CONCEPTUAL ARTIST SHARES HER PERSPECTIVE OF THE WORLD 1D
N O L A.C O M
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S u n d ay, a p r i l 19, 2026
‘I DON’T SEE ANY DAYLIGHT ON THE HORIZON’
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Ruling changes path for lawsuits against oil companies Leaders face stark choice as La. coast hangs in balance BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
Seventh grader Aprieonna Herbert makes her way home after getting off the school bus in Belle Rose on Tuesday.
Rose Middle School, yet the bus takes State public schools Belle her 10 miles away to Assumption Parish High in neighboring Napoleonville. lost 60,000 students School Like nearly every other Louisiana school district, Assumption Parish had too many EMPTY schools for its dwindling student population. in a decade, and So last year, the School Board made a onceDESKS decision: It shut down all three of enrollment is still falling unthinkable THE CRISIS the district’s middle schools, relocating their
BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
Aprieonna Herbert trudged home from her school bus one recent sunny afternoon, then collapsed into bed. The seventh grader is still adjusting to waking up in the dark to catch the bus at 5:50 a.m. each morning, which rumbles down her quiet street of bungalows and double-wide trailers in Belle Rose. She lives less than a mile from
students to the high school campus. “A lot of people were upset,” said Aprieonna’s mother, April Anderson, who years ago attended Belle Rose Middle School. “That school has been there for a very long time.” A rural community missing its middle schools. A superintendent cutting her budget to the bone.
ä See STUDENTS, page 8A
OF DECLINING ENROLLMENT IN LA.’S TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS First in an occasional series
A U.S. Supreme Court decision has struck a serious blow to Louisiana’s longstanding efforts to hold oil companies responsible for coastal damage, leaving state officials with a stark choice of whether to press ahead with the fight or seek to settle now. The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling on Friday was a narrow decision on a technical issue, but its ramifications are potentially vast. Dozens of similar lawsuits from Louisiana parishes are pending, and state officials had hoped to use proceeds from those cases to clean up and restore portions of the rapidly eroding coast. Gov. Jeff Landry has made no secret of his willingness to settle with the oil companies on fair terms, but the decision may have stripped the state of a portion of its leverage. At the same time, Louisiana Landry still has cards to play, and Attorney General Liz Murrill expressed confidence the state would ultimately prevail. The result of Friday’s ruling in Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish is that the $745 million verdict in a 2025 state-court trial may be thrown out and the case retried Murrill in federal court. It also sets off what could be years of new jurisdictional fighting over where the other cases belong. It was a clear win for the oil and gas companies, which have spent more than a decade fighting to move the lawsuits out of Louisiana state courts, where juries are drawn from the coastal communities suing them. It gives the industry leverage to argue all of the cases belong in federal court. Landry, who recently announced a settlement with ConocoPhillips, a defendant in 13 of the 42 coastal lawsuits filed by Louisiana parishes, said
ä See RULING, page 4A
New Year’s Day Bourbon Street attack memorial for victims finalized survivors began a series of tablished by Gov. Jeff Landry — ‘I do think it’s going to and meetings. has now selected a design for the Their goal: through the heartand has a plan to make bring a lot of peace’ ache and loss, to create a perma- monument it a reality.
BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE
The design, from a local artist, nent tribute to the 14 people who were killed and the dozens who includes curved stone walls, with were injured, and to build it in a benches for visitors. Inscribed Soon after the New Year’s Day place where New Orleans can in the stone will be the names of attack on Bourbon Street last come together to remember them. ä See MEMORIAL, page 5A That group — a commission esyear, family members of victims
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 72 LOW 60 PAGE 8B
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
A commission established by Gov. Jeff Landry selected a design Wednesday for a permanent monument to the New year’s Day Bourbon Street attack victims. RENDERING PROVIDED By FOURTEENS FOUNDATION
13TH yEAR, NO. 250