LSU CAMP Trey’Dez Green bulking up, focusing on football 1C
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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
W e d n e s d ay, au g u s t 13, 2025
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Audit finds housing funds mismanaged
Federal probe underway into EBR’s Office of Community Development BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
The East Baton Rouge Parish agency that doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in federal housing funding during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed too much to be spent on fees to developers, spent money before contracts were in
place and made duplicate payments for the same invoices, an internal audit found. Federal law enforcement is investigating the office’s activity under former Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, multiple sources said. The audit, done last year under Broome’s administration, high-
lights a project to build three small homes. The cost ballooned from $220,000 to almost $500,000 — and the developer collected more than quadruple the amount of personal fees he was originally allowed, the audit notes. The developer, Jason Hughes of Hughes Consultant Group LLC, says his contract more than dou-
bled in size because of rising construction costs during COVID-19, and any excess fees paid to him were the city-parish’s error, not his. “In my opinion, after looking back on it, the people that were in place had no idea or no understanding of how that money worked and how it was supposed to be spent,”
said Hughes about the city-parish development office. “That led to putting people like myself and other developers in bad situations.” That project is not the only one under scrutiny: Another city-parish effort, the $6 million “Housing for Heroes” development, was the subject of federal grand jury subpoenas last year and has sat frozen since its approval nearly four
ä See AUDIT, page 7A
Bond sale proposed for BR high schools
GROUNDBREAKING
TREATMENT
La.’s first sickle cell gene therapy patient aims to fly
Superintendent says $40M needed to enhance experience
BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Daniel Cressy sits on a hospital bed as his blood stem cells are harvested as part of the process to remove sickle cell disease at Manning Family Children’s in New Orleans on July 30. BY EMILY WOODRUFF
of the machine was on its way to Scotland, where the stem cells were scheduled to be genetically edited to reset his body’s switch for protection from the searing, unpredictable pain of his chronic disease. This story is the first in an occasional series following Once those modified stem cells are reintroduced and take Louisiana’s first patients to receive gene therapy for root in his bone marrow, Cressy hopes to be in the air, too. The sickle cell disease. gene therapy is his second chance after the Federal Aviation On the third floor of Manning Family Children’s hospital Administration denied his medical clearance to be a pilot. Cressy, 22, is the first person in Louisiana to receive a in New Orleans recently, a spinning centrifuge wobbled and groundbreaking gene therapy that could offer a functional hummed next to Daniel Cressy’s bed. From his neck, thin tubes snaked into the machine spin- cure for sickle cell. Thousands of people in the state live ning his blood, separating out the stem cells doctors hope with the same diagnosis, but getting this multimillion-dollar will help cure his sickle cell disease. ä See TREATMENT, page 4A Later the same day, the bag of blood hanging from the top
Staff writer
Saying that high schools in the Capital City have fallen behind in what they offer students, East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent LaMont Cole is pressing to spend $40 million to enhance “the high school experience.” That “experience” includes student clubs, fine arts, career and technical education, as well as athletics. “That is what I’m seeking to do, “That is what make our high I’m seeking schools more atto do, make tractive, make the our high experience more schools more attractive,” Cole exattractive, plained last week. Cole, who just make the completed his experience first year as local more schools superintenattractive. ” dent, first unveiled the proposal durLAMONT COLE, ing a speech at the East Baton Rouge Baton Rouge Press Parish schools Club. Later in the superintendent week, the parish School Board voted unanimously to begin the process of selling $40 million worth of bonds. Assuming the State Bond Commission approves the sale when it meets Sept. 18, the board would give final approval in October, clearing the way for a bond sale in November. “There would be no increased cost to the district,” Cole said. The proposed new bonds would replace roughly $40 million in bonds sold in 2009 and 2010 that the school system is set to pay off in December. The school system has been budgeting
ä See BOND, page 6A
Gulf Coast sees surge of flesh-eating bacteria water exposure. Pathogen found in warm salt water, raw shellfish direct Vibrio bacteria flourish in warm,
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
The Gulf Coast has seen a rise in infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus, a deadly pathogen found in warm salt water and raw shellfish known for its ability to rapidly infect and destroy skin and tissue. So far this year, the bacteria has been linked to over 70 infections and nine deaths across Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. Louisiana accounts for a disproportionate share
WEATHER HIGH 93 LOW 75 PAGE 8B
of the cases, with 20 infections and four deaths. In comparison, the state averaged just seven cases and one death per year over the past decade. Experts point to several factors fueling the recent increase, including rising water temperatures and storm runoff that provides nutrients for bacterial growth. While the bacterium can sometimes enter the body through eating raw or undercooked seafood, the Louisiana Department of Health reports that three-quarters of recent infections involved wounds or other
brackish waters — conditions that are common during the summer months. After heavy rains and storms, nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen wash into coastal waters, helping the bacteria multiply, said Tiong Aw, a public health microbiologist and professor at Tulane University. “All these create an ideal condition for Vibrio to grow and survive,” Aw said. There are dozens of types of Vibrio
STAFF FILE PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD
Deadly bacteria found in warm salt water has been linked to ä See BACTERIA, page 6A over 70 infections and nine deaths across the Gulf Coast.
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101ST yEAR, NO. 44