CAJUNS RUNNING BACKS READY FOR ROAD GAME AT TROY 1C 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, O c T O b e r 23, 2025
2025 LEGISLATURE
Lawmakers hoping for speedy special session
“ ”
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Moving April closed primary date sole focus of Legislature Staff writer
The way Republicans tell it, the special session that begins Thursday afternoon is not complicated and, ideally, it won’t last very long. “Everybody wants to just get in and get out,” said Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, RPort Allen, who will be carrying legislation that is likely to be the sole focus at the Capitol. “I think we’ll be done by Nov. 1.” The plan? Push Louisiana’s new closed
primary elections in April back one month and hold them in May instead, to buy time for a potential Supreme Court decision that could allow Louisiana to draw a new congressional election map. The session will be “pretty straightforward,” said Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, who is spearheading the effort in the House. “We’re just looking to push the election dates back 30 days,” he said. The plan may appear simple, but the reason for the change — and what could happen next — is anything but.
Federal charges brought against al-Muhtadi BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
SEN. CALEB KLEINPETER, R-Port Allen
BY ALYSE PFEIL
Hamas attack trial will be in Lafayette Staff writer
Everybody wants to just get in and get out. I think we’ll be done by Nov. 1.
Louisiana lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Thursday for a special session.
$2.00X
The U.S. Supreme Court last week heard arguments in a major voting rights case stemming from Louisiana. The justices’ eventual ruling could lead to major changes to the Voting Rights Act, a Civil Rights Movement era law aimed at increasing Black political representation. It could also alter how race can be used as a factor when drawing voting maps. Louisiana’s congressional map is the
ä See SESSION, page 5A
A federal trial will be held in Lafayette for Mayhmoud al-Muhtadi, a resident of the city since June, who pleaded not guilty Wednesday to falsifying a visa application and conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, namely Hamas. He is accused of being a member of a terrorist group and participating in the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel that left over a 1,000 people dead and sparked a two-year conflict. Al-Muhtadi was in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Lafayette on Wednesday afternoon before Magistrate Judge Carol Whitehurst, where he pleaded not guilty to two charges handed up Friday afternoon by a grand jury. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Nickel said al-Muhtadi will not be deported to Israel, although it is a possible penalty if he is found guilty. Nickel also said al-Muhtadi’s trial will take place in federal court in Lafayette. If convicted, Whitehurst said, al-Muhtadi could face consequences including up to life in prison, up to $250,000 in fines, supervised release for life and a $100 special assessment for the charge of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death. She said for the second charge of visa fraud, al-Muhtadi could face up to 10 years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines, supervised release for up to three years and a $100 special assessment. Al-Muhtadi was ordered detained until his trial. U.S. District Judge David Joseph will schedule the trial date. Federal officials on Wednesday filed a motion asking the court to designate Aleksandr Kurtov as the classified information security officer for this case per the Classified Information Procedures Act. They also requested seven alternate officers. They also filed a motion asking Joseph to set a pretrial conference as early as
ä See TRIAL, page 5A
Landry highlights state’s LNG successes BY COURTNEY PEDERSEN Staff writer
Gov. Jeff Landry told attendees of the Americas LNG Summit & Exhibition that Louisiana is beating out Texas in liquefied natural gas exports. “If Louisiana was a country, it would hold the largest amount of LNG exports in the world, so we’re beating Texas; that’s important,” Landry said. “I know there’s a lot
ä See LANDRY, page 5A
WEATHER HIGH 83 LOW 52 PAGE 6A
U.S. announces Russia sanctions
president sought Two oil companies Ukrainian more foreign military help. The sanctions against targeted over Rosneft and Lukoil, as well refusal to end as dozens of subsidiaries, months of biparti‘senseless war’ followed san pressure on President
BY SUSIE BLANN and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced new sanctions Wednesday against Russia’s two biggest oil companies PHOTO PROVIDED By UKRAINIAN EMERGENCy SERVICE and blasted Moscow’s refusRescuers evacuate children after Russian drones hit a city kindergarten during al to end its “senseless war” as U.S.-led efforts to end an attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. the war floundered and the
Business ...................10C Commentary ................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................4A Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
Donald Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions on its oil industry. “Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Bessent said in a statement. Given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that
ä See SANCTIONS, page 5A
101ST yEAR, NO. 115