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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
T h u r s d ay, F e b r u a ry 19, 2026
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Pecue I-10 exit opens
Officials hope it will improve traffic in the area FILE PHOTO
Norman C. Francis, former president of Xavier University in New Orleans, died Wednesday.
Civil rights icon Norman Francis dies at 94 Longtime Xavier University president’s ‘impact is immeasurable’
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The new Interstate 10 interchange at Pecue Lane allows drivers to exit onto Pecue Lane, which could ease traffic from Siegen Lane to Highland Road.
new exit. He said DOTD crews have been adding finishing touches, including striping and rumble strips, over the last month. “We needed another interchange between Highland Road and Siegen Lane,” Raiford said. “Because it was piling up at those two locations. They’re backing up tremendously.”
ä See PECUE, page 4A
ä See FRANCIS, page 3A
Staff writer
Traffic flows through the new Interstate 10 interchange with Pecue Lane on Wednesday. We connected Rieger Road so people can cut through Rieger now to get to Pecue. It’s been modeled to show that it’s going to help Siegen and Highland and give people another access point.” One goal from the project’s outset has been to provide greater access from Woman’s Hospital to the highway. Fred Raiford, transportation director for East Baton Rouge Parish, spent time Wednesday watching motorists take the
Contributing writer Norman Christopher Francis, the president of Xavier University for 47 years who was a force for justice in classrooms and boardrooms at the local, state and national levels, died Wednesday at Ochsner Hospital, according to family members. He was 94. During Francis’ years as the leader of the country’s only Black Catholic institution of higher learning, the Gert Town campus grew from five to 16 buildings, expanding far beyond its original boundaries. Because of his focus on science, Xavier became a university that consistently sent more minority students to medical schools than any other college in the country. “His impact is immeasurable,” said Dr. Michael Francis, his son. “He would do anything for his family, the Xavier family and the Louisiana family.” Among those Francis welcomed to Xavier’s campus were the Freedom Riders, civil rights activists he housed in a dormitory in 1961 after White supremacists attacked them in Alabama; former President Barack Obama, who was Illinois’ junior senator when he delivered the university’s 2006 commencement address; and Pope John Paul II, who, during his
BY QUINN COFFMAN After nearly a decade of planning and construction, tens of thousands of motorists who drive daily through southern East Baton Rouge on Interstate 10 will now be able to exit directly onto Pecue Lane. “It’s been It’s an enhancement modeled to state transportation show that it’s leaders hope will cut on traffic for going to help down multiple miles surSiegen and rounding the interHighland and change. The Pecue Lane exit give people another access and new diverging diamond interchange point.” are part of a widenRODNEy MALLETT, ing project started in 2017, which added Department of new lanes to Pecue Transportation and Development b e t w e e n A i r l i n e Highway and Perkins communications Road, according to the director Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. “It will be open this afternoon; they’re cleaning and moving some barriers and junk,” Rodney Mallett, DOTD communications director, said Wednesday. “It’s gone from one lane in each direction, with an average daily traffic of about 45,000, to two and three lanes in each direction.
BY JOHN POPE
Chef’s culinary program caters to inmates Students get basic lessons to work in kitchens BY OLIVIA TEES Staff writer
Chef Celeste Gill grew up in Detroit watching cooking demonstrations by Julia Child and Justin Wilson on TV. Now she is the one doing the cooking demonstrations, but instead of for TV cameras, she’s teaching skills to inmates at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, and she wouldn’t have it any
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other way. Her goal is for the men in her class to leave prison with manager and food service certifications and the skills to succeed in any restaurant across the country. Each class is about 10 inmates with basic literacy and comprehension skills, which Gill says are necessary to succeed in any kitchen. So far, about 50 people have graduated from her program. She teaches her culinary program in two parts: ServSafe and culinary skills. All of the lessons she teaches are part of her own career running Chef Celeste Bistro in downtown Ba-
ton Rouge’s Main Street Market. The first part is a four-week classroom-based course where inmates learn food safety, budgeting and management. They receive their management certificate, allowing them to work in any restaurant in the country and be recognized as certified to handle food and people. “They’re getting life lessons, along with culinary skills, restaurant management skills and food safety, which is the most important thing,” Gill said. “It’s a huge leg up for them.” The second part gets hands-on, using
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Chef Celeste Gill runs a culinary program for incarcerated ä See INMATES, page 4A individuals at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
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