Three years since revelations that federal agents were probing Mayor LaToyaCantrell’s financialand political dealings, prosecutorshave yettoaccuse her of anycrimes With each passing day, theyappear increasingly unlikely to do so.
Prosecutorshave yetto accuse mayorofany crimes
BY JAMES FINN |Staff writer
Six months ago, LaToyaCantrell appeared to be in imminentlegal peril. The NewOrleansmayor’sformerbodyguard, acity police officer,had been charged in July with federalcrimes, accused of lying on timesheets to concealanillicit relationship with Cantrell. Then, in late September,aprivate electrical inspector whose businessflowed through City Hall was indictedfor allegedly bribing the mayor with football tickets and meals as hetried to shirk scrutiny over his business practices.
Describing Cantrell as “Public Official 1,” the feds peppered both indictments with descriptions of the sitting mayor’sinvolvement in each of the alleged schemes. It seemed only a matter of time beforeshe, too, faced charges.
That hasn’thappened.
Nearly three years since revelations that federal agents were probing aseries of Cantrell’sfinancial and political dealings, prosecutors have yet to accuse her of any crimes. With each passing day,they appear increasingly unlikely to do so, eight people familiar with the case,plus six legal and political experts, said in interviews.
ä See CANTRELL, page 8A
‘A
Vietnamese Americans from across the United States gather on April 4inNew Orleans forthe 50th reunion of former residents of the fishing region Phuoc Tinh, located in Vietnam.About 500 peoplewere in attendance.
home
BY DESIREESTENNETT |Staff writer
The red hardback journal sits on the bookshelf in Vy Linh Ky’sUptown apartment. The cover is plain and unassuming and the binding is coming undone. But inside, the pages are pristine. On each sheet is arecipe, handwritten by her mother.Most are just lists of ingredients —onions, lemon grass, lime leaves,fresh herbs, beef andporkbones —with no measurements and no cooking instructions. Written entirely in Vietnamese, they are Ky’s road map to the dishes of her childhood. Her mother,who diedin2018, wasknown forher soups, which would simmer late into the night, the only time forcooking after along day of caring for Ky and her three sisters. Ky,who works as the head of human resources for aNew Orleans hotel, began cooking from it during the pandemic.
Translating the recipes, mixing and matching ingredients, cooking until her kitchen smells like her mother’sdid —itisKy’sway of reconnecting with hermom, withVietnam andwithahalf-century of Vietnamese American tradition in New Orleans.
VIETNAMESE, page 4A
In 1970, onlyabout 700 people living in Louisiana reported being borninVietnam.A decadelater,more than 10,000 peoplestatewide identified as Vietnamese, according to theU.S.census.Now,there are more than 36,000 people of Vietnamese descent living in Louisiana. Morethanhalflive in the New Orleansmetro area
Landry opensregular sessionMonday
BY TYLER BRIDGES |Staff writer
Gov.Jeff Landry wasriding high when he kicked off the regular legislative session ayear ago.
Only months before, he had outpaced the field to be elected governor.Shortly after takingoffice, he called two special sessions where state lawmakers approved almost everything he wanted.
But Landry is now facing headwinds when he conveneshis second regular session as governor on Monday On March 29, voters handedLandry his worst defeat in his 15 monthsas governor by soundly rejecting all four changes to the stateconstitutionhe sought. Landry is also encountering arestive Republicanfreshmanclass in the House that is pushing forchanges in car insurance laws that thegovernor andhis trial lawyer allies oppose.
“His political honeymoon is over,”
said veteran pollster and political consultant Bernie Pinsonat.“He has todo abetterjob of selling his accomplishments andbringing stuff to thepublic that will satisfy their problems.”
Apoll conducted by Pinsonat and Greg Rigamer for conservative business owner Lane Grigsby immediately after the March 29 ballot box defeat showed that voters wereevenly divided on Landry,with 45% offering favorable and unfavorable views of him.
ä See LANDRY, page 6A
Gov. Jeff Landry faces challenges over the state budget, auto insuranceand hisprivate school voucher program, among others.
Dominican club collapse death toll rises to 226
SANTO DOMINGO Dominican Republic — A woman hospitalized after being rescued from the rubble of a roof collapse at a popular nightclub in the Dominican Republic died on Saturday, raising the death toll to 226, health officials said.
The latest victim was a 41-yearold Costa Rican national, according to the National Health Service. Earlier in the day, health officials said four other people hospitalized after the disaster had died overnight.
Officials said 189 people were rescued alive from the rubble of the popular venue in the capital Santo Domingo. More than 200 were injured, with 14 still hospitalized, including four in critical condition.
The roof at the Jet Set nightclub collapsed during a merengue concert in the early hours of Tuesday Politicians, athletes and a fashion designer were among those enjoying live music when disaster struck.
As of Saturday, friends and relatives remained at a forensics institute waiting for the return of their loved ones’ bodies Later in the day, health authorities said 225 bodies had been returned to their families.
Health minister Victor Attalah told journalists there had been a delay in identifying victims because the majority of them had to be matched using biometric data.
Killer mistakenly released caught 2 weeks later
ATLANTA The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that a convicted killer who was mistakenly released from a Georgia jail has been caught two weeks later in Florida — ending days of anxiety for the victim’s family outside Orlando who feared he might harm them over their role in the trial.
Kathan Guzman, 22, was supposed to spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting he strangled his girlfriend, 19-yearold Delila Grayson, who was found dead in a bathtub in August 2022, Clayton County Sheriff Levon Allen told WSB-TV
However, jail workers in the county south of Atlanta mistakenly released Guzman on March 27 because they didn’t read paperwork carefully, failing to see that he’d been convicted of murder and assault by strangulation, the sheriff told the broadcaster In a statement Friday, he said disciplinary actions are pending and firings are on the table.
Guzman told someone after being freed that “God is good” and he believed his release was the result of a higher power the sheriff told WSB.
The victim’s mother, Christina Grayson, wasn’t told her daughter’s murderer was on the loose until Tuesday, after the district attorney learned of it, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “I feel like I’m a sitting duck,” Grayson told WFTV-TV in Orlando.
Her family was sleeping in shifts so that someone was awake at all times, she told the broadcaster, and deputies in Osceola County patrolled her neighborhood as the search continued.
World’s oldest gorilla turns 68 in Berlin
BERLIN Fatou, the oldest gorilla living in captivity worldwide, is getting ready for her 68th birthday in style.
The Berlin zoo on Friday presented Fatou with a basket of fruit and vegetables ahead of her official birthday, which falls on Sunday. Fatou was born in 1957 and came to the zoo in what was then West Berlin in 1959 Since she no longer has teeth, keepers ensure that her food is soft and easy to eat Vet André Schüle said that “Fatou gets the best possible care here.”
She lives in her own enclosure, apart from the zoo’s more boisterous other five gorillas who range in age from 4 to 39 Schüle said that “she has the peace she deserves at her high age.” Gorillas can live for around 3540 years in the wild and longer in captivity Fatou became the zoo’s oldest resident last year, following the death of Ingo the flamingo The bird was believed to be at least 75 and had lived at the zoo since 1955.
By The Associated Press
Russia and Ukraine’s top diplomats on
Saturday used a high-level conference in Turkey to once again trade accusations of violating a tentative U.S.-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges of negotiating an end to the 3-year-old war
The two foreign ministers spoke at separate events at the annual Antalya Diplomacy Forum, a day after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss peace prospects. Ukraine’s European allies on Friday promised billions of dollars to help Kyiv keep fighting Russia’s invasion.
While Moscow and Kyiv both agreed in principle last month to implement a limited, 30-day ceasefire, they issued conflicting statements soon after their separate talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia. They differed on the start time of halting strikes, and alleged near-immediate breaches by the other side.
“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, adding that Moscow would provide the U.S., Turkey and international bodies with a list of Kyiv’s attacks during the past three weeks.
A representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry separately told state media Saturday that Moscow has been sharing intelligence with the U.S. regarding more than 60 supposed breaches of the deal by Kyiv Lavrov on Saturday insisted Russia had stuck to the terms of the deal.
His Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, fiercely contested that claim, saying Russia had launched “almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 (exploding) drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians,” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.
“This clearly shows to the world who wants peace and who wants war,” he said.
Russian forces hold the advantage in Ukraine, and Kyiv has warned Moscow is planning a fresh spring offensive to ramp up pressure on its foe and improve its negotiating position.
Ukraine has endorsed a broader U.S. ceasefire proposal, but Russia has effectively blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions. European governments have accused Putin of dragging his feet.
“Russia has to get moving” on the road to ending the war, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media Friday He said the war is “terrible and senseless.” Lavrov on Saturday reiterated that a prospective U.S.-backed agreement, also discussed in Saudi Arabia, to ensure safe navigation for commercial vessels in the Black Sea could not be implemented until restrictions are lifted on Russian access to shipping insurance, docking ports and international payment systems.
Details of the prospective deal were not released, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey but halted by Russia the following year
Ukraine’s air force said a second F-16 fighter jet supplied by Western allies has been lost and its pilot, 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov killed.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the F-16 crashed while repelling a Russian missile strike. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday offered condolences to Ivanov’s family saying, “We are proud of our soldiers. We will give a strong and apt response.”
Ukraine said the first F-16 was shot down last August, after it intercepted three Russian missiles and a drone.
Since last July, Ukraine has received multiple batches of the fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands, with U.S. approval. Their total number has not been disclosed.
Meanwhile, Russian drones killed at least two civilians in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Saturday according to local Gov Oleksandr Prokudin.
BY SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
CAIRO Sudan’s notorious paramilitary group launched a two-day attack on famine-hit camps for displaced people that left more than 100 dead, including 20 children and nine aid workers, in the Darfur region, a U.N. official said Saturday.
The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias launched an offensive on the Zamzam and Abu Shorouk camps and the nearby city of el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, on Friday, said U.N Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami.
El-Fasher is under the control of the military, which has fought the RSF since Sudan descended into civil war two years ago, killing more than than 24,000 people, according to the United Nations, though activists say the number is likely far higher.
The camps were attacked again on Saturday, Nkweta-Salami said in a statement She said that nine aid workers were
killed “while operating one of the very few remaining health posts still operational” in Zamzam camp.
“This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago,” she said.
Nkweta-Salami didn’t identify the aid workers but Sudan’s Doctors’ Union said in a statement that six medical workers with the Relief International were killed when their hospital in Zamzam came under attack on Friday They include Dr Mahmoud Babaker Idris, a physician at the hospital, and Adam Babaker Abdallah, head of the group in the region, the union said. It blamed the RSF for “this criminal and barbaric act.”
In a statement Saturday evening, Relief International mourned the death of its nine workers, saying they were killed the previous day in a “targeted attack on all health infrastructure in the region,” including the group’s clinic.
BY JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A firing squad on Friday executed a South Carolina man who killed an off-duty police officer, the second time the rare execution method has been used by the state in the past five weeks.
Mikal Mahdi gave no final statement and did not look to his right toward the nine witnesses in the room behind bulletproof glass and bars once the curtain opened.
He took a few deep breaths during the 45 seconds between when the hood was put over his head and when the shots rang out, fired by three volunteers who are prison employees at a distance of about 15 feet.
Mahdi, 42, cried out as the bullets hit him, and his arms flexed. A white target with the red bull’s-eye over his heart was pushed into the wound in his chest.
Mahdi groaned two more times about 45 seconds after that. His breaths continued for about 80 seconds before he appeared to take one final gasp. A doctor checked him for a little over a minute, and he was declared dead at 6:05 p.m., less than four minutes after the shots were fired.
Mahdi’s execution came a little over a month after Brad Sigmon was put to death March 7, in the first U.S. firing squad death in 15 years and the fourth
since 1976. The others all occurred in Utah. The firing squad is an execution method with a long and violent history around the world. It has been used to punish mutinies and desertion in armies, as frontier justice in America’s Old West and as a tool of terror and political repression in the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany But South Carolina lawmakers saw it as the quickest and most humane method, especially with the uncertainty in obtaining lethal injection drugs. In a statement Mahdi’s attorney, assistant federal public defender David Weiss, called the execution a “horrifying act that belongs in the darkest chapters of history, not in a civilized society.”
Mahdi had the choice of dying by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair
“Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils,” Weiss said. “Mikal chose the firing squad instead of being burned and mutilated in the electric chair, or suffering a lingering death on the lethal injection gurney.” Mahdi is the fifth inmate executed by South Carolina in less than eight months as the state makes its way through prisoners who ran out of appeals during an unintended 13-year pause on executions in the state. Mahdi’s is the 12th execution in the U.S. this year
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The group said the central market in Zamzam along with hundreds of makeshift homes in the camp were destroyed in the attack.
The offensive forced about 2,400 people to flee the camps and el-Fasher, according to the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees, a local group in Darfur Zamzam and Abu Shouk shelter more than 700,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes across Darfur during past bouts of fighting in the region, Nkweta-Salami said.
Late last month, the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, a major symbolic victory in the war. But the RSF still controls most of Darfur and some other areas.
The two camps are among five areas in Sudan where famine was detected by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC, a global hunger monitoring group. The war has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with about 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population facing extreme hunger
BY SAM MEDNICK and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
TEL AVIV, Israel Israel an-
nounced Saturday it had completed construction of a new security corridor cutting off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, and the military said it would soon expand “vigorously” in most of the small coastal territory Palestinians were further squeezed into shrinking areas.
“Activity will expand rapidly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, without saying where Palestinians were meant to go.
The statement urged Palestinians to remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: “This is the only way to stop the war.” Israeli troops were deployed last week to the new security corridor referred to as Morag, the name of
a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah an indication it could soon launch another major ground operation.
The Rafah municipality in a statement called Israel’s actions a “flagrant breach of international legitimacy.”
Israel has vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24
of them believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has also imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.
Israel has claimed that enough supplies entered
Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that it shattered last month. Aid groups have disputed that.
Netanyahu has said Morag 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 May 2024 Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor which cuts off Gaza’s northern third from the rest of the territory
The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50% control of the territory
Katz said Palestinians interested in “voluntarily” relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump. Palestinians have rejected the proposal and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.
Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave Gaza.
But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan would amount to “ethnic cleansing” — the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.
Many Palestinians have been crowding into squalid tent camps or the rubble of their previous homes, often displacing multiple times in response to Israel’s evacuation orders since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and sparked the war
Israel on Saturday ordered the evacuation of areas east of Khan Younis ahead of an attack Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee added that militants had fired rockets into Israel from these areas. In the evening, several neighborhoods in Nuseirat in central Gaza were told to evacuate after Israel said it had intercepted a projectile from the territory
Hamas has said the bombardment poses risks to the hostages as well. On
Saturday the family of the last living American held in Gaza responded to the release of a new video showing Edan Alexander speaking under duress.
“When you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other 58 hostages are not home,” the family said in a statement. Families and supporters again rallied in Tel Aviv for a deal to bring everyone home. Israeli strikes across Gaza continued, killing at least 21 people in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says most of the over 50,000 Palestinians killed in the war have been women and children. The ministry said at least 1,500 people have been killed since Israel’s surprise bombardment resumed the war last month. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants in the war, without providing evidence.
BY JON GAMBRELL Associated Press
MUSCAT, Oman Iran and the United States will hold more negotiations next week over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, Iranian state television reported Saturday at the end of the first round of talks between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Iran’s state-run broadcaster revealed that U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “briefly spoke” together the first time the two nations have done that since the Obama administration.
Tehran’s declaration that the two sides spoke face-toface — even if briefly suggests the negotiations went well even to Iranian state TV, which long has been controlled by hard-liners.
In a statement released Saturday afternoon, the White House described the discussions as “very positive and constructive,” while conceding the issues that need to be resolved “are very complicated.”
“Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome,” the White House said. The next round of talks will take place Saturday,
April 19, according to the Iranian and American statements.
This first round of talks began at around 3:30 p.m. local
The two sides spoke for over two hours at a location in the outskirts of Muscat, Oman’s capital, ending the talks around 5:50 p.m. local time.
The convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff returned to Muscat before disappearing into traffic around a neighborhood that is home to the U.S. Embassy
The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nu-
clear program if a deal isn’t reached.
Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Associated Press journalists saw a convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff leave the Omani Foreign Ministry on Saturday afternoon and then speed off into the outskirts of Muscat.
The convoy went into a compound and a few minutes later, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei wrote on the social platform X that the “indirect talks” had begun.
Afterward, Araghchi de-
scribed the meeting as constructive to Iranian state TV, with four rounds of messages exchanged during the indirect portion.
“Neither we nor the other side are interested in fruitless negotiations — so-called ‘talks for the sake of talks,’ wasting time, or drawn-out, exhausting negotiations,” he said. “Both sides, including the Americans, have said that their goal is also to reach an agreement in the shortest possible time. However, that will certainly not be an easy task.”
That the two men spoke face-to-face satisfied a demand of the Americans. Trump and Witkoff both had described the talks as being
“direct.”
“I think our position begins with dismantlement of your program. That is our position today,” Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal before his trip. “That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries.”
He added: “Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability.”
Araghchi, however, sought to downplay the encounter as “a brief initial conversation, greetings and polite exchanges” — likely to avoid drawing the anger of hardliners in Iran.
“Growing up, I didn’t understand the importance of the culture as much,” Ky said. “My mother, she always made sure we understood the culture and knew the language. It wasn’t until her passing that I really understood the gravity of it
“It’s a big part of me that I want to keep.”
‘We’ve come a long way’
Ky’s mother was among the more than a million people who fled their homeland after the Vietnam War The conflict ended five decades ago this month when the communist forces of North Vietnam overran the American-backed South Vietnamese army, culminating in the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, and launching a mass exodus of refugees seeking political freedom.
The U.S. took in hundreds of thousands of people. Many escaped on boats with little more than a change of clothes and some essential documents They arrived by the thousands in California and Texas. They also came to Louisiana, and more specifically, New Orleans, drawn by a common Roman Catholic faith and earlier arrivals in the region.
“They may have been sent one place, but then they wanted to be reunited with family and settle in different places,” said Mark Cave, a historian with the Historic New Orleans Collection who has spent years collecting oral histories from local Vietnamese Americans.
In 1970, only about 700 people living in Louisiana reported being born in Vietnam. A decade later, more than 10,000 people statewide identified as Vietnamese, according to the U.S. Census. Now, there are more than 36,000 people of Vietnamese descent living in Louisiana. More than half live in the New Orleans metro area. Decades after the war, the Vietnamese community is woven into the city’s fabric They helped their adopted neighborhoods thrive. They became essential to the Louisiana shrimping industry They built a faith tradition, rooted in Roman Catholic parishes They were among the first to return after Hurricane Katrina and used a growing political base to help rebuild and restore New Orleans East. Vietnamese festivals and night markets sprang up, and now draw New Orleanians of all backgrounds.
But, with each new generation, the connection to the language and culture of parents’ and grandparents’ homeland is shrinking Like Ky, many members of the Vietnamese community young and old, say they are seeking to honor traditions and remember the past while pursuing their own future in New Orleans
Over the past year, members of the Vietnamese community have hosted a series of 50 events to commemorate the 50 years since they arrived in New Orleans. They have ranged from cooking classes and festivals to art shows and panel discussions. Last week, more than 500 Vietnamese Americans from across the United States gathered for the 50th reunion of former residents of the fishing region, Phuoc Tinh, located in Vietnam.
“As younger generations, we want to honor the sacrifices that our elders have made that makes life for us possible here,” said Tap Bui, co-executive director of nonprofit Song Community Development Corp., whose family came to the area in the 1980s. “But we also want to celebrate, right? Fifty years of Vietnamese Americans in Louisiana, that’s an accomplishment. We’ve come a long way.”
A leap of faith
Thuy Pham’s journey from Vietnam to New Orleans began before she was born. In August 1975, her pregnant mother was pulled from a boat in the South China Sea. Her family had been stranded at sea for nearly four months, seeking a country that would accept them Pham, now 49, was born in
a hospital in the Philippines. It would take another three days after her birth for members of the U.S. Coast Guard to bring her father ashore, she said For most of her life, her father had refused to discuss, even privately, what it was like to leave his family behind at just 18 to escape with his pregnant wife and her family
“I try to imagine what that must have been like,” said Pham. “This was not a small rejection. This is more like: ‘I’m sorry, we can’t take you even though you’ve been floating out at sea all this time. You have no food You’ve run out of gas. You have nowhere to go. But we cannot take you.’ It stuck with me.”
Many stories of the journey to the U.S. begin with similar leaps of faith
Trinh Do, 50, who owns a dental practice with her husband, was a year old when her family left Vietnam by boat. John-Hoa Nguyen, a successful West Bank real estate investor, was 20 when he became a refugee, fleeing Communist rule Vinh Tran, a deacon at the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans East, was 6 when his family arrived in 1975. All of them, and many others, fled Vietnam with no idea where they would end up
Those who survived were spread out across the world. Those who came to America had many stops on the way to New Orleans, including refugee camps in other Asian countries, the Wake Islands, Guam, Pennsylva-
nia and Arkansas.
Do and many others remember the exact date they arrived.
“It’s absolutely foundational to our lives,” Do said. “Even though I was practically raised here, (my parents) taught me not to forget our heritage. I’m not forgetful. Even as a small child, I knew that I wasn’t born here and that a lot of people gave up a lot for me to be where I am.”
In those early years, Do’s family settled in Bridge City Across the region, community was necessary for survival.
Though many New Orleanians welcomed the refugees, they still faced discrimination from people who thought they were creating too much competition for shrimping jobs or social services. Amid the tension, Vietnamese refugees had to lean on each other
Tran said everyone at Mary Queen of Vietnam paid into a revolving funeral fund managed by the church that held enough cash to cover the cost when members died. Together, they figured out how to navigate social services and attend to other needs. When they couldn’t find traditional Vietnamese ingredients, they started grocery stores, gardens and farmers markets. Nguyen, now 70, came to New Orleans through a program that allowed Vietnamese students to take courses at the St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington Leaving Vietnam in April 1975, he was already enrolled as one
of about 10 Vietnamese students before Labor Day that same year
“For the first few years, it was rough,” he said. “We came here empty-handed, no English, nothing at all.”
If they needed to review 20 pages of an American history lesson, they would break the workload up and take a few pages each, then teach each other until everyone understood, said Nguyen, who went on to teach before starting in real estate sales He now owns and manages more than 300 rental properties.
Children who had an easier time learning English became translators for parents and older siblings.
As a small child, Tran became one of the most proficient English speakers in
his neighborhood. If someone was applying for food stamps or other benefits, he helped them complete paperwork and talk with providers. Sometimes, leaning on children was difficult for elders who were used to their independence, Tran said, but it gave him a sense of purpose and kept him near home.
“I don’t want to move because I feel that I’m a part of this community,” he said. “I want to give back to my community, my parents. I always considered myself a leader in my community.”
A cultural hub remains
In New Orleans East, a cluster of Vietnameseowned grocery stores, restaurants pharmacies and other businesses lines Alcee
Fortier Boulevard. Nearby on Chef Menteur Highway are more restaurants, a bakery and other stores.
Vietnamese Americans created communities on the West Bank and many have moved to the northshore in recent years, but Village de l’Est, with its bustling business district and Mary Queen of Vietnam at its heart, is still the most densely populated Vietnamese neighborhood in the region.
The church started in a trailer on the property of the Versailles Arms apartments, where many of the refugees who came to New Orleans settled. After decades of congregants pooling their money, the church campus now spans several blocks.
This was what Archbishop Phillip Hannan, who led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1965 to 1988, had hoped for as he called on the Catholic Church and the American government to take in refugees in need of aid.
In an editorial published in the Clarion Herald on April 10, 1975, weeks before Saigon fell, Hannan decried the Communist rule and called the war violence “horrifying.”
“Every effort should be devoted to aiding the refugees,” he wrote. “This is not a matter of diplomacy or strategy It is a moral imperative.”
Between April and December 1975, Catholic Charities would bring 2,100 refugees to settle mostly in New Orleans East and on the West Bank and in the following years, thousands more would join them.
Thirty-four years ago, Mary Queen of Vietnam started a small fundraiser for church ministries based around the annual Tet Festival, celebrating the Lunar New Year In the beginning, it was a small event attended by church members, said Tran. Within a few years, others started to come, too. Soon enough, so many New Orleanians from all backgrounds started to flock to the celebration that it was time to tweak menus to add the hot dogs and hamburgers alongside the more traditional offerings. Festival organizers later added American musicians to the entertainment lineup. At this year’s festival in late January, groups of teenage girls, some with Vietnamese heritage lingered between the main stretch of vendors. They danced as a cover band played Justin Timberlake and ate banh mi sandwiches. Younger children fought with silly string as nearby adults played Bau Cua Tôm Cá, a
Attendees from a mix of cultures packed the parking lot across the street from the church and lined up to choose between the mix of mostly Vietnamese food options.
“It’s so big that it’s attractive not just in the New Orleans area but in Baton Rouge, Biloxi, Pensacola, and people save the date to come to travel here to enjoy the festival,” Tran said.
“Now our food and our culture is accepted not just by the Vietnamese community but citywide.”
As the festival has transformed, so has the church Once only holding Mass in Vietnamese, Mary Queen of Vietnam now has services in English too. Though many in the community still speak the language, that change has kept younger generations connected to the church, Tran said.
Success and change
That’s happening at many Vietnamese churches across the region.
When Do’s family arrived in 1975, they started out attending services held in an apartment in their West Bank public housing project. Many other Vietnamese families joined them, first pooling their money to buy another house on Janet Drive for the Assumption of Mary Church, where her parents still spend part of every day Eventually, the community sold that house and built a new church campus around the corner on Andre Dung Lac Drive.
“You walk over to this big, massive church but it’s really fundraised by the people who live here. It’s incredible,” Do said.
“We’re still the same tribe of people that are so closeknit. But we’re evolved to the point where now my dad is playing pickleball at the church. It’s definitely like a merge of culture, but still in keeping with who we are.”
Many of the changes in the community are borne of Vietnamese-Americans’ success. In 2023, nearly 70% of Vietnamese-Americans said that they had either already achieved the American dream or that it was within reach, saying they felt as though they have the freedom to choose how they live and have a good family life with opportunities for their children to succeed.
Vietnamese-American household income nationwide topped $81,000 in 2022, several thousand dollars per year higher than the overall median income.
But with that success has come shifts in how closely the community is tied to its traditions. In 1980, virtually the entire Vietnamese population in Louisiana reported speaking some Vietnamese at home. In 2023, that number had dropped to around 3 in 4.
Tr an said that at Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, classes in English as a second language were once offered, but now Vietnamese is being taught as a second language. Within five years, he predicts, it might even be possible to see non-Vietnamese church leaders at Mary Queen of Vietnam.
A ‘special place’
Not far away from Mary Queen of Vietnam, Khai Nguyen and Tap Bui run Song CDC, a nonprofit that focuses on food access, environmental resilience and youth mental health services. Nguyen and Bui’s next goal is to secure affordable
housing for the neighborhood’s aging population. Nguyen said that over the years, younger Vietnamese Americans have increasingly left the area for college and job opportunities.
“A lot of young people are moving out,” he said. “New Orleans East has a lack of resources and amenities, and unfortunately that can lead to a certain brain drain. But the thing is, a lot of older members, they have built this community over 50 years, and they don’t want to leave.”
By the time they came to lead Song CDC, the community had already triumphed in several hard-won fights, the biggest one after Katrina. The Vietnamese community rallied against efforts to focus rebuilding in other neighborhoods and fought city and state officials who eyed the East as a site for a landfill to dump hurricane debris.
“When Katrina hit, I felt just exhausted,” said Cyndi Nguyen, who has been advocating for the needs of the Vietnamese community and New Orleans East for more than 25 years “You kind of feel like you’re on a ship by yourself. So, when the whole movement came with the landfill, I remember going to the church. To see the first generation just protesting against this landfill and making sure that our community continued to be safe and clean it really moved me.”
Watching the community return was enough to keep
Cyndi Nguyen’s family in New Orleans. It ignited her desire to run for local office. She became the only Vietnamese person to ever sit on the City Council in 2017. She lost her reelection bid but said she plans to run again to regain her District E seat. In the future, she wants to see more Vietnamese Americans vying for political office.
“I don’t think elected officials see our community as a strong base,” she said.
“But I think they should.”
In the meantime, Khai Nguyen said, despite the exodus of many younger Vietnamese Americans, he thinks those who stay are embracing the shifting culture.
He’s seeing more adults who don’t speak Vietnamese making efforts to learn the language. He’s seeing more people choosing to focus on the arts over careers in math and science, more people opting to wear traditional Vietnamese clothing, and he’s even seeing some who left return.
Do’s 18-year-old daughter, Maddie Do, started a food pantry delivery service for Vietnamese elders in their community Her 9-year-old son Ben Do is learning Vietnamese on language-learning app Duolingo.
Even Ky, as she served up one of her mom’s soup recipes on a recent weekend, said living in New Orleans feels more important to her now She briefly lived in California in 2018 and while working remotely during the pandemic, she traveled throughout the U.S., exploring to see if there was another place she might want to call home.
“There were a couple cities I liked, but the reason why I liked them was that they were similar to New Orleans,” she said. “I realized that New Orleans was a very special place. I love the community here and I’m really happy that Vietnamese culture is taking more of the forefront now and the community is more visible than ever.”
‘Spirit of the Vietnamese’
For Thuy Pham, that cultural revival has come from starting the Night Market, a
periodic festival held at the Westwego Farmer’s Market focused on Vietnamese food vendors. She started it in 2019 in Gretna after seeing a similar event on a birthday trip to California.
“The very first one, even the vendors themselves, I had to talk them into doing the event,” she said “It took a lot of hand-holding. People took a risk, and they sold out, some of them, in an hour and a half.”
For John-Hoa Nguyen,
seeing people return is a sign that his generation built a lasting community Today, his work focuses on ensuring future generations can still embrace the culture even as they become more American.
In the 1970s and ’80s, he taught Vietnamese classes to the children of refugees to ensure that they had a cultural connection.
But now, he’s bringing them back — this time for adults.
It will be personal connections to the culture that will keep future generations engaged, he said.
“Regardless of what they want to be, or what language they speak, or what culture they assimilate into, the spirit of the Vietnamese is still in them,” he said. “And if you don’t have the spirit in you, you lose yourself.”
Email Desiree Stennett at desiree.stennett@ theadvocate.com.
The poll also showed that 45% of the people surveyed believe Louisiana is heading in the wrong direction while 38% said the state is heading in the right direction.
To be sure, history shows that agovernor’shoneymoon won’tlast long. In the case of Landry’s Democraticpredecessor, JohnBel Edwards, it didn’t last even aday.House Republicans broke 40 years of tradition on the day Edwards was inaugurated as governor by refusing to accept Edwards’ choice to be speakerofthe House.
The Republican majority,instead of selecting Edwards’ Democratic pick, chose alittle-known Republican, then-Rep. Taylor Barras of New Iberia. Under Barras, the House leadership made Edwards call in political favors to pass whatever he could get approved and blocked many of his priorities, including raising the minimum wage and making it easierfor women to earn equal pay for their work.
The spanking thatvoters gave Landry on March 29 haspromptedcomparisons to the defeat that voters handed then-Gov. Buddy Roemer in 1989 when they rebuffed his campaign to revamp the tax system, aplan known as“Fiscal Reform.”
Steve Cochran, who was Roemer’schief of staffat the time, offered an instructive view of the danger Landry faces. He said Roemer’sdefeat made legislators lesswilling to follow the governor on tough votes that followed. Cochran described the attitude of legislatorsafterward as: “You gotuson board (Fiscal Reform), and then you couldn’tsell it and it’sleft to us to carry the weight.” As aresult, Cochran added, “They weren’t quite on boardnext time.It made things harder for us, no question about it.” Roemer lost his reelection
bidin1991.
Significant strength
Nobody is forecasting that for Landry.Byall accounts, he had astrongfirst year
He gotlegislators to redrawthe politicalboundariesfor Congressand the state Supreme Court in a way that locked up amore conservativemajority. He gotlegislatorstopassbills to lock up more offenders, adopt anew kind of school voucher program, lower income taxes while raising sales taxesand allow the death penaltytobecarried outwith nitrogen gas. He signedMAGA-stylebillsto require theTen Commandments to be posted in classrooms and to prohibittransgender studentsfrom insisting that teachers callthem by theirpreferred pronouns. Andheisthe first Republicangovernor in themodern era who enjoysaRepublican supermajority in the Legislature.
As governor,Landry has shown deftpolitical skills in gettinglawmakers to approve most of his agenda.
He has also shown awillingness to exercise all of the considerable powers of the Governor’s Office to get his way
“The amendmentsfailed at the ballotbox,but thelineitem veto is alive and well,” said Rep. Mike Bayham, RChalmette, referringtothe governor’sabilitytokill individual spending projects to punish wayward legislators.“There’snever been a line-item veto overridden. He’s alsogot theabilityto gut you on capital outlay andappropriations after session.”
Legislatorsreportprivately that Landry and his senior leadershiphave already begun threateningto kill bills and spending projectsbylegislators who do not support key items on his agenda.
Potentialbattles Whattopshis agendais notclear.Unlike predecessors, Landry has not releaseda list ofhis legis-
lative priorities before the session begins.
In recent days, Landry hastaken astrong stand on two issues, but he is facing pushback on both.
The governor wantsto doublespending on amodified versionofthe school voucherprogram known as Education Spending Accounts. Socialconservativesand megadonor and businessowner Eddie Rispone, who narrowlylost the2019 governor’s race to Edwards, love theprogram.
But pointing to alack of new money, Senate PresidentCameron Henry, RMetairie,saidonTuesday that the Legislature will spendnomorethis year on ESAs.
AddedRep.Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro,the House budget chair, talking aboutESAs: “Some of the things that areimportant to himwemay notfund.”
McFarlandcalledthe budget “a bit of amess” butsaidstate officials may learninlate Maywhenthe
Revenue Estimating Conference meets next that tax receiptshave been higher than projected, giving law-
makersmoremoney to spend.
Landrysaid last week that he didn’tknow whether thetreasurywill have the $198 millionneeded to prevent teachers from suffering apay cut. What appearstobeshaping up as thebiggestissue in theregular sessionisthe fight between trial lawyers on onesideand business interests and insurancecompanies on the best wayto reduce car insurancerates in Louisiana, said to be the highest in the country
House Speaker PhillipDeVillier,R-Eunice, empowered his members when theLegislature was out of session by asking them to hold committee hearings to devise legislation to reduce the insurance rates.
That has led Republican Housefreshmen to back apackage of bills favored by business interests and insurancecompaniesthat aimtomakeitharderfor people injured in accidents to file lawsuits and win big payouts. Twosecond-term legislators —Speaker Pro TemMike Johnson, R-Pineville, andHouse In-
surance Committee Chair Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock—and 15 freshmen met with Landry on March 26 at the Governor’sMansion to push their plan.
That effort and the news that Landry metataTexas hunting camptwo weeks ago with four trial lawyer representatives has put the governoronthe defensive on this issue.
On Wednesday,Landry tried to regain control of the narrative by announcingwhich car insurance bills he supports, saying repeatedly that he favored “a balanced” approach.
It was notablethat only one of the 17 Republican legislators pushingthe car insurancebills favoredby business interests stood behind Landry that day
“I’m just as tired of seeing Morris Bart as Iam of seeingthe lizard,”the governor told reporters, referring to the New Orleans trial lawyer seen on TVsand billboard adsand Geico’sanimatedmascot with aCockney accent.
“Maybe Ishould learn how to hunt?!!” Bart replied on Twitter later
Bart’strial lawyer rival Gordon McKernan flew the legislators to Texasonhis private jet. Bart was not part of the trip.
On Wednesday, before announcing hisplaninBaton Rouge before reporters, Landry appeared on the radio program of Moon Griffon, afavorite of conservatives, to push his “balanced” approach on car insurance rates.
“People are looking and watching,”Griffontold Landry at one point, seemingly unimpressed with his plan. “Trial lawyers have been winning alot here.”
Landry did not respond to arequest for an interview
That House freshmen are feeling emboldened doesn’t surprise Henry
“Each session that goes by buildsagreater understanding of asking tougher questions in committee, asking tougherquestions whenyou’reone on one
with the governor,”Henry said. “It’snot thatyou’re not going to agree with the governor.You’re just going to take afew more steps further before you say yes.”
Leadersalsofacetests
This year’ssession will also pose tests forHenry andDeVillier.
They represent astudy in contrasts.A business consultant, Henry has far more political experience, having served as alegislative aide to then-state Rep. Steve Scalise andnow in his 18th year in theLegislature, includingfouryears chairing the House budget committee.
Henryhas arelaxed attitude to politics that disarms people anda deep grasp of legislative issues. The tensions and problems in his jobdon’t seem to rattle him as he ensuresthathis views represent amajority of his 38 colleagues.
Last year,Henry and his Senate colleaguesblocked several of Landry’sinitiatives and watered down others thatwereseenascatering toomuchtothe far right. Meanwhile, the House gave Landry virtually everything he wanted. DeVillier,areal estate investor,isserving his 10th year andhas an earnest nature thatinduces trust. DeVillier hasfurther won favor among his 104 members by traveling the state to meet with legislators, Democrats and Republicansalike, on their home turf.
“He has been incredibly gracious with his time and presence in my district, even driving several hours through ahurricaneforecast to attend ameet-andgreet with over 50 community leaders, business owners, and stakeholders from my districtthatIhosted for him,”saidRep. Alonzo Knox, D-New Orleans. EmailTyler Bridges at tbridges@theadvocate. com.
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Challenges in corralling key witnesses, the modest sums involved in each case, the complicated nature of the alleged scheme involving the electrical inspector and upheaval within the Department of Justice since Donald Trump’s inauguration have collectively muddied prosecutors’ efforts to build a case against Cantrell herself, the people said.
Cantrell’s second mayoral term has been marked by voter anger, highlighted by an unsuccessful but significant recall effort, and her deepening isolation amid the federal investigation Now, the snarl of factors hindering that probe casts doubt over the possibility that her legacy might be further tarnished by criminal charges.
existence of ongoing investigations. Cantrell’s own lawyers acknowledged the probe’s existence last June, citing the “pending, ongoing, wide-ranging active investigation” in asking a civil court judge to pause a lawsuit against the mayor How strong is the case?
The two sets of charges that raised a flurry of questions about Cantrell’s future came two months apart last year
“(An indictment of Cantrell) is possible, because she’s referenced in those other indictments,” said Walter Becker, a veteran white-collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor in New Orleans who is not involved in the case. “But I wouldn’t say it’s probable.”
Even as voters’ attention turns to a pivotal municipal election that will determine Cantrell’s successor the lack of clarity on the case’s status has cast a pall over her final months in office.
“It’s like having an incomplete surgery,” said Silas Lee, a veteran pollster and Xavier University professor who once advised Cantrell. Cantrell’s press staff and her attorney, Eddie Castaing, declined to comment. Cantrell and her supporters have dismissed the federal probe in the past as racially biased.
In keeping with Justice Department policy, an agency spokesperson said the department can neither confirm nor deny the
Jeffrey Vappie, Cantrell’s ex-New Orleans Police Department bodyguard, was indicted July 19, accused of lying on timesheets about hours for which he collected about $7,000 in police pay Nine weeks later, electrical inspector Randy Farrell was accused of bribing Cantrell with football tickets, a lunch and an iPhone collectively worth about $10,000. Both men have pleaded not guilty In Vappie’s indictment, prosecutors appeared to describe the mayor helping the cop commit and conceal wire fraud. Farrell’s charges — which claimed Cantrell took bribes in exchange for firing a city official who was making life difficult for Farrell — suggested to legal observers that the two schemes would be used to build a criminal case against Cantrell.
Political and legal observers viewed both men as potential witnesses against the mayor, with their indictments serving as leverage in prosecutors’ pursuit of the bigger target.
But Farrell, who had been cooperating with prosecutors in an earlier tax fraud case for which he was convicted — and whose lawyers argue is being charged unfairly in this one appears determined to fight the fresh charges tooth-andnail. He took to the federal courthouse steps in October after entering his not-guilty plea to criticize the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the press
events may also prove “less egregious” than if the mayor were accused of taking cash payments, said Becker, the former federal prosecutor
Another key witness, Fouad Zeton, a restaurateur and political gadfly whom prosecutors described as Farrell’s bagman, is described by political operatives and members of the city’s trial bar as a notoriously unreliable narrator Zeton’s texts, in which he and Farrell discussed the alleged scheme to deliver tickets to Cantrell and discuss with her their desire to see Cecil fired, formed the heart of Farrell’s indictment.
al is set for October Zeton’s sentencing in a separate insurance fraud case, which provided federal agents with much of the evidence they would later use against Farrell, is set for June. Vappie’s trial is set for July
for what he described as unfair attacks on his name and his businesses.
That defiance has so far prevented prosecutors from turning Farrell into a witness against Cantrell Farrell’s attorney, Rick Simmons, in an interview Wednesday said his client remains steadfast.
“We’re going to defend the case,” Simmons said. “We gave them information, they think it’s a bribery case, and we just don’t see it that way.” He added that the distribution of tickets and attendance at lunches are activities “too close to the normal political process” to be considered bribery
Legal observers say the breadth of the alleged permitting scheme could be damning for Farrell.
But the combination of that case’s complexity, the small value of the items he is accused of funneling to Cantrell, his reluctance to cooperate, and difficulties in proving the mayor played a direct role in firing the city official — a former top permitting leader named Jenn Cecil all posed challenges to the government’s attempts to charge Cantrell, sources familiar with the case said.
Allegations that Farrell bribed Cantrell with tickets to Saints games and other
Getting the two men to work together to convincingly lay out the detailed, thorny scheme described in Farrell’s indictment is viewed as key to building a winning case against Cantrell, sources say Vappie, too, has yet to emerge as a witness against his alleged paramour (both he and Cantrell have denied having an affair).
Rather, in his arraignment last August, the former cop’s attorney pleaded with a judge to allow him to continue seeing the mayor during his pretrial period, describing the pair as close friends and saying that Cantrell would be by Vappie’s side during “the greatest ordeal of his life.”
Time marches on
Not everyone agrees the case is all but dead.
“It would be highly unusual for a sitting mayor to appear in multiple federal criminal indictments and to escape indictment herself,” said Matt Coman, a former assistant U.S. attorney who led the prosecution of former Mayor Ray Nagin in the 2010s.
“Not impossible,” he added, “but highly unusual.”
Coman said the U.S. Attorney’s Office may simply be using time to convince witnesses to cooperate After multiple delays, Farrell’s tri-
Most federal corruption crimes carry a five-year statute of limitations, and many of the events described in Farrell’s indictment occurred in 2019. But another source familiar with the case described the statute of limitations as not presenting significant barriers to a potential prosecution. As prosecutors weighed charging Cantrell with participating in a bribery conspiracy, they have considered arguing that that conspiracy continued for as long as Farrell received income as an inspector — an income stream he protected, prosecutors could argue, by getting Cecil fired. Still, there remains the matter of the small sums of cash involved in each indictment.
Vappie is accused of putting in for about $7,000 in pay he didn’t earn, and Farrell is accused of gifting Cantrell items worth about $10,000. By comparison, federal prosecutors in New York and Jackson, Mississippi, last year charged mayors of those cities with bribery schemes worth millions of dollars in campaign donations and tens of thousands of dollars in alleged cash payments, respectively There may be additional prongs to the case against Cantrell. In late 2022, it emerged that federal agents were scrutinizing purchases by Cantrell’s image consultant, Tanya Blunt Haynes, at high-end boutiques around the city Cantrell had paid Haynes a flat $6,000 monthly fee from her campaign account. But it has been more than two years since the purchases that drew federal scruti-
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
The Louisiana Supreme Court on Fridayrecalled execution warrants that a judge had signed for two death row inmates who were each convicted of murder in Caddo Parish. The court ruled in favor of condemned inmates Marcus Reed and Darrell Draughn, ordering the district judge in their cases to first consider their state claims for post-conviction relief beforeordering new execution dates. At the request of Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart, District Judge Donald Hathaway had set aMay 28 execution date for Draughn, and aJune 4 date forReed. Their attorneys had argued that Reed and Draughn are along way from being eligible to be killed.
Stewart argued that Draughn effectively abandoned his post-conviction claim years ago, and that Reed waited toolongfor a lawyer to file on his behalf for relief, following alegal process in which Reed’slawyers were jettisoned from the case over an alleged conflict.
Hathaway’s signature on
Continued from page8A
ny.Clarence Roby,Haynes’ lawyer,has said his client’s dealings were above board and that she has openly answered prosecutors’ questions about the case.
Roby on Wednesday said it has been “quiteawhile” since federal prosecutors approached him and his client with questions about the case. “There’snot been any communication recently,” he said. He added that his client will continue to cooperate “if the government raises any outstanding questions.” Federal prosecutors in Louisiana know well the risk of indicting New Orleans politicians and coming up short. Prosecutors withthe Western District of Louisiana whiffed in their taxfraud case against District Attorney Jason Williams in 2022.Thatmade Williams the third of New Orleans’ last five district attorneys to be charged, tried and acquitted in federal court.
Trumpturmoil
the two warrants placed Draughn and Reed at the centerofa legalbattleover just whoamong thestate’s remaining 55 death row inmatesmight nowbeeligible to be executed, followingthe March 18 execution of JessieHoffman Jr.His killing by nitrogengas endeda 15year hiatus for executions in the state.
But aLouisiana Supreme Court majority found that Stewart acted out of turn in seeking both warrants. In a concurrence,Chief Justice John Weimer lamented the duration of the cases but urged“prudence,” sayingan attempt to proceed with the two execution dates could only addtodelays.
“It is incumbent on our system of justice to ensure theimposition of thesentence is properlyapplied, notinhaste, butwithout delay for the sake of delay,” he wrote.
Justices Wi McCalluma fered dissents the courtsho for Hathaway ing challenges tion warrants. Stewart di ately respon seeking com Just how th affects ther is uncertain.
eral LizMurrill, ported thew each case is shearguedt the state warrant lation she suppor up the process.
Presidential turnover historically has little effect on federal probes begun under previous administrations, multiple former federal prosecutorssaid. But since his inauguration in January, Trump has taken extraordinary steps to overhaulthe Justice Department, gutting the branch that oversees public corruption casesat DOJ’sWashington headquarters, urging resignations and reassigning some FBI agents to immigration enforcemen
Veteran attorn environment questionsamon Department whether to proceed Cantrell probe. istration is on illegal immigrat trafficking an overpublic Becker,the prosecutor and lawyer
“There are proval required,” referring tos ticeDepart from top offic high-profilep tion indictm tion” spurr changes “could delaythose said.
In the case high-profilem with corru showed his shatter Justice practice to ad ministration’ Federal prosecut September York Mayor takingmore flight upgrade operatives, plus stays in tony andpolitical which helped for more than matching public funds.
Lastweek, the Justice Dep quest to drop —aresult of partment descri to help Adams theadminist gration crack Email Jame jfinn@theadvocate.
“This is thereason we need comprehensivereform of post-convictionrelief. Lawyers forthese individuals obtained delay after delay then did nothing. District attorneys and judges let these cases falter as well,”Murrill said. “Now the victims’ families are suffering the consequences of their actions.”
Capital defense pointed to precedent, noting that courts in Louisiana andnationally have repeatedly turned back deathwarrants where the prisoners hadn’t exhausted their state postconviction or federal habeas corpus appeal rights.
“The Louisiana Supreme Court recognized the fundamental principle that the state cannot sendaman to the death chamber withoutatleast allowing him to exhausthis appeals,” said Draughn’s lawyer,Cecelia
Kappel of the Center for Social Justice at Loyola University, in astatement.
“Ifprisoners can be executed beforetheyhave completed all of their appeals, by warrantssignedunder cover of darkness, then all of our rights are seriously in jeopardy.”
Hoffman’sexecutionwas Louisiana’sfirst since 2010, and the first that took place over alegal challenge for morethan twodecades.It followed anew law that Gov Jeff Landry signedlast year that addednitrogen gastoa new list of options.
Unike Reed andDraughn, Hoffman’sattorneysacknowledgedthat he had exhausted his appeals.
Draughn was convicted andsentencedtodeath in 2003 for themurderof 64-year-old Lauretta White, of Shreveport,who was
foundonApril 6, 2000, in a pool of blood in herkitchen in what appeared to be a robbery gone awry.She’d been stabbed numerous times, including two fatal slashes in her jugular vein.
The Louisiana Supreme Court deniedDraughn’sappeal in 2007.
Hisattorneysargued that theDistrictAttorney’s Officehad no issues with an extension requested in 2011 forfiling his post-conviction plea. Ajudge never ruled on it, and the last activity in the case came in 2011, before Stewart’soffice sought an execution warrant.
Reed wasconvicted of murdering three brothers —Jeremiah, 20; Jarquis, 18; and Gene Adams, 13 —in August 2010 after aburglary at his home.The bodies were found in Jeremiah Adams’ silver Chevrolet Malibu,
parked in the front yard of Reed’shome. At trial, Reed claimed it was ajustifiable homicide, but the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld his conviction anddeath sentence as well.
Stewart argued that Reed lost his chance to supplement his shell petition. In seeking the execution warrant, prosecutorspointedto alegal fight in 2019, when the district attorney challenged Reed’srepresentation by ateam ledbyattorney Blythe Taplin,who also represented Reed on appeal. The judge at thetime set aDec. 30, 2019, deadline for Reed’sattorneys to supplement his state petition. Reed recently filed alengthy postconviction application. The court’sruling Friday demands that thejudge first rule on it before he can be killed.
BY DAVID J MITCHELL Staff writer
Louisiana environmental chief Aurelia S. Giacometto is again facing scathing criticism of her leadership from a departing employee, the latest in a line of officials to leave the agency since her appointment by Gov Jeff Landry
In a seven-page letter sent to almost all Department of Environmental Quality employees Friday, Roger Ward, a longtime human resources attorney and ethics liaison at the agency, accused Giacometto of “single-handedly destroying the workplace culture” with erratic and vindictive behavior
He alleged she worsened efficiency with her initiatives and micromanagement, contrary to her public pronouncements about streamlining the agency
“Although she presents an affable public persona with her saccharine smile, she is in actuality a vindictive individual behind the scenes who seems to relish bullying and harassing her subordinates,” Ward wrote in the letter shared with The Advocate and other media organizations. “She has no regard for anyone but herself, she is manipulative, and completely disingenuous.”
The letter is only the latest criticism of Giacometto’s leadership and the toxicity that some say she has fostered at DEQ, but one of the few airings with an employee’s name attached to it
In her more than 15 months on the job, she has also seen other executives leave, many of them her own appointees. Some have shared criticisms of her leadership style, while others have said they were simply moving to different jobs in Landry’s administration or federal posts.
Giacometto and Landry have previously defended her leadership, arguing change is necessary at the agency as they seek to streamline operations and make it more businessfriendly
In a statement sent Friday evening, Giacometto made a similar case and said she disputed “any and all of these baseless accusations by this disgruntled employee.”
“I was not appointed to take the easy or popular road. I am inspired daily by the dedication of LDEQ’s hard working employees and I am not going to allow a few to undermine their great work and the success of this agency LDEQ has an important mission from our governor — having clean air and water while growing a healthy economy,” she said
“In my 15 months, we are building an internal infrastructure to enable technology to help us do our jobs better and provide transparency to applicants and the public. We have been successful in implementing cost saving measures, as well as making LDEQ more approachable to the public.”
She also wrote that she has focused her early tenure on
touring the state, visiting 40 parishes and making more than 110 visits across Louisiana to see through her “top priority” that the public is served “effectively and efficiently.”
‘Attention of the governor’
In an interview Friday, Ward confirmed the letter was his and said he had personally witnessed Giacometto’s abusive behavior before his one-on-one contact with her ceased in May, when she moved him from his 10thfloor executive office to a smaller one in the agency without a reason.
Though Ward was a classified employee with nearly three decades in the department and was not one of Giacometto’s appointees, he said he is a Republican who voted for Landry.
Ward said he hoped his letter would convince the governor to reconsider Giacometto’s appointment.
“I hope it gets the attention of the governor finally and he removes her, because she’s not fit to be leading an organization,” he said.
As the agency ombudsman, Ward’s role included hearing employee complaints about the department, sitting in meetings with Giacometto in the first months of her tenure and often crafting her write-ups that he asserted had flawed criticisms of employees.
In the letter and interview Ward said he was initially prepared to support Giacometto and help her give DEQ the improvements he admits it needs but became increasingly uneasy as she began to target employees, particularly those from the prior administration.
He said he believed her reasons did not revolve around violations of rules or policies but were because employees rubbed her the wrong way, saying “she didn’t want to be challenged on anything.”
“There was really no basis to write people up or threaten to discipline people,” he said in the interview “They weren’t doing anything wrong.”
He cited the example of Yolunda Righteous, the head of DEQ’s waste permits division and an agency employee
since 2011. She recently announced her planned retirement at the state annual solid waste association meeting in Lafayette.
Ward said Giacometto went after her “viciously” for her involvement with the group while Righteous also remained waste permitting administrator Ward said the group is an educational organization that DEQ helped found, and Righteous’ involvement in the group does not violate any agency policies, though he alleges Giacometto wrote her up for the involvement Righteous has not said why she is retiring and, in a recent interview, declined to discuss it
Ward’s letter comes weeks after a state workplace audit and employee survey was made public Feb. 28, turning up mixed views of the agency and its top leadership. It also follows the recent loss of Giacometto’s second executive counsel, Noah Hoggatt, in less than a year and a half. In Ward’s letter he ticked off 10 executives, all of whom were Giacometto appointees and left after short tenures.
Many of them didn’t air criticisms but said they were leaving for other opportunities. At least one, Tanner Magee, a former legislator and briefly an interim deputy secretary until January, described his working relationship with Giacometto in an interview earlier this year as a good and professional one.
Another, however, wrote of witnessing “atrocities,” accusing the DEQ leader of harassing employees and trying to make her a “hatchet man” who would push workers out of the agency
Ward’s letter also raises questions about Giacometto’s travel expenses and contracting decisions, and, in the interview, he accused her of creating a “shadow” human resources department with new employees because she disliked the existing department.
‘Unflattering feedback’
While majorities of employees who responded to the audit survey said they liked their direct managers and jobs, near majorities
had far less positive views for executive leadership.
More than three-fourths reported low morale, and about one-third also reported working in a toxic environment. A small percentage reported being asked to do things that they believed were procedurally or legally improper
Though the audit was driven by workplace concerns that have arisen during Giacometto’s tenure, it didn’t in-
dicate that employees were asked directly in the survey about her leadership individually Ward said it was troubling that legislators and the governor haven’t exercised what he considers proper oversight He said inquiries by the Legislative Auditor’s Office and another he said was conducted by the Division of Administration were “to no avail.”
In the interview and letter, Ward said he decided he could no longer stay at the agency that has been his only job for close to 30 years — though he wasn’t ready yet to retire — because of Giacometto’s “increasingly erratic and alarmingly vicious behavior” toward agency personnel.
“LDEQ used to be an enjoyable place to work. Now, employees both long and short term are leaving the agency in droves solely because of her,” Ward wrote. Ward also claims other midlevel and rank-and-file employees are leaving to escape Giacometto, noting that several top positions remain open. The letter listed a handful of examples without identifying the employees.
In response to a public records request filed months ago, a DEQ organizational chart the agency provided
on Friday for the period of early February showed four openings in the secretary’s office, with at least three other departures that followed that time period.
Despite those openings and Ward’s allegations for this year, civil service data show the agency’s turnover rate was below the state average in the 2024 fiscal year, which included the first six months of the secretary’s tenure.
The state average voluntary turnover rate is 14.3%; DEQ’s voluntary rate was 10.2%, according to an annual report.
In the interview, Ward said he sent the letter to the department after he was told by HR employees that DEQ no longer was using its longstanding exit interview form following “unflattering feedback” about Giacometto’s leadership.
Ward confirmed that the unflattering feedback came from a departing employee who called Giacometto “cruel,” “evil” and “vindictive” in an exit interview, which The Advocate obtained through a public records request and reported about earlier this year
David J. Mitchell can be reached at dmitchell@ theadvocate.com.
BY MAE ANDERSON and MICHAEL LIEDTKE Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Trump administration late Friday said it would exclude electronics like smartphones and laptops from reciprocal tariffs, a move that could help keep the prices down for popular consumer electronics that aren’t usually made in the U.S.
It would also benefit big tech companies like Apple and Samsung and chip makers like Nvidia, setting the stage for a likely tech stock rally on Monday U.S. Customs and Border Protection said items like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the exemption Machines used to make semiconductors are excluded too. That means they won’t be subject to the current 145% tariffs levied on China or the 10% baseline tariffs elsewhere.
It’s the latest tariff change by the Trump administration, which has made several U-turns in their massive plan to put tariffs in place on goods from most countries.
The exemption seemed to reflect the president’s realization that his China tariffs are unlikely to shift more manufacturing of smartphones, computers and other gadgets to the U.S. any time soon, if ever despite the administration’s predictions that the trade war prod Apple to make iPhones in the U.S. for the first time. But that was an unlikely scenario after Apple spent decades building up a finely calibrated supply chain in China. What’s more, It would take several years and cost billions of dollars to build new plants in the U.S., and then confront Apple with economic forces that could triple the price of an iPhone, threatening to
torpedo sales of its marquee product
Trump’s decision to exempt the iPhone and other popular electronics made in China mirrors the similar relief that he gave those products during the trade war of his first term in the White House. But Trump began his second term seemingly determined to impose the tariffs more broad this time, triggering a meltdown in the market values of Apple and other technology powerhouses.
The turmoil battered the stocks of tech’s “Magnificent Seven” — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta Platforms At one point earlier this week, the combined Magnificent Seven’s combined market value had plunged by $2.1 trillion, or 14%, from April 2 when Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on a wide range of countries.
Some of the losses eased this past Wednesday when Trump paused the tariffs outside of China, paring the lost value in the Magnificent Seven to $644 billion, or a 4% decline, from April 2. Now, the stage is set for another tech rally Monday when trading resumes in the U.S. stock market, with Apple likely leading the way because the iPhones made in China remain the company’s biggest money maker
The electronics exemption also should relieve consumer worries that the China tariffs would result in hefty price hikes on smartphones and other devices that have become essential tools of modern living,
It’s the kind of friendly treatment that industry was envisioning when Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff
Bezos assembled behind the president during his Jan. 20 inauguration. That united display of fealty reflected Big Tech’s hopes that Trump would be more accommodating than President Joe Biden’s administration’s and help propel an already booming industry to even greater heights.
Apple won praise from Trump in late February when the Cupertino, California, company committed to invest $500 billion and add 20,000 jobs in the U.S. during the next four years.
The pledge was an echo of a $350 billion investment commitment in the U.S. that Apple made during Trump’s first term when the iPhone was exempted from China tariffs.
The move takes off “a huge black cloud overhang for now over the tech sector and the pressure facing U.S. Big Tech,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a research note.
In a statement issued Saturday White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not address the exemptions specifically but indicated the administration still plans to push for tech companies to move manufacturing to the U.S.
“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones and laptops,” Leavitt said in an emailed statement.
She said the administration has secured U.S investments from tech companies including Apple, TSMC and Nvidia and these companies are “hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”
Neither Apple nor Samsung responded to a request for comment Saturday Nvidia declined to comment.
ORLEANS PARISH REGISTRAROFVOTERS ANNOUNCES EARLYVOTING FOR THE May 3, 2025 MUNICIPAL GENERAL ELECTION
Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters WILL CONDUCT
Early Votingfor the May 3, 2025 Municipal General Election FROM
8:30 am to 6:00 pm, Saturday,April 19th through Saturday,April26th,2025
Except Sunday, April 20th, 2025 at theFollowing Locations
City Hall—1300 Perdido St., Room 1W24
(Designated ParkingonLaSalle and Perdido, Only Where Indicated)
AlgiersCourthouse—225 Morgan St., Room 105
(Parking Available behind the Algiers Courthouse)
Voting Machine Warehouse—8870 Chef Menteur Hwy
(ParkingAvailable at theVoting Machine Warehouse Parking Lot)
LakeVista Community Center —6500 Spanish Fort Blvd.; 2ndFloor Meeting Room
(Parking-Lake Vista Community Center Lot)
All Sites areAccessible to Persons with Disabilities City Hall/ One Entrance Only
Preview Your Ballot and Get Voter Information at: www.GeauxVote.com; www.nola.gov/registrar; or Download the GeauxVoteMobile App Sample Ballots Available at Each Early Voting Site and Online Seniors, Join the 65+ Program to Receive Automatic Ballots at Home EveryElection Questions: Call (504) 658-8300
BY JOSH BOAK and MATT BROWN Associated Press
WASHINGTON Democrats are quick to say that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are horrible, awful, terrible But Democrats are also stressing that they are not inherently anti-tariff.
What Trump’s political opponents say they really dislike is the “chaos” he has unleashed.
“Tariffs are an important tool in our economic toolbox,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “Trump is creating chaos, and that chaos undercuts our economy and our families, both in the short term and the long term. He’s just created a worldwide hurricane, and that’s not good for anyone.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Democrats have a consensus around “a unified concept, which is targeted tariffs can work, acrossthe-board tariffs are bad.”
“The right targeting is in the eye of the beholder, but nobody on our side thinks zero tariffs ever,” Kaine said.
The Democrats’ message is meant to convey that they are reasonable, focused on capable governance and attuned to financial market distress. It’s a pitch toward swing voters who would like to see more manufacturing yet are uncomfortable with the consequences of Trump’s approach to tariffs. The risk is that it also is a nuanced argument at a time when pithy critiques travel faster and spread wider on social media than do measured policy analyses.
To the Trump White House, that message is nothing but hypocrisy
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday noted that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who
would later become House speaker, was warning in June 1996 that trade with China meant higher trade deficits and job losses.
“It is about nothing less than our economic future, our national security and our democratic principles,” said Pelosi before the House voted to not overturn then-Democratic President Bill Clinton’s decision to extend mostfavored-nation trade status for China for another year
The Trump administration views those remarks as evidence that Democrats actually back what Trump is doing, despite their stated opposition.
“Everyone in Washington, whether they want to admit it or not, knows that this president is right when it comes to tariffs and when it comes to trade,” Leavitt told reporters. “Nancy Pelosi can thank President Trump today.”
Not all Democrats have threaded the needle cleanly Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer gave a speech in Washington on Wednesday calling for tariffs to be used like a “scalpel.” Hours
later, she was in the Oval Office with Trump in a moment caught on video — as the president signed directives for the Justice Department to investigate two of his public critics and gave noncommittal musings on tariff negotiations. Whitmer’s office later said in a statement that she was “surprised” that she was brought in for the event after a meeting with Trump and that “her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.”
Trump this month unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs on China, the European Union Mexico, Canada, Japan and South Korea, among dozens of other nations. But on Wednesday, he suspended most of the tariffs for 90 days while applying a baseline import tax of 10% to most nations, a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a tariff of as much as 25% on Mexico and Canada. There are also tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more planned on specific products.
BY HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa In a surprise announcement Friday, Iowa Gov Kim Reynolds said she will not seek a third term in office.
Reynolds, a Republican, has held the position since 2017, when former Gov Terry Branstad was appointed U.S. ambassador to China. She was elected to full terms in 2018 and again in 2022.
administration’s Department of Government Efficiency tasked with slashing government size and spending.
That law is now in effect
Since her last reelection, Reynolds also called a rare special legislative session in the summer of 2023 to give Republican lawmakers an opportunity to pass a ban on most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy
BY CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press
WASHINGTON As Kristan Hawkins, president of the national anti-abortion group Students for Life, tours college campuses, she has grown accustomed to counterprotests from abortion rights activists.
But more recently, fellow abortion opponents, who call themselves abortion abolitionists, are showing up to her booths with signs, often screaming “baby killer” at her while she speaks with students.
control in Washington in last year’s elections.
The movement’s impact also is beginning to show up in statehouses around the country
Mainstream anti-abortion groups have largely shied away from legislation that would punish women for having abortions but abortion abolitionists believe abortion should be considered homicide and punished with the full force of the law In many states, they have been advocating for legislation to do just that.
“This wasn’t an easy decision, because I love this state and I love serving you,” Reynolds said in a video posted on social media.
“But, when my term ends, I will have had the privilege of serving as your governor for almost 10 years.”
Her decision sets up next year’s election for governor in Iowa as the first without an incumbent in nearly two decades.
Reynolds said she is leaving office after years of her family supporting her, saying now “it’s time for me to be there for them.” Her husband, Kevin Reynolds, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023. In January, she said his cancer remained in remission.
Reynolds, who got her start in politics as treasurer in largely rural Clarke County in southern Iowa, population less than 10,000, was the state’s first female governor She was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2008 before serving as Branstad’s running mate, when she was elected lieutenant governor in 2010.
Iowa’s politics have shifted drastically since Reynolds first got to the state capitol in Des Moines The state launched former President Barack Obama’s presidential bid and supported him in both the 2008 and 2012 general elections then clearly backed President Donald Trump in all three of his presidential runs Republicans have been steadily increasing their majorities in the Iowa House and Senate under Reynolds’ leadership, giving her ample opportunity to advance her priorities.
Reynolds also has not shied away from the national attention, delivering a GOP response to President Joe Biden’s address to Congress and serving as the chair of Republican Governors Association. She’s enjoyed the spotlight that comes with hosting the presidential caucuses, making a splash in 2023 by breaking a longstanding tradition of Iowa governors staying neutral in the race and breaking with Trump — by endorsing Florida Gov Ron DeSantis.
And as Trump has moved on his second-term agenda at the federal level, Reynolds has regularly highlighted the conservative policies Iowa has already adopted Reynolds has celebrated her work to get school choice in Iowa across the finish line, signing into law in 2023 the creation of publicly funded educational savings accounts for students’ private school tuition or other approved expenses. In the current school year, more than 27,000 students used the program, which becomes available to any student in the coming year Reynolds’ proposed budget line for the accounts next year reached $314 million She backed policies to restrict transgender students’ use of bathrooms and locker rooms, and their participation on sports teams, in an effort to protect people assigned female at birth This year, to affirm those, she signed into law a bill to remove gender identity protections from the state civil rights code.
Reynolds spent considerable effort to shrink and reorganize Iowa’s government agencies to streamline services, one of her top priorities after the pandemic. That led her to say Iowa was ahead in doing “DOGE” — the Trump
Praise for the governor poured in from Iowa’s Republican leaders after her announcement, many highlighting her achievements on growing Iowa’s workforce and lowering taxes.
“Taxes are low, cash reserves are full, our freedoms defended, and Iowa’s future has never been brighter,”
Jeff Kaufmann, chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, said in a statement.
Now comes the first wideopen primary for Republicans after more than a decade of Reynolds, and Branstad before her
A campaign committee for Reynolds took in $1.8 million last year and had about $3 million cash on hand at end of the year, according to campaign finance filings, a signal to her fellow Republicans that she had been fundraising for another run for office.
Hawkins has had to send alerts to donors asking them to help pay for increased security
“I’m pretty sure they protest me more than they protest Planned Parenthood,” Hawkins said. “Believe it or not, I now know the price of a bomb dog.”
Hawkins’ encounters, which she related during an interview with The Associated Press, are just one example of what many people involved in the abortion debate have described as the widening influence of a movement that seeks to outlaw all abortions and enforce the ban with criminal prosecution of any women who have abortions.
It began gaining momentum after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v Wade and has accelerated since Republicans won full political
Split within the movement
Mainstream anti-abortion groups have tried to play down any divisions and instead, at various rallies this spring, have emphasized their unity behind other goals, such as defunding Planned Parenthood.
Experts say the abortion abolitionist movement, once considered fringe, is growing and getting louder empowered by recent victories for abortion opponents.
“With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, now states can pass the most severe abortion bans, which has galvanized the anti-abortion movement as a whole, including this part of it,” said Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. “Certainly the fall of Roe has brought abortion
abolitionists one step closer to what they want – banning abortion nationwide.”
In February, Hawkins posted on X, saying “the people I fear getting shot by, most of the time,” are not abortion rights activists but abortion abolitionists.
Then came the replies: “Demon,” “Ungodly,” “An accessory to murder,” “Enemy of God.” Her post opened a fire hose of online barbs from abortion abolitionists.
Some called for her to resign and asserted that women should not have roles outside the home, let alone leading national antiabortion groups.
Some conservative podcasts and online figures have hosted abortion abolitionists or echoed similar disdain for the larger
anti-abortion movement. Ben Zeisloft, a podcaster for TheoBros, a network of Christian nationalist influencers, blamed feminism for abortion and said, “We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion.” The comments reflect a broader uptick in misogynistic rhetoric and align with the religious doctrines motivating many in the abortion abolitionist movement, said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota She said members of the movement have been emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion for half a century, and recent actions by Republican President Donald Trump.
By Amanda McElfresh| amcelfresh@theadvocate.com
T-Mobile is continuing itscommitmenttoLouisiana with expansions of its5G wireless services,moreretailstoreswithlocalemployees,disasterpreparation andresponse, andhelping to enhancethe livelihood of smallercommunities
SinceT-MobilemergedwithSprintinApril 2020,the companyhas invested more than $300million in Louisiana, said DavidSeale,RegionalDirectorofBusiness DevelopmentSupport for T-Mobile.Muchofthatinvestmenthas gone toward adding newcellularsites andgrowing 5G coverage,particularly in ruralareas ofthe statethatpreviouslyhad little or no cellular coverage
T-Mobile’s investment in Louisianaincludedthe addition of more than 300 newcellsites andnearly1,870 upgrades to existing ones.Statewide,T-Mobile now provides 5G servicealong 99%ofinterstatehighways, U.S. highways,and stateroutes.
“Residents andbusinessesinLouisiana todayhavehighspeed data and high penetrationinareasthatpreviouslydid nothavecoverage,”saidNicole Mitchell,aSr. ManagerofRFEngineering forT-Mobile’sGulfCoast region
MitchClabeaux, T-Mobile’s Market Director forRetailfor theGulfCoast region,noted that whilethe companyhas always hada strong presence in large citieslikeBaton Rougeand NewOrleans,ithas worked hard to bringthatsame levelofservice to smallertowns throughout thestate
“Overthe past several years, we’vebuilt thelargest andfastest 5G network in thecountry,” Clabeaux said.“Throughthiswork, we also identified that many communities, includinginLouisiana,had alarge gapinterms of internet connectivity.Inmanyareas,customerscan nowreceiveinternetaccessthrough our5Gnetwork,while saving moneyontheir internet bill.”
In addition to service, ClabeauxsaidT-Mobilehas added35storesinLouisianaoverthe past four years, creating nearly 250 jobs. This givescustomers thechancetohave theirquestions answered andproblemsaddressed quickly, whilegivinglocalresidents career opportunities.
“Wewantcustomers to interact with us in theway they want to interact,” Clabeaux said.“If they prefer to do that in astore,wehavemorecompany-owned stores andcompany employees in Louisianathaneverbefore. If they want to use aself-serviceoption, ourT-Lifeapp is availableinthe palm of theirhands.In many partsof Louisiana, we’vealsoexpandedour presence in national retailers like Costco andSam’s Club.Whenyou go theretodoyourshopping, youcan join T-Mobile or upgradeyourphone at thesametime.
Over this same time period,Louisiana hasbeennostrangertonatural disasters, includinghurricanes, droughts andevenwinterweather.Mitchell andDavid Ide, Director of NetworkEngineering andOperations, said T-Mobile hasworkedextensively to furtherharden itsnetwork to help customersstay connectedduringmajor events
“Wehavebecomereallyproficient with disaster planning andrecovery. We arealsoveryproactive,nimble andquick in ourresponses,” Idesaid.
T-Mobile also worksclosely with first responders andgovernmentagencies aheadofanticipated disasterssuchashurricanesinorder to have assets such as generators, SatelliteCell-On-Wheels(SatCOWs),Satellite Cell-On-Light-Trucks (SatCOLTs) andemployees in placetorestore andboost connectivity as needed
“I thinkone of ourdifferentiatorsisthatmostofour folksare local,”Seale added. “There’s adifferent levelofurgency when youare helping your own
community. They want to getstarted fast.Assoonasastorm haspassed, they aregoing to thosesites andgetting to work rightaway.
In responsetoeducational needs, T-Mobile hasconnected more than 41,000 Louisianastudents across 40 school districtswithheavily subsidized data plans andaccesstoaffordabledevices to complete theirschoolworkthrough Project 10Million.
T-Mobile also wantstobethere for smalland ruraltowns lookingto jumpstart projects andbuild stronger communities. Forexample,the company awarded thecityofSlidell $50,000through itsHometown Grants initiativethis past February to transform an unkemptgreen spacein Olde TowneSlidell into the CareyStreetPocketPark. Dawn Crippin, whohelps lead Slidell’spreservation commission,saidthatrevitalizationofthespacewould notbepossiblewithout the grantfromT-Mobile.
“Thishasbeenavision of ours for alongtime,”she said.“We’regoing to have an ADA-compliant brick pathwayand benchestogo alongwiththe pergolaand picnic tables that arethere.Wethink theambiance of theparkisgoing to attractpeople. We’d love to have brownbag lunches, small bandsand communityevents. We want to create aspace wherepeoplecan just sitand relaxand step away from thehustle andbustle of dailylifefor alittlebit.”
AnotherT-Mobilecommunity program, Friday Night5GLights, kicked off last year to help more schoolsand communitiesnationwide. Thecompetition givesone high school aprize packagethatincludesa$100,000grant,a weight room,new teched-out scoreboard,and an epic tailgate partycelebration with live musicand a5G-poweredhalftimedrone show.Along theway,16finalists also received a$25,000 grantfor theirschool.
High schoolsinsmall townsand ruralcommunities across Louisianacan pre-register nowfor the2025competition or learnmoreatFridayNight5GLights com. T-Mobile US,Inc.(NASDAQ:TMUS) is America’ssuperchargedUn-carrier,deliveringanadvanced 4G LTEand transformative nationwide 5G network that will offer reliable connectivity forall.T-Mobile’scustomers
BY MONIKA PRONCZUK and YVES LAURENT GOMA Associated Press
LIBREVILLE, Gabon
The majority of polls closed in the oil-rich Gabon on Saturday in a presidential election that the country’s military rulers hoped would legitimize their grip on power
It’s the first election since a 2023 military coup ended a political dynasty that lasted over 50 years. Analysts have predicted an overwhelming victory for the interim president who led the coup. The polls were due to close at 6 p.m. local time, but there was no official confirmation from the authorities.
Interim results were expected overnight or on Sunday
Some 920,000 voters, including over 28,000 overseas, were registered across more than 3,000 polling stations. A third of the country’s 2.3 million people live in poverty despite its vast oil wealth.
The interim president, Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, 50, the former head of the republican guard, toppled President Ali Bongo Ondimba nearly two years ago He hopes to consolidate his grip on power for a seven-year term in office.
After casting his ballot on Saturday in the capital, Libreville, Oligui Nguema said: “I have a feeling of pride, I have a feeling of joy I see so much enthusiasm from the Gabonese people gathered here and who want to turn the page to join the new Republic.” He called the election “transparent” and “peaceful.”
Bongo was placed under house arrest after the coup, but then freed
a week later due to health concerns
His wife and son were detained and charged with corruption and embezzlement of public funds. Bongo himself was not charged.
Following the coup, Oligui Nguema promised to “return power to civilians” through “credible elections.” But he proclaimed himself the interim president and then a presidential candidate, following the adoption by the parliament of a new contentious electoral code allowing military personnel to run.
He has touted himself as a leader who wants to unify the Gabonese
and give them hope, running his presidential campaign under the slogan: “We Build Together.”
The country’s new constitution, adopted in a referendum in November, has set the presidential term at seven years, renewable once, instead of the unlimited fiver-year term It also states family members can’t succeed a president and has abolished the position of prime minister
A total of eight candidates are running for president
However, Oligui Nguema’s main challenger is Bongo’s former
BY MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Donald Trump on Friday urged Congress to “push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day” in his latest dig at the semiannual changing of clocks. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media network, said it would be “Very popular and, most importantly no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”
Prime Minister Alain Claude BilieBy-Nze, who, in a recent interview with The Associated Press, pledged “a break with the old system and a new independence. Political, diplomatic and economic independence.”
In a region where France is losing longstanding allies in many of its former colonies, Gabon stands out as one of only a few where that partnership has not been threatened. It still has more than 300 French troops present, one of only two African countries still hosting them.
The Republican president’s position calling for more daylight would push the schedule forward, keeping the country on daylight saving time. His post came a day after a Senate panel heard testimony examining whether to set one time all year instead of shifting. There has been growing interest in states to standardize daylight saving time in recent years. But daylight saving time, when clocks are set from spring to fall one hour ahead of standard time, is still recognized in most parts of the country It was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942.
Oligui Nguema has not signaled an end to the French military presence, but Bilie-By-Nze has said “no subject is off limits” in renegotiating the ties between the two countries.
Bilie-By-Nze also said during the interview with AP that he didn’t expect the election to be fair or transparent. “Everything has been done to lock down the vote,” he said.
However, earlier this week, Laurence Ndong, spokeswoman for Oligui Nguema, denied the allegations, saying: “For the first time, Gabon will have a free and transparent election.”
Bilie-By-Nze voted on Saturday in his hometown of Makokou in the north of the country In a video message, he said he was concerned that unused voting cards could be used for potential electoral fraud.
Voters lined up early Saturday in the capital, Libreville, as the election progressed peacefully Jonas Obiang told the AP while waiting to cast his ballot in the working-class district of Damas that he would choose Bilie-By-Nze because he viewed the 2023 coup as a continuation of the malpractice.
“General Oligui Nguema led the country with the same people who plundered the country, the former members of the Bongo regime. I will not vote for him,” he said.
His views were echoed by Antoine Nkili, a 27-year-old unemployed man with a master’s degree in law
“The choice is personal, but I’m telling you that for me, the military has failed,” Nkili said. “They promised to reform the institutions, but they haven’t Instead, they’ve enriched themselves.”
Trump last year called for the Republican Party to eliminate daylight saving time, saying it was “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”
But he backed off that call last month, with another post on social media calling it a “50-50 issue.”
The president said some people would like more light later in the day but some want more light early so they don’t have to take their kids to school in the dark.
“When something’s a 5050 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it,” he said. The Senate in 2022 unanimously approved a measure that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States, but it did not advance.
WASHINGTON MostofLouisiana’scongressional delegation remainedmute during lastweek’s whiplash events over tariffs. President Donald Trump on Wednesday paused the 10%tariffs he imposed on all countries— plus additional, steeper “reciprocal” tariffs on 60 other nations —just the week before. That excludes China, where he increased the tax on goods imported from thatcountry to 145%; the People’s Republic responded with a125% tariff on goods imported from America.
In pausing the tariffs for 90 days, Trump said people were getting “a little bit yippy,alittle bit afraid,” which manifested itself in adramatic drop in stock prices —and, perhaps more importantly,aweakening in the usually stable bond market, where the world’s investors park their money.Slagging demand and rising rates forU.S. Treasury notes are harbingersof the looming recession that many economists and financiersfear And while some Republicans chafed, Louisiana’sGOP delegationhas kept to their support of tariffs and trust in Trump. But not U.S. Sen. John N. Kennedy,the MadisonvilleRepublican. Kennedy is oftensought bynational media for his repurposing folksy sayings to make ahumorouspoint about whatever issue is at hand. When the issuewas Trump’stariffs, however,Kennedy set aside that routine and let his savvy New Orleans bond attorney who was state treasurer from 2000 to 2017 persona reemerge. Perhaps surprising his interlocutors looking only for apithy quote, Kennedy instead tapped his deep expertise in sophisticated finances during aseries of national media interviews last week.
Landrypromises fix to OMV computers
Amember of theSenateBanking and Budget Committee, Kennedy complained to The Wall StreetJournalthat Trump’sstaff were giving conflicting reasons for Trump’stariffs that confused theWhite House’sgoals. Were the duties to raise revenues or level the playingfield?
Ballard
“They went on television (last) weekendand all offered different scenarios,” Kennedy said. Kennedy said that, of the 195 nations in the world, about 40% have approached the WhiteHouse with offers to lower their tariffs on theU.S.in return for reducing the Trump tariffs on their products. Though he’snot aware of Trump’sagenda, having so many countries willing talk about mutual restrictions is agood thing for America’s financial future, he said.
Kennedy told FoxNews that Trumpshould take “a deal” being offered “He’slike the pitbull, though, whocaughtthe car,” Kennedy said of TrumpinThe New Republic. “I hope he takes adeal. I hope he and (Treasury Secretary) ScottBessentgotoevery one of those countries and reduce those tariffs and trade barriers down to zero and let American businesses compete with those foreign businesses. Competition makes us better.”
“I would pounce on this opportunity like aninja,” Kennedy said on MSNBC’s“Morning Joe,” in between discussions about what a “lick log” is for benefit of the New York City-based production crew andanalysts.
Kennedy said he’stelling the Louisiana business community, “with tariffs, an eyefor an eye just leaves both people blind.”
He continued: “When agovernment imposes atariff, it’sputting its thumbonthe scale. It inter-
feres with people’sfreedom to exchange goods and services.”
After Trumpannounced the pause, Kennedy told Punchbowl, aCapitol Hill online news source, that everyone will have to wait to see if thebond market stabilizes.
“The only way you can judge investors’ sentiment is to watch what they do,”hesaid.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy,R-Baton Rouge and Louisiana’sother senator,weighed in too. Buthis questionstoTrump’strade representativeJamieson Greer were more specific.
Cassidy attempted to ensure the tariffs remain adequate enough
to help Louisiana shrimpers and rice growers andnot get set aside in negotiations with other nations for larger concerns.
He also feared that the duties on Chinese-built ships will get passed along to nations like South Korea that use someofthat fleet to ship theirgoods to the U.S. He said such costs would negatively impact ports in NewOrleans and Baton Rouge. Democrats, of course, weren’t quiet at all
For instance, Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, wrote to Trump, Bessent,and Commerce SecretaryHoward Lutnick pointing
Gov.Jeff Landry’sadministration has promised to update a half-century-old computer system that has contributed to delays and disruptions at Office of Motor Vehicles sites and public tag agents across the state. Officials hope to select the new system within a month,said OMV Commissioner Bryan Adams, adding that the OMV currently uses an operating systemthat was builtin the 1970s.
ing the weekof March 31, finding that thesystemwas down for more than three hours aday,accordingtoAdele Dauphin, that organization’s president.
Fornow,thatproblem appears resolved, thanks to afiximplementedonThursday. On Friday, there were just 13 minutes ofdowntime, Dauphinsaid
“It’sasimilar program that Iused when Iwas working in the oil fields in the ’80s,” Adams said. Problems with the computer system became abundantly clear in recent weeks, when constant outages hamstrung public tag agents and OMV offices trying to issue driver’slicenses and registrations. The outages caused long wait times for services, frustrating Louisianans.
BUZZ staff reports
The Louisiana Public TagAgent Association tracked outages dur-
“Last Thursday evening we implemented one of the solutions that (the Office of Technology Services) believed would remedythe problem,and we haveseen significant improvements in performance and stability in that time,” Landry announced in anews conference Wednesday.“We have gonefour straight days with no issues, which is arecord over the past few months.”
Officials will continue to improve thecurrent system,Landry said.
Still, officials say Thursday’sfix was aBand-Aid.The long-term solutionwill involve replacing the operatingsystem.
“The system’sbroke. It’sbeen
kicked down theroad way too long. This governor,this administration and this commissioner are not kicking it down theroad. We’regoing to fix it,” Adams said.
Twoweeks ago, Landry declared astate of emergency related to theOMV outages, waiving the procurement process for theOMV’s system,aprocess that can take six to nine months. Still, it could take up to three years to fully install anew system.
StateRep.Jack McFarland, RJonesboro, who plays akey role in the budget process as chair of theAppropriations Committee, vowed to find thefunding for the new system “I have committed to finding the dollars as well tosolve that problem long-term,” he said.
Kennedy pushes bill on animal fighting
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy,RMadisonville, has introduced a bill aimed at cracking down on cockfighting and dogfighting.
Co-sponsored with Sen. Cory Booker,D-N.J., the bill would: n Ban simulcasting and gambling on animal fightsinthe U.S., no matter wherethe broadcast
originated n Make it illegal to ship adult roosters in the mail n Open the door to civil lawsuits against animal fighters, amove to “ease the resource burden on federal agencies” n Allow property used during animal fighting crimes to be seized throughcivil asset forfeiture.
“Those engaging in dog and cock fights are abusive, organized and dangerous —and their heinous behavior must be held
ABC’s“This Week”: Commerce Secretary HowardLutnick;Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
NBC’s“Meet the Press”: White House trade adviser Peter Navarro; Sen. Cory Booker,D-N.J.; RayDalio, founder of thehedge fund Bridgewater Associates.
CNN’s“State of the Union”: Warren; Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council; Rep. TimBurchett, R-Tenn.
CBS’ “Face the Nation”: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer;
out that Louisiana wasthe fourth largest state exporter of goods in 2024. Louisiana exports reached morethan $87 billion dollars in 2024 alone and accounted for close to one-third of Louisiana’s GDP,hesaid —not to mention numerous jobs.
“As the president continues to navigate the future of American trade policy,itismysincerest hope that he will continue to keep the potential impact on states like Louisiana front and center,” Fields said.
Email Mark Ballardat mballard@theadvocate.com.
accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Kennedy said in a newsrelease. “It’sillegal to abuse God’s creatures forsport, and this bill would give law enforcement crucial tools to end this cruel practice.”
In the release, Kennedy said animal fights “can becomehubs of violence because of the illegal activity that often accompanies them.” Cockfighting can also be a danger to public health by potentially spreading bird flu, according to the release.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; Neel Kashkari, president andCEO of theFederal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Dr.Peter Marks, former director of theFood and Drug Administration’sCenter forBiologics Evaluation and Research.
“Fox News Sunday”: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins; Gov JB Pritzker,D-Ill.; Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.
The Associated Press
BY DEVNA BOSE, GRAHAM LEE BREWER and BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
CHANDLER,Ariz. — Health Sec-
retary Robert F. Kennedy
Jr spent time in tribal communities in Arizona and New Mexico last week highlighting ways they are trying to prevent chronic disease among Native Americans and Alaska Natives, something he has said is one of his top priorities.
But Kennedy didn’t appear to publicly address a Native health program using traditional medicine and foods to tackle disproportionate rates of conditions like diabetes and liver disease. The program, called Healthy Tribes, was gutted in this month’s federal health layoffs.
Some Native leaders say they are having trouble grasping the dissonance between Kennedy’s words and his actions. With little information, they wonder if Healthy Tribes is part of the Trump administration’s push to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. There also is confusion about what and who is left at the 11-year-old program, which was part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under Kennedy’s agency, and doled out $32.5 million a year Tribal leaders and health officials told The Associated Press that cuts to the Healthy Tribes program are another violation of the federal government’s legal obligation, or trust responsibility, to tribal nations under treaties, law and other acts
That includes funding for health care through the Indian Health Service, as well as education and public safety for citizens of the 574 federally recognized tribes. But federal funding has long fallen short of meeting those needs, leaving tribal governments to rely on additional grants and programs like Healthy Tribes.
“So many layers of communications of collaboration and partnerships have just been turned off,” said Onawa Miller, a Quechan Indian Nation citizen and director of tribal public health for United South and Eastern Tribes, which serves 33 tribes in those regions of the U.S. She said her organization already has received its annual $2 million in Healthy Tribes funding.
Several tribal facilities received an email from a CDC employee April 1 notifying them that the positions of many people who staffed the Healthy Tribes program had been eliminated “as part of the reduction in force efforts at CDC.”
The American Federation of Government Employees union, which represents thousands of workers at the CDC in Atlanta, said more than 30 civil servant jobs were or are being eliminated. That includes 11 positions in the Healthy Tribes program and others in the larger Division of Population Health.
An email sent to the account of Healthy Tribes director Dr Julianna Reece, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, was met with an automated reply: “Due to the recent HHS reduction in force, I have been placed on administrative leave and will be separated from the agency on June 2nd.” Reece did not respond to requests for comment sent to her federal and personal email accounts
‘A violation of trust’
Part of the government upheaval in the past several weeks includes top officials at the National Institutes of Health being offered transfers to Indian Health Service offices far from Washington, D.C. The National Indian Health Board also has said the government eliminated key staff and programs at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health’s Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health.
The government is required to consult with tribes on decisions impacting them, like mass layoffs in February
BY MIKE CATALINI Associated Press
at the Indian Health Service that were rescinded hours later, and tribal leaders have warned the Trump administration that such consultations are not happening. In some cases tribes can take legal action against the U.S. for failing to meet its trust responsibilities.
“It is a violation of trust, without a doubt,” said W. Ron Allen chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington state The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not answer questions related to the Healthy Tribes cuts but told the AP in an email that the Indian Health Service was not impacted by this month’s workforce reductions and there are no plans to consolidate any of its offices.
Kennedy’s swing through the Southwest included a visit to a community health center in metro Phoenix that provides physical and mental health care to Native people and a hike with the Navajo Nation president He also moderated a panel at the Tribal Self-Governance Conference, held on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona, but didn’t take questions from the audience, tribal leaders on stage or journalists
Allen said he had a constructive conversation with Kennedy, reminding him IHS is already underfunded and understaffed and that tribes rely on additional federal grants and programs
“Your issue is to reduce the central office, and so we’re OK with that, but move the functions that serve the tribes out to the tribes,” Allen said he told Kennedy “Because if we don’t have those resources, how are we gonna make our communities healthy? He agrees.”
Grant funding
Research shows Native Americans have shorter life expectancies than other ethnic groups, and the Indian Health Service says they face higher mortality rates from chronic conditions like diabetes and liver disease.
In Seattle, Healthy Tribes money pays for a program called GATHER, which focuses on integrating traditional tribal medicine practices into health care. Providers at the Seattle Indian Health Board can use medicine made from plants grown in a community garden. A traditional Native medicine apprentice or healer is a part of a patient’s care team.
Seattle Indian Health Board President Esther Lucero, a descendant of the Navajo Nation, said her staff meets with people from the CDC and other Healthy Tribes grantees bimonthly to discuss project updates and ensure compliance with grants. But after last week’s layoffs, they are having trouble contacting anyone.
“If you can’t actually administer the dollars, how are you going to actually get them out to the programs?” she said. “With this current administration, it’s almost like every day we receive an unexpected notice, and then we will get a follow-up notice that says you need to move forward as usual.”
Lycia Ortega, interim CEO of Los Angeles-based United American Indian Involvement, echoed concerns about the ambiguous and somewhat confusing messages. Her organization uses Healthy Tribes money to foster connections between younger people and elders in Native American and Alaska Native communities. Native communities have had to push back against the Trump administration’s efforts to cut programs that might be considered DEI initiatives, she said, with the help of lawyers, policy experts and watchdogs who point out areas where the government might not be honoring the trust responsibility
NEWARK, N.J The top federal prosecutor in New Jersey says she has launched an investigation into Democratic Gov Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matt Platkin over the state’s directive to local law enforcement not to cooperate with federal agent conducting immigration enforcement.
Alina Habba, appointed last month by President Donald Trump as the interim U.S. attorney for the state, announced the investigation on Thursday evening on Fox News.
“I want it to be a warning for everybody that I have instructed my office today to open an investigation into Governor Murphy, to open an investigation into Attorney General Platkin,” she said.
At an unrelated news conference on Friday, Platkin touted state and federal law enforcement cooperation on criminal investigations and pointed to federal courts upholding the state’s directive.
“I’m going to keep doing my job. I know the brave men, men and women of law enforcement in our state who do extraordinary work every day, will keep doing their jobs,” Platkin said.
Murphy addressed Habba’s comments Friday during an appearance on the MeidasTouch podcast, saying that law enforcement in the state regularly goes after crimes and works with federal authorities.
“If you’re a criminal in
New Jersey we’re coming after you,” he said, adding: “Law enforcement in New Jersey is obsessed with bringing justice on crimes and against criminals. We’re not in the immigration business. If we need to work with the authorities, federal immigration authorities, we absolutely do.”
Murphy’s administration has been largely supportive of immigration. Under his tenure Platkin’s predecessor issued a guideline limiting cooperation between local New Jersey police and immigration officials. A bill that would make the directive state law is pending in the Legislature, but hasn’t advanced.
The policy and the pending bill have gotten renewed attention since Trump’s second administration began and immigration officials arrested people in Newark soon after the inauguration The arrests led immigrant rights advocates to call out “Where’s Governor Murphy?” during a news conference held by Newark’s mayor to deride the immigration enforcement.
While it’s unclear exactly what Habba’s investigation will focus on, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 agreed with a lower court order siding with the Murphy administration in a lawsuit brought by two counties and a county sher-
iff’s office who disagreed with the directive. The federal appeals court’s decision left the directive in place in the state. Habba took over the interim post from John Giordano, whom the president named to be the U.S. ambassador for the southwestern African country of Namibia.
A partner in a small New Jersey law firm near Trump’s Bedminster golf course, Habba served as a senior adviser for Trump’s political action committee, defended him in court in several civil lawsuits and acted as a spokesperson last year as he volleyed between courtrooms and the campaign trail.
BY HANNAH LEVITAN Staff writer
Strolling through the charming town of Fairhope, Alabama,iscomparable to touring amovie set. Its speckless streets, waste bins that double as flower beds and lustrous storefronts create autopian atmosphere that feels too perfect to be real.
The town was established in 1908 “as adream in the minds of agroup of populist reformers who were seeking their own special utopia.” The group of around 500 residents founded the Fairhope Single TaxColony, with the belief that the tax plan would give them a ”fair hope” of succeeding.
Now,acentury later,that dreamstill resonates with its locals as the small-town life intertwines with its legacy as aresort destination Fairhope boasts awhite sandy beach with azalea bushes lining the overlooking park. Despite the ongoing construction by the Fairhope Municipal Beach and Park, the town’sallure remains unaltered.
Even on arainy day,the beach town is brimming with antique stores, upscale boutiques and evenamini French Quarter to explore. My dayinFairhope
When my colleague and I arrived in Fairhope around noon, we first headed to Fairhope’snewest Wawa for aquick bite to eat.
Across the street, Ispotted arange of unique garden decor and bee-lined to the pale yellow warehouse with asign reading “Tuveson’s Architectural Consignment.”
Inside, its walls were adorned with antique signs,
artwork andshe trinkets. Therooms endless, andsod variety of treasu vintage furniture posedwood, each offered somethin admire. No surprise, Il my hands full. While paying fo finds, thetown’s hospitality camei light. The store handed me apamp other stores, circlin personal favorites. After a10-min to the town center
dealers sprawled across a 29,000-square-foot lot, the Daphne Antique Galleria is agold mine forcollectors and casual browsers alike.
An hour had passed, and there was still moretosee. But ired and
treat. Iordered asmallcup of their rich cake batter ice cream and enjoyed peoplewatching from the patio.
To
-Amy G.
of dual enrollment.
morestudentstopursue career paths over four-year degrees
BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer
As college costscontinue
to soar and demand for skilled workers in many sectorsgrows, more high schoolers are considering career paths that don’trequire four-year degrees
At the Career Magnet Center in Lafourche Parish where juniors and seniors are bused in dailyfrom three neighboring high schools to study trades or earn college credits, interest in career and technical education, or CTE, is rising
The center’senrollment has nearly doubled in the last three years to 530 students, according to Bonnie Lefort, the CTE coordinator at the center.
Lefort’sjob is to help students decide which track is right for them, whether that be obtaining acertificate in welding or taking college-level medical courses for college credits that can be put toward anursing degree.
“I’ve always liked being able to help kids make that connection between school and what their career is going to be,” Lefort said. “Now Iget to ensure that we’re actually providing those opportunities for them.”
The number of students participating in career technical programs in Louisiana is growing. According
to the national Office of Career,Technical andAdult Education, roughly 130,000 students participated in CTE programsinthe state during the2022-23 school year—anincrease ofmore than 4,000 from the year before.
As interest in CTE continues to expand,Lefort said one of thebiggest obstacles still to overcomeisthe lingeringstigma around forgoingafour-year college degree.
However,she said that she sees signs the tide is
turning.
“I thinkit’sa swiftmoving change, and there’s alight at the end of the tunnel, but there are still people who don’trealize there are many careers out there that don’trequire that bachelor’sdegree,” Lefort said. “Weneed to make sure we’re getting the message out that CTE is important, and career technical ed can absolutely lead to ahighwage, high-demand career.”
Read on to learn more about why education expertswant to encourage
This interview hasbeen condensed and edited for clarity
What are someofthe benefits students can gain frompursuing career and technical education?
We have to takeastep back and realize that not every career you enter requires acollege diploma. Welders don’tneed acollege diploma to be agood welder who makes agood living on asustainable income and is highly employable and in demand. That’s definitely afive-star job in our area.
For along time, it was “everybody has to go to college.” That’snot necessarily true. We need to take thestigma off of career and technical education.
Youthink there’sstill astigma around career education?
Absolutely there is. Often it comes from home, because mom anddad feel like you have to go to college to be successful, but that’snot necessarily the truth, right?
We have to be able totake astep back and look at the big picture and say,“What’s going to makemystudent successful in life?” Being able to support themselves, buy their own houses, thingslike that. All that can happen following the career path.
Is there anyoverlap between CTE and dual enrollment,where high school students takecollege-level courses?
There is absolutely overlap. One way to think about it is that there are two types
WE’RE ASKING EXPERTS ACROSS THESTATEHOW TO TACKLE THEBIGGEST CHALLENGES FACINGLOUISIANA SCHOOLS.
Many Americansare fortunate to havedental coverage fortheir entire working life, through employer-provided benefits.Whenthose benefits end with retirement, paying dental bills out-of-pocket can come as a shock, leading people to putoff or even go without care. Simply put —without dentalinsurance, there may be an importantgap in your healthcare coverage.
When you’re comparingplans ...
Look forcoveragethat helps pay formajor services. Some plans may limitthe numberof procedures —orpay forpreventive care only.
Look forcoverage with no deductibles. Some plans mayrequire you to payhundredsout of pocket before benefits are paid.
Shop forcoveragewithnoannual maximum on cash benefits. Some planshaveannual maximums of $1,000.
There’sthe universitytype, where you’re taking core classes (like English or math) dual enrolled and getting credit forboth high school and college.
Technical dual enrollmentworks the sameway, but instead of aligning to auniversity curriculum, we’re aligning to atechnical diplomaoranassociate degree.
They’re still getting community college credit at the sametimethat they’re getting high school credit. The difference is that someone who’staking adual enrollmenttechnical course is not going to be able to apply that credit toward auniversity track.
According to state data, only about 20% of the dual enrollment courses students takeare in career education.Whyisthat?
We’re still in the mindset that you have to go to college to be successful, and so we focus our spending of those (dual enrollment) dollars on the university-track kids, forgetting that the kids whoare on acareer and technical pathway can get dual enrollment credit, too.
Within districts, money comes in and gets allocated to each of the high schools. They get apercentage based on population, and they have to decide how to spend it. In Lafourche, anybody whowants to take dual enrollment courses can.
Have youseen an increase in the numberofstudents seeking CTE courses?
Yes. When Istarted in this
position three years ago, we werestruggling with enrollment. There were a couple of hurdles we had to overcome as adistrict, and one of those wasCOVID. Youcan’tdowelding virtually.Then we got hit with another whammy when Hurricane Idahit because we had students whowere displaced. It really wasagrassroots effort of getting back into those high schools and selling (CTE). But since then, we’ve almost doubled our enrollment.
We’re busting at the seamsonsome tracks, but we also have someareas we know we need to work on. We’re looking at those and saying ‘OK,what’sthe problem here?’ Is it that our pathway isn’tquite right? Is it that we’re not listening to industry? We have to have those conversations, and it’s ever-evolving.
What do youthink about the state’snew school-rating system, which rewards schools that connect students with internships or apprenticeships?
I’mexcited about it. I think it’sabsolutely the way to go, because we wantto focus on growing students’ careers. If you don’tstart exploring careers when you’re 16 and 17, then you’re still going to be struggling with it when you’re 19 and 20. It’s starting that conversation sooner,and Ithink we need to provide moreofthose opportunities.
Email Elyse Carmosino at ecarmosino@theadvocate. com.
can be arealburden especially if you’re on afixed income.
Ask about the
BY GERALD IMRAY Associated Press
CAPE TOWN, South Africa Vultures have an image problem. Seen as ugly and associated with death, they are among the least loved animals in the world. But conservationists in Africa are trying to change that. They’ve launched an effort to save endangeredvultures by trying to put adollar figure on their incrediblevalue.
Arecent reportbythe BirdLife International conservation organization estimated that vultures are worth $1.8 billion ayear to certainecosystems in southern Africa,which might surprise anyone not familiar with the clean-up, pest control and anti-poaching work performed by one of the most efficient scavengers on the planet.
“They are not up thereon theprettyscale. Andthey are not popular.But we know they are very useful,” said Fadzai Matsvimbo, an extinction preventioncoordinator
at BirdLife International. The report comes at an important time for Africa’s vultures; six of the 11 speciesfoundonthe continent are listed as endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature,which says vulturesare highly threatened in many parts of the world. In Africa, some species have declined by nearly 90%, Matsvimbo said. Conservationists hope the report will make authorities and thepublic more aware of the positive impact of vultures. It focusedonresearch in Botswana,Zambiaand Zimbabwe and shows how awake of vultures —the term for a group of feeding vultures —can strip adecomposing carcassinhours, cleaning up ecosystems, reducing the chance of disease spreading andthe presence of pestslike rats and feral dogs, which hasgreat benefits to communities.
Matsvimbosaidvultures in Africa are also used as “sentinels” by gamerangers because they are often the first to spot adead animaland can lead rangers to where poachers might be active. They have even proven useful in helping farmers locate dead or injured livestock.
Vultures are unique among land vertebrates in that they only feed on carrion —dead animals. That makesthem especially susceptible to poisoning by humans, either intentionally by poachers and others whowanttoget rid of them,orbymistake when pests are the target. Hundreds of vultures can die from asingle poisoned carcass.
She said because vultures have such outstanding eyesight and instincts when it comestofindinga dead animal they are viewedbysome as being clairvoyant andable to foreseedeath. Their body parts, and especially their head, are used in potions or as charms to predict the future.
“Our work is to change the mindsets of people,” Wolter said. “For them to see vultures and think, wowthat is amazing.”
Trump’smuch-admired
Gilded
BY JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press
CANTON, Ohio If you’ve been intrigued by President Donald Trump’spraise of his long-ago WhiteHouse predecessor WilliamMcKinley and yearn to know more, it’s time you head to Ohio. America’s25th president was born and is buried in the Buckeye State, where museums and monuments to him abound. Websites promoting the state’sMcKinley attractions have seena surge in page views since Trump began highlighting McKinley’sGilded Age presidency, which ran from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.Officials hope abumpinsummer tourism will follow
“I don’tthink there has been as much interest in William McKinley in at least a century,interms of kind of the public consciousness,” said Kevin Kern, an associate professor of history at the University of Akron.The last time was in 1928,when McKinley’sface was printed on the $500 bill.
While Trump has attached himself to McKinley,Kern says the two Republicans’ political positions are, in many respects, “really apples and oranges.” In McKinley’sday,the United States was just becoming the world’sforemost manufacturing power.Tariffs were viewedasa way to protect that momentum Today, theeconomy is global Kern also noted that Republicans took huge losses in the 1890 election after the imposition of the McKinley Tariff, and that McKinley appeared to change his tune on tariffs in aspeech delivered the day before he was assassinated in 1901. Within an easy drive of Cleveland, you can find a host of sites for learning more about McKinley’spolitics and personal life. Here’s acloser look:
Amonumenttohis birth McKinley wasbornin 1843 in Niles, aYoungstown suburb about 70 miles east of Cleveland.Here, you’ll find the National McKinley
Vultures also have extremely strong stomach acid, don’tget food poisoning and areable to consume and neutralize anthrax, botulism and other bacteria and toxins in carcassesthat would kill other animals,removing deadly threats from the environment. Just this week,more than 50 hipposdied from suspected anthrax poisoning in areserve in Congo.
sanitation services,” said Matsvimbo. Conservationists have raised the case of the drastic loss of vultures in India over thelast 30 years and how that led to ahealth crisis. Astudypublished lastyearsaidhalf amillion people died in India because of the spread of bacteria and infectionsinthe absence of vultures.
Vulturesare also regularly killedormaimed in collisions with powerlines in Africa
And they are increasingly being killed for belief-based reasons, said Kerri Wolter, the CEO of the Vulpro vulture rehabilitation center in South Africa, which treats sick and injuredvulturestobereleased back intothe wild.
Vultures are nature’s“best
Birthplace Memorial, aclassical Greek marble monumentthatsits on thesite of McKinley’sformer one-room schoolhouse. AMcKinley statuestands at the center of the well-manicuredCourtof Honor,whichisflanked by a small museum and the community’s library.The McKinleybirthplacehome andresearchcentersits nearby TacklingMcKinley’slegacy Canton is perhapsbest known for the Pro Football Hall of Fame,The city,about 60 miles from either Cleveland or Niles, iswhere the kindly and mild-mannered McKinley spent mostofhis adultlife. Ayoung McKinley settledhereafter serving in theCivil War, began his law career and married Ida Saxton McKinley
The McKinley Presidential Library and Museum is agreat place todig into the shared policy goals —especially tariffs and territorialexpansion— thatattract Trump to McKinley
An animatronic William and IdaMcKinley greet visitors to the museum’sMcKinley Gallery, which features interactive opportunitiesas well as historical furnishings, clothing, jewelry and campaign memorabilia. The building alsohouses apresidentialarchiveand ascience center completewith dinosaurs and aplanetarium. The site’s dominant feature, however,isthe imposing McKinley Monument,which looms on ahill atop 108 stone steps It housesthe mausoleum where the McKinleys and their two young daughters
areburied.
MoreMcKinley memorabilia is on display at the CantonClassic Car Museum.
AMcKinleystatue
The residents of Arcata, California, were notsoenamored of McKinley’simperialist legacy In 2018,amidnational soul-searching over historical monuments, the liberal college town decided to remove an 8-foot sculpture of McKinley,the annexation treaty for Hawaii in his hand, from their town square. Over acentury old, thestatue had been moved to Arcata from San Francisco, where it was toppledinthe 1906earthquake.
It now stands at the stately StarkCounty Courthouse in downtown Canton, where McKinley worked as acounty prosecutor before being elected acongressmanand Ohio governor. It was placed there in 2023 after being bought back from Arcata by aCanton foundation and restored.
Glimpsingthe home life
Athree-block walk from thecourthouse is theSaxtonMcKinley House, part of the National First Ladies Historic Siteoperatedinpartnership withthe National Park Service. Originally Ida’s home, the elegant Victorian mansion was the couple’s residence at different times during their marriage. It’s notthe house from which McKinley conducted his fabled “frontporch campaign” of 1896; that was demolished in the 1930s.
Matsvimbo and Wolter both said vultures have been given araw deal by moviemakers in Hollywood, where they are almost always shown as evil and sinister.Movies have done for vultures what“Jaws” did for sharks, Wolter said. “I love watching ‘The Lion King,’ but every time they do thevulturepart, my heartbreaks,” said Matsvimbo. “Vultures are never portrayed in apositive way. Ihave abone to chew with these moviemakers. Or should that be bone to pick?”
NOLA.COM | Sunday, april 13, 2025 1Bn
BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
Three leading candidates for New Orleans mayor are making ambitious promises to breathe new life into the city’s economy, taking note of deep resident frustrations captured by polling last year.
City Council Vice President Helena Moreno, District E City Council member Oliver Thomas and retired judge Arthur Hunter say their plans will reverse the fortunes of a city bedeviled by population loss, increasingly reliant on tourism dollars and facing the effects of a statewide insurance crisis hastened by a series of punishing hurricanes. If elected, Moreno would “overhaul” the city’s troubled Safety and Permits Department to cut away red tape small businesses face in the permitting process Thomas would partner with local banks and credit unions to give low-interest loans to small businesses and firsttime homebuyers. Hunter would expand city programs that offer more job certifications and training. The election is Oct. 11, six months away Though all three candidates, plus three others with lower profiles and scarce financing, have announced they will run, an official
Sucette Harbor lawsuit against city remains pending
BY BOB WARREN Staff writer
A federal judge has dismissed claims from the developers of the controversial Sucette Harbor residential-retail development that Mandeville City Council member Jason Zuckerman worked outside his official duty to shoot down the project slated for a plot of lakefront land.
The developers, Woodward Harbor LLC and LSU Health Foundation New Orleans, had sued the city of Mandeville and Zuckerman, individually after the City Council nixed their development proposal in 2023.
But U.S. District Judge Brandon Long ruled on March 27 that the developers had failed to make their case against Zuckerman and dismissed him as a defendant.
Days later, on March 31, Long issued a spate of rulings in the developers’ suit, dismissing many of the claims they had made against the city
Where Long’s rulings leave the suit against the city remains unknown. The developers and the city both declined comment.
Meanwhile, a group of Mandeville residents continues to seek permission to intervene in the lawsuit. Magistrate Judge Eva Dossier heard oral arguments in that petition on April 8 but has not yet issued a ruling.
Sucette Harbor was proposed as a $150 million development with 178 apartments for people ages 55 and older, an 84-room hotel, and shops, restaurants and a refurbished marina on 15 acres of land just east of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway But the project roiled the city’s politics for months in 2023 before the council unanimously voted it down.
The developers said the council improperly denied the development, criticizing the monthslong process and contending that the nine public hearings run by the council devolved into a “constant, uncontrollable, irrational ‘debate.’”
The developers singled out Zuckerman he was the lone council member named individually in the lawsuit — claiming he acted outside his proper role as an elected official and attacked the project based on his personal preferences Zuckerman, an architect, had used his own density calculation to determine that 90 apartments should be the maximum allowed, a calculation that the council backed — but one the developers said would ultimately financially doom the project.
Long ruled that the developers were not able to present sufficient facts to overcome Zuckerman’s qualified immunity defense.
qualifying period doesn’t open until July The candidates’ early focus on economic issues underscores the depth of residents’ anxiety over the day-to-day struggles of making a living, paying bills and finding or keeping jobs in the nation’s fastest-shrinking city The candidates face the challenge of convincing residents that they can effectively tackle those issues despite national and global forces such as inflation, which fall largely outside local officials’ control.
Despite a jump in overall satisfaction with quality of life among Orleans Parish residents, last fall’s Quality of Life Survey, a biannual poll performed by the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center, painted a more dour picture when it came to economic outlook.
Three years ago, 27% of voters were confident of increased employment opportunities. That number fell to 21% in 2024.
Residents deplore ‘alarming,’ ‘unacceptable’ NORD facilities’ conditions
BY JONI HESS Staff writer
Two years ago this month, New Orleans
officials gathered at Village de L’Est playground in New Orleans East to cut the ribbon on a new $1.4 million clubhouse and playground.
The 1,700-square-foot multipurpose building featured an energy-efficient heating and air conditioning system, LED lighting and a concessions area, among other amenities.
But the clubhouse closed a month later, after gunshots shattered the building’s windows and caused other significant damage, Larry Barabino Jr., CEO of the New Orleans Recreation and Development Commission, has said.
Today, graffiti lines the building’s exterior Panels of broken fencing dangle over the sidewalk.
It’s but one example of shoddy maintenance now plaguing a city parks and playground system that saw heavy in-
BY LARA NICHOLSON Staff writer
vestments after Hurricane Katrina and that once enjoyed robust support from a private foundation.
In recent years, however, foundation dollars have dried up. The New Orleans Recreation Department’s $22 million in city funding this year isn’t enough to provide the staff or the materials the park system needs, city officials say
“We recognize that maintaining and improving these spaces is an ongoing effort, and we have long been engaged in strategic plans to enhance our facilities,” NORD Commission Chair Theo Sanders said in a statement last month.
Seven civic groups in March cited “alarming” and “unacceptable” conditions at several playgrounds. And former Orleans Parish prosecutor Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue has also been a vocal critic.
“If I had young children, I wouldn’t allow them to play there,” said Tanya Hayes, speaking of the corroded play equipment at Union Playground across the street from her Gentilly home.
“It’s filthy All of it needs to be repaired or replaced.”
The state of New Orleans’ public parks drew public attention in the years after Hurricane Katrina, when the storm’s floodwaters swamped more than 100 NORD sites and harmed the agency at a
time when city leaders were tied up with other rebuilding projects.
During former Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s tenure, federal recovery dollars helped fund $200 million in reconstruction efforts for parks, libraries and recreation centers. In 2010, voters agreed to set up a separate commission that would run NORD, taking it largely out of City Hall.
The Landrieu administration also more than doubled NORD’s budget, from $4.5 million to $10 million, during his first year in office.
“I think the real gap is a lack of focus in this city and what it takes to sustain what we’ve invested in,” said Urban League Vice President and former Landrieu adviser Tyronne Walker Civic leaders also set up a separate foundation to support public parks. That and the separation of NORD’s budget from the city’s budget was designed to build confidence among philanthropists that recreation money would be protected. In 2014, the NORD Foundation raked in $2.8 million, 28% of NORD’s $10 million budget that year But in 2024, the foundation brought in $190,000, less than 1% of NORD’s then$20 million budget
STAFF PHOTOS By SCOTT THRELKELD
Continued from page 1B
That $190,000 was far below an annual foundation goal of $500,000 to $1 million, Barabino told City Council members at an October budget hearing.
Foundation Chairman Ernest Price Jr said the foundation is not as strong as it was in its earlier days and donations have waned over time The board, once nine members, is now down to three. He urged the public to play a greater role in supporting local parks.
“There has to be some accountability on both sides, from the general public, the foundation, all parties involved, because this is all for the betterment of New Orleanians,” he said.
Improvements underway
NORD’s $22 million, 2025 spending plan includes $15.6 million for staffing and just $1.7 million for maintenance. An additional $500,000 goes to the Department of Parks and Parkways for grass cutting.
In a parks master plan released last year, officials pointed to chronic underfunding. To remedy the problems, the report’s authors said, residents could pay modest program fees to support the parks. The city could also expand its property tax millage and prioritize recreation in the city’s overall budget. That master plan was commissioned after voters in 2019 agreed to funnel an extra $1.6 million of an existing property millage to parks, in part by reducing the cash that went to Audubon Park.
The city also has invested more than $50 million in capital im-
Continued from page 1B
The platforms Moreno, a former state lawmaker who has served two council terms and assembled a campaign war chest of nearly $1 million last year as she geared up for a mayoral run, last week promised an “overhaul” of New Orleans’ troubled Safety and Permits Department part of an effort to make it easier for businesses to get set up in the city Her administration would do so by paying more money to inperson staff who can help address questions and cut into a huge backlog of permitting requests, Moreno said. Her 14-page plan, released last week, promises more funding for the city’s tiny Economic Development Office, in which Moreno says she will create new positions to lead
ABOVE: Tyler Kinchen and the Right Pieces perform during the 53rd Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival at Memorial Park in Ponchatoula on Saturday
LEFT: The midway is in full swing.
The free, three-day event, which continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., features truckloads of fresh strawberries, strawberry dishes and strawberry art, live music, rides, games and family fun. Alexis Nicole Lee reigned as festival queen, and Darryl Poche as king.
provement projects for NORD facilities, including new playgrounds, walking paths, drainage systems and shade infrastructure since the start of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s tenure, officials said.
Major renovations are underway at several sites such as Perry Roehm Stadium, where fields are being turfed and regraded. At St. Roch Park, new lighting and shading were recently installed. Some upgrades are part of broader city infrastructure projects. For example, the pool at A.L. Davis Playground hasn’t been used since 2020, but the site is being transformed through a $40 million drainage project expected to wrap up in late 2026. At Easton Playground, stormwater improvements such as rain gardens, permeable pavers and underground storage tanks have already been completed.
But critics say those upgrades
development of underserved areas such as New Orleans East and the Ninth Ward. That office would also redevelop city-owned properties. A legal team, meanwhile, would resolve development issues at major sites such as Plaza Tower, Federal City and Lake Forest Plaza.
Besides his low-interest loan proposal, Thomas’ platform emphasizes revitalizing New Orleans East, which he represents on the council. Thomas, who has served three council terms over the years, says he would expand access to grocery stores, health care and “diverse retail options.”
He promised to create a citywide development plan, a bid to provide “clarity and predictability for businesses and neighborhoods” in favor of what he described as the current piecemeal system that decides development deals on a “project by project” basis.
Perhaps his most ambitious goal, Thomas pledges to build 10,000 new affordable housing units over next eight years. The new developments would “support working families,” he said Hunter, the former judge, earned a reputation over 24 years on the New Orleans Criminal District Court bench as a champion of reentry programs and public defense. His economic development platform channels that background: Hunter says he’ll focus on job training and after-school programming that exposes children to job opportunities and services.
are overshadowed by the numerous parks that have deteriorated amid limited investment and understaffing. Two former NORD officials, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, also alleged mismanagement, inconsistent inspections and poor scheduling as factors behind ongoing maintenance issues.
NORD spokesperson Emily Oliver said in response that each of NORD’s 160 sites is scheduled for weekly maintenance, with high-use sites getting additional attention. Work orders are prioritized based on urgency and potential impact on safety or programming, she said.
Wider city issues such as vandalism, theft and homelessness also contribute to the decline, Barabino has said in past interviews and public meetings. In one case, a homeless family was found living in a building at Cuccia-Byrnes Playground last year
He pledged, too, to create “clear and fair rules for city contracts” in an effort to root out corruption and to fund a “citywide mural program,” the goal of which would be to create jobs for artists while beautifying neighborhoods.
Powerful forces
Ed Chervenak, a political scientist and analyst who runs UNO’s Survey Research Center, likened the election environment to 2009’s mayor’s race, when then-Lt. Gov Mitch Landrieu coasted to victory on a promise to return prosperity and functional government to a city emerging from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Landrieu’s tenure, which lasted from 2010 until 2018, saw strides in the city’s economic outlook across a number of categories: Population rose, as did jobs, tourism and property values, though the population started to decline in 2016.
The slide continued in the years thereafter, as the New OrleansMetairie metropolitan area saw the steepest population drop of any large metro area nationwide between 2020 and 2023, census data showed.
New Orleans lost another 2,470 people in 2024; the metro area, once again, was the fastest-shrinking in the United States that year
The COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and Ida in 2020 and 2021 hit the city hard. New Orleans remained about 22,600 jobs short of its pre-COVID
Continued from page 1B
Qualified immunity shields public officials from civil lawsuits unless their actions violate constitutional rights or they act maliciously or recklessly
“There’s a reason why qualified immunity is in place for public officials,” Zuckerman said in a recent interview “So they can do their jobs without fearing lawsuits.”
“Really,” he added, “they had no reason to sue me.”
The Sucette lawsuit is reminiscent of the suit the developers of the proposed Port Marigny residential-retail development filed against the city of Mandeville after the council shot down their plans in 2017. In that suit, however, each City Council member was named as a defendant, Zuckerman said.
Spurred by the Port Marigny suit, the Mandeville City Council later adopted legislation for the city to cover the costs of the legal defense of council members and employees who are sued.
“If you allow public servants to be sued independently you’ve taken away their vote,” Zuckerman said.
Attorneys for the city on Thursday filed a motion with Long seeking nearly $43,000 in legal fees for Zuckerman’s defense.
Last year, only eight of the city’s 14 outdoor pools opened for the summer Six remained closed due to construction or repairs — a recurring issue in recent years, especially as New Orleans faced its hottest summer on record in 2023.
In response, several community organizations released a list of demands urging city leaders to invest in pool repairs, maintenance and sufficient staffing.
In March, the NOLA Coalition, a collective of more than 500 local businesses and organizations, called for action on the “unacceptable” condition of NORD facilities.
And in December, Cannizzarro-Rodrigue wrote a scorching blog post saying NORD’s “gross neglect” of its parks contributes to the city’s juvenile crime problem.
Last week, the City Council directed NORD and the Department of Public Works to get a better handle on just how many parks are in need of repair and the costs of those repairs — a step the parks master plan also advised. City Council Vice President Helena Moreno, who is running for mayor, sponsored the motion.
Critics say the city needs to put recreation higher on its list of funding priorities.
“Crime reduction, sustainability economic development It’s astounding to me people don’t realize the one thing that covers all of these individual issues is parks, open spaces and recreation,” said Lake Williams, board member of parks advocacy group Parks for All.
“And these are things that are always cut first always the lowest on the city’s budget priorities.”
Email Joni Hess at joni.hess@ theadvocate.com.
levels in 2023, an economist’s report found that year The area economy was hindered by a lagging convention business and weak oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico, the report said.
In February, local officials and business leaders touted the impact of the Super Bowl in injecting life into New Orleans’ economy But the big game’s windfall didn’t extend evenly to every small business owner or artist, Gambit reported after the event wrapped up. Further buffeting residents’ economic outlook is President Donald Trump’s economic policy, which in the past 10 days included a slate of massive new tariffs which Trump suddenly scaled back after days of plunging markets indices.
Though such forces fall largely beyond the mayor’s control, New Orleans voters will look for a mayor who they feel will restore a sense of stability to their routines, said Silas Lee, a veteran political analyst and Xavier University professor
Many residents feel as though their economic opportunities have shriveled under outgoing Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Lee noted. Come October, they will be looking for a change.
“This election reflects a desire to turn the page and start anew,” Lee said.
Email James Finn at jfinn@ theadvocate.com.
The developers’ suit against the city remains pending. While Long dismissed several of the claims against the city, he did not dismiss developers’ request for a declaratory judgment that their plans are allowable under the city’s regulations or their claim that the city held Sucette’s marina to a higher standard than it has other marinas.
While Mandeville Mayor Clay Madden declined to comment pending the ongoing suit, Zuckerman said, “I feel confident in the city’s case.”
Continued from page 1B
year for $25 each. At its Seniors for Seniors program, seniors 65 and older are paired with senior cats aged 7 and up.
Spaymart transports cats from a shelter in Picayune, Mississippi, to Metairie each week on top of taking in local felines. The most vulnerable cats are housed on site, while the rest are adopted and fostered out through the nearby PetSmart on South Clearview Parkway
Last year, the shop adopted out over 700 cats. The goal, Chiche said, is to “end euthanasia” in Louisiana.
“Can I be crude? We bust our ass,” Chiche said.
Animal overpopulation is a constant issue in Louisiana, as its warm tropical climate leads animals to breed nearly year-round. One cat or dog can birth as many as three litters a year, but spring and summer bring the most offspring.
In St. Tammany Parish, the Department of Animal Services recently waived some of its adoption fees, as its shelter is 70% over capacity and in “mayday mode.” Jefferson Protection & Animal Welfare Services said its shelter is not at capacity but there are a bunch of kittens being fostered.
The store closure comes as the nonprofit prepares for GiveNOLA Day on May 6, a charity day organized by the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Spaymart’s biggest revenue source. Last year the store raised over $100,000, and this year Chiche hopes to reach $135,000.
Chiche is in the process of touring potential new spots after putting out her call for help. Ideally, she said, the next store would still be in Metairie and at least 2,500 square feet.
But she won’t be too picky as long as she can keep her nonprofit going.
“We’re not throwing in the towel; we just got to come up with something that’s going to work,” Chiche said.
Email Lara Nicholson at lnicholson@theadvocate.com.
LOTTERY FRIDAY,APRIL 11, 2025
PICK 3: 7-5-4
PICK 4: 5-7-9-2
PICK 5: 6-4-9-5-4
MEGA MILLIONS: 15-37-38-56-58
MEGA BALL: 19
Beoubay, Glynn
Calvin III, McVea
Chen,Ted
DiMaggio, Peter
Duvigneaud, Joseph
Franklin Sr., Ricky
Fugetta,Frank
Fuller, David
Gremillion, Lorraine
Grinnell, Don
Hartman, James
Hemsteter, Kevin
Houghtaling, Bruce
Jaubert,Roger
Jimenez, Irma
Karcher, Ronald
Knowles, Belinda
Kouloubis, Mary
Loetzerich,Alan
McCoy, Rosemary
Morise,Mickie
Peytral, René
Schoen, Joseph
Scobey-Duhon, Nancy
Shushan, Sylvia
Tome-Daly, Carmen
West,Randall
EJefferson
Garden of Memories
Fuller, David Hartman, James
LA Muhleisen
McCoy, Rosemary
Leitz-Eagan
Scobey-Duhon, Nancy NewOrleans
Greenwood
Beoubay, Glynn
JacobSchoen
Duvigneaud, Joseph Lake Lawn Metairie
GlynnAlphonse Beoubay,beloved husband ofSusan Beoubayfor 55 years,passedawayon Tuesday,April 8, 2025. He was preceded in deathby parents August and Gene Beoubay;brother Kenneth Beoubay;and sister Judith Burke.Mr. Beoubaywas a graduateofAlcee Fortier HighSchool,attendedLSU and graduated from Tu‐lane. He ownedGAB,Inc., which he sold in 1998, and managed hisrealestate holdingsthereafter. He was amemberofMetairie Country Club and numer‐ous MardiGrasorganiza‐tions.A Memorial Mass willbeheldonTuesday, April 15, 2025 at 2pmatSt. Francis Xavier,444 Metairie Road, Metairie,Louisiana, witha privateinterment thereafter.
Calvin III, McVea'Mack'
McVea“Mack”CalvinIII bornon March28, 1958 en‐tered into eternalreston Tuesday,April 8, 2025. Son ofthe late McVea Calvin Jr and thelateMaryLouise Calvin; brotherofMarion (Douglas) Jones, Maurice (Virginia)Calvin, Myron (Valecia) Calvin and Monique (Shandon)Davis; alsosurvivedbya host of nieces, nephews, extended familyand friendsaswell ashis dear cousin Willie EarlRicardand hisangel onearth Peggy Littlejohn Mackwas alifelongresi‐dentofNew Orleansand workedasa painter. Rela‐tives,friends of thefamily, and employeesofSt. Jude nursing facility,United StatesArmyCorps of Engi‐neers, MauriceCalvinPlas‐teringand OchsnerHospi‐tal areinvited to attend his memorialmasson Wednesday,April 16,2025 for 10 am at OurLadyof Guadalupe Church &Inter‐nationalShrineofSt. Jude located at 411N.Rampart St.,New Orleans, LA 70112 FrTonyRigoliofficiating. Professionalservicesen‐trusted to Littlejohn Fu‐neral Home,2163 Aubry Street,Cal K. Johnson, Fu‐neralDirector/Manager
Fugetta,Frank Chen,Ted
Gremillion, Lorraine
Jaubert,Roger
Jimenez, Irma
Karcher, Ronald Kouloubis, Mary
Shushan, Sylvia
sue aMasters at the University of Maryland. Before leaving in 1964, he was engaged to Marian Wang who joinedhim two years later to be married in Washington, DC. In 1967, Ted and Marian movedto Columbus, Ohio, where Ted earnedhis PhDatOhio StateUniversity. In 1968, thecouple had theirfirst child, Constance Marian Chen. In 1970, thefamily moved to Berkeley, CA, where Ted earneda postdoctoralMPH. Ted started his career at theSchool of PublicHealth at theUniversityof Massachusetts in Amherst MA. Ted and Marian felt thecollege town was an idealplace to raise afamily because it was culturally diverse and he couldindulgeinfishing,camping and outdoor sports.In 1972, Ted and Marian had theirsecond child, David Theodore Chen. In 1976, thefamily spent asabbatical year at theNational Science Foundationin Washington, DC. Agifted educator, mentor, and trusted leader, Ted was elected to the Executive Boardofthe American PublicHealth Associationfrom 1985-1990 and was Founderand President of the Asian American and Pacific IslanderCaucus of the APHA.In1989, Ted became Founderand Permanent ExecutiveSecretary of the Asia-Pacific Association forthe ControlofTobacco
During his19years at UMass, Amherst,Ted became anationally and internationally recognized tenured Professor In 1990, Ted was recruited to theTulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. A health educatorfocused on tobacco controland global health programdevelopment, he concentrated on executiveleadership training and community empowerment. Ted establishedlasting collaborations between Tulane, National Taiwan University and theShowChwan HealthSystem. Remembering hisearly days as an immigrant graduatestudent for whom English was asecond language, Ted championedpeople from allraces and backgrounds. For him, afoundational belief was that food and fun were keys to bridging divides and creating friendship.At theend of every academic year, he and hiswife threw amuch-loved partyfor Tulane public healthstudents that was regularly crashed by formergrads
WhenTed retired in 2015, he was Professor Emeritus at Tulane and UMass. He had advised numerous government and institutional organizations, served on amyriad committees and boards, and received countless awards.Ted oftenreflected that he had agoodlife "I am very positive.That's part of my character, and I cannot change."
Ted treasured time with his family.Whenhetook his final breath, he was surrounded by his wife Marian, daughter Connie, son-in-law Stephen Warren, sonDavid,and daughter-in-law Georgia Brian.Healso left behind granddaughters, Ava and Zoe. Ted was thelast surviving boyof9 children and,atthe end,hewas proud to havemadeiton his own. We miss him dearly.
life,Carolyn Staiger. He was alovingfatherto DawnDiMaggio, Deanna Allen (Michael), David DiMaggioSr. (Anna), and DinaMartinez. He wasa proud grandfathertoSean Martinez, Meghan Mar‐tinez,DanielleDiMaggio, MollieHood (Thomas) Jared Allen, ShaneMar‐tinez (Chloe), DavidDiMag‐gio Jr., Jeremy Allen, and CarolineAllen, as well as six great-grandchildren. He was preceded in deathby his sister,Marie St.Philip. Heisalsosurvivedbyhis sisters,Elizabeth DiMag‐gio,LorraineSchembre, and Jacqueline Turner Peter wasa manofdevout Catholic faith with adeep devotiontothe Blessed Mother. He movedhis fam‐ily to Arabi, Louisiana, in 1961, where he became a foundingmemberofSt. RobertBellarmineCatholic Church andservedasa Eu‐charistic Minister,Com‐mentator, Lector,School Board Member,and chair‐personand financeman‐agerofthe parish fair. He and Carolynwereco-recip‐ients of theOrder of Saint Louis Medallionfromthe ArchdiocesesofNew Or‐leans.After HurricaneKat‐rina, he andCarolyn relo‐cated to Mandeville and becameparishionersof Our Lady of theLake Catholic Church.Hewas a 1950 graduate of St.Aloy‐siusHighSchool,servedin the United States Marine Corps during theKorean War,and obtained abach‐elor’sdegreefromSouth‐eastern LouisianaUniver‐sity. He wasthe internal comptrollerfor the Louisiana Coca-ColaBot‐tling Companyfor over 25 years,fromwhich he re‐tired in 1990 at theage of 59. Peterwas aPastGrand KnightofJanssenCouncil #3068 KnightsofColumbus and amemberofthe 4th Degree. He lovedsports and enjoyedplaying soft‐ballwiththe Knightsof Columbus“Over theHill Gang.”Heespeciallyloved golfand wasa proudmem‐ber of the“Dawn Busters” atBayou Oaks Golf Course beforeHurricane Katrina and at AbitaCountry Club post-Katrina. He wasa cub scout leader anda little leaguecoach,servedas president of theAcademy ofthe Holy Angels PTO, and wasa member of the HolyFaith Associates and AARPChapter 5408. Peter and Carolynnever missed a grandparents’day.His selflessnessand devotion tohis familyand friends wereaninspiration to all who knew him. He taught the importance of faith family, hard work,and kindness. He will be for‐everrememberedfor his warmsmile andunwaver‐ing support. Visitation will beheldonMonday, April 14, 2025, from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm followed by a Mass of Christianburial atSt. Pius XCatholic Church,6666 SpanishFort Blvd.,New Orleans, LA.Pri‐vateburialwillbeatthe Southeast LouisianaVeter‐ans Cemetery in Slidell, Louisiana.E.J.FieldingFu‐neral Home hasbeen en‐trusted with funeral arrangements. Condo‐lencesmay be left at www ejfieldingfh.com
Duvigneaud DDS,Joseph Donald
yearsand retiredwiththe rankofLt.Commander. After completing hisactive dutyinthe Navy,Dr. Duvi‐gneaudbegan histraining inoralsurgery.His intern‐shipand residencywere completed at CharityHos‐pital of NewOrleans.He began hispracticeasan oralsurgeon in theMaison Blanche Building,where he practiced for10years.He moved hispracticeto Metairiewhere he prac‐ticed foranadditional 33 years,retiringin2005. He was an active staff mem‐ber at ENTHospital, Mercy Hospital, andEastJeffer‐son Hospital.Hewas alife‐timememberofthe New Orleans Dental Associa‐tion. He hadmembership inthe LouisianaDentalAs‐sociation,The American DentalAssociationand the Louisiana SocietyofOral Surgeons. Dr.Duvigneaud was trulya familyman Spendingquality time with his children,grandchildren and devotedwifeof66 years.Heenjoyed riding horses, motorcyclesand flying airplanes. He loved paintingwithoilsand trav‐eling with hisfamily. He was aEucharist Minister at St. Pius Xfor over 20 years. Hecherished thesemo‐ments as beingjoyfuland fulfilling. AmemorialMass willbecelebratedFriday April 11 at 11 A.M. at St PiusX Catholic Church Visitationfrom10A.M until mass time.Friends and familyare invitedto attendthe Mass. Arrange‐ments by JacobSchoen& Son FuneralHome, 3827 Canal St.New Orleans, LA Condolences maybeleftat www.schoenfh.com.
HC Alexander Schoen, Joseph
St Tammany
Audubon
Loetzerich,Alan
EJ Fielding
DiMaggio, Peter
Grinnell, Don
Morise,Mickie
Tome-Daly, Carmen West,Randall West Bank
Mothe
Knowles, Belinda
Robinson FH
Franklin Sr., Ricky
Dr. TedTyzz-Lang Chen, aluminaryinpublic health, cherished mentor,and deeply devoted family man, passed awayonApril 1, 2025, in NewYork City. He was 86. When Tedarrived in the United Statesin1964,he had 0inhis pocket. As he likedtoboast, he immediately sent 0back to his parents in Taiwan. He came to America on an academic scholarship, determinedtomakeitonhis own.
Born February 12, 1939, Tedwas fourth of 9children- 7boys, 2girls -and was named Shiro Honda during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Thanks to his parents, Chen JinTu and KuoChiung Hsiun, Ted enjoyed acarefreechildhood that allowed himto develop an easygoing nature.Withhis siblings, his days werefilledwith swimming and fishing at their Tamsui beach house or huntingand exploring their grandfather's Shilin estate.Popularamong peers and repeatedly elected tostudentleadershippositions, Ted developed alifelong passion for basketball afterguiding teammates to regional championships. A1962graduateof National Taiwan Normal University, Ted won acompetitive scholarship to pur-
Acelebrationoflife will be held at Frank E. Campbell -The Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Ave, NewYork, NY 10028, on May 3, 2025. Gathering at 1:30 pm. Memorial service at 2pmwithreception to follow. The service can be streamed online at:https:/ /memorialstream.online/d r-chen/
Family asks forRSVP at TedChenCelebration@gmai l.com.
DiMaggio, PeterJoseph
PeterJosephDiMaggio, a belovedhusband,father, grandfather,and greatgrandfather,passedaway peacefullyonMarch 29, 2025, at theage of 94. He leavesbehinda legacy of love, kindness, humor, strength, andunwavering faith.Hewillbedeeply missedbyall who knew and lovedhim.Bornon January 28, 1931, in New Orleans,Louisiana,Peter was theonlyson of Joseph DiMaggioand SarahDuca DiMaggio. Forover67 years,hewas adevoted husband to theloveofhis
Joseph Donald Duvi‐gneaudDDS,age 91, alife‐longresidentofNew Or‐leans passedawayonApril 5th,2025 surrounded by his family. He wasthe sonof Harry andPatriciaDuvi‐gneaud(Deceased)and the brothertoHarry Duvi‐gneaudJr, (deceased) Dr Duvigneaudwas theloving husband of NancyVelasco Duvigneaudfor 66 wonder‐ful years. He wasthe fa‐therofDonna Lemm Donielle Osborn,Dondra DeSalvo andJ.Don Duvi‐gneaud. He wasalsothe grandfather of Nicole LemmSpain,Hunter Lemm BrittanyArata Campo, BrookeArata,Bryce Arata, Madison DeSalvo, AllieDe‐Salvo,Ben DeSalvoand LexyDuvigneaud. Dr Duvingeaudwas agradu‐ate of Jesuit High School, class of 1951. He graduated fromLoyolaschool of Den‐tistryin1957. Aftergradu‐ating,hebegan hiscareer asa Dental Officerinthe USNavy. As aFullLieu‐tenanthepracticed gen‐eraldentistry in SanDiego California. Thefollowing yearhewas transferredto a SubmarineTenderand there completedhis active duty. He stayed in the NavalReserve forseveral
RickyB.
RickyB."GasMan" VideauFranklin, Sr.en‐tered into eternalreston April 1, 2025 at theage of 66. He wasborntothe union of thelateHelen C. and Ranell Franklin,Sr. Fromaninfanthewas lov‐ingly cherishedand raised bythe late Novairia James" andLillieRoseG Videau. He wasthe de‐voted husbandofLinda Payne Franklin for47years LovingfatherofNikkell (Trinithy), RickyJr. (Shamika),and DaMahn (Alexis)Franklin. Grandfa‐therofDeVontre',DeAn‐dre', Jadyn, Sophia,Julien, Rozne', Chrishiaya Chrishay, Chrishode, A'Mariand Anthony, and great-grandfather of R'Miyah.Brother of David (Patsy),Rodney(Elaine "Bell"), Reginald (Judy), Willie (lateWanda)and Buddy (Melissa)Franklin, SheilaWilliams, Carolyn (late Kevin) Miller,and the lateRanellJr. (lateJanice) Leo Sr., Diane, Lillie,Ronald and Donald Franklin NephewofTheodolph "Teddy"and Marcia Videau. Father-in-lawof DeWayne Parker.Brotherin-lawofMarguerite, Henry and WandaPayne,GwenP and BobbyTucker. Godfa‐therofVeronique Men‐doza, CatrinaMiller, An‐drewHicks,Jr.,and Rananek Hartley. Father figure andconfidanteof Stephanie Gary,Valencia Ann Allenand Patrick "Pete"Gibson. Also sur‐vived by ahostofnieces, nephews,cousins and friends.Ricky wasa resi‐dentofGretna(Jones Town),LA, andwas edu‐cated in JeffersonParish School System.Relatives and friendsofthe family, Pastor, Officers andMem‐bersofNew Beginnings Christian Ministry 3, Is‐raelite,Regular,Pentecost and St.AndrewBaptist Churches,and allneigh‐boringchurches arein‐vited to attend thecelebra‐tionoflifeatHousehold of Faith Church,Rev.Booker T. Collor, Jr., Pastor,712 27th St.,Gretna, LA on Monday, April 14, 2025 at 11:00 am Rev.Kenneth Parker,Sr., officiating. Visitation be‐ginsat9:00aminthe church.Interment will fol‐low at NewHopeBaptist Church Cemetery,Gretna, LA. Thefamilyextends our sincere thanks to Davita DialysisCenter-Oakwood, and to thededicated NCC UnitnursesatWestJeff Med Ctrfor theirexcellent careand compassion shown to ourloved one. Fu‐neral planning entrustedto RobinsonFamilyFuneral Home, 9611 LA-23, Belle Chasse,LA70037 (504) 2082119. Foronlinecondo‐lences,pleasevisit www
Frank F. Fugetta,Jr. passedawayathis home on Sunday, April 6, 2025, at the age of 97. He was born on March 6, 1928, in New Orleansand lived in Metairiefor the past 59 years. He wasa parishioner of St.Clementof Rome Catholic Church and wasa member of theformer Colonial Golf and Country Club. He is preceded in death by hislovingwife of 50 years, Ameron "Nona" Ledoux Fugetta,his parents, Mary Abadie Fugetta andFrank F. Fugetta, Sr andsister,Mary Fugetta Lesage.Beloved father of Cindy FugettaNolan (Dan), Terrell F. Fugetta (Cecelia) andFrank P. Fugetta (Margaret). He is also survived by 8grandchildren, Darah Fugetta Eschete (Dennis), ErinFugetta Adams (Todd), Allison Fugetta,Megan Nolan Delbert(Stephen), Whitney Nolan Peters (Brad), Molly Nolan Joubert(Stephen), AndrewP.Fugetta (Lindsay), and BradleyJ Fugetta (Hannah)and 8 great-grandchildren Isabella Adams, Todd Adams, MaxAdams, GabrielEschete, Noelle Eschete,Daniel Joubert, Olivia Joubert, andJames Joubert. Alwaysahard worker, Frank began working at 14 years old serving ice cream at the original Cloverland Dairy. He later moved on to servicinga milkroute for several years. After attendingrefrigeration school, he continued at SealtestDairy andmaintainedall theirrefrigeration andfreezer equipment. He eventually continuedinthe same capacity at Schwegmann Bros. SuperMarkets for manyyearsservicingall 10 stores. In 1974, he decided to strike outonhis own andfounded hissuccessful business, MetairieAir Conditioning, wherehe workeduntilheretired to help care for hisbeloved "Nona".Inlater years he foundgreat joyinhis constant companion, Foxy Lady, andhosting "porch visits" withhis loving and caringneighbors; an old fashionedorgreat glass of wine wasalways in play. Thefamilywould like to extenda special thanks to Dr.Kiran Zaveri andhis staff and the hospice provider, CareAssociates, for all their help and guidance.Inaddition,appreciation andgratitude are extended to Marisa Carter, Nichelle Carter, Darrionna Carter,and Ditria Harton fortheir caringsupport over thepast several weeks Relativesand friends are invited to attenda funeralservice on Monday, April 14, 2025 at Lake Lawn MetairieFuneral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd NewOrleans,LA. Visitation will be held from11AM- 1 PM witha Mass of Christian Burial to begin at 1PM. Intermentwill follow at AllSaintsMausoleum.
Little John FH Calvin III, McVea River Parish Fuller,David Vann
DavidVannFuller, age 78, passedawayonApril 4, 2025. Born in St.James Parish, he wasthe sonof the late Robert Marion Fullerand EllenGuidry Fuller. Davidwas adevoted husband,a loving father and grandfather. He is pre‐ceded in deathbyhis sis‐ters, Cornelia Fuller Cichon and Mary Fuller Shelton, and hisgranddaughter, EleanoreMarie
4B ✦ Sunday,April 13,2025 ✦ nola.com ✦ TheTimes-Picayune
ers, Robert Marion Fuller Jr (Verna),Michael Noel Fuller, andFredericRichard Fuller. TheFullerfamily would like to expresstheir heartfelt appreciation to the caregivers of Care As‐sociatesand OneTouch Sitters fortheir support and compassion in David’s finalmonths. Agraveside service will be held at HopeMausoleum on Mon‐day,April 14,2025 at 1:00 pm. Online condolences may be offeredatwww.gar denofmemoriesmetairie com.
Gremillion,Lorraine Armbruster
Lorraine Armbruster
Gremillion entered eternal union with the Lord on April 6th, 2025. She was born Lorraine Ann Armbruster to Ferdinand Henry Armbruster, Sr. and Mildred Dunn Armbruster on January 6th, 1932. She graduated from John McDonough High School in 1950, and married Edward Gremillion on August 16th, 1953. She worked as the registrar in the office at St. Mary's Dominican High School for 24 years, of which she is still fondly rememberedbymost alumni as Mrs.Gremillion. Lorraine also worked parttime in District Attorney Harry Connick,Sr's office. She was activeinher community serving various positions including president of both the GentillyWoods Garden Club and the Claiborne Elementary PTA. She was avaluedmember of the local American Business Women's Association chapter anda campaigner for local candidates such as Governor Edwin Edwards. After she retired, she enjoyed almost 30 years of cruises and overseas trips. Her greatest joys in life were her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and animals, specifically dogs. The things she was hopeful to instill in all her children was astrong work ethic and to embrace, as she did, the Christian ideal that "a life lived in service to others is not aburden, but an honor." She maintained asociable, friendly, and caring disposition to everyone she interacted with until the day she passed, and she will forever be remembered by her descendants for allthat she accomplished in her life with asmile on her face, anda prayer in her heart. She is preceded in death by her son, Michael Edward Gremillion (1959-2017), mother, father, brother Ferdinand Armbruster, Jr andher sister Mildred Brower. She is survived by her sons, Robert Gremillion (Sally) and Edward Gremillion (Brenda); daughters, Denise GSowell (Gary, deceased), Debra Squires, Donna LaCoste (Ed), and Dawn Michel; grandchildren, Stacey Gyumishev (Kaloyan), Christopher LaCoste (Jen), Kevin LaCoste (Ashley), Cameron LaCoste (Trilby), Kelsey LaCoste, Carolyn LaCoste Bagert (Hayden), Ashley Gremillion (Levi), Kyle Gremillion, Brandon Gremillion(Hilda), Cole Michel, Mark Michel, Nick Gremillion (Caitlin), Sean Gremillion (Asha) and Jen Zeringue; step-grandchildren, Matt Sowell (Shelley) and MichaelSowell; greatgrandchildren, Claiborne LaCoste, Harrison LaCoste, Hudson LaCoste, Evangeline LaCoste, Ryder LaCoste, Lyanna Marie Gremillion, Margot Bagert, Nora Lorraine Ryken, and Vivian Gremillion; and step -great-grandchildren, Ryan Sowell, Macie Sowell, Cayden Sowell, and Camryn Fletcher. The visitation and funeral mass will be on Monday, April21, 2025 at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70124.The visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m. until the mass at 12:00 p.m. The interment will follow in All Saints Mausoleum, which is on the same grounds as the funeral home. Donations may be made in Lorraine's memory to the Alzheimer's Association at www.alz.org/donate
Grinnell, DonEdward 'Don Boy'
DonEdwardGrinnell (DonBoy), alifelongresi‐dentofMandeville, passed awayon Friday,April 4, 2025. He wasbornonOcto‐ber 13,1964 to Alice RichardsonGrinnelland MelvinJosephGrinnell. He issurvivedbyhis son, Grayson T. Grinnell andhis mother, BarbaraB Grinnell; brother of Barry F. Grinnell (Lora)and Terri G. Fogarty (Rick); nephews, Barry Braden, andBrant Grinnell; ReeseFogarty andniece ReaganFogarty; andgreat nephew, BodhiGrinnell. Don wasborninCovington and livedinMandevillehis entirelife. He graduated fromMandevilleHigh, and soon went on to graduate from Southeastern Louisiana University.He was theownerofGrinnell Industries,a manufac‐turer’s representative for Industrial products.Don’s lifewas guided by hisde‐voutCatholic Faithand lovefor hisfamilyand friends.Hewillberemem‐bered by allfor hisloveof his Alma Mata,Mandeville HighSchool where he let‐tered in Football andBase‐ball. He wouldgoontobe the “Voice of theSkippers” and announcethe Football games afterhegraduated His love forthe Skippers was as deep as hislovefor the LSUFightingTigers. He willbemissedbyall who knewand lovedhim.Rela‐tives andfriends arein‐vited to attend thefuneral servicesatOur Lady of the LakeCatholicChurch,312 Lafitte Street,Mandeville, LA70448 on Monday,April 14, 2025, at 12:00 noon with visitationatchurch on Mondaybeginning at 10:00 am. Intermentwillfollowin MandevilleCemetery. E.J. FieldingFuneralHomehas been entrustedwithfu‐neral arrangements.The Grinnellfamilyinvites you toshare thoughts,fondest memories, andcondo‐lencesonlineatE.J.Field‐ing FuneralHome Guest Book at www.ejfieldingfh com
JamesJ.Hartman of Metairie, LA passedaway onApril 7, 2025. He is sur‐vived by hiswife, Dolores. Healsoleavesbehindtwo daughters,Janeand Cathy; 3 grandchildren: Melanie (Roman),John(Christine) and Sam; and5 great grandchildren:Kaitlyn Conner, Kaleb, Kohenand Dylan.Heisalsosurvived by2 of his10siblings, Eleanor andAlbert. His parents were thelate Henry andHenrietta Hart‐man.James andDolores wereabletocelebrate 72 years of marriage to‐gether, as well as James’ 94thbirthdaybeforehe wenttomeet hissavior, Jesus Christ.James started his ownbusiness, Hartman Frigeration,which enabled him to expand hisconstant curiosity formechanical functions. Jameswas the familyrepairman,always helping anyone to fixany‐thing.Hewould notlet any challenge getthe best of him.James wasa U.S. Ma‐rineand fought in theKo‐reanWar.Hewas awarded several medals,and en‐dured many wounded war‐riormoments in battle. He had thehonor of First Watch during thesurren‐der of North Koreatothe U.S.After histenureinthe war,hebecamea drill sergeantfor theremainder ofhis service. Jameswas a memberofthe VFW,Amer‐icanLegionand theMarine Corps League.Hewas very proud to servehis country. Familyand friendsare in‐vited to attend theservice atthe Garden of Memories FuneralHome& Cemetery, 4900 AirlineDrive,Metairie, LA70001 on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. Visitation will be from10:30 am to 1:00 pm, followedbya chaplain’s service andspeakersat 1:00pm, anda burial with Militaryhonorstofollow. Toorder flowersoroffer condolences, please visit
Hemsteter, Kevin Army Veteran, 1976 Brother Martin graduate. Attended UNO. Employee of Stennis Space Center. LovedLiterature, music and art.Studied Taekwondo. Belovedbrother of brothers Keith and Kerry Hemsteter and sister Janice Zumwalt Burial April16th. 12:30 pm Southeast La Veterans Cemetery in Slidell,La.
Houghtaling,Bruce Hannum
Bruce Hannum
Houghtaling, educator and privateschooladministrator, died on Saturday, April 5athis home in Lancaster PA with his wife and son by his side. Bruce, age73, was bornApril 24, 1951 in Newburgh, NY to EarleH Houghtaling, Jr. Esq. and Fay Ann Deyo Houghtaling Williamson and was the first of five children. He was agraduateofKent School in Connecticut and earneda B.A. in History from Monmouth College and aM.Ed. from the University of NewOrleans. Hisover half-century career in education included administrativepositions at St. Martin's Episcopal School in Metairie,LA, St Andrew's EpiscopalSchool in Ridgeland,MSand SewickleyAcademy in Sewickley, PA, where generations of studentsbenefitedfrom his humor, empathy, and steadfast commitment to their success, bothinside and outside the classroom.
In 1971, Bruce married Susan Shelton of Middletown, NJ,a fellow educator, and together they lovingly raised their onlychild, Edward (Ted). After Susan'sdeathin 2010, Bruce retired to his childhood home in Walden, NY where he became SeniorWarden of St Andrews Church, avolunteer forMeals on Wheels, a contributing writer for the Wallkill Valley Times and an activemember of the WaldenHistoricalSociety.
In 2014, Bruce married Nancy PostMitchell, re-igniting aflame first litin gradeschool. Bruce and Nancy moved to Lancaster, PA in 2019 where his engaging personality, generosity, compassion, and delight in sharing stories was evident in his volunteer workfor Hospiceand Community Care,his speaking engagementsat local community organizations, and theweeklyice cream social and history lecture series he hosted at anearbyassistedliving facility Bruce had adeeplove forBroadway musicals, American history,trains, classicautomobiles, and theNew York Yankees. He was also alongtime supporter of theGoshen Historic Track and the Holland SocietyofNew York. Bruce is survived by his wife Nancy Post Mitchell Houghtaling, sonEdward Shelton Houghtaling (Kim), mother Fay Ann Deyo Houghtaling Williamson, siblingsAnn Bartram Houghtaling Sinclair, John Bartram Houghtaling (Fran), PeterDeyo Houghtaling,and Kathryn NorrisHoughtaling (Sean). He is also survivedby stepchildren Amy Mitchell Pooley (Dave) and Thomas Mitchell (Sahalie) Afamily gathering will take place in NewYorkata laterdate. In lieu of flowers, donations can be madeinBruce'smemory to theBruce and Susan Houghtaling Scholarship Fund at Sewickley Academy -https://www.se wickley.org/giving/make-a -gift. To leaveanonline condolence, visit SnyderFuneralHome.com
Roger("Mr. Larry")
Norman Lawrence Jaubert, age76, of Destrehan, Louisiana, passed away on April3,2025. Larry was born on November 23, 1948 in NewOrleans, to Roger Norman and Marie Eleanor Jaubert (Hezeau). He was theoldest of five children (Kathleen, Patsie, Steven, and Janis) and had amodest upbringing.Hegraduated fromJohn McDonogh SeniorHighin1967, while working various part-time jobs. He then enrolledat DelgadoCommunity Collegeand received an AssociateDegree in Business Administrationin 1969. Larry decidedtofurther his studiesbyenrolling at LSU, and after completing one semester, was drafted intothe US Navy where he proudly served his country during Vietnam as ahighly skilled member of its ConstructionBattalion, "Seabees", fromwhich he was honorably discharged in August 1971. He continued his studies at Loyola University, where he earneda BS in Business Administrationin1973, whileworking fulltime as apharmacymanager and eventually working at the LA DepartmentofLabor, where he rose to asupervisoryrole. After experiencing his own personal IRS audit, Larry realized he could helppeoplewho were not versed in tax laws. He took abig chance by starting asmall business with his wife, Alma. Aptly named Larry's Income Tax, it became his passionand fulfilled his life until theend.After 42 years in business, Larry leavesbehinda legacy of servicing the City of Kennerwithhis vast knowledge and wisdomas one of themostwellknown and respected Enrolled Agents (a designationshowing deep knowledge of taxlaw) in thearea. Larry was the loving husband of Alma (Evelyn) Henriquez Jaubert for41years and the belovedfather of their two sons, Carlos(wife Judy), Ryan, and daughter, Michelle. He is survived by his loving wife, his three children, twograndsons Blake (Madison)and Zachary, twogreat-granddaughters, Teresaand Felicity,aswellashis siblings, nieces, and nephews He was along-time parishionerand adorer at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, in additiontoattending Mass in several neighboring parishes. He had azeal for learning, having twograduatedegrees(an MBA in 1978 and an MS in Tax in 2018, both from UNO),and furthering his faith as adevout Catholic, he was pursuing athird Master's degree,in Pastoral Studies, from LoyolaUniversity, as he wished to helpwithreligious studies in his parish. He wouldoften say, "ifyou were not constantly learning something new, you were not truly living out life". When he was not turning dreams intoreality, Larryenjoyed gardening and growing seasonal vegetables, readingand watching science-fiction (in particular, Stephen King), being aTrekkie, relaxing with family and friends, and spending time with hisfur-girls Mia, Mielita (Lita), and Ciara. The family thanksthe staff at Ochsner, theVAhospital, and DaVitaChateau for providing care and overseeinghis healththroughout his life.Relativesand friends are invitedtoattend theVisitation and Mass at Lake Lawn Funeral Home,5100 Pontchartrain Blvd, NewOrleans, LA 70124, on Wednesday,April 16, 2025. Visitation willbe 11:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. followedbya Mass at 1:00 p.m. with Navy Veteran honors. In lieu of flowers, please donatetoCatholic CharitiesofN.O.,St. Jude Children's Hospital, The Vietnam VetsofAmerica, or any charity of your choice.
Irma A. Jimenez,age 94, passed away on Friday, April 4, 2025. Irma was precededindeathbyher parents, Antonio Jimenez and Trinidad AragonJimenez hersister,Carmelita Jimenez Villarand son-inlaw Michael Posey. Sheis survived by herthree daughters, Juanita Briceno Perriott, son-in-law Leopold Perriott, Delty Briceno Posey, andDana Jimenez Briceno,son-inlaw Nicholas Briceno,her twosons, Norman Briceno, daughter-in-law Eva SantanaBriceno and Eldo Briceno;her brother, Melquiades Jimenez,sister -in-law AdelaJimenezher eleven grandchildren, Miguel Urbina, David Morales, Irma Briceno, FelipaBriceno Leiva, Shyanna Batres,Xaniera Batres,Amanda Posey, Zoe Briceno,ChloeBriceno Rohjani Perriott, and Tremett Perriott, herseventeen great-grandchildren,Mikey, Naim, Saul, Isabel, Fallon,Zarifah GianCarlo, Juliannie, Tasneem, Jannah,Ayah Lena,Musa, Aubrey Carissa, Esmirna, and Stephen;and herextended family, Carol Wise, Julie Wise Oreck, Richard and Carmen Wise,Kevin Wilkinsand GinnyWise, Zoe,Sophie, Jonathan, Benjamin, Zachary, Marlo. Numerous nieces, nephewsand relatives. Irma wasborninOrange Walk Town,Belizeon December 1, 1930. Shehad avibrantspirit anda heart full of passion for life's simple joys. Atruelover of thekitchen, she found immense joyincooking, always ready to share adelicioushomemade meal with familyand friends. Sheloved nothingmore than tendingtoher plants andstepping outside to cutfresh mint for her homemade iced tea. Sundays were for cheering on herbeloved New OrleansSaintssurrounded by herfamilyduringfootballseason.Her nights were spent engrossed in thelatesttelenovela, and gettingcaughtupinthe excitementofeach episode.Lastly, Mardi Gras wasa favorite time of the year, andshe neverpassed up achance to attend the parades. The familywould like to extendtheir heartfelt gratitude to Mrs. Carol Wise and familyfor the love,care, andcompassion they so generouslygave to Irma. Relativesand friends are invited to attendthe Funeral Mass in thechapel of Lake LawnMetairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd.inNew Orleans, on Monday, April 14, 2025, at 3:00PM. Avisitationwillbeheldatthe funeral home beginning at 2:00PM.Inhonor of Irma's memory,wekindly ask that everyonewearshades of Blue herfavorite color. In lieu of flowers, please considera donation in Irma's memory to theNew OrleansCulinaryand Hospitality Institute, www.nochi.org.Toview andsignthe online guest book, please visit www.lak elawnmetairie.com
Karcher, Ronald Louis
Jesuit High School and Loyola University of New Orleans, wherehewas a member of Beggars fraternity, Ronnielived alife deeply rooted in theJesuit valuesthatshaped hisformation.These principles guided notonlyhis personal relationships, butalso hisprofessional and civic endeavors. He washonored to serve in the United States AirForce andAir NationalGuard from 1951 through1962. He went on to foundand operate Ronald L. Karcher Construction Company, whichheled for over 50 years. Ronnie'scivic and philanthropic engagement wasa testament to alifeof service.Hewas alongtime and passionate supporter of theFore!Kids Foundation,producerof theZurichClassic PGA Golf TournamentinNew Orleans. He held numerous committeeand leadership roleswith theFoundation, culminating in hisgreatest honor andjoy in serving as theGeneral Chairmanof the2008 ZurichClassic. Alongtime memberof MetairieCountry Club, Ronnieservedonthe Board of Directorsand as Secretary. He also served on theFriends of CityPark Golf Tournament Committee and supported publicbroadcasting throughWLAE-TV and WYES-TV.Heheld multiple rolesfor thesefundraising efforts, including chairing thepopular Live "OnAir" WLAE auction for several years. Ronniewas an active member of numerous localorganizations, includingthe Willwoods Foundation andthe alumni associationsofboth Jesuit andLoyola. Ronnie'sCatholic faith wascentral to his life. He wasdeeply involvedinthe Catholic Charities Association,serving as a boardmember and holding leadership positions including President. He was honored with membership in theEquestrian Orderof theHoly Sepulchreof Jerusalem and theSt. Elizabeth's Guild 2003 VolunteerActivists Award Ronniewill be rememberednot only for his unwaveringdevotion to his family, Catholic faithand city, butalso forthe joyhe foundinsharingfavorite stories,cheering for his belovedNew Orleans Saints, hisquick andeasy laugh andmost of all,beingsurroundedbyfriends andfamilywith wife and best friendSandraathis side. Sandraand thefamily wish to thankthe many skilledand devotedprofessionals whohave caredfor Ronniethroughout the years, including Dr.Sid Bhansali, Dr.Clement Eiswirth, Dr.Sammy Khatib, Dr.Sarah Lee, Dr Robert Milesand caregiver Shawanda Howard. Relativesand friends are invited to attenda funeralservice on Monday, April 14, 2025 at St CatherineofSiena Catholic Church,105 Bonnabel Blvd Metairie, LA. Visitation will be held from 10:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m. with aMass of Christian Burial to be celebrated at 12:00 p.m. Private interment will follow Thefamilysuggests donations in Ronnie'smemory to Jesuit High School NewOrleans,4133 Banks St.New Orleans, LA 70119; the Fore!Kids Foundation, 11005 Lapalco Blvd Avondale, LA 70094; or St Jude Children'sResearch Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Pl.Memphis, TN 38105.
A.M.D.G.
Ronald Louis Karcher devotedhusband, father, andgrandfather,generous communityactivist and business owner, passed away peacefullyonApril 3, 2025, at the age of 88. Born December 3, 1936, in New Orleans, Ronnieleaves behind alegacydefinedby faith, service,and dedication to hisbeloved city and itsinstitutions. He wasprecededin death by his parents, Louis F. Karcher andAlma BourgeoisKarcher,and his brother, Gerald D. Karcher He is survived by hisloving wife of 64 years, Sandra Boulion Karcher,his two children, Brian Karcher (Liz) and Stephanie Karcher Newell(Will), as well as four cherished grandchildren: Ellie Karcher,David Karcher, William Newell(Nicolette), and AndrewNewell. Aproud graduate of
BelindaSmith Knowles passedawayonTuesday April 8, 2025 at theage of 86. Belovedwifeofthe late WilliamO.Knowles,Sr. LovingmotherofWilliam “Bill”O.Knowles,Jr.,Ken‐nethM.Knowles (Laurie) and ChristopherD Knowles.Daughterofthe lateIsabell Smithand Her‐schel Smith, Sr.Sisterof Larry Smith, Sherry Kraus and thelateHerschel Smith,Jr. andJames Smith. Grandmother of WilliamO Knowles III, Kristyn K. Dadlez, AlexandraO Knowles,Elizabeth K. Cow‐art,CarolineK.Landryand KennedieKnowles.Great Grandmother of Eleanor “Nora”, Theodore “Teddy”, Oliver, Jamesand Christo‐pher. Shewillbedearly missedbyAngelaKnowles Whiteand Mara Hauser Belinda wasa native of San Antonio, Texasand alife‐
long resident of Algiers, Louisiana.Belinda partici‐pated as avolunteer fundraiser forJoEllen Smith andMeadowcrest Hospitals,Women’s Auxil‐iaries, Longue VueGardens and Chef’s CharityatSt. Michael’s School.Belinda later enrolled at NewOr‐leans AcademyofFineArts where shespent countless years painting andstudy‐ing underthe directionof AuseklisOzols andmany other mentorsand friends whomshe loveddearly. She will be greatlymissed byher familyand friends. Relatives andfriends of the familyare invitedtoattend the Visitation at Holy Name ofMaryCatholicChurch, 500 ElizaStreet, Algiers, LA onMonday, April14, 2025 from9 am until11am. A Funeral Mass will be held atHolyNameofMary Catholic Church on Mon‐day at 11 am.Interment willbeinWestlawnMemo‐rialParkCemetery, Gretna, Louisiana.Mothe Funeral Homeisassisting thefam‐ily during this difficult time. Thefamilyinvites you to shareyour thoughts, fond memories and condolencesonlineat www.mothefunerals.com
Mary Mariakis
Kouloubis was born on February 23, 1927 in New Orleans, Louisiana on the secondfloor of the Napoleon House. She passed away on April5 2025 at her home in New Orleans. She was the daughter of Catherine Nenos of Lavrion, Greece and Theodore Mustakasof Greece, later adopted by Nicholas Constantine Mariakis of Alexandria, Egypt. Mary was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, John F. Kouloubis; her siblings, George Mustakas, Ernestine Mariakis Ruiz, Helen Mariakis Hagan, John Mariakis, Andrew Mariakis, Gus Mariakis; her grandson, John Mailhes; and her Aunts and Uncles, Tony, Mildred, and Gus. She is survived by daughters, Konstantina "Tina" Kouloubis Mailhes (Kraig), Katherine Kouloubis Williamson (Adrian), and Eleni "Helen" Kouloubis Myers (Charles Buff); son, Frank John Kouloubis(significant other, Darlene Clausing); grandchildren, Adrian Williamson IV (Emily), Jonathan KouloubisWilliamson (fiancée, Emily Ray), Alexander "Alex" Mailhes, Stephen Mailhes; and numerous nieces and nephews. After she was born, Mary initially livedat Napoleon Houseon Dumaine. At age 20 her family moved to Royal Street. Mary attended Colton Grade School and graduated from Nicholls High School. After high school, she attended Spencer Night School and began working as atypist and receptionist at several New Orleans law firms, one being Deutsch, Kerrigan, and Styles, and she was recognized as one of New Orleans most beautiful employed women. Mary was very athletic, outgoing, and attractive. At age 10 she had asmall part in the "Our Gang Comedy" movie. She enjoyed outdoor activities and excelled at Track and Field competitions. At age 20 she won Miss New Orleans for the New Orleans Athletic Club. In 1950 she won another local Beauty contest. She was very popular at parties and she loved to dance. Her early social life revolved around a"Working Girls Sorority" (Social club). This is where she met people and went to dances at the Roosevelt Hotel in the Blue Room,she especially loved dancingto Dean Martin. She also enjoyed going to the Sazerac Room. In 1953 she met the love of her life, John Kouloubis, who was in the Greek Air Force and was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi for radar training. They began attending church together at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New Orleans on N. Dorgenois St., where they were married on October31, 1953. The family grewwith the birth of Konstantina in 1960, Katherine in 1961, Helen in 1963, and Frankie in 1965. In 1977, they moved to Metairie from New Orleans and were members of the
PontchartrainShores Civic Association, and they won garden of the month numerous times with Baba's help in gardening. John andMaryhad abusy and enjoyable life together. Theywereveryactivein the Greek church where she was amemberof LadiesofPhiloptochos and Daughters of Penelope. She was also anactive memberofHolyRosary Grammar School where she was amember of the PTA and involved in many festivalsatthe school.She was involved in the local Greek Festivals, whereshe conducted tours of the church. They enjoyed entertaining theirmany friends and familyintheir home; she learned to cook many delicious Greek foods and desserts (especially baklava)inGreece, whichweremade at many Name Daypartiesattheir houseintheir extended den. She went to Lynda's Beauty Parlor every Friday, and afterwards she would bring her children to see herbeloved mother on RoyalSt. Sheloved shopping with her daughter, Helen, at Gus Mayer's, Lillie Rubin, and Dillard's and going to Sakswithher daughter, Kathy,and always told her daughters to put their lipstick on. She loved helpingher daughter, Konstantina,withcaring for hergrandchildren in Metairie and she greatly enjoyed hermanyvisitsto Arkansas to see her other grandchildren. She traveled withher husband Johnny, many summers to Greece while others watchedhis TV business. Sheadoredher onlyson, Frank, who wouldalsodo anythingfor his lovely mother and loved herdearly.Maryloved her family and she was instrumental in raising their children withangelic love. Mary was the bedrock of support for her husband and her childrenthroughout their lives. Shelovedchildrenand was abeloved "Yiayia" to hergrandchildrenand any child thatshe encountered. Friends and family were the most important aspects of her life Shenever met astranger and she livedlifetothe fullest and always with a smileand dressed elegantly. While she will be missed,MaryKouloubis leaves us with alifetime of wonderful memoriesand an irreplaceablelegacy of beauty, love, and compassion. Family and friends are invitedtoattend visitation, Thursday,April24, 2025,atLake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100PontchartrainBlvd. New Orleans,LAfrom10:00 am until 12:00pm. At 12:30pm there will be afuneral service heldatHoly TrinityGreek Orthodox Cathedral,1200Robert E. Lee Blvd. New Orleans, LA Entombment will follow at in St. LouisCemeteryNo. 3, New Orleans, LA. After the entombment,there will be aMakariaback at the Holy TrinityGreekOrthodox Cathedral.Inlieuofflowers, donations may be made to Holy Trinity Greek OrthodoxCathedral.An online guestbook is availableatwww.lakelawnmet airie.com.
Loetzerich,AlanMichael
Alan MichaelLoetzerich, ofSlidell,Louisiana, passedawayonMarch 4, 2025, at theage of 75.He was anativeofNew Or‐leans,Louisiana,bornon August21, 1949. Alan was the cherishedson of the lateCharles andThelma Loetzerich. He is the beloved father of Taylor McIntyreand wasa loving brother to hislatesiblings, Marlene L. McCarthy and Charles W. Loetzerich III. Heissurvivedbyhis sister Linda L. Munroe,who will continue to cherish the memoriestheysharedand iskeeping Alan’s retriever, Pup,safe and healthysince Alan’spassing.His niece, Paige McCarthy,willal‐waysrememberher uncle's guidance andthe joy he broughttofamily gatherings. Alan attended Frances T. NichollsHigh School.His career in seafood saleswas more thanjusta job; it wasa re‐flection of hislovefor the Gulfand itsbounties. An avid fisherman, he could often be found on thetran‐quilwatersofLouisiana rod in hand,waiting forthe nextbig catch. He wasa familiarfacetomany, known forhis warm smile and thegenuine interest hetookinthe livesofhis customers andcolleagues. Musicwas anotherof
Alan’s passions,providing a soundtracktohis life's mostsignificant moments. Those who knew Alan will rememberhim as aman who livedwithhis hearton his sleeve. Hispresence could lightupa room,and his laughter wasinfec‐tious.Hewas afriendto many, always readywitha helping hand or alistening ear.Alanwillbegreatly missedbyall who knew and lovedhim.A celebra‐tionofAlan’slifewillbe scheduled at alater date Memoriesand condo‐lencesmay be expressed atwww.AudubonFuneralH ome.com
Rosemary Latuso McCoy,age 93, passed awayonSaturday, April5, 2025. Shewas born on De‐cember12, 1931, andwas a long-time resident of Ken‐ner,LA. In earlieryears Rosemaryloved beinga busystay-at-home wife/mother.Onceher chil‐drenweregrown, she workedfor many yearsas a secretaryfor St Lawrencethe Martyr Catholic Church.She also servedasanExtraordinary MinisterofHolyCommu‐nion. Herloves were her family, decorating,shop‐ping, andher Dominican HighSchool education. She issurvivedbyher children Darlene McCoyStokan (Joe) of Lawrenceville, GA and MichaelJ.McCoy (Teri) ofBaton Rouge, LA;her daughter-in-law,Vicki Ross McCoy,her brother, Clay‐ton J. Edrington(Marilyn) her sister-in-law, Sister Alice McCoy, hergrandchil‐drenKristyMcCoy Ganucheau (Brett),James McCoy (Catherine), Joseph Stokan(Katherine),Kelly McCoy Michalove(David), JenniferMcCoy,Sean Jensen(Catherine),and HayleyJensen, 9great grandchildren andnumer‐ous nieces andnephews She wasprecededindeath byher late husband, ThomasF.McCoy,Jr.,her son,Dr. Thomas F. McCoy, III, andher parents, Jack and Ruth Edrington. Rela‐tives andfriends arein‐vited to attend aMemorial Massat12noon on Wednesday,April 16, 2025 atSt. AnnCatholicChurch and Shrine,3601 Transcon‐tinentalDr.,Metairie, LA 70006. Visitation will be heldatSt. AnnChurch from11:00 a.m. -12noon beforethe Mass. Interment inCypress GroveCeme‐tery, NewOrleans,LA. Arrangementsentrusted to L.A.Muhleisen &Son Fu‐neral Home.Toshare mem‐ories or condolences, pleasevisit www muhleisen.com.
Mickie Morise,age 81, of Mandeville, Louisiana, passedawayonWednes‐day,April 2, 2025. Shewas bornonDecember10, 1943, inNew Orleans, Louisiana. She is survived by herchil‐dren, DamonMorise (Wendy),MarkMorise (Joann),and Ashley Morise Khashou (Jack);grandchil‐dren, Sage,Mason,Can‐non,Taylor, Morgan,Madi‐son,Keira,and Jacob; great-grandchildren,Beck‐ham andNoa;and stepgrandchildren,Cody, Alexandra,Ashley, and Amy,and step-greatgrandchild, Elliot.She was precededindeath by her lovinghusband of 59 years, EugeneGerardMorise; her parents,JohnJosephMar‐sigliaand JosephineMary Pisciotta Marsiglia; and her brother, John Mar‐siglia. Mickie Morise was known forher warm,faith‐ful andplayful personality. Her down-to-earth andcar‐ing dispositionmade everyonefeel welcometo share theirown story. She led alifeoflovewhich was evident in theway she reminiscedabout herown stories. Most notably, she
lovedtotalkabout the crazylove” sheshared withher husband Gene and thejoy in raisingtheir childrenand grandchil‐dren. Mickie taught others tolovebyher ownexam‐ple,and shewillbedearly missedbyanyonewho was lucky to know her. In lieu of flowers, contributionsin memoryofMrs.Morise may be made to St.Jude Children’sResearchHospi‐tal at stjude.org/donate. A private memorial mass was held at E. J. Fielding FuneralHome, 2260 West 21st Avenue,Covington, Louisiana,and interment was in PinecrestMemorial Gardens.E.J.FieldingFu‐neral Home of Covington, Louisiana,ishonored to be entrusted with Mrs. Morise’sfuneral arrange‐ments.Her familyinvites you to sharethoughts, memories, andcondo‐lencesbysigning an online guestbook at www.ejfield ingfh.com
René St.Pierre Peytral passed away on August 18, 2024 at theage of 69. Abeloved father, son, brother and neighbor, René was theepitome of selflessness, hard work, and caring for others. His absence is deeply felt.
René loveda good laugh, food, and music. He lovedbeing outside,enjoying nature'sbeauty. He was proud of his roots, being bornand raised in New Orleans. He appreciated thefriendshipshegained while working and laterliving on the North Shore Aman of many skills, René was alongtime towboat captain and proud to laterbecomeanowner of PRJContracting, Inc. He appreciated hismentors, colleagues and customers and was proud to serveon aboard of his peers, other professional certifiedoperatorsinthe water and wastewater industry.
René is survivedbyhis mother, MarjorieKelly Peytral; his children, Erin Peytraland Justin Peytral; and hissisters, Elise Peytraland Denise Peytral France.
He was preceded in death by his father, Jules F. Peytral, III. Family and friendswill honorhim April 19 at The FoundationCenter at Lafreniere Park from11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Joseph Donald Schoen passedawayonApril 2nd. Hewas born in Brooklyn, NYin1939 andspent most ofhis youthinConnecticut Hegraduated from Meri‐den High School andthe UniversityofConnecticut Hewould go on to marry his High School sweetheart RosemaryMcNulty 66 years ago. He leaves be‐hind2 sons,Lee Schoen of Baton Rouge, LA and HaroldSchoen(Donna)of Tampa,FL, 2grandchildren NicoleSchoenofTampa,FL and JacobSchoen(Devin) and greatgrandsonEllias ofLakeland, FL.Joe also leaveshis sister,Barbara Arens-Werle,VeroBeach, FLand sister andbrotherin-law, Joanne andKen UliaszofGlastonbury,CT along with numerous niecesand nephews. Joe was preceded in deathby his parents, Ed andMae Schoenand hissisterMar‐garet Morrow.His family lived many yearsinupper New York statewhere Joe was quiteactiveinJaycees and wasa NewYorkState Jayceesenator.Healso servedaspresident of the Auburn, NY school board. Hemoved to Louisiana47 years agoand embraced the southern attitude.He workedasa contractor, traveling theU.S.and the Caribbean.Joe lovedto fish andwas an ardent fan ofthe Pelicans andthe Saints, beinga season ticketholderfor many years.Joe wasquite asto‐rytellerand lovedtomeet new people.Hewillbe missedbymany. Private
services will be held at a later date
Scobey-Duhon, Nancy Lyon
NancyLyonScobeyDuhonpassedawaypeace‐fully at St Joseph Hospice inRiver Ridge, Louisiana, onApril 1, 2025, after a short bout with cancer She was75years of age. Nancy wasbornonSep‐tember19, 1949, in Detroit, Michigan, to thelateHelen LyonEdwards andEarl LyonJr. Shewas adevoted wifetoMichael Steven DuhonSr, alovingmother toJacquelyn Renee Scobey, Jonathan Robert Scobey, Jeremy Edward Scobey, andMichael StevenDuhon Jr.(Re‐becca), alovinggrand‐mothertoMadison Renee Scobey, Marlee Rayne Scobey, HannaDuhon, and Gabriel Duhon(Quynh) and adoringgreat grand‐mothertoAva Kain.Nancy was preceded in deathby her mother,Helen Lyon Ed‐wards,father, Earl Lyon,Jr. sister, RobinAlice Ed‐wards,granddaughter AmandaDuhon,and brother-in-law, Leonard Jamison Lyon (Linda). Nancy is survived by her older sister LindaJoy Lyon, niece LindsayJoy Lyon Alt and husbandFredAlt,and three children,Jack, Anna, and Nora,aswellas nephewRichard Jason Lyon. Nancywas born in Detroit,Michigan, and grewupinWarren, Michi‐gan,attending Fitzgerald HighSchool throughher Junioryear. Shemoved to Gaylord,Michigan, forher senioryearand graduated fromGaylord High School class of 1967. Afterhigh school,she marriedDou‐glasJon Scobey (de‐ceased),moved to Kalka‐ska,Michigan, andhad three children,Jono, Jacque, andJeremy, who she lovedwithall of her heart.In1976, Nancy, Doug and thethree kids moved toLafayette,Louisiana,to start thenextchapter of their lives. In Lafayette, Nancy worked forthe Uni‐versity of Southwest Louisiana USL- theRagin Cajuns. Afterher time at USL,she beganher career inthe oiland gasindustry asa minerallease analyst for EdwinL.Cox.In1987, she relocatedtoMetairie, Louisiana,toworkfor C.T. CardenOil andGas and LlogExploration.Nancy eventuallyconcluded her career at BlackStone Min‐erals andHilcorp in Hous‐ton,Texas as an indepen‐dentoil andgas consul‐tant. Shewas ahighlyre‐spected professional in her field, dedicating nearly 50 years to theoil andgas in‐dustry. Nancywas ade‐voted andlovingwifeto Michael Steven DuhonSr. Theymet on ablinddatein 1990 andhavebeen to‐gethereversince.Nancy loved herfamilyand en‐joyed celebratingbirthdays and holidays with them Nancy will be greatly missedbyher familyand all who hadthe privilege of knowing her. Herkind heart andlovefor herfam‐ily andfriends will always berememberedbythose lucky enough to know her. A gravesideservice will takeplace at AllSaints Mausoleum in Metairie Cemetery, 5100 Pontchar‐train Blvd., NewOrleans, Louisiana,onTuesday, April 15, 2025, at 2:30 pm
Shushan, Sylvia Stone
Sylvia StoneShushan passedawayonApril 6, 2025, at theage of 107. She was astrongand beautiful personwho raised two daughters on herown after she waswidowed at the age of 42. Shemarried Shepard Shushanin1948 and hada wonderfulmar‐riage with himfor 14 years. Shepwas aNew Orleans nativewho knew therewas nobetterplace to live in the world. Andonceinthe city, Sylvia agreed.Sylvia built theirdream home up‐townwhere they enter‐tainedtheir close-knit group of friendsand fam‐ily.Following Shep’s death, Sylviabecamethe bridal coordinator forMaison Blanche on CanalStreet for manyyears.She loved working with brides and their mothersand to this day womensay “Mrs Shushanmarried me.” She was also an active member ofthe FashionGroup.After MaisonBlanche closed Sylviaworkedasthe bridal coordinator at GusMayer She next worked at Ruffles women’s clothing storein UptownSquareand then for many yearsatBritish AntiquesonMagazine Street,retiringat92. She madelifelongfriends wherevershe was. She was on a first-name basis withevery merchant and antique dealer in the FrenchQuarter andloved jazzmusic andNew Or‐leans culture. Oneofthe parties shehostedfor her friends wasa production ofOne Mo’Timeatthe ToulouseTheatre.Always elegant,Sylvianever skimped on clothes, al‐thoughshe savedS&H Green Stamps andclipped coupons religiously. Sheis survivedbyher daughters, ElleShushan of Philadel‐phiaand Sally Shushanof New Orleans. Services will beprivate.Inlieuof flow‐ers,a donation to your fa‐voritecharity is appreci‐ated. Specialthankstoand gratitude to thecaregiver group who were so kind to Sylviafor many years: KwanNicholas, CarolAddi‐son,Deborah Williams,Kim Nicholas-Junior,Anika Wil‐son,and MirandaPerril‐loux, as well as AnvoiHos‐piceand Charlotte Bouthilette
Carmen Tome-Daly, after alongjourney with Alzheimer's,she passed awaypeacefullywithanin‐crediblesmile left on her face, on abeautiful spring night March19, 2025, sur‐rounded by herfamilyin Covington.She was92 years old. Herpersonalre‐lationshipwithJesus has given hereternal life.Car‐men is survived by her daughterAngelaDalyFecke,son-in-lawThomas, and heronlyadoring granddaughter Chloe Fecke.She wasprecededin death by herhusband RonaldJ.Dalyof56years her parents, Estanislao Tomeand Dolores QuinonezdeTome. Hersib‐lings,Caya, Mina,Delores Argentina,Consuelo, Lalo, Mariano andCarlos. Dearly loved by many nieces and nephews.And herlong‐time, endearingfriend Maria Escarraof60years Carmencametothe United StatesfromHondurasin the mid1950’sand made her newhomeinNew Or‐leans.She spenther early years of work at an oil& explorationcompany in
The new session of the Louisiana Legislature, which begins Monday and runs through June 12, is likely to be less dramatic than the four regularand special sessions of 2024, which saw newly elected Gov.Jeff Landry push for and in many cases get huge changes on multiple fronts, from elections to education, from taxation to crime and punishment.
Landry’sagenda is less sweeping this time around,and while the session promises more of the usual political and culturewar showdowns, we think the Legislature’s most important business will center on the work of divvying up finite resources among needs that can feel infinite.
Lawmakers averted the fiscal cliff that had been looming in 2025, but that doesn’tmean the coffers are flush. Landry has proposed a standstill budget amid much uncertaintyout of Washington, where the DOGE process will meancuts in health care and other programs and where the budget process now underway could well lead to afurther drop in federal funding, the extent of which might not be known until after lawmakers are required to adopt abudget.
Complicating matters was the voters’ sound rejection last month of the overly complicated Amendment 2, which would have freed up some money now dedicated to specific funds.
Legislators will be looking toreplace the $2,000 stipend teachershave gotten in recent years, which was one of the failed amendment’sselling points. Alikely casualty is Landry’s private school voucher program, which he’d hoped to rampupthis spring but which is getting legislative pushback. We hope lawmakers focus on public schools first;the state’steachers have done theirpart tohelp improve outcomes in recent years and deserve fair pay
And as lawmakers propose measures they believe will reduce Louisiana’shigh auto insurance rates, we hope they remain focused on the real existential crisis in our state: property insurance costs so high that they threaten people’sability to buy homes or stay in the ones they already own. To thatend,weurge expansion of efforts to help homeowners install fortified roofs, which are proven toreduce exposure to wind damage.
We don’tknow yet whether we’ll see at hit to Medicaid, but we’re gladtohear that Senate President Cameron Henry is urging his friend Steve Scalise, the U.S. House majority leader, and his colleagues to spread any federal cuts over time so that states can plan, and tonot eliminate fundingwithout addressing the problems the funding is intended to solve. We hope they get the message.
Paying to fix the state’svast infrastructure needs is an ongoing challenge, and so far we like what we hear about alegislative effort to reorganize the Department of Transportation and Development so that it’smore efficient andtransparent. At the Public Affairs Research Council’sannual meeting last week, several lawmakers suggested that thiscould build enough public confidence in the agency to eventually bring in long-needed dedicated funding, whether in the form of an increase to Louisiana’slow gas tax or some other source. In general, we think that thisidea of rebuilding trust among constituentsisagood move after the voters, in rejecting all four amendments on the March 29 ballot,made it clear they think Landry andthe Legislature had been trying to do too much, too fast, with too little explanation. We hope legislators also took away from the defeat that their constituents want them to support the governor when he’s right but speak up when he’snot After all, the Legislature is acoequal branch of government. This session, we look forward to watchinglawmakers use the power vested in them wisely
Out with theselfie-sticks. Not that long ago, touristswereslowing down foot traffic in D.C., stopping to take pictures. This year,for cherry-blossom season in the nation’scapital, tourists weresoserious about their vacations thattheywereusing actual cameras instead of theirphones. As Itriedto maneuver between meetings in my usual lastminutestyle, thechange was unmistakable. Iwondered if it had something moretodowithnostalgia, or perhaps even an attempt at aLenten fast from excessive screen time. Trytowait out the crowds,and thecherry blossoms will be gone. Igot to D.C. for afew events during what was still the peak timefor the bloom, and by that evening heavy rain had done them in —creating showersofpink around the Tidal Basin. Time is short.You have afew mornings to attempt to beat the crowds —animpossible exercise, in my experience —and suddenly theblooms aredying. Isn’tthat abit like life? Spring is agood timetoreset in orderto avoid regrets.There’ssomething about new life that— if it doesn’tget your allergies going too intensely —inspires a new outlook, ayen to begin again.
Ihad my own personal retreat at my alma mater in town,the Catholic UniversityofAmerica. The school had asked me to speak to poli-sci students being inducted intothe discipline’shon-
or society.Yes,it’ss adiscipline. Yes, honorisnot anathema to it. Aftermyspeech endedand the certificates weregiven, Imeandered over to the campus chapelfor aholy hour of prayer,praise and worship. While the campus is adjacent to one of the largestchurches in thehemisphere, there arealso some humble chapels around the grounds. Isaw some of my politics kids come in to pray,and for Mass after Now that’ssomething worth going to the nation’scapital for.That gave me hope! God renews us, if we lethim. Afew weeks before,Igot to see some early blooming cherry blossoms on National Harbor,without the tourists. Ionly had my iPhone, but it was suf-
ficient to prove it happened and share some of the joy the blooms seem to inspire. Igave myself abirthday present and lingered before Igot back on the train to New York. Ispent alittle time at the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. Art museums never get old. Even if you didn’ttake timetosmell the cherry blossoms this spring, we’ve got agift of acountry that understands that life isn’tforever,and that it’sa temporary gift to be cherished and preserved. And, as it says on the base of the Washington memorial: Laus Deo (“Praise be to God”) with it all.
EmailKathryn Jean Lopez at klopez@ nationalreview.com.
Iappreciateitwhen our letter writers drill down into specificsand cite datatoback up their opinions. But math can be tricky, and sometimes the numbers don’tadd up. We do our best to double check your calculations, but if numbers are unclear or cannot be verified, we cannot publish theletter Iunderstand why,especially in this data-driven age, theimpulse to listastring of numbers is so great. But sometimes,astrong argumentbeats alist of numbers in my opinion. Journalists are notoriously bad at math, although thefield of data journalism hasgrown exponentially in recent years. However,even we wordsmiths understand
thepower of numbers to makeapoint clear.And often those whohave aclear grasp of the datawin the argument. As thedaughter of two former high school math teachers,I would never urge anyone not to use math. But if you do, makesure to check your work. We are still collecting responses for our next Town Square question.This being aholy season for manyreligions, we decided to ask you about your viewsonfaith. We want to know: How important is your faithtoyour daily life, and what role, if any,should it play in public life? Send your responses to letters@theadvocate.com. We have had many debates in recentmonths over the TenCommandments in classroomsand other issues involving reli-
gion, so we hope to hear your viewson the broader issues of church and state. In our letters inbox, we continue to see manyofyou focused on what’s going on in Washington. In the week of March 20-27, national politics was the topic of 20 of the 71 letters we received. Next to that, we received four letters on the recent constitutional amendments that went before voters, four letters on the death penalty and another four commenting on the content of the Opinion pages. As always, we welcomeyour thoughts on what we do and what you’d like to see more frequently
Want to seeyouropinion published in TheAdvocate |Times-Picayune? Submitaletter to the editor
that’strue.
I’m feeling the need to start this column by saying two things: One, health is more important than politics.And two, when we’re talking about health, Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy,agastroenterologist and chair of the Senate’scommittee that oversees health care, is usually right.
He certainly was right last weekend, when he posted this message on X, after asecond unvaccinated child in Texas died of measles: “Everyone should be vaccinated! Thereisno treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles.Top health officialsshould say so unequivocally b/4 another childdies.”
important message.Instead,the comments were brutal. Asampling:
“You voted for this, Doctor.”
“It’slike asitcom watching you getmad at the public officials you votedtoconfirm.”
“You supported @SecKennedytolead our public health agencies —aman who has been thepreeminentanti-vax leader globally.When you had achancetomake areal impact on an issue you claim to deeply care about, you wereacowardtothe MAGA cult.”
But oh, the politics of even saying such athing these days.
Particularly if you’re Bill Cassidy,alongtime advocate of vaccinations against deadly diseases, andalso akey vote —under immense political pressure —to confirm Robert F. KennedyJr., knownasmuch for his vaccine skepticism as for his famous inherited name, to head theDepartment of Health and Human Services.
The reaction to Cassidy’s post wasswift and furious.
From those still angry that he caved and supported resident Donald Trump’smostly unqualified, often downright batty slate of cabinet nominees, Cassidy got no gratitude for sending this
Andthose who believe in antivaxconspiracies were just as vocal,and equally vicious. Iwon’t repeat thebad information they spread about natural immunity andalleged deathsfromvaccines rather than disease,but Iwill note thatone critic posted several videosfromthe organization Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy founded In today’s divided Washington —and athome in Louisiana too Cassidyhas more people angry at himfor more reasons than most.
He committed what MAGA Republicansconsider the original sin of having voted to convict Trumpinthe second impeachment,for instigating the violent Jan.6,2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He drew achallenger for his 2026 reelection soon after Trumpwon theWhite House in
Here’swhat he had to say,for example, about Kennedy’srecent stated support forthe MMR vaccine, which has infuriated some of the secretary’slongtime followers too. On acall with local reporters last week, Cassidy said Kennedy’swords “may relieve aparent’sanxiety; it could save their child’slife.”
As forthe criticism, Cassidy had this to say: “Now you can either accept consistency,oryou can accept the importance of preventing childhood death. I’m adoctor,and something that’sso easily given, so effective in preventing disease, I’mgoing to advocate unless somebody is willing to accept the loss of achild. Iam not. Iamabout preventing death, and that should be the position of our United States government.”
November,and theLegislature changed the open primary process to makeiteasier for state Treasurer John Fleming or another true Trumpbeliever to take him out.And there’snosign that backing Kennedy’sconfirmation bought him any favor withthis crowd.
In his defense, Cassidy points to what he has described as Kennedy’swillingness to work with him and reconsider someofhis prior stances. That’s done little to
earn forgiveness from those who are alarmed to see Kennedy take awreckingball to HHS and its associated agencies, in waysthat will undermine public health and research farinto the future. Nor, it’squiteeasy to argue, should it.
Cassidy doesn’tsay this, but he may well think that going along allows him to have at least some influence —maybe even keep the chairmanship he’slong desired —instead of being an outcast in today’sGOP.It’seven possible
But tellingly,Cassidy also deflected aquestion over whether he should get credit forinfluencing Kennedy’sthinking on the measles outbreak. Instead, he contended that what got to the secretary waslikely the twodead children and fear of more. In asaner world, of course, just how Cassidy parses his message on health wouldn’tmatter.Politically,itseems, it’sall that matters —because somehow,we’ve let “children shouldn’tdie” become fighting words.
Email Stephanie Grace at sgrace@theadvocate.com.
In Louisiana, sales taxesare way too high. They need to come down. By most measures,Louisianans pay the highest sales taxes (state and local combined) in the nation
This matters. Sales taxes at some level may be a necessary evil, but the use of particularly high sales taxes is just plain bad policy
Yetless than half ayear ago, Louisiana lawmakers went in the wrong direction. In the midst of ahost of tax reforms and trade-offs, they actually raised state salestax rates rather than reduced them. The rate now stands at 5centsto the dollar,while other state tax policy essentially encourages localities also to rely heavily on sales tax for revenue. Most cities in Louisiana have a10centssales tax (combined), and Baton Rouge is at 10.5. That’sawful. The national median sales tax rate is just 7cents. Again, this matters. Salestaxes, even if groceries are exempted, are regressive, meaningthey takeahigher proportion of poor
Stephanie Grace Quin Hillyer
people’s money thanofwealthier people’s.While other,more“progressive”taxes,such as income taxes, somewhat counteract this regressiveeffect, the regressivity of salestaxes doesn’t fit most people’s definition of fairness. The higher the salestax, the greater the unfairness Unfairness, though, is far from theonly reason high salestaxes arebad policy. Like every tax does in one way or another,sales taxesdeter productive economic activity.WhenIservedonan official, special citizen’scommission appointedtoanalyze Mobile, Alabama’stax system ten years ago, our compilation of copious nationalresearchshowed sales taxes are marginally more deterrent to economic growththan property taxes, while being clearly more regressive and significantly more volatile
The latterpoint means that if the economytakes adownturn—asit very wellmight, thanks to President Donald Trump’stariff regime —salestax collections drop more
thanpropertytax collections For state and local governments looking for revenue stabilityto provide consistent levels of law enforcement, road maintenance and education, salestaxes area bad bet.
Nonetheless, at an April 8meeting with theeditorial board of this newspaper,Louisiana House Speaker Cameron Henry scoffed at the deleterious effectsofsales taxes.
“Whensomeone moves to astate very rarely,atleastinmyexperience, [do]they[say] ‘how muchis their sales tax?’”hesaid dismissively.“It’s not: Iwas gonna move there,but your sales taxactually is alittle bit toohigh.”
Henry clearly doesn’tunderstand that high sales taxes are anathema to retail establishments, especially small ‘mom and pop’ shops. It’s theexisting small businessman who getshurt worst,not the major new conglomerate.
Henry mustnot pay attention to polls, either.A March 30-April 2 Louisiana survey by experienced state pollster Bernie Pinsonat said last fall’slegislative special
session“raised the sales tax in Louisiana in compensation for lowering of personal income taxes and some corporate taxes. Do you think this is agood thing?’
By adecisive majority of 58% to 26.6%, respondents answered “no.”
State Revenue Secretary RichardNelson, speaking at an April 10 conference hosted by the Public Affairs Research Council, had asmarttake. He said the three major taxes —sales, income, and property —should be in apositiontosomewhat “balance” each other,and that “you don’twant to be the worst [highest] in any” of the three.
The importance of greater balance, while offering acompetitive advantage vis-à-vis other states, is the same thing the Mobile tax commission’sresearch showed.
Nelson also said one good thing about property taxes is that they are“moretransparent,” because acitizen can’thelp noticing something he pays for in one chunk in one annual bill, ratherthan being nickeled and dimed as astandard portion of every purchase that
barely makes an impression even as it adds up to large annual sums.
This isn’ttosay Louisiana needs to vastly raise its property taxes while vastly lowering sales taxes. But whenyour state ranks highest in the nation in the latter while only the 39th highest in the former (and with agenerous homestead exemption as well!), there’scertainly room for some rebalancing while still maintaining acomparative advantage on property taxes against the large majority of states.
There’sanother added advantage: Almost nobody keeps detailed enough receipts to write off sales taxes on their federal tax returns. Everybody who itemizes, though, writes off property taxes (up to acertain high limit). In other words, taxpayers shift some of the effective cost of property taxes to the federal government. For all those reasons, arebalancing is necessary.Torepeat: One way or another,Louisiana must reduce its sales taxes.
Quin Hillyer canbereached at quin.hillyer@TheAdvocate.com.
Louisiana Gov.Jeff Landryand the Republican supermajority state Legislature got awhuping in last month’selection as ahigherthan-expected voter turnout overwhelmingly rejected four constitutional amendments on the ballot, including Amendment 3. Only 34% voted yes to strip the state constitution of specific youth crime cases in which achild could be tried as an adult. Sixty-six percent voted no. The defeat was across geographic, party and race lines.
JeffersonParishJuvenile Court and Orleans ParishJuvenile Court. Theyhandle cases involving people who are 17 years old andyounger,including adoptions, truancy, misdemeanors and crimesthat might be considered felonies if the suspects were tried as adults. Thereare more than 40 district courts with responsibilityfor civil and criminal cases,including felonies.Not all youth casesshould go to adult criminal courts
work,” Kristen Rome, executive director of Louisiana Center for Children’sRights, toldme. “This bill is amess.”
Will Sutton
Youmight think that Republicans got the message, that they would understand that a majority of Louisiana voters don’t want more children in adult courts and adult prisons. Obviously that’snot true
Just recently,State Sen. Alan Seabaugh introduced Senate Bill 74, which would move allfelony crimes cases involving children 15 years old and older to district courts. Is it Amendment 32.0?
There are only four juvenile courts in Louisiana —Caddo Parish Juvenile Court, East Baton Rouge Parish Juvenile Court,
Though Amendment 3 failed,this is alegislative attempt to send morechildrentoadult courts, and possibly adult prisons
Youth advocates andattorneys aren’tsurprised, and theysee lots of problems.
“They weren’table to win on Amendment 3, so they aregoing through the backdoor,” shared AlanahOdoms, executive director of the American Civil Liberties UnionofLouisiana
“It is glaringly obvious that this was written by someone who doesn’tknowhow juvenile courts work and how criminal courts
The big problem with thebill is that it would automatically assign 15-year-old and 16-year-old children to adult criminal courts without law enforcement, district attorneys and judges weighing anumber of factors. Clerks, district attorneys and judges connected todistrict courtswould have to learnhow to handle confidential underage criminal matterswithout the benefit of years of learning the Louisiana Children’sCode. The code governs how thestate handles children who enter the judicial system for somethingthey are suspected of doing. As astate, we’veagreed that children should be treated differently from adults—and there are very specific rules that govern how children must be handled in thejudicial system
There are so manyspecifics that the latest print version of thecode takes two inches of shelf space. That’sa lot to toss to clerks, DAs and judges on Aug. 1when
thelaw would becomeeffective if the Legislature approves it. As written, somechildren could face ajuvenilecourt judge fora misdemeanor and adistrict court judge for afelony connected to thesame actions. The bill would strip DAsof their discretion of moving acase forward under the children’scode or the criminal code forthose 15 years old andup. Since childcases must have confidentiality,onwhich days and during which hours would district courts be closed to other matterstoprotect the confidentiality of children? Most district court judges probablyfeel that they have enoughwork. The felony cases juvenile court judges oversee include children 15 years old and older,but the Seabaugh bill instead could send their district court colleagues asignificant load of cases.
Seabaugh said don’tjudge his bill so fast. He told me his proposal has nothing to do with Amendment 3. It was written before the March 29 election, he said. Seabaugh thinks district courts are better prepared
to handle more serious youth crimecases. “Juvenile courts used to focus on misdemeanors, truancy,small things,” he explained. “Juvenile courts weren’tmeant to handle serious crimes.”
But whydoes he wanttolower the age to 15 foryouth felonies to go to district courts? “You’ve got to draw aline somewhere,” he added.
“The bill has nothing to do with charges or where they would do time,” the senator insisted. “The focus is on where the trial occurs.” If achild has acase in an adult court it is farmore likely that that child’scase would get fumbled because judges and others don’t know the children’scode, making it morelikely that morechildren would be convicted as adults and sent to adult prisons. Where would they be housed? With people 10, 20 and 30 years older? There are so manychallenges and complications with this measure that this bill needs to be withdrawnassoon as possible.
EmailWill Sutton at wsutton @theadvocate.com.
theCBD area.She later transitionedtoworkat Sears Co.inMetairiewhere she wouldretirein1993 After thebirth of her daughterin1968 shebe‐camea stay at home mom. She wasdevoted to being a homemaker, wife,mom and an avid gardener that could make anything flour‐ish so beautifully in the front,backand side yard 4629, theircharminghome was always open to family, extendedfamily, friends and neighborsfor savory lunches, dinnersand de‐lightfulspecial events.If you wouldask herwhich is yourfavoritesister, instant response, Allofthem. Be‐cause of herloveand stewardship to all, shecer‐tainlyhas made everlast‐ing memories forall to cherish andremember. She will be deeply missed for yearstocome. In lieu of flowers, please send dona‐tions to theGrief Share ministryheldatFirst Bap‐tistChurch,16333 Highway 1085, Covington, LA 70433, https://fbccov.org/give/. Helpingthose whoare hurting in thecommunity A celebrationoflifewillbe heldMonday, April14, 2025 atThe Chapel of FirstBap‐tistChurch Covington, 16054 Murphy Rd Coving‐ton,LA70433.Visitation willbegin at 10:00 a.m. ser‐vicestartingat11:00 a.m. witha receptiontofollow inthe Garden Room.E J. FieldingFuneralHomeof Covington,Louisiana,is honored to be entrusted withMrs.Daly’sfuneral arrangements. Herfamily invites youtoshare thoughts, memories,and condolences by signingan onlineguestbook at www. ejfieldingfh.com
West,Randall E.
DEATHS continued from ageof76. Born on January 27, 1949, in Pensacola, Florida,Randy liveda full and impactfullife, leaving behinda legacy of leader‐ship, mentorship,and deep lovefor hisfamily. Randy was preceded in deathby his parents, E. Howard and LomaOwenWest, andhis beloved son, Joshua Miller West. He is survived by his devoted wife of 53 years, Anita Miller West;his daughter, AllysonWest Lavender(DanLavender); his cherishedgrandchil‐dren, Thomas Daniel LavenderIII andCallieMae Lavender; andhis sister, Judith Dianne West.A proud graduate of Pen‐sacolaHighSchool,Randy continued hiseducation at Mississippi College, where heearneda Bachelor’s de‐greeinFinance and, more importantly,met hisbeau‐tiful bride, Anita. Theiren‐duringpartnership became the cornerstoneofhis life Randy builta long anddis‐tinguishedcareerin the transportation industry Startingatthe rental counter of HertzinJack‐son,Mississippi,his sharp intellect andunwavering dedicationpropelled him through theranks to csuite positionsatRyder and severalother promi‐nentcompanies.Whatset Randy apartwas hisability torecognizepotential in others, investinghis time and energy in mentoring countless individualswho flourished under hisguid‐ance. Hiscareertook he and Anitaacrossthe Southeast,but theirhearts alwaysbelongedtoSouth Louisiana,where they madeMandevilletheir cherished home forover two decades. Beyond his professionalachieve‐ments,Randy embraced lifewithenthusiasm. He was an avid golferand a passionatesupporter of the NewOrleans Saints and LSUTigers. On any given Monday,you could find himsavoringhis fa‐voritemealofred beans and rice.Heloved aseries ofdogs, spoiling them all and declaringeachtobe exceptionally wonderful, especially Thibodeau, the dog that survives him. Randy possesseda keen businessacumenthatre‐mainedwithhim even in retirement, as he contin‐ued to mentor aspiring professionals.Heheldhigh standards forthose around him,inspiring them to strivefor excellence.With his naturalconversational easeand infectious sense ofhumor,Randy hada re‐markable abilitytomake
everyone feel comfortable and valued.His Christian faith wasanintegralpart ofhis being, shapinghis in‐teractionsand leavinga lasting impression on those who knew him. While Randy achieved significant success in hiscareer,his greatestpride washis family. He admiredAnita’s culinarytalents andher selflessdedicationtoserv‐ing others.Hewas im‐mensely proudofhis son, Josh, whose brilliantmind and compassionateheart which wasobvious by his interestinphysics,music and spirituality.Healso deeply admiredhis daugh‐ter,Allyson,who inherited his tenacity andbusiness acumen, followinginhis footstepsinthe trans‐portation industry.Inhis later years, Randyfound immensejoy in hisgrand‐children. He treasuredhis golfoutings with Thomas and delightedinthe spir‐itedconversations and matchingwitswithCallie Mae.Healsoenjoyed alov‐ing bond with hisolder sis‐ter,Judith, who served as a pillarofsupport fortheir tight-knitfamily. In lieu of flowers, thefamilykindly requeststhatdonations be madetothe Josh West MemorialScholarship Fund atMontreatConference Center, Office of Develop‐mentP.O.Box 969, Mon‐treat NC 28757 or Coving‐ton Presbyterian Church 222 S. JeffersonCovington, LA70433 honoring Randy's memoryand hiscommit‐menttothe growth andde‐velopment of others.A Cel‐ebrationofLifewillbeheld onSunday, May4,2025, at 2:30p.m.atCovington PresbyterianChurch,222 South JeffersonAvenue, Covington,LA70433 with visitationbeginning at 1:30 p.m.until servicetime. E.J. FieldingFuneralHomehas been entrustedwithfu‐neral arrangements Pleasesignthe guestbook atwww.ejfieldingfh.com
Howasmall Washington town andIdaho collegeshapedMoore into theNFL’s youngest coach
BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer
PROSSER,Wash. Jump intothe charcoal gray pickup truck that belongs to the unofficial mayor of Prosser.There are importantpeople to talkto, and thereare thingsto see.
Lanky and gray-haired, Mark Little punctuates hisfree-flowingchatterwith wisecracksand crooked grins, giving him amischievous airthat belies his upcoming 70thbirthday.Little has passed mostofthoseyears in this little pocket of theYakima Valley —40asan educator, four more as aretiree, all of them as acoach. He was at the hospital the day Kellen Moorewas born, and he is delighted to show off theNew Orleans Saintshead coach’shometown.
You’re there to figure out what kindofforces shape someone like Moore. What is it about this place —orhis upbringing, or his talents, or his demeanor —that takes someone from asmall town to thehelm of an NFL organization before his 37th birthday? What drivessomeone so outwardlyunassuming to set high school andcollege footballrecords, and to skip so many rungs on the professional ladder that he becomesthe NFL’s youngest head coach?
So Littlegrabs his keysand says,“Let’sgo.”
One of the worst seasons in NewOrleans Pelicans’ history comes to an endSunday. That we know for sure. What we don’tknow is if it’s also the end of an era. Is the
ä ThunderatPelicans 2:30 P.M.SUNDAy,GCSN
team has ever scored that many points against thePelicans. Andno team had ever
thePelicans by
points.
teams
suf-
notmany
Pelicans, who lost by 46 pointsonSt. Patrick’sDay to the Detroit Pistons to tie theold markfor the worst loss. At thetime, you probably thought that was the low point of the season
Theydipped even lower Friday, trailing by as many as 52 at one point. How bad was it? The Heat had more players reach double figures (10) in scoring thanthe Pelicanshad players dressed out for the game (eight).
One injury after another decimated the season. It’s abig reason thePelicans went from having thesecond-bestrecord in team history last season to wherethey are now.
Griffin has brought some talented players to New Orleans in his six seasons calling the shots.Unfortunately,hardly any of that talent was available this season.
“When these types of things happen, they
really reveal alot about whoyou are and what your team represents,” Griffin said in February.“And unfortunately forus, I think it’srevealed we have alot of work to do from afront office perspective, from a team-building perspective.” The question is whowill be doing that team building?
Benson has to decide whether Griffin gets aseventh season. The Pelicans have madethe playoffs twice in his six seasons. They increased their wintotal in his first five seasons before nose diving this year He’sbrought plenty of good pieces to NewOrleans, but those pieces sometimes
ä See WALKER, page 8C
BY WILSON ALEXANDER
Staff writer
LSU football coach Brian Kelly is open to holding a scrimmage and joint practices with another Louisiana team as coaches continue to consider changes to spring practice
Kelly said there would be issues to work through with different academic calendars at schools, but he likes the idea if it is possible under NCAA rules
“What I would say about it is that in years past, it was a dream,” Kelly said Saturday after LSU’s open practice in Tiger Stadium, which replaced the traditional spring game. “I think it’s within our grasp now I think there needs to be some more attention to particular rules that make that difficult, but I think we’re on the course toward that happening.”
Last month, an NCAA committee denied a waiver request from Colorado and Syracuse to hold joint practices and a scrimmage this spring, which is currently prohibited Colorado coach Deion Sanders first proposed the idea. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy expressed interest in doing something similar against instate rival Oklahoma.
The Football Bowl Subdivision oversight committee cited three factors in its decision to deny the request from Colorado and Syracuse this year: the late timing, a potential recruiting advantage and the academic effect because players may have to miss class.
In its report, the committee said it would continue to discuss “a concept that could permit joint spring practices in future seasons.”
Following a national trend, Kelly changed the format of LSU’s spring game this year.
BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer
BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer
Jack Pyburn likes to celebrate after he makes a stop, so when he sacked quarterback Garrett Nussmeier on the last play of the day for LSU starters, he danced.
The transfer defensive end raised his arms above his head, encouraged by linebacker WestWeeks, and a frustrated Nussmeier tossed the ball back toward the middle of the field. It was a fitting end to the open practice Saturday in Tiger Stadium after the defensive ends impressed throughout the scrimmage. Pyburn, sophomore Gabriel Reliford and Nebraska transfer Jimari Butler all created pressure multiple times, making it tough for Nussmeier and the rest of the offense to move the ball.
Ashton Stamps also practiced with the starters, while five-star freshman DJ Pickett and redshirt freshman Michael Turner stayed with the second team at cornerback. Florida transfer Ja’Keem Jackson was present but did not practice.
Kentucky transfer Barion Brown made several catches in 7-on-7, including an over-theshoulder grab in tight coverage down the sideline. He also caught two touchdowns, one of them when he came back to the ball as Nussmeier scrambled. Brown looks like he could make a difference.
Working on run game
LSU softball spots A&M seven runs, can’t rally back
The No. 3 Texas A&M softball team scored seven runs in the first inning, then had to hold on for dear life to beat No. 5 LSU 9-7 on Saturday in College Station, Texas. The Aggies (36-5, 10-3 SEC) took advantage of five first-inning walks and one hit batter from LSU freshman left-hander Jayden Heavener, who walked home three runs before giving up a three-run double to No. 9 hitter Kramer Eschete to knock her out of the game LSU (35-7, 8-6) responded with five runs in the third, then scored two more in the fifth to trim its deficit to 8-7.
Tori Edwards hit a grand slam in the third inning for the Tigers’ biggest blow
St. Louis SS Winn placed on IL with back problems
The St. Louis Cardinals placed shortstop Masyn Winn on the 10day injured list Saturday and activated infielder Nolan Gorman.
Winn left the Cardinals’ 2-0 win against Philadelphia on Friday night with back spasms, and the team decided to take a safer approach to keep Winn healthy long term.
Winn also missed time last season and during spring training with stiffness in his back.
In putting Winn on the injured list, Marmol also wanted to ensure the Cardinals had the ability to make moves during a game if needed. When Winn left in the first inning Friday night, backup catcher Pedro Pages entered at second base while rookie Thomas Saggese took over Winn’s spot at shortstop.
NBA rescinds technical, allows Edwards to play
The Minnesota Timberwolves were hopeful after Friday night’s win over Brooklyn that the technical foul Anthony Edwards received would be rescinded. If it wasn’t, Edwards was set to be suspended for Sunday’s regularseason finale against Utah, a game that carries major playoff implications for the Wolves. Win and they guarantee themselves a top-six playoff seed. Lose and they’re likely headed to Memphis for the first part of the play-in tournament.
The Wolves got their wish Saturday, as the league announced Edwards’ technical from the second quarter was rescinded and he can play Sunday Coach Chris Finch said Edwards had a right to be upset at some missed foul calls. He also didn’t think Edwards deserved the technical.
Florida QB Lagway set to start throwing soon
Almost three months after he was involved in a single-car crash, the family of LSU redshirt freshman quarterback Colin Hurley said he has made a “full recovery” and rejoined the football team Hurley was back with the team for the first time since the wreck Saturday during an open practice in Tiger Stadium. He did not participate or wear pads Hurley watched with his teammates, who hugged him in the locker room before the practice.
“Colin and his family are grateful for the dedication, collaboration and support of everyone involved throughout this process,” Hurley’s family said in a statement released by LSU. “Now back with his team, his sole focus is on football and academics.”
While driving a 2023 Dodge Charger, Hurley struck a tree at the South Quad Drive and Highland Road intersection at 2:47 a.m on Jan 16 according to a crash report.
The cause of the crash is unknown Police did not detect any evidence that Hurley was intoxicated or under the influence, the report said. An LSU spokesperson said LSU PD only conducts alcohol testing when there is evidence to support probable cause.
Hurley, 17, appeared unconscious, the report said, and had a large cut on his face. After emergency personnel pulled him from the car, he was transported to Our Lady of the Lake. The nature of his injuries were unclear LSU coach Brian Kelly said Hurley later returned to his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, to recover at the Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital.
LSU put no timetable on his return. Because of Hurley’s age, Kelly said “a lot” of his recovery was left to his family
Hurley finished as the No. 25 quarterback in the 2024 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. He reclassified upon committing to LSU in 2022, allowing him to leave high school a year early
Needing to restock the position, LSU added three defensive ends from the transfer portal in Pyburn, Butler and Patrick Payton from Florida State. Their arrival and Reliford’s development have given LSU confidence in the group.
“You’ve got mature players that have played a lot of football, and certainly that shows up,” coach Brian Kelly said. “It didn’t just show up today for me. It showed up every day in practice.”
Kelly changed the format of the spring game this year Instead of keeping score, LSU worked on special teams and red-zone situations before running full-field plays Kelly said LSU practiced “virtually every situation” that it would face in a game.
O-line combinations
The starting offensive line was the same as it has been for most of the spring with left tackle Tyree Adams, left guard Paul Mubenga, center DJ Chester right guard Coen Echols and right tackle Weston Davis Adams and Davis have the edge on their respective positions, though Northwestern transfer Josh Thompson brings tackle experience.
Thompson and Virginia Tech transfer
Braelin Moore got plenty of work. At one point, Moore played center and Thompson was at left guard. Thompson also took reps as the second-team right tackle.
It appears those seven are in contention for time heading into the rest of the offseason.
Kelly said LSU would use the first eight or nine practices of preseason camp to make a decision on the starters, then spend the second half of August trying to build continuity among them before the season opener against Clemson.
Individual standouts
Early in the 7-on-7 period, sophomore cornerback PJ Woodland dove for an interception off Nussmeier Woodland spent a lot of time with the first-team defense opposite Virginia Tech transfer Mansoor Delane
Kelly cut off photography and videography of practice before a goal-line period, and he said the timing was intentional. LSU didn’t want images circulating of a play with Johnson at quarterback.
Nussmeier lined up in the slot, and Johnson scored on a keeper Kelly first mentioned before spring practice that Johnson, a converted defensive back and running back, could help in certain situations. He ran the ball multiple times and threw a touchdown to early enrollee TaRon Francis as the third-team quarterback.
“I think he enhances what we can do in the red zone,” Kelly said. “I think he enhances what we can do at that position in the running game. I mean, it’s hard. We saw that last year against teams that ran the quarterback against us.”
LSU has emphasized the run game this spring after averaging 116.4 yards rushing per game last season. Kelly said there has been “a concerted effort to be much more diverse” with misdirections, handoffs under center and varied schemes.
LSU needs to continue to work on it the defense stuffed a few plays — but the intent could be seen.
Nussmeier scored on a quarterback draw during the goal-line period, and wide receiver Zavion Thomas scored on a handoff. Kaleb Jackson and Harlem Berry had some good runs, especially a 22-yarder by Berry against the backups.
Injury updates
Running back Caden Durham defensive tackle Sydir Mitchell and wide receiver Destyn Hill did not practice. Mitchell went down with an injury earlier this week, but he had returned to practice Thursday Durham and Hill both suffered ankle injuries. Durham has an ankle sprain, Kelly said, so LSU held him out as a precaution. He might return to practice next week. Hill has a high-ankle sprain, so his availability for the last week of spring ball is uncertain.
Forida quarterback DJ Lagway will “start throwing in a couple weeks,” coach Billy Napier said Saturday Lagway was limited throughout spring practice with a shoulder injury that lingered from last season and he played sparingly in the team’s annual spring game. Lagway played five snaps Saturday, all first-down handoffs.
Napier raised red flags last month when he said Lagway would be a limited participant during spring, his first as the team’s starter Instead of getting valuable repetitions, Lagway spent a month handing off, watching passing plays and calling the offense. Lagway missed some practice time last fall with shoulder soreness, a lingering issue from his high school days. But it never caused him to miss a game.
Logano fully recovered after bout with norovirus
Regining NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano said a bout of norovirus sent him to the Darlington Raceway infield care center for medical treatment after last week’s race.
The Team Penske star said he had been ailing throughout the week ahead of the 400-mile race that was run in unseasonably warm 89-degree weather He managed to complete all 297 laps and finish 13th.
“I had a stomach virus, that norovirus, and I thought I was good,” Logano said. “And then right before the race, I realized I was not good. I was able to get through the race, but I was pretty dehydrated afterward.”
Logano, 34, was grateful to recover in time for a busy week ahead of Sunday’s 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway
BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer
Southern football closed its spring practice with its annual blue and gold game at A.W Mumford Stadium on Saturday.
Fans had an opportunity to see how the Jaguars look well before their first game on Aug. 23. The team gave onlookers reasons to be excited for the upcoming season.
Here are some observations:
Shining QB
Returning sophomore quarterback Jalen Woods, who appeared in six games and started two last season, played with the first-team offense to open the scrimmage. While he performed solidly, backup Jamari Jones made more noteworthy plays.
The 6-foot-3 quarterback began his career at East Mississippi Community College, then transferred to Mississippi Valley State before arriving at Southern. Jones threw with accuracy on intermediate passes, showed off some speed as a runner and led three touchdown drives.
He was superb in the second half of the scrimmage and tossed three consecutive touchdowns in a red-zone drill.
“He’s a tremendous football player,” coach Terrence Graves said of Jones. “That’s one of the reasons why we have him here. You know it’s good to see him get the confidence. It’s good to see him, you know, execute the offense.”
BY CHARLES ODUM AP sportswriter
ATHENS, Ga. Carson Beck’s decision to transfer to Miami opened the door for Gunner Stockton to take over as Georgia’s starting quarterback.
Stockton’s status as Georgia’s next option was confirmed when he took over for the Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff fol-
Jones arrived in Baton Rouge in January and steadily has gotten more comfortable with the offense. Graves said that it was positive to see him perform the way he did, but that he still has a “long ways to go.”
Woods had much fewer series in the second half of the spring game. Graves still was pleased with Woods’ ability to move the ball down the field and said the starting quarterback spot is “his job to lose.”
The favorite receiving targets for both quarterbacks were Darren Morris and Malachi Jackson. Mixed bag on defense
The offense outperformed the defense. There were no forced turnovers. Even after a botched snap that had the ball sail over Woods’ head, the offense recovered it.
The best moments came when the first-team defense, led by star defensive end Ckelby Givens, entered the backfield. In the first quarter, the defense was stout while stopping short passes
The second-team defense had more mishaps and played more than the top players.
The defense had more penalties as the game progressed. Graves said the errors were mostly a product of good effort.
“Couple of them were just concentration (mistakes),” Graves said. “But for the most part, guys are playing hard. You can live with those hard plays. It wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t anything
lowing Beck’s season-ending elbow surgery Stockton, a junior, held off a challenge from redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi to retain the starting role in spring practice, which ended Saturday Coach Kirby Smart said Saturday Stockton improved in the spring with his “confidence, understanding the offense.”
Running back Cash Jones, a se-
egregious out of just guys playing hard. You know, guys running around, making a tackle.
“Sometimes you’re gonna get a face mask. Sometimes, you know pass interference or whatever Guys (are) going for the ball. I can live with that.”
Youthful running backs
The three tailbacks Graves played were sophomore Jason Gabriel, freshman Armariyan Asberry and sophomore Zaccheus Cooper Early in the scrimmage, none of them had a standout run. Gabriel, who received the first carries with the first team, showed his inexperience — he only had three carries a season ago — when he bumped into an offensive lineman blocking for him. The Jaguars didn’t return any of their top three ball carriers from last season.
The youth doesn’t bother Graves.
“True freshmen can play that position,” he said. “If you’re big enough, if you’re fast enough, if you can protect yourself and you understand the offense. That’s a position where a true freshman can actually come in and play and be effective.”
The halfback group played better in the second half and found open space even against the firstteam defense. Graves credited their fearlessness for helping outweigh the inexperience.
Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.com.
nior, said Stockton’s biggest area of improvement is “decision-making with his reads. I think he did a great job with that.”
Following Saturday’s G-Day scrimmage at Sanford Stadium, Smart said Stockton “has done a very good job with his feet and his legs. He made plays with his legs today Ryan did, too. They are both good athletes who can extend plays.”
‘What does the other guy look like?’
BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer
AUBURN, Ala. — Chase Shores’ first
thought was that he should have caught the ball. The big LSU right-hander was still hurting. A 78 mph bouncing ball had just ricocheted off his glove and into his left eye.
But the sophomore insisted that he should’ve made the play
“No excuse,” Shores said.
The incident two weeks ago against Mississippi State left Shores with a black eye and four stitches. He stayed in the game even with the pain and swelling, forcing a fielder’s choice to end the inning before being taken out.
It had been one of his better outings of the season despite allowing four earned runs in four innings. He tossed three scoreless innings, finishing the last one without being able to see out of his dominant eye.
“He looked like he was in one of those Rocky movies for a few minutes,” coach Jay Johnson said.
The play can be viewed in a more light-hearted lense now, but it wasn’t a laughing matter at the time for Bryan Shores. All he saw was his son down on the ground and in pain.
To some degree, the Shores family was already somewhat on egde heading into the game. The outing was almost two years to the night Chase tore his UCL and missed a season and a half because of Tommy John surgery
“Kind of just knowing the timeline leading up to him throwing, it was kind of a big deal for him to be throwing again this exact weekend,” Bryan Shores said.
“And then you see him go down to one knee and we were kind of like, ‘Oh man.’
“So it was a little more worrisome not truly knowing what happened and then the backstory of it.”
Bryan, Chase’s mother, Nicole, and Chase’s girlfriend initially thought he had broken his nose.
ä LSU’s baseball game at Auburn ended after press time. FORA RECAP,PLEASE VISIT NOLA.COM
Chase’s brother, Nicolas, and his uncle were watching the game on TV, texting them what they were seeing at home and eventually informing them it was an eye injury
They could tell from the stands that he was bleeding, but they were relieved once he started throwing warmup pitches.
Bryan Shores said he wasn’t surprised his son stayed in the game.
“If there was any possibility that that he could stay,” he said, “he was going to.”
With the game not ending until nearly 2 a.m., Bryan and Nicole Shores stayed up even later to meet with Chase afterward. He’d already gotten his stitches by that point.
It was the second time he needed stitches in that area of his head because of a baseball. When he was 15, he got hit by a pitch and needed four stitches about an inch left of his left eyebrow
“It’s kind of funny that he’s got them side by side there,” Bryan Shores said.
Oddly enough, Shores had his best start against Southeastern Conference competition after getting hit in the face. He didn’t allow any earned runs and gave up just three hits in five innings last Saturday at Oklahoma.
He’ll try to maintain that good form on Sunday against Auburn.
“It makes him look tough,” Bryan Shores said of the 6-foot-8, 252-pounder “He’s got the size and the stature, and you get in the batter’s box (and) now you’ve got this big guy with a big, old black eye.”
“If he’s on the winning end of it, what does the other guy looked like?”
Email Koki Riley at Koki.Riley@ theadvocate.com.
Hawksseniornamed Mr.Basketballafter leadinghis team to second statetitle in four years
BY JOSEPH HALM Staff writer
When Drew Timmons started as an eighth grader on the Hannan basketball team, the Hawkshad never won aplayoff game since moving to their currentcampus in Covington.
Fast forward fiveyearsand the 6-foot-6 standout finished his high school career as the leadingplayer on astate championship team for the second time in fouryears, and for that, he has been selected as Mr.Basketball by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
“It feels great knowing thatI’ll leave alegacy behind at Hannan,” Timmons said. “Just finishing my high school career out doingstuff that no one has ever done at Hannan is special. Before Igot here, we had never won aplayoff game on this campus, so to build it up from that to two state championships is definitely something special.”
Timmons’ legacy goes beyond the state championships. He finished his prep basketball career with 2,910 points and 1,491 rebounds as afive-year starter.As asenior,heaveraged 21 4points, 9.5 rebounds,2.4 assistsand 1.6 steals per game and capped his
1996: Lester Earl, Glen Oaks
1997: Marcus Fizer,Arcadia
1998: StromileSwift,FairPark
1999: BernardKing,Gibsland
Coleman
2000: Chris Duhon, Salmen
2001: Donald Perry, McCall
2002: Darrel MitchellJr.,St. Martinville
2003: Paul Millsap,Grambling
2004: GlenDavis, University
2005: Tasmin Mitchell, Denham Springs
2006: Demond Carter,Reserve Christian
2007: Greg Monroe, Helen Cox
2008: Greg Monroe, Helen Cox
2009: Joevoskie Mitchell, Zwolle
season with 22 points and four rebounds in a59-55 win over Shaw in the Division II select championshipgame where he also claimed MostOutstanding Player honors. Hannan coach Errol Gauff credited Timmons’ workethic and versatility —healsoled theHawks in steals —for his success.
“He’sabletoaffect thegame as
2010: Markel Brown, Peabody
2011: Ricardo Gathers, Riverside
2012: Dee Wagner,Peabody
2013: Jarell Martin, Madison Prep
2014: Reginal Johnson Jr Richwood
2015: Brandon Sampson, Madison
Prep
2016: Javonte Smart, Scotlandville
2017: Javonte Smart, Scotlandville
2018: Javonte Smart, Scotlandville
2019: Jalen Cook,Walker
2020: Reece Beekman, Scotlandville
2021: Carlos Stewart,The Dunham
School
2022: Solomon Washington, Carver
2023: Chris Lockett, Newman
2024: Allen Graves, Ponchatoula
2025: Drew Timmons, Hannan
morethan just alow-post player,” Gauff said.
“Whether it is as adriver,cutter or passer,the fact that he cando all those things is abig reason why Ithink he is garnering these postseason awards.I’m glad people arerealizing justhow versatile he is on the basketball court on offense and defense.”
The Hawks finished with a26-7
record, including an 11-game winning streak en route to the title. Butthat road to the championship waschallenging as the Hawks knocked offKennedy,eventual Division Inonselect champion Zachary and Walker before rolling to the District 7-4A title.
Timmons took over in the playoffs,posting 25 points, 12 rebounds andthree assists in a quarterfinals win over Vandebilt Catholic before recording eight pointswith11rebounds in an intense defensive battleduring a3129 semifinals win over traditional power and reigning champion Peabody.
The state championship was also aspecial family moment for Timmons as he shared thecourt with hisyoungerbrother, Gabe. Timmonswon the Hawks’ first title while older brother Luke was also on theteam
“I got Luke aring, so Ihad to get my other brother aring to keep it fair; otherwise, there would have been arguments,” Timmonssaid with alaugh as the brothers posed for photos after the championship game.
Timmonsjoins Salmen’sChris Duhon (2000) as just the second player from St. TammanyParish to win theaward.
BY CHRISTOPHER DABE Staff writer
BY DARRELL WILLIAMS Contributing writer
Brother Martin endedits District 9-5A gameagainst Rummel on Saturday the sameway it started it. And with that, the Crusaders are on the verge of sailing into the Division Iselect baseball playoffs First baseman Bronson Leaumont smasheda two-out, two-run double to right-center field in the top of the seventh inning, securing a7-3 victory at Mike MileyStadium in the district finale.
TheCrusaders (26-6, 13-1), No. 3inthe power ratings, wontheir eighth consecutive game, their last loss —and the only one in 9-5A play—coming on March 25 against Curtis.
“If you aregood on the mound —and we were —and if youcan make theroutine playand get some two-out hits and execute in the short game ...,” said Brother Martincoach Jeff Lupo, whose hascoached theCrusaders to three district championships in nine seasons. “So, I’m really,really proud of our guys and how they played.”
The loss is the fourth consecutive for Rummel (20-11, 8-5), which entered the game at No. 9inthe power rankings. It comes on the heels of aheartbreaking 11-10 loss to the Crusaders on Thursdayat Kirsch-Rooney Stadium Rummel coachFrank Cazeaux said he’sfocused on the playoffs and that he remains confident in his team. Postseason pairings will be announced Tuesday,and the Division Iselect playoffs begin Wednesday.The Raiders have a final gameMonday vs. Shaw “Weplayed extremely hard,” Cazeaux said. “I told the boys, here’s the deal: (In the playoffs), the records are 0-0. We are good enough to beat anybody we want to beat We’re talented enough to beat somevery good teams.”
Saturday’sloss cameafter the Raiders stranded 10 runners on base, including two in the third, twointhe fourth, twointhe fifth andthreeinthe sixth when it appeared Rummel might overtake Brother Martin. Still, Rummel found itself in the gameuntil suddenly it wasn’t. Crusaders ace right-hander Cole Navarro pitched five innings, allowing two runs on five hits before being relieved by third baseman Ryan Darrah after Navarro walked RummelGavin Kennedy to start the sixth. Brother Martin led 5-2.
That’swhen Rummel made things interesting. Darrahretired the first twobatters he faced, then hit Rummelthird baseman Ian Smith. Designated hitter Joel Marange followed with asingle to left, loadingthe bases. Darrahalsohit the next batter,Lenny Cline with a pitch, scoring Kennedy from third and cutting the margin to 5-3.
The next batter,first baseman Aiden Gernard hit the ball up the middle, resulting in aforceout at second on acontroversial call for the third out.
With two out in the seventh, Crusaders Reece Roussel hit an opposite-field single to left.Stan Wiltzwalked, andboth flewaround the bases on Leaumont’sclinching double.
Connor Donnelly got his teamleading sixth win as astarting pitcher for Jesuit this season, but it was what the senior righthander did at the plate that made it possible. With the score tied in the bottom of the sixth, Donnelly drilled afirst-pitch fastball to center field and drove in the go-ahead run in a3-2 victory over St. Augustine on Saturday at JohnRyan Stadium. After the RBI single, Donnelly returned to the mound for a1-23seventh that capped asweep of St. Augustine after Jesuit (22-9, 9-5 District 9-5A) won thefirst game 5-2 on Thursday “Great job by Connoracross the board,” Jesuit coachKenny Goodlett said. “He’sbeen solid for us the last couple of weeks on
the mound. Really just aheck of acompetitor and asenior leader He’sbeen doing itoffensively and on the mound. To see him in abig spot, coming through again, I’m very proud of him.” Donnelly allowed eight hits, all singles, and walked none with five strikeouts overseven innings. The two runs allowed cameinthe spanoffour batters who accounted for three singles andasacrificebuntinthe fifth inning.
The win marked the final regular-season home gamefor Donnelly andhis senior teammates. Donnelly,whose father Patrick playedfor Jesuitinthe late1980s, has been aregular starter at third base and onthe mound over the past two seasons.
Jesuit came intothe gameat No.5inthe LHSAA Division I select power ratings. That placement would givethe Blue Jays afirst-roundplayoffbye anda chance to host athree-game series —giving Donnelly andthose seniorsanotherchance to play
“Great job by Connor across the board. He’sbeen solid for us the last coupleofweeks on the mound. Really just aheck of acompetitor and asenior leader.He’sbeen doing it offensively and on the mound. To see him in abig spot, comingthrough again, I’m very proud of him.”
KENNy GOODLETT,Jesuit coach
games at home. The LHSAAwill release playoff brackets Tuesday, afterJesuit ends the regular season with a game Monday at Terrebonne.
“Weall love baseball and we all love playingfor each other,”Donnelly said. “Obviously,this stadium, it doesn’tget any better than this in thewhole state. So, we’re going to be here in theplayoffs, so that’salways good.” Donnelly was hitless through his first three at-bats before he
came to the plate with arenewed approach in the sixth inning.
“I had agood feelinga fastball was coming, so Ifinally was like, Ican’t miss afastball —Iknow it’s coming,” Donnelly said. “And youknow,itpaidoff.”
Donnelly’sRBI single drove in Griffin Jeandronafter he reached on adropped fly ball in right field and advanced two bases on a walk and agroundout.
Michael Brothers buntedfor a single andscored in the third inning.Tyler Sciambra hit an RBI triple that droveinHarry Leche later in theinning.
For St.Augustine (17-14, 5-8), SouthernsigneeKenyon Hughes had threehitswithanRBI and a run scored. Tulane signee Bryce Robinson drove in the other run.
“(Hughes is) going to be the one that is at the topofthe lineup and have to carry us forthe remainderofthe season,” St. Augustine coach Barret Rey said. “Wherever we land in the playoffs, he’s got to continue to stay hot and continue to do good things.”
Asked aboutthe callatsecond, Cazeaux said, “For my hat to come off, that’sall Ican say.Iwasn’t pleased with the call.” Brother Martin will end its regular season Monday at homeagainst Destrehan. Lupo said he really likes the way his team is playing.
“They are playing hard, they are playing together andtheyare not beating themselves, which is what good teams do,” he said. “We’vehad competitive at-bats up anddown thelineup, pitchers have commanded the strike zone and (his team)is very unselfish. When we ask them to execute the short game and run, they are able to do that.”
BY JOE MACALUSO
Contributing writer
Need a place to catch catfish?
Nearby?
The Wildlife and Fisheries’ ‘Get Out & Fish!’ program has stocked or will stock adult channel catfish in 17 ponds across our state.
Already stocked locations include Burbank Park in Baton Rouge; Joe Brown Park in New Orleans; Sidney Hutchinson Park in Walker; Zemurray Park in Hammond; Bogue Chitto State Park in Franklinton; Oil and Gas Park in Jennings; Girard Park in Lafayette; Southside Regional Park in Youngsville; Purple Heart Memorial Park in Ragley; and, Bayou Country Sports Park in Houma.
The springtime stocking plans also include parks and ponds in Minden, Ruston, Grambling, Vidalia, Natchitoches and Pineville.
Fishermen 18 and older must have a state basic fishing license. With the Easter holidays coming next week, the stocking efforts provide an opportunity for youngsters to catch a fish or two. Just be careful of catfish. Their dorsal and pectoral fins can hurt.
Lagniappe Day
Wildlife and Fisheries has scheduled its annual Boating Education Lagniappe Day for April 26 at nine places across the state Baton Rouge is not among those locations.
Cities and towns included on the list are Metairie at the Jefferson Parish Regional Library 4747 West Napoleon Avenue (9:15 a.m.5:30 p.m.); Lafayette at the Wildlife and Fisheries office, 200 Dulles Road (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.); Ponchatoula at Apocalypse Sports, 40147 Interstate Service Road (9 a.m.-5 p.m.); Slidell at the Tammany Yacht Club, 1196 Harbor Drive (8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.); and, in Morgan City at the Bayou L’ourse
MONDAY RED STICK FLY FISHERS 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
MONDAY-TUESDAY
COMMERCIAL FISHING LICENSE/ BOAT REGISTRATION RENEWAL:
9 a.m.-3:30 p.m., LDWF office, 1025 Tom Watson Road, Lake Charles. Also Wednesday & Thursday, 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 29May 1, LDWF office, 2045 Lakeshore Drive, Suite 438, New Orleans. Call LDWF Licensing (225) 765-2898.
TUESDAY
LAFAYETTE KAYAK FISHING CLUB
MEETING: 6 p.m., Pack & Paddle, 601 E. Pinhook, Lafayette. Call (337) 2325854. Website: lafayettekayakfishing com
Recreation Center, 1213 La 662 (8 a.m.-4 p.m.). Other locations include Lake Charles, Homer, Monroe and Pineville.
Lunch will be provided and successful completion of the course means you will have a National Association of State Boating Law Administrators certificate.
State law requires anyone born after Jan. 1, 1984 to have completed a NASBLA-approved boating education course and carry proof of completion to operate a motorboat in excess of 10 horsepower Course instruction covers classification and hulls of boats, outboard engines and motors, legal and equipment requirements,
navigation rules and charts and trailering and might also include sailboats, canoeing and personal watercraft.
The classes fill quickly To register, go to Wildlife and Fisheries’ website: wlf.louisiana.gov/page/ boater-education, then click on the link for “Find A Course Near You”.
Other courses Wildlife and Fisheries offers other instruction/days in Hunter Education (classes & field days), Boater Education, trapping and a variety of fishing classes throughout the year. Class sizes are limited and preregistration is requested. Website: louisianaout-
WEDNESDAY
FLIES & FLIGHTS: 7 p.m., Rally Cap Brewing, 11212 Pennywood Avenue, Baton Rouge. Fly tying. Open to public. Spare tools, materials for novices. Email Chris Williams: thefatfingeredflytyer@gmail.com
WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY
BASSMASTER OPEN/DIVISION 1: Tombigbee River, Columbus, Mississippi. Website: bassmaster.com
THURSDAY
ACADIANA FLY RODDERS PROGRAM: 6 p.m., Pack & Paddle, 601 E. Pinhook, Lafayette. Open to public. Email Darin Lee: cbrsandcdc@ gmail.com. Website: acadianaflyrodders.org .
HUNTING SEASONS
TURKEY: Area A: through May 4; Area B: through April 27; Area C: through April 20.
AROUND THE CORNER
APRIL 23-25—B.A.S.S. NATION
QUALIFIER: James River, Richmond, Virginia. Website: bassmaster.com
APRIL 24—ACADIANA BUGS & BREWS: 6 p.m., Pack & Paddle, 601 E. Pinhook, Lafayette. Open to the public. Email Flip Siragusa: redfish452@gmail.com. Website: www packpaddle.com
APRIL 24-26—MLF TOYOTA BASS
SERIES/SOUTHERN DIVISION: Lake Seminole, Bainbridge, Georgia. Website: MajorLeagueFishing.com
APRIL 24-27—NRA ANNUAL MEETINGS & EXHIBITS: Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta. Includes April 25, NRA Foundation banquet & auction. Website: friendsofnra.org
APRIL 24-27—BASSMASTER ELITE
SERIES: Lake Hartwell, Anderson, South Carolina. Website: bassmaster.com
APRIL 25—WETLAND EDUCATION
TEACHER WORKSHOP APPLICATION
DEADLINE: Registration opens Jan. 27 for July 13-18 workshop, Grand Isle Fisheries Research Lab, Grand Isle. Email Lindsay Seely: lseely@ wlf.la.gov
APRIL 25-27—SPRING CATCH & EAT
WEEKEND: Lake Concordia, Ferriday. Red Stick Fly Fishers event. Email Dugan Sabins: DuganSc@ bellsouth.net
doors.com/events A last say-so Wildlife and Fisheries’ Wildlife Division has set a final public comment session for 10 a.m.-noon, April 22 (Tuesday) at state headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge. Public comment will be taken only on the amendments offered since the 2025-26 hunting seasons were proposed in early January Among the handful of amendments were the much-discussed West and East zones duck season dates, use of equipment like airboats and surface-drive boats on wildlife management areas and using tracking dogs for deer
APRIL 26-27—BASSMASTER KAYAK
SERIES: Dale Hollow Reservoir, Byrdstown, Tennessee. Website: bassmaster.com
APRIL 26-27—BASSMASTER COLLEGE KAYAK SERIES: Dale Hollow Reservoir, Byrdstown, Tennessee. Website: bassmaster.com
APRIL 27—SOUTH LOUISIANA HIGHPOWER CLUB MATCH: 8:30 a.m., Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Range, St. Landry Road, Gonzales. CMP GSSM, NRA match rifle or service rifle, 200-yard/50-rounds match course & prone matches. Fee $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 juniors. $25 annual club (first match free) & Civilian Marksmanship Program membership (allows purchases from CMP). Call (337) 380-8120. Email Mike Burke: SouthLaHighPower@hotmail.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.
BY TERESA M. WALKER AP sportswriter
Tennessee is moving forward without quarterback Nico Iamaleava, and coach Josh Heupel said Saturday he had a simple message to the remaining Volunteers. No one is bigger than the Power T, including the coach himself. Even now in the different landscape that is college football.
“This program has been around for a long time with a lot of great coaches and a lot of great players that laid the cornerstone pieces, the legacy, the tradition that is Tennessee football,” Heupel said.
“It’s going to be around a long time after I’m done and after they’re gone, and that’s what’s special about being here is that there is a legacy and a tradition that is so rich and a logo that’s recognized not just across the nation but around the world, too.”
Heupel called losing Iamaleava an “unfortunate” situation.” He thanked Iamaleava for his work while at Tennessee. Asked about the timing without notice just before the spring game Saturday, Heupel said there’s never an easy time to lose a player. Heupel told his coaches Friday that he’s lost players at the start of training camp or during the season with adversity a chance to either bring teams together or divide them.
“If it’s going to happen, rip the Band-Aid, too,” Heupel said about losing a player “At the end of the day, we got a lot of great work for the two guys that are here. We’ve got a chance to move forward as a program. It’s unfortunate in the landscape of college football that it happens at this point.”
Iamaleava had been practicing all spring and expected to be the starting quarterback for a second straight season. Asked when Heupel knew the Vols would not have Iamaleava moving forward, the coach said Friday morning when the quarterback was a “no show” with no communication with Heupel. The Tennessee coach refused to get into details about any discussions with Iamaleava and his representatives.
“He’s moving on, we’re moving on, too,” Heupel said. “We’ll be ready to roll when we get to next fall.”
So Iamaleava was not at Saturday’s orange and white game and not listed on Tennessee’s roster on the website before the session started. His No. 8 gear also was not inside shops at Neyland Stadium after two days of speculation about Iamaleava’s future with Tennessee.
Iamaleava is the quarterback whose name, image and likeness deal bringing him to Tennessee prompted an NCAA investigation and a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia in January 2024.
The NCAA was looking at both Tennessee and The Vol Club, an NIL collective run by Spyre Sports Group over the recruitment of the five-star quarterback from California and his NIL contract with Spyre.
The NCAA settled that lawsuit Jan. 31 over its rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation for recruits.
From Little’s home on the banks of the Yakima River, which cuts through the heart of the town of about 6,000 people, he drives through the historic downtown and up into the hills to the house on Scenic Drive. He remembers watching young Kellen throw footballs to himself in the backyard
He drives out of the hills, past the gleaming new high school, and winds around a bend to the dingy old building where he witnessed Kellen’s father, Tom, build something special. There, he says, is where the athletic teams lifted weights out of a double-wide trailer He acquires keys to the old gym where he knows Kellen’s Gatorade Player of the Year banner hangs. He apologizes for its tattered condition
From the old gym to Housel Middle School, where Little used to teach, everyone he encounters receives a bit of goodnatured ribbing — from the maintenance man to the office workers while he looks for the right people. Here are Jeff Appelgate, Kellen’s eighth-grade football coach, and Dean Smith, who taught Kellen in the gifted and talented program. Both have been here 33 years. There are Wendy Rodriguez (30 years) and Christine Essary (32 years), who both taught Kellen in the sixth grade. There is a long history here Appelgate pulls up a video that all those teachers who taught Kellen and remained in Prosser sent to him before Super Bowl LIX. In it, Appelgate jokingly thanks Kellen for letting him call plays back when Kellen was an eighth grader who knew more about the game than his coaches Little suggests meeting Kellen’s old babysitter, so he calls Rose Brown and directs the pickup back into the hills where she lives. She has known the Moore family for about 40 years, and she watched both Kellen and his younger brother Kirby, from the time they were in diapers through their childhood. She gave all the kids she watched nicknames; the Moore boys were “Kellenmeister” and “Kerbil Gerbil.” She seems somewhat embarrassed that she can’t help clapping when she sees Kellen on TV, though she knows he can’t hear When she sees him on her screen, she recognizes the same soft laugh he had as a child
What sort of place shaped Kellen Moore? Throw a rock in Prosser and you re likely to hit someone who can tell you. The place that built Kellen Moore
This clichéd phrase keeps popping up when you speak to people about Moore. Over and over again, they say it was all a “perfect storm.” The textbook definition of the phrase connotes something negative, or destructive, but that’s not the aim. It is a tidy way to describe something that is difficult to explain. The complex weave of place and people, of nature and nurture, of skill and opportunity, the many disparate things that all aligned in just the right way to produce someone like Kellen Moore.
Prosser is idyllic at sunset Viewed from the Horse Heaven hills where the wild mustangs once roamed, the setting sun casts golden light on those hills to the south and Rattlesnake Mountain to the north and the lush valley in between — wine vineyards, apple orchards, and fields of hops and wheat. Running through all of it is the shimmering sickle of the Yakima River
The postcard view of Prosser today is a fabrication of American ingenuity and hubris. Left to its own devices, Prosser would be an arid place where little but sagebrush grows. For millennia, the only inhabitants were the people of the Yakima Nation, who came to the falls of the wild river to catch salmon on their annual spawn migration.
That began to change when the town’s namesake, William Prosser, arrived and established a homestead in 1882 on the banks of the river Those who followed found hard times, but those few who lasted lean years taming horses and coaxing wheat
from dry soil were rewarded.
Twenty years after William Prosser’s arrival, Congress passed the Reclamation Act, which gave the government authority to fund the large-scale irrigation of the American west. A dam tamed the wild river, destroying the Yakima Nation’s ancestral tradition and diverting the flow to suddenly lucrative farmland. President Theodore Roosevelt trekked to the Prosser train depot to praise the community making the “wilderness bloom like a rose.”
Water transformed Prosser, revealing the perfect storm of conditions that make it a vibrant place now Three hundred days of sun and 8 inches of rain per year, hot days, cool nights, volcanic soil — an agricultural industry sprouted from the desert, and a community lasted for more than 100 years until two teachers from Illinois arrived on their summer break, blown away by the beauty of the place.
Tom and Kris Moore fell in love with the area that summer while camping at a friend’s home in the nearby Tri Cities. They didn’t have to leave. The Prosser Mustangs, named after those wild horses that no longer lived there, needed a football coach. In some ways, Kellen Moore’s path feels predetermined. He is the son of a coach, but he is also the grandson of a coach.
Thomas “Bert” Moore was a first-generation Irish immigrant. He served with the U.S. Marines during World War II, and afterward attended Western Illinois, where his accomplishments earned him a spot in the school’s athletics Hall of Fame. He is most well-known for his time coaching basketball at Bloom Township in the south Chicago suburbs, where his teams competed for state titles. One of his star players, sports executive Jerry Colangelo, once described him to the Chicago Tribune as a “tough, pugnosed competitor” who had a “demeanor that made you want to play for him.”
Tom Moore grew up in that environment
His life centered around his father’s sports programs, and then he went west and built one of his own.
Prosser won four games in 1986, Tom’s first season leading the program. It then won 21 of the next 22 league championships and four state titles before Tom stepped down in 2009 as one of the most successful football coaches in Washington state history
There’s shorthand for how he got there: TMF for Tom Moore Football. The acronym is spoken like an inside joke, like the people
in on it know Tom despises it. It suggests that he is the center of it all, which may be the antithesis of what Tom Moore Football is actually about. It is a comprehensive system for building better men.
“Tom and the Prosser Mustang culture, throughout those 30 years, changed a generation,” says Josh Jelinek, who both played and coached under Tom at Prosser “We grew up knowing that if we did the right thing, we would be taken care of. We also knew the expectation was to not be mediocre, it was to be great Many of us took that challenge and embraced it.”
Little was already in Prosser when Tom arrived, and he witnessed the “absolute 180” the program took under his direction.
When Tom wasn’t coaching football, he taught strength classes in the weight room and incorporated training elements that are common now, but not then. His kids ran sprints if they swore His football practices were scripted down to the smallest detail. Preparation and discipline were the hallmarks of his teams. And he would never, ever allow the circumstances of his environment — a one-school town whose talent is confined to the borders of the school district — to dictate his team’s success.
“Throughout the state, people knew where Prosser was and about Prosser football because of the success,” says Doug Fassler, who began coaching with Tom Moore in 1988 and still teaches at Prosser High today “Lots of people would come back and say ‘What are they doing there? Where are they getting these players? They’re just little farm-town kids.’
“They grew up together, and coach Moore established a culture of winning and raised the bar on the work ethic, what it takes, the weight room, the conditioning, et cetera. He created something that made our town special.”
Scores of small towns experience brief sports successes, but how do some sustain it over decades like Tom’s Prosser teams? Maybebyinvestinginit,soitcanself-sustain.
Patrick Zuniga moved to Prosser from a neighboring town right before he began high school. Like Jelinek, he is one of many who played under Tom, then later coached under him.
The Prosser he remembers is one that would come to a complete stop on Friday nights. The people inside Art Fiker Stadium would be parents, but also local business owners who’d offer 2-for-1 specials
with proceeds going to support the athletics program, and elementary school kids, envisioning their futures, trying to seek out those broad-shouldered team captains who visited their classrooms.
“It was kind of our own crop,” Zuniga says. “We grew it, we cultivated it.”
The coach’s son was no different than anyone else.
“The way we grew up, all we really wanted to be was Prosser Mustangs,” Kellen says. “It was the way we were raised.” Kellen was placed in Prosser’s gifted program for those who tested in the 97th percentile and above. Rodriguez, who taught his sixth-grade English class, described him as “always deep in thought, a high-level reader, writer, thinker.” Zuniga, who taught Kellen’s honors history class, remembers a boy with an incredibly pliable mind who applied metaphors to make complex things understandable.
He showed an aptitude for tech, and throughout high school he worked in Smith’s S.W.A.T program Students With an Attitude for Technology He helped students and teachers alike with computers, and it was not lost on Smith that the star quarterback was participating in something like this.
“In my gifted program, there were some students who didn’t have the social skills, and I always remember how he was one who would just gravitate to the students who might feel left out and he pulled them in,” Smith says. “He was very inclusive.”
There may have been a hundred different routes Kellen could have taken out of Prosser when he chose to leave. He decided early on to pour his gifts into sports. Kellen was a near constant presence around his father’s teams, and just like in school, he worked hard at understanding what was happening in front of him. When he was young, he sat in the stands with his mother and dissected what was happening on the field. When he got a little older, he moved into various on-field roles, chasing the tee after a kickoff or working as a ball boy There are stories about a precocious and quiet child, and then there are stories like this: Essary taught sixth-grade math and science at Prosser’s middle school. During breaks in class, the 11- or 12-year old boys would do things the kids of that age do, except for Kellen, who would find a quiet corner in the room and pull out a pen and paper
One day, Essary realized he was drawing up football plays.
“His brain was zoned in to football from a very young age,” Essary says. “I didn’t realize how special that was.” Kellen dissected football plays the way another kid might take apart a radio, trying to understand how and why it worked. He watched as much of the game as he could get his hands on, somehow acquiring nonbroadcast film of Texas Tech’s air raid offense, and thought about how he could apply it to his own high school offense. Everybody who coached him at the time, maybe with the exception of his father, is convinced that Kellen understood football better than they did. He used to make his own playbooks. Hard copies weren’t a thing at Prosser, because Tom always believed the kids learned best through experience. But Kellen was not deterred, and he fabricated his own. Nobody in the Moore family seems to know where they are. They’re relics of a bygone era, and the Moores are not sentimental. But at least one exists. Little seemed to sense what was happening when Tom’s son started lighting up scoreboards and breaking records. He managed to get his hands on one, and he held onto it over the years. It’s a plain white binder, with a cover sheet identifying it as the “2005 Prosser Passing Offense.” Crack its cover and see a bulleted list with the names for personnel packages and instructions for making checks at the line of scrimmage. Each individual sheet
shows a specific play and its variations based on formation, as well as an inlaid box that identifies the type of drop, hand signals and what a receiver is supposed to do against a certain type of coverage
It might be the only one left. Little laughs and says he may sell it on eBay if Kellen is ever enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
There are a lot of stories about Kellen Moore the football player Even for a kid who threw for a state-record 173 touchdown passes in three seasons at Prosser, some of the stories may be enhanced by the passage of time and the legend that has grown since. But some stories are preserved in the moment.
Zuniga was the head coach for Kellen’s freshman football team He starts laughing before he can find the image he’s searching for on his phone, the box score from Kellen’s first football game as a high school athlete. He’s laughing because he was the head coach but leaning on his freshman quarterback to help call the plays, and he’s laughing because he remembers the poor kids on the other side of the ball running a zero-blitz look the whole game.
Final score: Prosser 91, Hanford 12. Kellen Moore’s 11 completions went for 239 yards and five touchdowns.
The place that Kellen Moore built About five hours southeast of Prosser, the Gene Bleymaier football facility sits near the banks of the Boise river, on top of what used to be a grass lot where Boise State fans tailgated.
Walk into the state-of-the-art complex, up the stairs toward the football offices, and one of the first things to greet you is a giant tile mosaic of Kellen throwing a football. Continue down the hall, and there’s another large mosaic piece of Kellen. Go farther and find a blown-up version of the Sports Illustrated cover featuring Kellen the one that was hanging on the walls of so many homes and classrooms in Prosser. Walk into co-offensive coordinator Nate Potter’s office, with the large window overlooking the iconic blue turf, and find a floorto-ceiling likeness of Kellen loading up to throw a pass.
He is everywhere you look in the football building. Anyone who knows Kellen suggests that he probably hates this type of display, and they’re absolutely right The building was built in 2013, two years after Kellen’s college career ended, and Kellen dismisses the iconography inside it as “timing.”
“That’s called, they were building the facility as I was leaving,” he says “They’ll build some cooler and better things soon.”
He will find some who agree with him, who will point out that he arrived to a college program already on the rise, that he played under a brilliant coaching staff and alongside several future NFL players. It was not a oneman show Their shared successes were, in part, a matter of excellent timing. But not everybody feels this way
“This building, the reason it’s here, has a lot to do with him and the impact he had on the program,” says Potter, who was Kellen’s Boise State teammate for five years. The most well-known moment in Boise State history may have happened a year before Kellen Moore arrived on campus. The 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Boise State vs. Oklahoma. Ian Johnson taking the handoff on the game-winning Statue of Liberty play in overtime, then proposing to his girlfriend on the broadcast.
That is what people thought about when they thought about Boise State — that and the blue turf. That win against Oklahoma resulted in the school securing funding for the glass-windowed facade on the west side of the stadium, and it was the zenith of a great 10-year run after Boise State transitioned to the highest level of college football in the mid-90s But moments are fleeting. How do you take a moment and capitalize on it, to turn it into something with staying power? You take an already strong existing framework and add someone like Kellen Moore to supercharge the growth.
Jay Tust, now the sports director for KTVB-TV in Boise, started covering the team just before Kellen’s final season in 2011. The Broncos began that year ranked No. 5 in The Associated Press poll, a fact
Washington
Tust had a hard time squaring with what his eyes were telling him.
“They’re top 10 in the country, and they’re practicing in a middle-school grass practice field during fall camp,” Tust says.
“And the mode of transportation is a bunch of Idaho kids jumping in the back of pickup trucks and driving down Fairview (Avenue) to get back to campus.
“And then when they arrive at campus, they’re going into this old, dilapidated locker room that is completely outdated. They’re sharing a small weight room with the entire school.”
Not long after they opened that camp, the Broncos waxed Georgia 35-21 in Atlanta in their season opener That was what the Kellen Moore era was all about at Boise State, Tust says. Doing more with less.
“Boise loves to claim that they’re blue collar,” Tust says. “They write it on the back of their jerseys and things like that. But when you go over to the facility now, you realize they actually have some pretty nice stuff. When Kellen was here, that was an era where I truly believe that they didn’t have to embrace being blue collar because they were blue collar.”
Longtime Boise State head coach Chris Petersen seems to have little interest in fueling Kellen’s Boise legend with apocryphal tales. The middle-school field? They just needed some grass. The handmade playbook Kellen supposedly showed up with when he arrived at Boise, based off his own film study? The only thing that mattered is if he could play
But Petersen also has no need for it, because the Boise era was proof in the pudding. And the beautiful thing is the way it all dawned on everyone Not in some eureka moment, but in stages.
The production at Prosser forced Petersen to pay attention. Then a recruiting camp, where it was impossible to get a real gauge on whether his ability would translate, but it was hard to ignore how fast he was getting the ball out of his hand. Petersen remembers thinking, “ ‘God, does he know what he’s doing, or is he just feeling things?’ “ So he got Kellen on campus, redshirted him and had him lead the scout team. And Petersen remembers how frustrated his defensive coaches would be during practice, and the way they said, “Yeah, but we’re not going to see that this weekend,” and the eyebrows started to raise a little more.
And then there’s what happened in the meeting rooms.
“The thing about Kellen that was just different — in all my years of coaching, he’s at the top of the chart on this — is the intensity the attention and focus that he brought to meetings every day,” Petersen says. “And I’m talking when he redshirted his first year It was just different.” Kellen beat out
veteran Bush Hamdan for the starting job in 2008, Petersen did not have to wait long for the decision to be validated. Boise State traveled to Autzen Stadium to play Oregon in Week 3, and if there is one thing everybody can agree on, it is that the Oregon game removed any doubt that they’d found someone special.
Little saw it from the stands with a Prosser contingent: “I remember talking to Tom, like, ‘Oh, I hope he just doesn’t get crushed.’ Then they start playing, and it’s like, completion, completion, completion. It’s like they were playing one of our high school teams.”
Longtime Boise State sports information director Max Corbet saw from the press box: “Shoot, he just lights it up. You could just see it with him and the confidence that he had. He just doesn’t get rattled, he had a great game, and the rest is history.”
Petersen saw from the sideline: “We still hadn’t been challenged yet. And I just remember in that game, early on, we had a seven-step draw play-action, and he throws a comeback. I’m watching him, and he gets detonated like the guy knocks him about 10 yards backwards. And I’m like, ‘Oh no, we might have just lost our quarterback.’ And he pops over, smiling at the sideline like, ‘We’re rolling here, fellas.’ Then I’m like, ‘OK, this guy might have something here.’ “ Potter saw it from the field: “Players, coaching staff, everybody knew that he was different. In my memory, that was the turning point in football terms, where everybody was like, ‘Oh, man, we’ve got somebody special.’
While Kellen became one of the most prolific passers in college football history his Broncos lost just three games by a combined total of five points. He endeared himself to a growing Boise State fanbase with a vibe Tust describes as, “low ego, high output.” People in the Boise area really did start naming their kids Kellen. And people invested in the program.
Travis Hawkes was born and raised in Boise. He went to Boise State’s business school and then co-founded a successful business in the area. In his sleek office, he has one room dedicated to Boise State memorabilia. In it, there are Kellen Moore bobbleheads and signed footballs and a game-used jersey There is also a nearly life-sized painting of him, which is actually a secret door to a hidden lounge.
“He always did things the right way,” Hawkes says. “It’s a fan’s dream. It’s like the reverse of the guy who is the best player who disappoints you with ego or off-field actions or how he treats people.”
It was a wave of momentum that carried Boise State from the Statue of Liberty moment to something that felt more sustainable. Of course he didn’t single-handedly raise the Boise State football program from the
dust. But it is equally evident that the program that exists now probably doesn’t look the same without Kellen Moore’s influence.
“He changed the trajectory of the program,” Potter says. “This growth and what we’re building here is all, in part, from what he did while he was a player.”
The plan
What forces produced someone like Kellen Moore? Maybe a place like Prosser did.
“It’s a simple, small town,” Kellen says. “There’s two stoplights.”
Well, actually, there are three now, the latest one being added a few years ago.
What Moore leaves out is that Prosser did not install its first stoplight until he was in high school. Back then, there was a welcome sign posted somewhere in town that described Prosser as “a pleasant place with pleasant people.” That, he believes, is accurate. It has always been a place where everyone knew and took care of each other
Maybe it’s the people in the small town, like the teachers that nurtured his curiosity, or the coaches who to this day hang onto their unwavering belief in him.
Kellen appeared in three games as an NFL player, all a footnote to a forgettable 2015 season with the Dallas Cowboys. A footnote to all except those who remember and still believe.
With Little looking on, nodding, Fassler says, “I swear to God, I know he could’ve done it in the NFL.” Kellen struggled in his first two games, throwing four interceptions in a pair of dismal losses. But he started the regular-season final at home against Washington. And with Little and some others from Prosser in attendance, he turned in a vintage Kellen performance, throwing for 435 yards and three touchdowns.
It was the last opportunity he’d have to see the field as a player He retired as a player before his 30th birthday and had a job coaching in the league weeks later At 36 years old, Kellen Moore is the youngest head coach in the NFL. He takes over a Saints organization that is desperate for a winner, and the people in his past are convinced he is going to get it done.
“I know if it had broken differently and he had an opportunity to actually play he would’ve found a niche in the NFL, I have no doubt,” Fassler says. “Because mentally he was two steps ahead of you even at that level. Which led to his being a great offensive coordinator and that kind of thing.
“He’s different. He’s different.”
Maybe he is the product of his family environment. His mother a principal who fostered his mind, and his father, a coach who drew him and his younger brother to football. Kellen is an NFL head coach, and Kirby is a Southeastern Conference offensive coordinator at Missouri. There are three generations of successful Moore coaches now
“It’s not a coincidence, and it’s not a onetime lightning strike for Tom, Kellen and Kirby,” Jelinek says. “This is in their blood and it’s in their heart, and they’re very good at it. I can’t wait to see what he does.”
You go to Prosser, and to Boise, and you try to uncover all of those elements that combined to make this perfect storm, and you come to the conclusion that all these elements undoubtedly played a part in shaping the boy that became the coveted man. And then you find the last scrap of evidence. A photo of a booklet, typed out more than 20 years ago when Kellen was maybe 12 or 13 years old.
When he was in middle school, a teacher assigned his class a project that required students to write an autobiography In a short introduction, Kellen wrote about the central role football had played in his life, how he was lucky to grow up around the game, how he’d been on the sideline for every game since the first grade.
Some of it is funny kid stuff. He refers to himself throughout with the spoonerism “Mellen Koore.” He makes sure to note that he’s always had his own room, and that he visits family in Chicago once a year
And then you get to the final page. The list of a middle schooler’s long-term goals. Those are something else entirely
1. To start at quarterback for Prosser for at least two years.
2. To get a scholarship to play football or basketball.
3. To play college football or basketball.
4. To get a degree in sports management.
5. Then it would be to hopefully play in the NFL or the NBA.
6. Would be to then be a General Manager, Coach, or something like that for a football team. He went 5-for-6 before he turned 40. The only thing he missed was his degree. Instead, he was an academic All-American while majoring in communications.
“I’ve never seen somebody with the single focus that he had to accomplish something, and then it all worked out almost like you couldn’t plan it any better,” Fassler says. Little was there the day Kellen Moore was born. He watched Kellen throw footballs to himself in the backyard He coached alongside Kellen’s father for two and a half decades and he likes to joke about shamelessly riding Tom and Kellen’s coattails. He has a personal connection with just about everyone who was important in Kellen’s life, and he’s happy to introduce you to them.
And Little understands.
“We all want to do whatever we can to take credit for Kellen,” Little says with a laugh. “But unfortunately he had a lot more to do with our success than we had to do with his.” The forces that shaped Kellen Moore were all around him. In his Prosser family home and in his classroom and football fields, on middle-school grass and blue fields among the right people in Idaho. But they were also within him.
Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate.com.
Oddtiming andvague nature of injured shoulder arepuzzling
Jeff
Duncan
Talk about aFriday news dump. Thenews of Saints quarterback Derek Carr’sshoulder injury sent shock waves acrossNew Orleans on Friday afternoon. The report, by the NFL Network, was unusually vague and did not provide many details. It didn’t even state which shoulder was injured. It did state that Carr’savailability for the 2025 season might be “threatened”,indicating the injury is serious. Carr reportedly is weighingoptions, including surgery
The report left more questions than answers: When did the injuryoccur?
Dianna Russini of TheAthletic reported that the news did not come as asurprise to the Saints, butit’sunclear how long team officials have knownabout it.
The season-ending injury Carr suffered in Week 14 against the Giantslast season was to hisleft hand. There was no mention of his shoulder on the injury report. Carr sprained the AC joint in his right (throwing) shoulder in 2023, but he playedthrough the injury, and there appeared to be nolingeringissueswith it lastseason Wasthe injuryfootball-related?
Normally, medical procedures
are conducted as soon as possible after theinjury occurssoplayers canbegin therehab and recovery process. Sowhy wait until April to address it, unless, of course, theinjury occurred recently and/ or was nonfootball-related?
Whichleadstothe next question
Whyare we just learning about it now?
The news broke three days before players are scheduled to report for theteam’soffseason program,which hardly seemsto be by happenstance. It’s an odd time for major injury news to occur.Players and teams normally address injuries as soon as possible after the season to give proper timefor rehaband recov-
Game 82 hasarrived forevery NBAteam
BY TIM REYNOLDS
AP basketball writer
Game82for every teaminthe NBA has arrived. For 10 clubs, it’s the end of the season. For 13 others, it’sone last game before the postseason. And for seven teams in the Western Conference, Game 82 might feel like Game 7.
The NBA regular season ends on Sunday,with sevenpostseasonboundWestteams entering thefinal day wondering where they’llland in the standings. And it all could be decided around the same time;each of thegames that willaffectthose unclaimed West spots start alittle after 3:30 p.m. Eastern. All 30 teams will be in action. Some just want to getthingsover with. Some want answers —and will get them.
“I don’twant to be too dramatic,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said. “It should be like a Game 7-kind of vibe. Youwin, and you control your destiny on aguaranteed playoff series. You lose, and you roll thedice. Good teams find away to win big games like that, and that’swhat we’re aiming to be.”
There are four West teams Golden State, Denver,the Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota —vying forthree guaranteedplayoff spots, and oneof them will even get home-courtin Round 1. The odd team out of that mix is headed to aplay-ingame on Tuesday For those four teams, it’svery simple: Winand you’re in. Golden State plays the Clippers, so the loser of thatgame likely —but not definitely—goes to the play-in. If Utah knocks off Minnesota, the Timberwolves are play-in bound regardless of other outcomes. Entering Sunday,Minnesota would be the odd team out in the race for those last three West guaranteed spots. Denver enters thefinal day in the No. 4spot, with the Clippers fifth andGolden State sixth. The Timberwolves close at home against Utah, the teamwith the worst record in the West. “Win the game and then whatever happens after that happens,”Min-
Continued from page1C
just haven’tquite fit (like Williamson and Brandon Ingram together). Or those pieces have beenbroken (with all types of injuries). With the Pelicans back in the NBA lottery again withthe fourth-worst record in the NBA, will Benson let Griffincontinueto try to reach the sustainability he’s been trying to get to?
nesota’sJulius Randle said. “We winthe game, we’rewhere we want to be.So, focusonusand Ialways saycontrolwhatwecan control And after that, we’ll figure it out.”
Also undecided: whereMemphis, Sacramentoand Dallas will endup. Memphis will be seventh or eighth in theWest and in aplayin game on Tuesday,while Sacramentoand Dallaswill be ninthand 10th—insome order —withNo. 9hosting No. 10 in an elimination gameWednesday
“It’s good that we know who we’re playing,” Mavericks forward AnthonyDavis said. “So, we’ll start prepping.”
The Eastern Conference order is set going into Sunday: Cleveland is No. 1, Boston is No. 2, New York is No. 3(and will play No. 6Detroit) and IndianaisNo. 4(and will play No. 5Milwaukee). No. 7Orlando hostsNo. 8Atlanta on Tuesday in aplay-in game, and No. 9Chicago hostsNo. 10 Miami on Wednesday in an elimination game
The West spotsthat are set: Oklahoma City is No. 1, Houston is No. 2and theLos AngelesLakersare No. 3. Nextweekend’sopeners will mark the first time that the Lakers host aGame 1inLos Angeles since 2012; theLakers were the home team for allfourGame 1s theyplayedontheir way to the NBA title in thebubble in 2020, but those gameswere in Florida.
“I’m just incredibly proud of our team,” Lakers first-year coach JJ Redicksaid. “It’sanaccomplishment to win 50 games in theregular season in any year.Ithink par-
Green, meanwhile, has made the playoffs in two of his four seasons andincreased his win total every year beforethis one. This season,one in which he was dealtasbad of ahand as possible, has been downright brutal. The Pelicans lost four games by 40 or morepoints,including Friday’s gamewhenGreen was playing with mostly G-Leaguers In addition to those blowout losses, the Pelicans have had a nine-game losingstreak, a10gamelosingstreak and an 11-
ticularly this year,inthis Western Conference, it is,and it’s acredit to our players. .Wewant to go win one more game, and we’ll figure out Sunday who we play in the first round.”
Playinginall 82
There are 11 players entering Sunday with achance of appearing in all82games,and six with a chance to start all 82.
New York’sMikal Bridges is in line to playall 82 —again. He’s appeared in all555 possible regular-seasongames of hiscareer, 39 moreinthe playoffs and all 116 of Villanova’sgames when he was in college. His last game missed: one game becauseofillness in his junior year of high school.
San Antonio’sChris Paulcould become the second-oldest player, behind JohnStockton, to start all 82 games. Stockton did it in the season whereheturned 40; Paul won’t turn 40 until May6.Paul could become thefirst player to do so in Year 20 of acareer or later; Stockton played 19 seasons.
Theothers who could start 82: Cleveland’sJarrett Allen, San Antonio’sHarrison Barnes, Houston’s Jalen Green and Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels.
In addition to Bridges, Paul, Allen, Barnes, Green andMcDaniels, SanAntonio’sJulianChampagnie Golden State’sBuddy Hield, Detroit’sMalik Beasley,Washington’s Bub Carrington and Minnesota’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker could play in their 82ndgames of the season on Sunday
gamelosing streak. ButGreen, as Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka reminded me earlier this season, didn’tjust wake up one day and forget how to coach.
“You see great coaches struggle at times throughout their career when injuries hit seasons,” Udoka said. “It’s not that they’re aworse coach all of asudden.”
Butinthe NBA, especially this season, we’ve seen coaches with far better seasons lose their jobs. Michael Malone (Denver Nuggets),Taylor Jenkins (Memphis
contract earlier this offseason. As aresult, Carr’ssalary cap is $20.4 million this season but balloons to $69.4 million in 2026. Under the termsofhis old deal, Carr was required to pass aphysical before earning the guaranteed portion of his salary this season. Assuming he did, was the shoulder injury not detected during the physical?
Regardless, it’s unclear whether theinjurygives theSaints any kind of contractual outfor theteam. Howdoes this affect the Saints’ draft plans?
The Saints have three quarterbacks on the roster behind Carr: Spencer Rattler,Jake Haener and Ben DiNucci. Collectively,they have eight combined NFLstarts. Team officials have showninterest in several quarterbacks in the upcoming NFLdraft, including top prospects Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough and Quinn Ewers. Was this interest related to Carr’sinjury? Or were the Saints simply performing their normal due diligence?
erygoing into the next season. Conspiracy theorists will run amok with the timing of the leak, late on aFriday afternoon, just before theteam’soffseason conditioning program is scheduled to begin Monday
What, if any, are the contractual/cap ramifications?
The Saints restructured Carr’s
As you can see, there are many questions that remain from this developing story.I’m sure we will learn moreinthe days ahead. The next chance local media will have to getanswers formally on the subject likely will not come until the week of the April 24-26 NFL Draft, when general manager Mickey Loomis, head coach Kellen Moore or aSaints personneldirector is requiredto conducta pre-draft news conference.
BY TOYLOYBROWN III Staff writer
LSU men’sbasketballentered the transfer portal on amission to get positional size. CoachMattMcMahon doesn’t want arepeat of last season when he discovered his best lineup consisted of four guards all under 6-foot-5 and less than 200 pounds. The acquisition of Northeastern’s 6-6, 204-pound wing Rashad King could help prevent that fromhappening again. The Evans, Georgia, native madethe All-Coastal Athletic Association first team last season after averaging 18.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.7 turnovers in 36.6minutesper game.
The junior shot 44.9% from the field, 31.9% from the 3-point line and 85.3% from the free-throw line on 4.9 attempts.
While the scoring numbers are themosteye-catching, what is arguably the most intriguing skill for LSU is his playmaking. King’s three assists per gameundersell his willingness as apasser
Despite his scoring prowess, King seemed wired to get teammates involved. He surveyed the courtand was happy to throw outlet passes and wastrusted to run pick-and-rolls.
King threw avariety of passes, includingacouplewithhis nondominantleft hand. When he’sin thepaint,he’ll consistently kick it out instead of taking ahighdifficulty shot.
King’s mature approach was illustrated by a13-assist performance against Princeton and his 19.1% assist rate, the thirdhighestamong thetop-10scorers in the CAA. His nearly three turnovers won’tbeasconcerning since he won’t run the LSU offense like he did for Northeastern. UNLV transfer DedanThomas will be theone dominatingthe ball for LSU, but King could be asecondary playmakerwith size. Most importantly, he seemstobe someone who plays theright way. He alsohas thephysicalmakeup to defend multiple positions. He hada2.5% block rate and
Grizzlies) and Mike Brown(Sacramento Kings) werefired during theseason despite all leading teams that madeittoatleast the play-in tournament. Will Benson lean on Green’sstrugglesthis season? Or will she take into account whathedid last season when playing with afull deck? And then there is Williamson, who showed once again just how dominant he can be, averaging career highs in both assists and rebounds. The problem is he only showed it 30 times as injuries and load manage-
2.3% steal rate. Only 15 rotation players in the SEC had those percentages or better,according to BartTorvik. Against Monmouth, King defended the CAA’sleading scorer Abdi Bashir,who is now at Kansas State. King chased the 38% 3-point shooter around screens and deterred several jumpers. Defending tallerorstronger players might pose an issue. AgainstTowson’s6-9 TylerTejada, the CAA Player of the Year, Kingwas scored over repeatedly Another added value he brings is his rebounding forhis size. His 16.5% defensive rebound rate would have been the second-best on LSU for players whoplayed morethan eight games.
King’soutside shootingwill be critical to LSU’ssuccess. While his raw numbers were poor, hisshootingmechanics are solid. Whenisolating his catchand-shoot 3s, he went37of103 (35.9%), according to Synergy On unguarded catch-and-shoot looks, he was 18 of 38 (47.4%). King’sshooting could improve since he won’tcreate off the dribble much. Another reason for optimism is his excellent 85.3% free-throw shooting.
Driving was King’sbest scoring methodatNortheastern. His dribbling skills, ability to finish with his lefthand and experience using on-ball screens allowed him to shoot 59% at the rim, whichis good but not great forthat level of competition.
Hisspeed andvertical jump will notstand out on an SEC court. He was blocked morethan you’d like in the CAA and only notched nine dunks. For perspective, LSU’s6-3 Cam Carter had 12 dunks. If the slashing doesn’ttranslate, his perimetershotwill be even morecrucial.
As things stand, King likely will be astarter forLSU.His mentality,size and productivity indicate he should be aserviceable off-ball player.Ifhedefends at a high level and continues to play with agreat feel, he’ll contribute to winning.
ment limited his play once again. To his credit, he wasinthe best shape he’sbeen in since Griffin selected him with the first overall pick in the 2019 draft. Has the Zion experiment run
to answer
McIlroy, DeChambeau havehistory,ability to make Sunday special
AUGUSTA, Ga. They say golf is thirsting for acompelling rivalry in the post Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson era. Maybe Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau is it. If it isn’t, this will do just fine until the real McCoy (or McIlroy) comes along, thank you
Yes, there are other players on the leaderboard going into Sunday’sfinal round of the Masters, including 2018 winner Patrick Reed, the former U-High golfer who worked his way intoa surprising tie for fourth.Sunday at the Masters has seen plenty of playersfamously charge out of the shadows and put their arms into agreen jacket But this is also the tournament that perhaps favors the leaders above all. The past eight Masters winners have come from thefinal group. Guess who’slast offthe tee Sundayafternoon?
Messrs. McIlroy and DeChambeau. The anticipation couldn’tbe sweeter.The contrasts couldn’tbe greater McIlroy has been carrying the banner forthe PGA Tour in
golf’s uncivil warwithLIV Golf. DeChambeau hasbeen carrying the water for LIV in the majors the past couple of years because, frankly,noone elsefromthat upstart outfit has been as good. Rory is afamily man. He said he whiled away the pre-round hourswatching “Zootopia” with his4-year-old daughter,Poppy “Very,very good movie if you haven’twatched it,” McIlroy said earnestly
DeChambeau was planning to watch aJames Bond film Saturdaynight. Preferably,one with Pierce Brosnan. No wordon whether hewould be having any cocktails shaken or stirred.
McIlroy said he was planning to stay off hisphoneand stay in his“own little bubble” during the final round.
DeChambeau, who in addition to being agreat golfer has made himself into aviral YouTube sensation, said heck yeah he was planning to be onhis phone Saturdaynightand waslooking forward to engagingwith the fans as he didSaturday when he stared across thepondat16after making abirdie.
“Just wanted to get thepatrons going,” DeChambeau said. “I get that energyback,and it’s acool feeling.”
Thetwo men’sbody language couldn’t have been moredifferent after their rounds.
McIlroy —who shot asecond straight 6-under-par 66, only the fifthman to dothat in the Masters —stared straightahead while
walking from the 18th green to theclubhouse to sign his scorecard, ignoring the fans going berserk for him on either side of thepath.
DeChambeau, who shot a3-under 69 for his third straight round in the 60s, was high-fiving peoplelike madashewalked the samegrassy stretch afew moments later.He mayhave even announced he was running for Congress. I’m not sure.
To me, it speaks to the places these two men occupy at this moment. In their experience and in their careers. For thereason why,you only have to look back to the2024 U.S. Open at PinehurstNo. 2.
DeChambeau bested McIlroy by one stroke to win his second U.S. Open. DeChambeau played brilliantly,but he also benefited enormously when McIlroy botched short par putts of 21/2 feet on 16 and 3feet, 9inches on 18. It was validation for DeChambeau, who also won afan-less U.S Open at Winged Foot during the pandemic restrictions of September 2020. It was more scar tissue for McIlroy,who since winning the2014 PGA has had moretop 10s in majors (21) than anyone, including four runner-up finishes, but no wins.
Then there is the pressureof knowing what he could do if he wins, something McIlroy mentioned not at all in his post-round interviews. If McIlroy keeps his head and his lead Sunday,hewill becomejust thesixth man and first European to win thecareer
Grand Slam: the Masters, U.S. and British Opens, and the PGA. It’sa hard,rare thing to do. Woods was the last to do it in 2000, and before him Jack Nicklaus in 1966.
If a35-year-old Woods was leading the Masters by twogoing into thefinal round instead of a 35-year-old McIlroy,the almost universal expectation would be that Woods would close the deal. McIlroy hardlyfeels like that sure of athing.
As his round erupted —McIlroy started with six straight 3s, going birdie-eagle-birdie-par-birdiepar —fans roared. They also wondered whether he wasn’talso settinghimselfupfor another major meltdown. Like the 2024 U.S. Open. Like the 2011 Masters, when he shot afinal-round 80 and fell from afour-stroke lead going into Sunday to atie for15th.
Aman in the gallery next to the 15th hole, the one McIlroy eagled Saturday with atowering 6-iron to 6feet, seemed to speak foreveryone in the gallery
“There are alot of ghosts out there,” he said. “A lot of ghosts.”
The implication was that those ghostsare waiting forMcIlroy Maybe oneofthem is named Bryson DeChambeau.
It promises to be athrilling final round, with arare rivalry that has achance to do golf’s fractured world good.
“It’ll be the grandest stage we’ve had in along time,” DeChambeau said, “and I’mexcited for it.”
Isn’teveryone?
BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. Former University High golferand 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed surprisingly vaultedintocontentionwitha 3-under 69 that put him atie for fourth at 6-under 210, six strokes back of leader RoryMcIlroy.Reed will bein the second-to-last group withCanada’s Corey Conners at 1:20p.m.
“Didn’thit it quite as solid today as the first twodays, but Iput it in the right spots on some holes,” Reed said. “The putter was alittle better. Iactually made acouple of putts today comparedtothe first two days. Ididn’tmake anything
“The greens are firmingupa little bit, getting alittle faster,and because of that, I’m able tokindof go back on old feels, old readsand kind of go that way.” Reed’sbest final round here is a 68, but he knows he’ll havetobe better than that to have achance at asecond green jacket.
“I’ve got to shoot my lowest round I’ve ever shot on Sunday out here,” he said.
Refreshing drink
You’re all set to watchthe final round of the Masters tournament Sunday The pimento cheese is chilling. The Masters garden gnome is gleaming.
What’sleft? Perhaps theMasters’ cocktail of choice, known as the azalea.
Recently,Augusta National Golf Club released its “official” recipe for the Masters’ signature drink,
It maybethe greatest “product placement”inthe historyofgolf: Tiger Woods’ Nikeball tumblinginto the cup on the par-3 16th as he made an incredible chip from behind the green in 2005.Leading Chris DiMarco by one,Woodsbombed his8-iron over thebackasDiMarco’sballsat 20 feet belowthe cupfor birdie. Woods playedhis shot 25 feet above thehole then watched it track right into the cup on the final turn.Woods bogeyed17and 18 to fall into a playoffwith DiMarco, but Woods beat him witha15-foot birdie on 18 to win hisfourthof five green jackets
Scott Rabalais
just in time forthe marchtothe greenjacket: •5ounces lemonade
•1.25 ounces vodka •0.5 ounces grenadine •Ice •Cherry and lemon wheel garnish Burnsfalls back Former LSU All-American Sam Burns hadachance to leap into contention with ahot third round. Unfortunatelyfor Burns, his round wentthe other way.After making the turnatevenpar for the day with birdies at Nos. 8and 9, the
Shreveport
Saturdayitset the stagefor thetwo Masters leaders, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, to gettheir rounds going.McIlroychippedin from offthe green foreagle,while DeChambeau made birdie.The winnerprobably will have abirdie or eaglehereSundayaswell.
Scott Rabalais
Paul Simon’sAQuiet Celebrationtouropens with compelling acoustic show in NewOrleans
BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
PaulSimonstood onstage recentlyatthe Saenger Theatre at the outset of hisfirst full concert in five years and confessed, “I’m as excited as you are,and you’reprobably not as nervous as Iam.”
The83-year-oldSimonwas about to embark on what may be the final chapterofhis creative journey,and an unexpected one. He had planned to retire from the road followinghis 2018 Homeward Bound Farewell Tour.But duringthe COVID lockdown, middle-of-the-night inspiration struck.
The result was 2023’s“SevenPsalms,”asong cycle based on the Biblical Book of Psalms. The desire to perform this material, which is both PaulSimon-like and also unlikeanything else in hissongwriting catalog, led to anew tour dubbed A Quiet Celebration.Itspans 20 cities and50showsthisspring and summer
ä See SIMON, page 8D
BY RACHEL MIPRO Contributing writer
NewOrleans is famous for its French and Spanish influences, but one less-publicized community has quietly shaped the city’sculture as well: the Basques. One Times-Picayune reader,intrigued by tales of werewolves and soldiers, asked Curious Louisiana to explore the history of the Basque presence in the city.Mark Dispenza, awriter-director, sent Curious Louisiana aquestion about the Basque community in New Orleans after working on ashoot.
Dispenza was researching his short horror film, arougarou story set in 1949 Acadiana, whenheread “Werewolf Stories,” by NickRedfern and Brad Steiger. “Itcontained legends of werewolves and shapeshifters from around the
ä See CURIOUS, page 9D
Onto amakeshift stage, agenius climbed the steps. In this, the month of the Jazz Fest, an afternoon in 2012 comes to mind. In amood that could be described as “bittersweet,” acrowdgathered at the parking lot of Rock ’N’Bowl next to Ye Olde College InnonSouth Carrollton Avenue. First came the bitterness in response to the newsthat the paper’sowner,Advance Publications, was going to scale back its venerable New
ä See LABORDE, page 9D
family’sjourney through it, as told with food that doesn’tland like fusion but like abraiding of traditions for an original, finely wrought cuisine.
Pêche Seafood Grill, 800 Magazine St.
Ian McNulty WHAT’S COOKING
Go ahead, skip below and see what restaurants are on my wish list for Michelin Star treatment. Butplease come back to read this preamble because, as with all things restaurant, context is everything. The Michelin Guide is nowinthe process of reviewing restaurants in New Orleans and aroundLouisiana as part of asix-state Southern regional expansion of its coverage. That means localrestaurants are eligible for vaunted Michelin Star award status for the first time. Michelin has not indicatedwhen its guide will be released. In the meantime, we can speculate (and then surely second-guess afterward).
What makesaMichelin Star?
Mention aMichelinStarrestaurant and acertain image arises —refined, expensive, posh. There will be foam and tweezers. That’s the reputation set by the prestigious rating system over more than acentury of guidingpeopleto restaurants of distinction,initially around the brand’shome country for France. Michelin, however,says that’san outdated image. Sometimes even avery casual restaurant will get astar,and Michelin has created a hierarchy of other rating designations below stars to be more inclusive, too.
The Michelin Guide explains that restaurants are assessed for stars on five criteria: “quality products; the harmony of flavors; the mastery of cooking techniques; the voice and personality of the chef as reflectedinthe cuisine; consistency between each visit and throughout the menu.”
And that’sit. Service, décor,the feeling of the restaurant —Michelin maintains thesefactors do not matter for star assessment. Its reviewers, called inspectors, are meant to consider solelywhat’son the plate. Former inspectors have concurred in interviews.
Anything goes?
In practice, the type of restaurants putting the time and resources into the criteria above are
typically upscale and expensive, andsoare mostrestaurantsthat endupwith MichelinStars.
But notalways.
When Texasmade itsMichelin debut last year,fourofthe 15 restaurants to getstarswerebarbecue spots(justlike you’re picturing, with smokers out back and linestoorder at thecounter).
Thinking through how the Michelin matrixwill play out in New Orleans has beenvexing for me, because whatI love most about restaurants here is not hemmed by technicalmastery nor artistic expression.Itisthe way restaurants make us feel, whether that’s pampered, adventurous or part of asharedhospitality culture. Still, Ihave endeavored to put myself in what Michelin setsas itsown framework to makethe picks below.These are theones I think can hit Michelin’smarkfor stars. I’mlisted them in descending order from most to least confidencethat Michelin reviewers will agree.
12 contenders
Emeril’sRestaurant, 800 Tchoupitoulas St.
This is obviously afirst-ballot pick, and if there’sany contender in New Orleans for more than one
star,thisisit. Since E.J. Lagasse transformed therestaurant his father created into its current tasting menu incarnation in 2023, Emeril’shas become the embodiment of dining that people travel theworld to experience. Saint-Germain, 3054 St. Claude Ave. Make what’s on the platetruly all that matters, and you arrive at Saint-Germain. Co-chefs Trey Smithand Blake Aguillarddistill a constantly changing tasting menu suffused with technique. Service is casual, thespace is not remotely fancy.The cooking is consistently brilliant. MaMou, 942 N.RampartSt.
What if New Orleans spent more time underthe French flag? What if the idea of French Creole cuisine continued to evolve in step with French nouvelle cuisine? Chef TomBranighan demonstrates that proposition with masterful technique and culinary imagination Dakar NOLA, 3814 Magazine St. Ifind it very hard to decouple thefood at Dakar NOLA from the upscale communal dining experience aroundwhich chef Serigne Mbayebuilt the wholeidea of his restaurant. Still, thethread connectingthe food traditions of Sen-
egal with the history of NewOrleans and achef’s journey through modernAmerican cuisine is just as compelling to the palate as it is to thespirit. Restaurant August, 301 Tchoupitoulas St. With chandeliers, soaring ceilings, flowers and bells and whistles, Restaurant August looks like theMichelin Star restaurants we have been conditioned to recognize (even though Michelin now saysweshouldn’t). Led today by chef Corey Thomas, this kitchen is expressive of Louisiana but in artfully original ways. It is luxury dining with asense of place and modern sensibility Acamaya, 3070 Dauphine St. The upscale/casual Mexican seafood restaurant that chef Ana Castro and her sister Lydia Castro created in the Bywater is quite differentfrom anything else in New Orleans. The sourcing is pristine, thetechnique is precise, the vision is clear and the evidence of what Mexican flavor can do for local seafood is mesmerizing.
Saffron NOLA, 4128 Magazine St. How is NewOrleans, with a relatively small Indian community,home to atruly world-class Indian restaurant? The answer is New Orleans itself and the Vilkhu
The look and feel here is beach town casual, albeit with aresort budget. The waywith local seafood is next level, showing afuller potential of what Gulf seafood can be from the raw bar to the woodfired grill. Chef de cuisine Nicole Cabrera Mills’ morerecent addition of Asian influences has lit a new spark.
Coquette, 2800 Magazine St.
Always different, never predictable, whatchef Michael Stoltzfus started 16 years ago remains a fresh vision for what contemporary Creole cuisine can be. Count on ahouse style that mixes wideranging culinary imagination with the plain dealing of exuberantly fresh ingredients.
Commander’sPalace,1403 WashingtonAve.
This is another one where Ireally struggle to separate cuisine from experience. The attempt pains me. Ican’timagine Commander’swithout the welcome, without that feeling of sailing through aparty where you’re the guest of honor,and without an appreciation for the wayfun and refinement find common ground. But to try: put on blinders, have agoatthe kitchen’sbest with the tasting menuoption (“Chef Meg’s Playground Menu”), and the reputation of this landmark restaurant is confirmed.
Brigtsen’sRestaurant, 723 Dante St. Brigtsen’sdates to the 1980s, and plating and the presentation seem to as well. But the waychef Frank Brigtsen layers and builds Louisiana Creole flavor is timeless and can turn skeptics into believers. It’sthe best one-stop, one-dinner example of whatmakes our regional cooking so compelling. Li’lDizzy’sCafé,1500 Esplanade Ave Ibet there will be surpriseson the Michelin roster,with something very casual in the mix. If aTexas barbecue joint can get a star,socan this font of Creole soul flavor,with one of the best examples of gumbo anywhere. So what if you stand in line to order and eat from takeout containers if it is really purely about the food?
Email Ian McNulty at imcnulty@ theadvocate.com.
n By George!
John and Sally Simkiss opened thedoors of their attractive Victorian home in the Garden District formembers and guests of the Royal SocietyofSt. George. Southern Hospitality Cateringdid floral arrangements with colors of Carnival, and around and about the festivespace, the flags of England, Scotland, Walesand Great Britain werepositioned
Extending welcoming hands as well were society president Paul Masinter and spouse Renee. Whenitwas time for formalities, he made remarks commemorating the coronation of His Majesty King
Charles III,which were capped off with a singing of “God Save theKing.”
Further notables werevice president Bryant York with Melissa, Keith and Elizabeth Crawford,JamesGulotta and Susan Talley,Brian and CarolynFitzpatrick, Chuck and Susan Ives, Eric and JennySundell, Drs. Richard “Rick” and Sharon Meyer, SusanLabordeCouvillon,John and Amelie
“Mimi” Koch,Paul and Denise Morse,Kevin and Haydee Mackey, and John and Edie Wilson.To mention most. They recalled the foundingofThe Royal SocietyofSt. George in 1894 and its promotion of and interest in the English way of life. In 1963, HerMajesty Elizabeth II granted the societyits own Royal Charter,adistinction of great
Jane Summerour, Palmer Perkin, Sophia Curry
pride to themembership. Very recently her son, King Charles III, agreed to become the society’snew patron, which is a further honor Of course, food and drink played into theparty’spicture. The above Southern HospitalityCatering featured beef Wellington, crawfish brioche, marinated duck breast and crawfish Monica, among theslew of taste treats. An assortment of king cakes added asweet wink to both real and Carnival royalty. However,the drinks of the evening, bespoke Sazeracs, were decidedly “our own.” In June of 2008, the Sazerac was dubbed theofficial cocktail of the Crescent City
n The Caledonian Society “…Wehae meat, and we can eat. Sae let the Lord be Thankit.” Grateful for afine meal andfor related pleasures weremembers of the Caledonian SocietyofNew Orleans, which heldits 51st annual Burns Supper at the Southern Yacht Club. Each year,the societyhails Robert “Robbie” Burns (1759-1796), Scottish poet, bard and “Patron Extraordinaire.” Quotationsfrom him, such as “My love is like ared red rose,” are embedded in our vocabulary.Arguably the best known is, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot….” Thanks to RobertGrubb, piping opened the evening that espouses the “preservation of the ancient Scottish way of life.” Cocktails ensued, followed by wordsfrom mistress of ceremonies Christyn Elliott (attending with Glenn Raby)and Wendy Grubb‘s welcome. The celebratory Presentation of the Haggis featured
Maggie Schonberg, Stella Fuselier, Liam Fitzpatrick, Mia Hoffman
Robert Grubb, Scott Bond,Alan Wise, John Urquhart and Richard B. McConnell, who delivered theAddress to the Haggis. Then, all enjoyed amenu of salad,salmon or pork, chocolate mousse,and,ofcourse, haggis. Thepost-prandial program continued with the “Toast to the Lassies” and the“Response to theLaddies,” by Thomas Mungall andCatherine Mungall; “Flowers of the Forest,” by Lance von Uhde III;Burns Poems:Epitaphs, by Laurie McConnell;and “The Immortal Memory,” by Derek Ewart. The Crescent and Clover Celtic band played Scottish selections, such as “A Man’saMan” and “Scotland the Brave.”
Rallying for these revels were Ramona “Mona” Bond with RussellBond Jr., Dorothyand James Cater,Beryl and George Guelfo, Brenda andKeith Christie,Dina Roudeze with StephenChesnut,Alita Pinter with Ralph McDonald,MaryVirginia UrquhartofUrquhart with son John Urquhart, Stanley Yon with granddaughter Maya Lockhart,JeanieMestier and Gerry
Heartswere aflutter decoratively —also, in anticipation —for therecent Eight O’Clocks ValentineSoiree at The Cannery.Girls donned red or pink semi-formal dresses in keeping with traditional colors, while the dress code for theboys was “Tie, no jacket or jeans.” For all, “Noovernight bags.” Prior to the general socializing from 8-10 p.m., aone-hour dessert partyfor the principals unfolded with Joan Farrell cookies, in shapes of red and pink hearts, and of clocks. Cupcakes and brownies were catered by The Cannery.In themain party,sliders, chicken tenders andfries were eagerly consumed as were the offerings at the cotton candy bar.Done by Fluff Gourmet Fairy Floss, there were also choices of toppings. Additionally,acandy bar featured jarsofpink and red candies, chocolates, and rock candy Blondie Balloons from Houma decorated thespace in red, bubble gum pink, fuchsia and champagne hues. The columns on the dance
Ward, Maryand Steve Irving, and Jane and LennyCaruso. Thanks tapped many, including Beverly and Doug Hall for the programs and RosemaryPic,grace before dinner
Embellishing thepremises were thesociety banner; aportrait of Robert Burns; and, for the flowers by Lance von Uhde, silver mint julep cups with, among others, the requisitered roses.
The evening concluded, as it has for ages and traditionally,with the singing of “Auld LangSyne.”
floor werewrapped in balloons and alarge balloon “ribbon” figured above the stage. Atop the tables werepink boas, neon lights, light-up rings, heart sunglasses, and red and pink beads. Billed as “Roamer” wasLimitless Events, and photographer, Norris Gagnet Write On/Kelley Abbott did the colorfulinvitation. Sarah Hillery and Madeline Price,respective mothers of Jane and Hazel, co-chaired the committee. More mom-daughter duos were Lauren Fitzpatrick and Abigail; NataliePerkinand Palmer;KaraSchonberg and Maggie; CourtneyGuste and Emerson; KatieHoffman and Amelia; JillFitzpatrick and Mary; Anne Summerour and Jane;Colleen Loerzel and CC; Julie Hoffman and Mia; Caitlin Brewster and MaryCatherine; Allison Marshalland Mabel; Becka Curry and Sophia, Melissa Fuselier and Stella; MelanieLoomisand Lucy; KatieDunn and Molly; and AmberNaresh and Elise Sanchez. As representatives of eight different schools, they also served as agreeting group. Now forthe significant sounds! Sights, too. Music and Lights Entertainment came to the festive fore with all the delights of aDJ and dancing.
Lizette Alber,Dorothyand
BY CATHERINE S. COMEAUX
Contributing writer
Editor’snote:The writer and her family spent three summers exploring state, national and provincial parks, traveling by minivan from Louisiana to Alaska, to Nova Scotia, and all along the Mississippi River in between. This year,she turns her attention to Louisiana state parks to discover the natural beauty of the South less than aday’s drive from home.
Chicot State Park is Louisiana’slargeststate park, encompassing awide variety of habitats within its 6,400 acres in Evangeline Parish, where visitors can listen for barred owls in abottomland hardwood forest, paddle through the dangling Spanish moss of acypress tupelo swamp, or hike the slight hills of a hardwood slope forest.
The inexperienced naturalist might not know the differing characteristics of these habitats, but avisit to theLouisiana State Arboretum within the park will enlighten and enhance the experience.
Ironically,the heavily forested park takes its name from the stumps left behind when 2,000 acres of its bottomland forests were cleared by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939 to create alake for the soonto-be-designated state park
The Corps also built amilelong levee to encourage the low-lying acreage of chicot (or stumps in French) to retain water
The rains filled the leveed lowlands, it was stocked with fish, and Lake Chicot
By ChristopherElliott
was born Hindsight might question theecological logic of cutting down so many acres of trees to create astate park, which was ultimately being set aside for preservation of its forested beauty.However,the dictumofthe day was to create jobsduring the Great Depression,and so they did. Aportable sawmill turned the felled forest into lumber for useatthis andother state parks. Thankfully,nature has a way of working withour
tendencies to trytocontrol her,and LakeChicot has becomehome to myriad forms of wildlife, while fishing has becomeone of themain attractions of the statepark.
Likeanything man-made, thelake requires maintenance. Water control structures are routinely utilized to lower thelake levels —helping to control the overgrowth of aquatic vegetation and improving fish habitat.Additionally,herbicides and biological con-
trols like salvinia weevils have been used to inhibit theovergrowthofnuisance plantslike giant salvinia. Call ahead with questions about lake levels during a visit.(Interested in learning about ways the state manages aquatic vegetation?Contact the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at 225-765-2800.)
Another main attraction is the Louisiana StateArboretum State Preservation Area, which is comprised of 600 acres within the state park set aside in 1961 as atree-focused botanical garden. It is asprawling outdoor classroom with
well-marked flora and educational signage throughout its five and ahalf miles of hiking trails.
Anature center brings to focus the various habitats represented throughout the park and surrounding region and provides awealth of information about the surrounding environment.
The hiking trails throughout the arboretum and the park offer easy hills with morethan 200 feet of elevation change. These inclines might be ho-hum to visitors from higher grounds, but to us whose calves are more accustomed to the flatlands of Louisiana, it is noticeable and fun.
There areafew sections of trails with boardwalks accessible to anyone using awheelchair.For added adventure plus expanded access, Chicot (and several otherstate parks) have all-terrain chairs available. Picture awheelchair with trackslike atank. These electric-poweredchairs arespecially designed to be usedondesignated
theticket quickly
trails andcan be reserved in advance.
The lake, the arboretum and the hills are awonderfulway to spend timeimmersed in the natural beauty of Louisiana. As Iwas recently pulling my kayak out of the lake (with the help of ahiker whomagically appeared out of the woods to offer ahand —thank you again, ma’am),I watched acouple packing up their fishing gear and asked, “What did you catch?”
“Time—just agood time out on the lake —plus a bass and asac-a-lait, but we let those go.”
For agood time out in the wilds, Ihear they’re catching out on Lake Chicot.
Know before yougo
n The closest grocery stores are in Ville Platte.
n Wheelchair accessible and/or pet-friendly cabins are available.
n Be tick aware, especially in the warmermonths. Research tactics foravoiding and dealing with ticks.
n The better sights for tent camping are on Loop Aand Loop Dinthe South Landing Campground.
n All-terrain chairs for trail accessibility must be reserved at least 48 hours in advance.
n For information on how to possibly use your library card to enhance your visit to our state parks, visit CheckOutLouisiana.org and find out if your local library is one of the 19 public library systemsthat offers Geaux Explore backpacks which include afree park pass, binoculars, compass, magnifying glass, bird guide, wildlifeguide, trees and wildflower guide.
I’m
This cancellationmistake was ITA’s, not mine. Iamrequesting arefund of the $335 differenceincost between the original andreplacement tickets. Icalled ITAand they told me that someone wouldcontact me that day, but they never did.Can you help? —Jose Portela,Dallas
ITAshouldhave canceled the correct ticket,but if it didn’t, it should have fixed
for a ticket on ITA, and I’m hoping you can help me.We had tickets on ITA to flyfrom Dallas to Barcelona to catch acruise. My grandson, Jacob,could not makethe cruise, so four months before our departure, Icalled ITAtocancel his flight Just before our departure, I checked the remaining three passengers and Ifound out Jacob had not been canceled by ITA. Instead it had canceled one of the other passengers who wasgoing on the cruise. Instead of simply changing the name on the reservation (Jose instead of Jacob), ITAforced me to spend another $604 andrefunded Jacob’sticketwhichwas much less ($268).
Youcould have avoided this problem entirely.It looks like you called ITA to makethe cancellation. That’sabsolutely fine, but ITAalso allows you to cancel areservation by sending an email tobookingschangesrefunds@itaairways.com.
Why would you want to do that? Because you’ll have a paper trail of the cancellation with the correct name of the passenger on the canceled ticket. It looks like thecall center agent misunderstood your request and canceled the wrong ticket.
Another thing you could have done was tocarefully review theemail ITAsent you withthe cancellation confirmation. This would contain the correct information To be extra sure, you could have checked the other reservations to ensure they were still active. That’ssomething Iwould highly recommendifyou trytocancel by phone.
You’re absolutely right, thebest solution would have been for ITAto change the name on theactivereservation to thecorrect one. Butairlines claim
there are security reasons whythat isn’tallowed. Personally,I believe there are also money reasons —because at least in your case, ITAinitially benefited from its own error I’mnot surprised ITA didn’tcall you back when it said it would. I’ve heard that promise so manytimes from customer service agents, and I’msure it’s just away to get you off the phone. I’ve never gotten a call back within 24 hours, and Idon’tknow of anyone whohas.
Youcould have appealed this to one of the ITAex-
ecutive contacts Ipublish on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. Abrief,polite email might have persuaded the airline to refund you the fare difference. Icontacted the airline on your behalf,and ITAissued arefund of the fare difference plus a$150 future trip credit as an apology Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, anonprofit organization that helps consumerssolve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.
TheUNCF New Orleans
Mayor’sMasked Ball returned for its 12th year with asoldoutcelebration at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans recently. Civic leaders, philanthropists, business people and community advocates were amongthe more than 675guests as the glittering event raised more than $800,000.
The ball helps provide resources forcollege-bound students and support for UNCFmember institutions, including Xavier University and Dillard University in Louisiana.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Dottie Belletto, president and CEOofNew Orleans Convention Co. Inc., were honored with the 2025 UNCF Masked Award
Other attendees included Dr. Michael L. Lomax, president and CEO of UNCF; Therese Badon, UNCF development senior vice president;Dr. C. Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University; Dr.Monique Guillory,president of Dillard University; and MaskedBall founders Alden andRhesa McDonald.
Entertainment Tonight co-anchors Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner served as the evening’shosts.The St. Augustine High School drumline and MardiGras Indians set the cultural note.
Seoane, Karen and Henry Coaxum
BY JUDYBERGERON Staff writer
Mel Harrison is aworld traveler and, fortunately for readers, so is Alex Boyd. Amid the twists and turns of each installment of the “An Alex Boyd Thriller” series, one is taken on atrip through Egypt, England and Italy,among other stops abroad.
It only adds to the entertainment level as Boyd and partner Rachel Smith are plunged into perplexing, page-turning,lifeor-death assignments as special agents.
If areader is new to this sixbook series, it’sOKto start with the New Orleansset “Crescent City Carnage,” according to Harrison. “I deliberately wrote the series so that each book can standalone. Having each book set in adifferent country helpsthis approach,” the author said.“However,ifareader wants to see the growth of Alex and Rachel, both as individuals as well as in their relationship, then they should start at the beginning, ‘Deathin Pakistan,’ and then move forward.”
We caught up withthe author to see what else he had to say about hisbooks and his life.
This Q&A was edited for length and clarity
Are you anative of New Orleans, or have youlived there at some point?
Iamnot anative of New Orleans, but my wife is. She was raised in Mid-Cityand went to Tulane. Ifirst visited New Orleans in 1975 while stillinthe Foreign Service and immediately loved the city’sarchitecture,food and the sense of history that theresidents felt. Over the years, we have lived in the FrenchQuarter,the Garden District and in Covington Your books’ main characters,Alexand Rachel, seem patterned after you and your wife. Did that makecharacter development
easier or moredifficult?
Alex Boyd, my protagonist, is patterned after my own career as aspecialagentwiththe Diplomatic Security Service. In the books, he is assigned to the same places where Iserved. Naturally, Iembellished thestorylines and dangers that he faces to create excitingscenes for my readers. This madecharacterdevelopment relatively easy,although Imust saythat Alexistougher than me andspeaks morelanguagesthan Ido.
As for Rachel Smith, his wife, sheisafictional creation.
My own wife is not nearly as tall as Rachel, nor does she have martial arts skills. She is, however, as smart and beautiful as Rachel. Because Rachel is fictional, Ihad to create what thereaders might like in afemale character who is brilliant and athletic —and has apersonality that candominate most people.
Can you elaborate on what ledtoyour receiving two high governmental honors?
In separate years, Ireceived both the State Department’s Award for Valor and the worldwide Security Officer of the Year while serving in athree-year assignmentinIslamabad, Pakistan The assignment was very dangerous for all Americans in the U.S. Embassy.The threat of terrorism andmob violence was high.
As for the Award for Valor while servingasthe senior regional security officer at theembassy in Islamabad, 8,000 rioters attacked theAmerican Cultural Center.Iand afew other embassy staff were presentinthe center during themulti-hourattack We fought off therioters, who hadbrokenall of the building’s windows, tried unsuccessfully to force their way intothe center, andset fire to theembassy motorpool cars outside
As for theSecurity Officer of theYear award, that was for sustained performance over the prioryear operating in an environment ofterrorist threats, actual bombingsand violent demonstrations. Walk us throughyourchoice of New
Orleansasthe setting at this point in the series. Ialways set my books in places that Iknow well. Having lived in New Orleans several times,Ifelt the city offered avariety of things that could makeanexcellent settingfor a thriller
The city’sculture and history are unique in America, as can be seen through thevoices of its residents. The level of violence in certain areas and at certain times can be significant and adds danger to thestory. The food is unparalleled and its architecture is afeast for the eyes. Also, oneofmygoals in writing the series was to expose readers to thereal world of the U.S. State Department’sDiplomatic SecurityService, aservice that is represented around theworld in about 250 locations. Butitalso has domestic field offices across America handling criminal investigationsand VIP protection.
What were someofthe essential things you had to getcorrect when setting your storyinthe Big Easy?
When Ifirst conceptualized writing “Crescent City Carnage,” set in theBig Easy,Iknew Iwanted the murdered victim to be a ForeignService officer of African American Creole descent. Yet, Iknew little of theCreole heritage and culture.
Ispent hours talking to afew lifelong residents of New Orleans and many more hours researching information. Of course, Ihad lived in New Orleans several times,soIalso drew upon personal knowledge as well. For other essential things, like restaurants, streetsand locations, Idoublechecked what Ihad remembered, and then triple-checked them during my last vacation to the city
When did you first becomeinterested in writing?
Ihave always been an avid reader of action-adventure books, commonly called thrillers. Toward theend of my 28-year career,Ibecame interested in
writing aseries based upon adventures that Ihad experienced. Where Ilive now,there are several creative writing clubs, so turning my ideas into action-packed novels was ano-brainer
Where do yousee AlexBoydgoing from here?
In my six-book series, Alex Boydhas increased his responsibilities and gained senior rank. Eventually,I will have to place him at the pinnacle of the Diplomatic Security Service. But before that happens, Iwill have him facing different and more dangerous threats overseas. Meanwhile, Rachel Smith, his wife, is approaching ambassadorial rank, having moved on from being asenior press and political officer.Thisisareal-world conundrum in the Foreign Service when aworking couple are both skilled and are outstanding officers.
Youhavetraveled to so manyplaces where do you still want to go?
My wife and Ihave visited
about 120 countries and lived/ worked forseveral years each in six of them, plus one of us has worked in another 20 countries formany months at atime. In the future, my wife will prefer to explore new places we have not yet visited, while Iprefer to return to our old haunts in Italy,France and the UK. Who are the authors youfollow or who inspire you?
Ilearned my craft from reading authors whowrite great thrillers such as James Patterson, David Baldacci, Nelson DeMille and Harlan Coben. But there are so manyothers whoI also read, such as Stieg Larsson, Robert Parker, Lee Child and Vince Flynn. Ialso gain inspiration from Ernest Hemingway,John le Carré, and in early times, from Agatha Christie, Alastair McLean and Ian Fleming. It is impossible to list all whohave influenced what Iwrite.
Email Judy Bergeron at jbergeron@theadvocate.com.
When The Atlantic editorJeffrey Goldberg arrived in Louisiana last month to speak at the New Orleans Book Festival, he needednointroduction.
Even those who don’treadhis magazine have come to know about Goldberg, who became part of anational controversy when he was accidentally included on messages shared by members of the Trump administration while they planned military strikes in Yemen.
Wiser people have already covered that issue, which Iwon’t rehash here. But Goldberg’s recent prominence in the headlines and his Book Fest visit affirmed an often overlooked reality: Though magazines are frequently lamented as media relics, The Atlantic continuesto play an important role in national life. That’show Goldbergwas included, however clumsily,ina keyconversation among Wash-
ington’skey players. He’sasomebody,the kind of figurelisted among the contacts of the influential I’ve been thinking about this while reading Graydon Carter’s newmemoir,“When the Going WasGood.” It’sachatty and convivial reminiscence, walking us through Carter’syounger days at Time, then editing the humor magazine Spy and VanityFair The book’ssubtitle, “An editor’s adventures during the last golden age of magazines,” tells youall youneed to know about Carter’s views on the state of periodical
journalism.Clearly,hethinks the salad days of magazines are behind him
There are reasons to be glum. Time, Carter’sformer workplace, clearly isn’twhat it used to be, and the rise of online culture has complicated the fortunes of legacy publications such as Esquire. The penultimatechapter of Carter’smemoir,titled “The Golden Age Begins to Tarnish,” revisitsacorporate shake-up that nudged him to leave Esquire. Carter isn’tthe only magazine veteran tosound an elegiac note about the future of magazines. In his 2023 memoir,“The Noise of Typewriters,”Time stalwart Lance Morrow was equally funereal, speaking of his witness to the magazine’s“waning days.” But The Atlantic’sexperience thesedays paints amorehopeful picture.
Lastyear,The Wall Street Journal reported that The Atlantic
is profitable, and its newsroom is growing. Under Goldberg, the magazine is getting back to basics, with afocus on solid reporting and stellar content. While
still publishing print issues, the magazine has also used its online platform to offer an expanded menu of stories and commentary Notably,inamedia world that’s often deeply polarized, The Atlantic’sopinion writers publish policy critiques aimed at both the right and left. The magazine is also committedtothe oldfashioned notion that readers should be willing to pay for quality content.
After hitting The Atlantic’s paywall last year,Ibought asubscription to keep up with Arthur C. Brooks, who writes alively columnfor the magazine on the art of happiness. As for Carter,hemust not really believe that the age of magazines is done. Since leaving Esquire, he’sstarted another magazine called Air Mail.
Email Danny Heitman at danny@ dannyheitman.com
By The Associated Press
Today is Sunday,April 13, the 103rd day of 2025. There are 262 daysleft in the year Todayinhistory
On April 13, 1997, 21-year-old Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, finishingarecord 12 strokes ahead of TomKite in second place.
On this date:
In 1743, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was born in Shadwell in the Virginia Colony In 1861, Fort Sumter in South Carolina fell to Confederate forces in the first battle of the Civil War.
In 1873, members of the pro-White, paramilitary White League attacked Black state militiamembers defending acourthouse in Colfax, Louisiana; three White men and as many as 150 Black men were killed in what is known as the Colfax Massacre, one of the worst acts of Reconstruction-era violence.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial in Washington on the 200th anniversary of his birth.
In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first Black performer to win an Academy Award for acting in aleadingrole for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.”
In 1999, right-to-die advocateDr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Michigan, to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder for administering alethal injection to apatient with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’sdisease. (Kevorkian ultimately served eight years before being paroled.)
In 2005, adefiant Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to carrying out the deadly bombingatthe 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks in back-to-back court appearances in Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta.
In 2009, at his second trial, music producer Phil Spector was found guilty by aLos Angeles jury of second-degree murder in the shooting of actor Lana Clarkson.
(Later sentenced to 19 years to life, Spector died in prison in January 2021.)
In 2011, Afederal jury in San Francisco convicted baseball slugger Barry Bondsofasingle charge of obstruction of justice butfailed to reach averdict on the three counts at the heart of allegations that he knowingly used steroids and human growth hormone and lied to agrand jury about it. (Bonds’ conviction for obstruction was overturned in 2015.)
In 2016, the Golden State Warriors became the NBA’s first 73-win team by beating the MemphisGrizzlies 125104, breaking the 72-win record set by the Chicago Bulls in 1996. In 2017, Pentagon officials said U.S. forces struck atunnel complex of the Islamic State group in eastern Afghanistan with the GBU43/B MOAB “mother of allbombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the military
Today’sbirthdays: SingerAl Green is 79. Actor Ron Perlman is 75. Singer Peabo Bryson is 74. Bandleader-drummer Max Weinberg is 74. Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 62. Golf Hall of Famer Davis LoveIII is 61. Actor-comedianCaroline Rheais61. Actor Rick Schroder is 55. Actor Glenn Howerton is 49. Actor Kelli Giddish is 45. Singer-rapper Ty Dolla $ign is 43. Actor Allison Williams is 37.
Dear Miss Manners: We are holding acelebration of life for my 28-year-old son at an airplane hangar. I’m saying “Wear anything!” because we wantit to be about celebrating hislife more than mourninghis death. I plan to wear white. Do you makea distinction between funeralsand celebrationsoflife, or do you believemourningprevails regardless? Iamnot criticizing;beliefs are beliefs. I guessI’m questioningmy actionsatawobbly time Gentle reader: Youraise an interesting question:Does a“celebration of life” require etiquette adjustments
Dear Heloise: Ilovereading your column.A recent letter in which thereader talked aboutusing leftovers to make soup made me chuckle as I’ve always done this. My family,however,isless delicate and hasalways called mine“garbage pail soup.” They also knowthat if they particularly like a meal I’ve prepared,they’d better enjoy it because they’ll never see it again.I never have thesame combination of leftovers! —Resourceful Mom, via email ResourcefulMom, Ilove leftovers, andyourmethod of reusingthem is terrific. In aworld where so many go hungryand somedie for lack of food, we are luckyto have anabundance of food
from afuneral, which it is increasingly replacing?
Funerals used to be set rituals, usually religious ones. Eulogies were given by clergy members, who were unlikely to have known thedeceased as well as their relatives and friends, and could inadvertently make mistakes —misattributing specific virtues, for example. Sometimes theeulogist was a stranger,reduced to saying thingslike “She loved life,” as if that were aunique characteristic. So thechoice of eulogists turned to those who could speak from close knowledge, and there were more and more speeches, sometimes followed by spontaneous remarks from other mourners. This format was far more evocative of thedeceased, with specific
examples that rang true, rather than generalities that sometimes did not. When such talksexceeded the ceremonial part, theevent was renamed a “celebration of life.” Miss Manners understands that many, perhaps most, people prefer this name. For one thing,itisa lot more cheerful.
Butthere are dangers. Onethat manypeople have noticed is that not everyone is gifted at this. There are sometimes declarations of how much thedeceased admired the speaker.There have been tastelessjokes and revelations, and lengthy impositionsonthe patience of even the most bereaved.
Butthere is another danger in thevery premise of acelebration of life: the attempt to banish sadness.
So please do not mandate cheerfulness. This loss is atragedy,and grief should not be madetoseem out of place. Youmay succumbto it yourself
The American color of mourning is black, although the code is only sporadically observed (except in cases of funerals for national figures). But Miss Manners is not going to say you should not wearwhite —amourning color in other cultures —ifitmakes you feel better
Dear Miss Manners: Iam blessed with awonderful doctor whoiscaring, highly intelligent, personable and whoalways has timefor me. Ithank her forher care and personal concern for me at each visit. Is there something else I can do to show my appreciation? Iamonamodest
budget, but Ioften give giftcards (with anote) to mailcarriers, janitors and other servicepeople who take pride in their workand go above and beyond their duties. Iassumemydoctor would have no need forthe $20 grocery giftcard Iusually use as athank-you. What would you suggest?
Gentle reader: What about giving her something priceless, which is what she has given you?
Notonly would it fit your budget, but it would cost you little effort because you have already done it. Just write out the appreciation you have sent to Miss Manners and send it to your doctor
Send questions to dearmissmanners@gmail. com.
that we enjoy Within thenext 24 hours, 21,000-25,000 people worldwide will die from hunger, 10,000 of which are children. Across theglobe, 850 million people are undernourished. Just something to consider —Heloise
When hangingpictures
Dear Heloise: My husband was hammering anail to hang apicture in our home and hit his thumb. It was hard and painful enough to cause his nail to turn black. He finally got out asmall wrench to hold thenail in place while he hammered it in. No morehammering his thumb! —C.P., in Oregon C.P this is agood idea, and here is another item you can use to hold anail: aclothespin! It will hold thenail securely while you hammer it in. —Heloise Send ahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.
Following rehearsalsinNew Orleans,hedebuted AQuiet Celebration on April 4during thefirst of twoback-to-back nights at the Saenger Simon smartly took amoment to explain theshow’sunconventional structure. He and his ensemble would first perform the25-minute“Seven Psalms” in its entirety, uninterrupted, with no breaks between songs. After an intermission, they’d returnwith aset of more familiarmaterial.
Themostly acoustic,richlytextured and quietly powerfulperformance reflectedwhereSimon is at this late stage: still creative after all these years.
He and his musicians —asmany as 11 —mostly remainedseated, in keeping with the natureofthe presentation. That presentation was no less compelling because of their relaxed posture.
Asmall screen announcedthe first of the “Seven Psalms”:“The Lord.” At center stage, Simon plucked the strings of an acoustic guitar.Tohis right sat twoadditional guitarists. To his left was a small string section.Behind him were percussionists, keyboardists and abassist.
“My Professional Opinion,” framed by the barest hint of percussion, was informed by the sort of wry,absurdist humor that Simon favors. When he wasn’tworking the strings of his acoustic, he used his righthand to direct the band and trace the momentum of the music. He pointed afingerfor emphasis during the line, “I have my reasonstodoubt,” pushing his voice —softbut steady —tohold high notes.
Aflute slipped into “Your Forgiveness” as he repeatedthe line “Dip your hands in heaven’swaters.” Acello sketched an ominous undercurrent in “TrailofVolcanoes.” Without fanfare or introduction, Simon’swife Edie Brickell took a seat on astool to the side of the guitarists for “The Sacred Harp.” At 59, her voice is fuller than in her late-1980s New Bohemian heyday It meshed with her husband’s.
The finalsong of “SevenPsalms,” “Wait,” is ameditation onmortality.Simon gently railed against thedying of the light: “I’m not ready,I’m just packing my gear/ My hand’ssteady,mymind is still clear.”
He and Brickell sang, “Heaven is beautiful, it’salmost likehome/ Children get ready, it’s time to come home.” With that, the curtain
closed for intermission.
Remaking hits,other songs
To experience so much new material, never previously performed, by asongwriterofSimon’s status is its own reward. But his legacy,ofcourse, warrants inclusion too.
In the show’shourlong second half,heand the band presented fresh,mostly acoustic arrangementsofadozen songs from his catalog.These were not thesort of wholesale reinventions with which Bob Dylan has mystified hisfans over theyears. Thesewere graceful,understated takes that suitSimon’sstation in life
The11-piece ensemble was especially light on its collective feet easinginto “Graceland.” The bass burbled beneath aviolin at the song’sconclusion. Simon’svoice was feathery but steady on “Slip Slidin’ Away,” asongheseemed to reference earlier in “The Lord” with the lineabout “the pathI slip andIslide on.”
He stated hisintention to showcase “lesser known” songs, adding thecaveat that “they’re my songs” —inother words, youprobably know thesetoo. Case in point: a
spry “Train in theDistance,” fitted with asoprano saxophone solo.
Just as Stevie Nicks has done on recenttours, Simon prefaced most songs with stories about their origins andconstruction, giving fans apeek behind thecurtain of his creativity. Introducing “a song from theSimon &Garfunkeldays,”henoted that “I used to write songs back then with little signature guitar beginnings. This is one of those songs.”
Acheer of recognitiongreetedthe “little signature guitarbeginning” of “Homeward Bound.” When he andcontemporarypop star Sabrina Carpenterteamedupfor acrossgenerational“Homeward Bound” on the “SaturdayNight Live” 50th anniversary music special in February,his voice was shaky.OnApril 4, it was far moresolid as he sang “tonight I’ll sing my songs again/I’ll play the game and pretend” over a bed of shakers and brushes on the snare drum He debated telling astoryahead of “St.Judy’s Comet,” thenfinally relented, mentioning the rubboard player from Louisianazydeco legend Clifton Chenier’sband as an inspiration. Thestory of rhythm &blues
singer Johnny Ace’sfatal backstage bout of Russianrouletteset asomber tone for“The Late Great Johnny Ace.” Simon recalled listening to the radio as aboy and hearing disc jockey Alan Freed announce Ace’sdeath. Many years later,Simoncoupled that memory with the deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr.and JohnLennontocreate asong (flashing photos of Ace, Kennedy and Lennon on the video screen at thesong’sconclusion probably wasn’tnecessary; none of the sparse video content was). He welcomed back Brickell, “the star of the show,” to harmonize withhim on “Under African Skies.” “Yeah, Ilike her,” he quipped. He revived “René andGeorgette Magritte with Their Dogafter the War,”a“lesser known” song that became an audience favorite on his previoustour. Violin, fluteand cello led this tour’sarrangement. “Spirit Voices,” from his “Rhythm of the Saints” album,was quieter, but no less rich; it resolveditselfin atidy groove. Simon stood up foralively “Me andJulio Down By the Schoolyard”toconcludethe regularset During an encore of “The Boxer,” the audience— which had been
respectfully attentive all night joined in on the “la la la” refrain. Simon then returned alone for “The Sound of Silence.” The bright, chimingtoneofhis guitar contrasted with the pathos of the lyrics and the hush of his voice. The effect wasspellbinding. Earlier,in“Wait,” he referenced “the ghost songs Iown/jumpin’, livin’ and moanin.” His “ghost songs” came alive again during this quiet, compelling celebration. He may be in the twilight of his career,but hissongs, both new and old, still sparkle.
Email KeithSpera at kspera@ theadvocate.com.
Orleans publication, The TimesPicayune. Its frequency was to be reducedfrom daily to three editions aweek. There would also be areduction of roughly 160 jobs (Spoofing that decision, some employees woreT-shirts that said boldly,“SOMETIMES-PICAYUNE.”)
Afundraiser had hastily been organized to help support colleagues who had been laid off. Allen Toussaint, the main attraction, volunteered to perform. As oneof the great songwriters of the R&B era, the New Orleans native’s repertoire included “All These Things,” “Fortune Teller,” “Holy Cow,” “It’sRaining,” “Mother in Law,” “Southern Nights” and “Whipped Cream.” He was ahandsome man with afull head of gray hair and a prominent mustache. Despite the casualness of the event, hewas wearing ablue suit withamatching tie that contrasted with his orangepatterned dressshirt.His only fashion deviation was his dis-
Continued from page1D
world,” Dispenza said. “One of the stories concerned aBasque community in eastern New Orleans that apparentlyterrorized aunit of British troops leading upto the Battle of New Orleans. They were angry with the Britsfor disrupting their livelihoods withall of that conflict and went all loup garou on them.
“What aroused my interest most was the Basque reference, as Iwas completelyunaware of Basque history in New Orleans.”
Making theirmark
Several prominent Basques have made their mark onthe city
In a2011 story in The TimesPicayune, aNew OrleansBasque historian named Michel-Antoine Goitia-Nicolas said famed pirate and smuggler Jean Lafitte, known for helping defend New Orleans during the Warof1812, was of Basqueheritage.
While today the influence of this group is less well-known, traces of this identity can be found through last names.
Goitia-Nicolas attributed Basque origin to familynames likeBarbe, Begue, Chachere, Charbonnet, Gayarre, Goyeneche,
tinctive white socks and sandals. Asongthathit home
Beingcheered as he took his place at aYamahapiano keyboard, theGrammy-winning inducteetothe Rock &Roll Hall of Fame could havefitinjust as well at Carnegie Hall or the world’s other great stages. Hisopening selection, however,was appropriate to thelocation: Ican’teat AndIcan’t sleep
Sinceyou walked outonme, yeah
Holy cow,what you doing, child?
WrittenbyToussaint in 1966 for New Orleansrocker Lee Dorsey, thesong “Holy Cow” blended humor and melancholy to lament the circumstances of aman frustrated by love andlife. The secondstanza hit home, particularly to this audience: First myboss
Thejob Ilost
Since you walked out on me, yeah
Holy smoke, whatyou doing to me,me?
Walking the ledge Nerves on edge
Lacombe,Lemoyne, Mandeville and Marigny.
BrittanyPowell Kennedy, senior professor of practice in theDepartmentofSpanish and Portuguese at Tulane University, agreed
“I think youprobably have alot of New Orleanians who have what they consider to be very strange last names that theythink might be Spanishor French, but that are probably Basque,” Kennedy said. Straddling foreignborders
The region itself, an autonomous community called Basque Country, straddles the border between France and Spain, with four of its seven historic provinces located in northernSpain andthree provinces in southwest France. People of this region, usedtolife on the ports, were attracted to New Orleans’ booming maritimeindustry
Kennedysaid steady Basque migration into New Orleans occurred duringthe Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), when rapid-fire industrialization led to shipsmakingfrequent journeys to thePort of New Orleans.
“They’re seafarers,” Kennedy said. “They’re fishermen, and Basquefishermen findtheir way to various partsofthe Americas throughout their history, theearli-
Since you walked out on me, yeah Holy cow,what you doing to me, child?
Thehit parade
In 1961, Irma Thomas had visited the home of Toussaint’s parents, Clarence and Naomi. There, Toussaint had frequently composed someofhis songs on the family piano. He would recall that on that day he looked outside and noticed achange in theweather
“I remember Irma was sitting right there, and it began raining outside,” Toussaint said in a2017 interview with National Public Radio. “Ijust wrotethat song then and handed it over to her and sung alittle bit of it, just to show her themelody,and it fit like a glove.”
Genius-induced harmony added mood to theopening: “drip-drop; drip-drop.” The sound could have been rain; it could have been tears. Either way,“It’sRaining” was aregional hit for Thomas. (Andfor Toussaint,though in his early years, he used his mom’s name, NaomiNeville, as the writing credit.)
Another of his songs, “Southern
Nights,” did makeitbig nationally and was ahit forGlen Campbell. It eventually was No.1on theBillboard Hot 100 pop chart. Toussaint claimed thewriting credits for himself as he had with “Mother-in-Law,” Ernie K-Doe’s hit that reached No. 1nationally in 1961.
An audience of one
As impressive as his audience size could be, there was the time when Toussaint performed flawlessly for an audience of one: me.
Iwas working on astory about New Orleans music styles and phoned him aboutthe piano. Toussaint was cordial andtried his best to make sense out of acomplex question.Then he paused to offer instrumental examples.
Ihad not realized it, but the whole time we weretalking, Toussaint had been sitting at a piano. He wasinhis natural environment as he placed the phone receiver to theside and began to play different examples of New Orleanssounds: atouch of Professor Longhair,abit of Dr.John, someJelly Roll. This was amotherlode. Iwas having aprivate concert, enriched by explana-
est being in Newfoundland in the 17th century
“You have alot of immigration from Basque country. There’sa part of it that’sonthe Spanish side, and there’s part of it that’sonthe French side.Bothsides have immigrantsfor different reasons, but also just fishing and shipping.”
“There’sa massive port in the Basque country.New Orleans was, and still is, one of the biggest portsinthe U.S. And so alot of Basque fishermen, specifically
Basque shipmen, end up here and stick around.”
Building up industry
Kennedy said Emile Zatarain Sr., who built the spice and condimentbusiness Zatarain’s, wasanother notable Basque influencer Kennedy said Zatarain identified as aSpanish Basque, and had ties to the Pasai area, his family’s original home. Others from the region havequietly built up the New Orleans port and shipping
tions, from Allen Toussaint. If only the music could have continued.
Loss of an icon
Toussaint died suddenly Nov. 10, 2015, at age 77, while in Madrid, Spain, on aperformance tour.Responding to The NewYork Times, Quint Davis, producer of Jazz Fest, said of Toussaint: “Inthe pantheon of New Orleans music people, from Jelly Roll Morton to Mahalia Jackson to Fats —that’s the place where Allen Toussaint is ...” As farasThe Times-Picayune’s fate goes, in 2019, the newspaper waspurchased by Georges Media, which had previously acquired Baton Rouge-based The Advocate.
The new ownership, headed by NewOrleans businessman John Georges, stated that the papers would be combined as asingle operation, including the Nola.com digital division. And once again, the Times-Picayune would be adaily.(Holy cow!)
Errol Labordeisaproducer and panelist on public television’s “Informed Sources.”
industry,living and working in the coastal south.
Kennedy described Basque immigrants in the 19th century as predominantly Catholic, insular and proud of their culture. The Basques are one of the oldest cultures in Europe, with roots in the Basque Country going back thousands of years. “They have their own language which is not related to any other language in the world,” Kennedy said. “It’sa language isolate. And they’re very proud of the fact that they’ve managed to preserve this language.”
Kennedy said Basque culture waslikely clouded because American and British people living in the city probably classified people from the region as simply French or Spanish, without grappling with the complexities of their identity
“I really think it’skind of atestament to when we think about the various groups that have been in the city,” Kennedy said. “There are just aton of influences, and maybe there are somethat we don’tsee today.”
Do you have aquestion about something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phonenumber andthe city where you live.
Soundtrack to majorgame created at area studio
When abig video game production company hires aGrammyawardwinning composer like Austin Wintory,out of Hollywood, to scoreagame that takes place in New Orleans, what does the composer do?
He moves production to New Orleans, specifically Esplanade Studios, and hires themost talented local musicians money can buy
If this sounds expensive,it is, butthe gaming world generates the kind of revenue that justifies big production budgets.
The revenue that blockbuster video games bring in is staggering.Think Grand Theft Auto V or God of War. In terms of media, it is not film, TV or records that reap the big bucks;it’svideo games
Movies and television together account for about $35 billion in box office revenue annually (theaters and streaming), and the global recorded musicindustry generates around $27 billion, but the global gaming industry generates around $200 billion over the same time period.
“Some games are free to play, but youmust have arecurring subscription,” saidvideo game and film composer Austin Wintory
“Those games can make unbelievable fortunes. Take the video game League of Legends. It makessomuch money because there are fan bases in the hundreds of millions, and there’san ancillary merchandising market, as well.
“See asword in aparticular game that you like? Youcan own it, because there’sanentireadjacent industry manufacturing the props made popular in these games.”
N.O. musiciansonvideo games
Assembling agroup of musicians in New Orleans is easy,
because thecity has some of the best in thebusiness. On arecent eveningatEsplanade Studios, Wintory is working with his group of percussionists.
Whether it’s Alexey Marti on congas or Doug Belote on drums, the composer is very specific about theparticular sound he is looking for
Wintory and drummer Belote get intothe nitty-gritty about technique:when to use the pedal, at what point to bring in the snare, and how to shake up the rhythmic profile while staying on the brushes. It all sounds like code, but it is the language of musicians trying to elicit avery clear-cut and definitive sound.
“For composers whoscore films, and I’ve done about 60 movie scores, the process behind video games is much different,” Wintory said.
“I must come up with ascore for these gamesbefore Iever see thevideo,whereas when scoring afilm, youare rolling the footage and designing music that goes with each frame.
Because Idon’t have footage in this instance, Iask the studios behind the videogames alot of thesame questions thatIwould ask afilm director,because it’s critical Ihavethe right feel. So, I’ll want to knowwhat we aretrying to communicate, what they want the audiencetowalkaway with, and what the high-level philosophical aspirations of this game might be.”
Wintory says he also needs to get into the details of what the music is going to attach to. Is the music accompanying combat, or is it avisualization of the rooftops of London? He says it’s very important to have radically different music that can be appropriate formany different kinds of scenarios.
While atypical film may run between 90 minutes and two hours, video games can be long and may require 40-50 hours of music. It’s aprocess that can take years, just forone game. And, it’sacollaborative process between the composer,and in this case the co-producer Jay Weigel, and the score engineer,Misha Kachkachishvili, whoall find themselves at amixing console, making the sure the elements are all coming together to produce the desired sound, which Wintory has running through his brain.
Aboy wonder from Denver who conducted the Utah Symphony at the age of 18, Wintory,41, now has 300 scores behind him.His score forthe video gameJourney madehistory as the only video gamesoundtrack to be nominated forthe Grammy Award forBest Score Soundtrack forVisual Media.
Although Wintory now makes his homeinLos Angeles, center of the film world, L.A. is not a hub forvideo gamecomposers. The closest thing to that, Wintory says, is Japan. In the states, it might be Seattle or Silicon Valley,all tech hubs. So, it’snice to have avideo game produced in NewOrleans —not atech hub, but definitely aplace where the crème de la crème of musicians reside. The video gameWintory is working on here in the city,whose subject matter and title are for the momenttightly under wraps, will debut later this year and showcase New Orleans, this time, in adifferent light.
Email Leslie Cardé at lesliecardejournalist@gmail.com
BY TIMOTHY BOONE Business editor
and punish countries he said were taking advantage of taxpayers. Then, on Wednesday, the S&P 500 had its best single day since the 2008 financial crisis, soaring 9.5% after Trump backed down, pausing nearly all the tariffs for 90 days.
But local financial experts, who acknowledged there were moves investors could make to shore up their portfolios, largely offered one piece of advice for stockholders: Stay the course, keep working toward personal financial goals and don’t make any drastic moves. Amid Wall Street tension, ‘there’s a lot of uncertainty’ for Louisiana investors
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL
But that Wednesday rally was followed by a drop Thursday Uncertainty has remained high, and whipsawing markets have left everyone from global CEOs to penny-pinching retirees questioning what’s ahead for the economy and financial markets.
ä See INVESTORS, page 2E
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By RICHARD DREW Specialist Philip Finale works on the floor of the New york Stock Exchange. Stocks plunged after President Donald Trump announced farreaching tariffs on April 2. But on Wednesday, he backed down, pausing nearly all the tariffs for 90 days.
tion that Lumen is packing up and shipping out. But she acknowledged the nature of the company’s presence in the state has changed.
The IRS doesn’tusually have to make acase for people to grab their tax refund. Soon after filing season opens, millions of taxpayers file their returns to collect their annual windfall
As of March 21, the IRShas processed more than 78 million returns with an average refund of $3,221, up 4.6% from thesame periodlastyear
But alot of taxpayers don’trealize they have money due to them. For the 2021 tax year,the IRS estimates over 1.1 million people nationwide have unclaimed refunds totaling more than $1 billion, with the median refund totaling $781.
In Maryland, close to 23,000 taxpayers are due amedian refund of $827, according to the IRS. In New York, the agency said an estimated 73,000 people may be due a median refund of $995, one of the highest amounts.
The IRS is also reminding people to double-check whether they are entitled to the 2021 pandemic-related recovery rebate credit. This credit, worth $1,400, was part of atrio of economic impact payments and is separate from the unclaimed amount noted above.
But aparticularly important reason to not pass on filing for 2021 was the plethora of tax
eligible to receive the credit
benefits that were available in expanded form that year,according to IRS spokesperson Eric Smith.
“It’syour money,you should claim it,”Smith said.
Maybe you always file, but check withyour young adult children, friends and extended family members to make sure theyaren’t missing out on arefund they could use right now As the filing deadline approaches, here’swhat you need to know about uncollected refunds.
Getthat returninbyTuesday.
Parents of achild born in 2021 who claim the child as adependent on their income taxreturn may be eligible to receive apandemic stimulus paymentofupto $1,400.
Some people may not realize theyqualified for the payment.
For example, the IRS said taxpayers who added adependent —such as aparent, anephew or niece, or agrandchild —ontheir 2021 income tax return may be
Loren Marino has been hiredbythe Port of New Orleans as vice president of externalaffairs and chief of staff.
Marino
Marino has held anumberofexecutive rolesinJefferson Parish government, most recently as senior assistant parish attorney.She wasalso chiefadministrativeassistant to the Parish President’sOffice, directorof inspectionand code enforcement, and assistantdistrict attorney She earned abachelor’sineconomics from the University of Michigan and alaw degree from TulaneLaw School Globalstar hasadded two employeestoits leadership team.
Tamer Kadous will head theterrestrial spectrum and network solutions business. He is aformer vice president of wireless engineering at XCOM Labs and senior directorofengineering at Qualcomm. He earned adoctorate in wireless communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madisonand is a graduate of the Wharton School’sGeneral Management Program.
Daaman Hejmadi will lead the wholesale satellite capacity business. Before joining Globalstar,Hejmadi held various executive positions, including vice president of engineering at Qualcomm and corporate vice president at Intel.
He earned abachelor’sinphysics/electronics from Sri Sathya Sai InstituteofHigher Learning, abachelor’s in computer scienceand engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, amaster’sincomputer science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and amaster’sinorganizational behaviorand finance from the University of California, Berkeley
Continued from page1E
“You prepareclients well for the ebbs and flows of themarketand any surprises that come along,” said Pete Bush, who manages $450 million at HorizonFinancial Group in Baton Rouge. “You build aportfolio to prepare for times like this.” Onepositivethingabout therecent market swings is that it shows the advantage of allocating assets. Bush said he had someclients come to his office, expectingtosee a20% drop in theirinvestments. They were surprised to see the declineswere smaller than they feared. “Real estate,gold, value stocks, the big blue chips, they hung in well,” he said.
‘Holding theirbreath’ Trump’selection last year sparked ajump in stocks as investors hopedfor market-friendlypolicies like lower taxes andrelaxed regulations. But he also spoke about tariffs, and his decision earlier this month to call for sweeping tariffs on every major U.S. trading partner immediately prompted a market swoon. Mainstream economists said thetariffs would slow growth and boost inflation. Corporateleaders said they were preparing for lower spending. Some influential CEOs said arecession was likely Peter Ricchiuti, afinance professor at Tulane University,called Trump’stariffs “a self-inflicted wound” that upended aU.S. economy with record low unemployment and astock market comingoff two yearsofgains that exceeded 20%.
“This is the worst economic move of any presidential administration in the past 90 years,” said Ricchiuti, who tracks regional stocks across the South through the university’sBurkenroad Reports. To find something with more
By law,taxpayers usually have threeyears to claim arefund from the typical April filing deadline. This means the three-year filing window closes Tuesday
If people missedthe deadline, their money becomesthe propertyofthe U.S. Treasury
Here’s howthe IRSknows people are owed arefund. The IRS examines the W-2and 1099 formsand other third-party statements it receives from employers, banks and other sources to estimate the average number of people who might be due arefund and the amount
Here’s who typically has an unclaimed refund.
Many low- and moderateincomeworkers maybeeligible for the earned incometax credit, which for 2021 wasworthas muchas$6,728 for taxpayers with qualifying children. The taxcredit helps individuals and families whose incomes fall below certain thresholds.
If you’re aparent and your child worked during the summer or school year in 2021, have them check whether arefund is due. Students or people working part-time maynot have earned enough, so they maynot have
Fool’sTake: Pfizer,a dividend giant
Youmay know175-year-old pharmaceutical company Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) best for its COVID-19 vaccine,but investors have longknown thecompany as areliable dividend payer.
been required to file areturn. Nonetheless, their employer may have taken out federal taxes. Refunds often result from overwithholding, meaning you gave the government more money than youowed. There’snofailure-tofile penalty if you’re due arefund. Don’tmiss outonextended credits for 2021. The American Rescue Plan increased the amount of the Child TaxCredit while making it available for 17-year-old dependents and fully refundable for most families.
The credit itself isn’tnew.Itwas created in 1997 and has always been meant to help struggling families. Before 2021, though, the credit was worth up to $2,000 per eligible child. The law increased it for 2021 to as muchas$3,000 per child for dependents ages 6 through 17 and $3,600 for dependents ages 5and under —but just for 2021.
There was also more money funneled through the tax credit to help parents offset work-related child care expenses, while the tax credit for child and dependent care was temporarily increased from amaximum of $1,050 for one child and $2,100 for two or more children to $4,000 and $8,000. Thecredit was fully re-
Continued from page1E
fundable, which means you get arefund, even if it’smore than what you owe. Youmay be able to claim the child and dependent care credit if you paid expenses for the care of aqualifying individual to enable you (and your spouse, if filing a joint return) to work or actively look for work, according to the IRS.
Here’swhat you need to know to file a back-year return. Youcan obtain current- and prior-year tax forms and instructions by going to irs.gov and clicking the link for “Find forms &instructions.”
Keep in mind, however,that your 2021 tax refund maybeheld if you haven’tfiled tax returns for 2022 and 2023. Additionally,any refund could be applied to past due amounts you owethe IRS or astate agency.The money could be used to offset unpaid child support or other past-due federal debt. But at least the refund will help with this debt. So file. With the tax deadline rolling around soon, you maywant to find atax professional to help you complete apast return.
EmailMichelle Singletary at michelle.singletary@washpost. com.
Pfizer hasincreased its dividend for 16 straight years, andits dividend yield was recently a fat 7.1%,meaning that a$1,000 position in the stock would generate $71 over ayear Pfizer willlose patent exclusivity on several lucrative drugs over the next few years, but it still expects to deliver solid growth in the second half of this decade. Thanks in part to several acquisitions, it has multiple newgrowth drivers in its lineup, including migraine therapy Nurtec ODT(gained through its 2022 acquisitionof Biohaven Pharmaceutical)and cancer drug Padcev (picked up via the 2023 buyout of Seagen). With the Seagen acquisition, Pfizer believes it may produceasmanyaseight breakthrough drugs andadd $10 billiontoits sales by 2030. Happily for investors, Pfizer is generating enough cash flowtocover its dividend. In 2024, it paid $9.5 billionindividends, while generating over $9.8 billionoffree cash flow, notincluding $3 billionincash proceedsfrom selling most of its stake in British consumer health care companyHaleon.The stock is attractivelypriced, too; itsforward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio hasbeen in the single digits for awhile,and was recently below 8.3. (TheMotley Fool ownsshares of and recommends Pfizer.)
of anegative effect, he saidyou have to go back tothe policies of President Herbert Hoover that led to theGreat Depression.
Jude Melville, CEOofb1Bank, said theuncertaintyaround tariffs over thepast two monthshas led to fewer clients seeking loanscompared with the end of last year.But he said the recent movesbyTrump hadn’tyet raised thepossibilityof higherdefaults
“It’snot off the charts and there are no materialsigns of credit degradation,” he said. “People are holding their breathfor asecond and seeingwherethingssort out.”
The market swings have not affected b1Bank’s operations or how it will invest capital, Melville said. Management looks at what decisions are best in thelong termand doesn’toperatebased on the dayto-day stock price. “But certainly, arising stock market gives you more options,” he said.
Trade, politics andstock trading
Localinvestment adviserssaid thatit’sbeen easy to tell their clients’ political leanings by how they’ve reacted to themarket swings. Trumpsupporters want to hold steady,while “never-Trump” Republicans and Democratsare more likely to see calamity ahead.
Butletting personal politics influence financialmovesisn’tagood idea, they said
“Trump is the elephant in the room, but he’sthe elephant that won the election,” saidMickey Guidry,managingpartnerwith Altus WealthManagement in Baton Rouge. “That influenced theperception of what is going on.” Guidry,who manages $900 million, said he’sbeen looking to keep clients diversified.That includes moving into small and mediumcap stocks, defensive stocks and those that pay dividends. Some examples of defensive stocksare pharmaceuticals,tobacco companiesand brewers.
“No matter what theeconomy is, people are going to drink beer and smoke cigarettes,” he said.
John Paul Caswell, president of Iron Horse Financial in Baton Rouge, saidwhile thefluctuations in stock prices are jarring, the only clients who are losing money arethose pulling outofthe market
“Nobody wantstosee adownturn in their401(k), but we’vebeenproactive in making calls and making sure our clients are comfortable,” he said.
The fact that the U.S. continues to add private sector jobs and oil prices arefalling suggests that the economycould remainresilient, Caswell said.
That,along with lower stock prices, could lead people to getinto the market. “For people whohave never invested, it’s agreat time to getin,” he said.
Caswell said some clients are watching themarket closely,ready to jump in
Thelingering question is what will happen next with tariffs. Will Trumpgoback to taking ahard line? Or is he using the threat of raising thecost of exporting goods to negotiate concessionsfrom trading partners?
Austin Zaunbrecher, head of investments andadvice in Louisiana for J.P.Morgan Private Bank, said theleast likely outcome is areturn to thetrade status quo.
“We’re talking to our clients to see what we candotomakethem more resilientinthe long term,” he said. That involvesmaking investments in conservative, stablesectors,suchasinfrastructure,buying gold and rebalancingportfolios, moving out of stocks and into bonds.
“There’sa lot of uncertainty,”he said.
Email TimothyBoone at tboone@theadvocate.com.
“There isn’ta humanecosystemattached to the headquarters, which is not ideal for the local economy,”Bourgeois said. “People aren’tthere eating lunch or using the child care center down thestreet. It wouldbemuchbetter for Monroe to have that building full of people.”
For its part, Lumen saysithas no plans to leave the state entirely.Mark Molzen,Lumen’s company spokesperson, said that Monroe “is our hometown” and it is committedtostaying in the state.
“Lumen has built and continues to invest in ournetwork,the backboneofthe AI economy,and we engagewithstate leaders to explore opportunitiesthatsupporteconomic growth and innovation,” said Molzen, who is based in Phoenix.
‘Hybridisthe future’
Lumenwas founded in 1930 as asmall regionaltelephone company.Over the years, it grew through acquisitionsand mergers, rebranding alongthe way from Century TeltoCenturyLink to Lumen Technologies. At one point in the 2010s, it was the third-largest telecommunications company in the U.S.
In recent years, the company has shifted more of its operations to other cities, notably Denver, thehomebase of Qwestand Level 3Communications, large companies Lumen acquired. But in 2015, the company nearly doubled thesize of its Monroe campus with the completion of a new, state-of-the-art office building intended to accommodate morethan 1,000 employees.
The company received $23.8 million in grants from the state’s Mega-Project Development Fund and Rapid Response Fund to be paid over several years in return for creating 1,146 new jobs and retaining thecorporate headquarters through 2020.
Thedeal was later amended to extend through 2023. But during the pandemic, Lumen, like many tech companiesaround the country,moved to aremotework model.
“Due to our remote work model, we chose to forgo future incentives,” Molzen said. “Our corporateheadquarters remains in Monroe, and we take great pride in our presence here.”
Today, Lumen hasa “keyoperational presence” in Denver according to its website. In addition to theleaders in Denver,three other top executives are based in Seattle, where Tier 3, acompany Lumen acquired in 2014, waslocated.Two othersare in Toronto and California. Of Lumen’sC-suite leadership,its interimexecutive counsel and an executive vice president for mass markets are in Monroe.
The company no longer runs key departments like sales and marketing, accounting or human resources from Monroe. Molzen said since the remote work policy was implemented, “our functions are nottiedtospecific locations, allowing us to have employees performing work around the world.”
‘Upwardspiral’ Whenitcomes to corporate
headquarters, cities in Louisiana have been losing ground fordecades to places like Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennesse; and Atlanta. Still, as recently as the 1990s, severalhomegrown companies regularly appeared on the prestigious Fortune 500 list, including Tidewater,McDermott International, Freeport McMoRan, and Louisiana Land and Exploration. CenturyLink, now Lumen, Entergy and The Shaw Group joined the list in the early 2000s. Today,Entergy and Lumen are the only two still based in the state.
Having theheadquarters of large companies, whetheronthe Fortune 500 list or not, matters to acityorregionfor many reasons, experts say
“Corporate headquarters are catalysts forgrowth, innovation and community prosperity,” Elizabeth Huff, economic director of the SugarLand, Texas, Officeof EconomicDevelopment,wrote in atrade publication in 2024. It makes recruiting top talent easier,creating “anupwardspiral,” she added.
The presence of corporate executives in acommunity can also enhance civic life and makes it easier to raise philanthropic dollars.
“When you’re fundraising fora hospital or putting on aroad race for alocal charity,the first door youknock on is the corporate CEO,” Tulane University professor Peter Ricchiuti said.
Given Lumen’sgrowth through acquisitions andmergers over the years, Ricchiuti is not surprised that its presence in north Louisiana has diminished.
“When corporations merge, you often see them shift things around, relocate keypeople,” he said. “Theyall say it won’thappen. It does.”
Synergiesand opportunities
For themoment, Lumen continuestoleaseabout 50,000 square feet in thenewer of thetwo buildings it donated to ULMin2023. The lease runs until 2026. Mozen said the company will work with the landlord as the renewalapproaches “tomakethe best decision” abouthow to move forward. In the meantime, the university is working with LED on aplan to market thebuilding, according to Dan Robertson, whochairs the nonprofit ULM Facilities Corporation Board,the entity that was gifted the property Robertson said given the building’sfiberopticscapabilities, a likely use would be to leverage the planned artificial intelligence data center underconstruction forFacebook parent company Meta in nearbyRichland Parish and lease the space to arelated to atech company LED is involved in the discussions, according to Bourgeois, who said the availability of the buildings has caught the attention Gov. Jeff Landry andother officials.
“The size, quality and the way they were built makes the buildings an incredible but very unique asset,” Bourgeois said. “ULM and thestate areworking together to determine howwe market it forits highest and best use that serves ULM, the Monroe region and the state as awhole.” Email StephanieRiegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate. com.
BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer
When Gov Jeff Landry tapped W. Gray Stream last year to chair the newly created Louisiana Economic Development Partnership, the 45-year-old Lake Charles businessman was skeptical
In his years as president of the Stream Cos. and founder of Gulf Coast Sequestration, Stream has seen plenty of boards and commissions attempt unsuccessfully to tackle Louisiana’s many challenges. He knew that if the 11-member board of business leaders wanted to make a difference in its role providing advice to the state’s economic development team, it needed to break the mold.
After six months at the group’s helm, Stream is upbeat about the board’s progress. In March, it signed off on a new economic development strategy that aims to transform Louisiana into the most innovative economy in the South. Its goal is for Louisiana to have the highest wage growth in the region and positive net migration in all parts of the state Stream didn’t grow up in Louisiana, but his family has deep roots in the state, where the family business, Stream Cos., is among the largest landowners.
In 2018, he founded Gulf Coast Sequestration to develop a carbon capture and sequestration hub in Calcasieu Parish. In this week’s Talking Business, Stream discusses why carbon capture technology is necessary for Louisiana to grow, despite opposition from a small group of Republican lawmakers in the Legislature, and his role as chair of the new private sector board. Comments have been edited for length and clarity
Tell us about Stream Cos.
The Stream Cos. is a humble family business. It started out with land surveying, which turned into land acquisition around agriculture, cattle, timber and so forth. That turned into properties that had oil and gas production. And then it transitioned into other businesses as well: real estate devel-
opment, hotels and other private businesses. We sometimes will try to help start things and grow them and exit. Others, like our wetlands company which has restored tens of thousands of acres of coastal wetlands and marshes — we hold onto. We are still very much, no pun intended, rooted in the land. We’re very connected to the dirt here in the state. How much land do y’all have in your portfolio?
We don’t tend to talk about specific acreage, but it’s a low sixfigure acreage amount. So it’s a meaningful holding of primarily agriculture, timber and coastal properties.
What prompted you to create Gulf Coast Sequestration in 2018?
There is a very large amount of industrial activity that has a lot of emissions that need to be decarbonized. There were also industries that were looking to invest in
Louisiana, but if they didn’t have solutions to decarbonize their materials, they couldn’t get their financing. We wanted to construct a solution so the industry that wanted to locate here didn’t have the uncertainty of waiting.
Meta, for instance, said they wanted low carbon power We have all this gas-fired power which is low cost. Put carbon capture and sequestration on it, and it’s low carbon. That’s what we need. Anybody with logic sees that that’s if you’re trying to grow the economy, that this is a very elegant solution. President Donald Trump has pushed for a return to traditional fossil fuels but thus far hasn’t announced cuts to federal tax credits that are key to financing carbon capture and sequestration projects.Where do Louisiana’s federal lawmakers stand on CCS? Who are your biggest advocates? I think there’s been a positive level of support, but I don’t think our delegation is monolithic. You
have some who think that anything built on the basis of lowering greenhouse gas emissions is a misguided use of resources. You have some who think it’s a good thing and industry has to have solutions and this is the way to do it. I’ve been pleased with the support. I think the leaders of our delegation understand it well. On the Senate side, Sen (Bill) Cassidy has been so deeply involved in energy policy, and trying to ensure that we’re positioning ourselves in Louisiana for new energy technologies and being proactive about it. You served as chair of Gov. Jeff Landry’s transition committee on Energy, Chemical and Maritime Industry policy, and also advised Gov John Bel Edwards’ Climate Initiatives Task Force. How do you think Louisiana should approach the energy transition?
I’m personally an all-of-theabove guy I think that’s the only practical, pragmatic way to be. The energy transition is not a political
thing. Things are always evolving technologically The demand, particularly for electricity, is being driven up a steep curve. Typically, that’s being addressed with a hydrocarbon-based resource and that’s going to continue to be the case. At the same, there are all these other solutions that are also being developed. You want to be on the side of innovation. That’s where growth is going to be.
There’s a push among some lawmakers to limit CCS in Louisiana in the upcoming legislative session. One proposal would give voters the opportunity to decide whether they want CCS in their parish. What do you make of the opposition brewing against CCS?
The basis for those bills are basically some folks that have stoked up some local voices that don’t really understand, but they’re loud and they’re worked up and, you know, there may not even be that many of them, but they can scare enough people to get in a room and at a local level try to shut things down that are good for the state. I think that sometimes legislators feel that they have to do things in response to some folks that, whether they’re informed properly or not, are effective at creating anxiety
How do you view your role on the Louisiana Economic Development Partnership? What do you think about LED’s progress so far?
We’re a resource and we’re a means for feedback and accountability. Secretary (Susan) Bourgeois is awesome. I have an enormous amount of respect for her and the culture that she’s building. The governor made a great pick there She and the staff have a huge, emotionally healthy appetite for critical feedback, because they don’t think we’re doing everything right. That’s the point. If you think you’re already a rock star and everything’s great, then why try to improve? There’s an ambition to do things better You see a group of people there that are hungry to be productive and get results for the citizens of the state.
Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate.com and follow him on Twitter, @blakepater
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BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer
A musician needs full lungs to play the harmonica — that makes the pocket-size instrument just what the doctor ordered for respiratory therapy patients at Baton Rouge General Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center
Jaqueline McCarthy, a musical therapist at Baton Rouge General, teaches the weekly classes split up into 15 minute one-on-one sessions.
McCarthy, a former opera singer, also leads a special class once a month for patients wanting to learn the harmonica as respiratory therapy treatment, which helps patients with types of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
In the class, patients learned the Louisiana classic “You Are My Sunshine.”
Playing the harmonica strengthens the diaphragm and teaches pursed-lip breathing, which helps better oxygenate the blood, according to Jessica Richardson, a registered nurse and team leader at the center
The technique enables people to inhale and exhale more air, by breathing in through their nose and then breathing out through puckered lips.
“Patients with long-term lung conditions can use this harmonica therapy to strengthen the body,” Richardson said. “The breathing techniques increase the levels of oxygen and makes the diaphragm stronger.”
The deep, deliberate breaths used in playing the harmonica help patients with damaged lungs inflate microscopic air sacs called alveoli, which
Patricia Beebe learns how to play the harmonica recently at the Baton Rouge General Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center
are where the blood exchanges CO2 for oxygen. In contrast, breathing quick, shallow breaths will cause the alveoli to collapse, making it harder to get air sacs to inflate again — sort of like when blowing up a balloon.
The best thing about learning to play the harmonica, according to music instructor McCarthy, is that patients don’t need previous musical experi-
ence to get the benefits. The harmonica will make it sound good no matter what.
The sheet music is comprised of pluses and minuses (indicating inhales or exhales, respectively) and numbers one through six (indicating where on the harmonica to play).
ä See MUSIC, page 2X
BY GENARO C. ARMAS
American Heart Association News (TNS)
It’s an ability and skill often taken for granted. It affects quality of life and has been linked to heart disease and stroke. As we age and our muscles weaken, balance becomes crucial to staying active and supporting a healthy heart and brain.
“Balance is important because it’s one of the attributes that allows you do to physical activity,” said Dr Kelley Gabriel, a professor of epidemiology and associate dean at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. “Everything you do involves some level of balance — standing at the sink, mopping, walking the dog. It’s embedded into almost every single activity.”
According to federal physical activity guidelines, balance training should be part of the weekly exercise routine for older adults to help prevent falls, another frequent problem for stroke survivors. Such exercises include walking backward, standing on one leg or using a wobble board Use caution and work with a coach or training partner if needed. Activities that strengthen the back, abdomen and legs also improve balance, according to the guidelines.
Balance is a “multifaceted physiological process” that involves vision, the vestibular system in the inner ear and the nervous system, researchers wrote in a 2024 study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The Swedish study included 4,927 participants without cardiovascular disease who were 70 years old. Their balance was measured at the start of the study using a balance board.
After five years of follow-up, researchers found that problems with lateral balance — the ability to remain stable while shifting weight from one side of the body to the other — were associated with a higher risk for heart attack and stroke.
Similarly, a 2023 study in the European Journal of Medical Research found that among nearly 130,000 adults age 60 and older in Korea, those with balance impairment may be at increased risk for coronary heart disease or stroke
Two 2024 studies — one in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and the other in the Journals of Gerontology Series A — also found an association between balance impairment and increased risk of dementia among older adults.
Dr Pei-Shiun Chang, associate professor of community and health systems at the University of Indiana School of Nursing in Bloomington, said that while impaired balance may be an
BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer
CAR T-cell therapy, also known as Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy, is a personalized form of immunotherapy treatment that genetically modifies a patient’s immune system to target and destroy cancer cells. It is used to treat some types of blood cancer including multiple myeloma.
The success of CAR T-cell therapy is promising with significant remission rates in patients who have not responded to standard cancer treatments.
Dr Laura Finn is the section chair of hematology at Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center She received her medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans before completing her residency in internal medicine at Earl K. Long at LSU in Baton Rouge. Finn went on to a hematology and oncology fellowship at Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education in Jacksonville, Florida. She also completed advanced training in stem cell transplant as a Mayo Clinic Scholar at the University of Minnesota.
Now, Finn is the director of Ochsner Health’s Hematology and Stem Cell Transplant Program where she studies blood disorders with a research focus in leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome.
Finn played a major role in bringing CAR T-cell therapy to Louisiana residents, from New Orleans to Lafayette.
Tell me about stem cell transplants and how they work.
Multiple myeloma is the No.
PROVIDED PHOTO
Dr Laura Finn is chair of hematology at Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center
1 blood cancer that which an autologous stem cell transplant is performed for An autologous stem cell transplant is a type of transplant that doesn’t require a donor: the patients are going to be donating their stem cells to themselves.
Here’s how it works: At diagnosis, a patient of myeloma receives different types of immune therapy Very rigorous chemotherapy is primarily used to treat multiple myeloma, and the intent is to get patients into remission before a stem cell transplant (remission is when a patient has undetectable cancer by all our available tests).
When a patient enters remission, the blood system in their bone marrow is back to normal or near normal health. At that point, there is a procedure, a little bit like donating blood, that we
use to get their stem cells.
We then keep the stem cells in reserve before the autologous transplant patient comes to the hospital. Then, that patient will receive chemotherapy The intent of that chemotherapy is to remove what is diseased, the remaining cancer in their blood and marrow system — even if we can’t see it by our tests.
Then, we give them back their healthy stem cells. There’s going to be several million of them going back into the body
A stem cell can repopulate the entire blood and immune system just from a few cells. The intention of the transplant is to regrow the immune system in its healthy state again.
By doing this, it’s not a cure for multiple myeloma, but it can improve what we call “progression free survival” survival without evidence of cancer for, on average, about five years.
Who qualifies for stem cell transplant treatment?
When we first meet a patient with multiple myeloma, one of the first things we ask ourselves is if they are transplant eligible.
Very few things that would make someone ineligible. We’ve transplanted patients up to their 80s.
It’s primarily based on a patient’s underlying health: Would there be any reason due to another underlying diagnosis (heart health or lung health) that would prevent a patient from receiving chemotherapy?
During a transplant, a patient will not have an immune system at all for about two weeks. We make sure that the risk factor,
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“The music also gives patients a chance to practice their breathing, and are really able to hear how well their breath control is,” McCarthy said.
Practicing the songs, like “You Are My Sunshine,” gives patients an auditory cue for their lung health. It can also provide patients with something positive (like their favorite song) and very focused, actionable task to improve their health.
“Patients can practice songs over and over again until it sounds right,” Mary Malloy said, music supervisor for Baton Rouge General’s Arts in Medicine program. “It’s also just fun.”
Proven differences in lung health
Patients at Baton Rouge General’s harmonica class started with breathing exercises in their chairs to make sure their posture was best for quality breathing (shoulders back, chin parallel to the floor, etc.).
The class placed their hands on their stomachs practiced control of the diaphragm making sure the stomach pushes the hand out to expand and retract when taking deep breaths.
Then it was time to “break out the harmonicas,” McCarthy said.
The musicians warmed up with long inhales followed by short exhales, and long exhales followed by short inhales. The breathing
pattern is meant to show patients the difference in volume based on breathing power.
“It take much more work to play softly than really loud,” said harmonica instructor McCarthy, “We try to get the breathing and the sounds as controlled as possible.”
Breathing long inhales helps with oxygenation, and a slow, soft exhale helps get rid of CO2 in the lungs.
The harmonica is another way to tell how well patients are breathing, according to registered nurse Richardson. “We can hear the notes and how long patients are actually inhaling and exhaling,” Richardson said.
In a 2020 study from the National Library of Medicine, patients attended 12 weeks of harmonica training sessions for 2 hours a week and were encouraged to practice at home
The pilot study showed that the harmonica program significantly improved measurements used to assess respiratory muscle strength (like PImax, PEmax and 6-minute walk distance) in patients after rehabilitation.
In order to measure the effectiveness of harmonica therapy Richardson and her team at Baton Rouge General measure a patients’ oxygen levels before and after their one-on-one harmonica sessions. Most of the time, the oxygen levels improve
According to Richardson, the effectiveness of the musical treatment can depend on the patient, and at what point in their exercises the therapy was (before or after vari-
should something happen like an infection, is low If someone is in relatively good health, very few other health conditions, they qualify for the treatment.
Another big part is that patients need a support system of family and friends to be there after the transplant. They make sure patients get the necessary things like medicines, meals and transports to and from appointments while recovering from a transplant.
If someone has good baseline health, is physically active and has a good social support system, then it’s safe to have autologous transplant.
What is CAR T-cell therapy, and why is it different than current treatment?
CAR T therapy is approved and indicated for a patient who needs what is called a “second-line treatment” for their myeloma. This could be for a patient who went through all the steps to get the transplant and now needs a new treatment. This second-line treatment is very similar to the autologous transplant. The one difference is a patient doesn’t have to be in remission to go through CAR T — a patient can be in any stage of myeloma.
At one of our stem cell therapy sites, instead of collecting stem cells, we collect lymphocytes — another cell of the immune system. And, instead of holding them in the reserve, we send the lymphocytes to a company that genetically alters the cells to attack multiple myeloma cancer cells.
These new genetically altered cells are now considered a drug. They’re a medicine.
Continued from page 1X
early indicator of brain and heart health, and vice versa, “you can never say if someone has issues with their balance that they also have some issues with their brain or heart. You need to dig more into their” medical history Gabriel agreed, saying that direct connections between balance and heart and brain health cannot be made because conditions such as cardiovascular disease and dementia develop over decades, and may arise because of other risk factors.
“It becomes very challenging to measure the relationship between balance and things like cardiovascular disease and dementia given balance is so challenging to isolate from other aspects of physical activity,” she said.
A patient comes back to our site and receives chemotherapy to reduce the number of remaining lymphocytes (so there’s new space for the medicinal lymphocytes). Then, they receive the genetically altered lymphocytes by an IV drip.
Patients receiving this treatment stay in the hospital for a couple weeks as their immune system adjusts to have this new lymphocyte that can recognize and attack their myeloma indefinitely Has this treatment been successful in Louisiana?
Twenty years ago, the average survival of myeloma was three years. Now, the average survival is eight to 10 years.
In Louisiana, we have one of the highest incidences of myeloma in the country We’re seventh in the nation for diagnosis and the national average age is 65. We’re an exception to that. The average age of diagnosis is closer to 45 in Louisiana, especially among African Americans.
We’ve done over 50 CAR T therapies here at Ochsner for lymphoma, multi myeloma and other patients that qualify What we have seen is over 75% of patients respond well to CAR-T therapy Patients tend to maintain, on average, that good response for about two years — a little less for some and a little bit more for others.
People are starting to talk about a cure for myeloma — which has been unheard of for decades. I think we’re going to continue to add decades onto our survival time with these technologies.
Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.
“Balance is important because it’s one of the attributes that allows you do to physical activity. Everything you do involves some level of balance — standing at the sink, mopping, walking the dog. It’s embedded into almost every single activity.” DR. KELLEy GABRIEL, a professor of epidemiology and associate dean at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health
strengthen the foot and lower leg muscles, and work with a rehabilitation specialist or family member who can assist if needed. Gradually build up duration and intensity
“Maybe start with a short walk in your neighborhood, and once you feel like you can tolerate that level, slowly increase intensity
ous activities on the treadmill, bike, stretches and more)
“The order that is most helpful for better breathing is very patientspecific,” Richardson said. “But patients tend to love it either way.”
Using music to heal
Beginning in 2012, the Baton Rouge General Arts in Medicine therapy program has provided patients at the Baton Rouge hospital for many different ways to de-stress and find healing through the arts, including painting, knitting, crocheting, live music events, drawing and much more.
“Sometimes the act of focusing on a project or using music to destress can really make a difference for our patients,” Malloy said.
In 2019, the program began to expose babies in the NICU to calming, rhythmic sounds that are designed to help babies grown and heal.
Studies show music therapy in the NICU provides a host of benefits, including a stabilized heart rate and improved breathing, feeding, weight gain and sleep. In the NICU, mimicking the sounds of the womb and reducing loud, disruptive noises can be beneficial for premature infants, as they experience a different soundscape than in the womb.
Specifically, Baton Rouge General’s music therapists use low-frequency sounds, like those from the ocean disc (a hollow, circular drum that mimics wound sounds) and a gato box (a wooden box with soft pedals that simulates a mother’s heartbeat), can be used to simulate the intrauterine environment
One relationship that is more certain, Gabriel said, is that the more active someone is, the better their balance is likely to be. And balance is a key factor in preventing falls, which is the leading cause of injury among adults 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Clinicians should assess balance and risk for falling in people with cardiovascular diseases, according to a 2022 American Heart Association scientific statement that says patients with any loss of balance should be referred for physical therapy Balance exercises can help with the recovery process for those who have had a heart event or stroke. People should plan their exercise program with a health care professional, Chang said.
Start slowly with exercises that
Then move on to other exercises,” Chang said. She recommended toe stands, which is a balance exercise that requires someone to stand or move on the tips of their toes, as great balance training for older adults since it strengthens the calves and ankles.
In general, many lower-body strength training exercises can improve balance for people of all ages. Practicing yoga and Pilates can help with balance, strength and flexibility
Chang also recommends qigong, a form of traditional Chinese mind-body exercise, as another practice that can improve balance, flexibility, muscle strength and overall health, especially for older adults.
Qigong, which is similar to tai chi, combines slow and precise body movements with controlled breathing and mental focus.
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.
YOU
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.
BROUGHT
EatFit-style festing:Enjoy Louisiana’sbiggest outdoor celebrations and still feel your best
Otherscallitspring. AcrossSouthLouisiana,it’sFestival Season.Ourstreets,parks andfairgroundsfillwith vibrantmusic,eclectic art,spiritedcrowdsand, ofcourse,unbelievable food.Facedwithso manydecadentlydeliciousoptions,itcanbe temptingtohitpauseon ourwellnessgoals.But, withabitofplanningand know-how,itispossibletoenjoyfest-filled weekendsandstillfeel yourbest.
Planahead Manyfestivalspost foodvendorlineups onlineinadvance,giving ustheopportunitytolookforoptionsthat alignwithournutritionalneedsandpreferences.Whetheryou’reaimingtokeep carbsincheckorlookingforvegetarianor gluten-freedishes,takingaquickpeekat themenuaheadoftimecanhelpyoumap outyourfestfoodgameplan,narrowing downthevendors’dishesyouwanttotry
SpotlightonJazzFest
ingredientslikefreshproduce,leanproteinsandplant-basedfats.Andit’snotjust aboutbeingnutritious.Carefullycrafted bytalentedchefsandcooks,theseEatFit dishesarealsodeliciousandinteresting centeredonqualityingredientslayered withlocalandglobalflavors.
OneofLouisiana’smosticonicfestivalsistheNewOrleansJazz&Heritage FestivalpresentedbyShell,spanningtwo weeksanddrawingvisitorsfromaround theglobe.Belovedforitslegendarymusicandiconicfoodofferings,JazzFestis amassivecelebrationfilledwithenergy andcreativity.
Iamthrilledtosharethatthisyear, morethan24JazzFestfoodvendor menuswillfeatureEatFitoptions, dishesthathavenorefinedwhitecarbs, littleornoaddedsugar,andwholesome
YoucanfindthelistofEatFit-approved dishesatnojazzfest.com/foodorviathe freeEatFitmobileappwhereyoucan browsefestvendors,viewphotosandsee nutritionfactsforeachEatFitdish.
MyfirstfoodstopatJazzFestisalways
CongoSquare.Threeofmyfavorites (favoritepeopleandfavoritedishes)are here: •GambianFoods(CharlieMendy): Spicygrilledtofuandveggieswith peanutsauce(vegan) •Palmer’sCuisine(JessicaDandridge andhermom,DinahCampbell): Jamaicanchickenwithdouble steamedvegetables •Bennachin(FantaTambajang):Pouletfricasseewithjamajamaspinach MynextstopisFoodArea1forthe shrimpandlumpcrabravigotebyPapa NinetyCateringandthebrusselssprouts (quitepossiblythebestI’veevertasted) bySmokeStreetCatering.Another favorite,thecochondelaitpo-boyfrom Walker’sBBQ,isnowavailableoverasalad.Ialsolovethesunflowersaladwith grilledshrimpbyTenTalentsCatering. FoodArea2isamustforDanaHonn’s handmadetacosfromTempero’sMarket KitchenandforCharleyPierre’sgrilled shrimppikliz,aHaitiandishbyFritai. Anddon’tmisstheVietnamesebeef skewers—perfectlymarinatedand tender—byBahnMiinHeritageSquare. There’smore,ofcourse,butthisisasnapshotofmytopJazzFestfavorites. BeyondJazzFest,SouthLouisianais quiteliterallybrimmingwithfestivals. FrombarbecuecompetitionsinBatonRougetoFestivalInternationalde LouisianeinLafayette,similarwellness principlesapply.
MollyKimball,RD,CSSD,isaregistereddietitian withOchsnerHealthandfounderofOchsner’sEatFit nonprofitinitiative.Formorewellnesscontent,tuneinto Molly’spodcast,FUELEDWellness+Nutrition,andfollow @MollykimballRDand@EatFitOchsneronsocialmedia. Emailnutrition@ochsner.orgtoconnectwithMollyor scheduleaconsultwithherteam.
BY THENUMBERS
Festfood:Nutritionalstrategies
•Sharewithafriend.Iwouldhavea hardtimepolishingoffallthefavorite dishesonmylistifItriedtodoitsolo. I’mallaboutsharingwithfriends.Not onlydoesitgiveusopportunitiesto trymoredishes,butitalsohelpskeep thingsabitmorebudgetfriendly.
•Scopeoutthemenuaheadoftime. Mapoutyourgameplanandsee whatsplurgesaretrulyworththe indulgence.
•Lookforqualityingredients.Focus ondishescenteredonfreshingredientslikegrilledleanproteinsand vegetables.
•Doubletheveg.Mostvendorsare happytoserveupdoublevegetables inplaceofastarchlikericeorpasta. Justbeawaretheremaybeanupcharge.
•Stayhydrated.Gettingenough fluidsiscriticalwhentheheatindex issoaring.Itcanhelpyoufeelyour bestonalongdayoutatthefest—as wellasthenextday.Water,flavored sparklingwater,unsweetenedtea andnon-alcoholicbeerallserveto hydrateuseffectively.
Savorthefullexperience
Ofcourse,ourlocalfestivalsareabout morethanjustfood.They’reacelebration ofculture,musicandcommunity.Yes,nutritionmatters,butsodoessavoringthe moment—soakingupthemusic,strolling throughlocalartists’boothsandspending timewithfriends,botholdandnew. Ifyou’reatJazzFestorseekingout healthiermenuoptionsstatewide,don’t forgettodownloadthefreeEatFitmobileapp,auser-friendlyguideforfinding nutritiousdishes—duringfestivalseason andallyearlong.
Chronic conditions cover a rangeofhealth conditions lasting more than ayear.Some chronic conditions only require ongoing medical attention. Others limit daily functions such as eating, bathing and mobility
The more chronic conditions an individual has, the higher their risk of the following outcomes: n physical, social and cognitive limitations; n longer hospital stays; n adverse drug events; n death.
In 2023, the averagepercentage of adults whohad three or more chronic health conditions in the United States is 10.7% Louisiana’saverageis 14.3%
Adults with three or more of the following chronic health conditions are considered for this data:
n arthritis, n asthma, n chronic kidneydisease, n chronic obstructivepulmonary disease, n cardiovascular disease (heart disease, heartattack or stroke), n cancer (excluding nonmelanomaskincancer), n depression, n diabetes.
West Virginia had the highest rate of adults with multiple chronicconditions with 20.4% of adults,followedbyTennessee (16.1%), Alabama (14.6%), Louisiana (14.3%)and Arkansas (14.1%).
NewJerseyhad the lowest rate of adults with multiple chronic conditions with 7.5% of adults, followedbyCalifornia (7.6%), Hawaii (7.7%), Alaska (8.3%)and Texas (8.3%).
Diseasehas been rising amongyounger people forthe past twodecades
By Mayo Clinic News Network (TNS)
Colorectal cancer,the thirdmost common cancerinthe U.S., has been rising among younger people for the past two decades. It is not one type of cancer but two cancers: colon cancer,which starts in the large intestine, and rectalcancer,which begins in the last part of the large intestine,
known as the rectum.
Dr.Derek Ebner,a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist,notes that colorectal cancer has been increasing in adults under age50, particularly for rectal cancer
He saysit’simportant toknow thewarning signs of colorectal cancer and to not delay medical treatment
“Historically,colorectal cancer was equally divided along the colon andrectum, but particularly forthose with early onset colorectal cancer —age lessthan 50— we’re seeing higher rates of rectal cancer among theyounger onset,” says Dr.Ebner Case of colorectalcancerhas
been increasing in adultsunder age 50, particularly for rectal cancer
Warningsigns andsymptoms
Dr.Ebner says four keysymptoms have been identifiedfor people under 50 who arediagnosed with colorectal cancer
“Abdominalpain, diarrhea, seeing blood with bowel motions, as well as iron deficiencyanemia,” he says.
Dr.Ebner notes that blood loss after bowel movements, even if notvisibly apparent, can lead to low iron levels “If on ablood test, for example, we see asign of iron deficiency,
thatwould then prompt us to explorefurther,”hesays.
Even though it may be embarrassing, he stresses, “If you have any of those symptoms, you need to share it with ahealth care provider.Thatway,theycan navigatethose subsequent steps.”
That canleadtoearly treatment and better outcomes.
Reducing risks
While it’snot possible to completely prevent cancer,there are ways to reduce your risks, and that includes followinga healthy lifestyle.
“Abiding by ahealthy lifestyle is critical,” says Dr.Ebner
“Following awell-rounded diet, staying physically active, for instance, perhaps canbeprotective. The other key,though,is just being very mindful of those symptoms,and then also underscoring theimportance of screening.”
n Screening:Talktoyourhealth care team about colorectal cancer screening.
n Exercise: Aim for 30 minutes of exercise most days.
n Nutrition: Eatfruits, veggies andwhole grains.
n Weight: Maintainahealthy weight.
n Lifestyle: Don’tsmoke;limit alcohol consumption.
Forthosewhowanttoexplorenaturalremedies,herearesome optionsthatmayhelppreventallergiesfrominterferingwithyour enjoymentoflife.
Butterbur.Studiesindicatethisherbiseffectiveintreatingspring allergies.OnesuchstudyconductedinSwitzerlandshowedbutterbur tobeastrongantihistaminethatworkswellincontrollinghayfever symptomswithoutcausingdrowsiness
Greentea.StudiesbyJapanesescientistsshowthatgreenteacontainsa substancethatblockscertainallergicresponsesinthehumanbody.
Netipot.Filledwithdistilledwaterandsalt,thissmall,long-spoutedpot canbeaneffectivewaytoclearcloggedsinuspassages
Humidifier Youcancounteractallergy-relatednasaldryness,whichcan leadtocongestionandswelling,withahumidifierthatreleaseswater vaporintotheair.
Eucalyptusoil.Anaturalsubstancethatcomesfromeucalyptusleaves thisoilhasbeenshownbyvariousstudiestoreduceinflammation-caused allergies.Addafewdropstoabowlofsteamingwaterandbreatheinthe vapors.
Spicyfood.Somespicyfoods–andwehaveoursharehereinsouth Louisiana–canproviderelieffromallergysymptomssuchasnasal congestionandwateryeyes
High-efficiencyparticulateair(HEPA)filter Vacuumingyourfloor regularlycanhelpridyourhomeofpollen.AddingaHEPAfiltertoyour vacuumwillfurtherminimizepollenaccumulation.
Protectiveclothing.Wearingsunglasses,wide-brimmedhats,longpants andotherprotectiveclothingwhenyougooutdoorscanhelpprotect yourskinandeyesfrompollenexposure.
Antihistaminesblocktheeffectsofthehistaminereleased whenyouencounteranallergen.Byinhibitingtheallergic response,theyreducesymptomsofitching,sneezingandrunny nose.Therearetwogenerationsofantihistamines.Benadryl (diphenhydramine)andchlorpheniraminearepartofthefirst generation.Second-generationantihistaminesincludeZyrtec, Allegra,Xyzal,Claritinandtheirgenericcounterparts.
Intranasalsteroidspraysworkbydecreasinginflammation withinthenasalpassages,therebyrelievingnasalallergy
Seasonalallergiesareanannoyingrealityforthemorethan 50millionAmericanswhosneezeandsniffletheirwaythrough springeachyear.Warmingspringtemperaturesprompttrees, grassesandweedstoreleasepollentofertilizeotherplants.
Thegoodnewsisthatyoucantakestepstomanage yourallergysymptoms.Inadditiontonasalcorticosteroids andantihistamines,thereareotherwaysto minimizeseasonalsuffering.
Thereisnomagiccureforallergies.However,therearethreedifferentclassesof allergymedicationthatcanhelpcontrolsymptoms:antihistamines,nasalsprays anddecongestants.Antihistaminesandintranasalsteroidspraysarethetwomain medicationsrecommendedtotreatallergysymptoms.
Keepwindowsclosedandruntheairconditioningwhileathome andinthecar.
Whenpollenandmoldlevelsarehigh,stayindoorsasmuch aspossible.
Ifyouneedtospendprolongedtimeoutdoors,trywearingapollen maskoradustmask
Whenyoucomeinsidefromoutdooractivities,leaveyourshoesat thedoorstepand,ifpossible,washyourhairandchangeyourclothes
Vacuumyourhomeatleasttwiceaweekandhosethepollenoff yourcarandfrontporch/stepsoften.
Don’thangclothingorlinensoutsidetodry.
Takeallergymedicationasprescribed.
symptoms.SteroidsprayslikeFlonase(fluticasonepropionate)andNasacort (triamcinolone)maybegintoprovidesomehelpwithsymptomsafterabout sixto10hours,butitcantakeuptoseveralweeksofdailyuseforfullrelief.
Decongestantsdon’thelpwithsneezinganditching,butthey canhelpunclogbreathingpassageswhenallergensbringon stuffiness.Theycombatcongestionbyconstrictingbloodvessels toreduceswellinginthenose,allowingmucusandairtoflow morefreelyinyoursinuses.However,decongestantuseshould belimitedduetopotentialsideeffectslikeelevatedblood pressureanddifficultysleeping.DecongestantslikeAfrinnasal spraycanbeaddictiveandcausesignificantreboundswellingif usedtoooften.Theyshouldonlybeusedfortwotothreedays atatime.
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Born in NewOrleans and adopted at eight weeks, Elise Lewis found her birth parents in 1996 when she was 28.
But something important was missing: herbirth certificate, withall the details it contained.
A2022law gave Lewis and other adoptees in Louisiana the right to obtain it.
When the birth certificate arrived in themail, “I literally burstinto tears,” said Lewis, who grew up in BatonRouge but now lives in Minnesota. “It was the most emotional thing. Isaw my mother’s handwriting. Ifelt like Iwas complete Ididn’thave any secretsanymore.”
Others have used the law to find and meet their birth mothers.
COURTESy OF JON HARRIS
JonHarris, right, wasable to meet his birth mother for the first time thanks to anew Louisiana lawthat allowedhim to getacopyofhis full birthcertificate.
About 1,650 people in Louisiana have received theirbirth certificates since 2022, accordingto the state health department. Adoptees have to be at least 24 to requestit.
“A grown person ought to be able to get their birth certificate, andthat’s what it’sall about,”said state Rep. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine,whenhe presented the bill three years ago. He told his colleagues he hadbeen adopted.
“This billisabout agrown person having access to adocument that they arenamed in butcan’t access because of agovernment edict,” Owen said.
House Bill 450, which overturned a 1977 law,passed with an overwhelmingmajority in boththe Houseand Senate. Opponents expressed concerns that birth mothers whowanted no contact with their child would be contacted and because of that fear they could choose to have anabortion instead of giving up the child to adoption.
If the adopted person reaches out to their birth mother,“the twocan have an adult conversation,”said Lewis, who worked with Owen to winpassage of the legislation. “Wehave not heard of any backlash or ill effects from this law.”
Louisiana joined 10 other states in allowing adoptees to obtain theirbirth certificates,Owen said. His bill allows mothers to check abox saying they don’teverwanttobecontacted.Owen
said only two mothers have done that Jon Harris, 54, was alerted about the existenceofHB450 just before it passed Harris always knew he was adopted and appreciated growing up in what he calls “a great Christianfamily” in Shreveport.
By hisearly 20s, Harris wanted to learn his family history
“My adopted momand dad and I didn’thave alot of similar interests,” Harris said. “Dad was achurchminister,while Iliked motorcycles.Where does that come from? On every doctor’svisit, theywould ask: ‘Doyou haveany medical history?’ IsaidI didn’tknow.’”
Harris’parents told him he had been born in Shreveport and adopted at the Volunteers of America girls’ home there.
Thecenter could give him only limited information because of the 1977 law. Harris learnedthathis birth mother was light-skinned and blonde, hadgreen eyes, was 5’3” and weighed 100 pounds. His birth father was into cars andmotorcycles.Her parents didn’thave alot of means, and her father was aveteran.
That was it.
“They said everything else was underlock and key,” Harris said. “I joined an adoptee forum but ran into dead end after dead end. Ilooked into
hiring an attorney,but it wasgoing to be expensive.Every fewyears, I’d revisit the forumsand make another post.”
Like Lewis, Harris was ecstatic when he receivedthe birth certificate. Then Harris asked himself: “Is my birth mother still alive? Will Iever findmybirth father?The certificate said unknown.”
An executiverecruiter in Texas, Harris set out to use his work skills to find his mother
Within acouple of days, he found 12 phone numbers for peoplewith her name.
“I began calling with ascript,” Harris said. “I would say my birth date” and say “if it means anything to you, please give me acall.”
Twoweeks later,onaSunday morning beforechurch, Harrisreceived atext from awoman saying that the birthdate meant something to her ShecalledHarristhatafternoon, and “andwetalked for hours. She was ecstatic to meet me. She was 18 at thetimeand aseniorinhighschool. She got her nursing degree, her master’sdegree, was in the Armyfor many, manyyears. Herfear was that Ihad been in awar and gotten killed. She thought about meevery day and looked for me for awhile.”
ä See ADOPTION, page 2
Thelittle lessons matter:From mnemonics to manners
With the Inspired section, we focus on people whoare working toward solutions —some big, somesmall.
The thing is, sometimes the small things can becomebig —or makeahuge difference in how a situation evolves.
Growing up, my mother believed that table manners mattered, but at our casual family-oriented table, we rarely had abread dish beside the plate.
Iwill also add here that Iam the worst at leftand right. While I usually can point out north, south, east and westwherever Iam, I have to think hard every single timeI have to figure out leftfrom right. (I realize that may makeno sense to the manypeople out there to whom it comes so naturally.)
The truth is, Ilove agood mnemonic device. They have helped me remember so manydifferent things through the years. Wayback in elementary school piano lessons, my first piano teacher,Mrs. Winnie Mae Mitchell, taught me to read the keys on the lines of atreble clef with Every GoodBoy DoesFine.
In high school, Mrs. Donna McLean, my junior English teacher,taught me to spell necessary with, “A cess pool is necessary.”
In college, Dr.MaryAnn Dazey taught me to spell separate with, “There is ‘a rat’ in separate.” Somewhere along the way,I learned Roy G. Biv to remember the order of the colors of aspectrum —red, orange, yellow,green, blue, indigo and violet.
I’mafan of learning new things, but manyyears have passed since Iadded ahelpful mnemonic to my collection. However,about a month ago, Ifound myself sitting at acrowded table full of professors —and one of them taught me something new
The dinner ended up being lovely all the way around —great food and delightful company However,aswewere all arriving, things wereabit awkward. No one seemed to know anyone particularly well, and we just weren’t sure where we weresupposed to sit or the exact order of things for this unusual gathering of folks.
Nonetheless, we all took our seats. Small plates and multiple glasses crowded the table among aplethora of utensils, large and small plates galore. The waiter handed me abread basket. Itook a roll and had that momentofpanic. Which one is my bread plate?
Iquickly handed the bread to the dinner guest beside me who seemed to be struck by the same indecision Iwas trying not to acknowledge.
Dr.Jonathan H. Earle, dean of the LSU Honors College, wassitting directly across from me and noticed us trying to sort out the plates and glasses. He and Ihad met once before, but we didn’tknow each other wellbyany stretch. He began to liftboth of his hands in front of his face, making the OK sign with both thumbs and index fingers. Then he said, “B and D” several times in arow
He said this like we would all know exactly what he was talking about.
Ihad no clue. Rather than remain in the “B and D” dark, Iasked, “What are you doing with your hands, and what do you mean by saying ‘B and D?’”
Preservation Hall program works to make sure New Orleans’ musical legacy gets passed on
BY HANNAH LEVITAN Staff writer
On a windy Thursday morning, a group of nearly 60 fourth graders from Christian Brothers School crammed into Preservation Hall, where the creaky wooden floors and faded paint gave testament to the venue’s history
Despite the buzz of construction next door, the sea of bright-eyed students watched as six local musicians took their positions while tuning their instruments — including a trombone, cello, drums, clarinet, trumpet and piano.
The Preservation Hall Foundation is working to expand the iconic jazz shrine, increasing its footprint to 730 St. Peter St Plans include growing its music education initiatives that are aimed at inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians.
Meanwhile, veterans like Roderick “Rev” Paulin continue to breathe life into the storied walls of the iconic venue.
Filled with music and students, the energy inside the hall was palpable.
Once the group finished their rendition of “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” and the room fell silent, they opened the floor for questions. Immediately, hands eagerly shot up.
“How long have you been a band?” one student asked.
Trumpeter Mark Braud turned
to his friends and laughed. “Since this morning.”
Though Braud said they rarely play in the same configuration, New Orleans musicians have a certain way of communicating, speaking the common language of jazz.
It’s that language the soul of the New Orleans’ music scene
— that program managers at the Preservation Hall Foundation are hoping to pass on to the next generation, launching a five-year “PASS IT ON” campaign with the goal of reigniting intergenerational connections to preserve the city’s musical and cultural legacy.
Jazz in the heart of New Orleans
Jazz has been a cornerstone of New Orleans culture for more than 100 years. It’s everywhere: on the stoops of shotgun homes, vibrating from the corners of backstreets, in the living rooms of posh Uptown homes and lingering in the dingy alleyways of the French Quarter
For Charlotte Farris, a New Orleans native and music teacher at Christian Brothers School, introducing her class to the musical genre and one of its fountainheads was imperative.
“There’s been so much that has come out of Preservation Hall,” Farris said. “You feel it when you walk in the door I walked in there and felt a lump in my throat.”
Even at 9 a.m., the hall was
brimming with energy. But field trips are limited. A lot of kids won’t have that same experience.
Preservation Hall Foundation programs manager Pamela Blackmon is working to change that.
“What used to happen on stoops and in living rooms and down the street, it’s not there anymore,” Blackmon said.
“To access the culture that you’re from, as a kid, it has to be presented to you by your family or by your school.”
Continued from page 1
For many young people, those connections have faded.
By expanding a building that embodies the spirit of jazz, the Preservation Hall Foundation is working toward the chance to pump life back into something that, according to Blackmon, is eroding throughout the city
Passing on the culture Paulin, who has been with Preservation Hall for several years and is the director of Jazz Studies
at Southern University, began taking music lessons when he was the same age as Farris’ students. He said there’s a huge education component that’s not talked about when it comes to New Orleans music.
“Many of the musicians come from school bands and they had great music educators, who have always been behind the scenes,” Paulin said.
“Many of us come from musical families, but we also had musical families in schools.”
Music education and outreach programs are at the forefront of the jazz hub’s $25 million campaign for their new era. In partnering with other organizations and schools, the Preservation Hall Foundation is able to expose students to jazz, who, otherwise, wouldn’t have the opportunity Music teachers like Farris hope they, too, can pass the culture along.
“This culture has changed the world, and [my students] get to be a part of it,” Farris said.
“I hope that I can also inspire them to continue it because if we don’t have people continuing it, spreading it and talking about it, it’s going to go away and that would be awful.”
As her students erupted in applause after the band’s final performance at the historic jazz hall, Farris smiled, knowing the morning had struck the right chord.
bill has given me access to information I would never have had.” He learned his birth father died about 20 years ago. Harris and his mother met in San Diego in 2023. “The connection, the reunion, all the wonderful bonuses — it has been a full restoration, a complete 360,” Harris said. “It connected all the
The
‘Love
BY LAUREN CHERAMIE Staff writer
Lauren Bordelon, LPC, is a licensed professional counselor and coach. She owns Bordelon Counseling in Lafayette and is the founder of Modern Marriage Coaching. In her practice, she helps high-conflict couples save their relationship and rebuild connection. With a background in mental health and a passion for modernizing marriage dynamics, Bordelon specializes in communication, relational living and conflict resolution.
Bordelon supports couples who feel stuck in painful patterns — offering them tools to calm their nervous systems, communicate effectively and create balanced, emotionally supportive partnerships. She is committed to building strong, healthy communities and believes that when people heal relationships, they heal the world.
This interview was edited for length and clarity
What is a “sex-forward” couples counseling practice?
Over time, I’ve incorporated work from the Gottman Method, Esther Perel and Terry Real. I recognize that sex is going to be a hard conversation for people to dive into — always. I work to immediately break down any fear barriers. In the first session, I am going to assess the health of your sexual relationship just like I would your communication, which allows me to show couples that there is nothing off-topic. We need to break the ice and get vulnerable because all of these topics are going to be hard, so it’s the one way I break the ice of vulnerability It also tells me a story about how they’re relating to each other We talk about sex from the beginning, and then we
loves us, they would just know what we like — are able to read our minds. It’s just not true The movies can’t accurately get what it’s like to be in a true marriage forever In the beginning, you talk, and you’re enamored with one another But we forget that we still need to do that even when we’re 40 years down the line I feel like I have to normalize that this is how couples do it — this is how couples successfully lead a monogamous marriage for 50 years. While every couple, and certainly every person, is different, are there general tips for how to make a marriage last?
Your sexual world cannot just exist in your bedroom, meaning that we have to be engaging with one another in a friendly way. You have to have some kind of level of physical touch outside of the bedroom.
If your partner isn’t telling you anything except for “How are the kids?,” there isn’t much of a feeling of emotional safety to go into the vulnerability of sex. I talk to people about how foreplay happens the moment that your last orgasm just ended, because everything leads to the next time that you are now trying to be intimate with your partner
Again, it doesn’t have to be just sex We have to tune into enjoying one another frequently throughout the week. It’s tough to do in this world where we have so much going on, but a big thing is playfulness — having fun on purpose with each other. That is where connection is built. That is how people feel more safe in a sexual way, too.
Do you think there’s still a stigma surrounding women’s sexual freedom, or is society moving forward?
lot more vulnerably in discussing what works and what doesn’t work.
People are learning how to talk about it.
Women are more likely to be disengaged from sex earlier than men with their monogamous partners, and that’s because there has to be a story that goes on. Women require a lot more outside of the bedroom in order to feel emotionally safe
But if it’s not being cultivated in the home, then, generally, sex drops off, and then the couple starts to feel like, “Do we even love each other anymore?”
Really, it’s just trying to reengage with one another and create a romantic plot in your world.
Do something to remind your partner that you do, in fact, feel love for them outside of the bedroom.
What are some nonsexual ways to show love or support toward your partner?
The sexual show of love is so minimal in regards to how frequently we should be showing that. What we want is to know that we are top of mind, that they care about us.
The easy stuff is saying please and thank you. I know my husband takes out the trash on Thursdays. Why should I have to say thank you? Because it’s nice, and it feels good. That’s the way we connect.
Leave a little sticky note on the mirror, send them a funny text or video that reminded you of them — just really simple things that say “Hey I see you, and I see what you do in our world every day.”
work toward how your emotional relationship affects your sexual relationships, vice versa, and how people connect to one another physically
Do couples find it easy to talk to you about their sexual relationships because
you’re approaching it with a “birds-eye” view? Absolutely Not to mention, I’m working to help normalize that these conversations need to happen in the first place. We assume that if our partner
I think that there still is a stigma, but I do think we’re in transition. Within the past 60 years with contraception and the sexual revolution, women got to be free with their sexuality in ways that it was just reproduction before Couples are having to engage a
Small things often build trust — trust that I am emotionally connected to you and safe with you. If I don’t touch you outside of the bedroom, that does not bode well for
BY KATHRYN POST
Contributing writer
Like many fast-growing organizations, Chochmat HaLev tracks new relationships using customer relations management software Brittany Berman, Chochmat’s “community weaver,” logs newcomers’ interests and schedules digitally generated follow-ups. After meeting someone in person for coffee, Berman connects them to at least one other person at Chochmat
“If someone meets you and asks you to reflect on your experience, then there’s a chance to make meaning,” said Berman. “And once meaning is made, then there’s more buy-in.”
The process is essential for sustainable growth, said Chochmat’s board president, Estee Solomon Gray, who spent years working in the tech world.
One of the keys to Berman’s work, too, is the small-group meetups she organizes, as well as events such as intergenerational Shabbat dinners. While it has a wide constituency among its tech-world neighbors, with more than a few non-Jewish members, Chochmat HaLev is a Jewish Renewal synagogue.
At a time when loneliness has been described as an epidemic not least, some say because of how our tech isolates us —
Chochmat HaLev has been using technology’s approach to making connections between people to build community
“This building is infrastructure,” said Solomon Gray, gesturing around her in the courtyard of Chochmat, a former Baptist church in the tiled-roof Spanish colonial style. “But there’s another whole kind of infrastructure that is the relational infrastructure,” she adds, “which is a fabric, a mesh of relationships in which you are living together, cocreating together.”
Chochmat’s approach has been working, almost tripling its membership to 350 since 2022, many of them younger people with ties to Silicon Valley and to Burning Man. Given that attendance has declined across the broader U.S. religious landscape (though recent data shows that has leveled off) and the trend toward disaffiliation with volunteer groups of all kinds, from religious institutions to Elks and, famously, bowling leagues, Chochmat is an outlier Close to sundown on a February Friday people of all ages crowded the sidewalks in a residential corner of Berkeley for Chochmat HaLev’s Kabbalat Shabbat service, welcoming the Sabbath with songs. Many attendees were wearing some combination of flannels, beanies, yarmulkes, K-95 masks or puffer coats. Packing into the synagogue, for the next two hours they joined in a dance-filled, ecstatic worship service drenched in Jewish mysticism.
Zvika Krieger, the community’s spiritual leader, addressed the roughly 300 people sitting in chairs or standing around the fringes of the room.
“Whether you encounter the divine through singing and dancing and prayers, maybe through wisdom text and ethical wisdom, maybe through silence and meditation, or maybe it’s a struggle with this whole idea of God altogether, you are so welcome here at Chochmat HaLev, and you are in good company,” he said.
When the music began, low at first, the energy in the room also built gradually As melodies from the strings and voices swelled, then accelerated, people leapt from their seats, grabbing each other’s hands and dancing along the perimeter of the sanctuary Afterward, members gathered in the courtyard for a potluck, or oneg, and lingered late into the evening.
“I never would have imagined that I would want to spend my Friday nights at a Jewish event,” said David Steuer, a 56-year-old raised in a Reform Jewish community in Wisconsin who joined Chochmat in 2022. “It feels miraculous. I really look forward to coming here.”
Krieger, a 41-year-old, queer, sex-positive rabbi with prior experience at Meta, TikTok and the U.S. State Department, is no small part of the success of
Chachmat since being hired three years ago. He helped revive the synagogue’s long history of ecstatic dance and introduced the OpenLev program — soulful coworking time throughout the synagogue, free for members, with a suggested donation of $36 for nonmembers. The program intersperses the workday with meditation, yoga and Jewish rituals for things like celebrating milestones or grieving job loss.
He also hired Berman, who facilitated conversation groups on topics such as Israel and Palestine, all as part of nurturing a close-knit spiritual community that’s also deeply embodied.
“We’re in a loneliness epidemic right now,” said Krieger “People are hungry for connection, and there are also a lot of spiritual seekers who are looking for meaning, looking for purpose, but traditional organized religion has rubbed them the wrong way or it’s just stodgy or sterile or too conservative for them.”
Rabbi Ron Wolfson, author of “Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community,” agreed that people are a more powerful draw than programming or liturgy “As wonderful as a religious service might be, and I’m sure the worship services at Chochmat are fantastic,” he said, “the bottom line is, people will come for a program or even a worship service, but they’ll stay because of relationships,” he said.
He added that Chochmat’s growth strategies fit a playbook embraced by many successful Jewish communities in the last decade Indeed, Wolfson pointed out, Chochmat’s small groups and
its welcome to the unaffiliated echo the tactics of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, a multicampus evangelical Christian megachurch in Orange County, south of Los Angeles.
“Rick’s mantra is always, if a new person can feel connected to five to seven other people, quickly, they’ll feel like they belong,” said Wolfson.
At a recent coworking session at the synagogue, a therapist, a professional clown and development director were among the 30 or so adults in attendance. Krieger offered a blessing for overcoming writer’s block, inviting attendees to touch the sanctuary’s ark (where the Torah scrolls are kept), then open its doors as a symbol of opening a portal to creativity, inspiration and “birthing energy.”
“I really like the idea of trying to bring divine into work, and not compartmentalize so much,” said Allyson Greenlon, a newer member who began attending Chochmat after long hiatus from Judaism. “I started a job around the same time I started coming here, and that job’s been exhausting,” she said. “I want to resist my life circling around my job.”
Ben Poretzky, a 32-year-old with a background in the corporate world who began attending in 2022, partnered with Krieger to develop the concept for OpenLev Poretzky said participants appreciate the “gentle co-regulation” that comes from working alongside others, and the “sacred co-snacking” that occurs via indepth chats at the snack table. Several participants have reported finding roommates, work connections or even romantic partners through OpenLev and
the concept has grown so popular that it’s spawned imitators as far away as Brooklyn, New York.
Chochmat’s growth has come amid the flurry of layoffs in the Bay Area, and Krieger noted that former tech sector workers have lost not only jobs, but their sense of belonging. “What might it be like to have a community that is resilient, so that if you either get fired or you leave your job, you don’t lose all your friends? Your workday community can be constant even as your work life changes,” he said.
Krieger said he’s not interested in leading a mega-synagogue He hopes to cap the Kabbalat Shabbat services at their current size — 300 people feels like the right number to be able to know who you’re praying with, said Krieger — perhaps adding more services. Nor does he want, he says, to be put on a pedestal as a “guru.”
That self-awareness, experts say, could make Chochmat’s acceleration sustainable long-term. “There’s always a masked fragility, even in growing congregations,” said Mark Mulder, director of urban studies at Calvin University and co-author of the book “The Church Must Grow or Perish: Robert H. Schuller and the Business of American Christianity.” “As long as you have money coming in, as long as you have a charismatic person, as long as you have the right constituency in your area, there’s a stability But if you lose one of those three legs of the stool, even these fast-growing places can collapse quite quickly.”
Longtime members point out, however, that innovation is part of Chochmat’s DNA. Founded in the 1990s by Rabbi Avram Davis and Tikkun magazine cofounder Nan Fink Gefen as a meditation center that trained Jewish spiritual leaders, it fused Eastern spiritual practices with Jewish mysticism and dance. A 2010 Forward article dubbed its prayer services “a Jewish rave.”
“When they started it, it was, ‘How do we take all the best parts of the crazy, ultra-f–ing Orthodox and include it in our Berkley world?” said Shoshana Phoenixx, who has been part of Chochmat since the 1990s. “Let’s smoke a lot of dope and drink a lot of slivovitz and teach meditation.’ So, I got wasted every Shabbat for the first 10 years of Chochmat at the rabbi’s house.” Its anti-institutional legacy lives on in members who prefer to call it a “spiritual community,” rather than a synagogue, an edge supported by newer, younger members and, they claim, its rabbi.
“Zvika brought in younger people he knew, and the families are back,” said Andrew Utiger, a former Catholic lay pastor who served as Chochmat’s first
non-Jewish board member “It’s always been an amazing community There’s just been different iterations.”
A 2020 Pew Research Center study that Wolfson cited showed that only 35% of Jewish Americans report living in a household with at least one formal member of a synagogue While that percentage varies by location, said Wolfson, communities like Chochmat, which center Judaism but welcome members with a range of beliefs, feel approachable to the large percentage of unaffiliated Jews.
That’s especially true in the wake of what many in the Jewish world are calling “the surge,” the anecdotal influx of interest in Jewish religious life since the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The surge has been palpable at Chochmat, where more than 100 new members have joined since the war broke out.
One of those members is Solomon Gray, the board president, who is half-Israeli; in the days after the attacks, she experienced what she described as “smithereens of consciousness.”
Long skeptical of synagogue membership, when she walked into Chochmat’s sanctuary doors for the first time in October 2023, she encountered a room full of people who were physically engaged and spiritually present, and her body “went quiet.”
“There is an openness and seriousness of connection and movement and being in this together that I have not seen anywhere before,” she said.
Krieger is careful to note that its community is connected, but not of one mind. Chochmat explicitly welcomes all perspectives on Israel and Palestine, for instance, and Chochmat’s leaders believe that being in community with those you disagree with is a spiritual practice.
Krieger delivers short sermons or drashes that feature proPalestinian and pro-Israel perspectives, and the congregation formed an eight-week, 10-member dialogue group with opposing views on the crisis.
Krieger has also added a pause during the lively Friday evening services, inviting people to pair up and reflect on that night’s teaching, as well as post-service potlucks, “Ask Me Anything” sessions and talks on topics such as polyamory and psychedelics.
“It’s not about studying texts and religious observance of rituals. It’s about being in relationship with other people as a way of connecting with the divine,” said Krieger “And deep relationship is not something that just happens on the sidelines; it’s something that you actually have to foster and cultivate as a spiritual practice.”
SUNDAY, April 13, 2025
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.
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 — eXtrinsic: ex-TRINzik: Extraneous or originating from or on the outside
Average mark 46 words
Time limit 60 minutes
Can you find 59 or more words in EXTRINSIC?
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
OurthankstoRichardPavlicek, from Florida, for bringing this remarkable deal to our attention.
Pavlicek has long been one of the USA’s top players and teachers and has contributed to bridge on many levels.
Thisdealwasplayed,according to Pavlicek, in an unsophisticated bridge game where a bid of four no-trump was always Blackwood. Southdiscoveredthatpartnerhad no aces not a surprise and one king, obviously the king of spades
Even if North held one of the missing jacks, thirteen tricks would not be certain so South settled for six no-trump.
South won the opening spade leadwithhisace,cashedthreetop hearts, and exited with a heart to East’s jack.
East shifted accurately to a low diamond — the slam could be made on a club shift and South bravely played his 10. That got him to 11 tricks, but he had to give East a club trick later and settled for down one. A maddening result!
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
SUBJECT: STATE MOTTOS
(e.g., Iowa’s motto is “Our liberties we prize and our we will maintain.” Answer: Rights.)
FRESHMAN LEVEL
1. This state’s motto is “North to the future.”
Answer________
2. The state motto translates to “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you.” Answer________
3. Its motto is “In God we trust.” Answer________
4. This state’s motto translates to “The star of the north.” Answer________
5. California’s one-word motto means “I have found it.”
Answer________
GRADUATE LEVEL
6. This state’s motto is “The crossroads of America.
Answer________
7. Ohio’s motto is “With all things are possible.” Answer________
8. Maryland’s motto is “Strong deeds, gentle ” Answer________ 9. The motto of New Hampshire is “Live free or ___.” Answer________
Montana’s motto is “Oro y plata,” meaning “Gold and ____.” Answer________ PH.D
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
Even worse, Pavlicek tells us that North-South can make a grand slam in each of the four suits, just not in no-trump. Seven spades will make on a trump coup with any lead but a trump Seven of a red suit makes by ruffing the 10 of the other red suit, taking the club finesse, and then finessing for the jack of trumps. We’ll leave it to interested readers to work out the play in seven clubs.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Refuse to let anger set in when common sense and action are necessary An emotional incident can crush a meaningful relationship. Don’t say anything you’ll regret.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) The changes you make will be uplifting and leave you plenty of opportunities to incorporate something you love to do into your daily routine. Shift your thinking to enforce saving and reduce debt.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Observe what’s happening and assess your position before you decide to get involved Get up to speed
with what’s legit and what’s fake to ensure your safety and wellbeing.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Take a hard look at your finances. A shift is taking place that can make or break your ability to maintain your lifestyle. Avoid spending too much on expensive entertainment.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Keep moving in a direction that gives you hope and a desire to keep learning and pressing forward. Avoid groups eager to take advantage of you or compromise your reputatio.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept 22) Consider your needs before you compro-
mise to support or please someone else. When you no longer like a person or situation, it’s time to move on. Adjust your life to fulfill your dreams and satisfy your soul.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) A
lifestyle changes. A chance meeting or connecting with someone whose contributions meld
well with your expertise looks promising. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Be an observer, a thinker and a fence-sitter. Refuse to jump into someone else’s scheme or put your reputation on the line. Reformat your schedule and surroundings to suit your needs. CAPRICORN (Dec 22-Jan. 19) Focus more on saving money, lowering debt and adding greater security to your life and surroundings Refrain from letting your emotions step in and take control. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Put yourself and your emotional well-being
first. Maintaining balance ensures you aren’t jeopardizing your health or letting temptation set in or lead you astray PISCES (Feb 20-March 20) Balance your books before you go on a spending spree. Put your energy into personal growth, self-improvement and doing things that make you happy. Spend some time with your loved ones.
The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication
1. Alaska. 2. Michigan.3.Florida. 4. Minnesota. 5. Eureka. 6. Indiana. 7. God.8.Words. 9. Die. 10. Silver.11. Maine.12. Confidence.13. Rhode Island.14. Thus always totyrants. 15.Wyoming.
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: Spring, when the earth tilts closer to the sun, runs astricttimetable of flowers. —Alice Oswald
