McILROY MAKES BIG MOVE ON DAY 2 OF THE MASTERS 1C
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S at u r d ay, a p r i l 11, 2026
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SPLASHDOWN Artemis II crew safely returns to Earth in perfect ending to historic moon mission
ELECTION 2026 U.S. SENATE
Cassidy urges Dems to reregister for primary New election rules would limit votes BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
stand thousands of degrees during reentry. On the spacecraft’s only other test flight — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred exterior came back looking as pockmarked as the moon. Like so many others, lead flight director Jeff Radigan anticipated feeling some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six-minute blackout that preceded the opening of the parachutes. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha awaited
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, is making a concerted push to get Democrats to switch their party registration so they can vote for him in next month’s Republican primary. That’s prompted criticism from those who say it provides more evidence that he’s not a true conservative — especially since neither of Cassidy’s two Republican opponents, state Treasurer John Flem- Cassidy ing and Baton Rouge U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, are making a similar effort. Central to Cassidy’s move to encourage party switches is a decision by Gov. Jeff Landry and Republican lawmakers in 2024 to end Louisiana’s un- Letlow usual jungle primary for federal races beginning this year. As a result, only Republicans and those registered “no party” can vote for Cassidy, Letlow, Fleming and a fourth candidate, Mark Spencer, in the May Fleming 16 semiclosed Republican primary. Similarly, only Democrats and no party candidates can vote on May 16 for any of the three Democratic candidates: Jamie Davis, Nick Albares and Gary Crockett. Cassidy has said in interviews that he’s simply trying to prevent conservative-leaning Democrats from being disenfranchised. “If you’re a Democrat who has been voting Republican for a while, you’re not going to be able to vote unless you change to no party or Republican,” he said on March 23 on KEEL, a Shreveport radio station. “Otherwise, you’re not going to be able to vote.” Critics paint a darker picture. “Bill Cassidy wants to be the Democrats’ favorite Republican. That’s fine,” Scott McKay, the publisher of The Hayride, a conservative website, told talk show host Moon Griffon in a radio interview last month. “The problem is that Republicans
ä See SPLASHDOWN, page 5A
ä See CASSIDY, page 4A
The Artemis II splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Friday. BY MARCIA DUNN AP aerospace writer
HOUSTON — Artemis II’s astronauts returned from the moon with a dramatic splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than a half-century. It was a triumphant homecoming for the crew of four whose record-breaking lunar flyby revealed not only swaths of the moon’s far side — never seen before by human eyes — but a total solar eclipse. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Vic-
tor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen hit the atmosphere traveling Mach 33 — or 33 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, made the plunge on automatic pilot. The tension in Mission Control mounted as the capsule became engulfed in red-hot plasma during peak heating and entered a planned communication blackout. All eyes were on the capsule’s lifeprotecting heat shield that had to with-
PHOTO PROVIDED By NASA
Scalise tours Venture Global LNG facility House majority leader touts state’s energy might BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
At Venture Global’s massive liquefied natural gas export terminal in Plaquemines Parish on Friday, a tanker bound for Poland was being loaded with more than 150,000 metric tons of LNG, enough to power a quarter of a million homes for a year. U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican House Majority Leader from Metairie and a close ally of President Donald Trump, looked on from a loading dock. Along with a small delegation of fel-
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low Congress members and an official from the U.S. Department of Energy, Scalise had come to the site 30 miles south of New Orleans for a tour. “Five years ago, this was a cow pasture,” said Scalise of the 630-acre site in Port Sulphur. “Now, it is the largest, most efficient LNG facility in the world.” Scalise’s visit to the facility was designed to underscore America’s energy independence six weeks into Trump’s war with Iran, which continues to disrupt global energy supplies despite a ceasefire earlier this week. Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s energy supply travels, and Qatar has said it will be months before its Ras Laffan LNG facility, badly damaged last month by Iranian missiles, will be back online.
Because of the war, oil prices remain near $100 a barrel, up 40% since February. Gasoline prices topped $4.15 a gallon on average nationwide and were at about $3.80 a gallon in Louisiana. Meanwhile, U.S. natural gas prices haven’t really budged, remaining under $3 per million British thermal units. That’s not the case overseas. In Europe, gas prices have surged in recent weeks, and are trading at nearly $18 per mmBtu, which is why companies like Venture Global are expanding their ability to export the fuel to reach those markets. “We produce our own energy now and we do not rely on producers overseas,” Scalise said. “Europe, Asia, other countries all want our natural gas.”
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, right, talks with site manager Andy Coombes during a tour of Venture Global ä See SCALISE, page 4A Plaquemines LNG Export Terminal on Friday.
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