The Times-Picayune 02-02-2026

WHAT’S KREWE WITH yOU?

Louisiana pharmacy tied to $50M fraudcase

BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer

Atop criminal attorney forSean “Diddy” Combs, “pharma bro” Martin Shkreliand accused corporate assassin Luigi Mangione just scoreda big win for alesser-knownclient, in acase involving amom-and-pop pharmacy in downtown Hammond thatNew Jersey prosecutors tied to anearly $50 million fraudscheme.

AttorneyMarcAgnifilo represents Trent Brockmeier,a Floridaman who wasconvicted last year alongwitha Louisiana attorney,Christopher Kyle Johnston, on three conspiracy counts apiece. After asix-week trial,ajury found the pair had used Central Rexall Drugs, one of Hammond’soldest businesses when it shuttered after 120 years at the end of 2016, to fulfill amassive fraud against two sets of health plans. One insured New Jersey cops, firefighters and teachers, and the other,TRICARE, is for military membersand veterans. Dozens were convicted on the New Jerseyend of the scheme, most of them pleading guilty, while theHammondpharmacist’sdaughter anda former salesexecutive also pleaded guilty agreed to testify andstill awaittheir sentences ButonJan. 16,a federaljudge in Camden, New Jersey,threw out the convictions against Brockmeier and Johnston. In a65-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Edward Kiel found the government built its case against the pair on innuendo and an unbelievable witness. He tossed the jury verdicts, finding them notguilty.

“In sum, the evidencedid nothing morethanpaint defendantsasbad people who musthavedonesomething illegaltomakeall that money,” wrote Kiel,

ä See FRAUD, page 7A

The KreweofNefertiti rolled through New OrleansEast Sunday under abright blue cool sky with ‘Bayou Nefertiti’ as its theme, featuring 14 floats with titles such as ‘Bayou,’ ‘Swamp’and ‘Sirens.’ In keeping with theEgyptian motif, monarch LaShonda ‘Radiant One’ Tenner ruled alone. Riders also tossed asurprise piece of decorative jewelry during theparade. Founded in 2018, the Krewe of Nefertiti is an all-female social aid andpleasure organization committed to helpthe community through volunteer service, fundraising and the celebration of Mardi Gras culture.

By RANDyBEGERON

The buildingthat oncehoused Central Rexall, apharmacy that imploded in 2016 under a$50 million fraud scheme, is nowacoffee shop but still retains the signage.

Vision comesintoviewfor NorthShore Square Mall property

As grocer purchases twosites,other plans still undecided

BY BOBWARREN Staff writer

For years, Slidell’selected of-

ficials have asked how the North

Shore SquareMall property could be revitalizedand putback into commerce,lamenting the sputtering of what once was an economic engine that drew shoppers from across thenorthshore In thepastcoupleofweeks, the future of the oldmall hasbecomea little clearer.But just alittle. Apopular,Covington-based grocer,Acquistapace’s, has announced

thatitpurchased twoofthe mall’s former anchor sites, the Conn’s HomePlus store and the adjacent JCPenney.AnAcquistapace official declinedtoget into specifics, but did say oneofthe siteswould become an Acquistapace-branded store Meanwhile, aconsultant has finished itsstudy of alternative uses for the mall site. That study,bythe

real estateand investment company Colliers, ranked event center distribution center,light manufacturing facility or logistics/retail hub as the topfour alternative uses.

SlidellMayor Randy Fandal said he and some other officials planned to meet with acompany that operates event centerstofurtherexplore thatpossibility Fandalsaiddetails such as de-

sign, cost and ownership would still have to be ironed out. But he said the study provides agreat start for deciding on future use.

The mallsite is owned by Morguard,aCanadiancompany that ownsand managesbillions of dollars of real estate across North America.

ä See MALL, page 7A

Portland mayor tells ICE to leave after gas used PORTLAND Ore. The mayor of Portland, Oregon, demanded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave his city after federal agents launched tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators — including young children — outside an ICE facility during a weekend protest that he and others characterized as peaceful.

Witnesses said agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets as thousands of marchers arrived at the South Waterfront facility on Saturday Erin Hoover Barnett, a former OregonLive reporter who joined the protest, said she was about 100 yards from the building when “what looked like two guys with rocket launchers” started dousing the crowd with gas.

“To be among parents frantically trying to tend to little children in strollers, people using motorized carts trying to navigate as the rest of us staggered in retreat, unsure of how to get to safety, was terrifying,” Barnett wrote in an email to OregonLive Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the daytime demonstration was peaceful, “where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat and posed no danger” to federal agents.

“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” Wilson wrote in a statement Saturday night. “Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame.”

The Portland Fire Bureau sent paramedics to treat people at the scene, police said. Police officers monitored the crowd but made no arrests on Saturday

Trump says U.S. is ‘starting to talk to Cuba’

ABOARDAIR FORCE ONE President

Donald Trump said the United States was beginning to talk with Cuban leaders as his administration puts greater pressure on the communist-run island and cuts off key oil supplies.

He made the comment to reporters on Saturday night as he was flying to Florida. It comes in the wake of his moves in recent weeks to cut off supplies of oil from Venezuela and Mexico, which he suggested Saturday would force Cuba to the negotiating table.

His goals with Cuba remain unclear, but Trump has turned more of his attention toward the island after his administration in early January captured Venezuela’s then-President Nicolás Maduro and has been more aggressive in confronting nations that are adversaries of the U.S. Trump has predicted that the Cuban government is ready to fall.

The Republican president did not offer any details on Saturday about what level of outreach his administration has had with Cuba recently or when, but simply said, “We’re starting to talk to Cuba.”

Officer killed, another critical in Ga. shootout

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A police officer was killed and another was critically wounded Sunday in a shootout at a hotel in suburban Atlanta.

Gwinnett County police said in a statement that gunfire broke out early Sunday after two officers were dispatched on a call reporting fraud at the address of a hotel near Stone Mountain, about 25 miles northeast of Atlanta. When the officers arrived, police said, they encountered a person who drew a gun and shot both officers. The officers returned fire, wounding the suspect. One of the officers was killed, the police statement said, and the other was hospitalized Sunday in critical but stable condition Police said the suspect was also being treated for a gunshot wound.

5-year-old, dad return to Minnesota

Both ordered released from ICE detention

BY JACK DURA Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS Five-year-

old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained by immigration officers in Minnesota and held at an ICE facility in Texas, have been released following a judge’s order They have returned to Minnesota, according to Texas Rep Joaquin Castro.

The boy and his dad, Adrian Conejo Arias, who is originally from Ecuador, were detained in a Minneapolis suburb on Jan. 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.

Katherine Schneider, a spokesperson for the Democratic congressman, confirmed the two had arrived home. She said Castro picked them up from Dilley on Saturday night and escorted them home on Sunday to Minnesota

In a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Immigration and Customs

Enforcement did not target or arrest Liam Conejo Ramos, and that his mother refused to take him after his father’s apprehension. His father told officers he wanted Liam to be with him, she said.

“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” McLaughlin said.

The government said the boy’s father entered the U.S illegally from Ecuador in December 2024. The family’s lawyer said he has an asylum claim pending that allows him to stay in the U.S.

Images of the young boy wearing a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack and surrounded by immigration officers drew outrage about the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis.

In his order granting the release, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery blasted the administration, writing, “The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented gov-

mother, Rosa, while driving to school on Jan. 6. He said they both remained in custody at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in San Antonio the same facility where Liam and his father were held.

“It’s the same situation as Liam, but there were no pictures,” said Carolina Gutierrez, who works as a secretary at the school that Elizabeth attended.

“Seeing Liam released, it gives us faith.”

Inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security about that case were not immediately returned.

ernment pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”

Neighbors and school officials say that federal immigration officers used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an “abject lie.” It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway

On Sunday afternoon, residents of Columbia Heights,

Minnesota, gathered outside the house where Liam was detained to celebrate his release and call attention to others from the community who remained in ICE detention.

“We cried so much when we heard that he was coming back,” said Lourdes Sanchez, the owner of a cleaning business. “My son is also named Liam, and he is 5 years old, so it felt personal for us.”

Nearby Luis Zuna held up photographs of his 10-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who he said had been detained, along with her

Brenda Marquez, another nearby resident, said she had driven with her husband and two young children to the house immediately upon hearing news of Liam’s release, stopping on the way to pick up SpiderMan balloons. “We wanted something that would bring a little happiness,” she said. “Being away from my son and not knowing what’s going on with him, I just can’t imagine it.”

Castro wrote a letter to Liam while they were on the plane to Minnesota, in which he told the young boy he has “moved the world.”

More winter weather mires swaths of U.S.

Cold brings snow, canceled flights, falling iguanas

BY ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press

MEMPHIS Tenn. A huge swath of the U.S. from the Gulf Coast into New England was mired in extra-cold temperatures Sunday after a bomb cyclone brought heavy snow and hundreds of flight cancellations to North Carolina, flurries and falling iguanas in Florida, and more misery for thousands who are still without power from last weekend’s ice storm in the South.

About 150 million people were under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings in the eastern portion of the U.S., with windchills near zero to single digits in the South and the coldest air mass seen in South Florida since December 1989, said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with weather prediction center in College Park, Maryland.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area in Florida saw

snow flurries, while temperatures dropped to the 20s in the Panhandle and 30s in South Florida on Sunday morning, Mullinax said That left coldstunned iguanas lying prostrate and motionless on the ground. Iguanas in South Florida go dormant in the cold and though they usually wake when temperatures warm, the reptiles can die after more than a day of extreme cold.

The cold also left ice on strawberries and oranges in the state. Farmers in Florida sometimes spray water on fruit trees and

berry plants to protect them from the cold.

Meanwhile, the bomb cyclone, known to meteorologists as an intense, rapidly strengthening weather system, contributed to nearly a foot of snow in and around Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city The snowfall represented a topfive snow event all time there, Mullinax said.

In eastern North Carolina, James City recorded 18 inches of snow, while Swansboro recorded 17 inches, the National Weather Service reported. Flight cancellations exceeded 2,800 in the U.S.

on Saturday, with another 1,700 on Sunday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking and data company More than 800 of those Sunday cancellations were for flights departing from or ar-

riving at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The storm caused an hourslong mess on Interstate 85 northeast of the city, after a crash left dozens of semitractors and other vehicles backed up into the evening, according to the State Highway Patrol. More than 1,000 traffic collisions and two road deaths were reported, North Carolina Gov Josh Stein said Sunday “It’s an impressive cold shot, for sure, and there are daily records that are being seen down in the South,” Mullinax said.

In Kitty Hawk on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Susan Sawin said her house got a “whopping” amount of snow and strong winds that reminded her of a nor’easter She has a snow drift about 2 feet high outside her house, but she did not lose power

A photo Sunday incorrectly identified the title of Donald “Boysie” Bollinger He is the former chairman and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards. The Advocate | Times-Picayune regrets the error

BY SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

CAIRO Palestinians in Gaza watched with hope and impatience Sunday as workers laid the groundwork to reopen the territory’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, its lifeline to the world. Israel says the crossing is scheduled to resume Monday as its ceasefire with Hamas moves ahead.

“Opening the crossing is a good step, but they set a limit on the number of people allowed to cross, and this is a problem,” said Ghalia Abu Mustafa, a woman from Khan Younis.

Israel said the crossing had opened in a test, and the Israeli military agency that controls aid to Gaza said residents could begin crossing Monday. But only a small number of people can cross at first.

“We want a large number of people to leave, for

it to be open so that sick people can go and return,” said Suhaila Al-Astal, a woman displaced from the city of Rafah who said her sick daughter needed help abroad. “We want the crossing to be open permanently.”

Israel’s announcement came a day after Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians including several children, according to hospital officials — one of the highest death tolls since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10.

Israel had accused Hamas of new truce violations.

Nicolay Mladenov, director-general of U.S. President Donald Trump’s new board of peace in Gaza, urged the parties to “exercise restraint” and said his office was working with the new Palestinian committee chosen to oversee Gaza to find ways that prevent future incidents.

The Rafah crossing has been largely shut since Is-

rael seized it in May 2024.

About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care are hoping to leave war-devastated Gaza via the crossing, and thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to return home. Few people, and no cargo, will be allowed to cross at first. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will allow 50 patients needing medical evacuation to leave daily.

An official involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks, said each patient can travel with two relatives, while 50 people who left Gaza during the war can return each day Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s documentation department, said the ministry hadn’t been notified about the start of medical evacuations.

DOJplays down chance forcharges from Epstein files

Topofficial:Records don’t‘allowus necessarilytoprosecute somebody’

BY ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

WASHINGTON Atop Justice Department official played down the possibility of additional criminal charges arising from the Jeffrey Epstein files, saying Sunday that the existence of “horrible photographs” andtroubling email correspondence does not “allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”

Department officials said over the summer that a review of Epstein-related recordsdid not establisha basis for new criminal investigations.

Thatpositionremainsunchanged, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, even as amassivedocument dump since Friday has focused fresh attention on Epstein’slinks to powerful individuals around the world and revived questions about what, if any,knowledge the wealthy financier’sassociates had about his crimes

“There’sa lot of correspondence.There’sa lot of emails. There’salot of photographs

There’salot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr.Epstein or people around him,” Blanche said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But that doesn’tallow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”

He said that victims of Epstein’ssex abuse “want to be madewhole,” but that “doesn’tmean we can just create evidence or that we can just kind of come up with acase that isn’tthere.”

President Donald Trump’s

JusticeDepartment saidFriday that it wouldbe releasing more than 3millionpages of documentsalong withmore than 2,000 videos and 180,000 imagesundera lawintended to reveal mostofthe material it collected duringtwo decades of investigations into Epstein.

The fallout from the release of thefiles has been swift.A top official in Slovakia left his position after photos and emails revealed he hadmet withEpstein in the years after Epstein was releasedfromjail. British PrimeMinisterKeir Starmer suggested that longtime Epsteinfriend Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,formerly knownasPrince Andrew, shouldtellU.S. investigators whether he knows about Epstein’s activities. Therevelations continue

The files,posted to the department’swebsite,included documents involving Epstein’s friendship with Mountbatten-Windsor,and Epstein’semailcorrespondence with onetime Trump adviser Steve Bannon, New York Giantsco-ownerSteve Tisch and other prominent contactswith people in political, business and philanthropic circles, such as billionairesBill Gates and Elon Musk.

The Epstein saga has long fueled public fascinationin part because of thefinancier’s pastfriendships with Trump and former President Bill Clinton.Both men said they had no knowledge Epstein was abusing under-

Deputy AttorneyGeneral Todd

takes aquestion from areporter Fridayduring a news conference after the Justice DepartmentinWashington announced the release of three millionpages of documents in the

age girls

Among the newly released records wasaspreadsheet created last August that summarized calls made to theFBI’sNational Threat OperationCenter or to ahotline set by prosecutorsfrom people claiming to have some knowledgeofwrongdoing by Trump. Thatdocument included arange of uncorroborated storiesinvolving many different celebrities, and somewhat fantastical scenarios, occasionally with notations indicating what follow-up, if any, was done by agents.

Blanche said Sundaythat there were a“ton of people” named in the Epstein files besidesTrump andthatthe FBI hadfielded“hundreds of calls”about prominent individuals that were “quickly determined to notbecredible.”

Some of Epstein’spersonal

emailcorrespondencecontained candid discussions withotherpeople about his penchant for paying women for sex, even after he served jail time for soliciting an underage prostitute. Epstein killed himself in aNew York jailinAugust 2019, amonth after being indictedonfederal sextrafficking charges.

In one 2013 email, aperson whosename was blacked out wrote to Epstein about his choice “tosurround yourself withthese young women in a capacity that bleeds —perhaps,somewhat arbitrarily —fromthe professional into the personal and back.”

“Though these women are young, they are nottoo young to know thatthey are making averyparticular choice in taking on this role with you,” the personwrote.

“Especially in theaftermath of your trial which, after all, was public andcould be

disclosure.

indeed was —interpreted as apowerful man taking advantage of powerlessyoung women, instead of the other wayaround.”

In another email writtenin 2009, notlongafter Epstein hadfinished serving jailtime for his Florida sex crime, another woman,whose name was redacted,excoriated him forbreaking apromise that they would spend time alone together and try to conceive ababy “I find myself having to question every agreement we have made(no prostitutes staying in the house, in our bed, movies, naps, two weeks Alone,baby...),” She wrote.

“Yourlast minute suggestion to spend THIS weekend with prostitutes is just too much formetohandle.I can’t live like this anymore.”

‘Thisreviewisover’

Blanche said in aseparate

appearance on ABC’s“This Week” that though there are a“small number of documents” that theJusticeDepartment is waiting fora judge’sapproval before it can release, when it comes to the department’sown scouring of documents, “this review is over.”

“Wereviewed over six millionpieces of paper,thousands of videos, tens of thousands of images,” Blanche said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he thinks theDepartment of Justice is complying with the law requiring public disclosure of the Epstein files.

But Rep. Ro Khanna, DCalif., and co-sponsor of the law requiring the Justice Department to release its Epsteinfiles, saidhedid not believethe department had fully complied. He said survivors areupsetthatmanyof their names accidentally had come out without redactions and they wanttomake sure the rest of the files comeout. Blanche said each timethe department has learned that avictim’snamewas not properly redacted, it has moved quickly to fix the problem but thatthose mistakes account fora tiny fraction of the overall materials. The AP is reviewing the documentsreleased by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from Versant, CBS and NBC. Journalists from each newsroom areworking togethertoexamine the files and share information about whatisinthem. Each outlet is responsible forits own independent news coverage of the documents.

Iran’s leader warnsU.S.attackwould spark‘regional war’

BY JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Iran’ssupreme leader warned Sunday that anyattack by the United States would spark a“regional war” in the Mideast, further escalating tensionsasPresident Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown on recentnationwide protests. The comments from the

86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arethe most-direct threat he’smade so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincolnand associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwideprotests. It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He’s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran’snuclear program as another issue he wantsto

seeresolved. But Khamenei also referred to thenationwide protestsas“acoup,” hardening the government’sposition as tens of thousands of people reportedly have been detained since thestartof the demonstrations.Sedition charges in Iran can carry the death penalty,which again renews concerns about Tehran carrying outmass executionsfor those arrested —a redline for Trump. Iran had alsoplanned a

live-fire military drill for Sunday and Monday in the strategic StraitofHormuz, thenarrow mouth of the Persian Gulf throughwhich afifthofall oil traded passes. TheU.S. military’s Central Command had warned against threatening American warships or aircraft during thedrill or disrupting commercial traffic.

Khamenei spoke to acrowd at his compound in Tehran as Iran markedthe start of adayslongcommemoration

of the country’s1979 Islamic Revolution. He, at one point, described the U.S. as being interested in its oil, natural gas and other mineralresources, saying that they wanted to “seize this country,just as theycontrolledit before.”

“The Americansmustbe aware that if they wage awar this time, it will be aregional war,” he said.

The supreme leader added that: “Weare not the instigators, we are not going to be

unfair to anyone,wedon’t plan to attack any country Butifanyoneshows greed andwants to attack or harass, the Iranian nation will deal aheavy blow to them.” Askedabout thewarning, TrumponSunday told reporters that the U.S. “has the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there, very close, acouple of days,and hopefully we’llmake adeal If we don’tmake adeal, then we’ll find outwhether or not he was right.”

Zelenskyy

says more talks coming this week

BY VOLODYMYR YURCHUK Associated Press

KYIV,Ukraine ARussian drone strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro hit abus carrying mineworkers and killed at least adozen people, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday,hours after Presi-

dent Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the next round of peace talksbetween Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesdayand Thursday.

The strikeinjured several more people and sparked a fire that was subsequently put out, according to the emergency services.

DTEK, Ukraine’slargest private energy company, saiditowned thebus and accused Russia of carrying out “a large-scaleterrorist

attackonDTEK minesin the Dnipropetrovsk region,” whosecapital is Dnipro.

“The epicenter of one of theattackswas acompany bus transporting miners from theenterpriseafter a shift in the Dnipropetrovsk region,”the company said in aTelegram post.

The strike came days after President DonaldTrump said theKremlin had agreedto temporarilyhalt thetargeting of the Ukrainian capital andother cities, as the region

suffers under freezing temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to Ukrainians Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal on Sunday called the strike in Dnipro “a cynical andtargeted attack on energy sector workers, and said it occurrednear the Ternivska mine eastofthe city.

Hoursearlier,Ukraine’s emergencyservices reported thatRussian attack drones injuredsix people at a

maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Sunday Meanwhile, envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. had been expected to meet Sunday in Abu Dhabitocontinue negotiations aimed at ending Moscow’sall-out invasion of its neighbor.But on Sunday morning, Zelenskyy announcedthatthey would take place this weekinstead.

“Wehave just had areport from our negotiating team

The dates forthe next trilateral meetings have been set:

Feb.4and 5inAbu Dhabi. Ukraine is ready for substantive talks, and we are interested in an outcomethat will bring us closer to areal and dignified end to the war,” Zelenskyy said in aTelegram post. There wasnoimmediatecomment from U.S. or Russian officials. On Saturday afternoon, top Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said he had held a “constructive meeting with the U.S.peacemaking delegation” in Florida.

Speaker: No quick House vote to end partial shutdown

BY LISA MASCARO AP congressional correspondent

WASHINGTON House

Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday it will be a few days before a government funding package comes up for a vote, all but ensuring the partial federal shutdown will drag into the week as Democrats and Republicans debate reining in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement operations.

Johnson signaled he is relying on help from President Donald Trump to ensure passage. Trump struck a deal with senators to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broader package after public outrage over two shooting deaths during protests in Minneapolis against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The measure approved Friday by the Senate would fund DHS temporarily for two weeks, setting up a deadline for Congress to debate and vote on new restrictions on ICE operations.

“The president is leading this,” Johnson, R-Benton, told “Fox News Sunday.”

“It’s his play call to do it this way,” the speaker said, adding that the Republican president has “already conceded that he wants to turn down the volume” on federal immigration operations.

Johnson faces a daunting challenge ahead, trying to muscle the funding legisla-

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, leaves 10 Downing Street after meeting Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Jan. 19 in London. Johnson said Sunday it will be a few days before a government funding package comes up for a vote, all but ensuring the partial federal shutdown will drag into the week.

tion through the House while Democrats are refusing to provide the votes for speedy passage. They are demanding restraints on ICE that go beyond $20 million for body cameras that already is in the bill. They want to require that federal immigration agents unmask and identify themselves and are pressing for an end to roving patrols, amid other changes.

Democrats dig in

“What is clear is that the Department of Homeland Security needs to be dramatically reformed,” said House

Trump: Kennedy Center to close for 2 years for renovations

BY MICHELLE L. PRICE and LISA MASCARO Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Sunday he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center performing arts center for two years starting in July for construction, his latest move to upturn the storied venue since returning to the White House.

Trump’s announcement on social media follows a wave of cancellations by leading performers and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building. Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations His proposal, announced days after the premiere of “Melania,” a documentary of the first lady was shown at the center, he said was subject to approval by the board of the Kennedy Center, which has been stocked with his hand-picked allies. Trump himself chairs the center’s board of trustees

“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken and dilapidated Center one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment,” Trump wrote in his post.

Neither Trump nor Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell, a Trump ally, have provided evidence to back up their claims about the building being in disrepair

The sudden decision is certain to spark blowback as Trump upturns the popular venue, which began as a national cultural center but Congress renamed as a “living

Democratic leader Hakeem

Jeffries of New York said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Jeffries said the administration needs to begin negotiations now, not over the next two weeks, on changes to immigration enforcement operations.

“Masks should come off,” he said. “Judicial warrants should absolutely be required consistent with the Constitution, in our view, before DHS agents or ICE agents are breaking into the homes of the American people or ripping people out of their cars.”

It’s all forcing Johnson to rely on his slim House GOP majority in a series of procedural votes, starting in committee on Monday and pushing a potential House floor vote on the package until at least Tuesday, he said.

House Democrats planned a private caucus call Sunday evening to assess the next steps.

Partial shutdown drags on Meanwhile, a number of other federal agencies are snared in the funding standoff as the government went into a partial shutdown over

the weekend. Defense, health, transportation and housing are among those that were given shutdown guidance by the administration, though many operations are deemed essential and services are not necessarily interrupted. Workers could go without pay if the impasse drags on. Some could be furloughed.

This is the second time in a matter of months that federal operations have been disrupted as Congress digs in, using the annual funding process as leverage to extract policy changes. Last fall, Democrats sparked what became the longest federal shutdown in history, 43 days, as they protested the expiration of health insurance tax breaks.

That shutdown ended with a promise to vote on proposals to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. But the legislation did not advance and Democrats were unable to achieve their goal of keeping the subsidies in place. Insurance premiums spiked in the new year for millions of people.

Trump wants quick end

This time, the administration has signaled its interest in more quickly resolving the shutdown.

Johnson said he was in the Oval Office last week when Trump, along with border czar Tom Homan, spoke with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, to work out the deal.

“I think we’re on the path to get agreement,” Johnson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Body cameras, which are already provided for in the package, and an end to the roving patrols by immigration agents are areas of potential agreement, Johnson said.

But he said taking the masks off and putting names on agents’ uniforms could lead to problems for law enforcement officers as they are being targeted by the protesters and their personal information is posted online.

“I don’t think the president would approve it — and he shouldn’t,” Johnson said on Fox.

Democrats, however, said the immigration operations are out of control, and it is an emergency situation that must end in Minneapolis and other cities.

Growing numbers of lawmakers are calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired or impeached.

“What is happening in Minnesota right now is a dystopia,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who led efforts to hold the line for more changes.

“ICE is making this country less safe, not more safe today,” Murphy said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Our focus over the next two weeks has to be reining in a lawless and immoral immigration agency.”

Democrat flips Republican state Senate seat in Texas

Trump won district by 17 points

BY JOHN HANNA and JULIE CARR SMYTH AP political writers

memorial” to President John F. Kennedy in 1964, in the aftermath of the slain president’s death. Opened in 1971, it is open year-round as a public showcase for the arts, including the National Symphony Orchestra.

Since Trump returned to the White House, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks that he has sought to put his stamp on in his second term. He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a massive $400 million ballroom project, is actively pursuing building a triumphal arch on the other side the Arlington Bridge from the the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.

Leading performing arts groups have pulled out of appearances, most recently, composer Philip Glass, who announced his decision to withdraw his Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” because he said the values of the center today are in “direct conflict” with the message of the piece.

Last month, the Washington National Opera announced that it will move performances away from the Kennedy Center in another high-profile departure following Trump’s takeover of the U.S. capital’s leading performing arts venue.

Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district in Texas in Saturday’s special election, continuing a string of surprise victories for Democrats across the U.S. in the year since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The Republican president immediately distanced himself from the loss in a district he’d won by 17 points in 2024.

“I’m not involved in that. That’s a local Texas race,” Trump told reporters Sunday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Yet just a day before the race, Trump had heaped praise on Republican contender Leigh Wambsganss, a conservative activist and entrepreneur on his social media platform, declaring that she would be “a GREAT Candidate and has my Complete and Total Endorsement.” A longer post came later, in which he urged Texans to get out and vote, describing

Wambsganss as a successful entrepreneur and “an incredible supporter” of his Make America Great Again movement. Despite the plugs, Wambsganss was easily trounced in the Fort Worth-area district by Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, for a partial term ending in early January With almost all votes counted, Rehmet was leading by more than 14 percentage points.

“This win goes to everyday working people,” Rehmet told supporters. Republican Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick called the outcome “a wake-up call for Republicans across Texas,” where the GOP controls every statewide office.

“Our voters cannot take anything for granted,” Patrick wrote on X, while noting low-turnout special elections are always unpredictable. “I know the energy and strength the Republican grassroots in Texas possess. We will come out fighting with a new resolve, and we will take this seat back in November.”

Rehmet’s victory added to the Democrats’ record of overperforming in special elections so far this cycle, beginning in March when they prevailed in

a Pennsylvania legislative district made up of suburbanites and farmers that Democrats hadn’t held in a century — and continuing through to November, when they dominated candidate and ballot contests from Maine to California. And Zohran Mamdani, an unapologetic democratic socialist, was elected mayor of New York City, a Democratic stronghold that saw the highest voter turnout in a mayor’s race in 50 years. The showings come as Trump’s approval ratings with the public hold steady at around 40% A January AP-NORC poll found that a majority of U.S. adults disapprove of the way he’s handling foreign policy, trade negotiations and immigration, as well as the economy Democrats said Saturday’s results in Texas were further evidence that voters under the second Trump administration are motivated to reject GOP candidates and their policies.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder said Rehmet won by standing with working people and talking to Texans about the future.

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Black History Month centennial channels angst

Advocates fight against historical erasure

BY TERRY TANG Associated Press

For academics, historians and activists, the past year has been tumultuous in advocating the teaching of Black history in the United States.

Despite last year proclaiming February as National Black History Month, President Donald Trump started his second term by claiming some African American history lessons are meant to indoctrinate people into hating the country The administration has dismantled Black history at national parks, most recently removing an exhibit on slavery in Philadelphia last month. Black history advocates see these acts and their chilling effect as scary and unprecedented.

“States and cities are nervous about retribution from the White House,” said DeRay Mckesson, a longtime activist and executive director of Campaign Zero, an organization focused on police reform. “So even the good people are just quieter now.”

In the 100th year since the nation’s earliest observances of Black History Month which began when scholar Carter G. Woodson pioneered the first Negro History Week — celebrations will go on. The current political climate has energized civil rights organizations, artists and academics to engage young people on a full telling of America’s story There are hundreds of lectures, teach-ins and even new books — from nonfiction to a graphic novel — to mark the milestone.

“This is why we are working with more than 150 teachers around the country on a Black History Month curriculum to just ensure that young people continue to learn about Black history in a way that is intentional and thoughtful,” Mckesson said about a campaign his organization has launched with the Afro Charities organization and leading Black scholars to expand access to educational materials.

New novel highlights Juneteenth

About three years ago, Angélique Roché, a journalist and adjunct professor at Xavier University of Louisiana, accepted a “once-in-alifetime” invitation to be the writer for a graphic novel retelling of the story of Opal Lee, “grandmother of Juneteenth.”

Lee, who will also turn 100 this year, is largely credited for getting federal recognition of the June 19 holiday commemorating the day when enslaved people in Texas learned they were emancipated.

Under Trump, however, Juneteenth is no longer a free-admission day at national parks.

Juneteenth helped usher in the first generation of Black Americans who, like Woodson, was born free. “First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth,” the graphic novel, comes out Feb. 10.

It is the culmination of Roché’s assiduous archival research, phone chats and visits to Texas to see Lee and her granddaughter, Dione Sims.

“There is nothing ‘indoctrinating’ about facts that are based on primary sources that are highly researched,” said Roché, who hopes the book makes it into libraries and classrooms “At the end of the day, what the story should actually tell people is that we’re far more alike than we are different.”

While Lee is the main character, Roché used the novel as a chance to put attention on lesser known historical figures like William “Gooseneck Bill” McDonald, Texas’ first Black millionaire and Opal Lee’s mother, Mattie Broadous Flake.

She hopes this format will inspire young people to follow Lee and her mantra “make yourself a committee of one.”

“It doesn’t mean don’t work with other people,” Roché said “Don’t wait for other people to make the changes you wanna see.”

New generation of historians

When Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders were issued last year, Jarvis Givens, a professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard, was thousands of miles away teaching in London, where Black History Month is celebrated in October He had already been contemplating writing a book

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

By GERALD HERBERT

Angélique Roché, author of ‘First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth,’ stands at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans on Thursday.

for the centennial.

Watching Trump’s “attack” cemented the idea, Givens said.

“I wanted to kind of devote my time while on leave to writing a book that would honor the legacy that gave us Black History Month,” Givens said.

The result is “I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month,” a book with four in-depth essays that comes out Tuesday The title is a line from the 1920s poem “The Creation” by James Weldon Johnson, whose most famous poem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” is known as the “Black national anthem.”

Givens examines important themes in Black history and clarifies misconceptions around them.

The book and the research Givens dug up will tie into a “living history campaign” with Campaign Zero and Afro Charities, Mckesson said. The goal is to teach what Woodson believed — younger generations can become historians who can discern fact from fiction.

“When I grew up, the preservation of history was a historian’s job,” Mckesson said, adding his group’s campaign will teach young students how to record history

The ‘father of Black history’

Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Woodson was among the first generation of Black Americans not assigned to bondage at birth. He grew up believing that education was a way to self-empowerment, said Robert Trent Vinson, director of the

Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The second Black man to earn a doctorate at Harvard University

W.E.B. Du Bois was the first Woodson was disillusioned by how Black history was dismissed. He saw that the memories and culture of less educated Black people were no less valuable, Vinson said.

When Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926, he was in an era where popular stereotypes like blackface and minstrelsy were filling in for actual knowledge of the Black experience, according to Vinson. This sparked the creation of Black history clubs and Woodson began inserting historical lessons “on the sly” in publications like the “Journal of Negro History” and the “Negro History Bulletin.”

“Outside the formal school structure, they’re having a separate school like in churches or in study groups,” Vinson said. “Or they’re sharing it with parents and saying, ‘you teach your young people this history.’ So, Woodson is creating a whole educational space outside the formal university.”

In 1976, for the week’s 50th anniversary, President Gerald Ford issued a message recognizing it as an entire month. There was pushback then over the gains the Civil Rights Movement had made, Givens said.

As for today’s backlash over Black and African American studies, Vinson believes Woodson would not be surprised. But, he would see it as a sign “you’re on the right track.”

“There’s a level of what he called ‘fugitivity,’ of sharing this knowledge and being strategic about it,” Vinson said. “There are other times like in this moment, Black History Month, where you can be more out and assertive, but be strategic about how you spread the information.”

Resistance to teaching Black history is something that seems to occur every generation, Mckesson said.

“We will go back to normalcy We’ve seen these backlashes before,” Mckesson said. “And when I think about the informal networks of Black people who have always resisted, I think that is happening today.”

Pakistan says it

has

killed 145 ‘Indian-backed terrorists’ in Balochistan

BY ABDUL SATTAR and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press

QUETTA, Pakistan Pakistani police and military forces killed over a 100 “Indian-backed terrorists ” in counterterrorism operations across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan over the past 40 hours, government officials said on Sunday, a day after coordinated suicide and gun attacks killed 33 people, mostly civilians.

The raids began early Saturday at multiple locations across Balochistan, and left 18 civilians, including five women and three children, and 15 security personnel dead, authorities said.

Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial chief minister told reporters in Quetta that troops and police officers responded swiftly, killing 145 members of “ Fitna al-Hindustan,” a phrase the government uses for the allegedly Indian-backed outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA. The number of militants killed over the past two days was the highest in decades, he said.

“The bodies of these 145 killed terrorists are in our custody, and some of them are Afghan nationals,” he said. Bugti claimed that the “Indian-backed terrorists” wanted to take hostages but failed to make it to the city center

He spoke alongside senior government official Hamza Shafqat, who often oversees such operations against insurgents in the province, and praised the military, police and paramilitary forces for repelling the assaults.

Militant attacks erupted on Saturday in a resource-rich region where Pakistan is seeking to attract foreign investment in mining and minerals In September 2025, a U.S. metals company signed a $500 million investment agreement with Pakistan, a month after the U.S. State Department designated BLA and its armed wing as a foreign terrorist organization.

who was nominated to the bench by former President Joe Biden.

On the first charge, alleging a health care and wire fraud conspiracy Kiel found that “the inferences the government advanced had no logical and convincing connection to any established facts.”

The charge for conspiracy to commit identity theft didn’t belong in New Jersey, Kiel found Agnifilo, a former New Jersey prosecutor, said in an interview that Kiel mistakenly instructed the jurors they could consider Brockmeier and Johnston guilty based on “willful blindness” rather than knowledge of a fraud.

“But the pharmacy is getting prescriptions signed by doctors, and they’re filling them,” he said “The government’s theory is, there are so many prescriptions from the same doctors, the only way the pharmacists could think this (was OK) was to put their head in the sand. It’s not the proper charge.”

Quiet downfall

Johnston and Brockmeier became the last of four dozen defendants to be convicted when the jury found them guilty of conspiracies to commit health care and wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering.

Behind a distinctive orange sign on East Thomas Street, prosecutors claimed the pharmacy they led had filled the bulk of prescriptions for a high-volume scheme tapping high reimbursement rates for tailored drug mixes from compound-

MALL

Continued from page 1A

Last summer, the city was seriously considering purchasing the mall site. But those plans were scuttled when the city learned that Morguard had reached an agreement with a private business, later identified as Acquistapace’s, to purchase two of the store locations.

But Fandal said the city could still try and purchase the remain-

Taff’s attorney, Garrison Jordan, said Tuesday that Taff was “obviously frustrated” at the judge’s ruling to negate the jury verdict but declined further comment.

The bitter end for Central Rexall has weighed on her, Jordan said.

“It’s always been an emotional and devastating loss for her, because it was in the family for so long. It’s traumatic,” he said.

Booming business

New laws around drug compounding had brought a temporary boom in the field. Johnston and Brockmeier saw an opportunity They bought into Central Rexall, taking control in 2013 in a deal for 90% of the profit, prosecutors said.

Johnston, a lawyer, became general counsel. Brockmeier was chief operating officer Central Rexall’s staff grew eightfold in a few years. The pharmacy expanded next door, booting out a tenant.

ments for various recipes, calling it identity theft.

Johnston and Brockmeier denied it.

Agnifilo described a window for drug compounding that lasted about five years. Back then, some health plans would pay based on ingredients, and new players entered a profitable market.

“If insurance is like, ‘We’re going to cover hydrogen and oxygen,’ you’re going to start making water These guys are smart,” Agnifilo said. “This pharmacy thought it had some procedures in place to weed out the bad actors.” Will prosecutors appeal?

A spokesperson said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey declined to comment on the ruling or if it will appeal.

ing pharmacies like Central Rexall

The case rippled through the Garden State communities where many of the defendants lived and worked.

One implicated man ran in front of a moving train, said Kevin Shelly, a retired investigative reporter from New Jersey who now blogs about the case. A lawyer

“took a swan dive off a casino garage roof,” he added.

And Dr James Kauffman, a New Jersey endocrinologist tied to the fraud scheme, reportedly died by suicide in jail after he was accused of another crime: plotting with an outlaw biker gang, the Pagans, to kill his wife.

The downfall of Central Rexall

der of the site. For instance, if an event center came to fruition, the city would likely own the site and have a private company operate the center

“But it would have to be cheaper” than the $13 million price tossed out when the city was taking steps to purchase the site, Fandal said.

Fandal, however, cautioned that nothing has been decided on the city’s end and at a recent gathering of the East St. Tammany Business Alliance, he promised to bring the public in early on any

was much quieter

The historic pharmacy was suspended in April 2015 by the Defense Health Agency for allegedly filling faulty prescriptions to patients with TRICARE. Reimbursements dried up. Central Rexall would close within two years.

Hayley Taff, the daughter of longtime pharmacist Don Fellows, pleaded guilty in 2020 to a threeyear-long conspiracy and agreed to forfeit $1.5 million. The pharmacy’s vice president of sales, Christopher Casseri of Baton Rouge, pleaded guilty in 2024 and agreed to forfeit $100,000.

Both still await their sentences after testifying against Johnston and Brockmeier

discussions.

The city partnered with the parish’s economic development agency, the St Tammany Economic Development Corporation, in early 2025 to hire Colliers for the study The goal, of course, was to breathe new life into the hulking structure at the busy intersection of Interstate 12 and Northshore Boulevard.

Sagging fortunes

The 621,000-square-foot mall opened in 1985 and for years was a shopping and community hub.

A popular, Covington-based grocer, Acquistapace’s, has announced that it purchased two of the North Shore Square Mall’s former anchor sites, the Conn’s HomePlus store and the adjacent JCPenney.

Profits rolled in as the pharmacy fashioned what prosecutors called medically unnecessary pain, scar, antifungal and libido creams “solely based on the amount of money” the health plans would pay

“If you could add a pinch of something and get a couple hundred extra bucks, they would add it,” Shelly said. “A lot of them were health compounds. It wasn’t lifesaving Rx’s.”

Several hundred prescriptions came from the same New Jersey doctor, often at thousands of dollars for a month’s supply, as the alleged kickback scheme unfolded in 2015 and 2016, court records show Prosecutors accused Johnston and Brockmeier of submitting dummy claims to test reimburse-

But over time, the mall’s fortunes sagged and the interior was closed. Two anchor stores remain:

At Home and the popular Dillard’s Clearance Center, which is not owned by Morguard Several other businesses, including an Olive Garden, operate on the fringes of the parking lot.

Fiona Sterritt, one of the authors of the Colliers report, said the mall is in an enviable location with great visibility, easy access and few flooding concerns.

“That’s why the mall is there in the first place,” she said.

That office has become a political lightning rod lately over President Donald Trump’s appointment last year of a former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, to lead it as U.S. attorney An appeals court panel ruled last month that Habba lingered too long without Senate confirmation, and on Jan. 26 the court declined to reconsider An attorney for Johnston issued a statement.

“We are grateful for the Court’s careful and very thorough analysis,” attorney Lawrence Lustberg said of Kiel’s ruling. “We truly believe that this judgment achieves justice and reaches a result that is correct under both the facts and the law.”

Fellows, the pharmacist, was never charged.

Central Rexall’s old orange storefront remains, but the pharmacy he once ran has been converted to a coffee shop.

The study included input from government and business leaders, as well as the community, which gathered last August for a “What do you want the mall to become” meeting.

Sterritt said the study, while ranking the possible uses, is more of a blueprint for directions the city can take. It provides some options, she said.

But, Sterritt said, any alternative use would almost certainly require the demolition of much of the site. The mall building, she said, “is really at the end of its useful life.”

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Carbon-capture well meetsopposition

Expertssay theconcernsare vastly overblown

BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer

AHouston startup seeking approval for Louisiana’s second-evercarbon-capture and storage well has met opposition from Ascension Parish residents,the latest sign of concern over an emerging industry that state leaders view as key for future economic development. Five-year-old firm Blue Sky Infrastructure is planning an underground carbon dioxide storage hub in the heart of Louisiana’s MississippiRiver industrial zone near Geismar andDonaldsonville. The company is currentlyseeking apermit

School Board, city tryto settle tax dispute

BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer

schools. The proposed settlement that was scuttled last yearalso would have paid schools $20 millioncash and committed to $7 million in funding for education programs, such as wraparound

page 2B

Water main break prompts boil advisory

Crewsworkto repair damage

BY DESIREE STENNETT

Sewerage &Water Board crews worked Sunday to repaira broken water line that sent water pouring intothe street, creating asinkhole that swallowed the frontend of a parked car and putting aswath of Uptown residents under aboilwater advisory. It alsoleft affected residents with low waterpressure that is expected to last into Monday S&WB officials signed an emergency declaration late Saturdayto allow forexpedited repairsto the 48-inch water main that broke in two places near CarrolltonAvenue and Panola Streetthat night, Executive Director Randy Hayman said Sunday afternoon. Hayman’sstatement came as crews spent the morningand early afternoon working to repair the main that was first installed more than acentury agoin1908. The breakwas caused by the cold weather that brought on freezing temperatures Saturday evening,

ä See WATER, page 2B

for the first of seven planned wells, with the initial one to be located in western Ascension Parish.

The project is among more than 30 similarproposals that the state hasbeen examining forpotential ap-

proval, but backlashfrom residents and politicians has complicated the plans. Gov Jeff Landry issued amoratorium on new injection applications last fall to provide time to review the process, but the Ascension proposal is one of six thatremained on the state’sfast track. Effectivecarbon capture

would in theory address two problems at once. Louisiana’spetrochemical industry could lower its carbon footprint and makeits products more competitive for foreign export, while climate-warmingemissions could be reduced.

Butopposition has emerged over land rights, lucrative tax credits helping fundthe projects and thepotential forCO2 leaks, among other concerns. En-

vironmental groups also oppose carbon capture, calling it unproven and away for industry to avoidphasing out fossil fuels. Industry backers saythe concerns are vastly overblown, the technology has long been used for other purposesand the storage wells will be located thousands of feet underground, cappedbya thicklayer of

2026 FORMORE, NOLA.COM

ROyALTyARRIVES

BYBOB WARREN and ANDREW CANULETTE Staff writers

Forgive Slidell votersifthey’re feeling asense of political déjà vu. Voters in St. Tammany’smost populous city just elected anew mayor last October.Come next month, they could find themselves with anothercampaign for the city’stop elected post. Randy Fandal, theformerpolicechief who won theoffice in aspecial election lastfall, thinks

that’sunlikely,however.And given themargin of victory in that race —Fandaltook 72% of thevote against Bill Borchert, an experienced, well-financed opponent whowas serving as interim mayor —itwould seem unlikely that Fandal would draw an opponent “I’d be shocked,”Fandalsaid. “But we’ll have to wait until Feb 13 to find out.” But even if arace for mayor doesn’t materialize, Slidell voters are likely to seeabusy ballot on May 16. Qualifying is Feb. 11-13for allcity

ABOVE: Amember of the’tit Rexkrewe sings as she walks in theparadeinNew Orleans on Sunday. LEFT: The crowd looks at thecamera on aminiature floatinthe ’tit Rexparade.

BY KEITH SPERA Staff writer

SLIDELL

Continued from page 1B

March but were pushed back due to the legal wrangling stemming from the congressional elections.

Any runoffs would be June 27. The new slate of elected officials will take office a scant four days later, on July 1.

Fandal, who recently delivered his first “State of the City” address before the East St Tammany Business Alliance, said he will definitely seek a full, fouryear term.

“I’ve been doing the job,” he said in a recent interview. “I’m hoping nobody’s going to jump in

MARSALIS

Continued from page 1B

“Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have always been my main artistic priority as a musician and a citizen. It is time for new leadership to take the institution to even higher ground.”

According to the New York

WATER

Continued from page 1B

he said.

“The bottom line is that we have an old system,” Hayman said in a video posted to the social media platform X. “It’s cast iron, it’s brittle and very susceptible to the cold weather But we’re working on it. Crews are here now and we’re going to do everything we can to get it back to normal as quick as possible.”

District A City Council member

Aimee McCarron provided a repair timeline after visiting the site on Sunday

“It is a big mess out there,” McCarron said in a video posted to social media “But Sewerage & Water Board was out there very early this morning getting things started. They anticipate that they will finish the repair by tomorrow (Monday) and then they will start with the street restoration. They anticipate that it will be a couple more days that the street will be closed off while they can get that paved and repaired. And then it will be hopefully by Thursday or Friday that it will be reopened ” She said water pressure could remain lower than normal until the repairs are complete. The break caused a flood that brought more than a foot of water created a sinkhole large enough to swallow the front end of a sedan and triggered a boil-water advi-

CARBON

Continued from page 1B

impermeable rock.

Those sharply dive rgent views were on display during a hearing Thursday night before state Department of Conservation and Energy officials in Donaldsonville. Residents in a crowd of more than 60 people at the parish courthouse argued the new well would foster unwanted land grabs for pipelines and other infrastructure.

“Tonight, I stand before you strongly urging you to deny this permit, not out of fear but out of fierce defense of our rights, our wallets and our children’s inheritance,” said Donald Bailey, 72, an Air Force veteran and Gonzalesarea resident who lives near CO2 pipelines serving the west bank injection well “This isn’t environmental progress. This is a blatant corporate giveaway.”

Proponents argued that the project would bring jobs and tax revenue. They said it has already spurred investment in River Parishes Community College and would create stability and growth for the region’s petrochemical industry

“Without CCS projects like this, future investment in our existing industry will go to other states and places around the globe, and that existing industry that has made Ascension Parish so strong economically will die a slow death,” said industry lobbyist Tim Johnson, president of the Baton Rougebased TJC Group.

Johnson said billions in recent industrial announcements located just north of the proposed well wouldn’t have come without the promise of carbon capture and storage, known as CCS. Among them are Hyundai Steel, a CF Industries expansion and Ascension Clean Energy

the race.”

The mayoral post opened last year when Greg Cromer resigned with more than a year remaining in his term to take a job in Gov Jeff Landry’s administration.

Borchert, an at-large City Council member, assumed the interim role and held it until losing to Fandal in the October special election

Borchert has said he has no plans to run for mayor in the May election.

Meanwhile, two candidates have been hitting the campaign trail in the race for police chief, which will be without an incumbent seeking reelection.

Brian Nicaud and Tommy Williams, both former full-time po-

Times, he will maintain an advisory role in the organization until his current contract expires in June 2028, then serve on the board indefinitely

Originally a summer jazz concert series founded in 1987, Jazz at Lincoln Center moved into its grand headquarters, with its three performance venues, at Columbus Circle in Manhattan in 2004.

Marsalis has long been the pub-

lice officers who are now in the Slidell Police Department auxiliary ranks, say they will sign up to run. Both have said the campaign could cost $50,000 or more.

“There’s no such thing as grassroots anymore,” Williams said. Nicaud said he has stepped away from his auxiliary officer role to avoid any conflict of interest. Williams, who is running with Fandal’s backing, plans to step away when he qualifies to run.

While the race for police chief could be a two-person field, the City Council races should see more crowded fields.

Five of the nine sitting council members are term-limited, including Borchert, as well as Leslie Denham in District A, Da-

lic face of Jazz at Lincoln Center and, by extension, the face of modern jazz in general. A prolific composer and performer in both jazz and classical music, he has 100 or so albums to his credit and has won multiple Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize.

His trumpet has long been a hallmark of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Over the decades, he has brought numerous New Orleans musicians into the

vid Dunham in District B, Kenny Tamborella in District E and Cindi King in District G. Denham, Dunham and Tamborella have announced their intent to run for one of the council’s two at-large seats, and Jeff Burgoyne, who was elected to an at-large spot in 2022, is running again, as well. Tom Abney who ran unsuccessfully for the District A seat against Denham in 2022, has announced he’s running at-large in this election. Other first-term council members, including Megan Haggerty in District C, Nick DiSanti in District D and Trey Brownfield in District F, all are expected to seek reelection for their district seats.

Orchestra, including drummer Herlin Riley and saxophonist/ clarinetist Victor Goines.

In the spring of 2006, Marsalis led the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for a free performance of a new work titled “Congo Square” in Armstrong Park during the first French Quarter Festival after Hurricane Katrina.

Email Keith Spera at kspera@ theadvocate.com.

sory for much of Uptown. The car was pulled from the sinkhole Sunday morning.

Ceara Labat, spokesperson for the Sewerage & Water Board, said the advisory is still in place for the area bounded by: n Carrollton Avenue from Interstate 10 (Pontchartrain Expressway) to Mississippi River n I-10 (Pontchartrain Expressway) from Carrollton Avenue to Mississippi River n Mississippi River from Car-

‘Will not work’

Blue Sky, operating under the subsidiary River Parish Sequestration LLC, is proposing to inject and permanently store nearly 420 million tons of carbon dioxide deep under a sugar cane farming belt that extends into Assumption and eastern Iberville parishes over 30 years, company plans say The network of wells, pipelines and at least five future underground CO2 plumes would seek to avoid homes and slip in among underground obstructions like salt domes, natural faults above and below the future plumes but not through them, and decades of oil and gas drilling plans show

The first of the seven planned wells, which would generate one of the plumes, is under review It would be only the second Class VI carbon injection well in Louisiana since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted the state authority over the regulatory process in early 2024.

The well would inject up to 2.2 million tons of CO2 per year under the Bruly McCall area near La. 943, starting in 2027, plans say Though carbon dioxide exists in the atmosphere and is exhaled by people, the industrial capture and storage process involves compressing it to a near liquid state for transport by pipeline and injection That means leaks from delivery lines, as has happened in Mississippi and Sulphur, can release highly concentrated clouds that can act as asphyxiants and starve oxygen from fossil fuel-burning cars and trucks.

Experts discount the possibly as very remote, however, that CO2 in such high concentrations could leak from deep underground storage and reach the surface. Such storage has raised concerns from critics about slower leaks into drinking water aquifers, however Blue Sky officials and others supporting the technology countered carbon capture is highly regulated

rollton to Pontchartrain Express-

way The advisory will continue into at least Monday and water samples have already been collected for testing to determine if it is safe to lift, Hayman said. The tests, administered by the state, take up to 24 hours after the sample is submitted. For those still under the boilwater advisory, the Sewerage & Water Board, in partnership with the state Department of Health,

and has a close parallel that’s been safely in practice for a half century: using CO2 injections to enhance oil recovery.

For River Parish Sequestration, its first injection zone will be sealed by a rock overlay that is thicker than the height of the Louisiana State Capitol, the company says. The plume, which would exist in several layers from nearly 4,900 feet and nearly 10,000 feet deep, would sit more than a halfmile below the lowest fresh water aquifer, company plans say

The injection would work at the bottom of the storage zone and ascend, going into increasingly shallow layers of sedimentary rock. Eighty years after injection starts and 50 years after it has ended, the storage zone is projected to extend horizontally in an almost 2-squaremile oval deep underneath the Bruly McCall area, company modeling shows.

Michael Manteris, co-president of Blue Sky, said that his company spent more than five years lining up voluntary agreements with over 80 landowners for access to the storage areas under some 30,000 acres.

He said the company’s magnetic and seismic testing, an exploratory well and other work show that the western Ascension piece of the farmland is away from homes, active drinking water wells and orphan wells that could provide a path for stored CO2 to escape.

Residents at the hearing were not convinced, saying they want growth but also to live safely

“(Carbon capture) will not work. It has not worked, and we just don’t want the experiment to happen with us,” said Ashley Gaignard, a Donaldsonville resident who leads the advocacy group Rural Roots Louisiana.

‘Poverty into prosperity’

Manteris said the company will have a monitoring program to track the underground plume. Emergency response plans will

Continued from page 1B

health care program ThriveKids, for the next decade. Cantrell pulled out of the deal, arguing the city couldn’t afford it.

City Council President JP Morrell said Friday that the parties had reached another “viable” deal, but that negotiations went south after the School Board’s attorney asked for a $40 million cash payment “It’s negotiating,” said School Board attorney William Aaron, noting that the city has since given two subsequent offers and raised their cash offer from $20 million to $26 million.

The latest settlement terms, which have not been made public and will be considered by the Orleans Parish School Board this week, include a 7.5% administrative fee for sales tax but no fee for property tax, according to Aaron.

Charter school operators KIPP New Orleans, FirstLine Schools and ReNew Schools and the Louisiana Association of Charter Schools filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit, arguing that the schools should have a say in negotiations because they are the ultimate recipients of the tax dollars.

“Decisions are being made without meaningful engagement with schools, despite the fact that schools are the ones who bear the consequences,” said Sabrina Pence, CEO of FirstLine Schools. “It may be legal but it’s not right. Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Nicole Sheppard has not yet ruled on that request. Aaron said the trial, which was scheduled to begin Monday unless a last-minute settlement is reached, would be postponed until Sheppard rules on the schools’ motion.

Cantrell’s decision to nix a deal last year drew outrage from City Council members who passed an ordinance halting the city from taking the fee through at least 2026 During her campaign, Mayor Helena Moreno said she would put an end to the city’s practice of collecting the fee.

recommends that residents in the affected area use bottled or boiled tap water to drink, cook, clean food and brush teeth until further notice. Be careful not to swallow water while showering or bathing. Those with open wounds, chronic illness or weakened immune systems should use boiled or bottled water to bathe.

Email Desiree Stennett at desiree.stennett@theadvocate. com.

also be in place for leaks from storage sites or pipelines.

The project received mixed support from local officials.

James LeBlanc, the St Amant fire chief and a parish executive, delivered letters of backing from Parish President Clint Cointment and Sheriff Bobby Webre. LeBlanc told state officials the well is part of the parish’s effort to reduce poverty on the west bank.

“This industry is about quality of life on the west bank. It’s about overall enhancement of the west bank, and it’s about turning poverty into prosperity,” LeBlanc said.

But two west bank officials, Parish Councilman Oliver Joseph and School Board member Robyn Penn Delaney, voiced their opposition. Delaney said the well and other infrastructure would be too close to Lowery elementary and middle schools, potentially exposing children to a CO2 leak — about 2 miles away

Some residents suggested parish officials’ support could result in tough elections for them. Others objected to east bank officials supporting CO2 storage that would affect only the other side of the river

“Put it wherever they’re at Bring it over there,” said Louis Boudreaux, 88, of Donaldsonville. Federal 45Q tax credits offer up to $93 per ton to the companies capturing their CO2 emissions. As the storage company, River Parish Sequestration doesn’t receive those credits, company officials said, but will be paid by plants that get them.

In September 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded River Parish Sequestration a $32.2 million grant. The company matched that with $8.1 million, a company presentation says. Blue Sky Infrastructure, the parent of River Parish Sequestration, is managed by the more than $1 trillion private equity fund Blackstone

Morrell criticized the size of the city’s collection fee in meetings last year, calling it disproportionate with the cost of collection and far more than what other parishes charge.

“If the amount you’re charging is more than what it costs to perform the service, that is no longer a fee, that’s a tax,” he said during an August council meeting. But Morrell on Friday said that in negotiations, the city agreed to forgo the fee it charged the school district for collecting property taxes because surrounding parishes don’t charge a similar fee for their tax collection. A higher sales tax fee was on the table, he said, because other parishes charge their school districts higher fees than what New Orleans has charged schools.

Aaron’s request for $40 million meant “the deal was broken, off the table,” Morrell said, leaving the city free to renegotiate from scratch.

Aaron said the city has proposed raising the sales tax fee from 1.6% to 7.5%, which would cost schools about $11.3 million per year Under those terms, the school district would pay about $500,000 less than what they have historically paid for sales, tax and assessors fees, he said.

“The city wants to rebrand its skimming,” Aaron said. Though the schools are not a legal party in the lawsuit, school leaders said they have been kept apprised of the situation until recently

In a letter to Moreno, City Council members and the School Board, Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools Executive Director Caroline Roemer urged the board to prioritize fighting for “transparent, cost-based fees narrowly tailored to reflect actual services provided” over a one-time lump sum payment.

“Our priority is to get to a fair solution that isn’t taking money out of classrooms to fill budget holes,” Roemer said. Staff writer Ben Myers contributed to this report.

LOTTERY SATURDAY, JAN 31, 2026

PICK 3: 6-8-2

PICK

Bovino faceddiscriminationsuitfromN.O.BorderPatrolo

Leader faced questionsoveremail comparing himto Confederategeneral

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

Gregory Bovino, asenior

U.S. Border Patrol officialwho emerged as aface of the federal government’simmigrationdragnetand ledthe agency’s monthlong sweep through south Louisiana, faced questions in a2019 discrimination lawsuitfiled in New Orleansaboutanemail in which asubordinate compared him to a Confederate Army general.

Bovino’sresponse: The message, which he received afew months before assuming leadership of Border Patrol’sNew Orleans sector,had nothing to do with race.

Christopher Bullock, afriend andcolleague from Bovino’stenureinthe El Centro, California, Border Patrol sector,sentthe noteinMay 2018. The messages surfacedinthe discrimination lawsuit filed the following year in the Eastern District of Louisiana, andBovino wasquestionedabout them in a2020 deposition “Oh jeez. DELETE!!!!” Bovino wrote in response to the email, accordingtocourt records. He said in the deposition he believes there was nothing racist about the message, whichcompared Bovino to aConfederate Army general. He added that the email was “not relativetothe mission” and “worthless.”

Bovino did notreport the email to superiors at the Department of Homeland Security,heacknowledgedinthe deposition. Afew months after

receiving the email, he was assignedtolead the New Orleans sector, aroleinwhich he oversaw agency operations across 362,000 square miles stretching fromNew Orleanstothe Florida Panhandle.

There, he would tap Bullock, who was still in El Centro, for a topposition in the New Orleans office. The movetriggered at leasttwo discrimination complaints from careerBorder Patrol officials inthe New Orleans sectorwho arguedin court filings thatthey had been blockedfromconsideration for promotions because they are Black

Whileleadingthe federalgovernment’srecentimmigration sweeps in Chicago, Charlotte, NewOrleans and Minneapolis, Bovino emerged as an enthusiastic spokespersonofthe deportation pushfromPresident Donald Trump’sadministration.

Federal court filings from the case shed new light on alittleknown period of Bovino’s career as he led Border Patrol operations for twoyears across the Gulf Coast.

Spokespeople forBorder Patrol andthe Department of Homeland Securitydid not immediately respond to questions about the case.

Bovinowould return to the El Centrosector in Southern California before being named “at-large” commander in 2025 after Trump’ssecond inauguration. Buthewas stripped of his “at-large” title last week amid mounting scrutiny over Border Patrol agents’ fatalshooting of aMinneapolis protester,Alex Pretti

The Chicago Sun-Times first reported Friday on the emails betweenBovinoand Bullock.

Bullock’sMay 2018 emailto Bovino includeda photo of Gen-

MethodistChildren’s Home CEOsteps down

Rick Wheatexpected to take newroleas chiefadvocacyofficer

BY ANDREA GALLO Staff writer

One of Louisiana’smostvocal advocates for child welfare and thechief executive officer of a nonprofit that runs foster care programs and treatment facilities forchildren is steppingdown Rick Wheat, who has been the CEO of Methodist Children’sHome for 15 years, has resignedasthe nonprofit’sleader and is expected to take on anew role as chief advocacy officer.The nonprofit’s board named Luke Allen, the chief operating officer,asinterim CEOwhile they searchfor apermanent head. Wheat has become well-known at the Louisiana State Capitol and in child welfare circles for pushingstate lawmakersand other elected officials to change lawsto improve the state’s often-dismal scores for childhood well-being. He was among those who pushed for the state to create thenew office of achild ombudsman, meant to investigate complaints within Louisiana agencies that serve children. TheLouisiana Legislature passed alaw to create the office in 2023.

“Rick’stenure as CEO of Methodist Children’sHome has been transformative, quite literally,” said Billy James, the Methodist Children’sHome board chair, in anewsrelease.“Rick brought to life avision to establish astatewide agency of

care for abusedand neglected children.”

Under Wheat’s tenure, thenonprofit added athird children’s homeinLoranger.And while the Methodist Children’s Home began as alone orphanage in 1904 in Bunkie, the organization now has three homes across the state that specialize in inpatientcare for childrenwithsevere behavioral, emotional or family problems.

Wheat pushed for changes across thestate beyond children in foster care, taking up the mantleofchildren in juvenile prisons andothers in poverty

When Gov.Jeff Landry’sadministration planned to reject summer EBT in 2024 to give families extra money to feed children outofschool,Wheat sent aletter aroundthe state.

“There is never agood reason to keep food from hungry children, but some questionable reasons for Louisiana’sdelay or refusalto acceptSummer EBT funds for hungrychildren have beenreported,” hewrote.

Amid uproar,Louisiana backtracked to acceptsummer EBT.

Wheat often posted his musings aboutimproving child welfarein online blogs.

“Louisiana ignores wake-up calls regardingour childrenwith the greatest needs,” he wrotein a2022post. “What are theproverbial earplugs that allow us to miss the wake-up calls our childrendesperately need us to hear to rouse us fromour slumber?

Understaffed stateagencies?

Unmaintained facilities? The absence of acomprehensive plan to care forchildren?”

In his new role, MethodistChildren’sHome plans forWheat to lead an advocacy program to promote policyand legislationfor Louisianachildren and families.

eral William Mahone, aConfederateStatesArmy general from Virginia, andcaptioned it “Chief Bovino.”

The email contained two additional photos: One showing Civil Warreenactorsdressed in gray Confederate Army uniforms grouped around aConfederate battle flag,and another showing Black Union Army soldiers at an artillery position during the war Bullock captioned the photo of the Confederate reenactors“NLL all hands meeting.” He captioned thephoto of the Union soldiers “NLLSector HQ.” NLListhe code name for Border Patrol’s New Orleanssector ASt. Tammany attorneyfor the

two BlackBorder Patrol officials who filed discrimination claims, Kevin Vogeltanz,wrote in acourt filing thatthe photoofConfederate reenactors represented the New Orleans sector’smostlyWhite rank-and-file. TheUnion artillerymenrepresented senior officials in the sector who were ethnicminorities, including the officials Vogeltanz represented, he argued The officials, Jon Joyner and RandolphWilliams, settled their discrimination claims in 2022 forundisclosed amounts, accordingtocourt records. Their current status at the agency is unclear.Vogeltanz did not immediately respond to phone and e-mailed messages about the

case. He represented two other Border Patrol agents in additional discrimination cases involving Bovino, which also yielded settlements.

DHSlawyersopened an internal probe after receiving acomplaint of “confederate images” attached to official communications, according to documents Bullock told aDHS agent assigned to that probe thathesent theimages because Bovino is a“history buffwho applies instancesinAmericanhistory to different …work-related situations.”Headded thatthe email was intended to “poke fun at Bovino since the New Orleanssector is behind the times in comparison to other sectors.”

Bullock said he believed that racism is “not appropriate in America.” He could not immediately be reached.

In his 2020 deposition, Bovino said he did not believe Bullock had intended to offend anyone by sending it.

“I ascribed very littlemeaning to this becauseIreceived many many emails each day,” Bovino said. “When Ireceive an email like this, typically,itgoes to the recycle bin.” Asked repeatedly if theemails could be perceived as racist or “racially tinged,” Bovino said, “no.”

“In perusing theemail that he sent me, Idid not find any racial connotations that would lead me to open an investigation for Mr Bullock,” he said.

Bovino and Bullock appear to have been associates since at least the 2010s. Alisting for the 2014 film “La Migra” on the film website IMDB acknowledgesand thanks Bullockand Bovino as contributors to the production.

LIGO dodges bigfederal budget cuts

Livingston observatory allocatedfunding

BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer

After facingpossible steep budget cutsthat could have shut down aLouisiana space observatory,scientists are breathing a sigh of reliefafter recently approvedfederal science funding exceeded earlier proposals.

Scientists at theLaser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory,tucked away in the piney woods of Livingston Parish, feared their operation detecting black holes would be shuttered after the Trump administration in May proposed steep cutstofunding for science programs.

LIGO receives itsfunding from theNational Science Foundation.

But on Jan.23, President Donald Trump signed afunding appropriations act in whichmultiple federal scienceagencies dodged crippling budget cuts for 2026.

The appropriations actallocated $8.75 billion for the NSF.The funds are astark increase from the Trumpadministration’sproposed budget,which would have cut $5.2 billion, or 57%, of the agency’sannual budget

The Livingston observatory is one of two LIGO sites in the United States. Its counterpart is LIGO Hanford in Washington state.

Under theMay budget proposal, only one LIGO observatory would have operated,with reduced spending on technologydevelopment.

LIGO Livingston madeinternational headlines in 2015 when it detected gravitational waves from black holes morethan a billionlight years away —earning researchers aNobel Prize in physics and kick-starting anew era of astronomy in theprocess.

Gabriela González, LSU professor and the spokesperson for the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration during the 2015 breakthrough, has spent the past six months lobbying elected officials for science funding.

“Weworked very hard …not just peopleinLIGO but manyscientists andphysicists,” she said.

González said she was thankful for Louisiana representatives in Congress whowerereceptiveto securing the funding forLIGO

“Wewere happy for all science agencies,” she said.

Head of LIGO LivingstonJoseph Giaime called the appropriationsact “a great relief.”

Giaime said the staff had been paying close attention to budget talks in Congress andthat it had been a“whirlwind.”

“Wetry to be superhonest to staff. It’s tough to do sometimes,”

Giaime said about the past few months after the proposed cuts.

“Wewerebeing conservative making decisions. We wanted to preserve people and scientific options.”

Giaime said working with LSU, along with Louisiana and Washington elected officials, helped makeacase foralarger budget.

LIGO’sblack hole detector was put on pause in November for scheduled improvements and was supposed to be down fora fewyears, but it will power back on this upcoming fall so thereis less wait time between detector |runs.

Giaime said this is so taxpayers andthe community can be served better with more detections,an idea that was recentlyproposed amid budget talks.

In thepast year,the observatory announcedthe discovery of the mostmassive black hole merger ever detected. More recently, LIGO had itssharpest detection yet thatproved one of Stephen Hawking’stheories to be correct. It also saw growing attendance at

STAFFFILE PHOTOByJAVIER GALLEGOS The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-WaveObservatory dodged cripplingbudget cuts for 2026.

its monthly Science Saturdays. NSFhas not finalized how it will distributeits funds in 2026, said Michael England, NSF head of media affairs. However,ajoint congressional statement forthe appropriations act states it “provides not less than $49 million forthe year” for LIGO.This amount is on par with previous years’ budgets for the observatories.

LIGO Executive Director David Reitze, who oversees both observatories andisbased at the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology, said in an emailthat he was thrilledand greatlyappreciated thesupport of theLouisiana congressional delegation.

“For LIGO,this removes alot of uncertainty.Wewill be able to effectively carry out our scientific program as planned in 2026 and moveforward withhiringseveral STEM-related staffpositions that were on hold last year,”Reitze wrote.

Email Claire Grunewaldat claire.grunewald@theadvocate. com.

Be skeptical aboutdataon

environment andhealth

Awebsite called Louisiana Health Facts has been circulating recently,presenting parish-level health statistics to argue that concerns about Louisiana’sindustrial corridor are overstated. Thesite relies on broad indicatorssuch as lifeexpectancy and aggregate cancer rates to suggest that health outcomes in these areas compare favorablywith therest of the state. Even when drawn from reputable data sources, this kindof analysis deserves caution. Aggregate health metrics are usefulfor identifying large-scale trends, but they are poorly suited to answering questions about localized environmental risk. Parish-wideaverages can easilyobscuresharp differences within acommunity, particularly in areas where industrial facilities, residential neighborhoods and exposure levels vary block by block.

Life expectancy,inparticular, reflects many factors beyond environmental conditions, includingincome, access to health care, education and urbanization.A slightly higher average life span in alarge geographic area does not demonstrate that residents living near industrial sites face no elevated health risks. It simply means that multiple influences are being averaged together. Public conversations about environmental health should be clear about these limits. When the scale of analysis does not match the scale of the concern the result can be misleading reassurance rather than meaningful understanding.

Louisiana’scommunities deserve careful, transparentuse of health data, especially when those data are invoked to characterize safety and risk. Amore honest discussion would acknowledge what aggregate statisticscan show,and just as importantly, what they cannot.

DEVIN FOIL NewOrleans

What’s in anamefor Greenland?

Ithink the real reason thepresident wants to buy Greenlandisso that he can appoint acommission to change the island’snameto Trumpland.

JAMES CRONVICH Harahan

YOUR VIEWS

NOLA.COM/opinions

An acre in the Atchafalaya swamp,

Landownermakes case for state’seconomicfuture

Generations of Louisiana landowners have taken seriously thedutytoprotect the land, balancing respect for the past withplans for thefuture. In the timber industry,that mindset is notoptional. It is how you stay in business.

Carbon capture and storage is not apolitical talking point for us. It is apractical tool that fitswith thelong-term vision that landowners already live by.Done responsibly, CCS allows us to use subsurface rights without disturbing theforests, farms and habitats we manage every day.Itbrings steady investment to rural areas and helps keepLouisiana competitive in an energy economy that is changing, whether we are ready or not.

Landownersdonot make decisions lightly We weighrisks, study long-term impacts and look at compatibility with current operations. In my case, that meanssustainable timber production on someofthe largest family-owned timberlands in the South. After doingthat homework, many of us

see CCS as an opportunity that aligns with principles we have followed fordecades: responsible resource use, economic stability for rural communities and stewardship for future generations.

This is also about keeping Louisiana’s economy strong. Ourindustrial base faces growing pressuretocut emissions to stay competitive both domestically and internationally.CCS gives industries arealistic way to keep operating and growing here at home. Without it, investment will movetostates with clearer permitting and fewerobstacles. Capital follows certainty,and right now our neighbors offer more of it than we do.

The principle is simple. Landowners should have theright to put land, including subsurface rights, to productive use when it fits our values and long-term plans. Louisiana has an opportunity to lead. We ask for aclear,predictable path to participate and help shape thefuture of our state.

ROBERT CROSBY president of CrosbyLand &Resources, L.L.C.

Expanded cervical cancer screeningmatters

As someone who works with communities across Louisiana, Isee every day how access, trust and convenience shape whether peoplereceive preventive cancer care. That’swhy the newly released updated cervical cancerscreening guidelines (from the Health Resources and Services Administration and American Cancer Society) are an important step forward.

though cervical cancer is preventable when detected early

Self-collection can be done during aroutine primary carevisit. It can helpwomen who lack access to gynecologic care, feel discomfort with atraditional Pap test or cannot take time off for appointments. Once collected and sent to alaboratory,itisthe samehighqualitytest.

La.shouldbe ashamedat goingafter oil companiesthat create jobs

It’s appalling forambulance-chasing lawyers and career politicians to now want to cook the goose that laid the golden egg forLouisiana. Regarding the recent article, “SupremeCourt hears Louisiana coastal case,” addressing the lawsuit Chevron USAInc. vs. Plaquemines Parish: As we are aware, the biggest culprit in the destruction of Louisiana coastal marshes wasthe U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers. In the 1920s, the Corps started building federal Mississippi River levees to restrict the overflow of river water to protect cities, towns and people from flooding. These levees cut off the natural flow of land-building dirt, sand, etc. With the vital source forkeeping saltwater out blocked, it did not take long forsaltwater intrusion into the marshes to begin killing the vegetation that held everything together Oil companies in the 1940s were requested by our federal governmenttoincrease production ASAP due to the demands of World War II. It is disappointing forajury of 12 biased Plaquemines Parish citizens to reach the conclusion they reached last year.I am also extremely disappointed with our current governor and lieutenant governor forsupporting such lawsuits harassing great companies whohave done so much good for individuals, our state, the United States and the world. Has anyone considered the number of jobs the oil industry created directly and the number of jobs it created indirectly foroil-related service companies? All of these jobs weresome of the best-paying jobs in the state. That number would be in the hundreds of thousands over a60-year span. Those paychecks paid sales taxes, state and federal incometaxes. And lest we forget, all these folks increased the demand forhousing, grocery stores, entertainment, hospitals, doctors, lawyers, catering services, general marine leasing companies, workboats, crewboats, helicopters and office space.

JIMMY D. BOYD Marrero

OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone 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. Box588 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@theadvocate.com. TO SEND US ALETTER, SCAN HERE

Thenew guidance expands screening options by recognizing high-risk HPV testing, including patientself-collection, as apreferred screening method for average-risk women ages 30-65, while preserving appropriate options for younger women. Just as important,the guidelines require mostinsurance planstocover follow-up testing needed to complete thescreening process beginning in 2027. Together,these changes reduce cost and logistical barriers that too often stand between women andlifesaving care.

This matters in Louisiana, where cervical cancer incidence and mortality remain higher than thenational average, especially in rural communities and among women facing economic or health access barriers. Women are still beingdiagnosed at later stages, even

Backed by FDA approvals andresearch conducted at LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center,self-collection gives women morecontrol and flexibility and for many, that difference can mean choosing screening instead of delaying care.

Cervical cancer is one of the mostpreventable cancers. No one should be diagnosed with cervical cancer,and no oneshould die from it because they couldn’taccess screening.

These updated guidelines bring us closer to afuture where prevention is the norm,not theexception.

DONNA WILLIAMS associate director, LSULCMC Health Cancer Center and associate dean, LSU School of Public Health

We need leaderswho uphold Constitution

Observingwhat President Donald Trump has done, is doing and is threatening to do in light of what reasonable people expect of the presidentofthe United States, perhaps it is time to seriously consider invoking the 25th Amendmenttothe Constitution —and work-

ing our way down through the presidential options until we finally get someone who takes the Constitution and what our country was established on and for seriously PAUL MAJOR Livonia

Ienjoyed the Martin Luther King Jr.Day article titled “Making the Dream Reality.” A.P.Tureaud was one of the six individuals identified in the accompanying photo dated 1960, though there wasnomention of him in the article. Tureaud’s leadership during Louisiana’sCivil Rights Movement wascritical. He successfully litigated equal pay for Louisiana’sBlack educators and the desegregation of public schools and spaces throughout the state. He gathered regularly with King at Dooky Chase’sRestaurant in New Orleans. At Tureaud’s1972 funeral, SupremeCourt Justice Thurgood Marshall closed his eulogy by noting, “Inthis age of civil rights, we got where we are today by the efforts and dedication of men like A.P.Tureaud, whomade himself a leader.” His wasalifeofservice that should be remembered and celebrated.

KEVIN PORTZ Baton Rouge

Making acasefor pluralism

Much of our public debatetoday rests on asimple but mistaken premise: that awell-functioning society ismade up of largely self-sufficient individuals, and that publicsystems should reward strength while discouraging dependence.

NewEPA rule puts valueof American livesatzero

Last month, President Donald Trump’sEnvironmental Protection Agency issued this judgmentonthe American people: Our lives are worthless.

That wasn’tjust forblue state residents, the media, Democrats and anyone else whomight disagree with him;Trumplong ago pronounced them vermin and scum No,this is also about everyone whovoted forhim,all the GOP delegations worshipping him in Congress, as wellour children including the generations yet to be born.

It’sanunderstandable assumption, but it doesn’t reflect the way human lives really unfold.

Amore realistic and durable framework is pluralism.Not as apolitical slogan, but as adesign principlefor public systems funded by the collective will.

Pluralism begins with abasic truth abouthuman life:Variation is universal. Every person ages. Every person’sbody changes. Every person’scapacity fluctuates across time. Illness, injury, caregiving and vulnerability are not experiences that affect only “some people.” They are experiences everyone encounters, but in combinations, intensities anddurations far more complexthan our publicsystems typically assume.

The problem is not that we fail to recognize this individually.The problem is that we design public systems as if it weren’ttrue.

Any system built on the assumption that self-sufficiency is the default will fail under real conditions. Notbecause people are irresponsible, but because the assumption itself does not match

There has never been aself-sufficient human. We are born dependent. We relyon shared knowledge,infrastructure and care throughout our lives. Capacity rises andfalls. Circumstances shift. No life follows asingle, predictable path. Pretending otherwise doesn’tcreate strength.It creates fragility Pluralism simply meansdesigning public systems that account for this reality rather than punishing it In apluralist framework, human variabilityisnot adefect to be managed away.Itisa core designconsideration Systems are built to functionacross a broad spectrum of human conditions, notjustfor an imagined “normal” personwho remains healthy,able and independentatall times.

This is nota radical idea. It is howsuccessful systems already work.

We don’tbuild roadsassuming nothing will ever go wrong. We build them knowingaccidents, detours, and breakdowns happen. Strong public systems account forvariability rather than assuming ideal conditions.

Health care access, disability accommodation, education, food security and caregiving supports belong in this same category.They are notmoral rewards for good behavior. They arepublic structures that allow people, in all their variedcircumstances and capacities,to participateineconomic and civic life over an entire life span.

By contrast, ahierarchical, ruthless individualist approach treats need as failure. It assumes independenceisthe norm anddependence is adeviation that must be corrected or discouraged. That mindset shiftsattention away from systemdesign and toward sorting people into “deserving”and “undeserving” categories. This does notproduce efficiency.It produces systems thatsubstitute judgmentfor design and fail as aresult. Pluralism offers acalmer alternative. It does not deny effort or responsibility It recognizes that effort operates inside bodies, historiesand circumstancesthat varywidely and rarelyunfold in predictable ways.Support, in this view,is notthe opposite of responsibility.Itis what makes participation possible. Asocietythatonlyworksfor the healthiestand luckiestisnot strong.It is fragile. Andfragile systems eventually fail everyone. Pluralism is not about celebrating difference for its own sake or enforcing agreement. It is about designing public structures that reflect how human life actually unfolds. It asks apractical question: Does this system still work across the full range of human experience? If theanswer is no, theproblem is not thepeople. It’sthe design.

EllenHolliday is awriterbased in Baton Rouge

Reporterspushing thewrong narrativeonimmigration

If you follow what presents itselfas “reporting” these days you have likely heard about a5-year-old boy in Minneapolis who was used as “bait” to get his father,who had abandoned him, to return so he could be arrested. Some claimed the child had been “kidnapped”by ICE. Rep. Jasmine Crockett,DTexas, rushed to the cameras to promote the “bait” and“kidnapped” narrative. Hillary Clinton said ICE was usingchildren as “pawns” and Kamala Harris also repeated the “bait”label.The womenon “The View” echoed the same theme. Their talking points were wrong. As explained by ICE and Border Patrol, the father of the boy is in the country illegally.They saidhehad left his son in acar while trying to avoid arrest. ICE officers took the child to asafe place until they wereable todetain the father and reunitethe two.

on Saturday,Minneapolis officials were quick to establish anew narrative even thoughthey didn’t have “all thefacts.”

positive clips as ABC, NBC and CBS evening newscasts were negative 93% of the time.”

That sentence washanded down when the agency quietly decided this: It will no longer include the number of lives lost or damaged when determining the required cost-benefit analysis of pollution regulations.

The agency will continue to determine how much compliance with aregulation will cost an industry’sbottom line and how much it could cost the economy.Itwill makesure corporate lives are not harmed. But the human lives that have been valued at $10 million to $11 million each in the formula forgenerations? Well, now they’re worthless. It’s all laid out in “Economic Impact Analysis forthe NewSource Performance Standards Review forStationary Combustion Turbines: Final Rule.”

This analysis concerns two types of air pollution.

One is “PM 2.5” —tiny dust-like particles of less than 2.5 micrometers mainly from vehicle exhaust, industry and wildfire. The other is ozone, which is ground and low-elevation air pollution from mostofthe samesources. Both are proven to result in deadly lung and heart diseases, and decades of research have shownthat regulations saved tens of thousands of lives and helped the economy by reducing billions in medical costs and lost working days.

So whychange?

“Basically,what this administration is saying, that trying to monetize the value of ahuman lifeissocomplicated that it can’treally trust the numbers —sothey’re just not going to include it,” said Rob Verchick, aLoyola law professor

“This is departing from what has been the norm at the EPAinboth Republican and Democratic administrations going back to Ronald Reagan where it began.”

Verchick should know.Hewas adeputy associate administrator at EPAduring the Obama administration.

The EPAhas two responsibilities in setting environmental regulations, Verchick explained. By law (the 1970 Clean Air Act), its first job is making sure Americans have clean, healthy air to breathe, so its scientists establish how much of anything can be emitted without harming human health.

Itssecond charge started when the Reagan administration, at the behest of industry,began the cost-benefit analysis forregulations to show how much they might cost industry and the economy

Thomas

Reporters rarely question thepromoters of afalse narrativewhether they would like to apologize for what they said. That may be because many of them agree that ICE is wrongtoarrest people withcriminal convictions and previous deportation orders and get them out of Minneapolis and the country.You can’targue withthe results. Some are tying thedeportation of violent criminals to thereduction in murders nationwide.

Following the shootingdeathofAlex Pretti, an ICU nurse and U.S.citizen,

Homeland SecurityKristiNoem later said the man was armed with agun and two magazines and intended to kill ICE agents, although bystanders’ video contradicts that claim. False narratives are not new Recall “Hands up, don’tshoot”

(Michael Brown/Ferguson, Mo. 2014), the Russian collusion hoax, TrumpisaRussian agent,the Hunter Biden laptop, Black Lives Matter and some of its corrupt leaders, and so manymore. This is theproblem with falsenarratives. If you hate President Trumpand everythinghis administration is doing, you look for anything —whether true or false —tolower his approval numbers. That seems to be working as most polls show votersdisapprove of ICE’s tactics and the president. Why wouldn’t they when themedia are virtually united in false narratives? Border Patrol and the presidenthave beendisplayingpictures of some of the worstcriminals they are arresting anddeporting. The media have largely ignored that important part of the story.According to astudy by theconservative Media Research Center,“In the10days following the shooting of Renee Good,ABC, NBC and CBS were overwhelmingly negative about ICE. The study found 68 negative sound bitesabout ICE, compared to only five

Ihave not seen areporter ask an antiICE protester whether they are OK with rapists, murderers and pedophiles staying in Minneapolis. The Trumpadministration needs to do what is known in television as counter-programming. This might include allowing some of thevictims of these criminals to speak. Bringsome of those awaiting deportation before reporters and read off their records. That might be moreeffective at influencing public opinion than displaying their photographs.

It doesn’ttake asoothsayer to predict that the goal of these demonstrations might be to help Democratsregain a congressional majority so they can again impeach the president, even though the likelihood of convicting him would be about the same as theprevious impeachments. For them, it’sall politics. For Homeland Security, it’s about getting bad guys off the streets and out of the country Let theDemocrats run on aplatform of defending violent criminals and see how that works for them. As for the wrong narrative that has been promoted aboutthe 5-year-old boy,itagain proves thetruthofthe saying: “A lie travels halfway around the world while thetruthisputtingonits boots.”

Email Cal Thomasattcaeditorstribpub.com

But from the beginning, that wasmeant to also include the costs to human health, afactor that can also be adrain on the nation’seconomy This always led to pitched battles between industry seeking higher profits and environmental groups trying to protect public property like air,water and land.

Massive political contributions from polluting sectors had impacts over the years, especially after the Roberts SupremeCourt decided in Citizens United that companies are citizens and have equal rights to humans in someareas. Attacks on the system were always highest during pro-business GOPadministrations and Congresses, often in cutting agency budgets and enforcement and rolling back regulations. But the nation has never seen anything like this second Trumpadministration, arguably the first truly anti-environmental protection. It has bragged about inaugurating the largest rollback of environmental regulations in history and reducing enforcement and compliance checks on industry by as much as 50%. Meanwhile, its administrator,Lee Zeldin, echoing his hero in the White House, ridicules climate science as a“religion” all the while gaslighting the public by claiming their cutbacks are making things cleaner But anyone reading that they wanttoremove the costs in human lifefrom determining the value of pollution regulations can be leftfeeling only one thing: Worthless.

Bob Marshall, aPulitzer Prize-winning Louisiana environmental journalist, can be reached at bmarshallenviro@gmail.com

with meteorologist Damon Singleton

N.O. native headed to SuperBowl LX with Patriots

Charles-Hubbardhas been team’s assistantequipment managerfor threeyears

BY RODWALKER Staff writer

DevinCharles-Hubbard knowshe’ll get chills at Levi’sStadium on Sunday

ä Seahawks vs: Patriots

5:30 P.M.

Not the kind he got standing on the sideline in the snow when theNew EnglandPatriots beat the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game. These chills will bethe ones youget when living a dream that has taken you from Uptown New Orleans, where you werebornand raised, to Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California. Hubbard, 34, is in his third season as New England’sassistant equipment manager, a gig that will put him on the biggeststage when the Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks. “You wanttotreatitlikea regular game, butatthe same time,it’sthe SuperBowl,” Hubbard said. “You want to be on your P’s and Q’sand double and triple check everything.” Hubbard has been in big games before. He was the equipment manager for Tulane when

ä See SUPER BOWL, page 6C

ANALYSIS

AP FILE PHOTO

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne, left, avoids atackle from New England Patriots safety James Sanderson Jan. 21, 2007. Wayne is a finalist for the Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

HOTSTREAK

LSU finds offensive groove, throttles Alabamafor seventh straightwin

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

OnceMikaylah Williams’ 3-pointer droppedthrough the rim, coach Kim Mulkeycould turn around andyell to the Pete Maravich AssemblyCenter crowd, telling it to stand up forthe finalseconds of adominant first half. Mulkey had good reason to celebrate. Her LSUwomen’sbasketball team was in themiddle of its 103-63 shellacking of No. 24 Alabama on Sunday Williams, who finished with 15 points, had aproductive offensive game. And she wasn’t alone. TheNo. 6Tigers (21-2, 7-2 SEC) had four players score in double figures on aday in which theyshot 56% from thefield, drained 10 3-pointers and hit the century mark against an AP-ranked SEC opponent for just the second time in the past five seasons.

Before Sunday,LSU had beaten aranked team 22 times since Mulkey’stenure began in 2021. But neverbymorethan 30 points as it did against coach Kristy Curry’sCrimson Tide (19-4, 5-4).

“Wehit abuzzsaw,” Curry said, “and we didn’thave aresponse foritafter the first quarter.” Alabama was thefirst rankedopponent LSU hasfaced in two weeks. The Tigers won their past three games by an average margin of 31.7 points, but they were against the SEC’sbottom threeteams Texas A&M, Florida and Arkansas. The CrimsonTide presenteda decidedly toughertest. Lastseason,itbeat LSUin overtime.

Editor’snote: Information forthis column was compiled from apresentation madeby Mike Chappell of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee. TheHall of Fame case for Reggie Wayne is not about sentiment,although it’s difficult not to empathize with him after his painstaking seven-year runasa finalist. Wayne’scandidacy is based on evidence. Statistics. Metrics. Production. His impact on oneofthe great offenses in NFL history.His undeniable longevity and productivity.His Super Bowl ring and six Pro Bowl selections Wayne is one of 15 finalistsfor thePro Football Hall of Fame’sClass of 2026. Along with fellow receiver Torry Holt, who is in his seventh year as afinalist,Wayne hashad to wait longer than anyofhis fellow candidates Wayne’swait showsjust how difficult it is to earn agold jacket, because the former Wayne’smetrics, production and impact make his Hall of Fame case

ä See HOF, page 5C

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

In lessthantwo weeks, LSU will get another crack at defending anational title under coach Jay Johnson. And after asecond weekend of preseason scrimmages, strongindicatorsofwhat the team Johnson will trot out on opening dayhave begun to emerge. Here areafew takeawaysfrom LSU’s scrimmages this weekend. Cooper Williamsdominates The sophomoreleft-handerwas nearly perfect on Thursday,tossing 42/3 innings with eight strikeouts.He surrendered just one hit, asolo home runtojunior third baseman Trent Caraway on an off-speed pitch he left over the plate. The fact thatWilliams pitched into afifth inning is astrong indicator that Johnson is preparing himfor aspot in theweekend

rotation. His command has taken another step forward, andhis abilitytokeep hitters off balance with four pitches he can throw forstrikesissimilartowhat LSU hadin Kade Anderson last year To say that Williams will be the next Anderson this year maybea stretch. But outsideofmaybe juniorright-hander and Kansastransfer Cooper Moore, no LSU pitcher has looked as good as Williams to start 2026.

Apotential look at thestartinglineup LSUrolledout alineup anddefensive alignmentonSunday that may be closeto what the Tigers’ starting nine is on opening day 1. Chris Stanfield LF,2.Derek Curiel CF, 3. Jake Brown RF,4.Zach Yorke 1B, 5. Steven Milam SS, 6. Mason Braun DH, 7. Tanner Reaves 2B, 8. Trent Caraway 3B, 9. OmarSerna C There areafew parts of this order that likely won’tbeinplace on Feb. 13. Sophomore Cade Arrambide is still the projected starteratcatcher,but he wasn’tbehind the plate for eitherteam on Sunday,likely as an attempt to preserve his legs for the ä See WILLIAMS, page 5C

2

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Alcaraz beats Djokovic in final

Spaniard becomes youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam

BY JOHN PYE Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia Carlos Al-

caraz is 22, he’s the youngest man ever to win all four of the major titles in tennis, and he had to achieve what no man previously has done to complete the career Grand Slam in Australia.

The top-ranked Alcaraz dropped the first set of the Australian Open final in 33 minutes Sunday as Novak Djokovic went out hard in pursuit of an unprecedented 25th major title, but the young Spaniard dug deep to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

“Means the world to me,” Alcaraz said. “It is a dream come true for me.”

Djokovic had won all 10 of his previous finals at Melbourne Park and, despite being 38, gave himself every chance of extending that streak to 11 when he needed only two sets to win.

Alcaraz rose to the challenge.

“Tennis can change on just one point. One point, one feeling, one shot can change the whole match completely,” he said. “I played well the first set, but you know, in front of me I had a great and inspired Novak, who was playing great, great shots.”

A couple of unforced errors from Djokovic early in the second set gave Alcaraz the confidence. He scrambled to retrieve shots that usually would be winners for Djokovic, and he kept up intense pressure on the most decorated player in men’s tennis history There were extended rallies where each player hit enough brilliant shots to usually win a game.

Djokovic has made an art form of rallying from precarious positions. Despite trailing two sets to one, he went within the width of a ball in the fourth set’s ninth game of turning this final around.

After fending off six break points in the set, he exhorted the crowd when he got to 30-30. The crowd responded with chants of “Nole, Nole, Nole!”

When Djokovic earned a breakpoint chance — his first since the second set — he whipped up his supporters again. But when Djokovic sent a forehand long on the next point, Alcaraz took it as

a reprieve.

A short forehand winner, a mishit from Alcaraz, clipped the net and landed inside the line to give him game point. Then Djokovic hit another forehand long.

Alcaraz responded with a roar, and sealed victory by taking two of the next three games.

As he was leaving the court, Alcaraz signed the lens of the TV camera with a recognition: “Job finished. 4/4 Complete.”

Teamwork

After paying tribute at the trophy ceremony to Djokovic for being an inspiration, Alcaraz turned to his support team. He parted ways with longtime coach Juan Carlos Ferrero at the end of last season and Samuel Lopez stepped up to head the team.

“Nobody knows how hard I’ve been working to get this trophy I just chased this moment so much,” Alcaraz said. “The preseason was a bit of a rollercoaster emotionally

“You were pushing me every day to do all the right things,” he added. “I’m just really grateful for everyone I have in my corner right now.”

Djokovic’s praise

Djokovic joked about this showdown setting up a rivalry over the next 10 years with Alcaraz, but then said it was only right to hand the floor over to the new, 16 years his junior, champion.

“What you’ve been doing, the best word to describe is historic, legendary,” he said. “So congratulations.”

Both players were coming off grueling five-set semifinal wins Alcaraz held off No. 3 Alexander Zverev on Friday; Djokovic’s win over two-time defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner ended after 1:30 a.m. Saturday — yet showed phenomenal fitness, athleticism and stamina for just over three hours in pursuit of their own historic achievements.

Djokovic won the last of his 24 Grand Slam singles titles at the 2023 U.S. Open; his push for an unprecedented 25th has now been blocked by Alcaraz or Sinner for nine majors.

Rafa in the house

Djokovic and Rafael Nadal played some epic matches, in-

cluding the longest match ever at the Australian Open that lasted almost six hours in 2012.

Nadal was in the stands Sunday, and both players addressed the 22-time major winner

“He’s my idol, my role model,” Alcaraz said. To complete the career Slam “in front of him, it made even more special.”

Djokovic, addressing Nadal directly as the “legendary Rafa,” joked that there were “too many Spanish legends” in Rod Laver “It felt like it was two against one tonight,” he said.

One for the ages

At 22 years and 272 days, Alcaraz is the youngest man to complete a set of all four major singles titles.

He broke the mark set by Don Budge in the 1938 French championships, when he was 22 years and 363 days.

He’s the ninth man to achieve the career Grand Slam, a list that also includes Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer

Alcaraz now has seven major titles his first in Australia along with two each at Wimbledon and the French and U.S. Opens.

Rose leads from start to finish at Torrey Pines

He is first wire-to-wire winner at course in 71 years

BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

SAN DIEGO Justin Rose became the first wire-to-wire winner at Torrey Pines in 71 years, starting with a six-shot lead and never letting anyone get any closer to him Sunday as he closed with a 2-under 70 to win the Farmers Insurance Open. Rose opened with a 62 on the North course at Torrey Pines and really never let up all week, playing even better on the South course that has hosted two U.S. Opens. He wound up breaking the 72-hole tournament record at 23-under 265, one better than Tiger Woods in 1999. George Burns also shot 266 in 1987.

“Sorry, T-dub, if you’re watching,” Rose said. That was his only real challenge, smaller goals to keep him pushing — he wanted to increase his lead each day, and he was aware of the tournament record. He got both. Tommy Bolt in 1955 is the only

end the West Coast Swing. Brooks Koepka finished his return to the PGA Tour after defecting from LIV Golf with familiar cheers on the ninth green when he tapped in a birdie putt for a 70. There were some 300 people around the green, most of them shouting, “Welcome back, Brooks.”

He headed to Phoenix later Sunday for the loudest event in golf. “I love the chaos,” Koepka said.

Rose, who also won at Torrey Pines in 2019, now has 13 career titles on the PGA Tour He moves to No. 4 in the world, his highest ranking in more than six years. Even for all he has accomplished, from a U.S. Open to an Olympic gold medal to seven Ryder Cup appearances, he has not stopped putting in the work to stay among the elite in golf.

Tipoff time changed for Pelicans game at Hornets

The New Orleans Pelicans’ game against the Charlotte Hornets will tip off at 2 p.m. Monday due to inclement weather in Charlotte.

The league announced the change Sunday night.

It’ll be the second meeting of the season between the Pelicans (1338) and Hornets (22-28).

The Pelicans won 116-112 in November at the Smoothie King Center It was the first victory of the season for the Pelicans.

The game will be televised on the Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network and will air on WWL Radio.

Monday’s game is the second of a four-game road trip for the Pelicans. They lost to the 76ers on Saturday They will travel to play the Bucks on Wednesday and the Timberwolves on Friday

Report: 49ers hire Morris as defensive coordinator

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers are hiring former Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris as their new defensive coordinator in hopes of finding a long-term solution to a revolving door at the spot.

A person familiar with the decision said Sunday that Morris will join the Niners to replace Robert Saleh. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team hadn’t announced the hiring.

ESPN first reported the decision. Morris had long been viewed as a strong potential candidate because of his success as a coordinator and his ties to San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan.

Morris was fired by Atlanta last month after back-to-back 8-9 seasons as head coach for the Falcons

Korda wins season opener as final round is canceled

ORLANDO, Fla. — Nelly Korda won for the first time in 14 months without having to hit a shot Sunday when the LPGA Tour reduced the season-opening Tournament of Champions to 54 holes because of wind and cold.

Korda won with an 8-under 64 on Saturday, an astonishing round that was roughly nine shots better than the field average in bitter cold and gusts that approached 40 mph Korda said it was among the best three rounds she ever played. She finished just before the LPGA halted the third round when wind blew Youmin Hwang’s golf ball off the 17th green. The LPGA planned on finishing the event Sunday but temperatures were below freezing and the LPGA said the forecast was just as bad for Monday

Reed loses in a playoff as Schott wins in Bahrain

AL MAZROWIAH, Bahrain Patrick Reed’s bid for back-to-back victories on the European tour came up just short Sunday when he was beaten in a playoff won by No 436-ranked Freddy Schott for his first title.

Reed made bogey at the first playoff hole to drop out of a threeman contest that also included Calum Hill.

The 24-year-old Schott clinched victory on the second playoff hole after Hill hooked his drive out of bounds, shanked his fourth shot into water and shook hands with his German rival, who was on the green in three shots.

Reed was seeking a second straight win after the Dubai Desert Classic last Sunday

NASCAR’s Clash delayed again due to intense snow

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A bomb cyclone over North Carolina forced NASCAR to push its preseason exhibition to Wednesday because the snow-covered roads are too dangerous for teams and fans to get to Bowman-Gray Stadium. The Clash had been scheduled to run Sunday night and has now been postponed twice because of the intense snowfall that blanketed the area.

This was little more than a battle for second and that was a tie. Si Woo Kim (69), Ryo Hisatsune (69) and Pierceson Coody (66) shared runner-up honors, a consolation prize worth $726,400. For Coody, it also is likely to get him into a pair of $20 million signature events to

other player to lead from start to finish without ties at Torrey Pines. The 45-year-old from England said he would not be complacent, and that much was evident when Rose went out in 33, holing a 35foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth that turned the back nine — all day, really — into what looked like a peaceful walk on the public course along the Pacific Ocean. The tournament had one of its best weeks of weather, even by San Diego standards. The only thing lacking was drama, which was just fine with Rose.

“I still believe there’s good stuff in front of me,” Rose said.

He thought his performance at Torrey Pines in 2019 was among his best, and this was better It might have been more meaningful, too. His longtime caddie, Mark Fulcher, was hospitalized with heart issues in 2019. “Now he’s got one for himself,” Rose said.

NASCAR said Sunday it was moving it to Wednesday “due to the impacts of historic winter weather across the North Carolina region.”

The

is

UConn crushes Lady Vols in latest rivalry matchup

By The Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. — Azzi Fudd

scored 27 points and Sarah Strong added 26 to help No. 1 UConn beat 15th-ranked Tennessee 96-66 on Sunday handing the Lady Vols their worst loss in the storied rivalry

The Huskies (23-0) only led 57-53 midway through the third quarter before scoring the last 14 points of the period to blow the game open. Strong got the run started with a 3-point play and the Huskies sliced through Tennessee’s pressure defense for layups.

Allie Ziebell, who tied a program record with 10 3-pointers in the Huskies’ previous game, capped the burst with a 3 that made it 71-53 heading into the final quarter The Lady Vols (14-5) never threatened to get back in the game in the fourth and the margin of defeat topped the team’s 23-point loss to UConn in 2002. It’s the second-worst loss ever for Tennessee, only surpassed by a 31-point defeat to Texas in 1984.

Janiah Barker scored 16 points to lead the Lady Vols. NO 18 KENTUCKY 93, ARKANSAS 73:

In Fayetteville, Arkansas, Clara Strack had 33 points and 15 rebounds, Teonni Key also had a double-double, and No. 18 Kentucky defeated Arkansas on Sunday to snap a three-game losing streak.

Kentucky led by only six points at halftime and it was 60-49 heading to the fourth quarter. The Wildcats outscored the Razorbacks 33-24 in the fourth

NO 2 UCLA 88, NO 8 IOWA 65: In Los Angeles, Angela Dugalic scored a season-high 22 points and had a career-high five steals as UCLA extended its winning streak to 15 with a victory over Iowa.

Kiki Rice had 17 points and seven assists and Lauren Betts scored 16 points as the Bruins (21-1, 11-0 Big Ten) remained the only undefeated team in conference play while improving to 10-0 at home. UCLA has won both of its games against Iowa since moving to the Big Ten last season.

NO 4 TEXAS 78, NO. 10 OKLAHOMA 70: In Austin, Texas, Madison Booker and Justice Carlton scored 16 points each to lead Texas to a victory over Oklahoma.

Jordan Lee scored 14 and freshman Aaliyah Crump added 12 points off the bench as Texas (212, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) won its 38th straight home game and improved to 7-2 this season against AP Top 25 opponents. Oklahoma is 2-5 against the top 25.

NO 5 VANDERBILT 82, FLORIDA 66: In Nashville, Tennessee, Mikayla Blakes scored 30 points and Vanderbilt staged a third-quarter comeback to beat Florida.

The Commodores scored a season-low 10 points in the first quarter and went into halftime down 35-25 after shooting just 32% from the floor Blakes had just six points. It was the third straight game Vanderbilt (21-2, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) fell behind early and struggled to recover, as it was outscored 33-16 by South Carolina and 23-15 by Mississippi in the first 10 minutes

Tulane hoops nabs streakbusting win at Memphis

BY GUERRY SMITH

Contributing writer

Rowan Brumbaugh would not let all sorts of foul trouble for his teammates foul up the Tulane men’s basketball team’s chance for a streak-busting win at Memphis

Right after the Tigers tied the score on a pull-up jumper by Dug McDaniel, Brumbaugh took an inbounds pass, drove the length of the floor and laid it in against an unsuspecting defense with six seconds left as the Green Wave won 78-76 in dramatic fashion on Sunday at FedEx Forum. Tulane (13-9, 4-5) snapped a five-game skid while ending Memphis’s 18-game home winning streak in American Conference games dating to a loss to Rice on Jan. 31, 2024. The Tigers (10-11, 5-4) could not get off a shot after Brumbaugh’s huge basket. McDaniel lost the ball as he drove into the line, and the clock expired as the teams tried to corral it on the floor

“The entire program needed a feel-good win,” Tulane coach Ron Hunter said. “We had lost our confidence, and I think this will get our confidence back They just celebrated like we just won a national championship only because we’ve been through so much.” The conventional move after Memphis’s tying basket would have been to play for the last shot, but Hunter — and Brumbaugh — wanted no part of overtime. Starter Luke Rasmussen and key reserves Percy Daniels and Scotty Middleton already had fouled out. Center Tyler Ringgold had been playing with four fouls since the 16:36 mark. Brumbaugh and backcourt mate Asher Woods had played the entire way because reserve guard KJ Greene was unavailable with the flu. When Brumbaugh drove to the basket, defender Zach Davis backed away, giving him an uncontested look.

“I didn’t want to call a timeout so they could get their defense set,” Hunter said. “Whenever my best player has the ball in that situation, I’m rarely going to call a timeout. Let him attack.” Brumbaugh paced all scorers with 27 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Woods chipped in 19 points, adding six rebounds and a team-high five assists.

Improved shooting helped lift LSU past South Carolina

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Max Mackinnon’s dagger 3-pointer in overtime was fitting.

It was the type of open look that LSU has struggled to make during its three-game losing streak entering South Carolina. After the LSU guard helped dribble through a full-court press, he was the final recipient of a pass after a trapping South Carolina defense. Mackinnon drained his right corner jumper with 21 seconds left, giving his team a four-point lead in its eventual 92-87 overtime victory Saturday against the Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.

The Tigers snapped a threegame losing streak and captured their first road SEC win.

Success from the 3-point line has eluded LSU (14-8, 2-7 SEC) recently Not only had the Tigers shot a low percentage, but there was a large discrepancy in total makes compared to their opponent.

“For us, our biggest challenge the last three games from behind the 3-point line, we’ve been minus 18, minus 18 and minus 21 points,” coach Matt McMahon said in the news conference. “You can’t win like that. Tonight, we’re even and gave ourselves a better chance to win because of it.”

LSU made 9 of 22 from beyond the arc compared to the 9 of 24 by South Carolina (11-11, 2-7). In the Tigers’ three previous games combined, they averaged 3.3 made 3-pointers per game on 21.7%. Their opponents made 9.7 on 41.4%.

Mackinnon, LSU’s top shooter at 40.8%, made 3 of 6 3s and finished the game with 15 points and a season-high eight assists. The next best marksman was Rashad King, replacing injured point guard Dedan Thomas in the starting lineup. The senior made 3 of 6 from long range. “I just thought Rashad King was terrific,” McMahon said on the LSU sports radio network. “Not only scoring it, he drew six fouls, he got seven rebounds, only one turnover.”

LSU

Continued from page 1C

“It’s not that difficult to figure out,” Hunter said. “Our guards controlled the entire game.” Ringgold had 12 points, and Curtis Williams grabbed a teamhigh seven rebounds to go along with his seven points.

Tulane won despite getting outrebounded 40-25 and giving up 14 second-chance points on 16 offensive boards. The difference was shooting The Wave hit 50% from the floor and was 10 of 24 from 3-point range while the Tigers shot 35.6% with only four treys in 20 attempts, going more than eight minutes without a field goal during the first half.

Tulane jumped out to a 31-16 lead, setting the tone Memphis led only twice, going up 53-52 with 13:13 left before the Wave went on a 13-5 run and re-taking the lead 73-71, at the 2:36 mark Daniels then blocked a shot as the Tigers tried to stretch the advantage, and Brumbaugh hit two free throws to tie the score at 73 with 1:28 left.

After the Tigers missed a 3-pointer, Daniels converted a 3-point play on a put-back and free throw with 36.3 seconds left to make the score 76-73.

More drama ensued. Daniels fouled out seconds later, and Memphis’s Julius Thedford split a pair of free throws. Woods then lost the ball out of bounds under pressure in the backcourt with 21.9 seconds left, allowing the Tigers to draw even Brumbaugh had the final answer

Tulane survived a brutal start to the second half, when Memphis cut a 39-31 deficit to 39-38 while drawing Rasmussen’s fourth and fifth fouls and getting Ringgold’s third and capitalizing on two turnovers for easy baskets

Unlike in recent weeks, the Wave stopped the rot each time the Tigers made a run.

“It’s the first time we kept our composure,” Hunter said “Every time something bad happened, we responded. We could have folded when they took the lead, and we just talked about composure, composure, composure.”

Tulane gets a break until next Sunday, when it hosts Wichita State.

“We definitely need a week off, there’s no question about that,” Hunter said “Actually the old coach needs a week off.”

ä Georgia at LSU 5 P.M. SATURDAy,

PJ Carter was the last player to make multiple 3-pointers. The Memphis transfer re-entered McMahon’s eight-man rotation and made 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. He had eight points in a seasonhigh 23 minutes. The last time he played more than four minutes was Jan. 6, when LSU lost by 10 points in its first meeting against South Carolina. McMahon admitted after a 14-point home loss to Mississippi State on Wednesday that LSU is “not an elite 3-point shooting team” and is unlikely to outshoot conference opponents. However, the fourth-year coach wants a healthy balance of deep-range production so that its preferred method of points in the paint is effective. Center Mike Nwoko had 21 points, and forward Marquel Sutton had 16 against South Carolina Even without Thomas, who reaggravated his lower left leg injury from Jan. 2, LSU’s outside scorers have faith in their range. “Coach McMahon, you know, he instills a lot in us,” King said on the LSU sports radio network. “We practice all these shots every day, so we just got to come out there and execute. And that’s what we did tonight. Got the win.”

But this year’s matchup followed a much different script. Alabama fell too far behind an LSU team that caught fire on offense in the first half, racing out to a 49-29 halftime lead. Across the first and second quarters, the Tigers shot 58% from the field and 5 of 8 from 3-point range. Williams found a groove. So, too, did sophomore point guard Jada Richard and freshman forward ZaKiyah Johnson. Richard tallied 16 points, four rebounds and four assists. Johnson scored 15 points and grabbed 10 boards to post her first doubledouble since LSU’s season opener Senior guard Flau’jae Johnson and senior forward Amiya Joyner each added nine points, while junior guard MiLaysia Fulwiley chipped in 10. All 11 active players scored at least two points.

Alabama shot well from 3-point range (39%), but LSU hardly let it score inside the arc. The Tide converted only 31% of its 2-pointers and turned the ball over 17 times. The Tigers then turned those giveaways into 24 points at the other end.

“Our defense today was special,” Mulkey said, “and you just wish you could bottle that up and play like that every game. We just beat a very good basketball team. Do not be misled by that score. Everything that we did defensively today affected what we did offensively.”

The Tigers started to build their lead late in the first quarter They hit three shots from beyond the arc just in the last two minutes of the first and the first three minutes of the second. Flau’jae Johnson drained one from the left wing. Richard nailed the other two, including one from the top of the key that Williams set up for her with a quick pass from the right wing.

LSU didn’t cool off over the halftime break. Instead, it hit 10 of the 17 field goals it took in the third. Six different contributors scored in that frame.

“They’re just extremely deep and talented,” Curry said. “It’s kind of like bringing a pocket knife to a bar fight today, and we didn’t respond very well with our pocket knife.”

Before Sunday, Alabama ranked 12th among Division I teams in scoring defense. It was allowing its league opponents to score only 63 points per game on 42% shooting.

‘COLLEGE GAMEDAY’ HEADED TO BATON ROUGE

ESPN announced on social media Sunday that the basketball version of its “College GameDay” show will emanate from Baton Rouge on Feb 14. The game between two of the Southeastern Conference’s top women’s basketball powers will tip off at 7:30 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and will be shown on ABC The game is already a sellout.

The last time “College GameDay” was in town for an LSU basketball game was for South Carolina’s last visit on Jan. 25, 2024.The No. 1-ranked Gamecocks beat the No. 9 Tigers that day 76-70. Scott Rabalais

7-3 at home against AP-ranked SEC teams since 2021.

The Tigers won’t play in the PMAC again until they host No 3 South Carolina on Feb. 14. They’ll take on two road contests between now and then — one on Thursday against No. 4 Texas and another next Sunday against unranked Auburn. When LSU last faced the Longhorns, it was 1-2 in league play Now the Tigers are 7-2, and they’ll head to Austin, Texas, on Wednesday with by far the longest active win streak in the SEC. They can still win the league’s regular-season title, and are still in contention for an NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed

“It’s fun to be in the mix,” Mulkey said “We don’t have to rely on anybody else winning or losing. Go win seven ballgames, and you might win your first SEC title.”

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Patriots WR Boutte has big aspirations after Super Bowl

BY LANCE REYNOLDS Boston Herald (TNS)

Kayshon Boutte is studying how to attack the vaunted Seahawks defense in the Super Bowl, but the Patriots receiver says he also has big aspirations for the offseason after he documented how he overcame a gambling addiction

Boutte says he has his eyes on creating a foundation focused on helping people who are battling gambling addiction, a health issue that the third-year Patriot admits prompted him to lose $90,000 on bets and live “paycheck to paycheck” while in college.

The New England community has rallied around Boutte after the receiver admitted the challenges he endured amid his addiction, sparked by an injury he suffered during a promising sophomore season at LSU following a standout freshman campaign.

Boutte chronicled his challenges in a personal essay published just days before the Patriots started their playoff run in early January Gambling addiction experts have credited the wide receiver for changing lives.

In the essay for The Players’ Tribune, titled “How The Hell Did I Get Here???,” Boutte wrote about how he considers himself a changed man after overcoming his addiction. He says recovering from his ankle injury to play football again and becoming a father as a junior in college, are the “only two things” that saved him.

Though the Patriots will head to Santa Clara Calif., on Sunday for a full week of Super Bowl preparation, it’s clear that Boutte remains touched by the support he has received from fans and the greater community after the essay came out.

“A lot of people reached out to me, said that they’ve been through the same things,” Boutte told the Boston Herald on Friday “I know how they feel. I’ve been through it. They kind of asked me how I got through it, and I said it was either football or that for me.” Boutte recounted how the Players’ Tribune reached out to him, wanting to collaborate. He said it was the first time he ever sat with somebody to talk about everything he went through, and he decided to write the essay though it wasn’t easy In January 2024, after his first season, Boutte was arrested on underage gambling and fraud charges for betting while at LSU. Louisiana officials dropped the charges in July 2024 after the receiver completed a gambling awareness program and executed self-ban agreements in Massachusetts and with several sportsbook companies.

“I think a lot of people don’t really have something higher from where they’re at right now,” he told the Herald, “so they feel like they’re stuck at that same loop, that they feel down, and that the only way to get it back is through gambling.”

Boutte has emerged as a top downfield target for QB Drake Maye. The 23-year-old has recorded one of the most memorable plays of the Patriots’ postseason, catching a 32-yard, one-handed touchdown in the 28-16 divisionalround win over Houston.

In his essay, Boutte wrote that he owes “everything” to the Patriots organization for trusting him to grow Helping New England to an impressive 14-3 turnaround, the LSU product broke out in the regular season with 33 catches, 551 yards and six touchdowns.

Boutte stopped by DICKS’ House of Sport in Boston Friday night, signing autographs and meeting hundreds of fans. It marked his second trip to the store in as many months. The receiver hosted a surprise holiday shopping spree in December

Roland Hegedus, 19, of Boston, called it crazy to meet Boutte and said that he respects how the Patriot opened up about how he overcame the gambling addiction.

“It’s important because a lot of the time, people really don’t like admitting that stuff,” Hegedus told the Herald. “Facing the actions of your past, you become a better person as a whole.”

Boston resident Eddie Tigges, who brought his son Nicholas to meet Boutte with a group of friends, added, “It shows to fans, especially young fans, that even if you have issues, you can still overcome them and what you make of it later on in life.”

Raiders working on deal to hire Kubiak as head coach

BY MARK ANDERSON AND ROB MAADDI AP sportswriters

The Las Vegas Raiders are working toward finalizing an agreement to make Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak their head coach, a person with knowledge of the discussions said Sunday The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no contract was in place and no announcement can be made until after next Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Seahawks and New England Patriots in Santa Clara, California.

Kubiak interviewed with the Raiders on Saturday for the second time and appeared in recent days to be their primary target Kubiak, 38, would be the third coach in three seasons for the Raiders and fifth full-time leader since they moved to Las Vegas in 2020. He succeeds Pete Carroll, who went 3-14 in one season in Las Vegas after a storied run with Seattle that included two Super Bowl appearances and one championship.

Kubiak likely will be counted on to mold Fernando Mendoza, who

led Indiana to the national championship, into the franchise quarterback the organization has long sought. The Raiders own the top pick in this year’s draft, and they are expected to use that selection on the Heisman Trophy winner The front office will have nearly $90 million in salary cap space to surround Mendoza with talent, the second-highest amount in the league, according to overthecap. com

It was Kubiak’s work with Sam Darnold that got the Raiders’ attention Darnold, taken third overall by the New York Jets in the 2018 NFL draft, had been considered a bust until leading Minnesota to a 14-win season in 2024. But the Vikings moved on from Darnold, and he proved that season was no fluke, winning 14 games in Seattle en route to making the Super Bowl against New England.

Kubiak’s father, Gary, coached Denver to the Super Bowl title in the 2015 seasons, and he played quarterback for the Broncos from 1983-91. Gary and Klint Kubiak would be the 10th father-son pair to serve as NFL head coaches, including interim coaches.

Kubiak also has two brothers who are on staffs of other NFL

Cardinals hire Rams offensive coordinator LaFleur as head coach

BY DAVID BRANDT AP sportswriter

TEMPE, Ariz. The Arizona Cardinals hired Mike LaFleur as head coach on Sunday, turning to a division rival’s offensive coordinator to try to pull the franchise out of the bottom of the NFC West.

The Cardinals’ announcement of the five-year deal brought an end to the nearly four-week hiring process.

The 38-year-old Los Angeles Rams assistant replaces Jonathan Gannon, who was fired on Jan. 5 after a 15-36 record over three seasons, including 3-14 this past season.

LaFleur — who is the younger brother of Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has been the Rams’ offensive coordinator for the past three seasons.

“I couldn’t be more fired up to become the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and am beyond grateful to (owner) Michael (Bidwill) and (general manager) Monti (Ossenfort) for this opportunity,” LaFleur said in a statement.

“Having competed against them in the NFC so many times in recent years, I know the type of talent and toughness the team has and cannot wait to get to Arizona to hit the ground running.”

Los Angeles had the NFL’s top offense in 2025, averaging nearly 400 total yards and more than 30 points per game. The Rams fell one game short of the Super Bowl, losing to the Seattle Seahawks 31-27 in the NFC championship game.

The Cardinals’ brass got a good look at LaFleur’s offense twice this past season when the Rams piled up a total of 82 points in a pair of lopsided wins. LaFleur also was the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets in 2021 and 2022 and worked under 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan for several years — including in Cleveland, Atlanta and San Francisco.

Arizona’s hiring process was a quiet one, with no official team announcements for interviews. The Cardinals reportedly talked to several candidates, including Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, former Falcons head coach Raheem Morris and Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.

“We had the opportunity to speak with an outstanding group of candidates during this very thorough process and gathered tremendous insight from each of

them,” Bidwill said. “At the end of that process, it was clear that Mike LaFleur possesses all the traits necessary to lead this team to success as its head coach.”

LaFleur inherits some intriguing players on Arizona’s roster, including All-Pro tight end Trey McBride, receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., left tackle Paris Johnson Jr and veteran edge rusher Josh Sweat.

Arizona also has the No. 3 overall pick in April’s draft.

“In his career, Mike has been around some of the best and brightest coaches in football and has been a key contributor to highly successful teams,” Ossenfort said. “He understands what winning football looks like and what it takes to achieve it.”

The biggest questions on the roster surround quarterback Kyler Murray, whose future with the franchise is in flux. The 28-year-old has played seven seasons in the desert since being selected with the No. 1 pick in 2019 but has been to the playoffs just once, losing in the wild-card round to the Rams in 2021. Ossenfort — who is returning for a fourth season — shed little light on Murray’s future after Gannon was fired.

“As it pertains to Kyler, Kyler’s under contract,” Ossenfort said in January “Jacoby (Brissett) is under contract. Kedon Slovis is under contract. We just came off the last game of the year Less than 24 hours ago, we just left the field. There will be a time and a place for those discussions.

“When you come off a season like we’ve had, all options are on the table.” Murray played in just five games last season because of a foot injury, throwing for 962 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s in the middle of a $230.5 million, five-year contract that could last through 2028.

Brissett started the final 12 games of the season, throwing for 3,366 yards, 23 TDs and eight interceptions but winning just one game. He’s under contract next season.

LaFleur has to rebuild the Cardinals in the NFC West, which was the best division in football this season.

The Cardinals’ 14 losses last season were more than the Rams, Seahawks and 49ers had combined. All three of those teams made it to the division round of the playoffs; the Seahawks will play the Patriots in the Super Bowl on Feb. 8.

Falcons coach

The Associated Press

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — New At-

teams — Klay with San Francisco and Klein with Dallas Klay Kubiak, the 49ers’ offensive coordinator, also interviewed with the Raiders.

The Raiders have been searching for a path back to their glory days. Three Lombardi Trophies sit in the team’s facility, but the Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since their last Super Bowl appearance in the 2002 season. They have made the postseason just twice since then, most recently in the 2021 season. Owner Mark Davis, frustrated at the lack of success, put the search in the hands of minority owner Tom Brady and general manager John Spytek. Brady was notably complimentary of Kubiak while serving as the Fox Sports analyst during the NFC championship game last Sunday between the Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams NFC. Darnold completed 25 of 36 passes for 346 yards and three touchdowns in Seattle’s 31-27 victory Davis also made it clear that Brady and Spytek will oversee football operations even beyond the coaching search.

The Raiders interviewed 15 candidates.

lanta coach Kevin Stefanski continued to build his staff on Sunday by adding Tanner Engstrand as offensive passing game coordinator Engstrand was the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator in 2025. The Jets and Engstrand agreed to part ways on Tuesday The addition of Engstrand came one day after Stefanski hired Alex Van Pelt as quarterbacks coach. Van Pelt joins offensive coordinator Tommy Rees as former Cleveland coaches under Stefanski, the former Browns coach. Stefanski was hired as coach on Jan. 17. The Falcons hired Ian Cunningham as general manager on Thursday after adding longtime Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan as president of football. New York struggled on offense under Engstrand in 2025 and subpar quarterback play was an issue. Justin Fields, signed in the offseason, started only nine games before he was benched in favor of veteran Tyrod Taylor Undrafted rookie Brady Cook started the final four games because of injuries to Fields and Taylor The Jets finished last in the NFL in yards passing and 29th in both total yards per game and points per game.

With Atlanta, Engstrand and Rees will support Stefanski in emphasizing the development of quarterback Michael Penix Jr as the Falcons attempt to end a streak of eight consecutive losing seasons. Prior to New York, Engstrand spent five seasons with the Detroit Lions, including the 2023-24 seasons as passing game coordinator The Falcons on Sunday also added Tokunbo “Tumbo” Abanikanda the team’s director of scouting. He joined the Falcons as a scouting

Saints to play Browns in first NFLgameinParis

French outlet reportsteams will play regular-season game at StadedeFrance

Vive la France!

The NFL’s efforts to play a2026 regular-season game in Paris seem to be alive. And theNew Orleans Saints are involved As recently as last month,it appeared the game would be pushed to 2027 so French officials would have more time to meet NFL demands at Stade de France, where the game will be played. But in recent weeks, the game has gained momentumfor theNFL’s 2026 International Series.

The NFL is expected to announce itscomplete International Series this week, perhaps as early as Monday at Roger Goodell’s state-of-the-league pressconference.

On Sunday,RMC Sport —a major outlet in France —reported that the Saints will face the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 25, 2026, at Stade de France.

The Saints were granted international marketing rights in France by the NFL in 2023, and the team has formed astrategic partnership with the Paris Musketeers of the European League of Football. Players, coaches and executives from the Parisfranchise were hosted by the Saints inNovember as part of that agreement.

Agame abroad isn’tthe only Saints-related newsto trackatSuper Bowl LX. Alook at the week ahead and what I’m hearing: AssessingBrees’HOF chances

We’ll learn the fate of former Saints Drew Brees and Jahri Evans and New Orleans natives Eli

Flagbearers marchduring the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the StadedeFrance on Aug. 11, 2024,inSaint-Denis, France. The Saints look to be in line to play the first NFLgameinParis next season, which would takeplace in Stade de France.

Manning and ReggieWayne on Thursday,when the Pro Football Hallof Fame’sClass of 2026 is announced at the NFL Honors show

As the New Orleans representative on the selection committee, Idelivered the presentation at theHall’sannual meetingJan. 13. Brees’ candidacy is so strong that Iprobably didn’tneed the full fiveminutes to present his case, butIfelt it was important to recognize and honor his extraordinary career,soImaxed out the

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By PHELANM.EBENHACK

An ESPN MondayNight Footballlogoisviewedonabroadcastcamera before agamebetween the Jacksonville Jaguars and theKansas City Chiefs on Oct. 6inJacksonville, Fla.

ESPN closesdeal forNFL Network, rights forRedZone

BY JOE REEDY AP sportswriter

ESPN’spurchase of NFL Network and other league digital assets has been finalizedafter governmentregulators approved the transaction.

The league and ESPN officially announced the closing of the deal Saturday night after the Justice Department and other non-USantitrustauthorities completed their reviews.

ESPN acquired NFL Network, NFL Fantasy and therights to distribute the RedZone channel to cable and satellite operators and theleague will geta 10%equity stake in ESPN.

“With the closing, we will begin integrating NFL employeesinto ESPN in the months ahead,” ESPN and theNFL said in ajoint statement. “As we look to the future, NFL fans can look forward to expanded NFL programming, greater access to NFL Network,innovative Fantasy experiences and unparalleled coverage of America’s most popular sport.”

The approval by government regulators was first reported by The Athletic. Viewersare notexpectedto notice changesonNFL Network untilApril, when those employed by NFL Media become part of ESPN. NFL Network —which has nearly 50 million subscribers —will be included in ESPN’sdirect-to-consumer product, which launched last August, shortlyafter the deal was first announced.

TheNFL RedZone channelwill be distributedbyESPN to cable and satelliteoperators. However, the NFL will continue to own, operate andproduce the channel as well as retain the rights to distribute the channel digitally. ESPNwould also get rights to the RedZone brand, meaning RedZone channelsfor college football and basketballorother sports could be coming in thefuture.

NFL Fantasy Footballwill merge with ESPN Fantasy Football, givingESPNthe official fantasyfootball gameof theleague.

NFL Network will still air seven gamesper season.Four of ESPN’s games, including some that are in overlappingwindows on Monday nights, will move to NFL Network. ESPN will license three additional gamesthat will be carried on NFL Network

The NFL has takenback the rights to four international games, which it is expected to put up for bid. The league hasdiscussed each of its 32 teams playing at least one international game per season if the schedule expandsto18regular-season games.

The league will continue to own and operate NFL Films, NFL+, NFL.com, the official websites of the 32 teams, the NFL Podcast Network and theNFL FAST Channel (a free ad-supportedstreaming channel).

With the sale, ESPN is 72% owned by ABC Inc. —anindirect subsidiary of TheWaltDisney Company —18% Hearst and10% NFL.

time limit.

As we’ve learned this week, nothing is guaranteed when it comes to Hall of Fame selections. Brees obviously deserves induction,and Iexpect him to get in, but only Hall officials knowthe answer because the ballot is kept secret.Selectorsare notapprised of theinductees, so we’ll find outwheneveryone else does on Thursday.

My guess is that Brees becomes the first Saints player to earn aHOF induction on his

HOF

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Archbishop Shaw High School standout is certainly Hall of Fame-worthy. He ranks 11thall-time in NFL receptions (1,070) and 10thin receiving yards (14,345). He holds theColts franchise record for games played (211) and is tied with Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison for themost 1,000-yard receiving seasons (eight)inclub history.Heisone of 11 players in league history to record seven consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons (2004-2010) and one of 17 players to register 15 games with 10 or more receptions.

“He’ssomething special,” former NFL head coach Jon Gruden said. “A lot of people say,‘Well, Peyton Manning madehim a great receiver.Well, B.S.That was agreat receiver when he had Curtis Painter playing quarterback. Every year,hewas in theupper echelon of receivers.”

From 2001 to 2014, Wayne was one of the most dominant and prolificreceivers in theNFL. During that span, Wayne, a2018 LouisianaSports Hall of Fame inductee, led the entire NFL with 1,070 receptions, 14,345 yards and 763 first downs. Only Terrell Owens, Randy Moss and Larry Fitzgerald recorded morethan his 82 career touchdowns.

ProScoutInc. graded Wayne with 10 “blue” seasons in his career,ascouting metric that identifies aplayer in the top 10% at his position in agiven year Amongthe finalistsinthis year’s class, only Adam Vinatieri (13) had more.

Wayne rates just as high on ProFootball Reference’sHall of Fame Monitor —aformula that measures various criteria to determine aplayer’slikelihood of being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Of the top 12 receivers on theHall of Fame Monitor,nine are already enshrined in Canton. The three exceptions? Wayne and fellow Class of 2026 finalists Fitzgerald and Holt.

WILLIAMS

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start of the season. The lineup is alsoprobably too left-handed, with sixofthe seven hittersfrom spots 2-7 being lefties. Even with those caveats,Reaves starting at second over High Point transfer BraydenSimpson and Kansas State transfer Seth Dardarwas notable. Stanfieldleading off was alsonoteworthy, giventhat he’sbeen hitting at the top of the

Roethlisberger,Richard Shermanand Andrew Whitworth becomeeligible.

Doping theROY races

As afinalist forthe NFL’sOffensive Rookie of the Year award, Tyler Shough will be in the audience at the Palace of Fine Arts forNFL Honors Thursday,but his chances of becoming the fifth Saint to win the award are remote.

While Istrongly believe Shough deserves it, Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan is considered the heavy favorite to garner the honor Shough’slimited nine-game body of work hindered his candidacy.McMillan helped lead the Panthers to their first playoffappearance in eight years and led rookie receivers with 70 catches for1,117 yards and six touchdowns.

Cleveland Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger is the favorite to winthe Defensive Rookie of the Year

Manofthe Year scouting report

first ballot and that he is joined by Larry Fitzgerald and secondyear candidates Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri. The fifth modern-day spot is wide open, but I’ll be surprised if those four players are not part of the Classof2026, along with senior candidates Roger Craig and Ken Anderson. It lookslike another year of waiting for Evans, Manning and Wayne.And it doesn’tget any easier next year,when Antonio Brown, Adrian Peterson, Ben

Demario Davis is one of 32 candidates forthe Walter Payton Man of the Year award. This is the third timehe’sbeen nominated forthe award, so you could say he’sdue. Then again, I thought Cam Jordan was ashooin to win last year,and it went to Arik Armstead.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is considered the frontrunner,but Davis deserves strong consideration for the tireless work he’sdone in the New Orleans community with his Devoted Dreamers program Brees is the only Saints player to win Man of the Year in the award’s56-year history

“ReggieWayne wasagreat teammate, and he wasatough receiver,fearless across the middle, great catcher of the ball with his hands; it was aprivilege to play with him,” said Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning for Wayne’sinduction into theNew Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

Manning would know.Hewas theColts quarterback forthe first 10 years of Wayne’scareer

“I alwaysfelt that we had that Louisiana bond and that translated to our on-the-field connection,” said Manning, whostarred at Isidore NewmanSchool. “He was an extremely hard worker and that work ethic paid great dividends forhim,and forme, because of allthe timing we were able to develop.”

Wayne is one of only two players in NFL history to rank in the top 11 in both receptions and yards in the regular season and thepostseason. The other? Jerry Rice. Company doesn’tget much stronger than that. This achievementalone should earn him enshrinement, as it showcases his rare combination of regularseason dominance and clutch playoff performance.

What’s more, Wayne is one of only fiveplayers to register at least eight 1,000-yard seasons and four seasons with at least

order often this preseason. Afreshmanwho hasimpressed Brauncracking the lineup with thestarters could be seen as amajorstampofapprovalfromJohnson. The freshman corner outfielder and first baseman has shown excellent contact skills at theplate and flashed somepull-side power on Thursday,whenthe left-handed hitter smashed ahome run intothe right-fieldbleachers. He went 3for 4that afternoonand hit three balls over 102 mphinanother 3for 4 performance last Friday

100 receptions. The others: Rice, Fitzgerald, Harrison and Brandon Marshall. In postseason history,Wayne ranks sixth all-timeinreceptions and seventh in yards. He has more playoff receptions and touchdowns than the combined total of the last three wide receivers enshrined in Canton —Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson and Isaac Bruce —with only 159 fewer yards. His 221 yards against Denverin2004 still rank as the fourth most in playoff history However,Wayne’ssustained excellence is his mostcompelling case forHall induction. In the six years after he succeeded Harrison as the Colts’ No.1receiver,Wayne averaged astellar 96 receptions, 1,264 yards and 41 total touchdowns. He is the only player in NFLhistory to have at least 100 receptions and 1,355 yards at age 34. “I’m biased, but Reggie was agreat route runner,” Manning said. “He wasjust aguy you wanted in the huddle with you. His numbers speak forthemselves.”

The case is clear.Wayne’srésuméplaces him alongside the undisputed legends of the game. He deserves to be recognized forhis greatness. He deserves to be amember of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Braun hada chance of getting drafted out of high school. He was the No. 231 player in ESPN’s draft rankings. But as afreshman from South Bend, Indiana,there wasn’tanexpectation heading into preseason that Braun could be astarter Perhaps his outlook has changed aftera strong fewweeksatthe plate from —according to Perfect Game —the No.1first baseman in the 2025 class. Email Koki Rileyat koki.riley@theadvocate.com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOSByLUCABRUNO

Asnowgun sprays artificialsnowatthe StelvioSki Center,venue for the Alpine ski and ski mountaineering disciplines at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter OlympicsinBormio, Italy

Italian expert’s manufactured snow will play bigroleatthe MilanCortina Games

BY JENNIFERMcDERMOTT and PATGRAHAM Associated Press

Davide Cerato will play amajorroleinskiing andsnowboarding eventsat the upcoming Olympics, buthewon’t be competing.

The Italian snowmakingexpert is responsiblefor perfecting several of the courses that will feature in the 2026 Milan Cortina WinterGames,and he takes his jobseriously “It’sthe most important race of their life,” Cerato said. “Our duty is to givethem the best, todeliver the best courses where they can perform theirbest after training so hard.”

Cerato overseesoperationsat venueswhere new snowmaking systems were installed, including in Bormio for Alpineski racing and skimountaineering, and in Livigno for freestyle skiing and snowboardingevents. He has been working withthe International Skiand Snowboard Federationand the International Olympic Committeesince the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Thesedays, manufactured snow —“technical snow” as Cerato calls it —isa way of life in ski racing, so much so thatOlympic athletesdon’tthink twice about competingonit. Above all else, they want acoursethat willhold

up over multiple training runs and the races themselves without becomingtoo mushy or rutted

Mother Nature can’talways provide for that, and withclimate change affecting winter sports in particular, snowmaking has become essential.

Newreservoirsand snow guns

On Jan. 23,the organizing committee saidthat it has produced nearly 2millioncubicyardsof technical snow for all the venues, which is less than forecasted.

Cerato oversaw the work to carve out new high-elevation water reservoirstostore water for snowmaking.

At theLivigno Snow Park, they built abasin capable of holding about 53 million gallons of water. It’s nowone of the biggest reservoirs on theItalian side of the Alps, Cerato said. They added more than 50 snow guns there to produce about 211 million gallons of snow in roughly 300 hours.

ä See SNOW, page 2D

Olympic rings aredisplayed in the snow at the Stelvio Ski Center in Bormio, Italy.

Longtime columnistDanaTerrito dies

knowledge of all aspects of Alzheimer’sdisease and dementia in her “Alzheimer’sQ&A” column in the newspaper’sLiving section. Throughout her battle with cancer,Territo,of Baton Rouge, continued

her treatmentsand hospitalizations. “That was typical Dana, always thinking about others first,” said Judy Bergeron, Advocate assistant features editor,who frequently edited Territo’scolumns. “She always included anote with her columns asking how Iwas doing, even after her diagnosis. Just abeautiful, selfless person.” Bergeron saidthe columnsof-

fered advice andguidancefor caregivers, reportsonthe latest in Alzheimer’sresearch, and explanationsofrelated terms, disease stages andpossible avenues for assistance. Territo’spassion for what would becomeher life’swork emerged while volunteering at Ollie Steele Burden Manor in the late 1980s.

ä See TERRITO, page 2D

BY LARRYLAGE Associated Press

Someblind and low-vision fans will have unprecedented access to the Super Bowl thanks to atactile devicethattracks theball, vibrates on key plays and provides real-timeaudio. The NFLteamed up with OneCourt and Ticketmaster to pilot the game-enhancing experience 15 times during the regular-season during games hosted by the SeattleSeahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, SanFrancisco49ers, Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings. About 10 blind and low-vision fans will have an opportunity to use the sametechnology at the Super BowlinSanta Clara, California, where Seattle will play the New England Patriots on Feb. 8. With hands on the device, they will feel the location of the ball andhearwhat’shappening throughout the game. Scott Thornhill can’twait. Thornhill, the executive director of theAmerican Council of the Blind, will be among the fans at Levi’sStadium with aOneCourt tablet in their lap and Westwood One’sbroadcast piped into headphones. He was diagnosedwith retinitis pigmentosa whenhewas 8, and later lost his sight.

“It will allowmetoengage and enjoy the gameasclose as possible as people who can see,” Thornhill told The Associated Press. “As someone who grew up playing sports before Ilost my vision, I’m getting abig part of my lifeback that I’ve been missing. To attendagame and not have to wait for someone to tell me what happened, it’shard to even describe how much that meanstome.

“It’sagame-changer.”

Clark Roberts experienced it first hand. The Seahawks fan was invited by the team to attend its home gameagainst Indianapolis on Dec.14toexperience the game withthe OneCourt device that is the size of athick iPad with raised lines outlining afootball field.

“The device does twowonderful things,” said Roberts, wholost his sight when he was 24 due to retinitis pigmentosa.

Tinnitus maybeconnected to TMD

Dear Doctors: The left side of my jaw used to click when Ichewed. It was odd, but it didn’tbother me. Then one day last year,I couldn’tfully open my mouth. I got diagnosed withTMJ andgot treatment. It fixed my jaw,but now Ihave tinnitus in my left ear.Isthis connected? How can I know?

Dr.Elizabeth Ko Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THE DOCTORS

Dear reader: Let’sbegin with your jaw,which is wherethe sequence of events you described began The temporomandibular joint, commonly called TMJ, connects the jaw to the skull. This joint, which is found on either side of the jaw,works as asliding hinge. It is cushioned by asoft disc of cartilage known as the articular disc. This keeps the varioussurfaces of the jawbone from coming into contact with each other and allows thejointtomove smoothly as yourmouth opens and closes. When illness, injuryora mechanical problem causes the jaw to become misaligned or inflamed, that disc of cartilage can become damaged. This, in turn,interferes with the smooth workingofthe jaw.This type of malfunction is known as temporomandibular disorder,or TMD. The clicking sound that

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday,Feb. 2, the 33rd day of 2026. There are 332 days left in the year.

Todayinhistory:

On Feb. 2, 2013, former Navy SEAL and “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle wasfatallyshot along with a friend at agun range west of Glen Rose, Texas; Eddie Ray Routh was later convictedof murder andsentenced to life in prison without parole

Also on this date:

In 1653, New Amsterdam —now New York City was incorporated as acity. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, officially ending the Mexican-American War.

In 1925, the legendary AlaskaSerumRun ended as thelast of aseries of dogmushersbrought lifesaving medication to Nome, thesceneofadiphtheria epidemic, traveling 674 milesinjust sixdays. In 1990, in adramatic concession to SouthAfrica’s Black majority,President F.W. de Klerk lifted aban on theAfrican National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela. In 2014, Oscar-winning actor Philip SeymourHoffman, widely considered one of thegreatest actors of his generation, was found dead in hisNew York apartment from an accidental drug overdose.

you noticed is acommon symptom of TMD. Some people report hearing thejoint grind or pop. Additional symptomsinclude pain in the region of the jaw,temple or ear; headache; difficulty opening themouth; and episodes in which thejaw locks shut. Due to the proximity of theTMJ to theinterior structures of the ear,itispossible for aTMD to adversely affect hearing. The jaw and the middle ear share muscles, ligaments and nerve pathways, and any existing irritation or dysfunction in theshared anatomy can alter how sound is perceived. Someone living withTMD may experience ear pain, muffled hearing and tinnitus, the condition you are asking about. This occurs when someone perceives a sound that does not have an exter-

nal source. The phantom sounds of tinnitus can range from faint to very loud, andcan include buzzing, hissing, ringing, whistling or squealing Unfortunately,there is no single test that can identify whether TMD has ledtotinnitus. Instead, adoctor will use your medical history,existing symptoms and a physical examination of the jaw and ear to help uncover apossible cause.This exam includes checking for ear infection and signs of physical jawdysfunction.The clinicianmay palpate thejaw to assess for tenderness, measure the maximum width of themouth opening and watch for lateral deviationasthe jaw opens and closes.Insome cases, hearing or imaging tests may be suggested.

Signs that TMD may play arole in tinnitus include persistent jaw dysfunction; asensation of fullness in the ear without evidence of infection; and tinnitus that changes with jaw movement, such as chewing, clenching or yawning. In your own case, the fact that the tinnitus appeared in tandem with the TMD repair you underwent suggests apossible connection. It would be wise to discuss the situation with your ENT, and if needed, seek asecond opinion.

Sendyour questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd.,Suite1450, Los Angeles CA, 90024.

In 2022, four men were charged with being part of thedrug distribution crew that supplied adeadly mix of narcotics to actor Michael K. Williams of “The Wire,”who had overdosed five monthsearlier Today’sbirthdays: Rock singer-guitarist Graham Nash is 84. Television executive Barry Diller is 84. TV chef Ina Garten is 78. Actor Brent Spiner is 77. Football Hall of Famer Dave Casper is 74. Model Christie Brinkley is 72. Singer Shakira is 49. Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama is 44. Actor Gemma Arterton is 40. Actor Zosia Mamet is 38. Actor PaulMescal is 30. Actor Ellie Bamber is 29.

The snowboarding and freestyle skiing events will take place

theupcomingMilan Cortina WinterOlympics.

SNOW

Continued from page1D

In Bormio, Ceratosaid they constructed alake at an elevation of 2,515 yards to hold 23 million gallons of water.They also added 75 snow guns for Alpine skiing and ski mountaineering.

“Webrought the Bormio slope to anew level,” he said, comparing it to a“Ferrari with new gears.”

Ensuring fair,safecourses

By making snow,organizers can control aslope’s quality and hardness, preparing it according to FIS requirements and ensuring consistent conditions,Cerato said. He said it’seasier to work with technical snowbecause it’s compactand is safer because it doesn’tdeteriorate as quickly,whereas natural

TERRITO

Continued from page1D

Shewas matchedwitha woman with Alzheimer’s, visiting her weeklyuntil her death 22 years later at 102. Territo also helped organize the first Alzheimer’s walk fundraiserinBaton Rouge, calledthe Memory Walk, in 1995. She studied English education at LSU, received her spiritual directorcredentials from the Archdiocesan Spirituality Center in New Orleans, and her religious

snow requires more work. They can inject water deep into the snowpack, which will freeze andcreate a more stable race surface.

“Wecan deliver better, safer and fair courses,”he said.“That isthe difference —a fair course from bib No. 1tobib No. 50.”

Snow senors

Cerato andhis team are usingstate-of-the-artsensors to monitorthe snow depth. If there’sagap, snow guns go to work.Ifthere’s toomuch, they are turned off.

“It automatically adjusts everything, each snow gun, so you can control with just oneperson sittinginthe office, all the mountain,” Cerato said

In Bormio, snow groomersare alsoequippedwith GPS systems to help monitor thesnowquality and levels, savingtime, energy and water

studies master catechist degree from St. Joseph Seminary CollegeinSt. Benedict She wasdirector of services for Alzheimer’sServices of the Capital Area from 2008-2018; director of ministriesatSt. JudeCatholic Church from 2001-2008; directorofreligiouseducation, development director and technology coordinator at St.Jude Catholic School, from 1997-2001; director of development and stewardship at Holy Family Catholic School in Port Allen from 1996-1997; andactivity director/Alzheimer’sunit at Ollie SteeleBurden from

The snowgroomer knows exactly wheretopush the snow and how much snow is needed. And at thesame time, “you produce the minimum amount of snow thatyou need,”Ceratosaid.

“This is apowerful tool.”

Preparingaslope for elite competition isn’tthe same as doing it for commercial use.For thelatter,natural snow is precious, he said. Personally,heprefers skiing in powder

“I was born on themountain,” he said. “I love snow.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solelyresponsiblefor all content.FindAP’s standards for working withphilanthropies, alist of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

1990-1996. In 2022, Territo published the book “WhatMyGrandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’sDisease,” recognized with the Readers’ FavoriteFive Stars in 2023. Other honors include a2023 Today’sCaregiver Friendly Award, a2022Maude’s Awardfor Innovation in Alzheimer’sCare, aDaily Point of Light Award anda Tandy Spirit Award in 2021. She is survived by her husband, David Territo, two sons andfourgrandchildren. Funeral arrangements will be announced later

Any‘golden age’ is only golden forsome

Dear Miss Manners: Youmust be really happy that the Secretary of Transportation has told us poor wretches who fly economy to dress up for theprivilege. Hatsand gloves, naturally.Ihave my grandfather’sold fedora, but my wife might have to buy new whitegloves. Butwhy stop at thePerfect 1950s? Shouldn’tred-eye flights require tuxedos and evening gowns, like in the time of the great ships?

early evening, with no plans fordinner to follow

We have come to enjoy this type of socializing, and have extended similar invitations.

Gentlereader: Yes, let’s use those ships for comparison rather than the 1950s, to which MissManners ascribes considerably less charm and glamour than you seem to. Those who dressed up were traveling in opulent settings, withluxurious food and entertainment. Butthe great ocean liners also had steerage class, in which passengers were kept in crowded, primitive accommodations with minimal rations. They were not expected todress up. Which part of theship mostresembles today’sair travel?

Dear Miss Manners: It seems that more people are now issuing invitations to “comefor drinks” in the

DEVICE

Continuedfrom page1D

“It vibrates in different waysfor differentplays and through headphones,I was able to hear Seattle’s amazing announcer,Steve Raible. Real-time audiois the real beautyofthe device becauseusually when I’m listening to agame, there can be adelay of up to aminuteormore and that canbechallengingto constantly ask family and friends what happened.

“Can you imagine how this canopen up everything,not just football?”

OneCourt is working on it. It has partnered with NBAand Major League Baseball teams to provide its devices at games and is in talks to make them available with the NHL, alongwithother leagues and sports organizations all over the world.

OneCourtlaunchedin 2023 after founder Jerred Mace sawa blind person attending asoccer match while he was ajunior at the University of Washington.

Thestartup with headquarters in Seattle uses the NFL’s tracking data from Genius Sports andtranslates it into feedback for thedevice to create unique vibrations for plays such as tackles and touchdowns.

The data is generated from cameras and chips embedded in balls, jerseys and elsewhere. The same technology is used by the NFL’s NextGen Stats for health and player safety statistics and gambling.

Iwould like Miss Manners to clarify the proper amount of time these gettogethers should last. Ihave always assumed an hour,or 90 minutes at most. However,ashosts, we have had people stay beyond that, and as guests, we have been urged to remainlonger,aswell. Inever wanttooverstay my welcome, nor do Iwant my dinner in the warming drawer to dry out. At the sametime, Idonot want to appear to “drink and run” by leaving too soon. If it were acocktail party,the invitation would likely say “Comefor cocktails from 5:30 to 7,” but that feels abit awkward when inviting just one couple. Iwould appreciate your guidance to being both abetter host and guest!

Gentle reader: In the heyday of cocktail parties, it was no secret that guests who wentafter the munchies could skip dinner.There was always asoft murmur going on, with one half of acouple telling the other

half not to expect ameal at homeafter the party.To avoid excessive lingering, the closing hour —not a standard feature of other invitations —was, as you note, stated explicitly So the first rule forjust one couple is not to spoil their dinner appetites. No heavy hors d’oeuvres! Maybe bowls of nuts?

Ninety minutes to two hours, the expected time to linger at acocktail party, is also reasonable for“just drinks.” In any case, one should not stay beyond the common dinner hour of 7p.m., even if urged otherwise —unless it is in the form of, “Let’sall go somewhere fordinner.”

All but the terminally obtuse should note that when food and drinks are no longer being offered, it is timetogo. But you seem to have encountered such folks. The next step is to stand up while talking to them Eventually,they will have to pull themselves up. And you may thank them forhaving come. In stubborn cases, you could add, “Wehope to see you again soon” while moving slowly toward the door

Sendquestions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www.missmanners.com.

“It’sa testament to the maturityofthe productand our company that we have gone fromdelivering this to a handful of teams throughout the last yearortwo to having it at thelargest event in American sports,” OneCourt co-founder Antyush Bollini said. “The Super Bowl is such an amazing event and now blind and low-vision fans can use our technology in away they deserve.”

Ticketmaster’sfunding for the NFLpilot wenttoward underwriting the devicetomakeitavailable to fans forfree, accordingto seniorclientdevelopment director Scott Aller

“This is avery,verybig social impact win,” Aller said. “Wehope that we can makeaninvestment like this in every single one of our markets.”

After someteams approached the league about improving access for all, the NFLhas spentthe past fewmonths piloting the programand ultimately

decided to have the device makeits Super Bowldebut.

“It’snot lost on us that we have blind to low-vision fans andwewanttodoright by them,” said Belynda Gardner, seniordirector of diversity equity and inclusion forthe NFL. Gardner said the league hasbeenvery encouraged by the pilot and potential of this technology

“We’re reviewing what we learned andevaluating how it can be implemented going forward,” Gardner said.“Therearen’tany definitive next stepsand we will use the offseason to determine where this technology sits in the NFL’s suite of offerings.” Thomas Rice, aJaguars fans, who is blind, said he had aseamless experience with the OneCourt device at agameinJacksonville Rice picked up the tablet at guest services at EverBank Stadium andafter settling in at his seat, he felt and heard football in anew way.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Trust your instinctsand be straightforward with your instructions andany questionsyou might have. Leave nothing to chanceor up to someone else to complete.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Do your thing; don't give anyone achance to interfere. Adisciplined approach will getyou where youwant to go andencourage positive change and feedback.

ARIES (March 21-April19) Set yourself up to win. No matter whatcomes your way, summonyour charm,turnupyour energy levels and manufacture enough kindness and courage to make adifference.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Consider what makes you feel content andwhatit might take to incorporate it into your daily routine. It's time to please yourself and to take responsibility foryour happiness.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Let your emotions and passion leadthe way. No matterwhat you takeon, do it with gusto Be the onetomakeadifference, and you'll gain leveragethatsurpasses expectations.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Communication is necessary if youwanttomaintain healthy connections with those you regularlydeal with. Setting boundaries will put your mind at ease and allow you the freedom to start new adventures.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Send amessage; make your positionand motives clear. Amoneymakingidea, investmentor professional change lookspromising.

Discuss your feelings with someone you love

VIRGO(Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Take abreak,do something differentand explore possibilities, and you'll discover alifestyle thatexcites you. Step outside your comfort zone andembark on ajourney that makes you feel alive LIBRA (Sept.23-Oct. 23) Think bigbut budgetwisely. How youmanageyour life will determine your state of mind. Observe howothers manage their money,expenses andrelationships.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Pay attention to howyou look andfeel. Don't take riskswith your health or your physical well-being. Whenindoubt,sit tight, observe andwaittosee whatunfolds.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov.23-Dec. 21) Putyour money where your mouth is andfollow through on your plans. There is money that can be yours if youinvest more in yourself andhow you participate in life.Start by lowering your cost of living.

CAPRICORN (Dec.22-Jan. 19) Search, and youwill find. Be on the lookoutfor something that will turn askill you have or items youpossess into source of cash. Usingyour moneyinmeaningfulwayswill lead to satisfaction and peace of mind.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. ©2026 by nEa,inc dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

BY PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

This wasthe deal in last week’s final column. Chen Yuechen fromChina won the2013RichardFreemanJuniorDealof theYear fromthe International Bridge PressAssociationforhisdefenseagainst sixno-trump. Chen (West) had guessed to lead his club three. Southhad taken East’s nine with his ace, played adiamond to dummy’s jack, andrun theheart jack. West hadwon and found the killing return of hisremaining diamond. South wonin his hand, cashedhis club king, and leda spade, planning to finesse dummy’s 10. He needed two dummyentries: one to repeat the heartfinesse andthe second to cashthe 13th heart. ButChenput up his spade jack, atextbook entry-killing play that defeated the contract. Iwonder how many readers noticed that South missedaninteresting chance to make his contract. Before playing adiamond to dummy’sjack,declarer should have cashed his diamond ace. This looks pointless, but notwhenWest startedwithonlytwodiamonds.Whenhe gotinwith his heart ace, he would have been endplayed If Westreturned aclub, South could get four tricks in the suit by playing low from the dummy to collect threespades, oneheart, four diamondsand four clubs.

wuzzles

Or,ifWestshiftedtoalow spade,declarer would winwith dummy’s 10 andhave his second dummy entry. He would win three spades, three hearts, four diamonds and two clubs. This is called aDentist’s Coup extracting the safeexit card(s) from a defender’s hand. ©2026 by nEa, inc dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzleisaword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four lettersbythe addition of

toDAY’s WoRD oFFsHoRE: OFF-shor: Outside the country.

Averagemark13words

Time

sAtuRDAY’s WoRD— couRsInG

dIrectIons: make a2-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.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

Formore informationontournamentsand clubs, emailnaspa –northamerican sCraBBlE playersassociation: info@scrabbleplayers.org. Visitour website: www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzle inquiries contact scrgrams@gmail.com. Hasbro andits logo sCraBBlE associated logo,the design of thedistinctive sCraBBlE brand gamecard, and thedistinctive letter tile designsare trademarksofHasbrointhe United states and Canada. ©2021 Hasbro. all rightsreserved. Distributed by Tribune

ken ken

InstructIons: 1 -Eachrow and each column must containthe numbers 1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes called cages must combine using the given operation (in any order) to producethe target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the numberinthe top-left corner.

WiShinG Well

HErE is aplEasanTliTTlE gamEthat will give

thenumber of

is

bers, left to right. Then

thecornerofChartes Street and Congress Street,measuresthirtyonefeet, seveninches, threelines (31' 7” 3”“) frontonCongressStreet (thirty-onefeet,seven inches,nine lines,title)has thesamewidth in therear, by adepth between equal andparallellines of ninety-eight feet,nineinches, four lines (98' 9” 4”)(ninety-eight feet,nineinches, nine lines,title). Whichhas theaddressof601-03 Congress Street,New Orleans, LA 70117 Anyone knowingthe whereabouts of thepersons or heirsofthe personslistedabove andanyone claiming an interest in theproperty should contactthe office of Graham Arceneaux& Allen, LLC, 3850 N. Causeway Blvd Suite1695, Metairie,LA70002,504-522-8256. 175236-1/26& 2/2-2t $696.00

NOTICE OF DEFAULTAND FORECLOSURESALE–WHEREABOUTSAD SecretaryOfHousing andUrban Development VERSUS LolitaBeckham Smith

To:LolitaBeckham Smith Please take notice that on January 16, 2026, aNoticeofDefault and ForeclosureSalewas recorded at Instrument No.1476572, Parish of OrleansParishClerk of Court, State of Louisiana, by theUnitedStates SecretaryofHousing andUrban Development. Theabove captioned matterisanactionbythe United States SecretaryofHousing and UrbanDevelopment affectingthe property description described below:

ONECERTAIN LOTOFGROUND, together with allthe buildings and improvements thereon, andall the rights,ways, privileges, servitudes appurtenancesand advantages thereuntobelonging or in anywise appertaining,situatedinthe THIRD DISTRICT OF THECITYOFNEW ORLEANS, STATEOFLOUISIANA PARISH OF ORLEANS, in SQUARE 136, bounded by ChartesStreet Congress Street,Royal Street and Independence Street,designatedas LOTNO. 3, on asurveybyGilbert, Kelly &Couturie, Inc.,Surveyor, datedOctober 2, 1976, and accordingthereto,saidlot forms

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