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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
Plan includes 34% tax on imports from China, 20% on the EU
Landry calls for hiring freeze State faces budget challenges with amendment failure
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
housing, autos and clothing are expected to become more costly, while disrupting the alliances built to ensure peace and economic stability. Trump said he was acting to bring in hundreds of billions in new revenue to the U.S. government and restore fairness to global trade. “Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” he said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.” Trump declared a national economic emergency to levy the tariffs. He has promised that factory jobs will return to the United States as a result of the taxes, but his policies risk a sudden economic slowdown as consumers and businesses
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
ä See TARIFFS, page 4A
ä See HIRING, page 5A
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 Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced far-reaching new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners — a 34% tax on imports from China and 20% on the European Union, among others — that threaten to dismantle much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars. Trump, in a Rose Garden announcement, said he was placing elevated tariff rates on dozens of nations that run meaningful trade surpluses with the United States, while imposing a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries in response to what he called an economic
ä Louisiana’s congressional delegation reacts to President Trump’s tariff hikes. PAGE 4A emergency. The president, who said the tariffs were designed to boost domestic manufacturing, used aggressive rhetoric to describe a global trade system that the United States helped to build after World War II, saying “our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” by other nations. The action amounts to a historic tax hike that could push the global order to a breaking point. It kickstarts what could be a painful transition for many Americans as middle-class essentials such as
Baker switching to all charter schools
The five-member board over- which made a dramatic switch to Board votes for move seeing the small suburban school charter schooling in 2006 in the district voted unanimously Tues- wake of Hurricane Katrina. after May 23 This agreement with Helix Comday to approve an agreement with
BY CHARLES LUSSIER
Staff writer
Twenty-one years after gaining its educational independence, the city of Baker school system in East Baton Rouge Parish is handing over the reins to someone else.
WEATHER HIGH 89 LOW 75 PAGE 8A
a charter group led by attorney Preston Castille to manage school operations when the current school year ends May 23. Tuesday’s vote sets the stage for Baker to become Louisiana’s second all-charter school district. The only other one is New Orleans,
munity Schools is a prelude to an expected five-year operating contract, known as a Type 3 charter, that would convert existing Baker schools into charter schools. It was a rare unanimous decision
ä See BAKER, page 5A
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................6D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-5D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
TRACK AND FIELD Pelican Relays 2025 A.W. Mumford Stadium April 4th & 5th
Note: In the event of inclement weather, events will move to rolling schedule.
April 4th - Field Events 12:00 PM Men’s Hammer (Followed by Women) 12:00 PM Women’s Javelin (Followed by Men) 4:00 PM High School Field Events Begin April 4th - Running Events 4:00 PM Women’s 200 Meters 4:20 PM Men’s 200 Meters 4:40 PM Women’s 5000 Meters (Followed by Men) 5:30 PM Men’s 4 x 800m (Followed by Men) 6:00 PM High School Running Events Begin April 5th - Field Events 9:30 AM Women’s Discus (Followed by Men) 10:00 AM Women’s Long Jump (Pit 1) 10:00 AM Men’s Long Jump (Pit 2) 12:00 PM Women’s High Jump (Followed by Men) 12:30 PM Women’s Shot Put (Followed by Men) 12:30 PM Men’s Triple Jump (Pit 1) 12:30 PM Women’s Triple Jump (Pit 2) 1:00 PM Men’s Pole Vault (Followed By Men)
2 2 5 -7 7 1 - 3 17 1 • G O J AG S P O R T S . c o m
The board overseeing city of Baker schools has voted to become Louisiana’s second all-charter school district. STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
100TH yEAR, NO. 277
April 5th - Running Events 12:20 PM National Anthem 1:30 PM Women’s 4x 100 Meter Relay 1:35 PM Men’s 4x 100 Meter Relay 1:40 PM Women’s 1500 Meters 1:55 PM Men’s 1500 Meters 2:10 PM Women’s 100 Hurdles 2:20 PM Men’s 110 Hurdles 2:30 PM Women’s 400 Meters 2:40 PM Men’s 400 Meters 2:50 PM Women’s 100 Meters 3:00 PM Men’s 100 Meters 3:10 PM Women’s 800 Meters 3:20 PM Men’s 800 Meters 3:30 PM Women’s 400 Hurdles 3:40 PM Men’s 400 Hurdles 3:50 PM Women’s 3000 Meter 4:05 PM Men’s 3000 Meter 4:20 PM Women’s 4x 400 Relay 4:35 PM Men’s 4 x 400 Relay