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Field likely set for New Orleans mayor’s race Analysts say additional high-profile candidates unlikely to join fray BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
One City Council member who led her colleagues through a period of deepening tension with New Orleans’ current mayor and calls herself the face of change. Another, once tarnished by scandal, who earned a second chance with voters and says he’ll lead New Orleans, too, to a “comeback.” Toss in a retired criminal court judge, an indicted ex911 call center manager and a few underdogs, and these seem to be the choices New Orleanians will weigh when
they head to the polls in October to select their next mayor. The field solidified Tuesday when District E council member Oliver Thomas publicly unveiled his longrumored campaign, calling voters to join him on a redemptive path he has traced since admitting in 2007 to federal bribery charges that sent him to prison. Helena Moreno, the progressive City Council vice president and the other major candidate, has banked nearly a million dollars in support of what she calls her
ä See MAYOR’S, page 5A
STAFF FILE PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
Soldiers with the Louisiana National Guard walk down Bourbon Street ahead of the Super Bowl on Feb. 5.
Consultants mull fully closing Bourbon to cars among other security measures BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer
For months, a crew of consultants has been pondering how and when to close off Bourbon Street to cars and thus ward against deadly attacks like the one that roiled the famed party strip on Jan. 1. This week, they will make their recommendations public, just as a festivalladen spring in New Orleans kicks off. Former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton and his team will present their suggestions for Bourbon Street pedestrianization and other key security measures on Monday to the New Orleans
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Anne Kirkpatrick, Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the City Council, said foundation Chair Darrah Schaefer. That report is meant to guide a city that fend Former New york City Police must for itself in Commissioner William the coming Bratton, joined by Mayor months, as heightened LaToya Cantrell, speaks federal seduring a news conference in January. He and his team cp ul arci tey f oi nr Kirkpatrick are set to release a report Super Bowl and Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street safety. is not expected to persist through French Quarter Police and Justice Foun- Festival, the New Orleans dation, the booster group Jazz & Heritage Festival that covered the cost of and any number of other Bratton’s work, which will spring and summer events share the findings with New Orleans Police Chief ä See BOURBON, page 4A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
New Orleans City Council members Oliver Thomas, left, and Helena Moreno are both in the running to replace New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
Out-of-state students fueling LSU’s growth from Tampa to tour the Ba40% of freshmen ton Rouge campus. Hawkins, who frequently travels to not from La. New Jersey and Pennsylva-
BY PATRICK WALL
Staff writer
Danielle Hawkins, an LSU admissions counselor, asked a group of about 40 middle and high schoolers this week how many had been to a Mardi Gras parade. Only a few hands went up. “OK, a couple,” she said brightly. “Look at y’all!” The students had come
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nia to recruit, gave a presentation, then introduced their tour guide: an LSU junior from Houston. As the Florida students shuffled across the sprawling campus, where 4 in 10 freshmen come from out of state, 10th-grader Ah’Yanna Maultsby liked what she saw. “It feels like I actually
ä See STUDENTS, page 5A
12TH yEAR, NO. 223
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!
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