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Trump’s influence looms over Senate race Cassidy and his challengers seek president’s backing
in the meantime, they are all competing for the endorsement of President Donald Trump. No one can say for certain whether Trump will favor one candidate or when he might do so. But everyBY TYLER BRIDGES one agrees that any endorsement from him will pack a punch. Staff writer This has prompted the four ReU.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and his publican candidates to tout their three Republican challengers will MAGA credentials at every opporbegin drawing sharp distinctions tunity. among themselves at some point in State Treasurer John Fleming said the upcoming Senate primary. But he worked in the White House dur-
ing Donald Trump’s first term as president, 10 steps from the Oval Office. Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta said he chaired each of the Trump campaigns in Louisiana. State Sen. Blake Miguez styles himself as an America First conservative who will be a reliable Trump ally. Cassidy, who formally announced his reelection campaign Friday in an event at Drago’s in Metairie, notes he supported Trump’s cabinet
nominees, provided a decisive vote for the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill and works directly with Trump. “I’m the only one who actually speaks to the president,” he said during a news conference Wednesday. Trump is casting a looming shadow over a race in which the candidates in January will qualify for the April semi-closed primary.
Cassidy
Fleming
ä See SENATE, page 8A Miguez
Skrmetta
Ringing g in i the schooll ye ear Students return to the classrroom with new start times, dress code c changes BY ASHLEY WHITE | Staff writer Families are gearing up to send their students back to the classroom for the start of the 2025-26 school year. For Lafayette Parish school system students, some of the larger changes implemented last year are still in effect, and this year also will bring new regulations, including changes to start times. The 2025-26 school year for the system will begin with a staggered start. Those days are not optional and will count toward a student’s attendance record. Students are divided into A-day and Bday. A-day students are those who have
an odd ho ome address and B-day students are those e who have e an even home address. Fam milies who live in an apartment complex or o numberred unit will use the unit numbe er or lette er. Thursday y is A-day y. Students in kindergarten thro ough fifth h grade, seventh and eighth grade es, and 10th 1 and 12th grades with an odd home ad ddress will report to school. Friday is B-day. B Students in kindergarten thrrough fifth fi grade, sixth grade, and niinth an nd 11th grades with an even addresss will report to
ä See SCHOOL, page 8A
ES
STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTB BROOK
AG y IM GETT
The Lafayette Parish school system is focusing on absenteeism ass students return to school, beginning with a staggered start. Other changes include start time adjustments and allowing students to wear jeans.
Births in La. drop to lowest point in decades State has a shrinking number of women of childbearing age
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
For many families in Louisiana, staying close to home was long the norm. Maw Maw and Paw Paw might live just down the street, if not in the same house. “Where’d you go to high school?” is a common introductory question. For years, population growth in
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Louisiana came more from the people who were born here and stayed than from newcomers. But the patterns are shifting. In 2024, just over 52,000 babies were born in Louisiana, according to preliminary data. That’s a 17% drop from 2013, when more than 63,000 births were recorded. It’s the lowest number of births the state has seen in decades. The decline began gradually around 2015 but has accelerated in recent years. While fertility rates are falling across the country, Louisiana’s trend is amplified by a loss of women in their reproductive years.
“There would be two reasons: Some moved out of state and some aged out of that age bracket,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans. From 2013 to 2023, the number of women aged 15 to 44 in Louisiana fell by more than 29,000, a 3.1% decline. Nationally, that group grew by nearly 5%. Louisiana still has a higher fertility rate than the national average at about 60 births per 1,000 women, compared with 54.5 nationally. That means women in their reproductive
ä See BIRTHS, page 9A
Births by the number in Louisiana U.S. births are down 8% over the last decade, while Louisiana births dropped 17%
66,000 64,000 62,000 60,000 58,000 56,000 54,000
Provisional data
52,000 50,000
2014
2016
2018
2020
Source: CDC WONDER; National Center for Health Statistics
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