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S u n d ay, S e p t e m b e r 14, 2025
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Historic cypress plank displayed at Capitol goes missing
C A J U N S
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MIZZOU MAULING
Whereabouts of the 1,200-year-old artifact is unknown
BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer An ancient, 20-foot cypress wood board that held a prominent place at the State Capitol for decades has gone missing, and no one seems to know where it is. Or at least no one is admitting it. The board was cut from a tree in Livingston Parish near Lake Maurepas that was estimated to be 1,284 years old, according to words etched into the flat plank. Former House Speaker Clay Schexnayder said that, for 10 years, the board was on the wall of his district office in Gonzales. But he said he left it there when his legislative career ended in January 2024. The manager of St. John Properties, which handles the building where Schexnayder’s office was located, won’t discuss the matter. All of this has deeply frustrated the family of Walter Stebbins, who donated the red cypress board to the Capitol in the 1950s and died in 1961. “It’s a piece of history,” said Julius Mullins, a retired doctor in Baton Rouge who is one of Stebbins’ grandchildren. “It was a museum piece on display for the people of Louisiana.” It was a point of pride for Mullins and other family members every time they visited the Capitol to admire their grandfather’s handiwork on a wall in the ground-floor breezeway underneath the building’s steps.
ä See PLANK, page 7A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By L.G. PATTERSON
Missouri running back Ahmad Hardy, right, runs past University of Louisiana at Lafayette defenders during the second half of Saturday’s game in Columbia, Mo. Former Sun Belt running back Hardy rushed for 250 yards and three touchdowns as No. 25 Missouri pounded UL 52-10 at Memorial Stadium. The Cajuns finished with just 121 yards on offense, compared to 606 for the Tigers. It was UL’s worst defeat since a 56-14 loss to Alabama in 2018.
ä SEE
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE CAJUNS’ GAME. PAGE 1C
LETHAL HEAT LOUISIANA’S QUIET DISASTER
Heat deaths rise as region warms Humidity makes it harder for people to cool themselves, making Louisiana especially vulnerable
First in a series
BY SAM KARLIN | Staff writer The heat set in before sunrise in Algiers. Outside his yellow brick home, Dornell Anderson ventured into the stagnant August air, trying to finish yard work before the temperature became unbearable. He mowed his lawn, facing the neighborhood where he had spent his whole life, from playing football in the street to building a family with his wife. Then a neighbor saw him collapse. His wife, Sheila Borskey, felt her stomach drop when she got the phone call from the West Bank hospital where her husband had gone from working as a cook to being treated as a patient. She rushed to see him. Anderson,
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Heat haze distorts Canal Street and streetcars during a heat advisory ä See HEAT, page 4A in New Orleans in July.
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 71 PAGE 6B
Closing the mathematics gender gap La. girls fell behind in math during COVID, but progress is being made
BY PATRICK WALL, ANNIE MA and SHARON LURYE Staff writer and Associated Press
DESTREHAN — During a recent group project in her eighth grade engineering class, Charlotte Buccola took charge. Standing between the two boys on her team, she silently arranged sticky notes on a wall as the group tried, without speaking, to design a system for making hot chocolate. As the students at Harry Hurst Middle School practiced the engineering design process and the critical skill of collaboration, the girls seemed to excel. They worked efficiently and cooperatively, offering their peers support. “Your drawings are really good,” Charlotte told another girl when they were comparing designs. “Well done.” Efforts to close the gap between boys and girls in STEM classes are picking up after losing steam nationwide during the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools have extensive work ahead of them to make up the ground girls lost, in both interest and performance.
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................2B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................3B Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä See GENDER, page 6A
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