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Landry seeks more money for vouchers Legislators express skepticism on expanding private school tuition program BY ALYSE PFEIL and PATRICK WALL Staff writers
Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration on Friday said it will ask the Legislature to roughly double Louisiana’s spending on its LA GATOR voucher program, which gives parents taxpayer money to pay private school tuition, poten-
tially repeating one of last year’s biggest political battles. “It’s always been a priority of Gov. Landry to expand our GATOR program,” Landry’s top budget official, Commissioner of Administration Taylor Barras, told state lawmakers Friday during a meeting about the governor’s budget proposal for next fiscal year.
But Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, who last year led the legislative opposition to Landry’s push for more LA GATOR funding, said he continues to have serious doubts about the program. In particular, he said he does not want families to use the public dollars to pay for tuition at low-performing private schools —
an apparent reference to Louisiana’s previous voucher program, where participating students had lower test scores than their peers in public school. “You can’t just give them money to stay in the school they’re in now,” he said. “The goal is for you to get out of the bad school.” The request for GATOR funding
‘TIPPING POINT’
$45M youth sports complex opens on West Bank
is perhaps the most controversial piece of Landry’s plan for state spending. For the most part, the administration is asking agencies to hold their spending to roughly the same level as the current fiscal year, though it also highlighted new or increased funding it wants for a handful of areas. The Legislature will use Landry’s plan as the starting point for the
ä See VOUCHERS, page 7A
Governor says he was in on Greenland negotiations Questions surround his appointment as special envoy BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
to accommodate traveling families, a positive sign for officials who have long struggled to incentivize new business in the area. “I feel like we own land from a long time ago, and we realized we’re on top of oil,” said Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng. “That’s how I feel about sports tourism in Jefferson Parish.” Youth sports tourism has grown into a $40 billion industry, with
President Donald Trump’s unexpected announcement just before Christmas that Gov. Jeff Landry would be his special envoy to Greenland suddenly thrust Landry into a potentially highprofile international position. It also elevated his visibility within Trump’s MAGA movement. But what is the governor’s role after Trump announced on Wednesday that he had reached the “framework” of a deal with NATO over Greenland? “No one has called and said, ‘You have done a great job. We don’t need you anymore,’” Landry said in an interview Friday. He added that he attended a series of high-level meetings on Thursday and Friday last “No one has week in Washington, D.C., with Secretary of State Marco Rucalled and bio and other senior officials, said, ‘You including the U.S. ambassador have done a to Denmark. great job. We “There were a number of conversations we had sur- don’t need you rounding it,” Landry said. He anymore.’ ” declined to provide details GOV. JEFF but said a stronger relationLANDRy ship between Greenland and the United States could lead to more jobs and investment in both countries. Until now, there’s been little evidence that Landry has played a meaningful role in the Trump administration’s policies toward the giant island nation, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Greenland is bigger than Mexico in size but has a population of 56,000 — giving it only a few thousand more residents than Kenner.
ä See TIPPING, page 7A
ä See GREENLAND, page 6A
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
John Alario Jr., former president of the Louisiana Senate and former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives, throws a baseball with his grandson, Maddox Alario, 6, following the dedication ceremony of the new John Alario Jr. youth Sports Complex in Westwego on Friday. BY LARA NICHOLSON Staff writer
Jefferson Parish officials say the West Bank is on the precipice of an economic boom following the opening Friday of a $45 million parish facility for youth travel sports. The John Alario Jr. Youth Sports Complex, located on 147 acres at 11080 Nicolle Blvd., is expected to bring thousands of tourists to the area for travel sports tournaments, with bookings already in place
through 2028, according to operator Andy Powers, of Champions Sports Management. The complex will host its first official tournament Feb. 21, with up to 100 football teams in a 7-on-7 event. Also on the calendar are the 2D Sports Youth Southeast Cup, a softball showcase event and potentially the national Adult Kickball Championship, televised on ESPN, Powers said. There’s already talk of other businesses like hotels developing nearby
N.O. hospitality group expands across South to move into Atlanta in February. and creative director, said he hadn’t LeBlanc + Smith opens plans Earlier this month, the group opened intended to open both ventures in Chloe Nashville, modeled after such rapid succession. But the new new places in Nashville, The its popular St. Charles Avenue hotel, hotel ended up opening five months near Vanderbilt University in Nash- late, while the bar was ready to go two will open in Atlanta
ville’s Hillsboro Village neighborhood. A week later, it opened Love’s Alibi, a new bar concept in The Gulch, a Staff writer trendy formerly industrial Nashville LeBlanc + Smith, a boutique hospital- neighborhood. The recent additions join LeBlanc + ity group that operates four “cocktaildriven neighborhood bars” and two Smith’s first establishment outside of hotels in New Orleans, is expanding its New Orleans, Barrel Proof Nashville, footprint across the South with a pair which opened in 2023. Robert LeBlanc, the group’s founder of new establishments in Nashville and
months earlier than expected. “So literally the openings fell right on top of each other — completely coincidentally and far less than ideally,” LeBlanc said. LeBlanc + Smith, which gets its name through a combination of LeBlanc’s parents’ names, is a 12-year-old
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Business ......................5B Classified .....................5D Comics-Puzzles .....1D-4D Deaths .........................3B
BY JONAH MEADOWS
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In case of delivery interruptions, access the e-Edition, a digital replica of the print newspaper at nola.com/eedition or scan QR code.
PHOTO PROVIDED By LEBLANC + SMITH/HOLLy TRIPP
Love’s Alibi, the latest ‘cocktail-focused neighborhood bar’ ä See EXPANDS, page 6A from LeBlanc + Smith, opened this month in Nashville.
Nation-World................2A Opinion ........................6B Sports ..........................1C
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