The Times-Picayune 04-06-2025 by The Advocate

COASTAL EXPECTATIONS

Newrestaurants redefine theGulfCoast dining scene

BY IAN McNULTY |Staff writer

Farm-to-tablerestaurant sourcing is one thing. At therestaurant The Hope Farm in Fairhope, Alabama, radishes and carrots,mint and scallions allcome from beds withinarm’sreach of the outdoor patio tables.

About an hour away in Pensacola, Florida,cooks at Pearl&Hornbroil oysters with blasts of umami-boostingblackgarlic and miso borrowed fromJapanese cuisine. Fried snapperisserved with aclassicFrench beurre blanc blendedwith achile sauce from the chef’s Eastern European homeland.

And over in Ocean Springs,Mississippi, the restaurant/butcher shop Butcher Bakerhas artisanal breadand charcuterie nexttooutrightexotica. Cue the raw,marinated soft-shell crab. It’s an exceedingly raredish at restaurants anywhere. Thisone can be found in astripmallinsmall-town coastal Mississippi. Louisianans head to the GulfCoast for sun, sand, boating and maybesomebushwackers.Adventurous food and reﬁned dining aren’ttypically among their expectations.

But that’schanging. Parts of the Gulf Coast are among the fastest-growing areas of theUnited States.More people fromLouisiana andaround the South are choosing theregiontoliveand work, not just for vacations. The economicboom that’stransformingthe citiesand towns stretching from Pass Christian to the far reaches of 30A is also transforming its restaurant and hospitality industry

ä See DINING, page 8A

Butcher Baker in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a combination butcher shop and restaurant, brings casual, inventivemeals,likethis night’smix of octopus,local pork chop, bread and raw, marinatedsoft-shell crab

FewerLa. students taking TOPS

Scholarships fall short of collegetuition costs

BY PATRICK WALL |Staff writer

Janna Jordan’sfamily lives in Prairieville, abouta 30-minutedrive fromLSU. This fall, her daughterAbby Veillonwill head to Mississippi for college.

Louisiana has long offered amerit-based scholarship, Taylor Opportunity Program forStudents or TOPS,toenticestudentstochooseone of the state’spublic collegesoruniversities.But Abby, whowill attend theUniversity of Southern Mississippi,isamong the growingnumberofhigh schoolerswho don’tmeet TOPS’academicrequirements. Even if she were eligible, the award amounts have been frozen since 2016 while tuition continues to rise.

“TOPS is not going to keep us in state,” Janna Jordan said, “whether we get it or not.”

Nearly 30 years ago, Louisiana madeits students acompelling offer: Earn good grades and test scores in high school andyourin-state college tuition will be covered, courtesy of aTOPS scholarship.The deal proved immensely popular.Participation and costs rose steadily until the 2020-21 school year,when 56,000 students earned nearly $321 million in awards, according to state data. Then, suddenly, thenumbers started falling. This school year,there are fewerthan 48,000 TOPS recipients —the lowest count in adecade —getting $270.4 million, about$50 million less than four years ago.

ä See TOPS, page 6A H

State, local officialsto

work with

ICE

Louisiana lawmakersseek to ensure cooperation

BY ALYSE PFEIL |Staff writer

As President Donald Trump pursues ashockand-awe crackdown on illegal immigration, some Louisiana lawmakers want to “set the tone” that local lawenforcementwill cooperate withfederal immigration enforcement efforts.

Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, has filed legislation that would makeitacrimefor any public official to interfere with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federalimmigration enforcementagencies. Those officialscould be charged with malfeasance in office or even obstruction of justice.

“I can’tbelieve that we actually need alaw that says that local ofﬁcials have to cooperate with our federal law enforcement ofﬁcials,” Morris said. “But apparentlyaroundthe countryit’sbecome

ä See ICE, page 5A

STAFF PHOTOSByCHRIS GRANGER

Dining at the baratButcher Baker in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, acombination butcher shopand restaurant, brings casual,inventivemeals.

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Netanyahu to meet with Trump on Monday

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet on Monday with President Donald Trump in Washington to seek a better tariff deal for Israel and to discuss the war in Gaza, the situation in Syria and the Iranian nuclear program, an Israeli ofﬁcial said. Netanyahu is in the Hungarian capital Budapest where he was warmly welcomed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban in deﬁance of an arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court in November over Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

The Israeli ofﬁcial, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Orban and Netanyahu jointly phoned Trump and, on the call, the Israeli leader raised the 17% tariff the U.S. is due to impose on some Israeli goods. Israel hoped to escape tariffs by announcing an end to all remaining tariffs from the U.S. in advance but that failed to work.

The president urged Netanyahu to come to Washington to discuss it, the ofﬁcial said. With the Passover holiday a week away, Netanyahu’s aides suggested a visit later in the month, but the White House wanted the meeting this very Monday, he said.

Zelenskyy meets military leaders from Europe

KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met the leaders of the British and French armed forces in Kyiv Saturday to discuss the potential deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force to Ukraine, despite the reluctance of U.S. President Donald Trump to provide security guarantees

The U.K. Ministry of Defense said that officials addressed the structure, size and composition of any future “reassurance force,” while the chief of the defense staff, Adm. Antony Radakin, emphasized that the U.K. would look to “build on the formidable capabilities of the Ukrainian army and put them in the strongest possible position to deter Russian aggression.”

The weekend discussions are planned to set the ground for a further meeting between defense ministers in Brussels and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday Britain has been promoting the idea of a European-led peacekeeping force for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire but it has said such a force needed a U.S. “backstop” to make it credible in the face of possible Russian reprisals.

Building a force big enough to act as a credible deterrent — U.K. ofﬁcials have talked about possibly 10,000 to 30,000 troops — would be a considerable effort for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War but are now rearming.

Trump, who has been pushing for a ceaseﬁre in the war in Ukraine, temporarily paused military aid to Kyiv and has repeatedly said that the country will never join the NATO military alliance.

Endangered tortoises

born at Pa. zoo

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — A pair of critically endangered, nearly 100-year-old Galapagos tortoises at the Philadelphia Zoo have become ﬁrst-time parents.

In an announcement Friday, the zoo said it is “overjoyed” at the arrivals of the four hatchlings, a ﬁrst in its more than 150year history The babies are the offspring of female Mommy and male Abrazzo, the zoo’s two oldest residents. The quartet is being kept behind the scenes inside the Reptile and Amphibian House for now, “eating and growing appropriately,” the zoo said. They weigh between 70 and 80 grams, about the weight of a chicken egg. The ﬁrst egg hatched on Feb. 27 and more that still could hatch are being monitored by the zoo’s animal care team.

“This is a signiﬁcant milestone in the history of Philadelphia Zoo, and we couldn’t be more excited to share this news with our city, region and the world,” President and CEO Jo-Elle Mogerman said in a statement.

The zoo plans a public debut of the hatchlings on April 23, as well as a naming contest

Protesters tee off against Trump, Musk

‘Hands Off!’

rallies held across the U.S

BY DAVE COLLINS Associated Press

Crowds of people angry about the way President Donald Trump is running the country marched and rallied in scores of American cities Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican’s ﬁrst weeks in ofﬁce.

So-called “Hands Off!” demonstrations were organized for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists.

The rallies appeared peaceful, with no immediate reports of arrests From the National Mall and Midtown Manhattan to Boston Common and multiple state capitols, thousands of protesters assailed Trump and billionaire Elon Musk ‘s actions on government downsizing, the economy, immigration and human rights In Seattle in the shadow of the city’s iconic Space Needle, protesters held signs with slogans like “Fight the oligarchy.”

Demonstrators voiced anger over the administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back pro-

tections for transgender people and cut funding for health programs.

Musk, a Trump adviser who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in the downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efﬁciency He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, criticized the administration’s treatment of the LBGTQ+ community at the rally at the National Mall, where Democratic members of Congress also took the stage.

“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” Robinson said.

U.N. urges relief efforts in Myanmar as quake deaths rise

BY GRANT PECK Associated Press

BANGKOK The death toll from last week’s massive earthquake in Myanmar rose to 3,455, state media said Saturday, as U.N. agencies and foreign aid donors ramped up their emergency relief efforts.

The 7.7-magnitude quake hit a wide swath of the country, causing significant damage to six regions and states including the capital Naypyitaw The earthquake left many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaged roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.

It also worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis triggered by the country’s civil war that has internally displaced more than 3 million people and left nearly 20 million in need, according to the United Nations.

The military government’s leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has said the earthquake was the second most powerful in the country’s recorded history after a magnitude 8 quake east of Mandalay in May 1912.

Min Aung Hlaing told Cabinet members Saturday that the quake’s death toll has reached 3,455, with 4,840 injured and 214 missing according to a report on state television MRTV

He said 5,223 buildings, 1,824 schools, 2,752 Buddhist monasterial living quarters, 4,817 pagodas and temples, 167 hospitals and clinics, 169 bridges, 198 dams and 184 sections of the country’s main highway were damaged by the earthquake.

Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi sparking armed resistance that is now believed by analysts to control more territory than the army

Members of the U.N. Security Council “recognized the need to strengthen rescue, relief and recovery efforts and to scale up immediate and rapid humanitarian assistance in response to the requests to help the people of Myanmar, supported by the international community,” its president, Jérôme Bonnafont, of France, said in a statement Friday

“They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives.”

“We don’t want this America, y’all,” Robinson added. “We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”

In Boston, demonstrators brandished signs such as “Hands off our democracy” and “Hands off our Social Security.”

Mayor Michelle Wu said she does not want her children and others’ to live in a world in which threats and intimidation are government tactics and values like diversity and equality are under attack

“I refuse to accept that

they could grow up in a world where immigrants like their grandma and grandpa are automatically presumed to be criminals,” Wu said.

Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, was one of hundreds who rallied at the Statehouse in Columbus. He said he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.

“He’s tearing this country apart,” Broom said. “It’s just an administration of grievances.”

Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump’s golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club’s Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA

Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.

“They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security,” said Archer Moran of Port St. Lucie, Florida.

“The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long,” Moran said “And it’s amazing how soon these protests are happening since he’s taken ofﬁce.”

The president planned to go golﬁng again Sunday, according to the White House.

Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump’s position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare beneﬁts to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”

Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump and Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But before Saturday the opposition movement had yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women’s March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington after Trump’s ﬁrst inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020. In Charlotte, North Carolina protesters said they were supporting a variety of causes, from Social Security and education to immigration and women’s reproductive rights.

Feds argue judge can’t order return of mistakenly deported Md. man

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON A federal judge didn’t have the authority to order the Trump administration to broker the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported from the U.S. to a notorious El Salvador prison, government attorneys argued Saturday as they urged an appeals court to suspend the ruling.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Friday ordered the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. by late Monday night. Justice Department lawyers asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to immediately pause the judge’s order “A judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way, let alone compel a certain action by a foreign sovereign, is constitutionally intolerable,” they wrote.

The appeals court asked Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to respond to the government’s filing by Sunday afternoon.

Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national, was arrested in Maryland and deported last month despite an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that shielded him from deportation to El Salvador where he faced likely persecution by local gangs.

His mistaken deportation, described by the White House as an “administrative error,” has outraged many and raised concerns about expelling noncitizens who were granted permission to be in the U.S. Dozens of supporters gathered at the Greenbelt, Maryland, federal courthouse for Friday’s hearing. A cheer erupted in the courtroom when Xinis ruled in favor of Abrego Garcia, whose wife, a U.S.

citizen, was in attendance.

Xinis, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, said there was no legal basis for Abrego Garcia’s detention and no legal justiﬁcation for his removal to El Salvador, where he has been held in a prison that observers say is rife with human rights abuses.

Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said the government has done nothing to get his client back even after admitting its errors. “Plenty of tweets. Plenty of White House news conferences. But no actual steps taken with the government of El Salvador to make it right,” he told the judge on Friday

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOSE LUIS MAGANA

Demonstrators hold up signs Saturday during a ‘Hands Off!’ protest against President Donald Trump at the Washington Monument in Washington.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Maha Aungmye Bonzan Monastery, commonly known as the Me Nu Brick Monastery, is damaged after last week’s earthquake in Innwa, Tada-U township, Mandalay, Myanmar

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Israeli troops deploy to new security corridor in Gaza

BY NATALIE MELZER Associated Press

TELAVIV,Israel Israeli troops deployed to a newly established security corridor across southern Gaza, the military announced Saturday, as pressure on the Hamas militant group increased weeks into the renewed war Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announced the new Morag Corridor and suggested it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel had ordered evacuated, from the rest of Gaza.

A military statement said troops with the 36th Division had been deployed. It was not immediately clear how many, or where exactly the new corridor was located. Morag is the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, and Netanyahu had suggested it would run between the cities.

rest of the strip. The Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

“We are cutting up the strip, and we are increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages,” Netanyahu said Wednesday His defense minister has said Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called security zones.

Maps published by Israeli media showed the corridor running the width of the narrow coastal strip from east to west.

Netanyahu had said it would be “a second Philadelphi corridor,” referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since last May Last month, Israel shattered a ceaseﬁre in Gaza with

a surprise bombardment after trying to pressure Hamas to accept proposed new terms for the truce that had taken hold in January Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.

Israel quickly reasserted control over the Netzarim corridor that cuts off the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, from the

Video appears to contradict Israel’s account in killings of 15 medics

BY EDITH M. LEDERER, WAFAA SHURAFA and LEE KEATH Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS Phone vid-

eo from one of 15 Palestinian medics killed by Israeli forces last month appears to contradict Israeli claims that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened ﬁre on them in southern Gaza.

The footage shows the Red Crescent and Civil Defense teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights ﬂashing, logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under ﬁre earlier The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening manner as three medics emerge and head toward the stricken ambulance.

Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunﬁre, which goes on for more than ﬁve minutes with brief pauses The owner of the phone can be heard praying.

“Forgive me, mother This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,” he cries, his voice weak.

Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers and a U.N. staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23

by Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Troops then bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave U.N and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s vice president, Marwan Jilani, said the phone with the footage was found in the pocket of one of its slain staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations distributed the video to the U.N. Security Council. The Associated Press obtained the video from a U.N diplomat on condition of anonymity because it has not been made public.

One paramedic who survived, Munzer Abed, confirmed the veracity of the video to the AP Two blockshaped concrete structures visible in the video are also seen in a U.N video released Sunday showing the recovery of the bodies from the site — a sign they are in the same location.

Asked about the video, the Israeli military said Saturday that the incident was “under thorough examination.”

The Israeli military earlier said it opened ﬁre on the

vehicles because they were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals.

The initial account of the vehicles not having emergency lights on was mistaken, an Israeli military ofﬁcial told journalists Saturday evening. The ofﬁcial spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Younes Al-Khatib, called for an independent investigation. “We don’t trust any of the army investigations,” he told a brieﬁng at the U.N. on Friday

One medic Assaad al-Nassasra, is still missing, the Red Crescent says. Abed said he saw al-Nassasra being led away blindfolded by Israeli troops. Al-Khatib said the organization has asked the military where it is holding the staffer Al-Khatib said the slain men had been “targeted at close range” and that a forensic autopsy report would be released soon.

Israel has accused Hamas of moving and hiding its fighters inside ambulances and emergency vehicles, as well as in hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, arguing that justifies strikes on them. Medical personnel largely deny the accusations.

Saturday’s announcement came shortly after a White House official confirmed that Netanyahu on Monday would again meet with President Donald Trump, their second meeting at the White House since Trump took office in January The U.S. has been a mediator in ceasefire talks, along with Egypt and Qatar, but also supported Israel’s resumption of fighting.

Following his previous meeting with Netanyahu,

Trump made the surprise proposal that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the territory and he suggested that the United States take “ownership” in redeveloping the area. Palestinians, Arab nations and rights groups sharply criticized the idea. Israel has pledged to escalate the ﬁghting with Hamas until the militant group returns the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, disarms and leaves the territory Israel last month again halted all supplies of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza in another application of pressure on the militant group and the territory’s over 2 million Palestinians.

Rights groups say the tactic is a war crime. Gaza relies largely on humanitarian aid, and its residents cannot easily leave.

Hamas says it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceaseﬁre and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory

The Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Some 251 hostages were taken, most of them released in ceaseﬁre agreements and other deals.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry It doesn’t say whether they are civilians or combatants but says the majority have been women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

By The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY A 3-year-old girl from the western state of Durango is Mexico’s first confirmed human case of bird flu, health officials said Friday

In Mexico, the girl was in serious condition in a hospital in Torreon in the neigh-

Type A H5N1 inﬂuenza has been spreading through animals and some people in the United States. There have been 70 cases in that country since during the past year, according to the World Health Organization, though researchers and studies suggest that’s likely an undercount.

boring state of Coahuila, the health ministry said in a statement Friday It said she had initially been treated with an anti-ﬂu medication. It was not known how the girl contracted the virus. Investigators were testing wild birds in the vicinity of the girl’s home, the statement said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ARIEL SCHALIT People protest Saturday in Tel Aviv, Israel, demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

somewhat of atrend in certain areas to say they are not gonna cooperate with the federal government. And I think that’swrong.”

Morris saidhesupports Trump’shandling of immigration: “He’sdoing the right thing by deporting criminals and people who are here illegally.It’snot much more complicated than that.”

For themost part, state andlocal lawenforcement agencies play anarrow role in immigration detention and deportation.

“Immigration law is federal administrative law,” explainedMetairieimmigration attorney Michael Gahagan. “It’snot criminal law where the judge issues awarrant and the sheriff’s deputy will go out and arrest them at their house based on this arrest warrant.” Federal officers enforce federal laws, Gahagan said. Because of that,ICE or other federal agencies take the lead on immigration enforcement operations, though sometimes they enlist the support of stateor localpolice.

In the course of their regular policing, however, state or local law enforcement may learn someone they have arrested is wanted by ICE.Inthatcase, theycan inform ICE and hold that suspect for up to 48 hours through what is known as an “immigration detainer.”

Just two Louisiana law enforcement agencies out of the many scattered throughoutthe state’s64 parishes have formalagreements in place to assist ICE, accordingtodata available on theagency’swebsite: the KennerPolice Department and the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce.

Those arrangements are often referred to as “287(g) agreements” and are setup under section 287(g) of a federal law called the Immigrationand Nationality Act

Both Kenner and Bossier Parishsignedonto “jail enforcement model” agreements.

These allow certain trained local ofﬁcers to perform immigration enforcement duties inside the local jail after someone has been arrested and booked for another crime.

Those tasks include iden-

tifying and interviewing people to determineifthey are subject todeportation, issuing detainers, serving ICE warrants, and preparing removal proceeding documents.

Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley signed up in midMarch.

“Sweeps and checkpoints andthings of that nature; that’snot even possible with themodel we’regoing into,” he explained. Instead, the agreement applies onlytopeople who have been arrested and taken into custody foranother offense.

The agreement gives the Kenner Police Department access to federal databases to confirm an arrestee’s identityand the training and legal authoritytointerview those whoare in police custody to determine if they are deportable.

Conley, who was elected to his post in 2022 and over the years heldvarious roles in Jefferson Parish politics and law enforcement, leads thepoliceforce in acity where nearly 30% of the population is Hispanic.

Jefferson Parish, where Kenner is located, hasthe highest HispanicpopulationinLouisiana, according to U.S. census data.

“I knowthatthe main knock on 287(g) is that the police departmentmight lose trust of theHispanic community,” he said. “I think it’smyjob as the leader of this department and as an elected ofﬁcialtowork on that trust.”

Withoutthe agreement, thepolice department had to rely on federal ofﬁcials forthese tasks, something that historically has been “very time consuming,” Conley said.

Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington signed ajailenforcement model agreement on Feb. 27, but through aspokesperson declined to share additional information about the arrangement.

ICE did not respond to requests for comment about immigration enforcement arrestsinLouisiana.

The latest regional ICE arrest statistics available on its website are from October 2024. Theyshow that for the 2024 ﬁscal year which ended Sept. 30, there were atotal of 10,327 IC arrests in theareathati cludes Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

OtheragreementswithICE

It is possiblethatother Louisiana agencies could sign similar agreements with ICE.

The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’sOfﬁce is “in active negotiations with ICEtofulﬁll keyregional functions,”accordingtoLPSOspokesperson Valerie Ponseti.

“These agreementsare in process, and it would be premature to disclose details,” she said in an email.

In the meantime, “weactively workwith ICE to detain andremitprisoners that we receive in the Lafayette Parish CorrectionalCenterwho do not have lawful status to be in the United States,” she said.

LafayetteParishSheriff Mark Garber ended the policy of aprevious sheriff not to honor ICE detainers when he took ofﬁce in 2016. He said that since then, his ofﬁce has “worked with ICE seamlessly.”

Garber changedcourseafter a2014 decision by thenSheriff Mike Neustrom to honoronlyICE detainers that were also supported by ajudge’sorder.Neustrom at the time said the policy was an efforttoavoid litigation after afederal judge found acounty jail in Oregon liable for civil rights violations over an ICE detainer

Offenders who don’thave legal status to be in the U.S. “are puttinganunnecessary strain on an already strained criminal justice system and parish jail,” Garber said. “Welook forward to cooperating with areinvigorated Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agencytoalleviate some of these pressures from our community.” What otheragenciesdo Louisiana State Police conﬁrmed it does not work with ICEunderany formal agreement, but didn’tshare

details as to how the agencies do work together

“Louisiana State Police regularly collaborates with local, state, and federal partners in our shared mission of enforcinglawsand ensuring safety in our communities,” an agency spokesperson said in astatement.

Likewise, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said that, while there’s no formal agreement, if someone booked in Livingston Parish is identiﬁed as being wanted by ICE, the agency honors immigration detainers.

“Wehave always maintained an outstanding working relationship with our local ICE agents,” Ard said.

What do BR andN.O.do?

The East Baton Rouge ParishSheriff’s Office,

through aspokesperson, said it doesn’thave any formalagreements in place withICE nor has it been askedbythe agency to participate in any immigration enforcement activity

In Orleans Parish, aconsent decree has been in place since 2013 that limitshow theOrleans Parish Sheriff’s Office can assist ICEwith immigration detainers or verifying citizenship status.

But alaw passedlast year banned illegal immigration sanctuary policies and is now the basisfor an ongoing legaleffort by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill to end the consent decree.

In the meantime, OPSO in astatement said it “remains in full compliancewith all

applicable state laws and valid court orders related to ICE detainers.” “Under current policy, whichismandated by the consent decree, OPSO honors ICE detainers in cases involving serious crimes such as murder,rape, and armed robbery,” the agency said. “Our office will continue to follow thelaw as directed by the courts while maintaining ourcommitment to public safety andconstitutionalpolicing. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce and the New Orleans Police Department did notrespond to requests for comment on how those agencies collaborate with ICE.

Email Alyse Pfeil at alyse pfeil@theadvocate.com.

N.Y. public schools say they won’t comply with DEI order

BY DAVE COLLINS Associated Press

New York state officials have told the Trump administration that they will not comply with its demands to end diversity, equity and inclusion practices in public schools, despite the administration’s threats to terminate federal education funding.

Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner of the state Department of Education, said in a letter dated Friday to the federal Education Department

TOPS

Continued from page 1A

“Clearly we’re trending in the wrong direction,” said Kim Hunter Reed, Louisiana’s higher education commissioner “I’m very concerned about it.”

The pandemic’s academic disruptions and major hurricanes appear to have played a role in the downturn, as the number of eligible students has dipped in recent years. But also, as the awards fall short of college costs, the program has become less alluring. More eligible students are turning down TOPS, a trend that preceded COVID-19, according to an analysis by the state Board of Regents, which oversees public higher education.

Some students are passing on college, while others are leaving Louisiana. The highest-achieving Louisiana students can receive scholarships in other states that dwarf TOPS, which no longer covers the cost of in-state tuition and fees.

Now, state lawmakers want to reverse those trends. Bills that will be introduced when the legislative session starts this month aim to expand program eligibility and participation. One would increase the existing award amounts and create a new award for the highest-scoring students that

that state ofﬁcials do not believe the federal agency has the authority to make such demands.

“We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity equity & inclusion,’” he wrote. “But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”

Morton-Bentley also wrote state officials were “unaware” of any authority the federal Department of Education has to demand that states agree with its interpretation of court decisions or to terminate funding without a formal adminis-

pays $12,000 annually — thousands more than what TOPS recipients currently get.

“We’re trying to get our best and brightest to stay here,” said Rep. Christopher Turner R-Rustin who co-authored the bill. “I just want to see us educate and take care of our own.”

A shrinking scholarship

The Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, which began under a different name in 1998, was one of the country’s first state-funded scholarships to focus only on students’ academic achievement and not their financial need. Today, Louisiana spends nine times the national average on merit-only aid, according to an analysis by the Southern Regional Education Board, a nonprofit research group.

TOPS became a hugely popular entitlement for students who score 20 or above on the ACT and earn a 2.5 GPA or higher (TOPS Tech, a separate scholarship that pays for two years of vocational training, has different eligibility rules.) The program grew exponentially: Within ﬁve years, its cost doubled to nearly $111 million as 41,000 students received scholarships tied to current tuition rates. In 2016, faced with a massive budget shortfall, the state Legislature for the ﬁrst time only partially funded TOPS, covering about 70% of recipients’ tuition bills.

trative process The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

The Trump administration on Thursday ordered K-12 schools nationwide to certify within 10 days that they are following federal civil rights laws and ending any discriminatory DEI practices, as a condition for receiving federal money Federal funding comprises about 6% of the total funding for New York K-12 schools.

“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig

To contain future costs, lawmakers also froze the award amounts at that year’s levels.

At the same time, the state has cut back on higher-education funding. To make up the difference, public colleges and universities have raised tuition and fees, which reached an average of about $10,200 at four-year institutions in 2024, according to the Board of Regents.

But TOPS amounts, which vary by institution, have been ﬂat for nearly a decade. They range from about $3,200 at most community colleges to about $5,100 at Grambling State University and just under $7,500 at LSU’s Baton Rouge campus. (Higher-scoring students also get annual stipends of up to $800.)

“That gap between the cost to attend (college) and the amount that TOPS pays, there’s a signiﬁcance difference there,” Sujuan Boutté, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance, told lawmakers last year TOPS acceptance rates have steadily declined since 2018, just after the amounts were capped. By 2023, only 81% of eligible students accepted their awards, a 10year low The acceptance rate for the most selective TOPS award, called Honors, was 73% 11 percentage points lower than a decade earlier A study by Boutté’s agency and the Board of Regents

Trainor acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement when the demand was made. He said many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

The certiﬁcation demand asked state and school leaders to sign a “reminder of legal obligations” acknowledging their federal money is conditioned on compliance with federal civil rights laws. It also demands compliance with several pages of legal analysis written by

found that a growing number of those highest-performing students are leaving Louisiana. In 2021, about 83% of students who turned down Honors awards went to college in other states. Their top three destinations were Southern Mississippi, Alabama and Mississippi universities.

Such schools aggressively recruit Louisiana’s strongest students by offering more money than TOPS, Boutté told lawmakers.

“What they’re saying is, ‘Oh hey, we see your award is capped,” she said. “‘We’re going to offer you what equates to a full ride.’”

Meanwhile, students who stay in Louisiana are shouldering the higher cost of college. In 2021, graduates of Louisiana’s public institutions had more debt, on average, than their peers in the South and nationally, according to the Southern Regional Education Board analysis.

“Louisiana faces challenges in college affordability,” said the group’s senior analyst MJ Kim, “with declining state support, increasing student costs and growing reliance on student borrowing.”

Topping up TOPS

Lawmakers want to tackle the affordability crisis by giving more TOPS money to more students.

In 2023, just 20% of eligible students accepted TOPS

April 5-11

The

April 6•2:00 pm Performance and Interactive Q&A with Mahmoud Chouki,Moroccan Musician, Composer, Curator and

the administration. The demand speciﬁcally threatens Title I funding, which sends billions of dollars a year to America’s schools and targets low-income areas.

Morton-Bentley wrote that the state Education Department has already certified to the federal government on multiple occasions that it is complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, most recently in January He said the federal department is basing its demands to end DEI programs on a faulty legal interpretation.

Tech. One big reason is that the award can only be used for certain occupational programs, such as computer science, nursing or industrial technology House Bill 161 by Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, would let students spend the money on more types of training.

House Bill 70 by Rep. Ken Brass, D-Vacherie would give students a new way to qualify for TOPS Tech. In addition to either earning at least a 2.5 GPA or scoring 17 or higher on the ACT they could also take early-college courses during high school to access that award.

House Bill 77 by Turner and Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, would make the biggest changes to TOPS by essentially raising the award amounts.

The bill would decouple TOPS from 2016 tuition rates, creating standard amounts across schools. The amounts would vary by TOPS achievement level, giving more money to students with higher grades or test scores.

Beginning next academic year, students would get $3,500 for TOPS Tech, $6,000 for Opportunity, $6,500 for Performance and $9,000 for Honors. The bill also would establish a new category, Excellence, that provides $12,000 to students who score 31 or higher on the ACT At most schools, the

amounts would be a major increase over what students get now At LSU, which has higher tuition and TOPS rates, students would keep getting the higher amount. Schlegel said the changes would help Louisiana retain outstanding students who “heavily recruited” by other states “and offered packages they can’t turn down.”

“It puts us a competitive advantage,” she said. The bill’s cost is still being calculated, but it could increase TOPS spending by up to $35 million, Turner said. Paying for it could be a challenge, as Gov Jeff Landry has proposed a standstill budget for next fiscal year and lawmakers must find $200 million to keep teacher pay ﬂat.

Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, a Baton Rouge-based think tank, said it would be hard to put more money into TOPS without raising taxes or cutting other programs. Yet there are also upsides to giving more generous scholarships, he added. “The idea that we’re keeping more high-quality students in state might have a cost,” he said, “but there’s a deﬁnite beneﬁt of that as well.”

Email Patrick Wall at patrick.wall@theadvocate. com.

Aroad trip to explore

what’s new along the Gulf Coast before the prime travel season plotted out visits in three statesover three days. It surfaced newly minted gems that areraising the bar for Gulf Coast dining. And behindthose restaurants are stories of next-generation chefs making their mark, changing customer expectations,inspirations from around the globe and thefar-reachinginfluence of food-obsessed Louisiana.

“In the summer, halfthe parking lot here is ﬁlled with Louisiana license plates,” said Bill Briand, chef at The Hope Farm and its soon-tobe-opensibling restaurant Little Bird in Fairhope.

“These people know howto eat, and if they’re coming this way,wewant to feed them.”

Bigchangeinasmall town

Raw soft-shell crab, aKoreanspecialty,would be an outlier on any Gulf Coast menu, and that’salso true at ButcherBaker,asmall restaurant that opened in Ocean Springs in February

The same dinner brought more familiar fare,likea pork chop from Pearl River Pastures nearthe state line, falafel madewith zipper peas from Florida and bread baked by the chef’swife.

The common thread, from the crabs to gins for the house cocktails, is arobust embrace of local sourcing by chef Michael Paoletti.

Paoletti saw an opportunity to bring something newto his hometown by tapping the growing diversity of small, hyperlocal producers proliferating in the region, and to contribute to agrowing local restaurant scene.

“If we can do this here, then youcan push theculture forward,” Paolettisaid “Ocean Springs has always been about art, and cuisine is art too. Will it catchon? That’sarisk you’re always taking when you do new things.”

Oystersfrom local grower Point aux Pins are servedonthe half shell at The HopeFarminFairhope, Alabama.

Muchisnew around Ocean Springsthese days. Long known asanartsy haven acrossthe bayfromthe casino high-risesof Biloxi, downtown Ocean Springs now has abooming hospitality andnightlife scene betweenits cottages and lacing oaks.

That’sspreading outside downtowntoo.Atthe newly opened ranch-to-table restaurant 4-BullsonU.S.90, barbecue plates andburgers are made with meatfrom the owners’ farm in Grand Bay,Alabama, and there’s

an option to pick your own steak from the meat case andhavethe kitchengrill it to spec.

On the water just across Old FortBayou, the historic Gulf Hills Hotel &Resort has emerged from arenovation and modernization Its bar, once called thePink Pony,was avenue for Elvis Presleyearly in his career Now it’s back with aretro chic vibe as the Sunset Lounge,where visitors can sip martinis with aview of thesun sinking over marshes just beyond.

Many Americansare fortunate to have dental coverage fortheir entire workinglife, through employer-providedbenefits. When those benefits end with retirement, paying dental bills out-of-pocketcan come as a shock,leadingpeople to putoff or even go without care. Simply put —without dental insurance,there may be an important gap in your healthcarecoverage.

When you’re comparing plans ...

 Look forcoveragethat helps pay formajor services. Some plansmay limitthe numberof procedures —orpay forpreventive care only.

 Look forcoverage with no deductibles. Some plansmay require you to pay hundredsout of pocket before benefits are paid.

 Shop forcoverage with no annual maximum on cash benefits. Someplans haveannual maximums of $1,000.

Medicare doesn’t payfor dentalcare.1

That’s right. As good as Medicare is, it was never meanttocover everything. That means if you wantprotection, you need to purchase individual insurance. Earlydetection canprevent small problems from becoming expensive ones.

The best way to preventlargedental bills is preventive care. The American Dental Association recommends checkups twice ayear.

Previous dental work canwear out

Even if you’vehad quality dental work in thepast, you shouldn’ttakeyourdental health forgranted.Infact, yourodds of having adentalproblem only go up as you age.2

Treatment is expensive— especiallythe servicespeople over 50 oftenneed.

Consider these national average costs of treatment. $222 fora checkup. $190 for afilling. $1,213 fora crown.3 Unexpected bills likethiscan be arealburden especially if you’re on afixed income.

Ask about the

fora

“A decade ago, we wouldn’t have been open morethan a month,” Paoletti said. “But things are changing, andif we grow the scene, and give people more, then more things will happen.”

Acampusofcuisine

The next stop was Fairhope, the smalltown down thebay fromMobile, and its destination restaurant The Hope Farm. Downtown Fairhope is atight grid chockablock with shops and galleries andthatappealing mix of modern style and old-school Gulf Coast roguishness. A day that can start with coffeeand aquinoa breakfast bowlatProvision (part cafe, part wine bar,part boutique market) can endaround the cornerand aworld away at Bone &Barrel, adive tavern witha friendly welcomeand

Back downtown, the local leading light forfine diningisVestige, which serves asingle tasting menu per night,withanapproach blending the Ocean Springs roots of Alex Perry with techniques from hiswife Kumi Omori’snative Japan. Paoletti took inspiration from Vestige’sexample, and today he and Perry share intelonsources andproducers. Stephanie Paoletti,the chef’s spouse, runs the bakery Sweet Enchantments afew doors downfrom ButcherBakerinthe same strip mall. The couple has moreontap, with three different concepts coming to thenew food hall Crave, set to open this spring in downtown Ocean Springs —one forcharcuterie, one for baked goods, and araw bar for localoysters and chilled seafood.

Louisianapoisedfor abright economic future with new projects andsuccessful workforcetraining

By Amanda McElfresh | amcelfresh@theadvocate.com

Louisianacitizenshave more opportunitiesthan ever before to receiveanaffordableeducation that leadstowell-payingjobsandﬁnancialstability,thanks to theworkofseveral organizationsacrossthe state. TheLouisiana Communityand TechnicalCollege System (LCTCS)isplaying akey role in creating those opportunities, with short-term degree andtraining programs that allowstudentstoearncertiﬁcations in amatterofmonthsorevenweeks.Someofthe most in-demandLCTCS programs areinareas including healthcare,broadband andskilled trades such as electrical work,plumbingand construction

“All over thestate,wehaveseenthe abilityof thesecollegestobenimbleand ﬂexibleand develop acurriculumorinitiatives basedonindustryneeds,” said SusanBourgeois,Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development. “Thatnimblenatureis really critical to thesuccess of ourwork. Thereisa direct line betweenindustry needsand creating the solution relatedtoit.”

BourgeoisjoinedLCTCS System PresidentDr. MontySullivan, LouisianaWorkforce Commission

for people to stay here.There is goingtobea lotmore economic activity.”

Last year,LCTCS institutions graduatedmore than 35,000 students,a newrecord. Dr.Sullivan said he is optimistic that number cangroweven more.The system is workingtoeducate people in Louisiana’sworkforce abouttrainingopportunities to improvetheir skills,whether they want to grow in theircurrent careersorpivot to somethingdifferent. Bourgeoissaiditisalsoimportant to start raising awarenessamong middle andhighschoolstudents aboutthe opportunitiesthatwillbeavailable for them.Nelsonadded that he hopesstate leaderscan ﬁndwaystoaddress potentialbarrierssuchaslack of childcareand tuitionrates to ensure everyone in Louisianawho wantsanLCTCS educationcan receiveone

“Wehaveanopportunity to tackle generational povertyinLouisiana head-on,”Schowen said.“We are in amomentintimewhere we canchangeLouisiana When we put thesepeopleinthese jobs,welower crimerates.Weimproveeducational outcomes We improvehealthoutcomes. We make allofthose things better by this kind of work,and LCTCSis rightatthe core of it.”

SecretarySusanaSchowen andRichard Nelson Secretaryofthe LouisianaDepartmentofRevenue fora recent discussion aboutthe connectionsbetween LCTCSand workforcedevelopment across Louisiana. A videoofthe full conversation is availableatwww nola.com andwww.theadvocate.com

Nelson notedthatthe typesofcareers LCTCS prepares students for willcontinuetobeneededwell into thefuture, even with technologicalchanges such as artiﬁcialintelligence.

“It’sverydifficult to automate theworkofa plumberoranelectrician.Those skills will always be in demand,” he said.“We have gotten alot of bad policy outofthe wayand made it more competitive

LCTCSincludesBaton RougeCommunity College, BossierParishCommunity College, CentralLouisiana TechnicalCommunity College, Delgado Community College, LouisianaDelta CommunityCollege,Fletcher TechnicalCommunity College, Northshore Technical CommunityCollege,Northwest LouisianaTechnical CommunityCollege,Nunez CommunityCollege River Parishes CommunityCollege,South Louisiana CommunityCollege,andSOWELATechnicalCommunity College. Visitwww.lctcs.edutolearn more aboutan institutionnearyou

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

The Barn, partofThe Hope Farm restaurant in Fairhope, Alabama, serves breakfast and lunch and hosts events, whilethe maindining room serves an elevated dinner menu.

thenext.

back patio.

The Hope Farm sits outside of downtown, across Highway 98, past the conventional range of the golf carts that command the downtown streets.

One minute you’re driving by chains and strip malls, the next you’re in acampus of buildingsand patios done in beach house white and weathered wood. In the daytime, pollinators ﬂutter among blossoms in raised beds; in the evening,fireplaces ﬂicker warmly in the patios.

Breakfast and lunch are served in abuilding called theBarn. In the evening, the focusshiftstothe main dining room, called the Hall, with amore elevated menu blending French, Deep Southand Creole inﬂuences.

Open-air patios in betweenare linedwithraised farm beds, while acluster of shipping containers hidden behind atall fence hold hydroponic farms stacked with racks of produce, with one section devotedjust to

mushrooms. Briandand his chefshave the pick of the harvest for their menus,as do the bartenders.

Briand joined The Hope Farm last year.ANew Orleans native, he started at Emeril’sRestaurantand cooked foryears at Herbsaint andCochon.Hestill maintains closetiesto New Orleans, and he’sbeen recruiting talentfrom the CrescentCity

“It really seems to be growing here

In Pensacola, though, visitors are being lured away from the typical beach fare of steamed seafood,pineapple salsa and burgers witha more upscaledinner downtown

It’sthe peoplecomingthrough from Louisiana, andnew folksmoving to the area, and anew generation that’smore interested in food and wheretheir food comes from,” Briand said.“I tell my people,ifyou want to work on thebeach and sling food, godothat. We’redoing something different.”

Beyond thebeach

Annual Gulf Coast vacations tend to follow familiar patterns. People make the same stops for gas(and maybe jerky). Some stay in the samelodgings and hit the same restaurants by the beach from one trip to

Pearl &Horn toggles between surf and turf (a whole snapper or Colorado lamb chops), with touches of flavor from chef George Lazi’shomeland in the Republic of Georgia. The restaurant design follows thesame dueling land and seaidea.

One dining room, the Pearl Room,has alarge rawbar and amarble-toppedcocktail bar underclusters of pearlescentlights. It connects to themore rustic Horn Room, with plants stretchingupbetween curving, forest green booths.

Pearl &Horn started as a smaller concept in 2021, and its popularity propelled it to today’smuch larger location by the endof2023. In that growth,Lazireads signs of achanging appreciation for cuisine, fueled by more exposure to new ideas.

“Historically,Pensacola has been afew years behind thetrends, but Ithink we’re seeing arenaissance,” Lazi said. “Wesee people coming home from differenttowns andcollegesbringing what they’ve seen and learned,it’s changing now.”

Downtown Pensacola is very different from Pensacola Beach. It remains aValhalla of eclectic dive bars, like thebordello-red Elbow Room, with its carpeted walls,and the Azelea Cocktail Lounge, abunkerlike denoutsidewith arepositoryofpermanent twilight within.

Butthe area is also seeing an upswing for nightlife and dining, especially around historic Palafox Place. Within afew blocks, you cansample wine from selfserve dispensers at Cask andFlask, throw back shots at O’Riley’sPub or see how fast themechanical bull will throw you at Wild Greg’sSaloon,where line dancers in cutoffs and cowboy bootsﬁll theﬂoor

On Saturday mornings, thenone-too-fancy Palafox Farmers Marketpacks themedian (or whatever theycall aneutralground

in Florida) with throngs of visitors shopping for everything from produce to Guatemalan pastry and artisan coffee.

Pearl &Hornisina quieter part of town, about amile away and close to the legendary Joe Patti’sseafood market, alwaysjostling with locals and the tourists stocking up forcondo cooking. Lazi’snew restaurant is giving them all areason to dine out instead. In February, USA Todaynamed Pearl &Horn to its listof44rec-

ommendednew restaurants around the country.The outside recognition is encouraging, Lazi said, though his goal is to cultivate aricher dining scene for people in his own community

“The biggest thing is people appreciate the effort and details we put into it,” Lazi said. “I think ‘just OK’ isn’t OK anymore. The food has to have apurpose, areason, aﬂavor to take with you.” Email Ian McNulty at imcnulty@theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTO By IAN McNULTy

The PearlRoom has both araw bar andcocktail bar at Pearl&Hornrestaurant in Pensacola, Florida.

STAFFPHOTO By IAN McNULTy

The HornRoom is one of twodining areas at Pearl&Horn restaurant in Pensacola, Florida.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER Dining at the bar at Butcher Baker in Ocean Springs, Mississippi,a combination butcher shop and restaurant, bringscasual,inventivemeals.

‘There’s construction goingoneverywhere’

BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Sun Herald

Often when Glynn Illich’sphone rings, it’sanother call from Louisiana. He keepshearingfamiliar laments about weariness with city life. Andeveryone is asking aquestion: What about moving to the Mississippi Coast?

“It’sbeautiful,” said Illich, alocaldeveloper,standingonthe back porch of agleaming new Pass Christian property

“Look at this. It’s$400,000. Any other placeinthe country, this is $800,000. And it’squiet as achurch mouse out here.”

Growth is surging in thecity’s sprawling Timber Ridge subdivision, where Illich has built homes since Hurricane Katrina

The neighborhood also reﬂects how the coast is changing. The population here is rising faster than most parts of the state,and U.S. Census data shows Harrison County grew by about 5,000 people in the last four years.Newcomers are moving in from Louisiana and across the country

“It’sadifferent way of life,” said Steve Scherrer,from Chicago, who just bought ahouse in Timber Ridge.

Now he sees out-of-state license plates all the time. Plushnew subdivisions are emerging off old county roads. Billboards for customnew properties are advertisingbeside Interstate 10. Builders areracing to develop new businesses andenlargeroads to ﬁt the area’sgrowing numbers.

Timber Ridgegrowing

Developers say the migration is energizing the local economy.And Mississippi is about to eliminate its incometax. That could draw even more wealthy buyers eager to live in one of the last affordable beach communities in thecountry In Timber Ridge, new homes are still rising from lotsofred dirt.

THE GULF SOUTH

Thereare about1,100 properties so far,and some spots are still open in theback of thesubdivision. But spaceon the million-dollarwaterfront is runningout.

“There’sconstruction going on everywhere,” saidMeresa Morgan, president of the property owners association. She was born in Wiggins and returned from Houston ﬁve years ago, when the pandemic closed ofﬁces and suddenly she could work remotely.

Now she is retired

Thebiggestchange in the neighborhood since shegot there? “Just the influx,” she said, wheeling her polished Suburban through streets where purple and gold flags dominate the few flyingfor Ole Miss, and Jet Skis park beside golf carts in driveways.

She turns down another block of tall homes andwood beams that will soon hold more properties. “This is anew build,”Morgan said. She points to more. “This is a remodel. And somebody’sgetting ready to build on that lot.”

Real estate agents say thenew builds will keepselling

“We’re getting allofthese bigname companiesthat are about to be building and come here,” said Summer Newman, president of

Almost twodecades since Hurricane Katrina,the people who once vacationed here are returningtoretire. Newbuilds rise more than adozen feet off the ground. Population since the pandemic has dropped in NewOrleans and risen in all three of Mississippi’scoastal counties. Morgan saidroughly 60%ofpeopleinTimberRidge are now full-time residents.

SignsofLouisiana nativesmovinginare especially clear in Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian because they are just ashort drive away But New Orleanians arealso scrolling real estate websites for properties in Ocean Springs. More subdivisions are rising north of Interstate 10 where insurance costs are lower.People are coming from Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Some are still learning to sayold French words with the right Southerndrawl and correctly pronounce Biloxi.

“Ifyou are lucky enough to be able to work from home, and decide where it is youwant to live, whywould youwanttolive in a big city?” said Stephen Dinjar,who grew up in NewOrleans, moved around the country and bought a houseinTimberRidge two years ago with his wife,Sheila.

“Why wouldn’tyou go to apretty little town like Pass Christian?” he wondered.“Isee moreand more people making the choice.”

Dizzying growth

theGulfCoast AssociationofRealtors. “It’s going tobring jobs. It’s going to bring people. We’regoing to need morehouses.”

Louisianaresidents moving

Theappeal is notentirely new. Families from Louisiana have long bought second homes on the coast for weekendgetaways, and building started in Timber Ridge by the 1970s.

Butthe difference now is stark.

Still, so muchgrowth can be dizzying. The issue is dominating several local elections, and many candidates are vowing to preserve beloved neighborhoodsfromdevelopers. An influx of wealthy out-of-staters who sometimes buy homes in cashhas also raised prices.

Morgansaid some longtime Timber Ridge residents “are not as fond of all the growth.” Others jokethey wish leisure magazines that praisethe coast as an undiscoveredparadisewould just keep quiet Butthe wordisout already

Scherrer discovered the local charm afew years back while exploring the Gulf Coast on his 48foot boat. He worried about safety in Chicago and was tired of Illinois taxes.

“Welikedthe people,” he said. “Weliked the area. We thought, ‘OK,let’sbuy ahouse down here andwe’ll move.’ So that’s what we did.”

Real estate agentsand developers say demand has calmed slightly this year because of insurance costs and interest rates.

The coast’sgrowth is steady but not as explosive as someparts of Florida and Texas. It could still take years for TimberRidge and other subdivisions to fill all the way.

But people keep coming.

Jerry andJoyce Pendleton also arrived twoyears agofrom OklahomaCity, Oklahoma. Theycame from aranch house and had never lived on pilings. But on vacation, once they veered off the interstate when they saw the sign forbeaches, and they were hooked.

“Wewanted to go back to asmall town,” Joyce Pendleton said. “People thought we were kind of crazy.”

Nowthey wave at neighbors passing on golf carts and have even attended some board of aldermen’smeetings. Jerry Pendleton is starting to golf and wears a red Cruisin’ the Coast T-shirt. He explains it simply: “We’re really just beach people.”

Illichisstill buildingabout 20 propertiesayear andtargeting Facebook advertising to Louisiana residents. He estimates he has built somewhere between 300 and 350 houses over the years. Most have been bought by outof-state retirees andempty-nesters. He locked up another spotless new homeone recent morning and looked downthe street. Three lots were empty except forsome trees near the property line.

But soon more homes will rise there. People keep calling.

“I’llhave this wholearea built,” he said. “I’m working on the plans right now.”

LOUISIANAPOLITICS

Johnson, Scalisewantjudgesbarredthatblock Trump

would alreadybedone.

Mark Ballard

WASHINGTON —Atarecent town hall in New Orleans, U.S. Rep. Troy Carter was asked why Democrats were doing so little to block the ﬂood of President Donald Trump’sexecutive orders. Carter replied that with Republicans holding majorities in both chambers of Congress and controlling the White House, Democratic lawmakers could do little except talk loudly and go to court. The courts have been the Democrats’ most effective tactic.

Individual federal district judges have temporarilydelayed orders to ﬁre federal workers, ban transgender rights and freeze congressionally approved federalfunding, among other issues. Six emergency applications have reached the U.S. Supreme Court in battles includingthe revocation of birthright citizenship and the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants.

Now Republicans are trying legislation to block what are called “nationwideinjunctions”.

The majority GOP House this week is expected to pass the “No Rogue Rulings Act” by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California. It would essentially forbid single judges from issuing nationwide directives —preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders —that postpone implementation of apresident’sexecutive orders. If passed, the bill would go to the Senate for consideration.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, said Tuesday: “Under the existing framework, one singular district court judge out of 677 of them, anywhere in America,can subvert the will of the duly elected president carrying out his constitutional duties. We’ve got to step into this.” Johnson cited aHarvard Law

Johnson Troy Carter pushes for milk substitutes

New Orleans Democratic

Aposter of federal judges targeted by right-wingHouse Republicans in the hall outsidethe office of U.S.

Andy Ogles,R-Tenn. The judges have temporarily stalled executiveorders issued by

Reviewstudy to underline his contention that Democrats are targeting Trump. The 2023 analysis found national injunctions were used sixtimes against Republican PresidentGeorge W. Bush,adozen times to stallpolicies of President Barack Obama and in 14 cases for President Joe Biden, both Democrats. Trump faced 64 in his first term and about that many since taking office Jan. 20. Earlierthis month, Stephen Vladeck,aGeorgetown law professor who writes alegal affairs blog, identified 67 cases in which federal judgesruled on temporary relief in 2025. Not all re-

with each meal, school boards face the likelihood thatreimbursement for the cost of the entire meal will be denied.

sulted in anationwide injunction. Fifty-one individual federal trial judges nominated by seven different presidents in 14 districts issued orders delaying implementation of Trump initiatives, he said. Part of the reason for the increased number is that Trump has issued 107 executive orders, themost since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 99 during his ﬁrst 100 days, Vladeck said. Supporters say nationwide injunctions give courtstime to consider legal issues without clogging theirdockets with hundreds of similar cases Opponentsfrom bothpoliti-

cal parties, depending on whose president is in the White House, say theprocedure is politically motivated.

At aSenate Judiciary committee hearing Wednesday,Notre Dame law professorSamuel Bray and panel chairChuck Grassley,anIowaRepublican who has ﬁled abill like Issa’s, agreed that pursuing class-action lawsuitswas preferable to a single judge stalling an executive order Democratic members of the committeeargued such apath would take so long thatany damage by apresidential order eventually found unconstitutional

“The reality is thatthe number of injunctions issued against the ﬁrst andsecondTrump administrations areevidence of a president who is clearly violating the law,”saidSen.Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.

Both Republicans and Democratshaveturnedtonationwide injunctions to combat orders from the opposing party’spresident.

Forinstance, as aRepublican attorneygeneral,Jeff Landry in 2023 went to U.S. DistrictJudge Terry Doughty,aTrump nominee in Monroe, for apreliminary injunctiontoforbid Bidenadministrationofﬁcials from communicating with social media platforms abouttamping down erroneousCOVID-19 information. The 5thU.S. Circuit Court of Appealsbacked Doughty,but the Supreme Court did not. Trump andsome of his GOP supporters have called for impeaching judges. That has brought the “No Rogue” bill to the forefront.

Johnsonsaid“impeachment is an extraordinary” action. Removal from the bench has been usedsparingly over history and only whenthe judge wasaccused of committing acrime —never for acontrary ruling.

Sen. JohnN.Kennedy,R-Madisonville,toldThe Washington Post last week that he opposes impeachment but is open to the ideaoflimiting nationwide injunctions.

Regardless of howitplays out, the nationwide injunction legislationallows Republicans another way to showtheir support for Trump.

“The abusesthatwe’ve been seeing with some of these districtcourt judgesthatjust feel their role is to try to stop the duly elected president of the United States andDonald Trump because theydisagree with his policies,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise,R-Jefferson, said Tuesday.

Email Mark Ballardat mballard@theadvocate.com.

CAPITOL BUZZ staff reports

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter again joined with South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in an effort to get alternatives to cow’s milk in schoolcafeterias. The legislation, which was ﬁled Wednesday,would change 78-year-old laws that put acarton of milk on every school breakfast and lunch tray Unless milk is included

The U.S. Department of Agriculture sends local school districts roughly $1 billion each year for milk.

Butalot of those cartons are tossed in the trash unopened. Carter said many children of African Americans, Latino, Native Americans, Asian Americans and other ethnicities get sick from milk.

“My wife and children are all lactose intolerant, so I knowjust how uncomfortable consumingdairy milk can befor someonewho cannot process it,” Carter said. “Weneed immediate reforms in ourschools to ensure all children have safe and appropriatedietary options.”

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter is moving forward witha bill that would require schools to offer aplant-based drink along with cow’s milk.

“The federal government is wasting $400 million of our tax dollars ayear by mandating that every school kid getting nutrition assistance has acarton of cow’smilk on thetray even

though millions of them don’twant it and get sick from it,” saidMace.

“Thirty percent of kids throw themilk away in thecarton, and hundreds of millions of tax dollars

wasted is not spilled milk. Kids should have ahealthy choice in lunchrooms,” she added.

The Agriculture Department’sNationalSchool LunchProgramallows milk substitutes, but the requirements areburdensome andschoolsaren’t reimbursed.

The bill by Carterand Mace, which is similarto onethatwas ﬁledduring the last Congress, would require schoolstooffer a plant-based drink along with cow’smilk.

Landryonly fooling with newstate pet

It’sbeen ﬁve months sinceBengaltiger Omar Bradleymadehis debut in TigerStadium forLSU’s game against Alabama afterGov.JeffLandry’s weekslong push to geta

tigerinthe stadium forthe ﬁrst time since2015. At the time,jokesters on social media poked fun at the “Rent-A-Tiger,”in dozens of posts, but for April Fools’ Day this week, the governor gotinonthe laughs.

“Today,IsignedanExecutive Orderdeclaring Omarthe state petofLouisiana!April Fools!” Landry postedonXonApril 1. The post came with an image of Landry walking on the football ﬁeld beside aleashedcartoon Omar. Omar, who is now around 2yearsold, came to Louisiana on loan from Floridabasedpurveyorofexotic animalinsurance policies Mitchell Kalmanson, after the LSU veterinary school declinedLandry’srequest thatthe university’slive mascot Mike VII make a gameday appearance.

STAFF FILEPHOTO

STAFF PHOTO By MARK BALLARD

Rep.

President DonaldTrump.

Storms slash from Texas to Ohio, killing at least 16

BY BRUCE SCHREINER and OBED LAMY Associated Press

DYERSBURG, Tenn.

Another round of torrential rain and ﬂash

ﬂooding came Saturday for parts of the South and Midwest already heavily waterlogged by days of severe storms that also spawned deadly tornadoes. Forecasters warned that rivers in some places would continue to rise for days.

Day after day of heavy rains have pounded the central U.S., rapidly swelling waterways and prompting a series of flash flood emergencies in from Texas to Ohio. The National Weather Service said dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach major flood stage, with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

At least 16 people weatherrelated deaths have been reported since the start of the storms, including 10 in Tennessee.

A 57-year-old man died Friday evening after getting out of a car that washed off a road in West Plains, Missouri.

Flooding killed two people in Kentucky — a 9-year-old boy swept away that same day on his way to school, and a 74-year-old whose body was found Saturday inside a fully submerged vehicle in Nelson County, authorities said.

Also Saturday a 5-year-old died at a home in Little Rock, Arkansas, in a weather-re-

lated incident, according to police. No details were immediately provided.

Tornadoes earlier in the week destroyed entire neighborhoods and were responsible for at least seven of the deaths.

And interstate commerce is affected — the extreme flooding across a corridor that includes the major cargo hubs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis could lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter chief meteorologist at Accu-

Weather

The outburst comes at a time when nearly half of NWS forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates after Trump administration job cuts twice that of just a decade ago

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Saturday that the Ohio River rose 5 feet in 24 hours and would

SUNDAY NEWS SHOWS

continue to swell for days.

“We expect this to be one of the top 10 ﬂooding events in Louisville history,” he said.

Flash ﬂood emergency and tornado warnings continued to be issued Saturday across Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, with more heavy rains and damaging winds in the mix.

Hundreds of Kentucky roads were impassable because of ﬂoodwaters, downed trees or mud and rock slides.

Downtown Hopkinsville Kentucky, reopened in the morning after floodwaters from the Little River receded, giving a much-needed reprieve, but still more rainfall was on its way Saturday and Sunday, Mayor James R. Knight Jr. said.

“We got a little rain, but most of it went north of us,” Knight said. “Thank goodness on that. Gave us a little break.”

ABC’s “This Week”: Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council; Sen Cory Booker, D-N.J.; former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Sens Adam Schiff, DCalif., and James Lankford, R-Okla. CNN’s “State of the Union”: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins; Gov Tim Walz, DMinn ; Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and Hillary Scholten, D-Mich CBS’ “Face the Nation”: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick; Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte; Rep Don Bacon, RNeb. “Fox News Sunday”: Attorney General Pam Bondi; Sens. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Chris Coons, D-Del. The Associated Press

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth, a town of 2,000 people in a bend of the rising Licking River The warnings were similar to catastrophic flooding nearly 30 years ago when the river reached a record 50 feet, resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

In Arkansas, weather officials pleaded with people to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary due to widespread ﬂooding.

BNSF Railway confirmed that a railroad bridge in Mammoth Spring was washed out by floodwaters, causing the derailment of several cars. No injuries were reported, but there was no immediate estimate for when the bridge would reopen.

Since Wednesday more than a foot of rain has fallen in parts of Kentucky, and

more than 8 inches in parts of Arkansas and Missouri, forecasters said Saturday Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf. At least two reports of observed tornadoes were noted Friday evening in Missouri and Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service. One, near Blytheville, Arkansas, lofted debris at least 25,000 feet high, according to NWS meteorologist Chelly Amin. The state’s emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and ﬂash ﬂooding.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived Saturday at a storm shelter near a public school in the rain, clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities.

Among them was George Manns, 77, who said he was in his apartment when he heard a tornado warning and decided to head to the shelter. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

“I grabbed all my stuff and came here,” said Mann, who brought a folding chair, two bags of toiletries, laptops, iPads and medications: “I don’t leave them in my apartment in case my apartment is destroyed. I have to make sure I have them with me.” Associated Press writers Andrew

DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jonathan Mattise and Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JON CHERRy

Carole Smith walks through her flooded home on Saturday in Frankfort,

EDUCATION

Mass layoffs rattling Head Start leaders

BY MORIAH BALINGIT

AP education writer

WASHINGTON The problems for Head Start began days after President Donald Trump took ofﬁce.

Trump’s administration announced it would freeze federal grants the primary funding for the early education program that serves more than half a million low-income children. Then came glitches with the funding website that forced nearly two dozen Head Start centers to close temporarily Even after the funding freeze was aborted — and the website was restored — those who run the programs remained on edge. On Tuesday, the administration gave them another reason to worry: mass layoffs.

Scores of government employees who help administer Head Start, which is federally funded but run by schools and nonprofits, have been put on leave. Preschool operators say they have received no communication from the Office of Head Start and don’t know who to turn to if they have questions about grants or need the office to sign off on equipment expenditures. They fear the program, which serves some of the nation’s neediest kids and families, could fall victim to the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts.

Head Start was started six decades ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.

While the early childhood program has enjoyed bipartisan sup-

port since then, some Republicans have emphasized its shortcomings and criticized efforts to increase funding. And Project 2025, the policy blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, called for eliminating Head Start altogether

Joel Ryan, head of the Washington State Association of Head Start, said he is worried the administration is slowly dismantling the program without outright eliminating it. “It doesn’t have to be from an act of Congress,” Ryan said “You can kneecap programs simply by cutting signiﬁcant numbers of their workforce.”

Preschools need federal staff

Head Start operates in all 50 states, helping families who are homeless or are in poverty Parents who otherwise would not be able to afford child care rely on it when they work or go to school.

Supporters say that underscores the importance of Head Start to the economy and at-risk children alike.

At least ﬁve of the 12 regional ofﬁces for Head Start were closed Tuesday as part of layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the National Head Start Association. While individual preschools’ funding re-

mains unchanged, the association’s statement said the cuts happened without a “clear plan for how the administration intends on supporting Head Start.”

Some worry Head Start will become partisan.

“What I don’t want Head Start to be is a political football,” said Rhett Cecil, executive director of the Indiana Head Start Association. “Because a Republican household, a Democratic household, a libertarian household could be a Head Start household.”

In mid-March, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department oversees Head Start, visited a Head Start in Alexandria, Virginia, praising the program and its staff.

“I had a very inspiring tour,” Kennedy said in a video on his department’s Instagram account.

“They’re getting the kind of education and socialization that they need.”

Still, advocates worry the GOP’s efforts to slash the federal budget will ensnare programs like Head Start.

Already, the staff layoffs have caused concerns Head Start preschools in Washington state had been awaiting approval to replace downed fencing around a playground and to purchase a refrig-

erator for a center Ryan said he fears some operators will lose funding because grant applications won’t get processed. Panic, then closures

The preschools are deeply reliant on federal money. During the brief hold on federal grants, no program was impacted more immediately Unable to make payroll the day of the freeze, several Head Start centers temporarily closed cutting off child care for lowincome families, for whom a day without work is often a day without pay

The news about the funding freeze emerged in January as Head Start leaders from across the country were together at the Capital Hilton, a few blocks away from the White House, preparing to meet with Congress members.

Gathered in a conference room, many leaders simultaneously realized they were locked out of their funds.

“You could almost feel the wave of panic all over the room when I think we all realized at the same time that everyone was locked out of that payment management system,” said Chanda Hillman, executive director of Early Flowers Learning. The group operates 17 Head Start campuses in rural parts of southwestern Michigan.

A few hours later Hillman had to make the call: She would shut down the Early Flowers Learning campuses.

“That meant all of the families were not going to have anywhere to have their kids,” she said.

‘They cannot go to work’

Halfway across the country, Cecil of the Indiana Head Start Association learned about the reported freeze from a Head Start director,

WE’RE ASKING EXPERTS ACROSS THE STATE HOW TO TACKLE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING LOUISIANA SCHOOLS.

and immediately began to fret.

The closure of Head Start centers across the state would leave families in a pinch. But he also worried about those who would be furloughed — Head Start is Indiana’s 78th largest employer with nearly 4,000 staff.

Not long after came another confusing piece of news: Head Start was never supposed to be a part of the funding freeze. So why, Head Start directors wondered, had they been shut out of the funding portal? Asked about the pause, the Department of Health and Human Services responded with an automatic message that said it was freezing all communication.

Even after the freeze was aborted and the Head Start portal was supposed to be ﬁxed, many centers discovered they still could not access their funds. A week later, at least 45 grant recipients across the country were still locked out, and many were on the verge of closure. In Waukesha, Wisconsin, Head Start programs shut their doors and furloughed most of their staff. The programs would not reopen until the following week when their leaders could access the funds.

Unable to make payroll two

Head Start centers that served rural communities in western New York shut their doors, laying off 84 employees and leaving the families of more than 200 children without care. They would not reopen until Feb. 10, when they were ﬁnally able to draw down funds.

Head Start leaders said members of Congress from both parties were in touch during the crisis, working to get them answers. For Hillman, it raised hope that

BY LISA MASCARO, LEAH ASKARINAM and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

WASHINGTON Senate Republicans plugged away overnight and into early Saturday morning to approve their multitrilliondollar tax breaks and spending cuts framework, hurtling past Democratic opposition toward what President Donald Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill” that’s central to his agenda. The vote, 51-48, fell along mostly party lines, but with sharp dissent from two prominent Republicans. It could not have come at a more difficult political moment, with the economy churning after Trump’s new tariffs sent stocks plummeting and experts warning of soaring costs for consumers and threats of a potential recession. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, of Maine, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, both voted against the measure. But with a nod from Trump, GOP leaders held on. Approval paves the way for Republicans in the months ahead to try to power a tax cut bill through both chambers of Congress over the objections of Democrats, just as they did in Trump’s ﬁrst term with unified party control in Washington.

“Let the voting begin,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Friday night.

Democrats were intent on making the effort as politically painful as possible, with action on some two dozen amendments to the package that GOP senators will have to defend before next year’s midterm elections.

Among them were proposals to ban tax breaks for the super-wealthy, end Trump’s tariffs, clip his efforts to shrink the federal government, and protect Medicaid, Social Security and other services. One, in response to the Trump national security team’s use of Signal, sought to prohibit military ofﬁcials from using any commercial messaging application to transmit war plans. They all failed, though a GOP amendment to protect Medicare and Medicaid was accepted Democrats accused Republicans of laying the groundwork for cutting key safety net programs to help pay for more than $5 trillion tax cuts they say disproportionately beneﬁt the rich.

“Trump’s policies are a disaster,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, as is Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efﬁciency, he added. “Republicans could snuff it out tonight,

if they wanted.”

The Republicans framed their work as preventing a tax increase for most American families, arguing that unless Congress acts, the individual and estate tax cuts that GOP lawmakers passed in 2017 will expire at the end of this year

The Senate package pulls in other GOP priorities including $175 billion to bolster Trump’s mass deportation effort, which is running short of cash, and an additional $175 billion for the Pentagon to build up the military, from an earlier budget effort.

Wyoming Sen John Barrasso, the No. 2 ranking Republican, said voters gave his party a mission in November and the Senate’s budget plan delivers.

“It fulﬁlls our promises to secure the border, to rebuild our economy and to restore peace through strength,” Barrasso said.

The framework now goes to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, RBenton, could bring it up for a vote as soon as next week as he works toward a ﬁnal product by Memorial Day

The House and Senate need to resolve their differences. The House’s version has $4.5 trillion in tax breaks over 10 years and some $2 trillion in budget cuts, and pointed at changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other programs. Some House Republicans have panned the Senate’s approach.

Republican senators used their majority to swat back Democratic amendments, often in rambunctious voice votes.

Among the more than two dozen amendments offered were several to protect safety net programs.

Several Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, joined Democrats in voting to preserve some of those programs, particularly regarding health care Collins opposed the entire package in a warning against steep Medicaid cuts.

Collins said the potential reductions for that health program in the House bill “would be very detrimental to a lot of families and disabled individuals and seniors in my state.”

Paul questioned the math being used by his colleagues that he said would pile on the debt load. “Something’s ﬁshy,” he said.

One Republican, Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, expressed his own misgivings about tax breaks adding to the federal deﬁcits and said he has assurances that Trump ofﬁcials would seek the cuts elsewhere.

“This vote isn’t taking place in a vacuum,” he said, a nod to the turmoil over Trump’s tariffs.

Trump goes all in on tariffs

President gambles heavy price will pay off for Americans

BY ZEKE MILLER and STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press

WASHINGTON Not even 24 hours after his party lost a key Wisconsin race and underperformed in Florida, President Donald Trump followed the playbook that has deﬁned his political career: He doubled down.

Trump’s move on Wednesday to place stiff new tariffs on imports from nearly all U.S. trading partners marks an all-in bet by the Republican that his once-fringe economic vision will pay off for Americans. It was the realization of his four decades of advocacy for a protectionist foreign policy and the belief that free trade was forcing the United States into decline as its economy shifted from manufacturing to services.

The tariff announcement was the latest and perhaps boldest manifestation of Trump’s second-term freedom to lead with his instincts after feeling his first turn in the Oval Office was restrained by aides who did not share his worldview How it shakes out could be a defining judgment on his presidency

The early reviews have been worrisome.

Financial markets had their worst week since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign trade partners retaliated and economists warned that the import taxes may boost inﬂation and potentially send the U.S. into a recession. It’s now Republican lawmakers who are fretting about their party’s future while Democrats feel newly buoyant over what they see as Trump’s overreach.

Democratic activists planned to participate in rallies across the country Saturday in what was shaping up as the largest demonstrations since Trump returned to office in January. “The winds are changing,” said Rahna Epting, who leads MoveOn, one of many organizing groups.

Trump is unbowed.

He has promised that the taxes on imports will bring about a domestic manufacturing renaissance and help fund an extension of his 2017 tax cuts. He insisted on Thursday as the Dow Jones fell by 1,600 points that things were “going very well” and the economy would “boom,” then spent Friday at the golf course as the index plunged 2,200 more points.

In his ﬁrst term, Trump’s tariff threats brought world leaders to his door to cut deals This time, his actions so far have led to steep retaliation from China and promises from European allies to push back.

Even some Trump supporters are having their

doubts.

Frank Amoroso, a 78-yearold resident of Dewitt, Michigan, said he is concerned about short-term rising interest rates and inflation, although he believes the tariffs will be good for the country in the long run.

Amoroso, a retired automotive engineer who voted for Trump, said he would give the president’s secondterm performance a C-plus or B-minus. “I think he’s doing things too fast,” he said. “But hopefully things will get done in a prudent way, and the economy will survive a little downfall.”

Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., in a telephone town hall with constituents on Thursday night, expressed reservations about the broad nature of the tariffs.

Hill, who represents a district that includes Little Rock, said he does not back tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He said the administration should instead focus on renegotiating a U.S trade agreement with its two neighbors.

“I don’t support acrossthe-board tariffs as a general matter, and so I don’t sup-

port those, and I will be urging changes there because I don’t think they will end up raising a bunch of revenue that’s been asserted,” Hill said. “I wish I thought they did, but personally I don’t think they will. But I do support trade diplomacy.”

Still, much of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” coalition remains publicly supportive.

Doug Deason, a prominent Texas-based Republican donor, said he loves the president’s tariff plan even if it causes some economic disruption.

“He told us during the election there would be pain for every American to get this ship turned around,” Deason said. “It is hard to watch our portfolios deteriorate so much, but we get it. We hope he holds course.”

As Trump struggles with the economy, Democrats are beginning to emerge from the cloud of doom that has consumed their party ever since their election drubbing in November

They scored a decisive victory in Wisconsin’s highproﬁle state Supreme Court election on Tuesday, even

after Elon Musk and his affiliated groups poured more than $20 million into the contest. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker then breathed new life into the Democratic resistance by delivering a record 25-hour-long speech on the Senate floor that centered on a call for his party to find its resolve. Booker told The Associated Press afterward that a significant political shift has begun even as his party tries to learn from its mistakes in the 2024 presidential election.

“I think you’re seeing a lot more energy, a lot more determination, a lot more feeling like we’ve got to ﬁght,” Booker said. “You can’t sit back any more. You can’t sit on the sidelines. There’s a larger growing movement.” Booker, a 2020 presidential candidate, acknowledged he is not ruling out a 2028 run, although he said he is focused on his 2026 Senate reelection for now There is broad agreement among Democrats — and even some Republicans, privately at least that what Trump has unleashed on the global economy could help accelerate the Democratic comeback.

Ezra Levin, co-founder of the progressive resistance group known as Indivisible, has been critical of Democratic ofﬁcials’ response in recent weeks to Trump’s leadership. But on Friday, he was somewhat giddy about the political consequences for Trump’s GOP after the tariffs announcement.

“Raising prices across the board for your constituents is not popular,” Levin said. “It’s the kind of thing that can lead to a 1932-style total generational wipe out of a party.”

Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Isabella Volmert in Dewitt, Michigan, contributed to this report.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALEX BRANDON

President Donald Trump reads The New york Post Saturday as he arrives at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla.

BY NASSERKARIMI and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran Iran’srial currency traded Saturday at arecord low against the U.S. dollar as the country returned to work aftera long holiday,costing over 1million rials for asingle greenback as tensions between Tehran and Washington likely will push it even lower

The exchange rate had plunged to over 1million rialsduringthe Persian New Year,Nowruz, as currency shops closed and only informal trading tookplaceon thestreets, creatingadditional pressure on the market. But as traders resumed work Saturday,the rate fell even further to 1,043,000to the dollar,signaling the new low appeared here to stay

On FerdowsiStreetin Iran’scapital, Tehran, the heartofthe country’smoney exchanges, some traders even switched off their electronic signs showing the going rate as uncertainty loomed overhow much further the rial could drop “Weturn it off since we are not sure about the successive changes of the rate,” said Reza Sharifi, who works at one exchange.

Iran’seconomy has been severely affected by internationalsanctions, particularly after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’snuclear deal with world powers in 2018. At the time of the 2015 deal, which saw Iran drastically limitits enrichment and stockpiling of uranium in exchange for lifting of international sanctions,the rial traded at 32,000 to the dollar

After Trump returned to the White House for his second term in January, he restarted his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran with sanctions. He again went after firms trading Iranian crude oil, including those selling at adiscount in China.

Trump meanwhile has written to Iran’sSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali

Khamenei, trying to jumpstart direct talksbetween Tehranand Washington.So far,Iran has maintained it is willing for indirect talks, but suchdiscussions under the Biden administration failed to makeheadway

Meanwhile, Trump is continuing an intense airstrike campaign targetingthe Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the last force in Tehran’sself-described “Axis of Resistance” able to attack Israel after other militant groups were mauled by Israelduring its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Mehdi Darabi, amarket analyst, said he believed that foreign pressures in recent monthscaused“expectations for thepossibility of adecrease in oil sales and more inflation, and it causedahigher rate for hard currencies,” according to Tehran’sDonay-eEqtesad economic newspaper

Apensioner who gave only his ﬁrst name, Saeed, for fear ofreprisals, said if Iran stopped its hostile policy toward theoutside, financial relief could be possible.

“If we want to live acomfortable life,weshould maintain good ties withour neighbors,” he said. “We shouldn’tbare ourteeth at them.They will do the same.”

Economicupheavals have evaporated thepublic’s savings, pushing average Iranians into holding onto hard currencies, gold, cars and other tangiblewealth. Others pursue cryptocurrencies or fall into get-richquickschemes Meanwhile,internal political pressure remains inﬂamed still over themandatoryhijab,orheadscarf, withwomen stillignoring the lawon the streets of Tehran. Rumorsalsopersist overthe government potentially increasing the cost of subsidized gasoline in thecountry,which has sparked nationwideprotests in thepast. Iran’stheocracy has responded by dialingbroadly backhijabenforcement and easing restrictions on at least onepolitical ﬁgure.

rection and care of Grace FuneralHome. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in memory of Patriciamay be madetoAnnunciation Catholic School. Donations may be either mailedto 511 AveC,Bogalusa, LA 70427 or can be madeat¬ https://sites.google.com/a /acsbogalusa.org/acs/. Fond memories and condolences are encouraged at www.gracenorthshore.c om.

Terrebonne, Robin Marie deArmas

RobinMariedeArmas

Terrebonne passed away peacefully on March 28, 2025, at theage of 83. Born in NewOrleans on January 24, 1942, she was theeldest child of CarlosJ deArmas and Gladys Hincks deArmas. Robin was preceded in death by her husband, Theard "Terry" J. Terrebonne, and her parents. She is survivedbyher son, Theard "Tad" J. Terrebonne (Leigh Anne), herbrother Carlos J. deArmas (Jill), and her grandson AndrewJ Terrebonne.Robingraduated fromMercy Academy and H. SophieNewcomb College with adegree in fine arts. Atalented artist she volunteeredatthe WYES auctionfor many years. Her lifelong and avid support of Tulane athletics started by watching her future husband playfootball forthe Green Waveand continuedthroughout her life including astint working forthe athleticdepartment.Known for her warmth, strength of character, and spirited conversations that often lasted intothe early morning hours, Robinwas agracious entertainer. She maintainedlifelong friendshipswithmany military families while traveling with Terry in theMarine Corps. Robin was awonderful mother and adored her grandson, Andrew, immensely.Her family wishes to extend their gratitude to thedevoted team of caregivers at Peristyle Residences fortheir many years of support and care. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the memorial gathering at Lake Lawn Metairie FuneralHomeonTuesday, April 8, 2025 from3:00pm until 5:00pm. Interment will be private. To view and sign thefamily guestbook please visit lakelawnmetairie.com

HelenRuthKeppler Gor‐rondona Thibodeaux,aged 86ofPickens,South Car‐olina,after alongbattle withcancer, passedaway onFebruary24. Sheissur‐vived by herlovinghus‐bandDevronThibodeaux, sisterMaryVirginia“Gin‐ger”Keppler,and brother Frederick “Fritz”(Earl)Kep‐pler, hercherished chil‐drenDanikaGorrondona, Morla Gorrondona,and Thane (Maria)Gorrondona, and herstepchildren, Therese (James)Stuckey, Elizabeth Thibodeaux,An‐gelle Thibodeaux,and Paul (Minette)Thibodeaux, and grandchildren,KohlerLip‐son,McKenzieMcCloskey, Christopher Gorrondona AndreaGorrondona, Na‐talia (James Samuel)Gor‐rondona,MatteoGorron‐dona, Sarah(Brandon) Montalbano, Rachel Stuckey,and Matthew Stuckey,and five greatgrandchildren.Helen Ruth ispredeceased by her beloved firsthusband Don‐ald Gorrondona andher parents LloydKeppler and Helen Kohler Keppler.A graduateofHolyAngels Academy,St. Mary’s Do‐minican College, andLoy‐ola University Instituteof Ministrywhere she achieveda master’s de‐greeinTheology.She was a life-longteacher of both physicaleducation andre‐ligion: areflection of her appreciation of thecultiva‐tionofbothbodyand soul She beganand endedher teachingcareer in herspir‐itualhomeofNew Orleans

-startingwithSt. James Major School,continuing toSt. Joseph’s Academy, and retiring from Arch‐bishopChapelle High School as head of thereli‐giondepartment. Sheis past-presidentofthe St Mary’sDominican College Alumnae Association, and a member andpast-presi‐dentofthe PickensGarden Club. HelenRuthloved art, music,culture andtravel‐ing to newplaces. She loved gardening, especially savingdistressedplants. She wasa cannybargain‐hunter andself-published authorofthe book,“New Orleans,a Shopper’sNote‐book”. Shehad asense of adventure andenthusiasm for travelingtonew places which wastestedbyhurri‐caneKatrina.Havinglived inNew Orleansher entire life, shepackedupand withher belovedmother Nana, joined Devron as he began hisnew position at the research stationat Clemson andshe didso withoptimism,courage and an open heart. Cer‐tainly, despitethe long dis‐tancesbetween herand her children HelenRuthre‐maineda constant andlov‐ing mother.Through every struggleand especially her last, HelenRuth’sprayer was forGod to granther courage andstrength. She truly wasthe embodiment ofthese virtuesatremark‐abledegrees throughout her illness. In allofthisshe remainedkind, welcoming, giving, andgraceful– a truebeautiful Southern Lady. Allare invitedfor Vis‐itation followed by Mass onFriday, April11, begin‐ningat10:00 a.m. to be heldatthe Chapel of Jacob Schoenand SonFuneral Home, 3827 CanalSt.,New Orleans,LA70119. We so appreciatethe tireless dedicationtothe care and support HelenRuthre‐ceivedfromDr. Jeff Eden‐ﬁeldand hisstaff of the PrismaCancerInstitute as she struggledall those years to controlthe can‐cer.Theyhavetruly be‐come ourfamily. We also

wanttothank theHospice ofthe Foothillsstaff who graciouslyand generously assistedinher care in the ﬁnalweeksofher life.The familywould like to thank DebbieLessard especially for hercontinued support for HelenRuth’sstruggle withcancerfor thepast ten plus years. In lieu of ﬂowers, thefamilyre‐questsmemorialdona‐tions be made to anyofthe following:the Marianites ofHolyCross Congrega‐tionalCenterat75520 Hwy 1081, Covington, Louisiana, 70435; Hospiceofthe Foothills,390 Keowee School Rd., Seneca,SC 29672; or St.Andrews Catholic Church,209 Sloan St.,Clemson,SC29631 ArrangementsbyJacob Schoen& SonFuneral Home3827 CanalSt. New Orleans,LA. Condolences may be left at www schoenfh.com. Thankyou for your remembrance.

Tureaud, Barbara Ann Barbara AnnTureaud, passedaway on Monday, March10, 2025. She was born on September 12, 1938, in NewOrleans,LA, andwas alifelongresident of Metairie, LA. Barbara waspreceded in death by herparents, JulesJoseph Tureaud, Sr.and Marie Louise LeBon Tureaud; her siblings, Juliette Tureaud Leckert,Marie Louise Tureaud Grosch, Jules Joseph Tureaud, Jr.and Donald LeeTureaud. She is survivedbyher sister Gayle Frances Tureaud and manynieces andnephews andgrandnieces and nephews. Barbara wasa lifelongparishioner of St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Metairie, LA, whereshe wasa weekly committedadorerinthe Adoration Chapel for many years. Shegraduatedfrom Loyola University New Orleanswitha Bachelor of

Sinceits founding in 1991,Globalstarhas beenat theforefront of connectivity.The Covington-based companynow hasoperationsaroundthe worldto providemobileand data satelliteservices to customersincluding government agencies,businessesand individualsinremoteordisaster-proneareas.

in moving into somethingelse, we welcomethat initiativeand trytosupport opportunitiesacross thecompany.” With employeesworking in offices andat home acrossthe world, howdoyou keep everyoneconnected?

“There’s alot of intentionality there,”Moloney said.“My team comestogetheronaweeklybasis, notonlyfor status meetings,but to just spendsome time gettingtoknoweachother.We’ve created plansfor face-to-face meetings to help facilitate that team-buildingaswell. Ithink it’s importantto createthose opportunitiesfor people to gettoknow each otherand understandthatwe’re allworking toward thesamegoals.”

What qualitiesare youlooking foramong applicantswhenyou arehiring?

Thetechnologyhas evolvedsteadilyoverthe past threedecades,but what hasn’t changedisGlobalstar’s commitment to retainingthe best talent andhelping people grow theircareers with ongoingtrainingand support. Thoseare some keyreasons whyGlobalstar hasbeennamed a2025nationalTop Workplace by USAToday.Here, Globalstar employeesshare theirthoughtsabout what therecognitionmeans andthe factors that contribute to thecompany’s ongoingsuccess. Howwould youdescribeGlobalstar’scompanyculture?

Gardiner said he always keepsaneye outfor people whoare motivatedand results-oriented.

“A lotofcompanies saytheycareabout employees butGlobalstaractuallydoes. It’s probably thebest placeI have ever worked,” said ChrisGardiner, Senior Director of NorthAmericanSales.“People reallycare abouttheir work.Weall reachout to oneanother and make sure we understand thecompany’s plansand howweﬁtwithinthose. It’s ateamculture where everybodysteps up everyday.”

AlisaMoloney,SeniorDirectorofGlobalMarketing, said that collaborationhas been apparent to herfromthe time shestarted with Globalstar less than ayearago “Peopleare so thoughtful andhelpful,which makesiteasytoget things done,” shesaid. “Ifyou have aquestionbut don’tknowwho to ask, everyone is happytopoint youinthe rightdirection.Whenyou combinecollaboration with innovation,itcreatesa foundation for alot of success. HowdoesGlobalstarsupport employee growth anddevelopment? JamesCathcart, Director of GatewayOperations, hasexperienced this ﬁrsthand,ashehas been with Globalstar sinceJune1999.

“The fact that we area smallercompany provides alot of greatopportunities for people to grow and excelinmultipleroles,” Cathcart said.“It’s afamily

environmentwhere everyone is forthcoming with information. We have severalknowledge basesand training platformsthatareaccessibletoallemployees If someoneisinone department andisinterested

“A lotofpeoplecan writea plan butdon’t have examples of theactions they have takenasaresult of it,” he said.“I’mlooking for people whocan show howtheyimplemented aplanand what they learned if somethingdidn’t work quiteright.Thathelps me thinkabout howwecan scalethatpersonfor the long-term. I’malsolooking for people with good ethics anda strong understandingofour business.” Cathcart said he looksfor people whocommunicate well andare eagertolearn newskills.

“It’salwaysa plus when people canshare alot about theirpreviousexperiences andare willing to admit mistakes they’vemadeorthingstheydon’t know,” he said.“That tellsmetheyare open to learningand growing, whichissomething we reallylookfor.” What advice wouldyou give to otherbusinesses that arelooking to improvetheir owncultures? Moloneysaida positive workplaceculture starts with thoseinthe highestlevelsofleadership.

“There is nothingmorevaluablethanfromyour employees to hear directly from yousothatthey understandwhatisgoing on at ahighlevel andthe role they play in thecompany’s success,”she said.“I’ve always been impressedthatmydirectmanager takes time to meet with hisdepartmentsregularly to share strategicmessaging so that we feel connected. It goes back to beingintentional aboutyourcommunication andmakingsureeverybody knowstheir role in the company’ssuccess.

Keppler Gorrondona

20A ✦ Sunday,April 6,2025 ✦ nola.com ✦ TheTimes-Picayune

Science Degree in Elementary Education. She was aretired teacher from Jefferson Parish Schools ACatholic Funeral Mass was celebrated by Father Joseph Palermo, Pastor of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church on March 20, 2025

Interment followed in St Louis Cemetery #3.

Wester,Linda Hunn

LindaHunnWester, age 85, of Kenner,LApassed awayonSunday, March23, 2025 from congestive heart failure andother complica‐tions.Linda wasbornon March 5, 1940 in NewOr‐leans,LAand spenther childhood in Algiers, LA.Up until theend,she main‐tainedher kindness, gen‐tleness, andlovingperson‐ality, sinceshe wasa so‐cialbutterﬂyand lovedby everyoneshe met. Linda was alovingwife, mother grandmother,and greatgrandmother who valued timespent with herfamily. Her kindness andwarm smile andcaringabout everyonethatwas in her path. Shewas acustodian atthe Treasure Chest Casino. Shewas amember ofPinnacleAutismSpecial KidsGroup whereshe was abletoshare herlovefor childrenand were they calledher "MamaLinda", a memberofmultipleGolden Age Clubs, andthe AARP clubinMetairie, LA.Linda was preceded in deathby her parents, Harold J. Hunn, Sr.and HildaT Hunn; herbrother,Harold J.Hunn, Jr.; herlovinghus‐band, MichaelB.Wester; and herdearfriends,Gail Perkand Dody Mae. Sur‐vivorsinclude herloving son,ThomasMaechling,Jr. (thelateAllyson S. Maech‐ling);her stepchild, Dawn Flowers (RobertFlowers); her grandchildren, Nicole M.Sylve,Felix B. Borowiak, and WilliamFlowers;her great-grandchildren,Lan‐donA.Barrios,Cadon A.

Barrios, andPaytonA.Bar‐rios; hersister, DeborahH Rein(Kyle M. Rein); her niecesand nephews, Victo‐ria A. Bakanyan (Armen), BlytheAnn, Jackie Michael,Michelle, Ronnie, and Caroleen;her great niece,CelineA.Bakanyan, and numerous othergreat niecesand nephews. Rela‐tives and friendsofthe familyare invitedtoattend the funeralservicesat Leitz-Eagan FuneralHome, 4747 Veterans Memorial Blvd.,Metairie, LA on Fri‐day,April 11, 2025, at 11:00 am. Visitation will be from 9:30amuntil 11:00am. In‐terment will follow in Lake LawnParkMausoleum

Edda Haas Whaley passedawayonMarch 26th, 2025 at the ageof88. Sheissurvived by her husband of 60+ years, Warren Paul Whaley Sr and herchildren,Heather Whaley Carpenter (Rusty Carpenter), WarrenPaul Whaley Jr.(Joanna Logan Whaley), KatherineWhaley Warren (Mark E. Warren Sr.); and her six much loved and cherished grandchildren, Emily and Thomas Carpenter;Charlie and Abigail Whaley; Mark "Sonny"and Michael Warren; sister,Dr. Ethel Haas Boagni; nieces and nephews, Thomas, Nancy &MaryBoagni andRandi Whaley Henriques (Steve, Tanya &Tiffany); and dear family friend, Shawn Kohnke (Mignon, Bella& Emily) who was like ason toher,and moreloving friends than we canmention Shewas precededin death by her lovingparents,EdwardRudolph and Ethel Oulliber Haas of Madisonville, LA; and her brother-in-law, Dr. Edward Boagniand nephew Robert Boagni. Born in Madisonville, LA, shegraduatedfrom

Covington HighSchool, where she was class Valedictorian. She received aBachelor of Science in Medical Technology from LoyolaUniversity in New Orleans, LA and was certified in Medical Technology by theASCP.She then attendedthe John Elliott Blood Bank of Dade County in Miami Florida. She was among thefirst people in NewOrleans to be certified in bloodbanking. In 1964, she married Warren Paul Whaley Sr. They resided in Metairie LA,until 2000 when they moved to Pass Christian, MS. Edda was a member of theP.C Historical Society, Friends of theLibrary,HolyFamily Altar Society,TimberRidge Women's Club and amemberofSouthern YachtClub in NewOrleans and the Pass Christian YachtClub. She enjoyed reading good booksand spending time with her family and friends. She lovedchildren and her door and kitchen were always opentothe friends of her childrenand childrenofher friends and neighbors.She always madeeveryone feelwelcome and loved. Edda lovedhelping others and was always willing to do anythingfor others. She was adevoted,lovingwife and mother to many. In lieu of flowers, a memorial donationcan be madetoSt. JudeChildren's Research Hospital,Little Sisters of thePoor or Holy Family Parish.

Avisitationwillbeheld at 10:00a.m. on Saturday, April12thwitha Mass of ChristianBurial to be celebrated at 11:00a.m. at Holy Family Church in Pass ChristianMS. Acelebration of herlife willbeheld after themass. She willburied on Monday, April 14that her family plotin Madisonville, LA. The Riemann Family Funeral Home,LongBeach, is servingthe family

He is survivedbyhis children, Heather Whaley Carpenter (Rusty Carpenter), Warren Paul Whaley Jr. (Joanna Logan Whaley), and Katherine Whaley Warren (Mark E. Warren Sr.); six cherished grandchildren, Emily and Thomas Carpenter, Charlie and AbigailWhaley, Mark "Sonny" and Michael Warren; sister-in-law, Dr. EthelHaas Boagni; nieces and nephews, Randi Whaley Henriques (Steve, Tanya &Tiffany), Thomas, Nancy &Mary Boagni;and dear family friend, Shawn Kohnke (Mignon, Bella& Emily) who was like ason to him; and moreloving friends than we can mention.

He was preceded in death by 5hours by his loving wife of 60+ years, EddaHaas Whaley;his brother, Thomas Lee Whaley II;and nephews, Thomas Lee Whaley IIIand Robert Boagni.

Warren was theson of thelate Thomas Lee Whaley and Katherine Palmisano Whaley of New Orleans.

BorninNew Orleans, LA, he attended FortierHigh School where he was active in sports and amemberofthe PhiLambda Epsilon(PLE) Fraternity. He then attended Louisiana StateUniversity where he was amember of Sigma Alpha Epsilon(SAE) Fraternity, and laterreceived his B.S. Degree from S.L.I.inLafayette,LA, and a commission to serveas1st Lieutenantinthe U.S. Air Force.Hespent one year in thestates and twoyears at theRoyal AirForce Base Chicksands in Bedfordshire,England. After returning home, he first worked for United Machinery Corp/ and then NewOrleans Diamond and JewelryasVice President forthe majority of his working career. Froman earlyage,Warren was interested in alloutdoor activities,fishing,hunting andsailboat racing as a member of the Southern YachtClub. He was an avid duck hunter, who lovedto introduce thesport to the younger generation and share hispassion with family and friends. He was amember of several business, social and carnival organizations. Later in retirement, he moved to Pass Christian, MS and was a member of the Pass ChristianYacht Club. Warren had agreat love of life and always loveda good partywhere he could

J. Cameron Henry,Jr

PreSIDenT oF THeSenaTe

spendthe entire evening dancing with everyone women young or old. Warrennevermet a stranger. He treatedeveryoneasa dear friend. Warrenspent hislifedevotedtohis wife, family andfriends In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation canbe made to St.Jude Children Hospital, Little Sisters of thePoor or Holy Family Parish. Avisitation will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 12th with aMass of Christian Burial to be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. at Holy FamilyChurchinPass Christian MS.A celebration of hislifewill be held after themass. He will be buried on Monday, April 14th with hisfamilyinthe Lake Lawn Mausoleum in New Orleans, LA. TheRiemannFamily Funeral Home, LongBeach, is serving thefamily.

Nancy Eleanor Uhrich

Williamsonpassed away on Friday, March 28, 2025, at the age of 85. Born in Harlingen,Texas on December 25, 1939. Nancy wasa graduate of Harlingen High School in Harlingen,Texas and preparingtoenrollin Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas when her sister,Sarah, convinced hertogotoa couples' square dance at First Presbyterian Church in Harlingen.There she met the love of herlife, officer EdwardWilliamson. They were marriedinMay of 1958 andeventually moved to Florida. Then the young familysettledinRiver Ridge,Louisiana in 1965. Nancy wasa dedicated wife, mother of threechildren,grandmotherofone, andactive in numerous church and community activities.Theyweremembers of FaithCumberland Presbyterian Church in Metairie. After Edward's death in 2002, shetransferred hermembership to First Chrisitan Church of Greater NewOrleans

Nancy wasactivein church choir andseveral women's circle groups,as well as Book of theMonth Club, andthe Hallmark OrnamentKollectors' Club. Shewas always very kind andgenerouswith her time andenergy, anda friendtoeveryoneshe met. Shewill be dearly missed by all.Nancyisprecededindeathbyher husband of 44 years, Edward P. Williamson; parents WarrenJacob andMary Eleanor (Fett) Uhrich. She is survivedbyher sons Randall Williamson (Betsy), Michael Williamson(Ramona), and Scott Williamson(Emily); sister Sarah Wheeler; grandchild AmeliaGrace Williamson; nieces Cheri Sires(Edward) andCathy Wheeler. Thefamilywould like to express their heartfelt thanks to thewonderfulcaregiversatHome InsteadSenior Careand thedoctors, nurses, and staff of Chateau Living Center whomade herlast years comfortable and pleasant. Relativesand friends are invited to attend thefuneral service on Wednesday April 9, 2025, at 12:00pm in theChapelof Lake LawnMetairie Funeral Home. Visitation will begin at 11:00am. Intermenttofollow in Lake LawnParkand Mausoleum. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Second Harvest Food bank, (nohunger.org) or Muscular Dystrophy Association (mda.org)

April6,2025

TotheOrganizers,Participants,andSupportersof theDefendersofLibertyAirShow:

Iwant to extend my gratitude and appreciation to everyone whomadethis year’sDefendersofLiberty AirShow at Barksdale Air ForceBase such aresounding success. This incredibleevent not onlyshowcased theskill anddedicationofour Airmen, but also strengthened the bond between Barksdaleand theShreveportBossiercommunity.Theairshowservesasanimportantbridgebetweenourmilitary and the public,fostering adeeperappreciation andrespectfor themen andwomen whoserveourcountry.

With an astounding 200,000 attendees over the weekend and an estimated$5 millionineconomicimpact,itisclearthattheDefenderofLibertyAirShowisamajor state event. Iwouldliketopersonally thank Senators Adam Bass, SamJenkins, Thomas Pressly, and Alan Seabaugh for theirsupport andcommitment to making this event asuccess. Additionally, Iwant to speciﬁcally recognize Colonel Michael Maginness, Commander of the 2nd Bomb Wing; General Jason Armagost, Commanderofthe8thAirForce;and General ThomasBussiere, CommanderofAir ForceGlobalStrikeCommand,andthankthemfortheirleadershipanddedication

Beyondthe amazing display of aircraftinthe sky,the Defenders of Liberty Air Showbrought families,veterans, and aviation enthusiaststogetherasacommunity, while reinforcing Louisiana’scommitment to supportingour military.Iwould liketo extend aspecial thank you to the Shreveport-Bossier Committee of 100 and its president, David Dethloff, forhostingtheFridaynighteventforlegislators,aswellas totheShreveport-BossierMilitaryAffairsCouncilanditspresident,TreyGiglio,for theiroutstandingeffortsinorganizingandhostingthisyear’sairshow.

Aswelookaheadtothenextairshow,Iamconﬁdentthatthistraditionwillcontinue toinspireandunitethecommunity.TheDefenderofLibertyAirShowisandhasbeen amajoreventforLouisianafordecades.Thankyouagaintoeveryone—organizers, volunteers,performers,andattendees—whomadethiseventasuccess.

BestWishes,

Cameron Henry President,LouisianaStateSenate

Whaley, Edda

Williamson, Nancy Uhrich

Whaley Sr., Warren

Warren Paul Whaley, Sr. passed away on March 27th, 2025 at theage of 95.

SenaTe STaTeoFLouISIana

State pauses work on coastal project

BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer

Gov Jeff Landry’s administration has ordered a 90-day pause on work on Louisiana’s biggest-ever coastal project the controversial Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, arguing the state cannot afford the more than $3 billion plan and stressing that it must be smaller in scale.

The decision, conﬁrmed by the state’s coastal ofﬁcials, took effect Friday It halts nearly all work related to the project, which has been planned and studied for years and broke ground in August 2023 on the west bank of Plaquemines Parish near Ironton. Funds related

Library wins over voters

Millage campaign a success

BY WILLIE SWETT

Staff writer

If endorsements were any predictor, the two tax propositions on the March 29 ballot in St. Tammany Parish would have had a radically different outcome.

One tax proposition, which redirected sales tax revenue toward St. Tammany’s criminal justice system, received broad support from elected officials and the parish’s and state’s political class, with even Gov Jeff Landry chiming in via text to encourage voters to approve it.

The other tax proposition — a property tax that provides 96% of the revenue for the parish’s 75-yearold library system — received relatively little formal backing from some of the parish organizations that had endorsed the sales tax rededication.

The organizations’ reticence to back the property tax may have been in part due to the controversy the library system has faced since 2022 over minors’ access to items with sexual and LGBTQ+ themes

Although the library has since adopted a tiered card system giving parents more control over their kids’ access to materials the view among some in the parish’s political class was that the 4.35-mill library tax was in trouble, while the sales tax rededication had a decent chance of passing. But instead, the opposite turned out to be true.

Fifty-five percent of voters approved the library millage, according to the secretary of state’s website. The 42,262 people who cast votes represented a far higher turnout than predicted. On the other hand, a slim majority of voters in unincorporated St. Tammany, where the sales tax is levied, voted against the rededication.

“We didn’t have any public support,” said Charles Branton, a library board member who hit the campaign trail to rally support for the tax. “Not the Northshore Business Council, not the Chamber of Commerce, not the City Council, not CCST But we have supporters, patrons, and we put out the facts.” Branton, like others involved in the library’s campaign, saw the victory as reflective of the library’s messaging — a fact-based approach exempliﬁed by a detailed website that library staff ﬁlled with statistics about usage and cost effectiveness and an FAQ that addressed the library controversy head-on.

to the 2010 BP oil spill are intended to pay for it, but state coastal ofﬁcials say rising costs mean Louisiana will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more.

While not officially killing the project, the pause moves what many once considered the linchpin of the state’s coastal restoration plans further out of reach. Only initial work had been allowed to continue in recent months at the site as the state negotiated with Plaquemines Parish over its future.

State coastal ofﬁcials say they are now developing ideas for a smaller diversion and want to move forward with construction of

a large-scale land bridge in Barataria Basin using dredged sediment to build it.

Prominent coastal advocacy groups expressed dismay over the move and urged the state to reconsider They note that marshbuilding projects using dredged sediment eventually erode just like the rest of the coast, whereas the Mid-Barataria project mimics the way south Louisiana was built in the ﬁrst place.

But state ofﬁcials say a decision had to be made.

“This thing is just costing us a fortune right now so we have to quickly suspend it for 90 days, and that way we at least stop the bleeding,” said Gordon Dove, chairman

of the board overseeing the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority

Tony Alford, who chairs the governor’s advisory commission on coastal affairs, offered similar comments. The CPRA issued a statement saying a small amount of work would continue, including relocation of a pipeline in the area and site maintenance.

Dove said he hopes to announce a new strategy to move forward with in a month or two, but stressed that the state intends to push ahead with planning for other projects in the meantime, including the land bridge that would stretch more than 20 miles. Coastal advocates say the Mid-Barataria diversion was meant to nourish that land bridge with sediment, but Dove maintains there are other options.

A smaller diversion would cause far less harm to commercial shrimping and oyster growing in the area, one of the main criticisms of the Mid-Barataria project. Under the previous plan, shrimpers and oyster growers in the diversion area would have to move farther out or ﬁnd another line of work. Nearly $380 million had been set aside to help those affected by the project, including commercial fishers and buyouts for homeowners.

Dove says the $380 million will not be nearly enough compensation and is worried about the prospects of lawsuits. Contractors could, however, also sue over the lost work if the project is canceled, and it is unclear whether

Hotel of history

Loyola has plans for former Dominican campus

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

For roughly a century, an order of Dominican nuns from Ireland educated girls and young women inside an Italianate building with colonnaded galleries and a distinctive cupola steps from St Charles Avenue Loyola University took over the building and surrounding campus in the 1980s, and while some buildings on the property were used to house Loyola’s law school, others ended up sitting vacant. Now, the school is planning to turn the iconic building and two other historic properties on the campus into a boutique hotel

BY MISSY WILKINSON Staff writer

with a conference center, restaurant and bar.

The proposal, still in its early stages, includes a hotel with up to 100 guest rooms spread over 57,000 square feet in the 7200-7300 blocks of St Charles. The iconic Dominican college building, called Greenville Hall, would house a conference center and hotel rooms on its second ﬂoor

Two historic mansions in the 7300 block of St. Charles would have additional rooms and be connected by a new building, where most of the hotel would be located.

The goal of the project is to ﬁnd a new use for the buildings that will serve the university, benefit the community and generate revenue for Loyola, developer Bill Hoffman, of Woodward Interests, told about 50 neighborhood resi-

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Loyola’s Broadway campus calls for turning buildings in the 7300 block of St. Charles Avenue in

One of the buildings is pictured on Wednesday.

PROVIDED PHOTO

From left, Roy Chenevert, Michael Kincey and Ruby Jackson move out from Dominican College’s Greenville Hall

dents Wednesday night at ameeting to unveil the project.

Loyola selected Hoffman and his partner,Paul Flower, several years ago to come up with aconceptual plan for the unused structures on the Broadway campus.

Some neighbors are concerned about parking, drainage and the live oaks that shade the campus. They’re also worried about what the new building, which could be up to six stories, will do to the characteroftheir neighborhood.

“Loyola wants to build somethingthatistaller than anything else on St. Charles,” said Vivienne Hayne. “Thisisaunique neighborhood. What discussion is there about respect for the historical character?”

Hoffman said his team recognizes that, “whatever we do has to ﬁt in with the neighborhood.”

Rich history

Loyola’s4.2-acre Broadway campusislocated ﬁve blocks up St. Charles from the university’s main campus. It encompasses two square blocks bounded by St. Charles, Broadway,Dominicanand Lowerline streets. Pine Street runs throughthe middle of it.

GreenvilleHall,the oldest building on the campus, dates to the 1860sand was built by the Dominican nuns as St. Mary’sAcademy for Girls. In 1910, theschool became St. Mary’sDominican College and gradually expanded over the next 75 years to includeadorm and additional educational buildings.

When the college closed in 1984,Loyola bought the property and moved its law school and law library to twoofthe newerbuildings on the campus.Itused the dorm for graduate student housing.

But some of the older structures on the campus have beenunderutilized or even vacant since coming into the university’s possession. In 2019, former Loyola President Tania Tetlow’sadministration asked developers to submit plans for the properties.

Woodward was selected, but the developmentprocess was delayed because of thecoronavirus pandemic and has been slow to restart. In the meantime, Tetlow left to become president of Fordham University. Her successor,Xavier Cole, declined to discuss the university’sbroader vision for commercializing the Broadway campus. In aprepared statement, the university said, “There are no preliminary details about scope, logistics or operations. If any further plans are actualized,Loyola will share those plans with the community.”

The statementadded:

“Thedeveloperhas committed to adhering to Loyola’sstrategic goalsand

priorities.”

Full of questions

What waspresented on Wednesday was conceptual only,the developers’attorney,MikeSherman, told neighbors. Woodward hasn’t ﬁnalized architecturalplans or ﬁled forany permits with the city.The developers don’thave renderings or a price tag they’re willing to share.

But city lawrequires that universities update their Institutional Master Plan everyfew years and notify neighbors of any changes. Since Loyola’s updated master plan includes the proposal for the new hotel, thedevelopment team let neighborsinon what they’ve come up with so far

As envisioned,the proposal calls for renovating GreenvilleHallat7214St.

Charles intoaground-ﬂoor conference center with about 20 rooms on the second ﬂoor

The bulk of the hotel wouldbeacross Pine Street in astructure that would include the newly constructed building and the twohistoric houses. One of those houses, agrand stone mansionwith aport cochere knownas VeritasHall, would have about 10 rooms and serve as the entrance of the hotel.

Theother house, called Sacred Heart, wouldhave three guest rooms and aﬁtness center

The newly constructed building would house arestaurantand maybeasmany as 60 or 70 guest rooms. Sherman likened the project to the Hotel St. Vincent in the LowerGarden District or Hotel Peterand Paul in the Marigny Neighborscame ready with questions and concerns that centeredprimarily on parking in theneighborhood, already tight because the campusdoesn’thave enough off-street parking for its law students, andhow constructing a new building would impact drainage.

They alsovoiced concerns about the newbuilding, which wouldfrontLowerline Streetand, some argued, tower over the 19th-century single-family housesonthe block.

“I think neighbors understand wanting to use the historic buildings and put them back into commerce,”said Donna Miceli, who attended the meeting. “The angst is about this new construction.”

With respect to parking, Hoffman said the hotel will have valet service but acknowledged that won’tsolve theexisting problem with law students parking in the neighborhood.

“This hotel is not going to make that problem anybetter,but it won’texacerbate it,” Hoffman said. He alsoassured them that the live oaks on the property would not be touched.

Alargecrowd attends‘HandsOff! NewOrleans Fights Back’ rally,a protest against the administration of PresidentDonald Trump, at Lafayette

in NewOrleans on Saturday.

PROTEST

Continuedfrom page 1B

the state’s budget is made up of federal funding?

…Wesay handsoff our federalworkers,who are providing great services in our cityand across our country.”

She, Carter andMorrell vowedtoresist Trump’s agenda, while acknowledgingthatreal powerrests with the people —whose testimonies dominated the mic.

“Most of the speakers here are talking from theirown experience about what these cutsand this demolitionofour federalgovernment means to them,”said Sue Mosley,who is on the steering committee of grassroots activist group Indivisible NOLA.

Vi ct or Pi zarro of 504HealthNet, alifelong New Orleanian whose workinthe serviceindustry helps fund his activism, spoke about the need to bringhealth care access to thehospitality industry.Membersof immigrant-rights group Unión Migrantewarned that deportationscould cripple the local economy, removing essential workers who helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina andstill anchor its tourism industry

Dr.Patricia Kissinger, aprofessor of epidemiologyatTulaneUniversity, said she’dbeen“DOGE-d” when shelost hergrants, andKatie Schwartzmann, director of Tulane Uni-

DIVERSION

Continuedfrom page1B

theroughly $500 million already spent can be recouped.

The diversion project would funnel up to 75,000 cubic feet per second of water andsedimentfrom the Mississippi Riverinto the Barataria Basin to rebuild lost wetlands. It was projected to build 21 square miles of land over 50 years andwas issued apermitfor construction by theU.S. Army Corps of Engineersafter an exhaustiveenvironmental study

versity’s First Amendment Law Clinic,warned againstattacks on higher education and federal courts.

“Thisisthe president of the United States,instructing privateuniversities that studentsare to be permanently expelled or arrested for protests?” Schwartzmannsaid. “And the effect of thatisexactlywhatyou’d expect: Students are terrifiedto speak.”

Askedabout the protests, the White House said in astatement that “President Trump’sposition is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneﬁciaries Meanwhile,the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid,

greater chance of survival for the people, wildlife and economy of Louisiana.”

KimReyher, executive director of theCoalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, saidthe organization was“disappointed by this development, but the rivercan stilldowhatit’s alwaysdone:build and sustain land and life in our wetlands.”

“Wecall on our leaders to focus on acting with urgency and using DeepwaterHorizon settlement funds for projects vetted through our master plan,” she said.

‘It’sfallingapart’

and Medicare beneﬁts to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”

Attendees on Saturday spoke messages of unity, mutualaid and neighborly care —valuestheyconsidertheir patriotic duty

“I hope everyone today moves from thespace of ‘Everything is on fire and everything is bad,’ andinto the space of, ‘My neighbors arehurt. and thathurts me,’ ”Mosley said. “Weasa community arethe ones that asolution is produced from, because we recognize thehumanityineach other,and that that is worthprotecting. That’swhy we build the government.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

plenishing or getting that kind of result in 50 years,” he saidofMid-Barataria’s projected land-building.

Some$2.92 billion in BP funding has been approved for the project, but Landry has said the cost has now risentoatleast$3.1 billion.

Sam Caruso Jr., whoseﬁrm washired by the library for $18,000 to help with outreach, saidhehas worked on many othertax campaigns,but none have been likethe library’s.

“If you want to get accurate facts and research done really well, you can’tdoany betterthan aroom fulloflibrarians,” Caruso said.

Library Director Kelly LaRocca attributed themillagecampaign’s successto her staff andtheir relationships with library patrons. Starting in February,she said, staffplaced bookmarks with election information in every book that patronschecked out.

“Wemadesurethatour patronscouldn’tmiss it,” LaRocca said JamesHartman,apolitical consultant whohas worked on countless St.Tammany campaigns, meanwhile, saw the outcome as connected to partisan politics. He said “thekerfuffle over library matters in recent years quite predictably,tome, mobilized left-leaningvoters more than it did right-leaning voters.” He said it was unclear what effect the endorsements had on the election outcome.

Caruso said that whenhe tried to hire aconservative consultant forthe campaign to help address public outcryabout thebooks,the consultant replied, “I wouldn’t touchthat with a10-foot pole. You’regonna getyourbrains beat in.”

But many conservatives were openly in support of the library tax, including Branton, whose nomination to the St. TammanyLibrary Board of Control had been backed by the Republican Executive Committee, St. Tammany Parish Council member Jeff Corbin, who hasfaced political backlashfor his comments aboutthe library board,and Parish Council member Pat Burke, whoisalso amember of RPEC. Burke said he thought social media hadfueledmisinformation aboutminoraccess to the library’scollectionand the library’scost, driving some people to oppose the library millage.

“People who don’tgotothe library thinknobody usesit, but not everybody is fortunate enough to have computers” or to be able to buy books, said Parish Councilmember Jimmy Strickland, the lone Democrat on the council. “A lotofthe people that were speaking against the library didn’treally use the library.”

Some organizations, like the St.TammanyEconomicDevelopment Corporationand theMilitaryRoad Alliance, endorsed both thelibrary millageand thesales tax rededication. But others chose justtoendorse the latter. Concerned Citizens of St. Tammanycame to astalemate on whether to endorse the library tax, its president, Rick Franzo, said. Kevin Davis, president of the Northshore Business Council, said hisorganization was speciﬁcally asked to endorse the sales tax rededication, but wasnot asked about the library tax. Mostpeople in the group were in support of the millage, though, he said.

Coastal advocates sayit matches thescale of Louisiana’s land-loss crisis, with thestate having lost some2,000 square miles over thelastcentury.Sea level rise is projected to worsen theproblem in the decades ahead.

“Efforts to delaythis projectare dangerously misguided, squandering valuable time andjeopardizing hundreds of millions already invested in ourcoast, all whiledisregarding therobust science underpinning our coastal master plan,” saidSimone Maloz, campaign director of theRestorethe Mississippi River Deltacoalition, referring to the state’s50year blueprint for salvaging as much of thecoast as possible.

Alford said adiversion around athird of thesize of Mid-Barataria, or possibly less, was amongthe optionsbeingstudied. He and Dove saidthat while they respect the positions of those favoring the diversion, they simply cannot see away forward.

They also arguedthat marsh-building with dredged sediment could build landfaster without harming commercial ﬁshing. Theysaidtheyare notabandoning the state’s masterplan, pointing out theland bridge is included in it.

Landrymade similar comments when he spoke beforealegislative committee in November,saying the project would “break our culture.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, akey member of thetrustees group overseeing the BP funds, says the contract includes amaximum guaranteed price and that contingency funding is in placefor costincreases.But NOAA notes that cost increases because of delays caused by thestate arenot covered under the maximum guaranteed price.

Landry shifted the state’s positiononthe project after taking ofﬁce in 2024. He abandoned the state’sprevious legal position that it did notneed a permitfromPlaquemines Parish, which firmly opposesthe project andhas ﬁled suit to stop it.

An agreement with the parish hadallowed limited work to move forward. Work done includes site clearing, utility relocations, drainage improvements andaccess dredging. The 90-day pause will now see equipment movedoff the site, which Dovesays will save money

LaceyOsborne,president of the St.TammanyChamber of Commerce, saidthe consensus in her organization was thatitshould nottakeaposition on thelibrary tax.

Caruso, meanwhile, had strongwords forsome of the groups that chose not to back the library millage.

“It was alack of courage. It wasa lack of willingness to stand up to avery loud minority of voices.Iwas extremely disappointed in all of the groups, including the ones Ibelongto, who failed to take astand.”

Beyond those concerns, Alfordargued that “you just can’tafford it.”

Using the BP funds for adifferent project would likely triggerthe need for approvals and scientific analysis thatmay take several years.

“Ina placelosingland fasterthanalmost anywhere else on theplanet, we have no time to lose putting our communities and cultureatfurther risk. There is simply no alternative that provides a

“You look at the coast and how much of the land is falling apart as we go forward, and it’sfalling apart alot faster than re-

Email Mike Smithat msmith@theadvocate. com.

STAFF PHOTOSBySCOTT THRELKELD

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Aprotestor holds her sign.

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Obituaries

Allen-Wheeler, Robin 'Roxie'

Robin“Roxie” AllenWheeler enteredeternal restonFriday, March28, 2025 at theage of 61, sur‐rounded by herchildren. She wasa native of New Orleans,LA. Roxiebegan her cosmetology career while sheattendedBooker

T.WashingtonHighSchool. She laterbecamea cook at the Sheraton NewOrleans Hotel where shemet her late husband Willie

Wheeler.Roxie is survived by herchildrenAuriel Allen,Angelica(MicahHa‐gans),Floyd Allen, Whitney Allen,Dajsa Allen, Willie Allen,Brianna “Hope” Veni‐son,WillAllen,McKinnie Allen,Tatianna Wheeler Tamika(Albert Franklin), SandraWheeler,Troy(Lyn‐trell) Holmes,Undre Holmes, ParisWheeler,and ChanceWheeler andGod‐daughterCharrel Audrict. Roxie is also survived by her mother EssieAllen, sib‐lings LydiaFaust (Norman) Donetta Allen, Shedrick Allen,Deion Allen, and Byron Allen. Sheleavesbe‐hind13grandchildren and a host of nieces,nephews, cousins,other familyand friends.Her familyinvites you to join them in aCele‐bration of Life at New HomeFamilyWorship Cen‐ter,1616 Robert C. BlakeSr. Drive,New Orleans, LA on Friday, April11, 2025, at 10:00 am.Visitationwill begin at 9:00 am.Profes‐sionalarrangementsen‐trusted to Majestic Mortu‐ary Service, Inc. (504) 5235872.

Brian Béguébelieved thatlifeisa banquet. Pull upa chairand digin. He alsobelievedeveryonehas a story, oneworth the telling andone worththe listening.His ownstory began on March23, 1948, whenhewas born in New Orleans to Philip Emile Bégué andSimoneVivian Richerand.Two yearslater hewas joined by his brother,Max Jean Bégué. Asyoungsterstheylived in various oldNew Orleans neighborhoods filled with interesting and, of course uniquecharacters.They would appear againand again in Brian’sstories throughouthis life.His mosttreasured memories werethose of thedayshe spent with hisgrandpar‐ents. Hisgrandmother Katherine Krebswas editor ofL’Abeille,the last Frenchlanguagenewspaper in the city, andthe firstwoman in New Orleanstoregisterto vote. Hisgrandfather Hy‐politeBégué owneda cor‐ner grocerydownon PolandAvenue with an or‐chard in thebackyard. This would be the source of Brian’s lifelong love of the navel orange.Grandpère Hypolite, whose elderrela‐tiveHypolitewas married tothe extraordinary woman knownasMadame Bégué (the creatorof brunch),would send his grandsonbacktohis fa‐therwiththe admonition “My boy, my boy, if youdo nothing else,learn to speak French andsay our nameright!” He didwellon the latter,and notsomuch onthe former.Brian at‐tendedAlcée Fortierand St. Martin’s Episcopal School forhighschool.He did notattend hisgradua‐tion. He went on to enroll atLSU,joinedKappa Alpha, and fulfilledhis ROTC com‐mitment forthe usualrea‐son:Vietnam.After gradu‐ation from LSU(which he did notattend), he enrolled inTulaneLaw School.Upon graduation, which he did not attend,hewentona tourofEuropeand brought homea backpack filled withstories.Hebegan his service to theU.S.Armyas a captaininthe JAGCorps atFortLeonard Wood in Missouri. He told hisdad, I’mnot on theedgeofthe world,but Ican seeitfrom here.”After hishonorable discharge,hemoved back toNew Orleansand livedin the French Quarter. Finally! He hung outhis shingle. No one noticed. Eventually he was hiredasa public de‐fenderinIsraelAugustine Jr.’s courtroom.Heloved the work.And he adored his newborndaughter, Nicole Eugenie, born March 15, 1976. Eventually he de‐cided to go outonhis own, and it didnot take long to attractnew clientsofall persuasions andperspec‐tives.However,everything changed whenSusie Guil‐lory Phipps walked through hisoffice door Susie hadappliedfor an official birthcertificate to get aU.S.passportfor a visit to France with her husband.Whenthe docu‐mentarrived,itdesignated her as a person of color. Havingthought shewas white herentirelife, she decided to suethe stateto correct theerror.Thiswas the work of Louisiana’sin‐famous“race clerk.”Brian was eagertotakeonthe fighttostopthe JimCrowera practice.The case at‐tractednationaland inter‐

national interest andbe‐camea landmark case in endingstate-sanctioned racistpractices.Calvin Trillin,the award-winning journalist, coveredthe Phipps case forNew Yorker magazineinApril 1986 Brian,hewrote,was “a self-assured, confident man with abreezymanner and an office in aFrench Quarter courtyard.”About thistime, hiswife, Karen Olivier,gavebirth to a daughter, Gabrielle Olivier. Brian went on to builda successfulpracticedriven bymedical malpractice and personal injury cases, among others.Hebecame a prosecutor forthe Louisiana StateBoard of Dentistry anda fewyears later,General Counsel. He enjoyed theworkfor over 15years,and he really en‐joyed catching thebad guys. When he retiredin 2018 he decidedtotakethe courseoffered by the Friends of theCabildoto becomeanofficial French Quarter walkingtour guide.Hewas stunnedby the difficultyand depth of the material.However,he persevered, passedhis fi‐nals, anddid notattend his graduation. Buthedid enjoy conducting hisown tours…Along theway,he and Maxinherited the Bégué family’sFrench Quarter buildings. But that’sa storyfor another day.Brian’s storyended on March 14, 2025, andhebe‐camethe story. He wasa big man, with abig heart, and wide-openarms. If you did notknowhim,weare sorry foryourloss. Brianis survivedbyhis wife Karen, daughters Gabrielle and Nicole, son-in-law Erik Winkowskiand Nathaniel Hackmann, grandsons Alexander Hackmann and WesleyWinkowski.brother Max andhis family, the RobertDumontand René Olivier families,the Frank Richerand family, and manyniecesand grandnieces, nephewsand grand-nephews.A gather‐ing to remember Brianwill beannounced

Dauterive Jr., Valliere Joseph

Valliere "Val" Joseph Dauterive, Jr., age 93, died peacefully at home on April3,2025. He was born in Chalmette,LAon February 8, 1932 to thelate Valliere J. Dauterive,Sr. and Helen Mistrot Dauterive. Val was preceded in deathbyhis wife of 68 years, Margaret B. Dauterive.

He is survivedbythree children, AnnD.Savoy, Suzanne D. McGuire (Paul) andVal J. Dauterive,III (Lynda), and was preceded in deathbyone daughter, Catherine Marie Dauterive. Belovedgrandfather to Amy S. Bradshaw (Brian), Zachary V. Dauterive, JacobE Dauterive, and step children, Michael P. McGuire, LukeA.McGuire (Hannah), Kevin P. McGuire (Laura),and Derek Kleinrichert,three greatgrandchildren, Jack, Caroline, and James Bradshaw, as well as four step-great-grandchildren, Leo,Patrick, Elise, and Oscar McGuire.

Val was born and raised in St. Bernard Parish. He worked with his father in their business, Val J. Dauterive, and Son, Inc., servicing fuel to theNew Orleans area. He had a strong workethic andexpected that of allhis employees. He was amember of theThebianFraternityin St.Bernard Parish.

As an avid fisherman, he was blessed to see many beautiful sunrises overthe waters of St. Bernard Parish, where he bravely fought every redfish of legal size. Val was adevout Catholic. He was aman of few wordswitha kind and generous heart

He couldrecite every car he owned, make,model, and year. Whenasked by afriend, "How are you doing,Mr. Val?", with his endless senseofhumor, he responded, "I am slowing up,and Iamonly91!"

Lovedbeyondwords and will be missed beyond measure.

The family is grateful to Home Instead and St. TammanyHospice for their excellent care.

Visitation willbeheldat 11:00 am on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at Mary Queen of Peace Church, Mandeville, LA,witha Mass following at noon. Interment willbe at St.Bernard Memorial Gardens.

morning and garden all af-

In lieu of flowers,please make adonation in Val's honor to St.Jude's Research Hospital

Arrangementshave been entrusted to Bagnell &Son Funeral Home. To sign theguestbook, please visit www.bagnellfuneralh ome.com.

Eustis, David Leeds

David LeedsEustis, adevotedhusband,father, grandfather, and esteemed member of theNew Orleans community, passed away peacefully on April1,2025. Born June 17, 1942, in NewOrleans, Louisiana, Davidlived alife marked by service,dedication, and love for hisfamily and community. Evenin thelast few months of his life he insisted on "going home to NewOrleans" several times aday,never quitebelieving he was sitting smack dabinthe middleofUptown.

David's earlyyears were shaped by hiseducationat Isidore Newman School, followedbyTulane University, where he received afull scholarship throughthe Naval ROTC program. Histime at Tulane was highlightedby his membershipinthe Sigma Chi fraternityand his summer Navy cruises around theworld

Upon graduation, David entered serviceasa commissionedofficer with the United States Navy, where he entered flight school and earnedhis wingsasa Naval Aviator. David further advanced hisaviation skills, becoming ahelicopterpilot.Hewas a highly accomplishedaviatorwithhighlightsincluding two deploymentsto Vietnam, pilotingthe first Navy helicoptertothe Mississippi Gulf Coast afterHurricane Camilleand retrievingthe test capsules for theApollo Space Program.For his service David received the Vietnam Service Medal (with thethree campaign stars), theVietnam Campaign Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and five AirMedals, awarded forthe five rescue missions he conducted,saving seven lives. David retired fromthe Navy with the rank of Lieutenant.

After his military service, David returned to NewOrleans, theonly place he wouldevercall home, and embarkedona nearly 40-yearcareer in theonlyjob he everwanted,working forthe Whitney National Bank,following in thefootsteps of his belovedgrandfather, LeedsEustis. He loved telling storiesofthe clients,coworkers and friends he madethroughout his career. Trips to the grocery storewere atestament to his loyalty, as he onlybought his client's products.

He instilled in his family theimportance of contributing to your community. He exemplified thiswith his serviceonthe boards of numerous organizations, including Young Audiences, United Way of Southeast Louisiana, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, BelleChasse Academy, Louisiana Children's Museum, and thePublicAffairs Research Council of Louisiana (past president). He was also a member of theSociety of Colonial Wars and apast president of theLouisiana Chapterofthe Sons of the Revolution, reflecting his deep appreciationfor history and heritage. As aproud New Orleanian,David enjoyed allaspectsofthe city (except,inexplicably,the seafood). Whether it was theweekends spent with friends in thelocker room at theself-namedTable of Knowledge at theNew Orleans Lawn TennisClub, dinner withhis family at theNew Orleans Country Club or the many lunches and events he attended at theLakeshore Club, Louisiana Club and the Boston Club,the last of which he proudly served as president,healways had asmileonhis face and astory to tell. On Sundays, David couldbefound attending themorning service at Trinity Episcopal Church. David loveda good meal and since Lucyprovided passablebut not inspired provisions he became an excellent cook, especially known forhis Oysters Mosca and Spaghetti Papa adish of his own invention. He had alifelong love of gardening and never met a Camillaorrosebushhe didn't buy. Unfazed by the heat and humidity, he wouldplay tennisinthe

ternoon. Aconsistent point of marital contentionoccurred in front of thethermostat when he insisted on setting theair conditioningat79all summer. Of course, as apassionate NewOrleanian, David lovedMardi Gras.Iris Saturday and Mardi Gras Daywill neverbethe same for the large group of friends andfamilywho spent theday at hishouse enjoyingthe paradesand redbeans. It wasa common sight to see Davidon top of aladder wavingto hisfriends in theparade. David wasa member of several Carnival organizations, including reigning over Harlequins and the Twelfth NightRevelers David was preceded in death by hisparents,David Eustis and MollyCox Minor Eustis, and his brother, RichmondMinorEustis. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Lucy Claire Reardon Eustis, andtheir four sons: David Leeds Eustis, Jr.(Megan), William Reardon Eustis (Laurie) Robert Terrell Eustis (Pornphannarai), and Stephen MinorEustis (Samantha). Hissix grandchildren—Liam, Daniel, Miller,Andrew, Kate, andAnne—willforever cherish thememories of theirOpa whose warmth andhumortouched their lives deeply. He further leaves behinda large,lovingfamily, including his sister,KateEustisBrown,7 nieces andnephewsand 6 grandniecesand grandnephews, along withhis honorarygrandson, Justin Patterson and Jackson and Hudson Thompson who added to the joyDavid got from being with the next generation.David wasexceedingly proudofhis familyand always cherished the large (and rather loud)familygatheringshe andLucyhosted. Over their55yearsof marriage, David and Lucy's devotion neverwavered Through thechallengesof David'snever-endinglove of all things JamesBond andJohnWayne andLucy giving ahome to every stray dog that crossedher path, they stood by each other'sside.

Thefamilywould like to recognize theexcellent care of Jackie, Monica and others in thepast two months as well as the supportive andknowledgeable guidanceand care received from Passages Hospice

Hispresence will be profoundly missed, but his spirit will live on in the countless lives he enriched.A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church,1329 Jackson Ave.inNew Orleans, on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at 12:00PM, with visitation beginning at 11:00AM.A privateintermentwill be held in MetairieCemetery In lieu of flowers, the familyrequestsdonations be made to thePublic Affairs ResearchCouncil of Louisiana (www.parlouisiana.org) andthe Alzheimer's Association (www.alz.org), causesclosetoDavid's heart.

To view andsignthe online guest book, please visit lakelawnmetairie.com

On March29, 2025, Nancy Hyde Evans, aloving mother, daughter, sister andaunt, passedaway peacefully in herhome, with familyather side. Nancy wasbornonAugust 30, 1950 in NewOrleans Shewas the third of six childrenofGordon BenedictHyde, Sr.and Rose Mary Druilhet Hyde Nancy graduated from MercyAcademy in New Orleansand receiveda Bachelors in Education fromLouisiana State University, whereshe was also amember of the Chi Omegasorority. Shehad twochildren, Elizabeth and Tommy, butthe true loves of herlifewereher granddaughters, Ellie andElise MaMere,asshe was known to them,adoredher time with "her girls".She nevermisseda Grandparent's Day, avolleyballgame, or achance to babysit. Some of Nancy'sgreatest memories were from thetime she spentinDestinattheir

familycondo, both as a childwith hersiblings and later withher ownchildren.She wouldoften recall time spentonher father's houseboat, The Hyde-Away,duringhigh school yearsand in early adulthood. Nancy loved spending time with her nieces, nephewsand great nieces. Nancy'slove of childrenled to hercharity work with theRonald McDonald House, where she served on theBoard of Friends, andwith AChild's Wish. Nancy willbemissed sorely by herfamilyand all whocalledher afriend, butespecially those who calledher MaMere.She is survived by hercherished children, Elizabeth Evans Kleinand Tommy Evans; granddaughters, Ellie Klein andElise Klein; andher great-nieces,who were very special to her, Emily Wakefield, Claire Wakefield, Grace Wakefieldand Camille Wakefield; hersisters, Mary LynnHyde(Steve Rossi), Nicki Sullivan,Sally Cregor (Robert Cregor), Tecile Newsome (Bill Newsome)and brother, Gordy Hyde,Jr. (Suzanne Hyde); and hercousin, Debbie Druilhet.She will also be missed by ahost of nieces andnephews. Tommy and Elizabeth wouldliketoexpress their appreciationand gratitude to thefollowingpeople that showed theirmother kindness during hertreatment and last months: DoctorsAhuja,Padman andSpring, Anvoi Hospice, MoniqueRichards, Bernadette Green and GlendaHulbert.The entire familywould like to thank Sister Victorinaand the Sister Servants of Mary, whowerenothingless than Heaven sent andpositivelyimpacted all our lives.SisterVictorinawas ablessing during such a difficult time andweare eternally grateful. Relativesand friends are invited to attenda Funeral Mass at 12:00pm on Monday, April 7, 2025 at St.Rita Church in New Orleans. Avisitation will occurprior to Mass from 10:30am-ending at noon. Private IntermentwillfollowatMetairie Cemetery In lieu of flowers, donationscan be made to The Ronald McDonald House of NewOrleans

Gamage,MarilynLouise

MarilynLouiseGamage, a devotedwife, loving mother, grandmother, and friend, passedawayon March 19, 2025, at theage of89, with herfamilyby her side.Marilyn wasborn inProvidence, RI,onAu‐gust19, 1935, to Harry and ThelmaMaynard.She was married for58years to the loveofher life,William B. Gamage, who passedaway in2016. Together,they madehomes in Puerto Rico, Connecticut, New York, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Vermont, with each of these specialfor themem‐ories they made together Marilynwas knownfor her vibrant personalityand quick wit. Shewas asocial butterﬂyand made friends everywhere shewent. She would oftenreminisce about herdaysinVermont and time spentwithher friends,The HotTomatoes. Her familywould like to thank Renada andthe staff atPeristyle fortheir com‐passion andlove. They wishtoalsothank Pas‐sages Hospicefor their careand supportduring her last fewmonths. Mari‐lyn is lovingly remembered byher daughter,Susan Aslett(Dr.Ronald),step‐son William, granddaugh‐ter Elizabeth(Edward), grandsonChase (ﬁancé Ju‐liane)and great-grand‐daughterHarper. Shewill alsobemissedbyher best friend, littleDaisy.A Cele‐bration of Life will take place on June 5, 2025, at 1:00pmatthe Vermont VeteransMemorialCeme‐teryinRandolphCenter, VTwhenshe will be buried nexttoher Bill

Bégué, Brian

Evans,Nancy Hyde

Gibbons,Norma Chandler

NormaChandlerGib‐bonsofNew Orleans passedawaypeacefully on March 23, 2025 at theage of94. Shewas born on Sep‐tember19, 1930 in Blue‐field, WV,where shegradu‐atedfromBeaverHigh School andBluefieldCol‐lege. Sheobtained herB.S inPsychology from Car‐son-NewmanCollege and attendedMatherSchool of Nursing whereshe was crowned Miss Southern Baptist Hospital,Class of 1956. Shewentontojoin the staff of Dr.Simon Ward'sOB/GYNpractice. Whileinnurses’ training she took a flight from New Orleans to Tampafor a much-needed holiday. Norma said shechose the openseatnextto"theman who looked harmless,”and thus mether future hus‐band. Sheand AshbyT Gibbons,Jr. were married in1958, andwelcomed three children while living inMetairie, LA andMt. Prospect, IL.Theywere married 19 yearsuntil his early death. Normaspent manymid-lifeyears in Roanoke,VAwhere she workedasthe nurseat BlueRidge Behavioral HealthChildren’sCenterin Salem,servedasa deacon atCalvary BaptistChurch and volunteered hertime inprisonministry. Shere‐turnedtoNew Orleansin 2001 notlongafter the birth of herfavoritegrand‐daughter. They bonded overtheir love of reading, sharedtaste forpimento cheesesandwiches, and the experience of their evacuationtoNashville,TN due to HurricaneKatrina Norma wasa long-time memberand elderat MetairieRidge Presbyter‐ian Church,and sheen‐joyed singingaltointhe choir.She wasa poetry lover andwriter, awoman ofdeepfaith with akeen sense of humor,and she madethe most delicious fudge.Norma wasalways loyal to herNew Orleans Pelicansand will forever beformerNew Orleans Saints' player Marques Colston's biggestfan.In addition to herhusband she wasprecededindeath byher parentsHelen B. Chandlerand Robert W. Chandler, sister FrancesC Long, brother-in-law Allen Long, andson-in-lawJack Boston. Sheissurvivedby her sonAshby TriceGib‐bons, III; herdaughters MargaretGibbons Boston and Mary LeeGibbons Ja‐cobs; sons-in-lawDavid Ja‐cobsand Paul Shaw;her granddaughter Ashby ChandlerGlover; nephews David Long (Lynn) and Allen Long (Beth); and manyextendedfamily members andfriends.The familywould like to thank Heather,Crystal,Sonny, and Levi with Compassus NorthshoreHospice for their loving care andcoun‐sel.A privateinterment willbeheldatGardenof Memories, Metairie,witha memorialservice being planned at Metairie Ridge Presbyterianfor adateto beannounced.The family requeststhatany memor‐ial giftsbemadeto MetairieRidge Presbyter‐ian Church at 215 Phosphor Ave,Metairie, LA 70005 or the charityofyourchoice.

Heebe, DorisDedeaux

In Loving Memory of Doris DedeauxHeebe. It is withheavy hearts that we announcethe passing of Doris DedeauxHeebe,wife ofthe late HonorableFred‐erick J.R. Heebe. Shede‐partedthislifepeacefully ather home on March16, 2025, at theage of 92. Doris was born on August 1, 1932, in Gulfport,Missis‐sippi,tothe late Lorenand CoraDedeaux.She is sur‐vived by hertwo children, Glennda StewartBach(Eu‐geneGeorgeBachIII)and EarlEdsel StewartJr. (Brenda MoodyStewart), and eightgrandchildren: Michael Rene Bach (Carrie DaigleBach),DenaBach Waters(Fred Parker Wa‐tersJr.), Rebecca Bach Ro‐chon(John Philip Rochon), Eugene George Bach IV

(Robyn Grussing Bach), Erica Thames Meynier(Vic Meynier), Trey Stewart, Jared Stewart, andJacob Stewart.Additionally, she issurvivedbyfourteen great-grandchildren:David JosephMainJr.,Katherine Elizabeth Main,Samantha Perry Bach,Michael Rene BachJr.,JohnPhilipRo‐chon III, Philip Benjamin Rochon, Caroline Bach Ro‐chon, Eugene George Bach V,Henry AaronBach, Jay‐cie Parker,TyStewart, Tristyn Stewart, Lucan Meynier,and Even Meynier.She waspre‐ceded in death by her great-grandson, Stewart Michael Main.Doris was blessedwithtwo stepchil‐dren, Fred Heebe(Jennifer Heebeand AdreaHeebe Russo (Dominic Russo), and threegrandchildren Elizabeth HeebeRusso, Sarah,and Anne Heebe. Doris waswellknownfor her love of gardening, hosting parties, andher impeccablesense of style. She will be deeply missed byall who know her. Her legacywillliveoninthe heartsof herfamilyand friends.Althoughshe is no longerwithusinbody, her spiritwillforever be a guiding lightinour lives. The family wishes to ex‐press heartfeltgratitude to those who caredfor Doris inher ﬁnaldays, especially Debra Owens, whose com‐passion andsupport were invaluable. Amemorial service washeldatRie‐mann Family Funeral Homes in Gulfport,Missis‐sippi,onThursday,March 20. In lieu of ﬂowers, dona‐tions canbemadetothe AmericanCancerSociety inmemoryofDoris Dedeaux Heebe.

CharlesR.Luttrell, age 78, of Covington, Louisiana passedawayonMonday, March 31,2025. Charles was born on December 7, 1946, in New Orleans, LA to the late Leon T. Luttrell and Jenny HartmanLuttrell. He proudly served hiscountry inthe United States Army duringthe VietnamWar where he contracted Agent Orangepoisoning which causedhim multiple health problemsthroughoutthe restofhis life.After the service,Charles worked as anElectricalForeman for multiplecompanies throughoutthe New Or‐leans metroarea. In his leisure time,Charles was passionateabout hunting and ﬁshing. Charleswas precededindeath by his parents,and hisbrother-inlaw,ErnestMonteleone. Survivors includehis beloved wife of 56 years, SharonMonteleoneLut‐trell; hischildren, Steven P. Luttrell(Angela Stearns) and Ricky R. Luttrell (Ste‐fanie Robin);grandchil‐dren, DylanLuttrelland MadelineLuttrell; hissib‐lings,BrendaLuttrell, Tommy Luttrell, andGloria Lockhart(Claude); andhis sister-in-law,Shirley Cook (Chris).Relatives and friends of thefamilyare in‐vited to attend amemorial service at Leitz-EaganFu‐neral Home,4747 Veterans MemorialBlvd.,Metairie, LAonMonday, April14, 2025, at 11:00 am.Visita‐tionwillbefrom9:00am until 11:00am. Interment willfollowwithmilitary honorsatthe Southeast Louisiana Veterans Ceme‐teryinSlidell, LA

Maldonado, Louise T. LeSassier

Louise T. LeSassier Mal‐donadowas born on June 23, 1924 andpassedaway onSaturday, March29, 2025. Shewas raised in the 7th Ward of NewOrleans where shelived allofher life. Louise wasthe ﬁrstof ninechildrenborntothe lateTheodoreand Alma Perch LeSassier.She mar‐riedthe love of herlife, the lateCharles M. Maldonado, Sr.in1943 andtothis

union,three sons were born, Alan Sr., Wayneand the late CharlesMaldon‐ado,Jr. Daughter-in-lawof the late George and Dorothy BerthelotSaucier Mother-in-law of Judy Val‐let Maldonadoand Sandy Byrd-Maldonado. Grand‐motherofGinaMaldonado Dupart(Robert), Monique Hull(Tony), Alan,Jr.,Kevin Nedra,Mark, Jason, Paul, Sean, Jade,Nicholasand ToriMaldonado,Jaimie Lewis andKelly Fernandez (Anthony).Alsosurvived bytwentygreat andnine (+one on theway)greatgreat grandchildren, twentyninenieces, nephews andgenerations ofgreat andgreat-great nieces, nephews, cousins, extendedfamily, neighbors and friends. Louise out‐lived allofher siblings, Irene(Calvin)Duffaut, Eve‐lyn (DonaldSr.)Haynes, Marlene (Archille, Sr.) Duronslet,Diana,Theodore (Josephine),Paul, Sr Stan‐ley andMiltonLeSassier She wasemployedat Haspel’sfactory in her younger yearsand laterin lifeatCorpusChristi School as alunchlady. She was alifelongmemberof CorpusChristi Church and enjoyed MardiGras, Saints Games,CreoleFiesta, GoldenAgers Club,pa‐rades,fairs,cruises,festi‐valsand many other eventsoverthe last 100 years.She enjoyedlifeand had ablast at her100th BirthdayCelebration,she never meta stranger and was lovedbyso, so many people. SpecialThanksto the Staff of Chateaude Notre Dame,Hospice Care Staff of NotreDameand all of themanyfamilymem‐bers, friendsand visitors she received while in the Chateau de NotreDamefa‐cility. AMassofChristian burialhonoringthe life and legacyofthe late Louise T. LeSassier Maldonadowill beheldatCorpus Christi/EpiphanyCatholic Church,2022 St.Bernard Avenue,New Orleans, LA 70116 on Tuesday, April8, 2025 at 10 am.Interment Mount Olivet Cemetery Visitation8 am in the church.Pleasesignonline guestbook at www.cha rbonnetfuneralhome.com. Charbonnet LabatGlapion, Directors (504) 581-4411.

Marilyn Celeste McConnell died under hospice careatSt. Anna's at LambethHouse on Saturday, March 30, 2025. She was 91 years old. A fourth generationTampan, Marilynwas born in 1933 to Mary Celeste Dossel McConnell and Milton Hayes McConnell. After graduationfrom Hillsborough HighSchool, Marilyn received her R.N. from OrangeMemorial Nursing School. She later earnedher bachelor's degree in psychology from Tulane University. During her professional career, Marilyn was an essentialpartofDr. William Waring'sPediatric SpecialtyClinicatTulane MedicalSchool for many years, and latercontinued her workwithchildren at theNew Orleans Adolescent Hospital.She finished her medical career at theJefferson Parish Substance Abuse Clinicas aDual Diagnosis Counselor.She also was theproud owner of The Great American KittyCat Storefor several years during the1980s, one of herfavorite undertakings. Marilyn was achampion forwomenand aleader in civil rightsadvocacy for lesbians. She committed her time, talents, and treasure to theworkofthe Human RIghts Campaign (HRC), Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), theForum for Equality (FFE), Planned Parenthood, and theACLU. Formany years, Marilyn also wrotecolumns for Impact,a newspaper serving theNew Orleans LGBTQ community,and was one of thefoundersofMamou, alocal lesbian education and discussiongroup that has now been meeting bimonthly for over 38 years. Marilyn was alover of four-legged critters, whether pure bred or mongrel,rescue or feral,and was Mama to numerous dogs and catsthroughout herlife,the smallest of which -Peaches -now survivesher. Marilynwas ajoyful and beautiful woman -generi t lli t ki d i l

ous, intelligent, kind, inclusive, and simply exceptional.She was apowerhouse, withsteel in her spineand warmthinher smile.A much beloved, albeit unwilling,icon. She was agreat athlete, committedtoher fitness. From running marathons, to competing in theSenior Olympics in basketball withthe Silver Slammers, and finallyall thefitness events she couldmanage at Lambeth House. This world is abetter place because Marilyn lived. Herfamily and friends, both twoand fourfooted, shall miss her but willremainfilledwiththe love and care and kindness she gave so generously. Marilyn is survivedby her belovedspouse of 50 years, Dr. JodyGates, and by her Floridafamily:sisterAnn, nieces Stephanie and Tracy, and theirwonderful childrenand grandchildren.

She is also survivedby her numerous NewOrleans chosen family,especially her "Wubble" buddies: Bonnie, Carol, Jennifer, Judy, Linda, Mickie, and Regina. Marilyn's NOLA chosen family even increased(if such were possible!) during thelast seven years with theaddition of allthe new friends she madewhileliving at LambethHouse. Special thankstothe staff and administrationof LambethHouse, especially St. Anna's, and to Guardian Angel Hospice

AMemorial Service will be held on Monday, April 7, 2025 at 12 noon in the chapel of Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home with visitationfrom10AM until servicetime. Inurnment willbeprivate. Memorial giftsmay be madetoananimal rescue charityofyourchoice,or theHuman Rights Campaign (hrc.org).

To share your fond thoughts, memories,and condolences with thefamily,please visitthe online guestbookat lakelawnmetairie.com.

Meyers,Lorraine Holleman

At 99 yearsyoung,Lor‐raine Holleman Meyers, who hadeffortlesslydis‐playedand selflessly gracedher familyand friends with amplelove, gentleness, beauty,and dignity to last theirlife‐times,leftthisworld on March 19, 2025, to be with her Lord Jesuswhere that Grace,Love, Gentleness Beauty, andDignity is in abundantsupply. Lorraine was born on September9, 1925, in NewOrleans to Al‐bertElliott Holleman and Agnes Montfort Blackman Holleman. Aftergraduating fromMamaroneckHigh School in Mamaroneck,NY, and while attendingL.S.U., Lorrainemet ayoung Ma‐rinewho wasstudyingat the L.S.ULaw Center after serving in thePacificin WWII, Bill Meyers.The cou‐ple wasmarried in 1948 while Bill wasinhis senior year. Family legend hasit thatBill’seagerness to marry Lorraine wasdue,in part, to theprospectofre‐ceiving an additional $32 per monthfor marriedvet‐erans attendingschool on the GI bill.Sucha legend is unfounded because, in re‐ality, Bill wassmart enoughtorealize whata prize he hadinthe beauti‐ful Lorraine,and if thereis one attributethatMeyers men have,itisthattheyal‐waysmarry up with Bill being theprime example. Lorrainewas theperfect complementtoBill, and the twoservedaswonder‐ful examples fortheir chil‐drenand grandchildren. All six of herchildrenplayed tournamenttennis, and she regularlyand without complaint,drove herkids and otherbudding young New Orleanstennisplayers around thecountry to compete in variousre‐gionaland national junior contests. Accordingly, she alsoservedastheir main supporter andconsoler-inchief.Despite having no tennisexperience, shenev‐ertheless proceeded to du‐tifully dischargeher re‐sponsibilitiesbymaking sureall children brought their sweatbands to the matches andreminding themto“keep your eyeon the ball.” Afterenduring the travails of watching hundredsofjuniorand col‐legiate tennis matches overmanyyears,she fi‐nally picked up tennis her‐selfinher 50s andenjoyed itimmensely. Shealsorec‐ognized earlyonthe futil‐ity of keepingthe dirt from the clay courts at theNew OrleansLawnTennisClub

from beingtracked into her homebynot only herkids, but by theincessant pa‐radeofother out-of-town tennisaspirants being temporarily “housed” at the JeffersonAvenue home, nottomention the constantupkeep necessi‐tated by thefamily’s beloved slobbering English Bulldogs. Lorraine wasa gourmet cook,and Bill and the sixchildrenwerethe beneficiariesofthistalent for everymeal, sevendays a week,including theLSU football tailgating feasts she faithfully prepared She wasalsoanextraordi‐naryhostess whether the event wasa formal affair for friendsorfor agaggle ofjuniortennisplayers She made sure theMeyers house wasa Home and thatall were welcome. The Homeshe createdwas filled with laughter,lotsof horseplay,and rambunc‐tiousness. Sheloved her husband andchildren’s easyhumor.She wasable toenjoy herchildren’sin‐ternecine banter untilthe veryend.She waserudite and avoracious reader and could more than hold her own againstthe many lawyers in herfamily. She greatly encouraged each of her children in theirmany endeavors andvarious ca‐reersinmedicine, thelaw, and artand design.Lor‐raine wasa member of the Orleans Club,the Junior LeagueofNew Orleans, the New OrleansLawnTennis Club, andservedasa memberofthe boardof the OdysseyHouse and The NewOrleans Food Bank. AfterBillpassed awayin2013, Lorraine resided at Christwood in Covington,La. andspent several wonderfulyears there where shecultivated numerousand blessed friendships with theresi‐dents andstaff. We would liketothank thestaff at Christwoodand her"spe‐cial” companions,Anieth and Leona(her‘bebe’) as wellasher Visiting Angels especially Soniaand De‐lanie.And to Emily, herAs‐sistedLivingNurse who was an especially attentive and caring friend and healer. Sheissurvivedby her sixchildren, andtheir spouses andchildren: Dr WilliamM.Meyers, Jr.and his wife,Melissa DayMey‐ers,ofNew Orleans; Meg MeyersSmith,her hus‐band, Michael, of Wimber‐ley,Texas,and theirchil‐dren, Taylor andWalker; MarkB.Meyersand his wife, SusanHopkins Mey‐ers,ofHouston,and their children, Brent, Holly, and Anna; Andrew H. Meyers and hiswife, Erin McKay Meyers, of Lafayette,and their children,Kathleen, Andrew, Jr William, and Matthew;MaryMeyers Howardand herhusband, Michael,ofBrooklyn, NY, and theirdaughter, Mimi; and John CullenMeyers, and hiswife, SusanWorrel Meyers, of Covington, and their daughter,Emily.She isalsosurvivedbynine‐teen greatgrandchildren aswellasnumerous niecesand nephewswhom she lovedverymuch. A Memorialservice will be heldonApril 12, 2025, 2-4 pminthe Garden Room at ChristwoodRetirement Community,100 Christ‐wood Blvd., Covington, La In lieu of flowers, adona‐tionmay be made in mem‐ory of Lorraine Meyers to the “LSU LawCenterWilliamM.MeyersEn‐dowed Scholarship” and addressedtoLSU Founda‐tion, 3796 NicholsonDrive Baton Rouge, LA 70802. E.J. FieldingFuneral Home has been entrustedwithfu‐neral arrangements Pleasesignthe online guestbook at www.ejfield ingfh.com

Daniel"Danny"Austin Mullen II passedaway peacefully of Lewy body dementiaonMarch27, 2025 at hishome in Kenner LA with hiswife of 50 years, Kathy BairdMullen, by hissidethe entire time Born on October 8, 1951 to DanielA.Mullen andAlice ClairainMullen andbrother to thelateKathleen Mullen.Devotedfather of DanielA.Mullen III (Lindsay) and Dirk K. Mullen,and grandfather to Beckett Mullen andBrooks Mullen Born and raisedinNew Orleans, Dannygraduated from De La Salle high school and theUniversity of NewOrleans.Along the wayhemet hislifelong friendBillBarr.The twoof them shared many phone calls everyweekend of footballseason complainingaboutLSU andthe Saints. Dannyhad apassion for wine andfood. He spent most of hiscareer working at Glazer's Inc. selling wine to some of the best restaurants andchefs that New Orleanshas to offer.Later in hiscareer, he became a Master Sommelier and taughtclasses at the local college. It was through his love of wineand cooking that Dannymet twoofhis closest friends,Jerry Henry andEJVitrano. The three of them wouldgoonto spend countless dinner partiestogether drinking andlaughing, anddrinking andsinging,and drinking a little more together. Danny'struelove was hisfamily. He woulddo, andoften did, anything for hissons. He nevermissed asoccerpractice or game. Dannywas always there with wordsofencouragementoradvice.Hetaught them aboutlifeand the waythe worldworks. Most of all,though, Dannyloved hiswife,his Kathy Lou.He wasa man of few words, but hisactions proved his undying love He will be missed tremendously by all who know him. Aheartfelt thank you to Gertrude,his sitter, andhis hospice nurse,Jennifer. In lieu of flowersand donations, please open yourbest bottle of wine andhave adrink to Danny. Tharp Funeral home is in charge of arrangements.

Parrott, Zachary Wayne ZacharyParrott of Metairie, LA died on 14 February 2025 at hishome. He is survived by his sister Allison Parrott andhis parents Dannyand Roberta Parrott. Zachary hadno spouse or children. Saizan, Laura Mammelli

Laura M. Saizan passed away surrounded by her loving familyand entered thegates of heaven on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at the age of 89. Laura was born on July 24, 1935 in NewOrleans,Louisiana to TheresaSheppardand Salvatore C. Mammelli. In heryounger years she grew up in Metairie, LA. Laura was an accomplishedbusinesswomen for 22 years withSea-Land import& exportco. She hada wonderfulworkethic that wassought after by manydifferentcompanies. There wasnevera problem she couldn'tsolve. Laura

Luttrell, CharlesR

McConnell, Marilyn Celeste

OUR

VIEWS

Look ahead for real reformsafter amendment’s defeat

The defeat of Amendment2 on thestatewide ballot last month should not mean the endfor some individual proposals within the amendment. If legislators give voters amenuofoptions for reform rather than amassive,all-ornothingpackage, realreform mightactually happen.

And the shape of that reform could be largely if not entirely,along the general lines envisioned in thefailed Amendment2

Among the parts of the package that should be salvaged one way or another, considerthreeto start with.

We agree Louisiana should makepermanent the $2,000 teacher pay raise that otherwise will expireatthe end of thecurrent school year We agree the state should move awayfromthe business inventory tax. And we agreethatproperty taxes should not be assessed on medicines in storage. The teacher pay raise can andshould be accomplished statutorily, one way or another, in the coming legislative session.Althoughitwas technicallytime-limited whenﬁrst introduced, nobody ever really expected it to disappear Attractingand keeping goodteachers should always be apriority.Before the$2,000 addition, theaverage teacher pay inLouisianaofaround $54,000 was substantially below the southern average of more than $59,000, accordingtothe Southern Regional Education Board. To be competitive,Louisiana needs tokeep the$2,000 and addmoreontop.

Meanwhile, Amendment2’s proposalto incentivizelocal governments to eliminate thelocal businessinventorytax is agood idea. Only nine states fully tax business inventory. Louisiana should join the other 41 states that wisely realizethat atax that applies even tounproﬁtable businesses, while requiringsigniﬁcant paperwork burdens atop the actual tax costs themselves, is both unfair and economically counterproductive.

Louisiana’sinventory tax system involves some complicated trade-offs, but one wayoranother,the tax ought to be phased out.

Finally,for parishes that stillchoose tocharge inventory taxes, Amendment Twoincludeda smart recommendation toprohibit those taxes from applying to prescription drugs. If medicine can be stockpiled cheaply to guardagainst future price hikes, government should nottax its storage.

Overall, the basic thematic thrustofAmendment 2—namely,reducingexemptionsand complications in the tax code andproviding legislators at least alittle more ability to adjust to changing circumstances —was agood one. It would help going forward, though, if there were more rhyme and reason as to when,where and why the Legislature merits more discretionon how to spend which revenues. Amendment2 was confusing, in that it provided more discretion in some places whileremovingdiscretion entirely in others.

In recent days, anumber of legislators have said they “got the message” that voters prefer reforminbite-sized chunks. If thelawmakers follow up accordingly,boththe stategovernment’s ﬁnances and the state’seconomycan beneﬁt.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

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

OPINION

NOLA.COM/opinions

Chuck Schumer is right, and James Carville is right. They don’twant the Democratic Party getting pulled into MAGA’s cyclone of ruinous policy.To get to safety, they are reining in the left ﬂank for whom the ﬁght is all. The hotheads don’trecognize that bad timingloses battles

SenateMinority Leader Schumer took agood deal of incoming after he pushed his caucus to help pass theRepublicans’ continuing resolution, thus not causing agovernment shutdown. The ensuing chaos would have rattled Americansmorethan Donald Trumpand Elon Musk have already done. Do Democratswant to be seen compounding anxieties?

ing amistake.”

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman understood the gamewhen he rightly noted that shuttingdown thegovernmentwould be “a gift for theRepublicans.” House Speaker Mike Johnson seemed tobeegging Democrats on to do just that, undoubtedly,tofend off theanger of scared consumers, investors, retirees and anyone dependent on Medicare or Medicaid.

As Napoleon famously said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is mak-

Democrats now have agrand opportunitytolet the public see what it stands tolose under the MAGAbulldozer.Republicans are messing up the economy faster than even their opposition could have imagined. Why would Democrats want to movenews cameras away from theGOP reps scared to hold town halls? Which brings up one smart thing Democrats can do and aredoing: hold their own town halls in congressional districtsrepresented by Republicans. Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clearly sought to be the face of agovernment shutdown. She had previously called for defunding the police, defended prostitutes propositioning boys on the way to school and railed against theexecutive order banning transgender kids born male from competing in girls’ sports. About 80% of Americans agree, as should anyone whocares about fairness in girls’ sports.

AOC not gettingher star turn before thecameras must have been agrave disappointmenttoFox News.Chuck Schumer may not be the mostcharismatic ﬁgure to representthe party,but

Electionsdrive

The aftermath of an election always brings analysis from all corners, and Louisiana’srecent vote rejecting four constitutional amendments on the March 29 ballot was no exception. Many had theories as to what it all meant. Wasthis arebuke of Gov.Jeff Landry’s agenda, or were voters sending amore nuanced message that theballot measures were too complex?

at least he’snot adisastrous choice to address ordinary Americans. Democratic strategist Carville also drew ﬁre foradvising Democrats to lay low forthe timebeing. Southernizing Napoleon’scounsel, he advised Democrats to “play possum,” that is, go limpinstead of ﬁghting every Republican provocation. The midtermsare less than two years away Democrats should assemble ameatand-potatoes message forapreelection onslaught. They don’thave to promise cheap eggs or free neck lifts. They just need to makeclear that they’re not the ones sending food prices higher and stock values lower

And importantly,Democrats are the only hope forrestoring America’s sinking reputation as defender of Western democracy.Turning Canada into an enemy is plain insanity Republicans would just love to draw Democrats into their mayhem.Again, Democrats should not rise to the bait. They should take acue from Pogo and play dead until they are ready to swing into action.

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

Longtimepolitical observers came to different conclusions. Andso did manyofyou, our letter writers. It is always interesting to me to see the reactions after voters have their say AndIknow manypolitical junkies also devour every word of our coverage after any election. In theOpinion section, we had several pieces looking at the election from different angles. ButIhave to say,one of my favorite features is our “Behind theHeadlines” conversations with veteran columnists. The one after the election featured Stephanie Grace,

Will Sutton and Quin Hillyer.It’sa chance to put you at the table to hear their takeaways. Iwould bet manyof you had similar reactions. As someonewho listens to podcasts, Ilove the experience of having that kind of up-close view withthose in the know We hope to continue doing these conversations and ﬁnding topics that interest you. If you have any ideas fortopics you’d like to hear ourcolumnists expound upon, send them my way We also hope you will want to engage with our next Town Square topic. With Easter and Passover around the corner and Eid al-Fitr just passed, we thought we would ask you to focus on issues of religious faith. We want to know:How important is your faith to your daily life, and what role, if any,should it play in civic life? Send your responses to letters@theadvocate.com. We will publish aselection of the best responses in afuture edition. For ourletters log, Ican update you

on two weeks in March. For March 6-13, we received 84 letters. It was clear that the constitutional amendments began to get moreattention as the election got closer.Wehad ﬁve letters on the topic, and outside of national politics, that wasthe mostof any issue. Four of those letters were about Amendment 2and one was about Amendment 3. We received four letters on our Opinion coverage, and three letters each on the death penalty and DOGE For the week of March 13-20, we received 96 letters. The hottest topic of that week, outside of national politics, wasthe return of the death penalty to Louisiana. We received 10 letters on the topic with eight opposed. The next mostpopular topic wasthe use of the term Gulf of America, which was the subject of six letters, with four opposing the new name.

Arnessa Garrett is Deputy Editor | OpinionPageEditor.Emailher at arnessa.garrett@theadvocate.com.

Arnessa Garrett

Froma Harrop

COMMENTARY

When Louisianansneedhelp, OneDoorshouldopen

Perhaps the most important bill in Louisiana’supcoming legislative session will be one almost everyone can agree on. Designed to make it easier for people to movefrom society’seconomic margins to more comfortable, productive working lives, it should be a“winwin” for everybody

To be introduced by Stephanie Berault, RSlidell, in the House and Patrick McMath, RCovington, in the Senate, the bill would institute the so-called “One Door” approachto publicassistance that has worked tremendously well for Utahsince 1997.

whole rest of the system should be designed to move people from assistance to work rather than miring them in near-endless dependency.

The basic idea is simple: Those who need public assistance should be able to navigate the system with the equivalent of “one-stop shopping,” with asinglecaseworker,rather than going to multiple offices, filling out multiple and largely duplicative forms and waiting for multiple bureaucraciestoprovide ofttimes conflicting responses. Better still, while disabledpeople should be able to receive help with more ease and certainty,the

“The purpose of this is to start in asubstantial way to address generational poverty in Louisiana,” Berault said. “Wecan move the people who can have the dignity ofwork and selfsufﬁciency back into the workforce at atime when we have announced to the world that we are open to business and we are going to needmore people active in the workforce.”

The key element in the bill is to put the federal beneﬁts programs into arenamed “Louisiana Works” agency that makes job training and recruitment available in the same place as the food and cash grants —and, to repeat, with asingle case worker for each beneﬁciary who can help therecipients match up all the available aid and training.

Consider acouple with two children trying to stay together and trying to work, but both lacking adequate job skills or training. If

each scrapes up 30 hours of weekly gig work at $10 an hour,together they earn just over $30,000 per year.Food alone costs their family at least half that, which is why they are eligible (upto$40,560 per year) for thefederal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly called “food stamps”) and for cash allowances through TemporaryAssistance for Needy Families (commonly called “welfare”).

Wisely,both SNAP and TANF carry work or work-training requirements.Yet right now,the couple would need to go to one ofﬁce for SNAP,one forTANF, another for the keyworkforce training they need to give them the skills for better jobs,and more. Meanwhile, employers needing workers don’thave a ready,easy,one-stop stateofﬁce to help them match available and willing workers with ready jobs.

If Berault’s One Door bill passes, though, asingle caseworker can manage each applicant to match needs withresources (including helping refer confused recipientstoother government programssuch as Medicaid or housing assistance even though

notactually managing those programs), all while directing the ultimate focus toward muchimproved job readiness and employment. Louisiana desperately needs better coordination. ALouisiana Workforce and Social Services Reform Task Force reported in late January that Louisiana had the lowest TANF “work participation rate” in the nation (3.5%) in 2020. That’spathetic. And, in a problem that would be solved by having “one door” and asingle caseworker rather than multiple ones: “Themost prominent barrier for every population of recipients is navigating the complex set of requirements for demonstrating eligibility for numerous independent programs.”

That’swhy,for example, “The audits of SNAP identified significant errors in the tracking of data. .Further,the audit identified that over eighty percent of participants lost services due to nonfinancial reasons (e.g. reporting issues), many of whom would re-enter the system less than 90 days later.”

Reentry,that is, only after wasting everybody’stime with

more paperwork and more rigmarole.

The conservative Pelican Institute think tank, which has tirelessly advocated the One Door approach for years, noted that in 2021 the state’sadministrative costs for TANF ($56.2 million) actually exceeded the direct cash assistance ($37 million) it provided to needy families. Not only should the new set-up do abetter job serving would-be workers, but it also should save administrative costs and, eventually, taxpayer dollars.

Alot more statistics could be cited, more examples given, but the sensibleness of One Door should be obvious —and entirely non-ideological, too.

“It genuinely is astory that can be embraced by everybody,” said Susana Schowen, Secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission. “[The goal is] lifting people out of poverty,providing pathways to self-sufﬁciency,reducing welfare rolls, and ensuring that our employers have the workers they need to prosper.” Quin Hillyer canbereached at quin.hillyer@theadvocate.com.

It’s past time to focusonthe dignityofgovernmentwork

We’ve all heard the language those backingthe ongoing,reckless purgeofthe federal workforceare usingtojustifytheir actions: Government employees are nothing but bureaucrats, or worse, deepstatesaboteurs of the politicians who trash them. Government is rife with not just waste but fraudand abuse —the latter two of which are ﬁring offenses if actually proven, which those throwing aroundthis phraserarely even try to do.

rent, let alone who do important work on behalf ofall of us. Who’d support this level of collective cruelty then? Like manynarratives, this one is powerful.

eton privilege who rebelled, worked fora time in coal mining and wound up ﬁguring out how to keep mines from collapsing for theDepartment of Labor,saving countless private-sector worker lives.

In justifying the DOGE-driven assault on the publicworkforce, President Donald Trump claimed without evidencethat “many of themdon’twork at all. Many of them never showed upto work.”

Butthen, so is agrowing counternarrative.

It turns out that if you’re open to hearing them, stories that undercut the stereotype of the lazy,freeloadinggovernment worker are incredibly easy to ﬁnd, because they’re all around us.

This storyline is nothingnew,and it’s been weaponizedagainst workers at all levels of government. Before Trump, there were people like former Gov.Bobby Jindal, who would sneeringly boast of havingremoved 30,000 “bureaucrats” from Louisiana’spayroll— never mindthatthe reality wasfar more nuanced Youhave to dehumanize people in your mindto talkabout themthatway,and certainly to do what the Trumpadministration is doing —locking them outenmasse; ﬁring them without cause andsometimes saying oops, nevermind;mocking them with Elon Musk’schildish chain saw. You can’t think of them —orhave your supporters think of them —asfellow citizens who must put food on the table and pay the

That was one of thetakeaways of astirring conversation at last week’s New Orleans Book Festival, led by bestselling native-son Michael Lewis, author of “Moneyball” and “The BlindSide.” Lewis ﬁrst setout to document the work —and I’m not making this up, the fascinating stories —behind government service duringthe ﬁrstTrumpadministration, in his book, “The Fifth Risk.”Heand some other prominent writers arenow out with anew book, based on aWashington Post series andaptly called “Who is Government?The Untold Story of Government Service,” and its publication could not have been better timed.

In the introduction, Lewis is explicit, writingthat the project’s ambition is to subvert the “lazy and stupid” stereotype of thepublic servant.

If you’d attended their panel at Tulane University last week,you would have heard Lewis tell the tale of achild of Princ-

You’dhave heard Casey Cep talk about theman who oversees the nation’snetwork of military cemeteries, which have higher customer service ratings than private companies like Costco and Chick-ﬁl-A.

“I thinkthe storyRon Walters allows us to tell is that alot of people are working very hard to meet theneeds of the American people. And that workismeaningful,” she said.

You’dhave heard W. Kamau Bell describe interviewing afederal employee he happened to know,and getting an earful from his goddaughter about the sense of purpose she found as an antitrust paralegal for theDepartment of Justice.

Andthe stories weren’tjust told on one stage.

Elsewhere at thebook festival, courtly former National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins practicallyseethed over the dismantling of his former agency, which has discovered breakthroughs on along list of devastating diseases and is working towardmore. He saidit’sparticularly shortsighted to ﬁre recent hires with fewer job protections, as the Trump Administration has done, because the newly hired often bring new skills, ideas and talent.

AndRockefeller Foundation President

Rajiv Shah told the story of how American health care workers and military personnel wenttoWest Africa adecade ago and stopped the spread of the deadly Ebola virus before it could come to U.S. shores. That happened when Shah ran USAID, the humanitarian agency that wasTrump’s first high-profile target fordestruction. As always, there’sa“to be sure” here, as journalists put it. To be sure, government does not always operate efficiently or heroically,and not every public employee is astar or even a top performer.Where potential taxpayer savings exist, they should be identified and targeted. When bad behavior happens, it should have consequences. And where outdated regulations and technology prevent government workers from doing the best job they can for the public, they should be aggressively confronted; on that, Isuspect mostgovernmentemployees would agree. Regardless, there’sapowerful story to tell —ormore like millions of them about what the people whowork forour government —for us —do, and whythey do it.

At this momentofwanton, senseless, mean-spirited destruction, these stories are urgent.

And they have the added power of being true.

Email Stephanie Grace at sgrace@ theadvocate.com.

Orleansschoolleaders must be transparentwithmoney

Congrats, Dr.Fateama Fulmore.

Congrats, Orleans Parish School Board. The Orleans Parish School District is moving forward with apermanent school superintendent. The board chose Fulmore at a Wednesday meeting. She dropped “interim” from her title, and now, though she sits in the same chair in the same ofﬁce, she has certainty that her decisions matter Public school charter students in highschool have seen several superintendentscome and go since they were in elementary school. I’m hoping that Fulmore will get agood, seven- to 10-year run to establish stability andto give her,and the board, adecent chance to signiﬁcantlyimprove public education in New Orleans. It’ll take that longto repair some of the damage done in thelast two decadeswith the charter school “experiment.”

Fulmore has achance todo something that other superintendents have not done: She candevelop aboard-charter-community vision that better appreciates and respects the various ideas and philosophies about public school

education with data and ﬁrm accountability,including traditional school perspectives with new approaches from charters and others.

Fulmore was selected from a pool of 20 candidates, becoming one of two finalists. The other was Dr.Sharon Latten-Clark, the District 2representative on the Louisiana StateBoard of Elementary and Secondary Education and leader of Sophie B. Wright High School. The board voted 5-2 in favor of Fulmore Board members Nolan Marshall Jr.and KaTrinaChantelle Griffin votedno. Griffin said though Clark wasn’tselected, she extends “sincere congratulations to Fulmore.“Thefuture of our children is too important for division, and Iremain committed to working alongside Dr.Fulmore to ensure that every student in New Orleans has access to ahigh-quality education.” She looks forward to board accountability,“holding us accountablefor the success and well-beingof our students, families and educators.”

State Sen. Joe Bouie, afrequent OPSB critic,had hopedthe board would go in adifferent direction for leadershipaswell. Now he’s readyto“circle the wagons around(Fulmore) and give her an opportunity to demonstrate wheth-

er she can save our system.”

Unfortunately,Fulmore is stepping intoher permanent role as too manyhave lost trust in the board and the district

There’sa signiﬁcant budget shortfall. Not having $36 million, as was reported last year,isone thing.Not having $50 million,the updated number,ispotentially so crippling that there could be massive layoffs, school closures and yet another school reorganization. It can’tbeastopgap step.

Ourschool children are owed better Someone —orsome people madeacolossal ﬁnancial error Budget and funding calculations

were based on a12-month calendar year and not the monthsshorter school year.I’m not a certified public accountant, a forensics accountant or achief financial officer,but Idid take a “finance fornonfinancial managers” course when Iwas responsible for an entire newsroom budget.Calendar year,quarterly and monthly calculations are different yet tied together.Our instructors didn’tspend any time explaining how to spread nine or 10 months of money across an entire year The board is blaming Mayor LaToyaCantrell for backing out of asettlement to pay the district what they think they’re owed. If there ever was alegitimate agreement, it’sreasonable to expect payment. With or without an agreement, students, educators, parentsand taxpayers deserve to know more about such asignificant miscalculation.

“Wehave no comprehensive explanation about the miscalculation,” Bouie said Thursday.“We know very little about who, how, and the board’s position on ensuring that can never happen again.”

The complex legal and moral debateabout what the city owes thedistrict will be resolved in time. Meanwhile, in March, the school board approved aFulmore

plan to use district savings and someofa budget surplus to soften the ﬁnancial blow this year And what about next year?

To be fair,the school has provided explanations about the inﬂated revenue projections, but none that have resonated as understood with the public.

“My objective is to be the person whoworks hardest forchildren to get what they deserve,” Fulmore said during aTuesday night townhall.

Board President Katie Baudouin is happy with making Fulmorepermanent. “The district is on agreat path right now,and I think that (Fulmore’s) leadership really played abig role in getting us here,” Baudouin said after the meeting. Fulmore worked hard to earn her shot at running an entire school district as asuperintendent. “This is adream cometrue,” Fulmore told reporter Marie Fazio. That dream can rapidly evolve into anightmare if Fulmore, Baudouin and the board don’tcome clean with facts —including a timeline —about how such acolossal ﬁnancial mistake was made in waysthe public can grasp. We deserve to know

Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

Quin Hillyer

Stephanie Grace

Will Sutton

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER Superintendent of Orleans Parish schools Fateama S. Fulmore

NewOrleans Forecast

wasmarried to Carl Saizan,Sr. and they simultaneously entered into an ownership of Lee's Original Hamburgers since 1953. Lee's was originated by Mr. Lee Hash in 1901 with her father-in-law Leon Saizan as partner. Lee's Original Hamburgers wasa bigpart of Laura's life as she was the backbone handling the accountingof the business. After living in NewOrleans in their early years of marriage they moved to St. Bernard Parish where they resided for 42 years until Katrina Hurricane. They then moved to McComb, MS for 5years and then to Slidell LA. for 7years and finally to Mandeville, LA. Laura and Carl enjoyed traveling throughout the United States with their children. Later they traveled in an RV for 25 years where sometimes they would pick up odd jobs for fun They also enjoyed going to the casino and having family gatherings to celebrate birthdays and just fun times with everyone. She enjoyed spending time with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was an advisor, mentor and asupporting factor in the lives of her familyand friends Laura was loving and will be very missed by everyone who knew her. Laura definitely earned her Angel Wings. Laura is preceded in death by her loving husband Carl F. Saizan, Sr. for 64 years, having marriedin 1957. Mother of Laura Barrett of Laughton, OK Carla Cucchero (Tony) of Mandeville, LA, Russell Saizan of Slidell, LA, Cheryl Mills (Richie) of Ponchatoula, LA, Carl Saizan, Jr. (Stephanie) of Mandeville, LA, and Joanna Etheridge (Raymond) of Brookhaven, MS Grandchildren; Steven Oliver (Anita), Scarlett Lancon (Josh), Alexis Saizan, Keith Kain (Jennifer), Richard Mills (Ann Marie Mills), Cody Mills, Julia Russell (Jordan), Sophie Phillips (Hunter), Bernadette, Grant, Grace and Luke Saizan, Amanda Forest (Jason), Zack Etheridge (Shianne). Great Grandchildren; Spenser, Hannah and Grace Oliver, The'a Lancon, Alexander Kain, Amelia and Preston Phillips, Lilyand Brooks Russell, Chloe, Collier, Reece and Hollins Forrest,

Kloie Cliburn. We would like to thankthe staffof LakeviewRegional Medical Center of Covington,LA, and CompassusHospice Group of Mandeville,LA. Relativesand friends of the family are invited to attend avisitation on Thursday, April 10, 2025, from 12:00p.m. to 2:00 p.m. witha funeral mass beginningat2:00 p.m. atLake LawnMetairieFuneral Home &Cemeteries,5100 PontchartrainBlvd., New Orleans.Interment willfollow in Lake LawnPark Mausoleum.

Michael was bornJune 4, 1953toAnna Compton and JamesSizemorein Greensboro, North Carolina. He enteredinto eternal life on April2,2025 surrounded by love andlistening to his favorite music. Mike moved to Memphis with hisfamily at theage of 9. He was a memberofthe band and graduated from Hillcrest High School. He joinedthe Air Force, was stationed in Plattsburgh, NY and then Greece. While in Plattsburgh he met the love of his life, Barbara, whom he proposed to after one month. They moved back to Memphis wherehe graduated from Memphis State University with a Bachelor's in education and aMaster's in Special Education. Barbara and Mike retiredtoSaint Simons Island, GA where he remaineduntilmoving to Poydras Home in New Orleans.Hewillbemet at the Pearly Gateswithopen arms by: his father, Jim Sizemore, mother, Anna C. Turner,step-father, CT Turner,and in-laws, Rita andFrank Cunningham. He willbecherished forever by his belovedwifeof50 years, BarbaraSizemore

daughter, Danielle Richmond (Miller), granddaughter, Turner Richmond, brother,Steve Sizemore (Janice), stepmother, Barbara B. Sizemore,sister-in-law, Mary (Mark), brother-inlaw, Frank (Sharon), sisterin-law,Anne Marie (Alan), twonephews, 8nieces, 14 greatnieces and nephews, and innumerable friends who were family

While our heartsare shattered by thepassing of our beloved husband, best girl dad ever, father-in -law, BigMike,brother son, Uncle Mikey, brotherin-law,friend,and loverof Sazeracs, we find comfort in knowing we are left with wonderfulmemories,his unwavering love and support, and hisamazing dad jokes. Mike Sizemore loved bigand lovedhard.Ashe always said, "You knowI love youifI'm giving youa hard time."Weare better forknowing him, being lovedbyhim, and most importantly learning from him, theconsummate teacher until thebitter end.Hefound thegreatest joyinhis family,friends, and hismany studentsand softball players. He truly livedbythe golden rule and always saw thebestin everyone.His passion for teaching and special educationinspired his daughtertofollow in his footsteps. We are proud to say he was an educator in Memphis City Schoolsfor over 30 years. He provided not just an education, but asafe haven forhis students. They filledhis memoriesashevaliantly battled Parkinson'sDisease However, he would tell you his greatest accomplishmentswere beinga husband, father, and grandfather.Henever met astain he couldn't getout, especially not when Danielle wouldbring him her friends' clothes to save from thestain.Hetook greatpride in his yard mowing perfect lines every time. He beat awidow makerheart attack in 2007 and never wasted asecond of his life.Hefought a bravebattleagainst Parkinson's, Lewy Body, and ultimately cancer. At theend he was dealta bad hand,but he wouldtellyou everything before that was ahome run (we know, we are mixing metaphors). He spent 18 amazing years as ateacher and softball coach at Kingsbury High School, finally retiring as an assistant principalfrom

OvertonHigh School after 30 years in education.Mike was an avid sports fan supporting theTigers throughthe highs and lows. Andweall know therewere plentyofboth. He enjoyed coaching his daughter in basketballand softballwhen she was in elementary school.Heis fondly remembered by her friends as "the dad".His love formusic ranged from Three SixMafiatothe Oak RidgeBoysand everything in between.Wecould go on fordays, butmust end here. We are beyond thankful forthe years he had with Big Mike and the numerous people supporting us during this difficult time. We wouldespecially like to extend our gratitude and love to the staff at Poydras Home for theextraordinary care and love they provided him and our family.Order his favorite NewOrleans drink, a Sazerac, and cheers to all of thememories youhave with him. He wouldn't want it any otherway.

Relatives and friends are invitedtoattend the memorial service in the chapel of Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. in NewOrleans, on Monday, April14, 2025 at 12:00PM. A visitationwillbeheldat thefuneral home beginning at 10:00AM In lieu of flowers the family requeststhat donations be made to theAmos Camden RileyBock-Camp Marymount Memorial Fund.Camden was agraduate of WestPoint, and a Marymount alum who died servingour country.All things near and dear to Michael's heart.This scholarship willallow children of Service Members to experience thejoy that is Camp Marymount

To view and sign theonline guest book, please visit lakelawnmetairie.com

Kenneth Tom Stratton received his heavenlywings on March 30, 2025, at theage of 78 Kenneth leaves to cherish his memories hisdevoted daughter, KarenStratton Compass (Santiago) nieces; TreneseEncalarde (Herbert),Keyon Kent (Der‐rick),Chandelyn White‐head(John),NinaMiller HopeCarr(Michael), nephews;Kevin Mack Stratton(Myra), Orlan Streams (LeeAnn),Christo‐pherGuimont,sisters-inlaw;Ivory Davis(Anthony), Sania Howard,brother-inlaw;Kevin BrianHoward, godchildren;Chandelyn Whitehead, Myra Ander‐son,TheronStevenson (Lucy), loyalfriends Man‐delineShields,Larry Mimms andSandraReis. Heisalsosurvivedbynu‐merouscousins,extended family, dear friends, and his furrygrandsonBishop. Precededindeath by his parents Mack,Sr.,and De‐lores Stratton, brothers, Mack, Jr BrianStratton, one sister CathyStratton Guimont,and hisformer wifeCarol Howard Strat‐ton.Familyand friends, and theU.S.PostalService are invitedtoattendthe Celebration of Life Service onTuesday,April 8, 2025, for 10:00 a.m. at TheBoyd FamilyFuneralHome, 5001 ChefMenteur Hwy.,New Orleans,LA70126. Visita‐tionwillbegin at 9:00 a.m. PastorVan Andrews, ofﬁci‐ating.Interment will follow atBiloxiNationalCeme‐tery, 400 Veterans Avenue, Biloxi, MS 39531. Guest‐book Online:www.anewtra ditionbegins.com(504)2820600. Linear Brooks Boyd and DonavinD.BoydOwn‐ers/FuneralDirectors

Patricia LindSullivan of Mandeville,LApassed away on April 3, 2025. She wasbornonDecember18, 1942, to Otto Michaelis Lind andAlberta Winifred (Hallaron)Lind.

Patricia is survivedby herbeloved husband of 36 years, WalterL.Sullivan andher puppies Junior and Princess. Sheisalso survivedbyher extendedfamilyColleenKitchen (Philip). Patricia grew up in New Orleansand graduated from UrsulineAcademy, whereher early years were shaped by acommitmenttofaith, education, andcommunity. Shelater earnedher bachelor'sdegree from St.Mary's Dominican CollegeinNew Orleansand went on to completeher master's degree (plus 30 additional graduate hours) from Loyola University. Patricia enjoyed hercareerasa counselor at O. Perry Walker High School for manyyears, before retiring in 1997. AdevoutCatholic Patricia served as a Eucharistic Minister at Our Lady of theLake Roman Catholic Church in Mandeville.She wasalso enjoyed playing thepiano tending to hergarden, and travelingwith herhusband, Walter. Thefamilywould like to extendtheir heartfelt thanks to thededicated caretakersand healthcare professionals whoprovided exceptional care,love, andsupport during Pat's final days.

Relativesand friends are invited to attendthe Funeral Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church,517 Ave B, Bogalusa,LA70427 on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 10:30 AM with visitation at thechurchbeginningat 9:30 AM Burial will follow the servicesinSt. Patrick Cemetery No. 3, New Orleans, LA underthe di-

DEATHS

Stratton, Kenneth Tom

Ourbeloved

Sizemore, Michael Lee

LSUgym clinches itsshot to repeat

Tigers earn 15th regional titlebynipping Mich.St.

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

The champs are going backto the championship meet.

The LSU gymnasticsteamleft no doubt against astrong ﬁeld in Saturday’sNCAA Pennsylvania regional ﬁnalthatitwould be returning to Fort Worth, Texas,later this month to try to repeat as NCAA champions.

TheTigers, the NCAA’s No. 1overall seed, posted their ﬁfth straightscoreof198-plus and seventh overall with a198.050, edging out No. 8Michigan State(198.000)for the regional championship at Rec Hall in University Park, Pennsylvania. No. 9Kentucky was third at 197.625, while No. 16 Arkansas was fourth at 197.375.

“It was by far the toughestregional ﬁeld in the country,” LSU coach JayClark said. “Michigan State is legit. Iknewifwemessed around, we’d get in trouble.

“Wedid enough. On to thenextone.”

“The next one” is atrip to the NCAA national semiﬁnals for the Tigers, their third

the NCAA bracket after advancing to the final eight SaturdayinUniversityPark,Pa.

Shores, LSUbeat conditions, Oklahoma

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

NORMAN, Okla. Many LSU baseball fans were calling for JayJohnson to shake up his rotation.

The LSU coach had stuck with the same starting rotation —and in the same order since opening weekend. But after acouple of rocky outings from right-handedjunior Anthony Eyanson and right-handed redshirt sophomore Chase Shores to start Southeastern Conference play,there were Tigerfaithfulwho wanted to see achange. Johnson stuck to his guns, anditispayingoff. Eyanson bounced back with consecutive starts where he didn’t allow an earned run, and Shores took his big step forward Saturday

At L. Dale Mitchell Park against No.10 Oklahoma, Shores allowed no earned runs and three hitsinﬁve innings to help No.7 LSU push past the Sooners 3-2. The victory clinched LSU’sthirdseries sweep in four weeks of SEC play

“This is agood accomplishment,” Johnson said. “How we’ve played consistently over 33 gamesiswhat you’d like to see. And for me, that’sthe story.”

ä See LSU, page 8C

WALLS FALL DOWN?

Saints’offseason tells us they really believein foundation of roster

The New OrleansSaints are telling us something this offseason. They’re saying last season wasan aberration. Amirage. Aﬂukey outlier of acampaign. They’re essentially blaming the 5-12 season on bad juju and, to an extent, bad coaching. How else to explain their offseasonsofar?

The Saints’ worst season in nearly two decades spurred team ofﬁcials to change their coaching and training staffs —and not much else.

The front ofﬁce remains intact. The roster is largely the sameone that ﬁnished last in theNFC South a year ago. Seventeen of the 22 players who started the 2024 season opener will return, and if you includecornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry —who moved into thestarting lineup after Marshon Lattimorewas traded in November it’s18of22. In fact, 44 of the 53 players on theactive roster from ayear ago are back this season. Through trades and free agency, the Saintsadded afew veterans that should play key roles in safety Justin Reid,receiver Brandin Cooks, defensive tackle Davon Godchaux and guard Dillon Radunz, but mostofthe additionsare backups or role players.

BY JEFF DUN RODWALKER Staff writers

AN,LUKE JOHNSON, and MATTHEWPARAS

cyhas yieldedtoNFL draft n in theplayer procureof the New Orleans Saints’ n. ethree weeks away from the l24-26 NFL draftinGreen Bay, consin, where the Saints are duled to makenine selections, rmost since 2015. onsidering the number of picks, season coaching changes and erall state of the organization, ight be the Saints’ mostimpordraft since 2017. Our coverage teamsat down reently to analyze where the team andsasitheads into the draft dwhich direction we think the ake on draft weekend.Here’s

sation:

Now that we’vetraversed most of freeagency,what are the Saints’ most important needsinthis draft?

Luke Johnson: Though the Saints have addressed someimportant gaps among their starting 22, Istill believe they need depth across the board and should not pass on someone they really like just because he doesn’tﬁtanimmediate need. That said, if Iwere to prioritize current needs, it would go like this: cornerback, interior offensive line, pass rush and possession receiver MatthewParas: Ikeep tinkering with the actual order,but Ican’tshake that edge rusher should be pretty high on this list. Chase Young’sthree-year,$51 million contract wasn’tabad deal to keep him in New Orleans, but the Saints still need moreout of that position. After that, I’dput guard, cornerback, receiver and tight end.

RodWalker: This is one of those drafts where every time the Saints pick someone, I’ll say,‘Yep, they needed help at that

page 4C

Jeff Duncan

PROVIDED PHOTO By LSU ATHLETICS

LSU gymnasts smileastheyupdate

Harman survives wind to lead Texas Open by 3

ANTONIO Brian Harman survived 30 mph wind by playing the

nal 13 holes without a bogey giving him an even-par 72 and a three-shot lead in a Texas Open so difficult that only six players managed to break par Harman had his chance to join them until narrowly missing a 12-foot birdie attempt on the final hole at the TPC San Antonio. He was more than satisfied to finish with his first 54-hole lead since he won the British Open two years ago at Royal Liverpool. That also was his last victory Harman, three shots clear of Andrew Novak (69), with Tom Hoge (68) another shot behind going into the final round. Keith Mitchell had a 73 and was five behind. Mitchell and Novak need to win to get into the Masters next week.

Ex-LSU star Fowles to enter Naismith HOF

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

LSU great Sylvia Fowles soon will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

On Saturday, the hall announced that it will induct Fowles as part of its 2025 enshrinement class, a group also headlined by Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard.

Fowles — who won two WNBA titles, a league MVP award and four Olympic gold medals after her decorated career left Baton Rouge ended in 2008 — led the Tigers to the Final Four in all four years of her collegiate career “I don’t think (any) one of us go into this thinking that we’re going to be Hall of Famers,” Fowles said. “You just do your job and when it’s all said and done, the job is complete and here we are.”

The 6-foot-6 center is LSU’s alltime leader in rebounds (1,570), blocks (321), career double-doubles (86), games played (144) and postseason games played (20). Her 2,234 career points rank ﬁfth in program history In the WNBA, Fowles played for the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx. She was a two-time Finals MVP, a four-time defensive player of the year and an eighttime all-league selection. She was named WNBA MVP in 2017, a season in which she averaged 18.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game while shooting 66% from the ﬁeld.

Fowles also shined on the international stage She helped Team USA win gold in every Olympics

from 2008-21. Only Diana Taurasi (six) and Bird (five) have more gold medals. In November, Fowles also was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

She’s following the same path that her former LSU teammate Seimone Augustus took in 2024,

when she was enshrined into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame all in the span of a few months. Including Fowles, eight LSU players or coaches are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame:

and Kim Mulkey

This year’s Naismith enshrinement ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 6 in Springﬁeld, Massachusetts. According to ESPN, no class has ever inducted three women as players until this year

Anthony, Howard going into HOF twice in one year

BY TIM REYNOLDS

AP basketball writer

Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard are going into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year not once, but twice. And LeBron James and Chris Paul are part of the group that’s headed to the Hall as well, even before their playing careers end.

Anthony and Howard were announced Saturday as members of the Class of 2025, as was the 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team that they played on dubbed the “Redeem Team,” the one that captured gold at the Beijing Games and started a still-going run of ﬁve consecutive Olympic titles and counting for USA Basketball’s men’s program. Also selected for enshrinement were WNBA greats Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, Chicago Bulls coach and two-time NCAA champion Billy Donovan, Miami Heat managing general partner Micky Arison and longtime NBA referee Danny Crawford.

“I made it to the real basketball heaven,” Howard said. “It’s crazy.”

Enshrinement weekend is Sept. 5-6 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, and the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

“When the call comes and in my case, I saw Springﬁeld on the phone,” Anthony said on the televised announcement “You know what time it is when Springﬁeld is on the phone. You know who it is. You get the phone call and you hear, ‘You’re in.’ And I think for me, it was a burden off of my shoulders.”

Donovan won back-to-back titles as a college coach with Florida. Arison oversaw Miami’s path to NBA titles in 2006, 2012 and 2013. Crawford worked NBA games for 32 seasons and was picked to work the NBA Finals in 23 of those years.

“For some, this is an individual honor,” Arison said. “But for me, this speaks to what our entire Heat family — players, coaches, staff and fans have built together.” Combined, the ﬁve players selected as individuals Bird, Moore, Fowles, Howard and Anthony were part of 11 WNBA or NBA championship teams, won 15 Olympic gold medals, made 37 AllNBA or All-WNBA appearances and were named as All-Stars 45 times in their careers.

“Surreal,” Bird said of her selection. “I don’t think there’s any way to really wrap your head around it.” The Redeem Team’s selection

means that Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Jason Kidd and Kobe Bryant already enshrined as Hall of Famers — essentially now go in for a second time James and Paul, who are obviously both locks to get into the Hall after they retire, also played for that Olympic team, as did Anthony, Howard, Michael Redd, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams and Tayshaun Prince.

That team’s managing director was Jerry Colangelo, who now chairs the Hall of Fame.

“We developed a set of standards where all the guys lived by those standards,” said former Duke coach and 2001 Hall of Fame inductee Mike Krzyzewski, who coached that 2008 Olympic team “They were the best group of guys. I wish like crazy that Kobe was here. He was really the key guy, I think. As many great players as we had at that point, he was the greatest and everyone looked up to him.”

Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a 2020 helicopter crash. Bryant was enshrined posthumously into the Hall later that year

The Redeem Team had that moniker because it was the team tasked with restoring USA Basketball’s place atop the world stage, after the 2004 Olympic team only managed a bronze medal at the Athens Games. The Redeem Team went 8-0 in Beijing, winning those games by an average of 27.9 points.

“USA Basketball is thrilled to see the 2008 U.S. Men’s Olympic Team elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said. “The Redeem Team’s celebrated run in Beijing marks a pivotal moment in U.S. men’s Olympic basketball history and has propelled us to ﬁve straight gold medals.

“Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, members of that team and individual inductees, are two of the many legends in this Class who have contributed to our organization’s success over the last 20-plus years, including Sue Bird, Billy Donovan, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles.”

The UConn women’s program already had coach Geno Auriemma, Swin Cash (enshrined as a player) and Rebecca Lobo (enshrined as a contributor) in the Hall of Fame, and Bird and Moore going in together will add to what’s always a huge weekend in New England.

“They’re hall of famers for me, they’re hall of famers for their family, they’re hall of famers for everybody — they’re even hall of famers for UConn haters,” Auriemma said. “That’s one thing they can all agree on.”

Duke’s Flagg, USC’s Watkins pick up Wooden Awards

LOS ANGELES Cooper Flagg of Duke and USC’s JuJu Watkins are adding more hardware to their trophy cases. Flagg, a freshman forward, was named the John R. Wooden Award winner as the nation’s top men’s player, beating Auburn’s Johni Broome by 178 votes on Saturday He is Duke’s eighth Wooden winner, the most of any school. Flagg averaged 18.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists while leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four

The other finalists were Walter Clayton of Florida, Mark Sears of Alabama and Braden Smith of Purdue. Watkins, a sophomore guard, won the women’s award. She beat out UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who won in 2021, by 46 votes.

SMU names Barnes women’s basketball coach

DALLAS Adia Barnes was named SMU’s new women’s basketball coach Saturday after nine seasons at Arizona, where she led the Wildcats to the national championship game four years ago. Barnes takes over an SMU program that is coming off a 10-20 record in its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Mustangs were 2-16 in league games.

The hiring came a week after SMU fired Toyelle Wilson, who was 55-64 overall in four seasons SMU’s only NCAA Tournament appearance was in 2007-08. Arizona was 169-114 under Barnes and made four consecutive NCAA women’s tournaments from 2021-24, including a 54-53 loss to Stanford in the 2021 national title game. The Wildcats were 19-14 in their ﬁrst Big 12 season, going 10-8 in conference play

Arizona’s Marte on IL after straining hamstring

WASHINGTON — Arizona second basemen Ketel Marte was put on the 10-day injured list Saturday, a day after leaving the Diamondbacks’ 6-4 victory over the Washington Nationals in the first inning with a strained left hamstring suffered while running the bases. Marte hit a long ball to the wall in center field and, as he rounded first base and headed to second, he started to stutter-step. He pulled in slowly for a standup double while holding his left hamstring.

“To see him pull up like that in the ﬁrst inning was not, no one in the dugout was feeling good,” said right ﬁelder Corbin Carroll, who hit two home runs and drove in three runs for Arizona.

Nebraska coach dismisses transfer receiver Gilmore LINCOLN, Neb Nebraska receiver Hardley Gilmore, who transferred from Kentucky in January, was dismissed from the team, coach Matt Rhule announced Saturday The second-year player from Belle Glade, Florida, had come to Nebraska along with former Kentucky teammate Dane Key and receivers coach Daikiel Shorts Jr and had received praise from teammates and coaches for his performance in spring practice. Rhule did not disclose a reason for removing Gilmore. Gilmore was charged with misdemeanor assault in December for allegedly punching someone in the face at a storage facility in Lexington, Kentucky, the Lexington Herald Leader reported on Jan. 2.

Augustus, Pete Maravich, Bob Pettit, Shaquille O’Neal, Van Chancellor Sue Gunter

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARy ANNE CHASTAIN

LSU center Sylvia Fowles reacts after a foul call in her favor after she scored against Florida Atlantic during the first round of a women’s NCAA Tournament game on March 18, 2006, in Nashville, Tenn.

AP FILE PHOTO By SETH WENIG

Former New york Knicks forward

Carmelo Anthony reacts after hitting a 3-pointer during a game against the Sacramento Kings on Dec. 4, 2016 in New york.

AP FILE PHOTO By MARK J TERRILL

Former Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard dunks the ball during a game against the Denver Nuggets on Sept. 18, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

OUTDOORS

Gone with the wind

Spring weather has been largely unkind to fishermen

BY JOE MACALUSO

Contributing writer

After a week of strong southerly winds, what can ﬁshermen expect from the coming days?

Yeah! A cold front, more winds, this time from the north and chilly morning temperatures, and a reason to doubt that adage that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

Well, what do we call this April weather thing? A roaring tiger?

For coastal anglers, the south winds helped push water into the marshes and helped those areas recover from winter’s low-water periods.

South winds also help by pushing small brown shrimp into inland coastal water where, yes, they become food for us and food for hungry trout and redﬁsh.

But what will happen this week? The north winds will push the water out again.

Hopefully, the gusts won’t be strong enough to push water levels down to the point where ﬁshermen will have to watch where they run to avoid getting stuck on mud ﬂats.

Through this weather change, we can expect to ﬁnd lots of dirty water from the winds and rain run-off coming from the rivers and bayous.

Good luck and stay safe.

More CWD

During Thursday’s meeting, the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted in a Declaration of Emergency to be followed by a notice to expand the Chronic Wasting Disease Control Area after an infected whitetail deer was taken in Catahoula Parish during the recent hunting season. The CWD protocol in this area will take effect May 1. It’s the 40th CWD-infected deer found in our state.

The protocol sets out a 25-mile radius from the Catahoula site where the deer was taken and

MONDAY-THURSDAY

GULF OF MEXICO FISHERY MANAGE-

MENT COUNCIL MEETING: 8:30 a.m daily, The Lodge at Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama. Special public comment session, Tuesday, 5-6 p.m. on recreational reef ﬁsh management. General public comment 2-5 p.m., Wednesday. Main topics: Increasing lane snapper minimum size limit; Mutton snapper, yellowtail & red grouper stock assessments. Webinar available. Website: gulfcouncil.org

TUESDAY LA. CRAB TASK FORCE MEETING: 10 a.m., Terrebonne Parish Government Tower, 8026 Main Street, Houma.

WEDNESDAY

BUGS & BEERS: 6:30 p.m., Skeeta Hawk Brewing, 455 N. Dorgenois St., New Orleans. Fly tying. Open to the public. Email A.J. Rosenbohm:

CITY PARK BASS FISHING RESULTS

Saturday’s results by division and species from the 76th City Park

Big-Bass Rodeo & Fishtival in New Orleans. Weights are in pounds. The Boats on the Bayou Division was canceled (weather): Battle for The Bass 1, Jesuit High, 2.95 pounds (Garrett Cruppi, Jackson Fischer, Luke Montalbano, Lucas Reinhardt, Christian Wright). 2, Holy Cross High, 2.9. 3 Brother Martin High, 2.62

Cichlid & Bream Team: 1, Team Camo, 7.04. 2, Team C.R.E.A.M. 6.24. 3, Team Henderson, 5.72. Junior (12-under): 1, Oliver Pichon Jr., 1.27 (cichlid). 2, Rylan Dunaway, .66 (cichlid). 3, Jack Karas, .28 (bream). Bass Divisions Champions Challenge: Scott Daigle, 4.2. Junior (12-under): 1, Sebastian Breaux, 1.81 (Paul Kalman Award). 2 Liam Schindler, 1.27. 3, Cace Olasin, 1.03. Adult: 1, John Lavarine III, 5.26 (Joe Courcelle Award). 2, Kelvin Minor, 2.57. 3, Jon Burrell, 2.38.

includes parts of Catahoula, Caldwell, Richland and La Salle parishes.

This new control area follows the ﬁrst established CWD control area that takes in Tensas Parish and parts East Carroll, Madison, Franklin and Concordia parishes Earlier this year, a deer with CWD forced the same move in Franklin Parish.

The declaration runs for 180 days or until the notice takes effect and “ prohibits the baiting and supplemental feeding of deer and the transport of deer carcasses outside of the control area also is prohibited except for the speciﬁc parts listed, or by permit for purposes of taxidermy.”

No jakes

The turkey season began in earnest Saturday, and Wildlife and Fisheries is warning hunters 18 and older about a no-take rule on taking jakes, the young male turkeys.

The rule deﬁnes a jake is “as having a beard less than six inches and a spur less than 0.5 inch.”

Properly licensed hunters 17

ajrosenbohm@gmail.com. Website: neworleansﬂyﬁshers.com

THURSDAY

JUNIOR SOUTHWEST BASSMASTERS

MEETING: 7 p.m., Seminar Room, Bass Pro Shops, Denham Springs. Boys & girls age-group bass tournaments for ages 7-10, 11-14 & 15-18 anglers. Call Jim Breaux (225) 7723026.

THURSDAY-SUNDAY

BASSMASTER ELITE SERIES: Pasquotank River/Albemarle Sound, Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Website: bassmaster.com

SATURDAY LA. HIGH SCHOOL/JUNIOR QUALIFIER/EAST DIVISION: Doiron’s Landing, Stephensville. Call Tommy Abbott (504) 722-6638. Website: louisianahighschoolbassnation.com

SACK UP FOR CLEAN WATER: 8:30 a.m.-noon, Bucktown Marsh,

and younger can take one jake per season Hunters are limited to take one gobbler (a male) per day and two per season, and all hunters must use agency-issued tags before taking a turkey from the ﬁeld.

Going to nationals

Catholic High’s Porter Morrison, who competed by himself, finished fourth among 76 teams in Bassmaster High School Series on Oklahoma’s Lake Tenkiller last weekend and qualiﬁed for the tour’s national championship. His ﬁve-bass limit weighed out at 15 pounds, 10 ounces Arkansas Youth Anglers’ Connor Gartman and Blake Starr won with an 18-10 catch. Other state teams among the top 50 included Denham Springs High’s JackVarnado and Dylan Johnson (19th, 12-6), Sulphur High’s Kyler Harsh and Annabella Youngblood (27th, 11-11) and Teurlings High’s Joshua Burows and Brylee Williams (42nd, 100).

The college series

Levi Thibodaux, of Thibodaux, and LSU-Shreveport teammate WilliamTew took third place in the 175team Bassmaster College Series last week on Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula. Their two-day catch weighed 33 pounds, 2 ounces Their LSU-S teammates Triston Richardson and Johnny Hudson ﬁnished 13th (24-06) and Grayson Bonfils and Nevan Osburn took 41st place at 1901. Northwestern State’s NoahTrant and Evan Howe were No. 44 with an 18-10 catch.

Houseboats

A reminder about houseboats

If you have one, you must register it through Wildlife and Fisheries’ website: www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/title-or-registeryour-boat.

You’ll need to submit an afﬁdavit of ownership of the non-motorized houseboat and provide a photo of the houseboat.

CALENDAR

325 Metairie-Hammond Hwy., Metairie. RSFF/No Wake Outﬁtters conservation, environmental & habitat enhancement days. Email Almeida Robinson: almeidarob38@gmail.com

FLY CASTING CLINIC: 9 a.m., Perkins Road Park, 7122 Perkins Rd., Baton Rouge. Red Stick Fly Fishers event. FLY FISHING 101/CARP: 9-11 a. m., Orvis Shop, Bluebonnet Boulevard, Baton Rouge. Fee free. Basics of casting, rigging, ﬂy selection. Equipment furnished. All ages. 15-andyounger must be accompanied by adult. Preregistration required. Also ﬂy tying for carp, April 13. Call Shop (225) 757-7286.Website: orvis.com/ batonrouge

HUNTING SEASONS

TURKEY: Area A: through May 4; Area B: through April 27; Area C: through April 20.

AROUND THE CORNER

APRIL 14—RED STICK FLY FISHERS

Skenes: Blame for the Pirates’ poor start lies with the players

BY WILL GRAVES AP sportswriter

PITTSBURGH Paul Skenes

isn’t exactly sure what the Pittsburgh Pirates’ record is, only that it’s not nearly good enough.

So while Pittsburgh’s young ace and reigning National League Rookie of the Year understands the frustrations that resulted in boos and chants of “Sell the team” directed at increasingly popular targets manager Derek Shelton and owner Bob Nutting during a 9-4 loss to the New York Yankees on Friday, Skenes said the angst should be directed elsewhere.

“Mr Nutting and Shelty aren’t the ones playing,” Skenes said on Saturday, hours before the Pirates dropped to 2-7 after falling

to the Yankees again

“We’re the ones playing. If we were 8-0 through however many games we’ve played right now, the fans aren’t booing. We’ve got to play better.”

The 22-year-old former LSU star has been one of the few bright spots during Pittsburgh’s worst start since 2020.

The right-hander has been brilliant during his two starts, allowing two earned runs on six hits with 13 strikeouts in 121 3 innings.

But it’s telling of how things have gone that the Pirates dropped their opener when the bullpen imploded after his exit and needed a late dash of offense — a rarity so far — to shake free of Tampa Bay on Wednesday On Friday, the typically

celebratory atmosphere of Pittsburgh’s home opener was tinged with audible and visible signs of fan unrest. A plane circled PNC Park towing a banner urging Nutting to put the club up for sale. Shelton, now in his sixth season, was booed when he was introduced. And chants of “Sell the Team” popped up a handful of times as the Yankees quickly pulled away Everyone in the organization, from Nutting to Shelton to Skenes, have stressed it’s time for the Pirates to contend. They haven’t looked the part so far. The previous time they were 2-7 through nine games was during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season in what was the ﬁrst stage of a slow top-to-bottom overhaul by general manager Ben Cherington.

Catchin’ at Caney

Pat Broussard has been fishing with his friend Jay Falcon for 45 years and they decided to schedule a trip to Caney Creek Reservoir, the lunker bass lake south of Ruston. ‘We fished Caney twice last year and missed prime time both times. We hit it right this time,’ Broussard said. A guide put them on giants. Broussard is showing off two of three 10-pound-plus largemouths he and Falcon caught on one day in late March. They had another 8-pounder and a 7-pounder and caught as many as 30 bass on the two-day trip. Broussard said the top producer was a 4-inch June Bug-colored tube.

MEETING: 7 p.m., Regional Branch Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Boulevard, Baton Rouge. Open to the public. Email Brian Roberts: roberts.brian84@gmail.com. Website: rsff.org

APRIL 14-15—COMMERCIAL FISH-

ING LICENSE/BOAT REGISTRATION

RENEWAL: 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m., LDWF office, 1025 Tom Watson Road, Lake Charles. Also April 16-17, 9 a.m.3:30 p.m., LDWF office, 200 Dulles Drive, Lafayette; April 22-24, 8 a.m.3:30 p.m., LDWF office, 468 Texas Gulf Road, Bourg; April 29-May 1, LDWF office, 2045 Lakeshore Drive, Suite 438, New Orleans. Call LDWF Licensing (225) 765-2898

APRIL 15—LAFAYETTE KAYAK FISHING CLUB MEETING: 6 p.m., Pack & Paddle, 601 E. Pinhook, Lafayette. Call (337) 232-5854. Website: lafayettekayakﬁshing.com

APRIL 15-17—MLF BASS INVITATIONAL: Smith Lake, Cullman, Alabama. Website: MajorLeagueFishing.com

FISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Inshore season closed except in Breton/Chandeleur sounds & all outside waters open.

CLOSED SEASONS: Greater amberjack, red snapper; gag, goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters. OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Flounder; lane, blackﬁn, queen and silk snappers & wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers except closed for goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

LDWF UPDATES

CLOSED: Pearl River WMA (Old U.S 11 gate & shooting range; ﬂooding); Hope Canal Road/boat launch (Maurepas Swamp WMA, levee construction); Blackhawk Boat Landing, Annie’s Lake, Lincecum, Union Point, Dobbs Bay & Routen Camp roads and the Warren Trailhead (Richard Yancey WMA, ﬂooding, culvert failure).

EMAIL: jmacaluso@theadvocate.com

PROVIDED PHOTO

Rodman scores early as U.S. women beat Brazil

BY GREG BEACHAM AP sportswriter

INGLEWOOD Calif. Trinity Rodman

drilled her shot into the bottom corner of Brazil’s net and promptly got mobbed by her teammates. She broke away from the goal celebration and grabbed her lower back, pretending to seize up with pain — only to stand up tall and laugh while ﬂipping her pink hair over both shoulders

After eight months of recovery from back woes, Rodman is feeling close to her old self again. The U.S. women’s national team also showed signs of its top form while coolly handling another world power. Rodman scored in the ﬁfth minute of her return from a lengthy injury absence, and the Americans beat Brazil 2-0 Saturday in a friendly rematch of the Paris Olympics gold-medal match Rodman, the 22-year-old star and Orange County native, delivered her 11th goal for the U.S. by finishing off a brilliant run by Alyssa Thompson. Rodman hadn’t played for the U.S since the Olympic ﬁnal due to persistent back problems hence her cheeky celebration.

“The medical staff was freaking out, but I felt like I had to do it,” Rodman said with a grin. “It felt so good to be in this atmosphere again, to be with the team. The stadium was crazy.”

Phallon Tullis-Joyce made six saves while keeping a clean sheet in the 28-year-old goalkeeper’s U.S. debut. Captain Lindsey Heaps also scored a second-half penalty goal in the ﬁrst of two California friendlies in four days against Brazil, who lost 2-1 in Paris as the U.S secured its ﬁfth Olympic gold medal.

“I think it shows where this group is going,” Heaps said. “Our group is just getting better and better, and there’s not massive gaps between players. These young guns coming in it’s such a cool thing for us to see.”

Played before a lively crowd of 32,303, this game was billed

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C

position.’ With that being said, a possession receiver would be my top priority But the roster has so many holes that they really can’t go wrong with any position Cornerback would be my second choice.

Jeff Duncan: The Saints tipped their hand with how they feel about this position in their pursuit of Charvarius Ward in free agency Losing Marshon Lattimore and Paulson Adebo and replacing them with Kool-Aid McKinstry and Ike Yiadom is a downgrade. So cornerback feels like the No. 1 priority for this team, especially in a league where dime packages are used on roughly 70% of the defensive snaps

What do you make of team ofﬁcials’ quarterback interest? Are they just doing their due diligence? Or are there genuine signs that this team has plans to draft a quarterback?

Johnson: While the Saints seem committed to Derek Carr as their Week 1 starter, I think we’d all be foolish to assume the organization feels it has its long-term answer at the position. Paras: It makes sense to do the homework, and I think if they do pick a quarterback, it’s a reﬂection that Kellen Moore wants “his guy” at the position rather than the ones he inherited. There’s nothing wrong with the strategy and it’s quite common for new coaches to do just that. Carr’s future here is far from settled.

Walker: Quarterback is the one position where you can never go wrong doing your due diligence. With Moore being a former quarterback, he understands the position more than most and knows exactly what he’s looking for Duncan: Smart teams are always in the quarterback business. It’s the most important position on the ﬁeld, and the Saints lack a long-term answer on the roster, so it makes sense that they are performing their due diligence. That said, this team has so many other needs right now that taking a quarterback high in the draft feels like a reach, especially in a year where the QB class is considered average at best.

as the ﬁrst professional women’s sporting event at SoFi Stadium, the nearly 5-year-old home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams.

The teams meet again Tuesday night in San Jose, California. In their most recent outing in late February, the U.S. women took their ﬁrst defeat of coach Emma Hayes’ tenure, falling 2-1 to Japan in San Diego in the ﬁnal of the SheBelieves Cup. The Americans had been 15-0-2 since Hayes took over in June 2024.

Back at it in SoFi, the Americans struck early — and with style.

Studio City native Thompson got a midﬁeld touch and made an impressive run through Brazil’s formation, sending one defender to the grass in confusion before pushing a perfect pass to Rodman for her cool ﬁnish

Rodman’s celebration was a treat as well — for most observers, anyway

“Except I didn’t think she was pretending,” Hayes said with a grimace. “I will have a word with her, because that was like a ‘cry wolf’ moment. I turned to the physios

Do you draft a QB at No. 9? What about trading up with the Titans at No. 1 to take Cam Ward?

Johnson: Kellen Moore said this week that he thinks this is a strong quarterback class, but I’m not sure I agree with him. Everybody after Ward comes with some serious swing-and-miss potential. I would sit this one out when it comes to a quarterback at No. 9. And while Ward is clearly the best in the class, I’d have serious reservations about the massive haul the Saints would need to send to Tennessee to move up and select him. The Panthers also had the No. 9 pick a few years ago when they traded up to No. 1 to select Bryce Young, and they gutted their ability to build around him. New Orleans would have to be utterly convinced Ward is going to be a star who can elevate the players around him, because if he’s not, they will not have the resources to help him.

Paras: If Shedeur Sanders is there at No. 9, the Saints would have to take a long look at him. The Colorado star would be a great ﬁt for the tempo-heavy offense that Moore could implement. Despite arm-strength concerns, his touch, accuracy and fast processing skills would be other reasons he could pan out. That said, I still probably would draft another need — especially if someone such as Georgia pass rusher Jalon Walker is there. As for trading up, I don’t think the Titans would move the pick since they have a massive need at quarterback.

Walker: If the Saints feel strongly enough about Ward, they should trade up and get him. I doubt they feel strongly enough to make that type of move and give up what it would take. As far as the No. 9 pick, I think the Saints should draft Sanders if he somehow falls that far Having watched Sanders at both Jackson State and Colorado, I think his ceiling is a lot higher than most draft experts think. I thought the same thing about Michael Penix this time last year Skipping over Sanders would be one of those moves fans will regret down the line. Duncan: Normally, I’d be all for such a bold move, but the Saints would have to give up the farm to get Ward That’s a luxury this club can’t afford right now They’re not “one player away.” What’s more, while I like Ward’s potential a lot, I don’t see him as

DUNCAN

Continued from page 1C

No, what you saw in 2024 is essentially what you’re going to get in 2025, give or take a few rookies from the draft. Essentially the Saints are running it back, which is a puzzling way to respond to the club’s worst season in nearly two decades.

If you were hoping the disastrous season would inspire team ofﬁcials to drain the swamp or overhaul the roster, you’re out of luck. General manager Mickey Loomis leaned into the injury excuse after the disappointing season, and his actions this offseason have backed up his words.

Team ofﬁcials are essentially saying the roster was good enough, but the health and coaching were not.

By the time training camp began in 2023, the Rams had 44 new players on the 90-man roster, including eight new defensive starters.

“To me, in a rebuild, you would just bulldoze the house down and rebuild from the ground up,” Rams general manager Les Snead said in 2023. “But again, when you have someone like Matthew Stafford, players like Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald there are some weightbearing walls there that we still have, and we’re gonna rely on those.”

The key to the Rams’ successful remodel was the draft. They nailed both the 2023 and 2024 lotteries, hitting on top picks Jared Verse, Braden Fiske and Steve Avila, while scoring on mid- and late-round picks Puka Nacua, Kobie Turner, Byron Young and Beaux Limmer

and said, ‘Her back’s hurting,’ instantly. And then I realized she was tricking us.”

Later in the ﬁrst half, Rodman appeared to be dealing with actual pain, which she blamed on a charley horse from getting kneed by an opponent. She still played 16 minutes into the second half before coming off.

The U.S. was awarded a penalty when substitute Lily Johannes was tripped in the box. Heaps hammered it home for her 37th goal.

The depleted U.S. defense had several rough moments in front of goal. The Seleção carried signiﬁcant stretches of play and forced Tullis-Joyce to work hard, but the Long Island native who plays for Manchester United handled every chance capably Tullis-Joyce is competing for the ﬁrst-string job after the retirement of Alyssa Naeher Her parents and brother attended the match, but they didn’t know she would start until the lineup was announced an hour before kickoff.

In that way the transition to the Kellen Moore era looks and feels more like the one Dennis Allen oversaw in 2022 than the overhauls Jim Haslett and Sean Payton orchestrated in 2000 and 2006, respectively You might recall that after the Saints ﬂat-lined to 3-13 under Mike Ditka in 1999, Haslett and then-general manager Randy Mueller brought in 25 new players, including 11 starters, the next year and the results were instantaneous. The Saints went 10-6 and won the NFC West. Payton oversaw a similar overhaul in 2006, with 10 new starters and 23 new players. The new-look Saints responded with a 10-6 record and their ﬁrst-ever trip to the NFC championship game. Instead of backhoes and bulldozers, the Saints have attacked the roster this offseason with a spatula and touch-up paint.

They appear to be following the blueprint executed recently by the Los Angeles Rams, who were able to reload while remaining competitive in the wake of their Super Bowl title in 2021.

The Rams, after bottoming out at 5-12 with an aging, bloated roster in 2022, refused to blow things up. Instead, they employed a less extensive makeover They were selectively frugal in free agency pared or traded off some high-priced talent and remodeled the roster around a handful of core players.

a “can’t miss” prospect like Joe Burrow or Andrew Luck. The Saints are not in a position to gamble right now, especially in such a big way

Is this the year the Saints ﬁnally trade down in Round 1? And should they?

Johnson: No, they will not trade down. We’re coming up on the 20year anniversary of the last time they made such a move at any point in the draft. It’s just not how they do things, and to be honest, I would not be surprised if they moved up. Whether they should is an entirely different question. I understand how they arrived at their reasoning for never trading back: They put a lot of effort into the scouting process to identify the guys they want, and they don’t want to lose out on them if they’re available. But even with all that work, they’ve got to understand the draft is and always

has been a bit of a crap shoot, and they should always be looking for more bites at the apple. If someone called to, say move up from 12 or 13, I would be extremely receptive.

Paras: Come on. No. They won’t. And honestly, I like the overall haul the Saints have this year

The picks gained in the Marshon Lattimore trade added real value, and that might be general manager Mickey Loomis’ best move in some time. Walker: History tells us that the Saints don’t trade down. This year won’t be any different. If there was a year to do it, though, this would be it. This roster has plenty of holes that need to be ﬁlled. Trading down would give them a chance to ﬁll even more of those holes. Maybe they will in some of the later rounds, but not early Duncan: Everything depends on how the board falls ahead of

The results have been impressive. While retooling the roster, the Rams posted back-to-back 10-7 seasons and made the playoffs each year They’ll enter the upcoming season as the favorites to win the NFC West.

The Saints are trying to thread the needle in a similar fashion. There are differences, though.

For one, the Saints don’t have the gravitas of a Super Bowl title to appease the fans during the transition. Secondly they have not been nearly as aggressive as the Rams were on defense, where the Saints plummeted to 30th in the league rankings despite enjoying relatively good health. Surprisingly, the Saints have elected to keep their front seven almost entirely intact from a year ago. And ﬁnally, you could argue the weight-bearing walls for the Saints — Cam Jordan, Demario Davis, Tyrann Mathieu, Alvin Kamara and Erik McCoy — are not as sturdy as they were a few years ago. Regardless, one thing is certain: To pull this off, the Saints will need to draft well, and certainly better than they have in recent years. Moore and company need to ﬁnd their versions of Verse and Nacua this year to kick-start the transition. If not, those weightbearing walls might crumble the same way they did in 2024. Email Jeff Duncan at jduncan@theadvocate.com.

them. At No. 9, the Saints are right on the edge of where the elite players in this class could drop off the board. If they’re all gone by the time the Saints get on the clock, then I could see a scenario where the Saints trade down in the ﬁrst round and acquire one or more top-100 selections. That would be a wise move considering Jeff Ireland’s track record in the draft.

Who is one “Saints’ Kinda Guy” in this draft that you think the team should take and why?

Johnson: A quick caveat: The guy I’m about to mention normally would not fall into the “Saints’ Kinda Guy” bucket because he is undersized, at least as an edge defender But everything else about Georgia linebacker Jalon Walker screams Saints. He played at a high level for a big-time program against big-time competition; he is a versatile player who can add value on or off the ball; and he has drawn rave reviews for his leadership qualities. He would be an exciting movable chess piece for Brandon Staley’s defense, providing some juice off the edge while also giving the team another superior athlete in its linebacker corps.

Paras: I’ll bring up Penn State tight end Tyler Warren. Big-time program, freak athlete and has the kind of versatility that can be a tone-setter for Kellen Moore. Plus, I love the fact that he wears No. 44 for John Riggins. If the Saints draft him, he should stay in it.

Walker: Yeah, I know the video of Tetairoa McMillan that surfaced last week with him saying he doesn’t like ﬁlm study rubbed a lot of people the wrong way But his 6-foot-5, 212-pound frame is just what the Saints need to add to a wide receiver room that for now has three speedy receivers (Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed and Brandin Cooks) who sort of bring you the same thing. McMillan could bring the Saints what they’ve been missing since the Michael Thomas days.

Duncan: I like all of the aforementioned guys and think they’d be great ﬁts for the Saints. The guy I like best, though, is Texas defensive back Jahdae Barron. Like Walker, he’s the kind of versatile defender that suits Staley’s scheme. He can play every position in the defensive secondary and has the talent, conﬁdence and moxie to start from Day 1.

ASSOCIARED PRESS FILE PHOTO By RICK SCUTERI

Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan tries to make a catch over West

Virginia cornerback Garnett Hollis in the second half of their game on Oct. 26 in Tucson, Ariz.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JAE C. HONG

U.S. forward Trinity Rodman celebrates her goal during the first half of a women’s international soccer match against Brazil on Saturday in Inglewood, Calif.

South Carolina one win away from a 3rd title in 4 years

BY DOUG FEINBERG AP basketball writer

TAMPA, Fla. — Dawn Staley and South Carolina are one win away from joining an elite group of programs in women’s basketball history with a third national championship in four seasons Only two other schools have accomplished that feat: UConn and Tennessee.

“It’s hard to break into what Pat Summitt and Geno (Auriemma)” have done for women’s basketball Staley said. “It’s really hard to even be mentioned in that air Anything that you do and you have sustained success is really, really, really hard.

“But once you are able to understand what it takes to succeed there, it’s a little easier because you know.”

Auriemma and the Huskies stand in the way with the teams set to play Sunday for the NCAA title. It’s been nine years since Auriemma’s team won the championship, which capped off a run of four consecutive titles from 2013-16. That win was the most recent of the record 11 national titles that Auriemma has won in his four decades at the school

UConn has only reached the title game once since 2016, and during that drought has come up on the short end of heartbreaking lastsecond losses in the Final Four on buzzer-beaters. The Huskies’ lone title appearance in the past nine years came in 2022 when Staley’s team beat UConn to start the Gamecocks’ current run of success, a game that ended Auriemma’s perfect record in title games. Auriemma has a healthy respect for Staley, knowing the South Carolina coach from her playing days at Virginia to her time with USA Basketball. She was an assistant coach for him during the 2016 Olympics before she became the national team’s head coach

“To be where she is right now and to have done it in the way that she’s done it, I have a lot of respect for her,” he said. “I have tremendous respect for her knowing how she grew up and how hard she fought to get to where she is today You don’t get here by accident You get

here by being committed and true to who you are. And she doesn’t try to be anything she’s not.”

After losing in the 2023 Final Four to Caitlin Clark and Iowa, the Gamecocks had an undefeated season last year to the school’s third title since 2017.

The only UConn player that saw signiﬁcant time in the title game three years ago against South Carolina was Paige Bueckers. She’ll be playing in her ﬁnal game for UConn hoping to leave the school with a championship, joining many other Husky greats that have played for Auriemma.

“I think everything in life has kind of taught me not to take things for granted,” she said. “Being in the national championship game, it’s extremely hard to get to and extremely rewarding to be a part of And just how much we need to play 40 minutes and how connected we need to stay throughout the game. It’s going to be a game of runs. It’s extremely high stakes.”

The teams met earlier this season and UConn stunned South Carolina with a 29-point victory that ended the Gamecocks’ 71-game home winning streak, winning 8758 on Feb 16.

Neither team puts much stock in that game, although BetMGM has the Huskies as 5.5-point favorites despite being the lower-seeded team

Staley wants South Carolina’s accomplishments equally acknowledged

While Staley complimented what Bueckers has accomplished for UConn and women’s basketball during her career, she also believes her team’s dominant run over the past few years merits equal recognition When the Gamecocks went undefeated en route to their championship last year, the major storyline was Clark, one of greatest college basketball players trying to capture a national title in her final game.

“Sometimes we create these narratives about great players,” Staley said. “Caitlin was one of them; Paige is one of them right now, and we tend to forget the narrative about what our kids have been able to do.”

Clayton leads Florida to NCAA title game

BY STEPHEN HAWKINS AP sportswriter

SAN ANTONIO

Walter Clayton Jr

scored 34 points and Florida beat Southeastern Conference rival Auburn 79-73 in the Final Four on Saturday night, sending the Gators to the national championship game for the ﬁrst time since their titles in 2006 and 2007.

The All-America guard for the Gators (35-4) had a driving layup with 2:24 left, on the possession right after Australian big man Alex Condon drew a charge against Johni Broome, the other All-America player in this national semiﬁnal and who was dealing with an injured right elbow

After a record 14 SEC teams made this NCAA Tournament, seven got to the Sweet 16 before the league made up half the Elite Eight and then this Final Four ﬁlled with No. 1 seeds.

The Gators will have the chance Monday night to win the SEC’s ﬁrst title since Kentucky in 2012, the only one since they won in back-to-back seasons Florida takes an 11-game winning streak into the title championship game in the Alamodome against either Duke or Houston.

“We’re just all together, on the court and off the court,” Clayton said.

Even at the end of the ﬁrst SEC matchup in a Final Four, Clayton chased a loose rebound and tipped it back inbounds to keep the clock running out on the win When he started to walk back on the court, teammate Alijah Martin was standing watching him at the end line nodding with a smile to greet him

The Tigers (32-6), in their second Final Four with coach Bruce Pearl, were the top overall seed and had an eight-point halftime

lead.

“Auburn had us on our heels in the ﬁrst half but we came out with a great start and we didn’t look back,” said 39-year-old Florida coach Todd Golden, who joined Pearl’s first staff at Auburn in 2014.

Clayton became the ﬁrst player with consecutive 30-point games in the Elite Eight and semiﬁnals since Larry Bird for Indiana State in 1979, according to ESPN Stats. Clayton got over 30 with his threepoint play with 1:33 left, scoring on a layup while being fouled and adding the free throw Martin, who played in the Final Four with FAU two years ago, added 17 points for the Gators. Thomas Haugh had 12. Florida opened the second half with a 13-3 run, with Clayton capping an 11-0 run with a layup after Rueben Chinyelu’s steal. That put the Gators up 51-49 with 15 1/2 minutes left.

Chad Baker-Mazara, with his left hand partially wrapped because of a thumb issue, led Auburn with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. Broome ﬁnished with 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting and had seven rebounds — he had only three points after halftime. Even before the final buzzer sounded, Broome was hunched over and then was surrounded by cameras to capture his reaction. He eventually stood up to shake hands, then walked off the court with his eyes red from crying — pulling up his jersey to wipe his face as cameras continued to follow his exit.

Broome and Baker-Mazara both were injured in the win over Michigan State last Sunday that sent the Tigers to the Final Four. Broome’s right elbow bent awkwardly during a hard fall in the second half, and in the Final Four he wore some kind of brace on his arm covered by a sleeve.

Duke takes on Houston in Final Four

UConn’s Bueckers says others can ponder her legacy

BY FRED GOODALL Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — Paige Bueckers in-

sists she’s not concerned about her legacy.

The UConn standout will close out her college career when the Huskies face South Carolina in Sunday’s national title game. She said Saturday that she would like to be remembered as “a great teammate, a great leader” who makes players around her better She’ll leave it to others to decide if adding an NCAA championship to an already impressive resume will validate her accomplishments.

“I don’t think that’s up to me. I think that’s up to the people who, I guess, get to decide if people’s legacies are cemented or whatever,” Bueckers said. “But I’m not worried about that at all

“The thing I take great joy and great pride in is the relationships, the experiences, the journeys we’ve gone on throughout the team,” she added. “Just the bonds I’ve been able to create with my teammates, the memories, the close-knit stuff that, I mean, you can’t really experience without support, just how it’s brought us

all together and how much we’ve grown as individuals, grown as a team. All the stuff we’ve been through and how much it’s made us stronger.”

UConn players talk about their desire to deliver a 12th national title for Geno Auriemma, who has led the Huskies to a record 24 Final Fours. The coach, however would like Bueckers and the rest of his players to experience the joy of winning it all.

Win or lose, however, Auriemma knows Bueckers has already made a lasting impact on his storied program

“If you’re in this for the ﬁrst time, you really don’t have the appreciation for what it really is. If you’re fortunate like I’ve been, you know what that feels like when someone who has given their whole heart and soul to your program walks off the court in the last game of their career with a national championship You see the effect that it has on their life,” Auriemma said.

“Paige doesn’t need anything to change her life to make her life

better She’s got a life that most people would dream about. But for someone who’s invested so much into the University of Connecti-

cut, the community, the team, her teammates, and loves the game so much, she deserves to go out as a national champion,” Auriemma added. “But so do a bunch of kids at South Carolina that have done the exact same thing.”

Count South Carolina coach

Dawn Staley, whose team is seeking an impressive third title in four years, among those who don’t believe Bueckers needs to win Sunday to validate her career

“She’s a great player, but just because you’re a great player doesn’t mean you need to win the national championship to legitimize it. Paige is legit. She was legit from the moment she stepped on this stage or prior to, in Minnesota,” Staley said.

“Her career is legendary,” Staley added. “She will leave a legacy at UConn whether she wins one or not.”

Bueckers scored 16 points on 7 for 17 shooting in UConn’s 85-51 victory over No 1 overall seed UCLA in Friday’s national semiﬁnals While the Huskies went on the road to beat South Carolina by 29 points in mid-February, there are lingering memories of a loss to the Gamecocks in the 2022 NCAA title game.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHRIS O’MEARA

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley reacts during the first half of a national semifinal game against Texas during the women’s NCAA Tournament on Friday in Tampa, Fla.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHRIS O’MEARA UConn guard Paige Bueckers shoots free throws during practice at the women’s Final Four on Saturday in Tampa, Fla.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By BRyNN ANDERSON Florida forwards Alex Condon, left, and Thomas Haugh celebrate their win against Auburn in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in San Antonio. The Gators will play for the national championship.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ERIC GAy

Duke’s Cooper Flagg shoots as Houston’s Terrance Arceneaux defends during the first half at the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in San Antonio. The game ended after press time. For a full story, go to nola.com

ALL-METROBASKETBALL

BOYS MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Hannan’s DrewTimmons dunks against John F. Kennedy’s JosephBernandez during the Hannan Hoops Classic on Dec.30. Timmonsaveraged21.4points and 9.5 rebounds per game in leading the Hawks to the state championship.

DREW TIMMONS HANNAN,SR. • FORWARD

Hannan senior DrewTimmons spokeupat the right moments during his final high school basketball season.

One such moment came in the state semifinals against Peabody, when the Hawks were letting Peabodygrab too manyoffensive rebounds.

“I distinctlyremember him walking off the courttoour bench, and he gotonall of them about rebounding the ball,”said Hannan coach Errol Gauff, whorecalledhow Timmons told his teammates: “‘yougot to getdown here and rebound.’”

“Drewdoesn’t talk alot by nature,” Gauffsaid. “Just his presenceand the little thingshedid sayinhuddles and whatevermeant alot.”

The 6-foot-6 Timmons averaged 21.4 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals on the waytohelping Hannan win a state championship. He scored 22 points in the state final against Shaw.That output

made him the Times-Picayune All-Metro boys basketballplayerofthe year for the 2024-25 season.

The title was the second for Timmons in his high school career —after he played astarring role as afreshman on the first title-winning team.

Timmons decided “sometimelast year especially overthe summer” that he wouldbe morevocal this season.

“It just kindofkicked in even more after I committedand signed (to play in college),” said Timmons, whoplayed five varsity seasons.

Timmons wonthe first title with older brother Lukealso on the team. He wonthistitle with youngerbrother Gabeonthe team.younger sister Lucy playedonthe girls varsity team as an eighth grader this season.

“It wasdefinitelyimportant to go out as a champion,”Timmons said.

Christopher Dabe

GIRLS MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

the school record forcareer points. ANorth Texas signee, Spencer finished her careerwith aschool-record 2,560 points.

CHERIE SPENCER NORTHSHORE,SR. • FORWARD

CherieSpencer began playing basketball when she was 7years old.

Onlybrieflydid she tryother sports.

“I did track for alittle bit,”she said, adding that when she showedupfor the firstday of practice in basketball shoes and the track coach said she needed different footwear,she thought,“I don’t think this is the sport for me.

Spencer,at5-foot-10, continued withthe sportwhere she felt most at home.The basketball standout went on to playfour varsity seasons at Northshore, whereshe set the school career scoring record with 2,560 points.

Her senior season was herbest —averaging team highs in points (25.7), rebounds(11.9) andassists (4.7). Shescored 52 points in one game, topped 40 points in twoother contests and reached 30 points four other times. It was all partofastandout season that made her the Times-Picayune All-Metro girls

basketballplayerofthe year for the 2024-25 season.

Spencer,anNCAADivisionI collegesignee with NorthTexas, wasthe leadingplayeron ateam that won24games, earned ashare of the district championship and reached the second round of the DivisionI nonselect playoffs “She’s aleader in everysense,” coach Michael Gowland said.“She putsplayers in the right positions. Shesets teammates up forsuccess. Even in games where she doesn’t score many points, she had alot of assists. Gowland also notedher strength. He sometimesheldupa blocking dummy during practice to provide resistance against players as theydrivethe lane,and “she’s so powerful youdon’t want to getinher way,”hesaid. “She’s one of the strongestplayers Iever coached,”Gowland said. Christopher Dabe

BOYS COACHOFTHE YEAR

WADE MASON ST.AUGUSTINE

Wade Mason could lean on his experience as aplayer.Thirty years earlier he starred on the St Augustine team that wona state championship —and ended that season ranked No. 1inthe nation by USA Today. This season,the first-year coach took overateam thathad only one player with afull season of varsity experience

BOYS ALL-METRO TEAM

DARYL ADAMS

L.B.Landry

20 ppg,4 apg,4 rpg

KELLEN BREWER

CountryDay,So.

18.8 ppg,6.3 rpg,1.8 bpg

KOBE BUTLER

Shaw, Sr

15.7 ppg,11.5 rpg,3 bpg

HERMON DYSON

CountryDay,Jr.

11.3 ppg,9.4 rpg,4.3 apg

TREY HILLIARD

Douglass, Sr

19.4 ppg,6.6 rpg,5.3 apg

and guided them to astate title.

Seededfourth, St.Augustine defeated higher seeds Liberty(No. 1) and St.Thomas More (No.3)towin the school’sseventh LHSAA statetitle —makinghim the Times-Picayune boys basketballcoachofthe year

Christopher Dabe

RANDY LIVINGSTON JR. Newman, Jr 22 ppg, 6rpg,5 apg

JEREMIAH LUCAS

Bonnabel,Sr. 25.7ppg,7.4 rpg,2.7 spg

DWIGHT MAGEE

Crescent City,Jr. 28.7ppg,6.7 rpg, 5.3apg

AUTRAIL MANNING

John Curtis, Jr 13.5ppg,2.4 rpg,2.7 spg

AARON MILES

St.Augustine,So. 15 ppg,5 apg

BOYS HONORABLE MENTION

TRISTON

NAQUIN

Shaw, So.

12.5 ppg,9.3 rpg,4.2 spg

BREWER NITCHER

Jesuit, Sr 17.4 ppg,8.4 rpg,2 apg

RASHAD

STEVENSON

Thomas Jefferson, Sr 19.9 ppg,7.4 rpg,2.2 apg

DREW TIMMONS Hannan, Sr

21.4 ppg,9.5 rpg,2.4 apg

JACOREY WASHINGTON

Sophie B.Wright, Sr 23.7 ppg,8 rpg,4 spg

Brennon Bell, Covington, So.; Joseph Bernardez, Kennedy, Jr.; T.J. Duhe,Rummel, Sr.; LevonGipson, De La Salle, Jr.; Darius Kieffer, L.B.Landry, Fr.; Cobe Landry,Hahnville,Sr.;London Lee, Northshore,Sr.;Destin Love,Sarah Reed, Sr.; Curtis McAllister,CountryDay,Fr.;Cash Pichon, Holy Cross, Sr.; Jakobe Shepeard, St.Aug.,Sr.;Jewellz Tapp, John Curtis, So.; CharlieTriggs Jr ,Destrehan,Sr.;Abe Taylor,Holy Cross, So

GIRLS COACHOFTHE YEAR COURTNEY WARD SACRED HEART

CourtneyWard arrivedatSacred Heartwith an understanding of what it took to geta team to the state tournament.

AMcMain graduate whoplayedincollege at Belhaven,Ward had previously coached St. Martin’s to the state tournament in 2020 and 2021.

JAYLA ALBERT

John Curtis, Fr 13.6 ppg,8.3 rpg,4.8 spg

CASS ANTOINE

Edna Karr,So. 19.7 ppg,6 apg,4 spg

SANAA BEAN

Edna Karr,Sr. 12 ppg,9.3 rpg

ALANNA BENOIT

Mandeville, Jr 21 ppg,9.4 rpg,5.3 spg

Shearrived at SacredHeart in 2022 —and the Cardinals improvedevery year since then, ultimately reaching the state final forthe first timeinschool history.That achievement made Ward the Times-Picayune All-Metro girls basketball coach of the year Christopher Dabe

EMILEE DUET

St. Scholastica, Sr 20.1 ppg,5 apg,4.6 rpg

ALYSS HILLARD Ponchatoula, Sr 21.2 ppg,5.3 rpg,4.4 spg

CHERIE SPENCER Northshore, Sr 25.7 ppg,11.9 rpg,4.7 apg

BAILEY TIMMONS John Curtis, Jr 13.3 ppg,7.6 rpg,4.3 spg

GIRLS HONORABLE MENTION

KEVBRASIA THOMAS

Booker T.Washington, Sr 15.3 ppg,7.3 rpg,7.7 spg

KOI URSIN Destrehan, Sr 19 ppg,5 rpg

LEAH VARISCO SacredHeart, Jr 15.2 ppg,4.3 apg,5.2 spg

JAMIYAH WILLIAMS John Curtis, Fr 14.9 ppg,7.5 rpg

ya’Myri Brown, De La Salle, 8th; Kaylee Dublin, Chapelle, Sr.; LaurenFowler,

SummerGould,

Zoie Mitchell, Dominican, Sr.; Ke’Sonja Nelson, John Curtis, Jr.; Cianni Williams, Slidell, So

FILEPHOTO By MATT DOBBINS

FILE PHOTO By MATT DOBBINS

Northshore senior Cherie Spencer drives to the basket against Karr on Jan. 9inagame she scored 32 points to tie

Mount Carmel,Sr.;

Douglass, Sr.; MaryahJoseph, Riverdale,Jr.;Garri Lawson, St.Martin’s, Jr.;

Stuck in neutral

Coach Sumrall watches as Tulane quarterback candidates struggle without suspended Finley

BY GUERRY SMITH

Contributing writer

Neither of Tulane’s remaining starting quarterback candidates took a step forward on Saturday in the absence of suspended TJ Finley

The defense and kicker Patrick Durkin were the stars of a 45-minute scrimmage at the end of practice at Yulman Stadium as Ball State transfer Kadin Semonza and Illinois transfer Donovan Leary struggled.

Each quarterback led four series, and the only touchdown came in a possession that started at the defense’s 20 when Semonza found wideout Bryce Bohanon in the back of the end zone on fourthand-goal from the 8. Semonza was off target a few times before then on similar throws and Leary tossed interceptions on back-to-back possessions when the offense started from its 25. His other two series produced 35- and 52-yard ﬁeld goals from Durkin, while Semonza completed a couple of short passes on a drive that ended in a 32-yard ﬁeld goal.

“It was a mixed bag,” coach Jon Sumrall said. “We had a drop early, a couple of missed throws and a couple of good things, but not enough for me to feel comfortable about our offense. We’ve got a long way to go.”

The scrimmage began inauspiciously when a snap exchange under center to Semonza on ﬁrstand-10 from the offense’s 1-yard line ended with the ball on the ground. Safety Jack Tchienchou scooped it and scored an easy TD.

Leary’s attempt in the same situation almost led to another defensive touchdown, but linebacker Chris Rodgers could not hold on to the ball after jumping an outside route.

“It was OK, but obviously I’ve got a long way to go,” Semonza said “A little bit of misses here and there just getting timing down with the receivers, but that will come. I feel comfortable out there. Whatever reps come my way, I am going to do what I can with that It’s still a process.” Semonza’s best throw was his last — the connection with Bohanon.

“It was good to ﬁnally get guys in the right spots where we want to be,” Semonza said. “To hit on

was a mixed bag We had a drop early, a couple of missed throws and a couple of good things, but not enough for me to feel comfortable about our offense. We’ve got a long way to go.’

one of those is good for sure going forward.”

Leary’s top moment came on his final series, too. He threw a pretty floater to Shaun Nicholas for 20 yards on the first play before the drive bogged down.

Earlier, he hit Shazz Preston for 25 yards over the middle on his second series — an 11-play drive that went 58 yards before he threw late and incomplete on an out route to tight end Justyn Reid on third-and-15.

“I definitely need to get better just processing everything,” Leary said. “I think that comes just with spring ball I just have to shake this one off and get ready for Tuesday (next practice).”

Both quarterbacks received extra opportunities because of the status of Finley, who was arrested Wednesday and charged with illegal possession of stolen things worth $25,000 or more He faces a hearing in Orleans Parish magistrate court on June 1, and his suspension cannot be lifted until the case is resolved.

According to a sworn statement, Tulane police were dispatched to 6320 S. Claiborne Ave. near campus for a Dodge Ram truck blocking a driveway After running the plate, it came back to a different

car belonging to Finley The vehicle identiﬁcation number on the truck was the same as one stolen from Atlanta

The lawyers representing Finley, David Courcelle and Scott Stansbury, gave his side of the story in a text Thursday to The Associated Press, indicating he was the victim of a Facebook Marketplace scam. The text added he bought the truck from someone who presented himself as John Spillway, representing Mountain Adventures, LLC, and Spillway gave Finley a bill of sale and registration, “giving TJ every reason to believe the purchase was legitimate.”

The text ﬁnished with “TJ looks forward to continuing to cooperate fully with the authorities in hopes of recovering the funds he lost, bringing the criminal(s) to justice and clearing his name and reputation.”

Whether Finley gets a second shot at Tulane or have a chance to win the job remains to be seen. With two weeks left in spring practice, Semonza and Leary have full reign to make their case or prompt Sumrall to look into the transfer portal again.

“As you go through the spring, this is the point where you really start to evaluate where are we comfortable and where are we not comfortable with what the roster looks like,” he said. “I would be open to a quarterback. That’s something we’ve got to ﬁgure out still. I’m not saying these guys aren’t it, but the roster is not complete yet. We still have work to do.” In other areas, Sumrall continued to like the depth of his defensive line. Rush end Ty Cooper intercepted a late throw from Leary, and the front created constant pressure, aided by returning starting offensive linemen Derrick Graham and Shadre Hurst playing only eight snaps.

Running backs Jamauri McClure and Maurice Turner had some big gains, but each fumbled. Turner’s miscue sailed out of bounds at the end of a 22-yard run, while an offensive teammate recovered McClure’s in the middle of the ﬁeld.

“I’m really concerned,” Sumrall said. “You can’t beat anybody until you don’t beat yourselves. We’ve got to do a lot better.”

Alvarado’s big night just not enough against Lakers’ Big 3

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

Late Friday

For one quarter Friday night, Jose Alvarado played better than anyone else in the arena. Better than LeBron James. Better than Luka Doncic. And better than Austin Reaves. But when all was said and done, the Pelicans didn’t have enough to match the Lakers’ big three of James, Doncic and Reaves. The Pelicans wrapped up their trip to Los Angeles with a 124-108 loss.

Alvarado finished with 27 points, tying the season-high he scored against the Cleveland Cavaliers in November Alvarado scored 18 points in

the ﬁrst nine minutes to help the Pelicans build a 30-25 lead after one quarter Alvarado knocked down four 3-pointers in the quarter and at one point had outscored the Lakers by himself. His fourth 3-pointer with 2:58 left in the quarter was his 18th point, putting the Pels ahead 23-17. He cooled off in the second quarter, going scoreless and the Lakers got going to take a 62-53 halftime lead. Alvarado ﬁnished the night 6 of 10 on 3-pointers.

“Jose’s been doing a great job

ﬁlling in for guys being out,” Pelicans coach Willie Green. “This is an opportunity for him and he’s taking full advantage of it.”

The Lakers had too much firepower though, just like they did in a win over the Pelicans in March. In that game, James scored 34 and Doncic had 30. This time Doncic scored 35 and James had 27. Reaves, who missed that last game, scored 30 Friday James also finished with six assists, but didn’t have a rebound. It was just the fifth time in his career that he didn’t have a rebound. That was much easier said than done though as the Lakers (47-30) finished the season sweep against the Pelicans (21-56). Rookie Yves Missi finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds for his 13th double-double of the season. Alvarado and Missi were two of six Pelicans to reach double figures. They were joined by Karlo Matkovic (15), Kelly Olynyk (12), Jamal Cain (11) and Antonio Reeves (10)

Wossman, Vandebilt also represented after their historic seasons

BY JAKE MARTIN Written for the LSWA

Basketball history was made in Class 4A in 2024-25 by multiple teams with Wossman, Hannan and Vandebilt Catholic leading the way. Now the same schools headline the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Class 4A All-State teams. Drew Timmons of Division II select champion Hannan was selected as the Outstanding Player on the LSWA boys squad, while Wossman’s Anyra Wilson garnered Outstanding Player recognition on the girls side after leading her team to

a Division II nonselect title.

Timmons, already voted the Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year averaged 21.4 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while leading Hannan to a second Division II select title in four years. Vandebilt Catholic’s Jerwaski Coleman netted girls Coach of the Year honors, while Wossman’s Casey Jones earned boys Coach of the Year Vandebilt Catholic won the Division II select girls title, the school’s ﬁrst title since 2010.

Vandebilt’s championship run came one year after the school forfeited an LHSAA tourney berth because of an academically ineligible player

The Terriers also overcame injuries en route to the Division II select girls crown.

BY CHRISTOPHER DABE Staff writer

Former St. Augustine head coach Mitchell Johnson was selected as the next basketball coach at Shaw, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the selection. Shaw has scheduled a news conference for 6 p.m. Monday to introduce the new basketball coach. Johnson was an assistant coach at his alma mater St. Augustine as it won the LHSAA Division I select state championship last month in Lake Charles. Johnson was the head coach at

St. Augustine for eight seasons and won 210 games before he resigned in 2020. He returned to St Augustine after stops at East Jefferson as an assistant coach and McDonogh 35 as the head coach. At Shaw, Johnson will replace former coach Wesley Laurendine after he left to take the head coaching position at Brother Martin Shaw reached the state tournament in the past four seasons and reached the state ﬁnal last month. Johnson played on the 1995 St. Augustine team that won a state championship and ended the season ranked No. 1 nationally by USA Today He was an assistant on the 2011 state title winner and was the head coach on teams that reached the ﬁnal in 2019 and 2020.

FILE PHOTO By KIRK MECHE Hannan’s Drew Timmons is fouled by Shaw’s Kobe Butler during the

championship game on March 15 in Lake Charles. Timmons, who helped the Hawks to the Division II select state title, was named the LSWA’s Class 4A Outstanding Player.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD

Tulane coach Jon Sumrall on Saturday’s scrimmage: ‘It

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By WILLIAM LONG

New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado reacts after making a 3-pointer against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday in Los Angeles. Alvarado scored 27 points in the Pelicans’ 124-108 loss.

Tigers slip past Tide

BY WILLIAM WEATHERS

Contributing writer

Not every regular-season victory is createdequal, but all have identical value. No.5 LSU,a game after posting its ﬁrst run-rule win over No. 24 Alabama in 23 years, had to grind out a2-1 victory SaturdayinSoutheastern Conference play before2,279 fans at awindy Tiger Park.

“The two pitchers for them did anice job today,” LSU coach Beth Torinasaid “I think ouroffense did a nicejob of ﬁndingways to score. Sometimes it’slike that. Sometimes you just have to ﬁnd away.”

LSU (34-4, 8-3 SEC) won its third conference series and will try to sweep Alabama (27-15, 4-7) for the ﬁrsttime since 2013 in a4 p.m. matchup Sunday Alabama narrowedLSU’s lead to 2-1 with arun in the ﬁfth and left thebasesloaded. The Tide also loaded the basesinthe seventh, getting aleadoff single that resulted in staff aceSydney Berzon coming in relief of starter Jayden Heavener.

Instead of having Heavener,who threw 119 pitches, face the Alabama lineup for afourth time, Torina opted for Berzon, who recorded

LSU

Continued from page 1C

(2 for4)withoutaplayatthe plate.

Heavener ran intotrouble in the topofthe ﬁfth when Bama loaded the bases on a single,walk andhit batter She hit Duchscherer in the helmetwith an 0-2pitchfor arun but responded with astrikeout of pinch hitter

Mari Hubbard to end the inning.

“The walks and hit batters are kind of repetitive for me,” Heavener said. “I’m trying to workthrough those and get themlower each game.”

LSU had asimilar start to Friday’s8-0 win.

Tulane cooks Rice with 15 hits in series clincher

Wave cruisesin firstgameofDH

BY GUERRYSMITH

Contributing writer

Rice made alate starting pitching change forthe opener of Saturday’sdoubleheader against Tulane.

Maybethe Owls should have stuck with their original plan to throw left-hander J.D. McCracken.

Tulane began the bottom of the second inning with ﬁve straight hits and three runs off right-hander Tucker Alch on theway to aseries-clinching 10-3 victory at Turchin Stadium.Alchallowed 10 hits through four innings, and the Wave shattered its season high of 14 by getting 10 more off tworelievers in the next four

Hugh Pinkney led off the bottom half with asingle, and Agabedis and Bryant followed withsingles to load the bases. Slaton cleared them withadouble, scoring Pinkney and Agabedis easily before Bryant took advantage of an outfield bobble to get homeaswell. The same PinkneyAgabedis-Bryantsection produced arun in the third with back-to-back-to-back singles.

the first out with apop fly She had the opportunity for the second out when she gloved LarissaPreuitt’s grounder,but threw the ball past first basemanTori Edwards, giving the Tide runners at secondand third base Kali Heivilin drew awalk to load thebases when Berzon responded witha strikeout of cleanup hitter Abby Duchschener and aground ball that DaniecaCoffey threw toEdwards forthe finalout Heavener (11-2) allowed arun on three hits, walked four and struck out seven, while Berzon earned her first save of the season

tying herfor third on the school’s career list with eight.

“I knewshe felt terrible about that,” Torina said of Berzon’s miscue. “She does agood job of not being fazed by anything.”

Heavener carried ano-hitterinto the fourthwhen opposing pitcherCatelyn Riley singled with two outs to left before Marlie Giles ﬂied out to Jalia Lassiter in center LSU, which outhit Bama 8-3, made it 2-0 in the fourth witharun against Riley. Jadyn Laneaux doubled to left-centerfield,moved to third on Coffey’s bloop single andscored on asuicide squeeze bunt from Lassiter

Coffey (2 for 3) drew a leadoff walk and reached third on ahead-first slide on Lassiter’sinﬁeld single. Maci Bergeronwalked to load thebases, andthe Tigers scored first on Edward’s team-high54thRBI on agroundout before leaving the bases loaded.

It wasthe second straight gameBama’sstartingpitcher didn’tmake it out of the firstinning when starter Jocelyn Briski was lifted after her shortest outing the season. Riley,who inherited aone-out,bases-loaded jam, worked outoffurther trouble andsilenced theTigers until thefourth.

“Wehave asaying, ‘How baddoyou wantit?,’ ”Coffey said. “It doesn’tmatter how you get outs, you’ve got to getthe outs. We wantit real bad. It doesn’t matter how you get it done.”

Graduate student Theo Bryant, whohit hisinitial homerun of the year in Friday’s7-5 win, remained hot with singles in hisfirst twoplate appearances and ahomer off the scoreboard in thesixth.JamesAgabedistiedcareer highs with four hits and three RBIs, while Brock Slaton added a pair of doubles. Tulane (20-12, 4-4American Athletic Conference) remained undefeated in six homeseries. Struggling Rice (7-26) continued to showwhy it firedcoach Jose Cruz Jr.during the season,replacing him with former Tulane coach David Pierce. The teams playedagain later Saturday nighttofinish the series because of expected bad weather on Sunday.That gamewas not over by press time. The Wave onslaught started after Rice went ahead 1-0 on atowering home run off Trey Cehajic in thetop of the second.

Ricehung around for awhile solely on two-out success. All eight of the Owls’ hits in the ﬁrst seven inningscamewithtwo outs including four in arow duringthe ﬁfth as they closed the gap to 4-3. Cehajic (4-1) wobbled but got out of the inning on aground-ball out with runners at the corners.

Tulane increased its advantage to 6-3 on Bryant’s homer,Slaton’sdouble and GavinSchulz’sRBI single in the sixth, added arun on Agabedis’ bunt single that scored Michael Lombardi from thirdand ﬁnished off Rice with three runs on four hits in the eighth.

CarterBenbrook did not need theextra support, shutting out the Owls in four innings of relief while striking outseven.He matched his longest appearance in twoyears with the Wave, high-stepping off the mound after his second of two straight strikeouts to end the eighth.

The Rice bullpen, which has been bad all year,provided little relief.Tom Vincent’sERA increased to 11.25 in four appearances. GarrettStratton gotbattered forseven hits and four runs in 22/3 innings.

Shoresstruggled with hiscontrol at times, walking four batters. But he kept the ball on the ground (forcing sevengroundouts) and didn’tgive up much hard contact.

The only run he allowedwas a passedball that squirted past senior catcherLuisHernandez in the second inning.

“I thought (I was) just mixing pretty good, (that) was kind of the strong suit of today,” Shores said, “getting ahead, just attacking hitters.” The weather played abig part in Shores’ outing. With 40-degree temperatures and strongwinds blowing in from centerﬁeld, driving the ball in the air proved to be an almost impossible task

“This is maybe the least conducive to run-scoring conditions we’ve played in since I’ve been the coach at LSU,” Johnson said. Junior right-hander Zac Cowan replaced Shores in the sixth inning and allowed just one unearned run in four inningstoearn his fourthsave.

Cowan surrendered arun-scoringsinglewithtwo outs in the ninth inning that cut the LSU (303, 10-2 SEC) lead to one, but he stranded the game-tying run at second base by forcinga ﬂy out to end the game.

“He’sthe best. Iwouldn’ttrade himfor anybody,” Johnson said of Cowan. “The most valuable pitcher in college baseball as far as I’m concerned.” Saturday’swintry conditions

also played apart in quieting the LSU bats. The Tigers had justtwo hits after the ﬁfth inning and went 1for 13 with runners on base Hernandezand sophomore Steven Milam were the only Tigers with multiple hits.

ButLSU still jumped out to an early lead in thesecond inning thanks to an error from Oklahomasecond baseman Kyle Branch.Freshman Derek Curiel hita groundball with twoouts that went right through the freshman’slegs, allowing two runs to score and handing the Tigersa 2-0 advantage.

AfterOklahoma (23-8, 5-7) answered with arun in thebottom half of theinning,LSU stretched its lead back to two in the fourth after Curiel’sdouble down the left-field line scored junior Chris Stanfield from first base.

“Whetherit’srain delaysand ﬁnishing at 2a.m. or 28 degrees and windy,” Johnson said, “you name it,theystayinthe fight, stay prepared.”

Curiel’shit extended his onbase streak to 33 games, breaking LSU’sprevious freshman on-base record (since at least 1985) set by MikeFontenot in 2000.

“That means alot,obviously to me andmy family.Ithink that’s great,” Curiel said. “I think it’s asteppingstoneinmycareer here, but obviously I’m here to do more.”

LSU’sroad trip continueson Tuesday in Thibodaux when the TigersfaceNicholls State. The game was rescheduled from its original date of Feb.19. First pitch is slated for 6p.m. andthe game will be available to stream on ESPN+.

GYM

Continuedfrom page1C

straight, andSpartans, their ﬁrst since 1988. The top twoteams from each of four regionals advance to theNCAA championships on April 17-19 in Fort Worth.

It is LSU’s34thNCAAchampionship appearance and15thregional title.

LSU started on uneven bars and had a49.450 led by a9.925 from freshmanleadoff gymnast Lexi Zeiss. The Tigers held aslim lead after onerotation on theSpartans (49.425), whocompeted on ﬂoor Michigan State then wentto vault and threw astrong 49.650 at LSU, but theTigersresponded with something even better.Led by 9.95s from freshman Kailin Chio (tying hercareer-high) and seniorAleah Finnegan, as well as a career-high 9.925 from sophomore Kylie Coen, LSUposted a49.675 on balance beam, its best NCAA regional score ever in that event.

At thehalfway point, LSU led Michigan State99.125-99.075.

“Weputzed around on ourbar landings in thefirst rotationand didn’ttakeadvantage of ouropportunities,” Clark said. “Then we went to beam and wired beam.Itwas good to seethem respond thatway.”

While returning to theNCAA championships is the headline for the Tigers, having Konnor McClain back on ﬂoor is acompelling subplot. TheAll-America sophomore performed on ﬂoor for the first time all season after being limitedtounevenbars andbalance beam after recovering from atorn Achilles she suffered in May dur-

(Vault—49.350, Bars 49.450, Beam —49.675, Floor —49.575) 2. #8 Michigan State 198.000 (Vault —49.650, Bars— 49.575, Beam —49.350, Floor —49.425) 3. #9 Kentucky 197.625 (Vault—49.250, Bars —49.450, Beam —49.525, Floor —49.400) 4. #16 Arkansas 197.375 (Vault—49.225, Bars —49.250,Beam —49.400, Floor —49.500) Individual (includes ﬁrst place and all LSU competitors, regional titles were decided in semiﬁnals)

All-around 1. Nikki Smith, Michigan State, 39.650; 2. Joscelyn Roberson, Arkansas, 39.625; T3. Aleah Finnegan, Haleigh Bryant, LSU,39.600; 5. Delaynee Rodriguez, Kentucky,39.525; 6. SkylarKillough-Wilhelm, Kentucky,39.400; 7. Gabrielle Stephen, Michigan State, 39.050. Vault T1. Nikki Smith, Sage Kellerman, Michigan State, 9.95; T5.HaleighBryant, Amari Drayton, KJ Johnson, LSU,9.90; T15. Aleah Finnegan, Lexi Zeiss, LSU, 9.825; 24. Kailin Chio, LSU,9.75. Bars 1. Nikki Smith, Michigan State, 9.975; T4. Lexi Zeiss, LSU,9.925; T7. Haleigh Bryant, Kailin Chio, LSU, 9.90; 14. Ashley Cowan, LSU,9.875; T15. Konnor McClain,Aleah Finnegan,LSU,9.85. Beam T1. Aleah Finnegan, Kailin Chio, LSU Joscelyn Roberson, Arkansas,SharonLee, Kentucky,9.975; T5.Haleigh Bryant, Konnor McClain, Kylie Coen, LSU, 9.925; T10. Sierra Ballard, LSU,9.90. Floor 1. Aleah Finnegan, LSU, 9.975; 6. Amari Drayton, LSU, 9.925; T7.Konnor McClain, SierraBallard, LSU, 9.90; T12. Haleigh Bryant, LSU,9.875; T14. Kylie Coen, LSU,9.85. Attendance: N/A

ing apre-Olympic meet McClain replaced freshman Kailin Chio, who competed in the otherthreeevents, andgot a9.90on ﬂoor. LSU’sbig score in the event came from senior Aleah Finnegan, whotiedher season-bestwitha 9.975 that was the Tigers’ best score on any event the entire regional.

“Chio was fatigued,”Clark said. “She didn’tfeel great today.Konnor went up and knocked it out of thepark.” McClain, speaking to ESPNannouncersafter themeet,beamed as she said competing again on ﬂoor “meanseverything to me.

“It seems like adream after everything we’ve been through as a team, what I’ve been through per-

sonally,” McClain said. “It’s just been the best.”

The Tigers basically coasted home from there as both LSU and MichiganState matched scoresin the final two rotations while keeping Kentucky andArkansasat arm’slength. LSU went 49.575 on floor led by Finnegan’s9.975, then hadnothing better thana 9.90 on vault fora 49.350, discarding an uncharacteristic 9.75 fromChio LSU still held on to the regional title when Michigan State beam anchor Gabrielle Stephen, who won theregional all-aroundtitle in Thursday’sregional semifinals, fell and got a9.30. Finneganfinishedfirst on floor and in afirst-placetie on beam with Chio,Arkansas’ Joscelyn Roberson andKentucky’sSharon Lee. Michigan State’sNikki Smith finished first in the all-around (39.650), tied forfirst on vault with teammate Sage Kellerman (9.95) and wasfirst on bars (9.975).

TheTigers’ 198.050 was their third-best scoreina regionalﬁnal ever andfourth-best scoreina regional in any round after LSU’s 198.100 Thursday to win itssemiﬁnal.

LSU will remain the No. 1overallseed going to Fort Worth, even though Clark thought his Tigers could have performed better here and there. Still, he didn’twantthempeaking too soon.

“Weleft alot out there,” he said. “Wereally did. We could have been at 198.5 or 198.6 tonight.

“But tonight is not the night. We’ve got to keep it in itsproper place. Ididn’twant them to blow everything up tonight. Iwanted us to do what we did.”

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU second baseman SierraDaniel slides safely past thetag of Alabamashortstop Salen Hawkinsduring the fifthinning on SaturdayatTiger Park. The fifth-ranked Tigers wontheir third SECseries of the season

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU starter Jayden Heavener delivers apitch against Alabama on Saturday. Heavener,who carried ano-hitter intothe fourth inning,was relievedinthe seventh by Sydney Berzon whogot her eighth save of her career

STAFF FILE PHOTOBySCOTT THRELKELD

Tulane third baseman James Agabedis tied hiscareer highs with fourhitsand three RBIs in Saturday’s 10-3 win against Rice in the first game of adoubleheader

Hamlin looks for next step toward Cup title

BY PETE IACOBELLI Associated Press

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Ham-

lin is continually questioning his conﬁdence as he navigates his latest try for a NASCAR Cup Series title.

Hamlin’s win last week at Martinsville has him in the ﬁeld of 16 when the playoffs come around in about ﬁve months. And he’s prepping to run the Goodyear 400 on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, a track where he leads all current drivers with four previous victories Still, Hamlin said self-scouting is essential.

“I think it’s always good to question your conﬁdence,” Hamlin said Saturday If you don’t, Hamlin explained, you’re left wondering if you’ve truly done all you can to make your race team as successful as possible. Hamlin, 44, has done just about everything possible in the sport

except claim a championship. He’s won the Daytona 500 and Southern 500 three times each and owns a victory in the 2022 Coca-Cola 600, the circuit’s longest race and considered another of the sports’ crown jewels.

Still, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver with 55 career wins has not cashed in his numerous opportunities at a title. He was in NASCAR’s last four four times (2014, 2019, 2020, 2021) without a ﬁnal, career-deﬁning win.

There’s a long stretch to go before Hamlin fully focuses on ending that title drought. Last week’s breakthrough victory was a positive step

“It was certainly a great week for the team,” he said. And whenever they can follow success like that at a track where Hamlin has won before the last time was the Southern 500 in 2021 — it adds to the team’s excitement to get back to work.

Points leader William Byron knows what it’s like to win at Darlington, which he did in this race two years ago. There are good feelings whenever you return somewhere you’ve had success before. “It’s a tough place to run, but knowing we’ve done well there helps,” he said.

Byron’s teammate, Kyle Larson, is second in points through seven races with a victory at HomesteadMiami two weeks ago He too, has felt the boost of confidence after a Darlington win, taking the Southern 500 in 2023, then ﬁnishing fourth in his last visit this past Labor Day weekend.

“It’s always been someplace I’ve felt good about,” Larson said.

Hamlin had a strong qualifying performance and will start third Sunday Byron took the top spot with Ryan Preece right behind.

The rest of the top 10 starters are Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell.

Ewers embarks on NFL journey with no regrets

CALVIN WATKINS

The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

DALLAS The first high school prospect to cash in on NIL is getting ready to be paid as a professional.

Quinn Ewers from Southlake Carroll wanted to stay in high school to receive compensation, but UIL rules prevented him from doing so as a senior So Ewers entered college early, enrolling at Ohio State to earn a cool $1 million in NIL. He departed after taking two snaps to return home.

Ewers ﬁnished his college career at Texas, enduring injuries and a Manning looking over his shoulder

Ewers said he’s got no regrets with the difﬁcult decision he made to leave high school early, transfer from Ohio State and even leave Texas for the NFL.

“I think that you know, the school makes a lot of money off of what we do,” Ewers said at the NFL scouting combine. “So for us to be able to make a little bit of money off that too, I think it was really cool and obviously NIL was the reason I left my senior year [of high school] early So there was a lot of that impact for sure.” Last season, Ewers said he was healthy for maybe two or three games. He dealt with a partially torn oblique muscle and a sprained ankle. He finished the season named second-team AllSEC and tied for sixth in FBS with 31 touchdowns. Ewers also threw a touchdown in his final 27 games. Health, he missed five games because of shoulder issues between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, slowed his development and some NFL scouts question if he can stay healthy for a full season. Then there was Arch Manning waiting to take over at Texas. Ewers said Manning is a pal and “he’s gonna be a great player, obviously.” Ewers could have stayed one

more season at Texas to improve his draft stock and to delay Manning eventually taking over the starting job.

“I wanted to continue on my journey to the NFL, and I wanted to leave a legacy at Texas and I didn’t want to disrupt that at all,” he said.

Former Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has worked with Ewers during the draft process, making sure he’ll be ready for workouts with teams.

So the player the Cowboys visited with Wednesday at The Star is moving on from NIL, Texas football and the mullet to the NFL.

“You know, the Texas legislature wasn’t gonna allow high school football players to be paid,” Ewers said. “I had a big opportunity in front of me to go make a good chunk of money And I kind of went about it [like], I don’t know what’s certain in the future, but I know what’s certain right now and there’s a good chunk of money that could change a lot of things, and I decided to go ahead and take that step in time.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHUCK BURTON

Denny Hamlin hugs his fiancee Jordan Fish after winning a NASCAR Cup Series race on March 30 in Martinsville, Va

AP PHOTO By GARETH PATTERSON Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers passes against Ohio State during the first half of the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10 in Arlington, Texas.

BY RICHARD CAMPANELLA

FContributing writer

ew wordsdistressed navigators morethan “the bar” —referring to the sandbarthat regularly obstructedthe mouth of the Mississippi River —until a remarkable engineer from St.Louis solved theproblem,starting150 years ago this month.

Sedimentationhad vexedriver navigation sincethe founding of Louisiana,but the 1870s saw theworst of it. “The Port of New Orleans,”wrote historian Walter M. Lowrey,“wasalmost hermetically sealed for months.”

The product of natural processes exacerbated by deforestation and poor soil conservation, immense quantities of sand, silt and clay particles settled to form shoals and sandbars in thethree passes connecting themain river channel to thesea. Historically,much of this sediment would have been dispersed across thedeltaic plain, beneﬁcially shoring up thecoastal wetlands. But the construction of artiﬁcial levees along the lower Mississippi redirected that increasing sedimentload to concentrate within theriver channel. Now, oceanic vessels, ever-growing in size and weight, found their hulls at greater risk of running aground among the shifting shoals. Ships awaited theright conditions to “jump the bar,”

ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

Blame it on the gravedigger.

As the story goes, he’sresponsible for the incorrect layout of the St. Joseph Catholic Church Cemetery at 401 S. Adams Ave., in Rayne, which caught the eye of “Ripley’sBelieve It Or Not!” in 1997

Ripley’sfeatured the cemetery in its syndicated newspaper comic panel on July 24,

1997, declaring that notonly did the gravesites’ northsouth placement buck thecemetery tradition of east and west, it was also the only cemetery in theUnited States withgraves facing the wrong way ‘Wrong WayCemetery’

This may accountfor its local nickname, the“Wrong Way Cemetery.” ALouisiana State Historical

Marker standing kitty-corner commemorates the cemetery’s incorrect layout, concluding that no one really knows why or how this happened. Which prompted Dee Jeffers’ inquiry

“I grew up in Branch, and I have relatives buried in that cemetery,” the Baton Rouge resident said. “Weknew the graves were facing the wrong way,but no one ever said why

explained one traveler in the 1870s. Positioned “at the shoal of danger,” the pilot would lay on the steam and strike “the bar full speed ahead,” until passengers felt “a jolt, ascraping, agrinding on the sand.” Some ships cleared the bar; others got stuck; all lost timeand money “A landlubber cannot imagine what it meanstobeapilot.”

Maritime logistics

Navigators had tried everything from digging to dredging to solve the problem,but ended up learning to live with it, by building an outpost named La Balise (“sea beacon”) where sailing ships could transfer cargo to smaller boats to be rowed upriver.Others took soundings to feel out asafe passage, or contracted with tow boats, later powered by steam,tobe dragged upriver In 1832, Louisiana state

ä See GEOGRAPHIES, page 8D

The gravesites in St. Joseph Catholic CemeteryNo. 1in Rayne are positioned north and south instead of the traditional east and west, which earned it the

EadsJetties under construction, Harper’sWeekly 1883 | PHOTO COURTESy

PROVIDED PHOTO FROM THE LIBRARy OF CONGRESS James Buchanan Eads

nickname the ‘Wrong WayCemetery.’

STAFFPHOTO

By ROBIN MILLER

DININGSCENE

NewOrleans sushispotopens with

Some sushi fanatics will follow their favorite chefs from one restaurant to the next, the way others travel with their stylist to a new salon.

So during adinner rush at Kuro Sushi Bar,chef Tommy Mei’shead was on aswivel, moving from the beautiful salmon he was cutting to thenext group of diners walking through the door.He’sonaﬁrstname basis with many of them.

Ian McNulty WHAT’S COOKING

Mei and his partnersopened Kuro in early February,and the chef’s fan base has been showing up. There have been lots of ﬁst bumps and sake toasts along the dining counter (the restaurant is BYOB for now).

Some know the chef from his mostrecent post at Shogun where he ran what must be the area’slargest sushi bar.Plenty of others met him at earlier stops in the three decades he’sbeen workingthe local sushi circuit Kuro is tiny compared to Shogun(thelocation was previously Blue Giant, and brieﬂy Chinese Kitchen Club). The smaller frame puts aﬁner focus on his specialties.

He’sserving ashort menu. It has aslim list of hot appetizers, a few salads and then it’sall sushi. The regular list of ﬁsh readslike the changing specials board at other restaurants (taisnapper, kampachi jack, aji). The specialty is dressed nigiri, with ﬁsh pressed into rice and adash of sauces, garnishes and other augmentations.

Alldressed up

It might be abit of trufﬂe tapenadedolloped on asweet raw scallop with awashofpesto made from shiso leaf and garlic, or the blowtorch sear on apiece of halibut that keeps it essentially rawbut adds adelicate exterior texture and atoasty ﬂavor

The A5 Wagyu for abeef nigiri is almost white with fat when raw. It leaps with ﬂavorwhen torched

andabetted by apad of foie gras and abutton of foie gras butter applied with the base of afork. Normally,the less done to great ﬁsh, the better.But thekey to dressed sushi is elevating without overwhelming,and Kuro nails this.

The cuts of ﬁsh are generous, therice ratio is properly light.

The toppingshave you yearning for the next taste. Even if you normally dispatcha sushi piecein onebite, you might ﬁnd yourself

takingthese in two, just to extend thepleasure.

Omakasetime

To really give it ago, order theomakase, andyou’re in the chef’s hands for aprogression of courses. It varies with the special items he has available, and however long it takes you to drop the chopsticks and say uncle. These

variables determine the bill you rack up, though the general framework is $8 apiece. Someomakase mealswill alternatesushiwith cooked dishes.

The one Mei put together forme at Kuro was all ﬁsh. It brought somedishes Iexcitedly expected from past mealswith him.For instance, familiarity did nothing to diminish the thrill of araw Kuma-

motooyster with its shell garlanded with uni and roe, giving waves of ocean flavor in one gulp. Other dishes Idid not see coming. One plate was asmall, whole ají (horse mackerel), very rich and somewhat sour in flavor, served with its flanks raw and the rest of it fried —head, tail and all, stuck with bits of flesh. It was cooked so crisp that every piece of it crackled like seafood chips as we broke it apart.

Rollingon

From the regular menu, the ﬁsh

carpaccio stands out with bluefin tuna, burgundy red and supple, plated forthis trio of fish between yellowtail and salmon slices, all of it doused with olive oil and the bright zing of yuzu juice. Rolls are not really the emphasis, but when Isaw the Kuro roll come together,I knew I would have to try it, too. Filled with chopped tuna mixed with “crunchies” (tempura bits) and avocado, it’slayered with thick slices of salmon and then aseam of garlic chili crunch, with the oil seeping around the rice and the mildly spicy crispy bits adding a final layer.Itfeels almost like a guilty pleasure next to the more refined nigiri and omakase offerings, but it’sapleasure nonetheless.

Ilove watching sushi chefs work, and the bar at Kuro gives acooking show-quality view, without even the usual linear ﬁsh fridge in the way.Mei designed the bar to be clean-lined forthis reason. Mei himself manages to orchestrate ascene without being an overt showman.There’sbalance in that too.

KuroisBYOB for now,pending its liquor license (tip: nearby Keife&Co. wine shop, at 801 HowardAve., has agreat sake selection); Kuroisalso in the process of permitting the outdoor parklet seating area it inherited with the location.

STAFFPHOTO By IAN MCNULTy

Chef Tommy Mei serves aselection of uni rolls at Kuro SushiBar in NewOrleans.

AKumamotooyster,giant clam on shiso leaf and treatments of monkfish liver are partofan omakase

n Light up the Night

Debutante Fiona Hanna Marks was the luminary at the party given by her parents, Mr.and Mrs. Everard William Marks III, Britta and Everard,at the New Orleans Country Club. The former home of Mrs.Marks, Berlin, Germany,inspired the handsome Scriptura invitation that depicted a nocturnal cityscape with ﬁreworks in the indigo sky,and later,the country club became an ideal canvas for the mapped projections of multiple thematic images.

Guests were gobsmacked by the décorand the constantly changing scenesprojectedonthe walls of the club’smain ballroom.Included were Berlin’sstriking skyline,popular nightclubs and restaurants, and daily street life,along with two clocks: ahuge hydrangea-filled one and aprojected animated cuckooclock. Time was both measured andrelished as the party pack anticipated aNew Year.Further features were fireworks-inspired floralarrangements by Dunn &Sonnier,aswell as the recreatedBrandenburg Gate,Berlin’s most famous landmark, and thebackdrop for The Phunky Monkeys band. KennyLaCour Grand Events, was the partyplanner and producer Deb Fiona was radiant in apale blueflowered gownof French embroidered tulle that she designed and Yvonne Counce made. Mom Britta chose asilk dress of iridescent teal with amatching capethatwas madeinBerlin by a German designer German cuisine influenced the menu with,asfavorite items, Flammkuchen bites, caviar,seared smokedsalmon, pub chips and blinis,schnitzel with Germanpotato salad, and porcini crustedtenderloin and black truffle sauce.Paces were constantly madetothe Champagne bar.For the suite of sweets, Zoe’sBakeryconfected Linzer and Sacher tortes, and Black Forest cake.

Renee and Peter Laborde

Imbibing all of these features were deb brother Konrad Marks, Michelle Marks Collins, Peter and Stephanie Donovan, Kyle Marksand Tiffany Swoboda, Kathyand John Eastman, Michelle and Leo Seoane Virginia and John Rowan, Kate and John Werner,Louellen and Darryl Berger,Peggy and Jack Laborde, Penny and RobertAutenreith, Joanie and JimHuger,Steven Parker and Lally Brennan,and Jenifer and John Besh. To mention afew during anight when we were “all Berliners.” Of course music brightened upthe bash. Inthe Founders’ Room, astring quartet led by Harry Hardin entertained guests with lively arrangementsofclassical and modern selections. Then, later,the danceﬂoor wasthe place to be —and boogie —as The Phunky Monkeys got thegroove going with such hits as “I Will Survive” and “YMCA.” All the while, Fiona made hermerry “mark,” as she lit up thenight with gratitude and glee.

n VictoryBall

Within the curtsying cotillion,Misses

Olivia Ellen Convenuto, Evelyn AlineDrez and Isabelle Coret Breaux caughtthe eye, and elicited applause, at the Victory Ball of theSociety of the Warof1812 in the StateofLouisiana The demoiselles, who representedNew Orleans, Louisiana, and Massachusetts, are the daughters of Brig.Gen. (stepfather) and Mrs. John Bettes Dunlap III, Mr.and Mrs.Craig Drez and Mr.and Mrs. James Breaux. Dr Patrick Carroll Breaux escorted Miss Breaux. Brig. Gen.

n A.B. Strikes Again

Such was the heading on theinvitation foradeb partyinhonor of Annabelle Brown,daughter of Mr.and Mrs. L. Baldwin Brown, Lauraand Baldwin, that wasright up everyone’salley.Bowling, that is! Rock ‘N’Bowl was thesite for the night.Yuletide decorations kicked in with Santa hats and jungle bells. Abrace of belles, mom Laura and the honoree, wore outﬁts respectively from Saks Fifth Avenue and SOSUSU.All thanked partyplanner,Party on Brown, Molly Brownproprietor

As did dozens, deb sister Molly Brown, Eileen and Parker Stewart, Meg and David Sumrall,Yvonne and Oscar Gwin, Lizand Dunbar Healy,Becky and Scott Slatten, Brittonand MichaelMiller,Millieand H. ElderBrown,Anne and Edmund Redd, Elizabeth Brown Soslow and Timothy, Maria and Noel Johnson,Amy and Billy King,Deirdre and Dan Macnamara,and Germaineand GeoffGjerston joined the deb set at the food tables. Classic Cajun cuisine, pizza squares, and Bittersweet Confections desserts pleased the palate, as did thespecialtyS’anna rita drink.

Throughout theevening, guests queued up to bowl. Jubilant cries arose with strikes. Then at 8p.m., theAtlanta band Az-izz struck up the sounds and the dance ﬂoor lured one and Annabelle all.

Rodney B. Painting is the society president and Messrs Gregory Dalton Woolverton, Rushton Garic Barrosse, Rene Joseph Navarre, HenryPhillip Rouquette Jr., Paul Mire Melancon,RyanLee Waldron, (Maj.)

Bradley T. Hayes, GeraldLloyd Schroeder Jr and John Clifford Grout Jr are ofﬁcers. The above John Dunlap and Roger F.Villere Jr chaired the ball at theMetairie Country Club, whereVillere’sFlorist did the ﬂowers.

Several of the above portrayed historic ﬁgures, such as Rodney Painting, Gen. Andrew Jackson, thewar’svictor; Gregory Woolverton, Gov.William C.C. Claiborne;

and Roger Villere, New Orleans Mayor Nicholas Girod. Mr.Navarre wasthe grand marshal and Lynda Moreau sang the national anthem.

After thewhite-gowned demoiselles were presented, societymembers and guests enjoyed music by theJimmy Maxwell Orchestra and abuffet supper.Quite afew remembered theorigin of theGrand MilitaryVictory Ball. When news of the 1812 victory reached Rachel Jackson, spouse of Gen. Andrew,she, and others, decided on a gala celebration in New Orleans.

PHOTOSByJEFF STROUT

Britta, Fionaand Everard Marks

Michelle Collins, Kyle Marks, Peter and Stephanie Donovan

Bill and Liz Armstrong,Konrad Marks

PHOTO By JEFFSTROUT Baldwin, Annabelle and Laura Brown

LizHealy,Jane Slatten, Becky Slatten, Britton Miller

Molly Brown, Timand Elizabeth Brown Soslow

Millie and Elder Brown

Ron, Evelyn and Craig Drez, Brig.Gen RodneyPainting

Olivia Ellen Convenuto, Brig General John Dunlap

PHOTOS By MARy STROUT

Patrick Breaux,Isabelle Breaux, RogerVillere Jr

Rene Navarre, HenryRouquette Jr

BY CHERE COEN Contributing writer

There’ssomething innately heart-soaring about walking among ﬂowers and greenery after winter’sstretch of bareness. It’s akin to turning on awarmlight in adarkened room.

We’re fortunate in Louisiana that winter’s“lease hath alltoo short adate,” to borrow asonnet phrase from Shakespeare (he remarked on summer,but as we know,summer feels endless). But spring gives us acolorfulwindow between cold, rainy winter and the onset of humid summer

Here are some lovely gardens to enjoy spring blossoms, both close to home and withina short drive.

Within Louisiana

Afton Villa, St. Francisville, aftonvilla.com

Every spring andfall, Alton Villa’s20acresofformal gardens are open to the public. From now until June 30, stroll the grounds and enjoy the famous ruinsgardens, aformal parterre garden ancient live oak trees, ahistoric family cemetery and much more. New Orleans Botanical Garden,CityPark, neworleanscitypark.org

City Park’s10-acre Botanical Garden—the city’sﬁrstpublic classical garden —containsmore than 2,000 plant varieties from aroundthe world andishome to 15 statues at the Enrique Alferez Sculpture Garden, the Conservatory of the TwoSisters and the Historic New Orleans Train Garden. Louisiana residents are admitted free every Wednesday LongueVue House and Gardens, New Orleans, longuevue.com

This former home of philanthropists Edith and Edgar Stern contains eight acres of gardens designed by 20th-century landscape designer Ellen Biddle Shipman. Visitors may tour boththe historic home and gardens.

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER

By ChristopherElliott

TRAVEL

acres featuring azalea gardens, trails and more.

The BiedenharnMuseum &Gardens, Monroe,www.bmuseum.org

This museum complex includes theBiedenharn home built by Joseph Biedenharn, theﬁrst bottler of Coca-Cola. Enjoy the home’s antiques and artifacts and the nearby Bible Museum and the Coca-Cola Museum, but don’tmiss thehome’sformal English gardens, greenhouse and fountain. Jungle Gardens,AveryIsland, www.junglegardens.org

American Rose Center, rose.org

The national home of the American Rose Society,the 118acre wooded tract near Shreveport is thenation’s largest park dedicatedsolely to roses.Peak bloomtimes are April to June and September to October,but the park is open year-round with walkingtrails, apicnic area and achildren’splayground.While in Shreveport,visit the R.W.Norton Art Gallery for its 40 landscaped

We know theMcIlhenny family for giving us Tabasco, but Edward A. McIlhenny opened his 170-acre gardens to thepublic in 1935 and it’sbeen apopular attraction ever since. Visitors will enjoy camellias, azaleas and assorted plants as well as wildlife, the 900-yearold Buddha and the “Bird City” rookery

Nearby is Rip VanWinkle Gardens on Jefferson Island, 15 acres of semi-tropical gardens surrounding amansion once home to

La.and

American actor Joseph Jefferson. After touring the gardens, enjoy lunch in CaféJefferson overlooking the lake. www.ripvanwinklegardens.com

Kisatchie National Forest, www.fs.usda. gov/kisatchie

The Wild Azalea Trail in the Kisatchie National Forest’sEvangeline Unitofthe Calcasieu Ranger District, west and southwest of Alexandria, provides aglimpse into thestate’sonly native azalea variety.

Trail maps may be picked up at tourist welcomecenters and the Wild Azalea Trail end points at the Kisatchie National Forest’sValentine Lake Recreation Area and Woodworth Town Hall. Briarwood Nature Preserve, Saline,briarwoodnp.org

Thirty minutes from Natchitoches, this pristine acreage was once home to Caroline Dormon, a20th-century naturalist who helped create the Kisatchie National Forest and the Louisiana StateArboretum.Today her homesteadisopen to the public to view native ﬂowers and shrubs of central Louisiana —look for Louisianairises this month —but tours must be scheduled, weather permitting.

Baton Rouge and Lafayette City Gardens

The Botanical Gardens at Independence Community Park in Baton Rouge is managed by the Baton Rouge Garden Club, and the public is invited to walk through thegardens at no charge. Lafayette Master Gardeners maintain ademonstration garden at the Ira Nelson Horticulture Center on theUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette campus, ﬁlled with plants and educational information. Within aday’s drive

Bellingrath Gardens, outside Mobile,Alabama, bellingrath.org

The 65 acres of Bellingrath Gardens, and the homeofWalter and BessieBellingrath, come

alive this time of year,ﬁrst with its brilliant display of 250,000 azaleas. Bloomscontinue throughout the spring with special events at Easter and the Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival, April 17 through June 15. GarvanWoodland Gardens, HotSprings, Arkansas, www.garvangardens.org

The gentle rolling hills by the shores of Lake Hamilton provide the University of Arkansas with fertile ground forawide variety of ﬂowers, shrubs and trees. To check bloom times on the ﬂowers gracing Garvan’s210 acres, visit Garvan’sFacebook page.

HoustonBotanic Garden, Houston, hbg org Aformer golf course southeast of downtownisnow hometonative plants, ﬂowers and trees at the 132-acre Houston Botanic Garden. The attraction surrounded by SimsBayou offers several themed gardens, such as culinary and coastal prairie, and the Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden that features ahands-on experience. Classes and special events are offered throughout the year CallawayResort&Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia, www.callawaygardens.com Spring at Callaway starts with 150,000 tulips and 20,000 azalea blooms! In addition to spring blossomsonthe 2,500 acres by Mountain Creek Lake, visitors may enjoy ﬁshing, hiking, the Virginia Hand Callaway Discovery Center and Cason’sGarden with its new art installation, “Flights of Color,” acolorful display of kites.

Gibbs Gardens, Ball Ground, Georgia, www.gibbsgardens.com

Gibbs is knownfor opening at the onset of spring and the ﬂowering of its 20 million-plus daffodils on morethan 50 acres, truly a sight to see. As the daffodil explosion ceases, the garden’sazaleas bloom in early April. Gibbs has a large collection of native azaleas, but also 1,200 Encore azaleas for atotal of morethan 3,000 azaleas.

Booking.comrentalinItaly wasascamand bots were no help

Christopher Elliott

Irecently used Booking.com to reserve an apartment in Menaggio, Italy,for two nights. Idecided to use Booking.combecause of its reputation and the property’spositive reviews. Before Ileft, Inoticed the ratings forthis place had tanked, and Inervously reached out to Booking.com, letting them know my concern and to makesure they would stand behind the booking.Theysaid they would.

My concernwas thatmanypeoplewere arriving and not able to getinto the place and being forced to book elsewhere —basically,a fraud. ABooking.com representative assured me they had been incontact with the host and that everythingwouldbe fine.

As expected, Iarrivedand couldnot get access to the place, though Itried for a number of hours using all phone numbers. Iimmediately contacted Booking.com but didnot receivearesponse until days later.

Ihad to find anotherplace in the middle of peak season,whichwas no easy feat. But the listing stayed online,even as the negative reviews piled up

Booking.com ultimately responded that if Ihad contactedthem during the stay, they would have been able to help me. But Iwas proactive and reachedout before my stay andatthe beginning of my stay, and was met with silence.

Iwant all of my money back, and Iwant Booking.com to cover my extracosts. Can you help? —Tom Mason,Long Grove, Illinois

Booking.com should have found youa newapartment while it investigated the property.Instead,

it appears arepresentative gave youassurances that you would be able to access the rental, despite strong evidence to the contrary Your question exposes apractice that I’ve long suspected but have neverbeenable to prove: that call center representatives rarely read their own website. (If they had, they would have at least looked into your concerns.)

Youhad apretty good sense that you were getting the blowoff from Booking.com. Ilooked at your chat thread and noticed that you were getting canned responses from the“Booking Assistant,”which was most likely either AI or an AI-assisted representative.

Youmight have escalated your concern to ahigher level. I

publish the names, numbers and email addresses of the Booking. com customer service managers on my consumer advocacy website, Elliott.org. Abrief, polite email to one of them might have ﬁxed this Unfortunately,myadvocacy team and Ihave been seeing too many of these kinds of cases recently It feels like online agencies are no longer staffed by humans, but by AIs that can’tunderstand even the most basic customer service problem. Ihope I’m wrong about that.

Icontacted the company on your behalf. ABooking.com representative apologized for your experience and said it usually investigates any potentially sus-

picious listings “swiftly.”

“In this instance, we recognize that we did not support as quickly as we normally would and have been in touch to apologize to the customer directly,” the representative added. “Wecan conﬁrm the property has been suspended from our platform while aproper investigation is carried out.” In addition to refunding the total amount of the original booking, Booking.com also covered the difference in cost for the alternate accommodation.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy,anonproﬁt organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.

ARTS &CULTURE

Vietnamese create agenerationalhomeinNew Orleans

‘Making It Home’ looksat aftermath of fall of Saigon

Dave Walker

Acouple of key timelineentries inform the visitor experience for “Making It Home: From Vietnam to New Orleans,” anew exhibit on view at The Historic New Orleans Collection through Oct. 5. One is April 30, 1975, the day Saigon felltoNorth Vietnamese troops. The otherisless speciﬁc, but it was the day about a decade ago when HNOC’sstaff recognized ahole in the institution’s vastarchive of research materials relating to New Orleans history “Wewere reviewingour holdings and realized that we didn’t have anything that really documented the Vietnamese experience here in the city,” said Mark Cave, HNOC senior historian and the exhibit’scurator.“And so we reached out to Mary Queenof Vietnam Church and we organized aseries of oral history interviews with senior members of the community.Wehad atranslatorwho helped facilitate the interviews.”

Mary Queen of Vietnam in eastern New Orleans had longbeen a hub of community and culture for the refugees who settled in Louisiana after the Vietnam War.

The current local community of those with Vietnamese lineage numbers in the tens of thousands Their presence is attributed to the Gulf Coast’ssubtropical climate, its ﬁshing and shrimpingindustries and the support of Catholic Charities.

Some of the oral historiesgathered for the project were included in “NOLA Life Stories,” the ongoing program for which HNOC partners with WWNO-FM. The approach of the 50th anniversary of Saigon’sfall put afull-scale exhibition in motion.

Interviews,photographs

“Weworked and continuedto add interviews with ‘Generation 1.5,’ or people that were children at the time of the diaspora, and so

shores. The “Coming Together” se-

quence explores the geographical pockets of local resettlement.

“Stepping Forward, Looking Back” tracks the gradual but inevitable process of assimilation.

“It’sabout that‘Generation 1.5,’ this sort of entering into the communityasawhole,” Cave said.

The exhibit’stitle, “Making It Home,” carriesa double meaning.

“It’sabout boththe act of ﬁnally ﬁnding agenerational home but alsothe process of making this their home,” Cave said. “And so those twothemes are prominent in the exhibition.”

have those that will sit down and listen to the interactive content. They’ll be invited into the living room and into the kitchen in order to do that. But then there’ll be otherswho don’twork that way.They may go through and look at the pictures and everything, but with the brochure they have aconnectiontothat narrative, which we wanted to stress.

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT NEWORLEANS MUSEUMS

n “NewAfrican Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations,”focusing on the work of four contemporaryWest African artists, has openedatthe NewOrleans Museum of Art and will remain on view throughAug.10. noma.org

n Tuesday, Monika Herzig’sSheroes project will be featuredintwo events at the NewOrleans Jazz Museum. Oneisa2p.m. workshop in the museum’s third-floor performance centerexploring the works of the most influential women in jazz.The otheris a5p.m. balconyperformance by the Sheroesensemble, which will also be live-streamed. nolajazzmuseum.org

n At 6:30 p.m.Tuesday, the National WWIIMuseum will offer aDinner withaCurator event titled“Collect and Conserve: The Hunt forthe Nazi-LootedTreasuresofEurope.” nationalww2museum.org

we’veaddeda number of interviews since that ﬁrst serieswith community elders,” Cave said, addingthatsimultaneous efforts were made to add to HNOC’s holdings of objects related to the story.A collectionofphotographs andephemera made andcollected by Mark J. Sindler,who haddocumentedthe ﬁrst decade of Vietnameseresettlement, was acquired

The exhibit is organized in four sections. Theﬁrst, “Things Fall Apart,” tracks the movement of familieswithin Northand South Vietnam.Parttwo,“Adrift,” follows the postwardiaspora to U.S.

Spotlights for that conceptare afamily’srecreated dining space and living room. Actualnews footage of one local family’sperilous boat rescue plays on the living room’svintage TV set.Aninteractive display allows visitorsto track the family’sVietnam-to-New Orleans journey.Visitors can sit at the dining table to hear individuals tell their resettlement stories Storiesfromthe people

Each visitor will also receive apamphlet containing excerpts from the many individual stories told in the exhibit “People come into an exhibition differently,” Cave said. “You’ll

“The individual printed excerpts from the interviews combined withimagery from the exhibitionIthink will catch people in both ways. Those who are alittle bit morepassive in their exhibitgoing and who may just kind of go through the exhibit quickly (can) thensit down and have acappuccino and look through the brochure and read the excerpts.”

AfreeCommunity Daytocelebratethe exhibit’sopening is scheduledfor April 12. Alarger opening event is expected later during the run of the exhibit. Guided tours of the exhibit will launch May 1.

Dave Walker focusesonbehindthe-scenes coverage of the region’smany museums here and at www.themuseumgoer com. Email Daveatdwalkertp@ gmail.com.

n The Historic NewOrleans Collection will host the annual Bill Russell Lecture at 6p.m.Tuesday. The theme this year is “Women of Preservation Hall.”The evening will feature amusic performance.hnoc. org

n At 6p.m.Wednesday, the Gallier Gathering Book Club will discuss the 2019 book,“Recipesfor Respect: African American Meals and Meaning” by RafiaZafar,at Gallier House, 1132 RoyalSt. hgghh.org

n The Museum of the Southern JewishExperience will host an opening reception forits newexhibit, “Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The JewishOrphans’ Home of New Orleans” at 5:30 p.m.Wednesday. msje.org

n KeithDuncan, creator of the exhibit “Battle of the Bands,”will lead aparticipatoryArtist Workshop from 10 a.m. to 1p.m. Saturdayatthe Ogden Museum of SouthernArt ogdenmuseum.org

PROVIDED PHOTOSByTHE HISTORIC NEWORLEANS COLLECTION

Vietnamese refugeestravelbybus from FortChaffee, Ark., to NewOrleans on Dec.16, 1975, in aphoto taken by H.J.Patterson.

Sao Nguyen and his wife work in their gardenatthe Versailles Arms apartment complexinNew Orleans East in 1978, photographed by MarkSindler

‘Personal, political and wildly effective’

New Orleans poet debuts new collection

BY RIEN FERTEL

Contributing writer

“Libre” by Skye Jackson, Regalo Press, 120 pages Skye Jackson’s debut poetry collection, “Libre,” leads off with a poem that, back in 2021, won her deserved acclaim.

The ﬁrst lines of “can we touch your hair?” takes readers to a crowded Mardi Gras street scene.

“at the parades, everyone / wants to touch my hair,” Jackson writes, especially “two white women” who “try to convince me / that they love my hair.”

The pair gropes with their eyes, assures with honeyed appraisal, before disregarding personal boundaries and social norms by reaching out with unwelcome ﬁngers, providing Jackson with the poem’s tense and terse ﬁnale: “then suddenly / just like my ancestors long ago, / i am pulled apart / soft / by pale hands / from all directions.”

Personal, political and wildly effective despite its brevity, “can we touch your hair?” wrestles with centuries of history in this present moment. It’s no wonder that former U.S Poet Laureate Billy Collins chose Jackson’s poem for inclusion in the Library of Congress’s Poetry 180 program, a project dedicated to encourage high school students to read one poem each day of the academic year For a young poet working on an MFA degree at the time, this was a signiﬁcant triumph.

“Libre” is no less a success, a ﬁercely unwavering collection that heralds a major new talent Jackson, who was born in New Orleans, attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and UNO’s Creative Writing Workshop and is presently a visiting writer and lecturer at Xavier University. She is a perceptive documentarian of her hometown’s past, present and future, its joys and pains

In “i remember,” one of the collection’s strongest poems, Jackson asks New Orleanians if they recognize the sounds of a gentrifying city under the scourge of blue bikes, Starbucks and European Wax Centers.

“do you hear that,” she asks, “it’s the sound of my mama’s voice / as she taps on the window glass / when we drive down burgundy / she points to a renovated row / of candy-colored shotgun houses / and says: / i remember / when only black people / lived over there.” Jackson has a gift for sticking the landing, as in this poem’s final lines: “gentrification is just / another word / for revenge get ray nagin on the prison phone / let him know that this chocolate city / has officially melted.”

A sequence of poems follows Jackson on an amorous interlude to Europe, where she and her lover haunt hotel rooms and museum galleries — assessing these spaces with a critical eye and often humorous tone. The museums provide the more provocative and fecund subject material. At the Musée d’Orsay, she judges Manet’s “Olympia” as a painting that “captured what appears to be / the ﬁrst ever recorded side-eye / cast towards a white woman.”

In the marvelously titled “#medusawasblackyall,” Jackson sizes up Cellini’s famed bronze of Perseus holding the Gorgon’s severed head and sees herself in the sculpture’s reﬂection “once, long ago, / poseidon held a ﬁstful / of my black locs / just like this,” she writes “picture a girl built pretty and open / like a temple, only to be destroyed. / be kind: you are looking at ruins / further ruined.”

The titles of her poems are often worth the price of admission. Always rendered in lowercase, like her lines of verse, these titles some-

times become mini poems themselves, revealing precursors that only hint at the thematic complexities to come.

In “my dad doesn’t known how to ﬁght the wasps in the mailbox,” a small-scale household calamity turns into a half-serious commentary on the state of modern America. After watching her father try and fail to chase the pests away, she offers the following: “don’t you know / we’re in a housing crisis / good real estate / is hard to come by.”

Note the complexity of layers that end “when the half black man i’m in bed with calls my hair nappy,” a mountain road crash of a poem, featuring numerous jackknife twists that can only culminate in catastrophe.

“i open my mouth to speak / (& want to say / to him / tell me again / how much / your white mother / loves you) / but instead / i say / my curls are beautiful / i love my hair / so quiet / that i can’t even / convince myself / of it / but he’s / already / fast asleep.”

Jackson is unafraid to honor her literary lineage. Lorraine Hansberry, Lucille Clifton, Elizabeth Bishop, Toi Derricotte, Claudia Rankine, Jericho Brown, and Charles Simic all receive shout-outs in these pages.

But she also doesn’t steer clear from those deserving of lyrical reprimands: the Vermont Uber driver who tells her only White people live in the area; a store manager who shockingly defends stocking her shelves with mammy paraphernalia (“but they sell, my dear skye / people buy them”); and even Faye Dunaway, in the deliciously titled “avoid your heroes / trust me.”

In that poem, as throughout this collection, an uncomfortable, racially coded encounter sets Jackson’s verses ﬂowing. In two of the book’s ﬁnal poems she details similar encounters with older White men at a literary seminar in Key West. Both woo and ultimately betray her trust with micro- and macro-aggressions that render her, at those exact moments, incapable of responding.

“you are holding back something inside you,” she writes after one experience. “you want to say things but you cannot say things.”

But she says them now, not holding back, weaving herself and her experiences into these poems. I can only hope that, no longer silent, she is as the title of her book insinuates free.

Rien Fertel is the author of four books, including, most recently, “Brown Pelican.”

Inﬂuential music artist

Carl Perkins was a king in his own right

BY BARBARA SIMS Contributing writer

“Carl Perkins,The King of Rockabilly” by Jeff Apter, Citadel, 240 pages

Carl Perkins was not the bestlooking singer in The Million Dollar Quartet, he ultimately did not sell as many records as the other three Elvis Presley Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis — and he’s not the best known.

But according to biographer Jeff Apter, Perkins was the most inﬂuential in the development of rock ’n’ roll, especially in the realm of rock’s signature musical instrument, the guitar

And he wrote and performed the ﬁrst rock anthem, “Blue Suede Shoes,” charting in the Top 10 in Billboard’s pop, country and rhythm-and-blues categories. Besides, he was arguably the nicest, maintaining strong friendships with Presley, Roy Orbison and Cash, and later rock stars, particularly George Harrison, but also Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton. Though alcohol had a grip on him for a time, addiction was not a major theme of his life. He married young and had the same devoted wife until death parted them. His sons joined him in later life to form a rockabilly band that enjoyed considerable success in the U.S. and Europe.

Judged by these and other standards, Perkins’ life may be considered the most desirable and successful among his Sun (Records) peers, though Presley has been crowned the king of rock ’n’ roll and Lewis contended he was the king. Apter has avoided this controversy by naming Perkins the king of rockabilly, which many critics consider the precursor of all rock music to come.

Perkins, like Cash and many other poor country children during the Depression, picked cotton to help support his family from the time he was 5 years old. That such labor was required is illustrated by the fact that many rural schools in the South were not in session during “cotton picking time,” incidentally the name of a song by Cash. Perkins left school permanently at age 12 to work in the ﬁelds year-round and at 14, he and his two brothers formed a band that developed a following in the honky tonks in the area of his hometown, Tiptonville, Tennessee.

Apter recounts the story of Perkins hearing Presley on the radio in 1954 and, with a little push by his wife, traveling to Memphis, Tennessee, to seek an audition with Sam Phillips The head of Sun Records was impressed by his singing and guitar playing, as well as his songwriting, and lost no time in recording several sides by his band, including “Blue Suede Shoes.” This record was an instant hit and earned him an invitation to appear on Perry Como’s national radio program.

An auto accident that almost wiped out the band occurred as they were traveling to New York for the show By the time he and his brothers had recuperated enough to make the date, Elvis had covered “Blue Suede Shoes,” and Perkins’ bid for fame was seemingly lost forever Add to that the fact that Lewis had arrived at Sun and was occupying a great deal of the energy of Phillips and his brother/sales manager, Jud Phillips. After a few months of limbo at Sun, Perkins signed with Columbia Records and then a succession of other labels, none of which were able to help recapture the momentum of “Blue Suede Shoes.”

It was only with the British Inva-

sion that Perkins’ star began to rise again. Perkins was a hero to the Beatles, whose early recordings included Cash compositions “Glad All Over,” “Honey, Don’t,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” and “Matchbox.” Tours with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were followed by an invitation by Cash to join his band as guitarist and sidekick. Appearing on ABC’s “The Johnny Cash Show” gave Perkins the visibility that heretofore has eluded him.

Apter depicts Perkins’ decision to leave the Cash entourage in 1974 as inﬂuenced by the death of his two brothers, one by suicide, and a desire to spend more time at his home in Jackson, Tennessee. But eventually it ushered in the most satisfying years of his life with the formation of a band with his two sons, the C.P Express. They quickly got bookings not only in smaller venues closer to home, but in New York and Europe. It was also a time of solidifying his friendships with his numerous musician friends in England, spending extended periods in the homes of Harrison and McCartney Another high point was the making of a Cinemax video shot live with Perkins and those he had grown to know since the debut of “Blue Suede Shoes” 30 years before. Appearing on the show were Harrison, Ringo Starr Dave Edmunds, Rosanne Cash and Clapton. Cash and Lewis sent testimonials.

Apter is clearly a Perkins fan and has undertaken an exhaustive exploration of the life of an innovative guitarist, songwriter and singer who learned his craft by working alongside Black sharecroppers who sang blues and rhythm-and-blues in the ﬁelds and listening to the spirituals and country music that surrounded him in Tennessee. No one individual did more to bring about the fusion of these elements to form a new music, rock ’n’ roll, than Perkins.

As an employee of Sun Records in the late ’50s, I had the honor of writing the liner notes to his first album, and I agree with Apter’s assessment. Perkins was not as striking in his performance style as others in The Million Dollar Quartet, but he was the most multi-talented, as a performer and singer, a fine rock guitarist and a songwriter He’s a pioneer who deserves respect both as an entertainer and a fine human being. A series of strokes led to Perkins’ death in January 1998. During his life or posthumously he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and several similar musical institutions for musicians and songwriters. Both his farm upbringing and his honky-tonk experience ultimately led to his fusion of Black blues and rhythm-and-blues and the native country music he heard on the radio.

TRADE PAPERBACK

PROVIDED PHOTO

New Orleans poet Skye Jackson

Is there anyone out there who might know why?”

Author and local historian Tony Olinger stepped up with the answer.

“Wehave no proof one way or the other,soit’ssort of alegend,” he said.

In 1880, the community of Pouppevilledecided to move its community a mile west. The Southern Pacific Railroad was coming through, and the town wanted the benefit of being located along its route, now run by the Union Pacific Railroad

The community not only changed its location but also changed its name to Rayne in honor of railroad executive B.W.L. Rayne.

“Whenever the railroad came through in 1880, the priest at St. Joseph decided to move the church to Rayne,” Olinger said. “So they actually moved the church on logs and rolled it to the new location with mules and horses. They would move the logs from the back to the front until they got it to the city block where it stands now.”

The block had been donated for both the church and cemetery

Graves facedthe church “So, soon after,I’m sure the priest wanted the graves moved from the old graveyard to the new graveyard,” Olinger said. “And if you think aboutit, the man who moved the graves dug them so they would be facing the church, which was north of the graveyard.”

Though this makes perfect sense, Olinger again reiterates that he has no proof of what the gravedigger was thinking. The only story that continues to circulate around the community,and evenonthe internet, is that the gravedigger wasn’tfamiliar with cemetery protocol,which led to the establishment of the Wrong WayCemetery North and south or east and west —does it really matter? Apparently so. East-westtradition

In Christian tradition, bodies traditionallyare buried facing east with tops

of headspointingwestward based on an interpretation of Matthew 24:27 that Jesus’ second comingwould be fromthe east:“Foras the lightning comesfrom theeast andshines to the

So, thetradition wasn’t anew concept when the gravedigger took on the assignment.It’sobvious that he simply didn’tknow No sure wayofknowing

The cemetery’s2,093 graves, mostofwhich are above-ground tombs, now occupy acity block.

“The northeast corner is

where the ﬁrst graves were placed after they were exhumed from the original cemetery,” Olinger said. “That’snow knownasSt.

Joseph’sCatholic Cemetery No.1,but it’sfull now.So, there’sanew cemetery, called St. Joseph’sCatholic Cemetery No.2,about a mile south of Rayne.” Where do those graves face?

“Oh, they’re all buried east and west there,” Olinger said. “The sun is supposed to rise in the east at your feet, and that’show they’re all buried there.” As forSt. Joseph No. 1’s Ripley’sdesignated distinction of being the nation’s only north-south cemetery Olinger said that no longer stands.

“There have been other cemeteries that are northsouth that have been found around the country since then,” Olinger said. “But when Ripley’sdid the piece on this one, it wasthe only one that was knownatthe time.”

Do you have aquestion about somethingin Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email yourquestionto curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include yourname, phone number and thecitywhere you live.

Taking amomentfor amiracle just

DannyHeitman AT RANDOM

Ihave my late friend andfellow journalist Relma Hargus to thank for introducing me to cedar waxwings many years ago. You might already know aboutthese beautiful birds, which are most visible in Louisiana in late winter andearly spring. They’re about as big as cardinals, mostly olive and bright yellow,with red wing tipsthat resemble wax and inspire their funny nickname. The most strikingfeature is the black bandit mask across their eyes, ﬁttingfor abirdthat lovesto plunder Cedar waxwings pillagefruit andberries, and theywork quickly,often strippinga tree in minutes before moving on. As Relma suggested, if you seea cedar waxwing, pause and take note. Its presence is aglancing gift, one to savor precisely because it won’t last long. Relma had aknack for living in the moment, which can be a complicated thingfor anyone who works in adeadline-driven newsroom. Shesaw thefrantic hands of our ofﬁce clock as little more

than afriendly wave. Many an editor sighed in defeat as the appointed hour arrived and Relma’s copy had not yet arrived. She was awoman prone to privatereveries,perhaps more interested in the coming of waxwings than the urgencies of daily journalism All of this cametomind afew weekends ago as my wife and Iwere having breakfast on the patio. Abusy day loomed, and we were headed inside when my wife spotted theseason’sﬁrst waxwing on our hollies. If we hadn’tlingered that morning, we would have missed it Iwas working from home afew days later when, from the corner

of my eye, Ispottedour stand of hollies as theytrembledinthe afternoon sun. Every treewas alive with cedar waxwings, drawn to thebig redberries adorning theleaves. Birds crowded the branches, some upside down as they reached for the best meal. Fifty or morebirds worked the trees in alively swarm, darting back and forth like bees rising from ahive. The legal pad on my desk included along list of assignments to ﬁnish, messages to answer,meetings to attend. Ihadn’tpenciled in any appointments with waxwings. Then Ithought of Relmaand her advice aboutwaxwings —the notion that their arrival is reason

enough to pause. Igrabbed some binoculars from anearby shelf, training my gaze on asingle waxwing within the ﬂock. He was perched near athick bunch of berries that weremounded like grapes at an emperor’sfeast. With astonishing speed, he gobbled them up, each berry sliding down his gullet as quickly as a marble into asock. Iwatched it all for afew minutes, then returned to my keyboard, my smartphone, my list of things to do. I’dmade time forasmallmiracle of spring. Somewhere, Isuppose, dear Relmawas smiling. Email DannyHeitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.

engineer Benjamin Buisson proposed digging asix-mile circumvention canal into theBreton Sound in lower Plaquemines Parish. Such achannel wouldneed alock to connect with the river, putting the canal’s$10 million cost well out of reach.Pilotshad no choice but to dodge, dredge or drag their way throughthe problem, whileengineerstried dynamite charges, self-activating scraper dredges and inﬂatable pontoons, all to little avail.

In 1852, the WarDepartment proposed building twin five-milelong jetties along two passes at the mouth, in the hope of narrowing the flow,speeding thevelocity and flushing out the bedload The jetty idea had been around since the 1720s, but not until now were the resources available for such an undertaking. Officials contracted witha Kentucky firm to drive wooden pilings into the muckatintervals of 15 feet, nail them together with stringers and cover themwith planks. Within weeks, powerful currents destroyed half the barricades, and sea worms devoured the rest

The failure gave jettiesabad name in the local shippingcommunity, evenasthe sedimentation problem worsenedinthe 1860s. Entrepreneurs devised various schemestosave the Port of New Orleans. One outfit proposed a navigation waterway cutfrom Jefferson Parish though eastern New Orleans out to Ship Island, theonly lasting result of which is today’s17th Street Drainage OutfallCanal. Another groupproposed cutting agigantic seaway across the West Bank down past Grand Isle to circumventthe clogged river mouth. By 1872, the idea of alower Plaquemines bypass channel, first floated 40 years earlier and now known as the Fort St. Philip Canal, became the recommended recourse of the nation’sbest engineers.

Thehonorarycaptain

About the only voice of opposition came from acourtly gentleman with no formal training and only the honorarytitle of “captain” in front of his name, James Buchanan Eads. Those in theSt.

Louisarea revered the charismatic Eads forhis astonishing accomplishments and reputation for never askingsomeone to take arisk he wouldnot take himself. Eadshad personally rambled on thebottom of theMississippi River in afrogman suit,salvaging wrecks while learning about sediment dynamicsinthe mostin-situ manner.Healso designed adaringlong-arch cantilever bridge in St.Louis that is still in use today

Eadsdid not even bother to opineonthe Fort St.Philip Canal. He knew plainly that thesolution was jetties; they just had to be designed properly for ariver like the Mississippi.And he knew preciselyhow to doit. They had to be designed not just to withstand sedimentdynamics, but to beneﬁt from them. They also had to be extended long enough to dischargethe mobilized particles off thecontinental shelf.

Eads’ rebuke made him enemies in highplaces. Chief of EngineersGen. Andrew Atkinson Humphreys had the backing of army engineers in calling for the Fort St.PhilipCanal, while leaders in New Orleansresented the intrusion of aman from St. Louis into their affairs. They resolutely opposed jetties, recounting their failure in the1850s as evidence. Winningalliesonthe army side

Eads’ steadfast defenseof properlybuilt jetties began to win over allies on thearmy side. One was Gen. JohnG.Barnard, who, having therank and credentials Eadslacked,madethe case for jetties using language his colleagues understood, e.g., beneﬁts versus costs. Given the military hierarchy,however,Barnard could not contradict his superiors,

nor could he lobby Congress or persuade thepublic. Eads, on theother hand, could do all those things, withaplomb.

In January 1874, he wrote aletter to aMissouri senator requesting $8 million to build his jetties to secure adepth of 28 feet across a 600-foot channel to the sea. Then came the kicker: “No cure, no pay,” wrote Eads.Ifhesucceeded, thenation reaped the beneﬁts. If he failed, Eads alone atethe costs. Army engineers remonstrated. The press scoffed. “One group in New Orleans,” wrote historian Harold Sinclair,“pleaded with Congress not to heed themad Eads, on theground that the jetties could cause the Mississippi to back up and literally annihilate thehelpless city!” Gradually,the tideturned. Americansbecame fascinated by thedrama. Army engineers defected tothe jetty camp. Politicians compared the costs of the FortSt. Philip Canal’scomplicated lock to the natural solution of Eads’ no-risk proposal.

On March 3, 1875, Congress authorized the gentleman from St.Louis to build his jetties on thetoughest of the river’sthree outlets —South Pass, which at the time had only 8feet of draft. Eads had promised 28 feet Willow treesasmattresses

In April, Eads began building facilities and housing at aplace that would be called Port Eads. He dispatched someworkers to cut thousands of willow trees and weave them into dense mattresses, and others to secure timbers to serve as guide pilings.

On June 14, barges with steampowered drivers began hammering the pilings deeply into

themuck, in pairs, as if building 30-foot-wide boardwalks on each side of the 700-foot-wide pass. Within twoweeks, the twin rows of pilings extended athousand feet, and progressed 200 feet per day intothe sea.

The willow-brush mattresses were then placed between the piling pairs and weighed downwith rocks and riprap until they lodged deeply in the mud, forming apermeable wall of wood.

Herein lay the genius of Eads’ design: as river water passed through the mattresses, intricate branches andtwigs trapped its suspended sediment and turned thewillows into self-maintaining walls of caked mud, which in turn strengthened them and preserved the wood.

The dual pilings becameadike of sorts, and their tops were sealed off with concrete to become jetties, extending two miles into Gulf waters. What resulted was amassive chute through which the accelerated water became the world’smost effective self-dredging machine.

Having measured only 8feet deep in spring 1875, South Pass had deepened to 26 feet by late 1876; amonth later,itreached 30 feet. Even as the work progressed, “thelargest steamers and ships plying to NewOrleans,” wrote agovernment inspector, “(found) amuch safer,wider,and deeper entrance than has ever before been secured.”

By thetimework was completed in 1879, everyone knew Eads had “cured” the problem and earned his “pay.”

Port of NewOrleans is saved

The impact on commerce was exhilarating. Steamers carried

26 times moreexport tonnage in 1880 compared to five years earlier.Exports from St. Louis increased 66-fold, to 453,681 tons, during the sameperiod. Having dropped to the ninth largest in the nation, the Port of NewOrleans regained its position as the nation’ssecond port, after NewYork. Eads becameanational hero, and those whoscoffed at him caught collective amnesia about the Fort St. Philip Canal. Not one to rest on his laurels, Eads embarked on other major projects, wearing himself down to the point of exhaustion. “I cannot die,” he wrote; “I have not finished my work.” Indeed he had not, even after his death at age 66 in 1887. Congress in 1902 authorized the dredging of Southwest Pass and the construction of the samejetties Eads had designed forSouth Pass, which the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers carried out in 1908. South Pass was finally retired as an oceanic ship channel in the 1970s, afull century after Eads’ salvation of the Port of New Orleans. Modern jetties built with Eads’sdesign principles remain in service today,and vestiges of his originals, started 150 years ago this month, may still be seen south of Port Eads.

Richard Campanella,a geographerwiththe Tulane School of Architecture, is the author of “Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Conﬂuences:Origins of Louisiana Cities, Towns, and Villages;” “DrainingNew Orleans;” and other booksfrom LSU Press. He maybereached at http://richcampanella.com, rcampane@tulane.edu, or @ nolacampanella on X.

PHOTO COURTESy LIBRARy OF CONGRESS Eads Jetties

AbbeyRoad’shistoricStudioOne carefullyrefurbished

Scores of songs were recorded there

BY HILARYFOX Associated Press

LONDON In Abbey Road’sStudio One, even alick of paint could ruin everything.

Famous for hosting Adele, Harry Styles and U2, it’swhere the scores of “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter”and “Wicked” were recorded, as well as the soundtracks of blockbuster games like“Call of Duty,” “Halo” and “Final Fantasy.” It’salso where Ryan Gosling deliveredhis memorable I’m Just Ken” for “Barbie.”

Nearly acentury afterits opening,Studio Oneunderwenta sixmonth, multimillion-dollarrefurbishment, with the main priority being the preservation of one very important thing: the sound.

“What we don’twant to do is change theacoustics, so every minute detail in the room hasbeen conserved andpreserved,so the sound doesn’tshift,” said Sally Davies, managing director of Abbey Road Studios. The reverb of the 4,844-squarefoot room has been maintained at 2.3 seconds, the same as it was in the 1970s. There’sbeen no redecorating or style makeover,leaving the original art decowall panels untouched.

“Wehave simply washed down the walls to preserve that sound,” said Davies, adding that theﬂoor was re-sanded and oiled, but not varnished.

Most of the upgrades, she explained, are technological upgrades in the control room. “This room is just about preserving that magic.”

Apilgrimagefor musicfans

Opened in 1931, this hallowed hall —once anine-bedroom house on agrand suburban street in London’sSt. John’sWood neighborhood —becamethe world’sﬁrst recording studio.

It’swhere stereo was invented and it’svisited every day by musicfansfromaroundthe world, who are happy just to stand on the street outside.

Davies says that morethana million people ayear make apilgrimage to thecrossing outside, many to recreate the cover of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album and that number couldincrease after Sam Mendes’ upcoming biopics starring Paul Mescal, Barry

Keoghan, HarrisDickinsonand Joseph Quinn as the Fab Four Andwhile John Lennon,Paul McCartney,George Harrison and Ringo Starr are famously known for using Studio Two, they also made history in the larger Studio One, whichthey usedfor the world’sfirst global live performance, arendition of “All You Need Is Love” beamedtotelevision sets around the worldin1967.

Before The Beatles, StudioOne

had already cemented its place in musichistory,when it was opened by British composer SirEdward Elgar,who recorded his “Land of Hopeand Glory” with the London Symphony Orchestra.It’salso hosted other music greats like Maria Callas, IgorStravinsky, DanielBarenboim, Fats Waller and Glenn Miller Due to its huge size, more than double Studio Two, it can fit a 100-piece orchestraand 100-mem-

ber choir at the same time which is perfect for recording film soundtracks, and explains whysix to sevenout of every10 Hollywood ﬁlms arescored at Abbey Road, according to the studio.

Historybeing made

Standing on the balcony, overlooking the 40-foot-high room, Davies points outthe original screen that was used to show “Raiders of theLostArk”(1981)while musicians played along to record the soundtrack.

Since then, everything from “The Lord of theRings”trilogy to Marvel’s“Black Panther” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” to “Barbie” werescored in Studio One.

Forthe last,all themusicians came in with something pink, whether apink instrument or piece of clothing.

Oscar-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton has been recordinginStudioOne since2009 andcalls his “creative home” a “spectacular space.”

“Outside,itjust looks like anormalhouse. And then you comein andyou ﬁnd this space in it that’s like almost the size of afootball pitch. In fact, Ihave played football in thereonce,”helaughs.

Pemberton is known forscoring “Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse,” “Ferrari,” “The Trial of the Chicago7”and creating the “Slow Horses” theme song and “Strange Game,”withMickJagger.

“What’ssoexciting about a room like Studio One is what happens on the day is what happens for the rest of time,” he says. “It’s like history is being made,whether it’sgood history or bad history or whatever,you’re making amoment then.”

Pembertonnotes the stories, whether personal or musical, that have unfolded within thewalls of Studio One

“The ghosts are insane in there,” he said.

Davies agrees that the history adds to the enchantment.

“You walk into this room and you can feel it. …There is amagic in thesound.Itsoundsphenomenal. There is aspirituality in who hasbeen here,who hasperformed here,” she says. “So when we see artists comethrough, you know that immediate reaction of, ‘Oh my gosh. I’minStudio One.’

To celebrate the reopening last week, Abbey Road Studios showcased an unusualart form for the space: dance, which incorporated Pemberton’sscores, remixed by resident artist JordanRakei and choreographed by Joseph Toonga.

“It kind of like threwmebacka bit like,wow,itreally is big,” said Toonga of the first time he saw the studio. He then incorporated that feeling into adance which spanned hip-hop, krumping and ballet.

Up next, theﬁrst client to record in Studio One sincethe refurbishment is ahush-hush Hollywood franchise.

But thereare lots of secrets at AbbeyRoad One of themisPemberton’s plantorecordthe unique rattling sound of the new railings for a movie soundtrack

There was concernthatthe hollow,art deco-style bars would upset the acoustics of the room, and abackup plan wasmade to ﬁll themwith sand if they messed with the reverb.

Luckily,the empty bars were allowedtostaybecause Pemberton is delighted by thenoise they make whenyou run past them with keys —it’sanother dramatic sound that can only be created in Studio Oneand will make itsway into theaters around theworld via aﬁlm score.

By The Associated Press

Today is Sunday,April 6, the 96th day of 2025.There are 269 days left in the year

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

On this date:

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

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

In 1896, the ﬁrst modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece.

In 1954, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy,R-Wis responding to CBS newsman

Edward R. Murrow’sbroadside against him on “See It Now,” claimed in remarks ﬁlmed for the program that Murrow had, in the past, “engaged in propaganda for Communist causes.”

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

In 1994, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamirawere killed when the jet they were riding in was shot down by surface-to-air missiles as it attempted to land in Kigali, Rwanda.

In 2012, ﬁve Black people were shot, three fatally, in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Jake England and Alvin Watts, who admitted to targeting the victims becauseof their race, pleaded guilty to murder and were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Today’sBirthdays: Scientist

James D. Watson is 97. Actor Billy Dee Williams is 88. Film director Barry Levinson is 83. Actor John Ratzenberger is 78. Baseball Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven is 74. Actor Marilu Henner is 73. Actor Michael Rooker is 70. Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz is 61. FootballHall of Famer Sterling Sharpe is 60. Actor Paul Rudd is 56. Actor Zach Braff is 50. Actor Candace Cameron Bure is 49. MusicianRobert Glasper is 47

What’s theetiquette betweentwo doctors?

BY MARIA SHERMAN AP music writer

NEW YORK The MTVVideo Music Awards have anew home: This year,the music award show will be broadcast by CBS for the

air

Networks. CBS is

a number

and the

including the

It has aired the

though that

since

will

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won big, taking home seven awards. That included the night’sbiggest prize, the trophyfor videoofthe year, for “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone. Swift’sawards haul brought her to acareer total of 30, tying her and Beyoncé for the title of

awarded

Dear Miss Manners: I’m aphysician, so Iam used to people addressing me as “Dr.Jones.” That includes both patients and non-physician staff in the hospital where Iwork. Even out in public, if I run into someone from the hospital, it is common for them to address me as “Dr.Jones.”

ﬁrst name, or should Ialways addressthem as “Dr.Smith?”

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

However,when I go to amedical ofﬁce as apatient,whether it is my primary care physician, the dentist, the optometrist or another specialist, theyinvariably address me by my ﬁrst name. It is my impression that Iam nonetheless expected to address themas“Dr.Smith,” whether in person or in subsequent correspondence.

What is the etiquette for apatient who is aphysician addressing the doctor providing care? Is it acceptablefor me to usetheir

Gentle reader: Did you just now notice this inequity? Or have you always addressed your patientswithtitles and surnames,since you expect them to useyours?

Because that is the rule. Respect should be reciprocal. It rarelyis, in these situations. Doctors tell Miss Manners that they should be so addressed because they earned the right to that title, andthat they usepatients’ ﬁrst names to be friendly and put them at ease. Butpatients are also entitled to honoriﬁcs,justbyvirtueofbeing adult human beings.Furthermore, they do not consult doctors becausethey arelooking to make friends.

So these are formal situations, in which patientsare in need of dignityand professional distance.

As MissManners has pointed out, when people are friends, they either bothhave their clothes on or

neither of themdo. Youcould use the ployofresponding in kind, using your physician’sgivenname.Or, slightly more tactfully,you could ask, “Shall we call each other ‘doctor,’ or do youprefer to use ﬁrst names?”

Butthis would only establish that you, too, areonthat august level they assume. Youcould make bothpoints by pleasantly saying, “I don’tcallmypatients by theirﬁrst names —itseems fairer and more digniﬁed to call them ‘Mr.’or‘Ms.’ Or ‘Doctor,’ as thecase may be.”

Dear Miss Manners: Is there a“best” or “correct”way to seat couples at adinner party using place cards? My husband and Ienjoy speaking with otherpeople, and we split couplesupwhen we host. However,our friends seat couples together

Should one askcouples in advance whetherthey’d prefer to be seated together or separately? It seems ashame nottoask, since

we would have likedtohavebeen asked, but it puts guests on the spotfor an answer.

Gentle reader: Why would youwant to be seated together? Or,asked anotherway,ifyou and your spouse want to have dinner together, why areyou accepting an invitation to adinnerparty? It is the duty of guests to socialize with the hosts and other guests. The rule is to separate couples so thattheycan do so.They should notbeasked, because no onewants to declare apreference for being apart. If there is acompelling reason (“My wife broke herarm andcan’t manage the fork”), the guest should declare it. Sendquestions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mailtoMiss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO 64106.

Womenshouldn’t be theonescooking allthe time

Dear Heloise: Reading the “Meatloaf

Like Mama’s” letterreally made me want to write you. To remind people of the letter, the reader has four boys/men, andshe makes a great meatloaf. So,why didn’tshe teachthem how to make it?

Hints from Heloise

WhenIread that “theoldest sonis getting marriedand asked hisfuture bride to get the recipe,”I truly wonderedwhy he did not getthe recipe and learn how to cook it himself. Are we still in the20th century? In fact, as amother,teachingyour sons howtocook will make them more appreciatea woman who cancook for them as well. Idon’tmind some traditions, but isn’tittime for menand theirmothers to learnthattheir daughtersin-law arenot servants? Let’snot assume thatthe womanissupposed to do the household choresjust becauseshe is female.Infact, if more

mothers taught theirboys to do laundry,cook and clean, Ithink we would see moreprogress in equality —Jeanne H., via email Jeanne, Iagree withyou. There is no reason why cooking dinner shouldn’tbeashared experience. Ahusband can make the salad while his wife prepares something else. Whoever ﬁnishes ﬁrstsetsthe table. And thereisnoreason why agirl can’tbetaught to change a tire or safely use ahammer,drill or sander.

Some women want tostick to traditional roles, but some do not.Ibelieve thatwemust all learntotake careofourselves because you can’t always depend on someone elsebeing there for you. —Heloise Forthe birdsand squirrels

Dear Heloise: Glen Allen, in Virginia, said he fed birds and squirrels bread. This is not recommended at all as it contains sugar, sodium and carbohydrates There’snonutritional value in them. It is not digested well by

them, and additionally,the bread can get moldy.Stick to seeds and suet. —EileenF., Glenwood, Iowa Bingingonmunchies

Dear Heloise: Ialways hada hard time with my weight andjust could not seem to stopbinging on ice cream, nuts, pizza, chips, and other foods thatIdidn’tneed to eat.

Idecided to sit down and make a listof“why Iwas overeating” and form abackup plan. Ibegan to realizewhat the triggers were:a job Ididn’treally like, anger over many of my husband’sdemands, and frustrationwith my children. It was time for achange! Iquit my job and startedmyown business. (I love it!) Isat my husband down and had averyfrank discussion with him concerning what Iwould do andwouldn’tdo(including doing allthe cooking and cleaning). Irefused to give my children money anymore and told them that as adults, it was time for

themtogrowupand support themselves.

Believe me,I’m sticking to my plan. The results have been good Inolongerweigh 187 pounds. BarbaraB., St. Paul, Minnesota Barbara, manywomen often deal with their frustration, sorrow and anger by binge-eating. Glad to know that you’re doing better with the help of these hints! —Heloise Stretching outclothes

Dear Heloise: Frugal plumber here! Everyone likes to makefun of plumbers when they bend over, but Idonot have this problem.I stretch cotton materials before Iput them in the dryer or hang them to dry Doing this makes somequite a bit longer; it adds over 4inches to my shirts, even after the dryer Ialso do this with my young kid’sclothes. Pants and shirts will last formonths and are longer for length. —A.P., via email Email heloise@heloise.com.

commodity Hot ot

with several related ventures, are runfroma

son team that’sbecome expert at building brands and turning them into franchises, innovating when necessary

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

It’sthe oldest cliche in the ﬁtnessindustry: “No pain, nogain.”

New Orleanian Stephen P. Smithhas learned that lesson in multiple ways

Aformer champion bodybuilder and arena football player,Smith haspushed his body to the limit in pursuit of athletic goals

He’salso an entrepreneur who launched asuccessful global brandbefore having to completely reinvent his business, whichled to the launch of an even bigger enterprise

The ﬁrst venture, Planet Beach, is aglobal

Economic

BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer

Standing at aWhite House podium last week afterHyundai announced plans to build amultibillion-dollar steel mill in AscensionParish, Gov. Jeff Landry made aboldprediction about Louisiana’seconomic fortunes Before the summer is over,he said, his administrationwill have announced $50 billion in new investmentsfrom businesses interested in setting up shop or expanding in the state. “That is arecord, Mr.President,” Landry said, peering over his shoulder at President Donald Trump. Indeed, it would likely surpass the best years on recordinLouisiana.

IDEAS INNOVATION &

chain of tanning salons that reached more than 350 locations worldwide beforeconcerns about health risks stopped the industry’sgrowth.

Thefollow-up— Hotworx —isaninternational ﬁtness chain thatallowsusers to do yoga, Pilates or rideastationarybike in 7-foot-by-9-foot saunas heated to 125 degrees. In theeight years since its debut,the chain has racked up twice as manylocations as Planet Beach at its peak, and it achieved themilestone in half the time.

Both businesses, along withseveral related ventures, arerun from aheadquarters in Marrero, where Smith leads a90-per-

“You’ve got to refresh and reinvent all the time, andthatwill allowyou to grow,”Smith said. “I had this great core team from Planet Beach, and we were in this tough industry,” he said. “But knowing that franchising really is our core competency,I wanted to get them the right product.”

Anative of McComb, Mississippi, Smith opened his ﬁrst gym in nearby Oxford after he graduated from Ole Miss in the mid1980s. Work brought him to NewOrleans a fewyears later,where,in1996, he and his business partner, NancyPrice, launchedthe ﬁrst Planet Beach tanning salonina strip mallinUptown.

The duo franchised the brand and, over ä See CHAIN, page 2E

“You’vegot to refresh and reinventall thetime, and that will allowyou to grow.”

STEPHEN

P. SMITH, founder of Hotworx

investmentscould hitstate record as Landry pursues$50Bgoal ä See INVESTMENTS, page 2E

Thestate’s best year for economic development announcements was in 2023, when Gov.John BelEdwards’ administration touted $25 billionin new capital investments. That was the highest single-year total, according to Louisiana Economic Development’s annual report. The largest of thoseprojects was Venture Global’sannounced $7.8 billion expansion of its liquefied natural gas export facility in Plaquemines Parish. In 2024, duringLandry’s ﬁrst year in ofﬁce, Louisiana announced$16.1billion in new capital investments, according to LED. Most of that came in December,when Meta announced planstobuild a$10 billion

datacenter in north Louisiana. Landry got amajor boost toward his $50 billiongoalinMarch thanks to aone-twopunchofannouncements First, VentureGlobal announced another $18 billioninvestment at its PlaqueminesParish facility Then, Hyundai announced its$5.8 billion steel mill near Donaldsonville. That puts Landry’sadministration just $10 billion short of his goal of $50 billion in announcedprojects by theend of September Heading up Landry’seconomic development agenda is LED SecretarySusan Bourgeois. In an

STAFFPHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Stephen Smith, whose first venturewas the global tanning salon chain Planet Beach, has pivoted intothe hot yoga industrywith Hotworx. Both businesses, along

headquarters in Marrero

Chung Eui-sun, Hyundai Motor Group executive chair,from left, President DonaldTrump and Gov. Jeff Landryannounceasteel mill planned for Donaldsonville in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March24.

Social Security payments areupfor some retirees

NewOrleans

Michelle Singletary

THE COLOR OF MONEy

Millions of seniors are getting awelcome windfall. And it’s about time On Jan. 5, Congress ended two provisions the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset —which axed or reduced retirement and disability benefits for more than 3.2 million workers who receive apension from employment not covered by Social Security The Windfall Elimination Provision, signed into law in 1983, reduced the Social Security benefits for workers who receive apension based on earnings that are exempt from Social Security payroll taxes. The intention behind the law was to prevent asituation of “double dipping,” with federal, stateand local government workers with noncovered pensions receiving higher Social Security benefits as though they were low-wage earners who had paid into Social Security over the long term. The Government PensionOffset, passed in 1977, reduced Social Security benefitsfor spouses, widows and widowers whose partners receive pensions fromfederal, state or local government.

Iunderstand the intention of theprovisions. However, teachers, police officers or firefighters who at some point held jobs that did withhold Social Security taxes felt that they and their spouses were being unfairly penalized. What is important to remember is that Social Security uses your earnings and workhistory to determine your eligibility for retirement or disability benefits, or your family’seligibility for survivor benefits when you die. For 2025, you can get one credit for every $1,810 in earnings, maxing out at four credits per year.You must earn at least 40 Social Securitycredits —which you receive when you work and pay Social Security taxes to qualify for benefits. But these two provisions meant that millions of retirees got shortchanged. And overthe years, Ihave heard from many readers upset that their Social Security benefits have been reduced, making it harder for them to make ends meet.

“I divorced at age 40, went to school and became a teacher,” one woman wrote to me. “I don’tunderstand the windfall elimination (provision).Are teachers being discriminated against?”

“I worked for years driving ataxicab,” wroteanother “And then Iwent back to school and got aPh.D. and then Igot ajob for 22-plus years as ateacher,with the university taking money from my pay and placing it in apension fund. When I retired, Social Security says Ionly get half of my earned Social Security money because Ihave aschool pension.”

INVESTMENTS

Continued from page1E

This changed with the Social Security Fairness Act, signedintolaw in January. It seeks to address the complaints from workers whodid ultimately pay Social Securitytaxes toearnbeneﬁts.

Last month, many people started receiving catch-up payments.AsofMarch 4, the Social Security Administration said it has paidabout 1.1 millionpeoplemorethan $7.5 billioninretroactive payments,which cover their beneﬁt back to January2024, when thosetwo laws no longer applied.

The average one-timelump sum payment thus farhas been $6,710.

Going ahead, Social Securityrecipientscovered by those repealsshould start to see higher monthlybeneﬁt payments in April.

How much thesepeople will getmonthlywill vary depending on the type of Social Security beneﬁt received and the amount of the person’s pension, according to the SSA. Some folks could see ajump of $1,000 ormorea month.

But don’tassumethat because you are apublic service worker,you are covered by this change and will receive awindfall. The repeal of WEP and GPOonly appliestopeoplewho receive apension based on work not covered by Social Security (SSA saysmoststate and local public employees—about 72% —pay Social Security taxes and will not be receiving an increasebecauseof the law.)

Also, watch for fraud. If you’re affected by the change, you shouldget anotice in the mail about any retroactivepayment and beneﬁt adjustment.Don’trespondto any text message, email or communicationyou receive on social mediaplatforms, which can be exploitedby scammers. If you wanttoverify that the mailing address and/or direct depositinformation that SSA has on ﬁle for you is correct,check your personal “my Social Security”account.Ifyou don’thave one already,you can createanaccount at ssa.gov/my account. If you havequestions or trouble creating an account, call(800) 772-1213 However,beprepared for along wait. WhenI triedthe number,the systemsaidthe average holdtime was120 minutes. Theagencysays more than 6,000 people each day are choosing to wait to speak toarepresentative about therepeal of WEP and GPO,and it advises waiting until you receive your April monthly payment before contactingthem if youhave questions.

Social Security phone lines are jammed because of staff cutsorchestrated by the Trump administration, but nonetheless, you shouldkeep trying to contact the Social Security Administration directly if you need moreinformation.

Email Michelle Singletary at michelle.singletary@ washpost.com.

interview,she said the $50 billion goal is “optimistic, but webelieve we will achieve it, and hopefully very soon.” At abudget hearing on Monday Bourgeois told lawmakers that her agency has three times as many projects in its pipeline asit did when she took over 14 months ago. Those aren’t“spaghetti on the wall” projects, she said. They’re projects that LED staff are actively working on.

“We’vegot areal shotatthem,” she said. If all 187 of those projects came to fruition, it would amount to $135 billion in capital investments, she said.

Bourgeois said the restructuring of LED during last year’slegislative session created workﬂows that have allowed staff to more aggressively pursue leads.She also said Meta’sdecisionto invest in the state “madepeople go, ‘Wait, what’shappening in Louisiana?’”

There’sbeen so much interest, Bourgeois said she’sgiven her se-

M/G TransportServices,aproviderofinland barge transportation services, has made recentchanges to itsleadership team.

Terence Gomez hasbeenpromoted to president. Gomez has worked with M/G since2013, serving as vice president of operations and chief operating ofﬁcer.Hehas been in the transportation industry since 1978, withAgriTrans Corp. and AEPRiver Operations.

Mark Czarnecki has been promoted to executivevice presidentand chief commercialofﬁcer. Czarnecki joined thecompany in 2017 as vice president of sales. He hasworked in themaritime industry for 45 years.

Benjamin Amoss was promoted to chief financial officer,two yearsafter being hired as financial planning and analysis manager.Hehas more than adecadeof financial experience in the automotive and renewable energy industries.

Pete Norgeot is retiring fromhis job as executivevicepresidentand chief operatingofﬁcer of Entergy,effective May 1.

Norgeot hasbeen with theutility company since 2014. He spent nearly four decades leading company operations, power generation, commercial management and large-scaledevelopmentteams.

Kimberly Cook-Nelson will takeoveras COO. She serves as executive vice president and chief nuclear officer for Entergy,overseeingfournuclear power plantsand ﬁve reactors. CookNelson hasbeenwithEntergy since

CHAIN

Continuedfrom page1E

thenext decade, saw it spread across North America. Buttherewas trouble ahead for the industry

As the numberoftanning salons was growing, so was awareness of the health dangersoftanning beds, which increasethe risk of skincancer,according to the World HealthOrganization and other experts.

By 2010, when federal legislation added a10% tax to tanning services to discourage industrygrowth, Smith knew theventure couldn’t survive without major changes.

To adapt, Planet Beach began offering other services, like massage machinesand “redlight facial therapy” but, nevertheless, was losing franchisees.

“It was the dark ages of my career,” Smithsaid.

‘Sweat’equity

Then, in 2014, there was amoment of inspiration that changed everything

Whileonvacation with several Planet Beach execs in Jamaica, Smith was discussing his love of “hot yoga” withhis businesspartner’shusband, Jerome Price, who suggested Smith ﬁgure out away to offer yoga classes in asauna. Smith said he put down his rum drink and beganbrainstorming how theidea could work.

“Working out in an infrared sauna cuts down thetime you do yoga to 30 minutes, andyou getevenmore results,” he said. “You sweat more, and your sweat has moredetox.”

Afterthat vacation inspiration, Smithwent on adeep dive into sauna technology,speciﬁcally infrared saunas, which useinfraredradiation to heat objects—and bodies —directly rather than heating the air around them.

Atechie and tinkerer by nature, Smith sketched up infraredsauna designs, then found amanufacturing partner in China to investinthe idea with him.

“Webothrolled the dice on each

nior staff permission to start “sayingno.” She told lawmakers that if they don’twant LED to turn down projects, they need to better invest in her agency

She’sasking the state Legislature for aone-time, $150 million allocationtocreate adedicated site development fund that LEDcan tapinto if, for instance, it needs to quicklyﬁnance anew roador rail spur to makea propertymore desirable for investors. She’salso asking foranother $2 million to hire adedicated “Site Czar” and to developa site-selection database. (The current site-selectionwebsite that LEDuses is owned by Entergy.)

Relocating,and stayingput

Last week,LED unveiled anew economic development strategy —its ﬁrst in more than 15 years that calls for greater emphasis on fast-growing sectors like technology and life sciences whilealso doubling down on legacy industries like energy andmanufacturing.

1996, starting off as adesign engineer, beforemoving over to plantleadership in 2001. She earned abachelor’s in mechanicalengineering,amaster’s in engineering management and amaster’s in business administration,all from the University of New Orleans.

John Dinelli,senior vice president and chiefoperating officer forEntergy’s nuclear operationswill be promoted to executive vice president and chief nuclear officer Dinelli startedworking with Entergy in 1991 as an engineering intern at the IndianPoint Energy Center.Hehas servedaschief operating officer for Entergy’snuclear business since 2021 He earned abachelor’sinmechanical engineering from ManhattanCollege.

BatonRouge

Bart Folse has been named chiefexecutive ofﬁcer of the Louisiana Independent Hospital NetworkCoalition

The group is acollaborative of more than 25 independent Louisiana hospitals andproviders that are not afﬁliated with large systems.

Folse spent the past four years as chief operating officer at Bayou BendHealth System, formerly Franklin FoundationHospital. He is the founder and lead consultant at Group 213 Strategy Partners. He earned abachelor’sinallied healthsciences and amaster’sinbusiness administration, both from Nich-

other,” he said. “Wedesigneditwith her engineers, and she built the prototype,then shipped it directly to a trade show in NewYork City.”

In 2015 in New York, Planet Beach unveiled theﬁrst “Hot Box Detox” prototype. Based on the positive reception there,the company began adding infrared saunas to someofits remaining locations, where the resultswere promising.

“The saunas created more velocity,”Nancy Price said. “Theybrought membersinmultiple times aweek, versus once amonth forateeth-whitening session or spray tan.”

Soon after,Smith and company decided the infraredsauna concept needed to stand on its own —and could use abetter name. In 2016, they spent afew hundred dollarsonaweb platform that crowdsources ideas for brand names and logos. Thewinning suggestion was the name“Heatworx,” which Smith later changed to Hotworx.

Thegym’s ﬁrst freestanding location opened in 2017 in Oxford, home to Smith’salmamater.A locationsoon followed in Marrero, true to the Hotworxteam’sroots in the New Orleans suburbs.

After those early storeopenings, thefranchise really caught ﬁre. Healthyheat?

At Hotworx locations, gym members enterasaunathatholds up to three people. Some saunasare set up for isometric work like yoga or Pilates;others contain exercise bikes or other equipment.

Wall-mountedscreensinside each sauna show instructional videos that lead membersthrough 15- or 30-minuteexercise routines.

Smithsaid the company owns all its own software, along with its custom email marketing platform andcustomer relationshipmanagement system. It holdsapatentonthe saunas and has apatent pending on arowing machine.

The gym markets primarily to women,but about 17% of its members are men,saidSmith.

Exercisinginheatincreases thedetox effects of sweating and also has a

olls State University

Brent Toups hasbeenhired as vice president, sales manager for LUBA Casualty Insurance Co Toupshas more than 25 yearsof experience in workers’ compensation insurance, most recently as assistant vice president of insurance operations at CompSource Mutual. He earned abachelor’sinaccounting and amaster’sinbusiness administration,both from Nicholls State University

Jeff Skaggs hasbeen promoted to seniorvicepresident of underwriting andlosscontrol for LUBA.

Skaggs hasbeen with the company since2022. He has more than 38 years of industry experience, including serving as regional vice president of Texas Mutual. He earned abachelor’singovernment and politics from the University of Texas at Dallas anda master’sin leadership andhumanresourcedevelopment from LSU.

Drew Johnson hasjoined Carson Group as apartner to open ThrivePointCapital,a wealth advisory ﬁrm in Prairieville. Johnson has 15 years of experience as aﬁnancial planner.Hewas previously with Ameriprise.

variety of other health beneﬁts, said Smith, who saidinfrared heat also speeds up the metabolism and dilates capillaries to increase oxygen supply He said this will increase wound healing and potentially decrease inﬂammation.

Thesuccess of thebrandhas been healing for Smith, who is relishing the chance to build abrand that doesn’t have the same baggage as the tanning industry

He likens the feeling of success to his emotional state when enjoying one of his favorite sports.

“It’slike freedom,man,” he said. “It’s like skiing on awide-openslope.” Hotfranchise

Over the last seven years, Hotworx has growntoroughly 750 locations nationwide —including 12 in greater New Orleans. Nearly 150 new locations opened last year alone. The ﬁrst overseas Hotworx locations are open in Ireland, Saudi Arabiaand Dubai, and the company recently signed agreements with franchisees who want to open locations in Canada and Mexico.

“I feel that this brand is going to be aratio of 1for every 100,000 people in the country,” Smith said. “If you’ve got 1.1 million in ametro area, you’re going to have 11 locations, andthat’s how it turned out in Memphis, which was one of the ﬁrst cities we really fully developed.”

Hotworx claims morethan 250,000 members, many paying a$59 or $79 monthly feefor various beneﬁts.

Price said the memberships are the “bread andbutter”ofthe company’s business model. Despite the rapid growth of the ﬁtness brand, manyNew Orleanians have no idea it started in their hometown.

Smith said that’sbeen partly by design.

“The strategy has been to just do our thing, grow the brand, makesure our franchisees are proﬁtable, and eventually,people will take note,” he said.

Email RichCollinsatrich.collins@ theadvocate.com.

Bourgeois said consultants who helped craft thestrategyfound “that peopleinside of Louisiana actually have aworse opinion of Louisiana than people outside of Louisiana.”

Bourgeois is seeking $15 million from thestate Legislaturetofund anational marketing campaign to convince businesses and “high-potential” talenttonot only relocate to Louisiana, but also to stay put Bourgeois said Louisiana also needs to adopt a“whole of governmentapproach” to economicdevelopment,where LED is working side-by-side withagencies like the Louisiana Workforce Commission and Department of Transportation and Development to attract and retain talent. Bourgeoissaid that could be accomplished through an executive order Bourgeois said success can’t only be measured in capital expendituresorjob creation totals. It also has to takeintoaccount the wages that workers will receive. LEDisexpected to back aproposalinthe upcominglegislative session foranew “high-impact” jobsincentive.

Jobs anddollars

Hyundai’sinvestmentisexpected to create 1,300 permanent jobs —more than any other project announced in the last decade, according to datafrom Conway Projects,

aconsulting firm whichtracks corporateexpansions, provided by Leaders foraBetter Louisiana, anonproﬁt economic development organization. AccordingtoLED, the permanent jobs Hyundai creates will have an average salary of $95,000, slightly above the median household income of around $92,000 in Ascension Parish, according to federal data. Not all of the announced investmentshave similar jobsnumbers attached. Venture Global’s$18 billion investmentannounced in March willcreate no new permanent jobs, accordingtoLED data. The LNG export terminal has also come under scrutiny from environmental advocacy groups for its impact on the surrounding communitiesand its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

Landry’seconomicdevelopment agenda faced its ﬁrst major setback in the March 29 election, when voters rejected an amendment to the section of the state constitution thatdeals with taxes and budgeting. The governor argued the amendment would have madeLouisiana’stax system more attractive to business investment.

But the amendmentfaced atorrent of oppositionfrom both religious organizations on the right who worried about losing property taxexemptions anda coalition of community,social justice and advocacy organizations on the left who argued the 115-page amendment was toocomplicated and would result in amoreregressive tax system

Also, announced investmentsare one thing. Shovels in the ground areanother.Hyundaiand Meta both must clear regulatory hurdles before they can start building. Entergy’splan to power Meta’sdata center is already facing scrutiny from advocacy groups. Nevertheless, LED’sefforts so far arewinning bipartisan praise from lawmakers.

“Thank you so much for your leadership,” stateRep.Jason Hughes, D-NewOrleans, told Bourgeois at ahearing Monday “There is such arenewed sense of excitement across the state of Louisiana. Ithink everyone wakes up just wondering what the new big thing is going to be.”

Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate.com.

Folse

Toups

Skaggs

BUSINESS WITH BRIAN CLEMENT

Homebuilderpredicts$10,000 pricehikefor La.houses

BY TIMOTHY BOONE Business editor

The homebuilding industry has had arough fewyears.Inﬂation, soaring insurance premiums and aseries of interest rate hikes have conspired to keep existing homeowners on the sidelines and ﬁrsttime buyers out of the market altogether

BrianClement has heard the complaints from south Louisiana homebuilders for severalyears now.Hefeels their pain. He’sthe Louisiana state representative withthe National Home Builders Association and apast president of theLouisianaHomeBuilders Association. Clement is also aveteran of the housing industry with more than 25 years experience.Heco-owns CA Homes in Lafayette with his father-in-law, BobAustin.CA Homes builds upper-end houses in the $800,000 to $1.1 millionrange. It also develops subdivisions and sells lots to other builders. In this week’sTalking Business, Clementdiscusses the stateofthe local homebuilding market, what he thinks tariffs will do tothe cost of building materials and what steps he would like to see Congress take to help out the industry Comments have been edited for length and clarity What is the homebuilding market likeright now in south Louisiana?

It’ssoft right now.There is starting to be abuildup of inventory, but the interest rates have kept people on the sidelines. We have a lot of people looking at houses, but we just can’tseem to get anybody to pull the trigger on buying’em. I think it’sthat rates are just alittle out of their reach right now.We feelthe demand is there. We just can’tget these buyers in ahouse right now Interest rates haven’tdroppedenough?

Not quite. Idid see yesterday there was a5.99% for a30-year conventionalloan. We’reunder 6%, so there’shope.Ithink if it settles in around 5.5%, we could probably start making some things work. Iwould like to see theprice of material comedown some. That

wouldreallyhelp. Thecostof housing is an issue. We sawabig jumpinhousing prices in 2021, 2022. Those costs really haven’t comedown much

What areyou hearing from builders? They see alot of foot trafﬁc, but they’renot getting them to sign contracts andget ‘em over the ﬁnish line.They have open houses, theyhave great turnouts, serious buyers. They’re even getting some to comeback two andthree times They’recoming back with tape measuresand placing furniture and then they kind of disappear

Thebuyer’sagentssay,“Look,they were rightthere ready to do it,but at thelastminute theychanged their mind. They’re going to wait andsee.” We’rethinkingitall has to do with interest rates

Are youconcernedabout building materialcosts goingup? Iknow there’salot of concernaboutthat with tariffs.

We are concerned. Housing costs are already high. Iknow that they talked about 25% tariffs on our National HomeBuilders board. They estimated that those tariffs on soft lumber alone would increase the price ahouse between $7,500 and $10,000. That’sa big hit if that numberholds true. We are seeing the price of oil, gasolineand diesel tapering down some.Hopefully that helps with transportation costs. Maybe we’ll get some relief from that.

Is insurance afactor in allthis?

Yeah,it’safactor.Whenpeople look at homes, you have to add that into your monthly costs.Thatwas never an issuebefore, but now it is. Your business is primarilyinAcadiana, but do you see anysortofdifferencesamongthe homebuilding markets in south Louisiana? Isit on the state board. Italk to alot of guys across thestate. That sentiment is prettymuch the same

statewide as here in Acadiana. They seethe same things we’re seeing here. In New Orleans, they’re using a method of putting on aroof called fortiﬁed rooﬁng, and Ithink that has given them somerelief with insurance. Ithink that’skind of helping those guys.

Arethereany thingsthat give you signs of optimism about what’s going on in the market?

At thebeginning of the year,the mortgagerate wasabout 7.5%. It’s been trending down, like yesterdaywas 5.99%.The interest rates arestaying the same, but mortgage rates are moving down. So I think we’re getting there. It looks likethe economy is positioning itselfwhere it’sgoing to correct that mortgage rate to get it where people can afford it. We see agood opportunity coming up in the short future.

How are things looking forCAHomes this year?

We’reinupper-end market right now. We’rebuilding homes that sell for between $800,000-$1.1 million. We’re hoping to do probably seven or eight of those this year compared to ﬁvelastyear. Some are spechomes andsomeare custom homes. In the smaller home market,the cost of materials and the interest rates kind of pushed

those customers to the sideline, and we stopped building those and got into the bigger homes. In the higher-end market, alot of the buyers are cash buyers, so the interest rate is not really afactor,which helped us alot in that market.

Do you see anythingthat could be done on thestate or federallevel to makethings easier forbuilders?

Yeah,the newenergy code that cameout. (The American Innovation andManufacturingAct, which was passed by Congress in 2020, phases down the use of existing refrigerants and establishesrequirements for new refrigerants with alower carbon footprint.) We really need alot of help with that. The cost of air conditioning is almost as expensive as the cost of framing ahouse because of the new code. That has really hampered us alot. That’sbeen atough one to deal with.

What does that involve?

It’s different types of Freon that we have to use that is alot more expensive. It’sadifferent type of unit that will receive that Freon. Our nationalguy ﬁguredthatcost between $20,000 and $30,000 per house just to have the other energy code.

Email TimothyBoone at tboone@theadvocate.com.

The Louisiana Menhaden Industry: An Economic Engine for CoastalCommunities

Thisarticle is brought to youbythe Louisiana CommercialFishing Coalition LLC

Formorethan acentury,Louisiana’s commercialmenhaden fishery has been apillar of the state’s coastal economy, providing stable jobs,sustaining businesses, and fueling essential industriesworldwide. From the Gulf waters to global markets,menhaden fishing supports communitiesand industriesthatrely on its valuable marine ingredients –fish mealand fish oil –for aquaculture, petfood, and human nutrition.

Leading the industry,OmegaProtein andits fishing partner Ocean Harvesters, along with Daybrook Fisheries and its fishing partner Westbank Fishing,operate one of the largest and most productive fisheries in America. Theirwork transforms Gulfmenhaden into highvalue products thatdriveinnovation and sustainabilityacrossmultiple industries.

AVital Industryfor Louisiana

More than ﬁshing, the menhaden industry drives the economyand supports communities:

•$419M annual economicoutput

•2,000+ direct &indirect jobs

•$25M in state &local taxes

•$50K+ annual wageswithbeneﬁts

Thesewell-paying jobs,particularly in rural areas, sustainLouisiana’s working coast through multiple generations. In a state wherecommercial ﬁshing is deeply

woven intoour culture, themenhaden industryensures that economic opportunityremains arealityfor coastal families

Regional Economic Impact Together,OmegaProtein and Ocean Harvestersgenerate well over $100 million in economicactivityannually, benefiting Vermilion Parish and surrounding areas.With aworkforce of morethan 260direct and skilled employees,thesecompanies provide stable, high-wage jobs,offering morethan $21 million in annual payroll and benefits –making them among thelargest and highest-paying employers in theregion. Likewise, Westbank Fishing, aLouisianabased, U.S.-owned company,plays avital role in Plaquemines Parish, with all its catchprocessed locally at Daybrook FisheriesinEmpire, LA. Together,these operations support over400 employees, making it the largest employerinsouthern Plaquemines Parish.In 2023,total employee compensation, including wages, bonuses,and benefits, reached $36.5 million,

underscoring the industry’s critical economicrole in theregion. Statewide, the Louisiana menhaden industry procures goodsvalued at over $62.4millionfrombusinessesin32 parishes.Beyond its coreoperations in Plaquemines($11.4million) and Vermilion($7.4 million) parishes, signiﬁcantindustry-relatedexpenditures ﬂowinto: JeffersonParish ($6.4million) Terrebonne Parish ($6 million),Lafayette Parish ($5.9 million), OrleansParish ($3.7 million),East BatonRouge Parish ($3.5 million) and Lafourche Parish ($3.2 million), among others

Additional parishes beneﬁting from over $1 millionin industry-driven spending include St.Mary,St. Martin, Calcasieu, Iberia,St. Tammanyand St.John the Baptist.Many othersreceive between $500,000 to $1 million, reinforcing howthe menhaden industry fuels localeconomies farbeyond coastal ﬁshing communities This widespread economic footprintin Louisiana underscores the industry’s vital role in creatingjobs, supporting small businesses, and

sustaining Louisiana’s working coast statewide.

CommitmenttoSustainability and Innovation

When theLouisiana menhaden industry thrives,sodoour coastal communities.Weare committedto both economic growth andresponsible stewardship of ourunique coastal environment. Ourworksupports:

•A science-driven approach to ﬁsheries management, ensuring responsible harvest levels and minimalenvironmental impact

•Long-term jobstabilityfor generations of ﬁshingfamilies

•Innovation in marineingredient production to improve nutrition worldwide

Louisiana’s menhaden industry has long-balancedeconomic prosperitywith responsible stewardship of our marine resources.Through science-based managementand ongoing innovation, we remain committedtosustainable ﬁshingpractices that protect ourwaters, support ourcommunities,and drive economic growth.Aswelook to the future, this industry willcontinue to provide stablejobs, strengthen local businesses, anddeliver essentialproducts that powerglobal nutrition—ensuring that Louisiana’s working coast thrives for generations to come.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Brian Clement is co-owner of CA Homes in Lafayette and the Louisiana staterepresentativewith the National Home Builders Association.

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TheW R. IrbyCommittee andthe Board of Directors of theLouisiana State Museum areoffering ﬂoor space for CommercialRental at 537StAnn St in the Historic LowerPontalba Building in JacksonSquare, NewOrleans, LA.All Applicants interested are encouraged to visitthe website: louisianastatemuseum.org and complete theﬁllable PDF form. Thedeadlinetosubmit proposals is: WEDNESDAY,APRIL 16,2025 AT NOON.

INFORMATIONTECHNOLOGY

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of this Sec‐tion;and thosestatedin thebidding documents shallnot be waived by anyentity. University of NewOr‐leansisa participantin theSmall Entrepreneur‐ship (SE) Program(the Hudson Initiative)and theVeteranOwnedand Service-Con‐nected Disabled VeteranOwned(LaVet) SmallEn‐trepreneurshipsPro‐gram.Bidders areen‐couraged to consider participation. Informationisavailable from theUniversityof NewOrleans Purchasing Office If youhavea disability andwould like to request an accommodationin ordertoparticipate in this meeting, please con‐tact Melanie Champagneatmm‐champ2@uno.edu or (504) 280-3237 as soon as possiblebut no later than 48 hoursbeforethe scheduledmeeting. Evidence of authorityto submit thebid shallbe required in accordance with R.S. 38:2212a(1)(c) (i). Theright is reserved to reject anyorall bids andtowaive informali‐ties.UNO is an equalop‐portunity/affirmativeac‐tion employer Specificationsmay be obtained from thePur‐chasingOffice by calling (504) 280-6172 or emailat tabacino@uno.edu By:TroyA.Bacino, Asst Director Purchasing,Uni‐versityofNew Orleans 133167-mar31-apr6-13-3t $166.33

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g company is listed inCir‐cular570 of theU.S.Trea‐sury Department.The name,address, tele‐phonenumberand con‐tact person forthe bond‐ingcompany shallalso be included TheContractorshall also furnishbotha Contract Bond anda Laborand Material Bond.All bonds shallbefor 100% of the Contract price. Theright is reserved,as theinterestofthe Owner mayrequire,toreject anyand allbidsand to waiveany informalities in bids received Envelope containing bids must be sealed,marked, addressedasfollows anddelivered to theEx‐ecutiveDirector,USS Al‐abamaBattleshipCom‐mission, Battleship Memorial Park,GiftShop Ticket Ofﬁce,2703 Battle‐ship Parkway, Mobile,Al‐abama36602: "Bid for RebidofUSS DRUM Tank Cleanout -Phase II (Proj. No.1165005)”, to be opened 3:00 p.m.,Local Time,Thursday,April 17, 2025. TheBidder'sAl‐abamaState Contrac‐tor'sLicense Number shallbeincludedonthe envelope containing the submittedproposal. AttentionofBidders is also called to thelicense required by Title34, Chapter8,ofthe code of Alabama, 1975, and amendments thereto, re‐lating to thelicensing of GeneralContractors Only bids from pre-quali‐ﬁed contractorslicensed by theAlabama StateLi‐censingBoard forGen‐eral Contractorswillbe accepted THIS INVITATION FOR BIDS IS CONDENSEDFOR ADVERTISINGPURPOSES. ADDITIONAL INFORMA‐TION ANDREQUIRE‐MENTSFOR BIDDERSCAN BE FOUNDINTHE CON‐TRACTDOCUMENTS USSALABAMA BATTLESHIP COMMISSION 132065-mar23-20-apr6-3t

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LOUISIANA

Returning as aﬁrstpatient

Howbodydonationworks in Louisiana

BY EMILYWOODRUFF Staffwriter

When MichelleMoore’smom, Betty, was diagnosed with ALS at age 64, the progress of the disease wasswift and devastating.Bythe time she moved in with her daughter in New Orleans in 2018 —about nine months into her diagnosis—she was in apower wheelchair and communicated throughtextmessaging.

Faced with the inevitable progression of an illness thathad stolen her independence, Moore said sheand hermother focused on what they could control.

“Wecouldn’tchange what was coming,” Moore said. “So how do we make the most of the time we have, and not let life go to waste?”

For her mother,that answer came in the form of body donation. Ahospice worker mentioned it to her as an option, and shelatched on to the idea as away shecould stick around for alittle bit longer,servingapurpose.

“This disease takes so much away from you,” Moore said.

“But if someone else can learn somethingbecause of her life —literally her body —then that would be wonderful to contribute to.”

In Louisiana, programs at LSU and Tulane accept whole-body donations to train future doctors, scientists, dentists and other medical professionals. Unlike organ donation, which typically beneﬁts asingle recipient, body donation serves abroader educational mission, training

PROVIDED PHOTO

After beingdiagnosed withALS at 64

Betty McCloud Bacon decided to donate her bodytoscience through LSU.

medical professionals with hands-on experience.

The firstpatient

In amorgue on Perdido Street in New Orleans,bodies storedinfreezers at LSU Health Sciences Center have abig job ahead of them:They will be theﬁrst patient of new medical students, the silentteachers guiding them through the

fundamentals of human anatomyand clinical care.

Each year,LSU Health NewOrleans receivesabout 250 donated bodies that areusedfor gross-anatomy labs for ﬁrstyear medical students, surgical training for residentspracticing procedureslike knee replacements or spinal fusions, ultrasound-guided needleinsertion training, and hands-on workshops for emergency medicine and traumacare simulations. The impact of asingle donationisfar-reaching, said Jay Mussell, aprofessor in the department of cell biology and anatomy

“Oneindividualmay provide training for 100 different people,” Mussell said.

That reach,Mussellsaid, comeswith a great responsibility

“Truly,noone will ever be moreintimate withaperson’sbody than those of us doing gross anatomy courses,” said Mussell. “AndIdon’ttake that lightly.”

LSU students hold amemorial forbody donorsafter the completion of their course.

The ceremonies are meant to honorthe individuals whomadethe donation and acknowledge the profound educational gift they gave.

“The day of memorialization is really not about (the students) at all,” he said. “It’sabout understanding howyou stand on theshoulders of giants andhow you have to acknowledgethe individuals that enabled you to have that personal growth.”

ä See DONATION, page 2X

Technology canhelp personalize sleephealth

N.O. doctor details advancements

BY MARGARETDeLANEY Staff writer

Dr.Michael Darin is asleep doctor and director of sleep medicine at Ochsner Baptist in New Orleans. He thoughthewas having good sleep, until he got the Oura Ring.

The smart ring, developed by a Finnish company,tracks sleep, activity and body signals like heart rate, providing personalized insights into health and wellness throughanaccompanying app Theringrangesinprice from around $200 to $500.

Marketcompetitors include similarrings designedtomonitor sleep by Samsung, Ultrahuman, Amazﬁt, Ring AIR, RingConn and others.

“It’sreally interesting that most of us think we have someidea of what’sgoing on in oursleep,” Darin said. “The truth is, we have no idea. On average, 40% of Louisiana adults reported sleeping less than seven hoursina 24-hour period, according to America’sHealth Rankings analysis of the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention’s2022 Behavioral Risk Factor SurveillanceSystem.

The primary indicators of bad sleep are present the morning after: Howlongdopeople stay awake?Whatdotheyremember from the night before? How many timesdid theywake up?

New technologies, including devices like the Oura Ring that monitorheartrates,breathing levels and more, can moreaccurately determine sleep health —and the best waytoﬁxit.

Howmuchshouldpeoplesleep?

To give people an accurate number of hours for each person to sleep is counterproductive to getting better sleep, according to Darin.

According to the American AcademyofSleep Medicine, nearly 70 million Americans have asleep disorder.

Insomnia is the most common, with30% of adultsexperiencing short-term insomnia (when going to sleepbecomes difﬁcult aftera traumatic eventorfor ashort period of time) and 10% of people experiencing long-lasting insomnia (persistent difﬁculty falling asleep foroverthreenights a week for threemonths).

“Discussing the number of hours of sleep is not so much to tell people to try to get more sleep,” Darin said.

“If they trytofollowthe exact recommendations, mostlikely all it’sgoing to do is makethem more anxious.

Between seven to nine hours of sleep anight is generally believed to be the ideal range to maintain sleep health, but not everyone needsthe same amount.

ä See SLEEP, page 3X

HEALTH MAKER

New drug can extend life expectancy, BR doctor says

Pancreatic cancer treatment can add months for patients

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

Dr William Russell specializes in radiation oncology in Baton Rouge. He graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1984.

Russell is double-board certi-

ﬁed in internal medicine and radiation oncology served six years in the U.S. Army and 16 years in the U.S. Air Force, and taught internal medicine at Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center

He currently has interests in prostate brachytherapy and conformal treatment planning for breast, lung, prostate, head and neck and gastrointestinal cancers at Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center

Most recently, Russell has worked to bring Pluvicto to Baton Rouge — a federal Food and Drug Administration-approved, breakthrough medication for

patients with advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body

The medication could be lifechanging for many patients in Louisiana, where prostate cancer remains the most common type of cancer in the state.

Nationally, about 1 in every 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and Louisiana’s rate is 32% higher than the national average. What is the current level of care and treatment for prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer is obviously a very common cancer in men, and it’s more prevalent as men get older

Usually men with prostate cancer are treated with either surgery or radiation. In rare cases, some other outliers that are used, such as cryotherapy and partial-prostate treatments, but the majority of men who have prostate cancer will not die from the disease.

There are a group of men (about 1 in 44), either despite local treatment or who already present with metastatic disease, are likely to die of their prostate

cancer With prostate cancer, we just need to know who needs to be treated. We have a variety of tools at our disposal now

Over the past decade, how have prostate cancer detection technologies improved?

The use of MRI for prostate cancer detection and the use of a scan called a PSMA PET scan have changed the game in prostate care.

We’ve also begun to move the dial with genetic testing — not the gene test people get in their blood, looking for a risk of cancer This test is actually an analysis of their prostate cancer, their genetics and how likely this disease is to progress and cause pain and suffering.

I have a lot of patients with prostate cancer who don’t need radiation or surgery We just follow their progress. But when men start having higher risk factors, or they have imaging evidence of disease, that’s worrisome.

The surgeons have gotten very good at surgical resection for prostate cancer — radiation oncology has come a long way

When I came to Louisiana from

Researchers seek to prove treatment delays symptoms of Alzheimer’s

BY LAURAN NEERGAARD and SHELBY LUM Associated Press

An experimental treatment appears to delay Alzheimer’s symptoms in some people genetically destined to get the disease in their 40s or 50s, according to new ﬁndings from ongoing research now caught up in Trump administration funding delays.

The early results — a scientiﬁc ﬁrst — were published Wednesday even as study participants worried that politics could cut their access to a possible lifeline.

“It’s still a study but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having,” said Jake Heinrichs of New York City

Now 50, Heinrichs has been treated in that study for more than a decade and remains symptom-free despite inheriting an Alzheimer’scausing gene that killed his father and brother around the same age

If blocked funding stops Heinrichs’ doses, “how much time do we have?” asked his wife, Rachel Chavkin. “This trial is life.”

Two drugs sold in the U.S. can modestly slow worsening of early-stage Alzheimer’s by clearing the brain of one of its hallmarks, a sticky gunk called amyloid. But until now, there haven’t been hints that removing amyloid far earlier — many years before the ﬁrst symptoms appear — just might postpone the disease.

The research led by Washington University in St. Louis involves families that pass down rare gene mutations almost guaranteeing they’ll develop symptoms at the same age their affected relatives did — information that helps scientists tell if treatments are having any effect.

The new ﬁndings center on a subset of 22 participants who received amyloid-removing drugs the longest, on average eight years. Long-term amyloid removal cut in

anti-amyloid Alzheimer’s drug

half their risk of symptom onset, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Lancet Neurology

Despite the study’s small size, “it’s incredibly important,” said Northwestern University neuroscientist David Gate, who wasn’t involved with the research.

Now participants have been switched from an earlier experimental drug to Leqembi, an IV treatment approved in the U.S., to try to answer the obvious next question

“What we want to determine over the next ﬁve years is how strong is the protection,” said Washington University’s Dr. Randall Bateman, who directs the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network of studies involving families with these rare genes. “Will they ever get the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease if we keep treating them?”

Here’s the worry: Bateman raised money to start that conﬁrmatory study while seeking National Institutes of Health funding for the full project but his grant has been delayed as required reviews were canceled. It’s one example of how millions of dollars in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, we were the ﬁrst center to set up three-dimensional treatment planning. That was a huge leap forward.

We have gotten better at understanding who needs to be treated, better at conﬁning the treatment to the areas we want to treat, avoiding the organs we don’t want to injure and have a better understanding of the biology of cancer

I remember seeing early PET scans at Chapel Hill in the early ’90s. Duke was one of the centers that worked on it. We were able to see cancer in cells and areas that appeared structurally normal.

In other words, everybody could understand better what stage their cancer really was. But, even though we have gotten better at this, there are still men who develop metastatic disease.

Tell me how the new cancer drug Pluvicto, works.

Pluvicto was recently approved by the FDA for men whose prostate cancer has not responded to standard treatments. It works by ﬁnding and attacking cancer

DONATION

Continued from page 1X

Not all body donation programs have maintained that standard.

High-profile scandals at other institutions — including one involving a Louisiana man whose remains were dissected before a paying audience at a for-profit event — have raised questions about how donated bodies are used and whether families can trust what happens after death. LSU has had some donors question the process following such incidents at other institutions, officials said. Louisiana is a first-person consent state, meaning individuals must register themselves to donate; next-of-kin donations are rare and heavily vetted. LSU also returns cremated remains to families, which is not guaranteed by every program. How does it work?

cells while leaving healthy cells alone, which can mean better results and fewer side effects.

Pluvicto is given intravenously once a week for six weeks (six doses). It’s a drug that is needed for a small group of men where therapy hasn’t worked, who only have disease we can see on a PSNA PET scan (a scan that allows us to see metastatic prostate cancer with a very high degree of speciﬁcity).

For that group of men who reached the point where they were resistant to therapies, this drug was able to prolong their lives by eight months, according to the initial studies.

Eight months doesn’t sound like much, but it does if you’re looking at a potential one-month lifespan with cancer.

While not a cure, Pluvicto offers hope helping to extend life expectancy and slow tumor growth for men in our area who are battling advanced prostate cancer

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.

Rodrigue’s own mother signed up to be a body donor in 1981. She used to joke that students would “have a lot of fun with her” because of all her ailments.

“She loved the idea of being able to come here and have students work on her as their ﬁrst patient,” Rodrigue said. Families can expect to receive the cremated remains around three years after death.

There is no cost to donating, unless the donor is more than 200 miles outside of LSU, in which case the family would need to cover transportation costs. For some, potential savings in cremation costs may be a draw, though the university takes care to prevent financial incentive from becoming a motivation for donation.

While they are meeting current needs, additional donors would allow LSU to expand educational opportunities, such as allowing fewer students per cadaver or providing more specimen availability for advanced training, Rodrigue said.

research have been stalled as NIH grapples with funding restrictions and mass ﬁrings.

At the same time, researchers wonder if NIH will shift focus away from amyloid research after comments by Dr Jay Bhattacharya, who was conﬁrmed March 25 as the agency’s new director

“One of the reasons I think that we have not made progress in Alzheimer’s, as much as we ought to have, is because the NIH has not supported a sufﬁciently wide range of hypotheses,” Bhattacharya told senators, responding to one who brought up an example of earlier science misconduct unrelated to current research.

Scientists don’t know exactly what causes Alzheimer’s a minddestroying disease that affects nearly 7 million Americans, mostly late in life. What’s clear is that silent changes occur in the brain at least two decades before the ﬁrst symptoms — and that sticky amyloid is a major contributor At some point amyloid buildup appears to trigger a protein named tau to begin killing neurons, which drives cognitive decline.

Each donor’s use is determined based on their condition That determines if they will be embalmed and used long-term for dissection or frozen and used in advanced clinical training for residents or faculty performing procedures that require a realistic tissue feel, such as pelvic ﬂoor reconstruction. If a donor body wasn’t found until a day or two after death, the program may not be able to use it. Certain infectious diseases, such as MRSA, some types of hepatitis and HIV also preclude donation, said Tara Rodrigue, program administrator of the Bureau of Anatomical Services at LSU School of Medicine. A high body mass index that exceeds storage tank limits can also disqualify a donor. What happens after death depends on the circumstances. If a donor dies at home, the coroner is sometimes involved; any case requiring an autopsy or involving trauma such as a gunshot wound or car accident, typically disqualiﬁes the body If the death occurs under hospice or in a hospital, a medical professional contacts LSU to begin screening. Rodrigue’s team reviews the donor’s medical history to determine eligibility. Once accepted, LSU’s contracted funeral home retrieves the body and brings it to the morgue, where staff assess its condition and decide whether to embalm it for longer-term use or freeze it for shorter-term clinical training.

‘Your second job is done’ Near the end of her life, Rodrigue’s mother developed Alzheimer’s. She wasn’t able to have meaningful conversations with her But body donation was something her mom had talked about for decades. Seeing it through gave Rodrigue peace.

“I grew up knowing that she always wanted to be a donor, and so that’s the one thing that I feel that I was able to do, was make that happen,” Rodrigue said. Similarly, Michelle Moore felt body donation was part of her mom’s legacy Betty was someone who always wanted to keep busy who worked as long as she could through her ALS diagnosis, and whose friends and family knew her to be humble and always looking to be helpful to others.

Two years after LSU’s contracted funeral home came to get her mom after she passed away Moore received a call that her mom was “ready for pickup.”

She went alone to retrieve the ashes, which were placed in a box inside a bag. She placed the box in the front passenger seat of her car, talking to her mom and chuckling to herself over the reunion. It was, she said, a moment of a sense of completion for both of them — “like your second job is done.”

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate.com.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state.This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and re-examining tried and true methods on ways to live well.

Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana. Do you have a health story? We want to hear from you. Email margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more.

Jake Heinrichs prepares for his March 12 infusion treatment with an experimental

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS By HEATHER KHALIFA

Jake Heinrichs hugs his wife, Rachel Chavkin, on March 12 at their home in New york. Heinrichs is part of the study of an experimental treatment that appears to delay Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Eat Fit Live Fit

Cautionary tales: Howmuchshould youtrustthatwellnessinﬂuencer?

Iseeiteveryday:socialmediafeeds filledwithadvicefrompeoplecalling themselvesnutritioncoachesorwellnessgurusbutwhohavehadnoformal educationorcrediblefoundationinthe field.Theysharepersonalstories,often dramaticoremotional,andpromisequick fixesforeverythingfromweightstruggles tochronicillnesses.

Whensocialmediaalgorithmsserveup wildlypersuasiveself-appointed“experts” playingtoourvulnerabilitiesandfears,it canbedifficulttodiscernwhatislegitimatecontentandwhat’sjustunchecked self-promotion.

Letmeclarifysomethingrightupfront:I havealotofrespectformanyholisticand complementaryapproaches.Functional medicinetherapiescanabsolutelyhavea placeinourwellnessjourney—provided theycomefromcredentialed,welltrainedprofessionals.Infact,Ioften ﬁndmyselfworkinginthat“middle space,”embracingbothtraditionaland integrativetherapies.Iamgratefulfor conventionalmedicineandthetalented, dedicatedproviderswhopracticeit.I alsoseethevalueofnaturalapproaches andtargetedsupplementswhenthere’s soundevidencebehindthem.

Thatisthekey differencethat deservesour focus.Licensed experts—bethey medicaldoctors,dietitians, chiropractors oracupuncturists—havealot morecredibility thanunregulated inﬂuencerswho mayhavelittle tonoapplicable educationor oversight.

Arecent NewYorkTimes article illustrated how many online personalities promote wellness tests or therapies that lack credible backing. Some influencers may haveundisclosed financial ties to the products they promote, conveniently sidestepping vital conversations about potential downsides or scientific uncertainty.

Documentingdeception

Addingtotheconversationisthe Netflixdocuseries“AppleCiderVinegar.”It chroniclestheself-spunsagaofBelleGibson,anAustralianwellnessinfluencerwho claimedtohavecuredherterminalbrain cancerthroughdietalone.Spoileralert: sheneverhadcanceratall,noranyeducationorcertificationsinthefield.Gibson’s

BY THENUMBERS

radiantsocialmediapresence,cookbook andrecipemobileappluredinmillions whoweredesperatelysearchingforhope, butherentirepremisewasalie.

Whilethisisanextremestory,itcan serveasacautionarytaleremindingus howquicklymisinformationcanspread andharmthosewhotrustitblindly.

Goodadviceorjustagoodstory?

Foradeeperlookintowhywecanbe sosusceptibletothis,Iinterviewedtwo experts,Dr.JohnSawyer,aneuropsychologistwithOchsnerHealth,andMelanie WarnerSpencer,ajournalistwhofrequentlycoverswellnesstopics. Youcanlistentothefullinterviewon mypodcast,FUELEDWellness+Nutrition. Belowisasummaryofourconversation.

“Whenweseesomethingthataligns withwhatwethink—orwhatwehope —tobetrue,weoftenturnoffthepart ofourbrainthatsays,‘Wait,isthisreally accurate?’”Dr.Sawyersaid.“That’scalled conﬁrmationbias,andit’ssomethingwe alldo.”

Healsopointedoutthatpeoplepushing dubiousclaimsmaynotstartoutwith theintentofdeception.“Somefolksjust believetheirownmarketing,”Dr.Sawyer noted.“Andthentheyignoreanyevidencethatcontradictsit,oftenbypassing peerreviews,researchorclinicaltrials.”

Spencerunderscoredtheemotional pullofpersonalstories:“Wearewiredto loveagoodstory.Journalistsusethemall

MollyKimball,RD,CSSD,isaregistereddietitian withOchsnerHealthandfounderofOchsner’sEatFit nonproﬁtinitiative.Formorewellnesscontent,tuneinto Molly’spodcast,FUELEDWellness+Nutrition,andfollow @MollykimballRDand@EatFitOchsneronsocialmedia. Emailnutrition@ochsner.orgtoconnectwithMollyor scheduleaconsultwithherteam.

LOUISIANAHAS SECOND HIGHEST RATE OF MEDICAID COVERAGE

thetime,”shesaid.“Weﬁndacompelling personalexperienceandweaveinthe research.Butinﬂuencerscanexploitthat byfocusingonthefeel-goodangleand leavingoutthefactthatthere’snosolid evidencetobacktheirclaims.

Sowheredoesthatleavetherestofus? It’simportanttostaycurious,yetcautious. Diggingdeeper

First,askquestions.Aretheperson’s credentialslegitimate?Ifheorsheclaims tobeamedicaldoctor,achiropractorora dietitian,doalittlediggingtoverifythat. Dotheydisclosepotentialconflictsof interest—likedirectprofitsfrompromoting specificproducts?

Second,considerhowurgenttheissue is.Ifyouhavealife-threateningcondition, bewaryofanyonewhoinsistsyouignore medicaladviceorabandonmainstream treatments.

Third,ﬁndprovidersyoutrust—those wholisten,respectyourinputandcan supportyouinexploringcrediblecomplementaryapproaches.

It’sokaytoexploreholisticoptions, especiallyifyou’redealingwithnon-urgentconditions.OurLifestyleNutrition dietitiansoftenworkwithphysicianswho blendlifestyle-basedapproaches—liketargetedsupplementsorspecialdiets—with moretraditionaltreatments.

Nexttimeyouscrollthroughsocial media,don’tletashinystoryorslick imagefoolyou.Ifyouneedareminderof howlowsomepeoplewillgowhenno one’swatchingclosely,justthinkofBelle Gibson.

Thereispowerintellingourpersonal stories,yes,butthere’salsopotentialharm ifthestoriesarebuiltonhalf-truthsor outrightfabrications.Stayinformed,stay engagedandaskthehardquestions—becauseyourhealthistooimportanttotrust tojustanyonewithanengagingsocial mediafeedandagoodstory.

SLEEP

Continuedfrom page1X

During sleep, the body repairs itself. It is atime when hormonal systems adjust themselves, when thebraincleans itselfand consolidates memories, when theimmunesystem recovers and much more.

Alack of sleep can put stress on allthe body’s systems.

“We’re basically under anesthesia during sleep. We remember going to sleep.We remember thetimes we wake up at night —and we think that that’s thewhole picture.”

DR. MICHAEL DARIN, director of sleep medicine at Ochsner BaptistinNew Orleans

these online sensations for better sleep or awaste of time?

People can do theirown experiments with their night routines(or morning andday routines) and how it affects their sleep. New tech allows people to track adifferencein sleep basedonpersonal data, without the need for wires,bright lightsand uncomfortable beds often associated with sleep studies.

Darin interprets the range of sleep as atimeto give the body the opportunity to sleep. Someone who stays up late either working or watchingtelevision, thenhaving to wake up early in the morning, should look at their routine to establish better sleeping habitsﬁrst.

improve their sleep,” Darinsaid. “That would be theequivalent of buying $4,000 running shoes, and hoping it’sgoing to make yourun.”

Although running shoes areimportant (ask any runner), the shoes themselves don’tmakeanathleteperform better or faster.Darin feels the same about mattresses, pillows and sheets.

“We’re basically under anesthesia during sleep,” Darin said. “Weremember going to sleep.Weremember the times we wake up at night— and we think that that’sthe whole picture.”

Medicaid is ajoint federal and state program of comprehensivehealth coverageand along-termcare program available to lower-income adults and families in the United States. In 2025, an estimated 72 million people will have Medicaid, according to Medicaid. gov.

The percentageofpeople whoreport having Medicaid is 21% nationally,but ranges from 11%inUtah to 34% in NewMexico.

In Louisiana, 31.9% have Medicaid —the second highest rate of Medicaid users in the nation,KFF data says According to data fromGeorgetown University,Louisiana Medicaid coverage rates in 2023 varied from 22.3% to

However,someone who goes to bed at nine, then lies awake for four hours before finally getting to sleep, may need to seek helptoaddress their sleep health.

47.2% for all agegroups.

East Carroll Parish had thehighest rate of Medicaid coveragewith 47.2% coveragefollowedbyMadison (46.8% coverage),Tensas (42.8% coverage), Claiborne (40.6% coverage)and Concordia(40.2% coverage).

These parishes had the least amount of coverage: Cameron (22.3% coverage) Ascension (24.6% coverage)

St.Tammany(25.1% coverage) Livingston (25.5% coverage)

St. Charles (25.6% coverage)

In 2025, the monthly incomelimit for oneadultwas $1,800, althoughthe rate limits rangegreatly basedonfamily size, ageand services

Mostofthe current sleep research centersonthe dangers of getting less thansix hours of sleep consistently: anxiety,depression, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, memory issues, lack of immune system and more. Keep rhythm on track

Thefirst thingtodoto help improve sleephealth is thinking about sleep as skill thatrequiressome work and some effort. It can take anywhere from 10 days to monthstoimprove sleep habits.

Although improving sleep health is possible, short-term ﬁxes don’tusually work,and manypeople end up frustrated in theeffort.

Makingsure to focus on theright thingstoboost better sleeping habitsis critical, according to Darin. Spending moneyand time on habits and sleephacksmight just be a waste.

“I have patientswho pay $4,000 for amattress to

Proper bedding mayincrease comfort (as proven with the hotel mattress market where guests purchase beds from hotels where the sleep was simplybetter than home), they are unlikely to be the underlying problem of poor sleep health. The sleepfoundation.org, afoundation that researches sleep needsand sleep hygiene, hasresources to discover good habits for sleeping —fromthe night routine to snoring to the best bedof2024. For ideal sleep,it’simportant to check allthe following boxes— andin some instances even more thanthose listedhere:

n No caffeine late in the day

n Exercise during the day

n Have anight shade to block light

n Melatonin gummies or pills

n Adarkbedroom n Acoldbedroom

Thenextfrontierofsleep

Eating late at night, melatonin, sleepy girl mocktails, late-night stretches, reading abook, whitenoise andlongbaths —are all of

Wearable sleep devices, like the Oura Ring or the Ultra Human(another brand of smart rings), collect data during sleep and give positive feedback on what works andwhat doesn’t.

According to Darin, the newtech can help bridge the gap between people notbeing able to ﬁgure out what theycan change. Many sleep studiesrevolve around howtostimulate the brain to recreate thebrain waves of sleep Their main efforts are to understand whatthe brain is doing in sleep in order to ﬁnd ways to get the brain back to thatstate easier

“I don’tknowifthat’s even possible,” Darin said. When Darin got an Oura Ring, he did notexpect the data to show him anything toodifferent abouthis current understandingofhis sleep health. It turns out, Darin’shabit of eating lateratnight was affecting his heart rate variabilityand wasimpacting his sleep “I was shocked,” he said. “Having that kind of objective information from newtechnologies —Ireally think that’sagame changer.”

EmailMargaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com.

BROUGHT TO YO UB Y

Molly Kimball RD,CSSD

festing Healthy

Springisuponus.Thatmeansit’stimetogearupfor Louisiana’sfamousfestivalseason.Herearesomefestprep tipstohelpensurenothinggetsinthewayofagoodtime.

Howtopack

Besuretotaketheseessentialswithyou whenpackingforafestival:

Agoodbag.Makesureyouhavethesmallestpossiblebag fortheitemsthatyouneed.Chooseonethat’slightweight butsupportiveforyourback.

Anemptywatercontainer. Somefestivalsdon’tallow outsidewater,buttheremaybeaplacetoﬁllbottlesonce yougetinsidetokeepyourselfhydratedandsavealittle money.(Donotbringglasscontainers.)

Appropriateformsofpayment Somefestivalsare cashless;somearen’t.Besuretocheckthefestivalwebsite aheadoftimetoﬁndoutwhichformofpaymentyouneed.

Festival food: Howtomake healthy choices

Musicandfoodgohand-in-handwithLouisiana festivals.Goodmusiccanfeedthesoul.Decadent festivalfood,however,canbedetrimentaltoyourdiet.

So,thequestionis:howcanweeatwellwhilestill enjoyingwhat’sonfestivalmenus?

Herearesometips:

Hydrate.Drinkingwatercanreduceappetite bytakingupspaceinthestomach.Bringyour ownwaterbottle,sipandreﬁllthroughout theday

Pickplants.Whenitcomestowhattoeat, think:“HowcanIeatmoreplants?’’From saladstobeanstofreshfruit,wherecanyou incorporatemoreoftheseintoyourdiet?

Packsnacks.Stockupontherightsnacks tokeepyouenergizedandsatisﬁed.Afew nonperishableideasincludenuts,trailmix andproteinbars.

Planinadvance.Manyfestivalsnowshare theirmenusonline,socheckoutthefood vendorsinadvancetoseewho’soffering grilledproteinsandveggies.

Sharethesplurge.Findafriend(orafew)to sharethemoreindulgentitemsyoujustcan’t resist.Usually,afewbitesareallyouneedto satisfythatcraving!

Lookforthe EatFitseal. TheEatFitsealhighlights menuitemsthat meetOchsnerEatFit nutritionalcriteria.While notallfestivalshave EatFitoptions,somedo!

Sunscreen.Applybeforeyouleaveyourhouseandbringmoreforreapplications.Lookforsunscreenwith anSPFof30orhigher.

Sunglasses.It’simportanttoprotectyoureyesfromthesun’sultravioletrays.

Hat.Protectyourheadandfacefromsunburn.

Scarf Youcanwrapitaroundyourshouldersifyougetchillyorsoakitinwaterandtieitaroundyour necktocooldownifit’shotout.

Tissuesorbabywipes. Usethemforanythingfromcleaningupafteramealtowipingofffestivaldust. Earplugs.Protectyourears;festivalampliﬁcationsystemscanbedeafening.

Plasticbags.Ifaspringshowercomesalong,aplasticbagwillprotectyourphone,walletandanything elseyoudon’twanttogetwet

Medication Makesureyouhaveanyprescriptionmedsyoumayneedaswellasheadachemedication andsomethingforupsetstomach,justincasethefestivalfooddoesn’tagreewithyou

Portablephonecharger Justincaseyourphonedies

Menstrualproducts.Packmenstrualproductsifyouthinkthere’seventheslightestchanceyou’llneed them.Andifyoudon’t,afellowfestivalgoermight.

Adhesivebandages.Comepreparedforblisters.

Bladder tipsfor festival season

Urinaryurgencyandfestivalsdonotgowelltogether.That“gottago”feelingcanbepowerfulandhasbeen thebaneofmanyfestgoerswhoﬁndthemselveswaitinginlonglinesforaportapotty.

Herearesometipstoeasetheurge:

Stayhydrated.Itmayseemcounterintuitive,butdecreasingyourwaterintakecanmakeurgencyworse.And lessﬂuidintakeproducesconcentratedurinethatcanirritatethebladder.Ontheﬂipside,drinkingalotat oncecandramaticallyincreasethevolumeofurineyourbodyproduces,makingurgencyworse.Drinkwater insmallsipssteadilythroughoutthedaytogiveyourbodytimetoadjustandkeepyouwellhydrated. Limitbladderirritants.Alcohol,coffee,caffeine,carbonatedbeverages,tomatoproductsandcitruscan irritatethebladder.

Maintainbladderhealth.Ifurinaryurgencyissomethingyoustrugglewithoften,makesureyou’regiving yourselfenoughtimeonthetoilettofullyemptyyourbladder.Andavoid“justincase”peeing.Usingthe restroom“justincase”beforegettinginthecarorstartingamovieisahabitthatcaninterruptthedelicate feedbacksystembetweenyourbrain,bladderandpelvicﬂoor.Just-in-caseurinationcanmakethebladder moresensitive,soit’sbesttowaituntilyouhavetogo.

LOUISIANA

PhyllisColemanMouton, founder of LafayettenonprofitWomen of Wisdom,addresses the CEOofVieMed, his executivestaff and WoWwomen at the WoWCorporateConnection meeting at VieMed in Lafayette on June 5.

‘POWERFULSISTERHOOD’

8decades, 12 ethnicitiesofLafayette womenmakeimpact

BY JOANNA BROWN Staffwriter

Phyllis Coleman Mouton, founder of Women of WisdomAcadiana, has been awoman of action her entire life —and she has the resume to prove it.

Mouton, aLafayette native,retired as vice president of workforce and economic development from Baton Rouge Community College in 2017. Before that, she owned an oilﬁeld drilling supply firm, worked for Gov.Buddy Roemer,and was the first woman to be named president of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce —amongother laurels gathered over along career spent connecting people and communities.

Herindomitable energy didnot endat retirement. These days, Mouton is giving her full attention to apassion project she startedback in 2018, after moving back home and looking for ways to make adifference in Lafayette.

The resultingnonproﬁt organization Women of Wisdom Acadiana, is focused on afew key areas of beneﬁt for women, children, students andfamilies, among other issues —but the real impactcan be found in the “powerful sisterhood” that Mouton developed,according to member RuthFoote.

“WoW enabled me to step out of my comfort zone —especially the members in it,” said Foote, aLafayette journalist and former director of grants andcommunications at SMILE Community Action Agency

Foote said WoWmembersencouraged hertosubmither resumetoﬁll aseat on the Bayou VermilionDistrict

Regional Libraryin Lafayette.

Board of Commissioners that Mouton hadserved in for several years.

With their encouragement, Foote went for it and was appointed to the board

“Because of that,I becamea member of the Board of Commissioners, andI really enjoy it,” said Foote, who wasappointedin2023 for afour-year term. “Justknowing thatyou can do the things thatother people see in youis onegreat aspect of WoW.”

The Women of Wisdom don’thave aparticular creed,and there are few barriers to joining, apart from awillingness to contribute your unique interests,talentsand energies. AllMouton asks is that potential members meet her for an introductory coffee chat andshe gets the ball rolling from there.

AccordingtoMouton, theloose structure is by design —but WoWwomen are resolutely strategic about where they spend their effort.

Moutonemphasizes that WoWmembers are resolutely strategic about where they spendtheir collective effort.

“We’re notanorganization that duplicates what othersdo,”she said. “Generally,wepay close attention to where we think adiversecoalition of women need to gettogetherand use our voices and useour presence.”

WoWwomen attended the March 17 Lafayette Public Library Board of Control meeting. Member Mary Lib Guerciohas been alongtime proponent

ä See SISTERHOOD, page 2Y

Ispent 17 yearsasaprofessionalevents planner. Iknow howtothrowa party.Ilong ago letmyhusband offthe hook Planning andhosting aparty is nothis thing. If Iwanta party formy birthday, Iorganize it. He goes to the nth degreetohelp, but Iamthe driving force. After 31 yearsofmarriage, we’ve settledinto ourroles —not because we have to,but because we understand each other better. We knowthateveryone is happierthatway Forexample,lastyearfor my birthday, Ithrewa bigone. I hireda band andacaller, and we had acontra dance with more than60people. This year,I decidedtotoneit down. No party.Just aday with my family In late March, both of my daughters came home formy birthdaysoour whole family could be together. Ihad to be at my ofﬁcefor the afternoon, but even thatworkedout because my girls worked together while Iwas gone to prepare one of life’s loveliest pleasures —a homemade cake, just for me Iamabelieverinfully appreciating things that make life lovelier. I’ve learned the value of recognizing andsavoring the small joys life offers. Ahomemade cakeisone of them Dismissing homemade cake as pure indulgence is folly.We spend so much time in aworld thattells us to do more, eatless or hurry up. Every so often, doing the opposite is exactly whatweneed Do less. Eatmore. Slow down. In the world thatIwant to live in, ahomemade cake is not an extravagance,itisanoccasionalnecessity Whenitcomes to the kitchen, neitherofour daughters has needed my help for awhile. The sweetness of the cake went beyond the cup of sugar involved.

Fewthings bring such simple,undeniable joy as a homemade cake. My daughters could have worked for weeks on something much more complicated,but would we have gainedasmuchpure enjoyment from it? Idoubt it. To addtothe deliciousness, my husband prepared my favorite meal —homemade chile rellenoswith black beans, Mexican riceand guacamole. While he wouldn’tplanaparty, he will roastchilesand stuff rellenoswith cheese and beef. Then, he carefully coats and batters each oneand individually friesthem. Despite all of that, theyare light andunbelievably delicious.

There is something deeply good aboutfood made by the hands of those we love. Irecognize days like this are ﬂeeting. Sitting at the table that night, eating ascrumptious meal alongside the people I love most in the world, Iwanted to bottle up that feeling. I’ve come to realize that it’s notthe big partiesorgrand gesturesthatmatter most. Instead, it’stwo sisters baking acakefor their mother’sbirthdayona Mondayafternoon. Yes, Istill love aparty,and this is nottosay thatIwon’thave anotherone sometime soon. There will be time for that. But for now, the best gift is time —time in awarm kitchen, at afull table,with the people I love most.

EmailJan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Members

Women of Wisdom Acadiana attended the LibraryBoard of Control meetingonMarch 17 in supportofbuilding the newNortheast

Brothers share farmland to educate, train others

It’s the center of St. Helena Parish

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Chris Muse, one of four brothers who own Muse 3 Farm in Greensburg in St. Helena Parish, retired to farm and help others in his hometown. The farm consists of over 200 acres half of which are dedicated to longleaf and loblolly pine timber The other half is pristine pasture land where cattle, sheep, goats and chickens feast on Bahia grass.

The Muses use this land to educate and train sharing their farmland with their community.

Muse is the administrator of the local farmers market, and his goal is to recruit more farmers to offer fresh produce to the parish The market provides a great opportunity to work with Greaux the Good, which offers the match program for SNAP and EBT clients

While the name of the farm is Muse 3, there are four brothers in ownership. The name is an homage to their father, who long ago branded his cattle with a three because he was the third brother

How did the farm get started?

We founded the farm in 2015, incorporated in 2018 — me and three of my brothers. We grew up on a farm. My grandpa and my dad farmed, and all of his siblings farmed.

But being in St. Helena Parish, we didn’t see farming in our future so we took different career paths. We all graduated from college, and we all moved away After college, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and I spent 32 years working for IBM My brothers all moved away and made careers, too.

We had to go off in order to come back home.

While we were away, we would frequently come back to our small town to visit. There is something about a small-town atmosphere — a tranquillity about it. So, we decided that we were going to retire, and we were going to move back to our hometown and the farm. As we’re doing it, we ﬁg-

SISTERHOOD

Continued from page 1y

ured we had a chance to do something different. We wanted our farm to be a training and educational farm. We wanted the farm to also be self-sustaining, because we want our kids to eventually take over the farm

What are some ways that the Muse 3 Farm practices climate-friendly farming or sustainable farming?

We preach that everything we do on our farm begins with the soil. Soil health is very important to us We have about 150 acres dedicated to our animals We do rotational grazing. We also do multi-species grazing because we like the various animals growing together

We do not use any herbicides on our farm. Everything’s organic. We try to have a fresh water source in every paddock for other animals.

We like to do wildlife conservation. This is Louisiana, Sportsman’s Paradise. You have to save the predators as well. We planted 100 acres of pine trees because we need trees. All of that is what we need to make this world a better place.

How do you share your resources with the community?

We work with the other farmers in the area and do training and education for those guys to help make their farms more proﬁtable.

We want farmers to be able to utilize all of the programs and services that are available, state or local. As part of those workshops, we bring in representatives from those agencies to talk about their programs, and then we would work with farmers to follow up with them to make sure that they actually go out and sign up for some of those programs. We decided from day one, we were going to try to help others out, whether it be farmers, future farmers, kids or youth. I hadn’t realized, even in a rural area like St. Helena, most of these kids had not seen a farm.

We do tours to bring kids in. We work with the local 4-H ofﬁce. Most of the kids out here do not own cattle, so they don’t have an animal to show We have animals and a space, so we allow the 4-H students to show one of our animals.

We open up our farms to others so that they can come and see what farming is like. We just wanted to get back to that.

of expanding library access in Lafayette Parish, and the group lent their support by encouraging Board of Control members to move forward with building a new Northeast Lafayette Regional Library At the meeting, they counted it a victory when the board unanimously approved building the largest option: 20,500 square feet of books and community-use spaces. The 164-member strong nonproﬁt has women ranging in age from 20 to 92, says Mouton “How rich it is to hear from a 20-year-old, sitting at a table with a 90-year-old,” she said. “That’s eight decades of women. That’s beautiful. We’re 12 different ethnicities. It’s just a wonderful array of women, and that’s so powerful in terms of how we operate very effectively as a coalition of women who are empowered to create a thriving community for everyone.”

One of WoW’s signature projects is CAFÉ — Community and Family Engagement — through Lafayette-based educational foundation Love Our Schools. The program helps to bring resources to area schools by activating networks in the surrounding communities, and Women of Wisdom has taken the lead on CAFÉ initiatives at Lafayette schools like Carencro High and J.W Faulk Elementary where they focus on lessening truancy, supporting ACT prep, and stocking care closets with uniform items and toiletries. Other WoW efforts include support for organizations like

Have you seen any expansion and success in your area with other farmers?

Yes, now there are other farmers who have implemented some of those services and do field days at their own farms.

What vegetables are y’all growing right now?

We’re transitioning over to the spring garden. We have sweet corn growing right now with purple peas, tomato, okra and cucumbers. They need about six to eight more weeks, though.

What does the land mean to you since it’s been in your family for many generations?

My grandfather moved here in 1920. People probably look at this and say “This parish, you want to live here?”

But to me, I’m not moving anymore. I’m back at home. This is my land This is my forefathers’ land. I want to be able to bring my kids and hopefully, the grandkids come back.

Innocence Project New Orleans, which holds an annual fundraiser in Lafayette. IPNO lawyers work to free innocent people serving life sentences in Louisiana, and WoW members came out in force for their recent Acadiana fundraiser held on Feb 18.

“This is really an incredible organization that Phyllis started,” said IPNO executive director Jee Park. “I attended their monthly meeting in February and we talked about constitutional amendments and had a wonderful dialogue These are women who are showing up, supporting each other and empowering one another to get out there and support the organizations and issues in their community.”

For the members themselves, they know that there’s no limit to what they can do if they work together From WoW-led speaker series, to corporate workshops and service opportunities, they are giving each other the tools to make a difference, no matter where they stand.

“When you bring powerful women together, of all backgrounds, one thing they all want no matter their political afﬁliation, or their race, or socio-economic background,” Foote said, “Every woman wants a better world for her family and future generations.”

Foote said the group does more than learn about issues.

They do more than talk about issues.

“We’re actually getting out and doing something and making an impact on the community,” Foote said.

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

PROVIDED PHOTO

Phyllis Coleman Mouton, founder of Women of Wisdom Acadiana, speaks to new members at the pinning ceremony held in Lafayette on Jan. 9.

Chris Muse, co-owner of Muse 3 Farm, on his land with grazing cattle in Greensburg

PROVIDED PHOTOS

The Muse brothers who own Muse 3 Farm, from left, Chris Muse, Allen Muse, Burnell Muse and Mittie Muse.

Clean up the state during Love the Boot Week

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Louisiana is known for its natural beauty, but the litter and trash scattered on the interstates, in parking lots, swamps and waterways obscures this beauty, driving away future investors and tourists.

Lt. Gov Billy Nungesser and the Keep Louisiana Beautiful team are determined to clean up the state through Love the Boot Week April 5 through April 13, which will sweep the state clean of trash.

Love the Boot Week is Louisiana’s largest litter removal and beautification effort. All 64 parishes have events scheduled, and there are 963 events planned for the week. So far, 14 universities and over 100 schools will also have groups cleaning up across the state.

Nungesser developed his passion for removing litter when he was parish president of Plaquemines Parish after Hurricane Katrina. He implemented garbage cans on every road leading to La. 23 to give drivers a place to throw away trash. It was an improvement — 90% of the garbage ended up in or around those cans.

“I realized early on that if you made an attempt to give people a place to put it, and a little bit of education, we made a real difference,” Nungesser said.

Love the Boot Week is the state’s opportunity to make a difference.

“We have such a divisive climate nowadays, but cleaning up the state is an issue that we can truly be united behind,” said Susan Russell, executive director of the nonproﬁt organization Keep Louisiana Beautiful.

Russell says that cleaning the state is a must because of the harmful effects that trash and blight have on our economy, tourism, health, safety, quality of life and mental well-being.

Keep Louisiana Beautiful

Keep Louisiana Beautiful was established over 20 years ago with the goal of promoting corporate and individual responsibility for a cleaner and more beautiful Louisiana. The organization works through litter removal, prevention, educa-

tion and enforcement In August 2024, the Nungesser placed Keep Louisiana Beautiful under his office as a state program, which stabilized the inner structure and helped momentum toward accomplishing the mission of cleaning up Louisiana.

“We have a beautiful state,” said Russell, “but we don’t do a good job keeping it clean.”

Keep Louisiana Beautiful programs include education for youth and motorists, a Clean Biz program to engage businesses to have trash receptacles at transition points and library partnerships that provide pickup tools for litter removal.

“We’re empowering individuals in small groups so that when you see something, do something,” said Russell. “You don’t have to wait for someone else to organize a large community cleanup, and if we all did our part right if schools took care of their campuses, if residents and citizens made sure that household trash was bagged and tied and our garbage pan covered so that it wouldn’t blow down the street — it would make a huge difference. It’s everybody working together to do their part, and it is 100% solvable.”

Get out and love the boot

According to a 2023 Louisiana Litter Study conducted by Keep Louisiana Beautiful, at any given time, there’s about 143 million pieces of litter on the state roadways, and the cost is high — $92 million in 2024.

“What we’re doing in April gives me hope, and it’s very exciting because it is showing us that our citizens, our business owners and our elected ofﬁcials are ready for change,” Russell said.

Love the Book Week is a mixture of schools, businesses, local governments, state agencies and nonproﬁt partners who are rolling up their sleeves and going out in their respective communities to clean.

The planned events for the week vary from picking up litter to painting benches to removing grafﬁti to planting trees and gardens. Love the Boot participation has increased 30% from 2024 to 2025.

“This started out with us try-

TIGER STADIUM

ing to get people out walking the streets and caring for their community,” Russell said. “It has turned into a movement We had over 19,000 volunteers last year who removed 347 tons of litter, planted 920 trees, 400 plants and refurbished over 360 gardens.”

In 2025, Love the Boot Week is not only going to remove litter but will also be diverting waste from landﬁlls by separating aluminum cans and plastic bottles from litter and recycling them.

Nungesser and Russell agree that walking the streets and picking up litter is transformative because people who pick up litter for a day are about 80% less likely to litter again. People of all ages can participate, and students can earn service hours for clubs and school requirements.

Removing litter is the beginning of behavior change, and Russell says that’s Love the Book Week plants the seeds for change.

“I hope Love the Boot Week this year gives us the momentum going into fair and festival season to really care about our state,” Nungesser said. “Love where you live and protect it, and that’s from the rivers and waterways, to the parks, and to the parking lots.”

you by.Secure your copy and save20% today.Relive the excitement of LSU Tigers football and keep the spirit of LSU alive

Volunteers pick up trash with Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser, far right, during Love the Boot Week.

FAITH &VALUES

Theologianslooktoreshape spiritualfuture

Africandenominations preparefor Nicene Creed’s anniversary year

FREDRICK NZWILI

Contributing writer

As Christian denominations in Africa join the preparation for the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, clerics, theologiansand laypeople areembracing the moment as a chance to reshape the continent’s spiritual and social future.

The gathering of bishopsin Nicaea (now Iznik, in Turkey) in 325 was called by Roman Emperor Constantine to settle factionalism in the early church caused by Arianism,a theologythat said Jesuswas notdivine,thatoriginated in Africa.

“Why it was held is because an African cleric like myself raised issues that needed to be addressedconcerning thedoctrine of the Holy Trinity,” saidthe Rev. StephenNjure,a CatholicChurch

historian at Moi University in western Kenya.“That is Arius. Arius came up with aheresy that necessitated thecouncil.

Theanniversary,said Njure, “has everything to do with us, since one of us prompted its being, because of our need for clarityof faith,”addingthatideas likeArianism, which the council declared aheresy,help the church by forcingittoformulate doctrine and purify its teachings.

In the late spring of 325 at Nicaea, 318 bishops deliberated on controversies on thenature of Christ, bothhuman anddivine, andagreedona standard statement of faith still known today as theNicene Creed andsaid across much of the globe each Sunday.

Thecreed deﬁnesGod as one entity manifested in three persons: Father,Son andthe Holy Spirit.

The bishops meeting at Nicaea also established adatefor Easterand laid theground forearly canonlaw Protestant,Catholic andOrthodox churches around theglobe are celebrating the anniversary, with conferences lookingafresh at the counciland the lessons

it can teach on Christian unity amid divisions and atroubled globe. In November,the World Council of Churches will hold a conference in November titled “Towards Nicaea 2025: Exploring the Council’sEcumenical SigniﬁcanceToday,” and aglobal meeting of evangelical Christians is planned for October in Istanbul.

Lastyear,before he fellill, Pope Francis told Eastern Orthodox priestsvisiting the Vatican that he hoped to travel to Turkey to celebrate thecreed with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and in January,Francis expressed hiswillingness to work on once again finding a common date for Easter.(The two branches of Christianity, separatedbythe Great Schismof 1054, followdifferent calendars, with the Eastern Orthodox keeping to the Julian calendar and marking Easteraweek after the West.)

In Egypt, the Coptic Orthodox Church will host the Sixth World Conference on NICAEA organizedbythe WorldCouncil of Churches. “(This) is more than a

gathering of church leaders; it’s achance for Africa to reshape itsspiritualand social future,” said theRev.JackieMakena, a Methodist theologian andadjunct lectureratSt. Paul’sUniversity in Limuru,near Nairobi, who stressed that forAfrica, Nicaea wasaboutreclaiming itsnarrative “Amid centuriesofcolonial inﬂuence, the conference offers aplatform forAfricanvoices to lead conversations on decolonizingtheology,leadership and social justice, climatejustice and racial justice issues,”Makena said.

According to thetheologian, across the continent,preparations forthe conference in Egypt are in full swing.

“Delegations, including differentworld communionsand theological institutions, are hostingpublic lectures,paper presentations,and engaging in community discussions,” she said.

Makenasaid that themeeting would show Africa’srich theological heritage andcomeout with new waysofthinking about

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faithunbound by colonial legacies. “Institutions and leaders are uniting to ensure thatAfrica’s perspective is not only heardbut also formsa cornerstone of the broader ecumenical dialogue,” shesaid.

The Rev.John Ngige Njoroge, an Orthodox priestwho heads theology andinterfaith relations at the Africa Conference of Churches, said Nicaea was the ﬁrst ecumenical council that demonstrated howChristians could unite to find solutionsto challenges,including theological disagreements “This is very significant for Africa, wheretoday the propagation of misleading theologies is a threat to Christian unity and humandignity,” said Njoroge. Makena, theMethodist theologian, hopes theanniversary celebration results in arevitalized, inclusive church that bridges divides, whether they be theological, racial or generational. “As Africa plays apivotal role in this conversation,the hopeis that its renewed perspective will inspire unity in diversity,” she said.

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PROVIDED PHOTO

As Christian denominations in Africajoin the preparationfor the 1,700thanniversaryofthe FirstCouncil of Nicaea,clerics,theologians and laypeople are embracing the moment as a chance to reshape the continent’s spiritual andsocial future.

SUNDAY, April 6, 2025

CURTIS / by Ray Billingsley

SLYLOCK FOX / by Bob Weber Jr

GET FUZZY / by Darby Conley

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE / by Chris Browne

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM / by Mike Peters

ZIGGY / by Tom Wilson

ZITS / by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

SALLY FORTH / by Francesco Marciuliano & Jim Keefe

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE /byStephan Pastis

directions: Make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row Add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value All the words are in the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

word game

instructions: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

todAY's Word — sAGAciousLY: suhGAY-shus-lee: Wisely

Average mark 45 words

Time limit 60 minutes

Can you find 61 or more words in SAGACIOUSLY?

ken ken

instructions: 1 -Each rowand each column must contain thenumbers 1through4 (easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlinedboxes, called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (inany order)toproduce the target numbersinthe top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fillinthe single-boxcages withthe numberinthe top-left corner

instructions: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to placethe numbers 1to 9in theempty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficultylevel of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

directions: Complete thegridso that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally

Sudoku

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

wuzzLes

Creating an entry

North-South got to show off their fancy Key Card Blackwood methods, but it was probably just for show South, we believe, would always have bid a slam after North opened the bidding. The slam was excellent, and normal splits in both black suits would yield an easy 13 tricks. Suits often don’t split normally after a pre-empt, however

The three of hearts was an obvious singleton South won in hand with the ace and led a spade to dummy’s ace, followed by the queen and jack of spades South couldn’t know how the minor suits were splitting, but East was known to have started with 10 cards in the majors, so South could not count on a good club split South was a resourceful player and he handled the problem beautifully. He led a club to his ace and cashed the king of spades, discarding a heart from dummy while drawing East’s last trump. He cashed the king and queen of clubs, then led his low diamond to dummy’s king. He led the 10 of clubs and

elegantly discarded his ace of diamonds. West won with the jack but had to lead a diamond South won in dummy, discarding a heart, and discarded his last heart on the nine of clubs. Well done!

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Dream, strategize and turn your ideas into a reality. Be forthright regarding what you want and what you are willing to give in return. Trust your instincts and shoot for the stars.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Conquer your fears by embracing whatever stands in your way A fearless approach will make you impossible to defeat. Focus on your attributes and use them to reach your objective.

Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, Ny 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2025 Tribune Content Agency

GEMINI(May21-June20)Keepawatchful eye on anyone you don’t fully trust. Be aware, open and prepared to take charge or leave any situation that can alter your life. Look out for your best interests. CANCER (June 21-July 22) Use your creative imagination, and you’ll outmaneuver anyone trying to compete with you. A financial opportunity will come from someone or something you least expect. Be quick to respond, and prosperity will be yours. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Explore, learn and expand your awareness. The time to venture out and discover what’s possible is now. The future looks bright if you embrace what’s new and exciting. Broaden your circle of friends.

VIRGO (Aug 23-Sept 22) Put more time, effort and thought into money matters. Look for opportunities, but don’t bet everything on one person or prospect. Cut your losses, divvy up your interests and participate in what’s most purposeful.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct 23) Engage in something that makes you think, and expand your mind, interests and friendships. Stop procrastinating and waiting for things to come to you. The future looks bright.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Social and networking events will be valuable Someone you encounter will offer a unique perspective that will help

diversify how you use your skills and evaluate what you do.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Keep a low profile, and you’ll exceed your expectations. Once you eliminate interference, you’ll have a chance to let your mind wander and find inspiration.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Participate, travel and be resourceful. Take interest, ask questions and try your hand at something that you can incorporate into your lifestyle or turn into a profit.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Push for change, be the forerunner and show everyone how to do things properly

Taking charge will help you develop a pattern that is conducive to using your skills experience and awesomeness. PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Take charge, and don’t stop until you are happy with the results Whether you put yourself in a competitive situation or decide to socialize with peoplewhoshareyourinterests,you stand to come out on top.

Answers to puzzles

1. Honolulu, Hawaii. 2. Denver, Colorado. 3. Juneau, Alaska.4.Nashville, Tennessee

5. Richmond, Virginia. 6. Madison,Wisconsin

7. Indianapolis, Indiana.8.Lansing, Michigan

9. Providence, Rhode Island.10. Topeka,Kansas

11. Carson City,Nevada. 12. Frankfort, Kentucky.13. Springfield, Illinois.14. Bismarck, North Dakota. 15. Olympia, Washington.

SCORING: 24 to 30 points —congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points—honorsgraduate; 13 to 17 points —you’replenty smart, but no grind; 5to12points —you really shouldhit the booksharder;1point to 4points —enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0points who reads thequestions to you?

Saturday's Cryptoquote: Imust have flowers, always, always. —Claude Monet