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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 Loui-
siana 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 planned spaceport. The invitation didn’t mention SpaceX by name and Landry’s office declined to comment, but
ä Judge dismisses lawsuit against Exxon, clearing way for SpaceX project. PAGE 4A
sources familiar with the deal said the subject of the announcement is the SpaceX project. The announcement has been anticipated for weeks and is expected to lay out the aerospace company’s plans to build a launch facility along the coast that will blast SpaceX’s reusable Starship
rockets — among the most powerful ever built — out over the Gulf and into orbit. The project could bring potentially thousands of jobs and a massive influx of aerospace and other commercial activity to the coastal areas sandwiched between two wildlife refuges and known as a 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 blam-
N.O. providing garbage pickups at ineligible locations, audit finds
ing 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 Tuesday signed an order dismissing the coastal suit that had been brought by Vermilion Parish against Exxon, a signal that the long-running case is over and that the settlement is finalized. The land is key to the state’s deal with SpaceX, which is expected to take control of the site through a sale, donation or long-term lease.
ä See SPACEX, page 4A
ORLEANS PARISH
Sheriff to review assault allegation Inmate claims he was beaten, put in dog collar BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer
The largest trash hauler in New Orleans, IV Waste, is owned by Sidney Torres IV.
Moreno announces overhaul of operations in wake of report
The effort, dubbed the Sanitation Accountability and Funding Reform Initiative, is aimed at getting a more accurate count of eligible homes and businesses, analyzing the cost of service and coming up BY BEN MYERS with a new monthly saniStaff writer tation fee. Officials say a new fee Mayor Helena Moreno’s administration on Wednesday announced an overhaul of proposal will be present- Moreno the city’s trash-hauling operations after ed to the City Council next an audit found the city is paying contrac- week. “We are correcting years of problems tors for sanitation and recycling services to thousands of locations that are vacant instead of passing them on to another ador ineligible. ministration,” Moreno said in a prepared
statement. “We are going to build a sanitation system that is accurate, accountable and financially sustainable.” Residents pay $24 a month for onceweekly trash service, with recycling provided on the city’s dime. Former Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration cut twice-weekly pickups to once per week in 2021 after a post-Hurricane Ida service collapse led to garbage piling up on streets for weeks. Cantrell then negotiated new contracts that led to more reliable, albeit less frequent, service. But the new contracts were far more
Orleans Parish Sheriff Michelle Woodfork is reopening an investigation into an alleged assault and rape that took place at the New Orleans jail under her predecessor, after a lawsuit filed this month described it in disturbing detail. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, alleged that on the night of Dec. 25, 2024, a man being held at the jail was beaten, stabbed and raped by a group of inmates and Woodfork later placed in a makeshift dog collar and paraded through the unit, resulting in treatment for stab wounds and severe bruising at a hospital. At no point during the Christmas night attack did Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office staff intervene, the lawsuit alleged. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a New Orleans man who was being held in the jail on drug and robbery charges. The victim is only identified by his initials in the filing. Woodfork, who took office in May, said in a statement Tuesday that an investigation conducted under then-Sheriff Susan Hutson appeared to have concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated. She said there was no record
ä See GARBAGE, page 5A
ä See ASSAULT, page 7A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MAX BECHERER
Universities work to comply with Ten Commandments law
NEIGHBOR’S WIFE,” the eral appeals court in February al- nal affairs for the University of State requires display in all public classrooms THY newly installed poster states. lowed the Louisiana law requiring Louisiana system.
BY HALEY MILLER
the likenesses of Moses and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. Staff writer A whiteboard emphasizing imIn a classroom at Fletcher Tech- portant dates in the semester nical Community College in Ter- hangs to the right of the 3,000-yearrebonne Parish, a poster bears the old text. “THOU SHALT NOT COVET Ten Commandments, flanked by
WEATHER HIGH 96 LOW 79 PAGE 8A
“FINALS. CHRISTMAS BREAK,” the whiteboard states. As Louisiana college students return to campus this month, they will encounter mandated displays of the Ten Commandments in their classrooms. This fall marks the first full semester since a fed-
displays of the religious text in all public classrooms — including the lecture halls of colleges and universities — to take effect. “We have a responsibility as a state agency to follow the law, so that’s what we’re doing,” said Rich Vath, executive director of exter-
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
Many of Louisiana’s public higher education institutions have completed or nearly completed the task of hanging the posters in their classrooms, according to administrators.
ä See UNIVERSITIES, page 7A
14TH yEAR, NO. 8