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S at u r d ay, M a r c h 21, 2026
Machining program creates path to jobs
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2026 LEGISLATURE CRIMINAL JUSTICE
La. could extend time for juvenile trials
Career Center students find opportunities in manufacturing
Some fear kids would languish in jail
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Manufacturing teacher Philip Ryland, left, works with senior Malaki Mouton to use a computer numerical control milling machine to cut a piece of aluminum in a machining class at W.D. and Mary Baker Smith Career Center on March 13. BY ASHLEY WHITE
The machining program is one of about a dozen programs that Lafayette Parish school system students can enWhen Keegan Wilson-Anderson en- roll in. Students attend their traditional tered his junior year at Lafayette High, high school for their core classes and he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted his spend half a day at the Career Center to career to look like. He had ideas, but obtain an industry certification. “I fell in love with it very quickly,” nothing concrete. A friend suggested he enroll in the machining and computer- Keegan, now a senior, said. “It’s not just integrated manufacturing program at what I have learned and pushed myself the W.D. and Mary Baker Smith Career to do, but from the things that the CaCenter. reer Center (and Principal Boffy) has His dad’s a machinist who’s never had done to forward this program, it has exan issue getting hired. Keegan decided ponentially grown since I first joined.” it could be a good “fallback job.” Part of that was streamlining the proStaff writer
gram to make it more accessible and less complicated for students wanting to earn a machining credential, Career Center Principal Holly Boffy said. She worked with industry partners and educators to petition the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s Workforce Investment Council last year to allow for a new industry-based certificate to be recognized. Boffy, a former member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said she knew the
ä See MACHINING, page 4A
After Vatican visit, team representatives head to France
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
BY JEFF DUNCAN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Pedestrians walk past pollen-producing oak trees in City ä See POLLEN, page 5A Park in New Orleans on Thursday.
WEATHER HIGH 81 LOW 59 PAGE 6A
ä See TRIALS, page 5A
Benson, archbishop to meet pope in Rome
Trees push pollen levels into high range Headed down Interstate 55 near Baton Rouge, Edward Bush drove through a swirling cloud of haze last weekend. “It looked like a fog,” Bush said. “Like a greenish-yellow dust storm.” But Bush, a horticulture professor of 39 years with the LSU AgCenter, recognized it for what it was: the peak of a heavy pollination season, driven largely by Louisiana’s live oaks. “It’s just nature doing what it does,” he said. Pollen levels in south Louisiana are climbing into the high range this month, driven largely by tree pollen from oak, cedar and other early bloomers. Forecasters currently rate tree pollen in New Orleans as very high to extreme, with overall pollen counts trending moderate
A bill in the Louisiana Legislature would dramatically increase the time officials can keep juveniles in jail before their trials. The proposed changes would overhaul juvenile court procedures by extending the length of time prosecutors have to try juvenile cases, pausing those timelines when defense attorneys file pretrial motions and allowing prosecutors to receive extensions after cases pass their adjudication deadlines. Currently, the Louisiana Children’s Code — a set of rules that governs juvenile court proceedings — is designed to move juveniles through the court system much more quickly than adults, who can sit in jail for years before they are convicted. State Rep. Vincent Cox, R-Gretna, filed House Bill 140 at the behest of the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office, and prosecutors across the state have thrown their support behind it. Proponents argue the court system’s current deadlines do not grant enough time to gather evidence, and that youth already have ample opportunities for release at the beginning of their cases. Supporters also contend the change would benefit public safety and protect against defense attorneys who say they will agree to time extensions but change
On her trip to Europe this weekend, Gayle Benson is making a stop in Rome to visit Pope Leo XIV with two VIPs as her guests: New Orleans Archbishop James F. Checchio and former Archbishop Gregory Aymond. The trip to the Vatican on Monday kicks off a weeklong international business trip for the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner, who will also head to France to promote the first NFL game to be held there. The appointment with Leo will be the first for Benson but not for Checchio, who has deep roots in
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Rome, having served as the rector of the Pontifical North American College there from 2006 to 2016. Leo appointed Checchio as the coadjutor archbishop of New Orleans in September. The contingent will arrive bearing gifts: Checchio is bringing New Orleans recipes to share with the pope, while Benson will bring a customized Pope Benson Leo Saints jersey. Any such visit raises questions about whether a papal visit to New Orleans could be in the asking. Such a visit has been a point of speculation among Catholics in New Orleans ever since the pope’s family ties to New Orleans were revealed.
ä See POPE, page 4A
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