THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: TULANE AT UT-SAN ANTONIO 1C
N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, O c T O b e r 30, 2025
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N.O. city officials abandon loan effort
Leaders fend off potential state takeover of finances
2025 LEGISLATURE
SPECIAL SESSION
Election delay approved As session ends, big redistricting battles could be on horizon
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
The Louisiana Legislature concluded business and left the Capitol on Wednesday, and when it next returns, lawmakers could be stepping into a bitter partisan fight over Louisiana’s congressional map. All eyes are now on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, a potentially watershed voting-rights and redistricting case, which could come as early as this year or as late as next summer. During a special session that ended Wednesday, the GOP-controlled Legislature approved a plan to delay Louisiana’s new closed party primary elections for U.S. House and Senate by one month from April to May.
ä See ELECTION, page 6A STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE
New Orleans City Council member at-large and Mayor-elect Helena Moreno speaks during a council meeting on Wednesday. BY BLAKE PATERSON
Staff writer
New Orleans officials on Wednesday abandoned their pursuit of a $125 million loan to shore up the city’s budget, and appeared to fend off — at least for now — the potential state takeover of city finances. But the moves left questions about how the city would rectify a $160 million deficit and make payroll moving forward, as the City Council and Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration appeared to be on separate pages about how to proceed. A state Fiscal Review Committee that was due on Wednesday to consider recommending that a state agent take over New Orleans’ finances canceled its meeting, after city leaders withdrew their request for permission to sell $125 million in short-term revenue bonds, essentially government payday loans. The State Bond Commission, which was due to consider that request on Thursday, also canceled its meeting. The city faced long odds in getting the bond request approved: Gov. Jeff Landry came out against it, and several bond commissioners indicated this week that they could follow his lead. State officials also made clear they would approve the cash infusion only if
Landry: La. will cover most food stamp benefits BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell discusses the city’s budget issues during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. local officials ceded control of city operations to a state administrator. That meant an impasse, council members said at a news conference: “I will not stand for having a fiscal administrator come into the city of New Orleans. That is essentially the state coming in and taking over the city,” said City Council Vice President Helena Moreno,
who will take office as mayor on Jan. 12. “As things stand right now, the city of New Orleans, both the administration and this council, are going to move forward without the $125 million on the table,” added City Council President JP Morrell. “We are going to make cuts to
ä See OFFICIALS, page 7A
Louisiana’s state government will pay to ensure most federal food stamp recipients continue to receive money for groceries if the shutdown in Wash- ä LSU FOOTBALL: ington, D.C., con- Landry says AD tinues, Gov. Jeff Woodward isn’t Landry announced picking the next Wednesday. But 53,000 able- coach. PAGE 6A bodied adults are unlikely to be covered under the state’s plan, which prioritizes the elderly, people with disabilities and households with children. “Our priorities are very specific. We are going to protect the most vulnerable population in Louisiana, which is our
ä See BENEFITS, page 6A
ICE detainee at Angola sent to Laos, despite citizenship claims Agency violated La. judge’s order, ACLU says
claim” to being an American citizen, to Laos, where he is in custody, according to the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union. Because of that claim, Judge Shelly Dick of the Middle District Court of Louisiana issued a temBY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer porary order on Oct. 23 blocking the government from sending U.S. Immigration and Customs Chanthila Souvannarath out of the Enforcement has sent a 44-year-old country. But the U.S. Department Louisiana Lockup detainee, who a of Homeland Security, which overjudge has said has a “substantial sees ICE, says it sent Souvannara-
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th to Laos before the order came down. Souvannarath, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, received lawful permanent residence in the United States as a baby, Dick wrote in her court decision. Souvannarath said that, because his father became a naturalized citizen, and because he entered his father’s sole custody at 13, he met the requirements for deriva-
tive citizenship and has been a U.S. citizen since childhood, according to the order. The order says the government is “immediately prohibited from removing” Souvannarath from the United States or from the jurisdiction of the Middle District, which covers the Baton Rouge region. “This is what happens when you disappear people to notorious, isolated prisons under the guise of ‘civil’ detention — you end up
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wrongfully deporting individuals with strong claims to U.S. citizenship,” Sarah Gillman, director of Strategic U.S. Litigation at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that “there was no mistake,” and that Souvannarath was removed before Dick’s order was issued. The
ä See DETAINEE, page 7A
13TH yEAR, NO. 79