The 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.”

KELLEN MOORE, newly hired Saints head coach

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 Orleans 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,” 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

ä See MOORE, page 7A

LSU ordered to return professor to teaching

Law school educator suspended for criticism of Landry, Trump

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

LSU must immediately allow law professor Ken Levy to return to teaching, and the university is barred from interfering with the professor’s employment and violating his free speech and due process rights, East Baton Rouge Parish District Judge Tarvald Smith ruled Tuesday night. Smith said he was “re-implementing” language from a previous restraining order issued in the case by Judge Don Johnson and set a May 19 date for the parties to return to the courtroom to review the matter In the meantime, Smith’s order takes effect immediately

“Your client should get back to the business of training lawyers and let professors teach, especially those that are tenured,” Smith told LSU’s attorneys from the bench.

Smith said he hopes LSU’s ﬂagship university would allow professors to “invite rigorous debate and dialogue” and not be punished for it.

“Your client should get back to the business of training lawyers and let professors teach, especially those that are tenured.”

DISTRICT COURT JUDGE TARVALD SMITH, addressing LSU’s attorneys

The judge’s decision came after two days of testimony from witnesses brought to the 19th Judicial District Courthouse in Baton Rouge.

Levy sued LSU over a teaching suspension imposed last month due to student complaints after he used vulgar language to criticize Gov Jeff Landry and President Donald Trump.

LSU President William Tate IV was among those who took the witness stand.

Tate said Tuesday “it was my decision” to suspend Levy

Tate said from the stand that he learned of a student complaint about Levy and asked Provost Roy Haggerty to look into the matter The provost, Tate said, shared with him a transcript of comments Levy made in class. Tate then decided to suspend Levy based on the comments in the transcript, he said.

“I never talked to the governor,” Tate said, referring to the Levy matter Tate also said he was not aware of any

See PROFESSOR, page 8A

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

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. Landry created the commission in December through an executive order

ä See MEETINGS, page 7A

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore smiles before the start of Super Bowl LIX on Sunday

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.

theadvocate.newsbank.com

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 Hodges plows

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First execution in 15 years off

BY JOHN SIMERMAN and MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writers

The first death warrant secured by a district attorney in Louisiana in years was recalled within a day by the Rapides Parish judge who signed it, after the condemned man’s lawyers argued that he hasn’t yet exhausted his legal remedies.

The warrant for the execution of Larry Roy was one of at least three sought on Monday by Louisiana district attorneys as Gov Jeff Landry announced that the state was ready to perform executions by nitrogen gas and vowed to see such executions through.

Collin Sims, the district attorney in St. Tammany and Washington parishes, and Charles Adams, the district attorney for DeSoto Parish also sought death warrants on Monday Roy’s warrant was signed by 9th District Judge Lowell Hazel. It called for Roy to be put to death on March 19 for the 1993 stabbing deaths of Freddie Richard Jr and Rosetta Silas at a home in Cheneyville. But Hazel dismissed the warrant as null and void,” staying the execution.

“As of now there is no order to execute Larry Roy,” said District Attorney Phillip Terrell in an interview, adding that he planned to try again.

Court records show that in 2004, Roy’s application for post-conviction relief was tabled, with no hearing having been held.

Meanwhile, Sims on Monday asked 22nd District Judge Alan Zaunbrecher to set an execution date for Jessie Hoffman, who was sent to death row for the 1996 killing of Mary “Molly” Elliot, a 28-year-old advertising executive, after a rape. Adams also sought a death warrant in DeSoto, for Christopher Sepulvado, the oldest person on Louisiana’s death row Sepulvado, 81, was convicted of first-degree murder in the March 1992 death of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer, in the child’s home. An attorney for Sepulvado said Tuesday that the warrant scheduled his execution for March 17, and that he has already been placed on palliative care in prison after a recent sharp decline in his health.

Landry announced Monday that executions would soon resume in Louisiana for the ﬁrst time since 2010. The hiatus is due partly to a shortage of lethal injection drugs and to legal challenges. But early last year, Louisiana’s Legislature and Landry passed a law adding nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution to a new list of state-approved execution methods, at the discretion of the corrections secretary

“The time for broken promises has ended; we will carry out these sentences and justice will be dispensed,” Landry said in a news release. The legislation came during a special session to ﬁght crime — and shortly after Alabama began executing people by nitrogen gas.

Alabama has executed four people by nitrogen hypoxia, including three in 2024 and another, Demetrius Terrence Frazier, last week, according to the Death Penalty Information Center Oklahoma and Mississippi also have approved execution by gas, though neither has used the method.

‘Entirely inaccurate’

Rebecca Hudsmith, an attorney for Hoffman who serves as federal public defender for the Middle and Western districts of Louisiana issued a statement Tuesday opposing an execution date for her client.

“Jessie suffered horrific abuse and neglect as a child and was forsaken by all those entrusted with protecting him,” the statement read.

“Jessie has worked hard to overcome the trauma He is a father with a close, loving relationship with his son, who he helped raise from prison. He has become a valued and stabilizing presence at the prison.”

Hoffman is one of two men on death row for crimes committed in St. Tammany Parish. Sims said his ofﬁce ﬁled for an execution date for Hoffman after learning the state would resume carrying out the death penalty “It’s not like a new decision is being made. That is the sentence,” Sims said in a phone interview. “The only reason why it hasn’t been carried out is because there was not a means to execute the sentence.”

In Rapides Parish, Roy’s attorneys wrote that Terrell’s office had misrepresented the legal status of the case, jumping the gun by claiming that “all post conviction pleadings have been resolved in favor of the state” in the case.

“This is entirely inaccurate,” wrote Blythe Taplin, of Loyola Law School’s Center for Social Justice

The Louisiana Supreme Court long ago ordered a hearing on Roy’s claims that he received unconstitutionally poor representation, among others. That hearing was put on hold. A judge in 2004 ordered the state to respond to concerns about undisclosed records, records show Nothing has changed in 20 years, according to Taplin.

Terrell, the district attorney, argued that Roy abandoned his bid for post-conviction relief, and that it’s long past time for him to be executed. Terrell pointed to the brutality of the crime for which Roy was sent to death row Along with the two slain victims, three survivors were slashed.

“You can still see the scars where he cut them from ear to ear with a butcher knife,” he said.

“This case is nearly 30 years old. I have surviving victims. They wanted us to move forward,” Terrell added. “We feel like the jury and the justice system gave them a promise, and we’re going to try to deliver.”

Death penalty suit

State Attorney General Liz

Murrill said she expects legal challenges from defense attorneys whose clients have execution dates set “That’s what ordinarily happens when they start to take advantage of whatever appellate rights they have left,” she said in an interview Tuesday “I also expect to be successful in fighting off those motions.”

But the renewed push for executions could revive a 12-year-old civil lawsuit over the death penalty. In December 2012, Hoffman and other death row inmates filed a complaint over the state’s execution protocols in Louisiana’s Middle District Court.

As Louisiana struggled to obtain proper lethal injection drugs, the state ultimately halted all executions. In 2022, U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick dismissed the lawsuit because the state still could not get the drugs. That decision came at the request of Landry, who was then the state attorney general.

The day after Dick issued her decision, Landry pushed to “remove any other obstacles” to executions.

But Dick also gave the plaintiffs the right to reﬁle the suit. Last year, after Louisiana expanded its list of execution methods, attorneys for the death row inmates ﬁled a motion for relief from judgment in hopes of reopening the case.

On Monday, as the case remained unresolved, they ﬁled a motion to submit an emergency brief, citing the state’s efforts to set execution dates for Hoffman and Roy. Murrill acknowledged the new action in the case, but said she did not expect it to be successful.

“There’s been an attempt to reopen the (lawsuit) that was ﬁled over a decade ago,” she said. “That case was dismissed by Judge Dick. It’s just not the proper vehicle to challenge (executions).”

Like Landry she vowed to ensure the executions are carried out

“There are a lot of families that have been waiting for justice for a long time,” Murrill said. “The state needs to keep the promise that it made to seek justice, and to see that it’s carried out.”

Cecelia Kappel, an attorney representing death row inmates in the civil case, pushed back on Murrill’s comments and slammed the state’s death penalty system.

“Louisiana’s death penalty system makes promises that it can’t keep, with over 84% of death sentences reversed for reasons such as prosecutorial misconduct, individuals that have serious mental illness, trauma (or) brain damage and even innocence,” she said.

Some criminal justice advocates also argue execution is not a successful deterrent to crime.

Staff writer Willie Swett contributed to this story

Investigative reporting is more essential than ever, which is why we’ve established the Louisiana Investigative Journalism Fund, a nonproﬁt supported by our readers.

BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

NEW YORK New York City

Mayor Eric Adams vowed to regain the public’s trust Tuesday as the Justice Department moved to halt his criminal corruption case, an extraordinary directive that ofﬁcials said would free him up to assist in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

In his first public comments since federal prosecutors were ordered to drop the case, Adams said he was eager to “put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of this city.”

He did not mention President Donald Trump by name but praised the Justice Department for its “honesty,” adding that he would “never put any personal beneﬁt above my solemn responsibility as your mayor.”

The mayor’s brief address at City Hall came one day after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told federal prosecutors in Manhattan to dismiss the bribery charges “as soon as is practicable.”

In a two-page memo, Bove said the Justice Department reached the decision “without assessing the strength of the evidence.” Rather, he claimed the case was politically motivated and said the dismissal would allow Adams to “devote full attention and resources” to combating illegal immigration and violent crime.

Adams, who was elected as a centrist Democrat, had already shifted rightward following his indictment in September praising Trump and expressing a willingness to roll back some of the city’s protections for undocumented migrants. But in the wake of the memo, he is facing a barrage of criticism from those who say he is

now beholden to the Trump administration’s agenda.

“It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the Mayor hostage,” Rev Al Sharpton, an inﬂuential ally of Adams, said in a statement Tuesday “I have supported the Mayor, but he has been put in an unfair position — even for him — of essentially political blackmail.”

Several of the mayor’s challengers in the Democratic Party also suggested Adams would now put Trump’s interests over those of New Yorkers. Asked on Tuesday if the mayor was compromised, Gov Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, responded: “I truly don’t know.”

The task of carrying out the Justice Department’s order now falls to Danielle Sassoon, a seasoned prosecutor who was appointed acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan just days after Trump took ofﬁce. Her office declined to comment and has not indicated what it plans to do next. In a letter sent last month, prosecutors in the Adams case praised the strength of the evidence, dismissing the mayor’s claim of political prosecution as an attempt “to shift the focus away from the evidence of his guilt.”

Sassoon has limited power to oppose the order She can be replaced at will by the Justice Department. Trump in November nominated Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to lead the ofﬁce. His appointment must be conﬁrmed by the Senate.

Under the terms laid out in the memo, the charges could still be refiled after the November mayoral election. Dismissal of the case should be conditional, Bove said, on Adams agreeing in writing that prosecutors are legally allowed to bring the

charges back if they choose. That means the threat of a renewed prosecution will hover over Adams in all of his dealings with the Trump administration while he is mayor “I have not seen anything like this before,” said Arlo Devlin-Brown, the former chief of public corruption at the U.S. attorney’s ofﬁce in Manhattan. “For a case that’s already been charged to be reversed in the absence of some real new development in the merits of the case is highly unusual.” Even with some uncertainty about what happens next, Adams struck a tone of vindication Tuesday, describing the criminal prosecution against him as an “unnecessary ordeal” that had been sensationalized in the media.

“Who I am is not in the headlines, it’s in my history,” he said. “As I said from the outset, I never broke the law and I never would.” Federal prosecutors charged Adams in September with accepting illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks worth more than $100,000 including expensive flight upgrades and luxury hotel stays — while serving in his previous job as Brooklyn borough president. The indictment said a Turkish ofﬁcial who helped facilitate the trips then leaned on Adams for favors, including lobbying the Fire Department to allow a newly constructed diplomatic building to open in time for a planned visit by Turkey’s president. Prosecutors also said they had evidence Adams personally directed campaign staffers to solicit foreign donations, then disguised those contributions to qualify for a city program that provides a generous publicly funded match for small donations.

ChiefExecutive

PrentissWilks President/ChiefLending Officer

With acombined 35 yearsofservice to UCB, Sonnyand Prentiss bringa wealth of experience,dedication, andastrong commitment to thecommunities of South Louisiana. UCBiscommitted to drivinggrowth, fosteringinnovation, anddeliveringexceptional servicetoour clients. Whetheryou are buildingyourbusinessormanagingday-to-day ﬁnances, we providethe tools, expertise, and personalized supporttohelpyou succeed

110,000 people stranded in eastern Congo

BY CHINEDU ASADU and JUSTIN KABUMBA Associated Press

GOMA, Congo Rwandabacked rebels controlling cities in eastern Congo have forcibly closed settlement camps, leading to the displacement of more than 110,000 people in recent days, the U.N. and locals said Tuesday

The M23 rebels the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east — captured Goma, the region’s largest city in late January in a major escalation of the yearslong ﬁghting with government forces.

The rebels’ advance into Goma has killed at least 2,000 people in and around the city, Congolese authorities have said.

M23 issued a 72-hour ultimatum to displaced people to leave settlement camps and return to their villages, the U.N.’s humanitarian aid coordination agency, OCHA, said in its brieﬁng on Tuesday It was the latest action taken by the rebels after they said their priority was to restart normal activities in the city

Though the rebels later clariﬁed that returns should be voluntary, OCHA said more than 110,000 displaced people have left such camps for distant villages that aid groups have warned are further afar from the reach of aid.

Associated Press journalists witnessed many displaced families in settlement camps in Goma dismantling makeshift shelters and packing up what was left of their belongings.

“I am surprised because we are asked to leave, yet I have nothing to give to the children,” said Sibomana Safari, who was leaving Bulengo displacement camp in the city “We all (are) leaving without any help (and) I don’t know if we’re going to make it,” said Safari. At least 500,000 people

have been displaced in the region following the M23’s advance, according to the Forum of International Non-Governmental Organisations.

Goma was hosting close to a million displaced people before the escalation of ﬁghting on Feb. 26.

“The situation is extremely worrying,” said Oonagh Curry, an emergency coordinator for French medical charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF “The current situation is very ﬂuid. It is extremely important to keep in mind that a sudden movement of a population can worsen the humanitarian crisis that was already underway,” Curry added.

Kwimana Sifa, among those leaving the Bulengo displacement camp, said he had no place to go after his house was destroyed by a bomb.

“It is better to leave us here. Although we lack food, we have shelter here,” a distraught Sifa said. “What we want is just peace and nothing else.”

Although the rebels declared a unilateral ceaseﬁre last week, locals continue to report pockets of fighting between M23 and government forces as the rebels move towards South Kivu’s provincial capital of Bukavu.

The rebels on Tuesday threatened to act over killings it said were happening in Bukavu which is about 31 miles away from their reach.

People who were displaced by the fighting between M23 rebels and government soldiers leave their camp following an instruction by M23 rebels in Goma, Democratic Republic of the

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.

Congo, on Tuesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MOSES SAWASAWA

Dominican Republic ramps up deportations

BY DÁNICA COTO

Associated Press

BELLADERE, Haiti A crowd of 500 descended from dusty trucks on a recent morning and shufﬂed through a tiny gap in a border gate separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic.

They were the ﬁrst deportees of the day, some still clad in work clothes and others barefoot as they lined up for food, water and medical care in the Haitian border city of Belladère before mulling their next move.

Under a broiling sun, the migrants recounted what they said were mounting abuses by Dominican officials after President Luis Abinader ordered them in October to start deporting at least 10,000 immigrants a week under a harsh new policy widely criticized by civil organizations

“They broke down my door at 4 in the morning,” said Odelyn St. Fleur who had worked as a mason in the Dominican Republic for two decades. He had been sleeping next to his wife and 7-year-old son.

The number of alleged human rights violations ranging from unauthorized home raids to racial profiling to deporting breastfeeding mothers and unaccompanied minors is surging as ofﬁcials ramp up deportations to Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

More than a quarter million people were deported last year, and more than 31,200 in January alone.

“The situation has reached a critical point,” said Roudy Joseph, an activist who accused officials of ignoring due process during arrests.

“Every day children are left abandoned at schools.”

‘I’ll wait for you’

On a recent afternoon, dozens of vendors lined up on either side of the men, women and unaccompanied children who marched single ﬁle into Belladère after being deported, their feet sinking into a muddy, garbage-strewn trail that smelled of urine.

The men tried to sell them jeans, water, SIM cards and illegal trips back to the Dominican Republic: “Would you like to pass through?

I’ll wait for you on the other side,” they whispered in Creole.

Despite the crackdown, many reenter the Dominican Republic, exposing a broken system.

That afternoon marked the second time Jimmy Milien, a 32-year-old ﬂoor installer, was deported. He was arrested in the capital, Santo Domingo, in 2024 and again in mid-January when authorities boarded a public bus and pointed at him.

“Damn devil Haitian, get off,” he recalled them saying before they even asked for documents.

He left behind his wife and two children, ages 3 and 12, and doesn’t know when he’ll see them again.

He was planning to travel to Haiti’s capital, but like thousands of others dropped

off in Belladère, he would have to cross through gang territory where gunmen open ﬁre on public transport.

“There’s no food, there’s nothing, only criminals,” he said of Haiti, where more than 5,600 people were reported killed last year the majority by gangs that control 85% of the capital, Portau-Prince.

If Milien were to return a third time to the Dominican Republic, dozens of smugglers await.

Mack, a Haitian who only gave his ﬁrst name to speak freely about smuggling, said he ferries migrants across the border up to six times a week.

He charges $3 per person, and then offers $8 to Dominican border guards: “If you pay them, they will let you through,” he said.

He lived almost three years in Santo Domingo, installing drywall until he got deported. He then joined a thriving smuggling operation and said he doesn’t plan on returning to the capital until the crackdown eases.

“Here, everyone knows me,” he said. “They don’t bother me.”

Alone at the border

Military checkpoints dot the road leading out of the dusty border to the Dominican capital Authorities board buses, stick their heads into car windows and detain suspected undocumented migrants, but many jump out before a checkpoint and hop on again further down the road.

The influx of Haitian migrants and their attempts to re-enter illegally is something that vexes Vice Admiral Luis Rafael Lee Ballester, Dominican migration director

“The Dominican Republic…has taken too much responsibility for the situation in Haiti,” he said. “We are willing to provide support, but it’s important that Haiti’s leaders instill order in their country, that they look after their people.”

Dominican ofﬁcials argue that Haitian immigrants have overburdened the country’s public services, with more than 80,000 new Haitian students enrolled in public schools in the past four years. Health ofﬁcials say Haitian

women account for up to 70% of births in the country, costing the government millions of dollars.

Ballester said he will deploy additional migration ofﬁcials across the country to tackle what he described as a surge in undocumented immigrants, saying they’re a burden and a danger to his country

While he denied abuse allegations, he acknowledged ofﬁcials are allowed to enter homes “during a hot pursuit” and that personnel are being retrained “because our commitment to respecting human rights is unquestionable.”

Ballester said the Dominican Republic does not deport unaccompanied minors and that officials now separate women and children from men during deportations.

But in late January, five teenagers without their parents were deported. Among them was Jovenson Morette, 15, who said he was detained while working in a ﬁeld.

He and the four others were interviewed by Haitian officials in Belladère who were trying to track down their parents.

Further north, in the Haitian border town of Ouanaminthe, a 10-year-old unaccompanied girl was deported in late January, said Geeta Narayan, UNICEF’s representative in Haiti.

“These children are amongst the most vulnerable,” she said, noting that armed groups along the border prey on them.

Last year, the Dominican Republic deported 1,099 unaccompanied children; 786 of them were reunited with their families, according to UNICEF

Josette Jean, 45, feared for her 16-year-old son, who was born in the Dominican Republic, when he was recently deported alone to Haiti.

Clutching a picture of him she said she rushed to the Dominican detention center where he was being held but was told the government doesn’t deport unaccompanied minors. He was deported anyway

Jean paid a smuggler to bring her son back to the Dominican Republic days later

“Children who are born here have no idea where to go,” she said of those deport-

BY AUDREY MCAVOY Associated Press

HONOLULU — Kilauea vol-

cano began shooting lava into the air once again Tuesday on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has been erupting on and off for nearly two months since it burst to life on Dec. 23. The eruption has been taking place at the the volcano’s summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. No residential areas have been threatened by lava.

The latest release of molten rock began 10:16 a.m. with lava flowing on to the ﬂoor of Halemaumau Crater A half-hour later a vent shot lava about 330 feet high. This is the ninth episode of eruptive activity since Dec. 23, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. Earlier episodes have lasted 13 hours to eight days, with pauses in between. People have been ﬂocking to overlook sites inside the national park for views of the eruption. Kiluaea is about 200 miles southeast of Honolulu.

ed to Haiti, a country her son had never visited.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARTIN ADAMES

Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic get out of trucks in Carrizal, Dominican Republic, on the border with Haiti on Jan. 30.

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 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

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, president of the Public Affairs

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 assembling his coaching staff.

The cupboard of existing coaches is relatively bare in

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 thenGov 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 Republican-controlled Legislature produced years of budget surpluses.

Eagles quarterback

Saints on Sept. 22 in New Orleans.

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.

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.

Email Tyler Bridges at tbridges@theadvocate. com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TyLER KAUFMAN

Philadelphia

Jalen Hurts speaks with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore during a game against the

California fire insurance program needs $1B

Plan covers people without private coverage

BY TRÂN NGUYEN Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s plan that provides insurance to homeowners who can’t get private coverage needs $1 billion more to pay out claims related to the Los Angeles wildﬁres, the state Insurance Department said Tuesday

The FAIR Plan is an insurance pool that all the major private insurers pay into, and the plan then issues policies to people who can’t get private insurance because their properties are deemed too risky to insure. The plan, with high

premiums and basic coverage, is designed as a temporary option until homeowners can ﬁnd permanent coverage, but more Californians are relying on it than ever There were more than 452,000 policies on the Fair Plan in 2024, more than double the number in 2020.

The plan says it’s expecting a loss of roughly $4 billion from the Eaton and Palisades Fires, which sparked Jan. 7, destroyed nearly 17,000 structures and killed at least 29 people. Roughly 4,700 claims have been ﬁled as of this week, and the plan has already paid out more than $914 million.

I violated.”

Under a FAIR Plan request approved by the state Tuesday, all insurers doing business in California will have to bear half the cost and can pass on the rest to all policyholders in the form of a one-time fee. Insurers can collect that cost in the next two years. The state Insurance Department must approve those costs. State ofﬁcials didn’t immediately have details on how large the fee would be. In approving the request, the state allowed the plan to send out notices and collect funding from marketplace insurers within 30 days. It’s the ﬁrst time the Fair Plan has sought approval for additional money in more than 30 years, the

department said.

“I took this necessary consumer protection action with one goal in mind: the FAIR Plan must pay claims just like any other insurance company,” Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement.

“I reject those who are hoping for the failure of our insurance market by spreading fear and doubt,” Lara said. “Wildﬁre survivors can’t cash ‘what ifs’ to pay for food and rent, but they can cash FAIR Plan checks.”

The plan also expects to receive $1.45 billion in reinsurance to help pay out claims. It anticipates it will have roughly $400 million left by July

According to the plan, 45% of the

marks?” Faircloth asked.

conversations between LSU Board of Supervisors Chair Scott Ballard and Landry about Levy

He said he did not know the identity of the student who ﬁled the complaint and said he instructed LSU’s general counsel to initiate the suspension.

Tate also conﬁrmed Jimmy Faircloth Jr., who is representing LSU in the lawsuit, had previously been hired by the university to investigate the student complaint. The investigation is paused while the litigation is pending, he said.

Levy sued LSU in late January after the university suspended him, citing student complaints about inappropriate comments Levy made during the ﬁrst week of class this semester Levy and his attorney have argued the suspension violated his right to due process and to free speech.

Audio recordings of the ﬁrst day of Levy’s Administration of Criminal Justice course on Jan. 14 reveal Levy saying “f*** the governor” as well as telling students he could put them in jail if they broke his no-recording policy, both of which prompted student laughter They also revealed Levy telling students he is a Democrat and saying, “I couldn’t believe that f***** won,” referring to the Trump’s election victory in November.

During her testimony LSU law school Dean Alena Allen said Levy was suspended because he was dishonest with her about what he said the ﬁrst day of class.

“If a professor is not honest with the dean, the university is in a bad position,” Allen said. “A decision was made, based on his opportunity to be honest and and him declining that, to remove him from the classroom. And I think we were within our rights to do so.”

When Levy’s attorney, Jill Craft, asked Allen if he was removed from teaching because of his comments or his alleged dishonesty, Allen responded, “Obviously it’s both.” Craft asked Allen how Levy should have known what he did was wrong be-

fore he was suspended

“I think that people know when they’re dishonest, that’s a problem,” Allen said.

Allen said she met with Levy on Jan. 16, two days after the class in which he made comments that led to a student complaint.

Allen said Levy lied to her about what he said in class during that meeting, and that conversations she had later that same day with three students who had attended the lecture contradicted Levy’s account

“There was a vast discrepancy about what the students reported and what was admitted to me,” Allen said.

Allen said an audio recording of Levy’s class was consistent with the student’s version of what happened, and not with Levy’s version.

On Monday, Levy took the witness stand for an hour of questioning by Craft and an hour by Faircloth. He painted a starkly different picture of his meeting with Allen on Jan. 16

In Levy’s telling, he agreed with the law school dean that his use of profanity on the ﬁrst day of class wasn’t necessary, but he told Allen he would continue to share with students his views on controversial matters of public concern

Levy said the possibility of discipline hadn’t crossed his mind after the conversation.

“By the end of the day I thought, you know, this is kind of in the rearview mirror,” he said.

Levy said he learned from Allen during that conversation that his comments had been brought to the attention of Gov Jeff Landry and some members of LSU leadership.

Levy said the university has not yet told him of the exact allegations against him and he was not given a chance to respond before he was suspended from teaching.

Faircloth, during crossexamination, asked Levy if he was aware of audio recordings, news reports, and public comments made by Craft pertaining to Levy’s classroom comments.

“Is it still your testimony you don’t know what you’re being accused of saying inappropriately?” Faircloth asked Levy. Levy pushed back: “I don’t know what the allegations are. I don’t know what rule

Levy told Faircloth he didn’t think he received proper notice before the suspension took place: “This was a dean saying I’d like to talk with you. It sounded like a conversation, not a notice of investigation.”

During testimony on both Monday and Tuesday, Faircloth pressed Levy and other witnesses on the appropriateness of Levy’s comments.

Faircloth asked Levy if he felt entitled to “announce his personal political grievances” while using vulgarities in a classroom lecture and if that kind of speech is protected.

Faircloth was referring to Levy telling students that he was a Democrat and then referring to Trump’s election saying, “I couldn’t believe that f***** won.”

Levy said his comments pertained to the class subject matter — the Supreme Court and the Constitution and were therefore protected. He said he was fearful the Trump administration and the high court will trample constitutional rights.

Faircloth also asked Levy if his telling students that he doesn’t “give a s***” if some of them like Trump was a way of insisting they adopt the professor’s view Levy said it was “just the opposite” and that it is OK to disagree with him.

“You don’t think these were inflammatory re-

“No,” Levy responded.

During questioning by Craft, Levy said he uses humor to keep students engaged.

wildfire claims filed so far are reported as total losses, 45% as partial losses and 10% as fair rental value. Insurers on Tuesday said they’re committed to helping the recovery process after the fires and that the ability to recoup some of the cost from ratepayers will prevent companies from leaving the state.

“This is essential to prevent even greater strain on California’s already unbalanced insurance market and avoiding widespread policy cancellations that would jeopardize coverage for millions of Californians,” said Mark Sektnan of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the largest national trade association for home, auto and business insurers.

“I don’t consider myself a stand-up, but I think I am sometimes pretty funny,” he said. He also said he openly shared his political affilia-

La. universities face shortfalls from NIH cuts

Leaders concerned about Trump’s threatened action

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

The presidents of Louisiana’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 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 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

“Ensuring that researchers have the

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.”

MICHAEL FITTS,Tulane University president

would lose around $28 million 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 funders like the Gates Foundation, which caps indirect costs at 10%, as a benchmark.

“Most private foundations that fund research provide substantially lower indirect costs than the federal government,” the guidance stated.

However, private foundations fund far fewer projects and don’t cover largescale biomedical research infrastructure.

Judge Angel Kelley, of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, issued a temporary restraining order late Monday, pausing the cuts. This ruling follows a similar order earlier that day in a case involving 22 states that did not include Louisiana. A hearing for both lawsuits is scheduled for Feb. 21. A third lawsuit, brought by groups like the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, includes several Louisiana schools such as LSU, Louisiana Tech, UL Lafayette, Southern University and UNO as member institutions.

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate. com.

Everyonewants to avoidtax.Whenpeoplethink about avoiding taxes, they usually thinkabout avoiding income tax. But, Louisianaresidents have to be concernedwithseveraltypesoftaxeswhentheyareplanningtheirestates

FederalEstateTax–DidYouKnow?

Thefederal estate taxappliestoestates of peoplewho areresidents in anyof the50states. When it applies, it is significant. Essentially,whena person dies, we have to addupthe fair market valueofeverythingthe deceased owned–their house, cars, bank accounts, IRA’s, 401(k)’s,lifeinsurance, stock, businessestheyown,real estate andmore. Since2013, newfederal estate tax lawswerepassed.Theexemptionamountis$13,610,000fordeathsoccurringin 2024,andtheestatetaxrateis40%

WhatAboutTheSurvivingSpouse?

Before 2010, eachspousehad an estate taxexemption. If theestateofthe first spouse to diedid not usetheir exemption, it wouldbelostand thesurviving spousecouldnotuseanyoftheexemptionofthefirstspousetodie.Howeverin 2013,“portability”was kept in place –the survivingspousecan now increase theirexemptionbytheamountoftheunusedexemptionamount ofthedeceased spousewhodiedafter2010. Butportabilitymustbeexercisedtimely

HowToAvoidCapitalGainsTax

Thetaxthatoftencreepsuponpeoplepeopleiscapitalgainstax.Capitalgains is paid when you sell an assetthathas appreciated in value. Example: you buy astockfor$20,000andlatersellthestockfor$100,000.Youwillhave$80,000 ofcapitalgain,andyoumustpaytaxonthis.Howyoustructureyourbequests to your spouseand your familycan have asignificantimpact on how much capitalgainstaxyourheirswillhavetopay.Whenyoudie,yourassetswillbe “stepped-up”andyourheirswillgetanewvalue

Giftsof$19,000PerYearPerPerson (UsedToBe$10,000PerYearPerPerson)

Youmayhaveheardyoucandonateorgive$19,000eachyearperpersonwithout gifttaxconsequences.Typically,noonepaysincometaxonagiftregardlessof thevalueofthegift.Asizeablegiftwillhaveestateandgifttaxconsequences.

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Pope rebukes Trump over deportations

BY NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

ROME Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.”

Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to U.S. bishops in which he appeared to take direct aim at Vice President JD Vance’s defense of the deportation program on theological grounds.

U.S. border czar Tom Homan immediately pushed back, noting that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that Francis should leave border enforcement to his ofﬁce.

History’s first Latin American pope has long made caring for migrants a priority of his pontificate, citing the biblical command to “welcome the stranger” in demanding that countries welcome, protect, promote and integrate those fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters. Francis has

940M

BY DAVID FISCHER Associated Press

MIAMI If any husbands or boyfriends mess up Valentine’s Day this week, it’s not because of a shortage of ﬂowers.

In the run up to Feb. 14, agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport have processed about 940 million stems of cut flowers, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Around 90% of the fresh cut ﬂowers being sold for Valentine’s Day in the United States come through Miami, while the other 10% pass through Los Angeles.

Roses, carnations, pompons, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and gypsophila arrive on hundreds of ﬂights, mostly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami on their journey to florists and supermarkets across the U.S. and Canada.

Miami’s largest flower importer is Avianca Cargo, based in Medellín, Colombia. In the past three weeks, the company has transported about 18,000 tons of flowers on 300 full cargo ﬂights, senior vice president Diogo Elias said during a news conference last week in Miami.

“We transport ﬂowers all year round, but speciﬁcally during the Valentine’s season, we more than double our capacity because there’s more than double the demand,” Elias said.

Flowers continue to make up one of the airport’s largest imports, Miami-Dade

also said governments are expected to do so to the limits of their capacity.

The Argentine Jesuit and President Donald Trump have long sparred over migration, including before Trump’s first administration when Francis in 2016 famously said anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants was “not a Christian.”

In the letter, Francis said nations have the right to defend themselves and keep their communities safe from criminals.

“That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he wrote.

Citing the Book of Exodus and Jesus Christ’s own experience, Francis afﬁrmed the right of people to seek shelter and safety in other lands and described the deportation plan as a “major crisis” unfolding in the U.S Anyone schooled in Christianity “cannot fail to make

a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identiﬁes the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” he said.

“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” he warned.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, responded with a letter of thanks to the pope.

“With you, we pray that the U.S government keep its prior commitments to help those in desperate need,” Broglio wrote. “Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may ﬁnd the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people had been arrested in immigration enforcement actions since Trump took office Jan 20. Some have been deported, others are being held in federal

prisons and still others are being held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Vance, a Catholic convert, has defended the administration’s America-first crackdown by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as “ordo amoris.” He has said the concept delineates a hierarchy of care to family first, followed by neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those elsewhere.

In his letter Francis appeared to correct Vance’s understanding of the concept.

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” he wrote. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating con-

chief operation officer Jimmy Morales said. The airport received more than 3 million tons of cargo last year, with ﬂowers accounting for nearly 400,000 tons, worth more than $1.6 billion.

“With 1,500 tons of ﬂowers arriving daily, that equals 90,000 tons of ﬂower imports worth $450 million just in January and February,” Morales said

It’s a big job for CBP agriculture specialists, who check the bundles of flowers for potentially harmful plant, pest and foreign animal diseases from entering the country, MIA port director Daniel Alonso said

“Invasive species have caused $120 billion in annual economic and environmental losses to the United States, including the yield and quality losses for the American agriculture industry,” Alonso said.

Colombia’s flower industry was recently looking at a possible 25% tariff, as President Donald Trump quarreled with the South American country’s leadership over accepting flights carrying deported immigrants. But the trade dispute came to a halt in late January, after Colombia agreed to allow the flights to land.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro had previously rejected two Colombiabound U.S. military aircrafts carrying migrants Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation and threatened to retaliate against the U.S. by slapping a 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods.

Ofﬁcials at Friday’s news conference declined to answer any questions about politics or tariffs.

stantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

David Gibson, director of the center for religion and culture at Fordham Uni-

ate).”

versity, said in a social media post that Francis’ letter “takes aim at every single absurd theological claim by JD Vance and his allies in conservative Catholicism (and the Catholic elector-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALESSANDRA TARANTINO Pope Francis presides over a mass for the jubilee of the armed forces in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican on Sunday

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARTA LAVANDIER

Shirley Silva, a U.S Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialist, shakes a bouquet of flowers in search of pests Friday in Miami.

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

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 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.

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

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 storm-ready roofs, windows and doors, he said.

Clement said that HRI would plan to continue building to the same environmental 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, approve 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.

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 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 traditionally strong U.S. exports.

Lawsuit: Trump administration owes U.S. business millions in unpaid bills

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 across-the-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.

The new administration terminated contracts without the required 30-day notice and without back payments for work that was already done, according to a U.S. ofﬁcial, a businessperson with a USAID conand email by

The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal by the Trump administration.

For Chemonics, one of the larger of the USAID partners, the funding freeze has meant $103 million in unpaid invoices and almost $500 million in USAID-ordered medication, food and other goods stalled in the supply chain or ports, the lawsuit says.

For the health commodities alone, not delivering them “on time could potentially lead to as many as 566,000 deaths from HIV/ AIDS, malaria and unmet reproductive health needs, including 215,000 pediatric deaths,” the lawsuit says.

The ﬁling asserts that the administration has no authority to block programs and funding mandated by Congress without approval.

Marocco defended the funding cutoff and push to put all but a fraction of USAID staff on leave in an afﬁdavit ﬁled late Monday in the lawsuit brought by the workers’ groups.

“Insubordination” and “noncompliance” by USAID staffers made it necessary to stop funding and operations by the agency to allow the administration to carry out a program-byprogram review to decide what U.S. aid programs could resume overseas,

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. 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.”

In Germany, the EU’s

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.

In a statement, Hamas called Trump’s Tuesday comments “racist” and “a call for ethnic cleansing.” It also accused the president of seeking to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people.”

Trump has repeatedly proposed the U.S. take control of Gaza and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East,” with Palestinians in the wartorn territory pushed into neighboring nations with no right of return.

Trump’s Tuesday comments contradicted his Monday suggestions that, if necessary, he would withhold U.S. funding from Jordan and Egypt — longtime U.S. allies and among the top recipients of its foreign aid — as a means of persuading them to accept additional Palestinians from Gaza.

Jordan is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said last week that his country’s opposition to Trump’s idea about displacing Gaza’s residents was “ﬁrm and unwavering.”

Besides concerns about jeopardizing the long-held goals of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conﬂict, Egypt and Jordan have privately raised security concerns about welcoming large numbers of additional refugees into their countries even temporarily

Trump announced his ideas for resettling Palestinians from Gaza and taking ownership of the territory for the U.S. during a press conference last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The president initially didn’t rule out deploying U.S. troops to help secure Gaza but at the same time insisted no U.S. funds would go to pay for the reconstruction of the territory, raising fundamental questions about the nature of his plan.

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 very badly injured. I couldn’t stand up any more. I fell down,” he said.

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.

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Two killed, three injured, in crash

Denham Springs accident described as

‘pretty traumatic’

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

Two people were killed and three others injured in what authorities described as a “pretty traumatic” crash before sunrise Tuesday morning in Denham Springs.

Some of the people inside the car at the time of the crash were juveniles, and authorities are working to determine if they are among the fatalities, the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce said.

Three people were transported to a hospital for treatment, according to the Sheriff’s Ofﬁce.

Five people, including the two who died, were trapped inside the vehicle pointed straight down into a ditch off Linder Road, when ﬁreﬁghters and deputies arrived at the scene, authorities said.

The driver apparently careened off Linder Road because the front of the car was implanted in a ditch, authorities said. It’s still unclear why the driver lost control The car’s back bumper was balanced against a telephone pole, Joe Koczrowski, chief of Livingston Fire District 5, said.

White said there have been many car accidents along Linder, due to the narrow road with ditches on both sides, few street lights and excessive speeding. “I’ve seen bad ones, but this was the ﬁrst time it was fatal,” he said.

“It was pretty traumatic,” he said. Richard White lives one house down from the crash site on Linder Road. A loud sound from the crash woke up he and his wife, and they ran outside to the car to try to help people inside.

Deputies were dispatched to the scene about 3 a.m. Linder Road is a tight two-lane road, with no shoulder, authorities said. Before firefighters could rescue those trapped inside, they had to stabilize the car on its front end. Before then, it was rocking and teetering, Koczrowski said. Firefighters used a heavy rescue truck, chains and cables to stabilize the car Then the dead and injured were extricated from the car with a Jaws of Life rescue tool.

MAKING A CONNECTION

Crews with Linetec Services perform maintenance Tuesday on lines along Harding Boulevard in Baton Rouge.

Edwards announces police plan

BR mayor-president unveils program to bring back retired officers

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer

A new pilot program will bring retired ofﬁcers back to the Baton Rouge Police Department in hopes of bolstering short-handed support staff, said East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards on Tuesday

The plan is one of several ideas the mayor said he and his staff are implementing to combat crime in Baton Rouge — which has seen increased homicide rates in recent years even as other cities see declines.

“We have a problem. We have an issue here in our great parish,” Edwards said. “And one of the things we ran on and we talked about, is doing whatever we have to do in a variety of different ways to help with these crime

Convicted Wisconsin sex offender sentenced

Man tried to lure underage girl as part of Louisiana FBI sting

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

A Wisconsin man thought he was seducing an 11-year-old Baton Rouge girl online and grooming her for sex acts. But the man who previously had been convicted of molesting underage girls actually was talking to undercover FBI agents.

On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced Jason Tyra Bowman to 221/2 years in prison for his illicit attempts to seduce the minor

U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson said Bowman, 30, had been released from a Wisconsin state penitentiary just 17 months, before the FBI sting ensnared him. He was also under Wisconsin court supervision and a judge had ordered him not to engage with children online.

According to court records, Bowman sent direct social media messages to two agents in Louisiana one posing as an 11-year-

old girl and the other assuming the identity of her stepfather The communications began in November 2022 and spanned 16 days, according to Bowman’s plea agreement. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 30 to charges of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor With Bowman standing inside the Baton Rouge courtroom at the U.S. District Courthouse on Tuesday, Jackson handed him a 270-month prison sentence and ordered him to serve ﬁve years under court supervision

after he is released.

“Your conduct in this case is disturbing, to say the least,” the federal judge said. “It’s crude, it’s lewd, it’s alarming. It’s manipulative conduct.” Bowman had lived in Appleton, Wisconsin, a city about 30 miles outside Green Bay Under the online screen name “Genius_Outlaw,” according to prosecutors, Bowman carried on a sexually explicit conversation with the purported Baton Rouge child and her stepfather Over the course

High Court set to rule on La. congressional 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 majorityBlack 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 majorityWhite districts and one majorityBlack district, as the state had for years. But the U.S.

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 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, D-Baton Rouge, won the election for the second majority-Black seat.

STAFF

PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Famous New Orleans fugitive captured

After months on the lam, Scrim trapped

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 Xrayed, 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

PLAN

Continued from page 1B

issues.”

Announced at a news conference Tu esd ay morning, the initiative was made possible by Jeff Landry signing legislation last year allowing ofﬁcers to be rehired without a penalty to their retirement beneﬁts.

Police Chief Thomas Morse Jr. said these rehired ofﬁcers will work on a part-time basis, capped at 29 hours a week, and will not respond to calls or be on patrol, but serve in support capacities as well as mentor younger ofﬁcers

“They’ll be able to assist us in a lot of ways that our manpower is lacking in support services,” Morse said. “Some cold case things and in our Real Time Crime Center, just a litany of places on the department. It’s going to do a lot of things for us.”

To fund the pilot program, $3 million in unassigned funds were allocated from the Police Department’s budget, said Mason Batts, executive director of the Mayor-President’s Ofﬁce.

Last week, the mayor pitched moving mon-

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 the bathwater gray with road grime.

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

ey dedicated to Baton Rouge’s library system to fund raises for police ofﬁcers. That proposal will need approval from the East Baton Rouge Metro Council in March and voters in October The mayor’s staff also announced an increase in reward money paid by Capital Region Crime Stoppers for information about homicides, doubling them in the ﬁrst 48 hours after a killing, said Executive Director Jonny Dunnam For single homicides, the $2,500 cap for reward money will now be $5,000 for information received in the first two days after the crime, while the

$5,000 cap for multiple homicide cases is now set at $10,000.

Jeff LeDuff, Edwards’ assistant chief administrative ofﬁcer and a former BRPD chief, said the two initiatives are both products of the mayor’s transition team’s efforts to ﬁnd new ways to address public safety

“I have seen everything that can die, die in this community in my career as a police ofﬁcer,” LeDuff said. “It’s time for it to stop. That’s why these initiatives are going to be offered.”

Email Patrick SloanTurner at patrick.sloanturner@theadvocate.com.

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, 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

SENTENCED

Continued from page 1B

of more than two weeks, he sent lewd photos of himself, offered the girl candy and gifts to entice her to send him her own sexual photos and videos. He sought to groom her for sex acts, despite the distance between them.

At one point, Bowman described himself as a “dom” to the undercover agents and said he would punish the girl, if she didn’t give him what he wanted, according to court records. He also discussed having a training” period with the child in Wisconsin that would involve him teaching her violent sex acts, prosecutors said.

“There is a pattern here,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Warner said. “The defendant has had a predatory inclination of attempting to sexually assault or attempting to communicate with juvenile females.”

Wisconsin court records show Bowman pleaded no contest to attempted child enticement with sexual contact and attempted seconddegree sexual assault of a child in October 2017. Warner told the judge that during sentencing in that case Bowman admitted to having an illegal sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

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, 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,

State prosecutors dropped charges tied to those encounters as part of the 2017 plea agreement.

Warner cited Bowman’s prior convictions in getting him designated as a repeat and dangerous sex offender an enhancement that exposed him to a possible life sentence.

“The defendant was quite clever in this. While under supervised release, he was able to talk with multiple minors,” Warner said “As memorialized in the presentencing report, he was discussing conduct with a minor in Georgia, folks in Wisconsin, and of course attempting to entice the minor here in Louisiana. He was doing all this while he was not even supposed to have access to the internet.”

Bowman said he wanted a chance to rekindle his relationship with his 13-year-old son.

Marci Blaize, Bowman’s federal public defender, acknowledged his crimes against children “may be some that are most demonized by our society,” but noted that Bowman himself was sexually abused as a young child, struggled with substance abuse issues and grapples with mental health disorders. She said those traumas inﬂuenced his behavior and asked the judge to limit his prison sentence to 20 years or less.

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 indeﬁnitely 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.

Jackson ordered Bowman to undergo mental health therapy and sex offender treatment, while he is in federal prison and urged him to take advantage of programs designed for repeat offenders.

“I just hope that you will have an opportunity to receive the help that you need, because you need help,” Jackson said. “I don’t think anyone disputes that, including yourself.”

Email Matt Bruce at matt. bruce@theadvocate.com.

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Continued from page 1B

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 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 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 Jan. 24.

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

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate. com.

STAFF PHOTO By PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards speaks at a news conference on Tuesday about a plan to re-hire retired officers to the Baton Rouge Police Department.

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.

BRIEFS

Company plans $69M

Gonzales facility

John H. Carter Co./Control-

Worx 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.

Ragusa, Gwen Greenoaks Funeral Home, 9595 Florida Boulevard, at 11 a.m

Obituaries Ackman, Brenda Petty

Brenda Petty Ackman 83,

Roy Borrel born August 10th, 1949, aman of strength, kindness, and unwavering devotion, passed away on January 24th, 2025, leaving behind a legacy of love and generosity. He was apillar of support for those around him, always putting others before himself. Roy dedicated his career to helping others as a respiratory therapist, a profession that perfectly reflected his selfless nature. He worked tirelessly to provide comfort and care to his patients, touching countless lives through his compassionate care and expertise.

Roy had adeep love for music, finding joy and solace in its melodies. Whether it was listeningto his favorite songs or sharing them with others, music was part of his soul. He was also apassionate LSU football fan, cheering on the Tigers with pride and enthusiasm. Beyond his interests, Roy will be remembered most for his strength-not just physical,but the kind of strength that came from his heart. He faced life's challenges with resilience and never hesitated to lend ahelping hand to those in need. Roy is survived by his children Caitrin Borrel, Bobby Borrel (Kirsten), his granddaughter Kaylee Borrel, his siblings, Susan Talazac Borrel, and Michael Borrel. Roy is joining his wife Agnes Beth Borrel,his parents Roy Borrel Sr., Molly Borrel, his siblings Bobby Borrel, and Robin Clapp Borrel in heaven.

Bobby Borrel(Kirsten), his granddaughter KayleeBorrel, his siblings, Susan Talazac Borrel, andMichael Borrel. Roy is joining his wife Agnes Beth Borrel, his parents Roy BorrelSr.,Molly Borrel, his siblings Bobby Borrel, and Robin Clapp Borrelinheaven. He will be deeply missed by family, friends, and all who had the privilege of knowing him. Though he is no longer with us, his kindness, love, and joyful spirit willlive on in the hearts of those he touched.

Donna Wentworth Brian peacefully passedaway at her home on February 8, 2025, surroundedbyher family. She was bornon October 11, 1962, in Hammond, Louisiana. Donna grew up in Baton Rouge where she attended Belaire High School and playedthe clarinet in the marching band. She loved planning the "Class of 1980" reunions for the past forty-four years. As afunloving soul, she often spoke of her favorite childhood memoryofriding dirt bikes with herfather. Donna formedrelationships that lasted alifetime and enjoyedspending quality time with each of hertreasured friends. Anatural born hostess with alove for all things glitter and gold, Donna wasalways entertaining, decorating and party planning for friends and family. Donna was also awell-loved memberofthe Ruffino's team and was always ajoy to have around both the office and the restaurant. Her latest passion was remodeling the country home of her grandparents in Darlington, Louisiana for the future enjoyment of her childrenand grandchildren. She enjoyed entertaining and having cookouts in the yard, just as her grandparents did. She was along-time parishioner of Our Lady of Mercy Church, spending many years as a devoted volunteerfor the school, including serving as amember of the OLOM School Board. She wasalso amemberofthe Catholic High School Mothers' Club and volunteeredatSt. Joseph's Academy. In honor of her service,she was a recipient of The Diocese of Baton Rouge Mother Seton Award. Of all her lifeexperiences, Donna's greatest reward was her beautiful, thirty-five year marriage to her devotedhusband, Frank, and the family that they built together. She found her calling in motherhood with apassion for caring for her children. She was abeautiful example of an unwavering faith in God and apowerful relationship with the Blessed Motherand allofthe Saints and Angels. She will always be remembered as

and apowerful relationship with the Blessed Mother and all of the Saintsand Angels. She will always be remembered as acompassionate and selfless daughter, wife, friend and,above all, mother. Donna is survived by her husband, Frank Brian, and her beloved children: AynsleyBrian Scheuermann (Chandler), Grant "Tick" Brian (Anna Catherine) and Briggs Brian (Victoria Byrd), as well as by her grandson, Graham Scheuermann, to whom she was affectionately known as "Goldie." Graham brought Donna an immeasurable amount of joy. Donna is also survived by her mother Camille Courtney Wentworth and sister, Michelle Vince Johnston (Richard). She was preceded in deathbyher father, Wayland Wentworth. The Brian Family would like to thank the physicians, nurses and staff at the Woman's Hospital Cancer Pavilion and The Hospice of Baton Rouge team. In addition, aspecial thank you to Father Cleo Milano, Father Charbel Jamhoury, Father Mark Beard, Donna's sister-in-law, Renee Brian and countless other family members and friends who selflessly devoted their timetocaring for and praying for Donna. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Woman's Hospital Foundation, The Hospice of Baton Rouge or Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Funeral services will be held on Friday, February 14, 2025 at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church (Baton Rouge, La) with visitation from1:003:00 PM followed by mass at 3:00 PM.Burial to follow at theOur Lady of Mercy Garden of Peace.

Pierre Whitney Brignac, Jr. affectionately known as “Sonny”, born February 13, 1947, passed away Febru‐ary 10, 2025, at his home in Port Allen at the age of 77 He was a native of and life‐long resident of Port Allen Sonny was a retired ma‐chinist and the owner of Onsite Services Inc. He was an Army Veteran. Vis‐iting will be at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Brusly on Thursday, Febru‐ary 13, from 9:15 a.m until Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m., celebrated by Rev Jerry Martin Burial will be private in Greenoaks Memorial Park in Baton Rouge at a later date Sonny is survived by his wife of 55 years, Jeanne Vavasseur Brignac; grand‐son Shawn Anthony Brignac and wife Ashley; great granddaughter Rhaelyn Phoenix Brignac; brother Paul Brignac; brothers-in-law, Edgar Vavasseur and wife Brenda, Glyn Vavasseur and wife Judy Sonny was preceded in death by his son, Shane A Brignac; par‐ents Pierre Whitney Sr and Rose D’Aquano Brignac; in-law, Terryn Brignac; Ione Vavasseur Couvillon and husband Ronald, Noel Vavasseur

Read and husband Ron, Rev. Henry Vavasseur, Phil Vavasseur, Al Vavasseur, Marie Adele Vavasseur and Rev. David A Vavasseur Jr.

brothers-in-law, Edgar Vavasseur and wife

Brenda, Glyn Vavasseur and wife Judy. Sonny was preceded in death by his

son, Shane A Brignac; par‐ents, Pierre Whitney Sr and Rose D’Aquano

Brignac; in-law Terryn Brignac; Ione Vavasseur

Couvillon and husband

Ronald, Noel Vavasseur

Read and husband Ron Rev Henry Vavasseur, Phil Vavasseur Al Vavasseur

Marie Adele Vavasseur and Rev David A. Vavasseur Jr

Sonny was a member of St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Brusly Mill‐wright Local #720, and American Legion Post 160 of Port Allen. He was an honorary member of the West Baton Rouge Flotilla In lieu of ﬂowers memorial donations may be made to The Ava and Jacob Saucier Memorial Scholarship Fund, 335 N. Jefferson Av‐enue Port Allen LA 70767

Please share memories at www wilbertservices com.

Chairmonte, Dorothy Ann

Dorothy Ann Chairmonte (Dottie) was born on August 21,1930, in White Castle, LA to Camille A. Chairmonte and Mary Moran Chairmonte. She spent her entire life in White Castle, LA caring for her family and workingin the family grocery Store, Chairmonte's Grocery. She moved to Baton Rouge 23 years ago and was recently living at Southside Gardens Assisted Living Center. Dottie is survived by her niece, Myra Ann Delaune. She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Joseph E. (Buddy) Chairmonte and Victor C. Chairmonte; sister Josie C. Chairmonte; brother-in law, Ramey J. Delaune; and nephew, Cedric J. Delaune. Avisitation for Dottie will be held on Wednesday,

measurable amount of joy. Donna is also survivedby her motherCamille CourtneyWentworth and sister, Michelle Vince Johnston (Richard). She was preceded in death by herfather, other and ydecaring Donna. please the FoundaBaton Mercy Catholic Church. Funeral services will be heldon Friday, February 14, 2025 at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church (Baton Rouge,La) with visitation from 1:003:00 PM followedbymass at 3:00 PM. Burial to follow at the Our Lady of Mercy Garden of Peace

Sonny was a member of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Brusly Mill‐wright Local #720, and American Legion Post 160 of Port Allen. He was an honorary member of the West Baton Rouge Flotilla. In lieu of ﬂowers, memorial donations may be made to The Ava and Jacob Saucier Memorial Scholarship Fund, 335 N. Jefferson Av‐0767. s at m.

Furlow, James Ronald 'Pops

Aceremony celebrating the life of James Ronald "Pops" Furlow will be held on Friday February 14,

Brignac Jr., Pierre Whitney 'Sonny'

Borrel, Roy

Aceremony celebrating the life of James Ronald "Pops" Furlow will be held on Friday February 14, 2025, at First New Testament Church, 3235 Aubin Lane, Baton Rouge visitation will begin at 11:00 am until time of the service at 1:00 pm. Mr. Furlow was aresident of Greenwell Springs, retired after 30 years with Exxon Chemical as aprocess operator, and served in the United States Air Force. He was born in Quentin, MS on October 30, 1942, and rested from this life on February 9, 2025, at his home, at the age of 82 years. Arrangements with Church Funeral Services

Gagliano, Vincent Richard 'Ricky'

Born April 7, 1955 in Baton Rouge to Michael Joseph and Josie Palazzotto Gagliano,Vincent Richard "Ricky" Gagliano passed away peacefullyin his Long Beach, MS home at the ageof69. Ricky is survived by his brothers Pete Gagliano and Jerry Gagliano; nieces Carrie, Catherine, and Adrianna; nephew, Michael;great nieces and nephew, Addison, Dominic, and Brielle. He is preceded in death by his brother, Michael Vincent "Bubba" Gagliano and his parents. Amemorial service will be held in the reception hall at GreenOaks Funeral Home, Saturday, February 15, 2025 from 2-5pm.

M. Hill, "Taboo

"Clarice", entered into eternal rest at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Tuesday Febru‐ary 4, 2025. She was a 72year old native of Minden Louisiana and a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana Viewing at Miller & Daugh‐ter Mortuary on Thursday, February 13, 2025 from 4-7 pm; viewing resumes at New Hope Baptist Church on Friday, February 14, 2025 at 8:00 am until Celebration of Life Service at 10:00 am; interment at Greenoaks Memorial Park Survivors include her husband, Willie C Hill; children, Eric D. Hill (Mariangie), LaDerrick R Hill, Sr. (Denise), Woodville Texas, and Dana D Hill; seven siblings eight grandchildren, and aunt; preceded in death by her parents, three siblings, and her Godparents. In lieu of ﬂowers, please make a monetary contribution in Clara Hill's name to OLOL‐RMC Comprehensive Stroke Center of Excel‐lence Arrangements en‐trusted to Miller & Daugh‐ter Mortuary.

repas High School,and lived and worked in New Orleansasa dentalassistant until retirement. After returning to Maurepas, Iris spent several yearsasa Livingston Parish Sheriff's Dispatcherunder then Sheriff Odom Graves. She also workedfor years with the Council on Aging distributing meals at the Maurepas Community Center to seniors. While never married, "Ilee" was atreasured memberofher family, contributing to many Christmas dinners and celebrations. She made a wonderful gumbo and the absolute best bread and oyster dressing of any cook. Iris alwaysenjoyed having her familyaround. She loved and enjoyed her nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews, and she will be greatly missed by all of them. She is survived by her nieces, Joane Vampran Matherne (Jerry D. Matherne), Donnia Hill Stout (William Stout), Cynthia Felder Fayard, and one nephew, Kenneth Vampran (Betty) and their childrenand grandchildren. She was predeceased by her parents, Peterand Sydonia Lauzervich, hersisters, Ella Mae Vampran, LoisLauzervich Boysen, Rita Lauzervich Felder, and Doris Lauzervich Hill, and one brother, Peter Lauzervich, Jr. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday, February13, at St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church in Whitehall (Maurepas). Mass will be officiatedby FatherTaylor at 11 am with internment immediately to follow in the Whitehall Cemetery. Pallbearers will include Jerry Matherne, Roy St. Pierre,Sr.,Mark Vampran, Roy St. Pierre, Jr., Calvin C. Fayard, III, and Travis Vampran.

Mayeaux, Edward John

Edward John Mayeaux passedfrom this lifetothe presence of his Savior and Lord on Tuesday, February 4, 2025. He was born the only child of Carciland Agnes Mayeaux on October 27, 1938 in Plaucheville, Louisiana. He graduated from RedemptoristHigh School in 1956. He served his country through the United States Army. His great love of LSU began when he became the first member of his family to go and finish college. From that time forward, he loved those Tigers from football to baseball to basketball. He and his high school sweetheart, Patricia Acy, committed to alifeofservice, faith, and familyon October3,1959 at St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church. Togetherthey raisedthree thankful children, fished the waters of south Louisiana, and enjoyed the blessings of many loving friends and family.

During his years in Baton Rouge and Central, Louisiana, Edward lived a life of service to the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts, and ministering to couplesthrough Marriage Encounter. He spent his work life ensuring the accounts of the companies he workedfor were up to perfection. He retiredfrom Jacobs Engineering as a purchasing agent. He and Patricia spent theirretirement years on the riber der" with his family and friends. The years onBelle River were ones of memories and great joy.Heloved hosting and opening their home to friends and family. Edward also thoroughly enjoyedserving hisfamily and friends with the best fried fish, fried shrimp, boiled crabs, and boiled crawfish ever eaten on a pier. He continued hislife of service through volunteer work including the Pierre PartFire Department. He and Patricia have enjoyedtheir most recent year at the Blake at Colonial Club in Harrahan, Louisiana.

great love of LSU began when he became thefirst member of his family to go and finish college. From that time forward, he loved those Tigers fromfootball to baseball to basketball. He and his high school sweetheart,Patricia Acy, committed to alife of service, faith, and familyon October 3, 1959 at St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church. Together they raised three thankful children, fished the waters of southLouisiana, and enjoyed the blessings of many loving friends and family.

During his years in Baton Rouge and Central, Louisiana, Edward lived a life of service to the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts, and ministering to couples through Marriage Encounter. He spent his work life ensuring theaccountsofthe companies he worked for were up to perfection. He retired from Jacobs Engineering as a purchasing agent.Heand Patricia spent their retirement years on the "riber der" withhis family and friends. The years on Belle River were ones of memories and great joy. He loved hosting and opening their home to friends and family. Edward also thoroughly enjoyed serving his family and friendswith the best fried fish, fried shrimp, boiled crabs, and boiled crawfish ever eaten on a pier. He continued his life of service through volunteer work including the Pierre Part Fire Department. He and Patricia have enjoyed their most recent year at theBlake at Colonial Club in Harrahan, Louisiana.

He is preceded in death by his parents, his in-laws Robyand Rosemary Acy, and his son-in-law Christopher Scott. He is survived by his beautiful and faithfilled wife of 65 years, Patricia Acy Mayeaux. He is also survived by his children and their spouses, E.J. and Marcia Scamardo Mayeaux of Leesville, South Carolina, Joey and Amanda Mayeaux of St. Martinville, Louisiana, and Tina ScottofNew Orleans, Louisiana. Also mourning are his grandchildren, Jason Mayeaux of Shreveport,Louisiana, Kaitlyn Mayeaux of Carson City, Nevada, Jacqueline (J'Acy) Mayeaux of St. Martinville, Louisiana, John Carter Scott and Madeline Scott of New Orleans, Louisiana. He leaves one great-granddaughter, Henley Hammond Visitation will be held at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church 14040 Greenwell Springs Rd, Greenwell Springs, LA 70739. Visitation will be held on Saturday, February 15 beginning at 9:30 a.m. withthe service to follow at 11:00 a.m.. Service willbeled by Father Robert Stein, afriend of the family. Burial will be at alater date with family only. Friendsand family are invited to wear purple and gold as atributetoEdward. In honor of thisamazing life, the family requests no flowers or plants. Instead, please make adonation in his honor https://fundraisi ng.stjude.org/site/TR?px= 4017393&fr_id=133399&pg=personal

The family would like to share their gratitudetothe wonderful caregivers of the Blake at Colonial Club and to our friendsand family during this time of celebration of alife well lived. We have been blessed by his love forus.

of the family. Burial will be at alater date with family only. Friendsand family are invited to wear purple and gold as atributetoEdward. In honor of this amazing life, the family requests no flowers or plants. Instead, please make adonation in his honor https://fundraisi ng.stjude.org/site/TR?px= 4017393&fr_id=133399&pg=personal

The family would like to share their gratitude to the wonderful caregivers of the Blake at Colonial Club and to our friendsand family during thistime of celebration of alife well lived. We have been blessed by his love forus.

Routt, Norma Gail

We mourn the passing and honor the life of Norma Gail Routt, 79, of Baton Rouge, LA.

Norma was adevoted Christian and loving aunt. She was aholder of aMaster's of Educationfrom Louisiana State University and aretired special education teacher withEast Baton Rouge Parish Schools. Norma loved her students immensely and felt her professionwas a divine calling.

All of her life, Norma was apassionateartist and helped found the Louisiana Art Institutebefore her tenure as ateacher. She was atalented craftsperson, painter, and sculptor and later in life, penned aWestern novel, which she self-published.

Norma was along-time member of Istrouma Baptist Church and adeeply faithful Christian. Before her passing, she expressed her eagerness to see her savior face-to-face.

Norma was kind, patient,soft-spoken, and had agiving, servant's heart. She will be remembered fondly and deeply missed by her family and friends.

Jimmie D. Swindle, born in Missouri on November 14, 1944, passed away at home February 6, 2025. Jimmie was an honorably discharged member of the US Army's 82nd Airborne. Jimmie retired fromCargill. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, JoJo. He is also survived by one brother, William Bodie Swindle and his wife, Sherry and their children and grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, Bill and Hazel Swindle; and sister, Mary. Visitationwill be at St. John the Evangelist, Hwy 73 in Prairieville, on Thursday,

14, 1944, passed away at home February 6, 2025. Jimmie was an honorably discharged member of the US Army's 82nd Airborne. Jimmie retired from Cargill. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, JoJo. He is also survived by one brother, William Bodie Swindle and his wife, Sherry and their children and grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, Bill and Hazel Swindle; andsister, Mary. Visitation will be at St. Johnthe Evangelist, Hwy 73 in Prairieville, on Thursday, February 13, 2025 from 9:30am until Mass of Christian Burial at 11am. Burial will follow at Hope Haven in Prairieville.

Thomas Jr., Arkell A. 'Kell'

Beloved son, father and friend, Arkell Andre Thomas, Jr., "Kell", 63, passed away on February 9, 2025 after abrief hospitalization.Hewas born and raised in Baton Rouge, but lived in Denham Springs for the last 30 years. He is survived by his mother, Patricia Thomas; children:Erica Thomas, Arkell Thomas III (Jennifer), Kariane Woods, and Eric Daniels; grandchildren: Cade, Isabella (Erica), Darrius, Cage, André, Aiden, Alizzia (Arkell III), Dakota, Braden, Bentley (Felicia); siblings: Mark Thomas Sr. (Wanda), Troy Thomas (Monica), Linette Basso (Dwayne), Tanya Thomas; nieces and nephews: Chelsey, Marleigh, Mark Jr. (Mark Sr.), Ian, Matthu, Bailey (Troy), Joseph, André (Linette), Kenneth, Ashley, Steven (Tanya); three aunts: Donna Papizan (John), Wanda Dufour (Barry), and Louise Henkel -alongwith many other distantrelatives and friends including his lifelong best friend, Jimmy Gordon. He is preceded in death by daughter, Felicia Holcomb; father, Arkell Thomas, Sr.; grandparents, Lottie andArkell Thomas, Yvonne Romero; nephew, Joshua Thomason,and many beloved dogs, including Seymour, Lil' Bit, Tank, and Sweetie.

Acelebration of his life will be held Thursday February 13, 2025 at Seale Funeral Home in Denham Springs from 1:30-4:00 pm. Family and friends are invited to attend andshare memories (and tall tales) from times with Kell.

In lieu of flowers, donate to your local animal shelter or The ALS Association in honor of Kell's father, Arkell Sr.

Springs from 1:30-4:00 pm. Family and friends are invited to attend and share memories (and tall tales) from times with Kell. In lieu of flowers, donate to your local animal shelter or The ALS Association in honor of Kell's father, Arkell Sr. Wascom, JoAnn Maggio

JoAnn Elizabeth Maggio Wascom was born August 11, 1945 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Joseph B. and Mary Belle Bujol Maggio. She passedaway peacefully in her sleep on February 3, 2025. She graduated Baton Rouge High School in 1963 and attended avocational school,whereshe studied secretarial skills. In 2017, she retired from Livingston Parish Fire Protection District#4after 38 years as secretary to the chief. JoAnn's faith was very strong. She was a long time parishioner of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Denham Springs. Her family meant everythingtoher, especially her children andher "grands." Sheissurvived by her brother, Joseph B. Maggio II and wife Amy; children Michelle Wascom; O'Neal Wascom and wife Carrie; and James Wascom and wife Dannielle; grandchildren Faustin Wascom and wife Callie; Brady Wascom and wife Michelle; and Hayley Wascom; and 6great-grandchildren,Savannah,Kamryn, Travis, Heidi, Manson and Rachel Wascom. She was preceded in death by her husband of 58 years, Jesse; her parents and her sister, Mary Teresa Maggio Mitchell. Visitation will be Thursday, February 13 at Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs, with afuneral Mass at 12 noon

Hill, Clara M 'Taboo' 'Clarice'

Clara

Swindle, Jimmie D.

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

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE

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

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

Baton Rouge Weather

WELCOME TO THE BIG EASY

Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore talks during Super Bowl media day on Feb 3

process,

was named Tuesday as the Saints’ head coach. Moore helped the Eagles to a 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in

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.

New Pelicans relish shot at fresh start in New Orleans

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

Brown

The Toronto Raptors had just suffered a blowout home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies last Wednesday It was the eve of the NBA trade deadline. Bruce Brown, the Raptors’ guard/forward/ whatever else you need him to be, headed to Cherry’s High Dive, his favorite bar in Toronto. His teammate Kelly Olynyk, went home. About 30 minutes after Olynyk got home, he received a Facetime call from Brown.

“We’re out, man,” Brown said. “Where to?” Olynyk asked. “New Orleans.” Brown answered.

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 4C

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

Rod Walker Ex-LSU star working on next chapter of life

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

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

ä See CHALLENGES, page 4C

“Oh s ---, let’s do this,” Olynyk responded. They were Raptors no more. They were now New Orleans Pelicans, changing their addresses as part of a trade that sent Brandon Ingram to Toronto. “We’re really excited about both of these players from the standpoint of

One morning last month, Kim Mulkey left a head coaches meeting inside Tiger Stadium. As she walked toward the parking lot, she watched her son get out of his car and head into LSU’s athletics administration building.

“I just thought, ‘Wow, he gets up before noon now,’ ” 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 into

processing end of baseball career ä See ROBERTSON, page 3C

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

at the Caesars Superdome. After a drawn-out

Moore

Super Bowl LIX on Sunday in New Orleans

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD Pelicans forward Zion Williamson is guarded by Utah Jazz forward Kelly Olynyk on Jan. 23 in the Smoothie King Center

Tigers must put heartbreaker behind

After crushing loss to Ole Miss, LSU plays Arkansas in Fayetteville

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

LSU guard Curtis Givens drives down the court as Arkansas forward Jonas Aidoo defends on Jan. 14 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center LSU won 78-74 in its only SEC win this season.

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 special-

ä LSU at Arkansas. 8 P.M.WEDNESDAy ESPN2

ize 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.

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 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.

Rutgers getting used to ‘overrated’ chant

BY NOAH TRISTER AP sportswriter

Dylan Harper stepped to the free-throw line last weekend and the Maryland crowd showed no mercy, serenading the Rutgers star with an “overrated!” chant.

It’s been that kind of season for the Scarlet Knights. At this point, it’s hard to describe them as overrated because they aren’t receiving a single vote in the AP Top 25. And yet, there are plenty of reminders of unfulﬁlled potential.

This was supposed to be a breakthrough season for Rutgers after the Scarlet Knights landed two of the top freshmen in the country in Harper and Ace Bailey

Those two have mostly produced as advertised.

Each is averaging 19 points per game, and some mock drafts have them both going in the top three this year behind Duke’s Cooper Flagg. Yet the Scarlet Knights are just 12-12 and probably will need to win the Big Ten Tournament to

reach the NCAA Tournament.

Last week, they scored a big victory over then-No. 23 Illinois, but they weren’t able to build on that when they faced another ranked team at Maryland. Bailey was limited against the Terrapins because he was sick.

“It’s just been that kind of year

You can’t plan these things,” coach

Steve Pikiell said. “You just play with the guys you got.” Pikiell took over at Rutgers in 2016, and in 2021 the Scarlet Knights appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the ﬁrst time in 30 years.

After missing the March Madness the past two seasons, Rutgers was ranked coming into this one thanks to the additions of the 6-foot6 Harper and 6-foot-10 Bailey.

According to Sportradar, only 15 times has one school produced two of the top ﬁve picks in an NBA draft. That list reads like a who’s who of great college basketball programs: North Carolina (four times), UCLA (twice), Duke (twice), Ken-

tucky (twice), Michigan State, UConn, Ohio State, Indiana and Kansas.

If Rutgers joins that group of schools at the 2025 draft, that would be a big moment for the Scarlet Knights. But if they don’t reach the NCAA Tournament, they’re in danger of making the wrong kind of history Of those 15 teams that had two top-ﬁve picks, nine made the Final Four that year Only one failed to reach the Sweet 16 — Kansas in 2014, when Joel Embiid was injured during the postseason.

Health has been an issue for Rutgers. Harper, the son of ﬁve-time NBA champ Ron Harper, dealt with a sprained ankle recently.

Now he’s back, but Bailey wasn’t at full strength against Maryland.

“When you’re down with guys that make such an impact in the game, it’s hard to win,” Harper said.

Experience also works against Rutgers. Four of the team’s five starters last weekend were freshmen.

“It’s been probably before CO-

TOP 25

VID and the extra (year) that you see a bunch of freshmen on the court,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said.

Rutgers played Alabama and Texas A&M tough early in the season, but statistically there’s little about this team that stands out.

As of Tuesday, the Scarlet Knights ranked outside the top 50 in adjusted offensive efficiency according to Kenpom.com On defense, they were barely in the top 100.

At Maryland, they were competitive but ultimately lost 90-81.

As the regular season winds down, expectations are a lot lower now Of course, this Rutgers team is highly unlikely to be together next season. Shortly after being taunted by the Maryland fans, Harper showed why he’s on the NBA’s radar, pulling off a beautiful spin move and then dishing to teammate Dylan Grant for a dunk.

A ﬂash of brilliance — in another loss.

Aberdeen leads Florida past Mississippi State

ByTheAssociated Press

STARKVILLE, Miss. Denzel Aberdeen had a game-high 20 points and Walter Clayton Jr added 19 points to lead No. 3 Florida to an 81-68 victory over No. 22 Mississippi State. Thomas Haugh scored 16 points for Florida (21-3, 8-3 Southeastern Conference) and Will Richard and Rueben Chinyelu each added 10. Josh Hubbard led Mississippi State (17-7 5-6) with 19 points while KeShawn Murphy had 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Trailing by one at halftime, Florida exploded on a 17-0 run to open the second half and were never threatened the rest of the way. The Gators shot 46% for the game and made 14 of 36 from 3-point range. Mississippi State made 7 of 27 beyond the arc. The Bulldogs had

15 turnovers and outrebounded Florida 43-32.

The first half had seven lead changes and ﬁve ties.

No 1 AUBURN 80,VANDERBILT 68: Denver Jones scored 21 points as Auburn held off Vanderbilt to avoid the Tigers’ ﬁrst losing skid of the season.

Now Auburn (22-2, 10-1) goes into Saturday’s big showdown for the top of the Southeastern Conference standings, supremacy in the state of Alabama and the top of the AP Top 25. The Tigers came into Tuesday night tied with No. 2 Alabama in league play

Chaney Johnson finished with 20 points for Auburn, and Johni Broome had 17.

The Tigers scored the first 15 points as they snapped back from their home loss to Florida last weekend. Vanderbilt rallied and

ﬁnally hit its ﬁrst 3 on the Commodores’ ninth try seconds before halftime to pull to 34-32. Vanderbilt (17-7, 5-6) took its first lead with a 3 by Jason Edwards early in the second. The Commodores last led 49-48 on a putback by Chris Manon.

No 15 KENTUCKY 75, No. 5 TENNESSEE 64: In Lexington, Kentucky, Ansley Almonor and Otega Oweh scored 13 points each and Kentucky beat Tennessee. The Wildcats (17-7, 6-5 Southeastern Conference) completed a regular season sweep of the Volunteers. Kentucky also beat Tennessee 78-73 on Jan. 28 in Knoxville, and is now 7-1 against teams ranked in the Top 15 this season. Koby Brea and Trent Noah added 11 points each. The Wildcats made 12 3-pointers, including three by Noah.

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.

LSU softball team moves up to No. 17 in latest poll

LSU softball moved up ﬁve spots to No. 17 in the latest rankings by the NFCA/GoRout Division I softball poll released on Tuesday The Tigers (5-0) swept the ﬁeld in its opening weekend against Charlotte, Central Arkansas and Southeastern Louisiana.

SEC teams held six of the top seven spots with No 1 Texas (6-0) followed by Florida (6-0), Oklahoma (6-0) UCLA (5-0), Texas A&M (5-0) and Tennessee (5-1).

The Tigers’ new ranking will get a tough test in the Purple and Gold Challenge at Tiger Park this weekend with two games against No. 17 Virginia Tech and two more against No. 22 Northwestern.

LSU also plays Texas-Arlington in the Challenge opener at 4 p.m. Friday

Zakai Zeigler scored 17 points to lead Tennessee (21-5, 7-5), Igor Milicic had 16 and nine rebounds, and Chaz Lanier added 10 points.

No. 10 IOWA STATE 77, UCF 65: In Orlando, Florida, Keshon Gilbert scored 15 points and Joshua Jefferson had 13 points and eight rebounds to lead Iowa State over UCF.

Tamin Lipsey scored 11 points and Curtis Jones scored 10 off the bench for Iowa State (19-5, 9-4 Big 12). Keyshawn Hall led the Knights (13-11, 4-9) with 22 points and eight rebounds. Guard Mikey Williams had 14 points off the bench. The Cyclones usually rely on their scoring to win, but they put the defensive clamps on the Knights, holding one of the Big 12’s highest-scoring teams to 41.5% shooting from the ﬁeld including 6 for 26 (23.1%) from 3-point range.

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, ﬁnishing with a 2-2 record, a 4.50 ERA and 24 strikeouts over 30 innings.

He did not pitch in the playoffs for Los Angeles, which won the World Series for the second time in

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Reigning champ Vols have new-look roster

BY ERIC OLSON AP sportswriter

It was as if the 2024 Tennessee Volunteers were built to win a national championship with their dominant pitching and an offense that produced the second-most home runs in a season in NCAA history They ended up with an SEC-record 60 wins and beat Texas A&M in a three-game College World Series ﬁnals

Eight players from that team were drafted, including six in the ﬁrst four rounds. That’s left coach Tony Vitello to approach 2025 as a building year though much is still expected of the Vols as defending champions. They’re picked second behind Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference preseason coaches’ poll and are a consensus top-ﬁve team in the national polls.

“They’re the 2025 team and they want to put their own stamp on this particular year,” Vitello said. “I think our guys are ready to move on and kind of use this blank canvas they have and start splashing some paint on there.”

The Vols open with a three-game home series against Hofstra starting Friday, Division I baseball’s opening day

The weekend rotation could take some time to get established Mississippi transfer Liam Doyle is in line to be the No. 1 starter Nate Snead, a 10-game winner as a reliever last season, likely will move into a starter’s role Junior college transfer Brandon Arvidson, the returning Marcus Phillips and heralded freshman Tegan Kuhns are among pitchers competing for

a spot. The everyday lineup also will look a lot different Sluggers

Christian Moore, Dylan Dreiling, Blake Burke Kavares Tears and Billy Amick left via the draft after combining for 120 of the Vols’ 184 homers.

Preseason All-SEC pick Dean Curley will be in his second year at shortstop and Hunter Ensley will be back in center ﬁeld. Curley and Ensley with 12 apiece, are the top returning home run hitters. Ensley has been in the program since the post-pandemic rise of the Vols. Their 211 wins and .773 winning percentage since 2021 rank No. 1 nationally

They went 0-2 in the 2021 CWS, lost a home super regional as the No. 1 national seed in 2022 and went 1-2 in the 2023 CWS before winning it all last year

“I deﬁnitely think there’s more eyes on the baseball program now,” Ensley said. “You could really just walk over to the baseball ﬁeld and kind of look around, and to me, that kind of tells you the whole story More people are buying in, more people are invested, more people are involved, more people kind of want to be around the program.”

So while the names on the lineup card change, the expectations remain the same for the team’s expanded fan base The Vols ranked seventh nationally in attendance last year with an average of 5,339 per game, more than twice as many as the 1,721 per game that showed up in Vitello’s ﬁrst season in 2018.

“We built a little bit of a brand

here,” he said. Since South Carolina won backto-back titles in 2010-11, only one returning national champion has made it back to Omaha, Nebraska, for the CWS. That was Florida, which won the 2017 title and lasted four games in the 2018 CWS. LSU, the 2023 champion, had a losing record in SEC play and lost

ROBERTSON

Continued from page 1C

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,” 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 lefthander 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.”

in regionals last year Mississippi and Mississippi State, winners of the previous two championships, finished under .500 and didn’t make the NCAA Tournament the next year Snead makes no promises about how the Vols will fare the year after their championship.

“I mean, we lost a lot of our guys

BY ANDREW SELIGMAN AP sportswriter

CHICAGO Malik Beasley made seven 3-pointers and ﬁnished with 24 points, and the Detroit Pistons built a franchise-record, 42-point halftime lead on the way to a 132-92 romp over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.

Detroit outscored the Bulls 71-29 in the ﬁrst half, eclipsing the previous mark of 34 points against Chicago on March 23, 1969. Beasley set a Detroit record for 3-pointers in a season with 212 after making 7 of 10. The previous mark was 211 by Saddiq Bey in 2021-22. Cade Cunningham added 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds as the Pistons came away with their most lopsided win of the season Tobias Harris scored 18 and Ausar Thompson finished with 16 points as the Pistons rolled to their third win in a row

The Bulls set a team record by missing their ﬁrst 20 3-pointers before Ayo Dosunmu hit one near the end of the second quarter They were 10 of 47 from beyond the arc and shot 35% overall in the game. Things were so comical for Chicago that Nikola Vucevic threw his arms up

that contributed to that team,” he said. “So obviously the expectation for everybody outside of the team is always there, and they always want us to win. Obviously, we want to win, too, but it’s just baseball. I mean, you really can’t control much. So we’re going to go out there and just play Hopefully we win again.”

in mock celebration after making a hook shot late in the ﬁrst half that trimmed the deficit to 43. And the crowd cheered, too. Chicago had just two players score in double ﬁg-

ures — Matas Buzelis (12 points) and Josh Giddey (11). Coby White scored a season-low ﬁve, making just 2 of 13 shots and missing all eight 3-point attempts.

S GRATZ

Tennessee coach Tony Vitello hoists the championship trophy following his team’s 6-5 victory against Texas

A&M in Game 3 of the College World Series finals in Omaha, Neb on June 24.

PROVIDED PHOTO

LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey, left, chats with her son Kramer Robertson before a St. Louis Cardinals game.

Newton calls 2011 Panthers ‘losers;’ WR Smith retorts NFL

BY ALEX ZIETLOW Charlotte Observer

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

— Two of the best players in Carolina Panthers history are well... at odds with one another right now And Steve Smith has made it clear that he’s “done” with his former quarterback.

back does. You can lock down the No. 1 receiver, you can make impact plays on offense all you want. But it’s still not like a quarterback.

‘There every step of way’

Like a lot of us, Gayle Benson hit the Super Bowl wall on Monday morning. Unlike a lot of us, she never showed it. Despite the long hours, hectic schedule and endless amount of small talk and networking, the New Orleans Saints owner maintained a cool, collected front throughout.

After she ﬁnished her duties at the ofﬁcial Super Bowl handoff press conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, she quipped, “My feet need some time off.”

Being the owner of the host team at a Super Bowl is a lot of work. Doing it while simultaneously trying to hire a new head coach is doubly difﬁcult. Doing it solo is, well, almost unimaginable.

This was Benson’s ﬁrst New Orleans Super Bowl without late husband, Tom Benson, by her side, and as sole owner of the host team in the host city, her duties were myriad Ambassador. Presenter. Moderator Host. Greeter She wore every hat imaginable and was unequivocally the busiest person in town.

From morning to night, Benson’s daily schedule was packed with events, functions and appearances. In all, she attended 41 events during the week, roughly six to seven per day Among the commitments was an appearance at the live taping of Lady Gaga’s promotional performance on Bourbon Street at 3:30 a.m.

Wednesday She made two more appearances Monday before quietly slipping out of town for a few days of well-deserved R&R.

“She was there every step of the way,” said Jay Cicero,

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 capcompliant by the start of the new league year in March.

Though the Saints front office handles such moves, that ﬁgure will likely limit

the CEO and founder of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation “She deserves so much credit She was a total trooper.” Benson’s itinerary was so hectic she kept a clothes rack at her Uptown house with designated outﬁts separated by day, time and event to organize the multiple wardrobe changes involved.

“I didn’t think anyone showed up at more appearances than me, but Mrs. Benson was there before I was and after I left,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said.

The theme of Super Bowl LIX — “It’s what we do” — was applicable to Benson, who watched the game from her Caesars Superdome suite while ﬂanked by Goodell and president Donald Trump. No one loves the city more than her, and she executed her duties as host and ambassador with typi-

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

cal grace and charm.

The coup de grace was the lavish Super Bowl party she threw at City Park on Super Bowl eve. The shindig cost almost $10 million, and seemingly all of New Orleans and the NFL was there. It was a peoplewatching mecca. Owners or reps from 27 of the league’s 32 teams were in attendance, alongside celebrities, former Saints players and coaches and a coterie of New Orleans movers and shakers.

The consummate host, Benson deftly worked the room and posed for pictures with seemingly each of her 400-plus guests.

“The National Football League continues to be a strong partner (with the city of New Orleans),” New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell said. “The foundation in the city has been laid time and time again and is stronger because of Mrs.

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 Kool-Aid 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

Gayle Benson.” At Monday’s news conference, Benson delivered her ﬁnal speech of the week and graciously thanked the NFL and the participating teams, the Eagles and Chiefs, both of which defeated her Saints this season.

“This has been so incredible,” Benson said Monday “What a spectacular week we have just all shared. It was such a pleasure hosting you and your fans this week. We were honored to host our record-tying 11th Super Bowl this week, and we greatly appreciate the trust the NFL, the commissioner and teams have placed in our city to execute one of the largest events in the world. I do not think the game or week could have gone any better, and it would not have been possible without the coordination and cooperation and communication between the thousands of people and organizations who came together to make Super Bowl (LIX) possible.”

Super Bowl LIX was an unqualiﬁed success for New Orleans. The city has received rave reviews for its execution of the NFL’s signature event, and rightfully so. By all accounts, the city crushed it Benson played a key role in helping to land the game and was crucial in helping to deliver its success.

Goodell said Monday the league is already looking forward to bringing a 12th Super Bowl to New Orleans again soon. Such an unsolicited commitment is a tribute to the support and enthusiasm of the people of New Orleans and the strong, competent leadership of the entire New Orleans Super Bowl team.

“And it wouldn’t have happened,” Goodell said, “without Mrs. Benson being the leader of it.”

Email Jeff Duncan at jduncan@theadvocate.com.

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 third-most yards, their worst mark since 2015.

Email Matthew Paras at matt.paras@theadvocate.com

The short story: Cam Newton, the best quarterback in team history, said something controversial about his time with the Carolina Panthers speciﬁcally that he was drafted as the No. 1 pick in 2011 and thus walked into “a locker room of losers.”

Steve Smith, the best receiver in team history who was part of that aforementioned locker room, replied to Newton’s words without masking his contempt.

“53-man locker room - 1 = 52 losers,” Smith posted on X on Monday “Wow breaking news to 89!”

It all started in an interview Friday in New Orleans along the Super Bowl’s famed “radio row.”

On that day, Newton, who’s quickly growing his brand as a media personality, joined The Travis Hunter Show Hunter was the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner who will go early in the ﬁrst round of the 2025 NFL Draft — and could potentially even be the top pick.

That’s when Newton shared his own experience as a former No. 1 overall pick, which led to the back-and-forth.

Here’s how the exchange went:

“How did you handle the pressure of being the top pick?” Hunter asked.

Newton: “Let’s put it in perspective: You’re the top pick because of what?”

Hunter: “The way you play.”

Newton: “No no no.

You’re looking at it from a personal situation. I’m talking about it from the professional situation.

You’re the top pick because that was the worst team in the NFL the year before. For me, I wanted to be the No. 1 pick. You could potentially be the first pick, but bro, you have no way of impacting the game like a quarter-

WALKER

Continued from page 1C

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

“My issue is, when I was the ﬁrst pick, I went into a locker room of losers. Guys didn’t know how to win. Guys didn’t know how to prepare. It was a culture shock for me. The games don’t mean a lot to a lot of people in the league like you’d expect. It’s just about money Not everybody has capabilities to be impact players. They’re just players.”

Newton goes on from there. But that clip is what caught Smith’s attention Smith, a finalist for this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025, then reposted the clip with the text, “Breaking news to 89!” before sending out another statement on his social media.

“I’ve watched and listened from afar as you (Cam Newton) talk about the Panthers!” Smith wrote. “None of us are perfect. Yes, we were 2-14 before you blessed us with your presence. The way you have talked about the Panthers lately, I’m very disappointed. I wish you nothing but the very best. I’m done!”

Others on the team caught wind of Newton’s comments and didn’t take too well to it. Among them was Geoff Schwartz, a Carolina Panthers draft pick who played for the team from 2008 to 2011.

“Sure, we went 2-14, but the core of that roster also went 12-4 two years beforehand,” Schwartz wrote. “Maybe it’s a tad more nuanced than a ‘bunch of losers who can’t prepare.’”

Among the others on that 2011 roster included Jonathan Stewart, DeAngelo Williams, Greg Olsen, Jeremy Shockey, Jordan Gross, Ryan Kalil, Chris Gamble, JJ Jansen and Captain Munnerlyn. Stewart and Williams still make up the best one-two punch in the backﬁeld in Panthers history, and Olsen, Gross and Kalil each ﬁnished their careers with three or more Pro Bowl appearances.

wrote.

“I look forward to embracing the challenges ahead and am eager to get started.” So he knows there are challenges, which range from salary-cap 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.

Saints owner Benson showed everyone how to host a Super Bowl

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Saints owner Gayle Benson sits on a platform in Jackson Square in New Orleans before a projection show on St. Louis Cathedral on Feb 2.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Saints owner Gayle Benson speaks during a news conference Monday morning after Super Bowl LIX.

Jeff Duncan

THE VARSITY ZONE

Aggressive Robinson delivers for Liberty

BY WILLIAM WEATHERS

Contributing writer

Liberty guard Maleek Robinson wasn’t concerned with the two previous charging calls that went against him.

In a high-stakes matchup of the state’s top-rated teams in their respective divisions, Robinson blazed through the lane when he crashed into Zachary’s Mason Newman with four seconds remaining

This time Robinson’s basket counted, and his subsequent free throw gave Liberty a one-point lead, and a late steal and layup provided a 60-57 District 4-5A victory Tuesday over Zachary before a jammed-packed crowd at Liberty “(Liberty) Coach (Brandon)

White told me to go make a play,” Robinson said about the frenetic fourth quarter “He told me just don’t lose.”

Liberty (19-1, 2-0 in 4-5A), the No. 1 team in Division I select, erased an 11-point deﬁcit in the second quarter to take the district lead The Patriots also extended their winning streak to

nine games.

“Credit to Zachary for making some tough plays,” White said.

“They really challenged us. It was a physical game that was a high intensity game. It was two of the better teams in the state going head-to-head.

“Credit to my guys. They just don’t stop. They ﬁght all the way to the end.”

The fourth quarter was highlighted by two ties and six lead changes with Robinson, who scored 12 of his 17 in the second half, giving Liberty the lead for good.

Zachary (22-4, 1-1), rated No 1 in Division nonselect, took a 57-55 lead with 8.6 seconds left on a free throw from Xavier Ferguson who scored all 11 of his points in the second half. He trailed leading scorer Ian Edmond who scored 13 of his 23 points in the ﬁrst half.

That’s when White communicated his intentions to Robinson to remain aggressive.

“I told him to get downhill,” he said. “He went in and made a huge play I think he’s the state’s player of the year He’s been showing up all year, and he showed that to-

night in the biggest moment of the game.”

Zachary coach Jonathan McClinton pointed toward a key moment in the game when the Broncos’ 11-point lead dwindled to 28-25 at halftime.

The Patriots took their ﬁrst lead at the 5:37 mark on a 3-pointer by Kareem Washington, the team’s leading scorer with 18 points The Broncos scored their ﬁrst points in eight minutes on a three-point play by Ferguson for a 32-31 lead — the second lead change of the quarter Liberty took a 40-35 lead into the fourth quarter and opened a 43-35 advantage on a 3-pointer by Washington 10 seconds into the period. A corner 3-pointer by Cambren Price, a free throw from Kriston Brooks and three-point play by Ferguson, which was set up by Newman’s blocked shot, gave the Broncos a 46-44 lead with 4:08 left.

“I told the kid (Mason Newman) who took the block/charge at the end, I didn’t have a problem with it,” McClinton said. “You slide and you’re there It could go either way.”

Catholic’s Couhig turns hat trick in quarterﬁnal win

BY CHARLES SALZER Contributing writer

Mac Couhig’s chances of scoring his second consecutive hat trick got a huge boost in the ﬁrst eight minutes of Catholic High’s Division I quarterﬁnal soccer match Tuesday evening against West Monroe.

Catholic’s Couhig put away two penalty kicks in the early going and the fourth-seeded Bears added three second-half goals as they took care of business with a 5-0 win over the visiting Rebels. Couhig scored the Bears’ ﬁnal goal to get a hat trick.

The win advances Catholic (153-3) to the semiﬁnals to face topseeded Denham Springs, which won its quarterfinal match 3-0 over Mandeville. Denham Springs defeated Catholic 2-1 on Nov 26 at Yellow Jacket Stadium.

For No. 12 West Monroe (14-8-2), this was its second state quarterﬁnals appearance.

“(Scoring ﬁrst) was huge,” said Couhig, who also scored three goals in Catholic’s 5-1 win over Lafayette in the regional round.

“Two early goals just led to us having momentum. We slowed down a little bit, but then we picked it back up in the second half.”

Couhig’s ﬁrst penalty kick came in the fourth minute after he was tackled in the penalty box. He put his kick into the right side of the net for a 1-0 Bears’ lead.

The second goal came after a hand ball by West Monroe as the Rebels were trying to clear the

ball out of the penalty box. Again, Couhig put his penalty kick in the right side of the net to give Catholic a 2-0 lead that remained throughout the ﬁrst half.

“Those two early goals were tough,” West Monroe coach Steven Dickman said. “I don’t think the score line reflects how hard our guys played. (Catholic) is a really good team and I was proud of how our guys played. When they got those two early PKs, our guys could have given up and they stuck with it.”

Catholic kept the ball away from West Monroe’s scoring third for most of the game. The Bears limited West Monroe to seven shots while peppering the Rebels goal West Monroe goalkeeper Jude Chance ﬁnished with seven saves.

The second half was scoreless for 23 minutes before Catholic’s Max Chamberlain put his kick away from 15 yards out. Caden Bland added a goal in the 66th minute before Couhig scored on a penalty kick after a West Monroe foul in the penalty box.

“I thought after the second goal we, kind of, weren’t ourselves,” Catholic coach JB Brunet said. “You didn’t see the identity that we had last game against Lafayette High, but its tough to play at this time of year I thought we played a little better in the second half.”

Couhig’s goals increased his season total to a school-record 33 for the season He broke his father Peter Couhig’s record in the win over Lafayette.

Boys basketball Tuesday’s games Live Oak 82, Prairieville 52 Parkview Baptist 62, Idea Bridge 27 Dutchtown at Denham Springs Dunham 56, Madison Prep 48 East Ascension at St. Amant Central at Catholic Zachary at Liberty Woodlawn 53, Scotlandville 48 Lutcher 56, E.D. White 50 Brusly 64, West Feliciana 28 Broadmoor 65, Istrouma 64 Breaux Bridge 60, Port Allen 54 St. Michael 54, Plaquemine 38 McKinley 67, Southern Lab 52 Opelousas Catholic at Catholic-PC Northeast at Slaughter Charter Christ Episcopal vs. Helix Mentorship Liberty 60, Zachary 57 Zachary1711722-57 Liberty13121520-60

SCORING: ZHS: Ian Edmond 23, Xavier Ferguson 11, Deezy Cousins 7, Kriston Brooks 7, Cambren Price 4, Mason Newman 2, Aidan Given 2; LMHS: Kareem Washington 18, Maleek Robinson 17, Kingston Jarrell 13, Devin Houston 5, Cason Franklin 5, Jadon Williams 2 3-POINT GOALS: LMHS: 6 (Washington 4, Robinson, Franklin); ZHS: 5 (Edmond 3, Cousins, Price) RECORDS: Liberty 19-1 (2-0), Zachary 21-5 (1-1) Central 56, Catholic High 51 Catholic High1118913 -51 Central12151415 -56

SCORING: CATHOLIC HIGH: Makai Lacy 13, Brady Broussard 10, Tate McCurry 10, Austin Fruge 7, Matthew Trahan 6, Matthew Hostream 3, Sam Levy 2; CENTRAL: Jace Conrad 17, Jalen Thomas 13, Ked Franklin 11, Markell Sampson 6, Collin Verrett 5, Keith Womack 4 3-POINT GOALS: CATHOLIC HIGH 6 (Lacy 3, Broussard 2, Fruge); CENTRAL 2 (Thomas, Verrett) Girls basketball Tuesday ’s games University 76,

PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Dunham makes statement in beating MPA

Tigers get balanced scoring in downing 3A power Chargers

BY ROBIN FAMBROUGH Staff writer

After close losses to top teams from higher classifications, Duham coach Chad Myers wanted a statement game. And he got — a 56-48 nondistrict win over Madison Prep on Tuesday night at Dunham.

The Class 2A/Division III select Tigers (16-5) got balanced scoring led by Gavin Blanton with 15 points, AJ Olivier with 13 and Xzavier Baker with 10. Olivier hit a clutch 3-pointer from the left wing late in the third

quarter after the Chargers final seconds of the third quarter to extend the Tigers’ lead back to eight points at 38-31. Blanton the son of former LSU star Ricky Blanton, went 6 of 7 at the final throw line in the final 43.3 seconds to clinch the victory Blanton also had nine rebounds.

“It comes down to everybody doing their job,” said Blanton, an 85% free-throw shooter “I let the game come to me and when I got chances, I was able to convert.”

Class 3A/ Division II select power Madison Prep (22-8) got 14 points from Wes Favorite, along with 13 points and nine rebounds from William Nelson.

“We’ve been there before up on St. Aug and lost, ahead of Ponchatoula and lost,” Myers said “Tonight we figured it out and

“We’ve been there before … up on St. Aug and lost, ahead of Ponchatoula and lost. Tonight we figured it out and found a way to finish against a quality team This is what we’ve waiting for.”

Dunham coach

CHAD MyERS,

found a way to finish against a quality team. “This is what we’ve waiting for.”

The Chargers scored the first four points of the game and led by as much as ﬁve points — at 9-4. MPA made just four of 14 firstquarter shots and did not score again in the quarter Dunham made three of 11 ﬁrstquarter field goal attempts. A

jumper in the lane by Elijah Haven at the 2:30 mark and a free throw by Olivier 32 seconds later got Dunham within two, at 9-7, going into the second quarter

The Tigers grabbed a 12-11 lead on 3-pointer from the right baseline by Blanton two and half minutes into the second quarter Dunham led by three points twice after that. Jarvis Washington’s layup with 3:55 to go made it 16-13. Nelson scored four of the six points in a 6-0 MPA run. His jumper in the lane made at 19-16 at the 2:39 mark. A layup by Baker and a free throw Haven made it 19-19 halftime. “In the third quarter we shot ourselves in the foot,” MPA coach Jeff Jones said. “We had several unforced turnovers and some blown assignments on defense

SCOREBOARD

PELS’ JONES EXPECTED TO MISS REST OF SEASON

The Pelicans’ best defensive player is expected to miss the remainder of the season.

Forward Herb Jones hasn’t played since Jan 8 when he suffered a posterior labrium tear in his right shoulder.

David Griffin, the Pelicans’ executive vice president of basketball operations, on Tuesdasy gave an update on Jones. “Herb has already sought an additional opinion,” Griffin said. “I think he’s probably going to be shut down for the season here soon.We’ll have more information as it goes along and he’s evaluated there.”

Jones, selected to the NBA’s AllDefensive first team last season, played in just 20 games this season. He has missed the past 15 games with the injury.

He also missed 18 games earlier in the season when he injured his shoulder while diving for a losse ball against the Golden State Warriors in late October He returned and played 16 games before the latest injury.

Jones averaged 10.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists this season.

Rod Walker

Percentages: FG .439, FT .679. 3-Point Goals: 10-27, .370 (Murphy III 4-7, Hawkins 2-4, Robinson-Earl 1-1, Green 1-3, Matkovic 1-4, Alvarado 1-5, Brooks Jr. 0-1, Cain 0-1, Reeves 0-1). Team Rebounds: 12. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 4 (Matkovic 3, Reeves). Turnovers: 22 (Williamson 5, Murphy III 4, Reeves 3, Alvarado 2, Matkovic 2, Missi 2, Robinson-Earl 2, Cain, Hawkins). Steals: 4 (Reeves 2, Murphy III, Williamson). Technical Fouls: None FGFTReb OKLA.CITYMinM-AM-AO-TAPFPTS Holmgren 24:54 4-10 2-4 0-6 0 3 12

Jal.Williams 25:03 6-11 1-2 0-5 5 0 16 Hartenstein 21:50 3-6 0-06-13 2 2 6 Dort 24:54 2-7 0-0 2-3 2 2 6 Glgous-Alxndr 30:3310-20 7-8 0-1 2 1 31 Wiggins 24:31 9-13 2-2 0-2 0 2 24

Jay.Williams 22:59 0-3 0-00-10 3 4 0 Caruso 17:46 4-7 0-0 1-2 5 3 12 D.Jones 17:39 3-6 0-0 0-1 5 1 8 K.Williams 11:15 4-4 0-0 0-0 4 0 11 Carlson 6:12 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 3 Ducas 6:12 1-2 0-0 1-2 1 0 3 Flagler 6:12 2-5 0-0 0-0 0 1 5 Totals240 49-9512-1610-452920137

Percentages: FG .516, FT .750. 3-Point Goals: 27-55, .491 (Caruso 4-7, Wiggins 4-7, Gilgeous-Alexander 4-9, K.Williams 3-3, Jal.Williams 3-4, D.Jones 2-4, Holmgren 2-5, Dort 2-7, Carlson 1-1, Ducas 1-2, Flagler 1-4, Jay.Williams 0-2). Team Rebounds: 6. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 8 (Holmgren 5, GilgeousAlexander, Jay.Williams, K.Williams). Turnovers: 10 (Holmgren 2, Jal.Williams 2, Wiggins 2, Caruso, D.Jones, Gilgeous-Alexander, Hartenstein). Steals: 15 (Gilgeous-Alexander 3, Wiggins 3, Caruso 2, Jal.Williams 2, D.Jones, Ducas, Holmgren, Jay.Williams, K.Williams). NewOrleans20302823101 OklahomaCity33393035—137 A_17,340 (18,203). T_2:09.

PELICANS

Continued from page 1C

they grow to feel the same about us.” Brown, drafted in 2018, is now with his sixth NBA team. Olynyk, drafted in 2013, is with his seventh.

“We needed more veteran presence,” Griffin said. “We needed more basketball IQ We needed more floor facing around Zion (Williamson), and what we really needed was championship-caliber human beings and championship-caliber winners. And in Bruce Brown, we get a true champion. We get somebody who’s been a critical part of being a glue guy on a championship team.” Brown was on the Denver Nuggets championship team two seasons ago His best season was last year when he averaged 12.1 points and 4.7 rebounds for the Indiana Pacers. Known for his versatility he can guard all five positions, something he said

he had to do to survive in the NBA.

“Not everyone can be a superstar and not everyone can have the ball in their hands at all times,” Brown said. “So you’ve got to find a role to stick.”

The 6-foot-11 Olynyk, on the other hand, can help space the ﬂoor with his ability to step outside. What does he bring?

“Experience and knowledge being in this league 12 years and this is my seventh team,” Olynyk said. “Just trying to continue to help the team grow and build in the right direction.”

Brown and Olynyk didn’t play in the Pelicans’ two road games after the trade. In fact, they didn’t start meeting their new teammates until Tuesday Brown and Olynyk arrived in New Orleans on Monday and went to the practice facility for the ﬁrst time.

“The airport was insane,” Brown said about his arrival on the day after the Super Bowl. Brown, who is on an expir-

ing contract, wouldn’t mind New Orleans becoming a permanent home

“I’ve been on six teams in seven years, so I’m tired of moving,” Brown said. “So I want to ﬁnd a home. If this is the place, this is the place.”

Both players said they would love to play Wednesday and Thursday when the Pelicans host the Sacramento Kings in back-to-back games before the All-Star break. They are both players who know their role. And they both have tons of NBA experience with a combined 1,214 games under their belts.

But there’s also one thing about them that isn’t quite the same. Well, two things if you include Brown’s fashion game as he often shows up to arenas wearing cowboy boots and a 10-gallon hat.

“I like to talk a little bit of smack,” Brown said. “It gets me going a little bit. I show a lot of emotion and I play extremely hard, dive for loose balls. Effort plays.”

Olynyk, on the other hand, is different. “I let my game speak,” Olynyk said.

That dug us too big of a hole to get out of.”

Olivier and Baker combined for 11 third-quarter points for the Tigers, currently No. 2 in the LHSAA DIII select power ratings MPA is No. 4 in DII select A 3-pointer by Baker with 3:20 to go gave Dunham a 32-23 lead MPA got within four, at 35-31, on jumper in the lane Landon Epps with 7.2 seconds left just ahead of Olivier’s 3-pointer

The Chargers cut the lead to one at 47-46 before Olivier countered with another 3-pointer with 1:23 remaining.

“Coach (Myers) puts the ball in my hands and trusts me to make plays,” Olivier said. “That’s what we all did.”

Email Robin Fambrough at rfambrough@theadvocate.com

undof32

Altmaier, Germany, def. Luca Nardi, Italy, 6-2, 6-2. Alexander Bublik, Kazakhstan, def. Richard Gasquet, France, 6-4, 6-4. Luca van Assche, France, def. Benjamin Bonzi, France, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7). Jan-Lennard Struff, Germany, def. Manuel Guinard, France, 7-5, 7-6 (4). Zizou Bergs, Belgium, def. Clement Chidekh, France, 6-4, 6-4. Nuno Borges (8), Portugal, def. Stan Wawrinka, Switzerland, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (1), 6-3. Men’s Doubles Round of 16 Edouard Roger-Vasselin, France, and Hugo Nys (1), Monaco, def. Robin Haase, Netherlands, and Hendrik Jebens, Germany, 6-1, 7-5. Karol Drzewiecki and Piotr Matuszewski, Poland, def. Luke Johnson, Britain, and Sander Arends (4), Netherlands, 1-6, 7-6 (5), 17-15. Matwe Middelkoop, Netherlands, and Yuki Bhambri, India, def. David Pel, Netherlands, and Patrik Trhac, United States, 5-7, 6-2, 10-6.

Learn the science behind king cakes with LSU

Bon vi·vant /noun/ a sociable person who has cultivated and reﬁned tastes, especially with respect to food and drink

In the know

On the ﬁrst Thursday of each month, celebrate martini night from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Mid City Beer Garden, 3808 Government St., Baton Rouge. Choose from a classic vodka or gin martini, lemon drop, cosmopolitan, espresso or chocolate martini for $8.

Announcing Taco Tuesday and burger night at Mother’s Lounge, 143 Third St., Baton Rouge. Every Tuesday, enjoy $3 steak tacos, $3 pulled pork tacos, $4 shots of Casamigos and $7 margaritas. On Wednesdays, indulge in $5 burgers and discounts on select drinks. New food on the block

Celebrate Mardi Gras with a seasonal galette at Bldg 5, 2805 Kalurah St., Baton Rouge. It’s made with all-natural lemon, lime and pomegranate juices and topped with a rich vanilla glaze.

Speaking of celebrating, take part in the Year of the Snake festivities with specials at Chow Yum 2363 Hollydale Ave., Baton Rouge. Try tom kha dumplings, crab boil rangoon, a tuk tuk burger or “Danger Noodle.”

The ‘Tuk Tuk’ burger at Chow yum features two griddled patties, melted cheese, crispy cheese curds, masala chili sauce, grilled poblanos and onions, and tamarind aioli

Rock-n-Sake, 3043 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, released the February roll of the month for Tuesdays: the rodeo roll is made with jalapeños, cream cheese, tempura shrimp and snowkrab, topped with brisket, spicy mayo, eel sauce, pickled mustard seeds, green onions, sesame seeds, sea salt and housemade pickled cucumbers. Dine in to get your choice of a rodeo roll or tiger roll for $6 when you purchase any regular-priced roll.

Mardi Gras festivities

Unlocking the Secrets of Food Science: 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, at LSU AgCenter Test Kitchen, 39 Forestry Lane, Baton Rouge LSU AgCenter’s Food Innovation Institute, in conjunction with the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, is hosting a bimonthly workshop series on seasonally based food. The ﬁrst workshop on Feb. 28 is focused on king cake. Learn the science behind the desserts while baking them. Participants can take their cakes home at the end Tickets are $65, available for purchase at https://tinyurl.com/ KingCake25.

If you have an upcoming food event or a kitchen question, email lauren.cheramie@ theadvocate.com. Cheers!

LIVING

BY SERENA PUANG Staff writer

Red beans and rice, seafood

gumbo, lasagna — these are just a few of the recipes that NaQuellar “Nikki” Martin-Thompson’s family has passed down for generations.

VIBES

Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.Tuesday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday

Her mother, Mary Jones, owns Nonna’s Cafe in Amite, where she cooks soul food recipes she got from her mother who got them from her mother before that. But when Martin-Thompson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, she went vegan and the recipes went vegan with her Through trial and error, she’s adapted her family recipes to ﬁt her no meat, no animal products diet, and according to her family, one can’t taste the difference. Now, with her cancer in remission, Martin-Thompson owns and operates Veganish Vibes, an allvegan soul food restaurant on Bennington Avenue in Baton Rouge. When nonvegans hear the words “vegan restaurant,” they might think of salad, green drinks or raw

vegetables, said Martin-Thompson, but she is committed to serving the full range of delicious food that people love. From Louisiana staples to vegan versions of TikTok trendy recipes, she changes her menu daily and constantly trying new things.

The “ish” in Veganish is inspired by the TV series “Black-ish” and its subsequent spinoffs. It’s not that some foods on the menu aren’t vegan, everything is. Similar to its

namesake shows, Veganish Vibes explores the rich complexity of what vegan food can be.

“Veganish Vibes is a totally different concept when it comes to vegan food,” she said. “I like to tell everyone that the meal that you have in front of you is the meal that I would eat myself.” For her, that means that it needs to look good, taste good and can’t

PHOTOS By APRIL BUFFINGTON

Most days, NaQuellar ‘Nikki’ Martin-Thompson cooks in the kitchen and

on her own at Veganish Vibes.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Lauren Cheramie BON VIVANT

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?

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

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-

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.

be missing flavor. So the cheese melts, the beignets don’t contain eggs or butter but one doesn’t miss them, and the lasagna has all its meaty (ish) layers A majority of her customers are not vegan, and she understands that.

“Our motto here is that you don’t have to be vegan to enjoy vegan food,” she said Martin-Thompson usually gets an inﬂux of customers at the beginning of the year It’s “Veganuary,” and some Baton Rouge churches do the Daniel Fast in January, which encourages people to give up meat, dairy and rich foods to focus on spiritual practices like prayer

Other than that, she has loyal customers who come in regularly, out-of-town guests who find her restaurant on vegan sites like Happy Cow, and people who come in to try something new She uses gluten-free meat substitutes and offers gluten-free buns for those who have gluten sensitivities.

When Martin-Thompson was first diagnosed with cancer, husband Jordan Thompson and their oldest daughter went vegan with

gumbo has all that in it, or if you do a chicken and sausage gumbo, like that taste is gonna be hard to get,” he said. “But she was able to do it. She found the vegan shrimp, she got the vegan sausage; it’s the seasonings and different ingredients that she finds and puts together to give it the actual gumbo taste.”

Martin-Thompson’s family helps out at the restaurant when they can, mostly on the weekends, but most days she cooks in the kitchen and runs the register on her own. Some days it’s steak made out of mushrooms, others it’s ribs made of jackfruit or fried wings made out of cauliﬂower

Jones said. “I’m

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 1554, Lady Jane Grey, who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were beheaded after being condemned for high treason.

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky In 1909, the National Association for the Advance-

her Now their family of ﬁve is mostly vegan, but about once a month, her husband eats seafood Thompson, a Marrero native, grew up eating seafood every weekend so when they started going plant-based, he was a little skeptical of how sustainable it would be. Would they just be eating salad all the time? But the flavors in Martin-Thompson’s food won him over. One recipe that particularly stands out is her vegan gumbo.

”Gumbo has the shrimp taste, the crawﬁsh — regular

TODAY IN HISTORY

ment of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York City In 1912, Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty 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 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

There are also some menu staples: the red beans special (red beans and rice, fried oyster mushrooms and collard greens/candied yams), the Issa vibe burger, Philly cheesesteak egg rolls and sweet potato beignets. The sweet potato beignets are Martin-Thompson’s own formulation, a closely guarded secret recipe that even her mom doesn’t know The recipes may sound like they taste vastly different from their nonvegan counterparts but according to Jones, they don’t just taste similar, they taste the same.

”You really can’t tell,”

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. Actor Josh Brolin is 57.

PHOTO By APRIL BUFFINGTON

‘Nikki’ MartinThompson, owner right with her mom Mary Jones at Veganish Vibes

vegetables probably don’t come to mind. They should, though. A great sandwich is so much about texture and ﬂavor, it hardly matters that this one isn’t stuffed with shrimp or cold cuts

A patacon is a traditional Latin American plantain dish often made into a sandwich using plantains in the place of bread. When you bite into the earthy, perfectly crunchy yet sturdy slices of fried green plantain (a bit less sweet than plantains that have had more time to caramelize), you realize that this vegetarian sandwich is going to be bursting with goodness. The plantains are a great counterbalance to rich slices of avocado, fresh lettuce and tomato, and salty bits of cheese all dressed with an herby green sauce.

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

I’m going to remember this nutrient-dense, ﬁlling and above all delicious Venezuelan sandwich for a long time to come.

— Joanna Brown, staff 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

Comfort versus chemistry

Dear Annie: I really need help. I’m a 28-year-old woman living in New York City For the past three years, I’ve been in a committed relationship with my boyfriend, “Charles.” He’s 31, works in tech and is super ambitious. We met in college, and while we’ve always gotten along well, I’ve started to notice some major differences between us as we’ve gotten older To give you some context, I’m someone who craves emotional connection. I love having deep conversations, spending quality time together and doing activities that foster closeness, like cooking together or hiking. But Charles is more of an introvert. He enjoys his alone time, often retreats into his hobbies (video games, reading sci-ﬁ and sometimes coding for fun) and is more of a “let’s watch a movie in silence” type of person. At ﬁrst, I thought it was just the “honeymoon phase” wearing off, but I’m

starting to feel lonely in our relationship. I’ve tried to communicate my needs, but he always says he’s “ﬁne” and that I shouldn’t worry It’s like he can’t really understand where I’m coming from. I’ve suggested we try couples therapy but he’s reluctant, saying we don’t need it. Things got even more complicated when a new coworker, “Mark,” started to work at my ofﬁce. He’s the opposite of Charles super outgoing, very emotionally open and we get along like peas in a pod. The chemistry between us is undeniable, and I’ve found myself fantasizing about what it would be like to be with someone who actually gets me on that level. I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help but feel a certain pull toward him.

I haven’t told Charles about how distant I’m feeling, and I deﬁnitely haven’t mentioned my growing attraction to Mark. Part of me feels guilty for even

thinking about it, but another part of me wonders if I’m just settling for a relationship that no longer serves me.

So here’s my question: Am I just going through a phase? Should I break up with Charles and pursue a relationship with Mark? Or do I owe it to him (and myself) to work on the relationship and see if we can bridge this emotional gap?

I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I’m feeling confused and stuck. — Need Help

Dear Help: You are caught between comfort and chemistry You owe it to yourself to have a talk with Charles about your feelings and see if he opens up a bit more. You are young and not married, so breaking up is a lot simpler, but it is important that you not get hurt.

Mark is not going anywhere, so there is no need to rush into anything with him until you have decided what to do with Charles.

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@ creators.com.

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 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 frequency level, get a clock radio. They have deeper tones, so you can adjust the volume and enjoy waking up to music. — Margaret S., La Mirada, California Margaret, what a lovely way to wake up in the morning! I have a clock radio, and it plays great music, gives me the weather of the day, and forces me to get my lazy bones out of bed. Thanks for your hint! Heloise Rubber

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

STAFF PHOTO By JOANNA BROWN Cheese and vegetable patacon from Patacon Latin Cuisine in youngsville

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.

McMeel

FAMILY CIrCUS

Syndication

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

better or For WorSe

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S 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

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

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 Syndication

word

InstRuctIons:

toDAy’s

Average

Time

Can

Previous answers:

today’s thought “He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” Jeremiah 10:12

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

wuzzles

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

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The Advocate 02-12-2025

Saints hire Moore

LSU ordered to return professor to teaching

Law school educator suspended for criticism of Landry, Trump

Government efficiency task force temporarily pauses meetings

Netanyahu threatens to resume Gaza fighting

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

Snow and ice track through mid-Atlantic

First execution in 15 years off

Top court rules Karen Read can be retried in boyfriend’s death

110,000 people stranded in eastern Congo

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

Dominican Republic ramps up deportations

MEETINGS

California fire insurance program needs $1B

Plan covers people without private coverage

La. universities face shortfalls from NIH cuts

TheRomeo

TheJuliet

Pope rebukes Trump over deportations

Bannon pleads guilty, avoids jail in border fraud case

Agency to weigh cost-limiting plan

EU vows countermeasures to U.S. tariffs

Lawsuit: Trump administration owes U.S. business millions in unpaid bills

Jordan’s king says country opposes displacing Palestinians

HUGE MARDIGRAS SALE

OVERSTOCKSALE

Two killed, three injured, in crash

Denham Springs accident described as

MAKING A CONNECTION

Edwards announces police plan

Convicted Wisconsin sex offender sentenced

High Court set to rule on La. congressional districts

Famous New Orleans fugitive captured

PLAN

SENTENCED

BRIEFS

Company plans $69M

Fed chair: Bank accounts ‘safe’

Powell responds to Trump’s teardown of consumer protection agency

Price hikes from Trump tariffs tallied

Experts warn about DOGE’s access to Treasury data

OPINION

Grateful for a gift to all the children of Louisiana

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

Trade war pain starts with shame

Baton Rouge Weather

WELCOME TO THE BIG EASY

Tigers must put heartbreaker behind

Rutgers getting used to ‘overrated’ chant

TOP 25

Aberdeen leads Florida past Mississippi State

Reigning champ Vols have new-look roster

ROBERTSON

Newton calls 2011 Panthers ‘losers;’ WR Smith retorts NFL

CHALLENGES

WALKER

THE VARSITY ZONE

Aggressive Robinson delivers for Liberty

Catholic’s Couhig turns hat trick in quarterﬁnal win

Dunham makes statement in beating MPA

SCOREBOARD

PELICANS

Learn the science behind king cakes with LSU

LIVING

VIBES

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

TODAY IN HISTORY

Comfort versus chemistry

Sudoku