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LSU LANDS LANE Kiffin leaving Ole Miss to take over Tiger football program New coach’s salary expected to top $13 million annually BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer
When the private plane carrying Lane Kiffin landed Sunday night, it pulled into a hangar out of sight from a small crowd of fans who had gathered in the misty cold. They peered through a chain-link fence, trying to see the new LSU head coach. Kiffin was greeted inside by school officials, then he got into a car along with his family and the coaches he brought with him from Ole Miss. Escorted by police, four black Chevrolet Suburbans pulled out of the hangar to bring him to the LSU football operations building. There was no sign of Kiffin himself as the fans chanted “LSU” until he rolled down his window. With his agent Jimmy Sexton on the phone, Kiffin pumped his fist and gave a thumbs up, drawing a loud cheer. “We’re never losing again,” one man declared. “He’s going to win five
ä See LANE, page 4A
INSIDE ä Scott Rabalais: The Lane Kiffin experience is at LSU, and it will be like nothing before. Page 1B ä Kiffin appears to be bringing at least five Ole Miss coaches and staff members with him. Page 1B
Natchez mayor dedicated to revitalizing village Patsy Ward Hoover says fight is ‘for another generation’ BY JENNA ROSS Staff writer
NATCHEZ — Natchez Mayor Patsy Ward Hoover weeds as she walks, plucking errant grass from flower beds beside city buildings, in the city park and along her property, just down the road. “Got ’em,” she said, clad in cowboy boots and a gold cross, holding up a bit of crabgrass with a grin. Ward Hoover had been on her knees, weeding around the flowers beneath a city sign, when a state senator pulled up in 2023 with some news: Her tiny village, which for years had struggled with a mold, rat and asbestos-infested
WEATHER HIGH 57 LOW 41 PAGE 12A
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
New LSU football coach Lane Kiffin waves to fans Sunday as he leaves Baton Rouge Metro Airport.
City Hall, had won $250,000 for a new building. It would be small, just 1,400 square feet. It would be temporary. But to Ward Hoover, a longtime activist and local politician, it represented a new era for Natchez, one she’d been fighting for via months of daily calls to lawmakers, to the governor, to anyone who would listen. “I refused to let it go,” Ward Hoover, 73, said as she stood last month beside the fresh building, framed by rose bushes. It was hours before the village was set to host its National Night Out. Since she started in 2022 as mayor of the lesser-known Natchez, a poor, close-knit community in Natchitoches Parish, Ward Hoover has made beauty a priority. That’s meant planting, clearing and
$3B plant eyes property with unmarked burial ground BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Natchez Mayor Patsy Ward Hoover streams the National Night Out Against Crime party on Facebook to get residents to come to Natchez Pecan Park in Natchez on ä See MAYOR, page 5A Oct. 7.
A vast sugar cane field blankets more than 700 acres just north of the Sunshine Bridge near Donaldsonville, the Mississippi River bending north around the land before reversing direction as it flows toward New Orleans. The property — the former Point Houmas Plantation — offers river access on three sides. The field is nearly devoid of trees, except for one.
ä See PLANT, page 6A
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