N O L A.C O M
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T u e s d ay, F e b r u a ry 18, 2025
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Stalled NOPD promotions awarded
Kirkpatrick said she’d been that has been stalled … is a privilege.” Ceremony caps controversial process promotions At the ceremony inside Gallier “watching closely people’s talafter Mayor LaToya Cantrell al-
BY MISSY WILKINSON
Staff writer
In a modest standing-room-only ceremony that belied a drama that unfolded to get there, the New Orleans Police Department promoted to its upper ranks Monday, while Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick named her official right-hand man. Chief Deputy Superintendent Hans Ganthier moves to assistant
superintendent, making the 27year police veteran a “true No. 2,” Kirkpatrick said in announcing the appointment. “Everybody said you’ve got to know somebody to get promoted,” Ganthier, a New York native, said Monday. “This is proof that isn’t so.” It was among a host of moves by Kirkpatrick shuffling top department brass, along with announcing
leged bias and pressured a halt to the process. A federal judge recently found no basis for those claims, clearing the way for two captains, Precious Banks and Lejon Roberts, to rise to the rank of major. Filling their vacated spots as captain are former lieutenants Rebecca Gubert and Samuel Palumbo Jr. “I started as a civilian in the basement,” Banks said upon getting sworn in as major. “Rising up
Hall, Kirkpatrick also announced she’s moved Stephanie Landry from chief of staff to deputy superintendent over the NOPD’s Management Services Bureau. Three deputy chiefs also will change positions: Nicholas Gernon becomes chief of detectives, Jonette Williams will lead the Professional Standards & Accountability Bureau, and Ryan Lubrano will head up the Field Operations Bureau.
Trump begins firing FAA staff
ents and gifts” since she took the helm of the city’s police force in late 2023. aiming to promote them where they are best suited to serve. The major roles had lain dormant for decades, with only one active major remaining. In restoring those posts, Kirkpatrick made good on an early goal to grow and promote NOPD leadership from
ä See PROMOTIONS, page 4A
Lawsuit challenges ballot wording Landry’s tax changes require revising state constitution
BY TYLER BRIDGES
Staff writer
of anonymity. A Transportation Department official told the AP late Monday that no air traffic controllers were affected by the cuts, and that the agency has “retained employees who perform critical safety functions.” In a follow-up query the agency said they would have to look into whether the radar, landing and navigational aid workers
Gov. Jeff Landry and Louisiana legislators overhauled the state’s tax system in November, but for the full plan to take effect requires one more step: A March 29 vote of the people to approve revising the state constitution. But a law firm went to court in Baton Rouge on Monday to keep that question off the ballot, saying the wording is illegally slanted in favor of the proposition and misrepresents what the proposed changes would do. The lawsuit notes that state law requires ballot language to be “simple, unbiased, concise, and easily understood.” Amidst the lengthy ballot language for Amendment 2 next month, voters are told that voting for it would “provide a permanent teacher salary increase.” “But there is no salary increase,” the lawsuit says, “only the extension of an existing stipend that has been in place for several years. No teacher will be paid any more than they currently are due to this potential amendment, and some teachers may be paid less.” Landry takes issue with the thinking behind the lawsuit. “This lawsuit attempts to deny citizens their right to vote to
ä See FAA, page 4A
ä See LAWSUIT, page 5A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOSE LUIS MAGANA
An American Airlines jet takes off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Feb. 6 as salvage crews work on recovering wreckage from a deadly midair collision on Jan. 29.
Move comes just weeks after fatal D.C. plane crash ä Delta jet overturns at Toronto airport. talk to the media and spoke on condition
BY TARA COPP
Associated Press
PAGE 2A
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Probationary workers were targeted in late-night emails Friday notifying them
they had been fired, David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement. The impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told The Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to
UNTIL DEPTH DO US PART
The folks at LATFS cheekily ofcrunch of an oil pan or exhaust Couple say vows in pipe on an unyielding roadway. fered to pay for the wedding of was no mud or burbling anyone willing to tie the knot in a calf-deep pothole in There water in the bottom of this pitfall, pothole. Devin MacNair, the UniLower Garden District only a manhole cover, which sat versal Life Church minister who
BY DOUG MacCASH
Staff writer
Everything was perfect. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome and the pothole where they stood to exchange vows was sublime. It was not a mere ragged cavity in asphalt. This pothole was a deep, yet deceptively smooth depression in the antique paving stones at Felicity and Chestnut streets. This was the sort of chasm that could go unnoticed by even an attentive driver until the familiar
WEATHER HIGH 62 LOW 52 PAGE 6B
in the center of the crater like the yolk of a fried egg. All would agree, it was really the perfect road menace in which to begin a shared life. But why, you ask, had Monica Resh and Kevin Nguyen of Houston chosen to marry calf-deep in a pothole in the first place? Nguyen explained that he and Resh had won a contest conducted by one of New Orleans’ favorite social media sites, the “Look At This F***** Street” Instagram account, a repository of photos and videos of especially egregious examples of the city’s infrastructure tumult.
officiated the nuptials, said there were more than 500 applicants for the free pothole wedding. Resh and Nguyen were randomly selected from that group. The couple, MacNair said, received ministerial services, a wedding cake, wedding photography, flowers and other features of the ceremony. As a crowd of at least 50 attendees milled about, musician Andre Bohren played a piano located in the bed of a hazard-yellow pickup. The pothole was decorated
STAFF PHOTO By DOUG MacCASH
Monica Resh and Kevin Nguyen get married in a New Orleans pothole as part of a contest conducted by the popular ‘Look At This F***** Street’ ä See DEPTH, page 4A Instagram account.
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World ................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
12TH yEAR, NO. 190