largest selection & lowest prices on wine, spirits & beer
Louisiana Local
Very best selection
of wine and o spirits
LB
— ONLY —
25
$ 750 ML
LB
Hardhide Strawberry Whiskey
— ONLY —
— ONLY —
99 750 ML SELECTED
XXL Moscato
9
$ 99
1.75 LITER
Apothic Wine
— ONLY —
17
99
LB
Taaka Vodka 80
OR 750 ML SELECTED
visit rouses.com for more weekly ad specials!
13
$
$ 1.75 LITER
LIMIT 3
Benchmark Bourbon
— ONLY —
— ONLY —
99 4 PACK 355 ML
High Noon Sun Sips
8
$ 99
17 99
$ 18 PACK 12 OZ
Miller Lite or Coors Light
Prices good at all New Orleans, Gretna, Kenner, Metairie, Marrero, Slidell, Mandeville and Covington stores April 9th - 16th, 2025.
STOCKS FALL AGAIN Fear of U.S.-China trade war drives Wall Street 13A
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F r i d ay, a p r i l 11, 2025
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QUARTER PARTY
Landry, insurance chief at odds over legislation Tort reform battle boils as session approaches
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
The French Quarter Festival opening day parade dances down Bourbon Street on the way to Jackson Square on Thursday.
Blue skies, bands and annual parade mark start of French Quarter Festival BY KEITH SPERA Staff writer
“On the Sunny Side of the Street” is the place to be, according to the well-trod jazz standard. But as bright, increasingly warm sunshine streamed down on Thursday’s opening of the 2025 French Quarter Festival, the shady side of the street was the preferred option. Visitors and locals awaiting the festival’s annual opening day parade in the 600 block of St. Ann Street clustered under the Place d’Armes Hotel’s balcony. And as soon as Jackson Square, home of the festival’s NewOrleans.com Stage, opened, space under oak tree canopies
was snatched up as prime real estate. Sunshine, and thus big crowds, are expected through the 42nd annual French Quarter Festival’s conclusion on Sunday. Thursday was a soft opening, with only a half-dozen stages up and running. The number bumps up to 14 on Friday, then 22 on Saturday and Sunday. The customary kickoff parade made its way down Bourbon Street on Thursday morning without the Southern Sounds, a group of British tourists who first made a pilgrimage to the festival in 1992, or the Zapp’s potato chip fire engine that has often concluded the parade. Instead, a handful of Harbor Police
The Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band opens the Chevron Stage in the Jax Lot during the first day of French Quarter ä See QUARTER, page 14A Festival on Thursday.
Two powerful state leaders have promised they are committed to bringing down high auto insurance rates shouldered by families and businesses alike, a challenge both have called “a crisis.” But Gov. Jeff Landry and Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple, both elected in 2023, this week during competing news conferences presented starkly contrasting visions of policy solutions that will translate to lower rates. Temple said the primary reason auto insurance rates are high in Louisiana is that when drivers get into accidents, “we’re more than twice the national average to file a bodily injury claim and more than twice to litigate.” “That’s what the majority of the legislation is going to focus on,” he said at a news conference Thursday. Most of the bills Temple is backing during the legislative session that begins Monday would put stricter limits on people’s ability to sue over damages and how much money they can win in court — an effort pushed as “tort reform” by business interests and insurance companies. “Will trial lawyers who sue for massive, excessive payouts attack our solutions and call them harmful to consumers? Probably so,” Temple said. “From energy to insurance, I’m sick of how our state has historically sided with a few trial attorneys over the many citizens and job creators in Louisiana.” The package of bills will create “transparency, certainty and predictability in our market,” Temple said. That in turn will attract insurance companies to Louisiana and create competition and lowers
ä See LEGISLATION, page 10A
Johnson gets budget bill passed in House
a group of about a dozen hard-right Measure directs committees to reduce spending ter holdouts concerned about growing
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — Once again with his back pressed to the wall by hard-right Republicans, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, was able to pull off Thursday another narrow victory to forward the legislative agenda of President Donald Trump. The House voted 216 to 214 to accept Senate changes to a House blueprint bill that instructs congressional committees to reduce spending in the fed-
WEATHER HIGH 77 LOW 55 PAGE 8B
eral budget. Two Republican members — Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, and Victoria Spartz, of Indiana — joined all the Democrats in voting against the measure. If another Republican had joined the Democratic opponents, the measure would have failed. As expected, Louisiana’s four Republican members voted in favor and two Democratic representatives voted against. Johnson had to pull the legislation from a floor vote Wednesday night af-
deficits demanded more spending cuts than the Senate’s version included. Johnson, with the help of Trump, had spent three days lobbying holdouts and was able to persuade enough to get the legislation passed Thursday morning. The budget debate has high stakes for Louisiana. For example, the steeper cuts some Republicans want could lead to reductions in Medicaid, which could devastate the state budget and leave many low-income residents without health insurance. Louisiana has one of
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, talks to reporters Thursday just after House Republicans approved their budget framework that is central to President Donald ä See JOHNSON, page 10A Trump’s agenda.
Business ...................12A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................1E Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
12TH yEAR, NO. 242