NFL DRAFT DAY 2: SAINTS TAKE LOUISVILLE QB TYLER SHOUGH 1C LSU’s Mason Taylor, Emery Jones Jr., Sai’vion Jones get picked 4C
N O L A.C O M
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S at u r d ay, a p r i l 26, 2025
$2.00X
FRIDAY @ JAZZ FEST
HEATING UP
Musgraves, Knight, Cheap Trick highlight hot Friday Country trio Chapel Hart romped through a crowd-pleasing cover of Dolly Parton’s classic “9 to 5” on the 2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s main stage Friday afternoon. “I had to see if I could get you warmed up for later,” exclaimed singer Danica Hart. “Y’all are warmed!” Yes, we were. On opening day, clouds and steady breeze kept the heat at bay. Mother Nature did not deploy nearly as many clouds, nor as much breeze, for most of Friday. Senegal-like sunshine bore down on the metallic baby blue garments of Senegalese star YousKeith sou N’Dour at the Congo Spera Square Stage. His intricate style of Afro-pop involved intertwining multiple percussionists, two guitarists, a drummer, a prominently featured bassist, a flutist/ saxophonist and a guy who performed exuberant tumbling exercises and a handstand. The primarily English-speaking audience may not have understood N’Dour’s vocals, but the music’s richness was unmistakable. Andrew Duhon’s songs were equally rich, if hailing from an entirely different tradition. The New Orleans-based singer-songwriter constructs meticulous Americana songs that evoke specific places and scenes, such as the “Two Dogs” observed during a walk on Magazine Street. He concluded at the Sheraton Fais Do-Do Stage with “Slow Down,” framed by a bowed upright bass, a lap steel, accordion and Duhon’s electric guitar. He made slowing down seem like a great idea. Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli fronted a large band at the Gentilly
State employees to return to offices by July 1
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
Kacey Musgraves performs on the Festival Stage Friday during the second day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Stage with a bevy of backing vocalists. Coming out of a drum solo by Jamal Batiste, they swung into the Meters’ “Cissy Strut” — only for the sound system to shut down.
Cheap Trick performs on the Shell Gentilly Stage at Jazz Fest on Friday.
ä See REMOTE, page 5A
Student visas restored
ä See HEATING, page 4A
INSIDE @ JAZZ FEST ä 102-year-old festival fan makes his home in the Jazz Tent. Page 1B ä Saturday’s cubes. Page 1D
Quiet streets become marketplaces, parties BY JENNA ROSS Staff writer
By 9 a.m., the preparations had begun. James Gonczi, owner of Liuzza’s by the Track, swept up leaves and cigarette butts, readying his restaurant for the first Friday of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Brothers Pedro and Juan Rivera settled into foldout chairs at the shady corner of Sauvage and Ponce de Leon streets where, for the past two decades, they’d sold bottled water to festivalgoers walking by. And, in the kitchen of his DeSoto Street home, Bill Dalton had put a big, silver pot of chicken and sausage jambalaya on the stove. For two weekends each year, Jazz Fest arrives in this quiet neighborhood near the
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Festivalgoers and others gather Friday outside Liuzza’s by the Track, a popular ä See TRANSFORMS, page 5A spot before, during and after Jazz Fest.
PAGE 6A
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 duties at a designated physical office or facility,” the order states. 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. The directive also says other state agencies that don’t fall within 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 said in a social media video announcing the change. “It’s time for 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.
Nocentelli and company kept playing a little longer, before giving up. After a couple minutes, the sound
Neighborhood transforms during Jazz Fest
WEATHER HIGH 86 LOW 70
Landry orders end to remote work
ICE reverses terminations after court challenges
BY JANIE HAR and KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press
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.
Business ......................5B Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Classified .....................6D Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C Comics-Puzzles .....2D-5D Nation-World................2A
ä See VISAS, page 4A
12TH yEAR, NO. 257