NEW AFRICAN MASQUERADES
ARTISTIC INNOVATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS ON VIEW THROUGH AUGUST 10
N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, J u ly 10, 2025
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Qualifying opens for N.O. elections 7 enter mayoral race as line forms for sheriff, City Council BY BEN MYERS Staff writer
Three of the four leading candidates for mayor on Wednesday filed formal paperwork to run in the Oct. 11 primary election, the first of a three-day qualifying period. Council members Helena Moreno and Oliver Thomas, along with former Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter, arrived at the Orleans
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ä Hutson to run for reelection to Orleans Parish sheriff. Page 4A ä Two enter special election for Slidell mayor. Page 4A Parish Clerk of Court’s office before noon, in between a flurry of candidates running in other races. Another mayoral front-runner, state Sen. Royce Duples-
sis, is expected to qualify on Thursday. Four other candidates — Renada Collins, Frank Janusa, Tyrell Morris and Ricky Twiggs — also qualified for the mayor’s race. The qualifying period is an election-season milestone, as publicly announced candidates make it official and rumored ones put an end to speculation. The end of qualifying is also when campaigns typically
heat up. The mayor’s race has thus far been fairly low temperature, with one public forum in which Moreno, Thomas and Hunter — Duplessis hadn’t entered the race yet — focused on their platforms. As they left the courthouse on Wednesday, the candidates said they expected the race to remain civil.
ä See QUALIFYING, page 4A
Collins
Hunter
Moreno
Morris
Thomas
Twiggs
Council to review FEMA holds N.O. meeting Report: State ranks high for recovery funds
BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
A streetcar passes the closed Palace Café by Dickie Brennan & Co. in the 600 block of Canal Street in New Orleans on Wednesday.
A CHANGING CANAL
Palace Café shuttering may be a sign of street’s upswing rather than decline
BY ANTHONY McAULEY
ing was, ironically, over soaring rent and property valuation, an indication more of the improving commercial The possible permanent closure of prospects of the boulevard than its dethe Palace Café on lower Canal Street terioration. has stirred familiar lamentations about The Creole bistro’s closing — which the decline of the milelong New Or- might yet be reversed — also comes leans commercial strip that was once amid several public and private initialauded as “the Champs-Élysées of the tives that are aimed at elevating Canal South.” Street, which already has seen some But boosters of the historic New patchy signs of recovering its former Orleans boulevard noted that the clos- glory.
Staff writer
The Palace Café case “really does seem to be an indication of commercial vibrancy, at least of that part of Canal Street,” said Seth Knudsen, executive director of the Downtown Development District, a state agency that, among other things, oversees security, beautification and economic development efforts for an area that includes lower Canal Street.
ä See CANAL, page 8A
The council that President Donald Trump established to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency met in New Orleans on Wednesday, promising a complete remake of the agency that Louisiana has relied upon to recover from disasters ranging from destructive hurricanes to saltwater intrusion. Led by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the FEMA Review Council is tasked with reporting on the agency‘s strengths and failures and making a list of recommendations for overhauling it. As the council met, natural disasters were unfolding in parts of the U.S., with severe flooding in Texas and New Mexico claiming the lives of more than 100 people. In Louisiana, hurricane season is just getting underway. An above-average number of storms is forecast this year. Trump formed the council, Noem said at the meeting, to “streamline and rightsize the federal government, especially in its role in disaster management.”
ä See FEMA, page 4A
U.S. measles numbers highest in decades BY DEVI SHASTRI
the year and the country almost cases of lost its status of The U.S. is having its worst measles having eliminatyear for measles spread in more have been ed the vaccinethan three decades, with a total illreported preventable of 1,288 cases nationally and anness. That could in the U.S. happen this year other six months to go in 2025. this year. if the virus has The U.S. Centers for Disease nonstop spread Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the national for 12 months. This year’s outbreaks, some case count surpassed 2019, when there were 1,274 cases for of them interconnected, started Associated Press
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 77 PAGE 8A
1,288
five months ago in undervaccinated communities in West Texas. Three people have died — two children in Texas and an adult in New Mexico — and dozens of people have been hospitalized. Public health experts maintain the true case count may be higher than state health departments have confirmed. North America has three other major measles outbreaks, with 2,966 cases in Chihuahua state,
Mexico, 2,223 cases in Ontario, Canada and 1,230 in Alberta, Canada. Thirteen other states have confirmed outbreaks of three or more people — Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah — and four other states saw their outbreaks end.
ä See MEASLES, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Gov. Jeff Landry holds a news conference Wednesday after a Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council meeting in New Orleans.
Business ......................6A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
12TH yEAR, NO. 332