PELICANS HOST JAZZ IN FINAL HOME GAME OF SEASON 1C
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T u e s d ay, a p r i l 7, 2026
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Aerospace legislation raises questions Bills offer incentives for building, launching rockets 2026 LEGISLATURE
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL
launch and service rockets in the state eligible for massive sales and property tax breaks; shield them from lawsuits over injury, Lawmakers on Tuesday will environmental damage and loss of begin taking up a wide-ranging package of incentives designed The legislation, filed by House property values; and exempt them to attract aerospace companies leadership just hours before last from public records laws. The bills, filed by Republican like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff week’s deadline for filing new bills, Bezos’ Blue Origin to Louisiana. would make companies that build, Reps. Jack McFarland, of Jones-
Staff writer
boro, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and Tony Bacala, of Prairieville, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, are generating considerable buzz around the State Capitol, where they took some by surprise. The measures do not refer to a specific company or deal the state is trying to land, and the bills’ authors and state and local economic development officials have
‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE’
all signed confidentiality agreements, which preclude them from discussing the measures in greater detail. Four sources familiar with the situation, however, say the state is engaged in high stakes talks with a specific aerospace company interested in expanding to Louisiana and that the incentive package is
ä See AEROSPACE, page 4A
N.O. court bills move through Legislature Slate would cut clerk, judgeships, state funding
BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By JOHN BALLANCE
Rhonda Landry-Poché, a fourth-generation strawberry farmer, shows a wooden hand carrier that was used to pick strawberries.
In Louisiana’s Berry Belt, family-owned strawberry farm navigates a changing industry
BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD
Staff writer
Rhonda Landry-Poché remembers picking strawberries with her Paw Paw side by side, as he told her to pick them fast and by the stems. Her grandfather was the second owner of the family farm, taking over in the 1930s, and he and his family put in years of long hours of manual labor to ensure the success of the strawberry
business. “He’d sit in the rocking chair and talk to the kids about his mule named Ada, and how they didn’t have tractors then (on the farm) and how he and his mule would work,” Landry-Poché said. Now decades and plenty of technology advances later, at 61 years old, Landry-Poché owns the family farm as it celebrates its centennial this year. The fourth-generation, family-owned Landry-Poché Strawberry Farm was
established in 1926 and is located in the small town of Springfield. This strawberry season, the farm planted 120,000 plants across 6 acres. The farm currently supplies the Robert Fresh Market stores in the New Orleans area, but customers can also come to the farm to buy strawberries during the season and even pick them themselves. The farm also hosts field trips nearly every day.
ä See STRAWBERRY, page 4A
The elected judges and clerks who oversee New Orleans’ many courts are facing an imminent threat in the Legislature to domains they’ve maintained and defended for decades. Under a slate of bills moving through the Legislature, lawmakers threaten to eliminate several New Orleans judgeships, the Orleans Parish criminal court clerk and funding for state prosecutors. Under one House bill, civil, criminal and juvenile courts in New Orleans would fold into a single judicial district, as in other parishes. “They are and Another bill would have been the g r a n t G o v. J e f f fatted calf, Landry veto power over the hiring and and it’s time to firing of the four magtrim the fat.” istrate commissionREP. DIXON ers who oversee first MCMAKIN, court appearances and set bail for crimiR-Baton Rouge nal suspects in New Orleans. Landry and other supporters of those proposals describe the setup of courts in New Orleans as a bloated relic. They argue that parishes like East Baton Rouge and Jefferson handle more cases with fewer judges. “They are and have been the fatted calf, and it’s time to trim the fat,” said Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge. His House Bill 911 strives to merge civil, criminal and juvenile courts in New Orleans under a 41st Judicial District. Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, who backed three bills in the Senate, said the state stands to save some $20 million in cuts to judicial seats and court personnel. The savings would include $3.4 million annually in state subsidies for the Orleans Parish courts, according to fiscal notes from McMakin’s bill.
ä See COURT, page 7A
Family succession feud positioned politicians to benefit BY JAMES FINN
ated a financial opportunity for New Orleans politicians after an elected judge steered the lucrative When two siblings sued to take assignment of running the estate control of their family estate from to her friend, a city constable. The their aunt, they hoped to close a constable later hired two allies, a state legislator and a subordinate in painful chapter. Instead, their bid for help cre- his office, to perform work for the
Staff writer
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estate. After siblings Michael and Micaela Nobile filed their 2022 lawsuit, civil Judge Jennifer Medley agreed to remove their aunt from the estate after years of poor stewardship. But then, in a move that succession attorneys say spawned conflicts of
interest and raised questions about the bounds of Louisiana succession law, Medley handed control of its affairs to 2nd City Constable Edwin Shorty, her former law school classmate who has donated to her cam-
ä See SUCCESSION, page 5A Medley
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
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