BESSELMAN’S BATTLE LSU senior opens up about heart condition 1C
ADVOCATE THE
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
|
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
T h u r s d ay, F e b r u a ry 26, 2026
$2.00X
Ex-BR official faces corruption charges
Kickbacks paid from contract she approved, sources say BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
Investigators believe a former top Baton Rouge official indicted on corruption charges Wednesday got $194,000 in kickbacks from a city-parish contract she approved and used it to pay off her mortgage and credit cards, sources with knowledge of the probe say. According to arrest warrants ob-
tained by The Advocate, Courtney Scott, assistant chief administrative officer for Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome during her tenure in office, received bribes from a city-parish contractor. The contractor, Veronica Mathis, owns Build. Brand. Design., a company paid more than $738,000 in taxpayer dollars. That money flowed through a governmentfunded nonprofit known as the
Courtney Scott served as assistant chief administrative officer to former East Baton Rouge Parish MayorPresident Sharon Weston Broome.
Mayor’s Healthy City Initiative and its subsidiary Safe, Hopeful, Healthy BR. Arresting documents show authorities believe Mathis’ company funneled Scott about $194,000 through payments to The Byan Group LLC. Scott is listed in state business records as the manager and an agent of The Byan Group.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
ä See CHARGES, page 7A
Delta Utilities seeks to explain rising gas bills
ELECTION 2026 U.S. SENATE
Landry helping Letlow campaign Governor targeting fundraising, party endorsement
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Delta’s billing and costs. And the commission will let utilities spread the cost of skyrocketing bills over several months in a bid to lessen the burden on customers, after a series of votes Wednesday. Rahsha Williams, head of the Leo S. Butler Community Center in Baton Rouge, told the commission that she’s seen a dramatic influx of residents struggling to pay their gas bills from Delta. Many are seniors on fixed incomes and are struggling to afford other essentials, like groceries or medication, she said. “I see seniors on fixed incomes walking in with shaking hands because their gas
Not since Huey Long nearly 100 years ago has a governor tried to defeat a sitting U.S. senator from the same political party. But that’s what Gov. Jeff Landry is trying to do as Sen. Bill Cassidy, a fellow Republican, runs for reelection. Landry is working behind the scenes to raise money for the Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and to secure an endorsement for her by the Louisiana Republican Party, according to GOP sources. Landry has told associates that he has inserted himself into the race at the behest of President Donald Trump, who endorsed Letlow in January because of, it’s widely believed, his unhappiness with Cassidy. The senator is running for a third term in the May 16 Republican primary. Also challenging Cassidy in the Republican primary is state Treasurer John Fleming, who spent eight years in the U.S. House and worked for the Trump White House during the president’s first term. No Louisiana governor has opposed an incumbent senator from the same political party since 1932, when then-Gov. Oscar K. Allen, at the behest of Huey Long, helped defeat the reelection of then-Sen.
ä See BILLS, page 5A
ä See LANDRY, page 7A
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Louisiana Public Service Commission members, from left, Davante Lewis, Foster L. Campbell, Eric Skrmetta, Jean-Paul P. Coussan and Mike Francis listen during Wednesday’s meeting.
Company details efforts to reduce price volatility BY SAM KARLIN Staff writer
Louisiana’s largest natural gas provider, Delta Utilities, sought to explain skyrocketing gas bills Wednesday amid rising anger from customers and elected officials, telling state regulators that they work to prevent price volatility from squeezing ratepayers. A double whammy of unusually cold winter weather and high natural gas prices have caused gas bills to soar for
many customers across Louisiana, in some cases reaching several hundred dollars. Those high costs — and the recent change of most residents now receiving a separate gas bill after Delta’s acquisition of Entergy’s gas business — have caused widespread angst. The saga is the latest affordability problem that Louisiana residents have faced in recent years, after insurance and electricity bills have emerged as high-profile issues for customers, elected officials and regulators. The Louisiana Public Service Commission — a five-member elected body that regulates utilities — agreed Wednesday to move up an audit to this summer of
Louisiana schools prepare to post Ten Commandments Districts weigh how to comply with law after court lifted block
with some superintendents moving quickly to distribute the posters while others, wary of potential lawsuits, wait for more guidance. The East Baton Rouge school system will send posters bearing the biblical passages to classrooms “in the near BY PATRICK WALL future,” a spokesperson said. In rural Staff writer Grant Parish, Superintendent Erin Louisiana school leaders are grap- Stokes said the School Board is eager pling with their next moves after a fed- to comply with the law, and she plans eral appeals court ended a pause on a to give donated Ten Commandments state law requiring displays of the Ten posters to school principals this week. “We’ll probably be moving forward Commandments in every classroom,
WEATHER HIGH 80 LOW 63 PAGE 6B
pretty quickly,” she said. The school system in Caddo Parish is moving more slowly, with plans to wait until the summer to distribute the posters and train teachers on the law, according to School Board President Don Little. Officials in other districts said they are seeking advice from their attorneys or the state Department of Education, which has not issued any guidance and on Tuesday referred questions to the Attorney General’s
Posters bearing the Ten Commandments have been donated to nearly every public school in Louisiana. PROVIDED PHOTO
ä See SCHOOLS, page 5A
Business ......................3D Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 241