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S at u r d ay, M a r c h 28, 2026
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Lafayette Parish population growing
Increase is highest in Louisiana BY ADAM DAIGLE
Acadiana business editor Lafayette Parish had the biggest increase in population among the state’s 64 parishes for the second straight year in 2025, according to U.S. census data. The parish gained 3,275 residents in 2025, a 1.3% increase and
the second straight year to have the biggest gain of people in the state, according to estimates released this week. It came against a modest gain overall in the state’s population as 45 parishes lost residents last year, according to data. At 257,949 residents, Lafayette remains the state’s most populous parish out-
side the Baton Rouge and New Orleans metros. Lafayette Parish had the largest net migration among domestic and international residents in the state, according to data. International migration, however, decreased as it did in most counties and metros across the U.S. as a result of the new restrictions on immigration from the Trump administration. The parish has gained about 6,500 jobs since before the pan-
demic and has gained every year since 2020, according to federal data. Many of the gains have been in manufacturing and health care and away from the historically dominant oil and gas sector. Mandi Mitchell, president and CEO of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority, cited a number of recent wins and the jobs generated in recent years, including Baton Rouge-based MMR Group, which has opened its La-
Entergy wants power capacity boost for Meta data center
fayette operations and plans to eventually employ 196. People are moving to where job opportunities are, she said. “Lafayette has a deeply embedded entrepreneurial culture from family-owned restaurants to tech startups,” she said. “People are attracted to communities that embrace and encourage innovation.” The number of jobs in education
ä See POPULATION, page 5A
Johnson balks at deal to fund TSA Speaker says House won’t approve Senate measure
BY MATTHEW ALBRIGHT and MARCO CARTOLANO Staff writers
companies sign a “ratepayer protection pledge” in early March. Entergy said in its news release that Meta committed to paying for some of the infrastructure costs up front and sending millions to its charitable program for low-income customers and for energy efficiency. The company said customers will see $2 billion in savings because of the new deal, details of which weren’t
The U.S. Senate worked overnight to pass a bill Friday that funds the Transportation Safety Administration, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, said his chamber would not approve the deal. Johnson and ä Airports other House Re- warn travelers publicans said not to arrive the Senate protoo early. posal was unacceptable because PAGE 4A it did not include funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Border Patrol. “It is the most reckless thing we’ve ever seen, and we’re so frustrated by it,” Johnson said. He later referred to the Senate’s deal as “a joke.” Johnson instead proposed a continuing resolution that would fund the entire Department of Homeland Security, including TSA and immigration agencies, for 30 days while Congress sorts things out. Johnson challenged the Senate to pick up the bill on Monday. But the Senate recessed for two weeks after passing its bill Friday, so senators would have to return to
ä See POWER, page 5A
ä See JOHNSON, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Work continues on the Meta data center site in Holly Ridge.
The plans also come amid questions a news release Friday, Entergy said If approved, it would equal it Inplans to build seven new natural gas- nationally about how data centers are afplants, upgrade its existing fecting residents’ electric bills, which are nearly half the power it powered nuclear plants, build 2,500 megawatts of rising along with a host of other everyday generates for state solar farms and install batteries to store costs. President Donald Trump had tech
solar power. The gas plants alone will total 5,200 megawatts, about five times what the entire city of New Orleans uses on an Staff writers average day. The new power capacity Entergy is Entergy Louisiana plans to dramatically boost the amount of electricity it can seeking to generate in Richland comes generate and transmit in Richland Parish, on top of two natural gas turbines it is where it is already building power plants already building for Meta at the site, as for Meta’s massive AI data center, the well as a third power plant for the project clearest sign yet that the Facebook par- under construction near Baton Rouge. All ent is moving forward on a significantly together, those three plants will generate 2,262 megawatts of power. larger project than first announced.
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL and SAM KARLIN
N.O. Banksy mural is up for auction ‘Gray Ghost’ was on the wall of a former firehouse
BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer
Now’s your chance to own one of the rare remaining New Orleans murals by the British graffiti master Banksy, who is arguably the most famous artist in the world. But it won’t come cheap. Banksy’s stencil painting goes up for auction on Saturday with a starting bid of $725,000, including fees. Banksy’s prints and paintings regularly reach the million-dollar mark at auction, occasionally fetching multimillions. Potential buyers should note that the mural probably won’t fit nicely over the couch. It’s 8 feet tall and 5
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feet wide, and — since it’s painted on a chunk of brick wall — it weighs almost 3 tons. The sale of the New Orleans mural and other works by Banksy is being conducted online by Hessink’s auction house in Maastricht, Netherlands. The cumbersome painting is currently on display at the Louisiana State Museum at the Presbytère. Though it may not be a convenient artwork to own, it has a fascinating provenance. The globe-trotting artist secretly slipped into the Big Easy in 2008 like an arty James Bond. Banksy was on a mission of mercy, intent on drumming up sympathy for the city’s ongoing, grinding recovery from Hurricane Katrina that had taken place three years before. The undercover Englishman painted
more than a dozen small murals on structures across the city that instantly became icons of the era. Among his sardonic artworks was a forlorn girl huddling beneath a faulty umbrella, a homeless Abraham Lincoln pushing a shopping cart, looting National Guardsmen, and a second line-style brass band attempting to play while wearing gas masks. On a former firehouse on Jackson Avenue, Banksy produced a painting that was meant to demonize Fred “The Gray Ghost” Radtke, a devoted graffiti foe, who was in constant conflict with the Crescent City’s street artists/aerosol vandals. Banksy depicted Radtke as a shadowy, soulless house painter bent on eradicating an innocent stick
STAFF FILE PHOTO
A restored mural by the British graffiti superstar Banksy is on ä See BANKSY, page 4A display at The Louisiana State Museum.
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