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March 15
16
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MURPHY & DAVID’S
Corned Beef Brisket
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4
$ 47
MURPHY & DAVID’S
17
2
Wagyu Corned Beef Round
LBLB
8
LB
18.4 - 27.2 OZ PACK
LB
10
2/$
Smithfield Pork Loin or Tenderloin
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84
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$ 99
14.5 - 15 OZ CAN SELECTED
Rouses Red or Gold Potatoes Libby’s Vegetables
77 ¢
Prices good at all New Orleans, Gretna, Kenner, Metairie, Marrero, Slidell, Mandeville and Covington stores March 12th - 19th, 2025.
ESCALATING TRADE WAR FUELS 10% SELL-OFF ON WALL STREET 10A
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F r i d ay, M a r c h 14, 2025
$2.00X
Oil company facing coastal damages suit Billions at stake in Plaquemines Parish courtroom
Some areas of state among fastest-shrinking in U.S.
BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
A colossal Louisiana legal showdown began this week in a Plaquemines Parish courtroom, as attorney John Carmouche, who has led a statewide fight to make the energy industry pay for damage to coastal wetlands, squared off against oil companies in the first of more than three dozen landmark lawsuits to go to trial. The case, Plaquemines Parish v. Rozel, filed in 25th Judicial District Court, centers on claims that Texaco, an oil company now owned by Chevron, discharged pollutants into wetlands near Bayou Gentilly over more than half a century, and broke
Population fell in much of Louisiana in 2024 BY JEFF ADELSON Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Attorney John Carmouche, center, walks to the Plaquemines Parish Courthouse in Pointe à la Hache on Tuesday. other state laws and permitting rules that led to land loss and other environmental issues. The company has said it complied with all applicable regulations. The trial has taken on outsize importance. If the parish prevails, the resulting damages and required
coastal reconstruction would likely serve as a model for the 40 additional lawsuits Carmouche has filed on behalf of Plaquemines and five other coastal parishes — which could reach into the billions of dollars.
ä See SUIT, page 13A
A rusted oil pipeline in the Bayou Gentilly oil field has been abandoned, according to lawyers representing Plaquemines Parish in their lawsuit against oil and gas companies. STAFF FILE PHOTO By MATTHEW HINTON
Nearly two-thirds of Louisiana parishes saw their populations dwindle last year, including several that were among the fastest-shrinking large counties in the country, according to new census estimates released Thursday. “Ultimately The new figures show that people can’t despite a slight uptick in the state’s population, which the stay if they can’t Census Bureau attributed to find jobs. I think international immigration, everyone has parishes across the state are an anecdote of still struggling to keep their someone who residents from leaving for wanted to stay other parts of the country. Among the most notable but couldn’t declines was New Orleans, because they which saw its population couldn’t find a slide by almost 2,470 people good job.” last year and nearly 20,700 people since 2020. About ALLISON PLyER, 28,400 people have left the chief demographer city for other parts of the for The Data Center country, an exodus that has only partially been offset by immigration. That leaves the city with about 362,700 residents, a smaller population than it had in 2012. The city’s population is now about 73% of what it was in 2005, before the levee failures during Hurricane Katrina flooded the city. The population loss in Orleans Parish amounted to a decline of about 0.68%, making it the fifth fastest-shrinking county with more than 100,000 residents in the country. Just ahead of it was Cad-
ä See POPULATION, page 14A
‘His death will not provide closure’
Landry bans agencies from renewing leases BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE
Staff writer
Taking a page from the Trump administration’s playbook, Gov. Jeff Landry has banned state agencies from automatically renewing their offices’ leases, citing a need to cut government spending. Instead, agency leaders leasing building space in New Orleans and elsewhere must ask the Landry administration’s permission before they sign or extend leases and must submit documents justifying their expense. The order, which affects 44 state-run offices in New Orleans alone, is the product of the state’s Fiscal Responsibility Review Program. Landry, a Republican, created the
WEATHER HIGH 85 LOW 73 PAGE 8B
program in December to mirror the new Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The Landry administration refers to the program as LA DOGE. Landry said in a statement Tuesday that the move is “part of a broader effort to modernize state government operations, eliminate waste, improve efficiency, and ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively.” But it has ruffled the feathers of at least one state official. Davante Lewis, a member of the board that regulates state utilities, the Louisiana Public Service Commission, said Landry’s effort will make
to become the first death As inmate’s execution Hoffman row inmate to be executed in Louiby nitrogen gas has filled day nears, victim’s siana the family with dread, forced to husband torn reckon with their feelings under a media glare, Elliott wrote in a over process statement late Wednesday.
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By BOB WARREN
Gov. Jeff Landry talks with reporters after a lunchtime speech Tuesday at ä See LEASES, page 10A Tchefuncta Country Club in Covington.
It’s been nearly 30 years since a duck hunter found his wife Molly shot dead and naked on Thanksgiving Day by the Middle Pearl River. Andy Elliott says he isn’t sure now if he wants her killer, Jessie Hoffman Jr., to be executed on Tuesday, as the state has planned, or to die in prison. But the March 18 date that a St. Tammany Parish judge has set for
Business ...................12A Commentary ................7B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................1E Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
“There is something about knowing it could actually finally happen that has forced all of us to relive the past tragedy and re-examine our true feelings,” Elliott wrote. “The reality is this: after this much time passing, I’ve become indifferent to the death penalty vs. life in prison without possibility of parole. However, I’m not indifferent to the uncertainty that has accompanied these many years. If putting him to death is
ä See CLOSURE, page 8A
12TH yEAR, NO. 214