PELICANS HIRE FORMER MAGIC COACH JAMAHL MOSLEY 1C
N O L A.C O M
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T u e s d ay, M ay 19, 2026
“If our teachers don’t get a permanent raise this year, nobody in state government gets a pay raise. I mean nobody.”
$2.00X
Voter turnout for Saturday’s elections
Chart shows the voter turnout for the Republican and Democratic primary elections for U.S. Senate, along with turnout for the proposed constitutional amendment that saw the most votes. 745,869
GOV. JEFF LANDRy
Senate to remove planned pay raises
344,751
U.S. Senate, Democrat
811,200
401,118
U.S. Senate, Republican
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State
U.S. Senate, combined
Amendment 3 Staff graphic
High Black voter turnout affected election results
of the Republican More people voted instead primary, even though only on amendments about 1.5% of the money spent to elect Demothan in primaries was cratic candidates, and Re-
publican Senate candidates received most of the free media coverage. Staff writer The other development Inflamed by a recent U.S. is that more people voted Supreme Court ruling and on the five constitutional moves by Gov. Jeff Landry amendments than in the and Republican legislators Republican and Democratic to eliminate positions held Senate primaries combined, by Black elected officials, with many Democratic votBlack voters turned out in ers following the lead of proproportionally large num- gressive leaders to reject all of them. Typically, the bers on Saturday. That led to two unexpected marquee races get the most votes, and voting drops off developments. The first is that 46% of the on the down-ballot elections. voters chose to vote in the ä See TURNOUT, page 7A Democratic Senate primary,
BY TYLER BRIDGES
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Gov. Jeff Landry enters Park Elementary School in Baton Rouge before a presentation on Wednesday.
Defeat of teacher pay amendment prompts move 2026 LEGISLATURE
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN
Staff writer
Proposals to give raises to prosecutors, judges, legislators and other state employees are all in jeopardy after a constitutional amendment to turn a $2,000 stipend into a permanent pay raise for teachers failed at the ballot box Saturday, according to a legislative leader. The Louisiana Senate plans to nix those measures to protect budget-related legislation from vetoes by the governor, Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said. On Monday morning, Landry declared that if teachers do not get a raise, nobody should. “If our teachers don’t get a permanent raise this year, nobody
ä School districts scrounging
for funds for raises. PAGE 4A
in state government gets a pay raise,” Landry wrote in a post on X. “I mean nobody.” Since it will have to approve any Senate amendments to budget bills, the House could temper efforts to slash the pay raises. A top House member expressed a desire to move forward with at least some of them. With the legislative session ending in two weeks, lawmakers
have little time left to decide. The budget is in the Senate’s hands after the House passed a preliminary version last month. Despite the teacher pay amendment failing, senators had planned to weigh various proposals to raise pay for workers such as assistant district attorneys, according to Henry. “That’s not an option now based on what the governor has tweeted out requiring a permanent teacher pay raise. That’s going to be very difficult to do, so the flip side of that is we have to make sure that we don’t pass bills that give pay raises that he would then veto,” Henry said. “We’ll address them all next year.”
ä See PAY, page 4A
$1.7B fund OK’d in IRS deal with Trump an arrangement that Money would ecuted, Democrats and government derided as “corcompensate allies watchdogs rupt” and unconstitutional. of the president The “Anti-Weaponization
BY FATIMA HUSSEIN, ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Monday the creation of a more than $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they have been unjustly investigated and pros-
Fund” of $1.776 billion is part of a settlement that resolves President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. It will allow people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes, including by the Biden administration Justice Department, to
ä See TRUMP, page 5A
Tulane steps back from student housing project at Frostop site BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL and JONAH MEADOWS Staff writers
Tulane University is backing away from its involvement in a student housing development along Claiborne Avenue that would have involved demolishing the 71-yearold Ted’s Frostop, a beloved local diner. In a statement Monday, Tulane spokesperson Michael Strecker said the university is “pausing its potential involvement” in the project, a planned three-story complex
WEATHER HIGH 88 LOW 75 PAGE 6B
with 39 apartments, bedrooms for 160 students, a parking garage and ground-floor space for a new Frostop. “We need to further evaluate questions related to zoning, design and community engagement,” the statement said. “It became clear during this process that the project, although not being developed by Tulane, has not met our standards for community engagement, and that several open questions need to be addressed for us to be comfortable moving forward.” “Our intent was to explore a proj-
ect that could support the longterm viability of a local business while thoughtfully expanding the availability of housing in proximity to campus,” the statement said. The project faced sharp public criticism after Tulane confirmed in March that it was working with members of the Robert family, owners of the Robert Fresh Market grocery chain, who had purchased the Frostop property and surrounding lots and were developing the project through a
Ted’s Frostop is a beloved local diner near the Tulane campus. STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
ä See FROSTOP, page 5A
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
13TH yEAR, NO. 280