The Advocate 02-01-2026

ON AROLL

ABOVE: A floatrider untangles beads before throwing them during the Krewe of Oshun parade in Scotlandville on Saturday.

STAFFPHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

MARDI GRAS 2026 FOR MORE, THEADVOCATE.COM

Jury deadlocksinBaton Rougeclubshootingtrial

Suspectwas on probation at time of incident

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

Adeadlocked jury was unable to reach averdict on Michael Robinson’s seconddegree murder charge in amass shooting outside apacked Baton Rouge nightclub.

Chief District Judge Donald Johnson, who presided over the case, declared a mistrial after more than six hours of de-

liberations late Friday evening. Thetwo-week trial was punctuated by legal jousting over surveillance videos and other key pieces of evidence that prolongedthe proceedings by several days

Thehung jury composed of 10 women and twomen did find Robinson, 25, guilty of illegalpossession of afirearmbya convicted felon. He was on probation at the time of theOct.20, 2024, shooting, whichhappened less than sixmonths afterhepleaded guiltytoillegaluse of weaponsina separate case.

No date was set for aretrial or Robinson’ssentencing on the weapons charge. Robinson was being tried for an earlymorningshooting that marred aSouthernUniversity homecoming weekend with bloodshed. Theparty was hosted at the Sunrise All Event Entertainment Center,anow-shuttered after-hours venue located in astrip mall in the 9700 block of Greenwell Springs Road. Dexter Cormier,a35-year-old Dallas resident in town for the festivities, was killed

ä See TRIAL, page 14A

Parents soundalarm as summer campsturn away kids

Catholic preschoolers lose spotsbecause of newstate law

BYPATRICK WALL Staff writer

With plans to send her two children to camp at their Catholic school in NewOrleans, Laurie Martin thought she might escapethe dreaded scrambletosecuresummer childcare. That changed when she got the email.

Days before Christmas,the ChristianBrothers School informed families that, due to anew state law,the school would not accept children under 5into their Little Falcons Summer Camp. Now Martin hasnoideawhattodowith her 4-year-old daughter,Colette,whenshe’s outof school this summer but Martin and her husband are still working full time.

“Wecan’ttake off work for three months because the 4-year-old can’tgotocamp,” she said. “There is no other option.” Summercamp sign-up is always anervewracking process forparents whorace to nab spots during the registration period, whichtypically starts in January.But parental anxiety has spiked this year after several Catholic schools said they will no longer enroll preschool-age children in camp, leaving families to search

ä See CAMPS, page 13A

LSUresearchers utilizingstaph to fightcancer

Bacteria wouldspare health tissue,targetdeadlycells

BY HALEYMILLER Staff writer

The staph bacterium,sometimes called a“superbug,” is one of the mostcommon causes of infection in the hospital, and it can be deadly

Butnew research at LSUshows howstaphylococcusaureus might be usedfor good —by harnessing the bacteria to kill cancer cells with minimal harm to healthy tissue.

“Whenwestudy thosemechanisms andweunderstandthem better,wecan reengineer them to do something good for us,” said Dr.Chen Chen, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

ä See RESEARCHERS, page 13A

Blast in Iran port city kills 1, wounds 14

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates An explosion tore through an apartment building Saturday in Iran‘s port city of Bandar Abbas, killing a 4-year-old girl as local media footage purportedly showed a security force member being carried out by rescuers

The blast happened a day before a planned naval drill by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Already, the U.S. military had warned Iran not to threaten its warships or commercial traffic in the strait on which Bandar Abbas sits.

State television quoted a local fire official as blaming the blast on a gas leak. Media reported at least 14 others suffered injuries in the explosion at the eightstory building, which blew out windows and covered the street below in debris.

A local newspaper Sobh-e Sahel, aired footage of one of its correspondents speaking in front of the building. The footage included a sequence that showed a man in black boots and a green security force uniform being carried out on a stretcher He wore a neck brace and appeared to be in pain, his left hand covering the branch insignia on his uniform.

The local newspaper did not acknowledge the security force member being carried out elsewhere in its reporting. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard itself did not discuss the blast, other than to deny that a Guard navy commander had been hurt in the explosion.

At least 200 killed in Congo mine collapse

GOMA, Congo A landslide earlier this week collapsed several mines at a major coltan mining site in eastern Congo, leaving at least 200 people dead, rebel authorities said Saturday ThecollapsetookplaceWednesday at the Rubaya mines, which are controlled by the M23 rebels, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, the spokesperson of the rebel-appointed governor of North-Kivu province told The Associated Press. He said the landslide was caused by heavy rains.

“For now there are more than 200 dead, some of whom are still in the mud and have not yet been recovered,” Muyisa said. He added that several others were injured and taken to three health facilities in the town of Rubaya, while ambulances were expected to transfer the wounded Saturday to Goma, the nearest city around 30 miles away The rebel-appointed governor of North Kivu has temporarily halted artisanal mining on the site and ordered the relocation of residents who had built shelters near the mine, Muyisa said.

A former miner at the site told The Associated Press there have been repeated landslides because the tunnels are dug by hand, poorly constructed, and left without maintenance.

‘Lizard in a blizzard’ rescued in Rhode Island

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Wildlife officials say a “lizard in a blizzard” has been rescued after a man discovered the large coldblooded reptile buried in snow in Rhode Island, somehow surviving the frigid temperatures.

According to the New England Wildlife Center, the Providence man spotted the tegu lizard from his driveway on Tuesday The reptile was quickly brought it indoors and wrapped in a T-shirt to help conserve heat.

ET Reptiles, a reptile store based in Rhode Island, agreed to pick up the tegu and take it to an animal hospital. There, veterinarians found the tegu to be “extremely weak, underweight, and not moving well.” The tegu’s tongue had also suffered frostbite and muscle weakness due to prolonged exposure to the cold — a circumstance that leads to cell failure in coldblooded animals in low temperatures.

A small portion of the tegu’s tongue was amputated to help with its recovery

“He is now resting comfortably and finally warm, which makes all the difference!” the wildlife center said in a social media post. “We will be rooting for a good outcome and will share updates as we have them.”

MINNESOTA

Judge won’t halt DHS enforcement surge

Court won’t stop immigration crackdown as lawsuit proceeds

BY MARGERY A. BECK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge says she won’t halt the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota and the Twin Cities as a lawsuit over it proceeds.

Judge Katherine M. Menendez on Saturday denied a preliminary injunction sought in a lawsuit filed this month by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

It argues that the Department of Homeland Security is violating constitutional protections. State and local officials sought a quick order to halt the enforcement action or limit its scope Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice have called the lawsuit legally frivolous.”

The ruling on the injunction focused on the argument by Minnesota officials that the federal government is violating the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which limits the federal government’s powers to infringe on the sovereignty of states. In her ruling, the judge relied heavily on whether that argument was likely to ultimately succeed in court.

The federal government argued that the surge, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, is

necessary in its effort to take criminal immigrants off the streets and because federal efforts have been hindered by state and local “sanctuary laws and policies.”

State and local officials argued that the surge amounts to retaliation after the federal government’s initial attempts to withhold federal funding to try to force immigration cooperation failed. They also maintain that the surge has amounted to an unconstitutional drain on state and local resources, noting that schools and businesses have been shuttered in the wake of what local officials say are aggressive, poorly trained and armed federal officers.

“Because there is evidence supporting both sides’ arguments as to motivation and the relative merits of each side’s competing positions are unclear, the Court is reluctant to find that the likelihood-of-success factor weighs sufficiently in favor of granting a preliminary injunction,” the judge said in the ruling.

The judge also said she was influenced by the government’s victory last week at the 8th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court set aside her decision putting limits on the use of force by immi-

Powerful winter storm starts hitting East Coast

BY TRÂN NGUYEN Associated Press

Blizzardlike conditions stemming from a “bomb cyclone” were starting to bring heavy snow to the Southeast and were ushering in frigid temperatures to much of the East Coast Saturday, as tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power after being hit by a different icy storm last week.

About 240 million people were under cold weather advisories and winter storm warnings, a forecaster said. The frigid cold was expected to plunge as far south as Florida. Some areas unaccustomed to snow were bracing for several inches to fall by Sunday

The powerful winter storm system came after another blast of snow and ice last weekend snarled traffic, knocked down trees, and caused more than 100 deaths.

A low temperature of minus 27 degrees was recorded Saturday morning in West Virginia, said Bob Oravec, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

Parts of the southern Appalachians, the Carolinas and Georgia could see 6 to 10 inches of snow, he said. The Carolinas could see blizzard conditions stemming from the bomb cyclone, a term Oravec used to described an intense, rapidly strengthening storm system off the Southeast coast packing strong winds.

“Anytime you have cold weather advisories or extreme cold warnings, it is

gration officers against peaceful Minnesota protesters.

“If that injunction went too far, then the one at issue here — halting the entire operation certainly would,” Menendez said.

Despite the denial of an injunction, Menendez said the lawsuit makes a strong showing that the surge is having a “profound and even heartbreaking” effect on the people of Minnesota, noting multiple shootings of state residents by federal agents.

“Additionally, there is evidence that ICE and CBP agents have engaged in racial profiling, excessive use of force, and other harmful actions,” she wrote.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi lauded the ruling, calling it “another HUGE” legal win for the Justice Department on the social platform X.

At an unrelated news conference Saturday in Miami, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her agency is “grateful when a court sees that the right thing has been done,” and said DHS will try to work with local law enforcement and state leadership on its effort.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement that he was disappointed.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Austin Bradbury uses a chainsaw to remove a tree above a road on Friday in Nashville, Tenn.

dangerous to be outside. Frostbite can occur,” Oravec said. “Especially in areas that have or are experiencing power issues still, prolonged exposure to cold weather is not good for yourself.”

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — whose official seal is the sun, palm trees and a seagull 6 inches of snow was expected. The city has no snow-removal equipment, and authorities planned to “use what we can find,” Mayor Mark Kruea said.

Lee Harrison, an insurance agent living in a town outside of Greenville, North Carolina, said snow has blanketed his neighborhood by Saturday afternoon. He planned to take his three daughters sledding in the backyard.

“We’re not gonna drive anywhere,” Harrison said. “It’s thick enough that I would not feel comfortable driving with our family.”

Subfreezing weather was forecast into February, with heavy snow in the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia over the weekend, including up to a foot in parts of North Carolina. Snow was also said to be possible from Maryland to Maine.

More than 197,000 homes and businesses were without electricity, mostly in Mississippi and Tennessee, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us. That included nearly 48,000 in Nashville as of Saturday morning.

Judge orders child, father released from ICE detention

BY GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press

A 5-year-old boy and his father must be released by Tuesday from the Texas center where they’ve been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, a federal judge ordered Saturday in a ruling that harshly criticized the Trump administration’s approach to enforcement.

Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a bunny hat and Spiderman backpack, surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers sparked even more outcry about the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

The boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were detained in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on Jan. 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.

That led to a protest at the Texas family detention center and a visit by two Texas Democratic members of Congress.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who sits in San Antonio and was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that “the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”

Biery had previously ruled that the boy and his father could not be removed from the U.S., at least for now

In his order Saturday, Biery said: “apparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence,” suggesting the Trump administration’s actions echo those that then-author and future President Thomas Jefferson enumerated as grievances against England’s King George.

Among them: “He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People” and “He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.”

Biery included in his ruling a photo of Liam and references to two lines in the Bible: “Jesus said, ’Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” and “Jesus wept.”

He’s not the only federal judge who has been tough on ICE recently A Minnesotabased judge with a conservative pedigree described the agency as a serial violator of court orders related to the crackdown.

Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy has said there’s a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day It’s that figure which the judge seemed to refer to as a “quota.”

Latest Epstein files release features famous names

Trove offers details on earlier investigation

BY ERIC TUCKER, MICHAEL R. SISAK and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press

NEW YORK Newly disclosed government files on Jeffrey Epstein are offering more details about his interactions with the rich and famous after he served time for sex crimes in Florida, and on how much investigators knew about his abuse of underage girls when they decided not to indict him on federal charges nearly two decades ago. The documents released Friday include Epstein’s communications with former White House advisers, an NFL team co-owner and billionaires including Bill Gates and Elon Musk.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice said it would be releasing more than 3 million pages of documents along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images under a law intended to reveal most of the material it collected during two decades of investigations involving the wealthy financier

The files, posted to the department’s website, included documents involving Epstein’s friendship with Britain’s Andrew MountbattenWindsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, and Epstein’s email correspondence with onetime Trump adviser Steve Bannon, New York Gi-

ants co-owner Steve Tisch and other prominent contacts with people in political, business and philanthropic circles.

Other documents offered a window into various investigations, including ones that led to sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019 and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell in 2021, and an earlier inquiry that found evidence of Epstein abusing underage girls but never led to federal charges.

Draft indictment

The FBI started investigating Epstein in July 2006 and agents expected him to be indicted in May 2007, according to the newly records released. A prosecutor wrote up a proposed indictment after multiple underage girls told police and the FBI that they had been paid to give Epstein sexualized massages.

The draft indicated prosecutors were preparing to charge not just Epstein but also three people who worked for him as personal assistants.

According to interview notes released Friday, an employee at Epstein’s Florida estate told the FBI in 2007 that Epstein once had him buy flowers and deliver them to a student at Royal Palm Beach High School to commemorate her performance in a school play

The employee, whose name was blacked out, said some of his duties were fanning $100 bills on a table near Epstein’s bed, placing a gun between the mattresses

in his bedroom and cleaning up after Epstein’s frequent massages with young girls, including disposing of used condoms.

Ultimately, the U.S. attorney in Miami at the time, Alexander Acosta, signed off on a deal that let Epstein avoid federal prosecution.

Epstein pleaded guilty instead to a state charge of soliciting prostitution from someone under age 18 and got an 18-month jail sentence. Acosta was Trump’s first labor secretary in his earlier term.

Prince Andrew

The records have thousands of references to Trump, including emails in which Epstein and others shared news articles about him, commented on his policies or politics, or gossiped about him and his family

Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times, including in Epstein’s private emails. In a 2010 exchange, Epstein appeared to try and set him up for a date.

“I have a friend who I think you might enjoy having dinner with,” Epstein wrote.

Mountbatten-Windsor replied that he “would be delighted to see her.” The email was signed “A.” Epstein, whose emails often contain typographical errors, wrote later in the exchange: “She 26, russian, clevere beautiful, trustworthy and yes she has your email.”

Criticism of DOJ

The Justice Department is facing criticism over how it handled the latest disclosure.

One group of Epstein ac-

cusers said in a statement that the new documents made it too easy to identify those he abused but not those who might have been involved in Epstein’s criminal activity

“As survivors, we should never be the ones named, scrutinized, and retraumatized while Epstein’s enablers continue to benefit from secrecy,” it said.

Meanwhile, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, pressed the department to let lawmakers review unredacted versions of the files as soon as Sunday He said in a statement that Congress must assess whether the redactions were lawful or improperly shielded people from scrutiny

Department officials have acknowledged that many

records in its files are duplicates, and it was clear from the documents that reviewers took different degrees of care or exercised different standards while blacking out names and other identifying information.

There were multiple documents where a name was left exposed in one copy, but redacted in another Epstein’s ties

The released records reinforced that Epstein was, at least before he ran into legal trouble, friendly with Trump and former President Bill Clinton. None of Epstein’s victims who have gone public has accused Trump, a Republican, or Clinton, a Democrat, of wrongdoing. Both men said they had no knowledge Epstein was abusing underage girls. Epstein killed himself in a New York jail in August 2019, a month after being indicted.

In 2021, a federal jury in New York convicted Maxwell, a British socialite, of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of his underage victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

U.S. prosecutors never charged anyone else in connection with Epstein’s abuse. One victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, sued MountbattenWindsor, saying she had sexual encounters with him starting at age 17. The now-former prince denied having sex with Giuffre but settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. Giuffre died by suicide last year at age 41.

Power outages hit Ukraine, Moldova as Kyiv struggles against cold

BY SUSIE BLANN Associated Press

“agreed to that,” he said, without elaborating on when the request to the Russian leader was made. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a query seeking clarity about the scope and timing of any limited pause. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Friday that Trump “made a personal request” to Putin to stop targeting Kyiv until Sunday “in order to create favorable conditions for negotiations.” Talks are expected to take place between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials on Sunday in Abu Dhabi.

Israelistrikes kill 30 Palestinians

BY WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDYand SAM METZ Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip

HospitalsinGazasaidIsraeli

strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians including several children on Saturday, one of thehighest tollssince the October ceasefire, aday after Israel accused Hamas of new truce violations.

The strikes hit locations throughout Gaza, including an apartmentbuildingin Gaza City and atent camp in Khan Younis, said officials at hospitals thatreceived the bodies. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families. Another airstrike hit apolice station in Gaza City,killingatleast14and wounding others, Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.

The strikes came aday beforethe Rafahcrossing along the border with Egypt is set to open in Gaza’ssouthernmost city.All of the territory’sborder crossings— the rest are with Israel —have been closed throughout almost the entire war.Palestinians see Rafah as alifeline for tens of thousands needing treatment outside the territory,where the majorityof medical infrastructure has been destroyed.

The crossing’sopening, limited at first, will occur

ASSOCIATEDPRESS

Palestinians survey thedamagetoanapartmentbuilding on Saturday after an Israeli militarystrikeinGaza City.

as the U.S.-brokeredIsraelHamas ceasefire plan moves intoits secondphase. Other challengingissues include demilitarizing the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule andinstallinga newgovernment to oversee reconstruction.

Egypt, one of the ceasefire mediators, in astatement condemned the Israeli strikes in the “strongest terms” and warnedthat they represent “a direct threat to thepoliticalcourse” of the truce. Qatar,another mediator,inastatementcalled Israel’sstrikes a“dangerousescalation” and saidcontinuing them poses a“direct threat”tothe political process.

Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp in Khan Younis caused afire, killing seven, including afa-

ther, his threechildren and threegrandchildren.

Atallah Abu Hadaiyed said he hadjust finished praying when the explosion struck. “Wecame running and found my cousins lying here and there,with fire raging. We don’tknow if we’re at war or at peace, or what. Where is the truce? Where is the ceasefire they talked about?”hesaid,aspeople inspected ruins including a bloodied mattress.

ShifaHospitalsaid the Gaza City apartmentbuildingstrikekilledthreechildren, their aunt andgrandmother

“The threegirls are gone, may God have mercy on them. They wereasleep, we found them in thestreet,” saidarelative, Samir Al-Atbash, adding that the family were civilians withnocon-

nection to Hamas. Names were writtenonbodybags lined up at the foot of awall.

ShifaHospitalsaid the strike on the police station killed at least14including four policewomen,civilians andinmates. The hospital also said aman was killed in astrike on theeastern side of Jabaliya refugee camp.

Hamas calledSaturday’s strikes “a renewed flagrant violation” and urged the United States and other mediating countries topush Israel tostop them.

“Allavailable indicators suggest that we aredealing witha‘Board of War, not a‘Board of Peace,’”senior Hamasofficial Bassem Naim said on X, questioning thelegitimacy of the Trump administration-proposedinternational body meantto govern Gaza.

Israel’s military,which hasstrucktargets on both sides of the ceasefire’s dividing line,saidits attacks since October have been responses to violationsofthe agreement. It said Saturday’sstrikes followed what it describedastwo separate ceasefireviolations a day earlier,inwhich Israeli forces killed three militants whoemerged fromatunnelinanIsraeli-controlled area of Rafah and four who approached troops near the dividing line.

Mandeville’s Hollis achieves lifelong dream

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON Paul Hollis, aformer staterepresentative and BESE member from Mandeville, was sworn into his dream job on Friday by his longtime friend, the speaker of the U.S. House Alifelong coin collectorby occupation and avocation, Hollis said he had wanted to be director of U.S. Mint since he was achild.

Speaker Mike Johnson, whom Hollis first met in high school, administered the formal oath of office in aceremony at the U.S. Treasury attended by several hundred people.

“The speaker swearing me in with my son by my side, it was aday I’ll never forget and adream come true,” Hollis said in atext. He nowis one the highest rankingLouisiana natives in the Trump administration.

As head of the Mint, Hollis oversees the nation’sgoldreserves and runs the facilities in Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point, New York, that pressthe nickels, dimes, quarters and other coins used as currency (Paper money is printed by the Bureau of Engraving & Printing.)

Paul Hollis, of Mandeville, left, is sworn in as 41st director of the U.S. Mint by House SpeakerMikeJohnson, R-Benton, on Fridayinthe U.S. TreasuryasHollis’ son, center,watches. Hollis is the firstMint director from Louisiana and the first whomade his living buying and selling coins. Former La.state representative

Hollis also is in chargeof designing the coinage. His immediate focus is producingand distributing aseries of coins commemoratingthe 250thanniversary of theJuly 4, 1776,signing of the DeclarationofIndependence.

He is the first Mint director whomadehis livingbuyingand selling coins. He wrote abook,published in 2012. “American Numismatist” recountsthe history of coins in context with what was happening in the United States at thetime of their production.

Hollis and Johnson metas highschoolers in theLouisi-

ana AssociationofStudent Councils. Hollis and Johnson renewed their friendship while both servedinthe Louisiana House of Representatives. Johnson, R-Benton, went on to becomespeaker of the U.S. House. Hollis was elected to the Legislature in November 2011; and then in 2023 he wona position on theBoard of Elementary& Secondary Education,representing northshore communities, including partsofCovington and Slidell.

He is theson of the late state Sen. Ken Hollis, R-Covington.

When Southern University first opened itsdoors in NewOrleansin1880,itdidsowithonlyadozenstudents

LocatedinBaton Rougesince 1914,the university now boasts an enrollment of more than 7,000 students, nationally-recognizedfacultymembers,astrongathletics programand acampusthatcontinues to expand to meet modern-day needs.

“Our enrollment is up.Fundraising is on theupswing aswell.Therearemorepeopleinvestingintheuniversity, said Dr.Robin Merrick, Southern University VicePresidentfor External Affairs andUniversityRelations “We’ve gotfabulousstudents doingwonderful things Ourfacultymembersaredoinggroundbreakingresearch andwriting books. Thelistisendless.”

Dr.Merrickaddedthatongoingconstructionprojects includea newamphitheater, anew global innovation andwelcome center,a newSTEMbuildingand anew public safety facility

“PresidentJosephSamuelClark,who wasthe first Southern PresidenthereinBaton Rouge, hada dream to grow this university from theriver to therailroad track,”Dr. Merricksaid. “We’ve done that andwe’re goingevenbeyondthe railroad tracknow.”

Thoseaccomplishmentsand more will be celebrated on Southern’s campus throughout themonth of March, whichisdesignatedastheuniversity’sFoundersMonth. Specialeventswillinclude aconvocation,academic homecoming,exhibitsand apilgrimageofSouthernLab students to thecampusgravesitesofnotable individuals in university history.

“Wewanttoshowpeoplehowmuchwehavegrownand howmuchwestill have in ourfuture,”Dr. Merricksaid.

In ordertocontinuethatgrowth, theannualJag-AThon on March27willbeanopportunity foralumni, supporters andotherstodonatetoSouthernJaguar Athletic programs on theirlargest fundraisingday of theyear. ChrisPowers, TheVoice of theJags, said the fundsgotowardhelping purchase everything from uniforms andequipment to upgrading facilities and ensuring student-athletes cantraveltoout-of-town competitions.Powerssaidthose arenecessities in today’scollege sports landscape.

“Webring in students from alloverthe worldtocome here andexperience ourculture,” Powers said.“When coachesgosomewhere andtellanathlete they want them to come to Southern,the first thingtheylookat arethe facilities.”

TheMarch 27 Jag-A-Thon willrun from 9a.m.to5 p.m.Donationsmaybemadeonline,inpersonorviamail

“Thisisanopportunitytogivebacktostudent-athletes Thesecontributionssupport academicsaswell. These arestudents whoare trying to getastrongeducation whiletheyare here.It’sa holistic approach,” Dr.Merrick added. “Weliketosay we’resetting thestandard. Alot of universities in ourconferenceand other HBCUsare lookingatSoutherninanenvious way. We’redefinitely oneofthepowerhousesandweplanonstayingthatway.”

Visithttps://gojagsports.com/sports/2022/1/26/jag-athon.aspxtolearn more aboutthe 2026 Jag-A-Thon and howyou canmakeacontribution. Visitwww.subr.edu to learnmoreabout academic offerings andadmissions at Southern University

Trumpmovedquickly to cutfunding deal

BY JOEY CAPPELLETTI and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump moved quickly this week to negotiate with Democrats to try and avert alengthy government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funding, asharp departure from lastyear’srecord standoff when he refused to budge for weeks.

Some Republicans are frustrated with the deal, raising the possible of aprolonged shutdown fight when the House returns Monday to vote on the funding package But Trump’ssway over the GOP remains considerable, and he has made his position clear at amoment of mounting political strain.

“The only thing that can slow our country downis another long and damaging government shutdown,” Trump wrote on social media late Thursday

The urgency marked a clear shift from Trump’s posture during the43-day shutdown late last year when he publicly antagonized Democraticleaders and his team mocked them on social media. Thistime, with anger risingover shootings in Minneapolis and the GOP’smidterm messaging on tax cuts drowned outby controversy, Trump acted quickly to make adeal with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, of New York.

“Trump and the Republicans know that this is an issue where they’re on the wrong side of the American people and it really matters,” Schumer told reportersFriday after Senate passage of the government funding deal.

Minneapoliskillings

Senators returned to work lastweekdealing with the fallout from the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers, as well as the killing of Renee Good in the city weeks earlier Republicans were far from unified in their response. A few calledfor the firing of top administration officials

such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller,the White House chief of staff for policy.Most GOP senators tried to strikeabalance, calling for athorough investigation intoPretti’s killingwhile backing the hard-line immigration approach that is central to Trump’spresidency

But many agreed that the shootings threatenedpublic support for Trump’simmigration agenda.

“I’ve never seen apolitical partytake its best issueand turnitinto its worst issue in theperiodoftimethatit has happened in the last few weeks,” said Sen.JohnKennedy,R-Madisonville. “Some things have to change.”

Democrats quickly coalesced around their key demands.

Sen. Chris Coons,D-Del., said there “was unanimity” around core principles of enforcing acode of conduct for immigrationofficers and agents, ending “roving patrols” for immigration enforcement actions and coordinatingwith local law enforcement on immigration arrests. It helped that Trump himself was looking for waysto de-escalate in Minneapolis.

“The world has seen the videos of those horrible abuses byDHS and rogue operationscatchingupinnocent people,and there’s a revulsion about it,” said Sen. TimKaine, D-Va.

“The White House is asking for aladder off the

ledge,” he added.

Avoiding painfulpolitics

Republicansare also tryingtopromote their accomplishmentsinoffice as they ready for the November electionsand the difficult task of retaining control of bothchambers of Congress.

But the prospect of aprolonged shutdown shifted attention away from their $4.5 trillion tax andspending cuts law,the centerpiece of their agenda. Republicans had hoped the beginning of this year’s tax season on Monday would provide apoliticalboost as votersbegin to see larger tax refunds.

Republicans are alsomindful of thepolitical damage from last year’sshutdown, when theytook aslightly larger portion of theblame from Americans than Democrats, according to polling from The Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“The shutdown was a big factor, negative for the Republicans,” Trumptold Republican senators at the WhiteHouse in November

On apractical level, this funding standoff threatened to destroy months of bipartisanwork,including long hours over the holiday break, to craft the 12 spendingbills that fund thegovernment and many priorities back home.

“Wesaw what happened in thelastgovernment shutdown in regards to how it hurt real,hardworking

Americans,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.,a member of theSenate Appropriations Committee. “I don’twant that to happen again.”

Two-week battle begins

Theagreementreached this week, if passed by the House, would avoid aprolongedshutdown andfund nearly every federal departmentthrough theend of the budgetyear in September Butitwould not resolve one of the mostdifficult issues for Congress and the White House: DHS funding.

Instead of afull-year deal, fundingfor thedepartment wasextendedfor just two weeks, giving lawmakers little timetobridge thedeep dividesoverimmigration enforcement.

Democrats are pressing for changes they say are necessary to prevent future

abuses, including requiring immigration agents to wear body cameras,carry clear identification, end roving patrols in cities and coordinate more closely with local law enforcement when making arrests. Many Democrats also want tighter rulesaroundwarrants and accountabilitymechanisms for officers in the field.

Those demands have met stiffresistance from Republicans. Some areopposed to negotiating with Democrats at all.

“Republicans controlthe White House,Senateand House. Why are we giving an inch to Democrats?” Sen. TommyTuberville, R-Ala., wrote on social media.

Republican senators said they would take the fight to Democrats by introducing their ownbills, including restrictionson“sanctuary

cities,” to show their support forTrump’spolicies. That term is generally applied to state andlocal governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

“We’ve letthe issue get away. We’renot leading. We’re trying to avoid losing ratherthanwinning,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whoheld up the spending bills until Senate Majority Leader JohnThune,R-S.D., agreed to give him avote on his sanctuary cities bill at a later date.

Thune acknowledged the difficulty of the next two weeks, saying there are “somepretty significant views and feelings.”

“We’llstayhopeful,”Thune told reporters about the upcoming DHSfight.“But there are somepretty significant differences of opinion.”

BY TOMVERDIN Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Afederal judge on Friday blocked certain federal agencies from requestingcitizenship status when distributing voterregistration forms,the latest blow to awide-ranging executive order on elections

President Donald Trump signed last year

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-KotellyinWashington ruled that the Constitution’sseparation of powers, giving states and to an extent Congress authority over setting election rules,

are at theheart of thecase.

“Put simply,our Constitution does not allow the president to impose unilateral changes to federal election procedures,” wrotethe judge, an appointee of formerPresident Bill Clinton. Specifically,Kollar-Kotelly permanentlyblocked two provisionsofthe executive order that sought to impose proof-of-citizenship rules.

Her decision said agencies will not be allowed to “assess citizenship” before providing afederal voter registration form to people enrollinginpublic assistance programs. It also said

the Secretary of Defense cannotrequire documentary proof of citizenship when military personnelregister to voteorrequest ballots.

“Our democracyworks bestwhen all Americans can participate, including membersofour military andtheir familiesliving overseas. Today’sruling removes avery real threat to the freedom to vote for overseas military families and upholds the separation of powers,” saidDanielle Lang, avoting rights expert with theCampaign Legal Center,which is representing plaintiffs in the case.

MajorprojectsacrossLouisiana aremoving from announcementtoreality.Morethan $76 billion in capitalinvestment is creating over 70,000 jobopportunities,with averagesalariesexceeding $90,000 The work spansacrossenergy, manufacturing, infrastructure andlogistics to grow Louisianacommunitiesstatewide

INSIDEWASHINGTONMARDI GRAS

La.’scongressional delegation hasafew things

WASHINGTON, D.C. Commerce

Stephanie Grace

Secretary Howard Lutnick was this year’sbig draw at the always popular Friday economicdevelopment lunch at Washington Mardi Gras, but anice bit of lagniappe was the annual airing of whatever’sonthe minds of Louisiana’s members of Congress. This year,there seems to be plenty And lots of it traces back indirectly,if not very directly, to the stark politicaldivision that permeates the delegation, the Congress and the country these days.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy,the embattled incumbentinthe May 16 Republican primary against a field that includes U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow —who recently scored a key endorsementfrom Lutnick’s boss, President Donald Trump used his few moments at themic to remind the gathered business leaders of the bipartisan infrastructure law that he played akey role in passing.

“I wake up every day thinking about how Imake my state and my country abetter place,” he said, pointing to thelaw’s huge federalinvestmentsfor the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection project and for broadband in underserved areas —something he focused on afterabusiness leader at aprior Washington Mardi Gras said he couldn’tsitea distribution center in north Louisiana due to poor internet access. Left unsaid was what just about everyone in the room knew,that everyother Republican member in Louisiana’sdelegation voted againstthis Joe Biden signature accomplishment. Then came House Speaker Mike Johnson, who chose to tout tax cuts in adifferent law, Trump’sOne Big Beautiful Bill, which passed last Congress last year with only Republican support. U.S. Rep. Troy Carter was the firstDemocrat to speak, and his comments contrasted with the pro-Trump rhetoric from Lutnick, Gov.Jeff Landry and his own very administration-friendly colleagues. It was also one of the few times the currenttroubles across the country infiltrated the festivities.

“I want to cap off this evening with just areminder of how important it is as we lookaround this room at the diversity,the strength of our individual lived experiencesand the beauty of what America is —that we don’t look the same, we don’ttalkthe same,” Carter said. “Wecome from different places, andwe bring different examples of what life, liberty and justice means to us. The Constitution does not belong to any one party,the rule of law does not belong to any one party.”

Fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields alluded to adifferent controversy when he used the week’sfrigid weather to frame a recentconversationwithRepublican Clay Higgins about the voting rights case that the U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide, which will determine whether Fields’ newly drawn majority-minoritydistrict will disappear.Asthey were speculating about the outcome, Fields said Higgins joked that it’d be a “cold day in hell” that the court would rule in Fields’ favor The last speech was perhaps the most anticipated, as Letlow’s presidentially-backed Senate candidacy has vastly elevated her statewide profile.

But if political junkies were

looking for asign of how she’ll runagainst Cassidyand what she’ll say aboutCassidy’s2021 impeachment votetoconvict Trump for theJan.6attack on theCapitol and his more recent, incredibly awkward reincarnation as a Trumpdevotee, they got nothing.

Instead, Letlow focused on the past —onher unusual path into politicsafter the sudden death of her husband, who had been elected to the seat, and on her time serving on the House AppropriationsCommittee, which shenoted wouldsoon come to an end.

“Thank you for believing in me. Mostimportantly,thank you for praying for me,” she said. “It’s not lost on me Iwas never supposed to be here, and everybody considers D.C. to be sometimes adark place. Iknew if Idid anything, Ijust wanted to come up hereand be alight.”

If you didn’tknow better,you’d think Letlow was packing it in and heading home, not trying to trade up to higher office by unseating a much more senior colleague.

Of course, everyoneinthat particularroom did know better Howtimes change

Fields is only in the second year of hiscurrent tenure, but he’sbeen to Congressbefore —back in the 1990s, untilthe majority-minority districthe represented then was thrown out by the Supreme Court, just as his current districtmay or

may not be. So Iwas curious what changes he’d noticed in his decades out of federal office.

As far as theevent goes,not so many, he said.

“The people arethe same. People come heretohave agood time and to connect to Washington from abusinessperspective. All of that is the same,” he said.

The difference, Fields said, is that what’shappening beyond thecozy hospitality suites at the Washington Hilton feels more present,atleast to him.

“Now,you’rethinking about:Do Ihave to run back to Capitol Hill to keep the government from shutting down?” he said. “The climate outside of this Mardi Gras is so different. Everybody here is from Louisiana, and theywant to have agood time, and everybody’saccommodating. But the atmosphere in the nation is different. There’s so much hostility, so much unrest Youdon’tsee it in the halls of the WashingtonHilton because everybody’sheretorelax. But at the end of the day,asa member of Congress, Ican’thelp but feel it.I feel moreburdened this time.”

UNOinthe House

Louisiana’shigher ed communityhas long shown up in big numbersatWashington Mardi Gras; after all, this is asector that relies on government grants and faces many issues involving federal policy.But one school

that came to Washington with a full agenda this year,the troubled University of New Orleans, has a distinct aim.

UNO has suffered ayearslong enrollment decline thatled to a financial crisis andanow alooming switch from the University of Louisiana SystemtoLouisiana StateUniversity System.

There’sboth excitement and trepidation aboutthe change, and UNO officials came to Washington lesstoparticipate in the usual lobbying andmoretodrum up supportamong folks back home.

Judging by the attendance at its Saturday morning jazz brunch, it was agood call. Indeed, those who got themselves up and out early after the Fridaynight parties saw an impressive show of force.

Describing the school’spotential,Master P, the homegrown music mogul who doubles as the university’spresident of basketball operations, quoted an image Lutnick had offeredupatthe economic development lunchthe day before aboutnot letting great assets sitidle in the garage.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalisewas there,talking about hopes that the newpartnership can attract students. So was

shipbuilderBoysie Bollinger, a past king of WashingtonMardi Gras whose name graces the lakefront university’sschool of navalarchitecture and marine engineering.

RicoAlvendia, last year’sking andthe LSU BoardofSupervisors’ transitionteamchair,touted the processofmelding “two world-class brands,” alongside boardchair ScottBallard and severalothermembers.

And newLSU SystemPresident Wade Rousse reminisced about his yearsasa part-time master’s student at UNO andthanked UNO President Kathy Johnson, who was symbolically dressed in purple andsilver to represent oneofthe most visible changes, the Privateers’ switch from blue andsilvertoLSU’shighly recognizable purple andgold. Johnson, Rousse noted, hadinherited a mess andhas been forced to overseewrenching cuts.

“There’s gonna be some hard decisions, but there’s gonna be some great celebrations along the way,and we’re gonna win together,” he said.

EmailStephanieGrace at sgrace@theadvocate.com.

POMP & PARTyING

Militants kill 33 in multiple attacks southwest Pakistan

BY ABDUL SATTAR and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press

QUETTA, Pakistan Pakistan’s military said Saturday that multiple suicide and gun attacks by “terrorists” across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan killed 33 people, including civilians, while security forces responding to the violence killed 92 assailants.

Analysts described it as the deadliest single day for militants in decades.

During the attacks, Baloch insurgents targeted civilians, a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations Eighteen civilians, 15 security personnel and 92 insurgents were killed, the military said.

Though Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country, coordinated attacks on this scale are rare. Authorities said at least 133 militants have been killed across Balochistan over the past 48 hours, including 92 on Saturday

The military and Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin

Naqvi said the attackers had the backing of India. There was no immediate response from New Delhi, which has denied such allegations previously The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, claimed responsibility for the suicide and gun attacks, during which some of the banks were robbed and a police station and dozens of vehicles torched The BLA released videos showing female fighters taking part in the attacks, apparently part

of propaganda efforts to highlight the role of women among the militants.

Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, said most of the attacks were foiled. They came a day after the military said security forces this week raided two militant hideouts in the country’s southwest, killing 41 insurgents in separate gunbattles. The provincial chief minister Sarfraz Bugti, wrote on X that security forces were chasing the insurgents

He said at least 700 insurgents were killed by security forces in the past year

Earlier Saturday, authorities said that insurgents destroyed rail tracks, prompting Pakistan Railways to suspend train services from Balochistan to other parts of the country

The attacks began almost simultaneously across the province, provincial Health Minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar said. He said two police officers were killed in a grenade attack on a police

Pope invited to visit Peru during Vatican party

BY NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

VATICAN CITY Peru’s ambas-

sador to the Holy See publicly invited Pope Leo XIV to visit his second homeland on Saturday, as 2026 is shaping up to be an important year for the pontiff’s travel with big trips under study for Africa and South America.

In recent days, the president of Equatorial Guinea and the Vatican ambassador in Angola have both confirmed that plans are underway for a papal trip this year, on top of rumored stops in Cameroon and Algeria. No dates have been

announced but Vatican officials say the four-country Africa visit would likely take place sometime after Easter

Leo himself has said he wants his second trip as pope to be in Africa, especially Algeria, which has special significance for Leo’s Augustinian religious order Algeria also plays an important role in Christian-Muslim relations that the Vatican is keen to highlight.

Leo has also said he hoped to visit three countries in Latin America in either 2026 or 2027: Argentina, Uruguay and Peru, where he lived for

two decades as a missionary and where he holds citizenship. Argentina especially has been waiting for a papal visit, after Pope Francis never went home after his 2013 election.

On Saturday, Peru’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Jorge Ponce San Roman, publicly invited Leo to visit during a ceremony in the Vatican gardens to inaugurate a new mosaic and statue dedicated to the Virgin Mary that Peru sponsored. With all Peru’s bishops on hand, Ponce said he and his fellow citizens “hoped to see you very soon in Peru.” Leo didn’t respond but in

his brief remarks at the ceremony recalled Peru was “such a beloved country to me.”

In a break with usual protocol, Leo then stayed for a buffet lunch that the Peruvian Embassy organized for the invited diplomats and Vatican officials in the gardens. For around an hour, Leo sat with Ponce and the Peruvian bishops in a shady hidden spot back where the caterers were preparing pisco sour cocktails and plates of ravioli with huancaina, the typical Peruvian creamy sauce. Despite an occasional rain, the party had a joyful,

vehicle in Quetta, the provincial capital. The government declared an emergency at all hospitals.

Dozens of insurgents also attacked a prison in Mastung district, freeing more than 30 inmates, police said.

In other attacks, militants attempted to storm the provincial headquarters of paramilitary forces in Nushki district, but the attack was repelled, police said.

Insurgents hurled grenades at the office of a government administrator in Dalbandin district, but a swift response by security forces forced them to flee, according to local authorities. Attacks on security posts in Balincha, Tump and Kharan districts were thwarted, while in Pasni and Gwadar, insurgents attempted to abduct passengers traveling on buses along highways, police said.

The BLA is banned in Pakistan and designated a terrorist organization by the United States. It has been behind numerous attacks in recent years, and Pakistan says the group enjoys the backing from India, a charge New Delhi denies. Pakistan has repeatedly said that Baloch

separatists, the Pakistani Taliban and other militants are using Afghan soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies the claim. Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Islamabadbased Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, told The Associated Press that the “terrorists linked to BLA or other groups had never before been killed in such a large number in a single day” in Balochistan.

Baloch separatist groups and the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have intensified attacks in Pakistan in recent months. The TTP is a separate group but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, who returned to power in August 2021.

Balochistan has long been the site of an insurgency by separatist groups seeking independence from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad. Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pakistan, and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

After Mexico bans vapes, cartels tighten grip on market

BY MARÍA VERZA Associated Press

MEXICO CITY When a drug cartel came calling at a store selling vapes in northern Mexico, the owners knew they were powerless.

The cartel abducted two employees, blindfolded them and demanded to speak with their bosses. The cartel said it was seizing the store which would only be allowed to sell online outside the state.

“They don’t come asking whether you want to (give them your business) or not, they come telling you what’s about to happen,” one of the owners, now 27 and living in the United States, said on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

That was in early 2022, when vapes were still legal in Mexico, a market worth $1.5 billion. But earlier this month, the country banned the sale — although not the use of electronic cigarettes. Experts believe organized crime will now consolidate its control over the sale of the devices.

“By banning it, you’re handing the market to nonstate groups” in a country with high levels of corruption and violence tied to the cartels, said Zara Snapp, director of the Mexico-based Ría Institute, which studies drug policy in Latin America. The ban also potentially strengthens the cartels by giving them another revenue stream that is not a high priority for the United States government, because vapes are still legal there, said Alejandro Rosario, a lawyer representing many vape shops.

Push to ban

Vaping is legal and regulated in the U.S. and Europe, but it’s now banned in at least eight Latin American countries. Some countries, like Japan, have used e-cigarettes to reduce tobacco use, but regulation has been on the rise, supported by the World Health Organization, which is concerned about growing teen use.

Former Mexican Presi-

dent Andrés Manuel López

Obrador, an outspoken critic of vaping, banned the import and sale of e-cigarettes

When Mexico’s Supreme Court declared that ban unconstitutional, López Obrador pushed for a constitutional amendment, which passed in January 2025 under his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum. Electronic cigarettes are now included alongside the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, something many lawyers see as totally out of proportion. However, the lack of a law to implement the ban left a loophole, and vapes continued entering Mexico from China — the main producer — and the U.S. In December, they could still be found for sale in many shops and online.

Still, authorities carried out raids and seizures. Last February, 130,000 electronic cigarettes were seized in the port of Lazaro Cardenas.

Aldo Martínez, 39, a Mexico City shop owner, was

fined $38,000 for selling the devices, fought the ruling and eventually did not have to pay But in December, the legal loophole was closed. A new law prohibits virtually everything about vapes except consumption, imposing fines and prison sentences of up to eight years. Martínez immediately stopped selling ecigarettes, even though they accounted for two-thirds of his income. “I don’t want to go to jail,” he said.

Martínez and his friends will consume his remaining inventory, but he fears authorities could raid his shop and plant vapes there in an attempt to extort him.

Consumers are also concerned that authorities could extort them because while it is not illegal to possess vapes, the new law is unclear about the number of devices that can still be considered as personal use.

“If I make a vague law I give corrupt authorities the ability to interpret it in a way to extort people,”

New U.S. charge d’affaires arrives in Venezuela to reopen diplomatic mission

By The Associated Press

CARACAS U.S. charge

d’affaires Laura Dogu arrived in Caracas on Saturday to reopen the American diplomatic mission in Venezuela after seven years of severed ties. The move comes almost one month after a military action ordered by U.S President Donald Trump removed the South American country’s then-leader Nicolás Maduro from office.

“My team and I are ready to work,” Dogu said in a message posted by the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela’s account on X. It also posted pictures of her upon her

landing at Maiquetia airport. Venezuela and the United States broke off diplomatic relations in February 2019 in a decision by Maduro They closed their embassies mutually after Trump gave public support to lawmaker Juan Guaidó who claimed to be the nation’s interim president in January that year Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, one of Venezuela’s most powerful politicians and a Maduro loyalist, said earlier in January that reopening the U.S. embassy would give the Venezuelan government a way to oversee the treatment of the deposed president, who is

jailed in the U.S.

Venezuela’s foreign minister Yván Gil said in a message on Telegram that Dogu’s arrival is part of a joint schedule to “deal with and resolve existing differences through diplomatic dialogue, in a foundation of mutual respect and (based on) international law.” Dogu, who was previously ambassador in Nicaragua and Honduras, arrived in Venezuela one day after the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced an amnesty bill to release political prisoners. That move was one of the key demands of the Venezuelan opposition.

said Juan José Cirión Lee, a lawyer and president of the collective Mexico and the World Vaping. He plans to challenge the new regulations in court, saying they are ambiguous and full of contradictions.

Cartels corner market

“I have lost about 40% of my clients,” Rosario said.

The shop owner now living in the U.S. said he was comparatively lucky, because the cartel paid something for the business and sought the owners’ expertise on how it worked.

The cartel already knew everything about them, including addresses and the names of relatives, he said.

He and his co-owner are now closing their online business because they do not want to choose between the cartel and prison sentences under the new ban.

A longtime seller in Mexico City, who also requested anonymity to avoid reprisals, said some of his clients had been intimidated by thugs for buying their vapes online, while one of his suppliers sold his inventory to organized crime groups.

The cheapest and most popular devices — the most interesting to the cartels — are disposable. Some countries have banned them because of the plastic, electronic and chemical waste.

According to Rosario, the cartels are already presenting themselves as suppliers and formal businesses, with some even buying the disposable shells direct from Asian manufacturers to fill themselves. Given the lack of regulation, that raises the potential for adulterated products from organizations that already handle all manner of illicit drugs.

A recent report by the Mexican nongovernmental organization Defensorxs said the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has “businesses dedicated to repackaging Asian vapes,” while other criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel, and smaller criminal groups in Mexico City and Acapulco operate in the vape black market.

Mixed results

While Mexico’s ban was being forged, organized crime expanded its share of the sector across northern states and the country’s largest cities, Guadalajara and Mexico City Sometimes, they even marked their product with stickers or stamps to distinguish their brand, reminiscent of their stamped fentanyl pills. Rosario, the lawyer, talked of intimidation, extortion and violence that forced sellers in states like Sonora to get out of the business. Others, like some of his former clients in Sinaloa, decided to sell vapes supplied by the cartel, which promised they would have no problems with authorities, he said.

Mexico’s ban took effect

Jan. 16. The next day authorities confiscated more than 50,000 vapes and displayed them in Mexico City’s central square. Mayor Clara Brugada framed the enforcement as necessary to protect young people. For the lawyer Cirión Lee, that’s absurd. Banned products attract youth, and now “those selling cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana are selling you vapes” and they do not care if the buyer is a minor, he said.

Experiences in other countries have varied. Brazil banned vapes in 2009, but they are widely used by young people. In the U.S. however, where they are not banned, vaping among adolescents fell in 2024 to the lowest level in a decade as regulation increased.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and most scientists agree that, based on available evidence, electronic cigarettes are far less dangerous than traditional cigarettes.

Snapp, the drug policy researcher, insists that Mexico’s ban is a setback by removing a safer alternative to cigarettes.

Some consumers are asking their trusted suppliers to stay open, said the man who lost his business to a cartel in 2022. He said lately people have been making “panic buys” for months of supply amid uncertainty about the future.

One young entrepreneur near Mexico’s northern border said he has been able to operate beneath the radar because he has neither stores nor a website. He does everything with his telephone, through calls and messages, he said, requesting anonymity for safety

He said so far the cartels have left him alone because he does not sell disposable vapes, but he plans to be more careful. He expects that sooner or later the whole market will be in the hands of organized crime.

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Cancer drugs in use today that rely on toxins derived from bacteria can damage healthy cells, according to the study Chen’s work uses a protein expressed by staph to target cancers, especially those likely to metastasize. It proposes fusing a bacterial toxin with the targeting protein to deliver a “killing” protein to cancer cells.

The researchers’ approach revealed lower toxicity in normal cells as a result of the killing protein, while cancer cells died.

The discovery paves the way for a novel therapeutic cancer treatment — in particular for late-stage cancers or cancers that have metastasized, Chen said.

“The more malignant or the more prone to metastasis, with this cancer marker, we actually found our platform therapy will be more effective,” Chen said.

The project has received a patent and a $379,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The next phase of the re-

CAMPS

Continued from page 1A

for other options like fulltime babysitters or day cares.

The schools attributed the change to Act 409, a state law passed last year that regulates private preschools. But lawmakers and state education department officials said the rule schools are citing actually originated more than a decade earlier in a 2014 law which says summer camps are exempt from day care licensing rules if they only enroll children ages 5 and older

Rather than try to align their camps with the state’s stringent day care regulations, some schools have opted to stop enrolling children under age 5 in the summer programs.

Christian Brothers School referred questions to a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, who said the archdiocese is committed to the safety and protection of students.

Archdiocese officials are working to find other summer child care options for 3- and 4-year-olds and partnering with lawmakers and the Department of Education on possible solutions, said the spokesperson, Sarah McDonald. Meanwhile, parents are sounding the alarm.

Martin emailed all 105 lawmakers in Louisiana’s House of Represen tatives this month in hopes they might change the camp rule during the upcoming legislative session. Her friend Ashlyn Blanchard, an attorney whose family lives in Metairie, cir-

search will study the effectiveness of the anticancer platform in living organisms using mouse cancer models.

“I really want to, using what we’ve learned, do something to help the

culated a letter explaining the legal issue and discussed possible fixes with lawmakers

“We should be expanding child care for all,” said Blanchard, who had hoped to send her 4-year-old son to the Christian Brothers summer camp. “We shouldn’t be fighting to bring back child care that was taken from us.”

Hoping for a solution

In recent weeks, several New Orleans-area schools announced the new summer camp age restrictions, sending parents of preschoolers into a frenzy

The schools pointed to Act 409, or “Charlie’s Law,” which took effect in August and requires prekindergarten programs at private schools to obtain day care licenses, subjecting the schools to dozens of additional regulations The schools said the law prevents summer camps from enrolling pre-K students.

whole community,” Chen said. “Everybody knows someone directly or indirectly who has a cancer.”

Chen, a medical doctor and Ph.D., became interested in discovering more about the mechanisms of

disease while in medical school, she said. Her labo-

ratory specializes in the infection and colonization

of staph.

“A lot of people get scared of staph because they heard of the super bug,” Chen said. “They heard of hyperantibiotic resistance and some severe infections. But one third of this population is colonized by staph aureus. The majority of us have no symptoms at all.”

Despite the fear around bacteria, the organisms are part of the human story and can be utilized for the benefit of humans, Chen said. She gave the example of botulinum neurotoxin, or Botox.

“That’s actually the most potent bacteria protein toxin we’ve ever known,” Chen said. “However, we re-engineered it to use it as an anti-wrinkle.” In addition, bacteria and their hosts have a mutual relationship, Chen said.

“Bacteria evolved with human populations,” Chen said. “I don’t think necessarily their goal is to kill us.”

“Unless this law is amended or repealed, this summer we will not be able to accept any children who have not turned 5 by the start of camp,” said an email to parents at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School in Metairie An email from Jesuit High School’s camp counselor cited “the new law of the land in Louisiana (Act 409),” saying any child who hasn’t turned 5 by June will be unenrolled from camp. But the new law did not actually create the summer camp rule which has been on the books since 2014, state officials and lawmakers said.

“Nothing changed within the past over 10 years,” said state Rep. Stephanie

Hilferty, R-Metairie, adding that Act 409 seems to have alerted some private schools to the earlier law.

“In working through complying with Charlie’s Law, they discovered the definition of camp” from 2014.

Hilferty said she has discussed potential legislative changes with Catholic school leaders and Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. It could be possible to amend the licensing law before most summer camps start in June, Hilferty added, but lawmakers must be certain that the changes won’t jeopardize student safety

“We want to make sure that children are safe,” she said, “and also have a workable solution for working parents.”

For now, parents who suddenly lost access to school summer camps are frantically searching for other options, including other private camps that have not stopped serving preschool children.

But that could change if more programs become aware of the 2014 licensing law, which applies to summer camps run by any organization not just private schools.

“If a school or another entity is planning to offer a summer camp to children younger than age 5, it would need to be licensed,” said Ashley Townsend, assistant superintendent for policy and governmental affairs at the state Department of Education.

Laurie Martin isn’t sure what she’ll do with Colette this summer At the moment, she’s waiting for the legislature to convene in March and “hoping to God” they find a solution.

“That’s my plan,” she said. “I don’t recommend it.”

Just afterthe holidayseasonrush, theteams at threeBaton RougeUPS Stores arehardatwork again, helping locals bringataste of Carnival season to friendsand family around theworld Shipping king cakeshas becomea specialty formultipleUPS StorelocationsinBaton Rouge, including9618Jefferson Highway(Jeffersonat Bluebonnet), 5261 HighlandRoad(Highland at Lee), 17732HighlandRoad(Highland at I-10)and 7516 Bluebonnet Boulevard(Bluebonnet at Perkins),said GeneralManager GregBushong.Overthepastseveral years, staff at thesestoreshavehandled everything from slices to multiple largekingcakes,ensuringthe delicacies getfromlocalbakeriesintothe handsof MardiGrasfanshundredsofmiles away Bushongspoke aboutthe stores’methods,lessons learnedand thebesttipsfor customers. Howdoesthe king cake shipping processwork at your stores?

Thecustomer picksupthe king cake from their localbakeryofchoice, then brings it to TheUPS Store. We talk to them aboutpricing andshippingoptions Thoseoptions canrange from sendingitbyair so it arrivesthe next day, or ground shipping,which takes acoupleofdayslongerbut is more cost-effective

What stepsdoyou andyourstaff take to tryto keep theking cakesasfresh as possible?

Weplaceadditionalpackaginginsidethekingcake boxtolimit howmuchitshiftsduringtravel. We’ve learnedthatsomeextra materialsand processesto make thekingcakea little more secure goes along way. We’rereallycareful with thepacking andgo beyond what thegeneral recommendationsare

What do youhearfromcustomers aboutwhy they want to ship king cakes?

Alot of people whousedtoliveinLouisiana arenow outofstate andtheycan’t getkingcakes wheretheylivenow,sotheyask theirfamilieshere to send them one. We also have severalbusinesses that send king cakestotheir clientsorcolleaguesas agift. Some companieswillsendtheminstead of a Christmasgift, becauseit’ssounique. We’veseen businesses come in with 12 or 15 king cakesand a full list of clientstoshipthemto.

What advice do youhavefor customerswho want to ship aking cake?

Ialwaysrecommend they ship them on aMonday becauseitgives youthe maximumnumberofshipping days.Ifyou usegroundshippingand send it on aFriday, it’s likely to sitinawarehouse over the weekend.

Do youshipany otherfooditems besidesking cakes?

We have dryice at ourJeffersonHighway and HighlandRoadlocations, so we have shippedplenty of jambalaya,sausage,premade frozen gumboand frozen ingredients to make gumbo. We’veeven shippedboiledcrawfish throughthe UPSnext-day airservice.The dryice keepsthe crawfishcool, andthe customer just needstoreheatthemabit when they getthem.

The Carolinas emerge as new population boom states

Affordability and lifestyle drive growth

BY MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — Move over Florida and Texas. The United States has new hot spots for growth, and they both have Carolina in their name North Carolina last year attracted more new residents, 84,000 people, from other parts of the country than any other state, a title held by Texas in 2024 and Florida in the two years before that. South Carolina had the highest overall growth rate last year at 1.5%, a distinction among states held by Florida in 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released this past week. Domestic migration, or people moving within the U.S., slowed in Texas. The 67,300 domestic migrants heading to the second most populous state year over year barely squeaked by South Carolina, which had the third highest number of domestic migrants at 66,600.

The appeal of Florida, the nation’s third most populous state, dimmed. It dropped to No. 8 for state-to-state migration, as more U.S. residents preferred to move elsewhere, including Alabama Sabrina Morley and Steven Devereaux sold their Tampa-area house last year, moved out of Florida and landed outside Valencia, Spain. Growing up in the 1990s, they both enjoyed Florida’s diversity and being able to run around freely outdoors. But in recent years, as they planned to have children, they had grown wary of the state’s costs, regular threats of mass shootings at schools, the quality of education and political

TRIAL

Continued from page 1A

and five other people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds Defense attorneys poked holes in the state’s case, questioning how Robinson was identified as the shooter and criticizing the police investigation that led to his arrest.

“This is a case where Michael was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” public defender Melissa Walker said. “The police officers didn’t do their jobs. They have no idea whose guns those were. They have no idea who touched the guns They’re making conclusions based on their opinions.”

Prosecutors based their case on a videotaped confession officers said Robinson gave investigators and surveillance video that detectives said showed him shooting Cormier

“Dexter was just standing by the tent trying to get some turkey wings and some fries,” said Assistant District Attorney Cheryl Carter “That’s all he was doing And for that, he lost his life?”

Surveillance video played in court showed the moments before and after the shooting. Revelers roamed in and out of the club shar-

divisiveness They are expecting a daughter in the spring.

“I had a pretty good childhood, but I don’t think we’d be able to give our child the same quality of life because of the cost of living, food quality, and guns have become more prevalent,” Devereaux said. “We think where we are now, it’s the best decision we could make to give any future children the best quality of life.”

Nice areas

North Carolina state demographer Michael Cline credited the state’s growth to high-paying jobs in banking and tech, the topographical diversity and having smaller big-cities than Florida and Texas.

“North Carolina is attracting younger folks because we have so many nice areas in North Carolina — the mountains and beaches and lakes in between — that we’re benefiting from younger people who decided they can work from anywhere and would rather be in a nice area,” Cline said. “One of the

ing laughs, daps and hugs. Some danced to the music that spilled out from the club inside as security guards patted down attendees at the entrance.

In an instant, the atmosphere turned from festive to riotous as more than 20 shots rang out shortly before 4 a.m. The eruption of gunshots sent the crowd of hundreds scattering, with people running for cover, ducking and hiding behind vehicles parked in the jampacked parking lot. That was followed by screams and cries as the chaos ensued. One victim laid on ground in front of the club another could be seen on video hopping away from the fray and a third man was seen crawling on the pavement before he managed to pull himself to his feet and limp out of the frame.

More than 20 Baton Rouge Police officers descended upon the scene, as did at least three ambulances, a detective testified Soon after the dust settled, melee turned to mournfulness, with some on camera shedding tears and consoling one another Cormier was rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where he died hours after the shooting.

“This was a tragic event that should not have happened, but it did,” said Assistant District Attorney

things about North Carolina, our cities are not huge, and that may be attractive to folks, too.”

Last year’s changes among the states were significant because population growth brings more taxpayers, economic dynamism and demand for goods and services. It also signals potential changes in the nation’s political landscape after the next census in 2030, with certain states gaining or losing clout in Congress and the Electoral College

In the next few years, domestic migration is going to play a larger role in states’ growth or population decline. That is because the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has contributed to a significant reduction in migration from abroad, which had been the prime driver of growth in most states for the first half of this decade. Without immigration growth, the U.S. population will start shrinking in five years as deaths outpace births, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Frederick Scott, one of the prosecutors who helped argue the state’s case. “Dexter Cormier was only 35 years old. His whole life was ahead of him. His whole life.”

According to arrest reports, Robinson admitted that he opened fire on Cormier “after hearing someone shoot as he was waiting for his food at the food tent,” a concession stand set up outside the club. Robinson told investigators he didn’t know why he “locked on” to Cormier because the victim hadn’t shot at him, according to the charging affidavit.

Jimson Nora, the lead homicide detective in the case, testified that a man hanging out with Robinson that night fired the first three gunshots to start the shooting, and wounded one of the six victims. There were no indications police ever identified or apprehended that man. But the detective said he identified Robinson as the man who killed Cormier after reviewing surveillance footage that showed the shooting. He said bystanders described the shooter as a heavyset man and Robinson was wearing the same clothing as the shooter when officers detained him at the scene.

Walker, Robinson’s attorney, grilled Nora on the chain of custody for the surveillance video, and a lack of forensic evidence in the

Children walk through a sports field in Independence Park under the

of

N.C. North and South Carolina are attracting new residents and signaling changes in the nation’s demographic landscape.

ASSOCIATED

By MARy CONLON

Pandemic boom slows

Despite the comparative yearover-year slowdown in domestic migration, Texas’ overall growth of 391,000 people and Florida’s overall growth of 196,000 people were still the two highest in the U.S. last year In Florida, it was driven by international migration, and in Texas by international migration as well as births outpacing deaths. Both states boomed during the early part of the decade, when pandemic-era lockdowns and remote work encouraged residents from other states to move to Florida and Texas, where coronavirus restrictions were more lax.

“The sharp domestic migrations they observed during the pandemic have now petered out, especially for Florida, at the same time that immigration is being diminished,” said Brookings demographer William Frey Demographers in Florida and Texas said they were not entirely sold on the accuracy of the Cen-

case while cross-examining him Friday

She asked why there was no fingerprint testing done on four guns recovered from the scene, including the alleged murder weapon. She also asked why there was no DNA evidence to link Robinson to the shooting.

Nora couldn’t say why fingerprint testing wasn’t done. He testified that crime scene analysts took DNA swabs from all the guns, but the reports had yet to come back

A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives report on the weapons had also yet to return to reveal who the guns were registered to, the detective said. Walker confronted Nora on how he knew which gun was used to shoot the victims and kill Cormier without any conclusive forensic evidence.

“As a lead detective for the Baton Rouge Police Department are you comfortable proceeding to trial while still having evidence on the guns outstanding?” she asked.

Nora explained that he ruled out three of the weapons based on ballistics evidence at the scene. Police recovered 22 shell casings in the parking lot fired from 9 mm rounds. Nineteen of them were fired from the same gun.

Nora said a 9 mm Glock with an extended magazine was the only recov-

sus Bureau’s migration numbers, which are the hardest variables to pin down because they fluctuate the most year to year, although they did not question the rigor of the bureau’s work. The bureau uses data from the IRS and its American Community Survey to calculate migration, although the ACS data lags by a year and requires statisticians to project the data forward.

The Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida uses a method different from the Census Bureau’s to calculate growth — electrical customer data, said research demographer Richard Doty

There are no definitive explanations for why domestic migration to Florida went from almost 319,000 people in 2022 to 22,500 people in 2025. Doty said some factors might include the state no longer being the bargain it once was, a series of hurricanes and return-to-office employer mandates.

“The cost of housing, in particular, is driving young people and retirees to other states,” he said. “Also, insurance is higher in Florida than most other states.”

When asked about the decline, Gov Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Molly Best, noted in an email that Florida had a significant influx of new residents during the pandemic It remains a top-ranked placed to live, she said.

The Texas economy has been growing, but that is not the only thing that influences the inflow of potential migrants Conditions outside the state also do, Texas state demographer Lloyd Potter said in an email.

“If jobs are plentiful, living is affordable, and the overall quality of life is good, they will be less likely to move for an opportunity outside that community,” Potter said.

ered weapon capable of firing that many rounds. The chamber and extended clip, which held 31 bullets, were emptied.

Police also seized another 9 mm pistol from the scene, but that one was a Sig Sauer that could only hold seven bullets and it still had four rounds in it. The two other guns on scene were also Glocks, but detectives ruled them out because they were .40-caliber weapons unable to fire 9 mm rounds.

The trial was halted on the second day of testimony Jan. 23 when Johnson ruled the surveillance footage inadmissible as evidence because it wasn’t disclosed to defense attorneys in a timely manner Prosecutors appealed that decision, but the First Circuit Court of Appeal denied their writ Tuesday Louisiana Supreme Court justices granted the state’s emergency writ and allowed the surveillance footage to be used as evidence

When the trial reconvened Thursday, objections and continuous bench conferences interrupted the trial as attorneys spent much of the day still wrestling over the footage being played for jurors.

During closing arguments Friday, defense attorneys told jurors that Robinson never actually confessed to shooting anyone. Walker

said he was whisked away from the scene almost immediately and kept isolated for 10 hours before detectives questioned him about the shooting.

“Michael didn’t have an appreciation for the questions that were being asked because he wasn’t watching what was going on,” she said. “In answering the questions, it’s important to note a person’s perception of the evidence. We don’t know what Michael’s appreciation was because he was separated from everyone. But the detectives knew what was going on.

“The state is here asking you to out Michael in jail for the rest of his life, and there are still DNA reports outstanding,” Walker went on to argue. “They brought this case to trial without having all of the evidence.” State prosecutors countered that Robinson knew exactly what he was doing and must be held accountable for his actions.

“Connect the dots. Don’t get fooled by the smoke screen,” Carter said. “If you pull out a gun and start shooting with all these people around, what is your intent? Your intent is to kill or injure people, which Michael Robinson did on that night.”

Email Matt Bruce at matt. bruce@theadvocate.com.

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Amnestybillcould lead to releaseof politicalprisoners

BY REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press

CARACAS,Venezuela Venezuela’s acting PresidentDelcy Rodríguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that couldleadtothe release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders,journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons.

The measure had long been sought by the UnitedStatesbacked opposition. It is the latest concession Rodríguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3after the brazen seizure of then-PresidentNicolás Maduro in aU.S. military attack in Venezuela’scapital,Caracas.

Rodríguez told agathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brassand othergovernment leaders that the ruling party-controlled National Assembly would take up the billwith urgency “May this law serve to heal the wounds left by the politicalconfrontation fueled by violence and

BY ALMA SOLÍS Associated Press

PANAMA CITY Panama’spresident moved to assure the public on Friday that critical ports at both ends of the PanamaCanal willcontinue to operate without interruption aday after the country’sSupreme Courtruled that theconcession held by asubsidiary of Hong Kong’sCKHutchison Holdings was unconstitutional. The court’sdecision late Thursday advances aU.S. aim to block any influence by China over the strategic waterway and immediately drew asharp rebukefrom

extremism,” she addedinthe pretaped televised event. “May it servetoredirect justiceinour country,and may it servetoredirectcoexistence among Venezuelans.”

Rodríguezalsoannounced the shutdown of Helicoide, aprison in Caracas where torture and other human rightsabuses have been repeatedly documented by independent organizations. The facility, shesaid, will be transformed into asports, social and cultural center for police and surrounding neighborhoods.

Rodríguezmade her announcement beforesome of theofficials thatformer prisoners and human rightswatchdogs haveaccused of ordering the abuses committed at Helicoide and other detention facilities.

Relatives of some prisoners livestreamed Rodríguez’sspeech on aphone as they gathered outsideHelicoide. Some cried. Many chanted “Freedom!Freedom!”

“God is good. Godheard us,” JohanaChirinos, aprisoner’saunt,

Beijing PanamanianPresident José Raúl Mulino said that until the court’s ruling isexecuted —aperiod of time he did not specify —Panama’s Maritime Authority would work with Panama Ports Company,the CK Hutchison subsidiary, to ensure continuing operations at theport. Once the concession is formally ended, alocal subsidiary of Danishlogistics company A.P.MollerMaersk will operate theports in a transitional phaseuntil anew concession can be bidand awarded, Mulinosaid “Panama moves forward, its

said as tears rolled down her face.

Opposition leader andNobel

PeacePrize laureate María Corina Machado in astatement said theannounced actions werenot taken “voluntarily,but ratherin response to pressure from the US government.” She also noted that people have been detained for their political activities from anywhere between amonth and 23 years.

“The regime’srepressive apparatus is brutal and has responded to thenumerous criminal forces that answer to this regime, andit is all that remains,” Machado said.

“When repression disappears and fear is lost, it will be theend of tyranny.”

The Venezuelan-based prisoners’

rightsgroupForo Penal estimates that711 people are in detention facilities across the South American country fortheir political activities. Of those, 183 have been sentenced.

Among the prominent members of the political opposition who were detained afterthe 2024 presidential election and remain in prison areformerlawmaker Freddy Superlano, Machado’s lawyer Perkins Rocha, as well as Juan Pablo Guanipa,aformer governor and one of Machado’s closest allies.

The government did notrelease the textofthe bill on Friday,leaving unclear thespecific criteria that will be used to determine who qualifies for amnesty

ports will continue operating without interruption and we will continue serving theworld at the logisticscenter of excellencethat we are,” Mulino said in arecorded video address. The court’s ruling followed an audit by Panama’scomptroller, which alleged irregularities in the 25-year extension of the concession, granted in 2021. The Trumpadministration made blocking China’s influenceoverthe Panama Canal oneofits priorities in thehemisphere. Panamawas U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’sfirst overseas stopasthe United States’ top diplomat. On Friday,

Rubio said on Xthat“theUnited States is encouraged by the recent Panamanian Supreme Court’sdecision to rule port concessionsto China unconstitutional.”

Despite the insistence by Panama’sgovernment and the canal authority that China has no influence over itsoperations, Rubiomade clear that the U.S. viewed the operation of the ports as anational security issue. President Donald Trump had gone so far as to say Panama should return the canal to U.S. control.

The court’sbrief statement gave no guidance on what would happen to theports now

Legislationcomes as redistricting appeal looms

By The Associated Press

SALTLAKECITY Utah Gov.Spencer Cox signed abill Saturday that expands the state Supreme Court fromfive justices to seven as frustration has mounted among Republican lawmakers over astring of defeats before the tribunal.

Advocatesfor thechangeargued that it would help improve thecourt’s efficiency,but legal experts said it could have the opposite effect and set adangerous precedent at atime of tension between the branches of government.The state’sjudiciary did not ask for more justices on the court.

Democrats, whowere united in opposition to the bill, called the timing suspicious. The Legislature has been preparing an appeal of aruling that gave Democrats a strong shot at picking up one of Utah’s four Republican-held congressional seats in thefall. New justices could be in place whenthe court decides the fate of the congressional map. Because the bill receivedapproval from more than twothirds of legislators, it took effect immediately after the governor signedit, allowing him to bypass aseveral-month waiting period to start adding justices. In Utah, justices are appointed by the governorand approved by the stateSenate. Justices in many other states are elected. Most states have five or seven SupremeCourt justices,but a few have nine. Cox, aRepublican, has said the additions would put Utahinline with other states of its size. He has denied that the policy is politically motivated, noting that Republican governors and senators have madeall recent appointments.

Some states push to endpropertytaxes forhomeowners

Butwill initiativesmake it to aballot?

BY JEFF AMY Associated Press

ATLANTA— It is agoal spreading among anti-tax crusaders —eliminate all property taxes on homeowners.

Rising property values have inflated tax bills in many states, but ending all homeownertaxes would cost billions or even tens of billionsinmoststates. It is unclear if lawmakers can pull it offwithout harming schools and local governments that rely on the taxes to provide services

OfficialsinNorth Dakota say they are on their way,using state oil money.Earlier this month, Republicans in the Georgia House unveiled acomplex effort to phase out homeowner property taxes by 2032. In Florida, GOP Gov.Ron DeSantis says that is his goal, with lawmakers currently considering phasing out nonschool property taxes on homeowners over 10 years. And in Texas, Republican Gov.Greg Abbott says he wants to eliminate property taxes for schools.

Republicans are echoing those who say taxes, especiallywhen the taxman can seize ahouse for nonpayment, mean no one truly owns property

“No one should ever face thelossoftheir home because they can’tpay rent to the government,” Georgia Republican House Speaker

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

NorthDakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong said, ‘Weknow we can build on it to provide evenmore relief and get property taxestozero for the vast majorityofNorth Dakota homeowners.’

Jon Burns of Newington said. An election-yeartax revolt

Theseaudacious electionyearefforts could be joined by ballot initiatives in Oklahoma andOhiotoeliminate all property taxes. Such initiatives were defeated in North Dakota in 2024 and failed to make theballot in Nebraska that year,although organizers there are trying again.

Another initiative in Michiganmay alsofail to make the ballot.

“We’reverymuchinthis propertytax revolt era, which is notunique, it’s not new.We’ve seen theserevolts in the past,” saidManish Bhatt,vice president of state tax policy at the Tax Foundation, aWashington D.C., group that is generally skeptical of newtaxes

Previous backlashes led to laws like California’sPropo-

sition13, a1978 initiative that limited property tax ratesand how much local governmentscould increase propertyvaluations for tax purposes.

The efforts are aimed at voters like TimHodnett,a 65-year-old retireeinsuburban Atlanta’sLawrenceville. Hodnett’sannualproperty tax bill rose from $2,000 to $3,000 between 2018 and 2024.

He sees thosefigures starkly because he paid off his mortgage years ago, and he pays his taxes allatonce, instead of makingmonthly payments.

Hodnett said he is disabled and living on $30,000 ayear He is about to get abig property tax break, becauseseniors in GwinnettCountyare exempt from school property taxes, about twothirds of his bill. But he would love to not pay thatother$1,000 too.

“It would be nice to be exemptfrom property taxes,” Hodnettsaid. Replacementrevenue?

The question is whether local governments and K-12 schools should be expected to cutspending, or whether theywill be allowed to make up revenue from some other source.

“I think the complete elimination of the property tax for homeowners is really going to be very difficult in most states andlocalities around the country, and undesirable in mostplaces,” said Adam Langley,ofLincoln Institute of Land Policy,aMassachusetts nonprofitthat studies land use and taxation.

Worldcreepsclosertoeradicating humancases of Guinea worm

BY BILL BARROW

Associated Press

ATLANTA— There were only 10 reported cases of Guinea worm infections confinedto three countries in 2025,ahistoric low announced Friday by The Carter Center

The new mark comes barely ayear after the death of former PresidentJimmy Carter,who often said he hoped to outlive the Guinea worm. When the former president’scenter launched an eradication program in the mid-1980s, the parasite still afflicted millions of people in developing countries.

“Wethink about President Carter’slegacy” and his push to get to zero cases, said Adam Weiss, director of the center’sGuinea worm eradication program, in an interview.“These might not be seen as the number one problems in the world, but they are the number one problemsfor people that suffer from these diseases. So we continue to charge ourselves with his mission of alleviating as much painand suffering as we can.” In 2025, four human cases were reported in Chad, four in Ethiopia and two in South Sudan. Animal infections still number in the hundreds,

declining in some countries but up slightly overall and making it harder to predict when Guinea wormmight be eradicated

The 10 human casesmark a33% decline from15cases reported in 2024. Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Mali reportedzerohumancasesfor the second consecutive year Guinea worm would join smallpox as only the two human diseases to be eradicated

The wormiscontractedby consumingwater that contains larvae. It then grows inside an infected person, reaching as muchasa meter long and the diameter of spaghetti. Theworm then exits the person’sbodythrough a blister,whichcausesintense pain.

Infections can spread when those who suffer from the condition sometimes immerse themselves in water to easesymptoms —allowing theworm to depositlarvaethat can be consumedby others. The same cycle can happen through landanimal infections when they come to the water source. Humans also can beinfected by consumingfish or amphibious creatures thathaveconsumed larvae.

TheCarterCenter’seradication programhas worked alongside government healthministries and other organizations for decades to educatethe public, trainvolunteers and distributewater filters in affected areas. There is no treatment for Guineaworm, though infected people can takepain medication.

Weiss said the eradication program’snextstep is developing diagnostictests, especially for animals. Testinglong before an infected person or animal becomes symptomaticwould allowbehavioralchanges to minimize or eliminatethe chances of them allowing morelarvae to enter awater source.

The CarterCenter said Chad reported 147 animal infections in 2025, a47% drop for what was once theglobal epicenter of animal infections. Cameroon reported 445, while Angola reported 70, Mali 17, South Sudan threeand Ethiopia one.

Carter andhis wife,Rosalynn, traveled extensively across theaffected countries with Carter Center staff whoworked with the World Health Organization, national health ministries and local officialstobuildthe coordinated eradication effort.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, aRepublican, has been touring thestate arguing that local governmentsare overspending, tryingtoshowthey don’t need the$19 billion in property taxes theycollect from homeowners, meaning the house is their primary residence. Local governments have been disputing those figures.

North Dakota, by contrast, is using earnings from the

state’s$13.4 billionoil tax savings account to gradually wipe out homeowner property taxes. Last year,North Dakota’sRepublican-controlled Legislature expanded its primary residencetax credit from $500 to $1,600 ayear

Officials in December said the tax credit wiped out property taxes for50,000 households last year and reducedbills fornearly100,000 more. That cost $400 million in state subsidies for the 2025

and 2026 tax years. “It works, andweknow we can build on it to provide even morerelief and get property taxes to zero for the vast majority of North Dakota homeowners,” Republican Gov.Kelly Armstrong said. The situation is murkierin Texas, whichhas been using state surplus funds to finance property tax reductions, and under the Georgia proposal, whichcalls for shifting taxes around.

Anannualevent knownfor combininghistory immersivestorytellingand meaningful conversationsabout thefuturewillreturntoBaton RougeonTuesday,February24, as BatonRouge Alliancefor Students hoststhe 2026 Education AsA Civil Right.

by crime. We seeeducation as onelever we can pull to improveoverall outcomes forthe city.” Throughdeepconversations andthe multimedia exhibit, Pelichet Duggan said the Alliance hopestogiveattendees thechanceto experience thehistory of educationasatoolfor both empowermentand oppression

This year’s eventwillbeatthe Manship Theatreinsidethe Shaw Center forthe Arts,100 LafayetteStreet. Doors will open at 5p.m.The eventisfreeand open to thepublic. Thetheme is “The Link BetweenLearningand Liberation.”

A multimedia exhibitfeaturing visual media, archival contentand interactiveelementswill allowattendees to explorethe impact of education on girls, economicliteracy as avehicle for freedomand thesystemicremoval of cultural educationfor minority groups

“I hope people walk away with abetterunderstanding of howhistory hasshapedthismoment andhow we arepoisedtomoveforward,” she said.“We’retryingtoexplore educationfrom differentanglesand have robust conversations aboutthe ways we want educationtodeliver what we want forour communities.”

Formoreinformation on EducationAsA Civil Rightortoregisterfor theFebruary24event visithttps://bralliance.org/eacr/.

“Every year,wetry to give people newways to experience fresh contentthatispresented in away they haven’tseenbefore,”saidAdonica Pelichet Duggan,Baton RougeAlliancefor Students Chief ExecutiveOfficer. “Wetry to expose people to thecomplexitiesofeducation People’s experiences tend to be very narrow,and we want them to understand that just because theirchild hasacertain educationalexperience doesn’t mean that is true forall children.”

EducationAsA Civil Rightwas createdto foster discussionsabout theimportanceof fundamentaleducation.PelichetDuggansaid theevent hasevolved in recent yearsaseducators,students, families andother stakeholders grapplewiththe lingeringeffects of theCovid pandemic,societalupheavaland questions aboutthe responsibilitiesthatschools have within theircommunities

“One of thebiggest things we’velearned is that youcannotfixany of theother challenges that we have as acityuntil youhavea solid understandingofhow youwillimproveeducation,” Pelichet Duggan said.“Thepandemic really showed thoseofusinnonprofitworkhow interconnected thesecommunity challenges are. We can’teducate kids properly if they are hungry,iftheylackaccesstotransportation or if they live in aneighborhoodsurrounded

LOUISIANAPOLITICS

Congress grapples with budget falloutfromMinn. killings

WASHINGTON —Softened rhetoric, personnel changes andthe willingness of President Donald Trump to negotiatewith Democrats in hopes of avoidinganother government shutdown have created confusion for many in Congress.

Democratic senators balked at funding the Department of Homeland Security,which includes the money for FEMA, largely because of violence involving frontline officers withICE and the Border Patrol who are tasked withfinding anddeporting immigrants who entered the country illegally Approval of the DHS budget— which includescritical funding for FEMA —already wasshaping up as aclose vote. Then thebattle lines hardenedfurther after Alex Pretti, aU.S.-born nurseataveterans hospital,became thesecond American citizen killed in Minneapolis.

Initially,Trump administration leaders painted Pretti as agunwielding domestic terrorist. But numerous videos taken from different angles showed arestrained Pretti shot repeatedly in the back.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “What ICE is doing outside the law is state-sanctioned thuggery.”

Most GOP leaders remained silent. Afew Republicansargued the credibility of the immigration control effort was at stake, including U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina. Their statements indicated fear of potential backlash to what has been one of the GOP’sbest issues against Democratic candidates.

immigrants, Cassidy said: “DHS funds FEMA. Notfunding FEMA just as communities are requesting help after Winter Storm Fern is not smart.”

The mainchallenger forCassidy’sreelection in November is U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow,aRepublican from Baton Rouge whohas Trump’sendorsement.

Letlow’s staffsaid in astatementThursday on Noem that she trusts Trumptodetermine who “he needs” and that she wants to see the Senate endorse the Homeland Security bill as it passed the House.

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, RLafayette, agreed, writing on X, “I’m an immovable ‘no’ on anything that doesn’tsupport law enforcement frontline hard-edge operations.”

Sen. John Kennedy,R-Madisonville, spoke from the Senate floor Wednesday saying federal agents should follow due process and equal protection standards —that is, law enforcement needs to have “reasonable suspicion” to stop someone and question them without probable cause.

Kennedy said mostconfrontations involved criminals, many times with felons.

His post was read more than 3million times.

Thepresidentsent border czar

TomHolman to Minneapolis with instructions to mediate among federal, state and local authorities.

Meanwhile, Trump and Schumer then worked out adeal that would allow the other five spendingbills to clear theSenate and

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy,R-Baton Rouge, took to social media quickly after Pretti’skilling: “The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. Thecredibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be afulljointfederal and state investigation.”

Landrypens NYT op-ed on Greenland

In his role as PresidentDonald Trump’sspecial envoy to Greenland, Gov.Jeff Landry wrote in an op-ed piece for the New York Times on Thursday that the U.S. needs “total,unfettered access”to the giant island territory

Following up on the “framework” that Trump announced last week in Davos, Switzerland, Landry wrote that the U.S. and Denmarkare negotiating an agreement that “would enhance American, NATO and Greenlandic security and reaffirm longstanding trans-Atlantic defense obligations. It would expand America’s operational freedom, support new bases and infrastructure, facilitate deployment of advanced missile-defense systems like the Golden Dome and crowd out hostile Chinese and Russian influence.”

in announcing the framework of adeal.

The opinion article marks Landry’smost prominent role since Trumpnamed him special envoy just before Christmas.

Capitol Buzz STAFF REPORTS

Foreign policy experts have notedLandry has no experience in international diplomacy, much less European affairs, and did not attendakey meeting two weeksago at the White House with Vice President JD Vance, SecretaryofState Marco Rubio and theforeign ministers of Denmark and Greenland

In thepiece, Landry noted that U.S. troopshelped defend Greenland from Nazi Germany during World WarIIand that theU.S. maintained military bases on the island during the Cold War.

“The reality,” Landry wrote, “is that no nation, or group of nations, is capable of securing Greenlandwithoutthe United States.”

Nowhere in the article does Landry repeat Trump’sprevious call for the U.S. to takeover Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

So far,Greenland and Denmark officials have said they will not turn the country over to theU.S Trump did not push that demand

Landry wrotethatTrump’s efforts to establish agreater presence in Greenland reflect “a reinvigoration of the1823 Monroe Doctrineand areassertion of American leadership where it matters most. Nowhere was this more evident than in Venezuela, where decisive action removed the longtimeleader of arepres-

postpone Homeland Security’s appropriations for two weeks to negotiateguardrails for federal agents enforcing immigration laws.

The two House leaders who would be called upon to win House approval in the coming week of any Senate changes to Homeland Securityfunding largely have stayed silent.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton,still hadn’tcommented by early Friday House MajorityLeader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson,had defend-

sive regime.”

Until now,Landry has described his role as special envoy only in general terms.Inthe article, he wrote, “My mission as special envoy for Greenland is straightforward: to advance American national securitywhile opening avenues of economic opportunity, including for states like Louisiana.” BR Republican in race for Letlow’sHouse seat

StateRep.Dixon McMakin, RBaton Rouge, announced Wednesday morning he is running for U.S. Rep.Julia Letlow’s seat representing Louisiana’s5th Congressional District.

“I’mrunning to deliver real wins for Louisiana —not excuses, not talking points, but results. Wins for families. Wins for workers. Wins for our values,” he said in a statement McMakin said he will “stand shoulder to shoulderwith President Trumptoadvance the America First agenda,”including priorities like border security, economic growth benefiting working families, cutting “reck-

ed ICE and the Border Patrol on “Face the Nation” the day after Pretti’sdeath, blaming the Democratic leaders of Minnesota. On theside, Democrats also agitated for theremoval of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, though Trumpcontinued to praise her Cassidy didn’tanswer when asked if Noem should be removed from office.

When asked if he supported changes in the way federal law enforcement handle people in their search forundocumented

less spending,” and “crushing woke insanity.” Letlow last week announced a bid to unseat embattled U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy after she won an endorsementfrom President Donald Trumpdays earlier

Afirst-term member of the LouisianaHouse, McMakin is a financial adviser forAltus Wealth Management, licensed insurance agent and owner of aprivate law practice. He also serves as thepublic address announcer for LSU football games. He has abachelor’sdegree and adual degree in business and law,both from LSU.

Alsointhe congressional race are state Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, and Board of RegentsChair Misti Cordell, each of whom announced their candidacies last week.

Larry Davis, amember of the Livingston Parish Republican ParishExecutive Committee, is also running. So are Sammy Wyatt, an administrator at LSU Health-Shreveport whoended a Senatebid to run forU.S. House instead, andRay Smith, alawyer and combat veteran.

About half of the 5th Congressional District includes Baton Rouge andLivingston Parish, and it also includes the Florida Parishes and parishes along the Mississippi River up to Monroe.

“Those ICEofficials, those cops are scared. They’re scared. They’re dealing with someone whocould be armed, someone whocould be dangerous. So, you got apowder keg,” he said. “When protesters choose to protest violently and harass those ICEofficials and blow whistles in their ears and block their way and spit in their faces and curse them and curse their children, they’re giving off sparks in apowder keg and it’snot going to end well in manycases.”

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.

Graves passedonLetlow’s congressional spot

Former U.S. Rep. Garret Graves said Wednesday he will not run to replace U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and represent Louisiana’s5th Congressional District.

“Weare thankfulfor all of the strong support and encouragementtorun forCongress,” Graves said in astatement.

“This is not the timenor office that makes sense. Iwill not be running forCongress this election,” he said.

“There is astrong demand for people-focused representation and leadership in Louisiana. Iam confident the right opportunity to help fill this void will arise in the future.”

Graves served in Congress from 2015 to 2024, representing Baton Rouge and parishes to the south until Louisiana’scongressional map was redrawn. He decided not to seek reelection after he ended up with adistrict he didn’tthink he could win.

Letlow’s decision to join the Senate race prompted speculation that Graves would seize the opportunity to return to Capitol Hill.

THE GULF COAST

HattiesburgkingcakegetsDongPhuongcomparisons

Bakery sells250 aday andruns outquickly

BY POET WOLFE Staff writer

Stepping into acasino before noon comeswitha particular kind of guilt, like staring into the blue light of aphone screen the moment you wake up. But on a recent Wednesday morning, it was necessary. We had driven the coastal stretch from NewOrleans to downtown Gulfport, Mississippi,where Loblolly Bakery,aHattiesburg institution, was hosting aking cake pop-up at 10:30 a.m.

The bakery’scakes wreaths of pillowy bread topped with buttercream icing —have become aCarnival staple acrossthe Gulf Coast. The long line snaking toward atable stacked with 75 king cake boxes made that clear.Within 25 minutes, only 15 remained.

As one box after another disappearedintothe arms of smiling customers, we were redirected east to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, where another delivery of Loblolly’sking cakes was en route.

Neon slot machines, blackjack tables and the clinking of digital coins are not particularly pious ways to begin the morning. But perhapsyou —aNew Orleanian, alover of king cake, or both —understand now why it was necessary, especially for aking cake frequently compared to Dong Phuong Bakery’screation, arguably the most sought-afterconfectionof Mardi Gras

Findingthe cake

At the Hard Rock, we

stepped into an elevator thickwithdecades of cigarettesmoke and rode to the second floor, where gamblers stared at glowing screens, sharp-eyed and unblinking as theyclicked buttons. Vintage photographs of the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin covered nearly every wall. Thefew bare patches were scribbledwithquotes— someearnest, others platitudinous— attributedto the greatsofrock ‘n’ roll.

Almost every corner leaned into Americana, except the giftshop, wherea cart of king cakes was being rolled in.Lessthan5 minutes later, aman leftwith seven of them.

King cakes are not confined to New Orleans. Their reach extends across Louisiana,from thetoe to the heel of the boot, and into other parts of the Gulf Coast,including south Mississippi. Thecity’scultural influence has longtraveled outward, and now even one of its smaller bakeries has become part of that exchange.

“From day one, Iwas told that Dong Phuongwas the standard,” saidAndrew Stayer,the logisticsand shipping manager at Loblolly Bakery

The bakery,hesaid, aims to meet andeven surpass thatbenchmark, borrowing inspirationfrom Dong Phuong’smost admired qualities, including the moisture of the bread. Since Loblolly began sellingkingcakes last year,the approach appears to work. Thebakery now suppliesalistofvendors in Mississippi, along with onein Covington,and sells the king cakes online. This MardiGrasseason Stayersaidits Hattiesburg locationsells 250 king cakes aday and runs out quickly

“Wecan’talways promise that you’re going to get a cake,” he said, “But we can promise we’re going to be making them.”

A finalreview

The only flavor available at thegiftshopwas blueberry cream cheese, the bakery’smost popular filling. The cake was decorated with doubloons, beads and festive sugar,witha plastic baby nestled intothe icing. The buttercream icing is slightly thick, layering the softbrioche bread beneath it.The filling, amix of fresh andcrushed blueberries, appears near theend of the slice, matching theicing’s mild sweetness. Is it like Dong Phuong’s kingcake? Not particularly,but art isn’tmeant to be imitated. Loblolly belongs to anew chapter of king cakes, one shaped by Dong Phuong’sinfluence —with richer doughs andhigh-end ingredients —and departs from the simpler versions many generations once knew

EDUCATION

McMahonaimstoshutter EducationDept.,‘fire’herself

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

U.S. Secretary of Education

Linda McMahon will be happy if she’sthe last person ever tohold that title.

Aformer pro-wrestlingexecutive, McMahon was tapped by President Donald Trump to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, which Republicans have long criticized as inefficient and an encroachment on local control of schools.

“I will be considered asuccess by the president when Ihave fired myself from my job,” McMahon said last week during avisit to New Orleans. Over the past year,she has worked quickly to take apart the Education Department —what she calls its “final mission” —by handing some of its duties to other agencies and shrinkingits staff by about half.

The department’sdiminished Office for Civil Rights hassharply cut back on investigations, leadingtoamounting backlog of complaints by families who say their children face discrimination based on their race, sex or disability Even as McMahon promises to “return education to the states,” she has continued to use the agency’sauthorityto impose Trump’svision on public schools. In an effort to eliminate programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, the departmenthas canceled grants, temporarily frozen school funding and investigated diversity initiatives at universities, including Tulane.

McMahonistouring the country to promoteastaunchly pro-American approach to history and civics education tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary this year

The Times-Picayune |The Advocate spokewith McMahon during her NewOrleans tourstop about herpush for “patriotic education” and plan to eliminate her own job. Theinterview has been edited forlength andclarity

What’s the idea behind touring the country? And whatbringsyou to Louisiana for a second time?

I’vegonetoK-12 schools, middleschools, highschools. I’ve been to micro schools andpublic schools and privateschools.

Ireally wanttosee what the best practices are.

TheDepartmentofEducation does not controlcurriculum in thecountry,but by theend of this tour, Iwould liketobeable to put together atoolkit of best practices for states to takealook at. Somestates are not being as

innovative and creative as Louisiana is.

President Trumphas calledfor “patriotic education.”How would you define that?

The president’sgoal is really to unitethe country because it is incredibly diverse at the moment.

He’sreally hopeful that this celebration of patriotism, of respect for theflag, of respect of our rights, and arecelebration of the Declaration of Independence and theConstitution will reinforce to all of our citizens, not just our students, that this is the greatest country in the world.

Andbythe way,there are many institutions of higher learning now that are establishing civics centers on their campuses. They are really going back to thebasics of teaching about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution,our Founding Fathers,because we really have kind of lost sight of all that.

When peoplehear “patriotic education, some might question whether that also in-

cludes teaching students about the darker chapters of U.S. history,such as slavery and racial segregation. Do youthink students should learnthat history even if it makes them feel uncomfortable?

Iwas asked that question recently and Isaid, “Well, there is really only onehistory.” Maybe someparts of it you’re prouder of than others, but there’sonly one history of the country and it should be told in full.

We should look at where we’ve come from, the changes we’ve made, theprogress of where we are today.It’ssomething to be proud of in ourcountry

President Trump has criticizedinstitutions likethe Smithsonian forfocusing too much on “how bad slavery was.”Some peoplesay schools shouldn’tteach students to feel ashamedabout America.Are you concerned about that?

No. Isay you teach them everythingsothat they can appreciate how far we’ve come.

Slavery didn’tbegin in the United States. It began in other parts of the world. And to try to carve it out and say it didn’thappen here or that we didn’tovercomeitand makegreat strides, Ithink does a disservice to our country

The president has talked about “radical” civics education and schools “indoctrinating” students. Is that something you’ve seen when visiting schools?

Ihave not seen that. The DepartmentofEducation does not establish curriculum anywhere. We don’thire teachers. We don’t buy books. That’sdone at the statelevel. Ithink state superintendents working with local districts and teachers and parents —that’sthe way education really needs to be. Which is whythe president absolutely wants to makesure that

WE’RE ASKING EXPERTS ACROSS THESTATEHOW TO TACKLE THEBIGGEST CHALLENGES FACINGLOUISIANA SCHOOLS.

the bureaucracy is taken out of education, education’sreturned to the states, that there no longer is aDepartment of Education in Washington.

As you’re visiting schools, lifting up best practicesacross states, giving that kind of guidance,how does that fitinwith getting rid of the EducationDepartment? Would those things be possible without afederal role in education?

Well, there’ll always be afederal role. Congress appropriates money.Title I(forschools serving poor students), IDEAmoney (for special education) will continue to flow through. And let’snot forget that before 1980, there wasnoDepartment of Education, and those funds still flowed to the states.

We can reduce the regulatory environment forthe states that are participating with these grants, and we can take off some of the strings so that we can make it operate moreefficiently and get moremoney to students. That really is the goal.

I’ve heard concernsfrom some parents, and youprobably have too, that the Education Department is no longer investigating complaints they submit about special education or other issuesrelated to students’ civil rights.What would yousay to those parents?

How did it happen before there wasaDepartment of Education?

We have an Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Justice. We have an Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education.

So it’ll be merged with one of the other agencies when we’ve madethat full distribution of the departments. But parents will always have that right.

BY DÁNICA COTO Associated Press

HAVANA Cubans are hustling to become more self-sufficient as the U.S. government tightens itseconomic noose overthe communistrun island in amove expertssay is meant to force apopular uprising and usher in anew government.

Asharp increase in U.S. sanctions was already suffocating Cubans when critical oil shipmentsfrom Venezuela were disrupted after the U.S. attackedthe South American country and arrested its leader.

The long-term repercussions of those halted shipments have yet to hit Cuba, but its people are not waiting.

Some are installing solar panels while others are growing their own crops or returning to asimpler way of life, one that doesn’trely on technology or petroleum.

“It’show you survive,” said Jose Ángel Méndez Faviel. “It’s bestto depend on yourself.”

Méndez recently movedfrom the center of Havana to afarm in therural community of Bacuranao because of Cuba’s severeblackouts.Atthe farm, he can cook with firewood and charcoal, something unthinkable in adarkened city apartment.

Méndez said he doesn’tknow what to make of U.S. President Donald Trump’sthreats against Cuba, but he’snot taking any chances. He’sstocking up ongasoline, charcoal and produce, which he began planting three months ago at his farm.

Méndez also is thinkingofbuying back his old horsethat he sold in favor of motorizedequipment to transport vegetables he sells at local markets.

“You don’tneed fuelfor ahorse,” he said. “Weneed to go back in time.”

‘Veryclose to failing’

Before the U.S. attackedVenezuela and disrupted oil shipments to Cuba, the island already was struggling with chronic blackouts, soaring prices and alack of basic goods

With experts warning of apotentially catastrophiceconomic crisis, somewonder if Cuba is reaching its breaking point.For Trump, who signed an executive order Thursdaythat wouldimpose atariff on anygoodsfrom countries that sell or provideoil to Cuba, it’s all but guaranteed.

“Cuba isreally anation that is very close tofailing,” he recently said. But Cubans scoff at thatassertion,especially those who remember the so-called “Special Period,”

when cutsinSovietaid sparkedthe 1990s deprivation that eased when Venezuela became an ally under former President Hugo Chávez.

Yadián Silva, anurse and driver of aclassic car who has seen tourism plummet,said Cubans aren’t dumb.

“Wehave problems, and we know we have alot of problems,” he said. “But when things happen in Cuba, it’s becausepeople truly feel they should happen. Not because someone from theoutside says, ‘do this.’”

On arecent weeknight, tens of thousandsofCubansclutched flaming torches and joined an annualmarch to remember national hero José Martí. Many of them were university students.

“Weare adignified people, a people eager to moveforward, eager to prosper, who do not believe in threats andare notintimidated by any reprisals from the enemy,” said Sheyla Ibatao Ruíz, 21, alaw student. “Ifwehave to take up arms, we will be the first to do so.”

Before the march began, apresenter addressed the massive audience that includedCuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

“This is not an act of nostalgia, it is acall to action,” said Litza Elena González Desdín, president of the FederationofUniversity Students in aspeech that includedreferences to Trump.

Aday later,Christopher Landau, U.S. deputy secretary of state, noted that the U.S. embraces Martí “because he shared that passion thatwehavefor freedom.”

‘We’ll ride bicycles’

Last September,ÁngelEduardo launched asmall business to installsolar panels. He calledit “Con Voltage,” aword with double meaninginCubathatcan referto doing something well.

He said he wasfed up withstudying in the dark and being forced to writeina notebook instead of a computer to obtain his degree as an automation control engineer Eduardostarted riggingpieces to light asingle bulb forhis home and ended up learning how to install solar systemsthanks to a combination of afriend, Chat GPT and social media.

He nowhas installed dozens of systems acrossCuba,averaging one to two installations aday since November on an island where daily demand for electricity on average surpasses 3,000 megawatts whenonly about half that is available during peak hours.

Eduardo said he sawa surge in calls from people in Havana seeking solar systemsever since the disruption in oil shipments from Venezuela.

Growing abusiness is something that 62-year-old Niuvis BuenoZavala has been pondering. Aretired Russian interpreter for the Cuban government, she now runs asmall wooden shack near the sea that sells drinks but not food.

“I’ve never had it this hard,” she said, adding that she might start selling homemade food.“There’s always ahelping hand to assist us. But now those helping hands can’t reach us. We’re blocked from all sides.”

Many Cubans decry the embargo,including retiredpilotPedro Carbonell. The 73-year-old recently waitedmorethantwo hours to buy gasoline. He said Cubans have to keep fighting.

“If we don’thave fuel, then we’ll ride bicycles,” he said, recalling how Cubans walked alot during the Special Period. “Our wine is bitter.But it’sour wine. Do you understand? And we don’twant anyone from somewhere else coming here andtelling us howtodrink our wine.”

“Wehope that by 2026, Cubans will finally be able to exercise their fundamental freedoms,” Landau said Wednesdayina recording played at asmall gathering at the U.S. embassy in Havana. “The communist Castro regime is tottering; it won’tlast muchlonger.After 67 years of afailed revolution that has betrayed the Cuban people, it’stime forthe change that thepeople on the island are yearning for.”

Mexico’s presidentwon over Trumpwithfirmness, flattery

BY KATE LINTHICUM and PATRICK J. MCDONNELL Los Angeles Times (TNS)

MEXICO CITY He has called Colombian PresidentGustavo Petro “a sick man” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a“dictator.”

He once slammed French President Emmanuel Macron as “publicity-seeking,” andformer Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “dishonestand weak.”

President Donald Trump is known for hurling scathing insults at world leaders.

Then there’sMexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The U.S. president has described her,atturns, as “fantastic,”“terrific” and “elegant.”

In asocial media post Thursday,heofferedhis most glowing compliments yet, extolling Sheinbaum as “wonderful and highlyintelligent” and saying Mexicans “should be very happy” to have her as their leader Trump’semphatic praise for Sheinbaum is surprising, giventheirmarked differencesintemperament and politics.

Sheinbaum, aleftist known for her patience and pragmatism, labeled Israel’s U.S.-backed war in Gaza a “genocide” andcondemned the recent U.S. capture of VenezuelanPresident Nicolás Maduro.

She disagrees with Trump on three of his firmly held beliefs: that the U.S. should raise tariffs on Mexican imports, expel migrantsen masse, and attack drug traffickers inside Mexico.

But Sheinbaum is keenly aware of how Trump’sactions on trade,immigration and securitycould plunge Mexico into turmoil, potentiallythreatening her own popularity and the legacy of the ruling party founded

Mexico’sPresident Claudia Sheinbaum and U.S. PresidentDonald Trump chat during the FIFAWorld Cup 2026 officialdrawinWashington, D.C.

by her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador

So she has tread strategically,requesting frequent phone calls with Trump, making concessions on issues such as security and heaping praise rightback at him. Shedescribedher conversationwithTrump on Thursday as “productive and cordial” and added: “I had the pleasure of greeting his wife, Melania.” So far, hertactics have worked.Trump’srepeated threats of sweeping tariffs on Mexican goods and drone attacks on cartel targets have not yet come to pass. Managing Trump has been one of the biggest —and perhaps most consequential focalpoints of Sheinbaum’s presidency. “It’snot somethingthatjust happened today,”she said recently of her relationship withTrump. “Communication,coordination, and defending the people of Mexico areconstants.”

Sheinbaum hasbeen quelling nerves in Mexico sinceTrump’selection in late2024, just weeks after sheassumed thepresidency.She promised to forge strong bonds withthe incoming U.S. leader,who is widely disliked herefor his diatribes against immigrants. Sheinbaum vowed to emulate Kalimán, abeloved Mexican comic-book superhero known for defeating villainswith“serenityand patience.”

She hassought to command Trump’srespect in other ways, holding massive public rallies that demonstrate widespread support for hergovernment. “We will always hold ourheads high,” shesaidatone event shortly before Trumptook office. “Mexicoisafree, independent, andsovereign country.Wecoordinate, we collaborate, but we do not submit.”

In someways,Trumphas

actually galvanizedsupport for Sheinbaum by sparking asurge in nationalism.Polls show most Mexicans approve of her handling of the bilateral relationship. According to apoll conducted by El País newspaper,her approval rating soared to 83% in Mayafter she persuaded Trump to postpone theimplementation of heavy

tariffs. It now stands around 74%.

Still, some political analystspoint outthatTrump maylike Sheinbaumbecause, despite her talk of defending Mexico’ssovereignty,she has actually acquiesced to him many times, particularly on issues of security

“The listofconcessions to Trump accumulated in a single year farsurpasses in scope and depth those made by supposedly more ‘subservient’ governments,” wrote columnist Jorge Lomonaco in El Universal newspaper Sheinbaum hasdeployed Mexican troopstostop migrants fromreaching the U.S. border.She hassent dozens of accused drug criminalstothe U.S. to face trialthere,sidestepping the standard extradition process to do so. She imposed tariffs on some imports from China andothercountries, and her government reportedly paused shipments of oil to Cuba, signaling apossible endtowhatSheinbaum had lauded as a“humanitarian” effort to aid the embattled island nation —another possible target of Trump.

“In public,Sheinbaum’s government has maintained

asovereign andpatriotic rhetoric, but it is evident that,inprivate, it hasbeen very docile with the U.S.,” Lomonaco wrote. Trump’sdiscourse with Mexicocontinuestobeinfused with threats. While he calls Sheinbauma“good woman,” he also said in May that she is “so afraid of the cartels she can’teven think straight.”

Many believe Trump’sdecision to sendU.S. special forces to arrest Maduro and his wife in Caracas could embolden him to launch a U.S. military attack on cartelsinMexico— amovethat Sheinbaum would clearly seeascrossingared line, and could probably ignite a political crisis here.

“I do think there’s areal risk of astrikeonMexican soil against cartels,especially afterwhathappened in Venezuela,” said Gustavo Flores-Macías,deanofthe School of Public Policyat the University of Maryland. Mexico, he said, is attempting “a delicate balance of keeping U.S.authorities happy without falling into this perennial game of trying to appease the White Houseand do everything that Trump wants.”

BY NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

VATICAN CITY Pope Leo XIV told the Vatican’sdoctrine office on Thursday to uphold truth, justice and charity when deciding clergy sex abuse cases, confirming acalibrated approach to dealing with ascandal that has tarnished the CatholicChurch’s credibility worldwide.

Another Vatican department,the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, has becomeamain pointofreference for abuse survivors.

History’sfirst American pope dedicated only asmall part of his speech to abuse in an address to members of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that polices Catholic doctrine but also processes abuse casesworldwide. What Leo didn’tsay was almost more significant than what he did: Leo made no mentionofvictims in his speech, suggesting he believes the dicastery should function almost exclusively as achurch tribunal, nota pastoral office.

Pope Francis had made thecommission part of the doctrine office, butLeo appears keen to keep the twofunctionally separate. No one from thesurvivor commissionparticipated in Thursday’s audience.

Leo told the bishops and cardinal members of the doctrine office that they shouldwelcome and accompany thereligious superiors who, according to the church’scanon law, are responsible for investigatingand sanctioning priests who molest or abuse young people.

“It is avery delicatearea of ministry,inwhich it is essential to ensure that the requirements of justice, truth and charityare always honored and respected,” Leo said.

It was asimilar point that Leo, acanon lawyer,made earlier this week when he met with another Vatican tribunal,known as theRoman Rota, andspoke of the need to balance justice and charityinthe search for truth.

Twodecades after the abuse scandal exploded in hisnativeU.S., Leohas indicated agenerally cautious approach to handling abuse cases.Hehas insisted that church leaders must better listentovictims but also expressed concernthatthe rights of priestsbebetter protected.

During arecent closeddoor meetingwith cardinals from around the world, Leo saidthe abuse crisis was by no meansover and that church leaders needed to do better to truly,actively listen to victimsand accompany them.

“Wecannot close our eyes or hearts,” Leo told cardinals Jan. 8. “The pain of thevictims hasoften been greater because theydid not feel welcomed or heard.”

Dunn turns self in after indictment

Metro Council member indicted on 9 charges

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER

Staff writer

East Baton Rouge Metro Council

member Cleve Dunn Jr was arrested in Baton Rouge after surrendering himself around 7 a.m.

Saturday morning.

The Louisiana Attorney Gen-

LSU coach’s security chief leaving

He’s been protecting the sidelines for 11 years

BY OLIVIA TEES Staff writer

As Jayden Daniels raised his arm ready to throw the football in the 2022 football game against Alabama in Tiger Stadium, in overtime, Louisiana State Police Lt. Robert Fontenot snapped his attention to LSU head coach Brian Kelly He knew what would need to happen in the coming 10 seconds. As soon as Daniels threw the ball and made the two-point conversion defeating Alabama, Fontenot told Kelly, “You’ve got 30 seconds on the field, and then you’re out of there.”

It might seem out of place for someone to bark orders to a highranking individual like Kelly, but not for Fontenot. That was his job Fontenot served as the head of security for LSU’s football coach since 2022. For the past four years, from mid-Friday to Sunday morning, his entire job was looking out for the coach. Now, as LSU welcomes new coach Lane Kiffin and prepares for the 2026 season, Fontenot is stepping down.

From running out of the tunnel next to him, to mapping out awaygame stadium blueprints to making sure no exposed wires would cause the coach to trip while walking into a media event, Fontenot was checking the details.

Fontenot served six years in active duty in the U.S. Navy before joining the State Police in 2004. Fontenot worked student section security at LSU from 2011 until 2016, when he became the head of security for the visiting team’s head coach until 2021. In 2021, LSP Sgt. Bryan Madden stepped down from the head coach security detail, where he served for nine seasons. Fontenot applied for the position and was appointed head of security for the following 2022 season. It was also Brian Kelly’s first year with the Tigers Kelly may not have had a storybook ending with the Tigers, but according to Fontenot, he deeply cherished the team and the school. He said most people don’t see the full picture of what goes on behind the scenes of an SEC football team.

“One of the things about Coach Kelly that people didn’t generally see was that coach was a generous person, and he was really concerned with building a sense of community and responsibility within his team,” Fontenot said.

The transition between Kelly and interim head coach Frank Wilson

eral’s Office confirmed that Dunn returned from Washington, D.C., turned himself in and has been booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. Dunn was indicted in a Baton Rouge court Wednesday on nine total counts, including bribery, theft, money laundering and public contract fraud, following an investigation

by AG Liz Murrill’s office.

A $25,000 bond was set for Dunn. He was released around 1 p.m., officials said. As the grand jury read the charges against Dunn in the courtroom Wednesday, the council member was traveling to the nation’s capital to attend Washington Mardi Gras.

He is the fifth person indicted on charges related to public contract fraud and alleged misuse of taxpayer funds at the Capital Area Transit Authority

Prosecutors accuse Dunn of using his authority as a council member to funnel a $50,000 CATS contract to Jarian “Jay” Colar, with whom investigators say he has a close relationship. Colar has also been indicted. Dunn has not responded to multiple requests for comment related to the investigation and his indictment.

In a warrant for his arrest, agents allege Dunn accepted “kickbacks” and received approximately $45,000 of funds intended

for work Colar was contracted to complete.

FBI and AG investigators found little evidence that any of the work laid out in Colar’s contract actually occurred.

Following Wednesday’s indictment, a spokesperson for the AG’s Office said the investigation into fraud and bribery in Baton Rouge government was ongoing, and it expects more indictments to come. Murrill’s office repeated the same in a statement following Dunn’s Saturday arrest.

Law enforcement work the scene of a shooting at the

5 shot at Clinton parade

3 taken into custody

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

Five people were shot during the

“Mardi Gras in the Country” parade in Clinton Saturday afternoon, the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

Law enforcement authorities said one of the shooting victims was 6 years old.

“It doesn’t look like anyone is gonna pass away from it,” said Chief Criminal Deputy Bill Cox, with the Sheriff’s Office.

A man was hit by a fleeing car and was injured, while a woman received minor injuries after being trampled in the fleeing crowd, Cox said.

Three people were taken into custody, although authorities have not identified any as the shooter yet. Cox said each was armed and all will at least face gun charges.

The shooting started around 12:20 p.m. right across from the Clinton Courthouse on St. Helena Street, Cox said The parade was no more than 15 minutes into its route when dozens of gunshots rang out.

“I’m praying for the victims and their families, especially the injured 6-year-old child,” said Attorney General Liz Murrill. “Thank you to all the law enforcement officers and first responders who rushed to the scene.

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

transport a shooting victim from the

This is completely unacceptable — especially at a Mardi Gras parade meant for families. Everyone responsible must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Possible motives and identities of

the suspects are not yet available, although the investigation is ongoing, Cox said.

Email Quinn Coffman at quinn. coffman@theadvocate.com.

Louisiana escaped inmates recaptured

Longtime club celebrates 100 years of Black society

young Men Illinois looks toward next generation of debutantes

BY DESIREE STENNETT Staff writer

In shimmering, gleaming ball gowns and extravagantly sized hats heaped with brightly colored feathers, a new generation of young Black girls recently debuted in New Orleans society 100 years after the Young Men Illinois Club held its first ball. Built by a then-new Black upper class that formed after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the club has been a beacon for New Orleans high society bringing joy and celebration through the inequality of segregation, pride and cultural resilience through integration, and a sense of tradition and connection over 10 decades.

Now the club is bringing a renewed focus on legacybuilding for future generations as it looks to the next 100 years.

“If you can imagine the difficulties and challenges that Black people had in their lives in 1926, and for them to have orchestrated a ball nearly every year for 100 years, not just to party and have fun but to introduce young women to society for them to begin to... establish outreach and important opportunities for furthering the race and the community, that’s an outstanding contribution,” said Karen Becnel Moore, who built a decadeslong career in higher education and served as Young Men Illinois queen in 1966

Becnel Moore was the first Black student to attend St. Mary’s Dominican College, whose campus is now part of Loyola University’s downtown campus She went on to spend half a century teaching Spanish at Dillard, Southern and Xavier universities. But as a young woman, she was named queen at a pivotal point.

The ball that honored her was held at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium, once the premier venue for the city’s upper crust until it was damaged in Hurricane Katrina. For decades, only White organizations were allowed to host there, but in 1966, the Young Men Illinois Club was the first Black organization permitted to integrate the space.

“Anytime there was an opportunity to make a difference, we took it and we advanced our culture and our society and our community in that way,” she said “It was important for this particular group to make the initial step and to be able to integrate that facility And it’s still important today because it is a significant part of all of our histories, not just for members of the club.” Black high society

Despite its name, the Young Men Illinois Club has had ties to New Orleans Carnival since its predecessor, the Illinois Club, started in 1895 Back then, the “Father of Negro Society in New Orleans” Wiley Knight, who founded the club, named

SECURITY

Continued from page 1B

was difficult for the fan base, but it was just another day of work for Fontenot.

“Like kids, they’re all completely different human beings, and you got to figure out how to handle each one individually,” Fontenot said “Coaches really are no different than kids.” Fontenot worked to keep Kelly safe during the four different times fans stormed the field at Death Valley, and he also dealt with brokendown buses and angry fans.

He witnessed Jayden Daniels’ Heisman-winning season and sat on the plane with the team when they found out they were the SEC West Division

it after the Illinois Central Railroad train that traveled between Chicago and New Orleans. He worked as a Pullman porter for the train, and during layovers, he and the other Black porters would work as butlers in the homes of wealthy Uptown residents.

One year, while working as service staff at a ball thrown by a White social club, Knight saw how the young women, mostly in high school or early college years, were being presented by their families.

“These girls learned such things as etiquette, they learned how to set a table, they learned how to walk into a room, they learned how to speak socially,” said Lawrence Robinson, ball captain and the longeststanding member of Young Men Illinois. “The Pullman porters noticed that the young White girls were being presented, and then they thought that they could do the same for the young Black girls in New Orleans.”

Knight would eventually launch his own Uptown dance studio, where he and other club members taught young debutantes. The Illinois Club held its own annual ball until the 1926 split over who would be named queen. The remaining members changed its name to the Original Illinois Club, which also still exists today

Both clubs are the subject of a new exhibit at The Presbytère in Jackson Square, called “Origins of New Orleans Black Carnival Society: The Story of the Illinois Clubs.”

When Robinson joined Young Men Illinois in the late 1970s, the group still had three original members.

Having held nearly every position in the club over the years, including president, Robinson said he’s been proud to be part of the brotherhood. But, at 75, he’s also glad to see excitement is not waning as he helps ensure the club will outlast his lifetime.

“Members have called me from the hospital where their daughter was born to say, ‘put my daughter on the list for queen,’” he laughed. “There’s a list projecting de-

Champions in 2022. “I’ll never forget when we came down from the plane, coach grabs me on the shoulder and says, ‘Rob guess what? You’re an SEC West Division Champion. Congratulations!’” Fontenot said he is ready to step aside and let the next trooper take the reins. He is pursuing something new: discerning to become a deacon in the Catholic Church.

“I look back and I reflect on the things that I’ve done in my life, and I realized I’ve got a heart for service and to serve my nation, my state and the people,” Fontenot said He and his wife are members of Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton For now, he is stepping back into his duties as executive officer for the Louisiana State

cades into the future. Now there are some members putting their granddaughters’ names on the list.”

They are just girls now, he said. But these will be the young Black women leading the future of New Orleans, following in the footsteps of past queens and debutantes who have gone on to become business leaders, educators and government officials at every level.

“They come back and serve their communities well,” Robinson said. “They become leaders in New Orleans circles.”

Legacy of tradition

In the past century, Young Men Illinois has seen New Orleans through many ups and downs, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was among its most significant in recent history

William “Bill” Aaron’s two older daughters had been celebrated at previous Carnival balls, and in 2006, his youngest daughter was chosen to be queen. But she never got the chance to be formally crowned with so much of the city’s population scattered across the country

When the ball returned in 2007, “it was a big year for the club and the city as well,” Aaron said. “A lot of people didn’t think the city would come back. There

Police’s recruiting section.

“There’s nothing like standing inside of the doors of that tunnel and you feel the stadium shaking and the players behind you are singing their song,” Fontenot said. “You reach over, hit that win bar and you run out of that tunnel in front of 102,000 Tiger fans. There’s nothing like it.”

was a feeling that a lot of institutions would not come back.

“It was about going back to normalcy and for people in New Orleans, a normal routine is Carnival season.”

After Katrina, Orleans Parish Civil Court Judge Omar Mason and his wife, Carla Bringier-Mason, settled in Houston and had two daughters. Wages were higher there, the cost of living was lower, and they had all the amenities of a major city But Houston could never replace the New Orleans culture, Omar Mason said.

“Sitting at my computer in my office on Mardi Gras Day watching livestreams of the parades, we were missing that cultural connection,” he said.

By 2014, he had joined the Young Men Illinois Club and added his daughters to the list for queen. He wanted them to grow up steeped in the Carnival culture.

It wasn’t just about attending the parties. Mason said he used the debutante balls as motivation. As each debutante is an-

nounced, their list of accomplishments — nearperfect grades, college acceptances, community involvement — are read to the crowd. Even before his daughters Jade and Sydney Mason were in high school, he was encouraging them to look to the older girls as role models.

After years of anticipation and months of etiquette lessons, waltz practices and shopping for the perfect white ball gown, 17-yearold Sydney Mason is now a queen.

“It’s exciting being the centennial queen,” said the senior at St. Mary’s Dominican High School. “It shows that Young Men Illinois is bigger than me. There’s a legacy here.”

She now gets to experience what it’s like to have parents of younger girls approach her family and rave about her 4.0 GPA, membership in several honor societies and participation in the city’s teen council.

“It does feel strange because I’ve always been the younger person,” Sydney said.

were possible through a “CREST mission,” aided by the FBI, U.S. Marshal’s Service, the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and a collection of local departments.

LSP CREST is described in the statement as having been created to “provide a specialized, rapid-response capability for critical missing person cases, including endangered children and vulnerable adults.”

The team is meant to offer a statewide response to search and recovery efforts, supplemented by “regional expertise, investigative resources and advanced technology.”

Of the escapees both Brogan and Taplin are accused of committing murders in East Baton Rouge.

Taplin was taken into police custody in 2020 in a shooting that killed 23-year-old Gary Fieldings and injured a 21-year-old woman. He has had multiple sanity hearings in the case, with another scheduled for April.

Brogan faces seconddegree murder and obstruction of justice charges.

He admitted to shooting 21-year-old Erion Franklin in the head during a drug deal in 2022, then stealing his gun, police say He was arrested later the same week. Brogan is scheduled to go to trial in May

Two of the other escapees had been arrested on murder charges out of Lafayette Parish. Because of limited space at its aging prison, East Baton Rouge Parish regularly pays other parishes to hold its inmates, often those awaiting trial.

According to a spokesperson for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, a total of 454 inmates are kept at facilities outside of the parish. Of those, 381 are detained in East Carroll Parish.

Looney allegedly shot 18-year-old Paul Bernard in 2024 in Lafayette Looney’s trial was supposed to take place last August, but his trial was reset for March.

Vicknair, of Arnaudville, was due in a Lafayette Parish courtroom for sentencing on Wednesday, the day before his escape.

Vicknair signed a plea deal, pleading guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter and agreeing to a 10-year sentence, according to a defendant’s sentencing brief by his attorney filed Tuesday He’s accused of fatally shooting 18-year-old Justin Broussard on Dec 31, 2023, after an argument. Email Quinn Coffman at quinn.coffman@ theadvocate.com.

TK Hulinscreening brings outswamp popfans

Movielooks back at musician’s work

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

The “Cult of TK”showed out in full force thisweek for“Good Time HardLoving Cajun Man,” afilm aboutthe life and music of TK Hulin.

Hundreds of people filled the theater at Acadiana Center for the Arts on Jan. 28 for the second screening of the documentary, which debuted at Southern Screen last year.The event was attended by awheelchair-bound TK Hulin and his brother and bandmate, B-Lou Hulin, and manyin theaudience were longtime friends and fans of Louisiana rockers “TK Hulin and the Lonely Knights.”

They were the same fans thatthe film referenced as the “Cult of TK” —the crowd of young adults that followedthe group from dance hall to dance hall in the 1960s and ’70s as theyplayedtheirbrand of swamp pop,country,and rhythm and blues. Scenes from spots like Signorelli’sClub in St. Martinville showed apacked dance floor as TK Hulin and his bandmates kept the party going all night long, traveling through an ecosystem of bars and clubs thatis now largely lost in southwest Louisiana.

The band’slocal fame was thanks to TK Hulin’s charisma, energy and the strict injunction of his mothertoonlyplaynearby.Hulin’sbiggest hit, “I’m Nota Fool Anymore,” made the Billboard Top100 in 1963, and that year’sbreakneck tourwith stars like JerryLee Lewis and Roy Orbison made him lose too much weight. When Hulin’s mother saw him again in LakeCharles, she told him

PHOTOSByROBIN MAy

TK Hulin, seated, and his brother B-Lou Hulin answer questions along with productionstaff after the screening of thedocumentary‘Good Time Hard-Loving Cajun Man’ at the Acadiana Center for the ArtsonWednesday.

“The guys inthe band werejust wonderful people, and Iwas in stitches alot of times on stage.TK, his voice —he could have laryngitis, but he couldstill sing Iwas stunned by that. And hewas awonderful showman with the dancing around.”

TED BROUSSARD, Louisiana Hall ofFame guitarist

he hadtoget off the road andstay near home.

“Mamagot whatshe wanted,” said TK Hulin at the screening, engaging with fans who have known his music for more than 60 years. He said his mother was also mad at himfor ruining anew $25 suitafter he had let acrowd of girls in an autograph linetear the buttonsoff. Hulinplayedhis last show in 2024, agrand retirement send-off at Pat’sAtchafalaya Club in Henderson that turnedout acrowd forone last party.The 82-year-old

singer suffers fromprimary lateral sclerosis, arare nervecell disease,and said that performing the way he likes becametoo difficult in awheelchair

“Thesongs don’tsound as good,and Ididn’tlikethat,” said Hulin,reflectingona 67-year career.When asked at the screeningabout his favorite song to sing, Hulin sang afew notes of America the Beautiful —part of his“American Trilogy” he closed each show with through the years, with “God Blessthe U.S.A.,” “America the Beautiful” and“Battle Hymn of the Republic.

His voice may not be as energetic as it used to be, but the graciousness and bonhomie that shines through Hulin’sstage presence is as vibrant as it ever was. “Age has caught up

with us,” saidB-Lou Hulin, TK’sbrother andlongtime drummer.“It does make me sadbecauseI’m not used to

seeing him like that. Isat in the back on the drums, and all Icould seeall that time was TK’sdancing butt.” Louisiana Hall of Fame guitarist TedBroussard was at the screening, reminiscing about his time playing with TK Hulin and the Lonely Knights in 1970, and again in 1983. “It was alot of fun to play with them,” he said. “The guys in the band were just wonderful people,and Iwas in stitches alot of times on stage. TK, his voice —hecould have laryngitis,but he could still sing. Iwas stunned by that. And he wasa wonderful showmanwiththe dancing around. Iwas amazed he could do that stuff, especially later on in life. He was still doing it.”

Email Joanna Brown at joanna.brown@ theadvocate.com.

at the

Brown, Troy

Roscoe Mortuary,58635 Meriam Street in Plaquemine, at 6p.m Kennon, Kenneth Como Retreat,5000 Como Road Tunica, LAat 1pm

Obituaries

Barlow, Camilla Marie 'Cami'

Camilla "Cami" Marie Doiron Barlow,a native of Lecompte, LA and aresident of BatonRouge for many years passed away on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at the age of 74. She enjoyeda 43-year career within the executive assistant area serving at several companies before joining the Louisiana Municipal Association in 1992 where she served over 25 years under 7executive directors before retiring in 2018. After retiring, she enjoyed her free time, her love of reading, and sewing dresses and other clothing for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Cami is preceded in death by her husband Jerry D. Barlow, OD, PhD with whom she shared 43 very happy years.Her parents, Adrien P. Doiron, Jr. and Lena Tyler Doiron; and brothers, James F. Doiron and Larry E. Doiron. She is survived by her three sons, Richard K. Mertens, Jr (Jenise "Nissy") of Marksville,Patrick Barlow (McKenzie) of Lake Lure, NC, and Eric C. Doherty (Brittani)ofDaphne, AL. Nana's grandchildren, Nikki M. Valois (DJ), Brett M. Mertens (Amberly), Shelby Mertens, Sam and Lena Poppi Doherty; and greatgrandchildren Aislyn and Beckett Mertens, and Khloe Valois;brothers, Adrien "Butch" Doiron of Woodworth and Glen Doiron of Patterson; and her sister, Helen Craig of Colfax. Cami always had a passion for cats and strays, and the endless number of stray cats who somehow found their way to the house were always well taken care of before many moved on or stayed. There were, however, special "fur babies" who were very specialloves and who provided lots of love, pride, entertainment and companionship -her beloved dogs Piper, Gabby and Bailey, and her cats Birdie, Beans, Boomer, and Bruno. Cami was fun to be around and enjoyed agood conversation andsharing laughs. Cami was aspecial person and afriend to many, and she will be sorely missed.Special thanks to Joyce, for her love and support. Family and friends are invited to attend avisitation which will be held at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 11000 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA, on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, from 11AM-2PM. ACelebration of Cami's Life will follow at 2PM.

Thomas

Thomas "Poncho"

Broussard transitioned to his eternal home on January 23, 2026. Visiting at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 1565 Curtis St., Baton Rouge, LA, Wednesday, February 4, 2026, from 9a.m. until the Rosary at 10 a.m., followed by the Kappa Alpha Psi Memorial Service, and the Mass of ChristianBurial at 11 a.m. Interment at Heavenly Gates Mausoleum. Poncho's life, legacy, and love will forever be cherishedbyhis son, Thomas Broussard, II (Breylan); daughter, Victoria (Don) Kelley; seven grandchildren; father, Wilfert Broussard, Sr.; and seven siblings.

Troy Trenell Brown departed this earthly lifeon Sunday January 18, 2026 at his Residence. Hewas 54 yearsold. Visitation is 4-6 PM Sunday February 1, 2026 at Roscoe Mortuary. Religious Servicetofollow at 6PM.

Interment in Louisiana National Cemetery, Zachery, La on Monday February 2, 2026 at 1PM He is survived by wife Annette Bougere Brown,3 sister Latoria Taylor ,GermaineCarter and Dinine Williams,childrenA'Kilah Brown, Brionna Bougere , Quinton Evans Ashton Brown and Kerry Bougere and 3grandchildren,

William"Billy" E. R. Byrne, IV passed away peacefully at his homesurrounded by family on Friday, January 30, 2026,at the ageof53. He was an instrument tech in the Oil and Gas industry;resident and native of Plaquemine, LA. Visitationwill be held at WilbertFuneral Home, Plaquemine on Saturday, February 7, 2026,from 10:30am until Rite of ChristianBurial at 2pm, celebrated by Deacon Bob McDonner.Interment will follow at Grace Memorial Park, Plaquemine. Billyis survived by his children, WilliamByrne, V. and wife Maggie,Tylar Byrne and fiancé Nicole Miller,Colby Byrne and wifeAlyssa, Kaitlyn Byrne, and Quentin Byrne; grandchildren, Alynah,Cambree,TylarJade, and Kaysen Byrne;siblings, Amy Skinnerand husband Geoff, Rachel Byrne and boyfriend MichaelGoodrich, Ethan Byrne and wifeChasity, Jeremy Byrne, Corey Byrne and wifeBecky, Houston Byrne, Mary Lipsey and husband Josh, Melissa Aubin and husband Ray, Jodi Tharp and husband Ken, and Robby Ortego; numerous nieces and nephews. Precededin deathbyhis mother, Wanda Jean Loflin Hebert; father, William"Bill" Byrne, III; and sister, Bethany Byrne.Billyenjoyed cooking,eating and painting. He was very proudinhis careerasaninstrument tech. Please share memoriesonline at www.wilbertservices.com

Louis

DavidLouisCollier passed awayonSaturday, January 24, 2026, at the age of 77. He was anative and resident of Baton Rouge. Davidwas aself-employed business owner.Per his wishes, he was cremated and services willbeheldat alater date. See www.wilbertservices.com for fullobit.

CourtneySiebert,Gladys Edwards

Our heartsare forever brokenbut we are rejoicing forour Matriarch as she went to be with her Lord and Saviorather home in EthelonJanuary 28, 2026. She was 97 years oldand anativeofBaton Rouge. She was theperfect example of what alady should be.She was loved by anyonewho knew her and lovedpeoplesowell. She graduated from IstroumaHighSchool in 1945 and attended Southeastern University. She graduated from Our Lady of The Lake School of Nursing,and worked for Dr.Jack Jones for 15 years. She retired fromFeliciana Forensic Facilitywith26years. Gladyswas amember of thePlantationCowbells, Retired Nurses, Ethel FridayClub,Plainlanders ExxonAnnuitantsClub,Feliciana and LA Forestry Associations and Clinton United Methodist Church. In thepast, she volunteered at The Dorcas Door. In lateryears, Gladys could always be found at any sportingevents that her greatgrandchildren were playing Visitation willbeon Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at Clinton United Methodist Church from 9:00 am until servicetime at 11:00 am. A2:30 pm graveside servicewillfollowatResthaven Gardens of Memory in Baton Rouge. Gladys is survivedby her daughterand best friend, Cynthia Courtney "Cindy" McDonald(Ronald J. "Coonie" Giror), daughterinlaw, JudiStory Courtney, grandchildren, Molly McDonald Glascock (Danton), JenniferCarr(Conway), Jessica Baily (Blake) and Jeremy Courtney, numerous greatgrandchildren,great greatgrandchildren, nieces, nephews, and her sister, Barbara Lowin, and many extended family and other adopted greatgrandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her first husband,Eddie J. Courtney Sr., second husband, WalterC.Siebert, parents, Mr. and Mrs. Holly T. Edwards, son, Lt.Col.EddieJ.CourtneyJrRetired, grandson, BenjaminRandall McDonald, son in law, Randall"Randy" McDonald, and sister, Wilma E. Hendricks. The family wouldliketo thank HeartofHospice in Baton Rouge,Patio Pharmacy in Metairie and Dr. Michelle Cosse. In lieu of flowers,please make memorial donations to Clinton United Methodist Church.

stant sourceofstrength She couldoftenbefound in prayer,reading her Bible, attending church services and joyfully recognizing God's miracles in everyday moments. Her faith guided her words,her actions, and theway she lovedthose around her. She is survived by her loving husband of 26 years, James Milliken; her brothers, JoeDistefano and DominicDistefano (Sylvia); and her children, SethDarouse (Sarah), AaronDarouse (Brandy), Josh Milliken(Kali), Grant Milliken, Heather Milliken, and Laura Falkenberry (JD). She was adeeplyloving grandmothertoeleven grandchildren,Joseph Thomas, Gentry, Sophie, Conor, Cullen, Kyler Kaden, Finley,Sarah (Adam), and Kelsey; and greatgrandchildBoston She was preceded in death by her parents, Tony and Marian Distefano;her sisters-in-law, Anna Distefano and PaulaDistefano; and her belovedgrand-puppy, Buddy. Relatives and friends are invited to join thefamily forthe visitation at Live Oak Church, 34890 LA-16, Denham Springs, LA, on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, from9:00 AM until thefuneral service at 11:00 AM, officiatedbyBro. David Tate. In lieu of flowers,the family requeststhat donations be madetoa ministry of your choice at Live Oak Church or to St.Jude Children's Hospital

The family extends heartfeltgratitude to her cherished caregivers Courtney Woods, Meyosha "Meme" Coleman, and Ebony Woodsfor their compassionand devotion, and to Father Matthew Graham of Immaculate Conception Church for administering her LastRites Rose willforeverberemembered as astrong woman of faith whose love,compassion, and steadfast trust in God touched every life she encountered

Robert LeeFaul,Sr. passed away peacefully on Jan15, 2026, at theage of 84 surrounded by his loving family and devoted wife, Tammie. Friends are invitedtoa Celebrationof Life which will be held at 8527 SHodgesonRd, Gonzales, LA 70737 at 2pmon Feb 28, 2026. To read the full obituary,pleasevisit www.churchfuneralservic es.com.

Visitation willbeheld at St John the Evangelist Catholic Church,PlaquemineonMonday, February 2, 2026, from 8am until Mass of Christian Burial at 10am, celebrated by Father MartinLawrence.Interment will follow at GraceMemorial Park, Plaquemine Elaine is survivedbyher six sons, Mitchand wife Gee-Gee, Mark andwife Christine,Mike andwife Toni,Merril,Myles and wife Dana, andMorty and wife Allison; grandchildren,Shane andwife Jaimie, Danieland wife Alivia,Kathleen, Brandi and wife Jordin,Shelby, Mason, Adam, Jacob and Emily; great-grandchildren Natalie, Lily Jane, Henry, Harvey, andAurora; numerousnieces and nephews. Preceded in death by herhusband, HenryRoosevelt Kirkland; parents, Jamesand Pansy Hebert;and siblings, Sherman, Gary andJames Hebert,Ruth Gascon,Joyce Matthews, Margaret Acosta, andCarolyn Sarradet. Elaine wasanavidfan of ElvisPresley andvisited hishomemanytimes.She lovedbeing surroundedby all herfamily. Elaine was very involvedinher grandchildren'slives andalways wantedtoknowwhat was goingonwith them.She enjoyed playing cards, putting puzzles together, andmakingcrafts. Please share memories online at www.wilbertservices.com.

Melancon,Ann Freshwater

AnnR.(Freshwater)

Melancon of Bossier City, LA passedaway peacefully on Saturday, January17, 2026 after adecade-long battle withCOPD. Shewas born January25, 1948 in Denham Springs, LA to parents Richard J. &Mary B. Freshwater. Annwas pre-deceased by herparents,husband EdmundP.Melancon and sister Susan Freshwater Brown.She is survived by sister Mary Freshwater Chapman of Denham Springs, LA; brother Richard J. Freshwater, Jr (Iris) of Ellijay, GA; and step-brother LawrenceH Crow (Brenda)ofDestin, FL. Annwas knownfor her positive attitude,warm heartand special love for animals throughher support of PETA andotheranimal support organizations Servicesfor Annwill be held at theSt. FrancisEpiscopalChurch in Denham Springs on Thursday, February 12 at 11:00 AM In lieu of flowers, Ann hasrequested donations to yourlocal animal rescue shelter or PETA.

Melancon,James Gregory'Greg'

Cleopatra wasbornon January21, 1956, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to the lateNathanial ALaCour, Sr andBeatrice Veal LaCour. Shewas aproud graduate of BatchelorHigh School andwentontoearn adegree in Mass Communication from LouisianaState University in 1977. In 2003, Cleopatra founded P&L MedicalServices, alegacyshe wasimmensely proudof. Under herleadership, thecompany grew to over 4,000 employees andclients throughout theyears. Her vision, work ethic, and compassion continueto impact lives throughthe businessshe built Cleopatra wasa devoted mother,grandmother, sister,aunt, andfriend. Shefound hergreatest joy in time spentwith family andtreasured moments filledwith laughter, conversation, andfriendly competition over games of spades or dominoes. She will be remembered for her wise counsel, words of encouragement,steady presence,and generousheart. Cleopatra leaves to cherish hermemory her brothers, Clifton Miles and NathanialA LaCour, Jr (Lois); herchildren, Jeffery (Courtney)and Ethonnah; hergrandchildren,Jaelyn JefferyJr., Josiah, Jaxson, andEmorie; and ahostof nieces, nephews, and extended family.

Shewas preceded in death by herparents, Nathanialand Beatrice LaCour,and herhusband, Henry. Cleopatra'slifewas one of purpose,service,and love,and herlegacywill continue to live on through themany lives she touched.

Herfamous quote, "Later,I'llnever tell you goodbye."

Mulligan,Beverly Gertrude Sechrest 'Bev' BeverlyGertrude Sechrest Mulligan ("Bev"), 98, of Baton Rouge,died Tuesday, January7,2026; born in Kansas City, Missouri. ABaton Rouge residentsince1970, she lived at St.James Place for 21 years. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 12:00 p.m. Monday, February 2, 2026, at St.Aloysius Catholic Church,2025 Stuart Ave., Baton Rouge;precededbythe Recitation of theHoly Rosary at 11:30 a.m. Survivedbychildren Margaret Nardecchia (Dave), TerryGitnick, Mary Mulligan, and Dan Mulligan;8 grandchildren; and3 great-grandchildren.Precededindeathbyhusband Edward Mulligan andson Michael Mulligan; in lieu of flowers, donations to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.Please visit www.rabenhorsteast.com to view thefullobituary.

Rose Marie Distefano Millikenentered eternal rest in theearlymorning hoursofJanuary 28, 2026, peacefully surrounded by theloveofher family.She was bornonNovember 15, 1954 and raised on astrawberryfarm in Hammond LA,tothe late Anthony "Tony" and Marian Distefano. She carried great prideinher Italianheritage and thetraditions that shaped her life.Sundays were special in the Distefano home, oftenspent gathered around thetable enjoying her favorite meal—spaghettiand meatballs—wherelove, laughter, and family were always plentiful.Rosewas a proud graduateofHammond High School and Southeastern Louisiana University, where she earneda bachelor'sdegree in accounting.Morethan twenty years later, her determinationand love of learning ledher back to Southeastern, where she completedher Master of Business Administrationin December 2004. She retired fromthe StateofLouisiana in 2014 and joyfully embracedthisnew seasonof life through travel, volunteering, and acontinued commitment to serving others. Aboveall else, her life was rooted in her unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. Herrelationship with theLordwas her greatest passionand con-

Christel W. Fontenot,80, passed away peacefully on Monday, January 26, 2026. Alifelong educator, librarian, and dedicatedservant of her church and community, she graduated fromCarroll HighSchool and Southern UniversityBaton Rouge. She was a proud member of Delta Sigma ThetaSorority, Inc., and was remembered as a part of St. Judethe Apostle Catholic Church in Baton Rouge.

Adevoted mother, grandmother,and greatgrandmother,she dedicated her life to her family, promoting educationand servicetothe community Memorial serviceand burial arrangements will be announced by thefamily

Elaine Hebert Kirkland passed away peacefully at her home surrounded by family on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, at theage of 88. She retiredfromthe IbervilleParish 4-H County AgentsOffice as asecretary;was aresident and nativeofPlaquemine,LA.

James"Greg"Gregory Melancon,aresident of Sorrento, passedawayat hishomeonSunday, January18, 2026, at the age of 70. Greg had apassion for music. He could play many instruments butreally enjoyed playingbass guitar andsinging. He also loved to be outdoors,especially fishing. Greg is survived by hislovingwife of 22 years, Bonnie BabinMelancon; children, Cory Melancon (Amanda), ShawnaMelancon, HeidiMelancon, Shane Melancon (Brooke), Jeremy Templet (fiancé, Dana Pruitt, KaraLeigh Templet, Quincy Templet (Cristy); 12 grandchildren; 6great grandchildren; siblings, RonnieMelancon (Melissa), SandraTemplet, TerryMelancon (Gayle), Vanessa Melancon; inlaws, Mike Babin(Debbie), Mark Babin(Amy), Donnie Bourgeois(Donna), Jeff LeBlanc(Debbie); as well as manynieces, nephews, cousins, and otherfamily members. Greg is preceded in death by hisparents, Anthonyand NoraMelancon; daughter, Shelly Templet. Aservice to celebrate Greg'slifewillbeheld on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at The Port VincentCommunity Center at 11am to 3pm. ChurchFuneral ServicesofSt. Amantentrusted with arrangments.

Church and taught Sunday school. Ora taught Home Economics and General Science at Springfield High School. She dedicated over 35 yearstoeducation and served as aTitle One Supervisor with Livingston Parish SchoolBoard. Ora andher husband owned and operated Springfield Ace Hardware store. She enjoyedsewing andcooking and sharing her knowledge and love for it. Ora loved traveling with the Wally Byrum Caravan Club International where she served as apast Regional President. Ora leavesdear memories in the hearts of all her loved ones.

Ora leaves behind her children, Alisa Robichaux and husband Drew, Diana Steele and husband Frank, Gordon Keith Patterson, Jr and Suzannah; along with her grandchildren, Jaclyn Verret Peters, Jana Verret Mistric and husband Cory Lauren Ashley Wright and husband Nicholas, Taylor Alyse Steele and Paul Montgomery, Mark Alex Patterson and wife Clare and Hannah Harper; greatgrandchildren, Jared Peters, Cecilia Peters, Evie Smith, Gabriel Mistric, JacksonMistric, Rhett Wright, Rylee Wright, Amelia Montgomery, Carter Patterson, Ty Patterson; sister, Almeda Rushing and husband Kenneth; as well as, numerous nieces and nephews. Preceding Ora in death is her husband, Gordon "Skeets" Patterson, Sr.; parents, Tildon and Pearl Ratcliff; and sister, Rosie Trabeaux.

Relatives and friends are invited to avisitation on Saturday, February 7, 2026, at Brandon G. Thompson Funeral Home at 12012 Hwy 190 West Hammond, Louisiana, starting at 10:00 a.m. until the service at 12:00p.m. which will be officiated by Pastor Paul Taylor. Interment will follow at CarterCemetery. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to St. Jude or Louisiana Baptist Children's Home in honor of Mrs. Ora. Afuneral service will be held at 12:00 PM on 2026-02-07atBrandonG.Thompson Funeral Home, 12012 Hwy 190 West.

Sheleaves to cherish hermemoriesa devoted husband of 63 yearsJoe Paul,Jr. 5children, Carolyn Paul,CliftonPaul, Rev. Jonathan Paul, Venda Paul Jones, and Min. Sharon Paul Brown, 11 grandchildren, and 9great grandchildren.Visitationwill be held from 4-6PM on February 6, 2026 at Professional Funeral Service, 1151 Louisiana Ave. Port Allen, La. 70767. Memorial Service willbeheldFebruary 7, 2026at11amatGreater Mt. CalvaryBaptist Church, 9090 Section Rd.PortAllen, La. 70767. Rev. Dr. Michael Joseph, Officiating

Samaha, Susan ElizabethJerome

Susan Elizabeth Jerome Samaha passedaway peacefully on January23, 2026,surroundedbyher lovingfamily. Shewas born on January16, 1954, to the late Frank Jerome and SueJeromeinBaton Rouge,Louisiana.Her familylater moved toRuston, Louisiana,where she and her brother,Douglas Jerome, spent their childhood. She was astraight-A student throughout her educationand was crowned Peach Queen her senior year of highschoolafter winning acompetitive local beauty pageant. Susan received afullscholarship to Louisiana Tech University, whereshe earnedboth her undergraduate and graduatedegrees in Marketingand Finance.She was amemberofthe Kappa Deltasororityand remainedanactivemember after graduation,assisting

theLSU Chapterduring annual rush and otherfundraising events. Susan worked for various oil, software,and engineering companies throughout her career, butitwas her tenure at IBMthatshe spokeofmost often.She married John Samaha in 1985, and they had two daughters, AbbyBroussard and Holly Samaha-Smith. After havingchildren, Susan transitionedintostaying home full-timeand channeled her perfectionist workethic andcreativity intosupporting her daughters' schoolprojects and extracurricular activities. She always madesure her daughters had thebest of everything and raised them to be independent, successfulwomen. In her later years, Susan enjoyed watching tennis matches with her cat and looking throughphotos and videos of herthree grandchildren, Victor Broussard,Lily Smith, and Margaret Smith. The family willhold aprivateserviceinBaton Rouge, Louisiana, at alater date.

Ms. Emily "Sis" Thompson, age97, of Plaquemine, Louisiana, passed away peacefully on January25, 2026, at The Preserve in Meridian, Mississippi.A memorial servicecelebrating her life will be held at a laterdateinLouisiana. Robert Barham FamilyFuneral Home is honored to be entrusted with thearrangements. Emily, affectionately known as Sis, was born on January17, 1929, in Franklin, Louisiana, to the late Hubert Joseph and MildaMary PinellMillet. She latermarriedPershing Thompson, and together they shared 49 years of marriage. They enjoyed camping,traveling,gar-

dening,and spending time with their many friends and family

Sisworkedvarious jobs throughout her life,but her most cherished role was servingasa bookkeeper forthe CityLight and WaterPlant of Plaquemine, Louisiana. She had many talents, including cooking, gardening,drawing, and painting. "Junking,"orantiquing, was one of her favorite pastimes, and she took greatjoy in displaying the treasures she found.Sis alsogave back to her community through volunteer workather local hospital and with thecharitable organizationBrothers Keepers. She wasa longtime member of St.John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Plaquemine, LA. She is survivedbyher numerous loving nieces and nephews, her six stepchildren, and numerous grandchildrenand great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Pershing Thompson; and her siblings, Hubert Millet, Jr., Homer Millet, Rita Mae MilletMcMorris, and EvelynMillet Paul. Those wishing to honor Ms. Thompson's memory

may consider adonation to St.Jude Children'sResearchHospital (https://www.stjude.org/) or to EMAR (East Mississippi Animal Rescue-https:// www.eastmsanimalrescue. com/) Online condolencesmay be expressed to the family atwww.robertbarhamffh.c om Thefamilywould like extenda special thankyou to the community, staff and nursesatThe Preserve, as well as the nurses andstaff with Accent CareHospice forall of your love,careand support

Williamson, Emma Jo Dupont

Emma Jo Dupont Williamson, age 89, of Plaquemine,wenttobe with herheavenly Father

on January 28, 2026. Emma Jo was born in Plaquemine on November 12, 1936, to Joseph Hart Dupontand Emma Baist Dupont. Emma was blessed to grow up in a loving Christian family, sharingcountless joyful momentsinPlaquemine with herbrothers, Frankie, Joe, Jimmy and William C. Dupontand hersister,Betty JaneDupont.She graduated from PlaquemineHigh School before continuing hereducation at SoutheasternUniversity, where she earneda Bachelor of Science. Emma's dedication to education wasevident by hermany years serving as asocialworker, ahighschool teacherand finallyasthe directorof theschool lunch program for Iberville Parish,a job she held for over 30 years. Visit www.wilbertservices.com to view full obit

OUR VIEWS Court recognizes role of La. musiciansin global industry

Few things unite Louisianans likeour love of music. We are fortunate to live inanareathat boasts awide range of genres —fromCajun andzydeco,blues and bounce, swamp pop and hip-hop, to the grandaddy of themall —jazz. Forming the backbone of all that music are talented musicians and songwriters who live andwork here, often strugglingtomakea living. But arecent ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals gives these artists abetter chanceofreaping the rewardsoftheir workin an increasingly global entertainmentindustry

The ruling, whichcould havefar-reaching implications, clarifiescopyright lawinfavor of songwriters in disputes withmusiccompanies whentheir work is used overseas

The lawsuit was broughtbyBaton Rouge songwriter Cyril Vetter,who wrote the 1960s hit, “Double Shot (Of My Baby’sLove)” with colleague Don Smith, who later diedinaplane crash. As is often the case, thesongwriters sold their rights to amusic publisherfor a period of time. But Vetter hadsole rights to the song when he terminated his contract with music publisher Resnick in 2022 In 2023, abroadcaster approached Vetter askingfor permission to use thesonginan episode of aTVshow thatwould be streamed overseas. That’swhen thecontroversy began Publishers have traditionally returned only domesticrightstosongwriters when a contract ends, still asserting rightstothe work outside the United States. ButVetter got a lawyer and challenged that interpretation of copyright law —and won. Early in 2025, U.S DistrictJudge Shelly Dickruledinfavor of Vetter,affirming that he owns therights to the song around the world. On Jan. 12,the Fifth Circuit agreed.

The ruling shook the entertainment industry.While for now it only applies to theFifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, no doubt musicians elsewhereare preparing their own lawsuits.

Some powerful interestsare arraying against them, including industry groups like the Recording Industry Associationof America and the AcademyofMotionPicture Arts and Sciences. They arguethatthe ruling will create chaos in an industry wherecopyrightcertainty is needed before big money is invested in creative projects.

We understand those concerns, but just as major players are benefiting from technology that allows them to stream contentaround the world, they should be actively seeking waysto share that windfall with those whomake that content possible.

We salutepeople like Vetter,now aTVand radio station owner in Baton Rouge,for standing up for the creative communityinour state and beyond.Weoften lamentthat many of them findithard to afford basics likerent and healthcare. This court case makes clear that many others are making alot of money from their talents.

Louisiana musicians make thewhole world dance. It’s time for the music industry to pay thepiper

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

SENDUS ALETTER, SCANHERE

OPINION

Next week, for the first timeinmore than ahalf century,the United States could send acrewed mission around the moon. The giant 322-foot Space Launch System, withits Orion crew capsule, was rolled out to the pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in January and, if all goes well, the mission, dubbed Artemis II, could take to the skiesasearly as this week. Of late, muchhas been written about the nation’sdivisions, but the return of American astronauts to lunar space should unite us, even if the path to get there was bothatriumph and an embarrassment. It’s the former because such journeys are hard and expensive. They require so muchplanning, equipment and training because in space, the smallest malfunction can be deadly.Leaving low-Earth orbit is asignificant feat. It should not be taken lightly

It’s also the latter,because these rockets and missions are far behind schedule and way over budget.Inmanyways, they embody the frustrating nature of major government projects, akin to major new roads or infrastructure.Those problems alone are almostenough to surface the cynicism and rancor that is attached to seemingly every national endeavor these days.

Almost.

Even withall of that, Iamunapologetically thrilled about this upcoming journey and will watch it withchildlike delight Perhaps that’spartially due to my gen-

The recent cold blastreminded me of howmuch our lives areaffected by weather At the newspaper,weknow many of youread our weather report each day with interest.It’sone of those back pages of the paper thatmany turn to first each morning. Even though there aremany ways to get the weather report each day —all smartphones have some kind of weather app —weknow many of you rely on our weather report to plan your day or your week.

eration. Iwas raised on “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,”“BattlestarGalactica” (original iteration, though the early2000s reboot is fantastic) and innumerable other operatic space adventures. Layer on the scores of science fiction stories Iread, and Iamnot just space positive, but space enthusiastic. Alas,for this astronomy-loving kid, space was notthe finalfrontier of my childhood; it wasthe unexplored one. The last manned mission to the moon, Apollo 17, flew in December 1972, afew months beforeI was born. Growing up in the ’70s and’80s, Iassumed that our Apollo successes presaged further explorations into even deeper space. But it was not to be. NASA and the United States opted to focuson low-Earth orbit programs, likethe space shuttle and the International Space Station. The former just circled theEarth; the latter can be seen from theground. Those were not the space programsIwas looking for

This upcoming mission won’t replicate all the triumphs of Apollo. None of this Artemiscrewwill take smallsteps to the lunar surface, for instance. That’ssaved for the next mission. But that doesn’t mean there won’tbegiantleaps.

The four crew members will be gone for 10 days, and theywill getfurther from the Earththan any manned spaceflightin history,approximately 4,000 miles past the far side of the moon. Those of us back on thisplanet in Louisiana can take some special pride in watching Artemisfly, too.

The biggest piece of thegiant rocket, calledthe core stage, wasassembledin New Orleansatthe Michoud Assembly Facility. The212-foot-tallrocket, when full, will hold approximately537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen andanother 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen. It will be fitted withRS-25engines, tested at Stennis Space Center just over thestate line in Mississippi. NASA officialshave saidthere are several potential launchdaysinthe first half of February,withthe earliest being Feb.8 Of course, weatherwill be afactor.More important, however, will be theseries of tests planned forthisweekend calleda wetdress rehearsal,during whichthe supercoldliquid fuels will be pumpedinto the tanks to make sure everything works as it should. If allgoes well, thelaunch will get thegreen light. If they don’t, there are days in March that may workaswell. IknowI’llbewatching. Humans, and especially Americans, have accomplished much in thelast 50 years (internet, anyone?) andnow the machines we carry in ourpockets rivalthe computers used during theApollo missions. It’s high time we return to space. With luck, these missionswill kick-start what, Ihope, is an inexorablemarch throughoutthe solar system and, oneday,even beyond.

“Wereally are readytogo,” saidReid Wiseman,the astronaut whowill command theArtemis II mission So am I, Reid. So am I. Email Faimon A. Roberts III at froberts@theadvocate.com.

intense feelings, it has to be thecomics At most newspapers, editors know that any changes to thelineup in the comics will draw morecomment thanalmost anything else in the paper.Several newspaper comics have been running for decades, so readers see the characters as oldfriends they’ve grown up with.

Last year,when we made changes to our weather report,wereceived aflurry of letters. Someliked the old format;others missedinternational cities in the report

The changes aimed to makethe report more engaging, and we hope thatreaders have found it useful. But the response to the changes pointed out how manyofyou have regular routines around reading the newspaper, and the weather is definitely part of thatfor many If any other regular feature draws such

We’reglad that our features in print are part of your daily habit. We alsoknow that as our readership moves to digital, we have to provide similarregular features that you look forward to waking up to.

That’swhy on our website,you can find short-formvideos that are posted daily to update you on the news and weather. I have several websites Icheck as Idrink my morning coffee, and Ialso do the daily Wordle game on The New York Times website. It’ssmall things like these that make amorning routine.

Turning to our lettersinbox for the week of Jan. 15-22, the events in Min-

nesota, where two U.S. citizens have been killed by federal agents conducting immigration operations, continued to dominate the news and your letters. We received atotal of 75 letters during the period, and about athird of them dealt with immigration issues or the Minnesota shootings in particular It’sclear that many are following the issue closely.Most of the letters we’ve received disapprove of the aggressiveness of the immigration enforcement, though we have hadsome letters defending the actions of federal agents. Many of you said you want to see an investigation and accountability for what happened. Some felt we are at an inflection point and want to see the tensions ratcheted down. We will see if that happens, but whenevents like this happen, our letters page is atouchstone and another daily feature that many readers turn to.

Arnessa Garrett is Deputy Editor |Opinion Page Editor.Email her at arnessa. garrett@theadvocate.com.

COMMENTARY

Fans arebedeviled as Saints offseasonstarts

attitude.

Now is the winter of Saintsfans’ discont —er, well, not discontent, but discombobulation. And it’sanannual thing.

We’re in the midst of twoweeks of the yearly Super Bowlbuildupand, except for 2010, this is theweek it finally hits the fan that there really,really will be no Saints football again for another six months, that two other teams (often strongly disliked ones) are in the big game while the WhoDats are left out, and that even the NFL draft is still three full months away The withdrawal symptoms begin First, the fan tries to fillthe void by soaking up every report from thisweek’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. ESPN reports the Saints areinterested inLineman X! The Times-Picayune saysCornerback Y, seen talking to aSaints assistant on the sideline, is apossibleday twodraft choice! Some dude on Twitter says Wide Receiver Zisgarnering “wows” from observers!

And your good friend in NewYork knows an inside source with the Giants whosays the Giants want to out-hustle theSaints for atight end, PDQ. Butotherssay that player has aweight problem from eating toomanyM&Ms. Oh, and the superstar running back that is on everybody’s radar is said to be lazy at learning theplaybook’s basic ABCs. He needs an Rx forabetter

Adiscerning fan knows to put far more credibility in this newspaper’ssports reporters than on the third cousin of a Giants’ executive or on the Twitter dude. (Although, come to thinkofit, Iheard the Twitter dude’sneighbor is really in the know.) Either way,though, we just must know howwell the player from tinyDavidson College can hold his own withthe behemoth from Ohio State.

Granted, not all Saints fans arequite so addicted. Still, even the less-addicted fans, theoneswho wouldn’tknow a“press man” coverage from aCover Two, areprobably talking at lunch or at atavernatleastoncea weekwith another Louisianan about whether theteamismoreinneed of arunning backor, instead, of an offensive guard.

Andwill this finally, finally be theyear when General Manager Mickey Loomis makesabig trade “down” for more draft picks rather than packaging several picks in order to move“up” thedraft board?

The real question is, is this obsession, or even just aheavy predilection, unhealthy?

Whydowecare so much what big men do when crashing into each other on aballfield?They won’t makeour groceries any cheaper.They won’tfill the potholes on our streets. They won’teven makethe roux thicken morequickly for our étouffée.

Well, Isit here looking at the Sir Saint decalonmydesk that needs to replace the one that has peeled off my car window and Ilook at my framed Sports Illustrated

cover of Drew Brees holdinghis son aloft amid confetti. AndIsay,dadgummit, this is good.This is understandable, it’sfun and, in its own way,itreally is healthy after all.

Not to get too much into psychoanalysis, but we all need mental and emotional

“escapes” of one sort or another.Weneed to getaway, on occasion,from pressures, from real-lifeconcernsand from workadayroutines. Andwhile booksand artistic hobbies and exercise and all sorts of other things probably should fill this need —in ways moredirectly salutary forus, more “constructive,” moreconducive to our own, well, “character growth” —there’s still something none of those others accomplishes quite as well. What our love of the Saints provides is not just escape but communal escape on a grand scale, and not just foranevent (Jazz Fest) or aseason (carnival/Mardi Gras), but year-round. It brings us together like nothing else can. And, in away matched (but not exceeded) only perhaps by Green Bay’sPackers, wholiterally are owned by that small town’spopulace, the Saints have provided an inspirational and even salvific rallying point. Ineed not belabor the Saints’ role in spurring rebirth after Hurricane Katrina. We all know how important it was. We feel it in ourmarrows. Andwewill forever be grateful, and forever be hopeful.

Meanwhile, I’mstill not entirely sold on Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, but let me go watch somemore video of him in action. Telepathically,Mickey Loomis is sure to need my assessment

Email Quin Hillyer at quin.hillyer@ theadvocate.com

To stop Trump, drop thefascism debate

Since Donald Trump entered theAmerican political fray,his opponents have been debating what kind of threat he poses to democracy,and what to do about it. In the New York Times last week, Michelle Goldberg declaredthat debate over in acolumn headlined“The Resistance Libs Were Right.” The obvious question is: About what? Were they right to label him afascist? That depends on what you mean by the term. As the Justice Department prosecutes Trump’senemies, themilitary stages smash-and-grab raids on foreign countries and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents storm through U.S. cities, it’shard to denythat the resistance libs werecorrect about some important things: Trump’sauthoritarian instincts, bellicose contempt for norms and fundamental disrespect for America’sdemocratic traditions. Thosecharacterflaws have been given much freer rein in his second term, making the fears of an emerging dictatorship look somewhat more reasonable

But when ordinary people hear “Trump is afascist,” they aren’t primedfor an academic debate over when right-wing populism shades over into fascism; they hear you saying that Trumpiseither an adherentofthe political ideology known asfascismora dictator whose practices are fascist, even if he eschews the name. Those stronger claims are less convincing. In thefirst case, because Trumpism looks more like apersonalgrift than acoherent ideology,and in thesecond, because for all Trump’sassaults on American institutions, he is not adictator and is running out of time to becomeone

It has been almost 10 years since Trumpwon his first election

By that pointintheir careers, Benito Mussolinihad consolidated total power,while Adolf Hitler was deep into World War II and the Holocaust. Trump, by contrast, is pleading with the Supreme Court to lethim remove Federal Reserve governors, which seems unlikely to succeed. Given another decade, could he

build apower base in thejudiciary or military that would enable him to seize adictator’spower? I don’tknow,but Trumpisnearly 80 years old, and he doesn’thave another decade.

That’snot to say Trumpisn’t damaging our politics, our government and our standing in the world.

America looksless like aliberal democracy than it did adecade ago —much less than Iwould have believed possible before 2016. Butitstill has along way to go, apoint Goldberg concedes toward theend of her column, writing that “for now,weare trapped in the spacebetween the liberal democracy most Americans grew up in and the dark, belligerent authoritarian state that our governmentseeks to impose.”

That point matters, because while the resistance libs were right that Trumpisadangerous president,they were wrong about the best way tooppose him.

“The important thing isn’treally thename we give to this political development,” writes Goldberg, “but our abilitytosee what’shappening clearly and make sense of its likely trajectory.” That has

long been the animating belief of manyinthe resistance: American democracy could be preserved if only the chattering classes properly identified the outrages, drew theparallels, plotted the trendlines and then, having seen what was coming, issued the dark prophecies.

If you believe this, you need to reckon with the fact that this was alldone in the years following Trump’sfirst election. No group could have worked harder to constrain and defeat Trumpwith petitionsand protests, white papers and op-eds, cable hits and Twitter memes,hearings and prosecutions. The result of this effort is that …Trumpispresident again and worse than ever.Atthis late date, it’s insane to believe that we’ll get adifferent result by doing it all over again, only louder and clearer

If American democracy is to be saved, it will have to be saved democratically,not by recalibrating the intellectual thermostats of asmall groupofeducated elites, nor even by taking to the streets.

If you think Trumpisherding us towardafascist dictatorship, your most important job is not

analyzing the damage Trumphas done to our system but persuading the American public to vote forsomeone whocan undo that damage.

Saying “He’safascist” (or an authoritarian, or acaudillo) will not do the trick. It’smore likely to be counterproductive, as people look up from our scribblings and observe that elections are still happening, courts are still demanding due process and the press is still free to complain about Dear Leader.You can point to Trump’sefforts to co-opt the justice system,muzzle unfriendly media outlets and undermine the integrity of our election system, while trying to convince some Americans that these things are one short step from going Full Franco. But it will be much easier to convince them that he’sjust abad president whoshould be replaced by someone whohas different policies. So establishing whowas mostright about Trump in 2016 matters less than figuring out whohas the best ideas for right now

MeganMcArdle is on X, @asymmetricinfo.

Bigsurprises in the2030Censusestimates arecoming

About amonth late, presumably due to last fall’sgovernment shutdown, the Census Bureau has released its estimates of the populations of the 50 statesand the District of Columbia for July 1, 2025.

It provides an interesting picture of what the country is, and is becoming, halfway through the decade of the 2020s and one-quarter of the way through (have we really gotten this far?) the 21st century.Italso provides some political dynamite, all the more explosive because of Census Bureau statisticians’ deserved reputation for apolitical rigor and willingness to admit mistakes, as it did on the COVID19-plagued 2020 Census. The headline story is the sharp rise and sharp fall in immigration. The notion that immigration explodedsharply during the Biden administration and contracted sharply during the second Trump administration is not political propaganda. After the expiration of mostCOVID-19 restrictions, immigration rose to 1.8 million in 2021-22, 2.6 million in 2022-23, and 3.2 million

in2023-24. The snapback to 1.9 million in 2024-25 reflects changes in both outgoing andincoming administrations. With theelection looming, the Biden administration in early 2024 discovered that current legislation let it restrict immigration in ways it hadclaimed it didn’t before, and under thesame legislation, theTrumpadministration immediately stopped almost all illegal border crossings. Government policy can make adifference. Taking that into account, the CensusBureau estimates immigration will fall well below 500,000 in 2025-26. That’scomparable to the sharp falloff of immigration duringthe financial and economic crises of 2007-08. That means the nation’stotal population increase is sharply down, especially in thestates centered on the nation’s four largest metropolitan areas,which either grew just barely(New York and Illinois) or lost population (California). Meanwhile, every state in the Midwest gained population, and five statesgrewabovethe

national rate. Even morestriking, 44% of the nation’spopulation gains in 202025 came in just the two states of Texas and Florida. When you add in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, SouthCarolina —with thenation’s higher percentage growth in 2024-25 —and Tennessee, you have 70% of the total national popular gain, all in states carried by Donald Trumpin2024. Projecting2020-25 or 2024-25 patterns ahead of the 2030 Census and the reapportionment of U.S. House seatsamongthe states that automatically follows results in a sharp change of political balance. Twodifferent projections have California losing four House seats and Texas gaining four,leaving California with 48, only marginally larger than Texas’s42. Onehas Florida gaining four and New York and Illinois losing two each, while the other has Floridagaining two and New York and Florida losing one each, with the same net partisan effect. There is agreement that five more or less Republican states will gain one seat each (Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Utah, Idaho) and that five moreorless Demo-

cratic states will lose one each —Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,Minnesota, Oregon. Apply either set of projections to the2024 presidential election totals,and Trumpgains either nine or 11 electoral votes —and wins even if he loses his three closest states, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The blue wall has becomeapurple flowerbed. That doesn’tmean Democrats will be frozen outofthe White House. Changes in opinion of a magnitude often experienced can render the 2024 numbers obsolete. But onecan see difficulties, even in 2028, if Democrats nominateone of the twoCalifornia politicians, Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris, whotop their polls. Will the nation be wellserved by policies that have prompted more people to leave than to head to a statewith California’sbeautiful scenery andcomfortable climate?

It’sharder to be sure whether the2030 Census will give Republicans aboost in Congress. The current ructions over mid-decade redistricting makeprediction perilous. An intermediate court has blocked Virginia Democrats from

gerrymandering, and atrial judge has ruled that the Voting Rights Act requires linking aStaten Island-dominated district to Manhattan rather than Brooklyn. But almost certainly any political redistricting would rather be aRepublican adding multiple districts in Texas and Florida than aDemocrat required to eliminate someofhis party’sincumbents in California, New York or Illinois. And heavily Democratic central cities will no longer be entitled to as much representation from masses of illegal immigrants protected from deportation but counted by census takers.

Afinal caveat. Issues aren’tstatic, politicians aren’taround forever (even if TrumpDerangement Syndromesufferers fear that), and voters movearound amid changes in the political landscape. The Trumpera has been full of surprises —who thought he’d winin2024 because of increased Latino support? —and the 2030s, when Trumpwon’tbepresident nor be running forpresident, will have its surprises forustoo. Michael Barone is on X, @MichaelBarone.

Baton Rouge Weather

BLES TURNING

Tigers handleS.C. for first SECroad victory

BY TOYLOYBROWN III Staff writer

Free-throw shooting kept LSU’schances alive Saturday forthe bounce-back win it needed after adeflating homeloss.

Without point guard Dedan Thomas, the Tigers beat SouthCarolina92-87 at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina. Their first Southeastern Conference road win also snapped athree-game losing streak “Really thankful to win,” coach Matt McMahonsaidonthe LSU sports radionetwork. “Proud of ourguys. It’sbeen choppy with someinjury stuff thisweek andthe poor performance against Mississippi State. So was really pleased to see us respond therightway.” LSU (14-8, 2-7SEC)took an 89-85 lead when Max Mackinnon nailed aright-corner 3-pointer with 21 seconds remaining. “Obviously, they puttwo on the ball,” Mackinnonsaid. “Pablo (Tamba)had a great pass to me, great teammate, he’s(the) ultimate winner. So he passedittome, I knocked downthe shot and that was it.” Mike Nwoko had 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting forLSU.Mackinnon had 15 points

LSU flips0-2 SECstart into league’s longestwin streak

BY REEDDARCEY

Staffwriter

It wasn’t longago that theLSU women’s basketball team was 0-2 in Southeastern Conference play,staring down apair of games that were arguably even tougher than the first two it lost. Then the No. 6Tigers turned thingsaround. And they did it rather quickly

Now LSU has the longest active winningstreak in the SEC, and it will begin the second half of its conference schedule squarely in the mix to host NCAA Tournament contests for the fifthseason in arow.A No.1seed is still on the table for coach Kim Mulkey’sTigers, especially because they’ll soon have big opportunitiesagainst No. 4 Texas on Thursday and their annualshowdown withNo. 3South CarolinaonFeb.14.

Those games headline another unforgiving stretch of matchups. LSU’shome contest against No. 24 Alabama on Sunday (11 a.m., SEC Network) is one of five Top25

Super Bowl LX should give the New Orleans Saints hope.

Ayear ago, the New EnglandPatriots and Seattle Seahawkswere sitting at home after missing the playoffs for asecond consecutive season. Ayear later,they’ll battle for the Lombardi Trophy at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. If it can happen for the Patriots and Seahawks, it can happenfor the Saints. Team officialsjust need to stack another strong offseason like the one theyhad in 2025. Here’s what the Saints can learn from the paths the Patriotsand Seahawks took to reach Super Bowl LX: Fortune favorsbold

clashes left on the schedule.

Thelast sixgames,however,haveshownthe Tigers are playing well enough to beat all those teams. Let’s takealook at how they’ve put themselves in such anice position.

Improvementonglass

Mulkey questioned LSU’stoughness after itslosses to Kentuckyand Vanderbilt. She wasn’thappy with how her team was rebounding.

The Tigers (20-2, 6-2 SEC) haven’tlost abattleonthe boards since.

Now they’ll enter their game against the Crimson Tide (19-3, 5-3) with thetop average rebounding margin in the SEC (+12.3). SinceJan.1,LSU ranks second among leagueteams in defensiveboards per game (30) and thirdinoffensive boards per game (15.6).Its opponents havereboundedless than 30% of theirmisses, according

The Patriots and Seahawkskick-started their 2025 offseasons with bold coaching moves. In New England, owner Robert Kraft fired Jerod Mayo after just oneseason

as head coach. Mayo was Kraft’s handpicked choice tosucceed Bill Belichick, so it wasn’taneasy decision. Mayo was apopular player and coach for 14 years in theorganization. Nevertheless, Kraft pulled theplug after Mayo’sdisastrous 4-13 season and replaced him with another Patriots legend, Mike Vrabel. Therest is history Likewise, Mike MacDonald canned offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after one season, citing “philosophical differences” in the team’soffensive vision. MacDonald hired former Saintsassistant Klint Kubiak to coordinate theoffense, and he paid immediatedividends, boosting the Seahawks’ rushing attack from 28th to 10th in the league and improving the scoring offense from 21st (20.0) to third(28.4)

The lesson here: If something isn’t

The New Orleans Pelicans likely will look different the next timethey come to the Smoothie King Center Will it look alot different? Or just slightly different?

Those are the questions that will be answered in the next fewdays.

The Pelicans beat the Memphis Grizzlies 114-106 Friday night in their final home gamebefore Thursday’sNBA trade deadline.

Rod Walker

Entering Saturday night’s gameagainst Philadelphia, the Pelicans had 13 wins, 37 losses and zero draftpicks. So expect executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and his right-hand man Troy Weaver to makesome type of move.

The players understand the situation.

“This is abusiness at the end of the day,” Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado said last week. “You never know.You might get a call. At the end of the day,it’sstill basketball. With this group or any group, you just stay with it. If it happens, it happens. We can’tchange nothing.

“So if you go to another team or not, you just play basketball. You’ve got to stay level-headed with this. Obviously,this time is alittle stressful.”

1 p.m.

Ohtani won’t pitch in World Baseball Classic

LOS ANGELES Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch for Japan in the World Baseball Classic in March, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday Roberts said it was Ohtani’s decision to focus on being the designated hitter for his native country He said the team “absolutely” would have supported Ohtani if he had wanted to also pitch. Ohtani’s teammate and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will pitch for Japan in the WBC despite his heavy workload with the Dodgers last season.

4

MEN’S TOP 25 ROUNDUP

Arizona wins 22nd straight game

By The Associated Press

TEMPE, Ariz. — Koa Peat scored 21 points, fellow freshman Brayden Burries added 17 and No. 1 Arizona beat rival Arizona State 87-74 on Saturday, setting a school record with 22 straight wins to start the season. Arizona (22-0, 9-0 Big 12) is one of just two unbeaten teams in the nation, along with Miami (Ohio). The Wildcats’ winning streak also tied the Big 12 record to start a season, set by Kansas in 1996-97.

The Wildcats — who shot 60% in the second half — scored the first six points after the break to take a 44-38 lead and never trailed again.

Burries found Peat on a pinpoint full-court pass that led to a dunk for a 56-47 lead with 13:10 left Noah Meeusen scored 16 points for the Sun Devils (11-11, 2-7) while Maurice Odum added 15 NO 2 CONNECTICUT 85, CREIGHTON 58: In Omaha, Nebraska, Braylon Mullins scored 16 points and Alex Karaban and Silas Demary had 15 apiece to lead No. 2 UConn

The Huskies (21-1, 11-0 Big East) won their 17th straight game and posted their biggest winning margin in a conference road game in two years Creighton (12-10, 6-5) has dropped two straight games by a total of 51 points.

NO 4 DUKE 72, VIRGINIA TECH 58: In Blacksburg, Virginia, Cameron Boozer scored 24 points to lead No. 4 Duke over Virginia Tech for its ninth straight win. Boozer coming off a 19-point effort in the Blue Devils’ 83-52 victory over No. 20 Louisville on Monday, connected on 9 of 12 from the floor, grabbed eight rebounds and had five assists for Duke (201, 9-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). Amani Hansberry paced Virginia Tech (16-7, 5-5) with 20 points NO 10 HOUSTON 76, CINCINNATI 54: In Houston, Milos Uzan had 16 points and No. 10 Houston won its 38th straight game over an unranked opponent. Emanuel Sharp, Chris Cenac and Isiah Harwell each scored 13 for the Cougars (19-2, 7-1 Big 12) Houston won its 16th straight home game and its 14th straight over the Bearcats (11-11, 3-6)

UCF 88, NO. 11 TEXAS TECH 80: In Orlando, Florida, Themus Fulks scored 21 points, including a

jumper with a minute to play, in UCF’s win over No. 11 Texas Tech.

The win marked UCF’s third straight conference win, the first time they have done that since joining the Big 12 three years ago.

The Knights led for all but 1:20 of the game, but were clinging to a two-point advantage with 1:30 to play after Fulks turned the ball over But Jaylen Petty fumbled the outlet pass after the steal, and UCF (17-4, 6-3 Big 12) recovered to set up Fulks’ jumper to go up by two possessions.

J.T Toppin scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Texas Tech (16-5, 6-2).

NO 14 KANSAS 90, NO. 13 BYU 82: In Lawrence, Kansas, Darryn Peterson scored 18 points in 20 minutes and No. 14 Kansas beat No 13 BYU in the 1,000th game played at historic Allen Fieldhouse. Bryson Tiller had career-high 21 points and seven rebounds for Kansas (16-5, 6-2 Big 12).

Richie Saunders scored a career-high 33 for BYU (17-4, 5-3). His six three-pointers tied a career-high.

KENTUCKY 85, NO. 15 ARKANSAS 77:

In Fayetteville, Arkansas, Otega Oweh led four Kentucky players in double figures with 24 points to help the Wildcats to a win over No. 15 Arkansas in a game that featured six technical fouls.

Oweh, who picked up the first technical, scored 11 points in the final 10 minutes to put Arkansas away

It was 63-all with 8:07 left when

Arkansas’ Malique Ewin was whistled for a technical foul following a personal foul. Kentucky (15-7, 6-3 SEC) made 5 of 6 from the free-throw line before Moreno threw down a dunk 43 seconds later and the Wildcats led the rest of the way Darius Acuff led Arkansas (166, 6-3) with 22 points.

NO 16 NORTH CAROLINA 91, GEORGIA

TECH 75: In Atlanta, Caleb Wilson dominated in the return to his hometown, scoring 22 points as No 16 North Carolina cruised past Georgia Tech. The 6-foot-10 Atlanta native set a school record by scoring 20 points for the 15th time as a freshman. He had been tied with Tyler Hansbrough, who had 14 games with 20 points for the Tar Heels in 2005-06.

Henri Veesaar gave North Carolina (17-4, 5-3 ACC) a devastating 1-2 punch on the inside with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

VIRGINIA 73, BOSTON COLLEGE

NO 17

66: In Boston, Thijs De Ridder scored 17 points, Malik Thomas had 14 and No. 17 Virginia held off Boston College.

Chance Mallory added 11 points for the Cavaliers (18-3, 7-2 ACC).

Donald Hand Jr., son of former Cavaliers’ star Donald Hand (1998-01), led the Eagles (9-12, 2-6) with 20 points. Fred Payne added 17 points.

NO 18

VANDERBILT 71, OLE MISS 68: In Nashville, Tennessee, Tyler Tanner scored 24 points and No. 18 Vanderbilt survived a late scare

to beat Ole Miss. Vanderbilt (19-3, 6-3 Southeastern) was still without its secondleading scorer, Duke Miles, but once again got a massive lift by Tanner, who is averaging 17.5 points a game this season.

AK Okereke broke into double figures with 17 points, making 11 of 13 free throws. Malik Dia and AJ Storr each had 16 points for Ole Miss (11-10, 3-5).

NO 20 LOUISVILLE 88,SMU 74: In Louisville, Kentucky, Mikel Brown scored 20 points off the bench, Isaac McKneely added 14 and No. 20 Louisville used a 10-0 secondhalf run to rally past SMU.

The Cardinals (15-6, 5-4 ACC) overcame a cold start and 47-44 halftime deficit to take their first lead at 55-53 on Kobe Rodgers’ transition layup with 14:37 left. Mustangs guard Boopie Miller, the ACC’s No. 4 scorer, had 20 points for his 28th consecutive double-digit scoring game SMU (15-6, 4-4) entered the game with the league’s top offense (87.3 points per game) and had won its past two.

NO 22 CLEMSON 63, PITT 52: In Clemson, South Carolina, Carter Welling and Nick Davidson scored 12 points each and No. 22 Clemson used a big first-half run to take control on the way to its 15th straight win over Pittsburgh. Welling and Davidson combined for 17 second-half points for the Tigers (18-4, 8-1 ACC), who opened a 17-point lead at halftime and gave Clemson coach Brad Brownell his 200th home win.

The Panthers (9-13, 2-7) used a 14-4 run at the start of the second half to get the lead into single digits. But RJ Godfrey had two inside baskets and Welling scored six straight points to restore Clemson’s large lead.

NO 24 MIAMI (OHIO) 85, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 61: In Oxford, Ohio, Brant Byers scored 21 points and No. 24 Miami (Ohio) set a Mid-American Conference record with its 22nd straight win, pulling away in the second half against Northern Illinois.

The RedHawks (22-0, 10-0) surpassed the 2001-02 Kent State squad for the longest winning streak in conference history Miami has also won 28 straight games at Millett Hall for Division I’s longest home winning streak.

Florida coach downplays Bediako comment

His quip ‘we’re gonna beat ’em anyways’ ruffles feathers of Crimson Tide

BY MARK LONG Associated Press

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach

Todd Golden insists he wasn’t being disrespectful when he said “we’re gonna beat ’em anyways” while responding to Alabama center Charles Bediako’s return to college basketball

It was how he felt at the time — and it remains his approach with Bediako and the 23rd-ranked Crimson Tide visiting Gainesville on Sunday

“In a sense, I think it’s been kind of good for media or for kind of a buildup to the game,” Golden said Friday “I’m not sure how much that’s going to really impact the result.”

Golden’s quip, which came during the school’s weekly radio show that was broadcast in front of a live audience last week, surely will be as much of a storyline as Bediako’s ongoing court case when No. 19 Florida (15-6, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) hosts Alabama (14-6, 4-3) inside a soldout O’Connell Center Golden said he has since questioned whether his viral comment, which Alabama players considered a callout, was “a good thing to say or a bad thing to say.”

“No. 1, I think it would be a really strange and unconfident place to be in if a team adds one guy and you’re like, ‘Holy crap, we can’t beat these guys,’ ” Golden said.

“And No. 2, if you call them and you’re like: ‘Hey dude, do you think you’re going to beat Florida on Sunday? Yeah, we’re going to go beat those guys.’

“... It’s one of those things that has taken on some steam. But when you peel back on it, it’s like, ‘Oh, the coach thinks that they’re

going to win in that game.’ Like, it’s really not that crazy of a comment. But we’ll see.”

Golden and the reigning national champions haven’t altered their stance on Bediako, a 7-footer who is suing the NCAA in an attempt to regain college eligibility despite leaving school and entering the NBA draft.

“It’s definitely not right,” Florida star forward Thomas Haugh said. “This dude literally was at college, left and then came back. We’ll play them with or without him. It doesn’t matter.”

Bediako went undrafted before signing a two-way NBA contract and playing the past three seasons in the G League. A Tuscaloosa judge, who has since recused himself from the case, granted a temporary restraining order last week that allows Bediako to play for the Crimson Tide — at least until an injunction hearing is held.

Bediako is averaging 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in two games,

providing an inside presence Alabama had been missing most of the season. He has two blocks, three steals and several dunks. Bediako’s case has been a contentious topic among college coaches, with many of them wanting the NCAA and Congress to take action. Golden had been one of the most outspoken, even with Alabama on his schedule.

“I don’t agree with it,” he said last week. “I don’t think you should be playing, but I also don’t necessarily fault (Alabama coach) Nate Oats because this is a very competitive space, and it’s our jobs to win games and do everything we can to be the best program in our specific league. And they were able to finagle the situation where they got a judge in Alabama that is actually a donor at Alabama to write a temporary restraining order to allow this guy to play games in Alabama.” Golden called it a “slippery slope” and later added “we’re gonna beat ’em anyways.”

Ohtani made two starts for Japan in the 2023 WBC and then came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning to clinch the championship by striking out then-Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout for the final out against the United States.

Rose imitates Woods to lead by 5 at Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO Justin Rose delivered a performance Saturday at Torrey Pines that Tiger Woods could appreciate, stretching his lead to as many as eight shots until a few late mistakes led to a 4-under 68 for a five-stroke lead in the Farmers Insurance Open.

Rose, who won at Torrey in 2019, started the third round with a fourshot lead and quickly pulled away with a brilliant stretch of three holes on the front nine of the South course.

Rose was at 21-under 195. It was the second-largest 54-hole lead at the tournament behind the eight-shot lead Woods had in 2008. Woods practically owned the public course along the Pacific Bluff with eight professional wins, including the U.S. Open.

Korda shoots 64 to take lead in blustery opener

ORLANDO,Fla.— Nelly Korda played her best golf in the worst of the conditions Saturday with an 8-under 64 in the frigid, blustery conditions that eventually led to play being suspended for the day in the season-opening Tournament of Champions.

Korda had the best score of the week at Lake Nona, where the temperatures felt like they were in the 40s with a steady 20 mph wind and gusts nearly twice that strong. Going after her first win since November 2024, Korda was at 13-under 203, six shots ahead of Brooke Henderson among those who finished. Henderson shot 66. Amy Yang was at 10 under with two holes to play, including the par-3 17th, one of the most exposed holes on the golf course.

1B Pasquantino, Royals agree to $11.1M contract

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — First baseman

Vinnie Pasquantino agreed to an $11.1 million, two-year contract with the Royals on Friday, pending a successful physical, that will keep him in Kansas City through the 2027 season.

Pasquantino gets $4.2 million this year and $6.9 million in 2027. He has escalators that could raise his 2027 salary to a maximum of $11.5 million. He was in his second year of salary arbitration eligibility this offseason and remains under club control through 2028.

Pasquantino comes off a season with career highs in several categories including home runs (32) and RBIs (113) after being sidelined by injuries for much of 2023 and 2024.

Preseason NASCAR race delayed due to weather

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. NASCAR has postponed the preseason exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium until Monday night because of ice and snow blanketing the Winston-Salem area. The Clash was supposed to be a two-day event beginning Saturday, with the main event held Sunday evening. NASCAR late last week cut it to a Sunday-only event in anticipation of poor weather and as snow blanketed the Carolinas on Saturday, NASCAR made the call to run the race Monday The roads around Winston-Salem had not yet totally been cleared from last weekend’s ice storm and then more snow arrived Saturday The race is scheduled for 6 p.m. and could possibly be run in the coldest temperatures in NASCAR history

LSU women’s golf to tee off for spring

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

The way LSU women’s golf coach Garrett Runion looks at the fall season, it was just a warm-up act for the main event to come this spring.

“I viewed the fall as a midweek, nonconference baseball game,” Runion said. “We played four different lineups in four different events. Four of our nine players were new to campus, so a lot of adjusting off the course and teammates getting to know each other Eight of the nine played in tournaments.”

Still, it wasn’t the kind of fall the Tigers are used to. LSU had just one top-five team finish — third in the Golfweek Red Sky Classic in Colorado — and had only three individual top-10 finishes.

But the talent is clearly there for a bigger, more memorable spring season, which begins Sunday for the Tigers in the Puerto Rico Classic.

Talented players such as sophomore Rocio Tejedo, who played in only one tournament in the fall because of an injury but is still 26th in the world amateur rankings She already has earned her third invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur

“She played a lot in the summer,” Runion said. “She needed a reset there. She fought through it and is in a much better spot heading into the spring.”

LSU

Continued from page 1C

to Her Hoop Stats, which is the third-lowest rate in the SEC. That improvement is crucial The Tigers are built to earn extra possessions and score in transition. They can’t do either if they don’t crash the glass on both ends. Also per Her Hoop Stats, only two SEC teams have played at a faster pace than the Tigers since league play began. “We have really, really done a better job (rebounding),” Mulkey said.

“And it’s coming from everybody It’s not just your four post players. It’s coming from our perimeter players, and we’re the kind of team that has to do that this year.”

More depth, balance LSU has relied heavily on its stars in recent years. Last season, for example, Aneesah Morrow, Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams were responsible for 63% of the shots it took and 66% of the points it scored against SEC opponents.

Things are different now The Tigers lead Division I teams in bench points, and seven of their contributors have double-digit scoring averages Blowout nonconference wins are inflating those numbers, but if you look at only conference games, then you’ll see that LSU is divvying up the scoring responsibilities more than it ever has since Mulkey’s tenure began in 2021. Since Jan. 1, the Tigers’ eight leading scorers have been scoring between five and 14 points per game. None of them take more than 12 shots a night. Transfer post players Amiya Joyner and Kate Koval have played well lately So have freshman forwards Grace Knox and ZaKiyah Johnson They look like they all can contribute valuable minutes in March.

LSU WOMEN’S GOLF SCHEDULE

Sunday-Tuesday Puerto Rico Classic Rio Grande, P.R.

Feb 15-17 Moon Golf Invitational Melbourne, Fla.

March 2-4 Darius Rucker Intercollegiate Hilton Head, S.C.

March 16-17 Betsy Rawls Invitational Austin,Texas

March 27-29 Clemson Invitational Sunset, S.C.

March 30-31 ULM Invitational Monroe

April 17-21 SEC Championships Belleair Fla.

May 11-13 NCAA regionals TBD

May 22-27 NCAA Championships Carlsbad, Calif.

Talented newcomers such as Francesca Fiorellini, a sophomore from Italy by way of UCLA, also could provide a boost. She broke the course, tournament and LSU record with a 63 in the Red Sky Classic, besting the mark set by former LSU great Ingrid Lindblad.

“Whenever a player tells you their favorite club is a 4 iron, you know they’re a ball striker,” Runion said. “She hits it very straight very consistent. When her putter gets hot, she can shoot some really low scores.”

Tejedo and Fiorellini are two of the six players LSU took to the Puerto Rico tournament, along with sophomore Josefin Widal, freshmen Ryleigh Knaub and Lucia Iraola, and senior Taylor Riley, daughter of former LSU golfer Michelle Louviere and former PGA Tour winner Chris Riley

Tejedo said the spirit on the team is competitive but supportive.

“We try to help each other a lot,”

she said. “I know we play each other to go to the tournaments, but we’re always happy for the people who make it.”

The Tigers do not host a tournament and will play only one event in state, the ULM Invitational on March 30-31 in Monroe LSU also will defend its team title in March in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

The Tigers will compete at a new venue in the SEC championships on April 17-21 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, before trying to qualify for NCAA postseason play

“Great teams are made in the spring,” said Runion, the two-time Southeastern Conference coach of the year “It wasn’t like we weren’t trying in the fall or anything. But this spring I feel we’re in a much better spot than we were in the fall. The spring is when teams get remembered, especially in April and May.”

of

Thursday

Richard’s emergence

Few, if any, players in the SEC have improved as much as Jada Richard. The sophomore point guard from Opelousas couldn’t get off the bench last season. Now Mulkey rarely takes her off the floor In league play Richard is playing more than 30 minutes per game and scoring 12.9 ppg while shooting 46% from the field, 35% from 3-point range and 96% from the free-throw line. She’s scored at least 20 points twice, first on Jan. 18 in a road win over No. 10 Oklahoma and again a week later in a home victory against Florida. Richard is defending well, too. Star point guards Aaliyah Chavez

and Liv McGill are two of the best scorers in the league, but they combined to shoot just 9 of 31 (29%) from the field when their Sooners and Gators played the Tigers. LSU struggled to find a point guard who can run Mulkey’s system in the last two seasons. Richard, though, looks like a long-term answer at that position. That’s a huge development for both the present and future of the program. “It wasn’t like she didn’t have those skills last year,” Mulkey said. “It was just adjusting to this level of college.”

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

Southern men, women fall at Alcorn State

Staff report

LORMAN, Miss. — Shane Lancaster scored 22 points, including two free throws in the final 12 seconds, to clinch Alcorn State’s 7873 win over Southern on Saturday afternoon.

In a game that had five ties, the Braves broke the last one at 6767 with 3:39 to play and outscored the Jaguars 11-6 the rest of the way to pick up just their fourth win of the season.

In addition to Lancaster’s 22 points, Alcorn (4-16, 3-5 SWAC) got 13 from Omari Hamilton and 12 from Jameel Morris.

Southern was led by Terrance Dixon with 15 points on 7-of-7 shooting and 10 rebounds. DaMariee Jones added 14 points and Michael Jacobs 13 points and four assists for the Jaguars (8-13, 4-4).

The Jaguars shot 45.5% from the field (25 of 55) and hit 5 of 20 from 3-point range. Perhaps the difference in the game was Alcorn’s shooting from long range, where it hit 10-of-23 3-pointers.

Alcorn led by as many as 10 points in the first half at 23-13 on Bryson Calamese’s 3-pointer with 9:37 left in the first half. Southern chipped away and tied it at 36-36 on Fazl Oshodi’s 3-pointer with 1:09 left in the first half.

The game was tied 38-38 at halftime.

Next up for Southern is a meet-

ing with Jackson State at 7 p.m. Monday at Williams Arena in Jackson, Mississippi. The Jaguars return home next Saturday to play Alabama A&M.

Women

ALCORN STATE 69, SOUTHERN 56: In Lorman, Mississippi, Maya Claytor scored 17 points and the Braves handed the cold-shooting Jaguars their second SWAC loss of the season.

Alcorn (10-9, 7-1 SWAC) led 14-9 after one quarter and 29-20 at halftime and were never threatened in the second half.

The Jaguars — who made just 14 of 55 shots (25.5%) from the field, including 3 of 19 from 3-point range — trailed 49-40 entering the fourth quarter The loss also ended a four-game winning streak for Southern.

Chrishunti Walker added 10 points for Alcorn, which is now a half-game behind SWAC leader Alabama A&M (12-9, 8-1). While Southern (11-9, 7-2) couldn’t get its offense in gear, Alcorn was hitting 21 of 44 from the field (47.7%), including 8-of-14 3-pointers.

Jocelyn Tate led the Jaguars with 15 points and 12 rebounds. DeMya Porter and Mykayla Cunningham added eight points each for Southern, which returns home to host Alabama State at 6 p.m.

Thursday

SEC

Continued from page 1C

and a season-high eight assists. LSU made 9 of 12 free throws in overtime and 21 of 25 for the game.

Rashad King and Pablo Tamba made two free throws apiece to give the Tigers their first four points of overtime. Neither team could find a basket until South Carolina’s Meechie Johnson made a mid-range jumper to pull his team within 85-84 with 1:34 left. That was the final made shot by South Carolina (11-11, 2-7).

An LSU spokesperson said Thomas was out because of the same lower left leg injury he suffered Jan. 2. That injury forced him to miss the first five games of conference play Without Thomas, the Tigers started King. The 6-foot-6 Northeastern transfer had a season-high 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists and one turnover

LSU focused on a strong start after scoring only 21 first-half points against Mississippi State on Wednesday A poor start also occurred in LSU’s first 10-point loss against South Carolina on Jan. 6, as the Gamecocks made their first nine shots and led 50-25 at halftime.

South Carolina didn’t replicate its hot shooting Saturday LSU led 10-6 at the 15:23 mark, and its opponent was 3 of 8 from the field.

Nwoko had seven of the team’s first 12 points. He used his 6-10, 261-pound frame to clear out space against a smaller frontcourt.

Mackinnon helped LSU attack the paint effectively, using the threat of his jump shot to get downhill and facilitate. His best play was when he performed a spin move in transition and threw an interior pass to center Robert Miller for a dunk, giving the team an 18-11 lead with 12:46 remaining in the first half.

LSU was in control, and its largest lead was 28-15 with 8:08 left in the first half after a dunk by Marquel Sutton, who had nine points

before halftime and finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.

“Ilovedourunselfishness,”McMahon said. “I thought the ball moved 23 assists on 31 baskets is how we need to play moving forward.”

South Carolina responded with a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 28-25 with 4:02 left. LSU entered halftime ahead 36-35 and had eight turnovers to South Carolina’s two. Johnson, who had 21 points and six assists for the Gamecocks, scored seven points in the first four minutes of the second half. His team took a 49-47 on Grant Polk’s tip-in at the 15:08 mark.

South Carolina held on to a narrow lead for the majority of the second half, but King went on a personal 5-0 run late in regulation. He had a steal and transition layup, followed by a 3-pointer, bringing LSU within one point with 5:14 left. A couple of minutes later, King was fouled while creating space for a jumper

The defensive foul against Eli Ellis remained, but the referees gave King a Flagrant 1 foul for a push off. It resulted in both players making two free throws, tying the game at 74-74 with 3:50 remaining in regulation.

South Carolina took a 78-76 lead on Elijah Strong’s hook shot over Nwoko, but Nwoko responded on the other end with a bucket off a Mackinnon pass.

LSU had possession with the score tied at 78 with 21 seconds left and 16 seconds on the shot clock. King was double-teamed after a screen and fell down. The officials initially ruled a jump ball, but upon review, LSU called a timeout before the whistle.

The Tigers inbounded the ball from the right sideline with 1.6 seconds left on the shot clock, but King missed a right-wing 3-pointer to send the game of overtime.

“We got to the free-throw line and converted, and, you know, it certainly wasn’t a thing of beauty on defense, but we got just enough stops to get out of here with the win,” McMahon said.

OUTDOORS

Commission expected to ratify CWD control area

BY JOE MACALUSO

Contributing writer

Expanding lands under the state’s Chronic Wasting Disease control areas plan and considering amendments to the 2026-27 hunting seasons and regulations top the agenda for Thursday’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting.

The move to ratify an emergency declaration on new control areas came after a CWD- infested deer was found, for the first time, in Concordia Parish. The commission’s move is to make permanent the expansion of CWD controls into limited lands surrounding Concordia Parish, the approval of which will bring new food-source feeding as far south as the northern reaches of Pointe Coupee Parish.

Other agenda items include:

n Considering amendments to the Scenic Rivers Program and withdrawing the Wildlife Rehabilitation Program notice from Legislative Oversight, the latter issue coming after rehabilitation educational and certification sessions were scheduled;

n And, to learn of recent findings on the sac-a-lait and bass populations in the Saline-Larto Complex

Noticeably absent from the agenda is a discussion on the proposed removal of the half-mile barrier on the commercial take of menhaden.

Public comment will be taken near the meeting’s end.

The meeting, which will be available via Zoom, is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

Removing boats

Terrebonne Parish is using funding from the BoatUS Foundation to remove abandoned and derelict vessels from its waterways.

It’s part of a nationwide program to reduce navigational hazards and to control pollution sources.

The initial estimate from the parish’s government is to target 170 abandoned boats. According to the parish and BoatUS, this project was “selected by a panel of independent salvage experts, state boating advocates, nonprofit research organizations and government planning agency staff under a four-year (BoatUS) program,” through a federal Marine Debris plan Council moves

It would take an entire page to go through all discussions from last week’s Gulf Council meeting in New Orleans.

The first item is the council will continue to advertise for members of Red Drum and Coastal Migratory Pelagic advisory panels.

After that, talks focused on a variety of grouper plans, regional

MONDAY LA. OUTDOORS FOREVER TECHNICAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING: 10 a.m., state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, 2000 Quail Dr., Baton Rouge.

WEDNESDAY

JUNIOR SOUTHWEST BASSMASTERS

MEETING: 7 p.m., Seminar Room, Bass Pro Shops, Denham Springs. Boys & girls age-group bass tournaments for ages 7-10, 11-14 & 15-18 anglers. Call Jim Breaux (225) 7723026.

THURSDAY

LA. WILDLIFE & FISHERIES COM-

MISSION MEETING: 9:30 a.m., Joe Herring Room, state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, Quail Drive Baton Rouge.

THURSDAY-SUNDAY

BASSMASTER ELITE SERIES: Goose Pond Colony Resort, Lake Guntersville, Scottsboro, Alabama. First in nine-tournament series. 3 p.m. daily weigh-in. Live webcast. Website: bassmaster.com

SATURDAY

NSCA REGISTERED SPORTING CLAYS: Bridge View Gun Club, Port Allen

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

BASSMASTER KAYAK SERIES: Kissimmee Chain of Lake, Kissimmee, Florida. Website: bassmaster.com

LOTTERY HUNT

TURKEY: General hunts on Clear Creek, Sonny Gilbert, Pearl River, Sabine & West Bay WMAs. Youth hunts will Clear Creek, Fort Polk North/Fort Polk-Vernon, Sandy Hollow, Tunica Hills & West Bay WMAs. Application

Louisiana private recreational anglers caught an estimated 947,103 pounds of red snapper in 2025, but will be allowed to take only 882,439 pounds in 2026.

LDWF REVISES RED SNAPPER ALLOCATION

While Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ marine fisheries staff stands on its estimate of 947,103 pounds taken during the eight-monthlong 2025 private recreational red snapper season, the staff has revised Louisiana’s 2026 allocation. The first evaluation for this year’s allowance was 891,439 pounds, a figure reached after the initial estimate 2025 take figured to be 5.8% greater than the annual allocation set at 934,587 pounds.

management of greater amberjack, recreational and for-hire red snapper and lane snapper Red grouper: Final action came on a three-year, phase-in to increase red grouper catch limits with 68.2% of the catch going to commercial fishing interests and allocating 31.8% of the allowance for the recreational sector

Shallow-water groupers complex: The move is to eliminate the Feb. 1-March 31 recreational shallowwater grouper closure beyond 20-fathoms. Federal fishery managers need to approve this move.

The plan to split this complex (scamp and yellowmouth, yellowfin and black groupers) into two complexes was delayed “based on uncertainty associated with private recreational landings estimates generated by the federal recreational data collection program.”

Deep-water groupers: Discussion centered around a possible rule requiring a mandatory reporting system for the recreational

FILE

Louisiana’s Hunters for the Hungry’s motto is ‘Hunters who care share,’ and now with deer season near an end and hunters turning their attention to taking feral hogs, it’s a good time to donate this rich protein source to those in need across the state. H4H has processors willing to turn hunting efforts into food. For a list of processors, go the group’s website: h4hla.org

website: louisianaoutdoors.com/ lottery-applications. Feb. 7 deadline. FISHING LOTTERY WHITE LAKE WCA: Feb. 7 deadline for 100 access ($40) fishing permits. Website: wlf.louisiana.gov/page/ white-lake-lotteries. Email Lance Ardoin: lardoin@wlf.la.gov

AROUND THE CORNER

FEB. 9—RED STICK FLY FISHERS PROGRAM: 7 p.m., Bluebonnet Regional

Pelicans fall short in comeback bid vs. 76ers

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

Late last week, the staff figured the “payback” — the number of pounds subtracted from the annual allotment for 2025’s overage, and it turned out that payback will reduce 2026’s allowed take to 882,439 pounds for recreational anglers. Full details of the week-by-week landing estimate are available on the Wildlife and Fisheries’ website: wlf.louisiana.gov/page/ red-snapper

Joe Macaluso

deep-water grouper (deep-drop) fishery

Amberjack: The decision reached allows for development of a draft document to include results of the Greater Amberjack Count, a program similar to the Great Red Snapper Count which was conducted by independent marine fisheries scientists.

Red snapper: The council agrees to proceed with a plan that would allow federal fishery managers to “modify federal for-hire fishing regulations,” for creel and size limits and annual season dates. And, for private recreational fishermen, the chance to examine the possibility of management flexibility by “allowing uncaught quota to be carried over to the following year within a state and to allow transfer of uncaught quota between states within a fishing year.”

Lane snapper: After reviewing stock-assessment data, it’s possible that the annual allotment will be increased by nearly 200,000 pounds.

Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd., Baton Rouge. Open to the public. Email Brian Roberts: roberts.brian84@ gmail.com. Website: rsff.org

FEB. 11—BUGS & BEERS: 6:30 p.m., Skeeta Hawk Brewing, 455 N. Dorgenois St, New Orleans. Casual fly tying. Open to public. Email A.J. Rosenbohm: ajrosenbohm@gmail. com. Website: www.neworleansflyfishers.com.

FEB. 13-14—NSCA SPORTING CLAYS EVENTS: Wilderness Club, Lafayette. FISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Outside waters open statewide; fall inshore season closed in Zones 2 & 3 & portions of Zone 1 except Breton/Chandeleur sounds.

OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Flounder; lane, blackfin, queen and silk snappers & wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers except closed for goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

CLOSED SEASONS: Red snapper; greater amberjack; gray triggerfish; bluefin tuna; gag, goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters. Commercial greater amberjack season closed.

LDWF UPDATES

CLOSED: all roads on Bogue Chitto WMA (flooding); Hope Canal Road/ boat launch (Maurepas Swamp WMA, levee construction).

ROAD CLOSURE: Section of La. 975 through Sherburne WMA closed through June 12, 2026 (replace bridge) access from U.S. 190 and I-10 open. EMAIL: jmacaluso@theadvocate.com

The Pelicans’ recent success over the Philadelphia 76ers came to an end Saturday night. The Pelicans, despite a valiant effort to rally out of a 15-point hole, fell 124-114 at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey, selected as a starter for the AllStar game, and Joel Embiid both buried 3-pointers in the final 1:18 to seal the win. The Pelicans (13-38) had won four straight games against the 76ers (27-21). Embiid didn’t play in any of those games. Embiid played Saturday and helped the 76ers get their first win over the Pels since Jan. 2, 2023, with 40 points and 11 rebounds.

Saddiq Bey led the Pels with 34 points, six rebounds and three assists Bey scored nine straight points during one stretch in the third quarter to help the Pelicans climb back in it after trailing 6754 at halftime.

Trey Murphy scored 19 points and had eight rebounds.

Jose Alvarado drained a

WALKER

Continued from page 1C

Alvarado, who has a $4.5 million player option remaining on his deal after this season, has been linked to many trade rumors. He’s the type of player that some executives for titlecontending teams think can get them over the hump. If Alvarado is traded, he ended with a bang at home, burying three 3-pointers in the third quarter to help the Pelicans outscore the Grizzlies 35-15.

“Jose did what Jose does,” Pelicans interim coach James Borrego said after the game. While Alvarado made his presence Friday, two of his teammates didn’t.

For the third consecutive game, Jordan Poole and Jordan Hawkins finished with a “DNP” beside their name in the box score. Borrego, when asked why Poole hasn’t played in three straight games, said it was because of the new lineup he has used the last four games.

“I felt like this group gives us a chance out there to get after it defensively,” Borrego said. “I think we are just going to lean into a little bit of size right now and physicality and defense.”

That new lineup of Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, Saddiq Bey and Derik Queen is 3-1 since Borrego started using it after Friday

The new lineup has played much better defensively It’s a small sample size, but the difference in play is obvious.

With Poole and Hawkins not playing, it leads you to believe the Pelicans would move on from them if they could. Poole’s contract (one year and $34 million after this season) and the way he’s played likely won’t have Dumars’ phone ringing off the hook. Hawkins, meanwhile, has seen his production slip, too. He averaged 10.8 points last season. His scoring has dipped to 4.3 points this season, and he’s shooting just 30.1% on 3-pointers. Shooting from long range was supposed to be his strength when he arrived in New Orleans. He’s probably the most likely player to be traded. Saturday marked one year since guard Dejounte Murray tore his Achilles in a game against the Boston Celtics. Murray has been rehabbing away from New Orleans. Borrego, when asked in early January whether he expects Murray to play this season, had

3-pointer with 6:30 left in the game to give the Pels their first lead since the second quarter but Philly’s duo of Embiid and Maxey made the big shots late.

The Pelicans were playing the second game of a back-toback after beating the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night at the Smoothie King Center. The Pels had won three of their four games since interim coach James Borrego started using the lineup of Zion Williamson, Murphy, Herb Jones, Bey and Derik Queen.

The Pelicans looked like they were going to keep that trend going. They led 33-31 at the end of the first quarter, but had a rough second quarter They got outscored 36-21 in the quarter and trailed 67-54 at the break. Embiid, the league’s Most Valuable Player in the 2022-23 season did much of the damage. He has 23 points and eight rebounds in the first half.

Maxey finished with 18 points. Williamson didn’t score his first basket until the 1:11 mark of the third quarter He took just six shots and finished with 11 points and five rebounds.

this to say:

“I can’t say for sure,” Borrego said. “I can’t go there. We just don’t know until we see him live on the court. That would be the goal, but I can’t say for sure.” Murray is the third-highest-paid player on the roster If the Pelicans move him before the trade deadline, it would be to a team willing to take a chance on a player coming off of a tough injury Veteran center Kevon Looney has played in just 17 games since coming to New Orleans from Golden State. A team looking for a reserve center and some veteran leadership might be interested.

And finally, there is Yves Missi. The second-year center’s name has been coming up in trade talks as well. Missi started 67 games in his first season on his way to being named second team on the All-Rookie team. This year, Missi has started just seven games. But over the last week, he’s played his best ball since entering the league.

“He’s playing at an elite level,” Borrego said. “His motor His energy He just looks like a grownup out there impacting in a major way.”

A first-round draft pick for Missi would be enticing. A second-round pick or two probably wouldn’t be for the Pelicans. Those are the players the Pelicans most likely would consider trading. The ones they won’t trade are Williamson, Murphy, Jones, Queen, Jeremiah Fears and Micah Peavy. Best guess here is you can throw Bey into the mix of untouchables as well. Bey arguably has been the most consistent and reliable player this season. Dumars last spoke to the media in mid-November when he fired Willie Green. He’s kept his plans close to the vest.

Borrego said his conversations with Dumars have been “upbeat” and “positive.”

“We are very clear about where we’re at and what we are looking to do,” Borrego said. “There is clarity in our conversations. There is honesty in our conversations. There’s transparency in our conversations. Are there things we (the team) could get better at? Yeah. Joe and I are very aware of that and we’re talking through that. But the goal is to stay together, be transparent about where we’re at and stay focused on the goal which is to compete and build an identity.” What the Pelicans do as the trade deadline approaches should tell us more.

Nussmeier leads team to win in Senior Bowl

By The Associated Press

MOBILE, Ala. — LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier led a pair of touchdown drives, including a keeper for a score, as the American Team beat the National Team 17-9 on Saturday in the Senior Bowl.

Nussmeier led a 12-play, 68-yard opening drive that ended with his 3-yard rush on a read-option play Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia led the National Team to start. After an opening 18-yard completion to NC State tight end Jus-

tin Joly, Kentucky running back Seth McGowan fumbled. Missouri’s Zion Young recovered the ball, handed it to Oklahoma defensive tackle Gracen Halton, who had it punched out by Pavia. The American defense recovered it. After three runs for 41 yards from Virginia’s J’Mari Taylor, Oklahoma’s Jayden Ott punched in a 5-yard score. Nussmeier found Notre Dame receiver Malachi Fields for a successful two-point conversion. Nussmeier was 5 of 8 for 57 yards with an intercep-

tion that went through the hands of Wyoming tight end John Michael Gyllenborg and into those of Nebraska’s Deshon Singleton.

Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson was intercepted similarly later in the quarter His pass went off the hands of Louisville receiver Caullin Lacy, and Northwestern’s Fred Davis intercepted it for the American Team.

BYU’s Will Ferrin added a 40-yard field goal with 3:02 left to make it 17-0 at the break for the American Team.

Pavia re-entered the game with 6:35 to go in the third and continued into the fourth, using a 29-yard run from McGowan to set up a 52-yard field goal from Iowa’s Drew Stevens. Pavia finished 10 of 13 for 78 yards.

Michigan receiver Donaven McCulley, who accepted a late invite to the Senior Bowl on the National Team, led all receivers with four catches for 50 yards. He had a 14-yard reception on the National Team’s final drive to set up a 1-yard score for FAU’s Kejon Owens.

George suspended for violating NBA’s anti-drug policy

BY DAN GELSTON and TIM REYNOLDS AP sportswriters

PHILADELPHIA — Paul

George of the Philadelphia 76ers has been suspended 25 games for violating the terms of the NBA’s antidrug program, the league announced Saturday

The NBA did not disclose the nature of the violation or the substance that was involved, and George released a statement to ESPN saying he took something that was “improper.”

“Over the past few years, I’ve discussed the importance of mental health, and in the course of recently seeking treatment for an issue of my own, I made the mistake of taking an improper medication,”

George said in the statement released to the network. He apologized to the team and its fans, saying he takes “full responsibility for my actions.”

The 25-game suspension, by terms of the agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association, indicates that this was a first violation by George. He will begin serving the suspension Saturday when Philadelphia plays host to New Orleans.

The suspension will cost George — a nine-time AllStar — roughly $11.7 million of his $51.7 million

over that line when factoring in the money George isn’t getting. George is expected to be eligible to return on March 25, when Philadelphia plays host to Chicago The 76ers will have 10 games remaining in the regular season at that point.

Belichick’s HOF snub a result of committee not following simple logic COMMENTARY

GERRY DULAC Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

PITTSBURGH — The fashionable thing to do in the wake of Bill Belichick’s apparent snub for the Pro Football Hall of Fame is to blame the process, blame the bylaws set forth by the people in Canton, Ohio, for the way candidates are elected.

Right after that is the groundswell of opinion that the 50 members of the selection committee should reveal the candidates for whom they voted, as though the public and those affronted by what they perceive to be a miscarriage of justice are owed some measure of transparency Preposterous On both fronts.

I am a member of the committee and feel no obligation to reveal

how I voted. I don’t think any of the other 49 members need to defend how they voted, either, though I understand why some of them have. That, though, doesn’t mean the embarrassment brought upon the Hall of Fame in general and the selection committee in general isn’t deserved. Because it is In bunches. And blaming the process doesn’t make it any better

In light of the backlash from all corners of the NFL and beyond, some members of the selection committee have felt compelled to publicly reveal their vote and explain why they voted the way they did. Among them was even one of the 11 who didn’t vote for Belichick. He said he had no anti-Belich-

ick sentiment but instead blamed the voting process set forth under the by-laws of the Hall.

In case you are unaware, here is how the process works:

The committee is given five candidates who have been advanced by sub-committees in three separate categories — three seniors (L.C Greenwood, Ken Anderson, Roger Craig), one contributor (Robert Kraft) and one coach (Belichick)

The 50-person committee is then asked to vote for three of the candidates in no particular order

This vote is independent of the one in which modern-era players are selected for induction.

To be elected, a candidate has to receive at least 80% of the votes, or, in this instance, 40 of the 50. Belichick, according to a published report, did not. He received 39.

But if Belichick didn’t receive at least 40 votes, who did?

According to the by-laws, at least one candidate has to be selected.

If none of the five candidates received at least 80% of the votes, the one who received the most votes will be elected. So, if Belichick was informed by someone with knowledge of the vote he wasn’t elected, then that would mean some other candidate received more votes than the coach who won six Super Bowls.

And, yes, that is embarrassing.

To me, the process isn’t that confounding. In fact, it’s simple. You start with the most Hall of Fame-worthy candidate — Belichick. That is the purpose of the process. Then pick two more.

Continued from page 1C

working, fix it — immediately There’s something to be said for patience, but too often the Saints have resisted change or been too slow to act.

Personnel vision

The Patriots and Seahawks arguably had the best player-procurement offseasons of any teams in the league. Both were aggressive and enjoyed extraordinarily high strike rates.

The Seahawks traded Geno Smith and DK Metcalf and signed Sam Darnold, Cooper Kupp and DeMarcus Lawrence in free agency They selected Grey Zabel and Nick Emmanwori in the first two rounds of the draft. All five were impact additions.

The Patriots, meanwhile, spent more money in free agency than any team in football. The headline additions were defensive tackle Milton Williams, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, cornerback Carlton Davis, edge rusher Harold Landry, linebacker Robert Spillane, offensive tackle Morgan Moses and center Garrett Bradbury All are starters. They shored up the offense in the draft by selecting left tackle Will Camp-

bell, running back TreVeyon Henderson guard Jared Wilson and receiver Kyle Williams. Credit to Patriots GM Eliot Wolf and Seahawks GM John Schneider They didn’t just acquire talent. They had clear visions for each acquisition Roster management doesn’t get much better than this.

Sacred cows don’t exist In his first offseason Vrabel released Jabrill Peppers and traded Keion White, Kyle Dugger, Ja’Lynn Polk and Joe Milton All were starters and/or key draft picks from previous regimes.

The Seahawks did the same after MacDonald took over in 2024 In Year 1, they released starting safeties Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs, and allowed beloved star linebacker Bobby Wagner to leave via free agency Last offseason, they overhauled the offense, cutting Tyler Lockett, a fan favorite, and trading Smith and Metcalf.

Some of these moves were related to scheme fits, others were financial decisions. Regardless, the point is neither team worried about optics or outside perception when making the calls.

Culture matters

Culture talk has become cliché in the NFL Seem-

ingly every team preaches about the positive vibes of its locker room and the healthy culture within it. But the talk in Seattle and New England is real.

Their players universally praise the servant leadership style of MacDonald and Vrabel. The positive culture fostered by both men created buy-in, which in turn gave them the runway to instill the discipline and accountability needed to win. The latter doesn’t happen without the former Vrabel’s players respond positively to his unsparing film review sessions because he’s fair and egalitarian in his criticism. They also know he cares. The Seahawks have adopted a “M.O.B. Ties” mantra — an acronym for Mission Over B.S Seattle players praise the inclusive leadership of MacDonald and Schneider Everyone’s role is valued, even the office assistants. The Saints are good here. The positive culture Kellen Moore has fostered helped the team survive its 1-8 start. Emphasizing special teams Seattle fielded the best special teams in the NFL this season. Its Week 3 rout of the Saints was fueled by a punt-return touchdown by Tory Horton and a blocked punt that set up another score. Seahawks kicker Jason

Myers led the league in scoring. Punter Michael Dickson was a secondteam All-Pro. And return specialist Rashid Shaheed, whom Seattle acquired via a midseason trade with the Saints, returned two kicks for scores. Improving special teams

But what’s unfair is what happened.

As for the demands to have the Hall of Fame make public the votes of the selection committee, well, that is no different than Steelers fans wanting Mike Tomlin to be more transparent during his weekly news conferences, as though they are “owed” an honest answer

This whole mess has placed the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a precarious, unflattering position. But it’s not because of the process. It’s because of a failure to vote for the one person who most deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, above all the others.

Sure, maybe picking two of the remaining four isn’t easy Maybe there’s sentiment for players who have waited a long time to be enshrined. Maybe you think it’s unfair

was one of Vrabel’s top priorities in Year 1. He used draft capital obtained from the Milton trade to select two specialists: kicker Andy Borregales and long snapper Julian Ashby

It’s no coincidence the Patriots and Seahawks were two of three NFL teams to have three kick/punt returns for touchdowns this season. The Saints ranked near the bottom of the league in nearly every special-teams metric. Improving “teams” has to be a top offseason priority for Moore and staff.

A NEW FRONTIER

Skenes on quest to ‘revolutionize’ how baseball players train

BY JASON MACKEY Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla The pop of a catcher’s mitt mixed with saws screeching and hammers pounding provides an appropriate soundtrack inside Paul Skenes’ offseason workout facility, a baseball-lover’s paradise and an encapsulation of his personality

It’s striking but not fancy, the same way Skenes commands attention but doesn’t seek it. Or how he’s confident without being cocky Watch Skenes go through a workout here, and that juxtaposition is hard to ignore, especially the gobs of expensive pitching technology sitting atop a rubber floor Skenes argued (unsuccessfully) against having, the Pirates’ ace talked out of sticking with the “gritty” feel of concrete.

Then there are the walls: plain black aside from an American flag — and, yes, that’s intentional Nothing from winning a NCAA national championship, National League Rookie of the Year or his Cy Young Award. Skenes doesn’t want the distraction because he’s here to work, to improve, to obsess over competition and hopefully to revolutionize the way people think about baseball training.

“Don’t get me wrong, I want the facility to be nice, but it’s function over form,” Skenes said. “It’s doing the job rather than looking like you’re doing the job.”

Skenes has everything he wants here, along with a familiar face in Derek Groomer who was on LSU’s staff when the Tigers won that national title and now works every day with Skenes and others, diving deep into baseball’s endless nuance.

What Skenes and Groomer have created is part training facility and part test lab, a way to prepare for this upcoming season but also a vehicle to push boundaries.

All of it points to Skenes far exceeding the best-pitcher-in-baseball label he has rightly earned Paul Skenes is looking for more. A lot more.

“He’s trying to revolutionize the game with how players train, execute and compete,” Groomer said, describing Skenes’ love of learning and doing whatever he can to gain an edge.

“He employs newer concepts but still relies on a lot of older mechanics and older techniques. It’s all kind of a mixture. But his biggest thing is that he wants to push. He wants to be leading the curve forward.

“The ideas that we’ve come up with in four years, people would be like, ‘That’s absolutely insane.’ Then we’ve figured it out and executed it.”

Skenes has a slightly different description with how he thinks about his ultimate goal. To quote a movie that features another version of baseball-boundary pushing in “Moneyball,” complacency is the moon to Skenes

“Guys want to get to the show, but the work is what got you there,” Skenes said. “The way I think about it, I want to do something bigger.”

‘Very high level of intent’

The facility where Skenes trains sits in a nondescript office park, next to a printing company. There are no signs. You can’t see in the windows.

It’s a space Groomer leased just two months ago and one that’s still very much under construction. That rubber floor went down last week. There’s a row of golf simulators — the sport is the closest thing Skenes has to a hobby — that’ll be finished by the end of January

The space is part of a private training company run by Groomer that serves roughly 30 clients throughout professional baseball and does it well. There’s a NewtForce mound to measure ground force. TrackMan technology captures pitch and body movements. There’s every piece of workout equipment a player could want or need.

Called “The Facility” by Skenes and “No Brand” by Groomer (because it caters to players individually), the training space that probably won’t be named later is very nice — it just prioritizes business over show work over what’s known in baseball parlance as “eyewash.”

In other words, exactly how Groomer’s top client and his endlessly curious confidant wants it.

Certainly not talking bad about any other facility, but it can become a social thing,” Skenes said.

“This isn’t social.”

The dozen or so people who came and went over the course of a day made for a busier-than-normal Sunday, Skenes said. There’s also a noticeable absence of music whenever Skenes works, the pitcher preferring quiet.

The only noise involves short conversations between him and Groomer or catcher Tyler O’Clair over what might be happening during a bullpen.

“Body good there?” Skenes asked Groomer at one point, asking him to check on real-time Trackman data from cameras positioned around the place.

“Yeah, really good,” Groomer answered

A question for O’Clair squatting 60 feet, 6 inches away came after Skenes fired a breaking ball during

his bullpen: “Shorter with a little more depth?”

“He has a very high level of intent with everything he does,” O’Clair said. “Whether it’s mobility medicine balls or whatever it may be, he’s just very purposeful with all of his actions and movements.

“He wants everything to be ironed out and feel really good. If there’s a small hiccup, it can be addressed and worked with right away.”

That way of operating traces back to Skenes’ time at LSU with Groomer and former Tigers pitching coach Wes Johnson, when Skenes learned pitching involved a lot more than throwing a baseball hard.

‘It’s a no-brainer’

“It’s really easy to throw 100,” Skenes says casually over lunch — curry salmon with rice — at a nearby coffee shop, a statement that doesn’t ring quite as true for others as it does for him But he was making a point.

Pitchers nowadays can throw everything they have into a pitch to try and light up a radar gun. Many do. But the trick becomes doing it over and over again in a way that preserves arm health.

It’s why Skenes loves this stuff.

As much as he trains to compete and remain the best in the world at his job, he’s also interested in the science behind pitching, the way his stride or glove hand work, how he generates torque and force, the path his arm takes or the data gleaned from smart mounds.

One reason: Skenes is smart. Very smart. Another: He’s ridiculously competitive, always searching for an edge.

That combination of traits, along with a few others, is why he’s grown close to Groomer, who originally went to the University of Missouri-Kansas City for medical school, quit to play professional tennis, then got into baseball performance and helped the Mets start a minor league sport science

department in 2019. After serving as LSU’s head of baseball performance/sport science coordinator, he went to Georgia with Johnson as its head of baseball sports performance

With every throw Skenes makes, whether it’s a medicine ball, a plyometric ball or a baseball, Groomer stands in front of a computer screen and TV monitor, analyzing visual and numeric data on the tiniest of body movements, ensuring Skenes’ torso and limbs are moving in a way that’s healthy and sustainable.

Much like he would at PNC Park, Skenes worked through his warmup routine — stick mobility, a water bag strapped to his shoulders, tossing a football and more — every ounce of it crafted with a purpose. But there’s also an oldschool element to Skenes’ work.

“History is important,” Groomer said. “But pushing the edge is where the newer concepts start to blend with how you train and compete in a game.”

The latest frontier for Skenes and Groomer involves golf, a sport Skenes has recently starting to play and is also convenient given the location of the facility

A few doors down is where PGA pros such as Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood train. The same for Charlie Woods, Tiger’s son. How golfers rely on and leverage technology fascinates Skenes, from the numbers culled relative to swing speed and ball flight to how their bodies must be in sync to generate so much club speed.

Skenes has enjoyed learning about how golfers train and plans to dive even deeper when the simulators are installed.

“In my mind, it’s a no-brainer,” Skenes said. “It’s an investment in ourselves. I don’t understand the data. But I have somebody in Derek who does. If I didn’t have him, it would be useless. But I have him. Now, whatever we want to create, we know the people who

can create it. We’ll learn whatever we have to learn.”

‘Have to love it’

The obsession with getting better can be tough to manage, Skenes admitted while taking another bite of salmon and thinking back to everything he and girlfriend Livvy Dunne have done this offseason. They went to Italy and Hawaii, California and New Jersey There was a recent trip to Buffalo, where Skenes enlisted the help of a Canisius University catcher to squeeze in a bullpen at the Bills practice facility

The intensity never wanes.

“I think Liv probably gets tired of traveling with me,” Skenes said “We might spend four days somewhere, but it’s really two because half of each day the morning — is for me to train. We don’t get mornings. She can do whatever she needs to do in the morning But we do not get mornings.”

Even in the offseason, Skenes works through a six-day routine, the same as if he were starting: high-intensity bullpen with multiple innings, a day off, light throwing and lifting, a bullpen and another lift, then catch play, a primer lift and into another “game.”

If he has thoughts on training tweaks, he might fire off a text to Groomer If it’s Pirates-related, he’ll tap something out on his phone to manager Don Kelly as a way to not recycle the same thoughts over and over in his head.

As much as he likes to remain in the moment, when Skenes sporadically pokes his head above water to catch his breath, he’s amazed at everything he’s been able to learn and accomplish in such a short time.

“I think it’s how I’ve always been, at least over the past few years,” Skenes said. “But I can’t push anything if I don’t have someone else to help me push it.

“Now we know the people, we have the stuff, and we have the idea and a greater vision to make it happen. It’s gonna be interesting. Everything’s evolving. Where’s the game gonna be in five years?” Likely with Skenes in the middle of it, though the individual awards will only mean so much. Team success matters infinitely more. So does the idea of doing the work, grinding and trying to find better ways to train, never satisfied. It was actually a trip back to Air Force this past season that reminded Skenes of that. Back in August, the Pirates played the Rockies at Coors Field. During that series, Skenes, former pitching coach Oscar Marin, bullpen catcher Jordan Comadena and a few others visited Air Force Academy Surrounded by cadets, Skenes watched Air Force coach Mike Kazlausky go around and ask everyone their “why.”

It’s easy to have that and feel optimistic in spring training, Skenes told himself. But it’s when you’re surrounded by black walls, when the construction equipment is going and hardly anyone is watching that’s what sets the great ones apart.

“I’d play baseball in front of zero fans,” Skenes said. “I think it’s probably the same thing with every industry Successful people are successful people. They all live their life the same way You have to be very clear on what your purpose is while showing up to work. And you have to love it.”

White Sox embrace higher expectations with young core intact

BY ANDREW SELIGMAN Associated Press

CHICAGO Colson Montgomery grew up in Indiana rooting for the Hoosiers and committed to play baseball for them before the Chicago White Sox made the slugging shortstop a first-round pick in the 2021 draft. Fair to say he’s inspired by the football team’s transformation under coach Curt Cignetti. In just two seasons, Indiana’s gone from doormat to national champion.

“Cignetti kind of summed it up,” Montgomery said Friday before the team kicked off its fan festival.

“He said Indiana University football just won the national championship. It can be done.”

The White Sox believe they are poised to turn a corner General manager Chris Getz said this week he expects the team to take “a meaningful step forward” after three straight 100-loss seasons. The players echoed that on Friday when the team kicked off its weekend fan festival

“It’s great,” right-hander Davis Martin said “I love the energy that we have and I think everyone in the clubhouse feels it So the fact that it’s emanating outside the clubhouse into the community into the city is great. But all of us know at the end of the day, wins matter You’ve got to go win games.”

The White Sox haven’t done much of that in recent years. They made the playoffs in 2020 and 2021 with young stars like Tim Anderson and Luis Robert leading the way, only to unravel.

The White Sox are coming off back-to-back last-place finishes in the AL Central. They went 60-102 in manager Will Venable’s first season. But as bad as that sounds, they made a 19-game improvement over 2024, when they finished 41121 and set a modern major league record for losses.

Last season, there were at least some promising developments.

Right-hander Shane Smith made the All-Star team as a rookie, and Montgomery catcher Kyle Teel and versatile infielder Chase

Meidroth all showed potential after making their debuts.

“I think we used last year as a good foundation,” Smith said. Montgomery belted 21 homers in 71 games Teel, who hit .273 in 78 games, showed the potential to hit for power and the ability to keep runners at bay with his arm.

“It didn’t quite satisfy us,” Montgomery said. “It just made us (feel) like, OK, we think this is what we can do. And now, we just want to be able to sustain it for a 162-game season.”

It’s not just the young players the White Sox have returning. They also made a series of moves in the offseason, most notably signing Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami and trading center fielder Luis Robert Jr to the New York Mets. They acquired infielder Luisangel Acuña and minor league pitcher Truman Pauley in that deal.

The White Sox used some of the financial flexibility they got in the Robert deal to sign veteran reliever Seranthony Domínguez. He figures to close for them.

consecutive last-place fi

“It’s all going in the right direction,” right-hander Davis Martin said. “But at the end of the day, you’re in the big leagues, you’ve still got to do your job. I think there’s been plenty of times where teams get hyped up and they fall short of expectations. And I think for us we’re not really worried about anything except just going out and playing the game and seeing where we end up after nine innings.”

Rybakina wins Australian Open by beatingNo. 1Sabalenka

BY JOHN PYE AP sportswriter

MELBOURNE, Australia

Elena Rybakina finally wonher second Grand Slam title with avictory over top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka at the Australian Open on Saturday,and it was somethingof a testament to quiet achievers.

After some tumult at thestart of 2025, including the suspension of her coach, Rybakina finishedoff last year with atitle at the WTA FinalsinNovember.And nowshe has started the new year with a major championship.

Her low-key celebrationwas symbolic of her understatedrun through the tournament:asmall fist pump, aquick embrace with Sabalenka, ahandshake with the chair umpire, asmile,and afew hand claps on the strings of her racketand awave to acknowledge the crowd.

It happened quicklyafter Rybakina closed with an acetocap a third-set comeback and a6-4,4-6, 6-4 win over aregular rival who beat her in the final here in 2023.

“The heart rate was definitely beating too fast. Even maybe (my) face didn’tshow,but inside it was alot of emotions,” the 26-year-old Rybakina, who was born in Moscowbut represents Kazakhstan, said of her calm and clinical finish She knew she had to capitalize quickly this time, after she admitted getting tight and needing almost ahalf-hour from her first match point to her match-winning point in asemifinal win over Jessica Pegula.

Three years ago, Rybakina won the first set of the Australian final but lost it in three.

This time, after breaking in the first game and takingthe first set, she rallied after losing thesecond setand going down 3-0 in the third. She won five straight games toregain control.

“It gives me akind of relief,” she said, “also, alot of confidence for sure for the rest of the season.”

It was asecond major titlefor fifth-seeded Rybakina, who won Wimbledon in 2022 and entered that Australian finalthree years

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By AARON FAVILA

Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan kisses the trophyafter defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarustowin thewomen’ssingles final at the Australian Open on SaturdayinMelbourne, Australia. It was the second career Grand Slam title for Rybakina.

ago as the only major winnerin the contest.

While Sabalenka wentontowin another three majors, including back-to-backtriumphs in Australia and the 2024 and ’25 victories at theU.S. Open, Rybakina’sresults dipped and she didn’treach another major final until this tournament.

Career change

Awin over Sabalenka at the season-ending WTAFinals has changed her careertrajectory.She has the most match wins on tour since Wimbledon, and is now on a roll of 20 wins from 21 matches.

“Last year Ididn’tstartsowell,” shesaid.“Iqualified for the (WTA) Finalslate. Ijust hope Ican carry this momentum. Do agood job with the teamand continue this way.”

Rybakina is 10-0 in herlast 10 matches against Top10players, and she’ll returntoNo. 3inthe rankings.

Kazakhstan’sflag wasunfurled on thecourt at Rod Laver Arena after Rybakinahad paraded the trophy aroundand posedfor photos with herteam.

Coaching team

She paidtribute to her coach, StefanoVukov, who spent time under suspension last year by the women’stour. Vukovreceived a silver plate from thetournament

organizers for being the champion’scoach.

“Of course Iwould like to thank my team,” she said. “Without you it wouldn’thave been possible. Really.Wehad alot of things going on (last year). Thank you to all of you, and hopefully we can keep on going strong this year

“It’s awin forall the team,all the people who support me,” she said.

“I just hope thatI can carry this moment throughout the whole season and keep on improving.”

She said she’d been working Vukovsince 2019 and shefinds it helpful to hear the constant stream of technical and tactical advice he conveys from hisseat beside the court. The more, thebetter, she said,because eventually shelistens.

“Wewon manytitlestogether,”

Rybakina said. “And even last year in Ningbo, WTAFinals, and nowthis trophy Ifelt just, again, proud and thankful to my team for thework.”

Winsome. Lose some

For Sabalenka, it’s back-to-back losses in the final in Australia after going down in an upset last year to Madison Keys.

“Ofcourse, Ihave regrets. When you lead 3-Loveand then it felt like in fewseconds it was 3-4, andIwas down with abreak—itwas very fast,” she said. “Great tennis from her.Maybe not so smart for me.

Staff report

Shreveport native Christian Harrison andNealSkupskiof Britainwon themen’s doubles trophy at the Australian Open on Saturday Harrison finishedoff hisfirst GrandSlam title with an ace on matchpoint to give histeam a win in the men’s final7-6 (4), 6-4 over the AustralianpairofJason Kubler and Marc Polmans. Kubler went into the match with a14-3 doubles record at his home major Harrison andSkupski,who bothcompeted at last year’sATP Finals with different partners, joined as ateam forthe first time in Adelaide earlier this month, where they reachedthe semifinals.

“For me,it’sjust simple,” Harrison said. “The trophies, the tournaments are just anice bonus. Iloveplaying. Honestly,I just lovestepping on thecourt andjusthaving agood atmosphere. That’shonestly what makes it just simple forme.”

Skupski, whoplayed tennis collegiately at LSU,said that despite thepro-Australiancrowd at Rod LaverArena,heand Harrison handled the pressure well. “Weknuckleddown andhad to bringour best level,” Skupski said. “This will definitely improve us, give us experience and know what to do next time. Especially in front of acrowd that, like today,was incredible.” In their first Grand Slam event as ateam, Skupski andHarrison became thesecondAmericanBritish team in history to win a Grand Slam men’sdoubles title Furthermore, Skupski is now the fourth British player in the Open Eratowin the Australian Open men’s doubles title, ll while dropping only one set during theentire competition. Skupski has advanced to at least the quarterfinals in five major appearances since his last Grand Slam title at 2023 Wimbledon. On Saturday,his third finals appearanceinthe last four Grand Slamsended with achampionship.

LIVING

Aspider’sweb remindsme that wonder endures

Last December,inthe quiet week between Christmas and January,Iwalked afew blocks to my office and put awaythe holiday decorations for another year.Iknew the place would be empty on that weekend morning, which meant Icould work without much fuss. Taking downChristmas stuff, like unpacking asuitcase or cleaning up after aparty,isbestdone quickly so that life can move on.

My first chore was unplugging the lights on our outdoor tree, apond cypress that our office staff had planted afew years ago. I’ve written about our pond cypress before. They’rea popular species in Louisiana because they stand up well to wind and drought. We had gathered outside and tucked one in the ground after the pandemic as a memorial to the lives claimed by the tragedy

Atough littletree seemed like afitting reminder of what resilience can be.

While unlooping astrand of lights from thecypress,Inoticed abig spider web among the branches. The day was warm and gray,and the neighborhood was wreathed in fog.

Like asail catching the wind, the web had gathered the dampness of the air,and the spider silk

ä See AT RANDOM, page 4D

POLITICAL PAGEANTRY

Here’s howLouisiana’s festival queens representthe stateatWashingtonMardi Gras

BY LAUREN CHERAMIE Staff writer

hen Louisiana festi-

NOTE WORTHY

Watchout for Louisiana’s finest during theGrammyAwards

Staff report

It’s called music’sbiggestnight

“The 68th Annual Grammy Awards” will air live at 7p.m. Sunday on CBS, and as is tradition, artists with Louisiana ties populate the nominees list.

Baskin native Lainey Wilson has three nominations, while Addison Rae, formerly of Lafayette,has one— for bestnew artist. She’salso one of the evening’sperformers.

But that’sonly the start.

Other Louisiana-connected nominees include: Jon Batiste, Branford Marsalis,Ledisi,PJ Morton, Lil Wayne, KyleRoussel,Corey Henry&the Treme Funktet, Preservation Brass & Preservation HallJazz Band, Trombone Shorty &the New Breed Brass Band, Samantha Fish, Jesse Dayton,BobbyRush, Kenny Wayne Shepherd,Buddy Guy and Darrel Walls. Various artists contributed to asalute to music legend Clifton Chenier,“ATribute to the King of Zydeco,” which also is nominated. Trevor Noah hosts the ceremonies from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show also streams live and on demand on Paramount+.

Wval queensdescend upon the nation’s capital each year for Washington Mardi Gras, theyfasten their crowns, unfurl their trains, adjust their mantlesand readythemselvesfor ajam-packed schedule.

Over three days, the goal for many of thefestival queens is to advocate for their respective industries withleadersand stakeholderswho gather in thespiritof Mardi Gras.

“We’re not just these girls who wear theseshiny crowns andsmile and look pretty,” said Ponchatoula Strawberry Queen AubreyBrumfield. “It’snot allaboutthe ballgown andthe heels.”

Each year,the number of festivalqueensinD.C.differs.While the event was established in 1944, it wasn’t until 1948 that seven festival queens attended for thefirst time: LouisianaSugar Cane Festival, MaineWhite Potato Festival, International Rice Festival, Louisiana Yambilee Festival, Louisiana Strawberry Festival, Plaquemines

The column that Carl Weiss stood behind while waiting for U.S. Sen. HueyP.Longto pass the governor’soffice —in the background —is punctured by abullet hole resultingfromthe spray of bullets from Long’s bodyguards’ guns on Sept. 8, 1935.

Plaquemines Parish OrangeFestival

Queen 2023Catherine Elizabeth

Parish Orange Festival and City of New Orleans Festival.

This year,24Louisianafestivals will send queens to Washington, along with queens from otherMardi Gras krewes andassociations, according to MaryJane “Cookie” Brit-

tain Richardson, asenior lieutenant with Washington Mardi Gras.

In 1990, Richardsonwas the Washington Mardi Gras Queen. Being afestival queen and attending WashingtonMardi Gras canhavea lastingimpact.Dana Topham, of Lafayette, first attended WashingtonMardi Gras as the 1988 Yambilee Festival Queen.

“Itwas thefirsttimeI traveled outofthe state in aplane,and I went solo. My parentscouldn’tafford to come,” Topham said. “We were treated like royalty with full access, including walking in the Oval Office. Ieven climbeda tree in theWhiteHouse frontlawn times have changed since then.” Topham says the trip opened up the way she saw the world, gave hera more globalperspective and an understanding of government that she just didn’thave before.

In 2025, Topham’sdaughter,Olivia Topham,was one of 25 festival queens. Olivia Tophampresented as arepresentative of the Order of the Troubadours from Lafayette. For Brumfield, this year’sWashington Mardi Gras is not her first rodeo.

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

Krewe of Tucumcari

The Krewe of Tucumcari gathered on Jan. 17 for a royalty party to honor the 2026 royal court. Shown are, from left, seated, King James Keith Crousillac, Page Adelaide Amey Crousillac, Queen Wesley Elizabeth Shortess, Ball Captain Robert ‘Robby’ Shortess and Page Mary Cate Crawford; standing, dukes and maids John Listle, Malena Listle Victor Howell, Kathryn Leah Howell, James ‘Jim’ Mitchell, Harper Kateyn Moore Hunter Grimes, Sarah Renee Grimes, Claire Francis Tramonte, Charlie Tramonte, Peyton Brooke Elia, Patrick Elia, Karassa Rane Davis and Robbie Robinson.

The Krewe of Tucumcari celebrates its royalty

The Krewe of Tucumcari gathered for a royalty party on Jan 17 to honor the 2026 Royal Court.

Hosted by the Ladies of Tucumcari Auxiliary at the home of Jim and Colette Mitchell in Round Oak Subdivision,

members of the 2026 court received the toast of Tucumcari in advance of the annual tableau and ball. King and Queen Tucumcari LXXVII

Mark Thomas Warrington and Annabel Kate Warrington, his daughter; maids from the 2025 Court, Annelise Scardina, Georgia Grace Theriot, Macey Marie Theriot and Charlotte Jane Wood and duke, Phillip Craig Scardina, joined

the royal toast for King Tucumcari LXXVIII James Keith Crousillac and Queen Tuccumcari LXXVIII Wesley Elizabeth Shortess

The krewe holds an annual tableau ball 10 days before Mardi Gras at the Raising Cane’s River Center Founded in 1947, it’s the oldest Mardi Gras krewe in Baton Rouge.

Chapter AA

Members of P.E.O Chapter AA welcomed new member Daphne Toney at its Jan. 8 meeting Shown are, from left, Mimi Clunan, vice-president; Carmen Porta, corresponding secretary; Susan Villarreal,

guard;

secretary;

Nicole Palmer, treasurer; and Nancy Hubiak, chaplain.

Members of the Iota Master Chapter of

International recently delivered a donation of

gifts and bingo prizes to Landmark South Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Baton Rouge.

are Pat Buturla, left, service co-chair, Iota Master Sorority member of Beta Sigma Phi International; and Delores Dufour, activities director

and Gilda McDowell.

COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

The Community column runs Sundays in the Living section and accepts submissions for news of events that have taken place with civic, philanthropic, social and religious auxiliary organizations, as well as academic honors.

Submissions should be sent by noon Monday to run in the upcoming Sunday column. If submitting digitally, we prefer JPG files 300KB or larger We prefer emailed Community column submissions to features@theadvocate.com.We also accept submissions by mail at P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge LA 70821.A phone number must be

Charity Ball Association presents 12 debutantes

The Charity Ball Association of Baton Rouge presented 12 young women at its annual Le Bal de Noel on Dec. 28 at Crowne Plaza. Association President Shelton Jones and Ball Chairwomen Katie Goodson and Brooke Staley welcomed several hundred guests.

Introduced by emcee Loren Kleinpeter at the annual Le Bal de Noel

were:

n Amelia Rae Boudreaux, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Michael Shane Boudreaux, escorted by Ryan Michael Boudreaux

n Avery Caroline Bruce, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Ross David Bruce, escorted by Brock Wyatt Perry

n Ella Rose Fife, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Derek James Fife, escorted by Bradley Louis Fife

n Elizabeth Claire Gordon, daughter of Mr and Mrs Charles Malcolm Gordon Jr., escorted by Andrew Edison Sexton

n Margaret Virginia Harrell, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Christopher Lawrence Harrell, escorted by William Cooper Harrell

n Mary Clayton Jumonville, daughter of Mr and Mrs Clayton Templet Jumonville, escorted by Phillip Spikes Juban

n Isabella Elise Lalonde, daughter of Drs. Elise and James Lalonde Jr., escorted by James Allen Lalonde III

n Margaret Stuart Ritter, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Scott Andrew Ritter, escorted by John Morgan Ritter

n Savannah Jane Saia, daughter of Mr. and Mrs Bradley Joseph Saia escorted by Stephen Joseph Saia

n Emily Camille Veillon, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Edward Warner Veillon Jr., escorted by Edward Warner Veillon III

n Lila Morgan Weston, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Jefferey Morgan Weston, escorted by Davis John Weston

n Avery Elise Yeargain, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Steele Yeargain III, escorted by Robert Steele Yeargain IV

All debutantes were presented by their fathers. After toasting their daughters, they shared the first dance. The second dance was reserved for the debutantes and their escorts. Over the past 69 years, the Charity Ball Association has been dedicated to supporting numerous charitable organizations in the Baton Rouge area. Charity Ball has contributed more than half a million dollars to a variety of initiatives This year’s recipient is First Tuesday, a community initiative that inspires businesses to give back in a different, heartfelt way On the first Tuesday of every month, teams from various businesses volunteer with local nonprofits to support their missions of making Greater Baton Rouge a healthy, vibrant community

This year’s Charity Ball Association board included President Shelton Jones; Vice President Kristen Spring; ball chairmen Katie Goodson and Brooke Staley; ball production, Katey Bergeron and Juliet Boyce; and debutante liaisons Courtney Newbill and Gretchen Q-Peterson.

TRAVEL

Relaxand reconnectinGulfport, Miss.

Shortdrive still offers plenty of thingstodo

BY JOYHOLDEN Staff writer

Sometimes, aquiet weekend in Gulfport, Mississippi, is the best solution to reconnect with along-lost friend. Just aclose drive away,astay at a1950s cabin only two blocks from the beach checks off the boxes for acomforting weekend. Gulfport —two hours from Baton Rouge —is nearby for aserene stay on the coast.

For those who want to party and celebrate, Biloxi is just afew interstate exits away, but forthose who want to play games, create vision boards, catch up on movies, drink coffee on a screened-in porch, walk on thebeach and eat good seafood, Gulfport will do the trick.

The Knotty Pine, a charming beach cottage on Airbnb, is atwo-bedroom, one-bath home fullof character.The cottage has floor-to-ceiling knotty pine siding, which feels warm andnostalgic. This retreatstyle cottage even includes agame room with afunctioning old-school pinball machine. Located afew streets from U.S. 90, also known as Beach Boulevard, the KnottyPine is awalkable distance to the beach for scenic exercise or beach picnics. Beach Boulevard is ascenic, 26-mile highway that stretchesalong the Gulf, offering coastal views and beach access. Along Beach Boulevard are stately homes among large oak trees right acrossfrom the

beach. When it comes to dining out,one popular local spot is Shaggy’s, located on Beach Boulevard. Shaggy’s offers scenic views and abright, open-air restaurant with afriendly atmosphere. The fish tacos and beachy cocktails come highly recommended in addition to all the other fresh seafood on the menu. For breakfast, brunch or lunch, Blue Dog Bistro is acharming spot for avarietyofdiners. Whether the guest is paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian or has asweet tooth, this bistroprides itselfonhaving several op-

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER

By ChristopherElliott

tionsfor any customer

Their menu is cleverly split into“Good Dog” and “Bad Dog” sections, for either healthy or decadent items

The spinach and mushroom frittata with spinach, free-range eggs, oyster mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and Parmesan cheese is on theGood Dog side, while the free-range skillet with eggs, Cochon pork, bell pepper,onion, fried potatoes, oyster mushrooms and cheddar cheese is on theBad Dog side. Their blueberry ricotta pancakes are recommended as well. Oneway to pass the time

is to stop by CoastRoast, an industrial-style brick coffee shop near downtown for some rich coffee or flavored tea.

After stopping for acaffeine pick-me-up,visitors can go shopping, either at Thriftique, alocal antique market, or GulfportPremier Outlets.

For acasual dinner downtown,Tony’sBrick Oven Pizza has an Italian menu with appetizers like antipasto skewers andarancini, sandwiches,salads and pizzas —including a gumbo pizza with spicy file roux, shrimp,crab meat, andouille sausage, rustic

tomatoesand sliced okra.

Forvisitors with interests like trains, planes and sealife,Gulfport has aselectionofmuseums.

Traintastic TrainMuseum, formerly known as Mississippi CoastModel Railroad Museum, has a combinationofmodel train displays in various sizes, STEAM-inspired activities for young andold and interactive train exhibits.

The Mississippi Aviation Museum highlights the adventuresofthe first African American pilottofight in combat in the Ethiopian

War, JohnC.Robinson, the “Brown Condor.” Other Mississippi aviationpioneersare also celebrated in the 33,000-square-foot museum, as well as historical artifacts, audio/visual media andreal airplanes.

The Mississippi Aquarium, on Beach Boulevard, is an ideal place for families andfansofsea creatures. Atouch pool,multiple exhibits, abottlenose dolphin, American crocodiles, North American riverotters, green seaturtles and many otheranimals await visitors.

Gulfport may be more on the quietside of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but it’sa place to go forretreat and reconnection.

Email Joy Holdenatjoy holden@theadvocate.com.

AirFrancerejects baggageclaim forthe most ridiculous reason

D’Sa,WillowSprings, Ill.

Ineed your help with abaggagenightmare that’sbeen going on for months. Last year,I flew from Bangalore to Chicagoon Air France. One of my two checkedbags went missing But here’swhere it gets weird —the Air France representative at the airport asked me about a“third bag” that Inever checked.

Christopher Elliott

IhaveFlying Blue Silver status, which allows three bags, but I only checked two. My bag drop receiptclearly shows two bags.The missing bag contained three duffel bags —two smaller ones folded inside alarger Jaguar duffel from JCPenney.MyApple AirTag showed the bag never left Bangalore. I filed areportimmediately at O’Hare and followed up religiously.After threeweeks,I

gotaclaim number,and Isubmitted detailed receipts totaling $2,084 for the lost items. They were alllegitimatepurchases from Delsey Paris, JCPenneyand Nordstrom Rack with complete transaction details. Then came therunaround.Air France rejected all my receipts with the most ridiculous reasons I’ve everheard.Arepresentative said they don’t accept receipts that are“blurred,transactiondetails,online receipts, handwritten, credit card receipts, or screenshots. My receipts weren’tblurred —they were crystal clear PDFs andemails fromthe retailers. Nonewerehandwrittenorcredit card receipts.They were legitimate purchase confirmations with store names, item descriptions,prices, and order numbers. Under the Montreal Convention,Air France owes me upto$2,080 for lost baggage,but they’replayinggames with my legitimateclaim.Can youhelpmeget the full compensation I’m owed?— Gerardine

Air France should have honored your legitimatereceipts and paid your claim promptly under the Montreal Convention. International airlines are liable for lost baggage up to approximately $2,080 per passenger,and your documented lossesclearly fell within this limit

The receipt rejection policy you encountered is troublesome. Modern commerce relies heavily on electronic receipts, and Air France’sblanket rejection of “online receipts”and “transaction details” essentially renders most contemporarypurchase documentationinvalid. This appears designed to frustrate legitimate claims rather than verify them

Youhandled this correctly by

documenting everything immediately and maintaining adetailed paper trail. Youwere actually a textbook example of how to file a claim. Few passengers can show original receipts, whichfoils their claim. Another pro tip: Always photograph your bags with the tags before checking them and keep those bag drop receipts safe —they’re your proof of whatyou actually checked.

Youcan appeal baggage claim denials to Air France executives through our company contacts directoryonmyconsumer advocacy site,elliott.org. These contacts often have more authority than front-line customer service representatives. (You reached out to twoofthe executives, but one sent you aformresponse and the other ignored you. Toobad! They could

have avoided having astory written about them.)

When my advocacy team contacted Air France on your behalf, the airline initially claimed European privacy restrictions prevented them from discussing your case. However,after we pressed them and you filed aDepartment of Transportation complaint, they reconsidered their position. Air France offered to pay you $1,793 for your baggage, excluding some items such as electronics. Youaccepted its offer

Christopher Elliott is the founderofElliott Advocacy,a nonprofitorganizationthathelps consumers solvetheirproblems. Email himatchris@elliott.org or get help by contacting himon hissite.

Making memories, mini race cars worthy of the track

BY YVONNE BAHRY CABALLERO Contributing writer

My husband spent hours making Pinewood Derby cars with our sons Brent and Corey when they were Cub Scouts.

Human Condition

After watching a movie set within the race car industry, I thought about those days.

Each son, in turn, came home with a kit of supplies that would eventually be turned into a race car entered into the local Pinewood Derby competition. The kit contained a block of pine wood plastic wheels, stickers with numbers and metal axles. The cars had to weigh no more than 5 ounces, be 7 inches long and powered by gravity only

It took some time to trim that block of wood into the shape of a miniature race car that met the criteria for the contest. My sons were fascinated watching, then helping their Dad.

QUEENS

Continued from page 1D

In 2023, she was there as Miss Andouille for St. John the Baptist Parish. Only 17 at the time, she was one of the youngest in the group, but she says the experience taught her how to travel independently

She adds that Washington Mardi Gras can bring young festival queens out of their comfort zones, putting them in positions to speak to elected leaders and captains of industry

Brumfield says the festival queens “pour our hearts and souls” into representing and promoting their festivals and organizations. Louisiana Cattle Queen Isabelle Douet, who started her reign in May released a children’s book in October titled, “Bubba and the Cattle Queen’s Louisiana Adventure” about two characters who travel the state and learn about the cattle industry.

Douet is going to Washington Mardi Gras for the first time this year She has gone on six farm tours to meet with cattle producers to learn their concerns to share on her trip to D.C.

Douet said many of the cattle farmers expressed concern with President Donald Trump’s recent push to import beef from Argentina, saying that they would rather “let the industry level itself out” like it always has. She noted that the farmers would rather let supply and demand control the prices, instead of importing foreign beef to make prices cheaper.

One of Douet’s goals is to connect with senators and represen-

Several trips were made to the post office to weigh the car, each time returning home to trim or add a bit more weight until it hit that 5 ounces.

This activity was a time of fatherson bonding with my sons gathered around the workbench helping the

tatives and remind people of the importance of supporting local dairy and beef producers instead of shopping at big-box retailers.

“A lot of people think this is a vacation for us, but it’s definitely a job,” Douet said. “We are booked and busy the whole time.”

A festival queen’s schedule during Washington Mardi Gras consists of dinners, meet and greets with congress members, lunches an Arlington Cemetery tour, a captain’s dinner and dance, a grand ball and Louisiana Alive! — one of Brumfield’s favorite events that features Louisiana caterers, tourism groups and favorites like shrimp, boudin and king cake.

“Louisiana Alive is the night that it feels like you’re back home,” she said.

When the women return home after Washington Mardi Gras, they go back to their normal routines — traveling around the state with bejeweled crowns and sashes on the weekends and going to school during the week.

Douet, a senior at LSU, is studying animal science and hopes to attend vet school and become a large farm animal veterinarian.

Brumfield, a junior at Mississippi Valley State University, is studying biology and business and hopes to become an orthodontist.

But for one week out of the year they pack their bags, crowns and sashes to go to Washington, D.C., where they serve as diplomats for Louisiana’s culture and commodities.

Louisiana culture editor Jan Risher contributed to this report.

Email Lauren Cheramie at lauren.cheramie@theadvocate. com.

Continued from page 1D

shimmered with droplets of dew Glazed with sunlight, it hung from the tree like a small constellation, and the perfection of it consoled me with the thought that though Christmas was over, joy wasn’t something I had to put away with the baubles of Yuletide.

If my wife had been with me, she probably would have spied the spider web in the pond cypress before I did. She’s an expert web spotter, often pointing them out during breakfast on our patio. When she called one to my attention the other day, all I could see was an empty place within the shrubbery After I moved closer to my wife, the web revealed itself like a spirit parting a veil A fresh angle of light had allowed me to grasp what had, seconds ago, been invisible. I suppose all beauty is like that.

It’s not enough for it to be present; you have to be prepared to see it.

E.B. White, my favorite writer, touched on that truth in “Charlotte’s Web,” his celebrated children’s story in which a spider works words of inspiration into her web as a way to save a pig’s life When Dr Dorian, a local physician, is asked to explain how a spider can weave words, he shrugs, suggesting that any spider’s web is a brilliant mystery

“A young spider knows how to spin a web without any instructions from anybody,” he says.

“Don’t you regard that as a miracle?”

I recently mailed a copy of “Charlotte’s Web” to Cora, my goddaughter Danika’s new baby

I’d like her to know what I’m trying to remember — that wonder lives in any season, if only we take the time to look.

Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.

magic happen, the block of wood slowly becoming a mini race car worthy of big time racing notice. It was an experience that nurtured creativity and technical skills they would use in later life.

Fast forward to 1970 and Corey has advanced to Webelos standing

and wants to build a car for the Webelos Derby competition. This time, the car would be big enough for him to get into the driver’s seat and cruise down a hill and specifically outfitted for the contest, which considered the design as well as the speed of the car

My husband was hesitant at first, then became as excited as Corey

The two began to plan a design and make a list of needed materials. It was another time of bonding between them as a design took shape.

Our backyard became a manufacturing site, with wood, tools, adhesives, sandpaper and cans of paint stacked for the job. Again, it took hours cutting wood, assembling, sanding and painting the car, then attaching wheels. This was followed by more hours of adjustment, then practice-driving before the car was “race ready.”

The bright red and pristine white car was a beauty one that Corey was proud to enter into the race. Needless to say, his father was proud, too.

Contestants, parents and siblings gathered on the day of the race, as excited as viewers of a NASCAR event. Drivers were a bit nervous and their parents more so as the cars lined up at the starting line. A final push by volunteers sent them speeding down the ramp to the finish line. Volunteers stood along the route to help keep the cars in their individual lanes. A “master class” effort by all. Corey’s red and white beauty of car won the trophy for best design. All in all, a memorable experience indeed.

— Caballero lives in Baton Rouge.

Advocate readers may submit stories of about 500 words to The Human Condition at features@theadvocate.com or The Advocate, Features, 10705 Rieger Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70809. There is no payment, and stories will be edited. Authors should include their city of residence.

It’s been said that Gov. Richard Leche had the

reinstalled down the hall after he took offi

his office. Some historians argue that the

walls are simply imperfections in the

CURIOUS

Continued from page 1D

governor-turned-U.S. Senator Huey P. Long was shot by young Baton Rouge physician Carl Weiss is probably the top inquiry among children and, yes, adults.

It piqued Guy Luno’s curiosity, but not because he didn’t know where the bullet holes are located.

“The walls where Huey Long was assassinated used to have lots of bullet holes in them, and now there’s only one bullet hole in a column,” the Baton Rouge resident said. “What happened to the marble walls with the bullet holes in them?”

Where are the bullet holes now?

Many Baton Rouge-area adults remember acting on that irresistible urge to stick their fingers in the holes holes, some claim, that may not have been blasted into the marble by the explosion of bullets sprayed by Long’s bodyguards.

However, those holes still exist in the first floor hallway They can be found among official portraits of the state’s governors on the east side further down from where the shooting occurred.

he

aren’t

tions in the surface.

is

But if Leche did, indeed, have the panels moved, there was one bullet hole that couldn’t be relocated from his view It’s found in the column cater-corner from the double doors of the old governor’s office, which now serves as the office for the Speaker of the House.

“Huey’s desk is still in that office,” Tullier said. “And it’s used by the speaker.”

Bullets flew in 1935

The Long shooting took place on the night of Sept. 8, 1935. Though the clock was edging in on 9:30 p.m., the capitol was buzzing with people.

Weiss stood behind the now bullet-dented column and waited for Long, who walked toward the governor’s office from the eastern side of the hallway The doctor stepped into Long’s path, gun in hand.

Weiss got off a shot that hit Long before his own bullet-riddled body fell at the foot of the column. Weiss’ body was punctured by 61 bullet holes, all expelled from Long’s bodyguards’ .45 caliber pistols.

“We’ve heard that, possibly, some of the panels down the hall actually stood where the shooting happened,” Tullier said. “The story is that the next governor didn’t want to see a wall full of bullet holes when he walked out of his office, so he had them moved and installed down the hall.”

That next governor was Richard W. Leche, elected as Louisiana’s 44th governor in 1936. Holes or not, he didn’t have to worry about looking at the walls for long, trading them for prison walls after a 1939 conviction for misuse of federal funds.

Now, theories are conflicting about the holes in the hallway, with some researchers and historians saying the marble slabs aren’t original to the building, and the holes simply are imperfec-

Long immediately was hauled to Our Lady of the Lake Sanitorium, which stood directly behind the capitol on the bank of Capitol Lake. He was taken into surgery and died two days later on Sept. 10. That’s the official take on this story, which has generated contention through the years with some historians and investigators claiming that Weiss didn’t shoot Long.

A busted lip?

In the 1946 painting, “The Shooting of Huey Long,” New Orleans artist John McCrady depicts Long with a busted, bloody lower lip. The painting was commissioned by Life Magazine in 1939.

A copy of the painting serves as the centerpiece of a display in the capitol explaining the timeline of Long’s shooting and lends itself to some authors’ and historians’ theory that Weiss split Long’s bottom lip with his balled fist, thereby triggering the bodyguards.

and

The doctor’s .32 caliber Fabrique Nationale Model 1910 automatic pistol was never visible in the crime scene photos and, some historians say, it was later found in his car

Meanwhile, doctors and nurses attending to Long reported that he had a swollen lip. Melinda DeLange, the nurse who assisted doctors in the operating room, recounted in the 2014 documentary “61 Bullets” the story of a doctor asking Long about the swollen lip.

“He said, ‘That’s where he hit me,’ meaning Dr Weiss had hit him,” she said in the documentary

Weiss was at the capitol because he had a personal stake in an issue floating through the Legislature that night.

Long was in the process of gerrymandering Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy’s district in Opelousas. Pavy’s politics were antiLong, and Long didn’t tolerate dissent. Pavy was Weiss’ fatherin-law

Historians have surmised that Weiss stopped by the capitol to try to talk Long out of the gerrymandering. Did Weiss pull a gun or hit Long? Either way, bullets flew, creating strong speculation that Long was hit by his bodyguards’ bullets.

The Louisiana State Police launched its own investigation of the shooting in the 1990s, determining that Weiss fired the gun. The weapon was later donated to Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, where it’s displayed in the capitol’s “Legacy of Huey Long” exhibit.

As for Long, he’s buried in the center of Capitol Park beneath a marble pedestal topped by a bronze statue of himself gazing at the building that stands both as his legacy and his demise at age 42.

And the true bullet hole in the column, a testament to his downfall, still fascinates school kids today

Do you have a question about something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phone number and the city where you live.

KreweofRomanygetsintoa‘NewYorkState of Mind’

TheKrewe of Romany brought the magic of Manhattan to Baton Rouge as it celebrated its 76th annual Mardi Gras ball on Saturday at the Raising Cane’sRiver Center

This year’stheme was “New York State of Mind.” More than 1,500 attended.

Under the leadership of Ball Captain Ashley Day Fabre, guests were guided through her artistic vision —animmersive andsophisticated homage to New York City and its most iconiclandmarks.

Krewe member LaurenRegnerSmith appeared as ayoung woman arriving at JFK Airport to begin anew life in the city.She performed “Not for the Life of Me” from “ThoroughlyModern Millie.” Fabre represented Times Square.

Reigning over the festivities were Queen Romany LXXVI Amelia Catherine Lambert, representing the Statue of Liberty, and King Romany LXXVI Matthew Thomas Vaughn, representing Wall Street.

The queen was attendedby pages Adler Grace Grand, Alice Joelle Grand, Laikyn Renee Gwatneyand Eliana Joy Winans

The king’s pages included Duke Douglas Boyd, Mickey Joseph Boyd, Houston Kirk Pardon and Christian Keeton Ray Smith.

During the tableau, each maid also portrayed aNew York City landmark:

n Faye Malyn Buco as Coney Island

n Audrey Anna Greely as Yankee Stadium

n Lily Elizabeth Hayden as Central Park.

n Shaunnessy Ann Rose as Fifth Avenue

n Layton Alexandra Weems as Grand Central Station

“Louisiana Saturday Night” was the theme for the 46th annual Krewe of Cypress Carnival ball on Saturday at the Carl F. Grant Civic Center in Plaquemine.

Ball Captain Lauren Leach welcomed members and guests to afestive night that celebrated Louisiana’sunique culture and traditions.

The “Louisiana Spice Girls” entered the scene accompanied by two world-renowned chefs, all portrayedbyboard members: Ragan Pruitt as Slap Ya Mama, Suzanne Aucoin as Tabasco; Joey LeBlancasCrystal Hot Sauce; Kitty Martin as Tony Chachere’s, and Dr.Clare Berthelot as Louisiana Hot Sauce. Rollingin as Chef Paul Prudhommewas Jacob Wilbert,accompanied by Cecil “BAM!” Boudreaux as Chef Emeril Lagasse

The Louisiana Black Bears were portrayed by Amelia Cate Allemand.

Representing the queens of various festivals of Louisiana were Annalysse Guillory, Chloe Guillory,Sierra Lasalle, Madison Pierre, Juliana Rimes, Gabrielle Wilbert, Jax Millien, Rhys Millien, Addison Couch and Remmi Boudreaux.

Portraying the star of any Louisianafeast, the magnificentcrawfish, was Ryleigh McHenry Davis, escorted by krewe member Leon Guillory Men of the krewe —Carrie and

All maidswere formally escorted bytheir fathers. The2025 court was recognized as it took its final bow: Ball CaptainHeather Knost St. Germain, Queen Romany LXXV MaryHannah Kathryn Varnado, King Romany LXXV Brant Bennett Richard, and maids Kay Genevieve Frederickson, Ashlyn Paige Gitz, Bella LeighMcGucken and NataleighGrace Mincin.

The krewe’sboard of directors was introduced, including Collette Lambert,president; ChelseaLeMieux, vicepresident; Carla Brown,treasurer;Adrienne Vaughn, secretary; Sarah Brooks, costume officer; Kristi Hammatt, publicity officer; Leslie Day,special adviser;and St.Germain, past ball captain.

As part of thekrewe’stradition, members presented two choreographed dance performances

The Romany “singles” appeared as thefamed Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall, performing to “OnBroadway” from Smokey Joe’sCafé. TheRomany “couples” followed with aflash mob set in GrandCentral Station to “Uptown Funk” by BrunoMars. Both numbers werechoreographed by krewe member andpast Ball Captain Jerisse Grantham.

Stage attendants for theevening wereDaniel Cavalier, William Day, Jeremy LeMieux, Stephen Losby, JayRatelle and Yakoot Taj. Robert Chandler was master of ceremonies, and Celeste Angelle Veillon performedthe national anthem.

Costumes for theroyal court were designed by Aimee Burslem andconstructed by D&D Creations, Inc. Deep South Productions, Inc. executed production, lightingand staging. Following thetableau, thecelebration continued with dancing to the musicofDat BandofNew Orleansand DJKrumptime.

PROVIDED PHOTOSBySNL PHOTOGRAPHy

Krewe of Cypress royalty for 2026 are,from left, Queen Cypress XLVI Aidan Camille Dooley, King Cypress XLVI Dr.Patrick Dooleyand Ball Captain Lauren Leach.

Jeremy Booksh,George Bucher, Eric Hebert, Tommy LeBlancand Al Rimes —were costumed as chickens forthe Courir de Mardi Gras and performedthe chicken dance. They were chased around the Civic Center by the children

of the krewe: Creed Barbee, Cruze Barbee, Charlie Bourgeois, Caroline Cordell, Cate Cordell, Matthew Cordell, Jade Deshotel, Jeanne Deshotel, Josie Deshotel, Gemma Dunn, Carrie Fields, Elise Fields, ElliottFrischhertz,

John Robert Frischhertz, Louis Frischhertz, Sophie Frischhertz, Price Gay,Connor Kelley,Quinn Kelley,Kate LeBlanc, Morgan Pierre, CooperSeneca and Eliza Grace Wilbert.

The Louisiana alligator was represented by Kinsley Paige Seneca and her duke, Blaise Mendoza. LSU’sMike the Tiger mascot and the LSU Tiger Girls made aspecial appearance and performed.

Reigning over the festivities of a“Louisiana Saturday Night” were Queen Cypress XLVI Aidan

Camille Dooley andKing Cypress XLVI Dr.Patrick Dooley Dooley is the daughterofDr. Patrickand Mercedes Dooley.The queen andking were attended by Camille Berthelot, Ella Clare Berthelot, Everett Berthelot, Michael Raleigh Carville, Ann Mercedes Doré, Rowan Doré, ClaytonGeier,Sammi-JoLeach, Ann-Raleigh Murthy andMax Murthy

Following the tableau and promenade, members and guests danced the night away to the music of The Issue.

‘PINCHBACK’

Author Nicholas Patler’s biographyexplores thelifeofAmerica’s firstBlack governor

BY RIEN FERTEL

Contributing writer

“Pinchback: America’sFirst Black Governor” by Nicholas Patler,University Press of Mississippi, 226 pages.

As late as the 1970s, Louisiana history textbooks excluded P.B.S. Pinchback’sname from the list of state governors. Hardly mere oversight, the life and career of Louisiana’spioneering civil rights politician, who briefly served as the nation’sfirst Black governor,would be plagued by racism, accusations true and false and sordid machinations of American politics.

In “Pinchback,” the first serious biography of the governor in over ahalf-century,independent scholarNicholas Patler presents asharp, nuanced and, at times, surprisingly cinematic account. The future politician’sfledgling years were dramatically Dickensian. Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback wasborn in 1837, somewhere around Macon, Georgia, the fourth child of aNorth Carolina tobacco planter and the once-enslaved woman he had freed from bondage. Pinky,as his family called him, grew up on hisfather’splantation in Holmes County,Mississippi.

Deemed “the poorest county, in America’spoorest state” in a recent Guardian report,Holmes County was then awealthy cotton capital. Pinchback’sfather owned 77 enslaved persons and was able to send Pinchback and his brother Napoleon tothe Gilmore School, an elite Cincinnatiacademythat enrolled many Black sons of White Southern planters. Following his father’sunexpecteddeath in 1848,Pinchback’s mother,fearing that she and her children would be sold into slavery,relocated to Cincinnati. Reduced to penury,a12-year-old Pinchbackhustled to keep his family afloat.

While working as asteward on steamboats plyingthe Mississippi River Valley,Pinchback became the assistant to George

Devol, anotorious cardsharp, and was involved in ashootout that left one man dead.

Pinchback eventually ended up inNew Orleans, shortly after the city’soccupation by federal forces. By July of 1862, he enlisted in the Union’s1st Regiment Infantry,adefactoall-White unit.A monthinto his service, his officers discovered that he was Black.

Like many mixed-race people of the period, Pinchback’sracial indeterminacy heldpotential for passing. His sister Adeline, in a letter from the period, begged himto pass for White as shehad in Cincinnati. Adecade later, interviewed by the New Orleans Times, Pinchback identified as a quadroon, “or about one-fourth colored,” he declared.

“Of which are you theproudest, the African or theAngloSaxon blood in your veins,” the reporter baited.

“I don’tthink the question is alegitimate one,” Pinchback responded, “as Ihavenocontrol over the matter.”

Much later in life, living in Washington, D.C., he would take delight when strangers mistook him for Andrew Carnegie, one of the nation’swealthiest men, for whom he was adeadringer Pinchback helped recruit, organize and train anew,all-Black regiment, the 2nd Louisiana Native Guards, later renamed the Corpsd’Afrique. But despite his effortsonbehalf of the Union Army, his application for captain was denied by Gen. Nathaniel

Banks Fuming, Pinchback turned to activism, helping desegregate the city’sstreetcars after sitting in aWhites-only carriage. (The cars would remainintegrated until 1902, when astate law once again mandated racial separation. That law would remainuntil 1958.). He stumped throughout the South, denouncing racism and organizing civil rightsmeetings.

“You are men! Youare equal!” he toldone crowd. “Protest against this treatment, against these outrages, and make your voices heard!”

The political world beckoned. Nominated as aleading delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, he advocated for positions that were then radical, well ahead of their time: universal suffrage, aban on racial discrimination in public spaces and integrated public education.

“Establishseparate schools, he declared, anticipating the Supreme Court’s arguments in Brown v. Board of Education by nearly acentury,“and you by that veryact declare the White children superior of the colored.”

Pinchback continued his fight in theLouisiana Legislature, where he became one of the first Black state senators elected in 1868.

He soon helped pass what Patler deems “the most comprehensive and progressive public school system thestate —ornation —had ever seen.”

Hispolitical career,however,would forever be dogged —but never derailed —bya never-ending chain of corruption charges. The national spoils system ran especially rampant in Republican-run Louisiana, and Pinchback amassed asubstantial fortune.

“Your circumstances have greatly improved since your entrance into political life,” one reporter remarked when visit-

ing his Derbigny Street home.

Pinchback’s response: “I do not claim to possess allthe honesty in theState.”

The Harlem Renaissance poet and novelist Jean Toomer,Pinchback’sgrandson with whom he had aclose andloving relationship, noted thathis grandfather “liked to play the game.Heliked to win.”

Patler agrees to apoint: Pinchback “mayhavebeen just theanti-hero hero that his times —that thepeople of color of his times —needed.”

Pinchback would be linkedto several gunfights andeven to the poisoning deathofhis friend and rival, Lt.Gov.Oscar Dunn, whom he succeededinDecember 1871. Ayear later,heled acoupd’état to block his once ally,Republican Gov.Henry C. Warmoth, from handing overthe gubernatorial reins to an interparty,anti-Reconstruction faction. Following Warmoth’s impeachment, Pinchback served outthe 36 days of his remaining term, hastily passing 10 acts thatshored up the

short-term survivalofBlack civil rights in Louisiana.

With whispers of avice presidencynominationcirculating, Pinchback would be elected to the United States Senate aday afterleaving the governorship. But his prospective senatorial brothers ranobstruction after obstruction, stalling his confirmationfor threeyears.

Sen. JohnLogan of Illinois summedupthe issue: If Pinchback “hadbeen aWhite manhe would have been in here along time ago.”

Five days following afinal vote denying the elected Louisiana senatora seat,ina speech titled “The Country Has Not Heard the Last of P.B.S. Pinchback,” his friend FrederickDouglass declared,“The hour of his defeat is the hour of his victory.”

With “Pinchback,” Patler has crafteda winning biography RienFertel is the author of four books, including,mostrecently, “Brown Pelican.”

Auduboncrosses pathswithSlavicfolklorein‘PelicanChild’

BY CORYOLDWEILER

The Minnesota Star Tribune (TNS)

“The PelicanChild” by JoyWilliams, Knopf, 157 pages

The singular,disconcerting uneasiness that is so characteristic of Joy Williams’ fiction, yet so hard to pin down, is once again dazzlingly on display in her latest collection, “The Pelican Child.”

The critically beloved author’sfirst book of full-lengthstories since 2015’s“The Visiting Privilege” contains adozen works, all of which were publishedinjournals, magazines and anthologies over thepast 15 years. Trying to distill their subject matter yields plot descriptions that read abit like Mad Libs.

In “The Fellow,” acaretaker at an artist’sretreat converses with aguest’s poetry-reading dog after aflood. Dismayed by thefuture of the Great Barrier Reef, adaycare owner in “My First Car” hires astranger off the street towatch the center’sbabies for aweek while she prays for humanity.And in “After the Haiku Period,” twin 60-something heiresses storm a slaughterhouse to makeastatementabout

their late father’scapitalist greed. ButWilliams doesn’trely solely on intriguing set pieces to envelop her readers. Adetail from her prose can stop you in your tracks, as when atesty discussion about inheritance in “The Beach House” suddenly gives way to two friends talking about whether TedKaczynskihad adeck of tarot cards in prison.

Or when the protagonist of “Stuff” reacts to his terminal cancer diagnosis by lamenting that “only last year,hehad been on the cover of the telephone directory.” Andsometimes you have to pause simply to ponder theinsightful beauty of what is being observed, as when the narrator of “Flour” remarks that “Dusk is not nearly as considerate as is generally assumed.”

Williams isn’tchasing shock value, however,but offering subtleyet pointed assessments of our society.This commentarycan be as casual as the fact that the daycare center is located “on afrontage road between amattress wholesaler and aknife outlet.”Oritcan be explicit, as in “Baba Iaga &the Pelican Child,” which provides amoral to its fairy tale encounter between John James Audubon and Slavic folklore, stating that“the birds and beastsofthe world …shouldbevalued for

their bright and beautiful and mysterious selves and not willfully harmed.”

Death and loss feature prominently in these stories, which include several characters seemingly trapped in ametaphorical or metaphysical purgatory.Willie conjures up visits with his late father in “Nettle,” perhaps hoping to atone forthe role he played in his father’sdeath. Jane Click, whoisconsumed by grief over the death of her twochildren in “Chaunt,” retreats to the Dove, abuilding housing “decent enough individuals caught by the mishaps of time in acircumstance of continual, bearable punishment.” And in “Chicken Hill,” awoman named Ruth tries to suss out amystery from her childhood by conversing with a girl whomight actually be her younger self

One of the last things that child tells Ruth is that “Imagination only fails us in the end, when the stories we tell ourselves have to stop.” Three of the stories in “The Pelican Child” date from after the start of the pandemic, aperiod when Williamsalso published the novel “Harrow.”

Though now in her 80s, Williams’ imagination clearly hasn’tfailed, so hopefully her remarkable stories will keep coming.

Learnabout St.Joseph’s AltarsonFeb. 4

Mary Lou Dyson Cutrera will discuss the Sicilian tradition of St. Joseph’sAltars with OLLI Coffee &Lagniappe at 2p.m. Feb. 4atthe South Branch Library,2210 Glasgow Ave., Baton Rouge. Cutrera was first introduced to St. Joseph’sAltars when she married Lucien Cutrera, athird-generation Italian American. His mother created an altar and alarge St Joseph’sfeast in her home for 17 years during the 1970s and 1980s. Mary Lou Cutrera researched the tradition and collected information for years. Her presentation will include the history of the tradition, preparations for aSt. Joseph’sAltar and feast, the traditional events

TODAYINHISTORY

on St.Joseph’sDay,the similaritiesbetween the altars in Sicily and south Louisiana and the altars as theyare held today

LSU’sVet Med to hold open house

TheLSU School of Veterinary Medicine will host its annual open house event from 9a.m. to 2p.m. Feb. 7atLSU VetMed on the LSU campus on Skip Bertman Drive.

Theevent is free, open to the public and welcomes animal loversofall ages.

LSU VetMed Open Houseoffers visitors abehind-the-scenes look at veterinary medicine, biomedical research and animal health through interactive exhibits,demonstrations and hands-on activities.

Event highlightsinclude:

n Interactive exhibits hosted by LSU VetMed students, facul-

Today is Sunday,Feb. 1, the32ndday of 2026.There are 333 days left inthe year

Todayinhistory:

On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it reentered the Earth’satmosphere,killingall sevencrew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark;and payload specialist Ilan Ramon Also on this date:

In 1865, abolitionist JohnS.Rock became the first Black lawyer admittedto the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1943, during World WarII, oneof America’smost highlydecorated military units, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up almostexclusively of Japanese Americans, was activated.

In 1960,four Black collegestudents beganasit-in protest at aWoolworth’slunch counterinGreensboro, North Carolina, where they had been refused service

In 1979, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was welcomed home by millions in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.

In 1991, an arriving USAir jetliner crashed atop acommuter planeonarunway at Los Angeles International Airport, resulting in 35 deaths.

In 1994, Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, pleaded guilty in Portland, Oregon, to racketeering for his part in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerriganin exchangefor a24-month sentenceand a $100,000 fine.

In 2002, Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was killed byIslamist militants in Pakistan after being kidnapped nine days earlier

In 2016, the World HealthOrganization declared aglobalemergency over the explosive spread of the Zika virus, which waslinked to birth defectsinthe Americas.

In 2021, the army in Myanmar overthrew the elected governmentofthe Southeast Asiancountry.(Armed resistance arose afterthe army used lethal force to crush nonviolent protestsagainst its takeover,and an ensuingcivil warleft more than 3.6 million people displaced in the country,according to theU.N.)

Today’sbirthdays: Actor GarrettMorris is 89. Political commentator Fred Barnesis83. Princess Stephanie of Monaco is 61. Actor SherilynFenn is 61.U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Michelle Akers is 60. ComedianactorPauly Shore is 58. ActorMichaelC Hall is 55. Rapper Big Boi (Outkast) is 51. Singer-songwriter Jason Isbellis47. TV personality Lauren Conrad is 40. Mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey is 39. Actor JuliaGarneris32. Singer-actor Harry Styles is 32. Singer Jessica Baio is 24.

ty,staff andcommunity partners

n Live demonstrations showcasing veterinary medicine in action

n Teddy Bear Repair Station, where children can have stuffed animals “sutured”

n Petting zoo and familyfriendly activities

n Special guests, including animal and science organizations from across the region For more information, visit lsu. edu/vetmed/events/open_house. php

Cangelosi Dance Project holds weekend workshop

The CangelosiDance Project will host aweekend workshop

11 a.m. to 5p.m. Feb. 22 at the Renaissance Hotel Baton Rouge, 7000 Bluebonnet Blvd.

The workshop will offer six dance classes in three different levels, ages 6-9, 9-11 and 12

through teachersinhip hop, jazz, tap,contemporary and classical ballet

The faculty includes choreographer Nick Anthony from California, professionaldancer Daniel Therrein from Las Vegas,professional dancer Minori Therrien from Japan,aswell as Teddi Raborn, JessicaTochet, Angelique Francois and director Kris Cangelosi. Therewill be scholarships and awards for students for their outstanding classperformance. The fee is $150. Register at cangelosidanceproject.com under theticket link.

Music Club of Baton Rouge to holdluncheon

The Music Club of Baton Rouge, foundedin1909, holds a scholarship luncheoneach year to raise moneytosponsor the scholarship awards for the com-

ing school year

The club funds $66,500 in scholarships for 13 students in the LSU School of Music and two organscholarships —one fora pre-collegiate agestudent and onefor apost-high school individualinorganmusic studies. This year’s programwill open at 11 a.m. March 19 at the Lod Cook Alumni Center, 3838 W. Lakeshore Drive, Baton Rouge. The musical guests will be Grammy-winning tenors Robert Grayson from the Metropolitan Opera andPaulGroves from the New York City Opera, who will perform “Tenorifico: Shining Up the Grammys.” Ticketsare available for$70 each.Tablesfor eight or 10 are also available.Contact Ken Nelson for tickets at kentec44@ gmail.com

Email Joy Holdenatjoy.holden@ theadvocate.com.

Dadmakes daughter’s weddingabout him

Dear Miss Manners: Iamgetting married in atraditional church ceremony.Myfather,who will be giving me away,has refused to wear atuxedo on thegrounds that it is a“monkey suit,” even though all of the other meninthe wedding party will be wearing one. Igave in, because I wanthim to be happy andcomfortable. Now he says he will not wear atie, either.Mymother andIhave tricked him into wearinganice new silk jacket andhaven’tmentioned anythingabout him wearing shoes other than sneakers …yet. I wouldgive in again if Ithought he wasactually going to be in any real pain, but Ican’tsee howwearing atie for an hour is painful. The real problem is that he hateswearingformal clothes. Ifeel like his refusal to wear atux ortie demonstrates a

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

lack of respect for what is, to me, adeeply important formal ceremony. It feels like he cares more about not wearing formal clothes than he does about his daughter When Imentioned to my mother that I was unhappy about his decision, Iwas told an anecdote that implied that Icared more about clothes and appearances than about my father,who loves me, andthat I should just takewhat Ican get and let the rest go. Am Ireally being that unreasonable?

GentleReader: The person who cares too much about clothes is your father He cares desperately about what he wears, to theextent of upsettinghis beloved daughter on aunique and special occasion.

Likeyou, he considers formal clothes to be symbolic. But

while you interpret formality as ashow of respect and festivity,hebelieves it symbolizes snobbery.Your version is indeed the standard one, but his is typical of a(mostly male) minority

Miss Manners agrees that one of you should put aside those feelings simply to indulgethe strongly held feelings of the other,however wrong you consider them to be. Someonehas to be the grownup here. One would expect a father to do this forhis daughter,especially forone hour at her wedding. But as yours refuses, you are stuck with rising above the childishness. If guests are startled —or, more likely,amused —at your father’sbeing tieless and wearing sneakers, that is his problem.Hemay not care about their reactions, or he may take pride in defying the dress code.

Youmight, however,warn

him that his act of rebellion might be interpreted as disapproval of the wedding.

Dear Miss Manners: Iremember reading about olden invitation cards that might say,“Teaat5, carriages at 7:30.”

Gentle Reader: Yes, it was apolite wayofsaying, “Don’tthink you’re staying fordinner.”

Dear Miss Manners: Is it in bad taste to throw yourself ababy shower?

Gentle Reader: Yes, whether you are the baby,the embryo or the mother.And that goes forthe mother’smother,and anyone else in the family Sadly,hosting one’sown (or one’srelative’s) shower emphasizes that there are no friends whocare enough to do it.

Sendquestions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www.missmanners. com or to heremail, dearmissmanners@gmail. com.

Thebestway to optimize smallfridgespace

Dear Heloise: Icook for one and have afridge with asmallish freezer.Here’sa few thingsI do:

n Abox of frozen fish filetsfor sandwiches was half-empty,soI wrapped each one in wax paper and put them in azip-close freezer bagwith thebaking instructions, of course.

n Ipurchased 2-quart containers of soup from church andmade soup from scratch. Iput abowlful of soup in individual freezer bags. Each week, Iwas able to enjoy homemadesoup.

n Ialso bought blueberries on sale and bagged them in small bunches. —Joyce Maurer,via email

Proper dishwashingetiquette

Dear Heloise: As astudent (and latera teacher) in homeeconomics, we learned that when washingdishes, you should start withasink or container of

very hot water and dishwashing detergent.Washthe itemsthat go into the mouth first when the water is hottest and cleanest: forks, spoons,“butter” or “place” knives glasses, and cups. Next, wash preparation items and serving dishes. Save thepots and dirtiest items until theend. Rinse all items completely Alwaysdry witha pristine dedicated towel. And always leave the sharp knives aside on the counter and wash them one by one, never leaving them down in thesoapy water where you can come into contact with dangerous sharp edges.

Additionally,Ihave learned that wearing appropriate rubber gloves allows you to use thehottest water.Ialso place acontainer of soapy water on thecounter and place foodencrusted flatware (spoon, forks and knives) inside. This

helps remove food, requiring less work. Keeping adedicated dishwashing brush also helps to removedifficult foods such as eggyolk and avocado. Teaching all family members thecorrect dishwashing technique is aworthwhile task. You never know when the skill will be needed. Proper dishwashing can help alleviate illnesses. Judy Marquez, via email Weddingdress storage

Dear Heloise: Iwould love to store my wedding dress. Ihad it dry-cleaned, and it looks nice. But how do Ikeep it from yellowing? —Joyce, in Tennessee Joyce, after cleaning the dress, wrap it in unbleached muslin or acid-free white tissue paper.Then wrap it in blue tissue paper and store it in a sealed box in acool, dry place. It should last formany years to come. —Heloise Cloudytea

Dear Heloise: My family and I

love iced tea but hate when it looks cloudy.So, my sister-inlaw gave me this hint: Just add asmallamount of boiling water to apitcher of iced tea, then stir,and the cloudy appearance should go away —Linda W.,inBear Swamp, South Carolina Cleaning reusable bags

Dear Heloise: Reusable shopping bags are helpful; they decrease the need forpaper and plastic. However,they are unsanitary Hundreds of dirty bags pass through acheck stand each day,spreading germs. Let’s clean things up together Christine V.,inSalem, Oregon Christine, how right you are! Check the label —some of these bags may be machinewashable, or you can wipe them with an antibacterial towel. —Heloise Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

DINING SCENE

King cake is best enjoyedwith company,the centerpiece of a shared Carnival experience.This year,some of the best king cakes are created in good company too. Collaborations and partnerships between brands, restaurants, community organizations and Carnival krewes have broughtsome remarkable king cakes to the party for 2026, andmore are percolating.

Ian WHAT’S

McNulty

WHAT S COOKING

The fruits of collaboration are on full display in the range of king cakes from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts,the high school in Faubourg Marigny which has arobust culinaryarts program For about adecade, NOCCA students have produced king cakes as part of their curriculum. Along the way,king cake had become an increasingly important fundraiser for the school, and proceeds now cover the annual costs for the culinary program.

This year,students workeddirectly with EmerilLagasse,one of the most famous chefs in the world, whose charitablefoundation supports NOCCA,and Frank Brigtsen, of Brigtsen’s Restaurant (723Dante St.), agodfather to many in the local food world and NOCCA’s first chef in residence.

“They really get in here and work with the students,” said Dana Tuohy,chef and founding chair of NOCCA’s culinary program. “It’s not just ‘here’sanidea,gofor it. It’sthese chefs showinghow to get to arecipe that is feasible and executable in the thousands.”

The students’ work went from pricing out ingredients to production schedules and marketing, and here they got an assist from another collaborator,ofsorts.

King Cake Hub (3300 Gravier St.), the multi-vendor marketplace for king cakes and Mardi Gras flair,isthe main retail point for NOCCA’s cakes (alongwith preorder and pick-up on the weekendsatthe school itself).Hub

Laine Pokorn,Ashton Nielsen and Jackson Whitemore prepare banana creampie king cakes, based on the signature dessertofEmeril’s Restaurant,atthe NewOrleans Centerfor CreativeArtsinNew Orleans.

proprietorJenniferSamuels has contributed invaluable insight on ideasthatwill hit withher customers, Touhy said. Goddess returns

The collaborative king cakes have been cycling through as limited-time runs. This gives people a reasontotry new cakes,and gives the students achance to workwith different culinary minds.

The school started Carnival with its banana creampie king cake, based onthe signature dessert of Emeril’sRestaurant(800 Tchoupitoulas St.). Mid-season, production

The Iris king cake is aseasonal special from the nonprofit DragonflyCafe in NewOrleans.

etyofking cakes all through Carnival, including satsuma almond, agluten-free cinnamon rendition and the new Dubai chocolate, with pistachio and shredded phyllo baked into the brioche.

Iris in bloom

It was theGoddess that inspired baker April Whitecotton to do morethis year with king cakes at Dragonfly Café (530 Jackson Ave.).This restaurant and coffee shopispart of Raphael Village, avocational programserving “differently abled” adults, called Guild members, who may have Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder or other conditions. Guild members help make king cakes,and it’sbecomeanother way for them to engage with the community.This year,Whitecottonapproached the Krewe of Iris withthe idea of akrewe-themed king cake, hoping the brand power and outreach of the historic, newly-rejuvenated Carnival club would boost awareness of the café.

This new king cake gleams with the krewe’spurple and silver colorsrenderediniridescent icing. Beneath is abrioche braid, heavy on cinnamon, that is dense, withjustthe right texture and a classic simplicity enrobed in eyecatching veneer.Itshould gladden the hearts of traditional king cake fans.Itcomes with aspecial keepsake, ceramic fève and aseed card, also madebyGuild members, to plantblue irises at home. Anditcomes with support forthe nonprofit’s workbaked in.

shifted to astrawberry tres leches flavor,created with Brigtsen, which finished its run this week. To finish the season, NOCCA has brought back ahighly successful collaborative king cake developed withthe Krewe of Muses lastyear Students went big on the krewe’s Greek motif to create the “The Goddess” king cake, withgoat cheese and fig, candied orange and toasted walnutsunder asheen of silver glitter.The flavor flirts with savory,but lands squarely in the realm of sophisticated sweet treats. In addition to thesecollaboration cakes,NOCCA produces avari-

Many Americans are fortunate to have dental coverage fortheir entire workinglife, through employer-providedbenefits. When those benefits end with retirement,paying dental billsout-of-pocket cancome as a shock,leading peopletoput off or even go without care.

Simply put —without dental insurance, there may be an important gap in your healthcarecoverage.

When you’re comparingplans ...

 Look forcoverage that helps pay formajor services. Some plans may limitthe number of procedures —orpay forpreventive care only.

 Look forcoverage with no deductibles. Some plans mayrequire you to payhundreds out of pocketbefore benefits are paid.

 Shop forcoverage with no annual maximum on cash benefits. Some plans have annual maximums of $1,000.

Medicare doesn’tpay for dental care.1

That’s right. As good as Medicare is, it wasnever meanttocover everything. That means if youwant protection,you needto purchase individual insurance.

Early detection canprevent small problems from becoming expensiveones.

The best way to preventlargedental bills is preventive care.The American Dental Association recommends checkupstwiceayear.

Previous dental work canwear out. Even if you’vehad qualitydentalwork in the past,you shouldn’t take your dentalhealth forgranted. In fact, your odds of havinga dental problem only go up as youage.2

Treatment is expensive— especiallythe servicespeople over 50 often need.

Consider these national averagecostsof treatment. $274for acheckup $299 for afilling $1,471 foracrown.3 Unexpected bills likethis canbeareal burden, especially if you’re on afixedincome.

Youcan find these on afirst come, first servedbasis at Dragonfly Café (open Tuesday through Fridays),through Feb. 13. That means if youwant one for the Iris parade on Feb. 14 you’ll need to plan ahead.

Cake andcocktails

Collaboration also led to another new standout for 2026, the Vieux Carre king cake from the Marigny bakery AyuBakehouse (801 FrenchmenSt.) and the Uptown cocktail destination Cure (4905 Freret St.). Cure co-founder Neal Boden-

heimer workedwith Ayuco-founder Kelly Jacques and her team to zero in on the right cocktail, one with flavors that could translate to the baking world.

“As abar,they’re working with ingredients we don’tnormally use, it opened awhole other world of knowledge and flavor for us,” Jacques said.

Through batched cocktail tastings, they arrived at the Vieux Carre, aNew Orleans original that’slike aManhattan cocktail but with some of the entwined influences of the city represented in French cognac, Italian vermouth and American whiskey As aking cake, it starts with brioche with aswirl of brown-butter hazelnut praline that suggests cognac. Aseam of cherry jam carries ascent of vermouth. Awhiff of Bénédictine liqueur brings spice. Like the cocktail, this cake is layered and balanced between bitter herbals, dark fruit-jam and mellow sweetness. Even the lattice pastry on top evokes the etched class of arocks tumbler

Youcan pre-order these through Ayuorthrough Cure, and Cure is serving it by the slice at the bar, where you can pair it with an actual Vieux Carre or another cocktail from aMardi Grasseasonal list.

Back to NOCCA

At NOCCA, the chef collaborations brought adifferent element of education, connecting students with influentialpeople in the culinary arts they’re studying.

“Itfurthers therelationshipswe have withchefs andthe restaurant community,”saidTuohy.“Hopefully,we’re helping create thenext generation of chefs whowill stay in NewOrleans and contribute with theirtalents to that community.”

There is more to come. In the way that Carnival planning never really stops, Tuohy is already thinking ahead to next year,and how NOCCA can expand its king cake collaborations.

“It’sbeen such awonderful experience from concept to execution, we need to keep doing it, our students get so muchfrom it,” she said.

APPRENTICE AI

N.O. author Walter Isaacson embraces tech tool forpublishingbiographies

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

When recent Tulane University grad IshaanPomichter was takinga digitaltechnology class taught by famed biographer and writerWalter Isaacson lastyear, the young tech devotee decided to curatea set of artificial intelligence tools Isaacson could usein his own work. The move paid off in more ways than one. Pomichter earned an Ainthe class. He also ended up starting a business withhis professor Last fall, Isaacson and Pomichter officially joined forces to launch Boswell& Co., astartup that publishesbiographies and memoirs for what its founders call “high-impact individuals, families and organizations.” The twististhe company openly embraces theuse of AI to boost the effectiveness of itsresearch and writing. Boswell, named in honor of pioneering 18th-century biographer James Boswell, markets its ser-

“Wehavesomany interviews and articles, AI allows us to find the information we need quicker,and it allows us to connect ideas across thousands of files.”

ISHAAN POMICHTER, co-founder of Boswell &Co.

ä See ISAACSON, page 2E

Dudley DeBosier partners with privateequity

Deal could open door to consolidationof regional personal injury firms

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff

to expand across theregion. Under the terms of the deal,

Uplift,through asubsidiary,purchased Dudley DeBosier’snonlegalassets —including its casemanagement systems, finance, accountingand human resources departments. Financial terms of thedeal were not disclosed. Dudley DeBosier will retain 100% ownership of itsLouisiana law practiceand is also aminorityinvestorinthe newsubsidiary, Orion Legal. Uplift is Orion’smajority owner and plans to use the newcompany to acquire the nonlegal assetsofother firms around thecountry.Those firms will then pay afee to Oriontoprovide such services back to them. “Welook forward to expanding Orion Legal to enable future partnerfirmstobenefitfromshared services andmodern operating infrastructure,” Doug Rosenstein, Uplift managing partner, said in a prepared statement Chad Dudley,who founded the

firm with Steven DeBosier and James Peltierin2009, said in an interview last week that the idea is to help professional services firms scale “as we support law firms acrossNorth America.” The deal could open the door to consolidation of regional personal injury firms. It also underscores thegrowing reachofprivate equityintoever-newsectorsofthe economy.Inrecentyears, private equity firms have branched out into everythingfromdental offices andmedical practices to dry cleaners, health clubs andeyewear chains,rolling them up into larger companies that provide sharedservices,thereby increasing efficiency

The field of legal services is an emerging area of investment. “It is definitely agrowing trend,”saidDaneCiolino,a law

ISAACSON

Fool’sTake:

Robotic surgery

Many people would love to invest in robotic surgery leader IntuitiveSurgical, but its shares are rather steeply valued now with arecent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 54. Instead,consider Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), whose Hugorobotic surgery system has been approved in the U.S. for urologic procedures. (The company is also aleader in cardiac devices, spinal products, insulin pumps andmore.) Medtronic’sforward P/E was recently under 17, makingits sharesmore appealingly priced.

The Hugo system may boost Medtronic’sgrowth while it tries to streamline by focusing on its most profitableproducts. (It’splanning to spin off its diabetes business this year.)

Medtronic also had more than 170 clinical trialsunderway in fiscalyear 2025, when it plowed $2.7 billion into research and development.

In its second quarter of fiscal 2026 (which ended Oct. 24), Medtronic posted revenueof $9 billion, up 6.6% year over year,with net income rising 8%. Chief Financial Officer Thierry Pieton upped estimates of near-term growth, citing “our outperformance in thefirst half of the year and confidence …in our revenue growth acceleration.”

Medtronic has aproven track record of success, with 48 consecutive annual dividend increases. Its dividend recently yielded aplump 2.8%. Longterm investors maywantto take acloser look. (TheMotley Foolowns sharesofand recommends Intuitive Surgical and recommends Medtronic.)

Fool’sSchool: Finding agood tax pro

Back in 2011, then-National Taxpayer Advocate NinaE Olson noted: “The tax codehas grown so long that it has become challenging even to figure out how long it is. Asearch of the Code conducted using the ‘word count’feature in Microsoft Word turned up 3.8 million words.” The code has not become much simpler since then. Thus, millions now usetaxpreparationsoftwaresuchas TurboTax, TaxAct, TaxSlayer, H&R Block or FreeTaxUSA, among other options.Many others hire tax professionals. You, too,mightwant to consider hir-

EQUITY

Continued from page 1E

professoratLoyola University New Orleans. “Privateequity wants to get involved in all sorts of sectors and these law firm deals are modeled after what’s going on in health care and other sectors.”

‘Takingchangebythe hand’ Dudley DeBosier was formed when triallawyers Dudley, DeBosier and Peltier acquired the law practice of E. EricGuirard. At the time,Guirard and his partner,Thomas Pittinger,had been disbarred for rewarding the firm’snonlegal stafffor settling cases as quickly as possible, though they have since been reinstated and have no affiliationwith Dudley DeBosier In the meantime,Dudley DeBosier grew to become one of the state’slargest and most highprofile personal injury firms. Accordingtoits website, it has “helped more than 58,000 clients” and recovered more than $1.2 billion for accident victims. While the firm is known locally for its ubiquitous billboards, TV ads and sponsorshipsofthe New Orleans Saints and University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajuns, among trial lawyers, it is also known for providing business services to other law firms. Dudley has his own Nashville, Tennessee-based consulting firm, XCelerator,whichadvisespersonal injury firms on howthey canimprove theirefficiency, according to the firm’swebsite. Until recently,Dudley DeBosier also owned aNashville-based advertising agency,CJAdvertising, which provided advertising services to trial lawyers. The firmsold CJ Advertisinglast August. In November,Dudley told Financial Timesthat the firm had hired investment bank KBW

ing aqualified tax professional to handleyourtax returns. Agood tax pro may be able to save you alot of money.Choose carefully,though, and consider hiring an enrolled agent, who can representyou before the IRS if necessary.(Youcan find oneatnaea.org.)

When you’ve identified afew candidates, interview them. (Many will likely offer afree initial consultation.) Ask questionssuch asthese:

n What’syourbackground?

What are your strengths and weaknesses? (Look for candid answers.)

n How do youhandle your cases, and what do you expect of yourclients?

n What are your fees and billing policies? (Ask for an estimate.)

n Whoexactly will prepare my taxes —you or someone else?

n What are your continuing education requirements, and howmany hours do you normally take eachyear? (Enrolled agents must get 72 hours every three years. Someone exceedingthe requirements is agood sign.)

n If my return is audited, will yourepresentmebefore the IRS? (They should go instead of you,not with you. Youdon’t want the tax pro to outsource audits.)

n When will you be able to complete thework?

Be sure to choose apro you’re comfortable with.A quick online search will turn up more info on, andquestions to ask, enrolled agents.

Ask the Fool:

DemystifyingOTC,

SaaS

What does “OTC”mean? —E.L., Forest Hills, Michigan

Theletters standfor “over the counter.” While thousands of securities tradeonthe New York Stock Exchange or NasdaqStock Market, thousands of others are traded over the counter in theU.S meaning notonamajor stock exchange. Those typically belong to small companies that don’tmeet the listing requirements for amajor exchange, although some big-name international stocks can also belisted in the OTC market.

There are three main systems handlingOTC stocks; Pink Sheetsisthe one mostlikely to include shadiercompanies. Learn more at Fool.com/investing/stock-market/exchange/ otc-markets.

What’s a“SaaS” company? —D.K., Fort Myers,Florida The letters standfor “software as aservice.” SaaS

Stifel to lookfor apotential private equity backertohelp fund acquisitions, predicting that more firmswould open themselves to private equity

“You can stick your head in the sand if youwant,but it doesn’t seem prudent,” he said. “What was it WinstonChurchill said? Youcan take change by thehand or it will grab you by the throat.”

Investment strategy

Uplift wasfounded in June by Rosenstein, Will Hausberg and Brad Skaf, all former principals at Gridiron Capital, an East Coast privateequityfirm with nearly $9 billion in assets under management

Thefirm billsitselfasa midmarket private equityfirm focused on acquiring growing companies with earnings of between $10millionand $40 million in legalservices, financial services technical tradesand industrial services.

Dudley DeBosier’sentrepreneurial approachand Dudley’s experience as aconsultant were among thefactorsthat attracted Uplift topartnerwith the firm, according to sources familiar with Uplift’sinvestmentstrategy

Hausberg said in aprepared statement: “Webelieve this partnershiprepresents an important milestone for thebroader legal services ecosystem and offers a compelling opportunity to bring scale to ahighly fragmented market in aresponsible, durable way.”

Experts say the trial attorney space is ripe forsuchinvestmentsbecause it is fragmented, with manyfirmsoperating on older systems that haven’tkept pace with how modern service organizationsrun.That creates an opportunitytobring benefits of scale, technology and professionalized operations.

It also means firms that sell their nonlegal assetstoOrionwill likely have smallerback-office staffs with fewer employees.

companies offer cloud-based software delivery to businesses and individuals, often via subscriptions. So instead of buying and downloading asoftware package, they pay for on-demandaccess to it. This makes updating easy and leaves the SaaS companies with the responsibilityofstoringcustomer dataand keeping it safe. Someexamples of SaaS include tax-preparation software, Zoom video conferencing, Dropbox storage, Docusign, Mailchimp and even Netflix and Spotify.Some years ago, Microsoft shifted itsdominant Office suite (featuring Word, Excel, Outlook and more) to asubscription, and therefore SaaS, model.

Investors tendtolike the business model because it meanscustomers must sign up to makeregular subscription payments, which resultsin fairly dependable revenue for a SaaS company.Itcan also mean acostly hassle for customers to switch toanalternate vendor, keeping them loyal. Butcustomersdobenefit by not having to repeatedly buy,install and updatesoftware they use.

My Smartest Investment: Boosting next gens

One of the smartest financial moves I’ve made is to helpmyson.When he worked during college breaks, his dad and Iwould match themoney he earned and have him deposit it into an individual retirement account. Now that Ihavea grandson, we have helped him the same waybypartially contributing to his Roth IRA. —R.P., via email That’sa great moveindeed! Most of us need to be saving in earnest for our retirements, and starting early is one of the best strategies for that. Ateen or 20-something might have little interest in saving for retirement, but any money they sock away may be able togrow for them for 40 or 50 years. If a$1,000 investment grows for 50 years at 8%, it will become nearly $47,000; if money is added over time, that investment could become ahuge sum.And if the money is growing in a Roth IRA, it can be withdrawn in retirement tax-free. That’sa big plus. Helping your young ones can makeabig difference, as it’s often hard for anyone at any age to save and invest meaningful sums. It’salso asmart way to possibly get thenext generation(s) interested in investing!

Do you have asmart or regrettable investmentmove to share with us? Email it to tmfshare@ fool.com.

Ethics issues andcompetition

By law,nonlawyers are not allowed to own law firms in the U.S., exceptinArizona andthe District of Columbia. Creating aseparate company like Orion, technically known as aManaged Services Organization, is away to remain withinthose regulatory barriers.

Ciolino said that navigating ethical concerns is complicated but can be done.

“The firms that have done these arrangem ent s have structured thedeals in such away thatthe law firm is split offfrom aservice organization,” Ciolino said.

In astatement, Dudleysaid thefirm has worked closely with Uplift “to ensure the structure complies with applicable ethics rules.”

As the newmodel emerges, longtime competitors of Dudley DeBosier saythey’re not concerned.

MorrisBart, whobroke barriers as New Orleans’ first billboardattorney in thelate 1970s and has recovered more than$5billion for his clients over the years, said he has fielded dozens of offers from private equity firms interested in buying parts of his business.

He has waved them off, he said, because theyhaven’toffered enough and don’tresult in better service.

“Private equity guys in New York can’t run Dudley DeBosier as well as Ican run my own firm here in New Orleans,” Bartsaid. EmailStephanieRiegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate. com.

Continuedfrom page1E

vices to successfulclientswho can afford six-figure fees to tell their stories. Its first book,about Mississippi native and former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, will be completed thisyear.Asecondbiography,about NewOrleans manufacturing magnate J.M. Lapeyre, is in theworks. Athird tome is undercontract, and Isaacson said thecompany is generatingmoreleads as it plans to add staff andpursuepotential publishing partnerships.

The 73-year-old biographer and writer,who has spent his career chronicling risk-taking entrepreneurs, is founding the first startup of his own at atimewhen the publishing industryisgrapplingwith questions about howAIshould andshouldn’tbeused to improve the craft and business of writing, unlockingcreativity rather than replacing it or stealing it.

Personally,he’sbullish about the new tools —and he’sready to defend his company’sembrace of the tech,even as he braces forinevitable criticism.

“People sayAIwillput people outofwork, but it’sthe opposite: It will create jobs for writers and historystudents who canproduce biographies muchmore efficiently,” the author said during arecent interview at his GardenDistrict home.

Across-generationalpartnership

Isaacson, aNew Orleans native, has alofty media résumé thatincludes stints as editor of Time magazine, chair and CEO of CNN, and president andCEO of the Aspen Institute, aprestigious think tank.

In 2011, he wrote abiography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs that becamea global bestseller,leadingtofive successful follow-ups that showcased his ability to make complex topics enjoyable to read.

When the Jobsbook was published, Pomichter was 9years old. Lessthan adecade later,asahigh schooler in the San Francisco Bay Area,hewas interning fortech startups. As acollege freshman, he launched his first company

Thatsame entrepreneurialdrive led Pomichter,now 22, to partner withIsaacson to launch Boswell, even as he works full-time foranother Bay Area tech startup. Joining them is Owen Kirsten, 22,aTulanehistory and anthropology major who is the company’sgo-to reporter andinterviewer

The venture the three have launched has very low overhead —requiring no dedicated office space, inventory or special equipment —and it’s bolsteredbyIsaacson’s reputation and extensive contacts list.

materialtothe archiveand,with guidance from Isaacson, referred to it as he wrote chapter drafts, using AI to assist. Everyone, including theclient,weighedinaswork progressed.

One chapter looks at Barksdale’s time at Ole Miss during integration.Others examined different stages of his career andthe reasonsfor his $100 million gift to Mississippi schools.

Pomichterdeclined to describe hisexact writingprocess, buthe said he’snot simply feeding interview transcripts and other material into an AI tool and asking it to write.

“Wehave so many interviews andarticles, AI allowsustofind the information we need quicker,and it allowsustoconnect ideas across thousands of files,” Pomichter said.

The final version of the Barksdale book will be somewhere between 200 and 300 pages. Boswell &Co. will produce physical copies plus an electronic version. Customers also receive an archive of allthe research anda “chatbot avatar” that can answer questions about the material.

The books won’thave an author’s name on them,but they will have aforeword by Isaacson. And the client will owneverything, including the copyrightfor the finished product.

Isaacson said he will donate all of his profits to Tulane’sscholarship fund.

‘Finelinetowalk’

Newspapers, including The Times-Picayune |The Advocate, allow reporters and editors to use AI as aresearch tool but not to generate content. The rulesinpublishing are less well defined, with supporters arguing the technology boosts efficiency and critics saying it threatens jobs, creates legal and ethical issues, and replaces original voices with generic prose.

Nick Mueller,ahistorian, author and one of the founders of The National WWII Museum, is curious to see how Isaacson, whom he considers “one of the great thought leaders of our time,” will navigate the challenges.

“AI can help writers speed up the process and get something to start with,” Mueller said. “But it’safine line to walk to use the toolsethically and authentically.”

Isaacson, aware of potential criticismsofhis company’sapproach, says there’saright way and wrong way to put the tools into practice.

“AIcan help writers speed up the process and getsomething to startwith. But it’s a fine line to walk to use the tools ethically and authentically.”

Unlike Isaacson’sown books, which are intended for amassaudience, Boswell is producing work-for-hire biographies and memoirs for businessfounders and successful people who want to document theirlegacy Somemay be written exclusively for family and friends while others will be distributed morewidely

NICK MUELLER, historian, author and afounder of The National WWIIMuseum

For afee that starts around $200,000, the Boswell team will research, write, edit and publish a 50,000-to75,000-wordbookchroniclingthe life of itssubject. Isaacson said demand is strong.

“Everybody deserves to have their story told,” he said.

Book-buildingwithmoderntools

Isaacson said the new company’s creative process isn’tall that differentfrom that of James Boswell himself, who helpedcreatethe blueprintfor the modern biography by conducting extensive interviews, buildingarchives and taking exhaustive notes. Instead of quill pens and letterpress printing, however,Isaacson’s crew is using modern tools more powerful than Boswell could have ever imagined.

To start the Barksdale book, Isaacson and teamgatheredinformation from family archives, business correspondenceand trustworthy publications. Kirsten has conducted more than adozen interviews to learn about times in Barksdale’s life that weren’twell documented. Pomichter added that

“Ifyou’rejustusing AI without realeditors, writers and reporters, you’ll get slop,” he said. “Whatsets us apartis those people plus acareful gathering of material, so the digital tools don’t hallucinate.”

He said the company aimstomerge technology and the humanities, “create more jobsthanwe destroy,and have anice littlebusiness in NewOrleans, especially for writers and history majors.”

The Boswell team says the tech has its obvious limitations, including the inability to understand historicalcontext or why certain moments or ideas are important. It’salso incapable of making ahuman connection.

“The key to any biography is understanding what motivates somebody and what makes them creative,” Isaacson said. “Machines arenot creative, andthey don’t have motives, so they don’tfully understand.”

‘Boswell will do it’

So far, Isaacson has done little to promoteBoswell beyond afew mentions on podcasts, but he said marketing efforts will increase. Looking ahead, the partners hope to hire more staffers, dipping into theNew Orleanstalentpool,but for now,they are focused on finishing theirfirst three projects and growing the company For Isaacson, it’sa way to meet a longstanding need.

“I have alot of people who contact me andsay they want help writing their memoirs,” he said. “I just put one and one together to say if we have this AI architecture and we have alot of students who are really good at reporting, now Ican say Boswell will do it.”

EmailRich Collins at rich. collins@theadvocate.com.

TALKING BUSINESS

ASK THE EXPERTS

La. business owner forged path from steel to robotics

BY ANTHONY McAULEY Staff writer

When Mindy Núñez Airhart talks about robotics, she’s not descr ibing some distant, theoretical future. She’s talking about equipment that will soon be walking the shop floor in St. Bernard Parish.

“This is going to be an actual humanoid robot,” Airhart said. “This will be the first humanoid robot that’s developed for industrial or welding use.”

Airhart is the owner of SSE Steel Fabrication, formerly Southern Services & Equipment Inc. the custom steel fabrication company her parents founded in 1996. Based on a 14-acre site in lower St. Bernard, the company has grown into a roughly $30 million-a-year operation with about 75 employees and a national client base while remaining rooted in south Louisiana.

SSE has been investing in automation for nearly a decade. In 2016 the company purchased its first six-axis robotic beam line, an articulated arm that cuts steel, drills holes and shapes beams to exact specifications. Since then, SSE has steadily added more robotic equipment.

The newest investment, however, represents a leap forward. On Jan. 22, the company announced it is working with Houston-based Persona AI to help develop a humanoid welding robot designed specifically for

industrial fabrication. SSE will provide production data to help train the system, and the prototypes will be tested inside the company’s St. Bernard facility Airhart’s own path into the steel business was far from predetermined. A Tulane University graduate who once planned a career in journalism, she joined the company after Hurricane Katrina, when post-storm rebuilding work flooded the region She officially took ownership in 2018, becoming the second generation to lead the firm. In this week’s Talking Business, Airhart discusses how SSE evolved from a

small, family-run operation into a fast-growing fabrication company and what it means to lead — and grow — a business in a traditionally male-dominated field.

The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity

How did your parents originally get into the steel business?

As far as I can remember going up the family tree, the whole family has been entrepreneurs. My grandfather got into gas stations and auto repair stores, and my parents took over those businesses. In the 1990s, large nationwide companies like AutoZone and Walmart really pushed the mom-andpop auto parts stores out of

business.

My father was asked to build a spreader bar, which is used in stevedoring to spread weight when you’re lifting cargo. He built it, realized it was a profitable way to do business and wanted to explore it further So my parents started the company in 1996 and built it very quickly They had a good relationship with the Army Corps of Engineers, which became especially important after Hurricane Katrina, when we did a lot of post-hurricane recovery work.

How would you describe what SSE Steel Fabrication does today?

Everything we do comes from blueprints or shop drawings we get from a customer For example, we did all of the structural steel for the West Power structure for the Sewerage & Water Board. Almost every piece was different depending on where it was placed in the complex. We’re not manufacturing a thousand widgets. We’re making individual parts — sometimes small, sometimes 40- or 60foot beams and each one has a specific place in the drawings.

How has technology changed the business over the years?

Thirty years ago, a lot more cutting and processing was done by hand. As technology evolved, a lot of that processing became automated. We continually invested our profits into bigger and better machinery that was more automated and more precise, and that allowed us to process material faster

What impact has automation had on jobs at the company?

When we bought our first robotic beam line in 2016, I remember announcing it on Facebook and getting angry

comments saying I was taking people’s jobs. But that’s really when we started growing. The productivity we get from these machines gives us more capacity.

From 2016 to about 2021, we added a second shift and then a third. We’ve had more revenue growth and more employee growth since we started using automated equipment.

How did you personally end up in the steel business?

After the hurricane, my parents’ business just exploded. I was able to use my marketing and communications skills (from a journalism degree at Tulane) to showcase the business in a way that made us look more professional and more capable. Over the years, I really started to love construction and the satisfaction you get from building things. It’s important to me to continue my parents’ legacy

What is it like being a woman owner in a male-dominated industry?

As a woman owner, I have a very different experience than a woman who is employed in the industry I’m the one making decisions, and people defer to what I say That’s not the experience of a woman employee. We do have women welders and women working in production. Because I’m a woman owner, I understand their perspective. I make sure they feel comfortable, that they have a separate bathroom and that my door is always open if there are problems or conflicts.

How do you see the company growing going forward?

Historically, our business has been based in south Louisiana, but we’re seeing more opportunities nationwide. Steel can be shipped any-

where as long as shipping costs aren’t too high. People talk a lot about data centers right now, but there are lots of other opportunities, too — LNG plants and commercial construction. We’re definitely exploring projects all over the United States.

You’ve spoken publicly about the new Louisiana International Terminal in St. Bernard Parish.Why is that important to you?

I’ve been a proponent of the LIT project since it was announced because I see it as an economic development opportunity for St. Bernard Parish. It’s close to our facility, and it’s going to positively benefit our employees and our neighbors. Is there a third generation interested in the business?

I have an 18-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter My son is very interested in artificial intelligence. My daughter has expressed some interest in the business, but I don’t know how serious it is. I didn’t express interest at that age either If either of them were serious, I’d encourage them to work at other companies first. That’s something I regret not doing I would have benefited from learning how other companies do things before coming back. You often credit your husband as a key part of the company’s success. Why? Justin is the COO, and he deserves just as much credit as I do for where we are today He steps back and lets me take the limelight, but there’s no way I could have done this without my husband.

Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate. com.

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AROUND THE REGION

State’s restructured child care tax credits can help workers

BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer

Across all industries, Louisiana businesses can invest in their employees’ child care, thanks to the expansion of a state program.

The Workforce Child Care Tax Credit restructures the state’s existing tax credits to widen the caps on expenses both child care and nonchild care businesses alike can claim for supporting childhood education. The program, formerly titled the School Readiness Tax Credit, provides a partially refundable credit for families, child care providers and businesses for contributions to child care in various forms including child care center construction costs and payments for child care on behalf of a company’s employees.

Legislators have doubled the limit for refundable expenses which include child care center construction or repair related expenses, payments from businesses to child care centers on behalf of employees and payments employers make to reserve spots at child care centers for employees.

The changes became effective this year, and families and businesses must apply by Feb. 28 to claim the credit on next year’s tax returns.

The Louisiana Department of Revenue placed a $1 million overall cap for the credits granted in 2026 and will increase the limit in following years depending on the usage of the programs.

Barry Erwin, chief policy officer for Leaders for a Better Louisiana, a statewide nonprofit that backed the legislation, said child care providers used the program’s provisions for the building or renovation of child care centers in the tax credits’ previous iterations, but employers had not taken advantage of the available credits. With the program’s expansion, he’s hoping more businesses will invest in child care for their staff.

“By enhancing the credit, we’ll be able to get that out to employers in a lot more effective way,” Erwin

said. “Particularly now, I think they are paying a lot more attention than they were maybe almost 20 years ago.”

Workforce development

The tax credit package was originally passed in 2007 to incentivize usage of early childhood education centers and the state’s quality rating system. Only 27% of 4-year-olds in Louisiana accessed public child care in the early 2000s, according to a report by Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, which advocated for the tax credits. In the late 1990s, 61% of children under age 4 were enrolled in child care, according to the report. Erwin said the pressures of recruiting and retaining a workforce have mounted, causing state leaders to reexamine how to alleviate the pressure Child care has be-

come an increasingly consequential factor, he said.

Child care for a 4-year-old costs an average of $8,153 each year in Louisiana, according to 2025 data from the Economic Policy Institute. That’s 9.7% of the median family income the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ considers a maximum of 7% of the family income spent on child care as the affordability standard.

The labor force participation rate of individuals age 16 and up is 58.1% in Louisiana, lower than the national rate of 62.5%, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ September data. Erwin said he thinks child care costs are a factor in the lower-than-average labor force participation rate.

“It’s just become more of an acute issue for a lot of families and employers are feeling it,” Erwin said.

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Taking advantage of the credit

The School Readiness Tax Credit program gave a 100% refundable credit for up to $5,000 to businesses who donated to a child care resource and referral agency Sonjia Brown-Joseph, executive director of Clara’s Little Lambs Preschool Academy, said her New Orleans child care center used the tax credits for the past three to four years. Brown-Joseph said the center used the funds to give raises and bonuses to teachers and to pay for quarterly trainings for her staff of 40 to stay on top of best child care practices. The tax credits have not been fully taken advantage of in its previous iterations, she said, but now that the state has expanded the program’s limits, she plans to reach out to local businesses to let them know how they can contribute

to their employee’s child care. She said the preschool now has a long waitlist and she’s felt an increased demand for the center’s services after the pandemic when parents returned to work People are starting to increasingly value early childhood education and its impact on the workforce, she said.

“For years, we were regarded as babysitters, and now we are understanding about brain development and the first five years of how important that is to a child’s life and their future development,” BrownJoseph said “And I think everybody’s kind of getting that message now.”

‘Not a giveaway’

Over the past decade, early childhood education matching funds have developed throughout the state to stir investment in child care.

In Alexandria, the Rapides Early Childhood Network has bestowed early learning scholarships for children in central Louisiana for the past two years, amounting to about $9.5 million in investment, according to Patrick Moore, chair of the Rotary Club of Alexandria’s Early Childhood Education Initiative who has worked to raise funds for child care.

A recent study conducted by LSU Alexandria on about 200 recipient families found that more than half of parents were able to return to work due to the funds, and a majority said they’d be unable to work without it.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re a great place to raise a family,” Moore said. Moore said the matching program helps entice businesses to contribute by offering funds in return for their investment. Businesses can combine the state’s offerings for child care assistance, like the tax credits and the matching funds, to boost quality child care and help parents reenter the workforce.

“It’s not a giveaway,” he said “People have to stop and think and invest.”

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Researchershavedoubtsastrading partners pledge $5T

Trump’stariffthreats spurredcommitments from overseas investors

BY PAUL WISEMAN AP economics writer

WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump has strong-armed many of America’sbiggest trading partners into pledging trillions of dollars of investment in the United States. But astudy released last week raises doubts aboutwhether the money will actually materialize and questions how it would be spent if it did.

“How realistic are these commitments?” write Gregory Auclair and Adnan Mazarei of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, anonpartisan think tank that supportsfreetrade “The short answeristhat theyare clouded with uncertainty.”

They lookedatmore than $5 trillion in investment commitments made lastyearbythe European Union, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Persian Gulf statesofSaudi Arabia, Qatar,Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump used the threat of punitive tariffs —import taxes —to pry concessions out of those trading partners, including theinvestment pledges.

The White House haspublished an even higher investment figure —$9.6 trillion —that includes public and private investment commitments from other countries. Trump himself, never one to undersell his achievements, has put the number far higher —$17 trillion or $18 trillion —though Auclair and Mazarei note that “the basis for his claim is not clear.”

All the numbers are huge. Total private investment in the United States was most recently running at a$5.4 trillion annual pace. In 2024, the last year for which figures are available, total foreign direct investmentinthe United States amounted to $151 billion.

Direct investment includesmoney sunkintosuch things as factories and offices butnot financial investmentslike stocks and bonds.

“The pledged amounts are large,” Auclair andMazarei write, “but their time horizon varies, and the metricsfor measuring and thus verifying the pledgesare generally unclear.” They note, for example, that theEuropeanUnion’s pledge to invest $600 billion in the

PEOPLE IN BUSINESS

Staff report

South Louisiana businessesand nonprofit groups recently announcedthe following promotions, new hires and resignations.

BatonRouge

Dr.Roy Culotta has been tasked with leading anew pulmonary medicine clinic at Baton Rouge General. Culotta, who will be based atBRG’s Bluebonnet campus, also serves as an assistant professor of pulmonary andcritical care medicineatLSU Health Sciences Center

Beverly Haydel has launched the new government relations firm Frontline Strategies through thecombination of her previous firm, Sequitur Consulting and David Tatman’s The Tatman Group. Haydel will serve as president and CEO, of the new firm, where she will be joined by Tatman, Doreen Brasseaux and Evan Alvarez

Mark Marionneaux,president and CEO of Bank of Zachary,was elected to afour-year term on the board of directors of the FederalHome Loan Bank of Dallas, anetwork of 11 district banks with more than $112 billion in assets to support mortgage lending and community development. Marionneaux succeeds Albert Christman,ofGuaranty Bank and Trust, whose term ended at the start of the year

Courtney Myers wasappointed the new deputy secretary of youth services forthe Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, effective Monday.Myerspreviously served as assistantsecretaryof the Office of Juvenile Justice. NewOrleans

Ana Melissa Ramos was promoted to senior vice presidentofhuman

resources for PanAmerican Life Insurance Group, effective April1.Ramos, whosucceeds Bryan Scofield, previously held senior HR roles for Copa Airlinesand Nestle. She will remain based in Panama and regularly travel to the group’sNew Orleans headquarters.

KathyHarrison, Magdalen Bickford and Susanne Cooper have joined the New Orleans office of law firmGordon Arata. Harrison’spracticehas centered on commercial litigation defense, and she previously workedasin-house compliance counsel for amaritime tr ansportat ion company.Bickford and Cooper,who joined as members of the firm’slabor andemployment services practice, previously worked togetherasinhouse counsel at thesamelaw firm, working with corporate and nonprofit clients in an array of industries

CharlesTillotson,the executive directorofthe LouisianaGatewayPort in Plaquemines Parish,announced his immediate resignation. Port Commission officials announced plans to convene in thecoming weeks to discussthe transition plan and the processfor selecting Tillotson’ssuccessor

Kaitlin Tymrak was appointed the interim generalsuperintendent of the boardofdirectors of the New OrleansSewerage &Water Board while theutilityconductsasearch to determinewho to hire forthe permanent position.

CentralLouisiana

Marcia Hardy was named thethe dean of the business school and Master of Business Administration degree programat Louisiana Christian UniversityinPineville. Hardy was previously aprofessor of business administration andmanagement at Northwestern State University. Do you have personnel changes to share or other ideas forour business coverage? Dropusa line at biztips@theadvocate.com

United States “carries no legally binding commitment.”

The report also finds that some countries would straintomeet their pledges. Forthe Gulf countries,“thecommitments arelarge relativetotheir financialresources,” the researchers write.

“SaudiArabia appearscapable of meeting its targets, with some difficulty.”The United Arab Emirates andQatar would find it even harder and mighthave to finance theinvestments by borrowing. “In all threecases, thecommitments are nonbinding, and investments from these countries could fall well below headline numbers,” they write.

Moreover,“theseagreements

have been reached under duress,” Mazarei, aformer deputy director of theInternational Monetary Fund,saidinaninterview.“It’s notnecessarily being done willingly.”

So trading partners could look for waystoescape their commitments —especially if theSupreme Court strikesdownthe tariffsTrump used to negotiate the one-sided agreements. Aruling is expected as early as this month. “Other countriesmay finda way to wiggle out,” Mazarei said. Still, the Trumpadministration can turn to alternative tariffs if the justices rule the current tariffs illegal. “President Trump agreed to

lower tariffs on countries we have tradedeals with in exchange for investment commitments and other concessions,” White House spokesmanKush Desaisaid. “The president reserves the right to revisit tariffrates if other countries renege on theircommitments, andanyone who doubts President Trump’swillingness to put his money where his mouth is should ask Nicolás Maduro and Iran for their thoughts.”

U.S. troops overthrew and arrested Venezuelan President Maduro last month, andTrump orderedthe United Statestojoin Israel in bombing Iran last year Auclairand Mazarei agreethat theinvestmentTrump lands could end up creating jobs, spurring economicgrowthand making supply chains moresecure by bringing production to America. Trump, they note, is in some ways taking asimilarapproach to Biden, using government “industrial policy” to encourage more manufacturing in the United States.

ButBidentappedtaxpayer dollars to finance infrastructureprojects and incentives forcompanies to invest in green technology and semiconductors. Trump is using the tariff threat to get foreign countries —and their companies —topick up the tab. And he has dropped the push to encourage clean energy,focusing instead on promoting fossil fuels.

In their report, the Peterson researchers worry about how the investment decisions wouldget madeand whether they would reflect sound economics.“This approach may yield real investmentsand jobs,” they write, “but it raisesfamiliarindustrial policy concerns: opaque projection selection, weak accountability,and the risk that political criteria crowdout economicefficiency.”

Iget deluged by questions at tax time, but themost common are about deductions. As in:“Can Ideduct the cost of thesuit or dress Ihave to buy for work, or my commutingcosts, on my tax return?”

The answers are generally straightforward. Butcreative filers often try to push thelimits. Oneofmyfavorite stories, told to me by atax professional, is about afiler who asked whether theservice she used to cleanse her homeof“bad spirits” could be deducted as amedical expense. No, her ghostbusting was not a write-off.

Andwhat about pets? Can you claim your cat or dog as adependent?

Icertainly understand the reasoning. My 10-pound Yorkshire terrier mix is likehaving another child, right down to the expense of hiring ababysitter when my husband and Itravel. Andthe vet bills? Oh,my!

Well, the owner of an 8-year-old golden retriever is trying to test theidea of adoggy dependent in alawsuit filed against the IRS last year in New York. Amanda Reynolds, of New York, wants theagency to recognize her dog, Finnegan Mary Reynolds, as adependent —specifically, as a“quasi-citizen entitled to limited civil recognition, including dependency status for tax purposes.”

In thesuit,Reynolds argues that the federal government should recognize Finnegan as a dependent because she provides thecanine with “safe harbor, food, shelter,veterinary care, training, day care, and boarding” —intotal, expenses that run in excess of $5,000 ayear

“While dogs are considered property, there is arational basis to consider them as non-human companions,” the lawsuit says. “For all intentsand purposes, Finnegan is like adaughter While novel, this case is not frivolous or meritless and warrants serious consideration.”

There are particular rules to claim an individual as adependent,and her argument broadly aligns with the guidelines for claiming achild: They live with you for morethan half theyear, with some exceptions, and receive more than half their financial support from you.

Butthe IRSsays the tests to be aqualifying child specifically say thechild “must be your son, daughter,stepchild, foster child,

mainly to the wealthy,asdid the tax legislation enacted last year, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.

Michelle Singletary THECOLOR OF MONEy

brother,sister,half brother,half sister,stepbrother,orstepsister, or adescendant of any of them.”

In other words, aperson.

“Finnegan is categorically excluded from dependent status due solelytonon-human classification,” Reynolds’ suit contends.

“The categorical exclusion of dog-related support expenses constitutes awrongful taking of property in the form of lost tax deductionsand credits.”

James M. Wicks, the magistrate judge reviewing the case, didn’tdismiss it outright, issuing an order that Reynolds “presents a‘novel but urgent question,’ namely,whether domestic companion animals, including Finnegan,should be recognized as a‘dependent’ under the Internal Revenue Code.”

Still, the lawsuit, which is in early stages, is “likely to result in dismissal,” Wicks noted. The passion forapet and treating it like family doesn’tchange its status as property

“The TaxCode simply does not allow for animals to be claimed as tax dependents,” he wrote. That said, certain pet-related expenses may be deductible, such as forservice animals or guard dogs protecting acommercial property or warehouse, he added

However wacky you might thinkthis case is, it’snoteworthy because it taps into the frustration and bitterness manytaxpayers feel about the inequities in thetax code. The tax code is supposed to be applied fairly,yet we frequently see the wealthy pay less than their fair share. The rich often enjoy favorable tax treatment not available to middle- andlower-income taxpayers. Hedge funds and wealthy real estate investors use complex business setups to avoid paying billions in taxes.

Another example: Employees can no longer deduct homeoffice expenses as atax deduction to due to changes in President Donald Trump’s first major tax legislation, which took effect in 2018 and eliminated the deduction of unreimbursed employee business expenses. More broadly,the benefitsofthat measure skewed

In ascathing 2020 report, The NewYork Times said it had received tax documents showing that Trumppaid only $750 in incometaxes for2016 and 2017, and no personal incometaxes in 10 of the previous 15 years. It also found that he reportedly wrote off about $70,000 in styling services forhis comb-over as a business expense during his time hosting on “The Apprentice” reality show While Trumpcould argue that his signature look wasanecessary business expense as an entertainer,the claim highlights asignificant gap in the tax experience of the ultra-wealthy He certainly has the legal resources to defend the deduction if challenged. But mostordinary taxpayers do not. As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously observed in “The Rich Boy”: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” The courts are bound to reject Reynolds’ claim, but the lawsuit is no moreabsurd than atax code that allows abillionaire to pay less in incometax than a barista.

Email Michelle Singletary at michelle.singletary@washpost. com.

MADE IN LOUISIANA

Wound-care business pivots from skin grafts to 3D

bioprinting

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

For the past 15 years, a Lafayette company has built a national wound-care business out of an often-discarded byproduct of childbirth to help solve a nagging health care challenge affecting millions of people: untreated chronic wounds like bedsores and diabetic ulcers.

Tides Medical collects placentas, transforms them into skin substitutes and distributes them to hospitals, clinics and care facilities to treat chronic and surgical wounds. Over the years, it has used donated amniotic tissue from new moms across Acadiana to manufacture enough wound-care patches to cover four basketball courts.

Annual revenue soared above $100 million as the company earned private and public sector accolades as a rare, vertically integrated Louisiana biotech company But recent Medicare reimbursement changes aimed at preventing fraud have sharply disrupted the industry As its core business of making skin grafts from placentas faces challenges, Tides is now looking to a new technology as an engine for its future growth

Production process

The placenta is the body’s only nonimmunogenic organ — that means there’s no need to match blood types or do the same type of tissuetyping necessary when transplanting organs. And there’s almost no chance the body will reject it.

agreed to donate the placenta. Our team goes into the birth, they bring a sterile basin, we collect the placenta there.”

Tides Medical has hundreds of placentas on hand at any given time They’re stored in a medical-grade freezer at negative-80 degrees, where they can remain for up to a year before being processed using a proprietary method

Two workers at a time carefully wash the tissue, separating its layers in one of the four “clean rooms” at the company’s 12,000-squarefoot Lafayette headquarters.

“Then we use some drying methods to make it into the consistency of tissue paper,” resembling a Listerine breath strip, he said.

About 40 different skin grafts can be produced from a single donated placenta. The whole process takes about two weeks.

After the grafts are sterilized, they are put into final packaging that can be stored for up to five years.

“It’s sort of been our niche, almost,” he said. We try to offer a concierge-level service to the provider.”

Reimbursements busted

“We get all the placentas that we need locally,” said CEO Joe Spell “We have a team that goes in when the mother has a planned C-section and she’s

Last year, Tides Medical was ranked by Inc. among the fastestgrowing private companies for the third consecutive year, posting revenue growth of 226% for the three-year period from 2021 to 2024. But recent changes to Medicare reimbursement rules aimed at ferreting out fraud and abuse in the wound-care market is forcing the company to pivot, at least temporarily.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicare spending on skin substitutes

rose from $256 million to $10 billion. While some of the growth was the result of more use of the products in in-home case settings, the U.S. Justice Department also attributed the increase to largescale fraud, following several high profile investigations.

A Phoenix couple was sentenced last month to more than a dozen years in federal prison for submitting more than $960 million in fraudulent claims to federal health care programs in a scheme that involved taking millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks from a skin graft distributor

At the peak of the fraud, there were 300 different products on the market, Spell said, and some of Tides’ competitors were selling products for $5,000 per square centimeter The Louisiana company’s grafts, by comparison, went for $400 per square centimeter Medicare has since capped everyone’s products at $127 per square centimeter — a significant challenge that caused Tides’ revenues to fall off by 40% in 2025.

“Medicare just sort of took a blunt force instrument to the problem, and it’s definitely presenting a lot of challenges,” Spell said. “We’re doing our best to figure out

how to work in our new environment.”

Ahead of the reimbursement change, Tides laid off nearly half of its employees. It now processes only about two placentas a week.

Still, Spell sees a huge unmet need for his products. He estimates only about 600,000 of the 3.8 million people who suffer from chronic wounds are receiving treatment

“We have the capacity to make enough to take care of 10% of the patients out there that have chronic wounds,” he said. “Capacity is not our problem right now, it’s just market demand.”

‘Bio-ink’-ing a deal

While the business of manufacturing amniotic skin substitutes from placentas is going through a rough patch, Tides Medical is looking for growth from an innovative new medical device.

Tides is now the sole U.S distributor of the first federal Food and Drug Administration-approved intraoperative 3D bioprinter, the Aplicor 3D, which can be used to produce wound-care products personalized for individual patients.

Invented by the South Korean biotech company Rokit Health-

Lafayette-based biotechnology company Tides Medical is capable of producing more than 400 square feet of amniotic skin grafts every year But changes to Medicare reimbursement rules aimed at preventing fraud have meant production is down to less than 44 square feet a year

care, the devices have already been deployed in major research hospitals like the Mayo Clinic The Opelousas General Health System wound-care center is set to be the first location in Louisiana with the technology

Patients’ wounds are scanned with a specially calibrated iPad and artificial intelligence software is used to design a personalized skin graft. Then, health care providers harvest fat from the patient’s body usually the abdomen, which is processed into a “bio-ink.”

The whole process takes about an hour, and clinical studies show it is about 87% effective with just a single application, Spell said. Grafts produced from placentas tend to require re-applications.

While the Korean firm has the patent on the device, Tides has filed for intellectual property protections for new bio-ink uses. Spell said the company is following the same business as conventional printing corporations like HP — effectively giving away the printers and pursuing its profit by providing cartridges and support

“We think that the beginning of a new bio-revolution is going to be bio-inks,” Spell said.

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LEGAL

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Helpingtolose

NewGLP-1 pillsbring reducedcosts, decrease weight loss surgeriesinLouisiana

BY MARGARETDeLANEY Staffwriter

In December,the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave thegreenlight to apill version of the blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy, the first FDA-approved daily oral GLP-1medication for obesity

The approved pills areGLP-1 drugs that work like widely used injectables to mimic anatural hormone thatcontrols appetite and feelingsoffullness.

In 2023, Americans spent over $71 billion on GLP-1 drugs, accordingtoa report from the Journal of theAmerican Heart Association

About 1in8 Americans have used injectable GLP-1 drugs, accordingto asurvey from Kaiser Family Founda-

tion. But many morehave trouble affording thecostly shots.

Weight loss surgeries at Baton RougeGeneral MedicalCenterare down27%,according to Dr Drake Ballenger,who specialized in obesity medicine at the hospital’sLouisiana Center for Bariatrics. GLP-1 use continuestosurge, especially among adults 45 to 65.

Ballenger now has patients come in to try GLP-1 drugs before considering surgeries.

$149 per month by someproviders, to treat obesity could expand the booming market for obesitytreatments by broadeningaccessand reducing costs

“Ifwedon’t getthe results, or they don’t tolerate themedications very well, we’ll look at surgery,” Ballenger said.“(Withpills,) we’llbeabletoemploy it for agreater number of people.”

Availability of oralpills,priced at

BEYOND THESCALE:ADDRESSING

Join us on ahealth journey through 2026 with ‘BEYOND THE SCALE: AddressingLouisiana’s obesity epidemic’ Do you wanttostart ahealth journey? We wantto hear fromyou not about weight, but about health,

stress, food and life. Aswemove through 2026, we are inviting readers to come along ahealth journey with us

Ournext project will explore youth obesity.Weposeone question to

The NovoNordisk obesity pill contains25milligrams of semaglutide.That’sthe same ingredient in injectables Wegovy andOzempic andin Rybelsus, alower-dose pill approved to treat diabetes in 2019.

In aclinical trial,participantswho took oral Wegovy lost 13.6% of their total body weight on averageoverabout 15 months, comparedwith a2.2% loss if they took a placebo.That’snearly the same as

See GLP-1, page 3X

ourreaders: What aresome healthy school lunches your kids actually liked? Send us photos. Email youranswers,commentsor questions to Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate.com.

Students work to prevent ACLinjuries with device

BY MARGARETDeLANEY Staff writer

Anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, tears areone of the most devastating injuries in sports, often requiring a year for an athlete to return to competitive play.

Young Louisiana athletes face additional risk because of high childhood obesity rates, whichincrease joint stress. Atrio of LSU Shreveport computer science students, including graduate student Augustine Nwafor,two undergraduate students Ricky Wiggins Jr.and StewartGreathouse,hope to solve, or at leasthelpyoung athletes

The DevDays HealthTechChallenge presenteda unique opportunity forthe team at LSU to present Smartknee: a wearable prototype that provides realtime data on high-risk movements athletesmake.

“The systemoperates on two levels,” said Nwafor. “There arereal-time alerts thatnotify coaches immediately when an athlete performs ahigh-risk movement —like dangerous cutting anglesorpoor landing mechanics.”

The second level uses artificial intelligenceassistancetopredictand interpret patterns in an athlete’smovements

“If an athlete accumulates multiple risky landings in ashort period,” Nwaforsaid. “That’sa redflag forfatiguerelatedinjury susceptibility.”

Theteam entered acompetition, which wasorganized by Nexus LouisianainpartnershipwithOchsner Health and drew 47 college teams from 11 different universities around the state

The student-researchers found out aboutthe competitionthree weeksbefore theprototype of theirnew inventionwas due

The team receiveda major assist from LSU Health Shreveport’sDr. Giovanni Solitro,the director of the biomechanics educational laboratory whoinvestigates the biomechanics of various joints.

“As abiomechanical engineer and professor of orthopedic surgery,he brought the clinical perspective we needed,” Nwafor said. “Without his domain expertise,wemight have built something technically impressive but clinically irrelevant.”

The team at LSU Shreveport spent two all-nighters developing the software andhardware fortheir ACLdetecting prototype, running at odd anglestotestthe prediction power

“The fact that we were the only team with alive, onstage demo of a hardwaredevicewhile others showed slidesorprerecorded videos felt like the ultimate proof thatwebelonged on thatstage,” Nwafor said.

The team plans to continue the research and product developmentunder Dr.Urska Cvek,anLSU Shreveport computer scienceprofessorand faculty adviserfor this project. Theirnext phase is to trainAIto

ä See ACL, page 2X

HEALTH MAKER

South African doctor joins Manning Family Children’s

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

Dr Russel Hirsch joined Manning Family Children’s in January as the chief of cardiology and co-director of the hospital’s heart center Hirsch joins the Louisiana hospital after 23 years at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He will also serve as professor of pediatrics and division head of cardiology in the department of pediatrics at LSU Health New Orleans.

A native of South Africa, Hirsch completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Then, he moved to Washington University in St. Louis Missouri, to complete his pediatric residency, chief residency and pediatric cardiology training, followed by additional training in interventional cardiology at the University of Michigan.

Additionally, Hirsch has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and has given about 75 national or international invited lectures and presentations.

“Dr Hirsch will expand our portfolio of research in the cardiology division,” said Dr Richard DiCarlo, Dean of the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in a release from LCMC, “and he will play a central role in the education of our learners, training the next generation of pediatric cardiologists.”

How has your career changed

Dr Russel Hirsch joined Manning Family Children’s in January as the chief of cardiology and co-director of the hospital’s heart center

since beginning as a pediatric cardiologist?

I’ve been at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for the last 23 years, where I had the role of the director of the pediatric cardiac catheterization laboratory, as well as the director of the pulmonary pediatric pulmonary hypertension service. Together, with other hospital administrative and leadership roles, I had a very big focus on clinical medicine including research and advancing therapies for children with pulmonary hypertension

I was trained as an interventional pediatric cardiac catheterization. But over the course of my career, I found that I was looking after children with pulmonary hypertension — a very niche type of specialty That became a much bigger clinical interest. As a developer of the pediatric pulmonary hypertension service at my former institution, it became the predominant clinical entity that I was involved with research while still doing cardiac catheterization. That evolved over the

years. If I look at my career, every five years has changed into something else — either morphed and evolved or major changes. It was like if I was practicing law one day and next day, I was an accountant. Medicine is always evolving, and I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been able to have the supports of really incredible institutions to be able to develop those skills and help the children in my care.

What drew you to Louisiana? To New Orleans?

Frankly Manning Family

Children’s is very committed to moving with the medical industry They recognize where they can get stronger I’m hoping that I will be able to come in — and plan to develop our strengths to fill those niche gaps, to serve the population of New Orleans in the state of Louisiana.

Manning was seeking somebody who was going to be able to mold what is already a really outstanding division of pediatric cardiology, and take it to a point to be able to serve every patient in this urban area, the state and the whole Gulf South.

There are really no pediatric pulmonary hypertension services of any extent in the city and as much as Manning Family Children’s offers all services, this new position allows me to hone some of those pediatric cardiology services and to promote them.

I also want to develop the heart center into a national leader in cardiology care. Why pediatric cardiology?

I was born and grew up in South Africa. I was there for at all my schooling before medical school at the University of Cape Town. I very quickly recognized that I was going to be a pediatrician. Not that I don’t like adults, but pediatrics seemed to be much kinder At the time in South Africa, there was an ongoing epidemic of rheumatic heart disease. As soon as I started working with children with heart disease,

I recognized that I could make a difference in pediatric cardiology

When I moved to the United States to do my residency and fellowship, I also realized that interventional cardiology in the pediatric domain allows you to make immediate differences in patients’ lives. It was a very easy decision to make for me. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to make the differences that I’ve been able to make, and hope to continue that. What are some of the biggest changes, or the most impactful, to happen in pediatric cardiology? The techniques, the technology, the equipment have all improved. It’s very exciting time in pediatric cardiology

Both interventions and surgeries — advancing techniques — have allowed us to operate on children who previously would have died. Those children are now surviving well into adulthood. I think that’s the biggest advance that occurred during my career The improvement in the pharmaceuticals in the pulmonary hypertension domain has allowed transformational therapies to be introduced in the pediatric sphere as well. Children who had undergone lung transplant would have previously faced a very dire prognosis. Those children are now doing extraordinarily well with new developments in pharmaceuticals.

Mobility exercises are important part of fitness as we age

BY ALBERT STUMM Associated Press

As they age, it’s not uncommon for many people to let out a muted groan when getting out of bed in the morning

But if you “oof” every time you get in a car or “aargh” while bending over to pick up something, it may be time to prioritize exercises that target your mobility

Dr Miho Tanaka, a sports medicine surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said good mobility is increasingly recognized as an important part of overall health. She pointed to research showing that high mobility has long-term effects in reducing rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia and depression.

“It’s not just about how you look and how your level of fitness is at any given point,” Tanaka said. “For anyone who wants to stay active later in life, there has to be a deliberate process of maintaining that level of activity by doing mobility exercises.”

Mobility and flexibility are often confused, said Jessica Valant, a physical therapist and Pilates instructor near Denver

Flexibility is simply the extent to which a muscle can lengthen, whereas mobility involves using muscle strength to interact with a network of joints, tendons, ligaments and synovial fluid, which is the lubricant inside the joint.

That network around the shoulders, spine, hips, pelvis and knees needs to work well together Otherwise, it

becomes difficult to reach things in high cabinets squat down to tie your shoes or lift your grandchildren, let alone participate in outdoor activities or sports.

Mobility e xerci ses strengthen your muscles while increasing your range of motion, which allows you to be more functional with age, Valant said.

“Motion is lotion, which is a saying we use in physical therapy all the time,” she said.

Starting from about 30 years old, muscles and tendons start to lose collagen, Tanaka said. That’s the same

substance that in hair and skin relates to going gray and getting wrinkles.

Without regular exercise, weaker muscles put extra pressure on joints, she said. Even active people lose muscle in areas that are overlooked at the gym, such as the rotator cuff around the shoulder and postural muscles that support the spine and neck.

Tanaka said two early warning signs likely point to the need for mobility training. The first is aching joints and muscle stiffness without first exerting a lot of effort.

Back soreness after a long day of sitting at a desk could signal limited hip or pelvic mobility, she said. Achy knees after being on your feet all day may be a sign of weak quadriceps.

The second sign is more acute pain, such as when you don’t get injured but you still experience swollen or painful joints for several days after participating in a sport like basketball or skiing for the first time a while.

She cautioned against following a recent social media challenge to test mobility by standing up from a seated position on the floor without

using your hands.

“I’ve seen some injuries from that, so I definitely don’t recommend that,” she said. Instead, try sitting in a chair and standing up without putting your hands on the chair arms. Next, try to stand on one foot. If you can do both, that’s a good sign.

Tai Chi and yoga are also both great for mobility training, she said.

“You don’t have to have a gym to do this,” Simon said. He suggested working body-weight exercises into your day That could include setting an hourly timer to get up and walk around the house. When you return to your desk, add chair sits to work the quads, hamstrings, calves and glutes. Assuming your balance is OK, doing pushups against a wall or a countertop helps to mobilize the shoulders.

Once those exercises become easy, add exercise bands to build strength.

Valant said that people who are sedentary should simply start walking every day

“It’s the lowest barrier to entry,” she said.

Beyond that, she suggests adding 10 minutes of mobility training to whatever exercise you’re doing. She offers short mobility routines on her YouTube channel targeting the hips, spine and full body

Some basic hip movements include lying on your side and lifting your top leg, lying on your back and squeezing your knees to your chest and sitting up with your feet together, lowering your knees toward the floor

For the spine, try the catcow stretch, arching and curving your back with hands and knees on the floor Or sit in a chair with feet on the floor, twisting your shoulders to both sides.

“This isn’t something that changes in five days, but I tell people, give it four weeks,” she said. “You will see results over time.”

Dr Corey Simon, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, urged people to prioritize mobility before they experience pain in their joints or difficulty moving around.

The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state.This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and reexamining tried and true methods on ways to live well.

Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana. Do you have a health story? We want to hear from you. Email margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

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BY THENUMBERS

Spending on glucagon-likepeptide-1 receptor agonists,orGLP-1s, in the United States increasedover500% from $13.7billion in 2018 to $71.7billion in 2023, according to the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Although these medications were initially developed to treat Type 2 diabetes, newerindications now include weight management. Obesity is achronic diseasethat increases risks for metabolic complications and cardiovascular disease, contributing to an economic burden on health care systems andpatients.

GLP-1 fills and spending for 2023 were obtained from SymphonyHealth for adults aged over 18 years old. This database captures 85% of retail and74% of mail order prescription fills, which consists of prescriptions dispensed by the pharmacy and picked

GLP-1

Continued from page1X

injectable Wegovy,with an average weight loss of about15%.

Chris Mertens, 35, apediatric lung doctorinMenomonee Falls, Wisconsin, joined the Novo Nordisk trial in 2022 and lost about 40 pounds using the Wegovy pill. The daily medication worked to decrease his appetite and invasive thoughts of food, he told The Associated PressinDecember

“If there were days whereI missed ameal, Ialmost didn’t realizeit,” said Mertens All the GLP-1 drugs, oral or injectable, have similarside effects, including nauseaand diarrhea. The Wegovy pill must be taken with asip of water in the morning on an empty stomach,

up by the patient, accordingtothe report.

Louisiana spent $1.167 billionon weightloss drugs in 2023, the 16thhighest in America.

In 2023, thesestates spentthe most on GLP-1 weight lossdrugs (in millions), in descendingorder:

n Texas with $6 billion;

n California with $4.4 billion; n Newyork with $4 billion; n Florida with $3.2 billion; n North Carolina with $2.4 billion; n Illinois with $2 billion;

n Pennsylvania with $2 billion; n Georgia with $1.9 billion; n NewJersey with $1.7 billion; n Tennessee with $1.6 billion.

In 2023, thesestates spentthe least on GLP-1 weight lossdrugs (in millions), in ascending order: n Wyoming with $66 million;

with a30-minute break before eatingordrinking. That’sbecause NovoNordisk hadto design the pill in away that prevented the drug from being broken downinthe stomachbeforeitcould be absorbed by thebloodstream. Thedrugmaker addedaningredient that protects the medication for about 30 minutes in thegut andmakesiteasierto take effect By contrast, asecond oral weight loss drug, orforglipron from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly,has no dosing restrictions. That drugisbeing considered underthe FDA’s newpriority voucher program aimed at cutting drugapproval times. Adecision is expectedin spring 2026.

EmailMargaretDeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com

n Vermont with $82 million;

n Delaware with $94 million;

n Montana with $106 million; n Alaska with $115 million; n South Dakota with $117 million;

n North Dakota with $129 million;

n Rhode

In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green lighttoapill version of the blockbuster weightloss drug Wegovy,the first FDA-approved daily oral GLP-1 medication for obesity.Itworks likewidely used injectables to mimic anatural hormone that controls appetite and feelings of fullness.

More than abuilding. Acommitment to care.

AsBatonRougegrows,sodoesthedemandforaccessible,high-quality healthcare.AtOchsnerMedicalComplex–TheGrove,we’remeetingthat demandbyexpandingourfacilityandtheservicesfamiliesrelyon.We’re doublingouroperatingrooms,addingacardiaccatheterizationlab,offering advancedimaging,andexpandingprimarycarealongsideOB-GYN,pediatric andmusculoskeletalservices.Ournewfifthfloorwilladd30examand treatmentroomsdedicatedtowomen’sandchildren’scare. ThisinvestmentreflectsourdeepcommitmentnotonlytoBatonRouge, butalsotothesurroundingcommunitiesweserve.We’reproudtogrow alongsidethisregionandremaindedicatedtobringingthebestcare closetohome.

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Washington MayorDwightLandreneau smiles during an interviewrecently in his of

Hometown hero

Reluctantmayor

came outof retirement to help save town

BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dwight Landreneau was driving his golf cart to his deer stand whenhis phone rang.Onthe line was then-Gov.John Bel Edwards. Landreneau, astout, soft-spoken man with square glasses, was in his late sixties and finally ready to retire after along career that anyrural Louisianan might envy: starting as an LSU AgCenter agent with crawfish farmers before climbing through the ranks to become Gov.Kathleen Blanco’sdirector of state parks, then secretary of Wildlife and Fisheries.

After several attemptsatretirement, he had finally made peace with stepping away for good.

But the governor had one more job for him.

Beforethe call ended, Edwards had appointed Landreneau mayorofhis hometown, Washington, in rural St Landry Parish. Edwards remembers making the call.

“For atown that size, theyhad real fiscal issues and neededa leader who could do the hard things,” Edwards said. “I knew Dwight was agood public servant. Ijustcalledhim to askwhether he would beinterested. He was at a time in his life where hewas able to do it —and I’m thankfulhedid.”

After decades of poor financial management,Washington wasonthe brink of bankruptcy

The town faced $750,000 in debt and state auditors were knocking at the

door

“Dwight,” Landreneau remembers Edwards telling him, “if you don’tdo it, the state will have to takeover the town.”

With roughly 1,100 residents, asmall tax base,and no operating funds, the previous mayor had quit after serving less than ayear Even the town’shistoric cemeteries, with graves dating back before the Civil War, were choked with weeds and enclosed by rusting wrought-iron gates “You couldn’twalk through it,” Landreneau said. “People had to bring weed eatersand bushknives just to visit the graves.”

ForLandreneau, retirementwould have to wait alittle longer Suspended in time

Washington is acluster of historic buildings, bleached chapels and a few trailers less than asquaremile in area. It was foundedin1720 as a French trading post, according to the town’swebsite, whichwould make it the third oldestEuropean settlement in Louisiana. Everyevening at 6p.m., a three-chimesteamboat whistle blares through the town, paying homage to the industry responsible forits existence.

On aThursdaymorning in mid-January, 82-year-old Butch Sebastien was ringing up prescriptions at abustling pharmacy towardthe center of town.

Sebastien grew up on the surrounding farmland where he now raisesracehorses.

Thebest part abouthis community is itstranquilityand thepeople,hesays —small town cliches, no doubt, but ones that appear to ring true for many other residents.

“You get to know everybody,which is good and bad,” he said.

When he took over the place in 1971, there were five pharmacies in the immediate area plus twogrocery stores

in Washington. Now his store is the only placetobuy medicine in town, and he enjoys asteadycustomer base fromsurrounding ruralareas. Soon he’lltransfer ownershiptoa younger pharmacist,Tara Thistlethwaite.

“I’mthe only one standing now,”he said. “It’s just harder to makealiving now withall the insurancestuff.

Sebastien maintains that littleelse has changed much in Washington over theyears. Unlike othercommunities struggling with arural exodus, Washington’spopulation hasremainedthe samesince the1800s. Locals joke that everytimea womangetspregnant, a man leaves town.

Back in the day, shallow-draftsteamboats floated down Bayou Courtableau, loadingand unloading goodsbeforereturning to oceangoing vessels waiting in the Atchafalaya. In 1848, asteamboat captain dug aturning basin in Washington, allowing larger boats to pivot there instead of at Port Barre to thesouth.

For abriefperiod, that turned the town intothe largest steamboat port between New Orleans and St. Louis, Missouri. It was abustling hub of commerce that drewa substantial Jewish merchantcommunity,many buried in thetown’sHebrew RestCemetery

But by the turn of the century,the railroad boom rendered steamboats obsolete. In 1900, shortly after the Southern Pacific Railroad reached Opelousas, the last steamboatleft Washington, andthe town seemed to freeze in time.

For years, though, the town was better known as aHighway 49 speed trap, collecting 84% of its revenue, roughly $1.3 million, from fines and forfeitures in 2013 alone.

Driving through narrow residentialstreets, Landreneau points out Magnolia Ridge, a50-acre plantation and Greek Revival mansion once capturedbyUnion troops.Heparks in front of ared-brickwarehouse that once brimmedwithsteamboat cargo —cotton, sugar,molasses, poultry and cattle. Now arustic fine-dining restaurant, it draws visitors from across Louisiana. Landreneau rarely recognizes anyone when he eats there, but that doesn’t bother him much. Most residentsare working or middle-class and commute to nearby towns, so tourism is considered amajor industry for thesmall town of Washington.

Nearby stands Landreneau’sold high school, closed after integration in the 1970s and later convertedinto the Washington OldSchoolhouse Antique Mall, where he once volunteered as its first manager.Today dozens of vendors fill theclassrooms, while kids in town are split between traveling to Port Barre,Opelousas or Lafayette for school.

About 80% of Washington’sbuildings qualify for the National Register

ä See MAYOR, page 4Y

an Rishe

LONG STORy SHORT

Onetable, sixchairs

In early January,Ireadabout a couple who vowed to host adinnerparty everyweek throughout 2025. Somehow,theydid it —all 52 of them. The dinners ran the gamut, from fancy to simple. Theyhad allsorts of positive takeawaysfromthe experience. Iadmiredthem.

But Ialso knewthat this wasn’t the year for me to host weekly dinnerparties. Imight love it, but even floating the idea might push my husband over the edge. Forhim, adinnerparty every week sounds less like hospitality andmorelike ahostage situation. Still, the ideastuckwith me —not the frequency,but the intention. It’sa decision to make gathering people around atable part of the structure of ayear, ratherthansomething thathappens only whenconditions are perfect So Imadeaquietervow.In 2026, Iwanttohost at least one dinnerparty amonth.

Thus far, I’m coming in strong —two in January,with another alreadyonthe calendar for midFebruary.These dinner parties arenothing heroic (beyond the chilesrellenosmyhusband made for the first one, whichpushed his culinary skills to hero status). Theyare notready for an influencer’s flashy andpolished Instagram feed. They are simply people gathered round our big table,passing plateshandtohand. Overtime,I’ve learned afew things aboutmyself as ahost. One is that, for right now,eight people around atable —myformer gold standard —isa bridge toofar.Six is the sweet spot for now. Conversationiseasier,and it’senough without being exhausting.

Anotheristhatthe real pleasure,for me, is in the mix. Ilovebringing together people who haven’tmet but whomI suspect would have plenty to talk aboutifgiven the chance. It is the opposite of networking. It’smorelike matchmaking (and truth be told, Ireally want to be a professional matchmaker in my next life).

Watching aconversation find its footing —and people connect —isone of my favorite parts of the evening. Iworktowardpoliteness giving waytocuriosity around my table

As I’mwriting this, tonight we arehosting aCroatian-themed dinnerparty

I’ve never been to Croatia. It’s on my list, but fornow,itexists mostly as aplace of coastlines I want to explore,a complicated history andfood I’ve only encounteredonthe internet. As it turns out, no one who will be sitting around the table tonight hasbeen to Croatia either —a detail thatfeltlike afeature, nota flaw.

In preparation, Ishared two movies ourguests could watch if theywanted—one light and notso-light aboutthe horrific warof the mid-1990s. Ionly watched the light one. I’m not up forsuperheavy, dark stories right now, andI’ve learnedtotrust that instinct. Gathering doesn’trequire emotional endurance tests.

Ialso shareda poem:“Star on High” by TinUjevi ,who was from Croatia andisconsidered oneofthe great lyric poetsof the former Yugoslavia. Translatedpoetry,I’ve discovered, is agentle way to gain insight into anotherculture —imperfect, filtered, but sincere.

Ithought oneline of Ujevi ’s poem was particularly beautiful: He lovesnolesswho does not waste his words. There’splenty to discuss in thatline alone. Never fear,I don’talways assign homework for dinner

page

ASK THE EXPERTS

Tour guide works to preserve history

Man gives walking tours on Civil Rights events in Shreveport

BY MOLLY TERRELL Staff Writer

Robert Trudeau, a retired teacher from Caddo Magnet High School, loves Shreveport along with its Civil Rights history. To preserve the history of Shreveport, he now conducts walking tours of the city, including one that showcases the significant landmarks of the Civil Rights era.

While initially from Massachusetts, Trudeau has lived in Shreveport for decades and in Louisiana for even longer He has been interested in learning and teaching about the city’s Civil Rights history since he arrived He has copies of books that aren’t widely circulated, including “The Blacker the Berry: A Black History of Shreveport” by Willie Burton.

Trudeau told the ShreveportBossier City Advocate about the importance of his walking tours in preserving Shreveport’s Civil Rights history

Answers have been edited for length and clarification.

Why did you start history tours?

I was a teacher, and a friend of mine had a family reunion coming in He asked me to talk to them about what I knew about the city and so I did, and that started the whole thing.

Do you host these tours often?

It varies a lot with factors like weather and timing, but also because history is not an easy sell. For most people, it’s dull and boring, and my job is to help people see that it’s full of energy.

What should people expect to hear from your Civil Rights tour?

I provide examples of what it was like, dates and times and names of people involved while we walk around landmarks.

What’s one of the most interesting Civil Rights stories you’ve learned over your time here?

In the 1920s, a woman named Cora Anderson wanted Black men to have a place with nice offices, and she knew those were not available on Texas Street.

She knew she could raise the money to start a Black Business Center, so she went out and sold burial insurance and used the money to build a four-story building that was a center for Black businesses.

How do you track down your information?

A lot of books. There are a number of relatively small books written by Gary Joiner at LSU Shreveport, as well as Eric Brock, who wrote about 12 different books about Shreveport.

Brock knew from childhood that he was going to be a Shreveport champion. He started saving postcards from Shreveport’s history as a child. We lost him be-

Q&A WITH ROBERT TRUDEAU TOUR GUIDE

fore he even reached his 60s but in the meantime, he had written about 12 books about history So some of those I know very, very well because when you go back over a good author’s work, you can learn so much more. Today, it’s a lot easier to research and report history I also use LSU archives, online sources and many personal interviews.

Did you teach local history during your time at Caddo Magnet High School?

Yes, I taught under the umbrella of world geography, and I would find ways to teach about local history, including Norman C. Davis, a Black barber musician and land developer in Shreveport in the mid-1800s.

I realized students needed to get out of those desks, so we did many walking field trips that reflected our lessons, which I think inspired the walking tours.

What do you think Shreveport could do to bring its Civil Rights history back to the forefront?

First of all, a nice, fairly large

official sign, so people don’t think it’s just been put up.

I’d want a sign where the Castle Hotel used to be, too, explaining the significance and how Martin Luther King, Jr first slept there while visiting Shreveport. That location on Sprague Street is now Shreveport Green’s Urban Farm.

Email Molly Terrell at molly terrell@theadvocate.com.

THERE’S GOOD NEWS, TOO

These are stories of global progress compiled by the media group Fix the News and shared in partnership with The Advocate/The Times-Picayune.

Each story overview is linked to an original report or story with more information.

VACCINE DRIVE

The Democratic Republic of Congo launched a nationwide vaccination to protect about 62 million children and adolescents (6 months to 14 years) against measles and rubella, according to the World Health Organization. The campaign, starting in late November, uses a phased approach across provinces and introduces the combined measles-rubella vaccine into the routine immunization schedule.

Supported by partners including the WHO United States Children’s Fund, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the effort aims to close immunity gaps from repeated outbreaks and low coverage, and move toward eliminating both diseases Health workers will deliver vaccines via fixed posts and outreach, with community engagement to encourage vaccination and counter misinformation.

BRITAIN EXPLORATION

Britain has become the largest global economy to end new oil and gas exploration, according to Greenpeace

Continued from page 1y

STORIES OF GLOBAL PROGRESS, COMPILED By FIX THE NEWS

VACCINE DRIVE

The Democratic Republic of Congo launched a nationwide vaccination to protect about 62 million children and adolescents (6 months to 14 years) against measles and rubella, according to the World Health Organization.

UK In its North Sea Future Plan, the government confirmed that no more licenses for new oil and gas will be issued — ending five decades of North Sea expansion. Existing fields will keep producing under stricter climate tests, and this move marks the first step toward a shift to clean, stable renewables

parties. Sometimes people just show up, and that’s enough. But with our long-running “Year of Countries” monthly dinners with friends, we try to reach beyond the menu. We share a book, a poem, a song, a film, a dance, a television show something that gives us more than talking points about what we’re eating. It’s merely a shared reference point. An invitation to pay attention.

NIGERIA

The World Bank, along with the International Development Association, is supporting Nigeria’s efforts to educate, empower and elevate girls and women through projects that target human capital development and foster inclusive

What I’ve learned is that hosting doesn’t have to be elaborate to be meaningful. It doesn’t require a theme every time or a perfectly timed menu. It does require intention — the decision to open the door, set the table and make room for conversation to wander where it will. Tonight we’re not even going to have the whole meal complete when our guests arrive. I’m going to ask them to roll up their sleeves and help me make the gnocchi. I believe that conversation flows best when people are doing something with their hands — not to mention learn-

growth Initiatives like the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment expand girls’ access to safe schools, life skills, digital literacy and scholarships. Over 4 million girls have benefited, with targets to reach 15 million by 2028.The Nigeria for Women Program implements economic independence, while the

ing something new together. (In full disclosure, I’ve never made gnocchi either However, I have watched a video. We’ll figure it out, no doubt.)

Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria group delivers cost-effective nutrition services to pregnant women, adolescents and children under five in 11 states.This multipronged approach is boosting enrollment, livelihoods and opportunities for the girls and women in Nigeria.

TANZANIA

In an effort to strengthen the country’s grassroots health care, Tanzania is aiming to deploy nearly 140,000 community health workers by 2028, as reported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.The program, sparked from lessons from a 2025 Marburg outbreak, aims to build a bridge between communities and health facilities.The first cohort completed six months of instruction — gaining tools like digital tablets to record data, blood pressure machines, sugar level testers, thermometers and nutrition assessment tools. This training improves health education, disease surveillance, early detection and data reporting through tablets with the United Community System.

Fix the News is the world’s leading solutions journalism newsletter. The organization finds hidden stories of progress and shares them with readers from 195 countries. Steven Pinker calls Fix the News “the best source for positive news on the internet.”

No, a monthly dinner party won’t change the world. But it might change a year. It creates a rhythm something to look forward to. It’s a reason to keep saying yes to people when it would be easier to retreat into the glow of a screen and call it rest. For now, that’s enough of a goal. One table. Six chairs. At least once a month. I don’t know who will still be sitting at our table by the end of the year I do know that I want to keep setting it.

Email Jan Risher at jan.risher@ theadvocate.com.

With thousands of Shell men and women across thestate,we areworking everyday to reduce emissions, while increasing efficiency in ouroperations

Our tomorrowdepends on what we do today. Together, we arepoweringprogressfor abrighter future. Louisiana is whereweliveand we’reproud to call it home

FAITH & VALUES

Spanish meditation classes offer broader healing

Access to activities like yoga help stressed communities

BY RICHA KARMARKAR Contributing writer

At the New York City yoga studios she frequented in the 2010s, Rosana Rodriguez sometimes found herself the only Latina in the room. “I felt really intimidated,” said the 58-year-old native New Yorker Predominantly White studios and expensive monthly fees gave her and others in her community the impression that wellness spaces “weren’t for them.”

But the practice of yoga itself, Rodriguez said, saved her life. It was a consistent stress-reduction technique after an abusive relationship and losing her job During yoga nidra — or guided meditation in the Savasana posture, often at the end of class Rodriguez caught herself translating what her teacher said into Spanish sparking a “revelation.” “I wanted to bring this level of healing to my community,” she said. Rodriguez soon founded Yogiando NYC, the first Spanish-English bilingual studio in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, which has a majority Hispanic population. Offering weekly $10 yin yoga classes at Yogiando, which is a made-up word to mean “doing yoga,” since 2017, Rodriguez said the space became a hub of solace where Spanish-speakers could share their anxieties about anything from immigration to family to their jobs with one another “One of the things that I have prided myself in creating for this

MAYOR

Continued from page 1y

of Historic Places, including his grandparents’ 1860s white Victorian home. Landreneau lives in a guesthouse he restored and proudly counts the 746 pickets in the fence he built around it one of several he’s constructed across town. But many other buildings still bear the weight of neglect St. Mark Church, built in 1867 and among the oldest Black Methodist churches in Louisiana, now stands with shattered windows and peeling white paint. Landreneau is working to get it restored though other properties — often tangled in family estates — are harder to reclaim.

On the edge of the woods, a sagging cabin tilts on stilts, with junk inside visible through gaping window frames. It belonged to a hoarder locals called Bozo Jones. He passed away in 2019, but his warning remains carved into a plank out front: “Reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone taking anything from this land.”

“Bozo would collect anything,” Landreneau said. “There are some jewels back there.”

Belt-tightening begins

When Landreneau became mayor in 2020, he quickly realized the uphill battle his predecessor faced Mounting late fees and interest on the town’s debts toward various vendors and agencies had caused the problem to snowball. With residents paying utilities in cash or checks, few records existed of where the money went.

“They hadn’t done audits,” he said. “There was money missing. there was no rhyme or reason for how things were filed. In their defense, they were never trained ”

Even the town hall’s internet was shoddy — usually only one person could get online at a time. Ironically, the pandemic helped. With federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, Landreneau paid to install fiber-optic lines and converted the entire payment system to electronic records.

“No cash helps us with the way we conduct business, but it also helps us track every dollar that comes in and every dollar that comes out,” he said. Within months, he hired a town clerk, Halli Polotzola, and enlisted Anne Jones, a retired banker who volunteered around 50 hours a week.

“With those two, we really started changing the way we did business in Washington,” he said. Their scrupulousness uncovered

community is a safe space,” she said “The closing meditation is that I’m saying to them, ‘You are held and protected.’ I’m teaching them how to be aware, how to listen to their body how to breathe. Many of these women have told me, ‘I do these breathing exercises every day, and they’ve helped me.’ They’ve told me how yoga has changed their life.”

As Yogiando NYC has done, increasing language accessibility in spiritual wellness spaces across the country has opened up meditation and yoga to more diverse American populations. For Spanish-speaking practitioners like Rodriguez, offering these kinds of classes is crucial to the spiritual-wellness movement in being able to respond to growing mental health concerns as antiimmigrant sentiments and federal actions surge in a country where Spanish is the second-most-spoken

language.

Xiomara Arauz, originally from Panama, teaches meditation and yoga in Spanish in Denver through the Art of Living, a global humanitarian organization founded by Indian guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Arauz and a handful of other instructors across the country have also taught online and in-person Spanish instruction of the Sudarshan Kriya, or SKY breathing technique, to hundreds since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our community is definitely experiencing heightened levels of stress, insecurity, uncertainty, anxiety and fear,” Arauz told RNS. “If the class is in Spanish and everybody speaks Spanish, people feel more safe being in that environment, feeling like they’re understood or they’re accepted here. They feel a lot better when they leave through the doors of the yoga studio than when they

bills for things like vehicles that didn’t exist and even a clerk accused of stealing more than $20,000 in traffic ticket payments.

Cutting unnecessary costs followed. The town had been paying for insurance policies they didn’t need, including coverage for terrorist attacks. Trimming those contracts nearly halved premiums from $120,000 to about $65,000, according to Landreneau.

Though never an elected official, it was clear Landreneau knew how to work the system. He negotiated with vendors like Cleco, which the town owed over $100,000, persuading them to waive late fees in exchange for steady payments.

Drawing on his experience in state government, he called on the Louisiana Municipal Association, nearby towns, state representatives and auditors for guidance and favors, finding equipment on the cheap and securing more than $2 million in grants and capital outlay funding.

“I knew who to call if I needed help,” he said. “But we knew we were doing it the right way.”

Grant money also modernized the town’s utility system, swapping manual gas, water and sewer meters for electronic ones.

“If you don’t pay, it’s supposed to be turned off,” he said. “It wasn’t getting turned off. Now instead of it taking us two weeks to read the meters, we can read them in two hours.”

Residents began noticing changes too — perhaps after the town’s museum reopened, or when they saw Landreneau building picket fences around town. They started volunteering, hosting bake and garage sales, and donating to beautification projects.

“People got involved because they saw that things were actually

came in.”

Particularly in meditative practices, Arauz said, it is “a different kind of comfort” to practice in one’s native tongue, as the work “is more internal, more subtle.” And her “warm and friendly” personality is able to “come alive” as an instructor in Spanish.

“There is a nuance that I think makes a difference when you are going into these deeper states of relaxation and your conscious mind is not trying to translate,” she said. “There is no resistance in the mind to be doing something else other than absorbing it. They’re able to relax a lot more, be more there, be more present.”

Diana Winston, a mindfulness teacher and director of UCLA Mindful an education and research center that provides science-backed mindfulness instruction to schools, hospitals and corporate offices — said the center’s Mindful App offers instruction in 19 languages, including a separate Spanish-only feature for California’s large non-English-speaking population. She said the organization is committed to “radical accessibility” to remove language, economic and religious barriers from mindfulness practices.

“It’s a very scary time for a lot of people in this country,” she said.

“I’m very worried about the most vulnerable populations, for people who are in some ways being targeted. And I feel like anything that can help support their mental health and well-being, since that’s what mindfulness really does, that would be a fantastic thing to be able to offer

“And my secret wish,” she added, “the people who could really use mindfulness, who are making these horrible decisions, might

transform themselves, too. What if somebody moved from a place of being stuck in seeing people as other, and hatred and violence, and began to meditate and had more compassion in their heart? That would be incredible.”

Still, barriers exist to getting Spanish speakers to the studios, sometimes based on an idea that yoga and meditation conflict with their Christian faith, practitioners said. Though the last few decades have seen a seismic growth of these Indian practices in secular contexts, often far removed from their Hindu and Buddhist religious roots, some still feel reluctant, said Rodriguez, who refrains from using Sanskrit terms, or the meditative sound “Om,” in her classes.

Marisol Alvarez, a 60-year-old student at Yogiando from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, said she has been told that she shouldn’t be doing yoga, despite the physical, mental and even spiritual benefits she found in the practice.

“They said, ‘The priests don’t want you to practice, it’s not of God,’ ” she told RNS in Spanish. “But I’m healing. God wants me to heal. It’s very big how (yoga) has helped me with my faith, connecting with the universe, with the divine higher power.”

Alvarez has brought her daughter, her mother and people she meets on the street into yoga classes. And the studio’s community of women who have now traveled and shared their dreams with each other — is “filled with so much love,” she said.

“There are times that I’ve arrived at the class feeling like I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “But I breathed.”

improving,” said Thistlethwaite a local pharmacist.

By 2022, Washington’s finances had stabilized, and last June the town became officially debt-free.

“Be patient. Learn how to do without,” Landreneau said when asked what advice he’d give to other struggling small towns. “And when you work on something, do what you say you’re gonna do and people will trust you.”

After a hearty lunch of oxtail at Richard’s Soul Kitchen (the kind that leaves the photographer gnawing the bone clean), Landreneau drives to the Hotel Klaus, a former general store owned by the Klaus family until the 1960s.

If there was such a thing as a mover and shaker in Washington, it would be the hotel’s owner, 42-yearold Stephen Ortego, a Tulane University graduate and former state representative, who now runs a Lafayette-based architecture firm. Ortego is also Landreneau’s nephew

Three years ago, he bought the crumbling building and transformed it into a nine-room boutique hotel. As he gives a tour Ortego adjusts curtains and checks each light bulb The pastel rooms hum with ragtime, swing and Cajun folk music.

“We put the radio on KRVS (Lafayette’s public radio station), so when people come into their rooms, it’s local music,” he said.

There’s a pool out back, and a vintage bar downstairs that glows beneath portraits of St. Landry’s prominent figures. Ortego gears the place toward young couples and wedding parties — where he says receptions can be held across the street at Wolff Hall.

“It’s weird, but it’s exciting. It was falling down,” said Landreneau, who grew up with the Wolffs and

Klauses, both early Jewish families with members now buried in Old Hebrew Cemetery “When we ran out of something, Daddy would go to Mr Wolff. When they ran out, they’d come to us.”

Ortego sees the hotel as a launch point for Washington’s comeback in which the town can both harness and escape its paralysis in history

He talks about adding a kayak vending machine at the nearby boat landing and blue bikes for visitors.

“First, we’ll start with the weddings, but then use that as a way to start building an infrastructure toward more tourism,” he said, pointing toward a sign across the street for a planned two-story building — a mix of shops and apartments backed by a private investor. The local bank is also helping fund other restorations, he said.

“These little things make a big impact,” Ortego said. “Now you have five or six people who are really starting to put money here. You can get it turned around and have a success story a lot faster.”

Down the street at Café Courtableau, owner Peggy Allemond isn’t as optimistic.

“There’s not too much here,” she said, sipping from a bottle of Budweiser after the lunch rush.

Wiry and in her 60s, Allemond has owned the café with her husband since 2018. She cooks most days and he plays harmonica on weekends — unless she doesn’t feel like getting up early, “then I’ll tell him to cook.”

The building, nearly 200 years old, once served as Lastrappe’s meat market and, she believes, still hosts three ghosts.

“They like me. They don’t mess with me, but they have run some of my employees off,” she said.

Her real troubles are more earthly ones.

Despite being one of the only restaurants in town, she’s looking for a buyer after struggling with low foot traffic and rising insurance costs.

“We’re just tired. It’s been a struggle. COVID shut us down and it’s just not the same,” she said. “I just wish we had some support from the town. But I can’t afford to eat out every day either.”

Still, six years after that phone call from Gov Edwards, Landreneau remains hopeful. Edwards says that since Landreneau took the position, the two talk occasionally and the mayor has kept him updated on the town of Washington’s progress.

“It’s self-evident now that he was the right person,” Edwards said. “With no credit to me, Dwight and the people of Washington have done the hard work.”

Edwards says that there are other small communities with legacy costs struggling to provide all the services.

He’s happy for Washington and its mayor

“I believed he could lead that town through the difficult period and out the other side — and he’s done a wonderful job,” Edwards said. “Hopefully the example he’s set can inspire other leaders in Louisiana.” Now 74 and serving his second term after running unopposed in 2024, Landreneau still doesn’t have much time for leisure, but he’s managed to provide retirement benefits for his 14 employees — and finally keep the cemeteries maintained.

Sitting behind his desk beneath a painting of a steamboat, Landreneau’s broad smile beams as he recalls a recent compliment

“He says, ‘Mr Dwight, I went to see daddy’s grave. I brought the weed eater, the broom, the blower, and I got to the grave and it was all done.’ He says ‘I walked back to my truck. I put the tools back in the truck. I got my ice chest, and I went and sat on daddy’s grave and drank a beer with him.’” Louisiana culture editor Jan Risher contributed to this report

SUNDAY, FebrUArY 1, 2026

directions: Make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row Add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value All the words are in the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

word game

instructions: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

todAY's Word — LAVender: LAH-vinder: A Mediterranean mint with lilac-purple flowers.

Average mark 58 words

Time limit 60 minutes

Can you find 72 or more words in LAVENDER?

ken ken

instructions: 1 -Each rowand each column must contain thenumbers 1through4 (easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlinedboxes, called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (inany order)toproduce the target numbersinthe top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fillinthe single-boxcages withthe numberinthe top-left corner

instructions: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to placethe numbers 1to 9in theempty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficultylevel of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

directions: Complete thegridso that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally

goren Bridge

Junior shines

Today’s deal is from a recent competition held in Denmark. East was a rising young Danish star, 16-year-old Nikolaj Hammelev Declarer played low from dummy on the opening diamond lead and Hammelev took his king and returned a diamond to dummy’s ace.

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

super Quiz

Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, Ny 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2026 Tribune Content Agency

South, planning to take a heart finesse,ledalowheartfromdummy The opponents were obviouslyina4-3fit,butHammelevknew the suit was splitting 3-3. Hammelev had a diamond trick and a suretrumptricktocome,buthow could they defeat this contract? His partner might have a club trick but that was it. Hammelev got creative. Hammelev played the queen of hearts! South took his ace but was now convinced that West held the other five trumps. South led a spade to the ace, cashed the king and ruffed a spade in hand. Hammelev discarded a diamond on the third spade instead of ruffing with the 10ofhearts,furtheringthedeception. “Knowing” that East had 10 cards in the minors South led a club to the king and a club back to his jack. West took his queen and led a spade, Now Hammelev ruffed with the 10 of hearts and led a club. East ruffed for the setting trick and the contract was down one. Declarer needed a sedative.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Point your emotional energy in a direction that offers self-satisfaction, purpose and lasting effects Make romantic plans that will enhance your life and improve your future.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Discipline will pay off. Address lingering issues that are messing with your mind. Find out what’s necessary to derive more joy from and suffer less angst about your everyday routine.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Let your emotions take you on a magical tour. Remember who you are,

what you can do and what you want to pursue next. Be open to suggestions and help from those who want to be a part of your journey TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Stick close to home and take care of your responsibilities and unfinished business that can result in additional costs if left unattended. Dominate your domain.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Boredom will set in if you haven’t planned enough to fill your day Whether you are working toward something you look forward to, staying busy will satisfy and gratify

CANCER (June 21-July 22) An opportunity is attainable, but finishing what you start depends on your emotional well-being and mood. If you rush, it will cost you physically or financially, but if you stand still, you will miss out. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Let your emotions lead the way Share your intentions with someone close to you. The possibilities are endless if you focus on looking and feeling your best.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You will gravitate toward change: new scenery rearranging your space or engaging in a pastime that is fresh

and exciting. Positive thoughts and actions equal positive gains.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Socialize, participate and share with friends and family, but be careful not to exceed your entertainment budget. Offering time, effort and support will be rewarding.

SCORPIO (Oct 24-Nov 22) Take time to observe, check out your options and consider what makes you happy Refuse to compromise yourself, your home or your relationships with loved ones.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Doors are opening, and the light is beginning to shine brightly in your

favor You can talk the talk, walk the walk and take pleasure in generating excitement and hope wherever you go. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Tune in to what others do. The signals you receive will guide you forward without conflict. Showing compassion and understanding will break down barriers that can dismantle your relationship.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

1. Supreme Court justice. 2. Space. 3. Attorney generalofthe United States. 4. Vice president of America. 5. U.S.coin. 6. Vice president. 7. Secretary of state. 8. Speaker of the House of Representatives. 9. Best Actress Academy Award.10. Rock &Roll Hall of Fame. 11.Congress. 12. Secretary of the Treasury 13.AnAcademy Award. 14. Daytona500. 15.Birth control clinic.

SCORING: 24 to 30 points —congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points—honorsgraduate; 13 to 17 points —you’replenty smart, but no grind; 5to12points —you really shouldhit the booksharder;1point to 4points —enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0points who reads thequestions to you?

Saturday's Cryptoquote: Be willing tobea beginner every single morning. —Meister Eckhart