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Colleagues, family mourn senator
Larry Selders, 44, had known heart trouble BY TYLER BRIDGES
Selders had been hospitalized in May with heart trouble and missed the final month of the State Sen. Larry Selders, a Dem- legislative session. He returned ocrat from Baton Rouge, died sud- to the Senate chamber one day, denly Tuesday night at his sons’ waved to his colleagues from the football practice at Memorial side and was then ushered out. Temple called Selders “a good Stadium, said Collis Temple Jr., a man, one of the best I’ve ever longtime family friend. Temple said Selders was 44 and known.” Selders’ district included LSU leaves behind two sons, Larry Jr. and Southern University and and Luke, and his wife, Kendra. Staff writer
downtown Baton Rouge as well. State Sen. Regina Barrow, DBaton Rouge, represents a district that borders his. “I am speechless Selders and heartbroken,” Barrow said Tuesday night, noting that she had just seen Selders at the Essence Festival of Culture in
New Orleans on Sunday. She said Selders wanted to get out of the house but was in a suite to limit his contact with others. “He was a gentle giant,” Barrow said. “He definitely cared about children and their well-being.” In a tweet, Gov. Jeff Landry also called Selders a gentle giant, adding that he “was respected by all.” Selders, a social worker who focused on mental health issues, was elected to the Senate in February 2025 with 62% of the vote to
replace Cleo Fields, who had been elected to the U.S. House. Selders had spent the previous five years in the state House. Selders had a solid liberal voting record as a legislator, supporting a woman’s right to an abortion. But he didn’t follow Democrats when he supported the creation of Education Savings Accounts that allow K-12 students to use public dollars to study at private schools, an initiative promoted by Landry.
ä See SENATOR, page 6A
Landry’s pardon promise not so simple Clemency application rules tightened in 2024 by legislators
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EMRAH GUREL
President Donald Trump speaks Wednesday during a news conference, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
U.S. carries out another round of strikes on Iran Attacks come hours after Trump says ceasefire is over
tries. Kuwait’s military said it was actively intercepting incoming drones and missiles. On Wednesday, Iran launched attacks on Bahrain and over an earCO ONFLICT Kuwait BY JON GAMBRELL, SEUNG MIN KIM lier round of U.S. airIN THE T and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN strikes against Iran. MIIDDLE The latest U.S. strikes Associated Press began Wednesday, EAST AST hours after President DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait, Donald Trump said Bahrain and Qatar sounded missile alert sirens early Thursday morning that recent Iranian attacks on ships in warning of an Iranian attack after the the Strait of Hormuz signaled the end United States launched a new round of of the fragile ceasefire. The action raised fears that the war airstrikes targeting Iran. There was no immediate word of in Iran could reignite, coming just a damage in the three Gulf Arab coun- day after the U.S. military hit a variety
ä U.S. to license Ukraine to produce
Patriot systems. PAGE 3A
of military sites and port facilities following Iran’s targeting of several merchant vessels off the coast of Oman. Military officials said in a social media post Wednesday that the latest strikes were intended to “further degrade” Iran’s ability “to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
ä See STRIKES, page 6A
As soon as news broke last week that a New Orleans grand jury had indicted Attorney General Liz Murrill, Gov. Jeff Landry took to social media, promising to pardon her. Murrill “will not have to worry about having her reputation tarnished by this kangaroo grand jury or the Orä All 12 N.O. leans Kangaroo judges recuse court as I will from Murrill’s pardon her as intimidation fast as the law Landry case. PAGE 6A allows,” wrote in a July 2 post on X. “The criminal justice system is a circus at its finest in Orleans and we will not have any of that!” But pardoning Murrill — who faces eight counts of intimidation and eight more of malfeasance, but whose indictment has been stayed by the Louisiana Supreme Court — may not be as simple as it sounds. The Louisiana Constitution requires the governor to get a recommendation from the Board of Pardons before he can grant clemency to an inmate — and preemptive pardons do not exist in Louisiana, like they do on the federal level, according to multiple attorneys and people familiar with the clemency process. “You can’t just automatically, with the stroke of a pen, sign somebody out of a criminal conviction in Louisiana,” said Jane
ä See PARDON, page 6A
Plan for VA clinic in St. George progresses Traffic concerns linger for proposed Rieger Road site
BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD
Staff writer
Plans for a new Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in the Baton Rouge region are making progress after a site plan was approved, but concerns about future traffic issues in the clinic’s area remain. The St. George Zoning Commission unanimously approved a site plan Monday night for a 120,000-square-foot, two-story outpatient
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 75 PAGE 8A
clinic with 600 parking spaces at 12501 Rieger Road, in the northwest corner of the Pecue Lane and Rieger Road intersection. The VA expects the new clinic to be open in 2029. But there were a few conditions to the approval, the main one being that the commission wants to further discuss the number of street entrance and exit access points at the site. “We want this project to go forward; we want to make it work,” said Planning and Zoning Chair Billy Aguillard. “I think there’s a traffic issue.” Representatives from Carnegie Management and Development Corp., the contract
purchaser of the property, presented the site plan to St. George, showing renderings of what the site would look like and why the VA is expanding in the region. Morgan Frantz, Carnegie’s tenant and preconstruction coordinator, told the commission the current setup of Baton Rouge’s two VA clinics off Essen Lane, which are a mile apart from one another, creates several challenges with transportation and logistics. Frantz also said that the facilities are at capacity and that the VA sends some patients to its New Orleans medical centers as a result.
ä See CLINIC, page 6A
Business ......................6B Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................6D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-5D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
Gov. Jeff Landry, right, stands next to Attorney General Liz Murrill outside the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in January.
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