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M o n d ay, J u ly 21, 2025
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Judge mulls D.R. Horton case Homeowners question builder’s contracts
BY MATT BRUCE | Staff writer
Lake Maurepas plan faces new battle
Opponents compare carbon capture work to now-banned activity
ä See CASE, page 6A
Landry chooses new child welfare agency chief
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL | Staff writer A new battle is shaping up over Air Products’ controversial plans for carbon injection wells beneath Lake Maurepas, with the extensive digging required now coming into focus and stirring fresh opposition to the project. The carbon injection and storage field is expected to require enough underwater digging that the removed mud could fill LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center nearly twice over, company estimates show. The digging will help make way for a network of underwater pipelines for carbon dioxide, natural gas and fiber optic cables that will form roughly the shape of two “T’s” touching end to end, plans show. Air Products announced its plans to build the first carbon capture and sequestration operation in Louisiana nearly four years ago, but the extent of the work has come into sharper focus with recent permit applications. With this information in hand, longtime legislative and other opponents recently announced a new strategy to fight the project. They
West and Alicia Dixon have spent the past three years fighting for compensation for a home they say was not built to stand up to Louisiana’s withering summertime humidity. The couple sued D.R. Horton, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, claiming the Youngsville house the Texas-based company sold them in 2014 had a faulty ventilation system that caused water damage, mold growth and health issues. After years of legal wrangling, the Louisiana couple had their day in court last week and told a Baton Rouge judge about living in a house they said they can’t afford to fix and how it has impacted them and their four children. It was testimony that underscored their lawsuit, which claims D.R. Horton knowingly built substandard homes across southern Louisiana and sales representatives duped them and other buyers into signing sales contracts with arbitration agreements. The case is poised to become a class-action lawsuit involving hundreds of Louisiana residents who purchased homes from D.R. Horton after 2007.
Governor shakes up troubled division’s leadership BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN | Staff writer STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
An Air Products drilling rig used to drill the hole for the test detonation on Lake Maurepas stations for a demonstration for locals to secure a permit for a six-month survey in Akers on Dec. 5, 2022. TOP: The locations of the seismic testing sites are unmarked on Lake Maurepas in Manchac on Oct. 14, 2022. STAFF FILE PHOTO By MORGAN WERTHER plan to invoke the history of damaging shell dredging in the lake to encourage closer regulatory scrutiny, they said. This plan comes with the public comment periods having opened this month for Air Products’ clean
water and waterway permits with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its coastal use permit from the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources.
ä See PLAN, page 4A
As the agency continues to struggle with staffing shortages and recruitment, Gov. Jeff Landry has announced that Rebecca Harris will take over as secretary of the Department of Children & Family Services. Landry said in a news release that Harris will replace David Matlock, who has headed the agency since Harris early 2024. Harris’ “experience in operational improvement and her commitment to protecting our most vulnerable children make
ä See CHIEF, page 6A
Livingston library options divide community Director, 4 members of board gone BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD | Staff writer The search for a new Livingston Parish library director is taking off, and it’s already shaping up to be divisive. The parish Library Board of Control met Friday night to initially discuss the possibility of removing the requirement for a master of library and information science degree for the library director position. The proposal drew a crowd, but ultimately it was tabled by the board and the meeting abruptly ended when the quorum was lost after
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a board member walked out. Despite no action being taken, many people in the crowd voiced their frustration and confusion about the proposal and the search overall. The short-lived meeting happened only three days after Parish President Randy Delatte and the majority of library board members did not renew the contract for library director Michelle Parrish. The decision caused four library board members, including board leadership, to quit and walk out of the meeting. There are now only five board members, six including Delatte, when he uses his ex officio role. Parrish had been the director for a little over two years after her prede-
cessor, Giovanni Tairov, resigned after months of commotion surrounding content restrictions for minors. An agenda for the library board meeting was posted Thursday with a proposed policy change from recently elected board president Jonathan Davis that the next library director would need only a master’s degree, not necessarily one in library science. A state law that says library directors no longer are required to hold a master’s degree in library science went into effect August 2024. The Livingston Parish library system’s current policy states its library
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Library Board of Control President Jonathan Davis speaks during the Friday meeting at the Livingston Parish Main ä See LIBRARY, page 4A Branch Library.
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101ST yEAR, NO. 21