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S at u r d ay, M ay 23, 2026
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Rising gas prices make drivers rethink budgets, travel plans
Cassidy critical while Republican candidates stand behind president
BY JONI HESS Staff writer
Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, cloudy skies settled over the Shell station in the Mid-City neighborhood in New Orleans, where Christine George had just spent $60 for a half tank of gas. She’ll have to stretch that fuel until her next payday, when she can afford to fill up the gas-guzzling SUV she bought to haul her children. “If it keeps getting higher, I might have to sell this car,” she said on Thursday. Locally and nationally, the cost of gasoline has topped $4 a gal“If it keeps lon since the U.S. and getting higher, Israel launched a war I might have with Iran at the end of to sell this February. War concerns aside, car.” the state is also preparing its annual federally CHRISTINE mandated transition GEORGE to summer-blend fuel, which can add as much as 15 cents per gallon to the overall production cost, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores. The fuel is required to prevent evaporation in warmer weather. All of it has caused some residents in Louisiana, a state with one of the highest rates of poverty in the nation, to rethink travel plans and household budgets as rising oil prices hit the economy from multiple angles. The cost of regular unleaded gas in the New Orleans metro area reached $4.04 last week compared to $2.72 a year ago, according to AAA. In the Baton Rouge area, the cost was $4.03, up from $2.70 a year ago, while Lafayette drivers paid $4.06 at the pump, up from $2.72 a year ago. Though AAA categorizes Louisiana as one of the cheapest gas markets in the U.S., that means little to a region with slow job growth and nearly half of the population
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Gas prices climbed over $4 a gallon in Louisiana this week at many locations around the state, including at the Shell station on Claiborne Avenue. STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK
ä Cassidy kills proposed Kisatachie National Forest land transfer. PAGE 7A
UNO president stepping down BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer
University of New Orleans President Kathy Johnson, who led the university through a financial crisis and helped navigate its return to the LSU system, will step down at the end of June, university officials said Friday. Johnson has accepted a role as executive vice president and provost at Saint Louis University. Jeanette Weiland, who was hired as UNO’s interim chief administrative officer earlier this
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year, will serve as interim chancellor and chief administrative officer. After the university officially transitions to the LSU system in July, officials said, LSU will launch a nationwide search for an LSU New Orleans chancellor. Johnson did not comment on Friday about her departure. But University of Louisiana System President Rick Gallot said the system was thankful for her service. “We are very grateful to Dr. Kathy Johnson for her leadership, service and commitment to the University of New Orleans during an important chapter in the institution’s history,” Gallot said. “Her dedication to students,
Republican senators in Washington — including Sen. Bill Cassidy — are expressing opposition to spending nearly $1.8 billion to create a federal fund to compensate people claiming political persecution and another $1 bil- Cassidy lion for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom. But the two Republicans running to replace Cassidy — U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and state Letlow Treasurer John Fleming — are standing firm with the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the two Democrats vying to succeed Cassidy — farmer Fleming Jamie Davis and business owner Gary Crockett — are blasting Trump’s plans. Senate Republicans on Thursday held up consideration of legislation to finance Trump’s immigration crackdown because it
ä See SPENDING, page 6A
ä See HIGH, page 7A
Johnson leaving for provost post in St. Louis
GOP split on Trump spending plans
Clergy abuse survivors could see checks in fall It’s part of $300M settlement with Archdiocese of N.O.
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
University of New Orleans President Kathy Johnson speaks during ä See UNO, page 6A commencement exercises on May 8.
Nearly six months after the Archdiocese of New Orleans reached a more than $300 million settlement with survivors of clergy sex abuse, ending its longrunning bankruptcy case, most of the funds have been deposited into the trust and survivors could see payments as soon as this fall. But key “nonmonetary” provisions that also were part of the settlement between the church and hundreds of abuse survivors have yet to be finalized, a courtappointed trustee overseeing the settlement told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill at a hearing Thursday.
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Those provisions call for establishing stricter abuse reporting procedures, new child protection measures and a public archive of past clergy abuse cases. “There are complex things that are outstanding and need to get done,” said attorney Don Massey, the trustee in the case. Massey said he has sought but not yet received information from the archdiocese about its Internal Review Board, an anonymous board that evaluates abuse allegations against clergy, and about the process it is using to redact sensitive information that will be posted in the archive. “I would like to see data that I am not getting,” he said. Massey’s remarks came during a hearing to update Grabill on the progress the archdiocese has made in the months since settling the case, which was one of the
ä See SURVIVORS, page 6A
13TH yEAR, NO. 284