THE
ACADIANA
ADVOCATE
T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
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S at u r d ay, a p r i l 5, 2025
Jury orders Chevron to pay $745 million
Money to restore area of coastal wetlands
$2.00X
Markets plunge for second day S&P 500 down 6%, Dow down 2,200 after China retaliates against Trump tariffs BY STAN CHOE Associated Press
NEW YORK — Wall Street’s worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher gear Friday. The S&P 500 lost 6% after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced earlier this week. The move increased the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Not even a betterthan-expected report on the U.S. job market, which is usually the economic highlight of each month, was enough to stop the slide. The drop closed the worst week for the S&P 500 since March 2020, when the pandemic ripped through the global economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2,231 points, or 5.5% and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 5.8% to pull more than 20% below its record set in December. So far there have been few, if any, winners in financial markets from the trade war. Stocks for all but 14 of the 500 companies within the S&P 500 index fell Friday. The price of crude oil tumbled
ä See MARKETS, page 4A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MARK SCHLEIFSTEIN
Oilfield and navigation canals cut through wetlands on the the west bank of Plaquemines Parish. BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
A Plaquemines Parish jury ordered Chevron to pay $745 million in damages on Friday to restore an area of Louisiana coastal wetlands, a landmark verdict likely to have wider implications on dozens of other similar lawsuits. The case was the first to go to trial among 41 parish lawsuits against oil companies seeking to hold them accountable for coastal damage. The verdict may influence how other cases proceed as Louisiana struggles to find badly needed money to address its accelerating land loss crisis in the years ahead. While coastal advocates welcomed the verdict as fair and a boost for wetlands restoration, oil and other business groups in Louisiana harshly condemned it, arguing it will harm the state’s economy in the long run. The total cost could be more than $1 billion once interest is calculated. Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration has been largely supportive of the oil and gas industry, but it intervened in the case on Plaquemines’ behalf opposing Chevron. Landry’s spokesperson referred questions to Attorney General Liz Murrill, who called the verdict “fair” and thanked jurors for their work.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Shrimper Acy Cooper said the industry has been struggling for 20 years.
La. shrimpers praise tariffs STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Attorney John H. Carmouche, front row second from right, and his team pose at the Plaquemines Parish Courthouse on Friday. The verdict was the culmination of a monthlong trial that played out at a courthouse in Pointe a la Hache. It pitted the Plaquemines Parish government, represented by lead attorney John Carmouche, of Baton Rouge-based law firm Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, against oil giant Chevron, which was represented by a team of lawyers led by Mike Phillips. The lawsuit had been initially filed
After struggling to compete with imports, advocates optimistic
BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer
in 2013. “I think this was a great win for our community,” said Phil Cossich, an attorney on the team that represented Plaquemines Parish. “It’s been a long time coming. This could be a great step in saving our coast.” Chevron plans to appeal “to address the numerous legal errors that led to this unjust result,” Phillips,
After decades of plunging prices and a dwindling workforce, Louisiana shrimpers are cheering President Donald Trump’s tariffs on countries supplying the U.S. with almost all of its shrimp. The coastal industry has for years struggled to compete against cheap foreign imports and a pattern of fraudulent mislabeling at seafood restaurants. But shrimpers and advocates feel renewed optimism in Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs announced Wednesday. The shrimp industry’s reaction was one of the
ä See JURY, page 5A
ä See SHRIMPERS, page 4A
Immigration agents arrest 73-year-old grandfather in Lafayette He fled Cuba and lived in U.S. for 45 years
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Staff writer
Forty-five years ago, Jose Francisco Garcia Rodriguez fled Cuba on a ship provided by the United States for people seeking refuge from the Cuban government.
WEATHER HIGH 83 LOW 76 PAGE 6A
While on his way to work on Monday, the 73-year-old grandfather was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near his Lafayette home. He is being held in an ICE processing center in Pine Prairie, a village in rural Evangeline Parish.
One of Rodriguez’s stepsons posted Monday on Facebook that his father had been taken by ICE agents at a Circle K at the corner of Johnston Street and Guilbeau Road. The family was quiet on the details until Thursday evening when Rodriguez’s stepdaughter, Christian Cooper Riggs of Lafayette,
posted a video on social media telling the story of her father’s life and asking for help. Rodriguez arrived in the U.S. with just the clothes on his back, Riggs said, with no education and unable to speak English. He struggled and made mistakes, paid for them, and for the next 43 years lived a good life, raising a family
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and working hard labor for 40-60 hours a week, paying taxes and paying into Social Security, which he never used. She did not elaborate on what kind of trouble he got into all those years ago. Three weeks ago, with ICE
ä See ARREST, page 5A
100TH yEAR, NO. 279