The Times-Picayune 08-16-2025

conference,and

public moneyontravelduringaromantic relationship andthen tried to coveritall up

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

Afederalgrand jury returned a criminal indictment Friday against New Orleans MayorLaToya Cantrell, accusing the mayor of pursuing an illicit affair with her police bodyguard on taxpayers’ dime, then lying to federal officials and deleting evidence to hide the relationship.

The indictment returned at New Orleans’ federal courthouse accuses Cantrell of 11 counts includ-

ing wire fraud,conspiracy to obstruct justice and lyingtoafederal grand jury —all part of the alleged yearslongscheme to hide her relationship with Jeffrey Vappie, theformer New Orleans Police officer assigned to protect her.The two face 18 counts total.

Prosecutors secured the charges against Cantrell through asuperseding indictment in theirongoing prosecution of Vappie, who was initially charged last summer with wirefraudand false statement countsinthe same alleged

ä See atimelineoninvestigation into Cantrell’sactions. Page 6A ä Breakingdownthe 18 charges against Cantrell,Vappie. Page 7A

scheme. Vappie faces additional charges underthe newindictment.

Prosecutors in thenew 44-page indictment describe Vappie and Cantrell deleting WhatsAppmessages, lying to FBI agents and “intimidating” subordinatesasthey

tried to erase signs of their amorous relationship —including trips to aNapa Valley, California, winery andMartha’s Vineyard —during periods when both claimed to be on official duty

“This indictment does not allege that arelationship constitutesacrime,” said Michael Simpson,the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Loui-

siana,atanews conference Friday afternoon.“Rather, it reflects the prosecution of twopublic officials alleged to have engaged in ayearslong,continuing fraud scheme that used public moneyfor personal ends, by exploiting their power and their authority.” Cantrell’spress staff issued a brief statement late Friday saying that herattorney,Eddie Castaing, is “thoroughly reviewing” the indictment. The administration de-

See INDICTED, page 6A

BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer

Public officials andpolitical watchers lamented the harsh spotlight that shone on New OrleansFridayafter Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted by afederal grand jury,with many calling it asad dayinacity forever battling areputation for mismanagement In interviews,social media posts and other statements, manymembers of the city’spolitical class —including thethree majorcandidatesrunning to replace Cantrell —strucksomber notes. With amayoral election less

thantwo months away,some emphasized that it was important to remain focused on moving the city forward. Others cautioned against any rush to judgment,noting that Cantrell should have her day in court. “This unfortunatelywillbesensationalized because it involves the mayor and will further impede the city’s operations,” City Council member Joe Giarrussosaid. “Weshould, however, let the factsplay out andnot rushto judgment Federal prosecutors secured an 18-count indictment againstCantrell and her bodyguard, former New Or-

leans police Officer Jeffrey Vappie, alleging that they spent taxpayer money on asecret romanticrelationship and then tried to cover it up. Through acity spokesperson, Cantrell declined to comment on the charges. Vappie pleaded not guilty last year to related charges but did not respond to requests for comment on the latest indictment.

Candidates vying to replace Cantrell emphasized Friday that they want to restore competence to City Hall. Aspokesperson for City Council Vice

ä See LEADERS, page 7A

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Rapper sentenced in $1M fraud scheme

FORT LAUDERDALE Fla Rapper

Sean Kingston was sentenced to 3½ years in prison Friday after being convicted of a $1 million fraud scheme in which he leveraged his fame to dupe sellers into giving him luxury items that he then never paid for Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were convicted in March by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. Turner was sentenced to five years in prison last month.

Bevfore U.S. Judge David Leibowitz handed down Kingston’s sentence, the singer apologized to the judge in the South Florida courtroom and said he had learned from his actions. His attorney asked if he could selfsurrender at a later date due to health issues, but the judge ordered him taken into custody immediately Kingston, who was wearing a black suit and white shirt, removed his suit jacket and was handcuffed and led from the courtroom.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton described Kingston as someone addicted to his celebrity lifestyle even though he could no longer afford to maintain it.

“He clearly doesn’t like to pay and relies on his celebrity status to defraud his victims,” Anton said Friday

The federal prosecutor described a yearslong pattern by Kingston of bullying victims for luxury merchandise and then refusing to pay

“He is a thief and a con man, plain and simple,” Anton said.

Defense attorney Zeljka Bozanic countered that the 35-yearold Kingston had the mentality of a teenager — the age he was when he vaulted to stardom. The attorney said Kingston had almost no knowledge of his finances, relying on business managers and his mother Bozanic said Kingston has already started paying back his victims and intends to pay back every cent once he is free and can start working again.

Man struck, killed after fleeing ICE, official says MONROVIA, Calif. — A man fleeing immigration authorities outside a Home Depot store in Southern California was struck and killed by an SUV when he ran across a nearby freeway, officials said Monrovia police received a call Thursday about the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. A responding officer saw ICE agents approaching the store and conducting enforcement activity there, City Manager Dylan Feik said in a statement. Monrovia is about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

One man fled on foot and headed toward the nearby freeway, where he was struck by a vehicle, Feik said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died, the statement said.

“We extend our condolences for the individual and his family,” Feik said.

Ethiopian fossil Lucy leaves for Europe

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia The human ancestor fossil known as Lucy left Ethiopia for display in a European museum, Ethiopian national media reported Friday, citing Tourism Minister Selamawit Kassa.

Lucy’s skeleton, which is 40% complete, left Ethiopia on Friday and will be displayed at the Czech National Museum in Prague for approximately two months.

Lucy was recovered in Ethiopia in 1974 from what was an ancient lake near fossilized remains of crocodiles, turtle eggs and crab claws. She was a member of Australopithecus afarensis, an early human species that lived in Africa between about 4 million and 3 million years ago. This is the second time Lucy has left Ethiopia. The first was in 2013, when she toured the United States Lucy’s fragmented bones will be exhibited alongside Selam, the fossil of an Australopithecus baby that is about 100,000 years older than Lucy and was discovered in the same region 25 years later

AG leaves D.C. police chief in charge

Reversal comes after city sues to block Trump’s takeover

BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday reversed course and agreed to leave the Washington, D.C., police chief in control of the department, while Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a new memo, directed the District’s police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement “notwithstanding” city law.

Bondi’s new order Friday came after officials in the nation’s capital sued to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington police. On Thursday night, his administration escalated its intervention into the city’s law enforcement by naming a federal official as the new emergency head of the department.

The attorney general’s new order represents a partial retreat for the Trump administration in the face of intense skepticism from a judge over the legality of Bondi’s earlier directive that sought to put the police force under the full control of the federal government But Bondi also signaled the administration would continue to pressure D.C. lead-

ers to help federal authorities aggressively pursue immigrants in the country illegally, despite city laws on the books that limit cooperation between police and immigration authorities.

The District of Columbia’s police chief said Trump’s earlier move to sideline her would threaten law and order by upending the command structure. “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” Chief Pamela Smith said in a court filing.

The legal battle was the latest evidence of the escalating tensions in a mostly Democratic city that now has its police department

under the control of the Republican president’s administration that exists in its midst. Trump’s takeover is historic, yet it had played out with a slow ramp-up in federal law enforcement officials and National Guard troops to start the week.

As the weekend approached, though, signs across the city — from the streets to the legal system suggested a deepening crisis over who controls the city’s immigration and policing policies, the district’s right to govern itself and daily life for the millions of people who live and work in the metro area.

After a court hearing on the district’s request for a temporary restraining order against sidelining Smith, the Trump admin-

istration and city officials reached the temporary

The two sides sparred in court for hours Friday before U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing the lawsuit She indicated the law likely doesn’t grant the Trump administration power to fully take over city police, but it probably does give the president more power than the city might like.

“The way I read the statute, the president can ask, the mayor must provide, but the president can’t control,” said Reyes who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden. The judge asked the two sides to hammer out a compromise, and promised to issue a court order tempo-

rarily blocking the administration from naming a new chief if they couldn’t agree. An attorney for the Trump administration, Yaakov Roth, said in court that the move to sideline Smith came after an immigration order that still held back some aid to federal authorities He argued that the president has broad authority to determine what kind of help police in Washington must provide.

Washington officials were pushing in court to halt U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order Thursday to put the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Terry Cole, in charge of Washington police. The police takeover is the latest move by Trump to test the limits of his legal authorities to carry out his agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to bolster his tough-on-crime message and his plans to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally It also marks one of the most sweeping assertions of federal authority over a local government in modern times. While Washington has grappled with spikes in violence and visible homelessness, the city’s homicide rate ranks below those of several other major U.S. cities, and the capital is not in the throes of the public safety collapse the Trump administration has portrayed.

Death toll rises in India, Pakistan flash floods

Officials say at least 280 killed, scores missing

BY CHANNI ANAND and RIAZ KHAN Associated Press

PESHAWAR, Pakistan Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed over 280 people in India and Pakistan and left scores of others missing, officials said Friday as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring countries.

Flooding began a day earlier in Indian-controlled Kashmir and spread to the north and northwest in neighboring Pakistan, triggered by powerful cloudbursts sudden, intense downpours over small areas. The floods and subsequent landslides injured dozens of people and forced the evacuation and rescue of thousands of others, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions and Pakistan’s northern areas, and experts have said cli-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHANNI ANAND

Stranded pilgrims are helped across a water channel using a makeshift bridge on Friday in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, a day after flash floods.

mate change is a contributing factor

Leaders in both countries offered their condolences to the victims’ families and assured them of swift relief.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi after flash floods a day earlier left at least 60 people dead and at least 80 missing, officials said.

At least 300 people were rescued Thursday after a powerful cloudburst triggered floods and landslides, but the operation

was halted overnight. Officials said many missing people were believed to have been washed away, and the number of missing could increase.

Harvinder Singh, a resident, joined the rescue efforts immediately after the disaster and helped retrieve 33 bodies from under mud, he said.

At least 50 seriously injured people were treated at hospitals, many of them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris.

Chositi, in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route

Erin strengthens into hurricane

Heavy rains expected in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands

BY DÁNICA COTO Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Erin strengthened into a hurricane on Friday as it approached the northeast Caribbean, prompting forecasters to warn of possible flooding and landslides.

The storm is expected to remain over open waters, although tropical storm watches were issued for Anguilla, Barbuda, St Martin, St. Barts, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten. Heavy rains were forecast to start late Friday in Antigua and Barbuda, the

U.S. and British Virgin Islands and southern and eastern Puerto Rico. Up to 4 inches are expected with isolated totals of up to 6 inches, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The hurricane center also warned of dangerous swells but said the threat of direct impacts in the Bahamas and along the east coast of the United States “appears to be gradually decreasing.”

The storm was located about 365 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and was moving west-northwest at 17 mph.

Hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said Erin is forecast to eventually take a sharp turn north-

east that would put it on a path between the U.S. and Bermuda.

“All of our best consensus aids show Erin turning safely east of the United States next week, but it’ll be a much closer call for Bermuda, which could land on the stronger eastern side of Erin,” he said. Erin is the Atlantic season’s first hurricane. It is forecast to become a major Category 3 storm late this weekend and pass some 200 miles north of Puerto Rico.

The U.S. government has deployed more than 200 employees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to Puerto Rico as a precaution as forecasters issued a flood watch for the entire U.S territory from late Friday into Monday

of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 9,500 feet.

Officials said the pilgrimage, which began July 25 and was scheduled to end Sept. 5, was suspended.

The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen for pilgrims, as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. More than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also damaged or washed away many of the homes clustered together in the foothills, officials said.

In northern and northwestern Pakistan, flash floods

killed at least 243 people, including 157 people who died in the flood-hit Buner district in northwest Pakistan on Friday Mohammad Suhail told The Associated Press that dozens of people were still missing, and rescue operations were underway He said 78 bodies were recovered by midday Friday and another 79 were pulled from the rubble of collapsed homes and flooded villages later

“The death toll may rise as we are still looking for dozens of missing people,” Suhail said.

BY MICHELLEL.PRICE and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska President DonaldTrump

failed to secure an agreement from Vladimir Putin on Friday to end Russia’swar in Ukraine, fallingshort in his most significant move yet to stop the bloodshed, even after rolling out the red carpet for the man who startedit.

“There’snodeal until there’sa deal,” the U.S. president said, after Putin claimed they had hammered outan“understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” Trumpsaid he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders to brief them on the talks.

Trump, who for years has balked at American support forUkraine and expressed admirationfor Putin, had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war on his first day back in the White House. Seven months later,after berating Zelenskyy in theOval Office and stanching the flow of some U.S. military assistance to Kyiv, Trump could not bring Putin even to pause the fighting, as his forces make gains on the battlefield

Trump had offered Putin both a carrot and astick, issuingthreats of punishing economic sanctions on Russia while also extending awarm welcome at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, but he appeared to walk away without any concrete result on ending the war in Ukraine, now in itsfourth year

Instead, he handed Putin longsought recognition on the internationalstage, afteryearsofWestern efforts to make him apariahover the war and his crackdown on dissent, and forestalled for Putin the threat of additional U.S. sanctions.

In asign that the conversations did not yield Trump’spreferred result, the two leadersendedwhat was supposed to be ajoint news conference without taking questions from reporters

During asubsequent interview with Fox News Channel before leaving Alaska, Trump called it a “very warm meeting” but declined

to give details aboutwhat he and Putin discussed. He said, “It’s not adone deal at all.”

“A lotofpoints were negotiated,”

Trump said, but added, “As far as I’m concerned there’snodeal until there’sadeal.But we did make a lot of progress.”

Trump also insisted thatthe onus going forward might be somehow on Zelenskyy “to get it done”but said there would also be some involvement fromEuropean nations.

TheU.S. president had wanted to show off hisdeal-making skills, while Putinwantedtonegotiate a deal that wouldcementRussia’s gains,block Kyiv’sbid to join the NATO militaryalliance and eventually pullUkraine back intoMoscow’sorbit.

“Wehad an extremely productivemeeting,and many points were agreed to,” Trumpsaid duringtheir jointappearance. “And there are justavery fewthatare left. Some are notthatsignificant. Oneis probably themost significant, but we have avery good chance of gettingthere.”

He continued:“We didn’t get there.”

Excluded from Trump andPutin’sdiscussions, Zelenskyy was left posting avideo address before the meeting in which he expressed hishope for a“strong position

from theU.S.”

For Putin,just being on U.S. soil for the first time in more than a decade was validation after his ostracization following his invasion of Ukraine.

Hismeetingwith Trumpmay stall the economicsanctions that theU.S.president hadpromised unlessMoscow worked harder to bring fighting to aclose.Itmay now simply lead to moremeetings, giving his forces moretime to makeprogress on the battlefield.

PutinthankedTrump for the “friendly” tone of their conversation andsaid Russiaand theUnited States should “turn the page and go back to cooperation.”

He praisedTrumpassomeone who “hasa clear idea of what he wantstoachieve and sincerely cares about the prosperity of his country, and at the same time showsunderstanding that Russia has itsown national interests.”

“I expect thattoday’sagreements will become areference point notonly for solving the Ukrainian problem, but will also markthe beginning of the restoration of businesslike, pragmatic relationsbetween Russia andthe U.S.,” Putin said.

Despitenot reaching any major breakthrough,Trump ended his remarks by thanking Putin and

saying, “we’llspeak to youvery soon and probablysee you again very soon.” When Putinsmiled and offered, “next time in Moscow,” Trump said “that’saninteresting one” and said he might face criticism but “I could see it possibly happening.” Trump andPutin hadgreeted each other withwarmhandshake, chatting almost like they wereold friends,and gripped hands for an extended periodoftime on a red carpet rolled outatthe military base. As they chatted,Putin grinnedand pointed skyward, where B-2s and F-22s —military aircraft designed to oppose Russia during the Cold War—flew overhead. The twothen shared the U.S. presidential limo known as “The Beast” for ashort ride to their meeting site, withPutin offering abroad smile as the vehicle rolled past thecameras. It was the kind of reception typically reserved forclose U.S. allies andbelied thebloodshedand suffering in thewar Putinstarted in Ukraine. Although notaltogether surprising considering their longtime friendly relationship, such outward friendliness before hours of closed-door meetings likely raisedconcerns from Zelenskyy and European leaders, who fear thatTrump is primarily focus-

ing on furthering U.S. interests and notpressing hard enough for Ukraine’s.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said shortly before Air Force One touched down that the previously planned one-ononemeeting between Trumpand Putinwould be athree-on-three discussion including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Putin was joined by Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov and foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov

The change seemed to indicate thatthe White House wastaking amore guarded approach than it did during a2018 meeting in Helsinki, where Trump and Putin met privatelywiththeir interpreters and Trump then shocked the world by siding withthe Russianleader over U.S. intelligence officials on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 campaign.

Zelenskyy’sexclusion wasalso aheavy blow to the West’spolicy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” and invites the possibility that Trumpcould agree to adeal that Ukraine does not want.

Russia andUkraine remainfar apartintheir demands for peace. Putin has long resisted any temporary ceasefire, linking it to ahalt in Western armssupplies and afreeze on Ukraine’s mobilization efforts, which are conditions rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies.

The meeting comes as the war hascaused heavylosses on both sides and drained resources. Ukraine has held on far longer than someinitially expected since theFebruary 2022 invasion, butitis straining to hold off Russia’smuch largerarmy,grappling with bombardments of its cities and fighting for every inch on the over 600-mile front line.

Alaska is separatedfromRussia at its closest point by just 3miles and the international date line. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was crucial to countering the Soviet Union duringthe Cold War. It continues to play arole today,as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into U.S. airspace.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Jonathan J. Cooper in Washington, Elise Mortonin London and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

By The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD Afghan women were barred from attending celebrations marking the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’sreturn to power on Friday

Some 10,000 men gathered across the capital, Kabul, to watch Defense Ministry helicopters scatter flowersto the crowds below.

Three of the six“flower shower” locations were already off-limits to women becausethey have been prohibited from entering parks and recreational areas since November 2022.

The Taliban seized Afghanistan on Aug. 15,2021, as the U.S. and NATO withdrew their forces at the end of atwo-decade war Since then, they have imposed theirinterpretation

of Islamic law on daily life, including sweeping restrictions on women and girls, based on edicts from their leaderHibatullahAkhundzada.

Friday’sanniversary program, whichalsocomprised speeches from key Cabinet members, was only formen An outdoor sportsperformance, initially expected to feature Afghan athletes, did not take place.

Rights groups, foreign governments, and theU.N. have condemned the Talibanfor their treatment of women and girls, whoremain barred fromeducation beyond sixth grade, many jobs, and most public spaces.

Membersofthe United Afghan Women’sMovement forFreedom stagedanindoorprotest on Fridayin

northeast Takharprovince against Taliban rule.

“Thisday marked the beginning of ablack dominationthatexcluded women from work,education,and sociallife,”the movement said in astatement.

“We, theprotesting women, remember this day not as amemory,but as an open wound of history,awound thathas not yet healed. The fallofAfghanistanwas not thefall of our will. We stand, even in the darkness.”

There was alsoanindoor protest in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad

Afghan women held up signs that said“Forgiving theTaliban is an act of enmity against humanity” and “August 15thisadark day.”

The women were fully veiled, except for their eyes, in the photographs.

Democratsrelease California Houseredistricting plan

Mapwould add5 Democratic seats, countering Texas Republicans

BY MICHAEL R. BLOOD, TRÂN NGUYEN, NADIA LATHAN and BILLBARROW Associated Press

LOS ANGELES In adisplay of cutthroat yet calculated politics, Democrats unveiled aproposal Friday that could give California’sdominant political party an additional five U.S. House seats in a bid to win the fight to control Congress next year

The plan calls for an unusually timed reshaping of Housedistrict lines to greatly strengthen the Democratic advantage in thestate aheadofmidtermelections, when Republicanswillbe defending the party’sfragile House majority It amountstoacounterpunch to Texas, where the GOP is trying to add five seats to its House delegation at the urging of President Donald Trump as he tries to avoid losing control of Congressand,with it, prospects for his conservative agenda in the later part of his term. If approved by voters in a November election, the California blueprint could nearly erase Republican House members in the nation’s most populous state. The Democratic plan is intended to win the party 48 of its 52 U.S. House seats, up from 43 currently The proposal wasreleased

TexasHouse Speaker Dustin Borrow, R-Lubbock, gavels sine die, ending the

afterfailing to reachaquorum Friday in Austin, Texas.Texas Republicans on Fridaybegan asecond special session to approve newcongressional maps sought by PresidentDonald Trump to bolster hisparty ahead of the2026 midterm.

by thecampaign arm of House Democrats,the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Democrats in thestate Legislature will hold hearingsand plan to vote on the newmaps next week

“This is about more than drawing lines on amap. It’s aboutdrawing alinein thesand to stop Texas and Trump from rigging the election,”state SenateDemocratic leader Mike McGuire said in astatement.

Democraticedge

Whileageneral notion behind drawing districts is to unite what’scalled communities of interest —neighborhoods and cities that share similar concernsor demographic traits —the proposedremapping would create ajigsaw of oddly shaped districtstomaximize

Democratic clout

The 1st Congressional District is currently anchored in thestate’sconservative far northeast corner and is representedbyRepublican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, aTrump supporter. Thedistricthas a nearly18-point GOP registrationedge.

Under theproposal Democrats would end up with a 10-point registration advantage in the district after drastic reshaping to include parts of heavily Democratic Sonoma County near thePacific Coast.

In apostonthe social platform X, LaMalfa called the proposal “absolutely ridiculous.”

In the battleground 41st District east of Los Angeles, represented by long-serving Republican Rep.Ken Calvert, Democraticand Republican registration is cur-

rently split about evenly

Butinthe redrawn district, Democratic registrationwould jump to 46%, with GOP registration fallingto 26%.

OtherRepublicans whose districts would see major changesintendedtofavor Democrats include Reps Kevin Kiley in Northern California,David Valadaoin the CentralValleyfarm belt andDarrell Issa in SanDiego County.Also, embattled Democratic incumbents would see their districts paddedwithadditional leftleaning voters.

Texasstalemate

The release of theplan came thesame daythat TexasRepublicans began asecondspecial session to approve new congressional maps sought by Trump.

TheGOP’sfirst special

session in Texas ended withoutapproving newpolitical maps, thwarted by Democrats who staged anearly two-week walkout that meant notenough lawmakers were present to pass any legislation. Gov. Greg Abbott thenquickly calleda second session that started without the necessary quorum to conduct business.

Newsom promises fight

Democratic California Gov Gavin Newsom saidThursday that his state will hold a Nov. 4special referendum on the redrawn districts.

“Wecan’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country,” Newsom said.

The an nounc eme nt marked thefirst time any state beyond Texasofficially waded into Trump’sfight, though several governors andlegislative leaders from both parties have threatened such moves.

Rep. Richard Hudson, of NorthCarolina, whoheads the House GOP campaign arm, said Newsom, apotential 2028 presidential candidate,is“shredding California’sConstitution and disenfranchising voters.”

“Californians oppose Newsom’s stunt because they won’tlet aself-serving politicianrig thesystemtofurther his career,” said Hudson, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Howwillvotersreact?

Abig risk for Democrats is whether voters will be open to setting aside district

boundariescraftedbyanindependent commission for ones shapedfor partisanadvantage.

Somepeoplealreadyhave said they would sue over the effort. Republican former Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger, alongtime opponent of partisanredistricting, signaledthathewill notside with Democrats even after talking to Newsom. He posted aphoto of himself Friday at the gym wearing aT-shirt that said, “Terminate gerrymandering,” with areference to an obscenity and politicians.

“I’m getting readyfor the gerrymanderingbattle,” Schwarzenegger said. What’s next in Texas?

Absentlawmakers have said they will return to Austinonce CaliforniaDemocrats take more formal steps on their own redistricting plan.

Trump is trying to avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms, when the GOPyieldedcontrol during his first presidency to aDemocratic majority that stymied his agenda and twice impeached him. The nation’stwo most populous states have been at theforefront of the resulting battle, which has reached into multiple courtroomsand statehouses controlled by both parties.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows chided colleagues who left Austin, accusing them of “following Gov. Newsom’slead instead of the will of Texans.” The speaker said, however,that he has “been told” to expect aquorum Monday

Negotiations forplastic pollutiontreatyfailinGeneva

BY JENNIFERMcDERMOTT

Associated Press

GENEVA— Negotiationsto reach amajor treaty to end growing plastic pollution around theworld fellapart on Friday,with delegates in Switzerland adjourning with no immediate plans to resume.

The consequence of the failed talks is devastating,as it leaves no clear path for nations to collectively address the mountains of plastic that arefillinglandfills,clogging oceans and showing up in chunks on beaches and other public places.

“Consensusisdead,” Bjorn Beeler,international coordinator for the International Pollutants Elimination Network, said upon adjournment.

Every year,the world makes more than 400 million tons of new plastic, and that couldgrowbyabout 70%by 2040 without policy changes About 100countries wantto limit production.Many have said it’salso essential to address toxic chemicals used to make plastics.

Thefinaldecision, or lack there of, underscored the influence of theUnited States and other oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, which opposed any limit on the productionsofplas-

tics, made mostly from fuels like oil and gas. Nations had worked for 11 days at theUnitedNations office in Geneva. But they were deadlocked over whether the treaty should reduce exponential growth of plastic productionand put global, legally binding controls on toxicchemicals used to make plastics.

Environmentalists,waste pickers and Indigenous leadersand many business executives traveledtothe talks to make their voices heard. Indigenous leaders soughta treaty that recognizes their rights and knowledge.

The Youth Plastic ActionNetworkwas theonly organization that spoke at the closing meeting Friday Comments from observers were cutoff at the request of the U.S. and Kuwait after 24 hours of meetings and negotiating. After the adjournment, some delegates tried to put agood face on the negotiations and expressed hope for future talks. Delegates did agreetheywould meet again at somepoint in the future.

Inger Andersen,executive director of theUnited Nations Environment Programme,saiddespite challenges, despitethe disappointment, “we have to ac-

ceptthatsignificant progress was made.”

This process won’tstop, she said, but it’stoo soon to say how long it will take to get atreaty now

tationsfor this meeting and while the draft falls short on their demands, it’s agood basis for another negotiating session.

“The Earth is not ours only

We are stewards forthose who come afterus. Let us fulfill that duty,” she said. Representatives of Norway,Australia, Tuvalu and others nations said theywere

“deeply disappointed” to be leaving Geneva without a treaty.Madagascar’srepresentative said the world is “expecting action, not reports from us.”

The negotiations were supposed to be the lastround andproduce the first legally binding treatyonplastic pollution, including in the oceans. But justlike at the meeting in SouthKorea last year,the talks ended withno agreement.

Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the chair of the negotiating committee, wrote andpresented twodraftsoftreatytextin Geneva based on the views expressedbythe nations. Therepresentatives from 184 countries did not agree to use either one as the basis for their negotiations.

Valdivieso said Friday morning as the delegates reconvened in the assembly hall that no further action was being proposedatthis stage on the latestdraft

After athree-hour meeting, he banged agavel made of recycled plastic bottle topsfrom aNairobi landfill, one of many symbols of the plastic problem thatwere visible during thetalks

European Commissioner JessikaRoswallsaidthe European Union and its member states had higher expec-

Heat, thirst drive families in Gaza to drink unsafe water

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and SAM METZ Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategizes how much to portion out to her two small children. From its color alone, she knows full well it’s likely contaminated.

Thirst supersedes the fear of illness.

She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself What’s left she adds to a jerrycan for later

“We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative,” Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis, said of the water “It causes diseases for us and our children.”

Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat.

Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkeydrawn carts.

Each drop is rationed for drinking, cooking, cleaning or washing.

Some reuse what they can and save a couple of cloudy inches in their jerrycans for whatever tomorrow brings — or doesn’t.

When water fails to arrive, Odeh said, she and her son fill bottles from the sea.

Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza’s water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hampered the operation of desalination plants while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage choked delivery to a dribble. Gaza’s aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreck-

ian water officials and aid groups.

Now people have to drink it. The effects of drinking unclean water don’t always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute.

“Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you’re drinking microbes and can get dysentery,” Zeitoun said. “If you’re forced to drink salty, brackish water it just does your kidneys in, and then you’re on dialysis for decades.”

korot’s three pipelines into Gaza and reconnected one of the desalination plants to Israel’s electricity grid, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told The Associated Press.

age of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say Meanwhile, the water crisis has helped fuel the rampant spread of disease, on top of Gaza’s rising starvation. UNRWA — the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — said Thursday that its health centers now see an average 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhea from contaminated water.

Efforts to ease the water shortage are in motion, but for many the prospect is still overshadowed by the risk of what may unfold before new supply comes

And the thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 95 degrees.

High heat, sullied water

Mahmoud al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps.

“Outside the tents it is hot and

inside the tents it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go,” he said.

Al-Dibs was among many who told The Associated Press they knowingly drink non-potable water

The few people still possessing rooftop tanks can’t muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza.

Before the war, the coastal enclave’s more than 2 million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel’s national water utility Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some imported in bottles. Every source has been jeopardized.

Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which today makes up more than half of Gaza’s supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestin-

Deliveries average less than 12.5 cups per person per day — a fraction of the 3.3-gallon minimum humanitarian groups say is needed for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene. In February, acute watery diarrhea accounted for less than 20% of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44%, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF the U.N. children’s agency System breakdown

Early in the war, residents said deliveries from Israel’s water company Mekorot were curtailed — a claim that Israel has denied. Airstrikes destroyed some of the transmission pipelines as well as one of Gaza’s three desalination plants.

Bombardment and advancing troops damaged or cut off wells –to the point that today only 137 of Gaza’s 392 wells are accessible, according to UNICEF Water quality from some wells has deteriorated, fouled by sewage, the rubble of shattered buildings and the residue of spent munitions.

Fuel shortages have strained the system, slowing pumps at wells and the trucks that carry water

The remaining two desalination plants have operated far below capacity or ground to a halt at times, aid groups and officials say In recent weeks, Israel has taken some steps to reverse the damage. It delivers water via two of Me-

Still, the plants put out far less than before the war, Monther Shoblaq, head of Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, told AP That has forced him to make impossible choices. The utility prioritizes getting water to hospitals and to people. But that means sometimes withholding water needed for sewage treatment, which can trigger neighborhood backups and heighten health risks.

Water hasn’t sparked the same global outrage as limits on food entering Gaza. But Shoblaq warned of a direct line between the crisis and potential loss of life.

“It’s obvious that you can survive for some days without food, but not without water,” he said.

Supply’s future

Water access is steadying after Israel’s steps. Aid workers have grown hopeful that the situation won’t get worse and could improve.

Southern Gaza could get more relief from a United Arab Emirates-funded desalination plant just across the border in Egypt. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said it has allowed equipment into the enclave to build a pipeline from the plant and deliveries could start in a few weeks. The plant wouldn’t depend on Israel for power, but since Israel holds the crossings, it will control the entry of water into Gaza for the foreseeable future.

But aid groups warn that access to water and other aid could be disrupted again by Israel’s plans to launch a new offensive on some of the last areas outside its military control. Those areas include Gaza City and Muwasi, where much of Gaza’s population is now located.

BY MARI YAMAGUCHI

Associated Press

TOKYO Japan paid tribute Friday to more than 3 million war dead as the country marked its surrender that ended World War II 80 years ago, as concern grows about the rapidly fading memories of the tragedy of war and the bitter lessons from the era of Japanese militarism.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed “remorse” over the war — the first time a Japanese leader has used the word in an Aug. 15 address since former Premier Shinzo Abe shunned it in 2013.

Ishiba called the war a mistake, but did not mention Japan’s aggression across Asia or apologize.

“We will never repeat the tragedy of the war We will never go the wrong way,” Ishiba said. “Once again, we must deeply keep to our hearts the remorse and lesson from that war.” He vowed to pass his peace pledge to next generations.

In a national ceremony Friday at Tokyo’s Budokan hall, about 4,500 officials and bereaved families and their

descendants from around the country observed a moment of silence at noon, the time when Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech began on Aug. 15, 1945. Participants later offered chrysanthemum flowers for the war dead

Just a block away at the Yasukuni Shrine, dozens of Japanese right wing politicians and their supporters gathered to pray

The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past. Ishiba stayed away from Yasukuni and sent a religious ornament as a personal gesture instead of praying at the controversial shrine.

But Shinjiro Koizumi, the agriculture minister considered as a top candidate to replace the beleaguered prime minister, prayed at the shrine. He told reporters that he made the no-war pledge to the spirits. “It is important to not forget those who sacrificed their

lives for their country,” he said.

Koizumi is the son of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who outraged China when he visited Yasukuni as a serving leader in 2001.

Right-wing lawmakers, including former economic security ministers Sanae Takaichi and Takayuki Kobayashi, as well as governing Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Koichi Hagiuda, also visited the shrine Friday

A nonpartisan group of 87 parliamentarians led by Liberal Democrat Ichiro Aisawa also prayed at Yasukuni, pledging “to uphold peace” in Japan and in the Indo-Pacific region.

Separately, Sohei Kamiya, head of the populist far-right Sanseito, prayed with 17 parliamentarians and 70 local assembly members from his party He told reporters that the prime minister should visit Yasukuni.

China and South Korea reminded Japan of its wartime atrocities in their countries and elsewhere in Asia.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized attempts in Japan to “whitewash and deny aggression, distort and falsify history and even seek to rehabilitate the accusa-

TheNavy, Marine Corps, and CoastGuard, in cooperationwiththe National Marine FisheriesService (NMFS),haveprepared aFinal Supplemental Environmental ImpactStatement/Overseas Environmental ImpactStatement (EIS/OEIS) (ID# SEIS-007-17-USN-1723491961) that analyzesthe potentialenvironmental impacts from training and testingactivitiesin2025 and beyond conductedwithinthe Navy’sAtlantic Fleet Training and Testing(AFTT) Study Area. This supplemental analysisupdates theNavy’s2018 Final EIS/OEIS with thebestavailablescience, changes to theregulatoryenvironment,and refinementstothe Study Area and Proposed Action.

Proposed Action:

TheNavy, Marine Corps, and CoastGuard’sProposed Action is to conductmilitary readinesstrainingand testingactivitiesincluding activities with active sonar and explosives in theAFTT Study Area,which includes thewestern Atlantic Ocean along theeastcoastofNorth America, theGulfofAmerica,and portions of theCaribbean Sea. TheStudy Area also includes Navy and CoastGuardpiersidelocations and port transit channels, bays, harbors, inshorewaterways, and civilianports wheremilitary readinessactivitiesoccuraswellasvesseland aircraft transit routes over water between homeports and operatingareas

Thepurposeofthe Proposed Action is to ensurethe Navy,MarineCorps,and Coast Guardare abletoorganize,train,and equipservice membersand personnel to meet theirrespective national defensemissions in accordancewiththeirCongressionally mandated requirements. Thesemissions areachievedinpartbyconducting military readinessactivitieswithinthe Study Area in accordancewithestablished Department of theNavymilitaryreadinessrequirements. TheProposed Action is needed to preparethe Navy,MarineCorps,and CoastGuardForcestorespond to world events, including large-scale conflictresponse, maritime security,and humanitarian assistanceand disaster relief.

Public Involvement:

Thecompletionofthe Final Supplemental EIS/OEIS follows severalyearsof research,analysis, and public involvement.Public input on thescope of the environmental analysiswas obtained during thepublic scoping periodNovember to December 2023. Following thepublic releaseofthe DraftSupplemental EIS/OEIS, public input wasobtained from September to November 2024.

TheFinal Supplemental EIS/OEIS includesresponses to thepublic comments received duringthe DraftSupplemental EIS/OEIS public comment period.

TheFinal Supplemental EIS/OEIS will be availableonthe Navy'swebsitebeginning August15, 2025 at www.nepa.navy.mil/aftteis

Formoreinformation visitthe projectwebsiteat www.nepa.navy.mil/aftteis or contact: NavalFacilitiesEngineeringSystemsCommand Atlantic Attention: Code EV22SG(AFTT EISProject Managers) 6506 HamptonBlvd.,Norfolk,VA23508-1278

INDICTED

Continued from page1A

clined to comment further

An attorney for Vappie, Shaun Clarke, declined to comment. Vappie pleaded not guilty to last year’s charges,and both he and Cantrell have denied having an affair

The charges unveiledFriday represent arelativelynarrow prong of the yearslong probe into Cantrell’saffairs, in which agents scrutinized variedaspects of her spending and political activities, includinganalleged bribery scheme that yielded charges against aprivate electrical inspectorlast year,inwhich themayor was never accused.Still, the criminal allegations mark astunning low point for the Democratic mayor,aformer neighborhood organizer whose ascent to the city’s top office epitomized changes that swept NewOrleans politics following Hurricane Katrina. Cantrell becomes thesecond mayor in NewOrleans history and its first sitting mayor to face criminal charges. Former Mayor Ray Nagin was found guilty at trial on corruption counts in 2014 after leaving office.

“This will be in the opening paragraph of her legacy,” said Silas Lee, aformer Cantrell adviser and pollster who teaches at Xavier University

The charges pose thorny questions about what comes next for New Orleans’ leadership in the waning months of Cantrell’stenure as mayor.Set to leave office due to term limits in January ,she was already embattled by lowapproval ratings, legal troubles, a lack of political allies and aseries of scandals. Before Friday,political andlegal observers had begun to speculate that Cantrell might escapeanindictment. The federal investigation ran up against challenges, including changes to PresidentDonald Trump’sJustice Department, obstaclesincorralling key witnesses and paltry sums involved in two previous corruption indictments that indirectlyinvolved the mayor Political veterans and legal observersalike view an indictment of Cantrell as unlikelytoprompt her to resign. She has rarely bowed to critics, from holding out on reimbursing taxpayers for some travel to her numerousfights with city lawmakers Amid the federal investigation, Cantrell has argued that herrace draws criticism that White politicians escape. Being subject to federal scrutiny“seems to be kind of prevalent relative to Black leadership,” she said at anewsconference in 2023. “I am not exempt

NOV. 18, 2017: Building on her career as aneighborhood organizer after Hurricane Katrina and tenure as aCity Council member,Cantrell defeatsDesiree Charbonnet in New Orleans’ mayoral general election, riding awaveofsupportthat broke racialbarriers.

JUNE 2018: Jennifer Cecil, asenior official in NewOrleans’ permitting department, emails officials with the city’sOffice of Inspector General, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest of athird-party inspection firm,IECI,WWL-TVlater reported.The firm is owned by businessman RandyFarrell.

AUG. 14, 2019: Farrell and Fouad Zeton, abusiness associate of Farrell’sand friend of Cantrell’s, attend lunch with the mayor.Farrell paidthe $831 lunch bill, federal court filings say, and encouraged Cantrell to “remove”Cecil from her jobwith Safety and Permits. Laterin August, Cantrell allegedly instructs a supervisor to fire Cecil, whoresigns after her vacation days runout.

MAY2021: NewOrleans police officer JeffreyVappie, aNew Orleans police officer,isassigned to the mayor’ssecurity detail.

OCT.2021: Cantrelland Vappie start apersonal relationship after Vappie accompanies heronatrip to Scotland, according to the federal indictment of Cantrell. It is the first of several taxpayer-funded trips that included both the mayorand her bodyguard.

NOV. 5, 2021: Farrell and his two siblings plead guilty to tax fraud. NOV. 13, 2021: Cantrell is reelected

CANTRELL INDICTED

Key players in the federal investigation of MayorLaToyaCantrell

JULY19, 2024 INDICTMENT

INDICTED

JeffreyVappie

Cantrell’sformer bodyguard,Vappie is accused of fabricating NOPD timesheets to collect his police pay while pursuinga romantic relationship with themayor.Hehas pled notguilty

LaToyaCantrell

Cantrell allegedly communicated with Vappie about deleting messages detailing the time they hadspent together.She wasnot charged at the time but has since been indicted. She also denied that she and Vappie were romantically involved.

Michelle Woodfork

The interim NOPDChief, Woodfork upheld an internal affairs investigation into Vappie’s timesheets. Prosecutors allegethatCantrell passed up Woodfork for the permanent jobin retaliation.

from that.”

Personal relationship

Thescope of theinvestigation intoCantrellcame into sharper focus through the pair of indictmentsfiled in New Orleans’ federal court last year In September, prosecutors indirectly accusedCantrell of accepting bribesfrom aprivateelectrical inspector,Randy Farrell, in exchangefor firinga high-ranking city official.Farrellpleaded not guilty, and Cantrellhas notbeen charged in thatscheme. The allegationsinvolving Farrell did not appear in thefresh charges against Cantrell and Vappie.

Themayor was described in the first Vappie indictment last summer, which accused himoffabricating timesheets andlying to FBI agents as hesoughttoconceal the alleged romantic relationship with Cantrell.

In thelatestallegations,Simpson said New Orleans taxpayers paid morethan $70,000 for Vappie’s travel as he accompanied Cantrell on aseries of trips to Napa, Martha’sVineyard, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Prosecutorsaccusedthe pair of deletingsome of the 15,000 text andWhatsApp messagesthey exchanged “toavoiddetection and continue theirrelationship.” They

as NewOrleans mayor.

SEPT.2022: TheMetropolitan Crime Commission, awatchdog group,presses for an investigation into Cantrell’s useofa city-owned Pontalba Apartment on Jackson Square, alleging shehas been living there as apersonal residence.

NOV. 2022: Cantrell confirmsthat Vappie is beinginvestigated by the Public Integrity Bureau.The probe follows areportfrom WVUE-TV that Vappie’stimesheetsincludedpaid hoursondayshewasn’tassigned to Cantrell’sdetail.According to reviews of surveillancerecordings,WVUE reports that Vappie was inside the Pontalba building where Cantrell often stayed.Vappieisremovedfrom the mayor’ssecuritydetail.

DEC. 9, 2022: Zeton is chargedby afederalgrand juryfor his role in aconspiracy inwhich Zeton and a NOPD officer,Christian Claus, allegedly fakedanart theft in order to collect fraudulent insurance payouts.The indictmentchargesZeton with asingle count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Zeton later pleads guilty.Claus is indicted in 2024 and pleads not guilty

JAN. 4, 2023: Vappie’s wife files for divorce, alleging that he admitted to her that he had an “adulterous affair” with awoman identified as “Mrs L.C.” Cantrell andVappiedenybeing romantically involved

JUNE 2023: Vappie is reinstated to Cantrell’s security detailafter afourmonthNOPD investigationinto his payroll and time sheet irregularities concludes withtwo letters of reprimand

Randy Farrell Faces 25 fraudand briberycounts related to unlicensed home inspections and alleged gifts to Cantrell to avoid scrutiny.

LaToyaCantrell

Farrell allegedly gave themayor football game tickets, an iPhone and asteakdinner beforeshe fired acity officialwho’dbecome skeptical of his inspection work. Cantrell has not been charged in relationtothesealleged acts.

Fouad Zeton

Alocal businessmanand political rainmaker, Zeton allegedly delivered tickets purchased by Farrell to Cantrell and her second-in-command.Though under indictment in an unrelated case, he has not been charged in connection to Farrell.

Gilbert Montaño Cantrell’sformer chief administrativeofficer and top deputy. He allegedly accepted tickets to football games fromFarrell, by way of Zeton. Montaño has not been charged.

also accuse them of lyingtothe public and people around them about their affair

In September2022,Cantrell andVappie discussedwhether a reporter investigating their relationship was “on to us,” according to messages detailed in the indictment. They later discussed on WhatsApp how they needed to “be careful” andtoappear “straight and together.”

“Let me know wherefor lunch to make sure I’m outofsight,” Cantrell wrotetoVappie during theMartha’sVineyard trip in September 2022, according to the indictment.

In March 2022, another member of Cantrell’ssecuritydetail, who is notnamed in theindictment, warnedVappieand othersonthe team that anyone romantically involved withthe mayor should end things,becauseofthe effect the relationship couldhave on theentire team. Vappie respondedthat there was no relationship.

Cantrell said the same in April 2022 to an associate who cautioned herthatthe use of public dollars for her alleged affair was illegal. She challengedthe associate, who is not named, to “provetomethat Iamhaving arelationship.”

Cantrellalsoapproved thousands of dollars in alcohol and meal purchases Vappie claimed

INDICTED

from trips where the pair areaccused of spending personal time together,the indictment alleges.

Falsestatements

For the mayor,the most damning section of theindictment may be the accusation that Cantrell lied to afederal grand jury,said Walter Becker,aveteran lawyer and former federal prosecutor.The indictment says Cantrellfailedto produce subpoenaed records and lied about their relationship during agrand jury appearance in June 2024.

“That’s avery seriousthing,” Becker said. “It is pretty cut and dry,especially if you’ve gotten asubpoena to produce certain records and youdidn’t produce them.”

The indictment, however,involves smaller sumsthan many high-profilepublic corruption cases, Becker noted.

Simpson,the acting U.S. attorney,said the investigation that yielded the fresh charges is “decidedly ongoing.” But Matt Coman,acivil lawyerand former assistant U.S. attorney wholed the prosecution of Nagin, saiditwould be unusual to charge ahigh-profile public official under another indictment.

“She certainly has the potential forbeing charged in an additional

NewOrleans MayorLaToyaCantrell’sformer bodyguard JeffreyVappie, center,walks to federal courtindowntown NewOrleans with his attorneys, Harry Rosenberg, left, and Shaun Clarke, right, on Aug. 7, 2024.

APPROXIMATELYOCTOBER2023:

The FBIapproaches at least two business owners, both developers, whodonatedmoneytoCantrelland had some communications with her to ask whether she engagedinaquid pro quo.

JULY19, 2024: Vappie is indicted in federalcourtfor wire fraud and false statements.The indictmentdescribes the mayorcommunicating with Vappie about hiding their messages. She is also described in the indictment as punishing interim police chief Michelle Woodfork forupholding the internal investigation of Vappie’s conduct.

AUGUST 2024: Politicalobservers and elected officials note that

LaToyaCantrell

Cantrell allegedly shared a‘personal and intimate’ relationship with Vappiethat they hid from public view, all while Vappiewas being paid to protect themayor and while she claimed to be away on city business.

JeffreyVappie

In fresh charges, prosecutors sayVappie and themayor sought to impedefederal investigations by shielding textmessages, lying to subordinates, colleagues and advisers, and submitting false information to federal prosecutors.

Michelle Woodfork Prosecutors strongly suggest that Cantrell passed over Woodfork for theNOPD superintendent position because an internal probe questioned Vappie’s conduct.Woodfork left theNOPDand is running for Orleans Parishsheriff.

Anne Breaud

Prosecutors sayCantrell abused her positiontoget informationabout Breaud, a French Quarter resident whosnapped pictures of themayor and Vappiedining together.Cantrell later sued Breaud for stalking

indictment, should additional evidencebecome viable andusable,” Comansaid. “But after she’s been indicted in this Ican’trecall another public official who’sbeen indicted multiple times in the same court.”

Yearslongprobe NewOrleans localofficialsmostly respondedtoFriday’sindictmentbyemphasizing Cantrell’s right to arobust defense.

“Everyoneispresumed innocent underthe law,”saidCity Council memberJoe Giarrusso.“Mayor Cantrell deserves that presumption. This unfortunately will be sensationalized because it involves the mayor and will further impede the city’soperations. We should, however,let the facts play out and not rush to judgment.”

The indictments of people in her orbit, andnow of Cantrell herself, followed aseries of controversies that sether second term off to a rockystart: herhandling of Hurricane Ida, overseas travel on taxpayers’ dimeand alleged relationship with Vappie.

Her administration also confronted challenges partly outside her control, and her allies have argued that she faces unfair criticism.

ä See INDICTED, page 7A

Zeton, Cantrell and top Cantrell deputies regarding football game ticketstheygiftedtothe mayor and Farrell’swish to getCecil fired. Cantrell is identified as “Public Official 1.”Farrell laterpleads not guilty. OCT.1,2024: Cantrell firesback at allegations in the Farrellindictment in her first direct acknowledgmentin months of the probe into heroffice “HowIcameinseems to be how I’m going out,”she says at apublic hearing.“Accusation afteraccusation afteraccusation.”

APRIL2025: People familiar with the Cantrell investigation sayithas stalledamid changes in President Donald Trump’sJustice Department, trouble corralling keywitnessesand the relativelysmall sumsinvolved in the existing casesallegedly involving Cantrell.

Cantrell has retreatedfrom forums where she canfacequestions from the press or public. Legalexpertscall it astrategytominimize herrisk of self-incrimination.

SEPT.15, 2024: Lawyersfor Cantrell’s administration ask afederaljudgeto pause acivil rights lawsuit recently filed againstCantrell by French Quarterresident Anne Breaud, citing the existence of a“pending,ongoing, wide-ranging activeinvestigation” of themayor by the U.S.Attorney’soffice SEPT.27, 2024: Farrellisindicted againonallegations that he orchestrated asweeping fraud and briberyscheme involving gifts to Cantrell.Theindictment shows communications among Farrell,

AUG. 1, 2025: Twofederal prosecutors whohaveworked on aspects of the Cantrell case,Assistant U.S.Attorneys Jordan Ginsberg and Nick Moses, are seen leaving the Hale Boggs Federal Building togetherfollowinga dayofgrand jury proceedings.

AUG. 15, 2025: Cantrell is indicted in federal court.The 18-count indictment includeschargesof conspiracy,wire fraud and obstruction of justice.Itisfocusedsolely on allegations relatedtoher romantic relationship withVappie,including misspending of taxpayermoneyand attemptstocoverupthe relationship. It does not include charges related to the indictments of FarrellorZeton.

CANTRELL INDICTED

LEADERS

Continued from page 1A

President Helena Moreno said her focus “remains on a new way forward for New Orleans. Restoring basic services, creating opportunity and putting people first will continue to be her priority.”

Council member Oliver Thomas said “these are critical times for our city to get back on track and to stay focused on building a city that works and thrives for everyone.”

State Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, said Friday was a “sad day” for the city and said that “as a father, my heart breaks for her child,” referring to Cantrell’s teenage daughter Moreno said Cantrell is “entitled to a presumption of innocence and a vigorous defense,” while Thomas said the justice system needs to be allowed to “work in a fair, timely fashion,” adding that he is “praying for Mayor Cantrell, her family and all New Orleanians.”

Others raised concerns about the impacts of the charges on the city It is unclear what the next steps in the federal prosecutors’ case against Cantrell will be and how it will impact her remaining five months in office.

“From what we’ve seen, it looks like it could have been reconciled something short of this.”

JAMES CARVILLE, political consultatnt

State Rep. Deli sha Boyd, D-New Orleans, who is running for an at-large City Council seat, said that the indictment “will undoubtedly affect our city Now more than ever, we must come together as a community to move New Orleans forward.”

State Rep Alonzo Knox, D-New Orleans, called the indictment “disappointing” but also said it was a “clear symptom of the dysfunction that has existed in this city government.”

“For years, the mayor and City Council have allowed public feuding and blaming to overshadow progress,” Knox said. “The people do not win in this scenario and they are sick and tired of this.”

“She abused the trust of the citizens of New Orleans and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

James Carville, a political consultant who rose to prominence as a top aide to President Bill Clinton during his 1992 campaign, said he questioned why federal prosec utors couldn’t have waited to deliver the charges until after the election.

“I can’t imagine that this is very helpful,” to the city Carville said, adding that it did not appear to be a “major corruption case.”

“From what we’ve seen, it looks like it could have been reconciled something short of this,” Carville said. Adrian Bruneau, chair of the Orleans Parish Republican Executive Committee, took a harsher tone.

“She abused the trust of the citizens of New Orleans and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Bruneau said. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that the charges were serious and that she would be “monitoring this matter closely.”

“New Orleans deserves leadership that is honest, accountable and dedicated to serving the public and making the city safe, clean and economically sustainable,” she said. Gov Jeff Landry spared few words.

18-count indictment centers on relationship with bodyguard

Vappie joined mayor’s executive protection team in 2021

BY JULIA GUILBEAU Staff writer

The grand jury indictment of Mayor LaToya Cantrell and her bodyguard, New Orleans police officer Jeffrey Vappie, alleges that the pair engaged in a yearslong conspiracy to spend public money on travel during a romantic relationship and then tried to cover it all up

The 18-count indictment includes charges of wire fraud, obstruction of justice and making false statements. Federal prosecutors laid out the allegations in a 44-page document filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans on Friday

The allegations center on Cantrell’s relationship with Vappie, who began serving as a bodyguard on the mayor’s executive protection team in 2021.

Eleven of the charges deal with money paid to Vappie by the NOPD while working for Cantrell that prosecutors allege were based on fraudulent work hours and travel expenses. In several instances, Cantrell approved the expenses.

“There is not much for us to say,” Landry said through a spokesperson.

Email Sophie Kasakove at sophie.kasakove@ theadvocate.com.

Another four charges allege both Vappie and Cantrell lied to federal investigators and intentionally concealed documents related to the investigation

Cantrell has not commented on the charges. Vappie pleaded not guilty last year to allegations of payroll fraud made in a separate indictment, but has not commented on the latest allegations.

The allegations include:

n In October 2021, Vappie joined Cantrell on a work trip to Scotland. Federal investigators allege this trip was the start of their personal relationship and the beginning of the conspiracy to improperly use taxpayer money Vappie later said in a WhatsApp message that it was “where it all started.”

n Over the next three years, federal prosecutors say Vappie joined

ADRIAN BRUNEAU, chair of the Orleans Parish Republican Executive Committee The ongoing economic fallout and mass death of the COVID-19 pandemic, a spike in violent crime that tracked national trends and infrastructure troubles that have plagued New Orleans for decades have all harmed constituent morale in the Crescent City, polling shows. Cantrell has also faced more personal, private struggles as public criticism mounted during her

Cantrell on at least 13 other trips, serving as her personal bodyguard while traveling to Los Angeles; Orlando, Florida; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and the United Arab Emirates. Altogether, the trips cost the city of New Orleans more $70,000 in expenses for Vappie’s travel, which prosecutors allege was a criminal misuse of public money

n Throughout their relationship, investigators say Vappie stayed with Cantrell at the city-owned Pontalba apartment while he reported to be on duty Prosecutors allege he filled out false timecards and was paid while he and Cantrell shared romantic dinners, which prosecutors say amounted to wire fraud.

n Federal prosecutors say that starting in February 2022, Cantrell and Vappie began exclusively communicating over the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp, exchanging over 15,000 messages over the next few years, and even-

tually used the app’s disappearing messaging feature to conceal their relationship.

n Vappie and Cantrell continually provided false statements to NOPD supervisors, the Mayor’s Office staff, the media and the public about the nature of the relationship in an attempt to obstruct justice and prevent an investigation, according to the court documents.

n On July 14, 2023, while being questioned by the FBI, Vappie told federal investigators that he never had a romantic or physical relationship with Cantrell, a statement that federal prosecutors say was false.

n On July 18, 2023, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena to Cantrell, requiring her to produce all records and documents related to travel expenses with Vappie, records of gifts given to her by Vappie and any communications between the pair. According to the indictment, Cantrell allegedly withheld several photos and phone

records relevant to the subpoena, leading to a charge of obstruction of justice.

n Cantrell appeared before the grand jury on two separate occasions — Oct. 25, 2023, and June 28, 2024 — and prosecutors say she provided false statements during both appearances. They allege that she lied about her relationship with Vappie and lied about concealing documents related to her subpoena.

Cantrell and Vappie haven’t commented on the allegations and haven’t entered pleas If they are convicted, the felony charges carry potential penalties ranging from probation to as much as 20 years in prison. Under federal sentencing guidelines, judges calculate recommended ranges based on the specifics of each offense, often narrowing the possible punishment. In cases that do not involve violence, defense attorneys say, it is uncommon for defendants to receive the maximum penalties.

Flood agency’s leader seeks fresh start

N.O.-area board has been roiled by controversy

BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer

An unfamiliar mood settled

over a New Orleans-area flood protection agency meeting this week: calm

The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, which oversees the region’s levees and pumps on the Mississippi River’s east bank in Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes,

Medicaid paid $10M for dead patients, audit says

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

In the last six years, the Louisiana Department of Health has paid nearly $10 million to insurance companies for Medicaid beneficiaries who had already died, according to a new state audit.

The progress report, conducted by state Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack and shared with legislators last week, found LDH successfully verified most deaths, but it “could identify additional deceased Medicaid beneficiaries if it included additional third-party data sources, such as obituaries, the Social Security Administration’s death master file and other states’ vital records databases,” data analyst Chris Magee said in a podcast about the findings.

The missed deaths, which work out to roughly 174 per year, occurred between February 2019 and March 2025 under the administrations of both Republican Gov Jeff Landry and former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. The review was conducted, in part, to “further the goals of the Governor’s Fiscal Responsibility Program, known as LA DOGE,” the audit said.

The findings are not entirely surprising, considering the COVID-19 pandemic and a federal order that paused eligibility checks for part of that period, said Kevin Callison, a health economist at Tulane University

“Ideally, it would be zero,” Callison said. “But the reality is that it’s just really difficult for state agencies to collect this data that comes from various different data sources and aggregate that and be able to use that to determine things like eligibility and mortality.”

The report follows up on a similar 2017 review that also found deceased people still enrolled in Medicaid.

LDH administers Medicaid for about 1.6 million residents under a managed-care model, paying private insurers a fixed monthly rate per enrollee. That arrangement continues until the department confirms someone is no longer eligible. The audit found LDH made about $9.6 million in per-member per-month payments for 1,072 people after their date of death None had claims for services after death, which auditors said corroborated the findings.

Auditors identified the 511 deceased beneficiaries through obituaries, 210 through Louisiana vital records, 168 through the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File 133 through a combination of state records and third-party sources and 50 from vital records in 13 other states.

LDH said it plans to withhold

has been in tumult over the last several months, roiled by fiery meetings and mass resignations of board members.

But Thursday’s meeting was civil as the new board president, Peter Vicari, a businessman and general contractor, looked to turn over a new leaf at the agency.

“We are going to move this authority forward. Regardless of whatever perception happened in the past, that’s in the past,” Vicari

said in his opening comments. “We don’t want a storm, but if we get one, we’re ready.”

The previous board president, Roy Carubba, who was removed from his post by Gov Jeff Landry last month, still serves on the board but was absent at Thursday’s meeting. He pushed controversial changes at the agency, including efforts to expand the role of the its police force and support for a bill that would have elimi-

nated the independent committee tasked with vetting prospective board members.

Four board members resigned in protest of his leadership. Vicari appears to be taking a different tack.

Thursday’s meeting, held in addition to the agency’s regular monthly meetings, was intended as a show of transparency Vicari took it as an opportunity

to publicly conduct onboarding briefings for himself and four other newly appointed members, as well as to inform the public about the agency’s functions.

“I asked the directors to get up and tell us where we are today and what they do, so that everybody can be informed and move this along,” Vicari said.

While Vicari attempts to shift the mood at the flood protection

WELCOME BACK

ABOVE: Public school students returned to classrooms in Jefferson Parish on Thursday. At Harold Keller School in Metairie, Jefferson School Superintendent James Gray welcomed returning students Thursday.

LEFT: School staff greet children after the buses began dropping off kids shortly after 7 a.m.

Federal judges warn of court system threats

Social media, lack of education hurt public trust, panelists say

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

Surging threats of violence, criticisms from public officials and eroding confidence in the judicial process pose rising threats to the independence of U.S. courts, three federal judges said in a wide-ranging discussion in New Orleans last week. Courts’ lack of enforcement tools has laid bare their reliance on constitutional traditions and public trust for orders to be followed, one of the judges said. “We have no form, no method of enforcement beyond our con-

stitutional norms,” said U.S District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo, of the Eastern District of Louisiana. “Unless we have the trust of the populace, we find ourselves on the path to totalitarianism.”

The panel hosted by New Orleans’ Federal Bar Association on Friday, titled “Challenges to Judicial Independence,” prompted unusually candid reflections on the legal world and its overlap with politics from three of Louisiana’s most powerful court officials, plus a retired federal judge who moderated the talk. Federal judges rarely give interviews or speak publicly aside from when presiding over cases from the bench.

The panelists painted a mostly dire picture of the state of

Ga. inmate extradited on La. cold-case charges

Man suspected in series of Metairie rapes in 1986

BY MICHELLE HUNTER Staff writer

Donnell Bluain, an inmate serving a life sentence in Georgia, was extradited to Jefferson Parish this week, where he will stand trial in a series of rapes that occurred almost 40 years ago Bluain, 59, is charged with six counts of aggravated rape. He scheduled to be arraigned Monday, according to Jefferson Parish court records.

Investigators with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit allege that Bluain is the long-unidentified assail-

ant who raped six women after breaking into homes in East Jefferson between January and July of 1986. The victims lived in and near Metairie’s Airline Park subdivision and Kenner They were between the ages of 24 and 62 at the time of the assaults, according to authorities.

Sheriff’s Office investigators in 1986 suspected they were dealing with one perpetrator because of the similarities in the cases, including the man’s description and his method of entering the residences through a window, authorities said. Investigators collected biological evidence in the cases, but DNA testing wasn’t available at the time, the Sheriff’s Office said. However, the cold

UnitedHealth Group buys Amedisys

BY TIMOTHY BOONE Staff writer

UnitedHealth Group completed its $3.3 billion purchase of Baton Rouge-based Amedisys on Thursday morning, more than two years after plans to join the nation’s two largest home health and hospice care companies were first announced.

The closure of the deal was announced in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, issued before the markets opened. Amedisys’ stock was delisted from the Nasdaq exchange.

Amedisys is now part of UnitedHealth’s Optum health services unit.

“Home health care is a critical component in Optum’s commitment to value-based care, which is designed to keep patients healthy within their own homes,” UnitedHealth said in a statement. “Together, we look forward to meaningfully improving home health and hospice care options for patients and their families.”

UnitedHealth agreed to buy Amedisys for $101 per share in June 2023. Under the agreement, Amedisys will continue to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth, with an office in Baton Rouge and operations in Nashville, Tennessee.

Peter Ricchiuti, a finance professor at Tulane University who tracks regional stocks across the South through the university’s Burkenroad Reports, said he doesn’t expect the deal will have much of an impact on the Baton Rouge economy. He doesn’t expect layoffs to result from the acquisition

“I don’t think it’ll be a big deal because the executives moved to Nashville,” he said.

This is the second south Louisiana-based home health and hospice company UnitedHealth has purchased in recent years. In 2023, UnitedHealth acquired Lafayette’s LHC Group in a $5.4 billion deal.

But while the LHC deal went fairly smoothly, the process of buying Amedisys was far more complicated

In May 2023, a few weeks after Amedisys announced it had reached a deal to be acquired by Option Care Health in a stock deal, the company said it had received an offer from UnitedHealth. Under that offer UnitedHealth would pay $100 a share for Amedisys.

At the end of June 2023, Amedisys announced it had reached a deal where UnitedHealth would pay $101 a share.

The deal was set to close in the second half of 2024, but in November, the U.S. Department

of Justice sued to block the purchase, citing concerns the combination would hinder access to home health and hospice services.

Then a big political shift cleared the way for the merger to happen While the Biden administration took a hard line on antitrust issues, the Trump administration has been more willing to cut deals with companies to allow acquisitions to proceed.

Last week, the DOJ said it had proposed a settlement requiring Amedisys and UnitedHealth Group to divest 164 home health and hospice facilities the biggest divestiture of outpatient health services — to clear the way for a merger That ended the legal battle

The department also proposed that Amedisys pay $1.1 million to the United States for false certification that they provided accurate documents to the U.S.

The divestiture impacts home health and hospice locations in 19 states. The only affected location in Louisiana is Amedisys Hospice in Lake Charles, according to a map of divestiture locations. In total, the 164 proposed divestiture locations account for $528 million in revenue The facilities will be acquired by The Pennant Group and BrightSpring Health Services.

Amedisys was founded in 1982 by the late Bill Borne, a registered nurse who said he saw numerous cases of people who were hospitalized but didn’t need to be. Patients generally recover faster and do better at home, given the right medical support, he said. The business went through significant ups and downs in the 1990s and came close to filing for bankruptcy Borne said he didn’t file for bankruptcy at that time because he didn’t have the money to pay the legal fees To keep Amedisys going, Borne essentially dismembered his company, selling off the moneymaking lines, including nurse staffing and doctor practice management. He kept home health nursing and used the money he raised to buy home health agencies. In the 2000s, Amedisys grew through a series of acquisitions and became one of the country’s largest home health operators. The company opened a 114,000-square-foot headquarters in a radically remodeled former Schwegmann’s supermarket on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard.

Staff writer Ianne Salvosa contributed to this story

Email Timothy Boone at tboone@theadvocate.com.

Censure recommended for Lafayette judge

Judiciary Commission says there were two incidents of alleged misconduct

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

The Louisiana Judiciary Commission is recommending 15th Judicial District Judge Royale Colbert of Lafayette be censured for two incidents of alleged misconduct.

One incident involved Colbert’s interference in the city’s last-minute attempt to stop a rap concert in 2021 at The District, a Johnston Street event center, after a shooting the previous weekend.

The other involved his interaction with a city police officer who stopped the judge in 2023 over an alleged traffic infraction. Colbert’s behavior is described in court records as intimidating and disrespectful to the police officer

The Judiciary Commission, which conducted a hearing on the matter in April, sent its recommendations to the Louisiana Supreme Court on Aug. 6. Eleven members of the Judiciary Commission who participated in the April hearing in which Colbert testified voted unanimously to recommend the Supreme Court:

n Suspend Colbert for 30 days without pay

n Order Colbert to take anger management classes or treatment.

n Order Colbert to pay $2,635.96

FLOOD

Continued from page 1B

agency, questions remain about whether one new board member was appointed in accordance with agency rules.

Kerwyn King, who was sworn in to his new position at Thursday’s meeting, was appointed to a seat intended for a board member who lives outside of the New Orleans region, though King lives in New Orleans.

The nominating committee, made up of appointees of government watchdog groups and professional organizations, was formed after Hurricane Katrina to curb political influence on the board. It is tasked with vetting potential board members and submitting their names to the governor for final approval.

The panel ensures that the board is composed of a diverse group with different types of expertise some are engineers, some have other professional experience Certain board seats are designated for representatives from each of the three parishes in which the agency works, and others are meant to be from outside of that area.

Members of the nominating committee are confused about

in costs incurred by the Office of Special Counsel and Judiciary Commission on his case

The Supreme Court is expected to conduct a hearing and make the ultimate decision on the commission’s recommendations.

Colbert did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

The case is based on two incidents of misconduct “which demonstrate his tendency to react quickly out of indignation, rather than with the careful consideration expected of judicial officials,” Judge Bruce Hampton, chairman of the Judiciary Commission, and Kelly Blackwell, commission attorney, wrote in the Aug. 6 findings.

Colbert, they wrote, also invoked or abused the authority of his judicial office in those incidents.

His behavior, described as ethical misconduct, “caused substantial harm to the public’s confidence in and respect for the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,” they wrote Additionally, Colbert’s appearance at the April Judiciary Commission hearing in New Orleans left the commission with concerns about him repeating such behavior in the future, the document states Colbert, who became a judge in January 2021, was new to the bench when the Lafayette Police Department after 5 p.m. on Aug. 13, 2021, posted a notice shutting down The District, where a concert was scheduled the next night.

A week earlier several shots were fired outside the venue with an assault weapon, killing one

how, or whether, King’s nomination conforms with those guidelines.

Landry’s office has sparred with the agency’s nominating committee, and supported a bill that would have scrapped it That bill was substantially amended before it passed and ultimately retained the nominating committee.

The governor declined to reappoint former board member Richard Duplantier, whom the nominating committee had recommended, effectively ousting him. And when the committee sent up a slate of nominees last month, the governor ignored the recommendations and appointed King, who had applied for a board seat but had not been recommended by the nominating committee.

“We’re charged with providing nominees, which we have done, and we’re always prepared to do,” said Windell Curole, the nominating committee’s chairperson. “What happens from there is what the governor decides to do.”

“It’s never been like this before, though,” he added. “We’ve never had to make so many decisions out of the ordinary as we have this time.”

Email Alex Lubben at alex. lubben@theadvocate.com.

person and injuring another The shooting caused concern among city and police officials.

After receiving a call from attorney Harold Register requesting a temporary restraining order that would allow the concert to take place, Colbert met with Register, then-City-Parish Attorney Greg Logan and others in his courtroom.

Colbert told the commission he viewed it as an informal meeting. The meeting was not recorded and nobody was sworn in, the report states. Colbert, dressed in gym clothes, sat on a desk and used profanity By the end of the meeting, the judge had mediated an agreement allowing additional safety conditions, such as more police presence at the club.

No petition for a restraining order was filed at the time and no case number was assigned. Colbert filed a restraining order more than a year later after a lawsuit was filed.

Colbert’s testimony before the Judiciary Commission “gave the impression that he felt it was his job to fix perceived injustices about which people may approach him rather than neutrally rule on a filed document after ensuring there has been due process of law,” the report states.

The second incident occurred on May 29, 2023, when Colbert allegedly ran a red light in Lafayette and was pulled over by thenOfficer Dominique Robinson. The interaction was captured on the officer’s dashboard video camera and the body cameras of Robinson and other officers and a supervisor who responded when

MEDICAID

Continued from page 1B

about $4 million from upcoming managed-care payments to recoup a portion of the funds and agreed to incorporate additional data sources, including a more comprehensive SSA death file

In a response to the findings, LDH Secretary Bruce Greenstein said the department is “in the process of working with the U.S. Department of Treasury to gain the necessary approvals to receive the Social Security Administration Death Master File,” and would use it to check deaths in the future.

COLD CASE

Continued from page 1B

case squad sent the samples off for analysis when detectives reopened the case in 2023.

Bluain was identified as the perpetrator in the Jefferson Parish rapes, according to the department.

Detectives learned their suspect was serving a life sentence in Georgia after he was

JUDGES

Continued from page 1B

Americans’ faith in the court system, one shaped by a population increasingly reliant on politically biased social-media echo chambers which they said can swiftly lead to threats of violence against those on the bench.

“People can wrap themselves in an envelope of the environment they want to believe in,” said the moderator, retired U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm, who served on the federal bench in Maryland from 2012 to 2022. “The dialogue is coarse, crude, and threatening.”

Still, three judges from the Eastern District — Milazzo and U.S. District Judges Susie Morgan, who were appointed by former President Barack Obama, and Chief Judge Wendy Vitter, appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term — said they believe the judiciary has largely weathered those challenges thanks to individual judges’ commitments to interpreting and upholding the law

The discussion comes at a fraught moment for courts. Threats of violence and actual attacks on judges have surged in recent years, Grimm said in remarks introducing the panel.

Data from the U.S. Marshals Service, which U.S District Judge Esther Salas of New Jersey has shared with multiple national media outlets, show that 80 judges received threats during a five-month period leading up to March 1. Another 162 received threats over the following six weeks.

Robinson requested assistance, the commission’s report states.

Colbert, driving behind Robinson, believed the officer was playing on his cellphone and sat through one or more green lights. Frustrated, Colbert eventually passed the officer and blew his horn.

The video, according to the commission report, clearly shows Colbert accelerate and drive the entirety of a block during which the traffic signal he was approaching already was red, then run the red light.

Colbert allegedly cursed during his 17-minute interaction with the officers, the report states, calling Robinson a liar, warned that his reputation would be ruined and refused instructions to stand in front of the police car and to sign the ticket.

The judge told the supervisor he was heading home to wash his truck and had “all the time in the world” for him to review the video. While testifying before the Judiciary Commission, however, Colbert said he was in a hurry to get home because of a medical emergency involving his child.

The inconsistent statements, the commission concluded, led them to wonder whether he was being dishonest or his anger at being pulled over overrode concern for his child.

A witness, the report states, recalled Colbert losing his temper and cursing during a meeting with 10 judges about renovations to the courthouse.

Email Claire Taylor at ctaylor@ theadvocate.com.

Relatedly, Louisiana is gearing up to comply with new Medicaid work requirements as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The same data-accuracy hurdles could complicate enforcement. Verifying whether someone is dead or alive is less challenging than identifying whether somebody completed 80 hours of work or public service in the past 30 days, Callison said. “You think, oh, well, it’s easy to know if somebody’s dead or not, right? That should be pretty straightforward, but even there, it’s not perfect,” Callison said.

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate.com.

convicted with three counts of rape, two counts of burglary and other charges for similar assaults that occurred there in 1992, according to court records.

A conviction for aggravated rape in Louisiana also carries a sentence of life in prison.

He was being held without bail Friday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna.

Email Michelle Hunter at mhunter@theadvocate.com.

Coarse discourse on social media, a lack of civic education about the justice system and a trend of public officials criticizing court decisions have concocted a brew of challenges judges nationwide are now confronting, the panelists said.

“Threats of violence are always horrible, but social media is the messenger we need to attack,” Vitter said.

Among the most disturbing threats are criticisms directed at judges by elected or appointed public officials, said Grimm, adding that such attacks have come from both sides of the political aisle.

He cited two examples: Democratic U.S. Sen Chuck Schumer’s criticism of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s abortion stance several years ago, for which Schumer said Kavanaugh would “pay the price,” and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling a federal judge an “idiot” over a recent order she disagreed with.

“When you hear from a political leader, ‘That judge is an idiot,’ then that person is emboldened,” Milazzo said. She added that such statements can potentially lead to violence or, at least, encourage mistrust in judges and their decisions. Morgan echoed Milazzo’s worries about federal officials’ refusal to comply with court orders.

“I find that very disturbing, a very bad precedent to set,” Morgan said.

Milazzo criticized state officials from both political parties for shopping around for judges viewed as politically friendly to their causes.

“The message is pretty clear without saying it: ‘What we are looking for is a known result,’” Milazzo said. “It lends to a belief by people not in the legal system that judges are motivated by an end result. That undermines the trust and the independence of the judiciary.”

The judges also discussed ways to increase everyday Americans’ exposure to the legal profession. They encouraged their peers to hold public events and urged citizens to embrace opportunities, such as jury duty to engage with the judicial process.

Vitter urged jurists to use plain language in their court filings.

“We don’t need to throw in all these Latin phrases,” Vitter said. “I take pains in my orders to try and say, ‘Could an average person read this and understand it?”

Email James Finn at jfinn@ theadvocate.com.

‘Weknowthistobeasacredplace’

Worshippers gather at tiny Madonna Chapel

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

Outside the 9-by-9-foot chapel across from the levee, congregantssweated and prayed, clad in the most formal churchgoing clothes that can be expected in aLouisiana August.

Many worshippers drove in from different parishes, some evenfrom out of state. What brought them together Friday morning is both astop on Iberville’s Great River Road Driving Tour and asacred occasion: the annual Mass held at the MadonnaChapel, one of the smallestchurches in the world.

“I came acrossitonthe internet one day ahandful of years ago, and it had never left my mind,” said Kim McElhaney,who traveled with her husbandfrom Dry Branch, Georgia, toattend. “The service is oncea year on my birthday.This is my 60th birthday,and I wanted to be here.” The tiny chapel, situated several miles north of Nottoway Plantation, offers Mass for theFeastofthe Assumption of Mary.Close to 150 people come to worship, partake in Communion and witness the roadside shrine during peak operation Surrounding communities knowits folklore well. The church was builtfor Mary in 1903, in thanksgiving from afather whose child recovered from aserious illness.

Many residents call it the “Little Church.”

Frances Tempanaro, who grew up down the road from the Madonna Chapel and is now one of its caretakers, said she always marveledatthe peacefulness and sanctity of the space as alittle girl

She foundsolace in it during the hardship she experienced years later Receiving treatment for breast cancer in 2020, she prayed at the little church, asking Mary to heal her and to take care of her family

“When you’re going through chemo, you’re not supposed to go in crowds,” Tempanaro said. “I would visit often Little Church because Icould just go there by myself.” Others expressed asimilar draw to the church. Ana Mojica,animmigrant from Colombia, saidshe couldn’t believe when she moved to South Louisiana that one of the smallest churchesin the world was so close to her new home. Attending the annual Mass is “important for my soul,”she said. She added an invitation for other Spanish speakers to join the celebration next year: “Estamos aquí invitadoscerca aWhite Castle,” she said. “Cada año,laiglesia más pequeña del mundo abre sus puertas para la misa.”

Thepilgrimage

TheMadonnaChapel also carries emotional significance for the priest leading theMass, theRev Jason Palermo.

In the same church 23 years ago, he prayed before enteringseminary

“I basically said, if ever Idomakeittopriesthood, I’m going to come back andI’m going to offer Mass here andthanksgiving,” Palermo said.“Every year, thisisalabor of love for me to come back and to do Mass here, because Ireally feel that my vocation storyisthrough thehands of Mary.”

As congregants fanned themselvesunder the shadeofawningsand pine trees, Palermoweaved in biblical teachings with modern dilemmas, calling for apeaceful ending to the war between Russia andUkraine. He spoke of God’s perfect world and howhumans complicated it, while those worldly complicationsthreatened to intrude on the service —semitrucks lumbering alongRiver Road, planes droning overhead, the stifling heat.

He alsothanked the audience for supporting the chapel, which he praised forits cultural,economic and spiritualsignificance

to Iberville Parish.

“Today we come here, and we know this to be a sacred place,” Palermo said. “So many stories of healings and people who’ve experienced conversion.”

McElhaney was among those whosaid theyfelt healed by their time in the little church, shesaid. She considered hervisit from Georgia closer to apilgrimage thana roadtrip.

“I felt likeIwas coming home, almost,”McElhaney said. “My grandmother was avery devoutCatholic, andI know she’sup there smiling.”

Closeto10a.m., dismantling began. Volunteersstacked up the white chairs and packed up the programs. Palermo wiped sweat from his forehead with acloth.

He thought about the themeofthe pilgrimage as congregants dispersed.

“God often usespilgrimages, when we do alittlebit of sacrifice,”Palermo said.

“Today people came; they sacrificed with their sweat; they came with their time; they made an effort to find out where this place was and to come. Ihope that they realize that God’sfavor is with those whodo something alittle extra for him.”

By 10:30 a.m., the

NewOrleans Area Deaths followed by a10AMser‐vice. Pastor Damien Brown willofficiateand interment willfollowinRestlawn MemorialParkalsoin Avondale. "SubmittoGod and youwillhavepeace; thenthingswillgowell withyou,,," Job2221-23 Funeralplanningentrusted toRobinsonFamilyFuneral Home(504) 208-2119. For onlinecondolences please visit www.robinsonfamilyf uneralhome.com

was mostly empty.The little church resumed its quietude,a keyinthe box by the doorway left for any curioustraveler

Bibbins,Jermel Dillard Jr., Melvin Fleming, Stazy Huye,Rose Jones, Elaine Jones, Pearl Lafayette,Fred Lewis, Rosemary Munoz,Santiago DillardJr.,Melvin Alexander

Musmeci,Wilma

Schwarz, Stephen EJefferson

Garden of Memories

Schwarz, Stephen NewOrleans

Gertrude Geddes

Jones, Pearl Lafayette,Fred

Lewis, Rosemary Greenwood

Huye,Rose Musmeci,Wilma JacobSchoen

Munoz,Santiago

Majestic Mortuary

Fleming, Stazy West Bank

Robinson FH

Bibbins,Jermel

Dillard Jr., Melvin Jones, Elaine Obituaries Bibbins,Jermel

Jermel Bibbins45, of At‐lanta,Gapassedaway peacefully on August 5th, 2025. He wasa beloved Son,brother,father, grand‐father, andfriend, known for hiskindnessand unwa‐veringsupport of thosehe loved.BorninAvondale, La onOctober 7, 1979 to Mr Li‐onelBibbins Sr &Christine Bibbins.HeattendedL.W Higgins High school.He was aserialentrepreneur but,hededicated 15 years atCintas& Syscowhere he was respectedfor hiswork ethic andleadership. Jer‐mel hada passionfor Music,heenjoyed writing songs andstories,he would spendhours cook‐ing &reading books. Hisin‐fectiouslaughter, person‐alityand warm spirit will bedeeply missedbyall who knew him. He is sur‐vived by hischildren, Janel, Jasmine,Dominick, Lillyanna, Clarissa.Grand‐daughterIsabella. parents Mr. Lionel BibbinsSr.,& Christine brotherLionel Bibbins jr andhis sisters NathashaStarks& Lakeyda Bibbins.A host of aunts, uncles, cousins, and Friends .Hewas preceded indeath by hislovinguncle Wendell Wright,Grandfa‐therThomasGriffin& Simpson Wright Sr.Job 22:21-23"Submit to God, and youwillhavepeace; thenthingswillgowellfor you.Listentohis instruc‐tions,and storethemin yourheart.Ifyou return to the Almighty,you will be restored-so cleanupyour life. Relativesand friends ofthe familyare invitedto attend thefuneral service onSaturday, August,16, 2025 at Second St.John Baptist Church locatedat 242 Avondale Garden Road, Avondale, LA.The visita‐tion will beginat8:30AM

Melvin AlexanderDillard Jr. of Port Sulphur LA., passedawayonThursday, August7,2025. He was32 years old. Belovedson Ali‐cia Jamesand thelate MelvinAlexander Dillard Sr. Loving father of Kole, Addison,King, Lennonand Mylon Dillard.Devoted grandsonofMyraJackson Jones andthe late Alexan‐der JonesSr. andthe late VirgilJames.Melvinisalso survivedbyseveral aunts, uncles, nieces,nephews cousins,other relatives and devotedfriends.He willberememberedfor his kindspiritand deep love for hisfamily. He brought great joytoeveryone around him. Relativesand friends of thefamilyare in‐vited to attend thefuneral service on Saturday,Au‐gust16, 2025 at Greater Mount SianiBaptist Church located at 27954 Port Sul‐phur LA.70083. Thevisita‐tionwillbegin at 11 a.m. until 12:55 p.m. Only.The service will beginat1 p.m. officiated by Pastor Allen Johnson.Entombmentwill followinTropicalBend CemeteryinEmpireLA. Fu‐neral planning entrustedto RobinsonFamilyFuneral Home(504) 208-2119. For onlinecondolences,please visit www.robinsonfamilyf uneralhome.com.

Stazy

StazyWrightFleming, affectionatelyknown to manyasSadie,was born in Natchez,Mississippi,on October 17, 1933, to the lateMr. EriasWrightand Mrs.BessieMcGruder. She receivedher educationin Natchez,where shelater met andmarried thelove ofher life,Lawerence Fleming.The couple even‐tually made NewOrleans Louisiana,their home Stazy wasa mild-man‐nered,humble, andsimple woman who valued family, faith,and friendship.Inher younger years, sheworked various jobs to stay active She wasa devotedand lifelongmemberofthe LovingFourBaptist Taber‐nacle,faithfully servingon the UsherBoard.One of her favorite pastimes was catchingupwithloved onesoverthe phone, espe‐cially with herdearfriend and sister in Christ GertrudeJackson.Stazy was abeloved sister mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.Known for herquiet spirit and simpleways, shelived her lifewithgrace,humility, and agentlepresencethat touched everyone around her.OnMonday, August 4, 2025, theangelscalled Stazy home to be with the Lord. Shewas preceded in death by herbeloved hus‐band, LawerenceFleming, five brothers:Fred,

4B ✦ Saturday,August 16,2025 ✦ nola.com ✦ TheTimes-Picayune Thomas,Henry,Joe andEd‐ward; five sisters: Gertrude, Thelma,Mary, Beatriceand Evelyn.Stazy was thelastofher siblings She leaves to cherishher memorytwo sons,Robert Fleming andRogerFlem‐ing;two daughters, Katie Morganand VelmaFlem‐ing;ninegrandchildren; seventeen great-grandchil‐dren; andseven greatgreat-grandchildren.She is alsosurvivedbyeleven brothersand sisters-inlaw,including twoliving— Clara LewisofNatchez,MS, and Nellie FlemingofBaton Rouge,LA—as well, and a hostofnieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.Stazy “Sadie” WrightFleming’s gentle spirit, unwavering faith, and warm presence will be deeply missed butforever remembered. “I have foughta good fight, Ihave finished my course,I have keptthe faith”2 Timothy4: Relatives andFriends of the Family,alsoPastor, Of‐ficers andMembers of Lov‐ing Four BaptistTabernacle are allinvited to attend the Celebration of Life Service onSaturday, August 16, 2025 at 10:00am at Loving FourBaptist Tabernacle 2900 Thalia Street NewOr‐leans,Louisiana 70113 PastorMatthew Tanner, Officiating. Visitation will begin at 9:00am.Interment inProvidenceMemorial Park. Professional Arrange‐ments EntrustedtoMajes‐tic Mortuary ServiceInc (504)523-5872.

Rose Emma Huye,age 21, of NewOrleans, Louisiana,passedawayon August13, 2025. Shewas borntoLisaDickHuyeand the late Nelson LewisHuye onDecember1,2003,in New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended EcoleClas‐sique School,and shewas takingclassesatDelgado Community College. Rose willberememberedasa lovingdaughterand sister She lovedher threecats, and as an equestrian rider, she lovedjumping horses Rosehad also earned a black belt in taekwondo. Roseisprecededindeath byher grandparents,Hilda Goings, John andLucy Huye, andher aunt,Rose Hager.She is survived by her mother,LisaHuye, and her brother, Christian DanielHuye. Relativesand friends areinvited to at‐tenda candlelightvigil on Sunday, August 17, 2025 from5:00to8:00pminCity Park. Also,a visitation will beheldfrom2:00pmtill 4:00pmonFriday, August 22, 2025, at Greenwood Fu‐neral Home,5200 Canal Blvd.,New Orleans, LA 70124. We also invite youto share your thoughts,fond memories, andcondo‐lencesonlineatwww greenwoodfh.com

Elaine JohnsonJones entered into eternalrest onFriday, July 31,2025 at the ageof71. Elaine wasa nativeofHarvey, LA anda residentofMarrero,LA. She wasa former member ofMt. PilgrimBaptist Church whereshe was baptizedbythe late ClarenceEllis Brooks, Sr She laterplacedher mem‐bership at EveningStar MissionaryBaptist Church under theleadership of PastorKeith P. Stewman. She waseducatedinthe Jefferson Parish Public SchoolSystemand matric‐ulatedatNichollsState University. Sheworked un‐tirelesslyatHopeHaven Belle Chasse StateSchool for more than 40 yearsand Padua Community Services where sheretired from Her earlyand strong Chris‐tianfoundationprepared her fora lifetime of service tothe Lord.She served faithfullyasWomen's Day Chairperson andwas an activememberofthe Se‐niorSteppersMinistry. An eloquent speaker, Elaine

lovedsharing theGood NewsofJesus Christ and offering wordsof ecouragementtoothers. She wasalsoa devoted memberQueen Esther Chapter #33, OrderofEast‐ern Star.She served dili‐gentlyinministryuntil her healthnolongerallowed her to.Elaineloved the Lord, herfamily, Pastor and church family.Inaddi‐tiontolovingthe Lord,she alsoloved to dressfash‐ionably oftenaccessorized withher beautifullarge hats, rhinestone eyewear and blingedwalking cane She is proceededindeath byher mother,Margaret (Yankee)Smith Johnson, her father Ernest Johnson, maternalgrandparents (HildaJohnson Smithand AlberthaCarey), paternal grandparentsPeter Smith and Mose Johnson, sister, Rosalind(Miss Moe) John‐son;niece,Avery Johnson; Uncles: Clifford,Mose, Alvin,Hebertand Percy Johnson;aunts: Beatrice Johnson,BessieColeman, Noami Riggins and Sarafine Atkins.Elaine leavestocherish hermem‐ory alovingfamily, de‐voted friends, anda host of church andcommunity members whose livesshe touched.She leaves to cherish hermemories, 1 sister, Gail (Kenneth)John‐son,and 2brothers, Chris (Monique) Johnsonand Patrick (Oasis)Johnson Her 2uncles: Joseph (Cas‐sandra) Burkes,Jr. andEd‐ward(Martha)Johnson Her 6aunts: Olivia (Lionel) Trim, Rosemary,Elizabeth, Thelma, Rubyand Sandra Johnson.10nieces: Tre‐shawn, Keshawn, Jon‐quelle, Jacoby,Christie, Monique,Myrion, Taylor China andRaven Johnson. 6 nephews: BrianJackson Kaleb,Tory(Kellie), Nigel, Josiahand Johann John‐son.Goddaughter,Destine George. Devoted friends: TyroneSmith,Donya Lynn Gibson-Bazile andGoldie. She is also remembered withlovebya host of great-niecesand nephews, cousins,extendedfamily and dear friends. Relatives and friendsofthe family are invitedtoattendthe celebration of life service which will be held on Sat‐urday,August16, 2025, at Evening Star Baptist Church locatedat817 Gre‐fer Street Harvey,LA70058 The visitation will beginat 9 a.m.,and theservice will begin at 10 a.m. Pastor Keith Paul Stewmanoffici‐ating and intermentwill followatEvening Star Bap‐tistChurch Cemetery.Fu‐neral planning entrustedto Robinson Family Funeral Home, 9611 LA -23, Belle Chasse,LA70037. (504) 208 - 2119. Foronlinecondo‐lencespleasevisit www robinsonfamilyfuneralho me.com

PearlBennett Jones, age 82, wasbornon October 11, 1942, native of Terre‐bonne andresidentof Houma,LA. She passed awaypeacefully on Friday, August8,2025. Shewas a memberofResidence Bap‐tistChurch andservedon the usherboard anda graduateofSouthdown HighSchool.She leaves to cherish hismemories, her children: Stephanie Williams Ausama (Terry), Carolyn Williams Woods (Darrell),Gilda Scottand BrandiJones;siblings, WarrenceBennett,Sr., LouiseB.Richard andGlo‐ria B. Smith(Lionel). She was also survived by 25 grandchildren,58greatgrandchildren,13greatgreat-grandchildren anda hostofnieces, nephews, cousins,familyand friends.She nowjoins in restwithher husbands, WilbertWilliamsand Gilbert Jones; herparents Zackary Bennett, Sr.and Octavia NixonBennett; children, LaTanyaJones and Rosalind Williams McKinley; siblings,Ledoria B.Williams, Joan B. Thomas, OctaviaB.Jones, Elizabeth B. Bolden,Sarah B.Williams, LloydColeman Zackary Bennett, Jr.and Louella Bennett. Relatives and friendsofthe family are invitedtoattendthe Celebration of Life Service onSaturday, August 16 2025 at ResidenceBaptist Church,2605 Isaac Street Houma,LA70363 at 10:00 a.m.Visitation from 8:00 a.m.until 10:00 a.m. Inter‐mentUnion Benevolent Cemetery, Houma, LA.You may sign theguest book onhttp://www.gertrud egeddeswillis.com.

Gertrude Geddes Willis Ter‐rebonne FuneralHome, Inc. incharge(985) 872-6934.

Lafayette,Fred

Mr.Fred"Pop" "Pops" Poppa" Lafayette,age 85, was born on February 25 1940. He transitioned to be withhis Heavenly Father onSunday, July 27, 2025 Son of thelateMr. James Lafayette andMrs.Mary Lafayette.Beloved Hus‐bandofforty-three years tothe late DeaconessMrs Bernice J. Lafayette.Sur‐vived by hisdaughter Karen M. Russelland son FredRussell (Sharon), grandsons Barron J. Rus‐selland Rashad J. Russell and great-grandchildren IsaiahL.Russell andJael M.Russell.Brother of Leroy (Carol),Eddie, Sammyand Larry Lafayette,EdnaNew‐someand Lillie Mooreand the late Rev. Roosevelt Lafayette Sr Gable Lafayette,EolaMooreand Elenore Lafayette.Cared for/Justlikea Father to MelvinJ.Jones (Franch‐esca),Jimmy L. JonesJr. (Monique),and Jessica Jones-Brooks(Isaac). God‐son Elijah "Stevie" Stevens, Jr. (J’Nay), Goddaughter Je'Shayla Mathersand late GodsonRoosevelt Lafayette,Jr. Brother-inlaw to Pastor Gertrude Stevens (Elijah),Minister Shirley Welch, Mildred Jones,Rev.Jimmy L. Jones, Sr. (Marilyn) andthe late Uguster Jonesand JoeL Jones,Sr..Alsosurvivedby a host of nieces,nephews cousins,other relatives and friends. Relativesand friends of thefamily, also Pastor, Officers andMem‐bersofIsraelitesBaptist Church,DeaconBoard, SundaySchool,Monday Night Prayer Line and ComeJustAsYou AreBible FellowshipCrusade Min‐istry "A Living Church"in Severn, Maryland,Wings of Faith HouseofPrayerin Marrero,La.,EphesianBap‐tistinNew Orleans, La Law Street BaptistChurch, New Orleans, La.and New Salem BaptistChurch in New Orleans, La.are in‐vited to attend theCele‐bration of Life Serviceon Saturday, August 16, 2025 atIsraelitesBaptist Church,2100 Martin Luther KingJr. Blvd., NewOrleans, La, 70113 at 10:00 a.m. Visi‐tationfrom9:00a.m.until 10:00 a.m. Rev. Dr.Emanuel Smith,Jr.,Officiating. Inter‐mentMount Olivet Ceme‐tery, 4000 Norman Mayer Avenue,New Orleans, LA 70122. Youmay sign the guest book on www.ger trudegeddeswillis.com Gertrude GeddesWillisFu‐neral Home,Inc in charge (504) 522-2525.

Rosemary Lewis, age80, was born on December 18, 1944, at CharityHospitalin New Orleans. Shedeparted thisearthly home on Satur‐day,August2,2025. She was thedaughterofMilton Lee Lewisand Lethia Robertson.Rosewas the devoted andlovingmother toKirkanthony Bernard. She washis rock and Kirkanthony cherished, cared for, andloved his Rosetothe very end. Their loveiseternal.Rosewas a 1964 graduate of Joseph S. Clark High School.She at‐tendedMeadowsDraughonBusinessSchool She wasveryactivewith XavierUniversity’sInsti‐tuteofBlack Catholic Stud‐ies Program.Rosewas ALL New Orleans! Theonlysoft drinksshe drankwere Barq’sRoot Beer andBig ShotCrème Soda.She thought Starbuckswas cryptocurrency! CDMor Community Coffee wasthe onlymorning brew that crossedher lips!She loved the Carnival season and collected uniquethrows fromall thekrewes. Rose grewupinthe MardiGras Indiansand theNew Or‐leans Baby Dollsneighbor‐hoods. Sheknewmostof them by name!She worked

at theGood Timers Barin the 1960s. TheSecondLine was in herblood.And she never missedSuper Sun‐day!Duringthe 1970s, Rose workedinthe City of New Orleans,Payroll Dept. She moved to LosAngeles,CA, inthe early1980s to be closertoher sonand lived there until 1995 -whenshe returnedtoher beloved New Orleans. Shebegan working as thePay-Mis‐tress andGeneral Cashier atthe OMNI RoyalOrleans - atitle shewould hold for 20years.Roseloved the Lordand Hischurch.She was aloyal member of St Peter Claver Catholic Church for30years.She was adevoted Christian leaderatthe Church,orga‐nizing, teaching,and head‐ing theRiteofChristian Ini‐tiation of Adults (RCIA) ministry. Rose wasanac‐tivememberofWaterWise GulfSouth Neighborhood Champions Program.Al‐thougha biological mother toonlyone son(Kirkan‐thony), Rose wasa “loving mothertype” to many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends, butespecially her godson(Frederick Riley)and goddaughter (KarenMorris).All will missher loving spirit and infectioussmile.Relatives and friendsofthe family, alsoPriestand parish‐ionersofSt. PeterClaver Catholic Church areinvited toattend theMassof Christian Burial on Satur‐day,August16, 2025 at St Peter Claver Catholic Church,1923 St.Philip Street,New Orleans, LA 70116 at 10:00 a.m. Visita‐tionfrom9:00a.m.until 10:00 a.m. Interment Resthaven Memorial Park, 10400 OldGentillyRoad, New OrleanS, LA 70117. You may sign theguest book onwww.gertrudegeddesw illis.com.GertrudeGeddes Willis FuneralHomeInc., in charge(504) 522-2525.

Santiago (Buzzy) Munoz, age82, passed awayonAugust12, 2025 at 4:30p.m.Hewas the beloved husband of Linda SegariMunozfor thepast 57years.Hewas born to the late DavidMunozand Elisa RodriguesMunoz. BothofEagle Pass, Texas. Heisthe brotherofthe lateDavid Munozand Maria Sprecher (Bill)and Pam Graves (Robert).Heis the brother-in-law of ThomasSegariand Robert Segari, andthe late Joseph Segari. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughterSherilynand his son,Michael (Jennifer) He isalsosurvivedbyhis grandchildren,Gabriel San‐tiago Munoz, MyaShu Ling Munoz, andthe late Is‐abella HelenMunoz. He leavesbehindnumerous cousins,niecesand nephews.Hegraduated fromSt. Aloysius High School in 1961 andalso graduated from LSUNOin 1967. He wasa member of the Beta Xi Chapterof Theta Xi Fraternity.Hewas aninsurance adjustor allof his life retiring from.AIG in 2007. He wasanavidTu‐laneand Saints fan.Heen‐joyed travelingwithhis familytoDisneyworld,tak‐ing cruisestothe Caribbean,and just spend‐ing time with hisfamily. He enjoyed square dancing and having coffee with his friends on Saturday morn‐ingsatthe MorningCall and Cafe.Hewas oneof the original membersof CrusaderStables which was made up of St.Aloy‐siusalumni. He wasa Eu‐charistic Minister at Pius for many years. He loved God,his familyand friends and nevermet astranger. The familywould like to thank thePulmonary Staff atthe pulmonaryRehab of EJHospitalfor theirdedi‐cationand care of ourhus‐bandand father.Visitation willbeat10a.m.on Monda,August18atSt. AngelaMericiChurch in Metairie, La.MassofChris‐tianBurialtofollowat12 noon.Interment will be at St. LouisNo. 3cemeteryin New Orleans. Arrange‐ments by JacobSchoen& Son FuneralHome. Condo‐lencesmay be left at www schoenfh.com.

Musmeci, WilmaSavant

WilmaSavantMusmeci passedawaypeacefullyat her home in Metairie Louisiana,inthe presence ofher family, on August 2, 2025, at theage of 88. Born December18, 1936, in Melville, St.LandryParish, Louisiana,Wilma wasthe youngestchild of thelate AdolphSavantand Adele Deville Savant.She is pre‐ceded in deathbyher two sisters,Hilda Sims and ThelmaMusmeci,and her brother,VernonSavant. She managedher parents’ grocery storeinNew Or‐leans priortoher move to Metairiein1960. Later, Wilmaworkedinthe retail industry, aperfect fitfor her love of clothesand fashion.She wasa devoted wife, mother,and home‐maker knownfor her warmth, kindness, and dedicationtoher family. She leaves behind a beloved anddevoted hus‐bandof69years,Salvadore J.Musmeci,her twodaugh‐ters, Monica Musmeciof Metairieand PaulaMus‐meci, who will forevertrea‐sureher unwavering love wisdom, andgentlespirit. She wasa member of St Christopher theMartyr Catholic Church anda memberofthe Humane So‐ciety.A privategraveside service will be held at Greenwood Mausoleum. In lieuof flowers, thefamily requeststhatmemorial contributions be made to the Humane Societyofthe UnitedStatesat1255 23rd Street,NW, Suite450, Washington, DC 20037. We alsoinviteyou to share yourthoughts, fond memo‐ries, andcondolences on‐lineatwww.greenwoodfh com.Yoursharedmemo‐rieswillhelpuscelebrate Wilma’slifeand keep her memoryalive

StephenKarlSchwarz 45, of Metairie,Louisiana, passedawaypeacefullyat EastJefferson General HospitalonJuly27, 2025, surrounded by familyand upliftedbythe prayersof countless lovedonesand friends who were present inspirit. Stephenwas born toGeorgeanneand Keith Schwarz,Sr. on February 10, 1980, in NewOrleans, Louisiana.Heattendedele‐mentary school at St.Ed‐wardthe Confessorand graduated cumlaude from the acceleratedprogram at JesuitHighSchool in 1998 Hewentontostudy sociol‐ogy at LouisianaState Uni‐versity,concentrating in criminology.After earning his degree, he livedin Baton Rougebeforereturn‐ing to hishometownof Metairie. He wasformerly married to thelateRoxann Gonsoulin.Stephen’s pas‐sionwas,asone friend put it, “findingdiamondsinthe rough.” He lovedtreasure huntingatGoodwilland other thrift stores around the NewOrleans area and had aremarkabletalent for spotting extraordinary findsand recognizingpo‐tential in itemsothers might have tossedaside His discoveriesranged fromvinyl records, toys, and tchotchkes to T-shirts electronics,jewelry,and everythingelseinbe‐tween.Hemadefast friends andwas well re‐spectedwithinthe local

thriftingcommunity by fel‐low enthusiastswho sharedhis love of thehunt Alas, while he neverdid find hisholygrail —an original, new-in-box 1986 edition of Fireball Island out in thewild, hisbroth‐ers have vowedtocon‐tinue thequest in his name. To know Stephen was to love him. He hada larger-than-lifepersonality witha quickwit,aninfec‐tious laugh, afearless spirit, and, like Animal (one ofhis favorite Muppets), anundeniablewildstreak thatyielded aplethoraof colorful“Stephenstories among friendsand family overthe years(andlefthis parents with more than a few gray hairs).Hewas blessedtoinherit hisfa‐ther’ssharp intellectand innateabilityto fix, build, orrepairjustabout any‐thing.His curiosityand loveoflearningled him downcountless rabbit holes on allkinds of sub‐jects,but he especially loved readingabout the paranormaland wondering about thepossibilities that exist beyond ourspheres ofunderstanding.Hewas alsosomething of apio‐neer in theworld of fan‐tasyfootball, having formedseveral earlypreinternetleagues long be‐forethe phenomenon ex‐plodedinpopularityon‐line. More than anything though, Stephenwas a loyal son, brother, uncle, neighbor, andfriend. He had agenerousspirit, al‐waysthinkingofothers and stayingonthe lookout for itemshethought they would appreciate or bene‐fitfrom. Greetinghis niecesand nephew with pockets full of treasures he’dpickedout just for themwas oneofhis great joys. If Stephenwas in your corner, he stayed there— fiercely,faithfully, and without question.Thatun‐waveringloyalty endeared him to themanyindividu‐als fortunateenoughtobe partofhis circle.Athis core, he possesseda gen‐uinelykindand tender heart.His lifelong soft spot for theunderdogfueleda deep desire to protectand helpothers, whether it meant standing up fora bullied classmate, keeping aneye on an elderlyneigh‐bor,orgivingawaybelong‐ingshebelievedsomeone elseneededmore. That samecompassionate in‐stinctextendedtoanimals including themanyfeline and canine companions he loved andcared for throughouthis life Stephen wasprecededin death by hisfather, Keith EdwardSchwarz,Sr. He is survivedbyhis mother, Georgeanne KleinSchwarz; his brothers,Keith Jr.(Jen‐nifer)and Neil (Sharon); his nieces,Ameliaand Rosie;his nephew,Charlie; and hisbeloved pets dogs Emmy andSpider‐man,and cats Lancelot Cooper, Booty, and Roswell. Stephenwillbe deeply missed, buthewill alsoliveforever in the heartsofthose who knew and cherishedhim.We knowthatGod will keep Stephen busy as a guardianangel to many, and that Stephenwillrelish thisroleand fulfill it like no other.The signsare al‐ready there. Amemorial service will be held on Sat‐urday,August16, 2025, at St. Edward theConfessor Catholic Church,4921 W. MetairieAve., Metairie,LA 70001, with visitation start‐ing at 10:00 a.m. followed byMassat12:00 p.m. In‐urnment will follow at Gar‐den of Memories,4900 Air‐lineDr.,Metairie, LA.Inlieu of flowers, please consider makinga donation in Stephen's name to theHu‐maneSociety of Louisiana ortothe Little Sistersof the Poor Sacred HeartResi‐dence in Mobile,AL.

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Target, Ulta agree to not renew partnership

NEW YORK Target and Ulta Beauty are parting ways, ending a partnership launched in 2021 that created in-store shops filled with beauty products at hundreds of the discounter’s stores. According to a joint release issued Thursday, the companies said they have “mutually agreed” not to renew their pact, which concludes in August 2026 Until then, the Ulta Beauty experience at Target will continue in Target stores and on Target.com, the release said.

Ulta is currently in 600 of Target’s roughly 1,980 stores according to a Target spokesperson.

“For 35 years, Ulta Beauty has revolutionized how people experience beauty bringing together an unmatched assortment from mass to luxury — and our partnership with Target was one of many unique ways we have brought the power of beauty to guests nationwide,” said Amiee Bayer-Thomas, chief retail officer of Ulta Beauty in a statement. Rick Gomez, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Target, said in a statement he was committed to “offering the beauty experience consumers have come to expect from Target.”

The partnership was announced in 2020 and came as the coronavirus pandemic upended shopping habits and more people tried to minimize potential exposure to the virus through one-stop shopping. COVID-19 had dampened sales of lipstick as people wore masks, but the skincare business enjoyed stronger sales.

Air Canada shutdown looms amid dispute

TORONTO A complete shutdown of Air Canada is looming if the union representing the flight attendants of the country’s dominant air carrier and the airline fail to reach an agreement by early Saturday More than 10,000 flight attendants are poised to walk off the job around 1 a.m. on Saturday, followed by a company-imposed lockout. It threatens to impact about 130,000 travelers a day

The Canadian carrier said it expects to call off 500 flights by the end of Friday ahead of the deadline. It already started canceling flights on Thursday in expectation of the massive work stoppage that could impact hundreds of thousands of travelers A full grounding could affect 25,000 Canadians a day abroad who may become stranded

By midday Friday, Air Canada had called off 87 domestic flights and 176 international flights that were scheduled to depart Friday and Saturday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium On Thursday, when the airline said it was beginning its “phased wind down” of most operations, 18 domestic flights and four international flights were canceled Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, refused to voluntarily submit to arbitration Zelle sued over claims of $1B in fraud losses

Zelle’s parent company is being sued again over claims it failed to protect customers from fraud on the payment network used by the largest banks in America. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Early Warning Services LLC on Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court. The lawsuit claims that EWS launched Zelle without critical safety measures, which allowed scammers to steal more than $1 billion between 2017 and 2023. This lawsuit from James, a Democrat, comes five months after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dismissed a similar case that it had filed in December According to multiple media reports, the CFPB abandoned its lawsuit after the Trump administration took over federal agencies. The CFPB had also sued JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

BUSINESS

NOLA.COM/BIZ

Market finishes week with a fade

BY STAN CHOE AP business writer

NEW YORK U.S stocks edged back from their record levels on Friday in a quiet finish to another winning week

The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% from the all-time high it set the day before, as it closed its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average flirted with its own record, which was set in December before ending just below the mark with a rise of 34 points, or 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite dipped

0.4%, though it’s still near its record set on Wednesday

The U.S. stock market reached all-time highs this past week as expectations built that the Federal Reserve will deliver a cut to interest rates at its next meeting in September Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment, but they also risk worsening inflation.

A disappointing report about inflation at the U.S. wholesale level made traders pare back bets for coming

cuts to interest rates on Thursday but they’re still overwhelmingly expecting them. Such anticipation has sent Treasury yields lower in the bond market, though they inched higher Friday following some mixed updates on the economy One said shoppers boosted their spending at U.S. retailers last month, as economists expected, while another said that manufacturing in New York state unexpectedly grew A third said industrial production across the country shrank last month, when economists were looking for modest growth.

Another report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is worsening because of worries about inflation, when economists expected to see a slight improvement “Overall, consumers are no longer bracing for the worst-case scenario for the economy feared in April,” when President Donald Trump announced his stunning set of worldwide tariffs, according to Joanne Hsu, director of the University of Michigan’s surveys of consumers. “However consumers continue to expect both inflation and unemployment to deteriorate in the future.”

Retail sales rise 0.5% in July

Shoppers step up purchases ahead of tariffs

BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP retail writer

NEWYORK Shoppers spent at a healthy pace in July particularly at the nation’s auto dealerships, even as President Donald Trump’s tariffs start to take a toll on jobs and lead to some price increases.

But the figures also underscore anxiety among Americans: All the uncertainty around the expansive duties appears to be pushing them to step up their purchases of furniture and other items ahead of the expected price increases, analysts said.

Retail sales rose a solid 0.5% last month from the previous month, and June spending was stronger than expected, according to the Commerce Department’s report released Friday June’s retail sales were revised upward to 0.9% from the original 0.6% increase, the agency said. The pace in July matched economists’ estimates.

The increases followed two consecutive months of spending declines in April and May

Excluding auto sales, which have been volatile since Trump imposed tariffs on many foreign-made cares, retail sales rose 0.3% in July

Auto sales rose 1.6%. They appear to have returned roughly to normalized spending af-

ter a surge in March and April as Americans attempted to get ahead of Trump’s 25% duty on imported cars and parts and then a slump after that, according to Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. The data showed solid spending across various stores. Business at clothing stores and online retailers saw increases. Business at home furnishings and furniture stores had strong sales gains.

However, at electronics stores, sales were down. And business at restaurants, the lone services component within the Census Bureau report and a barometer of discretionary spending, also fell, as shoppers eat at home to save money

A category of sales that excludes volatile sectors such as gas, cars, and restaurants rose last month by 0.5% from the previous month. The figure feeds into the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s consumption estimate and is a sign that consumers are still spending on some discretionary items.

Tuan Nguyen, an economist at RSM US, noted the difficulty of attributing the entire July gain to resilient American shoppers given so much uncertainty surrounding the economy and tariffs. A sizable portion of the gain likely came from rising prices of imported goods under the impact of tariffs, he said.

Nguyen also noted he can’t dismiss the possibility that consumers once again pulled forward their spending ahead of the August

tariff deadline, taking advantage of Amazon Prime Day sales as well as competing sales from the likes of Walmart and Target.

In fact, Nguyen noted the sharp rise in furniture sales, for example, appeared to indicate shoppers were trying to get ahead of the duties.

“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with American households that would suggest a spending recession given that shoppers are in a strong enough financial position to accelerate purchases,” he wrote. “With so much noise in the data, the rest of the year promises to be a wild and bumpy ride.”

Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that U.S. hiring is slowing sharply as Trump’s trade policies paralyze businesses and raise concerns about the outlook for the world’s largest economy U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported, well short of the 115,000 expected.

Another government report, issued Tuesday, on U.S. inflation showed that inflation was unchanged in July as rising prices for some imported goods were offset by declining gas and grocery prices leaving overall prices modestly higher than a year ago. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in July from a year earlier, the same as the previous month and up from a post-pandemic low of 2.3% in April On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.2% in July, down from 0.3% the previous month, while core prices ticked up 0.3%, a bit faster than the 0.2% in June.

Billionaires join Berkshire in UnitedHealth bet

BY DEVON PENDLETON Bloomberg News (TNS)

Some of the world’s wealthiest people joined Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in backing embattled insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. in the second quarter George Soros’

OPINION

ANOTHERVIEW

Bad weather andthe politics of climate change

“Climate is what we expect,” said Mark Twain, “weather is what we get.”

Little wonder it’sbecome apoliticalissue

As fierce partisanshiptakeshold of American politics,all issues get sucked into the vortex. Public policies, good and bad, areseenthrough the lens of politics, not the common good. This applies to ahost of issues, including the effects of weather patterns in Louisiana andacrossthe nation.

ArecentGallup poll enlightensusonthe regional nature of theweather issue: AmongSoutherners, hurricanes are, far and away,the top weather concern. Among Midwesterners, it’stornadoes; among Easterners, flooding and storms; among Westerners, conditions that lead to wildfires. For Louisianaand other coastalstates, the weather reality andperceptions of climate change are of great consequence. But how do they relate and shape possible solutions?

Large swathsofLouisianaresidents, based on the2024 LSU/Reilly Center/Manship School survey,say their communitieshave experienced long periodsofunusually hotweather, floods, intensestormsand rising sea levels that erode shorelines.The survey alsofound that bigmajorities of affected residents —66% to 88% —believe climatechange contributed to these problems, alot or alittle.

Anationwide poll forUSA Today finds thatmoreDemocrats than Republicans say extreme weather—heat, cold, severe thunderstorms,droughts, wildfires, flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes —has becomemore frequentand moreintense over the past 10 years. While 84% of Democrats believe extreme weather will become more frequentinthe near future, 38%ofRepublicans agree.

Anationwide Pew Research survey found that 60% of Democrats say they experienced long periods of unusually hot weather in the last year,compared with 37% of Republicans. This pattern holds across multiple forms of extreme weather, including floods, intense storms, droughts, majorwildfires and rising sea levels.

What does this mean?

Says the Pew study: “Partisanship shapesperceptions of extreme weather itself, as well as theconnection to climate change.Republicansare lesslikely to report extreme weather events than Democrats. And while most Republicanswho do report experiencing extreme weather events draw alink to climate change, they are much less likely than Democrats to see astrong connection ” For example: The Pew poll findsthat 68% of Democrats and 26%ofRepublicans thinkclimatechange has contributed “a lot” to recent severeweather,like floodsand extreme storms. In addition, 72% of Democratsand 43% of Republicans think climate change contributed “a lot”torising sealevels that erode beaches and shorelines.

What about solutions?

The most popular proposals nationwide, according to Pew, are stricter building standardsfor new constructioninhighrisk communities (77% support)and financialassistanceto rebuild after extreme weather events (64%). Only14% of Americans favor requiring people to moveout of high-risk communities and28% favorbuying homes andmovingresidents to lower-risk areas.

By much smaller margins, more Americans thannot favor banning newconstructioninhigh-riskcommunities, and more than not also favor helping “cover therisingcostof homeowners’ insurance.”

Democrats are more likely than Republicanstosupport all of these national proposals. However, big majorities of both partiesfavorstricter building standards (71% of Republicans, 84% of Democrats)and financialassistancetorebuild (60%ofRepublicans,68% of Democrats).

This goes to show that even in adividednation—with partisans from each side fixatedoncrushing the opposition common ground can still befound

Based on the 2025 LSU survey,big majoritiesofLouisiana residents favor avariety of mitigationand reliefefforts. It found that 81% support payinghomeowners to strengthen their roofs to reduce riskofdamagefromstorms; 79% favor financial assistance for people who live in high-riskareas to relocate to safer spots;71% oppose new constructioninhighrisk areas and 66% support financialassistancetoresidents in high-riskareastorebuild their homes inthe same place. Highnumbers like theseusually spill over partisandivides. As the recently deceased TomLehreroncesaid, “Bad weather always looks worse through awindow.”Public issues, too, especially the toughest ones,alwayslook worse through apartisan lens.

Ron Faucheux is anonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writer basedinLouisiana.

DefundingPBS andNPR basedonspeciousarguments

Once again, U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy have pooped on our heads and are trying to convince us it’sjust meltingice cream. Both voted for therescission package to defund NPR and PBS. Cassidy,tojustify his vote, referenced apiece titled “Animals need gender pronouns, too” as if that was emblematic of PBS/NPR programs. Perhaps one of his aides was tasked with finding one title, sans context,to support Cassidy’sposition. NPR and PBS are available to all of us, subscribers and nonsubscribers, offering everythingfrom intelligent children’s

programstointernational news to entertainment. Both offer a varietyofcontent and opinions; neither offers aslavish devotion to President Donald Trump. Could our Louisiana senators just be acting as minions to achieve Trump’srevenge on all things that do not praise him? Iwant to know how defunding NPR/PBS reduces the deficit. How does the clawback improve thefederal government? How does removing congressionally approved funding improve our lives?

KATHY A. RUSH NewOrleans

OurFoundingFathers were wary of religion in government forareason

After 10 years of fighting over religious differences, primarily in Germany and Switzerland, with tens of thousands of casualties,the Religious Peace of Augsburg was signed in 1555. Notable productsofthis “peace” were that rulers of each state would choose the religion of thestate, and folks who lived there would have to follow thereligion or leave. Religious uniformity,yes. Religious tolerance, no. So went theReformation. Religious wars started again in France in the1570s and culminated in the Thirty Years War, with fighting in France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland, killing some10million people. In 1648, thePeace of Westphalia was signed, and the fighting stopped —areligious stalemate, with agricultural and economic consequences for everyone. The main learning of the leaders was that religion needed to be kept out of politics and government. Many of thepeople who immigrated tothe colonies left their European homes because of religious persecution. The colonies were settled by folks of different

religious beliefs. In Massachusetts,there werePuritans/Calvinists. In Pennsylvania, Quakers/ Anabaptists. In Maryland, Catholics. In Virginia, Anglicans. Some later immigrants experienced religious persecution in the colonies, depending on where they settled The designers of the U.S. Constitution were men of the Enlightenment, many classically educated, fully aware of the history of Western civilization, especially thepolitical history of Western Europe during the Reformation. The Founders knew religion was important to the citizens of thecolonies, yet also knew that religion was divisive, not unifying. The Constitution was ratified provisionally,adding aguarantee that people wouldn’tbepersecuted for their religious beliefs, thus theFirst Amendment, ratified three years after theConstitution.Init, the Founders wisely allowed citizens to believe as they chose, but did not allow governmenttofavor one religion over another or none at all.

THOMAS HUMBLE Baton Rouge

Iam97years old and in good health. But Irely on my Medicare Advantage plan, and it works forme. Idon’tget sick often, but when Ineed to go see the doctor,I don’tworry about how much Ihave to pay because mostofmybenefits are at a zero copay.I have extra benefits like dental and glasses, which are very affordable because they’re free.

Without my Medicare Advantage plan, Imight worry about an unaffordable health plan, and Iprobably would not have the extra benefits. But as fornow,I don’thave to worry about that, and Ilove my plan. Congress, protect Medicare, please!

LUCILLE ANDERSON Baton Rouge

On the first day of training camp, new Saints coach Kellen Moore opted to keep the players as farawayfrom the fans as possible. Youwould think he would wanttobuild arapport with his fanbase. Hundreds, if not thousands, of fans weredeprived of seeing up close their favorite players. All of the scrimmageaction took place on the field, faraway from the fans. This was not acceptable. Saints fans deserve better EARL PANSANO Metairie

Kelly explains limitations putonsome players

LB Weeks, QB Nussmeier havelight practices

BY WILSON ALEXANDER

Staff writer

After four straightdaysofpractice, LSU coach Brian Kelly said the team wanted to manage the workloadoftwo key players during alight session Friday morning in the indoor practice facility.

Linebacker Whit Weeks did not practice. Instead, he watched from the side or rode a stationary bike. Weeks suffered an ankleinjury that required surgeryinthe Tigers’ bowl game,and Kelly saidLSU didnot wanthim to practice fivedays in arow until gameweek Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier waslimited. Nussmeier,who Kelly said aggravated apreexisting case of patellar tendinitis Aug. 6, did not throw for most of LSU’s14th practice.Heled thestarting offense during certain drills.

“Nuss is much more aboutmanaginghis throws,” Kelly said. “He hit anumber of throws where we give him some time to back off alittle bit.” Weeks and Nussmeier will practicefully during LSU’sscrimmageSaturday night in Tiger Stadium, Kelly said Wide receiver Chris Hilton and safety Jardin Gilbert were not at practice because they graduated Friday,Kelly said. Hilton likely will be astarterthisseason, andGilbert could have arotational role.

LSU did not wear pads Friday ahead of

JOHNSON

LSU linebacker WhitWeeks walksaround the field during the team’s spring practice on April 12 at TigerStadium. Weeksdid not practice Friday.

Tulane QB Sullivan avoids seriousinjury

Bone bruise will sideline quarterbackfromscrimmage

BY GUERRYSMITH

Contributing writer

Injured Tulane quarterback Brendan Sullivan will not need surgery,but he also might not be ready for the Aug. 30 season opener against Northwestern Coach Jon Sumrall said Friday morning that Sullivan had abone bruiseand a “touch of an ankle sprain,” dodging amore serious issue after gettinghurt while being tackled in agoal-line drill on Thursdayat the Saints’ indoor practice facility.Hedefinitely will miss Saturday’sscrimmage, but the timetable for his return will depend on how quickly he heals

“It could be aweek or it could be two weeks,” Sumrall said. “I don’tknow that yet. Ihate it for him because he’shad areally good trainingcamptothispoint, but shutting him downisthe right thing to do.I would love for him to be available forGame 1, but we’re going to do what’s best forhim in the long haul.”

SPORTS

push.WillSaintsfollowsuit?

IRVINE, Calif. If there were ever atime for the NewOrleans Saintstobreak out thetush push, it presented itself in Sunday’spreseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers. TheSaints facedfourth and goal fromthe 1. From the same spot last season, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts scored 12 of his 14 rushing touchdowns on the tush push —the NFL’s most controversial playthatinvolves twoblockersshoving the quarterback frombehindtohelp push him across thepile. Saints coach Kellen Moore wasinvolved in it all, serving as the Eagles offensive coordinator

On Sunday,there was no such push of atush. Not on fourth down —which ended up as a3-yardloss on acarry by running back KendreMiller —or any of the other short-yardage situationsthe Saints faced throughout thegame.

“Wehaven’t practiced anysneak components or anyofthatstuff,” Moore said. Moore hasbeentight-lipped on whetherthe Saints will attempt to run the tush push thisyear.Atthe NFL owners’ meetings in March, Moore said he wasn’tsure whether New Orleans had the personnel to

Anybody canreplicate it. It takespractice. We have asayingthat,‘Ifear not theman who has practiced 10,000 kicks one time. Ifear theman that’s practicedone kick 10,000 times.’”

T.J. PAGANETTI,Saints run-game coordinator,onthe tush push play

properly execute the play.OnTuesday,when asked againabout hisintentions, Moore offered only a“we’ll see” beforenotingthe Saints “aren’t there yet” on any such decision. But talk to anyone from the Eagles —including the contingent whofollowed Moore from Philadelphia to NewOrleans —and they’ll stress that the tush push is muchmore complicated than it seems. To execute it correctly, there’salevel of precision that teamsmust master,and it takes time tohonethepropertechniques.It’swhy, they argue, the Eagles run the play

Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler,right, hands off the ball to running backKendre Miller during the first half of a preseasongameagainst the Los Angeles Chargers on SundayinInglewood,Calif AP PHOTO By JAyNEKAMIN-ONCEA Bridgewater always all this year e this early thewell-traveled tbespending this urgh getting ready debut with Tampa mihelping Northepare to defend the itle he coached his winter ewater wrong. The eretirement hasn’t han 18 months after is eager to go out ll“spin it.” Andhe’s ora teamthathas pped oousta ghtNFC South titles,

ateam that also happens to be not that far from home. Still, Bridgewater would be lying if he said this was his first choice. The plan was to coach until Northwestern’sseason was over,then explore his options in the NFL, justashedid lastyearwhenhemadea cameo with Detroit as Jared Goff’s backup duringthe Lions’ playoff push. Aseemingly innocuoussocial media post changed everything. Bridgewater’sFacebook message was designed to find donors willingtohelp offset team expenses not covered by the school,expenses —from food to rides homefrom practice —that he freely admitted he paid out of his own pocket in 2024. Yethis admission also constituted

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NCAA finesMichiganmillions

Mooresuspended forthree gamesover sign-stealing scandal

BY LARRYLAGE and MAURA CAREY AP sportswriters

ANN ARBOR, Mich. The NCAA fined Michigan tens of millions of dollars Friday and suspended coach Sherrone Moore for three games for asign-stealing scandal that has loomed over college football’swinningest program for nearly two years.

The NCAA said it had “overwhelming” and concerning evidence of acover-up by Wolverines staffand noted there were “sufficient grounds foramultiyear postseasonban”againsta program now considered arepeat violator

But the governing body stopped short of program-crippling punishments, saying atwo-year postseasonban “wouldunfairly penalize student-athletesfor the actions of coaches and staff” who are no longer there.

“The panel concluded that an elaborate, impermissible scouting scheme was embedded in the Michigan football program over thecourseofthree football seasons, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and this occurred underformer head coachJim Harbaugh’s oversight,” said Norman Bay,chief hearing officer for the Division ICommittee on Infractions.

“What makes this case even more serious, in addition to the clear intent to impermissibly gain asubstantial competitiveadvantage, is the elaborate effort to obstruct the investigation ” Moore, who was already issued aself-imposed two-game suspension by Michigan, will alsobe banned from the firstgame of the 2026-27 season for atotal of three

Marcus Thornton attacks the basket while playing for New Orleans. ASSOCIATED PRESS

games. Moore received atwo-year show-cause order,but he will be allowed to fulfill coaching commitments andotherathletically related activities.

Financial penaltiesare expected to exceed $20 million and include a$50,000 fine, a10% fine on the football program’s budget, a10% fine on Michigan’s2025-26 scholarships and afine equivalentto theanticipated loss of postseason revenue for the 2025 and2026 seasons.

Michigan also facesa25% reductioninofficial visits during the upcoming season anda14-week prohibition on football recruiting communications during theprobation period.

Connor Stalions, aformer low-

McMahon hiresex-LSU star Thornton to staff

BY TOYLOYBROWN III Staff writer

Aformer LSU standout and NBA player is returning to Baton Rouge as the newest hire to join coach Matt McMahon’s LSU men’sbasketball program. Marcus Thornton, who was the 2009 Southeastern Conference Playerofthe Year,willjoin the team’ssupport staff forthe 2025-26 season, the program announced Friday

The eight-year NBA player will have an off-court role mentoring players. He also will play arole in helping with player development. He is the second former NBAplayerand LSUstartobe hired this offseason after Ronald Dupree became the team’sfirst generalmanagerinApril.

Thornton, 38,was born in Baton Rouge and played two years at Kilgore College before playing his junior and senior seasons at LSU. As ajunior in the 2007-08 season, he averaged 19.6 points pergame. In his final season with the Ti-

gers, the 6-foot-4 guard averaged an SEC-high 21.1ppg. He led themtoanSEC regular-season championshipwith a13-3conference record (27-8 overall). LSUreached thesecond round of both the SECTournament and the NCAA Tournament.

Thornton sits sixth on LSU’s career scoring average leaders (minimum1,000 points scored) at 20.41 ppgand concluded his twoyearcareer 23rd all-time in scoring(1,347 points). His168 career 3-pointers are also 10th all-time at LSU.

He was asecond-round pick in 2009 and played 483 games for seven NBAteamsineight years Thornton started hisNBA career playing for the then-New Orleans Hornets during the 2009-10 season, averaging 14.5 ppg in 73 games. His NBA career scoring average is 11.9 points and hishighest average for aseason was 18.7 ppg in 51 games for the Sacramento Kings in 2011-12. His final season was in 2016-17 withthe Washington Wizards.

level staffer whoconducted the scouting and sign-stealing operation, was issuedaneight-year show-cause order

Former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh faces a10-year showcause order following the conclusion of hispreviousfour-yearorder effective Aug. 7, 2028.

Ashow-cause order effectively bans aperson from college athletics for theperiod handed down. Harbaugh and Stalions will be prohibitedfrom engaging in all athletically related activitiesfor several years as aresult of the decision.

Michigan said it would appeal thedecision.

“(R)espectfully,ina number of instances thedecision makes

fundamental errors in interpreting NCAA bylaws; and it includes anumber of conclusions that are directly contrary to the evidence –orlack of evidence –inthe record,”the school said.

TheNCAA does not have rules againststealing signs, but does prohibit schools from sending scouts to the games of future opponents and using electronic equipment to record another team’ssignals.

In anoticesenttothe school last year,the NCAA alleged that Mooreviolated rulesasanassistantunder Harbaugh.

Harbaugh, who left the Wolverines after they won the 2023 national championshipand now coaches the Los Angeles Chargers, servedathree-game suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its investigation into the allegations after the two ended up in court.

Moore also wasaccused of deleting text messages with Stalions before theywere recovered and provided to the NCAA.

TheNCAAinvestigation surfaced earlyinthe 2023 season amid allegations thatMichigan used arobust in-person scouting and sign-stealing operation conducted by Stalions. He wassuspended by theschooland later resigned.

Stalions, whodid not participate in the NCAA investigation, recently said he knew almost every signal opponents used in seven games over two seasons.

Big TenCommissioner Tony Petitti sent aletter to the NCAA Committee on Infractions last month,suggesting that Michigan’s football program should not face more sanctions relatedtothe signstealing saga.

The Wolverines open the season on Aug. 30 at home against New Mexico State and then play at Oklahoma, where Moore was an offensive lineman, on Sept. 6.

MacIntyreposts 64, leadsScheffler by 5

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

Oneday it was the putter,another day it was the irons. No one had alower score than Robert MacIntyre both of those rounds at the BMW Championship, and his reward for his 6-under 64 on Friday was afive-shotlead over Scottie Scheffler going into the weekend.

MacIntyre closed with six straight birdies in theopening round for a62, and he started the second roundwith ashotinto5 feet on the476-yard first hole for anotherbirdie.Hekeptbogeys off his card this time and set a daunting target at 14-under 126.

Schefflerspent thesteamyafternoon trying to keep inrange. He had to settle for six pars at the end for a65and was at 9-under 131, at least booking aspot in the final group.

Ludvig Aberg shot 64 and was another stroke back.

It was the largest 36-hole lead at the BMW Championship sinceJason Day led by five shots in 2015 at Conway Farms. Day went on to win by six.

“It’s only 36 holes gone. There’s alongway to go,” MacIntyre said. “I’m comfortable with whoIam. I’mcomfortable with the team around me, and I’m comfortable on this golf course.Justgoand play golf.

He hasmadeitlookaseasyasit sounds on aCaves Valley course that hasbeenrenovated,lengthened,has newgreens and still hasn’tput up too much resistance

Astros closer Haderdone throwing for three weeks

Houston Astros All-Star closer Josh Hader will be shut down from throwing forapproximately three weeks after the team announced Friday he hasbeen diagnosed with leftshoulder capsule strain. Hader was placed on the injured list on Monday for the first time in his nine-year major league career because of ashoulderstrain. Astros manager Joe Espada said Wednesday that Hader would seek asecond opinion before determining anext course of action.

General manager DanaBrown said Hader’snext three weeks will be filled with strengthening exercisesand rest before he is re-examined.A six-time All-Star,Hader, who is in his second year with the Astros, is 6-2witha2.05 ERA and is tied forthird with 28 saves in 48 appearances this season.

Brewersactivate rookie PMisiorowski from IL

Milwaukee Brewers rookie pitcher JacobMisiorowski hasbeenactivatedfromthe injuredlistafter missing about 21/2 weeks with aleft tibia contusion.

The All-Star right-hander started Friday for the NL Central-leading Brewers’seriesopeneratCincinnati as they attempted to earn a 13th straight victory.Herecorded only four outs while giving up five runs on four hitsand threewalks during 54 pitches.

Misiorowski last pitchedonJuly 28 in an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

Misiorowski’sknee appeared to buckle in the first inning that night as he fielded adribbler and threw wildly to first base, though he remained in the game and ended up lasting four innings.

Jaguarsrookie Hunter sits, questionable vs. Saints Jacksonville Jaguars two-way star Travis Hunter was held out of the team’slight practice Friday “as aprecaution” because of an upper-body injury When asked whether Hunter wouldplayinthe team’s preseason gameatNew Orleans on Sunday, coach Liam Coen added “we don’t know yet.”

Hunter was on thefieldfor the hourlong session and carried a play-calling sheet while following the actionclosely.Hunterplayed on offense and defense, totaling 18 snaps, in Jacksonville’spreseason opener against Pittsburgh last Saturday.The Heisman Trophy winner also played both ways during a scrimmageThursday and crashed hard to the ground while defending adeep pass.

Muñoz of Colombia

shoots 59 at LIVGolf

without much wind. MacIntyre still putted well, except for the 5-foot birdie he missed on the 18th and another birdie chanceinside 8feet on theeighth hole. He has gained 6.8 shots on thefieldinputting through 36 holes to lead the key puttingstatistic. But he was rarely out of position even when he missedafairway or green.

“Yesterday the putter was on fire. Today Ifelt like my iron play wasexceptional,”MacIntyre said. “Obviously,coming from links golf back out to throwing dartsisa bit different techniquewise, turf-wise, so it took alittle bit of readjusting, but I’ve got the hang of it.”

Scheffler had his 15th consecutive sub-70 round andpulled within five shots on No.12when he hit a4-iron from 221 yards to 7feet for birdie.But he hadonly two reasonablechances from the 15-foot range the rest of the way

“Bogey-free is always nice,” Schefflersaid. “I would have liked to get to have gotten acouple better looks downthe stretch, but didn’thit as many fairways thelast few holes.”

Hideki Matsuyamahas yetto make bogey over 36 holes, even more remarkable because he has been feeling ill this week. That much wasclear when he cameout of scoring and headed straight forthe car, aJapanese television crew hustling to try to catch up withhim. He shot 64 and was alone in fourth place,still seven shotsbehind

Sebastian Muñoz of Colombia recorded the third sub-60 score on the LIV GolfLeague, making birdie on 13 of his last 14 holes and becoming thefirst playertoshoot 59 with adouble bogey He responded from that early blunderbychipping in forbirdie on the sixth hole, the start of eight straight birdiesfor another record in thefour-year history of LIV Golf. He finishedwith five birdies in arow,hitting agap wedge to 3 feet on his final hole.

On aday of low scoringatThe Club at Chatham Hills,apar 71 that hosted the Mid-American Conference championship last year, Muñoz led by three shots over Dustin Johnson. Alarge group at 64 includedJoaquin Niemann, who was 7under through nine holes.

Heat gains flexibilityby trading HighsmithtoNets Miamitraded forward Haywood Highsmith to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, amove that gets theHeat underthe taxlinefor this coming season and creates roster flexibility.The Heat arealso sending asecond-round pickin2032 to Brooklyn, which is sending aconditional second-round pick in next year’sdraft to Miami. With Highsmith being moved, Miami nowhas two open roster spots. Highsmith had knee surgery earlierthis month to repair ameniscus issueand theHeattimeline for his return was 8-10 weeks, one that suggested he could be ready for the start of the regular season. The 28-year-old Highsmith averaged 6.5 points and 3.4 rebounds in 74 games

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

DARRyL WEBB

Arizona St. wants growth after Big 12 title debut

BY STEPHEN HAWKINS AP sportswriter

Arizona State was a big surprise debuting in the Big 12 with a conference championship and making the College Football Playoff after being picked to finish at the bottom of the 16-team league.

Kenny Dillingham, the 35-yearold coach now in his third season at his alma mater, bluntly told his Sun Devils they really didn’t do anything special last year

“The reality is there’s been a lot of teams in college football who have done what we’ve done, who have won one year and then come back to reality,” Dillingham said.

“What would be special would be to continue to build off of that. The real challenge was how do we not become what normal teams in our situation do, which is fall back to where we’ve always been.”

After a CFP quarterfinal loss in double overtime to now preseason

No 1 Texas, the No. 11 Sun Devils are the highest-ranked team from the unpredictable Big 12, even after the departure of do-everything running back Cam Skattebo to the NFL.

They return quarterback Sam Leavitt (2,855 yards, 24 TDs passing), the preseason Big 12 offensive player of the year, and receiver Jordyn Tyson (75 catches, 1,101 yards, 10 TDs) is healthy after missing the end of the last season with a collarbone injury

The last time Arizona State was higher in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 was No. 8 in 1998, what turned into a 5-6 season

The Big 12’s other ranked teams are No. 17 Kansas State and league runner-up No. 22 Iowa State, who open against each other with a conference game in

TULANE

Continued from page 1C

Sullivan, an Iowa transfer who joined the team in late May has been competing for the starting job with July arrival Jake Retzlaff, a BYU transfer, and Ball State transfer Kadin Semonza, who enrolled in January. Sullivan’s running ability, compared with Semonza’s, and knowledge of the offense, compared with Retzlaff’s, may have given him a slight leg up in the race until his injury, but his absence could alter the picture.

“Brendan will be out at minimum probably a week from yesterday,” Sumrall said “Everybody’s body responds differently, and every position is a little different with what the demands are, but all things considered, it’s positive. The Xray showed nothing that we had to do anything about. The MRI showed nothing crazy abnormal other than maybe ankle inflammation.”

Sumrall said Sullivan would watch Saturday’s scrimmage from the coaches’ booth with a headset on, protecting him from aggravating the injury on the sideline. Retzlaff and Semonza will split the first-team reps, with Illinois transfer Donovan Leary getting in earlier than he did in last Saturday’s scrimmage.

“There’s still some nuances where you’re throwing the

Ireland on Aug. 23, along with No. 23 Texas Tech

All return quality starting quarterbacks.

Texas Tech transformed its program with big money through the transfer portal and made the preseason poll for the first time since 2008, six years before three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes played a game for the Red Raiders.

Baylor redshirt sophomore Bryson Washington (1,028 yards, 12 TDs) is the only of the Big 12’s eight 1,000-yard rushers back from last season. The Bears, who won their last six regular-season games, also return quarterback Sawyer Robertson (3,335 yards, 27 TDs).

Leading passer Shedeur Sanders (4,134 yards, 37 TDs) went in the NFL draft after two seasons at Colorado, but the next eight top QBs were all coming back, including Iowa State’s Rocco Becht, Texas Tech’s Behren Morton and K-State’s Avery Johnson. The only change was Jake Retzlaff unexpectedly leaving BYU this spring after a since-dismissed civil sexual assault lawsuit

Three seasons after making the national title game, TCU has Josh Hoover (3,949 yards, 27 TDs) after a 9-4 season capped by four consecutive wins.

Futhermore, there are some old coaches feeling some heat.

Only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz in his 27th season has been with his FBS team longer than Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham. The Big 12’s stalwarts are coming off huge disappointments in their 20th seasons.

Utah was the presumptive favorite last year to be the team to

whole kitchen sink of the playbook at a guy, that’s a lot,”

Sumrall said of Retzlaff. “He’s handled it well. It will be good to see him go out there again (Saturday). He’s getting better every day because he’s getting a lot more reps.”

Sumrall said both Retzlaff and Sullivan had produced scoring opportunities on 70% of their live drives in camp meaning they had at least put the offense in field goal range.

Format

Saturday’s scrimmage, which will began at 11 a.m. to mimic the sultry conditions for the Northwestern opener that will start at the same time, will be considerably shorter than the one last Saturday

The first and second teams will go live for about 20-25 plays after having 69 a week ago. After that segment, there will be a four-minute scenario as the offense tries to run out the clock while protecting a lead, with no tackling to the ground allowed.

The third period will feature one or two 2-minute drives before the backups take over for about 30 snaps at the end.

“I don’t care about the physicality of the drill as much because we’ve had a pretty physical training camp,” Sumrall said.

“It’s not been soft by any stretch of the imagination, so we need to make sure we’re healthy and available and get situational work.”

Kelly remains confident in retooled offensive line

BY KOKI RILEY and REED DARCEY Staff writers

The biggest question mark surrounding LSU heading into this preseason was the offensive line.

After boasting one of the best pass blocking groups in the sport the past two seasons the Tigers came into this year needing to replace four three-year starters.

Although the front has had an up-and-down preseason, coach Brian Kelly is confident in the line heading into the season opener against Clemson on Aug. 30.

to second-degree murder

He is not accused of partaking in the alleged crime, only housing the two suspects. His lawyer, Kris Perrett has said that Lindsey was not aware the two individuals were wanted by law enforcement when he allowed them to stay in his on-campus apartment in July “Well, this is all about who is in your circle, right?” Kelly said. “I’m not concerned about our university and the security and such. This is about who you give access to in your circle, right?

make its Big 12 debut with a title, but had its first losing season (5-7, 2-7 Big 12) since 2013. Two-time Pac-12 champion quarterback Cam Rising had to “medically retire”, but dual-threat QB Devon Dampier followed new offensive coordinator Jason Beck from New Mexico.

Oklahoma State was 3-9 and didn’t win a conference game, its first losing season since Gundy’s 4-7 debut in 2005. And there is still plenty of uncertainty with two new coordinators and a lot of transfers.

“The changes in how we go about rebuilding, whether it’s financially or roster management, have been challenging but also intriguing,” Gundy said “It’s different than it’s ever been before.”

However, there are some familar new coaches sticking around this season.

Scott Frost has reunited with UCF and Rich Rodriguez is back at West Virginia, but they are new coaches to the Big 12 since those schools weren’t yet in the league when they were there.

“Whatever head coaching spot, it takes you six to nine months to kind of get a lay of the land,” Rodriguez said. “Well, West Virginia took six to nine minutes. But, then again, there’s also times of change.”

The Mountaineers are in their 14th Big 12 season They has three consecutive 11-win seasons in the Big East from 2005-07 before Rodriguez went to Michigan.

This is UCF’s third Big 12 season. Frost coached UCF’s undefeated season out of the American Athletic Conference in 2017, when the Knights declared themselves national champions and he left for Nebraska.

Proven starters such as Sam Howard, Maurice Turner, Derrick Graham, Shadre Hurst and Bailey Despanie will play only the first set of downs. Another group will leave after about 10 plays, and a third will play 15-20 downs. Only the deep reserves and young guys will be available from start to finish.

The early departures will not have it easy, though. They will do conditioning sprints while the scrimmage continues.

Undecided

Turner has excelled on kickoff returns in practice, but Sumrall said the staff had not decided whether the Louisville transfer will handle that role in games because of the physical toll of playing running back. The temptation is to ask him to do too much.

“Maurice Turner looks really good in anything we’ve had him do,” Sumrall said. “We go to eat lunch here in about 30 minutes, and he’ll look good walking to lunch. We could put him on defense and some guys better look out for their jobs.”

Lagniappe

The 13th practice of camp was light, with no seven-on-seven or 11-on-11 periods at Yulman Stadium. Sumrall is making good on his promise to go over almost every conceivable situation. He had the Wave work on covering desperation kickoff returns at the end of games with multiple laterals.

“I’ve coached for a long time, a lot of guys in the NFL, a lot of first-round draft picks. I think I’ve got a pretty good eye for what an offensive line looks like,” Kelly said. “This group is going to be really good.”

“I mean, your circle of influence has gotta be based upon people that you trust, people that know you and you know them. And that circle needs to really be evaluated by some players and some individuals.”

LSU notebook

All four starters who left were selected in the NFL draft. The first player picked was left tackle Will Campbell, who was the No. 4 overall selection.

Kelly admits the Tigers don’t have a lineman of Campbell’s caliber, but he believes the unit has done a good job of working together That cohesion, he said, starts with Virginia Tech transfer Braelin Moore at center

“Braelin Moore kind of sets up the rest of the group for success,” Kelly said. “His combination work is outstanding, his recognition of fronts. (For) us to be an elite offensive line, if you have a center that can kind of set the stage for that, it allows everything else to kind of fall into place.”

LSU mostly has stuck with the same starting five on the offensive line this preseason, only occasionally rotating in redshirt sophomore Paul Mubenga and redshirt freshman Coen Echols with the first team Alongside Moore, the Tigers have turned to Northwestern transfer Josh Thompson at right guard, redshirt sophomore DJ Chester at left guard, redshirt sophomore Tyree Adams at left tackle and redshirt freshman Weston Davis at right tackle.

Kelly on Lindsey arrest Kelly said Friday that the arrest of LSU running back JT Lindsey should serve as a reminder for his players to “keep your circle really close.”

Lindsey, a freshman from Alexandria, is suspended from team activities because he’s facing one charge of accessory after the fact

LSU

Continued from page 1C

the scrimmage. Kelly said the team plans to replicate a road environment as much as possible Saturday night by turning on the video boards and playing loud music before a top-10 matchup in the season opener at Clemson.

“We want to be able to duplicate a night game the best we can,” Kelly said. “Things that can distract you, we have to work on that.”

Evaluating backup QB

With Nussmeier watching practice, sophomore quarterback

Michael Van Buren took a lot of the first-team reps in one-on-one and seven-on-seven drills. Kelly said Van Buren took “virtually all of the reps.”

“We’re pleased with his progress, no doubt,” Kelly said.

Van Buren has been inconsistent in his first preseason since transferring from Mississippi State, but he threw the ball well Friday

At one point, Van Buren threaded a touchdown to tight end Bauer Sharp through a tight window along the back line of the end zone, though the defenders in the area said he was out of bounds.

Defense nearly set?

Without Weeks, redshirt freshman Tylen Singleton played linebacker on the first-team defense along with redshirt senior West Weeks and redshirt junior Harold Perkins

The rest of the starting defense could be coming into focus two weeks out from the Clemson game.

On Friday, the rest of the unit consisted of sophomore defensive end Gabriel Reliford, sophomore defensive tackle Dominick McKinley, South Florida transfer defensive tackle Bernard Gooden, Florida trans-

The two suspects Shemell Jacobs, 17, and Keldrick Jordan, 18 — were arrested at LSU’s Nicholson Gateway apartments on Aug. 4 in connection with the shooting death of 17-year-old Corey Brooks in Alexandria.

According to the affidavit for Lindsey’s arrest, Jacobs and Jordan were seen entering and exiting the apartment with Lindsey Police also found that Jacobs had Lindsey’s ID when he was taken into custody

The warrant for Lindsey’s arrest said investigators believe the LSU freshman knew that Jacobs and Jordan were wanted for their alleged role in the shooting.

“They’re making revenue-share money,” Kelly said of his players. “They’re targets, too. People want to ingratiate themselves with people that are making substantial amounts of money, so you’ve got to be careful.”

Shifting Johnson

LSU sophomore Ju’Juan Johnson is officially a running back again, and Kelly expects him to have a role in the offense.

Johnson, a former Lafayette Christian two-way star, began practicing with the Tigers last season as a defensive back.

LSU moved him to running back during the year, then decided in the offseason that he’d play quarterback.

Now those plans are on the shelf.

Because Trey Holly transferred to Southern in July and Lindsey was suspended, the Tigers were down to three scholarship tailbacks before they moved Johnson back to that position.

“He is focusing his time at running back at this point,” Kelly said. “I think he’s gonna be an important part of what we do.”

fer defensive end Jack Pyburn, Virginia Tech transfer cornerback Mansoor Delane junior cornerback Ashton Stamps, NC State transfer safety Tamarcus Cooley and Houston transfer safety AJ Haulcy

Sixth-year senior JacobianGuillory and sophomore Ahmad Breaux rotated in at defensive tackle with the starters.

CB returns

Redshirt sophomore cornerback

Ja’Keem Jackson practiced fully Friday after he missed practice with an injury earlier this week Kelly said Jackson suffered a hamstring injury, which he described as “probably a Grade 1” strain.

“We wanted to be certain that when we brought him back in, that we didn’t have any reoccurrences,” Kelly said.

Before Jackson had to sit for a few days,KellysaidLSUwasrotatingsix cornerbacks. Stamps and Delane appear in line to start with sophomore PJ Woodland, five-star freshman DJ Pickett, Jackson and redshirt freshman MichaelTurner behind them.

Clemson prep underway

Last year, LSU did not start preparing its players for Southern Cal until the Saturday two weeks before the game.

Thisyear,theprepstartedTuesday — four days earlier than last season.

“We’ll have no excuses about recognition of scheme,” Kelly said. Kelly said when the coaches begin going over fronts and potential plays of the Tigers’ upcoming opponent varies every year, depending on the makeup of the team. He has started as late as the last week of camp with teams that have question marks all over the field.

“This one has been, I think, driven by the fact that we have some veteran players on both sides of the ball,” Kelly said. “That allowed us to transition into our opponent a little bit sooner.”

Lynx shows its depth in Collier’s absence

New arrival Carrington is making an immediate impact

BY DAVE CAMPBELL Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS After coming so close to the WNBA championship last year, the Minnesota Lynx has picked right up where it left off.

It sure wasn’t satisfied with the status quo, though, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of DiJonai Carrington. The Most Improved Player award winner and All-Defensive First Team selection in 2024 has bolstered the league leader’s depth, injected a dose of two-way energy into an already determined club and made a seamless transition after the midseason switch.

“She’s been a great addition,” forward Bridget Carleton said. “Playing against her has always been a challenge. She’s just feisty, competitive, always wants to win, plays hard every single possession.” Even with superstar Napheesa Collier sidelined by a sprained

she comes

‘It’s a little bit surreal’:

Guard led Seattle to 4 WNBA titles during her career

PERCY ALLEN

The Seattle Times (TNS)

SEATTLE — Two years ago, the Storm retired Sue Bird’s No. 10 jersey, which hangs in the Climate Pledge Arena rafters, and last year Seattle city officials renamed a Lower Queen Anne street in her honor. And on Sunday morning, Bird will soar to even loftier heights, becoming the rare sports superstar to garner a trifecta of tributes — a larger-than-life-size bronze replica of the Storm star, making her the first WNBA player immortalized with a statue by a franchise.

“Incredible?” Bird said during an interview weeks ago. “It’s a little bit surreal, but also such an honor. It means so much to me to be recognized in this way by the franchise and by the city.”

Bird’s legacy is cemented on the Climate Pledge Arena plaza where she starred for over two decades.

“I like things that are permanent and I like things that you can’t argue,” said Bird, who played 19 seasons with the Storm during a 21year WNBA career and won four titles in Seattle. “That’s what I’ve

always said about winning championships.

“You can argue about players and who’s better and who’s your preference, but you can’t argue if you won or if you didn’t. And there’s something about this statue that feels similar, albeit different because it’s just marking a career It’s marking a legacy It’s marking the impact that I had in the city, and then in return how they feel about me. So, there’s a lot of a lot of good in that.”

Bird, the No. 1 overall pick out of the University of Connecticut in the 2002 WNBA draft posted a

COMMENTARY

PAUL ZEISE Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS) PITTSBURGH Let’s recap what happened this week regarding the Steelers and see if we can understand why anyone in their right mind would buy a ticket to a preseason football game. The Steelers broke camp, then invited the Buccaneers to come to town a day early for their preseason game so they could have one of these “joint practices.” Tampa Bay obliged, so Thursday they came into town and held a joint practice with the Steelers that had pretty much anyone and everyone healthy participate. That means it was Aaron Rodgers on one side and Baker Mayfield on the other and all of their weapons, as well. It was Jalen Ramsey against Mike Evans and the Steelers offensive line trying to stop Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey It was real football, complete with starters and guys who are actually going to make the team in a controlled scrimmage with a bunch of situational football periods. It was exactly the kind of exhibition fans would want to watch.

On Saturday, the teams will meet at Acrisure Stadium for a preseason game that will more closely resemble a pickup game than

333-247 record during the regular season and 34-26 in the playoffs with the Storm.

The 5-foot-10 playmaker is widely regarded as the greatest point guard in league history whose 3,234 career assists record may never be broken. She also ranks first all time in games played (580), second in 3-pointers made (1,001), third in steals (724), seventh in field goals made (2,479) and ninth in points (6,803).

The Storm commissioned acclaimed artist Julie Rotblatt Amrany who is the co-founder of the

NFL preseason games are the biggest money grabs in sports

an NFL contest. It will be a night of vanilla offenses run by backups trying to beat vanilla defenses. The practice on Thursday involving the starters and real situations was closed to the public, closed to the media well, media could watch, just not report — not on TV and basically so secretive I am wondering if military strategies were discussed in between plays. The preseason game on Saturday is going to be wide open but, worse, is going to cost people real, actual money to go see. Yes, the practice people would want to see is closed to the public and fans, while the preseason game nobody cares about that features pretty much no varsity players will cost fans $50, $75, $100 or so. Honestly, if there ever were an argument to just get rid of preseason games altogether this is it And if there were ever an argument that preseason games are basically a Ponzi scheme, this is it. I had to laugh when I read Todd Bowles said Mayfield and Evans played so well in the joint practice, there is no need for them to play Saturday night. I mean, why would anyone coming Saturday who paid money for a ticket want to see those two and Rodgers and

Metcalf for that matter anyway, right?

Preseason games are where the guys who are struggling to make a roster get a chance to put some film together And that’s great, but why make fans pay for these tickets? Why charge money for a dress rehearsal for a bunch of guys who won’t even be in the wedding? Here is what the NFL should do to make this right with the fans — either go to a joint practice/scrimmage model fans can watch or make preseason games free. I know all the arguments about how the poor NFL needs to maximize revenue by charging for preseason games. I get it — the NFL would go broke without extorting its season-ticket holders for an extra game or two, but it is so immoral and unethical I think it hurts the brand. If they really need to make up the lost revenue, either raise season-ticket prices a few bucks or squeeze a few more dollars out of your TV partners. That way, you could make preseason games free to the public, probably increase attendance and grow your brand even more, and nobody would have to feel bad about spending $100 to watch junior-varsity teams battle each other

“I’m a winner and this is a winning organization,” Carrington said.

The 5-foot-11 native of San Diego, who played her first four WNBA seasons with the Connecticut Sun, was dealt to Dallas earlier this year She averaged a careerbest 5.1 rebounds in 20 games with the Wings. In three games since the trade, and coincidentally since Collier was injured, Carrington has 40 points, 12 rebounds and six steals. The Lynx takes a five-game winning streak into its game on Saturday against the New York Liberty, whom it has already beaten twice this month in a measure of revenge for an overtime loss in New York last year in the decisive game of the WNBA Finals.

people are playing with confidence,” associate head coach Eric Thibault said. “Our group’s attitude is right about it. Nobody feels sorry for ourselves or anything like that. We just go out and battle.” Carrington was acquired from the Dallas Wings on Aug. 3 for backup forward Diamond Miller, injured guard Karlie Samuelson and Minnesota’s 2027 secondround draft pick.

Storm to honor Bird with statue

renowned Rotblatt Amrany Studio in Highwood, Illinois. She met with Bird in August 2024 about a month after working on the statue.

“She’s really a sweet lady,” Rotblatt Amrany said. “Very engaging, forthright, clear-minded and clear about what she wanted and (a) passionate woman. We were lucky enough to have her come to the studio. I made a model of the piece after I received several photos from the Storm. I made a small clay model that Sue could see before I would get to welding the large piece.

“I took more photos of her and measurements. It was a good session. She’s funny, lighthearted, sweet and direct.”

Bird will get her first glimpse of the 8-foot, 650-pound statue along with what’s expected to be an ample-sized crowd of Storm supporters during Sunday’s 10 a.m ceremony outside Climate Pledge Arena, which precedes a free fan festival at noon.

The details on the pose remain under wraps until Sunday, but Bird admitted she had to settle on her second choice because her first option would have been difficult to re-create.

“It was really cool because I got to choose which sneakers I’m wearing,” she said. “So, I picked my all-time favorites the (Nike) Huarache 2K. I got to choose the

uniform and just chose the last one that I played in.” And what about her infamous face mask?

“I’m not going to reveal anything,” Rotblatt Amrany said, laughing. “I can’t divulge any secrets at all. I know Sue broke her nose five times, but that’s all I’m saying.”

Rotblatt Amrany has created over 75 statues, including works of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Bird joins a shortlist of Seattle sports superstars with statues including former Sonics great Lenny Wilkens and Seattle Mariners greats Ken Griffey Jr and Edgar Martinez, while Ichiro is scheduled to receive a statue next year

“I don’t know that I can right now,” Bird said when asked to put her statue in perspective “These are the types of things I think that you don’t really understand it without time. I think with time, you start to feel the impact of things. In the moment, obviously it feels big. It feels special, but you can’t understand like globally if you will, how big that impact is until some time goes by “Whether it’s the jersey, the street sign and now the statue, for me, I look at these things, and I’m immediately met with so many memories.”

In September, Bird will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bengals assessing options at safety after Stone’s injury

BY CHARLIE GOLDSMITH Associated Press

CINCINNATI After the Cincinnati Bengals secondary struggled in the preseason opener, starting safety Geno Stone learned he has a soft tissue injury that has him out on a “week-toweek” basis. Those recent developments gave the Bengals a lot to discuss and work on heading into their second preseason game against the Washington Commanders on Monday night.

Coach Zac Taylor said the Philadelphia Eagles’ success against the Bengals last week showed the defensive backs some areas to focus on. Penalties also made a big difference last week, and Taylor wants to see those cleaned up.

“We were just in a lot of one-on-one positions where we were fingertip away a lot of times,” Taylor said.

“Continue to be competitive, continue to be detailed up on scrimmage. I think overall, operationally there were some things on offense, defense and special teams that we’ve got to be better at.

That had nothing to do with Philly, and that’s one of our primary focuses right now as a team, not having a joint practice this week.” Without Stone in the short term, Tycen Anderson, Daijahn Anthony and PJ Jules have been battling for firstteam reps on defense.

Even though the Bengals didn’t use their safety depth last season, they only added undrafted free agents into that position group. As a result, the back-

ups behind Stone who are now contenders for a firstteam role are getting their first real chance to show what they’re capable of in a starting opportunity Anthony played some backup slot cornerback during the first two weeks last season. But after he committed a key penalty, he lost that role and didn’t play much during the rest of his rookie season. Anderson, a fifth-round pick in 2022, has played one career defensive snap while establishing himself as the team’s top special teamer He has played in 24 total games, and Anderson has 18 total tackles on special teams.

Jules was an undrafted free agent last season who spent 2024 on the Bengals’ practice squad.

COMMENTARY

For Dallas, big differences between new, old coaches

CALVIN WATKINS

The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

OXNARD, Calif. — The Dallas Cowboys broke training camp on Thursday How coach Brian Schottenheimer conducted business compared to his predecessor, Mike McCarthy, was vastly different.

There were more team drills under Schottenheimer, with music playing throughout the practice. Energy, energy and more energy was pushed, from Schottenheimer to the entire coaching staff. Assistant coaches shook players’ hands during stretching exercises, regardless of position group.

The entire team ran over football bags before every practice to set the tone for the high-energy and up-tempo sessions

The famed seven-on-seven, nine-on-seven and one-on-one drills were not seen early in camp. Instead, those drills were moved to the back end.

During McCarthy’s tenure, veteran players would get a day off from time to time. Vets worked during Schottenheimer’s first season. Schottenheimer didn’t hire an assistant head coach, a position McCarthy used during his term with the Cowboys. And here’s a big one. McCarthy had to deal with contract holdouts from CeeDee Lamb and Zack Martin. Schottenheimer didn’t have a holdout with Micah Parsons. Instead he asked Parsons to attend the first voluntary offseason workout, which he did. And while Parsons held in during camp as he awaits a contract extension, he followed Schottenheimer’s requirement to wear team-issued gear, meaning a jersey

This isn’t to say McCarthy’s way was ineffective; the man did lead the Cowboys to three 12-win seasons What Schottenheimer is

doing is different because this is how he believes a team should be formed. McCarthy believed building a team for the stretch run was the best way to go about things.

It worked In his career McCarthy’s teams went 50-23 in December, the most wins in any month as a head coach. With the Cowboys, McCarthy’s group went 14-6 in December which included a 10-1 mark from 2020 to 2022.

Schottenheimer wants to set the tone quickly and believes a well-conditioned team should be fine for the stretch run during the season.

“One of the biggest things is the energy in practice, and you continue to emphasize (the players) are competing every day,” said tight end coach Lunda Wells, who worked for both coaches. “Whether or not you’re competing to be the starter, whether or not you’re competing to have a roster spot.

“Us as coaches, in my opinion, you got to compete every day I’m trying to outcoach every coach on the field just so I have that mindset so my guys go out there and compete. So my guys can be in the best position to be successful individually and collectively as a team.”

Seven-on-seven drills are a mainstay in football. There are seven-on-seven high school tournaments. They are used to help with the timing aspect of the passing game.

Schottenheimer used to be a believer, but not anymore.

“I’m not a big nine-on-seven guy, I’m not a big seven-on-seven guy,” he said. “This is a team game, man. If we’re running the football, CeeDee Lamb and George (Pickens) and those guys, they have to go and take out safeties, that’s the game. So when you do nine-on-seven, it’s like half your guys aren’t out there. I’m a big team period guy.”

It also leads to more physical practices, which Schottenheimer

wants. McCarthy was big on having physical practices, as well. However, the Cowboys were fined twice by the NFL with McCarthy as head coach for too much contact in offseason drills.

Another interesting change is the lack of deep balls in one-onone drills. Schottenheimer doesn’t mind it, yet it’s almost a waste because receivers and corners have to get back to the line of scrimmage and you have to set up for the next rep, whereas a team drill rep could have been conducted instead.

The Cowboys did attempt deep throws in practices, but the old one-on-one, man-on-man drills were limited early in camp.

“Throwing go balls and then coming back and throwing a post in routes on air, it’s not smart,”

Schottenheimer said. “You just worry early on in camp about potential soft tissue things like that.”

Schottenheimer has high standards not only for himself and his players, but the coaches, as well. For the first time in recent memory, the Cowboys don’t have an assistant head coach.

“I want to lean on all my coaches, No. 1,” Schottenheimer said. “I obviously got an inner circle of people that I talk to a lot. I’m not real big on titles. I think titles should be earned and not given, and this is Year 1.

“So, will we have an assistant head coach next year? Maybe, but I do think that sometimes, and we’re all guilty of this, we’ve all done it, sometimes you use titles to get guys out of contracts. You try to. It doesn’t usually work. My belief is if someone is named the assistant head coach, they should have earned that. They should truly be that.”

Things are different with the Cowboys now, as they should be with a new coach. It doesn’t mean success is guaranteed with the changes, but it’s refreshing.

BRIDGEWATER

Continued from page 1C

the late 2000s before embarking on a decorated college career at Louisville, followed by a nomadic journey through the NFL.

When Bridgewater, who played for the Saints from 2018-19, announced after the 2023 season that he was stepping away, he thought it would stick. He quickly agreed to become the head coach at Northwestern, eager to start the next chapter of his life.

QBs reunite, reflect at joint team practice

Top 2023 draft picks young, Stroud are longtime friends

BY KRISTIE RIEKEN Associated Press

HOUSTON Bryce Young and C.J.

Stroud will be forever linked after the quarterbacks were taken first and second, respectively, in the 2023 NFL Draft. But long before they became NFL stars, the two California natives became friends when they competed in football and basketball in middle school.

On Thursday, the two reunited when Stroud’s Houston Texans hosted Young’s Carolina Panthers for a joint practice ahead of Saturday’s preseason game.

The quarterbacks were all business during drills, with both players making some nice throws during the two-hour workout. Afterward, they took some time to catch up and chat.

“To see where he’s at right now, I’m super proud of him. It means a lot,” Young said. “I’m always rooting for him. That’s my guy When practice is going, I’m rooting for our defense. I’m hoping we make every play That’s all that matters. But before and after, I try not to take it for granted, us being able to live our dreams and be here. It’s special.”

Stroud said the two never specifically talked about their NFL dreams as children but said competing against Young at a young age made him a better player

“When we focus on like the NFL or the NBA, it’s hard to do because (at that age) there’s so many people trying for that,” Stroud said. “But like me and him, I feel like our process was just getting better getting better getting better, getting better So, I think that was our mindset, and it’s cool to be in these moments.”

The Panthers were criticized in 2023 for selecting Young, who struggled as a rookie as the team went 2-15. Meanwhile, Stroud led Houston to the postseason after a three-year absence and was named AP Offensive Rookie of the Year

Neither player likes talking about the what-ifs when it comes to that draft, and Young insisted

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C potential violations concerning impermissible benefits. Bridgewater — who did not take a salary as head coach self-reported the payments and was subsequently suspended. The Florida High School Athletic Association’s investigation is ongoing.

“It’s very upsetting,” Bridgewater said after a joint practice between the Buccaneers and Steelers ahead of their preseason game at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night. “Just knowing that you have good intentions and those good intentions will be turned against you and used against you.”

It’s unclear when a resolution might come For Bridgewater, who still communicates regularly with his at-the-moment former players, it can’t get here fast enough

“I’m hoping to get it resolved because those kids have a special place in my heart,” Bridgewater said. “And I’d love to finish what I started with them.” Bridgewater didn’t even rule out making the four-hour drive from Tampa to Miami on Fridays when the Buccaneers’ schedule allows to attend a Northwestern game as a fan. He’d love the opportunity to return one day as the coach of the school where he became a star in

Yet he also stayed in shape, even taking snaps during the spring game, headset on all the while.

He also remained in contact with Lions coach Dan Campbell and realized that playing could not only let him feed a passion to play that is very much still there but also set another kind of example in the process.

“I always see it as motivation for the kids to know that you can do whatever you put your mind to,” Bridgewater said. “As long as you build those healthy relationships, continue to train, work hard yearround, opportunities are going to come.”

Enter Tampa Bay, which reached out looking for someone experienced to join a quarterback room that includes Baker Mayfield, who is coming off the best season of his career

Bridgewater isn’t with the Buccaneers to be the starter like he was during stints in Minnesota, Carolina and Denver He is more of a resource now

better than anyone else, and why attempts to ban the play unfairly target the franchise.

If the tush push does involve such details, and the Saints have yet to practice those details, then perhaps that reveals more about their plans than anything said in a news conference.

“Anybody can replicate it,” said Saints run-game coordinator T.J. Paganetti, who had been with Philadelphia since 2013 before joining New Orleans this offseason. “It takes practice. We have a saying that, ‘I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks one time. I fear the man that’s practiced one kick 10,000 times.’

“That’s a good Bruce Lee quote, and it has relevance to that play If you’re going to hang your hat on that, then you’ve got to do it over, over and over again.”

The tush push evolved over its time in Philadelphia. Although Philadelphia began running the play consistently in 2022, two years before Moore’s arrival, the origins of the look date back to a year earlier In Week 5 of the 2021 season, tight end Jack Stoll ended up pushing Hurts from behind on a quarterback sneak for a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers. Then, in Week 11 against

the Saints, tight end Dallas Goedert motioned before the snap to line up behind Hurts in an I-formation and shove him for the first down.

From there, the play exploded. Since 2022, according to ESPN, the Eagles have had an 85.2% conversion rate on the tush push and have run it, by far more than any other team. When not run by the Eagles or the Buffalo Bills (second in tush push attempts), the league conversion average falls to 71%.

Stoll, now with the Saints, said there’s a “night and day difference” in terms of how the technique used for the play has changed In a copycat league, not everyone has been able to grasp it.

“It’s not that simple,” Stoll said. “You can take the scheme, but unless you have all the details of certain plays, it doesn’t always work. It is cool to be part of something like that.”

Stoll said that if the Saints do want to run the tush push eventually, the team has the advantage of having Paganetti on staff. Paganetti not only worked closely under Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, but Stoll said Paganetti can help teach the details so that everyone can be in unison. Paganetti and Stoll agreed that if the Saints were to commit to the tush push, investment in the play is critical. Stoll said that when he was in Philadelphia, the Eagles wouldn’t have many plays baked into the game plan for third and

Thursday that he’s happy with how things turned out.

“I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be,” he said. “I’m sure C.J. would say the same thing. God doesn’t make mistakes. Everything happens for a reason. So, I’m super grateful to be a Panther.”

As their NFL careers have blossomed, Stroud and Young have remained close. Young was asked to describe the best thing about Stroud as a friend.

“I’ve seen him have ups and downs,” Young said. “I’ve seen him have so much success at this level (and) throughout all that he’s been the exact same person and I know a lot of people on this team and everyone tells me how great of a leader he is, how much he means for this team, offense, the entire team, entire unit, the person he is. So, I think just his ability to be that same person, regardless of what his circumstances are, is one of the things that I admire most.”

Stroud also praised Young’s consistency as a friend and lauded him for the improvement he showed last season.

“He’s a heck of a player, one of the best players I’ve ever seen in my life,” Stroud said. “And I just think he needs some help around him, too. But I’m just really proud of that guy, just the same way he said about me, for every up and down, every valley and peak, he’s stayed the same guy, stayed loyal and stayed a friend and brother so very appreciative.”

1 or fourth and 1 because everybody understood that they’d run the tush push — including the other team.

“It breaks teams’ wills, if you do it (correctly),” Paganetti said. The biggest question is whether the Saints have the personnel to execute the tush push successfully The Eagles have one of the largest offensive lines in the league, a key to generating the strength needed in the trenches. Hurts’ exceptional leg strength is also notable, with the quarterback able to squat 600 pounds.

The Saints have size in the trenches: Their starting offensive line combines to weigh 1,583 pounds — only 63 pounds lighter than the Eagles’ projected offensive line. But the Saints have yet to name a starting quarterback, and it’s unclear which of Spencer Rattler or Tyler Shough would be better suited for the play Saints players at least seem curious about the play Stoll said he’s heard teammates express interest, especially given Moore’s history and his track record of helping the Eagles win the Super Bowl.

At a recent practice, the Saints had a play in which the runner was ruled down just short of the goal line Kicker Blake Grupe just happened to be mic’d up for a video that would later be posted on social media.

“Tush push!” Grupe chanted. “Tush push! Tush push!”

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) It's up to you to manage situations to maintain your status. Your skills will be better employed if you are the one calling the shots.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Patience will keep you from making an emotional blunder. Keep your thoughts to yourself. Pay attention to your finances and how money flows in and out of your hands.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Set the stage for change and do whatever it takes to improve your health and well-being. Don't set yourself up for failure unnecessarily. What you do will matter more than what you say

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Take care of business and move on to something you look forward to doing. Time is precious, and spending it with someone you enjoy will affect how your day unfolds.

sAGITTARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Put pressure on yourself to take care of unfinished business. Live life your way and learn from experience, and you'll find your niche. Change begins with you.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Be aware of what's happening around you. Not everyone will be on your team or look out for your interests. Verify information before sharing it. Protect your reputation at all costs.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Look, see and do what you can to make things happen. Consider what excites you most and head in that direction. Engage in talks and associate with people who are heading in a similar direction.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Spend less time trying to force change and more time establishing what means the most to you. Concentrate on personal appearance, health, diet and positioning yourself for what you want to achieve. ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Focus on what's important to you. Balance is the key, along with money management and eliminating unnecessary worry. Learn to trust your instincts and follow your heart.

TAuRus (April 20-May 20) Maintain stability. Avoid persuasive tactics that may lead you to take a leap of faith, potentially resulting in a loss. Pay more attention to how you look and where you live.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Choose kindness when dealing with the ones you love. A positive attitude has the most effective influence on others. Get approval from those you live with, near or rent from before you make domestic changes.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Anger will lead to regret. Gather the facts before pointing a finger at someone. Question your motives and what you expect in return for what you do. Choose homeand self-improvement over trying to change others.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by nEa, inc., dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Someadvertisementsmakeinteresting claims. For example, have you seen the one for a golf range-finder that promises you will play better if you use it? Why will knowing the exact distance to the pin improve your swing? Yes, it is nice to feel confident that you are using the right club, but you must still execute the shot correctly. At the bridge table, you can count winners and losers, but you must still execute the trick sequence correctly.

In today’s deal, how should South try to make six hearts after West leads the club queen? North responded with a game-invitational limit raise. South bid what he hoped he could make.

Declarer has a spade loser and an uncertain trump suit. Obviously, after winning trick one with his club ace, the honor from the shorter side first, South should cash his heart ace to find out that situation. If the king drops, everything is easy-peasy. If an opponent discards, the contract is hopeless. Here, though, both opponents follow, but the king does not put in an appearance. How can declarer avoid losing a spade trick as well?

Thereisonlyonechance thedefender with the heart king is short in spades. South should cash his two top diamonds, cash his spade ace, lead to dummy’s spade king, take the club king, and ruff the third club. With the partial elimination complete, declarer leads a trump. Here, West must return a minor-suit card. Declarer ruffs on the

If

are

InsTRucTIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters.

dIrectIons: make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer ken ken

InstructIons: 1 Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 thorugh 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 - The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 - Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner. HErE is a

HOME | DESIGN | GARDEN | REAL ESTATE

Dreaming big

CharlotteStrauser took along path to arriving at herdream home, including ayear-and-a-half detour around Hurricane Katrina’sdevastation. Buttoday, she and her husband,Lee, are in Old Mandeville in just the renovated and raised home they want. Jyl Benson tells theirstory on Page 14.

learned some important lessons from the silverscreen —especially when it comes to our kitchens. Read his takeonHollywood design on Page 12.

Karen Taylor Gist

Interior designer Louis Aubert may be aclassic-film buff, but it turns out that many of us have

This 4,000-square-foot home is just 3years old, but it fits right in to its Old Metairie neighborhood, offering chic family comfort and five bedrooms —all for $1.9 million Victor Andrews takes us inside on Page 18

The InsideOut home and gardensection is published every Saturday by TheTimes-Picayune Questions about InsideOut should be directed to the editor

INSIDEOUT EDITOR: Karen Taylor Gist, kataylor@theadvocate.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Victor Andrews, Louis J.Aubert, Jyl Benson, Dan Gill, Matt Haines

COVER DESIGN: AndreaDaniel

COVER PHOTO: Jeff Strout

TO BE FEATURED: Send information and photos to insideout@theadvocate. com

GREENTHUMB

InsideOut’smission is to give readerspeeks inside themanydifferentwaysthatpeople in theNew Orleansarea live.Weprofile spaces that are opulent, or just offbeat; sophisticated or simple;functional or light-hearted;historic or brand-spanking new. Andanything in between. Please helpusbysending information and JPEGphotos of your home, or specific spaces inside it,toinsideout@theadvocate.com. We love gardens and outdoor spaces, too. Andwe’re waitingtohear from you.

August in the garden: It’s a hot topic. PAGE 4

IN DETAIL

Soothing shapes, added color. PAGE 7

INSIDE STORY

Repair grantshelpwith historic homes. PAGE 8

INSIDE INFO

Home and garden happenings. PAGE 11

HOMEWORKWITHLOUIS

Design we’velearned from the movies. PAGE 12

COVERSTORY

An Old Mandeville cottage rises afterKatrina. PAGE 14

ONEINAMILLION

Sophisticated comfort in Old Metairie. PAGE 18

REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS

Recent transactions in the metroarea. PAGE 20

73 Audubon Boulevard•Uptown$899,000

ClassicCraftsman Raised Basement 3Bd, 2.5Ba, 2980 sq.ft. living area on a picturesque60X167 lot! Spacious frontporch,formalliving& dining rooms, den, largeeat-inkit,10ftceilings,wood floors.Craftsman details: moldings, window seat &brick fireplace. Interior just painted! Lowerlevel w/ additional 3186 sq.ft. readyto finishout!Whole Home generator &parking for3+cars! Michelle Sartor 504-723-8057 LATTER &BLUM| COMPASS•Uptown504-866-2785

6925 CanalBoulevard •Lakeview$1,399,000

Near City Park &Yacht Club!Indoor-OutdoorAppealin15-yr oldhome. Custom builthomehas 2large porches, heated-saltwater pool!OpenFloor Plan w/ 6Beds, 3.5Baths,3964SqFtofLivingarea, Formal Rooms, Huge Chef’s Kitchen&Den w/ greatarchitectural detailing. 2car garage.3 carparking pad. Wholehouse generator, gasburning fireplace& many otherfeatures! LindaBabineaux •504-957-8014J.Babineaux •504-813-8460 COMPASS|LATTER& BLUM •Uptown/MapleSt504-861-7575

4213 LoireDrive•Chateau Estate North/ Kenner $350,000 Great 3-Bd,2Ba,2,052Sf home.A New Fortified Roof installedin2024. Laminate wood floors,recessedlighting, granitecounters, fireplace&open floorplanare just afew of theamenities.Large dining room w/ extra closet space. Spacious primarysuite w/ built-ins&W-I-C.Longdrivewayleads to acarport &anextra storageroom. Lrgcov’d patioisgreat forentertaining! WendyHinyub504-559-4808 KellerWilliams Realty 455-0100 504-455-0100

392-94 Broadway Street •Uptown$819,000

Historic CharminCoveted Golden RectangleinUptownNew Orleans! 4Bed/3 Bath/2,511 SqFt.Renovatethis handsome duplex back into a single family home!Location, location!Large lot& parkingfor expansion! Beautifulblock w/ other largeluxury homes! Cherishedresidentis1of4 sister homes, eachmeticulouslycared for&exuding timeless elegance!

Tricia King 504-722-7640

LATTER &BLUM| COMPASS•Uptown&GardenDistrict504-891-6400

5593 JacquelynCourt •LakewoodSouth

$1,150,000

StunningMid-Century Modern residencedesignedbyrenowned N.O. architect George Saunders. This 4Bd, 3.5Ba, 3,966Sfhome offersarareblend of timeless design &moderncomfort w/ 18’ceilings, 4distinctliving areas& afabulously flexible floorplan. GourmetKitchen is atrueentertainersdream. BrickedPatio,beautifully landscaped!Easyaccess.Somuchmore to see! AprilGongora Brownaprilgo1@gmail.com504-606-0466 HospitalityRealtywww.HospitalityRealty.net

GREENTHUMB

Idon’tknow about you, but by the time we hit mid-August, I’ve had quite enough of the heat. And don’timagine thatthe plants in your landscapes like the heat any better.Other thantropical plants, which love this time of year,most plants are as ready as we are for cooler weather. The heat takes its toll over the summer. By thistime, many plants, particularly those that do not deal with the heat well or were planted in the last year or two, maybeshowing stress symptoms. Heat-stressed plants are weakened, and we often see an increase in disease and insect problems at the end of the summer.

Trees and shrubs planted within the last year may be showing stress symptoms such as wilting, brown leaf edges, poor leaf color and leaf

drop. These recently planted plants have not yet become established. Establishment occurs when the roots in the original root ball grow outinto the surrounding soil. Until that happens —and it takes ayear or twofor trees andshrubs to become established —plants cannot access moisture in the soil much beyond theoriginal root ball.

1.To help these plants, pay careful attention to water.Wehave had fairly regular rainfall thissummerand no pronounced drought periods. But anytime aweek passes without significant rain, it’sa good idea to water deeply and generously once aweek until it rains one-halfinchormore.

2.Alsomakesurebeds withnewly planted shrubs aremulched. Mulches help maintaineven soil moisture by preventing evaporation from the surface. Mulches also help moderate soil temperatures, keeping the soil cooler thanifthe sunlight shines directly on it.Iffrequent afternoon rains keep thesoilin

beds soggy,pull back themulch to allowthe soiltodry.

3.Keep youreye outfor pests such as mealybugs, aphids, leaf hoppers, scales and whiteflies. Another pest, spidermites, can also be very damaging to awide variety of plants. Agood lowtoxicityspray forthese pests is alight horticultural oilspray (Year Round Spray Oil, AllSeasonsSpray Oil, Neem Oiland others) during theearlymorning hours whentemperatures are cooler.

Diseases will be particularly badwithfrequent afternoon rainshowers. Root rots are common in bedding plantsand even shrubs whenfrequent rains keep thesoilwet; they are best prevented by making sure that beds are well drained.

Cercospora leaf spot on crape myrtles is alreadywidespread due to frequent rains over the last fewweeks. This disease causes theleaves to become spotted andthenturnyellowor

GREENTHUMB

Japanese magnoliascommonly don’tlooktheir best in summer

BY DANGILL Contributing writer

The foliageonmyJapanese magnolias is not lookinggood.There areyellow and brown leaves, and some have awhite mold on them.What is this and how can it be treated? —Nancy

It is common for the foliage of Japanese magnolias to lookless attractive in late summer. You will likely see some leavesturning yellow or brown, scorched leaf edges (mostly duetoheat stress), various fungal leafspots and white fungus growing on the leaves (this powdery mildew likely is what you are seeing).

As agroup, Japanese magnolias commonly do notlook their best in the late summer. This is more common in younger trees planted in the past few years, and it often improves as trees get older and becomebetter established.

Treating these late-summer issues does not provide alot of

fall leaf drop is not that far off. We planted amirliton plant bought from alocal nurseryback in April.The vine has gone wild along our back fence, but no blossoms or fruit. Is there still hope, or do we have asterile plant? —Johanna

GARDEN TIPS

CUT BACK COLEUS: When flowers appear on coleus plants, whichare grownfor their colorful foliage, cut them back about one-third their height to prolong newfoliage production. Often,theyjust turnaround and trytobloom again. But it’sworth atry.

benefit. Japanese magnolias are going to look somewhat stressed in late summernomatter what. It’sjust in their nature. If these symptoms occurred in late spring or early summer,I would have been moreinclined to recommend treatment. But here we are in mid-August,and

Youmust be frustrated and disappointed. But Ihave good news: Mirliton vines do not bloom and setfruit in summer. They begin to bloom and set fruit when the nights get long in the fall. During summer, when the days arelong and the nights areshort, the vines just grow vegetatively and do not flower So, mirlitons are afall crop. Flowering generally begins sometime in late September or October, withthe major harvest occurring from November until the first hard freeze. Be assured your vine is behaving perfectly normally

That said, established mirliton vines thathave been planted ayear or moremay make a lagniappe early summercrop.

BADFRUIT: Fruit splitting is common in citrus this timeof year.Thishappens when the trees absorb and move water into the fruit too fast and the skinruptures.Remove and dispose of split fruit.

SEEDSOFDECOR: Many ornamental grassesare producing attractive flower or seed heads this timeofthe year.These look fantastic in arrangements indoors alone or combined withotherdried materials. Spraythe flower/ seed heads withalight application of hair sprayor clear shellac to keep them from shattering as theydry.

REMOVE SEEDS: If your crape myrtle trees are still relatively small and it is convenient, trim offthe clusters of green, round seedpods at the ends of branches.This can prevent the weight of the pods from making the branches bend down,and it encourages the trees to produce alate summer flush of flowers. But it will not hurtthe trees in the least to leavethe seed pods alone.

NEW POTS?: After asummer of vigorous growth outside, somecontainerizedplants maybepot bound. Check and repot into larger containers if necessary.

GREENTHUMB

Continuedfrom page4

orange and fall off. My Natchez crape myrtles are dropping lotsof leaves. Although the dropping leaves may be anuisance, there is no need to take any action. Cercospora leaf spot does not significantly hurt the trees and is not life threatening.

In August, our yards and gardens maylook a little tired(after our long, hot summer gardeners look alittle tired, too) Continue to do most of your work in the cooler morning and evening hours. Gardeners are particularly prone to mosquito bites when we work in the early morning and evening hours. Don’tforget to use insect repellent to keep themfrom biting you if you are out at those times.

Divide Louisianairises

Louisiana irises should be divided and transplanted now through September.Each year, Louisiana irises grow and spread, creating more rhizomes and shoots. Eventually,the plants can become crowded, and thatleads to lower vigor

ADVICE

Continuedfrom page5

and poor flowering. This generally occurs three or more years after the bed is planted, depending on how close theywere planted to begin with. Unlike most plants, Louisiana irises are at their most dormant stage in late summer, making now the ideal time to divide them. To divide your irises, dig up aclump using ashovel or garden fork. Be careful not to damage the rhizomes. Break or cut off the young rhizomes —which have new green growth at their tips —from the large, old rhizome. Discard the old rhizome and replant the young rhizomes.

Before replanting, take the opportunity to improve the bed by digging a2-inch layer of compost or other organic matterinto it. Do not let the exposed rootsofthe irises dry out while you do this. When the bed has been reworked, plant the rhizomes horizontally withthe fan of foliage facing the direction you want the plant to grow, and carefully cover all the roots. The topofthe rhizome should barely show above the soil surface. Mulch the bed about 2inches deep and water thoroughly

If we have amild winter and frosts end relatively early,an older mirliton vine will begin to grow early and catch the long nights of April. Whenthat happens, theymay bloom and seta small, early summer crop. But fall is the main crop. Is there aproduct that Icould use to getrid of bermudagrass growing in my monkey grass ground cover? Iamatmy wit’send with weeding,and Iamhoping there is another way.Thanks for your

HURRICANE SEASON PRECAUTIONS

August and September tend to be the most active months for hurricanes. Before ahurricane threatens, it is important for shade trees in the landscape to be carefully checked to make sure they are in good shape. Look for any large dead branches in the tree. These should be removed. In addition, branches that hang close to or touch the roof of your house mayneed to be pruned or removed.

Look at the overall condition of the tree. Atree that is sickly,low in vigor and shows significant signs of rottenor decayed areas in the trunk should be cut down if it poses athreat to buildings.

Local licensed arborists and tree removal services can do this work for you. Do an internet search using “Louisiana licensed arborist list” and click on the link to the list provided by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

Also make plans now for how you’ll pick up and store any loose objects in the landscape, such as toys, tools, hanging baskets, potted plants and garden art. These objects can become deadly projectiles whenwinds reach over 100 mph.

help. —Rosalind What you need is aselective herbicide you can spray over the planting that will kill the bermudagrass without damaging the monkey grass. Selective grass killers like sethoxydim (Ferti-lome Over the Top, Vantage, Bonide Grass Beater, Hi-Yield GrassKiller,and other brands) or fluazifop (Ortho GrassBGon, Fusilade, Ornamec and otherbrands) will kill the grassy weed without damaging desirable plants. Be prepared to make follow-up applications for complete control. These herbicides are useful

when grassy weeds invade flowerbeds, shrub plantings or ground covers. Make sure the ornamentals in the beds are listed on the label as tolerant. If they do not appear on the label, there is achance they might be damaged.

Dan Gill is aretired consumerhorticulture specialist withthe LSU AgCenter.Hehosts the “Garden Show” on WWL-AM Saturdays at 9a.m.Email gardeningquestions to gnogardening@agcenter.lsu. edu

PUNCH Planters with

Container plantings are an easy way to spiff up exteriors.

Touches of nature’s bounty serve both to soften the blunt angles of exterior architecture and to add bold pops of color.

— Karen Taylor Gist

Soul of the city

Grants helps safeguard New Orleans’ historic homes and its culture

BY MATTHEW HAINES

Contributing writer

From the steps leading up to Darlene Jones’ shotgun home in the Treme, she has a front row view to second-lines, Mardi Gras Indians and brass bands.

Still, when Jones, 70, hears people talk about what makes New Orleans’ culture so special, she thinks their reasoning sometimes misses the mark

“People think it’s the food, music and architecture that make New Orleans’ culture unique,” she explained. “But they’re only partially right. What’s really important are the people. Who cooks the food? Who plays the music? Who has lived in these homes for generations?

“Our people are what makes New Orleans special, but there are so many of us that can’t afford to live here anymore.”

In 2020, Jones was in danger of losing her home.

She was a Hurricane Katrina survivor who spent a year in Chicago and another in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer on her dad’s front lawn before finally piecing together the money to buy her dream house in 2007.

But slowly Jones’ dream home became a nightmare.

Darlene Jones stands in her Treme home that got repairs through a Preservation Resource Center grant. The painting over the mantel was done by her father

By JEFF STROUT

PROVIDED

PHOTO

A vine grows through a crack in Darlene Jones’ bedroom before she got a grant to do repairs. The contractor who renovated the home before she purchased it failed to properly secure the back of the house to the rest of the unit.

“I noticed a crack in the wall in my bedroom,” she said. “At first it was small, but over years it grew to more than 6 inches wide. When I had it patched, it would just come back. It became so big that a vine actually grew through it.”

Jones learned that the contractor who renovated the home before she purchased it cut corners and failed to properly secure the back of the house to the rest of the unit.

She was terrified.

“My house was literally falling apart, and I didn’t have the money to fix it,” she said “What happens to a 70-year-old disabled woman if she loses her home? This is the one thing I could pass on to my kids and grandkids. I didn’t want to lose it.”

With time running out, Jones found the Preservation Resource Center, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting New Orleans’ historic architecture, neighborhoods and cultural identity, and its Revival Grants program.

Unique program, unique city

Like many New Orleans homeowners in desirable historic neighborhoods, Jones faced rising property taxes and ballooning insurance rates on top of the rising cost of home repairs. Her mortgage payments rocketed from $650

INSIDESTORY

This bedroom needed big repairs because of contractor’s shoddy repairs. ‘I noticed a crack in the wall in my bedroom,’ Jones says. ‘At first it was small, but over years it grew to more than 6 inches wide. When I had it patched, it would just come back. It became so big that a vine actually grew through it.’

to $1,500 per month.

Desperate, she searched for grants that would provide financial assistance to make the necessary repairs.

Most of the grantors she

was referred to the PRC. Its Revival Grants program launched in 2019 to help homeowners like Jones with the upkeep of their historic properties. It was the brainchild of former PRC Executive Director Danielle Del Sol. In addition to living in a historic home, qualifying applicants’ incomes couldn’t be higher than 80% of the average median income. For a family of four, that would be about $71,850 this year

“We were watching these historic neighborhoods around the French Quarter — they might not have been wealthy, but they had extraordinary cultural wealth — getting

found were either out of funding or hesitant to do the challenging work associated with preservation in historic neighborhoods.

After several misses, she

absolutely torn apart by this confluence of economic forces that included rising insurance rates and increasing home prices thanks to factors like an explosion of short-term rentals,” Del Sol said. “We knew something needed to be done, and as an organization focused on historic preservation, we thought we could help.”

Under Del Sol’s leadership, the PRC got to work, raising funds, vetting applicants and forming partnerships with local contractors able to take on the important work of rehabilitating historic homes.

Initially, the program allot-

See GRANTS, page 10

INSIDESTORY

GRANTS

Continued from page 9

ted $5,000 per project, but it soon quadrupled the amount to $20,000 when the scope of work that many of the applicants required became apparent.

Jones was one of those early applicants. After Hurricane Zeta swept through in 2020, a damaged, leaking roof was added to the home’s longtime issues. To Jones’ immense relief, the PRC worked with a contractor to replace her roof, solve the foundation issues that had been plaguing her for more than a decade and eradicate a growing termite colony discovered midproject

After years of fear and uncertainty about her living situation, Jones finally was confident in her future.

“I can’t put into words what PRC means to me,” she said. “‘Important’ doesn’t do Revival Grants justice. What is more important than important? Essential? Lifesaving? I wouldn’t be in my home to fight another day without them.”

Preserving local culture

While the appropriate rehabilitation of a historic home has been the program’s mandate, Del Sol understands the effect of the work they do extends far beyond the physical structure of a dwelling

“Preservation doesn’t simply refer to a house with its walls and roof,” she said. “It also means preserving a culture, a community and family bonds. That is what we hope the program can help to accomplish.”

So far, the Revival Grants program has helped 25 New Orleans families stay in their homes, for an average of about five a year.

Many PRC grant applicants discovered the program after being threatened with fines for violations by the city’s Historic District Landmark Commission.

This was the case with Denise Tate, a 60-year-old owner

12-foot-tall door. The PRC also has an agreement with the city of New Orleans that all of a resident’s outstanding HDLC fines are forgiven once the work is complete.

“I was an inch from losing my house,” Tate said. “But now, when I come home from my job, I look at this beautiful porch and these gorgeous windows and I say, ‘I can’t believe I get to live here. How lucky am I?’”

Expanding the program

of a shotgun double in the historic Upper 9th Ward. She purchased the home in 2013, with money she saved working two jobs as a bus driver

What Tate didn’t realize was that the home came with a handful of costly historic district violations, inherited from the previous owner These included a visible satellite dish, roof work, inappropriate front doors and windows, missing transoms and missing gable end windows.

Tate set aside earnings from her jobs to complete some of the work, but between the funeral costs of her brother’s unexpected death, the loss of rental income thanks to hurricane damage on the other side

of her shotgun double and her monthly insurance payments rising $500, Tate was out of money.

“It felt like every time I took a step forward in life, it was followed by three steps backward,” she said. “This was tens of thousands of dollars of work that the HDLC was demanding I do. I was fighting to keep my home, but it felt like I was out of options.”

That is when, in 2024, Tate learned about the Revival Grants program.

Working with a local construction company, the PRC resolved each of the violations. They replaced the broken steps on her front porch and added new windows and a

In addition to the 25 rehabilitations the PRC has completed, several more are currently midproject. The organization knows this is just a drop in the bucket, but its leadership has worked hard to expand the program from its modest $100,000 budget. It’s seeking additional funding through foundation grants and private donations.

The number of applications this year is 170 and counting, up from the 50 to 100 in years past. Those who qualify but don’t get grants are put on a waitlist.

This year the city of New Orleans invested $250,000 to create a second program that expands the PRC’s work into all the city’s neighborhoods, rather than only its historic ones, through the Historic Home

A Revival Grant through the Reservation Resource Center helped Darlene Jones get repair work done on her Treme home.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Repair Grants. Similarly, the Jazz and Heritage Foundation donated $100,000 to the PRC to launch a third program, Homes and Heritage, aimed at providing assistance to culture bearers deeply rooted in their communities through work in music, storytelling, dance, art and more.

This year, the program has the capacity to complete 15 projects. Now that includes two Big Queens, a Big Chief and a well-known local drummer

But it also continues to include assisting residents, many advanced in age, who simply want to live their lives in peace in the city they love before passing something of value to their family members.

“If our goal is to preserve culture and community, then working with culture bearers makes a lot of sense,” said Del Sol, who left the nonprofit in July to become president and CEO of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, Florida. “But so does working with any family who has roots in this city Keeping them in their homes is essential because New Orleans wouldn’t be New Orleans without them.”

For information on grants, call (504) 581-7032, email prc@ prcno.org or go to prcno.org.

Bonsai auction moved to Saturday

The Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society rescheduled its annual auction and show to Saturday at the VFW Hall, 1133 Hickory Ave., in Harahan.

In addition to the auction, there will be designs from national bonsai masters,starter material, pots and supplies, bargain tables and more.

Viewing of the trees andthe sale start at 4p.m.; theauction is at 6p.m.

For information, visit gbnobs.org.

Urban Tree planning meeting Wednesday

Meetings for the Jefferson Parish Urban Tree Master Plan to gather input on aplan to “grow its green canopyand make our community cooler, healthier and more vibrant” will continue from 5:30 p.m. to 7p.m. Wednesday at Woodmere Playground, 4100 Glenmere Drive, in Harvey.

The meetings will explore ideas and accept inputon planting projects, incentives and education efforts. Visit friendsofjeffersonthebeautiful.org for details.

Orleans assessment appeals open

Online appeals of property tax rolls for Orleans Parish for 2026 are open through Wednesday.

Assessor Erroll Williams said notices of assessment changes have been mailed to property owners and updated values are online at nolaassessor.com.

Schedule appointmentsto meet with the appraisal staff to discuss assessments online or in-person at nolaassessor. com or (504) 754-8811. All appointments must be made at least 24 hours in advance.

Get aclerk-led tour of the Notarial Archives

What to know more aboutthe

INSIDEINFO

4:15 p.m. and includes lunch at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center,6400 Airline Drive, in Metairie.

Visitfriendsofjeffersonthebeautiful.org.

Volunteer projects abound at City Park

Avariety of cleanup days and initiatives are on tap at City Parktoimprove and maintain theextensive urban green space. Those coming up include:

n Urban Forest SupportInitiative: 9a.m. Saturday andAug. 23. Volunteer Center, 1031 Harrison Ave.

n PelicanGreenhouse Summer Vol-

historyofaproperty?

New Orleans’ Civil District Court Clerk Chelsey Napoleon is offering atour of of the Notarial Archives Research Center,1340 Poydras St., Suite 260, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Aug. 26. Forinformation, email civilclerkresearchctr@orleanscdc. com or call (504) 407-0106.

Registration open fortree school

Registrationisopen for the 25thannual Tree School in

Jefferson Parish to be held Oct. 7.

The Carey Hammett Tree School, hosted by Friends of Jefferson the Beautiful,looks at care and preservation of theparish’stree canopy.

The one-day workshop will feature Diane Jones Allen, professor and program director of landscape architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Admission is $12.50 and free to professionals in the landscapeand buildingsectors.

The school is from 8a.m. to

unteer Series: 8a.m. Tuesday and Thursday.2Celebration Drive.

n Litter Cleanup Krewe: 9a.m. Tuesday,Thursday.Volunteer Center

n Native Plant Management: 9a.m. Wednesday.Volunteer Center

n Graffiti Cleanup Krewe: 9a.m. Thursday.Volunteer Center.

n BigLakeNative Plant Trail Restoration Project: 9a.m. Friday.Big Lake Native Trail near 7Friedrichs Ave.

Register forthe programs and find out moreabout what to bring at friendsofcitypark. volunteerhub.com.

Have ahome and garden eventcoming up? Send it to events@theadvocate.com.

HOMEWORKWITHLOUIS

PROVIDEDIMAGES

LIGHTS!CAMER A!

DECORATE!

HowHollywood setstylings fordecades have seeped into home decor

Hollywood set design hashad atremendous influence on home interior design for decades.

Looking backall theway to 1939, “Gone With the Wind” sparked arenewedinterest in mid-19th-century Victorian furnishings. Suddenly, pre-1900 pieces relegatedtothe back bedroom or theattic were taking pride of place in the living room. In fact, aversion of the rose-painted oil lamp featured in themovie was allthe rage. Unfortunately,that lamp actually was not created until after 1870. Set design, though pretty,isnot alwayshistorically accurate Movie images run through our collective memory.When we think of ascary,old house,welikely picture theBates house. Who can forget thatbattered old placeonthe hill looming over themotel in 1960’s “Psycho”? And there was thehuge andbrooding Manderleyin“Rebecca” in 1940, alsobrought to us by director Alfred Hitchcock.Would the very creepyhousekeeper,Mrs. Danvers, have been as scary had the de Winters lived in awhite painted Colonial Revival? Probably not. Hitchcock knew how to set thescene.

Working ourway up the timeline, 1991’s“Father of the Bride,” 2006’s “The Holiday” and2009’s“It’sComplicated”havegreatlyinfluenced not just our imaginationsbut ourinterior design. Allincludestylish interiors

Louis Aubert

thatare polishedand yethighly livable.These homes serve as inspiration to both design professionals andfolks who simply wish to createapleasing home environment.

Whatdothese homes have in common? Or rather, whom do theyhavein common?Thatwould be the firm hand of director NancyMeyers.

Working with set-design professionals, she is creditedwith creating what’scommonly referredtoasthe NancyMeyersaesthetic.Itiseasy to recognize andadmire its light and bright interiors furnishedwith a mix of traditionaland contemporary pieces,oftenwith white linenorsheer drapery,stripedflat-weaverugs and slipcovered sofas.

The occasionalfaded floralfabric is joinedbyblack-and-white family photosinsilverframes, white porcelain andlotsofbooks. Booksabound, filling bookcases,piledoncoffeetablesand even simply stacked on the floor.

This brings us to perhaps the most popularofthe Meyers films, the 2003 rom-com “Something’sGotta Give,” featuring (along with Diane Keaton,

FROM TOP: In ‘Something’sGotta Give,’Jack Nicholson stepsinto abook-filled,warmwhite room, with white upholstered furniture and ablue-and-white striped rug. l Director Alfred Hitchcock with the Bates home from ‘Psycho.’When youthink of scaryhouses, this maywell be the one youimagine. l Arose-painted lamp sits in the foreground in ascene withVivien Leigh in the1939 film ‘Gone withthe Wind.’

n White-painted cabinetry with glass-doored upper cabinets supported by scroll-shaped brackets.

n Lots of drawers, and a few open shelves to display favorite pieces.

n Dark soapstone-like countertops. If you prefer a lighter look, consider white marble or a quartz with the appearance of marble, which is generally more user-friendly in a busy household.

n Subway tile remains a classic

Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves) that fabulous and beloved Hamptons beach house that may be the most influential set in the past 50 years.

Start with the fact that as you entered, there was a view straight through the house to the beach and the ocean beyond. The pale and bright interior consisted of white upholstered furniture floating on a blue-and-white striped rug on a dark stained floor Floor-length white curtains framed the view through the French doors.

While most of us do not have a view of the ocean, we can adapt some of these elements. For instance:

n A warm-white painted room is more pleasing than the overly bright “appliance” white

n Add pattern and texture to the predominantly pale and neutral room for a more interesting space.

n Think of striped rugs and patterned fabrics used in small doses, such as for pillows or occasional chairs.

The more memorable room in this house, however, was the white kitchen. Although always around and always classic, the style had, for a time, lost favor to Mediterranean-inspired kitchens heavy with Tuscan influences. The movie changed that.

The white Hamptons kitchen featured white-painted cabinetry with dark hardware. Glassdoored upper cabinets were supported by scroll-shaped

HOMEWORKWITHLOUIS

backsplash material.

n Include blackened hardware or update with polished nickel.

n Cone-shaped pendants or globed fixtures with fittings that repeat the cabinet hardware.

n While white dishes and clear glassware make a clean statement in those glass-doored upper cabinets, don’t be hesitant to add cream or grayed colors for warmth.

(Just be sure to store those Mardi Gras cups out of sight.)

brackets above soapstone countertops. There were two islands: one topped in soapstone and the other dark mahogany that repeated the dark wood floor

This kitchen design has become the inspiration for kitchens across the country A number of my clients at the time purchased the DVD and could pause to show me exactly the look they wished to emulate in their homes Kitchens appeared in magazines sometimes with homeowners giving full credit to the movie as having inspired their design.

It has become THE classic white kitchen and the darling of house flippers and spec builders everywhere. Fashion is a pendulum, and while color pref-

n Baskets and cutting boards add further texture.

n Area rugs contribute color, pattern and texture.

n Add artwork as you would in any other room.

n A cozy dining area, perhaps with a banquette, invites multiple uses of the space.

n And finally, take a tip from set designers and add fresh flowers and bowls of fruit for additional color.

erences change with time, the white kitchen is not going away anytime soon Keep the white kitchen from appearing cold with the addition of color and texture, and hardware can be updated to reflect the times.

Louis J. Aubert is a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers and an avid preservationist. Some of his most visible New Orleans projects include making interior color selections for Gallier Hall, Trinity Episcopal Church and the Louisiana Supreme Court Royal Street Courthouse, and both interior and exterior selections for St. Stephen’s Basilica. Contact him at mrcolour@aol.com.

Dark-patterned Carrara marble, glass-fronted display cabinets and scroll-shaped brackets on the island recall the Nancy Meyers aesthetic. Floors are distressed French oak.

SHERRYL.OWEN CRS, GRI, SFR, ABR 228-760-2815 •228-822-9870 OWENSHERRYL@AOL.COM 220818THST, SUITEB,GULFPORT, MS 39501 WWW.OWENANDCO.COM

4Beds/5.5 Baths 6,118sqft/ 2.1acres Gorgeous views, saltwater pool andspa,double garage anddoublecarport, andboathouse

OF THE

OUT STORM

Cottage was being updated when Katrina hit. Now it’s a dream home.

BY JYL BENSON Contributing writer

After 37 years of compromise, Charlotte Strauser had finally gotten her way.

“When we were first married,” the New Orleans native said, “we lived in Nashville. I didn’t really want to live in Nashville. When we moved back to New Orleans, I said I didn’t want to live on the West Bank, and I didn’t want green carpet. I got both. Then I said I would never live on the northshore, and we ended up in Tchefuncte Estates.”

PHOTOS By JEFF STROUT Plantation shutters echo the lines in the original beadboard walls of the breakfast area. ä See COTTAGE, page 16

By 2005, when her husband, Lee, retired after a long career in industrial sales, the couple was ready to downsize. Charlotte Strauser was delighted to find a charming 120-year-old cottage in Old Mandeville for sale. But there was to be yet another delay in attaining her dream home, this one caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Charlotte and Lee Strauser sit outside their Old Mandeville home.

ABOVE: As with the home’s many outdoor spaces, the front porch is tastefully and comfortably furnished RIGHT: The gazebo in the backyard is framed by a trio of carefully developed crape myrtle trees. All the garden work was done by Lee Strauser. Natural pine needles are used instead of grass.

The screen porch goes across the back of house and around the corner More of the vintage plate collection adorns the walls.

COTTAGE

Continued from page 14

Right at home

As a child, she had envied the people who owned the cottage, which was located two doors away from Coffee Grounds, the Musician’s Recreation Home that operated from 1932-1967, where her large family — she is one of seven children—would vacation each summer, a perk of her father’s work as a music teacher and union member.

“I would think, ‘Wow, they get to live here all the time and not just visit once a year.’”

The Strausers closed on the house, which had once served as residential space for workers serving the nearby railroad, and settled in in May 2005.

They enlisted the late Lynn Riley Mitchell, the celebrated Mandeville architect, to design an addition to the

small home. By using Mitchell, an expert in local historical styles, they ensured their home would remain architecturally in keeping with the rest of the small town.

The nearby trailhead, fire station, police station, numerous homes on the nearby lakefront, and many cottages bore the mark of his work.

They had the slab poured for the planned addition.

On Aug. 27, with Hurricane Katrina bearing down, the couple fled to Dallas.

“Everything just felt really dark,” said Charlotte Strauser. “There was a sense of foreboding. Something really bad was about to happen.”

The dream deferred

The cottage took on 5 feet of water. It would be another year and a half before Charlotte Strauser would live in her dream home.

“Since I was retired, I handled the renovation and addition,” said Lee

Charlotte Strauser comes from a musical family and keeps their mementoes on display.

Period-appropriate cypress doors in the short hallway conceal the elevator and the laundry area. The hall and the den are part of the addition, which connects to the original home’s kitchen.

Strauser. Charlotte Strauser, now retired, continued her work as a college publishing representative.

They stuck with the same floor plan Mitchell had designed, but their decision to raise the house by 12.5 feet necessitated the services of brothers Gerrard and Miles Gautreaux.

“They used hand jacks to raise the house rather than hydraulic lifts,” Lee Strauser said. “They had worked in shipyards, so they were able to handle all of the necessary welding that went with the project on their own.”

New and improved

Today, the home’s screened front porch is accessed via a tight, winding metal staircase. An elevator within the “man cave” on the ground-level slab, which was thickened to 24 inches, silently lifts passengers to the home’s primary living space The interior is 1,400 square feet, not including the man cave.

The addition introduced a short hallway behind the existing kitchen, which was updated. Both the elevator and the laundry area are accessible from the hall via weathered, period-appropriate doors of unpainted cypress. The hall terminates at a generous den with a fireplace and a bathroom accessible from one side.

The addition is surrounded on both sides and across the back

front living room in the original home.

by covered, screened galleried porches with wooden floors and comfortable furniture. The effect is of being in a treehouse.

A staircase with a bannister leads from the back porch down to a lush garden of bamboo, bald cypress trees, ligustrum, American holly trees and evergreen wisteria. A pair of carefully developed crape myrtle trees curve inward in a graceful manner to form a canopy over a platform with built-in seating located centrally within the staircase.

At the rear of the narrow yard is an inviting gazebo outfitted with a fire pit and comfortable furniture. The yard is devoid of hardscaping and grass; the ground is covered only in pine straw for the most natural of effects.

The couple consulted with interior designer and color expert Louis Aubert, a friend of 50 years, in selecting their landscape materials, paint colors and furniture.

The result is a home with a true sense of place that feels as though it has always been exactly as it is. Essex green paint on the rear staircase and porch railings allows the structure to blend seamlessly with the natural environment.

“It really suits them,” Aubert said. “It reflects them.”

The downstairs man cave features floors of hard tan brick, a fireplace with a cypress mantel and a porch swing, giving it the feel of a space designed by famed late architect A. Hayes Town. The space is screened in and can be enclosed with heavy draperies to allow for air conditioning and heat, but the lush foliage surrounding the structure makes it comfortable on even the hottest of days.

“Today, we have the joy of staying in a home we adore that has been enhanced,” said Charlotte Strauser “We simply love it here.”

ONEINAMILLION

Old Metairie home exudes sophisticated comfort in 4,000

feet

BY VICTOR ANDREWS Staff writer

Hollywood Drive is one of the residential regions of Old Metairie with a blend of architectural styles that span decades, creating an organic tapestry and a welcoming neighborhood.

At 257 Hollywood Drive, a 3-year-old home has presence of place with its decades-old neighbors, located in an area that is convenient to shopping, recreation at the Pontiff Playground and easy access to Interstate 10 via Bonnabel Boulevard.

With almost 4,000 square feet of space holding five bedrooms and four full baths, the home blends contemporary sophistication with elements of vintage appeal, priced at $1.825 million.

A stylish arched opening holds a door and transom that echo the shape.

The broad foyer opens to a formal dining room on the left through an arched double opening; it’s currently used as a smart home office. A large window illuminates the space and offers a view of the landscaped front lawn.

Across the foyer, decorative pocket doors lead to a first-floor bedroom or den (its present incarnation is as a playroom for an active family) that has access to a full bath that opens just off the foyer A windowed bay at the front of the home adds extra space indoors for a sunny reading nook and extra detail to the exterior, which is capped by a metal roof.

Passing the open stairs, the foyer leads to the great room, a fusion of living, kitchen and breakfast spaces creating a voluminous heart to the home

A fireplace stands ground opposite the culinary area, a clean-lined, chic mantel and hearth flanked by windows.

The kitchen shimmers with white

Imaginative tile work creates a unique design for the covered patio off the

and steps down to a paved area perfect for al fresco dining and entertaining

room. The space includes an outdoor

Seating for four is comfortable at the island delineating the culinary center of the home, complete with professional-grade appliances and gleaming cabinets and counters.

cabinets and quartzite counters, interspersed with stainless professionalgrade appliances. A large island has

seating for at least four, with a handy breakfast area close by A trio of windows overlooks the backyard, with ac-

Interesting architectural elements combine on the front of the home on Hollywood Drive in Old Metairie.

cess to a full-family-sized mudroom off the garage. A butler’s pantry provides generous storage and counter space, plus a wine refrigerator and walk-in storage.

A dual set of French doors open from the living room sector onto a covered back porch, which boasts a decorative

ONEINAMILLION

This primary bath, one of two, has a walk-in closet, vanity, water closet and access to the shower that connects the two rooms.

tile floor. An outdoor kitchen makes entertaining an on-site option, with an additional paved space connected to the porch that would be an excellent room for al fresco dining.

The sleeping chambers are upstairs, with the convenience of a laundry on the same level. A flex space, perfect for exercise equipment, is at the top of the stairs and is illuminated with a large window.

A two-tiered tray ceiling and custom lighting are the canopy for the primary bedroom, a large space that enjoys several windows and warm wood floors. But the bonus could be the pair of primary baths, each with a walk-in closet and private water closet. The larger of the

The shower boasts twin glass doors into each of the two primary baths, plus spa-inspired accessories.

two has a soaking tub beneath an arched window, long vanity and a boutique-inspired closet. The spacious shower opens onto each bath, creating a passage between the two, with glass doors and a built-in seat.

Two bedrooms, one decked out as a fanciful nursery, share a Jack and Jill bath with a double vanity and shower Each room has its own large closet. The fourth bedroom is en suite with a stylish tiled shower in a well-designed space.

The home is listed by Erin Hubert, of Rêve Realtors, (504) 300-0700.

One in a Million is an occasional series featuring upscale homes for sale in the metro area.

The larger of the two primary baths features a soaking tub. The two share access to the spainspired, pass-through shower.

The gas fireplace grounds the living area of the great room in the home, with a pair of French doors leading to the covered patio and outdoor kitchen.

REALESTATETRANSFERS

NEW ORLEANS

TRANSFERS ISSUED AUG. 6-10

DISTRICT 1

BANKS ST. 2809: $270,000, Marcus Hock to R&R Nola Corp.

CLEVELAND AVE. 3521-23:

$437,500, Kristen Boyles Austin and Matthew Eric Austin to Corey James Collier.

GIROD ST. 412-14-16-20-22-24-26, NOTRE DAME ST. 425, 433-37: $587,500, James R. Hirsch and Sharon Geppert Hirsch to Andrew P. Barreca.

S. PIERCE ST. 202: $534,000, Gay Dalton Rakosky and Ronald J. Rakosky to Margaret McGuire Schroeder.

S. PETERS ST. 1107: $405,000, Don Leopoldo Jayanetti, Jay Leopoldo Jayanetti and Rogerio Leopoldo Jayanetti to Harold Spinner III and Kristi Lynn Sanford.

S. PETERS ST. 1107, UNIT 303: $265,000, Ray Christopher Guy to Dean A. J Greiner.

S. TELEMACHUS ST. 519: $275,000, Gunderson Homes Inc. and New Orleans Property Ventures Inc. to Christine Achille Gunter and Jack Gunter.

TCHOUPITOULAS ST. 633:

$668,900, Gary F. Clifford and Lynn Abel Clifford to Anthony A. Voiron Jr., Marlaina J. Voiron and Mary Furgason Voiron.

DISTRICT 2

CANAL BLVD. 5414-16: $461,500, Gerard Joseph Bourgeois Jr. to Kevin A. Reugger.

CATINA ST. 6596: $432,000, Jeanne Parr McFall and Matthew Joseph McFall IV to Christina Maria

Biondo Gaulter and Kenneth Gaulter III.

DAUPHINE ST. 923, 927-929: $1,575,000, Damon Wolf Living Trust to Catherine L. Deano Living Trust.

DAUPHINE ST. 1119: $185,000, Christine A. Carll Hull and Karlie Ann Hull Carll to Shady Hassanien.

HAGAN AVE. 519: $800,000, R&S Auto Service Inc. to Hagan Ventures LLC

HAGAN AVE. 921-23: $495,000, Veronica Field Young to Aaron Murdock Snelling and Lucy Eleanor Sutter.

LOUISVILLE ST. 6818: $1,070,000, Andrea M. Ramsel and Cory M. Ramsel to Christen Amick Jones and Howell Robinson Jones Jr.

LOUISVILLE ST. 6838: $634,900, Ellen Mayeur McCubbin to Mark J. Silva and Michelle Plaideau.

MEMPHIS ST. 5800: $425,000,

Nancy A. Heilner to Ari Goldfarb.

MEMPHIS ST. 5930: $660,000, Julie Kaminski Babin and Patrick Joseph Babin to Leslie Boles Kraus and William G. Kraus Jr.

MOSS ST. 1455: $1,800,000, Donna Sue Negrotto to Camille Ruth Tara Boourgeois Rabon and Justin Mathew Rabon.

MOSS ST. 818: $160,000, Jim A. Ellenikiotis to Doreen Marie Cardillo.

PICHELOUP PLACE 925: $625,000, Brandon Trones and Erin Klodginski to Clifford Andrew Cranford III and Rebecca Ann Harper Cranford.

ST. PHILLIP ST. 1816: $165,000, Palisades Mortgage Loan Trust 2021-RTl 1 to Benjamin Bigelow and Roselyn Marie Spiecher Bigelow.

WOODLAWN PLACE 5612-14: $465,000, John M. Regan Living Trust, Daryl J. Landry and Laura Regan Landry to Shereen Hamed

and Veronica B. Ali Hamed.

DISTRICT

3

ACACIA ST. 2525-27: $145,000, Susan L. Matheson to Frank Abbruscato and John Haldane III.

ACACIA ST. 2558-60: $297,000, Country Pie Properties LLC to Robert Zarcone.

BURGUNDY ST. 4227-4229: $585,000, GST Exempt Family Trust, GST Exempt Marital Trust, GST Nonexempt Family Trust, GST Nonexempt Marital Trust and Thomas P. Stossel Trust to Kerry Maguire, Sage C. Stossel, Scott H. Stossel, Tamara Sakala and Thomas P. Stossel.

DELERY ST. 2532: $4,000, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to JCM Property Management LLC.

DEMONTLUZIN ST. 4472: $295,000, Rachel Field Kravets Fayette to Jeffrey Neal Bagwell and Teresa Anne Cahalan Bagwell.

DESIRE ST. 2519: $136,000, New Orleans Area Habitat For Humanity Inc. to Adrienne Newton.

DESLONDE ST. 2104: $5,000, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to Nextgen Enterprises LLC.

EDNA ST. 2712: $8,000, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to Lawrence Raymond Jr.

FILLMORE AVE. 149: $440,000, Angela Graebert Paulette to Oralee Johnson Varnado.

FRANCE ST. 832-34: $485,000, Greg Andrew Rhoades and Jessica L. Bartush Rhoades to Kathleen Phair Barnard.

FRANKFORT ST. 1428: $425,000, Succession of John S. Exnicios to Nicholas Manuel Pino and Peryn Lynn Pino.

GIBSON ST. 3521, MADISON ST.

3521: $410,000, Thirty Four Acres Holdings LLC to Adrian Mario Lajos.

GLADIOLUS ST. 2544: $230,000, Molly Grace Baker to Yusimil Lopez Bridon.

HAUCK DRIVE 4718: $90,000, Dana Riley and Merle Louise Roy Jones to Next Level Properties LLC.

HAUCK DRIVE 4718: $98,000, Next Level Properties LLC to KC La Land LLC.

INDEPENDENCE ST. 1527: $125,000, Almarie Carter, Jerome Carter, Leroy Carter, Nathaniel Carter and succession of Odelie Nixon Carter to Janaye Preston Taylor.

INDUSTRY ST. 1624-26: $160,000, CSD TXLA LLC to Melvin Gaines, Michael Douglas and Wanda Gaines Douglas.

JOHNNY JACKSON JR. BLVD. 2808: $5,000, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to Cost 2 Ride LLC.

JONQUIL ST. 2417: $54,000, Dixon Investments No. 1 LLC to Gina Tran Nguyen and Tung X. Nguyen.

LADY GRAY ST. 7645: $131,200, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to 7645 Lady Gray LLC.

LAW ST. 5000: $16,000, Scott Allen Taylor to Karon Jerome Joseph. LEPAGE ST. 2651-2653: $1,225,000, Lepage LLC to Christian Jensen. MADRID ST. 1494: $144,000, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to HSR Renovations LLC.

MANDEVILLE ST. 5423: $104,000, Golden Hammer Construction Co. LLC to Danielle M. Bennette Dukes and Dion Emil Dukes.

MIRABEAU AVE. 1832: donation, no value stated, Hazel K. Heechung to Sheila Kelly Anderson.

MUSIC ST. 5338: $355,000, Anna Renee Bailey Gibson and Gregg Danielle Gibson to Ronald Brooks Jr.

NEW CASTLE ST. 7359: $22,000, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to John D. Thomas and Rachelle P. Thomas.

N. CLAIBORNE AVE. 1825;: $64,000, Angela Davis to Prolific Group Corp.

N. CLAIBORNE AVE. 5901: $45,000, Denise Slaughter Auguillard to Ayad Fadhil.

N. DORGENOIS ST. 2010, 2012: $370,000, HSR Renovations LLC to Osamudiamen Oviawe and Promise Osemwengie Oviawe

N. RAMPART ST. 1905-1907: $699,000, Joseph William Suttner to Lane A. Greer.

N. ROMAN ST.1508: $430,000, Melissa Ann Barrois andMichael A. Davis to Marielle Land Howard and Mark David Howard.

N. VILLERE ST.1519-21: $496,000, Camille Fanguy Dormady, David Popovich, Jason D. Dormady and Jessica J. Reddell Popovichto Catherine Monzon Knecht and Stephen Knecht.

PAULINE ST.2445: $6,000, New Orleans RedevelopmentAuthority to E. WatkinsEnterprises LLC

RIDGEWAY BLVD.2849: $42,500, CathyGene Barousse Coyle, Daniel Myron Barousse, Debra Mary Barousse Bouterie, Dustin Barousse, KarenAnn Barousse Brakel, Sharon Lynn Barousse Davis andsuccession of Catherine K. BaroussetoKing Ironworks LLC.

ST.ANTHONYST. 1323-1325: $240,000, Equity TrustCo. to Tanner J. Perrin.

ST.MAURICE AVE. 1812: $4,000, New Orleans RedevelopmentAuthority to JCMProperty Management LLC.

SEAWOOD ST.10229: $197,500, Shantel L. Spencer to Sidney Savage Jr.

SEVEN OAKS ROAD 7420: $10 and other good and valuable consideration, Mill City Mortgage Loan Trust 2018-4 to Mill City Mortgage Loan Trust 2018-4.

TOURO ST.826: $325,000, G&K LLC to Joseph Christopher Waddy.

TOURO ST.2220: donation,no value stated, ShawonJackson BernardtoTyraKelly Bernard TREASURE ST.1653-55;1655A: $285,000, Family First Enterprise LLCtoLatryante Carter.

TUPELOST. 2214: $7,000, New Orleans RedevelopmentAuthority to Christopher Gassam Jr. VANDERKLOOTAVE. 7535: $76,000, David J. Firman Gilyot to Gameface Enterprises LLC.

VERBENA ST.2635: $110,000, Gerald Hodges, MaryMoore, Tika Gant and Toya GanttoJazzie Stylez LLC.

WARRINGTONDRIVE5516:

$365,000, Hello Ivan Zembrani Zago and Reina SuyapaGonzalez PerezZago to Reagan Schaefer Killian and RichardDaniel Killian II.

DISTRICT 4

EIGHTH ST.1308: $1,220,000, Ashley Staton to Anne Magee Vaughan Fonthamand John Hobgood Fontham

ST.CHARLES AVE. 2833: $245,000, Hannah Parish Erbrick toLinwill One LLC.

REALESTATETRANSFERS

ST.CHARLES AVE. 3201: donation, no value stated, M&N Land LLC to MarkL.Guillory.

DISTRICT 5

BLAIR ST.3148: $169,000, LaneashaLique BrownHebert and LionelA.HeberttoMarcus Lebeau.

COPERNICUS ST.4932: $70,000, Carly Jeannette Jolly Bowling and Patricia CatherineRanson to Andrea ReneeChristian.

DEARMAS ST.3615: $45,000, Essential Investment Properties LLCtoCapital Alliance LLC.

ENGLISH TURN DRIVE 36: $660,000, AminaDearmon and James Matthew Dearmon to Chosen 1LLC and JimmyCharles Chase.

FOREST OAKS DRIVE 192: $757,500, Elnaggar Trust to Cyrus Gavin Washington.

HUNTLEEDRIVE 3730: $260,000, Nikki Marie Fischer and Todd

DISTRICT 6

CAMP ST.3944-3946: $622,500, Hannah Grace Pfrommer, Kelly Aryah Pfrommer and Michael Paul Pfrommer to DeniseMeyer and William V. Meyer.

CAMP ST.4005-07: $540,000, Gregory A. Shamitko and Jessica Ann Galandak Shamitko to Alex Xuan Le and Lindsey Forshee Le.

CHESTNUT ST.5817: $1,185,000, Adele Dugue Webster Abrassard to 5817 Chestnut LLC.

CLARA ST.5113-15: $505,000, KirstinKemmis Griffith and Robert H. Griffith to Brianne Sullivan and SamuelBliesner.

DELACHAISE ST.2516: $104,000, Cane Ventures LLCto2516 Delachaise Street Industries LLC.

GEN. PERSHING ST.2024: $100, Ann G. RoyHamric and Laurence M. Hamric to Christopher Bravender and Rebecca Rogers Br ender.

NASHVILLE AVE. 426: $580,000, Alan D. Chapman to Blake Cass and Ivy C. Cass.

ST.CHARLES AVE. 3915: $385,000, Kristen Sulser Guinn to Claire Michelle Williams.

UPPERLINE ST.1022: $100 and other valuable consideration, John R. Nickens IV and Marye Hutzler Nickens to Chad Allen Ventola and Olivia Smith Ventola.

WASHINGTONAVE. 4000: $99,000, CrownJewel Builders LLCtoTerravivaProperty Group LLC.

DISTRICT

7

30TH ST.179: $900,000, Christopher Prasad and TiffanyDanielle Owens Prasad to BrentonGarrett Hill and Kirsti Roundtree Hill.

DUBLIN ST.2112: $785,000, James Matthew Bluett and Valerie Aitken Bluett to Olivia Mertens-

meyerAlexander and Thomas Williams Alexander III.

GARFIELD ST.7475: $105,000, Beatrice Thomas Lewis and Lloyd Thomas to Alsop Family revocable trust.

OAKST. 8518-8520: $580,000, 8518 Oak St. LLCtoGregory Andrew Rhoades and Jessica Bartush Rhoades.

OLIVE ST.8013-15, 8023, S. CARROLLTONAVE.3411-13-15-17: $5,000,000, LKM Enterprises LLC to RBC Capital Encore3411 Carrollton LLC.

STROELITZ ST.8830: $71,000, VJ Investments LLCtoGFJ Entertainment.

W. ROBERTE.LEE BLVD.208, 212: $505,000, Josette Eileen Johnson Bookishand Logan Arik BookishtoKayleigh MarieDenny and MitchellTheologos

1500 W. ESPLANADE, UNIT 22B - $185,000

Fabulous3 bdrm /3bath cornerunit at Chardonnay Village!1 bdrm/bath downstairs. Special Features include:Custom crown molding +basebrds, 2frplcs, Engineered wood flrg,custom kitcabinets.

CONTRACTPENDING 2700 WHITNEYPLACE #829 - METAIRIE -$119,000

1bdrm condo at Whitney Place condos! 2nd floor near elevator. Walk-incloset. Condo fee includes all utilities. Sec. Guard on dutyat night.Gated Bldgs. Pool,Barbeque gazebo. Lovely landscapedgrounds

CONTRACT PENDING 1TOLEDOCOURT- KENNER- $385,000

Fabulous 3bdrm /2bath Beauty. Completely Renovated. Open floor plan. 12’ clgsinprimary bdrm. Tray clginLiv.Rm. Frplc. 500s.f. cvrd patio areas. GaterShed. Rear Yd Access. Call Sandy for private showing .504-259-2616

REALESTATETRANSFERS

EAST JEFFERSON

n TRANSFERS FORAUG.2-8

HARAHAN

COLONIAL CLUB DRIVE 552: Robert S. Chong to Joseph F. Rodriguez,$660,000.

ELAINE AVE. 110: Betty E. Dupre to Robert G. Eble Jr., $270,000.

TIME SAVER AVE. 517: FiveHundred Seventeen TimeSaver LLC to Galvanized Re LLC, $440,200.

JEFFERSON

AUDUBON TRACE 3014: Diana E. LeetoKerin C. Cotten, $157,500.

Properties Inc. to Damary Y. Arita, $160,000.

IDAHOAVE. 4344: LloydJ.Francioni to Aviv Shemesh, $403,500.

IOWA AVE. 2525: Amber L.L. Woodruff to Lily Dufrene, $277,500.

MARYLAND AVE. 1809: Mary M. Reinhardt to Steven P. Fraser, $180,000.

MASSACHUSETTS AVE. 3405: Diego R. OrtiztoMariaC.Ortiz, donation, no value stated.

MILLSAPS PLACE 98: Hong T. C. Vo to TuyetA.Nguyen,$170,000.

MOISANT ST.1311: Madelyn Doty to Edwin J. C. Lopez, $164,927.

BERESFORD DRIVE 35: Kathryn Enloe to Brett S. Morris, $2,165,000.

BLANCHE ST.724: Lynnette R. Chilman to Isabelle Ward, $210,000.

CARROLLTONAVE.1050-1052: J&AHotardProperties LLCto PatrickJ.O’neill, $385,000.

CLEARVIEWPARKWAY 1900: Rdg Construction &Development LLCtoYalla Properties LLC, $799,000.

HELIOS ST.336: Dardel Properties LLCtoChristopher D. Baer, $1,418,500.

Or show your suppor forour journalists with our Times-Picayune coffee mugs andtotebag

BREHMPLACE 753: Lauren Cooper to Diana G. Boyce, $249,000.

HACKBERRYDRIVE 4712: Kenneth T. Hahn to FayAyo,donation, no value stated.

JEFFERSON PARK EAST 717: Longbridge Financial LLCtoNew Orleans Property Ventures Inc., $105,000.

JEFFERSON ST.535: Mak LLC Paisley to PjdHouses LLC, $80,000.

JULES AVE. 230: RowanM.Walter to Colton J. Paterson, $239,000.

LIONS ST.226: Tara Vanvrancken to Victoria W. Norman, $237,000.

KENNER

ANTIGUADRIVE 36: Masam Properties LLCtoElarby Moulayazain, $270,000.

ANTIGUADRIVE 49 UNIT C: Daniel A. C. Yanez to KarenC.Chavez, $125,000.

AUDUBON COURT303: Oscar L. Raines to Impastato Properties LLC, $184,500.

CONNECTICUT AVE. 3807: Micaza

NEWPORTPLACE 1645, APARTMENT DUNIT B, BUILDINGA: Le V Anh to Sm Realty LLC, $110,160.

N. BAYOUROAD1009: MariaG Lopez to LisaL.Dugas,$280,000.

RUE DE LA HARBOR 4405: Orleans Properties LLCtoSam Brakta, $850,000.

W. LOUISIANA STATEDRIVE 3760: Martha J. Bell to MyronChapman Jr., $212,000.

WILLIAMS BLVD.4315: Gephta S. MoisetoGno Properties & Investments LLC, $240,000.

METAIRIE

ACKELST. 6320 #210: Gabriella LeetoJunye Lin, $62,500.

ALAN ST.3541: Scott E. Parker to Tamarah Jassem, $355,000.

ANTHONY ST.4315 A&B: Lapara Designs Inc. to Thomas Tasker, $400,000.

ATHERTONDRIVE 240: Tracey R. MurphytoRichardC.C.Lo, $1,470,000.

BELMONT PLACE917: Justin Ellerman to Catherine C. Curry, $315,000.

JAMESDRIVE 3512: Marguerite E. B. Guidry to MarioS.Cole, $330,000.

LAFRENIERE ST.5705: David M. Schmidt to JordanNyein, $261,000.

LAKE BORGNEAVE.4716: Marshall K. VillanuevatoFfb2 Properties LLC, $250,000.

LEMON ST.4308: Eglis W. A. P. Mejia to MarianaP.Rogers, donation, no value stated.

MEADOWDALE ST.4601: Hsu H. Huang to IW.Kang, donation, no value stated.

MEADOWDALE ST.5201: Melissa D. Gisevius to Logan Harch, $394,000.

METAIRIE HEIGHTS AVE. 2800: Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., $365,000.

N. STARRETT ROAD 2232: Dale J. Lebrun to Angela Ouber, $419,250.

N. TURNBULL DRIVE 2801: New Orleans Property Ventures Inc. to Kimberly Rastanis, $350,000. N. UPLANDAVE.801: Ronald J. Bertucci to Freedom Mortgage Corp., $140,000.

N. WOODLAWN AVE. 3416: Carol A. M. Masters to Armand Duvio Jr., $235,000.

PILGRIM ST.6315: Elizabeth J. Champagne to LaurenT.Kirichkow, $300,000.

REASER ST.4909: Patricia G. Lonergan to Gauthreaux Clarence& Patricia Revocable Trust, donation, no value stated.

RIDGELAKE DRIVE 1417: DeeA. D. Ezell to Jennifer P. Pagart, $1,050,000.

ROSALIE CT 6213: JanetGrayto Yanjun R. Yu,$225,000.

RUE LAURENT 4716: Jeanne M. Higgins to JoySteib, $622,500. TRUDEAUDRIVE 1001: Sidney W. Meilleur to Samuel D. Garcia, $180,000.

ä See EAST, page 23

REALESTATETRANSFERS

WEST JEFFERSON

n TRANSFERS FORAUG.2-8

AVONDALE

CHAPELLANE 228: Elaine Peters to Rac Development LLC, $105,000.

RUTH DRIVE 804: Eugene Cook Jr. to LemInvestments LLC, $63,000.

RUTH DRIVE804: LemInvestmentsLLC to Leos La LLC, $70,000.

BRIDGE CITY

WESTWEGO AVE. 900: LkmEnterprises LLCtoRbc Capital Encore 900 Bridge City LLC, $2,500,000.

WIEGAND DRIVE 660: C. J.Landry Jr. to Don Landry,$30,000.

GRANDISLE

FIR LANE 117: Jennifer Breaux to Kristen G. P. Gardemal, $90,000.

LA. 12950: GDE Tiger Petroleum LLCtoBar Properties of Pointe Coupee ParishLaLLC,$700,000.

STARBOARD LANE 112: Vanda Vann to Leah Martin, $235,000.

GRETNA

GRAPE PLACE 2156: Tina Warrendorf to Mirian E. Chicas, $256,000.

LACEY LANE 839: Rashad Odeh to Jihad S. Kattoum, donation,no value stated.

LAFAYETTEST. 2401: Kate L. Roussel to Jireh Home Investment LLC, $360,000

MYSTIC AVE. 756: Thuy Vo to Dania Ramos, $175,000

OAKWOOD DRIVE 885: Morgan Stanley Bank N.A. to Donya Management LLC, $135,000.

SHEREE LYNCOURT836: Nancy S. Remfry to KarenV Ramos,

EAST

Continued from page22

WILLS ST.4908: EdwinJ.Maradiaga to Tahiess Henssler, $360,000.

RIVERRIDGE

CELESTE AVE. 313: Morgan M. Falterman to JacquelineHanel, $255,000.

RENSU DRIVE 8925: Perk Properties LLCtoSydneyPrados, $388,000.

$218,000.

WILLOW DRIVE 114: Kaylee L. Stubbs to Yvette Webre, $279,000.

HARVEY

BROWN AVE. 744: Stacy A. Melling to Nayeli Estrada, $99,000.

LEIGH LANE 2321: Ashley

M. SensleytoIslam Elabed, $285,000.

LIRO LANE 3736: W. Thomas to Lashonda Lewis,$225,000.

MAPLEWOOD DRIVE 1501: Andrea

M. T. WattingytoTuanTran, $100,000.

REDWOOD DRIVE 1521: Alyina Strahan to Rac DevelopmentLLC, $80,000.

SPANISH OAKS DRIVE 2039: Mclp Asset Co. Inc. to FreddyF.Espiritusanto,$115,000.

ST.JOSEPH LANE653: Mt Laurel Properties LLCtoDestinyT Stansbury,$174,000

TURNBERRYLANE3301: Wilfredo L. Cunningham to Beverly Greene, $500,000.

LAFITTE

JEAN LAFITTE BLVD.954: Theia Creppel to Stacy L. N. Matherne, donation,novaluestated.

MARRERO

AVE. B1517: Grace M. Guillory to Billy J. Guillory, donation, no value stated.

AVE. F419, UNITP,BUILDING T: Cynthia A. Butler to James Williams Jr.,$240,000.

BELLE TERRE ROAD 5213: Nancy T. Lory to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., $116,667.

BONNIE ANN DRIVE 2020: FreddieC.Folse Jr. to Canh M. Do, $138,000.

CARMADELLE ST.845: Claude Melanson Jr. to Jeremiah Mulloy, $193,000.

COHEN ST.1120: Home Savers Inc. to Guizhi Chen, $268,500.

COTTONWOOD DRIVE 4000: Gianna M. ColluratoElegant Houses LLC, $125,000.

CYPRESSLAWNDRIVE 2552: Gail H. Plaisance to Olit 2024 Hb1 Alternative Holdings LLC, $200,000.

ERIN DRIVE 2772: BrookeStipe to Chase Richard, $185,000.

GARDEN ROAD 820: Rodney A. Gibson Sr.toSherryann Williams, $99,000.

GENTRYROAD6804: Housing Corporation of America to Bryant K. Harrison,$20,000.

JOYANN DRIVE 2525: Gabrielle Moll to Jade Plaisance, $180,000.

MIMOSAST. 1521: DeweyJ BourgeoistoHenry M. Michel, $345,000.

ROSS LANE 5108: Andrew J. Dempster Jr. to Jamie Alexie, donation, no value stated.

RUE MONTESPAN 5824: BryanT. BarnestoDSG Properties LLC, $146,850.

RUE MONTESPAN 5824: DsgProperties LLCtoValencia T. Thomas, $20,500.

SANDPIPER CIRCLE 2555: Sharon T. Hebert to William J. Reed, $320,000.

ST.ANTHONY ST.7525: Tilly B. Punch to Vrmtg Asset Trust, $93,334.

TULIP COURT5425: Secretary of Veterans Affairs to Legacy Renovation LLC, $144,000.

TERRYTOWN

MORNINGSIDE DRIVE 649: Elegant Houses LLCtoHeidy C. Bennett, $265,000.

WAGGAMAN

HELIS DRIVE 374: Patricia P. BantatoLorraine F. G. Payne, $148,000.

WESTWEGO

AVE. B668: L. Campbellto Jireh Home Investment LLC, $140,000.

AVE. F837: Maritza Perdomo to Keyna Blanks,$235,000.

BRIDGECITY AVE. 900: Lkm Enterprises LLCtoRbc Capital Encore 900 Bridge CityLLC, $2,500,000.

EIGHTH ST.631: Good ShepherdHome Buyers LLCtoNew Orleans Property Ventures Inc., $35,000.

EIGHTH ST.631: Helen P. Jackson to Good ShepherdHome Buyers LLC, $25,000.

ST.TAMMANy

n TRANSFERS FORJULY21-25

ABITASPRINGS

BALD EAGLE DRIVE 296: William M. Sims Jr. and LindaK.Wilson to AnthonyR.Dutruch and SandraK.Dutruch, $519,000.

HIDDENLAKE LOOP 112: David M. Dragon andLeila T. Dragon to William G. Webster Jr., $280,000.

HILLCRESTCOUNTRYCLUB ESTATES,LOT 10, SQUARE 42: D&R LandInc. to Jose E. Franco Guzman, $11,000.

HILLCRESTCOUNTRYCLUBESTATES,LOT 3, SQUARE 14: Magee Financial LLCofCovington to Christopher E. Horne and AmyJ. Horne,$13,957.

ä See TAMMANY, page 24

NEWORLEANS’LAKEFRONT LUXURY

Over 2600SF of exquisite spacewithtremendousviews of the City,Lakefront andmarinafromthree balconies. 3bedrooms /3 full bathroomsand onehalfbath. Coveredparking for3 vehicles!Generousroomsizes andcustomdecorator finishes throughout.Large greatroomleads to balconyoverlooking thewaterwayleading to Lake Pontchartrain. Beautifulprimary suitew/its ownbalcony andlarge walk in closet.Third floor bedroom/ denwithits ownfullbath. Cathedralceilings. Lighthouse Harbor condos features newroofing andother recent improvements.Dining, shopping, bike andwalking trails andLakePontchartrain aresteps away $617,500

Continued frompage23

HILLCREST COUNTRYCLUB ESTATES,LOTS3-5, SQUARE 9: Equity Trust Co. to Tony J. Vujnovich, $30,000.

N. DUNDEE LOOP 2073: Ryan Rushing to LonnyBourgeois, $210,000.

NEAR ABITASPRINGS, PORTION OF GROUND: Beryl E. Hoffman to St. Tammany Parish, $2,425.

TRAILHEAD DRIVE 474: Roland S. Sherwood III and DanetteA.Morgan Sherwood to Mark S. Miko and Carrie L. Miko,$1,250,000.

COVINGTON

33RD AVE. 1001: West 30’s Redemption Co. Inc. to Eddie McGee, $79,600.

33RD AVE. 1003: West 30’s Redemption Co. Inc. to Albert J. Smith, $48,000.

BEAUREGARDPARKWAY 993: Belcher irrevocable trust to Julie A. Schneider, $516,000.

BEEBALMCIRCLE 243: Edward A. Kurtz and Maureen G. Kurtz to Darryl J. Duncan and Christina Duncan, $399,900.

BELLE TERRE BLVD.119: Kevin J. Guitterrez to Michaela Rae Traina and Dominic M. Traina, $366,000.

CEDAR DRIVE 71011: Kevin M. Bono to JeremyV.Ash and Stephanie L. Ash, $70,000.

COUNTRYSIDE SUBDIVISION, LOT 23: Joseph Gristina andGretchen Gristina to Joshua Holloway and Morgan Holloway, $50,000.

CRAPEMYRTLE ROAD 133: John C. Givens and Monica W. Givens to

REALESTATETRANSFERS

Virginia Plauche, $624,900.

DAHLIA ST.72369: Lakeview Loan Servicing LLCtoMatthew Gonzales, $115,000.

E. FOURTH AVE. 313: 313 Investments LLCtoMatthew Snitzer and Marleybree Anderson Snitzer, $190,000.

MILLION DOLLAR ROAD 18011: HMM DevelopmentLLC to Gregory J. Stelly andKaren K. Stelly,$440,000.

MOUNT HOPE COURT540: Highland HomesInc.toJoseph O. Kuebel III and Michele M. Lajaunie Kuebel, $624,857.

N. FLORIDAST. 612: West 30’s Redemption Co.Inc.toJocelyn Stirgus and Elliott Stirgus, $198,000.

NEAR COVINGTON, PORTION OF GROUND: Sisters of the Society of St. Theresa of Jesus to Holy Family Homeschool Apostolate Inc., $1,175,000.

NINTH ST.19343: Janet F. Naquin to OldOaks Farm LLC, $190,000.

NINTH ST.70046: Donald Julien to LauraE.Gill, $230,000.

NORTHPARK BLVD.436: Edward A. Swan Jr. and Peggy M. Swan to Harrison M. Jambon and Maggie A. Jambon,$549,000.

NORTHRIDGE DRIVE175: Matthew J. Pinero to William G. Alario, $240,000.

RANDOLPHDRIVE 343: Centanni Construction Co. Inc. to Mi Mi Kim, $598,500.

RIVER PARK ESTATES,LOT 10, SQUARE 9: Joshua W. Murphyto Jameison B. Curtis, $37,500.

ROBYN ROAD 25034: Matthew C. Sharp and Danielle L. Sharpto Barry Oliver and Michele Oliver, $750,000.

S. CORNICHEDULAC 753: CarlJ Prescott Jr.and Kim K. Prescott

to Christine K. Edmond, $710,000.

S. DIVISION ST.11: Frank G. Marten and MarleyM.Marten to John C. Carden and KarlaKay SmithCarden, $470,000.

S. JAHNCKE AVE. 1619: Julie A. Schneider to Jennifer L. Carr, $372,500.

SAWGRASS LOOP 295: Noelle H. Anderson and Thomas C. Anderson to Diane P. Matherne, $417,600.

SEVENTH ST.70281: Corbin J. Logueand Emily L. Noel Logue to JustinModlin and TiffanyModlin, $57,343.

SHADOWBEND DRIVE 21253: DSLD Homes LLCtoAustinFontenot, SaraF.KowitzChauppette and LauraGodel, $317,025.

SILVERBERRYDRIVE 43: Brian W. Baker and CassieC.Baker to Tovy Pasentine,$414,000.

SIXTH ST.70100: Succession of Terry J. Charrier to LeoD.Oubre and Donna C. Oubre,$228,000.

SPRUCE CREEK COURT512: Shayne C. VanBenschoten and AmandaB.VanBenschoten to Michael Smith and AshleySmith, $539,000.

W. 19THAVE. 1712: NoelJ. WesterfieldJr. and Barbara Z. WesterfieldtoErwin Properties LLC, $62,672.

W. 24THAVE. 542: Frank P. Tranchina Jr. and Susan K. Tranchina to ClaudeF.Lagalanteand Melonie W. Lagalante, $250,000.

WARRIOR TRACE 404: BlakeC. Andriessen and Lisbeth M. Andriessen to JeremyM.Carter and BrittanyF.Carter, $600,000.

FOLSOM

HAYHOLLOW ROAD 12431: Carl A. Spadoni and Carrie P. Spadoni

to Quintin D. Spadoni, $260,000.

LACOMBE

AUTUMN HAVEN CIRCLE 452: Rachel E. Giarraputo and Allison R. Soileau to Consuelo F. Ortiz, $307,000.

DINKINS LOOP 29259: Ronald L. Budenich to LillianBudenich, donation, no value stated.

ERINDALE HEIGHTS SUBDIVISION, LOT4,SQUARE 10: Kyle B. King and Christine K. King to Marissa E. Frazier, $225,000.

FAIRFAX DRIVE 60817: DSLD HOMES LLCtoBrandiRoberts and KimberlyRoberts, $291,525.

FAIRFAX DRIVE 60821: DSLD Homes LLCtoLaurie A. Laurent and Olivia A. Laurant, $287,175.

FOREST GLEN EAST SUBDIVISION, UNIT 1, LOT2: KimE.ConnerBook to RutNoemi Moyet-Alvarez, $240,000.

MARSHALL VAUGHN ROAD 67513: Juan S. Ortiz and Erin R. Ortiz to John B. Newboldand WandaD. Newbold, $40,000.

TRACY ST.30097: Lakeview Loan Servicing LLCtoSecretaryof Housing and UrbanDevelopment, $25,000.

MADISONVILLE

BELINGTONAVE. 103: DavidP Sampey,Anne S. Doss, Larry A. Sampey Jr.toMichael G. Hicks and AmandaR.Bryant, $299,000.

EMPRESS COURT277: Brad C. Bertoniereand Tara W. Bertoniere to Corey A. Mayand Christina P. May, $585,000.

LIVE OAKHILLS SUBDIVISION, LOT 13, SQUARE 5: Edwin M. BedfordIII to Bedford&Thompson Holding Co. LLC, $30,000.

LOVE OAKHILLS SUBDIVISION,

PORTION OF GROUND: Bedford ConstructionLLC to Bedford &ThompsonHolding Co.LLC, $30,000.

MERION CIRCLE 200: EK Real Estate Fund 1LLC to Mitchell Malone and Casey Malone, $610,000.

NANTERRE COURT10097: Patricia D. JacksontoAndrew Goebel and Jessica C. Goebel, $317,500.

PERRILLOUX TRACE AVE. 725: Kent Whiteheadand DebbyK.WhiteheadtoMadeline C. Shannon, $454,000.

SPIKE DRIVE 71549: DSLD Homes LLCto20356 RueLegendreLLC, $206,605.

SPIKE DRIVE 71533: DSLD Homes LLCtoHTInvestments LLC, $208,130.

ST.CALAIS PLACE 116: J&S Investments of Louisiana LLCto OsburneProperties LLC, $381,500.

TAVERNY COURT69541: Alyssa L. Madlem to Daryl Sausse, $305,000.

TCHEFUNCTE PARC DRIVE 158: Daniel J. Haydel Jr. andLisa M. Haydel to JohnR.Cherbini and Marlena C. Cherbini, $700,000.

TROPHY LANE 12120: DSLD Homes LLCtoJosiahKrause andIsabella Krause, $232,005.

WOODS DRIVE 104: Brad M. Bascle to Michael B. Simmons and Caroline O. LeB, $258,000.

MANDEVILLE

ARMAND ST.827: Felix Moncada and Ruben A. Urquia to Robin Grego, $240,000.

BEAU CHENE DRIVE 511: WendyP. Piretand Ronald J. PirettoJohn O’Brien and Christine O’Brien Living Trust, $778,000.

BLUFF COURT 2637: Gregory J. Stelly and KarenK.Stelly to Joseph G. Naquin Jr. and Amanda M. Naquin, $395,000.

CHATEAUANDELOT 624: Kristen K. Spears to James M. Null and BarbaraG.Null, $705,000.

CHATEAUPAPILLON 121: TerreroGerage Family revocable trust to Nagendrakumar Beeravolu and Anusha KeesaraBeeravolu, $750,000.

CHERRYCREEK DRIVE 111: CharlesG.Luig to RichardA. Angelico, $613,000.

COFFEEST. 525: 215 Jackson Avenue LLCtoConnell Living Trust, $230,000.

CROSSINGCOURT2308: DeMelo Team LLCtoTylerPatterson, $390,000.

HAMPTON COURT 126: Succession of Kathleen L. Rush to Nicole H. Gilpin and CharlesO.Gilpin III, $210,000.

HARBOR OAKS CONDOMINIUM,

UNIT 13-4: HOCBBB LLC to Arley

B. James, $110,000.

HIGHLAND DRIVE 139: Senor GP LLC to James W. Tewell and Jolie A. Pugh Tewell, $345,000.

JENNIFER COURT 25: Grace Bartolucci to Thomas Post, $280,000.

MARSHALL ROAD 22240, UNIT

A: Evie’s Closet LLC to Ivan Milicevica, $175,000.

MCHUGH COURT 103: Robert J. Batherson and Mary B. Batherson to John D. Ferut and Hayley B. Ferut, $190,000.

MONTGOMERY ST. 1310-12: Linda D. Truebel to Bruce J. Truebel, donation, no value stated.

NEAR MANDEVILLE, PORTION OF GROUND: KG Land Co. LLC to Treadaway Properties LLC, $40,000.

OLD MANDEVILLE LANE 1765: Stephen A. Chislak to Willis Matthews Jr. and Alicia Matthews, $500,500.

PARKVIEW BLVD. 303, UNIT 303, PARKING SPACE 303: Martin Marquez to Labmac Properties LLC, $131,000.

PINE PLACE SUBDIVISION, LOTS 6, 7, SQUARE B: David B. Zazzali and Mary N. Zazzali to Russel Bernard and Rosanne Simons, $485,000.

RIVER COURT 1007: Cathy R. Loftin to Robert M. Jones and Kelly E. Jones, $460,000.

SOUTHERN MAGNOLIA LANE 67412: Renee F Johnson and Christopher R. Ford to Jason D. Richoux and Melissa W. Richoux, $200,000.

STATE ST. 70293: Jeremy M. Haar to Joseph A. Rotolo and Shirlyn T Rotolo, $299,999.

TEE-BOURG LANE 70151: W&BJ Edler LLC to Book Properties & Investments LLC, $100,000.

W. RIDGE DRIVE 2021: Erin N. Drury to NAF Cash LLC, $265,000.

WATER OAK LANE 501: Adrian P. LeBlanc Jr. and Jean A. LeBlanc to Stephanie M. McCain, $115,000.

PEARL RIVER

ANN ST. 65025: Susan A. Verdun to JDM Enterprises LLC, $18,500.

BERKSHIRE DRIVE 1136: Steven D. Nelson and Kathaleen C. Nelson to Jesse H. Boggess and Dania L. Cox, $252,500.

EVERGREEN COURT 205: Shane A. Billings and Megan M. Billings to Samuel D. Lantz Jr. and Sarah A. Whitney Lantz, $387,000.

JACK CRAWFORD ROAD 67412: Brianna Williams to LRB Properties MS LLC, $60,000.

PINE ST. 37545: Johnny P. Billiot to Brandon Boudreaux, $148,400.

REALESTATETRANSFERS

SLIDELL

BAYOU PAQUET ST. 116: Richard A. Berns to Scott Entrekin and Rebekah Entrekin, $170,000.

BEECH AVE. 57288: Secretary of Veterans Affairs to Aixiang Chen, $124,500.

BYPASS BREEZE DRIVE 5353: D. R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Holland T. Bussell II, $271,900.

CANAL BANK DRIVE 3833: Crescent Empire LLC to Walter Jones and Shannon Jones, $348,000.

COLLEGE ST. 2970: Gilberto Valencia and Sonia B. Valencia to Amos McManus Sr., $137,000.

DEBBIE DRIVE 279: Sandra S. Heigle to John E. Maynard and Kathryn A. Maynard, $751,500.

DILLON DRIVE 112: ECL Investments 401K PSP to Herman M Lee, $270,000.

DOGWOOD LANE 59046: Troy M. Green to Paul Olivo, $245,000.

DRIFTWOOD CIRCLE 410: BRM Properties LLC, Dynice TurnerBarlow and Luke J. Barlow to Emelda M. Barlow, $259,000.

DYLAN DRIVE 2012: Lance T. Evans to Duvie Pugh, $199,000.

E. AUGUSTA LANE 249: Charles

J. Arcuri and Pamela D. Arcuri to Jason Defazio and Lauren S Defazio, $450,000.

E. CHAMALE COVE 70: Kyle Cedotal to Evan A. Bauer, $161,500.

E. LAKESHORE VILLAGE DRIVE

409: D. R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Raymond M. Alfonso Jr. and Shanon C. Alfonso, $234,900.

E. LAKESHORE VILLAGE DRIVE

417: D. R. Horton Inc.-Gulf Coast to Nakia Tillman Jr., $239,148.

EDEN ISLES SUBDIVISION, LOT 5, UNIT 1: Jacquelyn G. Dantin, Robin D. Vetter, George E. Dantin

III and others to May Brothers Enterprises LLC, $40,000.

HIGHLANDS DRIVE 668: Jeffrey M. Guillotte and Heather W. Guillotte to Deborah S. Frazier, $364,500.

KELLY DRIVE 131: Howard R. Wooley and Kathryn D. Wooley to DCM Slidell LLC, $135,000.

KOSTMAYER AVE. 513: Michelle P. Norwood to Millennium Properties LLC, $165,000.

LAKE MICHIGAN DRIVE 205: Luzette C. Pecoraro to Ellis T. Badon and Theodora K. Badon, $252,000.

LAKESHORE VILLAGE LANE

521: Ashley H. Fleury to Jeremy Zahringer and Lindsey Zahringer, $380,000.

LEONELL CIRCLE 106: David Starnes to Fleming Properties of La. LLC, $115,000.

MOONRAKER DRIVE 298: Allen J. Raimer Sr. to Sean Brown and Mackenzie F. Brown, $350,000.

NESLO ROAD 59525: Colleen C. Conroy and Vicki L. Marino to Joel M. Lomasney and Meredith Harlin Lomasney, $100 and other good and valuable consideration.

OLD SPANISH TRAIL 1780: Silverback Holdings LLC to A&B Properties of Slidell Inc., $85,250.

ORIOLE DRIVE 203: Alejandro Perez and Leila A. Perez to Staci M. Wise and Damon D. Adams, $165,000.

ORIOLE ST. 2017: Aaron R. Trim and Linda Ann Trim to Honore Calera Sr. and Melina G. Calera, $17,000.

PELICAN ST. 2510: Nicholas Sokolowski and Michaela Martin to James H. McCoy, $197,000.

RALEIGH DRIVE 317: BMRC Properties LLC to Amanda M. Rumore, $240,000.

RAMA ST. 3298: Slidell Rentals I LLC to Millennium Properties LLC,

Indoor-outdoorappealin15yr oldhome. 2porches,heated salt-waterpool,2cargarage, 3carparkingpad,3964SqFt oflivingarea,formalrms,den, chef’skit,6bdrms,generator!

Babineaux &Babineaux Partners Linda Babineaux 504-957-8014 (c) J. Babineaux 504-813-8460 (c) At Latter &Blum-Compass Uptown-Maple Ofc, 7934 MapleSt. N.O.,LA70118|504-861-7575 (O) Licensed in Louisiana

$176,000.

ROE DRIVE 60814: D. R. Horton

Inc.-Gulf Coast to Allen R. Gonzalez and Anthony J. Caldwell, $307,900.

SOMERSET DRIVE 300: Babylon Realty LC to Nathan J. Summers Jr., $169,000.

SUNSET DRIVE 205A: Dana R. Elizabeth Brown Acker to Davon A. Brown, $160,000.

TAYLOR TRAIL 40145, UNIT 503: Dennis J. St. Romain and Yvette G. St. Romain to Barbara Schlesinger, $197,000.

TIMBERLANE DRIVE 425: BMRC Properties LLC to Brent J. Waguespack and April M. Cooper, $279,000.

TROY DRIVE 111: Burdett R. Reneau to Sherry A. Bunch, $108,665.

TUPELO ST. 1311: Derwin L. Payton Jr. and Jazmyne M. Sylve

to Millennium Properties LLC, $164,750.

W. CHAMALE COVE 114: Susan D. Hunt to Charles Nix and Mina Diggs Nix, $150,000.

WHITE STORK DRIVE 132: Timothy M. Blackwood and Jessica L. Tieman Blackwood to Jeffrey M. Guillotte and Heather W. Guillotte, $658,000.

WILBUR ST. 36365: Scott L. Herrin and Dawn M. Harrison to Jaredd R. Franck, $14,000.

WILLOW WOOD DRIVE 145: Jeffrey M. Wood and Sheila M. Wood to Rafael C. Bezerra Neto and Kileigh A. Holmes, $230,000.

SUN/BUSH

NEAR SUN, PORTION OF GROUND: Ashley S. Cavalier and Kaitlyn Valls Cavalier to Lance Dias and Kathryn A. Dias, $127,314.

Damask roses perfume the air in a Moroccan town

BY SAM METZ Associated Press

KALAAT M’GOUNA, Morocco

Gloved and armed with shears, women weaved through thorny brambles, clipping and tossing their harvest into wheelbarrows.

“Thank God for the rain,” said rose picker Fatima El Alami. “There are roses elsewhere, but there’s nowhere like here.”

She’s right. Mild temperatures, steady sunlight and low humidity make the fields around Kalaat M’Gouna a perfect cradle for growing its signature flower: the Damask rose. Abundant precipitation and several desert downpours this year have bestowed Morocco with an exceptional yield of the flower, used for rosewater and rose oil.

Pink and pungent, the roses are set to come in at 4,800 tons this year, a bloom far beyond the 2020-23 average, according to the Regional Office for Agricultural Development, in nearby Ouarzazate.

The small town in the High Atlas mountains comes to life each year during the International Rose Festival, now in its 60th year From the rose-shaped monuments at Kalaat M’Gouna’s entrances to the Pepto Bismol pink taxis, nearly everything here adheres to the theme.

languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Japanese and Amazigh, a tongue indigenous to the region.

Outside the town, roses span 2,520 acres across the region the year. Two and a half acres of roses requires little water and provides more than 120 days of work in a local economy where opportunities are scarce.

Regional officials say the rose industry is a prime example of sustainable development because the flowers are well-adapted to the climate and rooted in the culture — music, dance and celebrations like weddings.

“Roses here are perfectly adapted to the region and to the conditions we’re living in now,” said Abdelaziz Ait Mbirik, director of the local Agricultural Development Office, referencing Morocco’s prolonged drought conditions.

The value of the roses is five to six times higher than it was several years ago. And unlike some other agricultural products that Morocco exports, Kalaat M’Gouna’s roses are largely grown by smallscale farmers and nourished with drip irrigation.

Rosewater and oil are often incorporated into perfumes, toners or facial mists and marketed for their sweet and soothing smell as well as their antiinflammatory and anti-microbial properties.

Though roses are broadly considered a lifeblood to the local economy, women toiling in the fields make an average of $8 to $10 during harvest season.

PRESS

harvest roses in May at a farm in Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco. The small town in the High Atlas mountains comes to life each year during the International Rose Festival, now in its 60th year. From the rose-shaped monuments at Kalaat M’Gouna’s entrances to the Pepto Bismol pink taxis, nearly everything here adheres to the theme.

A worker places roses in a copper tin before they’re boiled to produce rose products.

ways to incentivize farmers to expand rose production in the upcoming years.

Teenagers sell heart-shaped rose dashboard ornaments along the roadside where wild briars bloom into pink tangles. Children whirl around a rose-themed carousel. Roadside placards advertise rose products in at least six

From the fields where they labor, the roses are bundled into potato sacks and sold to local distilleries like Mohammed Ait Hamed’s. There, they are are splayed onto tables, sorted and ultimately poured into copper cauldrons known

as alembic stills, where they’re steamed and filtered into fragrant water and precious oil. The two are packaged into pink bottles, tiny glass vials or spun into soaps or lotions.

Long seen as a natural remedy for a variety of ails in Morocco, rose-based products are increasingly in high demand worldwide. Rosewater

and oil are often incorporated into perfumes, toners or facial mists and marketed for their sweet and soothing smell as well as their anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. Elixirs, tonics and balms were flying off the shelves at booths staffed by local cooperatives from throughout the region. The demand has spurred local officials to find

At the festival parade, as drummers tapped their sticks in cadence, Fatima Zahra Bermaki, crowned this year’s Miss Rose, waved from a float draped in petals. She said she hoped the world could one day know the beauty of Kalaat M’Gouna and its desert roses. But amid the commotion, she remembered something:

“The ladies who pick the flowers are the important ones in all of this. If they weren’t here none of this would be,” she said.

Adoctorintrainingwitha family in crisis

Annie Lane

DEAR ANNIE

Dear Annie: My daughter “Theresa,” now 46, always wanted to be adoctor.Idivorced her father when she was 4and her sister was21/2. When itcame time for college, her father refused to help, and Icouldn’t afford to pay forit as asingle mom. Theresa joined the Army and used the GI Bill to earn two undergraduate degrees while working full-time as amedical technician. She earned her MasterofScience degree with scholarships and loans.

At 39, while pregnant, she applied to medical school. She used student loans to cover tuition, rent, day care and food. Afew years later,she hadtwin girls and took ayear off school to care for them. She graduated last yearbut

hasover$500,000instudent loans. Herhusband, also a medical tech, was fired for sleepingonthe job. He has no ambition. Theyconstantly argueand have separated, though still live togetherinone rental house because neither can afford to move out.

Ivisitedthemonce in Pennsylvania and foundnofood in the fridge, just enough for peanut butterand jelly sandwiches.I’m retired and have givenher my entire savings. I live only on SocialSecurity

Theresadepended on her husband to be the kids’ sole caretakerwhile shewas in school, but he’s acomplete failure when it comes to raising them, simply yelling at them and playingonhis phone all day.

Theresacompleted her first yearofresidencyinPennsylvania but wasn’trenewed due to stress, financial strain and car trouble. She’s now doing

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Saturday,Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2025. There are 137 daysleft in the year.

Todayinhistory:

On Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died at hisGraceland estate in Memphis,Tennessee,atthe age of 42; 41 years later,in2018, singer Aretha Franklin, known as the “Queen of Soul,” died in Detroit at the age of 76.

Also on this date:

In 1777, American forces won the Battle of Bennington in what was considered aturning point of the Revolutionary War.

In 1812, Detroit fell to British and Native American forces in the Warof1812.

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 86, which prohibited the states of the Union from engaging in commercial trade with states that wereinrebellion —i.e., the Confederacy.

In 1896, gold was discovered in Canada’sYukon Territory, sparking the “KlondikeFever” that would draw tens of thou-

rotations and applying to new residenciesthat will start next year,ifshe gets in. Meanwhile, her husband has aserious girlfriend and took ajob an hour away to be near her.

I’ve had the threekids with me in Florida this whole month while Theresacompletes a rotationinTexas,but Ican’t keep themlonger due to my retirement community’srules. I’m concerned once this month is up thatthe deadbeat husband will be in charge of the children again while their mother continues rotations.

My daughter is completely stressedout but still has her sights on becoming an ER doctor. What is your advice for us? How can we keep theirfather and his lack of parenting skills from damaging thekids further? —Worried Grandma in Florida Dear Worried Grandma: Theresa’s resilienceisremarkable. Despite everything, she’sstill pushing forward —but she’s

running on fumes, emotionally and financially.That’snot sustainable for her or the kids. If she hasn’talready,Theresa should speak with afamily law attorney. Her husband clearly isn’twilling or able to parent, and the children’swell-being mustcome first. She mayqualify for free or sliding-scale legal aid. Formalizing the separation and securing acustody arrangement for the kids is key

She should also alert her residency adviser.Theresa can’tbe the first resident to face overwhelming stress, and there’s probably moreinstitutional support availablethan she realizes.She’salso the kind of resident mostprograms would

sands to the region in search of fortune.

In 1948, baseballlegend Babe Ruth diedinNew York at 53.

In 1954, thefirstissue of “Sports Illustrated”was released.

In 1962, theBeatles fired their original drummer,PeteBest,replacing him with Ringo Starr.

In 1978, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., told aCapitol Hill hearing he did notcommit thecrime, saying he’dbeen set up by amysterious mancalled “Raoul.”

In 1987, peopleworldwide began atwo-day celebration of the“Harmonic Convergence,” which heralded what believers called the start of anew,purer ageofhumankind.

In 2014, Missouri Gov.Jay Nixon declared astateofemergency and imposed acurfew in theSt. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where police and protesters repeatedly clashed in theweek since aBlack 18-year-old, Michael Brown, was shot to death by aWhite police officer

In 2020, lightning sparked the August Complex wildfire in California. More than1,600 square miles —greater thanthe size of Rhode Island —would burn over the following three months.

Today’sbirthdays: ActorJulie Newmar is 92. Film director BruceBeresford is 85. Actor BobBalaban is 80. Ballerina Suzanne Farrell is 80. Actor LesleyAnn Warren is 79. ActorReginald VelJohnson is 73. Singer/author/TV personality Kathie LeeGifford is 72. Singer J.T. Taylor (Kool and the Gang) is 72. Movie director James Cameron is 71. Singer/actor Madonna is 67. ActorAngela Bassett is 67. ActorTimothy Hutton is 65. ActorSteve Carell is 63. Country musician Emily Strayer (The Chicks) is 53. Actor/filmmaker Taika Waititi is 50. Singer Vanessa Carlton is 45. Country singer Dan Smyers (Dan &Shay) is 38. Actor RumerWillis is 37. U.S. Olympic gold medal swimmer Caeleb Dressel is 29. Tennis player Jannik Sinner is 24.

want to help, not lose to unfair circumstances. You’ve been asupportive mother and grandmother,going above and beyond, and it says so muchabout your heart that you want to do more. Instead, help your daughter find lasting legal, financial and emotional support. She and your grandkids deserve ahome life that feels safe, consistent and loving. Getting out of this limbo will include overcoming new hurdles, but she’sproven she’sstrong enough to handle it and comeout on the other side.

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators. com.