TODAY’S PARADES maps, 2B
UPTOWN: Hermes, 5:30 p.m. l D’Etat, 6:30 p.m. l Morpheus, 7:30 p.m. l SLIDELL: Selene, 6:30 p.m.
N O L A.C O M
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F r i d ay, F e b r u a ry 13, 2026
$2.00X
HERMES, D’ETAT BULLETINS INSIDE TODAY
LADIES NIGHT All-female Krewe of Muses rolls along Uptown parade route
CARNIVAL 2026 INSIDE, 12A, 1B
NOLA.COM
Moreno addresses ICE policy changes Mayor blames 2024 state law for NOPD decision
BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
The Krewe of Muses parade rolls on Magazine Street on Thursday. The Ducks is one of the signature floats the krewe rides on. This year’s parade featured 30 floats and 1,175 riders. Muses is the first all-female krewe to parade at night in Uptown New Orleans.
Carnival weekend drawing big crowds
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL and KASEY BUBNASH Staff writers
Donna, Randy, Steph and Mike Brown had set up a shady spot in Lafayette Square facing St. Charles Avenue late Thursday as they waited for Chaos, Babylon and Muses to roll. It was husband-and-wife Mike and Steph Brown’s first time at Mardi Gras. It was Donna Brown’s eighth time. She’d convinced her in-laws to tag along to check out the two things that keep her coming
back to New Orleans. “The food and the parades,” Donna Brown said. The Browns are among the thousands of revelers descending on New Orleans this weekend for the final days of parades, parties and festivities that will mark the culmination of Carnival 2026. So far, data suggests the city’s biggest annual celebration is attracting healthy crowds, who are filling local hotel rooms and short-term
ä See CROWDS, page 12A
The Ladies Godiva ride on horses during the Krewe of Muses parade on Thursday.
BY MATTHEW DALY Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most aggressive move by the Republican president to roll back climate regulations.
WEATHER HIGH 71 LOW 60 PAGE 8B
ä See MORENO, page 8A
Essence Fest still owes vendors for 2025 event
Trump rolls back climate regulations EPA revokes key scientific finding
The New Orleans Police Department’s decision to repeal a policy limiting officers’ coordination with federal immigration agents spurred fury from immigration attorneys and advocates Thursday — and a defense from Mayor Helena Moreno, who blamed the change on a Louisiana law banning “sanctuary” policies in the state. For a decade, the Moreno NOPD adhered to the policy devised under a federal consent decree that both barred officers from asking people about their immigration status and prevented them from complying with immigration detainers — requests for local police to hold people with outstanding warrants until they can be taken into federal custody. But NOPD repealed and replaced the policy Sunday with language directing officers to remand people with detainers to federal custody if the local jail won’t accept them. Officers are still directed not to ask people about their immigration status. But the new policy also appears to broaden the type of information NOPD officers can share with immigration agents, such as birth dates and whether an arrestee has a foreign passport, according to attorneys who reviewed the new rules for The Times-Picayune. Moreno defended the department’s decision in an interview Thursday after The Times-Picayune published a news story detailing the changes. Her office had
Resolution being worked on as funding request for 2026 looms
BY BLAKE PATERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EVAN VUCCI
President Donald Trump speaks during an event Thursday with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announcing that the EPA will no longer regulate greenhouse gases. The rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency rescinds a 2009 government declaration known as the endangerment finding that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
ä See TRUMP, page 10A
ä EPA ends credits for automatic start-stop vehicle ignition. PAGE 3B ä Trump directs Defense Department to buy electricity from coal-fired plants. PAGE 14A
Staff writer
The Essence Festival of Culture owes the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center more than $400,000 from last year’s event and is past due on paying at least one other major contractor, alarming some local officials and complicating efforts to secure crucial state funding for the 2026 festival in July. The Convention Center said that New York-based Sundial Media Group, which pur-
Business ......................3B Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................1E Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
chased Essence in 2018, had an outstanding balance of $456,000 as of Tuesday, representing more than 60% of its charges for hosting three days of panels, workshops and other events from July 4 to 6 last year. The Convention Center, which shared the information in response to a public records request, requires that balances be settled within 30 days of an event. On Wednesday, the Convention Center said it received a $50,000 payment from Essence, bringing the outstanding balance down to $406,000. Essence also owes a local production company more than $1 million, according to a source familiar with the situation who
ä See ESSENCE, page 8A
13TH yEAR, NO. 185