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T h u r s d ay, a p r i l 3, 2025
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Trump announces sweeping new tariffs
Landry calls for hiring freeze
Plan includes 34% tax on imports from China, 20% on the EU
State faces budget challenges with amendment failure
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
but his policies risk a sudden economic slowdown as consumers and businesses could face sharp price hikes. Trump was fulfilling a key campaign promise as he imposed what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on trade partners, acting without Congress under the 1977 International Emergency Powers Act. But his action Wednesday could jeopardize Trump’s voter mandate in last year’s election to combat inflation. Several Republican senators, particularly from farm and border states, have questioned the wisdom of the tariffs. U.S. stock market futures sold off sharply overnight in anticipation of the economy weakening, after having already dropped since the start of this year. “With today’s announcement, U.S. tariffs will approach levels not seen since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which incited a global trade war and
Gov. Jeff Landry announced a hiring freeze throughout Louisiana state government Wednesday, a sign of difficult times ahead as lawmakers prepare to draw up the state budget. The Legislature will head to the Capitol in two weeks and begin that process, working from a budget that Landry proposed. Two major challenges are in store for them. The first is the uncertainty over what federal funding will come through for the coming fiscal year, with so much talk of cuts at the federal level. “What’s happening on the federal level is going to present some challenges,” said state Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. Though he has already begun to receive news of some cuts, McFarland doesn’t know what exactly is coming down the pike from the Trump administration, he said. Federal money makes up nearly half of Louisiana’s budget. Also looming large over the budget process is the question of teacher pay. For the past two years, the Legislature has given teachers a temporary $2,000 stipend. Support staff received $1,000 stipends. Legislators and Landry sought to build those payments fully into the annual budget as one piece of a constitutional amendment. But Louisianans overwhelmingly rejected that amendment at the polls. Amendment 2, which was on the ballot Saturday, would have rewritten one of the 14 articles of the Louisiana Constitution with dozens of changes. Broadly, it would have given lawmakers more power to decide
ä See TARIFFS, page 5A
ä See HIRING, page 4A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN
President Donald Trump holds up a chart outlining his new tariffs during an event at the White House on Wednesday. BY JOSH BOAK
United States helped to build after World War II, saying “our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump by other nations. The action amounts to a historic tax on Wednesday announced far-reaching new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading hike that could push the global order to a partners — a 34% tax on imports from breaking point. It kick-starts what could China and 20% on the European Union, be a painful transition for many Ameriamong others — that threaten to dis- cans as middle-class essentials such as mantle much of the architecture of the housing, autos and clothing are expected global economy and trigger broader to become more costly, while disrupting the alliances built to ensure peace and trade wars. Trump, in a Rose Garden announce- economic stability. Trump said he was acting to bring in ment, said he was placing elevated tariff rates on dozens of nations that run mean- hundreds of billions in new revenue to ingful trade surpluses with the United the U.S. government and restore fairStates, while imposing a 10% baseline ness to global trade. tax on imports from all countries in re“Taxpayers have been ripped off for sponse to what he called an economic more than 50 years,” he said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.” emergency. Trump declared a national economic The president, who said the tariffs were designed to boost domestic manu- emergency to levy the tariffs. He has facturing, used aggressive rhetoric to promised that factory jobs will return to describe a global trade system that the the United States as a result of the taxes,
Associated Press
Trial over oil, coastal damage nearing end
Michelin stars possible for La. restaurants
Billions sought from oil industry in first of a string of lawsuits
Will any in Lafayette make the cut?
BY JOANNA BROWN and IAN McNULTY
BY ALEX LUBBEN
Staff writers
Restaurants in the American South region — including Louisiana — are up for Michelin review for the first time, giving Lafayette and Acadiana restaurants the opportunity to earn a coveted star from the global culinary brand. There have been years of speculation over when the French-based Michelin Guide would begin reviewing Southern restaurants outside of existing Michelin Guides in Atlanta, Florida and Texas. With this expansion, Michelin inspectors will
Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Park Bistro in Lafayette features a mix of seasonal new American cuisine and southern Italian dishes. Chef Peter Cooke was executive chef at Krupa Grocery in Brooklyn, ä See MICHELIN, page 4A New york, when that restaurant earned a MIchelin plate.
WEATHER HIGH 82 LOW 75 PAGE 6A
At a courthouse in lower Plaquemines Parish near Louisiana’s fading coastline, a landmark trial that could force oil and gas companies to pay billions for wetlands restoration is nearing its verdict. For the lawyers who championed the lawsuit, getting to that courthouse took over a decade. The trial in Pointe à la Hache is the culmination of a legal saga, part of the only effort still under-
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way to get the oil and gas companies to pay for efforts to restore Louisiana’s coastal wetlands. Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday. The lawsuit is the first to make it to trial among 42 similar cases that coastal parishes filed against oil companies starting in 2013, each of which alleges that they failed to comply with state permitting regulations. Law firm Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello is representing the local governments in the litigation, which alleges that oil companies failed to abide by coastal regulations and contributed to wetlands loss. Plaquemines Parish and its lead attorney, John Carmouche, are
ä See TRIAL, page 4A
100TH yEAR, NO. 277