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W e d n e s d ay, M a r c h 5, 2025
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ROLLING ON
Despite weather, revelers enjoy New Roads parades
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By BEN CURTIS
President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday.
STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS
The Community Center Carnival Club of Pointe Coupee parade and the New Roads Lion’s Club parade roll down New Roads Street together on Mardi Gras after threatening weather prompted changes to the times and routes.
Trump boasts of swift action
President updates Congress on his turbulent first few weeks in office BY ZEKE MILLER and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
Andrew Jewell, 7, blows a whistle as he rests on top of a golf cart as revelers around him collect throws in New Roads on Tuesday.
MARDI GRAS 2025
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Paradegoers await the arrival of floats as the Community Center Carnival Club of Pointe Coupee and the New Roads Lion’s Club parades roll in New Roads on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to keep up his campaign of “swift and unrelenting action” in reorienting the nation’s economy, immigration and foreign policy in an unyielding address to ä Louisiana Congress and the nation congressmen that left Democratic leg- invite guests islators to register their to Trump dissent with stone faces, placards calling out speech. “lies” and one legislator’s PAGE 5A ejection. Trump’s prime-time speech was the latest marker in his takeover of the nation’s capital, where the Republican-led House and Senate have done little to restrain the president as he and his allies work to slash the size of the federal government and remake America’s place in the world.
ä See TRUMP, page 4A
SU death called a possible hazing University says it actively supports criminal probe
BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer
For the first time since a 20-year-old Southern University student died last week, the university and Baton Rouge authorities said Tuesday his death is being investigated by law enforcement as a possible act of fraternity hazing. University officials said in a statement they actively support the ongoing criminal investigation of an “alleged act of hazing” that led to the death of Caleb Wilson, a junior engi-
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neering student. Wilson, a Kenner native, died Thursday morning at a Baton Rouge hospital after he was found in North Sherwood Forest Park. The investigation by the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office to determine the circumstances of Wilson’s death involves members of the Beta Sigma Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., university officials said. Baton Rouge police described its probe in this case as a hazing investigation, but would not confirm Tuesday if it is treating Wilson’s death as a homicide.
ä See HAZING, page 7A
Civil rights trailblazer Martinez dies at 78 He was first Black student to enter Baton Rouge High BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer
PHOTO PROVIDED By ADELE MARTINEZ
Aurelius Paul Martinez died at 78 in his home in Los Angeles.
Aurelius Paul Martinez led the first group of Black students into Baton Rouge High School on Sept. 3, 1963, as the district began integration. Martinez died Feb. 11 in Los Angeles at 78. He was a retired respiratory therapist. While cleaning out her father’s home after his death, Adele Martinez found certificates given to the Black members of Baton Rouge High School’s class of 1964 on the 60th anniversary of their grad-
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uation, honoring them for their role in desegregating the city’s schools. She had heard about her father’s pioneering role only a few years ago. He had never told her his story. “It was too painful for him to talk about,” she said. It was the first day of their senior year of high school, but for the 14 Black students attending the newly integrated Baton Rouge High School, it felt like a standoff. Across Government Street, picketers stood on the corners, waving white signs at passing vehicles. Rifles, held by Louisiana National Guardsmen, tilted over the edge of the school building’s
ä See MARTINEZ, page 6A
100TH yEAR, NO. 248