CAJUNS BASKETBALL Transfer Keller ready for role as point guard 1C THE
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T h u r s d ay, J u n e 19, 2025
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Officials fear proposed Medicaid cuts
La. Senate leader says special session may be called BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — State Senate President Cameron Henry said he’s worried Louisiana won’t be able to cover the losses should Congress ratchet back Medicaid spending the way the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has proposed for the
One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “If this bill takes effect immediately, we’ll absolutely come back into special session, no doubt about it,” Henry said during a video conference hosted Tuesday by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana. “What we do there would not be pleasant, but we’d have to do it,”
the Metairie Republican continued, adding that Louisiana couldn’t afford the estimated $4 billion the bill, if passed as written, would remove from the state’s treasury. Henry said he phoned U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Monday night after the panel released its recommen-
dations for Medicaid and other provisions in the massive bill that includes much of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. They discussed the problems Louisiana could have cover- Henry ing the costs and discussed strategies about “how to move forward with the changes
‘WE’RE SAD TO GO’
they want to make without devastating local hospitals, rural hospitals and so forth,” Henry said. The Senate’s language has “a bunch things in it that would have significant effects on Louisiana, not in a positive way,” Henry said. About 1.8 million people in Louisiana are covered by various Medicaid programs, which is roughly 40% of the state’s population,
ä See MEDICAID, page 5A
Court rules against transgender rights Ban on gender-affirming care for minors upheld
BY MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
Philip, Karl and Wally, worked in the store. In recent months, Philip’s health has declined, Karl retired, and Wally, who is the store butcher, is also retiring, store manager Chase Breaux said.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, a jolting setback to transgender rights. The justices’ 6-3 decision in a case from Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump’s Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people. Another 26 states have laws similar to Tennessee’s. Louisiana passed a law in 2023 banning doctors from prescribing hormone therapy and puberty blockers to minors, and from administering gender-transition surgical procedures. Five Louisiana transgender youths asked a judge to block the state’s ban after it went into effect in 2024. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a conservative majority that the law banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments for trans minors doesn’t violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. “This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field. The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound,” Roberts wrote. “The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these
ä See SAD, page 5A
ä See COURT, page 6A
STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD KEMP
Store manager Chase Breaux, left, and butcher Wally Breaux stand inside Breaux’s Mart supermarket on Monday.
Breaux’s Mart closes on deal to sell after seven decades
Breaux’s Mart opened in 1959 and was known for years as Breaux’s Minute Mart.
BY ADAM DAIGLE
Acadiana business editor Nearly seven decades of grocery business on the north side of Lafayette came to an end Wednesday. The owners of Breaux’s Mart supermarket sold the business and the building at 2600 Moss St. to an LLC registered to Lyons Market for an undisclosed amount, land records show. The store will be rebranded as a Lyons Market and become the fifth store for the southwest Louisiana-based, family-owned company.
The move comes after the death of longtime owner Wallace Breaux in November 2021. In 1959, Breaux started the store — for years known as Breaux’s Minute Mart — along with his dad, Master “Mac” Breaux, who died in 1990. Three of Wallace Breaux’s sons,
Application for new Plaquemines LNG terminal withdrawn a 1,100-acre site near Mile 54 nomic Development Secretary SuVenture says it wants on of the Mississippi River next to its san Bourgeois said in a statement. LNG terminal. “In fact, we believe this strateto focus on expansion Plaquemines But in a letter sent to the Fed- gic decision will allow the capital of existing facility eral Energy Regulatory Commis- to come to fruition even faster
BY BLAKE PATERSON
Staff writer
Venture Global, the Virginia company that has spent billions of dollars building liquefied natural gas export terminals across south Louisiana, has withdrawn its application with federal regulators for a new terminal in Plaquemines Parish, saying it wants to focus instead on expanding an existing facility. Venture Global had proposed building its Delta LNG terminal
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sion last week, the company said, “pursuing the Delta LNG project at this particular time would not be the best use of its corporate resources or the resources of the Commission’s staff.” Instead, Venture Global said it wants to focus on an $18 billion expansion of its Plaquemines LNG terminal, saying it will produce “approximately the same quantities of LNG” as the Delta LNG project, “but on a faster schedule.” Venture Global’s “investment is being shifted, not lost, and will remain in Louisiana,” Louisiana Eco-
and drive economic development more quickly than originally anticipated,” Bourgeois said. Officials from President Donald Trump’s administration and Gov. Jeff Landry visited the Plaquemines LNG site in March to tout the expansion, which will make the facility the largest in North America. “Louisiana is going to become a larger exporter of liquefied natural gas than any nation on earth,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright
STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
State and federal officials tour the Venture Global Plaquemines LNG ä See TERMINAL, page 5A export facility on March 6.
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