SUN BELT BASEBALL: CAJUNS ROUT MARSHALL IN OPENER 1C THE
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W e d n e s d ay, M ay 20, 2026
‘UNLIKE ANY OTHER’
Comeaux High holds graduation as school faces uncertain future amid closure attempts
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2026 LEGISLATURE
La. legalizes removal of church ‘trespassers’
Landry signs laws that permit suse of force, toughens penalties BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
Gov. Jeff Landry has signed into law bills that would permit the use of force to remove people who disrupt religious services and strengthen criminal penalties for disruptors as part of a wave of conservative backlash after ICE protesters derailed a church service in Minnesota in January. Landry condemned that protest Monday in a video posted to X. “In Louisiana, we are committed to maintaining the right to worship without interference and we remain steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding religious liberty,” he said. “With the signing of these two bills, those protections just became stronger.” The bills are part of a swath of legislative proposals filed this year in response to events that took place on Jan. 18 at Cities Church in St. Paul, when dozens of demonstrators entered the facility to protest its pastor, a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
ä See CHURCH, page 7A STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD BOWIE
Seniors enter the Cajundome arena as a commencement ceremony for the graduating class of Comeaux High School begins on Tuesday. BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Staff writer
Dressed in blue caps and gowns, some 180 students making up what may be the last graduating class of Comeaux High School in Lafayette collected their diplomas in the Cajundome on Tuesday. The future of the school, which opened in 1966, is uncertain. The Lafayette Parish School Board almost closed the school in 2024. Then, on March 12, the board brought the closure up again, with only a few days’ warning, and voted to close it at the end of the school year. Students would be sent to either Acadiana High, Lafayette High or Southside High and the campus would be repurposed for a career center. The board rescinded the vote in April during a lawsuit filed by parents of Comeaux High students alleging the board violated its own
McNeese names new president
Reese, Leesville state senator, to take helm July 1 BY MEGAN WYATT
Staff writer
Comeaux High School seniors participate in Tuesday’s ceremonies. graduating seniors concerned that rules for shuttering schools. Michael and Amy Martin’s son, they won’t have a place to come back Alex, was one of the Comeaux High to for homecomings and reunions if students graduating Tuesday. Amy ä See COMEAUX, page 8A Martin said she’s heard from many
State Sen. Mike Reese, a Republican from Leesville, has been named the next president of McNeese State University. Members of the University of Louisiana system board interviewed Reese and one other finalist, Dee Dee Anderson, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, on Tuesday before they voted unanimously to appoint Reese to the position. Reese “I recognize the tremendous amount of responsibility that comes with that
ä See McNEESE, page 8A
Cassidy begins opposing Trump moves after election loss to discharge from committee Trump. Senator votes against avote Earlier in the day, Cassidy said bill asserting congressional war he opposes inserting $1 billion to authority war, won’t support powers build Trump’s White House ballto end military ac$1B for ballroom tion against Iran. room in legislation that the Senate
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, for the first time, joined in a vote Tuesday to consider legislation ending the war in Iran, showing how he is less politically inhibited since failing in his reelection effort. He joined three other Republicans in a largely symbolic 50-47
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The action allows the Senate to put the resolution on the Senate calendar for another vote. A vote by the Cassidy full Senate on passage hasn’t been scheduled yet. Should the resolution receive 51 votes for passage, the measure would then go to the House. If approved by the House, it would have to be signed by President Donald
likely will vote on later this week. “This is a spit-in-the-eye insult to all my taxpayers in Louisiana, to spend a billion on a ballroom when we should be doing something about the high price of gas, groceries and healthcare,” Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, told local reporters in a Tuesday phone news conference. He then reminded reporters
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JACQUELyN MARTIN
President Donald Trump tours the ballroom construction area outside the ä See CASSIDY, page 7A White House on Tuesday.
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101ST yEAR, NO. 324