NFL DRAFT ROUND 2: SAINTS TAKE LOUISVILLE QB TYLER SHOUGH 1C JETS TAKE LSU TIGHT END MASON TAYLOR
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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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S at u r d ay, a p r i l 26, 2025
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Landry orders end to remote work
at a designated physical ofThe directive also says other said in a social media video anState employees to return to offices by July 1 duties state agencies that don’t fall with- nouncing the change. “It’s time for fice or facility,” the order states.
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
Many employees who work in Louisiana state government will be required to work from an office, not from home, beginning July 1
under an executive order issued by Gov. Jeff Landry this week. “No later than June 30, 2025, all state departments, agencies, boards and commissions under the governor’s authority shall require their employees to perform their
Landry’s commissioner of administration, Taylor Barras, is also required to create new policies by May 15 to help government agencies to implement the directive. The commissioner is also allowed to approve exceptions to the remote-work ban.
in the governor’s authority “are strongly encouraged” to follow any new return-to-office policies set up by the administration. “When people remote work, they don’t get an opportunity to work inside the work environment with their other colleagues,” Landry
people to come back to work because they are more productive.” Landry said letting employees work remotely was “one of the biggest negative effects” of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ä See REMOTE, page 4A
Student visas restored ICE reverses terminations after court challenges
BY JANIE HAR and KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press
SPILLWAY PROTECTS, BUT AT A COST
FILE PHOTO
With river rising and opening Bonnet Carre a near certainty, some are concerned with freshwater discharge that can kill wildlife BY KASEY BUBNASH Staff writer
The Bonnet Carre Spillway has been opened more than a dozen times since it was constructed nearly 100 years ago, but the protection it offers New Orleans’ levee system comes at a cost: The rush of fresh water into surrounding brackish estuaries can harm the species living there, sometimes killing off entire fisheries and reefs. As the Mississippi River continues to rise, forecasters say another opening this year is a near certainty, news that hasn’t been welcomed by all on the Gulf Coast. A critical engineering feat of its time, it’s hard to imagine where New Orleans would be today without the spillway. But despite all the good it has done, many in south Louisiana have a complicated relationship with the long-standing structure — one that both saves and hurts so much. The need for something like the spillway became evident after the Great Flood of 1927, when months of heavy rain across the South inundated the Mississippi River in seven states and displaced hundreds of thousands of Americans. As the river swelled, Louisiana officials grew increasingly concerned that the le-
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers test opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway on Monday as the Mississippi River nears flood stage. TOP: The Bonnet Carre Spillway has been opened more than a dozen times to protect New Orleans from the rising waters of the river, including in 1950.
vee system protecting New Orleans could April 1927, dynamite was used to break a break, flooding the city and causing po- levee downstream from New Orleans in tentially catastrophic damage. Caernarvon, sending floodwaters rushing To spare the Crescent City, officials ä See SPILLWAY, page 4A took drastic and controversial action: In
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the country after many filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown, federal officials said Friday. The records in a federal student database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been terminated in recent weeks. Judges across the U.S. had already issued orders temporarily restoring students’ records in dozens of lawsuits challenging the terminations. More than 1,200 students nationwide suddenly lost their legal status or had visas revoked, leaving them at risk for deportation. Many said they had only minor infractions on their record or did not know why they were targeted. Some left the country while others have gone into hiding or stopped going to class. In Louisiana, more than a dozen international students have had their visas revoked, according to university officials. In response to the restoration, U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, confirmed that a number of international Southern University students had their visas restored. “While I’m glad this situation is getting resolved, these sudden and unfounded decisions by the Trump administration continue to cause unnecessary confusion and hardship for students, schools, and families,” Fields said in a statement. “I look forward to working with this Congress and this administration to continue fighting for students in my district and
ä See VISAS, page 5A
Louisiana could repeal wrongful conviction compensation law BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
Louisiana lawmakers are debating whether to amend or do away with a law that allows people who were wrongfully convicted to seek compensation from the state. A state law passed in 2005 gives people whose sentences were vacated or reversed the chance to prove their innocence before a judge and earn compensation,
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which is capped at $480,000 and depends on how long a person was incarcerated. The attorney general is responsible for defending the state in those cases, and the state has a fund from which to pay out compensation. In its original form, House Bill 101, by state Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, R-Hammond, would have eliminated that fund and shifted responsibility for handling such
cases and paying out compensation to local parishes. The bill also would have made it more difficult to apply for compensation. Attorney General Liz Murrill backed that proposal, saying an influx of wrongful conviction compensation cases out of Orleans Parish is a problem for her office and for state taxpayers. However, on Wednesday, during a House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee meeting,
state Rep. Debbie Villio successfully introduced a new version of the bill — one that would repeal the wrongful conviction compensation statute entirely. The committee, which Villio chairs, voted 7-4 to send her version of HB101 to the full House. The vote fell along party lines, with Democrats opposed to the bill and Republicans in favor of it. “I believe that Section 1983 is the appropriate remedy for wrongful
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convictions involving misconduct and support the repeal of the state statute,” Villio said in a statement, referring to Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act, which allows individuals to sue government officials for civil rights violations. Proponents of the bill, including Murrill, presented Section 1983 — a federal law — as a viable alternative to seeking compensation
ä See REPEAL, page 5A
100TH yEAR, NO. 300