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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
M o n d ay, S e p t e M b e r 22, 2025
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ICE wields Angola’s ‘notorious’ reputation
THE NEXT WAVE OF
CONSERVATION
Part of state prison used for immigration crackdown BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Chef Philippe Parola, left, talks about the bighead carp as Dennis Riecke looks on in Baton Rouge on Sept. 10. Louisiana scientists are developing artificial intelligence recognition software that can help biologists detect new populations of carp before they get out of control, offering a peek into the next wave of conservation.
Chefs, fishermen and AI programmers join Louisiana’s fight against invasive fish BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer
Philippe Parola slaps a 40-pound slab of raw fish onto his cutting board, then brandishes a small saw to begin the fillet. The chef, environmental advocate and showman is holding court on a backyard patio in Baton Rouge, where discussion of nature’s delicate balance flows as freely as the wine provided to his 20 or so guests, many
of whom came unaware of what was on the menu. “This is the very first time in this country that we’re going to be cooking this fish,” said Parola, pointing to the massive black carp, caught two days before in Simmesport. “No one else has the balls to go out there and do it.” As the fish begins to sizzle on the grill, his French accent thickens with urgency as he explains a grim reality: The black carp is the latest spe-
cies of Asian carp to spread through Louisiana’s major river systems, inundating the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, Red and Ouachita rivers, along with their tributaries. It joins the bighead, grass and silver carp — the last notorious for transforming rivers into minefields, with entire schools leaping from the water when startled, sometimes injuring unsuspecting boaters.
ä See FISH, page 3A
Charlie Kirk’s faith praised at memorial Officials, supporters pay tribute at service in Arizona
gathered Sunday evening to honor the slain conservative political activist whose work they say they must now adKirk vance. BY JONATHAN J. COOPER, The memorial service for EUGENE GARCIA, AAMER Kirk, whom Trump credits with MADHANI and MEG KINNARD playing a pivotal role in his 2024 Associated Press election victory, drew tens of GLENDALE, Ariz. — President Don- thousands of mourners, includald Trump praised Charlie Kirk ing Vice President JD Vance, as a “great American hero” and other senior administration “martyr” for freedom as he and ä See KIRK, page 5A other prominent conservatives
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President Donald Trump embraces Erika Kirk at a memorial for Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOHN LOCHER
For Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is “legendary.” “This is a facility that’s notorious,” she said, as she stood beside Gov. Jeff Landry to unveil the “Louisiana Lockup” for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainees in a disused wing of the prison that was once used to punish misbehaving inmates with solitary confinement. “That’s a message that these individuals that are going to be here that are illegal criminals need to understand,” Noem continued. “If you come into this country and you victimize someone, if you take away their child forever, if you traffic drugs and kill our next generation of Americans, and if you traffic our children and men and women, absolutely there’s consequences. You’re going to end up here.” That message ought to convince people to self-deport, Noem said. As part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to detain and deport immigrants in record numbers, officials have established a series of high-profile detention centers across the country. From “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida swamps to the “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska, they have advertised the facilities as tools to
ä See ANGOLA, page 4A
Regulators order fixes for waste runoff
Inspectors say seepage flowed into swamp BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer
In south Louisiana, Atlantic Alumina operates the nation’s only remaining bauxite ore refinery — a process that creates fields full of a byproduct called “red mud.” Now, state environmental regulators have issued orders and threatened fines against the company, claiming the levees and other systems built to contain the waste have allowed smelly, bright orange runoff to flow into a nearby swamp. The massive operation in St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes, founded in the late 1950s by Kaiser Aluminum, extracts alumina from red earth mined in Jamaica. Alumina is used by smelters elsewhere to make aluminum. Hundreds of acres of red mud — which is contaminated with trace amounts of naturally occurring heavy metals and
Classified .....................6C Deaths .........................7A Nation-World ................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3C-5C Living............................1C Opinion ........................8A Commentary ................9A Metro ...........................6A Sports ..........................1B
ä See RUNOFF, page 5A
101ST yEAR, NO. 84