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Carnival security plans take shape Officials offering few details about what measures are in store
BY JOHN SIMERMAN and JAMES FINN
as vehicle traffic rolled freely down the city’s famed party strip. The heavy barricades laid out for Staff writers the Super Bowl were shoved to the A horse-drawn carriage rattled curb. A spate of relative normalcy has over a lowered security wedge near Bourbon Street on Tuesday returned to the French Quarter,
if only for a brief few days. With Carnival parades set to hit stride Friday, a return of heavy law enforcement and an array of street obstacles are expected to return in force. Even so, officials were offering
few specifics for just what major security measures are in store for Mardi Gras parade routes, and what it could mean for paradegoers. The Jan. 1 vehicle attack on Bourbon Street that left 14 people dead and dozens more wounded has recalibrated local, state and
‘We feel the love’
Community supports Viet My Supermarket as it reopens after owner was killed in robbery
federal preparations for the city’s signature event, with Mardi Gras now elevated to a higher federal threat level. Just how much of the massive security apparatus erected for the Super Bowl will translate to
ä See SECURITY, page 5A
Doctors push back against vaccine rollback Policy shift draws criticism from Cassidy, health officials
BY EMILY WOODRUFF
Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Sweet items are sold by the counter and family members work the register at the Viet My Supermarket in New Orleans East on Tuesday. Store owner Thanh Vu was killed New year’s Eve during a robbery. BY DESIREE STENNETT
they have for decades. But now, Nhu Vu stands behind the cash register in the spot where her mom In many ways, the Viet My Supermar- Thanh Vu, who was killed in a New Year’s ket in New Orleans East is the same as it Eve armed robbery, had spent more than 30 years. has always been. And instead of trading jokes with her The shelves are stocked. The handwritten signs identifying products and prices mom, Nhu Vu said longtime customers are still there, some in English and some now share memories of her. “We feel the love,” Vu said as she stood in in Vietnamese. Customers still cycle through to buy fresh produce, meat, dry ä See LOVE, page 4A goods and other household staples, just as Staff writer
PHOTO PROVIDED By VU FAMILy
Thanh Vu was killed during a robbery.
Days after Louisiana’s top health official ordered to an end to mass vaccination efforts and promotions in the state, Louisiana doctors, New Orleans health officials and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, are defending immunizations as a necessary medical intervention and say the decision comes with serious risks. A group of nine medical organizations representing thousands of Louisiana doctors said in a statement Monday that vaccines “should not be politicized.” The head of the New Orleans Health Department, meanwhile, said the city would continue its own vaccine promotion and distribution efforts, despite the state’s decision to withdraw its support. “We are looking to alternative ways to find resources so that we can fill the gap left by the state not supporting mass vaccination events as they have in the past,” said Dr. Jennifer Avegno. And Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, said the policy “ignores the reality of people’s lives.” The comments come after Dr. Ralph Abraham, Louisiana’s surgeon general, warned state employees in a memo to refrain from recommending that people
ä See VACCINE, page 5A
Assaults drop significantly at Louisiana youth detention centers BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN
larly at-risk youth and enhanced therapeutic approaches in the juvenile prison system. In the juvenile justice system, a Louisiana’s state-run youth detention centers have reported therapeutic model focuses on resignificant decreases in assaults, habilitation over punishment. something officials attribute to a Overall, between 2023 and 2024, new detention facility for particu- the system saw a 41% decrease in
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 58 LOW 31 PAGE 8B
youth-on-staff assaults and threats of assault, from 249 to 145, officials reported during a January meeting of the Senate Women and Children’s Committee. Meanwhile, there was a 20% decrease in youth-on-youth assaults and threats thereof, from 1,046 to
831. The news comes after a difficult couple of years in which escapes and prison brawls frequently made headlines. The statistics, which do not reflect youth assaults that take place in local jails, are based on code of
Business ......................8A Commentary ................7B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................9D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....5D-8D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
conduct data, Deron Patin, deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice, told legislators. When youth violate the system’s code of conduct, the state keeps a record of it, he added. The data
ä See ASSAULTS, page 4A
12TH yEAR, NO. 191