TODAY’S PARADES maps, 2B
UPTOWN: Femme Fatale, 5:30 p.m. l Carrollton, King Arthur to follow
N O L A.C O M
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T u e s d ay, F e b r u a ry 25, 2025
$2.00X
FLOAT FACILITIES
Federal appeals court halts case
Legal challenge to La. execution protocols could be reopened BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER
KERN STUDIOS BUILDERS EXPANDING TO ADD ROOM FOR MARDI GRAS CONSTRUCTIONS BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL
Staff writer
Kern Studios, the New Orleans float builder that’s now bringing Carnivalstyle parades to theme parks, rodeos and other locations around the world, needs more space. The company designs and builds nearly 1,000 floats every year for more than a dozen local krewes and a growing number of out-of-state parades and projects. But with orders continuing to rise, President and CEO Barry Kern has been expanding from his headquarters near the Mississippi River, seeking out new locations across the city where artists and craftspeople can bring designs to life. The company in late January purchased two lots in Algiers — once home to the original Bacchus and Endymion float dens — and is planning to build two new float-building facilities on the site. When completed later this year, the new warehouses will enable Kern to build and store about 80 additional floats. The company also recently purchased a warehouse in the 2200 block of Poydras Street, where it will store the oversized tractors that pull its ever-larger floats. And in 2023, it purchased new sites in New Orleans East and the Lower Garden District. It also owns several facilities in Algiers and in Central City, where it builds floats on site for specific parades and su-
ä See CASE, page 4A
ABOVE: Barry Kern, CEO and president of Kern Studios and Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, checks on the alignment of a row of footballs on the side of a Tostitos-themed float on Feb. 6 as he and his staff put the finishing touches on the Super Bowl parade floats. TOP: Steven Villano, a sculptor at Kern Studios, shapes Styrofoam into angel wings for a float on Jan. 2, 2024, at Mardi Gras World. Kern Studios has helped popularize in perkrewes. Kern said the need for more ware- recent decades. “Mardi Gras continues to grow, with house space is driven by the expansion of Mardi Gras locally and demand more parades, more people, more around the country for the Carnivalä See ROOM, page 4A style floats, props and sculptures that
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump backed Elon Musk’s demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments by the end of Monday or risk getting fired, even as government agency officials were told that compliance with Musk’s edict was voluntary. Confusion and anger over the situation spawned new litigation
WEATHER HIGH 71 LOW 49 PAGE 6B
and added to turmoil within the federal workforce. “What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’ ” Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with French President EmTrump manuel Macron. “And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of
people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.” The Republican president said Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has found “hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud” as he sugMusk gested that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees. He did not present evidence for his claims.
Mississippi River on the rise Precautions being put in place; opening spillway unlikely
BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer
But even as Trump and Musk pressed their case, the Office of Personnel Management informed agency leaders that their workforces were not required to respond by the deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters. Just after 7 p.m. — hours after OPM had directed agencies that
The Mississippi River has been on the rise, as tends to happen this time of year, but while relatively minor precautions are being put in place by the Army Corps of Engineers, an opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway seems unlikely so far. The river has risen to over 11 feet at New Orleans’ Carrollton gauge, which translates roughly to 11 feet above sea level. Rising above 11 feet triggers what the Corps calls a phase 1 flood fight, which means increased levee checks in coordination with local authorities and restrictions on certain work near them. The Corps announced Monday it had entered phase 1, which is likely to last a couple of weeks or so.
ä See WORKFORCE, page 5A
ä See RIVER, page 4A
Trump backs Musk as he roils federal workforce BY CHRIS MEGERIAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
A federal appeals court in New Orleans has halted a judge’s decision to reopen a legal challenge to Louisiana’s execution protocols while it considers an opposition from Attorney General Liz Murrill. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a one-sentence order on Monday, issued an administrative stay of U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick’s ruling from last week. Dick ruled Friday in favor of attorneys for death row inmates who are seeking to fend off the first Louisiana execution since 2010. They had asked Dick, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, to revive a long-dormant federal lawsuit over the ways that Louisiana kills its condemned. When the suit was first filed in 2012, Louisiana only allowed executions by lethal injection. Dick dismissed the case in 2022 after then-Attorney General Jeff Landry argued it was moot, as the state was unable to get the lethal injection drugs and was not
Business ...................16D Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................8D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-7D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
12TH yEAR, NO. 197