BEACH BOYS FOUNDER BRIAN WILSON DIES AT 82 8A
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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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T h u r s d ay, J u n e 12, 2025
ON TO OMAHA
Fans gathered Wednesday at Alex Box Stadium to send off the LSU baseball team as it heads to the College World Series
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2025 LEGISLATURE
Pharmacy bill stirs fierce debate CVS texts warning of closures in Louisiana
BY ALYSE PFEIL, MATTHEW ALBRIGHT and MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writers
A bill that could reshape the landscape of Louisiana pharmacies emerged on the second-to-last day of the legislative session, provoking a furious debate on the House floor and a massive public lobbying campaign from drugstore chain CVS. House Bill 358 surfaced Wednesday afternoon from a conference committee with a major new addition: It would ban pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies. The goal, supporters said, is to stop those big companies from using their buying power to squeeze out local independent pharmacies and give consumers fewer choices. But CVS, which owns both a pharmacy benefits manager and a chain of drugstores, said the bill would force them to close 119 Louisiana pharmacies, affecting 1 million patients across the state and 22,000 patients who receive high-cost specialty drugs that smaller pharmacies could find difficult to handle.
ä See PHARMACY, page 5A
STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS
LSU coach Jay Johnson gives out high-fives to adoring fans during the LSU baseball team’s sendoff at Alex Box Stadium before heading to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series on Wednesday.
Trump wants to phase out FEMA
LSU third baseman Michael Braswell III chats with young fans briefly while signing a baseball Wednesday before the team boarded buses to the airport for a trip to the College World Series. LSU opens play at 6 p.m. Saturday against Arkansas.
INSIDE
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
ä Mardi Gras Mike parade float
joins sendoff, heading to Omaha to support LSU. Page 1B ä More College World Series coverage in Sports. Page 1C
advise on the expansion. Both attorney Charles Landry — who was hired to help with the River Center — and Parish Attorney Greg Rome said they saw no ethical issues or conflicts of interest. Still, District 5 council member Darryl Hurst echoed some of Glasper’s
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wants to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the end of this year’s hurricane season and leave states more on their own when responding to natural disasters. “We’re going Talking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump to give out less said he planned to phase money. We’re out FEMA as it exists now going to give and “wean” states off fedit out directly. eral aid. The agency hanIt’ll be from the dles relief and recovery after hurricanes, floods, president’s office.” tornadoes, earthquakes, PRESIDENT wildfires and other cataDONALD TRUMP strophic disasters. “We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said Tuesday night. “If a certain state gets hit by a hurricane or tornado, the governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath,
ä See COUNCIL, page 5A
ä See FEMA, page 7A
Council hires adviser for River Center project BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
The East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council approved the hiring of a firm Wednesday to lead efforts in expanding the Raising Cane’s River Center into a full convention space — but not without controversy. Arguments erupted from council
WEATHER HIGH 90 LOW 77 PAGE 6B
members and attorneys after former council member Darrell Glasper questioned whether a conflict of interest was in play. Glasper pointed to District 10 council member Carolyn Coleman’s seat on a committee related to the project, and questioned whether she should be involved in awarding the contract to Chicago-based Hunden Partners to
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................6D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-5D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
CAR SEAT SAFETY CHECKS, SUN SAFETY, NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION, HEARING AND VISION SCREENINGS, AND MORE!
100TH yEAR, NO. 347