TIGER WOODS ARRESTED ON DUI CHARGE AFTER CRASH IN FLORIDA 3C
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S at u r d ay, M a r c h 28, 2026
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Johnson balks at deal to fund TSA
his chamber would not approve the entire Department of Home- year to enact much of his domes- many travelers to miss their flights. Speaker says The Senate had been deadlocked the deal. land Security, including TSA and tic agenda. Johnson and other House Repub- immigration agencies, for 30 days “TSA officers should begin see- for weeks over a bill to fund the House won’t approve licans said the Senate proposal was while Congress sorts things out. ing paychecks as early as Monday, Department of Homeland SecuSenate measure unacceptable because it did not Johnson challenged the Senate March 30,” the Department of rity as Democrats demanded new
include funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Border Patrol. “It is the most reckless thing Staff writers we’ve ever seen, and we’re so The U.S. Senate worked over- frustrated by it,” Johnson said. He night to pass a bill Friday that later referred to the Senate’s deal funds the Transportation Safety as “a joke.” Johnson instead proposed a conAdministration, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, said tinuing resolution that would fund
BY MATTHEW ALBRIGHT and MARCO CARTOLANO
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 Washington to approve the deal. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump signed Friday an executive order to pay TSA workers using money from the mammoth budget bill Congress passed last
Homeland Security said in a statement Friday. Still, given the uncertainty in Washington, officials at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport warned travelers to arrive early, particularly on Sunday and Monday. Waits in security lines on those days earlier this week lasted for three to four hours, leading
Entergy wants power capacity boost for Meta data center
restrictions on immigration enforcement agents. TSA, which is part of the department, has been unable to pay its security agents, and many have called out sick or quit. As frustration grew about hourslong waits at security lines, the Senate agreed to a
ä See JOHNSON, page 4A
La. Political Hall of Fame gets 8 inductees All played a role in ‘Vote for the Crook’ election
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
eryday costs. President Donald Trump had tech 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
As the 1991 governor’s race got underway, then-Gov. Buddy Roemer was favored to win reelection. State Rep. David Duke seemed to be too controversial to defeat Roemer, even though Duke had won 60% of the White vote the year before — by galvanizing White grievances with an antiestablishment message — in losing to incumbent Sen. J. Bennett Johnston. Duke, after all, had been a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who for years had celebrated Hitler’s birthday. Edwin Edwards, another looming opponent, reflected Louisiana’s let-thegood-times-roll ethos as a legendary gambler and womanizer who had been elected governor three times — while constantly fending off corruption allegations — but now seemed to be a political has-been. Roemer, after all, had beaten Edwards four years earlier. But Edwards and Duke ran first and second in the primary, knocking out Roemer. With the nation’s eyes on Louisiana because of Duke’s notorious past, Edwards resurrected the formula that had elected him governor three times before — winning big in New Orleans and Acadiana to offset his losses in conservative areas elsewhere. Six of the 2026 inductees to the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame played roles in the coalition that Edwards formed to defeat Duke in that epic election. They are (with their 1991 roles): New Orleans
ä See POWER, page 4A
ä See HALL, page 3A
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Work continues on the Meta data center site in Holly Ridge.
will generate 2,262 megawatts of power. announced. If approved, it would equal first The plans also come amid questions In a news release Friday, Entergy said nearly half the power it it plans to build seven new natural gas- nationally about how data centers are powered plants, upgrade its existing affecting residents’ electric bills, which generates for state nuclear plants, build 2,500 megawatts of are rising along with a host of other ev-
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL and SAM KARLIN Staff writers
Entergy Louisiana plans to dramatically boost the amount of electricity it can generate and transmit in Richland Parish, where it is already building power plants for Meta’s massive AI data center, the clearest sign yet that the Facebook parent is moving forward on a significantly larger project than
solar farms and install batteries to store solar power. The gas plants alone will total 5,200 megawatts, about five times what the entire city of New Orleans uses on an average day. The new power capacity Entergy is seeking to generate in Richland comes on top of two natural gas turbines it is already building for Meta at the site, as well as a third power plant for the project under construction near Baton Rouge. All together, those three plants
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 figure
STAFF FILE PHOTO
A restored mural by the British graffiti superstar Banksy is on ä See BANKSY, page 3A display at the Louisiana State Museum at the Presbytère.
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