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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
T h u r s d ay, s e p T e m b e r 18, 2025
Fed cuts interest rate Quarter-point reduction first this year; two more projected
$2.00X
‘Azores high’ steering storms away from U.S. Ridge of high pressure influences Atlantic paths
BY KASEY BUBNASH Staff writer
more this year, but just once in 2026. Before the meeting, investors on Wall Street had projected five cuts for the rest of this year and next. Stocks initially rose following the release of the projections, which seemed to support Wall Street’s widespread expectation for more cuts to interest rates. Such moves can give the economy a kickstart, and stock prices had already run to records on the bet that several cuts are on the way. But stocks gave back gains after Powell stressed that they’re only projections. Conditions could change quickly,
Tropical Storm Gabrielle formed over the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday morning, becoming this year’s seventh named storm. Forecasters expect the system to curve away from the U.S. as it strengthens, a path that a majority of this year’s six other named “In general, storms have followed, mercifully think of that avoiding direct hits high pressure to land. as a blocking That’s thanks in mechanism that large part to what systems have to meteorologists call the “Azores high,” go around rather a semi-permanent than through.” ridge of high presJAy GRyMES, sure over a portion of the Atlantic Louisiana state Ocean that steers climatologist tropical systems, according to Louisiana State Climatologist Jay Grymes. “That’s a feature we know tropical systems have to go around,” he said. Grymes likened the Atlantic to a football field, an analogy he credited to a professor he had at LSU. The ridge is a linebacker, and a tropical cyclone is a running back on the opposing team. The cyclone almost always has to go around the ridge to get where it’s going. Like in football, only an unusually strong cyclone, like a fully formed hurricane, could collide with the ridge and manage to push through it. “But in general, think of that high pressure as a blocking mechanism that systems have to go around rather than through,” Grymes said. Grymes said the high-pressure ridge expands and contracts in a cycle throughout the year. These phases are known by
ä See FED, page 8A
ä See STORMS, page 7A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JACQUELyN MARTIN
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell walks off after a news conference Wednesday following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington. BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP economics writer
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point Wednesday and projected it would do so twice more this year as concern grows at the central bank about the health of the nation’s labor market. The move is the Fed’s first cut since December and it lowered its short-term rate to about 4.1%, down from 4.3%. Fed officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, had kept their rate unchanged this year as they evaluated the impact of tariffs, tighter immigration enforcement, and other Trump administration
policies on inflation and the economy. Yet the central bank’s focus has shifted quickly from inflation, which remains modestly above its 2% target, to jobs, as hiring has ground nearly to a halt in recent months and the unemployment rate has ticked higher. Lower interest rates could reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans and business loans, and boost growth and hiring. “In this less dynamic and somewhat softer labor market, the downside risks to employment appear to have risen,” Powell said at a news conference following the Fed’s two-day meeting. Fed officials also signaled that they expect to reduce their key rate twice
Cleanup costs soar after giant plant fire
Doug Manship Jr., former Advocate publisher, dies at 82
and 20 local officials. Smitty’s Supply tractors The fire at the lubricants plant off U.S. 51 sent up a large faces suits in wake black plume that rained down of explosion soot as far as 15 miles way,
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer
BY ELLYN COUVILLION Staff writer
Douglas “Doug” Manship Jr., a former publisher of The Advocate and grandson of the founder of the newspaper’s publishing company, died Wednesday at 82. Manship died at home, where he was in hospice D. Manship care under the care of his wife, Dianne, said his brother Richard Manship. Richard Manship said he and his wife had visited with his brother and were driving home when they learned he had died. “I would classify Doug as the
ä See MANSHIP, page 7A
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 69 PAGE 6B
PHOTO PROVIDED By DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITy
The effects of the fire at Smitty’s Supply are seen in a private pond south of La. 10 and upstream of the Tangipahoa River.
Three weeks since Smitty’s Supply in Roseland caught fire and exploded, the bill for the lead response agency is already in the tens of millions of dollars and may rise, officials said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set aside at least $39 million and is seeking more through federal emergency petroleum spill money, an agency spokesperson said. The rising EPA numbers, which don’t include additional local and state costs, provide a measure of the environmental impact of the huge fire that started Aug. 22 and took more than two weeks to fully extinguish. The new figure represents a sharp rise in the cost of the response, which earlier this month was involving as many as 261 EPA staffers and con-
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forced a 1-mile evacuation for a few days and spilled millions of gallons of chemicals into local ditches, ponds and nearly 50 miles of the Tangipahoa River. Potentially a responsible party for the fire, Smitty’s is not paying for response efforts undertaken by the EPA. In a late August report, the EPA said it had taken over the response on Aug. 24 and shifted away from counting on the company due to “financial solvency issues.” The EPA says it prefers having responsible parties handle the response under agency direction. But the EPA can step in when that party refuses or is unable to respond — and has the authority to pursue recouping the cost later. After the fire, Smitty’s, a major employer in Tangipahoa Parish, has laid off employees
ä See CLEANUP, page 7A
101ST yEAR, NO. 80