ADVOCATE THE
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
Closed charter school issues persist
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F r i d ay, J u ly 18, 2025
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“At the end of the day, it’s just something that we just could not afford, no way, shape or form. All of the rest of the projects that we have going on in the state would have suffered at some point.” TONy ALFORD, chair of Gov. Jeff Landry’s advisory commission on coastal issues
Massive Mid-Barataria diversion project killed
Students face roadblocks transferring to new sites
State plans smaller-scale coastal restoration work
BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
Since their charter schools ceased operations last month, some parents with children at IDEA Bridge and IDEA Innovation have been unable to transfer their children to other schools. To clear out the logjam, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system has set up a temporary help center. Leaders of IDEA say the student transfer issue is not their fault. “IDEA no longer has access to student records following the relinquishment of our charters,” according to a statement from the Texas-based charter group. “Moving forward, EBR is the best point of contact for families needing transcripts, drop slips, or spring 2025 test scores.” IDEA Bridge and IDEA Innovation, which opened in 2018, had more than 1,900 students enrolled in grades kindergarten to 12 at the time they called it quits. On July 1, Colorado-based Third Futures Schools officially took over the operation of IDEA Bridge, renamed Bridge Academy,
ä See CHARTER, page 6A
Pronoun controversy draws GOP attention
STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
A wide dirt path is made as part of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project near Myrtle Grove in 2024. BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer
BY ALYSE PFEIL
Staff writer
Gov. Jeff Landry and other prominent Louisiana conservatives are criticizing Baton Rouge’s library system after a former employee said he was fired because he refused to use someone’s preferred gender pronouns. Luke Ash said he was let go from a job at East Baton Rouge Parish Library on July 10 after he refused to use someone’s preferred pronouns. He recounted the story in an interview with Tony Perkins posted online Tuesday. Perkins, a pastor and former state representative, is president of the
ä See PRONOUN, page 7A
The state on Thursday officially canceled the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, Louisiana’s biggest-ever coastal restoration project, and moved to replace it with a smaller-scale version accompanied with other elements, citing ballooning costs and other factors. The announcement had been widely anticipated, but remained a major development considering the years of study and evaluation that had gone into the unprecedented $3 billion project. It has long been seen as the linchpin of the state’s 50-year coastal master plan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had already suspended the project’s permit in April and Gov. Jeff Landry had signaled his opposition to it in its current form. “The state of Louisiana, through its Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), has reached an agreement with the Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group to terminate the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project,” a statement from trustees
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
Public officials, staff with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and coastal rebuilding advocates gather for the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion groundbreaking ceremony near Ironton on Aug. 10, 2023. overseeing funds from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill read. Tony Alford, who chairs Landry’s advisory commission on coastal issues, said the cost of the project was just too great. “At the end of the day, it’s just something that we just could not afford, no way, shape or form,” Alford said. “All of the rest of the projects that we have
going on in the state would have suffered at some point.” Coastal advocates have argued that the scale of the project was necessary to meet Louisiana’s severe land loss crisis and expressed concern that the plan was being abandoned. They have previously noted that the
ä See DIVERSION, page 7A
Poirier reflects on life before final fight in the UFC cage Lafayette native says lesson of his career is ‘keep grinding’
BY POET WOLFE Staff writer
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL ZARRILLI
WEATHER HIGH 88 LOW 77 PAGE 8B
Dustin Poirier celebrates after winning an interim lightweight title mixed martial arts bout in 2019.
Hardheaded. Stubborn. A hard worker. Those were the words mixed martial artist and Louisiana native Dustin Poirier used to describe himself as a child, during a moment of quiet selfreflection at his home in Lafayette five days before he steps into the Ultimate Fighting Championship cage one final time in New Orleans on Saturday. They’re also words that describe
him throughout his 16-year career of triumphs, defeats, doubt, courage and bloodshed as a professional fighter and UFC headliner. In 2012, a 23-year-old Poirier spoke to a reporter after his loss to Chan Sung Jung. Bloodied and exhausted, he held back tears. “It’s a big hit to me, man. This is my life ... ” Poirier said, choking up. “I’m going to win or I’m gonna die in the cage. One of the two is going to happen.” Then there was Poirier in 2021, vengeful and hellbent when he knocked out Conor McGregor with an agonizing salvo of punches, rewriting his name in UFC history. Later, in 2024, after his loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 302, the crowd saw a different, war-wearied
Business ......................8A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
Poirier. “If I do fight again, what am I fighting for?” he said to Joe Rogan in the Octagon after the fight, catching his breath. “I don’t know, I got a little girl I love and I gotta see. I think this could be it.” It didn’t take long for Poirier to shed those layers of doubt. His final fight before retiring will come in the Smoothie King Center this weekend against Max Holloway. In an interview, Poirier said he knows exactly what he’s fighting for. “To try to get one more win, to go out on top ...” he said. “To lay the gloves down and retire in Louisiana, where I first started training and first started fighting.” The spirit of a fighter has always
ä See POIRIER, page 9A
101ST yEAR, NO. 18