REMEMBERING A LEGEND
DR. NORMAN C. F FRANCIS SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE
N O L A.C O M
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S u n d ay, M a r c h 1, 2026
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STRIKE ON IRAN Ayatollah killed in joint U.S., Israeli attack Iran retaliates as President Trump calls for regime change BY JON GAMBRELL, MELANIE LIDMAN, JOSH BOAK and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
This image provided by Airbus shows the strike on the Iranian supreme leader’s compound on Saturday in Iran. Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday that the attack launched by Israel and the United States killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump said the assassination gives Iranians their ‘greatest chance’ to ‘take back’ their country.
La. members of Congress weigh in on attack on Iran Republicans rally around President Trump
legal authority. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, RBenton, said he had been briefed on the situation and has been kept up-to-date by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. BY MARK BALLARD “President Trump and the Administration Staff writer have made every effort to pursue peaceful WASHINGTON — Louisiana Republicans in and diplomatic solutions in response to the Congress were quick to rally around Presi- Iranian regime’s sustained nuclear ambident Donald Trump after he ordered an tions and development, terrorism, and the murder of Americans — and even their own attack on Iran Saturday morning. Democratic members of the state’s del- people,” Johnson said in a statement. “For egation were more cautious, calling on decades, Iran has defiantly maintained its the Trump administration for further ä See CONGRESS, page 4A clarification on the president’s plan and
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 17.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died following a major attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. President Donald Trump announced the death hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. Iranian state television and the state-run Trump IRNA news agency did not report a cause of ä Travelers death for the 86-yearstranded old. “Khamenei, one of by flight the most evil people disruptions in History, is dead,” after Iran Trump wrote in a so- strikes. cial media post. He warned of “heavy and PAGE 4A pinpoint bombing” that ä War he said would continue powers throughout the week and even beyond, part debate of a lethal assault the grows after U.S. has justified as attack on necessary to disable Iran. PAGE 8A the country’s nuclear ä World capabilities. The attack opened a leaders stunning new chapter react in U.S. intervention in Iran, carried the poten- cautiously tial for retaliatory vio- to U.S., lence and a wider war, Israeli and represented a star- strikes. tling flex of military PAGE 10A might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.” The killing of Khamenei in the second Trump administration assault on Iran in eight months appeared certain to create a leadership vacuum given the absence of a known successor and because the 86-year-old supreme leader had final say on all major policies during his decades in power. He led Iran’s
ä See STRIKE, page 6A
Federal fraud trial begins in New Orleans staged-crash cases Four accused in insurance scheme involving big rigs
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
The words of a slain federal witness are expected to loom large in a New Orleans courtroom this week as a trial begins for two local lawyers and two others accused in a wild scheme to stage vehicle
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wrecks with big rig trucks across the Crescent City. The trial, slated to start Monday in federal court, is the first in a sprawling insurance fraud case Motta that gripped New Orleans legal circles even before authorities charged a murder-forhire plot. Vanessa Motta, a Hollywood stuntwoman-turned-lawyer, at-
torney Jason Giles and the King Firm are accused of brazen, yearslong frauds that involved filling cars with people, ramming them into Giles 18-wheelers on New Orleans highways and then suing for big insurance checks. The feds say some passengers underwent surgeries they didn’t need while unscrupulous lawyers
took in millions while in some cases paying $1,000 per passenger in kickbacks. The blockbuster federal probe has spawned guilty pleas from about 50 defendants across more than a half-dozen indictments since 2019. Prosecutors allege overlapping schemes involving different “slammers,” who were paid by the lawyers to gather passengers and then steer into tractor trailers. From Houma to Slidell, dozens were recruited to fill the crash cars
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and sign up with attorneys to make injury claims against the trucking companies. According to the feds, Motta and Giles each employed Cornelius Garrison, a slammer who told the FBI he’d taken at least 50 turns behind the wheel in staged crashes. The lanky, 6-feet-6 Garrison had been talking to federal agents for about a year when he was gunned down at age 54 at his mother’s doorstep in Gentilly in 2020.
ä See TRIAL, page 5A
13TH yEAR, NO. 201