THE
ACADIANA
ADVOCATE
T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
|
T h u r s d ay, s e p T e m b e r 11, 2025
H
$2.00X
Figure at center of bribery scheme to take stand Assistant district attorney accused of conspiracy
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Staff writer
THE DESERET NEWS PHOTOS By TESS CROWLEy
Charlie Kirk hands out hats Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Kirk, a conservative activist, was shot and killed shortly after.
Conservative activist fatally shot in Utah
Governor: Charlie Kirk’s death a ‘political assassination’
BY HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MARK SHERMAN
Dusty Guidry, the man at the center of several bribery and kickback schemes in Louisiana, including the Lafayette District Attorney’s Office, is scheduled to testify Thursday morning in the trial of Lafayette Assistant District Attorney Gary Haynes. Haynes’ trial started Monday in U.S. District Haynes Court in Lafayette. He is charged with six federal felony counts including bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery and obstruction of justice. The charges center around a scheme with Guidry when both men Guidry worked in the pretrial diversion program in 15th Judicial District Attorney Don Landry’s office in Lafayette. The men would steer defendants into the pretrial diversion program, then to certain vendors who provided classes and therapy, which the defendants paid for.
ä See BRIBERY, page 4A
Associated Press
OREM, Utah — Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday at a Utah college event in an act that the state’s governor called a “political assassination.” A “person of interest” was in custody Wednesday evening, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, though no charges were immediately announced. “This is a dark day for our state,” Cox said, calling the killing a “political assassination.” “We are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any information related to the shooting,” he said. Utah authorities said the shooter wore dark clothing and fired from a roof on campus some distance away. The death was announced on social media by Trump, who praised the 31-year-old Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, as “Great, and even Legendary.” “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
ä See ACTIVIST, page 4A
Landry scolds Cassidy on COVID vaccine
Senator suggested ways to circumvent new hurdles BY MARK BALLARD
Law enforcement members tape off an area after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot at Utah Valley University.
The deal also involves other key provisions, which could be modified as the sides hash out final details. Among them: the Saints’ share of revenues from stadium concessions on game days; terms of the state lease for offices at Benson Tower; and other future revenue streams and costs. The two sides have wanted to sign the lease by Sept. 17 because that’s the day an NFL owners subcommittee on special events will meet to begin considering who will host Super Bowls beyond 2028. After receiving broad acclaim for hosting the game in February, New Orleans hopes to be invited to bid on the 2031 Super Bowl. But it can do so only if the Saints have a signed lease agreement in effect for the year of the game, according to league policy.
WASHINGTON — Gov. Jeff Landry took exception to U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s suggestion that the state surgeon general could easily get around recent federal hurdles for people trying to access the COVID vaccine. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week proposed new restrictions for administering the COVID vaccine, which many pharmacies have interpreted as requiring preCassidy scriptions. Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, recommended state Surgeon General Ralph Abraham write a “blanket prescription” that would allow drugstores to handle the inoculations as they did in the past. Landry Landry, a Republican, wrote on X: “The last time I checked you have a prescription pad, why don’t you just leave a prescription for the dangerous Covid shot at your district office and anyone can swing by and get one! I am sure big pharma would love you for that one!”
ä See SAINTS, page 4A
ä See VACCINE, page 4A
Saints set to sign new Superdome lease Long-term deal could keep team in New Orleans for at least another decade
BY JEFF DUNCAN, ANTHONY McAULEY and TYLER BRIDGES Staff writers
The New Orleans Saints and Gov. Jeff Landry’s team are closing in on a new longterm lease of the Caesars Superdome that aims to keep the franchise rooted in New Orleans for at least another decade. The deal, which three sources familiar with the talks said could be announced as soon as next week, culminates more than a year of grueling, often contentious negotiations between the Saints and the Louisiana
WEATHER HIGH 93 LOW 71 PAGE 6A
Stadium and Exposition District, the board that oversees the state-owned Superdome. Neither the Saints nor the district, known as the Superdome Commission, have announced specifics publicly. But the sources close to the negotiations said the agreement calls for a 10-year lease followed by four five-year extensions, with the Saints retaining the right to exercise each extension. If all the extensions are agreed on, it would run through 2055. The deal adds a new provision — absent from the Saints’ current lease — requiring arbitration and potential “equitable damages,” measures designed to discourage any future owner from moving the team out of New Orleans. The exact amount of that relocation penalty hasn’t been finalized, but the sources said it could reach $250 million.
Staff writer
Business ...................10C Commentary ................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................5A Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 73