INTERIM LSU COACH WILSON HAS TEAM ‘ALL IN’
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S at u r d ay, N ov e m b e r 8, 2025
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UL cuts include professors, coaches 56 workers eliminated to save $5M
BY MEGAN WYATT
Staff writer
Professors, coaches and police officers are among those being laid off from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette while school officials try to make up for a $25 mil-
lion deficit. A list of 56 jobs that the university is cutting, which The Acadiana Advocate received through a public records request, shows that they include workers across a wide array of departments, from academic counselors to assistant
coaches. Of those being laid off, their annual salaries ranged from $16,153 to $171,600. The eliminated positions should lead to $5 million in savings for the university. A new website that UL unveiled this week about the budget crisis says they’ve made enough headway to offset $20.5 million in the deficit, with roughly $5 million left to go.
Interim President Jaimie Hebert announced last month in an email to faculty and staff that the budget deficit he inherited required cuts to all divisions through a combination of position eliminations, retirements, resignations and reassignments. Of the 70 affected positions, 51 people — a mix of civil service and non-civil service employees
— were laid off. The remaining 19 were reassigned. When the budget deficit came to public light in September, UL also eliminated six additional positions, closed the Office of Sustainability and Community Engagement and restructured the Offices of Communications and Marketing and Auxiliary Services.
ä See JOBS, page 4A
Man indicted on sex trafficking counts Prosecutors allege ‘El Perro’ operated two brothels in BR
BY AIDAN MCCAHILL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
A monarch butterfly alights on milkweed in New Orleans last month. Scientific data suggests that milkweed is spreading a disease that can cause butterflies to emerge from their chrysalises wingless and deformed.
The butterfly effect
vegetation. lected largely by citizen scientists and Scientists say some friendly But things changed in 2020 after she compiled by Project Monarch Health at saw scientific data suggesting that milk- the University of Georgia. milkweed may be Some researchers warn OE spores weed is spreading a disease that can cause butterflies to emerge from their can build up on milkweed that persists fueling a deadly parasite chrysalises wingless and deformed. through winter — especially tropical
BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
For years, home gardeners have been told to do one thing to save monarch butterflies: plant milkweed, the only plant monarch caterpillars eat. And for years, that’s what Linda Barber Auld, known as “NOLA BugLady,” did. Her garden was full of it, as well as other butterfly-
“I came home and I ripped out all the milkweed in my yard,” she said, both the native and tropical varieties. That disease — ophryocystis elektroscirrha, or OE, for short — is widespread across North America, but monarch infection rates are particularly high in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. The vast majority of monarchs in New Orleans are infected with the protozoan pathogen, according to data col-
milkweed, which is not native to Louisiana. “The very thing that people are doing to help the monarchs is the thing that’s causing them problems,” said Andy Davis, an assistant research scientist at the University of Georgia who studies monarchs. Monarchs are an emblematic North
ä See MILKWEED, page 5A
Meta partners for solar farms in La. BY JOSIE ABUGOV
to the tech giant’s construction of its largest data center yet in the state’s northeast. The 385-megawatt projects, with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has developer Treaty Oaks, will gensigned a deal with a developer erate enough power for around for two large-scale solar farms 80,000 homes. Meta will purchase in rural Louisiana, projects tied the solar energy generated at the
Staff writer
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two sites in Morehouse and Sabine Parishes. The clean energy will flow directly to the region’s grid, helping Meta offset a small portion of the emissions from the three gas-fired
ä See META, page 5A
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Federal prosecutors allege that a man known as “El Perro” operated a human trafficking ring in Baton Rouge for more than two years, using WhatsApp to attract clients and lure victims to two brothels off of Nicholson Drive. “El Perro” has been identified as Jesus Lopez, a 45-year-old Honduran national who also went by the alias Pedro Vargas. The women under his control referred to him as “Fran,” according to court documents. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Lopez on multiple counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, as well as coercing and enticing to travel for interstate prostitution. Two Honduran women, Zaira Lopez-Olivia, 23, and Kirsis Castellanos-Kirington, 30, face similar counts for assisting in the operation. The arrests, made in October, were the result of a yearslong investigation by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations. According to an affidavit obtained from the U.S. Middle District Court in Louisiana, detectives with the Sheriff’s Office received a tip in August 2024 that women — possibly underage — were being forced into prostitution at a residence on the 900 block of Aster Street, near Nicholson Drive. The source provided WhatsApp messages advertising commercial sex using a series of photographs showing women in lingerie or
ä See INDICTED, page 4A
Construction continues on the Meta AI data center near Holly Ridge. STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
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