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House passes pro-insurance industry measures Bills aim to help lower state’s high rates
2025 LEGISLATURE
BY TYLER BRIDGES
AUTO INSURANCE
Staff writer
A slate of bills that insurance companies and business interests say would hold down rising car insurance rates in Louisiana won approval from the state House on Monday. Legislators supporting the bills
powered past the objections of lawmakers who expressed the view of trial lawyers that the changes won’t help consumers in a state where car insurance rates are among the highest nationwide. In general terms, the measures would make it harder for people injured in car accidents to file lawsuits and win big payouts — in the
Car insurance rates in Louisiana are among the highest nationwide. State representatives on Monday advanced a slate of bills aimed at reining in rising costs.
belief that lower payouts would lead insurance companies to pass along the savings to consumers. Critics of the bills don’t think that would happen. The bills passed mostly along
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
ä See BILLS, page 3A
Council pans trash bids for French Quarter
‘Illegal reentry’ charges surging in Louisiana BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
An IV Waste truck sprays a lemon-scented wash on the streets Wednesday while cleaning the French Quarter. IV Waste hauls trash in New Orleans’ French Quarter and Downtown Development District under a deal awarded last year, which Mayor LaToya Cantrell wants to abandon.
Cantrell’s staff grilled on garbage dispute BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
New Orleans City Council members grilled officials from Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration Monday about a hotly disputed garbage contract in the French Quarter, criticizing what they described as legal inconsistencies and a lack of transparency in the bid process. The hearing marked the latest flashpoint in a legal standoff between the council and mayor, as Cantrell pushes to
terminate an emergency contract held by business owner Sidney Torres’ IV Waste. IV Waste hauls trash in New Orleans’ French Quarter and Downtown Development District under a deal awarded last year, as infighting over a different, longterm waste disposal contract threatened to leave New Orleans without a trash hauler ahead of Super Bowl LIX in February. Cantrell wants to abandon Torres’ deal and allow the $73 million long-term deal, which the city inked with Troy Henry’s
Henry Consulting last July, to take effect. Members of the council have fought that push at every turn. They dug in their heels again Monday, describing Henry’s contract as legally flawed and saying it could not take effect until the council approves it — something Cantrell has disputed. Council members lashed Cantrell’s chief administrative officer, sanitation department director, chief infrastructure officer and an assistant city attorney with question after question about the deal.
A Honduran man accused of reentering the United States illegally arrived with his wife, an American citizen, for a U.S. Customs appointment in New Orleans in early April, hoping to emerge a step closer to securing citizenship himself. Instead, customs officers acting on a mandate from President Donald Trump called New Orleans’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. ICE agents arrived midway through the appointment and arrested the man, Pedro Alejandro Lujan-Martinez, then whisked him to detention. Lujan-Martinez, who holds a mortgage on a New Orleans-area home and has no other criminal record, two days later found himself in a witness box in New Orleans, charged in federal court with reentering the United States after being deported to Honduras a decade ago. Four other men accused of the same violation sat beside him. A judge speaking through a single Spanish translator heard all five cases at once, speeding the process along. As Trump directs the might of federal law enforcement to pitch in on his sweeping immigration crackdown, the White House has frequently publicized arrests of migrants accused of trafficking, drug smuggling and other grave offenses. Meanwhile, prosecutors scrambling to fall in line with the president’s agenda have pursued an un-
ä See CHARGES, page 5A
ä See TRASH, page 5A
Disbarred N.O. attorney charged in killing
attorney at the center of his fiancée, attorney Vanessa those crashes. Garrison told the Federal witness in leans a sprawling vehicle-wrecking Motta, staged vehicle wrecks FBI before his death in 2020 that accusing him of or- with big rig trucks in a ploy to he would funnel his passengers truck wrecking case scheme, chestrating the death of a key secure large insurance payouts. to a group of New Orleans attormurdered The new charges filed Friday neys, including Motta, to reprewitness who was gunned down
on his mother’s doorstep five years ago. Sean Alfortish, 57, already Staff writer faced a slew of federal charges Federal prosecutors have se- under an indictment filed late cured fresh murder charges last year, alleging that he and a against a disbarred New Or- group of associates, including
BY JAMES FINN
WEATHER HIGH 86 LOW 72 PAGE 8A
in the New Orleans-based U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana accuse Alfortish and an alleged associate, Leon “Chunky” Parker, of plotting to kill Cornelius Garrison, a veteran “slammer” who staged
sent them in bogus lawsuits, according to court records. Garrison was shot 10 times on his mother’s doorstep in Gentilly on Sept. 22, 2020. He had been
ä See ATTORNEY, page 3A
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
Seven months into the 2025 fiscal year, prosecutors in the New Orleansbased U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana have charged more people with illegal reentry than in the entire prior fiscal year, according to data.
12TH yEAR, NO. 260