TODAY’S PARADE LAFAYETTE: Friday Night parade, 6:30 p.m. l Map, 4B
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‘You can feel the energy’
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F r i d ay, F e b r u a ry 28, 2025
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Lafayette Parish Mayor-President Monique Boulet joins others for a ribbon-cutting and grand reopening celebration for Brown Park on Thursday.
Lafayette officials celebrate reopening of Brown Park after $16 million in improvements
This spring, children will again be able to play baseball on tournament-level fields at Brown Park in north Lafayette. Lafayette city-parish officials cut the ribbon Thursday, reopening the improved park with four new baseball fields that can also be used for softball, new dugouts and bleachers, a new concession stand and new playground equipment. “This park is beautiful,” Mayor-President Monique Boulet said. “You can feel
the energy here today, the positive energy of growth.” Brown Park, located on Pont des Mouton Road next to the Dupuis Recreation Center, was a neighborhood park where kids played youth baseball and pickup basketball games, and residents walked their dogs. In December 2022, former MayorPresident Josh Guillory announced plans to spend $12 million to convert it into a tournament-worthy super baseball and softball park that would attract visitors from across the state and region and ri-
ä See MEASLES, page 7A
Mystery surrounds death of actor Hackman, wife Bodies discovered in Santa Fe home of Oscar winner BY SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, FELICIA FONSECA and BRIAN MELLEY
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN
Associated Press
Staff writer
ä See SHELTERS, page 7A
WEATHER HIGH 74 LOW 44 PAGE 10C
Staff writer
ä See ENERGY, page 5A
Landry vows to find funding for domestic violence shelters Gov. Jeff Landry has promised to work with the Legislature to find a consistent source of funding for domestic violence shelters, after critics pointed out that his proposed budget did not include $7 million that has helped expand domestic violence victim services in Louisiana for the past two years. “Throughout my years as an elected official, I have never wavered in my support of domestic violence services. They are necessary, lifesaving, and essential, and must be treated as such,” Landry said in a statement last week. “That is why I am committed to working with the Legislature to ensure there is a higher funding base for these services, and that it remains permanently in our budget, rather than as one-time funding.”
BY ALYSE PFEIL
val sports complexes in Youngsville and Broussard. Nearby residents and some officials were caught off guard in September 2023 to discover existing baseball fields, bleachers and other amenities had been razed and the park was off limits to kids and adults for construction. After Boulet defeated Guillory and took over as mayor-president in January 2024, she vowed to return it to a neighborhood park, adding into the design a walking
STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD BOWIE
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Outbreak in Texas has killed one child
As neighboring Texas faces a growing measles outbreak that killed an unvaccinated child Tuesday night, two top Louisiana officials who are physicians are encouraging residents to get vaccinated against the disease. Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a gastroenterologist from Baton Rouge who worked on hepatitis B vaccination efforts before entering politics, noted in a social media post Tuesday that a measles alert was issued in San Antonio, east of where the outbreak originated. In a press call, Cassidy said the measles outbreak “is moving across the I-10, and it’s now in San Antonio, which means it’s moving to us.” “By golly, if it’s coming down the I-10, it’s gonna be in Houston, it’s gonna be in Lake Charles,” he said. “It’s gonna be in Laffy and Baton Rouge, and then it’s gonna go up the I-49 to Shreveport.” Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, also a physician, said in a social media post Tuesday the Louisiana Department of Health “is on alert and ready to respond if the virus spreads to Louisiana.” “The measles vaccine (known as MMR) has proven to be safe and effective, and I recommend it to my patients,” he said. “Adults and children should consider getting the vaccine if they haven’t already received it. Be sure to talk to your doctor before making that decision.” The MMR vaccine is the best way to protect against measles and is generally recommended for children and adults, said Health Department spokesperson Emma
Stakeholders gather on the field for a ribbon-cutting and grand reopening celebration for Brown Park on Thursday. The newly expanded park includes a new playground, practice T-ball/Little League field, extended walking path, dog parks and more. Staff writer
State pushes measles vaccine
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Actor Gene Hackman arrives with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, for the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 2003.
SANTA FE, N.M. — Oscar winner Gene Hackman, his wife and one of their dogs were apparently dead for some time before a maintenance worker discovered their bodies at the couple’s Santa Fe home, according to investigators. Hackman, 95, was found dead Wednesday in a mudroom and his 65-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found in a bathroom next to a space heater, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office detectives wrote in a search warrant affidavit. There was an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on a countertop near Arakawa.
Business ......................6A Commentary ................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................4B Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
Denise Avila, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, said there was no indication they had been shot or had any wounds. The New Mexico Gas Co. tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn’t find any signs of problems and the Fire Department found no signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning. A detective wrote that there were no obvious signs of a gas leak, but he noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide might not show signs of poisoning. The gruff but beloved Hackman was among the most accomplished actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s. “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his
ä See HACKMAN, page 7A
100TH yEAR, NO. 243