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W e d n e s d ay, J u n e 11, 2025
NEW HOME
Ceremony officially opens Fire Station 6 in Lafayette
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2025 LEGISLATURE
Bill aimed at out-of-state abortion pill prescribers passes Pregnant women can sue doctors who provide drugs, perform procedure BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Firefighters chat outside following the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for Fire Station 6 on Camellia Boulevard in Lafayette. The 7,156 square-foot station was completed in April and cost $3.3 million.
A bill that aims to stop out-of-state doctors from prescribing abortion drugs like mifepristone or misoprostol to people in Louisiana passed the Legislature on Tuesday. Called the “Justice for Victims of Abortion Drug Dealers Act,” the legislation would allow pregnant women to sue those who illegally give them drugs for an abortion or try to perform an abortion on them. Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in Louisiana it’s already a crime to provide drugs to someone for an illegal abortion, but the state is having a hard time holding medical providers outside of the state criminally liable
ä See ABORTION, page 5A
Lawsuit against police put on hold
Firefighting gear is hung up and ready for use at Fire Station 6 on Camellia Boulevard.
Family suing Lafayette, officers over girl’s death BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Staff writer
From left, Russell Trahan, owner of Trahan Architecture and Planning; Warren Abadie, director of public works; Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet; and Fire Chief Robert Benoit share a laugh following the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for Fire Station 6.
A federal lawsuit against Lafayette Consolidated Government and several police officers over the shooting death of a child during police response to a 2023 domestic disturbance has been delayed until a related criminal case is resolved. Kaci Cyprian, 19 months old, was shot and killed in August 2023, allegedly by a Lafayette police officer. Police responded to a disturbance call
ä See LAWSUIT, page 5A
Fair Grounds racing season in peril Owner Churchill Downs says it plans to give up licenses at N.O. track
BY ANTHONY McAULEY and TYLER BRIDGES Staff writers
The upcoming horse racing season in New Orleans is in peril after the owner of the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots said it plans to give up its racing and gambling licenses following a failed effort to get state legislators to agree to a subsidy to replace lost revenue from slots. William Carstanjen, the chief executive of Churchill Downs Inc., which has owned the historic track for the past two decades, told the Louisiana State Racing Commission and state legislators in a letter dated June 9 that the company plans to relinquish its license to
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operate the track and its other 13 off-track betting operations at the oversight board’s next meeting. The commission’s executive director, Stephen Landry, said Tuesday that he’s seen the letter but the commissioners haven’t yet set a date for the meeting. He said they expect it will be held sometime within the next 30 days. He declined to comment further. The stalemate leaves in doubt the upcoming season, which normally begins on Thanksgiving and runs through March. The Fair Grounds season is a critical part of the $2.5 billion Louisiana horse racing and breeding industry’s annual calendar, and includes the Louisiana Derby and the Risen Star Stakes, both high-purse races
that are part of the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” series. At issue is the loss of tens of millions of dollars in revenue by Churchill Downs after the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in March that the company could not operate a type of slot machine — called Historic Horse Racing, or HHR — unless it got voter approval in each parish where the slots operate. The court decision overturned a 2021 law that had allowed the HHR slots, which are based on anonymized previously run races, as an extension of horse race betting. The court ruled that HHRs are effectively another type of
STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
The Fair Grounds season includes the Louisiana Derby and the Risen Star Stakes, both high-purse races that are part of the ‘Road to the ä See FAIR GROUNDS, page 4A Kentucky Derby’ series.
Business ...................10C Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................2B Living............................5C Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
100TH yEAR, NO. 346