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T h u r s d ay, au g u s T 20, 2026
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Landry sets date to unveil SpaceX deal Event scheduled for Tuesday in Abbeville
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
Gov. Jeff Landry is inviting hundreds of Louisiana elected officials and business leaders to Abbeville next week to announce that Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is planning to build a multibillion-dollar spaceport on a roughly 18-mile stretch of the coast about 45 miles southwest of Lafayette.
An invitation, sent via email by the Governor’s Office and Louisiana Economic Development on Wednesday, said Landry and LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois “cordially invite you to join them in announcing a defining moment for Louisiana’s future.” The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Tuesday in Abbeville, the Vermilion Parish seat and the closest city to the site of the
The announcement has been anticipated for weeks and is expected to lay out the aerospace ä Judge dismisses lawsuit company’s plans to build a launch facility along the coast that will against Exxon, clearing way for blast SpaceX’s reusable Starship SpaceX project. PAGE 3A rockets — among the most powerful ever built — out over the Gulf planned spaceport. and into orbit. The invitation didn’t mention The project could bring potenSpaceX by name and Landry’s tially thousands of jobs and a masoffice declined to comment, but sive influx of aerospace and other sources familiar with the deal said commercial activity to the coastal the subject of the announcement is areas sandwiched between two the SpaceX project. wildlife refuges and known as a
UL president praises school’s financial recovery
popular spot for recreational hunting and fishing. The facility will be located on land — some 130,000 acres in all — that was owned for decades by ExxonMobil. The land was turned over to the state as part of a settlement of dozens of lawsuits blaming the oil giant for pollution and coastal land loss. Court records show that a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on
ä See SPACEX, page 3A
Corps to clear Vermilion River Agency won’t dredge entire waterway
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
July 1 with a $3.6 million surplus, according to Kolluru. He emphasized over the summer that there was still a lot of work to do to help the university reach sustainable financial footing, and at Wednesday’s address, he thanked faculty and staff for stepping up during the initial period of “transition and transformation.” “You kept teaching, you kept conducting research, you kept serving our
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to begin removing trees and other debris from the Vermilion River this fall to ease flooding, a Corps official told the Lafayette City and Parish councils. The federal agency then will consider dredging spots on the river, but will not dredge the entirety of the Vermilion River. Col. Scotty Autin, commander and district engineer of the New Orleans District of the Corps, who is a native of Houma, briefed the councils at a special meeting Tuesday, where the colonel faced pushback from some council members and residents. The Corps, not contractors, will begin as early as October and into 2027, clearing 919 obstacles identified in the river, starting in the northern part of the river and working to the south, Autin said. The river will be analyzed afterward to identify places for spot dredging, he said, because clearing debris could affect existing low spots. Ten years ago, in August 2016, 20 inches of rain fell on the city, parish and region, flooding thousands of homes. Nothing has been done by the Corps since then, despite $50 million in federal funds being allocated for river dredging by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, who represents the 3rd Congressional District.
ä See RECOVERY, page 5A
ä See RIVER, page 5A
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
University of Louisiana at Lafayette President Ramesh Kolluru gives the annual State of the University address on Wednesday.
Kolluru promises investment in faculty compensation, student success BY JOANNA BROWN
as the surrounding campus sprang to life with 3,400 students moving in before the start of classes on Monday. Kolluru’s appointment in February In his first State of the University address since being named president of followed months of budget cuts and job the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, eliminations at UL, which had a $50 milRamesh Kolluru extolled the institution’s lion deficit at the start of the 2025 fiscal financial recovery over the past year. year. “Because of our work, your work and Thanks to significant cost cutting meathe mutual choices we make together, sures across the university, including we begin this fiscal year with a balanced spending freezes, position and departbudget for the first time in more than a ment cuts, property sales and contract decade,” Kolluru shared in Angelle Hall, cancellations, this fiscal year started on
Staff writer
Trump picks top White House aide Overton to lead the FDA BY ALI SWENSON and MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the Food and Drug Administration, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. Overton is a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives. She has become a trusted administration figure and a
WEATHER HIGH 96 LOW 78 PAGE 6A
champion of the Republican president’s goals. If confirmed by the Senate, she would have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary. He resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects such as work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants and COVID-19 shots.
Referring to her as “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump said Overton was a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement. Kennedy posted on X that Overton has “exceptional judgment, professionalism, discipline and an unwavering commitment to the American people.” Overton attended medical school at
ä See FDA, page 5A
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Dr. Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, has been picked to lead the FDA. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
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