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THE
ADVOCATE T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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F r i d ay, F e b r u a ry 27, 2026
$2.00X
Push is on to speed up Corps of Engineers work
‘GATOR is not going to grow’ Top lawmaker rejects Landry’s bid to expand vouchers
BY PATRICK WALL
Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER
Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, right, and Assistant Secretary of the Army Adam Telle, back right, look at diagrams of the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain levee project during a visit to the work site on Thursday.
Initiative prompts high-level visit to Louisiana BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer
A high-level delegation from Washington visited south Louisiana on Thursday as part of a new initiative aiming to speed up projects built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose vast dredging and flood protection programs are vital for the state. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Assistant Secretary Adam Telle joined Gov. Jeff Landry and others at the site of a multibillion-dollar levee project in LaPlace to talk about the initiative. They pledged to cut red tape to address the Corps’ enormous backlog of projects nationwide, but the initiative remains short on specifics so far, and there are questions over the amount time frames can be re-
duced without violating laws, regulations and procedures. The plans will be closely watched here, with the Corps’ New Orleans district home to the agency’s biggest civil works and dredging programs due to Louisiana’s strategic — but vulnerable — location along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. The delegation gathered amid the dirt and heavy equipment being used to build the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain levee system, a project to protect 60,000 people in St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes that is expected to cost $3.4 billion, including future levee elevations.
ä See CORPS, page 8A
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews work on building a levee wall alongside Interstate 10 on Thursday.
Admission change considered for flagship campus
WEATHER HIGH 82 LOW 53 PAGE 8B
ä See GATOR, page 6A
First Horizon sues over recruiting by M C Bank
LSU may reinstate test score requirement the flagship campus in Baton Rouge. The amendment to admissions policies, attached to the Feb. 27 Board of Supervisors meeting agenda, said the test score requirement supports BY HALEY MILLER “student success initiatives” Staff writer and follows the trend of other As enrollment and the num- state flagships and peers in the ber of applicants to LSU soars, Southeastern Conference. Currently, the Baton Rouge the Board of Supervisors is weighing whether to abandon campus offers prospective its test-optional policy and re- students the option to include instate the use of standardized ä See LSU, page 6A test scores for admission to
State Senate President Cameron Henry said Wednesday that he will not support Gov. Jeff Landry’s recent request to double funding for LA GATOR, the voucher program that gives parents tax dollars to pay for private school tuition and other expenses, potentially sidelining the proposed expansion before lawmakers head to Baton Rouge for this year’s legislative session next month. Henry “GATOR is not going to grow,” Henry, R-Metairie, said, flatly rejecting Landry’s proposal last month to double spending on the program to $88 million. “It’s unsustainable financially.” The remarks from Henry, the powerful leader who has repeatedly raised concerns about the program’s costs, could foreshadow a repeat of last year’s budget battle, when the state Senate agreed to appropriate just half of what Landry wanted for LA GATOR despite pressure from conservative advocacy groups and Republican donors who want to help more children attend private schools or homeschool. During an interview Wednesday, Henry said he will push to keep LA GATOR funding flat at $43.5 million, enough to keep supporting the nearly 5,600 students who received stipends this school year. He argued that if the Legislature agrees to double funding this year, providing vouchers to an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 additional students, then every year the state
recruiting practices, marking the Former IberiaBank opening salvo of a new battle in the south Louisiana banking industry. leader calls Daryl Byrd built IberiaBank allegations unfounded into a regional powerhouse before
merging it into Memphis-based First Horizon, and announced late last year that he had created a company with several of his forStaff writers mer executives to acquire Morgan First Horizon Bank, the regional City-based M C Bank and Trust. Now, his company is moving lender that arrived in Louisiana six years ago by purchasing Ibe- quickly to build a new team, and riaBank, has filed suit against the that’s brought him into conflict newly formed company of its New ä See SUES, page 7A Orleans-based former chair over
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL and RICH COLLINS
STAFF FILE PHOTO
LSU is considering reinstating the use of standardized test scores for admission to the Baton Rouge campus.
Business ......................3B Commentary ................7B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 242