The Times-Picayune 08-31-2025

SETTING THETONE

Tulane safety Jack Tchienchou celebratesafter sacking NorthwesternWildcats quarterbackPreston Stone during the first half of Saturday’sgame at yulman Stadium in NewOrleans.The Green Wave took control of the game right away with rush endHarveyDyson sacking the Wildcats quarterbackonthe firstplay, causing afumble the Wildcats recovered. ByUtransfer JakeRetzlaff passed for atouchdown on the firstseries of his debut and scored on a69-yard runasTulane rolledtoa23-3victoryoverNorthwestern.

ä SEE COMPLETE COVERAGE OF TULANE’S SEASON-OPENING GAME. PAGE 1C

‘It’sOKto talk aboutit’

Patients with maternal mental health struggles find hope

BY ANDREA GALLO |Staff writer

Brittany Lane keepsayellow birdhouse in her kitchen, the word “hope” painted on oneside of its roof and“love” painted on the other It’sareminder of how far she’scome since June, when Lane, 31, wanted to end herown life. After having her fifth baby, emotions she’dtried to suppress for years spiraled outofcontrol. She never fully mourned herfather and her uncle,who both died in 2022 while she was pregnant and then taking care of anewborn. Her fourth and fifth children arrived back-to-back, leaving her little time to adjusttoa much bigger family

All at once, the grief and the demands of motherhood overwhelmed her.Instead of takingher doctor’sadvice to seek inpatient treatment, Laneassumed she

ä See HOPE, page 4A

“I

knew deep down that Ineeded the help.And at that point, it waslike, getitnow or there might not be anext time.” BRITTANyLANE, mother and Woman’sPerinatal

Johnson nets big wins for Trump, GOP

BY MARK BALLARD |Staff writer

WASHINGTON Over the past eight months, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson overcameatiny majority of often unruly Republicans to enact a batch of “if only” policies that conservatives have wanted fordecades ScalingbackMedicaid; closing borders andramping up immigration enforcement; slashing regulation; lowering taxes —key parts of President DonaldTrump’sagenda are now law,inlarge part because of thequietyet steely demeanor of the 53-year-old House leader from the Shreveport suburb of Benton. But in the “whathave-you-done-lately” world of national politics, Johnson faces awhole newset of hurdleswhen Congress reconvenes in Washington on Tuesday. Foremost is passing abudget during the next 30 days to avoid shutting down federal government operations.

Just twoyears ago, few would have predictedJohnson, who wasfirst elected to Congress in 2016, would be the oneatthe helm.

ä See JOHNSON, page 6A

Researchers fighttimeon disappearing La.islands

BY JOSIE ABUGOV |Staff writer

Asmallseaplane flies circles around a skinny strip of land morethan 20 miles off the Louisiana coast as twoofits passengers scan the sand below for promising tracks.

Keri Lejeune and Todd Baker shout outwhenthey spot them.Lejeune,the state’sherpetologist, and Baker,aprojectmanager with thestate’s coastal authority,are on thehunt for“crawls,” evidencethatendangered andvulnerable turtle species arenesting on the disappearing Chandeleur Islands. Every week during the turtle’ssummer nesting season,state officials involved in the project to restore the iconic barrier islands fly out on the

ä See SEATURTLES, page 8A

Iowa Sen. Ernst expected not to seek reelection

WASHINGTON Iowa Republican

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst is expected to announce in the coming days she won’t seek reelection, according to people familiar with her plans, opening up a Senate seat that could determine which party controls the majority.

Speedy deportations blocked

Judge temporarily stops administration from carrying out expedited removals

BY AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

moval of migrants is trampling on individuals’ due process rights.

Ernst, a 55-year-old combat veteran, was passed over by her party for the third-ranking Senate leadership slot this year and angered the party’s base for her initial reluctance to back the nomination of Defense

Secretary Pete Hegseth.

She also came under fire from the progressive left for her flip response to worries about the health-care impact of Republican cuts to Medicaid, dismissing the concern during a town hall by telling the audience “we all are going to die.”

She also had a high-profile role as a backer of Elon Musk’s

“DOGE” effort, co-chairing a Senate “DOGE Caucus” advocating for spending cuts Ernst had served as a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard and led a battalion in Kuwait during the Iraq War. She served in the Iowa Legislature before her successful 2014 bid for Senate. She is one of the few U.S. senators to publicly acknowledge being a sexual assault survivor. In a 2019 interview with Bloomberg News after a divorce, Ernst said she was raped in college.

Florida man in Batman PJs helps catch burglar

A Florida man wearing Batman pajamas helped Cape Coral cops catch an early morning burglar

Officers were responding to a burglary in progress at around 2 a.m. Wednesday when they located their suspect, who was already being detained by a local man dressed as the Caped Crusader

“The neighbor, Kyle Myvett, told detectives he had gone to bed when his home security cameras alerted him to someone breaking into his vehicle,” cops wrote on Facebook.

Police said Myvett went outside, “still dressed in his Batman pajamas,” and saw 20-yearold Justin Schimpl rummaging through his truck. He then spotted him doing the same thing in a neighbor’s garage and “detained him until officers arrived.”

The suspect allegedly nabbed cash, a wrist wallet, more than $500 in gift cards and two pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses worth $300 each.

Schimpl, who police said was “known to law enforcement from prior investigations,” was arrested on one count of burglary of an occupied dwelling, two counts of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and two counts of petit theft under $750.

In announcing his arrest, cops posted a photo of Myvett wearing his superhero jammies while flanked by two cops.

Little Leaguer’s flipped bat sells for nearly $10K PHILADELPHIA The bat tossed in the air by a New Jersey Little Leaguer to celebrate a home run that earned him a suspension later lifted by a judge sold Friday for nearly $10,000 at auction. All proceeds from the sale of 12-year-old Marco Rocco’s signed bat will be donated to the program he plays for, Haddonfield Little League.

“Marco loves Little League and is happy that he is able to give back to an organization that he is very fond of,” his father, Joe Rocco, said in a text “Little League was such a big part of Marco’s life for a long time.” The auction by Goldin Auctions drew 68 bids. The winning bid was $9,882; the name of the winning bidder was not announced Marco’s bat flip on July 16 in the final of the Little League sectional tournament resulted in an ejection, a one-game suspension and a legal fight.

Joe Rocco took Little League to court and won an emergency temporary restraining order that allowed Marco to play

WASHINGTON A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants detained in the interior of the United States.

The move is a setback for the President Donald Trump’s efforts to expand the use of the federal expedited removal statute to quickly remove some migrants in the country illegally without appearing before a judge first.

Trump promised to engineer a massive deportation operation during his 2024 campaign if voters returned him to the White House.

And he set a goal of carrying out 1 million deportations a year in his second term.

But U.S District Judge Jia Cobb suggested the administration’s expanded use of the expedited re-

“In defending this skimpy process, the Government makes a truly startling argument: that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them,” Cobb wrote in a 48-page opinion issued Friday night. “Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced shortly after Trump came to office in January that it was expanding the use of expedited removal, the fast-track deportation of undocumented migrants who have been in the U.S. less than two years.

DHS in a statement said Cobb’s “ruling ignores the President’s clear authorities under both Article II of the Constitution and the

plain language of federal law.” It said Trump “has a mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst” and that ”we have the law, facts, and common sense on our side.”

Before the administration’s push to expand such speedy deportations, expedited removal was only used for migrants who were stopped within 100 miles of the border and who had been in the U.S. for less than 14 days.

Cobb, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, didn’t question the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute, or its application at the border

“It merely holds that in applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country who have not previously been subject to expedited removal, the Government must afford them due process,” she wrote. She added that “prioritizing

Indonesian local parliament building set on fire; 3 killed

BY NINIEK KARMINI and ANDI JATMIKO Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An angry mob set

fire to a local parliament building in an Indonesian provincial capital, leaving at least three people dead and five others hospitalized, officials said.

The blaze in Makassar, the capital city of South Sulawesi province, began late Friday Television reports showed the provincial council building ablaze overnight, causing the area to turn an eerie orange color

Rescuers retrieved three bodies on Saturday morning, while five people were hospitalized with burns or with broken bones after jumping from the building, said Fadli Tahar, a local disaster official.

Protesters in West Java’s Bandung city also set a regional parliament ablaze on Friday, but no casualties were reported.

In Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, protesters stormed the regional police headquarters after destroying fences and torching vehicles. Security forces fired tear gas and used water cannons, but demonstrators fought back with fireworks and wooden clubs.

Foreign embassies in Jakarta, including the U.S., Australia and Southeast Asian countries, have advised their citizens in Indonesia to avoid demonstration areas or large public gatherings.

Calm largely returned to Indonesia’s capital on Saturday as authorities

cleaned up burned-out cars, police offices and bus shelters that were set ablaze by angry protesters.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto canceled his planned visit to China, citing escalating nationwide protests.

Protests in several regions have escalated into riots, with buildings and public facilities set on fire and even police headquarters attacked, National Police Chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo told a news conference Saturday evening.

“Such situations can no longer be considered freedom of expression, but rather criminal acts,” he said, adding that the police and the military “would immediately act to restore public order.”

Five days of protests began in Jakarta on Monday, sparked by reports that all 580 lawmakers receive a monthly housing allowance of 50 million rupiah ($3,075) in addition to their salaries. The allowance, introduced last year, is almost 10 times the Jakarta minimum wage.

Critics argue the new allowance is not only excessive but also insensitive at a time when most people are grappling with soaring living costs and taxes and rising unemployment.

The protests grew wider and more violent following the death of ride-hailing driver Affan Kurniawan. A video on social media apparently showing his death during a rally in the capital Jakarta on Thursday shocked the nation and spurred an outcry against the security forces.

Social Security whistleblower resigns

BY AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WASHINGTON A Social Security official who has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging the Department of Government Efficiency officials mishandled Americans’ sensitive information says he’s resigning his post because of actions taken against him since making his complaint

Charles Borges, the agency’s chief data officer, alleged that more than 300 million Americans’ Social Security data was put at risk by DOGE officials who uploaded sensitive information to a cloud account not subject to oversight. His whistleblower disclosure was submitted to the special counsel’s office on Tuesday.

In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Borges claimed that since filing his whistleblower complaint, the agency’s actions make his duties “impossible to perform legally and ethically” and have caused him “physical, mental

and emotional distress.”

“After reporting internally to management and externally to regulators, serious data and security and integrity concerns impacting our citizens’ most sensitive personal data, I have suffered exclusion, isolation, internal strife, and a culture of fear, creating a hostile work environment and making work conditions intolerable,” Borges added.

The Project Government Accountability Office, which is representing him in his whistleblower case, posted Borges’ resignation letter on its website Friday evening. Borges declined to comment

In his whistleblower’s complaint, Borges said the potentially sensitive information put at risk by DOGE’s actions includes health diagnoses, income, banking information, familial relationships and personal biographic data.

Borges had served as the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer since January

speed over all else will inevitably lead the Government to erroneously remove people via this truncated process.”

Cobb earlier this month agreed to temporarily block the administration’s efforts to expand fasttrack deportations of immigrants who legally entered the U.S. under a process known as humanitarian parole. The ruling could benefit hundreds of thousands of people. In that case the judge said those immigrants are facing perils that outweigh any harm from “pressing pause” on the administration’s plans.

Since May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have positioned themselves in hallways to arrest people after judges accept government requests to dismiss deportation cases After the arrests, the government renews deportation proceedings but under fast-track authority

Mont. man faces 4 murder counts

BY MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press

BILLINGS Mont. A man suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar and evading capture for a week while hundreds of law enforcement officers searched for him in the nearby mountains faces four counts of murder according to court records. Defendant Michael Paul Brown lived next door to The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, where a bartender and three patrons were shot and killed Aug. 1. Authorities have not commented on a potential motive for the 45-year-old former soldier His niece has said Brown long struggled with mental illness. The charges Brown faces were posted on a court website Saturday after the case previously had been under seal by a state judge. Charging documents were not immediately available.

Following the shooting,

authorities said Brown stole a truck and then ditched it a few miles outside of town, close to where he was eventually apprehended. He hid in nearby forests, moving locations while helicopters and drones circled overhead and officers and dogs searched on the ground, officials said. But he was eventually flushed into a sparsely populated area near a state highway by the pressure of so many officers searching for him, according to officials. Brown was captured on Aug. 8 inside an unoccupied structure near a state highway Brown is scheduled to make an initial district court appearance Wednesday A conviction for murder known in Montana as deliberate homicide, is punshable by death in the state Executions have been on hold since 2015 under a court ruling regarding a drug used in lethal injections.

Trading partners ‘dazed and confused’ after tariff ruling

BY ERIK LARSON and LAURA CURTIS Bloomberg News (TNS)

The legal fight over President Donald Trump’s global tariffs is deepening after a federal appeals court ruled the levies were issued illegally under an emergency law, extending the chaos in global trade

A 7-4 decision by a panel of judges Friday night in Washington was a major setback for Trump even as it gives both sides something to boast about.

The majority upheld a May ruling by the Court of International Trade that the tariffs were illegal. But the judges left the levies intact while the case proceeds, as Trump had requested, and suggested that any injunction could potentially be narrowed to apply only to those who sued.

It’s unclear exactly where the case goes from here. The Trump administration could quickly appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, or it could allow the trade court to revisit the matter and potentially narrow the injunction against his tariffs.

“Our trading partners must be dazed and confused,” Wendy Cutler, a senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and veteran U.S. trade negotiator, wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Many of them entered into framework deals with us and some are still negotiating.”

Trillions of dollars of global trade are embroiled in the case, which was filed

by Democratic-led states and a group of small businesses. A final ruling against Trump’s tariffs would upend his trade deals and force the government to contend with demands for hundreds of billions of dollars in refunds on levies already paid

“It’s very gratifying,” said Elana Ruffman, whose family-owned toy businesses Learning Resources Inc. won a separate lawsuit over Trump’s tariffs issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. “It’s great that the court agrees with us that the way these tariffs are implemented is not legal.”

Mollie Sitkowski, a trade lawyer at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, pointed out in a note to clients on Friday that the ruling “does not directly apply” to tariffs on Brazil or India that were issued under the emergency law and may not address the separate removal of the “de minimis” exception for packages valued under $800.

Friday’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that Trump was wrong to issue tariffs under IEEPA, a federal law that the panel concluded was never intended to be used in such a manner Indeed, the court noted that the law doesn’t mention tariffs “or any of its synonyms.”

“Once again, a court has ruled that the president cannot invent a fake economic emergency to justify billions of dollars in tariffs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is a party

Administration plans to remove nearly 700 children, senator says

BY REBECCA SANTANA, AMANDA SEITZ and VALERIE GONZALEZ Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Trump administration is planning to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children who had come to the U.S. without their parents, according to a letter sent Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and the Central American country said it was ready to take them in.

The removals would violate the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s “child welfare mandate and this country’s long-established obligation to these children,” Wyden told Angie Salazar, acting director of the office within the Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for migrant children who arrive in the U.S. alone

“This move threatens to separate children from their families, lawyers and support systems, to thrust them back into the very conditions they are seeking refuge from, and to disappear vulnerable children beyond the reach of American law and oversight,” the Democratic senator wrote, asking for the deportation plans to be terminated.

It is another step in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement efforts, which include plans to surge officers to Chicago for an immigration crackdown, ramping up deportations and ending protections for people who have had permission to live and work in the United States. Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Martínez said Friday that the

to the tariff lawsuit, said in a statement.

The ruling applies to Trump’s “Liberation Day” global tariffs that set a 10% baseline and have been in effect for months that the administration says are meant to address a national emergency around U.S. trade deficits. It affects the extra levies on Mexico, China and Canada that Trump said were justified by the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the U.S., which he also said was a national emergency under IEEPA.

The decision also covers Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs that took effect Aug. 7 for dozens of nations that failed to reach trade deals with the administration by Aug. 1. Various carve-outs and extensions have been announced since then, leaving the final tariffs for some nations up in the air

Trump’s tariffs were first ruled illegal in May by the

U.S. trade court in Manhattan. That decision was put on hold by the Federal Circuit for the appeal, allowing the administration to continue threatening tariffs during the negotiations.

Hours before Friday’s ruling dropped, Trump Cabinet officials told the appeals court that striking down the president’s tariffs would seriously harm U.S foreign policy with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying it would lead to “dangerous diplomatic embarrassment” and undermine trade talks.

On Friday night, Trump posted on X that if the tariffs went away, “it would be a total disaster for the Country.” Cutler, who spent nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, suggested that the administration’s concerns about trade deals may now be a reality She wrote in her

post that India, hit by a 50% tariff, “must be rejoicing,” while China “must be weighing its stance in making concessions in ongoing talks.”

“EU efforts to secure domestic approval of its deal may be called into ques-

tion, while Japan and Korea whom apparently have made oral deals with little in writing may choose to slow walk current efforts until there is more U.S legal clarity, while still pressing for lower auto tariffs,” Cutler said.

government has told the U.S. it is willing to receive hundreds of Guatemalan minors who arrived unaccompanied to the United States and are being held in U.S facilities. Guatemala is particularly concerned about minors who could age out of the facilities for children and be sent to adult detention centers, he said. The exact number of children to be returned remains in flux, but they are currently discussing a little over 600. He said no date has been set yet for their return. That would be almost double what Guatemala previously agreed to. The head of the country’s immigration service said last month that the government was looking to repatriate 341 unaccompanied minors who were being held in U.S facilities. The plan was announced by President Bernardo Arévalo, who said then that the government had a moral and legal obligation to advocate for the children. His comments came days after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Guatemala. The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Quoting unidentified whistleblowers, Wyden’s letter said children who do not have a parent or legal guardian as a sponsor or who don’t have an asylum case already underway, “will be forcibly removed from the country.”

Due to their age and the trauma unaccompanied immigrant children have often experienced getting to the U.S., their treatment is one of the most sensitive issues in immigration.

would improve with time. She said she didn’t have anyone to watch her kids.

But her mental health got worse, and after calling her doctor’s office, she was routed to a hotline for women in crisis.

A nurse on the other end of the line was working at the inpatient perinatal mental health unit at Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge.

I need help, Lane told her I can’t do it.

I feel lost

An ambulance came to pick her up in Baker Then they admitted her to the mental health wing for pregnant and postpartum patients at Woman’s, which opened last September “I knew deep down that I needed the help,” Lane said. “And at that point, it was like, get it now or there might not be a next time.”

Few treatment options available

Lane is among an often overlooked demographic: women facing severe mental health struggles during pregnancy or soon after giving birth. An estimated 1 in 7 women suffer from mood disorders during or after pregnancy, which can include postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety and postpartum psychosis. But many forgo treatment, feeling shame and embarrassment talking about them.

The mood disorders can also be deadly Overdose is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women in Louisiana, according to the state’s most recent review of pregnancy-related deaths.

Women with mental health disorders sometimes turn to drugs to self-medicate, national researchers have found. Without help, they can also be driven to harm themselves or their families.

But finding a place to get treatment can be difficult.

The inpatient unit that Woman’s opened last year is one of just five in the country, according to Postpartum Support International. In its first 10 months, more than 200 patients have been discharged from the wing on the hospital’s fourth floor, some coming from Louisiana, others from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.

Cheri Johnson, the chief nursing officer at Woman’s, said they were surprised at how quickly they started receiving out-of-state patients. The hospital is known for its widereaching OB-GYN care and delivers the most babies among Louisiana’s single hospital providers

But it has recently seen an influx in demand for behavioral health care as well.

“It just speaks to the fact that we have this here in our state, and in the surrounding areas, there’s no other perinatal mental health units,” said Dr Kelly Cannon, the director of inpatient psychiatry Up until now, when pregnant or postpartum women have been in crisis in Louisiana, they’ve been routed to the state’s limited number of psychiatric hospitals or inpatient wings. There’s an overall shortage of mental health beds in Louisiana, forcing some patients to travel out of state for inpatient treatment

Most psychiatric treatment facilities are coed. And many do not accept patients in later stages of pregnancy because of liability concerns. Baton Rouge General, for example, said their inpatient behavioral units don’t admit pregnant women, so they refer them to other locations for treatment. But they noted that they see few pregnant patients in mental crisis, no more than a couple a month.

Beyond medication

Woman’s designed their inpatient mental health unit as a response to those gaps. They wanted to create a place solely for treatment of pregnant and postpartum women in mental crisis, Johnson said, but they did not want it to feel like a sterile mental ward. They added colorful art on the walls and a fenced terrace where patients can spend time outdoors. Women there have access to recreational therapy where they can learn meditation and yoga They have both psychiatrists and maternal-fetal-medicine specialists available for consults about highrisk pregnancies.

Nearly 68% of patients in the inpatient psychiatric unit so far have been on Medicaid, while 23% had commercial insurance and almost 7% had Medicare. The breakdown closely tracks with Louisiana’s demographics: 64% of all births in Louisiana are financed by Medicaid, the highest share in the nation. They can fit up to 10 patients at a time. About a quarter of patients in the last year voluntarily chose to receive treatment, while the remaining 75% were sent there with involuntary commitments from a doctor or coroner who deems them a danger to themselves or others.

Dr Kelly Cannon, director of inpatient psychiatry,

chats during a tour of Woman’s Hospital’s first-of-its-kind Perinatal Mental Health Unit in Baton Rouge on Aug. 19. With her, from left, are chief nursing officer Cheri Johnson, medical director of Woman’s behavioral health Dr Enrique Flechas, and clinical director Bianca Glueck.

Woman’s also designed the psychiatric wing so that patients could visit their families

For family members who have cleared security checks, they allow supervised in-person visits or video visits on tablets. Moms are more likely to seek help when they know they can see their families, Johnson and Cannon said.

“It’s often one of those things that will prevent moms from coming and getting the care they need. They are the foundation of the family; they are the ones taking care of everybody,” Cannon said.

“It’s been a really beautiful thing.”

‘It’s OK to talk about it’

Lane was nervous when she got there, but she had a goal: understanding what she was going through and how to prevent her thoughts of self-harm. She loved being a mom but had never felt emotions like that before.

She spent much of her first day needing to “cry it out,” she said, while doctors diagnosed her with postpartum depression and started her on medication. Her fiance, who watched their children while she was in the hospital, brought their infant daughter, Mhe’Shaun, for three visits.

As Lane held her and played with her, she wished she could go

back home. She loved seeing her but said the visits were a painful reminder of why she needed help. Other patients could relate. Women hospitalized there spend time in group therapy learning from one another

“It helped me realize it’s OK to talk about it,” Lane said. “It made me feel better being around other people like me, being around people actually dealing with what I’m dealing with.”

That kind of sharing around the struggles of pregnancy and motherhood can be crucial, said Artie Brown, the founder and CEO of a Baton Rouge nonprofit called Conscious Moms that’s focused on maternal mental health. Conscious Moms runs free support groups for pregnant women and moms and helps to pay for therapy for moms who cannot otherwise afford it.

For those who are struggling, knowing they are not alone is half the battle, Brown said.

“A lot of times, people are like, ‘I don’t want to talk about it because motherhood is supposed to be all peaches and cream and roses,’ ” she said. “But like anything, it takes time, it takes work, it takes patience.”

Maternal mental health

By her third day, Lane said she

DO YOU NEED HELP? HERE ARE MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES

The National Suicide and Crisis hotline phone number is 988 and more resources are available at 988lifeline.org

People in crisis can also call 911 and ask for a Crisis Intervention Team member

The National Alliance on Mental Illness offers free support groups around Louisiana. More details are available at https://namilouisiana. org/.

felt more like herself. She was discharged after five days, the average length of stay for patients so far, who are mostly sent home with plans for outpatient follow-up. Her kids greeted her with hugs and cries.

She’s been open about her story, which can be rare.

“I wanted to tell my story because I was in denial about it, so I pretty much pushed myself to get the help knowing I didn’t want to leave all the kids,” she said. Others are often too afraid of how people around them will react to be honest about what they’ve been through.

“Stigma remains a major obstacle,” said Frankie Robertson, founder and president of the Amandla Group, which pushes for maternal health improvements in state government “We’re talking about it more, so that alone is progress. But we don’t necessarily judge less.”

Louisiana’s national standing for treating maternal mental health has improved since the unit opened last year The state’s grade on the national Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health report card improved to a “C+” this year, after the state earned a “D+” in the past two years. But that progress could be under threat. Health systems that depend on Medicaid are facing uncertainty both in Louisiana and nationwide.

The Trump administration has called for nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the federal program over the next decade. More than 100,000 people across the state are ex-

pected to lose Medicaid coverage under new work requirements that Congress passed as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill.

The direct impact of the bill on pregnant and postpartum patients remains up for debate. They are not included in the work requirements provision of the law But the national Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance said that as states have to bear more costs for care, they may scale back programs to improve maternal health outcomes, which could include programs that focus on maternal health.

“Nationwide, we’re all concerned,” Johnson said regarding the possible Medicaid cuts. “And I think nationwide, we’re all modeling and trying to figure out, what does that look like over time?” Finding hope in her children

A 2022 report from the Louisiana Perinatal Mental Health Task Force found that untreated perinatal mood disorders cost the state roughly $312 million a year, with effects ranging from women dropping out of the workforce to increased health care costs for their infants.

State lawmakers have adopted some of the report’s recommendations, including that pediatricians in Louisiana should screen mothers for postpartum depression during infant visits.

Robertson said the 2022 report “stays at the top of our desk as something we prioritize each year” in her requests to lawmakers. Among their future priorities, she said, are pushing for the state to mandate paid family leave. Robertson said taking that step could support maternal mental health by not forcing mothers back into the workforce within days of giving birth.

Lane is now expecting her sixth baby. She’s most hopeful about watching her children grow up. As she held Mhe’Shaun on a recent afternoon at their house the rest of her kids danced and played in the background.

Mhe’Shaun reached out and grabbed the yellow birdhouse her mom had painted in the hospital.

“If you need help,” Lane said, “ask for it.” If you are struggling with mental health, the national suicide and crisis hotline phone

Resilienceand renewal: 20 yearsofprogress since hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Likemany of you, Ihavestrong emotions aboutthe 20th anniversaryofHurricane Katrina andits impact on thecitywecallhome— New Orleans. Iremain in awe of nature’s rawpoweronthat fateful day and deeply sad about thetragedy broughtbythe storm tosomany. ConsideringKatrina, and its equally terrifying counterpartHurricane Rita which struck theLouisiana/Texas border just afew weeks later, I’malso inspired by howour recovery showed the power and resilience of thehuman spirit and whatdetermined people coming together can achieve

Then,asnow,New Orleans was the home to Entergy’s corporate headquarters Thousands of our employees and their familieslived in theplaces hardest hitby Katrina. I’mhonored that ouremployees metthe challenge head on, from those working at our generation plants and headquarterstothose restoring powerat EntergyNew Orleans, ourlocal operating company.Many of themhelpedthe region recoverevenastheysuffered theirown personal losses.

Thelessons learned after Hurricane Katrina made us astronger,morecustomerfocused companyand to this day, we know that progress requires dedication and power

—for homes, businesses, communitiesand ourlives. Thespiritofthat day endures in our vision statement “WePower Life”aswe channel those lessons into thework that we doeveryday,even twentyyears later from that impactful time Today,we’re aleader across our industry and in our hometown. Our utility workersare nationallyrecognized for storm response. In fact,during amajor storm anywhereinthe country, there’sa good chance Entergy willbecalledonfor expertise and support.

We area leader in corporate giving. For the10thyear, Entergy was namedtoThe Civic 50, thePoints of Light prestigious annual list that recognizes top companies foremployeevolunteerism and community investment.In2024alone, we contributed $4.3million to morethan 100New Orleans nonprofits.

And we area leader in economic development by collaborating to help Louisiana securemajor new investments in thedata center,LNG,steel,and

petrochemical industries. Earlier this year,weserved as foundingpartner for theSuper Bowl 59 Host Committee, contributingmillionstohost this major event thatbrought morethan $1.25billion in economic impact to our state, region and city.

We continue our work in close collaboration with our regulators and communities as we buildenergy infrastructurethat makes thegridstronger and moreresilient for yearstocome. An energy grid designed to withstand the harshest conditions. That work balances affordability, reliabilityand sustainability on behalf of all our customers.

In NewOrleans,the CityCouncil recently approved Phase 1ofour proposed resilience plan, which includes strengthening morethan 3,000 structures and upgrading morethan 60 milesof electriclines.

TheLouisiana PublicService Commission also approved thefirstphase of those efforts, which includes 2,100incremental Entergyprojects across thestate. By

reinforcing ourgrid ahead of severe weather,Louisiana customerswill save an estimated $1.2 billion in storm costs

ThePublic UtilityCommission of Texas approved an investment of $137 million in projects to strengthen theSoutheast Texas power grid, reduce storm-related outages, and save customersmillions in restoration costs for decades

And while we aremaking theseneeded investments,weare mindful that 40% of our residential customerslive at or below the poverty level. That realityispartofeach businessdecision we makeinNew Orleans and everywhere we serve. As aresult, we continue to maintain some of thelowest electric rates in thecountryand work hard everyday to keep bills as low as possible. Twentyyearson, thelessons of Katrina endure, and theresilience of this community continues to inspire. New Orleans remains our home as we work for everyone and honor our commitment to safely serve our cityand theregion. Thepeople of Entergy areoptimistic about thefuture, ready for anything, and striving to lead theway to a brighter futurefor all of us

Read about howEntergy restored more than justpower at entergy.com/Katrina20.

Drew Marsh Chair and Chief Executive Officer Entergy Corporation

Johnson wasn’tthe narrow Republicanmajority’sfirst choice forspeaker during the bitter intraparty battles of October 2023 —orsecond or even third choice. But he was ultimately chosen because, after amonth of bickering, most of the disparate GOP factions liked him. That ability to work withall sides of his caucus has helped Johnson weather some rough politicalseas.

Johnson hasn’t doneitalone. Fellow Louisianan Steve Scalise, the House majority leader,has asalesman’s instinct for identifying amember’sspecific wants, fellow congressmen say,whichhas played akey role in closingdeals. And Trump has frequently waded in personally to sway holdouts.

‘A well-oiled machine’

After the hiccups during Trump’sfirst administration and during theBiden years, Johnson said, “Weare awelloiled machine now.”

Republicans neededto be —their majorities in the House and Senatecould be counted on one hand. Democrats almost universally opposed Trump’svision and Republican ideological factions nevertired offighting among themselves ForJohnson to succeed, he needed nearlyall theHouse Republicans rowing, for achange, in the same direction.

Still, many fellow Republicans credit Johnson’seven keel for keeping thecaucus running smoothly

“Speaker Johnson, you know,makes the impossible happen,” U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told The Hill, aCapitol Hill newspaper.“For him, it’skindof what happens every single day.” In 2024, Johnson spent most of his time laboringto pass budget bills and other must-pass legislation, often relying on Democratic support. But after that year’s elections handed Republicans all levers of power —the White House, both chambers of Congress and amajorityonthe U.S. Supreme Court —Johnson saw his role as reshaping government and executing Trump’svision, he told Time magazine in its Aug. 7edition.

Johnson joined commercial astronaut Hayley Arceneaux, evangelistJimmy Swaggart and Huey Long as Louisiana residents appearing on the prestigious cover of Time magazine.

Usingamethod of patiently listening to opponentsand slowly talking through nuanced differences —atraitfirst noticed by the Rev.Gene Mills when Johnsonvolunteered with the LouisianaFamily Forum as an LSU student he wasablepersuadejust enough GOPmembersto back Trump’slegislative agenda without having to rely on Democratic input which would require concessions that Trump’sMAGA base are loath to make.

The biggest victory was the nearly 1,000-page One Big Beautiful BillAct that included much of Trump’s domestic agenda:continuing to build the border wall, increased removal of immigrants, more energy production, taxbreaks, regulatory rollbacks and more.

The Big BeautifulBill spends nearly $4 trillion and adds$3.7 trilliontothe nation’s$37 trillion debt over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Thebilladded responsibilities, such as work requirements, morebureaucracy, and required the states to foot more of the costs for social safety programs.

Health care analysts predict nearly12millionlowincome Americanswill lose their health care insurance over the changes. Johnson says they will make Medicaid more efficient and thereby more sustainableinthe

Bondi,who had toldFox News in February that alist of Epstein’sclients was on her desk, later released an unsigned, two-page memo in July saying there wasnoclient list. The memolaunched anger among Trump’smost loyal followers, who demanded the release of the files, which the president declined to do.

To defuse that anger, RepublicansinCongress are taking other steps.

the past few years, because members couldn’tagree.

“As an appropriator,Iwant to do our job and pass all of ourbills;that’sgoing to be my mainfocus when Iget back to D.C.,” said Letlow,a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

Still, the deadline is close.

long run.

Successrequired first winning over GOP leaders, including Trump, that the best strategywas to usethe “budgetreconciliation” process that would allow passage with just amere majority, thereby skirting theSenate’s requirement for60votes on budgetarymeasures

That path requiredpassage of several bills to set up the “budget reconciliation” process for theOne BigBeautiful Bill. Johnson neededtocorral amajority for each legislative step

Thelegislation succeeded by only one vote, that of Vice PresidentJDVance breaking thetie in theSenate. In order to hit the deadline —Trump wanted to sign the bill into law at aJuly 4event —Johnson had to persuade House Republicans to go along with changes imposed by theSenate, often with the promise that the policies could be adjusted in thefuture.

“At its core, the One Big BeautifulBill is adistinctly pro-family piece of legislation. It represents amonumental victoryfor hardworking familiesacross America,” Johnson said in a statement. “Republicans are advancinginthisCongress an agenda that valuesthem (families)— just as our principles and policies always have.”

Though themassive bill was Trump’sbiggestvictory, Johnson alsoprocured other administration wins.He blocked an effort to delay Trump’stariffs andpassed alaw that expedites deportation of immigrants who com-

mit crimes.

Johnsonthendelivereda “rescissions bill” thatrolled back $9 billion in spending already approved by Congress, including federal funding forpublic broadcasting.

WorkingwithTrump

Johnsonhas often relied on Trumptocome in at the endand persuade remaining GOP holdouts thatit’sin their interesttogoalong.

Forexample,Trump came to Johnson’srescuewhen agroup of right-wingers sought to oust him from leadership in March2024 and again in January to win over enough representatives to keep Johnson as speaker Johnson helped out Trump by sidetracking floor votes to publicly releasefederal investigation files on Jeffrey Epstein, thedeceased financier whowas accused of trafficking underage girls, then sending the House home a dayearly for itsmonthlong recessfrom work on Capitol Hill.

Negotiating the political fallout over the“Epstein Files” is oneofJohnson’s present political tasks.

Widespread conspiracy theories sprangupafter Epstein diedincustody in August 2019 becausehewas friends with anumber of high-profilemen,including Trumpand formerPresident Bill Clinton. Trumpand his allies stoked those theories by repeatedly contending thefiles werebeing “hidden” by theDemocratic Biden administration.

Attorney General Pam

The Justice Department in August released the first trancheofinvestigation documentstothe House CommitteeonOversight and Reform andbegan deposing and subpoenaing officials related to the case.

These moves should dampen the ardor of House members clamoring for the investigation materials are publicly released, said U.S. Rep. JuliaLetlow, R-Baton Rouge.

“Overlooked in all of this is thatthe House Oversight committee is doing good work. They’re taking the lead on this as the primary investigative committee,”Letlow said.“Congress is playinga role in this right now.”

Budget battlesloom

The House doesn’tneed theEpsteindistraction, as the spending plan for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 needs to pass both chambers before Septemberends.

The Trump administration proposes $1.69 trillion in discretionary spending for executive department agencies —down from the $1.83 trillionenacted forthe current fiscal year

Some of thespending reductions, suchas$646 million less forthe Federal Emergency Management Agency and $33 billion less for the Department of Health and Human Services, are likely to cause consternation, as could a65% increase in funding for the president’s “mass removal” of immigrants.

Republicans are hoping to pass full budgets for each agency,instead of the lastditch omnibus bills or continuing resolutions usedover

“Members are talking to each other,Republican, Democrat, House,Senate, to try to get some kind of agreement before theSept. 30 deadline,” Scalise,RJefferson and Johnson’stop lieutenant, toldFox Business. “Will we get there? I don’tknow.”

Congress also mustpass the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes spending for the military and intelligence community as well as for improvements in armaments and infrastructure.In64years, Congress hasnever failedtoapprove the NDAA.

The Senate is set to vote on its version when the chamber returns. But the House hasn’tscheduled afloor vote. There’sa$32 billion difference between what Senate and House committees have recommended.

That’snot all.

Johnsonhas talkedabout anothermassive reconciliation package,orreworking parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Debates over health careand paying college athletes areonthe horizon, and Trumphas talked about a sweeping crimepackage Several possible problems could trip up Johnson’sefforts.

Forinstance, the confirmation hearing of Stephen Mirantothe Federal Reserve could ignite controversies over Trump’sefforts to fire Fed Gov.Lisa Cook. And Trump’seffort to redistrict Republican states in order to pad the GOP’smajority in the House for the 2026 midterms has enraged Democrats and worriedsomeRepublicans.

“Well, youknow what I’m learning over andover again is don’tunderestimate Speaker Mike Johnson,” Letlow said. “He manages to thread that needle beautifully.”

Russiandrone,missile attack kills1,woundsdozens

By The Associated Press

KYIV,Ukraine Russia launched alarge aerial attack on southern Ukraine, officials said Saturday, two days after arare airstrike on central Kyiv killed 23 and damaged European Union diplomaticoffices as U.S.led efforts to end the threeyear war staggered.

Among other locations hit, the assault overnight into Saturday struck afivestory residential building, killing at least one civilian and wounding 28 people, including children, in the Zaporizhzhia region, Gov.Ivan Fedorov reported. Russia launched 537 strike drones and decoys, as well as 45 missiles, accordingto Ukraine’sair force. Ukrainian forces shot down or neutralized 510 drones and decoys and 38 missiles,itsaid.

The Kremlin on Thursday said Russia remained interestedincontinuingpeace talks, despite the air attack on Kyiv that was one of the largest and deadliest since Moscow’sfull-scale invasion in 2022. Childrenwere among the dead, and search and rescue efforts continued for hours to pull people from the rubble.

Hours after the attack, the United States approved an $825 million armssale to Ukraine that will include extended-range missiles and relatedequipment to boost its defensivecapabilities Washington’sefforts to broker peace between Ukraine andRussia appear to have stalled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyon Friday expressed frustration with what he called Russia’slackofconstructive engagement.

Ukraine has accepted a U.S. proposal for aceasefireand ameeting between Putin and Zelenskyy,but

Residentsstand near their destroyedhomeSaturday

Moscow has raised objections. Trumpsaid last week he would know within two weeks whether Russiawas serious about enteringnegotiations.

Ukraine’sEuropean allieshave accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts and avoidingserious negotiations while Russian troopsmovedeeper intothe country Trump,inaninterview with the Daily Caller,aconservative U.S. news site, that waspublished Saturday,said he believed three-way talks involvingPutin,Zelenskyy and himself wouldstill happen.

“Wegot along.You saw it, we’vehad agoodrelationship over the years, very good, actually,” Trump said of Putin. “That’swhy Ireally thought we would have this done.Iwould have loved to have haditdone.”

Moscow’sforces are waging a“nonstop” offensive in Ukraine,and have the “strategic initiative,” the chiefofRussia’sgeneral staff said Saturday.Valery

Israeliairstrike

Gerasimov’saddress to his deputieswas publishedby Russia’sDefense Ministry SinceMarch,Moscow has taken more than1,351 square milesofUkrainian territory,and captured 149 settlements, Gerasimov said. It was not immediately possible to verify thesituation on the battlefield.

Russian forces this month broke into Ukraine’ssoutheastern Dnipropetrovsk region, aUkrainian military official said Wednesday,pressing into an eighth Ukrainian province in apossible bidtostrengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating hand. Gerasimov on Saturday said Moscow’stroops have so far taken seven settlements in Dnipropetrovsk.

European Commission

President Ursula von der Leyen said theEUwas advancing toward seizing frozen Russian assets to hand to Ukraine.“It’sclear that the predator has to pay for what he did,”she said, referring to Putin Vonder Leyen spoke SaturdayinEstonia in ajoint

killsHouthirebel primeministerinYemenicapital

BY SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

CAIRO— An Israeli airstrike

killed the prime ministerof the Houthi rebel-controlled government in Yemen’scapital Sanaa, the Houthis said Saturday.Hewas the most senior Houthi official killed in the Israeli-U.S. campaign against the Iranian-backed rebels.

Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed in aThursdaystrike in Sanaa along with anumber of ministers, the rebels said in astatement. Other ministers and officials were wounded, the statement added without providing further details

The premier was targeted along with othermembers of his Houthi-controlled government during a“routine workshop held by the government to evaluateits activities and performance over the past year,” the Houthi statement said. Thursday’sIsraeli strike took place as the rebelowned television station was broadcasting aspeech by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secretive leader of the rebel group in which he was sharing updates on the latest Gaza developments andvowing retaliation against Israel. Senior Houthi officials used to gather to watchal-Houthi’s prerecorded speeches.

Al-Rahawi wasn’tpart of the inner circle around

Abdul Malik al-Houthi that runs the military and strategic affairs of the group. His government, like the previousones, was tasked with running the day-to-day civilian affairs in Sanaa and other Houthi-held areas. The strikethatkilled the prime minister targeted a meeting for Houthi leaders in avilla in Beit Baws, an ancient village in southern Sanaa, threetribal leaders toldThe Associated Press. They spokeoncondition of anonymity becausethey feared repercussions.

On Thursday,the Israeli military said that it “precisely struck aHouthiterrorist regime militarytargetin the area of Sanaa inYemen.”

The military had no immedi-

atecommentonSaturday’s announcementofthe prime minister’skilling.

The prime minister hailed from the southern province of Abyan, and was an ally to former YemeniPresident Ali Abdullah Saleh. He allied himself with the Houthis when the rebels overran Sanaa, andmuchofthe north andcenter of thecountry in 2014, initiating thecountry’slong-running civil war He was appointed as prime minister in August 2024. Al-Rahawi is the mostseniorHouthiofficialtobe killed since the United States andIsraelbegan theirair and naval campaign in response to therebels’ missileand drone attacksonIsrael and on ships in theRed Sea.

news conference with Prime MinisterKristen Michal, while on afour-day tour of

European statesbordering Russia or its ally Belarus.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’sforeign policy chief, said that “everyone agrees thatRussia should payfor the damages, not our taxpayers,” but that there was disagreement within the EU aboutconfiscating the assets.

Kallas and Prévot spoke during asummit of EU foreign and defense ministers in Copenhagen. Over two days, EU officials discussed sanctionsonRussia, ramping up defensesuppliesto Kyiv,postwar security guarantees and Ukraine’sprospects forjoining the bloc.

Separately,Ukraine has continued to strike oil refineries inside Russia that it says have suppliedMoscow’s war effort,the Ukrainian general staff reported Saturday. It said two facilities were hitovernight: in the Krasnodar region near occu-

pied Crimea, and the Samara region farther northeast. Falling drone debris sparkeda fire at arefinery in the city of Krasnodar,regional Russian authorities confirmed Saturday.The Krasnodar refinery produces approximately 3million tons per year of petroleumproducts such as gasoline,diesel and aviation fuel. In aseparate development, Ukraine’sformer parliament speakerand aprominent pro-Western politician wasshot dead in thecityof Lviv on Saturday,according to statements by Zelenskyy and local authorities.

Parubiy,54, was alawmaker from the Lviv region who participated in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004 and led self-defense volunteer unitsduring theMaidanprotests of 2014, which forced pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from office.

This articleisbrought to youby Cornerstone Chemical Company As JeffersonParishstudents returned to class this August,childrenarrived with newnotebooks crayonsand otherclassroom essentials thanks to the generosity of CornerstoneChemicalCompany andits CornerstoneEnergyParkpartners. Thedonations reflect thecompany’s longstanding commitment to educationand workforcedevelopment in thecommunities it callshome. CornerstoneChemicalCompany,based in Waggaman, hasbeenatrusted andengaged communitypartnerformorethan70years.Beyonditsroleasa majorlocal employer,the Energy Park actively invests in itsneighbors througheducational programs,workforce initiatives andcommunity outreach.That missionisdrivenbya simple but powerful belief –bridging thegap betweeneducation andopportunity createsastrongercommunity anda brighter future forall

This year,alongside fellow Energy Park site partners UBEC1Chemicals America(UCCA)and Ecoservices, Cornerstoneco-sponsored a$6,000 back-to-school donation for threelocalschools: Cherbonnier-RillieuxElementaryinWaggaman, Emmett GilbertSchoolofExcellenceinAvondale andRalph J. Bunche Elementary in Metairie.The contributions were tailored to each school’s needs, purchaseddirectlyfromtheir wish lists, andincluded everythingfromcrayons andpaper to cleaning and storagesuppliesfor classrooms

“Cornerstone Energy Park companieshaveplayed ahugepartinproviding resources to Emmett Gilbert for thelastfew yearsthatallow us to better educate allofour students,” Giroir said.“We aredeeplygratefulfor theresources andinvolvement in ourschools andcommunity.” Ecoservicesand UCCA,bothlocatedatthe CornerstoneEnergyPark, sharethe same commitment to supporting localeducation “Ecoservices is excitedtoparticipate in community events like theback-to-schooldrive,” said Peter Bilotta, Ecoservices site director.“This is thefirst of many opportunitieswesee to partnerwithour communityinmeaningful ways.”

“AtUBE,weunderstandthe role educationplays in supporting healthycommunities anddeveloping astrongfutureworkforce,” addedTom Yura,CEO of UBEC1Chemicals America. “Weare honoredtojoin ourfellowCornerstone Energy Park companiesin supportoflocaleducationbydonatingneededsupplies to area schools. Thethree partnerschools servediverse student populationswithuniqueeducational focuses. Cherbonnier-Rillieuxemphasizescomprehensive educationand teamwork;EmmettGilbert’s vision is centered on helping each studentgrowtoward mastery; andRalph J. Bunche Elementary offers a STEM-focused curriculum that fostersproblem-solvingand experiential learning. By helping provide essentialclassroom materials, Cornerstone andits partnersare ensuring everychild is better positioned to learnand thrive

Theback-to-schoolinitiativeisjustone part of Cornerstone’sbroader efforttoconnect education with opportunity. Thecompany sponsors threelocal students each year to attend theLouisiana Youth Seminar, aweeklongsummercampfor high schoolers that builds leadership,communication andteamwork skills.Through theCornerstone Scholarship Program, thecompany also provides tenannual scholarships forhighschoolgraduates andcollege students pursuing STEM-related degrees at accredited Louisianainstitutions. Theseinitiatives reflect thecompany’s long-term investment in developing theregion’sfutureworkforce,particularlyinscience, technology,engineeringand mathematics. By workingclosely with local schoolsand communityorganizations,Cornerstone is helpingtoequip thenextgenerationwithboththe toolsand theinspiration they need to succeed “Wesee educationasasharedresponsibility,” Blanke said.“When businesses,schools,and families work together,wecan make alasting difference for children andfor ourcommunity’s future.”

“Cornerstone is committedtoeducation in our communityand to empowering ourlocalyouth,” said Ainslie Blanke,Cornerstone’s senior marketingand communications advisor. “Weare proudtowork alongsideour partners at CornerstoneEnergyPark to give back andhelpequip students to have amore productive andenrichingschoolyear.” Thedonationbuildsonatradition that began in 2019 when Cornerstone“adopted” Cherbonnier-RillieuxElementary. Over theyears, thecompany hasgrown itsefforts to includeadditionalschools workingwithEnergyParkpartners andcontractors to reachasmanyfamiliesaspossible. Supplies are distributeddirectlytoschools so facultyand staff canplace them in thehands of students andteachers whoneedthemmost. Theimpactextends farbeyonda backpack filled with supplies.AtCherbonnier-RillieuxElementary, wherethe missionistogiveevery childa meaningful educationand thetools to be alifelonglearner,the partnershiphas been transformative “Cherbonnier is proudtohaveCornerstone as a business partnerineducation,” said PrincipalDenise Rehm.“Forthe 25-26schoolyear, they have provided much-neededsuppliesfor ourstudents andfaculty Cornerstonealsosponsored oursweet treats for our Meet andGreet for students andparents as well as helped welcomeour facultywithlunch.Cornerstone hasbeena huge part in oursuccessoverthe past two years, andwelookforward to continuing ourpartnershipwiththem. Workingtogether, we willmake this a‘LegendarySchoolYear. At Emmett GilbertSchoolofExcellence, the resources andattention have also made asignificant difference.JenniferGiroir, amasterteacher at Emmett Gilbert, expressedher gratitudefor the ongoingpartnership.

ForCornerstone,givingbackhas always been more than acorporate talkingpoint it’s part of the company’sDNA.Since itsfounding, thecompany hassoughttobeagoodneighborbysupportinglocal charities, sponsoring educationaleventsand encouragingemployees to volunteertheir time andtalents Partnering with site companiesamplifiesthatimpact. As students settle into the2025-26 school year with newpencils andnotebooks in hand,the hope is that thesesimplesupplieswillspark something bigger:confidence,curiosity,and aloveoflearning. To learnmoreabout Cornerstone’s community outreach andeducational initiatives, visitwww cornerstonechemco.com/community.

SEA TURTLES

Continued from page 1A

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ seaplane for a survey of the area. The scientists document any evidence of new crawls and, if weather permits, wade out onto the islands for a closeup look.

This year, they’ve found the most crawls they’ve seen since the turtle surveys started in 2022. In the earlier hours of Aug. 22 alone, they spotted one new path and three others they had already identified.

“You see all the diversity that the island provides,” Lejeune said over her aircraft headphones. “It’s off the charts — the seagrasses, the crustaceans. Everything feeds on everything.”

Part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, established by Teddy Roosevelt at the dawn of the 20th century, the Chandeleur Islands are a rich ecosystem of plants and animals deemed of greatest conservation need. They include the last remaining brown pelican colony on the chain, a Chandeleur-specific hybrid gull and the only marine seagrass in Louisiana. Over 170 bird species have been identified in a single year, including more than three dozen in need of conservation.

In 2022, scientists first confirmed nesting by Kemp’s ridley turtles, one of the most endangered sea turtle species in the world. The findings prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a two-year survey of the entire Louisiana coastline for turtle nesting.

The federal agency found that almost all of it is happening on the Chandeleurs, lending even greater significance to the island chain, said Dianne Ingram, a restoration biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

But that is only part of the story The tiny, rare turtles making homes here may be

even rarer than the scientists first thought.

After three years of analysis, genetic researchers discovered that all of the tested Kemp’s ridleys found on the Chandeleur Islands have a genetic expression shared with only a tiny fraction of the rest of the endangered turtle species.

“These turtles are distinct genetically,” Lejeune said.

“They use these islands for nesting each year So it’s really critical that these islands get restored.”

But the future of the Chandeleurs is far from guaranteed.

“We’re losing the islands pretty quickly,” said Baker, who is managing the restoration effort for the Chandeleurs.

‘One-time shot to do it right’

Over the last two centuries, the islands have lost nearly 90% of their land mass, dwindling and splintering as major hurricanes have accelerated erosion. Hurricane Katrina created the most recent “cut” that divided what was once 25 miles of contiguous land into a South Chandeleur and a North Chandeleur.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill heavily oiled the island chain, harming the varied ecosystem. Models predict that the turtle and bird habitat on the island — though not all of the land itself would disappear in 10 years, Baker said As the islands shrink, it’s not only the natural habitat that withers. The barrier islands also act as a “first line of defense” against powerful storm surge approaching southeast Louisiana, Baker noted.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s plan, which is still in the design phase, will not reverse more than 100 years of loss. Instead, the roughly $380 million project will focus on North Chandeleur island, the largest in the chain and the site of the majority of the seagrass.

They’ll be adding dunes, marsh and sand reservoirs, work that will encourage nesting for the animals and help prevent erosion. They’ll also add 145 acres to New Harbor Island, the nearby pelican nesting spot.

In 20 years, the parts of the island slated for restoration are expected to still be home to viable habitat, Baker said These models factored for damage of one major storm.

But the vast majority of the money to carry out the work has not yet been secured. The state is hopeful that money will soon be approved for the project by trustees overseeing fines and settlement dollars from the 2010 oil spill.

The restoration efforts are a partnership between the coastal agency, the state wildlife and fisheries agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Baker said carrying out the work effectively will be important since significant future maintenance is not in the plans.

“It’s a one-time shot to do it right,” he said.

‘Our big challenge’

The morning of Aug. 22 was bright and clear, which meant the team could spot crawls while flying overhead. Lejeune and Baker could identify the turtle species based on the pattern in the sand. The one they spotted on South Chandeleur Island that day came from a loggerhead, a large and vulnerable species that typically nests later in the summer

The dense tracks in the sand practically looked like footprints, though faint tail markings indicated a nonhuman traveler As Baker retraced the path after wading on to the island, he pointed out multiple “body pits” imprinted in the sand. These were the places that the female turtle “debated” settling down and hatching her eggs.

A couple were in lower lying spots, but one was on a

attempt to hatch her eggs.

higher elevation. And it was on the higher elevation dune that she had hatched her eggs.

When state officials began designing the restoration project, they incorporated this kind of data into their plan.

Keri Lejeune, the state herpetologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, points to a ‘body pit’ on South Chandeleur Island, evidence of a loggerhead turtle crawl on the remote barrier island.

“We sent our surveyors back out to those successful nests and they got slopes, elevations, all the measurables we could get on where she selected, and that was used in our design for the restoration project,” Baker said. “That’s why it’s a little different than a typical barrier island restoration. We are targeting what the birds and the turtles are telling us they prefer.”

While the restoration aims to encourage habitat on the island, it’s also inevitably going to disturb the nesting birds and turtles, Baker said.

“That’s going to be our big challenge,” Baker said.

Email Josie Abugov at josie.abugov@theadvocate. com.

The federal wildlife agency offered its expertise on how to move forward with the restoration while minimizing the impact of the nesting species.

TheOne BigBeautiful Bill Act(OBBBA) carries wide-reachingfinancialimplicationsfor governments, businesses andhouseholds. Restructured fundingtimelines provideshort-termbudgetrelief for states andagencies, butcould push some costs furtherintothe future.Individuals mayfacenew paperworkand financial planningconsiderations.

“There areanumberofthings in thebillthatare settochangeatdifferentpointsbecausetheyare kind of obligatedtomakethe math work over time,” said GregoryRicks,founder,CEO andwealthadvisor at GregoryRicks &Associates. “I thinkthatespecially now, it’s importanttounderstandwhere youstand on taxessothatyou canplanfuturestrategies. We understand therules andare used to lookinginto thefuture. We look at people’s financial situations everyday andwhatmoney is goingtolooklikedown theroad.

Rickshighlighted threekey aspectsofthe OBBBA that mayhavethe broadest implications forindividuals andfamilies.

ExtensionofTax Cuts andJobsAct (TCJA)

Rickssaidthe OBBBApermanently extendsthis act, whichwas previously settoexpireatthe end of 2025

“Congressbasically kept PresidentTrump’s tax cuts from hisfirstterminplace,” Rickssaid. “That’s giant. Foryears,the discussion hasbeenthattaxes were settogoupsignificantlyunlessthere wasa Presidentand aCongressthatwould extend theTCJA. Rickssaidthatindividuals andfinancialadvisors nowhavebetterclarity on planningfor thefuture. “Forexample,youcanleaveyourIRAtoyourspouse andyou aren’t required to spendit. But, when the spouse dies,it’slefttoa non-spouse beneficiary. That requires themoney to spentdownbyyear10,”Ricks said.“That’s just oneexample of howwecan applythe TCJA in planningscenarios.Weknowwhere taxes aregoing to be.”

SavingsAccounts forChildren TheOBBBAcreated tax-advantagesavings accounts forchildrenbornbetween December 21 2024 and2029.

“WhatIlikeabout it is that thegovernmentisgoing to contribute $1,000 andparents cancontributeupto $5,000 annually,” Rickssaid. “Funds must be invested in adiversifiedindex fund andnowithdrawals are alloweduntil thechild reaches age18.

Once thechild turns18, Rickssaidthe account becomessimilar to astandardIRA.Earningswill continue to grow tax-deferred andqualifiedwithdrawalswillbetaxed as long-termcapital gains. Pre-retirement withdrawalsare allowedfor certain expenses,likeeducation andthe purchase of ahome.

“It’sacoolaccountthatcould be aretirement account. It canbea collegefund. It canhelpkidsbuy theirfirsthome,”Ricks said.“That’s kind of always theAmericanDream–savingmoney.Itallowsparents to contribute to it.” Rickssaidthe accounts also give parentsflexibility.

If they cannot affordtoput away $5,000 peryear, they canput away asmaller amount that willstill reap rewards for yearstocome.

“Thisiswhatwemeanwetalkabout themagic of compounding. Theseaccountsallow that to start from thetimeachild is born,” he said.“That’s an extra20 yearsofcompounding.”

No TaxonTipsorOvertime

This portionofthe OBBBAmay impact everyone from students whoare workinginfoodservice or hospitalitytoolder adults whoare workingsidejobs to trytosavemorefor retirement Thebillcreated temporarydeductionsontips up to $25,000 andovertimeincomeupto$12,500 for single filers($25,000 forjoint filers) for eligible taxpayers. Deductions arefor taxyears 2025 through 2028andphaseoutforthosewithannualincomesover $150,000 for single filersand $300,000 formarried couplesfiling jointly. “These taxbreakscan help people to work overtime andput in more effortbecause they mayget to keep some,” Rickssaid. “The no-tax-on-tips helps, and people areabletosaveand accumulate money. They canalsosavefor retirement andknowwhatthe future reasonably lookslikefromatax standpoint.” Rickssaidother notableaspectsofthe OBBBA include: Apermanent increase to theestateand lifetime gift taxexemption to an inflation-indexed $15 millionfor single filersand $30million for joint filers, beginningin2026. The$750,000 principallimit on thehomemortgage interest deductionisnow permanent. • Fortax years2025through 2028,upto$10,000 in interest on anew carloancan be deducted.The vehiclemustbepurchased after2024, andfinal assembly must take placeinthe United States Individualsage 65 andolder cannow claimanadditional $6,000 deductionfor taxyears 2025 through 2028.Thisdeduction phases outfor thosewith a modifiedadjustedgrossincomeexceeding$75,000, or $150,000 for jointfilers Thebroad scopeofthe bill meansthatportions of it willverylikelyaffectmostAmericans,whether they areyoung collegestudentsworking part-time, newparents or seasoned professionalswithaneye toward retirement.Regardlessofsomeone’s position in life,Ricks said it is always agoodideatoworkwith afinancialadvisor to help establisha stable future “Ifyouarepuzzled,thinkingaboutmakingachange or struggling with some life decisions, runitbythe advisor. We developrelationships with ourclients,” Rickssaid. “Weget to know theclientand theirfamily well.It’sgreat to have arelationshipwithsomebody that youcan useasasoundingboard.” Visitgregoryricks.comtolearn more or

Scientists, physicians piece together CDC’s lost work

BY MIKE STOBBE AP medical writer

NEW YORK

— The CDC is in chaos and some groups are starting to step in and take over work the agency was doing.

The moves come in response to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s extensive — and some say illegal — restructuring and downsizing of the Atlantabased Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many public health veterans see an agency wracked by a leadership crisis, staff cuts, budget cuts and unprecedented levels of political meddling. The concern hit a crescendo when the White House moved to oust the agency’s director and some top CDC leaders resigned in protest.

But even before CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired, some organizations started pursuing new ways to do jobs formerly handled by the CDC.

Some are working to preserve long-standing vaccination recommendations. Some are trying to release information that CDC has stopped providing. Others aim to maintain health data collections at risk of being lost.

But these outside efforts don’t have the federal funding, resources, legal mechanisms or platform that have been the underpinning of the nation’s public health system As noble as they are, these patchwork efforts probably won’t cut it, some experts say

“There may be some workarounds,” said Dr Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health.

“But I’m not sure it’s fair or appropriate that people feel like they have to turn to private groups instead of the government.”

Vaccination guidance

For decades, the CDC has set the nation’s standards on vaccines — which ones are recommended and who

Some organizations have started pursuing new ways to do jobs formerly handled by the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose Atlanta headquarters is pictured above

should get them.

The recommendations were guidance, not law But they were automatically adopted by doctors, school systems, health insurers and others. They were the result of a lengthy data review process involving a panel of outside experts, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

But in May, Kennedy a longtime leader in the antivaccine movement announced COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. He made the decision without input from the ACIP In June, he abruptly dismissed the entire panel, accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers. He replaced them with a hand-picked group that included several vaccine skeptics, and then shut the door to several doctors groups that had long helped form ACIP recommendations.

It’s not clear what other changes are in store for ACIP but a number of medical groups say Kennedy can’t be counted on to make decisions based on robust

medical evidence.

The moves sparked a group of public health researchers and others to form the Vaccine Integrity Project based at the University of Minnesota, which aims to become the kind of compiler and reporter of medical evidence that the CDC and ACIP have been in the past

Meeting without CDC

In mid-August, the group held an ACIP-like Zoom meeting, in which subjectmatter experts presented lengthy reviews of recent research about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19, flu and RSV vaccines for children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. It also featured a fourperson panel of experts, including the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. Like ACIP members, they asked presenters questions about their analyses. Presenters made clear that they had to base their presentations on what had appeared in medical journals and was publicly available; they weren’t privy to unpublished surveillance and safety data

that CDC collects.

The group is not making vaccination recommendations itself. But it is working with doctors organizations that are. One is the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has said pregnant women should continue to get COVID-19 shots — counter to what Kennedy announced. Another is the American Academy of Pediatrics continuing to recommend them for children ages 6 months to 2 years.

But as medical societies split from CDC, it’s not yet clear which recommendations insurers will heed when making coverage decisions. And there remain a number of other questions, such as: What will happen in states that have vaccination policies tied to ACIP recommendations?

In Massachusetts, Democratic Gov Maura Healey included language in a $2.45 billion supplemental budget bill that gives the health department authority to set its own recommendations and requirements if the federal government “fails to maintain a robust schedule of vaccine recommendations.”

Some other efforts now

underway:

Vaccine finders

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC teamed up with researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School on www.vaccines.gov The website told about newly developed vaccines recommended to protect against the coronavirus and served as a search engine to help people find nearby pharmacies that had the shots in stock.

But the site gradually dropped information about vaccines and why they were recommended, and this year became a stripped-down version that simply said: “Find a pharmacy near you” and a box to type in your ZIP code. When the government’s contract with Boston Children’s Hospital ended in late July, the site stopped working altogether

Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital this month restarted a version of the site that existed before the pandemic, www vaccinefinder.org.

“We’re turning back to what it was,” said John Brownstein of Boston Children’s, who founded the site.

Dental safety

Last month, the Association for Dental Safety launched a new institute for dental safety that was designed to pick up some of the work done by the CDC’s Division of Oral Health, which was eliminated in the spring.

The new institute is first focused on updating infection controls guidelines for dental offices, which the CDC last updated in 2003.

“Without a doubt, ADS is the best choice to continue oversight of dental infection prevention and control guidelines, ensuring recommendations are current, scientifically sound, translated into lay terms and disseminated to those who need them on a daily basis,” said Nicole Johnson, former associate director in the CDC’s

Division of Oral Health, in a press statement.

Pregnancy data

The CDC’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, which annually surveys women across the country, lost its entire staff — about 20 people — in layoffs this year It was the most comprehensive collection of data on the health behaviors and outcomes before, during and after childbirth. Researchers have been using its data to investigate the nation’s maternal mortality problem.

Some states that have the money and motivation might decide to run similar surveys, just within their borders.

But “if states are doing their own thing, then we don’t have national, comparable data across jurisdictions and across time,” meaning it’s not possible to see where problems are most severe and which policies to reduce maternal deaths are working, said Jamie Daw, a Columbia University health policy researcher focused on pregnancy

Violence prevention

Kennedy recently fired about 100 CDC staffers who provided training, education, and advice to state and local violence prevention programs, and evaluate how well they were working.

“What’s the point in knowing the about the rates of violence if you’re not going to do anything about it?” said Sarah DeGue, one of the laid-off CDC researchers. But existing programs still need technical guidance and expertise. In May, DeGue founded Violence Prevention Solutions, a consulting firm, to help community organizations develop and evaluate programs.

“It’s us trying to rebuild what we had somewhere else, in a different way, so that all the knowledge and experience and resources that we had can still be available,” she said.

ELIMINATE

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EDUCATION

N.O. schools radically remade after Katrina

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

Twenty years ago, it was the most radical experiment in American education. Today it’s just the New Orleans school system.

That system, which state leaders and self-styled reformers engineered after Hurricane Katrina, remains unlike any other Nearly every public school is run by a private charter school operator, families are unbound by attendance zones and low-performing schools are routinely shut down.

Perhaps no one has studied this system or analyzed its results more closely than Douglas Harris, an economist and the founding director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans at Tulane University Harris and his colleagues at the research center have produced more than 50 studies on the postKatrina changes to New Orleans schools and their impact on students and families. He also wrote a definitive book on that research, “Charter School City: What the End of Public Schools in New Orleans Means for American Education.”

In terms of improving academic outcomes, Harris says, the evidence is undeniable: The overhaul worked. But other effects — a loss of veteran Black teachers, a de-emphasis on arts education, a weakening of school-community bonds were far less positive and remain painful to many.

In two recent interviews with The Times-Picayune | The Advocate, Harris described the impact of the changes, how New Orleans schools are faring today and where they go from here His responses have been con-

densed and edited for clarity.

What are your main findings on how the New Orleans education overhaul affected students?

We tried to look at a lot of different outcomes over time. Test scores and high school graduation rates; college-going, persistence and graduation; ACT scores, SAT scores. They all looked positive, really without exception. And not just in a good direction, but usually quite large improvements I’ve been studying education policy for most of three decades and you just never see outcomes like that

You rarely see effects on any outcome that are substantial. So to see large effects on essentially all the outcomes be sustained over 20 years — I can’t think of another example like that.

Considering the overwhelmingly positive academic results, why do the post-Katrina changes — especially the move to all charter schools — remain controversial?

I think part of it is the disagreement about what schools are supposed to be doing. The system is set up to generate positive academic outcomes, and it does that

But if you’re more interested in the arts, if you’re more interested in critical thinking or really engaging students in their communities, these are things that I think the system is not designed to do.

I think part of it also goes back to the process of how the reforms were put in place Most people

Q&A WITH DOUGLAS HARRIS FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE EDUCATION RESEARCH ALLIANCE

couldn’t participate. Even if the reform leaders had really wanted the community input, it would have been very difficult to do that under the circumstances with everybody spread out and disconnected.

That leads to a bit of a conundrum if you view (the changes) as a success and you also view the democratic process as being something we value. Because of all the power struggles and the differences of opinion, there’s no way you would have ended up here. You would have ended up with something done by committee. You would get incremental change.

What do you hear from New Orleans families about the changes?

I hear a lot of contradictory answers. They’ll say “I wish we could have this system but have neighborhood attendance zones,” or “I wish we could have the system and not have to close schools for low performance.”

Also in the traditional public school system, everybody on the same block who’s the same age walks to school together and they go to sporting events together and things like that You just don’t have that (in the current system).

That’s another frustration.

But if you ask parents about the academics of the schools, they have generally positive things to say We expect an awful lot of schools and they can’t do it all. I think that’s why you always end up with these tensions and conflicts.

How have New Orleans’ charter schools evolved?

They’re a little bit more like traditional public schools than they were in the beginning.

The system has gotten a little

bit more centralized. Also, I think there has been a little relaxation in regards to student discipline, (moving away from) the idea of aggressively suspending and expelling students.

Also, that’s true on (school) offerings. If you go back and look at the marching bands in 2012 or so, a lot of schools didn’t have them or they were really small. Every year it seems like they’re getting stronger again.

Some charters also restored the names of the traditional schools they replaced, right?

The perspective of the charter schools at the beginning was that they were rejecting the past by adopting new names.

But that’s not really what people want. They like having the legacy, the name of the school is something you’ve heard about and you know somebody who went there.

One of the things that’s interesting about the charter school movement as a whole is that the original motivation was experimentation. But, for the most part, that’s not what parents are looking for

You’ve shown that New Orleans schools made dramatic gains in the decade after Katrina, then their performance leveled out. Can they keep improving?

Given how much performance improved in the first decade, the fact that they were able to maintain it is a huge success. It is harder to see how you get better from here, however

You’re probably going to need entirely different strategies to make further improvements. A prime example is early childhood education.

When kids first enter school, they’re not ready to learn. And the

WE’RE ASKING EXPERTS ACROSS THE STATE HOW TO TACKLE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING LOUISIANA SCHOOLS. HAVE AN IDEA? EMAIL

early childhood system in Louisiana and New Orleans is a mess.

If you can get students starting school in a better place, then that would substantially improve outcomes down the line, too.

In the past, charter schools enjoyed bipartisan support nationally Now Republicans mainly talk about private school vouchers while few Democrats publicly promote charters.What happened?

If you ask the voucher folks nationally, they’ll say part of what happened is that conservatives gave up on charter schools because they were “woke.” It was mostly Democrats leading the effort and they were focused on equity issues, which is all true.

(But when you ask charter school proponents,) their response is that if you look at legislation, the charter movement marches on.

Almost every state has a charter law, and the laws are getting more and more favorable to charter schools in terms of funding and regulation and accessibility of buildings. You don’t see any legislation getting through that’s anti-charter either They’re winning the battle of the legislative pen, but not the public bully pulpit.

After studying the New Orleans education changes for over a decade, do you have any unanswered questions?

We don’t know the effects on students’ lives, how they do long term. All the improved academic outcomes predict better livelihoods, but we don’t know for sure. We don’t know the effects on communities, the effects on the arts and how that changes the culture of the city

There are a lot of things that are unmeasurable about education, and we need to pay attention to those things too.

Email Patrick Wall at patrick. wall@theadvocate.com.

LOUISIANAPOLITICS

WASHINGTON –Most people who lived in south Louisiana 20 years ago can’thelp but recall what they were doing, what they saw, and what they experienced when Hurricane Katrina devastatedNew Orleans.

Mark Ballard

Neighbors stranded on their roofs; people shepherding children andthe elderly through filthy waist-high water; thousands awaiting evacuation without water and food at the Superdomeand Convention Center; police and the NationalGuard brandishing weapons at fellow citizens; it was all part of the tapestry of astorm that claimed an estimated1,833 lives, left millions homeless, and caused approximately $161 billion in damage.

Then-President GeorgeW.Bush said, “The system, at every level of government, was not well-coordinated and was overwhelmed.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was created in the1970s to help local andstate governments. FEMA is supposed to coordinate searchand rescue efforts, evacuations, and help set up emergency shelters. For atime, Republicans, even someDemocrats, wantedtodo away withFEMA. Instead, Congress in 2006 made adjustments.

During President Donald Trump’s first administration, Congress in 2018 made further changes.

These days, FEMA’s chief must have emergency management experience. Federal authorities, on their own, can preposition resources without local permission. Money is set aside to strengthen infrastructure —flood controls, levees, and the like —longbefore thestorm.

In his second administration, Trump said FEMA’s responses were tooslow and its coststoo high. He called for changes, perhaps evenelimination of the agency

The Trump administration cut billions of dollars from disaster preparedness and seeks tocut

Fields speaks outon congressional maps

U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, criticized Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’sannouncement last week that her office will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the state’s congressional voting maps, which include two majorityBlack districts.

of any expenditure of $100,000 or more.

Invoking Katrina’slandfall anniversary,191 FEMA employees signed aletter Monday to Congress warning that the changes had weakened the agency

“The diminished response and recovery capacities of partner agencies due to this administration has cascading effects that reduce FEMA’s ability to carry out its mission,” read the five-page letter they called the Katrina Declaration.

tion into atool that actually benefits Americans in crisis.”

Cameron Hamilton, whoTrump tapped to lead FEMA but was fired forsupporting continuation of the agency,posted Tuesday on X: “FEMA staffare responding to entirely new formsofbureaucracy now that is lengthening wait times forclaim recipients, and delaying the deployment of time sensitive resources.”

Since Congress created FEMA, legislation is necessary to eliminate the agency or makemajor changes in operations. Trumpset up the FEMA Review Council to study procedures and makerecommendations.

The task force held its third meeting Thursday but did not directly address the FEMA employee insurrection. Still, Texas officials thanked the Trumpadministration, though not FEMA, forhelp after aflash flood on the Guadalupe River killed about 138 people.

The meeting’schair,former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, said the panel has reached the “real core” of their report. They are looking at minimum standards for individual assistance and direct funding to the states.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another member of the task force, said that, after questioning emergency response personnel across the country,the consensus of opinion wasthe need to streamline the process of funding direct assistance.

billions more in the 2026 budget

About a thirdof theagency’sstaff have quitorbeen fired. Andthe newdirector has no emergency experience —hereplaced one whoventured to tell acongres-

anews release.

Louisiana passed thecurrent map after afederal court ruled apreviousplan with only one majority-Black districtwas unconstitutional. Fieldswon an election for thenewly created seat.

sional committee that FEMA shouldn’tbedismantled.

Department of Homeland SecuritySecretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, adopted apolicy that requires her direct approval

courtsshould not mandate states consider race in redistricting.

Thirty-five of the FEMA employees signed the letter in their own names. On Wednesday,they were suspended with pay by the agency Noem responded Thursday on Fox News Digital: “I am not surprised that someofthe same bureaucrats whopresided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform; including manywho worked under the Biden Administration to turn FEMA into the bureaucratic nightmare it is today.”

Noem continued: “That’swhy I am working so hard to eliminate FEMA as it exists today,and streamline this bloated organiza-

“I will use that word again, direct assistance. Not assistance that is migrating through amyriad of bureaucratic processes,” he said.

What wasthe takeaway Mark Cooper,who worked forboth Republican and Democratic governors in Louisiana, had from the failed Katrina experience?

“Werealized how important it wastohave FEMA and other organizations to support state and local governments,” he told the task force.

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.

focused on working forthe 5th” Congressional District.

CAPITOL BUZZ staff reports Fields

“While the Attorney General is afforded discretion as to her representation or supervision in any action challenging the constitutionality of an act of the state legislature, she is nevertheless required to act in the interests of the state,” Fields, who represents the new,second majority-Black district, saidin

Murrill’soffice originally defended themap in frontof theSupremeCourt against another lawsuit that claimed it unconstitutionally factored in race; the state argued it was compelled by acourt to draw themap. But theSupreme Court asked for arguments to more directly addresswhether consideringrace in voting maps is constitutional. Murrill argues that opened the door for Louisianaleaders to argue whatthey have long believed, which is that

“Our Constitution prohibitsthe sorting of Americansinto voting districts based on their skin color —and Louisiana wants no part of that abhorrent system,”Murrill said last week. “We have madethis argument for years, but thefederal courts so far have refused to hear us.” In his statement, Fieldsargued that thecurrent map was duly passed by theLegislature and Murrill should be defending it as constitutional.

“Reversing course and takingacontrary position against themap passed by thestate legislature and signed by Governor

(Jeff) Landry is in direct contradiction to the state’s interests of complying with federal law as directed by theSupremeCourt of the United States and ensuring fair representation for the people of Louisiana,”Fields said.

Is Letlow interested in LSU president job?

When asked if she’sinterested in becoming president of LSU, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow was noncommittal —but she acknowledged that her first love is higher education.

“It’s just humbling to have my nameinthe mix Ilove higher education. That’swhere my background is. That’s where I definitely feel at home,” Letlow said in an interview Wednesday.“It’salways been my dream to get back to higher education one day Butfor right now,I’m just

Acommittee organized by the LSU Board of Supervisors held its first meeting Aug. 19 to find and vet candidates forthe top job at LSU after William Tate left to become president of Rutgers University in New Jersey The panel will submit its recommendations to the full board, which will make the final decision.

Letlow said mostofthe members of the search committee are friends.

“So, Italked to them quite often. But other than that, I’mgoing to stay mum,” Letlow said. “I promise you that it is the honor of a lifetime to serve the people in the 5th District. So, I’m

just concentrating as much as Ican right now on being present and doing just that.” Letlow has represented the 5th Congressional District since 2021. The district covers much of northeast Louisiana, parts of Baton Rouge, including LSU,and the Florida parishes to Bogalusa. She is amember of the House Appropriations Committee, sitting on the subcommittee that decides how much money education receives. Letlow was afinalist forthe presidency of the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 2020. She has a Ph.D.incommunications from the University of South Florida and worked as director of education at Tulane University School of Medicine. In 2018, Letlow becameULM’sdirector of external affairs and strategic communications.

THE GULF COAST

N.O. restaurant group closes Gulfport spot

Flamingo Landing known for music, food and drinks

BY MARY PEREZ Sun Herald

Location is everything in real estate and the restaurant business, but sometimes it isn’t enough.

Flamingo Landing restaurant and bar off Cowan Road in Gulfport, had heavy traffic passing daily, a waterfront location on Bayou Bernard where customers could arrive by boat for spicy food, icy drinks and some of the favorite music on the Coast.

But last week, a rental truck was pulled up to the building and being loaded with the decor A sign on the door said the business is closed, and posts on Facebook confirmed the online speculation.

“With a heavy heart, I’m sharing that Flamingo Landing has officially closed its doors for good,” said Terry McCormack. “Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of bringing you quality entertainment, great memories and unforgettable nights.” McCormack said the music made Flamingo Landing “feel alive” in one of the busiest corridors of Gulfport. Musicians who were booked to play at the restaurant also posted that their gigs were canceled.

The property is owned by Coast developer Ivan Spinner, who said he’s given the operators of Flamingo Landing six months to sell their

PROVIDED PHOTO By SUN HERALD

Flamingo Landing, a restaurant from Creole Cuisine

Restaurant Concepts, closed last week in Gulfport, Mississippi.

business before he rents to a new tenant.

The restaurant opened in May 2023 in the building that formerly was Marina Cantina. It was the first venture into Mississippi by New Orleans restaurant group Creole Cuisine Restaurant that opened Flamingo A-GoGo, Cafe Maspero, Broussard’s and Gumbo Ya-Ya in Louisiana.

The building was remodeled extensively before reopening, with modern decor upstairs and big windows and garage doors that let in the views and the breeze off the water

Downstairs, their customers could sit in the covered areas or spaces open to the waterfront and the docks.

Favorites on the menu were margaritas, Flamingo chicken bombs with fried jalapeños, and a trio of tacos

Comments on Facebook show some of their customers were surprised by the closing, while others see it as a sign that South Mississippi may have reached the point of too many places to go out to eat. Others, though,

suggested there is room for more restaurants, but more diversity is needed beyond beach-style bars and seafood spots.

When Flamingo Landing opened in 2023, it was one of 40 new places on the coast, and dozens more have opened in the two years since then.

“Kinda hard for on-premise/off-premise to survive when permits are allowed at the snap of a finger,” one comment said.

“The coast is growing, but restaurants and stores are growing faster Too many restaurants, not enough people.”

Many New Orleans brands are investing and branching out on the Gulf Coast.

Barracuda now has a taco stand with a massive patio in downtown Bay St. Louis, with Tacos and Beer opening a few blocks away Coterie has a waterfront restaurant in Long Beach, and St. James Cheese Company will soon open in a new Pass Christian development owned by restaurateur Jourdan Nicaud.

Many destroyed in Hurricane Katrina’s landfall

BY ANITA LEE Sun Herald

Preservationists fanned out across the Gulf Coast as soon as they could after Hurricane Katrina to document the historic structures ravaged by the powerful storm’s wind and surge.

“Of course, some of them were completely gone,” said Ken P’Pool, then deputy state historic preservation officer for the Mississippi Department of Archives & History “We could hardly determine where they had been.”

MDAH’s small staff was joined by volunteers from organizations that included the Mississippi Heritage Trust, Historic Natchez Foundation, and the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.

While many historic structures were lost completely, many others survived.

P’Pool and others got to work, securing almost $25 million in federal funds and other money, enlisting expert volunteer assistance.

Katrina destroyed more than 300 Gulf Coast properties on the National Register of Historic Places, the Sun Herald has previously reported.

Working with preservation partners, MDAH was able by 2011 to help restore 280 historic homes and buildings.

“We had people coming from all over North America, one even from Ireland,” P’Pool said.

“We really had a lot of wonderful preservation partners from across the country who stepped up at their own expense to tell us what we could save and how to go about saving it. We never would have been able to do that on our own.”

Historic homes and public buildings were saved, including Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis on the Biloxi waterfront. The raised home was heavily damaged. In the case of Grass Lawn, an antebellum home that the city of Gulfport owned and where many residents celebrated life’s milestones, a replica was built.

The area’s love of its historic buildings was evi-

dent in the comments that recently flooded the Sun Herald’s Facebook page when readers were asked about the biggest changes they saw from Katrina The loss of so much history was the most mentioned change. Several commenters said the Gulf Coast no longer has the same small-town feel. Many of the properties lost were along the beach.

“I remember riding Highway 90 from Gautier to Pass Christian immediately after it was opened,” one commenter wrote. “Was in the Pass before I realized it. All landmarks I knew growing up along the way were gone. Had tears in my eyes returning home (Gautier). Didn’t ride Highway 90 for another 11/2 years. Couldn’t handle the heartache!”

MINNEAPOLIS

Cards comfort girl after shooting

11-year-old was wounded at a Catholic church

BY DAVE COLLINS Associated Press

Lying in an intensive care unit hospital bed, 11-year-old

Genevieve Bisek is comforted by the many handmade cards she has received from fellow classmates after Wednesday’s shooting at a Minneapolis church.

Some are decorated with beads, some with sparkling stars. All of them are taped to the walls of her room at the Hennepin County Medical Center, where she has been recovering. Her condition has been upgraded from critical to satisfactory “All of these handmade cards are just absolutely adorable and heartfelt,”

Genevieve’s aunt, Wanda Stipek, told The Associated Press in a phone intervi ew

Saturday

“This is coming from other kids who also have their own trauma and yet are still reaching out and showing their love for her She has these cards taped up on the walls in her room so that she can see this and be surrounded by that love.”

Genevieve was one of the 20 people who were shot during the attack at the Church of Annunciation, as hundreds of students from the nearby Annunciation Catholic School and others gathered for a Mass. The shooter fired 116 rifle

PROVIDED By WANDA STIPEK

dent, she said.

Medical staff sedated Genevieve until Thursday “Genevieve is a very sensitive and compassionate little girl,” Stipek said. “When she did wake up from her sedation after the event, the first thing that she wanted to talk about, she asked about the other children.”

Stipek said Genevieve told her mother, “I can’t say that I wish this wouldn’t have happened to me because I don’t want it to have happened to anyone else either.”

Stipek said Genevieve has not been told yet who died. She said one of the students killed, Fletcher Merkel, 8, was a neighbor and friend of the family

The handmade cards and other outpourings of support from the community, including ribbons tied around trees in the neighborhood and donations made online, have helped the family cope with their trauma, Stipek said.

“I think sometimes that when something terrible like this happens, you think of the world as a scary and dangerous place full of bad people. But we are very moved by the goodness,” she said.

500-plus jobs at Voice of America, parent to be cut

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON The agency that oversees Voice of America and other government-funded international broadcasters is eliminating jobs for more than 500 employees, a Trump administration official said. The move could ratchet up a monthslong legal challenge over the news outlets’ fate. Kari Lake, acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, announced the latest round of job cuts late Friday, one day after a federal judge blocked her from removing Michael Abramowitz as VOA director

rounds through the church’s stained-glass windows, leaving two students dead and 18 people wounded, nearly all of them children. The shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman, died by suicide. At least seven people were still in the hospital on Saturday A spokesperson for Hennepin County Medical Center said five children were being treated there, including four in satisfactory condition and one in critical condition, as well as one adult who was in serious

condition A spokesperson for Children’s Minnesota –Minneapolis Hospital said doctors there were treating one patient.

Genevieve, a sixth grader at the Catholic school who loves animals and playing outside, was conscious after the shooting, Stipek said.

After authorities cleared the church from danger, she was gathered with other children to assess their injuries and was brought to the hospital in an ambulance with another wounded stu-

EPA fires employees who publicly criticized policies

BY MATTHEW DALY Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday fired at least eight employees who signed a letter criticizing the agency’s leadership under Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump.

“Following a thorough internal investigation, EPA supervisors made decisions on an individualized basis,” an EPA spokesperson said Friday in a statement. The so-called declaration of dissent, signed by more than 170 employees in late June, “contains inaccurate information designed to mislead the public about agency business,” spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said. “Thankfully, this represents a small fraction of the thousands of hard-working, dedicated EPA employees who are not trying to mislead and scare the American public.”

The EPA “has a zero-

tolerance policy for career officials using their agency position and title to unlawfully undermine, sabotage and undercut the will of the American public that was clearly expressed at the ballot box last November,” she added Vaseliou declined to say how many employees were disciplined, but the head of the agency’s largest union said at least six probationary employees who signed the letter were fired, along with at least two career employees. The firings were first reported by The Washington Post. The EPA union, part of the American Federation of Government Employees, condemned the firings, which come after 139 workers were put on administrative leave shortly after signing the dissent declaration. The EPA at the time accused employees of “unlawfully undermining” the Trump administration’s agenda.

“The Trump administration and EPA’s retaliatory actions against these workers was clearly an assault on labor and free-speech rights,” said Justin Chen, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees.

More than 150 workers who were disciplined up to and including being fired — included scientists, engineers, lawyers, contract officers, emergency response personnel “and a whole host of other jobs,” Chen told The Associated Press.

In a letter made public June 30, the employees wrote that the EPA is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. The letter represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face retaliation for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environmental and health science.

Israel will halt or slow aid to Gaza

BY JULIA FRANKEL and WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press

JERUSALEM Israel will soon halt or slow humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza as it expands its military offensive against Hamas, an official said Saturday, a day after Gaza City was declared a combat zone. The decision was likely to bring more condemnation of Israel’s government as frustration grows in the country and abroad over dire conditions for both Palestinians and remaining hostages in Gaza after nearly 23 months of war The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, told The Associated Press that Israel will stop airdrops over Gaza City in the coming days and reduce the number of aid trucks arriving in the north as it prepares to evac-

uate hundreds of thousands of people south Israel on Friday ended recently imposed daytime pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery, describing Gaza City as a Hamas stronghold and alleging that a tunnel network remains in use, despite previous largescale raids. The United Nations and partners have said the pauses, airdrops and other measures fell far short of the 600 trucks of aid needed daily in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office announced that the remains of a hostage that Israel said Friday had been recovered in Gaza were of Idan Shtivi. He was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 2023, that sparked the war It said Friday it also recovered the remains of hostage Ilan Weiss. By Saturday there had been no airdrops for several

days across Gaza, a break from almost daily ones. Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment or say how it would provide aid to Palestinians during another major shift in Gaza’s population of over 2 million people.

Israeli gunfire killed four people trying to get aid in central Gaza, according to health officials at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

An Israeli strike on a bakery in Gaza City’s Nasr neighborhood killed 12 people including six women and three children, the Shifa Hospital director told the AP, and a strike on the Rimal neighborhood killed seven.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said another 10 people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, including three children. It said at least 332 Palestinians have died from malnutrition-related causes during the war

“All of those things show the love and support, and all of it helps us know that there’s goodness out there. I think that’s part of the healing process. It’s important for us to remember that the world is still full of good people.”

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had ruled separately that the Republican administration had failed to show how it was complying with his orders to restore VOA’s operations. His order Monday gave the administration “one final opportunity, short of a contempt trial” to demonstrate its compliance. He ordered Lake to sit for a deposition by lawyers for agency employees by Sept. 15.

“I look forward to taking additional steps in the coming months to improve the functioning of a very broken agency and make sure America’s voice is heard abroad where it matters most,” she wrote.

A group of employees who sued to block VOA’s elimination said Lake’s move would give their colleagues 30 days until their pay and benefits end. In June, layoff notices were sent to more than 600 agency employees. Abramowitz was placed on administrative leave along with almost the entire VOA staff. He was told he would be fired effective Sunday The administration said that it planned to send RIF notices to 486 employees of VOA and 46 other agency employees but intended to retain 158 agency employees and 108 VOA employees. The filing said the global media agency had 137 “active employees” and 62 on administrative leave while VOA had 86 active employees and 512 on

On Thursday Lamberth said Abramowitz could not be removed without the approval of the majority of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board. Firing Abramowitz would be “plainly contrary to law,” according to Lamberth. Lake posted a statement on social media that said her agency had initiated a reduction in force eliminating 532 jobs for full-time government employees.

Dr.R.Osvaldo Naviajoins Tulane Doctors to lead innovative geriatrics andpalliativecare across theregion

| amcelfresh@theadvocate.com

By Amanda McElfresh

This articleisbrought to youbyTulaneDoctors

Tulane University School of Medicine hastaken aboldsteptoimprove care forLouisiana’s rapidly agingpopulation.

Dr.R.Osvaldo Naviahas joined Tulane as the first-everSection ChiefofGeriatricsand Palliative Medicine andthe MyrnaL.Daniels ChairinGeriatricMedicinewithinthe John W. Deming Department of Medicine.Dr. Naviaisaboard-certifiedexpertin geriatricmedicine, hospiceand palliative care and hospicemedical direction.

“I wasexcited to seethatTulaneisorganizinga newdivisiontofocus on geriatrics,” said Dr.Navia, whoassumed hisnew role in earlyAugust. “We aretryingtobring solutionstomultipleproblems andimprovethe qualityoflifefor ourpatients. The team that we have here at Tulane is highly specialized.Theyreallylovetohelppeopleinthe geriatric population andcoordinatecarewithdifferentfamily membersand specialists.

Tulane’s newgeriatricsand palliative medicine sectioncomes at acriticaltime. Louisiana’spopulation is agingrapidly,and estimatesshowthatup to 20 percentofthe state’spopulationwillbeage 65 or older by 2030.Yet,the number of physicians specializing in geriatrics remainslow

“Thismeans that here at Tulane,weare goingto be able to make adifference to providesupport and care forthisvulnerablepopulation,”Dr. Naviasaid. Oneofhis topprioritiesistoexpandTulane’s geriatricservices in both inpatientand outpatient settings, first focusing on East JeffersonGeneral Hospital andUniversityMedical Center as hubs forarranging andproviding services.Dr. Naviasaid that when things aregoing well,geriatricians are akin to conductors of an orchestra–coordinating care amongmultiplespecialists,socialworkers and communityorganizations.Thatisthe type of structure andcommunication he planstobring to Tulane andits partners across theregion.

“You’regoing to seeTulanebeveryproactive in ordertoeducate andbea bridge betweenour institutions andother entities in thecommunity, includingnursing homes, rehabilitationfacilities andPACEprograms(ProgramofAll-Inclusive Care forthe Elderly),”hesaid. “Someone whois65 or oldergenerally willhavemultiplemedical problems at some point. Geriatricianshavethe proper trainingand expertisetodirectthese efforts in a very effectiveway That care also includes involvingfamiliesand

caregivers in discussionsand decisions, andprovidingthemwithresources to alleviatethe sense of overwhelmthatcan oftenarise when caring for an agingloved one. “Familiesoften feel like they have no onetoput things together.That’swhere geriatriciansstepin, he said.“We love to sitwithpatientsand theirfamily membersand walk them througheverythingthatis goingon. We don’twaituntil an acuteevent happens. Instead, we want regularappointmentstoreview chronicproblems,keeppeopleathomeand maintain agoodquality of life.Wealsoliketobea bridge betweenthe family andcommunity support. We don’t want them just filling outforms.Wewanttodirect them to theright resourcesfor everything from socializationopportunities to physical therapy. Dr.Navia’s commitment to caring for olderadults is deeply personal.Hecredits hisclose bond with his grandparents,especiallyhis maternal grandmother, as oneofthe main reasonshepursued hisspecialty “I’vealwaysbeenabletoconnect with people in that population.After medicalschool, Irealizedthat people age65and olderneedspecial attention,”he said.“They like to talk,share theirhistories and sharetheir experiences.There also needstobe communicationaroundtheir medicalproblems. Sometimesyou have to be quitecreativetoget the rightinformation.But,itisimportant to me that they areengaged in theircare.” Throughout hiscareer, Dr.Navia hasestablished himself as anationallyrecognized innovative leader.His career accomplishments includegeriatric-trauma collaborations,telemedicine-based palliative care,neurocognitiveand frailtyclinics andthe creationofthe first accredited geriatrics andpalliativemedicinefellowshipprogram in West Virginia. He is also aco-investigator on several studiesfundedbythe National Institutes of Health relatedtodementiaand ruralhealthoutcomes.

“Dr. Naviabringsanexceptional combination of clinicalexpertise,academic leadership and a forward-lookingvisionthatalignswithTulane’s missiontoserve ourregionthrough compassionate, high-quality care,”saidDr. L. LeeHamm, Senior Vice Presidentand Dean of Tulane University School of Medicine.“Hisappointment reflectsour commitment to innovation in care for olderadults andpatients with complexmedical needs, both of whichare growingprioritiesinLouisiana andacross thenation.

BEATING THE HEAT

Architectlived in N.O. fordecades withoutAC, but climatechangemadeithardertoavoid,and he caved

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

On ahumid summer morn-

ing, the temperature inside John Klingman’s19th-century home hovers around 80 degrees. There’snoair conditioning running, but it doesn’tfeel stifling. Fans circulate air across shaded floorboards. Louvered shutters manage the sun like clockwork. Birds chirp in the garden.

“So you see, we’re in pretty good shape,” Klingman said, pausing by athermostat “We’re noteven close to the limit of comfort.”

Over adecade ago, Klingman was featured in The Times-Picayune for doing something most New Orleanians would neverattempt: living without air conditioning by choice. Readers hada lot of thoughts aboutit.

“Mostof the comments were negative:‘He’scrazy, why would anybody do that?’”Klingmansaid

But 13 years later, the 78-year-old is still at it mostly.About fiveyears ago, he installed air conditioning, thinking he might want to sell his house one day and wouldn’tbeable towithout afeature most people in the South see asanecessity

Now,the system serves a different purpose: it’s what allows himtokeepliving mostly AC-free. When thehouse hits86

degrees, theunitkicks on drying theair before cooling it down. That backup has become increasingly necessary as New Orleanshas endured record-breakingsummers, including an especially punishing summer in 2023, when thestate recorded 88 heat-related deaths and nearly 6,200 emergency room visits.

He mostly tries not to use it. Butmoreoften, it’simpossible to go without.

“I couldn’thave made it without ACtwo summers ago,” he said. “It was so bad —Idon’tthink Ievenwent outside for aweek.”

Klingman’s 1898Uptown house is astudy in passive cooling. Most roomshavea ceiling fan, installed when he bought the house in 1989. Original louvered shutters open and close with the sun’s movement, filtering the strong light in themornings andafternoons.Windows are operable to catchbreezes when they come.

“Most people think of their houses like cars,” Klingman said. “I thinkofhouses more like aboat. Youadjust.”

Screens are used on the first floor,but the secondfloor windows go without for better airflow,said Klingman. Thesecond floor is

Expansionof Covingtonhotel delayed

Southern’s owner pauses over economic outlook, butdowntown still booming

BYBOB WARREN

of development when it was announced in 2022,has been delayed Owner Lisa Condrey Ward said

she is pumping thebrakes due to questionsabout theeconomy and adesire to take another look at the expansion plans. “It just feels like takinga pause right now is the best option,” she said. But, sheadded, thatdoesn’t mean she’sstepping away from the project. “I feel like I’ve been treading water for the past two years and that’snot my strong suit,” Ward

said. “I want this building to last 200 years.” When thehotel’sexpansion was announced,cityofficials and tourism leaders hoped the project wouldattract more visitors to downtown Covington. Arow of buildings in the 300 blockofNorth NewHampshire Street was demolishedtomake way for the hotelexpansion, and Ward aimedtobegin construction in May2024onwhatwas then a$12 million project with 25 new rooms, sevencondos and space for retail

Woodfork leadsin sheriff’s race

BY JOSEPH CRANNEY Staff writer

Michelle Woodfork appears primed to exit the summer as the favorite in the six-wayrace forOrleansParish sheriff after building ahuge fundraising lead, securing acouple key endorsementsand dominatingthe race’s only third-party poll in June.

AretiredNew Orleanspoliceofficer who gainedcitywide name recognitionasthe NewOrleansPoliceDepartment’sinterim superintendent in 2023, Woodfork has gained ground on an experienced pack of challengers to incumbent Sheriff Susan Hutson. Theyinclude retiredCriminalDistrict Court Judge Julian Parker and longtime Algiers Constable Edwin Shorty.Two former Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies —Bob Murray andErnesteayoJ.“Ernest”Lee Sr.—are also running.

Though Hutsonistrying to pitch voters on electing hertoasecond term, her prospects forreelection crateredafter the May escape of 10 detainees from the troubled jail she oversees,one of whom remains on the run. Hutsonhas defendedher first term, saying she inherited an unconstitutional jailand remains themost knowledgeable about its problems.

But Woodfork, who entered the race in February,has seized on the escape and on other controversiesduring Hutson’stenure, describing them as evidence of gross mismanagement. “WhathappenedonMay 16 was incompetence,” Woodfork said during acandidates’ forum in early July, seated three seats down from Hutson. “It’spoor leadership. …That’swhat it is.”

On thecampaign trail, Woodfork has vowed that if she’selected sheriff, she’ll get to the bottom of the jail’s many problems. She’spromised asecurity auditand astudy of the beleaguered agency’sstaffing needs.

But as Woodfork’scriticisms of Hutson have mounted, she has not always articulated muchdaylight about where her priorities for running the jail differ from Hutson’s.

In some respects, their plans have been similar.Both Hutson and Woodfork have outlined goals to operate a more holistic jail that emphasizes rehabilitation and education for detainees. Both point to understaffing as the jail’smost pressingissue. Both want better pay for OPSO’sdeputies. Woodfork’s chief campaign promise is building a“fully staffed, professional workforce” at OPSO behind a “strategicstaffingplan” that shedescribes almost as acatchall solution to the department’sstaffing problems.

The plan would allow for “competitive pay, fair promotions, improved training,and apositiveworkplace culture to end chronicunderstaffing and high turnover,” Woodfork said in awritten response to questions from

SUSAN HUTSON

ORLEANS

AGE, BORN, LIVES: 58. Born in Philadelphia, lives in New

Graduated from high school (League City, Texas); Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania; juris doctorate,Tulane University CURRENT JOB, FORMER

JOBS: Orleans Parish sheriff. Former New Orleans independent police monitor; assistant investigator general, Los Angeles Police Commission; assistant police monitor (Austin); assistant city attorney (Corpus Christi, Texas)

PARTY, RELEVANT POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OR CAMPAIGN WORK: Democrat. WEBSITE: susanforsheriff.com

ERNEST LEE

AGE, BORN, LIVES: 44. Born in New Orleans, lives in New Orleans.

HS, COLLEGE,ADVANCED EDUCATION:

Graduated from O. Perry Walker High School. CURRENT JOB, FORMER

JOBS: Public Safety Office, University Medical Center New Orleans. Former deputy, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office; deputy, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office; deputy, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

PARTY, RELEVANT POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OR CAMPAIGN WORK: Republican

WEBSITE: none

BOB MURRAY

AGE, BORN, LIVES: 68. Born and lives in New Orleans.

HS, COLLEGE,ADVANCED EDUCATION:

Graduated from Joseph S. Clark High School; associate degree in criminal justice from Concordia University; Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Southern University

CURRENT JOB, FORMER

JOBS: Retired security consultant. Former transportation executive; New Orleans Police Department correctional officer; Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy

PARTY, RELEVANT POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OR CAMPAIGN WORK: Democrat. Executive board member NAACP; former campaign manager for former state Sen. Ed

HOTEL

Continued from page 1B

and parking.

The new addition, dubbed the “Summer House,” will be near, but not connected to, the existing hotel, which has a commanding presence at the high-traffic corner of East Boston Street and North New Hampshire.

“At the beginning of this, we were ready to go forward,” Ward said in a recent interview “Then interest rates moved up, and there I am looking at 9%. There was no end in sight.” While Ward expects interest rates to come down a bit, other questions about the economy remain. “What about tariffs? What will that do to construction costs?

“It’s still tricky times,” she said “Talk to any developer.” Ward said holding off for now will also give the management company she brought on in April to run the Southern Hotel, Kentuckybased Tandem Hospitality, a chance to weigh in on the expansion plans.

Covington confidence

Covington Mayor Mark Johnson said the delay is unfortunate, but he’s confident it will happen in time.

He’s also hopeful an expanded Southern Hotel will be a catalyst for more development in Covington’s downtown, just as the 48-room, cir-

Murray (D-New Orleans)

WEBSITE: www.runwithmurray.com

JULIAN PARKER AGE, BORN, LIVES: 70. Born and lives in New Orleans HS, COLLEGE,ADVANCED

EDUCATION: Graduated from Marion Abramson High School; Bachelor of Music from Xavier University; juris doctorate, Southern University

CURRENT JOB, FORMER

JOBS: Retired Orleans Parish

Criminal District Court judge. Former assistant district attorney, Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office; attorney. PARTY, RELEVANT POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OR CAMPAIGN WORK: Democrat.

WEBSITE: www.judgeparkerforsheriff.com

EDWIN SHORTY

AGE, BORN, LIVES: 48. Born and lives in New Orleans HS, COLLEGE,ADVANCED EDUCATION: Graduated from Lawless High School; Bachelor of Arts in business administration from Southern University; juris doctorate, Southern University

CURRENT JOB, FORMER JOBS: 2nd City Court constable, attorney.

PARTY, RELEVANT POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OR CAMPAIGN WORK: Democrat. 2nd City Court constable, 2013-present.

WEBSITE: www.shortyforsheriff.com

MICHELLE WOODFORK

AGE, BORN, LIVES: 55. Born and lives in New Orleans

HS, COLLEGE,ADVANCED EDUCATION:

Graduated from St. Mary’s Academy; Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Southern University; Master of Arts in criminal justice, Southern University

CURRENT JOB, FORMER

JOBS: Director of Forensics and Intelligence, Orleans

Parish District Attorney’s Office. Former deputy chief of police, New Orleans Police Department; interim superintendent, NOPD; captain and lieutenant, NOPD

PARTY, RELEVANT POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OR CAMPAIGN WORK: Democrat.

WEBSITE: www.votemichellewoodfork.com

ca-1907 main hotel has been since it opened 11 years ago.

“Lisa Ward’s renovation of the Southern Hotel was sort of like taking Mentos candy and putting it in a carbonated beverage,” Johnson said with a laugh.

Even with the hotel expansion lagging, he pointed out that downtown Covington continues to see new investment.

A block from the hotel, for instance, a new building is nearly complete on the site of the old Star Theater at North New Hampshire and East Gibson streets

Patrick McMath, a state senator and one of the partners developing that building, said he expects it to be open and occupied by Thanksgiving The building, a $5 million-plus investment, he said, will include a ground-floor restaurant, a law firm, several other offices and a wine and cocktail lounge with a rooftop patio.

The restaurant, Feliciana, will be run by New Orleansbased BRG Hospitality, which operates several other restaurants, including Shaya, Domenica and August BRG also runs Tavi, which is next door to the new development on New Hampshire Street.

“It’s going to be a beautiful space,” McMath said. “We’ve really put a lot of thought into it.”

More dining

On the corner opposite McMath’s building, another new restaurant, The Hampshire, recently opened its doors. It’s dinner only now on Tuesdays through Saturdays, but expects to add brunch and lunch hours in the coming months.

“Covington is kind of booming right now,” said Jonathan Cimino, who along with chef Ryan Gall, opened the upscale steak and seafood restaurant. “We think this is a great place to be.”

The new restaurant occupies a space that was most recently used as a maritime training center and years before that was a Sears store, Cimino said. The redevelopment is in the $1 million range.

Rather than competing for customers, Cimino said he sees the addition of another new restaurant in the downtown as a plus that will attract even more foodies to Covington.

“People are excited here,” he said of the activity “This is a destination.”

Continued from page 1B

The Times-Picayune.

“I will start by reviewing and adjusting the pay scale to ensure fairness and transparency,” Woodfork said “I will also streamline the hiring pipeline, improve training, and work to create a culture where staff feel supported and respected.”

But Hutson said this work is already underway at OPSO Hutson has discussed drafting an employee pay plan with the New Orleans City Council, but her department wouldn’t have the money to cover the changes anyway, Hutson told The Times-Picayune, saying “the costs far exceed what we are able to pay right now

“Candidate Woodfork has been learning about the work we are already doing to get a proper pay plan for our deputies,” Hutson said “I have spoken about it extensively on the campaign trail, and she is just following my lead.”

Polling and money

Woodfork’s tactics, at least early in the race, have appealed to voters.

A June poll from New Orleans political analyst Ron Faucheux showed Woodfork with a 19-point lead over Hutson and 23-point lead over Shorty About 46% of respondents said they were undecided, so there appeared to be plenty of ground for trailing candidates to make up before the Oct. 11 election.

Parker, a former chief parish judge, emerged from retirement to enter the race in April. Murray, a former security consultant, and Lee, a law enforcement officer and the race’s only Republican, entered the fray after the May jailbreak.

So far, Woodfork has also amassed the most donor support in the race, according to the most recent batch of campaign finance reports filed in July. Woodfork tallied around $128,000 on hand

then.

Shorty, who picked up an endorsement from the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee on Aug. 22, had a little more than $34,200. Hutson had just $715.

Attacks on transparency

Hutson has come under fire from the City Council for not offering enough details about how she’d spend the money in her multimillion-dollar budget increase proposals, including the employee pay plan that never materialized. That’s given ammunition to Hutson’s opponents, each of whom has criticized her for lacking transparency The barbs have ranged from how Huston spends the agency’s money to her decision to wait two hours to notify the public about the jailbreak, which Woodfork said was “by far the biggest mistake in this incident.”

Woodfork, Parker and Shorty each committed to restoring publication of OPSO’s weekly incident reports, which Hutson ceased putting on the agency’s website in January Those three candidates also committed to notifying the public when OPSO’s internal investigations result in confirmed allegations against deputies, in most circumstances.

Hutson has noted that she, not her predecessor, began publishing incident reports in 2022. “Please show me any jail that does that around the country or in this area,” she said. Should she be reelected, internal investigations involving “security related information” won’t be released, she said.

Locks and fencing

Other candidates clearly break from Hutson when discussing how they would further harden the jail as sheriff.

Parker shared a nine-point plan that he said will prevent another escape. His ideas include moving all of the lockup’s high-risk inmates to a special housing unit on the fourth floor

Most of those inmates are now housed among the gen-

eral population on the first floor, where the escape took place. OPSO abandoned its high security unit shortly after Hutson took office in 2022, The Times-Picayune reported in June. Murray would install electric fencing around the jail, and Shorty committed to more jail cell shakedowns. To enhance security, Woodfork said that along with ordering a “top-to-bottom security and infrastructure audit,” she’d “enforce post orders” and “hold staff accountable to stop escapes and violence.” Hutson’s administration issued $15 million in bonds in July for security upgrades, including jailwide lock replacements.

Bolstering ranks To help improve staffing, Shorty said he’d reinstitute a program allowing college students to work part time at the jail, plus another that employed military members stationed in New Orleans as deputies. Shorty and Murray also pledged flexibility on OPSO’s 12-hour work shift, which they described as a barrier to hiring people. Murray said he’d add a day care at the jail for staff’s children. To address understaffing, Murray would also hire 100 security guards through third-party contractors, he said. Lee would ask employees of OPSO’s higher ranks to step in to fill needed security shifts.

“The inmate-to-deputy ratio will always have the deputies outnumbered,” Lee said “It is the job of jail staff to make that ratio insignificant and harmless. This task will be met if the staff is functional and efficient, if the entire staff pitches in, doing more than the minimum.” Hutson said she faces daily challenges retaining staff. She pointed to an OPSO supervisor who is taking a demotion to go work as an officer at NOPD, where Hutson said they’ll make $30,000 more a year “That’s the issue,” Hutson said.

Forfive decades, Arthur Hardyhas been our neighbor,our guide, and the keeper of our Carnivalmemories. From his Gentillykitchen table in 1977 to receiving the key to the city in 2024,Hardytransformed himself from aBrotherMartin band director into the man all about Mardi Gras. Hisannual guidehas reached over3million readers, but for us

the stories onlyArthur could tell, filled with photographs thatcapture the paradesyou remember,the krewesyou cheered for and the moments thatmade youproud to be apart of Mardi Gras. Arthur Hardyhas preservedthe soul of what makes us NewOrleanians, making this the perfect holidaygift for anyone whobleeds the purple,green andgold of Mardi Gras. Booksship in time for holidaygift-giving!

Alford,Mary

Avegno, John

Boutte,Ida

Brisco Jr., Gladdis

Corderman, Patricia

Cousin,Andrew

Curole,Vivian

Desmore, Beverly

Evans, Diane

Federico,Brian

FrisardIII, Emile

Hepting, Joy

Hewitt, Robert

Jagneaux, Danny

Kottle,Jacob

Pecunia, Georganne

Pesses, Harold

ScoginJr.,Douglas

TranchinaIII, Felix

Trapolin,Peter

Troxell III,George Verdin Sr., Frederick

Weil, Charles EJefferson

Garden of Memories

Avegno, John NewOrleans Greenwood

Alford,Mary

Troxell III, George JacobSchoen

Boutte,Ida

Lake Lawn Metairie

Brisco Jr., Gladdis

Cousin,Andrew FrisardIII, Emile

Hewitt, Robert

Tammany Honaker

Pecunia, Georganne ScoginJr.,Douglas TranchinaIII, Felix West Bank Mothe Evans, Diane Hepting, Joy West Leitz-Eagan Verdin Sr., Frederick Obituaries Alford,MaryE Mary E. Alford,102, of Metairie, Louisiana, passed awayinher condoonJuly 2,2025.She waspreceded indeath by herhusband of 62years,Joseph, in 2004 She wasborninSt. Paul, Minnesota,the youngestof seven children five of whomhad been born in Swedenbeforeher parents immigrated to America shortly after WorldWar I. She grew up in Minnesota and attended oneyearat the U. of Minnesotaduring which shetraveledto Bostonfor summer work and mether future hus‐band, Joseph.Josephwas beginning whatwould be a longcareer at General Electric, most of it involv‐ing jetenginedesign. They married in Octoberof1942 inBoston, Massachusetts withtheir 3childrenbeing bornduringthe next 5 years(roughly2 years

apart),withMarybeing a stay-at-homemom.The familymoved to Cincinnati, Ohioin1951 whenGeneral Electrictransferred her husband to theirAircraft Jet Engine facility.There theystayeduntil 2004 when they movedto MetairieLAsotheycould liveneartheir twodaugh‐tersand otherfamilyinthe area. Mary’s fondestpas‐times were whenshe was traveling,playing tennis and bridge,and participat‐ing in square dancingwith life-long friends. Shewas verygood at sewing and knittingand with enter‐taining guests.After her husband passed, she con‐tinuedenjoyingtraveland loved spending time visit‐ing with familymembers, playing tablegames,and putting jigsaw puzzlesto‐gether. Mary wasanex‐ceptionally sweetwoman a gentle soul with asoft voice anda readysmile She wasa greatlistener and easily made friends. Marywas alovingwife, mother, grandmotherand friend. Shewillbegreatly missedbyall who knew and lovedher.Maryissur‐vived by herson,Joseph (Marti) of Indianapolis,IN, her daughter ChristinePol‐lock(Barry)ofLaCombe LA, andher daughter Beth ofMetairie, LA.She is also survivedby6 grandchil‐dren, MichaelAlford, David Alford, RandyAlford, Aimee Wilmette,Lisa McLeanand Anne-LiseMc‐Carver. Sheisalsosur‐vived by 11 great-grand‐children. Thefamilywould liketoextenda special thankstoChris Franzwho cameand stayed with Maryproviding wonderful caretoher during herlast seven months.Another special thanks goestoAn‐driaand thestaff at Anvoi Hospice Care who gave ex‐ceptional serviceduring the time shewas under their care.A privatememo‐rialservice forfamily members will be held at a futuredate. In lieu of flow‐ers,memorialgifts arewel‐comeand canbedirected toeitherSt. Jude's or the Red Cross.

Avegno,JohnBernard

John BernardAvegno, affectionatelyknown as “JohnnyB” and“Tuna Fish,”passedawayonAu‐gust21, 2025. He wasborn tothe late FrancesMusser and Thomas LouisAvegno, and wasa belovedbrother uncle,and friend.Johnis survived by hisbrothers, ThomasLouis Avegno III and TimothyRobert Avegno(Claire); his nephews,MartinAvegno, HughRussell, andBen Rus‐sell; andhis nieces,Caro‐lineAndress, MollyCreel Charlotte Bradford,Katie Newland,and Rachel Krentz. He is preceded in death by hissister, Anne AvegnoRussell, andhis brother-in-law, Howard Russell Jr.Johnwas alongtimememberofthe Mag‐nolia School community where he wasknownand loved.The familyextends their heartfeltthanksto the Magnolia Community Servicesstaff fortheir compassionate care and support throughout the years.Inlieuof flowers, donations maybemadein John’smemorytoMagno‐lia Community Services 100 CentralAve., Jefferson, LA70121.A privatememor‐ial servicewas held on Fri‐day,August29, 2025 Arrangementsare being handled by Garden of MemoriesFuneralHome, 4900 AirlineDr.,Metairie, LA70001.Toshare condo‐lences, please visitwww gardenofmemoriesmetairi e.com.

IdaCousinBoutte,age 81, enteredeternal rest peacefullyathomeonAu‐gust24, 2025, aftercoura‐geously fighting ayearand-a-half battle with lym‐phoma. Born June 27,1944,

in Lacombe, Louisiana, Ida was the fifthofJosephand LorineCousin’sten chil‐dren. Shegraduated from Choctaw ImaHighSchool and beganher career with BellSouth,where sherose fromoperatortomanage‐mentina successful ca‐reer spanning more than 30 years.After retiring from AT&T, shewas personally recruited by Archbishop PhilipHannantohelpman‐age FOCUSTV, aCatholic televisionnetwork.In1967 Idamarried theloveofher life, Ronald Boutte.To‐gethertheyraisedthree daughters -Jeannine, Lauri,and Jill.Their homes becamegathering places filled with Ronald’s laugh‐ter,Ida’s cooking, andthe kindofwarmthwhere no one ever left hungryor unloved.A devout Catholic, Idaalwayshad arosaryin her hand andservedasan Extraordinary Minister of HolyCommunion at Trans‐figuration of OurLord Church.Ida is preceded in death by herparents, Josephand Lorine Cousin; her husband,Ronald Boutte;and severalsib‐lings.She leaves to cherish her memory herdaughters JeannineBoutte LaFonta (Damian), LauriAnne Boutte,and Jill Anne Boutte;her granddaughter, Christine Anne LaFonta; siblingsIrene SantaMa‐rina, MarieCousin, and GeneCousin; anda host of devoted in-laws, nieces nephews,cousins,and friends.She will be remem‐bered forher strength faith,humor,and theway she made everyone feel likefamily. Family and friends of thefamily, also employees of AT&T,Folgers CoffeeCompany,and FOCUS TV areinvited to at‐tendthe visitation Wednesday,September 3, 2025, beginningat9:00 a.m followed by aFuneral Massat11:00 a.m. at St MartindePorresCatholic Church,5621 ElysianFields Ave NewOrleans,LA 70122. Burial will be at St Louis No.3 Cemetery,New Orleans.Pleasesignthe guestbook at www schoenfh.comand www legacy.com. Arrangements under thedirection of Jacob Schoen andSon Fu‐neral Home

BriscoJr., Gladdis Clay

Gladdis Clay Brisco Jr.at theage of 72 went to be with theLordonFriday, August 22, 2025 when he heard Jesus say, "Come untomeall ye that labor and areheavyladen, and I will give yourest.You have fought agoodfight,you havefinishedthe race, you have kept thefaith. Relatives and friends are invitedtoattend thefuneral servicesatSt. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Church, 3501 NMiro Street in New Orleans, on Saturday, August 30, 2025. Visitation willbegin at 9:00 a.m. with aMemorial Mass following at 10:00 a.m. Gladdiswill be laidtorest at Mt.Olivet Cemetery at 12 p.m.

NewOrleans, whereshe chose her homes basedon parade routes. She sang withShades of Praise gospel choirand lovedperforming at Jazz Fest.Pat lovedeverything about MardiGras, fromdesigning costumes to marching in theparades.

Patwas passionate aboutjusticeand worked tirelessly forracial unity and equality. She was fearless aboutspeakingout and educatingothers. Pat was able to reach people throughher sense of humor and grace.

Patwas alovingmother, devoted grandmother, and loyal friend.She cherished her Bible study group, who call themselves "The Sistahs."She served in the kitchen at Loaves and Fishes, helpingpeoplein need.

Patwas preceded in death by her parents, John Drew and JulietteGenre Ellis. She is survived by her daughter Nancy Waldren Engberg (John) of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and her daughter Amy WaldrenAmessoudji (Euphrase) of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; her grandchildren Drew Engberg, Grace Engberg, JoyAmessoudji, and Ben Amessoudji. She is also survivedbyher sister Ellen Drew Hungate aka Aunt Dootsie (Grady) of DenhamSprings; niece Julie HungateTaylor (Trevor), and great-niece and great-nephewElla Taylorand great-nephew Nicholas TaylorofBaton Rouge.

Pat's memorial service willbeat10:30 am on Saturday, October 11th at TrinityEpiscopal Church in NewOrleans. Areception willfollow theservice.The servicewillalso be livestreamed at trinitynola.com/live.

In remembrance of Pat, donations can be madeto Loaves and Fishes at trinitynola.com/donatetlf.

To read thefull,extended obituary and leavea guest book comment or share amemory, please visit Pat'sonline memorial page at https://neptuneso ciety.com/obituaries/1249 0298.

PatriciaAnn Ellis Corderman passed away on August 16 in her New Orleans home, surrounded by lovedones singing "I'll FlyAway."

In theweeks preceding her death, her home was filled with aconstant stream of people who stopped by to tell her they lovedher. They described Patassweet, kind,creative, adventurous, gentle open-minded, open-hearted,genuine, passionate, funny,and fun! Born July29, 1941, Pat grew up in PortGibson, Mississippi.She attended LSU, OleMiss, and graduated fromthe Universityof Wisconsin-Madisonwitha master's degree in guidance and counseling In 1989, she moved to Boutte,Ida Cousin

Andrew"Andy" Joseph Cousin,77, passed away peacefully on the morning of August 20, 2025, surroundedbyhis loving family at East JeffersonGeneral Hospital. Andy was born on April 23, 1948. He attended Archbishop Rummel High School and later proudlyserved his countryinthe U.S. Army before building along career as adedicated business owner. Aman of manypassions, he especiallyenjoyed huntingand traveling, pursuitsthat reflected his adventurous spirit andlove of the outdoors. Aboveall,Andywas devoted to hisfamily. He especially cherished his role as "Paw Paw"and delightedinspending time with hisgrandchildren. Whetherplaying, laughing, or simply beingpresent, he lovedeverymoment he couldshare with them Andy wasalso known for hisquiet generosity. His compassion and willingness to help others were hallmarks of hischaracter. Andy is survivedbyhis lovingwife of 51 years, Linda Crusta Cousin; hischildren Michael Cousin, Christi Cousin(RichyFarah), and Matthew Cousin(Brandi); and hischerished grandchildrenSophia Cousin, MilesCousin, Oliver Farah, Alexander Farah, and MasonCousin. He is also survived by hissiblings Cornelius Cousin(Carol), Joyce Cypert andPhilip Cousin, mother-in-law ShirleyCrusta Leblanc, brothers-in-law Richard Crusta (Charlotte),Thomas Crusta (William), David Crusta (Marlene), along with many nieces, nephews, and extended family. He waspreceded in death by hisparents, Cornelius andEunice Cousin; his brotherJoe Cousin, father-in-law Cosmo Crusta and his brother-in-law Robert Crusta, Sr.Those who knew Andy will remember himfor hisstrongwork

ethic, hisdevotion to family, hisgenerousspirit,and hiswarm, steady presence.Heleaves behind a legacyofstrength,loyalty, andlove that will be deeply missed. The family wouldliketogive special thanks to thenurseson the7th floor of East JeffersonHospital fortheir loving support. Relatives andfriends are invited to attenda memorial service for Andy on Saturday, September 6, 2025, held at Lake LawnMetairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd.New Orleans, LA. Visitationwill be from10:00am untilthe service begins at 12:00pm.

Curole,VivianDufrene

Vivian DufreneCurole, 91, anativeofLafitte,La. and aresidentofMarrero La. passedawayonMon‐day,August25, 2025. Visi‐tationwillbeheldatOur Ladyofthe Rosary Catholic Church in Larose on Tues‐day,September 2, 2025 from9:30amuntil service time. AMassofChristian Burialwillbegin at 11:30 amwitha gravesideser‐vicetofollowinthe church cemetery. Vivian is sur‐vived by herson,Rodney JudeCurole, Sr.; daughter, LisaCurole; grandchildren, Chelsea (Kyle),Eden Breaux(Justin), Rodney Jr (Shayla), Evan Michael, Kelsey(Drew), Conner Cierra, andAva;and greatgrandchildren,FordBreaux and Evvi Breaux;brothers, MelvinDufrene,Carroll Dufrene;and sister,Joyce Elliot.She wasprecededin death by herlovinghus‐bandof68years,Milton David Curole;parents Vin‐centand ClothildeFrickey Dufrene;sisters,RitaCole, Irma Gros,AudreySoileau, Shirley Booth,EstherMay‐field, andGailMichel. Fal‐goutFuneralHomeen‐trusted with funeral arrangements

31,2025

4B

Desmore, Beverly June

It is with absolutely no sadness that we announce the passing of Beverly June Desmore who passed away August 16, 2025. Herpassing was immortalized not for her good deeds or kindness, but from the pain she inflicted on her family. Her greatest achievement was turning neglect into an Olympic sport, consistently setting the bar for absence and indifference in parenting.Whileshe neglected and abused her small children, she refused to allow anyone else to care or show compassion towards them. While most mothers leave behindmemories, Beverly leaves only blank spaces—Her presence was as rare as her affection, and both were equally fleeting. She did nothingto contribute to society,or serve the community, and she possessed no redeeming qualities. She is survived by her children who learned independence not by inspiration, but by necessity. No services will be held. She will not be missed.

Evans, DianeMary

DianeMaryEvans

passedawaypeacefully on Saturday, August 23, 2025 at5:17a.m.atthe age of 87. Shewas born in Mc‐Donoghville, Louisianaon May 15, 1936 to thelate Frank andLonie Evans. She issurvivedbyher siblings Sally Church,Frank Evans (Maureen), MichaelEvans (Rachel), andNancy Evans. She leaves behind 32 cher‐ished nieces andnephews great nieces andnephews, and greatgreat nephews aswellasnumerous cousins andfriends.She was preceded in deathby her parents, Frankand Lonie Evans, hergreat nephew, EliSims, andher brother-in-law, Dean Church. Dianewas amem‐ber of West JeffersonHigh School’s firstgraduating class in 1956, andcele‐bratedwithher firstclass friends throughout herlife. After receivingher Bache‐lor’s andMaster’sdegree fromTulaneUniversity, she participatedinadditional graduateprogramsat GeorgetownUniversity, St ThomasUniversityand Louisiana StateUniversity. She wasa licensed coun‐selor andmarriageand familytherapist.She workedfor fifty-three years teaching andcoun‐selingstudentsatboth publicand privateschools inJefferson Parish,includ‐ing West Jefferson, Hig‐gins, Archbishop Blenkand Academy of OurLadyHigh Schools. Dianewas also a talentedartist, an amazing food connoisseur anda beloved “Fairy Godmother” toall of herniecesand nephews.She wasa mem‐ber of AlphaDelta Kappa Sororityand aparishioner ofImmaculate Conception Catholic Church.A funeral Masswillbeheldat11a.m atImmaculate Conception Catholic Church,4401 Sev‐enthStreet, Marrero, LA 70072 on Tuesday, Septem‐ber 2, 2025, with Visitation beginning at 9a.m.Inter‐mentwilltakeplace at LakeLawnMetairieCeme‐tery. In lieu of flowers, Diane’s familyrequests massesordonations to Shriners’ Hospital forChil‐drenc/o DonorRelations, 2900 N. RockyPoint Drive, Tampa,Florida 33607 in Diane’s memory.Family and friendscan view and signthe online guestbook atwww.mothefunerals com

Brian Thomas 'The Bru'

Brian Thomas Federico died the morning of July 28, 2025 at the age of 59. He was born on August4,1965 to Michael and Jeannette Federico in New Orleans, LA. Brian attended De La Salle High School and Southeastern Louisiana University. He was aGulf War Veteran who served in the U.S. Navy. He continued his civilian service in the U.S. Coast Guard as a

reservistand retiredfrom theFederalBureau of Investigation. Brian, also known as "The Bru,"resided in Huntsville,ALwhere he sharedhis life with his lovingpartner, Mazie M. Myersand theirYorkipoo Max. He is survivedbyhis siblings, Michael,Steven, Mark(Kathryn), and Holly Huye(Jay). He was preceded in death by his father Michael Frank Federico and his motherJeannette Marie HymelFederico. Brianwas atalentedauthor and poet with apassionfor cooking, traveling and sharinglaughter. He loved musicand preparing traditionalNew Orleans cuisine, bringingwarmth and comfort to those around him. He touched the livesofmany, and his presence willbemissed by allwho knew him. Burialat sea with Military Honors willbeheldatalaterdate.

FrisardIII,Emile Charles 'Dan'

Emile Dan" Charles Frisard, III passedaway peacefully at homeon August 25th, 2025atthe age of 76. His journey on this earthwas one marked by compassion, quiet strength, and an unwavering faith in God. As adevoted veterinarian, Dan dedicatedhis lifetoserving animals and the people that lovedthem. Hisgentle demeanorand steady hands brought comfortto countless familiesoverthe years. He was precededin deathbyhis mother,Hilda LiRocchi, and his father, Emile Frisard,Jr. Danis survivedbyhis beloved wife, Kim Frisard; his son, Nick Frisard,and daughterin-law, Whitney Frisard; his cherished granddaughters, Delaney and BlaireFrisard; and his sisters, Betty Planchardand Barbara Ryals. He is also survived by his niece, LisaTurley, and his nephews, Gary and Mark Planchard.Hewillbe rememberedalwayswith love and gratitudebyhis family, friends, clients, and allwho had the privilegeof knowing him. Relativesand friends are invited to attend the Memorial Mass at Lake Lawn MetairieFuneral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70124, on Thursday, September 4, 2025,at12:00 p.m. The visitation willbegin at 10:00a.m. untilservice time. Interment will take place in Lake Lawn Park Mausoleum. To view andsign theguestbook, pleasevisitwww.lakelawn metairie.com

Hepting,Joy Elaine Sisung

JoyElaineSisung Hept‐ing,97years old, June 6, 1928 -August27, 2025, passedpeacefullyinher sleep at herhomeinBelle Chasse,Louisiana.Visita‐tionwillbeheldatMothe FuneralHome, 2100 West‐bankExpressway, Harvey, Louisiana on Tuesday, Sep‐tember2,2025 beginning at8:30a.m.until 11 a.m. A FuneralMasswillbeheld atthe funeralhomeon Tuesday at 11 a.m. Inter‐mentwillbeinWestlawn MemorialParkCemetery, Gretna, Louisiana. Joywas borninGretna, Louisiana toMildred andJoesph Sisung.She is preceded in death by herhusband Ralph,and hersisters Lois and Shirley. Sheissurvived byher sister Gail,and brothers: Dennis (Shirley), Gerald, andBernard,and her four Children:Margie (Jody), Ralph(Kim),Bert, and theircaboose Karen (Jerry). Joyalsohas eight grandchildren who have given hereighteengreatgrandchildren.Joy created anoasis forher familyre‐moved from thehustleand bustleofthe city.She spent so much of herdays watchingthe birdsinher yard, herfavorites being hummingbirdsand cardi‐nals. TheHummingbird be‐camea symbol forJoy to herfamily. Shealsohad a

love of gardeningand flow‐ers.Zinnias beingone of her absolute favorites along with theirisesthat bloom each year near her pond. Joywas so happyto haveher children so close and shetruly lovedthem. Havingthe greatgrandchil‐drencominginand outof her houseastheypleased certainly kept heryoung She lovedtoplaySkip-bo and Tri-Ominos with the big andthe little kids.Her biggest achievementhas certainly been herSunday dinners.Joy broughther familymembers and friends together on a weekly basiswithroast and allthe fixings. “Maw Maw JoyDay”asthe greatgrandkids renamedSun‐days. Atradition shewas soveryproud of.Joy,our Rock, youlived such afan‐tasticfulllife, andweare sothankfulwehad so manyyears of enjoying you,yourstories,your sass, your sillysmiles, and mostofall your Love;but still,WeLoveYou More Special ThankYou to Mrs. GeorginaParkerfor allof the supportand love you showedfor Joyduringyour carefor her. Truly, you havebeen such asupport toall of us,and thewhole familythanksyou so very much. ThankYou also to Heart of Hospicefor your guidance, advice,and help throughoutthe last few months. Thefamilyinvites you to sharethoughts, fondmemoriesand condo‐lencesonlineatwww.mot hefunerals.com.

Dr. Robert Lee Hewitt, age 90, surgeonand educator,born November 2, 1934 in Paducah, Kentucky, onlychildofLee Alton Hewitt and DonisPearl Brown Hewitt, both natives of Mississippi, diedon August 23, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Avenue,New Orleans, LA on September 6, 2025 at 2 pm with theReverend John Pitzer officiating Visitation with family will be in TrinityEpiscopal Church from1 pm to 1:45 pm. Private interment at Lake Lawn Park Mausoleum. Dr. Hewittwas recognized nationallyand internationally as aleader in cardiovascular surgery and an educator in surgery.Heretired in 2006 as Chairman and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine following adistinguished career which included:military surgery, academicsurgery,private practiceofsurgery and academic administration. He was amember of the leading national surgical societiesofhis specialty including:American Surgical Association, American Associationfor ThoracicSurgery, DistinguishedFellowofthe Society forVascular Surgery,Southern Surgical Association, Society of University Surgeons and many others. He was certified by The American BoardofSurgery and by theAmerican Boardof Thoracicand Cardiac Surgery and was aFellow of theAmerican College of Surgeons. Dr. Hewitt was author of numerous publications and textbook chapters and was principal investigator for National Institutes of Health Research Grantsincardiac and cardiovascular surgery.Hewas Chairman of theDepartmentof Surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine from1998 to 2006 during atime of expansion and introduction of minimallyinvasive and robotic surgery.Dr. Hewittwas a nativeofPaducah, Kentucky, and agraduate of AugustaTilghmanHigh School. He attended college at theUniversityof Louisville and received his M.D.degree at Tulane University School of Medicine in 1959. He completed internshipand residency trainingingeneral, thoracic, and cardiovascularsurgery at Tulane from 1959 through1966. He then served in theUnitedStates Army Medical Corpsas Captain and Commanding Officerofthe 240th Medical Detachment attached to the18thSurgical Hospitaland the71st EvacuationHospital, Pleiku, Vietnam from1966

to 1967. He then served at WalterReedArmyInstitute of Research, Walter Reed Army Medical Center Washington, D.C.from1967 to 1968 as Acting Chief of theDepartment of Experimental Surgery in theDivisionofSurgery where he madeoriginal contributions to the development of an Army Artificial Heart Pump as well as original contributions to surgery of vascularwar injuries.Following military service in 1968, Dr. Hewitt returned to join the faculty at Tulane as Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery. He became Professor of Surgery with tenure in 1975 and was Chief of the SectionofCardiacSurgery. He entered theprivate practiceofcardiothoracic and vascular surgery in 1976. He subsequently served on theBoardof DirectorsofTulane Medical Center and the BoardofDirectors of Tulane University Hospital. He returned to theFaculty at Tulane in 1994. Dr. Hewitt served as President of the following: Tulane Surgical Society, New Orleans SurgicalSociety, Surgical Associationof Louisiana, Tulane Medical Alumni Association, Southern Surgeons Club and otherorganizations. He receivedthe Tulane Medical Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and theTulane Medical Alumni Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2011. He was selectedbythe NewOrleans Young LeadershipCouncil as aRole Model Honoree in 1996. Dr.Hewittwas always appreciative forthe privilege of participating in thecare of patients, the educationofsurgical residents and medical students and scientific research. He contributed to training and careerdevelopment of surgeons throughout theUnited States and internationally as well. He was honored as Visiting Professor and Guest Lecturer to many medical schoolsand teaching centers throughout theUnitedStates and world.Dr. Hewitt was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church. He was amember of theGeneral Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the Revolution, AztecClub of 1847, General Society of War of 1812, MilitaryOrder of Foreign Wars and was aChevalier in the Militaryand Hospitaller OrderofSaint Lazarus of Jerusalem.He remained devoted to his colleagues of the 18th Surgical Hospital (Vietnam) and theirreunions. Dr. Hewitt's surgical activitiesinVietnam were featured in thebook "Soldiers Saving SoldiersVietnam Remembered:A Historyofthe 18thSurgical Hospital"authored by JerryW.Martin, M.D.ad publishedin2011. He was a member of several carnivalorganizations. Dr. Hewitt was preceded in death by Emmy Parks Hewitt,nee Emmy Louise Parks, who diedin1962, and Patricia Stewart Hewitt,nee Patricia Margaret Stewart, who died in 2006. He is survived by his four children: Mrs. James Randolph Vivian Daniel IV (Heather and Randy) of Richmond, VA, Mr. Robert Stewart Hewitt (Rob and Nancy)of Covington, LA,Mr. Whit Butler Hewitt(Whit and Shelley) of NewOrleans, LA,and Ms. Brooke Hewitt Warf of Carrollton, VA,and nine grandchildren: Parks Hewitt Daniel, James RandolphVivianDaniel V (Ianand Chloe),Caroline Chapman Hewitt,Elizabeth Lane Hewitt (Liza), Robert Leighton Hewitt (Leighton), William Blair Hewitt,JamesWarnerWarf IV (Jim), Brandon Hewitt Warf and Colton William Warf. The family wouldlike to thankthe team of caregivers at Camellia House of Poydras Home,especially Crystal, Zina, Sharone, Hattie,Laura, and Danielle, and Anvoi Hospice,especially Adam, Markand Chaplain Zeal. In lieu of flowers,contributions may be madetoTrinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Avenue,New Orleans, LA 70130 or Tulane University School of Medicine,1430 Tulane Avenue NewOrleans, LA 70112. To view and signthe online guestbook, please visit www.lakelawnmetairi e.com

Jagneaux, Danny

DanielJoseph Jagneaux was born on October12, 1963 and passed away Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at the age of 61 years old. He is survived by hissisters, Rose Jagneaux Smith andGloriaJagneaux. He wasanuncle to Kyla Jagneaux, Ashley, andEric Jagneaux, Nicholas and Amber Smith,Dawn Smith Oramousand Rick Oramous. He wasa greatuncleand great-great-uncletomanynieces and nephews. Dannyispreceded in death by hisparents, Rogersand Mary Jagneaux andbrothers, Ray Jagneaux, David Jagneaux, andWill Smith. Dannywas aloving brotherand uncle to all of his nieces and nephews. He was agreat storyteller andmade us laugh alot. Dannyhad a generousand servant heart. He always helped histwo sisterswhenin need.Hewas knownas Cajunboy Danny. The serviceswill be held on Saturday, September6 2025 at Lake LawnMetairie Funeral Home. The visitation will begin at 9:00 a.m. untilthe funeral service at 11:00 a.m.

Jacob "Jake" Martin Kottle passedaway peacefully on Saturday, August 23, 2025, at the age of 87. Jake was born in Oil City, LA on June 25, 1938, and wasa resident of Metairie, LA. He wasprecededin death by hisparents, Nathanand FreidaKottle He is survived by hislong-

time partner,Pat Higginbotham, herdaughter, AnnJerome (Brad), andgrandchildren, Griffin Harwood andBrandon Jerome. He is also survived by hissister,Hannah Tischansky (Kenneth), nieceand nephew,Pamela Tischansky Griffin (Charley Griffin) andGary David Tischansky, great-niece andnephews, Charlee Griffin, Ryder Tischansky, andGraysenTischansky, as well as manycousins andfriends. Jake graduatedfrom Byrd High School in Shreveport, LA, attended theUniversity of Houston, and workedatDelta AirlinesinNew Orleansfor over thirty years. He was an avidSaintsfan, loved golf, andhorse racing. He will be missed for hiskind heart, great laugh,and his giving nature Afuneral service was held on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, at Chevra Thilim Memorial Park. An online guestbook is availableatwww.lakelawn metairie.com

Georganne“Jan” Fried Pecunia,age 90, of Slidell, Louisiana,passedaway peacefully on August 23, 2025, surrounded by family. BornMay 30, 1935, in New Orleans,she wasthe daughterofthe late GeorgeS.Fried Sr.and Josephine Favorita Fried. OnJanuary 18, 1958, she married Harold Jude Pecu‐nia,withwhomshe shared 67years of devotedmar‐riage.She is survived by her husband, Harold;two sons, Dr.RickPecuniaand his wife,Melanie,and Ron Pecunia andhis wife, Melissa;and sevengrand‐children: Anna Claire,John Morris, Jackson, Hunter Bryce, Graceand An‐

neliese. Janwas preceded indeath by herparents and herbrother,George Fried Jr.Rememberedfor her extraordinaryvocal tal‐ent,Jan chosetodedicate her life to family, faith music andcommunity.She was also admiredfor her eleganceand grace, al‐waysimpeccablydressed and radiant. Afuneral ser‐vicewillbeheldat Honaker FuneralHome, 1751 GauseBlvd. West, Slidell, LA 70460 on Thurs‐day,September 4, 2025, withvisitationbeginning at9:00amand serviceat 12:00 pm.The family ex‐pressesheartfelt gratitude tothe teamsatSlidell MemorialHospitaland Compassus Hospicefor their exceptionalcare. In lieuof flowers, memorial contributions maybe madetoAmericanLegion, Post185, Slidell, LA or Our LadyofLourdes Catholic Church, Slidell, LA.Please visit www.honakerforestla wn.comtosignguestbook ArrangementsbyHonaker FuneralHome, Inc.,Slidell LA.

Harold Alton Pesses, age 71, passed away from complications of gastric cancer, on August 29, 2025 in Metairie, LA. Harold was alifelong resident of New Orleans, LA. even returning and rebuilding after Katrina. Born on September 19, 1953, Harold was the son of the late Albert Ashley Pesses and Naomi Barkoff Pesses. Loving husband of Janet Pesses.BrotherofLeon Ronald Pesses(Debbie), and Marilyn Goldie Pesses Kay (Martin). Brother-inlaw of Dr. Jay HillelJoseph (Stacy). He was father of Daniel Craig Pesses, Nancy Hannah Pesses, and Samuel MorrisPailet (Becca). Grandfather of JackEli Pailet. Harold graduated from John F. Kennedy High School and the University of New Orleans, majoring in Business (Insurance).He began his own business, Care Insurance Services (Health Care Brokerage)in 1979 which still exists today. Harold had a"presidential personality". If he was amember of an organization, he ultimately became president: President of achapter of B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, President of Hillel at LSU, President of the Brotherhood at Congregation Gates of Prayer Synagogue, President of Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue, and President of the International B'nai B'rith Bowling Association. Besides bowling, Harold loved the theater, attending shows regularly at the Saenger and Rivertown Theater for the Performing Arts. More importantly, he loved his familyand friends. Spending time with nieces and nephews and their children was especially important. Dining out with friends was his other favorite past time. Staying connected to friends through food (especially rib eye steaks and typical New Orleans Food) was what he enjoyed, and do not forget his "chocolate soup" snowballs! Harold taught his family the value of love and extended that to his community. Harold taught Religious School at Congregation Gates of Prayer for many years at various grade levels. His style of teaching endeared him to many of his students! He also helped prepare some of them for their bar or bat mitzvahs. He considered himself a "communicator", finding ways to communicate ideas so others could understand and benefit. His family would like to thank his doctors, Dr. Jon Mizrahi, Dr. David Pointer, and Dr. Danielle Nodurft for all of their dedication and care, his VisitingAngel, Charlotte Piper, who took wonderful care of Harold with gentleness and a good dose of laughterto brighten his spirits, Laura Cook, his Home Health nurse, and Heart of Hospice Nurses and Aide, Hannah, Emily and Megan who made his last daysas comfortable as possible with love and compassion. Finally thank you to all of the wonderful friends and family who visited, called, texted and made Harold feel special and loved with h i ki d il h

their kindnessesuntil the end. Relatives and friends areinvited to attend servicesonSunday, August 31, 2025atLake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 PontchartrainBlvd New Orleans,LA70124. Visitation willbegin at 9:30 a.m. until the service at 11:00 a.m. Rabbi Yossie Nemesand Rabbi David Gerber officiating. Burial willbeatBethIsrael Cemetery, 4321 Frenchmen Street,New Orleans, LA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, Congregation Beth Israel Congregation Gatesof Prayer, or the charity of your choice. Harold was a loving son,husband, brother,father, grandfather, relativeand friend- an inspiration to allwho knew him. He will certainly be missed

ScoginJr.,Douglas 'Skip'

Douglas“Skip” Scogin Jr.,78, of Slidell, Louisiana, passedawayonMonday, August25, 2025, in Slidell. Skipwas born May27, 1947, in Port Arthur,Texas When he was fifteen, the familymoved to Slidell. After attendingSoutheast Louisiana in Hammond, Skipbecameanaccoun‐tantfor theU.S.D.A.Hewas a parishionerofSt. Mar‐garet Mary where he wasa memberofthe Knightsof Columbus. Skip is survived byhis sister,Susan F. Sco‐gin.Funeral Services will beheldatHonaker Funeral Home, 1751 GauseBlvd. West, on Friday,September 5,2025. Visitation will begin at 9:00 am followed bythe funeralservice at 11:00 am.Burialwillbein ForestLawnCemetery. Pleasevisit www.honaker forestlawn.comtosign guestbook.Arrangements byHonaker FuneralHome, Inc.,Slidell, LA

TranchinaIII, Felix'Fil'

Felix “Fil”Tranchina,III, age 89,ofHarvey, LA passedawayonSaturday, August9,2025. Beloved husband of thelateSandra CannizzaroTranchina.Fa‐therofMichelle Tranchina Landry(Barry), Todd Tranchina,Tiffani Tranchina (Michael), Chaz Tranchina (Jessica), and the late MichaelTranchina Son of thelateTheodora Dekemel Tranchinaand Felix Tranchina, Jr.Brother ofGwendolyn Kelley (the latePat)and thelateTerry F.Tranchina (Fredine); grandfather of Jeramie Wright(Kassy),Gino Wright(Malarie),Zachary Tranchina,and Shayne Tranchina (Keith); great grandfather of Julianne, Jenna,Duke, Mack,Ali Princeton,Boston, Hender‐son,Konnor, andKarsen. Heisalsosurvivedby manynieces, nephews, and cousins. Filwas born and raised in New Orleans and alongtimeresidentof Harvey. He wasa graduate ofTulaneUniversity1964 witha degree in account‐ing andownedFelix Tranchina III CPAFirm. Fil was thelongtimetreasurer for theKiwanis Club of WestJefferson (1978) where he wasveryin‐volvedwiththe youthand the Rewardsfor Reading programsinJefferson ParishPublicSchools. He was passionate aboutpro‐vidingthemwiththe tools tobesuccessfulinlife. He championedthe outreach programstothe West Bank communities throughKi‐wanis.Supported activities for WynhovenNursing Home. He andhis fellow Ki‐wanians deliveredmeals to WynhovenApartmentsfor Christmas andThanksgiv‐ing.Fil wasinstrumentalin the operations of Harvey Playground as a financial advisor,coach of multiple sports, andmentor. He was also asaxophone playerand played with the “Silvertones”for many

years. He lovedtoplay golf, tennis andwas an avid fisherman. Relatives and friendsofthe family are invitedtoattend the MemorialService at Honaker FuneralHome, 1751 GauseBlvd. West (in ForestLawnCemetery) Slidell, LA on Saturday, September 6, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.Visitationatthe fu‐neral home on Saturday after 10:00 a.m. until ser‐vicetime. In lieu of flowers, the familyrequest memor‐ial donationsinthe name of“Felix TranchinaIII” to the KiwanisOrganization atwww.kiwanis.org/ possible. Please visitwww honakerforestlawn.comto signguestbook.Arrange‐ments by HonakerFuneral Home, Inc.,Slidell, LA

Trapolin,Peter Michael

PeterMichaelTrapolin, 70, alifelong resident of NewOrleans diedpeacefullyathome in thearms of his loving soulmate Leah Smith Tubbs on August 30, 2025.

Peter,a Fellowofthe American Institute of Architects (FAIA),was the founding principal of Trapolin-Peer Architects and adeeplyrespectedfigure in theNew Orleans architecture community. A lifelong NewOrleanian and Tulane graduate, Peter's workreshaped thecity's builtlandscape over four decadesthroughhis commitment to historicpreservation, community impact and mentorship._

He founded his firm in 1981 witha belief that architecturecouldbea tool forhealing and connection. Through hisfirm'sprojects like theSazerac House, The Julia Apartments, 800 Magazine Street,Julia Row, and therenovation to Tulane'sRichardson Memorial Hall,Peter preserved thecharacter of the city's historicfabricwhile guiding it toward amore modern and vibrant future.

Peterhas served on numerous boards,appeared in dozens of publications, and wonmany awards for his historicpreservation work. He gave generouslyofhis time and talent—asa mentor,collaborator, teacher, and friend—and was widely known forhis humility,rigor,and quietbrilliance.

Delighted in thesimple pleasuresthe Gulf Coast region has to offer,Peter escaped to thewaters and landscapes of Henderson Point, Mississippi. Aplace he treasured deeply.An avid fisherman, Petercherishedevery opportunity to cast aline, whether quietly alone or in thelivelycompany of his family,friends, and thesweetneighbor boys.

Peterwas preceded in death by his parents Mary Jane and Ivor Trapolin.He was thelovingbrother of Louise and Clint Kuzmich, Jeanne and FritzKuehn, ThereseTrapolin, Miles Trapolin and Lillian LeGardeur,Kathleen Trapolin Barbee and James Barbee,Charles Trapolin and StanleyMorris, Edward and Dierdre Broussard Trapolin, and Neil Trapolin.Survived by his love Leah Smith Tubbs and Leah's children Trapp and Mallory Tubbs,Breaux Tubbs and Mathilde Tubbs

Peterplayedanextraordinary role in thelives of his 11 nieces and nephews and 9great-nieces and great-nephews. He relishedopportunitiesto spend time with family waterskiing,tubing, wakesurfing, crabbing, sailing, fishing and hunting.AsaGodfather, Peter was aconstant source of love,wisdom and support, cherishing thespecial bondsforged in that sacred role

Peter'sfamily and friends will gather on Friday, September 5, 2025, to celebratehis life at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home,where memories willbeshared and his remarkable legacy honored. Visitation willbeheldfrom 12:30 until 2pm. Afuneral servicewillfollow in the chapel at 2pm. Interment willbeinMetairie Cemetery.

Some of Peter's most treasured friends will serveaspallbearers: Tony Gelderman,PhilipClinton, Alan Karchmer, BillLegier, Gordon Cobb,and Gary Laborde. Honorary pallbearer Johnny Jordan greetedPeter in Heaven.

Though he has left us toosoon, Peter's spirit will live on in thestreets of NewOrleans, theshores of Henderson Point,inthe handsofthose he mentored, and in the heartsof his beloved family and friends.

In lieu of flowers please considerdonating to causes close to Peter'sheart

Louisiana Landmarks Society:

https://www.louisianala ndmarks.org/donate 1440 Moss St NewOrleans, LA 70119

United States

PreservationResource Center (PRC): https://prcno.org/getinvolved/donate/ 923 TchoupitoulasSt NewOrleans, LA 7013

Historic NewOrleans Collection(HNOC): https://hnoc.org/suppo rt 520 Royal St NewOrleans, LA 70130

Tulane School of Architecture /Small Center: https://securetu.tulane. edu/s/1586/Giving/16/inte rior.aspx?sid=1586&gid=2 &pgid=7420&cid=15186&ap pealcode=EGIW4

Tulane University Tulane School of Architecture /SmallCenter PO Box669394 Dallas, TX 75266

George H. TroxellIII passedawayonAugust8 2025, at theage of 79, with his belovedwife, Patricia athis bedsideafter abrief illness. Aformerpresident ofthe AcademyofNew Or‐leans TrialLawyers,George lived aliferichinintellect, adventure,and quietdefi‐anceofconvention. In the late1980s, he hiredPatricia Sheranashis secretary and office manager. Quickly realizingshe was indispensable,George married hertoensureshe remainedonthe “payroll” for life.In1990, thetwo opened alaw practice on

UpperCanal Street in ahis‐toric home George person‐allyrestoredwithPatricia. For decades, they worked sidebyside, taking pridein givinga voicetothose in need of asteadfastadvo‐cate. Outsidethe office, Georgeand Patricia shared countless days sailing, fishing, andcamping along the Gulf Coast. From an early age, George hadbeen anavidreaderand accom‐plished writer,eventually becoming fluent in four foreign languages. He de‐lighted in readinggreat works in theiroriginal tongues,refusingtosettle for translations whenhe could experience an au‐thor’swords directly.After retiring, he andPatricia traveledextensively—es‐peciallytoEuropeand Pa‐tricia’snativeHonduras— allowing George to keep his language skills sharp and hisappreciation for other cultures deep.Those who knew himbestwould tellyou that George wasas kindashewas opinion‐ated, always readywith adviceand steadfastinhis refusal to follow passing trends. Hisindependence ofthought wasmatched onlybyhis curiosity, his sharp wit, andhis appetite for knowledge, forthe per‐fectmeal, andfor therich‐nessoflifeitself. Born April 30, 1946, in Swarth‐more, Pennsylvania,to GeorgeH.Troxell Jr.and Nancy Armitage Troxell, Georgemoved with his familytoNew Orleansin 1956. He graduatedfrom MartinBehrman High School,attendedLoyola University, andearnedhis law degree from Tulane Law School in 1972. His loveoflearningtook him evenfurther—acrossthe AtlantictoStockholm Uni‐versity,where he pursued advancedlegal studies taughtentirelyinSwedish Georgeispredeceased by his son, George HenryTrox‐ell IV,and hisparents.Heis survivedbyhis wife,Patri‐cia of NewOrleans;his brothers, JeffreyTroxell MD, of NewLondon, NH, and Todd Troxell, MD,of SaltLakeCity, UT;their families;and many nieces and nephewswho will carry forwardhis example oflivinglifefully,onone’s own terms. In lieu of flow‐ers,the familyasksthat you honorGeorge’sgener‐ous spirit with adonation toa worthy causethat benefits thoselessfortu‐nate.

Sr., Frederick

Frederick"Fred"Peter VerdinSr.,ofLafitte, Louisiana,passedawayon Wednesday,August27, 2025, at theage of 77. He was born to thelateGladys Billiot Verdin andFrederick D.Verdin. Loving husband ofAnita AutinVerdinfor 41 years.Devoted Father of Frederick P. Verdin,Jr. (Jen),NicoleV.Fikes (Timo‐thy), andBrandiL.Verdin. Proud PawPaw of Keith Chip"Fitch (Kayla)and Holly N. Verdin,and his great granddaughter Datura"Dottie" Fitch. Brother of thelateLillian Pierre, Earl Naquin,Simon Naquin, Sr Ernest Naquin EmeldaStreetman, Aline Bergeron, AggieNaquin, AliceAlbarado, Landy

Dufrene, Noel Verdin, GladysBilliot,Gertie Schouest, Walter Verdin, and Milton Verdin,aswell ashis brothers in Christ: Leo Kerner,Larry Kerner, Willie Kerner,Reggie Kerner, Thelma Kerner,and Timmy Kerner,Sr. Fred is alsosurvivedbymany nieces, nephews, otherrel‐ativesand many,many friends who will miss him dearly. AMassofChristian Burialwillbeheldat1:00 p.m.onTuesday,Septem‐ber 2, 2025 at St.Anthony Catholic Church,2653 Jean Lafitte BoulevardinLafitte, Louisiana.The visitation willbegin at 10:30 a.m. and continueuntil theMass time. Intermentwilltake place followingthe Mass atSt. Pius XMausoleum in Crown Point, Louisiana. Fondmemoriesand ex‐pressions of sympathy may be shared with the Verdinfamilyatwww.Wes tsideLeitzEagan.com

CharlesVincentWeil, of NewOrleans,passed away on August 21, 2025, at the age of 79. Born to DavidA Weil,Sr. andPearlR Sanchez,Charlesservedin theU.S. Army andworked as an Electrical, PBX, and NetworkTechnician.He waspreceded in death by hiswife,Shirley Bivalacqua Weil;his daughter, Stephanie Weil Cuneo; his brothers, Melvin Dennis Weil,Lawrence Weil,and hisbrothers-in-law ,Sal Bivalacqua, Lionel Bivalacqua, and Eddie Bivalacqua. He is survived by hisbrother,DavidWeil, sisters-in-law Earlene Weil, Marilyn Weil,Carol Bivalacqua, andBillie Bivalacqua; hisdaughter, Christina Weil von SeherrThossand son-in-law Anselm von Seherr-Thoss; Belovedgrandchildren, HarrisonCharles LeBlanc, Jacob Ambrose LeBlanc, ElenaLeBlanc Czerniak andgrandson-in-law Luke Czerniak; along withmany adored nieces and nephews. Serviceswill be held on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, at Lake LawnMetairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd.New Orleans, LA 70124. The visitation will begin at 9:00 am untilthe memorial mass at 10:00 a.m. Theintermentwill followatLake LawnPark Mausoleum. Donations may be made to the Alzheimer'sAssociation

OPINION OPINION

OUR VIEWS

Theprecious hoursaway from the grinding wheels of work

Editor’snote:This newspaper haspublished this editorial, with variations, on previousholidays.

For those of us who live in south Louisiana,the arrival of another Labor Day prompts agood bit of self-congratulation. We know, with reliefand no small amount of pride, that we’ve survived another summerinaplace where the mercury rises each May and stubbornly stays there, like acat stuck in atree. Summer doesn’tofficially enduntil laterthis month —and both the hot weather and therisk of dangerous tropical weather lingerfor weeks after that —but Labor Day isthe notchweinformally place in the calendar to tellus aseason hasturned. It’searly autumn now,nomatter what thepurists might say

If our fellow Americans upnorthcan claim some measureoftheir ancestors’ pioneerspirit by making it through frozen winters each year, then Labor Day is our time to brag.We’ve stared down one more summer,anunusually hot onethisyear,yet somehow prevailed Hurricane season officially endsinNovember, and vigilance must stillbe theorder of theday We’ve now seen repeatedly that asmaller tropicalsystem that might not be expectedtobother us much can ramp up intoadestructive hurricanelike Laurain2020 and Idain2021. For people who don’thave jobs to laborin, this Labor Day makes it alittle harder to count their blessings. That’sparticularly true as thelabor market seems to be entering aperiod of deep uncertainty.Wewish all those seekingworkthe best of luck in their search.

Labor Day is away station between theFourth of July and Thanksgiving, and it wasput on the calendarprecisely for that reason.In1882, Peter J. McGuire, the founder and general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, suggested settingaside oneday to honor America’slaborers. He saw room in thecalendar between July and November, andthought the holiday would, in his words, “fill agap in the chronology of legal holidays.” McGuire was anative of New York,but his gift for sensing an unmet need forcelebration seems like aLouisiana way of looking at the world, doesn’tit? He would probablyhavefelt at home here.

New Yorkers observed the first Labor Day in 1882, and it became afederal holiday in 1894 after President Grover Clevelandsigneditinto law.Getting an extra dayoff was abig deal for workers back then, as ayoung labor movement struggled to achieve what many Americans broadly enjoy today: a40-hour workweek and formalized vacation policies.

The best gift of Labor Day,for those fortunate enoughtohaveitoff, is the day itself —a few spare hourstospend as we like before autumn begins in earnest. Thank you, Mr.McGuire,for makingitso.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE

Church services sink creamery liquor license

In what must have seemed like a scene fromthe sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” aLouisiana city council denied an alcohol permit renewal last month to alocal creamery because it’s also achurch. Youread that right. Tim and Tasha Levert, the pastors of Mustard Seed Church in DenhamSprings, alsoown and operate acreamery in the suburb’sdowntownarea. Their creamery is called, youguessed it,Mustard Seed Creamery,and it also serves tapas. (I know— lots of questions here,but let’skeep to themainissue.) Lastyear,the Leverts applied for and received an alcohol permit from theCity of Denham Springs for their creamery.But they were informed this year that their permit would not be renewed because theLeverts’ church had begun meetingweekly in their business. Acity ordinance prohibitsalcohol sales within 300 feet of achurch. The ruling —and the city ordinance itself —raise some fascinating questions about howlocal lawand religion should interact. Whatdefines achurch in the eyes of the law? Why is the 300foot bufferneeded?Plenty of church-

es serve realwine withCommunion. Do those transgress the, uh, spirit of the city’slaw?

The Leverts have arguedthatthe church is notthe building where the congregationgathers, but ratherthe people who make up the spiritual body There is some theological merit here.For instance, when oneof the oldest creeds in Christendom references“the holy catholic (universal) church,” it is notreferencing abuildinghere, but the group of Christian believers as a whole But the DenhamSprings CityCouncilapparently doesn’tsee it that way. For them, achurchmeansbricks, mortar,stained glass windows and, in this case,perhapsrockyroad andbutter pecan. It seems thatthe city’srule,while perhaps well-intentioned,neglects some fairly important facts about Christianity’sfounder.After all, his first miraclewas to turn water into wine at aparty. Idon’t recallanyone asking if he hadmarked offthe proper numberofcubits from thenearest synagogue Near the end of his life,hedid take

thebread andthe cupand share them amonghis disciplesinone of Christianity’sholiest moments. The Gospels don’trecordhim saying, “This is my blood,whichisalegally specifieddistance from ahouse of worship,”when he inaugurated theLast Supper. Sarcasm aside,this seemstobea tempest that should have been calmed from thestart. The creameryshould have been givenits permit,and the council should have refrainedfrom wading intothis problem.

The Leverts, for their part, are at least attempting to follow the second greatest commandment to “love your neighbor.” They’ve beseeched their many allies in the community not to blame other local downtown businesses. Andtheyhaven’t givenuptheir sense of humororthe hope of getting theirlicense renewed.They’ve posted on Facebook that thechurch services have moved to another location and in themeantime, assuredfolks that they are still serving icecream withanintact “LickerLicense.”

Faimon A. Roberts III canbe reached at froberts@theadvocate. com.

Looking at therange of topics that we cover on the Opinion pages, some are more complex than others. In order to makesureweunderstandthe ins and outsofan issue, we occasionally host editorial boardmeetings with key playerssowecan get all our questionsanswered. Often,we are able to ask them the questionsthat you raise in letters to theeditor

boardmeeting, butnot always. The issues that promptthe meetings are usually ones that are ongoing. And we may choose to write only when news develops to acritical stage.

weeks of August.

We recognizeit’saprivilege for us to have accesstonewsmakers, and it is one we don’ttake lightly

Ialways view theeditorial board meetings as arare opportunity to understandthe background and context of the news. We try to ask thetough questions, yes.But we alsogive those we invite to editorial board meetings achance to have theirsay.The main goal isn’ttobecontentious; it is to gain knowledge so we can be informed in our opinions. Sometimes, we will write an editorial immediately after an editorial

Sometimes, we will invite theopposing side of an issue to meet with the editorial board as well.

Community groups and politicians request meetings with our editorialboard when they have specific concerns. It used to be routine for top political leaders to meet with newspapereditorial boards,but these days, some prefer to touttheir plans through social media and other channels, where they don’t have to face pointed questions. But we always keep thedoor open for any who do want to meet. And we hope theytake us up on the opportunity,not becausewe’re important, but because you, our readers, are.

Turning to ourletters inbox, Ican give you thecounts for the first two

FromJuly 31 to Aug. 7, we received 69 letters. The topic that was the main concernofwriters thatweek was the war in Gaza, which prompted four of youtowrite.There were threeletters aboutthe possibility of immigrants being housedatthe Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.Thenthere were anumberoftopics that were the subject of two letters each.They includedearly education, Sen. Bill Cassidy’sreelection bid, the Katrina anniversary andschool choice. In the week of Aug. 7-14, we received72letters. The president sending NationalGuard troops into Washington, D.C., wasthe topic of three letters. The warinGazaalso prompted threereaderstowrite. Then we received two letters on the closure of PlannedParenthood clinics and two letters on coyoterehabilitation.

Arnessa Garrett is Deputy Editor | OpinionPageEditor.Emailher at arnessa.garrett@theadvocate.com.

COMMENTARY

Conservative wonksembrace La.

When 1,500 policy wonks from around the country gathered at the Sheraton New Orleansthis past week, the next trendy legislative ideas surely were floating around the premises. The biggest beneficiaries of the State Policy Network’sannual meeting, though, may have beenthe cityofNew Orleans and state of Louisiana.

that lead to national impact,” said Brooke Medina, SPN’svice president of communications “States are the test labs of liberty.”

The SPN is an association of conservative think tanks concentratingmostly on state and local issues. Each state has at leastone SPN member-organization; there are64inall. Louisiana’sPelican Institute acted as host thisyear for the four-day meeting, which attracted not just those 64 but also representatives of more than 500 other organizations that push right-leaning solutionsinthe public square. In all, the conference featured more than 100 sessions on issues relating to education reform, artificial intelligence, state budgets, upward mobility,health care, energyand more.

SPN is “a ground-up organization that works for state solutions

It’s

Harkeningback to the long-cherished conservativebelief that government and public policy are usuallybest handled at levels closer to home, the participants rarely mentioned Washington, D.C.’s political battles. Far morethan a few,though, seemed concerned —without referencing any particular person byname— about thetrend toward centralization of power in the nation’scapital and in the presidency And even thoughthe event, by its very nature, almost exclusively featured conservative experts speakingtoconservative audiences, arepeated theme involved theneed to not just “preach to thechoir” but instead to promote civil discourse among any willing constituencies not already “dug in” to far-left positions.

New Orleanian Jay Lapeyre, who is chairman of both thenational CATO Institute and the Atlas Society and afounder of

theFree SocietyCoalition that is pushing civic education stemmingfrom theDeclaration of Independence, repeated that imperative multiple times during two different panel presentations. One reason the Declaration is a good starting point,hesaid, is that it lets us “focus on what we share in common.”

AndMonica Harris, executive director of Fair For All, which is “committed to challenging threatstocivil liberties from identity-based practices,” insisted that “we have so much morein common than what separates us.”

Harris, who is Black and aHarvard Law graduate, previously worked as alegal affairs executiveatWalt Disney Television, NBCUniversal Media and Viacom Media Networks. She has written abook called “The Illusion of Division,” arguing that “political opportunism, exploitative media and fringe voices have distorted our collective reality” to make us think—wrongly,she says —that “our country is hopelessly fractured.”

Similarly,keynote speaker Arthur Brooks, theformer president of the American Enterprise

Institute andbehavioral scientist who teaches courses at Harvard on leadership and the “science of happiness,” insisted several times that we should “not want to adjudicate[our] friendships based on [our] political affiliation.”

At thestate and local levels, then, the conservative approach is not to “divide and conquer” but to build bridges and use the power of ideas and airtight research toget practical things accomplished.

It is far too soon forthis column to discern which new ideas will percolatebroadly and take hold nationwide.

It is worth noting, though, that Louisiana’snew “One Door” policy for streamlining the bureaucracy of public assistance, long pushed by Louisiana’sPelican Institute, could be amodel that other states could adopt to make it easier for people nationwide to escape the poverty trap.

The SPN brings its annual meeting’s1,500 people —and the money they spend forfour full days —onlytoplaces that feature amember state think tank. As host,Pelican organized the conference’sannual “state night” at

Mardi Gras World, complete with food from area restaurants and a live parade through the facilities. “It’simportant that each state, particularly aunique state like Louisiana, is able to promote its culture and to encourage people to come and experience it,” said Stephen Gelé, Pelican’sboard chairman. Saying he considered it the best state night ever,Gelé added: “Louisiana is atourist economy.Wewant to show people the unique culture.”

“Pelican Institute did afantastic job being ahost to us, to not only …their sister think tanks across this country but even someinternational attendees,” said SPN’s Medina. “Welove NewOrleans, particularly the food scene …and the jazz music.” All of which is perhaps fitting fororganizations dedicated to maximizing ordered liberty.As expressed by Harvard’sArthur Brooks (his website, www.arthurbrooks.com,does athorough job explaining the brain science behind this), “The free enterprise system is ahappiness machine.” Email Quin Hillyer at quin hillyer@theadvocate.com

time forCassidy to join theresistance

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy made one decision earlier this year that willfollow him the rest of his days, in public office and out Now,he’sfaced with another one —or, more accurately,avariation on the same dilemma: What todo aboutRobert F. Kennedy Jr.?

We all know where Cassidy,arespectedBaton Rouge physician and longtime advocate for lifesaving vaccines, came down when he had to vote on President Donald Trump’s nomination of the notorious vaccine conspiracy theorist to head the Department of Health and Human Services. He agonized but ultimately went along, and justified his vote by saying that Kennedy had agreed to consult him regularly, to follow mainstream science and not to sow public distrust in vaccine safety. If there was ever aquestionofwhether the secretary would be true to his word, it’sanswered.

tions,according to her lawyers. Cassidy again protested, vowing undefined “oversight” from his perch as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and calling for an upcoming meetingofthe reconstituted advisory group to be postponed.

“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific processbeing followed,” he warned, although he might as well be talking to himself, because talkingto Kennedy sure doesn’tseem to be doing the trick.

Last week, when Monarez reached out to Cassidy after Kennedy came after her, he contacted the secretary,but the call from Cassidy just “angered” Kennedy,according to The New York Times.

Republicans who might be willing to play hardball, who could leverage their (admittedly small) numberstoholdup administration initiatives unless Trump either fires Kennedy or blocks his worst impulses

Former Majority Leader MitchMcConnell, asurvivor of childhood polio, is already on record as the only Republican to opposeKennedy’sconfirmation. Sens.

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and SusanCollins of Maine often see things clearly and at least sometimes votethat way; Collins saidlast week that shefound Monarez’s firing “alarming.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis once saidthat “theonly way that Bobby Kennedy and Iwill get crosswise is if does actually take aposition against the safety of proven vaccines.” Tillis isn’tseeking reelection, so politically,he’sgot nothing left to lose.

doing so only infuriates others who want him to stopthe most dangerous directives coming outofthis second Trump administration, of which Kennedy’sdrive to upendvaccine protocols is just one example. It is, admittedly,apolitical mess. But it’s nothing compared to the mess thatKennedy is making of health care.

Evenifwejust focus on vaccines and the CDC, much is at stake —not just accesstoCOVID vaccines and future research breakthroughs, but overall confidenceinthe science that Cassidy understands far betterthan Kennedy does.

He’sfired members of avaccine advisory panel he’d vowedtokeep, and canceled $500 million in development contracts for new vaccines using promising mRNA technology —both despiteCassidy’sprotestations.

Now he’sgone and gotten Trump to fire Susan Monarez, the headofthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because she refused to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives” on vaccina-

If Cassidy really believes in thework he did before entering politics, if he really meant everything he’ssaid about the safety and immense importance of vaccines tokeep Americans from dying of preventable disease, he needs to do more thantalk. It’stime for him to act.

On the HELP Committee, he’sgot an eager potential oversight partner in ranking member Bernie Sanders. Imagine the hearings the two could hold if they were to put aside party politics. Or Cassidy could rally thefew fellow

Cassidy,onthe other hand, does.

He’supfor another term next yearunder anew party primary system that favorsthe moreextreme elements that he’s actively courting by,among other things, backing Kennedy and Trump’sother questionable nominees

Butaccommodating Kennedy’scrazy ideas isn’tgoing to win over MAGA voters who’ll never forgive him forvoting to convict Trump at impeachment for instigating theJan. 6attack on Congress. And

As Demetre Daskalakis, one of several high-ranking CDC officials who quit in protest, wrote in his resignation letter, “the intentional eroding of trust in lowrisk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to apre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer.”

His colleague, now-former chief medical officer Debra Houry,saidonher way outthe door that“We need Congress to intervene …Ihopethis is the tipping point.” Cassidy’sjust the guy to lead thatintervention—ifhedecides, at long last, that some things mattermore than the next election.

Email Stephanie Graceatsgrace@ theadvocate.com.

Katrinaanniversary haspassed, butrealtests start

As Katrina developed into ahurricane, the massive storm spun off more than 40 tornadoes.There were multiple warnings. As early as Aug. 24, there were watches and warnings. On Aug. 27, there was awatch, then awarning that night. The next day,Aug. 28, there were warnings about storm surge flooding of as much as 15 to more than 20 feet. The watches became warnings. They were voluntary Youwant to think about leaving. Youmight wanttoconsider leaving. This wouldbeagood time to leave. We’re not saying you have to leave, but thingsare going to get pretty bad. Youdefinitely want to leave. Finally,there were mandatory evacuation orders: Youmust leave. Now There was aproblem. Our local and state officials weren’tinsync with our federal officials. People were getting different pieces of information. Or getting no informationatall. The officials who were supposed to protect us let us down.OnAug. 28, it was kind

of late.Ifyou hadn’talready left, yougot stuck onInterstate10and state highways,often stalled in standstill traffic with thenext gas stationmilesaway Wasthat natural? No. Wasit man-made? Youbet. On Aug. 29, Plaquemines Parish was hit by theCategory3hurricane. The windswere whipping at about 125mph and moving at only12mph. With such slowmovement, therisks are higher because the storm sits and pounds away at anything it touches.Orleans Parish and neighboring parishes were hit.Though the storm moved slowly,itdid move on The water moved, too. The 17th Street Canal was breached. The Industrial Canal was breached. The London Canal levee was breached. Multiple breachesled to the flooding of theLower 9th Ward. In relatively shortorder,80% of the citywas underwater. Wasthat natural? Nope. Wasit man-made?You bet.

Iwasn’t around for theLast Island HurricaneinAugust 1856,

when about 300 people died, including about 200 in our state. The storm surge split theisland in two and destroyed Abbeville.

Iwas around for Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. It was as though we hadn’t learned much of anything about the impact of water,and especially how much damage can be caused by storm surge. Our officials had looked at past hurricane damage and upgraded our levees,telling us those things were unlikely to happen again.

Then theydid. When Katrina hit,there were New Orleans stormsurges of morethanafoot.PassChristian sawstorm surgesofmorethan 27 feet.NOAA says it was up to 19 feet in New Orleans East.

Wasthatnatural? Not really We’ve known enough about water to know thatwater will find its way to other waterways and create new waterways and water paths wherethere are none.

Didn’tweknow that? Of course we did. We just didn’tplan well enough.

Our nationhas disasters of many kinds. Wildfires. Snowstorms. Tor-

nadoes. Dust storms. Hurricanes. They’ve often been called “natural disasters.” But it’snot anatural disaster when some fool lights a match and tosses it atop brush and limbs. That’snot natural. That’s man-made It’s hard for me to imagine a man-made dust storm, snowstorm or tornado. It’snot hard for me to imagine aman-made natural disaster.Ithought about walking you through afew climate change facts, but I’ll save that for another day.What is true is that “natural disasters” such as hurricanes like Katrina can—and have been man-made.The storm itself was natural. The reasons the storm had suchadevastating impact were man-made The 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was Aug. 29, 2025. There were Katrina-connected, related, looking back and looking ahead events in recent months and quiteanumber in recent days. There were alot of details and factsshared. There were some awful and heartwarming Katrina storiestold. There were some quite engaging debates and discussions about whathappened.

But what Ifound most promising was asense that no matter whatmistakes we made, we’ve learned from those mistakes, we made some progress and we —at least most of us —have realized we don’twant anything like this to happen again.

According to the New Orleans Data Center,sinceKatrina arrived, we gained morethan15,000 Hispanic residents, we lost more than 23,000 Whiteresidents and we lost awhopping 121,000 Black residents. Part of the issueisacknowledging that we don’thave enough “affordable”housing,enough jobs paying livingwages or enough good housingtoaccommodate any significant economicgrowth. Wasthis natural? No way. Was this man-made? Definitely Can New Orleans regain its population? Absolutely.Start with living wage jobs and affordable housing.

But only if WE decide that’s whatwewant, and only if we hold our elected and public officials accountable.

Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

with meteorologist Damon Singleton

BY CHAD CALDER Staff writer

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office has arrested a woman in the fatal hit-and-run that killed a Slidell-area child, after saying earlier Friday that the man previously arrested in the Aug. 13 incident was not involved.

The Sheriff’s Office said 40-year-old Connie Noel Estes, also known as Connie Noel Flettrich or Noel Gorgone, of Slidell, was taken into custody and will be booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on a count of felony hit-and-run with death or serious bodily injury and a count of felony obstruction of justice.

saturated with moisture.

from page 1B

generally above what he calls “the bug line,” where insects are most likely to enter That hasn’t always stopped birds, which have found their way in and out of the house three times over the decades.

Even the headboard on his bed is engineered to rise and lower to allow for more circulation of air

Klingman keeps his garden lush and pesticide-free, which he says helps attract lizards, dragonflies and frogs that keep mosquitoes in check.

The rules of cooling Tulane hired Klingman in 1983 to teach sustainable architecture.

“So I thought, well, the best way to do that is to live it,” Klingman said. His lecture course focused in part on bioclimatic design building with awareness of temperature, humidity and how the body cools itself.

“There are four ways the body can cool itself,” he said: conduction (touching something cold), convection (air moving across skin), radiation (giving off heat to cooler surroundings), and evaporation (sweating). In humid places like New Orleans, evaporation is less effective because the air is already

That makes the fans silently swirling air around his home’s five rooms essential. Fans help speed up the evaporation of sweat Klingman turns them on in April and leaves them on until roughly October. If he leaves town, they stay on, since moving air is good for keeping mold and mildew at bay

“Before air conditioning became ubiquitous, the earlier technology was fans,” Klingman says. “A fan consumes only about 10% as much energy as an AC system. You become cool in a way that’s not obvious, but you just feel comfortable.”

New Orleans before AC

For decades Klingman’s home was proof that the old strategies that allowed New Orleans to flourish as a major port city in a time before air conditioning still worked. Before air conditioning, New Orleanians relied on thoughtful design to keep houses livable: awnings, operable windows with shutters, French doors, tall ceilings with transoms, ceiling fans, porches, balconies and ventilated roofs, said Rich Campanella, a geographer with Tulane. They also just had a different mindset

“People expected summers to be hot and humid,” Campanella said. “They knew no alternative.” Klingman, who grew up outside of Philadelphia, has acclimated to a different

The Sheriff’s Office said new evidence indicates Estes drove a silver Nissan Armada on Northshore Lane near Slidell that evening and struck the 6-year-old child, who had been riding a scooter in his driveway The boy died later at a hospital.

The 22nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, at the re-

standard than the arctic blast of AC most people are used to when they walk indoors during the summertime.

“It’s 80 at night, which actually feels chilly to me, so I have to sleep with a sheet,” said Klingman.

Connecting to the outside

Klingman’s home has advantages many New Orleanians lack: tree cover, operable shutters, space for airflow In neighborhoods with little greenery or where homes sit close together, the options are fewer

The city still hasn’t regained its tree canopy since Hurricane Katrina, despite studies showing that shade and vegetation can lower local temperatures by several degrees.

That becomes a bigger problem as New Orleans continues to experience hotter summers. Klingman sees it not only in his AC kicking on more frequently, but also in his plants blooming ahead of their typical schedule.

It isn’t just discomfort that heat brings. Rates of suicide and violence go up during spells of heat, and people who are elderly or with health conditions are more likely to suffer heat-related illness or death, said Regardt Ferreira, director of Tulane’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy

Blasting AC can contribute to the problem Earlier this year, a huge demand

quest of the Sheriff’s Office, declined to pursue the initial charges of vehicular homicide, hit-and-run and reckless operation against the man previously arrested, the Sheriff’s Office said.

“I am deeply disgusted that someone would strike a child and leave them to die,” Sheriff Randy Smith said in a news release.

Second arrest made in Slidell-area hit-and-run

“What’s even more appalling is that this individual allowed someone else to take the blame for their actions.”

“This is a heartbreaking case, and our thoughts remain with the victim’s family An arrest was made based on the evidence we had at the time. Once new evidence came to light, we moved swiftly to redirect our investigation and identify the correct suspect,” Smith added. “While we are committed to acting quickly in the pursuit of justice, we also understand the immense responsibility that comes with that urgency.” Email Chad Calder at ccalder@theadvocate.com.

For Klingman, the experiment in living without AC was never about stoicism. It was about proving that design could lower energy use, connect people to nature and promote well-being.

for electricity during a heat wave triggered widespread power outages in New Orleans.

“We have to be more adap-

tive to the changing environment, and we have to find innovative ways, instead of sitting and waiting for things to happen,” Ferreira said.

Surrounded by objects of nature — seashells, rocks, palm fronds and blocks of wood shaped into whimsical structures — Klingman feels attuned to his environment. In August, he hosts dinner parties when the temperature is tolerable. The environment makes everyone livelier “Saturday was just right on the edge, and we did it, and it got a little raucous,” he said. “And I think that was maybe because everybody was outside.” His house is now a hybrid model that he plans to leave to the School of Architecture to host visiting faculty. Designed by master architect Emile Weil, the house was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a place where fans, shade and garden breezes still carry the day most of the year, and where the AC only hums to life when the heat pushes past what the body can safely bear “I like connecting to outside,” Klingman said. “I feel sorry for people who just lock themselves inside.” Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate. com.

SPORTS

Tulane delivers uniformresponse

Wave swamps Northwestern afterperceived ‘disrespect’

BY GUERRYSMITH

Contributing writer

In honor of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Tulane wanted to wearthe same all-whiteuniformsagainstNorthwestern it used in its first gameafter the storm ravagedNew Orleans The Wildcats denied the request,wearing all-white uniforms themselves, and Sumrall notedhow theGreenWave’sdominating 23-3 win on Saturday at Yulman Stadium matchedthe scoreofthe Saints’ pulsating victory against the AtlantaFalcons intheir first post-Katrina game at theSuperdome.

“Kind of cool,” he said. “When you show disrespect to New Orleans, that’swhat’s

going to happen to you. We had achip on our shoulder.Wemight have used thatfor a little bitofmotivation representing the city. Don’tdisrespect New Orleans ever.”

He did not stop there. It is the road team’s prerogative to don light-coloreduniforms, but he wished theWildcatshad abetterappreciation for history.Tulane was limited to using green helmets withnodecals to mimic what it did against Mississippi State in that 2005 “home game” in Shreveport.

“This city’sgonethrough alot,” he said. “There’sanunbelievable spirit here, and theculture of this place is unlike anywhere else in the world. It is theresilience, the toughness, thegrit and the perseverance thepeople of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana wentthrough 20 years ago and to be back to where we are today

WINCOLUMN

KOKI RILEY

CLEMSON, S.C. All through the preseason, 1-0 was everywhere for LSU. From thepractice field to the locker room to the purple Tshirtsthat theTigers wore here in pregame practice, clearly thumbing their collective noses at Clemson. It was Brian Kelly —LSU’s highly second-guessed, highly paid fourth-year coach —pushing his team’schips intothe middle of the table in as significant of aseason opener for this program that Icould recall. LSU’sfirst-ever top-10 opener

Buckeyes silence Horns, Manning

BY JOE REEDY AP sportswriter

COLUMBUS,Ohio Julian Sayin had a 40-yard touchdown pass to Carnell Tate early in the fourth quarter, Ohio State got a couple of key stops in the red zone and the thirdranked Buckeyes opened the defense of their national championship with a 14-7 victory over topranked Texas on Saturday It was the fourth time the top team in the AP preseason poll has met the previous season’s national champion in the opener. The reigning champ has won the past three.

“Just a gritty win to start the season,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “We just felt like in Week 1, we didn’t want to beat ourselves. We took that into consideration with everything that we did.”

Arch Manning completed 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards, a touchdown and an interception for the Longhorns.

Texas was 1 of 5 on fourth down, including being stopped twice in the red zone. Manning was stuffed at the 1-yard line on fourth-andgoal by Caden Curry and Lorenzo Styles Jr on a QB sneak in the third quarter

The Longhorns were driving for a tying touchdown late in the game but Jack Endries was stopped by Caleb Downs 1 yard short of a first down to end hopes of a comeback

“Ultimately not good enough. Obviously you don’t want to start

off the season 0-1,” Manning said.

“They’re a good team. I thought we beat ourselves a lot, and that starts with me. I’ve got to play better for us to win.”

Sayin was 13 of 20 passing for

LB who helped Dallas to first Super Bowl dies at 84

DALLAS Lee Roy Jordan, a linebacker on the first Super Bowlwinning team for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s, has died. He was 84. The Cowboys announced Jordan’s death Saturday without saying when he died or giving a cause of death.

Jordan was a first-round draft pick by Dallas in 1963 after a standout career at Alabama, where he played for Paul “Bear” Bryant.

Jordan was a big part of the “Doomsday” defense that carried the Cowboys to a Super Bowl title in a 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins during the 1971 season. He retired in 1976, the year before Dallas won its second championship. A five-time Pro Bowler, Jordan was the first player inducted into the team’s ring of honor after Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989.

Panthers to re-sign WR Renfrow, put Coker on IR

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers are re-signing wide receiver Hunter Renfrow and placing wide receiver Jalen Coker on injured reserve with a quadriceps injury, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Renfrow was with the team throughout minicamps, organized team activities and training camp but did not make the final 53-man roster Since then, the Panthers have traded veteran wideout Adam Thielen to Minnesota, and the injury to Coker opened a spot on the team’s roster for Renfrow

The 29-year-old Renfrow is trying to make a comeback in the NFL after sitting out last season with a severe case of ulcerative colitis.

Giants All-Star reliever set for season-ending surgery

CJ Donaldson Jr. opened the scoring midway through the second quarter on a 1-yard run up the middle to cap a 13-play 87-yard drive that took eight minutes off the clock The Buckeyes benefitted from a pair of penalties, including a face mask call on Colin Simmons that wiped out an incomplete pass on third-and-4.

126 yards. His best pass of the day came with 13:08 remaining in the game, when Tate beat Texas cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau for the long score. Tate juggled the ball before pulling it down in the end zone to put the Buckeyes up by two touchdowns.

Texas finally got points with 3:28 left in the fourth quarter when Manning connected with Parker Livingstone on a 32-yard TD.

The Longhorns defense forced a three-and-out, giving Texas a chance to tie.

The Longhorns had their 11game winning streak in true road games snapped. The run included five victories against ranked opponents.

Castellanos, Florida State stun No. 8 Alabama

ByTheAssociated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — New quarterback Tommy Castellanos led a punishing rushing attack for Florida State with 78 yards and a touchdown as the Seminoles stunned No. 8 Alabama 31-17 on Saturday, ending the Crimson Tide’s streak of 23 straight wins in season openers. Coming off a 2-10 season, Florida State handed a crushing setback to Alabama, which was viewed as a College Football Playoff contender under second-year coach Kalen DeBoer Students and fans swarmed the field at Doak Campbell Stadium to celebrate the upset by the Seminoles, who were 131/2-point underdogs according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Under new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn — who spent eight seasons as Auburn’s head coach — Florida State was physical from the start, finishing with 230 rushing yards and averaging 4.7 yards per carry The Seminoles averaged just 89.9 yards during their disastrous 2024 season. No. 7 OREGON 59, MONTANA STATE 13: In Eugene, Oregon, Dante Moore started at quarterback for No 7 Oregon and threw for 213 yards with three touchdowns, and the Ducks routed FCS power Montana State.

It was widely assumed that Moore Dillon Gabriel’s understudy last season — would be the Ducks’ quarterback this season but coach Dan Lanning did not publicly name a starter before the first game. Freshman Jordan Davison rushed for 26 yards and three touchdowns and Malik Benson caught five passes for 51 yards and a score for the defending Big Ten champion Ducks, who built a 38-3 lead by halftime.

No. 2 PENN STATE 46, NEVADA 11: In State College, Pennsylvania, Nich-

terback, Jonathan Brady returned a punt 91 yards for a score, and the Hoosiers wore down Old Dominion in a season-opening victory Mendoza, the starter at California last season, finished 18 of 31 for 193 yards and ran six times for 34 yards. His TD run late in the first half gave the Hoosiers a 17-7 lead

Indiana’s 309-yard rushing attack was led by Maryland transfer Roman Hemby, who had 23 carries for 110 yards Kaelon Black added 92 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.

SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco Giants All-Star reliever Randy Rodriguez will have season-ending Tommy John surgery, the team said Saturday Last weekend, the Giants placed Rodriguez on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow sprain. The 25-year-old right-hander sought multiple opinions about the injury and was hoping to avoid having surgery before doctors made the recommendation to move forward with the procedure.

Rodriguez had emerged as a valued piece in the Giants’ bullpen this season. He had a 1.78 ERA with 53 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings with four saves while helping anchor the back end of San Francisco’s bullpen.

olas Singleton ran for two touchdowns, Penn State forced three turnovers and the Nittany Lions pulled away to beat Nevada.

Singleton capped Penn State’s opening possession with a 1-yard run then scored on another short plunge early in the third quarter

Kayton Allen cut around the defense for a 13-yard score in the second.

Nevada had already self-destructed by then.

Penn State cornerback AJ Harris recovered Ky Woods’ fumble to spoil the Wolf Pack’s opening drive Their next possession ended when defensive tackle Zane Durant intercepted Chubba Purdy’s pass deep in his own end.

Ryan Barker kicked four field goals for the Nittany Lions, who led 27-3 at halftime after Kyron Hudson hauled in a 31-yard touchdown pass from Drew Allar

with 23 seconds left in the second quarter Penn State’s Kyron Hudson caught six passes for 89 yards, and Trebor Peña had seven for 74. NO 5 GEORGIA 45, MARSHALL 7: In Athens, Georgia, Gunner Stockton enjoyed a promising start to his first full season as Georgia’s starting quarterback running for two touchdowns and adding two scoring passes as the Bulldogs rolled past Marshall.

Stockton, a junior, had scoring runs of 13 and 11 yards. He completed 14 of 24 passes for 190 yards and ran for 73 yards. Zachariah Branch, a transfer from Southern California, had three catches for 95 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown. Stockton added a 2-yard scoring pass to London Humphreys Backup Ryan Puglisi threw a 23-yard scoring pass to Elyiss Williams.

No. 20 INDIANA 27, OLD DOMINION 14: In Bloomington, Indiana, Fernando Mendoza scored on a 5-yard run in his debut as Indiana’s quar-

No. 22 IOWA STATE 55, SOUTH DAKOTA 7: In Ames, Iowa, Rocco Becht threw for 278 yards and three touchdowns, two to tight end Benjamin Brahmer, and Iowa State defeated South Dakota. Iowa State (2-0), which beat Kansas State 24-21 in Ireland last week, opened with back-to-back wins for the fourth time under coach Matt Campbell.

Becht completed his first 14 passes and finished 19 for 20, a school-record 95%. He threw a touchdown pass in a programrecord 20th straight game. Kyle Konrardy set the school record for longest field goal with a 63-yarder as time expired in the first half.

No. 24 TENNESSEE 45, SYRACUSE 26: In Atlanta, Joey Aguilar passed for 247 yards and three touchdowns, and Tennessee held off Syracuse. Aguilar was 16-for-28 passing in his first game with the Volunteers. He threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Braylon Staley in the second quarter and found Star Thomas for a 7-yard TD in the third. He also helped close out the win when he passed to Miles Kitselman for a 2-yard TD in the fourth. Thomas also had 92 yards on 12 carries for Tennessee, which opened a 38-14 lead in the third DeSean Bishop and Peyton Lewis each rushed for a TD.

Germany hoops captain targeted

by

racial abuse

TAMPERE, Finland Germany captain Dennis Schröder faced racial abuse during his team’s 107-88 victory over Lithuania at EuroBasket on Saturday, and one fan was banned from attending the rest of the tournament by FIBA officials.

The German Basketball Association said two people were identified as the alleged perpetrators of the abuse and were subsequently ejected from the arena.

“Making monkey noises, that’s something I don’t respect,” Schröder told reporters in German after the game. “No matter what status, insults, that’s all fine But racism simply doesn’t belong in this sport. That’s something that’s not OK.”

Schröder, who is Black, heard the noises while walking to the locker room at halftime.

Wang builds 3-shot lead at FM Championship

NORTON, Mass. — Miranda Wang left the TPC Boston with a threeshot lead for the second straight day, this time having to overcome a three-shot deficit with brilliant putting that led to a 7-under 65 in the FM Championship as she goes after her first LPGA victory Wang took only 24 putts on the rain-softened course, and might have been helped by only have to play 18 holes. Some of the Chinese player’s challengers faced much longer days because of storms that interrupted so much play the day before.

She holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to cap off a bogeyfree round that gave her a threeshot lead over Sei Young Kim (71) and Rose Zhang (67).

Wang was at 18-under 198.

Southern overcomes

QB injury, tops MVSU

By The Associated Press

ITTABENA, Miss. Cam’Ron McCoy threw for atouchdown and ran for another scoreinreliefofstarting quarterback JalenWoods, who was injured in the first half, and Southern beat Mississippi Valley 34-29 on Saturday night.

Woods needed to be carted off the field in an ambulance after ahard hit to the front of his helmet with 12:46 left in the second quarter.Woods appeared to give athumbsup as he wasbeingput into the ambulance.

McCoy, who started at quarterback last week, was 8of17for 82 yards and he carried it five times for 35 yards. He connected on a35-yard touchdownpasstoDarren Morris to giveSouthern a 17-13 lead with 42 seconds left before halftime.

Apair of turnovers highlighted the third quarter Southern running back Trey Holly fumbled it and MVSU scooped it and almost scored before getting stopped at the 1-yard line.

Jason Gabriel’s26-yard touchdown run with 8:35 left gave Southern a34-22 lead. The Jaguars sealed it on afourth-and-1 conversion with 39 seconds left. Gabriel rushed for 97 yards and atouchdown for Southern (1-1, 1-0 SWAC)

LOUISIANA TECH 24, SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA 0: In Ruston, Kam Franklin had an 80-yard fumble recovery touchdown, defensive lineman Zion Nason recorded his firstcareer interception, and defense led the way in the Bulldogs’ season-opening win. Drew Henderson’s 19-yard field goal as time expired in the half was the first score of the game The Bulldogs offense came alive early in the second halfwith touchdowns on back-to-back drives.

Omiri Wiggins found open spaceona checkdown andscoreda 17-yard receiving touchdown, and Clay Thevenin ran it in from 2yards out just four minutes later Bulldogs quarterback Trey Kukuk completed 14 of his 19 passing attempts for 130yards andone touchdown.

Carson Camp completed 11 of 22 attempts for 122 yards passing to pace the Lions. Luke Beshhauled in three receptions for 59 yards, andJaedonHenry had 31 rushing yards on eight attempts.

TROY 38, NICHOLLS STATE20: In Troy,Alabama, Goose Crowder threw two touchdowns and rushedfor another in the fourth quarter as Troy rallied by outscoring the Colonels 28-3 in the fourth quarter Crowder tied the game with a16-yard rushing score, then hit Tray Taylor for a28-yard touchdown to give the Trojans their first lead in the fourth quarter. Meadows broke free for a47-yard run on the next possession, and Crowder capped the surge witha 5-yard scoring strike to Ethan Conner

Deuce Hogan went 21 of 27 with 184 yards, atouchdown and an interception as the Colonelsput up only 249 yards of total offense.

McNEESE STATE54, LOUISIANA CHRISTIAN 9: In Lake Charles, Jake Strong threw three touchdowns,four ball carriers rushed for touchdowns,and at least three school records were broken in the Cowboy’s drubbing of NAIA-member Louisiana Christian. Strong, asophomore transfer from Texas Tech, distributed the ball effectively in his debut for the Southland Conference’s Cowboys, going 22 for 28 for 305 yards.

OUTDOORS

Anew spot

Leave is up to the JuniorSouthwest Bassmasters to trytheir handsatcatching bass across south Louisiana. Evan Burris wonthe 15-to-18 agegroup witha five-basscatch weighing 5.54 pounds and had theday’s heaviest bass, a1.8-pounder when, for the first time, the clubwent tothe BayouBienvenu launch near Chalmette last weekend.Primarily known for speckled trout and redfish,this area has aremarkablebass population in the marshes off theMRGO and the Intracoastal Waterway

Nottoo late fordeerhunters to help feed whitetails

BY JOE MACALUSO

Contributing writer

Talking about the early days ofour long huntingseasons usually focuses on the opening of thedoveseason and this year’snine-day teal season.

Butfor the thousands of Louisiana deer hunters, the season for taking whitetails isn’tfar behind. In fact, the archery season beginsSept. 20 (teal season opens the same day) in fourofour state’s10deer huntingareas.

Whilesomewill tell deer hunters it’stoo late to start afoodplot,it’sa good time to consider fertilizing the nativeplants —called “browse” —whitetails have beeneatingthroughout the late spring and into summer Native grasses provide chlorophyll deer need from an early age, andplantslike brierscan use fertilizer to send out tender shoots needed forberry production next year. Deer lovetofeast on tender green shoots and you canjudgethe size ofthe deerinanarea by the height of the newly eaten browse along stands of briers. The higher the height ofthe browse line gives ahunter the height of thedeer

Another thing this year is we’ve had enough rainthis spring and summer to give our nut-producing trees, primarily oaks,enough water to produce an aboveaverage crop of acorns, a primary food source deer will usewhenacornsand other nutsbegin falling in theearly fall.

Ourall-state angler

Bennett Fontenot,a young bassangler from Krotz Springs, was named to this year’sBassmaster High School all-state fishing team Forest Hill’s Justin Blais was an honorable mention selection Fontenot was among 33 young fishermena Bassmaster committee selected for all-state honors, from which 12 will be named to theAll-America teamlater this year.There werenearly 200 nominations. Qualifications were based on the students’ “success in

NOTEBOOK

bass tournament competition,academic achievement (a minimum 2.5 grade-point average) and leadership in conservation and communityservice.”

Thecommission

The next moveinLouisiana’squest to remove abandonedand salvagedboats from waterways is among theagenda itemsfor Thursday’sWildlifeand Fisheries Commission meeting.

The notice of intent seeks to establish protocols for registration and titling of these boats.

Themeetingisset to begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at state headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

Other major agenda items include:

n Considering an emergencydeclaration to allow disabled veterans touse any firearm during theprimitive weapons season;

n Sethunting seasonson the newlyestablished Bogue Chitto and Flatwoods Savannawildlife management areas;

n Setthe 2025-2026 oyster seasons;

n Hear an update on the bass andsac-a-laitnumbers in the Saline-Larto Complex.

The meeting will be carried live via Zoom.

Snappercount

Through Aug. 17, theLA Creel survey estimate for theprivate recreational redsnapper takeis720,127 pounds or 85.4% of our state’s 894,955-pound annual allocation.That’sa one-week increase of 89,682 pounds from theAug. 10 estimate.

TheGulfCouncil

Lastweek’sGulf Counciladded public comments andother data to open the federal for-hire red snapper season on the Friday before MemorialDay next year

The previous opening day variedduring the month of June.

The council’sreport stated charter operations with federal permits preferred to open the season earlier than in previous yearstotake

advantage of early-summer bookings rather than having their season extend into the fall.

Another councilmove changed deep-water groupercatch limits,allocations and recreational accountability measures for species like Warsaw,snowy grouper andyellowedgegroupers andspeckled hinds,agroup of fishdatashows is “experiencing overfishing.”

The move resulted in a nearly50% reduction in the allowable catch to end overfishing of yellowedge grouper, andestablishedsector separation for this group of fish.

The new overfishing limit will be 731,035 pounds with an acceptable catch and stock annual catch limit of 555,026 pounds. That last number meansthe recreational annual catch limit will be 56,668 pounds with the respective commercial annual catch limit and quotaat498,358 pounds and 478,424 pounds.

Both amendments need thesecretary of U.S. Commercefor approval and implementation.

On amission

If you don’tknow who Jeff Kolodzinski is, well, stay tuned. At 5p.m. Sept.10, Kolodzinski will attempttobreak his world record he set in 2022 when he caught 2,977 fish in a24-hour period. He will end his try during this charity event at 5p.m. Sept. 11 at Camp Dallasnear Spring Bay,Illinois.

WEDNESDAY

JUNIOR SOUTHWEST

CALENDAR

BASSMASTERS MEETING:

7p.m., Seminar Room, Bass Pro Shops, Denham Springs Boys &girls age-group bass tournamentsfor ages 7-10, 11-14 &15-18 anglers. Call Jim Breaux(225) 772-3026.

THURSDAY

LA. WILDLIFE& FISHERIES COMMISSION MEETING:

9:30 a.m., Joe Herring Room, state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, Quail Drive, Baton Rouge

SATURDAY

FLYFISHING101/REDFISH: 9-11 a.m., Orvis Shop,BluebonnetBoulevard,Baton Rouge.Fee free. Basics of casting, rigging. No fee. Equipment furnished. All ages, but15-and-younger mustbeaccompanied by an adult. Preregistration required. Call Shop (225) 757-7286.Website: orvis.com/ batonrouge

ONGOING

CCASTATEWIDE TOURNAMENT &ANGLERS’RODEO/

S.T.A.R.: Summer-long fishing contest through Monday. Multiple species categories. CCAmembership required. Website: ccalouisiana.com

HUNTINGSEASONS

DOVES: South Zone:Sept. 6-21; NorthZone:Sept. 6-28. Firstofthree splitsboth zones.

TEAL/RAILS/GALLINULES: Sept. 20-28, statewide.

DEER/ARCHERY: Sept. 20-Jan. 15, State Deer Areas 3, 7, 8& 10. Either-sex takeallowed.

HUNTINGLOTTERY

SEPT.30— YOUTH WATERFOWL DEADLINE: Forages 10-17 on Sherburne Wildlife ManagementArea. Fee $8.50. Application website: louisianaoutdoors.com/ lottery-applications. Email David Hayden:dhayden@ wlf.la.gov

WORKSHOPS

SEPT.8—RED STICKFLY FISHERS MEETING: 7p.m., Regional Branch Library 9200 BluebonnetBlvd., Baton Rouge.Open to thepublic. Email Brian Roberts: roberts. brian84@gmail.com Website: rsff.org

SEPT.10— BUGS &BEERS: 6:30 p.m., Skeeta Hawk Brewing, 455 N. Dorgenois St., NewOrleans. Flytying. Open to thepublic. Email A.J. Rosenbohm: ajrosenbohm@ gmail.com. Website: neworleansflyfishers.com SEPT.10-14 —SPORTING CLAYSSOUTH CENTRAL REGIONALS: CoveyRise, Husser.Main Event, Prelim 100, 12-, 20- &28-gauges FITASC, Super Sport, 5-stand, 12-gauge 50 and 20- & 28-gauges 100, .410 bore 100. Email: rhonda.barfield@ gmail.com. Website: coveyriselodge.com. Call Covey Rise (985) 747-0310.

FISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Fall inshore&outside watersopen statewide. OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Redsnapper, greater amerjack, gray triggerfish, flounder; gag grouper (through Sept. 15), lane, blackfin, queen and silk snappers &wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers exceptclosed for goliath &Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

CLOSED SEASONS: Bluefin tuna and goliath& Nassau groupersinstate/federal waters. Commercial season for greater amberjack ends Sept. 1.

LDWF UPDATES

WOMEN’SFISHING101 WORKSHOPS/OPENREGISTRATION: Sunday is deadline for Oct. 4workshop,Waddill Wildlife Refuge, NorthFlannery Road, Baton Rouge State biologists/instructors Classsizelimited to 15. Minimum age 18. No fee. Also offered Dec. 6(Oct. 1-31 open registration). Registration website: ldwf. wufoo.com/forms/z1f79wq71k6674d/ AROUND THECORNER

CLOSED: Hope Canal Road/boat launch (Maurepas Swamp WMA, levee construction); Dobbs BayRoad &all roads on theMississippi River batture east of La. 15 (Richard Yancey WMA, flooding).

DRAWDOWNS: Underwayon HendersonLake, Lake Bistineau, Saline,Kepler, Iatt, Black &Clear lakes and Wham Brakeimpoundment;begins Sept. 2onLake Martin. EMAIL: jmacaluso@theadvocate.com

CALENDAR

Junior Southwest Bassmasters CHALMETTE Age-group results from the Junior Southwest Bassmasters-Denham Springs’Augusttournament heldfromBayou Bienvenu Marina with anglers, their hometowns,numberofbass weighedinparentheses (five-bass limit), total weight in pounds and big-basswinners: 15-18 age group: 1, Evan Burris, Walker (5)5.54 pounds.2,Branson Sheridan, Ponchatoula(3) 2.68. 3, Carter Debetaz, Prairiville (2)2.2. BigBass: Burris, 1.8. 11-14: 1, Dylan Lapeyrouse, Walker (5)5.75. 2, Parker Richard, Port Allen (4)3.96. 3, LandinSholty Walker (3)3.33. BigBass: Lapeyrouse, 1.63. 7-10: 1, Nathaniel Watts,Livingston (4)2.58. 2, BlakeHarper, Livingston (1)1.48. 3, Kanton Smith, French Settlement(1) 1.07. BigBass: Harper, 1.48. Adultdivision: 1, Kevin Lapeyrouse, Walker (5)6.85. 2, Drew Comeaux, Livingston (5)6.1. 3, Tom Burris, Walker (5)5.54. BigBass: Lapeyrouse, 1.78. Bassmaster Elite LaCROSSE,Wis. Top5 from the four-dayBassmaster Eliteheld on the Mississippi River with anglers, their hometowns,numberofbass weighedinparentheses (5-bass daily limit), total weight in pounds and ounces and prize winnings

Also listed areLouisiana anglers, the big-basswinners &contingency winners,and the finalAngler of the Year standings.Onlythe top 50 in the 101-angler field movedto thethirdround,and only thetop 10 advanced to thefinalround.: Topfive:1,Pat Schlapper, El-

(20)

$15,000. 4, Bryan Schmitt, Deale,Maryland (20) 62-1, $12,500. 5, JayPrzekurat, Plover, Wisconsin (20) 61-12, $12,000. Louisiana anglers: 28, Greg Hack-

1

WHAT WE LEARNED

THREEAND OUT: FROM TULANE’SDOMINANTSEASON-OPENINGWIN

The Tulane defense is as good as advertised, and the Northwesternoffense is as bad as last year.The Green Wave set the tone with asack that causedafumble that the Wildcats recovered on the firstsnap and an interception on the next snap.That was the first of four pickoffs —including two by nickelback Javion White —asNorthwestern quarterback Preston Stone showedexactly whySMU benched himafter threegames last season.The Wave will be tested aheck of alot morewhen Dukeand Darian Mensah come to town in twoweeks, butit was apromising start.

TRENDING NOW

2

Jake Retzlaff is faster than anyone realized. Thetransfer quarterback fromByU needs to exhibitbetter touch than he didalittlemore than amonth after arriving on the Tulane campus —receivers dropped five of hisbullets—but he is aplaymaker.Late in the first half, he scrambled up the middle and outran the Northwestern defense 69 yards to the end zone, needing only one lateblocktoget there. He ran and passed for more than 100 yards in the first half alone.He hasplayedaround with plenty of endorsement nicknamesbasedonhis heritage, butthe Jewish Jetwas not one of them.

3 FINALTHOUGHTS

JonSumrall’s first win in six games against apower-conference opponent neverwas in doubt, but coaching still matters evenineasy victories. One first-halfpossession illustratedthat factorperfectly.WithTulane facing afourth and 8and in no-man’slandatthe Northwestern 38, Sumrall trusted his offense and wasrewarded with a10-yard completion by Retzlaff.The Wave then was called for holdingonthirdand 19 from the 28, but Northwesterncoach DavidBraun declined the penalty that would have backed the Wave out of field goal range. Patrick Durkin promptly drilled a41-yarderfor a13-3 lead.

Can’tovershadowRetzlaff

NewTulaneQB’sperformance bigger storythan‘Jersey-gate’

Say this aboutJon Sumrall: He knowshow to turnamolehill intoa mountain

Tulane enjoys pick party in opener

BY GUERRYSMITH Contributing writer

Making his third career start, sophomore nickelback Javion White became thefirst Tulane playerwithtwo interceptions in agamesincesafety Macon Clark did it at Houston in 2020. Both of them stopped Northwestern drives that had gotten inside the Wave 40 as quarterback Preston Stone endured a rough day “It’s pretty st raight forward,” White said. “Weknew (South Dakota State transfer GriffinWilde)was going to be his primary target, so Ijust trusted my technique.”

Neitherpickoff waseasy. On thefirst one, he hadtokeep a foot inbounds as he jumpedto snap athrow from Stone that was headed out of bounds. On the secondone, he had manto-man coveragedeep,turned aroundand hadlittletimeto react before catching apassat Tulane’s2-yard line.

“I played wide receiver in high school (Franklin Parish), and Ireally thought Iwas going to be areceiverwhen Icameto college,” he said. “I would say I’ve got10out of 10 hands, for sure.”

Cornerback Jahiem Johnson nearlymatched White, but he dropped what would have been his second interception with a one-handed effort on afourthdownthrow.Hecouldhave said he did it on purpose to save yards, but he washonest.

Tulane’sfiery head coach knows how to create acontroversy when given the opportunity Maybe Northwestern’sreason to deny Tulane’s request to wear white jerseys in honor of the 20-yearanniversary of Hurricane Katrina was an innocent one, rooted in asimple, rational desire to wearwhite in the unrelenting Louisiana sun. But to Sumrall, it was arighteous affront worthy of indignation, and he used the “controversy” to his advantage “Jersey-gate” will be what most people remember aboutTulane’s 23-3victory over Northwestern on Saturday.And Sumrall’semotional reaction to the perceived disrespect made great copy for reporters at the postgame news conference. The only negative to the minikerfuffle was that it overshadowed astellar performanceby Green Wave quarterback Jake Retzlaff.The ballyhooed trans-

TULANE

Continued from page1C

“Wedidn’tget to wear all-white today because the otherschool didn’twant us to. Well, they got to wear all-white today and theytook the loss.”

Tulane took control right away Rush end Harvey Dyson sacked quarterback Preston Stone on the first play, causinga fumble the Wildcats recovered. Cornerback Jahiem Johnson, aHammond native, intercepted apass twoplays later,leading to a48-yard touchdown drive quarterback Jake Retzlaffcapped off with a1-yard toss to tight end Justyn Reid.

“Wealready play with an edge, and that gave us abigger edge,” Johnson said of Northwestern’srefusal to let Tulane wear its chosen uniforms. “It just added more fuel to the fire.”

The interception was the first of four Stonethrew,withthe initial three leading to 17 Tulane points. He also lost alate fumble in his inauspicious Northwestern debut after transferring from SMU.

fer from BYU put on ashow in hisdebutatTulane,passing for 152 yards and atouchdown and running for 125 yards. The rushing total was acareer-high and included ascintillating 69-yard touchdown run before halftime that brokethe game open.

Retzlaff showed up on Tulane’s campus less thansix weeks ago afterannouncing his decision to transfer.But the 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior looked likehe’dbeen in olive and blue for years with the way he orchestrated the offense and commanded the huddle. His final passing numbers were more solid than spectacular 18-of-31 passing for 152 yards —but it was about what he didn’t do more than what he did. He avoided negativeplays, which is what Sumrall asks most of his quarterbacks to do.Retzlaff did not commit aturnover andwas sacked just once. The Tulane offense didnot commit apenalty in the first three quarters. “Amazing,” Sumrall said. “For himto operatethe offense and do thethings he did, it’srare. Abigtime performance for aguy that hasbeen here awhopping 38 days.”

TheWave held theWildcats to 237 yards.

Retzlaffrushedand threw for more than100 yards in the first half,including a69-yardtouchdownscramble up themiddle with 1:28 left that was the third-longest runbyaquarterback in school history.He was not always sharp in his first game only38days after transferring from BYU —hefinished 18-of-31 passing for 152 yards while being victimized by sixdrops— but he was plentygoodenough to ensure acomfortablevictory

“The defense set the tone, and we followed suit by scoring on that first possession,” Retzlaff said. “It’sawesome to have adefense like that when youcan always rely on them to get astop.They played an unbelievable game today.”

Leading 10-3 in the second quarter, Tulane benefited from agutsy decision by Sumrall anda bizarre onefrom Northwesterncoach David Braun to go up 13-3. Facing a fourth and 8atthe Wildcats39, Sumrallkept his offense on the field and forced Braun to burn a timeout before Retzlaff threw a 10-yard strike to Zycarl Lewis for afirst down.

No onewas more excited or relieved than Retzlaff, who made the difficultdecision to leaveBYU after school officials announced he would be suspended seven games for violatingthe school’shonor code.

Playing in front of assorted family and friends, it didn’ttake long for Retzlaff to make an impact.On Tulane’sopening drive, he rolled out and hit Justyn Reid in theback of the end zone.Five minutes into his Tulane career,Retzlaff had endeared himself to thehomecrowd. It was far from aperfect performance, though. Retzlaff’s accuracy betrayed him on afew throws His receivers werecredited with five drops, some of which came on less-than-perfect passes from Retzlaff. But all things considered, it is about as good of adebut as could be expected given theextraordinarycircumstances

“It was awesome to get outthere andmakeplayswith theteam,” Retzlaff said.“It was an unbelievable feeling.”

Sincearriving on campus, Retzlaff hasimpressed coaches and teammateswith his abilitytolearn offensive coordinator Joe Craddock’s sophisticated offensive scheme. But

Tulane 23, Northwestern 3 Northwestern 30 00 —3 Tulane 7133 0— 23 First Quarter TULN Reid 1pass from Retzlaff (Durkin kick), 10:27. NW FG Akers 21, :40. Second Quarter TULN FG Durkin 22, 11:07 TULN FG Durkin 41, 5:18 TULN Retzlaff 69 run(Durkin kick), 1:28. ThirdQuarter TULN FG Durkin 31,7:22 Attendance: 22,103 NW TULN First downs 19 23 Total Net Yards237 421 Rushes-yards27-7642-269 Passing 161152 Punt Returns 0-02-3 Kickoff Returns 0-01-18 Interceptions Ret.

STATISTICS RUSHING: Northwestern,Porter

Himon 8-38, Komolafe 9-34, Stone

Tulane, Retzlaff 10-113, Turner 14-86,Barnes 5-28, Gordon 5-24,Mobley 5-18,Bohanon 1-0 (Team) 2-0. PASSING: Northwestern,Stone 19-36-4-161. Tulane, Retzlaff 18-31-0-152, (Team) 0-1-0-0. RECEIVING: Northwestern,Wilde 6-64,Himon 3-24, Lines 3-7, Covey2-22, Ahumaraeze1-21, Farrell1-8, Grove1-7,Komolafe 1-6,Welcing 1-2. Tulane, Hayes9-74, Reid 3-47, Z.Lewis 1-10, Pascuzzi 1-8, Preston 1-4, Turner 1-4, Bohanon 1-3, O.Mitchell 1-2. MISSED FIELD GOALS: None.

“Wegot into aformation andif we identified it as zonecoverage,

he made an even strongerimpression on his69-yard scoringrun.

“I knew he wasagood athlete,” Sumrall said. “I didn’tknow he could run maybe quite like that last gear,but he’sagood runner He is probablyanunderrated athlete. He’sgot real athletic ability.” He won’tbeunderrated if he keeps it up. Retzlaffsaid he clocked 21 mphonGPS monitors during the run as he outraced a handful of Northwestern defenders on theway to the end zone.

“Jake is adawg,” Tulanecornerback Jaheim Johnson said.“He’s areally good player.(But) Iwas surprised (bythe TD run),I’m not gonna lie.”

Retzlaff’sperformance should ease some of thefears Tulane fans harbored after Darian Mensah’soffseasontransfer.With Retzlaff under center, the offense appears to be in good hands. And it should only improve whenbackup quarterback Brendan Sullivan returns to full strength to serve as acomplimentary weapon.

Mensah comes to town in two weeks.His showdown with Retzlaff will be great theater,must-see TV.Not even “Jersey-gate” could overshadow thatjuicy storyline.

we weregoing to run the play,” Sumrallsaid. “If we identified it as mancoverage, we were going to takethe delay and punt the ball. When it was zone, Isaid let’sgo.” Alittle later,Braun declined aholding callthatwould have pushed the ball back to the 38 fora thirdand 29, allowing Tulane kicker PatrickDurkin to hit a41-yard field goal on fourth and 14. “Weknew that if we pushed them outsideoffieldgoal range,theyare potentially in four-down range,” Braun said. “Wemade the decision to let them kick along field and not give them potentially twodowns.”

Javion WhitehaltedNorthwestern’s nextdrive withaninterception,straddling thesideline as he grabbedthe ball at the Tulane 13 on the first play after the two-minutetimeout. It was the first of his two interceptions. Twoplays later,Retzlaff’s long scoring spring rendered the second half aformality.Benefiting from a latedownfield block by wideout OmariHayes,Retzlaffoutranthe entiredefense to the end zone.

“That surprised the heck outof me,” Johnson said. “I’m not going to lie.”

“I thought the ball was higher,” he said. “I could have made that catch. That was on me.” Feelinglike oldtimes

Askedwhetherheeverhad atouchdownrun as long as his 69-yarder in Tulane’s23-3 win againstNorthwesternonSaturday,quarterback Jake Retzlaff had an easy timeanswering.

Hissprint on ascramblelate in thefirst half was eerily similartoone he hadthree yearsago at Riverside City College in California. Samedistance. Samedesign. Samehelp from areceiver to nudge the one player whohad achance to catch him

“It was deja vu forme, actually,” he said. “Exact same playcall. Iran right down the middle of the field exactly like Idid, and Omari (Hayes) was running downthe field on the left side andmadesure he gota piece of the guy the same way It was literally theexact same play.Ihad alot of grass in front of me, so Ijust ran as fast as Icould. Iknew Iwouldn’tbe able to live that downifI got caught.” Retzlaff added a34-yard scramble on the last play of the first half and finished with 113 yards on 10 attempts. His high foryards rushing in 17 games at BYU was only 29.

“I always feel great running the ball,” he said.“I’ve loved it since being in high school and doing alot of zone read stuff. Iactually went in the coaches’ office earlier this week and drew up arun play forme, andhe(Sumrall) was like, ‘Dude, justsit back there and throw the ball.’ Then today, Igot theopportunityto do it.”

Lagniappe

Tulane’sfour-interception gamewas its first since facing Nicholls two years ago. …Itwas notashot as it could have been, with the temperature peaking in the mid-80s, but Northwesternstill hadtocontendwith humid conditions in its first opener in the deep south since facing TCU on Sept. 2, 2009. …The Wave hasoutscored the Wildcats57-3the last two times the teams played in New Orleans. The previous meeting wasin1955. …Northwestern crossed midfieldfive times but got inside the 20 only once before settling fora 21-yard field

Thecrystal ball is cloudy for the 2025 New Orleans Saints. With anew coach, new quarterback and new schemes on both sides of the ball, the Saints are adifficult team to read Five weeks of training camp and three preseasongames have done little to improve their prospects.

Since camp started in late July, Vegas oddsmakers have decreasedthe Saints’ odds of winning the NFC South and Super Bowl. They’re now 400to-1 to win the Super Bowl at DraftKings, making them the longest shot in the entire NFL. Time will tell if the experts are right or wrong Here’show Isee the season playing out:

Week 1vs. Cardinals, Sunday

Kellen Moore couldn’t get amuch more manageable game for his NFL head coaching debut. The Saints have won an NFLbest six consecutive season openers. The Cardinals, meanwhile, have lost three straight season openers and haven’twon in the Superdome since 1996. The Saints are underdogs, but they have three things working in their favor: home field first-game enthusiasm and the element of surprise. Spencer Rattler gets the start at quarterback and leads the Saints to agamewinning field goal in the fourth quarter Saints 20, Cardinals 19

Week 2vs. 49ers, Sept.14

These are not your father’s49ers. Their topheavy roster still features stars Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Trent Williams and Fred Warner,but they’re no longer among the league’supper echelon The 49ers open the season at NFC West rival Seattle so they could be motivated to avoid a0-2 start, depending on how they fare out West This one could go either way,but Isee the 49ers wearing down the Saints late to spoil their dreamsof a2-0 start and cancel city of New Orleans plans for a celebratory second-line parade. 49ers 23, Saints 21 Week 3atSeahawks, Sept.21

Lumen Field is one of the loudest and toughest places to play in the NFL, and this game is going to be achallenge. Former Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak certainly knows what he’sfacing, just afew months removed from his

stint in New Orleans. His ground-heavyattack will test the Saints defense and eventually bethe difference. Seahawks26, Saints16 Week 4atBills,Sept. 28

Oneweek after a2,000mile flighttothe West Coast, the Saints are rewarded with atrip to Buffalo. If the travel schedule weren’tdauntingenough, there’sthis inconvenient truth to consider: theBills went10-0 at homelast season. The Saints will be heavy underdogsinthis one. The Bills are aSuper Bowl contender andfeature one of themost explosive offenses in the league, led by reigning MVP Josh Allen. If that weren’tenough, the Bills will be rested after having played aThursday night home game theprevious week. This one could getugly Bills 33, Saints 13 Week 5vs. Giants,Oct.5

The Giants used to be the perfect “get right”team, but theyfiguretobeone of the league’smost improved teams this season.The Saints catchthe G-Men after they play back-tobacktough ones against the Chiefs and Chargers, so an upsetisapossibility.The Saints should be hungry for awin after losingthree straight games, but the Giants win adefensive battle on alate Graham Ganofield goal. Giants 16, Saints 14 Week 6vs. Patriots, Oct. 12

The Patriots look likea team primed to makealeap In Drake Maye andMike Vrabel, they have asolid quarterback-coach battery to build around, and the roster should be greatly improvedfrom ayearago. In a quarterback-driven league, sometimes gamescome downtowho hasthe better guy undercenter.Thisis one of those games Patriots 28, Saints 20 Week 7atBears,Oct.19

YouknowBears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen hashad this game circled on hiscalendar since the schedule was released in May.After spending15 of the past 20 years with the Saints, Allen will have his Bears defense primed and ready for abig performance. This willbethe Bears’ first home gamein nearly amonth, so they and the home crowd should be stoked. Bears 24, Saints 16 Week 8vs. Bucs,Oct.26

Finally, adivisiongame. The Bucs are the consensus pickto win theNFC South for afifth consecutive season. They are the more experienced and talented team, butthe Saints catch them on the heels of what should be anemotional and physical Monday night game in Detroit. If the Bucs have their heads in the

clouds, the Saints could pull off theupset. Regardless, they’ll keep it close. Bucs 31, Saints 27

Week 9atRams, Nov. 2

The last time the Saints beat theRams on theroad was 2009. Sincethen, they’ve lost five straight games to them, and it hasn’t mattered whether they playedinSt. LouisorLos Angeles. This game could boil down to whether Matthew Stafford is under center with his balkyback The teams should be familiarafter practicing against each other during training camp.The Saints can use all the help they can get. Rams 35, Saints 16 Week 10 at Panthers,Nov.9

Almost exactlya year later,the Saints return to the site of their2024 nadir, ademoralizing 23-22 defeat to the 1-7Panthersthatled to Allen’sdismissaladay later.There’s optimismin Charlotte that the Panthers are ready to make ajump in Year 3underquarterback Bryce Young. By now, we should know whether Carolina is acontenderor pretender.Myguess is the Panthersare somewhere in between, which might be good enough to beat atravel-weary Saints team here The losing skid continues. Panthers20, Saints 14

Week 11,bye

Week 12 vs Falcons, Nov. 23

The bye week sparks a change at quarterback as rookie TylerShough gets his first start as areplacement for Rattler.The Saints should be rested andready for rivalry week.Nineconsecutive losses also should

havethemmotivated. The Falcons always bring out the best in the Saints, andI expect them to give Atlanta everything it can handle. Ultimately, the Falcons have too much offensive firepower Falcons 30, Saints28 Week 13 at Dolphins,Nov.30

The losing streak has to endsomewhere. If Miami’s season goes as Iexpect, the Dolphins could be playing out the string by now. Mike McDaniel enters his fourth season squarely on the hotseat, and the roster is in disarray.Bythis time, the clubs could be headed in opposite directions. Shough gets the game ball after recording his first

NFL win as the starting quarterback. Saints 26, Dolphins 23

Week 14 at Bucs,Dec.7

The Saints have thrived in Tampa over the years, often turning Raymond James Stadium into their home away from home. They’ve won 11 of 16 games there since 2009, but most of those wins were by teams muchmore talented than this one. Still, the Saints historically play well at RayJay,and they’ll put up agood fight before fading. Bucs 26, Saints 20 Week 15 vs Panthers,Dec.14

The Panthers will be coming off abye week, and they’ll need it after playing the Falcons, 49ers and Rams. Buoyed by Shough’s inspiring play,the Saints score their first home win since the season opener Saints 24, Panthers 16 Week 16 vs.Jets, Dec. 21

Former Saints assistant coach Aaron Glenn returns to New Orleans as afirsttime head coach. Unfortunately,hemight have a bigger rebuilding job on his hands than the one Moore faces. By this point, Glenn’s first Jets team should have its bags packed. Saints win another one, this timebehind adominant defensive effort. Saints 17, Jets 12 Week 17 at Titans,Dec.28

The Saints storm into Nashville, Tennessee, riding their first two-game winning streak of the season. This will be only the Saints’ fifth visit to Nashville since the Titans moved there in 1998, and they might need to pack their thermals. The average low temperature in late December is 33 degrees. It would not be a surprise if this game had implications at the top of the 2026 NFL Draft. The Titans have the home field and better

LSU17, CLEMSON10

Woodward hintsateasieropeners

BY REED DARCEY and SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writers

LSUmay try to avoid beginning future football seasons with difficult gamesagainst strongpowerconference opponents such as Clemson.

Athletic director Scott Woodward told ESPN 104.5 FM in aSaturday interviewthat there was “no question” playing future games in Week 0—ahead of the tough Week 1games already scheduled for thenextfive years— couldbe advantageousfor LSU.

knocked down quarterback Cade Klubnik to forceanincompletion.

Perkins, in his returnfrom a torn ACL, made plays for LSU’s defensethroughout the night.The star linebacker had 11/2 tackles for loss and asack through the opening 30 minutes and finished the game with five tackles and two quarterback hits.

LSUdidn’t takea lead untilthe start of the fourth quarter when fifth-year senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier connected with sophomore tight end Trey’Dez Green on an 8-yard throwtothe end zone.

The score handed LSU a17-10 lead and capped off an 11-play,73yarddrive.The drive finished off astretch of play in which LSU outgained Clemson 150-60 after the beginning of the second half.

The offense had achance to ice thegameonits next twodrives, but LSU ran just 10 plays for 29 yards and was forced to punt the ball away twice. It did, however, waste just enough time to leave Clemson (0-1) with 1:50towork with on its final drive.

LSU’sdefense continued its stellar play following its second touchdown. On fourth and 5atits own 33-yard line, senior cornerback Mansoor Delane broke up Klubnik’spass to force the turnover on downs. In his first game at LSU, Delane, atransfer from Virginia Tech,had astandout performance.Herecorded LSU’sfirst interceptionof the season in the third quarterand finished the night with two pass breakups.

Astrong start to the secondhalf for LSU tied the score at 10 with just under nine minutes left in the third quarter

Thedefensepickedupwhereitleft offinthe first half,forcing Clemson into a48-yard field goalattempt that wasmissed by NolanHauser LSU’s attack then quickly took advantage of the miscue, as Nussmeier constructedaneight-play,

“When Icame here,Ikindofinherited the schedule,” Woodward said. “I wouldn’thaveput coach (Brian) Kelly in thesituationofplayinggreat programs like we’ve played coming out of the chute. We’re going to continue to play Power Four games, but Ithink I would’ve been alittlelenienton the Week 1gamesand probably would’ve thought aboutWeek 0 gamesorthe like, and Ithink it’s gonna be away of smartly scheduling.”

Sucha game wouldallow LSUto ease into anew year

EnteringSaturday, theTigers hadn’t won aseason opener since 2019. That year,they beat Georgia Southern at home 55-3tobegin their run to anational title.

Each of the five seasons LSU played after2019 beganwith a loss to apower-conference team: Mississippi State (2020),UCLA (2021), Florida State (2022-23) and Southern Cal (2024).

LSUand Clemson agreed to playtheir home-and-home series in 2018, when JoeAlleva was theLSU athletic director and Ed Orgeron was its head football coach.

TheSEC hassince decided that its teams will play nine-gameconference schedules, as opposed to eight-gameslates. TheCollege Football Playoff has since expanded to 12 teamsand addeda new “record strength” metric forits selectioncommittee to consider when it ranks teams

Thenew criteria is supposed to incentivize teams to playgames against high-quality opponents because it diminishesthe penaltythey’d face should they lose one of those contests.The SEC’s

presidents and athletic directors pushedfor thechange

“No matter what happens,it’s anew world,” Woodwardsaid.

“Losing the first opening game is not adeath sentence like it used to be or could be. But we have to continue to schedule smartly.”

SEC teams arestill requiredto playatleast onenonconference contestagainst eitherNotre Dameoranopponent from the ACC, Big 12 or Big Ten. LSU already has such agame scheduled in Week 1ofevery season until 2030.

The Tigers will play aneutralsite contest against Houston to beginthe 2027 season.They also have home-and-home series scheduledwithSMU (2028 and 2029) andArizona State (2029 and 2030).

The only other nonconference opponent on LSU’s2026 schedule is McNeese, whichisscheduled to visit TigerStadium in Week 2.

Corsopicks LSUtowin title

Early in the program in Columbus, Ohio, before theTexas-Ohio State game, Corso revealed his finalfour forthis year’s College Football Playoff. He hadPenn State beatingNotreDame in one semifinal,LSU beating Clemson in the other, andLSU beatingPenn Stateinthe CFPchampionship game in Miami.

“LSU, the nation’sNo. 1transfer portal and aveteran quarterback,” saidCorso, referring to Garrett Nussmeier.“LSU winsthe national championship.”

Corso has favored the Tigers many times over the years. ESPN showed agraphic Saturday morning saying that the formerIndianacoach put on aMike the Tiger head to pickLSU 25 times over the years, behind only Ohio State (46) and Alabama (38).LSU went 18-7 in those games.

O-linequestions answered What would the LSU offensive line look like when theseason kickedoff?

College football legend Lee Corso wasn’tinposition Saturday to make aheadgearpickfor LSUin his final “College GameDay” show on ESPN. Instead, he didone better: He pickedLSU to win the national championship.

The question dominated preseason camp. For mostofthe opener,the Tigers played Tyree Adams at left tackle, Paul Mubenga at left guard, Braelin Moore at center, Josh Thompson at right guard and Weston Davis at right tackle. The only rotations occurred at left guard, where Coen Echols subbed in for snaps in place of Mubenga. When Adams missedacouple of snaps late in the second quarter with an injury, DJ Chester filled in at left tackle. Chester was the LSU starting center last season. This season, he spent most of preseason camp battling with Mubenga and Echols for the first-team left guard spot. Now it appearsthat Chester is theTigers’sixth offensive lineman— the plug-and-play option whocan play both on the outside and interior if one of the starters has to miss time. The early returns on LSU’s newlook offensive line were promising. In the first half, the Tigers’ sackadjusted rushing average was 5.9 yards, and Nussmeier was sacked only twice.

69-yard drive that resulted in LSU’s first touchdown of the night. Redshirtjuniorwidereceiver

Aaron Anderson was key in the game-tying drive, catching two passes for 53 yards. Sophomore running back Caden Durhampunched in the score from the 2-yard line to even the score. Anderson finished with six receptionsfor 99 yards, leading LSU in both categories. Durham was LSU’s toprusherwith17carries for74 yards.

LSU nearlytook its first lead of the nightonits next drive, but a controversial reversed calltook sixpoints off theboard for LSU. With the help of pressure forced by fifth-year senior edge rusher Patrick Payton, Delane intercepted

ahigh throw fromKlubnik on Clemson’sensuing drive,handing the ball to LSU at itsown 46-yard line. Nussmeier led LSU into Clemson territory and had appeared togive LSU the lead on a29-yard touchdown pass to senior Barion Brown. Butafter areplay review,the pass was ruledincomplete, and the drive ended on amissed 46-yard field goal from fifth-yearsenior Damian Ramos LSU had achance to tie the game or at least cut the Clemson lead to four with 15 seconds remaining in thefirst half. Butinstead of kicking afield goal on fourth and 2at theClemson 12, coach Brian Kelly used his last timeoutand went for it after the break. His aggressiveness, however,

didn’tpay off. Fifth-year senior wide receiver ChrisHilton fumbleda screen pass fromNussmeier, handing the ball to Clemson with nine seconds left in the half. Hiltonappeared to be short of the sticksashe was making his way to theground, even if he hadn’tlost theball. Kelly’sdecision ultimately left LSUtrailing10-3 at halftime. Hilton’sturnoverwas LSU’s second of the first half. With under 10 minutes to play in the first quarter,fifth-year senior tight endBauer Sharp fumbled the ball away.Itwas forced out by cornerback Avieon Terrell and recovered by safety Ricardo Jones andreturnedfor 24 yards to the LSU 24. Themistakeresulted in a42-

yard field goal from Hauser that gave Clemson an early 3-0 lead. Despite the early miscues, LSU finished thehalfwith 67 more total yards. It outgained the hosts through the air and on the ground, outgaining Clemson 65-19 in the run game. LSU earned an extra five first downs.

LSU’sonly points of the first half were the result of a52-yard field goal from Ramos with 10:53 remaininginthe half. Thelongbootwas the longest kick of Ramos’ career,beating hisprevious high of 50 yards. However,while LSU’soffense struggled to finishdrives, its defense excelled. LSU held Clemson to just onethird-down conversion and held the hosts to just 3.9 yards per play in the first half

LSU17, CLEMSON10

THREEAND OUT: SCOTTRABALAIS’ TOPTHREE TAKEAWAySFROMLSU’S SEASON OPENER

CHANGEOFSEASONS

STATEMENT MADE

1

So manyquestionsabout LSU coming intothis game after five straightseason-opening defeats. So many questionsanswered. It was a17-10 victorythat LSU dug out of the dirtafter rallying from a10-3 halftimedeficit TheTigers made mistakes, but theywere the betterteamon both sides when youlook at the 60 minutes in total.This has tobethe biggest win of the Brian Kelly era,challenged onlybythe winoverAlabama in 2022.

RABALAIS

Continued from page1C

it was beneath the giant scoreboard behind the east endzone that read LSU 17, Clemson 10 LSU made this apriority like no other opener before. And LSU, after 31/2 grinding hours of football, delivered like it hasn’t in agame of this magnitude since its 2019 national championship run.

“Our guys persevered,” Kelly said afterward. “Our players refusedtodoanything else but win. Iloved our composuretonight.”

Asked by Holly Rowe of ABC if his Tigers made astatement Saturday night, Kellysaid, in character: “Wegot to 1-0. This is ajourney,not adestination.But it gets us better for the rest of the season.”

Aseason that, for the firsttime in six years, takes on an entirely different patina. Somewhere, Joe Burrow is pumping afist in deeply satisfied delight.

Let’s stop and say this: This would not have been aseasoncrushing defeat for LSU, just as it isn’tseason-ending for Clemson. The 12-team College Football Playoff gives really good teams crucial latitude.

But had LSU lost, yet again, it likely would have had to go 10-1 the rest of the way to have arealistic hope of makingthe CFP.AsKelly said, there is a long way to go, but the message is clear: If LSU can win here, the possibilities are everything the Tigers could hope to imagine. An offseason of concentrated, perhaps at times overwrought, effort pointing toward this uberimportant game paid off for LSU. Handsomely.You could almost picture avictory cigar in the mouth of handsomeLSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier in his postgame interview.

“We’ve been working ourtails offfor the last six months,” Nussmeier said. “I’m so proud of these guys.”

Among the many things this matchup brought —abattleof top-10 Tigers, of Death Valley denizens, of CFP contenders was abattlebetween twoofthe top quarterbacks in the country

On aday when New Orleans native Arch Manning andTexas went down 14-7 at Ohio State, Nussmeier outdueled Clemson QB Cade Klubnik. Nusswas 28 of 38 for 230 yards and the game-winning touchdown, an 8-yarder early in the fourth

HATTIP TO DEFENSE

2

Throughout preseason camp, the LSU defense looked much improvedand frequently hadthe better of the offense.That was borne out in this game.yes, Clemson gotits yards and its points, but LSU looked fast and played well as aunit.Thisdespite the first-half suspension of starting safety A.J. Haulcy and ahost of players playing together for the first time. Harold Perkinswas particularly disruptive, fully effective aftercoming offlast season’sACL.

quarter to Trey’Dez Green. He also ran for acouple of crucial first downs. Klubnik was 19 of 38 for 230 yardsaswell, but no TDs andone interception to LSU first-year cornerback Mansoor Delane. The more dangerous runner,Klubnik netted 1yard rushing, harassed much more often than Nussmeier was by LSU’spass rush Back to Delane, aname that embodies LSU’shighly touted transfer portalclass. LSUhad 18 transfers and spent atotal of $18 million to build this roster comparedto$5.5 million in 2024. Delanehad an interception andakey pass breakup, helpingLSU survive the first-half suspension of safetyA.J. Haulcy from afight ejection last season while playing atHouston LSUtrailed 10-3 at the half, as much because of how it was hurting itself —a fumble by transfer tight end Bauer Sharp to set up afield goal, afaulty decision not to kick afield goal before halftime —aswhat Clemsonwas doingtoit. It was clear immediately that this LSUdefense was muchimproved from last year’sversion In the second half, LSU pitched ashutout in Clemson’s park. Clemson hada chance to put LSUdown twoscores to start thesecondhalf, but a 47-yard field goaltry by Nolan Hauser was wide right.LSU would outscore Clemson 14-0 after that, thoughitshould have beenevenmore because of an asininerulingonabrilliant catch by transferreceiver

Barion Brown that wascalled an incomplete pass instead of a touchdown.

LSUshookoff that disappointment andmore —because of its defenseand because of an offensiveline that was also highlyquestioned but blocked well enoughfor Nussmeier and opened enoughholes for the run game to make ahuge difference.

LSUfinishedwith a354-261 edge in total offense.

In theend, LSU deserved the win.When Harold Perkins —the all-the-way back from ACL injury Harold Perkins —forced Klubnik to rush afourth-down pass that fell incomplete with 59 seconds left,victory finally was assured. To thewinner goesthe spoils. And thenickname for their stadium

“I can’twait to get on the plane andhead back to Death Valley baby,” Nussmeier said with a smile that lit up theSouth Carolina night

3

LSU’sstatement-making victoryatClemson on Saturdaydoesn’t mean it doesn’t still have a long and arduous trek ahead of it. But assuming Clemson is the quality team we thought it was coming into the season, it’sanenormous winfor LSU.Thiscould turnout to be the Tigers’ toughest test, and if LSU can maintain its health and momentum this could turnout to be an impressiveomenfor the season to come.

LSUDEFENSE HOLDS STRONG

Clutch playsinclude fourth-downstops,interception

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

Facing one of the most important snaps of perhaps the most consequential game of thepast five seasons, LSU let its defense play man coverage. It was fourthdown. Clemson needed only 5yards. LSUled by just onetouchdown— alead thatcould quickly either shrink or disappear if it let star quarterback Cade Klubnik lead ascoring drive. Just afew ticks over nine minutes were left in the fourth quarter.

Klubnik liked what he saw enough to staredownhis first read andfire away

His pass would’ve been completed for afirst down.But LSU transfer cornerMansoor Delane read the in-breaking route, glued himself to the receiver’ship and made aplayonthe ball, swatting it outofharm’s way andallowing his offense to take over on downs andtry to build itslead

Twoyears ago, Florida State scored 45 points andtallied494 yards of offense to pick up aseason-opening win over LSU. Its quarterback threw for 342 yards andfourtouchdowns.

It’ssafe to say that things have changed.

LSU finally snapped its losing skid of season openers on Saturdaywith a17-10 road victory over No. 4Clemson. The No. 9Tigers (1-0) finishedtheir night with four

tackles for loss, two sacks, five hurries, apairofcriticalfourthdown stops, amomentum-halting interception —and onemassive win thattheyearnedonthe strengthoftheir defense.

Clemson’soffense pickedup just 261 total yards andaveraged only 4.5 yards per play

Klubnik completed just 19 of 38 passes foronly 230 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. On the ground, Clemson picked up just31rushing yards. It averaged ameager 2.9 sack-adjusted yards per carry If Saturday night is asign of things to come, thenLSU hasindeed come along waysince it fielded one of the worst defenses in program history.After it buckled against theSeminoles, that beleaguered 2023 unitwent on to giveup55points to Ole Miss and42toAlabama, squandering the record-setting offense run by Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas andone of the nation’smost stout offensive lines.

Coach BrianKelly knew he might’ve let apotential aCollege FootballPlayoff berth go to waste. So he began rebuilding the defense.

Kelly started by overhauling his coaching staff. For his new defensive coordinator,hecircled back to BlakeBaker —the formerLSU linebackers coach who was let go as part of the staff transition from Ed Orgeron to Kelly

In 2024, Baker oversaw amodest improvement. But Kelly said in the offseason that he and his staffneeded to infusethe defense withmoreexperienceand talent before it could truly slow down thetop offensesinthe SEC. It needed smarter,morecompetitive safeties. Stronger pass rushers. Cornerbacks who could be trusted to play tight mancoverage against some of the nation’sbest wide receivers.

The first test that allthose new pieces faced together was a tough one.

Clemson brought back one of the nation’stop quarterbacks, whocould not only throw to all three of his leading receivers from last season but also stand behind an offensive line with four returning starters. The offense hadconcerns in therunning back room, but Klubink was athreat to use his legs,and running back Adam Randall had the size to punishopposing defenses. Randall showed thatstrength in the secondquarter,bulldozing over two LSU defenders for a1-yard touchdown run. But LSU’sdefense didn’tsurrender muchelse —not even a short fourth downthatKlubnik thought he could convert.

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com. For more LSUsports updates, signupfor ournewsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

Brother Martin wins jamboree in rout

BY PEYTON DAVIS Contributing writer

Easton Royal returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and three Brother Martin players each ran for a score as the Crusaders routed John Ehret 35-7 in a mistake-filled jamboree contest Friday at Shaw’s Joe Zimmerman Stadium.

Brother Martin twice took possession at the Ehret 1-yard line after a pair of mishandled punt snaps, and senior Julian Cutter and junior Jeremiah Burton each ran for a touchdown on the next play Also in the first half, senior linebacker Johnny Revels recovered a fumble in the end zone after Ehret lost the ball near the goal line.

Jack Melancon scored the final touchdown on a 5-yard run that capped a drive that went 11 plays and 71 yards and included a 46-yard completion from junior Hudson Fields to senior Brodie DuMontier

“It all started with our special teams,” said Brother Martin coach Mark Bonis, whose team is coming off a 6-5 season that included a loss

in the first round of the playoffs.

“We did a great job on kickoff of pinning them deep, and that allows your defense to pin their ears back.”

Ehret scored its lone touchdown when senior Sincere Keller returned an interception late in the first half to make the score 28-7.

Royal, a five-star-rated player in the 2027 class, returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown.

“I didn’t expect them to kick it to me,” Royal said. “Last year, I was dynamic in the kick return game.”

The mishandled punt snaps were among six fumbles for Ehret.

The short possessions for Brother Martin left Bonis wishing he could have put more players in the game to help build some depth for the season.

“I was more disappointed in not having a whole bunch of offensive snaps,” Bonis said “It prevented me from getting young guys in to see who could play under the lights going into Week 1.”

Brother Martin will open this season on the road against East Ascension Ehret, coming off a 4-6 season, will play at Chalmette.

Holy Cross nabs fumbles to roll past Belle Chasse

Chalmette bests South Plaquemines

BY DARRELL WILLIAMS Contributing writer

Holy Cross recovered four fumbles on defense as Jokoby Farria, a transfer quarterback from St. Augustine, threw three touchdown passes to help the Tigers defeat Belle Chasse 24-13 in a jamboree contest Friday at Chalmette’s Bobby Nuss Stadium. Farria connected with running back Ke’Rynn Smith on a swing pass to the right side, and Smith outran the Belle Chasse secondary for a 42-yard touchdown to cap the first possession The Tigers got the ball back after a fumble, and six plays later, Farria passed to Carson Chiappetta for a 17-yard score and a 14-0 lead.

Farria’s third touchdown came with 2:02 left in the half when he connected with running back Arius Miranda for 10 yards, giving the Tigers a 21-7 lead.

“Our defense took the ball away four times, and I thought we did a good job at the start of the game, before halftime and at the end of the game,” Holy Cross coach Scott Wattingly said. “We had some penalties that helped (Belle Chasse) sustain some drives, but overall, we did some things well.” Belle Chasse gained 155 yards rushing in the half-game but was beset by four lost fumbles. The Cardinals fumbled six times.

“You can’t turn the ball over that many times and win in any game,” said Stephen Meyers, whose team reached the second round of the state playoffs last season. “I thought the positive was that we moved the ball against a bigger, faster Catholic League team. We just have to hold that ball high and tight and protect it.”

Running back Dillan Carter gained 63 yards on nine carries for Belle Chasse.

Smith gained a game-high 103 yards on 14 carries to lead the Tigers.

CHALMETTE 20, SOUTH PLAQUEMINES

12: Running back Russell Banks scored on a 23-yard run on a trap play and Brandon Booker scored on an 18-yard run in a win over the reigning Division IV nonselect state champions.

“It was good to get some experience for our new kids,” said Chalmette coach Jason Tucker whose team reached the Division I nonselect quarterfinals last season.

“Some of them appeared to have a problem with the bright lights for the first time. We played a lot of kids.”

Chalmette’s Tristan Dubose kicked field goals of 41 and 36 yards on the way to a 13-6 lead.

“Our kids battled, and that’s what you want to see: that grit, that fight, even when we were down,” said South Plaquemines coach Lyle Fitte. “We have some new kids, and I expect them to have a lot of mishaps. I’m just glad it happened in a jamboree.”

St. James tops Hahnville in

back-and-forth

BY SPENCER URQUHART

Staff writer

Both the Hahnville and St. James offenses looked ready for the regular season during a Friday night jamboree matchup at Lutcher High School.

Hahnville faced the reigning Division III nonselect state runner-up St. James in the first leg of the River Parishes jamboree doubleheader Hahnville set the tone with a touchdown on its first drive, but St. James prevailed with a 28-21 win. The jamboree consisted of two 12-minute periods, and the score was tied at 14 at the end of the first half. The second half began with an 80-yard St. James scoring drive, which it followed with an 89-yard drive to go up by two TDs.

“Most of our mistakes were on defense,” Hahnville coach Greg Boyne said. “All correctable errors, but we have a lot to clean up. More points than we’d like to give up in a half.”

St. James’ first scoring drive in the second half ended with a 6-yard touchdown by senior running back Kani King-Young. On the next drive, sophomore quarterback Ja’Juan Jackson found senior wide receiver Jakias Villanueva for an 85-yard touchdown strike.

“We wanted to run the ball and get some explosive plays,” St. James coach LaVanta Davis said

St. Augustine’s big-play duo shines in victory over Shaw

BY CHRISTOPHER DABE Staff writer

St. Augustine played without two main running backs but scored on a pair of explosive plays in a 28-7 jamboree victory against host Shaw at Joe Zimmerman Stadium.

Ray’Quan Williams returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and Miguel Whitley scored on a 59-yard pass from senior Vashaun Coulon, each showcasing the bigplay potential for the two highly recruited junior wideouts.

The Purple Knights played without injured running backs Keith Hill, who is nearing a return from a meniscus injury suffered in the first playoff game last season, and Patrick Robinson, who injured an ACL in practice two weeks ago, coach Robert Valdez said.

Hill, a senior is expected to play in the season opener against McDonogh 35 on Saturday at Tad Gormley Stadium

“It didn’t make sense to play him

tonight,” said Valdez, whose team went 7-5 and reached the second round of the playoffs last season.

Without Hill and Robinson, St. Augustine leaned on sophomore Khlil Lewis (seven carries, 54 yards, one touchdown) and freshman Cohann Davis (eight carries, 43 yards) for much of the rushing production.

Lewis scored on a 4-yard run for a 14-0 lead. The touchdown by Whitley came just before halftime for a 21-0 advantage.

“Tonight was a real concentrated effort to develop an identity of running the football,” Valdez said. “We have to try to run the football We know what (Whitley and Williams) can do.”

St. Augustine got plenty of production from Whitley and Williams last season, and more is expected of them this season.

“Those guys are going to be our go-to guys,” Valdez said. “They’re our bell cows. They got to make the plays.”

The final St. Augustine touch-

Crusading to victory

game

“The more explosive plays you have and you don’t turn the ball over, good things happen. We’ve got to shore some things up on the defensive side.”

Hahnville’s first scoring drive was capped off with a 4-yard rushing touchdown by senior Bennett Naquin. A 52-yard pass by senior quarterback Landen Teague to senior wide receiver Kevias Singleton on the following drive set up a 2-yard touchdown run by senior running back Fabian Celestine.

Teague completed 8-of-13 passes for 115 yards. Naquin was Hahnville’s leading receiver with five catches for 53 yards.

“I thought Landen (Teague) threw the ball really well,” Boyne said. “He’s been consistently doing it. I thought the offensive line played well.”

Jackson had a strong showing through the air, completing 11-of16 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns. Villanueva finished with five catches for 132 yards and a touchdown, and senior Kayne Zenon caught three passes for 82 yards and a score.

“Ja’Juan (Jackson) did well,” Davis said. “The offensive line did a real good job protecting him so he could get the ball to our guys.”

St. James had over 100 rushing yards, with King-Young piling up 70 yards and two TDs on 10 carries.

down came when sophomore Jaelle Noble threw an 8-yard pass to sophomore Jace Newman near the back of the end zone for a 28-0 lead.

For Shaw, junior Calvin Ellsworth scored on a 49-yard run just before time expired. Shaw won the LSHAA Division II select state championship last season but returned only two starters on offense. Senior Deandree Franklin rushed 12 times for 41 yards.

“I bet nobody can tell you the score of the jamboree last year,” Shaw coach Hank Tierney said. “St. Aug beat the hell out of us in a jamboree last year, and we won the state championship.”

“The biggest thing is Shaw has got to learn, and Shaw has got to get better from tonight’s game,” said Tierney, whose team will face reigning Division I select state champion Edna Karr on Friday in Algiers.

Contact Christopher Dabe at cdabe@theadvocate.com

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In thecoming century, world mightneed NewOrleans more than ever

After Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana 20 years ago, my wife joined many others in working full-time to help the state recover.She recently gathered in New Orleans with former colleagues from that sad, twisted time to remember what was lost, what was reclaimed, and what still needsto be done two decades after that epic tragedy On the morning of the reunion, Ispotted aphoto in The New York Times of ayoung man reading “A Confederacy of Dunces,” John Kennedy Toole’scomic novel aboutoddball Ignatius J. Reilly’smisadventuresinthe Crescent City. When Ifirst read “Dunces” many years ago,Iwondered if people beyond New Orleans would grasp its strange local vibe. But as Icame to understand, readers everywhere loved the story because of not in spite of —its peculiar New Orleans sensibility. Toole knew how the city’spageant of cultures tends to refract reality abit, revealing colors not normally visible in other places.

This aspect of New Orleans, quickly felt, though not easily explained, was lostonthe cynics who wondered in 2005 whether the city should be rebuilt. There were many practical reasons to bring back New Orleans, but the true value of the city,its vibrant civic identity,defiesthe dry logic of ledger sheets.

Iwas stillthinking about all of this when we visited The Bell on Esplanade Avenuefor lunch. It’sacharming homage to aBritish pub, reimagined with aNew Orleans spin.I tackled the fisherman’spie, aclassic British dishthat’s been newly interpreted with Louisiana shrimp. The culinary mashup reminded me of what New Orleans does best: mixing myriad cultural traditions into something truly new We followed lunch with coffee down the street at Le Ponce, aFrench café and bakery where we sipped away another hour within walls that doubled as an impromptu art gallery. The city outside was its own painted landscape. Oaks yawned acrossthe avenue, and flowers spilled from old iron gates, beauty breaking through ruin with an insistence that seemed like resolve The city’sresolve continues to be tested. Housing affordability and public education frustrate economic growth, and political intrigues at City Hall are adragonprogress,

ä See AT RANDOM, page 5D

BY JULIA GUILBEAU Staff writer

Ahost of Biloxi restaurants along the Mississippi GulfCoast were recently honored for having some of the world’sbest wine selections, landing on Wine Spectator’slist of award winners for 2025. While amajority of the seven recipients have received accolades from the wine and lifestyle magazine for decades, one newcomer emerged this year,earning

LIVING

STAMPS AMPS & strangers

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

Considering her glamorous position at the start of Hollywood classic films, you might assume that Columbia Pictures’ lady with atorch had pure Hollywood heritage. But the Columbia logo comes from right here in New Orleans. The fact is, the goddess-like symbol of the century-old movie studio wasmodeled on a pregnant Times-Picayune page designer,who wore amakeshifttoga and held aloft alight bulb as her picture was taken timeand again by anewspaper

Four years in, the Postcard Project still feels fresh.These tiny missives hold so much joy,hope and community —strangers becoming partofthe samestory.

Each card of the 267 cards received is a tangiblereminder of the beauty of the physical in adigital age, and every time Iread oneI’m reminded that astranger,afriend or afar-off reader thought enough to pause their life, pick up acard and share alittle piece of themselves.

This year,asoflast week, we had received postcardsfrom all 50 states —the last being West Virginia —and 29 countries including Australia, Borneo, Costa Rica and more.

PamBaldwin wrote last week to say that she had mailed postcards from three other countries, Greece, Albania and Montenegro, but who knows how long it will take those postcardstoarrive.

The Postcard Project has only deepened the mysteries of the mail. Onepostcard mailed from France reached us in amatter of days. Another from Italy took 10 weeks to arrive —why one arrives in days and another in months is amysterywe’ll never solve.

More this summer than in previous years, peoplewrote that postcards are increasingly difficulttofind. And yet,they persevered.

In Morgantown, West Virginia, Amber Brugnoli-Ohara had to visit eight different places before shefound apostcard to send.

“No wonder no one has sent one yet! I need to tell thestate tourism board to print some or something, because that’scrazy,” shewrote. “Even hotel gift shops didn’thave any!”

Still, she persisted —the kind of effort that is alittle metaphor for thewhole project.

In place of traditional store-bought postcards, some people sent hand painted, homeprintedand other atypical postcards

Martha Williams, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi,sent apostcardthat is asample of brightly colored fabrics quilted together and sewn onto apostcard, mailed with aregular stamp.

Danny Wheeler,ofRiver Ridge, painted a bucolic watercolor landscape and sentitoff with aForever stamp (now 78 cents)

recognition for its deep cellars andselection of Californiaand French wines. Coraline’s, located in the Beau Rivage Hoteland Casino, joinedBRPrime steakhouse, Jia, Stalla ItalianKitchen, Morton’sand White Pillars Restaurant and Lounge forthe first time,receivinganAward of Excellence in this year’srankings —honoring restaurants that offermorethan 90wineselections from top producers. But it was IP Casino Resort Spa’sthirty-two steak-

A postcard from Australia

house that remained astep above the rest, earning the BestofAward of Excellence for the12th year in arow

The designation, anotch ahead of theAward of Excellence, is given to restaurants that typically offer 350 or moreselections of wine spanning across numerouswine-growingregions Thirty-two offers over 740 wine labels from across the globe, including manymade in France, Italy, Spainand Germany,according to arestaurant spokesperson.

These days, aregular sized postcard costs 61 cents to mail. I’ve kept Wheeler’s beautiful painting at mydesk by my computer throughout this year’sPostcard Project —areminder of how amazing people can be.

Patricia Mann,ofBaton Rouge, visited her daughter who lives in Paris. She wrote, “Most places are not air-conditioned and it has been in the90s. Feels like hometemps. Ihave been accomplishing my goal of eating anew kind of pastry daily Oooh la la. Bread, cheese, wine and pastry! Bon appétit!” Her card made mesmile andremember

ä See POSTCARDS, page 5D

Each year,Wine Spectator releases itsannual award rankings for thousands of restaurantsacross theglobe. Over 2,000 winners were selected for the 2025 Award of Excellence and over 1,700 restaurants received the BestofAward. Just under 100 restaurants in the world weregiven the magazine’shighest honor theGrand Award.

Email Julia Guilbeau at jguilbeau@theadvocate. com.

DINING SCENE

Reinvented Terranova’sMeats is back at thecounter

Tears were shed when Terranova Supermarket closed at theend of May,marking the end of 100 years in business.

Ian McNulty WHAT’S COOKING

People gathered on the sidewalk outside, andsome crowded inside, watching as its proprietors locked the small grocery’s front door one last time andthen walked out the back door andinto retirement.

Less than three monthslater, some of the same people waited outside again under the oakslining Esplanade Avenue to be the first customers at Terranova’s Meats. It’sanew butcher shop located in aportion of the old grocery in FaubourgSt. John that represents the next-generation reboot of atreasured neighborhood institution.

Some snapped photos, afew brought flowers, many exchanged hugs and shook hands with Jennifer and Anthony Terranova, the couple who now run the shop,and Anthony’sparents, Karen and Benjamin Terranova, whomight not be so fully retired after all.

Themood on opening daywas jubilant. Toooften, we haveto watch as heritage businesses and pieces of communitylife slip away,whether through changes in industries or trends or the march of time.

But here is one that has built back on its own terms, rekindling aconnection that runs through familiesand thecity’sown past, and with some reallydelicious specialty meats.

‘A rebirth’

As agrocery,Terranova harked back to an old way of doing business,one at odds withthe era of big box retail and contactless delivery. Customers and shopkeepers took time to chat about family,life, good food andthe star-crossedSaints. Children were indulged (and sometimes corrected). It could seem likea visit as much as an errand.Time slowed down and felt well-spent

After the elder Terranovas shared their plan to retire, the scenesaround the cash register felt more like areceiving line than ashopping queue as people came to take last looks and express gratitude for the memories. But thegroundwork was already laid for the next chapter Renovations began swiftlyin June, dividing the ground floor space to create the new butcher shop, with its own new entrance. Work is still underway on the remainder of the former grocery; thefamily plans to offer it for commercial lease when it’s ready.

“Wefeel like it’sarebirth,” said Jennifer Terranova. “It’sstillus, it’sstill the same place, butit’s smaller,sowecould run it onour own. We’re trying to find agood balance.”

The butcher counter here

defined artisanal before that

became acommon food term. It is once again filled with stuffed pork chopsand chickens, cutsof steaks andhamburger patties, all arrayed with reverential order on sheets of butcher paper There is hogshead cheese again,anotherfamily recipe that perseveres here, and stuffed artichokes. ButTerranova is best known for its sausage, and the new butcher shop meansthis is back in steady supply.That’s no small comfort to itsloyalists, manyofwhomhad stockpiled a frozen supply before thegrocery closed In the interveningmonths, I

was asked for my backup spot for Italian sausage. Ididn’thave an answer.IgotoLaPlace for my andouille, KrotzSprings for thebest boudin and Terranova for Italian sausage (andgreen onion, and thegarlic links, and now thenew maple breakfast sausage, too).

The shop still stocks asmall selection of groceries, mostly chosen to build out arecipe around themeats, like pasta and bread, olive oil and canned tomatoes. Alsoback are muffulettas,made from thedeli case once aweek, on Saturdays only (at least for now; astack provided for theopening day went fast,perhaps indicating

enough demandfor morefrequent supply).

Full circle

Now in its fourth generation, Terranova first opened in 1925 as abutcher shop. It evolved into agrocery,always keeping the butcher counter as akey piece.

Initially,the business was in the smaller building next door,whichis now the Spanish restaurantLola’s.

It moved during the Great Depression to its current location, awedge-shaped building where membersofthe family have lived upstairs through the years.

“It’s pretty much afull circle, if you think about it,” said Karen Terranova of thenew start. “They

started it as abutcher,the next twogenerations ran it as agrocery,and now they’re going back to what their great-grandfather did.”

While the parents are “officially retired,” they have been aconstant presence at the new shop as it has taken shape. On opening day,Karen wasworking the register next to her daughter-in-law and Benjamin wasback in the samewhite apron working the meat counter beside his son. “I’ll be helping out,” Benjamin allowed. “But Ican leave earlier now.”

Email IanMcNultyat imcnulty@theadvocate.com.

Forces!

For the 20th anniversary of HurricaneKatrinaand the flooding, we recall theroles played immediately,and shortly afterward, by thepress, restaurants and cultural institutions, and lawyers in rebuilding theCrescent City

n ThePress Club

During the 67th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards event, the fourth estate and friends flockedtoThe Cannery in the heartof Mid-City.Sponsorial thanks tapped the venue, Renaissance Publishing, andRoulaisonDistilling Co. The program opened with remarks by Press Club of New Orleans President Doug Mouton, sports director of WWL-TV;the emceeing of Tommy Tucker,WWL Radio; awardspresentations; collegiate scholarships to Alana Frank of Loyola and Gracie Guillot of LSU; theraffle drawing, including featured books (“Path of Destruction”) by John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein, winners of the Pulitzer Prize; and,to PeggyScott Laborde and John Snell, LifetimeAchievementawards. Described as New Orleans legends byDougMouton, each has spent the last four decades chronicling aspects of our city. Laborde, asenior producer at WYES-TV,has produced and hostedmorethan 30 related documentaries, and,for 39 seasons,has spearheaded “Steppin’ Out.” Snell, who startedwith WWL-TV in 1983 and moved to WVUE-TV in 1994 “has been amajor factor helpingFOX 8become New Orleans’ #1 news station.”

Milling about in the spacious Cannery, where white-clothed tables werecentered with small red floralarrangements, as well as those of white,purple and green, were the local journalists, reporters and public relations professionals, whosat for chats and the enjoyment of the Toulouse Gourmet catering. Asumptuous buffet beckoned with chicken roulades, beef debris sliders,bowtie pesto pasta, and grilled and roasted vegetables.

Listed as Press Club Board of Directors2023-2025 were Mouton and Schleifstein (now retired,The Times-Picayune |The New Orleans Advocate), both two-times past president, as well as vice president Kevin Mumphrey, Channel 13; treasurer Larry Lovell, Larry Lovell PR; April Catarella, GambelCommunications; RobertWitkowski,WhereY’at Magazine; Fletcher Mackel, WDSU-TV; LauraJayne, LoyolaUniversity; Jennifer Crockett,The Ehrhardt Group; Nayita Wilson,NVisions Communications &Consulting; and Reine Dugas,Renaissance Publishing. Most were noted.

Making rounds, too, were Beth Arroyo Utterback,WWOZ; Betsie Gambel Gambel Communications; MegFarris,WWL-TV; Rob Krieger, MegGatto, Mikel Schaefer,and Rob Masson,WVUE FOX 8; Travers Mackel, WDSU; TerryBaquet,Verite News; Josh-Wade Ferguson, 64 Parishes; Dominic Massa,WYES; Rod Walker The Times-Picayune|The New OrleansAdvocate; and Errol Laborde, columnist, author,WYES’sInformed Source producer/panelist, andthe Lifetime Achievement awardee of 2016. He accompanied his wife, thehonored Peggy Scott Laborde. When all was said, enjoyed andawarded,anattendeereflected on the gala event, noting that it was not just anight of awards, but“avitalgathering…reinforcing the essential role of afree and responsible press in ahealthy democracy.” Amen

n Crawfish and Camaraderie

The annual seafood party of the Academy of New Orleans Trial Lawyers Academy booked three evening hours at Landry’s Seafood House for ameal and mingling. Sunset,too. It brings together local lawyers and local judgesin an informal settingto “help foster professional and personal relationships within the community.”

n Shared Legacies

The Chase Family Foundation and Longue Vuepresented aspecial benefit dinner for their work in the cultural arts and held it, mostappropriately,at Dooky Chase’sRestaurant. Asponsor reception launched the levity that was followed by a6:30 PM dinner with music by Kevin Gullage and the Groovemakers. New Orleanssoprano LindseyReynolds wasanhonored guest.

Afivesometeamedtochair the event: Stella Chase Reese, Edgar “Dook” Chase IV,Tracie Griffin, Baty Landis (Longue Vueexecutive director) and MylaPoree. Host committee memberswere Wayne Amedee, Jeanette Davis-Loeb,Vaughn and SidneyFauria, Monique and Neal Hamilton, Marilee (LVboard president) and AndrewHovet, and Katherine and William Wade The event was sold out.

The dinner’ssite, the restaurant’sart-filled Legacy Room,was florally enhanced by thesmall bouquets from Longue Vue’sgardensthathead gardener Leigh Gradiz arranged. Vocal beauty came from the above Lindsey Reynolds, who recently starred in theNew Orleans Opera Association’sproduction of “L’elixir d’amore.”She sang twoselections to the rapt dinner guests. In appreciation, the Chase Family Foundation and Longue Vuejointlypresented herwith aShared Legacies Professional Development Award.Highlightsfrom theshared civil rightsefforts of theChase family (Dooky Chase’s) and the Stern family (Longue Vue) were sharedoneach table, where the food wasserved “family style,” in keeping withthe theme.

In addition to theabove, those breaking bread wereNew Orleans Opera Board President JayGulotta, David Briggs and Mark Romig, Emily Wolffand Josh Cox, MichaelGriffin, ShelleyMassengale, Kimberley Reese of Xavier University,Dillard University President MoniqueGuillory, Louisiana Children’sMuseum CEO Tifferney White, and New Orleans Fashion Week Director TraceeDundas, whogive “Legacy” life.

Among those networking while savoring crawfish, potatoes and corn, pasta jambalaya and seafood gumbo were ANOTL president Brian Mersman,Justice Piper Griffin, Judge JayZainey,Judge Omar Mason and Carla Bringier-Mason,Judge Robin Pittman,Judge Amanda Calogero, MaryWatson Smith, CaycePeterson,Ian Taylor,Linda Harang,Steve Herman,Trey Woods, Chris Zainey,Darla D’Amico, and Ashley Liuzza

TRAVEL

Stay cool indoors at these5stops

Staff report

We surveyed our editorialstaff, asking for their thoughts on underrated museums across Louisiana —and they delivered. Enjoy the second installment of recommendations below:

Here are 5underrated Louisiana museums worth discovering, according to our staff.

TheLouisianaCountry Music Museum

1260 La. 1221, Marthaville

The Louisiana Country Music Museumis astate-of-the-art venue featuring memorabilia from the early days of country,gospel, theradio era and to modern day Peruse musical instruments, household objects, Johnny Horton’sgold record for “Battleof NewOrleans,” Hank Williams Jr.’sshirt and more. Outside the museum is an equally state-ofthe-art amphitheater that has hosted concerts by countrymusic legends.

The museum is located seemingly in the middle of nowhere in the Rebel State Historic Site in Marthaville, about 20 miles directly west of Natchitoches. Instead of turning toward Natchitochesonce you exit Interstate 49, you turn the opposite way. The grounds feature apicnic area and two shortnature trails. Check out the schedule for live performances of both local and national artists, and the popular annual fiddling championship There is asmall entrance fee.

Free for seniors and kids 12 and under —Robin Miller DeltaMusic Museum

218 Louisiana Ave., Ferriday

The Delta Music Museum is located in downtownFerriday and is free to the public.

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER

By ChristopherElliott

The museum holds thedistinction as the first Louisiana location marked with aMississippi Blues Trail designation.The museum currently showcases 29 artists from musical genres of blues, soul, gospel andcountry

During the1950s, these genres would converge in thedeltato create thenew sound of rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly music. The space also includes atheater called “TheArcade,” alandmark movietheaterconverted into a250-person performance hall available for rent.

Visit the museum Thursday through Saturday from 9a.m. to 4p.m. —Margaret DeLaney Frogmore Plantation andGins 11656 U.S.84, Ferriday Cotton was considered “king” in Louisiana primarily during the 19th century and early 20th century,especially flourishing

between approximately 1820 and 1930. During this time, cotton was thedominant crop in the northern part of the state and formed thebackbone of the regional economy Historical cotton and plantation culture are thestories told at Frogmore Plantation. An 1800acre working cotton plantation, Frogmorehas 19 restored antebellum structures that date from theearly 1800s.

Alongwith the history of the early Natchez planters and their slaves, thetour includes arare Smithsonian-qualitysteam cotton gin and then contrasts the historical methodswith modern-day planting, harvesting and computerized ginning of cotton.

The tourbegins upon arrival and is fully guided through eight historical buildings. The guides tell of theevolution of change beginning in the1790s through

thewar that created the lifestyle called sharecropping.

As of 2025, approximately 110,000 acres of cotton are planted in the state of Louisiana, which is reportedasthe smallest cotton crop on record forthe state and represents abouta30% decline from theprevious year —John Ballance.

TheGermantown Colony and Museum

200 Museum Road, Minden Germantown was the earliest religious communal settlement in Louisiana. It wasfounded in 1836 by Germans, adherents to ideas of religious leader Maximilian Ludwig (1788-1834), the “Count of Leon”, and it lasted as acommune until 1871.

Its founding was led by Elisa Leon,the “Countess of Leon,” widow of Maximilian Ludwig.

In the colony,all property was owned in common and observance of religious principles was required. Though the colony was not very large —only about 35 people —itworked together and prospered.

Germantownonce had numerous houses, barns, stores and shops, as well as akitchen-dining hall and a“bachelor’shall.” The historic buildings are mostly gone. The listing included just twocontributing buildings: Countess Leon’shome and the kitchen-dining hall, both built of hewnlogs with dovetailing at their corners.

The kitchen-dining hall has a dry-walled stone cellar and an adjacent frame shack. Many windowshave been replaced, and none of the porches are original. These surviving historic buildings, and sympathetic rustic others, still “convey in their crude and primitive character something of the lifestyle of the Germantown settlers.”

The site, several miles off U.S. 79 and about 9miles north of Interstate 20, continues to be operated as amuseum —Robin Miller

Shreveport WaterWorks Museum

142 N. Common St., Shreveport The McNeill Street Water TreatmentPlant was constructed in 1887 as the original water works forthe city of Shreveport. It wasthe second water works built in Louisiana and one of the first in the post-Civil WarSouth. As the last knownsteam-powered municipal water treatment plant in the United States, its steam engines werefinally retired in 1980. The site is now anational historic landmark.

The Shreveport Water Works Museum is open from 10 a.m. until 4p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from noon through 4p.m. on Sunday Jan Risher

Budget airlineovercharged forluggage before boarding

Iwas flying from Denver to Orlando on Frontier Airlines. Iprepaid for my checked luggage

Christopher Elliott

Ionly had one carry-on bag and asmall personal item, both of which were within the size limits. But when Ichecked my bags, Frontier charged me anextra $220. Ihad to pay twice for the same bags. Irequested arefund, but Frontier will only give me credit thatexpires within ayear.I don’t want credit with Frontier,I want my money back.This ishorrible customer service! Ishouldbeabletoget a refund, right? Can you help me with this? Allison Sanders, Hannibal, Missouri Frontier Airlines shouldhave

honored its agreement with you. Youprepaid foryour luggage through your online travel agency,but for some reason,the ticketagent charged you for it again. And it looks like Frontier charged you the more expensive rate for checking luggage the same day —itdiscountsits luggage rates if you prepay Frontier incentivizes its agents to collect as many luggage fees as possible (to enhance theairline’s profits) but sometimes they take it toofar In this case, itappearsthe agent didn’tsee your prepaid luggageand charged you again. Based on the correspondence betweenyou and Frontier,itlooks

like theairline found theerror but then offered you acredit This is standardoperating procedureatFrontier.Airlines particularly budget carriers like Frontier —try to avoid giving you arefund. They would prefer to offer an expiring ticket credit. Why? Because they know you there’s achance you won’tuse it.But I digress.

It looks like you were going back and forth with Frontier’s online customer service agents. It’sfine to do that to start, but when you keep getting thesame answer over and over,you have to appeal. Youcan find contact information for Frontier Airlines

executives on my consumer advocacy website, Elliott.org. A brief, polite emailtoone of them would have helped. (I know the CEO answershis emails personally.)

Your case illustrates the problem withthese so-called ultralow-farecarriers. They charge youlessupfront but make it up laterwith extra charges. And as you now know, they’re notshy aboutbilling you —orabout keeping your money when they make amistake. Interestingly,these discount carriers are fighting forsurvival as people start to understand that theprices they’re being quoted are not the prices theyend up

paying.

If FrontierAirlines had not been able to help, you could have disputedthe chargeswith your credit cardcompany. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, your credit cardcan refund you for an itemyou paid for but did not receive.

Icontacted Frontier Airlines on your behalf. Arepresentative acknowledgedthe error and agreed to issue afull refund of $220.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy,anonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.

from page1D

illustrator and scored afew plum assignments, including designing the poster for aWerner Herzog film.

Eventually came the call from Columbia, asking if he could reimagine the lady with the torch for anew generation of moviegoers. The image wouldremain essentially the same, with one important innovation: realism. In the past, the logo always seemed to be aheroically idealized everywoman. Deas wanted her to be an actual person. But who?

An unexpected goddess

Deas looked for aprofessional model, but never quite settled on asubject. Then, the artist, who was acquainted with The Times-Picayune’s art department, discoveredpage designerJenny Joseph.

As Deas explained to Ogden Museum of Art curator Bradley Sumrall in 2012, “she was elegant, tall, beautiful, and classy.Iknew I had found the right one.”

During alunch break, Times-Picayune news photographer Kathy Andersontook some reference photos of Joseph in asublimely

paint the famouslogo.

stalwartpose. The shoot was exacting and abit exhausting. When Joseph, who was standing atop a box, began leaning,itcame to light that shewas expecting. Thenew Columbialogowasn’ta generic figure; it was an individual.

Even theerupting storm clouds in the background were real. “Those areNew Orleans clouds,” Deas told Sumrall. “One day, Ilooked outmywindowand sawthis huge bank of cumulus clouds over the Mississippi River.Igrabbedmy bike androde like crazytothe Crescent City Connection.” Fame,fortune andanonymity Deas deftly rendered Joseph in aportraitthatwas both solid and ethereal, relaxed and dramatic. Deas was amaster,and pretty soon everybody who went to the movies would know it. The logo debuted in 1992. In thenextdecades, the unassuming artistwould be called on to design six Time magazine covers, including portraitsofBen Franklin and FDR.Heproduced the artfor 25 U.S.postagestamps, featuring portraitsofMarilyn Monroe, Tennessee Williams, RuthBader Ginsburg andother American heroes, plus book jackets, including the 25th anniversary edition of Anne Rice’s“Interview with theVampire”and other big-time commissions.

Sincethe newColumbia logo’s backstory hadn’tbeen publicized, most people neverwould have known anything about the design’s New Orleansroots. If it weren’tfor movie star Annette Bening, thatis.

Apparently, from the time the imagefirst appeared, some onlookers mistook the new lady with a torch for Bening, who hadrecently been lauded forher steamyrole in “The Grifters.”

There certainly was aresemblance, which ignited arumor that eventually reached Bening herself. In 2004, the late Roger Ebert, alion of filmcriticism,sought to get to thebottomofwhathad becomeanurban legend and asked Bening directly if she’d been the model. Theactresssaidthatshe’d been told by insiders that she was “Oh sure,” shereportedlytold Ebert. “The artists told me it was me. But just the face, not the body.”

Back in NewOrleans, there were those who knewbetter.Deas told a Times-Picayune reporter that he’d never met Bening and wasmost certainly inspiredbyJoseph. The artist’sdebunking of the myth appeared under the headline “No, No Annette.”

Bragging rights

In arecent interview,Deas said the logo commissionwas acareer breakoutfor him, andprobably the highest profileproject of hislife. In recent years, Deassaid, the image was animated, with radiating dartsoftorchlight. But at its heart it is still an old-fashioned oil painting —probably amongthe most

viewed in the world.

“I stillget bragging rights,” Deas said. “I never get tired of seeing it on the screen.”

These days, he’sworking on another Hollywood project, he said, aportraitofleading manTom Cruise, for an upcoming biography.And there arethree more postagestampsinthe works scheduled for2026.

Themovie star of Blanco,Texas Joseph, who was born in England, now lives in the small town of Blanco, Texas, where her 1992 claim to fameiswell-known. Her daughter Adriane, who was not yet born when Josephposed in front of Anderson’slens, is now 32 years old and has twokids of her own.

Asked what she recalls of her foray into modeling, Joseph said that “primarily,itwas just alunch break.”

“Wenever expected thatitwould expand and that it would still be used.”

Josephsaidher hobbyispainting. Deas created an incredibly beautiful, wistful portraitofJoseph’stwo children standing amid the same“NewOrleans clouds” he used in the background of the lady with the torch.

Email Doug MacCashat dmaccash@theadvocate.com.

the apricot pastries my daughters and Ilove so much in Paris. Our family spent the bulk of asummer there when our daughters were 7and 11. Every morning,we walked to the same bakery and bought the apricot pastries. Mann’spostcard was proof that afew words can leadto near time travel. Postcards don’tjust carry words, but slices of people’slives in faraway places —avalue for the 2.10 euros (about $2.44) Mann used to send hers acrossthe sea. Randy,ofLafayette, senta postcard from Poland. “Heard you neededmail from all over! Here is one from Krakow, Poland.” His postcard has three Polishstamps that total 11 Zloty,about $3 Molly Lesto is hiking the AppalachianTrail. Somewhere along the way,her dad let herknow that we needed aNew Hampshire postcard. So, Lesto stopped in Hanover and sent one of Dartmouth Hall. Suzy and Tommy Blanchard sent apostcard from Senoia,

AT RANDOM

Continued from page1D

too. Aplace that styles itself as apart from the rest of the worldwill always draw tourists, but being an outlier in basic public services won’tkeep New Orleans intact. The trick, as always, will be to harness the city’s singularityasanasset rather than aliability.In an age of AI, we risk mov-

Georgia, where they noted the quaint town hasbeenthe setting for many films, including “The Walking Dead,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Fried GreenTomatoes” and manyothers. Jim and Imma sent apostcard from Mount Rushmore that simplyread,“Day 21 on theroad.15 more to go! 5,750 miles so far!” The postcard has thecoolest “Goodnight Moon” stamponit. Someone sent apostcard from Forks,Washington,“on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula, themost northwestern town in theLower 48. We’reamid theforests and

ing more andmore toward ablandly collective mind. New Orleans, where blissfulnonconformity is acivic creed,mightstandout all themore as arespitefrom the regimented culture of onlinegroupthinkand ChatGPT In such acentury,the world could need New Orleansmore than ever Here’stothose whoworked so tirelessly to saveit.

EmailDanny Heitmanat danny@dannyheitman.com

rivers of the Olympic National Park, which also claims the only rainforest in the48states.We get an average of 10 feet of rain annually,which keeps thearea green and lush, mostly evergreens, so green year-round,” theanonymous postcard sender wrote. Back in June, Alan Krouse of Gonzales drove to theCollege World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Alongthe way,hesent several postcards —including one from thereal “Field of Dreams” in Iowa, even though it meant ade-

tourfrom the mostdirect route between Louisiana and Omaha.

By thenumbers:Stateside

It’seasy to get swept away in thestories, but stepping back and looking at the scope of the Postcard Project, the numbers tell a story of their own.

n So far,we’ve received 267 postcards, andmorewill likely trickle in beyond Labor Day— and certainly,they are welcome!

n We received 31 postcards from Louisiana, the highest number from anystate. Several readers suggested encouraging readers to send postcards in from their towns across the state maybe we will makethat one of our goals next year

n The state with the second highest number of postcards turned out to be Delaware, which was erroneously thought to be the last state forabout aweek —and during that time, the people in Delaware jumped on the postcard bandwagon with abang.

n Tennessee comes in third place withnine postcards, including one from Dollywood.

n Minnesota and Florida tied for fourth places with eight postcards each.

n Kentucky,New Hampshire, Mississippi and Pennsylvania werenext —with seven postcards each.

From around theworld

n In true homage to Louisiana’s roots, Canada led the wayinternationally with eight postcards.

n France and the United Kingdom tied forsecond with six postcards each.

n Iceland, Spain and Germany follow with three postcards each.

n ApostcardfromMalaysia traveledthe longest distance (about 10,150 miles), followed by Borneo, Australia, Tanzania, United ArabEmirates, New Zealand, China,Mongolia, Israel, Turkey, Hungary,Italy,Poland, Slovenia, Austria,Czech Republic,Germany,Switzerland, France, Spain, Scotland, England, Ireland, Iceland, Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Canada, Jamaica and Mexico.

The postcards traveled across borders, timezones and oceans, each carrying the simplest but mostpowerful message of all: We are connected.

Email Jan Risheratjan.risher@ theadvocate.com.

‘Afterlife’looks at howauthors’ work liveson

BY DOUG GRAHAM Staff writer

“Afterlife: The StrangeFate of Literary Remains,”byDavid Wyatt,Louisiana State University Press, 252 pages

Unlike many other forms of art, works of literature never seem to rest.

Can you imagine if someone decided to tweak the smile on the Mona Lisa? Or add a pair of boxer shorts to Michelangelo’s David (although some have tried)? The only comparable art form that undergoes regular change after its release to thepublic is film, but those alterationsare less common, unless George Lucas is involved.

Publishing the written word has always been afluid exercise, going from the author to an editor or two —ormore before finding its way to the printing press, or now awebsite. And this creative process cancontinue even after the author has passed this life. AuthorDavid Wyatt explores this sometimes winding roadtopublication in “Afterlife: The Strange Fate of Literary Remains.”

He examines how anumber of famous works found their way to the page, sometimes with no input from the author at all.

When Ernest Hemingway died by suicide in July 1961, his work after World War II had been described as a“faltering career,” Wyatt writes. However,his wife Mary found atrove of unpublished manuscripts that contained what would become books, including “A Movable Feast,” “Islands in the Stream,” and “The Garden of Eden.”

Each was shaped by editors, as Wyatt points out that Hemingway did not see most of the works as finished products. Put together,they shift the perception of Hemingway’s creative output in the last 15 years of his life intoa differentlight, accordingto Wyatt. The works of Emily Dickinson found similarlife, although none of the poet’s works had been published before her death in 1886. Wyatt tells of the battle over Dickinson’swork, known as the “War Between the Houses,” involving differing sides of her family.This led to her skirmishes over publishing her work, including hundreds of poems, akerfuffle that continued into the digital age. Another problem with publishing Dickinson’swork was that no one seemed tobe able to decipher the series of dashes that servedasmany forms of punctuation in her

work, which made it difficult to translatethemto the print page. This hasled tosome tomesthat feature photographic facsimiles of her originalmanuscripts. No debates over editing needed there. Otherauthors featured in Wyatt’s book were simply unable tolet go of their work or find asatisfying conclusion before they died.

Of course, writers are their own editors, going backover their work to revise passages and add details, much like we rework memories in our minds. English poet William Wordsworth began his poem “The Prelude” when he was 28 years old, expanding it over the years, altering some parts as he aged and grew anew perspective. Thefinal version of “The Prelude” was published three months after Wordsworth’s deathin1850, and Wyatt describes how scholars have pored over the hundreds of pages ever since, developing new editions using different versions of the author’s words put on the page over the years.

For Ralph Ellison, completing his follow-up to “Invisible Man,” for which he became the first Black author to win the U.S. NationalBook Award for Fiction in 1953, proved to be an impossibletask. Although he wrotethousands of pages and spent years agonizing over the work, he was unable to completeit, Wyatt writes.

Apparently, the fast-changing worldkept outpacing the themeshewas trying to address. Parts of his would-be novel have been published in different forms, but the authorwas never able towrite the coda himself.

In addition to discussing the editing decisions thatwent into these publications, Wyatt takesthe time to describe them, so areader unfamiliar with aparticular author’s works can get asense of their meaning and impact.His analysis of the differing versions of WilliamShakespeare’s “King Lear” goes far deeper thanwhat anyone would gatherfrom apresentation on page or stage. For those who love the writtenword, “Afterlife” offers abehind-the-scenes look that deepens appreciation of how these works were created and recreated.

Email Doug Graham at doug. graham@theadvocate.com.

‘KingofZydeco’

atribute to La.Grammywinner

BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF

Contributingwriter

“The King of Zydeco: The Life, Music, and Legacy of Clifton Chenier,’”byTodd Mouton, 207 pages

Avid fans of the late, great accordionist, vocalist, composer and innovator Clifton Chenier will surely savor therich mix of musical, factual and quotable ingredients in “The King of Zydeco.” The carefully researched biography’svivid telling of Chenier’srise from his southwest Louisianacountry rootstointernational royalty offers plenty of tasty bitsfor acasual music enthusiast as well.

Few could resist first checking out the black-and-white snapshotsofChenier and the many old-school posters advertising his gigs, as well as pictures of 45 rpmsscattered throughout “The King of Zydeco: The Life, Music and Legacy of Clifton Chenier.” Included are many photos of the always smiling Chenier,strapped into his beautiful, hefty,keyboard-style, chromatic accordion, either alone or with his older brother and frottier (rubboard) man Cleveland Chenier,plus those that capture him fronting his bands during his almost fourdecade-long career.The visuals are both an appetizer and the hot sauce for the narrative to come.

Author Todd Mouton, ajournalist and musician with many impressive credits in boosting themusic of southwest Louisiana, dug deeply for some20years to follow thetrail blazed by Chenier during his creation of the vibrant hybrid of blues, Cajun, R&B, country and soul that came together as zydeco music.

Mouton relied on recorded interviews with Chenier,band members, record producers, artists who felt Chenier’s influence, including membersofthe Rolling Stones, plus manymore from an array of musical genres.

As it turned out, the book was published right on timetocel-

AUTHOR TALK

WHEN: Sept. 23

WHERE: NewOrleans Jazz Museum, 400 Esplanade Ave., NewOrleans

ebrate the 100th anniversary of Chenier’sbirth on June 25, 1925. He passed away Dec.12, 1987. Rulerofthe zydeco nation Chenier eventually and rightfully ruled the zydeco nation. He went on to earn aGrammy and aLifetime Achievement Award from theorganization, and he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Through Mouton’sextensive research, readers learn just how hard he worked forit. The road was rough when Chenier and his band packed his van, pulling a trailer full of equipment to leave his homestate of Louisiana and head to California. There, many ex-residents of the Bayou State were eager to hear themusic of theirmemories and hearts.

The ruts along the waywere due not onlytothe dirt roads and bumpy pavement but the presence of Jim Crow.Never deterred, Chenier on arrival would jump on abandstand and play his now legendary marathon-length shows withouttaking abreak. His love of the music and determination to succeed drove him to spread his nameand zydeco music around the globe.

At Chenier’sfirst appearance at the 1970 NewOrleans Jazz &Heritage Festival, which

was held in Congo Square, jazz archivist Dick Allen scored an amusing interview.Chenier,who spoke both English and French Creole, attempted to define what the word zydeco meant. “Zydeco en pas sale is no salt in my snap beans. Yousee, it’sthat simple,” Chenier explained, as he undoubtedly had hundreds, if not thousands of times.

DiggingintoChenier’s history

Audiophiles will appreciate the in-depth information on Chenier’s albums: labels, dates, song lists and the names of the members of each band. In amore simplified approach, Mouton also includes a number of “Suggested Listening” pages that offer easy access for those ready to hear what they’ve been reading about.

Chenier’slinks to NewOrleans were always solid and perhaps never moreevident than revealed on his first big hit, the 1955 single on Specialty Records,“Eh, Petite Fille.”

Mouton traces the mystery of its origins to the legendary Professor Longhair,Henry Roeland Byrd, and his song “Hey Little Girl,” recorded in 1949, though it wasn’treleased until twoyears later on Atlantic Deluxe. “(T)he tune seemstohave traveled a fewmiles before Clifton reinterpreted it,” Mouton writes.

An eye-opening, or perhaps better stated, an ear-opening fact that rhythm and blues icon, the great vocalist Etta James traveled with Chenier’sband for about ayear when she was still underage. “I met Etta James in 1955,” Chenier remembered, “Her namewas Etta, but Icall her Eddie. Oh, yes.”

James once recalled when the police pulled Chenier and company over because they thought she was aWhite woman.She had to pull somepapers out and say to the cops, “No, I’mnoWhite woman.I’m colored.”

“The King of Zydeco —The Life, Music and Legacy of Clifton Chenier” is alove story celebrating the rhythm and soul that thundered from the master’sgorgeous accordion and shone as brightly as the sparkling diamond set in his front tooth.

Contact GeraldineWyckoffat gwnomusic@yahoo.com.

Guillermo del Toro to auction off movie memorabilia

Filmmaker nearly lost it all in Calif wildfires

BY ITZEL LUNA Associated Press

SANTA MONICA, Calif. Many

fled when wildfires devastated Los Angeles earlier this year but Guillermo del Toro rushed back in, determined to save his lifelong collection of horror memorabilia.

It’s the same loyalty that finds him making another tough decision to protect the items he loves like family: letting some of them go. Del Toro partnered with Heritage Auctions for a three-part auction to sell a fraction of a collection that is bursting at the seams. Online bidding for the first part on Sept. 26 started last week and includes over 100 items, with more headed to the auction block next year

“This one hurts. The next one, I’m going to be bleeding,” del Toro, 60, said of the auction series “If you love somebody you have estate planning, you know, and this is me estate planning for a family that has been with me since I was a kid.”

Del Toro is one of the industry’s most respected filmmakers, whose fascination with monsters and visual style will shape generations to come. But at his core, the Mexican-born horror buff is a collector The Oscar-winner has long doubled as the sole caretaker of the “Bleak House” — which stretches across two and a half Santa Monica homes nearly overflowing with thousands of ghoulish creatures, iconic comic drawings and paintings, books and movie props.

The houses function not just as museums, but as libraries and workspaces where his imagination bounces off the oxbloodpainted walls.

“I love what I have because I live with it I actually am a little nuts, because I say hi to some of the lifesize figures when I turn on the light,” del Toro told The Associated Press, sitting in the dining room of one of the houses, now a sanctuary for “Haunted Mansion” memorabilia. “This is curated. This is not a casual collection.”

The auction includes behind-the-scene drawings and one-of-a-kind props from del Toro’s own classics, as well as iconic works like Bernie Wrightson’s illustrations for “Frankenstein” and Mike Mignola’s pinup artwork for “Hellraiser.”

Race to save horror history

In January del Toro had only a couple hours, his car and a few helping hands to save key pieces from the fires. Out of the more than 5,000 items in his collection, he managed to move only about 120 objects. It wasn’t the first time, as fires had come dangerously close to Bleak House twice before.

The houses were spared, but fear consumed him. If a fire or earthquake swallowed them, he thought, “What came out of it? You collected insurance? And what happened to that little segment of Richard Corben’s life, or Jack Kirby’s craft, or Bernie Wrightson’s life?”

An auction, del Toro said, gives him peace of mind, as it ensures the items will land in the hands of another collector who will protect the items as he has. These are not just props or trinkets, he said, but “historical artifacts. They’re pieces of audiovisual history for humanity.” And his life’s mission has been to protect as much of this history as he can.

“Look, this is in reaction to the fires. This is in reaction to loving this thing,” del Toro told the AP

The initial auction uncovers who del Toro is as a collector, he said. Upcoming parts will expose how the filmmaker thinks, which he called a much more personal endeavor The auction isn’t just a “piece of business,” for him, but rather a love letter to collectors everywhere, and encouragement

to think beyond a movie and “learn to read and write film design in a different way That’s my hope.”

House full of ‘unruly kids’

Caring for the Bleak House collection feels like being on “a bus with 160 kids that are very unruly, and I’m driving for nine hours,” del Toro said. “I gotta take a rest.”

The auction will give the filmmaker some breathing room from the collection’s arduous maintenance.

The houses must stay at a certain temperature, without direct sunlight — all of which is monitored solely by del Toro who often spends most of his day there.

He selects the picture frame for every drawing, dusts all the artifacts and arranges every bookshelf mostly himself, having learned his lesson from the handful of times he allowed outside help. One time, del Toro said, he found someone “cleaning an oil painting with Windex, and I almost had a heart attack.”

“It’s very hard to have someone come in and know why that trinket is impor-

tant,” he said. “It’s sort of a very bubbled existence. But you know, that’s what you do with strange animals you put them in small environments where they can survive. That’s me.”

Each room is organized by theme, with one room dedicated to each of his major works, from “Hellboy” to “Pacific Rim.” Del Toro typically spends his entire work day at one of the houses, which he picks depending on the task at hand.

The “Haunted Mansion” dining room, for instance, is an excellent writing space.

“If I could, I would live in the Haunted Mansion,” he said. “So, this is the second best.”

Building mini Bleak House

In selecting which items to sell, del Toro said he “wanted somebody to be able to recreate a mini version of Bleak House.”

Auction items include concept sketches and props

from del Toro’s 1992 debut film, “Cronos,” all the way to his more recent works, like 2021’s “Nightmare Alley.”

The starting bids vary, from $2,000 up to hundreds of thousands.

One of Wrightson’s drawings for a 1983 illustrated version of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is the highest-priced item, starting at $200,000.

The auction also includes art from comic legends like Richard Corben, Jack Kirby and H.R. Giger, whose work del Toro wrote in the catalog “represent the pinnacle of comic book art in the last quarter of the 20th century.”

A Ray Harryhausen ‘Cyclops’ model is one of the items up for auction.

Other cultural touchstones in illustration that are represented in the auction include rare images from the 1914 short film “Gertie the Dinosaur,” one of the earliest animated films, and original art for “Sleeping Beauty” by Eyvind Earle and Kay Nielsen. “As collectors, you are basically keeping pieces of culture for generations to come. They’re not yours,” del Toro said. “We don’t know which of the pieces you’re holding is going to be culturally significant 100 years from now, 50 years from now So that’s part of the weight.”

AT THE TABLE

Steamedmussels getbitefromspicy Italiansausage

BY GRETCHEN MCKAY Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

If you like eating and cooking foods from across the globe, you’ll probably agree that sometimes the one ingredient that makes acertain dish singisone youcan’teasily pronounce if you don’tspeak that country’s language.

For me, that includesanything that gets asavory heat with ‘nduja (pronounced en-DOO-ya), asoft and spicy sausage made with small but mighty sun-dried chilies fromthe Calabriaregion of Southern Italy

The fatty ground pork that makes the spreadable salume such atasty topping for pizzaand pasta melts when it is heated up in apan, bloomingthe Calabrian chile in the sausage’s own fat.

The result not only imbues the dish with aflaming red hue that bleeds onto your fingers, if you’re not careful —but addsa spicy,umami-rich flavor that is quite addictive.

In this recipe adapted from Serious Eats, the sausage gives aspicy kick to mussels steamed in dry white wine (I used sauvignon blanc, which also is good for pairing with the finished dish) along with sauteed shallot and garlic. Agood squeeze of lemon along with itszest addsto its bright finish.

To serve, you definitely need a crusty,quality bread —such as sourdough or abaguette, hopefully toasted —tosoak upthe broth. Mussels are best prepared and eaten the day you buy them. When cooking them, be sure to discard any that are cracked or don’tclose when tapped with another mussel. To remove grit, scrub shellswellunder cold running water.Toremove beards (thatlook like wispsof hair trapped between theshells) grab and pull toward the hingeend of the mussel. Youcan find ‘nduja at most Italianmarkets. While unopened logs can last severalmonths in the fridgeor pantry,once opened, it should be refrigerated to prevent it from dryingout and absorbingother flavors.

Steamed mussels and ‘nduja Serves 2

1tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2largeshallots, thinly sliced 2garliccloves, thinly sliced Kosher salt

2ounces‘nduja (about 1/4 cup)

1cup drywhite wine

1pound mussels, scrubbed and debearded

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves Juice and zest from1lemon

Toastedbread, forserving

1. In alarge saucepan, heat oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add shallots and garlic, season lightly with salt, and cook, stirring frequently,until softened but not brown, 5-7 minutes.

2. Add ‘nduja and, using a wooden spoon, break it into pieces and stir vigorously to combine with shallots and garlic.

3. Continue to cook, stirring frequently,until fat from ‘nduja separates and shallots and garlic are stained red and fully coated with ‘nduja, 3-5 minutes longer.Add wine, increase heat to high and bring to aboil.

4. Add mussels, stir,cover pan with alid and cook, shaking pan constantly and peeking every 30 seconds to stir Cook just until all the mussels are open, 2-4 minutes. Remove from heat, and using tongs, quickly transfer to a warmed heatproof serving bowl. Discard any mussels that did not open.

5. Cover mussels with saucepan lid to keep warm

6. Add chopped parsley lemon juice and zest to saucepan and stir to combine.

7. Taste broth and adjust seasoning with salt, if needed. To serve: Remove lid from the serving bowl, and pour contents of saucepan over mussels. Serve immediately,passing toasted bread at the table along with alarge empty bowl forcollecting empty mussel shells.

By The Associated Press

Today is Sunday,Aug. 31, the243rd day of 2025. There are 122 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed after the car shewas riding in crashed in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul(who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died.

Also on this date:

In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of up to 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people.

In 1962, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent of British colonial rule.

In 1980, Poland’sSolidaritylabor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that endeda 17-day-old strike.

In 1992, White separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Idaho, ending an 11-day siege byfederal agents that had claimed thelives of Weaver’swife, son and adeputy U.S. marshal In 1994, Russiaofficially endedits military presenceinthe former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century In 2006, Edvard Munch’spainting “The Scream” was recovered by Norwegian authorities after beingstolen nine days earlier

In 2010, President Barack Obama announced the end of theU.S.combat mission in Iraq, declaring novictory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over thewar in his country and around the world: “it’s time to turn the page.”

In 2019, agunman carried outa shooting rampage that stretched 10 miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leavingseven people deadbeforepolice killed the gunman outside amovie theater in Odessa.

Today’sbirthdays: World Golf Hall of Famer Isao Aoki is 83. Violinist Itzhak Perlmanis80. Singer VanMorrison is 80. Rock musicianRudolf Schenker (The Scorpions) is 77. Actor Richard Gere is 76. Actor StephenMcKinley Henderson is 76. Attorneyand author Marcia Clark is 72. Olympic gold medal hurdler Edwin Moses is 70. Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 68. Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go’s) is 68. Singer-composerDeborah Gibsonis 55.Queen Rania of Jordan is 55. Golfer Padraig Harrington is 54. Actor Chris Tucker is 54. ActorSara Ramirez is 50. Former NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is 42. NBA All-Star Jalen Brunson is 29.

Wild collegedayshaveresurfacedonline

bands? We don’tknow how mostmen would react to having an old video of their nude wives show up online!

Dear Miss Manners: Ihave been married to avery sweet guy for over 15 years now Ihave never made ahabit of keeping secrets from him,and we have avery honest relationship. However,mylifelong friend recently discovered that something from our college days has surfaced online. It’sa video of myfriend and me participating in a wet T-shirt contest during spring break. In an effort to win,weactually both lost our shirts …and bottoms and got totally naked during the event. We even gave each other alittle smack on thebootynear the end of the contest.

Well, now it’sonline. On one hand, we think, “Oh well, at least we look good, and it’sfrom along time ago.” On theother hand, it’sa bit embarrassing —especially for me, because my husband would find this to be totally surprising and out of character for me.

Shouldmyfriend and Itell our hus-

GentleReader: Better coming from you than having it sent to them by astranger forhush money Miss Manners thereforeencourages you to get to him first,laughing it off and attributingittothe folly of youth.

No doubt your husband has blemishes in his own past that he wouldprefer to forget —ofwhich you might remind him, if he acts anything other than quietly bemused.

Dear Miss Manners: We used to have nextdoor neighbors we were extremely close with. We had meals together once or twice aweek, and even watched their 2-yearold twins for aweekend when they had to leave for afuneral.

They started distancing themselves from us due to politics, and eight years ago, they moved away without even saying goodbye. Recently,out of the blue, we received some random text messages from the wife, and then, by mail, we received graduation announcements for

Findingplacestolookfor

each of their boys. Given the break in the friendship, which wasnot our choice, are we obligated to send gifts? Iamhappy to send anice note congratulating them on their graduation, but my partner feels we should send gifts.

Gentle Reader: Amilestone announcement is not asubpoena forgifts.

Well, Miss Manners should clarify: It should not be received as one, whether or not that was its sender’strue intent. If your former neighbors really wanted to makeaconnection with you again, they would have invited you to the ceremony or graduation party.Then you might have wanted to give the graduates presents. If you do decide to send apresent anyway, Miss Manners trusts it will not be a political donation to your preferred party —however tempting that may be. Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO64106.

Dear Heloise: Just asuggestion: Instead of turning away unwanted yearbooks, they could possiblybestored for someone like me whohas lost two years of my yearbooks. There could be alist of people who are looking for acertain yearbook, and they could register on it what it it is that they need. Then when someone comes in with ayearbook donation,this list could be checked to see if someone was looking for this year and notify them that it is available. —Betty B.,inChampion, Ohio Betty,this is agreat idea. Sometimes yearbooks get lost, but people want thememories they contain. Youmight try contacting Classmates.com to see if they get requests from people for yearbooks If not, maybe they would be interested in starting somethinglike this for their members. —Heloise Areader’sfavorite hints

Dear Heloise: I’mnot sure where Isaw this tip, but it is

one of my favorites: If you are traveling with your own pillow, be sure to use acolorful pillowcase. It stands out from hotel or Airbnb bedding, and you won’tleave it behind. Another favorite is saving butter wrappers in the fridge to grease baking dishes. —Betsy H., via email Betsy, Ithink Iknow where you got theidea for butter wrappers. It was one of my mother’s favorite hints. She loved recycling things and hated waste. Thank you for rememberingthis handy and useful idea! —Heloise Sanitizing hint

Dear Heloise: Ihave been painting for aweek now,but back on day one when Iwas cleaning up, Ireached for the hand soap pumpand hit thehand sanitizer pumpinstead. So, I washed my paintyhands with it, and it amazingly and quickly removed all thepaint from my hands. No using ascrub brush or hard rubbing —just regular washing. Then Itried it on afew spots on the floor,and it worked just as well. Since then, Ihave used it every day when Iclean up.

Like with all good discoveries, the results of one person needs to be duplicated. Iurge yourreaders whoare currently painting to try it and report back. This might be another use forhand sanitizer —Margaret, in Buena Park, California Margaret, this is agreat hint! When Ipaint something, Iusually wearapair of latex gloves. This way, Iwon’thave any paint in the areas between my nails andthe skin next to my nails. —Heloise Reusingplastic bags

Dear Heloise: Iregularly use large tortillas to makewrap sandwiches. The brand Iget comes in aresealable zip-close bag. When the bag is empty,I turn it inside out, brush off the crumbs, and let it stay inside out to makesure that any moisture has dried. Then Iturn it back to normal and store it with other storage products. Iuse them forshaking/coating foods before frying or baking. Ialso place chicken in them when making chicken cutlets or when crushing nuts. The bags work great, and reusing them cuts downonplastic use andthe cost of zip-close

bags. Ilove your column. Thanks! —MelodyS via email Melody,I always love agreat recycling hint, and yours is a very good one! We all need to cut downon plastic and use paper when we can. Inolonger use plastic grocery bags. Iask forpaper bags and fill them with items that need to be recycled. Then Ipick up the paper bag and the itemsinside and toss it in the recycle bin.

HowdoI leave?

Dear Heloise: Iwant to quit my current job, but Ialso wantto leave on good terms. How can Isay “goodbye” and not offend my boss? —Peggy,inMassachusetts Peggy,besure to give atwoweeknotice that you are leaving. Speak to your boss first before telling anyone else that you’re leaving.

Offertotrain the person who is replacing you. Thank your boss forthe opportunity of working there. It’s best to leave on good termswith your boss and former co-workers. —Heloise

Send ahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

Plaqemines LNGmakes itscasefor expansion

U.S. SecretaryofEnergyChris Wright greetsworkers at Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG exportfacilityonMarch6after VentureGlobal, along withlocal, state and national officials, announced its plan to expand the massivePlaquemines LNG facility

BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer

Venture Global laid out its plans earlier this year for an $18 billion expansion of its liquifiednaturalgas export terminalnearPort Sulphur, aprojectthat’sexpected to take nearly five years andinvolve thousands of workers.

Now,federal regulators are combing throughthe public’sthoughts on theproject as part of apermitting processthe company must clear before construction can begin. Thepublic commentperiod, which ended Thursday,isrequired as Venture Global

VentureGlobal leadershave bigplans for1,000-acreproject, but firsttheymustsecure supportfromregulators ä See EXPANSION,

seeksapproval from the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission—a five-member body appointed by thepresident andconfirmed by the U.S. Senate. That process startswith an environmental review In coming months, staff at the regulator will prepareadocument outliningthe environmental impacts of the expansion thatwill then be sharedwithFERCmembersand used to determine whether the project is in thepublic interest Constructionofthe PlaqueminesLNG expansionwould involve the use of more than

Some reinventingworkspace amid return-to-o

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

Every Wednesday,dozens of the 90 employees who work at International-MatexTankTerminals’ downtown New Orleans office gather for aweekly, catered lunch in the company’s29thfloor common space, which is lined with awallofwindows overlooking Poydras Street below Accounting folks sit next to co-workers from human resourcesormarketing departments, whilemembers of the executive team visit with new and younger employees in what company officials say is an effective way to build

astronger corporateculture

effort to increase productivity and get co-workerstalking to each other,face-to-face.

“Being in the officecreates asense of communityamong employees, and theweekly lunches help strengthen relationships,” saidKim Nave, IMTT’soffice administrator.“It’s an opportunity to sit with people from other departments and get toknowone another.”

IDEAS INNOVATION &

Thecoronavirus pandemic sent office workers home andushered in a new era of remotework that promised to redefine the way professionalsdobusiness. Five yearslater, companies that allowed remote workare increasingly callingemployees back to theircubicles in an

Since the beginning of the year,JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, AT&T and the federal government, among others, have done away with work-fromhome policies,while other large employers, like Southwest andIBM,havegoneto hybrid schedulesthatrequire employees to spend more days in the officethan not. Around thecountry, small and medium-sized employers arefollowing suit. In south Louisiana,whichoften lags nationaltrends, the return to the officehas been more gradual. But real estate brokers say thereisanuptick of 15%-20%

From dating appstostreaming,canceling asubscriptionshouldbeeasier

It was supposed to be ariskfree offer,achance to find alove match.

But for many,the search for companionship turned intoafrustrating endeavor to cancel their online dating subscription.

That’swhat the FederalTrade Commission alleged in alawsuit against Match Group, which has aportfolio of online dating companies that includes Match.com, Tinder,Hinge and OkCupid.

That suit, filed in 2019, was settled earlier this month withMatch agreeing to pay $14 million related to acomplaint that it stymied customers’ efforts to cancel their memberships or take advantage of afree six-month trial if they did not “meet someone special.” Others were locked out of their accountswhen they tried to dispute their bills, the complaintsaid.

Match agreed,amongother things, to provide asimpleway for consumers to cancel theirsubscriptions.

“Match Group admits no liability as part of this resolution and was fully prepared to take the case to trial, but opted to resolve the case to put the matter behind it,” the company said in an emailed statement. “The FTC’soutdated claims are entirely moot, as the alleged practicesatissue ended years ago or are based on mischaracteriza-

Michelle

Singletary THE COLOR OF MONEy

tionsthat do not reflect ourbusiness today ”

Whileit’snot clear how much people will receive, themoney will be used “toprovide redress to injured consumers,” theFTC said.

Here’swhy this casematters.

It’sanexampleofwhy we need strong government watchdog agencies. And yet the shuttering of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau underthe Trump administration puts the American public at risk of seeing fewer of these types of actions.

Agencies like the CFPB and FTC are our advocates againstbad industry players who take advantageofconsumers.

Recently, afederal appeals court blocked plans by the FTC to clamp down on companies that make it hard for customers to cancel subscriptions.

Icertainly hope the FTC takes up theissue again. It’snot too much to ask that consumersbe abletocut off recurring billing when they want.

Often at the coreofthese subscription or membership cases are “negative option” offersinwhich aconsumer agrees to afree trial or to regularly receive aproduct or service until they say,“that’s enough.” That’swherethe negative partcomes in. The billing only stopsifyou take action to cancel.

Negative-option offersaren’t illegal, but they can pushthe boundaries of the law,which requires companies toclearly and conspicuously discloseterms and not useunfair methodstoavoid granting the consumer’srequest to cancel.

I’ve long been critical of these offersbecause people forget to cancel or,worse, they can’tstop theautomatic billing even when they try

The actions go againstthe Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, under which companies must provide “simple mechanisms for aconsumer to stop recurring charges from being placed on theconsumer’s credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account.”

Has this happened to you?

Youforget to cancel after atrial period, but when you realizeyou madeamistakeornolonger want or need theservice or product, you can’tstop theautomatic billing becauseyou can’tfind the

WORKSPACE

Continued from page1E

in the number of cars in downtown and Metairie officetower parking garages during the middle ofthe week, which offers aglimmer of hope for an office market sector that has been battered by the pandemic.

“The days of downsizing headcount are over,and the garages are more full than they were two years ago,” said Cres Gardner,abroker with Beau Box who manages four downtown New Orleans office towers and two in Elmwood. “But Mondays and, especially,Fridays are still light.”

Bringing people back

While remote work proved effective enough when social distancing was amatter of public health, after the pandemic ended, agrowing number of corporate executives began to call for areturn tothe office. Workers, they argued,simply weren’tas productive fromthe comfort of their kitchen table.

Earlier this year,JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sounded off on atown hall with some of Chase’s350,000 workers about the shortcomingsofremote work, saying it hinders innovation,slowsdecision-making and fails to adequately train younger workers. Local executives say thebanking executive, who is building a new60-storyChaseheadquarters in downtown Manhattan, is onto something.

“I really do believe, andI’m oldschool, that being with people is extraordinarilyimportant and effective,” said Bill Hines, managing partner of Jones Walker,whichhas more than 300employees in downtown New Orleans. “I’d say 90% of our attorneys and all of ourstaff are back in the office every day.”

As oneofthe largest law firms in the region, Jones Walker has awindow on the work habits of some of the area’slargest employers. Hines said, like Jones Walker and IMTT, most of those employers have some sort of return-to-office policy, though most offer some degree of flexibility

“Some of the biggest companies in New Orleans thatwentpartially remote and stayed partially remote claim it is working for them,” he said. “So, for the foreseeable future,

Ithink many companies in our region will stay that way.”

Small employers are also callingworkers back. In Lafayette, SchoolMint moved into its recently renovated headquarters building last week. Though employees have beengradually returning to the tech company’soffice since2022, now that its building projectiscomplete, workers will be expected to show up in person every day

“I can already see thebenefits,” company CEOBryan McDonald saidTuesday.“I’mbumping into peopleIhaven’ttalked to in months, and we’re solvingthings in five minutesthatusedtotakeustwo days and a30-minuteZoom call.

Office marketseeschanges

Other businesses have done the same of late,and it’sled to aslight increase inactivityfor commercial spaces, said Rex Moroux, commercial real estateagent with Scout Real Estate in Lafayette

Bill Sanders of Lee&Associates, whotracks theBaton Rougeoffice market,saidthe capital regionoffice market has also seen an uptick in activity,with employers leasing spaceinnew buildingsthatoffer amenities like fitness centers.

In Metairie, cafe vendors at the Galleria and One Lakeway are experiencing such highdemand that some run out of food daily and have to bring in additional staff, according to Colette Wharton, regional director/asset manager at the Feil Organization, which ownsand manages severalMetairie officetowers. Feilrecently completedanextensive renovation of the lobby,com-

contact information. Or maybe the cancellation policiesare buried on thewebsite. Or when you call, you’re routed through an automated telephone system thatseems to have been specifically designed to wear down your resolve.

Agood example is the learning app ABCmouse, which agreed in 2020 to settle an FTC complaint that it refusedtoaccept cancellation requests made over the phone, via email or through aform on its website. Instead, people who wanted to cancel were directed to an inconspicuous portalonthe website, where they had to navigateanywhere from six to nine screens. The company paid $10 million but didn’tadmit any guilt.

Thesesettlements are areminder of steps you can take to avoid being stuck in one of these deals. Here’swhatthe FTC recommends:

n Make anote on your calendar to remind yourself to cancel before your subscriptiontrial ends.

n If you have to payfor shipping, it’s not free. I’ve talked to manyconsumers who thought they were providing their credit cardinformation to cover shipping and handling —but instead werecharged for products and services theyhadn’tordered. “If acompany offers something free

EXPANSION

Continued from page1E

but says you have to pay to get it, at best it’sadishonest business youmight notwant to deal with,” the FTC says. “At worst, it might be ascammer.” n Payattention to pre-checked boxes. Youmight be agreeing to future automatic charges.

n Before signing up, look around the site to see how easy it is to cancel. Is there an easily disclosed contact number for cancellations?

Ishould have heeded that last piece of advice foranews subscription Isigned up forlast year After several attempts, Ihad trouble accessing the site for certain articles. Igot so frustrated, Idecided to cancel. I’m not exaggerating when Itell youittook about an hour to figure out who to call. And Ihad to call. There was no online option to cancel, despite the fact that it took less than a few minutes to electronically subscribe Iwas finally able to cancel the billing. But I’m still getting weekly emails begging me to return. One suchoffer promisedIwould be charged only $3 for a12-month subscription.

“No, sir,” Isaid to myself. Youwill not trap me again. Email Michelle Singletary at michelle.singletary@washpost. com.

mon areas andtenant lounge spaces at theGalleria andalso made improvements at OneLakeway.Itis currently working on upgrades at Lakeway Two. Wharton saidthe enhancements have changedhow people use the building.

“We’re seeing more employees stepout of their offices to work, meet or relax in thesharedspaces,” shesaid.

‘Not what it wasin2019’

While catered companylunches, on-siteworkout facilities and shiny newlobbiesmakelife at theoffice more pleasant, brokers caution that thingsare not what they were prepandemic.

“It’sbetter than it was two years ago,”said Gardner. “It’snot what it wasin2019.”

They alsosay that while amenities can make adifference, the biggest incentive to get employees backtothe officeistogive themat least alittleflexibility.Nationwide, more thantwo-thirds of employers surveyedearlierthis yearallowfor some sort of hybrid schedule

IMTT gives employees the option to work fromhomeonFridays. Most employees, Nave said, take it.

“It helps with thework-life balance,” she said. “It conveys to our employees that theleadership team trusts themtoget thejob done regardless of where they are.”

Staff writers Adam Daigle, Tim Boone and Ianne Salvosa contributedtoreporting thisstory

Email Stephanie Riegelat stephanie.riegel@theadvocate. com.

1,000 acres of land near Mile 54 of the Mississippi River on the West Bank of Plaquemines Parish, adjacent to the existing facility,according to afiling with FERC.That includes around 560 acres for the “expansion, marine berth, and workspace” and another 586acres fora“temporary workspace to ease traffic constraintsfrom construction.” Venture Global would maintain about400 acres for permanent operations once construction is complete,and theremaining acreage “would be restored and revert to former uses,” FERC said. The expansion would boost thefacility’soutputtonearly52 metric tons of LNG. When Venture Globalannounced its plan to expand the massive Plaquemines LNGfacility in March at an event featuringGov.Jeff Landry and top Trump administration officials, theycheered the investment as ajob creator and pillar of thepresident’s push to increase already record-setting domestic oil and gas production Construction on the first phase of Venture Global’sPlaquemines LNGplant began in 2021, and at its peak, employed 6,000 construction workers. It kicked off production in 2024, and has been touted as an importantelement of U.S. foreign policy and nationalsecurity,as energy importers, particularly countries in Europe, seek to wean themselves fromRussian supplies. At the same time,the fossilfuel megaproject and others like it have faced scrutiny from environmental groups and some residents, whoargue the multibillion-dollar investment locks in decades worth of planet-warming emissions, contributes to poor local air quality and creates astrain on water and other local services due to the influx of workers.

Federal regulators have begun combingthrough public comments as partofapermitting process Venture Global mustclear before construction canbegin on an $18 billionexpansion of itsliquified natural gasexport terminal near Port Sulphur

ment of Energy under President Joe Biden said that in coming decades,the continuedexpansion of LNG export terminals could lead to higher prices forU.S. consumers, moregreenhouse gas emissions and strains on poor and non-White areas near the plants. Aftertakingoffice in January,President Donald Trump signed an executive order lifting the Biden-era pause andpromising to fast-trackpermitting.

U.S. exports of LNG beganless than adecade agobut have grown rapidly in recent years, to thepoint that the U.S. has become theworld’slargest gasexporter Louisiana handled more than 60%of thenation’sLNG exports in 2024.

Venture Global is planning to begin construction in 2027. The project will require 6,000 construction workers at its peak and will employ 275 permanent workers, with an average salary of around $150,000, the company said.

Localconcerns

Last week, environmental groups filed alawsuit asking a federal appealscourt to stop the construction of VentureGlobal’s $28 billion CP2 LNG export terminalinCameron Parish, arguing that Louisiana’s decisionto issue permits forthe project violated the Clean Air Act.

Arapid increase in exports

LNG export terminals convert gasinto liquid by supercooling it, allowing it to be loaded on to tankers andtaken to import terminals in Europe andAsia,where it is then reheated into gas and distributedtohouseholds and businesses.

U.S. exports of LNG began less than adecade ago but have grown rapidly in recentyears, to the point that the U.S. hasbecomethe world’slargest gas exporter.Louisiana handled morethan 60% of thenation’sLNG exports in 2024.

Last year,the Bidenadministration put apause on approving newexport permits for LNG plants, in part to study their effectsonclimate change. An analysis released by theDepart-

Plaquemines Parish President Keith Hinkley,who backs the expansion, said in an interview he is hopefulthatissues that came withthe first phaseofconstruction will be better this time around. He thinks traffic won’t be as muchofaproblem now that the Belle Chasse tollbridge is open.

He’salsohopingthe Peters Road bridge and extension project is completed before the expansion begins. Congestion caused by thesimultaneousconstruction of toll bridge and LNG export terminal in 2021 ledto hourslong traffic snarls.

“I thinkwiththisexpansion, it’s not going to be that bad,”Hinkley said.

FERC gathered public comment through Aug. 28 to help determine thescopeofits environmental review. Thepublicwill have another chance to weigh in once the report is drafted.

As of Monday, the regulatory body hadalready received nearly three dozen comments. Much of those comments highlighted Venture Global’scontributions to local economy,while others raised concern about the expansion’simpact on wetlands, water and air quality

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate.com.

TALKING BUSINESS

ASK THEEXPERTS

Bankingexechas unique vantagepoint into economy

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

New Orleansnative LizHefler

Q&A WITH LIZ HEFLER

joined Whitney Bank in 2004, afew monthsaftergraduating from the University of Virginia. Nearly 22 yearslater,she has riseninthe ranks to become Greater NewOrleans regional president of the institution now called Hancock Whitney after a2011 merger with aMississippibased rival.

The $35 billion regional bank is headquarteredinGulfport, Mississippi, and its footprint spreads from Florida to Texas, but nearly athird of its 3,600 employees are located in greater New Orleans. About half of that team works in Hancock Whitney’sdowntown building, 701 Poydras St., the former One Shell Square, whereHefler’scorner office provides apanoramicview of her hometown

Because of itssize and itswork with many of the region’slarge companies andorganizations, Hancock Whitney has aunique vantage point of its own: Its executives know which sectors of the economy are most active based on its commercial lending activity.

In this week’sTalking Business, Hefler shares what she’sseeing in the local marketand why New Orleans must do more to growits economy

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. Hancock Whitney serves some of the region’sbigger companies and organizations

That means you’re seeing who’sbusy and who’snot. What’sthe state of commerce right now?

After aslow start to theyear,activity picked up in the last 40 days. That typically happens,but we’ve been working on loans formonths and then, at the end of July,it seemed like everyone needed their term sheets right away

isn’towned locally.Our building is owned by the Hertz Group out of Dallas, for instance. We do have somedowntown buildings, but therehas to be alocal tiefor us to get involved.

It’s difficulttoget anybankto consider office space. We have 10 empty floors in ourbuilding. Showing back up to work has not come into play for every industry

What else is affecting investment in the region?

The mayoral election is afactor People have their different candidates that they’re going to vote for,but they’re hopefulthatacity that hasnot been very welcoming to new businesses will have somebody they can talk to.

Whoever’s in office isn’tgoing to always be the candidatethat’s 100% pro-business, but there has to be away to have tough discussions.

sive that it makes it tough for smaller banks to stay in business.

AI has been here forawhile, but Ifeel like only recently people are willing to accept the Big Brother aspect of it. Tenyears ago, if businesseswere using cookiestomonitor what people were doing on the computer, they would freak out. Now afterInstagram and other things, people areapparently perfectlyfine withit. It’s like,“Not only am Iokay withit, but why is everything Ilook at not tailored to me?”

People don’t know how much all banks spend on fraud protection, paying millionsuponmillionsof dollarsfor software so that when your transaction history changes, it alerts you that something’soff.

What’sHancockWhitney’sgrowth plan?

$10,000. On the small-banking side, we want to hire more small-business bankers to grow in agranular way. In themiddle marketspace, the goal is to continue to grow loans, deposits and fee income. Oneextra challenge aGulfCoastbank has to deal with is hurricane season.We’reatthe height of it now.How do you suggest businesses and communities prepare?

We’veseen maritime activity including terminals, and adecent amount related to Venture Global’s liquified natural gasoperations.It might be acontractor that needs $20 million for aproject, acement supplier or acompany pulling pipes out and putting new ones in. We also have acompany here that’sgoingtodowork at the Meta data center near Monroe,and someone with aproject related to theHyundaisteelplant in Donaldsonville. These projects will be life-changing for them

In what industries are you seeing the most loan activity?

Hospitality,maritime, health care andhigheredare topofthe list.

Tulaneand Loyola are investing aton in on-campus housing becausethey’ve done thestudy that saysifstudentslive onsite for four years, they have abetter collegelifeand are more likelytobe investedalumni. Commercial real estate has been slow.We’ve donesome hotels, but alot of the real estate downtown

Ialsothink people arehopeful that either theCharityHospital building renovation or the new Shell office building takes off or something else happens to tell peoplethat folks areinvesting in thecity and it’s agood place to be.

Tariffs are another factor.Many business ownershavethat entrepreneurialspirit andtheywantto take that risk, buttheyneedcertainty.Tariffs themselves aren’t theend of the world, but “tariffs, no tariffs, tariffs, no tariffs” is. Pick the numbers, stick with them, and then people can decide if they can make money or not.

How is technology affecting the industry?

The consumer is demanding more. When they log in, they want to seepie charts thatshow how muchthey spent over the last year.When they have to click three thingstopay someone, they’re annoyed, which means banks are going to have to makesure that their app is the freshest technology

There are less banks today than there were 10 years ago. That’s because the amount of money banks will have to spend on technology and compliance is just so expen-

We’re the only regionalbankof our size headquartered in the region, andwe’reactively trying to growbypurchasing, but we have to find the right fit. On the wealth and assetmanagement side, we recently purchasedSabal Trust Co. in Florida.

New Orleans is shrinking, andthe majority of ourassets are in Louisiana and Mississippi. That’snot sustainable. We need new businesses to come to town. We always will have agoal to grow our market share every year On theconsumer side, we wantto grownew checking accountsabove

Make sure you understand the details of your business and personal insurance policies, and make sure you have digital copies. Before storm season hits, makeas much as you can electronic. If you have the cash flow,put your bills on auto debit. Butdohavesome cash on hand. Carry more than one form of payment. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck,think aboutstockpiling a littlebit of savings throughout the other months for that extra tank of gas or an extra $100 or $200 to stay in ahotel room.Evacuating is expensive,and notevery household can afford to do that. From abusiness perspective, make sure your employees are on direct deposit and that you can pay vendors electronically.Tell your employees whatyour plan is so they know there’sajob for them to do and their regular paycheck

On this 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we pausetohonor thelives forever changedbyone of themostdevastating naturaldisasters in American history. Twodecadeshavepassedsincethe stormswept throughNew Orleansand theGulfCoast,leaving behind both ruin andheartbreak, but also countlessinstances of extraordinaryresilience.

As we mark this milestone, we remember thoselost, celebrate thestrengthofsurvivors,and reaffirm ourdedicationtobuilding asafer andstrongerfuturefor our communities.

At JonesWalkerLLP,wecontinuetorecognize theimpactofHurricane Katrinabyfostering unity, strength,and compassion. Maywecarry forwardthe lessonslearned,the memories cherished, and thepromise of abrightertomorrowfor allwho call theGulfCoast home

WilliamH.Hines,ManagingPartner bhines@joneswalker.com 504.582.8000 201St. CharlesAvenue NewOrleans,LA70170-5100

NewOrleans

Gambel Communications recently promoted two employees

TajOdem and Justin Vlosich bothnow have the title of senior communications coordinator

Dr.Russel Hirsch will join Manning Family Children’s as chief of cardiology and co-director of the Heart Center in January Hirschwillalso serve as professor of pediatrics and division head of cardiology in the Department of Pediatricsat LSU

Health New Orleans

Hirsch has served as afaculty member at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for 23 years, with arank of full professor since 2017. Since

Fool’sTake: Consider buying thedip

The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD)

2007, he has served as director of cardiac catheterization and the pulmonary hypertension service at Cincinnati Children’s

He completed his pediatric residency,chief residency and pediatric cardiology training at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by additionaltraining in interventional cardiology at the University of Michigan.

BatonRouge

Jody Caraccioli has been named as the next presidentand chief executive officer of Neighbors Federal Credit Union

Caraccioli will take over leadershipofthe credit union in January 2027. He will replaceCEO Steve Webb, who is transitioning into retirement after a decade of leading the credit union.

Caraccioli has served as chief financial officer of Neighbors since 2008. Before being hired by Neighbors, he was chief financial officer of KeyPointFederal Credit Union. He earned abachelor’sinfinance from Millsaps College and an executivemaster’s in business

content that might bias ad spending on its platform —distinguishes it from larger competitors such as Alphabet’sGoogle, Meta Platforms and Amazon.

administration from Southeastern LouisianaUniversity

Shane P. LaCombe hasbeen hired by Plaquemine Bank and Trust Co. as executivevice president in charge of commercial lending. LaCombe has34 yearsofbanking experience. He has experience in commercial and consumer lending, commercial credit analysisand building business relationships with his clients.

John Graff has been hiredby Kean Miller as director of project management. Graff has almost 30 years of business experience in multiple industries, including financial services,technology and petrochemicals.

The Baton RougeArea Chamber hasa new leadership team for its Business Investment division,the team tasked with attractingnew businesses, supporting existing

companies, anddiversifyingthe regionaleconomy Jayson Newell is now senior vice president of business investment. Newell succeeds Russell Richardson, whowas recently hired as president andCEO of the St. TammanyEconomic Development Corp.Hehas been with BRAC since 2018; before that, he was aproject manager at Louisiana EconomicDevelopment. He earned abachelor’sand amaster’sineconomic development, both from theUniversityof Southern Mississippi. RobbyAbboud is vice president of business investment, process industries. Abboud comesfromLED, where he was director of business development. He earned amaster’s in public administration from LSU. Anthony Bodin is vice president of business investment, technology Bodin previously worked at LED

andGNO Inc. He earned amaster’s in business administrationfromTulane University’s Freeman School of Business. JanetGalati is vice president of business investment, energy. Galati spent seven years with the Jefferson Parish Economic Develo pme nt Corp. and nearly four years with the Montgomery County, PennsylvaniaCommerce Department.She earned abachelor’sand amaster’sinpublic administration,bothfromthe University of SouthFlorida

Adelina Lepine is director of compliance andoperations. She has beenwithBRAC for more than six years. She earned abachelor’s in business administration from the UniversityofLouisiana at Lafayette.

Motley Fool

had its worst day as apublic company on Aug. 8, with sharesdropping nearly 40% as investors processed second-quarter financial results, a new incoming chief financial officer and cautious third-quarter guidance due to tariff uncertainty.Multiple analysts think the market overreacted, though. The Trade Desk recently hadamedian target price of $75 per share, implying 43% upside fromits recent share price of $52. The Trade Desk operates amajor independent cloud-based,artificial intelligence-poweredplatform that helps advertisers plan campaigns and optimize their spending, getting the right ads in front of the right eyeballs. Its independence —meaning it does not own media

The company has consistently taken market share from rivals in digital advertising, and CEO Jeff Green believes that trend will continue for the foreseeable future. Despite the sharp decline in the stock, TheTrade Desk reported reasonably good second-quarter financial results that beat estimates on the top line —revenue rose 19% year over year,to$694 million Patient and risk-tolerant longterm investors might want to take a closer look at The Trade Desk. (The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends The Trade Desk.)

Fool’sSchool:

TheF.I.R.E. strategy

As you plan for retirement, you might want to learn moreabout the F.I.R.E.movement. The acronymstandsfor “Financial Inde-

pendence, Retire Early,” and it’s become amovement of people who save and invest aggressively to retire early —often very early,such as in their 30s or 40s. F.I.R.E. practitioners will typically calculatetheir F.I.R.E. number,which is often their annual expenses multipliedby25. Then they’ll plan to withdraw around 3% to 4% of their nest egg each year in retirement (adjusting each withdrawal for inflation). So someone who spends around $60,000 per year would aim to amass a$1.5million nest egg. And in their first year of retirement,they’dwithdraw around $45,000 to $60,000 from it Allthatismuch easier said than done, which is why F.I.R.E. folks often manage their money in an extremeway,living very,very frugally; some save at least 50% of their income. Atwo-income household might live frugally on one earner’sincome, saving all of the other.Othertactics can include living without acar (orowning only one car),rarely dining out and

renting or owningamuchsmaller home thantheycan afford.They mayalso take on secondjobsor side gigs. There are somevariations of the F.I.R.E. approach to knowabout: The FatF.I.R.E.variation is for those who want to livelarge in retirement and therefore need to build extra-large retirementnest eggs. The Lean F.I.R.E.variation is the opposite, withpractitioners willing to liveaminimalistlifestyle. The Barista F.I.R.E.variation features an earlysemiretirement coupled withapart-time job. Some risks andcautionstobe aware of: Withdrawingaround 4% each year (withannualinflation adjustments) could lead youtorun out of money too soon.And working fewer than 35 years will shrink future Social Security benefits. Also,beingyoung andfully retired means you’llhavetoarrange your own healthinsurance, andyou can face early withdrawal penaltiesif you take money out of retirement accountsbefore age591/2

Ask the Fool: What’s the prime rate?

What’sthe prime rate? —J.F.,Green Bay, Wisconsin

It’s theinterest rate that most banks chargetheir lowest-risk commercial customers —typically around 3percentage points higher than thefederal funds rate, therate at which banks lend money to each other Every bank sets itsown prime rate, though many use TheWall Street Journal Prime Rate, which is based on therates used by many of thebiggest U.S. banks. The prime rate is used as abase rate formany other interest rates, such as those charged formortgages, home equityloans, creditcards and small business loans. Many credit cards, forinstance, set theirinterest rates by taking thecurrent prime rate andadding acertainamountbased on the perceivedrisktothe lender The Wall Street Journal Prime Rate was recently7.5%,down from 8.5% ayear earlier.

From Ruinto Recovery: HowDaybrookFisheries rebuilt afterHurricane Katrinaand Came Back

By Amanda McElfresh,

amcelfresh@theadvocate.com

Thisarticle is Broughttoyou by theLouisiana CommercialFisheriesCoalition LLC.

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish on August 29, 2005,asaCategory 3storm, the people of Daybrook Fisheries in Empire,LA faced the unimaginable. Prior to the storm, its menhadenfishing business–anchored by afleet of boats processing plantand atight-knit workforce –was thriving.

“Wewereinaprettygood place Daybrook waswell-recognized in the community,”said Borden Wallace,thenowner of the company’sprocessing plantand fleet.“We had modernizedour facilities.Wehad agood line of credit,a good group of people workingfor us and our shareofthe market based on the numberof vessels we had.

Katrina Strikes

Storms arepart of lifeinPlaquemines Parish, but Katrina wasdifferent. Everything changed when the hurricane’scourse shifted unexpectedly.Wallace, out oftowninNorth Carolina,rushed back to NewOrleans after seeing the stormtakeasuddensouthwest jog toward Louisiana.For thefirsttime in his 30-plus-year career,heordered all Daybrook employees and their families to evacuate

“Oftentimes,boats area safe place to be in astorm,”Wallace explained. “Theyare well-stocked andhavegenerators.Theyare designed to sustain winds and waves. Butfor Katrina,wetold everybody theyhad to leave.”

Surveying the Damage

In Katrina’saftermath, roadsinto Plaquemines were impassablesoWallace secured aflighttosurvey the damage. From theair,hesaw substantial flooding and felt aflicker of optimism. But on the ground, the destruction wasoverwhelming

“Everything had been destroyed,”he said.“Everything wasbentand mangled We even founda deadcow inside one of our conveyors.”

Katrina’s35-foot storm surgelifted two of Daybrook’smenhaden steamers– each worth around $7 million –and dropped them inthe middleofLouisianaHighway 23.For weeks, theships blocked the parish’s primary evacuationand supplyroute.

Officials consideredcuttingthem apart to remove them. Instead, Daybrookundertook thepainstaking taskofrefloating them –a jobestimatedat$1.2 millionper ship.

Putting People First

Even beforetackling the logistical nightmare,Wallace focused on his employees.The companyworked to ensure crewshad steady income during the rebuild.

“Werecognized thatour employees were local and wanted to seetheirhomes rebuilt and their lives restored,”Wallace said. “We tried to act like afamily companyand give people some hope.

CommitmenttoRebuild

Wallace’s next prioritywas to get Daybrook’sboats afloat so theycould be used as temporary housing foremployees and their families becauseevery other structurewas destroyed. Another task was ordering all newequipment. He and his businesspartnersdecided early on thatthey

wouldrebuild, motivatedbythe livelihoods at stake.

“Thereweretoo many jobs and toomuch work happening to just leave,” he said.

The recovery wasgrueling –long days in theheat, tearing outthe damaged equipmentand replacingitasquickly as possible. Then, in late September Hurricane Rita flooded the plantagain and stalled progress forweeks. Despite setbacks, Wallace stayedfocused. Daybrook wouldbeready to fish by April

Building Back Stronger

During the rebuilding process, Daybrook improvedits infrastructuretobetter withstand futurestorms.Utilities were buriedunderground to reduce outages More generators were purchased, with connections forlargerunits

“Wealsoraised alot of stuff off of the ground,”hesaid.“We builtasecond story on oursupplywarehouse so thatcritical parts wouldhopefully be outofharm’sway in futurestorms.”

Return to the Water

After months of hard work, Daybrook met its April 2006 goal. The fishing went so well thatboats were nearly at capacity by noon the firstday.But with the plantnot fully restored until late May, unloading and processing took days

“It wasaproud momenttosee thefleet go out,”Wallace said Loyaltyinthe YearsAhead

Daybrook’sinvestments paid off again in 2010when the DeepwaterHorizon disaster threatened the Gulf fishing industry.With waters closed and lucrativecleanup work

available, Wallace feared losing his valued crews.

“Wemet withour captains,and theymet withtheirteams. Every one of them said theyweregoing to staywithusbecausethey remembered whatDaybrook had done for themduring Katrina.Theysaid theyweren’t going to leave us now.

ALasting Anchor

Today, Daybrook Fisheries and its menhaden fleet remainthe largest employer in southernPlaquemines Parish– an anchor forthe region’seconomyand identity As southeast Louisiana commemorates the twentiethanniversary of Hurricane Katrina,Daybrook standsasa testament to the perseverance and resilience of those whoweatheredthe storm. Thankstotheir grit and determination,the company continues to support hundreds of families and sustaina proud fishing tradition along Louisiana’scoast

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to elevate the price of oil and natural gas in Europe. China controls the supply chain of minerals needed for hightech industries and renewable energy And the world struggles to find consensus on climate change.

Amid these geopolitical realities, Tulane University’s second annual Future of Energy Forum — happening Sept. 10-12 — will bring together industry executives, policymakers and researchers to discuss the challenges and opportunities shaping the energy industry in Louisiana and elsewhere.

100 speakers gather to talk about new technologies, critical minerals, regulations and the case for nuclear fusion as an energy source.

High-profile panelists will include Entergy CEO Drew Marsh and Shell USA President Colette Hirstius.

“As we find ourselves in multiple different contexts of uncertainty around energy — whether geopolitical, technological, commercial or regulatory it becomes increasingly important to look at how innovation, competition and collaboration will shape the future of our energy world,” said Tulane energy law professor Frédéric G. Sourgens, one of the energy forum’s organizers.

on challenges for port cities. In a separate conversation, representatives from FUEL — a publicly funded program led by LSU that aims to boost energy industry innovation — will discuss the “energy systems of tomorrow.”

These talks will be joined by deep dives into state and federal regulations artificial intelligence for power grids and battery backup power systems for homes.

Collaboration is key

Sourgens said the biggest challenge facing the global energy industry is how nations can work together at a time of increasing tension, and as energy access is used as leverage to serve geopolitical goals.

find the sweet spot between competition and collaboration.”

Sourgens believes Louisiana will play a key role in the nation’s energy plans, citing the state’s oil and gas legacy, its ongoing offshore drilling, new liquefied natural gas activity, planned carbon capture projects and the massive Meta data center planned for north Louisiana

News of that $10 billion project — one of the biggest economic development initiatives in the state’s history broke a year ago at last year’s energy forum. Debate about Entergy’s plans to power the data center are ongoing.

world needs.”

Other topics at this year’s event will include the rise of energy-as-aservice — a model where customers pay energy providers monthly fees vs. owning equipment — and nuclear power’s ongoing image makeover Other speakers will discuss nuclear fusion, a potentially limitless energy source that some hope will contribute to the world’s energy in the decades to come, and the impact of Trump’s tariffs on global trade.

The university hopes the free event will be for the energy industry what its popular Book Fest is for all things literary, as more than

One panel will cover job opportunities in energy sustainability and environmental rehabilitation in Louisiana. Another will focus

“We all need commodities, and nobody has all the processes to make energy future work, so we have to work together,” he said. “We have to create policies that

Integrity in Motion.

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“Louisiana is at the forefront because of its traditional place at the intersection of energy production and energy refining and power distribution,” said Sourgens. “A lot of where energy is going into the future is where Louisiana is strong, and the things we do are things the

“We should all be interested in how much we pay for electricity, whether the light comes on when we flip the switch, and whether there’s gas at the pump when we need it,” Sourgens said.

The Future of Energy Forum will take place on three stages on Tulane’s Uptown campus.

Email Rich Collins at rich. collins@theadvocate.com.

Founded in 1939 on thebanks of theMississippi River, IMTT is NorthAmerica’s leader in storingbulkliquids that travel thecountry andthe world, supplying people andcommunities with theproductstheyneed in theireverydaylives

Gallagher: ALouisiana StoryofGrowth, Community andResilience

Gallagher,one of the world’slargestinsurancebrokerage,risk managementand consulting firms, has asignificantpresencein Louisiana, with arich history andadeep commitmenttothe local community. With roots in the statedatingback decades, Gallagher has grownintothe largest broker inLouisiana, providing awide array of services to businesses of allsizes acrossvarious sectors

“WhereIthink we areuniquelypositioned is thatwedon’t have that institutional mindset. We haven’talwaysbeen big.We’vealwayshad to be alittle morenimble, creativeand client-centric, said” Numa “Bumpy” Triche,regional president. “The result isthatwehavethe sizeand scale of anybody in the world, with robustdataanalytics and modeling capabilities. But our local operations arevery much integrated within the local market.”

Founded in 1927,Gallagher has expanded globally and reports $11.3 billion in total adjustedbrokerage andrisk managementrevenues in 2024 and amarket capitalization of $76.1billion as of January 30,2025.

Thecompanyhas aworkforce of nearly56,000 employees worldwide morethan 970officesglobally,and servesclients in over130 countries.

In Louisiana, Gallagher’s journeybeganwithanacquisition in Baton Rouge,which led to theestablishmentofofficesinNew Orleans and Monroe,Louisiana. Thecompanyhas strategically acquired local firms overthe years, integrating their employees and maintaining alocal focus. This growth has resulted in 18 officesstatewide and asignificant regional market share. Thecompanyhas grownits businessbyworking withpeople and organizations who sharecommon values and vision.

“Gallagher has one of thelargest operations within ourSoutheastregion in terms of our footprint acrossthe stateand the various markets, Triche said. “Atthe same time, we arealwaysclient-focused, withthe people in the statebeing the ones who work with the local teams and businesses. People work with us because we provide awhite-glove service experiencewitheasyaccessibilitytoour team and our broader tools and resources. We have invested heavily in areas relatedtodata analysis and forensicaccounting in order to provide the technical and detailed support to our teams.Whatwedoisoffer ourclients access to global expertise tailored to their needs.”

As proud as Gallagher is of its growth,theyare prouder to have been able to maintainits unique culture. This cultureissummed up in 25 tenets called TheGallagher Way, aset of shared values thatemphasize ethics, integrityand aclient-centricapproach. These values were articulatedbyRobert E. Gallagher backin1984and have sinceguided the company’soperations and relationships. Keyprinciples include providing excellentrisk managementservices,supporting and respecting colleagues, pursuing professional excellenceand fostering open communication. Thecompanyculturevalues empathy, trust, leadership and teamwork, with astrong emphasis on treating everyone with courtesyand respect

Gallagher’s commitmenttoLouisiana goes beyond business. The companyhas alocalpresence, with employees deeply embedded in the community.

“Our employees see theirclients at church on Sundays,play golf with them on Saturdays,and go to lunch with them on Wednesdays,” said William Jackson, ExecutiveVicePresidentof Gallagher’s SoutheastRegion and leader of the NewOrleans operation and the region’s specialtyproducts.Our local connection is akey differentiatorfor Gallagher,combining the resourcesand capabilities of alarge global firmwith the personalized serviceofa communitybroker.

“Weteam up withlocalpartnerstomakeevery communitywejoin a morevibrantone.Fromfundraisersfor localcharities to crawfishboils and hurricane relief,our officesgivebacktothe peopleand places in whichwelive. As we grow larger,wemaintain close ties to the communities we serve.

Gallagher serves adiverse range of industries in Louisiana,including manufacturing, agribusiness, public sector,higher education, aerospace, energy,entertainmentand lifesciences. Thecompanypositions itself as athought leader when it comes to riskmanagementguidance on topics suchascyber risks, healthcare,marine construction AI, social inflation and other influences thatimpactinsurance claim costs, leading to higher premiums and impacting the insuranceindustry’srisklandscape.The team prides itself on providing expertiseand insights on keyindustries and currenteventsimpacting this region.

WILLIAM JACKSON ExecutiveVicePresidentSoutheast Region, Gallagher

Gallagher is poised forcontinued success in Louisiana,driven by its strong values, localfocus and expertise in keyindustries. Thecompany’s emphasis on client-centric service, combined with its global resources, positions it as atrustedpartner forbusinesses andindividuals seeking insurance, risk managementand consulting solutions.AsGallagher continues to grow and adapttothe evolving needsofthe market its commitmenttothe local communities remains acornerstone of its identity

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LOUISIANA

ALLERGIES ABOUND

With 2 Louisiana cities ranked among the allergy capitals of the U.S., expert offers advice on managing the fall season

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

Carlson

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America annually ranks U.S. cities to find the allergy capital, from the 100 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. The rankings included two Louisiana cities. New Orleans took the secondmost challenging city for pollen allergies, just behind Wichita, Kansas. Baton Rouge ranked as the 14th-worst city in the country for allergies. Although summer allergies are far from over fall allergies are just around the corner Fall allergies can begin as early as late July, despite what the name may suggest According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States, with an a nnual cost in excess of $18 billion. More than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies each year

Dr John Carlson, an allergist and immunologist at Ochsner Health, researches the environment and how that can trigger allergic conditions. That can include reac-

managing

tions from venomous insects to allergies to particles in the air that may bring on asthma.

Most inhaled allergies can be divided into three categories:

n Pollens like tree pollen in the spring, grass pollen in the summer and weeds’ pollen in the fall.

n Perennial, or indoor, allergens including reactions to cats, dogs, mice, cockroaches, dust mites, dust and more — things commonly inside the home.

n And mold spores, which can be found year-round in the Gulf South.

“It is really hard to avoid the spores of the fungi just being out and about in the world,” Carlson said. “And living down here in Louisiana.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the most common symptoms of allergies are congestion, itchy eyes, runny nose, sneezing and postnasal drip (the feeling of constantly needing to clear the throat

of mucus).

Tracking pollen counts can be beneficial in managing symptoms Taking allergy medication before symptoms arise can massively improve lifestyle and symptom management.

Most weather apps, including The Weather Channel, have a 15-day allergy forecast with a pollen tracker on a scale from very low to very high.

See ALLERGIES, page 2X

Bladder cancer outcomes improving

Deion Sanders’ diagnosis highlights treatments

BY DEVI SHASTRI AP health writer

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer earlier this year, had surgery to remove the organ and is now considered cured by his doctors, the pro football Hall of Famer said July 28. Sanders said he is upbeat and plans to coach the Buffaloes this fall.

Bladder cancer is the 10th leading cause of cancer death in the United States. But recent advancements in its treatment have improved outcomes for people who are diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society

The 57-year-old Sanders shared the details of his diagnosis and treatment, which involved surgeons reconstructing a section of his intestine to function as a bladder, and said it “was a fight, but we made it.”

Here’s what you should know about bladder cancer

What is bladder cancer?

This cancer starts when the cells in the bladder which stores urine, grow out of control and form tumors. In some cases, the cancer spreads to other parts of the body

The most common symptom for bladder cancer is blood in the urine, which can cause urine to look orange, pink, or rarely, dark red. The color change can come and go, the American Cancer Society says, and early tumors may not cause pain.

Pain or burning while urinating, weak stream, frequent urination or urge to go when the bladder isn’t full can also be signs of bladder cancer. Symptoms of advanced bladder cancer can include an inability to urinate, bone pain, loss of appetite, weakness, swollen feet and lower back pain on one side.

If you have symptoms, it is worth getting checked out, because all of those symptoms might be from other health issues. Blood in the urine is most often from an infection, a benign tumor, a kidney stone or bladder stone or other benign kidney disease, according to the American Cancer Society Sanders said during a news conference on Monday that the cancer was found when he went for a precautionary annual CT scan; he has a history of blood clots in his legs.

How common is bladder cancer?

Bladder cancer is more common in men than women.

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be nearly 85,000 new cases in 2025, with more than 65,000 in men.

The incidence rate for bladder cancer has decreased by 1% per

See CANCER, page 3X

HEALTH MAKER

La. pharmacist fell in love with science, service

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

Catherine Oliver the systems director for clinical pharmacy services at Ochsner Health System, has a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Louisiana-Monroe

As a Eunice native, Oliver feels passionate about giving back to Louisiana and making sure she is here to provide for those in need in the state — both in the city and in rural areas like her hometown.

Oliver finished her pharmacy residency in acute care at Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina. She worked in Lafayette for four years before moving to New Orleans with Ochsner Health, where she has stayed for 10 years

What drew you into pharmacy?

I always had an interest in health care but more the science of it and not so much bedside care.

I have a chemistry background. I have an undergraduate degree in chemistry I thought that if I decided to change my mind and go into medicine, I would meet the qualifications to apply to medical school.

I applied to pharmacy school in Monroe and fell in love.

As I went through my

curriculum in pharmacy, I anticipated I would work in a retail pharmacy because that’s what most people know about the industry Most people see the corner drugstore pharmacist. They’re very accessible. You can ask questions about your medication. They can help you with prescriptions and over-the-counter needs.

But, in my second year of pharmacy school, we started learning about what a clinical pharmacist is. That area of pharmacy requires residency training — that’s an extra year or two — in a particular area of pharmacy, similar to physicians after medical school. That training could be in oncology or pediatrics or critical care or any of the specialties in medicine.

I completed my residency in North Carolina. In North Carolina, pharmacists can actually practice more like a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant — they have a lot more autonomy in the clinic setting to manage medication therapy on behalf of patients. We wrote notes in patients’ charts and were very involved We would educate the patient: “The physician has started you on this medicine. Here’s what it means, here’s what it’s for here’s some of the side effects.”

The practice of pharmacists does vary from state to state. At the time that I trained in North Carolina, Louisiana was a little bit behind. But I will say that we have done a lot of work, advocacy and worked with our board of pharmacy and with the board of medical examiners to expand what pharmacists can do in the state.

I would say that Louisiana has really grown in what a pharmacist it can do in collaboration with the physician. We’ve really grown our footprint. We know that patients benefit from pharmacists being involved in their care.

What are some roles pharmacists play that people, and patients, would not expect?

Within the hospital, there are all kinds of different pharmacists who are providing care. The clinical pharmacist is often at the bedside. There’s also a team of pharmacists hidden from the public in the hospital who work to review, verify and check medication. We also have pharmacists who work in the clinic. These pharmacists are not dispensing medications like the pharmacist in the retail pharmacy, but rather, they are working with the physician to select the best medication for the patient for a

particular disease.

We’ll work with the physician to build that best therapy plan and plan of care for the patient. We can also carry out monitoring. We may see the

‘Sandwich generation’ faces stress

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

Though the label “sandwich generation” dates back to 1981, those feeling the squeeze of responsibilities of caring for growing children and aging parents know that the moniker is still as relevant today as ever

According to the American Psychological Association, those in “the sandwich generation” feel more stress than any other age group as they balance the demanding, delicate acts of care.

These days, while nearly two in five men and women in this age group feel overextended, the survey reveals that more women than men report experiencing extreme stress and say they manage their stress poorly

Not only is balancing the medical, financial and educational burdens of two generations taking a toll on these “sandwiched” mothers, now, they have another thing to worry about: heart health.

at once, if left untreated, can lead to devastating health concerns.

“Some people can have maladaptive or psychological responses like anxiety or depression,” Williams said. “But they could also have behavioral responses, such as smoking or improper nutrition — things that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.”

A shifting population

In today’s world, Generation Xers are filling the roles of care for the generations before and behind them.

Dating back to 1981 the term was coined by two women, Dorothy Miller and Elaine Brody At that time, the middle generation in the sandwich was Baby Boomers.

Dr Dominique Williams is a medical director and cardiologist for women at Ochsner Health Williams says that these women “caught in the middle” are typically between the ages of 40 and 50 and suffer from chronic stress. This stress, brought on by managing three generations

Of course as time marches, the sandwich generation will be largely composed of millennials.

The Pew Research Center looked into the numbers, and according to their findings, about one in eight Americans between the ages of 40 and 60 was rearing a child

When planning the day, pollen counts are usually highest between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. Minimizing earlymorning activities may help to get a jump-start on a symptom-free day as well as showering right after coming indoors and making sure windows are shut to prevent outdoor pollen from entering the home. Over-the-counter options

The great news, whether an allergy is new or old, is that the best first-line treatments are available over the counter

“You can go to any drugstore and pick up a steroid spray or an antihistamine nose spray,” Carlson said. “Those are your first and second line treatments, regardless of what’s triggering your allergic reactions.” Patients do not need an allergy test or a doctor’s prescription to receive these treatments from the drugstore.

“It tells you how to use it right there on the bottle, and that works for most people,” Carlson said.

n Over-the-counter saline sprays and drops: Saline sprays and artificial tears are most helpful in washing pollen out of the nose and eyes. They are effective when used after coming in from the outdoors.

information to insurance companies to make sure that patients have access to medication. Is there a pharmacist shortage? We know a shortage of pharmacists is coming similar to a shortage of nursing and physicians, particularly in the primary care setting. Pharmacists can really help to bridge that gap.

There’s a pharmacy, and a pharmacist, in every town, but maybe not a physician in every town.

By working alongside physicians, pharmacists can take some of the work off of the physician. Instead of having to see your doctor again when you have a question about your medicine, you can see the pharmacist. That allows the physician to see more urgent or more complex patients in the clinic. It also decreases turnaround time — when a physician is really bogged down with messages. It can take a couple of days to get messages back and forth from the physician to the pharmacy

patient again in a month or six weeks and see how are they responding to that medicine.

The pharmacist will, both in retail and specialty clinics, provide medicine

That continuous collaboration with physicians is really a new and novel thing that the public might not know about.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

caring for parents, children

and caring for a parent In

fact, about 8.5 million were caring for an elderly parent from a long distance.

Additionally when evaluating U.S. Census Bureau data, these statistics will increase.

The government agency postulates that by 2030, there will be more than 70 million Americans over the age of 65, forcing perhaps more adults pushed to the stressful middle of a generation sandwich.

Managing the stress Stress itself triggers the fight or flight response, or the sympathetic nervous system, increasing cortisol levels and inflammation. According to Williams, this has been associated with increased risk of coronary events or heart attacks that are more common in women.

n OTC nasal steroids: These sprays must be administered only at the recommended dosages, and when used, must be placed in the nose pointing to the ear It often takes several days before the full benefits can be felt.

n Antihistamines and decongestants: Antihistamines reduce sneezing, sniffling, and itching by blocking histamine receptors in the body, while decongestants shrink the blood vessels in the nasal passageways to relieve congestion.

n Eye drops: Help relieve

itchy, watery eyes. When to up the ante

People should see an allergist when their quality of life is so impaired that they are unable to function fully or enjoy their normal lifestyle.

The two big reasons people need to get in to see an allergist are either that those nose sprays available over the counter aren’t working, or if a patient can’t use them because they’re having side effects, like nose bleeds from over-the-counter nasal sprays, Carlson said.

Allergy injection therapy, also known as immunother-

But why do women miss the signs?

“Most of it is because they are not prioritizing their own needs,” Williams said. “It’s even more difficult because women tend to have atypical or less-subtle symptoms.”

The classic, mostly malecentric, research says that the main symptom for a heart attack is chest pain down the left arm and up the neck. But symptoms that mimic acid reflux, life exhaustion and shortness of breath can also be indicative of heart events.

Every person has a different threshold for stress. How people perceive what is happening and they internalize that stress can make a huge impact on health.

Practical symptoms to look for when thinking about chronic stress include: n Increased blood pres-

apy, can be very effective in preventing allergy symptoms and may decrease the need for daily medications.

Emerging allergies

If allergies are new to you, you are not alone. Both adults and children can develop allergies at any point in their lives. Typically, however it takes at least two seasons of exposure to develop an allergy

“It’s pretty rare to see a kid with allergies less than age 2,” Carlson said, “We don’t really know why people develop allergies at particular times.”

A curious thing can also happen: the immune system can begin to attune its response and symptoms of allergies can go away in adulthood. It’s actually quite common.

Home remedies?

Carlson says that often when someone feels a cold coming on, they make a cup

sure n Fatigue n Craving unhealthy foods n Poor sleep. Williams recommends investing in a blood pressure cuff, available from $16 to $50 online, and tracking the numbers daily

“I know it’s hard,” Williams said. “But I like to tell people to try to slow down.” Taking a moment, just 10 to 15 minutes a day, to go on a walk or spend some time alone can do wonders for stress management.

Exercise doesn’t have to be dramatic: a moment walking through the park while running errands, building in a time block for exercise or scheduling a workout class ahead of time that can’t be canceled.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com.

of tea with honey, frequently adding lemon.

But there isn’t much research to support that honey will help allergy symptoms, according to Carlson, although it is a delicious addition to hot tea.

“It may make you feel more comfortable,” Carlson said. “But typically, nothing that you’re going to do along those lines is going to be sufficient to really open up your sinuses, to really make a difference when you’re having these really strong immune system attacks against the pollen.”

Other elixirs are vitamin C and eucalyptus and frankincense essential oils used as antimicrobials — substances that kill microorganisms like bacteria or fungi.

Carlson admits that as long as these “remedies” are not harmful to the body, they are perfectly fine if it makes an allergy sufferer more comfortable.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state.This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and reexamining tried and true methods on ways to live well.

Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana. Do you have a health story? We want to hear from you. Email margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more.

EatFit Live Fit

Performancefueling: Textbook formulas simplified forreal life

AsIstudytorenewmySports NutritionBoardCertification (CertifiedSpecialistinSports Dietetics–CSSD),I’mremindedjust howdifferent“textbook”nutritionis comparedtowhatactuallyworksin reallife.I’veheldthiscredentialsince 2006andtaketheCSSDexamevery fiveyearstorenewit.Whilethescience hasevolved,onethinghasn’tchanged. Thetestisstillfullofpreciseformulas: gramsofcarbohydrateorproteinper kilogramofbodyweightandhydration schedulesdowntothemilliliter

Yes,forprofessionalathleteswhose performance(andpaycheck)depends oneveryfractionofasecond,those detailscanmatter.Butfortherest ofus,wejustneedclear,actionable guidelinesthatfitintoeverydaylife.So,Iam sharingsomeofthoseformulas,alongwith simpletranslationsforreallife.

Carbohydrates

Textbook:Carbsshouldmakeup40–50percentofdailycaloriesforsedentary adults,60percentforactiveindividualsora specificratioofgramsperkilogramofbody weight

Here’sthequickmath:Yourweightin kilogramsisyourweightinpoundsdivided by2.2.

Fromthere,theguidelinessuggestthe followinggramsofcarbsperkilogrambased onexerciseintensitylevels:

•Low-intensity(lessthan1hour/day): 3to5grams

•Moderate(1hour/day):5to7grams

•High(1–3hours/day): 6to10grams

•Extreme(4+hours/day):8to12

grams

Translation:A140-pound(64 kilogram)moderatelyactiveperson wouldconsume320to450grams ofcarbsaday—morethanany unprofessionalathleteneeds

BY THENUMBERS

LA.ISTHE FIFTH-MOSTPHySICALLy INACTIVE STATEINTHE U.S.

In 2022, justunder 1in3adults were notphysically activeduring their leisure time in Louisiana.That’swell above the national averageof24.2%.

Across the U.S.,Louisiana ranks toward the bottom in the countrywhen it comes to physical activity

Physical activity afterworking hours can decrease the risks of certain cancers, heartdisease and Type 2diabetes. Additionally,exercise can reduce the risk of developing seriousillnesses from infectious diseases like COVID or the flu, according to the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention. Regular physical activity canalso increase lifeexpectancy, strengthen bones anddecrease the likelihood of falls in older age.

Theseparishes had the most adults whoare physically inactiveamong adults after working hours in 2022, in descending order:

n East Carroll and Tensas parishes at 42%

CANCER

Continued from page1X

year in recent years. Death rateshave stayed relatively stable,declining by 1% per year since 2013. What can cause bladder cancer? Smoking is the biggest risk factor,according to the American Cancer Society.The recent decline in incidencerates is likely due to fewer people smoking. Other risk factors include working in jobs that expose you to chemicals —like painters, metaland leather workers, miners and firefighters. People who usea urinary catheter for

n Claiborne Parishat 40%

n Madison Parish at 39%

n Bienville and Morehouse parishes at 38%

n Evangeline Parish at 37%

n Avoyelles and Concordia parishes at 36%

These parishes had fewest adults whoare physically inactiveamong adults after working hours in 2022, in ascending order:

n Ascension and St. Charles parishes at 25%

n Lafayette and St.Tammany parishes at 26%

n East Baton Rouge, Orleansand West Felicianaparishes at 27%

n Beauregard, Bossier,Cameron, Livingston and Tangipahoaparishesat 28%

TheCDC suggests that adults prevent health problemscaused by notbeing physically activeby:

mostsportsdietitiansagree thattheRDAistoolowfor activeadultstopreserve muscle,recoverfromworkouts ormaintainoptimalhealth.

Realworld:Formost people,Iprefertheupperend ofproteinrecommendations —closerto0.75to1gramper pound Spreadyourproteinintake throughouttheday.Aimfora palm-sizedportionofprotein atlunchanddinner(thisisthe sizeofyourpalm,typically from3to8ounces)andagood sourceatbreakfastandsnacks (Greekyogurt,eggs,cottage cheese,nutbutter,leanmeats t-basedproteins)

olytes&Hydration book:Sportsdrinkhydration linesoftendescribesodium trationintermsofmilliequivalents er(mEq/L),whichcanfeellike tryclass. Here’sthebreakdown: tandardsportsdrinkslikeGatorade dPowerade—historically nsideredtheoptimalsodium ncentrationforfluidreplacement —typicallycontain20–30mEq/Lof dium edialyteSportbumpsthatupto ound60mEq/Lwhichimproves hydrationoverlow-sodiumoptions

saregistereddietitian underofOchsner’sEatFit ewellnesscontent,tuneinto llness+Nutrition,andfollow FitOchsneronsocialmedia. rgtoconnectwithMollyor rteam.

•SportsdrinkslikeLMNTorMyHy contain1,000mgsodiumperpacket, whichcanbeaddedtobottles rangingfrom20ouncestoaliteror more,translatingto43to74mEq/L, dependingonthewatervolume. Realworld:Mostpeopledoing everydayworkoutsorlongrunsonthe weekendarefinewitharegular,low-sugar sportsdrinkorevenwater,alongwith thesodiumwenaturallygetfromfood. Butfor“saltysweaters”—withactual saltcrystalsdriedontoskinandclothing afterasweatyworkout—ahighersodium concentrationmaybeexactlywhatyour bodyneeds MypersonalfavoriteisLMNT,especially intheheatandhumidityofoursummers inSouthLouisiana

Ifyouhavehypertension,kidney concernsorothersodiumsensitivities, alwayscheckwithyourhealthcare providerbeforeincreasingyoursodium intake

Creatine

Textbook:Oneformulaforaninitial 5-7day“loadingphase”:multiplyyour weightinkilogramsby0.3.So,a175-pound person(80kg)wouldconsume24grams ofcreatinedaily.Othersshortenitabit withthegeneralrecommendationof 20-30gramsdailyfortheloadingphase Realworld:Evensimpler:Skipthe loadingphase.Consistencymattersmore Take5gramsdailyformusclebenefits andupto10gramsdailyforpotential cognitivebenefits.Takeitatanytimeof day,ideallyseparatefromcaffeine.

Bottomline:Nutritionscienceis valuable,butforthemajorityofus,it shouldn’tbeovercomplicated.I’llbeusing theseformulasformyexam,butI’llalso keeptranslatingthemintoreal-lifeadvice thathelpsyoulive,trainandfeelyour bestwithoutacalculator

n Increase weight-bearing activities like running and walking

along time are alsoathigher risk. What is theoutlook forbladder cancer patients?

Outcomes for bladder cancer patients improve basedonif and how much thecancer has spread. The five-year relativesurvivalrateis72% to 97% if the cancerhas notspread outside the bladder,but dropsto40% if the cancer has spread to lymph nodesorother nearby partsof thebody, and 9% if it hasspread farther

Treatmentcan include surgery to removethe tumor, parts of thebladder or the whole bladder; radiation; chemotherapy;targeted drugtherapy and immunotherapy

n Increaseaerobic activity likerunning, biking or swimming.

n Do strength training exercises at least

Managing and understanding menopause

Mostwomenexperiencemenopausebetweentheagesof45and55whenovariesstopproducing estrogenandprogesterone,causingthosehormonelevelstodrop.Thismarkstheendofa woman’sreproductiveyearsandisoftenreferredtoas“thechangeoflife.”

Duringthismenopausaltransition,womenexperiencechangesinmenstruationandcanalso havehotflashes,nightsweats,sleepproblemsandmoodswingsasthebody’sproductionoftwo hormones—estrogenandprogesterone—declinesdramatically.OchsnerHealthisheretohelp withtipstoeasecommonsymptomsandmake“thechange”aneasiertransition.

Menopause and mentalhealth:

Nearly40%ofwomenexperiencemoodsymptomsintheearlystagesofmenopause. Emotionalchanges,suchasirritability,anxiety,lowenergyanddepressioncandisrupt dailylife.Althoughsuchchangesmayfeelunavoidable,womencantakestepsto managetheirsymptomsandimprovementalwell-being.Theseinclude: tipstomanage mood changes

Prioritizingphysicalactivity:Exerciseisanaturalmoodbooster.Regular,moderatelyintense aerobicactivities—suchasbriskwalking—areshowntoimproveenergylevels,reducestress andregulatesleeppatterns.Pairthiswithmuscle-strengtheningexercisestoprotectagainst boneloss.

Focusingonnutrition:Abalanceddietisessentialtomanagemenopause-relatedemotional swings.Incorporatefoodsrichinomega-3fattyacids—likesalmonandwalnuts—andfoods highinproteintostabilizeenergylevelsandsupportbrainhealth.

Limitingalcoholconsumption:Whileaglassofwinemightfeellikeawaytounwind, alcoholcanexacerbatemooddisordersandnegativelyimpactsleepquality.

Practicingrelaxationtechniques:Calmingactivitiessuchasyoga,meditationor rhythmicbreathingexerciseshaveprovenbeneficialforreducinganxietyand improvingoverallemotionalwell-being.

Buildingasupportnetwork:Connectingwithotherswhounderstandyour challengescanbringcomfort,encouragementandasenseofcommunity.

Gettingagoodnight’ssleep:Afullnightofsleepcanboostyourenergy andhelpeasemenopausesymptoms.Lackofsleepandfatiguecanworsen symptoms.

Exploringmedicaloptions:Forwomenwithseveresymptoms,talktherapy ormedicalintervention—suchashormonereplacementtherapyand antidepressants—canproviderelief.

Can hormone changes during menopause cause UTIs?

Onecommonyetoftenoverlookedmenopausal changeismorefrequenturinarytractinfections (UTIs).Thiscanoccurbecausemenopausecausesa steepdeclineinthebody’sproductionofestrogen, ahormonethathelpsmaintainthehealthoftissues intheurinarytractandvagina.

SymptomsofUTIsincludeastrongurgetourinate, aburningsensationwhileurinating,strong-smelling urine,discoloredurineandlowerbellydiscomfort.

UTIscanbetreatedwithantibiotics,butrepetitive useofthesemedicationscancausegutdiscomfort, diarrheaandlong-termantibioticresistance.

Talktoyourdoctororhealthcareproviderifyou experiencefrequentUTIs.Preventivetreatments likevaginalestrogencreamscanhelpreduceUTIs.

AccordingtotheNationalInstitutesofHealth,40%to60%ofmenopausalwomen experienceinsomniaortroublesleepingduringthistransition.

Hotflashes,moodswings,anxietyandvariousphysicalsymptomsassociatedwith menopausecanmakeagoodnight’ssleepdifficulttoachieve.

Thereareproactivestepsandtreatmentsthatwomencanexploretoaddresssleep problems.Theyincludehormonetherapy,antidepressants,over-the-countersleep aidsandlifestylechanges.

Ahealthcareprovidercantailoratreatmentplanforsleep-deprivedmenopausal women.Remember,sleepisessentialforgoodhealth.

HowdoIcontrolmenopause

Themajorityofwomenexperienceweightgainduringmenopause.Hormonal changes,decreasedsleep,lessleanmusclemassandincreasedinsulinresistance canbecontributingfactors.

Thesechangescanalsoincreasethechancesofdevelopingdiabetes, cardiovasculardisease,highbloodpressureandosteoporosis.

Studieshaveshownanti-inflammatorydietsrichinfresh,wholefoodscanhelp menopausalwomenlosefatandmaintainmuscle.

Gettingadequatehydration,practicinggoodsleephygieneandmaintaining physicalactivitywithafocusonbuildingmusclearealsoimportantincontrolling weightgainduringmenopause.

Ifyouareexperiencingweightgainorothersymptomsrelatedtomenopause, scheduleanappointmentwithyourOB/GYNtodiscussanyquestionsorconcerns youhave

OchsnerHealthistheleadingnonprofithealthcareproviderintheGulfSouth,deliveringexpertcareatits46hospitalsandmorethan370healthandurgentcare

LOUISIANA

CARVING MEMORIES

BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer

Fighting to stay afloat on what looks like asea of chocolate milk,desperation begins to define aTuesdaymorning in Thibodaux. My boat shakesuncontrollably,and Ifeel like anewborn deer learning to walk.

“You might be going swimming, my brother,” says Ernie Savoie.“Youhave a change of clothes?”

Giventhe suffocatingJulyheat, an impromptu dip in Bayou Lafourche doesn’t seem like the worst idea.But Ididn’tpack fora swim, andwith intrusivevisions of alligators incoming, Itry harder to maintain equilibrium. The more Istrain, the worse the boat shakes.

Savoie shouts instructions fromaboat launch frontingthe campus of Nicholls State University.

“You in alog!” hesays.“All you have to do is stay in the middle.”

Savoie, 67, is acarpenterwithgrayhair that begins as frizzy mutton chops and trails into aponytail. Moments before, he smoothly paddled the 140-year-old pirogue, passeddown through generations of Cajuns, and it had cut through the water’ssurface like butter

Ishift my weight towardsthe boat’s cen-

ter of gravity,but epoxy coatsthe cypress like slick black ice, and Islide back and forthbetween port and starboard; afurioussplashing pendulum that spoils the serene waterfront.

Savoie’slaughter grows louder,and I’m regretting asking to take theheirloom for aspin. By the time Ireach safety,he’s howling.

Vickie Eserman, aretiredelementary school teacher from Raceland, joins him on the dock, urging him to muffle hisguffaws.

Both serve on the board of the Center forTraditional Louisiana BoatBuilding, working to raise funds for amuseum plannedjust afew hundredyards away —that will house nearly 80 handcrafted Cajun boats, whose previous homewas destroyed by Hurricane Ida.

By hand andbyeye

Eserman’spath to boatbuildingbegan after her father,anantique collector and boatenthusiast,passed away in 2010. She andher sister decided to builda pirogue in hishonor.Hoping to learn thecraft, she started volunteering at the center,where Savoie was often working.

“Where are the plans?” she recalls askinghim. “I wanted to studyall aboutthis.”

But Savoie isn’ta fan of formal instruction,and Cajun boatbuilding comes with no Ikea-style instruction manual, relying instead on intuition to build —atradition called “by hand andbyeye.” And, as Eserman discovered, every craftsman employs his own sacred technique.

“He’svery particular,” she said. “If one nail went in crooked,hewas pullingit out.”

“It’sall done by feel,” said Savoie, first taught by his father to build pirogues from plywood, aprocess he’srefined over the years. “It’sfiguring the angles and widths… it’saprocess of shaping somethingyou’re satisfied looking at.”

Savoie’s 14-foot, round-bottompirogue that nearly capsized earlier in the day washandmadebyhis great-grandfather, Arsene Savoie, from asingle cypress log. Thestory goes that for those willing to toil sunup till sundown for nine days on his farm in Larose, Arsene would pay them in pirogue —a deal common in Cajun country’sbarter economy

“You busted your butt for thatpirogue,” said Savoie. “More than likely youneeded it for something else. Youwere atrapper or fisherman who needed that to makehis living.”

Though far from theonly popular waterway,Bayou Lafourche had, by the 19th century,become an aquatic precursorof Interstate 10. Before its disastrous damming in 1903, theriverflowed freely from its split with the Mississippi at Donaldsonville all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, drawing more and more coastalCajuns north to settle along its banks, said Ray Brassieur,aretired University of Lafayette anthropology professor whohas spent decades studying Cajunculture.

“Tothem, thiswas paradisewhenthey landedhere,” addedSavoie.“It washotter thanhell and the mosquitoes will carry you away,but you’ll eat.Anybody that couldn’tsurvive down here, it’sbecause they weren’ttrying.”

Back then, mammoth-sized old-growth cypress lined bayou banks, readily available for any prospective fishermen, trawler,trapper or farmer,its rot and termiteresistant wood denser,and higher quality thantoday’snew growthiterations. As a result,wooden boatbuildingwas away of life.

Narrow,shallowdraftpirogues were largely modeled from Native Americans dugouts —usually atwo-person utility boat forthe bayou, rowed facing forward, andoften standing up. Unlike most Native Americans, Europeans had theadvantage of steel.

“Theycould make their dugout much thinner,muchlighter,much more dynamic in thewater,” said Brassieur.“The tricksvariedaccordingtothe master that had them.”

By the 1930s, as the state’sloss of marshland began to dramatically increase, industrial logging hadwiped out nearly all of Louisiana’svirgin, old-growth cypress. Even today,some still search forthe legendary “sinker” cypress logs —trees that sank to thebottom of bayous on their way to sawmills —but for themost part, dugoutsand cypress-plank boats gradually gave way toplywood hulls.

“Once they saw that plywood, aboat builder could shape any boat they wanted,” said Brassieur.“It was much easier to work with …but the skills ran out when thematerial changed.”

Finally,sheet-metal designs made old methodsall but obsolete, and today,traditional wooden boatbuilding is left to a handful lucky enough toinherit the skills —areminder to some of what waslost.

“The skills are still here,” said Bras-

ä See MEMORIES, page 2Y

‘Your

houseis on fire’

Last Sunday,aswewere getting ready to go to our book club, I noticed the ceiling faninour bedroom wasn’tspinning.

My husband and Ihave alongrunning, unspoken ceiling fan battle. Ithought he had turned it off, so Ipulled the string. Nothing. Iflipped the switch —still no spin. The light didn’twork either For amoment, Ithought the electricity was out. But other lights in the house were on.

Before we got in the car with the giant vat of chicken spaghetti Ihad madefor our book club, aneighbor sent me the name and number of an electrician. I gave the electrician acall. It was Sunday night, so Ileft amessage and asked if they could come out Monday morning. Our book club wasdiscussing “Diary of aMisfit” by Casey Parks, set in Delhi, Louisiana. The themeofthe meal was “Southern food.” In my mind, chicken spaghetti fit the book perfectly.I believe folks in Delhi werebuying Rotel and Velveeta forchicken spaghetti, just like my mama had done afew miles east in Mississippi. Imade enough chicken spaghetti forthe LSU football team. Turns out, that chicken spaghetti wasthe last thing Icooked in our house.

About 8:50 p.m., Iwas taking abite of pound cake when adifferent neighbor called. We were still at the table at book club, so Ididn’tanswer.She called right back. Istood up and answered the phone. She yelled, “Your house is on fire.”

PHOTO PROVIDED By JULIO

This mug from a2004 Erma Bombeck conferencesurvivedthe fire in columnistJan Risher’shouse fire in Baton RougeonAug.17.

Icould hear sirens in the background. We were in our car headed that way in aflash. Driving across town toward your burning homeisastrange ride.

The fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles had swarmed our whole block. We parked about 70 yards from our house.

All of our neighbors werein the street. Our friends showed up from book club and beyond. And, as our house burned and firefighters worked, those people who love us took turns hugging us and standing by our sides.

The fire started in the attic. Neighbors have given us photos of flames shooting 20 feet into the sky,catching the giant live oak next door on fire too. The experience of standing there forthree hours was utterly surreal. The swirl of lights that wereaconstant throughout the ordeal will stay with me. It was like being in astrange, outdoor flashing discothèque.

Ididn’tcry.I knew that

INSPIRED DISCUSSIONS

ASK THE EXPERTS

LSU Museum of Art executive director preparing for future

BY LAUREN CHERAMIE

Staff writer

Mark Tullos serves as the executive director of the LSU Museum of Art, one of the South’s largest university-affiliated art collections, with roughly 6,000 works. Before his return to his home state, Tullos acted as the founding president and CEO of the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience in Meridian, Mississippi.

He has also served as the assistant secretary for the Louisiana Office of State Museum, director of the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans and founding director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art.

We’re two weeks into the new school year at LSU What is the LSU Museum of Art looking forward to?

We’re coming out of one of our most successful years we’ve seen in a decade. The museum met a lot of challenges over the past 10 years with COVID and budget cuts, but last year, we managed to achieve a lot of things that were long overdue, including our reaccreditation by the American Alliance of Museums. Now, we’re preparing for even bigger things this next year How has the museum had to pivot its approach to funding with the current budget cuts?

First, LSU has been stalwart in their support for the museum. They’ve not budged from what they contribute to our operations, which is about 42% of our budget The rest of the budget we have to raise privately through grants, membership and donations.

A lot of our grants that come through local sources like the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge and the Louisiana Division of the Arts are all supported by the National Endowment for the Arts indirectly, which is now being eliminated. So we’re looking for other ways to create self-generated

MEMORIES

Continued from page 1y

sieur “They can be encouraged and redeveloped as needed It can happen.”

Warehouse of wooden ghosts

About a 10-minute drive from Nicholls State, Eserman and Savoie pull off La. 1. There, in a stuffy warehouse, lie 78 full-sized wooden boats, ranging from a 1980s-built lugger to an Indian dugout carbon-dated to the 1500s.

The collection traces its roots to Tom Butler and John Rochelle, two fishing buddies and faculty members at Nicholls State University In the 1970s, they became captivated by the groups of men they met during long trips down the bayou, who were still handcrafting boats on river banks. They began inviting the boatbuilders to a maintenance barn on the university’s campus, where they conducted interviews and documented building methods. In 1979, the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building became official.

“They really just wanted to preserve the art of boatbuilding, because they were seeing fewer and fewer boats,” said Eserman. Over the years, the barn evolved into a cross between a workshop and tourist destination. People from across South Louisiana came to build and restore boats, while anyone interested in Cajun heritage found a living museum.

In 2007, the center was moved to a former Ford dealership in Lockport, where Eserman says the collection exploded. In addition to boats, people donated Cajun artifacts, including tools, art work, and antique boat motors. During the pandemic, the museum shuttered its doors. Then Hurricane Ida ripped the facility apart, leaving it irreversibly damaged. Savoie, Eserman and a few others scrambled to find a safe storage place, where, for the past four years, the boats have lain forlorn, closed to the public

The situation visibly pains Eserman and Savoie, who both see the boats as more than just artifacts. For them, each vessel tells a specific family history, a heritage, that if not passed to the next generation, risks being lost.

“This shouldn’t be like this. It’s not right,” said Savoie, walking among the collection. “It’s a big concern of mine that I get these out of here as soon as I can.”

funding through fundraisers and things of that nature.

What are some of the big events that you’re preparing for in the coming years?

This year, we are launching the museum’s first-ever annual fundraiser Southern Palette, a food and drink experience downtown.

People can visit southernpalette. org to see the guest chefs who are coming in throughout the South on March 21. People can come and taste very unique, award-winning samples from each of the chefs.

We’re trying to rebuild our website to make our collections accessible to the public. As a scholar, you’ll even get a level of access where you can go in and see the collection and study certain things that the general public can’t.

The next piece is our effort to expand our collaboration with the university and the college students. We’re employing more student workers and graduate students than we have before. We’re also developing more programs and partnership with various departments on campus to impact student education. On the other end, we’re working with the public schools and educators to provide access for opportunities here on our campus at the Shaw Center A lot of people don’t realize that exhibition planning takes a long time. We have one program that’s three to four years out. In 2026 and 2027, we’re working on a major exchange with an artist in Cuba that we’ve been working on for two years.

Why was it important to earn reaccreditation from the American Alliance of Museums?

Out of roughly 33,000 museums in the United States, only about 1,000 of them are accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. What that means is the museum has gone through a process of self study and examination for at least one year in upgrading their policies, procedures, organization,

Bringing the Cajun fleet home

As direct links to traditional boatbuilding dwindles, Eserman has encouraged Savoie to document his techniques, with little success.

“Ernie, are you writing this down?” she’ll ask. “Are you recording yourself? Is your wife recording you?”

But Savoie isn’t much of a notetaker, and the electronic stuff, he says, “is Greek to me.”

Instead he’s holding out hope for a better way

A sign outside Nicholls State currently advertises a new home for the center, which Savoie and Eserman see as a continuation of the original maintenance barn — a living history depicting life in the 18th century, where visitors can come to see remaining boat builders, and oral histories from Rochelle and Butler’s original work can be displayed.

“Most of the exhibits we take in, we’ll try to have a story from that person, “ said Savoie. “Of what was done with that boat, how they used it. That way you preserve the history of that family,”

So far, Eserman says the center has raised 20% of the $2 million needed for construction of the new museum. She and Savoie aren’t the only ones working to revive the museum, but they work well together

“He and I are nothing alike, but we both have the same vision,” said Eserman. “I’m doing all the secretary work and designing brochures, while he’s getting out there building boats.”

Most of their campaign, said Eserman, is centered around grassroots crowdfunding.

To cover operating costs Savoie envisions renting out pirogues — hopefully more stable than Arsene’s — for families to paddle outside the center on Bayou Lafourche, though the experience might be more authentic to lend them out in exchange for a few chores.

It’s unclear when the center will find enough money to break ground. In the meantime, Savoie is passing his knowledge to his son and grandsons, just as his father, and his father before him, once did lessons from the past that may guide their future.

“If you don’t try to pass it down to your family,” he said. “It’s just going to go away.”

Email Aidan McCahill at aidan.mccahill@theadvocate. com.

Q&A WITH MARK TULLOS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE LSU MUSEUM OF ART

ethics policies and education programs to a level that is best practices in the industry

After you strive to improve in those areas, a team of reviewers from peer institutions visit on behalf of the American Alliance of Museums, which is our membership organization. The last time we were accredited was back in 2007, so we had to review all those qualifications. A team came to Baton Rouge, and we passed with flying colors.

How do the arts build community and create solutions in a city?

This is a really important conversation to have right now be-

RISHER

Continued from page 1y

everything that could be done was being done.

I learned many things Sunday night. First, the kindnesses of friends can be overwhelming. One friend walked up with an overnight bag full of essentials — toothbrush, toothpaste, sandals and clothes.

I learned that the flip side of the brute force the firefighters used to cut down the door to get into our burning home was their thoughtfulness. They recognized that we had a lot of original art and that it must be important to us. They took most of the art down, piece by piece, and placed each on our giant mesquite dining table. Then, they covered the whole thing with a tarp.

At one point, as I was standing there watching our house on fire, a firefighter approached me and said, “Here’s your laptop,” charging cord included. Another fireman brought us the two prescription medicines that were in the bathroom cabinet.

Much of the evening is a blur I don’t know how three hours passed. Time is elastic. I remember the guy from the electric company who took down the meter The guy from the gas company came and shut off the gas. I didn’t think to ask about the water

By 11:30 p.m., we had convinced our friends to go home and promised to make our way to one of their homes as soon as we could. I had been standing for nearly three hours and saw a place on Engine 9 where I could sit. My husband snapped a photo of me.

Around 11:40 p.m., the firemen came and said they would take us inside to grab a few things.

We found about two inches of standing water and foam in the living room. I had on nice sandals and didn’t think those would be my safest option as the floors were covered with soot, ashes, wires and debris. I remembered I had left my tennis shoes near the front door They were conveniently under the tarp under the table with the art. I put them on and walked past the charred remains of the attic entrance and passed decades worth of soggy yearbooks.

Headed toward our bedroom, standing water was everywhere. Firefighters had put a tarp on our bed too. I grabbed a bunch of my

cause of the recent challenges museums are facing with censorship.

In 2021, the American Alliance of Museums hired an independent research firm to conduct a survey, and they discovered that 9 out of 10 Americans found museums more trustworthy than any institution in the United States, just below their family members. Above their churches and educational institutions, they believed in museums. I think it’s because we’ve cherished, for decades now, that when we mount an exhibition, we should be unbiased, and we need to bring the facts. We may not like the his-

tory what the artist might be saying or what the scientific discovery was, but it’s the fact. People rely on museums for that information, exposure to opinions, ideas and freedom that we have to express and exhibit those things. People come to us because they want to be challenged with new ideas, or they want to learn what the truth is about ourselves. Museum are really central to our American story Our democracy is founded on that principle of truth.

Email Lauren Cheramie at lauren.cheramie@theadvocate. com.

dresses from the front of my closet. One of the firemen suggested taking the dirty clothes basket.

“You know you wear those clothes,” he said.

He also asked if I’d like for him to take the nice shoes I was holding. We loaded what we could into my car and went to our book club friends’ home. They made us as comfortable as possible. Still, sleeping was hard. So many scenes and thoughts kept running through my brain.

I was thinking, “Things are bad, but much of the stuff seems to be OK.”

I thought we could just go back and get what we needed. Turns out, a house that’s been on fire doesn’t work exactly like that. When we arrived back on Monday morning, we learned a water pipe in the attic (where our hot water heater was) had not been turned off and had been flowing all night long. There was even more water in the house. Ceilings were beginning to sag.

I called friends at our church to see if they could help us get out all the art while we could. Within minutes, both pastors and a team of people were there and loaded all the art out. Within two hours, one of the church members brought a key to another church

member’s home. They’re out of town for several weeks. We could stay there temporarily

Another friend made it his mission to save as many of our yearbooks and photo albums as possible. He consulted with an LSU Libraries archivist and placed the waterlogged books in the sun and stood there for hours turning the pages of each book every 15 minutes. Of all the little moments, that’s the one that chokes me up. Throughout the week, we felt the love. Early Monday, two other church members cleaned out our refrigerator Our book club friend washed all of our dirty clothes, gently folded them and delivered them to our temporary home. Another friend bought me a muchneeded makeup brush and other toiletries. Other friends have brought delicious meals, treats and a prayer quilt. My much-loved dishes and giant table seem to be OK. The chicken spaghetti may have been the last thing I cooked in that version of our home, but we will share meals with those we love again. We already have chicken spaghetti, in fact. The fire took a lot. But in the darkest nights, I’ve been reminded once again, people shine brightest.

Bossierartistmakes inclusivedolls

BY MOLLYTERRELL Staff Writer

ABossier City woman hasspent years perfecting her craft of sewing unique dolls to make everyone feel included. Now she’sopening her own storefront.

Cassondra Bolden owns All Y’all Dolls in Bossier City where she hand sews faceless dolls of all complexions and sizes for consumers to see themselves in thedolls

Bolden saidshe didn’t evenreallyknow how to sew that well when she made her firstcustom doll for her grandmother in 2010 as agift, and she said her grandmother thought she had it delivered from astore.

Shedidn’t pursue making dolls for other people until the COVID-19 pandemic, when she had time to pursue the craft again.

She said it was ahobby at first, and that she didn’t think about selling them until friends told her she should.

Bolden hasconsistently been selling dolls for two years, participating in local markets and events, such as art•ish last month, and selling on Etsy.Now,she’s opening up astorefront on Barksdale Air Force Base andgrowing her business, fully diving into the meaning behind “All Y’all Dolls.

She grew up in Houston, and her husband’sjob in the AirForce broughther creativity to Bossier City For Bolden, she said she strives for inclusivity because she remembers it being hard to find dolls that looked likeher whenshe was younger

Because of that, she became fixated on dolls with “no features at all” and just wanted to coverall different complexions andethnicities through thedolls’ clothing and skin tones

She said she learned that children didn’treally care

aboutfaces on their dolls, and instead focused on the hair,skin colorand clothing. She said alittle boy becomeinfatuated withone of her dollsbecause they were wearing the same outfit and had the sameskin tone.

Accordingto Bolden, the boy “takes that dollwith him everywhere.”

“I’ve sold over 100 dolls and I’m just excited about that and how Iamgrowing,” Bolden said.

Pricingofher dolls

Bolden said herpricing depends on the complexity andhow long it takes herto completethe dolls.She said sometimes it only takes her abouta daytocompletea doll and that herpremade dolls typically fall between $65and $75.

Customdolls can be up to $200 dependingonthe sizeand complexity,but shealsohas moreaffordable dolls so shecan sell to awider variety of people.

For custom dolls, the buyer can choose the fabricfor theskin tone, which can rangefrom realistic to whateverfabric they want, and describe thehair andclothes to her. Bolden said people often sendher pictures forreference when she’smakingcustom dolls

One of her recent dolls wasmodeled aftera photo of awoman who wears very extravagant clothes on a daily basis, and thedoll reflecteditwithreplicasof herclothesand her very large hat.

She said she has made a headlessdoll for agirl who loved WednesdayAddams, dollsinspiredbyindigenous cultures, Beyoncé andmore.

Bolden said people donate fabric and clothesto her sometimes,and shesaid she finds something do with all of it.She loves making custom dolls but also likes having someready to be

sold for customers walking through as well. Bolden said she wants children to love themselves andhavea diversecollection of dolls that look like them.

To see more of Bolden’s work,you can viewher Instagram or herEtsy shop.

Email Molly Terrellat molly.terrell@theadvocate. com.

One of Bolden’sbasicdolls

FAITH &VALUES

In modern, scientific world, faith still rocks

“This is not a‘dumb rock!’” Georgetown University chemistry professor Joseph Early had just dropped ahand-sizedpebble, with aclatter,onto the table at thefront of the lecture hall,and then held it aloft, while loudlyuttering those words.

This class in 1983, called “ScientificWorldview,” was openly described by Early as “the science course for humanities majors.” Essentially,itwas about how science fits in with, informs, and is informed by,other majorfields of learning

Quin

Hillyer BEyOND BELIEF

Early’spointwith the stone was that very little separated that rock from living organisms. If you could take most of the same chemical elements from that rock but rearrange which protons and which electrons latched on to each other,you could have something aliverather than inert.

Early went further still: Even assuming thelinking of atoms was rearranged to form life, thereisnothing in chemistry or physics which yet explains human consciousness. The scientific world that aims to explain the mysteries of theuniverse runs into that seemingly unsolvable mystery Or,asEarly (in one of his many published writings) approvingly quotes from philosopher John R. Searle, “How is it possible in auniverse consisting entirely of physical particles in fields of force that there can be such thingsas consciousness, intentionality,free will, language, society,ethics, [and] aesthetics?”

In Early’stelling, even thesupposedly dumb rock holdsthe same building blocks that, if rearranged, can lead to life and thence, mysteriously,tohuman consciousness but nobody can prove exactly how Early, adevout Catholic, therefore positedthat scienceitself possibly leads to the possibility of theinexplicably “unmoved mover.” In sum, perhaps, to God

Fromaperch in chemistry,then, Early joined along and growinglist of scientistswho assertthat scientific inquiry not only does not contradict God’sexistence, but instead makessuch existence somewhat more plausible.

While Early taught, despiteso many understandings to thecontrary,that the scientific worldview is not at odds with areligiousworldview,the broaderlesson of his class was thatscience viewed rightlyisin arelational position with allsortsof other fields of inquiry rangingfrom faithtoarts to literature.

What can also be intriguing, however,isthe same idea from the other end of the looking glass: from faith to science, or from faithtoso many other aspects of our lives.

So many questions arise: Is faith at odds with science, or with modernity? How —not legally or politically,but practically —can faith add value to the public square? Where or how,ifatall, does faithfit into a21st Century where formal affiliation with religion has declined markedly?

And, of course, age-oldquestions remain: When is random fate at work, contrasted with when God’s will is all-controlling? How, if God is aloving entity,are we to explain not just evil but also intense suffering resulting not from any willful human actionbut from natural processes cancers, natural disasters,etc. —of the world God supposedly created? These foundational questionsand topics are inherently newsworthy. Issues of faith are deeply enmeshed in the fabric of everyday American life, and certainly of life in deeply religious Louisiana. It is well worth reflecting upon the ways in which faith —inmuch the same way as Professor Early’sscience —isinrelationship with the restofexistence One can hope, too, that these explorations willanimate what otherwise, physically speaking,isjust dumb newsprint.

Advocate/Times-Picayune columnist Quin Hillyer has adegree in Theologyfrom Georgetown University.Heis an Episcopalian who attended an Episcopal grade school and a historically Jewish high school, studiedMartin Luther at aJesuit University,and taught at aBaptist

‘You have to meet people wheretheyare’

Digitalmissionariesare upliftingthe Catholic faith

BYLAURENCHERAMIE Staff writer

The Vatican is stepping up its digital game Leading Catholic officials have realized the power and potential of the internet as an evangelism tool.InJuly,they invited Lake Charles’ Katie Prejean McGrady alongwith 1,000 other Catholic social mediainfluencers, for thefirst Jubilee of DigitalMissionaries and Catholic Influencers eventatthe Vatican But Katie McGrady didn’tneed to travel to Rometorealizethe power of theinternet. She says she wouldn’tbemarried to her husband without Facebook

In May2014, TommyMcGradysent a message to Katie after he read one of her blog posts. Theylong-distancedated fora year, and then Tommy moved to Louisiana in 2015. They married thenext year

“My two kids wouldn’texist withouta Facebook DM,” she said.

Katie McGrady started her career working in youth ministry and as aCatholic school teacher.In2017, she beganspeakingfull-time at retreats, religious education conferences and more.

Today,she is an author,podcast and radio host, and aVatican analystfor CNN, exploringvarious topics about theCatholic faith.

“The honest and vulnerable and authentic sharing of life —anauthentically Catholic life—opens up opportunities of encounter,” she said.

As far as asocial media strategy goes, she shares whatinterests her —whether that’sanews story,personal story or accounts fromothers. She doesn’tnecessarily focus on aspecific age group. She just tries to target those who are curious about thefaith Bernard Dumond, founder and CEO of Catholic Vitality360, based in Lafayette, says thedigital tactics are on point

“You havetomeet people where they are,” Dumond said. In Baton Rouge, Kendrick Slan,withVag-

The Vagabond missionaries withSacred HeartofJesus in Baton Rougeare based in the Underground Hub,a buildingthat is owned by the church. youth in the community are able to cometothe space to connectwith the missionaries and each other

abondMissionsatSacredHeart of Jesus Catholic Church, uses social media to connect with teenagers.

The organization’smissionisto serveteenagersinurban and innercity communities through weekly programs, outreach and mentorship.

To build relationships, Slantook apage out of Jesus’playbook and uses food. It’s not loaves and fishes, but Vagabond missionaries go into theneighborhood and hand out pizza —one slicefor afollowonthe Instagram, @225_ Underground. Slan says the pizza/Instagram approach has been more effective in building connections than any other digital medium

TheRev.Josh Johnson,priest at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, echoes the importance of meeting people where they are.

“Peter wasn’tinthe temple when he encountered Jesus. Peter was out fishing by the lake. Jesus met him on his boat,” Johnsonsaid.

“That’sapowerful reminder for us today.Like Christ, we are called to meet people where they are, and formany in our culture, that place is social media.” Louisiana cultureeditor Jan Risher contributed to this report.

Email Lauren Cheramieatlauren cheramie@theadvocate.com.

Medievalistexaminesthe role of modern pastor’s wife

BY JOYHOLDEN Staff writer

”Becoming the Pastor’sWife: How MarriageReplaced Ordination as aWoman’s Path to Ministry,”ByBeth Allison Barr, Brazos Press, 232 pages

Review

Beth AllisonBarr’snew book examines thedivide between the role of the pastor’s wife and the professional ministryof women. This duality underpins her study of pastors’ wives and how their roles have shifted over time.

In “Becoming thePastor’sWife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as aWoman’sPath to Minis-

try,”Barr,amedieval historian and professor at Baylor University,unpacks thecontemporary expectations of evangelical pastors’ wives and compares them to the complex history of women’sroles in the Christian church. She argues theissue is not whether women minister in the church, but that their work is not recognized as professional ministry Barrcombines her research with her experiences as aSouthern Baptistpastor’s wife for 25 years.

In her research, Barranalyzed 150 works written either about pastors’ wives or by them. She also researched multiple figures of the

early Christian church, the medieval church and female Christian leaders of the 20th century She showshow,inthe 20th century,women’sministry in the Southern Baptist Convention the largest evangelical Protestant organization —shifted dramatically,especially in the 1980s and ’90s, when changes in ordination policy pushed ministerial duties onto the roleofpastor’swife.

Drawing on both her personal and academic vantage points, Barr critically examines how the role of pastor’swifebecame asubstitute for ordination.

Email Joy Holdenatjoy.holden@ theadvocate.com.

SUNDAY, AUgUSt 31, 2025

grams

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.

word game

instructions: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

todAY's Word — ABridGed: uh-BRIJ'D: Shortened or condensed.

Average mark 41 words

Time limit 60 minutes

Can you find 64 or more words in ABRIDGED?

ken ken

instructions: 1 -Each rowand each column must contain thenumbers 1through4 (easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlinedboxes, called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (inany order)toproduce the target numbersinthe top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fillinthe single-boxcages withthe numberinthe top-left corner

instructions: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to placethe numbers 1to 9in theempty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficultylevel of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

directions: Complete thegridso that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

Play the percentages

South won the opening spade lead with his king and was very pleased with his contract There were 11 easy tricks provided that the club suit came in for six tricks. That was a sure thing unless the missing clubs split 4-0, so South gave some thought about the best way to play the club suit. Knowing that West had long spades, South judged that East was far more likely to have four clubs than West. Accordingly South started clubs at trick two by leading a low club to dummy’s ace. He was gob-smacked when East discarded a diamond! There was no longer any way to get to nine tricks. South cashed his eight top winners and settled for down one.

super Quiz

SUBJECT: IMAGINARY PLACES (e.g.,

South could have done better. It would cost nothing to play the ace and queen of diamonds before starting on clubs. When West shows up with a singleton diamond, the odds would change dramatically. It would be very unlikely that West held a club void in addition to a singleton diamond. South should then start clubs by cashing the king

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept 22) Consider the outcome

in his hand. When East shows out, South will continue with the 10 of clubs and double finesse West out of the jack and nine of clubs, using the ace of hearts to re-enter his hand if West covers the 10 with the jack.

Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, Ny 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2025 Tribune Content Agency

A

be heard. A change of plans will lead to an interesting and unexpected encounter

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Reach out to those in a position to help you, and you’ll get a sense of what

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Take better care of your mental and physical well-being. Refuse to let stress filter into aspects of your life that require common sense and immediate attention. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Savor the moments that matter Share your experiences, thoughts and feelings. Focus on doing your best and helping those around you meet their expectations. CAPRICORN (Dec 22-Jan 19) Keep life simple. Surround yourself with helpful people who offer sound advice and support. Consider healthy choices and fine-tune your lifestyle to suit your needs.

and how you can invest efficiently in your future. Be bold and brave, and you’ll benefit from doing your best to stand out. PISCES (Feb 20-March 20) Kindness is a blessing, but also a vulnerability if you are too eager to please. Set boundaries and limitations with those who are anxious to take advantage of you. ARIES (March 21-April 19) A change to your schedule will position you for an adventure. Short trips, getting together with old friends and revisiting dreams will change your perspective and your direction.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Be precise regarding what matters to you, but also be willing to compromise. Balance, integrity and feeling good about an agreement you reach will make a difference in how you feel about yourself.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Stick to the script. If you keep waffling or changing your story, you’ll lose the confidence of those you count on for support. Giving back, sharing and caring go hand in hand with achieving success CANCER (June 21-July 22) Don’t get caught in someone else’s crossfire. Avoid volatile situations or those who exhibit excessive behavior Let go of what no longer works for you, and start dancing to the beat of your drum. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Engage in what and with who excites you. Social events, travel and reconnecting with old friends you miss will brighten your day Choose simplicity over complexity, and you’ll win every time.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

SCORING: 24 to 30 points —congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points—honorsgraduate; 13 to 17 points —you’replenty smart, but no grind; 5to12points —you really shouldhit the booksharder;1point to 4points —enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0points who reads thequestions to you?

Saturday's Cryptoquote: Whensummergathers up her robes of glory, and like adreamofbeauty glides away.— Sarah Helen Whitman

1. Wonderland. 2. Camelot.3.Emerald City. 4. Metropolis. 5. Neverland.6.Hogwarts. 7. Narnia. 8. Shangri-La. 9. Wakanda.10. Atlantis. 11. Bedford Falls. 12. Asgard. 13. Rivendell. 14.Cloud City.15. Amity Island. Crossword Answers