GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENDS AS TRUMP SIGNS FUNDING BILL 3A
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T h u r s d ay, N ov e m b e r 13, 2025
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N.O. gets state approval for $125 million loan
Former lawmaker indicted in theft of artifact
Schexnayder faces felony charge over ancient cypress board BY TYLER BRIDGES and PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writers
than doubled their salaries by reporting long shifts for weeks or months straight without a day off. The OIG is now working separately with Waguespack’s office on its investigation, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Former House Speaker Clay Schexnayder was indicted Wednesday by a Baton Rouge grand jury related to the disappearance of an ancient cypress board that was last seen in his legislative office in Gonzales. The indictment says Schexnayder “knowingly and intentionally committed theft of a rare Loui- Schexnayder siana state artifact,” leading to a charge of felony theft greater than $25,000. It also says he has been charged with malfeasance in office for “intentionally refusing to perform a duty required of him as a public officer or employee.” Schexnayder could face up to 25 years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to the Attorney General’s Office, which brought the indictment in East Baton Rouge Parish. Under typical procedures, Schexnayder would be arrested or turn himself in voluntarily. The board, which was displayed at the State Capitol for decades, vanished from Schexnayder’s office last year as he was ending a 12-year term in the House, the last four as the Republican speaker of the 105-member chamber. The disappearance of the board was first reported by The Advocate | The Times-Picayune in September. The newspaper also reported that Julius Mullins, a retired Baton Rouge doctor whose grandfather Walter Stebbins donated the board to the state in the 1950s, had asked Attorney General Liz Murrill to investigate what happened to it. “You don’t get to keep state property,” Murrill said in a statement. “It doesn’t belong to you.” Her office said it doesn’t know the location of the 20-foot-long artifact. “I just want to get the board back in the Capitol,” Mullins said when asked for his reaction to the news of the indictment. Schexnayder didn’t immediately
ä See OVERTIME, page 7A
ä See ARTIFACT, page 5A
STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS
New Orleans City Council Vice President and Mayor-elect Helena Moreno speaks alongside City Council budget Chair Joe Giarrusso, left, and council President JP Morrell during the Fiscal Review Committee meeting at the State Capitol on Wednesday.
Money would pay city workers, fund operations BY BLAKE PATERSON
Staff writer
New Orleans officials won state approval Wednesday to sell $125 million in short-term bonds to ease the city’s cash-flow crisis and cover payroll for nearly 5,000 workers through the end of the year, marking a major victory for Mayor-elect Helena Moreno as she prepares to take office. The State Bond Commission’s decision to back New Orleans’ gap financing plan came after the City Council approved an ordinance last week giving Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack veto power over
how the bond proceeds are spent. The commission’s approval will allow New Orleans to avoid having to make severe cuts in the short term to basic city services. New Orleans also averted a stateled takeover of city operations — at least for now — after a state panel earlier Wednesday opted not to recommend that a state fiscal administrator handle the city’s affairs after Moreno and her council colleagues assured them the city’s finances were headed toward surer footing. “I just appreciate so much all of the state leaders working collabora-
Gov. Jeff Landry listens to New Orleans City Council Vice President and Mayor-elect Helena Moreno during ä See LOAN, page 7A Wednesday’s meeting.
Moreno zeroes in on NOPD overtime spending
identified one area of concern: overtime the Inspector General separately conProbe launched into spending. firmed to WVUE television that it was The understaffed New Orleans Police investigating the matter in July, after the department payroll issues Department’s spending came under fresh station reported that 23 officers had more
BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE and BLAKE PATERSON
scrutiny after Louisiana Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack reported that no one had budgeted for police overtime in Staff writers the city’s 2025 budget, which faces a defiAs Mayor-elect Helena Moreno at- cit of $160 million. But Waguespack has begun digging tempts to make good on her recent promise to state leaders to keep a tighter watch deeper into the issue in recent weeks at on New Orleans’ finances, she’s already the City Council’s request. The Office of
Epstein email from 2019 says Trump ‘knew about the girls’ White House calls release a Democratic smear
BY MICHAEL R. SISAK and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a 2019 email to a journalist that Donald Trump “knew about the girls,” according to documents made public Wednesday, but what he knew — and whether
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it pertained to the sex offender’s crimes — is unclear. The White House quickly accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the president. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three emails referencing Trump, including one Epstein wrote in 2011 in which he told confidant Ghislaine
Maxwell that Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a sex trafficking victim. The disclosures seemed designed to raise new questions about Trump’s friendship with Epstein and about what knowledge he may have had regarding what prosecutors call a yearslong effort by Epstein to exploit underage girls. The Republican businessman-turnedpolitician has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes
and has said he ended their relationship years ago. The version of the 2011 email released by the Democrats redacted the name of the victim, but Republicans on the committee later said Epstein it was Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual
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encounters with a number of his rich and powerful friends. Epstein took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges. The emails made public Wednesday are part of a batch of 23,000 documents provided by Epstein’s estate to the Oversight Committee. Giuffre, who died earlier this year, long insisted that Trump was
ä See EPSTEIN, page 5A
13TH yEAR, NO. 93