders stop to burials

Cemetery owner failed to obtain local permits

BY MEGAN WYATT Staff writer

Lafayette Consolidated Government has formally ordered the owner of a Willow Street cemetery to stop burials and work at the property

Longtime pastor Craig Gregory dies

Former Lafayette Mardi Gras king battled cancer

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

The Rev Craig Gregory a for-

mer St. Martin Parish Council member and king of the 2024 Lafayette Mardi Gras Festival Association, died Friday after battling cancer

His oldest brother, Jonathon Gregory, shared on Facebook shortly after 8 p.m Friday that Craig Gregory had died: “Rest in heaven my brother Blessings everyone.”

Gregory was pastor at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Branch for 25 years. His wife, Senetra Guidry Gregory, said he “always made his family top priority.”

“He was my husband, but also my pastor, my protector, and again, my mentor, but I know he is no longer suffering anymore,” she said.

Gregory was admitted to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in January 2024 to treat smallcell lung cancer Months earlier, he had been asked to serve as the 66th king of the Lafayette Mardi Gras Festival Association in recognition of his life’s work with the people of Acadiana. There were concerns he would miss the event, but his treatments stabilized him enough to make the trip back home for festivities in February

However in July he was diagnosed with brain cancer, his wife said. He underwent chemo and treatment and again seemed to beat the disease, but a month ago the cancer resurfaced, Guidry Gregory said.

A father of seven and grandfather to eight, Gregory always “believed in standing up for what was right and lending a helping hand,” his wife said.

Gregory served as council member in St. Martin Parish for a fouryear term. He worked extensively with programs such as Head Start to promote early childhood education. He also served as a member of the Police Jury Association of Louisiana, the National Association of County Ofﬁcials, and the

City-parish Attorney Pat Ottinger sent Kevin Menard who operates Serenity Gardens Cemetery, a cease-and-desist order this week after the Planning Commission and Parish Council failed to approve plans for the property If Menard doesn’t com-

ply, the city-parish government can ask the 15th Judicial District Court and Louisiana Cemetery Board to intervene. Such legal action could include the relocation of bodies buried at the cemetery.

“We fully expect and anticipate that Mr Menard will honor

this cease-and-desist order,” Ottinger said. “But should he not do so, there are an array of remedies available under the law, and we would certainly intend to avail ourselves of all remedies to force him to cease operating a cemetery business without full compliance with all local ordinances.”

Menard, a Grammy award-

winning musician who played with Buckwheat Zydeco, declined to comment for this story He said he has retained a lawyer but declined to share the attorney’s name or contact information. Although Menard obtained a state license to start the

SHARP SKILLS

TOP: Members of the Lafayette European Martial Arts Club practice swordsmanship techniques Tuesday at Girard Park in Lafayette. The club is a local chapter of the Historical European Martial Arts, with members competing regionally and nationally LEFT: Benjamin Crosier swings his sword forward as Patrick Prejean looks on RIGHT: Sam Maw wields her great sword.

St. Martinville woman arrested after hit-and-run

A woman who ignored the ﬂashing lights of a school bus struck a child before driving off Monday, according to St Martinville police The woman was later arrested, while the child was taken to a hospital in critical condition

Donna Bourque, 64, of St. Mar-

tinville, was arrested and booked into the St. Martin Parish jail, police said. She faces counts of hit-and-run with serious bodily injury Her bail was set at $1 million. The incident occurred at 6:26 a.m. Monday on Main Street near the intersection of Mimosa Lane. Bourque ran through the ﬂashing signs of a bus and hit the child, then drove off, police said. The vehicle and

driver were identified via city cameras.

Police Chief Ricky Martin said Monday night that the child was awaiting surgery after suffering a raptured spleen, fractured collarbone, broken rib and broken legs.

Authorities: Deputy photographing minors

An Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s

Office deputy alleged of taking pictures of minors urinating has been arrested.

Joshua Paul Uhlman of Pine Prairie, faces multiple counts of indecent behavior with juveniles, according to a Sheriff’s Ofﬁce announcement.

Last Monday, reports accused Uhlman inappropriate acts, saying he followed and took photos

See BLOTTER, page 2B

STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK ä See CEMETERY, page 2B

Famous New Orleans fugitive captured

the bathwater gray with road grime.

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

Scrim, New Orleans’ famous fugitive dog, has been captured again.

The celebrated terrier mutt was taken in a little after 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning, according to Michelle Cheramie, the owner of Zeus’ Rescues dog adoption agency

Scrim had been trapped in a humane animal cage designed for stray cats. The trap, which was provided by a nonproﬁt organization called Trap Dat Cat had been set on Lopez Street in Mid-City Cheramie, who’s devoted herself to capturing the dog for 11 months, said she was jogging when she received word that Scrim was finally caught She hopped into her truck and raced to the scene, she said.

After securing the trap with “something like 20” stout plastic bands to ensure that the Houdini of hounds could not get out, she took him to Metairie Small Animal Hospital for examination He was X-rayed, had blood work done and was otherwise checked out.

Happily the small dog, which has survived the streets for months, was in “perfect health, with nothing broken or dislocated,” Cheramie said. He’d even gained a little weight.

Scrim was transported in a three-vehicle caravan from the hospital to Cheramie’s Uptown home, she said, where he received a bath. Because, Cheramie explained, he stank. Scrim’s scrubbing turned

Cheramie said Scrim has been ﬁtted with a new geolocation collar equipped with a better battery that will last longer, should the escape artist ﬁnd his way to freedom, as he has in the past

Cheramie said that when she and her assistants arrived at her house, their first task was to lock all of the upstairs windows so the dog could not leap to freedom, as he did in November when he last escaped.

“He won’t get away again,” Cheramie vowed.

“It was the best feeling on the planet” to finally have Scrim in hand again, Cheramie said Tuesday “All I wanted was for him to be safe, and now he is.”

“He won’t have to survive a heat wave, a hurricane, New Year’s Eve (fireworks), a blizzard or subfreezing temperatures,” she said, referring to the dog’s challenges during his time on the run.

Cheramie, whose organization rescues hundreds of lost and abandoned pets each year, said she’s learned a lot about tracking animals from the wily Scrim. “I’ve learned his tricks,” she said.

Cheramie said that she’s found a new home for Scrim, tailor-made for the renowned rover She declined to say where it would be, but said there would be room for long walks and the company of fellow dogs.

On Tuesday in Cheramie’s home, Scrim seemed calm as he was passed from admirer to admirer He was videoed, photographed, included in a Zoom chat, and was the focus of endless attention from visiting wellwishers. Though the small dog’s eyes were alert and

his muscles taut, he never struggled or squirmed to be released. It seemed the safety and security of his current situation had ﬁnally penetrated his wariness. At 11:30 a.m., the eternally vigilant dog fell asleep in Cheramie’s lap

The tale of Scrim

Scrim was a stray dog captured in a Houma trailer park on Halloween 2023 by a staff member of the Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter Assigned the name Michael, the small dog was in jeopardy of euthanasia if he was not adopted.

Cheramie, who routinely acquires dogs from shelters brought Michael to New Orleans in November 2023, where he began a monthslong process of domestication. Michael was renamed Scrim, after a New Orleans rapper

On April 29, 2024, Scrim was placed in a permanent adoptive home in Mid-City But he escaped immediately In the following six months, the wary animal evaded trapping, netting and tranquilizer darting by a posse of dog lovers, remaining on the run and becoming a tongue-incheek outlaw icon in the process.

On Oct. 23, 2024, Scrim was trapped in a fenced limousine parking lot, where he was darted and finally captured After he was taken to a veterinary hospital, it was discovered that Scrim had two air rifle pellets in his flesh.

With Scrim in attendance, Cheramie was congratulated by the New Orleans City Council for her animal rescue efforts. Scrim seemed destined for a life of captive comfort.

But stunningly, on Nov 15, 2024, Scrim chewed

through the screen covering a second-story window in Cheramie’s home, fell 13 feet to a concrete pathway below and returned to the streets. His daring exploits were reported by The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and The Associated Press, among other media outlets.

Scrim’s seemingly endless wanderings took him across Uptown, then to the suburbs of Metairie and Harahan, before he found his way back to Mid-City He survived the snowfall and freeze in January and seemed destined to remain on the loose in deﬁnitely

Until Tuesday, when hunger seems to have overwhelmed his guile, and he crawled into a narrow trap designed for cats.

Email Doug MacCash at dmaccash@theadvocate. com.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Michelle Cheramie holds Scrim after his capture in New Orleans on Tuesday. Cheramie

crafted a Scrim in her kitchen for the Barkus parade.

OPINION

Grateful for a gift to all the children of Louisiana

The role of Children’s Hospital New Orleans in caring for generations of kids since it opened in 1955 as the Crippled Children’s Hospital amid the polio epidemic has made it a cherished institution in our state. So when it was announced that another cherished institution — a family named Manning — was making a large donation to the hospital to enable it to continue its work well into the future, it made a lot of sense

The hospital turns 70 this year and offers comprehensive care for pediatric illnesses to patients across the Gulf South. As a result of the gift, it was renamed Manning Family Children’s. In its entire history, it has never before been named in honor of a patron Institutions like these in our state don’t exist without support from the community That’s why we would like to take a moment to celebrate that Louisiana has dedicated philanthropists like the Mannings and others who continually give back Saints legend Archie Manning, his wife Olivia and sons Cooper, Peyton and Eli were the source of the gift and have had a longstanding relationship with the hospital. Eli and Peyton also have hospitals named for them in other states.

But for Archie and Olivia, who have lived in New Orleans for 54 years, partnering with the hospital was clearly something special. Archie called it his family’s ﬁnest hour.” Having watched the Mannings through the decades on and off the football ﬁeld, we know that’s saying something.

It’s also worth noting that Raising Cane’s owner and founder Todd Graves made a $1 million donation to the hospital after a request by Eli Manning during a friendly arm-wrestling match.

Part of LCMC Health, Manning Family Children’s completed a $300 million expansion in 2021 and is raising money for a second phase It just broke ground on Walker’s Imaginarium on the main campus, which will offer a place for kids and their families to explore and ﬁnd respite. It’s named after Walker Beery, a pediatric cancer patient who before he died in 2021 at age 9 started the nonproﬁt “Kids Join the Fight” to help kids like him before he died.

Pediatric health care has been a focus of recent philanthropy in Louisiana as in 2023 Saints owner Gayle Benson provided a large gift to Ochsner Health for a planned children’s health care facility that will be named The Gayle and Tom Benson Ochsner Children’s Hospital. Manning Family Children’s CEO Lucio Fragoso said the Manning donation and name will help the hospital tell its story around the country That will hopefully lead to more specialized care closer to home and better outcomes for the state’s children

The news was announced as the national spotlight was on New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX, which organizers believe will go a long way to altering the trajectory of Louisiana We would argue that investments like these in our state are also game-changers.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’s city of residence The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com. TO SEND US A LETTER, SCAN

Imagine waking up to a knock on your door It is the police, and they tell you that you have 5 minutes to pack and you are being moved. Whatever you can carry, you can take. The rest of your stuff will be discarded. If you don’t go, you will be arrested. It seems dystopian, something that doesn’t happen here. Yet, on Jan. 13, Gov Jeff Landry announced that homeless people living in public spaces in downtown New Orleans would be removed and bused to a shelter at 5601 France Road. The shelter is a hastily outﬁtted warehouse thatm according to council member Lesli Harris, lacks sufﬁcient heat and working plumbing.

The opposition to the governor has been muted, with many city leaders hailing the governor’s bold steps to deal with homelessness. But it doesn’t seem bold to use the power of the Governor’s Ofﬁce to move your embarrassing cousins out of view of your guests. We got

rid of debtors’ prisons in the 19th century Still in 2025, we are willing to jail people because they can’t pay the rent and try to sleep in the wrong part of town.

The governor could take bold steps to deal with homelessness. He could expand funding for mental health care, substance abuse treatment and affordable housing. He could engage meaningfully with the remarkable community of advocates and professionals that put together the Home for Good initiative to address this issue.

What a privilege to host the Super Bowl and even better to dance through the streets during Mardi Gras. But we can do better for the most vulnerable among us than we have. I, for one, would welcome the governor back to work with us to ﬁnd some permanent solutions for homelessness. We sure hope he’ll come.

WILL BRADSHAW

CEO Reimagine Development Partners New Orleans

I lived in France for 23 years, and when my American friends would say that if anything ever happened to their husbands or partners they would remain in France, I always said, “Not me! If anything happens to my partner, I’m going straight home to New Orleans.”

I was always proud to be an American. I did not apply for French citizenship because at that time, to do so, I would risk giving up my American citizenship; something I would never do.

And here we are in 2025, and we have a president who is defying our Constitution, pardoning criminals because they were loyal to him, taking the United States out of the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accords and calling everybody in the United States either male or female, ignoring the science of sexual differences.

My father was an avid Republican. Because of him, when I registered to vote, I registered Republi-

can. As time passed, and I thought about what I really believed, I understood that I was a Democrat. My partner in life for 14 years was a Republican, a generous financial supporter to many Republicans in our area. When he was in rehab, three months before he died, we were watching the Jan. 6 hearings. At the end, I turned to him and I said, “What do you think now?” He pointed his thumb down. I was stunned. I asked, “What made you change your mind?” He said Bill Barr’s testimony But look where we are today I do not recognize my country I search for people of ethics and standards and a backbone. As an 80-yearold woman, I pledge to do every single thing that I can to fight for the rights of every American, not just the billionaire class. I pray that my compatriots will join me in this fight.

CAROL ALLEN New Orleans

Unlike in Louisiana, the act of amending the U.S. Constitution is, rightly, very difficult. However with public dissatisfaction and waning confidence in integrity and wise government stewardship of our hardearned tax dollars, I propose three amendments to the U.S. Constitution that might aid restoring that confidence that members of Congress are working for us: 1) Congress shall enact no legislation affecting the general populace that members of Congress and their staff are exempt from.

2) No spending bill speciﬁcally targeting a particular need shall contain any amendments or provisions not directly related to that need. For example, money for hurricane recovery in the Gulf or East Coast states should not include allocations for Alaska ﬁsheries, national parks in the West or other pet projects.

3) The president may not issue any pardons in the period between 30 days prior to a presidential election and the start of the next presidential term.

I hope our Louisiana Congressional delegation sees this letter and acts appropriately

JOHN POULOS Baton Rouge

We are all shocked by the senseless tragedy that occurred in the French Quarter on New Year’s Day I am sure New Orleanians wish that everything possible should be done for the families of those killed and injured, and then the city must move back to normalcy But the future is clouded by the inevitability of multiple lawsuits against the city which will tie up the courts for years to come and present a negative picture of the city locally, nationally and internationally Some consequences of these lawsuits will be higher insurance rates, severe reduction in city ﬁnances and even bankruptcy and a disincentive to visitors and tourists.

Perhaps the New Orleans legal community can come together and structure a settlement that will fairly reward the victims and, once passed, allow the city to move forward.

ANDREW KING New Orleans

Trump taking the ride for the vibes, for better or worse

After a ﬂurry of activity — the president’s tariff threats and showdowns with Mexico and Canada, his expressions of interest in Greenland, the policy changes obtained by Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trips to Panama and El Salvador, the release of arrested Americans in Venezuela — it seemed clear that the focus of Donald Trump’s foreign policy would be the Western Hemisphere. And then, just a few days later, as he welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the ﬁrst head of government to visit the White House since Trump’s inauguration, Trump announced that the United States “will take over the Gaza Strip.”

in some better direction, though no one, including Trump, seems to have an idea of exactly what.

This is obviously in tension with Trump’s and many Trump supporters’ opposition to U.S. military actions and “nation-building” in the Middle East, and while Greenland is arguably within the Western Hemisphere, Gaza clearly is not. Cleaning up and policing Gaza doesn’t sound like a way for Americans to avoid endless wars and violence, as Trump says he wants.

On the other hand, looking for outside-the-box solutions sometimes works It had been gospel among Middle East specialists that Israel couldn’t achieve diplomatic relations with Arab nations without sanctioning the establishment of a Palestinian state ﬁrst. But the Abraham Accords that Trump negotiated between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and with Bahrain in 2020 did exactly that

As the Abraham Accords suggested, so Trump’s proposal that the U.S. “take over” Gaza jogs the mind and, as Fox News’s Brit Hume writes moves people “away from the endless pursuit of a ‘two-state solution,’ which has proved such a dead end.” Maybe

In September 2016, the Pittsburghbased reporter Salena Zito explained that while “the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” To them, he signals the kind of “make America great again” change he seeks, even where his proposals, as on Gaza, seem ludicrous on their face.

Almost 10 years later economist Tyler Cowen advances a similar explanation. “I think of Trumpian policy,” he argues, “as elevating cultural policy above all else.” The cultures of the foreign policy establishment, of great corporations, of public schools, of public health and scientiﬁc research none is in great shape.

Democrats and journalists hope the courts will put the kibosh on Trump’s initiatives. But at some point, this lawfare runs up against the ﬁrst words of Article II of the Constitution: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”

His orders to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs have the backing of the large majority of people of all ethnicities and hues who oppose racial quotas and preferences — and the text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His termination of foreign aid programs that advance widely unpopular cultural stands, the hill Democrats are choosing to die on, are likely to stand as well.

His threats to impose huge tariffs on Canada and Mexico, while economically ruinous if put into effect, prompted promises of increased border surveillance. His instant and massive retaliation against Colombia’s refusal to accept deported immigrants

resulted in immediate surrender there and a preemptive surrender by the Maduro government of Venezuela, whose legitimacy the United States and the European Parliament refuse to recognize.

Whether Trump’s tactics and unorthodox policy initiatives will produce his promised peace in Ukraine and deter China from attacking Taiwan is far from certain. Clearly some of Trump’s executive orders and policy directives are carefully vetted, while others — the Gaza acquisition? — are not.

If one of his audacious bluffs gets called, the resulting damage could prove horrifying: Think seriously about the wreckage those 25% tariffs would have inﬂicted on auto supply chains. On foreign policy matters of war and peace, damage could be orders of magnitude worse.

After two weeks, Trump’s job approval is hovering around 50%, higher than at any point in his ﬁrst term but still below that of all other incoming presidents since 1953. But the “vibes,” what John Maynard Keynes would have called “animal spirits,” of the nation seem to have shifted.

The December death of Jimmy Carter reminded us that some of his policies transportation deregulation and a defense buildup — helped produce the accomplishment and morale boost of the 1980s. But in his “malaise” speech — he never actually used the word he admitted that the nation’s “vibes” were negative. They turned positive under his successor, Ronald Reagan, though he entered ofﬁce with job approval not much above Trump’s, with positive material consequences for America and the world. Could something like that happen again?

Michael Barone is on X, @MichaelBarone.

Trade war pain starts with shame

Never mind how Donald Trump’s threatened trade war ultimately pans out. Though a 25% border tax would hurt the economies of Canada and Mexico more, Americans would also feel the ill-effects But America is already suffering Start with the shame of menacing and sliming our good neighbors with lies. Even if it’s part of a twisted game of negotiation Trump has already put off the war with Mexico and Canada by a month — the economic damage is lasting. (Trump’s game is to jump on some small concession to declare victory.) Meanwhile, Madein-Trump’s-USA is becoming a toxic label. Canadians recently booed “The StarSpangled Banner” at a hockey game in Ottawa. Something tells us they don’t want to become the 51st state. Now Canada and Mexico could retaliate against American exports, starting with steel, pork and bourbon They would focus on economic interests in Trump country, a reflection of their understanding that much of America shares their mystification, if not horror, at this sadistic show America’s Midwest refineries rely on crude from Alberta. Trump says Canadian energy would get a special deal, a tariff of only 10%. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says even 10% is not OK. She likes to point out that if you subtract energy from the trade numbers, the U.S. would probably have a trade surplus with Canada. For all of Trump’s sniveling about the price of oil, it would go higher if Canada, our largest foreign supplier, decided to sell it to someone else. Canada is already considering ways to move the product west and then onto Asia. The North American economy has been integrated to our benefit as well as that of our neighbors A “Made in America” vehicle, for example, crosses borders several times before the

ﬁnal product rolls to the showroom.

This production sharing lets things get done in the most cost-efﬁcient places. It is also done in Europe and Asia. Contrary to Trump’s baloney excuse for making economic war against our neighbors, Canada is the source of almost no fentanyl entering this country And the fentanyl that comes over the border from Mexico enters through legal ports of entry, hidden in truck tires and suitcases. If that’s the case, isn’t it the job of U.S. authorities to check those tires?

Same goes for undocumented migrants. Of course, the border was already peaceful by the time of Trump’s inauguration. Before the tariff standoff, Canada and Mexico had already stepped up helping control

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE

these migration ﬂows on their sides of the border

The usually Trump-friendly Wall Street Journal has called this “The Dumbest Trade War in History.” That it isn’t in our interests doesn’t even seem to matter The crisis serves Trump’s unhinged need to be constantly at the center of the world’s attention and his sick pleasure in extracting pain. War or no war he’s already achieved both. But the pain felt by Americans trapped by a leadership in Washington that has gone haywire endures And when the cruelty gets dumped on our friends, the pain starts with shame.

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

Back when a public backlash began to rise up mostly among White parents against “critical race theory,” I joked as to whether Black History Month might be next. I don’t joke about that anymore.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s reelection, largely on culture war issues, we see how the mere mention of race, academically or otherwise, quickly can turn oddly toxic

The National Football League, for example, decided to scrub the message “End Racism” from the end zones at this year’s Super Bowl. That message ﬁrst appeared in Super Bowl end zones in 2021, according to The Athletic

The NFL opted instead for less problematic messages — “Choose Love” in one end zone and “It Takes All of Us” in the other

As much as we can debate the appropriateness of “love” and hugs amid the skull-knocking ﬁeld action at the big game, NFL spokespeople said the phrases ﬁt very well with the league’s diversity efforts. In a news conference last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell still called those diversity efforts the right thing for the league to do.

“We’re going to continue those efforts because we’ve not only convinced ourselves,” he said, “I think we’re proven to ourselves, that it does make the NFL better.”

This comes at a time when at least a dozen of the nation’s most prominent corporations have, with little or no fanfare, chosen to eliminate their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, commonly known as DEI.

Is it because these corporations believe that the problems of discrimination and under-representation that gave rise to DEI initiatives have been solved? Or is there another explanation?

Before answering that, let’s consider a revealing incident exposed in the past week concerning the new administration of President Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported that one Marko Elez, 25, one of the whiz kids whom Elon Musk hired to help the Department of Government Efﬁciency or DOGE, take a meat cleaver to federal spending, has used Musk’s social media platform to advocate, of all things, racism and eugenics.

“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” said a July posting to the X account linked to Elez, according to the Journal’s reporting.

Elez was one of the widely reported DOGE staff members who sparked a legal battle over access to the Treasury Department’s sensitive taxpayer information used to process trillions of dollars in payments each year Elez resigned after the Journal asked the White House about him. His messages online sound all too typical of the brash and bratty computer techies who seem to think insults are satisfactory entertainment for their followers.

“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” he wrote on X in September.

“Normalize Indian hate,” the account said the same month, in reference to a post that mused about people from India in Silicon Valley.

Interestingly, Musk, owner of X, formerly Twitter, and a tireless producer of Tweets, asked his followers if DOGE should rehire the young man who “made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym.”

Within hours, it had received more than 200,000 votes, overwhelmingly favoring Elez’ return.

Musk reinstated Elez on Friday, writing, “To err is human, to forgive divine.”

That’s life in X-land, where the medium is often to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan a mess, and its owner is now some sort of god-king.

No one who has spent much time on X or other similar networks should be surprised by such raunchy commentary by or about our fellow humans. And we should not be surprised that Donald Trump has not expressed much concern about raunchy or racist-sounding content, since he has been known to post some pretty raunchy content himself.

Yet Musk, a self-declared free-speech absolutist, has gone on the warpath against speech that is less than ﬂattering about him.

When the liberal media watchdogs at Media Matters published a report alleging that Musk was allowing ads to be served next to hate speech, he sued them.

In December, he faced accusations of censorship closer to home from fellow conservatives.

After several right-wing accounts who had criticized his views on immigration (as an immigrant himself, the South Africa-born Musk has reasons to view immigrants favorably), some said they later lost access to premium content on Musk’s X.

As the undisputed arbiter of what gets seen and unseen on X, and as one of the few people on earth who could single-handedly buy the inﬂuential social media platform TikTok — which he has expressed interest in doing — Musk may end up supplying a different meaning to the phrase “free-speech absolutist.”

Which brings me back to the old saying by print journalist A.J. Liebling, from a less electronic age: “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

Email Clarence Page at cpage47@gmail.com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALEX BRANDON

President Donald Trump displays a proclamation regarding steel imports in the Oval Office at the White House on Monday in Washington, D.C

Clarence Page

Michael Barone

Froma Harrop

WELCOME TO THE BIG EASY

Saints’ hiring of Moore a breath of fresh air as team lets go of the past

The New Orleans Saints have a new head coach, handing the keys of the franchise over to Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

None of us know how well Moore will do in his ﬁrst head coaching gig.

Maybe he’ll become the next Bill Walsh or Chuck Noll or Tom Landry, the Hall of Fame coaches Saints general manager Mickey Loomis talked about a little more than a year ago when talking about why he was running it back with Dennis Allen for another year Or maybe Moore will be a total disaster. Or maybe he’s somewhere in between those two extremes, somewhere closer to what Sean Payton did when he was hired back in 2006.

While the ﬁrst of those three options would be ideal, Saints fans would be totally happy with the latter

If Moore can at least make the Saints relevant again, the city of New Orleans will look back on Feb. 11, 2025, as the day things got pointed back in the right direction.

Moore, like Payton back then, has never been a head coach before.

But Moore is a young offensive mind, fresh off a Super Bowl victory that saw the Eagles offense put up 33 of the team’s 40 points in a blowout victory to end the Kansas City Chiefs’ three-peat hopes.

Moore, at 36, is now the youngest head coach in the NFL. But he already has seven years of NFL coaching experience under his belt. Plus, he’s a former quarterback. So he knows the league and he knows the game. The X’s and O’s

ä See WALKER, page 3C

New Saints coach should get ready to face several challenges in New Orleans

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

Kellen Moore did not want to run this *** back.

Despite Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni’s public plea for the team’s offensive coordinator to stay after winning the Super Bowl, Moore ultimately couldn’t pass up the opportunity to become the New Orleans Saints’ next head coach.

In New Orleans, Moore will get to lead his own team for the ﬁrst time. And that was likely too tempting for the 36-yearold, even if he passed on the chance to attempt a repeat with the Eagles.

It may be a while before Moore can have the Saints ready to contend for a Super Bowl. The job that Moore is inheriting is ﬁlled with challenges, which were reﬂected in the team’s long and complicated search that saw several candidates drop out of consideration. Those challenges, of course, don’t mean Moore is automatically set up for

failure or that he won’t be an excellent head coach. But here’s a closer look at the waters that the ﬁrst-time coach will have to navigate as he tries to rebuild the Saints into a winner: What to do with Carr

At the start of his tenure, Moore won’t have a bigger question to answer than how he feels about Derek Carr

The Saints can release the veteran quarterback this offseason in a move that leaves $50 million in dead money And though such a move doesn’t provide much salary cap relief in 2025 — just more than $1 million it would go a long way toward making the Saints whole in 2026. Then again, Moore might want to keep Carr given his (mostly) above-average play last season and the lack of compelling alternatives to ﬁnd a better replacement for next season.

Last week Moore laughed and smiled

Cajuns hoping close win carries over aginst Troy

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

UL coach Derrick Zimmerman could use fewer games that go down to the ﬁnal minute of the game to decide the winner

After all, so many of those haven’t gone the way of his Ragin’ Cajuns.

But in Saturday’s win at Northern Illinois, it did and the Cajuns (8-17, 5-7 Sun Belt) are hoping that experience carries over to Wednesday’s 7:30 p.m. game in the Cajundome. “It was like a sigh of relief for us a whole staff and as a team,” Zimmerman said of the 66-64 win.

Free-throw shooting is typically a huge part of success in tight contests down the stretch. In this one, though, UL was only 6-of-13 shooting at the line for the game — one game after going 24 of 25 at the line in a 83-82 loss at Georgia Southern last Wednesday. “Luckily, we were able to get out of there with a win,” he said.

Leading scorer Mostapha El Moutaouakkil

points per game, 5.3 rebounds

Robertson processing end of baseball career

Ex-LSU star working on next chapter of life

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

One morning last month, Kim Mulkey

” Mulkey said, laughing. Kramer Robertson did not have to wake up early for most of the past year. After his baseball career ended, the former LSU shortstop felt adrift. He had spent decades chasing the major leagues, and realistic chances to play at the highest level stopped coming. At 29 years old, he had to ﬁgure out what to do with the rest of his life. In early January, Robertson started a new job as LSU’s athletics performance analyst. The Tigers are preparing to share

$20.5 million with athletes for the ﬁrst time this summer as part of a settlement in three federal antitrust cases, which must still be approved, and Robertson is helping LSU ofﬁcials crunch the numbers. To use a baseball reference, Robertson compared himself to Jonah Hill’s data strategist character in “Moneyball,” someone who spends a lot of time looking at spreadsheets.

“His role is one that’s going to allow us to take a deeper dive

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Kramer Robertson poses for a photo while with the St. Louis Cardinals on March 19, 2022. ä See ROBERTSON, page 3C

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

UL guard Mostapha El Moutaouakkil brings the ball up the court against South Alabama guard Dylan Fasoyiro on Feb 1 in the Cajundome. El Moutaouakkil has been UL’s most consistent scorer

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore talks during Super Bowl media day on Feb 3 at the Caesars Superdome. After a drawn-out process, Moore was named Tuesday as the Saints’ head coach. Moore helped the Eagles to a 40-22 win over the Kansas

Tigers must put heartbreaker behind

After crushing loss to Ole Miss, LSU visits Arkansas

BY TOYLOY BROWN III

Staff writer

Heartbreaking losses are supposed to hurt LSU men’s basketball. But that pain can’t carry over to the next performance.

LSU’s 72-70 loss to No. 19 Ole Miss on Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center is memorable for all the wrong reasons, none more pronounced than the game-winning tip-in that capped the Rebels’ 13 unanswered points in the ﬁnal three minutes. It’s hard to ﬂush that and move on. However that’s exactly what LSU (12-11, 1-9 SEC) must do. It plays in a Southeastern Conference with eight teams in the top 25 of KenPom rankings as of Wednesday Coach Matt McMahon has said multiple times that his team needs to treat each contest as a “one-game season.”

The next single game is a second meeting against Arkansas (14-9, 3-7) at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. Arkansas. LSU beat the Razorbacks 78-74 at home on Jan. 14

The stench from the Tigers’ latest collapse can’t linger

Remedying the problems that cost LSU a second conference win — 48% free-throw shooting and lack of poise in the clutch — is crucial to beat Arkansas. Just as important is the the Tigers’ ability to repeat the positives that put them in position to lead for 30

minutes of game time against Ole Miss.

They started their strong play by limiting turnovers. LSU had 10 in the game and only two in the ﬁrst half. This was a drastic improvement for a team that averages the most turnovers in the SEC (14) and is 312th in the country in turnover percentage.

The ability to limit mistakes was even more impressive since it was against an Ole Miss team which entered the game 21st in the country in turnovers forced per game (15.4).

“I thought we did a much better job handling their switching, (we) screened better,” McMahon said.

“They make it really difﬁcult on you with their switching. You really have to make good decisions, conﬁdent decisions and for 36 minutes, I thought we did.”

While Arkansas doesn’t specialize in making teams forfeit the ball at high rates, LSU has to make smart decisions.

Along with valuing possessions, LSU’s team defense must be superb like it was last week. Ole Miss shot 37.7% from the field, which was LSU’s lowest ﬁeld-goal percentage allowed in conference play this season.

It was physical and connected, a drastic improvement from struggles against Texas and Georgia, which shot 56.3% and 49.2%.

LSU can’t afford to falter on the defensive end. Its offenses has proven to be poor by the standards of the conference, needing to rely on stops to grant it easy fastbreak opportunities It’ll have to guard even better than it did in its ﬁrst meeting against Arkansas, being more mindful of the Razorbacks’ Zvonimir Ivisic.

Cajuns women aiming for a late SBC push

UL trying to put Saturday’s OT loss behind

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

The UL women’s basketball team endured another heartbreaking overtime loss against Miami on Saturday, but there’s no time to sulk about that setback.

The end of the regular season isn’t far away and the Ragin’ Cajuns have ground to make up, beginning with Wednesday’s 5 p.m. home game against Texas State at the Cajundome.

The Cajuns stand 10-12 overall and 6-6 in Sun Belt play while Texas State is 10-13, 4-8.

It’ll be the first of two games against the Bobcats over UL’s next three contests.

“The beauty of Texas State is it’s the same coach (Zenarae Antoine), so we know her style and her MO and how she’s going to approach the game,” UL associate coach Deacon Jones said. “The test is it’s new players.

“And of course, Texas State always comes in here and gives us their best shot.”

Tthe Bobcats are led by one double-ﬁgure scorer in Jaylin Foster (11.1 points per game, 6.5 rebounds per game) along with Destiny Terrell (9.4 ppg, 7.3 rpg) and Ja’Mia Harris (9.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg).

“She has a transfer (Foster) from Western Kentucky — a hybrid about 6-feet tall and she plays in and out,” Jones said. “We’ve seen that style of play already, so we can be prepared for her.” Texas State averages 62 points per game while giving up 66, and averages 18.7 turnovers per game

“It’s a challenge because of the injuries,” Jones said.

“In this day and age, it’s about the cohesiveness and the chemistry, especially on the defensive side We call it team defense. That part of it needs to come together

I think we’re doing a better job as

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

UL forward Skylah Travis grabs a rebound against Miami of Ohio during the Cajuns’ 60-59 overtime loss Saturday in the Cajundome.

far as being in sync.”

UL’s Kamryn Jones (8.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg) is expected to return for Wednesday’s games, and there’s hope Jaylyn James (9.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg) can return from a concussion this week.

Leading scorer Erica Lafayette (15.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg) has been hot of late and Missouri transfer Skylah Travis has been steadu for the Cajuns.

“For that young lady to come off back surgery and hadn’t played in two years and see her getting rebounds and ﬁnishing around the rim was a huge plus,” Jones said of Travis. “The beauty of the game on Saturday was, yes we lost on the scoreboard, but we gained by watching Sky Travis play 20-something minutes.

“Having her along with Kam (Jones) to help Ash (Ashlyn Jones), because Ash is banged up is a big help.”

In addition to playing Texas State twice, the Cajuns also have UL-Monroe twice, Southern Miss and South Alabama remaining on the schedule.

“In these last six games, if we can get that chemistry together and get a nice rotation in and out you’ll have more guard play to help Lanay (Wheaton) and Nubia (Benedith),” Jones said.

LSU won 78-74 in its only SEC win this

The Razorbacks’ 7-foot-2 big man was an inconsistent part of the rotation in the ﬁrst matchup, ﬁnishing with two points and no rebounds in seven minutes. The sophomore is now on a hot streak, averaging 16.9 points in his past three games and making 10 of 19 from 3-point line in that span.

LSU’s front court trio of Daimion Collins, Corey Chest and Robert

CAJUNS

Continued from page 1C

and I was happy for the guys.”

The challenge in Wednesday’s game should be a different one. Much like Troy’s women’s team the Trojans (15-9, 8-4) don’t mind missing shots, as long as they get most of the rebounds.

“Troy is a team coming in that is a very physical and a talented team,” Zimmerman said. “They’ve got a really good guard in (Tayton) Conerway and they’ve got a lot of other guys who can really do a lot of things well on the court. It’s going to be a tall task for us.”

Conerway is Troy’s leading scorer at 13.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, followed by Myles Rigsby (10.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg).

“They’re one of the better rebounding teams in the league, because they’re different,” Zimmerman said. “They’ll send all ﬁve guys to the glass. So all ﬁve guys have to box out, including our point guards, which is different.

“In modern basketball, normally the bigger guys go and the little guys get back. But they send ﬁve guys to the glass.”

Miller must strike the right balance of protecting the hoop and respecting Ivisic’s 3-point shot. Avoiding turnovers and guarding at a high level is easier said than done. But it’s the only way LSU can capture the elusive second SEC win.

Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.com

The Trojans are only making 29.9% of their 3-point attempts this season and average 72.9 points per game, thanks partly to 38 rebounds per contest.

Already short on big bodies in the middle, UL may be without Kyndall Davis, one of its most athletic players.

“He got rolled up on in the last game,” Zimmerman said. “Hopefully we can have him for Wednesday.” If not, Zimmerman said playing time would have to increase for London Fields, Chancellor White and Kyran Ratliff.

“We’d have to do some different things — mix and match in how we plan,” he said. “We just have to piece it together All season, that’s been the MO with us. We’ll have this person in and this person out. We’ll ﬁnd a way to get it done.”

The Cajuns enter the game in a ﬁve-way tie for eighth place in the league standings. Troy is in a ﬁve-way tie for second place with six games left to play

“You look at the standings and everybody is like right there,” Zimmerman said. “You just have to take it one game at a time.”

Email Kevin Foote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com.

Super Bowl averaged

127.7M U.S. viewers

Despite the game being a blowout, Sunday night’s Super Bowl averaged a record 127.7 million U.S. viewers across television and streaming platforms for Philadelphia’s 40-22 victory over Kansas City

The game was televised by Fox, Fox Deportes and Telemundo and streamed on Tubi as well as the NFL’s digital platforms.

Not only is it a 3% increase from last year, it is the second straight year the Super Bowl has reached a record audience.

The Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco in 2024 averaged 123.7 million on CBS, Nickelodeon, Univision and streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, the audience peaked at 137.7 million in the second quarter (7-7:15 p.m.)

LSU gymnast is SEC’s freshman of the week

Once again, LSU gymnast Kailin Chio is the top freshman in the Southeastern Conference. She repeated Tuesday as SEC freshman of the week after winning her second straight all-around title this past Friday at Alabama.

The freshman from Henderson, Nevada, matched her career high of 39.650 against the Crimson Tide, leading LSU to the road win and setting up this Friday’s showdown at home between No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 LSU (8 p.m., ESPN2). Chio’s performance included a nearly ﬂawless Yurchenko one and a half on vault that scored her a career-high 9.975. She also posted scores of 9.850 on bars, 9.925 on beam and 9.900 on ﬂoor Chio won the vault and beam titles in addition to the all-around crown.

Ex-49er Stubblefield is freed from prison

A judge has granted the release of former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield after his 2020 rape conviction was vacated by a California appeals court last December

The Sixth Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of the Stubbleﬁeld, who is Black, after determining that prosecutors had made racially discriminatory statements during his trial. However, Stubbleﬁeld remained in prison because he didn’t have the jurisdiction to grant bail or release.

After the state attorney general’s ofﬁce and the appeals court weighed in, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon granted Stubblefield’s release Friday from the state prison where he has served close to four out of 15 years.

Royals bring back former manager Yost as adviser

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Royals have hired Ned Yost as a senior adviser to general manager J.J. Picollo, bringing back the manager who led them to back-to-back American League pennants and a World Series title in 2015. The club announced the move Tuesday, one day before pitchers and catchers were scheduled to report to spring training.

The Royals, who lost 106 games just two years ago, went 86-76 last season, when Bobby Witt Jr emerged as one of the bright young talents in the game and a rebuilt rotation produced a pair of All-Star pitchers. They wound up earning one of the AL wild cards and advanced to the divisional round, where they lost in four games to the New York Yankees.

Kershaw back at Dodgers camp, sign he’s returning GLENDALE, Ariz. Clayton Kershaw was back on the ﬁeld with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday in another sign the three-time Cy Young Award winner is returning for his 18th season with the franchise. The team hasn’t announced a contract with the 36-year-old. Kershaw had a locker in the clubhouse but did not speak with reporters. The left-hander played catch as the team went through a workout at Camelback Ranch. The 10-time All-Star is coming off an injury-interrupted 2024 season in which he made just seven starts, ﬁ

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

interim coach Derrick Zimmerman and the Cajuns will go against a Troy team that is physical and likes to send players to the offensive glass. ‘They’re one of the better rebounding teams in the league, because

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU guard Curtis Givens drives down the court as Arkansas forward Jonas Aidoo defends on Jan. 14 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

season.

into competitive success and recruiting success and some of those things to then look at the investment we’re going to make,” LSU executive deputy athletic director Keli Zinn said.

The job has given Robertson a new direction as he continues to process the end of his baseball career

“I’d be lying if I said, ‘I’m over it now it’s easy and I don’t think about it,’ ” Robertson said. “No doubt, it’s still rough. But it’s a lot better now, and this job has really helped with that.”

After getting picked in the fourth round of the 2017 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, Robertson spent six years trying to reach the major leagues. He did on May 10, 2022, making his debut as a pinch-runner for the Cardinals. He recorded an RBI in his only at-bat the next day, then was sent back to the minors.

Robertson spent the rest of the season in AAA. After another year in the minors in 2023, the chance to establish himself in the majors was slipping away He could have kept playing somewhere. There were other spots in the minor leagues.

Some Korean teams expressed interest. He still gets calls from Mexican independent leagues.

“There was more than enough opportunity where I could still be playing and still be making decent enough money, but that wasn’t my dream,”

“I’d be lying if I said, ‘I’m over it now, it’s easy and I don’t think about it.’ ”

KRAMER ROBERTSON, former LSU shortstop

Robertson said. “My dream was Major League Baseball. My dream wasn’t to just play baseball until I was 35.”

Once he realized he wouldn’t be able to play somewhere that gave him a shot, Robertson decided he had to move on. He called the second half of 2024 “really rough” as he tried to come to grips with the end of his career

“You know it’s gonna come to an end someday, and it always comes to an end the majority of the time when you don’t want it to and you prepare yourself for that,” Mulkey said. “Kramer knew that, but when it really happens, you’re somewhat bitter, you’re somewhat sad and you have to take time and you have to ﬁgure it out.”

Robertson didn’t know what he wanted to do next He could afford not to work right away so he took the summer off, which he said “really doesn’t help things.” He went on family trips and played a lot of golf

He found working out wasn’t fulfilling because he didn’t have a baseball season to train for anymore.

Mulkey gave him space for a while, letting him digest the end of his career on his own time frame. Eventually, she said she “became very tough” because she wanted Robertson to understand how much he had accomplished. He played

in two major league games and even hit a home run off future Hall of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw in the minors. She thought he had a lot to be proud of, even if he didn’t think of it that way yet.

“You don’t try to tell him he’s wrong in how he feels,” Mulkey said. “You try to help him cope and understand a bigger picture out there in life. And you just talk to him and give him examples of the great ones that never made it to The Show, the great ones that had career-ending injuries and you just keep reminding him that. He’s not going to really listen for a while, but then with time, he knows.”

After a few months, Robertson began talking to business people as he searched for clarity Mulkey even tried to convince him to work for her, but Robertson wasn’t interested in coaching. Nothing grabbed him until the position in LSU’s administration came along (Mulkey said she did not facilitate it.)

The job has given him a sense of being on a team again and a reason to wake up early Robertson doesn’t know if he wants to become an athletic director one day, but this at least lets him stay in sports.

“It takes time for everybody,” Robertson said. “I’m sure the process is different for everybody when it ends. It hasn’t been pretty for me, but I have a lot of good people in my corner and I have a lot to look forward to now.”

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate. com/lsunewsletter

CHALLENGES

Continued from page 1C

when he was reminded of his 57-7 win over Carr when the two were quarterbacks at Boise State and Fresno State in 2011.

“I’ve known Derek for a long time, tons of respect for him as a quarterback,” Moore said. “He’s had a tremendous career and done a lot of really good things.”

Salary cap math

Outside of Carr, the Saints will again have limited salary cap flexibility in 2025 And Moore will likely have key input on the future of veterans such as Cam Jordan, Demario Davis and Tyrann Mathieu.

Broadly the Saints are more than $50 million over the salary cap. The team will have to become cap-compliant by the start of the new league year in March. Though the Saints front ofﬁce handles such moves, that figure will likely limit how aggressive the team will be in free agency

Perhaps Moore will seek to add players from his past stops to help build a new culture in New Orleans, a move common for new coaching hires. But New Orleans can only spend so much, particularly when it is taking steps to ﬁx its salary cap situation.

Lack of young talent

The Saints have found a number of young players in the draft who have turned into solid contributors and/or starters. But they’ve lacked true star power of late, and it’ll be on Moore to help ﬁx that problem.

Of now, Moore is walking into a situation with only a few cornerstones. Wide receiver Chris Olave is talented, but his concussion history has raised questions about whether he can hold up in the long term. Defensive tackle Bryan Bresee led the team in sacks last year, but the

2023 first-rounder still has strides to make as a run defender Left tackle Taliese Fuaga was a hit at No. 14 in last year’s draft, but can he become a certiﬁed star at his position? Erik McCoy has made several Pro Bowls, though is coming off an injury-plagued season. Besides that, the cupboard is mostly bare. There are others on the margins with potential to reach another level cornerbacks Alontae Taylor and KoolAid McKinstry, to name a few — though the Saints will need to see more before they can make a true judgment. Fix the defense

Moore comes from a strong offensive background. But as a coach, he’s responsible for the entire team — and not just calling plays. Who Moore hires at defensive coordinator will be vital, and, reportedly, former Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley is the leading candidate.

Staley is an excellent choice on paper His tenure with the Chargers may not have gone the way he wanted, but he would give Moore an experienced voice to lean on. The two men also have familiarity working together when Moore served as Staley’s offensive coordinator in 2023. Staley is a branch of Vic Fangio’s coaching tree and he runs a similar system that has become en vogue around the NFL. Before he was hired to coach the Chargers in 2021, Staley oversaw a Rams defense that dominated the NFL in 2020.

But if the Saints adapt Staley’s system, they’ll need to ﬁnd players who can ﬁt it. Fangio’s defense in Philadelphia, for example, relied on four dominant defensive linemen who could generate enough pressure to allow the back seven to focus on coverage. That hasn’t happened for several years in New Orleans, no matter how much former Saints coach Dennis Allen tried. The Saints saw a steep decline defensively in 2024. They allowed the thirdmost yards, their worst mark since 2015.

shouldn’t be a problem for him.

The big unknown, of course, is his leadership skill. Will he be able to lead a locker room and get the players to want to run through a brick wall for him? And to be successful, he’ll need the type of player who will actually run through a brick wall. That’ll be up to Loomis

to improve the roster and get Moore the pieces he needs to be successful. He had those pieces in Philly with guys like Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts and a dominant offensive line that helped make Sunday’s Super Bowl blowout victory possible. Give him the pieces and he can probably get the offense rolling again. He’ll need more pieces on defense, too.

He seems to understand what he’s stepping into. Here’s some of what he said on

a short message he posted on social media about his new job:

“I am excited to join the New Orleans Saints and deeply appreciate the faith that Mrs. (Gayle) Benson and the entire Saints organization have placed in me,” Moore wrote.

“I look forward to embracing the challenges ahead and am eager to get started.”

So he knows there are challenges, which range from salarycap issues to holes in the roster to competing in a division where

all three of the other teams have improved. The even better news is the Saints’ front ofﬁce was ﬁnally willing to move away from the Payton tree and try something new Truth be told, they tried to hold on to that tree for a little longer than they should have.

Benson, Loomis and Co. should be commended for being willing to step outside their comfort zone.

They took their time with a thorough process. They struck

out on some of the guys they coveted, like Aaron Glenn. But despite that, they ended up with a candidate who checks a lot of the same boxes that other teams have had success with in recent years.

“I’m excited to begin this new chapter” is how Moore ended his statement.

Saints fans should be excited about the new chapter too.

Email Rod Walker at rwalker@ theadvocate.com.

Egg price hikes raise interest in backyard chickens

BY LEANNE ITALIE

the pandemic. But if eggs are the goal, remember that it takes planning and investment to raise the chickens and protect against bird ﬂu Costs might go well beyond the nationwide average of $4.15 a dozen that commercial eggs sold for in December

“Anyone who’s done an ounce of research will very quickly understand that there are no free eggs, there are no inexpensive eggs in keeping chickens,” said Kathy Shea Mormino, a home chicken blogger and author who has about 50 of the birds at her Sufﬁeld, Connecticut, home

“You’re going to pay more, particularly in your ﬁrst several years, in your setup and in your birds And there’s a huge learning curve on how to care for animals that are really unusual pets,” said Mormino, who has kept chickens for 15 years and calls herself the Chicken Chick.

More people are considering backyard chickens as the price of commercial eggs soars.

Costs vary wildly, from about $200 to $2,000 for a coop alone. Feeders and waterers range from about $8 to $50 or more, depending on the size and type.

Bird ﬂu has forced farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, contributing (along with inflation) to the steep price of commercial eggs and resulting in some scantily stocked stores around the country The scarcity and high prices are causing some to look for a backyard alternative

“We’ve seen a real uptick in calls recently from people wanting to start their own backyard ﬂocks. With the egg shortages at grocery stores, many are excited about the idea of raising chickens and taking steps toward sustainability,” said Matthew Aversa, a co-owner of Winding Branch Ranch, a nonproﬁt sanctuary and farm animal rescue outside San Antonio.

“We adopt out whole flocks. We’re receiving at least a dozen inquiries per week,” he said.

Kate Perz, the animal science coordinator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County New York, said that unlike other pandemic pastimes, raising home chickens has only grown.

“It’s not always cost-effective,” she said. “You have to really look at how many eggs you’re eating and what the cost of those are versus what you would be spending.”

There are other reasons, of course, to keep chickens at home, not the least of which is the sheer joy of their presence. Mormino and other “chickeneers,” as she calls home enthusiasts, have a coop full of tips on how to get started.

FROM THE HEART

Meet the Lafayette plate lunch chef nominated for a James Beard Award — with no recipes

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

When you pop into Laura’s II for a simple (and large) lunch of Creole-style rice and gravy and all the ﬁxings, expect to rub shoulders with fans from across the country

This inconspicuous cafe near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is a destination restaurant, for good reason. Back in 2018, Laura’s II was featured on an Acadiana episode of “Parts Unknown” with Anthony Bourdain. As the celebrity chef chowed down on ribs and stuffed turkey wings, he declared it one of the best restaurant meals he’d had in Lafayette — and the world took notice. Chef Madonna Broussard’s star has been rising ever since. She has been in the kitchen since she was a little girl, working with her grandmother, the original Laura, who opened the restaurant in 1968. These days, the friendly lunch line

A plate lunch from Laura’s II Cafe features a stuffed baked turkey wing with rice, turkey necks, gravy and greens.

and dining room at 1904 W. University Ave. regularly ﬁlls with longtime regulars and tourists alike, all looking to experience something that can feel all too rare — authenticity

“This all carried over from my grandmother We haven’t changed

anything. We haven’t changed people. It’s crazy,” said Broussard, reﬂecting on the whirlwind of events since learning last month that she is a 2025 James Beard Award semiﬁnalist for the “Best Chef in the South.”

“Our slogan is, ‘We’re raised on rice and gravy.’ It’s our signature, and we process in generations — just learning how to make the gravy We’ve been making it since ’68, and I think we’ll make it until 2088.”

Bring a friend, plan for leftovers, or just come hungry when you make a trip to Laura’s II. Plate lunches aren’t exactly known for being light fare, but Broussard’s establishment is especially generous with portions and she likes it like that.

“I’ve seen places where they do the small eats, small plates We’re large eats,” Broussard says.

ä See BROUSSARD, page 6C

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MICHAEL WARREN

STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Chef Madonna Broussard owns and operates Laura’s II Cafe in Lafayette.

I don’t want to shame my friends for bad tastes

Dear Miss Manners: How do I talk about my preferences for the art I consume without demeaning others’ tastes or seeming like a snob?

For example, many of my friends enjoy superhero movies and cartoons.

I do not; I don’t ﬁnd these movies interesting or original. I recognize, though, that the love my friends have for these big-name franchises is deep!

How can I respectfully discuss art when there are such diverging tastes?

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

I don’t want to make my friends feel lesser for their tastes. I also don’t want to feign interest, or say “I wouldn’t watch that myself, but I’m glad YOU like it!” as both feel condescending

Gentle reader: Friendship requires reciprocity so if you are unwilling to listen, at least occasionally, to them talking about the entertainments they enjoy, you will either have to limit your discussions with them to topics of known mutual enthusiasm or ﬁnd other friends.

As a lifelong opera lover, Miss Manners believes that if you can sit through a cartoon or two in exchange for introducing them to the right opera — one ﬁlled with the sex and violence they

relish, which shouldn’t be hard to ﬁnd — you might ﬁnd that the art itself is its own best champion. Dear Miss Manners: My family and I are big fans of potluck dinners. We provide a substantial main dish, plus sometimes dessert or salad, and enjoy the variety of dishes our guests bring sometimes even being left some of their offerings to enjoy later

Hosting this way also means that those who have special dietary needs, or who are picky eaters, will have food they can eat. They can have what they brought, if nothing else. This worked great for years, until the day a guest came to me and

BROUSSARD

Continued from page 5C

Like so many across south Louisiana, Broussard doesn’t rely on recipes to ensure a consistent, ﬂavorful experience in each overstuffed plate. In this chef’s kitchen, it’s all about instinct honed through generations of knowledge in how to perfect a roux. She says, “Every morning, we start with roux and water and seasoning to taste. And it’s all our own tastes You know, you just have to know that taste. We don’t use recipes — color and texture and taste is our big recipe.”

Other southern James

Beard nominees this year include luminaries like Nando Chang, a Michelin guide chef from Miami who serves gorgeous plates of JapanesePeruvian inspired bites. At Laura’s II, the experience is a little bit different, but no less profound. When it comes to rewarding culinary excellence, many people still visualize buttoned-up establishments with a god-like chef reigning over the kitchen Broussard doesn’t approach food that way From her reliance on skill, tradition and instinct, to her enthusiastic presence in the serving line and dining room, foodies know they’ll always eat good at this Lafayette spot — like a member of Broussard’s own family, who are often in the

kitchen with her Her daughter, Lacey Broussard, has been learning and working alongside her mom for years now

According to Broussard, she’ll be next in line to helm Laura’s II, and after that, Broussard says she has twin granddaughters who are showing an interest in the culinary arts. Whatever the years bring, it looks likely that Laura’s II will continue to dish up exceptional Acadiana soul food, hopefully for generations to come.

The 2025 James Beard Awards winners will be announced on June 16 at a ceremony in Chicago.

Email Joanna Brown at joanna.brown@ theadvocate.com.

the cowboy caviar The starter includes black beans, corn, onion, tomatoes, avocado, bell pepper, cilantro and vinaigrette. It’s a dish that is light and refreshing. Plus, if you’re feeling fancy dip a chip in queso and then top it with some of the caviar

said there was nothing they could eat. The only food Restricted Diet Person had brought was a tiny salad. I rummaged around in the freezer to see what I could thaw out on short notice. When I found something, RDP said they’d already had that this week and wanted something else. “This is what I have,” I told RDP, and started thawing the item and cooking some pasta to go with it. Soon, someone arrived with a dish RDP could eat, so they ate that and not what I had prepared for them.

I told my husband that if this happened again, I’d let him deal with RDP He’s the one that in-

Dear Heloise: I was raised to keep a tidy table, whether we’re dining or having breakfast. This always included brushing dust and tiny crumbs off the table or tablecloth, but I don’t have the space or patience to keep a little brush and tray near the table for this. My new and very effective way to dust off the table is to wrap a fabric (not vinyl) bandage around the top part of my index

vites this person, who he feels sorry for because they have no friends. Was there a better way to have handled this?

Gentle reader: Although it is clear why this person has no friends, you could have feigned a bit more sympathy than you felt.

Miss Manners will call things even and agree to proceed with the plan to let your husband deal with your troublesome guest next time if you will remind your husband to pick something up for said guest before the next event.

Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www missmanners.com.

ﬁnger and another around my middle ﬁnger Then I sweep my hand in strokes across the tabletop and over the edge of the table. The crumbs and dust disappear with one or two swipes per area; it’s easy and frustration-free! — Charlotte K., Richmond,Virginia Alarm clocks

Dear Heloise: If you can no longer hear alarm clocks because of their high fre-

TODAY IN HISTORY

quency level,

Their cream cheese garlic bread is a beautiful round loaf dunked in butter, sliced and perfect for sharing. The tanginess of the softened cream cheese plus the subtle sweetness of the garlic bread (don’t knock it till

you try it) make it the perfect afternoon snack/boba companion. I can’t wait until the new location opens near Costco, and it’s even easier to get my pick-me-up treat Serena Puang, features writer Cowboy caviar, queso and tacos n Luna Cocina, 3109 Perkins Road, Baton Rougev For my ﬁrst time at Luna, I was told that I must get

As an entree, the pickthree taco platter was appealing, as I’m someone who enjoys options. I decided on the carne asada with tender grilled skirt steak, cilantro, onions and verde sauce; the crispy ﬁsh, made with fried white ﬁsh, mango pineapple salsa and chipotle crema; and the barbacoa, which features slow roasted chuck, onions, cilantro and verde sauce.

If you stay late enough at the restaurant, expect the lights to dim and the music to get louder It’s a great place to transition from dinner to dancing. Lauren Cheramie, features coordinator

By The Associated Press

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 12, the 43rd day of 2025. There are 322 days left in the year

Today in history

On Feb. 12, 1999, the Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

On this date

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky

EGGS

Continued from page 5C

Tend to legal matters

You may be ready to dive right in Your town may not. Mormino, who wrote “The Chicken Chick’s Guide to Backyard Chickens,” said the ﬁrst thing to consider is whether chickens are right for you. After that, don’t assume your county, town or city will allow it.

Look up zoning and building codes yourself if you feel capable. Otherwise, consult an attorney who specializes in municipal law in your area.

Don’t rely on word of mouth or even a town worker to know the ins and outs Is a building permit required to build a coop? Are roosters banned under noise ordinances? Sometimes, zoning codes are silent on the subject. Don’t assume that’s a green light. Many codes are “permissive use” regulations, Mormino said, essentially meaning that if the code doesn’t say you’re permitted, you’re not!

If chicken-keeping is allowed, is there a limit on how many birds? Are there restrictions on where a coop can be built in relation to neighboring property lines. Most homeowners associations have rules on animal keeping.

Mormino lives in a farming town and had a neighbor who kept three horses and a small flock of chickens, so she assumed they were legal. They weren’t. She called the town clerk’s ofﬁce to ask whether a building permit was required to build a coop and was told it wasn’t. It was. In the end, she successfully defended a lawsuit against her (she’s an attorney) and prevailed in a long battle to amend the law legalizing backyard chickens

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York City In 1914, groundbreaking took place for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 2002, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Miloševic went on trial in The Hague, charged with genocide and war crimes.

(Miloševic died in 2006 before the trial could conclude).

In 2019, Mexico’s most notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was

in her town.

What about bird flu?

Bird flu is highly contagious. It spreads mostly by migrating waterfowl in their droppings. Chickens are far from immune if they spend any time free ranging or in a run without protection from wild fowl droppings.

“There’s a limited number of things that we can do because our birds live where wildlife live,” Mormino said. “People need to know if they have a bird or birds that die suddenly from some of the symptoms, they need to contact the USDA to get the postmortem exam and the birds tested for bird ﬂu.”

Don’t bring sick birds into the house for care. That raises the risk of transmission to humans Once the virus is conﬁrmed, the entire ﬂock needs to be euthanized, she and Perz said.

Symptoms of bird ﬂu include: sudden death without any clinical signs; swelling of the head, eyelids, comb, wattles or hocks; diarrhea; stumbling or falling down; decreased egg production and/or soft-shelled or misshapen eggs; and coughing and sneezing. Don’t feed any wildlife in areas where your chickens dwell or roam. Wash hands thoroughly after tending to chickens and dedicate a pair of shoes or boots strictly for use around them.

“The biggest mistake backyard chickeneers make is to bring new chickens into their ﬂock that have lived someplace else. That’s the fastest way to bring disease into your chicken yard,” Mormino said.

Consider your costs

Sarah Penny has turned her 7,000-square-foot home lot in Knoxville, Tennessee, into a beautiful garden and chicken home. She has nine birds and grows more than

convicted in New York of running an industrial-scale drug smuggling operation, murder and money laundering. (Guzman is currently serving a life sentence at the federal supermax prison facility in Florence, Colorado.)

Today’s birthdays: Film director Costa-Gavras is 92. Author Judy Blume is 87. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is 83. Country singer Moe Bandy is 81. Musician Michael McDonald is 73. Actor-talk show host Arsenio Hall is 69. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is 60.

half the food she and her 13-year-old son eat. She’s had chickens since 2021 and estimates her startup costs at about $2,500.

Monthly costs vary based on what chickens are fed and how coops are kept Penny, for instance, uses the deep litter method and composts from her coop, meaning she’s not mucking out her coop more than twice a year

“But the cost of starting with backyard chickens is deﬁnitely quite expensive. I don’t know if a lot of people know that,” Penny said. Her coop alone, which her family built themselves, cost about $2,000. It had to be outﬁtted to keep predators out, including rats that tunnel under the ground. Many people start with buying hatchlings, which just got more expensive to ship via the U.S. Postal Service due to new fees. Raising hatchlings requires a chick brooder involving a separate enclosure, heat lamp, feeders and other supplies.

Penny buys a bag of feed every two weeks for $15 to $20 a bag. There’s also the cost of calcium, such as oyster shells, and grit to aid digestion if chickens are not free-ranging or getting those elements in their feed. She estimates her monthly costs at about $60, saving a bit by also feeding her chickens healthy human leftovers. She’s careful not to include foods that are toxic for chickens, including onions, potatoes and avocados.

It’s all worth it to Penny “We eat a lot of eggs,” she said “We probably go through a dozen every two days. We bake a lot. We’re an ingredient household, so the majority of our food is cooked from scratch Eggs are a main staple for our breakfast.”

STAFF PHOTO By LAUREN CHERAMIE

From the top, barbacoa, crispy fish and carne asada tacos from Luna Cocina in Baton Rouge

STAFF PHOTO By SERENA PUANG

The cream cheese garlic bread at Boba Partea is a perfect snack

STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Longtime customers Dallas Granger, from left, Kenneth Potier and Curt Comeaux enjoy lunch at Laura’s II Cafe in Lafayette.

Hints from Heloise

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Refurbish what you already have, and you'll feel good about your environment and what you accomplish. Refuse to let others rain on your parade. Do what suits you best.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Set a goal, and don't stop or jeopardize your chance to reach it simply to accommodate someone else. The improvements you make will facilitate what you need to produce undeniable results.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Look for the best path forward and set your sights on convincing others to see things your way. A positive and in-depth discussion will help you fine-tune your path.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Change only what's necessary. Taking on too much or putting someone else's battle first will diminish the progress of projects that mean the most to you. Be bold and be very clear about what you want.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Keep the momentum flowing and refuse to let someone's negativity or uncertainty stand in the way. Let your charm win you favors. Don't hesitate to rise to the occasion.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Put your energy where it counts, and you'll gain the strength, courage and drive to reach your target on time. Let your creative imagination lead the way and take care of your responsibilities.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Live with what you've got, save time and money, and ward off opposition. Impulsive spend-

ing can quickly turn into a problem if you aren't careful. Do what's best for you.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Emotions and secrets will be counterproductive if you neglect what's important to you. Spell out what you want for those who cannot see what's right in front of them. Be bold.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) An open mind will help you expand your awareness and pick and choose the best way to use your attributes to get ahead. Charm, intelligence and networking will play in your favor.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Take one step at a time, ask questions and refuse to alter what's working efficiently. Take the plunge and use your skills to produce something unique. It's time to market yourself.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Travel may be necessary to explore more possibilities. Whether it's a physical, mental or emotional trip you'll be taking, the result will be a learning experience. Trust your instincts.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Refuse to let change lead to debt. Look for cheaper ways to make your life better. Choose to work on self-improvement, health and meaningful relationships You cannot buy love, but you can earn it.

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

toDAy's cLuE: J EQuALs D

CeLebrItY CIpher For better or For WorSe

FrAnK And erneSt

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

bIG nAte

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

By PHILLIP ALDER

Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

Right — I think! And in today’s deal there is not only a right suit to play first, but also a right way to play it. South is in three no-trump. West leads his fourthhighest spade, East puts up the jack, and declarer takes the trick with his queen. How should he continue?

South had six top tricks: two spades (given the first trick) and four diamonds. Looking no further than dummy’s strongest suit, he played a club to the jack However, East won with his ace and returned a spade. Declarer’s 10 lost to West’sking,andanotherspadedislodged declarer’s ace.

Unconcerned, South led another club, but West’s diamond discard was a huge disappointment. Declarer won on the board and called for a heart, but East grabbed the trick with his ace and returned his last spade. The defenders took one club, one heart and three spades for down one.

Yes, South was unlucky, but if he had thought about a bad club break, he might have thought about the right line of play. He should have played a diamond to dummy and led a low heart toward his jack. Here, if East ducks, declarer wins the trick and shifts to clubs, taking two spades,oneheart,fourdiamondsandtwo clubs. If East wins, South has two spades, three hearts and four diamonds. Lastly, if West could capture the heart jackwiththeace,aspadeleadwouldgive South a third trick in the suit. Declarer would have time to knock out the club ace and win at least one overtrick. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By

Andrews McMeel

wuzzles

Syndication

Each Wuzzle is a word riddle which creates a disguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD = GOOD AFTERNOON

InstRuctIons:

toDAy’s

Average

Time

Previous answers:

This is God’s world and we are his guests. G.E. Dean

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

BRIEFS

Company plans $69M

Gonzales facility

John H. Carter Co./ControlWorx said it will build a $69 million assembly and distribution facility in Gonzales, a move that will create 175 new jobs.

The Baton Rouge-based company will create the jobs over the next decade, with a projected payroll of $12.5 million. It will also lead to 301 indirect new jobs across metro Baton Rouge, according to estimates from Louisiana Economic Development

John H. Carter said it will build a 285,000-square-foot plant at 3088 S. Burnside Ave., with construction beginning next month. Commercial operations will start in about two years. The company will assemble, service and distribute ﬂow control products at the Gonzales location and distribute them to clients in the oil and gas, chemical refining, power, renewable energy and paper production industries

To get the company to expand into Ascension Parish, LED offered it an incentive package that includes a $590,000 Economic Development Award Program grant for infrastructure improvements. That grant award is subject to approval by the Louisiana Economic Development Corporation board

The company is also expected to participate in the Industrial Tax Exemption and Quality Jobs programs.

Wall Street holds firm after Trump’s latest tariffs

Wall Street held relatively firm on Tuesday following President Donald Trump’s latest tariff escalation.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in the market’s ﬁrst trading since Trump announced 25% tariffs on all foreign steel and aluminum coming into the country The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up and the Nasdaq composite slipped The moves were modest not only for U.S. stocks but also in the bond market, where Treasury yields rose by only a bit

The threat of a possible trade war is very real, of course, with high potential stakes. Most of Wall Street agrees that substantial and sustained tariffs would push up prices for U.S. households and ultimately lead to big pain for ﬁnancial markets around the world.

SEC requests pause in battle with Binance

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to pause its high-proﬁle lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange Binance as the regulator tries to present itself as more crypto-friendly under a new administration.

Binance and the SEC filed a joint motion Monday asking for a 60-day stay in a lawsuit the regulator filed with significant fanfare two years ago under its previous chairman, Gary Gensler Monday’s filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the SEC approached Binance asking for the pause. The regulator said the work of a new crypto task force launched by acting Chai Mark Uyeda that’s supposed to improve ties to the crypto industry “may impact and facilitate the potential resolution of this case.”

Fed chair: Bank accounts ‘safe’

Powell responds to Trump’s teardown of consumer protection agency

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP economics writer

WASHINGTON Americans’ bank accounts are safe despite the Trump administration’s shutdown of a consumer financial regulatory agency, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday Powell, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, said “bank accounts overall across the economy are safe” and backed by government deposit insurance. Powell’s comments followed par-

tisan comments from Republican and Democratic senators regarding the Trump administration’s order over the weekend for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to end all of its supervisory and rule-making work.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who pushed for its creation of the CFPB in the wake of the 2008 ﬁnancial crisis and recession, said, “I’d be really worried about doing business with a giant bank when there’s no cop on the beat.”

Powell, meanwhile, received little scrutiny from senators about the Fed’s interest-rate policy, which has contributed to higher borrowing costs but has also been credited for helping bring down inflation. And while several senators flagged the spike in inflation that followed the pandemic, Powell faced little questioning about when the Fed believes it could return inflation — now at 2.6%, according to the Fed’s preferred measure — to its 2% target.

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Madisonville Republican, praised Powell and the Fed for bringing down inﬂation from a 7.2% peak in June 2022. Kennedy noted that many economists had forecast that the Fed’s steep rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 would cause a recession. Yet, instead, the economy has continued to expand.

“The fact is, knock on wood, we have experienced a soft landing,” Kennedy said. Fed officials “deserve credit” for that, he added.

Price hikes from Trump tariffs tallied

Industry leaders say steel, aluminum levies could wreak havoc on manufacturing

BY ALEXA ST JOHN Associated Press

DETROIT

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel imports this week could wreak havoc on American auto manufacturing, industry leaders say The moves align with the Trump administration’s aggressive global trade agenda and ambitions to strengthen U.S. industry, but they could have an inverse effect.

On March 12, all steel imports will be taxed at a minimum of 25%, the result of two orders the president signed Monday that also include a 25% tariff on aluminum. That could have a serious impact on domestic auto companies including Ford, GM and Stellantis — and make these companies’ vehicles more expensive for the nation’s car buyers.

Tariffs on crucial products coming from outside of the U.S places pressure on domestic sourcing of the materials, experts say The basic rules of supply and demand could drive up costs.

“Steel producers have to ﬁnd ways to increase capacity, and aluminum and steel might be in short supply in the short term,” said Sam Fiorani, analyst at AutoForecast Solutions, which studies the industry “Producing vehicles has a lot of moving parts, and raising the price of what is among the most important components of the vehicle is only going to raise the price of an already expensive product.”

The average transaction price for a new vehicle in the U.S. in January was $48,641,

according to auto-buying resource Kelley Blue Book — a hefty investment for an inﬂation-sensitive consumer

“Tariffs such as these do nothing to enhance the automotive industry directly,” Fiorani said.

To Ford CEO Jim Farley, Trump’s early actions in ofﬁce which also include 25% tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, although delayed by a month — are already challenging the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker

The Trump administration has also upended electric vehicle policy put in place under former President Joe Biden, targeted EV charging infrastructure, as well as

directed review of vehicle emissions and fuel economy rules — all of which could play a role in automaker plans to decarbonize. Already, auto companies have pulled back some electriﬁcation plans amid shifts in the market. Most of the three automakers’ steel and aluminum already comes from North America, Ford included; CFO Sherry House noted Tuesday during a Wolfe Research conference that 90% of the company’s steel comes from the U.S., and that aluminum is also not that competitive.

Still, Farley said Tuesday during the same conference that “So far what we’re seeing is a lot of cost, and a lot of chaos.”

Experts warn about DOGE’s access to Treasury data

BY FATIMA HUSSEIN and DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Department of Government Efficiency’s embed into the federal government has raised a host of concerns, transforming a debate over how to cut government waste into a confrontation over privacy rights and the nation’s financial standing in the world.

DOGE, spearheaded by billionaire Donald Trump donor Elon Musk, has rapidly burrowed deep into federal agencies and taken drastic actions to cut spending. This includes trying to get rid of thousands of federal workers, shut-

tering the U.S. Agency for International Development and accessing the Treasury Department’s enormous payment systems.

Advocacy groups and labor unions have ﬁled lawsuits in an attempt to save agencies and federal worker jobs, and ﬁve former treasury secretaries are sounding the alarm on the risks associated with Musk’s DOGE accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment systems and potentially stopping congressionally authorized payments.

“Any hint of the selective suspension of congressionally authorized payments will be a breach of trust and ultimately, a form of default. And our credibility, once lost, will

prove difﬁcult to regain,” said former treasury secretaries Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew and Janet Yellen in an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday

They warn about the risks of “arbitrary and capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful and corrosive to our democracy.”

Musk said on his social media platform X on Monday that “we need to stop government spending like a drunken sailor on fraud & waste or America is gonna go bankrupt. That does mean a lot of grifters will lose their grift and complain loudly about it. Too bad. Deal with it.

Experts in the ﬁnancial and digital privacy worlds warn that the U.S. ﬁnancial system is delicate and complicated and could be harmed by unilateral moves. They also say that Americans’ personal information could be compromised by the unsafe handling of sensitive data.

On cybersecurity issues, the public has no idea what safeguards or policies, if any, Musk and his staffers used to protect the sensitive data they accessed, according to John Davisson, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based nonproﬁt that advocates for digital privacy Davisson called DOGE’s access “the largest data breach and most consequential data breach in U.S. history.”

THE CANADIAN PRESS PHOTO By CHRIS yOUNG

An employee works recently on the production line at the Martinrea auto parts manufacturing plant that supplies auto parts to Canada and U.S plants in Woodbridge, Ontario.

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