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Corps finds funds for levee inspections
Federal agency said last week that it lacked money for N.O.-area work BY ALEX LUBBEN
Staff writer
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that it had secured funding for an annual inspection of the crucial levee and pump system that protects the New Orleans region from storm surge flooding, days after federal cuts had threatened to curtail such
checks. The Corps said last week that it did not have funding to conduct the inspection because of federal budget cuts handed down by President Donald Trump’s administration, which has sought to slash the size of the federal government. Ricky Boyett, a spokesperson for the Corps, said the New Orleans District managed to secure fund-
ing for the inspection from the St. Louis District, which had funds it would not be able to spend this year. “We’re not getting inspections because someone else isn’t,” Boyett said, emphasizing that the St. Louis District would not sacrifice its own operations this year so New Orleans could inspect its levees.
The Corps said it expected the inspections to be complete by the end of September. It did not say how much funding had been allocated for the inspections. The New Orleans area’s flood protection authorities, the twin local agencies that oversee the levees on the east bank and west bank, said they were regularly inspecting the levees, even if the
Corps was not. At a Louisiana Senate transportation hearing Tuesday, where lawmakers grilled Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East staff about their flood preparedness, interim Regional Director Jeff Williams stressed that his agency was performing daily inspections of the city’s flood protection infrastructure, going “above and beyond” the Corps
ä See LEVEE, page 6A
Cantrell rejected warnings about relationship with Vappie Associates voiced concerns to mayor before her indictment PROVIDED PHOTO
Matt McKay’s All Star Automotive Group includes 14 brands in 13 locations.
All Star auto group sold Mayor LaToya Cantrell and her bodyguard, New Orleans police Officer Jeffrey Vappie, were photographed by a tipster. BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
Years before she was indicted by a federal grand jury, LaToya Cantrell brushed off warnings from associates who feared the New Orleans mayor’s budding romance with her police bodyguard might one day expose her to criminal charges, prosecutors say. The predictions proved prescient Friday, when the grand jury accused Cantrell
and former New Orleans police Officer Jeffrey Vappie of spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on their romantic travels, then scheming to erase evidence of the alleged affair. The warnings, which Cantrell received in spring 2022 as signs of the liaisons became increasingly evident to people around her, came from at least three Cantrell associates, plus one of Vappie’s law enforcement colleagues, prosecutors say. In April of that year, an associate told
Cantrell that “using public resources for your personal relationship” could be a crime. “Prove to me that I am having a relationship,” the mayor responded, according to messages secured by federal prosecutors and detailed in the indictment. Attorneys for Cantrell and Vappie have declined to comment on the charges. Both have previously denied having an affair.
ä See CANTRELL, page 4A
More concerns arise over salt dome
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL
Staff writer
State regulators are examining the cause of an unexplained pressure drop in three conjoined underground caverns in the Sulphur Mines salt dome, parts of which have been under a state of emergency for a couple of years due to
WEATHER HIGH 96 LOW 79 PAGE 8B
stability concerns. The latest potentially troubled cavern, owned by a Westlake Chemical subsidiary, is just south of one that prompted emergency measures in 2023 to contain a potential collapse, including a protective earthen berm that is now nearly finished construction. The new concern at the site, located
PROVIDED PHOTOS
in the Lake Charles area, involves “Cavern 2-4-5,” named that way because it used to be three separate caverns that joined in the 1950s. State officials said on Monday that they were being cautious with the drop in pressure, which
ä See DOME, page 6A
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Business ...................10A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
State’s largest dealership empire goes for $700M
BY ANTHONY McAULEY Staff writer
Matt McKay, who over nearly four decades went from teenage car salesman to owner of Louisiana’s largest auto dealership empire, has agreed to sell his All Star Automotive Group for a reported $700 million in what industry experts said is a record transaction for the state. McKay’s auto network includes 14 brands in 13 locations in Baton Rouge, Denham Springs and Prairieville, as well as a collision center, a parts warehouse and a used car “super center.” Brands include Toyota, Lincoln, Genesis and Hyundai — those four dealerships are located near to each other along a car dealer’s row on Airline Highway, where the huge used car center also can be found. The terms of sale were not publicly disclosed, but people familiar with the deal said it valued
ä See AUTO, page 9A
13TH yEAR, NO. 8