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Fight over Medicaid has huge stakes for Louisiana Congress to determine program’s future over the next few weeks
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S u n d ay, a p r i l 27, 2025
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‘He was a pope among the people’ Mighty and meek say farewell to Francis during Vatican funeral, last popemobile ride
BY MARK BALLARD | Staff writer WASHINGTON — The future of Medicaid will be determined over the next few weeks after months of speculation over how potential cuts could affect Louisiana. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, and President Donald Trump are trying to pass “one big, beautiful bill” that will achieve Trump’s priorities like Johnson extending his 2017 tax cuts, tougher border security, more defense spending and exempting tips from taxation. To help pay for it, Republicans in the House want to cut the federal budget by $1.5 trillion Trump — and the committee that oversees Medicaid has been tasked with eliminating $880 billion. That has raised alarm among doctors,
ä See MEDICAID, page 6A
Artists from La., Canada share cultural connection through music BY JOANNA BROWN | Staff writer Les Hay Babies, an indie folk band from New Brunswick, Canada, has played Lafayette’s Festival International twice. They’ve recorded music during a creative retreat in Erath, and have built connections with fellow musicians and new friends across years of gigs and trips to south Louisiana. According to Les Hay Babies band member Julie Aubé, her ties in the Acadiana region stem from the language,
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EVAN VUCCI
The coffin of Pope Francis is carried into St Peter’s Square for his funeral at the Vatican on Saturday. World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful have said farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor.
ä Faithful celebrate the pope’s life.
BY NICOLE WINFIELD and COLLEEN BARRY
PAGE 5A
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis’ coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town. According to Vatican estimates, 250,000 people flocked to the funeral Mass at the Vatican and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century. They clapped and cheered “Papa Francesco” as his simple wooden coffin traveled aboard a modified popemobile to St. Mary Major Basilica,
31/ 2 miles away. As bells tolled, the pallbearers brought the coffin past several dozen migrants, prisoners and homeless people holding white roses outside the basilica. Once inside, the pallbearers stopped in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary that Francis loved. Four children deposited the roses at the foot of the altar before cardinals performed the burial rite at his tomb in a nearby niche. “I’m so sorry that we’ve lost him,” said Mohammed Abdallah, a 35-yearold migrant from Sudan who was one of the people who welcomed Francis to his final resting place. “Francis helped so many people, refugees like us, and ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO many other people in the world.”
Pope Francis died on Monday at age 88.
ä See FRANCIS, page 4A
ä See MUSIC, page 7A
WEATHER HIGH 87 LOW 68 PAGE 6B
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100TH yEAR, NO. 301