750 ML
750 ML
Uncle Nearest 1884 Small Batch Bourbon
Old Forester 100 Proof Bourbon
750 ML
750 ML
Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream
Four Roses Small Batch
750 ML
Maker’s Mark 46 French Oaked Bourbon
750 ML
Early Times Kentucky Whiskey
10 OZ
Rouses Dark Cherries in Bourbon
visit rouses.com for more weekly ad specials! Prices good at all Lafayette, New Iberia and Youngsville stores September 10th - 17th, 2025.
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M o n d ay, S e p t e M b e r 15, 2025
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FBI probe detailed in assistant DA’s trial Haynes facing federal bribery charges
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK PROVIDED PHOTO
Hurricane Rita changed the way southwest La. responds to disasters
wow moment’ ‘A
BY MEGAN WYATT Staff writer
Two decades after Hurricane Rita struck southwest Louisiana, one of its enduring impacts is how the region prepares for and responds to disasters, having paved the way for stricter building standards and more detailed evacuation and shelter planning. The Category 3 hurricane’s storm surge flooded coastal parishes and its high winds
The old Charleston Hotel in Lake Charles after Hurricane Rita in September 2005, top left, and in August 2025, top right
The FBI investigation of Lafayette’s 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, dubbed Operation Cajun Hustle, started in July 2021 with a tip from a local defense attorney that his client was being extorted for $30,000 to make pending charges go away. The investigation, aided by phone wiretaps and audio and video recordings by a cooperatHaynes ing conspirator, led to a May 9, 2022, raid on the district attorney’s pretrial diversion program offices, the indictment of five men, including Assistant District Attorney Gary Haynes and Louisiana Department of
ä See BRIBERY, page 4A
PROVIDED PHOTO
State plans to repair or replace 62 bridges
uprooted trees, splintered utiility poles and peeled roofs from m homes in Lake Charles, Sulphu ur and Westlake. Just a few weeks before Rita a made landfall, Hurricane Ka atrina’s hit on the southeast-ern side of the state offered d a warning for public officials in southwest Louisiana, who started to worry that they would eventually face a major storm. The concern quicklly
ä See RITA, page 4A
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
Boat houses along Shell Beach Drive in Lake Charles after Hurricane Rita in September 2005, right, and in August 2025, below
Louisiana’s new transportation agency is quickly ramping up, and its first major task is fixing 62 small bridges scattered across rural parts of the state by the end of next year. It’s the opening gambit for state lawmakers and Gov. Jeff Landry as they seek to accomplish what they argue the state’s lumbering Department of Transportation and Development has for years failed to do — efficiently maintain thousands of miles of Louisiana roads and bridges. Legislators this spring announced they
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
ä See BRIDGES, page 5A
Area scientists mark discovery of signal BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD
ed, and it created a new way for scientists to look into the universe. The Sept. 14, 2015, detecA signal lasting less than a second traveled about 1.3 tion confirmed a key prebillion light years before diction of Albert Einstein’s it reached an observatory general theory of relativity, deep in the piney woods of earned the Nobel Prize in Livingston 10 years ago. physics and kick-started a The brief signal — caused new era of astronomy. by a pair of black holes col“Most of us had figured liding — was the first graviä See SIGNAL, page 5A tational waves ever detectStaff writer
Joseph A. Giaime, right, observatory head of LIGO Livingston, explains the science behind the catenary arch to his daughter Domenica on Saturday. STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
WEATHER HIGH 93 LOW 70 PAGE 12C
Classified .....................4B Comics-Puzzles .. 9C-11C Living............................7C Metro ...........................1B Opinion ........................2B Sports ..........................1C 101ST yEAR, NO. 77