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Funds for new Lafayette jail reallocated
$17M to be used for sheriff administration building BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Sheriff’s Office. The state Legislature during the regular 2025 session transferred Despite years of debate about $17.5 million in capital outlay the dire need for a new Lafayette funds intended for the new jail to Parish jail, state funding ear- the Sheriff’s Office to build a new marked for the project will instead administration building next to exbe used to build an administration isting facilities on Willow Street at building for the Lafayette Parish a reported cost of $64 million. Staff writer
Lafayette Parish Mayor-President Monique Boulet, at a Parish Council budget hearing Thursday, said both projects are heavily reliant on state capital outlay funding and can’t be built simultaneously. “The governor posed the question more than once, which one is the priority to go first,” Boulet
said. It was decided to construct the administration building first, transferring Sheriff’s Office staff from several buildings Garber they occupy downtown to the single administration building to be built on Willow Street, Boulet said in an interview
UNDER PRESSURE
Thursday afternoon. Then Lafayette Consolidated Government representatives and Sheriff Mark Garber, she said, can work on securing money to build the jail. Garber was not immediately available for an interview. Lafayette Parish government is required by law to provide a jail.
ä See JAIL, page 5A
Court upholds voiding of legislative maps Current legislative districts dilute Black votes, judge ruled BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP
Jernon Hernandez pressure washes the stands at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium on Thursday, getting things ready for the 2025 football season opening game Aug. 30 against Rice.
A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a Louisiana judge’s decision to invalidate the state’s legislative district map for ä California House and Senate moves races, saying they forward with violated Section redistricting 2 of the Voting effort. PAGE 3A Rights Act. But the current maps will stay in place at least until the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, a separate but similar case disputing Louisiana’s congressional voting districts. The ruling in that case could broadly change the legal precedents for redistricting lawsuits. U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick in February 2024 enjoined district maps that Louisiana lawmakers enacted during a 2022 special session, determining legislative lines drawn for the state seats unlawfully diluted the strength of
ä See MAPS, page 5A
Cassidy to play key role in confirmation of controversial nominee Previous agency chief fired after bad jobs report BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, will once again play a key role in the confirmation of a controversial nominee of President Donald
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 77 PAGE 10C
Trump. Trump this week picked E.J. Antoni, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s chief economist, to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency that produces closely watched data about the
economy. Antoni would replace Erika McEntarfer, who Trump fired two weeks ago after the release of an unfavorable jobs report. That report showed weak job growth in July and revised earlier figures for May and June, nearly erasing the job gains previously reported
during those months. Trump claimed the figures were manipulated to make him look bad. But his critics argue there’s no evidence for that, and they fear a politically motivated firing could cast doubt on the integrity of numbers that businesses and economists rely on to make important deci-
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sions. Before Antoni takes the job, the Senate must vote to confirm him. Cassidy chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which must decide whether to report Antoni’s
ä See CASSIDY, page 5A
101ST yEAR, NO. 46