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Relief for Siegen? STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council member Cleve Dunn Jr., left, enters the 19th Judicial District Courthouse on Wednesday.
Statement comes during confirmation hearing for CDC nominee
Dunn pleads not guilty to kickback charges
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
Yates traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this year to advocate for the project and its funding.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy used a confirmation hearing Wednesday to indirectly blast the anti-vaccination policies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which he said have resulted in a series of infectious disease outbreaks and caused the deaths of untold numbers of children. “We need a CDC director that will actually Cassidy stand up to crazy, stupid things being said that undermine faith in immunization,” Cassidy, RBaton Rouge, said to Erica Schwartz, 54, Trump’s third nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at her Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions confirmation hearing. Cassidy chairs the committee. Back when he was courting President Donald Trump’s backing for his reelection, Cassidy, a physician who studied vaccine efficacy, was responsible for the Senate confirming Kennedy, perhaps the most well-known vaccine skeptic, to run the federal agency in charge of the nation’s vaccination policy. Trump, instead, endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Baton Rouge. The Make America Healthy Again organization, which is closely aligned with Kennedy, raised money for Letlow. Cassidy lost out in a closed party primary. He will leave the Senate in January when either Letlow or Jamie
ä See SIEGEN, page 7A
ä See POLICIES, page 7A
Grand jury indicted Metro Council member in January BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER and QUINN COFFMAN Staff writers
East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council member Cleve Dunn Jr. pleaded not guilty in a Baton Rouge courtroom Wednesday to charges that he took a kickback for helping steer a $50,000 public transportation contract to a local businessman. A special grand jury indicted Dunn in January as part of an investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office into alleged corruption inside East Baton Rouge city-parish government. Prosecutors say Dunn, 49, helped steer the Capital Area Transit System contract to Jay Colar, who was also indicted earlier this year. Colar then paid more than 90% of the contract to Dunn as a kickback, prosecutors claim. In addition to Colar and Dunn, the grand jury — which has been reviewing evidence since late 2025 — indicted former bus system official Pearlina Thomas and contractors Terral “TJ” Jackson and his wife, Erica Jackson. They both have pleaded not guilty. After taking office on the council in 2021, Dunn participated in several transactions that appropriated city-parish funds to CATS, authorities say, and he was aware that his oversight as a council member made it illegal for him to receive money from the transit agency. Many of the charges filed by the
ä See DUNN, page 4A
Cassidy blasts RFK Jr. policies
STAFF PHOTO By JOHN BALLANCE
St. George has received $19.2 million in federal funds to improve Siegen Lane from Interstate 10 to Airline Highway. The project calls for upgrading signal systems, pedestrian crossings, bus stops, lighting and more.
St. George gets $19.2M in federal funds to improve safety, function BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer
The city of St. George secured about $19 million in federal funding to improve safety and functionality along Siegen Lane between Interstate 10 and Airline Highway. At a Wednesday news conference, St. George officials announced that it had been awarded $19.2 million for project SAFE (safety, access and flow enhancements) Siegen. The project will improve an approximately 1.35-mile segment of Siegen Lane from Interstate 10 to Airline Highway by upgrading signal systems, pedestrian crossings, bus stops, lighting and more. “Siegen Lane is one of the busiest commercial corridors in our region,” said St. George Mayor Dustin Yates. “The project is focused on improving safety, access and traffic
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
St. George Mayor Dustin yates, center, speaks with council members next to a rendering of the Siegen Lane redevelopment project following a news conference on Wednesday. flow.” This grant is a part of more than $50 million in federal grants to improve roads and highways Louisiana secured, according to state leadership.
Hut 8 hosts open house, job fair West Feliciana data center reps reassure residents over concerns BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer
A data center developer constructing a $10 billion artificial intelligence facility in West Feliciana Parish stepped into the public eye for the first time Tuesday evening. Miami-based Hut 8 hosted a job
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fair and community open house to hire employees and answer questions about its 600,000-square-foot AI data center in St. Francisville. Representatives from Hut 8, Entergy and the parish told the story of how the project came to be and what it will mean for residents. “Any time that we’re dealing with citizens’ tax dollars, it should be an open and transparent process,” Parish President Kenny Havard said at the open house, held at the West Feliciana High School auditorium. “You should be able to know exactly where your money is being spent, how we spent, how we negotiated the deals, how we got to
where we are.” Havard has lauded the parish’s partnership with the data center developer, inking deals to obtain up to $90 million annually for the parish. The parish recently received an upfront payment of $10 million, which it must later pay back to Hut 8, to fund road improvements. More than 100 people attended the open house and posed questions about the facility’s lighting, water usage and power needs. Many wanted reassurance that the project wouldn’t disturb West Feliciana’s rural nature and daily life.
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Ray Neck, of Turner Industries, left, talks to residents during the job fair ä See HUT 8, page 4A hosted by Hut 8 at West Feliciana High School on Tuesday.
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