TODAY’S PARADES maps, 2B
UPTOWN: Elks Orleanians, Crescent City, 9 a.m. l SLIDELL: St. Patrick’s, 1 p.m. l FRENCH QUARTER: Barkus, 2 p.m.
DID YOU REMEMBER TO MOVE YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD?
N O L A.C O M
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S u n d ay, M a r c h 9, 2025
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A family’s epic flight to freedom
Afghan refugees sought by Taliban get new life in Baton Rouge BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
For nearly four years, a couple and their two children have lived in hiding. A year spent almost entirely indoors. Other times, moving constantly to evade Pakistani immi-
gration officials. Countless nights silencing their children’s cries, desperate to remain unseen and avoid deportation or capture. That’s how former Afghan prosecutor Freshta, her husband, Hadi, and their two small children have existed since 2021, hunted by the Taliban since the terrorist group
took control of the country. But on Thursday night, as the couple and their 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter walked through the gates of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, their nightmare finally ended. “This is how freedom looks like,” Hadi said to his wife. “There’s no
police coming for you, and there’s no fear of being deported to Afghanistan.” Before the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan, Freshta was one of many prosecutors in Kabul who worked alongside American military officials to prosecute crimes committed by the terrorist group.
As UNO fights to survive, alumni heed call for help
The family has asked to be identified only by their first names and requested not to appear in photos because of continued fears of retaliation. The couple were at ground zero when Kabul fell in 2021 as American troops withdrew. They were within earshot when a suicide bomb detonated on Aug. 26, 2021,
ä See FREEDOM, page 6A
Ochsner, LCMC face off over children’s hospitals Big names, millions of dollars behind competing care BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL and EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writers
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
Pierre Champagne, a UNO graduate and volunteer, works in the Bursar’s Office at the University of New Orleans on Thursday.
Graduates volunteer on campus, recruit students, offer donations BY MARIE FAZIO
1976, has spent the past few months volunteering at the front desk of the Bursar’s Office, answering the phone Most mornings, Pierre Champagne and reassuring panicked students as wakes before dawn, dons a blue polo the university contends with the worst and socks emblazoned with the Univer- financial crisis in its history. “If you want to define it, my job is sity of New Orleans logo and reports to to give (students) comfort, give them campus to help save his alma mater. Champagne, a retired AT&T engineer encouragement, make sure they know who graduated from the university in they have an ear to listen,” said ChamStaff writer
pagne, who keeps tissues and a fully stocked mug of candy at his desk to help soothe anxious students. For years, Champagne has been on a mission to rally his fellow alumni to donate their time and money to the university. He often issues clarion cries on social media, such as this Instagram
ä See UNO, page 3A
The cameras flashed and applause rang out on Ochsner Health’s Jefferson Parish campus in late 2023. Executives of Louisiana’s largest health care system, surrounded by business leaders, local politicians and medical staff, had gathered to celebrate what Ochsner Health CEO Pete November called an “unparalleled act of generosity” by Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson to help fund a new, freestanding children’s hospital. Fourteen months later and just a few miles across town, a similar celebration took place. During the run-up to the Super Bowl, officials with LCMC Health, Louisiana’s closest competitor to Ochsner, crowded onto a stage with Saints great Archie Manning, his son, Eli, and other members of the famed football family. Balloons dropped onto a cheering crowd after the announcement that Children’s Hospital New Orleans, which has treated kids at its Uptown campus for 70 years, would be renamed Manning Family Children’s following a “transformational” financial gift.
ä See HOSPITALS, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 72 LOW 48 PAGE 8B
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified ..................... 1F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
12TH yEAR, NO. 209
MARDI GRAS for the MIND W. KAMAU BELL | CONNIE CHUNG | ANTHONY FAUCI, MD | DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN | JOHN GRISHAM WALTER ISAACSON | SHARON MCMAHON | CASEY MCQUISTON | IMANI PERRY | GEN. DAVID H. PETRAEUS | NATE SILVER | BRYAN STEVENSON | TARA WESTOVER | BOB WOODWARD & MORE!
Book it! March 27 | 28 | 29 |
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@nolabookfest