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Tee for two Teammates Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak win the PGA Zurich Classic golf tournament
SUNDAY @ JAZZ FEST
Big crowd closes out first weekend of Jazz Fest On April 18, the Nigerian star Burna Boy became the first Afro-pop artist to sell out the 80,000-capacity Stade de France in Paris. Nine days later, he brought his stadium-sized ensemble — if not quite a stadium-sized crowd — to close the Congo Square Stage on the 2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s first Sunday. More than 20 performers — four dancers, four horn players, three “talking” drum players, Keith two other mobile drummers, Spera keyboardists, a guitarist, a bassist, etc. — were onstage at times, moving in waves to join him on a INSIDE @ runway. JAZZ FEST But it was Burna Boy’s charisma, along with a brace of ä See more up-tempo songs that were not photos from sung in English but nonetheless Sunday. translated into a dance party, Page 1B that carried the show. After two unusually slow days, Jazz Fest’s first weekend finished strong with huge crowds on Saturday and Sunday. The audience for the Dave Matthews Band’s first
ä See JAZZ FEST, page 4A ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GERALD HERBERT
Ben Griffin, left, and Andrew Novak hold up their trophy on Sunday after they won the PGA Zurich Classic golf tournament at TPC Louisiana in Avondale. Novak and Griffin shot a 1-under 71 in alternate-shot play to become first-time PGA Tour winners — by one stroke. The North Carolina duo credited their friendship with helping them stay composed through the 90-minute weather delay and play well off of one another during the tense final holes. For the reigning Zurich champions, Shane Lowry and Masters winner Rory McIlroy, it was a strong title defense, but they couldn’t get things going in the final round. ä See complete coverage of the PGA Zurich Classic golf tournament. PAGE 1C
Doctor’s push to raise smoking taxes ends in mixed bag them. But to him, cigarettes repStephen Kantrow wants resent the bigger public health — and the bigger opportuto keep vapes, cigarettes threat nity for the public good. Yet many of the Republican away from kids
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Dr. Stephen Kantrow remained in his seat as everyone else got up. The House Ways and Means Committee had just completed a hearing on Tuesday where it narrowly approved a tax increase on vaping and rejected a tax hike on cigarettes. Kantrow, a pulmonologist, had come to the State Capitol from New Orleans to offer his perspective from treating smokers for 30 years, including those in their dying days. For Kantrow, vapes present a major problem because nearly one-third of high school students in Louisiana use
WEATHER HIGH 87 LOW 71 PAGE 6B
nies and convenience store owners. They had already begun discussions with lawmakers about watering down the bill if it had to be passed. Landry backed the bill, lobbyists committee members doubted his said, because the first $22 million view that the tax increases would collected by the vape tax would reduce tobacco usage, save lives raise salaries for state troopers and reduce state spending on Kantrow and the next $6 million would go tobacco-related costs. As he drove to Baton Rouge on Tuesday to the Department of Wildlife and Fishermorning, he was thinking that he’d like ies, the Office of State Fire Marshal and to be a resource to lawmakers and bet- the State Public Defender Compensater understand how they make decisions. tion Fund. Targeting vapers to pay state But it turns out that, even before he ar- troopers more would mean Landry could rived, Kantrow would be facing tough achieve that goal without having to find the odds. The tobacco industry was working money elsewhere. Most of the people who testified for or with convenience store owners to get Republican legislators to kill the cigarette tax against the bills represented one group or another. But Kantrow, 62, took a day increase. Meanwhile, the vape tax increase stood of leave as a professor at LSU’s medical a good chance of passage because it had school and drove to Baton Rouge by himthe support of Gov. Jeff Landry, and it was ä See SMOKING, page 3A less objectionable to the tobacco compa-
STAFF PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD
The Dave Matthews Band performs on the Festival Stage during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Sunday.
Jazz Fest neighbors give rental rules mixed reviews BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE and JEFF ADELSON Staff writers
Like many residents of her tight-knit Fairgrounds neighborhood, Cynthia Fransen can rattle off the names of her neighbors, their children, and how long they’ve lived on her block of Crete Street. And days before the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival kicked into gear just a few blocks from Fransen’s teal, terracotta-roofed home, she also pointed to all the homes on her block that typically host short-term rental guests during festival time.
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä See RENTALS, page 5A
12TH yEAR, NO. 259