The Advocate 02-26-2025

Edwards threatens job cuts if library plan fails

Mayor-president: EBR facing $52M budget hole

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer

East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-

President Sid Edwards said Tuesday he could cut 600 to 700 jobs — up to 14.6% of all employees — and reduce some government services if his plan to rededicate money that currently goes to parish libraries does not pass.

“I like books and libraries, but I like people more,” Edwards said in a speech to the East Baton Rouge Parish Chamber of Commerce.

The city-parish employs about 4,500 people, Chief Administrative Officer Charlie Davis said.

Even if the plan passes, some jobs will be cut, said Communications Director Falon Brown.

The city-parish government is facing a $52 million budget hole because the new city of St. George is up and running and collecting its share of property tax revenues.

Earlier this month, Edwards announced a plan to move the library’s budget, which is currently independently funded by its own property tax, into the parish general fund. That would allow the parish to take some money that currently goes to libraries

Budget bill stakes high for the state

La. has one of highest per-capita percentages of residents on Medicaid

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON As Republicans look to cut more than a trillion dollars out of the federal budget, some state leaders and health care officials worry that steep cuts to Medicaid could be on the table, which could blow a hole in the state budget and cause deep cuts in services to the 1.6 million Louisiana residents on the program.

“The Medicaid cuts that are being discussed by think tanks and in Washington, without a doubt, would harm our ability to provide lifesaving care for Medicaid patients across Louisiana,” said Ryan Cross, vice president for government affairs at the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, which operates seven regional medical centers and urgent care centers scattered throughout Louisiana. But some, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, say those fears are overblown.

“Everybody is committed to preserving Medicare benefits for those who desperately need it and deserve it and qualify for it. What we’re talking about is rooting out the fraud, waste, and abuse,” Johnson said.

ä See BUDGET, page 5A

and instead use it to give big pay raises to police, among other changes.

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BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

As Louisiana tries to stay competitive in a new college athletics landscape in which players can get paid, it could soon join other states that are considering a new strategy: tax breaks for athletes who get money from NIL deals.

“Name, image and likeness” refers to arrangements in which athletes are paid to appear in advertising, merchandise and other media. Such agreements became legal in recent years,

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sid Edwards answers questions from the media about his new plan for the cityparish’s budget during a Tuesday news conference at Café Américain.

Planets in solar system line up at end of month

NEW YORK Seven planets grace the sky at the end of February in what’s known as a planetary parade, though some will be difficult to spot with the naked eye

These planetary hangouts happen when several planets appear to line up in the night sky at once. They’re not in a straight line, but are close together on one side of the sun. The astronomical linkup is fairly common and can happen at least every year depending on the number of planets. A parade of four or five planets visible to the naked eye happens every few years, according to NASA.

A similar parade took place last June, but only two planets could be seen without any special equipment. Six planets were visible in January — four to the naked eye — and now a dim Mercury joins the gang.

This month, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are visible to the naked eye. A faint Saturn and Mercury are close to the horizon, making them hard to spot. Uranus and Neptune can be glimpsed with binoculars and telescopes.

Starbucks to cut ‘less popular’ drinks

NEW YORK Starbucks is making cuts to its menu, with some of the coffee giant’s “less popular beverages” set to take their final bow next week.

In an announcement Monday, Starbucks outlined plans to remove a selection of its drinks — including several blended Frappuccino beverages, the Royal English Breakfast Latte and the White Hot Chocolate starting on Tuesday, March 4.

Starbucks says these cuts will reduce wait times, improve consistency and “make way for innovation.” The chain says it will continue to introduce a handful of other new items and seasonal specials, such as its Cortado beverage introduced last month and a new “Iced Cherry Chai” set to debut in the spring.

The menu changes arrive amid wider restructuring at the Seattle-based company. Starbucks also said that it would be laying off 1,100 corporate employees globally this week with CEO Brian Niccol citing needs to “operate more efficiently.” Niccol joined the chain as CEO in August.

Woman injured on theme park ride awarded $7M

LOS ANGELES A federal jury has awarded $7.25 million to a 74-year-old Arizona woman for a spine injury she suffered in a fall while exiting the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Pamela Morrison was getting seated on the popular attraction with her grandson in September 2022 when she was asked to exit after her harness failed to secure properly Morrison slipped and fell when stepping from a moving walkway onto solid ground, according to her lawsuit.

Her attorney, Taylor Kruse, argued that Morrison’s fall which caused a spinal compression fracture — was due to employees’ failure to halt the moving walkway and allow the woman to exit safely “It would have cost them four seconds to stop it, but instead they wanted to keep the ride moving no matter what, to make its quota of 1,800 riders per hour,” Kruse said Tuesday Lawyers for Universal Studios Hollywood argued that Morrison was focused on her grandson and not on where she was stepping, so the fall was her fault.

CORRECTIONS

Medics say babies are dying from cold in Gaza

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH Gaza Strip At least six infants have died from hypothermia in the last two weeks in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people are living in tent camps and war-damaged buildings during a fragile ceasefire, Palestinian medics said Tuesday

The coastal territory experiences cold, wet winters, with temperatures dropping below 50 degrees Fahrenheit at night and storms blowing in from the Mediterranean Sea. The last few days have been especially cold.

Yusuf al-Shinbari woke up in his family’s tent just after midnight on Tuesday to find that his 2-month-old daughter, Sham was cold to the touch. He could feel no heartbeat

“Yesterday, I was playing with her,” he said. “I was happy with her She was a beautiful child, like the moon.”

Dr Ahmed al-Farah, the head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where her body was taken, said she did not have any illness but died from severe cold because she was in a tent. He said the hospital treated another two infants for frostbite.

Saeed Salah, of the Patient’s Friends Hospital in Gaza City, said five infants aged one month or younger have died from the cold over the last two weeks, including a 1-month-old who died on Monday He said another child has been placed on a ventilator

Zaher al-Wahedi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department, said it has recorded 15 deaths from hypothermia this winter, all of them children.

The ceasefire that paused 16 months

of war between Israel and Hamas militants has allowed a surge in humanitarian aid, mainly food, but residents say there are still shortages of blankets and warm clothing, and little wood available for fires.

There’s been no central electricity in Gaza since the first few days of the war, and fuel for generators is scarce. Many families huddle on damp sand or bare concrete.

“It’s incredibly cold,” Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency, said earlier this month. “I have no clue how people can sleep at night in their makeshift tents.”

Israel’s military offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, was among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history It pounded large areas of Gaza into rubble. The hundreds of thousands of people who have been able to return to northern Gaza under the ceasefire have settled wherever they can amid the ruins.

The ceasefire’s first phase will end on Saturday and may not be extended. If fighting resumes, the current flow of humanitarian aid is expected to drop dramatically Even if the truce endures, it’s unclear when anything in Gaza will be rebuilt. The World Bank has estimated the cost of reconstruction at over $50 billion, and it could take years just to clear the rubble.

Israel blames the destruction on Hamas because the militants positioned tunnels, rocket launchers and other military infrastructure in residential areas.

Hamas has accused Israel of delaying the entry of mobile homes and tents in violation of the ceasefire. Israel denies the allegations and accuses Hamas of violating the agreement.

French fugitive extradited to France after arrest in Romania

BY STEPHEN MCGRATH and VADIM GHRIDA Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania A notorious French fugitive who staged a deadly escape that killed two guards last year was extradited Tuesday from Romania to France, days after his arrest in Bucharest ended a nine-month international manhunt. Mohamed Amra, nicknamed The Fly,” was arrested near a shopping center in Bucharest on Saturday after being identified by Romanian police, despite having dyed his hair red, possibly to evade detection. The Bucharest Court of Appeal approved his extradition request on Sunday

An official at Romania’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the legal case was still ongoing, confirmed to The Associated Press that Amra was handed over to French authorities for extradition Tuesday at an airport near Bucharest — where he arrived in handcuffs, flanked by armed police officers. Upon arrival in France, he was taken to the main Paris courthouse, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. He will be ordered to carry out the sentence he escaped last year, for

burglary, and also face charges in other cases, including murder, attempted murder and escaping from custody

The high-profile search for Amra began last May when armed assailants ambushed a prison convoy in Normandy, killing two guards and seriously wounding three others in the process of aiding his escape.

Amra fled after being sentenced for burglary in the Normandy town of Evreux. He was also under investigation for an attempted organized homicide and a kidnapping that resulted in death, French prosecutors said.

The international police organization Interpol issued a notice for his

White House says it ‘will determine’ which news outlets cover Trump

BY LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press

The White House said Tuesday that its officials “will determine” which news outlets can regularly cover President Donald Trump up close — a sharp break from a century of tradition in which a pool of independently chosen news organizations go where the chief executive does and hold him accountable on behalf of regular Americans.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services. Leavitt cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, saying the move would be more inclusive and restore “access back to the American people” who elected Trump. But media experts said the move raised troubling First Amendment issues because the president is choosing who covers him.

“The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing. She added at another point: “A select group of D.C.-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.”

Leavitt said the White House will “double down” on its decision to bar The Associated Press from many presidential events, a departure from the timetested and sometimes contentious practice for more than a century of a pool of journalists from every platform sharing the presidents’ words and activities with news outlets and congressional offices that can’t attend the close-quarter events.

Traditionally, the members of the pool decide who goes in small spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One.

“It’s beyond time that the White House press operation reflects the media hab-

its of the American people in 2025, not 1925,” Leavitt said. The change said one expert on presidents and the press, “is a dangerous move for democracy.”

“It means the president can pick and choose who covers the executive branch, ignoring the fact that it is the American people who through their taxes pay for the running of the White House, the president’s travels and the press secretary’s salary,” Jon Marshall, a media history professor at Northwestern University and author of “Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis,” said in a text.

Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said the organization consistently expands its membership and pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.

“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president,” Daniels said in a statement. “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.” The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called it “a drastic change in how the public obtains information about its government.”

“The White House press pool exists to serve the public, not the presidency,” Bruce D. Brown the group’s president, said in a statement. Leavitt spoke a day after a federal judge refused to immediately order the White House to restore the AP’s access to many presidential events. The news outlet, citing the First Amendment, sued Leavitt and two other White House officials for barring the AP from some presidential events over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” as Trump ordered. AP has said its style would retain the “Gulf of Mexico” name but also would note Trump’s decision.

arrest, while French investigators alerted counterparts in other countries after they suspected Amra had left France.

After his arrest on Saturday French President Emmanuel Macron hailed his capture a “formidable success” and praised European colleagues who had ended the long crossborder hunt.

Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said that Amra had connections with Marseille’s organized crime syndicates and was suspected of heading a drug trafficking network.

As of Monday night, 25 people had been detained in multiple countries suspected of some role in his escape or the aftermath, the Paris prosecutor said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

Members of Abed family warm up by a fire at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians at the Muwasi, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Monday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By VADIM GHIRDA Mohamed Amra, nicknamed ‘The Fly,’ is brought handcuffed by police officers at the Court of Appeals in Bucharest, Romania, on Sunday, following his arrest the day before.

Bridge.

Nearly 40% of canceled contracts expected to produce no savings

BY RYAN J FOLEY Associated Press

Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that President Donald Trump’s administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money, the administration’s own data shows.

The Department of Government Efficiency, run by Trump adviser Elon Musk, published an updated list Monday of nearly 2,300 contracts that agencies terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts” shows that more than onethird of the contract cancellations, 794 in all, are expected to yield no savings.

That’s usually because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so.

“It’s like confiscating used ammunition after it’s been shot when there’s nothing left in it It doesn’t accomplish any policy objective,” said Charles Tiefer, a retired University of Baltimore law professor and expert on government contracting law “Their terminating so many contracts pointlessly obviously doesn’t accomplish anything for saving money.”

An administration official said it made sense to cancel contracts that are seen as potential dead weight, even if the moves do not yield any savings. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity

The Trump administration says it’s targeting fraud, waste and abuse in the government. DOGE said Monday that its cost-cutting efforts have saved an estimated $65 billion, including canceling leases and grants, cutting employees and selling assets. That figure has not been independently verified.

Some of the canceled contracts were for research studies that have been awarded, training that has taken place, software that has been purchased and interns who have come and gone. Dozens of them were for already-paid subscriptions to The Associated Press, Politico and other media services that the Republican administration said it would discontinue.

Other canceled contracts were to purchase a wide range of goods and services.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a contract in September to purchase and install office furniture at various branches While the contract does not expire until later this year federal records show the agency had already agreed to spend the maximum $567,809 with a furniture company

The U.S. Agency for International Development negotiated a $145,549 contract last year to clean the carpet at its headquarters in Washington. But the full amount had already been obligated to a firm that is owned by a Native American tribe based in Michigan. Another already-spent $249,600 contract went to a Washington, D.C., firm to help prepare the Department of Transportation for the recent transition from President Joe Biden’s administration to Trump’s.

“It’s too late for the government to change its mind on many of these contracts and walk away from its payment obligation,” said Tiefer, who served on the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tiefer said DOGE appeared to be taking a “slash and burn” approach to cutting contracts, which he said could damage the performance of government agencies He said savings

Federal technology staffers resign

BY BRIAN SLODYSKO and BYRON TAU Associated Press

could be made instead by working with agency contracting officers and inspectors general to find efficiencies, an approach the administration has not taken.

DOGE says the overall contract cancellations are expected to save $9.6 billion, an amount that has been questioned as inflated by independent experts.

Some of the canceled contracts were intended to modernize and improve the way government works, which would seem to be at odds with DOGE’s cost-cutting mission.

One of the largest, for instance, went to a consulting firm to help carry out a reorganization at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, which led the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The maximum $13.6 million had already been obligated to Deloitte Consulting LLP for help with the restructuring, which included closing several research offices.

DOGE’s data update came the same day The Associated Press appeared in court as part of its lawsuit against three White House officials as it seeks to restore the AP’s access to presidential events. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose.

WASHINGTON More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them. The mass resignation of engineers, data scientists, designers and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president’s tech-driven purge of the federal workforce. It comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop or unwind their efforts to fire or coerce thousands of government workers out of jobs. In a statement, White

House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was dismissive of the mass resignation.

“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,” Leavitt said.

“President Trump will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the

hardworking American taxpayers.”

Musk posted on his social media site X that the story was “fake news” and suggested that the staffers were “Dem political holdovers” who “would have been fired had they not resigned.”

The staffers who resigned had worked for the United States Digital Service, but said their duties were being integrated into DOGE. Their former office, the USDS, was

established under President Barack Obama after the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov, the web portal that millions of Americans use to sign up for insurance plans through the Democrat’s signature health care law

All previously held senior roles at such tech companies as Google and Amazon and wrote in their resignation letter that they joined the government out of a sense of duty to public service.

Getready,outdoor enthusiasts. Thehighly anticipatedLouisianaSportsmanShowpresented by Shellismakingits waytoSt. John Parish March28-30 for thefirsttime. It promises to be acelebration like no other. Whether you areadedicated hunter,anavidfisherman, or simply someonewho values nature,thisevent offersthe chance to experience whylifeinthe “Sportsman’s Paradise”offersadventure and delight.

Thereisfreeadmission on Friday,March 28 forall membersofthe armedforces, veterans, police officers,EMS andfirefighters.

TheSportsman Show features Louisiana vendorsand craftsmenwithindoorand outdoor exhibits,family-oriented activities,and afood courtofferingawidevariety of Louisiana-flavoreddishes.

“Louisiana Sportsmanwas foundedinthe RiverParishes, andweare excitedtobring theshowtothe St.Johnthe BaptistParish CommunityCenterand theadjacentThomasF DaleyMemorialParkinLaPlace,” says SportsmanShowDirectorCraig Cuccia.“This year, it is more than aweekend focusonsportsand

boating; it represents resilience.The Center washit hard by HurricaneIda andfaced three yearsofextensive repair andrenovation.”

“The LouisianaSportsman Show is a re-openingand celebration,”saysSt. John Parish CapitalProjectsDirectorDaron Cooper “Thisisthe Center’s first eventafter Hurricane Idaand thefirsttimeour parish hashostedan eventofsuchmagnitude.Welookforward to showcasing ourmulti-purpose facility along with theeconomicboost.”

Cooper points outthatthe facility’s location, largeatrium, andhigh-ceilingmainauditorium were significant sellingpointsfor accommodating theLouisiana SportsmanShow. “We’re directly in betweenNew Orleansand Baton Rouge, notfar from Hammond, at theepicenter of majorareas,” he says.“TheCenterisona main highwaywitheasyaccessfromseveral directions andlotsofroomfor free parking.” Sporting equipment, from hand-crafted fishinglures to luxuriousfishingboats,are traditional highlightsofthe show,along with awidevariety of family activities,including a largekids’ zone with severalinflatables. The LouisianaSportsman Show haspartnered with TheUnitedCajun Navy andTEAMUP 4ALL to offer afreekids’ fishingtournament

wherethe first 100kidstosignupwillreceive fishingrodsand tackle packs.

Retrievercompetitionswillalsotakeplace throughout theshow, so attendees areinvited to bringtheir dogs to take part

OnSaturdayandSunday,theWetlandWatchers willbeavailable to allowkids– andadults–to viewandtouchbabyalligators,snakes,andother reptiles for auniqueeducational experience Satisfying theappetiteisnever aproblem at theSportsman Show.River Parishes chefswill be on hand forseafood,barbecue, Cajun-inspired dishes,and Asianfood. “There’s aNetflix connection with food andour facility,” notes Cooper. “The CommunityCenterhas been used as amovie setsoundstagewithnumerous Netflix movies filmedright here in LaPlace. SportsmanShowattendees canenjoy ameal from BigPapi’sSmokehouse, ownedbyGerald VinnettJr.,who wasa finalist on Netflix’s BarbecueShowdown.”

TheLouisiana SportsmanShowoccurs at theSt. John theBaptist CommunityCenterand Thomas F. DaleyMemorialParkonHighway 51 Show timesare Friday,Noon– 7p.m Saturday 9a.m.–7p.m

As execution nears, family members plead for inmate’s life

BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer

Jessie Hoffman’s demeanor hasn’t much changed since the state numbered his days say relatives.

Hoffman, who has spent well over half his life on death row in Louisiana, was moved last week to an isolated area within the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola where he can be watched full-time until he’s scheduled to be put to death March 18, said his son, Jessie Smith.

A judge in St. Tammany Parish set the date for Hoffman, 46, who is slated to become the first death row prisoner to be executed in Louisiana since 2010, and the first using nitrogen gas under legislation Gov Jeff Landry signed last year Hoffmanwasconvictedand sentenced to die for the murder of a woman he kidnapped and raped on the night before Thanksgiving in 1996 before he killed her on a dock in St. Tammany Parish. He was 18 then. Now 46, Hoffman is “still the same, calm person” he’s become in prison, despite the specter that hangs over him, said Smith, who wasn’t yet born when the murder happened.

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It’s both a matter of attracting athletes to Louisiana and of guarding against other universities luring students away from the state, he said.

“Other states — Illinois, Alabama and Georgia have bills right now to make it where NIL compensation is exempt from state income tax,” McMakin said. “We will be competing with those other states, and we’re not gonna let them outcompete us.”

But the idea of tax breaks for student athletes with major NIL deals — some of whom earn millions of dollars — doesn’t sit well with some experts, who warn that doing so uses the tax code to pick winners and losers.

McMakin said the proposed exemption would be for college and high school student athletes. He said he initially learned of the idea on Twitter and was contacted by LSU about it shortly after Other state universities also contacted him about it, he said.

LSU declined to comment on the idea Tuesday

The idea behind exempting NIL compensation from state income tax is aimed at creating either a recruiting advantage or an even playing field with states that don’t levy any income tax at all, like Florida or Tennessee, said Mit Winter, a business attorney with expertise in college sports and NIL matters.

“I’m sure that has been used before as a recruiting pitch. Whether it’s effective or not, I don’t know,” said Winter, referring to universities in no-income-tax states that can use tax policy as a selling point.

“If some of these bills pass in states where they’re pend-

“Knowing the day he’s going to die is no easy task for anybody For the most part he’s really the same guy, putting all his ducks in a row,” Smith said. “It’s basically making sure everybody else can handle what’s going on.”

That image of calm belies a frenzy among Hoffman’s family and lawyers this week as they seek to stop the scheduled execution in federal court, while urging Landry to take a new look at Hoffman and his crime.

Hoffman’s lawyers this week applied for a commutation, and they are asking the governor to put off the execution until it can be heard.

Landry, however, has been vocal in his desire to stop the delays in death penalty cases. When a federal judge last week reopened a long-running case from Hoffman and other death row prisoners that challenged the state’s execution methods, Landry said he would continue to fight for justice for the victims.

“These criminals on death row committed some of the most cruel and heinous crimes imaginable,” the governor posted on social media.

And Landry also fought an effort from his predecessor, former Gov John Bel

ing, I guess it would alleviate the concern that that could be a deciding factor in recruiting,” he said.

The money at play is not inconsequential.

Explained Winter: “Especially in football and men’s basketball, there are lots of athletes making high six-figures, mid six-figures, low sixfigures, and some are making seven figures a year in NIL compensation.”

Athletes with lucrative brand endorsement deals like LSU’s Livvy Dunne can also find themselves in those income brackets, he said.

But Winter acknowledged legislation aimed at competitive recruitment may not necessarily amount to sound tax policy

Manish Bhatt, a senior policy analyst for the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, echoed that sentiment.

“Strong, sound policy does not carve up the income tax and create a bunch of exemptions and loopholes such that it prevents broader reform — structurally sound reform — from taking root,” Bhatt said.

Lawmakers should consider whether potential exemptions for NIL compensation would place an undue burden on other taxpayers, said Bhatt, who advised Gov Jeff Landry ahead of a recent overhaul of Louisiana’s tax structure, which ultimately reduced and flattened state income taxes.

“Good policy does not necessarily pick winners and losers in the market,” he said.

Lawmakers should consider whether potential exemptions for NIL compensation would place an undue burden on other taxpayers, said Bhatt, who advised Gov Jeff Landry ahead of a recent overhaul of Louisiana’s tax structure, which ultimately

Edwards, to commute death sentences for nearly all of the prisoners on death row in 2023. Edwards’ attempts were rejected by the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole.

With the death over the weekend of Christopher Sepulvado, who was scheduled to be executed March 17, Hoffman is the lone death row prisoner among 56 in Louisiana whom advocates acknowledge has exhausted his appeals.

His petition for mercy focuses on his youth when the crime occurred and a lack of any previous criminal record; a history of abuse and trauma at the hands of his parents while growing up in a series of New Orleans housing projects; and a long-held remorse for a brutal crime.

Mary “Molly” Elliott was 28, married and living near Covington when Hoffman abducted her from a parking lot near her advertising job in the Central Business District.

He forced her at gunpoint to drive to an ATM in New Orleans East, where she took out $200, which security footage from the time captured. He then brought her to an area near the Middle Pearl River where Hoffman raped

reduced and flattened state income taxes.

“Good policy does not necessarily pick winners and losers in the market,” he said.

Regardless of the approach to taxing NIL compensation, Winter called NIL “the most important factor in recruiting.”

“If you don’t have sufficient NIL funding to offer to athletes and pay athletes, you’re gonna be at a severe disadvantage in recruiting,” he said.

Recent court rulings have opened up a flood of money for players in college sports.

Major universities are preparing to pay players directly for the first time this year through a settlement in three antitrust cases, which must be approved, but there will be a $20.5 million limit to the total each school can pay annually

In the new era, NIL deals could allow universities with prominent athletics programs — like LSU — to attract players with millions of dollars on top of what they will be paid by the school.

How much LSU players get in NIL money is not publicly reported. But its athletic department has a formal NIL collective, Bayou Traditions, and struck an amended contract with Playfly Sports. The agreement, which would take effect July 1, allows Playfly to find and organize deals for athletes.

A recent fundraiser for Bayou Traditions raked in $2.3 million, including $1.23 million from fans and another $1 million from an anonymous booster Head football coach Brian Kelly matched with his own $1 million donation to the Tiger Athletic Foundation’s scholarship fund, since he is barred from directly contributing to NIL collectives.

her shot her in the head and dumped her naked body

He claimed soon after to police that the gun went off by accident. A jury took less than two hours to sentence him to death in 1998.

Family members of Elliott have not responded to requests for comment on the pending execution or Hoffman’s plea for mercy

Hoffman’s attorneys say it was his first run-in with police. His older brother, Mar-

vin Fields, said the crime came as a shock. Hoffman had just graduated from Kennedy High School, where he played quarterback for the football team. He started the job parking cars weeks before, Fields said.

“He was never a violent kid. He never got into trouble in school, never got into fights,” said Fields.

Hoffman’s attorneys say he was traumatized, however, having grown up in a variety

of government housing while withstanding abuse. Fields said they grew up with their mother among four siblings. They moved into the Florida housing development when they were young, moved from there to the Desire projects, then others. He said beatings by their mother were frequent. She would hold their hands over a hot stovetop until their fingers blistered as punishment for stealing, he said

LocatedinBaton Rouge, Thrive Academyisone of sevenLouisiana schoolsthatenrolls allofits students from under-resourcedcommunities.Italsoincludes a boarding component, wherebynearlyall students live on campus during theweekand canvisit home on weekends Paul Sampson, superintendentofThriveAcademy said he knew from data such as LEAP andACT scores that students were doingwell, but wanted abetter understandingofhowthoseacademicaccoladesimpact theirlives.Riverbend Research,a consulting armof theBaton RougeArea Chamber(BRAC), wasbrought in for adeepdiveintothe school’s data andoutcomes.

Thestudy showed that Thrive students perform 7 percentbetterthanthe LEAP statewidemastery andupaverage forstudentsfromunder-resourced communities.

“Someofour scores come closetothose of magnet academies. It wasreallyaffirmingtosee that we are providingthatlevel of high-quality educationtothe kids we serve,”Sampsonsaid.

andlearningsocialskills. Thestudy amplifiedthat impact,particularlywithcertain data:

•Thriveisprojected to increase lifetime earnings by $120,864 perstudent in itsspring2024graduation cohort •Thrive’sinfluenceonitsspring2024graduatingcohort isprojectedtosavetaxpayersabout$2.3millionover thecourseofthese students’lifetimes

Some former students have started theircareers at ThriveAcademy.TimMorris,a2020Thrivegraduate is nowaresidential mentor andsocialmedia director NathanielPoindexter, whograduated in 2021,is a residential mentor andwas theboys’ basketballcoach this season “I felt like Iwas really prepared for collegebecause IcametoThrive,”Morrissaid. “The shifttoliving in adormwas nota shocktomebecauseI hadlived on campushere.Ontheacademicside,Iwasabletohandle allofmyclasses withoutstruggling. MorrissaidthatwhenapositionopenedatThrive,he embraced thechancetobea part of theschool’swork

Anotherfindingwas that by attendingThrive, its students are34percent more likely to graduate from high school than wouldotherwise be expected.Many arealsoearningtheirdiplomawithcollegecoursework totheirnames.Historically, 25 to 30 percentofThrive students graduate with dual enrollment high school credits.In2020,thestateBoardofRegentsrecognized ThriveAcademyforthepercentageofminoritystudents whograduatefromthe school with collegecredit.

Theacademic strength of Thrive Academyhas inspiredRayniyahMills,ajunior,tocontinueworking toward hergoalofattending FloridaState University

“I’m learning alot here becauseit’snot abig school andthe classsizes aresmall,” Millssaid. “I’m able to focusmoreandgetmyworkdone.IalsoknowthatIcan askfor help when Ineedit. Everybodyisclose here.I feel like Ihavea family on campus.”

Thestudy also showed that 36 percentofThrive seventh-gradersand 40 percentofits eighth-graders scored masteryorhigheronLEAPtests

“Weknowbased on priorresearchthatastudent’s socioeconomicstatusmattersalotintermsofacademic outcomes,”saidJakePolansky,BRACdirectorofstrategy andresearch.“It’sclearthatThriveisnotexperiencing someofthesamechallengesandpitfallsassomeother schools. We sawthattheyare doingincrediblethings in termsofacademicachievement.” Cooper Simmons, ajunioratThrive, believes that success is duetothe smallclass sizesand bondsthat students andteachersformwithone another. “It’smoreofafriendlyrelationship. We canjoke around but stillunderstandthatweare at school and have to take care of ourbusiness,”Simmons said.“If somethingpersonalcomesup,theyarealwayswillingto helpoutastudentprivately,nomatterwhattheissueis.

SampsonsaidThrivehasheardfrommanygraduates

“I knew howmuchofanimpactithad on me as a student, andIwanttopourthatbackintoothers,” he said.“Ithink Iwould have beenona completely differentpathifI went to anotherschool. Poindexter said that in addition to giving him a strong academic foundation,helearned valuable skills such as communication, patience andlistening. “Therewerementorswhohadtobepatientwithme andnow I’ve learnedhow to be patientwithothers,” Poindexter said.“I’malsoinspiredbythe other people whoworkhere. They areheretohelpthe kids in school andinlife. Just beingaroundpeoplewho have thekids’ interestsatheart hastaughtmea lot.” Polansky said thosetypes of skills willmakeThrive graduatesstand outinthe workforce

“The fact that Thrive is able to take in some of the mostunder-resourcedstudentsandhelpthemperform well in school meansthatour localeconomy is going to have more skilledworkers fiveto10years from now. That’s ahugeenhancement to theworkforce pipeline for businesses in ourarea,” he said TheThriveteamisnow exploring ways to enhance ongoingcollege andworkforce readiness programs They areworking with keystakeholderstoensure Thrive students canhaveworkexperienceinareas includingsales andcustomer service. Onelongterm goal is

We can eliminate all these fraudulent payments and achieve a lot of savings. What you’re doing with that is you’re shoring up the program and you’re making sure that the people who rely upon that have it and that it’s a better program.”

The stakes are particularly high for Louisiana, which has one of the highest percapita percentages of residents on Medicare — more than a third of them. The program pays for health care for pregnant women, children, elderly disabled and working adults who rely on the state-federal health care insurance.

Health care accounts for $21.4 billion, or 43.4%, of the state’s total budget.

Louisiana taxpayers will be expected to put up $3.23 billion of that amount through the state general fund during the next fiscal year Any decrease in federal funding would require the state to pay more.

What would get cut?

Johnson and Scalise are pushing for “one big beautiful bill” that contains Trump’s agenda for tighter border security, increased energy production, more defense, and continuation of tax breaks that are soon to expire. The legislation would add $5 trillion to $11 trillion to the nation’s $36 trillion debt.

Trump said Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security “would not be touched.”

The bill requires the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut at least $880 billion. Those reductions could come in the form of eliminating regulations for refineries. But some including some Republicans — are concerned that, given the magnitude of the amount needed, Medicaid will be main target. Some have raised the expectation of cutting Medicaid spending through a

series of moves, such as reducing federal matching payments. That would increase the amounts the state must pay wreaking havoc on Louisiana’s budget.

House Appropriations Chair Jody Arrington, RTexas, detailed in a Jan. 25 memo the possibilities of lowering the 90% share the federal government pays for health care provided to states that expanded Medicaid rolls.

The memo also discussed the possibility of increasing assessments on hospitals and capping care costs by basically giving states a set amount rather than paying for each service performed.

State Rep. Jack McFarland, who as chair of the Louisiana Legislature’s House Appropriations Committee is just now starting to draft the state’s budget, said he has been receiving worried calls from across the state. And while unsure exactly what, if any, changes are in store, he is preparing for the worst Last week, he asked the Louisiana Department of Health to look at the various congressional proposals and estimate how much each could cost the state then look at what services could be cut and what populations would be impacted.

“It would create some significant challenges,” said McFarland, R-Winnfield. Basically, the state would have to cut services, reduce Medicaid rolls and find ways to come up with the money

“I don’t know how we would continue to look at reducing income taxes on the state level,” McFarland said.

Louisiana health care providers are also watching nervously

“Such proposals would place immense financial pressure on healthcare providers across the state, particularly small and rural hospitals that often serve as their communities’ primary healthcare providers and leading employers,” Paul

A. Salles, president of the Louisiana Hospital Association, wrote Johnson on Feb. 17. “Given that hospitals directly and indirectly support more than 308,000 jobs in Louisiana, the broader economic repercussions would be substantial.”

Jeff Reynolds, executive director of the Louisiana Rural Hospital Coalition, said Tuesday he’s telling hospital administrators that the only talk in Congress, so far, has been about the need to reduce Medicaid costs. No details have been released on just how that might be achieved.

But administrators worry that efforts to reduce the Medicaid rolls creates a larger population of uninsured who can’t pay but the hospitals still have to treat in emergency situations.

“It’s all speculative talk and that’s the problem, with so much unknown everyone is anxious,” Reynolds said.

‘I’m not concerned’

Others, however, say there’s no reason for alarm.

“I’m not concerned about the reconciliation bill one

bit,” state Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said Tuesday “There’s not one mention of the word Medicaid in the entire bill, there are no cuts to Medicaid in the bill, so all of the lying and fearmongering is just that lies and fearmongering.”

Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, from Start, represents a district with one of the nation’s highest percentage of Medicaid enrollees.

“The budget resolution is purely procedural and the first step in a lengthy process of preventing tax increases on families and small businesses,” she said in a statement. “Committees have not drafted legislation, and this is the start of a conversation to ensure programs like Medicaid will always be sustainable.”

Scalise said the budget bill was being misrepresented.

“This bill doesn’t even mention the word Medicaid a single time,” he said “And yet all Democrats are doing is lying about what’s in the budget because they don’t want to talk about the truth of what we’re voting

to start.”

But Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields, of Baton Rouge, said it’s disingenuous for Republicans to say they don’t know how the House Energy and Commerce Committee would cut $880 billion

when the only item being discussed is Medicaid.

“That’s exactly what they say they’re going to do. It’s unconscionable to say the least,” Fields said Tuesday A state senator until joining Congress in January, Fields added that state government won’t raise taxes to cover its larger share

“They’re going to move people off the rolls,” he said “This is going to dramatically affect health care in Louisiana.

Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, agreed. “Local legislators will either need to come up with significant new sources of funding to fill the hole left by Republican cuts or more likely — find ways to cut Medicaid spending in Louisiana,” Carter said Tuesday

“In my district, there are 291,555 people on Medicaid at risk of losing their health care under their plan. That includes 128,121 children under the age of 19 and 33,000 seniors over 65 That’s unacceptable. That’s not a solution.”

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.

In addition to police raises, it would take a lump sum from the libraries’ fund balance to pay for drainage and road improvements; mental health and community services; and efforts to address abandoned properties.

The new plan would give nearly the same raises to BRPD as originally proposed. “It gets us really close to that number,” making them closer to salaries competitive with other law enforcement, Davis said Given the state of public safety in Baton Rouge, the mayor called the tax revenue currently collected by the library “a gross miscalculation of taxpayer dollars.”

“Dead people can’t read books. We’ve got a problem in Baton Rouge,” Edwards said.

Edwards again argued Tuesday that Baton Rouge would still have the bestfunded library system in the state if his plan is approved But Assistant Library Director Mary Stein said the cut was simply too large to not disrupt services.

“It’s a 38% cut in operational funding,” she said. “You cannot operate the same when you have 38% less funding available to spend.” Stein said it appeared Edwards’ administration was changing its plan after running into pushback from the community.

“I’m hearing from members of the public who are calling me very concerned. They’re saying that it’s divisive,” she said. “This is North Baton Rouge versus South Baton Rouge This is pitting the police against the library But that is the opposite of what the library tries to do.”

The numbers

If passed by Metro Council and approved by voters in October, $10.5 million in recurring funding would go to

time, said he wasn’t ready to take a position on Edwards’ plan quite yet but said he was happy that the mayorpresident was involving other mayors in the parish. Yates added that he and other mayors will all be sitting down with Edwards to discuss the proposal soon.

“I applaud his effort to present this plan for people to see what he and his staff envision if it gets on a ballot and people vote in support of it,” Yates said. “I support the effort of looking at ways to make East Baton Rouge Parish a better place.”

The public reacts

The mayor’s staff presented Revive EBR again on Tuesday night to a crowd at Acacia Church on Siegen Lane at a Town Hall event put on by Metro Council members Rowdy Gaudet (District 3) and Dwight Hudson (District 9).

Like many other recent public events regarding the issue, the crowd leaned in the library’s favor, with many reacting to the mayor’s comments earlier in the day

agreed with the mayor and said the library had too much funding and suggested the mayor expand his sights and take control of other dedicated funds too.

BRPD, covering the raises.

The city-parish would also take control of the library’s fund balance, estimated to total about $92 million in 2025. That would allow the mayor’s office to make a number of large one-time allocations totaling $75.4 million to fund different programs, leaving the rest with the library Among these one-time allocations, $52.4 million would pay off debt. Another $9.5 million would go to public safety initiatives, including community policing programs, youth violence intervention resources and a joint gang task force between BRPD and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

The District Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender’s office and a plan to repurpose the BRAVE Cave into a community space would each receive $1 million to $1.5 million. The BRAVE Cave is a notorious police interrogation warehouse that was closed after lawsuits alleged abuse by officers.

Edwards has previously pointed to the fact that the library system has more than $90 million in reserves in its fund balance as evidence it collects too much money Library officials have argued that is misleading — since they don’t receive general parish funds, they have to save up money for major

renovations and new buildings, they say ‘A parish initiative’

The mayor said he was disheartened by the way discussions surrounding this issue have turned into “police versus the library” since his initial news release announcing the plan.

“This is also a parish initiative,” Edwards said. “One of the things that got put out there, is well, ‘St. George and Baker and Zachary and Central aren’t going to go for this.’ No, it covers them as well. It’s a parish deal.”

Last week, Central Mayor Wade Evans posted on Facebook that he was opposed to the mayor’s pitch to use parishwide money for BRPD raises.

“It looks like the powers that be on the third floor want to double down on the idea of taking a dedicated parish millage for their own interests in Baton Rouge,” Evans wrote. “I will not support stripping dedicated funding to prop up grossly inefficient departments of parish government. So much for real solutions.”

St. George mayoral candidate Jim Morgan could not be reached for comment Tuesday but replied “Say it again brother Amen!” to Evans’ post.

Interim St. George Mayor Dustin, who is currently running to keep the job full-

Edwards argued in his speech that employees in many important parish departments not just police — are underpaid and don’t have enough resources while the library is flush with cash.

“There’s a lot of people down there at City Hall that need a pay raise,” he said, referencing public works employees and clerks, among others.

“We don’t trust you,” one woman said about the mayor’s office taking over the library’s funding.

Others repeated a common argument from library supporters that it was wrong to rededicate funding that voters have repeatedly approved to spend on the library

Some called the mayor’s statement that he’d cut 600700 jobs if his plan isn’t approved a “threat.”

A handful of residents

A few residents who don’t live in the city limits asked the mayor’s staffers why they should pay for a tax under the mayor’s plan that funds programs that aren’t parishwide, like raises for BRPD. Davis and Executive Director for Edwards’ Office Mason Batts said there was a possibility that the final version of the mayor’s plan could include defined amounts for how much money could be spent on city departments.

Seven votes are needed to approve the mayor’s plan, which will be heard by Metro Council on March 12. If it passes, it would also need a majority from parish voters on ballots in October

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

Officials: Ukraine, U.S. have agreed on an economic deal

BY SUSIE BLANN, HANNA ARHIROVA and VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine and the U.S. have reached an agreement on a framework for a broad economic deal that would include access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, three senior Ukrainian officials said Tuesday

The officials, who were familiar with the matter, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly One of them said that Kyiv hopes that signing the agreement will ensure the continued flow of U.S. military support that Ukraine urgently needs.

The agreement could be signed as early as Friday and plans are being drawn up for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to travel to Washington to meet Trump, according to one of the Ukrainian officials.

Another official said the agreement would provide an opportunity for Zelenskyy and Trump to discuss continued military aid to Ukraine, which is why Kyiv is eager to finalize the deal.

President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he’d heard that Zelenskyy was coming and added that “it’s okay with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me.”

Trump called it “a very big deal,” adding that it could be worth a trillion dollars. It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things.”

According to one Ukrainian official some technical details are still to be worked out. However, the draft does not include a

contentious Trump administration proposal to give the U.S. $500 billion worth of profits from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv

Instead, the U.S. and Ukraine would have joint ownership of a fund, and Ukraine would in the future contribute 50 percent of future proceeds from state-owned resources, including minerals, oil, and gas. One official said the deal had better terms of investments and another one said that Kyiv secured favorable amendments and viewed the outcome as “positive.”

The deal does not, however, include security guarantees. One official said that this would be something the two presidents would discuss when they meet

The progress in negotiating the deal comes after Trump and Zelenskyy traded sharp rhetoric last week about their differences over the matter

Zelenskyy said he balked at signing off on a deal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed during a visit to Kyiv earlier this month, and the Ukrainian leader objected again days later during a meeting in Munich with Vice President JD Vance because the American proposal did not include security guarantees.

Trump then called Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” and claimed his support among voters was near rock-bottom.

But the two sides made significant progress during a three-day visit to Ukraine last week by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.

Israel, Hamas agree on new exchange

BY JOSEF FEDERMAN and ABBY SEWELL Associated Press

JERUSALEM Israeli and Hamas officials said Tuesday they have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of dead hostages for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, keeping their fragile ceasefire intact for at least a few more days.

Israel has delayed the release of 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it says is the cruel treatment of hostages during their release by Hamas.

The militant group has said the delay is a “serious violation” of their ceasefire and that talks on a second phase are not possible until they are freed.

The deadlock had threatened to collapse the ceasefire when the current sixweek first phase of the deal expires this weekend.

But late Tuesday Hamas said an agreement had been reached to resolve the dispute during a visit to Cairo by a delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, a top political official in the group.

The breakthrough appeared to clear the way for the return of the bodies of four more dead hostages and hundreds of additional prisoners scheduled to be released under the ceasefire.

The prisoners previously slated for release “will be released simultaneously with the bodies of the Israeli prisoners who were agreed to be handed over,” along with the release of a new set of Palestinian prisoners, the Hamas statement said.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed an agreement to bring home the bodies in the coming days. He gave no further details.

But Israeli media reports said the exchange could take place as soon as Wednesday The Ynet news site said

have said the ceremonies were humiliating to the hostages, and Israel last weekend delayed the scheduled prisoner release in protest. The latest agreement would complete both sides’ obligations of the first phase of the ceasefire — during which Hamas is returning 33 hostages including eight bodies — in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. It also could clear the way for an expected visit by the White House’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region Witkoff, who is expected in the region in the

the Israeli bodies would be handed over to Egyptian authorities without any public ceremony Hamas has released hostages, and the bodies of four

dead hostages, in large public ceremonies during which the Israelis were paraded and forced to wave to large crowds. Israel, along with the Red Cross and U.N. officials,

House GOP pushes ‘big’ budget resolution to passage

BY LISA MASCARO, KEVIN FREKING and MATT BROWN Associated Press

WASHINGTON — With a push from President Donald Trump, House Republicans sent a GOP budget blueprint to passage Tuesday, a step toward delivering his “big, beautiful bill” with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts despite a wall of opposition from Democrats and discomfort among Republicans.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, had almost no votes to spare in his bare-bones GOP majority and fought on all fronts — against Democrats, uneasy rank-and-file Republicans and skeptical GOP senators — to advance the party’s signature legislative package. Trump made calls to wayward GOP lawmakers and invited Republicans to the White House.

The vote was 217-215, with a single Republican and all Democrats opposed, and the outcome was in jeopardy until the gavel.

“On a vote like this, you’re always going to have people you’re talking to all the way through the close of the vote,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said before the roll call.

“We got it done,” the speaker said afterward. Passage of the package is crucial to kickstarting the process. Trump wants the Republicans who control Congress to approve a massive bill that would extend tax breaks, which he secured during his first term but are expiring later this year, while also cutting spending across federal programs and services.

Next steps are long and cumbersome before anything can become law — weeks of committee hearings to draft the details and send the House version to the Senate, where Republicans passed their own scaledback version. And more big votes are ahead, including an

objective today is to begin the process.”

At the same time, GOP deficit hawks were withholding support until they were convinced it wouldn’t add to the nation’s $36 trillion debt load. They warned it will pile onto debt because the cost of the tax breaks, with at least $4.5 trillion over the decade outweighing the $2 trillion in spending cuts to government programs.

One key conservative, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., ended up the sole GOP vote against.

efforts to rein in wasteful spending and deliver on President Trump’s agenda, it is imperative that we do not slash programs that support American communities across our nation,” wrote Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and several others GOP lawmakers from the Hispanic Conference.

Dem protest tax cuts

unrelated deal to prevent a government shutdown when federal funding expires March 14. Those talks are also underway It’s all unfolding amid emerging backlash to what’s happening elsewhere as billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk is tearing through federal agencies with his Department of Government Efficiency firing thousands of workers nationwide, and angry voters are starting to confront lawmakers at town hall meetings back home.

Democrats during an afternoon debate decried the package as a “betrayal” to Americans, a “blueprint for American decline” and simply a “Republican rip-off.”

“Our very way of life as a country is under assault,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on the steps of the Capitol.

Flanked by Americans who said they would be hurt by cuts to Medicaid and other social programs, the Democrats booed the GOP budget blueprint. But as the minority party, they don’t have the votes to stop it. Even as they press ahead, Republicans are running into a familiar problem: Slashing federal spending is typically easier said than done. With cuts to the Pentagon and oth-

er programs largely off limits, much of the other government outlays go for health care, food stamps, student loans and programs relied on by their constituents.

Several Republican lawmakers worry that scope of the cuts being eyed — particularly some $880 billion over the decade to the committee that handles health care spending, including Medicaid, for example, or $230 billion to the agriculture committee that funds food stamps — will be too harmful to their constituents back home.

GOP leaders insist Medicaid is not specifically listed in the initial 60-page budget framework, which is true. Johnson and his leadership team also told lawmakers they would have plenty of time to debate the details as they shape the final package.

But lawmakers wanted assurances the health care program and others will be protected as the plans are developed and merged with the Senate in the weeks to come.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said Trump has promised he would not allow Medicaid to be cut.

“The president was clear about that I was clear about that,” Lawler said. “We will work through this, but the

Ramaswamy joins Ohio governor’s race

BY JULIE CARR SMYTH

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio Vivek Ramaswamy, the Cincinnatiborn biotech entrepreneur who departed the Department of Government Efficiency initiative on President Donald Trump’s first day, launched his bid for Ohio governor Monday with promises to institute work requirements for Medicaid and merit pay for all public school teachers and administrators.

Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy, 39, kicked off his campaign in Cincinnati, joining the 2026 Republican primary just a month after presumed front-runner and then-Lt. Gov Jon Husted left the running to take a U.S. Senate appointment.

Ramaswamy sought the GOP nomination for president in 2024 before dropping

out to back Trump, who later tapped him to co-chair the efficiency initiative with billionaire Elon Musk. A nearbillionaire himself, Ramaswamy has promoted his ties to Trump as he lines up key endorsements and donors in the governor’s race. The president posted his endorsement of Ramaswamy Monday night on social media

“I spent most of last year working tirelessly to help send Donald Trump back to the White House because it was a fork in the road,” Ramaswamy said to loud cheers from the crowd. “It was a fork in the road for the future of the country.”

On his Truth Social site, Trump lauded Ramaswamy as “something SPECIAL.”

“He’s Young, Strong, and Smart!” Trump wrote. “Vi-

vek is also a very good person, who truly loves our Country. He will be a GREAT Governor of Ohio, will never let you down, and has my COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!”

Ramaswamy joins a competitive GOP primary field to succeed Republican Gov Mike DeWine, 78, a veteran center-right politician who is term-limited.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced a bid for the seat in January and Heather Hill, a Black entrepreneur from Appalachia, also is running Dr Amy Acton, the former state health director who helped lead Ohio through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running as a Democrat

They will compete in a former bellwether state that has tacked reliably red in recent years, having voted for Trump three times by more than 8 percentage points.

Trump had invited several dozen Republicans to the White House, including Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., who joined a group of GOP lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Conference raising concerns about protecting Medicaid, food stamps and Pell grants for college.

“While we fully support

Democrats in the House and the Senate vowed to keep fighting the whole process. “This is not what people want,” said Rep. Jim McGovern D-Mass., during a rules debate ahead of planned votes.

“We all know that trickledown economics,” he said about the 2017 tax breaks that flowed mainly to the wealthy, “don’t work.”

Trump has signaled a preference for “big” bill but also appears to enjoy a competition between the House and

the Senate, lawmakers said, as he pits the Republicans against each other to see which version will emerge.

Senate Republicans launched their own $340 billion package last week. It’s focused on sending Trump money his administration needs for its deportation and border security agenda now, with plans to tackle the tax cuts separately later this year

“I’m holding my breath. I’m crossing my fingers,” said Sen. John Cornyn, RTexas, who said he was rooting for the House’s approach as the better option. “I think a one-shot is their best opportunity.”

Johnson, whose party lost seats in last November’s election, commands one of the thinnest majorities in modern history which meant he had to keep almost every Republican in line or risk losing the vote.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

From left, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas; Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md.; Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.; and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., join others as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.y., speaks out against the Republican budget plan, on the House steps at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday.

BY JOSH BOAK and FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that his tariffs on Canada and Mexico are starting next month, ending a monthlong suspension on the planned import taxes that could potentially hurt economic growth and worsen inflation.

“We’re on time with the tariffs, and it seems like that’s moving along very rapidly,” the U.S president said at a White House news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

While Trump was answering a specific question about the taxes to be charged on America’s two largest trading partners, the U.S. president also stressed more broadly that his intended “reciprocal” tariffs were on schedule to begin as soon as April.

“The tariffs are going forward on time, on schedule,” Trump said. Trump has claimed that other countries charge unfair import taxes that have come at the expense of domestic manufacturing and jobs. His near constant threats of tariffs have already raised concerns among businesses and consumers about an economic slowdown and accelerating inflation. But Trump claims that the import taxes would ultimately generate revenues to reduce the federal budget deficit and new jobs for workers

“Our country will be extremely liquid and rich again,” Trump said.

In a interview on the Fox News show “Special Report” late Monday, Macron said he hoped he had convinced Trump to avoid a possible trade war, noting the difficulty of taking on a traditional ally such as Europe while

simultaneously using tariffs to challenge China’s industrial might “We don’t need a trade war,” Marcon said. “We need more prosperity together.”

Most economists say the cost of the taxes could largely be borne by consumers, retailers and manufacturers such as auto companies that source globally and rely on raw materials such as steel and aluminum that Trump is already, separately, tariffing at 25%.

Still, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appeared confident Monday that her administration would reach agreements with the U.S. government before the deadline set by Trump.

“We would need to be reaching important agreements this Friday,” Sheinbaum told reporters Monday morning before Trump’s remarks. “On all of the issues there is communication and

what we need is to complete this agreement, I believe we’re in a place to do it.”

If necessary, she said she would seek to speak directly with Trump again. In highlevel discussions between both governments, Mexico has insisted that the U.S. also take a hard look at the drug distribution and consumption in its own country rather than pointing only at production in Mexico, Sheinbaum said.

Companies like Walmart have warned about uncertainty, while the University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment index plunged by roughly 10% over the past month in part due to fears about tariffs and inflation worsening. In the 2024 presidential election, voters backed Trump on the belief that he could cool inflation that had spiked to a fourdecade high in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic

during President Joe Biden’s time in office.

But Trump has persistently threatened tariffs and kept up those calls even as Macron, standing beside him, had previously suggested that talks on trade had produced some common ground.

“We want to make a sincere commitment towards a fair competition where we have smooth trade and more investments,” Macron said at the news conference, according to a translation of his French remarks.

Macron said the idea is to help the U.S. and Europe both prosper, saying that further talks would be carried out by their respective teams to flesh out their ideas.

Investors, businesses and the broader public are still trying to determine whether Trump is merely threatening tariffs as a negotiating tool or if he sincerely backs the tax hikes as a way to offset his

planned income tax cuts. Despite talks the Trump administration has held with Canadian and Mexican officials, the U.S. president signaled Monday that he would end the 30-day suspension of tariffs that were initially set to take effect in February Trump plans to tax imports from Mexico at 25% as well as

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Drunken driver gets 5 years in plea deal

Gonzales man drove through crash scene, injuring

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

A Gonzales man who drunkenly drove through a crash scene on Interstate 10 and seriously injuring three Baton Rouge police officers nearly four years ago was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison. Joseph White, 30, plowed into a police cruiser as officers were investigating a crash scene on the

Audit: Schools should tighten oversight

Two in Livingston arrested previously

BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD

Staff writer

Livingston Parish public schools should tighten spending procedures and oversight of school equipment purchasing after two instances last year when money was misappropriated, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office said.

The state’s audit of the school district, conducted from July 2023 to June 2024, found two possible instances of criminal activity, which led to the arrests of a Walker baseball coach and a Denham Springs resident. The state’s audit was released Feb. 19.

The audit did commend the School Board for having internal controls in place allowing for selfdetection of these misappropriation incidents.

In October 2024, 30-year-old Britney Miles was arrested on a count of identity theft, with the victim listed as Denham Springs High School, police Sgt. Scott Sterling said.

The audit notes two fraudulent withdrawals totaling $350 from a student activity account, which aligns with Miles’ arrest report. The withdrawals were found during a review of the school’s monthly bank statement, and the bank later returned the money to the school.

The suspect was not an employee of the school, district spokesperson Delia Taylor said. Court records show the charges were later dismissed.

In a higher profile case, former Walker High School baseball coach Nicholas Scelfo, 33, was arrested after being reimbursed $29,000 over six months for the purchase of baseball equipment and supplies. It was later discovered the items had never been received or used at the school, according to the report.

In May, Walker High School contacted the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office about alleged misappropriation of funds, according to court records.

“Walker High School officials conducted an equipment inventory They discovered that the equipment Scelfo claimed to have ordered did not exist,” Sheriff Jason Ard said about the investigation at the time.

Scelfo had been coach for one year before his arrest on a count of felony theft. The case is still going through litigation, and a new baseball coach has since been hired. The misused money was returned to the School Board.

The audit recommends the School Board have all purchases, including those for equipment,

interstate in August 2021. Sgt. Jason Martin suffered the most life-altering injuries. Doctors had to amputate his right leg from the knee down Martin spent nearly a month recovering in a hospital. He still undergoes physical therapy twice a week and wears a prosthetic limb. Despite his injuries, Martin remains a Baton Rouge police officer on active duty He returned to work in May 2022.

He was in the Baton Rouge courtroom Tuesday as White pleaded guilty to two counts of injuring a person due to first-degree vehicular negligence. District Judge Michael McDonald imposed fiveyear sentences on both counts and ordered White to serve the prison time on both counts simultaneously

If White had gone to trial and was found guilty of the two charges he faced up to 20 years behind bars.

BR

police officers

Standing outside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse after the hearing, Martin said he and Joseph Carboni, one of the other officers injured in the crash, proposed the plea deal to the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors then presented the offer to White’s attorney, and he accepted the terms.

“This is a day we’ve been moving toward for almost 31/2 years,” Martin said. “It’s time to end this,

so that everybody can move on with their lives and get on to the next parts.”

The crash happened on I-10 East near College Avenue early on the morning of Aug. 21, 2021. According to a police report, emergency crews had shut down the interstate’s left lane as several officers responded to a crash.

While investigating the wreck, Martin and Carboni were standing outside their cars in the blocked lane when White sped his

LEFT: Jeff Gober adds lighting decorations to his fence for the upcoming Spanish Town Parade at his home along Spanish Town Road on Monday BELOW: Flamingos decorate a neighbor’s yard.

Off-duty state trooper accused in DUI crash

Veteran officer arrested after morning incident

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

A veteran off-duty Louisiana state trooper was arrested Tuesday, accused of drunken driving and causing an early morning multivehicle crash in Baton Rouge Capt. Belinda Murphy, 53, was arrested on a count of driving while intoxicated first offense, two counts of vehicular negligence causing injuries, and a count of failing to heed traffic control signals. She was placed on leave following her arrest, according to a statement from Louisiana State

Police. About 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, troopers with Troop A investigated a three-car crash on Plank Road near Harding Boulevard. One of the drivers was identified as Murphy, who wasn’t working at the time and driving a Chevrolet Tahoe southbound on Plank Road. At the same time, a marked Baton Rouge Police Department cruiser and a Toyota Prius were both attempting to turn left from Harding Boulevard onto Plank Road. Murphy disregarded a red light on Plank Road and struck the Charger, which in turn hit the Prius, according to authorities. Murphy and the other drivers were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

State Police investigators said Murphy displayed signs of

Manufacturer to employ 600

BY ADAM DAIGLE Acadiana business editor

A Baton Rouge-based manufacturer will open a location at the Port of Iberia to build modules for petrochemical plants, a move that will employ 600, officials announced Tuesday morning. Officials with the port and Cajun Industries, along with Gov. Jeff Landry and state and local elected officials, ushered in the development Tuesday morning, which will cover 66 acres at the port and allow the company to use increased access to the Gulf of Mexico for transportation. Cajun’s move is also a big win for manufacturing in the region and the state, Landry said, as part

of the Trump administration’s emphasis on growing manufacturing jobs in the United States.

“When we think about the great opportunity we have right now, it really is unbelievable,” Landry said. “President Trump’s Make America Great plans fits right into this. He wants to see domestic manufacturing onshore in America. These are the projects that help us build Louisiana and America.”

The company’s module assembly yard will offer multidiscipline design and engineering services along with extensive direct-hire construction resources. It would allow Cajun to offer turnkey engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction solutions, a status that company officials say is the only one of its kind in Cajun Industries to locate assembly yard in Iberia

STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Bogalusa mayor says arrest is ‘politically motivated’

Truong: Drug allegations are not true

BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer

In his first interview with a reporter since his Jan. 7 arrest, Bogalusa Mayor Tyrin Truong said Tuesday he believes his arrest was “politically motivated” because as mayor he has sought to upend the status quo in the Washington Parish city “The charges are not true. Anybody that knows me knows that I’m not a drug dealer,” he said by phone Louisiana State Police arrested Truong, 25 on counts of transactions involving proceeds from drug offenses, unauthorized use of a movable, and soliciting for prostitutes He was released later that night from Washington Parish jail in Franklinton

after posting $150,000 bail. On the day of the arrest, northshore District Attorney Collin Sims said Truong allegedly “organized entertainment with a prostitute” at an Airbnb in Atlanta, where he was attending a mayor’s conference. Sims said Truong arranged the alleged Atlanta “entertainment” while still in Louisiana Sims also accused Truong of purchasing drugs in Louisiana.

“No, I did not. That’s not true,” Truong said of the solicitation charge State Police have refused to share the initial report of Truong’s arrest in response to a records request, citing an ongoing investigation. Truong said he is working to secure legal counsel. Some supporters started an online fundraiser to help him pay for legal fees. It had $4,204 as of Tuesday When Truong became mayor in 2022 at 23 years old, he was the city’s first Black male mayor, the youngest mayor in Bogalu-

sa history and tied for the youngest in Louisiana state history

“What’s not lost on me in American politics and Louisiana politics and Bogalusa politics is the fact that there is a clear pattern of when minorities receive representation, it’s always attacked,” he said.

“Our leadership has been focused on making the quality of life better for the average Bogalusan,” he said. He said he has put more police on the streets to reduce crime, revitalized some of Bogalusa’s parks and hosted a mayor’s camp for youth over the summer.

“He was not the target of the investigation,” Sims said by phone Tuesday, saying the investigation was conducted by multiple agencies and led by State Police. “His involvement was not anticipated.”

Truong said his bigger concern is the possible

appointment of a fiscal administrator to take control of the city’s finances — the second in six years.

The state Fiscal Review Committee in January recommended a fiscal administrator take control of Bogalusa’s troubled finances. The city owed over $1 million to the IRS, the state Legislative Auditor’s office found, and did not have enough revenue to cover its expenditures. The city also has not completed its 2022 audit, which is preventing it from completing the 2023 or 2024 annual audits and stopping it from accessing state funding.

Truong initially expressed support of the appointment of a fiscal administrator saying the city needed a “neutral third party” to help the administration achieve its goals. The mayor has frequently clashed with the City Council over the city’s budget.

But on Tuesday, Truong

said he changed his mind after the state recommended Robert Neilson, an accountant with offices in Bogalusa and Covington, to serve as fiscal administrator Neilson was the city’s auditor for years until Truong took over in 2022, when Truong said he “fired” Neilson. Neilson, meanwhile, said his firm was initially going to serve as auditor for Truong, but withdrew from the 2022 audit because bookkeeping was “chaos” under Truong.

Truong said he believes Neilson’s previous work for the city poses a conflict of interest. Neilson disagreed, saying the state recommended him for the job because he knows the city’s finances well.

“When (Truong) found out it was me, he started kicking because he knows, ‘Here comes the rain,’ ” Neilson said Tuesday “I am going to work with the City Council and the mayor, if that’s possible.”

A state judge will officially decide who serves as fiscal administrator on Friday Truong said he tried and failed to convince the City Council to hire legal representation for him in court on Friday He said the City Attorney cannot serve because he uses Neilson as his accountant.

“You have a young Black mayor who has consistently tried to clean historical problems up in the city, and we’re on the verge of being stripped of power by the same people who caused the city to be in the place it was in the first place,” Truong said.

Truong said he plans to present his case to the judge on Friday without legal representation. “It is a very polarized environment, but that’s nothing new in the city of Bogalusa.”

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

Mississippi River on the rise; precautions put in place

Spillway opening unlikely

BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer

The Mississippi River has been on the rise, as tends to happen this time of year, but while relatively minor precautions are being put in place by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, an opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway seems unlikely so far

The river has risen to over 11 feet at New Orleans’ Carrollton gauge, which translates roughly to 11 feet above sea level. Rising above 11 feet triggers what the Corps calls

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Volkswagen Jetta through the activated emergency flashing lights and crashed into a police cruiser Baton Rouge police officer Michelle Patterson was sitting inside the car and suffered multiple leg injuries. Carboni suffered severe head injuries that rendered him unconscious. The crash left Martin with a broken leg and multiple compound fractures. All three officers were rushed to a local hospital. White admitted to police that he drank whiskey and smoked marijuana earlier in the day according to a police report. Officers noted he was extremely intoxicated and had poor balance. His blood-alcohol level was 0.194, more than twice the legal limit.

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Louisiana.

Modularization has become the norm in industrial construction over the past 10 years, said Cajun senior vice president Andy Lopez. The move allows the company to be among a handful of companies in the U.S. that can offer EPFC solutions.

“This is a significant moment not only for the state of Louisiana and the Port of Iberia but for all of us at Cajun Industries,” Lopez said.

“The reality of this project is a long time in the making. This new service line will further solidify Cajun as a nationally recognized construction leader that brings innovative and old-fashioned work ethic to execute worldclass projects throughout the United States.”

The improved access to the Gulf, which the Trump administration recently renamed the Gulf of America, via the Acadiana Gulf of Mexico Access Channel was

a phase 1 flood fight, which means increased levee checks in coordination with local authorities and restrictions on certain work near them.

The Corps announced Monday it had entered phase 1, which is likely to last a couple of weeks or so “The increased patrols help ensure our ability to respond quickly to any problem areas that may develop along the levee system because of the elevated water levels,” the Corps said in a statement. A spillway opening can be triggered to keep river flow below 1.25 million cubic feet per second, which the Corps says tends to correlate to 17 feet on the

“Impaired driving is 100% preventable,” Martin said “I’ve said that from the beginning and for the past 20 years with my involvement with impaired driving enforcement. It’s something that can be totally prevented if people just make the right decisions. This just reiterates that it can happen to anybody at any time.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, Martin shared a moment with White. He said the defendant apologized to him as he has done multiple times in the past.

“He’s very remorseful for what happened, and we’ve accepted that apology,” Martin said. “I just told him that it was time to move on from this, to do what he needs to do while he’s in prison. And to make his life better, so that when he gets out be a productive member of society and get on with his life And not let this affect him for the rest

instrumental in the company’s decision to locate at the port It has no height restrictions, and the Freshwater Bayou bypass channel is expected to be operable in the near future, according to Cajun officials, which allow large offshore barges to access the port. It will also have capability of shipping large truckable modules via U.S. 90. As an incentive for locating at the port, the state offered Cajun participation in the Quality Jobs program, which offers payroll benefits as an inducement for businesses to expand in the state, a Louisiana Economic Development spokesman said.

“Cajun Industries’ new facility at the Port of Iberia is a testament to how Louisiana’s business ecosystem is a place where both new and established businesses can grow and thrive, LED Secretary Susan B. Bourgeois said. “From supporting thousands of jobs to working major projects across statewide, Cajun Industries has a

Carrollton gauge. National Weather Service forecasts show the river rising to 12.3 feet at Carrollton from the current 11.3 feet by March 4 before gradually falling, though those estimates can change significantly

Bonnet Carre, located in St. Charles Parish, connects the river to Lake Pontchartrain through a floodway and bays that are opened when needed It was built as part of construction of the vast levee system along the river following the great flood of 1927, which severely inundated Louisiana communities. It has been opened 15 times since then, including twice in 2019 due to heavy

of his life.”

Martin was greeted with handshakes and gleeful greetings from people who recognized him as he walked through the courthouse. He had a triumphant homecoming, when released from the hospital after four weeks in 2021. He said he has received support from the Mayor’s Office, the district attorney, fellow police officers and a number of families throughout the East Baton Rouge parish.

“Everybody’s been 100% supportive, gone above and beyond,” he said. “They have just opened their arms and taken care of us, so that we didn’t have to suffer Or it made the suffering a little bit less so that we were able to power through this and get back to doing what we were meant to do.”

Email Matt Bruce at matt bruce@theadvocate.com.

rich legacy in Louisiana, and we are so thankful it chose to further its imprint and impact here at home.”

The manufacturing jobs are the latest to be scheduled to arrive in Iberia Parish, said Parish President M. Larry Richard. Cajun joins Delta Biofuels, which employs 275 at its plant in Jeanerette, and First Solar which Richard said could exceed its 700 job total and reach close to 1,000 when it begins operations next year

Still in progress are negotiations for a biopharmaceutical manufacturing cluster that could employ 400 in conjunction with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center “I am so blessed to be the parish president at this time,” Richard said. “This is a big deal for Iberia Parish. Five years from of course, I won’t be the parish president — but this parish is going to look a lot different.”

Email Adam Daigle at adaigle@theadvocate.com.

rains that year in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys. The river rises in the late winter and spring due to seasonal rains and snow melt flowing down from the Midwest.

But while the spillway provides protection, it is not without controversy

The heavy influx of fresh water through Lake Pontchartrain, the Rigolets and eventually into the Gulf can badly damage shrimp and oyster species.

In 2019, the lengthy spillway openings totaling 123 days resulted in federal fisheries disaster declarations.

In Louisiana, oyster mortality on public reefs ranged as high as 100% in

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made with checks to respective vendors and that employees should not be directly reimbursed from school accounts

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impairment and voluntarily took a toxicology test. The results of Murphy’s test are pending.

Murphy has worked for the state police since 2001. Currently she’s been part of the special investigations division.

“The integrity, professionalism, and embodiment of our core values are paramount for everyone throughout the Department of Public Safety,” according

some areas. Mississippi saw 96.9% oyster mortality across all sizes and nearly 100% mortality of marketsize oysters on the major public reefs in the western Mississippi Sound.

The Corps is looking at options for managing the river’s spillways as part of a larger, five-year study on the lower Mississippi. Included in that study is the Morganza Spillway on the river’s west bank.

The precautions announced Monday include patrolling levees twice weekly until levels drop below 11 feet at Carrollton. Certain work, such as transport of heavy loads over levees or subsurface

without proper receipts. The school district management responded in the audit, saying it was actively working on these suggestions.

Email Claire Grunewald at claire.grunewald@ theadvocate.com.

to the statement from State Police.

Email Quinn Coffman at quinn.coffman@ theadvocate.com.

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MONDAY, FEB 24, 2025

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BUSINESS

BRIEFS

Forever 21 could shutter 178 stores

Forever 21 stores in Denham Springs, Lafayette and Lake Charles could close as the popular fashion retailer is headed toward its second bankruptcy filing. The chain filed for bankruptcy Sunday and said it could potentially close 178 stores.

The retailer will try to renegotiate deals with landlords to keep the stores open but will close them if no deal is reached.

If the Lafayette Forever 21 store closes, it would be another big-name retailer to leave the Acadiana Mall. Macy’s announced in last month it will close its 200,000-square-foot anchor space some time this spring.

The three Louisiana stores were slated for closure in 2019 following Forever 21’s first bankruptcy filing.

Shareholders reject Apple DEI proposal

Apple shareholders rebuffed an attempt to pressure the technology trendsetter into joining President Donald Trump’s push to scrub corporate programs designed to diversify its workforce.

The proposal drafted by the National Center for Public Policy Research — a self-described conservative think tank — urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives currently in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.

After a brief presentation about the anti-DEI proposal, Apple announced shareholders had rejected it without disclosing the vote tally The preliminary results will be outlined in a regulatory filing later Tuesday

The outcome vindicated Apple management’s decision to stand behind its diversity commitment even though Trump asked the U.S. Department of Justice to look into whether these types of programs have discriminated against some employees whose race or gender aren’t aligned with the initiative’s goals.

Tuesday’s shareholder vote came a month after the same group presented a similar proposal during Costco’s annual meeting, only to have it overwhelmingly rejected.

Small-business owners uncertain about future

Small-business owners felt more uncertain about the future in January, as they continue to deal with labor challenges and lingering inflation.

According to a monthly poll of small-business owners from the National Federation of Independent Business, the uncertainty index in January rose 14 points to 100 — the third highest recorded reading, after two months of decline. The NFIB said small-business owners are feeling less confident about investing in their business due to uncertain business conditions in the coming months.

In the NFIB poll, optimism fell by 2.3 points in January to 102.8, but remained high. Optimism surged after the presidential election, and the index still topped the 51-year average of 98 for the third month in a row

Consumer confidence drops in February

BY MATT OTT AP business writer

WASHINGTON U.S. consumer con-

fidence plummeted in February, the biggest monthly decline in more than four years, a business research group said Tuesday with inflation seemingly stuck and a trade war under President Donald Trump seen by a growing number of Americans as inevitable.

The Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index sank this month to 98.3 from 105.3 in January That’s far below the expectations of economists, who pro-

jected a reading of 103, according to a survey by FactSet.

The seven-point drop was the biggest month-to-month decline since August 2021.

Respondents to the board’s survey expressed concern over inflation with a significant increase in mentions of trade and tariffs, the board said.

The Conference Board’s report Tuesday said that the measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for income, business and the job market fell 9.3 points to 72.9. The Conference Board says a reading under 80 can signal a

potential recession in the near future.

The proportion of consumers expecting a recession over the next year jumped to a nine-month high, the board said.

Consumers’ view of current conditions tumbled 3.4 points to a reading of 136.5 this month, and views on current labor market conditions fell again.

“Views of current labor market conditions weakened,” the group said Tuesday. “Consumers became pessimistic about future business conditions and less optimistic about future income. Pes-

simism about future employment prospects worsened and reached a 10-month high.”

Consumers appeared increasingly confident heading into the end of 2024 and spent generously during the holiday season. However, U.S retail sales dropped sharply in January, with cold weather taking some of the blame for a dent in vehicle sales and at retail stores.

Retail sales fell 0.9% last month from December, the Commerce Department reported last week The decline, the biggest in a year, came after two months of healthy gains.

Carlyle Group founder pledges $1B to end nursing shortage

Bill Conway dedicates record numbers to range of programs

BY MARIA DI MENTO Chronicle of Philanthropy

Bill Conway didn’t start out wanting to make a big impact on the nursing profession. In 2011, the financier announced he would give away $1 billion to create jobs for the poor and asked the public to send him ideas. In came around 2,500 suggestions. Most were sob stories, but some people had good ideas, he said, and several suggested backing bachelor’s degree nursing programs.

“It was along the lines of: If we support potential students to get a nursing degree, then they’ll always be able to get a job and take care of themselves, their families, and the rest of us,” Conway said. “My wife and I thought that sounded pretty good.”

Currently, private giving for the nursing profession accounts for only one cent of every dollar given for health care, according to a report from the foundation arm of the American Nurses Association. And giving to nursing isn’t a popular cause among most wealthy donors.

But there are exceptions. Leonard Lauder has given $177 million to nursing schools at the University of Pennsylvania and Hunter College, and Mark and Robyn Jones donated $100 million to expand Montana State University’s nursing program

Yet no other wealthy donor has dedicated as much money to such a wide range of nursing programs as Conway, the 75-yearold co-founder of the private equity giant the Carlyle Group, and his late wife, Joanne Barkett Conway, who died in January 2024.

Co-founder of The Carlyle Group, Bill Conway, center,

Those efforts are destined to grow, with Conway only about a third of the way toward his target of giving $1 billion to nursing.

So far, he has donated $325.6 million to support student aid, new buildings, efforts to recruit and retain faculty, and more at 22 nursing schools in the Eastern and mid-Atlantic regions. He also is backing a pediatric nursing program at Children’s National Hospital, in Washington, D.C.

Over the past decade, that money has helped produce more than 7,000 nurses.

Now he said, he wants to take his support of nursing programs nationwide

“I expect that of most of the money I leave to charity will go to continuing this mission,” said Conway, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $4 billion. “I see that

we’re starting to make a difference in some places, and I’d like to make more of a difference over time.”

In 2013, the Conways gave $4 million to Catholic University’s nursing school. Since then, their giving to the institution — now named the Conway School of Nursing — has grown to more than $64 million, expanding full scholarships, largely paying for a new nursing school building and backing graduate nursing programs.

The Conways also have supported mentoring efforts and a review course to prepare students for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.

“Calling his donations transformational is not saying enough,” said Marie Nolan, dean of Catholic’s nursing school.

BY STAN CHOE AP business writer

NEW YORK Some of Wall Street’s brightest stars lost more of their shine Tuesday after another report said U.S. households are getting more pessimistic about the economy.

The S&P 500 fell. It was the fourth straight drop for the main measure of the U.S. stock market’s health after it set an all-time high last week

The Nasdaq composite sank as several influential Big Tech companies lost momentum and screeched lower But the majority of stocks nevertheless rose, which helped the Dow Jones Industrial

Average close higher

The U.S. stock market has been generally struggling since the middle of last week after several weaker-than-expected reports on the economy thudded onto Wall Street. On Tuesday, the latest said confidence among U.S. consumers is falling by more than economists expected.

The U.S. economy still appears to be in solid shape, and growth is continuing at the moment. But for the first time since June, a measure of consumers’ expectations for the economy in the short term fell below a threshold that usually signals a recession ahead, according to The Conference Board. The increase in pessimism was broad-based and

carried across both higher- and lower-income households, as well as older and younger ones.

“There was a sharp increase in the mentions of trade and tariffs, back to a level unseen since 2019,” according to Stephanie Guichard, senior economist, global indicators at The Conference Board “Most notably, comments on the current administration and its policies dominated the responses.”

For its part, President Donald Trump’s White House said the lower confidence reflects the overhang of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. It also pointed to recent announcements of investment for new U.S. facilities by Apple and of improving

CEO confidence as indicators of upcoming growth.

Wall Street tracks confidence among consumers because solid spending by them has been helping to keep the U.S. economy out of a recession. And Tuesday’s report echoed what an earlier report from the University of Michigan suggested: Consumers see the current situation as OK, but they’re worried about the future.

The pessimism hit high-momentum areas of the market in particular, those that had seen waves of euphoric investors pile in during recent years Nvidia fell 2.8%, for example, while Tesla tumbled 8.4%. They were the two heaviest weights on the S&P 500.

Charter fishing profits from Gulf name change

Out

fitting

company started in 2023

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

When President Donald Trump in January changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, a Lafayette business was already ahead of the name game.

“This is huge for us,” Adam Peterson recalled thinking when about 40 friends and clients texted him about Trump’s shoutout.

Peterson, a Lafayette resident, and Joseph Crookshank started Gulf of America Outfitters, a charter fishing business, in 2023, two years before Trump’s executive order assigning a new name to the body of water bounded to its north by the United States and to the south by Mexico.

The partners knew they had the right name for their business when a brainstorming exercise hit on Gulf of America, Peter-

son said. It was a name they could brand, he said, that speaks to where they operate and set them up well against their competition.

People who work on the Gulf Coast loved it.

“We’ve always felt like Gulf of America represents the guys that go out on rigs and work, the conservation agencies down here, trying to make the Gulf better,” Peterson said “We feel a level of ownership for the Gulf. We surround the Gulf way more than Mexico does, from South Padre to the tip of Florida. So much of what we do as coastal communities is built around that Gulf.”

Trump’s executive order has been nothing but good for Gulf of America Outfitters.

Interest in the company’s T-shirts, already popular, exploded, he said Peterson sold out of 1,500 shirts in three weeks totaling about $45,000.

“It’s about as American as you can get,” Peterson said. He runs the T-shirt operation out of his Lafayette garage, with his children and parents pitching in. The charter fishing

business, which operates mainly out of Venice but also out of Fourchon and is expanding soon to Lake Charles, also blew up after Trump’s late January proclamation.

Gulf of America Outfitters’ slow months usually are January and February, Peterson said In January 2024, the company booked about $42,000 in trips compared with $67,000 this January Last February, Peterson said he booked $33,000 in trips. Bookings exploded to $216,000 this February, he said. That’s about a 554% increase year over year.

Peterson doesn’t attribute all of the new interest to Trump, who he voted for It’s probably a combination of things, he said, like return bookings, the economy and oilfield and oilfield service companies more willing to book charters for their clients.

“I’m not mad about it,” Peterson said. “It’s been huge for our business.”

Email Claire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

A man who once stayed in a St. Landry Parish-area monastery has been arrested and charged with cyberstalking after allegedly pretending to be a priest and sending a nun more than 100 vulgar emails since 2018.

John William Modler Jr., 57, of Ellicott, Maryland, was arrested in Texas and extradited to St. Landry Parish, according to a news release from St Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz. Reports from Pennsylvania, California, Ohio, Kentucky and Arizona suggest Modler frequented religious establishments across the country, living with them for days without paying for his accommodations and sometimes leaving numerous offensive emails and voicemail messages after departing.

The St. Landry Parish investigation, Guidroz wrote, began in May 2024 when a sister with the Catholic Church reported that since 2018 she had been receiving vulgar and improper emails allegedly from Modler

Guidroz said Modler and the nun were at a monastery in the St. Landry Parish area at the same time. When they left, Modler allegedly used deceitful tactics like pretending to be a priest to find out where the sister was as she traveled, he wrote.

There are multiple active arrest warrants from several states, Guidroz wrote, implicating Modler in larceny and fraud. In May, police reported possible outstanding warrants for Modler’s arrest in Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

The Servants of the Father of Mercy in Ventura, California, posted on its Facebook page that in October 2023, according to law enforcement bulletins and church alerts, Modler fraudulently represented himself as a church staff member in Chicago. He allegedly tried to meet with a female dance group but the women found his story suspicious and learned of warrants for his arrest

As early as November 2017, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati published a fraud alert about Modler impersonating a Catholic brother, according to the Servants of the Father of Mercy Facebook page.

In April 2017, a nondenominational ministry called Miracle Valley in Arizona published an advisory about Modler, with leaders describing him as disgruntled and mentally challenged.

Two years later, in September 2019, Modler allegedly spent 10 days for free in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with the Servants of the Father of Mercy that serves tens of thousands of homeless. There he mostly spent time in his room on the computer and telephone and fraudulently promised thousands of dollars in donations.

When he left, he allegedly urinated on a mattress and left beer cans in his room. He followed up by sending years of threatening voicemail messages against Christians, the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ communities, according to the Facebook post.

Modler was arrested in Texas and recently extradited to St. Landry Parish on a cyberstalking/ electronic mail charge, a felony

Anyone with additional information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (337) 948-6516.

Email Claire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.

Obituaries

Ainsworth, Roger Dale

Roger DaleAinsworth passed away peacefully on February 22, 2025. He was born in Tylertown, MS, son of the late Louis and Thelma Ainsworth. He was a resident of Louisiana,but loved to travel.

Roger workedhard to provide for his familyasa professionaldriver for more than 30 years. He was known for his big smile and his kind spirit. He never met astranger. He served as adeacon of his church for many years. He loved to talk about Jesus with everyone he met. He felt aheavy burden for those who needed to hear the Gospel.

Roger is survived and missed by his wife of 56 years, Peggy Patrick Ainsworth; daughter, Tammi Ardese (Tray) and son, James (Andrea). Forever cherished by 8grandchildren, Aubrey, Ethan (Larissa), Corey (Hailey), Brock (Kallianne),Matthew, Tyler, Amanda (Jeremy), Justin (Emily), 9great grandchildren and 1great, great grandchild. Also survived by sister, Jean Easley, brothers, Gerald (Charlene), Charles "Dickie" (Jean), brother in law Lloyd Morgan, sister in law Nancy, many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by sister, Liz Morgan and brothers Edward, Fred and David.

Alexander, Johnell Johnell Alexander en‐tered into eternal rest at his residence in Baker, Louisiana on January 15 2025 at the age of 72. View‐ing at St John Baptist Church on Thursday, Feb‐ruary 27, 2025 at 9:00 am until Celebration of Life Service at 10:00 am con‐ducted by Pastor Donald Ruth; interment at Azalea Rest. He is survived by his devoted wife, Gloria Alexander; other relatives and friends Arrangements entrusted to Miller & Daughter Mortuary.

Audrey A. Brown, age 83, passed away on Sunday, February 23, 2025. Audrey was born in New Orleans and resided in Baton Rouge. She was astay-athome mother and homemaker who loved spending time and making memories with her children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. Audrey is survived by her sons, Richard H. Brown, III (BeckyTaylor) and Mark Brown (Terri); sister, Dot Sanders; brothers, Charles and Doris Alleman and Nolan Alleman; sisters-inlaw, Janice Brown and Darlene Brown; brother-inlaw, Connie Hodgeson; grandchildren, Justin Brown (Megan), Matthew Brown (Bethanie), Richard H. Brown IV, Kali Brown and LorenzoCasso; along with great-grandchildren, Owen and Lois Brown. She is preceded in death by her husband, Richard H. Brown Jr.; daughter, Anna Casso; parents, John and Mary Alleman; sister, Anna Hodgeson; brother, Johnny Alleman; brothers-in-law, DudleySanders and Bobby Brown; father-in-law, Richard H. Brown Sr.; mother-in-law, Lola Brown; sister-in-law, Bobby Lee Alleman; nephew, Scott Brown and grandson, Ryan Casso. Avisitation will be held on Thursday, February 27th from 9:30AM to 1:30PM at Rabenhorst Funeral Home East with a graveside service to follow at 2:00PM at Greenoaks Memorial Park. Pallbearers will be Keith Hodgeson, Chuck Alleman, Justin Brown, Matthew Brown, Richard H. Brown IV and

neral Home East with a graveside service to follow at 2:00PM at Greenoaks Memorial Park. Pallbearers will be Keith Hodgeson, Chuck Alleman, Justin Brown, Matthew Brown, Richard H. Brown IV and Lorenzo Casso. Honorary pallbearers areKaliand Owen Brown.

DeLaune, Vernell 'Nell'

Vernell "Nell" Sevario DeLaune of Galvez,La., born November 30, 1931 in Goodhope, La., passed away on Sunday, February 23, 2025, at the age of 93. She was preceded in death by her husband, B.F. DeLaune; parents, Louise Ficklin Sevario andPete Sevario Jr.; infant brother, Peter Sevario III; grandson, Brady DeLaune;daughterin-law, Gwen DeLaune;and greatgrandson, Benjamin Thomas DeLaune. Nell is survived by 4children, Benny and Kittye DeLaune, Cassie and Billy Lemoine, Pete and Mitzi DeLaune, and Tommy DeLaune;13 grandchildren, Megan DeLaune, Aaron DeLaune, Kurt and Janell Soileau, Lacie and Jacob DeLacerda, Lauren and Jeremy Knott, Hailey and Preston Johnston, Mason and Allison DeLaune,Jacob, Carter, Connor, Luke,Katie,and Jennie DeLaune.10greatgrandchildren, Shelby, Gabe, Alexia, Gage, Reece, Henry, Evie,Mia,Eddie, and Maverick. Visitation will be held on Thursday, February 27, 2025 at Ourso Funeral Home 13533 Airline Hwy Gonzales, La 70737 from 10 am until the funeral service at 11am officiated by Dr. Robert Lawrence. Interment will follow at Ficklin Family Cemetery, Galvez, La. Family members will serve as pallbearers. Expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.oursofh.com.

Dunn, Mattie Mae

Aretiredparaprofessional of EBR School System and aresident of Baton Rouge, she died Monday, February 24, 2025 at 6:15 AM at her residence. She was 75, anative of Norwood, a1967 Graduate of East High School

Visitation at Richardson Funeral Home,Clinton on Wednesday, February 26th, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. ReligiousserviceatMount Calvary Baptist Church, 9147 Hwy 422, Norwood on Thursday at 10:00 AM Bishop George Veal, Officiating Interment in the Church Cemetery.

She is survived by her loving daughters, Charlotte D. Dunn and Monica M. Dunn both of Baker, LA two loving granddaughters; Cha'Quoncia Ruffin and Cai'Brielle Dunn both of Baker, LA, one sister Addie Marshall of Norwood, La, five sisters-in-laws; Beulah D. Robertson, Baton Rouge, Rose D. Doolittle, Baker, LA, Devoted sisterin-law, Loretta D. Dunn, Baton Rouge, LA, Earnestine D. Gordon and Geraldine Dunn both of Clinton, LA.

She was preceded in death by herparents; her husband RooseveltDunn, Jr. three sisters and four brothers.

Tammer H Baton Rouge, Louisiana; three grandchildren; and a sis‐ter, Dorothy Netter, Baker; preceded in death by her parents; son, Daniel Hills, Jr.; and three siblings.

Lowe, Lorraine

EdithLorraine Foley Lowe, precious mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother, passed to her heavenly home at the age of 100 on February 24, 2025 in Baton Rouge. She lived along, full life, thankful for her God and family. She will be greatly missed by all who dearly loved her!

Lorraine was born to Dewey and EdithFoley in 1924. She graduated from Fair Park High School in Shreveport and worked at different jobs until she married. For many years in Baton Rouge she worked as abookkeeper for Capital City Beauty Supply, the family business. Over her lifetime her family and church played major roles.

Lorraine enjoyed and showed her love by cooking and hosting many family gatherings and serving in many capacities at her church. For thirty-four years she was acompanion and helper to her younger sister, Shirley Foley. In Baton Rougeshe was amember of Parkview Baptist Church.

Lorraine was preceded in death by her parents John Dewey Foley Sr. and EdithFoley of Shreveport, LA, her sister Dorothy Lenzinger, her brother John D. Foley, Jr., her stepson, Foye Lowe, Jr. and many other precious loved ones.

Lorraine is survived by her children, Edith (E'Dee) Jenkins and husband Don, Paul Lowe and wife Gerri, Tommy Lowe and wife Mary, her stepson, Charles Lowe and wife Linda, stepdaughter-in-law, Gloria Bockrath, her grandchildren, Rachel Holland,Jessica Silver, Laura Gowan, Katelynn Cruise, Kristen Lowe, her step-grandchildren, Marilois Snowman, Ellen Womack, JasonLowe, Amy Enea, Ben Lowe, her sister, Shirley Foley, many great-grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews, all of whom she loved.

Her family would like to thank all the staff at Flannery Oaks Guest House.

The family will have a celebration of life service on February 27. Visitation will begin at 2:00 with the service following at 3:00 at Rabenhorst East Funeral Home, 11000 FloridaBlvdin Baton Rouge. There will be asmall family burial service in Shreveport,LAat Forest Park Cemetery on St. Vincent Ave. on Saturday, March 1at1:30. Memorial donations may be made to The Salvation Army or Holy Angels on Ellerbe Rd. in Shreveport

Cynthia Shaw Myers transitioned to her heavenly home on Friday, February 21, 2025 at the ageof 72. Celebration of Life: Thursday, February 27, 2025. New St. John Baptist Church, 1455 South Boulevard, Baton Rouge, LA. Visitation starts at 8AM9:30AM, Jack &Jill Services at 9:30AM, OmegaOmega Services at 10:00AM, Final Viewing at 10:30AMuntil Religious Service at 11:00AM conducted by Rev Dr. W. Marshall, Myles. Interment at 1PM, Louisiana National Cemetery, 303 W. Mt. Pleasant Zachary Road, Zachary LA 70791. Survived by her husband, IsaiahMyers III, daughter, Tiffani Ephrom, son, Isaiah Myers IV, granddaughter, Ahmari Whitehead,siblings, Brett Shaw, Michelle Fulton and Seneca Jones, other relatives and friends. Preceded in deathbyher parents, Lionel and Helen Quiet Shaw, brother, Lionel Clarence Shaw, and other relatives awaiting her heavenly arrival. Professional Services Entrusted To A. Wesley Funeral Home Maringouin, La. Hills, Thelma Jenkins Thelma Jenkins Hills en‐tered into eternal rest at Lane Regional Medical Center on February 16 2025. She was a 77-year old native of Norwood Louisiana and a resident of Baker Louisiana. A Memor‐ial Service will be held at Miller & Daughter Mortu‐ary on Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 10:00 am. Sur‐vivors include her children, Curtis Hills, Baker and Tammeral Hills, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; three grandchildren; and a sis‐ter, Dorothy Netter, Baker; preceded in death by her parents; son, Daniel Hills, Jr.; and three siblings.

Clarence Shaw, and other relatives awaiting her heavenly arrival. Professional Services Entrusted To A. Wesley Funeral Home Maringouin, La.

Schexnayder, Jerome Martin

Jerome Martin Schexnayder, aresident of Belle Rose, passed away at his home at theage of 65 on February 12, 2025. In his earlier years he worked as adispatcher for theAssumption Parish Sheriff's Office and Barbera Chevrolet. Later he opened his own business in autorepair and bodywork. He was excellent at his craft and took prideinhis work. Jerome enjoyed the outdoors and loved hunting at the deer camp withfamily and friends. He also enjoyed yard work and gardening. Jerome is survived by his son, Jesse Paul Schexnayder; brother, Ronald Schexnayder; sister, Laverne Capone (John); nephew, John Capone III; niece, Adriane Blank; niece, Felicia Capone; and former wife, RhondaPinkard.Hewas preceded in deathbyhis parentsFelicien PSchexnayder and Lelia Waguespack Schexnayder; baby brother,Jules; baby sister, Antoinette; and infant brother. Family and friends are invited to attend thememorial at Ascension Catholic Church in Donaldsonville on February 28, 2025, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am, followed by afuneral service at 11:00 am. Internment will be at St. Philip Catholic church in Vacherie at alater date. The family would like to thank Jerome's wonderful neighbors who have helped him in so many ways. Thanks to Missy, Gwen, James, Donald, Scott, Henry and many more. Aspecial heartfelt thank you to his home healthnurse, Debbie, who was not only an excellent nurse but atrue friend as well. Your kindness will never be forgotten.

brother. Family and friends are invited to attend the memorial at Ascension Catholic Church in Donaldsonville on February 28, 2025, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am, followed by afuneral serviceat11:00 am. Internment will be at St. Philip Catholic church in Vacherie at alater date. The family would like to thank Jerome's wonderful neighbors who have helped him in so many ways. Thanks to Missy, Gwen, James, Donald, Scott, Henry and many more. Aspecial heartfelt thank you to his home health nurse, Debbie, who was not only an excellent nurse buta truefriend as well. Your kindness will never be forgotten

Brown, Audrey A.

Myers, Cynthia Shaw

The tale of New Isle should be a warning for La.

For years, the few dozen residents of Isle de Jean Charles saw firsthand the effects that rising sea levels are having on coastal Louisiana Located in lower Terrebonne Parish, the island was gradually but unmistakably disappearing. What once was 35 square miles is now less than one.

State government, with a $48 million grant from the feds, launched a radical solution: It built a new community, New Isle, further inland and on higher ground The state offered to resettle residents there for free, giving them houses as a pilot program that made islanders the nation’s first “climate refugees.”

Many of the residents who accepted the offer were given new and more valuable houses less threatened by rising seas. But that came with new and higher costs. For some, like retired carpenter Wallace “Johnny” Tamplet, it’s the tax bill that has them worried.

Tamplet told reporter Alex Lubben that he was planning to sell his truck to clear his $4,000 property tax bill. Health issues had left him unable to pay his taxes in 2023, and a Nebraska company purchased a lien on his home that will allow it to claim the house if he doesn’t pay his taxes within three years

Tamplet isn’t alone. As of last year, at least five other households in New Isle were behind on tax payments. Residents have also noted that utilities are more expensive in the new settlement And there is the insurance. The Louisiana Office of Community Development estimates that when residents there are required to begin paying for their own insurance next year, the average yearly premium will be almost $4,100. That’s a daunting prospect for many. It may seem as if what has happened to the residents of Isle de Jean Charles is extreme, but it’s a situation that many more Louisianans may confront in the next couple of decades The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that about one-fifth of the state’s homes, more than 300,000, may face chronic flooding problems by 2045. And homeowners across South Louisiana are already familiar with rapidly rising insurance costs

We are gratified to see OCD exploring ways to solve the problems in New Isle, such as seeking permission to give the last $1.4 million left in the original grant to a local development district that is looking for ways to help the relocated residents adjust to their new reality.

Creative solutions will certainly be needed. The cost of relocating approximately 37 households has been almost $50 million That level of investment is a nonstarter when we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people or more. We know this project was envisioned as a learning experience. We hope that one of the lessons learned is that projects to rebuild the coast or address climate change before relocation is required are not only cost-effective, but wise.

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

Education Superintendent Cade Brumley is right — anyone who still believes Louisiana is last in education “isn’t paying attention.” The state’s steady rise in national education rankings reflects bold policy choices and a commitment to early learning, particularly for 4-year-olds.

As Elena Lotano highlighted in a recent guest column, Louisiana has made remarkable strides in expanding public preschool and Head Start access, ensuring that over 80% of 4-year-olds benefit from quality early education. This success is worth celebrating. But to sustain and accelerate Louisiana’s progress, we must take the next step: investing in our youngest learners, from birth to age 3. Research is clear the foundation for lifelong learning is built in the first three years of life, a period of rapid brain development that shapes future success. Yet, unlike the widespread access we’ve achieved for 4-year-olds, families with younger children face an entirely different reality. Less than 16% of children under 4 in economically disadvantaged

Invest in expanding access to early education, which pays off Remember

As a fellow physician, I am mad as hell at U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is a socalled doctor He voted to confirm Robert Kennedy Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

He did so in hopes that the president would back him for reelection instead of representing and protecting the citizens of the United States, especially our children who are our future.

He knew that Kennedy is an anti-vaxxer and that his medical beliefs have no scientific proof; they’re only conspiracy theories.

I wrote Cassidy several times on this issue, and neither he nor his staff ever

families have access to any publicly funded program. High-quality early education for infants and toddlers is scarce and expensive, leaving many families without options. Without greater investment, too many children enter preschool already behind — a gap that can persist through K-12 and beyond.

Lotano’s column rightly points out that high-quality preschool yields strong economic returns, particularly for lowincome children. The same is true for birth-to-3 programs. The sooner we invest, the greater the impact on academic achievement, workforce readiness and economic mobility. Louisiana has proven it can build highquality early childhood programs. Now, it’s time to complete the puzzle. Sustainable funding for birth-to-3 programs will ensure every child, regardless of age or family income, has access to the opportunities they need to thrive. Louisiana has led the way before let’s do it again.

SARINTHA STRICKLIN executive director Jefferson Ready Start Network

responded. In addition, Kennedy has no medical background. This would be like taking someone off the street to do your brain surgery Cassidy broke his Hippocratic Oath that says do no harm. He should lose his medical license and privilege to be called doctor Now that Kennedy is in office, Cassidy will have the health issues, especially any deaths, of Americans on his hands because he knew better by his medical training. I hope the people of Louisiana wake up and do not reelect Cassidy

DAVID W. SPRIGGS, M.D New Orleans

Second Harvest leaders should return to its mission

Second Harvest Food Bank is a shining example of functional philanthropy, providing food to people who need it across south Louisiana. It does not define “need” with reference to religion or race, circumstance or condition.

And while it is true that Second Harvest came into being (over 40 years ago) under the wing of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, it has functioned, fundraised and fed as a stand-alone, independent, transparent and wholly accountable nonprofit corporation for decades. It serves 23 civil parishes in Louisiana, from St. Tammany to Cameron, most of which are not located within the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond should rescind his Jan. 30 firing of CEO Natalie Jayroe and three leaders of the board of directors, return control of Second Harvest Food Bank to its board of directors and completely withdraw from any involvement with, control of or claims against the assets of Second Harvest, allowing Second Harvest to return its finances and focus back to its only mission: feeding the hungry PATRICIA WEEKS New Orleans

President Trump has imperialistic ambitions

President Donald Trump wants to return to the 19th century and those years of acquisitive, imperialistic greed. In that century, the U.S. acquired the Louisiana Purchase, half of Mexico, the Oregon Territory Hawaii, Alaska, the Philippines, Guam, Samoa and Guantanamo Bay

According to Merriam-Webster, ethnic cleansing is defined as “the expulsion, imprisonment or killing of an ethnic minority by a dominant majority in order to achieve ethnic homogeneity.” Recently, convicted felon Donald J. Trump has expressed support for the forcible relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to an unspecified location. This proposal fits the definition of ethnic cleansing. History provides numerous examples of ethnic cleansing. In the United States, the Trail of Tears forced tens of

thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral lands under government policy The Armenian Genocide saw the Ottoman Empire forcibly remove and massacre Armenian Christians. The Nazi regime systematically removed and exterminated Jews across Europe during the Holocaust. The Bosnian Genocide involved the mass expulsion and killing of Bosnian Muslims by Serbian forces. Forced relocation is ethnic cleansing.

DOMINIC MARCELLO Baton Rouge Let’s call Trump’s Gaza

Trump now covets Greenland, Canada, Panama and the Gaza Strip. What’s next? I suggest he invite his handler Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who has already bought some of the U.S. government (including the presidency) and is dismantling what is left, to purchase his home country of South Africa and then to donate it to the U.S. Make Imperialism Great Again!

EARL HIGGINS River Ridge

If you’re African American or in certain organized or social groups, you know there’s a national DEI boycott planned for Friday If you haven’t heard about it, know that some Black folks — along with allies — will be living their normal lives without buying breakfast, lunch or dinner out, without buying coffee, snacks and soda at a neighborhood convenience store and without going to a local or big box store to shop for clothes or groceries. The idea is for enough Black people to withdraw from commerce while standing together in favor of diversity, equity and inclusion and against companies that have moved away from DEI, a valuable business approach and strategy that works to make things better for everyone.

It’s not clear where the idea started, but it caught on like a piece of tinder lit by a match and spread like a wildfire In recent days, I’ve received calls, texts, emails and social media notes from Louisiana and across the nation inviting me or reminding me to participate. There is the targeted 40-day Target Fast pitched by Atlanta Pastor Jamal Bryant. Some of them suggested a total financial boycott: Don’t spend any money anywhere so business people will feel the impact of losing Black customers for even one day Some say spend with Black, small and local businesses and not the group of companies that have announced that they’re stopping DEI efforts.

After the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, businesses rushed to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive At different points last year and in the short few weeks of this year, some of these same companies announced they don’t want anything to do with DEI. They include Amazon, Ford, HarleyDavidson, John Deere, McDonald’s, Meta, Microsoft, Target and Walmart. Some companies, like JPMorgan Chase, have expressed an ongoing commitment to diversity while changing corporate employee diversity filing language from “diversity, equity and inclusion” to “workforce composition.” Still other companies, like Costco, have doubled down on their diversity commitments. National Action Network founder and president Al Sharpton quickly organized a “buy-in,” or “buy-cott,” to support Costco and to send a message that diversity matters. There was a lot of Costco attention and support. Conservative red state

attorneys generals, including our own Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, sent the company’s CEO a January letter suggesting that it stop all DEI efforts and programs. A general boycott of the major brands is commendable, though misguided.

In a recent interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, a network weekend anchor until a few days ago, Sharpton expressed support for Friday’s boycott, though he didn’t say which one. Though he didn’t slam the lack of clarity, specifics and strategy for the growing boycott idea, he noted that he had announced on Jan. 20, Martin Luther King Jr.’s federal birthday holiday and inauguration day for President Donald Trump’s second presidential term, that he would lead a 90-day assessment of companies dropping DEI and companies sticking with it then an announce a more specific company boycott strategy New Orleans businessman Troy Henry favors more DEI business efforts, but he doesn’t think Friday is likely to be successful.

“I’m not sure what good that does,” he told me. “I think it’s more strategic to select a company and boycott that company.”

Henry is one of four Equity Media owners of WBOK, a Black talk radio station. His Henry Consulting company is best known as one of the Bayou Phoenix investors remaking the old Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans

East. His consulting company staffs about 200 people with private and public businesses and companies. One of his companies owns nine Shell gas stations. Another owns nine companion Sterling Express convenience stores.

“I’m not worried,” he said. “If people don’t buy gas on Friday, they’re going to buy gas Saturday.”

The companies shifting away from DEI have taken the temperature of the country and the Trump administration. Watching the slew of executive orders and actions that resent diversity, equity and inclusion, they’re making changes to stay in favor and to stay in line with the law I get it. No good business professional wants the government to knock down something they’ve built to be financially successful.

Rather than an unmeasurable “boycott,” I suggest an individual “Buy Black Day.” Be intentional.

I’ve been a diversity advocate for decades, in its various forms. Though I have issues with diversity and affirmative action efforts being compared to DEI and with DEI I’ll honor the spirit of the day and look forward to a more thoughtful, specific, actionable and measurable boycott or buy-cott before we’re taken back to 2020 — or worse. Costco, here I come. Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

Academia finally got schooled

The Trump administration is not just trying to get the government under control or save taxpayers money It is mounting a frontal assault on every center of left-wing institutional power it can reach: academia, the civil service, nonprofits. The object is to break these institutions so badly that the next Democratic administration will not be able to put them back the way they were. I probably don’t have to tell our readers why this is bad They understand that the slash-and-burn approach to the bureaucracy will leave it understaffed, demoralized and mired in chaos, endangering services that voters depend on. They know that many nonprofits do valuable work, often for society’s most vulnerable. They’re aware that a research project is not like a car, which can be safely turned off and started again when you’re ready to use it, so making ham-fisted cuts to science funding risks setting society back by years. Since you know that, let me make a less obvious and probably less welcome point: The left, not the right, picked this fight. Too many institutions set themselves up as the “Resistance” to Trump and tried to make a lot of mainstream political opinions anathematic, while expecting to be protected from backlash by principles such as academic freedom that they were no longer honoring. This was politically naive and criminally stupid for institutions that rely so heavily on U.S. taxpayer support Academia at least should have known better, given that it has entire departments devoted to studying how politics works. It has long been clear that cuts to research funding could be the first

step if Republicans were so minded. The student loans and Pell Grants that subsidize tuition could be slashed, the tax rules that let elite institutions accumulate massive endowments could be changed, and in red states, government aid to public schools could be reduced. The resulting budget holes would be calamitous in many cases and would filter through the ecosystem even to schools that survived: If small schools stop hiring new faculty, that means fewer jobs for graduate students from large research universities.

Nonetheless, school administrations began issuing left-wing hot takes on news that played to the culture war, and students agitated, often successfully, to de-platform rightwing speakers and punish students or faculty who deviated from progressive orthodoxy Milquetoast professional opinions and legitimate research were retracted under pressure from activists. Scientists marched against Trump — not as private citizens but as scientists, as if lab work gave them some special moral authority Public health experts issued a “get out of lockdown free” card to George Floyd protesters, and the American Anthropological Association issued a statement explicitly conceiving its discipline as a form of progressive activism. What was going on in the rest of academia made it clear anthropologists weren’t alone in thinking that way Even if you think this was a move in the right moral direction, it was dangerous behavior By presenting their expertise as part of a political fight, academics were not only squandering their credibility They were asking to

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE

be treated like political adversaries. And in a real political fight, the ability to get your opponent’s journal article retracted is way less important than his ability to cut off your supply lines. This danger has been evident for years, yet when I asked academics if this was really wise, most were curiously oblivious to the risks. Though they complained about stingy state legislatures and meddling Republican politicians, many bizarrely took them as evidence that there was little cost to politicizing academia essentially, “They’re already attacking us, so there’s no point in trying to placate them.” They did not seem to grasp how much worse it could get.

Fundamentally, they took their prestige and public support for granted and seemed unable to imagine a world where the word “education” no longer conjured reverent deference among most of the population. Like children throwing rocks from an overpass, they felt protected by their elevated position, assuming their targets could do little but yell back. They weren’t expecting one of the drivers to get out of the car and grab a baseball bat from the trunk.

None of which justifies what Republicans are doing now It is crude, destructive and — like a baseball bat unconscionably disproportionate. But complaining about Republicans, while emotionally satisfying, isn’t very useful. The institutional left can’t control what Republicans do. It can only control its own behavior And that behavior, however well-intentioned, was reckless in the extreme.

Megan McArdle in on X, @asymmetricinfo.

After four disorienting first month, the Trump administration’s foreign policy has become crystal clear: Screw the rest of the world, allies and adversaries alike.

Who cares if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin gets to keep the wide swath of Ukraine’s territory he seized in a brutal, unprovoked invasion? Why should the Ukrainians even be at the table when we talk to the Russians about a peace deal? After all, President Donald Trump promised to quickly end the war; he and Putin can decide the terms. Maybe the United States would be more concerned about Ukraine’s sovereignty if we were given half of the country’s valuable mineral resources. Does that make us sound like mobsters running a protection racket? Well, the world is a tough place.

Who cares if the newly contemptuous U.S. stance toward the democracies of Europe makes them feel abandoned and vulnerable? Who cares if the leaders of wealthy, technologically advanced nations such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy — effectively demilitarized, beneath the U.S. umbrella, since the apocalypse of World War II decide they now have no choice but to massively rearm? What if Europe is soon bristling with weapons, and what if Putin sees this buildup as a threat? What could possibly go wrong?

Who cares if the Palestinians are permanently denied their dream of an independent state? Now that more than a year of scorched-earth Israeli bombardment — in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack and hostage-taking has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, why doesn’t the United States just seize that seafront property and turn it into a lucrative Rivierastyle resort? The Palestinians can go live elsewhere, all 2 million of them, and we don’t care where, as long as it’s not here.

Who cares if children die in regions of Africa ravaged by war, famine and disease? Trump promised to cut federal spending, and although foreign aid is just 1% of the budget, the U.S. Agency for International Development is an easy target for Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency.”

Who cares if our allies in the Western Hemisphere are alarmed by sudden new demands for territory and tribute? Trump insults Canada, our most steadfast partner in war and peace for more than a century, by calling it “the 51st state” and referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “governor.” He threatens Canada and Mexico, our biggest trading partners, with crippling tariffs. Displeased with the way the Panama Canal is being run, he vows to “take it back.”

All Americans should care about these radical departures from long-established policy toward the rest of the world. Trump promised to make America great again, but he is doing the polar opposite. His bellicose chest-thumping makes this nation smaller, weaker, more isolated and negates the concept of American exceptionalism Bullying is a behavior that can intimidate, as anyone who has spent time in a schoolyard knows. But it does not project genuine strength. Trump’s foreign policy is that of a paper tiger, not a real one.

Since the postwar Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe was launched in 1948, generations of U.S. leaders have been guided by the principle that encouraging the spread of democracy and free markets makes our own nation safer and more prosperous. We have made terrible mistakes along the way — the Vietnam War, interventions in Latin America, the invasion and occupation of Iraq — but we have never abandoned the idea of the United States as a “shining city on a hill.” Presidents from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama have used that metaphor to describe America’s place in the world. Trump evidently has a meaner, more constricted vision. He reduces the United States to just another cynical player in a zero-sum game. For us to win, in this view, others must lose. This is an abdication, not an assertion, of American leadership, and it invites other nations to fill the vacuum. China is the obvious main beneficiary European Union officials have already talked about expanding trade with Beijing in light of Trump’s myriad tariffs. China has spent years expanding its influence in Africa and reportedly has offered to take over halted USAID projects in Nepal, Colombia and the Cook Islands. The BRICS trade group founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has grown to include 10 nations including Indonesia, which joined in January Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spends his time uselessly trying to end diversity efforts in the U.S. military rather than planning to counter the Chinese military’s growing power and sophistication.

Trump is leading us not toward greatness, but toward surrender Eugene Robinson is on X, @Eugene_Robinson.

FILE PHOTO

The Rev. Al Sharpton in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome during the 2017 Essence Festival in New Orleans.

Mega McArdle

Eugene Robinson

Will Sutton

SPORTS

Payton: Rizzi is head coach material

GIANT OF HER SPORT

Don’t take Mulkey’s winning, greatness for granted

When Kenny Brooks arrived at Kentucky last year, he called its women’s basketball program a “sleeping giant.”

It’s a popular aspiration. Shoot for the moon, land among the stars, get a new and more lucrative contract That type of thing. And maybe it will happen one day for UK women’s basketball under Brooks, an excellent coach with 500-plus career wins to his credit.

On Sunday, Kim Mulkey ran her record to 5-0 against Brooks in two games at Baylor and now three at LSU. That includes a win over his best Virginia Tech team in the 2023 Women’s Final Four semifinals. While Brooks, and many other coaches strive to prod their potential giants to life, Mulkey already has done it Twice.

Her records aren’t lost in the mists of time, though. They are verifiable fact.

BY LUKE JOHNSON and MATTHEW PARAS Staff writers

INDIANAPOLIS

— As the NFL season stretched toward its conclusion with Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton grabbed his phone and sent a text to his old boss, New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis.

“I text Mickey and I say, ‘Hey, when are you guys hiring your head coach?’ ” Payton recalled Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine. “And he texts me back and said, ‘When are you hiring your special teams coordinator?’ Those two things were connected, of course.

Former Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi was one of four finalists for the Saints full-time head coaching job, but Payton also had been holding open a job on his staff for special teams coordinator Not long after the Saints hired Kellen Moore to be their next head coach, Payton hired Rizzi to coordinate his special teams, making him the latest coach who worked with Payton in New Orleans to join him in Denver Payton hired Rizzi in 2019 to coordinate his Saints special teams units, and the two worked together for three seasons before Payton stepped away after the 2021 campaign. Their relationship started, in part, because of a recommendation from Payton’s friend, the late Tony Sparano.

“You had to know Tony, but for him to rave about somebody that might be once every three years,” Payton said “I know how Tony felt about him. He’s a tremendous teacher, he’s thorough.

“With respect to the process he was a very serious candidate (in New Orleans) and I think he will be a head coach in our league as well.”

Allen enlightened

In a sports world where criticism is king and detraction is dogma, excellence often goes underappreciated Which is why taking a moment to recognize Mulkey’s brilliance on the stiletto heels of yet another milestone victory — Sunday’s 65-58 win at Kentucky was her 750th feels appropriate.

BY TOYLOY BROWN III

Staff writer

Carter scored 10 points for LSU (14-14, 3-12 SEC) The LSU defense succeeded early staying in front of ballhandlers and making Tennessee (23-5, 10-5) create shots in tight quarters.

There have been questions for centuries asking how William Shakespeare could have possibly written all those plays and sonnets on his own. You could almost say the same for Mulkey How could one person win so much?

In her four varsity seasons at Hammond High School, she led the girls basketball team to four straight state titles and a 1365 overall record. She also was her class valedictorian. She helped Louisiana Tech win the last AIAW national championship in 1981 and the first NCAA women’s national title in 1982. She was the point guard for the United States’ first Olympic gold medal women’s basketball team in 1984, then returned to Louisiana Tech and was an assistant coach on the Lady Techsters’ 1988 NCAA championship squad. When Mulkey went to Baylor in 2000, the women’s program had never even been to the NCAA Tournament. She made it there and won 21 games during her first season in Waco, Texas. None of her teams at Baylor or LSU have won less than 24

ä See RABALAIS, page 5C

found success The Vols had six offensive rebounds and nine second-chance points in the first nine minutes of play to take a 14-12 lead. To curb the success Tennessee

was having on the offensive glass, LSU played two bigs instead of using the four-guard group it had turned to recently, inserting forward Corey Chest alongside Robert

The change temporarily helped

LSU ratchet up the interior and led to some defensive rebounds, but Robert Miller picked up his second foul in five minutes and had to return to the bench.

Tennessee scored seven unanswered points as LSU’s scoring drought lasted nearly seven minutes.

Tennessee, which is first in the county in both adjusted defensive efficiency and defensive effective field goal percentage, denied Carter the ball and closed out hard whenever he did catch it.

Daimion Collins ended LSU’s cold spell. The 6-foot-9 forward was fronted in the post by a guard, received a high pass in the middle of the paint and scored with four Tennessee players in his vicinity Chaz Lanier was atop the scouting report as Tennessee’s leading scorer who was coming off of a season-high 30 points in its last game.

Lanier, who leads the SEC in made 3-pointers with 94, ran off multiple off-ball screens to try to get freed up to launch. But the fifth-year senior wasn’t able to get open as the Tigers constantly

ä See TIGERS, page 3C

The new coaching staff for the Chicago Bears has a lot of ties to the New Orleans Saints, none bigger than how they now employ the former head coach of the Saints.

Bears coach Ben Johnson said Tuesday he and former Saints coach Dennis Allen “share the same mindset” as they look to upgrade at pass rusher in Chicago.

Allen, who the Saints fired in November, landed in Chicago as its defensive coordinator last month after the Bears hired Johnson from the Detroit Lions.

Johnson was asked about possibly trading for Cleveland Browns star defensive end Myles Garrett when he brought up Allen’s influence on his decision-making.

“Listen, talking with (Dennis Allen) has been very enlightening because we share the same mindset when it comes to defense overall, which is we want to affect the passer,” Johnson said.

“And there’s a lot of different ways you can do that.” Allen had a less-than-successful tenure with the Saints as he went just 18-25 in two-plus seasons at the helm. But he has had a strong track record as a defensive coordinator

Allen isn’t the only person on Johnson’s staff with connections to the Saints. Johnson hired Declan Doyle a protege of Payton — to be his offensive coordinator, as well as Dan Roushar (offensive line) and Matt Giordano (assistant defensive backs). All three had stops in New Orleans, albeit not all at the same time.

ä Saints hire Cal’s Sirmon as linebackers coach. PAGE 2C

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU coach Kim Mulkey yells from the bench area during a game against Mississippi State on Feb 2 at the PMAC.

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack and LSU guard Mike Williams scramble for control of the ball as Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler, right, looks on Tuesday night in the PMAC. Tennessee won 65-59.

6

Roseman says Eagles’ roster will change

Philadelphia to adjust lineup as team begins quest for repeat title

BY ROB MAADDI AP pro football writer

INDIANAPOLIS Howie Roseman’s forehead has healed from the beer can that left him bloodied at the Philadelphia Eagles’ victory parade, and the general manager is working on getting the team in position to repeat.

Less than two weeks after the Eagles and their fans celebrated the franchise’s second Super Bowl title, Roseman and coach Nick Sirianni joined their peers at the NFL’s scouting combine as teams get set to evaluate college prospects ahead of the draft in April

Sirianni spent a lot of time defending the tush push play after the Green Bay Packers proposed banning it. Roseman discussed the team’s offseason priorities and asked the fickle Philly faithful for patience.

MICHAEL CONROy

By

ASSOCIATED

Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni speaks during a news conference at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday. Roseman

“It may look different — some of the moves that we may have to make here may not be what are necessarily on other people’s minds,” Roseman said Tuesday “It’s probably not going to look like maybe the conventional wisdom thinks it should look. I would just ask our fans to just have patience throughout the offseason. The offseason doesn’t stop in free agency The offseason doesn’t stop in the draft.”

Roseman hit a grand slam last offseason, signing All-Pro running back Saquon Barkley and All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun in free agency and selecting cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in the first two rounds

RIZZI

Continued from page 1C

Johnson also branched out to hire a number of other coaches from different backgrounds, whether that’s hiring former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to coach running backs or hiring former Dallas Cowboys defensive backs coach Al Harris to do the same thing in Chicago. He also brought some other assistants with him from Detroit to Chicago, such as wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El.

“What’s so beautiful about the coaching staff we put together is I didn’t hire a bunch of my friends,” Johnson said. “I went outside of my circle, on purpose because I wanted to collect a different mix of experience, energy, ideas. And we’re all going to make it come together for the Chicago Bears moving forward.”

Retirements coming?

For years, Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk served as anchors on the New Orleans Saints offensive line Now it’s possible they both retire in the same offseason Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tuesday the team is operating as if Armstead won’t be back with Miami next season, but he added the former Saints tackle has yet to make a formal decision about retirement. And hours after McDaniel spoke to reporters, the NFL Network reported that Armstead who has been with Miami since leaving the Saints in 2022 — reduced his $28.6 million base salary to the league minimum of nearly $1.3 million, a move that typically proceeds a player’s retirement to lessen the burden of his salary-cap hit

“I think we have to operate as though he won’t play just because

of the draft. Every team aims for that kind of success It’s not easy.

The Kansas City Chiefs, who fell short of a three-peat by losing to the Eagles in the Super Bowl, are planning on having star tight end Travis Kelce back for a 13th season.

Coach Andy Reid said All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney will return to that spot after finishing the season at left tackle.

The team will look to build through the draft to supplement its roster after reaching the Super Bowl for the fifth time in six years

“It looks like the defense is fully loaded here,” Reid said of this year’s draft class.

“It looks like a defensive strong

draft. Not that there’s not going to be some great offensive guys, but it really looks like it’s strong on the defensive side.”

Myles Garrett’s future with the Cleveland Browns was a hot topic after the 2023 AP Defensive Player of the Year requested a trade earlier in the month.

Browns general manager Andrew Berry insisted the team has no interest in trading Garrett. Cleveland holds the No. 2 pick in the draft after Tennessee. Berry said the Browns would use 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter mainly as a wide receiver if he is their pick. Hunter also was the nation’s top cornerback at Colorado.

“We would see him as a receiver primarily first, but I think part of, again, what makes him a bit of a unicorn is the fact that he can do both at a high level,” Berry said.

The Titans need a quarterback, so they could choose either Miami’s Cam Ward or Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders at No. 1. They could also trade down and add more draft assets or take a potentially generational player on defense

“They’re both worthy of the conversations that they’re in right now They’re both good players,” Titans coach Brian Callahan said of Ward and Sanders. “I think they’ve earned the right to be in the conversations they’re in. As far as where I see them and how I stack them, that’s for me. But I do think they’re worthy of those conversations.

“There’s some other good players in this class, too And I do think that one of the things that’s most important is that you never make an assumption when you’re in this process, and you treat every prospect, whether you think they’re the first pick or the 200-and-something pick, that you go through that evaluation phase with the same intensity regardless of where you think they fall.”

The New York Giants have the third pick. They tried moving up last year but couldn’t make a deal. They need a quarterback, so they’ll consider trading up again.

“This is a great opportunity for us obviously in Indy, the first time to get around some of the prospects and have conversations with them, first time meeting them,” Giants GM Joe Schoen said.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do on the No. 3 pick. We’ve done a lot of work throughout the fall with the college prospects. We have an idea of three to five players, six players, seven players, whatever it may be, move-back scenarios, you can do that. We’ll also look at moving up if that’s a possibility It’s an exciting time of year for us.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By CHARLES KRUPA Saints offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk goes against New England Patriots defensive end Keion White on Oct. 8, 2023, in Foxborough, Mass. Ramczyk has not said whether he will retire, but signs are pointing that way

SAINTS HIRE CAL’S SIRMON AS LBS COACH

The Saints are in the process of hiring University of California defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon to be their linebackers coach, a source with knowledge of the situation said. Sirmon would replace Michael Hodges, who left the team this offseason to take the same role with the Cincinnati Bengals. Sirmon, 48, had been the defensive coordinator at Cal since 2020. He becomes the

you have to prepare for things that you can’t control,” McDaniel said.

The pay reduction is also what the Saints did with Ramcyzk, who cut his pay in January to the league minimum in 2025 and 2026 after missing all of last season be-

latest Saints assistant to leave a college program to work under first-year coach Kellen Moore.The Saints hired Terry Joseph to be their defensive backs coach after he held the same position at the University of Texas. Moore has spent the week filling out his defensive staff after he hired former Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley as his defensive coordinator last week. MattParasandLukeJohnson

cause of a chronic knee injury Ramczyk has not said whether he plans to retire, but he has appeared noticeably slimmed down from his playing days and was seen loading boxes into his car at the Saints’ practice facility after the season.

Bengals plan to make Chase top-paid receiver

INDIANAPOLIS — The Cincinnati Bengals plan to make All-Pro wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL.

“He is going to end up being the No. 1 paid non-quarterback in the league,” director of player personnel Duke Tobin said Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine.

Chase led the league in receptions (127), yards receiving (1,708) and touchdown catches (17) this season, becoming just the sixth wide receiver in the Super Bowl era to achieve the receiving triple crown. The Bengals picked up his fifth-year option of $21.816 million, but will give him a long-term deal in the range of $40 million per year The Bengals have finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons.

Browns GM is adamant about not trading Garrett

INDIANAPOLIS Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry insisted the team is not interested in trading star defensive end Myles Garrett despite his request to be dealt.

Garrett went public with his trade request just over three weeks ago, saying he wanted “to compete for and win a Super Bowl.” The Browns finished last in the AFC North at 3-14 this past season.

Garrett, the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, was a finalist for the award again. His 14 sacks ranked second in the league, and he became the first player in NFL history to have 14 or more sacks in four consecutive seasons. He holds the franchise record with 1021/2 sacks.

Commanders give Allen permission to seek trade

The Washington Commanders have given two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jonathan Allen permission to seek a trade.

General manager Adam Peters confirmed the decision at his news conference Tuesday in Indianapolis at the NFL scouting combine. Peters said he wanted to give Allen and agent Blake Baratz a chance to figure out the best path forward.

“We just talked about and said they wanted to be able to explore opportunities,” Peters told reporters. Allen is going into the final season of a four-year, $72 million extension signed in 2021. There is no guaranteed money owed to the 30-year-old veteran, making him a candidate to be released this spring if an extension is not in place to reduce Allen’s 2025 salary

Davis gets extension, hires Tanner as Tar Heels’ GM North Carolina coach Hubert Davis has two more years on his deal and a new general manager to help the blueblood men’s basketball program deal with the changing landscape of college athletics. Davis has signed a two-year extension running through the 2029-30 season to lead his alma mater And on Tuesday, the school announced Davis had hired basketball agent Jim Tanner as the program’s first executive director and GM UNC also posted an updated contract for Davis on its official athletics website, with that deal reached in July and signed in December

It pays Davis an average of $3.2 million in base salary and supplemental pay, up from about $2 million on the previous deal.

Armstead, a third-round pick in 2013, spent nine seasons with the Saints, six of which overlapped with Ramczyk a 2017 firstrounder

He left to join the Dolphins on a five-year, $75 million contract in 2022, a year after Ramczyk signed his five-year $96 million extension.

They were both among the league’s top linemen until injuries hampered their careers. Though Armstead played in 15 games last season, he missed 11 games across his first two years in Miami and played in only eight during his final year in New Orleans. Ramczyk’s knee injury forced him to miss the the last five games of the 2023 season, and he was unable to return after undergoing surgery the following offseason.

If Ramczyk waits until June to retire, the Saints can spread his $23 million dead cap hit over the next two seasons rather than take it all at once.

Finnegan agrees to deal to return to Nationals

Closer Kyle Finnegan agreed to a one-year, $6 million contract to return to the Washington Nationals, pending the successful completion of a physical exam, two people with knowledge of the deal confirmed on Tuesday Finnegan, a first-time NL AllStar in 2024, became a free agent in November when the Nationals failed to offer him a contract. He had a $5.1 million salary last year and was projected to earn about $8.5 million had he remained eligible for arbitration. The 33-year-old right-hander

Finnegan

PRESS PHOTO

Georgia goes up big before holding off Fla.

By The Associated Press

ATHENS Ga. Georgia guard

Blue Cain sank a go-ahead 3-pointer with 47 seconds remaining after No. 3 Florida took its first lead by scoring 13 unanswered points, and the Bulldogs beat the Gators 88-83 on Tuesday night.

Florida, which trailed by 26 points in the first half rallied from a 78-67

Top 25 roundup

deficit with the 13-0 run to lead 80-78 Cain’s 3-pointer ended the run

Georgia (17-11, 5-10

Southeastern Conference) boosted its hopes for its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2015 The Bulldogs ended Florida’s 12-game winning streak in series and gave coach Mike White his first win against his former Florida team. White had been 0-6 against the Gators.

Will Richard scored a career-high 30 points but Florida (24-4, 11-4) fell short of pulling off its second comeback in four days The Gators rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit to beat LSU 79-65 Saturday night.

Silas Demary Jr led Georgia with 21 points. Asa Newell had 15.

Georgia fans obliged repeated requests from the public address announcer to give Florida’s team and officials 90 seconds to leave before charging the court. Fans then flooded the court.

No 2 DUKE 97, MIAMI 60: In

Coral Gables, Florida, Kon Knueppel scored 20 points, Cooper Flagg and Isaiah Evans each added 16 and Duke rolled past Miami. Flagg, the likely No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, added six assists and five rebounds for the Blue Devils (25-3, 16-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).

Duke led by 15 at the half, and Knueppel scored eight points in a 16-2 burst by the Blue Devils early in the second half to push the lead to 65-36.

Lynn Kidd scored 17 points and Jalil Bethea had 13 for Miami (6-22, 2-15), which was without guard Matthew Cleveland. Miami has lost four games by 35 or more points this season, after having four such losses from 1987 through 2024.

OKLAHOMA STATE 74, No. 9

IOWA STATE 68: In Stillwater, Oklahoma, Abou Ousmane scored 25 points and Oklahoma State beat No. 9 Iowa State.

Arturo Dean had 14 points and Bryce Thompson added 11 for the Cowboys (1414, 6-11 Big 12). A crowd that grew as the game progressed celebrated by storming the court.

Oklahoma State had no previous wins over AP Top 25 teams this season under first-year coach Steve Lutz. The Cowboys lost their previous two games against ranked opponents Texas Tech and Kansas by a combined 70 points.

Josh Jefferson scored 17 points and Nate Heise added 13 for Iowa State (21-7, 116). The Cyclones were try-

ing to bounce back from a loss at then-No. 5 Houston on Saturday.

Oklahoma State ran out to a 12-4 lead as Iowa State made just one field goal in the first five minutes. The Cowboys rolled to a 40-26 halftime lead behind 12 points from Ousmane.

Iowa State trimmed it to 44-39 before Brandon Newman made an off-balance, contested shot in the lane to help the Cowboys regain control. That sparked a 7-0 run that led to an Iowa State timeout Oklahoma State pushed its lead to 56-41, then hung on at the end.

No. 21 MARQUETTE 82, PROVIDENCE 52: In Milwaukee, Ben Gold scored a career-high 17 points to help Marquette beat Providence Kam Jones had 17 points and seven assists for Marquette (21-7, 12-5 Big East), which set a season high with 41 3-point attempts, making 17. Stevie Mitchell added 14 points.

Providence (12-16, 6-11) lost for the sixth time in seven games. Jayden Pierre scored 13 points for the Friars, and Oswin Erhunmwunse had eight points and eight rebounds.

The Golden Eagles, who led by as many as 31 in the second half, rebounded from one of their worst games of the season, an 8166 loss at Villanova on Friday

Providence was assessed a pair of technical fouls in the final minute. Walk-on Casey O’Malley made three of four technical foul shots.

TIGERS

Continued from page 1C

from the field, and the Vols held a lead after making one more 3-pointer than LSU. The Vols were even more suffocating in the second half as they locked down the paint and forced live-ball turnovers — four in the first eight minutes of the second half. Lanier got going and finished with 14 points. Tennessee had 27 second-chance

Nonselect

Division I Bidistrict No. 1 Zachary (24-6) bye

points while LSU had only eight.

LSU then started to have problems with sending the Vols to the free-throw line

The Vols had only four freethrow attempts in the first half, but they finished 13 of 21 from the line.

LSU put together a 13-3 run to bring it within five points with 7.9 seconds left, but there wasn’t enough time for a comeback.

LSU’s next game is against No. 24 Mississippi State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Mississippi.

12 Delhi (17-13) No. 20 Northeast (16-14) at No. 13 Lake Arthur (13-12) No. 4 Ferriday (23-9) bye No. 3 Lakeview (24-5) bye No. 19 DeQuincy (8-13) at No. 14 Elton (13-11) No. 22 Varnado (11-11) at No. 11 North Central (12-19) No. 27 South Plaquemine (5-19) at No. 6 East Iberville (16-14) No. 26 Mangham (7-18) at No. 7 Haynesville (15-2) No. 23 Jonesboro-Hodge (10-18) at No. 10 Montgomery (14-13) No. 18 Midland (11-13) at No. 15 Ringgold (12-17) No. 2 Franklin (21-5) bye Select Division I Bidistrict No. 1 Liberty (23-1) bye No. 17 Hammond (19-8) at No. 16 Lafayette (16-9) No. 24 Brother Martin (1317) at No. 9 Holy Cross (24-5) No. 8 Jesuit (20-7) bye No. 5 Alexandria (26-6) bye No. 21 Carencro (9-11) at No. 12 Captain Shreve (19-11) No. 20 Teurlings Catholic (18-13) at No. 13 Bonnabel (24-7) No. 4 St. Augustine (26-4) bye No. 3 St. Thomas More (25-4) bye No. 19 Woodlawn-BR (1615) at No. 14 Tioga (21-10) No. 22 East Jefferson (1815) at No. 11 Huntington (21-8) No. 6 Ponchatoula (20-5) bye No. 7 John Curtis (22-6) bye No. 23 Evangel Christian (13-16) at No. 10 Rummel (18-9) No. 18 McDonogh 35 (2310) at No. 15 Scotlandville (18-11) No. 2 Catholic-BR (27-4) bye Division II Bidistrict No. 1 Shaw (24-2) bye No. 17 Douglass

PREP REPORT

6 p.m. Select Division I No. 11 Captain Shreve (25-8) at No. 3 Woodlawn-BR (24-6), 6 p.m. Division II No. 9 Buckeye (24-5) at No. 1 University (21-3), 6 p.m. No. 5 Madison Prep (18-12) at No. 4 E.D. White (25-4) No. 6 Hannan (18-7) at No. 3 Parkview Baptist (20-6), 6 p.m. Division III No. 5 De La Salle (15-9) at No. 4 Dunham (17-9), 6 p.m. Division IV No. 8 Pickering (21-10) at No. 1 Southern Lab (19-5), 6 p.m. at SU’s Seymore Gym No. 11 Ascension Catholic (16-11) at No. 3 JS Clark (23-8), 6:30 p.m. Walker 60, Mandeville 36 Walker16121814-60 Mandeville7146936 SCORING: WALKER: A. Patterson 26,

19 St. Amant (17-12) at No. 14 Westgate (13-9), 7 p.m. No. 26 Barbe (13-14) at No. 7 East Ascension (24-4), 6 p.m. Division II No. 28 Livonia (11-13) at No. 5 Brusly (22-4), 6 p.m. No. 22 Pearl River (16-12) at No. 11 Plaquemine (17-8), 7 p.m. No. 23 Broadmoor (19-11) at No. 10

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU guard Curtis Givens pulls in the rebound in front of Tennessee forward Felix Okpara and LSU guard Dji Bailey during the first half Tuesday night.

of the Los Angeles Dodgers runs to first on a single during the first inning of a spring training game against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday in Goodyear, Ariz. AP

PHOTO By ASHLEy LANDIS

Dodgers’ deferred payments increase to $1.051 billion

BY RONALD BLUM AP baseball writer

NEW YORK

The Los Angeles

Dodgers owe $1.051 billion in deferred pay to eight players from 2028-46 following Tanner Scott’s $72 million, four-year contract and Teoscar Hernández’s $66 million, three-year deal.

Los Angeles’ high payment point is $100.95 million in both 2038 and ’39, according to details obtained by The Associated Press.

Major League Baseball proposed during collective bargaining on June 21, 2021, to put an end to the practice, but the players’ association rejected the change.

“The Dodgers have gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules that currently exist, to put the best possible team on the field and that’s a great thing for the game. That type of competitive spirit is what people want to see,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week.

“By the same token,” he added, “it’s clear that we have fans in some markets that are concerned about the ability of the team in their market to compete with the financial resources of the Dodgers. And I think if we’ve been consistent on one point it is we try to listen to our fans on topics like this

and I have heard people on this, believe me, I get a lot of emails about it.”

Scott’s contract includes $21 million in deferred money and Hernández’s $23.5 million.

Hernández is owed a total of $32 million in deferred pay from the team. He already was due $8.5 million as part of his $23.5 million, one-year deal for 2024, to be paid in 10 equal installments each July 1 from 2030-39.

Ohtani, Betts, Snell and Freeman among others owed deferred.

Los Angeles also owes deferred payments to two-way star Shohei Ohtani ($680 million from 203443), outfielder/infielder Mookie Betts ($115 million in salaries from 2033-44 and the final $5 million of his signing bonus payable from 2033-35), left-hander Blake Snell ($66 million from 2035-46), first baseman Freddie Freeman ($57 million from 2028-40), catcher Will Smith ($50 million from 2034-43) and utilityman Tommy Edman ($25 million from 2037-44).

“It’s just how you account for it,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said when Snell was introduced. “We’re not going to wake up in 2035 and (say): ‘Oh my God, that’s right. We have this money due.’ We’ll plan for it along the way.”

Dodgers deferred obligations reach peak in 2038 and 2039.

The Dodgers’ deferred obligations total $4 million each in 2028 and ’29, $7.2 million annually from 2030-32, $17.2 million in 2033, $90.2 million in 2034, $98.95 million a year from 2035-37, $100.95 million in 2038 and ’39, $98.75 million in 2040, $93.75 million annually from 2041-43, $20.75 million in 2044 and $7.25 million a year in 2045 and ’46.

Los Angeles must fund the deferred money in an amount equal to its present-day value by the second July 1 following the season in which it is earned, according to MLB’s collective bargaining agreement.

Hernández received a $23 million signing bonus payable on Feb. 1 as part of the deal announced by the World Series champions on Jan. 3. His agreement includes salaries of $10 million this year, $12 million in 2026 and $14.5 million in 2027.

The Dodgers will defer $7.5 million from this year and $8 million in each in 2026 and ’27, and that $23.5 million will be paid in 10 equal installments each Dec. 1 from 2030-39. Scott’s deferred money is due in a dozen $1.75 million payments each Dec. 1 from 2035-46.

Five former players are running baseball operations in the majors

BY JAY COHEN AP baseball writer

PEORIA, Ariz. — Shortly after his playing career ended, Jerry Dipoto took in a game at Wrigley Field with former big league manager Jim Fregosi. After a particularly nasty strikeout by Eric Gagne, Dipoto laughed. Fregosi promptly slapped Dipoto on the back of his head.

“He said, ‘I’m just going to remind you today. Don’t ever forget how hard that it is to play,’ ” Dipoto recalled. “And that’s what I think is the thing I remember most, and I think the benefit of the guys who have gone through it, is that they recognize that it is a really hard game.”

That lesson stayed with Dipoto as he made his way to his current job with the Seattle Mariners — and membership in an exclusive club.

Dipoto is one of five former major leaguers serving as the top baseball executive for a big league franchise at the moment Dipoto, 56, has been the president of baseball operations for Seattle since Sept. 1, 2021. Like Dipoto, Chris Young, 45, was promoted from general manager to president of baseball operations for the Texas Rangers on Sept 13. Craig Breslow was hired as the chief baseball officer for the Boston Red Sox on Oct. 25, 2023, and Chris Getz was promoted to GM of the Chicago White Sox on Aug 31, 2023.

Buster Posey, 37, joined the list when the former All-Star catcher was hired as president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants in September

“There are a ton of incredibly successful executives who didn’t play baseball,” said Breslow 44. “I don’t think it’s a prerequisite, but I

do think it provides a level of credibility and empathy given I’ve kind of been on every side of a transaction, or every side of a conversation I’ve had to have with a player or coach. And credibility in terms of really being able to understand what players are thinking about, what they’re going through.”

Under Breslow’s leadership, Boston used a complicated contract structure to add Alex Bregman in free agency Bregman also was being pursued by the Cubs and Tigers before he agreed to a $120 million, three-year deal with the Red Sox.

San Francisco had been struggling to land a major free agent before shortstop Willy Adames agreed to a $182 million, sevenyear contract with the Giants in December

Adames said Posey played a major role in his decision.

“My meeting with the team, it was me and him, basically No agent Nobody,” Adames said. “So we had a really, really good conversation, and I bought into his plan for this organization, for what he wants to build here in the near future.”

Breslow has a degree from Yale and Young graduated from Princeton, so the five players in charge of major league teams doesn’t exactly represent some sort of counterrevolution when it comes to Ivy League grads in baseball.

But today’s major leaguers are increasingly savvy when it comes to the business side of the game, and they have firsthand experience with the data used by front offices as part of their decisionmaking process.

“Where we were a decade ago to where we are now, there’s just so much opportunity to make better decisions nowadays based on the information that we have,” said

Commissioners put off decisions on CFP format alterations

BY STEPHEN HAWKINS AP sportswriter

DALLAS Conference commis-

sioners who are part of the College Football Playoff had discussions Tuesday about possible changes for next season, including how the 12-team field is seeded.

Several members of the CFP Management Committee, which is made up of all 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, said they need more data and information before deciding on any adjustments.

“We had a really good discussion,” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said. “Good heartfelt conversations. Everyone gave their point of view and we’ll vet it out and see what happens.”

The committee is expected to meet again in March, a possible virtual session when it could review seeding models and other information. Another meeting is scheduled in North Texas in April.

Any changes to the playoff system or the upcoming 2025 season, the final year of the current CFP contract, would have to be approved by a unanimous vote.

Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP said much of Tuesday’s meeting, which lasted about seven hours in a hotel at DallasFort Worth International Airport, included a review of last season’s playoff, the first after the field tripled in size from four to 12 teams.

Clark said there was talk about next season’s format, including seeding. But he said there was no talk about the format beyond that, when the CFP’s new contract with ESPN goes into effect through 2031.

“You’ve got to look at it in totality,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said. “Yes, it’s one contract coming to an end and a new set of a new six-year cycle. But those things have some linkage to them as well.”

The SEC and Big Ten will have the bulk of the control over what happens with the playoff in that new contract.

Tuesday was the first time the entire CFP committee was together in person to discuss any potential changes, but the meeting came a week after SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti met together with their 34 athletic directors and came out in favor of seeding changes.

Sankey and Petitti were among several commissioners who left Tuesday’s meeting without speaking to reporters while on the way to catch flights.

“We need more information, but it was good conversation,” American Athletic Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti said. “I thought it was really productive in there a lot of good listening that went on from everybody.” Pernetti said the group looked at how last season played out, and then how things would have been with straight seeding.

Under the playoff format that began last season, the four highest-ranked conference champions were guaranteed the top four seeds that come with first-round byes That means the seeding will not always be the same as the final rankings done by the CFP selection committee. That was probably the most controversial and confusing aspect of the expanded playoff, and the scenario happened in the first season.

After Big Ten champion Oregon and SEC winner Georgia filled the top two spots, coinciding with them being 1-2 in the CFP’s final rankings, ninth-ranked Mountain West champion Boise State got the No 3 seed, and 12th-ranked Big 12 champion Arizona State got the fourth seed. The 12-team field included four from the Big Ten, three from the SEC and two from the ACC. While straight seeding last season would have changed the matchups and byes — including Boise State and Arizona State having to play first-round games — it wouldn’t have altered the actual makeup of the field when still including five automatic qualifiers for conference champions and seven at-large berths.

WNBA scoring leader Taurasi retires after 20 seasons with Phoenix

BY JOHN MARSHALL and DOUG FEINBERG AP basketball writers

Getz, 41. “But being well-versed in it now you know having a former playing background is only going to position you, your résumé is just stronger.”

While that big league career is an asset in a variety of ways, it also creates a unique set of blind spots. Building out a front office that complements one another is key, Dipoto said.

“I learned to adapt along the way to things I didn’t know and to trust people who are smarter than I am to fill in those gaps,” he said, “and to recognize when I’m allowing my want to be a good teammate and my want to love the good teammate, sometimes, you have be able to discern when that doesn’t equal best player fit for this situation.”

There are several more people in position to join the club one day Brandon Gomes helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series last year, serving as the team’s GM under Andrew Friedman. Ryan Garko was promoted to assistant GM with the Detroit Tigers in May

Cole Figueroa is an assistant GM for the Rangers.

Kevin Reese and Tim Naehring work for longtime New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, and Josh Barfield is part of Getz’s front office with the White Sox.

When it comes to his discussions with players interested in working in baseball operations, Breslow said the conversations provide an indication of the potential for success. “It becomes pretty clear, generally who has the curiosity who asks a lot of questions,” he said.

“Who wants to learn why we make decisions not just what decisions are being made. Those are the people (that could make the transition).”

PHOENIX Diana Taurasi is retiring after 20 seasons, ending one of the greatest careers in women’s basketball history

Taurasi

The WNBA’s career scoring leader and a three-time league champion, Taurasi announced her retirement on Tuesday in an interview with Time magazine. The Phoenix Mercury the only WNBA team she played for — also confirmed her decision.

“Mentally and physically, I’m just full,” Taurasi told Time.

“That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.” With her taut hair bun and supreme confidence, Taurasi inspired a generation of players while racking up records and championships. Taurasi led UConn to three straight national titles from 2001-04 and kept on winning after the Mercury selected her with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 WNBA draft.

“It’s hard to put into words, it really is, what this means. When someone’s defined the game, when someone’s had such an impact on so many people and so many places,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said.

“It’s a life that is a novel, it’s a movie, it’s a miniseries, it’s a saga. It’s the life of an extraordinary person who, I think, had as much to do with changing women’s basketball as anyone who’s ever played the game.”

The 42-year-old won her sixth Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games and finishes her WNBA career with 10,646 points, nearly 3,000 more than second-place Tina Charles.

“I thank Diana for everything that she has brought to the WNBA her passion, her charisma and, most of all, her relentless dedication to the game,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. “She leaves a lasting legacy and the future of the WNBA is in a great position because of her impact.”

In addition to her three WNBA championships with the Mercury, Taurasi won six Euroleague championships while playing yearround most of her career She was the 2009 WNBA MVP and is one of four players to earn WNBA Finals MVP honors more than once (2009, 2014).

“She’s had an incredible impact on our franchise, our community and the game of basketball Her name is synonymous with the Phoenix Mercury and she will forever be part of our family,” Mercury owner Mat Ishbia said in a statement.

Taurasi made the all-WNBA first team 10 times and was on the first or second team a record 14 times.

She’s also an 11-time WNBA AllStar four-time USA Basketball female athlete of the year and was the 2004 WNBA rookie of the year

“In my opinion, what the greats have in common is, they transcend the sport and become synonymous with the sport,” Auriemma said.

“For as long as people talk about college basketball, WNBA basketball, Olympic basketball, Diana is the greatest winner in the history of basketball, period.”

The Glendale, California, native holds numerous WNBA records, including playoff scoring, field goals, 3-pointers and 30-point games. She also holds 16 Mercury records. Now that she’s retired, Taurasi will be able to spend more time with her wife, Penny Taylor — a former Mercury teammate — and their two children.

For her career, Taurasi averaged 18.8 points, 4.2 assists and 3.9 rebounds.

Baylor coach Kim Mulkey holds the net as her daughter Makenzie, top, and son Kramer right look on after winning the national championship over Michigan State on April 5, 2005, in Indianapolis.

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C

games since.

She’s got four NCAA titles between the two programs, and oh yes, she’s the only men’s or women’s basketball coach to win NCAA titles at two different schools. Rick Pitino did it at Louisville, but the Cardinals’ 2013 championship was vacated because of NCAA violations. She’s been to five Final Fours, 22 NCAA tournaments (plus one WNIT and missed out in 2020 when the pandemic canceled postseason play)

She’s had 12 30-win seasons and won 12 Big 12 regular season and 11 Big 12 tournament titles at Baylor

Last season she quietly passed former LSU coach and fellow Naismith Hall of Famer Sue Gunter (708 career wins). Going into Thursday’s game at Alabama (8 p.m., SEC Network), she’s the 14thwinningest coach in NCAA women’s Division I history (a victory will tie her with retired North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell for 13th) and fifth among active coaches. Every coach ahead of Mulkey on the all-time list coached 31 or more seasons The only D-I coach with a better winning percentage than Mulkey’s .862 is Geno Auriemma (.882). It’s easy to get lost in the glare of her purposely outlandish on-court outfits, the withering glares, the flinty moments with the media when Mulkey wants not to answer questions but control the narrative

But you can’t ignore the winning Find someone who has been a bigger winner in their lifetime. I’ll wait. Sleeping giants? How about forgotten giants? LSU went to five straight Women’s Final Fours from 2004-08, but the program’s championship banners had

grown dusty by the time

Mulkey arrived. As she noted at her introductory news conference, the Tigers had never even been to an NCAA final, much less won it all.

“That’s what I came here to do,” Mulkey said that day. She did. And she’s not done. At 62, it’s fair to ask how long she will coach. Mulkey shows her frustration at times, like last year when she on the receiving end of ridiculous criticism from Gov Jeff Landry about her team not being on the court for the pregame National Anthem.

Mulkey’s team, by the way, is still in the locker room for the anthem, having a team prayer Another unofficial win in her column.

Her fire seems unabated The same for her success. This year’s team is 27-2, having already tied the school record for single-season victories in the Southeastern Conference era (since 1982) and is projected to be a No. 2 NCAA tourney seed The Tigers have a far less than ideal point guard situation, but in a wide-open year for the NCAA title – LSU, Texas, South Carolina, USC, UCLA, UConn and Notre Dame all have legitimate net-cutting hopes – the Tigers have a shot. If not this year? Well, Mulkey and her staff have the No. 1-ranked recruiting class inbound this fall.

I’ve covered absolute coaching greatness at LSU twice before with Skip Bertman and Nick Saban.

Mulkey makes three, someone who would deserve a place on a “Swamp Rushmore” of greatest sports figures in Louisiana history if there were ever such a thing

Appreciate her while she’s here. Her kind, her quality is exceedingly rare.

Pelicans rally by Spurs again

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

Willie Green wanted his New Orleans Pelicans to answer one question Tuesday as they played their second game in three nights against the San Antonio Spurs.

“Can you come back the next game against the same opponent and do it again?” Green said before Tuesday’s game. “Can we come out with the right mindset to start the game, because they are going to make some adjustments.”

The Pelicans answered with a “yes”, rallying yet again before holding on to beat the Spurs 109-103 at the Smoothie King Center

Trey Murphy and Zion Williamson led the way.

Murphy finished with 24 points, four rebounds and four assists, and Williamson finished with 18 points to go along with six rebounds and three assists.

The victory came on the heels of Sunday night’s 11496 victory over these same

Pelicans’ 109-103 win.

Spurs The win 48 hours

earlier was the Pelicans’ most lopsided victory of the season in a year where wins have been hard to come by In that game, the Pelicans outrebounded the Spurs 69-46 and outscored them 58-34 in the paint to erase a 17-point first-half deficit.

This time, the Pelicans found themselves in a 19-point first-half hole before climbing out.

The Pelicans made just 3 of 16 shots and trailed 24-8 with 3:17 left in the first quarter. They also missed their first nine 3-point attempts before Karlo Matkovic and Antonio

Reeves buried back-to-back treys in the second quarter to trim the deficit to 39-28 with 6:38 left in the half. That ignited things as the Pelicans outscored the Spurs 21-12 the rest of the quarter and trailed just 51-49 at the break.

Pelicans newcomer Bruce Brown, who had struggled in his first few games since being acquired in the Brandon Ingram trade, provided some big minutes down the stretch of the quarter with four points, five rebounds and three assists. He finished with eight points, six rebounds and six assists. The Pels took their first lead (85-83) on a Jordan Hawkins layup with 10:21 left. The Pelicans (15-43) improved to 2-1 with their starting lineup of CJ McCollum, Murphy, Williamson, Kelly Olynyk and Yves Missi. They have won three of their last four games with a four-game road trip (Phoenix Suns twice, Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers) up next.

76ers showing ‘no signs’ of competing

BY DAN GELSTON AP sportswriter

PHILADELPHIA Yes, the Philadelphia 76ers played without two-time NBA scoring champion and the always-injured Joel Embiid. Yes, they haven’t been a playoff contender this season, even with two other All-Stars in the starting lineup.

Yet, there it was, on the scoreboard, on all the social media derision, on the top of the implausibility-meter when the 76ers broke camp for the Bahamas.

That was no misprint on the ticker in the fourth quarter: Bulls 136, 76ers 86.

Down 50! Did the Sixers quit? Do the Sixers realize — with or without whatever Embiid and his balky left knee can give them — their season is over?

“I don’t want to believe that,” nine-time All-Star Paul George said. “I don’t sense that in the locker room and I don’t believe that.”

George has little choice publicly but to stand by the Sixers, even as they lost their eighth straight game and 10th of 11 overall — 142-110 on Monday night to the 23-win Chicago Bulls — and see even the odds of a play-in tournament berth dip to the point where fans are already looking at next season.

Not that it promises anything better than the mess that’s unraveled in South Philly this year

“I’m not quite sure what fell apart to give up 140 points, at home, against the Chicago Bulls,” George said.

The real bad news — you know before six Bulls

scored at least 15 points — came hours ahead of this debacle when the Sixers offered no real update on Embiid. Embiid missed his 38th game of the season for the sagging Sixers and all options — from rest to potential surgery to playing through pain — remain on the table, depending on the results of continued testing and imaging.

Embiid has played in just 19 of 57 games for the Sixers, who fell to 20-37 an have only a faint shot at earning a berth in the NBA play-in tournament. Embiid has averaged 23.8 points — he averaged at least 30 and won two scoring titles the last three seasons — and scored only 29 points combined in his past two games.

“I don’t think anybody envisioned it going like this,” coach Nick Nurse said. “It’s disappointing on a lot of levels. He wants to play We want him to play Our best version is of with him playing. It hasn’t worked out like that. Yet.”

The 76ers are a franchise in turmoil and suffering through an internal tug-ofwar when it comes to Embiid. Can he play through the pain and should he, even with the woeful record? Why not just shut him down and try again next year?

Even George who left the Los Angeles Clippers to sign a four-year, $212 million free-agent contract — conceded the juice might not be worth the squeeze when it comes to a potential Embiid return. The 76ers are one of the worst teams in the league and are trending closer to Toronto, Charlotte, Washington and a lottery pick than making a serious run in the post-

season. Maybe sitting Embiid is for the best — just as it was seemingly early in the process. The 76ers’ first-round pick is top-six protected or else it goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder, perhaps one more reason the Sixers could shut down Embiid and cut their losses on the season.

“We’re showing no signs of a team that will compete,” George said. “We just don’t have the habits of a championship or a playoff-contending team would have.

What about team president Daryl Morey, who built this mishmashed roster full of patchwork free agents and needlessly gave Embiid a three-year, $193 million contract extension ahead of training camp. Just as former Eagles running back Ricky Watters once said: For who? For what?

“We’ve got to be more dialed in. More effort. More energy,” George said. “More pride on the defensive end.”

“To be honest, right now, it’s a little farfetched. All we can do is work hard Try to just keep going for one another We’ve shown no signs of, forget championship, but a playoff contending-team here.” Does Nurse survive and earn a third season on the bench?

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL CONROy

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Pelicans forward Zion Williamson dunks the ball as San Antonio Spurs guards Devin Vassell and Stephon Castle watch Tuesday in New Orleans. Williamson had 18 points and six rebounds in the

SCOREBOARD

ON DECK

WHO: Dallas Baptist (6-1) vs. LSU (7-1)

WHEN: 7 p.m.Wednesday

WHERE: Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas

ONLINE: FloSports

RADIO: WDGL-FM, 98.1 (Baton Rouge); WWL-AM, 870 (New Orleans); KLWB-FM, 103.7 (Lafayette)

RANKINGS: LSU is No. 2 by D1Baseball; DBU is No. 19

PROBABLE STARTERS: LSU — LHP

Conner Ware (1-0, 0.00 ERA); DBU — RHP Ryan Borberg (0-0, 3.00 ERA)

DBU — RHP Ryan Borberg (0-0, 3.00 ERA)

PREGAME UPDATES: theadvocate. com/lsu

ON X: @KokiRiley

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Ware makes his second start after throwing three shutout innings on Feb 18 against Southern He only walked one batter and had two strikeouts. Borberg also threw Feb 18, allowing four hits and striking out four against the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Koki Riley

At

(Oxford, Miss.)

10:30 a.m. Louisiana Tech vs. Lamar (Hattiesburg, Miss.), 11:30 a.m. LSU vs. Utah (Fullerton, CA), 11:30 a.m. Northwestern vs. New Mexico (Starksville, Miss.), 12:30 p.m. UL vs. McNeese (Auburn, Ala.), 12:30 p.m.

Southeastern vs. Maine (Youngsville), 2 p.m.

Grambling vs. Army (Youngsville), 2 p.m. Southern vs. West Georgia (Youngsville)

2 p.m. Nicholls at Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m. Tarleton State at UL-Monroe, 4 p.m. Southeastern vs. Iowa State (Youngsville), 4 p.m. Grambling vs. West Georgia (Youngsville)

4 p.m. Southern vs. Maine (Youngsville), 4 p.m. McNeese at Auburn, 5:30 p.m. SEMO at UL-Monroe, 6:30 p.m. Louisiana Tech vs. UAPB (Hattiesburg,

Varvara Gracheva, Russia, def. Peyton Stearns (3), United States, 6-2, 6-3.

Women’s Doubles Roundof16 Yuan Yue, China, and Anna Blinkova, Russia, def. Miyu Kato, Japan, and Cristina Bucsa (1), Spain, 7-6 (5), 6-4. WTA-Merida Open Akron

Tuesday At Yucatan Country Club-Merida, Mexico Purse: $1,064,510

Surface: Hardcourt

Championships

Tennis

Arab

Purse: $3,237,670 Surface: Hardcourt outdoor Seedings in parentheses Men’s Singles Roundof32 Nuno Borges, Portugal, def. Arthur Fils (8), France, 6-2, 6-1. Luca Nardi, Italy, def. Marton Fucsovics, Hungary, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Marin Cilic, Croatia, def. Alex de Minaur (2), Australia, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Felix Auger-Aliassime, Canada, def. Alexander Bublik, Kazakhstan, 7-6 (7), 6-7 (4), 6-3. Quentin Halys, France, def. Andrey Rublev (3), Russia, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5). Tallon Griekspoor, Netherlands, def. Roman Safiullin, Russia, 5-7, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1). Ugo Humbert (5), France, def. Jiri Lehecka, Czechia, 6-3, 6-0. Christopher O’Connell, Australia, def. Grigor Dimitrov (6), Bulgaria, 6-0, ret Daniil Medvedev (1), Russia, def. Jan-Lennard Struff, Germany, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Matteo Berrettini, Italy, def. Gael Monfils, France, 7-5, 6-4. Men’s Doubles Roundof16 Yuki Bhambri, India, and Alexei Popyrin, Australia, def. Mate Pavic, Croatia, and Marcelo Arevalo-Gonzalez (1), El Salvador, 4-6, 7-6 (1), 10-3. Robin Haase, Netherlands, and Hendrik Jebens, Germany, def. Petros Tsitsipas and Pavlos Tsitsipas, Greece, 6-2, 6-2. Jamie Murray, Britain, and John Peers, Australia, def. N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, India, 6-4, 7-6 (6). Harri Heliovaara, Finland, and Henry Patten (2), Britain, def. Michael Venus, New Zealand, and Nikola Mektic, Croatia, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8), 10-6. ATP-Chile Open

Tuesday At Club Deportivo Universidad Catolica Santiago, Chile Purse: $680,140

Surface: Red clay seedings in parentheses Men’s Singles Roundof32 Tomas Martin Etcheverry (5), Argentina, def. Hugo Gaston, France, 6-2, 6-3. Damir Dzumhur, Bosnia-Herzegovina, def. Corentin Moutet, France, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. Jaime Faria, Portugal, def. Luciano Darderi (8), Italy, 6-3, 6-4. Thiago Monteiro, Brazil, def. Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Argentina, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (2). Camilo Ugo Carabelli, Argentina, def. Nicolas Jarry (7), Chile, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (9). Mariano Navone (6), Argentina, def. Alexander Shevchenko, Russia, 6-2, 6-2.

WTA-ATX Open

Tuesday At Westwood Country Club-Austin, Texas

Purse: $275,094

Surface: Hardcourt outdoor seedings in parentheses Women’s Singles Roundof32 Tatjana Maria, Germany, def. Anna Bondar, Hungary, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Jodie Burrage, Britain, def. Petra Kvitova Czechia, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Ena Shibahara, Japan, def. Kaja Juvan, Slovenia, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Cristina Bucsa, Spain, def. Bernarda Pera, United States, 6-3, 6-4. Jessica Pegula (1), United States, def Arantxa Rus, Netherlands, 6-3, 3-2, ret. Caroline Dolehide, United States, def. Anastasia Zakharova, Russia, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

The spring flights have landed at Leola’s Cafe, 1857 Government St., Baton Rouge. The pancake flights feature cherry chip, king cake and blueberry brisket with blueberry bourbon syrup pancakes. Mimosa flights include a lavender French 75, peach and strawberry bellini, kiwi strawberry and pineapple. King cake bread pudding is available at 1717 Kitchen + Cocktails, 1717 River Park Blvd., Baton Rouge, until March 4. The dessert puts a Mardi Gras twist on the dessert, made with cream cheese frosting and sugar Plus, try the king cake martini with Fireball, Baileys Irish Cream, vanilla, cinnamon and cream until March 4. In the know

Breakfast tacos are back at Barracuda, 2504 Government St., Baton Rouge, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday through Sunday only Choose from bean, egg and cheese or bacon, egg and cheese on a fresh flour tortilla. Learn something new

Unlocking the Secrets of Food Science: 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday 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 Friday is focused on king cakes. 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.

Festivals galore

International festival: 5 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Denham Springs High School, 1113 S Range Ave., Denham Springs Join the students as they showcase a celebration of diversity and culture. Meet people from around the world learn about customs and enjoy a variety of performances, food and drinks. Tickets are $5 upon entry, cash only

LIVING

More than 50 people enjoyed the Jan. 8 Filipino-themed

SHARING IS CARING

This Baton Rouge woman is on a mission to bring people, food and conversation to the table

LBY JAN RISHER Staff writer

aura Siu Nguyen believes in bringing food to the table.

She also knows firsthand the depth of bonding and understanding that sharing a meal together offers — the way eating someone else’s food gives people insight into another culture, another family, another way of life. That’s why Siu Nguyen is on a mission to create opportunities for others to experience the bounty of the table.

Her goal is to bring more people together to expand cultural understanding. Relying on her deep connection to food and culture, Siu Nguyen created Table Story occasional themed family-style dinners, prepared by local chefs designed to create conversations around food.

“The theme of all the things I do is food and how food brings people together,” she said.

Siu Nguyen, 34, started Table Story in November 2019. Even though COVID put a pause on the concept, it has developed a loyal following. Thus far, she has organized six events, with each dinner being limited to around 50 people.

Laura Siu Nguyen is the founder and director of Table Story, a pop-up that organizes dinners to celebrate food culture and community in Baton Rouge.

The menus are extensive, and the meals are served family-style. Passing blessings the next day

At the Jan. 8 Filipino-food Table Story at Counterspace BR, prepared by the Little Kitchen food truck husband/wife team of Gloria and Marvin Quisido, most guests left with multiple boxes of food — everything from egg rolls to noodles to meat and dessert The food truck Little Kitchen is usually parked at Ochsner Health Center on O’Neal Lane. “We want to make sure that

PROVIDED PHOTOS By BRAyDON KONGPHONGMANy

Dear Miss Manners: I am the event manager at a very sexy and trendy nightclub

We host fun parties every week. We have a regular guest who is absolutely smitten with me, but he is not my type. I feel obligated to cordially socialize with him whenever I see him, due to the customer service standards at my job. When it comes to relationships, I firmly believe we are all entitled to our own preferences; no one should force any kind of relationship — physical or otherwise for any reason. Thankfully, my employers agree with that. We have a very strong culture of consent with regards to any liaisons that happen as a result of being at our club. The guest in question is absolutely respectful of this safe atmosphere and has been very gracious when I decline his advances. Yet he continues to flirt with me. While I have been able to dodge his advances so far, I can’t keep this up forever It is simply exhausting. How do I turn him down and maintain the social relationship? To be fair, he is a pleasant gentleman —

very sweet, actually Just not my type.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Gentle reader: It may surprise you to hear that Miss Manners does not share your good opinion of your employers. From your description, it sounds like the interactions between customer and employee at the club are, in fact, a key part of the success of their business. Yet your employers assert, and you accept, that these interactions are entirely social. This burdens you with all of the work of keeping customers in line, while absolving your employers of any responsibility This is, at best, naive, but probably very dangerous.

It is time to tell your employers that you need assistance with this particular customer

Dear Miss Manners: My husband and I often share a bottle of wine at a restaurant. After the first glass, he doesn’t wait for the server, just pours himself more. He will go out of his way to finish the bottle, even if it means overfilling his glass. He responds to my shocked look with, “If you want any

more, you can drink from my glass.”

I think this is incredibly rude. What should I do?

Gentle reader: In contrast to rolling stones, repeated sources of friction in relationships tend to gather all sorts of stray detritus. So let us dust this one off.

Miss Manners believes you agree that it is not a crime to finish the bottle of wine you ordered. She further assures you that refilling the glasses yourselves, without the help of the waiter, is acceptable.

You were dismayed at the sight of your husband overfilling his glass, and while his retort was rude enough, it followed your shocked look, rather than having preceded it.

Was he rude, then, not to refill your glass along with his own? Yes. What you should do is to say, “Dearest, next time, would you please refill my glass when you refill your own?”

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

Egg yolks come out darker color

Dear Heloise: I recently bought a dozen eggs, and the yolks were a much deeper yellow — in fact, an almost orange color Are they OK to eat, or is something wrong with them? Cassie

J., Forest Grove, Oregon Cassie, a deeper color of yolk simply means that the hen had a diet high in “carotenoids.” The hen may have had a varied diet but specifically one that was rich in yellow corn and alfalfa However, the nutritional value of the egg remains basically the same as eggs that contain paler yolks. — Heloise Hearing the warnings

Dear Heloise: The recent fires in Southern California left people without homes, but it also left many areas without power for several hours or days. One elderly citizen was rescued by sheriff deputies from her

BON VIVANT

Continued from page 1D

Mardi Gras festival: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at Town Square, 200 North Blvd., Baton Rouge

unburned residence within the burning area. She said that her hearing aids had run out of power, and she could not hear the evacuation advice. Since many of us hearing-aid wearers have devices that are rechargeable (as opposed to batteryoperated), I suggest having a fully charged, small portable battery station to keep your hearing aids and cellphones charged up in case your power goes out. Paul H.,Torrance, California Paul, this is an excellent idea Many people, both young and old, need hearing aids. We usually don’t think about it, but the ability to hear is essential to our safety and overall enjoyment of life. — Heloise Checking car lights

Dear Heloise: In response to the person who wrote about checking a car’s lights, I re-

cently discovered that when I press the clicker to unlock my car doors, all the lights (except the headlights) come on for a few seconds. So, I can actually check them all myself and do it every time I get in the car I don’t know how many cars have this feature, but it is very handy — Steve H., in California

Yearning for spring

Dear Readers: This is an excellent time of year to get your closets cleaned out, give away or sell all those books you’re not reading, donate the clothing you never wear and get rid of broken toys and tools. Since many of my readers are snowed in or hate going out in the cold, you can start getting ready for those warm, sunny days of spring so that they’ll be here before you know it! — Heloise Send a hint to heloise@ heloise.com.

The Henry Turner Jr Listening Room Museum Foundation is hosting the 12th annual Mardi Gras festival alongside the Spanish Town parade. Attendees will enjoy live performances from local bands, art exhibits, food vendors and a familyfriendly environment. 225Fest: Saturday and Sunday at BREC Fairgrounds, 16072 Airline Highway, Baton Rouge For the third year, 225Fest is bringing live performances, inspiring panel stages, cooking demonstrations, an art walk, health fair food trucks and more. Register for the event at 225fest.com.

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

By The Associated Press

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2025. There are 308 days left in the year Today in history

On Feb. 26, 1993, a truck bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. (The bomb failed to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, as the terrorists had hoped; both structures were destroyed in the 9/11 attack eight years later.)

On this date: In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the Island of Elba, sailing back to France in a bid to regain power In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act making the Grand Canyon a national park.

In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.

In 1987, the Tower Commission which had probed the Iran-Contra affair, issued its report, which rebuked President Ronald Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.

In 1998, a jury in Amarillo, Texas, rejected an $11 million lawsuit brought by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey’s talk show for a price fall after a segment on food safety that included a discussion about mad cow disease.

In 2012, Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot to death in Sanford, Florida, during an altercation with neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said he acted in selfdefense. (Zimmerman was later acquitted of seconddegree murder.)

In 2013, a hot air balloon burst into flames during a sunrise flight over the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor and then plummeted 1,000 feet to earth, killing 19 tourists. In 2017, At the Academy Awards, “Moonlight” won three Oscars, including best picture of 2016; in a startling gaffe, the musical “La La Land” was mistakenly announced as the best picture winner before the error was corrected. Today’s birthdays: Singer

Mitch Ryder is 80. Singer Michael Bolton is 72. Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Mullen is 68. Actor Greg Germann is 67. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is 67. Singer Erykah Badu is 54. Filmmaker Sean Baker is 54. Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk is 52. Olympic swimming gold medalist Jenny Thompson is 52. Singer Corinne Bailey Rae is 46. Tennis Hall of Famer Li Na is 43.

Hints from Heloise

nobody’s hungry, and I think that’s one of the things that is just a part of a lot of different cultures, ancient cultures. You always want to bring a lot more food to the table because you don’t cook just for a plate, you cook for the whole family,” Siu Nguyen said. “You’re still passing the blessings for the next day. Each Table Story meal is prepared by local chefs and hosted by someone in the community who works with Siu Nguyen and the chefs on the menu. The host interacts with diners and explains the meal and culture to guests.

Von Iyengar, a Baton Rouge teacher and vice president of the Filipino-American Association of Baton Rouge, enthusiastically hosted the January Table Story and demonstrated a pride of culture impossible to deny “Baton Rouge is a gumbo culture, right? It’s just like our food,” said Iyengar “It’s just a mix of everything. When we put it all together with that right kind of mixture, we create such a wonderful experience.”

The culinary events have created a loyal following, with a core group who return again and again, but Siu Nguyen says each event

BEST

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night satisfied my craving for oysters. Each shell included a decent-sized oyster in sauce that spilled from the shells onto the platter

For my meal, I chose “The Macie,” which allows you to pick a half po-boy with a cup of soup. I ordered the fried catfish po-boy, served on locally made French bread and dressed with shredded lettuce, tomatoes and pickles, and the shrimp and crab gumbo.

The catfish tasted like it was caught that morning crispy and perfectly breaded.

I can’t wait to go back for the Wednesday deal

— Lauren Cheramie, features coordinator Olive oil cake n Carpe Diem Cafe and Wine Bar, 812 Jefferson St., Lafayette

Because of our office location, much of my time is spent on the north end of Jefferson Street in Lafayette, which has plenty of great food and drink offerings. Whenever I venture to the south end of Jefferson, however, I always make time for Carpe Diem’s gluten-free olive oil cake. And a coffee, of course. I was initially skeptical about the olive oil cake, which was highly recommended by the barista. It doesn’t taste like olive oil. It is a super-moist, tender cake with a subtle citrus flavor, especially when you bite into the crusty top. After that first bite, it literally melts in your mouth and is a perfect complement to a

“I didn’t like banking, but I got married to the love of my life, Kenny,” she said “After we married, I was in a transition. I didn’t have a permit to work and was in limbo.”

She moved to Baton Rouge in 2016, learned marketing and, as a volunteer organized the Mac and Cheese Festival in 2017. From there, her passion for the intersection of food and community grew

These days, Siu Nguyen has plans to turn Table Story into a nonprofit dedicated to highlighting dishes from around the world and igniting meaningful conversations about food culture.

Siu Nguyen has found new Asian restaurants and chefs at the Night Market who end up cooking for Table Story, including the Little Kitchen Filipino team from the January event. This will be the third year for Night Market BTR, which has grown exponentially in each iteration.

“We expected 3,000 people last year, and more than 10,000 came. The Night Market is going to be bigger and better this year We are going to have a main tent that will be open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.” she said. “We’ll have 55 vendors this year.”

Laura Cating, Visit Baton Rouge’s senior vice president of marketing/communications, sings Siu Nguyen’s praises.

“We sponsor 52 festivals and cultural events across the city each year We told Laura that we wanted to be a sponsor She had a vision and really brought the Asian community together,” Cating said. “The Night Market just had the charm of something we hadn’t seen.”

Cating describes Night Market BTR as a “celebration of local Asian culture, small businesses and Baton Rouge locals celebrating their heritages.”

brings new people in as well. The events usually sell out. Menus aren’t released until the day of the dinner “I want people to come with an open mind. The chefs really curate the menus,” Siu Nguyen said “Every Table Story is always different different chefs, different food.”

The next Table Story event is set for March 12 when chefs will collaborate to create a Lunar New Year feast. Tickets are $130 per person and can be purchased online here.

Deep roots in between Siu Nguyen knows a lot about cultural understanding through food. She describes herself as “fully

Chinese,” but Spanish is her first language. She grew up in Honduras, where her grandparents immigrated from China in 1935 and built a convenience store in San Pedro Sula.

She says that convenience store has helped build their family their connections to Honduras and her personal understanding of the importance of sharing food.

“My dad said, ‘Education is the one thing I can give you,’” she said, explaining that she came to Louisiana on a full scholarship to study biology at the University of New Orleans. She ended up with a master’s in romance languages and a minor in health care. She taught for a while and then went into banking.

Lafayette

from Solera, 4205 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge

nice espresso or cappuccino.

— Kristin Askelson, managing editor, Acadiana Advocate

Spanish Dates and Braised Beef Cheeks

n Solera, 4205 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, my husband and I made reservations at Solera on Saturday the 15th to bypass the crowds and spend the day together It was our first time at the tapas and wine restaurant, and everything was delightful. We started with two small plates, the Spanish dates and the tuna crudo, the per-

fect mix of salty and sweet

The dates were stuffed with manchego cheese and chorizo and wrapped in jamón. They were topped with a sweet reduction. My husband and I could have eaten a bowl of them. The tuna hit the salty notes with greens and gribiche sauce on toasted brioche.

Our large plates came out soon after, and the presentation and flavors of each surpassed our expectations. I got the braised beef cheeks, which are served with creamy grits, wild mushrooms and onion marmalade. Once again, the balance of sweet and savory was delicious.

My husband ordered the Solera double cheeseburger, which was layered with a fried egg, cheddar and onion bacon jam. We both said it was the best burger we had tasted in a while. Overall, the lunch was sublime, and I’m already making a list of the next small and large plates I want to order next time.

— Joy Holden, Louisiana Inspired coordinator

Creating Night Market BTR

But Table Story isn’t Siu Nguyen’s only avenue to accomplish that goal.

She is also the founder and organizer of Night Market BTR, which is set to take place May 10 at the park area in front of the State Capitol by Spanish Town Road. The two food and community events merge as

This year’s event will be ticketed. Entry will be $5, as Siu Nguyen explained that free events are difficult, and the fee will allow for more security and an easier-tomanage festival.

“A percentage of proceeds will be going to high school scholarships — giving back to the community that is giving to us,” she said.

Visit Baton Rouge is a Night Market BTR sponsor

“Laura is the champion of highlighting things in a new way,” Cating said. “Last May, we got the chance to give her our community leadership award. As a destination marketing organization, she is one of the people in the city who is bringing something new to our culture and leading in a new way We saw that Laura was that person.”

STAFF PHOTO By KRISTIN ASKELSON

Cappucino and olive oil cake at Carpe Diem Cafe and Wine Bar in

STAFF PHOTO By JOy HOLDEN Braised Beef Cheeks

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Standing alone isn't necessary, but knowing how to pick your allies is. Walk away from those who lead you astray. Focus on expanding your vision through learning from and communicating with people.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Today is not the time to engage in arguments or to let anyone test your patience. While working diligently to declutter your life, take a long, hard look at how you want to direct your energy.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Strengthen your ties with the people who matter to you. Refrain from letting emotional situations control your mind. Put yourself and your needs first.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) You'll meet with opposition Refuse to let anyone put you in a vulnerable position. Saying yes when you know you should decline will cause tension between you and your loved ones.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Raise the bar and study how to outmaneuver any competitor. You have the edge to get ahead if you are willing to step outside the norm. Use the element of surprise to your advantage.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Look at trends and consider modifying how you present yourself. Updating your skills or qualifications and taking a heartfelt approach to handling money, emotions and health matters will make a difference.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Note who's watching from the sidelines. You want to send the right impression. Stick to

facts and figures, and call on experts when necessary to avoid sticky situations.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Think big, but budget wisely. How you handle matters will be important. You don't have to impress anyone; enforcing moderation, insight and ingenuity will give you the wiggle room you need.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Change will beckon, but before making a move, determine if your decisions are coming from a place of emotion or reason. Socialize, communicate, pick experts' brains and think about what's best and right for you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Work toward a goal, but don't take shortcuts. A domestic problem will spin out of control if it becomes impossible to find common ground with the people you're dealing with.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) The opportunity to get ahead is within reach. Put your energy into partnerships, your home environment and how you earn your living. Protect yourself against injury and health risks.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Be open with your allies and secretive with those prying into your affairs. Look for alternatives that you can quickly implement if the going gets tough.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

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

CLUE: D EQUALS F

FAMILY CIrCUS

TODAy'S

CeLebrItY CIpher

better or For WorSe

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

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

nea CroSSwordS La TimeS CroSSword

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS CurTiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER

In “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Commander Deanna Troi said, “Higher emotions are what separate us from the lower orders of life. Higher emotions and table manners.”

This week we are looking at defenders leading high or low cards from various holdings. The general principle is to lead low from length when you have at least one honor in that suit. With no honor, you lead an unnecessarily high card. But, as I mentioned yesterday, the most common exception occurs when you lead partner’s suit.

Then, if you have not supported that suit, giving length information is more important than strength information.

In this example, what should West lead against two spades when he has or has not raised hearts?

Should West bid two hearts? It is a borderline decision. The pluses are showing support and some values, and perhaps making North’s rebid more awkward.

The minuses are the scant values and the lack of a heart honor; if North becomes the declarer, East might make a losing heart lead.

If West has not supported hearts, he should lead the three: low from length.

But if he has raised, he should start with the nine: top of nothing.

Moving on, how can East-West defeat two spades? The defenders must take

Average

loCKhorNs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles

hidato

mallard